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prJHS^S
THE
DIYINE COMEDY
OF
DANTE ALIGHIERI
TRANSLATED VERSE FOR VERSE
FROM THE ORIGINAL INTO TERZA RIMA.
JAMES INNES MINOHIN.
LONDON: LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. 1885.
PREFACE.
■ Ql
In the month of August, 1856, I attempted the experiment of translating into terza rima the beautifiil story of Francesca of Rimini, in the fifth Canto of .the " Inferno." I was then employed as a district officer in the Madras Presidency, and I continued to occupy my leisure in the translation of the poem, completing the whole of the " Inferno" early in the following year. Throughout the year 1857, the year of the Indian Mutiny, my family being in England, I was living as the only English officer in charge of a large sub-district, and throughout that year I was absolutely without any English companion, and with the terrible tales of mutiny and massacre that reached me daily through the Press, I lived unarmed and in absolute security amidst a peaceful agricultural community. Such a life was singularly suitable for literary labour, and during my miany hours of solitary leisure in that stirring year I completed in the month of October my translation of the " Divine Comedy." I spent the next year in a carefal revision of my work, and then laid it by, hoping that I might live to publish it in after years. In the year 1866 I returned to England for the first time after an absence of twenty-two years, and at the
iv PREFACE. request of the late Professor Brewer, of King's College, who was himself a great student of Dante, I placed in his hands the MS. of my translation, which he had heard from a mutual friend that I had completed.
Mr. Brewer greatly encouraged me by the favourable opinion he kindly formed of my work, but he did much more than pass such an opinion : he compared my whole translation carefully with the original, and marked every passage in the long poem which he considered to stand in need of alteration, and advised me, after again subjecting it to a complete revision, to bring it before the public, telling me that he considered it the best translation of the "Purgatory'' and the "Paradise" that had come under his notice.
On my return to India I devoted the leisure hours of another year to the revision which Mr. Brewer had recommended, and I. in fact re- wrote every passage which had been marked by him as unsatisfactory. So many years had elapsed since I had written it that I could judge my work as fairly as if it had not been my own, and I took a critical pleasure in the justice of Professor Brewer's obelisks of condemnation.
The correction of the marked passages was no light labour, as the alteration of one crabbed line often entailed a new turning of a whole triplet, the exigencies of rhyme in the terza rima being generally the cause of the blots requiring alteration. After another interval of sixteen years I bring my work before the general judgment of Dante students as the result of the honest labour of many years of a stu-
PREFACE. T dious life. I know that I cannot expect any general interest in such work, but I shall be satisfied if it obtain from other students of Dante the favourable opinion which it won from my kindly critic the late Professor Brewer, and I hope it will at least interest my friends as the mature fruit of such literary power as I possess. The only translations of Dante with which I am acquainted are Gary's, Longfellow's, and Wright's.
Gary's work is that of a real scholar, but it is impossible to represent the " Divine Gomedy" in Miltonic blank verse. Faithful as is Gary's version, it does not really represent Dante to the English reader. Longfellow's work is even more verbally literal, and equally unlike the original.
It is translated verse for verse and in terza rima form, but though it is not true blank verse there is no rhyme, and every one fit to appreciate Dante knows that in his interlinked rhyme, and marvellous melody consists the most exquisite portion of his charm. It is to these that the sweetest portions of the " Purgatory" and the " Paradise" owe their perfect form, which, robbed of such adjuncts, cannot be presented in a foreign language.
Of the above three translations Wright's is certainly the best representation of the original poem, for it is in rhyme, and the verse is generally melodious. But the metre is not that of the original ; it is not terza rima, but an ingenious imitation of it, invented by Mr. Wright to avoid the technical difficulty of the triple rhyme. In my opinion Dante cannot be fairly represented to the English reader without his triple rhyme.
vi PREFACE. The terza rima is a metre perfectly suited for English poetry, and in that metre only can a true representation of the great Florentine's work be presented in English verse. I believe that more than one translation into English terza rima has appeared since I made my own, and that one of them by Mr. Cayley is of more than ordinary excellence.
The work never fell into my hands, nor was even known to me by i*epute until I had for many years given up my own Dante studies. I have abstained from seeing his work till my own was through the press, in order to avoid any possibility of assistance by others' labour to my own.
Should any similarity be detected anywhere between our translations it can only be the accidental result of two minds having engaged separately in carrying out the same task on the same conditions. In my opinion, fidelity to the original is a translator's first duty, and that I have refused to sacrifice in any attempt at meretricious ornament.
I should have wished to present my own translation side by side with the Italian, but have been deterred by the extra cost of printing which such a mode of publication would involve.
I believe that the Italian student who will take the trouble to compare my version with Dante's poem, however slight his knowledge of the Italian language may be, will find no difficulty in following the original line by line ; mere paraphrase of foreign poetry is easy, faithful representation is hard. My effort has been to reproduce with exactitude the thoughts, and, where
PREFACE. vu possible, the words of Dante in verse that may give the English reader some idea of the exquisite harmony of the original. Wherever Dante has written in Latin I have kept the words unchanged : • such lines, if pronounced in the Italian fashion, will generally be found fairly harmonious ; of course with the old English pronunciation they do not make verse at all. Proper names must also be pronounced in Italian to keep the harmony of the verse. For instance, Beatrice must be pronounced as a word of four syllables unless it is spelt Beatrix. I trust to the consideration of a fair critic if in a long poem of nearly five thousand triple rhymes he finds here and there a faulty rhyme which would be inadmissible in a sonnet. I have purposely made use of some archaic words in the reproduction of an Italian poem which is at least half a century older than the works of our Chaucer. The introduction, and the notes which will be found appended to each page, have been written solely with the object of enabling the ordinary reader to comprehend Dante's great poem, the interest of which is often dependent on minute historical details, now little known or forgotten. JAMES INNES MINCHIN. October, 1884.
CONTENTS.
FAOX pRirACB' iii Intboduction xxiii Thb Obligations or Dantb to Viboil - Ini HELL. CANTO I. DftDte hsTing wandered in the middle of his life into a dark forest, which represents the maze of haman passions, attempts to climb the mountain of Yirtne, and is repnlaed by three beasts, the leopard, the Hon, and the wolf, representing the Inst of Pleasore, Pride, and Avarice.
He is rescued from these by the shade of Virgil, who promises to conduct him through HeU and Purgatory, whilst another worthier spirit shall finally lead him to Paradise 1 CANTO n. Dante having followed Yirgil along the mountain until nightfall, is oppressed with fears on account of the neatness of his undertaking, and his own unfitness for such a task.
Virgil reproves his cowardice, and inroires him with confidence by the account of the manner in which he was called by Beatrice from Heaven, to speed to his assistance 5 CANTO III. Dante, following Yirgil, arrives at the gates of HeU, and reads the inscription written thereon.
Immediately within the precincts he finds ilie vast crowd of human beings who on earth have done neither good nor evil, and who are punished there, together with the Angels who were neither on the side of God nor Lucifer when the latter rebelled, and who are hence excluded from Heaven and from the circles of HeU itself.
From there they reach the bank of the River Acheron, where the Demon Charon ferries over the spirits of the condemnied into HeU, and there Dante faUs into a sudden swoon . 10 CANTO IV. Dante on recovering from his swoon finds himself on the other side of the Biver Acheron. He foUows Vii^l into the " blind world," and enters Limbo, which is the outer cirde of HeU.
Here he finds aU those souls who, from the want of baptism, have lost salvation, but have done nothing to deserve actual punishment . .13
X CONTENTS. FAGB CANTO V. Dante enters the second circle of Hell, where he finde Minos, the judge, who endeavours to stop his progress. Virgil having taken him within, he sees there the punishment of carnal sinners, who are for ever tost about hy furious winds. Amongst the condemned he sees and converses with Francesca of Bimini and her lover, and falls fainting to the ground with pity at their fate 17 CANTO VI.
On returning to his senses Dante finds himself in the third circle, that of rain, in which gluttons are punished, under the guardianship of Cerberus. Amongst the condemned he finds a Florentine, nicknamed Hog, and converses with him on the dissensions of their town . . 21 CANTO VII. Dante is confronted by Pluto at the entrance of the fourth circle.
Conducted by Virgil he obtains a safe passage, and sees within the avaricious and the prodigal, condemned to a like punishment, rolling great weights against each other. Passing onwards to the fifth circle they come to the Stygian lake, in which the souls of the wrathful are immersed. Skirting the lake they reach at last the foot of a tower . 25 CANTO VIII.
Phlegyas, the ferryman of Styx, summoned by a signal from the tower, bears Virgil and Dante across the lake. On the way they are attacked by Philippe Argenti, whose punishment is described. They then arrive at the city of Dis, where the fallen angels prevent their entrance, closing the gate at Virgil's approach 28 CANTO IX. Virgil pauses, waiting for heavenly assistance.
In the meantime the tiiree Furies rise upon the walls of Dis and threaten Dante with the sight of Medusa's head. The Angel then arrives across the Styx, and the fiends retiring, the gates of the city are opened. Dante following Virgil finds the heretics of all denominations punished in tombs of fire 32 CANTO X. Farinata degli TJberti, the Ghibeline leader, and Cavalcante Cavalcanti, the Guelph, rise from the same tomb and converse with Dante.
The latter inquires about the welfare of his son Guide, Dante's great friend, and the former predicts Dante's exile. He explains to Dante that, although able to see indistinctly future events, the spirits are entirely ignorant of what is at the time going on in the world, unless they are informed by spirits lately arrived from there . . .36 CANTO XI.
Besting on a rock that overhangs the seventh circle while they pause to accustom themselves to the fetid atmosphere, Virgil explains to Dante what crimes are punished in the three remaining circles, namely, violence, fraud, and treason. He shows how the crimes punished in the circles outside the city of Dis are of less culpability than those doomed within the walls, and how usury is particularly hateful to God 40
CONTENTS. xi CANTO xn. Descending the bank intx> the seventh circle, they find it guarded by the Minotanr. Having reached the bottom of the cliff, Dante sees a river of blood, in which ore punished those who have committed violence against their neighbour, being prevented from rising out of the boiling stream by a band of Centaurs, who gallop with bows and arrows along its bank.
Three of them advance to meet Virgil and Dant€, and, at the former's request, one of them guides the poets along the bank, and finally carries Dante across the stream on his back 43 CANTO XIII. Entering the second division of the seventh circle, Dante finds himself in a weird wood, the trees of which are the spirits of those who hnve committed violence against their own persons, and who are punished by being fed upon by Harpies.
While Virgil converses with Pietro delle Vigne, the confidant and Chancellor of the Emperor Frederic II., two spirits rush through the forest, chased by black bitches, who tear them to pieces, such being the punishment of those who have committed violence against themselves in their estate . . .47 CANTO xrv.
The poets reach the boundary of the wood and see before them the third compartment of this circle, a plain of burning sand, where are punished in various ways those who have committed violence against God, Nature, and Art. Amongst the first they see Capaneus, one of the seven before Thebes.
They reach a rivulet of blood, the river of Phlegethon, which traverses the burning desert, and whose petrified margins afford Dante a passage across the sand 51 CANTO XV. Following the petrified margins of the stream through the circle, they meet a troop of tormented spirits who have committed violence against Nature.
Amongst those Dante recognises his old preceptor, Ser Brunetto, who accompanies him for some distance, and predicts his coming exile 56 CANTO XVI. The poets having almost crossed the desert, where they can hear the falling of the torrent into the next circle, meet another troop punished for the same vice, amongst whom Dante converses with three distinguished Florentines.
Having reached the precipice, Virgil throws a rope down the waterfall, upon which signal a monster rises . . 59 CANTO XVII. The form of the monster Gerion is described. Virgil and Dante descend a short distance to reach him, and then Dante returns alone to the extreme verge of the sandy desert, where he sees seated under the rain of fire those who have committed violence against art, or usurers.
On returning to Virgil he finds him seated on the back of Gerion, and taking his place before him, the poets are carried down by the monster to the next circle ' 63 CANTO XVIII. A description of the eighth circle, which is divided into ten wards, in which are punished those who have committed frauds of ten different kinds.
Virgil and Dante pass through the first two wards ; in the first are punished those who have deceived women, who are naked and lashed by demons ; in the second all flatterers, who are doomed to wallow in human excrement ......... 66
xii CONTENTS. PAGB CANTO XIX. Dante describes the third valley, in which Simonists are punished by \mng buried head downwards in round apertures of the rock, their legs from the knees downwards being alone visiblci which they kick convulsively, while the soles of the feet burn with a lambent flame.
Virgil bears Dante down the impassable bank into the bottom of the valley, where he converses with the soul of Pope Nicholas the Third, and bitterly rebukes him for his Simony and prostitution of his high office . . 70 CANTO XX. In the fourth ward of Malebolge Dante sees the doomed passing in slow procession. On closer inspection he finds that their h^ads are turned the face behind, and that they have consequently to walk backwards.
These are necromancers who deceived themselves or others by attempting to look into the future. Amongst them is Manto, the sight of whom leads Yirgil into a digression on the origin of his native city . 74 CANTO XXI. The i>oet8 i>as8 into the fifth ward, and, looking down from the bridge, Dante discovers it to be a lake of boiling pitch.
While gazing into its depths a demon alights on the bridge, bearing a sinner on his back, whom he throws into the lake. As the wretch rises to the sur&ce a crowd of demons, hitherto concealed under the bridge, attack him with their hooks and force him to dive into the boiling pitch.
Virgil issues forth to obtain a safe passage for Dante, and being told that the bridge over the sixth valley is in ruins they follow a band of demons, whom their chief has directed to guide the poets to another bridge over the next ward .... ' , » . 7^ CANTO xxn. The poets following the ten demons, they come suddenly ui)on a sinner, who before he can escape into the lake is speared by one of the fiends.
With the permission of the leader, Virgil questions the sinner as to himself and his companions. The trickster then induces the demons to stand aside, under pretence that he will lure more of his comrades into their clutches, and takes the opportunity of plunging into the burning pitch ; two of the demons chasing him are caught in the slimy lake, and while the rest are extricating them the poets continue their way 81 CANTO XXIII.
Dante expresses to Virgil his fear that they will be pursued by the revengeful demons, and as his alarm is fulfilled Virgil lifts him in his arms and carries him down the cliff into the next valley of Malebolge. There they find hypocrites punished by being clothed in long cloaks and weighty cowls of lead.
Amongst these Dante converses with two Rejoicing Friars, who, under the cloak of impartiality, had inflicted grievous wrong on the Ghibeline party in Florence .... 85 CANTO XXIV. Dante, with great difficulty, under Virgil's guidance climbs the broken bridge to the ridge that looks down into the seventh valley. Descending into it, he finds robbers punished there, surrounded by qiultitudes of pestiferous serpents.
Amongst them the soul of Gianni Fucci, who had robbed the sacristy in Pistoia, predicts to him the evils that will shortly ensue to his own city and the Florentines .... 89
CONTENTS. xiii PAOB CANTO XXV. While Fucoi vents his rage in blasphemy he is attacked by the serpentSi and flees away, porsaed by Cacus in the shape of a oentanr, whose oronp is covered with adders, while a fiery drasron is seated on his orest. A party .of Florentines then advanoe under the bank where the poets are standing, and four of them go throagh the most extraordinary transformations • 98 CANTO XXVI.
Dante ironically compliments Florence on its renown in the Infernal Begions, and prophesies its approaching misfortunes. He passes with Virgil into the eighth pit, over which he sees hovering flames, Kke will-o*- the- wisps. These he finds to be the souls of fraudulent counsellors.
Virgil converses with a flame with two horns, in which are the spirits of Ulysses and Diomed, and the former relates the final voyage which he and his old companions ventured into Uie unknown regions of the West, beyond the gates of Hercules .... 97 CANTO XXVII. The flame which contained Uljrsses and Diomed having departed, another oomes near the poets and addresses them finally in Tuscan.
On being questioned by Dante he states that he was Count Guido da Montefeltro, and relates why he was condemned to such a punishment 101 CANTO XXVIII. The poets reach the ninth valley, in which the promoters of schisms are punished, being hewed by a fiend with a sword in frightful wounds. Amongst these Dante converses with Makomet, Pier da Medicina, Kosoa de' Uberti, and Bertram dal Bomio 104 CANTO XXIX.
Dante still lingers, gazing on the maimed spirits in the ninth valley, in anticipation of seeing there a relation who had been murdered, and whose death his family had not avenged. He then follows Virgil over ibe ridge which crowns the last ward of Malebolge, in which are punished falsifiers of various descriptions.
Descen^ng into the valley, he finds them afflicted with fearful diseases, and discourses with two alchemists, Grif olino of Arezzo and Capocchio of Siena . 109 CANTO XXX. Two wild spirits rush by, tearing and haling the other plague-smitten victims. These are they who in life falsified their own persons. On their departure Dante listens to an altercation between Master Adam of Brescia, a coiner, and Simon of Troy.
He is rebuked by Virgil for taking an interest in so base a dispute 112 CANTO XXXI. The poets, turning from the last valley of Malebolge, advance towards the ninth circle of Hell, the lowest and central pit. Around that pit, standing within it, but rising above it from their middle upwards, stand vast giants. Of these Dante sees Nimrod, Fialte, and Antssus. The last places the poets in safety at the bottom of the pit . 116
CANTO XXXII. Dante finds himself in the bottomless pit, in which is the frozen lake of Cocitns. In the onter circle are frozen the first class of traitors, their heads alone being raised above the ice. The circle is called Caina, after the first mnrderer. Camiccione de' Pazzi names to Dante several of those punished in this circle.
The poets then advance to the second circle, called Antenora, after Antenor, the betrayer of Troy, where are punished in like manner traitors to their country. Bocca degli Abbati names to Dante several of his companions in suffering. Finally Dante sees two forms frozen, the head of one overlapping the other, and devouring the lower skull with fierce hatred 120 CANTO XXXIII.
Count XJgolin relates to Dante the fearful end of himself and his sons, left to die of hunger in the Tower of Famine. The poets then pass onwards to the third division of the last circle, called Idomea, in which are punished those who have betrayed their benefactors.
The friar Alberigo explains to Dante that when men have committed the height of perfidy their spirits are at once sent to torment, a fiend takmg possession of the body which appears to be still alive on earth 124 CANTO XXXIV. The poets advance into the fourth quarter of the last circle, called Judeoca ; there the damned are wholly submerged beneath the frozen lake of Cocitus.
Advancing towards the icy blast that meets them, Yirgil shows Dante the gigantic form of Lucifer piercing through the lake. Yirgil then takes up Dante, and descends along the body of the fallen archangel into the centra of the earth. From thence he ascends on the other side, and, after a weary climb through a deep cavern, the i>oets at length issue on the Antipodes .... 12S PUEGATOET. CANTO I.
Dante describes the calm delight he experienced at issuing to the tender light of early morning from the black night of Hell. The poets meet the shade of Cato of Utica, the api)ointed guaMian of the monntahi of Puraatory. On his direction uiey proceed to the seashore, and there Yirgil washes from Dante's face with dew the stains of Hell, and girds him with the reeds that grow there 13S CANTO II.
A light rises on the distant ocean, which, advancing with marvellous speed, is seen to be the bark in which the spirits are brought to Purgatory by an angel. When the troop land upon the shore, Dante vainly endeavours to embrace one of the spirits, whom he recognises for his friend Casella.
The latter, to please Dante, sings one of his oanzoni, to which while all are rapt in attention Cato rebukes them for dallying on their way, and all hurry towards the mountain . 137 CANTO III. As the poets advance towards the hiU, Dante is alarmed at seeing only his own shadow cast by the sun behind them, and thinks that Yirgil has deserted him.
Cleared from his error they reach the foot of the mountain, and while in perplexity as to their ascent, meet a troop of spirits, who show them the way. Amongst them Manfred, King of Naples, urges Dante to tell his daughter of his fate, as by her prayers she can shorten the time of his wanderings in the Ante- Purgatory 140
Guided by the spirits, the poets turn into a narrow fissure cloven in the hillside, and continue their ascent. Pausing on the top of a ledge for rest, Dante marvels at seeing the snn travelling in the northern portion of the sky, instead of in the southern, as in the other hemisphere.
They then become aware of the presence of another troop of spirits, among whom Dante recognises one Belacqua, who informs him that they are condemned to wander in the Ante-Purgatory for as many years as they delayed repentance in life .... 144 CANTO V. The poets meet with others, who, having deferred their repentance until death, suffered violent ends, but had time to repent, and obtain pardon at the last.
Amongst thme, Giacopo del Cassero, Buonconte da Montefeltro, and Pia, a Siennese lady, describe their deaths, and urge Dante to obtain on earth prayers in their behalf 148 CANTO VI. The poet continues amongst the same troop, of whom he names several more. At last, freed from their importunities, he advances with Virgil till they meet another solitary shade, who proves to be the Mantuan Sordello.
On seeing his affectionate greeting with his countrymaut Dante bursts into an invective against the whole of Italy ^vided by party feuds, where, especially in Florence, such a spirit was entirely lost 151 CANTO VII.
The poets learn from Sordello that it is impossble to ascend the mountain during the night, and he guides them to a retired valley, where they see those who, from being engrossed with affairs of State, deferred their repentance to the last, and are detained in the Ante- Purgatory.
Amongst these are named the Emperor Bodolph, Ottocar, King of Bohemia, Philip III. of France, Henry of Navarre, Peter III. of Arragon, Charles of Anjou, Henry III. of England, and William, Marquis of Montferrat 156 CANTO VIII. At evening fall one of the spirits sings the hymn of the Church, " Te lucis ante terminum," and on its close two angels, with flaming swords broken off at the points, descend to guard the vale.
The poets then enter it, and Dante meets with joy his friend Nino, the Judge of Gallura. A serpent creeps into the valley, but flees at once on the advance of the angels; and Dante converses with Conrad Malaspina, who predicts to him his own exile 160 CANTO IX. Dante dreams that he is carried by an angel to the sphere of fire.
On waking he finds himself alone with Virgil, who tells him that in his sleep he was borne up by Lucia to that spot, which is close to the gate of Purgatory. Beaching the portal, they are admitted by the Angel who stands in ward over it, as the vicar of Saint Peter . . 168 CANTO X. The poets issue from the gate through a spiral staircase upon the first cornice on the mountain of Purgatory.
On the wall which bars the further ascent of the mountain they see carved bas-reliefs representing various examples of humility. Finally they advance slowly towards these spirits, who, bowed under vast weights, are purged of the sin of Pride 167
xvi CONTENTS. PAOB CANTO XI. After the spirits Imve reoited the Lord's Prayer, Yirgil demands of them the war up the mountain. One of them directs them to aooompany them along the ledge, and declares himself to be Omberto, who was mnrdered at Campagnatico. Dante then recognises in another Oderisi the lUnminator, who disconrses on the vanity of worldly fame, and points ont to him Provenzana Salvani, a chici in Siena . 171 CANTO xn.
The i>oets leave the bnrdened spirits, and as they ra|)idly advance, Dtuite's attention is drawn by Virgil to the eflBgies which are drawn npon the ledge, and which represent various examples of pride. ^ They are finally met by an Angel, who points oat to them the stairs by which they are to ascend, and touching Dante's forehead with his wing effaces one of the seven Ps which had been engraved there at the entrance into Purgatory . . * 175 CANTO XIII.
They reach the second cornice, on which is purged the sin of Envy. As ihey proceed along it they hear voices from invisible spirits inculcating charity. Further on they see the souls of the envious, dad in sackdoth, and with their eyes sewed up with an iron wire. Amongst these Dante converses with Sapia, a lady of Siena, who acquaints him with her story 179 CANTO XIV.
Dante is addressed by two shadows, Guido del Duca of Brettinoro and Binieri de' Caldoh of Bomagna. The former, on Dante's mentioning that he has come from the vale of A.mo, inveighs against the degeneracy of its inhabitants. On leaving these, the poets hear voices recording instances of the crime of E^vy .... 18S CANTO XV. The poets advancing meet an Angel, who invitee them to ascend to the next steep.
Mounting the stairs they issue on the third cornice, where the sin of Anger is purged. Dante falling into a waking trance, beholds in vision various famous examples of patience — ^the Virgin seeking Jesus amongst the doctors in the Temp&, Pisistratus calming his indignant wife, and the martyrdom of St^hen. As the evening advances, the poets are enveloped in a thick smoke . . 187 CANTO XVI.
Dante proceeds through the smoke, guided by Virgil, and hears the voices of spirits who are purged there from the sin of Anger. He converses with Marco Lombardo, from whom he inquires the reason of the degeneracy of the age.
The spirit points out to him the error of attributing it to necessity, or the starry influences, as man is gifted with f^ will, and explains it as the consequence of the union of temporal and spiritual powers in the Papal Government . 191 CANTO XVII. The poets issue from the smoke, and various scenes of anger are shown to Dante in vision — Philomel, Haman, Amata.
He is roused by the appearance of an Angel, who directs them to mount to the next cornice. The night closes as they readi the summit of the stairs, and halting there Virgil informs Dante that spiritual sloth is purged in that circle 195
PAOB CANTO XVIII. Virgil, oontinning bis discourae, explains the nature of love, which, though innate in its affections, in man, does not do away with the restraining inflaences of his free will. At the close of his disquisition, a troop of shadows rash by, oompent<atiag by their pre^^eut ardour for their former lukewarmness in life.
Two in the van encourage the rest by reciting examples of zeal : the Abbot of San Zeno declares himself to the poets while rac'Ug by, and two bring up the rear, shouting out instances of the sin which they are there purging away. On their departure, Dante falls into a dreamy slumber 198 CANTO XIX. Dante beholds in vision Falsehood and Virtue, personified in two female shapes.
He is then led by an Angel to the stairs, and ascends to the fifth cornice. There he finds the shades prostrate on the ground, purging the sin of Avarice, and amongst them he converses with rope Adrian V. 202 CANTO XX. Continuing their journey round the cornice, Dante hears a spirit relate illustrious examples of Poverty and Liberality. He tells him that he is Hugh Capet, and mourns over the career of hia descendants.
He concludes by relating notorious examples of Avarice. As the poets continue their way the mountain trembles as with an earthquake, and all the spirits sing " Gloria in excelsis." .... 206 CANTO XXI. Proceeding on their way, the poeta are joined by the shadow of Statins, who explains to them that the earthquake on the mountain takes place whenever a spirit in Purgatory is released Heavenwards, when all the spirits unite in praising God.
He tells the poets who he is, and describes his enthusiasm for Virgil, whom he then learns to his delight to be one of his companions 211 CANTO XXII. The poets ascend to the sixth circle, in which the sin of Gluttony is purged. As they mount the stairs. Statins informs Virgil that he had been a prodigal in his life, which sin, and not avarice, he had cleansed in the preceding circle.
As they advance round the sixth cornice, they find a tree covered with odorous fruits, from which issues a voice, recording brilliant examples of Temperance . . 214 CANTO XXIII. As the poets advance round the cornice, they are overtaken by a troop of spirits utterly emaciated in appearance. Amongst them Dante recognises an old friend, Forese, by his voice.
The spirit tells him that his rapid advance through Purgatory is due to the prayers of his virtuous wife, and from her he takes occasion to inveigh against the general shamelessness of the women of Florence. . . . 218 CANTO XXIV. • Forese names some of the other spirits, and amongst the rest Buonagiunta of Lucca, who afterwards converses with Dante.
When the troop of shadows depart, Forese still lingers with Dante, and foretells to him the death of his political enemy, Corso Donati. Forese then follows his companions, and the poets advance to a second tree, from which issues a voice relating examples of intemperance. After passing the tree, an Angel points out to them the ascent to the next cornice 222 h
iviii CONTENTS. PAGE CANTO XXV. As they ascend the stair, Dante expresses his wonder at the leanness of the spirits in the last circle, who as spirits stand in no need of nourishment. On Virgil's request, Statins, to explain his difficulty, describes the generation of the human body, its junction with the soul, and the nature of the latter after its passage to another world.
They then reach the seventh cornice, where those who have been guilty of incontinence are purified in fire. The spirits in the fire record celebrated examples of Chastity 226 CANTO XXVI. While the poets advance along the brink of the cornice, the spirits are astonished at the shadow cast on the flames by Dante's body.
Ere he can satisfy their curiosity, another troop of spirits advance in the fire from the opposite direction, and the two bands embrace and X)a88 on their way, reprobating their earthly sins. On their departure Dante tells the shadows beside him that he is still alive, and he is then addressed by Guido Guinicelli, the Italian poet, who afterwards points out to him Arnault Daniel, the ProvengaJ .... 230 CANTO XXVII.
As the day closes they reach the station of the Angel, who directs them to pass through the fire, to ascend the last staircase. While ascending this the sun sets, and the poets, unable to advance during the night, halt there until the morning. Dante, sleeping there, beholds in a dream two females repr^enting the active and contemplative life.
In the morning they reach the height, and Virgil directs Dante to follow alone his own promptings until the arrival of Beatrice, as his own guardianship has ceased . • . 234 CANTO XXVLII. Dante advances through the tranquil forest to explore the Terrestrial Paradise until his progress is stopped by a stream. On the other side he sees a lady, who advances at his prayer to the brink, and explains to him the mystery of the place.
She informs him that the river has two branches ; the one before him is Lethe, whose draught takes away the memory of sin, while the other is called Eunoe, by drinking which the spirit recovers only the recollection of good . 237 CANTO XXIX. As Dante advances by the side of the lady on opposite banks of the stream, its course turns towards the east, and on the side of the river opposite to Dante there descends an Apocalyptic vision . .
241 CANTO XXX. In the midst of a shower of roses strewn by an Angel choir, a lady descends from Heaven upon the car. Dante instinctively recognises Beatrice, and turning to Virgil, finds that his faithful guide has left him. Beatrice tells him not to weep on that account, but to reserve his tears for the rebuke with which she greets him for his sins . 245 CANTO XXXI.
Bebuked by Beatrice, Dante confesses his error, and falls senseless to the earth. On bis recovering perception he finds himself drawn through the stream by the lady he had first found on its bank.
Having drunk of the waters of Lethe he is welcomed to the shore by the four cardinal virtues, who lead him to the Gryphon, where the three spiritual virtues intercede for him with Beatrice, who at their request unveils to him all her celestial beauty 249
CONTENTS. xix CANTO XXXII. The whole procession "moTes on, followed hy Dante, Statins, and Matilda, nntil they reach the Tree of Life, to which the Gryphon fastens the car. Dante falls into a slumber, and on being ronsed finds that Beatrice, Matilda, and the cardinal virtnes alone remain nnder the Tree. The History of the Church is then typified to Dante in a vision of changes that befall the car .... 253 CANTO XXXIII.
The seven virgins and Beatrice sing in lamentation on the vision. They then all leave the Tree, and Beatrice darkly prophesies to Dante the fntnre fate of the Church. They then all arrive at the fountain from which the rivers Lethe and Eunoe are derived, and issue on their several ways. Matilda leads Dante and Statins to drink of Eunoe's wave, from which he rises renewed in spirit and purified for Paradise 257 PAEADISE. CANTO I.
After solemn invocation, Dante describes his ascent from the earthly Paradise towards the first sphere of Heaven : his ignorance of how he thus past out of humanity, and Beatrice's explanation of his doubts 262 CANTO II. Dante and his gnide enter the sphere of the moon, and Beatrice explains to him the canse of the spots which appear on its surface . . 265 CANTO in. Dante beholds in the moon the spirits of the blessed.
He converses with Piccarda, the sister of Forese, and learns that she, with the rest, are confined to that lowest sphere through having been compelled to a breach of their vows, but that God's will makes every sphere perfect Paradise. She points out bo him the spirit of the Empress Constance 269 CANTO IV. Dante stands absorbed by two doubts arising from what he has just heard and seen.
Beatrice removes both his difficulties, first with r^erence to the place assigned to the blest in Heaven, and then as to the efiect of alien violence upon the will. Dante then inquires as to the possibility of making satisfaction for a broken vow . • . 273 CANTO V. Beatrice answers Dante's question concerning the possibility of rendering other satisfaction for a broken vow.
They then ascend to the sphere of Mercury, where they are met by a troop of spirits, one of whom offers to explain to Dante anything he may wish to know . 277 CANTO VI. The spirit informs Dante that he is the Emperor Justinian, and after describing his own career he sketches the previous victories of the Boman eagle. He then states that this sphere is allotted to those who did high deeds on earth for the sake of fame rather than for higher aims.
Amongst them is the soul of the pilgrim Borneo, Minister of Count Baimond 280 CANTO VII. Justinian and the other spirits disappear singing praises to God. Dante remains confused with doubt ^igendered by what he has heard. Beatrice for their satisfaction explains the whole scheme of human redemption 284
CANTO VIII. Dante ascends with Beatrice to the sphere of the planet Venus. Amongst the troop of spirits who greet him here he converses with Charles Martel, King of Hungary, who, after discoursing on the prospects of his descendants then alive, explains to him how the mfluence of the stars was used by God as a means for the advantage of human polity 288 CANTO IX.
The spirit of Charles Martel retires, and Dante is then addressed by Cunizza, the sister of Ezzelino, the tyrant of Bomano, who foretells to him certain near events in Italian history. She is followed by Folco, the Provin^al poet of Genoa, who informs him that the spirit of tiie harlot Bahab holds the highest place in their sphere, and inveighs against the Papacy for its neglect of the Holy Land, for which BaJmb served so faithfully 292 CANTO X.
They ascend to the sphere of the sun, the fourth Heaven, where they are surrounded by a garland of twelve blessed spirits. One of these, Thomas Aquinas, names the rest to Dante 296 CANTO XI. When the spirits of the fathers of the Church again come to a pause St. Thomas says that he has seen in God's mirror two difficalties which have arisen in Dante's mind.
To solve the first he relates in glory of the founder of his own order, St. Dominic, the life of his ^*eat rival, St. Francis, and concludes by pointing out how the Dominicans have departed from the self-denying rules of their order 301 CANTO XII. As St. Thomas ceases speaking, a second circle of twelve blessed spirits surrounds the first.
One of these, St Buonaventura, relates to Dante the life of St. Dominic, and then regrets the decay of his own Franciscan order. He Uien names the twelve spirits who compose the outer wreath, newly arrived 804 CANTO XIII. The two circles of beatified saints join in a chorus of praise to God.
Thomas Aquinas then explains the other difficulty, which his words concerning Solomon had raised in Dante's mind, adding tliat his superiority over all men in wisdom extended only to tings. He closes by warning Dante against rash judgments 308 CANTO XIV. In answer to Beatrice, the spirit of Solomon explains to Dante that after the final resurrection the blest will resume their glorified bodies now lying on earth.
Beatrice and Dante are then translated to the fifth Heaven, the sphere of Mars. There he sees the beatified spirits moving athwart a cross of glory which is stamped upon that planet, and is ravished by the melody of their hymn 812 CANTO XV. The hymn of the Crusaders subsides into silence, and a spirit glides to the foot of the Cross and welcomes Dante as his descendant.
He tells him that he is the spirit of his ancestor Cacciaguida, describes the simple life of the Florentines in his days, and sti^s how he died in Palestine, fighting for the Holy Land 316 CANTO XVI. In answer to Dante's request, Cacciaguida relates to him the time of his birth, the extent of Florence at that period, and who were the chief families who then resided there 320
CONTENTS. xxi TABX CANTO XVII. Enooaraged by BeatrioOi Dante questioos the spirit of his anoestora concerning the future of hia ov^n life on earth. Cacciaguida foretella to him hia approaching exile from Florence, and exhorta him to write all that he has aeen in Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven . . 826 CANTO XVIII.
Cacciaguida names to Dante the souls of many renowned warriors in the planet Mars, and quitting him to join his comrades in their song of praise, Dante finds himseUf raised with Beatrice to the sphere of Jupiter. The souls of those who had administered justice nghtly in the world form themselves into letters before him, eidiorting rulers to their own virtue, and finally settle into the shape of the head and neck of an engle.
Kapt in that vision of beatified justice, Dante calls on it to revisit earth and purify, where most wanted, the avaricious Court of Bome 829 ' CANTO XIX. The collected souls of just kings, which form the shape of the eagle, speak to Dante with one voice.
They tell him that salvation ia impossible without belief in Christ, but that many who profess such belief will in the last day be worse off than the heathen, and they declare that many Christian kings will make a sorry figure when ail secrets are then revealed . . . 832 CANTO XX. The eagle sings the praises of certain just kin^s, whose spirits are included in ita ima^e.
Of these, six form its eye, David in the pupil, and in the iris around it Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William II. of Sicily, and Bipheus. The eagle explains how Trajan and Bipheua, whom Dante did not know to be Christiana, had become so, and obtained their seat in Paradise .... 8S6 CANTO XXI. Dante ascends with Beatrice to the sphere of Saturn, where he finds a ladder of gold, so lofty that he cannot see the top.
Along the stairs ascend and descend the spirits of those who passea their lives in holy contemplation. Saint Peter Damiano approaches them, and in answer to Dante's questions states who he was, conoludiing by a vehement rebuke of the luxury of modem prelatea, to which riaea a about of triumphant accord 840 CANTO XXII. Beatrice cleara away Dante'a groundless alarm.
He beholds many other spirits, and is addressed by Saint Benedict, who promises ^m that he shall see his form without its covering of splendour in the highest sphere. The spirits then depart, and Dante follows Beatrice up the golden ladder to the eighth Heaven, the region of the fixed stars, which they enter in the constellation of the Twins.
There they pause, and Dante looks down on all the seven spheres through which he has past to the diminished earth beneiath .... 344 CANTO XXIII. Dante beholds the triumph of Christ with His saints. The Saviour, followed by his Virgin Mother, ascends out of sight into the higher Heavens. The body of the sainta of both Testaments remains with Dante 348 CANTO XXIV.
At Beatrice's request Saint Peter questions Dante upon his Faith, and approves his exposition of his belief and the grounds on which it was founded 352
CANTO XXV. Saint James joins Saint Peter, and questions Dante as to the grounds of his Hope. After his reply, Saint John advances to his brother Apostles, and Dante blinds himself by gazing too intently on his flame, to see whether he has risen to Heaven with his body, which Saint John declares to have been the case only with Christ and his Virgin Mother 355 CANTO XXVI. St. John examines Dante concerning Charity.
A fourth flame then advances, in which is the soul of Adam, who acquaints Dante with the real reason of his fail, and the length of time he remained in the terrestrial Paradise 359 CANTO XXVII.
After a chorus of praise to the Holy Trinity, the spirits listen silently to Saint Peter, who in an indignant outburst rebukes the government of his successors in the Apostolic See. ^ The Heavenly Host glow with sympathetic indignation at his words, and all then vanish in the height.
Beatrice then raises Dante to the ninth Heaven, the nature of which she explains to him, and blames the perversity of mankind, whose aims are set at a lower goal 363 CANTO XXVIII. Dante beholds in this ninth sphere the Hierarchies of Heaven in nine choirs of angels encircling the Divine Essence 367 CANTO XXIX.
Beatrice satisfies the cariosity of Dante on certain i)oint8 concerning the creation of Angels and the universe, and explains to him the truth as to the Angelic nature. She then vigorously blames the practice of modern preachers, who, forsaking the simplicity of the Gospel, t^^ich as truths their own idle inventions concerning Divine mysteries 371 CANTO XXX.
The hierarchies vanish in the height, and Dante, rapt in the inefi&.ble smile of Beatrice, ascends into the empyrean. There his sight being strengthened by gazing into the river of light, he is able to behold the triumph of the twofold Court of Heaven, the Angels and the souls of the Blessed, spread out like a full white rose . . . 375 CANTO XXXI.
While Dante is rapt in the glorious vision of this triumph of the Blest, Beatrice returns to her throne in Paradise. Saint Bernard takes his place by Dante, and exhorts him to dwell on all the glories before him, that he may be prepared for the supreme reward of at last beholding the Deity 379 CANTO XXXII.
Saint Bernard points out to Dante the order of the saints in Paradise, how those of the Old and New Testaments are eqaal in number, divided, as it were, by a partition wall of celebrated Hebrew women, who head each row of thrones that make the petals of the flower. In the lowest grades are seated the souls of children saved by election solely, and not by their own merits.
St. Bernard then exhorts Dante to gaze on the Virgin, so as to gain strength to behold her Son, and to join with him in prayer to her for that final boon . . 383 CANTO XXXIII. Saint Bernard prays to the Virgin that Dante may receive grace to contemplate the Divine Essence, and the prayer is granted. Dante then prays that he may have power to record some portion of the glory he beholds, and describes his final vision of the Supreme Mystery . 387
INTEODUCTION.
The great poem of Dante has been finely called the voice of the Dark Ages. From that age of strife and brute oppression, of the slumber of intellect, and the tyranny of force, when the seeds of knowledge and the aspirations of thought were buried in the cloister, the great cry of one of the mightiest intellects the world has produced gave form to the highest spirit of its own era, and created it to live for all time. Though like all great intellects Dante was in advance of his time, he was still of it. The weaknesses of his age were engrafted on his own strength, and neither his principles of ethics nor politics can be judged fairly by the light of the present day. Nearly six centuries divide ns from the great Florentine, whose genius was produced at a time when its fruit was to preserve the memory of long ages which would otherwise have sunk in endless silence. Dante appeared in the twilight which, succeeding the long night of the centuries, preceded the returning dawn of Learn* ing. In his time Italy was the foremost nation of Europe, and her leading sons were preparing the glorious revival. Art was still in its infancy, though Cimabue had found the boy Giotto drawing from Nature amongst his father's sheep, and in that discovery called to his true vocation the first great artist who heads the school of Italian painting. Architecture alone of the Fine Arts had attained maturity, but the solemn aisles and gorgeous traceries of the Grothic cathedrals seem to have had little effect on Dante's imagination, who, at least, has not drawn one allusion from the subject throughout his poem. His sympathies and studies were devoted to man, though the incidental sketches of outward scenery show
iiW INTEODUCTION. that he possessed a keen eye for the beauties of Nature, and could draw them in a way unsurpassed by the mere landscape poets of modem days. Previous to the time of Dante Latin was the sole language for composition known in Europe.
The vernacular languages of the time were considered beneath the notice of men of learning, and though some fugitive poetry was written by Dante's Italian predecessors, the " Divina Commedia" was the first great work composed in one of the modern languages of Europe. Dante may be considered to have created the very language in which he wrote.
When the English reader remembers that Chaucer, the father of English poetry, wrote at least half a century after the date of Dante's poem he will be surprised to find that the latter, with the exception of a few archaisms, is still the pure Tuscan of the present day. Like Minerva, that language of Poetry and Passion sprang forth in complete maturity at birth.
The historical allusions are so numerous throughout the " Divine Comedy" that it is necessary for its appreciation to recall to memory the state of the different countries of Europe at its date. Written early in the fourteenth century, Dante, for the purpose of introducing as prophecy many past events, supposes his vision to have taken place in the year 1300, when he himself was thirty-five years of age.
At that period Italy was the battle-field of the nations. Nominally under the sway of the Western Emperor, those potentates were in general too much occupied with struggles in the Germanic States to admit of their acquiring any permanent hold on Italy.
Called there frequently by their chronic struggles against the encroachments of the Papacy, the whole country became divided into the rival factions of those who supported the temporal authority and those who upheld the power of the Church — the Ghibeline and the Guelph. " The lands of Italy now swarm with the brood Of tyrants, and a new Marcellus grows Each peasant who takes up some party feud. " Purgatory," Canto VI., lines 124-6. No part of Italy, however governed, was free from those
INTRODUCTION. xxy factions. The Northern portion was split up into the petty Republics of Lombardy and Tuscany, and in each of these the strife of the rival parties was endless. The Southern portion formed the powerful kingdom of Naples, which in the middle of the twelfth century was held firmly by its line of Norman kings.
Towards the close of the century, however, the failure of heirs to William left Constantia, daughter of King Boger, as sole heiress, and thus induced the Emperor Frederic I. to obtain her in marriage for his son Henry, for which purpose she was taken by force from a convent when already arrived at middle age.
She is thus introduced in the « Paradise" :— '* This is great Constance' light, who from the rude Wind that the second blew from Suabia's plain Produced the third, and latest of the brood. " Paradise," Canto III., lines 119—21. Henry YI., the second Suabian blast, succeeded in deposing a bastard branch of the family of Boger, and joined the kingdom of Sicily to the Western Empire.
His death shortly followed, but not before his son Frederic, the last of the line^ was elected King of the Bomans while still in his infancy, and succeeded afterwards to the empire. Frederic II., famous for his determined opposition to the Popes, is placed in Hell as a heretic amongst the followers of Epicurus, who believed that there could be no separation of soul and body.
His firm and enterprising character is, however, acknowledged in the 13th Canto, where his Chancellor Pietro delle Vigne recounts his sad end and asserts his constant fidelity to his master, " che fu d'onor si degno. His whole reign was spent in a series of incursions into Italy, during which he took ruthless execution on the independent towns of Lombardy that sided with the Church.
At his death in 1252 Eccelino became the tyrant over several of these, and his excesses were so enormous that, though he died before Dante's birth, the memory of them was still vivid in the country, and he is prominent amongst the tyrants placed by the poet in the river of blood (** Hell," Canto XII.), while his sister Cuni'/za,
ixvi INTRO DUCTION. who appears in " Paradise," describes him in Canto IX. as a firebrand " That to that region caused sore miseries. "Paradise," Canto IX., line 30. Frederic IL left the kingdom of Sicily to his son Conrad, under the regency of his bastard son Manfred.
The latter, who inherited his father's warlike spirit, succeeded in winning the goodwill of the nation, and after the death of Conrad became king, in spite of the armed opposition of successive Popes, who refused the investiture to one who employed Saracens in his army.
They consequently supported Curradino, the infant son of Conrad, until Urban IV., a Frenchman, called in the aid of the French prince, Charles of Anjou, to whom he offered the Sicilian crown. Manfred had strengthened himself by marrying his daughter Constance to Peter of Arragon, and her sons eyentually ruled the island of Sicily, then separated from Naples, and the kingdom of Arragon.
The advent of Charles of Anjou into Italy cost Manfred his kingdom and his life. Charles, having been invested by Clement IV., who had succeeded Urban in the Papacy, advanced rapidly with his forces, and was met by Manfred near the town of Benevent. In the terrible defeat which followed, A.D. 1266, Manfred, determined not to survive the loss of his kingdom, and throwing himself into the thickest of the fight, fell sword in hand.
His body was not discovered amongst the slain, in spite of a close search, until the third day, so terrible had been the slaughter, and then on the injunction of the Papal Legate the recusant to the Church was denied a Christian burial, and his body was thrown into a hole by the bridge of Benevent, over which the French, in admiration of his bravery, raised a soldier's monument, each man dropping a stone upon his grave.
But the anger of the Church was not even then satisfied. The remains of Manfred were disinterred and carried like those of a dog beyond the kingdom, being thrown into the stream of the Verde, which forms the north-east boundary of the Neapolitan State. These circumstances of his death are described in a beautiful passage
INTliODUCTlON. xxvii of the " Purgatory/* where the soul of Manfred addresses Dante.— Canto III., lines 112—132. . The death of Manfred placed Charles of Anjou at once on the throne of Naples, but his rapid successes, in conjunction with the Pope, so alarmed the Ghibeline party that they made overtures to Curradino, the son of Conrad, to advance to their assistance and claim his rightful crown.
The gallant youth, who was only sixteen years of age, entered Florence with a force of 10,000 Germans in answer to their appeal, and his ranks being rapidly swelled in his advance, entered Naples, where his arrival was heartily welcomed by the people, tired out by one year of French exactions.
Charles brought up his forces to oppose him, and the decisive action took place at Tagliacozzo : — " Where less to arms, than him The old Alardo, Charles his victory owes. " Hell," XXVIII., Unes 17, 18. Young Curradino was at first successful, and his forces drove before them the greater portion of the French. But when thrown into disorder by their too eager pursuit the critical moment was seized by Charles.
Acting on the advice of an old French commander, Allarde Saint Valori, they were attacked in turn by the French reserve, and the fate of the day was suddenly changed. The Germans and Ghibelines were utterly routed, and Curradino himself taken prisoner, who, with many of his noblest companions, was shortly afterwards ruthlessly executed by the conqueror. The bloodshed with which Charles of Anjou stained his victory brought a rapid retribution.
As his grandson, Charles Martel, whom Dante places in Paradise, tells the poet, the beautiful Trinacria would have had his sons for kings : — " If evil ruling, which makes desperate The subject people, had not roused the cry Of Death, still Death, within Palermo's gate. " Paradise," Canto 7III., Unas 74^—6.
John of Procida, a nobleman ruined by the fall of Manfred and Charles's confiscation of his estates, stirred up the Sicilians to rise on their French masters, and the massacre of the latter
xxviii INTRODUCTION. throughout the island, on the ringing of the vesper bells at Palermo, followed on his instigation and their own tyrannical excesses.
The island gave itself to Peter of Arragon, who had married Manfred's daughter, all efforts of Charles to recover it were fruitless, and it remained permanently severed from the kingdom of Naples under the rule of Manfred's descendants, whose grandson, Frederic II., enjoyed the crown at the date of Dante's poem.
In the " Purgatory" both Peter of Arragon and Charles of Anjou are introduced, with other sovrans of their time, and their superiority to their living descendants is maintained. — " Purgatory," Canto VII., lines 112 — 127. In the same group appears the Emperor Eodolph, the founder of the house of Hapsburg, " Who had power alone To heal the wounds that Italy hath slain. Lines 94, 96.
His neglect of Italy throughout the twenty years of his reign was a keen subject of regret to the poet, who reproaches him and his son and successor Albert with being the cause of the miseries of his country, which they did nothing to prevent. — "Purgatory," VL, lines 97 — 118.
Bodolph was occupied throughout his reign in consolidating the fortunes of his house in Germany, and Dante represents him in Purgatory by the side of Ottocar II., King of Bohemia, the last opponent whom he overthrew. Ottocar was slain in the decisive battle between them, and Eodolph married his own daughter to Ottocar's son, Yinceslaus, whom he left in possession of his kingdom.
Dante's sympathies were entirely with the martial Ottocar, who refused all submission to the Emperor rather than with his more submissive son, so that he declares that " In his youth Far better he than Yinceslaus his son. Who, bearded, sank in luxury and sloth. " Purgatory," VII., lines 101—8. During the struggle between Bodolph and Ottocar three Popes succeeded within one year to the Papal seat. Adrian V. ,
INTRODUCTION. xxix introduced in the " Purgatory" as suffering for the sin of avarice, and who tells Dante " How weigheth the great garb, kept free from shame, A month, and little longer, did I know : All other loads are feathers by the same. " Purgatory," XIX., Unes 103—6. He died thirty-nine days after his accession, and was succeeded by John XXI., who only surrived him for eight months.
TTnder his own name of Pietro of Spain he is introduced amongst the holy fathers in the ** Paradise" in the 12th Canto. He was succeeded by Nicholas III., of the family of the Orsini, who, on account of his nepotism, is the principal fig^e in that circle of Hell where simony is punisht : — '' And of the Bears a worthy son, in baste Desirous to advance the little Bears, There richfes, here myself in purse I placed. " HeU," XIX., lines 70-2.
He was, however, an energetic ruler, and in his time what afterwards constituted the Papal territories were finally ceded to the See by the Emperor Eodolph.
On his death, in 1281, he was succeeded by Martin lY., represented as purging his gluttony in Purgatory : — '* And that face Thinner than all the rest, beyond him, there Possest the holy Church in his embrace : He came from Tours, and fasting doth atone The wine-steeped eels of famed Bolsena's race.
Canto XXI7., lines 20-^ Martin lY. died in 1285, and his successors, Honorius IV. and Nicholas IV., who completed the long period of Rodolph's reign, are not alluded to by Dante throughout his poem. In July, 1291, Eodolph died, and his efforts to retain the empire in his family seemed at first doomed to failure, as Adolphus Count of Nassau was elected King of the Eomans, and crowned at Aix la Chappelles.
Shortly after the Papal See became vacant, and remained so, owing to the intrigues of rival cardinals, for two years. The astonishment of Europe was not so great at this protracted vacancy as when it was known that the cardinals' choice had fallen upon Pietro, the
XXX INTRODUCTION. Hermit of Merrone. After much hesitation the aged recluse accepted his marvellous metamorphosis, and was crowned Pope under the title of Celestine V. But the cares of sovranty and worldly intrigues were so unsuited to the dreamer of the mountains that he soon abandoned his uncongenial dignity and retired again from the world.
This abdication seems to have been prompted by the purest motives, but Dante could not appreciate such a lack of energetic qualities, and amidst the miserable Angel crew, who sided neither with God nor Lucifer, he places the unfortunate recluse whom hostile Fate had made a Pope : — " I looked, and there his shadow met my view, Who made the great refusal fear advised. Straightway I understood, and surely knew.
That this was that most miserable band, Hateful to God and to His enemies too. « Hell," III., lines 59—63. The cardinal, who was reputed to have both secured the election and prompted the retirement of Celestine, obtained the succession for himself, and as Boniface VIIT. entered like a fox into the holy See, where he was to govern like a lion and die like a dog.
Still alive in 1300, at the supposed date of Dante's vision, the poet ingeniously prefigures his certain fate by putting into the mouth of Nicholas III. the welcome to Hell of his mighty successor. — Canto XIX., lines 53 — 7. Boniface revived the traditions of Papal supremacy arrogated by Gregory VII., and his reign was a continued contest with the monarchs of his time, the Emperor Albert and Philip the Fair of France.
Adolphus, who had been elected Emperor on the death of Rodolph, was shortly deposed by the Electors and Albert chosen in his place. His success was followed by a decisive victory in the field, in which Adolphus was slain by his rival, and Albert, to prevent cavil, went through the form of a second election, and was crowned King of the Eomans in 1298.
Pope Boniface, however, would acknowledge no such mutations in the Western Empire for which his concurrence had not been obtained, and refusing the investiture to Albert he received his ambassador with the
INTRODUCTION. xxxi crown of Charlemagne on his own head, declaring that he was the Emperor.
For five years he stirred up the Electors by his intrigues to resist the rule of Albert, and undertake another election ; and it was only when his quarrel with Philip the Fair rendered it necessary for him to moderate his tone, that in order to obtain Albert's alliance he at length recognised his rule and invited him to Eome to receive at his hands the Imperial crown.
By this time the contest between the Pope and the French king had become of long standing. It had commenced with an attempt on the part of Boniface to prevent Philip from levying taxes from his clergy when engaged in war with our Edward I.
In reply the resolute monarch past a law that no money might be transported from his kingdom on any account, and thus cut off the ample revenues which the Popes had previously drawn from the wealthy Gallican Church. Boniface on this occasion endeavoured to conciliate his opponent, and the storm that had been brewing blew over for a time.
But the imperious Pope was now engaged by war in the very Lateran : — " The leader of the modem Pharisees Being at war within the Lateran, And neither with the Saracens or Jews, For of his foes each was a Christian man. " HeU," XXVII., lines 85—8. Two Cardinals of the Colonna family declared the illegality of Pope Celestine's abdication, and the consequent nullity of his successor's election.
It was enough to make Boniface determine on the total destruction of that princely house. The Cardinals were degraded, a crusade preached against the family, their houses destroyed, and their stronghold of Palestrina, obtained under false pretences, " scant execution of a promise strong," was levelled to the ground.
This episode in the life of Boniface is related in the twenty- seventh Canto of " Hell," where the old partisan leader, Guido da Montefeltro, is introduced as suffering for the fraudulent advice he gave to Boniface on this occasion. The retreat of the proscribed Cardinals to France stung to the quick the haughty Pontiff
xxxii INTRODUCTION. against his former foe. Philip was threatened with excommTinication, and the Pope, as God's vicegerent upon earth, offered his kingdom to Albert, the German Emperor. Philip determined now to enlist his whole people in the struggle. The Three Estates were for the first time called in France, and unanimously supported their monarch in his resistance to the Papal encroachments.
The Pope then published a Bull explicitly asserting the supremacy of the Church over kings and princes. The Bull was burnt publicly by Philip, now secure of the support of his people, and before a second meeting of the Three Estates the Pope was charged with every imaginable iniquity, and a General Council was appealed to, as well as the future Pope, to be lawfully elected.
Boni£Etce now retorted by excommunicating Philip, and decreeing that his kingdom had past into the hands of Albert. But the days of Gregory VII. had now past by, and the thunders of the Vatican fell harmlessly on a united king and people. Boniface, mistrusting the citizens of Eome, retired to his native town of Anagni, where he thought that his person would be more safe from insult in the deadly struggle he had courted.
But Italy was now full of French troops, led by the banished Colonna Cardinals, and encouraged by the disaffected Ghibeline leaders. Boniface fell into the very fate he sought to avoid, and was taken prisoner in Anagni by the French forces, under his most inveterate enemy, the injured Sciarra Colonna.
Although he was released in a few days, and returned to Rome, so heavily did the blow fall upon his proud heart that it affected his reason : visions of armed men breaking in on his privacy were ever passing through his mind, and amidst paroxysms of despairing rage he died within a few months of the outrage, A.D. 1303, which proved to him a deathblow by showing that not only the supremacy but the personal sanctity of the Popes had past away.
This act of sacrilege, as it was then considered, was viewed with horror even by the Ghibelines, and Dante, whose hostile spirit to Boniface is evident throughout his poem, makes the shade of Hugh Capet in
INTRODUCTION. iwui Purgatory thas groan in prophecy over the deed of his impious descendant : — " All evil past and future to efface Into Aiiagni bursts the Fleur-de-lis, And in his vicar, Christ doth there disgrace . Again I see Him shamed with mockery : I see renewed the vinegar and gall, Him slain *twixt living thieves once more I see. " Purgatory," XX., lines 88—91.
After the death of Boniface, and the short reign of his successor Benedict XI., the Papal See fell into the hands of a Frenchman, Clement V., who made up the old quarrel with Philip, and after some stay in his own country finally transferred the seat of the Church to Avignon, and for nearly a century Italy was free from the presence of one of the rival Powers, whose disputes had ever filled her States with strife.
The Gascon, as Dante calls Clement V., was even more contemptible in his eyes than his worst predecessors, and his place in Hell is thus prescribed for him, probably at a time when he still ruled the Church from his seat in France ; — " Since after him, with laidlier renown. Will come a lawless shepherd from the West, Such as befitteth him and me to crown. A second Jason will he prove at least.
Like him in Maccabees, to whom was pliant His king, as France will be to his behest. " HeU," XIX,, lines 83—8. Such being the position of the greater Powers of Europe and Italy during the last half of the thirteenth century, we must now revert to Dante's native State, the politics of which are the source of constant allusion throughout his poem.
Of all the Tuscan Eepublics Florence was at this period the most important, though both before and after she had secured an independent Government the divisions amongst her citizens were a constant hindrance to the growth of her power. The rude but honourable simplicity of the State in the twelfth century is described in the 15th Canto of the " Paradise," where the shade of Dante's ancestor, Cacciaguida,
describes to him the happy condition of its citizens in his time. The city was then nominally under the rule of the Emperors or their lieutenants, one of whom, the Marchese Ugo, is alluded to as the great Baron in Oacciaguida's sketch of his own period.
As the temporal power of the Popes increased their partisans gradually grew in Florence, though no open separation of parties took place till the commencement of the thirteenth century, when a private feud between the great families of the Buondelmonti and the Uberti led to the whole city espousing one or other of the rival factions : — " O Buondelmonte, to what ill ye fled ^ That plighted wedding, on another fain, Many would now be joyous, who are sad.
If God thy form in Ema's stream had thrown The first time to the city thou wast led. " Paiadifle," XVI., lines 140-44. The head of the Buondelmonti having been engaged to marry one of the Amadei, closely connected with the Uberti, broke off the match at the last moment, through a sudden passion for a maiden of the Donati family, and on the curt advice of Mosca Lamberti, " Who said, alas ! a deed is crowned when done.
Which to the Tuscan race caused evil fare. " HeU," XXVIII., lines 107, 8. The Amadei, to revenge the insult, attacked Buondelmonte as he was riding through the city, and slew him at the foot of the ruined statue of Mars, supposed to be the Palladium of Florence. The strife thus originated between the leading families was taken up by all grades in the city, and the factions of Guelph and Ghibeline, previously unknown in Florence, were introduced.
The Emperor supported the Uberti, and the Buondelmonti and their followers became Guelphs : by the aid of Frederic II. the Ghibeline fe,ction obtained the ascendency, and banished their opponents from the State. At his death, 1250, a peace was patched up between the parties, the Guelphs were recalled to the city, and an independent Government was for the first time intro-
INTRODUCTION. tov duced. The Guelpbs, as the supporters of liberty, became the most popular party, and the powers of the independent €K)vemment fell naturally into their hands. But the successes of Manfred against the Church, and the establishment of his power in Naples, revived the hopes of the Ghibelines throughout Italy, and those of Florence at once entered into communication with him for the restoration of their authority.
They were then driven out by force to Siena, where, being assisted by the forces of Manfred, they advanced under the guidance of their great leader, Farinata degli Uberti, and completely routed the Guelphs at the river Arbia with such slaughter that Florence was at once abandoned to their hands.
The Guelphs fled to Lucca, and in a council of war the victorious Ghibelines mooted the proposition utterly to destroy the town, which could never be otherwise than a harbour for their opponents, so utterly Guelph in spirit had Florence become.
Farinata alone refused his consent to that wild measure of revenge, and the weight of his influence was sufficient to prevent the whole Ghibeline party carrying out their savage purpose. — " Hell," Canto X., lines 85 — 90. The shade of Farinata, rising from his burning tomb, and asserting his love for the city which he had at once saved and injured, is one of the grandest pictures in Dante's poem.
The defeat and death of Manfred, Charles of Anjou being partly indebted for his victory to the swords of the Guelph s of Florence, again restored the latter to the ascendency, which from that period they never lost.
The iiTuption of Curradino into Italy gave the Ghibelines a gleam of hope, but on his defeat at Tagliatcozzo their cause was lost, and though efforts at mediation were made subsequently by the Popes on several occasions, they were never allowed permanently to return from their long exile.
Dante's family was Guelph, and when Farinata accuses them of having been always hostile to him, so that he twice banished them from the city, Dante replies to the Ghibeline leader : — " * If they were banished, each time,* I replied, * They came back to their homes from o'er the seas ; Unto your friends that art has been denied.* " « HeU," X., lines 49-61.
xxxvi INTRODUCTION. The Government of Florence was now essentially popular^ but the Gnelph nobles, freed from the presence of their rivals, paid but little respect to the authorities chosen by the people, and tyrannised over the lower orders as ruthlessly as the Ghibelines had ever done.
Their acts of lawlessness were not, however, unopposed, and the leaders of the people procured the recall of some of the Ghibeline nobles, to serve as a counterpoise to the insolent power of the Guelphs. At the same time the Government was made more democratic, and the nobles being for a time restrained, Florence remained for some years in unusual repose.
At this period they made war on the Aretines and Pisans, defeated the former at the battle of Campaldino, a.d. 1289 (alluded to in the fifth Canto of ** Purgatory"), and after forcing the latter to capitulate at Caprona, 1260, on both which occasions Dante was present, obtained a complete ascendency throughout Tuscany.
The disputes between the nobles and the people now recommenced: the utter disappearance of the Ghibeline Action made the Guelph nobles determine to become the rulers of the city, while the people were equally determined to resist their designs.
Corso Donati, a leading aristocrat, whose restless spirit kept the city in strife until his death, killed a citizen in a street combat, and being acquitted by the captain of the magistracy, who was under aristocratic influence, the people took up arms to enforce justice. Giano della Bella, a noble who had sided with the popular party, withdrew from the city into voluntary exile, rather than by his presence encourage a civil war.
By the exertions of the friends of peace on both sides the alarming crisis was got over, and agreement between the people and the nobles was patched up, the former retaining the chief seats of power, 80 it was hoped at the close of the thirteenth century that the troubled city would again enjoy repose.
But it appeared that such was never to be the case : as Dante has related the belief of the time, Mars, the tutelar deity of Florence, never forgave it for erecting the Baptist in his place, and ** sempre con I'arte sua la fera triste. Scarcely were the disputes
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii between the Guelph and the Ghibeline and between the people and the nobles at rest when new factions were imported from the neighbouring State of Pistoia. A quarrel arose there in the family of the Cancillieri, descended from a common ancestor who had married two wires, one of whom was called Bianca. Her descendants taking one side of the quarrel were called Bianchi (Whites), the other Neri (Blacks).
The cause of either party was rapidly taken up by the whole town, which was thus divided into two factions, and the Neri being driven out, sought assistance from Florence — " Though in Pistoia first the Neri fail, And Florence taketh men and customs new. " H!eU," XXIV., lines 148, 4. Corso Donati at once espoused the cause of the Neri, and the whole of that city also was soon arrayed on the side of one or other of the contending parties.
All who yet remained of the Ghibelines joined cause with the Neri, who had also many partisans amongst the Quelphs, and their party became the most powerful. Even the people were ranged on one or the other side in this extraordinary strife. The Neri being the weakest, under the advice of Corso Donati determined to apply to the Pope to send Charles of Valois to assist them and reform Florence.
Their plot was discovered, and at this crisis Dante, who had but recently devoted himself to public aflfairs, was the chief magistrate of the city. Inspired by his energetic counsels, the magistracy at once banished Corso Donati and most of his followers, and at the same time some of the leaders of the Bianchi were also banished, though they were very shortly recalled.
Dante then proceeded to Rome to secure the good offices of the Pope, but during his absence Charles of Valois arrived at Florence, ostensibly for the purpose of healing its differences. — " Hell," VI., 64—75 ; " Purgatory," XX., 70—75.
By his manoBuvres and influence, aided by the opportune return of Corso Donati, the Bianchi were in their turn banished from the town, and Dante returning from his embassy to Boine found himself condemned to ruin and exile. Charles of Valois
xxxviii INTRODUCTION. haying completed his task retired from Florence, and pursued the attempt on Sicily, against Frederic, grandson of Manfred, for which he had left France.
In this he signally failed, and returned discomfited to his own country, as Dante, exulting in the shame of the prince who had brought about his own ruin, makes Hugh Capet prophesy in " Purgatory" of the expedition of his descendant — " No kingdom there, but only sin, and shame. Will be his gain, to him more grievous far As such a loss so lightly doth he deem. " Purgatory," XX., 7^-78.
Dante, who thus suddenly appears upon the scene, now as the chief magistrate of his State, and now as a proscribed fugitive, was bom in May, 1265, the year in which was fought the battle of the Arbia, one year previous to Manfred's defeat. His father died shortly after his birth, but though of a Guelph family the child appears to have been left quietly in the city during the early misfortunes of his party.
During his youth the city enjoyed comparative quiet, and the young Alighieri, who early showed the studious and thoughtful bent of his mind, soon acquired, under the teaching of Ser Brunetto, all the learning of his time.
The reverent affection of Dante for his old tutor is clearly shown, although he does place him in HeU for a crime for which we must take Dante's word that he was guilty : — " It grieves me, what I never can forget, Your mild paternal image, good and dear. When in the world before me, you would set How man can grow eternal in his sphere ; And all my gratitude, while life remains, 'Tis fit that in my language it appear. " Hell," XV., 82-87.
Little is known of Dante's youth beyond what he has himself incidentally told us in his works; but the guiding influence of his life must be considered his passion for Beatrice, the daughter of Folco Portinari, for whom he has built so durable a memorial in his great poem. The passions wake early in the warm Italian clime, and Dante tells us that he was not nine years old when he first felt that
INTRODUCTION. worship for Beatrice which was to last for life. Love has ever been the spark to light in the heart of genius the flame of poesy, and love, purified bj lengthened expectation, and made holy by misfortune, inspired the ardent soul of Dante with the strains that have won for him immortal fame.
It was in the praise of Beatrice that he first exercised his art; it was in following this inspiration that he threw off the trammels of his predecessors and created poesy anew in its true law and scope, the realities of Nature. As he tells the poet Buonagiunta, << I am a man, who, when Love breatheth, all its symptoms noteth clear ; I show to others what it says within. "Purgatory," XXIV., 62-«4.
It was the love of Beatrice that first woke in him the promptings of ambition, "that for her sake he left the vulgar herd." — " Hell," 11., 106. It was in memory of her that he chose that pure spirit as his guide through the glories of Paradise when sorrow and age, that could not dim his passion, had purified it from mortal alloy.
Nothing more is known of the youth of Dante than that he completed his studies in the Dniversities of Padua and Bologna, and Boccaccio teUs us that he even travelled at this time in the pursuit of learning to Paris and Oxford. He had, however, returned to Florence in time to take part in the battle of Campaldino, his presence at which campaign he alludes to in the opening lines of the twenty-second Canto of " HeU.
" Ere now I've witnessed knighthood move afield. Pass in review and rally in the fight, And prest at times for safety backwards yield : Over your land I've seen the scouts in flight, O Aretines, and seen the squadrons swell For tourney and for jousting all bedight.
He was also present at the capitulation of Caprona in the following year, to which he also alludes in his poem — '* So did I see of yore the soldiers fear Who issued from Caprona under pact. Seeing so many enemies appear. " HeU," XXI., Unee 94-96.
xl INTRODUCTION. In the meanwhile had occurred the crowning sorrow of hi& life. In the spring of that year, 1290, Beatrice died. The dream of his youth, the hope and happiness of his early manhood, was struck down, and life had lost for him its source of aspiration and all its prospect of domestic joy. He was stunned by the blow, and it is said that his friends even despaired of his life.
But it is less on the body than the mind that such blows have force. To this great earthly disappointment may be fairly traced much of the bitterness of Dante's spirit. For him the glory had departed firom the grass, the splendour from the flower : he looked upon life and Nature with an altered eye.
The hues of romance were stripped from the duU truths of life, and the world appeared to him after the receding deluge all bare and desolate, life without an object, existence without joy. After a short interval Dante re-entered the ordinary pursuits of life, and in the next year he yielded to the solicitations of his friends and was married to Gemma Donati.
His wife belonged to the family of his constant opponent in after years, Corso Donati, and the marriage was effected solely on political and social considerations. Such a union could not prove a happy one.
The affections of Dante were irrevocably fixed elsewhere, and while all his tenderness was concentrated on the Egeria of his soul, it was not to be expected of any woman to remain contented with so subordinate a position in her husband's heart, even though her rival was beyond the tomb.
Dante makes no allusion to his wife throughout his poem, tmless the reproaches of Beatrice at the close of the "Purgatory" may] be supposed to have reference to his marriage, which does not seem likely. Dante did not consider such a marriage as any infidelity to his love. It was a mere worldly alliance, in which the heart had no share.
But that he felt the bitterness of his lot is shown by the feeling with which he makes Jacopo Eusticucci allude to a like fate :-^ " More than all the rest A savage wife has caused my martyrdom. " HeU," XVI., Hnes 44, 45. Whether the fault rested with the violent temper of
INTRODUCTION. xK Dante's wife or with liis own neglect, the unhappiness of their married life is certain, and after his exile, while his wife brought up his children in Florence on the wreck of their father's fortune, Dante made no attempt to be joined bj his family, and showed clearly that he considered separation from his wife happier for them both.
Boccaccio, in his life of Dante, asserts that it was the misery of his wedded life which drove the poet from the pursuits of literature, and made him take up public affairs as a distraction. In this career his powers were immediately recognised, and we have found already that, in the year 1300, he filled the place of chief magistrate in the city.
Brought np in a Guelph £a.mily, he had hitherto shown great moderation in his views, and his object when in power was clearly to hold the balance straight between the rival parties and restore peace to the State. The friends of Dante, and especially his loved companion in literary studies, Guide Cavalcanti, were favourers of the Bianchi, and Corso Donati, the most turbulent of the Florentine npbility, had hotly espoused the Neri faction.
The city was in arms, and Corso was known to have applied for assistance to Charles of Yalois. Dante's energy and prudence entirely overcame both factions. All were compelled to lay aside their arms, and the leaders on both sides were banished from the city. Dante's great, success was, however, of short duration.
While absent at Kome, seeking to strengthen his Republic with the Pope, his enemies obtained entire possession of the city, and decreed the banishment of Dante, together with all the Bianchi leaders. It was while returning to Florence that the news reached him, and from being the leader of the State he found himself suddenly a proscribed exile, while the confiscation of his property added the trials of poverty to his other cares.
Such was the bitter animosity in which those party struggles were carried on, that shortly after the first decree of banishment a second was past, condemning Dante, with the other exiles, to be burnt if they fell into their enemies' hands.
xl INTRODUCTION. There was little meekness in Dante's disposition, and with his spirit soured by such treatment he at once threw himself into the arms of the Ghibeline party, whom he had hitherto opposed, and whose leaders he now met in exile.
Dante loved Florence, and the bitterness of his enforced absence from his country, with what he thought of the companions of his misery, is clearly shown in the beautiful and probably best known passage of the " Paradise," where his ancestor Cacciaguida informs him of his coming doom : — ** As lefb Hippolytus his Athens' home, Through his perfidious stepdame, passion fraught. So to depart from Florence is thy doom.
Thus is it willed, and thus already sought : And soon they'll bring to pass what now they scheme, There, where Christ every day is sold and bought. Upon the injured side will cast the blame The wonted cry, but vengeance will achieve Witness to truth, which it doth ever claim. Each thing beloved most dearly thou wilt leave: And this is but the earliest dart which fares From the bow of exile, when it shoots to grieve.
Thyself wilt prove what bitter taste there bears A stranger's bread, and what a weary road Is cUmbing and descending strangers' stairs. And that which most of all thy back will load Will be the evil troop, with whom thou'lt fall. Into this valley, scattered all abroad. For all ungrateful, mad, and impious, all Against thee will they act, but very soon Their brows, not thine, will bear shame's reddened pall.
Of their bestiality the progress on Will be the proof, to thee it will be fair To have made thy party by thyself alone. " Paradiae," XVII., linea 46-^. With little sympathy or confidence in his companions, Dante at first joined them at Arezzo, and formed one of the Council who devised the measures of their party.
But an ill-advised attempt in the following year to re-enter Florence by force, in which they were completely foiled, broke all the hopes of his party, which then dissolved, and Dante commenced the life of wandering exile, which continued till his
INTRODUCTION. xliu death.
The hopes of the Ghibelines were revived on the death of the Emperor Albert, whose murder while preparing to crush the Swiss revolt is alluded to by Dante in his poem as the coming retribution that was to fall on him for his neglect of Italy : — " Gterman Albert, who abandoned her Now savage and unconquerable grown Whose saddle-bows thou shouldst have strided sure : May from the stars just judgment fall adown Upon thy blood, and that it cause the dread Of thy successor, be it new, and known.
"Purgatory," VI., lines 97—102. All his revived hopes turned on Henry of Luxemburg, who was elected to the Imperial throne, and who at once entered on an expedition to Italy to recover the influence there which his later predecessors had abandoned. But the attempt was made too late. The Italian States were now too much confirmed in their independence to yield without a desperate struggle to the yoke of the Empire.
The whole people joined with the Guelph leaders in a resistance which the support of the Ghibeline party did not enable the Emperor to overcome.
Deceived by the promises of Pope Clement, who was, in reality, in the interests of the French monarch, and his relation the King of Naples, Henry wasted precious time in a march to Rome for his coronation, and then prepared to face the league which the people, aided by the Pope and Bobert of Naples, had prepared against him.
He failed in an attempted siege of Florence, being called off by the necessity of marching against the forces of Robert, and on the way, worn out by vexation and disappointment, he died, a.d. 1308, and the Guelphs were at once relieved from the perils with which they had been menaced. Many of the banished nobles of Florence had been recalled by the citizens in the hour of expected danger. But not Dante; he was never forgiven.
The death of Henry was not, however, only a personal disappointment to the poet in depriving him of his well-grounded expectation of returning to his native city under his protection, it was the deathblow of his
xliv INTRODUCTION. political hopes for his country; the yision which he had nourished throughout long years of exile, of a happy, united Italy, "was shattered, never to be restored. Dante was no ordinary Ghibeline. He was a patriot in the truest sense of the word ; his affections and aspirations were not, as was the case of all others of his time, confined to a petty State or within the walls of his native city.
He loved Florence well, but Italy more. Witness of the miseries of his country, torn by dissensions, and shifting ever from change to change, his whole hopes rested on the revival of the glories of the Eoman Empire, when the passions of individuals would be controlled for the good of all, beneath the firm sway of a central power.
Thus did he apostrophise his loved Florence as he then saw her : — '* How many times, in days thou dost remember, Thy money, habits, offices, and laws. Hast thou remodelled, and renewed each member ? If clearly thou beholdest thy own flaws. Like a sick woman thou wilt see thee 'plain, Who on her pillow cannot find repose. And seeks with constant turns to ease her pain. " Purgatory," VI., lines 145—161. Such was not the united Italy of his dreams.
Dante was eminently national, though he did look to foreign intervention for the restoration of peace to his country. He was no idle sentimentalist, but, like the great founder of united GJermany, he believed in blood and iron, and he knew of no remedy but force for anarchy and sedition.
Though he had himself been the chief magistrate in a popular Government, he had no sympathy with the populace, and was a rigid aristocrat, who hardly believed in excellence outside his own order. The noble struggle for independence then carried on by the Swiss people is not once alluded to throughout his poem, and seems not to have roused his interest. Whenever any of the lower orders are alluded to by Dante it is without Sympathy.
The rise of such men is lamented as a sign of the degeneracy of the times : — " Ah indeed Is changed to bastard every Eoman heir !
INTRODUCTION. xW When in Bologne takes root plebeian breed : When in Faenza, Bernardino too, Springs up a gentle growth from lowliest weed. " Purgatory," XIV., lines 98—102. Giano della Bella is reproached in the 16th Canto of " Paradise" for disgracing his nobility by such contact.
But the poet expressly avoids such subjects in his poem, and compares his voice to the wind that smites most the lofbiest summits : — " This cry of thine will be like winds unpent That strongest smite against the loftiest peaks. This to thy honour is some argument. Hence in these spheres upon thy vision breaks.
