[Footnote R: Compare with this passage Sonnet xlvi., which seems to have been written on this occasion; "Voi, donne, che pietoso atto mostrate," and Sonnet xlvii., "Onde venite voi, cosi pensose?" ] It happened not long after this time that Dante was seized with grievous illness, which reduced him to such a state of weakness that he lay as one unable to move.