Canto 1

Verse 12. Benign Apollo.] Chaucer has imitated this invention very closely at the beginning of the Third Booke of Fame.

If, divine vertue, thouWilt helpe me to shewe nowThat in my head ymarked is,

…Thou shalt see me go as bliveUnto the next laurer I see,And kisse it for it is thy treeNow entre thou my breast anone.

v. 15. Thus for.] He appears to mean nothing more than that this part of his poem will require a greater exertion of his powers than the former.

v. 19. Marsyas.] Ovid, Met. 1. vi. fab. 7. Compare Boccaccio, II Filocopo, 1. 5. p. 25. v. ii. Ediz. Fir. 1723. “Egli nel mio petto entri,” &c. - “May he enter my bosom, and let my voice sound like his own, when he made that daring mortal deserve to come forth unsheathed from his limbs. “ v. 29. Caesar, or bard.] So Petrarch, Son. Par. Prima.

Arbor vittoriosa e trionfale, Onor d’imperadori e di poeti.

And Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. 1. st. 9,The laurel, meed of mighty conqueroursAnd poets sage.

v. 37. Through that.] “Where the four circles, the horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial colure, join; the last threeintersecting each other so as to form three crosses, as may be seen in the armillary sphere.”

v. 39. In happiest constellation.] Aries. Some understand the planetVenus by the “miglior stella “

v. 44. To the left.] Being in the opposite hemisphere to ours, Beatrice that she may behold the rising sun, turns herself to the left.

v. 47. As from the first a second beam.] “Like a reflected sunbeam,” which he compares to a pilgrim hastening homewards.

Ne simil tanto mal raggio secondoDal primo usci.Filicaja, canz. 15. st. 4.

v. 58. As iron that comes boiling from the fire.] So Milton, P. L. b. iii. 594. —As glowing iron with fire.

v. 69. Upon the day appear’d.

—If the heaven had ywonne,All new of God another sunne.Chaucer, First Booke of Fame

E par ch’ agginuga un altro sole al cielo. Ariosto, O F. c. x. st. 109.

Ed ecco un lustro lampeggiar d’ intornoChe sole a sole aggiunse e giorno a giorno.Manno, Adone. c. xi. st. 27.

Quando a paro col sol ma piu lucenteL’angelo gli appari sull; orienteTasso, G. L. c. i.

-Seems another mornRis’n on mid-noon.Milton, P. L. b. v. 311.

Compare Euripides, Ion. 1550. [GREEK HERE] 66. as Glaucus. ] Ovid, Met. 1. Xiii. Fab. 9

v. 71. If.] “Thou O divine Spirit, knowest whether 1 had not risen above my human nature, and were not merely such as thou hadst then, formed me.”

v. 125. Through sluggishness.] Perch’ a risponder la materia e sorda.

So Filicaja, canz. vi. st 9. Perche a risponder la discordia e sorda

“The workman hath in his heart a purpose, he carrieth in mind the whole form which his work should have; there wanteth not him skill and desire to bring his labour to the best effect, only the matter, which he hath to work on is unframeable.” Hooker’s Eccl. Polity, b. 5. 9.

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