Arbor vittoriosa e trionfale,
Onor d’imperadori e di poeti.

And Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. 1. st. 9,
The laurel, meed of mighty conquerours
And poets sage.

v. 37.  Through that.] “Where the four circles, the horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial colure, join; the last threeintersecting each other so as to form three crosses, as may be seen in the armillary sphere.”

v. 39.  In happiest constellation.] Aries.  Some understand the planetVenus by the “miglior stella "

v. 44.  To the left.] Being in the opposite hemisphere to ours, Beatrice that she may behold the rising sun, turns herself to the left.

v. 47.  As from the first a second beam.] “Like a reflected sunbeam,” which he compares to a pilgrim hastening homewards.

Ne simil tanto mal raggio secondo
Dal primo usci. 
Filicaja, canz. 15. st. 4.

v. 58.  As iron that comes boiling from the fire.] So Milton,
P. L. b. iii. 594. 
—­As glowing iron with fire.

v. 69.  Upon the day appear’d.

—­If the heaven had ywonne,
All new of God another sunne. 
Chaucer, First Booke of Fame

E par ch’ agginuga un altro sole al cielo. 
Ariosto, O F. c. x. st. 109.

Ed ecco un lustro lampeggiar d’ intorno
Che sole a sole aggiunse e giorno a giorno. 
Manno, Adone. c. xi. st. 27.

Quando a paro col sol ma piu lucente
L’angelo gli appari sull; oriente
Tasso, G. L. c. i.

-Seems another morn
Ris’n on mid-noon. 
Milton, P. L. b. v. 311.

Compare Euripides, Ion. 1550. [Greek here]
66. as Glaucus. ] Ovid, Met. 1.  Xiii.  Fab. 9

v. 71.  If.] “Thou O divine Spirit, knowest whether 1 had not risen above my human nature, and were not merely such as thou hadst then, formed me.”

v. 125.  Through sluggishness.] Perch’ a risponder la materia e sorda.

So Filicaja, canz. vi. st 9. 
Perche a risponder la discordia e sorda

“The workman hath in his heart a purpose, he carrieth in mind the whole form which his work should have; there wanteth not him skill and desire to bring his labour to the best effect, only the matter, which he hath to work on is unframeable.”  Hooker’s Eccl.  Polity, b. 5. 9.

CANTO II

v. 1.  In small bark.]

Con la barchetta mia cantando in rima
Pulci, Morg.  Magg. c. xxviii.

Io me n’andro con la barchetta mia,
Quanto l’acqua comporta un picciol legno
Ibid.

v. 30.  This first star.] the moon

v. 46.  E’en as the truth.] Like a truth that does not need demonstration, but is self-evident.”

v. 52.  Cain.] Compare Hell, Canto xx. 123.  And Note

v. 65.  Number1ess lights.] The fixed stars, which differ both in bulk and splendor.