• In Limbo, longing for Paradise, where the only punishment is to live in desire, but without hope. Inferno IV 41:⁠— “Lost are we, and are only so far punished, That without hope we live on in desire.” ↩
• Most of the Oriental languages claim the honor of being the language spoken by Adam in Paradise. Juan Bautista de Erro claims it for the Basque, or Vascongada. See Alphabet of Prim. Lang. of Spain , Pt. II Ch. 2, Erving’s Tr. ↩
• See Canto XVI 79:⁠— “All things of yours have their mortality, Even as yourselves.” ↩
• Dante, De Volgari Eloquio , I Ch. 4, says, speaking of Adam:⁠— “What was the first word he spake will, I doubt not, readily suggest itself to every one of sound mind as being what God is, namely, El , either in the way of question or of answer.” ↩
• The word used by Matthew 27:46, is Eli , and by Mark 15:34, Eloi , which Dante assumes to be of later use than El . There is, I believe, no authority for this. El is God; Eli , or Eloi , my God. ↩