CANTO XXVI
v. 2. The beamy flame.] St. John.
v. 13. Ananias’ hand.] Who, by putting his hand on St. Paul, restored his sight. Acts, c. ix. 17.
v. 36. From him.] Some suppose that Plato is here meant, who, in his Banquet, makes Phaedrus say: “Love is confessedly amongst the eldest of beings, and, being the eldest, is the cause to us of the greatest goods “ Plat. Op. t. x. p. 177. Bip. ed. Others have understood it of Aristotle, and others, of the writer who goes by the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, referred to in the twenty-eighth Canto.
v. 40. I will make.] Exodus, c. xxxiii. 19.
v. 42. At the outset.] John, c. i. 1. &c.
v. 51. The eagle of our Lord.] St. John
v. 62. The leaves.] Created beings.
v. 82. The first living soul.] Adam.
v. 107. Parhelion.] Who enlightens and comprehends all things; but is himself enlightened and comprehended by none.
v. 117. Whence.] That is, from Limbo. See Hell, Canto II. 53. Adam says that 5232 years elapsed from his creation to the time of his deliverance, which followed the death of Christ.
v. 133. EL] Some read UN, “One,” instead of EL: but the latter of these readings is confirmed by a passage from Dante’s Treatise De Vulg. Eloq. 1. i. cap. 4. “Quod prius vox primi loquentis sonaverit, viro sanae mentis in promptu esse non dubito ipsum fuisse quod Deus est, videlicet El.” St. Isidore in the Origines, 1. vii. c. 1. had said, “Primum apud Hebraeos Dei nomen El dicitur.”
v. 135. Use.] From Horace, Ars. Poet. 62.
v. 138. All my life.] “I remained in the terrestrial Paradise only tothe seventh hour.” In the Historia Scolastica of Petrus Comestor, it is said of our first parents: Quidam tradunt eos fuisse in Paradiso septem horae.” I. 9. ed. Par. 1513. 4to.