"Nè sì chinato li fece dimora,
E come albero in nave si levò."
A magnificent image! I have retained the idiomatic expression of the original, raised himself, instead of saying rose, because it seemed to me to give the more grand and deliberate image.]
[Footnote 43: Of "màmma" and "bàbbo," says the primitive poet. We have corresponding words in English, but the feeling they produce is not identical. The lesser fervour of the northern nations renders them, in some respects, more sophisticate than they suspect, compared with the "artful" Italians.]
[Footnote 44: Alessandro and Napoleon degli Alberti, sons of Alberto, lord of the valley of Falterona in Tuscany. After their father's death they tyrannised over the neighbouring districts, and finally had a mortal quarrel. The name of Napoleon used to be so rare till of late years, even in Italian books, that it gives one a kind of interesting surprise to meet with it.]
[Footnote 45:
"Se voler fu, o destino o fortuna,
Non so."
What does the Christian reader think of that?]
[Footnote 46: Latrando.]
[Footnote 47: Bocca degli Abbati, whose soul barks like a dog, occasioned the defeat of the Guelfs at Montaperto, in the year 1260, by treacherously cutting off the hand of the standard-bearer.]
[Footnote 48: This is the famous story of Ugolino, who betrayed the castles of Pisa to the Florentines, and was starved with his children in the Tower of Famine.]