v. 84.  Andes.] Andes, now Pietola, made more famous than Mantua near which it is situated, by having been the birthplace of Virgil.

v. 92.  Ismenus and Asopus.] Rivers near Thebes

v. 98.  Mary.] Luke, c i. 39, 40

v. 99.  Caesar.] See Lucan, Phars.  I. iii. and iv, and Caesar de Bello Civiii, I. i.  Caesar left Brutus to complete the siege of Marseilles, and hastened on to the attack of Afranius and Petreius, the generals of Pompey, at Ilerda (Lerida) in Spain.

v. 118. abbot.] Alberto, abbot of San Zeno in Verona, when Frederick I was emperor, by whom Milan was besieged and reduced to ashes.

v. 121.  There is he.] Alberto della Scala, lord of Verona, who had made his natural son abbot of San Zeno.

v. 133.  First they died.] The Israelites, who, on account of their disobedience, died before reaching the promised land.

v. 135.  And they.] Virg Aen. 1. v.

CANTO XIX

v. 1.  The hour.] Near the dawn.

v. 4.  The geomancer.] The geomancers, says Landino, when they divined, drew a figure consisting of sixteen marks, named from so many stars which constitute the end of Aquarius and the beginning of Pisces.  One of these they called “the greater fortune.”

v. 7.  A woman’s shape.] Worldly happiness.  This allegory reminds us of the “Choice of Hercules.”

v. 14.  Love’s own hue.]
A smile that glow’d
Celestial rosy red, love’s proper hue. 
Milton, P. L. b. viii. 619

—­facies pulcherrima tune est
Quum porphyriaco variatur candida rubro
Quid color hic roseus sibi vult? designat amorem: 
Quippe amor est igni similis; flammasque rubentes
Ignus habere solet. 
Palingenii Zodiacus Vitae, 1. xii.

v. 26.  A dame.] Philosophy.

v. 49.  Who mourn.] Matt. c. v. 4.

v. 72.  My soul.] Psalm cxix. 5

v. 97.  The successor of Peter Ottobuono, of the family of Fieschi Counts of Lavagna, died thirty-nine days after he became Pope, with the title of Adrian V, in 1276.

v. 98.  That stream.] The river Lavagna, in the Genoese territory.

v. 135. nor shall be giv’n in marriage.] Matt. c. xxii. 30.  “Since in this state we neither marry nor are given in marriage, I am no longer the spouse of the church, and therefore no longer retain my former dignity.

v. 140.  A kinswoman.] Alagia is said to have been the wife of the Marchese Marcello Malaspina, one of the poet’s protectors during his exile.  See Canto viii. 133.

CANTO XX

v. 3.  I drew the sponge.] “I did not persevere in my inquiries from the spirit though still anxious to learn more.” v. 11.  Wolf.] Avarice.

v. 16.  Of his appearing.] He is thought to allude to Can Grande della Scala.  See Hell, Canto I. 98.