Upon the mount and in the dolorous vale, Those souls alone of whom Fame's trumpet speaks ; Because his mind who heareth would not hall With surety the example if its root Were hidden and unknown, and ever fail Mere barren arguments to bring forth fruit. " Paradise," XVII., lines 133-142.
In the same interview with his ancestor he tells us that even in Paradise he took pleasure in his nobility of birth, adding the true sentiment which can alone render such pride worthy— the necessity it imposes on the holder to prove that he is not degenerate — that best motto for an aristocracy— Noblesse oblige : — " O blood's nobility of little worth, If thou dost make mankind take pride in thee.
Where every longing wanders wide on earth, From henceforth now no marvel will it be, For there, where never doth the longing stray, I say in Heaven, it glory roused in me. Thou art a mantle that doth swiftly fray, While Time with shears doth ever clip it round, Unless we add to it from day to day. "Paradise," XVI., Hnes 1—9.
Who were your ancestors ? is the first question which Dante puts in the mouth of the great Ghibeline leader Farinata when the poet accosts him as he rises from his burning tomb. The Republics of the Middle Ages were essentially aristocratic in spirit, totally unlike the Democracies of Greece. It would
xlvi INTRODUCTION. be folly to judge Dante, the patriot of the fourteenth century, by the liberal shibboleths of the nineteenth. He was a Coriolanus at heart, and loathed the Cleons of every time. He looked to obtain a united Italy by the only means through which at that period his object could be attained.
It was the constant struggle between the Pope and the Emperor which he saw had caused all the misfortunes of his country : — " Was wont old Rome, which made the world to smile. To have two suns, who each of them displayed Various, the earthly, and the Godly style. One has usurped the other, the sword blade Is joined to the crosier, and together grown, Through open force the ill accord is made : The one fears not the other when thus one.
If thou believest not, think upon its com, For by its seed is every herbage known. Upon the land the Adige and Po adorn Valour and courtesy were wont to appear Ere Frederic there in battle was outbome. Now with security can wander there Whoever wishes to avoid, through shame. Converse with good men, nor to see them near. " Purgatory," XVI., lines 106—120.
His remedy was a complete separation of temporal and spiritual authority, the union of which in the Popes was the cause of all the misgovemment in Italy. It was in no mere Ghibeline spirit that he opposed the Papacy.
It was with a poignant regret that its earthly degradation of feeling should have destroyed its spiritual influence that he wished to restore it to primitive purity on an equality, but totally distinct from, the Ceesars, who were to hold the temporal sway. Nothing could exceed his reverence for the Papal office.
He excuses, as it were, his own madness when in Hell he inveighs against the simony of Nicholas III. ; he kneels before the shade of Adrian V. in Purgatory till told that there the head of the Church is but a fellow-servant with him and others to a higher power.
In Paradise he makes Peter declare that his seat on earth is vacant, so did the worldly intrigues and turbulence of Boniface render him unworthy to be considered as a true occupant of that holy seat : —
INTRODUCTION. xlvii " He who usurps on earth that place of mine, That place of mine, that place of mine now vacant, Within the presence of God's Son Divine, Has of mv cemetery made a fecant Cesspool of blood and filth, whence the perverse Who fell from Heaven, in Hell doth joy complacent. " Paradiae," XXVII., linee 22—27.
His ideal Government was that of a universal Church and Empire, strong, and at perfect peace, the flock of Christ reposing under the broad wings of the eagle, the standard of Boman rule.
He approved as little of the Ghibeline who fought for the Emperor against the Pope to advance his own faction as of the Guelph who opposed the holy standard, and in Paradise he makes the Emperor Justinian condemn each party alike : — ^ " Now thou canst judge the rival bickerings Which I above did blame, their faults expose, Which are the cause of all your sufferings.
The Lilies to the public sign oppose One side, the other claim it for a part, 'Tis hard to see which most of error shows. Work now, ye Ghibelines, work now your art, 'Neath other sign ; this standard now eschew, Who it and justice evermore would part : Nor strive to strike it down. This Charles the new. With all his Guelphs, its talons let him fear, Who lordlier lion has ere now made rue.
Many a time the sons have wnmg a tear For the father's sins, and be it not believed That, for his Lilies, God His arms will veer." ** Paradise/* VI., lines 97—111.
The enterprise, therefore, undertaken by Henry VII. to revive the Empire in Italy became, in Dante's eyes, a holy mission, and while revelling, in imagination, in all the glories of the Empyrean, he does not scruple to pause, in the description of its ineffable magnificeuce, to point out the throne destined for his soul's hero, and allude to his glorious failure in the regeneration of the world : — " Beatrix led me on and said, * Behold How great the gathering of our stoles of white!
xlviii INTRODUCTION. Behold what space our city doth enfold ! Behold our seats already so complete That few more guests we wait to see enrolled. Where thou dost fix thy eyes, on that high seat Marked with a crown, already o'er it placed, Or ere that thou this nuptial feast shalt greet, Will sit the soul on earth Augustus graced Of the great Harry, who will come to heal Our Italy, or ere her mood be past. " Paradise,*' XXX., Hnes 128—138.
A united Italy, the mistress of the world ! Such was Dante's visionary aspiration for the destiny of his country. But though with the death of Henry his hopes sank for ever, and the poet wore out till death his weary years of exile and disappointment, the seed which he cast broadly over his land has not been lost ; buried for centuries of struggle and despair, it has taken root firmly, and has at last sprung to-day.
Though dead the spirit of the Florentine patriot yet liveth : the sacred fire has been past on from generation to generation, and the nationality of Italy has at last become no more a dream.
One can fancy the shade of Dante watching over the life struggle that so long convulsed his fair land, breathing his ardent soul into her sons, who proved themselves so worthy to recover their lost heritage, and hailing in Victor Emmanuel the ever-looked-for hero, the allegorical greyhound of his poem, who had risen at last to chase the she- wolf back to Hell and liberate his native land.
Such, then, was Dante: such were his passions, weaknesses, and aspirations, when, with a mind stored with all the learning of his time, he resolved to compose the great poem into which he was to pour out all his feelings, knowledge, and genius, and leave a complete image of his age.
It is supposed that the work was commenced before he entered on public life in Florence, and that the first seven Cantos then written were laid aside and forgotten in the whirl of politics. Boccaccio tells the story of their accidental discovery in the city during his exile, when they were sent to the Marchese Malespina, with whom the poet at the time had found refuge. Dante acknowledged the work, and, on the
INTRODUCTION. xlix urgent solicitation of hit host, resumed his old design. The xsommencement of the eighth Canto, '' Continuing, I saj, as soon as we," seems to favour the truth of this tradition, and in that case Dante must have fairlj settled to his great lahour about the year 1307, as in Canto THE. of the '' Purgatory" Currado Malaspina prophesies to him that at that date he will find a refiige with his descendant.
Such a work most have been the occupation of many years, as Dante tells us was the case in that pathetic passage where he looks forward yet to be crowned as poet in his natiye city : — '' If it should hap, this holy poem e'er, Which Heaven and earth have helped, and which did mar My frame with abstinence for many a year, Conquer the cruelty, which me doth bar From the fiEur sneepfold, where I slept a lamb Hateful to wolves, who on me made their war.
With other voice henceforth, nor hair the same, A poet I'll return, and o'er the font Where I was christened, the wreathed laurel claim. " Paxadiae>" XXV., lines 1—9.
From internal evidence we find that the twenty-seventh Canto of the '' Paradise" must have been written after the accession of John XXTI. to the Papal See, which took place in 1316, for St. Peter laments " They of Caorsa and of GteAcony Hasten to drink our blood : to what vile ending O fair commencement hast thou hurried thee ! " Paradise/' XXYII., lines 68-^.
The Gascon is of course Clement Y., and the man of Cahors John XXU., a native of that town. As Dante died within five years of this period, the composition of his great poem may fairly be set down as the occupation and solace of his whole life of exile, and for its fair comprehension his feelings during that time of hope and despair, of bitterness and resignation, must never be forgotten.
Throughout the poem the chief figure on the scene is Dante himself, as he travels through the triple world of spirits, from the entrancegate of Hell to the final presence of the Deity. Dante is his own hero, and it is, therefore, so essential to have some d
1 INTRODUCTION. knowledge of himself, and the influences which surroimded him, to appreciate properly his mightj work.
That work was not original in its general design : the subject o£ the spiritual world, and descriptions of Hell and Purgatory, were favourites with monkish writers, but it was reserved for Dante to create, in wonderful harmony and the minutest detail, his spirit universe, and so to realise all the scenes painted by his imagination, that, once known, they can never again vanish from the mind.
The first Canto is purely allegorical, and is introductory to the whole poem, divided into three separate portions, each of thirty-three Cantos, descriptive of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. At the age of thirty-five, the middle of life, the poet finds himself lost in a wood representing the maze of human error. He attempts to climb therefrom up the steep hill of Virtue, but is driven back by three wild beasts, the leopard, lion, and she-wolf.
Luxury, Ambition, and Avarice. The shade of Virgil, allegorical of human learning, rescues him from his difficulties. He tells him that he was summoned from his place in Limbo, the outer circle of Hell, by Beatrice, who had quitted Paradise to send him to Dante's help, no other means being left for his salvation : — '* So low he fell, all other remedies TJnto his safety had been vainly sped Except to show him Hell's lost companies.
"Purgatory," XXX., linee 187-9. He came, therefore, to lead him through Hell and Purgatory, while Beatrice herself would guide him through the regions of the Blest. Dante submits himself to Virgil's guidance, and the poets shortly find themselves at the gate of Hell.
Within the gate, but outside the regular circles into which Hell is divided, is a region in which roam the innumerable spirits of those who are neither damned nor blest, together with the Angels who sided neither with God nor Lucifer : — ** To these no distant hope of death is lent, And their blind life is so supremely low, That any change of fate would give content.
INTRODUCTION. U Eeport of them the world can never know, Mercy and Justice onlj can despise, Speak not about them : look, and onwards go. " Hell," III., Unes 47-52.
The Eiver Acheron divides this miserable crew from the habitations of the damned, and after crossing it Dante follows his guide into the first circle of Hell, or Limbo, which is not a place of real punishment, except that its inhabitants are shut out for ever from the hope of bliss and the presence of God. Dante, who accepted without question every dogma of his Church, could allow no place in Paradise to any one without its fold.
Even Virgil, who conducts him not only through Hell, but ascends with him through all the purifying stages of the Mount of Purgatory, cannot alter his immutable doom, and after wandering through the calm delights of Eden, or the earthly Paradise, returns to pass eternity in Limbo.
There are confined the souls of all who are free from sin, and who yet, from wanting baptism, or a knowledge of Christ to come, can never enter the regions of the Blest. The place is thus described by Virgil when questioned by a spirit in Purgatory of his own fate : — " There is a place below, not sad with pain. But only doomed to darkness, where laments Sound not like wailings, but are sighings fain.
There do I stay with little innocents Bit by the teeth of Death, before that they From sin original were made exempts. There do I stay, with those who failed to essay The sacred virtues three, though without sin They knew the rest, and followed them alway. "Purgatory," VII., lines 28—36. Here Dante meets the heroes of antiquity, and is admitted by Homer into the sacred band of poets.
From this place of austere calm, dififering in nothing from Virgil's Elysian fields, Dante is led on by his guide to the regions of punishment, and follows him through all the circles in which criminals of every grade work out their doom. At last they reach the lowest pit, in the centre of earth, where, rising out of the ice in which the spirits of murderers are immersed.
lii INTRODUCTION. the giant form of Lucifer is seen, the king of those realms of horror. Down the body of the fallen Angel Virgil carries Dante, and at last, passing out on the Antipodes, they leave the abodes of gloom '' and issue thence to see the stars once more.
The ordinary reader, whose knowledge of Dante is confined to a few gloomy passages of the " Inferno," can have no true conception of the poet whose highest genius rejoices in the calm regions of Purgatory, and exults in the ineffable glories of Paradise.
The locality of the Purgatory is a towering mountain, situated on the antipodes of Jerusalem, on the steep sides of which, on the seven separate cornices, the spirits are purified from the taint of the seven cardinal sins. I know nothing more exquisite in poetry than Dante's description of his delight on leaving Hell's circles, and being restored once more to the light of Heaven : — '^ The dulcet hues of orient sapphire melt.
And gathered all into serenest light Of the pure air unto the farthest belt. So that my eyes returned to new delight, Soon as I issued from the lethal air, Which had oppressed my breast and dimmed my sight. " Purgatory," Canto I., linee 18—18.
With dew gathered from the reeds on the ocean's verge Virgil washes from Dante's face all trace of Hell ;— " With both his hands from off the scattered grass My master tenderly the moisture takes ; Wlience I, who of his wish perceptive was. Extended towards him my all-tearful cheeks. And then discovered, on my face once more. The hue of life that Hell had shrouded, breaks. "Pnrgatory," Canto I., lines 124—129.
They then proceed towards the mountain on the lowest slopes of which are detained in the Ante-Purgatory the spirits who delayed in life repentance for their sins. Through this, and through the seven cornices, on each of which the spirits are purified from each of the capital sins, the poets proceed
INTRODUCTION. liii together. While the spirit of this portion of the poem is essentially autobiographical Dante tells us how little he feared the punishment allotted to enyy, of which sin he felt himself comparatively free, while his shoulders were already wrung with the burden which he knew he should have to carry to purge away his besetting sin of pride.
The punishments under which the spirits purify their sins of life are not in general such as to necessitate their being shared by the poets who are privileged to behold them, but both Dante and Virgil pass through the smoke which purifies the sin of anger, and being afterwards joined by Statins all three poets pass through the molten flame in which those who have been guilty of incontinence are cleared from its taint.
This is the last cornice of purifying punishment, and, after mounting the last stair, Virgil declares that his guidance is over, and that henceforth Dante may wander at his own will without farther prompting. They have reached the earthly Paradise, the Eden which our fi.rst parents lost, after a brief residence of seven hours.
Here Beatrice, Dante's lifelong love, descends from Heaven, and as with throbbing heart he feels her presence, and turns to Virgil to express his weakness, he finds that his faithful guide is gone : — " Although my eyes no recognition told. Through hidden virtue which from her there ran Of olden love I felt the mighty hold.
Soon as upon my sight there smote again Another's virtue, which had smote me quite Ere I had issued out of childhood's reign : Unto my left I turned me for respite. Just as the infant runneth to his dame Whene'er af^icted or whene'er in fright, To say to Virgil, * Rests within my frame No dram of blood that doth not tremble now ; I know the symptoms of the olden flame. But Virgil had bereaved us of him, woe !
Virgil, the sweetest father one could grieve, Virgil, to whom entrusted, life I owe : Nor all she lost, our olden mother Eve, Availed, upon my cheeks erst washed with dew, But that the tears their soiling trace should leave. "Purgatory," Canto XXX., lines 37—54.
liv INTRODUCTION. These tears, changed into tears of penitence at Beatrice's keen rebukes for his sins, are the last that Dante sheds, when, having drunk of the waters of Lethe and Eunoe, the river of life whose source is in Eden, he rises " Prom those most holy waves. Created fresh, as plants made new once more, Eenewed through the birth of new green leaves. Pure and prepared unto the stars to soar." " Purgatory," Canto XXIII., lines 142—145. The last task left to the poet, one far more arduous than to describe the punishments of the danmed and the purification of human sins, forms the subject matter of the '* Paradise," a description of the bliss God has prepared for them that love Him. No other poet has ever attempted such a theme, and if Dante has at all failed, it is only from his attempt to perform what is impossible. The material out of which he built his celestial spheres is the Ptolemaic system, which, taking the earth for its centre, spreads around it the revolving spheres in order : 1, the Moon ; 2, Mercury ; 3, Venus ; 4, the Sun ; 5, Mars ; 6, Jupiter ; 7, Saturn ; 8, the Fixed Stars ; 9, the Primum Mobile ; and 10th and last, the Empyrean. These spheres, as they revolve in equal period round the earth, all take their motion from the Primum Mobile, the first source of motion, itself inspired with motion through its desire to join the Empyrean, the circle of the Deity and final habitation of every soul in bliss. Dante follows also the system of Dionysius the Areopagite, who laid down nine orders of Celestial Powers, and allotted each separately to each sphere in order. These were — 1. Angels allotted to the sphere of the Moon.
2. Archangels „
9* >»
9>
Mercury.
3. Principalities
>» »
99
Venus.
4. Powers „
99 99
99
Sun.
6. Virtues „
99 99
19
Mars.
6. Dominations
» »
99
Jupiter
7. Thrones „
99 99
>9
Saturn.
8. The Cherubim
99 99
19
the Fixed Stars.
9. Seraphim „
99 99
the Primum Mobile.
INTRODUCTION. It Haying once grasped tliis simple arrangement the reader "will have no difficulty in following Dante in his flight with Beatrice through the ten spheres of Paradise. There is not a trace of anthropomorphism in Dante's conception of the Deity, in whose presence and in whose will the spirits o£ the Blest enjoy their full fruition. Though these spirits are allotted to different spheres, of different grades of glory, they equally feel the perfect bliss of carrying out God's purposes, and though placed in the different spheres, all will finally resume their own bodies and occupy their own thrones in the Empyrean, when G-od has completed the number of His elect. Haying past through all the lower spheres, Dante is at last carried to the highest Heayen, and youchsafed to share the glory of this beatific vision, and admitted finally to the presence of the Deity, which alone Dante acknowledges to be beyond his mortal powers : — " But such a flight was not for my poor plume : Did not across my mind a glory steal From out the splendour, whence its wish did come. To the high fJEincy here my power did fail. But turned my will already, as willed there (Moved on with equal motion like a wheel), The love which moves the sun and every star." " Paradise," XXXHI., lines 189-45.
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL.
Dantb was not acquainted with the literature of Greece, except so far as it had filtered through Latin authors, and it was by the study of the latter only that he perfected his art, and became that master of style which eyen those who depreciate his genius allow as his unrivalled possession. In his poem he distinctly declares that in style he had taken Yii^ as his master, and from the study of his works acquired his own excellence.
Throughout Dante's poem imitations from Virgil are frequent, and many of the most marked of these will be found pointed out in the Notes, derived chiefly from the industry of the early commentators. But Dante owes more than qualities of style and beauties of verbal expression to the Boman poet, who in these excellences is probably without a rival.
The whole structure of the " Inferno" is, in fact, taken from Virgil's description, and in taking Virgil as his own guide through Hell Dante openly acknowledges his obligation : throughout the " Inferno" Dante follows Virgil as one who has thoroughly explored and knows the whole region, and whose familiarity with and pow^ over the spirits of the place is enough to insure his protection from all its perils.
Virgil is acquainted with the darkest secrets of Hell, and powerful over its malignant inhabitants : when he issues from the regions of gloom into the light of day, and climbs with Dante the antipodal mountain of Purgatory, he accompanies him as an affectionate companion, but is no more his guide. There, like Dante, he has to inquire the way from others, and to both poets the scene is alike strange. The idea of Purgatory is a Christian belief, unknown to the Boman, as a preparation
iTiii THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. for eternal felicity in a celestial Paradise. The whole working out of the Purgatory is Dante's own invention ; but the Christian Inferno differs nothing from the "domes Ditis vacuas, et inania regna" of the Latin poet, and it is wholly on the grand design laid out by Virgil that Dante has raised his own magnificent superstructure.
In the sixth book of the " -ffineid" Virgil makes his hero descend into Hell, and whatever opinion may be formed of the epic powers of the Augustan poet, in that book, and in that description, it must be acknowledged that he has concentrated all the strength of his genius and produced one of the highest efforts of the human imagination.
As Dante tells us that he had spent his days and nights in the study of his favourite master, we may be sure that his own spirit was saturated with the beauties of Virgil's masterpiece, which he reproduced in his own great work.
Although this book of the "-^Eneid" has, of course, been frequently pointed out as one of the sources of Dante's own poem, the subject of Dante's obligations to Virgil has not yet been treated fully, and I believe that a comparison carried out in some detail may be of interest at least to classical readers.
The Hell of Virgil may be broadly divided into three piincipal divisions : ''a neutral region for those who are unfortunate rather than blameworthy, a barred and bolted prison-house of torture for the bad, a heroic Valhalla for prowess, genius, and worth," divisions which the most cursory reader of Dante's poem will see that he has accepted.
In the ** Inferno" we have the vestibule, after passing through the gate, at which all who enter leave hope behind, and there are crowds so vast that the poet says : — " io non avrei creduto Che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta. And those are described as the sad souls of those who lived without infamy and without praise.
Then, after crossing Acheron, we come to Limbo, the fii*st true circle of the • Inferno, which answers to Virgil's Elysian fields. Here are no tortures, no punishment. The worthies of old time, who
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIBGIL. lix from ignorance of the Christian dispensation could not share the Christian Paradise, are left in the serene enjoyment of their broad Eljsium and the joyful fields : Dante is greeted by Homer and his brother poets as one worthy of their order, and with them he enters the company of the heroes of old :— '* Into a meadow green we entered all.
People they were with slowly moving eyes, And great authority was in their port, Karely they spake with sweet- voiced cadences. Then we withdrew into a further court, An open place, both lofty and serene. Where all could be beheld who there resort. And straightway there upon the enamelled green Were shown me the great souls who there arise — Well may I boast of all whom I have seen. "HeU," Canto IV., lines 111—120.
In this first circle of Hell there is serenity, there is Ught, and the description, brief as it is, corresponds with Virgil's happy seats :-^— ^ Largior hie campos sether, et lumine vestit Purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt. Lines 640—1. It is only when Dante proceeds from here on his dreadful journey that he enters on darkness and horror: — " My chief conducts me by another way, Out of the stillness to the trembling air.
And now I come where no more shines the day." /* HeU," Canto IV., lines 149-61.
Virgil does not make ^neas visit the Tartarus, the abodes of the damned : his guide, the Sibyl, pointing out two ways, tells him that the one they have to follow leads to Elysium, while '^ Nulli £eis casto sceleratum insistere limen.'' ^Sneas, shuddering at the gate, is told briefly, and in a summary, the various horrors that are going on within, and to this rapid sketch Dante has applied the whole ingenuity of his constructive genius, and worked out the details of his entire primitive Hell.
Ix THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIBGIL. Dante is, of course, no mere imitator. In the same way as Virgil had taken the materials supplied bj his predecessors and made them his own, so Dante appropriates Virgil's wealth, and sends it forth again as a new coinage, stamped with his own effigy. The jewels of the old master are not misplaced in Dante's work, but shine in their new surroundings with even enhanced lustre.
It requires, howeyer, only a careful comparison of this portion of Virgil's epic with the whole "Inferno" to perceive how thoroughly Dante had saturated his spirit in the work of him whom he expressly cites as his master.
In the personified woes and ills of mortality, which Virgil places in the vestibule, and the elm-tree on which dreams are clinging like bats under the leaves, I have been able to trace no counterpart in Dante, but after the entrance we come at once to the Biver Acheron and its ferryman Charon, whom Dante has introduced almost without variation : — " Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento Canities inculta jacet, stant lumina flammd, Sordidus ex humeris nodo dependet amictus.
Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat, Et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba. Jam senior, sed cruda Deo viridisque senectus.'' Lines 298-304. On first coming Charon is described by Dante : — " When lo, upon a bark there towards us came A very old man, with age- whitened hair. " Hell," III., lines 82, 88. And when his opposition is controlled :^ " The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew Of that dread pilot of the livid lake.
Around whose eyes the whirling lightning flew. Lines 97—99. And again : — " The demon Charon, with his eyes ablaze. Line 109. Around the bank, and eager to be ferried over, press the countless shades.
THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixi '* Kuc omnis turba ad ripas effasa ruebat, Matres atque viri, defunctaque corpora vita Magnaninam heroum, pueri innuptsBque puelke, Impositique rogis juvenes ante ora parentum : Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto Quam multsB glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus Trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis. Lines 806-812.
So we have in Dante ; — " A crowd that throng the bank of a great stream, And said, ' O master, unto me now mete To know what race are these, and why they seem So anxious to cross o'er to the other side. As I discover by this feeble beam/ " " HeU," III., lines 71-75.
And again : — *' Just as the withered leaves of autumn fall, The one upon the other, till the bough To earth yields all its garment, as a pall ; The evU seed pf Adam downwards, so Throw themselves one by one from that sad shore. At signs, like bird that to the call doth go. "HeU," III., Unas 112-117.
Although the simile of the birds is changed, the new simile adopted by Dante was unquestionably suggested by the recollection of the birds coupled with the leaves in Virgil. The desire of the shades to cross the river has of course a different reason in each poem : in Dante, where evil souls pass only for punishment : — ^' So spurs them onwards, justice all divine. That to desire is changed their fear o' the rod. Lines 125, 126.
In Virgil the shades of those whose bodies have not found a grave cannot pass, and hence follows the pathetic meeting of ^neas with the shade of Falinurus, drowned in his last voyage, who beseeches his leader to take hiTir) with him over the black river. But the Sibyl rejects his intercession, and tells him to abandon his useless prayer. ^' Desine fisita Deum flecti sperare precando"
Ixii THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. — a line ooncemiiig whicli Dante demands explanation from Virgil in the sixth Canto of the " Purgatory," as being in opposition to the cry of all the spirits there, for prayer to assist them in their purification, to the text of which Canto, lines 28 to 48, 1 refer the reader. Both in the " iBneid" and in Dante Charon at first refuses to accept a living freight.
In Virgil, ^' Sic prior adgreditur dictis, atque increpat ultro : Quisquis es, armatus qui nostra ad flumina tendis, Fare age, quid venias, jam istinc, et comprime gressum. Lines 387—389. The last line is curiously recalled by Dante on another occasion, when in Canto XII. the Centaur stops him with almost the same formula : — " Ditel costinci, se non Tarco tiro.
He continues : — " Umbrarum hie locus est, Somni Noctisque soporse : Corpora viva nefas Stygia vectare carina. Lines 390, 391. As in Dante, " But thou, O soul still living, stand aside ; Depart from these, whom Death has made his own. " HeU," III., lines 88, 89. In the " Inferno" Virgil silences Charon by the expression of the will of a higher power.
In the ".ffineid" the Sibyl overpowers him by the sight of the spell, the golden bough, " Tumida ex ira tum corda residunt ;" or, as Dante more vividly expresses it, " The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew Of that dread pilot of the living lake," As MnesA enter the bark. '* Gemuit sub pondere cymba Sutilis, et multam accepit rimosa paludem. Lines 413, 414.
Dante fja>lls as it were in slumbering swoon at the bank of the river, and does not know how he crosses it. In the next Canto we find him on the other bank. But the touch of the spirit bark sinking under mortal weight is not forgotten :
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGI. Ixui we have it on a later occasion. When they cross to the Citj of Dis, over the lake, in Phlegjas' boat : — " M7 leader then descended in the bark, And made me enter at his side ; the strain Only, when I was in, it seemed to mark. Soon as my guide and I our seats had ta'en, Cutting the water goes the ancient prow, More than its wont, when others cross that main.'* " HeU," VIII., Uaes 25-«0.
After crossing Acheron, ^neas finds Cerberus lying in a cave 'opposite, whom the Sibyl drugs with a medicated cake, and they pass on. ''.Cerberus hsBC ingens latratu regna trifauci Personat, adyerso recubans immanis in antro.
Cui rates, horrere videns jam colla colubris, Melle soporatam et medicatis frugibus offam Objecit. lUe fame rabida tria guttura pandens Corripit objectam, atque immania terga resolvit Fusus humi totoque ingens extenditur antro. Occupat .tineas aditum custode sepulto, Eyaditque celer ripam inremeabilis undsd. Lines 417—426. Dante places Cerberus as the guardian of the third circle, where gluttony is punished, himself its personification.
" Wild Cerberus, of twofold nature rare. With three throats hurleth out the doglike bark Upon the people that are cowering there. His eyes are red, his greasy beard is dark, His belly large and fingers armed with nails ; He tears, and flays, and rends the spirits stark. * * * * My leader stretches out his hand and draws A clod of earth, the which with forceful blow He drove right into his voracious maws.
Like to a dog, that barking but to show His longing, eats up food with quiet mien, And only fought to fill his hunger, so Were quieted at once the jaws obscene Of the demon Cerberus, who so dins the souls That they would very gladly deaf have been." *• Hell," Canto VI., lines 13—83.
Ixiv THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. In the first place ^neas bears the weeping cries of infaoits. *' Quos dolcis vitse exortis et ab ubere raptos Abstnlit atra dies et f iinere mersit acerbo/' Lines 428, 429. Those Dante also places in his Limbo, and at the close of the ^' Paradise" rea&ms that for aU who die before baptism Limbo must be their bourn.
Next to the infants come those who have suffered bj unjust doom of death on earth, who have the sentence revised. " Quffisitor Minos umam movet ; ille silentum Oonciliumque vocat vitasque et crimina discit.'" Lines i32, 433.
Dante advances Minos to be the universal judge of the spirits doomed to Hell, and as such places him at the entrance of the second circle, " There standeth Minos, horrible, and grins ; At the entrance he examineth betimes, And folding each around doth judge their sins. I say, that when those souls, born in ill times. Come before him, they straightway all things tell. "HeU," v., lines 4-8.
In the vicinity of Virgil's Minos are the suicides — *' Quam vellent eothere in alto Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores ! Lines 436—7. Dante has of course a separate circle in Hell, the second division of the seventh, for the punishment of those whom he finds in the ghastly wood, on whose branches sit the Harpies " che cacciar delle Strofside i Trojani." — Canto XJH., line 11.
The trees of the wood are themselves the spirits, as Dante learns by breaking off a twig, when the voice of the injured shade comes out with the oozing juice.
The whole incident is Yirgilian, being taken from the story of ^neas plucking a wand at the tomb of Polydorus, when he is horrified by what follows : — " Eloquar, an sileam ? gemitus lacrimabilis imo Auditur tumulo, et vox i-eddita f ertur ad auris : Quid miserum, ^nea laceras P jam parce sepulto ; Farce pias sclerare manus. Lib. III., lines 39—42.
THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixt Beyond the suicides stretch out the lugentes campi, where the unfortunate in love wander concealed in the glens and myrtle groves, " curae non ipsfi, in morte relinquunt. Here ^neas meets again with the wretched Dido, and after accounting for his heartless abandonment of her by the fact that he did so under Divine constraint, adds that he did not think she would feel it so keenly.
The hero succeeded in forcing up his own tears, but justly fails even to provoke an snswer from the injured queen. In the second circle of Hell Dante places those '' ch' amor di nostra vita dipartille," and the frigid sketch of the Eoman poet becomes the most perfectly finished portion of the modem poem, and the passionate Italian in the story of Francesca pours out the whole strength of his genius and his pity.
In the fourth book of the " -ffineid" Yirgil has shown his own power to depict the master passion, but I know nothing in the whole range of ancient or modem art that can fairly be placed beside Dante's fifth Canto for pathetic tenderness and exquisite perfection of rhythm and style. .tineas, after leaving Dido, passes from the mourning fields to the last division of that boundary of the Inferno, broad spaces in which throng those who have died in battle.
The shadows of the Trojan warriors press around, those of the Greeks shrink from the living hero, though some of the latter attempt to raise their war cry with their shrill spirit voice : — " Atque hie Priamiden laniatum corpore toto Deiphobum vidit, lacerum crudeliter ora, Ora manusque ambas, populataque tempera raptis Auribus, et truncas inhonesto volnere naris. Yix adeo adgnovit pavitantem et dira*tegentem Supplicia. Lines 494—99.
No one can doubt that Dante had this terrible description in his mind when he concocted the rival horrors in his 28th Canto. There, in the ninth ward of the eighth circle, we find the inventors of schisms slashed by a fiend with the most fearful wbunds. One rivals Deiphobus : —
Ixvi THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. " Another, unto whom the throat was pierced ; The nose sheared closely oft between the eyes. And in an ear who also was amerced. Canto XXVIII., Unes 64-6. And another : — " Then one, from whom both hands had been offsmote, Eaising his maimed arms in the dusky air, So that the dripping blood his face did blot. Lines 103—6.
The picture of poor Deiphobus shrinking back and endeavouring to hide his disfigurements is more affecting than that of Dante's spirits exhibiting their wounds with a sort of ghastly pride ; but each is suitable, the one feeling to that of the wretched murdered prince in the shades, but not condemned, the other to doomed criminals in Hell.
I cannot but trace in the striking picture of the shade preserving in after life the fearful wounds with which its body was mangled on earth the seed of Dante's conception of the punishments inflicted on the creators of schism, the description of which arouses his pity when pity had long been dead ; — " The various woimds and people crowded deep, As if with drunkenness my eyes did blear, That they were anxious but to rest and weep.
Canto XXIX., lines 1 — 3. The colloquy between iEneas and Deiphobus is interrupted by the Sibyl, who warns the hero that the time allotted for his stay amongst the shades is short — (" And little of our granted time doth bide. Canto XXIX., line 11.) that here the rj>ad divides, leading on one side, which they must follow, to the Elysian fields, on the other to Tartarus and the punishments of the accursed.
Here, in fact, the neutral region ceases ; it is worked out by Virgil with great minuteness, and forms no inconsiderable portion of the whole region of the dead, while Dante passes it by with little description, placing it indeed within the gates of Hell, but on the hither side of Acheron. He has, howevpr, as we have seen, transferred all Virgil's descriptions to other portions of
THE OBLIQATIOKS OF DAKTS TO YIBQIL. Ixyii hjM " Inferno/' not servilelj following Ids master, but, like a great artist, reproducing his beauties where they would best fit into his own work, ^neas does not enter Tartarus. '' Bespicit Mneas subito, et sub rupe sinistra Moenia lata yidet, triplici circumdata muro, Qusa rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis, Tartareus Fhlegethon, torquetque sonantia saxa.
Porta adversa, ingens, solidoque adamante columnsB, Vis ut nulla virum, non ipsi exscindere bello CcBlicolsB yaleant ; stat ferrea turris ad auras, Tisiphoneque sedens palla succincta omenta, Yestibulum exsomnis servat noctesque diesque. nine exaudiri gemitus, et sseva sonare Verbera ; turn stridor ferri, tractseque catenae. Lines 548—58.
This magnificent passage sounds like the keynote to the whole of Dante's " Inferno," but special imitations of almost every line can be traced. On the borders of the lake, formed by the waters of Styx, Dante places his City of Dis, the approach to which is thus described : — ^' * Even now its minarets, master ! I exclaim, ' I see above the valley rising higher. Vermeil, as though they issued out of flame.
And he explained to me : ' The eternal fire That glows within makes them look ruddy here. As in this deep of hell thou seest each spire. Meanwhile within the deep-cut moat we steer That trenches round that land disconsolate. As if of iron wrought the walls appear. "HeU," Canto VIII., linee 70—8. Here the demons refuse all admittance, and even Virgil cannot control their resistance, which is only overcome by an angel messenger of the Divine Power.
The tower is guarded, not by Tisiphone, but by all the Furies : — " Because I wholly had withdrawn my eyes Towards the high turret, with its crest aglow, When all at once I saw erect arise The three infernal Furies, tinged with blood. Canto IX., lines 35—8.
Ixviii THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. The awful effect produced in Virgil's closing lines by the sounds of the unseen horrors is keenly felt by Dante, and frequently reproduced. An example can be taken from his descent on Qerion into the eighth circle : — *' Because both flames I see and screams I hear, At which all trembling in my seat I cower. Till then unheard there strike upon my ear. As through great pains we sank and circled on, Cries that on every side approached us near." Canto XVII., lines 122—126. The Sibyl gives ^neas a brief description of the events of the prison-house. Eheulamanthus judges the spirits as they come before him : —
Castigatque auditque dolos, subigitque fateri, Qusd quis apud superos, fnrto leetatus inani, DistuHt in seram commissa piacula mortem." Lines 667—9. Dante allots the task to Minos alone, and in words which I have already quoted gives the same idea of extorted confession and instant punishment. The guilty souls are handed over to Tisiphone : — '' Tum demum horrisono stridentes cardine sacrsB Panduntur portse.*' Lines 573, 4. Strangely enough, Dante transfers this description, imitated also by Milton in his well-known lines : — ** On a sudden open fly. With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus." "Paradise Lost," Book 11., line 879 foil. Dante, I remark, transfers the description to the gate of Purgatory : — " And when there swung upon its hinges there The portals of that entrance consecrate, Which were of sounding metal, strong and clear, Creakt not so loud the famed Tarpeian G-ate." " Purgatory," Canto IX., line 183 foil.
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixlx When the gates are opened you see the Fury on the threshold, Hydra yet fiercer within, and beyond the black depths of Tartarus, stretching twice as far to the centre as from earth to the light of Heaven. Of the doomed within the Sibyl mentions by name only a few of the Titan race, whom Dante places as the guardians of his lowest circle.
Having described briefly two out of the many punishments, she dismisses in a rapid summary the classes of criminals who sufEer : — ** Hie quibus invisi fratres, dum vita manebat, Pulsatusve parens, et fraus innexa clienti, Aut qui divitiis soli incubuere repertis, Nee partem posuere suis, qusB maxuma turba est ; Quique ob adulterium csBsi, quique arma secuti Lnpia, nee veriti dominorum fallere dextras,' Indus! paenam exspectant.'' Lines 608—14.
As Mr. Conington points out, we have here seven classes of criminals — (1) those who have violated duty to their brothers, (2) to their parents, (3) to their clients, (4) to their kindred generally, through avarice, (5) to their married fellowcitizens, (6) to their country, and (7) to their masters. It will not be doubted that in Dante's elaborate classification of criminals all these find a place.
Oaina, the first of the four divisions into which the lowest circle is divided, takes its name from Cain, who slew his brother, and here are punished those, quibus invisi fratres, pulsatusve parens.
The third class, the evil counsellors, are punished in the eighth pit of Malebolge, with Ulysses and Diomed. (See Canto XXVI.) The fourth class, the avaricious, together with the prodigal, hold their grotesque jousts in the fourth circle : — " Since all the gold beneath the moon possest, Or ever owned by those worn souls of yore, Could not make one of them one moment rest. Canto VII., lines 64—6. The fifth class are tossed on the wind in the second circle, quique ob adulterium csBsi : —
Ixx THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VmOIL. " Thousands more Shadows he showed me, and their names he told Whom Love had hurried from our mortal shore.** Canto v., lines 67—9.
The sixth class, quique arma secuti Impia, are found in the second division of the lowest circle; and the last class, nee veriti dominorum fallere dextras, are sunk in the last division of all, where Judas, Oassius, and Brutus are mangled in the jaws of Lucifer, as the type of all who have betrayed their masters — in the eyes of Dante the worst and deadliest crime.
The Sibyl tells j^neas not to inquire too curiously into the nature of their punishments. She alludes to the tortures of Sisyphus, Ixion, and Theseus, and adds<-^ " Phlegyasque miserrimus omnis Admonet, et magna testatur voce per umbras : ' Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere Divos. '* Lines 618—20.
Dante places PhJegyas, the violator of the Temple of Apollo, as boatman on the Styx, himself the type of Wrath, over the spirits of wrath punished in the muddy lake : — " Saw muddy people standing in the mire All naked, and with looks where anger glowed. Striking themselves, so did their rage transpire, Not hands alone they used, but head and feet, Biting themselves to pieces in their ire.
My gentle master said, ' O son, now greet The souls of those whom anger overcame.* " " HeU," Canto VII., lines 110—16. In the lines of the Sibyl that follow Virgil is generally supposed to allude to Curio, who, bought over by Oeesar from Pompey's party, was the first to overcome his master*s scruples, and is introduced into Lucan's " Pharsalia'* prompting the passage of the Rubicon with the words " Telle moras : nocuit semper difierre paratis.
Yendidit hie auro patriam, dominumque potentem Imposuit ; fixit leges pretio atque refixit.'* Lines 621, 622. Dante places Curio with the creators of schism, where his tongue has been cut out by the Demon's sword :*-
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DAKTE TO VIRGIL. Ixii " ' 'Tis lie ; he cannot speak to you. This banished man, removed from Oeesar, loath, All doubt, affirming that when well prepared, Any delay to injury ever groweth. Ah ! how bewildered he to me appeared. There with his tongue shorn closely in his throat. Curio, who erst in speaking had so dared. " HeU," Canto XXVIII., lines 9a~102.
With a rapid summary the Sibyl closes her account : — '' Ausi omnes immane nefas, ausoque potiti. Non mihi si linguse centum sint oraque centum, Ferrea vox, omnis scelerum comprendere formas, Omnia psenarum percurrere nomina possim. Lines 624 — 7. ^neas then lays down his golden bough before the Halls of Pluto, and advances to the fields of Elysium.
It is seen that in Virgil's brief sketch of Tartarus there is hardly an allusion which Dante has not made his own and worked up in his elaborate structure. It is not necessary to follow so minutely the account which follows of the Elysian fields. I have shown that Dante takes it as described by Virgil, with but slight modification, and places it as one part of what he calls Limbo, in the first circle of the Inferno.
But here also there are specific imitations* When j^neas meets his father's shade he attempts to embrace it ; — " Ter conatus ibi coUo dare bracchia circum, Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago, Par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno.**j Lines 700-2.
So when the soul of Statins first learns that it is the great Virgil whom he has met in Purgatory he wishes to fall down and embrace his feet, himself a shade forgetting the nothingness of both : — ** Already he bent down to embrace the feet Of my dear teacher : but he said, * Forbear, brother : thou a shade, a shade dost greet. And he arising : * Now thou art aware Of the great love, which towards thee me doth warm. When I forget we are but empty air. Treating a shadow like a solid form. " " Purgatory," Canto XXI., lines 130—6.
Ixxii THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL.
The doctrine of metempsycliosis, whicli Virgil makes use of as a poetical device to enable ^neas to see amongst the shades the future heroes of Eoman history, is alien to the true spirit of his Elysian fields as a place of happy repose, but the artifice introduces to us a foreshadowing of Purgatory, where the spirit goes through a course of purifying punishment to get rid of the ingrained stains of its former life before it enters on Elysium or is allowed to quaff Lethe, the water of oblivion, so as forgetful of the past to enter on life again.
The remarkable passage in which Anchises explains these mysteries to his son was strongly impressed on Dante's mind, and bore fruit in his poem. In the following lines he explains how the stains of mortality blunt the divine essence of the spirit both before and after death : — " Igneus est ollis vigor et coelestis origo Seminibus, quautum non noxia corpora tardant Terrenique hebetant artus moribundaque membra.
Hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque, neque auras Dispiciunt clausse tenebris et carcere cseco. Quin et supremo cum lumine vita reliquit, Non tamen omne malum miseris nee f unditus omnes CorporesB excedunt pestes, penitusque necesse est^ Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris. Lines 730— 8.
In the " Purgatory," where the spirits in the sixth cornice are purified, through leanness, of the sin of gluttony, Dante is puzzled to know how spirits who require no nourishment can grow lean ; and to solve his doubts Statins explains to him the mystery of humanity &om its generation to death, and shows how then the spirit is clothed with air, on which it stamps the seal of its mortal appearance and the characteristics of its mortal being : — " So the surrounding air hath here selected That form which in effect the soul doth claim With its own seal, which is on it reflected.
And as the fire aye follows on the flame, There, where is shifted now the spirit's site. Follows upon that spirit the new frame.
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIROIL. Ixziii Thence afterwards it gams appearance, liiglit A shadow, and its organs, hence the while Each one attaineth, even to the sight. Hence is it that we speak, and hence we smile : Hence is it that we break to tears and sighs. Which on the mountain thou hast seen erewhile. According as the spirit's yearnings rise, And its a£Eections, so is shaped the shade. " Purgatory," Canto XXV., lines 94—107.
A thorough comprehension of the passage in Yirgil removes all difficulty from Dante's conception. In the former it is the earthly limbs and vesture of decay that dim the spiritual essence, and even in life cause the passions and desires, while in after life the same are wonderfully ingrained in the spirit, and become a part of it.
In Dante the very appearance and character of the mortal being are stamped upon his shade, and endow it with mortal attributes, and even mortal affections.
It is this mortal taint in the spirit that requires purification even in Virgil's happy fields : — " Ergo exercentur pcenis, veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt : alifld panduntur inanis SuspenssB ad ventos ; aliis sub gurgite vasto Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni : Quisque suos patimur Manis ; exinde per amplum Mittimur Elysium, et pauci Ifista arva tenemus : Donee longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe, Goncretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit .Stherium sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem.
Has omnis, ubi mille rotam volvere per annos, LethsBum ad fluvium deus evocat agmine magno. Scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisant" Lines 789— 60. There is here unquestionably the whole theory of Purgatory, but of the three special modes of purification indicated in Yirgil Dante introduces one only in the seven cornices of his mountain, when on the highest cornice the spirits of the lustful are purified in fire.
It is a singular fifcct that Dante and his guide pass through all the other cornices without sharing the pains of the purifying spirits. Bat it is not so in this instance ; — /
Izxir THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTS TO VIBGIL. ** There, where God's Angel glad before ns stood. Beyond the flame he stood, above the way. And sang : ' Beati mando corde/ dear In voice, beyond the reach of human lay : Then, ' Holy sotQs, ye cannot further steer Until the flame has bit ye ; enter brave. And be not deaf unto the song ye'U h ear. " " Purgatory," Canto XXVII., lines 6—12.
Even the shade of Yirgil passes through the flame, fiercer than molten glass, although he only accompanies Dante as far as the Terrestrial Paradise, to leave him there under other guidance and return to limbo. Dante, following Yirgil, places the river of Lethe as the boundary stream, drinking which the spirit shall obtain the boon of forgetfulness after completing his purification.
TTpon his description of the Terrestrial Paradise and its waters of oblivion Dante has poured out all the wealth of his genius, while Yirgil only gives the £untest sketch. Still the germ of Dante's Terrestrial Paradise is here : — " Interea vidit JSneas in valle reducta Sedusum nemus et virgulta sonantia silvis, Lethaeumque, domes placidas qui prsBuatat, amnem/' Liii6B 705-6.
Let the reader refer to the 28th Canto of the " Purgatory," and read the description of the divine forest, with its murmur of leaves, and the dark but crystal clear river gliding beneath the perpetual shade, and he will see how Yirgil's faint outline is filled up into a perfect picture. It is with no thought of depreciating Dante that I have instituted this inquiry into his avowed imitations of his predecessor.
His deep study of Yirgil is his boast, and to it he himself attributes his own success in his art :— - " ' Art thou indeed that Yirgil, and that fount From which sprang forth of song so large a stream P' Answered I to him with a shame-struck front, ' 0, of all other poets, pride and beam. Avail me the great love, and study long. Which made me ever ponder o'er thy theme.
Thou art my Master, I to thee belong: Thou only art the one from whom I've ta'en The polished style, that's brought me fia.me in song. " HeU," Canto I., linei 79-«7.
THB OBLIGATIOKS OF DANTB TO YIBGIL. Izxv It has been the fashion of late years to depreciate Virgil, but when we allow his inferiority to Shakespeare, Homer, Bante himself, and perhaps Milton, it is impossible to find any other poet of ancient or modem times who can fairly be placed in the same rank with the pride of the Augustan era.
As a master of style he is unequalled except by his own follower, Dante, though the style of the latter is distinctly his own, and, except in expressions palpably imitated, is in no way founded upon Virgil's. Virgil's is copious and ornate, Dante's terse to conciseness.
Both indulge in rhetorical commonplaces of description, evidently copied by Dante from his master, and which to the student produce the like charm of association, like the fragrance of a flEimilar vintage : — " Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile — Nox ruit oceano — ^aursd vela vocant — Vocat jam carbasus auras — Cingor fulgentibus armis — " are Virgilian commonplaces which give pleasure through the very iteration.
Dante has caught the trick from his master, and works it in his own way. When he wishes to particularise the hour it is :— - '^ The eternal mistress of Tithonus old. Already whitened in the eastern height. Quitting the dear arms that around her fold. " Purgatory," IX., lines 1—8. " Now in the hour, when the diurnal heat Can warm no more the coldness of the night, Conquered by chill of earth, or Saturn's seat. " Purgatory," XIX., lines 1—8.
" Now without pause 'twas time to mount the height Since the meridian circle of the day Filled Taurus' star, the Scorpion's that of night. " Purgatory," XXV., lines 1—8. " So that his earliest rays were trembling o'er The land in which his Maker shed his blood, And Libra stood on high on Ebro's shore, And Ganges' wave with midday glory glowed. The sun was stationed, so that sank the day. " Purgatory," XXVII., lines 1—6.
'* But onwards now : already seeks the main, With boundary of both hemispheres in view, ij^yond Seville, the faggot-bearing Cain ; And yestreen to its full the roimd moon grew.'^ " Hell," Canto XX., lines 124-27.
Ixxvi THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. Doubtless Dante bad in view, bj tbus calling np geograpbical details in mid-Hell, or on tbe cornices of bis mountain of Purgatory, to give tbe effect of reality to bis vision, but tbe constant repetition of tbe artifice, like Virgil's studied iterations, yields to tbe accustomed ear tbe cbarm of fiEuniliarity : to tbe lover of eitber poet tbe trick is pleasant because it is bis own.
Tbe one pre-eminent excellence botb in Virgil and Dante, and in wbicb neitber is surpast in tbe wbole range of literature, is grapbic vigour, altbougb tbeir mode of workmansbip and tbe effect produced is quite distinct.
If illustration be taken from rival arts Virgil's is cognate witb tbat of tbe painter, Dante's witb tbat of tbe sculptor ; but tbe works of botb are absolutely endued witb life, tbe pictured forms bave all tbe glow and action of reality, tbe sculptures breatbe.
As a narrative poet I tbink tbat Virgil is absolutely unrivalled ; in bis elaborate descriptions, sucb as of tbe cbariot-race in tbe <' Georgics"— of all tbe games, but more especially tbe boatrace in tbe ''^neid"— of iOneas' searcb for Oreusa tbrougb tbe streets of burning Troy— of tbe deatbs of Priam, Dido, and Tumus — ^bis intensely dramatic spirit brings tbe wbole scene in eacb case before tbe reader, witb all its realistic details : tbe reader can say witb Dante, looking at tbe paintings on tbe floor of tbe first cornice of Purgatory : — '' Alive tbe living, dead tbe dead appear ; Wbo saw tbe facts bebeld not more tban I.
" Pnrgatopy," XII., lines 67, 68.
Tbis intensity and vigour of conception are qualities of wbicb no modem depreciation can deprive tbe great poet of Imperial Borne ; it cannot deprive bim of tbe bonour wbich tbe entbusiastic admiration of sucb a man as Dante would bestow on any writer ; it cannot deprive bim of tbe glory of baving in an episode of bis uncompleted epic laid tbe foundations on wbicb bas been constructed wbat is, perbaps, taken all in all, tbe noblest poem wbicb tbe world will ever see.
CANTO I. Daute having wandei'ed in the middle of his life into a dark forest, which represents the maze of haman passions, attempts to climb the mountain of Virtue, and is repulsed by three beasts, the leopard, the lion^and the wolf, representing the lust or Pleasure, Pride, and Avarice.
He is rescued from these by the shade of Virgil, who promises to conduct him through Hell and Purgatory, whilst another worthier spirit shall finally lead him to Paradise. Upon the journey of my life midway, I found myself within a darkling wood, Where from the straight path I had gone astray : Ah, to describe it is a labour rude, So wild the wood, and rough, and thick, and wide, ^ That at the thought the terror is renewed.
So bitter is it, 'tis to death allied : But of the good to treat, which there I drew. The lofty things I'll tell, I there descried. How I had entered there I hardly knew, ^® So deep was I in slumber at the part When I had wandered from the pathway true. But when the mountain's slope began to start.
There, where there ceased that valley of the night, Which with its terror had so pierced my heart, ^* I looked aloft, and saw its shoulders bright Already mantled with that planet's rays, Which wanderers in all pathways leads aright. That sight the terror of my heart allays. Which in its depths till then no respite gave, ^ That night I past in such a sore amaze. Line 1. "Upon the journey of my life midway.
Dante gives the date of his vision at the close of his thirty-fifth year, the half of the threescore years and ten allotted by the Psalmist. This was A.D. 1300, and events that occurred at a later period are thus introduced as prophecy. Line 17. " Already mantled with that planet's rays. The Sun, the rays of Truths which guide the wanderer from the maze of error, and light up the sunmit of the mountain of Virtue. B
2 HELL. Cabto I. And as one breathless from a watery grave, When he has reached the shore from out the sea, Turns and looks back upon the perilous wave : So did my soul, which even yet would flee, ^* Turn backwards to behold the past again From which with life none ever issued free. After my weary frame some rest had ta'en.
The lower foot set firmly at each stride, Upwards I went through that deserted plain. ^ When lo ! at the first ascent of that hillside, A panther, lithe, most agile of its race. And covered over with a spotted hide. It never turned aside from *fore my face, And so blocked up my pathway, ne'er withdrawn, ^ That oft I turned my footsteps to retrace.
The time was then the hour of early dawn, And the sun rose, with those same stars beside, Which were with him when first their light was drawn By Love divine in beauteousness to glide. *^ So I had every reason to essay The conquest of that beast with beauteous hide. In that fair season and the hour of day ; Yet none the less a panic in me woke.
The sight, which showed a lion in the way. ** He seemed as if 'gainst me in charge he broke, With head aloft and maddening hunger's ire, The very air appeared to fear his stroke. Then came a she- wolf, who of all desire Appeared incarnate in her leanness grim, ^ Through whom vast crowds in wretchedness transpire. This with such leaden weight struck every limb From terror rising at her sight of dread, That I lost every hope the height to climb.
Line 27. " From whicli with life none ever issued free. Hyx)6rbolicaUy desoriptive of the few who escape from the entanglement of human passions. Line 38. " And the sun rose, with those same stars beside, Which were with him when first their light was drawn By Love divine in beauteousness to glide. The sun was in the constellation of Aries, the time of spring, at which season Dante supposes the Creation to have taken {dace. Line 41.
" So I had every reason to essay. The translation in the text is the interpretation of this difficult passage given by Yenturi. The Italian annotators explain the difficulty by saying that the season of the day and year gave the Poet heart to hope to win the panther's gay coat in sign of his victory. Cary makes the beauty of the panther a cause for gaiety, which must be wrong.
Canto I. HELL. 3 And such is he who masseth wealth with greed, ^^ Till comes the time all things from him to wrest, And in each thought to wail, is all his meed. So haunted me that beast that cannot rest, Who foot by foot, before me, slowly reared, And where the sun was silent, downwards prest. ^^ While to the deep abysses thus I neared, A vision then arose before my face. Whose voice, through lengthened silence, faint appeared.
When I beheld him in that desert place, "Ah, miserere !*' did I loudly cry, ^ " Art thou a shadow, or of human race ? He answered me : " No man : a man was I In former times, and of the Mantuan state Were both my parents, in fair Lombardy. 8tbb Julio bom, though that came somewhat late, ^^ And I, 'neath good Augustus, lived at Borne, In time of the false gods, of idle prate.
I was a poet, and I sang his doom, Anchises' honest son, who came from Troy, After proud Bion was a burning tomb. " But wherefore tum*st thou back to such annoy P Wherefore not climb up this delicious mount, The cause and the commencement of all joy ?'' *' Art thou indeed that Virgil, and that fount From which sprang forth of song so large a stream ?" ^ Answered I to him with a shame-struck front. ** O, of all other poets, pride and beam.
Avail me the great love, and study long. Which made me ever ponder o'er thy theme. Thou art my Master, I to thee belong : ^* Thou only art the one from whom I've ta'en The polished style, that brought me fJEbme in song. Line 60. "And where the son was silent, downwards prest. The metaphor seems forced to modem ears : dove 7 sol tace. It is in imitation of the "Lnna silens" or moonless night of the classics.
Probably Virgil's "per amica silentia Lnnse " is more directly imitated. Line 63. " Whose voice, throngh lengthened silence, faint appeared. The faint voice of the spirit in the upper world is imitated from the " vox exigua" in the JSneid, attributed to the shades.
Lme 70. " 8ub JuUo bom, though that came somewhat late. " Naoqui sub JultOy ancorch^ fosse tardi.
Virgil was bom twenty-five years before Julius assumed the dictatorship. Venturi explains the above line, *' I may say I was bom under Julius Csasar, though he made himself Dictator somewhat late as respects the date of my birth."
4 HELL. Cakto I. Behold the beast which turns me back again : O famous wise one, give me now thy aid. She makes me tremble in each pulse and vein." ^ ** Some other road by thee must be essayed," He answered, when he saw me weeping stay, " If yonder wilderness thou wouldst evade. That beast, at which thou criest, by this way Permits not one to pass, for evermore, ^'' But bars the passage so, that she will slay.
Of wickedness her nature has such store That her keen craving ne*er is satisfied, ^ut after food she's hungrier than before. To many animals is she allied, ^^ And will be so to more, until the hound Shall come, who'll make her die of griefs sharp gride. This one will not be fed on pelf, or ground, But upon Wisdom, Love, and Virtue's store. His nation 'twixt two Feltros guarded round. ^^^* Safety he'll bring to meek Italia's shore.
For whom Camilla, the pure virgin, died, EurialuB and Tumus wounded sore. Through every town he'll chase the she- wolfs pride Until in Hell he drive her to the place ^^® Whence Envy first allowed her here to bide. Now for thy profit in my thoughts I trace How thou mayst follow, I will guide thee fair, From here I'll lead thee through eternal space, Where thou shalt hear the shriekings of despair, "* Shalt see the ancient spirits grief-possest.
Who each the second death invokes with prayer. There others thou shalt see contented rest In fire, because they hope at length to be, Whate'er the time, amidst the people blest : ^^ Line 100. '' To many animals is she allied/' Avarice, symbolised in the wolf, has its worst excesses when joined to other crimes ; alone, it injures chiefly the possessor. Line 101. "Until the hound Shall come, who'll make her die of griefs sharp gride.
This is generally allowed to be intended for Can Grande della Scala, whose country of Verona is situated between Feltro, a town, and Monte Feltro. The prophecy of the regeneration of Italy, assigned by Dante to his chief Protector, has at last been fulfilled. Line 117. ** Who each the second death invokes with prayer. The second death is that death of the soul for which the condemned will in vain pray, as a close to torment. Line 118.
" There others thou shalt see contented rest In fire. This alludes to the spirits in Purgatory, where Virgil is also to guide
Canto II. HELL. 6 Whom afterwards, if thou wouldst wish to see, For that a worthier soul than mine will come, With her I'll leave thee when I part from thee. For the great Euler, who has there his home. Because I was rebellious to his reign, "* Wills not that in his city I should roam. In everj part he rules, but there in main, There is his citadel, and lofty seat. O happy he, there chosen to remain !
Then I : " O bard, my prayer I now repeat, ^^ By that same G-od, whom erst thou didst not know, So that I fly this ill, and greater yet. Guide me through all things which thou telledst now. So that I see the blessed Peter's gate. And those whom thou so mouniful dost avow." *" Then he moved on, and I behind him wait. . Dante, after wbioh a worthier soal, Beatrice, will lead him through the spheres of Paradise. Line 134.
" So that I see the blessed Peter's gate. The gate of Pargatory, not Paradise. For the latter there is no gate, bnt the spirits pnrified in Purgatory ascend to the Heavenly spheres. Dante accepts Virgil's invitation to guide him through Hell and Purgatory, and so the first canto doses, wbioh must be considered as an opening to the whole poem, and not as the first canto merely of the part devoted to Hell.
The poem will then be found to consist of this introductory canto, which is written in the allegorical, form, and three parts, each consisting of thirty-three cantos, devoted to the three subjects of HeU, Purgatory, and Paradise.
CANTO n. Dante having followed Yirgil along the mountain until nightfall, is oppressed with fears on account of the greatness of his underUiking, and his own unfitness for such a task. Virgil reproves his cowardice, and inspires him with confidence by the account of the manner in which he was called by Beatrice from Heaven, to speed to his assistance.
The day wore on, and past, the darkling air Eeleased the animals upon the earth From their fatigues, while I alone prepare Still the long warfare to sustain with worth Both of the weary road and pity's dread, * Which now my mind will trace, that never err'th. O Muse, O lofty genius, grant your aid, O mind that writest what I then descried. Here thy nobility should be displayed.
Thus I began : " My Poet and my guide, ^^ Look if my virtue have the temper true Ere thou wouldst trust me to this deed of pride.
6 HELL. Cavto II. Thou say'st that Silvius' father once withdrew Whilst still in body all corruptible ; He living the immortal Ages knew. " But if the Enemy of every ill Was so propitious, thinking of the higher Eesult to follow, and what race would swell From him, such seems to human reason nigher. Since he was of high Bome, and of its sway *® In the Empirean chosen for the Sire.
Which place, and rule, to tell the truth alway, Were thus established, for the holy place Where sits great Peter's heritor to-day. By that descent, whence thou does vaunt his grace, ** Secrets he understood, which were the cause Of his success, and of the Papal race. There wandered afterwards Election's vase. To bring back comfort from them for the Creed Which of salvation opened first the laws. ^ But why should I come there ? or who concede ?
Neither Eneas nor Saint Paul am I ; Nor I, nor others, think me worth such meed. Therefore to such a venture should I hie, I fear the act as madness must be viewed. ^ Thou'rt wise my unspoken reason to descry. Like unto one who wills not that he would, And shifts his purpose with thought's changing tide, So that he dare not make commencement good, Thus acted I on that hill's darkened side ; ^ In idle thought I wasted the emprise,.
To which so swiftly I at first had hied. Line 13. " Silvias' father. Eneas. Line 16. " The Enemy of every ill. God. Line 25. " By that descent, whence thou dost vaunt his grace, Secrets he nnderstood, which were the cause Of his success, and of the Papal race.
The favourite idea in Dante's mind, and the theory hy which he looked for the renovation of the world, was the separation of all mundane and smritual authority : the former to be wielded by one who should resuscitate the Aoman Empire, the. latter by the Papal Church purified from all admixture of worldly authority.
Considering Eneas as the founder of the Boman Empire, and of Borne where the Church was to sit enthroned, he accounts for the marked favour shown to him in permitting his descent into Hell to learn secrets by which his mission was to be accomplished. Line 28. '* There wandered afterwards Election's vase. There refers to the Immortal Ages, not Hell in this instancCi but Paradise, where Paul, the " chosen vessel," was carried in vision.
Cahto II. HELL. " If thy words* meaning clearly I devise," Answered tlie shadow of that noble bard, " Thy spirit of its vileness feels the poise, Which many a time and oft will man retard, So that the honoured enterprise they leave. As beasts in darkness falsely things regard. That to this terror thou mayst give reprieve, I'll tell thee why I came, and what I heard, At the first moment I for thee did grieve.
I was 'mongst those the mid- suspended herd, The while a lady called me, blest and fair, Such that I prayed her to vouchsafe her word. Her eyes shone clearer than the morning star, " And she began to address me, slow and sweet, That of an angel speaking I was 'ware. * O courteous Mantuan spirit, whom I greet, Whose fame yet lasteth in the world below. And will last on while Earth retains its seat, ^ My friend, but not of Fortune, now in woe.
Within a desert wild is held at bay. That terror makes him the true path forego : I fear already he has lost his way, And to his succour I am come too late, ^ From what, in Heaven, of him I heard them say. Now go to him, and with thy speech ornate. And with whate'er can save him in his need, Help him, that I be not disconsolate. 'Tis Beatrice who now claims thy deed ; ^® To seek the place I've left I now am fiiin.
Love moved my steps, and Love now makes me plead. When I return before my Lord again I'U speak thy praises often at his throne. Then she was silent, and I thus began : ^^ Line 52. "I was 'mongst those the mid-suspended herd. Virgil, with the other great men of the Pagan world, was suspended in Limbo, wmch, though within the gate of Hell, is neither in Hell nur Heaven. It is described in tiie fourth Canto.
Line 61. *' My friend, but not of Fortune. '* L'amico mio, e non della ventura. I have preferred the simple translation, the meaning of whioh is olear. Although Dante is my finend, he was never Fortune's. The commentators explain the phrase, Dante loved me, but not what he could gain through me, which appears to me forced, and to convey idle praise. Line 70. " *Tis Beatrice who now claims thy deed.
In this iK>em Beatrice aUegorically represents the spirit of Bieligion. She was Dante's first and last love on earth, and in most parts of the poem, though not iu all, Dante's passionate adoration shows that his thoughts were with the breathing woman whose name he immortalised.
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8 HELL. Cahio U. * lady of all virtue, who alone Eaisest the human race beyond compare, O'er all that 'neath the Lunar skies are known, Such pleasure have I thy command to share, That were it done, obedience would be slow ; There was but need thy purpose to lay bare. But tell to me the reason, why below Thou dost not hesitate thy steps to guide From that broad region where thou yearn' st to go.' * Since thou wouldst know so deeply,' she replied, ^ * I'll tell thee briefly why with holy cheer To come even here I am not terrified. Those things alone one ever ought to fear That have the power to wreak on others ill ; Nought else can ever cause of dread appear. I am so fashioned by God's grace and will That me, even here, your misery cannot move, Nor flames of all this burning work me ill. A gentle lady in the skies above So moumeth o'er this case I've told to thee, ®* That there stem judgment is o'ercome by love. This one called Lucia to her bidding — * He, Thy faithful one, is now in sorest need Of thee, and him I recommend to thee.' Lucia, the foe of every cruel deed, Started at once, and in the place appeared Where I with Bachel have my seat decreed. And said, ' O Beatrix, God's praise averred ! Why dost not succour him, who loved thee so, That for thy sake he left the vulgar herd ?
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Line 78. *' O'er all that 'neath the Lnnar skies are known. Dante's astronomy is the Pythagorean system. It will be described afterwards in detail. The earth is the centre, surrounded by the nine revolving spheres, of which the moon is the lowest. The phrase means, therefore, that Beatrice excels all the beings on the earth. Line 93. " Nor flames of all this burning work roe ill.
The flames and bnming are nsed metaphorically for the yearning of those in Limbo for the Paradise they cannot obtain. In Limbo the poet describes no real flames, the sole ponishment there being the loss of happiness. Line 94. '' A gentle lady in the skies above. Supposed to be allegorical of the Divine clemency. Line 100. " Lucia.
Allegorical of illumioating gprace, as she is found afterwards amongst the blessed enumerated in Paradise; a real person is also probably intended.
Caitto n. HELL. 9 Dost thou not hear the anguish of his woe ? Seest thou not Death, against him armod in fight, O'er the river, stormier than the wild sea's flow ? There never yet were persons swift in flight To gain their 'vantage, or their loss to flj, ^^® As after listening to those words of might I came here from ray happy seat on high, Confiding in thy honourable word, That thee, and those who've heard, doth glorify.
After she'd spoken thus, as thou hast heard, "* Her beaming eyes in tears she turned away. For which to greater haste I was bestirred. And as she willed it, came to thee straightway : Aloft I raised thee from that savage beast Which from the pleasant mountain barred thy way : ^^ ' Then what is this ? and wherefore dost thou rest ? Wherefore such vileness nourish in thy heart ?
Why hast not daring, and frank hope exprest, Since three such blessed ladies take thy part Within the Palace of Heaven's Infinite, ^® And such fair promise doth my speech impart ? Like unto flowrets with the chill of night Bent down, and closed, when o'er them shines the sun Eaise up their stems, and open in his light, Such goodly ardour to my heart there ran, ^^ So did my weary virtue renovate.
That like one of free heart I thus began : * Oh pitiful was she, who helped my Fate, And courteous thou, who wert so prompt to obey The words of truth she did to thee relate. ^^ With such desire the venture to repay Thou hast inspired my heart with all thy speech, I turn me to our first resolve, straightway. Onwards, with us there's but one will for each. My leader thou, my lord, and master mild ! '*• So spake I, and behind his steps I reach.
And entered on the pathway steep and wild. Line 108. " O'er the river, stormier than the wild sea's flow. Bealistic commentators sapx>08e from this that there was a river by the hillside not before mentioned by the poet. The river probably means the whirl of human passions — ^in truth, stormier than the ocean.
CANTO in. Dante, following Virgil, arrives at the gates of Hell, and reads the inscription written thereon. Immediately within the precincts he finds the vast crowd of human beings who on earth have done neither good nor evil, and who are pnnished there, together with the Angels who were neither on the side of God nor Ladfer when the latter rebelled, and who are hence excluded from Heaven and from the circles of Hell itself.
From there they TG&ch. the bank of the Biver Acheron, where the Demon Charon ferries over the spirits of the condenmed into Hell, and there Dante falls into a sadden swoon. ** THsoTiaH me ye pass into the city of woe, Through me into eternal pain ye rove ; Through me amidst the people lost ye go. My high Creator justice first did move ; Me Power IHvine created, and designed, * The highest wisdom and the primal love.
Previous to me was no created kind, Save the Eternal ; I eternal last. Ye who here enter, leave all hope behind. Such were the words of cruel scope I traced, Above the summit of a gateway writ. " Master, for me stem sentence here is past. And he to me, like one of prudent wit, '' Here it behoves to lay aside each doubt ; All cowardice, as dead, one here must quit. ^^ We've come unto the place I spake about.
Where thou the grieving people shalt behold. Who the intellectual blessing live without. And then he clasped my hand within his hold, With joyous face from whence I comfort keep, And placed me there, within the secret fold. There sighings, and complaints, and wailings deep, Besounded ever in the starless air. So that at first I could not help but weep. Different tongues, speech horrible to hear, ^ Accents of anger and the words of pain.
Voices both high and low, hand-clappings there. Lines 5 and 6. The persons of the Trinity are here described ; the high Creator, whom Justice moved to make Hell. Line 8. " Save the Eternal. The angels and other eternal things, Hell being in existence before the creation of man and the world. Line 18. " Who the intellectual blessing live without. The intellectual blessing is God, to know whom is only life.
Canto IIL HELL. 11 Made up a tumult which aye whirls amain Through the thick air, eternally obscure, Like sand storm-driven o'er the desert plain. ^ I, compast round with horror, insecure, Said, " O my master, what is this I hear ? And who are these whom grief doth so immure? And he to me : '* After this fashion drear These wretched souls their after-life pursue ^ Who both from infamy and praise lived clear.
Mingled they are with that contemptible crew Of angels who would not rebellion dare. Not faithful Godwards, to themselves but true. Heaven drove them out, lest it might be less fair, ^ Neither received them deepest Hell's domain, That from them evil should no glory share. And I : " O master, what so grievous pain Is theirs which makes them with such force lament ?
He answered : " Very briefly I'll explain. ** To these no distant hope of death is lent. And their blind life is so supremely low. That any change of fate would give content. Beport of them the world can never know, Mercy and justice only can despise. ^ Speak not about them : look, and onwards go. And I, who looked, beheld a banner rise.
That with such swiftness whirling, rushed amain, That every thought of respite it denies ; And after it there came so long a train ^ Of people, that I would not have surmised That Death such multitudes could e'er have slain. After that I some few had recognised, I looked, and there his shadow met my view, Who made the great refusal, fear-advised. ^ Straightway I understood, and surely knew That this was that most miserable band.
Hateful to God, and to His enemies too. Those wretched ones who life had never scanned. Were naked stark and cruelly stung o'er ®* By flies and wasps that ever round them fanned. In lines these streaked their faces with their gore. Which mixed with tears flowed down, and at their feet Was feasted on by dainty worms galore. Line 60. " WUo made the great refasal, fear-advised.
Saint Celestine is here intended, who renotmoed the Papacy daring Dante's lifetime, and whom, therefore, he was able to recognise amon^ the ignominious crew. Celestine's abdication is, however, generally ascribed, not to base fear, bat to the highest motives of self-abnegation.
12 HELL. Canto III. When I had cast my eyes beyond, I weet ^® A crowd that throng the bank of a great stream, And said, " O master, unto me now mete To know what race are these, and why they seem So anxious to cross o'er to the other side. As I. discover by this feeble beam." ^^ And he to me : " These things will be descried What time we rest our footsteps at the brink Of Acheron's most melancholy tide.
Then struck with shame, my eyes I downward sink. In fear lest what I said were worthy blame. And till the stream from further parley shrink. When lo ! upon a bark there towards us came A very old man, with age- whitened hair. Crying aloud, " Ah, woe, ye souls of shame ! Hope not again to see the sky so fair. I come to take ye to the other side. To shades eteme of heat and freezing there.
But thou, O soul still living, stand aside ; Depart from these, whom Death has made his own. But when he saw me still amongst them bide, *® He cried, ** By other ways and barks alone, JN"ot this way canst thou reach the other shore ; A lighter boat can only bear thee on. My leader to him : " Charon, be not sore ; So is it willed above, where will can do ^^ That which it pleases ; do not question more.
The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew Of that dread pilot of the livid lake. Around whose eyes the whirling lightnings flew. But all those souls that worn and naked quake, ^^ Changed colour, and their teeth shook loud in rage. Soon as they heard the cruel words he spake. They cursed at God and at their parentage, The human race, the place, the time, the seed Of their begetting, and their earliest age. ^^ Then all of them together on proceed.
Wailing aloud, to the evil bank that stays For every one of God who takes no heed. Line 93. " A lighter boat can only bear thee on. It is generally supposed by the commentators that this aUndes to the bark by which the spirits are taken to Fargatory, and which will be described hereafter.
The words of Charon appear, however, to have reference to the impossibility of a living body like Dante's crossing the stream of Adieron in his boat, which can only carry spirits. Indeed, we are not told how Dante crosses the river, for at the close of this Canto he swoons on this side, and in the next he finds himself on the other, unaware how he has past.
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CaktoIV. hell. 13 The demon Charon, with his eyes ablaze, Directing them by signs, collects them all, ^^" And with his oar strikes each one that delays. Just as the withered leaves of autumn fall, The one upon the other, till the bough To earth yields all its garment, as a pall ; The evil seed of Adam downwards, so "^ Throw themselves one by one from that sad shore. At signs, like bird that to the call doth go. So by the turbid wave they hurry o'er, And ere on the other side they leave the boat, Collects on this side a new-gathered store. " My son," explained my courteous leader, " note AH those who perish in the wrath of God, From every land are here together brought ; They're ready o'er the river to be rowed. So spurs them onwards, justice all divine. That to desire is changed their fear o' the rod. This way there never passeth soul benign ; And if of thee old Charon would complain. His meaning henceforth thou must well divine." Scarce had he finished ere the darkened plain Trembled so terribly, that with the dread In thought alone I'm bathed in sweat again. Over that tearful earth a blast was sped. Which lightening shot a vermeil glow around. So that my senses conquered, wholly fled, And like one seized by sleep, I fell to the ground.
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CAISTTO IV. Dante on recovering from his swoon finds himself on the other side of the Biver Acheron. He follows Yirgil into the " blind world," and enters Limbo, which is the outer circle of Hell. Here he finds all tiiose souls who, from the want of baptism, have lost salvation, but who have done nothing to deserve actual punishment. IiOXTD thunder roused me from my slumber deep. So that^I sudden started from my swound.
Like one by force awakened from his sleep. And then my rested eyes I moved around. When I was risen, if their gaze avail * To recognise the place where I was found. True is it that above the dolorous vale Of the abyss, I stood upon the shore, Where thunder gathers from the infinite wail ;
14i HELL. Cavto IY. Obscure, profound it was, and clouded o'er, ^" That though into its depths mj gaze inclined, I could discern with clearness nothing more. " Now we descend into the regions blind," Began the poet, yery wan and pale, " I will be first, and thou shalt be behind." ^^ And I, who had remarked his colour fail. Exclaimed, '' How can I come, if thou hast dread Who only 'gainst mj doubtings canst prevail ?
And he to me : '* The anguish of the dead Who are below has painted on my face ^ That pity which thou takest to be dread. But onwards, for the way is long to trace. So he advanced and made me enter there, In the first circle which girds round Hell's space. Here, in as far as hearing is aware, ^ Was no loud weeping, but a sound of sighs.
Which ever trembled in the eternal air, And these from sorrow without torments rise, Sorrow that holds the crowds both many and great, Men, women, children, of all age and size. ^ Turned my good master to me : " Dost thou wait To ask what souls are these thou seest here P I will that thou shouldst know at once their state.
These have not sinned, and if their acts were fedr, 'Twas not sufficient, since they baptism lacked, The gateway of the Faith which thou dost share. And if they lived ere Christ's law was a fact. They did not in fit fashion God adore ; And I myself amongst these last am wreckt. For such deficiencies, and nothing more. Our penalty is fixed, the lost among, To yearn for ever on this hopeless shore. Lino 28.
" And these from sorrow witliout torments rise. Seeing that Dante's creed compelled him to exclude from Paradise all who had not been baptised in modem times, or circnmcised under the Jewish dispensation, the sensitive reader will be grateful to him for having made one circle of Hell tree from pain.
There is indeed no diiferenoe between the doom of those in Limbo and the blessed in Paradise, the joy of the latter consisting solely in the presence and love of Grod. « Line 38. " They did not in fit fashion God adore. Previous to Christianity the only persons who coidd be saved were the Jews, who worshipped God lawfully according to their dispensation.
In the Paradise Dante makes the numbers of the saved equal of the two dispensations, and in line 52 and what follows YirgU. describes now Christ triumphant entered Hell, and bore away with Him the spirits of those who under the old law had looked for His coming.
Canto IV. HELL. 15 On hearing that great grief my heartstrings wrung. To think that people of such worth should be. As those I knew, within that Limbo hung. ** Tell, O my master and my lord, to me," Began I, with the wish to solve all doubt About that faith, from every error free, ** Have none by their own merit issued out, Or through another, who were after blest ? And he, who understood my speech of doubt.
Answered : '* I was but recent in this rest. When I beheld a power our haunt invade, Triumphant with the victor's crown confest.
He drew from 'mongst us our first parent's shade, Abel, his son, and Noah following ; Moses the lawgiver, who aye obeyed ; The patriarch Abraham, and David, king ; Israel with his sons and with his sire, And Eachel, who on him such toil did bring, And many others who in bliss respire ; And thou must know that previously to these No human spirits had been saved from ire.
Whilst thus he spake our progress did not cease, But ever upwards through the wood we drew, I call a wood those souls' thick companies. As yet the way we did not far pursue Beyond the boundary, when I saw a light That in the hemisphere of darkness grew. We still were somewhat distant from its site, '* But not so far but that I saw in part For honoured people was the place bedight. "O thou who honourest every liberal art.
