[280] Iron., meaning "with how little discretion."
[281] Gianni (Giovanni) di Procida was a Sicilian noble, to whose efforts in stirring up the island to revolt against Charles of Anjou was mainly due the popular rising known as the Sicilian Vespers (a.d. 1283) which expelled the French usurper from Sicily and transferred the crown to the house of Arragon. The Frederick (a.d. 1296-1337) named in the text was the fourth prince of the latter dynasty.
[282] William II. (a.d. 1166-1189), the last (legitimate) king of the Norman dynasty in Sicily, called the Good, to distinguish him from his father, William the Bad.
[283] Apparently a pleasure-garden, without a house attached in which they might have taken shelter from the rain.
[284] i.e. of her sin.
[285] Syn. your charms (la vostra vaghezza).
[286] i.e. she was grown so repulsively ugly in her old age, that no one cared to do her even so trifling a service as giving her a spark in tinder to light her fire withal.
[287] Or chokebits (stranguglioni).
[288] i.e. that they may serve to purchase remission from purgatory for the souls of her dead relatives, instead of the burning of candles and tapers, which is held by the Roman Catholic Church to have that effect.
[289] i.e. a hypocritical sham devotee, covering a lewd life with an appearance of sanctity.