Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/469

 ii s. m. JUNE 17, i9ii.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

463

would gainsay it. How, with his knowledge of Italian, he could have translated it

Of him not yet mine eye hath had his fill

is inexplicable, except on the hypothesis of a lapsus oculi. " The passage," says Dr. Moore, " is rightly translated by Ford, Carlyle, and Longfellow, but most strangely misunderstood by Gary." Plumptre's ver- sion is less literal, though more idiomatic : " Not for the first time now that face I've known " ; while Tomlinson's is pre- cisely its converse : " I've not kept fast till I to him could get," with the added note : " A mode of saying, ' It is not the first time that I have seen him.' ' " Get " is a very inelegant substitute for "seen," unfortunately exacted by the exigency of the riming " met." Surely " digiuno " means " fasting " or "unfed" (as in * Inf.,' xxviii. .87, and 'Par.' ii. 75), signifying plainly that the poet had not lacked the opportunity of seeing Caccianimico previously. Curiously enough, Cary has englished the parallel passages correctly, although he failed so lamentably to grasp the meaning of that quoted above. Possibly the negative misled him.

III. Ibid., 55-7 : lo fui colui che la Ghisolabella Condussi a far la voglia del Marchese, Come che suoni la sconcia novella. With the sordid story enshrined within these lines I am not concerned here, but the female Christian name raises an interesting point which deserves a brief allusion. Do the five syllables as given in the above text (Scartazzini's) form one name, or only the first three, as in the texts of Witte, Lombardi, and Bianchi, which disjoin the last two from them thus" Ghisola bella " ? If the latter be the correct disposition of them, does " bella " imply personal beauty in Ghisola ? Mazzoni-ToselH (1871) throws doubt on the matter by a " forse " :

" Alcuni dicono che costei fu cpsi nominata per ossere stata bella ; io pero ne dubito, perche undici anni dopo il suo matnnionio ella detto il suo testa- mento nominandosi Ghisolabella quondam Alberti de Cazzanemicis, mentre forse non era piu bella." And the Rev. H. F. Tozer (' English Com- mentary,' 1901) observes :

" The reading Ghisola bella, which the old com- mentators give, is now proved to be incorrect, for her will, which has lately been found, gives her name as Ghislabella ; see Toynbee, Diet.,' p. 271." Plumptre, however, says : " Ghisola Was famed for her beauty."

According, therefore, to Mr. Tozer, Witte, Lombardi, and Bianchi are to take rank with the " old commentators," and Scar- tazzini with the more enlightened. This

may be so, but how can Mr. Tozer say in 1901 that the "will has lately been found," when Mazzoni-Toselli states it was so prior to 1871 ? His reference to Toynbee's ' Dictionary ' (published 1898) supplies no> basis for the assertion, for that writer merely says :

"Her actual name was Ghisolabella or Ghisla- bella, as is proved by her will (dated Sept. 1, 1281), in which she is described as * D. Ghislabella, filia quondam domini Alberti di Cazanimitis, et uxor domini Nichollay de Fontana.' (See Del Lungo r ' Dante ne' tempi di Dante,' pp. 235ff.)."

I am not convinced, even by the alleged testimony of the will, of Ghisolabella' s- ugliness or lack of beauty. Names in such documents are proverbially misspelt or suffocated by affixes and suffixes ; and such I take this to have been. Even copyists vary in transcribing it from the will. Thus- Mazzoni-Toselli gives it as " Ghisolabella," while Toynbee transcribes it " Ghislabella." Moreover, why should the assumption (so- called) of the " old commentators " be so glibly rejected ? The 'Anonimo Fiorentino/ quoted by Toynbee, is as worthy of credence as even the will, and I submit that Ghisa Would probably be the name of the im- mortalized unfortunate, to which she added " la Bella," the sobriquet by which she was famed. Isabella and Isobel are undoubtedly similar variants of a very natural evolution in nomenclature. J. B. McGovEKN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

WILLIAM PITT (EARL OF CHATHAM), " CORNET OF HORSE."

MB. W. SCOTT in his interesting reply on ' William Pitt's Letter on Superstition r (ante, p. 218) writes in the third paragraph : " He was appointed to a cornetcy in the Blues, and continued in the Army until he entered on a political career in 1735."

The statement that Pitt was a cornet in the Blues occurs frequently. His regi- ment appears to have been the King's Own Regiment of Horse, alias Cobham's Horse, sometimes called the King's Horse, and since 1746 the 1st (King's) Dragoon Guards, See ' A History of the British Army,' by the Hon. J. W. Fortescue, vol. ii. p. 20, 1899 r where Pitt is spoken of as " Cornet William Pitt of the King's Dragoon Guards " (a foot- note refers to the popular belief that he was in the Blues), and ibid., p. 54, where the author states that " Pitt's first commission bears date 9 February, 1731, Cornet in Cobham's Horse (1st Dragoon Guarrls;." See also the 'Dictionary of National