What men are these possessed of so much fame, That from the others makes them thus apart ?" ^^ And he to me : '' The honourable name That in thy upper life to these is paid. In Heaven to advance them doth like favour claim. In the meanwhile I heard a voice that said, *' Unto the chiefest poet honour due ! ^ But lat« departed, now returns his shade. After the voice was hushed all silent grew, And towards us came four lofty shadows grave.
With faces neither sad nor gay to view. Then there began to speak my master suave, ®* " Behold the one who leadeth all the rest. Their father, in whose hand is held the glaive.
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16 HELL. Cauto^V. 'Tis Homer, sovran poet of the past ; Then cometh Horace, satirist of fame, Ovid the third, and Lucian is the last. ^^ Since each as much as I can fairly claim That title, which their voice, like one, did bear, They show their worth in giving me the fame." So did I see approach the troop so fair
Of that old master of divinest song,
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Who like an eagle soars o'er all in air. When they had briefly spoke themselves among, They turned to me with salutation kind. And on my master's face the sweet smile sprung ; Yet greater honour they to me assigned, " ^^ Since they elected me amongst their band. That I was sixth amidst such noble kind. So towards the light we all together wonned. Speaking of things best kept in silence here. Just as was best their utterance in that land. ^^ Unto a noble castle we drew near. Seven times encircled by a lofty wall, And round defended by a river clear. O'er this as on firm earth our footsteps fall. And through the seven gates passing, with those wise, ^^® Into a meadow green we entered all. People they were with slowly moving eyes. And great authority was in their port, Earely they spake with sweet- voiced cadences. Then we withdrew into a further court, ^^* An open place, both lofty and serene, Where all could be beheld who there resort. And straightway there upon the enamelled green Were shown me the great souls who there arise — Well may I boast of all whom I have seen. ^^ I saw Electra 'midst large companies, 'Mongst whom I Hector and Eneas knew. And armed CsBSar with the falcon eyes ; Camilla, Penthesilea, past my view On the other side, and the Latin king embraced ^^* Sate with his daughter there, Lavinia true. Brutus I saw, the one who Tarquin chased, Lucretia, Julia, and Cornelia wise, And Saladin, in lonely grandeur placed. Then when I raised a little more my eyes, ^^ I saw the master of all those who know, Seated with those who seek philosophies. Line 131. *'I saw the master of all those who know." Aristotle.
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Canto V. HELL. l7 All gaze on him, and all their reverence show. There Socrates and Plato I beheld, Who o'er all others nearest to him go. Democritus, our earth as chance who held, Diogenes and Anaxagora, Zeno and many more his followers swelled.
I saw the searcher into every trait, Dioscorides I mean ; Orpheus I saw, TuUy and Linus, moral Seneca ; Euclid, the soul of geometric law, With Avicenna and Hippocrates, And he who the great Commentary did draw. I cannot recapitulate all these. Since the long theme compels me to despair. As speech must oft fall short of truth's degrees. Our company of six divideth there ; My chief conducts me by another way.
Out of the stillness to the trembling air, ^*® And now I come where no more shines the day. Line 139. " I »a,w the searcher into every trait, Dioscorides I mean. Literally, " The good searcher of the how/' or qualities of things. Line 144. " And he who the great Commentary did draw. Averroes, the great Arabian physician, who translated and commented on the works of Aristotle.
With Avicenna and Saladin he is the only modern mentioned by Dante amongst the great men in Limbo. A list of names like the above is easily translated into blank verse, but the exigencies of the terza rima have here driven me to sore straits, and forced me to omit one or two names introduced by Dante. CANTO V. Dante enters the second circle of Hell, where he linds Minos, the judge, who endeavours to stop his progress.
Yirgil having taken him wimin, he sees there the punishment of carnal sinners, who are for ever tost about by furious winds. Amongst Ihe condemned he pees and converses with Francesca of Rimini and her lover, and falls fainting to the ground with pity at their fate. So I descended from the outer vale Down to the second, which less space confines. And pain as much the more as causeth wail.
There standeth Minos, horrible, and prins ; At the entrance he examineth betimes, * And folding each around doth judge their sins. Line 6. ''And folding each around doth judge their sins. Minos, as explained in the following lines, pronounces to which grade of Hell sinners are doomed by encircling them so many times with his tail.
The idea is a ludicrous one, but the marvel is that at the age in which Dante wrote he did not commit more errors of taste of this nature. C
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18 HELL. Canto V. I say, that when those souls, bom in ill times, Come before him, they straightway all things tell, And he, that learned connoisseur in crimes, Fitteth for each its proper place in Hell. So many times he girds them with his tail To show the grade in which each soul must dwell. The crowds that stand before him never fail ; They go, each one by turns, to the judgment room ; They speak, and hear, and vanish in the vale. *' O thou that comest to this house of gloom," Said Minos to me when he saw me nigh, Leaving awhile his ministry of doom, ** Look how thou enterest, and in none rely ; Be not deceived because so wide the door." ^ Then said my master to him, " Why this cry ? Bar not his £a.ted entrance on this shore ; So is it willed above where will can do That which it pleases : do not question more." Now there begin the cries of anguish true " To be heard plainly : straightway I alight Where strikes the roar of much lament anew. I came into a place deprived of light. That bellowed like a stormy sea represt, And struggling with the adverse wild winds' might. ^ The infernal whirlwind that can never rest Hurries along the spirits in its whirl, And soaring strikes them onwards at its 'hest. Before the ruin as they wildly swirl, There they shriek out, and there lament and 'plain, ^ And 'gainst Heaven's virtue all their curses hurl. Then did I understand that this was pain Eeserved for those who sin in carnal things, And over reason their desires maintain. And, like the summer starlings, stretch their wings ^ In the cold time, in large and ample train. So that wild wind those evil spirits swings Hither and thither, up and down again ; No hope can comfort them of far repose For evermore, nor even of lesser pain.
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Line 34. " Before the ruin as they wildly swirl. "Qaando ^nngon davanti alia ruisa. Cary has accepted Yellutello's explanation of the word "roina," that it here means the whirlwind.
Bat this whirlwind drives them onward withoat cessation, and the rain appears to be better explained by the broken entrance into Hell, throaj^h which the fallen angels were precipitated there from Heaven, at sight of which the condemned spirits break into despairing onraes. The diiticalty mast remain a dispnted question.
Cahto V. HELL. 19 And like a band of cranes that singing goes, Extending in the air its lengthened train, So did I see them wailing as they rose Those shadows borne there bj the stormy bane. At last I said, " O master, who are these ^ On whom the black air metes such cruel pain ? " The first amongst them of whose histories Thou fain wouldst know," he said unto me then, " Was Queen o'er many-languaged Emperies.
She was so wedded unto luxury's den, ^ That pleasure to be lawful she decreed, To take away the blame she earned from men. She is Semiramis, of whom we read That she succeeded Kinus, was his wife, And ruled the nation which the Soldans lead. ^ That one is she who amorous gave her life. And broke her faith unto Sichseus' tomb : Behind is Egypt's Queen, with luxury rife.
Then saw I Helen, on account of whom Fell evil times, Achilles great in war, ^ Who at the last from Love received his doom. Then saw I Paris, Tristan, thousands more Shadows he showed me, and their names he told Whom Love had hurried from our mortal shore. When I had heard my Teacher thus unfold ^^ Names of so many an ancient dame and knight, My senses almost fled at Pity's hold Upon me.
I began, ** Bard, with delight I would address those two who move together, And tossing on the wind appear so light. " And he to me : " Wait only to see whether They near us, then beseech them by the love Which brought them here, and they will turn them hither. Soon as the wind had bowed them from above I raised my voice : ** O spirits, anguish torn, ^ Come speak to us, if nothing else remove.
As doves to the sweet nest for which they yearn, With open wings, and motionless, from high. Slide through the air by their volition borne, So sallied they from Dido's company, ^ Approaching uswards through the air malign, So powerful o'er them was my loving cry : Line 61. *' That one is she who amorous (^ve her life, And broke her faith unto Sicheens' tx^mb. Dido.
Petrarch has not accepted Virgil's version of her story, and in the " Triumph of Chastity" has boldly placed Dido amongst his examples.
20 HELL. Canto V. ** O living being, gracious and benign, That through the air obscure comest visiting Us, whose blood made the earth incarnadine. ^^ Were we the friends of the Almighty King, We would beseech him for thy own dear peace. Since to our evil thou dost pity bring. Of what to hear and speak to thee may please We will both hear, and speak to thee in turn, ®^ The whiles the wind, as now, gives silent ease.
The land is seated wherein I was born Upon the seashore where the Po descends To rest with all its followers in their bourne. Love, to which gentle heart so quickly tends ^^ Made captive this one of my form so fair, Snatcht from me in a way that still offends. Love that each loved one makes the passion share For him inspired me a delight so sweet.
That, as thou seest, he has not left me here. ^"* Love led us both unto one death ; the seat Of Caina waits for him who laid us low. Such were the words with which they us did greet. When I had heard those spirits injured so, For such a length of time I bowed my face, "" That the bard said to me, " What thinkest thou ? When I began and answered him, " Alas !
How many sweet thoughts and what yearning fears Have led both these unto this dolorous pass '. Then turned I, speaking to those listening ears, "* " Francesca, at thy martyrdom my eyes In sadness and in pity melt to tears. But tell me, in that time of sweetest sighs. Through what Love led thee howsoever lief, Thy doubtful longings clear to recognise ?" ^^ Line 97. " The land is seated wherein I was bom Upon the seashore. Itavenna.
The hapless story of Francesca of Rimini and her passion for her brother-in-law are too well known to reqnire explanation. Upun this episode Dante has poured out all the treasures of his tenderness, and in reading the fate of the lovers, who can never again be separated, we for^ret that we are in the circles of Hell.
It is the last touch of pity which Daiite permits himself to show, and henceforth all is stern exultation and horror until we enter the milder regions of Purgatory. Line 106. "The seat Of Caina waits for him who laid us low. Caioa is the region of Hell to which murderers are doomed, and will be described in the 32nd Canto.
Caitto VL hell. 21 And she to me : ** There is no greater grief Than to remember us of happy time In misery, and that thy bard's belief. But since of all our love to know the prime And early root thou hast such yearning strong, ^^ I will tell all, though weeping all the time. We read one day for pleasure, in the Pong Of Launcelot, how Love him captive made ; We were alone without one thought of wrong.
Many and many a time our eyes delayed ^^ The reading, and our faces paled apart ; One point alone it was that us betrayed. In reading of that worshipt smile o' the heart, Kissed by such lover on her lips' red core, This one, who never more from me must part, ^" Kissed me upon the mouth, trembling all o'er : For us our Quleotto was that book ; That day we did not read it any more. And all the while that thus one spirit spoke.
The other wailed so that in pity's thralls My senses failed as one whom death had strook, And I fell down as a dead body falls. Line 127* " We read one day for pleasure, in the song Of Launcelot.^' The " Bomanoe of the Bound Tahle" where the loves of Lannoelot and Qaeen Ghunevere are described. The same scene is alluded to by Dante in Canto 16 of the "Paradise. Line 137. '* For us our Gbleotto was that book.
Galeotto was the gobetween in the loves of Launcelot and the Queen. In t^e Middle ^ges me name appears to have been generally applied to persons of that profession, in Hne same way as our word pander is derived from the officious uncle of Cressida.
" If ever you prove fabe one to another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the world's end a^r my name ; call them all Pandars ; let all constant men be Troiluses, all false women Gressids, and all brokers-between Pandars ! say amen."— Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," Act III., sc. 2.
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CANTO VI. On returning to his senses Dante finds himself in the third circle, that of rain, in whi(3i gluttons are punished, under the guardianship of Cerberus. Amongst the condemned he finds a Florentine, nicknamed Hog, and converses with him on the dissensions of their town, Aptee my senses were restored, which closed With pity for that pair so near allied. That with the sorrow I was all confused.
21)
22 HELL. Cavto VI. New torments and new sufferers are descried Around me, wheresoe'er mj sight I strain, * Where'er I move or turn, on every side. I stand in the third circle, that of rain, Eternal cursed cold and grievous sore ; In force and volume one unvarying strain. Great hailstones, turbid rain, and snowy frore ^® Is ever poured out in the darkened air, Stinketh the land it falls on evermore.
Wild Cerberus, of twofold nature rare, With three throats hurleth out the doglike bark Upon the people that are cowering there. ^* His eyes are red, his greasy beard is dark, His belly large and fingers armed with nails ; He tears, and flays, and rends the spirits stark. They howl like hounds beneath the blinding hail. Striving to make one side the other guard, The Godless wretches ever turning waiL When Cerberus, the great worm, did us regard.
His tusks he showed us as he oped his jaws ; He had no limb that was not working hard. My leader stretches out his hand and draws A clod of earth, the which with forceful blow He drove right into his voracious maws. Like to a dog, that barking but to show Hi a longing, eats up food with quiet mien.
And only fought to fill his hunger, so Were quieted at once the jaws obscene Of the demon Cerberus, who so dins the souls That they would very gladly deaf have been. We past on o'er the shadows, o'er whom rolls The grievous rainstorm, and we placed our feet Over the nothingness of form-like souls. TTpon the earth they lay in mass complete. Save one, who when he saw us drawing nigh Eose to the sitting posture very fle^t.
" thou that through this Hell art passing by," *® He said, " remember if thou me dost know. For thou wast bom before that I did die. And I to him : " Thy anguish here below Perchance withdraws thy memory from my mind, So that it seems I've seen thee not till now. ** But tell me who thou art who art thus confined In such a grievous place, and to such pain, If worse, none can be of more hateful kind."
And he to me : ** Thy city reeks amain With envy, so that overflows the bag. My life serene I past in that domain. You citizens were wont to call me Hog. For the pernicious sin of gluttonhead, Here, as thou seest, I. sicken in this quag. And I, sad soul, am not alone bested, ** But all of these like punishment endure For a like fault," and no more word he said. I answered him : " Hog, thy misery sure.
Inviting me to weeping, weighs me down ; But tell me, if thou know'st, what end will lure ^ The citizens of our divided town ? Is any just man there ? and wherefore rife Discord has aye disturbed its peaceful crown ? And he to me : " After a lengthened strife They'll come to blood, and first the forest side ** Will chase the other with much wrong to life.
That faction soon will topple from its pride, Within three years, and the other rise again, By help of him who now waits for the tide. These for long time their Vantage will maintain, Keeping the other 'neath a grievous load. So that they feel their shame, and deeply plain. Two there are just, and are not understood ; Pride, envy, avarice, in hateful round, Are sparks that every heart have flamed for good.
Here to a close he brought the tearful sound. And I to him : " Instruct me is my prayer, And as a boon let further speech abound. Line 52. '* Ton citizens were wont to call me Hog. In Italian Ciacoo. The real name of the unfortunate glutton has not been preserved. Line 66. ** And first the forest side Will chase the other. The city of Florence was then divided into the factions of the Bianchi and Neri.
'* llie forest side" is the former, to which Dante belonged, so called because its chief at that time was a new noble, Yieri de' Gerchi, who had lately oome from the woody country of the Yal de' Nievole. The history of these factions is frequently alluded to throughout the poem. Line 69. *' By help of him who now waits for the tide. Charles of Yalois, the brother of PhUip the Handsome, is here meant.
The meaning of the Italian words, " chi test^ piaggia," is disputed. Some consider them to Tuean, " who is now flattering the people ;" but the most probable explanation is that taken in the text, " who is now waiting on tlie shore for the favourable tide.*' He was called in by the Neri, when banished from the cityj to their assistance. Line 73.
" Two there are just, and are not undei^stood/' Xt is not known who were the two just men thus enigmatically expressed. S[pme suppose Dante and his friend, Guido Gavalcanti, to b^ ipte^n^ed.
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24 HELL. ^Cakto VI. Tegghiaio, Farinata, wortliy pair, Jacopo Rusticucci and his crew, ^ Arrigo, Mosca, who all strove so fair, Tell me where are they, that I know them too, Since my great longing is to learn of all. Drink they Hell's poison, or Heaven's honey dew ?'* And he : " Amongst the blacker souls they fall, ^ Crimes diverse drive them downwards to worse pain. If thou descend' st so far thou'lt see them all. But when thou'lt be on earth's most sweet domain, I pray thee bring me to their memories there ; I cannot speak or answer thee again." ^^ He turned askance his eyes' straightforward stare, Watched me a little, and then bowed his head ; With that he fell with the other blind ones there. " He will not wake again,'* my leader said, " From this time till there sounds the trump of doom, ®^ When will descend their hostile power in dread ; Each one will seek again his wretched tomb, Will take again his former flesh and face, Will hear His words eternally reboom." So we past on above that mixture base ^"** Of shadows and of rain with footsteps slow, Reasoning on future life a little space. Wherefore I said ; " O master, I would know Whether these torments after the great day Will lessen, keep as now, or fiercer grow ?" ^^ And he to me : " Thy science here essay. Which wills that more a thing is perfect nursed, The more it feels both good and evil sway. And though in truth this people, all accursed, With true perfection never can be dight, **^ Then, more than now, it looks to feel the worst."
Line 79. " Tegghiaio, Farinata, worthy pair, Jacopo Bnsticucci and his crew, Arrigo, Mosca, who all strov^e so fair." All these, except Arrigo, will be met with in lower circles of the Inferno. Tegghiaio appears in Canto XYI. ; Farinata, the great Ghibeline leader, in Canto X., in one of the finest portions of the whole poem ; Jacopo Busticucci, in company with Tegghiaio and Mosca, in Canto XXYIII., with l^e blood from his handless arms dropping on his face. The last advised the murder which began the Florentine factions. Line 106. " Thy science here essay." Virgil here refers to a sentence in Aristotle, whom Dante everywhere advances as his master in philosophic knowledge.
Canto VII. HELL. 25 We went along the roadway's outer site, Speaking much further than I here can show. We reached the point at which declines the height, There we discovered Pluto, our great foe. '^^'
CANTO VII. Dante is oonfrontod b^ Pinto at the entrance of tbe fonrth circle. Conducted by Virgil be obtains a safe passage, and sees within the avaricious and the prodigal, condemned to a like punishment, rolling great weights against each other. Passing onwards to the fifth circle they come to the Stygian lake,^ which the souls of the wrathful are immersed.
Skirting the lake they reach at last the foot of a tower. ** Ah, marvel, Satan ! marvel, King of Hell ! Pluto began with his hoarse strident shout. And that kind wise one, who knew all things well. Said for mj comfort, " Do not let thy doubt Grieve thee, for all the power which he can wage * From this descent can never shut thee out. Then to that swollen lip turned round the sage. And shouted, " Be thou silent, wolf accurst !
Consume within thyself thy hellish rage. Not without reason he thy deeps has durst ; ^* 'Tis willed on high, where o'er the boastful mind Of rebel angels Michael's vengeance burst. As when the inflated sails before the wind Fall in a heap when topples down the mast, So fell to earth that beast of cruellest kind. ** So to that fourth descent we downwards past. Descending further in that grieving shore. Where all the evil of the world is cast.
Line 1. " Ah, marvel, Satan ! marvel, King of Hell ! '^Pape, Sataji ! pape, Satan aleppe ! The words pape and aleppe are neither of them Italian. Pape is supposed to be the Latin exclamation of surprise Papae, and aleppe to be Ah ! or Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Line 11. " Where o'er the boastful mind Of rebel angels Michael's vengeance burst. '' Lk dive Michele Fe la. vendetta del superbo strupo.
The ordinary meaning of strupo is adultery, and Gary has so translated it here, although he notices the rendering which I have preferred, where " strupo" is taken for a troop, and the " superbo strupo " becomes the troop of rebel angels.
26 HELL. Canto VII. Justice of God ! who heapetb up such store Of novel toils and pains which I have seen ! ^ And why doth sin in such profusion pour ? As o'er Charjbdis' rocks the waves careen, Which breaking one against the other churn, So here the people are compelled to spin.
Here greater crowd^ than elsewhere I discern, ^ From this side and from that with shoutings thick, Revolving weights by pressure of the stem ; I* the midst they clashed against each other, quick Each one turned round and shouted out uproarious, "Why dost thou grasp?" and "Wherefore dost thou trick? '30 So in that gloomy ring they turned laborious, From every point unto the opposite side. Shouting out yet again this shameful chorus.
Then each one turned again when he had plied Up to the centre for another joust. ^ Aid I, whose heart was touched with pity, cried, " O master mine, now show me what this host Of people are ; were all these clerical too ; Those shaven pates, who throng the left-hand coast ? And he to me : ** They had such squinting view, ^ In mental constitution, in their lives. In their expense no proper mean they knew.
Clearly enough from that their speech derives. When they have reached that portion of the ring, Where each against the opposite error drives. ** Ohurchmen were those whose hairy covering Is shorn, both Popes and Church lords of degrees, O'er whom fell avarice its sway did swing. And I : " O master, amongst such as these, I surely ought to recognise a few ^ Who were afflicted with such maladies.
And he to me : " A vain thought, dost thou mew The undistinguishing life which made them foul, From every recognition bars them too. Line 27. " Bpevolviog weights by pressure of the stem. " Yoltando pesi, per forza di poppa.'* Poppa is a woman's breast or the stern of a ship. In opposition to the usnal rendering I have here taken it in the latter acceptation.
The ludicrous nature of the punishment, the sinners pushing weights backwards at each other, does not militate against the correctness of my view, as many of the puoishmentef in the Hell are ludicrous. If the jousters met face to face there would be no need for them to turn round to address each other when they clashed in the midst.
Oahto VII. HELL. 27 For ever to this tourney they will bowl ; ** Those from the sepulchre will rise again With clenched fist, those with shorn heads 'neath the cowl. Our fair world vilely spent, and vilely ta*en, Has prisoned these and placed them in this fray. I use no words its horror to explaiil ; •" Now thou canst see, O son, the short-lived day Of good, committed unto Fortune's 'hest. For which the human race so strives alway.
Since all the gold beneath the moon possest. Or ever owned by those worn souls of yore, •* Could not make one of them one moment rest. " Master," said I to him, " now tell me more ; This Fortune, about whom thou speak'st to me. What is it that thus grasps all earthly store ? And he to me : " O creatures dull to see, ^* What ignorance is this that here offends ! I would that thou shouldst ponder my decree.
He whose high knowledge everything transcends. The heavens created once, and gave their guide.
So that in all parts he their splendour tends, ^'^ Distributing the light on every side ; In like way for magnificence mondane He chose a general ministrant and guide, Who should transpose at times its prizes vain From one to other, and from race to race, ^ Beyond what human wit could let or gain ; Therefore some rise to empire, some debase, According to the judgment of her pleasure. Who lieth hidden, like a snake in grass.
Tour knowledge to her wish can place no measure, ** She sees beforehand, judges and pursues Her empire like the other powers at leisure. Her permutations never know a truce. Necessity compels her to such speed. Such numerous claims her shifting laws produce. •" This one is she, who is so crucified, Even by those who ought her praise to rear. With wrongful blame and ill words vilifidd. But this in happiness she cannot hear.
With all the other primal creatures gay, •* She gladdens in her joy and turns her sphere. Henceforth to greater pity wends our way ; Now every star is fallen that arose When I went forth, forbidding more delay."
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28 HELL. Canto VIII. We cut across the circle, where there rose ^^ A fountain that boils up and poureth down Into a rivulet that from it flows. The water was thick gray and almost brown, And we, in company with the turbid wave, \ By a wild pathway there descended down. ^*^ A marsh, to which the name of Styx they gave, This wretched streamlet makes, when overflowed It sinketh at the foot of that drear grave. I, who with purpose of beholding stood. Saw muddy people standing in the mire, ^^° All naked, and with looks where anger glowed. Striking themselves, so did their rage transpire. Not hands alone they used, but head and feet. Biting themselves to pieces in their ire. My gentle master said, " O son, now greet ^^^ The souls of those whom anger overcame ; And more, I would for certain thou shouldst weet That underneath the wave are men the same, Who breathing make the water bubbling stir, The sight, where'er it turns, thy eye can claim. Fixed in the mud, they say, * Wretched we were Jn the sweet air, which by the sun rejoices, Bearing within ourselves the angry slur ; Now we are wretched in these miry places.' This hymn within the throat they gurgling chime. Since they can speak it not with perfect voices." So we past on, skirting that filthy slime, A segment 'twixt the dry bank and the deep, With eyes still turned to those that gorge the grime, And finally we reached a turret keep. ^*^
CANTO vin. Fhlegyas, the ferryman of Styx, summoned by a signal from the tower, bears Virg^ and Dante across the lake. On the way they are attacked by FhiHppo Argenti, whose pnnishment is described. They then arrive at the city of Dis, where the fallen angels prevent their entrance, closing the gate at Virgil's approach. Continuing, I say, as soon as we Of that high turret fort had reached the bourne, Up to its summit glanced our eyes to see Line 1. ''Continuing, I say, as soon as we." Boccaccio states that the first seven Cantos were written by Dante before his banishment, and being fonnd and sent to' him by a friend who nrged the completion of the Poem, be, then in banishment, commenced the 8^h Canto with this line. It is at least
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Cakto VIIL. HELL. 20 Two little signal flames bung out to burn, And one tbat seemed to answer from afar, ' So distant tbat tbe eye could scarce discern. I, turning to tbat sea of knowledge fair, Asked, " Wbat does tbis explain ? and wbat replies Tbe otber flame ? and wbo bave raised tbem tbere ? And be to me ; " O'er tbe foul waves doth rise ^* Tbat wbicb awaits us ; tbou migbtst see it now. Did not tbe marsb's vapour dim tby eyes.
Arrow was never yet sbot from a bow Tbat ran so swiftly tbrougb tbe nimble air As I bebeld a little pinnace row ^* Tbat came towards us ere we were aware, Beneatb tbe guidance of one galley slave, Wbo sbouted out, ** O wicked eoul art tbere ? " Nay, Pblegyas, Pblegyas, tbou dost idly rave Only for tbis one time,'* my master cried, ^ " Tbou'lt bave us but to pass us o*er tbe wave.
As one wbo some tremendous trick bas spied Practised upon bim, witb vexed brow glooms dark, So acted Pblegyas in bis angry pride. My leader tben descended in tbe bark, '^* And made me enter at bis side ; tbe strain Only, wben I was in, it seemed to mark. Soon as my guide and I our seats bad ta'en. Cutting tbe water goes tbe ancient prow. More tban its wont, wben otbers cross tbat main. ^ Wbile we tbus bunied o'er tbe stagnant slougb.
Before me rose a figure mired witb clay, And cried, " Tbus coming ere tby time, wbo art tbou ? And I : " Altbougb I come I do not stay ; But wbo art tbou wbo'st made tbyself so foul ?" ^ He answered, " I am one wbo mourns for aye. And I to bim : " Go on to figbt and bowl, Accursed spirit, bere tbou must abide ; I know tbee well, altbougb tbou be'st so foul.
Tben witb botb bands our boat to grasp be tried, ^^ But bim my watcbful master backwards tbrew, Crying, ** Witb tbe otber wbelp bounds stand aside." worthy of remark that all traces of pity for the condemned, previously indulged in, cease from this time. Line 19. " Nay, Phle^yas, Phlegyas, thou dost idly rave. Phlegyas having burnt Apollo's temple, in revenge for the god's violation of his daughter, was condemned by him to Tartarus.
The guardians of Dante's Christian Hell are almost all taken from Pagan mythology. In the 'Middle Ages Christianity had not destroyed the belief in the Pagan Deities, but transformed them to Spirits of Evil.
30 HELIi. Camto VIU. Then round my neck his loving arms he drew, Kissed me upon my face, and said, '' Be blest. Indignant soul, the one who bore thee true ! This was on earth a man of proudest 'hest, No kindly trait his memory adorns ; So here his furious shade can neyer rest. Many great kings who now lift up their horns Will wallow here like swine in filthy swill. Leaving their memories to most horrible scorns.
And I : " O master, it would please me well Could I but see him in this hog's wash dive. Before we issue from this lake of ill. And he to me : " Before we can arrive ** At the farther shore thou shalt be satisfied. Prom such desire thou sure shouldst joy derive. Soon after such a torture I descried, When all the miry people on him fall, I give God thanks for that wish gratified. " Philip Argenti on ye," shouted all.
The spirit of that Florentine of hate Turned on himself his teeth at that fell call* We left him there, and I no more relate ; But ill my ears there rang an anguish cry. On which intent I gaze before me straight. My gentle master said, '^ son, hard by Neareth the dreary city, Dis by name, With woewom townsmen in great company. " Even now its minarets, master ! I exclaim, ^^ " I see above the valley rising higher.
Vermeil, as though they issued out of flame. And he explained to me : ^* The eternal fire That glows within makes them look ruddy here, As in this deep of hell thou seest each spire." ^* Meanwhile within the deep-cut moat we steer That trenches round that land disconsolate. As if of iron wrought the walls appear. Not without traversing a circuit great We reached a region where our helmsman strong *® Cried to us, " Q«t ye out, for here's the gate.
I saw above a thousand o'er it throng, Bained from the sky of old, who fiercely said, " Who's this, who does not unto death belong, Line 46. " This was on earth a man of proadest 'heat. Philip Argenti, we are told by Boccaccio, was a Florentine of extraordinary personal strength, and despotic temper. Sach a combination is, fortunately for the ha man race, not common.
Canto VIII. HELL. 31 Yet wanders through the kingdom of the dead ?" ** And my wise leader made to them a sign That he would speak to them in secret stead. Then seemed their anger somewhat to decline ; They cried, " Come thou alone, and he depart, Who entered on this realm with rash design. ^ On his mad pathway lonely let him start, And prove his knowledge since thou here wilt bide. Who through this gloomy region wast his chart.
Think, Eeader, if I was not terrified At sound of words accursed at the core, •* Thinking that all return would be denied. " O my dear leader, who, seven times and more.
Hast given me safety, and escape hast won From fearful peril that beset me sore, Do not abandon me, thus all undone, ^^ And if my further passage be denied, Back as we came let us together run.'* That leader, who so far had been my guide, Said to me, " Fear not, since to reach our bourne No one can bar, with such are we allied. ^^ But here await me, and thy spirit worn Comfort, and feed on hope of goodly cheer ; I will not leave thee in this world forlorn.
So he departeth, and he leaves me here. My father kind, and I in doubt remain, "° The no and yes within me so career. I could not hear the language they maintain ; But not for long time they in conference wait, Ere each one racing turns within again. Those enemies of ours had closed the gate ^^^ Before my leader's breast, who stayed without. And back returned to me with pensive gait.
His eyes were cast to earth, his brows with doubt Had lost all boldness, and he said with sighs, " Who from the abodes of woe has shut me out ?" ^^ To me he said, ** Though in me anger rise, Do not despond, I'll conquer in this fray Whatever opposition they devise. This insolence is nothing new to-day ; At a less secret entrance it was tried, ^^ Which now without a bolt is found for aye. Line 124, " This insolence is nothing new ix)-day.
Supposed to aUade to the vain resistance attempted by the Spirits of Evil when Christ entered Hell in triamph to save the Saints in Limbo.
32 HELL. Canto IX. O'er it fell Death's inscription we descried ; And ere now, on this side descendeth here, Passing through every circle without guide, One before whom this realm will open clear." *^
CANTO IX. Virgil pauses, waiting for heavenly assistance. In the meantime the three Furies rise upon the walls of Dis and threaten Dante with the sight of Medusa's head. The Angel then arrives across the Stvz, and the friends retiring, the gates of the city are opened. Dante folio wing Virgil finds the heretics of all denominations punished in tombs of fire. The hue which fear had painted on my face, My leader back returning when I viewed, Sooner to his restored its gentle grace. Like one who listens he intently stood ; Since to the distance eye could never pierce, * Through the blank air and clouds that thickly brewed. " Still I must conquer in this struggle fierce," Began he ; ** and if not — one offered aid. How slow his advent here to me appears !" Clearly I noticed how he overlaid ^® The words with which he had begun with more. Which quite a different meaning had betrayed, But none the less his speech woke terror sore. Because I dragged that broken syllable, Perchance to meaning worse than that it bore. ^^ " Down to the bottom of this gloomy shell Descends there ever one from the first sphere. Whose only pain is helplessly to dwell ?" This question made I, and he answered, " Here Karely it happens that amongst us one ^ Traceth the pathway by the which I steer. 'Tis true that once before I wended down. Forced by Eryton's cruellest control, Who called the shadows back their frames to own.
Lines 1 to 3. Virgil recovers his composure the sooner to allay Dante*8 fears. Lines 16 to 18. Dante appears to think that assistance is to be rendered by one of the sages in Limbo ; hence his question. Line 23 " Forced by Eryton's cruellest control," A witch, who in Lucan's *^ Pharsalia" is introduced as drawing a soul from Hell by her incantations to prophesy the termination of the civil war.
Eryton mast have lived to a good old age if it was now possible for her to employ Virgil after his death on such, an errand.
CiJiTO IX. HELL. 33 But newly I had stripped my fleshly stole, '* When o'er yon walls she forced me to procure From Judas' circle, by her spells, a soul. That is the lowest place, and most obscure. And furthest from the spheres' encircling sky. Well do I know the way, so rest secure. ^" This marsh, that breathes out such a stench on high, Girdles around this residence of woe, Where, without wrath, we cannot henceforth hie.
And more he said, which now I do not know, Because I wholly had withdrawn my eyes ^ Towards the high turret, with its crest aglow. When all at once I saw erect arise The three infernal Furies, tinged with blood. Who looked like females in their limbs and guise, And were girt round with greenest Hydra's brood : ^ Serpents and homed snakes they had for hair.
Which their fell brows encircling, fierce outstood, And he, who knew them well, the slaves that bear The mandates of the Queen of lasting woe, ** Behold !" he cried, " the fierce Erynnes there ! ** That is Megera on the left hand ; lo Aletto she, who waileth on the right, I' the midst Tisiphone. He silent grew.
With talons each one tore her breast in spite, Smote with her palms, and shrieked in such a tone, ^ That to the bard I clung in my affright. '* Medusa, come ! we'll turn him into stone ! Cried they, as all their looks towards me abase, " Theseus' assault unpunished we atone. " Turn thyself back, and cover up thy face. If Gorgon here be shown, and thou shouldst see, Nothing will ever move thee from this place.
So spake my master, and he turned me, he Himself, and trusted not to hands of mine. But with his own he clasped my eyes for me. Line 27. The oirde of Judas Iscariot, called Gtiidecca, is the lowest pit in the tenth and last oirde, and is descrihed in the 84th Canto. Line 54. " Theseus' assault unpunished we atone.
The Furies lament that ihey allowed^ Theseus to depart from Hell in safety, through whose escape another hying soul has now ventured within their kingdom, a mistake they will not repeat. This is one of those rare instances in which Gary's translation apj^ears to me to be in error, though the Italian text wiU accept his interpretation : — " Mai non vengiammo in Teseo I'assalto. " E'en when by Theseus' might assailed, we took No ill revenge. I read with Yentari : " Mistakenly, we did not avenge Theseus' assault. D
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34 HELL. CaxtoIX. you, whose intellects are clear, divine The doctrine which is ever foond concealed Beneath the veiling of each strangest line. And now there came, o'er the dark waves revealed, The crashing of a sound replete with dread, ^ At which the shores on each side, trembling, reeled. Not otherwise than like a wind makes head. Impetuous, sweeping through the heated air, That smites a wood, and irresistibly sped. Strikes off, and bears awav the branches bare ; Onwards it goeth in its dusty pride, Chasing the shepherds and the beasts from lair. My eyes he loosed, and said, " Now boldly guide Thy eyesight upwards o'er yon hoary scum, There, where the vapour densest is descried." Like frogs who see their foe the adder come Into the water, straightway from it flee. And on the earth lie heaped, all cowering, dumb. More than a thousand lost souls did I see Thus fly in front of one who, walking there ** With foot unwetted crost o'er Styx's sea. From 'fore his countenance the thickened air, With his left hand, he ever waved away, That was the only pain he seemed to share. Well did I know a messenger of Day, And to my master turned, who made a sign That I should bow in silence to his sway. Ah, how he seemed replete with scorn divine ! He reached the gate, and smiting with his rod. Oped it in spite of every stay malign. " O chased from Heaven, race hateful to your God ! So o'er the horrible threshold he began, " Whence was there nursed this ultra-hardihood ? Why do ye kick against the heavenly plan. Whose purposed end ye never could abate. And which has oft increased your suffering's span ?
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Lines 61 to 63. Supposed to caU the reader's attention to the mystic meaning of the present Canto, and not of Virgil's present action alone.
Tluit hidden sense is explained by Landino to be, that mere carnal sins, such as those previously punished, can be restrained by Beason, which is figured in the person of Virgil ; but that the heinous cnmes which are to follow can only be guarded against by a special grace of God, represented by the AngeX, There is no doubt that Dante intended his whole Poem in an allegorical sense, and this is not the only place where he cautions the reader not to over his hidden meaning.
Cahto IX. HELL. 35 In what ayails it you to joust with Fate ? Your Cerberus, ye may remember well, With maw and throat all peeled, still feels the weight.*' Then he turned back into that pathway fell, ^•^ And made no sign to us, but kept the guise Of one, o'er whom some other care holds spell Than his, who at the time before him lies. We moved our footsteps then towards the land.
Safe in those holy words from all surprise. *®* Without more strife within the walls we stand, And I, whose first desire was to behold The state in which such fortress had been planned, Soon as I entered, round my eyesight rolled, And saw on each hand stretch a champaign large ^^® All full of grief and torment manifold. Just as at Aries, where stagnates Bhone's discharge, And as at Pola, near Camaro's waves.
Which boundeth Italy and bathes its marge. The place is wholly studded o'er with graves, ^^* So were they scattered here on every side. Save that their fashion greater horror craves : For 'twixt the tombstones flames were scattered wide. By which they were enkindled to such glow That iron forging never with it vied. ^^ The covering stones to all were open low.
And from them issued forth laments so keen, 'Twas clear they came from wretched souls in woe. And I : '* O master, who may these have been. That buried underneath each curvM stone, ^ By sighs of anguish make their presence seen ?*' And he to me : " Here heretics make moan With their disciples of each sect, and more Than thou wouldst credit, do these chamels own. Lines 98 and 99.
" Your Cerbems, ye may remember well, With maw and tbroat all peeled, still feels the weight. Alluding to the story rdated by Ovid, of Hercules dragging Cerberus from Hell Dy an iron chain, on his attempted opposition to the hero. Line 112.
Aries, a city in Provence, and once the seat of the Boman provincial Government : the extent of Boman rains in the place give to it the appearance of a oity of tombs, and its recollection was clearly vivid in Dante's mmd when he introduced it in this very striking simile, or rather illustration. Line 113. Fola, a city of Istria, on the Gtuph of Quarnaro.
It is now in the possession of the Austrians, who have created there a iirst-class naval port. Line 127. " Here heretics make moan With their disciples of each sect. The acute and discriminating Father Yenturi is led^ by his Catholic prejudices into an amusing anaclu'cmsm in explaining this Une. Amongst the
36 HELL. Canto X. Here like with like is buried evermore, ^ To each in due degree the heat is cast. So speaking to the right he went before, And 'twixt the turrets and the doomed we past. heretics in tlie burning tombs he mildly places Lather and the Lntherans, probably in anticipation of the horrors of free thonght which the great Keformer was to mflict npon the Christian world, miether.
Dante would have placed him there, had he been gifted with prophecy, may at least be considered doubtful. CANTO X. Farinata degli Uberti, the Ghibeline leader, and Cavalcante Cavalcanti, the Guelph, rise from the same tomb and converse with Dante. The latter inquires about the welfare of his son Gruido, Dante's great friend, and the former predicts Dante's exile.
He explains to Dante that although able to see indistinctly future events, the spirits are entirely ignorant of what is at the time going on in the world, unless they are informed by spirits lately arrived from there.
Now by a narrow street we onwards wind, Between the region's walls and those in pain, My master and I following close behind. ** O virtue chief, that through this fell domain Guidest me," said I, " as thou will'st to hie, * Speak now and satisfy my wishes fain. The people who beneath these tombstones lie, Can they be seen ? Already are revealed The open lids, and no one watcheth nigh.
And he to me : " They all will then be sealed When from Jehoshaphat's dread vale of fame Each brings his body, now on earth concealed. Their burial-place on this side do they claim With Epicurus, all his followers weak. Who make the soul as mortal as the frame. ^^ But thou, in that demand which thou didst make, Within this place shalt soon be satisfied, And also in the wish thou didst not speak.
And I : ** Kind leader, I would never hide From thee my heart, except to be more brief, ** To which thy lesson was even now applied. " O Tuscan, through the abodes of fire and grief. Who living goest with the speech so fair. Please thee to rest thee here for short relief. Line 18. '* And also in the wish thou didst not speak.
That of conversing with some of the heretics, amongst whom FariDaia and his companion are placed amongst the Epicureans, since they did not believe in the immortality of the soul.
Canto X. HELL. 87 Thy words at once all manifest declare ^ That thou wast bom in that fair land of pride, To which I haply wrought too great despair. Suddenly issuing forth these words were cried From one of the arched graves, on which I drew In fear a little nearer to my guide. But he addressed me : ** Turn, what dost thou do P Lo, Farinata there erect has risen ; From the waist upwards thou canst wholly yiew.
Already on his face was fixed my vision, When slowly he upreared his brow and breast,. As if he held all Hell in great derision. My leader's bands, cordial and ready, prest Me towards him, through the sepulchres malign,. Saying, '' Thy words must frankly be addresst.
Soon as I stood before his grave's confine He looked at me awhile,, then with disdain He asked me, '' What was thy ancestral line F' My chiefs advice to follow I was fain, So nothing I concealed, but all avowed. On which he somewhat raised his brows,, and then ^ Spake to me : " They were adversaries proud To me, my predecessors, and my side, Therefore to exile twice their heads I bowed.
" If they were banished each time,*' I replied, " They came back to their homes from o'er the seas ; ^ Unto your friends that art has been denied. Then into view there rose up by degrees A shadow by his side, who showed his face, I think that he had risen on his knees. Line 32. " Lo, Farinata there erect has risen.
Farinata degli TJberti, the great Ghibeline leader, oommanded in the battle of Monte Aperto, near the river Arbia, when the Florentines were routed with great slan^hter. Although Dante, the Ghibeliiie poet, places the Ghibeline chief in his Inferno, in ». few broad lines he draws for nim the grandest character introduced into the poem.
The pains of Hell have no effect upon his indomitable pride; he makes no allusion to his sufferings, he makes no boast of f ortitude^ but one f eelS' that from that soul of adamant the petty tortures of this material Hell are as ineffectual in their object as those hurled b^ the savage Jove of the Pagan creed against the calm Prometheus. Farmata is the impersonation of the iaflexiUe aristocrat of the Middle Ages. Line 62.
'* Then into view there rose up by degrees A shadow by his side. Cavalcante Cavaloanti, father of Guide, the bosom friend of Dante, whom the father therefore expects to see in his company. Guide was a celebrated poet of the time, with a reputation equal to Dante's own, until the publication of the " Divina Commedia.
Guide, however, preferred philosophy to poetry, which is ^nerally given as the explanation of Dante's answer that he might have disdamed Virgil for his guide. The pride of the poor suffering father in his son and his intense affection are porbrayed in the most touching manner in the f oUowing lines.
He looked around me anxiously through space, As though some other with me he would see ; But when his hope had wholly given place, Weeping he said, " If through this prison free To wander thou through genius dost attain, Where is my son, and wherefore not with thee ?*' " Not of myself I come here," I explain, " He who awaits me there has been my guide ; Perchance your Guide held him in disdain/* His question and the punishment descried, Already this man's name had made me know ; Therefore at once so fully I replied.
Instant he rose erect and cried out, ** How ? Saidst thou he held ? and does he liye no more ? Does not the sweet light smite his dear eyes now P" When he perceiyed that I made pause before Answering that question eagerly addresst. He fell down prone, and forth appeared no more.
But the other mighty soul, at whose request I still remained, changed not his haughty mien, Nor bent his form, nor bowed his lofty crest ** And if," continuing his former strain, " They have," he said, " that art for evil learned, That gives me torment than this bed more keen. But not lor fifty times there shall be burned, The torch of Hecate, who ruleth here, Ere thou shalt know how dear that axt is earned.
So mayst thou rule upon the sweet earth's sphere. Say, 'gainst my fnends its every law throughout, Say, wherefore is that people so severe ? Whence I to him : " The slaughter and the rout Which made the Arbia's wave run tinged with red, Within our temple made them raise such shout. Then slowly and with sighs he shook his head ; '* I was not there alone, and none supposed That without cause to such a length we sped.
But there I was alone when 'twas proposed By every one to march on Florence straight; Alone in open council I opposed. Line 82. " So mayst thou rale upon the sweet earlh's sphere," &c. Farinata co^ares Dante by all his hopes of saooess in life to explain why the Florentines always omitted his funily, the Uberti, from every advantage granted to the other Ghibelines. Line 91. '* Bat there I was alone when 'twas proposed.
Allnding to a oonncil held at Empoli, when the Siennese general proposed to destroy Florence, which Farinata alone of the Florentine GhibeUne leaders opposed.
Cahto X. HELL. 39 Ah, that repose at last your seed await ! Besought I him, " This diflBiculty clear, ** Which has perplext my judgment with its weight. It seems that you can see, if well I hear. Forward to that which Time will slow unfold, And of the present wholly blind appear." ^* Like those who have bad eyesight, we behold Things which are dist>ant from us," he replied, " Such light Great G-od permits us still to hold.
When they approach or are, in vain is tried Our knowledge, save what others here relate, We can know nothing of your human tide. But thou must know that dead to future fate Will be our prescient knowledge from that time When of the future will be closed the gate. Then I, as one compunctious for my crime. Said, *' You must tell him then who fell down low. His son still liveth in our mortal clime.
And if in answering I was mute just now, Explain it was because my thoughts did track That puzzling secret you have made me know. My master had already called me back, Therefore I prayed the spirit with more speed To tell me who were with him in the rack. '< More than a thousand with me share this bed ; My tomb's confines the second Frederic hold, The Cardinal, of the rest I take no heed.
Then he was silent, and towards the old Poet I turned my steps, thinking again Of that unfrienmy prophecy he told. Line 108. " When of the fatore will be dosed the gate. The final judgment, after which there will be no past nor future, but only an ebsmal present. Lone 109. ''Then I, as one oompunctious for my crime.
Dante's conaoience smites him for not having at once relieved the mind of Cavalcante oonoeming his son, who was alive at the date the poem is supposed to have talcen place.
The excuse Dante gives for his neglect is clearly an afterthought and a bad one, for it was not till after Cavaloante had fiiJlen down in despair, under ihe mistaken belief in his son's death, that Farinata made to Dante the mysterious announcement of his future exile. liine 119. '* My tomVs confines the second Frederic hold, The Cardinal.
The Emperor Frederic II., nephew of Barbarossa, is included amongst the heretics for his opposition to the Church. The Cardinal is Ottavian Ubaldini, an open unbeliever and Ghibeline in spite of being a Church dignitary. He it was who said, " If there is such a thmg as a soul I have lost mine for the Ghibelines."
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40 HELL. CAjno XI. The bard moved on, and as we went, " Explain/* He said, " the reason thou art thus bestirred." ^ And I to answer his request was fain. *^ Guard in thy mind the speech which thou hast heard Against thyself," the prescient si^e did say, " And listen now," with this his hand he reared, ** When thou shalt be before the sweet light's ray ^** Of her whose eye sees all things without veil. From her thoult learn of all thy life the way." Then to the left he turned ; the outer pale We left, and inwards to the centre hie, Along a path which pierceth to a vale, ^ And even so far exhaled its stench on high. Line 131. " Of her whose eye sees all things withoat veiL" Beatrioe, who sees all things in the sight of God.
CANTO XI. Besting on a rock that overhangs the seventh circle while they pause to aocostom themselves to the fetid atmoe^ere^ Virgil explains to Dante what crimes are punished in the three remaining cu^es, namely, violence^ fraad, and treason. He shows how the crimes punished in the circles outside the city of Dis are of less culpability than those doomed wiiliin the waUs, and now usury is particularly hateful to Qod. Above the extremity of a lofty chain Of broken rocks heaped roughly in a bank. We issued forth upon more cruel pain. And here, through the excess of odour rank Which from the depths profound the abysses threw, * Against the lid of a great tomb we sank. Of which at once the inscription caught my view ; " Pope Anastasius here behold," it said, " Whom erst Photinus from the straight path drew. " Now our descent must be some while delayed, So that the accustomed sense may somewhat bear The fetid odour, hence no more dismayed." My master thus, and I : *' Some mode prepare^ ' Of compensation, that the time be past Not idly." He replied, " Thy thoughts I share. " Line 8. " 'P<>PO Anastasius here behold/ it said." It is doubtful whether either of the ^opes of this name was really led astray by the heresy of Photinus, a deacon of the Church of Thessalonica in the ^f&. century. It is certain, however, that Dante intended to place a Pope amongst his condemned heretics.
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Cahto XI. HELL. 41 Onwards, my son, within these rocks are placed," Began he then to tell me, '^ circles three. In steps decreasing, like the one thou'st traced. They all are full of cursed souls, that free Thy sight alone full knowledge may create. ^ Hear now the how and wherefore these things be. Of every malice that in Heaven wins hate The end is injury, and each such plan By force or fraud on some wreaks wof ul fate.
Since fraud is ill peculiar unto man ^ God it displeases more, and hence more low The fraudulent are doomed to greater pain. The violent fill the outer vale of woe. And since in three ways violence is shown. In three compartments 'tis divided so. To God, oneself, one's neighbour force is done, 111 their own persons and affairs, I say. As with developed reason will be known.
Murder by violence and fierce affray, Attack one's neighbour's person, his estate, Destructions, burnings, carryings away. Whence homicides and all who wound in hate. Spoilers and plunderers, all tormented lie In this first ward, though doomed to diverse fate. Man on himself his violence can try, ^ And on his goods, so in the second ward 'Tis fit that they repent all needlessly, Whoever in your life quits life abhorred.
Gambles, and wastes away his faculty, And waileth there where life should joy afford. *^ Foree can be shown against the Deity By cursing and denying with the "heart, Outraging Nature and her bounty free. Therefore the smaller ward sealeth apart Both Sodom and Caorsa with its seal, *• And whosoe'er denies God in his heart. Line 45.
" Ajid waileth there where life should joy afford/^ A oanaeless melaiicholy, refosing to enjoy the gifts of 6od*s boontyin life, is classed with snicide and gambling, and punished in a lower pit of Hell than murder and robbery by violence. Line 50. " Both Sodom and Caorsa. Caorsa, a city of Gnienne, infamous for usury. The sins of Caorsa and Sodom are classed together, as outraging Ood by violence, through Nature.
Usury is ranked as the greater crime, as it was undoubtedly considered throughout the Middle Ages, and Dante, with all fai« genius, is essentially a man of his age.
42 HELL. Cahto XL Such fraud, for wbicb all must compunction feel< Can man exert 'gainst him whose trust he shares. And him whose thoughts no confidence rereal. This latter fEushion all unseemly tears ^ The golden chain of love which Nature weaves. Whence gather in the second circle's lairs Hypocrisy, sJl flattery that deceives. Witchcraft, lies, thefts, the Simoniac blot.
Panders, chicaners, and all similar thieves. ^ By the other mode not only is forgot Nature's more general, but that special love By which the special trust was erst begot. Whence in the smaller circle, where above The centre of the world is Dis's throne, ** All who betray eternal torments prove. And I : '' O master, very clear is shown Thy argument, and hence is clear descried Those prisons and the people which they own.
But say, the dwellers in the sluggish tide, ^^ Whom the wind whirls and whom the rainstorms smite. And those who with sharp tongues so fiercely plied, Wherefore within this glowing city's site Are they not punished, if beneath Ood's ire ? And if not so, why doomed to such despite ? '^ And he to me : '' What ravings now inspire Thy thoughts to strike on this unwonted chord ?
Or to what region does thy mind respirei Dost thou not then remember thee the word With which thy Aristotle's Ethics styled, ^ The three bad dispositions Heaven abhorred ? Incontinence, and malice, and the wild Bestiality ? and how incontinence Offends Ood less and suffers blame more mildP If thou regardest well that saying's sense, ^ And bnngest to thy mind what men are these Who on the outside suffer pimishment.
Thou wouldst see clearly wherefore in degrees All separate from these wretches, with less spite They are afflicted by Heaven's just decrees." ^ ** O Sun, that healest every troubled sight. Thou so contentest me when thou mak'st clear Doubts, that no less than knowledge they delight, Lines 70, 72. The wrathfoli the hucivious, the glnttonoos, the avorioioas and prodigal, whose punishments have been described in the preceding Cantos.
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Backwards again thj thoughts a little steer. There where thou saidst that usury ofEeuds Ck)odnes8 Divine, and make the mystery clear.'* "Whoe'er," he said, ** philosophy attends, Leameth therefrom not only in one part. How Nature duly her own course extends From Intellect Divine, and from its art. And if thou'lt carefully thy Physics scan. Thou wilt discover in the opening part That your Art follows Nature as it can. Like the disciple goes his lord behind ; So that God's grandchild is the art of man. ^^'* From Art and Nature, if thou bring'st to mind The verse of Genesis, 'tis doomed alone That man should live and carry on his kind. And since to usurers other ways are known. Both Nature and her follower stand confest "^ Outraged by those whose trust is elsewhere shown. Follow me now, enough has been our rest, And on the horizon now the Pisces shine. And all the Wain reclineth o'er the west. And further up the cliffs less steep decline."
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Line 101. Yirgil, as vusnaX, is quoting from Aristotle. Line 106. " From Art and Nature, if thoa bring'st to miikd The verse of Genesis." The earions argument by which the crime of nsnry is proved is this : GK>d has decreed that man shall live by the sweat of his face — i.e., by labour which cultivates some art, which last is the child of Nature. Usurers live neither by Nature nor by labour (or art) ; they, therefore, outrage Nature both in herself and her ofipring, and are, therttore, worse even wan Sodomites !
CANTO XII. Descending the bank into the seventh circle, they find it gnarded by the Minotaur. Having reached the bottom of the cliff, Dante sees a river of blood, in which are punished those who have committed violence against their neighbour, being prevented from rising out of the boiling stream by a band of Centaurs, who gallop with bows and arrows along its bank.
Three of them advance to meet Virgil and Dante, and, at the former's request, one of them guides the poets along the bank, and finally carries Dante across the stream on his lMU)k. The place we stood on to descend the bank Precipitously fell, and there beside Was one from sight of whom all vision shrank. like to that landslip, which with 'whelming slide St^ck the Adige, above the town of Trent, * Through earthquake moved^ or action of the tide :
44 BELL.
Cahto XIL Which from the mountain's crest from whence it went Fell with such sheer incline into the plain That from above it ofEers no descent : So did that beetling cliff the valley gain : ^^ And o'er the broken hollow, on its brow, The Infamy of Crete was stretched amain Conceived within the fabricated cow : He bit himself when he beheld us near, As one in whom quick-roused angers glow. ^* My wise one shouted towards him : " Haply here Thou think' st that Athens' Duke again is bent.
Who of old slew thee in the upper sphere ? Off with the beast ! for this one is not sent Taught by thy sister how to make thee bleed, *" He Cometh but to see thy punishment. Like to a bull the very moment freed He has received the mortal stroke, in air Bounds here and there, unable on to speed, The Minotaur thus maddened saw I there : ^ My prudent guide cried out : '' JRun to the pass, Bunng his fiirious fit, descend with care.
So on we hurried through the scattered mass Of tumbled stones, that ofben moving slide Beneath the unwonted weight, as on I pass. ^ In thought I went : " Thou musest," said my guide, " Perchance about this precipice, watched o'er By the bestial anger which I now defied. I would that thou shouldst know, that when before Down to Hell's lowest deeps I turned my feet, ^ This rock had not yet toppled to the shore.
But very shortly ere (if well I weet) His coming, who such booty bore from Hell, Those prisoners of the outer circle's seat. In every portion, this deep valley fell ^ So trembled, that I thought the reeling sphere Had felt the Love, through which, there are who tell Lines 12 and 13. The Minotaur, offspring of Fasiphae and her unnatural passion. Line 17. " Thou think'st that Athens' Duke again is bent.
Theseus, who, instructed by Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, was enabled to slay the monster. Line 37. " But very shortly ere (if well I weet) His coming.'* The triumphant entry of Christ, described in Canto lY. Line 42. " Had felt the Love, through which, there are who tell That oft i' the world did Chaos reappear.
The idea that through Love the atoms of the Universe separate from the mass to join together like with like, and that in this manner Chaos has been
Cahio XU. hell. 45 That oft i' the world did Chaos reappear : And in that moment this old nx^k from high Down to its basement toppled here and there. *^ But gaze upon the valley : there draws nigh The river of red blood, where boil in fire All who with force do others injury." blind cupidity, O foolish ire, Which spurs us on so in our life's short day, *• And soaks us till Eternity expire ! 1 saw a broad stream bending far away. As though its wave did all the plain embrace. By the description which my guide did say ; And 'twixt it and the mountain's foot in race ^ Galloped a band of Centaurs, armed with bows. As in the world they erst were wont to chase. When our descent they saw, each one stood close, And three amongst them sallied from the band With bows and darts, our passage to oppose ; ^* And one from far cried out : " What pains demand Your sentence, that you thus descend the side ? I shoot unless you speak from where you stand." " Our answer," thus my master straight replied, " When we have reached his side, shall Chiron know ^* Badly for thee thy will could never bide." He touched me then, and said : " 'Tis Nessus> who Perished of old for Dejanira fair. And from himself made his own vengeance flow. He in the middle, with the musing air, ^^ Is the great Chiron, to Achilles bowed ; The other Folus, erst so ireful. There Along the stream in thousands do they crowd. Shooting whatever souls themselves upreared. Above the blood, more than their doom allowed.'* ^* Onwards, towards those active beasts we neared ; And Chiron with an arrow's feathered head Behind his jaws drew back his massy beard. When his great mouth was thus laid bare, he said To his companions, wondering : '^ Do ye weet How this one moveth all things with his tread P
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repeated more than once, is said to have ori^nated with Empedodes. but is probably taken by Dante from his fovoonte master Aristotle, who has introduced it in his " Physics. Line 67. " 'Tis Nessns, who.
Kessas being slain by Hercules, revenged himself by leaving his poisoned robe to D^anira, making her believe that it was a love charm.
46 HELL. Cawto xn. So are not wont to do the dead men's feet. My leader to his breast now opposite, There, where the horse and human nature meet, Answered, " He lives, and in this lonely plight, ** 'Tis mine to show him all this dreary vale, Necessity compels us, not delight. She left her song, within Heaven's holy pale.
Who trusted unto me this office new, No robber he, and I no spirit frail. ^ But by the virtue, through the which I knew My footsteps through this pathway wild to guide. Give one of thine to be our convoy true, That he may show us where to cross the tide And carry this my comrade on his back, ^ No spirit he, who through the air can gHde.
Great Ohiron to the right then turned him back. << Turn thou, and guide them," he to Nessus cried, " And hinder any band that thwarts their track. Onwards we travelled with our trusty guide, ^^ Along the shore of the red boiling wave, Where shrieked aloud those boiled within its tide.
Some to their brows I saw the liquid lave ; The Centaur told me : '^ These were tyrants fierce Who in their lives but blood and rapine gave. ^^ Here they bewail their punishment with tears ; See Alexander, Dionysius there. Who gave to Sicily such dolorous years. That forehead covered o'er with thick black hair Is Azzolino, that one by his %ide "® Obizzo d'Esti, with the locks all fair. On earth beneath his son's own hand he died.
Then to the bard I turned, but he declared, " Not I, but this one here must be our guide. A little way beyond the Centaur neared ^^ Another troop, as fiu: as to the throat Above the bubbling stream were these upreared. A shadow by itself he bade us note, Saying, ''A heart, still cherished o'er the^ Thame, Within the lap of God this sinner smote." ^ Line 109..
" That forehead covered o'er with thick bhiok hair*' is Aciolino, a ruler of Padua and the surrounding countries, infamous for his cruel tyrannies, who died in 1260. He murdered two of the numerous husbands of his sister Gunizza, introduced by Dante in the " Paradise" as inhabiting the sphere of Venus. Par., Canto IX. Line 111. " Obizzo d'Esti, with the locks all fair. A Marquis of Ferrara, killed by his son for the sake of his wealth. Line 119.
" A heait, still cherished o'er the Thame, Within the lap of God this sinner smote. Guy de Montfort, in order to revenge the deaUi of his father Simon,
Cahto XIII. HELL. 47 Then saw I people wlio from out the stream Lifted their head, and even all the breast, And several of these I knew by name. Shallower, and shallower still, the blood decreased, Until at last it ooly bathed the feet, *^ And there our passage o'er the stream we prest.
'* As in this portion thou didst now behold, The bubbling source has ever shallower grown, I would that thou shduldst know," the Centaur told, " That so it deepens, as it circles on, '*• Until once more its circuit course it brings, There, where 'tis doomed that tyranny should groan.
'Tis there that HeaTen's high justice ever stings « That Attila who was the scourge of earth, Pirrhus, and Sextus, and eternally wrings "* The tears, which by the boiling it draws forth From Pazzo and Cor^eto, both abhorred. Who in the highways made such constant dearth. Then he turned back, and crossed again the ford. slew Henry, nephew of King Henry III. of England, during the oelehration of the High Mass.
The ItaJian chronicles relate that the heart of Henry waa emhalmed in a golden cup, and placed on a pillar over London Bridge, for a memorial to the English of the said outrage. Line 137. "From Pazso and Cometo, both abhorred. Two highway robbers of Italy, both of them of noble birth.
CANTO xni. Entering the second division of the seventli circle, Dante finds himself in a weird wood, the trees of which are the spiritis of tliose who have committed violence against their own persons, and who are punished by being fed upon by Harpies.
While Viigil converses with Pietro-^ello Yigne, the confidant and Chancellor of the Emperor Frederic II., two spirits rush through the forest, chased by black bitches, who tear tliem to pieces, such being the punishment of tliose who have committed violence against themselves in tneir estate. I^ESSUS had scarce departed from the place. Or ere we found ourselves within a wood, In which no sign of pathway marked its trace.
No leaves of tender green, but brownly hued, No waving boughs, but gnarled and knotted growth, * No fruit, but thorns with poisonous berries rude. In such a thick and savage undergrowth Koam not the wild beasts through Maremma's lair, Who all the cultivated regions loathe.
48 HELL. OAvfo XHL Their nests tlie Harpies fool constructed there, ^ Who chased the Trojans from the Strofades, With gloomy augury of future fare. Broad wings with human necks and visages, Clawed feet are theirs, great bellies feathered o'er, They make their moan upon the eerie trees.
'^ And my good master : '* Ere thou enterest more Enow in the second circle dost thou stand," So said he, '' which extendeth on its shore Until thou com est to the horrible sand. But well observe, and things thou wilt behold, ^ For which my word could ne'er thy &ith demand. On every side the sound of waiHng roUed, And not a soul I saw by whom 'twas wrought. So that astonied there my steps I hold.
Meseemeth that he fancied that I thought ^ Those voices came from 'twixt the branches sent By people who from us concealment sought. " But," said the master, " if by thee be rent Of any of these plants, some branch's end. The thoughts thou hast will straightway skll be spent.** ^ On that my hand a little I extend. And gathered from a briar a little bough. When its trunk shrieked out, ** Wherefore dost thou rend ?
Then, when the brown blood had begun to flow. Again it shrieked out, " Wherefore dost thou tear ? ^ Does not thy spirit any pity know ? Though now we're changed to shoots, yet men we were : Surely thy hand more clement should have been Had we been souls of serpents in despair.
As when the one end of a firebrand green ^ Is kindled, at the other end it groans And hisses with the hot air issuing keen, So from that broken branch there issued moans And blood together, whence I dropt the bough And stood like one whom sudden terror owns. ^ ** Had it been possible for him to know," Answered my wise one, '' O thou soul in pain. By words alone that which the sight could show, On thee his hand had ne'er such action ta'en.
Only the incredible marvel of the place ^ Forced me to prompt a deed which now I plain. Line 11. " Who chased the Trojans from the Strofades. See " ^neid," bookiii;
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Cino zni. HELL. 49 But tell him who thou wert, so that in grace For some amends, in the upper world thj fame May grow where he his steps again will trace*" " So with thy sweet words me thou dost inflame *'^ That I must speak^ and let it not displease If to some little length I now declaim. I am the one who carried both the keys Of Frederic's heart, and tuned them with such sweet Motion, both locking and unlocking these, ^ That for his secrets no one else was meet. With trust I exercised my high emprise, So that for it my pulses ceased to beat. Envy, the harlot whose bold, shameless eyes
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Of courts the common ruin and the vice. Inflamed against me there the hearts of all, And they inflamed, Augustus so inspired, That my glad honours changed to strife's sad pall. My spirit, with disdainful passion fired, ^ Thinking with death alone to 'scape from scorn. Unjustly 'gainst myself, though just, conspired. By the new roots beneath this tree forlorn I swear to ye my faith I never broke Against my lord, to honour duly bom.
'* And should ye either bear again eaxth's yoke justify my memory, which lies Still wounded by the force of Envy's stroked He paused awhile, and through the sUences The poet whispered, '' Lose not time in yain, ^ But speak to him should further question please. Whence I to him : '' Then question him again Of what thou thinkest will delight me best. 1 cannot speak myself for pity fain.
Therefore he recommenced : " If thy behest ^ This man should freely execute for thee. Imprisoned spirit, please thee for the rest To tell him how the spirit in the tree Is here allied, and if thou canst, explain If any from such frame can e'er be free." ^ Lme 68.
'' I am the one who carried both the keys Of Frederic's heart.*' Fietro delle Vigne, a man who from a mean condition raised himself by his talents to the post of GhanceUor to the Emperor Frederic II., whom Dante has already placed amongst the condemned heretics. The dis^ced servant Bpeaks more honourably of his former master, " che fa d'onor si digno." £
60 HELL. Canto xm. Then yiolently sighed the trunk, and then Its wind in breathing to such speech converts. " To you my answer will be brief and plain. When from the body the fierce soul departs, From which itself by its own deed has torn, ** At Minos' doom to the seventh pit it starts. Within this forest is it straightway borne, No chosen spot, but there where Fortune shoots, There does it burgeon like a grain of com.
The small branch sprouteth and the tree strikes roots, ^^ Make torment and an opening for despair. The Harpies feeding on the leaves and fruits. Like others we our cast-off frames will bear. But not one limb will be again arrayed. What man's self spent he cannot justly wear. ^^^ Here we shall drag them, and in order laid Our forms will hang along this dreary wood, Each to the briar of its own hateful shade.
Intently listening to the trunk we stood, Believing that it wished to tell us more, "" When we were startled by a clamour rude. And like to one who heareth a wild boar Break towards him, with the pack in eager chase. Who hears the branches rend and the beasts roar. When, lo ! from the left comer of the place ^** Two torn and naked forms, rushing with speed. So that each branch was broken in their race.
The one in front : " O Death, come now at need ! When he^ who somewhat lagged behind, appealed. Shouting out, '* Lano this way did not speed Those limbs of thine at Toppo's battle-field. Then, when perchance his breath had failed him, he Fell in a bush and sought there for a shield. Behind them all the wood we swarming see With stark black bitches, hungering to tear, ^^ Eacing like greyhounds from the sHps let free. Line 101.
" Make torment and an opening for despair, The Harpies. Through the wonnds inflicted by the Harpies these spirit trees have a vent for their angnish, the blood and wailing issuing together. Line 120. " Lano this way did not speed Those limbs of thine at Toppo's battle-field.
Lano was a Siennese, who having wasted all his fortune in riotous living, and finding life intolerable, threw himself into the thickest of the enemy when hiB countrymen were routed at Pieve del Toppo by the Aretines, and refusing to fly with the rest, found the death he sought for at their hands.
Caitto XIY. hell. 51 Their fangs they fixed on him who squatted there, And piece by piece, when he was wholly torn, On every side his quivering limbs they bear. My guide then took my hand, and onwards borne, ^^ He led me to that little bush that sighed. And through its bleeding fragments wailed forlorn. " Jacopo da Sant* Andrea !" it cried, " In seeking help from me to ttee what good ?
What crime had I in thy life's guilty pride ?*' ^" My master said, when opposite he stood, " Who, then, wert thou who through so many a wound Breathest such dolorous parley with thy blood ?'* And he to us ; " O spirits who are bound Hither to witness this most shameful deed ^** That thus has stripped my foliage to the ground, Collect it at the foot of this sad weed.
I was of Florence, which its early lord Changed for Baptista, whence has Mars decreed It should be wretched through his art abhorred ; ^** And were it not some remnant still remains Of the old sculpture upon Arno's ford, The men who, after Attila, were fain To raise up from the ruins the old walls Would but have lost their labour all in vain. ^^ I made a gibbet of my father's halls. Line 133.
Jaoopo da Sant' Andrea 'was a Fadnon spendthrift who finished his career by snicide. Line 143. '* I was of Florence, which its early lord Changed for Baptista. Hare was the fiiit patron of the city, changed in GhristiaD times for the Saint Baptists.. At tfa^ date of this poem a portion of the old statue of Mars was still preserved on the bridge over the Amo, and was considered the Palladinm of the city. Itme 151.
" I made a gibbet of my other's halls. This Florentine snicide is not named, though coi^jectares as to his personality have been made by tho early oommentaton. In the closing line he evidently compares his own usage of lus father's house with the conduct of the pious restoren of the city, who reconstructed the walla left in ruin by their forefathers after the destruction by Attila«
CANTO XIV. The poets leach the boundary of the wood and see before them the third compartment of this circle, a plain of burning sand, where are punished in various ways those who Imve committed violence against God, Nature, and Art. Amongst the first they see Gapanens, one of the seven before Thebes. They reach a rivnlet of blood, the river of Phlegethon, which traverses the burning desert, and whose petrified margins a^ord Dante a passage across the sand.
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62 HELL. Cahto ZIY. LOTE of my country urged me with such force That I collected aJl &e scattered leaves, And gave them back to him, already hoarse. We came then to the boundary where one leares The second circle, entering on the third, ^ Where Justice all its frightful skill conceives — To make quite manifest things yet imheard, I say, before a vast expanse we stood, Witiiin whose bed no vegetation stirred.
Its circling garland was the dolorous wood^ As unto that the stream of misery ; Skirting the edge our way we here pursued. The space was filled with sand, minute and dry. Fashioned not other than that desert drear Erst trod by Cato when compelled to fly. O vengeance of great God ! with what a fear Thou shouldst be held, by all who read in awe That which before my eyes was visibly clear I Of naked spirits many a troop I saw.
Who all were wail^g with most wretched sound* And seemed subjected unto diverse law. Some of them lay supinely on the ground ; Some of them sate up gathered in a heap. And others without pausing moved around. Most numerous were they who motion keep, ^ And least in number who in torment lay, But these cried out with anguish for more deep. O'er the whole waste of sand in slow delay There raineth down enormous flakes of flame.
Like snow in Alps upon a windless day. ^ Such Alexander, when his army came To India's hottest regions, o'er his host Saw &lling to the earth in living flame. The which he met by trampling in the dust By his trained bands, what time the vapours meet ^ No other flame, and then are easiest crusht. So the eternal ardour here down beat. From which the sand, like tinder 'neath the steel. Kindled for greater pain to double heat. Lroe 15.
" Eist trod biy Cato when compelled to fly. The Libyan desert, o'er whioh Cato, after his defeat with Pompey, led the remainfl of ma army to join King JnVa» as desoribed by Lncan. Line 85. What time the vapours meet No other flame, and then are easiest crosht. In the night-time. This somewhat apocryphal story of Alexander's Indian campaign is supposed to be taken from a letter of Alexander to his teacher, Aristotle, aocording to Yenturi.
Canto XIV. HELL. 68 Aye without respite was the dancing reel *® Of miserable hands, now here, now there. Shaking aside each flake they newly feel. " Master," I said, " who didst the victory bear 'G-ainst all things save the demons fixed in deed> Who at the city's gate did boldly dare ; ** Who is that lofty form that does not heed The burning, and lies there in grim disdain, As if this rain oonld ripen not such seed ?
And he himself, aware that I was &in Concerning him to ask my leader, cried, "^ '' Such as in life in death I so remain. If Jove should weary Vulcan as he plied, From whom in wrath he took the bolt so keen With'which he smote me on the day I died. Or should he weary the Cyclopean train, " Working by turns in Mongibello's forge. Crying, * Oood Vulcan, help, O help again !* Just as he did in Flegra's bloody gorge.
And dart his bolts at me with all his might. His vengeance ne'er as triumph could he urge.** ** Then cried my leader unto him outright, So loud I ne'er had heard him speak before, " O Capaneus in thy own despite. Thy untamed pride makes punishment the more ; No martyrdom except thy madness fell ^ Could to thy fury pain's full measure pour.** Then he returned to me with gentler spell.
Telling me, *' One of the seven kings was he Who Thebes besieged ; he held, and seems holds still, Otod in contempt, his worth of low degree ; '® But as I said to him, his own disdain Makes for his breast the fittest frippery. Now come behind me and with care maintain Thy feet from stepping on the burning sand, But closely to the wood thy path retain. " In silence we continued till at hand From out the wood a streamlet bubbling rose.
Whose redness makes my hair with horror stand. From Bulicame so the rivulet flows. Whose healing wave the harlots there divide — ** Thus downwards through the sand this gliding goes. Line 56. " Mongibello's forge. Mount Stna. Line 68. ** Mem'B bloody gorge. The battle-field where in Thessaly the giants were finally destroyed by Jupiter. bine 79. ** From Bulicame so the rivulet flows. A medicinal spring near Viterbo, the waters of which are stated to have passed by a house of ill-fame.
5^ HELL. Cahto XIY. Its bottom and the banks on either side With some slight margin had been changed to stone, Prom which I knew our path must there be tried. *' 'Midst all the things that I to thee have shown Since we have entered through that hateful gate. Whose threshold has been ever locked to none. Nothing yet witnessed by thy eyes has weight Against this present river notable.
O'er which the endless flames their heat abate.'* ^ Such were the words that from my master fell ; On which I prayed him to complete the feast For which his speech had made me hunger well. " Far in mid ocean lies a desert waste," He told me then, '^ of which the name is Crete, Beneath whose king the world of old was chaste. There is a mountain which of old was sweet With water and with leafage, Ida hight. Now 'tis deserted like a worn-out seat.
As a safe cradle Bhea chose the site ^^ For her young son, and to conceal his cries She filled the place with sounds of mad delight. Within the mount an old man's form doth rise Whose back is turned towards Damiata old, And like a glass on Bome he keeps his eyes. His head is fashioned all of finest gold, Of purest silver are the arms and breast. Of copper to the fork descends the mould ; Thence down of choicest iron is the rest.
Except the right foot, formed of potter's clay, And standing most on that his weight is prest. f]ach part except the gold is cracked away With a deep fissure from the which <Lrop tears, At first collected, then they form a bay. Line 95. Crete, the kingdom of Satnm, who ruled in the Golden Age of Earth. Line 100.
Ehea, the wife of Satnm, waa obliged to conceal her children, Jupiter, Juno, &c., in Mount Ida, to save them &om her husband, who had the unfortunate habit of devouring his offspring. Line 103. The old man is Time, and the whole allegory is thus explained : The statue is placed in Crete, because there Time began with the Golden Am of Saturn's rule.
Its back is turned to the east, and it gazes towards ue west (Damiata and Rome), symbolical of the Fftst and Future. The different metals of the statue, the same as those described in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, represent the different ages of the world, tiie foot of potter's day being the present.
Every portion except the head of gold — i.e., all time except the Golden Age — is rent with vice, from which fissure descend the tears that fonu all the rivers in Hell.
Cavto XT. HELL.
66 Its course into this valley then it sheers, ^^' Acheron, Stjx, and Fhlegethon they make ; Then downwards bj this narrow pipe it steers Even to the bottom, where it forms a lake, Cocjtus, and as that thou soon wilt see Of its appearance here I nothing speak." ^ And I to him : *^ If this same streamlet be Derived in truth from our own world on high, Why on this margin is't first seen by me P" And he : ^* This place is round thou dost descry.
And though thou hast in truth a long way come, '^ Descending ever leftwards as we hie, Thou hast not yet encircled all the dome. Wherefore should anything its newness claim The marvel need not in thy face find home.
And I again : " O master, where these streams, ^^ Lethe and Phlegethon, thou spokest of one Thus formed, but thou the other didst not name P" " Certes thy questions please me well, my son," He answered, " but the boiling crimson wave Should well have solved one doubt that thou hast shown. ^^ Lethe thou'lt see, but not within this grave. There when repentance doth the sin remove The spirits go, their memories to lave.
Then said he, " Now 'tis time from out this grove- To issue ; follow on my steps intent. ^*^ The unbumt margins make a way to move, And over them is every vapour spent J' Line 124^ &c.
Dante having expressed surprise that they had not before met with this nver in their descent through the circles of Hell, Virgil explains that in their conrse, though they have by ever keeping to the left traversed a great portion of the oirde, there is part yet to be gone over, through which the river might have descended so far as yet nnseen by Dante. Line 134.
The boiling crimson wave before them is the river Fhlegethon, about which Dante has inquired. Lethe is not in Hell, but on iiie other side of Purgatory, and therein the purified spixits wash away all memory of sin< and sorrow. CANTO XV. Following the petrified margins of the stream through the cirde, they meet a troop of tormented spirits who have committed violence against Nature.
Amongst those Dante recogpiises his old preceptor, Ser Brunette, who accompanies him for some distance, and predicts his coming exile. We travel now along the margins hard, And the stream's vapours o'er it raise a shade The water and the banks from fire to guard.
