• Capaneus was one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes. Euripides, Phoenissae , line 1188, thus describes his death:⁠— “While o’er the battlements sprung Capaneus, Jove struck him with his thunder, and the earth Resounded with the crack; meanwhile mankind Stood all aghast; from off the ladder’s height His limbs were far asunder hurled, his hair Flew to’ards Olympus, to the ground his blood, His hands and feet whirled like Ixion’s wheel, And to the earth his flaming body fell.” Also Gower, Confessio Amantis , I :⁠— “As he the cite wolde assaile, God toke him selfe the bataile Ayen his pride, and fro the sky A firy thonder sudeinly He sende and him to pouder smote.” ↩
• Like Hawthorne’s scarlet letter, at once an ornament and a punishment. ↩
• The Bulicame or Hot Springs of Viterbo. Villani, Cronica , Book I Ch. 51, gives the following brief account of these springs, and of the origin of the name of Viterbo:⁠— “The city of Viterbo was built by the Romans, and in old times was called Vigezia, and the citizens Vigentians. And the Romans sent the sick there on account of the baths which flow from the Bulicame, and therefore it was called Vita Erbo , that is, life of the sick, or city of life.” ↩