espertine ray" is only a trifle better; but Mr.
Wright's "splendour of the evening ray" is, in its simplicity, far
preferable.

Canto XXXI., line 131:--

LONGFELLOW.--"Did the other three advance Singing to their
angelic saraband."

CARY.--"To their own carol on they came Dancing, in festive ring
angelical "

WRIGHT.--"And songs accompanied their angel dance."

Here Mr. Longfellow has apparently followed the authority of the Crusca,
reading

"Cantando al loro angelico carribo,"

and translating carribo by saraband, a kind of Moorish dance. The best
manuscripts, however, sanction M. Witte's reading:--

"Danzando al loro angelico carribo."

If this be correct, carribo cannot signify "a dance," but rather "the
song which accompanies the dance"; and the true sense of the passage
will have been best rendered by Mr. Cary. [49]

[49] See Blanc, Vocabolario Dantesco, s. v. "caribo."

Whenever Mr. Longfellow's translation is kept free from oddities of
diction and construction, it is very animated and vigorous. Nothing can
be finer than his rendering of "Purgatorio," Canto VI., lines 97-117:--

"O German Albert! who abandonest
Her that has grown recalcitrant and savage,
And oughtest to bestride her saddle-bow,

May a just judgment from the stars down fall
Upon thy blood, and be it new and open,
That thy successor may have fear thereof:

Because thy father and thyself have suffered,
By greed of those transalpine lands distrained,
The garden of the empire to be waste.

Come and behold Montecchi and Cappelletti,
Monaldi and Filippeschi, careless man!
Those sad already, and these doubt-depressed!

Come, cruel one! come and behold the oppression
Of thy nobility, and cure their wounds,
And thou shalt see how safe [?] is Santafiore.

Come and behold thy Rome that is lamenting,
Widowed, alone, and day and night exclaims
'My Caesar, why hast thou forsaken me?'

Come and behold how loving are the people;
And if for us no pity moveth thee,
Come and be made ashamed of thy renown." [50]

[50] "O Alberto Tedesco, che abbandoni
Costei ch' e fatta indomita e selvaggia,
E dovresti inforcar li suoi arcioni,

Giusto gindizio dalle stelle caggia
Sopra il tuo sangue, e sia nuovo ed aperto,
Tal che il tuo successor temenza n' aggia:
Cheavete tu e il tuo