according to
Tiraboschi, is "worthy of a better age." Petrarch also makes honourable
mention of him. See _Cary_, ut sup. p. 169. Dante lived a good while
in the monastery of Catria, and is said to have finished his poem
there.--_Lombardi in loc._ vol. III. p. 547.]

[Footnote 32: The cardinal's hat.]

[Footnote 33: "Si che duo bestie van sott' una pelle."]

[Footnote 34:

"Dintorno a questa (voce) vennero e fermarsi,
E fero un grido di si alto suono,
Che non potrebbe qui assomigliarsi;

Ne io lo 'ntesi, si mi vinse il tuono."

Around this voice they flocked, a mighty crowd,
And raised a shout so huge, that earthly wonder
Knoweth no likeness for a peal so loud;

Nor could I hear the words, it spoke such thunder.

If a Longinus had written after Dante, he would have put this passage
into his treatise on the Sublime.]

[Footnote 35: Benedict, the founder of the order called after his name.
Macarius, an Egyptian monk and moralist. Romoaldo, founder of the
Camaldoli.]

[Footnote 36: The reader of English poetry will be reminded of a passage
in Cowley

"Lo, I mount; and lo,
How small the biggest parts of earth's proud title shew!
Where shall I find the noble British land?
Lo, I at last a northern speck espy,
Which in the sea does lie,
And seems a grain o' the sand.
For this will any sin, or bleed?
Of civil wars is this the meed?
And is it this, alas, which we,
Oh, irony of words! do call Great Brittanie?"

And he afterwards, on reaching higher depths of silence, says very
finely, and with a beautiful intimation of the all-inclusiveness of the
Deity by the use of a singular instead of a plural verb,--

"Where am I now? angels and God is here."

All which follows in Dante, up to the appearance of Saint Peter, is full
of grandeur and loveliness.]

[Footnote 37:

"Come l' augello intra l'amate fronde,
Posato al nido de' suoi dolci nati
La notte che le cose ci nasconde,

Che per veder gli aspetti desiati,
E per trovar lo cibo onde gli pasca,
In che i gravi labor gli sono aggrati,

Previene 'l tempo in su l'aperta frasca,
E con ardente affetto il sole aspetta,
Fiso guardando pur che l'alba nasca;

Cosi la donna mia si stava eretta
E attenta, involta in ver la plaga
Sotto la quale il sol mostra men fretta:

Si the veggendola io sospesa e vaga,
Fecimi quale e quei che disiando
Altro vorria, e sperando s'appaga." ]

[Footnote 38