v. 135. And they.] Virg Aen. 1. v.
CANTO XIX
v. 1. The hour.] Near the dawn.
v. 4. The geomancer.] The geomancers, says Landino, when they divined, drew a figure consisting of sixteen marks, named from so many stars which constitute the end of Aquarius and the beginning of Pisces. One of these they called “the greater fortune.”
v. 7. A woman’s shape.] Worldly happiness. This allegory reminds us of the “Choice of Hercules.”
v. 14. Love’s own hue.]
A smile that glow’d
Celestial rosy red, love’s proper hue.
Milton, P. L. b. viii. 619
—facies pulcherrima tune est
Quum porphyriaco variatur candida rubro
Quid color hic roseus sibi vult? designat amorem:
Quippe amor est igni similis; flammasque rubentes
Ignus habere solet.
Palingenii Zodiacus Vitae, 1. xii.
v. 26. A dame.] Philosophy.
v. 49. Who mourn.] Matt. c. v. 4.
v. 72. My soul.] Psalm cxix. 5