BOOK IV.--Line 24, _quitch-grass_ == couch-grass or dog-grass; it roots

deeply, and is not easily killed. l. 24, "_loathy mallows_": loathsome mallows, probably because they grow in ditches and in churchyards. l. 34, _Legate Montelungo_: Gregorio di Montelongo, Pontifical legate for Gregory IX. l. 50, _arbalist_, a crossbow; _manganel_, an engine of war for battering down walls and hurling stones; and _catapult_, a war engine. l. 72, _Jubilate_: rejoice ye! _Jubilate Deo_, 66th Psalm. l. 83:

"_... What cautelous Old Redbeard sought from Azzo's sire to wrench vainly_."

The Lombard League had built Alexandria to defy Barbarossa, who was twice unsuccessful in taking it. l. 89, _Brenta_: a river of North Italy, passing near Padua. _Bacchiglione_: the river on which stand Vicenza and Padua. l. 98, _San Vitale_: a small town near Vicenza. l. 147, "_Messina marbles Constance took delight in_": the marbles of Sicily. For variety and beauty they rival those of any country of Europe. l. 229, _Mainard_, or _Meinhard_: Count of Görz, in the Tyrol. l. 280, Concorezzi: a knightly family of Padua. l. 395, "_Crowned grim twy-necked eagle_": the two-headed eagle, symbol of the empire. l. 479, _The Adelardi_: were a noble Guelf family of Ferrara and Mantua. Marchesella was heiress of the Adelardi family; Obizzo I. carried her off, and married her to his son Azzo V. l. 483, _Blacks and Whites_: the Neri, the black party, and the Bianchi the white. The Bianchi are called the _Parte selvaggia_, because its leaders, the Cerchi, came from the forest lands of Val di Sieve. The other party, the Neri, were led by the Donati. (See Longfellow's Dante--Notes to _Inferno_, vi. 65.) l. 511, "_goshawk_": a short-winged slender hawk (_Falco palumbarius_). l. 533, _Pistore_: Pistoia. l. 577, _Matilda_: Countess of Tuscany (1046-1114), known as the Great Countess; she was the champion of the Church and the ally of Hildebrand. l. 585, _Heinrich_: "Henry VI., married Constance, daughter of the King of Naples and Sicily. He reigned from 1190 to 1197." [S.] "_Philip and Otho_": "the latter conspired against Frederick II., who was brought up by Innocent III., and after Philip's death made Emperor, in 1212. He lived till 1250. His son Henry, King of the Romans, rebelled against him." [S.] l. 614, _Bassano_: a city of Italy, in the province of Vicenza, on the Brenta. There is a church of St. Francis at Bassano. Lanze says, "It is the peculiar boast of Bologna that she can claim three of the few artists of the earliest times: one Guido, one Ventura, and one Ursone, of whom there exist memorials as far back as 1248." [S.] l. 615, _Guido the Bolognian_: Guido Reni, the great painter of Bologna (1575-1642). l. 645, _Guglielm_ == William; _Aldobrand_ or _Aldovrandino_: Governor of Ferrara, in conjunction with Salinguerra (1231). l. 735, _San Biagio_: St. Biase, a place near the Lake of Garda. l. 797, _Constance_: wife of Henry VI. of Germany; by this marriage Frederick hoped that his empire would soon include Naples and Sicily. l. 837, _Moorish lentisk_: the mastich tree. l. 884, _poison-wattles_: the baggy flesh on the animal's neck, an excrescence or lobe. l. 977, _Crescentius Nomentanus_: a Roman tribune, who, in the absence of Pope John and King Otho, tried to restore consular Rome. But the Pope and King returned, and crucified him, A.D. 998. (See Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, chap. xlix.) Professor Sonnenschein sends me the following further note: "Crescentius was a Roman who, towards the end of the tenth century, endeavoured to restore his country's liberty and ancient glory. The power of the Eastern emperors had long ceased in Rome, that of the Western emperors had been suspended by long interregnas. Rome was a republic in which the citizens, the neighbouring nobles, and the Pope, disputed the authority. Crescentius, who was of the family of the Counts of the Tusculum, placed himself at the head of the anarchic government about 980, with the title of Consul. He had, to dispute his rank, Boniface VII., who, murderer of two popes, had become Pope himself. This pontiff was stained by the most shameful crimes, and as his authority was not well founded, the nobles and the people aided Crescentius in breaking the yoke. Boniface died 985. John XV., who succeeded him, was detained by Crescentius far from Rome, in exile, until he recognised the sovereignty of the people. Upon his return he did not seek to trouble the government; and, as well as one can judge through the obscurity of ages, the Roman republic enjoyed until 996, under the Consul Crescentius, such peace, order, and security, as it had not known for a long time. John XV. died the year Otho III. went from Germany to Italy, to receive the imperial crown. The young monarch chose his relative, Gregory V., to succeed John. None of the rights or privileges of Rome were known to the new pontiff, who, long accustomed to regard the popes as gods on earth, having now himself become pope, could not conceive of any resistance to his will. Crescentius refused to recognise a pope whose election and conduct were alike irregular. He opposed to him another pope, a Greek by birth, who took the name of John XVI., and he asked the Emperor of the East to send troops to his assistance. Otho III. entered Rome with an army in 998. He condemned John XVI. to horrible torture, and besieged Crescentius in the castle of St. Angelo; and as he could not conquer the latter, he offered him an honourable capitulation. However, he no sooner had him in his hands than he put him to death and ill-treated his wife. Three years later, on his return from a penitential pilgrimage, she succeeded in causing his death by poison." l. 1006, _wranal_: a lantern. l. 1032, "_Rome of the Pandects_": "The digest or abridgment in fifty books of the decisions and opinions of the old Roman jurists, made in the sixth century, by order of the Emperor Justinian, and forming the first part of the body of the civil law." (Webster.)