In the throne chamber of her
palace she is thus described:
"So proud she shyned in her princely state,
Looking to Heaven, for Earth she did disdayne;
And sitting high, for lowly she did hate:
Lo, underneath her scornefull feete was layne
A dreadfull dragon with an hideous trayne;
And in her hand she held a mirrhour bright,
Wherein her face she often vewed fayne."
The giant Orgoglio is a baser species of pride, born of the Earth and
Eolus; that is to say, of sensual and vain conceits. His foster-father
and the keeper of his castle is Ignorance. (Book I. canto viii.)
Finally, Disdain is introduced, in other places, as the form of pride
which vents itself in insult to others.
SECTION LXVIII. _Fourth side_. Anger. A woman tearing her dress open at
her breast. Inscription here undecipherable; but in the Renaissance Copy
it IS "IRA CRUDELIS EST IN ME."
Giotto represents this vice under the same symbol; but it is the weakest
of all the figures in the Arena Chapel. The "Wrath" of Spenser rides
upon a lion, brandishing a firebrand, his garments stained with blood.
Rage, or Furor, occurs subordinately in other places. It appears to me
very strange that neither Giotto nor Spenser should have given any
representation of the _restrained_ Anger, which is infinitely the
most terrible; both of them make him violent.
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