• Sackville, in his “Induction” to the Mirror for Magistrates , says:⁠— “Whiles Scorpio dreading Sagittarius’ dart Whose bow prest bent in fight the string had slipped, Down slid into the ocean flood apart.” ↩
• Odyssey , XI , Buckley’s Tr. :⁠— “But I, meditating in my mind, wished to lay hold of the soul of my departed mother. Thrice indeed I essayed it, and my mind urged me to lay hold of it, but thrice it flew from my hands, like unto a shadow, or even to a dream.” And Aeneid , VI , Davidson’s Tr. :⁠— “There thrice he attempted to throw his arms around his neck; thrice the phantom, grasped in vain, escaped his hold, like the fleet gales, or resembling most a fugitive dream.” ↩
• Casella was a Florentine musician and friend of Dante, who here speaks to him with so much tenderness and affection as to make us regret that nothing more is known of him. Milton alludes to him in his Sonnet to Mr. H. Lawes:⁠— “Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher Than his Casella, whom he woo’d to sing Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.” ↩