66 HELL. CMjno XV. Such betwixt Ghent and Bruges the Flemings made. Fearing the flood-tides which above them beat, ^ Their dykes, to save them, when the seas invade. And such the Paduans, on the Brenta's seat, From floods to save their towns and castles, rear, When Chiarentana feels the summer heat. In such a fashion were the dykes made here, '® Save that they were not quite so high and broad, Whoever may have been the engineer.
Already we had travelled from the wood So &r that I its place had not descried. Though to behold it I had turned and stood, ^ When there a band of spirits towards us hied, Who came 'longside the bank, and each one nigh Begarded us, as in the eventide At new moon one his fellow must espy. Even so towards us their eyes they sharply peer, '^ Like an old tailor in his needle's eye.
Thus stared at by that family of fear, One recognised me, who my garment caught By the border, and cried out, " What marvel's here!'* And I, when he towards me his hand had raught, ^ Upon his Hell-burnt face so fixed my eyes That even those scorched-up features to my thought Brought back a memory I could recognise.
And bending down my hand towards his face : " What, Ser Brunetto ?" answered in surprise. ** And he : '* O son of mine, grant it thy grace If old Brunetto tumeth back with thee. And lets his troop move on some little space. I said to him, '' That, all I can, I pray.
And if ye will that I with you should rest ^ I'll do it, if my friend and guide agree." ** son," he said, " if one of us should rest A moment, we a hundred years must bide Powerless one scathing fire-flake to arrest. Line 9. ** When Chiarentana feels the summer heat. That portion of the Alps where the Brenta rises, and which rises into floods when the ■mnmer melts the snow on the mountains. Line 30.
" ' What, Ser Brunetto P' answered in{ surprise. Brunetto Latini was the instructor of Dante in his youth, and although he places him in HeU for a crime evidently not uncommon in the Middle Ages, he treats him with marked respect. Brunetto was a most learned man, and the author of a poem called the " Tesoretto," and a philosophical treatise in French called the " Tr^sor.
This work he recommends to Dante's care as his last wish on parting with him, with an author's natural predilection for the childxeiD of nis brain.
Cahto XV, HELL. 57 But go thou on, I'll follow at thy side, ^ And afterwards my company regain, Who go bewailing sin's eternal gride. I dared not to descend into the plain To walk beside him, but with head bent low I went like one with reverential strain. ^ Then he began ; ** What destiny below Ere the last day thy footsteps thus doth guide ?
And who is this one who the path can show ?" *' Above, in life serene," I then replied, '' Bewildered in a valley did I roam, Ere I completed life's allotted tide, But yester morning hence I thither come. When he appeared to me retreating there. And by this pathway leads me to my home.
And he to me : ''In following up thy star Thou canst not fail to reach a glorious goal, If well I augured in my life most fair, And had I longer 'scaped from Death's control. Seeing the Heavens to thee were so benign, To this emprise I would have cheered thy soul. But that ungrateful populace malign, Who, in old times, came down from Eiesol^, And still hold somewhat of their granite line.
Will, for thy good, become thine enemy ; And rightly so, the crabtree and its kind Can never bear the sweet fig on its tree, r the world an old report has called them blind : A people avaricious, envious, proud ; From all their habits keep unstained thy mind. To thee such honour has thy Fortune vowed, For thee both factions shall with hunger yearn. But to the grass the beak must not be bowed.
Let beasts of Fiesol^ their own selves turn To litter, but of Boman plants take heed. If on their dunghill any yet upturn In whom there lives again the holy seed Of those great Bomans who remained there erst, When it was made the nest for hate to breed. Line 62. "Who, in old tunes, came down from Fiesol^.
The Florentine traditiona sappose that this city waa founded by some of the oolony of Sylla's soldiers planted b^ him at Fiesol^, together with some of the nativeB of that town. This explains the allasion in lines 73 to 78. Idne67. " T the world an old report has called them blind.
Yillani states that the Florentines were nicknamed blind on acoonnt of being deceived by the Pisans, who sent them two false colunms of porphyry, which trick was not discovered till the colunms were raised.
" K all my prayer by Heaven had been endorsed," I answered him, " you would not be as yet From human nature banished and accursed ; It grieves me, what I never can forget, Your mild paternal image, good and dear, When in the world before me you would set How man can grow eternal in his sphere ; And all my gratitude, while life remains, 'Tis fit that in my language it appear.
That which you tell me of my future pains With other texts I keep it, for a gloss By her whose knowledge everything attains. To you this fact alone I would engross, That since my conscience no rebuke has made, I am prepared for Fortune's gain or loss. Such eamest^money is not newly paid Unto my ears, let Fortune turn her sphere Just as she pleases, and the serf his spade.
My master Virgil backwards turned him here On his right hand my countenance to seek, And said, " Who noteth well, he well doth hear. But for such praise I did not cease to speak ^^ With Ser Brunetto and request to know Which of his comrades would most feone bespeak. And he to me : *' Of some 'tis good to know, But silence is the fittest for the rest. Time would be short so great a list to show. But know in brief that each one is a priest.
Or skilled in lettered lore, or of great &me, By one sin in the world all foul confest. Priscian goes thither with that crowd of shame. And Francis of Accorso thou might'st see (If thou hadst any wish to see such blame) Him whom the slave of slaves translated free From Amo's unto Bacchiglione's tide, Where all his rotten nerves he left in fee. I would say more, but cannot further bide.
Nor hold more converse with thee, for I see A new cloud rising on the desert wide. Line 109, et seqmtwr. It is a groundless slander to place Prisoian in sneh a company. Francis of Accorso was a celebrated Jnnsconsnlt at Bologna.
The third party mentioned is Andrea de Mozzi, a Bishop of Florence, who, to conceal his scandalous life, was translated by the Pope (the servant of servants) to the see of Yicenza, from the river of Arno to that of Bacchiglione, which runs through the latter province, where he died.
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Cavto XVI. HELL. 59 New people come, with whom I may not be : To my Tesoro only grant your care, In which I still survive : no more I pray." '** Then he turned back, and seemed like tiiose who bear The green cloth at Verona, in the race, Along the champaign, and had all the air Of the victor, not the laggard, in the chase. Line 122. "The green oloth at Verona, in the moe." There was an old coBtom to have a footrace for a green oloth at Yerona'on the first Sunday in Lent. Ser Bnmetto ran so fast to rejoin his company that he appeared uke the winner in that straggle.
CANTO XVI. The poets haying almost crossed the desert, where they can hear the foiling of the torrent into the next oirole, meet another troop pnnished for the same vice, amongst whom Dante converses with three distinguished Florentines. Having reached the precipice, Yiigil throws a rope down ihe water&n, npon ^mich signal a monster rises. We'd reached the place, where to the ear arrive Of falling waters the reverberate sound, Like to the busy murmur of a hive : When towards us shadows three together bound From out the crowd that past, beneath the rain * Of*the sharp torrent, on tiieir ceaseless round. Towards us thej came, and each one cried amain, *' Arrest thee there, who bj thy dress must be An habitant of our own land profeuie." Ah me ! what wounds upon their limbs I see Both old and recent, by the flames burnt deep ! Still but in memory, how it grieveth me ! My master stood there as they wailing weep, And turned his face towards me : *' Now beware To these," he said, '' fit courtesy to keep. But for the fire that's darted everywhere By the nature of the place, I'd tell thee plain Ear rather thou than these this haste should share." The whiles we stand in pause, their former strain Begins once more, and when by us they veer, ^ Formed in a wheel,* the three ah turn amain. Line 21. " Formed in a wheel, the three all torn amain." As stated by Ser Bnmetto, these tormented spirits cannot rest for a moment, so the three Florentines whecd in a circle while they stop to converse with Dante.
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60 HELL. Casto XTI. As athletes stripped and oiled are wont to peer. Watching their 'vantage and their time to seize. Ere grappling for cl^ose combat thej draw near ; So wheeling round, each one their face and eyes Fixed ever on me, while on the other hand Their feet go onwards in contrariwise. '' Although the misery of this shifting sand Us and our prayers to contumely compel," Thus one began, ** and this bare wretched strand.
Our fame thy spirit yet should bow, to tell Who then thou art, who thus with living feet Treadest securely in the paths of Hell. This one, whose step thou seest me repeat, Though naked, and with hair scorched oft he be. Was of far higher grade than thou wouldst weet. The good Gualdrada's grandson dost thou see ; His name was Guidoguerra, and on earth With brain and sword, no little work did he.
He, who behind me treads this sandy dearth, ^ Was Aldobrandi, in the Council room His voice was ever held in highest worth : And I, condemned with these to the same doom, Was Busticucci, more than all the rest A savage wife has caused my martyrdom.'' ^ Had I been sheltered from the fire the least. Downwards, amongst them I had thrown me there. Nor would my leader have opposed his 'host.
But since I should have been all burnt to char, The terror overcame the wish so lief, ^ Which made me greedy to embrace them fair. Then I began : '' It was not scorn, but grief, Which your condition fixed within my mind. So deep it could not be removed in brief. Line 37. Gnaldrada was celebrated for her oliastity.
At a feast in Florence her father, Bellincion Berti (mentioned in the " Paradise" by GacoiaTOida as one of the early Florentine worthies), offered the Emperor Otho lY., who was present, anthoritv to give her a salnte. The yonng lady told him not to be so liberal of his offers, as she wonld preserve snoh a privilege for one who might be her lawfol husband.
The Emperor married her on tiie spot to one of his barons, from which marriage sprang the family of the^ Conti Goidi. Gnaldrada's grandson, Ghiidognerra, was a celebrated captain, and at the head of fonr hundred Gnelphs secnred the victory for Charles of Ax^oa against Manfred of Naples, at Benevent, in 1265. Line 41.
Aldobrandi is the Tegghiajo inquired for by Dante from Ser Giacoo in the Sixth Canto, and the sp^er Bosticncci was named at the same time amongst the Morentine worthies whom Dante wonld find in lower circles of Hell. The feeling way in which poor Dante alludes to Bnsticaoci's sufferings from a savage wife, veith which misery he was himself well acquainted, is dwelt upon by Lord Byron, himself a lake victim.
Oahto XVI. HELL. 61 As soon as this my leader had designed '^ By words, through which at once I knew for sure That men were coming of thj lofty kind.
Your country is my own, and evermore Your names all honoured, and the deeds ye show With tender love I dwell on and adore. ^ I leave this gaU, and for sweet fruits I go By my trustworthy leader promised me ; Though first I sink to the central deeps below." ** That for a length of time thy soul may oe Thy body's habitant," he answered then, " And that thy fame may lighten after thee.
Of courtesy, and valour amongst men, Say if they dwell within our town, as erst, Or are they utterly cast out agen ? For Borsiere since he entered first ^* Amongst us lately, and who now goes there. With such discourse has made us more accurst. '' Her people, and the sudden gains they share. Such pride and such excess in thee have bred, O Florence, now thou wail'st it in despair." ^* So cried I loudly with uplifted head.
And all the three received it for reply, And gazed like those who know that truth is said. '^ If other times, thy friends to satisfy Costs thee as little, happy who canst bear Such ready answer," did they all reply. '' But if thou quitt'st this dark realm of despair, And tum'st again the fair stars to behold, When 'twill delight to say, * I once was there,' Cause that our story 'mongst mankind be told.
Then they broke up their wheel, and as they fled Their lithe limbs flying pinions seemed to unfold. An Amen could not possibly be said So rapidly as they had disappeared. On which again my master onwards sped. I followed him, and little had we stirred Or ere the sound of water drew so nigh That when we spake the voice was sparcely heard. Like to that stream, whose unmixed waters hie First from Mount Veso, towards the rising beam.
From Apennine's left-hand declivity, Line 70. Borsiere is introdaoed with commendation by Boccaccio, in the dffhth noYel of the first day of his " Decameron." liine 94. '* Like to that stream, whose unmixed waters hie. The river Montone, which alone falls direct into the sea, all the other rivers rising in that part of the Apennines falling into the Po.
62 HELL. OahtoXYI.
Called Acquaclieta in its upland stream, Which tumbles headlong to its bed below At Forli, where it loses its first name And o'er Samt Benedict re-echoing flow ^^ Its waters from the Alps into the vale, Site chosen for a thousand soldiers ; so Down from a bank precipitous, we hail Eoaring reverberate that blood-tinged tide, 'Gainst which the stunned ear could not long avail. ^^ I had a rope around my body tied, And with it I had some time thought to hold That panther with the variegated hide.
When I had loosened from me every fold, My master's mandates ever prompt to keep, I gave it to him ready noosed and rolled* Then to his right he turned him from the deep, And to some little distance from the shore He hurled it downwards, in that rocky steep. Surely some novelty must be in store, I said within myself, to this new sign. Which with his eye my master seeks before.
Ah me ! how cautiously should men opine 'Midst those who yet unseen the end can prove, And others' thoughts intuitive divine ! He said to me : *^ There soon will come above That which I wait, and which thy fancy dreams, Soon to thy sight uncovered shall it move.
Of that truth always, which like falsehood seems, Man should keep closed his eyes whene'er he can, Since without fault of his it bringeth shames ; But here I can but speak ; and by the plan Of this my Comedy, I swear to thee, So may it long find favour amongst man ! "That through the thick and gloomy air I see An object swimming, upwards through it sweep. That would wake marvel in the heart most free : Line 102.
Boccaccio has given the ezplanatioii in the text to this line. It may also mean that the abbey of St. Benedict was large enough to contain a thousand monks. Line 106. Dante is believed in yonth to have entered the Franciscan order' with the rope, worn by whose brothers, he had thought to conquer his carnal appetites, or take the panther, symbolical of pleasure, as allegorised in the opening Canto of the Poem.
This rope Vir^ throws over the precipice to lure up the monster, who is to bear them down to the next circle, and who we find afterwards described as tiie personification of Fraud, under the name of Grerion.
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oahio xvn. HELL. 6a Like one returning who has dived down steep To clear away an anchor that has caught Some rock or obstacle im ocean deep, ^^ With feet stretched downwards, and who upwards raught.
CANTO xvn. The form of the monster Gerion is described. YirgH and Dante desoend a short distance to reach him, and then Dante returns alone to the extreme verge of the sandy desert, where he sees seated under the rain of fire those who have committed violence a^^ainst arL or tisarers. On retnmini^ to Yirgil he finds him seated on the iHEick of Grerion, and taking his place before him, the poets are carried down by the monster to the next cude.
'^ Behold the wild beast with the sharpened tail, Behold the thing that makes the whole world stink, That passeth mountains, breaketh walls and mail. Thus 'gaji mj leader his discourse to link, And pointed towards it as it came to shore, ^ Close to that traversed river's stony brink ; And that foul image of all fraudulent lore Came on and reared alofb his head and bust. But on the bank his tail he drew not o'er.
The &,ce was like a man's &ce, mild and just, '^ So far benignant was its show outside, But like a serpent's trunk was all the rest. Arms hairy to the pit himg on each side. Its back and breast and both its flanks were rough With litUe knots and varied stains endyed. ^^ With brighter colour in the warp and woof Tartars and Turks their cloths have never wove, Nor did Arachne ever work such stuff.
As sometimes on the banks the boats are hove, When part is in the water, part on land, ^^ As there amongst the greedy German drove, The beaver waiting for his prey will stand. So rested that wild beast detestable Upon the brink of stone that girds the sand. In empty air he jerked his quivering tail, ^* Twisting right upwards the envenomed sting. Which, like a scorpion's, armed its point so fell.
The leader said : " Oiir way we now must wring A little from its course, that we may reach Down to the wicked beast who there doth swing." ^*
64 HELL. Cabto XVIL So to the right hand do we downwards stretch, And to avoid the burning sand and flame We make ten paces on the furthest beach. And when beside it we descending came I see a little farther on the sand ^'^ Some people seated near the falling stream.
The master here ; " That thou mayst anderstan4 All that this circle holds for thee to see, Now go and see their state thus near at hand ; Thy conversation with them brief must be. *^ With this thing will I speak while thou dost go That it should yield us its. strong shoulders free. Thus once again along the furthest row Of that seventh cmde wend I all alone, To where together sate that race of woe.
Gushed from their eyes the grief of every one ; Now here, now there, with hands they strive to ease The vapours now, and now the heat alone. Not otherwise do dogs in summer days, Now with the snout and now with paws, when bit *^ By gnats or by mosquitoes or by fleas.
When on the face of some my eyes I set, On whom that grievous fire doth never flag, None could I recognise, but well I wit That from the neck of each there hung a bag ^ Marked with some colour and heraldic sign. And thence it seemed their eyes could never wag. Then as I came inspecting all the line, I saw one bag upon a field of or That held an azure lion as design. '^ Then carrying on my scrutiny before.
Another on a field of gules I trow, A goose than butter whiter far that bore. Then one who of an azure pregnant sow - Bore the impression on his satchel white, ^ Said to me : ''In this graveyard what dost thou f Now get thee on, and since a living wight, Enow that my former neighbour, Yitalian^ At my left) haiid beside me here will sit.
Amidst these Florentines I'm Paduan, ^^ And oftentimes my dinned ears I would close When they cry out, " There comes the sovran man Line 56. The armorial beannffs afterwards described belong to yarions houses of Florence and FadnaV all of whom are detailed by the early commantatoi«, but their dry recapitulation would be of no interest to modem English readers.
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Canto XVII. HELL. 65 The bag with three goats who will here expose." He twisted then his mouth and thrust his tongue Out like a bullock when he licks his nose. And I in fear lest further stay would wrong Him who my sojourn to be brief had told, Turned back again from 'midst that wearied throng. I found my leader had already hold All firmly seated on that wild beast's back, Who said to me, " Now be thou strong and bold. Now by such steps we must descend this track ; Mount thou before me, I will sit in aid. So that for thee the tail all mischief lack." Like one who waits the fever fit dismayed, With whitened nails already, trembling cold. Watching the fixed hour on the dial's shade. So was I smitten by the words he told, But his expected threats became the goad Which near good master makes the servant bold. I took my seat upon those shoulders broad, And wished to say, only no utterance came. Embrace me closely on this perilous road. But he whose help I ne'er in vain did claim Soon as I mounted clasped me firm and near. And with his arms my weakness overcame. He cried out : " Gerion, now right onwards steer, Make thy wheels large and gradual the descent. Think of the novel burden thou dost bear." As from its launching place the ship is sent Stem for\7ards, so his way he then addrest. And when he felt sufficient space was lent. He turned his tail to where had been his breast, And moved it stretched out lithely like an eel, And with his arms the air towards him prest. 1 do not think that greater fear could feel Phaeton himself when he had dropt the reins. At which, a.s still we see, the burnt Heavens reel. Nor Icarus when he perceived his reins, Bj the wax melting, from his wings let free. His father crying out in anguish strains.
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Line 97. Qerion was King of Spain, and slain by Hercnles. Being celebrated for his frauds, Dante has chosen him as the personification of Fraud itself, as in the previous circles we find Cerberus represent Gluttony, the Minotaur Violence, &c. Line 108. In allusion to the Milky Way having been produced by the combustion of the Heavens when the.sun went astray under Phaeton's guidance.
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66 HELL. Canto XVIU. Than was my own when all around I see Nothing but air, and save that monstrous show. All other vision vanished quite for me. Onwards it goeth, swimming soft and slow, It wheels and sinks, but I of nought am 'ware, Save that the air strikes upwards from below. Already at the right the roar I hear Beneath me rising from the horrible shower, At which my straining eyes I downwards peer. Then did my fear increase with greater power, Because both flames I see and screams I hear, At which all trembling in my seat I cower. Till then unheard there strike upon my ear, A s through great pains we sank and circled on, Cries that on every side approached us near. Like to a falcon that too long hath flown, That cannot see the lure or any prey Making the hawker murmur. Tush ! 'tis down ! Weary descendeth whence in wheeling play It active sprung, and distant from its lord Settles disdainfully in angry bay ; So Gerion placed us in that deep abhorred, Standino^ at base of rocks that steep upspring. And with our persons' weight no longer stored. It vanished like an arrow from the string.
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CANTO XVIII. A description of the eighth circle, which is divided into ten wards, in which are punished those who have committed frauds of ten different kinds. Virgil and Dante pass through the first two wards ; in the first are punished those who have deceived' women, who are naked and lashed by demons ; in the second all flatterers, who are doomed to wallow in human excrement. Wbouoht all of rock, with colouring of iron, A place called Malebolge is in Hell, So the steep cliffs which all its site environ. Eight in the centre of the region fell A pit there sinketh, somewhat large and deep, ^ Of which the arrangement its due place will tell. Line 2. " Malebolge." Literally evil pits, the name of the eighth circle. Line 5. The pit in the centre is the nmth and last circle of HeU, whi(^ is described in the closing Cantos. The description of the eighth circle in plain prose is this : it is divided into ten valleys, separated by high ridges of rock, and an arched bridge crosses over each vaUey up to the last, where the ninth cirde again sinks pveoipitously into the very centre of the world.
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Cahto XVIII. HELL. 67 The site remaining then is round, and sweep The circles 'twixt the pit and high banks barred, And are divided in ten valleys steep. Like as to fortify some castle ward, Circumvallations more and more they raise The precincts with security to guard. In such a fashion were constructed these ; And as from gates of fortresses there jut Small bridges leading to the outer ways. So from the bottom of the rock abut Arches that cross the steeps and hollows black, TJp to the pit by which they all are cut. This was the place where shaken from the back Of Gerion did we find ourselves, the bard Turned to the left, I followed on his track. To the right new cause for pity I regard. Torments all novel and flagellants new, With which Was wholly filled the opening ward. In the bottom were the naked sinners' crew. With faces towards us those on this side ran, Beyond they went with us but swifber flew. Like as the Eomans for the hosts that wonne Across their bridge upon the Jubilee year. To pass the people have devised a plan. Who towards the Castle and St. Peter's steer Have one side wholly to themselves assigned, The other for those bound to the mount is clear. As from each end o'er that black rock they wind, I saw the homM demons with a whip. Scourging them onwards cruelly behind. Ah ! how they made them lift their legs and skip At the first blows ! amongst them certes none Ere waited to receive a second flip. Whilst I walked onwards there my eyes with one Chanced to encounter, and at once I said. Surely this man ere this I must have known. Wherefore my eyes on him I closely laid. And my kind leader with me there stood still, And to turn backwards his permission made.
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LineB 26, 27. Thoee in the half of the circle near Dante were driven along in an oppofiite direction to that which Virgil was leading him ; those in the other half of the cirde were driven in the same direction as the poets were themselves going. The simile of the arrangement made by the Pope in the ^ear of the JabiJee, a.d.
1200. to pass the vast crowds who came to the festival m safety over the bridge of Saint Angelo, aptiy illustrates and makes clear the somewhat brief description of these two lines.
68 HELL. CAirro XVIII- That whipt one thought his person to conceal, Lowering his face, but the attempt was vain. I told him, " Thou whose bent eyes earthwards steal, If only thy appearance speaketh plain,* Art Venedico, as I know full well. *® But what has led thee to such biting pain P" And he to me : " Unwillingly I tell, But by thy speech so clear am I bested, Which of our ancient world brings back the spell.
I erst was he who fair Ghisola led ^ To satisfy the will of the Marchese, However now the shameful tale be said. Nor wail I only here, a Bolognese : Eather this place is crowded with that line. Unto so many tongues it is not easy ^ To utter Sissa in that town of mine. If evidence thou wouldst that cannot fail, Eecall to mind how we to greed incline.
Whilst he was speaking with his leather flail A demon lashed him ; " Get ye on," he cried. ^ " Pandar ! no prostitutes are here for sale. On this I turned and joined again my guide. Soon after that a few steps brought us where A ridge that jutted from the bank we spied, O'er which our forms we lightly climbing rear, '" And turning to the right upon the rock From those eternal boundmes on we bear.
When we had reached the centre where the block Is arched beneath to let the scourged pass through, My leader said, " Wait here, and cast thy look ^* Upon the faces of that ill-bom crew. Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the face. Since they together with us onwards drew. Standing on that old bridge we watch the race That came towards us*of that other band, ^ Who by the whip are likewise driven in chase. Line 56.
Venedico Gacoianimico, a gentleman of Bologna, who, as he here tells us, was bribed by Obizzo da Este, the Marchese of Ferrara, to deceive his sister Ghisola into yielding herself to his desires. The Marchese has already been introduced boiling in the river of blood. Line 01. Sissa is the shibboleth of the Bolognese, being their fashion of pronouncing the affirmative si. Line 78.
" Since they together with us onwards drew"— i.e., were going in th« same direction as tbe poets, before they mounted the bridge to cross the •Talley.
Casto XVm. HELL. 69 Mj gentle master without my demand Said to me, " See that loftj form who oomes, And seems in spite of grief tears to command. Even yet how royally his aspect looms ! ^ 'Tis Jason, who by intellect and heart Conqueied the Golden Meeoe from Oolchian homes. Passing by Lemnos' isle he played his part. Soon after that those angered women bold Had put the males to death by hellish aurt.
'*' With gestures then and the skilled words he told Isiphile the maiden he deceived. Who all the others had deceived of old ; There pregnant he deserted her, bereaved. Him has that crime to such a torment borne ; ^ Sevenged is also now Medea grieved. With him there go who women left forlorn. Let this suffice thee of this vale to weet, And of all those beneath its tushes torn.
Now we had reached to where the narrow street *'^* Beaches at length the second bank athwart, Where this and the further valley's bridges meet. There people we perceive who groan apart In the other ward and their own bodies strike With their own hands, and with their nostrils snort. "^* The banks with mouldiness were crusted thick, By the breathing &om below which clung thereto, Offensive to the eyes and nose alike.
The bottom is so steep that for the view No place would answer save we cbmbed the steep ^** Crown of the arch that o'er the abysses grew. We came there and from thence down in the deep Saw people smothered in a filthy smurch From human privies gathered in a heap. And whilst below my eyes commence their search • *" A head so smeared with excrement I rede. One knew not whether lay or of the Church.
He shouted to me : " Why so great thy greed To stare at me alone in this foul sty ? And I to him : " Because if well I heed, ^^ Thee have I seen ere now with hair more dry, And thou must be Alessio Intermen^i ; For staring at thee this the reason why. Line 93. Isiphile had deceived the other women by saving her father from the general slaughter of the males in the island.
70 HELL. Cahto XIX. Striking his pumpkin then he said to me, '* The constant flatteries have submerged me here, ^ From which of old my tongue was never free. On this my leader said to me, *' Make steer Thy right a little forward in the grot, So that there strike upon thy vision clear The face of that dishevelled filthy slut ^ Who scratches with her shotten nails her side.
And now stands upright, and now down will squat ; The harlot's name is Thais, who replied, • When questioned by her keeper, * Have I great Favour with thee P' ' Most marvellous,' and lied. ^^ Let this suffice our sight to satiate. Line 133. A character in a play of Terenoe»froin which this not wery extraordinary specimen of female flattery is qaoted.
CANTO XIX. Dante describes the third viJley, in which Simonists are panished by being buried head downwards in roond apertures of the rook, their legs from the knees downwards being alone visible, which they kick oonvuLsively, while tlie soles of the feet burn with a lambent name.
Yirgil bean Dante dotm the impasaable bank into the bottom of the vaUey, where he converses with the soul of Pope Nicholas the Third, and bitterly rebukes him for his Simony and prostitution of his high office. Simon Maqus ! thj followers base, The things of God that aye with piety Should wedded be, rapacious ye disgrace With gold and silver in adultery ! Now fits it that for you the trumpet blare, ^ Since yi this third division there ye be !
Already in the sequent tomb we were Mounted above its high bridge in that part Which o'er the centre of pits it strikes sheer. O highest wisdom, how complete the art ^ Thou shewest in the Heavens, and Earth, and Hell, And in thy virtue how most just thou art ! Along the sides and in the bottom fell I saw the livid stones all full of holes.
All of one size and rounded like a weU. ^ Not larger or more small appeared their boles Than those which in my own St. John's fair shrine Are made as places for baptising souls ;
CixrTo XIX HELL. 71 And one of which, not many years long syne, To save a child that drowned within I broke ; *® Let this avowal clear that deed of mine. Out of the aperture of each there stuck A sinner*s foot and legs up to the knee, While all the rest was left within to choke. Both feet were lit of all that company, *' For which so strongly did thev jerk and throe From bands and withes they kad at once burst free.
As oily things when burnt are wont to glow, With flame o'er all their surface wandering quick, So were those feet ablaze from heel to toe. ^* " My master, who is that one that doth kick In torment more than all his comrades here ? I asked, " and whom a redder flame doth lick ?
And he : " If thou art willing I will bear Thee downwards thither by yon sloping way. ^* His person and his sin from him thou'lt hear.'' And I : " What pleaseth thee is welcome aye ; Thou art my lord and know'st that to thy will I cling, and knowest all I do not say. Then did we mount above o'er the fourth hill ; *° We turned and to the left descended soon Down to the hole-filled bottom straight and still.
My gentle master did not place me down From off his hip till we had reached the hole Of him who with his legs made all his moan. " Whoever thou mayst be, O wretched soul Who there art fixed head downwards like a stake, Give audience," said I, "if in thy control. I stood there like a friar who doth take Confession from a murderer buried quick, *^ Who calls to him some respite still to make.
And he cried out : " Art thou arrived so quick, Already there art standing, Boniface P Some years was out that prophecy oblique. Line 21. Dante appears to have been aocnsed of sacrilege for breaking up this baptistery, of wnich he here solemnly affirms his innocence. Line 49.
The old punishment for murderers in Florence was to bnry them aliTe head downwards, and Dante aptly compares himself to a friar taking^ a confession from such a victim, who still calls out that he has somethmg farther to oonfess to delay his doom. Line 53.
The Pope in this hole mistakes Dante for his own successor in the Papacy, Boniface YIII., still living, and whom he did not expect to arrive so soon, owing to a prophecy he had read which promised him a longer life, and to which he aJludes in the next line. The "lady fair" in line 66 is the Papacy.
72 HELL. Canto XIX. Art thou so soon then wearied of the place *^ For which such lady fair with cunning planned, Thou didst not fear to win and then disgrace ?*' Like unto those who do not understand That which is answered to them did I bide As scorned, not knowing what to redemand. ^ " Tell to him quickly," then my Virgil cried, " Not he, not he am I whom thou dost weet.
And I, as was imposed on me, replied, On which the spirit wholly writhed his feet, Then deeply sighing and with voice of woe ^ Said to me : " What wouldst have me then repeat ? If to know who I am concerns thee so That for such purpose thou this bank hast paced, That I have worn the Papal mantle know ; And of the Bear a worthy son, in haste ^° Desirous to advance the little Bears, There riches, here myself in purse I placed.
Beneath my head are all the other peers Who doing Simony preceded me. Within the hollowed stone concealed in layers. ^* I shall sink downwards in my time when he Will come who I at first believed thou wert, That sudden question when I made to thee. But I already am far longer hurt With feet thus cooked, and turned thus upside down, ^ Than he with red-flame feet will here revert.
Since after him, with laidlier renown, Will come a lawless shepherd from the West, Such as befitteth him and me to crown. A second Jason will he prove at least, ^ Like him in Maccabees to whom was pliant His king, as France will be to his behest. I know not if I was not too defiant. And yet I answered him in such a metre. " Ah, tell me now what treasure of his client *° Line 70.
Pope Innocent III. was of the Orsi family of Borne ; he therefore calls tlie younger branches of that family whom he advanced the Orsetti, or little Bears. Line 72. " There riches, here myself in purse I placed. On earth he put riches in his purse, by which he placed himself in the hole in Hell. The translation in the text is verbal. Line 83. Bertrand, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who was elected Pope in 1305, and assumed the name of Clement V.
To please his kins, Philip the Fourth of France, he transferred the Holy See from Borne to Avignon, and Innocent III. prophesies that he will speedily relieve Boniface from the outer station ia the hole. Line 90. The following indignant burst against the errors of the Papacy is justly celebrated as amongst the finest parts of the poem.
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Canto XIX. HELL. 73 Our Lord at first demanded from St. Peter, That in his charge the keys he should deliver ? * Follow thou Me/ was His demand far meeter. Saint Peter and the rest from Matthew never Asked gold or silver when they chose him free In the place which lost one guilty soul for ever. Therefore stay there, thou'rt punished properly. And of thy money, ill acquired, take care. Which against Carlos caused thy surquedry. And were it not that still there makes me spare That reverence for the highest keys I have, Which thou possessedst in a happier air, I would make use of words by far more grave ; Since the world saddens at thy avarice mean, Trampling the good and raising the deprave ; Pastors like ye the Evangelist did mean, When she who sate above the waters borne, Committing whoredoms with the kings was seen. She with seven heads in beauty had been born. And her ten horns in comely pride did hold, ^'^ The while to virtue was her husband sworn. Te've made your Q-od of silver and of gold, Ye from idolaters what line withdraws. Save they sin once, and ye a hundredfold ? Ah, Constantine, of how much ill was cause. Not thy conversion but the fatal dower Which the first wealthy father from thee draws !" And all the while to him such notes I pour, Whether 'twas rage or conscience that him smote. With both his legs he jerked and struggled sore. It pleased my leader clearly as I note. With such contented countenance did he hear The sound of words that honest truth denote. Then within both his arms he clasped me near. And when he held me closely to his breast Mounted the path he had descended there.
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Line 99. Carlos of Sicily, who excited Innocent's anger by refusing to give his daughter in marriage to one of the Pope's nephews. Line 109. The harlot on the waters is here clearly the Papacy, who while her own lord, the Pope, remained virtuous, in the early times was adorned with the seven heads— the cardinal virtues, and the ten horns — the ten sacraments of the Biomish ritual. Line 115. This triplet has been thus translated by Milton : — Ah ! Constantine, of how much ill was cause Not thy conversion, but those rich domains That the first wealthy Pope received of thee V ■
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74. HELL. Cahto XX. Nor wearied he to hold me closely prest, But to the summit of the arch he strode Which from the fourth to the fifth ridge was drest. There tenderly he placed his darling load, ^^° Down on the rock precipitously high, That unto goats had been a difficult road. And there another valley I descry.
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CANTO XX. In the fourth ward of Malebolge Dante sees the doomed passing in slow procession. On closer inspection he finds that their heads are tamed the face behind, and that they have consequently to walk backwards. These are necromancers who deceived themselves or others by attemptinsr to look into the future. Amongst them is Manto, the siffht of whom leads Yirgil into a digression on the origin of his native city. Op novel torture I must weave the verse, And to the twentieth Canto matter yield Of this first song, where Hell's dooms I rehearse. Already all my forces did I wield To gaze into the deeps o'er which I hung, ^ There where the anguish tears for ever rilled : And through the circular vale I saw them throng. Coming in tears and silence at the pace. At which on earth the Litanies are sung. As downwards sank my vision to their place. Miraculously did they seem deformed, Each one between the upper chest and face. For from the reins the visage was transformed. And since they could not therefore forward look, Compulsively they ever backwards swarmed. Perchance by force of paralytic stroke One might be twisted thus in branch and root, I think not, nor on such did ever look. If Gk)d permit thee, reader, to take fruit From thy perusal, now bethink thee each. How coiid I keep my eyes dry, looking to 't. When our own image, almost in my reach, I saw so twisted, that their weeping eyes With tears, adown its fissure, bathed their breach. Surely I wept, supported on a rise ^ Of that fire-hardened rock, so that my guide Said to me : " Thou too 'mongst the little wise ?
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Cahto xz. hell. 75 Here Pity lives alone, when it hath died. Who is a greater scelerate than he Who lets his passion 'gainst God's judgment bide ? ^ Lift up thy head erect, lift up and see Whom the earth swallowed in the Thebans' sight,' On which they shouted all, ' Ah, where dost flee, Anfiarus P wherefore dost thou leave the fight P' But he from running downwards could not rest, ^ Down, down to Minos, who each soul holds tight.
See how his back has now become his breast ; Because he wished to see too far before. Backwards he looks, with steps still backwards prest.
Tiresias see, who changed his semblance more, ^ When from a male a woman he became, Shifting each member with most wondrous lore : And after he was forced to smite the same Entwisted pair of serpents with his rod Ere his male nature he again could claim. *^ Against his belly Aruns' back doth prod Who, upon Luni's mountains where there slave Carrara's peasants in their low abode, Possessed amidst the marbles white a cave For dwelling-place, whence, not as now confined, ^ His vision swept the stars and ocean wave.
And she, who covers o'er her breasts behind, Which thou seest not from here, with long thick hair. Which on the other side hangs unconfined, Was Manto, who through many a land did fare, ^ And settled afterwards where I was bom. Of which, 'twill please me, thou shouldst somewhat hear. After her father quitted life forlorn. And Bacchus' city Thebes became a slave. She, through the world, a long time wandered lorn. ^ Line 34.
Anfiams, one of the seveii kinflrs who besieged Thebes, and who, while fighting in his chariot, was swallowed up in the yawning earth. As a false prophet he is placed in this ward of Malebolge. Line 40.
Tiresias, a soothsayer of Thebes, who, according to Ond*s *' Metamorphoses," book iii., changed himself into a woman by smiting two serpents, and could not recover his old form until , seven years afterwards, he met the same serpents, and again struck them with his rod. Line 46. Aruns, a soothsayer of Tuscany. Line 55. Manto, a sorceress, the daughter of the Theban soothsayer, Tiresias.
In a solitary act of forgetfulness, Dante, in Canto XXII. of the " Poigatory," enumerates her among the celebrities in Limbo. She founded Mantua, concerning which Yirgil indulges in a long digression, in which Dante, line ICJp, hints that he tiukes little interest.
76 HELL. Camto XX. In Upper Italy, deep waters lave The foot of the Alps, which gird Lamagna fair, Above the Tyrol, called Benaco's wave. A thousand springs, I fe-ncy, feed it there, 'Twixt G^rda and the distant Apennine, ^' With water which doth stagnate in that lair. There is a central spot, where the Trentine Bishop, the Brescian, and Verona's too. Each, that way travelling, might a blessing sign.
Sitteth Peschiera, strong and fair to view, The Brescians and the Bergamots to pent. There, where first downwards slope the banks anew. There, all the surplus water down is sent. Which in Benaco's bosom cannot flow, And makes a river, through green pastures blent. ^^ Soon as the wave begins to ghde below No more Benaco, Mincio is its name, Until Q-ovemo, where it meets the Po.
A plain it finds, ere far hath gone its stream In which it stretches out its waters mild, ^^ A place unhealthy in hot summer's flame. Then passing on her way the virgin wild Beheld a central station in the fen Uncultured, nor by habitants defiled. There, to escape all intercourse with men, *' She settled with her slaves, her art pursued And died where she had been a denizen.
Afterwards, scattered round that neighbourhood, Men gathered in that place, reputed strong Because the marsh on all sides barred inroad. ^ They raised a city o'er her bones ere long, And after her, who first had chosen the site. They called it Mantua, without rite or song. Of old its people were of no mean might Till Casalodi's madness was deceived ^^ By Pinamonti's cunning of his right. Line 61.
The lake Benaco, here so minutely described, is now called the Lago di Gnarda. Line 67) &c. The three bishoprics mentioned meet in this spot. Line 70. The garrison of Peschiera, to the south of the lake, where its surplus waters flow out and form the Mincio. Line 95. Albert, Count of Casalodi, was induced by Pinamonti to drive all the nobles from the State, making him believe that this would make him omnipotent with the people. Pinamonti then placed himself at the head of the latter, drove out Casalodi, and usurped the sovranty of the State.
CiHTo XX. HELL. 77 But I must warn thee, be it ne'er believed, If some should otherwise originate My town, the truth should keep them undeceived. And I : " O master, all thou dost relate '^** To me is certain, and so wins belief, That fuel spent for me were others' prate. But tell me of yon band^ who wonne in grief, If thou seest any worthy of remark : For only about that my mind is lief.
'*•'* Then he continued : " He whose shoulders dark Are covered with his cheeks' thick-spreading beard. What time the males of Greece did all embark, So that the babes in cradles sole were spared, Was Augur, and with Calchas gave the sign, "" In Aulis for the cable to be sheared. Euripilus his name, and by design My epic names him in a certain place, Thou know'st it well who know'st its every line.
That other who fills up a little space, "^ Was Michel Scot, who veritably knew Of cheating magic every secret grace. Guide Bonatti see : Asdente view, Who now would wish he ne'er had left his thread And leather, but too late repentance grew. ^^ Behold the wretches who the needle fled And distaff, striving at prophetic strain. With herbs and shapes they worked their deeds of dread.
But onwards now : already seeks the main, With boundary of both hemispheres in view, ^^* Beyond Seville, the faggot-bearing Cain : And yestreen to its full the round moon grew ; Thou shouldst remember well it did not darken In that deep underwood the whole night through. So spake he, and we walked on while I hearken. ^^ Line 113. ^neid, 'book ii., line 114 : — " Saspensi Enrypylnm scitatum oracnla Fhosbi mittimns. Line 118.
Bonatti was an astrologer of Forli, and adviser of Monte Feltro. Asdente, a shoemaker of Parma, who left his business to practise the soothsayer's art, in which he acquired a great local reputation. Line 126. The faggot-bearing Cain is the moon, the spots on whose face were supposed, in the Middle Ages, to be Cain with a faggot of thorns. The superstition still lingers in the old phrase of the man in the moon.
GAm!0 XXL The poets pass into the fifth ward, and, lookingdown from the bridge, Dante discovers it to be a lake of boiling pitch. While gazing into its depths a demon alights on the bridge, bearing a sinner on his back, whom he throws into the lake. As the wretch rises to the snrf aoe a crowd of demons, hitherto concealed imder the bridge, attack him with their hooks and force him to dive into the boiling pitch.
Yirgil issnes forth to obtun a safe passage for Dante, and being told that the bridge over the sixth valley is in ruins they follow a band of demons, whom their chief has directed to guide the poets to another bridge over the next ward.
So on from bridge to bridge in parlance new, Of whicli my Comedy no record keeps, We past, and reaching to the summit, view, Besting, that other fissure in the deeps Of Malebolge and its wailings vain. ^ Gktzing, a marvellous darkness o'er it sweeps. As within Venice' Arsenal, amain In winter time the pitch tenacious bums Their unsound vessels there to caulk again.
Since they can sail no longer, and by turns One builds a new ship, and one stops with tow • The ribs of one that from h,r voyage returns ; One builds anew the stem, and one the prow ; Some make the oars, and some the rigging start. And some the foresail, and the mizen stow : So not by fire, but by Almighty art. Bubbled the lake of boiling pitch below That clinging slimed the bank in every part.
I saw it, but therein nought else did know Except the bubbles which the boiling raised, And the whole swell and fall in changing flow. Whilst underneath I then intently gazed. My master shouting out, " Behold there, straight ! Drew me towards him from my place amazed. Then turned I, like a man, by whom too late ^ Is seen some object which he fain would fly. Whose forces at the sudden fear abate. And he runs instantly it strikes his eye.
I saw behind us both a devil dark. That running o'er the sharp-set rocks drew nigh. '* Ah me ! how fearful was his aspect stark ! And how in action cruelly he strode As his wide wings and active feet I mark !
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Canto XXI. HELL. 79 TJpon his shoulder towering high and broad. And on his hips a sinning wight he bore, ^ While by the feet he firmly gripped his load. " O Malebranche," from our bridge's shore He cried, '' behold Saint Zita's magistrate : Dip him below the while I turn for more In the same land, where many more await, ^ Except Buonturo, each man there is cheat ; For lucre no to yes they alter straight." He cast him down, and o'er the steep rocks fleet He turned away, a mastiff loosed from hold Ne'er followed on a thief with greater heat. ^ The sinner dived, and rose again uprolled, When 'neath the bridge concealed the demons cried, " This place the Holy Visage doth not hold : One swims not here as in the Serchio's tide ; But if our grappling-irons thou wouldst 'scape, Try not too much above the pitch to bide." Then with a hundred hooks they clawed his shape, And cried, " 'Neath covert thou must gambol here. And see how much whilst hidden thou canst rape." Not otherwise the scullion troop appear ^ When they within the boiling cauldron drown The meat with hooks that it may disappear. Then my good master : " That it be not Imown That thou art here," he said, *' in some rock's shade That giveth present shelter sit thee down. ®* And for no injury to me essayed Fear anything, since I these things have told, And seen ere now the devils at parade." Then did he pass beyond our bridge's hold,
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And of the sixth ridge, as he reached the side.
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Well had he need of all his calmness bold. With such a fury and such tempest tide As household dogs some beggar wretch surround. Who on the sudden begs where he is tied. Line 37. *' Malebranche" — evil hounds — ^is the generic name of these demons. Line 88. " Saint Zita" was the goardian saint of Lnoca, which the demon asserts to be so fnU of pnblic cheats.
Perhaps "jobber** is the nearest approxiination to the Italian word barattiere, as here used by Dante. It need hardly be said that the exception in favour of Buonturo Dato is ironical, he being the greatest ''jobber" of the batch. Line 48. A picture of Christ's face, miraculously imprinted on a hand* kerchief with which he wiped off his sweat in the agony, and which was religiously preserved at Lucca. The Serchio is a river near the town.
80 HELL. Canto XXI. So from beneath the bridge they sallied round ^" And all their prongs towards him pointed : " Stay ! Cried he to them ; " your evil will be bound. Before your hooks can rend me stand away. And one of you come forth my words to hear, And then consult to tear me, yea or nay." ^'' " Go, Malacoda,'* cried they all, and near Drew one, the whilst the other stood at fee, Saying, ** In what will this avail him here ?
" Thinkest thou, Malacoda, thou wouldst see Me venture here," replied the master mine, ^" *' From all your fiends' attacks so far 'scaped free Without propitious Fate and will Divine ? Permit my passage through this way forlorn. Where 1 must guide my fnend through Heaven's design. On that his toppling pride was straightway shorn, ^^ And he let drop his weapon to his feet. And said to the others, " He must not be torn.
My leader then to me : " Thou from the seat Where, 'midst the rocks, thou dost in hiding keep In safety now abandon thy retreat." ^ Then rising towards him quickly did I creep ; And all the devils pressed so very near, I feared their promise they would never keep. So did I see of yore the soldiers fear Who issued from Oaprona under pact, ^ Seeing so many enemies appear.
Close to my leader's form in trembling act I clung, but never did I turn my eyes From those fierce faces which all goodness lackt. They dropped their hooks^ but one to the other cries, ^°* " Shall I just touch him up upon the breech ? Who answers, " Yes — give him a slight surprise. But that chief demon, who had held some speech With my dear leader, quickly turning, cried, " Scarmiglione, peace to all and each !
'^* To us then : " Further passage by the side Of this rock is impossible, below The sixth arch shattered leaves all way denied. Still forwards if your wish is yet to go, You must walk upwards by yon rocky way, "* Near which another ridge will pathway show. Line 95. The surrender of Caprona, a oastle belonging to the Pisans, to the combined forces of Lncca and Florence, occurred in 1290. Dante is stated to have been present at the siege.
Canto XXII. HELL. 81 Just five hours later was it yesterday We count twelve hundred sixty and six years Since first this passage was all burst away. I now am sending there a few compeers "* To see that no one tries to sally out, Go on with them ; they need not raise your fears. Alichin, Calcabrina, step ye out," Began he unto them, '* and thou Cagnazzo And Barbariccia, thou shalt lead the rout. "'^ Come forward, Libicocco, Draghignazzo, Ciriatto with the tusks, and GrafBacan, And Farfarel, and Eubicante mad so. Qro circle all around the boiling pan. These till the other rock must be left free, ^** Which all unbroken doth the valley span." " Ah me ! my master, what is this I see ? If thou but know'st the way I ask not these : Ah ! let us walk without their company. If thou art prudent as thy nature is, Dost not thou see how these their fangs lay bare, And with their eyebrows threaten treacheries ?" And he to me : " I would discourage fear ; Let them grin on, as is their sense malign, They do it for the souls in torment there." By the left bank we find our road incline, But first their tongues, as far as they could reach. Each pointed to his leader as a sign, ' While he had made a trumpet of his breach. Line 112. The demon alladeB to the descent of Christ into Hell at the ninth honr of the day, which took place 1,276 years before the previous day ; that day is fixed, therefore, as Good IViday, on which day, in reverent imitation, Dante fixed the epoch of his own descent. Line 137- The elegant pantomime between the devils and their leader is intended to show their intense appreciation of the deceit which Malacoda has practised on the poets.
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CANTO XXII. The poets following the ten demons, they come suddenly upon a sinner, who before he can escape into the lake is speared bv one of the fiends. With the permission of the leader, Yirg^ questions the sinner as to himself and his companions. The trickster tiien induces the demons to stand aside, under pretence that he will lure more of his comrades into their clutobea, and takes the opportunity of plunging into the burning pitch ; two of the demons chasing him are caught in the slimy lake, and while the rest are extricating them the poets continue their way. G
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82 HELL. Canto XXU. Ebe now Tve witnessed knighthood move afield, Pass in review and rally in the fight, And prest at times for safety backwards yield ; Over your land Pve seen the scouts in flight, O Aretines, and seen the squadrons swell * For tourney and for jousting all bedight. And move to sound of trumpet, drum, and bell.
With signals flung from castled towers afar, In native and in foreign modes as well ; But never with such curious pipe of war Have I seen men-at-arms and footmen throng, Nor ships at signal from the shore, or star. With those two demons did we move along. Ah, fearful company ! but to the Church Saints only and to taverns sots belong. Engrossed alone within that pitch I search.
To witness all contained in its black grave, And all the people turning in their smurch. Like dolphins roll their backs upon the wave. And warn the watchful wanderers of the main. Their vessels from the coming storm to save, So striving to alleviate their pain. Some of those sinners' backs would upwards float, And quick as lightning disappear again. And as around the margin of a moat ^^ Stand frogs with heads alone that outwards peep.
Their feet and bulk all hidden to the throat. Such order did those wretched sinners keep ; But soon as Barbariccia drew him near, So did they vanish in the boiling deep. ^ I saw it and my heart still quakes with fear. One sinner waited there, as hath appeared When one frog stays while others disappear. And Grafiacan, who close to him had neared. Suddenly seized him by his pitchy hair, ^ And dragged him upwards like an otter speared.
Already of their names I was aware, Having remarked them when elect thereto, And heard them call each other here and there. " O Eubicante, do thou seize him too, _ ^^ Stick in the talons so that thou mayst flay," Shouted together all that cursed crew. And I : " My master, if thou canst, essay To know what wretch is this such ills betide. Thus fallen in his foemen's hands a prey." ^
Canto XXII. HELL. 83 My leader then advanced him to his side, And asked him whence he was; "A Navarrese Was I by birth," the wretched soul replied. ** My mother gave me a lord's liveries, Since she had borne me to a ribald thing ** That wrecked his holdings and himself with these. After I served the good Tibaldo, king ; There I began to practise with chicane, For which in heat I pay the reckoning.
Ciriatto, from whose mouth long tushes twain ** Issued on each side like a forest boar, Of a boar's goring made him feel the pain. The mouse had fallen among cats galore ; But Barbariccia stayed him with his hand, And shouted, " Wait there till I haul him o'er. «^ Then to my master turned his face. " Demand Again," said he, •* if more thou wouldest know Of him before he's tortured by my band.
My leader then : " 'Mongst those bad souls below, Knowest thou any that were Latin bom Beneath the pitch ? And he : " Awhile ago I had one for my neighbour there forlorn ; Would I were now with him in covert laid ! I would not then by hook and claw be torn. Then Libicocco : ** We've too long delayed," He said, and seized his arm so with his hook That tearing it a ghastly strip he flayed.
And Draghignazzo also downwards strook, To seize him by his legs ; the devils' lord Turned round to quell them with a savage look ; And when some quiet was again restored. To him who only gazed upon his sore My chief without delay addressed the word.
" And who was he whom when thou cam'st to shore Thou quittedst, as thou say'st, in evil tide ?" ^ " Frate Gomita was the name he bore, He of G-alliera, vase of fraud," replied That wretched one ; " his master's enemies So did he treat that each his praises cried ; Line 47. The jobber who falls into the demon's clntchea is one Ciampolo ; he became a f avonrite of Tibanlt, King of Navarre, in whose court he found a field for his knaveries. Line 81.
Frate Gomita was a Sardinian who abused the confidence of his master, the Governor of Galliera, one of the four presidencies into which the island of Sardixua was divided.
84 HELL. Canto XXII. He took their coin and loosed them ; in this wise ** Still doth he boast, and in all deeds before All others he was king of jobberies.
So Michel Zanche, he of Logodore, TIses this gift, and of Sardinia there Their tongues in wagging weary neyermore. ^ Ah ! see that other, how his fangs are bare ; I would say more, but tremble lest that fellow Be not preparing now to comb my hair.*' The devils' leader turned to Farfarello, Whose eyes were rolling in his thirst to tear, ^ *' Stand off, thou bird of evil !" did he bellow.
" K you have any wish to see or hear," Besuined he then, who stood in terror nigh, " Tuscans or Lombards, I will bring them here. But let the Malebranche stand them by, ^^ So that through fear they be not backwards driven.
And in this very place remaining, I, Instead of my own self will bring you seven, If I but whistle, so to sally out Amongst us is the signal always given." ^^ Cagnazzo at the motion raised his snout, Shaking his head and cried, " The malice know Downwards to throw himself is all his thought. When he, whose snares were ever ready, slow Answered, " Malicious is indeed the spite "® Which for myself procureth greater woe.
Alichin held no more and opposite To all the others cried : " If thou from there Cast thyself down I'll follow on thy flight Not running, o'er the pitch my wing will bear. ^^* Leave him the summit, from the bank stand clear, And see what he alone 'gainst us can dare. O thou who readest, novel sport shalt hear. Each one then turned his eyes the other way ; He first who most suspicious did appear. ^^ The Navarrese chose time for making play.
Upon the bank his feet he firmly set. Then bounding from their purpose burst away. With that vexation each one sore beset. And chiefly him of all their loss the cause, ^** Who chasing after cried, " I have you yet. Line 88. Mioliel Zanche was' Governor of Logodore, another of the four Sardinian presidencies.
He was said to have been murdered by his 8on-in«law, of the powerful Genoese house of Doria, and his name will recur in Canto XXXIlL, where his son-in-law is found. Line 126. Alichin, who, opposed to all the rest, had induced them to yield to the trickster's suggestion.
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Cakto XXIir. HELL. 85 But little 'vailed it, since his wings made pause By innate dread ; one vanished underneath, The other rising o'er the guK withdraws. Not otherwise the wild duck when he seeth "* The falcon near, dives downwards at its dart, And he returns all spent in wing and breath. Then Calcabrina, angered at his heart By such a trick, behind the other sheared, The victim 'scaped, to combat turned his part. And as the trickster then had disappeared On his companion his sharp talons drew, And grappling with him o'er the deep they reared. But the other also was a falcon true, And knew full well to strike, and both in rings Circling fell headlong in the boiling stew. There suddenly the heat its looseninc: brinsrs. But they /ere powerless to rise up again. So thickly had their fall beslimed their wings. Then Barbariccia grieving with his train, Made four fly over to the other side, All with their prongs, and every one amain From here and there towards them downward glide, Stretching their hooks to those in slime immixt, Who were already cooked beneath the tide ; And so we left them with their task perplext.
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CANTO XXIII. Dante expresses to Yir^ his fear that they will be pursued by the revengeful demons, and as his alarm is fulfilled Virgil lilts him in his arms and carries him down the oliff into the next valley of Malebolge. There they find hypocrites punished by being clothed in long cloaks and weighty cowls of lead. Amongst these Dante converses with two I^joioing Friars, who, under the cloak of impartiality, had inflicted S^evous wrong on the Ghibeline party in Florence. ShiBNT, alone, without all company. On went we, one before and one behind. In the way Franciscan friars aie wont to hie. Upon old Esop's fable was inclined My cogitation by that strife below, * That where the tale of the Frog and Eat we find : Line 6. The fable where the frog offering to carr^ a rat across a stream with the intention of drowning him, both are carried off by a kite. The similitude is not so exact as Dante would make it appear.
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86 HELL. Canto XXUI. For does not more resemble now and now Than one to the other action, if all clear The object and result of each we trow ; And as thoughts follow on each other near, So sprang from this another by degrees. Which woke with double force my former fear. Thus did I think. It was through us that these Have been befooled with loss and ridicule, Such as I think must surely them displease.
If anger over evil passion rule They will pursue us hither crueller far Than greyhound at the moment it would pull The hare to pieces. Stood on end my hair With terror, and intent behind, 1 said, " O master, if thou dost not now take care Thee and myself at once to hide, I dread These Malebranche ; on our track they stir ; In thought already do I hear them tread.
And he replied, " If I a mirror were, Thy outward form I should not clearer show Than do thy inward thoughts to me recur. Even now thy thoughts amidst my own did flow With similar action, and in similar wise. So that they both to single counsel grow. If now in truth this right declivity lies, So that to the other ward we may descend. We will escape the chase thou didst surmise.
He had not brought his counsel to an end Before I saw them with their wings outraught, ^ Stretching for flight, as not far off they wend. Me then my leader suddenly upcaught. Like to a mother roused up by the roar, Who sees the burning flames all near her brought, And takes her child and flies, nor waits for more, ^ Having of him than of herself more care, Dressed in the only garment which she wore.
So from the summit of that hard rock there He slid adown the hanging mountain side. Which to the other ward descendeth sheer. ** Faster did water ne'er through channel glide To turn the wheels of some far inland mill. When nearest to the whirling blades it hied, Than did my master down that hanging hill, Bearing me up in safety on his breast, ^ More like a son than comrade of his will.
Canto XXIII. HKLL. 87 But scarcely were his feet securely prest Against the bottom, ere they joined above - The summit, but no longer could molest ; Since the high Providence which made them rove Of that fifth ditch the ministers devised, Deprived them of all power from thence to move. Below we found a people all disguised. Who wandered ever round with footsteps slow, Wailing, with semblance wearied, and despised.
Long cloaks they wore^ with hooded cowls sunk low Before their eyes^ and fashioned in the mould Which in Cologne the monks are wont to show. They glittered outwardly, all bright with gold^ But inwardly were lead, and of such weight Mere straw by those were cloaks by Frederic rolled. weary garb to wear for endless Fate ! With these together to the left we strayed Once more intent upon their dolorous state. But wearied by the poise upon them laid.
That people came so slowly, we found new Companions at each onward stride we made. Whence to my leader I : " Find for my view One known by deed or name amidst the throng. And walking on my eyes around I threw. Then one who understood the Tuscan tongue Behind us cried aloud : " Your footsteps stay, Who through this dark air speed so fast along : Perchance thou'lt find in me what thou dost piuy.
My leader then turned round and told me : " Wait, And afterwards to his thy pace delay. 1 stayed and saw a couple show their great Mental desire to join me in their face, But stayed them still the crowded path, and weight. With envious eye, when they had reached the place, ^ They gazed upon me, but they spake no word, Then 'mid themselves they talked a little space. " He seems alive, by his throat with breathing stirred.
And if they're dead, by what peculiar knowledge To escape this heavy garb are they preferred ?" ^ Then said they to me, ** Tuscan, to the college Of wretched hypocrites, who thus are led, Be not too proud thy person to acknowledge. Line 63. The monks in Cologne appear to have worn cowls larger than ordinary. Line 66. Frederic II. was said to have punished those guilty of high treason by wrapping them in lead and then casting them into the fire.
88 HELL. Cahto XXUI. And I to them : " I was both bom and bred In the great town above fair Amo's wave, ^^ And bear the body which I always had. But who are ye whose cheeks so sadly lave The tears of anguish which so great I view. And what, that thus bursts forth, thy pain so grave ? And one replied, " The cloaks of orange hue ^^ Are made of lead so heavy, that to groan Beneath their weight is forced the balance too.
Eejoicing Friars were we from Bologne, I Catalan and he Loderingo hight, Both chosen by thy country as on one ^®* From faction free the choice is wont to light. Peace to preserve, and what we were, the blaze Around Gardingo bringeth still to sight. " friars !*' I began, " your evil ways " But said no more, because one crucified "° With three stakes fixed to earth drew all my gaze.
When he beheld me all his form he writhed, Breathing within his beard a heavy sigh, And Friar Catalan, who this descried. Told me ; " The man impaled, whom thou dost eye, Counselled the Pharisees iliat it was meet That one man for the populace should die. Impaled and stark he lies across the street, As thou dost see, and his the doom, to rede Of every one that passeth o'er, the weight.
So stretched out is his father-in-law decreed, Within this ditch, and of the council each, Who for the Jews were such an evil seed. Then saw I Virgil marvel at that speech 0*er him upon the crucifix impaled, ^^* So vilely exiled on the eternal beach. The friar then with such request he hailed ; " Displease ye not, if lawful, now to say. If the right hand will any passage yield. Line 103.
Some gentlemen of Lombardy were permitted by Pope Urban IV . to found an order of knighthood withtlie title of '^ Brothers of St. Mary/' bnt as the members were chiefly amongst the rich, and led a life of splendour, they obtained the nickname of Bejoicing Friars. Line 104. The Bejoicing Friars, Catalan and Loderingo— one Gnelph, the other Ghibeline — were chosen as joint judges to heal the factions of the city.
Bought over by the Gnelphs they soon chased the Ghibelines from their homes, and, amongst other actions, burnt the street named Grardingo, in which the Uberti, a leading Ghibeline family, resided. Line 116. Caiaphas, with his father-in-law Annas, mentioned afterwards.
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Canto XXIV. HELL. 89 Bj which we both may issue on our way, ^^ And those black angels manage to avoid, Who came but now to drive us from their bay." " Far nearer than thou hopest," he replied, " Exists a ridge that from the outer round Stretches and crosseth all these valleys wide. "* Though here the broken bridge is not all sound, Still climbing o'er its ruin ye can go, Which riseth upwards, sloping from the ground." My leader stood a space, with head bent low, Then said, " He taught us badly our emprise ^*® To carry out, who hooks those sinners so." The friar : " In Bologna they apprise Of the devil many faults, 'mongst them I've heard A tattler he and father of all lies." My leader swift departed at that word, ^** And in his face some anger did appear, Whence I too from those laden spirits stirred, Behind the footsteps of those feet so dear.
CANTO XXIV. Dante, with great difficulty, under Yirgil's gnidance climbs the broken brid|^e to the ridge that looks down into the seventh vaJley. Descending into it, he finds robbers punished there, sorrounded by midtitudes of pestiferous serpents. Amongst them the soul of Gianni Fucci, who had robbed the sacristy in Fistoia^redicts to him the evils that will shortly ensue to his own city and the Florentines. When in the season of the youthful year The sun beneath Aquarius dims his rays, And equal to the day the nights draw near ; When o'er the landscape the hoar frost displays An image of the snow, its sister white, ^ But very briefly its soft plumage stays. The peasant whose apparel is but slight, Sises and looks and sees the wide champaign Whiten, on which his person he doth smite, Eetumeth to his hut and doth complain. Like to the wretch who knows not what to do : Then turneth back and taketh hope again. Seeing the world hath changed its face to view In such a little time, and takes his wand And to their pastures drives his flocks anew ;
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90 HELL. Cahto XXIV. So did my master make me all despond, When I beheld him with such troubled brow, And so to the evil was the salve at hand. For as we reached the ruined bridge below My leader turned to me with that sweet air -^ Which at the mountain's foot I first did know. His arms he opened after thought of care Within himself, and comprehensive view Over the ruin, he embraced me there.
And like a man who works and thinketh too, ^ Who for the future seemeth aye to care. So o'er a jutting summit me he drew. While of a rock still higher he was 'ware, Saying, " To that thou afterwards must hold, But test it first if fit thy weight to bear." ^ It was no path for those in long cloaks rolled. Since scarcely we, he light and I upborne, Were able to climb up from hold to hold.
And were it not that of that precinct lorn More than the other side this hill was short, ^^ Of him I know not, I had been outworn. But since the Malebolge towards the port Of that down-sunken lake inclineth all, The site of every valley is so wrought. One side below the other aye doth fall. ^ At length, however, to that point we came Where the last fragment topples from the wall.
The breath within my lungs so spent became, When there I reached my strength no further goeth, So down I sat on the first stone that came. ^^ '' Henceforth 'tis fitting thou shouldst shake off sloth," The master cried, " since idly lapt in down 'Neath coverlets, for him Fame never groweth. Who so his life consumes without renown, Leaves such a vestige of himself on earth. As it were froth on air or water blown.
Therefore arise, thy weakness stem with worth Of soul, that of all battles wins the prime, Unless 'tis borne down by the body's dearth. Far longer stairs than these thou'lt have to climb, From these 'twill not sujfice thee to depart ; Make now my counsel with thy action chime. Then I arose, exhibiting with art More force of breath than I in truth possest, And said, " Go on, I'm strong and bold of heart." *® Line 55. The stairs ascending the hill of Purgatory.
Cakto XXIV. HELL. 91 Up o'er the precipice our way we prest, A rocky, narrow, and most hard ascent, And even steeper yet than all the rest. Not to seem weak still speaking on I went, On which from the other moat there did transpire ^ A voice that shouted words of shameless bent. I know not what it said though standing higher, Over the spanning bridge I now arrive. But he who spake appeared as moved with ire.
I gazed intent below, but eyes alive ^^ Could not pierce downwards through that gloomy hall. " Master," I therefore said, " let us arrive From the other circle and descend the wall, For as I hear from hence nor comprehend. So gazing down I cannot see at all." ^^ " No other answer," said he, " do I tend Save action, for in silence with the deed 'Tis fit to carry out a fair demand.
We then descended by the bridge's head, Where with the eighth ridge joineth on its road, ^" And there the pit before me dear I rede : There I beheld within a terrible brood Of serpents, and of species so diverse, That recollection still makes creep my blood. Libya with all its deserts boasts no worse, ^ Though there of snakes amphibious, snakes on trees, Snakes spotted, with two heads, it knows the curse.
Not ever plagues so great nor fell as these Were seen through Ethiop's land of dread alarm, Nor in the realm which o'er the Red Sea lies. ^ Amidst this cruel, miserable swarm Ean people naked all and terrified, No hope of refuge nor of counter-charm. Their hands behind them were with serpents tied ; These in their loins fixed firm their tail and head, ^ While in the front their bodies twist and glide.
And lo ! one wretch that to our side had sped A serpent singled out and pierced him through. There where the shoulders and the neck are wed. One could not write so quickly I or O ^^ As this one kindled and burnt up amain, And in a mass of ashes fell below. Then when he lay on earth destroyed, not slain, The ashes re-collect and upwards rear. Suddenly changed to his own form again. ^^^
92 HELL. • Camto XXIV. So from the learned of old times we hear The phcBniz dies and then is bom once more When it completeth its five-hundredth year. Nor grass nor corn it tasteth evermore ; Only with tears of incense and of myrrh, Of balm and nard its funeral pile doth store. And like to him who falls nor knoweth where, By force demoniac when on earth he lies. Or epileptic stroke, and cannot stir, (hkzes around when he once more doth rise.
All 'wildered by the agony he knows That he has suffered, and round gazmg sighs ; Such was that sinner after he arose. Justice of God ! indeed it is severe, That for His vengeance poureth down such blows. My leader asked him who he was to clear, On which he said, " From Tuscany I fell, 'Tis not long since, into this gulf of fear.
A bestial life, not human, pleased me well, As stiited to a bastard ; Fucd, I, '^^ Beast, in Pistoia found fit covert fell. I to my leader : " Tell him not to fly, And ask what crime has thrust him down so low ; A man of blood and anger I descry. The sinner heard, nor sought to disavow, But towards me raised his soul and visage plain. Covered all o'er with wretehed shame's red glow.
" It grieves me more," he said, " that in this pain Thou hast discovered me where thou dost see. Than when from the other life I first was ta'en. ^^ Deny I cannot what thou askest me ; So low I now am placed because of old I robbed the hangings of our sacristy ; And falsely 'gainst ano&er was it told. But that thou mayst not glory in this view. If ever thou shouldst leave this gloomy hold.
Open thy ears to my announcement true : Though in Pistoia first the Neri fail. And Florence taketh men and customs new. Line 125. Vanni Fncoi was a bastard son of a member of theLazzeri family in Fistoja : he robbed the sacristy of the cburcdi of St. James, and caused the crime to be attributed to Yanni della Nona, who was thereupon execated.
Dante, knowing the violence of his natare, is snrprised at finding him amongst the fraudulent, instead of in the preceding circle. Line 143. The Bianchi of Fistoj a, assisted by the same party in Florence, drove the Negri out of the former city in 1301. The Bianohi (Dante's partyi
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Cabto XXV. HELL. 93 Mars draws a vapour forth in Magra's vale, ^*^ With turbid clouds of vengeance circled round ; And with impetuous tempest will assail, Selecting for his field Piceno's ground, Where suddenly thy faction will be torn. And every white will there receive a wound ; And 1 have told thee now to make thee mourn."
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Facd being of the Ne^ faction) were shortly after chased from Florence and the N^ri became dommant ; the vaponr in Maflnm^s vale is the Marqnis MaLespma, lord of that Tsonntry, who as head of the Negri gave battle to the Bianohi and defeated them on the field of Piceno. These events are here related as prophecy, most unpalatable to Dante.
CANTO XXV. While Fncci vents his rage in blaspthemy he is attacked by the serpents, and flees away, pnrsned by Caoos in the shape of a centaur, whose croup is covered witn adders, while a fiery dragon is seated on his crest. A party of Florentines then advance under the bank where the poets are standing, and four of them go through the most extraordinary transformations. When he had closed his speech the robber there Eaised his clenched fingers with the thumb thrust through, Shouting : " God take him, him to thee I bare." Then did the serpents prove my guardians true. For one entwined himself around his neck, ^ As though it said. Thou shalt not speak anew. Another seized his arms and bound him back. Clutching him there so firmly in his sway That bound by these he could not make a beck. Pistoja ! ah, Pistoja ! why dost stay ^° To bum thyself away to ashes all, Since in ill-doing thou advancest aye ? In all the circles 'neath Hell's gloomy pall I saw no soul towards God display such pride, Not he who fell adown from Thebes's wall. " He spake no further word, but off he hied. A centaur saw I come in angry storm, " Where is this fierce fell spirit ? where ?*' he cried. I do not think Maremma has such swarm Of adders as he had upon his back, ^ Up to the point where springs the human form. Line 2. " Le mani alzo con an^bidae le fiohe." GkLve the fig with his hands, an insulting gesture in the Middle Ages, made by thrusting the thumb through the clendi^ fingers. Line 15. Capaneus, described in Canto XIY.
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94 HELL. Canto XXV. Above his shoulders, perched upon his neck With open wings outstretcht a dragon lay, That kindles every one that nears its track. " This one is Cacus," did my master say, *^ " Who 'neath Mount Aventine his rocky lair With blood has very often made a bay. He does not wander with his brethren there, Because the theft was fraudulent which he made Of that great herd of cattle which was near. ^^ On^which his squinting deeds at once were stayed Beneath the club of Hercules, the last Nine-tenths he felt not of the blows on-laid." Whilst thus he spake to me the centaur past. And then beneath our bank three spirits drew. On whom my chief and I no heed had cast. Until they cried out to us, " Who are you ?" On which our conversation we arrest, And then on these we wholly turn our view. I did not know them, but the one addresst Another, as would happen in the case When one would name a comrade 'mid the rest, Eemarking, " Cianfa, dost thou bide a space?" On which to make my leader stand intent I on my chin and lip my finger place. If now, reader, thou shouldst scarce be bent To trust my speech no marvel it will be. Since I who saw it scarcely can consent. As on them I kept fixed my eyes to see. Behold a serpent with six feet forth launch In front of one and seize him suddenly. With its middle feet he closely gript his paunch. And with its upper ones his arms it caught, Then biting both its cheeks its teeth did crunch. Its hinder feet around his thighs he raught. And through between them both it thrust its tail. Which back around his loins it twining brought. Ivy close rooted never did assail A tree so closely as the beast did ring Around the other's limbs its writhing mail.
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Line 25. Dante has taken upon himself to make Cacns a oentaor. In old mythology he was merely a robber whom Hercnles destroyed for stealing his herd of cattle. See Virgil, ^n., Lib. VIII. 193. .Line 43. Cianfa and the other spirits named afterwards are known merely as Florentines of good family. Cianfa had suddenly changed into a six-footed serpent, who appears immediately on the scene, and had thus disappeared to his oompanions.
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Cabto XXV. HELL. 95 Then as if made of molten wax they cling Together, and together mix their hues, And either seemed no more the previous thing. As placed before the flame there doth transfuse O'er the papyrus a duU brownish shade, Not black yet, though its whiteness it doth lose. The other two looked on and cried dismayed, " Ah, Agnolo, how thou dost change and swoon !
Behold, nor two nor one thou now art made.** Already the two heads had merged in one, In which there then appeared in mingled mien Two fiices in one feico where both were gone. Grew the two arms into four stripes, I ween. The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest, Changed into limbs that never yet were seen. All primal aspect there was wholly chased ; Two and not one appeared that shape unmeet, And such slow crawling from the scene it paced.
Just as a lizard 'neath the scourging heat Of dog-days, when it shifts its hedgy bourne. Appears like lightning crossing o'er the street ; So seemed as towards the bellies crept in turn Of the other pair a serpent all ablaze. Livid and sable like a peppercorn. The navel, whence throughout prssnatal days Man draweth nourishment, to one it broke. Then fell beneath him, stretcht at length to gaze. The pierced one looked at it but nothing spoke.
He only gaped erect upon his feet, As smit by sudden sleep or fever stroke. The serpent gazed on him and he on it ; One through the wound, the other from its mouth, Emitted vapour which betwixt did meet. Henceforth be silent, Lucan, when he showeth The sad Sabellus' and Nasidius' fate. And hear what now my song in haste avoweth. Of Arethusa let not Ovid prate. Nor Cadmus, changed to serpent and to fount, I envy not the tale he doth relate.
For two whole natures never, front to front. Were so transmuted that each figure donned The other's, changing from its former wont. Line 68. Agnolo BmnelleBohi according to the earliest commentators. Line 95. Lncan's " Fharsalia," Book II., where he describes the fate of the two soldiers, Sabellus and Nasidius, bitten by serpents. Line 97. Ovid's " Metam.;* Books IV. and V.
96 HELL. Canto XIV. Yet changing thus these mutuallj respond. For while the serpent cleft its tail in two Then were the pierced one's feet together joined. * ^^ Upwards the legs and thighs together grew, So closely knitted that ere long the cleft Made no appearance, all effaced from view. The tail divided took the shape which left The other's limbs, and supple grew the skin. While crusted o'er the man the scaly weft.
I saw his arms the armpits close within. The while the beast's two feet that had been short Lengthened as much as those had shortened in. After its hinder feet together wrought Became the member which mankind conceals, While the poor wretches changed to a double sort. Meanwhile the vapour one and the other veils With a new colour and createth hair Upon the one and from the other peels. ^^ The one rose up, the other fell down sheer.
Only preserving still their impious eyes, Beneath the which exchanged each visage rare. In him erect towards the temples flies The stuff superfluous, which to shape then grew, ^^ That on erst vacant cheeks the ears arise. The flesh that still remained nor backwards drew With what was over formed into a nose. And the lips thickened as was fitting too. In him that lay the visage forwards grows, ^^ And -closing in the head retire the ears.
As in its shell a snail its horns doth close. The united tongue erst fit for parlajice sheers In two, the while the other's forkt tongue pieced Together, and the vapour disappears. ^^ The spirit that was changed into a beast Away across the valley hissing flew. The other one behind him foaming chased. Then turning towards the last his shoulders new, He cried to him, " I would that Buoso flee ^** As I did, on his belly. Hell's ways through.
Thus those within that seventh pit did I see Change and exchange, and be my tongue excused When flowers it fleeth in such novelty. And though in sooth my eyes had been confused No litSie, and my 'wildered soul surprised. Unto their flight concealment was refused,
Cahto XXVI. HELL. 07 Puccio Sciancato clear I recognised ; And of these three companions he alone Who came remained unchanged and undisguised ; ^*^ The other was he whom thou, Gaville, dost moan. Line 148.
The three original spirits were Af^olo, BassOi and Puccio ; the six.footedseroent, Cianfa; the black adder, Francesco Cavalcante,. killed in the town of GaviUei for which his relations took a terrible revenge on its in> habitants, allnded to in the last line. They were all nobles in Florence, and it is not known for what acts Dante has placed them with the robbers kk his. seventh pit. CANTO XXVI.
Dante ironically compliments Florence on its renown in the Infernal Regions^ and prophesies its approaching misfortunes. He passes with Yirgil into the eighth pit, over which he sees hovering flames, like will-o'the-wisps. These he nnds to be the souls of fraudulent counsellors.
Yirgil converses with a flame with two horns, in which are the spirits of Ulysses and Diomed, and the former relates the final voyage which he and his old companions ventured into the unknown regions of the West, beyond the gates of Hercules. Florence rejoice ! since thou so high dost swell, That o'er the sea and earth thy pinion rears, And thy renown has travelled even to Hell.
Amongst the robbers found I five such peers, Thy citizens, from whence to me comes shame, * Nor much of honour unto thee appears. But if when mom approaches truth we dream, Within a little time thou wilt deplore What Prato and the rest for thee would claim ; It would not be too soon if it were o'er : ^° Would it were o'er, since surely it must be ; As I grow older it will grieve me more.
We sallied forth, and upwards by the way Which first descending there our foot-tracks showed, My leader clambered on and guided me. ^* And following on that solitary road Amid the boulders and rocks' splintered grain, Unaided by the hand the foot ne'er strode. Then did I grieve, and still I grieve again When I direct my thoughts to what I saw, ^ And more than erst my intellect restrain : Line 9.
Frato is either a neighbouring territory to Florence, or else the Cardinal Nicolo di Prato, very hostile to the Bepublic. The evils it will soon deplore are said to have been the fall of a wooden bridge over the Amo, by wluch many lives were lost ; a conflagration that destroyed 1,700 buildings ; and the civil discords which broke out between the Bianchi and Neri, all within the ^ear 1304. Lme 21. The sight of the punishments in the eighth pit of men who had H
98 HELL. Cavto XXVI. Never to hie where virtue doth not draw ; So that if star benign or higher 'hest Has given that good to use it still with awe. As when the peasant on a hill takes rest ^ Ip the season when the earth's great lightener showeth His visage from our gaze conoealed the least.
