[Footnote 1:  “Parea che l’aer ne temesse.”]

[Footnote 2:  “La dove ’l sol tace.”  “The sun to me is dark, And silent is the moon, Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.”—­Milton.]

[Footnote 3:  There is great difference among the commentators respecting the meaning of the three beasts; some supposing them passions, others political troubles, others personal enemies, &c.  The point is not of much importance, especially as a mystery was intended; but nobody, as Mr. Cary says, can doubt that the passage was suggested by one in the prophet Jeremiah, v. 6:  “Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them; a leopard shall watch over their cities.”]

[Footnote 4: 

  “Che quello ’mperador che la su regna
  Perch’ i’ fu’ribellante a la sua legge,
  Non vuol che ’n sua citta per me si vegna.” ]

[Footnote 5: 

  “Quale i fioretti dal notturno gelo
  Chinati e chiusi, poi che ’l sol gl’imbianca,
  Si drizzan tutti aperti in loro stelo.”

  Like as the flowers that with the frosty night
  Are bowed and closed, soon as the sun returns,
  Rise on their stems, all open and upright.]

[Footnote 6:  This loss of intellectual good, and the confession of the poet that he finds the inscription over hell-portal hard to understand (il senso lor m’e duro), are among the passages in Dante which lead some critics to suppose that his hell is nothing but an allegory, intended at once to imply his own disbelief in it as understood by the vulgar part of mankind, and his employment of it, nevertheless, as a salutary check both to the foolish and the reflecting;—­to the foolish, as an alarm; and to the reflecting, as a parable.  It is possible, in the teeth of many appearances to the contrary, that such may have been the case; but in the doubt that it affects either the foolish or the wise to any good purpose, and in the certainty that such doctrines do a world of mischief to tender consciences and the cause of sound piety, such monstrous contradictions, in terms, of every sense of justice and charity which God has implanted in the heart of man, are not to be passed over without indignant comment.]

[Footnote 7:  It is seldom that a boast of this kind—­not, it must be owned, bashful—­has been allowed by posterity to be just; nay, in four out of the five instances, below its claims.]

[Footnote 8: 

  “Genti v’eran, con occhi tardi e gravi,
  Di grande autorita ne’ lor sembianti
  Parlavan rado, con voci soavi.” ]

[Footnote 9:  “Sopra ’l verde smalto.”  Mr. Cary has noticed the appearance, for the first time, of this beautiful but now commonplace image.]

[Footnote 10:  “Il maestro di color che sanno.”]

[Footnote 11:  This is the famous episode of Paulo and Francesca.  She was daughter to Count Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, and wife to Giovanni Malatesta, one of the sons, of the lord of Rimini.  Paulo was her brother-in-law.  They were surprised together by the husband, and slain on the spot.  Particulars of their history will be found in the Appendix, together with the whole original passage.