• The Muse of harmony. Skelton, “Elegy on the Earl of Northumberland,” 155:⁠— “If the hole quere of the musis nyne In me all onely wer sett and comprisyde, Enbreathed with the blast of influence dyvyne, And perfightly as could be thought or devysyde; To me also allthouche it were promysyde Of laureat Phebus holy the eloquence, All were to littill for his magnyficence.” ↩
• Beatrice speaks again. ↩
• The Virgin Mary, Rosa Mundi, Rosa Mystica . ↩
• The Apostles, by following whom the good way was found. Shirley, “Death’s Final Conquest”:⁠— “Only the actions of the just Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.” ↩
• The struggle between his eyes and the light. ↩
• Christ, who had re-ascended, so that Dante’s eyes, too feeble to bear the light of his presence, could now behold the splendor of this “meadow of flowers.” ↩
• The Rose, or the Virgin Mary, to whom Beatrice alludes in line 73. Afterwards he hears the hosts of heaven repeat her name, as described in line 110:⁠— “And all the other lights Were making to resound the name of Mary.” ↩
• This greater fire is also the Virgin, greatest of the remaining splendors. ↩