Inferno: Canto XXI

Longfellow, 1867 · <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy_(Longfellow_1867)/Volume_1/Notes">source</a>

1. Stanza 1, line 1 The Fifth Bolgia, and the punishment of Barrators, or "Judges who take bribes for giving judgment."
2. Stanza 1, line 2 Having spoken in the preceding Canto of Virgil's "lofty Tragedy," Dante here speaks of his own Comedy, as if to prepare the reader for the scenes which are to follow, and for which he apologizes in Canto XXII. 14, by repeating the proverb,
   
   "In the church
   
   With saints, and in the tavern with carousers."
3. Stanza 3, line 7 Of the Arsenal of Venice Mr. Hillard thus speaks in his Six Months in Italy, I. 63:—
   
   "No reader of Dante will fail to pay a visit to the Arsenal, from which, in order to illustrate the terrors of his 'Inferno,' the great poet drew one of these striking and picturesque images, characteristic alike of the boldness and the power of his genius, which never hesitated to look for its materials among the homely details and familiar incidents of life. In his hands, the boiling of pitch and the calking of seams ascend to the dignity of poetry. Besides, it is the most impressive and characteristic spot in Venice. The Ducal Palace and the Church of St. Mark's are symbols of pride and power, but the strength of Venice resided here. Her whole history, for six hundred years, was here epitomized, and as she rose and sunk, the hum of labor here swelled and subsided. Here was the index-hand which marked the culmination and decline of her greatness. Built upon several small islands, which are united by a wall of two miles in circuit, its extent and completeness, decayed as it is, show what the naval power of Venice once was, as the disused armor of a giant enables us to measure his stature and strength. Near the entrance are four marble lions, brought by Morosini from the Peloponnesus in 1685, two of which are striking works of art. Of these two, one is by far the oldest thing in Venice, being not much younger than the battle of Marathon; and thus, from the height of twenty-three centuries, entitled to look down upon St. Mark's as the growth of yesterday. The other two are nondescript animals, of the class commonly called heraldic, and can be styled lions only by courtesy. In the armory are some very interesting objects, and none more so than the great standard of the Turkish admiral, made of crimson silk, taken at the battle of Lepanto, and which Cervantes may have grasped with his unwounded hand. A few fragments of some of the very galleys that were engaged in that memorable fight are also preserved here."
4. Stanza 13, line 37 Malebranche, Evil-claws, a general name for the devils.
5. Stanza 13, line 38 Santa Zita, the Patron Saint of Lucca, where the magistrates were called Elders, or Aldermen. In Florence they bore the name of Priors.
6. Stanza 14, line 41 A Barrator, in Dante's use of the word, is to the State what a Simoniac is to the Church; one who sells justice, office, or employment.
   
   Benvenuto says that Dante includes Bontura with the rest, "because he is speaking ironically, as who should say, 'Bontura is the greatest barrator of all.' For Bontura was an arch-barrator, who sagaciously led and managed the whole commune, and gave offices to whom he wished. He likewise excluded whom he wished."
7. Stanza 16, line 46 Bent down in the attitude of one in prayer; therefore the demons mock him with the allusion to the Santo Volto.
8. Stanza 16, line 48 The Santo Volto, or Holy Face, is a crucifix still preserved in the Cathedral of Lucca, and held in great veneration by the people. The tradition is that it is the work of Nicodemus, who sculptured it from memory.
   
   See also Sacchetti, Nov. 73, in which a preacher mocks at the Santo Volto in the church of Santa Croce at Florence.
9. Stanza 17, line 49 The Serchio flows near Lucca. Shelley, in a poem called The Boat, on the Serchio, describes it as a "torrent fierce,"
   
   "Which fervid from its mountain source,
   
   Shallow, smooth, and strong, doth come;
   
   Swift as fire, tempestuously
   
   It sweeps into the affrighted sea.
   
   In morning's smile its eddies coil,
   
   Its billows sparkle, toss, and boil,
   
   Torturing all its quiet light
   
   Into columns fierce and bright."
10. Stanza 21, line 63 Canto IX. 22:—
    
    "True is it once before I here below
    
    Was conjured by that pitiless Erictho,
    
    Who summoned back the shades unto their bodies."
11. Stanza 32, line 95 A fortified town on the Arno, in the Pisan territory. It was besieged by the troops of Florence and Lucca in 1289, and capitulated. As the garrison marched out under safe-guard, they were terrified by the shouts of the crowd, crying: "Hang them! hang them!" In this crowd was Dante, "a youth of twenty-five," says Benvenuto da Imola.
12. Stanza 37, line 110 Along the circular dike that separates one Bolgia from another.
13. Stanza 37, line 111 This is a falsehood, as all the bridges over the next Bolgia are broken. See Canto XXIII. 140.
14. Stanza 38, line 112 At the close of the preceding Canto the time is indicated as being an hour after sunrise. Five hours later would be noon, or the scriptural sixth hour, the hour of the Crucifixion. Dante understands St. Luke to say that Christ died at this hour. Convito, IV. 23: "Luke says that it was about the sixth hour when he died; that is, the culmination of the day." Add to the "one thousand and two hundred sixty-six years," the thirty-four of Christ's life on earth, and it gives the year 1300, the date of the Infernal Pilgrimage.
15. Stanza 38, line 114 Broken by the earthquake at the time of the Crucifixion, as the rock leading to the Circle of the Violent, Canto XII. 45:—
    
    "And at that moment this primeval rock
    
    Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow."
    
    As in the next Bolgia Hypocrites are punished, Dante couples them with the Violent, by making the shock of the earthquake more felt near them than elsewhere.
16. Stanza 42, line 125 The next crag or bridge, traversing the dikes and ditches.
17. Stanza 46, line 137 See Canto XVII. 75.