period of any year, and not to a particular year at all. The periods of the greatest concourse were January and Easter, and probably the latter is intended.

The image is of course the " Veronica" (Vera icon, or true image); that is (as Rossetti puts it) "the napkin with which a woman was said to have wiped our Saviour's face on his way to the cross, and which miraculously retained its likeness. In Par. XXXI. 103 sqq. Dante makes use of the Veronica in a simile to illustrate his rapture at the sight of St. Bernard: "As is he who perchance from Croatia cometh to look on our Veronica, and because of ancient fame is sated not, but saith in thought, so long as it be shown: 'My Lord Jesus Christ, true God, and was this, then, the fashion of thy semblance?'"

p. 193, 1. 5. a path, perhaps the street known as des Corso, where the Portinari dwelt.

p. 195, 1. 7. At the shrine of Santiago di Compostella in Galicia (Spain). In the Paradiso (xxv. 17 sq.), St. James is heralded with the words: "Look! look behold the Baron for whose sake, down below, they seek Galicia."

P. 195, 1. 16. Romers. The English verb "to roam was modified in form owing to its association in the popular mind with Rome; originally, of course, it had nothing to do with that city, being connected with A.S. araman and romigan == spread, stretch out (or over).

p. 197, 1. 20. that other. See p. 161.

P. 199, l. 14 sq. In the first chapter of the second book of the Metaphysics (corresponding to what is now known as the "little first book," already quoted in the note to p. 125, l. 17) Aristotle says (according to the Arabic-Latin version): E jus sit duobis modis: dignum est ut sit difficilis non propter res sed propter nos. Dispositio enim intellectus in anima apud illud quod est in natura valde manifestum : similis est dispositioni

oculorum vespertilionis apud lucem solis (which, freely translated, runs: "And since this difficulty [i. e. of knowing the truth] is twofold, it is noteworthy that the difficulty is not in the object but with us. For the capacity of the intellect in the soul towards that which is quite manifest in nature is like the capacity of the eyes of a bat in the light of the sun ").

p. 201, 1. 3. Beyona the sphere space, indicating the motionless Empyrean, which is beyond the Ninth Heaven, or Primum Mobile.

་

p. 201, l. 19. which determined me The any woman. work indicated is of course the Commedia, in which Beatrice (Heavenly Wisdom) first directs Virgil (Earthly Wisdom) to save Dante from sin, by showing him the pains of Hell and Purgatory, and then herself guides him upwards, through the Earthly Purgatory and the heavens of Paradise, into the very presence of God. Every reader of the Vita Nuova may be trusted, if he has not already done so, to make a study of the Commedia; but (as indicated in the notes) I have decided to give in Appendix III those passages from the Purgatorio and Paradiso which appear to me to have special bearing on the Vita Nuova. For this purpose the version of Cary has been selected, which, being the most literary (rather than the most literal) extant, seemed to harmonise best with Rossetti's rendering of the Vita Nuova,

p. 203, l. II. Amen.

Some of the MSS. close with the word

APPENDIX I

POEMS FROM THE Canzoniere WHICH MAY BE TAKEN TO BELONG TO THE PERIOD AND SUBJECT MATTER OF THE Vita Nuova

I

E' m' incresce di me si malamente

[Seems to belong to the early days of Dante's passion]

I mourn my piteous state so painfully,

That the amount of grief

From pity and from suffering is the same

For now, alas! I feel with deep regret

That in my will's despite,

The breath of the last sigh is gathering

Within that heart, which the fair eyes did wound,

When Love, with his own hand disclosed their charms,

To bring me to the pass of my undoing.

Ah me how calm and meek,

How soft and sweet toward me they were raised,
When they at first began

To cause my death, which now I so deplore,
Saying: Our beams are messengers of peace.

Peace to the heart we bring, to your delight,
Said once unto my eyes

Those of the lady kind and beautiful;

But when they from their intellect had learned That through the force of her

My mind was taken from me totally,

They turned and bore Love's banners far away;
So that their pleasing show of victory

Hath never from that moment been beheld:
Hence hath my soul remained

In sorrow, who from them expected joy ;
And now she sees the heart,

At brink of death, to whom she was espoused,
And is compelled to part from it enamoured,

Enamoured and lamenting, takes her way,
Beyond the gates of life,

The soul disconsolate, whom Love expels :
In such affliction deep she leaves the world,
That ere she hence departs,

Her Maker with compassion hears her plaint.
At the heart's inmost core she makes a stand,
Together with the remnant of that life
Which is extinguished only by her flight:
There she complains of Love,

Who drives her from the confines of this world;
And many a fond embrace

She gives the spirits, which weep unceasingly, That their companion they are soon to lose.

The image of this lady hath a seat

Exalted in my mind,

On which Love placed her, for he was her guide

And all the ills she sees affect not her;

But she more beauteous is

Than ever now, and happier seems her smile;

Her fatal eyes she raises, and exclaims,

Calling to her who grieves she must depart