Line 136:—
LONGFELLOW.—"Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating."
CARY.—"My lips all trembling kissed." [47]
"Purgatorio," Canto XV., line 139:—
LONGFELLOW.—
"We passed along, athwart the twilight peering
Forward as far as ever eye could stretch
Against the sunbeams serotine and lucent." [48]
Mr. Cary's "bright vespertine ray" is only a trifle better; but Mr. Wright's "splendour of the evening ray" is, in its simplicity, far preferable.
Canto XXXI., line 131:—
LONGFELLOW.—"Did the other three advance Singing to their
angelic saraband."
CARY.—"To their own carol on they came Dancing, in festive ring
angelical "
WRIGHT.—"And songs accompanied their angel dance."
Here Mr. Longfellow has apparently followed the authority of the Crusca, reading
"Cantando al loro angelico carribo,"
and translating carribo by saraband, a kind of Moorish dance. The best manuscripts, however, sanction M. Witte's reading:—