v. 35.  As Jesus.] In the transfiguration on Mount Tabor.

v. 39.  The second flame.] St. James.

v. 40.  I lifted up.] “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”  Ps.  Cxxi. 1.

v. 59.  From Egypt to Jerusalem.] From the lower world to heaven.

v. 67.  Hope.] This is from the Sentences of Petrus Lombardus.  “Est autem spes virtus, qua spiritualia et aeterna bona speratam, id est, beatitudinem aeternam.  Sine meritis enim aliquid sperare non spes, sed praesumptio, dici potest.”  Pet.  Lomb.  Sent. 1.  Iii.  Dist. 26.  Ed. Bas. 1486.  Fol.

v. 74.  His anthem.] Psalm ix. 10.

v. 90.  Isaias ] Chap. lxi. 10.

v. 94.  Thy brother.] St. John in the Revelation, c. vii. 9.

v. 101.  Winter’s month.] “If a luminary, like that which now appeared, were to shine throughout the month following the winter solstice during which the constellation Cancer appears in the east at the setting of the sun, there would be no interruption to the light, but the whole month would be as a single day.”

v. 112.  This.] St. John, who reclined on the bosom of our Saviour, and to whose charge Jesus recommended his mother.

v. 121.  So I.] He looked so earnestly, to descry whether St. John were present there in body, or in spirit only, having had his doubts raised by that saying of our Saviour’s:  “If I will, that he tarry till I come what is that to thee.”

v. 127.  The two.] Christ and Mary, whom he has described, in the last Canto but one, as rising above his sight

CANTO XXVI

v. 2.  The beamy flame.] St. John.

v. 13.  Ananias’ hand.] Who, by putting his hand on St. Paul, restored his sight.  Acts, c. ix. 17.

v. 36.  From him.] Some suppose that Plato is here meant, who, in his Banquet, makes Phaedrus say:  “Love is confessedly amongst the eldest of beings, and, being the eldest, is the cause to us of the greatest goods " Plat.  Op. t. x. p. 177.  Bip. ed.  Others have understood it of Aristotle, and others, of the writer who goes by the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, referred to in the twenty-eighth Canto.

v. 40.  I will make.] Exodus, c. xxxiii. 19.

v. 42.  At the outset.] John, c. i. 1. &c.

v. 51.  The eagle of our Lord.] St. John

v. 62.  The leaves.] Created beings.

v. 82.  The first living soul.] Adam.

v. 107.  Parhelion.] Who enlightens and comprehends all things; but is himself enlightened and comprehended by none.

v. 117.  Whence.] That is, from Limbo.  See Hell, Canto ii. 53.  Adam says that 5232 years elapsed from his creation to the time of his deliverance, which followed the death of Christ.

v. 133.  El] Some read un, “One,” instead of el:  but the latter of these readings is confirmed by a passage from Dante’s Treatise De Vulg.  Eloq. 1. i. cap. 4.  “Quod prius vox primi loquentis sonaverit, viro sanae mentis in promptu esse non dubito ipsum fuisse quod Deus est, videlicet El.”  St. Isidore in the Origines, 1. vii. c. 1. had said, “Primum apud Hebraeos Dei nomen El dicitur.”