ervitus, summus labor. Si vero male, est
summum periculum animae, summum malum, summa miseria, summus pudor. Ergo
dubium est ex omni parte negotium. Ideo bene praefatus Adrianus Papa IV.
dicebat, Cathedram Petri spinosam, et Mantum ejus acutissimis per totum
consertum aculeis, et tantae gravitatis, ut robustissimos premat et
conterat humeros. Et concludebat, Nonne miseria dignus est qui pro tanta
pugnat miseria?"

"The Papacy, if it be well borne, is the chief of honors, of burdens, of
servitudes, and of labors; but if ill, it is the chief of perils for the
soul, the chief of evils, of miseries, and of shames. Wherefore, it is
throughout a doubtful affair. And well did the aforesaid Pope Adrian IV.
say, that the Chair of Peter was thorny, and his Mantle full of sharpest
stings, and so heavy as to weigh down and bruise the stoutest shoulders;
and, added he, Does not that man deserve pity, who strives for a woe
like this?"

This passage, so worthy of preservation and of literal translation, is
given by Signor Tamburini as follows: "The tiara is the first of honors,
but also the first and heaviest of burdens, and the most rigorous
slavery; it is the greatest risk of misfortune and of shame. The Papal
mantle is pierced with sharp thorns; who, then, will excuse him who
frets himself for it?"

But it is not only in passages relating to the Church that the
translator's faithlessness is displayed. Almost every page of his work
exhibits some omission, addition, transposition, or paraphrase, for
which no explanation can be given, and not even an insufficient excuse
be offered. In Canto IX. of the "Paradise," Dante puts into the mouth of
Cunizza, speaking of Foulques of Marseilles, the words, "Before his fame
shall die, the hundredth year shall five times come around." "And note
here," says Benvenuto, "that our author manifestly tells a falsehood;
since of that man there is no longer any fame, even in his own country.
I say, in brief, that the author wishes tacitly to hint that he will
give fame to him by his power,--a fame that shall not die so long as
this book shall live; and if we may conjecture of the future, it is to
last for many ages, since we see that the fame of our author continually
increases. And thus he exhorts men to live virtuously, that the wise may
bestow fame upon them, as he himself has now given it to Cunizza,
and will give it to Foulques." Not a word of this appears in Signor
Tamburini's pages, interesting