There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery.

The Divine Comedy

This quote closely relates to Cantos sixteen through twenty. In Cantos sixteen, Dante and Virgil come to the Great Cliff where a waterfall descends. There they look down upon the eighth circle of hell. They are approached by a wraith named Jacopo Rusticucci who seems to be suffering and being beaten by the looks of his wounds. �If the misery of this place, and our unkempt and scorched appearance� bring us and what we pray into contempt, still may our earthly fame move you to tell who and what you are, who so securely set your live feet to the dead dusts of Hell.� (143) Jacopo speaks to Dante with great dignity and respect, for he knows that Dante is from his old home due to the cloths he wears. He hopes that he will enlighten him with news from Florence. He will learn of the news and feel joy for a moment or two but then when he returns to the group of other wraiths he will remember he is still in Hell and he will never return home. This makes hell that much worse for him and it makes him mindful of happiness but even more miserable.

Dante talks of Florence as Jacopo and his two other companions listen on in great content. One of the three speaks again of the life they once had and of how they miss it so dearly. �O Florence! Your sudden wealth and your upstart rabble, dissolute and overweening, already set you weeping in your heart.� (145) The wraith speaks so passionately about the land he once lived in and it is patent that he wishes to be back there and not here in Hell burning in punishment. He is �mindful of the happy time� and it just makes it so much harder on him while he suffers in the depths of hell. He ferrets for memories that in turn will only compound his suffering.  

In Cantos seven Dante explores the land before Virgil and Dante fly on the back of the great beast to continue on with their journey deeper into Hell. Dante came upon a group of people, of which none of them he recognizes. �Their eyes burst with their grief; their smoking hands jerked about their bodies, warding off now the flames and now the burning sands� I examined several faces there among that sooty throng, and I say none I knew; but I observed that from each neck there hung an enormous purse, each marked with its own beast and its own colors like a coat of arms. On these their streaming eyes appeared to feast.� (151)These souls wore the coat of arms from Florence. It is completely apparent to me and to Dante, though he is callow, that these people were once of Florence decent, but they are now left to suffer by always having memories of their once great home. In essence the quote from The Divine Comedy is about these souls. Their torture is to know about the happy time they once lived in. It says that �their streaming eyes appeared to feast�. They were feasting on good memories but sadly, constantly reminded of where they are today. It was macroscopic that these souls were being tortured this way and there was no direct way to rationalize it.