NOTES. XT 



Che fugia innanzi, si che di lontano 



Conobbi il tremolar de la marina" , 



9) p. 51. Purg. canto v., v. 109127: 



" Ben sai come nell' aer si raccoglie 



Quell' umido vapor, che in acqua riede, 



Tosto che sale, dove '1 freddo il coglie" 



(*) p. 51. Purg. canto xxviii. v. 124. 

 C 31 ) p. 51. Parad. canto xxx. v. 6169 



" E vidi lume in forma di riviera 



Fulvido di fulgore intra duo rive 



Dipiute di mirabil priinavera. 



Di tal fiumana uscian faville vive, 

 E d' ogni parte si mettean ne' fiori, 

 Quasi rubin, che oro circonscriv^ 



Poi come, inebriate dagli odori, 

 Biprofondavan se nel miro gurge, 

 E s' una entrava, un' altra n' uscia fuori." 



if do not refer to the Canzones of the Vita Nuova, because the comparisons 

 and images which they contain do not belong to the purely natural rane;e of 

 terrestrial phsenomena. 



(f 12 ) p. 51. I would recal Boiardo's sonnet commencing, 

 " Ombrosa selva, che il mio duolo ascolti," 

 and the fine stanzas of Vittoria Colonna, which begin, 



" Quando miro la terra ornata e bella, 

 Di mille vaghi ed odorati fiori." 



A beautiful and very characteristic natural description of the country seat of 

 Fracastoro on the hill of Incassi (Mons Caphius), near Verona, is given bj 

 that distinguished doctor in medicine, mathematician, and poet, in his " Nau 

 gerius de poetica dialogus" (Hieron. Fracastorii Opp. 1591, P. i. p. 321 

 326). See also in a didactic poem, lib. ii. v. 208219 (Opp. p. 606), the 

 pleasing passage on the culture of the lemon in Italy. I miss with astonish- 

 ment any expression of feeling connected with the aspect of nature in tht 

 letters of Petrarch, either when, in 1345, (three years, therefore, before tht 

 death of Laura), he attempted the ascent of Mont Ventour from Vaucluse, 

 hoping and longing to behold from its summit a part of his native land ; or, 

 when he visited the gidf of Baise, or the banks of the Rhine to Cologne. 

 His mind was occupied by the classical remembrances of Cicero and the 



