NOTES TO CANTO VI.
the air, the very dust
In which the crime is buried, makes confession.
Stanza i. lines 3 and 4.
Perhaps suggested by Juvenal’s
{{block center|
“Nocte quidem; sed luna videt, sed sidera testes
“Intendunt oculos.”
Black was the vest and buckler which he bought,
Where green and yellow striped the sable field.
Stanza xiii. lines 3 and 4.
Much importance, during the middle ages, and those which immediately followed, was attached to colours, as emblematical of character or situation. Hence Ariodantes chooses black, and the hue of the “sear and yellow leaf,” as symbolical of his forlorn condition.
———in Denmark’s land to live a nun.
Stanza xvi. line 5.
In the original Dazia; a name which is given to many northern countries. As, among others, I find it applied to Denmark, I have followed the commentator, nearest to the time of Ariosto, who conceives that such was the meaning of his author, in so interpreting it.
Where great Alcides fixed the sailor’s bound.
Stanza xvii. line 8.
Translated from Dante’s
“Ove Ercole segnò li suoi riguardi.”
