• The Gascon is Clement V , Archbishop of Bordeaux, and elected Pope in 1305. The noble Henry is the Emperor Henry of Luxembourg, who, the Ottimo says, “was valiant in arms, liberal and courteous, compassionate and gentle, and the friend of virtue.” Pope Clement is said to have been secretly his enemy, while publicly he professed to be his friend; and finally to have instigated or connived at his death by poison. See note 618 . Henry came to Italy in 1310, when Can Grande was about nineteen years of age. ↩
• The commentary on the things told to Dante in the Inferno and Purgatorio. See note 1663 . ↩
• Habakkuk 2:2:⁠— “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” ↩
• Shakespeare, Hamlet , III 2:⁠— “Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.” ↩
• The Heaven of Mars continued; and the ascent to the Heaven of Jupiter, where are seen the spirits of righteous kings and rulers. ↩
• Enjoying his own thought in silence. Shakespeare, “Sonnet XXX ”:⁠— “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past.” ↩
• Relinquish the hope and attempt of expressing. ↩