on to say respecting the stone-throwing—­“Appresso, come che il nostro poeta nelle sua avversita paziente o no si fosse, in una fu impazientissimo:  ed egli infino al cominciamento del suo esilio stato guelfissimo, non essendogli aperta la via del ritornare in casa sua, si fuor di modo divento ghibellino, che ogni femminella, ogni picciol fanciullo, e quante volte avesse voluto, ragionando di parte, e la guelfa proponendo alla ghibellino, l’avrebbe non solamente fatto turbare, ma a tanta insania commosso, che se taciuto non fosse, a gittar le pietre l’avrebbe condotto.” (Vita di Dante, prefixed to the Paris edition of the Commedia, 1844, p.  XXV.) And then the “buon Boccaccio,” with his accustomed sweetness of nature, begs pardon of so great a man, for being obliged to relate such things of him, and doubts whether his spirit may not be looking down on him that moment disdainfully from heaven!  Such an association of ideas had Dante produced between the celestial and the scornful!]

[Footnote 22:  Novelle di Franco Sacchetti, Milan edition, 1804, vol. ii. p. 148.  It forms the setting, or frame-work, of an inferior story, and is not mentioned in the heading.]

[Footnote 23:  The Vision; or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, of Dante Alighieri, &c. Smith’s edition, 1844, p. 90.]

[Footnote 24:  Discorso sul Testo, pp. 64, 77-90, 335-338.]

[Footnote 25:  Purgatorio, canto III. 118, 138; referred to by Foscolo, in the Discorso sul Testo, p. 383.]

[Footnote 26:  Warton’s History of English Poetry, edition of 1840, vol. iii. p. 214.]

[Footnote 27:  Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. vol. ii. p. 122.]

[Footnote 28:  Pentameron and Pentalogia, pp. 44-50.]

[Footnote 29:  Discorso sul Testo, p. 226.  The whole passage (sect. cx.) is very eloquent, horrible, and self-betraying.]

[Footnote 30:  Discorso, as above, p. 101.]

[Footnote 31:  Discorso, p. 103.]

[Footnote 32:  Criticisms on the Rolliad, and Probationary Odes for the Laureateship.  Third edit. 17S5, p. 317.]

[Footnote 33:  The writer of the article on Dante in the Foreign Quarterly Review (as above) concedes that his hero in this passage becomes “almost cruel.”  Almost!  Tormenting a man further, who is up to his chin in everlasting ice, and whose face he has kicked!]

[Footnote 34:  “Cortesia fu lui esser villano.” Inferno, canto xxxiii. 150.]

[Footnote 35:  Every body sees this who is not wilfully blind.  “Passionate,” says the editor of the Opere Minori, “for the ancient Italian glories, and the greatness of the Roman name, he was of opinion that it was only by means of combined strength, and one common government, that Italy could be finally secured from discord in its own bosom and enemies from without, and recover its ancient empire over the whole world.”  “Amantissimo delle antiche glorie Italiane, e della grandezza del nome romano, ei considerava, che soltanto pel mezzo d’una general forza ed autorita poteva l’Italia dalle interne contese e dalle straniere invasioni restarsi sicura, e recuperare l’antico imperio sopra tutte le genti.”—­Ut sup. vol. iii. p. 8.]