What time the gnat, replacing flies, forth goeth, Beholds the fireflies o'er the vaUej shine, Where he perchance the vintage works, and plougheth ; ^ With flames so many was the eighth confine Eesplendent all, as I was made aware On reaching where its pit first met my eyne. And like the prophet, erst revenged by a bear, Beheld the chariot of Elias rise, ^ What time the heavenly horses sprang in air.
Who could not so pursue them with his eyes Aught to distinguish, save the flame alone. Just like a little cloud ascend the skies ; So o'er the entrance of that pit moved on ^ Each flame, and none the soul within displayed. Though every one was round a sinner thrown. Gazing, above the precipice I swayed, So that unless I'd seized a rock at hand, Downwards I'd follow though no push were made. ^^ My chief, who saw me so intently stand.
Told me : " Within the flames the spirits bide ; Each one is swathed in his consuming band. " My master, when I hear thee," I replied, " More sure I am, but I already guessed ^ That it was so, and wished to ask my guide. Who is within the flame that forks its crest. Which seems to rise from Eteocles' pyre, Whose spirit with his brother's could not rest.
He answered : " There consume within yon fire " Ulysses, Diomed, together so They wonne to punishment as erst to ire : There do they groan within the flame I trow The horse's ambush, through the city led. From whence the Eoman's noble seed we owe. * perverted their intellect to evil purposes by sedndng others with evil oonnsels etrack home to Dante, who felt that in intellect this class of the condemned were his peers. Line 56.
The hatred of the brothers Eteocles and Folinioes was so great that when both their bodies were bamt on one funereal pyre their iJ^rnM refused to mingle, bat fled the one from the other.
Ca»to XXVI. HELL. 99 Within they mourn thd art, through which even dead Still lost Achilles Deidajnia doth grieve ; They suffer there the rapt Palladium dread. " If they within the flames are granted leave To speak," I said, " O master, I beseech, And prayer a thousand times reiterate weave, Give me not now denial of their speech. When once the biforked flame hath travelled here : See how with longing I towards them reach.
And he to me replied, " I own thy prayer ^^ Is worthy of all praise, and it I grant ; But let thy tongue all utterance forbear. Leave speech to me. I know what thou dost want To ask them ; haply if thy speech they hear. Those Greeks would yield thee but attention scant. " After the moving flame had reached to where It seemed unto my leader time and place, In this shape of his parley was I 'ware. " you, who double in one flame embrace.
If, while I lived, I merited from you, ^ If I have merited from you some grace When iti this world, the lofty verse I drew. Move ye not on ; but one of ye relate Where, self-destroyed, to perish he withdrew. The greater horn of the old flame thereat ^ Began to wave and bow with murmuring chime, like to a flame on wliich the wind doth beat. Thence moving here and there its crest in time. As though it were a tongue that uttered speech.
It cast a voice abroad and said, " What time ^ Circe I left, who lured me in her reach Near to G-aeta, upwards of a year. Before Eneas had thus named the beach ; Not my son's sweetness, nor compassionate fear For my old father, nor the lawful love ^ That should have cheered Penelope so dear. Could from my mind the ardent wish remove Of the wide world experience to attain. And human vices and man's worth to prove.
Once more I laimched upon the open main ^^ With one sole bark and those companions tnie. The few who did not even desert me then. Line 84. The highly poetical idea of this last voyage of Ulysses into the unknown ocean appears to have been invented by Dante, as no such story has come down from classical times.
103 HELL. Cakto XXVI. As far as Spain both shores I past in view, Morocco, and Sardinia's seagirt bourne, And the other islands which those waters strew. ^^ I and my comrades were grown old and worn When we had reached unto the narrow bar ' Where Hercules his motto placed to warn Mankind no farther o'er the waves to dare.
On the right hand I left Seville behind, "<> On the other Ceuta was already far. * brothers !* then I said, * who here have joined Through many thousand perils to the West, To this so brief a vigil of the mind, And high perception, that to ye doth rest, ^^^ Ye will not all experience refuse. Following the sun, of the world without a guest.
Over your noble birthright ye should muse ; To live like senseless brutes ye were not made, But knowledge to pursue and virtue use.' ^^ With this concise oration which I said I made my comrades for the voyage so fain, That aftei*wards I scarcely them had stayed. Our stem still turned towards the mom, again With oars, we made our wings for the mad design, **^ Aye to the larboard steering o'er the main. Now, of the other Pole, the stars that shine.
The night beheld, and ours did scarcely rise. So far adown they sank, above the brine. Five times there filled and vanished to our eyes ^^ The light that streameth from the moon's low rim. Since we had entered on our high emprise, When there appeared to us a mountain dim In the far distance, which to me appears Higher than other mountain e'er could climb.
Then we rejoiced, but soon all changed to tears ; For from that land new-found a storm arose, And on its quarter our frail bark it sheers ; Three times it turned it round with whirling throes, At the fourth time the stern uprose in air. And as to one it pleased the prow down goes Until the sea had closed upon us there. Line 107. The Straits of Gibraltar. Line 117.
In the Middle Ages it was believed that any lands that might exist in the Antipodes were, and most be, uninhabited. Line 133. The mountain of Purgatory, which Dante places in mid-ocean, the antipodes to Jerusalem, which he considers the meridian of our own inhabited hemisphere.
CANTO XXVII. The flame which contained Ulysses and Diomed having departed, another comes near the poets and addresses them finally in Tuscan. On being questioned by Dante he states that he was Count Gnido da Montefeltro, and relates why he was condenmed to such a punishment.
Alseadt was the flame erect and still, To speak no more, and from us went away With licence granted at the sweet bard's will* Another then which came behind did stay^ And drew our eyes towards its crest, at first * By sound confused that from it found its way.
Like Phalaris's bull (which bellowed first With cries of him [in this most just it was] Who first had wrought it with his file accurst), Eoared with the sound of torture, that its mass Seemed to be wholly overcome with pain, Although it was but fashioned out of brass ; So from the absence of all passage plain From the fire's summit in its own mute song There issued forth the lamentable strain. ** But after it had found its way along The fire's point, which it quivered as it past, As words in passing would have done the tongue, We heard it say, ** O thou to whom I cast My voice, who spake now in the Lombard speech, ^ Saying, Now go, from thee no more is askt, Though somewhat late perchance to thee I reach.
Be not fatigued with me in speech to stand. It irks me not although in flames I bleach. If thou in sooth art now to this blind land ^ Fallen from that Latin region sweet and far, To which I wholly owe the crime I planned^ Say if the Romans now have peace or war ; For near Urbino I was mountaineer. And where the Tiber cleaves the rocky scaur.*' ^^ I was still bending down intent to hear, Until my leader touched me on the side.
Saying, ** Speak thou, a Latin soul is here.*^ Line 7, The instrument of torture invented for Phalaris of ^ioily by Perillas, who was chosen by the tyrant for its first victim. Line 29. The town of Montefeltro, situated between Urbino and the part of the Apennines in which the Tiber rises, of which Guido was a native.
102 HELL. Cavto XXYII. And I, who had my answer prompt, replied, And thus began to speak without delay : ^ " O spirit, who below thyself dost hide, Romagna thine is not and was not aye Without some war within its tyrant's heart j But open war I left not in my day. As in past years Eavenna holds its part, ^ The eagle of Polenta broodeth there, So that o'er Cervia sweeps its wings athwart. The land that such a lengthened proof did bear.
And of the Frenchmen made a bloody heap, 'Neath the green branches doth again repair. ^ The mastiffs who possess Yerrucchio's keep, And through Montagna won such ill renown, Where they were wont their teeth still sharpened keep. Lamone's city and Santemo's town The argent-shielded lion's whelp doth bow, ^ Who changeth sides as springs and winters wonne.
The town by which the Savio's waters flow, So as she lies betwixt the hill and plain, Lives now 'neath tyranny, in freedom now. Now who thou art I pray thee to explain, " Not harder be it to thee than to the rest To tell, on earth thy memory to maintain.
After the flre a little time had hissed, In its own fashion, waved its pointed blade Hither and thither, then this speech addresst : ^ " If I believed that my reply were made To one who ever in the world could dwell. This flame without all motion would have stayed. But since there never from this deep of Hell Turned back again one soul, if truth I hear, ^^ Fearless of in&my my tale I tell. Line 41.
Count Gnido da Polenta, who bore an eagle for his ooat of aims* Cervia was a small maritime town near Bavenna, over which Count Guide extended his rule. He was one of Dante's most munificent patrons during his exile. Line 43. The territory of Forli, over which Montef eltro had ruled, and where he had defeated the French after a lengthy siege. The green branches were the coat of arms of Odelaffi, then ruler of the country. Lme 46.
The mastiffa were Malatesta and his son Malatestino, lords of Rimini, who amongst other notorious acts of blood murdered Montagna, the head of the Ghibeline party in Bimini. Line 49. The towns of Faenza and Imola, situated on the above rivers, ruled by Maohinardo Pagano, whose arms were a lion's whelp on a silver shield. He was called from his treacheries the Demon, and is alluded to under tibat name in the " Purgatory," Canto XIV. Line 52. C.eseua, situated between a mountain and the river Savio.
Caitto XXVII. HELL. 106 t was a man-at-arms and then a friar, Believing thus rope-girt the past to mend, And sure that trust had been fulfilled entire, Had not the High Priest (whom all ill attend I) Led me again into my early sin ; And how and wherefore thou shalt comprehend. Whilst made of bone and flesh that form was mine The which my mother gave me, every deed Of mine was fox-like and not leonine.
The wary wiles and hidden ways at need I studied all and practised so the art That to the earth's confines the &une did speeds When I beheld that I had reached that part Of human life when every one should strike His sails and his worn rigging set apart ; That which had pleased me erst then caused dislike. And penitent confession did I use, Ah, weary wretch ! and had beeu saved belike.
The leader of the modem Pharisees, ^ Being at war within the Lateran, And neither with the Saracens nor Jews, For of his foes each was a Christian man.
And none had been with those who conquered Acre, Trafficking in the realm of the Soldan, ^ Nor his high place nor life vowed to his Maker, Bestrained him, nor did me that girdle hold Which wont to make those girt with it far meeker. !But just as Gonstantine Silvester called Within Soratte leprosy to heal, ^^ So this one called me as a master bold To cure the fever high which he did feel ; Asking my counsel and I silent stayed, Because his words delirium did reveal ; And then he said : * Be not thy heart afraid ; ^^ Now I absolve thee, teach me what to do, So that on earth be Palcstrina laid.
The heavens I can lock and open too, As thou dost know the worth of these two keys Although my predecessor little knew.* ^^ Line 67. A Franciscan, which Goido de Montefeltro became in his old age. Line 70. Pope Boniface YIIL, whose enmity to the Colonna family nuhde him destroy their honses in the Lateran.
He consulted Montefeltro on the way by which he could get their other place, Palestrina, into his power, who advised him not to use force, but deceive them by promises which he would nofc keep. Line 89. An allusion to the renegade Christians who had assisted the Sol« dan in reconquering Acre^ the last Christian possession in the East. Line 105. Pope Celestme V., who made the great refusal. See Canto III.
104 HELL. Cakto XXVIII. Then weighty arguments my mind did seize, There where my silence would be worst advice, And I said, * Father, since thou wilt release Me from the sin which I must exercise, Scant execution of a promise strong, "® In thy high seat to triumph will suffice. When I was dead St. Francis came along For me, but one of the fell cherubs black Said to him, * Take him not nor do me wrong.
Amidst my wretched ones he down must track, "* Because that fraudulent advice he gave. Since when my grip on him doth never slack ; The impenitent can no absolving save. Nor penitence and evil will befall Together, since they contradiction have.' ^^ O wretched me, how did I tremble all The while he seized me, saying, ' Thou perchance Didst not suppose I was so logical.
To Minos did he bear me who did lance His tail eight times around his body hard, ^^ And then he bit himself in raging trance. Saying, * He's of the wicked, fire-embarred. Whence as thou seest me here am I forlorn. And wandering vestured thus my grief I guard. When thus irnto an end Ms speech had borne, ^^ The flame departed on its way with grief. Twisting and waving wide its sharpened horn. Onwards we travelled then, I and my chief.
Up o'er the rocks unto the bridge that rolls Above the pit in which they pay their f eof, ^^ Who sowing c^cord burden thus their souls. Line 119. There can be no sncli thing as tme repentance where the wiU to do evil continnes, and -without tme repentance there can be no efficiency in absolution. This is probably the correct doctrine of the Boman CaUioIio Church, though not asserted in bad times, or in any times by bad men.
Such was dearly Dante's belief, and with it CTCn Luther would hardly have been inclined to quarrel. Line 135, The bridse over the ninth pit described in the next Canto, in which the founders of schisms and discords are punished.
CANTO XXVIII. The poets reach the ninth TsUey, in which the promoters of schisms are punished, being hewed by a fiend with a sword in frightful wounds. Amongst these Dante converses with Mahomet, Pier da Sedicinai Mosca de' Uberti, and Bertram dal Bomio.
Cahto XXVIII. HELL. 105 Whob'bb with words, untrammelled even by rhyme, The blood and fearful wounds could wholly tell Which now I saw, narrating many a time ? Each tongue would certes in the venture fail, Through weakness of our speech and mind that could * Scarce comprehend the whole of such a tale. If there were heaped together all the crowd Already on Apulia's fertile soil, Whose wretched blood has e'er in torrents flowed Through Trojans, or throughout that lengthened broil, ^° Described by Livy, who aye painteth true. Which of the rings made such a lofty spoil ; With those, whom with his fearful blows o'erthrew Robert Guiscardo, whom they dared oppose, And the rest, whose bones are still heaped up in view '* Near Ceperan, where each Apulian rose A traitor, or where less to arms than him, The old Alardo, Charles his victory owes ; And if each maimed and lacerated limb Were shown, it could not rival in its scene ^ Of that ninth prison-house the fashion grim. A barrel by the loss of stave between Was never yet so pierced as one I saw Cleft from the anus upwards to the chin. Betwixt his legs hung down his entrails raw ; ^ The milt appeared, and the ugly sack where glide. Changed into dung, things swaUowed by the maw. Whilst wholly gazing on him me he eyed, And with his hands his breast he widely bared, Saying, " Now see how I myself divide. Behold how Mahomet is maimed and sheared ; Before me Ali goes with wailing drear. Cleft in the face, from the topknot to the beard ; And all the rest, whom thou beholdest here, The sowers erst of schism, and of scandal, Were when alive ; hence thus are cleft ashear.
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Line 10. The war of Hannibal in Italy, described by liivy, who states that after ^the> battle of Cannae three bushels and a half of rings were sent to Cartha^, taken from the fingers of the dead Roman knights. Line 14. Brother of the Duke of Normandy, a founder of a Neapolitan race of Norman kings. Line 15. The army of Manf redi, who by the treachery of the Apulian troops was utterly routed near Ceperano by Charles of Ai^ou. Line 18. The victory of Tagliacozzo, gained for the same Charles by the generalship of the Sieur de Yaleri, the Alardo in the text. Line 32. Ali, the disciple and successor of Mahomet.
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106 HELL. Cavto XXVIU. Behind them is a devil, who doth handle Most cruelly us upon his sharp-edged sword. Again submitting to its stroke this band all, When we have turned around this road abhorred ; Because the wounds are closed again, before. In front of him, we are again restored. But who art thou who o'er the rock dost pore, Haply delaying to thy pain to wend.
Unto thy sins already judged in store ?•' ^ " Nor death hath reached him yet, nor sin doth send Him unto torment," then my chief replied, " But full experience unto him to lend, 'Tis fit that I, long dead, should him now guide Through all the circles* of deep Hell's domain ; 'Tis true as that I speaking with thee bide. More than a hundred, when they heard that strain.
Stopped in the pit to gaze upon me there, Forgetting in the marvel even their pain. " Tell then my brother Dolcin to prepare. Thou who perchance wilt shortly see the sun, Unless he wishes here my fate to share, Sufficient provender ere snows come on, The victory to the Navarrese to yield. Which otherwise would not be lightly won.
In act of starting one foot he upheld, Mahomet the while that parlance he rehearsed, Then set it down, and moved again afield. Another, unto whom the throat was pierced ; The nose sheared closely off between the eyee. And in an ear who also was amerced. Who had remained to watch me with surprise. Amongst the rest, his weasand opened then. Streaked on the outside all with crimson dyes, And said, '' O thou whom crime doth not condemn.
And whom in Latin realms I erst did see. Unless thy likeness mocks me, as the same, Of Pier of Medicin remember thee If e'er thou seest once more that happy plain Which falleth from Vercello to the sea. • ^* Line 55. Fra Dolcin was the fonnder of a dissolnte sect in the time of Clement Y.
He preached the community of goods and women, and, witK some two thousand followers of both sexes, lived in the mountains of Noyara according to the principles he avowed. The depth of the snows in a severe winter depriving them of provisions, he gave himself up, and was bunt, with his mistress Margarita, in the town of Novara. Line 74. The plain of Lombardy.
Camo XXVin. HELL. 107 In Fano's town unto the noblest twain To Messer Guido and Angiolet make known, That if prophetic sight is here not vain, They from their ship will overboard be thrown, And near Gattolica be drowned by wiles ^ And treason of a ruthless tyrannous one. 'Twixt Cyprus' and Majorca's distant isles. So great a crime did Neptune never see^ By pirates or in Argolic defiles.
That traitor who sees only with one eye, ** And holds the land (the which that he had ne'er Seen is the wish of one that's here with me), For conference with him will call them fair, And then will act that 'gainst Focara's gale They never more will need or vow or prayer." •" And I to him : ** Now tell me, if thy tale Thou wouldst that I should upwards carry, who Is he who rues that sight as bitter bale ?
Then seizing with hid hands his jaws he drew One of his comrades, and forced wide his mouth, Crying, " 'Tis he ; he cannot speak to you. This banished man, removed from C»sar, loath. All doubt| affirming that when well prepared, Any delay to injury ever groweth. Ah ! how bewildered he to me appeared, There with his tongue shorn closely in the throat, Curion, who erst in speaking had so dared !
Then one, from whom both hands had been ofEsmote, Baising his maimed arms in the dusky air. So that the dripping blood his face did blot, Cried, *^ Mosca also in thy memory bear, Who said, alas ! a deed is crowned, when done. Which to the Tuscan race caused evil fare.
Line 77* Goido del Cassero and Angioletto dn Cagnano were invited by Malatestino da Bimini (the one-eyed traitor) to a oonference on some important bnsinees, and were drovmed nenr Cattolioa, between Fano and Bimini, on bifl orders. Line 89. Focara, a mountain on that coast, from which blows a wind very dangeroos to the navigators there. Line 97.
Dante, strook by Pier da Medicines allusion to a spirit who would wish that he had never seen the land of Bimini, asks who he may be, and learns that it is Curion, whose speech determined Julius CsBsar to proceed across the Bubioon — a river betmxt Bavenna and Bimini— in the words of liucan, *' ToUe moras ; nocuit semper differre paratis. Line 106.
The murder of Buondelmonte, the origin of the Black and White factions in Florence, was urged by Mosca Uberti. Buondelmonte being engaged to one of the Amadei, fell desperately in love with one of the Donatio
To which I 'joined : " And death unto thy own. Whence he, with grief on grief accumulate, Departed like a wretch whose wits are gone. But on the crowd to gaze I still did wait, And saw a thing, which without farther proof, I would have fear thus single to relate, Were't not that conscience doth not keep aloof That company so fair, which makes man free.
When pure at heart, as if in armour proo£ Certes I saw, and still meseems I see, A bust without a head walk onwards there As walked the rest of that sad company. The trunkless head it carried by the hair In's hand, just like a lantern dangling low. And it cried woe ! as on us it did stare. Himself he made the light by which to go. And they were one in two and two in one : How it could be He knows who rules it so.
When to the bridge's foot he straight had drawn, With all the head, he raised his hand on high In order that his words might nearer wonne, Which were : ** Now see the dreadful penalty Thou who goest breathing to behold the dead ; Any so great as this canst thou descry ? And that of me the story may be sped, Bertram of Bomio am I, know me well. Who to King John such evil comfort shed.
I made the son against the sire rebel ; Achitophel no worse to Absalom And David did, with instigations fell. Since I divided men so joined, I roam, Bearing my brain thus severed from the nerve Of life, whose essence in this trunk has home. The law of retribution here observe." whom he married in spite of his given word to the other family.
When the Amadei were consnltmg on what revenge they shocdd take for the insnlt* Mosoa quoted the proverb, " Cosa fatta ha capo. In the strife that followed the Uberti family were cluef sufferers. Line 184. Bertram, Viscomte de Hantef(^ in Gnienne, who incited John to rebel against his father, King Henry II. of England.
CANTO xxrx. Dante still lingem, gazing on the maimed spirits in the ninth valley, in anticipation of seeing there a relation who had been murdered, and whose death his family had not avenged. He then follows Virgil over the ridge which crowns the last ward of Malebolge, in which are punished fabifiers of various descriptions.
Descending into the valley, he finds them afflicted with fearful diseases, and discourses with two alchemists, Grif olino of Arezzo and Capocchio of Siena. The various wounds and people crowded deep, As if with drunkenness my eyes did blear, That they were anxious but to rest and weep. But Virgil said to me : " At what dost peer ?
Wherefore thy vision does it still so strain * Downwards amongst those shadows, maimed and drear P In the other valleys thou wast not so fain. Think, if thou wouldst their number calculate. Twenty-two miles encircleth this domain. The moon already is beneath our feet, ^® And little of our granted time doth bide.
And there is more to see than thou dost weet." ** If thou hadst only," straightway I replied, ** Perceived the reason why that gaze was bent. Perchance to tarry thou hadst not denied. '* He moved in part, and I behind him went. My leader having given his reply, I added yet : " Within that cavern pent, On which I kept my eyes so fixedly, I think a spirit of my blood doth wail 20 The crime which costs below such misery.
Then said my master : " Let not grief assail Thy thoughts concerning hira from henceforth more. Think of the rest ; let him remain in bale. For I beheld him stand our bridge before, ^ With threatening finger point thee to the host. Geri del Bello was the name he bore. Thou wert entirely at that time engrost On him who Altaforte's keep did hold. So that thou look'dst not there till he was lost." ^ Line 27.
Geri del BeUo was a kinsman of the poet's, and assassinated by one of the Sacchetti family. It is clear that Dante considered the reproach of the spirit that his death had not been avenged by any of them who shared the shame of it to be a just one. Line 29. Bertram, Viscomte of Hautefort.
110 HELL.. Cahto XXIX. " O leader mine, the violent death and bold, "Which has not been avenged as yet," I said, " By any who with him this shame doth hold, Made him disdainful, hence away he sped, Without addressing me, as now I think More pity towards him hence in me is bred. Thus did we speak imtil we reached the brink, Which from the rock the other vale would show. Did not the light from its abysses shrink.
When we were on that cloister, the last woe Of Malebolge, so that to our sight All its lay brothers might be seen below. Various lamentings on me darting smite, Whose arrows were so barbed with misery That with my hands my ears I closed outright. Such dolor as would be, if 'twixt July And drear September, from each hospital Of Yaldichiana and Maremma nigh.
The sick within one pit were gathered all ; Such was there here, and rose such odour rank As wont to rise from limbs that rot and crawl. Then downwards we descended the last bank Of the long bridge, and leftwards still we slant. And then my vision with more clearness sank Down to the bottom, where the ministrant Of the Most High, Justice in&llible, The falsifiers punish in that haunt.
I think not that a sadder sight befell When in Egina all the people sickened, What time the air was faVL of plagues so fell That even on the beasts death's harvest thickened, Down to the worm, and the human race revives From seed of ants miracidously quickened. According as the poet world believes. Than 'twas to witness in that valley black The spirits languish in their various sheaves. This on his belly, that upon his back.
One on the other lav, one on all four Shifted his place along that wretched track. Line 48. The valley through which rans the river Ghianawas in those times as unhealthy in autumn as the pestilential swamps of the Maremma on the coast of Tuscany. Line 59. All the inhabitants of Egina having died of plagoe, the king obtained from Jupiter that a large ants' nest should be changed into men to repeople his island. Ovid's " Metam.," book vii.
Canto XXIX. HELL. Ill Without a word we slowlj journeyed o'er, ''" Listening and ever gazing on the sick, Who could not raise their bodies from the floor. Two saw I 'gainst each other placed oblique, As in the kitchen pan 'gainst pan is laid, Prom head to foot with dry scabs spotted thick. '* I never saw a currycomb so frayed By stable lad beneath his master's eye, Or when unwillingly from sleep delayed.
As each one aye his nails' keen bite did ply Upon himself, through madness that assails ^^ From the wild itching without remedy.
And so there downwards peeled the scabs, their nails, As doth a knife the coat of a sardine Or otiier fish furnished with larger scales. ** Thou witJi thy fingers who thy mail dost skin," Began my leader unto one of these, " -£id often tum'st them into pincers keen, Tell me if any 'mid these companies Is Latin, so I pray thy naU may last In this its task tlurough the eternities." ^* We are Italian, whom thou seest aghast, Both of us here," the one with wails replied ; ** But who art thou who from us this hast askt ?
" I'm one who here descends," my leader cried, " With this a living man from round to round ®* I purpose Hell to show him as his guide. Then was their mutual support unbound, And each one turned to me in trembling fear. With all the rest, who'd heard at the rebound. My gentle master unto me drew near. Saying : " Whate'er thou wishest to them speak,'* And I at once obeyed his dictate clear.
" So that your memory may not grow weak In himian minds upon the primal earth, But that for many years it life may take, ^^ Tell me now who ye are, and of what birth. Let not your weary pain, undignified, . Deter ye from your story setting forth." ** I was D'Arezzo," one of them replied. '* Albero of Siena sent me to the flame, ^^^ But here I am not doomed for what I died. Line 109.
Grifolino d'Areszo was burnt at the stake by a bishop of Siena as a necromancer on the instijcation of a nephew of the latter, Albero, for the simple reason given in the text.
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112 HELL. Cakto XXX. 'Tis true that, jesting with him, I did claim That I the power to fly in air had won, And he, whose wish was great, nor sense the same, Asked me that art to show him, and alone, "* Because no DsBdalus I made him, made Me bum through one, who held him as a son. I in the last of the ten pits am laid Because on earth I practised alchemy. By Minos' doom, whose judgment never strayed/' ^^ Then said I to the bard, " Where could we see A race so prodigal as these Sanese P Sure not the French, though bad enough they be." On which the other leper, who did seize My meaning, added, " Stricca we must shrive, Wliom temperate expense alone could please. And Niccolb, the man who first did hive Cloves in his roasted pheasants, a rich mode, Sown in an orchard where such seed would thrive. We must except the band, on whom bestowed ^^® Caccia d'ABcian his vineyards and his groves, And his good sense the Abbagliato showed. But now, that thou mayst know who thus improves Thy speech 'gainst the Sanese, close looking, try My features to recall, as it behoves. And thou wilt see Capocchio's shade am I, With alchemy who changed each metal's shape. And thou shouldst know, if thee I right descry, How I of Nature was an excellent ape." Line 125. Stricca, Niocolo, Caccia d'Ascian, and Abbagliato, alluded to in the following lines, were members of a brotherhood called the "Brigata Grodereccia," who spent all they possessed in riotous living, and whose ex. ixavagance was a i>roverb of that place and time. Hie orchard in which such seed would thrive is Siena. Line 136. Capocchio of Siena is stated to have been a f eUow-student in natural philosophy of Dante, and hence they were well known to each other.
CANTO XXX. Two wild spirits rush by, tearing and haling the other plague-smitten victims. These are they who in life falsified their ovm persons. On their departure Dante listens to an altercation between Master Adam of Brescia, a coiner, and Simon of Troy. He is rebuked by Virgil for taking an interest in so base a dispute. In former times when Juno was enraged Through Semele against the Theban blood, As more than once her jealous war she waged,
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Canto '^yy, HELL. 113 King Atamas with such a madness glowed That when be saw his wife with infants twain ^ Bearing on either arm the darling load, He cried, " We've stretcht the nets and o'er the plain I sieize the lioness and both whelps too/' And then his talons fell he raught amain. And down the infant named Learcus threw, ' ^^ And dashed to pieces, breaking on a stone.
And she then drowned herself and infants too : Or what time later Portime hurled adown The Trojan grandeur all in flaming fear, So that the old king perished with his crown, ^^ Hecuba, captive miserably drear, After she saw her PoHsena dead, And grieving found her Polidorus' bier, Stretcht on the shore beside the deep sea bed, lake to a dog she barked in her despair ; ^' So far had grief her mind from reason led.
But neither Thebans wild nor Trojans e'er Were seen in any way so fierce to fly, Not only beasts but human limbs to tear. As I two pale and naked shades descry, ^^ Who in such fashion rushed about to bite As doth the boar-pig when escaped from sty.
One seized Capocchio and with tusks did smite His neck upon the nape and dragging frayed His belly 'gainst the bottom of the pit. ^ And then the Aretine who trembling stayed, Said to me : *^ Gianni Schicchi is the fiend Who rabid runs the others thus to aid." ** Oh," said I, " that the other may not send Her teeth into thee, be it no fatigue ^ To tell me who she be or ere she wend.
And he : '* That ancient spirit with intrigue, Mirra the scelerate, for her father nm-sed A passion not with lawful love in league. With him to sin she gained her end accurst ^ When in another's form she false appeared ; Just as the other who there wonneth durst liine 4. Atamas, King of Thebes, married to Ino, sister to Semele. liine 82. A Florentine of the Cavalcanti family, who possessed a wonderful power of imitation.
It is said that when Buoso Donati was dead, this man counterfeited his person, and, lying in his bed as if in his last sickness, dictated a will by which he left all the property of the dead Buoso to his distant relative Simon Donati, for which piece of acting he received from the latter a celebrated mare, called in line 43 the lady of the herd. I
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114 HELL. Casto To gain as prize the ladj of the herd, Buoso DoHati, with his form to feign, Devising all his goods with forms averred.'* ** After had passed away the rabid twain On whom till now my vision I had held. On the other bom to ill I turned again. One fashioned like a lute I there beheld, Had he been only lopt off at the groin, ^ The which o'er his shrank legs so hugely swelled. The dropsy, which the frame doth so disjoin. Through humour unabsorbed that the same &yce To the same belly no one would assign, Forced him his lips to open wide in space. As a consumptive man who through his thirst One upwards and one o'er his chin doth brace* '' O ye who each one, free from sickness, stirr'st (Wherefore I know not) in this world of woe," Said he to us, '' now wait and see the worst Wretchedness Master Adam here doth show ; In life I had enough for all my wills, Now I desire one drop of water, woe ! The rivulets that from the verdant hills Of Casentine descend to Amo's plain, Making all cool and moist their little rills. Are ever here before me, not in vain. Since the dear image makes for me more drought Than the disease through which my fekce is lean. The rigid justice which my doom hath wrought, ^' From the place in which I sinned, a reason plied To make my sighs with greater frequence fruught. Bomena's here, there where I falsified The money stamped with San Baptista's sign, For which with body burnt on earth I died. Here could I only see the soid malign Of Guido or his brethren, either one, For Branda's fount that sight I'd not resign. And one of them doth here already wonne, If the wild shades who wander round speak true. But what avails it me whose limbs are gone ?
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Line 61. Master Adam of Bresoia was induced by Guido and his two brothers, Counts of Bomenai a land in the Casentine, to coin false florins, for which crime he was burnt. The Florentine florin was stamped on one side witJi an effigy of the Baptist, and the other a lily. Lino 78. A fountain of clearest water in Siena.
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Cahto XXX. HELL. 115 If I in sooth were only light eno* To walk an inch within a hundred years, I had set out upon my path ere now. To seek him out amongst his filthy peers, Though for eleven long miles around they lie, Nor less than half a mile athwart one steers.
Through them am I 'mid such a family ; 'Twas they induced me florins false to coin, That had in them three carats of alloy." ••* And I to him : " What wretched pair recline Smoking like hand immersed in water cold, Stretcht out so closely at thy right confine ?" *' They've moved not since I first did them behold," He answered, ** when within this pool I fell, •* Nor do I think they'd move through ages old.
The one 'gainst Joseph the false tale did tell. The other is false Simon, Greek of Troy ; Through their high fever they cast out such smell. And one of them to whom it caused annoy, ^^ Perchance the being called by name so mean. Against his belly hard his fist let fly ; It sounded as it were a tambourine.
And Master Adam struck him on the face With 's arm, which did not seem less hard I ween, ^^ Saying to him : " Although the power to pace Be taken from my limbs, of grievous weight, Free for such work an arm I still possess. Whence he replied : " When to thy fiery fate Thou walkedst, thou hadst not thy arm so quick, But when thou coinedst it was quicker yet.
The dropsical : '' In this thou truth dost speak : But thou gav'st not such truthful testimony, There, when from thee the Trojans truth did seek. '' If I spoke false, and thou didst coin false money," Said Simon, " I but for one fault am here. But thou for more than other demon anv. " Bring back to mind the horse, thou perjurer," Answered the other, " with his paunch accurst.
Known unto all the world, be thine the slur." ^^ ** The guilt be thine of thirsting, whence doth burst Thy tongue," cried out the Q-reek, ** and water foul Which 'fore thy eyes that belly pile has nursed. Thereat the coiner : '^ Still mav gape and roll Thy mouth in speaking evil, as 'tis wont ; If I have thirst, and humour pu& me full, Line 97. Potiphar's wife.
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116 HELL. Casio XXXI. Thou hast a burning and an aching front, And but to lick Narcissus' mirror bright Thou wouldst not many invitations want." In listening to them I was centered quite, When said my master to me, " Now behold, Little remains to make me vexed outright." When I had heard his words in anger told, With such deep shame towards him did I turn. That still in memoiy is o'er me rolled. And like one dreaming who doth loss discern. Who dreaming, hopeth that he doth but dream, And hopes it may not be what seems so stem, Unable e'en to speak, so did I seem. Who longed for pardon, and the pardon won, Which all the while I did not dare to claim. " Less shame a greater error would atone Than this of thine has been," my master cried, " Now from all sadness clear thy heart, my son. And think that I am always by thy side, Should Fortune e'er again conduct thee nigher, Where people in a like contention bide. Since wishing such to hear is low desire."
CANTO XXXI. The poets, turning from the last valley of Malebolge, advance towards the ninth circle of Hell, the lowest and central pit. Aronnd that pit, standing within it, but rising above it from their middle upwards, stand vast giants. Of these Dante sees Nimrod, Fialte, and Antrons. The last places the poets in safety at the bottom of the pit. At first it stung me that rebuke so keen, So that the blush on either cheek I feel.
And after cured me the same medicine. So have I heard Achilles' lance of steel Left to him by his father had the gift At first to wound, and afterwards to heal. We turned our back upon that wretched rift. Up by the bank with which it is embraced, O'er which without another word we drift.
Less than or night or day a light was cast, ^"* So that my sight but little way could press ; But there I heard resound a horn's shrill blast So loud that thunder would have sounded less, Which 'gainst itself, following its passage, drew My eyesight forward wholly to one place ; ^*
Canto XXXI. HELL. 117 After the dolorous rout which overthrew Of Charlemagne the sacred enterprise, Not half so terribly Orlando blew. A little upwards, when I raised my eyes. It seemed that many lofty towers I saw ; ^^ Whence I : " master, say what land is this ? And he to me : " Since thou too far dost draw Thy eyesight through the shadows, it may be That after what thou deem'st may prove a flaw.
If thou dost thither reach, thou clear wilt see ^* How much the senses are deceived afar ; Therefore bestir thyself more speedily. Then did he take my hand with tender care And said to me, " Before we further reach, In order that the fact less strange appear, '^ Know that these are not towerc«, but giants, stretch Their forms around the pit's circumference here, Hid from the navel downwards, all and each. As when a cloud doth dissipate and clear.
Little by little doth the sight perceive ^•'* What erst was hid by vapour, dimmed by air ; So, as that dark and thickened air we cleave, More and more near approaching towards the shore, Awaketh fear, as my mistake I leave ; For as around its circular yard there tower *^ Turrets round Montereggion*s keep encrowned, So round the brink which o'er the pit doth lower With half their persons, turreted around The horrible giants, whom Jove's threats yet chase.
When from the heavens there peals the thunder sound, ** Already I perceived of one the face, Shoulders, and breast, and of his belly part, And both his arms adown his sides I trace. Nature most surely when she left the art Of making animals like that did well, ^" From Mars such executioners to part ; And if of elephants, and whales as well, She yet repents not, who would keen reflect More just and more discreet will hold her still. Line 16.
" When Charlemagne with all his peerage fell At Fontarabia. On this occasion Orlando, surrounded by the Paynim, blew so loud a blast upon his miraculous horn that it was heard by the king at the distance of eight leagnes, who, with all his ardour, could not return in time to the rcicue of his favourite knight. Line 41. Montercggion, a castle between Sicua and Florence.
118 HELL. Cabto XXXI. For where the assistance of the intellect " Is added unto evil will and power, 'Gainst it no refuge could mankind erect.
More long and big his face did seem to lower Than is St. Peter's bronzen pine at Eome ; While the other bones in due proportion tower ; ^ So that the bank which, covering him, did come Up to his middle, quite enough displayed Above, that if three lofty Swiss had clomb, His hair they'd reach not, one on the other laid ; For of his length I saw thirty great palms ^ Down from the place where the cloak's clasp is made. Bafel, mai amech, zahi alms.
Shouting, that savage mouth began to roll, For which were never suited sweeter psalms. And towards him spake my leader : " Foolish soul, ^® Stick to thy horn ; in that pour out thy wrong. When ire or other passions thee control. Seek at thy neck and thou wilt find the thong That ties it to thee, O thou soul confused, And see, it lies thy brawny breast along.'* ^* Then said to me : " He has himself accused : This one is Nimrod who did Babel rear.
Whence in the world one language is not used. Leave him alone, nor speak to empty air ; For such to him doth every language sound ^^ As his to others, he has none we're 'ware. A little farther then our way we wound. And towards the left, at a balestra's throw, Another greater and more fierce we found.
Who may have been the master who could so *^ Bind him I cannot say, but he had bound One arm before, the right behind I know Within a chain that him did so surround From the neck downwards, in the part we spy It twisted round him up to the fifth round. ^ ** This is the proud one who desired to try His power against the might of highest Jove, Whence he has this desert," my chief did cry : Line 59.
The bronzen oone which once crowned the arch of Adrian, and was afterwards placed above St. Peter^s, from whence it was thrown down by lightoiog. Line 67< Gibberish, written as in the original, except the final termination, being altered to suit the English rhyme. It is meant to represent the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel.
Cahto XXXI. HELL. 119 '' His name is Fialte, he great deeds did proves When to the gods the giants gave alarm : ^ The arms which then he swung no more can move. And I to him : ** If huge Briareus* arm To look on now were possible for me, Experience of such sight my eyes would charm. He answered then : '' Antssus thou shalt see, ^^ Who speaketh and is loose, not £iir from here, And who within the pit will place us free.
He whom thou wouldst behold is not so near, And he is bound, and like to this is made. Save that his face more savage doth appear." ^^ Never was yet by terrible earthquake swayed. Or rocked a turret its wild shock beneath. As Fialte then to shake himself essayed. Then did I fear, far more than ever. Death, And never had I greater cause for dread "^ Had I not seen the bands still round him wreathe.
A little farther onwards then we sped, And to Antaeus came, five ells in height He issued &om the pit, besides his head.
" O thou who in the fortunate vale, where bright "^ With glory Scipio won the victor's bay, When Hannibal retreated from the fight, A thousand lions seizedst for thy prey, And hadst thou only at the great war been Amongst thy brethren, still there are who say, ^^® The sons of earth had victors there been seen : Bear us below (let this no slur be thought). There, where Cocitus' stream the cold doth chain.
To Tizio, or to Tifo, send us not ; But bow thee down, nor twist thy mouth with shame : ^^ This one can give thee that which here is sought ; Still in the world can he procure thee fame. For he doth Uve, and long life hath in store. Unless before the time grace him should claim. So spake my guide : AntsBUs stretched before ^^ His hand in haste, and on my leader laid. Whence Hercules erst felt the pressure sore.
When Virgil felt himself ta'en up he said To me, " Now manage that I thee may hold," Then of himself and me one link he made. ^^* Line 115. The territory of Utica, on the coast of Tunis.
120 HELL. Cahto XXXIL As when the Oarisenda we behold From 'neath its leaning tower what time a cloud Thwarts it, the tower itself appears onrolled, So seemed Antseus to me as he bowed While I was gazing, and caused such effray ^^ That I had gladly chosen another road ; But lightly to the pit which holds its prey Judas and Lucifer, he us did bear. Nor so bent downwards did he make delay, But like a ship's tall mast arose in air. ^^ Line 186. The Carisenda is the name of the falling tower at Pisa.
CANTO XXXII. Dante finds himself in the bottomless pit, in which is the frozen lake of Gocitus. In the onter circle are frozen the first class of traitors, their heads alone being raised above the ice. This circle is called Gaina, after the first murderer. Camiccione 4e' Fazzi names to Dante several of those punished in this circle. The poets then advance to the second circle, called Antenora, after Antenor, the betrayer of Troy, where are punished in like manner traitors to their country. Bocca degli Abbati names to Dante several of his companions in suffering. Finally Dante sees two forms frozen, the head of one overlapping the other, and devour<« ing the lower skull with fierce hatred. If I possessed the rhymes so rough and hoarse As would be suited to the dreary hole Whither the rocks of Hell all point their course, Of my conceit I could express the whole Sap more completely, but these not possest, * I venture not all free from fear's control, For 'tis no enterprise to take in jest To paint the depths of all the universe, Nor with a tongue that childish words addrest. But let those ladies now assist my verse Who helped Amphion Thebes's wall to rear. So that my speech from fact be not diverse. people more than all create for fear. Who stand within the place to paint so hard. Better had ye been sheep or goats when here. WJien we were sunk within the gloomy ward Beneath the giant's feet, and even more low. The while the lofty wall I still regard, 1 heard one say ; '' Take care how thou dost go. Endeavour not to trample with thy feet ^ The wretched brothers' heads, all worn with woe." Line 21. The wretched brothers, as we are told afterwards, are Allessandro and Napoleone, sons of Alberto Alberti, who killed each other.
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Canto XXXII. HELL. 121 On which I turned, and saw beneath my feet, And stretcht before, a lake, which through the cold Appeared not water, but a glassy sheet. In winter time the Danube never rolled ^ n Over its course a veil of ice so thick, Nor 'neath its frozen sky the Tanais old.
As there was here, for if Mount Tabemich Had fallen upon it, or Mount Pietrripane, It had not from its border sounded crick. ^ And as a frog that croaks doth but remain With nose above the water, when there dream Oftenest the peasant girls of gleaning grain. So livid to their faces, showing shame. The grieving souls are buried in the ice, ^ Their t^eth, like storks' notes, chattering in their frame.
Each one held down his face, and from their eyes Of their sad heart, and from their mouth of cold. Amongst them all the evidence doth rise. When I had somewhat round my vision rolled '*^ I turned down to my feet, and there saw two So close their hair was mixt in mingling fold, ** Say to me, ye whose breasts so closely glue," I said, " who are ye ?" and their necks they bent.
And when they'd raised their faces me to view, Their eyes, whose moisture was not inwards pent. Flowed over through the lids, and as they flow The tears are frozen ere they make descent. Two bits of wood were never dovetailed so As were their eyelids, whence like he- goats there ^* They butted, so overcome by anger's glow. Then one, to whom had perished either ear By the sharp cold, with face still bent down low.
Said, " Wherefore upon us dost thou so stare ? If who this couple were thou wouldest know, ^^ r the valley where Bisenzio's stream doth fall Their father Albert and themselves did grow. One body bore them both ; and Caina all Thou mayst search o'er and will not find a shade More fitly fixed within this gelid caul. ^ Line 28. Mount Tabemich, in Slavonia, and Pietrapana, a mountain in the territory of Modena. Line 33.
The spirits are immersed in the ice np to the throat, like frogs iu water in the summer season, when the gleaners follow the harvest. Line 56. The Bisenzio falls into the Arno shortly below Florence.
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122 HELL. Cahto XXXn. Not he whose shadow waas all open laid At a single blow by royal Arthur's hand, Foccaccia, no ; nor he who with his head My sight obstructing doth before me stand, And Sassol Mascheroni was his name ; ^ If Tuscan, who he was thou'lt understand, And that more words from me thou mayst not claim, Know Oamicion de' Pazzi erst was I. Carlin I wait, who's lessened so my blame." A thousand dog-like faces I descry, ^^ Grinning with cold, which make me shudder o'er, Crossing that frozen ford in memory. And whilst we wended towards the central shore. Where, gravitating on, all things advance. And I was trembling in the eternal frore, '' Whether 'twas will, or destiny, or chance, I know not, but in passing 'twixt each head Against a face my foot did heavily glance. Wailing, he shrieked out : ** Why on me dost tread ? Unless thou comest to increase my pain ^ For Mont' Aperti, why dost work me dread ?" And I : " My master, here awhile remain So that through this one I remove a doubt. Then quickly as thou wilt I'll onwards strain." The leader pausing, I to him spake out, Who with his horrible cursing still did strive, '* What man art thou who thus doth others flout ?" *' Who, then, art thou who thus thy feet dost drive 'Gainst others' cheeks, through Antenora here P Too hard 'twould be if thou wert still alive." ^ ** I am alive ; to thee it might be dear," Was my reply, " if thou demandest fame, That I 'mid well-known names thy own should rear.
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Line 61. Mordred, the infamons son of Arthur, who, while lying in wait for his father, was cloven through by the latter with his spear, so that the sun past through his shadow ! Line 63. Foccaccia, a noble of Fistoja, who murdered his uncle.
Mascheroni, the speaJcer Gamiccione, and Carlino de' Pazzi were aU Florentines^ and the first two also murdered their kinsman, while the last betrayed a castle to the Florentines in which the Bianchi faction had held out against them for several days. Line 81.
The speaker is Bocca degli Abbati, a Ouelph, who, bought over by the Ghibelines in the height of the battle of Mont' Anerti, cut off the hand of the chief Guelph banner-bearer, at the fall of wnose banner the Cruelphs gave way, and were utterly routed. See the note on the great Ghibeline Farinata in Canto X.
Canto XXXII. HELL. 123^ And he to me : " The contrao^ I claim. Be off from here, nor further torture shape. ^ Thou flatterest idly in this vale of shame.'' Then did I seize the hair upon his nape, And said, '^ ^Tis fit that thou thy name declare, Or not a hair upon thy head shall 'scape.'* Whence he to me : " Why dost thou rend my hair ? ^^ I will not tell thee who I am, nor show, Though thou a thousand times my head shouldst tear.
His hair already round my hands I draw, And tufts far more than one I'd stript away, He barking, with his eyes still fixt below. ^^ " What hast thou, Bocca ?" cried another fay. " Is't not sufficient with thy jaws to creak But thou must bark ? What devil rips thee ? say. " Henceforth," I said, " I want thee not to speak. Thou wicked traitor, of thy shameful state ^^ Authentic tidings to the world I'll take. " Off !" he replied.
" Whate'er thou will'st relate. But be not silent, wouldst thou 'scape from here, Of him whose tongue was now so prompt to prate- The silver of the French he waileth here. "^ I saw Du Duera, thou henceforth canst say There, where the sinners all so cool appear. Hadst thou but asked of the others in this bay. Thou seest Di Becchiera at thy side.
Whose head in Florence was cut off one day. ^^ Gianni del Soldanier I think doth bide Beyond with Quno and Tribaldello there. Who oped Faenza steeped in slumber's tide. From him already we were parted far When I beheld two frozen in one hole, *^ So that one head was hood to the other's hair. As bread in famine time is swallowed whole. So the one above i' the other cranched his jaw Where the spine's marrow to the brain doth roll.
Not otherwise did Tideus foully gnaw ^ The head of Menalippus with disdain As he the other's skull did ravening claw. ** O thou who by such bestial sign show'st plain Thy hate of this one, whom thou dost devour, Say why," I said, " and I for this am fain *^ Line 116. Du Daera sold a Ghibeline position in the Parmegiano to the French leader Gay de Montfort. Di Becchit^ra, del Soldanier, and Tribaldello were all Italians. Gano was the traitor in the time of Charlemagne through whom befell the rout at Fontarabia.
124 HELL. Canto XXXIU. If thou with reason against him doth glower, Knowing his sin and who ye are, full soon In the upper world to right thee. I have power If what I offer doth not importune.'*
CANTO XXXIII. Count XJgolin relates to Dante the fearful end of himself and his sons, left to die of hunger in the Tower of Famine. The poets then pass onwards to the third division of the last circle, called Idomea, in which are punished those who have betrayed their benefactors. The friar Alberigo explains to Dante that when men have committed the height of perfidy their spirits are at once sent to torment, a fiend taking possession of the body wnich appears to be still alive on earth. • His mouth he lifted from that savage food, That sinner, as he wiped away with hair, Tom from behind the skull, the gouts of blood. Then he began : " Thou wouldst that I should bear That desperate grief again, at which doth break ^ My heart, abready thinking only, ere I speak ; but if my words prove seed to wreak Shame on the traitor whom I'm gnawing here. At the same time thou'lt see me weep, yet speak. I know not who thou art, nor to this sphere In what way thou art come, but Florentine Thou seemest truly when thy speech I hear. Thou then must know I was Count Ugolin, And this is the Archbishop Euggieri : Now I will tell thee why so close we join. That by the effect of his suggestions eerie. Trusting in him, I pined a captive long, Then died, with telling thee I need not weary. But what thou hast not heard amongst the throng — Namely, how cruel was the death I died, Thou'lt hear, and know if he has done me wrong. A small hole in the tower where the eagles bide, Which men through me the Tower of Famine call, And where yet further victims will be tried,
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Line 13. Count XJgolin was a Guelph leader who at first, in concert with the Archbishop Buggieri, became the despotic master of his native town of Pisa. His conduct finally was most extravagant, and, amongst other acts, he killed with his own hands the nephew of the archbishop. The latter thto joined the faction of opposing nobles, and almost without resistance Count Ugolin was taken and imprisoned with his sons and grandsons. His story is the subject of one of Bosini's historical romances do wn to the point where the tale is told by Dante.
Canto XXXIII. HELL. 125
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Had shown unto me through its opening small Now many moons ere that bad dream I made Which tore away for me the future's pall. This one appeared to me the chief and head, Chasing the wolf and whelps unto the hill, Which from the Pisans Lucca's sight doth shade. With ravening bitches, lean, and known for ill, Those of Sismondi, and Lanfranchi born, The whom he'd placed in front to work his will.
After a little course they seemed outworn, The father and the sons, with fangs sharp fed, I seemed to see their flanks in pieces torn. When I awoke, before the night had fled, I heard my sons bewailing in their sleep, Who were with me, and asking me for bread. Cruel thou art indeed, should grief not steep Thy thoughts at what that presaged to my heart ; If thou weep'st not, at what art wont to weep ?
As now the hour approached, from sleep they start, When food had hitherto been brought us, stirred A doubt in each one, through his dream apart. The locking of the gate below I heard At the horrible tower, on which I looked upon The faces of my sons, nor spake a word. I sobbed not, so within I grew to stone ; But they sobbed all, and Anselmuccio said, * Father, thou look'st so, what hast thou, my own ?
But I, I neither wept nor answer made For that whole day, nor for the following night, TIntil another sun moved overhead. As there was cast a little ray of light Into our dolorous prison, I beheld In those four faces my own aspect white. I bit my joined hands then, by grief impelled. And they, who thought from that that I did crave For food, rose sudden and to me appealed. Line 28.
The archbishop appeared hounding on the other nobles and the people in chase of Count Ugolin and his sons (the wolf and whelps) towards Mount St. Julian, half-way between Pisa and Lucca, to which the coant had endeavoured to retreat. Line 39. The ^sons also are afflicted with their own dreams of evil (see line 45), and presage in their sleep the horrors that were to come.
Line 59, et sea., thus translated by Chaucer in his " Menkes Tale" :— " His children wenden, that for hunger it was That he his armes gnowe, and not for wo, And sayden : fader, do not so, alas ! But rather etc the flesh upon us two. Our flesh thou yaf us, take our flesh us fro. " The Canterbury Tales," line 14,75/.
126 HELL. Cakto XXXIII. Saying, * O father, it would far less griere WoTildst thou eat us, for thou didst make us wear This wretched flesh, which from us thou canst reave. Then I grew still to make them not more drear : That day, and all the next we silent stayed : ^ Ah earth so hard, why didst not open there ? When to the fourth day we had still delayed, My Gaddo at my feet his form did throw, Saying, * My £a.ther, canst not give me aid ?
He died there, and as thou dost see me now, "^^ I saw them, one by one, fall down, all three, Betwixt the fifth and sixth day ; blinded now, Oroping o'er each of them, henceforth I lay. And three days called them after they were dead. Then, more than grief could do, did hunger slay. '^ When he had spoken thus, with eyes of dread Seized on the wretched skull, his teeth apace. Which, like a dog's, were strong to cranch the head.
Ah, Pisa ! thou dishonour of the race Of the fair country, where they murmur Si, ^ Since to revenge ihj neighbours do not race, Capraja and Gorgona from the sea Should move and make a dam to Amo's wave, So as to drown each habitant in thee. For if Count Ugolin thou didst beKeve ^ That he for thee thy castle had betrayed, Thou shouldst not doom his sons to such a grave.
Their youthful age them innocent had made, Uguccion and Brigata : Thebes once more ! And the other two, whose names the song displayed. ^ We travelled onwards then, there where the frore *0n other people cruelly doth steep, Not downwards bent, but backwards tumbled o'er. Their very weeping would not let them weep, The grief, which o'er their eyes found obstacle, ** Turned inwards to increase their anguish deep.
Froze in a heap the tears that earliest fell. And like a visor made of crystal glass, Beneath their eyes had wholly fiUed the well. Now by the biting cold it came to pass ^^ That from my face all feeling did appear To lose possession, so like horn it was. Line 82. Capraja and Gorgona are small islands in the moutli of the Amo.
Oavto XXXIII. HELL. 127 And now meseemed a certain wind to hear, Whence I : " My master, who then stirreth this P Is not all vapour's motion stilled down here ?" *^ Whence he to me : " Ptdl sure thou wilt not miss To have an answer made thee by thy sight, Seeing the cause that agitates the abyss. One of the wretches in that frozen plight Then cried to us : " O souls so cruelly fell.
That ye are bound unto the lowest pit, Bemove from oft my £a.ce this hardened veil, So that I vent the giief that fills my heart A little ere the tears again congeal. Whence I to him : " First tell me who thou wert. If thou want'st aid, and if I help thee not. To the bottom of the ice may I depart. " I am the Friar Alberigo, brought From a bad orchard, I'm a fruit," he said, " To take back dates for figs is here my lot.
'** « Oh !" said I to him, " art already dead ?'* And he to me : '^ I've not the least idea Whether my body on the earth doth tread. Such an advantia.ge hath this Ftolomea That many times ere Atropos should slay *** The spirit is hurled downwards to this layer. That thou more willingly may dear away The tears &st frozen to my visage, know That at the time the spirit doth betray.
As I did, in its body straight doth go ^^ A demon, by the which 'tis henceforth swayed Until its life unto completion grow. The spirit in a well like this is laid, And still perchance his form appears above. Who here behind me winters in his shade. ^^ Thou ought'st to know, if thou dost lately rove Hither, he's Branca Doria, many a year Has passed since he was pent within this drove. Line 118.
Alberigo de' Manfredi a Beooicing Friar, who, having qaarrelled with some others of the order, invited them to a banquet nnder the pretence of a pacification, and on his ordering the fmit to be removed, his assassins appeared at the arranged signal and murdered all his guests. Line 124. Ptolomea, the name of the third circle, probably after Ptolemy, the betrayer of Fompey the Ghreat.
Line 137* The Dorias were a leading Genoese family, and Branca is said to have murdered his jEather-in-law Michel Zanche, the Sardinian ruler alluded to already in Canto XXII. The neighbour alluded to in line 146 as sharer in Branca iJoria's villainies is stated to have been his cousin.
128 HELL. Cahto XXXIV. ** I think," said I, " thou dost deceive me here, For Branca Doria is by no means dead, ^^ But eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and clothes doth wear." ** In Malebranche's higher pit," he said, " There, where the pitch tenacious boils apace, Already Michel Zanche had not sped Ere this one left the Devil in his place, *^ Within his body, and his neighbour's, he Who always ran with him his cheating race.
But stretch forth now thy hand my eyes to free. Leaving his eyes still closed I onwards went, For rudeness unto such is courtesy. ^•'•" Ah, Genovese ! ye men in every bent So diverse, and so full of every shame, Why from the world are ye not wholly sent ? For with the worst soul Italy can claim Such one of ye I found, who by his worth ^""^ Bathes now in spirit in Cocitus' stream, And yet in body seems alive on earth. Line 154. The worst soul in Italy is the Friar Alberigo.
CANTO XXXIV. The poets advance into the fourth quarter of the last circle, called Jndecca ; there the damned are wholly submerged beneath the frozen lake of Cocitus. Advancing towards the icy blast that meets them, Virgil shows Dante the gigantic form of Lucifer piercing through the lake. Yiigil then takes up Dante, and descends along the body of the feJlen archEui^l into the centre of the earth.
From thence he ascends on the other side, and, after a weary climb through a deep cavern, the poets at length lEHSue on the Antipodes. *^VexiUa regis prodeunt infemi, Towards us, therefore, forwards cast thy gaze," My master said, " if thou wouldst see them there nigh.
As when there breathes around a misty haze, Or when the night draws o'er our hemisphere, ^ Appears from far a mill i* the wind that plays, Such building then before me seemed to rear : Then to escape the wind, behind I drew My chief, no other refuge being near. Line 1. The banners of the infernal king advance. The Latin line is a parody of the opening of a hymn sung by the Church in honour of the Cross.
According to the principles of translation which I have imposed on myself I have never felt justified in translating into English the Latin lines introduced by Dante into his poem. Such lines, generally quotations from the Vulgate, are very common in the " Purgatory" and " Paradise.*'
Canto XXXIV. HELL. 129 (With fear I frame the verse) we'd reached unto ^® There, where the shades with ice were covered quite, And like to motes in glass were visible through. Some were laid out at length, some stood upright, Some on their heads, and others on their feet, Others like bows, with head to foot drawn tight. ^* When we had gone as far as seemM meet Unto my master, to me to display. The creature who had erst the face so sweet.
He moved from front of me, and bade me stay. Saying, " Lo Lucifer ! and lo the place ^^ Where thou must arm thy courage for the fray. How frozen I became, and weak of grace, From writing, reader, let me now be shrived. For every speech were weak such state to trace. I did not die, and yet no longer lived ; ^* Think for thyself, if thou hast Fancy's bloom. What I became, of death and life deprived. The emperor of that all-dolorous home.
From mid-chest issued upwards from the ice ; And to a giant's height I nearer loom, ^ Then would two giants for his arms suffice ; How great the ^hole must be, consider now. To answer to such part in fit device. If he was once as fair as hideous now, And 'gainst his Maker raised his impious eyes, ^ Full well from him would all contention flow. O how his image filled me with surprise When I beheld three faces to his head !
The one before hued with vermilion dyes : The other two, which unto this were wed, ^ Were o'er the centre of each shoulder broad, And at the crest together filleted. The right with hue 'twixt white and yellow glowed, The left had such a colour, as they bear Who come from where the Nile has overflowed. ** Line 38. The three faces of Lucifer are thonght by Lombardi to represent the three then known quarters of the world, the red representinj?
Europe, the yellow Asia, and the black Africa. Judas Iscariot, however, fills the place of victim to the red face, and the two chief Bo man conspirators against Julius GsBsar occupy the other two. The selection of the latter two victims is characteristic of Dante's fundamental idea, the necessity of an empire for the world like that which Caesar raised, and of one Supreme Church distinct entirely from secular rule.
Treason against either of these separate empires was almost equally criminal, and Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are chosen as the three most severely punished in Hell on this account ; perhaps more as types than realities.
130 HELL. Canto XXXIV. BeneatK each face two vasty wings did rear Of size that suited such a bird of prey : Sails of such size at sea I've witnessed ne''er. They were not feathered, but in bat-like way Were fashioned, and for ever round they sweep, *° So that three winds spring upwards at their play. Cocitus thence was frozen to its deep ; With six eyes wept he, and the falling tears With bloody slaver o'er three chins did drip.
With the teeth of every mouth he cranching tears ** A sinner, as within a mashing mill. So that to three such punishment he shares. To the one in front the biting was as nil Beside the clawing, since at times his back Was wholly flayed beneath that gripe of ill. " The spirit held below in fiercest rack, Judas Iscariot see," my master said, " Whose head's inside, the while his legs hang slack.
Of the other two, who outwards have their head, Brutus is he who hangs from the black face grim ; See how he writhes, yet speaks no word of dread : The other's Cassius, he so large of limb. But the night rises, and 'tis time to go. Since we have seen the whole. As pleased to him, Around his neck my clinging arms I throw, ^^ And he a moment for his time did bide.
And when the sweeping wings an opening show, Threw himself closely to that hairy side, And then from hair to hair descended low. Beneath the thick skin and the frozen tide.
" When we had reached unto the part where grow The broadened hips, above the thighs outspread, My leader with fatigue, and travail slow, Where erst his legs had been, turned round his head, And clung unto the hair like one who climbs, • So that I thought that back to Hell we sped. " By stairs like these, acknowledge thou betimes," My master panting like one wearied spake, " We fitly issue from such scene of crimes.
Then out he sallied, through a rocky brake. And seating me upon the brink with care, Beside me courteously his place did take. I raised my eyes, and thought to witness there Lucifer, just as I beheld him last. And I beheld his legs upraised in air.
Gahto XXXIV. HELL. 131 If I then grew bewildered and aghast, The ignorant may think, who do not see What was the point which I had just now past. *' Bise on thy feet/' the master said to me, " The way is long, the travel will be hard, •* Half through the third hour now the sun must be.'' It was no passage from a palace yard, There where we were, but Nature's prison this. With wretched flooring, and of light debarred.
" Before I take my way from this abyss. My mastier," said I, when erect I stood, " To clear my error will not prove amiss. Where is the ice ? and how is this one glued Thus upside down ? and how in hours so few Has the sun from eve to mom his path pursued P" And he : " Thou'rt still according to thy view On that side of the centre where I late Seized the ill worm the world that pierceth through. Thoii wert on that side while I went down straight.
But when I turned, the centre thou didst clear, "® To which, from all parts, bodies gravitate : And now thou'st reached beneath the hemisphere Which is opposed to that which the dry earth Covers, on whose meridian they did spear The man who lived without sin from his birth. "* Thou hast thy feet above the little pit Which lieth opposite Giudecca's girth.
'Tis morning here when there the sun doth set : And this one, of whose hair we made our stairs. Just as he was at first is fastened yet. "® In this place did he fall down from the spheres ; And the dry land, not visible, 'neath the sea. Seeking a veil, with terror disappears. Line 96. The time is here described accordiog to the Hebrew manner, and it means an honr and a half before noon.
The reader will remember that in line 68 Virgil had told Dante the night was rising. This is necessary to compreiiend all the donbts to which Dante in the next few lines gives utterance, he imagining that when Virgil tnmed and commenced ascending they were retoming into Hell and not-issuing on the Antipodes. Line 111. " Al qnal si traggon d'ogni parte i pesi.
A clear statement, made at the commencement of the foarteenth centnry, that the centre of the earth was the point to which all things gravitate. It was a decided prevision of a part of Newton's great cUscovery. Line 112. It was believed in Dante's time that the hemisphere known to mankind was alone habitable, and that the Antipodes was all ocean. The meridian of the known hemisphere was considered to be Jerosalem, where Christ's sacrifice was consummated.
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182 HELL. Cahto XXXIV. And came unto our hemisphere : maybe To fly from him, it left this empty space, *^ And formed a mount above, as there thou'lt see." From Beelzebub remote, there is a place Which to such deeps below its grave extendeth, That not by sight, but by the sound we trace. Made by a rivulet which there descendeth Through a rock's fissure, the rock worn away By its current, with it gently sloping wendeth. My chief and I by that mysterious way Entered, the world of light again to find : i^or with the thought of rest did we delay. But clambered up, he first, and I behind. Until I witnessed through that rpunded bore The things so fair athwart the heavens that shined. And issued thence to see the stars once more. Line 126. The moniitain of Purgatory, placed by Dante in mid-oceani in the Antipodes.
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PURGATORY.
CANTO I. Dante describes the calm delight he experienced at issuing to the tender light of early morning from the black night of Hell. The poets meet the shade of Gato of Utica, the appointed guardian of the mountain of Purgatory. On his direction they proce^ to the seashore, and there Virgil washes from Dante's face with dew the stains of Hell, and girds him with the reeds that grow there.
To steer o'er fairer waters hoists her sail Henceforth the little vessel of my brain, That leaves behind such cruel sea of bale. And I will sing now of that second reign In which the human spirit groweth clear, * And worthy to ascend to Heaven's domain.
But here dead Poesy must reappear, O sacred Muses, since I'm wholly thine, And Oalliopea must assist me here, With her sweet sounds accompanying the line, ^® At which the miserable magpies felt Their crime so great, they pardon ne'er could win. The dulcet hues of orient sapphire melt, And gathered all into serenest light Of the pure air unto the farthest belt, ^ So that my eyes returned to new delight. Soon as I issued from the lethal air.
Which had oppressed my breast and dimmed my sight. Aye dedicate to love, the planet fair Made all the Eastern sky iiTadiate smile, ^ The Pisces veiling, who escort her there. Unto the right I turned and gazed awhile On the other Pole, and saw four glorious stars, Ne'er seen since Eden's vale was lost by guile. Line 11.
The daughters of Pierius, who, having challenged the Muses to sing against them, were changed into magpies at their presumptuous failure. Line 23. The four stars intended by the poet are the four cardinal virtues, as he tells us in Canto XXXI. Dante places the terrestrial Eden on the top
134 PURGATORY. Cahto I. Heaven seems to revel in their flaming cars ; ^ O widowed North, how is thy glory sheared Since that sweet vision Nature from thee bars ! As from their gaze my eyes at length I veered Towards the other Pole a little thrown, There, where the Wain ere now had disappeared, ^ I saw beside me there an old man lone. Worthy of every reverence in his air. More than a father claimeth from a son.
His beard was long, and mixed with whitened hair, Like to the hoary locks that graced his head, '' And on his breast in double folds fell fair. The rays of those four stars so holy shed Their glory on his face, and so adorn, That him I saw as 'twere the sun overhead. " Who then are ye who 'gainst yon river lorn *^ Prom the eternal prison take your flight?
Speaking there moved his beard with honour worn : " Who here has guided ye ? or who was light ? Issuing outwards from the night profound, Which ever maketh black the infernal pit. ** Are thus the laws of the abyss unbound ?
Or doth new counsel now in Heaven arise That souls condemned should wander to my ground P" My leader me with tender hands did seize, And with his words, and hands, and signs the same, ^ In reverent posture bent my limbs and eyes ; Then answered : " Of myself I never came. A lady wended from the sky, whose prayer For him my company in aid did claim. But since 'tis thy desire that I declare " More fully our condition, truly dight.
My will to oppose thine own would never dare. This one has not yet seen his latest night. But by his madness death was near effected. And very little time was left for flight. ** As I have said, for this I was directed To save him, and there was no other way Than this one which I took, and him protected.
To him the impious race I did display, And now intend to show those spirits here, » Who purge themselves of sin beneath thy sway. of his mountain of Fnrgatory, from whence the firstparenta eaw these stars, sinoe unseen by man, in the other hemisphere, llie oonstellafcion of the Southern Cross most have appeared to the first voyagers in the Southeni Ocean, the same stars which Dante saw in vision.
Cafto I. PURGATORY. 135 How I bare led him it were long to clear ; From high came virtue whiqh such help did leud To lead him to behold thee and to bear. His advent here now please thee to befriend ; '® He seeketh liberty, acknowledged dear Bj one who for its sake bis life did end.
Thou know'st it ; since for it Death had no fear In TJtica for thee where thou hast left The garb which on the great day will shine clear. ^* For us the eternal edicts are not cleft ; Since this one lives, nor Minos biudetb me ; But I am of the circle where bereft Thy Marzia's chaste eyes still are praying thee, O holy breast ! to hold her for thine own ! ^ By her love then unto our prayer agree.
Through thy seven kingdoms grant us leave to wonne The grace obtained from thee, to her I'll bear, K to be named there thou dost not disown. " In Marzia did my eyes such pleasure share ** Whilst thitherwards I lingered," then he said, " That she obtained from me her every prayer. Now that she dwells beyond that river dread.
She cannot move me more by that decree Ordained what time that I from hence was led. ^ But if a lady from the sky rules thee, As thou dost say, of flattery is no need, Suffice it for her sake to urge thy plea.
Go onwards then, and with a slender reed See that thou gird this man, and lave his face So that all stain of foulness hence be freed ; Since 'twould be most unfitting, with the trace Of any cloud to appear before the Prime Guardian, who comes of Paradisal race. This islet all around to its lowest rim ^^ Down thither, where the ocean beats its shore, Produceth reeds upon its moistened slime. Line 73.
Dante appears to have held Cato in peonliar veneration, bat there is no satisfactory reason to be foond for his having chosen a Pagan as the ffxiardian of his Christian For^tory. He and Virgu are the only spirits, not Christians, whom he has permitted to pass beyond the bounds of Limbo. Line 82. The seven rounds into which it will be found that the Purgatory is divided, in each of which is purged away one capital sin. Line 94.
The reed with which Dante is directed to be girt is supposed to be typical of humility, and the washing with dew is clearly so of spiritual purincation.
136 PURGATORY. Cajtto I. No other plant that leaflet ever bore, Or that grew hard, were able there to grow ; This yieldeth to the ocean's smiting roar. ^^ Bj this way afterwards return not : lo ! The sun will show thy road, which soon will rise Where easiest slopes the mountain upwards go. He disappeared, and then I did arise Without a word, and to my leader drew "® Entirely, and towards him raised my eyes.
Then he began : ** O son, my steps pursue ; Back will we turn, for on that side declines The plain towards its slope, as we can view. Above the dawn the hour of mom now shines, "* Which fled before it, so, as far I strain, I recognised the seashore's trembling lines.
We walked across the solitary plain As one who from a lost road turns anew, Whose wanderings until then had seemed in vain. ^ When we had reached the region where the dew Fights with the sun, and in attempt to pass Towards the shade, its folded cloud breaks through ; With both his hands from off the scattered grass My master tenderly the moisture takes ; ^ Whence I, who of his wish perceptive was. Extended towards him my all-tearful cheeks.
And there discovered, on my face once more. The hue of life that Hell had shrouded, breaks. When we had come on that deserted shore, ^^ Which never yet saw navigate its main. The man who to return possessed the lore, As to that other pleased he girt me then ; O marvel ! for the instant that he chose The humble plant, as erst 'twas born again, *** "And where he plucked it suddenly upgrows. Line 131.
Across this ocean the spirits are carried to Pargatory in the spirit bark described in the next Canto. Ulysses and his companions were the only mortals who had attempted the voyage, and their fate is described in the 26th Canto of Hell. 136. From Virgil. " Uno avolso non deficit alter." — -ffln., book vi.
CANTO II. A light rises on the distant ocean, which, advancing with marvellous speed, is seen to be the bark in which the spirits are brought to Purgatory by an angel. When the troop land upon the shore, Dante vainly endeavours to embrace one of the spirits, whom he recognises for his friend CaseUa.
The latter, to please Dante, sings one of his canzoni, to which while all are rapt in attention Cato rebukes them for dallying on their way, and all hurry towardd the mountain.
The sun already to the horizon's rim Had travelled, whose meridian circle lieth In apogee above Jerusalem : And opposite to him the night that flieth, Issued from out the Ganges, with the scales ^ That from his hands fall when too late she hieth : So that the white and vermeil hue that veils The fair Aurora's cheeks, as rose the day By waning time grows orange-hued, and pales.
Alongside of the seashore still we stay like people who are thinking of their road. Who go in heart, and yet with limbs delay. And lo ! as towards the morning, red like blood Through heavy vapours Mars is wont to flame, Down in the West, above the ocean flood : So there appeared, still can I see the same, Across the sea a light so swiftly sweep.
No flight of bird with that can semblance claim : On which, when I a moment failed to keep My eye, to ask my leader to explain, Brighter I saw it then, and grown in shape. Then o'er the whole of it there seemed to gain I know not what of white, and underneath There issued by degrees its semblance twain. As yet my master not a word essayeth, Till what was white at first as wings he sees.
Then when the Pilot he distinctly seeth, He cried aloud : " Now bend, now bend thy knees : Behold God's angel, towards him bow thy hands ; Henceforth thou'lt see such ministers as these. ^ Line 1. Dante supposes hiinself to be now antipodal to Jerusalem, the centre of the inhabited hemisphere, to whose horizon the sun was now on the point of setting, and therefore rising to him.
At the same time night would be rising on the Ganges, or Hie far East, with the constellation Libra. Line 6. A fanciful idea, expressing that when the nights grow longer than the days, the sun has passed out of Libra into another constellation.
138 PURGATORY. Cahto II. See in no need of human means he stands : So that he wants not oars, nor other sail Except his pinions, from such distant strands. See how he rears them towards the Heavenly pale, Drawing the breezes with the eternal plumes, That like our mortal hair ne'er change nor flEkil. Then, as towards us nearer still he looms, The bird divine more brilliant clear appeared, So that the eye shrank back as near he comes.
I bent mine down : and he the landing neared, With his small bark, so rapid and so light That as it went the wave it scarcely sheared. Stood on the stem Heaven's pilot, clothed in light, Amongst the blest inscribed, did he appear ; Within the bark a hundred spirits sit : In excitu Israel^ from Egypt's fear. They all together in one voice did sing, Witii all that follows when that Psalm we hear.
When he had signed the holy cross, they fling Themselves, together all, upon the plain. And as he came, he vanished, swift of wing. Gazing around, the crowd that there remain In utter ignorance of the place did seem, Like one who striveth strange things to attain. On every side there darted down its beam The sun, who from the centre of the sky Had routed Capricorn with arrowy flame.
When the new people raised their foreheads high Towards us, saying to us : ** If ye know, Show us the path, towards the mount to hie. And Virgil said : " Ye think that we can show. Perchance experienced in this place, the way. But like yourselves, we here are pilgrims too. Shortly before ye did we hither stray By another path, that was so wild and rude. That any climbing henceforth will be play. The spirits, who in me the breathing viewed.
Perceived from that that I was still alive, And marvelling became all marble hued. As when one bears an olive branch, arrive ^® The people all around the news to hear. And each one to approach doth press and strive ; So gazing on my face they centered here. Those happy spirits all, forgotting even To travel onwards, to become more fair. " Line 46. When Israel came oat of Egypt. Psalm cxIt.
Cahto II. PURQATORY. 139 One of them saw I pierce their ranks close riven Me to embrace, with such a loving haste, That I to do the same was also driven. O empty shadows with but semblance graced ! Three times around his form my arms I threw, ^ And each time drew them idly to my breast. With wonder I believe I changed my hue ; Because the shadow smiled, and past away And pressing onwards I his steps pursue.
He asked me tenderly that I should stay : ^ Then knew I who he was, and him besought For parlance with me somewhat to delay. He answered me : " As I thy love have sought In mortal body, so I love thee freed ; Therefore I pause ; but how hast thou been brought ?" ^ ^' Casella mine, I made this voyage decreed, Back to return to earth, where I belong. But why so long has been debarred thy meed ? And he to me : " No one hath done me wrong.
But he who when and whom he pleases takes, ^^ This longed-for passage has denied me long : Since of God's justest will his own he makes. But truly for three months past he has ta'en, In perfect peace, whoe'er an entrance seeks. Whence I, who dwelt but now, towards the main ^^ Where mixes with the brine the Tiber's wave, Benignantly was gathered in his train.
Back to that shore with outstretched wing he clave, Because at all times he coUecteth there. Whoe'er descend not into Acheron's grave." ^°* And I : " K new laws do not from thee bear The memory or use of amorous song. Which erst was wont to quiet all my care.
Please thee with that to pour thy balm along My wearied soul, that with its body joined, ^^® In coming hither has been grieved so long." ** Love that now parleys with me in my mindj*' So sweetly then did he begin the strain. That lingers yet the dulcet sound behind. Line 91. A celebrated Florentine musician, and friend of Dante. Line 93.
Casella having been dead for some years, Dante asks him how he has been so long delayed in his voyage to Purgatory. Line 98. At that period the jubilee was held at Rome, since which time all spirits not condemned to Hell were allowed free passage to Purgatory through the prayers of the Pope. It will be noticed that from Rome only Dante g^ives the place of departure for all spirits to the realms of purification. Line 112.
The first verse of one of Dante's canzoni, " Amor che nella mente mi ragiona," introduced in the " Convito" of our author.
140 PUUGATORY. Cakto III. Mj master, and myself, and all the train "^ That were with him, such exquisite pleasure show, Forgetting all things else, in rapture fain. We thus were all engrossed with the sweet flow Of the notes, when lo ! the honoured guardian old Came crying : " What is this, ye spirits slow ? ^** What negligence is this, and dallying bold ? To cast aside your shell, to the mountain speed, So that God manifest ye may behold." As when upgathering wheat, or darnel weed The doves collecting, to the pastures steer, Nor show the accustomed shyness of their breed. If anything appears which wakes their fear, Leave on a sudden the delicious bait, Because assailed by stronger impulse there ; So did I see that troop arrived so late, Their song abandoned, towards the mountain start, Like one who goes, nor knows his future fate : And no less rapidly do we depaal.
