• Knowing that he ought to confide in Virgil and go forward. ↩
• The story of the Babylonian lovers, whose trysting-place was under the white mulberry-tree near the tomb of Ninus, and whose blood changed the fruit from white to purple, is too well known to need comment. Ovid, Metamorphoses IV , Eusden’s Tr. :⁠— “At Thisbe’s name awaked, he opened wide His dying eyes; with dying eyes he tried On her to dwell, but closed them slow and died.” ↩
• Statius had for a long while been between Virgil and Dante. ↩
• Matthew 25:34:⁠— “Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” ↩
• Dr. Furness’s “Hymn”:⁠— “Slowly by God’s hand unfurled, Down around the weary world Falls the darkness.” ↩