v. 40.  Lest th’ accursed tribe.] Lest the rebellious angels should exult at seeing those who were neutral and therefore less guilty, condemned to the same punishment with themselves.

v. 50.  A flag.]
               All the grisly legions that troop
        Under the sooty flag of Acheron
               Milton.  Comus.

v. 56.  Who to base fear
        Yielding, abjur’d his high estate.] This is
commonly understood of Celestine the Fifth, who abdicated the papal power in 1294.  Venturi mentions a work written by Innocenzio Barcellini, of the Celestine order, and printed in Milan in 1701, In which an attempt is made to put a different interpretation on this passage.

v. 70. through the blear light.]
        Lo fioco lume
So Filicaja, canz. vi. st. 12. 
        Qual fioco lume.

v. 77.  An old man.]
        Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
        Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
        Canities inculta jacet; stant lumina flamma. 
               Virg. 7.  Aen.  Iib. vi. 2.

v. 82.  In fierce heat and in ice.]
               The delighted spirit
        To bathe in fiery floods or to reside
        In thrilling regions of thick ribbed ice. 
               Shakesp.  Measure for Measure, a. iii.s.1. 
Compare Milton, P. L. b. ii. 600.

v. 92.  The livid lake.] Vada livida. 
               Virg.  Aen.  Iib. vi. 320
               Totius ut Lacus putidaeque paludis
        Lividissima, maximeque est profunda vorago. 
               Catullus. xviii. 10.

v. 102.  With eyes of burning coal.]
        His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes
        Like two great beacons glared bright and wide. 
               Spenser.  F.Q. b. vi. c. vii.st. 42

v. 104.  As fall off the light of autumnal leaves.]
        Quam multa in silvis autumul frigore primo
        Lapsa cadunt folia. 
               Virg.  Aen. lib. vi. 309
Compare Apoll.  Rhod. lib. iv. 214.

CANTO IV

v. 8.  A thund’rous sound.] Imitated, as Mr. Thyer has remarked,
by Milton, P. L. b. viii. 242. 
               But long ere our approaching heard
        Noise, other, than the sound of dance or song
        Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

v. 50. a puissant one.] Our Saviour.

v. 75.  Honour the bard
        Sublime.]

        Onorate l’altissimo poeta. 
So Chiabrera, Canz.  Eroiche. 32. 
        Onorando l’altissimo poeta.

v. 79.  Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad.]
        She nas to sober ne to glad. 
               Chaucer’s Dream.

v. 90.  The Monarch of sublimest song.] Homer.