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CANTO III. As the poets advance towards the hill, Dante is alarmed at seeing only his own shadow cast by the son behind them, and thinks that Virgil has deserted him. Cleared from his error they reach the foot of the monntam, and while in perplexity as to their ascent, meet a troop of spirits, who show them tbe way. Amongst them Manfred, King of Naples, nrges Dante to tell his daughter of his fate, as by her prayers she can shorten the time of his wanderings in the Ante-Porgatory. After their sudden flight had scattered these Over the champaign wide, towards the hill Where draws them onwards Eeason's high decrees ; I clung unto my faithful comrade still ; How without him should I have there arrived ? * Who else had drawn me upwards to the hill ? The appearance of remorse in him survived : O conscience honourably pure, to thee How is a little fault most bitterly shrived ! When ceased his feet so rapidly to flee, Which dignity doth lessen to the best, My mind till then absorbed, became more free, Aye curious to behold, to do its 'best, And towards the hill I forwards raised my sight, That to the sky reared up its lofty crest. ^*
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Canto III. PURGATORY, 141 The sun, wbicli flamed behind us, redlj bright. Was broken up before my figure, where Was stopped the passage of its rays of light. Then to one side I turned in sudden fear That I was all abandoned, when I spied, ^^ In front of me alone, the shade appear. ** Why art thou thus distrustful ?** to me cried My comforter, towards me wholly turned, ** Dost thou not think me with thee, me thy guide ?
'Tis eve already there, where is inumed ^ The frame with which I once a shadow made, Naples now keeps it, from Brundusium earned. When thou dost henceforth see me cast no shade, Wonder no more, than that two rays of Heaven Can cross each other, nor the light invade. To suffer torments, heat, and cold, is given To bodies like to this, by high decree, The how 'tis done by man cannot be riven.
He's mad who thinks our human reason free Along the infinite career to run. Of God, the substance one in Persons three. Be ye content, O man, the Why unknown : Had ye been able to behold the whole. No need had Mary to bring forth her son. Yet such thou'st seen, who centered all the soul Without result, such longed-for lore to seek. To whom eternally 'tis given for dole. Of Aristotle, Plato, do I speak.
And many more :" and here he bent his brow, And said no more, and stayed with troubled cheek. We'd reached the bottom of the mountain now, And there we found the cliff so steeply sheer, That all in vain were lithest limbs I trow. 'Twixt Lerici and Turbia, the most drear. The most deserted way, that cliff beside, *** Were but an easily ascended stair.
" Who knows now on which hand the steep doth glide Easiest ?" said my master, pausing still, " So that without wings one could climb its side. And while he downwards kept his glance, with skill Examining the secret of the way, And I was looking upwards round the hill, Line 27. Vir^ died at Brondusiamj and his body was bniied at Naples. ^ Line 49. Lenci and Turbia, monntainons tracts, at that time the extremities of Grenoa.
142 PURGATORY. Cahto III. At our left hand, onwards was seen to stray A troop of spirits, who towards ns hied, Yet seemed not moving, such their slow delay. *® " Lift up thy eyes," I to my master cried, '' Lo ! these from whom thou counsel canst attain, If in thy own thou canst not here confide. He gazed upon me then with countenance fain, And answered, " We'U go there, since they're so slow, ^ And thou, sweet son, thy confidence maintain.
Still was that people distant from us, so, When we had ibade a thousand steps I say, As a good thrower with his hand could throw, When to the hard rock clung they all straightway, '* On the steep bank, and stood all still and close, As one who goes in doubt to gaze will stay. *' well accomplished spirits, whom God chose," Virgil did thus begin, " by that dear peace, Which I believe that none of ye will lose, " Tell us where easiest slopes the precipice.
So that we there our upward path may hold : Him who knows most time lost doth most displease. As issue out a flock of sheep from fold, By one, and two, and three, and the others stand, *® Aid timidly their eyes and fe.ce down hold, And what the first does do at second hand. Collecting at his back if he stops short, All simple, nor the wherefore understand.
So saw I move the chiefs from that escort, ^ Towards us then from out that blessed flock, Modest in face, of honourable port. As they in front of me beheld all broke The light upon the earth, at my right side, So that my shadow reached unto the rock, ^ They stayed, then somewhat drew themselves aside, And all the rest who came behind them near, Knowing not wherefore, in like manner bide. " Without your question, I confess it here.
This is. a human frame that you behold, •* Through which on earth the sunlight is cut sheer. Marvel ye not at that : but rather hold Only by virtue, sent at Heaven's command, This mountain side to climb he seeketh bold. My master thus, and that all worthy band ^^ Said, " Turn ye then, our onward progress share," And signed us to advance with beckoning hand.
Canto ni. PURGATORY. 143 And one of them did thus begin : " Whoe'er Thou beest who wanderest thus, now turn thy face, And think if thou hast ever seen me there." ^^ I turned me towards him, and I gazed a space ; Fair was he, tall, of gentle look serene, Upon one eyebrow a deep scar I trace. When I had told him with an humble mien That I had never seen him, " Look," he said, "* And pointed out a wound his breast between.
Then said he with a smile : "I am Manfred, The grandson of the Empress Constance old, Whence I beseech thee, when thou hence art led, Go to my daughter, mother of the bold "* Honour of Arragon and Sicily, And say the truth, if now aught else be told. ) With these two mortal punctures fatally When I was smitten, I returned in time, 1 Weeping to him who pardons willingly. ^^® Most horrible indeed had been my crime : But Goodness Infinite has arms so large.
They can embrace, whoe'er returns to him. Cosenza's bishop, when on Clement's charge. He chased my dust in anger, had he read ^^^ This text of Mercy in God's Bible's marge My scattered bones above the bridge's head Would still be lying, near to Benevent, Safe in the keeping of its stoim-built bed. Now washes them the wave, and at its bent ^^^ Drives them the wind along the Verde's shore, Where they were carried out, with tapers spent. Line 112.
Manfred, King of Naples, and the natnral son of the Emperor Frederic II. Constance was taken oat of a convent at the mature age of fifty, and married to the Emperor Henry Y I., and to the astonishment of the then political world gave birth to a son, the father of Manfred. Constance is introduced in the lowest sphere of the Paradise, bein^ debarred firom higher glory through her having broken her vow of chastity in the above manner. Line 115.
Manfred's daughter Constance was Queen of Peter III. of Arragon, and mother of Frederic, King of Sicily, and James, King of Arragon. In Canto YII. of the Purgatory these princes are represented as not inheriting the virtues of their father. Line 118.
Manfred was slain in a baHle fought with Charles of Aujou, in 1265, allusion to which has been made in the opening of Canto XXYIII. of Hell, and was buried at the bridge near Benevento, each of the army throwing a stone on his grave. Having died excommunicated, he was disinterred by the Bishop of Cosento, on the orders of Pope Clement lY., and his remains buried by the side of the River Yerde.
144 PURGATORY. Cajtto IV. The Papal curse condemns not evermore, But still Eternal Love has power to save, As long as hope preserves its verdant flower. ^^ True, whoso dies in contumacy grave With Holy Church, though he repents his sin, Is doomed upon this bank without to crave, Thirty times longer than he erst had been In his presumption, if to such decree Eeprieve the prayers of good men do not win. How thou canst make me joyful henceforth see, Eevealing to my own good Constance, clear, How thou hast seen me, and this ban on me : Since those on earth can much advance us here." ^^
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CANTO IV. Guided by ihe spirits, the poets turn into a narrow fissure cloven in the hillside, and continue their ascent. Pausing on the top of a ledge for rest, Dante marvels at seeing the sun travelling in the northern portion of the sky, instead of in the southern, as in the other hemisphere. They then become awp,re of the presence of another troop of spirits, among whom Dante recognises one Belacqua, who informs him that they are con- '^ demned to wander in the Ante-Purgatory for as many years as they delayed repentance in life. When on the passion of delight or woe. Such as our quality can comprehend, The mind is turned, on this 'tis gathered so That to no other power its force can bend ; And this disproves his error, who believes * That more than one soul in ourselves can blend. And therefore, when a thing, to which there cleaves The spirit strongly drawn, is heard or seen, The time goes onwards, nor the man perceives. The hearing is one faculty I ween. Another that which holds the soul enrapt. The last is bound, the first no chains confine. Of this had I experience, true and apt, Admiring as I heard that spirit fair : Fifty degrees at least the sun had capt
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Line 5. Alluding to the opinion that there were three souls, the vegetative, the sensitive, aad the intellective, which he disproves by the fact that the complete occupation of one set of powers, as sight or hearing, cannot be simultaneous with the action of a different set of powers. Line 15. Three hours and twenty minutes, as while in the equinox the sun mounts fifteen degrees in the hour.
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Canto IV. PURGATORY. 145 The Heavens, while I was wholly unaware, When to a place we came, where every soul Cried out to us, " The ascent ye seek is there. With a small bunch of thorns, a greater hole Is often filled up by a villager, *° When on the grapes the ripening colours roll, Than was that pathway, up the which we steer, My leader, and beside him I alone. As from our side the troop departed here. One climbs San Leo, Noli one goes down.
One mounteth Bismantova's farthest height Upon one's feet ; but here I must have flown, With active wings I say, and plumage dight Of great desire, to follow the dear guide, Who only gave me hope, and made my light. Within the broken rock we climbing glide, And on each side the cliff's edge hemmed us close, While hands and feet alike in clambering plied.
WTien we had reached the highest brink that rose On the steep bank above the far-stretcht plain, ^ ** My master," said I, " now what way to choose ?'* And he to me : " With care thy step mantain : Behind me still climb up the mountain height, Till some experienced guide at length we gain. The lofty summit quite o'ertopt the sight, *® And upwards the incline so steeply ran, It measured with its angle, half a right.
I was quite weary, when I thus began : " O my sweet father, turn thee, and behold, Unless thou stay'st, alone I must remain." ^ " My son," he said, " to yonder spot uphold," And pointed out a ledge some way above. " From that side all anew the cliff is rolled. So spurred me onwards then his words of love, I forced myself, and creeping followed near, *® So that at length above the cliff I move. We both of us sate down to rest us here.
Turned to the east, from whence our path had past, Gazing on labours done with wonted cheer. O'er the low country first my eyes I cast, ** Then raised them to the sun, and wondering saw How on our left his smiling beams he cast. Line 25. San Leo and Noli are in the Genoese territory, Bismantova in Lombardy.
146 PURGATORY. Cahto IV. The poet clear avised how I with awe ItemaiDed astonied at the car of light, Which *twixt us aod the north did onwards draw. ^ Whence he to me : "If with that mirror bright Castor and Pollux were in company, Which up and down the sun leads with his light, The Zodiac's ruddy portion thou wouldst see Whirling around yet closer to the Bear, If in its olden path it yet may be.
The cause of this, if thou wouldst think with care, Imagine Sion, giving all thy mind, That on its under earth this mount doth bear, So that they both with one horizon bind Their different hemispheres : hence lies the way. Which Phaeton had not the skill to find. Thou'lt see how on this side the solar ray Must take a different course to the other sphere. If thou but givest thy intellect fair play.
" " Certes, my master," said I, " I have ne'er Seen aught so clearly as I now discern. There where my intellect appeared least clear, That the mid circle of the heavenly urn. Called the Equator in the starry lore, Which 'twixt the sun and winter doth sojoum. By the reason now explained, here moveth o'er Towards the north, what time the Hebrews see The sun strike hottest on their opposite shore.
But I would gladly know, if it pleases thee, How far we've still to go, the hill doth rise Far higher than my eyes have power to flee. And he : " This mountain is in such a wise. That always at the first 'tis most severe, And wearies less the more one upwards hies. ^ But when to thee all gentle it appear. That thou as easily couldst mount anew As travel in a bark in the lower sphere, Line 61.
The meaning of Virgil's not very lucid explanation is as follows : — '' If the Biin were now in the constellation of Gemini, and not in Aries, yon would see the portion of the Zodiac which his rays made red rise nearer the north than it now is. For yon must remember we are exactly antipodal to Sion, the meridian of the other hemisphere. Line 71* The way Phaeton could not keep is the Ecliptic. Line 79.
The Equator, which is between the part where the sun caosea summer and where his absence causes winter, recedes from this mountain to the north, at the time when the Jews at Mount Sion see him receding to the south. 8o Lomhardi.
Then will the pathway's ending be in view ; Till then put off thy longing for repose ; No more I answer, this I know is true. When he had brought his parlance to a close, There sounded near to us a voice : " Perchance Ere then to rest thee thou wilt not refuse. On hearing him we each turned back askance, ^^ And to the left we saw a mossy stone Which had not till that moment met our glance.
Then w© moved on, and found three persons thrown Idly behind the shadow of the rock, As one through indolence might throw him down. And one of them, who seemed outworn in look, Was seated, and with hands embraced his knees. And downwards 'twixt them did his visage lock. '* my sweet master," said I, " only gaze On him who shows himself more negligent Than if his sister's self were Idleness.
Then turned he towards us with a roused intent, Eaising his visage upwards o'er his thigh, And said, " Mount thou, of such a valiant bent. Then did I know him, and the agony, Which still my breathing somewhat quickly sped, Did not prevent my going to him : he, When I had reached him, scarcely raised his head. ** Thou seest, then, how the sun, beyond belief, From the left shoulder has his chariot led ?" ^^ His lazy actions, and his words so brief.
My lips excited somewhat to a smile : Then I began : " No more thou'lt cause me grief, Belacqua : but explain why all this while Art seated hither ? dost thou escort wait ? ^^ Or hast thou ta'en again thy olden style ? " Oh, brother, how would climbing help my fate? Since to my pain he will not let me wend, God's angel, who is seated at the gate.
First it behoves that Heaven that gate defend From me as long as I in life delayed, Since I postponed repentance to the end. Unless before that time a prayer can aid, Rising from heart that lives in Grace's store : What use aught else that cannot Heaven invade ?"
116
ISO
135
Line 124. The industry of the early commentators has not informed us who this person was — a solitary exception throughout this long poem.
148 PURGATORY. Cauto V. The bard already onwards went before. And told me : " Now come on : this moment lo ! The sun has reached to noon, and on the shore Night covers with her foot Morocco now."
CANTO V. The poets meet with others, who, having deferred their r^jentance until death, suffered violent ends, but had time to repent, and obtain pardon at the last. Amongst these, Giacopo del Cassero, Buonconte da Montefeltro, and Pia, a Siennese lady, describe their deaths, and urge Dante to obtain on earth prayers in their behalf. Already from those shadows had I gone. And followed in the footsteps of my guide, When from behind, with finger pointing on, " See how there does not seem to shine," one cried, " The sunray from the left of him beneath, * He seems alive who follows thus his guide !" I turned my eyes at sound of what he sayeth, And saw him gaze on me with marvelling fear. At me, and at the light my body frayeth. " Why doth thy spirit so much interfere ^® With these?" my master said, " to slack thy walk; What is't to thee that they should murmur here ? Follow thou me, and let the people talk : Stand like a solid tower, that doth not bow Its crest at any time, though wild winds stalk. ^* Always the man in whom new thought doth grow On previous thought, from his true course doth roam, Because the one doth flag the other's glow." What could I say to him, except, I come ? I said so, whilst such hue my cheeks immerse ^ As often wins man pardon from his doom. In the meanwhile, across the hill traverse, A little to our front some people came, Singing their Miserere^ verse by verse. When they perceived that through my bodily frame ** There was no passage for the rays to pierce. They changed their song into a hoarse acclaim, And two of them, in form of messengers. Ran out to meet us, and requesting stood, " Pray ye to tell us your condition, sirs." ^^
RES^nS^SK
Canto V. PURGATORY. 149 My master then : ** Ye can resume your road, And take back unto those who made ye plead, That this man's body is true flesh and blood. If they remained because they saw his shade, As I believe, enough such answer given ; ®* Yield him due honour, he can grant them aid.
I never saw the falling stars at even, Nor sunset lightning through an August cloud, Cleave with such swiftness the serene of Heaven, As these returned above unto the crowd, ^' And joined there with the rest, turned towards us soon. Like to a troop beneath no bridle bowed. ** This multitude, who towards us presses on.
Come to make prayers to thee," the poet cried, " But onwards go, and hear as thou dost wonne." ** ** soul, who unto joyousness dost glide. With limbs with which thou erst wast bom, to-day," Crying they came, " Thy step a little bide. Behold, if one of us thou aye didst see. So that of him thou hence the news mayst bear ; '"^ Ah, why dost go ? Ah, wherefore dost not stay ?
All of us killed by force of old we were, And sinners all unto the latest hour. When of the light of Heaven we grew aware. So, through repentance and forgiveness' power, ** From life we issued, Godwards pacified. Who doth the heart with hope to see him dower. " Howe'er I gaze upon ye," I replied, " None do I recognise ; but if the grace Ye seek is in my power, souls Heaven allied, ®° Speak ye, and I will do it by the peace.
Which, following such a guide through good and ill. From world to world to seek, I onwards press. And one began : " Each one will trust right well Without an oath in this thy offered boon, ^ For goodwill fathoms not the impossible. Whence I, who ere the rest now speak alone, Pray thee, if e'er that region thou dost see Betwixt Romagna and King Carlo's throne.
That with thy prayers thou mayst so courteous be ^^ In Fano's town, that vows for me be paid, So that from weight of sin I be purged free. Line 69. The Marco d'Ancoua, between Romajma and Apnlia, the kingdom which Charles of Anjon conquered from Manfred.
150 PURGATORY. Cahto V. Thence came I : but the passages deep laid, Whence flowed the blood, in which in life I sate, In the lap of the Antenori were they made, ^^ There where I thought myself most safe from hate : The lord of Este caused them, anger bred Eevenge in him beyond what law could sate. But towards La Mira had I only fled. At Oriaco when o'erta'en that time, ^ Still in the breathing world I life had led.
Unto the marsh I ran, the reeds and slime So tangled me, I fell, and saw down drop My blood, that flowing formed a lake of crime. Then said another : " Ah that this thy hope ^ May be fulfilled, which draws thee to the mount, To help my wish give tender pity scope. I was Buonconte, Montefeltro's count, Giovanna, or the rest have me forgot.
Since thus I go mid these, with humbled front." *" And I to him : " What force or chanceful lot Hurried thee so beyond the Campaldine, That of thy burial-place man knoweth not ?" ** O," answered he, " at the foot of the Casentine Crosses a streamlet called the Archian, Born o'er the Desert, in the Apennine. There where its proper name is changed again Did I arrive, deep wounded in the throat. Flying on foot, incarnading the plain.
I lost my speech and vision in that spot. And died in Mary's name, 'twas there I fell. And there remained my body all remote. The truth I'll say which thou again wilt tell : God's Angel took me : * O thou son of Heaven Why dost thou 'prive me?' cried the bom of Hell, Line 73.
The speaker is Jacopo del Cassero, a citizen of Fano, who havinjc spoken ill of Azzoni III. of Este, IV^rqnis of Ferrara, whilst he was Podesta of Bologna, was assassinated by the onlers of Azzoni near Oriaco, as he was endeavouring to escape from the effects of his anger. Line 74. According to the opinion, that the blood is the seat of the soul. Line 75.
In the Paduan territory, the founder of whose city was Antenor, the betrayer of Troy, after whom one of the lowest circles of hell is named. Line 88. Buonconte was the son of Count Guido da Montefeltro, who has been introduced in Canto XXVII. of Hell. Giovanna was the wife of the former. He was slain in a battle between the Guelphs and Ghibelines on the plain of the Casentine, and it appeal's his body was never discovered. Line 97.
The Archian loses its own name on joining the Amo. Line 103. In comparing this with a similar contention for the soul of the father, one cannot but consider the objection raised by the fiend to be not groundless.
Canto VI. PURGATORY. 151 * Of him thou bear'st away the Eternal leayen For one small tear, which he from me did take : To me the rest for other fate is given.* Thou know'st how in the air coUeeteth black The humid vapour, which returns in rain, ^^'^ When risen where the cold doth melt its rack. Conceived the evil will that aye seeks bane, With intellect, and moved the cloud and wind By power, his nature gave him o'er their train.
The valley thence, as the blank day declined, ^^* From Pratomagno to the gorge, with cloud Was -jovered, and the sky grew black behind. So that the pregnant air with water bowed ; The rain fell down, and to the ditches came All that the earth's drenched surface overflowed : ^^ And as all centred towards the largest stream, Towards the royal river, with such speed It hurried headlong, nothing could reclaim.
My frozen body lying in its bed, The rushing Archian found, and bore away ^^* To AlTuo, and across my breast undid The arms I cro^sed there, 'neath death's conquering sway ; Along its banks and down its deep it swirled, Then bound and shrouded me with all its prey. " Ah, when thou art returned unto the world, ^ And from thy travels restest in idea," .
After the second spirit said a third, ** Bemember also me, who am La Pia ; The life that Siena gave, Maremma fell Rathely destroyed, as he who erst made me a ^ Bride with his ring espousing, knoweth well. Line 133. This lady's story has become immortal through these four lines.
She was married to one Nello della Fietra, a powerful noble in Siena, who, after his marriage, removed her to one of his possessions in Maremma, where he alone was aware of the nature of her deaUi. It is doubtful whether he killed her or whether she died from the pestilential nature of the place, to which he trusted for the attainment of his end.
CANTO VI. The poet oontinues amongst the same troop, of whom he names several more. At last, freed from their importunities, he advances with Virgil till they meet another solitary shade, who proves to be the Mantuan Sordello. On seeing his affectionate greeting with his countryman, Dante bursts into an invective against the whole of Italy divided by party feuds, where, especially in Florence, such a spirit was entirely lost.
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152 PURGATORY. Canto VI. When there breaks up at last a gambling bout, The one who loses, vext remains behind, Repeating his lost throws in gloomy doubt, With him who wins go all the servile kind, One goes before, and one behind him nears, * One at his side his presence calls to mind. He does not stay, but this and that one hears. He who has shared his coin, takes no more heed, So, through the pressure, by his gifts he steers.
Just so was I in that thick crowd of greed. Turning towards them here and there my face, The while with promises my way I find. Here was the Aretine, who from the base Strong arms of Ghin di Tacco death received, And he who drowned, while urging on the chase. Here with his outstretcht arms beseechings weaved Frederic Novello, and here Pisa's son Who proved the worth of his good sire bereaved.
I saw Count Orso, and that spirit won From out his frame, by spite and envy rare, ^ As it was said, and not for ill deeds done. Pierre de la Broche I say; and here beware That lady of Brabant, while still alive Lest a worse company she some day share. When I had freed myself from all that hive Of shadows, who' for others' prayers did vie. To advance the moment their poor souls to shrive. Line 8.
" A oni porge la roan, piu non fa pressa." — This has hitherto been translated^ " He, against whom he has thrash his hand, stands aside," but I think it will fairly bear the meaniug given in the text, and which, makes the comparison so far more suitable to Dante's position amongst the spirits, none of whom does he thrust aside.
Gary alludes to a scene in one of Cervantes' novels, from which it appears, as he says, that it was usual for money to be given to bystanders at play, by winners, and thus bearing out my interpretation. Line 13. The Aretine is Benincasa, judge in Siena, who was murdered openly in his hall by Ghino di Tacco, because he had sentenced to death the brother of the latter for a robbery.
Ghino di Tacco was a celebrated marauder of those days, and is the hero of one of Boccaccio's novels. The 2nd of the 10th day of the " Decameron. Line 15. Ciacco Tarlati, who was drowned while swimming his horse across the Amo, in pursuit of his enemies the Bostoli. Line 17- Frederic Novello, slain by one of the above family of the Bostoli.
Pisa's son was Farinata, son of Marzucco, who, having entered the order of Frati Minori, pardoned the slayer of his -son, kissed his hand, and at the funeral exhorted his relatives to reconciliation. Line 22. Pierre de la Broche was secretary of Philip the Fair of France, and was slain, according to Italian commentators, on account of a false charge brought against him by Queen Mary of Brabant, of having attempted her person.
Canto VI. PURGATORY. I thus began : /'It seems thou dost deny, light of mine, expressly in one test, That prayer can alter aught decreed on high : ^ And yet for that those prayers are all annext : Will then this hope of theirs be all in vain ? Or that thy saying is it not perplext ?
And he to me : " That verse of mine is plain, Nor will these in the hope they nourish fail, ** If one views clearly with perception sane : The Top of Judgment cannot seek the vale, Because the fire of love at once would do That which would satisfy these souls in bale. And there, where I laid down my saying true, *^ The lack could not amended be by prayer, Because such prayer God was not joined unto.
But truly in such lofty doubt, beware Of certainty, till she the secret break. Of truth and intellect the glory rare. ** Thou mayst not know, of Beatrix I speak. Thou wilt behold her with a happy smile, Upon this mountain, on its highest peak. And I : " Good leader, let us haste erewhile, 1 am not now so wearied as before ; ^ And see now towards us casts its shade the hill.
" With what remaineth of the daylight's store We'll go as far," he answered, " as we may, But differs from thy thought the truth galore. Before thou gain'st the height, return thou'lt see ** The sun now covered by the mountain side. So that no longer thou dost break his ray. But see a spirit there, who stands aside.
And towards us all alone his gaze doth throw, To us the shortest passage he will guide." ^ We came to him : Lombard spirit how Thou standedst there, with high and haughty crest, Moving thy eyes with gesture proud and slow ! He not a syllable to us addrest ; But let us near approach, the while he eyed ^ Just like a lion when he takes his rest. Line 30. Referriag to the linp, Book VI., "^neid" :— '' Dpsine fata Ueum flecti sperare precando.
Line 37. The Top of Judj?raeat — cima di judicio^aa expression also applied to the Deity by Shakspeare in " Measure for Measure :" — " How would you be, If He, which is the Top of Judgment, should But judge you as you are P" I believe this extraordinary parallel passage was first noticed by Mr. Douce.
154 PURGATORY. Ca*to VI. Yii^il drew near him then, and praying, cried, That he the best ascent to us would show : To that request no answer he replied. But of our country and our life to know '® He asked us ; and my leader sweet began, '^ Mantua," the shadow in a trembling glow From the place where he had stood towards him ran.
Saying, " O Mantuan, of thy land am I, Sordello," and they Hssed each other fain. ^^ Household of grief, ah, slavish Italy ! Ship without pilot in the tempest fear. No landed lady, but a harlot's sty : That gentle spirit was so ready there. But at the sweet sound of his natal land, ^ To give a citizen such festal cheer. And now in thee thy living sons ne'er stand Except at strife, and one the other gores, Men whom one moat and rampart comprehend.
Seek, seek, wretched one around the shores '* Of thy seaboard, and then gaze in thy breast. If any part of thee but peace ignores. What boots it that Justinian had redrest Thy bridle, if thy saddle now is free ? The bridle makes thy shame stand more confest. ^ Woe on thy people, who devout shouldst be. And leave thy Csesar seated in the selle, If thou knew'st well what God commandeth thee.
See how the beast has grown unruly, fell, Because it has not felt the chiding spur, '^ The instant on the reins the fingers dwell. O German Albert, who abandoned her Now savage and unconquerable grown.
Whose saddle-bows thou shouldst have strided sure : May from the stars just judgment £eiI1 adown ^^ Upon thy blood, and that it cause the dread Of thy successor, be it new and known : Thou and thy father, how have ye been led Chained by your lustings after Germany, The garden of the Empire to have fled. ^•^ Line 75. Sordello, a FroYenQal poet of the thirteenth century. Line 97.
Albert I., who became emperor in 1298, and was murdered ten years later. He and his father Bodolph both neglected Italy for their German possessions. His successor is Henry YII. of Luxembourg, from whom Dante mainly expected the regeneration of his country xmder firm imperial rule.
CahtoVI. PURGATOKY. 165 Come, the Montecchi, Cappelletti, see, Monaldi and Phillipeschi, man of sloth. Oppressed already, or about to be. Come, cruel one, come and see, though loath. The pressure of thy friends, and cure each ill, "° And see how Santafior securely groweth. Come and behold thy Eome, who waileth still, Widowed and lone, she calls thee night and day My Caesar, wherefore art not with me still ?
Come see the people, how they love alway, "* And if, for us, no pity thee can move, Come to be shamed of thy glory's bay. And if 'tis lawful to me, great Jove, Who erst on earth for us wast crucified, Are thy just eyes withdrawn from us above ? ^^^ Or lofty preparation dost thou hide Within thy counsel's deeps, to work us good, Whose secret to our ken is all denied ?
The lands of Italy now swarm with the brood Of tyrants, and a new Marcellus grows ^^ Each peasant who takes up some party feud. My Florence, thou shouldst be content, God knows, With this digression noways touching thee. Thanks to thy people who so learned grows. Many in heart have justice, but delay ^^ To shoot till they have taken counsel rare ; Thy people have it on their lips alway.
Many refuse the common load to bear ; Thy people eagerly the charge endueth, And crieth y^t uncalled, " The yoke Til share." ^^ Now be thou glad, for thou hast cause in sooth ; Thou who art wealthy, dowered with peace and brain, The effects cannot be hid if I speak truth.
Athens and Sparta, who composed the train Of ancient lawi^, and were so civilised, "^ Comparison with thee can ne'er maintain In comely life, since thou hast so prevised Thy subtle schemings, that till mid-November Lasts not the web October saw devised. How many times, in days thou dost remember, ^^ Tby money, habits, offices, and laws. Hast thou remodelled, and renewed each member? Line 106. The Montagues and Capulets of Shakspeare. Line 111.
Santa Flora, a castle in Siena ; its security is clearly alluded to ironically, but to what the poet alludes particularly is unknown.
156 PURGATORY. Cas-to vn. If clearly thou beholdest thy own flaws, Like a sick woman thou wilt see thee 'plain, Who on her pillow cannot find repose, ^^^ And seeks with constant turns to ease her pain.
CANTO vn. The poets learn from Sordello that it is imposedble to ascend the moantain during the night, and he guides them to a retired valley, where they see those who, from being engrossed with affairs of State, deferred their repentance to the last, and are detained in the Ante-Pargatory.
Amoagst these are named the Emperor Rodolph, Ottocar, King of Bohemia, Philip III. of Fraoce, Henry of Navarre, Peter III. of Arragon, Charles of Anjoa, Henry III. of England, and William, Marqnis of Montferrat. Afteb these comely greetings, glad and free, Three and four times were given and returned, Drew back Sordello, saying, " Who are ye ?
" Before that to this mount had ever turned The spirits worthy Godwards to arise, * My body by Octavius was inurned. Virgil am I ; and I have lost the skies. From lacking faith, and not for sin in me. Thus unto him my leader then replies : Like unto one who suddenly doth see *" Something before him, which creates surprise, Who tinists, yet doubts.
It is — It cannot be — So did he seem : and then he bowed his eyes, And turned towards him with respectful mien, And close embraced him humbly round the knees. ** " Latin glory, by the whom is seen," ' He thus addressed him, " all our tongue can do ; 0, of my native place, the eternal sheen ; What worth, or grace, to me thy form doth show ? Say, if I'm worthy thy sweet speech to hear, ^ Comest thou from Hell, and from what vale below ?
" Through all the circles of that dolorous sphere," To him he answered, " have I hence arrived ; " Heaven's virtue helped me to conduct him here. For what I failed to do, am I deprived ^^ Of the sight o' the sun, which thou desirest to gain, Whose knowledge unto me too late arrived. Line 4. Virgil having died before the descent of Christ into Hell, the purifying mountain of Purgatory was not then open.
Cahto VII. PURGATORY. 157 There is a place below, not sad with pain, But only doomed to darkness, where laments Sound not like wailings, but are sighings fain. "'^ There do I stay with little innocents Bit by the teeth of Death, before that they From sin original were made exempts. There do I stay with those who failed to essay The sacred virtues three, though without sin ''^ They knew the rest, and followed them alway.
But if thou know'st, and mayst, point out some sign Whence we can sooner climb this mountain side, And entrance into Purgatory win. " There is no certain entrance," he replied, ^ " I am allowed to walk round these confines ; And far as I may go, FU be thy guide. But see already how the day declines.
It is not possible to climb by night, 'Twere well to choose some resting-place betimes. ** Spirits there are some distance to our right : If thou consent' st, I'll take thee unto these, And thou wilt know them, not without delight. " How's this !" was answered. " If a man shoiUd please To climb by night, would other influence let ? *^ Or is't impossible by high decrees ?
Sordello on the earth his finger set, Saying, " See only where I draw this line. Thou couldst not pass it when the sun is set. Not that would hinder thee aught else malign, '^ Save the night's gloom, from going up above ; That binds in impotence the firm design. Downwards with him thou possibly might'st rove, And traverse all the hill, while wandering round. Until the day above the horizon move." ^ My leader then, as if in marvel wound, .
" Lead us then," said he, " there, where thou didst say, To solace us the while thus travel-bound. From there we'd wandered but a little way, When I perceived the mountain side descend, ^ As on our earth the valleys slope away. Line 28. In this beautiful description of Limbo Dante has the charity to place unbaptised infants at least in a painless doom.
A somewhat celebrated Calvinist preacher was less merciful, when, holding out a bony hand, he used to tell his hearers, *' My brethren, there are children not a span long in Hell ! Line 35. The sacred virtues three are Faith, Hope, and Charity, the rest alone known to the pagan world being Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.
158 PURGATORY. cakto VII. " There," said the shadow, " we our course must wend, Where forms a hollow in the mountain side, And there the new day's coming we'll attend. Along the cliff a zigzag path did glide ^® That sideways led into the valley's site. Where the descent with gentlest slope did slide.
Gold and fair silver, cochineal and white, The Indian wood all shining and serene, Fresh emerald, in the hour 'tis splintered bright, ^* Beside the grass and flowers in that demesne, Had they been placed, had been o'ercome in hue, As fades the lesser by the brighter sheen. Not only Nature there such colours drew, But by the sweetness of its odorous showers ®® Was made a whole confused, in beauty new.
8aJ/ve Eegina on the grass and flowers I saw the spirits and I heard them sing. Unseen beyond the vale which them embowers. " The whilst the sun its latest rays doth fling," The Mantuan, who towards us turned, began, " Ye would not that mid these I ye should bring. Kaised on this cliff far better will ye scan Of all yon group, the acts and visages. Than if amongst them in the vale ye wonne.
He who is seated highest, with the guise Of one who failed in what he should have done, Whose lips are silent mid the songs that rise. Was Eodolph, Emperor, wlio had power alone. To heal the wounds that Italy hath slain, '^ So that he cannot to their cheer be won. He who to comfort him appears so fain, Buled o'er the land, from which the water floweth Which Elbe and Moldau carry to the main.
His name was Ottocar, and in his youth *®® Far better he than Venceslaus his son. Who, bearded, sank in luxury and sloth. He with the little nose, who seemeth one In council with his friend of aspect blest, Who died in flight, his lily all undone, ^^ Line 82. Scdve Begina, the commenoement of a hymn to the Yirgin. Line 94. The Emperor Bodolph, alluded to in the last canto. Line 98. Bohemia.
Ottocar was killed in a battle fought with Rodolph, of whom he was the son-in-law. The luxury of his son Yenceslaus II. is alluded to in the 19th Canto of the " Paiudise. Line 103. Philip III. of France, who died at Perpignan, after the defeat of his fleet by the forces of the King of Arragon.
Canto VII. PURGATORY. 159 Behold him there, how he doth beat his breast : And look upon the other, who has lain, Sighing, his cheek upon his palm to rest ; Father and father-in-law of France's bane ; They know his life so vicious, and begrimed, ^^" Hence comes the grief, they cannot now restrain.
The one so large of limb, whose song is chimed In melody with his of the aquiline nose, With every virtue bore his nature primed : And if the youth who sits behind him close ^^* Had only lived his father's realm to sway. Worth had descended then from vase to vase.
That of his other heirs we caunot say : Though James and Frederic now his kingdom own : His better heritage does no one sway. ^^ But rarely in the branch again is grown Our human excellence, so willeth He Who gives it, that the boon be called his own. To him with the aquiline nose my words agree ^** Even as to Peter, who with him doth chaunt ; Whence Provence and Apulia mourn to-day. So far superior to the seed, the plant.
As more than Beatrix and Margaret, Constantia of her husband's worth can vaunt. ^^ Behold the King, of life so simply fit, Henry of England, seated there alone, He in his branches has less cause to fret. He who the lowest on the earth is thrown. Gazing above, is William the Marchese, ^^ Through whom did Alexandria cause to moan In war, Montferrat, and the Canavese." liine 107.
Henry of Navarre, father of Jane, wife of Philip le Bel, " France's banp. Line 112. Peter III. of Arragon, the father of four sons, Alonzo, Frederic, James, and Peter. Alonzo, and after his death James, succeeded their father in the kingdom of Arragon and Frederic in that of Sicily, so that the vouth who sits close to his father is probably Peter, the only one who did not beco ne a king. Line 124.
Charles of Anjou, the brother of Saint Louis, who was as far anperior to his successor, Charles II., as Peter to his sons. Line 128. Constance, widow of Peter III. of Arragon, whence from the context Beatrice and Margaret ought to be the wives of the above-mentioned Frederic and James.
Such, however, is not the case, and the daughters of Berenger, Count of Provence, are supposed to be intended, who married the two brothers Saint Lonis and Charles of Anjou. Line 132. An allusion to Edward I., the great Plantagenet. Line 134. William of Montferrat was taken prisoner by the Alexandrians, and died in confinement ; his people of Montferrat and the Canavese in consequence entered into a long war with Alexandria.
CANTO VIII. At evening fall one of the spirits sings the hymn of the Church, " Te lucis ante terminum," and on its close two angels, with flaming swords broken off at the points, descend to guard the vale. The poets then enter it, and Dante meets with joy his friend Nino, the Ju^e of Gallura.
A serpent creeps into the valley, bat flees at once on the advance of the angels ; and Dante converses with Conrad Malaspina, who predicts to him his own exile. 'TwAS now the hour when longings rise anew To voyagers, and the heart grown tender sighs, The day they've said to well-loved friends adieu. When the new pilgrim thrills with love's soft ties. If from afar he hear the vesper bell, * That seems to mourn above the day that dies.
When I began to shake aside the spell Of listening, and to gaze upon a soul, Who with his hand an audience claimed as well. He joined both palms together, and the whole Lifted on high, his eyes fixed towards the east, As though he said to Grod, " I trust thee sole. Te lucis ante with such holy zest Fell from his mouth, and with such cadence sweet. That on it bore me from my mind released.
The others sweetly then with fervent heat Accompanied his voice throughout the hymn, Fixing their eyes upon the starry seat. Here to the truth sharpen thy eyesight dim, O reader, for so subtle is the veil, ^ Thou well might'st pass it by, nor see within. I saw that gentle army in the vale Guzing in silence afterwards above. As if in expectation, humbly pale.
And I saw cleave the height, and downwards move Two angels, holding each a flaming sword, The points of which were broken off above. Line I. These opening lines have been thns beautifolly paraphrased by Byron: — " Soft hour ! which wakes the wish, and melts the heart. Of those who sail the seas, on the first day When they from their sweet friends are torn apart, Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way As the isT bell of vesper makes him start. Seeming to weep the dying day's decay. "Don Juan," Canto III.
Canto VIII. PURGATORY. 161 Green as young shoots just sprouted in the sward Their garments were, and by the rapid flight Of their green pinions were they blown abroad. The one, not far above us, did alight, The other to the farther shore did fare. So that i' the midst they held the troop in sight. One clearly could perceive their golden hair, But from the eye their faces did escape, ^* As fail the senses, rapt on aught too rare.
'* They both of them have come from Mary's lap, This valley to defend," Sordello cried, " From the serpent that will swiftly come, mayhap.*' Whence I, who knew not from which path 'twould glide, *° Turned me around, and very closely drew, All frozen, unto Virgil's faithful side.
Sordello still, " Let us go downwards now Mid the great shadows, and with them we'll speak ; To see ye will delight them well I trow." ** Three footsteps scarcely downwards did I take, To join them, when a spirit I remark Gazing, as recognition he would seek. Already by this time it had grown dark. But not so much but that his eves and mine ^ Could that distinguish which the rest did mark.
He drew to me, and I towards him incline : My gentle Nino, what a joy it gave To see thou wast not doomed with the malign ! * There lacked to us no salutation brave. And then he asked : " How long is't since ye came Unto this mountain, o'er the distant wave ? " O," said I to him, " from the bourns of shame This mom I came, and still my life I own. Though wandering, immortality I claim. As soon as that my answer had been known.
He and Sordello drew themselves away. As people in a sudden marvel thrown. To Virgil one, the other turned to me. Crying to one, " Currado, leave thy place, ** A marvel of God's favour come to see. Then tuiilied to me : " By that peculiar grace Thou owest unto him who so doth hide His primal self that none to it can pass. Line 53. Nino, Judge of Gallura, of the family of the Yisconti of Pisa, and nephew of Count Ugolino. M
162 PURGATORY. Camto VIH. When thou shalt be beyond that ocean wide, ^^ Tell my Giovanna, that for me she pray, There where the innocent are not denied. Her mother cannot love me more I say, Since she has changed her widow's garb of woe, Which still the wretched one must yearn for aye. ^* From her example we can easily know How long in woman fires of love endure, If sight or touch do not keep up the glow.
She will not gain so fair a sepulture Prom the Milani, who the viper claim, ^ As would have given the cock that marks Gallure. Thus did he speak, indignant with the flame, Stampt on his face, of that straightforward zeal, Which in his heart with measure did he tame. jSfy greedy eyes towards the sky did steal. There, where the stars revolving circle slow. As near the axle slowest turns the wheel. My leader : " Son, at what art gazing so ?
And I to him : " At those three torches bright Whence yonder Pole above, is all aglow. And he to me : ** The four clear stars of light Thou saw'st this mom, are not yet risen anew. These are already mounted in their site. The while he spake Sordello him withdrew, Saying, " Behold our enemy is there," ** And pointed with his finger where to view. On that side where the little vale was bare Of all defence there was an adder seen.
Perchance that gave to Eve such bitter fare. Slid 'twixt the grass and flowers the evil sheen, Turning at times its head to lick its back. As any animal its hide doth preen. I saw not, and to tell must therefore lack, How the celestial falcons rallied there. But well I saw them both upon its track. Hearing their green wings sweeping cleave the air The serpent fled, and back the angels flew With equal flight unto their fixed repair.
Line 71* Giovanna is Nino's daughter, whose widow. Beatrice, Marchioness of Este, made a second marriage with Galeazzo dei visconti of Milan. The viper allnded to in the 80th verse was the arms of the visconti, adopted as the standard of the Milanese, while the cock was the standard of Nino's province of Grallora. Line 89. The three theological virtues are here intended.
Canto IX. PURGATORY. 163 The shadow who erewhile to Nino drew When he was called by him, throughout the fight ^^ One moment from me had not turned his view. " So may the lamp which leads thee to the height Find in thy free will oil enough to wait Until thou reachest to the Infinite," Thus he began : " If thou wilt but relate ^^* All that thou know*st of Valdimagra famed, And the surrounding parts where I was great.
Currado^ Malaspina was I named : Not the elder, though from him descent I own ; The love I bore my people here is tamed." ^^ ** O," said I to him, " though I ne'er have gone Within your country, wheresoe'er one dwells Throughout all Europe, is it not well known ? The fame, which of your house the honour swells. Alike the nobles and the country cry, ^ That, though by him unwitnessed, each one tells. I swear tp ye, so may I reach on high.
Your honoured race has fallen not away In prise of arms and liberality. So are they privileged by habit's sway, ^^ That though the world may squint its evil head, Straight on they go, and spurn the evil way.
And he : " Now go : the sun within that bed Will not be laid seven times on which the Earn With its four feet o'ercovering doth tread, ^^ Ere this opinion which thou dost proclaim Will be close riveted within thy head With better clamps than by this general fame. Unless the course of judgment can be stayed. Line 109.
Currado Malaspina, father of the Matchese Marcello Malaspina, by whom Dante was liberally received in his exile, as is alluded to in Srophecy by Cnrrado at the close of the Canto. The marquisate of Vaiimagra is now called the Lunigiana, from the city of Lnni, at the mouth of the River Magra. Line 133. The sun will not revisit the constellation of Aries seven times — ^ that is, seven years will not pass.
CANTO IX. Dante dreams that he is tarried by an eagle to the sphere of fire. On waking he finds himself alone with Yirgil, who tells him that in his sleep he was borne up by Lucia to that spot, which is close to the gate of Purgatory. Beaching the portal, they are admitted by the Angel who stands in ward over it, as the vicar of Saint Peter.
164 PURGATORY. Cauto IX. The eternal mistress of Tithonus old, Already wliitened in the eastern height, Quitting the dear arms that around her fold. With jewels was her forehead shining bright, Arranged in shape of that cold-blooded beast * That with its poisonous tail doth piercing smite. And of the footsteps with the which she paced, Night had made two already where we were, And with droopt wings the third now downwards past.
When I, who Adam's body with me bear, ^® Conquered by slumber on the grass repose, Where five in number we were seated there. What time commences with sad fall and close The swallow's song, the hour before the mom.
Perchance in memory of her early woes, ^^ And when this mind of ours is chiefly borne Out of the flesh, and least overcome by thought, Grows in its visions half divinely bom, Meseemed in a dream I saw upcaught, With golden plumes, an eagle in the sky, ^ Prepared to swoop adown, with wings outraught. Meseemed on that olden mount to lie Where Ganymede his comrades erst did quit. When he was carried to the conclave high.
I thought perchance this bird of prey doth smite ^ By habit here, and in aught other place Disdains to bear aloft his prey in flight. Meseemed then it wheeled with swifter pace, And terrible as lightning downwards came, And dragged me upwards to the blazing space. ^ Meseemed there we both were burnt in the flame. And so the imagined burning singed me keen. That sleep itself was broken by the dream.
Achilles roused himself with such a mien, Gazing around with eyes just wakened, ^ And knowing not the place where he had been, What time his mother had from Chiron fled To Scyros, he asleep upon her arm. There, whence in after times the Greeks him led. Line 7* These footsteps are supposed to mean the four watches into which the night is divided, the third of which being just closed, it is three hours before sunrise.
At this hour Dante places the first 'rising of the dawn, as described in the first terzina. Line 15. Alluding to the story of Progne in Ovid's " Metamorphoses," b. vi. Line 30. To the sphere of fire, supposed to be under the moon's concave.
Canto IX. PURGATOKT. 165 So did I shake myself as slumber's charm *^ Fled from me, and I grew as white as stone, Like to a man who freezes in alarm. Beside me was my comforter alone, Two hours already was the sun on high. And towards the seashore was my vision thrown. " Fear thou no more," I heard my master cry, " Make thyself sure, for our emprise has thrived ; Loose not, but tighten now thy panoply. To Purgatory now hast thou arrived.
Behold the cliff that girdeth its sojourn. See thou the entrance, where it seemeth rived. Before the dawning that precedes the mom, The while thy spirit in that slumber lay. Upon the flowers which yonder vale adorn, A lady came. * I'm Lucia,' did she say, * Let me take up your friend in slumber chained. So will I help him onwards on his way.
Sordello and the other souls remained ; She carried thee, and as the day grew clear, I following on her steps, this height we gained. She pointed out, the while she placed thee here. Yon open entrance, with her heaven-clear eyes. Then, as sleep left thee, did she disappear. Like to a man his doubts who certifies, And changes into comfort his affright, When the discovered truth before him lies.
So did I rally ; and when free and light My leader saw me, upwards by the steep He moved, and I behind him towards the height. Eeader, thou seest to what height doth creep ^" My matter, therefore marvel not, with art Yet more, if I sustain its purpose deep. We had drawn nearer, and had reached the part. That there, what formerly had seemed a break, As 'twere a fissure which a wall doth part.
As a gate I saw, 'neath which three steps did make The ascent to reach it, each of different hue, Guarded by one, who yet had nothing spake ; And as more open to the sight it grew, I saw him seated on the topmost stand. Such in the face I could not bear the view. A naked sword he held within his hand. Whose dazzling rays were so reflected there. That oft in vain my sight towards it wonned.
166 PURGATORY. Cakto IX. <* What is your pleasure ? speak from where ye are," ^ Began he then to say. " Where is your guide ? Look that your coming up no damage bear." ** A lady of the sky, in these things tried," Answered my master to him, ** even now Told us, go on, the gate's on yonder side." ^ *' Well will she help you on your path I trow," The courteous porter thus commenced again : " Before our steps ye may come forward now.
There did we come, and the first step I gain White marble was, so polished and so bright, ^ That in it all myself was mirrored plain. Darker than sable was the second pight. Made of a rugged and fire-scathed stone Cracked on its surface, and athwart its site. The third, whose mass above them both was thrown, ^^ Seemed to me made of flaming porphyry. Like blood that &om a vein is bubbling on.
O'er this both feet he planted royally God's Angel, who was seated on the sill. Which made of diamond appeared to me, ^^ By the three steps above, with cheering will My leader drew me, saying, " Seek with meet Humility, that he thy wish fulfil. I sank devoutly at the sacred feet, And first three times upon my breast I smote, ^^^ Then prayed to him to ope for pity sweet.
Seven P's upon my forehead then he wrote With his sword's point, and " See that thou dost lave These wounds," he said, " when thou within hast got," Ashes on earth dug drily from a cave ^^* Would be the colour of his vestment's fold, From under which he drew two keys that save. The one was silver, and the other gold. First with the white, then with the golden key.
He touched the gate, that I my longing hold, ^ ** Whenever either key doth fail to agree, So that it will not travel in the wards," He said to me, " this passage is not free. Line 95. The three steps of white marble, rough stone, and porphyry are aUegorical of confession, the contrition attending on it, and the fervent charity thereby attained. Line 112.
"The seven P's" denote the seven capital sins, Peccata, of vehice he is to be cleared in his passage throngh Purgatory. Line 118. The golden key is the authority vested in the Ghoroh to absolve sinners, the silver one the doctrinal learning needful to the priest for thQ P^rforpiance of that office.
Cahio X. PURGATORY. 167
More precious one, the other one accords Oulj with wit and knowledge in its use, Because by that we turn the secret wards. Prom Peter do I hold it, its abuse, He told, to those sunk humblj at my feet, Be more in opening than in keeping dose." He thrust the portal of the sacred gate, Bidding us " Enter, but be well aware. Who looketh back is cast outside by Fate." And when there swung upon its hinges there The portals of that entrance consecrate. Which were of sounding metal, strong and clear, Creakt not so loud the famed Tarpeian Gate When good Metellus there was overthrown. And with rapt treasury 'twas desolate. Wrapt in attention, after the first tone, Te Deum Laudamus on my ear did steal, With voices mingled in sweet undertone. Such an effect exactly did reveal That which I heard, as in a church's dome When singing mingles with the organ's peal : And now the words are heard, and now o'ercome.
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Line 136. The Tarx>eian Ghite, in which was the Roman treasnry, which the tribune Metellos in vain attempted to gaard against the followers of Csssar. Lncan's " Pharsalia," book iii.
CANTO X. The poets issue from the gate through a spiral staircase upon the first cormoe on the mountain of Purgatory. On the wall which bars the further ascent of the mountain they see carved bas-reliefs representing Tarious examples of humility. Finally they advance slowly towards these i^irits, who, bowed under vast weights, are imrged of the sin of Pride.
When we had crossed the threshold of the gate So little used by man on evil fain, Which makes the crooked way appear the straight. Sounding with clash I heard it close again ; ^ And if on this my glance had backwards flown.
What fit excuse had been for such a stain P We mounted by a cloven stair of stone That upwards spirally wound on its way, Like to a wave that flies, and then comes on« " 'Tis needful here a little art to essay," ^^ Began my leader, '* and to keep us near To either corner as it turns away.'*
168 PURGATORY. Canto X. Bj this our steps so slowly did we steer, That first the circle of the sinking moon, Reaching its western bed, did disappear ^ Ere from that needle's eye we had .outgone. But when at length freed clear, we issued out, There, where the mountain side is backward thrown, Quite wearied I, and both of us in doubt About our path, we rested on a plain ^® More lonely than the roads through desert's drought.
From the far edge, which binds the airy main. To the foot of the high bank which upwards springs, The human form thrice measured would attain. And far as could my eyesight stretch its wings, ^^ Now on the left, and now on the right side. The ledge with equal breadth the mountain rings.
Above no sooner had our footsteps hied, Ere of the bank which bound the ledge I learned, By which all upward passage was denied, ^° That it was marble pure, and so adorned With carvings, that not merely Polyclete, But Nature's self beside it had been scorned. The Angel, who came down the earth to greet With news of peace, bewept for many a year, ^ Which opened, from its olden ban. Heaven's seat, Before us did so truthfully appear.
In loving attitude there sculptured. No silent image it resembled here. One would have sworn his lips the Ave said : *" For she was also sculptured, at whose 'heat Was Love unlocked on high, and earthwards led.
In her whole gesture were the words imprest, Hcce Andlla Dei, clearly shown As the impression upon wax is prest. ^ ** Fix not thy mind upon one place alone," Said my sweet master, standing at my side, On that at which the beating heart is known ; On which I forward turned my glance and spied Behind Maria, on the wall, where he ^ Was stationed, who aye led me as my guide, Carved in the rock another history ; On which I crossed by Yirgil, and drew near, That straight before my eyes the scene might be.
There was engraven in the marble sheer ^ The car and bullocks, with the holy ark. Which to profane with service none may dare.
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Canto X. PURGATORY. 169 In front appeared the people as thej park Divided in seven choirs, who to the sight Appear to sing, though hearing cannot mark ; So did the smoke of incense, rising white, As it was imaged there,, from nose and eyes, Demand an evidence discordant quite. Before the blessed vessel did uprise The humble Psalmist, dancing lustily. And more and less than monarch in such guise. Imaged within a window that was by. From a great palace Michol downwards gazed, A scornful lady, and all sad to see. I moved my feet from where till then I*d gazed. Nearer to see another history, Which beyond Michol in white marble blazed. Was storied here on stone the glory high Of that good Roman prince, whose virtue's dower Urged Gregory to his great victory : Of Trajan do I speak, the Emperour : There was a widow at his bridle rein, Tears in her geste and steept in sorrow's power. Around him did appear the trampling train Of horsemen, and above him in the breeze Fluttered the gold enwoven banners plain. The wretched woman in the midst of these Appeared to say, " My sovran, vengeance wreak For my son's death, which grieves my aged days." And he to answer her : " Now patience seek Till I return." And she : " O lord, my own," Like one whose grief demandeth solace quick, " If thou shouldst not return ?" " He on my throne Will do it for thee." " What will 't merit thee If thou neglect' dst thy own, his duty done ?" '^ " Now take thee comfort, lor 'tis fit," said he, " That ere I move I should my duty do : Justice demands, and pity urgeth me." He who has ne'er seen what to Him was new. Rendered through gestures this most visible speech, Novel to us, the like who never knew.
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Line 75. The legend is that St. Gregory was so moved with admiration at the anecdote of Trajan which forms the subject of the succeeding bas-relief — viz., that on the prayer of a widow he left his army when starting on aii expedition and returned to Bome to revenge her murdered son — ^that by his prayers he obtained his transference from Limbo to Paradise. Dante again mtroduces this legend in the " Paradise," Canto XX. Line 94. God.
170 PURGATORY. Ca»to X.
The whilst I took delight to gaze on each Of those examples of humility, Charming to dwell on, by their skill so rich; ** Lo yonder, though they very slowly hie," ^^ Murmured the poet, " many people go, These will instruct us how to climb on high.** My eyes that ever were intent to know And gaze on novelties for which they yearn, In turning round towards him were not slow. ^^ I would not, reader, thou shouldst 'wildered turn From thy fair purpose in despair, to hear How God wills that the proud forgiveness earn.
Linger not o'er the form of penance here : Think of what follows, think whate'er their pain, "^ Beyond the judgment cannot last the fear. " That which I see, my master," I began, " Seems not like persons who towards us come ; Yet what I know not, so my sight is vain. And he to me : ** The heavy-laden doom "* Which makes their torment, bows them to the ground, So that my eyes at first in doubt did roam.
But look intently, and make out unbound Each huddled mass that 'neath yon stones creeps on. Now thou canst see how each himself doth wound." ^^ Proud Christians, wretched, weary, and undone ! Who of your mental sight are so bereaved That ye have faith in backward paths alone : That we are worms have ye not yet perceived. Bom but to form the Angelic butterfly ^^ That soareth up to judgment unreprieved ? Of what your spirit doth it vaunt so high ?
Since ye are unformed insects at the best, • Worms as it were unfinished utterly. As roof or ceiling for support doth rest ^^ Upon a bracket, which in shape is seen A figure with his knees against his breast, Wliich through mere fiction causeth anguish keen. And true in him who looks on it ; so made Those did I see, when I had pierced their mien. ^^ True, they, as more or less was on them laid. Bowed in proportion to the weights they bore. And who most patience in his gestures had, Weeping, appeared to say, " I can no more."
CANTO XI. After the spirits have recited the Lord's Prayer, Yirgil demands of them the way up the momitain . One of them directs the m to accompany them along the ledge, and declares himself to be Omberto, who was murdered at Gampagnatioo. Dante then recognises in another Oderisi the Illuminator, who discourses on the vanity of worldly fame, and points out to him Provenzana Salvani, a chief in Siena.
" OuB Fatter who dost dwell in Heaven above, Not circumscribed, but tbat Thou there dost place Upon Thy primal effluence, higher love, For ever hallowed be Thy Name and grace, By each created thing, as is most right * In rendering thanks Thy savour to embrace. The peace of Thy own kingdom on us light. Which of ourselves we never could attain, Unless it come through striving with all might.
As, by their own desire, Thy angels fain "* Singing Hosanna, sacrifice to Thee, So may Thy will be done on earth by man. Provide us with our daily manna free. Without the which, this desert road along, He would go back, who striveth most to flee. ^^ And as we pardon imto each the wrong Which we have suffered, be our pardoner. Nor weigh the merits which to us belong. Our virtue, which so easily doth err.
Do not thou test it with the ancient foe, ^ Deliver us from him that so doth spur. This last petition, O dear Lord, we owe Not for ourselves, for whom is no more need, Rather for those we've left behind below. So for their voyage, and for ours, good speed, ^ Those shadows praying, 'neath their burden hied.
Like to the nightmare, which bad dreams oft breed : Each in their separate proportion tried, Along that first ledge pass they on outworn, Purging the fogmists of their earthly pride. ^ Since ever there to us goodwill is borne, For them on earth, what can they do or say, Who with the good root dowered, to grace are bom ? Well should they help their sins to wash away. Which hence they carried, so that pure and light ^' They may ascend unto the starry ray.
172 PURGATORY. Cakto XI ** Ah that both clemency and justice right May soon unburden ye, your wings to rear, According to your will to rise in flight ! Show us the shortest way towards the stair ; *® And if there's more than one appointed road, Point out the one which riseth up least sheer, Since he who cometh with me, by the load Of Adam's flesh with which he still is drest, Is slow in climbing, though goodwill be showed.
The words, which they in answer then addrest, To those he spake, the whom I followed, quite From whom they issued were not manifest. They said : " Along the bank towards the right Come ye with us, a passage will be shown ^'^ Which can be mounted by a living wight. And were I not impeded by the stone, Which thus my proud neck doth weigh down and tame, Whence I am forced to keep my face bent down.
This one who liveth still, nor tells his name, ^^ I'd gaze on, if perchance to me he's known. His pity also for this load to claim. Latin was I, of a great Tuscan son, Guglielm' Aldobrandescho was my sire, I know not if his name to you has flown. ^ The ancient blood, and deeds of grace and fire Done by my ancestors, made me so proud, Not thinking of our common mother, mire. Each man I held in such contempt avowed.
That hence I died, as the Sanesi know, ^ And knows in Campagnatico the crowd. Omberto I : nor me alone I trow Has Pride thus ruined, all who with me fare Has she drawn with her to this grievous woe. And here 'tis dooomed that I this burden bear ^° For her, until I satisfy my God, In which I living failed, 'midst dead men here. Listening the words, my face I downwards bowed.
And one amongst them (not the one who spake) Twisted himself beneath his cumbering load, ^^ Line 58. Omberto, Count of Santa Flora, whose arrogance became so hateful to the inhabitants of Siena that they murdered him in Campagnatico. It was, perhaps, in allusion to this murder that in Canto YL. Dante called on the Emperor Albert to see " how Santa Fior securely groweth." **£ vedra, Santa Fior com h secura.''
Canto XI. PURGATORY. 173 And saw, and knew me, and did call me back, Fixing with great fatigue on me his eyes, Who, wholly bent, with them my course did take. " 0," said I to him, " art not Oderis ? Agobbio's pride, and honour of the art, ^^ Illuminating called, in Paris* guise? " Brother," said he, " the shapes more lifelike start Which Franco Bolognese's pencil drew. Now is the honour his, and mine in part.
I had not been so courteous, it is true, ^ While I was living, for the great desire Of excellence, which in my heart then grew. Of such a pride, here do we pay the hire ; And even here I'd be not, had I not, While scope was left to sin, sought out God nigher. •^ empty glory of our human lot, How briefly lasts the green upon the bough. Unless succeeds the fame an age of nought !
In painting, Cimabue they avow The master once, now Griotto has their cry, •^ So that the other's fame obscureth now. So the first with the latter Guide could not vie, In pride of style, and haply one is born Who'll chase them both from out their nest on high. Mundane renown is but a breath forlorn ^^ Of wind that cometh now from here, now there. Named various from the quarter whence 'tis borne.
If thou stripp'st off thy aged flesh, wilt share More fame than if thou'dst early died in grace Before thou'dst ceased thy childish prattle, ere ^^* Line 79. Oderisi was a miniature-painter, a friend of Giotto and Dante, and the master of Franco of Bologna, whose skill he extols beyond his own. Line 93. The fame of any man is immediately eclipsed by that of his successors, unless there follows an age void of excellence. Line 94.
Cimabue was the father of Italian x>ainting: the story of his discovering Giotto's talents, while the latter was tending sheep, is well known. " Yet rightly was young Giotto talked about, Whom Cimabue found among the sheep, And knew, as gods know gods, and carried home To paint the things he painted, with a deep Aud fuller insight, and so overcome His chapel Virgin with a heaveolier sweep Of light. Mrs. Browning's " Casa Guidi Windows. Line 97.
Guido Guinicelli, of a noble family in Bologna, whom Dante introduces in the 26th Canto of the " Purgatory," where he avows that he was his father in the art of poetry. The second Guido is Cavalcanti, Dante's intimate friend, whom his father in Canto X. of the " Hell" expected to find in his company. As the second Guido eclipsed the literary fame of the first, so Dante hints that he will rise over both.
174 PURGATORY. Cahto XI. A thousand years have past ? A briefer space Beside the eternal, than a glance of the eye By that star's orbit, longest whirled through space. Eesounded with his name all Tuscany Who there before me doth so slowly toil ; "® Of him in Siena now they scarcely sigh, Where he was lord, what time their arms did spoil The rage of Florence, then so proud to view, Whom now, a harlot, all defilements soil.
This your renown is like the grass's hue *'* Which comes and goes, the &un that makes it fade, The tender leaf from the earth's bosom drew. And I to him : " What thou hast truly said Teaches humility, and levels pride ; But who is he, of whom thou'st parlance made ? " Provenzan the Salvani," he replied. And he is here, because presumptuous, Beneath his hands all Siena he defied.
Thus hath he gone, and goes without repose Aye since his death, who too much dares his fate. In satisfaction such a payment owes. And I : " Since every spirit who doth wait To the brink of life, with penitence delayed. Must dwell below, nor mount unto the gate.
Unless the prayers of good men grant him aid, ^** Till time full equal to his life has past, How unto this one was admission made P" " What time," he said, " his life in pride was past, Himself he humbled in Siena's plain. And every feeling of false shame forth cast. ^^ He then, to draw his friend from out the pain The which in Charles's prison-house he bore. His proud frame bowed, to tremble in each vein.
I know I darkly speak, yet say no more : But little time will pass, ere friends of thine "® Will treat thee, that thou'lt read this riddle's core : Him did that act absolve from the hill's confine. Line 110.
Prevenzano Salvani was the general of the Siennese : he hnmbled himseU so far, for the sake of a friend who was imprisoned by Charles of Sicily, as to beseech the .people in the market-place of Siena to contribute the sum demanded for his ransom. This act of abasement saved him from the delays of the Ante-Purgatory, and Oderisi tells Dante that he wiU soon learn from experience the bitterness of having to solicit snch favours : line 141*
CANTO XII. The poets leave the hardened spirits, and as they rapidly advance, Dante's attention is drawn hy Yirgil to the effigies which are drawn upon the ledge, and which represent various examples of pride. They are finally met by an Angel, who points out to them the stairs by which they are to ascend, and touching Dante's forehead with his wing effaces one of the seven Ps which had been engraved there at the entrance into Purgatory.
Like bullocks in a yoke together go, That burdened soul did I accompany, As long as my sweet master would allow. But when he said : " Now leave him, forwards hie. For here 'tis well that both with oars and sail, Each one in pushing his own bark should vie : Erect, as eager the advance to hail, I raised my person, but nathless my mind Eemained stiU bowed and humbled in the vale.
I had moved on, and willingly behind My master's steps I followed, and we both Already showed ourselves as light as wind ; " Turn thy eyes downwards," said he as he goeth, " To solace the long way 'twill profit thee To look on what the bed, thy feet tread, showeth." ^* As, to preserve awhile their memory, The mounded tombs 'neath which the buried sleep Of their mute tenant bear the effigy, Whence there full many a time the passers weep By the keen puncture of remembrance fain, The which, the gentle-hearted only keep : So saw I, but the likeness better ta'en.
Traced with the sculptor's skill divinest there. Throughout the length of that hill-circling plain. Him did I see who was created fair, ^ More than aught other creature, down from Heaven Descending with a lightning sheen through air. I saw Briareus,' hundred-handed, riven By the celestial weapon, yonder lie.
Prone to the eaith in lethal force down driven. ^ I saw Apollo, Pallas, Mars, on high In panoply around their father stand, Viewing the giant's limbs, all scattered nigh. Nimrod I saw, beneath the work he planned, Bewildered as it were, and with surprise ^ Watching his proud compeers on Sennaar's land.
176 PURGATORY. Canto XII. O Niobe, with what woe-laden eyes Did I behold thee, sculptured on that plain, Mid thy fourteen dead sons in sacrifice ! Saul, how vividly wast figured, slain ^° On thy own sword, upon Gilboa*s hill, Which afterwards received nor dew nor rain ! mad Aragne, so I see thee still.
Already half a spider, in the mass Of the sad work, which wrought for thee such ill ! ^^ Rehoboam, not a threat we trace There, in thy image, full of craven fear A chariot bore thee, ere the foemen chase. There showed us, too, that graven pavement, clear. What price Alcmeon made his mother pay For that unhappy necklace, won too dear.
It showed how his own sons conspired in fray Against Sennacherib, in the Temple's rood, And how they left him dead, and fled away. The mangling, and the cruel deed it showed. Which Tamiris did, when she to Cyrus said. Blood thou didst thirst, I fill thee now with blood. Line 42. " Ye monntains of Giltoa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon yon." — 2 Samuel, ch. i., v. 21.
Petrarch has a similar allusion to the curse of David, mourning for the death of Saul, probably imitated from this passage : — " El pastor ch'a Golia ruppe la f route Pianse la ribellante sua famiglia, E sopra '1 buon Saul caugio le ciglia, Ond' assai piu dolersi il fiero monte. Sonnetto XXXYI. Line 43. Aragne, changed into a spider for having challenged Pallas to a trial of skill in female work. Ovid's " Metam.," book vi. Line 46.
" Then King Behoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute : and all Israel stoned him with stones that he died : therefore King Behoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot to flee to Jerusalem." — 1 Kings, chap, xii., v. 18. Line 51.
Eriphile, bribed by Polinices with a necklace, discovered where her husband Amphiaraus had hidden himself to avoid joining in the war against Thebes, and on the command of the latter, their son Alcmeon slew his motlier in revenge. Line 52.
'^And it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his God, that Adrammelech and Shareger his sons smote him with the sword ; and they escaped into the land of Armenia." — 2 Kings, chap, xix., V. 37. Line 56. Tamiris, Queen of Scythia, whose son had been killed by Gyrus, having made him prisoner, cut off his head, and placed it in a basin full of blood, with the speech, " Satia te sanguine, quem sitisti. Justinian, book i.
Canto xn. PURGATORY. 177 It showed how in the rout the Assyrians fled After that Holofernes had been slain, And all the rest of their destruction dread. ^° Troj I beheld in caves and ashes lain ; Ilion, thee how lowered and how vile Displayed the image, which is there seen plain. What mastery of pencil, and of style, Had he who drew the shades, and outlines here, ^ Which subtlest intellects to gaze would guile.
Alive the living, dead the dead appear ; Who saw the facts beheld not more than I, Of what I trod on, whilst bent down I peer. Now with high looks, keep up your surquedry, sons of Eve, and never bow your face, Lest that your evil pathway ye descry. Already had we turned, of the mountain's space. And turned the sun upon his pathway, more Than had the mind not free, the power to trace, When he, who ever watchful walked before.
Commenced : " Lift up thy head," he 'gan to say, " No longer is there time thus rapt to pore. See yonder is an Angel on our way Who comes towards us ; see, there doth return ^ Now the sixth maid from service of the day. With reverence now thy acts and face adorn, That he with pleasure thy advance secure ; Think that this day can ne'er again be born.
In his advice experienced, I was sure ®* It was 'gainst losing time, of that he ne'er Could parley with me in a style obscure. Advanced towards us the sweet creature fair All garbed in white, in face as doth appear, All tremulously bright the momins^ star. ^ His anus he opened, and his wings did rear, And said : " Come on, henceforth with ease o'er all The mount can ye ascend, the steps are near.
How very few approach unto that call ; O human race, though bom above to soar, ** Why at the slightest breath dost thou thus fall ? To where the rock was cleft he led us o*er. There touched me with his wings upon the front. Then promised me an upward progress sure. Line 81 . The handmaids on the seryice of the day are the hoars. Virgil tells him that an Angel is approaching, and that the sixth hour is past. N
178 PURGATORY. Cakto XII. As on the right hand, to ascend the mount ^^ Where's built the church which overlooks the town, Aye so well governed, o'er the Rubacont, The labour of the ascent is softened down By stairs, which in the early age were made. When weights and archives false were yet unknown ; ^^^ So is the steepness of the bank allayed, Which from the higher cliff doth sheer descend ; But close on each side hangs the rock o'erhead.
There, as we turned the mountain to ascend, Beati pauperes Bpiritu, there chanted ^^® Voices, whose tones description all transcend. Ah, what a difference to these straits is granted, From the Infernal ! welcomed here with airs. Beneath with wailings fierce of rage undaunted. Now did we mount above the holy stairs, ^^* And to myself meseemed in lighter mood, Than ever till that time to me appears.
Whence I : " My master say, what heavy load Is lifted off me that no trace of pain Or toil besets me on this upward road ?" ^^ He answered : " When the P's which now remain Upon thy forehead still, though somewhat faded, Like to the one shall be entirely ta'en, Thy feet by good desire wijl be so aided. That not alone fatigue they will not know, ^^ But with delight the path will be invaded.
Then was I like to those who onwards go With something unperceived upon the head, Till taught by glances which their neighbours throw : Wherefore to clear my doubts, my hand doth aid, ^^^ And seeks, and finds, and doth that office do, Which by the sight alone cannot be made ; And by the right hand's fingers touched, I knew There rested but six letters, which erewhile He of the keys upon my temples drew : ^^ At which my leader watched me with a smile.
Line 101. The church of San Miniato, built on a hill overlookiDg the Amo, where it is crossed by the bridge Rnbaconte. The well-governed tow^n, it need hardly be said, is Florence. Line 116. Dante, having been purged of his besetting sin of Pride, is Burprised.at the lightness of the ascent after the removal of that burden.
CANTO XHL They reach the seoond cornice, on which is purged the sin of Enyjr. Ab they proceed along it they hear yoices ftx>in invisible spirits inoolcating charity. Farther on they see the sools of the envions, clad in sackcloth, and with their eyes sewed up with an iron wire. Amongst these Dante conversea with Sapia, a lady of Siena, who acquaints bim with her story.
We now had readied the summit of the stairs, Where for the second time the mount is cut, Ascending which the soul is freed from cares. There in like manner did a cornice jut, Exactly like the first, around the hill, ^ Save that its bound in closer ring is shut. No shade is here, no outline drawn with skill. Appears the bank, appears the narrow way Like quarried rock, of livid colour still.
" If here to question people we should stay^ Haply I fear me," so the poet spake, " Our choice will not be made without delay. Then on the sun a fixed gaze did he make ; Made of his right the point on which to turn. And swinging round his left;, his course did take. " dulcet light, on which my trust is borne. By the new path conduct us on benign,** He said, " to lead us to the wished-f or bourne.
The earth thou warmest y. thou dost o'er it shine : If other cause doth not oppose its bar,. Ever should be our guides those rays of thine. The distance of a mile on earth, so far From there abeady had we onwards gone In little time, through will so ready there ; When there were heard towards us flying on, Although unwitnessed, spirits who did bring Sweet invitations to Love's benison.
The first voice which past by upon the wing, Vinvm non hahenty did it loudly say. And from behind us the same words did fling. Ere from the hearing it had past away In distance, past another like a wave, Crying, " Orestes I," nor yet did stay.
Iff
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Line 29. The speech of Mary at the wedding feast in Gana. It is not very appropriately introduced as an example of Charity. Line 83. The voice of Orestes is- introduced, famous for his friendship with Pylades.
180 PURGATORY. Cakto XIIL
85
40
45
50
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" What are these voices, father ?" did I crave, And while I asked a third had filled their place. Saying, '* Love those from whom ye evil have. My master then : " The sin of envy base This circle scourgeth, so with love divine The lashes of the whip are plied in grace. The curb must be of contrary design : And for myself I think thou*lt hear it, ere Unto the place of pardon thou dost join.
But fix thine eyes intently through the air, A group that sit before us will be known, And each one seated 'gainst the hillside there. Then more than erst my gaze was forward thrown. With watchful eyes, and shadows I descry With garb, in hue not different to the stone. And after we had reached a little nigh, I heard them cry, O Mary, for us pray ; On Michael, Peter, all the saints they cry.
I do not think there goes on earth to-day A man so hardened, but at what I saw He would be touched beneath compassion's sway : For when so near to them my steps did draw, That all their semblances were clearly seen. That sight the anguish from my eyes did draw. Covered they seemed to me, with haircloth mean. Each on his shoulder did the other bear. And all of them against the bank did lean. Just so the blind, who want their daily fare.
Stand at the church's gates to beg their needs, And one upon the other layeth there His head, whence in the heart compassion breeds. Not only by the sound of words resigned. But at the spectacle which no less pleads. And as the sun ne'er comforteth the blind. So to the shades of whom I spake just now The light of heaven in boon is not assigned.
For to them all, an iron wire doth sew ^® Their eyelids pierced, as a wild falcon's eyes Are treated, who in quiet will not bow. Walking, it seemed with insult to despise Gazing on others, I myself unseen, Wherefore I turned me to my counsel wise : Line 39.
Virgil explains that the shades of the envions are scourged towards purification by the voices exhorting to charity, and also resixained from envy by the curb of other voices, threatening with examples of that vice, whi(m Dante will hereafter hear.
Cahto XIII. PURGATORY. 181 Well knew he what my silent look did mean ; And yet he did not sanction my demand, But told me : " Speak, and be thou brief and keen.** Virgil came with me on the outer hand Of the cornice, where no balustrade was set ^ To guard from falling down the cliff beyond. On the other side the pious shadows met, Who by the horrible seam in dim obscure Were suffering so that all their cheeks were wet.
I turned me towards them, " O thou people sure," Thus I began, " to see the lofty light To which alone aspire your wishes pure : So may grace speedily remove the blight From off your conscience, so that hence descend Into your mind, the stream of knowledge bright, Tell me (for that to me delight will lend) Is any Latin soul here denizen, My knowledge haply to his good will tend.'* " brother mine, each one is citizen Of one true city, but thou wouldest say, ^* Who pilgrim lived in Italy's demesne.
This answer did I seem to hear some way More forward than the place where I was based. On which to look still further I essay. Amongst the rest I saw a shade who gazed ^^ In aspect : How ? if any should exclaim, Like to the blind, the mind it upwards raised.
" Spirit," I said, " who to ascend dost tame Thyself, if thou'rt the one who answered me, Make me to know thy country or thy name.'* ^^* " A lady from Siena," answered she, *' With these I purify a life of spite. Weeping to Him, that He should come to me. Sapient I was not, though Sapia hight. In former days, and others' loss and cares, "^ More than my gain, were ever my delight. That thou shouldst think not I deceive thy ears.
Hear if I was not, as I say, insane ; Already going down the slope of years, Line 109. The play of words in the original has been preserved, as a translation should exhibit flaws as faithfully as the whole body of the work, at least when the flaw is intentional, as in this instance.
Sapia tells her own story : while living in banishment at Golle she witnessed the defeat of her (Countrymen by the Florentines, and prayed for immediate death, as there was nothing further for her to hope or fear.
182 PURGATORY. Cahto XIII. My fellow-citizens on Colle's plain ^^* Were joined in battle with their foemen old: And G-od willed that for which my prayers were vain. There were they routed, and their ranks were rolled In bitter flight, I witnessing the chase Eeceived such joy, whose like cannot be told : ^^ So that I raised aloft my daring face, Crying to Q-od : * I fear thee now no more :' As sings the merle at the first spring-like space.
My peace I sought with God upon the shore Of human life, nor even yet would be ^^* My debt, through penitence in part paid o'er, Had he not kept me in his memory, Pier Pettinagno, in his holy prayer, Who gave me pity in his charity. But who art thou, who goest questioning here ^^ Of our conditions, and the eyes hast free As I believe, and speaking breath'st the air ?
" The eyes," I said, " will yet be sown for me, But as I thus erred little, not for long. Since they from envy have been almost free. ^^ Par greater is the fear in which lies hung My spirit for the torment underneath. Now with the weight I feel my shoulders wrung.
