CANTO XX

v. 6.  Wherein one shines.] The light of the sun, whence he supposes the other celestial bodies to derive their light

v. 8.  The great sign.] The eagle, the Imperial ensign.

v. 34.  Who.] David.

v. 39.  He.] Trajan.  See Purgatory, Canto X. 68.

v. 44.  He next.] Hezekiah.

v. 50.  ’The other following.] Constantine.  There is no passage in which Dante’s opinion of the evil; that had arisen from the mixture of the civil with the ecclesiastical power, is more unequivocally declared.

v. 57.  William.] William ii, king of Sicily, at the latter part of the twelfth century He was of the Norman line of sovereigns, and obtained the appellation of “the Good” and, as the poet says his loss was as much the subject of regret in his dominions, as the presence of Charles I of Anjou and Frederick of Arragon, was of sorrow and complaint.

v. 62.  Trojan Ripheus.] Ripheus, justissimus unus Qui fuit in Teneris, et servantissimus aequi.  Virg.  Aen. 1. ii. 4—.

v. 97.  This.] Ripheus.

v. 98.  That.] Trajan.

v. 103.  The prayers,] The prayers of St. Gregory

v. 119.  The three nymphs.] Faith, Hope, and Charity.  Purgatory, Canto XXIX. 116. v. 138.  The pair.] Ripheus and Trajan.

CANTO XXI

v. 12.  The seventh splendour.] The planet Saturn

v. 13.  The burning lion’s breast.] The constellation Leo.

v. 21.  In equal balance.] “My pleasure was as great in complying with her will as in beholding her countenance.”

v. 24.  Of that lov’d monarch.] Saturn.  Compare Hell, Canto xiv. 91.

v. 56.  What forbade the smile.] “Because it would have overcome thee.”

v. 61.  There aloft.] Where the other souls were.

v. 97.  A stony ridge.] The Apennine.

v. 112.  Pietro Damiano.] “S.  Pietro Damiano obtained a great and well-merited reputation, by the pains he took to correct the abuses among the clergy.  Ravenna is supposed to have been the place of his birth, about 1007.  He was employed in several important missions, and rewarded by Stephen ix with the dignity of cardinal, and the bishopric of Ostia, to which, however, he preferred his former retreat in the monastery of Fonte Aveliana, and prevailed on Alexander ii to permit him to retire thither.  Yet he did not long continue in this seclusion, before he was sent on other embassies.  He died at Faenza in 1072.  His letters throw much light on the obscure history of these times.  Besides them, he has left several treatises on sacred and ecclesiastical subjects.  His eloquence is worthy of a better age.”  Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett Ital. t. iii. 1. iv. c. 2.

v. 114.  Beside the Adriatic.] At Ravenna.  Some editions have fu instead of fui, according to which reading, Pietro distinguishes himself from another Pietro, who was termed “Peccator,” the sinner.