Chapter 70

v. 6. A wind-mill.] The author of the Caliph Vathek, in the notes to that tale, justly observes, that it is more than probable that Don Quixote’s mistake of the wind-mills for giants was suggested to Cervantes by this simile.

v. 37. Three faces.] It can scarcely be doubted but that Milton derived his description of Satan in those lines,

Each passion dimm’d his face

Thrice chang’d with pale, ire, envy, and despair.

P. L. b. iv. 114. from this passage, coupled with the remark of Vellutello upon it:

“The first of these sins is anger which he signifies by the red face; the second, represented by that between pale and yellow is envy and not, as others have said, avarice; and the third, denoted by the black, is a melancholy humour that causes a man’s thoughts to be dark and evil, and averse from all joy and tranquillity.”

v. 44. Sails.]

—His sail-broad vans

He spreads for flight.

Milton, P. L. b. ii. 927. Compare Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. xi. st. 10; Ben Jonson’s Every Man out of his humour, v. 7; and Fletcher’s Prophetess, a. 2. s. 3.

v. 46. Like a bat.] The description of an imaginary being, who is called Typhurgo, in the Zodiacus Vitae, has some touches very like this of Dante’s Lucifer.

Ingentem vidi regem ingentique sedentem

In solio, crines flammanti stemmate cinctum

—-utrinque patentes

Alae humeris magnae, quales vespertilionum

Membranis contextae amplis—

Nudus erat longis sed opertus corpora villis.

M. Palingenii, Zod. Vit. l. ix.

A mighty king I might discerne,

Plac’d hie on lofty chaire,

His haire with fyry garland deckt

Puft up in fiendish wise.

x x x x x x

Large wings on him did grow

Framde like the wings of flinder mice, &c.

Googe’s Translation

v. 61. Brutus.] Landino struggles, but I fear in vain, to extricate Brutus from the unworthy lot which is here assigned him. He maintains, that by Brutus and Cassius are not meant the individuals known by those names, but any who put a lawful monarch to death. Yet if Caesar was such, the conspirators might be regarded as deserving of their doom.

v. 89. Within one hour and half of noon.] The poet uses the Hebrew manner of computing the day, according to which the third hour answers to our twelve o’clock at noon.

v. 120. By what of firm land on this side appears.] The mountain of Purgatory.

v.123. The vaulted tomb.] “La tomba.” This word is used to express the whole depth of the infernal region.

PURGATORY