And she to me : " Who then has led thy path Amongst us, if thou thinkest to retreat ?" ^*° And I, " My comrade here, who nothing sayeth, I am alive, so ask me as 'tis meet Elected spirit, if thou wouldst that there Should hurry still for thee our mortal feet. " this is such a novel thing to hear," "* She answered, " that Q-od loves thee 'tis a sign : Therefore at times assist me with thy prayer.
And by the thing for which thou most dost pine I pray thee, if thou tread' st the Tuscan plain, Mid my relations clear this fame of mine. ^^ Thou wilt behold them 'mongst the people vain Line 123. The merle, aGOording to the scory, escaped from confinement at the first gleam of fine weather, and had soon to lament the return of winter. Line 128. Pier Pettinagno, a hermit of Florence. Line 136.
Dante feels that his besetting sin is Pride, and fears the punishment of the lower cornice far more than that for Envy. Line 151. In "Hell/' Canto XXIX.,Dante has already vented his satire on the folly of the Siennese.
He here alludes to their idle schemes of becoming a great naval power through possession of Talamon, a port on the confines of the Mt^remma, which turned out as chimeri<»l as their former attempt to discover a subterranean stream in their city, which for some unknown reason was called Diana.
CANTO XIV. Dante is addressed by two shadows, Guide del Daoa of Brettinoro and Binieri de' Caldoli of Bomagna. The former, on Dante's mentioning that he has come from the vale of Arno, inveighs against the degeneracy of its inhabitants. On leaving these, the poets hear voices recording instances of the crime of Envy.
" Who then is he, who cometh round our hill Ere death to soar has granted him the boon, And opes his eyes, and closes at his will ?" *' I know not who, but he is not alone, Ask him thyself, since thou art placed more near, ^ To make him speak, accost him fair in tone. Two spirits thus, bent towards each other, there At my right hand, this parley held on me.
Then to address me they their faces rear ; And spake the one : " spirit who not free, ^^ Yet from thy body, mountest Heaven's serene. For charity console us here, and say, Whence come, and who thou art ; thy favour seen Makes in us wonder so intensified. As claims a thing which never yet has been." ^^ And I : " Through central Tuscany doth glide.
In Falterona sprung, a little stream, With course of hundred miles unsatisfied : There is the region whence I bring this frame ; To tell ye who I am were idle prate, ^ Since yet but little doth resound my name. " If thy intention well I penetrate In understanding," made to me reply He who first spake, " thou speak' st of Arno's seat. The other then to him made parley : " Why ^ That river's proper name did he conceal.
As man does of a thing of horrible dye ? The shadow unto whom that question fell. Repaid it thus : " I know not, but of right Should perish even the name of such a vale. ^^ Line 16. The river Arno, whose coarse extends for 120 miles, rising in the Falterona, a mountain in the Apennines.
184 PURGATORY. Cakto XIV. For, from its source, where rise in pregnant might The Alpine Hills, now from Pelorus torn, Which rarely passes Falterona's height, On to the seashore where it doth return All that for it the skies from ocean drain, ^ By which are rivers filled, and onwards borne. All who are there, to fly from virtue strain As 'twere an adder, either by the lot Of the locality, or habit's bane.
Whence all the dwellers in that wretched spot ^ Are metamorphosed in their nature so. It seemed that Circe held them in her grot. Mid filthy swine, for gallnuts fit I trow. More than for other food prepared for man, Its miserable course at first doth flow. ^ Then it finds curs, descending to the plain. More snarling than their strength can give them claim, And here it twists, to avoid them, with disdain.
Falling it goes, and as doth swell its stream So doth it find the curs to wolves have grown, *^ That ditch accursed, and of unlucky fame. Descended then through deeper channels down. Foxes it finds so full of fraud, that fear They know not to meet wit outmatch their own. Kor will I cease to speak, though others hear : " Q-ood it will be for him to bear in mind That which the source of truth to us shows dear.
I see thy grandson, of the wolfish kind Become the hunter, on the bank arrive Of the proud river, all to him resigned. ^ He sells their flesh, the while they're yet alive. Then slays them like to old and fattened beeves ; Many of life, himself of fame doth 'prive. Line 31.
From the Bonrce of the Amo in the ApennineSi now separated from Peloms in Sicily, the highest of whose hills is Falterooa, nntil it enters the ocean, all the dwellers heside it fly from virtue, so that they seem as if changed by Circe into animals. Line 43. The swine are the people of the Casentine, bnt the Conti Gnidi, alluded to in Canto XXZ. of the ** HeU," are probably chiefly allnded to. Line 46.
The curs are the Aretines ; the river curyes, leaving Arezzo four miles to the right. Line 50. The wolves are the Florentines, and the foxes the men of Pisa. Line 55. The presence of Dante, a Tuscan, will not restrain him. Line 58. Fulcieri de* Caldcli, grandson of Binieri, became Podesta of Florence in 1802, and massacred many of the Florentines, especially of the Bianchi party, being bribed thereto by the Neri.
CiKTo XIV. PUKGATORY. 185 Bloody he issues from that wood that grieyes, He leaves it such, that in a thousand years, ^ Will not grow green again its withered leaves. As at the warning of some future tears, •Troubles the face of him, who listening learns From what side will assault him perilous fears : So did I see that other soul by turns ^^ Listen, grow troubled, and to sorrow yield. As the words' meaning pondered, clearer bums.
The speech of one, the other's woe revealed, Made me desirous both their names to know, And for that boon with praying I appealed. On which the soul who first addressed me, so Began again : " Thou wouldst I should incline To tell thee, what to me thou wouldst not show. But since God willeth that in thee should shine His grace so much, no niggard will I be : '® Guido del Duca, know me then in fine.
My blood from envy was so little free That when I only saw a joyful man, My face all steeped in paleness thou wouldst see. Now from that seed I reap what straw I can. ^ human race, why set thy heart engrossed There, where is need of company or ban ?
This is Einier, the honour, and the boast Of the House of Caldoli, where owned by none, The inheritance of all his worth is lost. ^ And not alone, his blood all bare hath grown 'Twixt Po, the Hills, the Eeno, and the shore, Of wealth required for needs, and joyaunce' boon : Since within all their boundaries, galore Grows the thick crop of poisonous shoots, that ne'er ^ Will husbandry's slow toil root out the store.
Where is good Lizio, and Manardi, where Carpigno, Traversaro ? Ah indeed Is changed to bastard every Eoman heir ! When in Bologne takes root plebeian breed : ^^ When in Faenza, Bernardino too Springs up a gentle growth from lowliest weed- Line 86. This expression is explained in the following Canto. If man were to seek for heavenly good, the fact that it was shfured also by others woald not cause envy, bat gratification. Liue 92.
The boandaries of Romagna, the country of Rinieri. Line 100. At this period, one Lamhertaccio, of the lower orders, arrived at supreme power in Bologna, while Bemardin di Fosoo, also of low origin, rose to the government of Faenza. The other names mentioned are all of noble Italian families.
186 PURGATORY. Cakto XIV. Marvel not, Tuscan, if I weep anew, When with Da Frata to my mind I call Ugolin D'Azzo, who hath lived vdth you : ^^^ Frederic Tignoso, and his comrades all ; Both race alike disherited one sees, The Anastazi and Traversarian hall. The ladies, and the knights, the toils, the ease Which lured us unto love, and courtesy, ^'" There, where all hearts have fallen in knavish ways.
Brettinoro, wherefore dost not fly Since thy own family from thee is gone. And many more to escape from perfidy ? Bagnacaval most rightly gets no son : "* And Castrocar and Como both do ill, Sons to such counts but make the broils go on.
Yet when their Demon has gone out, will still Do the Fagani well, though never more Can spring a sample of old worth and skill. ^^ O Ugolin de' Fantolin, secure Is thy good name, sure of no race behind Degenerate, who can render it obscure. But Tuscan go thy way, I'm now inclined Far more to weep henceforth than parlance share, ^-* So has that speech of yours disturbed my mind.
We knew those charitable souls were 'ware Of our departure, so their silence made Us certain of the road we followed there. When in our solitude once more we strayed, "® Like lightning cleaves the air in forked play. From opposite there smote a voice, which said, " Ah, whosoever findeth me, will slay. And fled like thunder, which in distance growled If suddenly the cloud doth break away. ^"^ Scarce truce from hearing that our senses hold.
And lo ! another, with such shattering tone, Eesembled thunder which behind it rolled : Line 112. Brettinoro was the castle belonging to the speaker, Guido del Dnca. Line 115. Connts of small territories in Romagna. The Pagani were lords of Faenza, one of whom, Mainardo, was suniamed the Demon on account of his treachery. He is named in Canto XXVII. of the " Hell" as rnling the cities of Faenza and Imola, and always changing sides. Line 133. The speech of Cain after God had cursed him for his brother's death. Gen., ch. iv., v. 14.
Canto XV. PURGATORY. 187 *' I am Aglauros, who was turned to stone :" Then closer to the poet's clasp to creep, ^*^ Backwards, not forwards, were my footsteps thrown. Already did the air on all sides sleep : And he spake thus : " That was the stern rebuke Mankind within his measure meant to keep. But ye the bait so swallow, that the hook ^*^ Of the old enemy doth draw ye close ; Hence, curb, or urging ye so little brook.
Calls ye the sky, which circling round ye goes. Showing the eternal beauties of the sphere. While still your eyes intent on earth repose : ^^ Whence smites ye. He, who seeth all things clear.*' Line 139. Aglauros was changed into a rock for preventing, through envy, her sister Herse's intrigue with Mercury. Ovid's Metam.," book ii.
CANTO XV. The poets advancing meet an Angel, who invites them to ascend to the next steep. Mounting the stairs they issue on the third cornice, where the sin of Anger is purged. Dante falling into a waking trance, beholds in vision various famous examples of patience — the Virgin seeking Jesus amongst the doctors in the Temple, Pisistratus calming his indignant wife, and the martyrdom of Stephen. As the evening advances, the poets are enveloped in a thick smoke. As much as 'twixt the third hour of the day And morning's rise, appeareth of the s/here Which ever totters like a child at play ; So much towards the evening, did appear Of the sun's journey through the sky to rest ; * 'Twas evening there, when it was midnight here. Directly on our front the rays molest, For we had so turned round the mountain now That we were walking straight towards the west, When I perceived the splendour smite my brow With glory even more brilliant than before. That I was dazed with what I did not know : On which I lifted up my hands before My eyebrows, making them a shade between. To guard my sight from light's superfluous shower, ^* Line 1. The first six lines are very obscure. The meaning is that it was now three hours before sunset, which Dante makes the commencement of evening.
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188 PURGATORY. Casto XV. As when from water, or a mirror keen, Leapeth the sunray to the opposite side With equal angle darting up its sheen. To which it fell, that diflPerently doth glide To a stone falling from an equal height, ^ As art, and our experience have descried : So did I seem there by reflected light Before me to be smote ; the which to fly Was quite impossible unto my sight.
" Sweet father, what is this, which from my eye ^ I cannot banish, whatsoe'er I do," I said, " and which towards us seems to hie ? " Be not surprised, if dazzles still thy view The family of Heaven," he answered me, " A messenger he comes man's heart to sue, ^ 'Twill not be long, ere such as these to see Will not be painful, but will give thee zest. As perfect as thy nalure can agree. After We'd reached unto that Angel blest.
With joyful voice he told us " Enter in ^ On stairs less steep than what you yet have prest. Starting from there, the ascent we now begin, Beati miaericordes then was sung Behind us, and Eejoice, who thus dost win. The master and myself alone upsprung ^ The stairs, and as we went, I thought to gain Profit, upon his lips sweet teaching hung : To him I turned me then, demanding fain, " What that Italian spirit wished to say.
The while he spake of company and ban." ^ Whence he to me, " The loss he well doth weigh. Caused by his greatest fault, so marvel not He blames it, that it be less wept for aye. Because there ever turns your longing thought There, where through company grows less each share, ^ The bellows blow with Envy's sighings hot. But if the love of the eternal sphere Human desire to heavenly aims could turn, There would not linger in your heart that fear.
For there the more to say our own, we yearn, ^ So much doth each possess increased store, And more of charity doth thither bum. I|^e 38. ** Blessed are the meroifnl/* Matt. v. 7. Line 44. Dante demands an explanation of Goido del Brettinoro's remark at line 86 of the preceding Canto.
Cakto XV. PURGATORY. 189 '* Through being contented, I do hunger more Than if thou first hadst silent been/' I said, " And in my mind I gather doubt galore, ^ How can it be that wealth distributed. Numerous possessors can more richly dower, Than if beyond a few it be not spread ? And he to me : " Because thou still dost lower Thy mind alone upon affairs terrene, ^ With the pure light of truth the shadows scour.
That Infinite, ineffable demesne Which is above, so runneth love to meet As on the polisht substance strikes the sheen. So much it gives, as it doth find of heat : '® So that whatever charity may be The eternal worth above it broodeth sweet. The greater number can that lore agree, The more there are to love, and more is loved. And glasslike each the other mirrors free.
" If by my speech thy hunger be not moved, Thou'lt see thy Beatrice ; clearly plain Will every hope of thine by her be proved. Only make haste the five wounds that remain To clear away, as two have gone from sight, ®® The which are closed through the healing pain. Wishing to say, " Thou dost content me quite :" I saw that we had reached the higher round. So made me silent my expectant sight.
There, on a sudden in ecstatic swound, ^ Appeared to me my spirit to retreat : A group I saw within a temple's bound ; A lady in the entrance with the sweet Action of mother, saying, " Son, ah why Towards us hast thou done this thing unmeet ? ^ Behold with sorrowing hearts thy sire and I Have sought thee :" and as here she silent grew Vanished the scene which first I did descry.
Then there appeared another with the dew Upon her cheeks, which grief distilleth down, •* Through anger at the deeds which others do : And said : " If thou art master of the town, To name the which 'mongst gods the strife was shared, And whence proceedeth every science known, Line 94. This story is told of Pisistratns, tyrant of Athens. Line 98. Minerva and Neptane strove for the honour, which was won by Athene through her gift of the olive.
190 PURGATORY. Cahto XV. Avenge thee of those shameless arms that dared, Pisistratus ! our daughter to embrace. And gently and benignantly appeared Her lord to answer her, with grave, calm face, " What shall we do to those who wish us ill, If we doom one who loves us to disgrace ? Then I saw people with the flaming will Of anger kindled, who a youth did stone, Each crying loudly to the other, kill.
And him I witnessed there by death bent down, Which bowed him towards the earth, yet still with life "° For ever in his eyes, Heaven's glories shine : Beseeching his high Lord, in such a strife That to his persecutors he would yield Pardon, his aspect all with pity rife. What time my spirit came back from that field, ""* Unto the things which in themselves are true, I knew no fiction had my dreams revealed.
My leader, who might me in actions view Like one who rouseth up from slumber deep. Asked me : " What hast thou, that thou totterest so ? ^^ For more than half a league dost thou thus creep. Closing thy eyes, and with thy limbs awry, Li guise of one o'ercome by wine, or sleep*" " my sweet father," did I make reply, ** Hear, and I'll tell thee, what to me was shown, ^^ The whilst my limbs had lost the power to hie.
And he : ''A hundred masks if thou hadst on. Over thy face, from me thou couldst not veil Thy thoughts, how slight soever be their tone. That which thou saw'st, was shown thee, not to fail ^^ Thy heart to open to the streams of peace, Which from the eternal fountain ever well.
I did not ask, what hast P like one who sees With mortal eyes alone, which nought can weet What time the body lies all spiritless, ^^ I asked thee to give strength unto thy feet ; Thus it behoves to stimulate the slow To use their waking vigilance, as meet. 'Twas evening now, and we intent did go, Looking beyond, far as the eye could scan, ^^ Against the westering rays, that shone so low : And lo ! a smoke, little by little 'gan.
To gather towards us like the night pbscure, Nor was it possible escape to plan : So it bereft us of the daylight pure. "'^
CANTO XVI. Dante proceeds througli the smoke, guided by Virgil, and hears the voices of spirits who are purged there from the sin of Anger. He converses with Marco Lombardo, from whom he inquires the reason of the deseneracy of the age.
The spirit points out to him the error of attributing it to necessity, or the starry influences, as man is gifted with free will, and explains it as the consequence of the union of temporal and spiritual powers in the Papal Government.
Dabkness of Hell, and of a night depriven Of every planet 'neath a murky sky O'er which the clouds in hurraing gloom are driven, Ne'er made so thick a veil before my eye, As did that smoke which us enshrouded there, '' Nor to the sense so rough, and harshly dry. To stay unclosed the eyesight could not bear : On which my escort wise, so often tried, Drew near, and offered me his shoulder fair.
So like a blind man goes behind his guide, ^^ Not to forsake the pathway, nor be shent 'Gainst anything where danger may abide, Through that most foul and bitter air I went, Aye listening to my leader, who did say, " Watch only that from me thou be'st not rent/* ^^ And voices then I heard, which seemed to pray For peace, and for compassion, all and each, Unto God's Angel, who lifts sins away.
The Agnus Dei aye began their speech, In all one word, one manner did appear, ^^ To perfect concord they had seemed to reach. " These must be spirits, master, whom I hear ?*' I said ; and he to me : " Thou judgest true.
Loosening the bond of anger, go they here.** " Now, who art thou, our smoke who cleavest through, ^ And yet dost speak of us, as if that thou Still time by calends didst divide anew ?** Thus by a voice was spoken there I trow : On which my master said ; " Do thou reply, And ask if hence the way above doth go." ^ " O creature who dost clear thyself," said I, " To turn again to him, who made thee, fair, Thou'lt hear a marvel if with me wilt hie. Line 27. As if thou wert still living, and computing time.
192 PURGATORY. Cahto XVI. " I'll follow thee as far as I may fare," He answered, " since the smoke doth not permit ^^ To see, we'll keep together by the ear/' Then I began, ** That burden which we quit, Dissolved by death, I bear with me above. And here have come from the infernal pit.
If Gk)d has chosen me with such a love, ' ^ So that he wills that I should see his court In way, from modem use, that far doth rove, Conceal not from me, who ere death thou wert, But say and tell me, if direct I go. Unto the pass, thy words be our escort." *^ " Marco Lombardo was my name below, The world I knew, that worth I well did love, To which now each one has relaxed the bow : To mount above, thou dost straightforward move.
So answered he, and added : " Thee I pray ^ To pray for me, when thou shalt be above. And I to him : " I bind my faith to thee To do the thing thou askest : but I own A doubt within, I cannot clear away. First it was single, now 'tis double grown *^ Through this thy judgment, which now makes me sure Coupled with what was elsewhere to me shown. The world in sooth is altogether poor Of every virtue, as thou now didst say.
And covered heavily with malice' store : ^ But point me out the reason now I pray, Which I may see and unto others show, Since one in Heaven, and one on earth doth lay. A deep sigh laden with the soul of woe He vented first, then, " Brother," he began, ^ " The world is blind, thou comest from below. All ye who live, attribute every plan To skyey influence, as if that all Through stern necessity in first grooves ran.
If thus it were, 'twould be the funeral ™ Of your free will, and justice 'twould not be That joy on good, and grief on ill should &.11. Line 46. A Venetian gentleman, Lombard in name and nation. Line 57- Referring to Gnido del Dnca, who was also a laudator temporia acti. Line 63. Some attribute this degeneracy to mankind, and some to the influence of the stars, which it is impossible to evade.
Canto XVI. PURGATORY. 193 The sky begins your movements, I agree : I say not all : supposing so I said, For good and evil, light is granted ye : " And will all free ; which, if when sore bestead,- It can, in struggle with the sky, endure. Will conquer all things then, well nourishM. To a better nature, and a higher power, Though subject ye are free, and that doth make ^ Your soul, on which the skies no influence shower.
But if the present world doth worth forsake. To thee the true cause will I now declare. In ye the reason lies, ye there must seek. There issues from his hand, who loves it, ere ^ It be, in fashion of a little child. Weeping and laughing with an infant's air The soul all simple, by no lore defiled. Save that as prompted by a Maker kind.
To aught that pleases it, it turns beguiled. ^ Of lower good the taste it first doth find ; There 'tis deceived, and runneth after it. If guide or curb its longing doth not bind. Hence it*behoved the laws to place for bit : Kings it behoved to have, that one might greet ^ At least the turret of a city fit. Laws are there, but who yields observance meet ? No one because the Pastor who's supreme. Can ruminate, but hath not cloven iQQt.
Therefore the people, greedy of the same, ^^ Seeing their guide to worldly 'vantage cleave. Pasture on that, and nothing further claim. Their evil teaching, well may ye believe The reason why the world has grown so vile. And not corrupted nature that you have. ^^*
Line 73. Dante is a firm believer in the inflaence of the stars on human actions and natures, as will be seen fully in Canto YIII. of the "Paradise ;" but he allows that the will is free, and that a man can combat successfully the evil nature implanted in him by the stars. Line 79. To God himself, the Creator of the soul. Line 99. In the Mosaic law, those beasts are clean who chew the cud and have the cloven hoof.
The Pope is an unclean beast, because though he can ruminate and pass ^ood ordinances, he wants the cloven foot — i.e., he does not separate the spintnal &om temporal authority. This ingenious explanation is by Venturi, who at the same time bids the reader remember that Dante was a Ghibeline, and factious to fanaticism !
194 PURGATORY. Canto XVI. Was wont old Rome, which made the world to smile To have two suns, who each of them displayed Various, the earthly, and the Godly style. One has usurped the other, the sword blade Is joined to the crosier, and together grown, ^'® Through open force the ill accord is made : The one fears not the other, when thus one. If thou believest not, think thee of its com ; For by its seed is every herbage known.
Upon the land the Adige and Po adorn "^ Valour and courtesy were wont to appear Ere Frederic there in battle was outbome. Now with security can wander there Whoever wishes to avoid, through shame, Converse with good men, nor to see them near. '-'^ Still are there three old men, through whom doth blame The ancient age, the new, ah ! how they would That God to a better life their souls should claim. Pallazzo*s Conrad, the Gherardo good.
And Guido da Castel, fiur better named '^ The simple Lombard in the FranMsh mode. Say then henceforth, the Church of Eome that claim'ed Two opposite powers within herseK to wed. Falls in the mire, herself, and burden shamed." ** Marco mine, thou arguest well," I said, ^^ " And now I see why from the heritage The sons of Levi were disherited. But who is that Gherardo, who as gauge Thou saidst remained amongst a worn-out race.
As a reproof unto a barbarous age ?" ^^ ** Thy speech deceives me, or thou dost but press, Since speaking Tuscan to me," he replied, " Of good Gherardo thou hast heard no trace. No other surname be to him applied, Unless his daughter, Q^ja's, be allowed, ^^ I cannot further come, God with you bide. Line 107. The Emperor and the Bishop of Borne.
The necessity for a separation of the temporal and spiritual rule is the keynote of Dante's system of politics. Line 117. Frederic II., iiitrodnced amongst the heretics in Canto X. of " HeU :" his defeat before Parma, in 1248, by the Papal forces is here alluded to. Line 126. The French called all Italians Lombards. Line 138. Gherardo da Camino, of Trevizi. Dante alludes to him honourably in his Convito. His daughter Gaja was one of the first Italian poetesses, celebrated more especially for her beauty and modesty.
Canto XVn. PURGATORY. 195 Behold the light that shimmers through the cloud, Already whiten : to appear before The angel there, to me is disallowed :" He spake, and would not hear me any more. "^
CANTO XVII. The poets issue from the smoke, and various scenes of anger are shown to Dante in vision — Philomel, Haman, Amata. He is roused by the appearance of ao Angel, who.directs ikem to mount to the next oomioe. The night closes as tiiey reach the summit of the stairs, and halting there Virgil informs Dante that spiritual sloth is purged in that circle. Eeades, recaU to mind, if e'er did roll A cloud athwart thee, on an Alpine height, Through which thou saw'st no other than a mole : How when the thick and humid yapours white Began to rarefy, within its veil * The sun's sphere dimly pierced its welcome light : And let not thy imagination fail To picture how, while sinking to its rest, Within that smoke, the sun once more I hail. Mine, with my master's trusty footsteps prest, So from that cloud I issued to the ray That only lightened now the mountain's crest : Imagination, that dost steal away At times the outward scene, that man marks nought. Although around a thousand trumpets bray, ^ What moves thee from the senses if not caught P Moves thee that light, by angel will conveyed. Or self-engendered, which in Heaven is wrought. Of her ferocious deed, who from a maid Became the bird that most delights in song, ^° Upon my spirit's sight appeared the shade : And here my mind was centered with such strong Absorption, that on it no trace could lie, Of things that to the outward scene belong. Then showered within to my high fantasy ^ One in his rancorous fui^ crucified, Fierce in his aspect, and as such did die.
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Line 19. Either Philomel or her sister Progne is here alluded to, some poets having translated the latter also into the nightingale, Philomel, to avenge the insult received from her brother-in-law, Tereus, killed his son Itis, and gave some of the flesh to the father as food. Ovid's Metam., book vi. Line 26. The end of Haman : Esther, chap. vii.
196 PURGATORY. Cauto XVII. The great Ahasuerus, and his bride Esther were round, and justest Mordecai, He, both in speech and act so trusty tried. ^ And as this image, yanishing away Broke of itself as bursts a bubble, made Of falling water, when doth cease the spray : There rose upon my vision a young maid Weeping aloud, and saying, " O my queen ^^ . In anger wherefore hast thyself betrayed ?
To save Lavinia, thou thyself hast slain : Now thou hast lost me : mother, these sad eyes More than all other, thy destruction 'plain. As breaketh slumber, when in sudden wise ^^ Upon the closM lids new light is thrown. Which broken, struggles, as it wholly dies : So my imaginations fell adown. Soon as there smote upon my face the light. Far stronger than to mortal usance known. ** Where I might be, I turned to take in sight.
When there exclaimed a voice, " One mounteth here,** Which from all other purpose won me quite : And made my eagerness so great to peer Upon that form, who thus our steps did hail,' ^ That rest it could not till it saw hun near. But as against the sun the sight doth fail. Which veils its figure through excess of light, So was my virtue here of no avail.
" A spirit divine is this, who on the height ** Without a prayer, the passage upwards shows, Himself concealing with his glory bright. He treats us as a man himself would use ; For who so waits for prayer, who need doth see.
Already he malignly doth refuse. ^ To such inviting let our feet agree: To mount ere it grows darker, let us haste ; Later we could not, till returns the day.'* So spake my leader, and together prest Our footsteps, turning to the stairs that spire : ^ Soon as my foot on the first step I placed, I felt the moving of a pinion nigher. And air blown o'er my face, and voices cried, Beati Fadfici, who're free from ire. Line 34.
Lavinia, mourning over the snicide of her mother Amata, who killed herself on the supposed death of Tumus. " ^neid," lib. xii. Line &7- The Angel removes another P from Dante's brow, the sin of wrath having boen purified. Beati Fadfici, Matt. v. 9.
Canto XVII. PURGATORY. 197 Fao- overhead already we descried ^® The last sunrays, on which there follows night, So that the stars appeared on every side. ** virtue mine, why dost thou take thy flight ? Unto myself I asked, as I perceived The vigour of my limbs then fail me quite. We now had mounted, where no more upheaved The staircase upwards, and we there were stayed. Like to a vessel at the port arrived.
A little while intently I surveyed Something to hear upon that circle new. Then to my master turned me, and I said : " Sweet father mine, what sin will meet our view. Purged here upon this circle where we are. Though the feet halt, halt not the converse true. And he to me : ** The love of what is fair ^ When less than it should be, is here restored : The tardy oar the boatman plieth here. But that more clearly this be not ignored.
To me address thy mind, and thou shalt bring From our delay some useful fruitage stored. Neither Creator, nor created thing, Was ever without love, thou know'st, my son , Or natural, or that from choice doth spring. The natural can ne'er to error wonne. But through wrong object can the other err. Or by excess or lack of vigour shown. The while on Heavenly objects it doth steer. Or upon earthly ones doth measure keep.
To evil joy it cannot minister. But when to ill 'tis turned, or with more deep Or lighter will than right, on good is fain. Works 'gainst its Maker, the created shape. Hence thou canst comprehend, that like to grain In you each virtue springeth from love's seed, And every action which doth merit pain. Now since Love's bent was never yet agreed Save to the welfare of its object dear. From its own hatred everything is freed.
And since the intellect we cannot sheer . From the primal efllaence, standing all alone. From hating that, the mental instinct's clear.
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Line 106. It is impossible for any man to hate himself, or God his first cause, therefore a man can rejoice only in the evil which befalls his neighbours.
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198 PURGATORY. Canto XVIII. Bemains, if my distinctions well are shown, That evil loved must be our neighbour's woe ; And in your mire that love has threefold grown. There is, who through his neighbour's ruin, so ^** Hopeth pre-eminence, who hence doth call That he from grandeur may be cast down low. There is, who fears to lose power, grace, and all Honour and fame, because that others rise, Which grieves him so that he desires their fall. There is, who seems so hurt by injuries, That he on vengeance greedily doth brood ; And such a one another's ill must prize. This triform love bewailed, beneath we've viewed : Now of the other thou must comprehend. Which in corrupted fiashion seeketh good. Some good doth each confusedly apprehend. In which to rest his spirit's longing fain. Therefore to reach to it doth each contend. If love is slow to see its real gain. Or to acquire it, yields this circling space, After repentance, purifying pain. All other good mankind can never bless : It is not happiness, not of all good fruit The essence, and the root of heavenly grace. Love that to those too closely taketh root. On three still higher circles is refined ; This we again in triple form will note, Of those I speak not, those thyself must find." Line 115. In thu, and the two following terzinas, are described Pride, Enyy, and Anger, the result of the Love of Evil, and which were pnrged in the three preceding cornices.
CANTO xvin. Virgil, continning his discourse, explains the nature of love, which, though innate in its affections, in man, does not do away with the restraining influences of his free will. At the close of his disquisition, a troop of shadows rush by, compensating by their present ai^our for their former lukewammess in Ufe. Two in the van encourage the rest by reciting examines of zeal : the Abbot of San Zeno declares himself to the poets while racing by, and two bring up the rear, shouting out instances of the sin which they are there purging away. On their departure, Dante fiills into a dreamy slumber. When he had finished his discourse, the high Teacher intently gazed upon my face, To see if I appeared content ; and I
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Cakto XVin. PURGATORY. 199 Whom thirst aye nev exciting still did press, Outwardly silent, said within, " Perchance * My too much questioning will please him less/' But that true father, whose perceptive glance Bead all the timid wish which I concealed, Speaking to me gave courage speech to lance, Whence I : " master, in thy light revealed, ^® My sight is vivified, that I see clear Whatever thy parley can describe or yield.
Therefore I pray thee, O sweet father dear. That thou explain this love, whence springs we find Each action good, or bad, in man's career." ^* " Towards me du-ect the keen light of thy mind," He said, " and be to thee made manifest The error of the blind who lead the blind. The soul created prompt to love's behest, Tumeth to all the things that pleasure yield, ^ Soon as through pleasure unto act addrest.
Your apprehensive power from truth revealed Draweth the purpose, hence within designed. So that towards that the spirit is impelled. And when thus turned towards it 'tis inclined, ^ That inclination's love, that is the new Nature which pleasure in yourselves doth bind. Then as fire ever mounteth upwards true By its own nature, which is bom to aspire Unto the sphere from whence it substance drew ; ^® So the caught spirit enters on desire.
The motion spiritual, which cannot rest, Till it enjoy the well-loved object nigher. How has been hidden, now appears confest. The truth unto the people who aver ^ Love in itself praiseworthy at the least. Because perchance its matter may appear Always a good thing : 'tis not every seal Is good, although the wax be good and clear.
" My judgment following what thy words reveal, *^ Hath made love clear to me," I then replied, '' But that with doubt more pregnant makes me feel. Line 14. It is seen that Dante considers love the groundwork of all the passions, on which principle it would appear, as Gary acutely remarks, that GoUins has not introduced love separately amongst the passions. Line 18.
The error to be exposed is explained afterwards to be that of considering all love in itself praiseworthy. Line 37. Yenturi remarks that throughout this disquisition Dante uses the phraseology of the Peripatetics, where nuxtter denominates the "kind of things as determinable by many differences.
200 PURGATORY. Cakto XVIII. Since from without to us is love applied, And in no other mode the spirit strajeth. Or right, or wrong, all merit is denied." ** And he to me : '^ As &r as reason seeth Can I explain, beyond that, thou must wait On Beatrix alone, 'tis work of faith. The soul, substantial form, which separate From matter, yet with it is linked as one, ^ Doth in itself specific power collate, Which without operation is not known.
Nor shows itself except by its effect.
As by green leaves the life of plants is shown : But from what place there cometib intellect ^ Of primal notions, that man nothing sees, Nor what the primal appetites affect, Which are in you, as the desire in bees To store up honey : and this primal will Doth not deserve itself, or blame, or praise. ^ Unto this end, to which all gathers still, !Reason ye have .innate, whose voice should make Counsel with due assent to guard the sill.
This then we find the source, from whence ye take Eeason of merit in ye, as ye keep ^ Love good or evil, and the husks outshake. Those, who in reasoning pierced unto the deep, Accorded all this innate liberty : Hence left their morals for the world to reap. Whence we assert, that of necessity ^® All love doth rise, which in you lights its flame, To keep it in restraint, the power's in ye.
The noble virtue Beatrix doth name Free Will, remember therefore of the maze This key, if e'er she speak upon this theme. " The moon, which now till midnight near delays, Quenching the starlight with its brilliancies, Bose like a rounded bucket, all ablaze. 'O-ainst the sky's course it moved, through those degrees In which the sun flames, when at Bome its fall ^ Is seen 'twixt Oorsican and Sardic seas.
And he, the gentle shade, through whom we call Pictola more than any Mantuan town. Had borne the burden of my questionings all. Line 68. The moral philosophers of the old world. Line 79.. The moon rose against the course of the Heavens, in the constellation of Scorpion, in which the son is, when by those at Bome it is seen to set between the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. Line 83. Pictola, formerly called Andes, was the birthplace of Virgil.
Canto XVIII. PURGATORY. 201 Whence J, who of the doubtings I had known ** A clear and fall solution had received, Was like a man who stands in sleepy swoune. But from all trace of sleepiness relieved, I was aroused by people from behind.
Who seemed to reach us almost ere perceived. ^^ Such as Ismenus and Asopus find Along their banks, the furious rout at night, What time the Thebans needed Bacchus kind ; So round that circle, urge their whirling flight, Those who towards us coming I descried, ®^ Spurred onwards by good will, and love of right.
Soon they had reached us, for with eager stride, AU that great crowd. stiU forwards racing, strain ; And two in front of them with weeping, cried, " Mary with haste unto the mountain ran ;** ^^ '' And CsBsar, too, Ilerda to subdue. Attacked Marseilles, and hurried into Spain.
" Faster, yet faster, lose not time anew Through lack of love," the others shouted near, " Grace groweth green through zeal good acts to do." ^^^ " O people, in the whom keen fervour here Makes up perchance for negligent delay. And your lukewarmness in a former sphere ; This one who lives (and certes truth I say). Would mount above, when shines again th^ sun, "® So tell us where doth nearest lie the way.
Such were the words my leader said : and one Amongst those spirits told us, " Follow ye Behind us, and the opening will be won. We are so full of the desire to flee "^ That rest we cannot : think it not dishonour Since justice drives, and grant us pardon free. 1 was San Zeno's abbot in Verona, Under good Barbarossa's empire suave.
Of whom Milan still weeps his hand upon her. ^^ And one has now a foot within the grave, Who through that monastery soon will mourn In sadness, that he used it as his slave. Line 91. Rivers near Thebes. Line 100. When she went into the hill conntry to visit Elizabeth. Lnke i. 39. Line 101. CsBsar, in the war with Pompey, left Bmtus to complete the siege of Marseilles, and himself harried into Spain, and defeated tne genends of Pompey at Lerida.
Line 119. The Emperor Frederic I., who reduced Milan to ashes in 1162. Line 121. Alberto della Scala, lord of Verona, who had forced his natnral son, a deformed person, on the monastery as its abbot.
202 PURGATORY. Cakto XIX.
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Because he placed his son, to evil bom, Misshaped in body, and in mind more vile, In place of its true pastor hence uptom." I know not if he spake more or grew still, So far from us ere then his course did speed, But this I heard, and I retained the while. And he, who was my help in every need, ^^ Said, ** Turn thee hither, and behold two more Chiding the sin of sloth, as on they speed." In rear of all they said ; " All those, before Whom the Red Sea its pathway opened, died, Ere their descendants saw the Jordan's shore." ^^ " And those who all the labours could not bide Unto the end, with good Anchises* son. Doomed by themselves, a life inglorious tried." Thereaffcer, when so far from us had run Those shadows, that they vanished from our sight, Within my mind new thought its course begun. Whence many more aU diverse rose in might. And I so raved o'er one and the other theme That there my eyes I closM in delight, And changed my fancy's vision to a dream. ^** Line 136. Those Trojans who remained with A-cestes in Sicily, rather than accompany Eneas in his farther travels and toils, "^neid," book ▼.
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CANTO XIX. Dante beholds in^ vision Falsehood and Yirtne,) personified in two female shapes. He is then led by an Angel to tiie stairs, and ascends to the fifth cornice. There he finds the shades prostrate on the ground, purging the sin of Avarice, and amongst tiiem he converses with Pope Adnan V.
Now in the hour, when the diurnal heat Can warm no more the coldness of the night, Conquered by chill of earth, or Saturn's seat : What time there rises on the Geomants' sight The Greater Fortune, where before the mom, • * The eastern sky is shortly flecked with white : Line 1. The hour before morning. Line 5. The Greater Fortune was a figure drawn by Geomanti for their divioation, after a constellation visible in the eastern sky before the dawn.
Canto XIX. PURGATORY. 203 A tongue-tied woman on my dream was borne, With squinting eyes, distorted on her feet. With maimM hands, and pale in hue forlorn. I gazed on her ; and as the sun's bright heat ^^ The frigid limbs, the night hath numbed, doth warm. So, 'neath my gaze, her tongue won parlance sweet.
And straightened afterwards her crippled form In briefest time, and on her fJEided face, Eevived the roseate hue which love doth charm. ^* Then when her tongue was granted such release, To warble she began, that scarce with pain I could haye torn me from its witching grace.
" I am the Syren sweet," began her strain, " Who in mid sea can sailor's course prevent, ^ To hear me all possess such longing fain : Ulysses from his wandering voyage I bent Unto my song, whoe'er with me reposed Earely departed, so I yield content. Not yet her mouth of witchery was closed, ^ When there appeared a holy lady near My side, who came to render her confused. " Virgil, Virgil, who is this one here ?
Proudly she spake to him, while her he hailed, With eyes fixed ever on her aspect clear ; ^ She seized the other, and in front unveiled, Tearing her garments, and her belly showed. Which woke me with the stench that hence exhaled. I turned my eyes, and spake my Virgil good, " Three times at least I have called thee ; up, away, ** For thee to enter, let us seek the road.
Upwards I rose, already with the day The circles of the holy mountain glow, And with the sun behind, we went our way. Following upon his steps, I bore my brow ^ Like one who has a weight of thought severe, And in a bridge's arch his frame doth bow ; When I thus heard : " Come on, one passeth here," Spoken in mode so tender and benign.
As ne'er is heard upon this mortal sphere. ** With open pinions, like a swan's that shine, Directed us above, the one who spake. Betwixt the granite walls that there incline. Line 7. An allegory of false human happiness.
Moving his plumes, a wafture did he make, " Qui higerdy^ then affirmed he, '• are the blest, Who to their master souls can comfort take. " What hast thou, that thy eyes on earth still rest ? Thus to address me straight began my guide, When from the Angel we had upwards prest. ** With such suspicion makes me go,'* I cried, ** The novel vision which my thoughts enfold. So that from it they cannot more divide.
" That ancient witch," he said, " didst thou behold. Which only o'er us now each spirit wails ? Didst thou behold how man bursts from her hold ? ^ Enough, the earth now spurning with thy heels, Direct thy eyes towards the Heavenly lure, The eternal kingdom, with its whirling wheels.
Like to a falcon, who his feet makes sure, Then turneth to the cry, and upwards heaves In longing for the prey that flies before : Thus did I do, and thus as far as cleaves The rock, in passage for those upwards boune, I clomb to where the level circle leaves. As on the fifth ledge I my entrance won, The people who were waiting there I see a- Lying on earth, with faces aye turned down.
" Adhcesit pavimerdo anima mea," I heard them saying with such deep-drawn sighs, That of the words one scarce could catch the idea. ^^ " O ye elect of God, whose miseries Justice and hope alike reduce in sum. Direct us towards the stairs, by which to rise. " Secure from lying down, if here ye come, And seek the shortest way, the outer side ^ Keep ever to the right hand as ye roam. So spake the poet, and was so replied.
Some way in front of us, whence from the speech I saw one-half my mystery yet was hid. And to my master's eyes my eyes I reach ; ^ When he assented with a joyful sign To what my look of longing did beseech. Line 50. " Blessed are they that moura, for they shall be comforted. Matt. v. 4. Line 59. In the three higher circles are pnrged the sins of those who lusted after varions forms of mere earthly good. Line 73. " My soul oleaveth to the dust.
Ps. cxix. 25. Line 84. The shade was aware that Dante had arrived there imdoomed to that particular penance, but knew not that he was alive.
Canto XIX. PURGATOKY. 205 Then with permission given for my design, Over the creature there I bent me down, Whose words that knowledge made me first divine : ^^ Saying, " O soal, in whom tears ripen soon, That, without which to God thou canst not turn, Cease for a while the chief care thou dost own. The who thou wert, and why all hold your stem Turned upwards, say if thou desirest greatly °* That I, who live, for thee earth's prayers should earn.
And he ; " Why Heaven our hinder parts thus meetly Reverseth towards itself, thou'lt know, but now Sdas quod ego fui sv^cessor Petri, 'Twixt Siestri and Chiaveri down doth flow ^^^ Bushing a river fair, and to its name Our race the title of its lineage owe.
How weigheth the great garb, kept free from shame, A month and little longer did I know : All other loads are feathers by the same. ^^ Ah woe ! my soul's conversion was but slow : But since tlie Roman Pastor I was made, .Thence I discovered life's false-seeming show. I saw that there the heart no rest essayed, Nor in that life could climb to loftier seat ; '^® Therefore on this new-kindled love I laid.
Until that time, wretched and separate From God, my greedy soul to all things clave ; Now I am punished here, as thou dost weet. The stain, produced by avarice, here we lave ^^^ In the purgation of converted spirits ; This mountain knows no bitterness so grave.
As erst, in life, the soul did never steer its Eyes to the height, engroseed on things terrene So Justice here prostrates it, as it merits. ^^-^ As erst, through avarice, our love has been Extinguisht to all good, hence failed its spell, So justice holds it here in bondage keen. Tied by the hands and feet thus close and well ; And long as it shall please just God to wreak, '^s So long we'll stay, stretcht out immovable.
I had knelt down, and was about to speak. But ere I had commenced, to him was known, Only by listening, my reverence meek. Line 100. The speaker is Ottobuono, of the family of the Fieschi, Counts of Lavagno. The river Lavagno runs through the Genoese territory. Ottobuono was elected under the name of Adrian V. in 1276, and died one month and nine days after his election.
206 PURGATORY. Cakto XX. " Wliat cause," said he, " hatli bent thee thus adown?" ^ And I to him : " Your sacred dignity, My honest conscience smote me, thus to own. " Straighten thy limbs, and rise O brother free, Err not, a fellow servant," he replied, " Am I to one, with others, and with thee. ^^ If e'er the Gospel's holy text applied, Which sayeth Neque nvbent, thou hast knoWn, Why I thus speak, will clearly be descried.
Thy longer stay I wish not, go thee on ; Thy presence to my weeping gives respite, ^^ With which I ripen that which thou hast shown. I have a niece on earth, Alagia hight, Good in herself, since her hath lured in vain Our house, by bad example, from the right. On earth she only doth to me remain." ^** Line 137.
Since, as Matthew says, we neither marry nor are given in marriage, I am no longer the sponse of the Ghnrch, nor entitled to more reverence than any other servant of God. Line 142. Alagia, wife of the Marchese Malespina, one of Dante's protectors in his exile.
CANTO XX. Continning their jonmey rotmd the cornice, Dante hears a spirit relate illnstrions examples of Poverty and Liberality. He tells him that he is Hagh Capet, and mourns over the career of his descendants. He concludes by relating notorious examples of Avarice. As the poets continue their way the mountain trembles as with an earthquake, and all the spirits sing "Gloria in excelsis.*' The will can strive not against stronger will ; Therefore to please him, in my own despite From the wave I drew the sponge I might not filL I and my leader moved along the site Beside the rock encumbered, as one goes * Close to the battlements on a narrow height. Because the people, from whose eyes there flows In drops the evil which the wHd has nursed. On the outer edge of the circle lay in rows. "O ancient she- wolf, be thou aye accurst, Who more than all the other beasts hast prey. Through thy unquenchable and endless thirst.
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Line 10. Avarice. See Canto I. of the "Inferno:" the advent of Can Grande della Scala is supposed to be again alluded to in Line 15.
Canto XX. PURGATORY. 207 O skies, since we have credence in thy sway, To change the aspect of the world below, When will He come, who'll chase this beast away ? " We wended on with niggard steps and slow. And I, the shadows watching, heard them plain, Piteously weeping, there lament their woe. " Sweet Mary ! I at hazard heard the strain Cried out in front of us as if with moan *® Forced from a woman in a labour pain.
" Thou wast as poor," it then continued on, ** As ever could be seen, when in these mews Thou wast delivered of thy holy son. good Fabricius, thou didst wisely choose, ^'^ Preferring virtue even with poverty, Than, vice accompanied, great wealth to use. These words such satisfaction gave to me.
That I drew onwards, with that spirit sooth To hold relationship, and parlance free. ^ It spake again of the boon, with liberal ruth Which to the maidens Nicholas had made. In the path of honour to preserve their youth. " O spirit, who so very well hast said, Tell who thou wert," I askt, " and why alone ^ Those worthy praises are by thee conveyed. Not thankless mil the word to thee be known.
If I return, the short paths to complete Of life, which to its goal still flieth on. And he : " 1*11 tell thee, not for comfort sweet *® I look for earthwards, but since grace doth grant, Ere thou art dead, to thee such i^vour great, 1 was the root of that most evil plant, Whose shade o'er all the Christian land so huge is.
That hence good fruit one can but gather scant. ** But if the towns of Douai, Ghent, Lisle, Bruges, Possessed the power, such vengeance soon would light. Which at his hands I seek, who all things judges. Upon the earth Hugh Capet was I hight ; From me the Louis and Philippes go down ^ Who recently have ruled o*er France's might. Line 30.
The legend of St. Nicholas relates that he dowered three virffins, whose chastity, he learned through an angel, their father was about to sell. Line 43. The speaker is Hugh Capet, and as acutely conjectured by Archdeacon Fisher, ia the notes to Gary's " Dante," the e^ plant is probably not the French monarchy, but Philippe le Bel, who is a peculiar object of the poet's dislike. Fide, inter alia, "Purgatory," Canto Vll.
The vengeance looked for from the Flemish towns that Philippe le Bel ravaged during bid war in the Low Countries was gained in the battle of Courtrai.
208 PURGATORY. Cakto XX. I of a Paris butcher was the son. What time the line of ancient monarchs ended. All except one, who the grey garb did don.
Into my hands the government descended " Firm in my gripe, with all the power that springs From new-gained wealth, by troops of friends attended, Which to the widowed crown promoted brings The forehead of my son, who from that hour Begins this line of consecrated kings. ^ Ere was acquired the great Proven9al dower Which from my race took honest shame away, It did but little ill through lack of power.
There it began with force and fraudful sway Its rapine, seized thereafter in amends, ^ Ponthieu, and Normandy, and G^ascony ; Charles came to Italy, and in amends. His victim Conradino there did slay. And then to Heaven sent Thomas in amends. I see the time not distant from to-day ^" Which draws another Charles from out of France, Himself and his the better to display.
Unarmed he goes, or only with the lance That Judas jousted with, and thrusts the same So that to Florence he doth burst the paunch. ^* No kingdom there, but only sin and shame Will be his gain, to him more grievous far As such a loss so lightly doth he deem. Line 52. Probably aUuding to his father's sanguinary temper, not^his trade. Line 54. The last of the Merovingian kings, Ghilderio III., became a monk.
Yentnri conjectnres that Dante confounded this fact with the close of the Carlovingian line, to which Capet succeeded. Line 61. The great Provencal dower, according to Archdeacon Fisher's explanation, is the kingdom of Navarre and Duchy of Champagne, acquired by marriage by Philip le Bel. Line 66. I have not ventured to follow Cary's bold alteration of the text, who reads for Ponthieu and Normandy Poitou and Navarre.
Under any explanation of the passage, however, the acquisition of Normandy was long anterior to that of Provence, and there must be an error in the text. Line 67. Charles of Anjou, who having taken Conradino prisoner, out off his head publicly in 1268, and became King of Naples. Saint Thomas of Aquinas was rumoured to have been poisoned by one of Charles's physicians wlule proceeding to the Council at Lyons.
Line 71- Charles of Yalois, brother of Philip le Bel. Called in by Pope Boniface, and sent to settle the troubles in Florence, he intrigued with the party of the Neri, and, bribed by them, drove out the Bianchi faction, amongst whom Dante himself was driven from the city.
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Caoto XX. PURGATORY. 209 The other Charles, but now a prisoner, His daughter sells, and makes the bargain sure, ^ As corsairs do with other slaves of war. Avarice, how canst thou bind us more. Since to thyself thou thus hast drawn my race On its own flesh to place such little store ? All evil past and future to efface, Into Alagna bursts the fleur-de-lis. And in his vicar, Christ doth there disgrace. Again I see him shamed with mockery : I see renewed the vinegar and gall, Him slain 'twixt living thieves once more I see. 1 see the cruel Pilate, with it all Unsatisfied, bear on with lawless heat His greedy sails into the temple hall. O Lord, how long ere I can joy complete In seeing vengeance which Thou now dost hide, Thy anger o*er its secret brooding sweet ? That which I spake of the one only bride Of the Holy Spirit, and which drew thee near In order that some gloss might be supplied. Thus, amongst all of us is framed the prayer As long as day lasts, but when night draws on A strain all contrary in turns we bear. Then speaks our burden of Pygmalion, Who traitor, robber, and a parricide Through his all-craving lust of gold had grown. And greedy Midas' misery beside. Which followed on his gluttonous demand, And which 'tis fit all after time deride. Then each recalleth foolish Achan's end. And how he stole the spoils, so that the ire Of Joshua seemeth here once more to rend.
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Lme 79. Charles II., King of Naples, eldest son of Charles of Ai^oa. He was taken prisoner in a naval action with the forces of Aragon, and after his release he married his daughter to a Marqnis of Ferrara, ia consideration of a heavy payment. Line 86. Bishop Boniface YIII. was seized at Alagna by command of Philip le Bel, and kept as a prisoner in his palace for throe days. The indignity so worked on his proud heart that he died three days afterwards. Line 91. Alluding probably to the destruction of the Order of Templars in 1310. Line 97* The spirit at last answers Dante's question as to why he alone recited Uie worthy praises of libeiaJ deeds, saying that such was not the case. Line 103. Son of a king of Tyre, who killed Sioheus, Dido's husband, ^n., book i., 1. 360. Line 109. Stoned by order of Joshua for concealing the spoils. Joshua, ch. vii. P
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210 PURGATORY. Cahto XX. Then with her husband, we accuse Sapphire : We praise the kicks bestowed on Heliodorus : And with the shame rings all the mountain's spire Of Polinestor, who slew PoUdorus. "* Tell us the taste of gold, for thou dost know, Crassus ! lastly do we shout in chorus. So do we speak, one high the other low.
As inclination spurreth us to say Now in more swift, and now in time more slow. ^^ But of the good, of which we speak by day, 1 spake not now alone, but near me then No other voice was raised with equal sway. From him we now had parted, and again We strove along the encumbered path to crawl.
As much as to our power was granted ; when I felt as something tottering to its fall, The mountain tremble ; like one deathwards driven, The sudden frore my senses did appal. Certes, so strongly was not Delos riven ^^ Before Latona there her nest did hide, There to bring forth the twin-bom eyes of Heaven.
Then there began a cry on every side, Such that mv master closer to me drew, Saying, " Doubt nothing while beside thy guide." ^^ Gloria in exceUis Beo, cried the crew As I made out from those the nearest placed, From whence the meaning of the cry I knew. Immovable and doubtful did we rest. Like to the shepherds who first heard that strain, Till it was finisht, and the trembling ceased. Then we resumed our holy path again.
Watching the shadows who on earth still lay While in their wonted mourning they complain. No ignorance ere felt so great a fray Created in me, with desire to know. If on that point my memory doth not stray. As then meseemM in my thoughts to flow ; Nor through our haste to question did I dare. Nor by myself could I perceive the how, ^^ Timid and thoughtful, so I travelled there.* Line 113. Sent by Selencns against Jerusalem to spoil the temple.
On his crossing its threshold " there appeared nnto them a horse, with a terrible rider upon him, and adorned with a very fair covering, and he ran fiercely, and smote at Heliodoms with his forefeet. 2 Maccabees iii. 25. Line 115. King of Thrace, who to obtain his treasure slew the son whom Priam had entrusted to his care. Virgil, ^n., book iii. Line 132. The twin eyes of Heaven are ApoUo and Diana, the son and moon,twin children of Latona.
CANTO XXI. Prooeeding on their way, the poets ore joined by the shadow of Statins, who explains to them that the earthquake on the mountain takes place whenever a spirit in Pursatory is released Heavenwards, when all the S]pirits unite m praising God. He tells the poets who he is, and describes ms enthusiasm for Yii^, whom he then learns to his delight to be one of his companions. That natural thirst which none can satisfy.
Except the water, for the which of old The woman of Samaria made her cry, Within me travailed, haste my steps controlled Behind my guide o'er the strewed path to steer, * The while that justest yengeance I controlled. And lo, as Luke doth write, that did appear Christ unto two, upon their way, and joined Already risen from the sepulchre. So did a shadow join us from behind, Regarding at his feet the prostrate press.
Nor were we 'ware, till his saluting kind Addressed us, " Brothers mine, God give ye peace. Sudden we turned, and Virgil him addressed With salutation fitted to his grace, And then began, " Within the conclave blest. Place thee in peace the righteous majesty. Though endless exile be to me its 'hest. " How?" did he say. " Then wherefore do ye hie. If ye be shades, unworthy God's high spheres ? And who has led ye on lus steps so high ?
My teacher : " If thou seest the signs he bears, Which on his brow the Angel did indite, Clearly thou'lt know him of the kingdom's heirs. But since the one who spinneth day and night, Has from her spindle not yet drawn the line. Which Clotho unto each allotteth right ; His spirit, sister unto thine and mine, Thus soaring upwards, could not venture sole.
Since in our fashion it cannot divine. ^ Whence I was drawn from out the ample hole Of Hell to lead him, and so far will show A(3 can conduct the virtue of my school. Line 25. Lachesis, one of the Fates.
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212 PURGATORY. Cakto XXI. But tell us why such shocks, if thou dost know, The mountain gave just now, and why did cry • ^ They all together to the waves below ?" So askt he, fitting in the needle's eye Of my desire, that only with the hope Of satisfaction grew my thirst less dry. Began he : " Nothing here beyond the cope Of order feels this mountain's piety. And nothing haps beyond the accustomed scope. From every alteration here 'tis free : From what Heaven to and from itself doth owe, And from no other influence may it be, Because nor either rain, nor hail, nor snow. Nor dew, nor hoar frost e'er can fall adown Above that stair of three low steps I trow. Dense clouds, or lighter never here can wonne. Nor lightning, nor Thaumantia's daughter bright. ^ Which ever on the earth still shifteth on. Dry vapour cannot rise beyond the height Of the three entrance stairs of which I spake. Where plants his feet Saint Peter's vicar bright. Lower perchance, it more or less can shake : But e'er by wind, within the earth concealed. How I know not, above it cannot quake. With us it trembles, when some spirit healed . Is felt to rise, in act to soar above. With helpful greeting there such cry is pealed. Purification, will alone doth prove. For wholly free to change its company, The soul it seizeth, and assists with love. The will was ever there, but 'twas not free, For justice all divine, against desire. Proportioned to the sin the penalty. And I, who've lain within that sorro\^ul fire Five hundred years, and more, but now perceived The will released to a better home to aspire. Therefore thou felt'st the mountain all upheaved,' And the pious spirits render praise to God, May He soon raise them from their pain relieved.
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Line 45. Yentnri considers this to be light. I consider it may mean simply a pore heavenly influence, distinct from every elemental cause.
Line 50. Iris, the rainbow. Line 61.
The only restraining power to keep the soul in Purgatory is the will, which will not wish to depart until the penalty has been fully satisfactory to the sin.
Canto XXI. PURQATORr. 213 Thus spake he, and as bliss the greater flowed From drinking, as the previous thirst was great, I cannot tell the joy which he bestowed.
'* Then my wise leader : " Now I see the net Which holds ye here, and how from henc« ye go, Wherefore it shakes, and ye rejoice thereat : Now who thou wert, be pleasid that I know, And why so many ages thou wert laid ^^ Here, with an answer bind me to thee now.'* " In the time when worthy Titus, with the aid Of the highest King, avenged the holy wounds, Whence flowed the blood by Judas' lip betrayed ; The name that longest lasts, and most redounds, ^ Did I possess on earth," replied that spirit, " Though not yet now within the true Faith's bounds.
Such sweetness did my vocal soul inherit That from Toulouse did Bome my presence claim. And deemed my brow the myrtle wreath to merit. '• Statins on earth still me the people name : I sang of Thebes, and then Achilles great, Although I fell beneath that second theme. The sparks were seeds to my poetic heat. Which warmed me ever from that flame divine, •* More than a thousand have been lit thereat. I speak of the Eneid, mother mine.
And nurse it was in poetry sublime ; Without it I had never writ a line. And only to have lived on earth what time ^*" Virgil was living, I would stay a year In this stern banishment, beyond my time. Virgil turned towards me when that smote his ear With look that in its silence, silence said ; But all it wishes, will cannot forbear : ^^ For smiles and tears to diverse passion wed. Upon that passion follow so instinct.
In open natures, will is quite outsped. I smiled then, as a man who takes a hint t On which the shade in silence watcht my eyes, ^^° Where the inward thought is shown the most distinct. " Ah to success conduct thy great emprise ! He said, " But tell me why thy face has shown Just now that rapid smile, like lightning rise ?
Line 89^ Dante falls into the error of confoandinsf the poet Statins with a Rhetorician of that name who was a native of Tonloase. The poet was a Napolitain. Line 98. Statins died when he had only commenced the " Achilleid.*'
214 PURGATORY. Cahto XXH. Now am I straitened on each side : the one ^ Commands my silence, and the one conjures That I should speak : I sigh, and I am known. "Speak," with a word my master reassures, " Fear not to speak out, and to tell him all Which his request so eagerly procures." ^^ Whence I ; " Perchance on thee did marvel fall, ancient spirit, when that smile did rise : 1 will, that more of wonder thee befall.
This one, who guides on high my mortal eyes. Is Virgil, from the whom thou leam'dst of old ^^* To sing so high of men and deities. If other reason for my smile didst hold. Leave it as. £Eblse, and this the true cause weet, The words which thou concerning him hast told. Already he bent down to embrace the feet ^ Of my dear teacher : but he said, " Forbear, brother ; thou a shade, a shade dost greet.
And he arising : " Now thou art aware Of the great love, which towards thee me doth warm, When I forget we are but empty air, ^^ Treating a shadow like a solid form."
CANTO XXII. The poets ascend to the sixth circle, in which the sin of Gluttony is pnrged. As they monnt the stairs, Statins informs Virgil that he nad been a prodigal in his life, which sin, and not avarice, he had cleansed in the preceding circle. As they advance ronnd the sixth cornice, they find a tree covered with odorous fruits, from which issues a voice, recording brilliant examples of Temperance. Already was the Angel left behind To the sixth circle who had shown our way, And from my brow another sin refined : And those, whose hope alone in justice lay. Had cried Beati, as we left their site, * And Sitio, and therewith they closed their lay. And I, than in the other straits, more light, Without a trace of labour went above. Following those rapid spirits* upward flight : When Virgil Statius thus addressed : ** The love By virtue kindled, be there apprehended Its outward flame, like passion aye will move. Line 4u " Beati qui esuriunt, et sitiunt justitiam." Matthew v. 6.
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Cawto XXII. PURGATORY. 215 Whence from the hour that Juvenal descended Amongst us into Limbo, Hell's first court, And thy affection unto me extended, " Towards thee my good will was of such a sort, As ne'er before to one unseen did tend, - So that thy presence makes this staircase short.
Now say, and as a friend thy pardon lend, If too great freedom loosens now my rein, ^ And henceforth parley with me as a friend : How wert thou able in thy breast to gain A place for ayarice, 'mid so great a mine Of intellect, thy zeal had stored amain P" These words of Virgil, Statins did incline ^ Somewhat to laughter first, then he replied : ^* All thou hast said, of love is dearest sign.
Oftentimes truly things appear outside Wrongly creating cause for doubt to be. Since something from us the true causes hide. ^ Thy question shows that thou believest me Sunk in the other life, in the vice of greed. Haply through reason of the place I flee.
Too far from avarice^ thou must now aread, That I was severed, and to that excess ^ Thousands of moons have been awarded meed, And were it not that when I read that place, My zeal was quickened, in the which thou'st told. As 'twere in anger with the human race.
To what lengths, O thou cursed thirst of gold, ** Dost thou not rule the mortal appetite P Whirling in Hell, the wretched weights I'd rolled Then I perceived that with too wild a flight The hands can scatter wealth, and I repented Of that, as of all other evil plight. ** How many with shorn hair will rise demented. Who from repenting, even at the last. Their ignorance that this was crime, prevented !
And know, that whatsoever sin is placed Directly opposite to some other sin. Doth, with it here, its green luxuriance waste. If 'mongst the people therefore I have been Who wail their avarice, my soul to clear. Through the opposite vice that sentence did I win. Line 40. " Quid non mortalia peotora oogis Aon sacra fames P" ^n., lib. iii., v. 67. Lines 42 and 46. See Canto YII. of the " Inferno."
" Now when thou sang'st the cruel strife of fear Waged by Jocasta's twin-bom sons of woe," The poet of the rural song spake here, ** Bj that which Clio in thy stream doth show, It seemeth not that thee, faith yet had won. Without which good deeds are but dross below. If it be thus, what candles or what sun Lightened thy darkness so, that thou didst steer Thy sails direct behind the Fisherman ?
And he to him : " Thou first my course didst veer To quaff the water on Parnassus' height, And Godwards thou my darkness first didst clear. Thou wert in sooth like one who goes by night Burning a light behind, for him in yain, Yet guideth all who follow him aright : There, where thou saidst, the age is bom again. Justice retumeth, and the primal day, And from the heavens descends a novel strain. Poet was I, and Christian, both through thee.
And this I somewhat will explain in brief, That what I've drawn, thou mayst the clearer see. Already was the world all pregnant rife With the true Faith, which had been sown abroad By the new heralds of Eternal Life : And what thy verse, quoted above, foreshowed, With the new Pteacher's truths agreed so near. That I was drawn to seek their haunts : so good And holy then to me did they appear, That when Domitian's tyranny began.
Their woes were not without my tribute tear : And whilst on earth my allotted course I ran, Their influence, and their customs pure from blame. Made me despise all other sects in man. And ere my verse the Greeks had led to the stream Of Thebes, I had obtained baptismal rite, A secret Christian I through fear became. For long conforming to each Pagan rite : In the fourth circle, this my lukewarm crime More than four centuries prolonged my flight.
Line 66. Eteodes and Folinices, the heroes of the ** Thebaid. See note to Canto XXVI. of the " Inferno. Line 70. " Jam redit et Virgo, redeont Satnmia regna, Jam nova progenies ooelo demittitur alto. Eccl. iv. 6.
Thou then, who liftedst in my early prime The veil, which all of good from me concealed, Whilst we have still such distance left to climb, Say, where is now our Terence famed of eld, Cecilius, Plautus, Yarro, shouldst thou ^ow If they are damned, say in what circle held.
" These, Perseus, and myself, and others too," ^^ Answered my leader, " with that Greek sojourn Whom, more than all, the Muses nursed below, In the first circle of the prison lorn. We often parley of that mountain lone, On which our nurses ever make their bourne. ^^ Euripides is ours, Anacreon, Simonides, and Agathon, and more Greeks, on whose foreheads twines the laurel crown.
There of thy people are beheld galore, Antigone, Deiphile, Argia, "*^ And sad Ismene, as she was of yore. She there is seen who pointed out Langia : There is Tiresias' daughter, Thetis too. And with her sisters, there Deidamia. Each of the poets now to silence grew, ' ^^ Once more intent around the hill to gaze.
Since we had sallied from the stairs anew : The first four handmaids of the day gave place, And at the Pole the fifth was standing now, Directing upwards still the ardent blaze, ^** When spake my leader : " Still the brink I trow In wandering we must keep upon our right. Circling the mount as we were wont to do. So custom was our guide around the height ; And with less doubt the path we followed on, ^^ From the consent of that most worthy sprite.
They went before me, and I all alone Behind them, listened to their parlance meet. Which taught my intellect the poet's tone. Line 110. The (diaraoters introduced in Statins' poems. Line 112. Hypsipyle, who pointed out the river Langia to the fainting army of Adrastus. The story is again aJladed to in Canto XXYI. Line 113.
Tiresias' daughter, Manto, ahready introduced in the eighth circle of Hell as a sorceress, a solitary piece of forgetfulness on Dante's part, though he may have fancied that Tiresias had another daughter, named Daphne, who it appears was identical with Manto herself. Line 119. It was now the fifth hour. Dante has already called the hours the handmaids of the sun in Canto XII. of the " Purgatory."
218 PURGATORY. Cahto XXIII.
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But to their axguments a pause they set, Finding a tree in the centre of the way With apples in their odour fair and sweet. And as a fir-tree tapereth away Upwards from branch to branch, this tapered down That none should upwards there a passage fray. Beside our pathway from the lofty stone That hemmed us in there fell a liquor clear, That scattered o'er the leaves its sparkling crown. The poets twain unto the tree drew near : And from amongst the leaves a voice did cry, " To touch the food within your reach beware." Then said, ** Maria thought far more to try And make the wedding honoured and complete. Than of herself, who prays for you on high, The ancient Boman ladies, as 'twas meet, Drank only water, and all learning's grade Daniel acquired, and spumed the royal meat. As fair as gold the first age was arrayed :. Hunger made savoury the acorns rude. And thirst a nectar every rivulet made. Honey and locusts were the simple food On which the Baptist in the desert lived ; From whence to him such glory has ensued. As through the Gospel has to you arrived." Line 142. Mary's BX)eech at the wedding feast in Cana has already heen quoted as an example of charity. Line 146. Daniel, ch. i., w. 11, 12, 16, 17.
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CANTO XXIII. As the poeta advance ronnd the cornice, they are overtaken by a troop of Bjpirits utterly emaciated in appearance. Amongst them Dante recognises an old friend, Forese, by his voice. The spirit tells him that ms rapid advance through Purgatory is due to the prayers of his virtuous wife, and from her he takes occasion to inveigh against the general shamelessness of the women of Florence.
The whilst my eyes upon that verdant leaf I so had fixed, as they are wont to stare, Who watching little birds waste life so brief, My more than father said, " son forbear. Onwards henceforth, the time to us imposed, * Unto more useful purpose we must share."
Cahto xxm. PURGATORY. 219 I turned my f&ee, and with swift footstep closed On my wise comrades, on whose parlance hung My journey now no trace of toil imposed : When lo was heard a weeping and a song, ^* Labia mea Domine, so clear That from it both delight and sorrow sprung. " my sweet father, what is this I hear ?
Thus I began : and he, " The shades who go Haply the debt of duty paying here." ^^ In such a guise as thoughtfril pilgrims do, Meeting with unknown people on their route, Who turn towards them, nor their speed forego, So following on our backs with swifter foot Coming and passing by on us there gazed ^^ The crowd of spirits silent and devout. The eyes of each were hollowed deep and glazed, Pale in the face, and worn so utterly.
That through the skin the bones were clearly traced. I do not think, to such extremity ^ Was withered and reduced Erisiton, Through hunger when it reached its agony. Thinking, I said in self-communion, " The people lo ! who lost Jerusalem When Mary with her beak preyed on her son." ^ Their eyes appeared like rings without the gem Who in the face of men reads O, M, O, Would very clearly there have seen the M.
Who could believe an apple's scent could so Work upon spirits, and create desire, ** Or that of water, knowing not the how ? What thus could famish them, my thoughts inquire, The reason not yet manifest, which bred Their leanness and their rind than fish-scales drier : When lo from the deep cavern of his head *® A shadow turned his eyes on me to gaze, " What grace is given me ?" then he loudly said. Line 11. O Lord, open thou my lips. Fs. li. 15.
Line 26. Erisicthon, having cnt down an oak conaeorated to Geres, was doomed by the goddess to saffer an unappeasable hunger, which compelled him, after he had consumed all his substance, to eat his own frame and die. Ovid, 8 Metamorp. Kallimaohos. Hymn to Demeter. Line 30. Josephus relates the story of the woman who ate her own son, during Uie celebrated siege of Jerusalem by Titus. Line 32.
The conceit is that Omo, a man, is written in his face ; the temples and the sides of the face, with the nose, making the M, the eyes being the O's. Owing to emaciation the letter M, formed by the bones of the nice, was clearly visible in these shadows.
280 PURGATORY. Cakto XXHI. I never should have known him by his face, But in his voice there was laid bare to me, Of what his aspect had lost every trace. That spark sufficed to kindle memory Of his changed countenance, within my mind, My friend Foresees face once more I see. " Ah, do not doubt thee, for this withered rind. The skin thus all discoloured,'' did he pray, " Nor for the want of flesh which thoil dost find.
But of thyself speak truth ; and who are they The pair of spirits who thy footsteps guide : Unless thou speak to me, thou must not stay." ** Thy face, which at thy death I wept beside. Now makes me weep again with no less grief. Seeing it so distorted," I replied. ** But say, for God's sake, what thus strips your leaf : Make me not speak, while rapt in wonder keen , For ill he speaks who on aught else is Uef.
And he to me : " From the eternal reign Falls virtue on the water and the plant Behind us, through the which I grow so lean. And all this people, who with wailing chaunt, From being sunk in boundless gluttony, With thirst and himger here that wealmess daunt. To drink and eat inflames this yearning high. The odour of the apple and the spray. Which showereth down upon the greenery.
Nor even one revolution of this way Completing, grows our penalty less rude, I say our pain, solace I ought to say. The tree we seek with the same 'will embued, Which made Christ gladly upon Eli pray. What time He freed us wholly with His blood. And I to him : *' Forese, from the day In which thou left'st the world for a better dower, Till now five years have not yet past away.
If there was finished first in thee the power To sin, ere Q-od's love to acquire again, Of happy grief there came to thee the hour, How to this height didst thou so soon attain ? I thought I should have found thee far below. Where for their time life lost the spirits remain. Line 48. Forese, apparently known only as the brother of Piccarda, introdnced in the opening sphere of Paradise, Canto III. Line 79.
If thon badst lost the power of sinning further, before thou embracedst repentance, how hast thou soon left the Ante-Purgatory ?
Cahto XXIII. PURGATORY. 221 And he to me : " So soon has made me know ^ The draft of martyrdom's most bitter sweet. My Nella, with her tears that ever flow. The sighs and prayers she ever doth repeat, From that delaying hill my steps have drawn, And from the other circles freed my feet. "* More dear, and more beloved by God, is known My widowed wife, whom I so loved erewhile.
As in good actions is she more alone : For the Barbagia of Sardinia's isle In female shamelessness is not so bold, ^^ As the Barbagia which I left erewhile. brother dear, what wonldst have further told P A future time already do I see. In which the present day will not be old. When in the Church they'll publish a decree Against the insolent lady Florentines, Not to expose their breasts for all to see.
When were Barbarians seen or Saracens, To whom was needed clothing to enforce, Or spiritual, or other disciplines ? But if the shameless ones could see the course Which Heaven prepareth for them speedily, Now would begin their bowlings of remorse. For if I'm not deceived in what I see. They will have sorrow ere his cheeks have hair Who now is soothed by nurse's lullaby.
Brother, no more conceal thee from my prayer : See, not myself alone, but all my kind With wonder see thee bar the sunshine there. Whence I to him : " If thou recall' st to mind "* What thou to me and I to thee have done. On earth, the memory thou wilt grievous find. There turned me from that life of sin, this one Who goes before me, some few eves ago.
When shone at full his sister ;" and the sun ^^® 1 showed ; " He through the deeps of night below Hath led my steps, amongst the dead in truth, With this true living flesh with which I go. Hence hath he drawn me upwards by his ruth To issue, and to travel round this hill ^^* Which you, with virtue, wreckt on earth, endueth. Line 94. A moantainous tract of savage ooantry, where the inhabitants were sapposed to be naked. Hence Forese applies the name to Florence.
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222 PURGATORY. Cahto XXIV. He promises to be my comrade still, Until I reach where Beatrix will be, There I must stay without him, Heaven doth will. "Virgil is he, who this has told to me :" ^^ And pointed to him : '' the other is the shade, For whom just now there trembled suddenly Your kingdom, his deliverance to aid."
CANTO XXIV. Forese names some of the other spirits, and amongst the rest Bnonai^anta of Lncca, who afterwards converses with Dan^. When the troop of shadows depart, Forese still linirers with Dante, and foretells to him the death of his political enemy, Corso Donati. Forese then follows his companions, and the poets advance to a second tree, from which issues a voice relating ezamiues of intemperance. After passing the tree, an Angel points ont to them the ascent to the next cornice. Nos motion speech nor speech our motion made More slow, but speaking onwards still we strain, Like to a ship by favouring winds conveyed. The shadows who seem dead once o'er again, In their deep-sunken eyes fresh marvel wake, * Aware that I was there a living man. And I, continuing my parley, spake : " His spirit haply presses on more slow Than it would do, were't not for Virgil's sake. But tell me where's Piccarda, shouldst thou know : Say, if I see here people of renown. Amongst this crowd, who gaze upon me so." '* My sister, who 'twixt jfair and good, unknown The which she was the most, already glad On high Olympus triumphs in her crown." ^* Thus spake he first, and then : '' 'Tis not forbade Each one to name, since here has diet spare All former semblance taken from each shade." With finger pointing, " Buonagiunta's here. Buonagiunta da Lucca ; and that face Thinner than all the rest bevond him there. Possessed the holy Church in his embrace : He came from Tours ; and fasting doth atone The wine-steept eels of famed Bolsena's race.
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Line 19. Buonagiunta of Lacca was a poet of theage jost preceding Dante. Line 22. Simon of Tours, who became Pope with the title of Martin lY. in 1281. He is said to have died of obesity from eating too many eels, and is in consequence represented as the thinnest in Purgatory.
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Canto XXIV. PURGATORY. 223 He showed me many others, one by one ; ^ As they were named, they all seemed satisfied. Not once I saw dissatisfaction shown. I saw on air their teeth by hunger plied, Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface, Whose crosier luxury to such crowds supplied. ^ I saw the marquis, who spent such a space Of old in drink at Forli, when less dry, Though even there hi^ thirst could never cease.
But like a gazer, whom some one doth spy Chiefly, my friend of Lucca did I ckam, ^ Who seemed to see me with fJEimiliar eye. He made a murmur, and Gentucca's name, * I know not how, I heard within his throat. Where most consumeth him stem justice' flame. " O soul, whose looks such eagerness denote ^ To speak with me, that I may understand Speak clear, with parley to content us both.
" A maid is bom, who yet the woman's band Wears not," he said, " will make my city dear To thee, although men now may reprimand. With this my prophecy right onwards steer : If through my murmuring thou dost error prove, Coming events will make my meaning clear.
But tell me, if I see the one who wove The recent rhymes that with these words begin : Ye ladies who possess the lore of love," And I to him : " I am a man who when Love breatheth, all its symptoms noteth dear : I show to others, what it says within. " O brother, now I see," said he, " the bar ** Which kept Guitton, the notary, and me So far from your new style, so sweet to hear.
How your plumed pinions clung, I clearly see, Close to the arch dictator in his flight. Which certes with our own might never be. ^ Line 30. Boniface, Archbishop of Ravenna, famed for hiB smnptnons living. Line 31. The Marquis de' Rigogliosi, who being accused of always drinking, answered that he had always thirst. Line 37. A young lady of Lucca, of whom Dante is stated to have been enamoured in 1301, after his exile ^om Florence. Line 51.
The first line in one of the Canzoni in Dante's " Vita Nuova. Line 66. Guittone d'Arezzo and Jacopo du Lentino, called the notary, were amongst the earliest poets who wrote in the vernacular.
224 PURGATORY. Canto XXIV. Who would go further, hoping to delight, Sees not the gulf which separates our style. Silent he grew, as one contented quite. As troops of birds who winter towards the Nile At turns flj onwards in a serried square, Then wing with greater haste, and go in file. So all the people who were with us there, Turning their faces round, their speed increased. Active through leanness, and the will they share.
And like one wearied with his trotting beast ^ Lets his companions wend, and walketh slower.
Until the panting of his beast has ceased : Forese so, his cofnrsbdes to pass o'er, Permitting, asked, as with me he did bide, " How long ere I shall see thee here once more ?" ^* " How long my life, I know not," I replied, ** But my return can never be so soon But that my will will first have crost the tide, Because the place in which my lot is thrown From day to day destroyeth its fair fame. And seems to headlong ruin rushing down.
" Now go," he said, " for he who's most to blame Behind a horse's tail I see him drawn. Towards the vale, where never ceaseth shame. The beast at every stride speeds faster on. Ever increasing, till it shakes him free, And leaves the body horribly undone.
