NOTES TO CANTO THE FOURTH.

1.-Page 98, line 21.

A dome, its image, while the base expands

THE Cupola of St. Peter's.

2.-Page 98, line 31.

His chisel bid the Hebrew, at whose word

The statue of Moses on the monument of Julius II.

SONETTO

Di Giovanni Battista Zappi.

Chi è costui, che in dura pietra scolto,
Siede gigante; e le più illustre, e conte
Opre dell' arte avvanza, e ha vive, e pronte
Le labbia sì, che le parole ascolto?

Quest' è Mosè; ben me 'l diceva il folto
Onor del mento, e 'l doppio raggio in fronte,
Quest è Mosè, quando scendea del monte,
E gran parte del Nume avea nel volto.
Tal era allor, che le sonanti, e vaste
Acque ei sospese a se d' intorno, e tale
Quando il mar chiuse, e ne fè tomba altrui.

E voi sue turbe un rio vitello alzaste ?
Alzata aveste imago a questa eguale!
Ch' era men fallo l' adorar costui.

["And who is he that, shaped in sculptured stone
Sits giant-like? stern monument of art
Unparallel'd, while language seems to start
From his prompt lips, and we his precepts own?
-'Tis Moses; by his beard's thick honours known
And the twin beams that from his temples dart;
'Tis Moses; seated on the mount apart,
Whilst yet the Godhead o'er his features shone.

Such once he look'd, when ocean's sounding wave
Suspended hung, and such amidst the storm,
When o'er his foes the refluent waters roar'd.
An idol calf his followers did engrave;

But had they raised this awe-commanding form,

Then had they with less guilt their work adored."-ROGERS.]

3.-Page 98, line 34.

Over the damn'd before the Judgment-throne,

The Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel.

4.-Page 98, line 37.

The stream of his great thoughts shall spring from me,

I have read somewhere (if I do not err, for I cannot recollect where,} that Dante was so great a favourite of Michael Angelo's, that he had designed the whole of the Divina Commedia : but that the volume containing these studies was lost by sea.-[It was upon the margin of a folio copy of Dante that Michael Angelo drew pen and ink illustrations of the text. The vessel which carried the precious volume foundered on its way from Leghorn to Civita Vecchia. Duppa states in the Life of Michael Angelo that it is obvious throughout his works that he had fed his imagination from the poems of Dante.]

5.-Page 99, line 15.

Her charms to pontiff's proud, who but employ

See the treatment of Michael Angelo by Julius II., and his neglect by Leo X.-[Julius II. enjoyed his conversation, and encouraged his attendance at the Vatican, but one morning as he was entering he was stopped by the person in waiting, who said, "I have an order not to let you in." Michael Angelo, indignant at the insult, left Rome that very evening. Though Julius dispatched courier after courier to bring him back, it was some months before a reconciliation was effected. On the Pope observing "In the stead of your coming to us, you seem to have expected that we should wait upon you," Michael Angelo apologised with dignity, and matters resumed their ancient course.]

6.-Page 100, line 17.

An exile, saddest of all prisoners,

[In his "Convito," Dante speaks of his banishment, and the poverty and distress which attended it, in very affecting terms. About the year 1316, his friends obtained his restoration to his country and his possessions, on condition that he should pay a certain sum of money, and, entering a church, avow himself guilty, and ask pardon of the republic. "Far," he replied, "from the man who is familiar with philosophy, be the senseless baseness of a heart of earth, that could imitate the infamy of some others, by offering himself up as it were in chains. Far from the man who cries aloud for justice, this compromise, by his money, with

his persecutors! No, my Father, this is not the way that shall lead me back to my country. But I shall return with hasty steps, if you or any other can open to me a way that shall not derogate from the fame and honour of Dante; but if by no such way Florence can be entered, then Florence I shall never enter. What! shall I not every where enjoy the sight of the sun and stars? and may I not seek and contemplate, in every corner of the earth under the canopy of heaven, consoling and delightful truth, without first rendering myself inglorious, nay infamous, to the people and republic of Florence? Bread, I hope, will not fail me."]

7.-Page 100, line 27.

"What have I done to thee, my people?" Stern

"E scrisse più volte non solamente a particolari cittadini del reggimento, ma ancora al popolo, e intra l' altre una Epistola assai lunga che comincia: Popule mi, quid feci tibi?'"-Vita di Dante scritta da Lionardc Aretino. [His countrymen showed, too late, that they knew the value of what they had lost. At the beginning of the next century, they entreated that the ashes of their illustrious citizen might be restored to them; but the people of Ravenna were unwilling to part with the honourable memorial of their own hospitality. No better success attended the subsequent negotiations of the Florentines, though renewed under the auspices of Leo X., and conducted through the powerful mediation of Michael Angelo.]

FRANCESCA OF RIMINI.