[451] On the day of the spring equinox the sun rises and sets a few minutes after six o’clock, because we set our clocks not by the real sun but the more convenient “mean sun.”
[452] The clock-hours in this column are not to be regarded as if taken from a railway time-table! Sunrise is at 6 a.m. within a few minutes only, for the reasons above stated, viz.: our clocks are regulated by the “mean” sun, and it is not necessarily the exact day of the equinox when the vision begins.
[453] Or “almost at late midnight.”
[454] Or “nigh me:” “presso” may mean either.
[455] “The Lady who rules here.” Inf. x. 80.
[456] “Lower Hell.” Inf. viii. 75.
[457] Cf. Par. ii. 48-51.
[458] The retardation is not likely to be more than the average of 50 minutes, and may be less, because the moon is in Libra, and therefore going south. This tends to diminish the interval between one moonset and the next in the northern hemisphere, just as the days get shorter when the sun goes south in autumn.
[459] Some think the interval between this reference and the last almost too short, but the words do not indicate that Malacoda spoke on the stroke of seven! and the moon may have set at about 6.30.
[460] “Darkness of Hell.” Purg. xvi. 1.