tions no wall about the well; only giants standing round it like towers.
97. Potiphar's wife.
98. Virgil's "perjured Sinon," the Greek who persuaded the Trojans to accept the wooden horse, telling them it was meant to protect the city, in lieu of the statue of Pallas, stolen by Diomed and Ulysses.
Chaucer, Nonnes Preestes Tale:—
"O false dissimilour, O Greek Sinon,
That broughtest Troye at utterly to sorwe."
103. The disease of tympanites is so called "because the abdomen is distended with wind, and sounds like a drum when struck."
128. Ovid, Metamorph. III.:—
"A fountain in a darksome wood,
Nor stained with falling leaves nor rising mud."
CANTO XXXI.
1. This Canto describes the Plain of the Giants, between Malebolge and the mouth of the Infernal Pit.
4. Iliad, XVI.: "A Pelion ash, which Chiron gave to his (Achilles') father, cut from the top of Mount Pelion, to be the death of heroes."
Chaucer, Squieres Tale:—
"And of Achilles for his queinte spere,
For he coude with it bothe hele and drere."
And Shakespeare, in King Henry the Sixth, V. i.:—
"Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear,
Is able with the change to kill and cure."
16. The battle of Roncesvalles,
"When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
By Fontarabia."
18. Archbishop Turpin, Chronicle, XXIII., Rodd's Tr., thus describes the blowing of Orlando's horn:—
"He now blew a loud blast with his horn, to summon any Christian concealed in the adjacent woods to his assistance, or to recall his friends beyond the pass. This horn was endued with such power, that all other horns were split by its sound; and it is said that Orlando at that time blew it with such vehemence, that he burst the veins and nerves of his neck. The sound reached the king's ears, who lay encamped in the valley still called by his name, about eight miles from Ronceval, towards Gascony, being carried so far by supernatural power. Charles would have flown to his succor, but was prevented by Ganalon, who, conscious of Orlando's sufferings, insinuated it was usual with him to sound his horn on light occasions. 'He is, perhaps,' said he, 'pursuing some wild beast, and the sound echoes through the woods; it will be fruitless, therefore, to seek him.' O wicked traitor, deceitful as Judas! What dost thou merit?"
Walter Scott in Marmion, VI. 33, makes allusion to Orlando's horn:—
"O for a blast of that dread horn,
