• Lord Bacon says in his “Essay on Adversity”:⁠— “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God’s favor. Yet, even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David’s harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.” ↩
• “Hosanna, holy God of Sabaoth, illuminating with thy brightness the happy fires of these realm.” Dante is still in the planet Mercury, which receives from the sun six times more light and heat than the Earth. ↩
• By Substance is here meant spirit, or angel; the word having the sense of Subsistence. See note 1541 . ↩
• The rapidity of the motion of the flying spirits is beautifully expressed in these lines. ↩
• Namely, the doubt in his mind. ↩
• Bice, or Beatrice. ↩