ns rush eagerly upon Italy to trample upon her.... And here,
Reader, thou shalt excuse me, if, before going farther, I am forced to
utter a complaint against Dante. Would that, O marvellous poet, thou
wert now living again! Where is peace, where is tranquillity in
Italy?... But I may say now of all Italy what thy Virgil said of a
single city,--'Cruel mourning everywhere, everywhere alarm, and the
multiplied image of death.' ...With how much more reason, then, were it
but right, might I call upon the Omnipotent, than thou who fellest upon
happy times, which we all now living in wretched Italy may envy! Let
Him, then, who can, speedily send the Hound that thou sawest in thy
dream, if indeed he is ever to come!"

It would be surprising, but for what we have already seen of the manner
in which Signor Tamburini performs his work, to find that he has here
omitted all reference to the Church, omitted also the address to Dante,
and thus changed the character of the whole passage.

Again, in the comment on Canto XX. of the "Purgatory," where Benvenuto
gives account of the outrage committed, at the instigation of Philippe
le Bel, by Sciarra Colonna, upon Pope Boniface VIII., at Anagni, the
translator omits the most characteristic portions of the original.

* * * * *

BENVENUTO.

Sed intense dolore superante animum ejus, conversus in rabiem furoris,
coepit se rodere totum. Et sic verificata est prophetia simplicissimi
Coelestini, qui praedixerat sibi: Intrasti ut Vulpes, Regnabis ut Leo,
Morieris ut Canis.

TAMBURINI.

L'angoscia per altro la vinse sul di lui animo, perche fu preso da tal
dolore, che si mordeva e lacerava le membra, e cosi termino sua vita. In
tal modo nel corso della vita di Bonifazio fu verificata la profezia di
Celestino.

* * * * *

"But his intense mortification overcoming the mind of the Pope, he fell
into a rage of madness, and began to bite himself all over his body.
And thus the prophecy of the simple-minded Celestine came true, who had
predicted to him. Thou hast entered [into the Papacy] like a Fox, thou
wilt reign like a Lion, thou wilt die like a Dog."

It wilt be observed that the prophecy is referred to by the translator,
but that its stinging words are judiciously left out.

The mass of omissions such as these is enormous. We go forward to the
comment on Canto XII. of the "Paradiso," which exhibits a multitude of
mutilation