These words a youthful angel bore inscribed Upon her brow, whose vision we beheld; And I, who to find safety gazed on her, A risk incur that it may cost my life; For I received a wound so deep and wide From one I saw entrenched within her eyes, That still I weep, nor peace I since have known.” Others think the allusion is general. The Ottimo says:⁠— “Neither that young woman, whom in his ‘Rime’ he called Pargoletta, nor that Lisetta, nor that other mountain maiden, nor this one, nor that other.” He might have added the lady of Bologna, of whom Dante sings in one of his sonnets:⁠— “And I may say That in an evil hour I saw Bologna, And that fair lady whom I looked upon.” Buti gives a different interpretation of the word pargoletta , making it the same as pargultà or pargolezza , “childishness or indiscretion of youth.” In all this unnecessary confusion one thing is quite evident. As Beatrice is speaking of the past, she could not possibly allude to Gentucca, who is spoken of as one who would make Lucca pleasant to Dante at some future time:⁠— “ ‘A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,’ Began he, ‘who to thee shall pleasant make My city, howsoever men may blame it.’ ” Upon the whole, the interpretation of the Ottimo is the most satisfactory, or at all events the least open to objection. ↩