CANTO XV
v. 1. As much.] It wanted three hours of sunset.
v. 16. As when the ray.] Compare Virg. Aen. 1.viii. 22, and Apol. Rhod. 1. iii. 755.
v. 19. Ascending at a glance.] Lucretius, 1. iv. 215.
v. 20. Differs from the stone.] The motion of light being quicker than that of a stone through an equal space.
v. 38. Blessed the merciful. Matt. c. v. 7.
v. 43. Romagna’s spirit.] Guido del Duea, of Brettinoro whom we have seen in the preceding Canto.
v. 87. A dame.] Luke, c. ii. 18
v. 101. How shall we those requite.] The answer of Pisistratus the tyrant to his wife, when she urged him to inflict the punishment of death on a young man, who, inflamed with love for his daughter, had snatched from her a kiss in public. The story is told by Valerius Maximus, 1.v. 1.
v. 105. A stripling youth.] The protomartyr Stephen.