Note 858 — CANTO XXXIV.
James Romanes Sibbald translation
Vexilla, etc.: ‘The banners of the King of Hell advance.’ The words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of ‘the Emperor who reigns on high’ (Inf. i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a Christian hymn into Virgil’s mouth.