in the picture galleries of Florence and Genoa. Campanella uses this
fashion as a symbol of the internal gloom and melancholy in which the
nation was sunk by vice upon the eve of the new age he confidently
looked for.

XLVI. The year 1603, made up of centuries _seven_ and _nine_ and years
_three_, was expected by the astrologers to bring a great mutation in
the order of our planet. The celestial signs were supposed to reassume
the position they had occupied at Christ's nativity. Campanella, who
believed in astrology, looked forward with intense anxiety to this
turning-point in modern history. It is clear from the termination of
the sonnet that he wrote it some time before the great date; and we are
hence perhaps justified in referring the rest of his prophetic poetry
to the same early period of his career.

XLVII. _Qui legit intelligat_, says Adami. Line 7: refers to the
outlying vassals of the Roman Empire, who destroyed it, ruled Rome, and
afterwards fell under the yoke of the Roman See. Lines 9-14 are an
invective against the Papacy.

XLVIII. A sonnet on his own prison. The prison or worse was the doom of
all truth-seekers in Campanella's age.

XLIX. For the understanding of this strange composition Adami offers
nothing more satisfactory than _mira quante contraposizioni sono in
questo sonetto_. The contrast is maintained throughout between the
philosopher in the freedom of his spirit and the same man in the
limitations of his prisoned life. Line 12 I do not rightly understand.
Line 14 refers to Paradise.

L. There is an allusion in this sonnet to an obscure passage in
Campanella's life. It seems he was condemned to the galleys (see line
12); and this sentence was remitted on account of his real or feigned
madness. We should infer from the poem itself that his madness was
simulated; but Adami, who ought to have known the facts from his own
lips, writes: _quando brucio il letto, e divenne pazzo o vero o finto_.
Line 12: I have translated _l'astratto_ by _the mystic_; _astratto_ is
_assorto_, or _lost in ecstatic contemplation_.

LI. To this incomprehensible string of proverbs Adami adds, ironically
perhaps: _questo e assai noto ed arguto e vero_. It is an answer to
certain friends, officers and barons, who accused him of not being able
to manage his affairs. He answers that they might as well bring the
same accusation against Christ and all the sages. Line 3: I have
ventured to read _e_ for _e_ as the only cha