Yon wheels have not to turn for long," and he Eaised to the sky his eyes, " ere will be clear That which I cannot more declare to thee. ^ Now thou mayst stay, for me the time is dear In this domain, and I too much have lost Coming so slowly coupled with thee here.
As issues at a gallop from the host An eager knight at times, and forwards bounds To gain the honour of the earliest joust, So did he start from us, with mightier bounds : And I remained in travel with the pair Who were such marshals of our earthly rounds. And when before us he had gone so far, That my eyes grew as dim in his pursuit. As was my mind his prophecy to bare. Line 82.
Coreo Donati, the leader of the Guelph faction, fell from bis horse while endeavouring to escape from the f ary of the populace in 1308, was dragged by the stirrup, and died as described in the poem.
Canto XXIV. PURGATORY. 225 Appeared the living branches, thick with fruit Of another tree, which not far distant stands. Then, when towards it first was turned our route, ^^ People I saw beneath it raise their hands. And cry I know not what towards the leaves. Like eager children, making vain demands.
To whom the one besought no answer gives : But to increase their fervent longing, rears "^ On high the bait, and all unhidden leaves, Then, as if undeceived, each onwards steers : And we to the great tree advanced anon. The which denies so many prayers, and tears. " Beware of touching me, but pass ye on : *** The tree, whose fruit Eve tasted, ye will view Yet higher, though this graft from it is grown.
So 'mid the branches spake, I know not who ; Whence Virgil, Statins, and myself past close On that side where the mountain lifts ; anew ^*® It spake to us : " Eecall to memory those Cursed sons of cloud, who their debauch scarce ended. Fought against Theseus, double-breasted foes : And those soft Hebrews, who their draft extended So long, that Gideon had but comrades few '^* What time 'gainst Madian he the hills descended.
Creeping along the cliff, we issued through. Hearing those tales of sinfal gluttony, Followed for ever by its gains untrue. Then on the path united, once more free, ^^ A thousand steps and more we travelled on. In contemplation each, and silently. ** What walk ye thinking of, ye three alone ? A voice spake suddenly, on which with dread I started like a frighted colt half grown. ^" To see what it might be I raised my head.
And never yet in furnace were there seen Metals or glass so shining, and so red, As one I saw, who told us : " If ye mean To travel upwards, ye must turn this way ; ^*^ Hence go they all, who seek for peace serene. His aspect had my vision ta'en away. Therefore behind my teacher's track withdrawn, I went like one who listening finds his way. Line 122. The Centaurs. Ovid, Metam. 12. Line 124. Judges, ch. yii., vr. 5, 6, and 7*
22o PURGATORY. Cakto XXV.
And like the breezy herald of the dawn ^*^ Moveth the air of May and breatheth sweet, All pregnant of the flowers and grassy lawn, So on my brow I felt a soft breeze beat, And clearly heard the moving of a wing Scenting the soft air with ambrosia sweet : ^^^ And words I gathered : ** Blest in whom doth spring Such grace, that in their breasts the love of food Cannot enkindle too great hankering, Who ever hunger after heavenly good."
CANTO XXV. As tbey ascend the stair, Dante expresses his wonder at the leanness of the spirits in the last circle, who as spirits stand in no need of nourishment. On Virgil's request, Statins, to explain his difficulty, describes the generation of the human body, its junction with the soul, and the nature ot the latter after its passage to another world.
They then reach the seventh cornice, where those who have been guilty of incontinence are purified in fire. The spirits in the fire record celebrated examples of Chastity. Now without pause 'twas time to mount the height, Since the meridian circle of the day Filled Taurus' star, the Scorpion's that of night. So, as an eager man, who cannot stay.
But presses on his road, whate'er appears, ^ When any purpose pricks him on his way ; So entered we upon the narrow stairs, The one before the other hurrying on, Since climbers there, the narrow strait unpairs.
And like a young stork lifts its pinion ^^ With wish to fly, but cannot yet attain To rise above its nest, and falleth down ; So rose in me the wish, and fell again, To question, coming even to the deed Of one who maketh preparation fain ^'' To speak. He did not slacken his swift speed, My own sweet father, but he said : ** Shoot on The shaft of speech thou'st drawn unto the head. My lips I opened then, more certain grown.
And thus began : ** How are they made so meagre, ^ There, where no need of nourishment is known? Line 2. It was two o'clock in the afternoon ; the constellation of Taurus, the next to that of Aries, in which was the sun, being then in the meridian, and consequently tliat of the Scorpion, which was opposite to Taurus, was in the meridian of the night.
Canto XXV. PUaGATOllY. 227 ** If thou wouldst call to mind how Meleager Consumed with the consuming of a brand, This would not thus," he said, " thy thoughts beleaguer. And if thou'dst think how in a mirror scanned ^ Your image trembles to your trembling form, This would not be so hard to understand.
But inwardly thy wish complete to charm, Statins is here : and him I now beseech To heaJ the wounds of doubt that work thee harm." ^ " If the eternal punishment T teach," Statins replied, " whilst thou art by me there, Forgive that I can nought refuse thy speech. Then he began : " If in thy mind with care My words receiving, thou dost guard my son, ^ Unto thy question they will light declare.
The perfect blood that is not meant to run Along the thirsty veins, but still remains Like food superfluous when the feast is done. Within the heart informing virtue gains *^ For every human member, thence doth pass To make them afterwards, through its own veins. Again prepared, to lower part it draws.
Which not to name were best, and germins there, Upon another's blood, in natural vase. *^ The one and the other mix together there Through excellence of the place from whence they're born, The one dispo&ed to act, and one to bear. There joined, begins their operating turn ; Coagulating first, it vivifies ^® That which by its own matter has been bom.
Endued with life, the active virtue lies, As of a plant, thus different indeed That one has reached the bourne, one onward hies : Still working, now it moves and taketh heed ^* As the sea fungus ; and it there doth learn To organise the powers of which 'tis seed. Line 87. The system of generation here described is stated to be that of Averroes.
The generating germ is formed from perfect blood in the man's heart, passes in that shape through vessels of its own to the lower organs (1. 43), and passing into the womb joins the perfect blood of the female, which has gone through the same process (1. 45). Line 47. The heart, in which the perfect blood gained informing virtue. Line 52.
The foetus goes through the diflPerent stages of vegetable, zoophytic, and animnl life, and when the brain is completely formed God breathes into it a soul.
228 PURGATORY. Canto XXV. Now growetli pliant son, and now doth yearn The virtue of the generating heart, In which doth Nature every member turn. But how from animal a man doth start Thou seest not yet, and on this point was blind One wiser than thyself in physical art, Who in his doctrine held to be disjoined The intellect receptive from the soul. Because he saw for it no place assigned. Open thy breast to the truth I now unroll.
And know the instant that articulate The brain in the foetus is evolved a whole, The Primal Cause with gladness turns to it, "^ Over such masterpiece of Nature's art, And breathes a spirit new, with power replete. Which, what it active finds, it doth impart To its own substance, and creates a soul. Which lives and feels, reflective and apart. ^'' The wonder my word causes to control.
Think of the sun's heat, which createth wine Joined to the liquor from a vine-tree's bole. When Lachesis has no more flax to spin, The soul from flesh is freed, and of its fruit Bears with it both the human and divine : The other powers are altogether mute, Memory, Intelligence, and Will remain, In act far more than e'er before acute.
Without a pause, self -moving it doth gain One of the shores, miraculously sent : There knowledge of its path doth first attain. Soon as within the ambient air 'tis pent. Informing virtue round about it rays.
As if with human limbs, its tenement. ®^ And as the air, when full of watery haze, By the sun's light, which is on it reflected, Groweth adorned with vari-coloured rays, To the surrounding air hath here selected That form which in effect the soul doth claim ®^ With its own seal, which is on it reflected. And as the fire aye follows on the flame. There, where is shifted now the spirit's site, Follows upon that spirit the new frame. Line 63.
Ayerroes, who is stated to have asserted that there was only a common intellect for the whole hnman race, as he fonnd no special organ assigned to it.
Canto XXV. PURGATORY. 229 Thence afterwards it gains appearance, tight A shadow, and its organs, hence the while Each one attaineth, even to the sight. Hence is it that we speak, and hence we smile : Hence is it that we break to tears and sighs. Which on the mountain thou hast seen erewhile. According as the spirit's yearnings rise, And its affections, so is shaped the shade, And this explains the cause of thy surprise.
There, where the latest torture is essayed. We now had reached, and turning to the right. To other care attention now we paid. There the cliff hurleth outwards flamings bright ; And upwards from the ledge a blast doth blow Which beats it back, and clears a narrow site. On that closed pathway one is forced to go Singly, and I on this side feared the fire, On that I feared lest I should fall below.
My leader spake : " Along this narrow pier A tight curb must be placed upon the eyes, For easily might err the footsteps here. In the bosom of the heat I heard arise Summce Beua clementice, clearly simg. Which made me no]less eagerly devise. And through the flame I saw the spirits throng : On which I looked both at my steps and them, My sight dividing as I went along.
When they had closed their holy requiem, All, Virum non cognusco, cried aloud ; Then with low voices recommenced the hymn. Finished once more, they shouted, " To the wood Diana ran, and forth Slice chased, Who'd tasted Venus' poison in her blood. Then to their song they turned : and then of chaste Ladies and married pairs the examples cried, Who virtue and the law of marriage graced. And in this fashion I believe they bide.
For all the time that they the burning feel : With such a nourishment and zeal applied. Closes alone that wound, the last to heal. Line 122. " Suihidsb Dene clementiaa. The beginning of the hymn sung on Sunday matins, as it stood in the ancient breviary. Line 128. Luke i. 34. How can this be, seeing that I know not a man ? Line 131.
The nymph Oalisto, driven away by Diana for nnchastity, and changed finally into the constellation Elice, or Greater Bear. Ovid's Metam. ii. Line 139. The last of the seven F's, healed on the last cornice.
CANTO XXVI. While the poets advance along the brink of the cornice, the spirits are astonished at the shadow cast on the flames by Dante's body. Ere he can satisfy their cnriosityi another troop of spirits advance in the fire from the opposite direction, and the two bands embrace and pass on their way, reprobating their earthly sins.
On their departure Dante tells the shadows beside him that he is still alive, and he is then addressed by Gnido Gninicelli, the Italian poet, who afterwards points ont to him Amaolt Daniel, the Provencal. The whilst that thus along the brink we wend In single file, my master often said, " See that my cautions to thy profit tend.
On my right shoulder the sun's rays were sped The which already filling all the west * On the sky's azure a white splendour shed : And I, upon the flame, with shadow cast A ruddier hue, and on that sign alone I saw the spirits ponder as they past. This was the reason which then led them on ^® To speak of me, and they began to say, "He seems not a fictitious frame to own.
Towards me, to grow as certain as they may, They bent them then, regarding evermo' Never to sally from the burning way. " O thou who goest, not because more slow. Perchance behind yon pair, in reverent heed. Answer me, burnt in thirst and fiery glow. Nor I alone for thy reply have need. These with me, for it are more thirsting all, Than for cold water Ind or Ethiop's seed.
Tell us, how is't that thou dost make a wall Unto the sun, as if not yet hadst thou Down fallen in the net which Death doth haul. So one of these spake to me, and ere now ^ I had declared myself, had I not been Intent on something new the place did show.
For midway through the burning path I ween A troop, with faces coming towards them, hied, Which made me gaze once more, suspended keen. ^ There saw I hurrying forward from each side The shadows kiss each other tenderly, Nor pause for stay, with brief feast satisfied.
Canto XXVI. PURGATORY. 231 Just SO, within their dusky company, One with the other do the ants embrace, ^ Perchance their fortune or their road to spy. As soon as these their friendly greeting cease, Before a single forward step can follow, Each louder than the rest to cry doth press : The new troop shouteth, " Sodom and Gomorrah ;" *" The other, " In the cow Pasiphee went To bring the bull unto her lustful horror.
Then like two flocks of cranes, in passage bent Towards the Eiphoean hills and Lybian sands, To fly the frost, or the sun's heat intent ; So go in opposite ways the spirit bands, And turn with weeping to their former strain. And to the cries which most their zeal demands : And as before there prest by me again The selfsame spirits, who had me besought. With faces all intent to hear me fain.
I, who had twice beheld their yearning thought, Began : *' O spirits, certain at some time To a state of peace, all perfect, to be brought. Neither in tender youth nor in their prime Eemain my limbs on earth, but borne with me. With their own blood and sinews from yon clime : Upwards I go, no longer blind to be, A lady there acquires for me this grace, Whence through your world I bear mortality.
But that more speedily ye may embrace Your chief desire, and reach Heaven's Infinite Replete with love, that whirls through widest space. Tell me, that I may yet their story write, Who are ye, and who go in yonder crowd, ^* That straight behind your backs, speeds opposite ?
Not otherwise his wonder is avowed In silent gazing by the mountaineer All wild amid the city's turmoil loud, Than grew each shadow in his semblance here : '* But when from that surprise once free again. The which in high hearts soon doth disappear ; " Ah happy thou, who thus through our domain," Began the one who first had questioned me, " Experience freight'st, a better life to gain. Line 62. The Empyrean, or outermost sphere of Heaven.
232 PURGATORY. Cakto XXVI. The troop, who going from us thou dost see, Did CsBsar's sin, who in his triumph day Heard 'gainst himself Queen cried in infamy. Therefore they shout out Sodom on their way. As thou now heardest in their own despite, ^ And help the burning with their shame alway.
Our own offence has been hermaphrodite : But since the human laws we did not hold, Following, like animals, our appetite, In blame of our own selves, by us is told ^ What times we onwards start, the name of her Who worked her bestial end, in bestial fold. Thou knoVst our acts, and how we guilty were : If haply thou desirest to know our names, Time would be wanting, nor am I aware.
Of me I'll tell thee what thy longing claims : I'm Guinicelli, since without dehiy Bepentant, I already purge my shames. As following on Lycurgus' sorrowful day, The sons, their mother found once more, embraced, ** So I, though not so far did I give way, When I heard name himself my father graced.
Father to me, and to my betters, who Have rhymes of love and fancy ever traced : And without speech or hearing, on I drew ^®® In thought awhile, aye gazing on him still, Kor dared approach to him that furnace through. After of gazing I had ta'en my fill MyseH in service offered I to him. With oath that gains belief from other's will. ^^ And he to me : '* Such sign of love dost limn In what I hear, towards me, and so clear.
That Lethe cannot take away, nor dim. Line 77* A soandal related against the yonth of Jnlios Gessar, when in the Court of Nicomedee, King of Bithynia. Snetoniaa gives the pasquinade indulged in by his soldiers, at Caesar's triumph, which is alluded to in the text— Csesar nunc triumphat, qui subegit Gallias. Nicomedeanontriumphat, qui subegit Csesarem. Line 92.
Guido Guinicelli, already mentioned in Canto XI. as the elder Guido, so &mous in his time, yet superseded by the younger Guido, Dante's friend Cavalcanti. A timely repentance saved him from all delay in the Ante-Furgatory. Line 94. The story of Hypsipyle, already alluded to in Canto XXII.
When she was about to be put to death by Lycurgus, because his son, her infant charge, was killed by a serpent, while she showed the stream Langia to the Argive army, she was recognised by her sons Thoas and Euneus, and Dante compares their joy on recovering her after her pardon to his own delight at recognising his father in art.
Canto XXVI. PURGATORY. 233 But if just now thy words the truth did swear, Tell me the reason why thou thus dost show ^^® In speech and looks that thou dost hold me dear P" And I to him : ** Your verses dulcet flow The which as far as modern style can reach, Will make their very ink beloved below.
" O brother," said he, " he whom I impeach," And towards a shade in front his hand did move, " Was better workman in his native speech : In prose romances and in lays of love All he surpast, whate'er the fools may say Who think Limoges' poet stands above : ^^^^ To clamour more than truth men turn alway, And hence is formed opinion 'mongst mankind, Till art and reason at the last find way.
Thus many elders raised the shouting blind Yielding Guittone guerdon over all, ^^* Till truth has placed him many men behind. Now if to thee such privilege befall, That thou mayst enter in the College cloister, In which is Christ the Abbot of the Hall, Say to him there for me one Pater Noster, ^^ As far as spiiits in this world have need, Where unto us the power to sin is lost here.
Haply to leave his place beside me, freed To the spirit near, he vanished in the fire. As in the wave a fish to the depths doth speed. "* To him just shown to me I turned me nigher. And said that to his name a gracious place Had been made ready in my heart's desire. He then began to speak with liberal grace : " So much doth charm me this your courtesy, "^ I would not, if I could, conceal my trace.
I am Amauld, with tears and minstrelsy I go, in sorrow see the folly past, And joyous see the bliss I hope will be. Now I adjure thee, by the virtue vast ^** Which guides ye to the summit of the spire, Eemember on my grief your aid to cast. Then hid himself in the refining fire, Line 120. Grerault Berneil, who was oalled the Master of the Troubadours^ but whom Dante ranks below the Provencal poet Arnauld, here introduced.
CANTO XXVII. As the day closes they reach the station of the Angel, who directs them to pass through the fire, to ascend the last staircase. While ascending thi» the sun seUi, and the poets, unable to advance during the night, halt there until the morning. Dante, sleeping there, behol(U in a dream two females representing the active and conteniplative life.
In the morning they reach the height, and Virgil directs Dante to follow alone his own promptings until the arrimEil of Beatrice, as bis own guardianship has ceased. So that his earliest rays were trembling o'er The land in which his Maker shed his blood, And Libra stood on high on Ebro's shore, And Gunges' wave with middaj glory glowed, The sun was stationed, so that sank the day ^ There, where God's Angel glad before us stood.
Beyond the flame he stood, above the way, And sang : " Beati mundo corde," clear In voice, beyond the reach of human lay : Then, " Holy souls, ye cannot further steer Until the flame has bit ye ; enter brave. And be not deaf unto the song ye'll hear. So spake he as we drew a near : believe When I heard that, that I all cold became. As one about to enter in his grave.
Upon my claspM hand I bowed, the flame Regarding, and imagining beneath Sights seen of old of the charred human frame. My good guides turned towards me then, and saith Virgil to me, " My son, undoubtedly ^ Here may be torment, but cannot be death. Bemember then, remember then, if I Upon yon Gerion thee in safety led. Can I fail now, more near the Deity ?
Believe for certain that within the bed ^ Of this flame thou a thousand years might'st live, Nor couldst thou lose one hair iipon thy head. And if thou think'st perchance that I deceive. Approach it, and thy own experience try. With thy own hands thy garment's border give. Line 1.
The sun was then rising at Jemsalcm, which being the antipodes of the mountain of Purgatory, it was setting there, wbile midday was over the Gkmges, and midnight in Spain.
Canto XXVII. PURGATORY. 235 Lay by henceforth, all cowardice lay by : Turn there, and onwards in security^" And I, against my conscience, still deny.
When he my obstinate resolve did see, A little troubled spake he, " Son, descry, ^^ This is the wall 'twixt Beatrix and thee.*' As at the name of Thisbe oped the eye Of Pyramus in death, to gaze on her, What time the mulberry changed to vermeil dye ; So all my hardness softening mellower, *• I turned unto my leader, hearing now That name which ever in my heart doth stir.
On which he shook his head, and uttered : " How, We would have stayed beyond ?" and smiling bent As o'er a child who to the bait doth bow : *^ Within the flame before me then he went, Beseeching Statins to come close behind, Who erst bewixt us had some distance lent. When once within, in boiling glass to find Some coolness I would gladly refuge take, "^^ So was the heat immeasurably refined.
Still my sweet father as he went did speak Of Beatrice for my comforting. Saying : " Her eyes already on me break. A voice did guide us onwards, which did sing ^^ On the other side ; attentive to its lay we Came outwards where the ascent did upwards spring. " Venite, Benedicti Patria mei,^* Sounded within a glory there, so bright That overcome I could not face its ray.
He ^^ Added, " The sun descends, and comes the night : Make ye no pause, but swiftly hurry on. The while the west has still its fading light. The pathway rose, cut straight within the stone. In such direction that my shade I threw •* Before me from the now low sinking sun. When we had mounted of the stairs a few. By my lost shadow, that the sun had set Behind us I and my wise comrades knew.
And ere the vast horizon's rim had yet ^* Endued one single aspect in the shade, And wholly o'er the scene night's gloom was set. Line 39. The white fruit of the mulberry changed to red, dyed with the blood of Pyramns. Ovid Metam. iv., 125.
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236 PURGATORY. Cahto XXVII. Each of us of a step his couch had made, Since power to climb more than our bliss assailed, The nature of the hill to us forbade. ^^ As while they chew the cud the goats grow mild. Who ere they'd pastured on the herbage sweet Upon the hilltops bounded, wayward, wild, Still in some shady place, through midday's heat, Watched by the shepherd, on his long staff resting, Who serveth as a guardian their retreat : And as the herdsman 'neath the bare sky nesting. Beside his flock, throughout the night lies still. To keep them from all beast of prey's molesting : So were we then all three upon the hill, I as the goat, the shepherds they I ween. Bound on that hillside by a higher Will. But little of the outward world was seen, Tet by that little on the stars I gaze More large than their old wont, and more serene. So deep in thought, and looking thus on these. Sleep fell upon me : sleep that oftenest. Before it comes to pass, the truth foresees. I think 'twas in the hour that from the east Upon the mount first rayed sweet Venus' beam. In which the flame of love seems aye increased : Touthfal and fair, there seemed to me in dream To see a lady on a wide plain go. Gathering flowers, and this her songful theme : " Whoe'er would wish to ask my name may know. For I am Leah, and my hands so fair I use a garland weaving evermo'. To please me in my glass, I deck me here ; My sister Eachel ever doth remain Before the mirror, to her soul so dear, To look upon her fair eyes there, as fain. As I to deck me with my hands alway : Her contemplation, action me doth chain." Now by the shepherds that precede the day. Ever more gladly by the pilgrim eyed. When turning home less distant grows the way,
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Line 74. The natare of the hill prevented further ascent, but not their bliss. Line 100.
Leah represents the active and Bachel the contemplative life, as afterwards the two ladies, Matilda and Beatrice, whom Dante meets in the Terrestrial Paradise, as the dream is. clearly intended to foreshow. Line 103. The glass is the Deity, to please whom Leah devotee herself to action, while Bachel never ceases gazing therein.
Canto XXVIII. PURGATORY. 237 The shadows fled away on every side, And with them fled my slumber, whence I rose And the masters risen already I descried. " That fruit so sweet, which through so many boughs ""* For ever seeking, goes the mortal care. To-day will bring thy hunger to repose.
Towards me Virgil, such a parlance fair Addrest ; and never yet were gifts could bring A pleasure that to these one could compare. ^'^^ Upon desire such new desire did spring To reach the height, that as each step I rise I feel my longing stiU expand its wing. When all the stair surmounted 'neath us lies. And we had reached unto the step supeme, ^^ Upon me Virgil fixed his loving eyes.
And said : ** The temporal flames and the eteme Thou hast beheld, my son, and reached a part Where for myself no farther I discern. With knowledge I have led thee here, wid art : "® Accept henceforth thy pleasure as thy guide : Beyond the narrow ways and straits thou art. Behold, before thee beams the sun's bright tide : Behold the herbage, and the flowers and trees.
This earth itself produces far and wide. ^^* Until there come witii joy the beauteous eyes, Which weeping, made me to thy help incline, Thou mayst sit down, or thou mayst walk 'mid these. Await no more my parlance, or my sign : Thy judgment now is healthy, just, released, ^*^ And 'twould be sin its promptings to decline ; So o'er thyself I crown thee king and priest."
CANTO xxvni. Dante advances through the tranquil forest to explore the Terrestrial Paradise until his progress is stopped by a stream. On the other side he sees a lady, who advances at his prayer to the brink, and explains to him the mystery of the place. She informs him that the river has two branches ; the one before him is Lethe, whose draught takes away the memory of sin, while the other is called Eunoe, by drinking which the spirit recovers only the recollection of good. Already eager thoroughly to explore That thick and living forest, all divine. Which to the eyes the young day shaded o'er.
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238 PURGATORY. Cahto XXVIII. Without delay I left the bank's incline. Ascending the champaign with footsteps slow, * O'er soil on all sides breathing odours fine. A dulcet air, which change did never know, Nor intermission, smote me on the front. Not stronger than the softest breeze can blow : Through which the leafy sprays with trembling wont ^" Are altogether bent towards that side, Where its first shadow casts the holy mount.
But from their level not inclined so wide That the small songbirds there their tuneful chime Upon their tops to warble are denied : '* But with a joy complete the hours 'of prime Welcome with song among the foliage green, Whose murmur adds its burden to their rhyme, Such as from branch to branch goes on the strain Along the pine trees upon Chiassi's shore. When Eolus the south wind doth unchain.
Already my slow steps had borne me o'er So far within that ancient wood, that I, Where I had entered, could behold no more ; And lo ! a stream my further steps deny. Which towards the left hand, with its little waves.
Inclined the herbage that was growing nigh. r the clearest water that earth's bosom laves Some mixture ever would appear to loom, Beside that runlet's all-transparent waves ; ^ Although it moveth on in holy gloom 'Neath the perpetual shade, that on it yet The rays of sun and moon could never come.
Brought to a pause, my eager eyes I set To gaze upon the endless trees which there ** Grew fresh May boughs, beyond the rivulet : And there appeared to me, as doth appear Suddenly something which doth drive away. Through marvel, every other thought of care, A lady all alone, who on her way, ^ Singing, and gathering flower on flower, did rove. With which her pathway was aU painted gay. Line 20.
The pine forest near Ravenna, the scene of the hnnt in the story of Theodore and Honoria, taken by Dryden from Boccaccio. Line 40. The lady is afterwards named Matilda : I believe Yenturi correct in considering her allegorical of active religious Ufe, as Beatrice of the spiritoal, though a real person may also be intended.
In the dream which foreshadowed the event 'Dante beheld Leah and Rachel, the eidola of the two ladies who were his after guides.
Canto XXVIII. PUllGATOKY'. 239 " All lady fair, who at the rays of love Art warmed, if I the appearance may believe, Which ever the heart's truth is wont to prove, Would that thy pleasure," thus to her I crave, " Unto this bank thy steps would nearer bring. That I may hear the song which thou dost weave. Thou makest in my memory upspring The vale and Proserpine, wliat time there lost Her mother her, and she the flowers of spring.
As turneth in a measure, intercrost In dance, with gliding feet a lady fair, And dainty footsteps to the vision lost, Upon the vermeil, yellow flowerets there Towards me did she turn, in virgin guise, Bending her chaste eyes low, with modest air : And all that I had prayed for satisfies, So near approaching me, that her sweet strain Clear with its meaning, on my ear doth rise.
As soon as she had reached to where the plain Was bathed by the waters of that river bright To raise her eyes towards me did she deign. I do not think there shone so sweet a light Beneath the lids of Venus, by her child Pierced in a mode beyond his wonted might. Upon the right bank of the stream she smiled. With her fair hands collecting flowerets still, Which on that upland grew, unsown and wild.
Three paces were we severed by the rill, But the Hellespont, where Xerxes twice crost o*er, A curb for ever to the human will, More hatred from Leander never bore, 'Twixt Sestos and Abydos rolling wide. Than this from me, that would not let me o*er. ''^ She thus began : ** Ye here but newly bide. And haply that ye see me smiling here I' the place which human nature's nest supplied.
With marvel may awake in ye some fear : The Psalm beginning Deledadi best »• Can give you light, your intellect to clear. Line 51. *' O Proserpina, For the flowers now that frighted thou let'st fall From Dis's waggon." . " Winter's Tale. Line 80. ** Thon, Lord, hast made us glad through thy work." — Ps. xcii. 4. She is smiling, not at the new comers, as they may fear, but with delight at the beauty of God's works in the Terrestrial Paradise.
-40 PURGATORY. Cahto XXVIII. And thou, who praying stand'st before the rest, Say wouldst thou further hear ; I come prepared For all thy questions, till I give thee rest," ** The wave," I said, " and sound in the forest stirred, ^^ Struggle within me 'gainst belief new won Of something which opposed to this I heard. Whence she : " I'll tell thee how proceedeth on. By its own law, what causeth thy surprise.
And purge the cloud which o'er thy sight is thrown. '^ Ood, who alone unto Himself can please, Man fit for good created, and this soil G-ave him as earnest of Eternal Peace. Through his default he stayed here but awhile ; Through his default to sorrow and to tears *^ He changed the pleasing sport and honoured smile.
That the disturbance which beneath appears The exhalation of the wave and plain, Which after heat, as far as may be, veers, Might cause no perturbation unto man, ^°* This mount ascended towards the heavens so high, Free, when its gate the outer world doth ban. Now, since in circuit aye continuously The air revolveth with its primal motion, If nought doth break its current through the sky, ^^^ On this fair upland, free from all commotion.
Such motion acts upon the living air. And makes resound the forest's leafy ocean : And the smote plant such excellence doth share, That it impregnates with its power the breeze, "^ Which whirling ever, thai doth onwards bear ; So that the earth below, in its degrees Of soil and climate, doth conceive and bear Of diverse natures, all its diverse trees.
And this once heard, hereafter will appear "^ No marvel to thy mind, if any plant Without apparent seed doth germin there. And thou must know this Paradisal haunt In which thou art is full of every seed And bears such fruit as earth can never grant. ^^^ The wave thou seest has no fountain head Eestored by vapour, through cold air congealed. As streams whose course now wither, and now speed ; Line 86.
The statement recently made to him by Statins, that there conld be neither wind, rain, nor vapour on the hill of Purgatory. Line 103. The air revolves ever from the empyrean to the lower spheres, with the current given to it in the primum mobile.
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Canto XXIX. PURGATORY. 241 But from a fount perennial is it welled, That through the will of Q-od has such a store, ^^ That with its water its two streams are filled. On this side it descendeth with the power The memory of former sin to hide ; On the other, that of good it doth restore. Here it is Lethe, on the other side ^^ Called Euno^ : nor doth it work its spell Full J, till tasted has been either tide. All other flavours this surpasseth well : And that I may completely satisfy Thy thirst, although I nothing further tell. For grace 1*11 give thee a corollary, Nor think I that my speech will be less dear, If even beyond my promise I supply. Who sang in olden times, each poet seer, The blest condition of the Age of Gold, Have haply dreamed of their Parnassus here The human root was iimocent here of old ; Here is perpetual spring, and every fruit : This is the nectar of which each hath told." I turned me then unto our poets, mute, And in their beaming eyes a smile did trace, Which in that closing sentence had its root : Then to the lady fair I turned my face.
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CANTO XXIX. As Dante advances by the side of the lady on opposite banks of the stream, its course turns towards the east, and on the side of the river opposite to Dante there descends an Ai)6calyptic vision. As one enamoured, singing by the water She still continued, till the close was won, Beaii quorum tecta stmt peccata : And like the nymphs who wandered on alone Along the sylvan shadows, with desire * Now to escape, and now to see the sun ; Then did she move against the stream, yet higher The bank ascending, while with steps decreased On her short steps I followed, ever by her. Line 3. Blessed are they whose transgressions are covered.— Fs. xxxii. 1. R
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242 PURGATORY. Cakto XXES. We had not yet a hundred footsteps paced, ^^ When the banks altered their direction there, So that my face was turned towards the east. Nor yet again had we proceeded far, When towards me turned the lady mine^ and said, " My brother, now thou must behold, and hear. And lo ! a sudden splendour overspread, From every quarter all the forest wide. That in my mind the thought of lightning bred.
But since that lightning, as it comes, doth bide, And as it lasts, acquireth splendour more, " What thing is this ?" within my thoughts I cried. And a soul-thrilling melody ran o'er The luminous air, which woke my ardent zeal Eve's hardihood to censure, and deplore : That there, where earth and sky obeyed her weal, ^* Only a woman, and but lately made, She could not suffer one concealing veil.
'Neath which, devoutly if she had but strayed, I should have tasted there ineffable Delights before, and longer had essayed. ^ Whilst thus I wandered, rapt within the spell Of those first offerings of Eternal Peace, And for yet greater joys desirous still, Before us, like a fire whose flames increase, 'Neath the green boughs the air all glowing grew, ^* And song was heard in those sweet melodies : Muses, ye holy virgins, if for you Hunger, or cold, or vigils I have known, Good reason spurs me now to claim my due.
Now o'er me you must pour your Helicon, Urania now must help me with her quire. To write in verse things hard for thought alone.
Beyond appeared seven trees of gold like fire, In seeming by the distance falsified Which separated them from us : when nigher I had approached them, so that closely eyed The doubtful object which the sense deceives, Through distance had no lineament denied, That virtue which discourse to reason gives, That they were candlesticks, and in the strain That voices sang Hosanna there, perceives.
Canto XXIX. PURGATORY. 243 Above was flaming the resplendent train, More clear by far than in the cloudless sky The moon, that to her zenith doth attain. With admiration full, I turned ray eye *? To my good Virgil, who to me replied With face no less impressed with marvel high. Those lofty objects then once more I eyed, Which came towards us at a pace so slow.
That would have past them the new-wedded bride. ^^ The lady asked me : " Why art gazing so With rapt attention on yon living light. And all that comes behind, seem'st not to know ? Then did I see a people clothed in white. That onwards, as behind their leaders streamed, ®* Was never on the earth such candour bright. Upon my left hand all the water gleamed, And if I looked on it, as in a glass, All my left side upon its surface beamed.
When in such station on the bank I was '° That the stream only kept me separate, I stood to see the better what might pass : And I beheld the flames advance in state. Leaving behind them lines of painted air, Which bore the semblance there of streamers great, ^* So that above remained distinctly there Seven bands of colours, those with which his bow Maketh the sun, her girdle Delia fair.
These standards backwards to the distance flow Beyond my sight, and well as I could see ®° The outer bands ten paces distant show. Beneath a sky so fair, as shown by me. Came four-and-twenty elders, two by two, All of them crowned with the fleur-de-lis.
And all of them were singing, " Blessed thou, ^ Amongst the daughters bom of Adam, blest, Thy beauties in eternal glory now.'* What time the flowers and other herbs that drest Freshly in front of me the opposite shore, By that elected troop no more were prest, ^ As light doth follow light in Heaven's rich store, Close on their track four beasts behind them hied. And each a coronet of green leaves wore. They were all winged with six pinions wide.
The feathers full of stars : and Argus' eyes ®^ If they were living would be such descried. Line 78. The girdle of Delia is the lunsir rainbow.
244 PURGATORY. Canto XXIX. Their forms to tell no further I premise. For other matter, reader, urges higher, So that with length I cannot here avize. But how Ezekiel painted them, admire, When he beheld them from the freezing North Come with the wind, the cloud, and with the fire : And as thou'lt find them in his page set forth. So were they here, save as regards the wings, Which I beheld as John has set them forth.
'Twixt the four beasts in the central space upsprings A chariot on its two triumphant wheels, Drawn at its neck, the which a Gryphon brings : Who both his pinions in the air reveals, *Mid the seven vari-coloured lines of light, So that he cleaveth none, and none conceaJs ; So high they rose, that they were lost to sight : As far as he was bird, his limbs appear Of gold, the rest with vermeil mixt were white.
In Eome ne'er triumphed with a car so fair, Or Africanus or the great August ; Poor would appear the sun's own chariot there : The sun's own car, which from its true course thrust Was fire-consumed through Tellus' pious prayer, When Jove in secret purpose was most just. ^^ By the right wheel three ladies circling bear In onward dance, one of such ruddy glow That in the flame she scarcely would appear ; The other in her colour such did show.
As if her frame of emerald were made ; The third appeared of newly-fallen snow ; And now they seemed by the white lady led Now by the ruddy, from the latter's song Their measure slow or fast, the others tread. On the left side, four other damsels throng, In purple clothed, in festal choir they glance, Guided by one, to whom three eyes belong. Line 100. Ezekiel i. 6. And this was their appearance : they had the likeness of a man.
And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. John, in Rev. iv. 8, gives six wings to the four beasts. Line 107. The chariot appears to be intended for the Church of Christy who is represented as a Gryphon, half an eagle and half a lion, symbolical of His Divine and human natures. Line ] 18. The story of Phaeton. Ovid's Metam. Line 121. The three theological virtues : the ruddy one being Charity, the green Hope, and the white Faith.
When Beatrice descends in the next Canto, she will be found dn^st in these three colours. Line 130. The four cardinal virtues," led by Prudence, represented with three eyes that look at the Past, Present, and Future.
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Canto XXX. PURGATORY. 246 And close to all the interwreathM dance Two old men, in their garb unlike, draw near, But like in comely bearing they advance. ^*^ The one a chosen familiar did appear Of great Hippocrates, whom Nature made To help the beings whom she holds most dear : The other an all-different zeal displayed. Bearing a sword so brilliant, and so keen, ^^ That from across the rivulet it dismayed. Then I beheld four more of humble mien, And after all of them an old man lone With face Heaven -lighted, though he slept, was seen. And all these seven like those who first had gone "* Were habited, except that round their brows With lilies was not made their flowery crown, Bather of vermeil flowerets, and the rose : One would have sworn, who from some distance eyed. That all of them were flaming o'er the brows. ^** And when the car had reached the opposite side I heard it thunder, and that train so fair Seemed as if further movement was denied. And halted with the first insignia there. Line 134. These old men are supposed to be the physician Luke, and Paul, whose cutting style is represented by the sword. Line 142. These are either the four EvangelistSj unless these were already represented by the four beasts, or the authors of the Minor Epistles, James, Peter, John, and Jude. In either case John appears twice over } and is a^^n sapposed to be symbolised as the author of the Apocalypse in the old man with eyes closed in ecstatic vision. The poet's son, however, in his explanation as&erts tiiat this old man is Moses.
CANTO XXX. In the midst of a shower of roses strewn by an Angel choir, a lady descends from Heaven upon l^e car. Dante instinctively recognises Beatrice, and turning to Vir^, finds tibat his faithful guide has left him. Beatrice tells hun not to weep on that account, but to reserve his tears for the rebuke with which sne greets him for his sins. When there the Empyrean Polar light.
Which never setting yet nor rising knew, Nor other cloud, except sin's veiling night. Line 1. The seven candlesticks, called the Polestar of the Empyrean, as the seven gifts of the spirit guide each soul to its harbour, in the same way that the Polestar of the lower sky is the guide to mariners.
246 PURGATORY. Canto XXX. And which each being to his duty drew, Directing as our Pole star o'er the seas * Home to his port the helmsman guideth true, Had halted, all the truthful companies, Which 'twixt it and the Gryphon erst did hie. Turned round towards the car, as towards their peace.
And one of them, as herald of the sky, ^® Veni, sjposa de I/ihano, with song Cried out three times, and all the others nigh : As at the final ban with hurrying throng Troops of the blessed, each one from his cave, His new-clad flesh all lightly borne along, ^* So o'er that car divine in the concave A hundred rose, ad vocem tanti sends, Heralds of life eteme beyond the grave.
All of them cried, Benedidus qui venis, And o'er it casting round the flowery spray, ^ Manibtis date liUa plenis, I have beheld ere now in dawning day The orient flushed all o'er with roseate hue, While o'er the heaven's serene no cloudlets stray : And have beheld the sun's face rising through ^ That vaporous mist, so tempered in its tone.
That for some length the eye could bear the view ; Thus so within a cloud of flowerets strown, That from angelic hands were poured beneath. And in and over all the folds fell down ^ Upon her white veil, girt with olive wreath, Appeared to me a lady, in a green Mantle, above a scarlet robe beneath. And my own spirit which so long had been Before that presence troubled so of old, ^ Through marvel trembled not^ nor fluttered then.
Although my eyes no recognition told. Through hidden virtue which from her there ran Of olden love I felt the mighty hold. Soon, as upon my sight there smote again *® Another's virtue, which had smote me quite Ere I had issued out of childhood's reign : Unto my left I turned me for respite. Just as the infant runneth to his dame Whene'er afflicted or whene'er in fright, ^ Line 7. The foar-and -twenty elders — ^amongst whom the one mentioned in V. 10 is supposed to be Solomon, who qaotes his own Song, ch. iv., v. 8. I^ne 19. VirgU, "^neid," Ub. vi., v. 884.
Canto XXX. PURGATORY. 247 To say to Virgil, " Eests within my frame No dram of blood that does not tremble now ; I know the symptoms of the olden flame/' But Virgil had bereaved us of him, woe ! Virgil, the sweetest father one could grieve, ^ Virgil, to whom entrusted, life I owe : Nor all she lost, our olden mother Eve, Availed, upon my cheeks erst washed with dew, But that the tears their soiling trace should leave.
" Dante, though Virgil goeth from thy view, " Weep not for that, no therefore weep not now. Since thou for other sword must weep anew. Just as an admiral on poop or prow Oometh to see the crew their service ply On the high masts, and cheers them zeal to show, ^ Upon the left side of the car, when I Had turned me at the sound of my own name.
Which here is written of necessity, I saw the lady who before did beam Upon me, veiled in flowers angelical, ^ Towards me direct her eyes across the stream : Although the veil that from her brow did fall, Bound with a garland of Minerva's leaves, Displayed not to the sight her aspect all ; With royal bearing, like to one that grieves, '° Her parlance she continued, and severe The keenest point unto the close she leaves.
" See truly, truly, Beatrix appear ; How hast thou deigned at last to approach the mount P Didst thou not know that man was happy here ?" ^* My eyes fell downwards in the crystal fount, But seeing there myself, unto the sward I turned them, such a shame was on my front. As seems a mother proud to child adored. So did she seem to me, because I knew ^* The bitter taste of Piety's sharpened sword. Line 53. " Alle gnanoe nette di ragiada..
The commentators explain this, cheeks free from weeping, and the words may bear that signification. The translators hitherto have followed this rendering, but I mnoh prefer the simple translation in the text, believing that Dante refers to the mystical washing with dew described in Canto I. of the " Purgatory.
Not even the beanties of the Terrestrial Paradise availed to save from the soil of tears his cheeks washed with dew from every earthly stain. Line 63. It may be remarked that on no other occasion has Dante written his name thronghout the poem.
248 PURGATORY. Cabto XXX. Suddenly sang the Angels, as she grew To silence, In te, Domine, aperavi, At pedes meos to a close thej drew. As on the living rafters lieth wavj ^ On Italy's backbone the snow congealed, What time Sclavonian winds are blowing heavy, Then liquefied, the dropping ooze is welled, Breathe but the land on which no shadow lies.
As melts within the fire the candle held : ^ So was I there, without or tears or sighs, TJntil the song of those who ever sing Accordant with the spheral melodies. But when I heard in their sweet carolling Their pity towards me, far more clear confest ^ Than had they said, " Why lady, thus him wring ? The frost that round my heart's core had been prest To spirit and water changed ; in agony With sobs and tears it issued from my breast.
She, still retaining all her bearing high, ^^ Beside the chariot's right wheel turned away. And thus addrest that pitying company : " Ye who keep watches through the eternal day. So that nor night nor sleep can steal from you One step the ages make upon their way : ^®* With greater zeal my answer hence is due. Since this one hears me there who yonder wails. That to his sin his grief be equal too. Not only by the turn of the great wheels.
Which every seed to purposed end incline. Through the particular star whose spell it feels ; But by the largess of the Q-race Divine Which from such lofty vapours feeds its shower, That to its height our vision cannot join : This one was such in new life's opening horn* ^" Fitted for good, that every virtuous growth Had made in him miraculous proof of power. But so much more malign and tangled groweth.
With poisonous wil&ig seeds, the uncultured sward, As of terrestrial strength the more it showeth. ^ Line 83. The beginning of the Slat Psalm. The Angels sang to the end of the eighth verse only, the rest being nnsoitable. Line 89. The land under the Equator, where, during the equinox, bodies at midday cast no shadow : the verse means therefore when the soutli wind blows.
CahtoXXXI. , PURGATORY. 24a Some time I bore him up with my regard ; Showing to him my youthful eyes, that fain With me, straightforwards, led him still in ward. When of my second age the porch I gain, And changed earth's life for this immortal sphere, ^* He left me, and to others turned amain.
When from mere flesh a spirit I uprear, Increased in virtue, and in beauty too, I grew to him less pleasing and less dear : He turned his footsteps then by paths untrue, ^^ Following images all falsely fair That never keep the promise which they shew : No inspiration could impede him there.
With which, both in his dreams and otherwise I called him back ; so little did he care. ^^ So low he fell, aU other remedies Unto his safety had been vainly sped, Except to show him Hell's lost companies. For this I pierced the circle of the dead. And weeping unto him my prayers conveyed, "*^ Who upwards to this point his steps has led : The high decree of Q-od he would invade.
If Lethe he might pass, and such a cheer Were tasted without any payment made Of Penitence, that bids him shed a tear." ^^
CANTO XXXI. Rebuked by Beatrice, Dante oonfesses his error, and falls senseless to the earth. On his recovering perception he finds himself drawn through the stream by the lady he had iirst f oand on its bank.
Having drunk of the waters of Lethe he is welcomed to the shore by the four cardinal virtues, who lead him to the Gryphon, where the three spiritual virtues intercede for him with Beatrice, who at their request unveils to him aJl her celestial beauty.
" O THOU who stand'st beyond the sacred stream," Turning her speech with straightened point to me, Which only edgeways did so cutting seem, Following she recommenced without delay, '' Say, say if this be true : to such a charge ^ Thy own confession must be offered free. In such confusion was my mind at large. That when my voice sought motion it was dead Ere it was free from its ovm organ's marge.
250 PURGATORY. Cahto XXXI. She paused awliile ; " What think'st thou ?" then she said, ^® " Answer me, ere all memories of woe Shall by the water's charm be wholly fled. Fear and confusion mixed together so. Thrust forth a yes so feeble from my mouth, Signs were required its meaning clear to show. ^^ As a balestra breaketh when one draweth, With too great tension of the bow, the cord, And with less force the spear to the target goeth.
So broken 'neath my heavy load, I poured Outwards my tears and sighs, with which expires *® My voice, or it had gone across its ford. Whence she to me : " Within my own desires, Which ever guided thee to love that good Beyond the which no being e'er aspires, What thwarting moats, what fetters hast thou viewed, ^ On which account of thought to pass beyond Thou didst strip off each hope thou hadst endued ?
And what allurements, or what profits found. Upon the other's brow didst thou descry, For which thou rather there shouldst wanton, fond ?" ^ After the heaving of a bitter sigh, For words my lips with difficulty made, I scarcely found a voice for this reply.
" The things there present," weeping still, I said, " With their false pleasure turned my steps aside, ^ Soon as ye hid your face from me, and fled." ** Hadst thou been silent, or hadst thou denied, What thou confessest, none the less would note Thy sin the Judge from whom ye nought can hide. But when there issues from the sinner's throat ^ Self-accusation, in our Court above Against the edge the blunting wheel is brought.
That ne'ertheless increasing shame improve Thy error, and that other times, whene'er Listening the sirens, thou mayst stronger prove, ^ Lay grief aside, the seed of tears, and hear : So wilt thou learn how to a different way My flesh even buried should have led thee, dear.
Nature and Art did ne'er before thee lay Such pleasure as the fair limbs in which I ** Was closed, that now are only scattered clay : And if thou lostest thy chief ecstasy Through death of mine, what merely mortal thing With ill desire should thee have led away ?
Clearly thou oughtest at the primal sting Of those fallacious things have soared forth Behind me, who was never such. Thy wing Should not have drooped so heavily to earth, To wait for further blows, or a little maid, Or other vanity of briefer worth. The new-fledged birdling twice or thrice delayed ; But in the eyes of the full-feathered bird In vain the net is cast, in vain 'tis laid.
As children silent, in their shame averred, Stand listening the rebuke with downcast ken. Knowing themselves, and to repentance stirred : So did I stand : and she addressed me : " When Thou grievest but to hear, lift up the beard, And gazing, greater grief will seize thee then. With less resistance are the roots upreared Of oak robust, by blast from Arctic strand.
Or from larba's Afric region steered, Then I upraised my chin at her command : For what time by the beard she called my face Her speech's sting I well could understand And as my shamed countenance I raise. Ceasing from scattering their flowers around. Those Heavenly creatures fair the eye surveys : And my own eyes not yet assured, in swound Saw Beatrice turned towards the beast ^ That in one person had two natures crowned.
Beneath her veil, beyond the river placed, She seemed her old self to surpass far more Than even on earth all others she surpast. The sting of Penitence so pricked my core ^* That towards all other things, which me had turned Most from her love, the greater hate I bore.
Such recognition in my heart there burned That I fell senseless : and what then I grew Knows she the cause, whose beauty on me turned. ^ Then, when my heart things outward once more knew, The lady, whom I first had found alone, I saw above me ; and she said, *^ Hold true. Line 59.
This alludes either to Dante's alleged amour with Gentnoca, which, however, took place after the assumed date of the vision, or, as Cary suggests, to his marriage with Gemma Donati, which took place after Beatrice's death. Line 74. The sting is the allusion to the want of wisdom in spite of the beard.
262 PUBGATORY. Oahto XXXI. Up to the throat i' the stream she'd drawn me on. And drawing me behind her hiurried o'er ^'^ Light as a shuttle o'er the water thrown. When I was near onto the blessed shore, Asperges me, I heard in notes so suave I cannot write its unremembered lore.
The beauteous lady oped her arms to lave, ^^ Embraced my head, and gently dipped me down Where it was fit that I should drink the wave : Then bore me up, and bathed she led me on Within the daiLce of those four damsels fair ; While each of them an arm had round me thrown. ^^ *' We here are nymphs, in Heaven is each a star ; Ere Beatrice to the world descended. We were ordained as handmaids unto her.
We'll lead thee to her eyes ; but in the splendid Light hid within them, will make luminous "^ Thy own, yon three, whose gaze has deeper wended. Thus singing they began their welcome ; thus To the Gryphon's breast they led me in their arms, Where Beatrix was standing, turned to us : They said, " Of vision spare not now the charms ; Before her emerald eyes we've led thee nigher. Whence Love of old upon thee drew his arms.
A thousand wishes, hotter far than fire. My eyes attracted to those beaming eyes, That still upon the Gryphon calm aspire. As in a glass the sun, not otherwise The double-natured beast within them rayed, Now in his single, now in double guise. Think, reader, if my marvel was allayed When I beheld the thing itself stand still, ^^ That thus was changed in its reflected shade.
Whilst full of wonder and delight, its fill My soul devoured of that heavenly food, For which, when satisfied, it hungers still ; Showing themselves with higher birth endued, ^** In seemly port, the other three arise, And Angel dance with Angel song prelude. Line 98. Sprinkle me with hyssop : the prayer recited by the priest when he sprinkles tiie congregation with holy water. Line 106. The four stars described in Canto I. The seven yirtnes are mven as handmaids to Beatrice in her allegorical character of Contemplative AeUgion.
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Canto XXXII. PURGATORY. 253 " Turn, Beatrice, turn thy holy eyes Upon thy faithful one," their song did steal, *' Who to behold thee has dared such emprise. Of grace, bestow on us the grace to unveil, Thy mouth to him, that he may now discern The spiritual beauties which thou dost conceal." O splendour of the living light eteme, Whoe'er grows pale beneath Parnassus' shade, "° Or drinketh inspiration at its urn, Would not appear to have his mind dismayed, Striving to paint thee such as thou appeared' st, There where the climbing heavens around thee played When thou in open air thy beauty bared'st ? ^**
CANTO XXXII. The whole procession moves on, followed by Dante, Statins, and Matilda, xmtil they reach the Tree of Life, to which the Gryphon ^tens the car. Dante falls into a slumber, and on hemg ronsed finds that Beatrice, Matilda, apd the cardinal virtues alone remain under the Tree. The History of the Church is then typified to Dante in a vision of changes thai befall the car. So were my eyes there fixed and engrossed, To satisfy the thirst of ten long years. That all my other senses then were lost ; And even to my eyep a wall uprears To heed nought else, so did that holy smile * Draw them towards it with its olden gears. When forcibly was turned my gaze awhile Towards my left hand, by those Goddesses, Whom I heard say too fiit a gaze were ill. The dazed condition that is seen in eyes That have but just been dazzled by the sun, Unto my own awhile their sight denies : But when my sight a moderate light could con, Moderate I call it with respect to the bright Marvel, from which with violence 'twas won, ^* I saw them turned around upon their right. That glorious troop of spirits, with their gaze Turned to the sun, and those seven flames of light. As 'neath the shields they for protection raise, Turneth a troop, and wheeleth to the sign. Ere the whole army can be changed in place ;
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Line 2. The ten years that had elapsed since the death of Beatrice in 1290.
254 PURGATORY. Cahto XXXH. So that Militia of the realms divine Which led the van, in circuit wholly wheels Before the chariot's pole began to incline. Then turned around the ladies at the wheels ^ And moved the Gryphon the aye-blessed car, Whilst not one trembling plume the load reveals.
Who drew me o'er the stream, that lady fair, Statins and I, upon that wheel reverted Which makes its orbit with less circuit there, ^ So passing through the lofty wood, deserted Through fault of her who trusted in the snake, Our steps with Angel singing were concerted. Haply such distance as three flights would make Of loosened arrow had we travelled o'er, ^ When Beatrix her station did forsake.
I heard them all 'gainst Adam murmur sore : Then go in circle round a tree all bare Of flowers or leaves upon its branches hoar. Its branches, that spread wider as they rear ^ Aloft, would even in the groves of Ind Be gazed at for their height with wonder rare.
" Gryphon, blest art thou, that ne'er inclined Thy beak towards this tree, so sweet to taste, That in the belly leaves such ill behind." ^ So in procession round the tree robust, Cried out they all ; the twice-born beast replied, " So is preserved the seed of every just," And turned towards the pole which he had plied. He drew it to the foot of the widowed tree, ^ And to its trunk, thence fashioned, left it tied.
As earthly plants when falleth o'er the lea The sun's light, with that starry ray imbued. Which after Pisces' sign in Heaven we see. All pregnant swell, and each is then renewed « With its own coloured foliage, ere as yet in Taurus' star, the steeds of the sun are viewed ; Paler than rose, darker than violet.
That plant grew new with leafy colouring, Whose branches had before so bare been set. ^ I understood not, nor on earth they sing The hymn which all that people chanted here. Nor could I bear the whole strange carolling. Line 53. When the snn is in Aries, the constellation next to Pisces.
Canto XXXII. PURGATORY. ^ 255 If I had power in sleep to make appear Those cruel eyes, when heard Siringa's plaint, *^ Those eyes, whose watchfulness cost them so dear ; As by example doth an artist paint, I would describe how slumber closed my eyes : Tell it, whoe'er can slumber draw most quaint : But to my wakening my description flies : ^^ I say a splendour rent aside the veil Of slumber, and a cry, ** What dost? arise.
As flowers of Heaven's own honey dew to hail, Which with their fruit create the Angels' greed, And marriage feasts in Heaven that never fail, ^^ Peter and James, and John were erst decreed, And overcome, awakened at the word. At sound of which far deeper slumbers fled.
And saw departed from the band revered Both Moses* and Elias' presence gone, *^ And their own Lord, in human shape averred ; So I awoke, and saw that piteous one Standing above me, who was first the guide Who led my footsteps by that river on : And all in doubt, " Where's Beatrix ? I cried : ^ And she : ** Behold her seated 'neath the new Foliage upon the roots.
In worthy pride The company that troopeth round her view ; The rest behind the Gryphon soar above, With song more sweet, of mystery deeper too." ®^ Whether her parlance any more did rove, I know not : since upon my eyes there shone She, who all else from my perception drove. She sate upon the naked earth alone. As though left there the guardian of the car, ®^ Which I had seen the two- formed beast bear on.
Within their circle, girdled it the fair Seven nymphs, whose hands the holy lights retain, Secure from north wind's or from south wind's blare. " Here wilt thou be a short time denizen, ^^® Then habitant with me, without an end. Of that high Rome where Christ is citizen ; Line 65. The story of Argo, put to sleep by Mercury relating the transformation of the nymph Siringa, and afterwards slain. Ovid's Metam., book i. Line 73.
Dante compares his awakening to that of the three Apostles after the Transfiguration, roused by that voice which had power to raise the dead.
266 PURGATORY. Cahto XXXn. But the world's evil habitudes to mend, Oaze on the car, and what thou seest write When once again to earth thou must descend." ^^ Thus Beatrix, and I whose whole delight To her commands devoutly would incline, As she directed, gave my mind and sight. With such swift motion never did careen The thunderbolt from riven doud above, "® What time it rains in Heaven's most far confine.
As I beheld descend the bird of Jove, Through the trees' branches, stripping ofE the bark, While flowers and leaflets all before it drove, And smote the car with all its violence stark : ^^* On which it staggered, as o'er stormy wave To starboard and to larboard rolls the bark, In evil fortune. Then upon the nave Of the triumphal car a fox upclimbs. Which only poisonous food appeared to crave. "® But keenly blaming it its laidly crimes.
My lady urged it to as swift a flight As could effect such fleshless bones betimes. Then from the quarter whence it erst did light I saw the eagle glide down o*er the pile ^ O* the car, and leave it with its feathers dight. And as there breaks from heart that grieveth still, Such voice there issued from the heavens, that cried, " O Httle bark of mine, what freight of iU !
Then I beheld the earth gape op^n wide 'Twixt both the wheels, and hence a dragon spring. That smote the car with its tail's piercing gride : And as a wasp that draweth back its sting. It drew together with its tail malign A part of the car, and then went wandering. That which remained, as o'er rich earth doth twine The weedy grass, with the feathers' offered store, G-iven haply with intention thus benign, Line 112.
The Roman Emperors, who at the first persecnted the infant Church. Line 119. The fox represents the spirit of heresy which was rife in the Church after the early persecutions had ceased. Line 126. The second descent of the eagle alludes to the conversion of Constantine, and the gift of its plumage describes his donations to the Church, which Dante has already stamped as its ruin. Line 131.
The dragon is supposed to represent Mahomet, whose creed was embraced in a great portion of the earth once included in the Church.
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CANTO XXXIII. PURGATORY. 257 Covered itself, and was all covered o*er, The one and the other wheel, and the pole, as soon ^*^ As a long sigh keeps ope the lips' red core. The holy edifice thus diflferent grown. Thrust outward heads, throughout its strange design. Three o'er the pole, in every corner one. The three upon the pole were homed like kine : "^ The four had but one horn upon each front ; A similar monster never yet was seen. Secure as castle on a lofty mount, Seated upon it, an abandoned whore Appeared to me, with eyes of shameless brunt. ^^^ And that none else should seize her evermore, I saw beside her stand a giant high : They kissed each other often, o'er and o'er. But' since her roving and lascivious eye Wandered towards me, that ferocious lover "* Lashed her from head to foot with cruelty. Then with suspicion full, and ire all over. He dragged the monster, from the tree released, Into the wood, and made of that a cover Unto the harlot and the new-formed beast. ^^ Line 144. The seven heads are interpreted * generally as the seven capital sins, of which the three with two horns are Pride, Anger, and Avarice, which hart the sinner himself and his neighbour ; the four with one horn, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, and Envy, which only injure himself. Some consider the seven heads to represent the seven sacraments, and the ten horns the ten commandments. Line 149. Pope Boniface YIII. is intimated by the harlot, and Philip the Fair of France is her giant lover. The transfer of the Papal seat to Avignon is pointed at in the carrying away of the car.
CANTO XXXIII. The seven virgins and Beatrice sing in lamentation on the vision. They then all leave the Tree, and Beatrice darkly prophesies to Dante the future fate of the Church. They then all arrive at the fountain from which the rivers Lethe and Eunoe are derived, and issue on their several ways. Matilda leads Dante and Statins to drink of Eunoe's wave, from which he rises renewed in spirit and purified for Parad'se. Deu8 venerunt genteSy now the three, And now the four dear ladies beauteous. Weeping began the dulcet psalmody. Line 1. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. — ?s. Ixxix. 1. S
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25S PURGATORY. Cahto XXXIII. And Beatrix with sighs and piteous, In such a bearing heard, that little more ^ Q-rief altered Mary liirhen beside the cross. But when those virgins ceased their song to pour For her to speak, then upwards rising, she Answered, her face with flushing covered o'er, Modicvm, et non videbitis me ; ^® Et iterum, my sisters well beloved. Modicum^ et voe mdebitis me.
Then all the band of seven before her moved ; And after her she marshalled with a sign Myself, the dame, and the sage who hskd not roved. So she went on ; nor was there I divine Our tenth step on the earth advancing placed. When on my eyes there smote her heavenly eyne, And with a tranquil look, " With better haste Come on," she said, '' that I may speak with thee, And thou to listen may be fairly placed.
When I was there, where duty bade to be, She said, " My brother, wherefore dost not care Henceforth to question, as thou comest with me ? Like unto those who with too reverent air ** Before the acknowledged betters whom they meet, Betwixt their teeth to whisper scarcely dare, Befell me then, that without sound complete I 'gan.
" My lady, what my need doth claim You thoroughly know, and what for that is meet." ^ And she to me, '* From fearfulness and shame I would that thou from henceforth shouldst awake. So as to speak no more like one in dream. Know that the vessel which the serpent brake. Was and is not, on whom the sin we lay. Thinks he God's vengeance halts for sopped cake P Heirless the eagle will not be for aye.
Who to the car did leave that plumage fell, Through which it grew a monster, then a prey. For clearly I behold and therefore tell. To bring a time, the happier stars arrive, From all resistance free, and obstacle, Line 10. John's Grodpel, zri. 16. Line 15. Dante, Matilda (named for the first time in line 119), and Statins. Line 36.
There was a superstition in Florence that a mnrderer would be secure from vengeance if within nine days he ate a sop of bread in wine on the grave of the mardered man. AUnding to this, Beatrice says that no superstitions observances would secure the spoiler of the Church from the vengeance of God.
Cakto XXXni. PURGATORY. 259 When a Five hundred, and a Ten, and Five, Sent down by God will slay the shameless whore And the giant who with her in sin doth thrive. ** And though my statement may appear obscure, Like Themis or like Sphynx persuading less, Since in their fashion it conceals its lore : Full soon events shall be thy Naiades, Who will resolve for thee this riddle deep, ^ Without the loss of flocks or corn- grown leas.
Take heed, and thus these words told by me keep In memory, that thou teach them thus aright To those whose life but hastes to Death's long sleep : And bear in mind, when thou dost this indite, ** Not to conceal how thou hast seen the plant, Which has been now twice spoiled within thy sight. Whoever tears it, or doth spoil this haunt.
With such blaspheming deed offendeth God, Who made it holy for His private wont. ^ Through tasting it, in pain, and yearning mood, Five thousand years and more, the primal soul Craved him, who on himself did turn the rod. Thy understanding slumbers, if the whole Eeason it sees not, why this towers so high, •* And spreads so widely upwards from the bole.
Were not like Elsa's waves that petrify, The thoughts so vain that swarm around thy mind, And dyed by pleasure, as the mulberry By Pyramus, in such great facts designed '® Alone, God's justice in this interdict Of the tree, to thy own profit thou wouldst find. !But since I see thee in thy intellect Turned into stone, and so with sinning dyed. That dazzles thee the light my words reflect, ^* Line 43.
Five hundred, ten, and five written in Roman letters are D, X, Y, which make the word Dox, a leader. Who the leader here meant may be is disputed. It is supposed to be either Henry YII., the German Emperor, or Can Grande della Scala, the greyhoand in the first book oi the poem. Line 49.
Dante ccnisidered the Naiades as expounders of oracles, on the strength of a line in Ovid, which is now supposed to be corrupt, and which has been conjecturally altered by Heinsius. With this explanation, the error of Dante, if error it be, is of no consequence to the intelligibility of the passage. Line 62. The opinion of the Church in the Middle Ages was that five thousand years elapsed between the fall of Adam and the birth of Christ. Line 67* The Elsa is a stream that flows into the Amoj which was supposed to possess a petrifying quality.
260 PURGATORY. Cahto XXXIII. I will that, if not written, yet descried, Thou bear it in thee, for a memory, As is the pilgrim's staff with palm-leaves tied. " As with the seal the wax is stamped," said I, " That changes not the impression on it dight, ^^ So is my brain stamped with your seal. But why Doth fly so soaringly beyond my sight Your speech, so long yearned after by my soul, Which most is lost when strove for most with might ?
" That thou might' st clearly know," she said, " what school ^ Thou'st followed, and behold its doctrine fine, How it can follow on my word's control, And see how far your way from the divine Is distant, as discordant in their lot Earth, and the Heaven which highest hastes to shine." ^ On which I answered : " I remember not That I have ever turned away from you, Nor does my conscience sting me for such blot.
" And if thou canst not that remember true," Smiling she answered, " call thee now to mind '* How thou hast drunk but now of Lethe's dew : And if from smoke we. argue flame to find, This thy oblivion proveth very clear Sin in thy will, to others too inclined. Within a little truly will be bare ^^ My words, as far as 'twill be fit to show Their meaning to thy vision debonnair.
More brilliant now, and with a step more slow, The sun attained the circle of the noon, (Different in different sites on earth below), ^^ When to a pause there came, as pauseth one Who goes before as escort to a band. If on th6 track a novelty be known. The ladies seven, before a gloom at hand Such as 'neath verdant leaves and dusky boughs "® O'er the cool Alpine slopes the forests stand.
Before them Tigris and Euphrates rose, Meseemed to see them in one fount embrace. Then like to friends that part each slowly goes. " light, O glory of the human race, ^'* What wave is this that here doth spring to-day From its first source, and travels on in space ? To such a prayer was told me, " Thou mayst pray Matilda that she teU thee," here replied, As one who seeks some blame to clear away, ^
-^1 ^1 ^i^^^^^a^^^P^ — ■ ■■'^l A^ i !■! m^ m^ m
Cakto xxxni. PUBGATORY. ^61 The lady fair. " This and much more beside Was told him erst by me ; and I am sure That Lethe's wave from him this cannot hide." And Beatrix : " Perchance some greater care, That oftentimes the memory deprives, ^* Has made his mental vision thus obscure. But Eunoe behold, which here derives : Lead him to it, and as thou'rt wont to use See that his deadened virtue here revives," Like gentle spirit who makes no excuse, ^^ But of another's will creates her own, Soon as by outward sign the purpose shows ; When she had ta'en me by the hand, moved on The lady fair, to Statins who awaited, " Come thou with him," she said in queenly tone. ^^ ^ader, if longer space to me were rated For writing, I would strive to sing in part That draught so sweet, which never could have sated. But since is now completely filled the chart Allotted for this second book, there leaves ^*® No power to wander more the curb of Art. I turned back from those most holy waves Created fresh, as plants made new once more, Eenewed through the birth of new green leaves. Pure, and prepared unto the stars to soar. ^** Line 139. The thirty-three Cantos allotted to each book being here completed for the " Purgatory," the poet says that the rule of art which he has imposed on himself prevents him from describing the rapture of this draught.
PARADISE.
CANTO I.
Affcer solemn invocation, Dante describes his ascent from tlie earthly Paradise towards the first sphere of Heaven : his ignorance of how he thus past ont of hnmanity, a^d Beatrice's explanation of his donbts. ^ His glory who moves all doth penetrate Throughout the universe, and shineth bright Here with a greater, there with lesser state.
In the sky which most partaketh of his light Was I, and things I saw, which to repeat * Knows not, and cannot whoe'er leaves that height. Because approaching to its yeamed-for seat The intellect deep diveth there so long That memory behind it cannot fleet. Of what to the holy kingdom doth belong ^® Which I had power to treasure in my mind, Truly shall now be subject of my song.
To this last labour, O Apollo kind, Make me such vessel of thy mysteries, To thy loved laurel the best gift assigned. ^* One of the peaks that on Parnassus rise Till now sufficed me, now the twain beneath I must address me to the new emprise. Enter my breast, thyself within me breathe. As when of old thou Marsyas conquerest, ^ And drewest all his limbs from out their sheath. O virtue most divine, now aid my 'hest.
So that the shadow of the blessed reign Stampt on my brain I may make manifest. To thy loved tree thou'lt see me coming fain ^ With its own leaves to crown me then, which thou. And the subject, will have made me fit to gain. If, rarely, father, there doth pluck it now For triumph, either emperor, or bard, (The sin and shame of human will I trow,) ^
Casto I. PARADISE. 263 Should bring forth joyaunce in the glad regard Of Belphos' deity, the Peneian leaf, When any one doth thirst for its reward. Great flame may follow from a spark but brief ; After me haply with a voice of might, •* Others may win reply from Cyrrha's chief.
To mortals rises aye on different site The great lamp of the world ; but when it rears Where with three crosses circles four unite, In happiest course, with most propitious stars ^ Conjoined it issues, and the mundane leaven Most with its influence sealeth, and prepares.
Had made the morning there, and here the even, Such a conjunction, and was clad in white Yon hemisphere, the rest all darkly paven, ** When Beatrice turned within my sight Towards the left, to gaze upon the sun ; Ne'er gazed so long an eagle on the height.
And as reflected ray is wont to run From the direct, upwards again to soar, '^ As pilgrim eager to return alone, So that her action, through my eyes did pour Upon my thought, and fashioned mine, that near The sun I gazed, beyond mere mortal power. Much there is lawful which is not so here ** Unto our virtue, guerdon of the place Made for humanity the chosen sphere. I could not bear it long, but yet such space.
That all around me I beheld it gleam Like iron glowing from the fire's embrace, ^ And to the day there suddenly did seem A new day joined, as though G-od's power had blazed Upon the sky another sun to beam. Upon the eternal spheres, with eyes that gazed Stood Beatrix, and I my vision laid ^ On her, turned hither from the height that dazed ; Line 32. "The Peneian leaf, the laurel, meed of mighty conquerors and poets sage." — Spenser, b. i., can.
1, st. 9. Line 36. ^rrha, a city at Uie foot of Parnassus, devoted to Apollo. Line 89.
When the sun rises in such a manner that the circles of the horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial colure join, the last three intersecting each other so as to form three crosses, it is in the const-ellation of Aries, and produces the most favourable influences ; in such a oox^junction was it rising on the earthly Paradise, and setting on the other hemisphere, when Beatrice and Dante launched upwards to the spheres. Line 56.
Dante being on the terrestrial Paradise had his faculties so attempered that he was able to look at the sun in a way impossible on the inhabited hemisphere.
264 PARADISE. . CAvtd I. Within my soul her look such influence made. Such as when G-laucus tasted of the grass, And grew a sea-god in the ocean bed. By words cannot be told how one doth pass ^® From human thus, the example must suffice For whom experience is preserved by grace.
If I were fashioned only in such guise As thou madest newly, love that rulest the sky, Thou know'st, who with thy light didst make me rise. ^* What time the sphere, which thou, loved deity, Dost ever whirl, attracted all my gaze, With its heaven-watched and tempered melody. That portion of the sky seemed all ablaze With the sun's flame, that never rain or stream ^ Upon the earth such widespread lake could raise.
The newness of the sound, and the bright gleam To search their causes kindled such a glow I ne'er had felt an ardour so extreme.
Whence she, who saw me as myself I know, " To still the perturbation of my mind, Spake, ere the question to my lips could go : And thus began : ** Thyself thou makest blind With thy false fancy, that thou canst not see What thou wouldst see, if this were thrown behind. ** On earth thou art not, as thou think'st to be ; And lightning flying from its native sphere Ne*er coursed as swift as hitherwards dost flee.
If from my primal doubt I was made clear By those few words she uttered smiling bright, '* I fell into another greater snare ; And said : " Content already I alight From my great wonder, but am how beguiled To think how I mount o'er these bodies light.
When she had given a pitying sigh, her mild ^^ Eyes she directed towards me, with a face As of a mother o'er a raving child, And thus continued : " All the things in space Have order 'midst themselves ; and hence arrayed Beareth the universe its God-like trace. ^^ Here, high created beings see the shade Of the Eternal Power, the sole design For which this rule of order has been made.
In the order, which I tell thee of, incline All natures, though in different lot each tends "*^ Nearer or farther from their source divine. Line 79. They were passing through the sphere of Gxe, beneath the moon.
CiNTo II. PARADISE. 265 Hence they move onwards to their different ends, Through the great sea of being, and each one Is borne there by the instinct Nature lends.
This carries up the fire towards the moon : "* This in the hearts of mortal kind doth move : This binds and gathers up the earth alone : Nor creatures only, whose low organs prove Their want of intellect, shoots forth this bow, But those that have both intellect and love. ^*® The Providence which all things fitteth so, The empyrean stills in its own light, In which the swiftest whirling Heaven doth glow : ^nd hither now, as to our promised site, Bears us the potent virtue of that string. ^^ Which to a gladsome mark aye shoots aright.
'Tis true the form intentions will not bring At times unto the purposed will of art.
Because the matter fails in answering : So from this Heavenward course there may depart ^*^ Created thing at times, who has the power Thus driven, to bend aside to other port, (Just as one may behold fall down in shower Fire from the cloud), if the first impetus By false delight to earth be twisted lower. ^ Thou shouldst not think with wonder marvellous Of thv ascent, but as a stream which fell Down to the deeps from mount precipitous.
Marvel would be for thee, from obstacle When freed, if thou hadst downwards fallen amain, ^*® As though on earth the living fire could dwell. Then towards the Heaven she turned her face again. Line 119. The bow of instinct, and again in line 125. Line 130. The soul, abnsing its liberty of will, may desert the Heavenward course on which its instinct sends it, as fire, instead of rising, falls at times on earth from the lightning cload.
CANTO n. Dante and his guide enter the sphere of the moon, and Beatrice explains to him the cause of the spots which appear on its surface. O YE who follow in your little boat Behind my bai'k, with hope to hear the strain With which in song across the sea I float.
266 PARADISE. Cahto U. Tarn je to see your native shores again ; Put ye not forth on auch a aea, where far, Ere lost, ye might be 'wildered on the main. The course I take was never steered before ; Inspires Minerva, and Apollo leads, And Muses new point out the guiding star.
Ye other few, who help in time your needs ^" With angels' bread, on which one lives even here, Although the feast to fulness ne'er proceeds ; Across this ocean wide ye well may steer Your navigation, following in my lee. Ere in the wave my furrow disappear. '^ Those glorious ones who past across the sea To Colchos marvelled erst, as ye will do, When they saw Jason's wondrous husbandry.
The ceaseless impetus which together grew With the Qod-made spheres, bore us still upwards raised ^ Nearly as swiftly as the sky ye view. I upon her, on high Beatrice gazed. And haply in the time a bolt is plied. And flyeth, from the crossbow's notch released, We had attained, where drew my sight aside ^ A wondrous thing, so she, from whom I ne'er The slightest working of my heart could hide. Turned towards me with a face as glad as &ir.
" Raise towards God the grateful mind," she said, '' Who thus has brought us unto this first star." ^ MeseemM that we now with cloud were clad. Clear shining, thickly solid, and as bright As diamond on the which the sun has rayed. Within itself the eternal Margarite Received us as the glassy wave receives, ** Retaining still its whole, a ray of light. Being a body scarce the mind conceives How matter other matter can admit.
Which must be, if a frame in frame enweaves The which should kindle our desire more bright ^ To see that essence where beholds the adept How human nature doth to God unite. There shall we see that which through faith we kept. Not proved to us, but known beyond a doubt. Like to those first truths which mankind accept. ^ Line 19.
I have adopted Tentari's explanation of this passage, which is that the ceaseless whirling of the spheres drew on Dante and Beatrice now that they had risen into its influence.
Oamto II. PARADISE. 267 «* Madonna/' I replied, ** with heart devout As there can be I render thanks to Him Who has thus brought me from the mortal rout. But tell me what are these suffusions dim Upon this body, which below on earth *** Create the fable of Cain's faggots grim ?
She smiled a little, then " If thus there erreth The opinion," said she, ** amongst mortals where The senses' key cannot unlock the birth, Certes, no more the darts of wonder rare "^ Should prick thee, since behind the senses' flight Thou seest that Reason's wings are short to bear. But tell me what thou think'st thyself of it.
And I, " What seems so different above I think is caused by bodies dense or light." ^ And she : " Thou'lt surely see enough to prove False thy belief if thou wilt thoroughly hear The argument with which I will disprove. Lights many show to ye the far eighth sphere, Which in their quality and in their size ^ Unto each other different will appear. If this were made by varying densities In all but one sole virtue would there be.
Shared less or more or in equalities. Different virtues must the fruitage be ^* Of varying sources, all of which save one By thy belief would be destroyed for thee. Again, were rarity the cause alone. Thou askest, of those spots, either in part This planet of its substance would be shown ^^ Quite wanting, or as lieth all apart The fat and lean upon a body, so Its volume's leaves would change from light to swart.
Were the first true that would we clearly know In the eclipses of the sun, whose light ^ As to all rarities would pierce it through. Line 60. This opinion of the cause of the shadows on the moon's surface was offered by Dante in the Convito, and which he now makes Beatrice confute. Line 64. ^ The sphere of the fixed stars differing in size and brilliaace, Dante considered that these, like the moon, received their light from the sun. Line 73.
She proceeds to prove the impossibility of tiie shadows being caused by the rarity of the moon's body, ^ich rarity cannot pierce right through the moon, or the sun's rays would be then visible during an eclipse, nor if the rarity proceeds only to a certain depth, like fat on the lean of animal flesh, could that produce the effect.
This possible alternate rarity and density is compared to the pages of a parchment volume, which are alternately light and dark, each sheet of parchment having a brown side.
268 PARADISE. Camto EL Now this is not so. Then, to turn our sight To the other supposition, if that too Be broken thy conjecture falls outright. If, then, this rarity does not pass through, **. Some boundary to it must be effected Where density prevents its course anew.
And thence the alien ray will be reflected Just as it tumeth backwards from the glass Whose back with leaden coating is protected. ^ Now thou wilt say the dimness on the mass Is in some places greater by the ray That from a greater depth doth backwards pass. Such a mistake to thee will clear away Experiment, if ever thou wilt try, ^ 0' the streams of all your arts sole source for aye.
Take thou three mirrors, and place equally Before thee two, the other further on. So placed that 'twixt the first it meet thy eye. Turned towards these, behind thy back set down A light which on the mirrors three shall gleam, And from them all reflected towards the sun. Although in quantity is not the same The light most distant, thou wilt see it blazo As fitteth with no less resplendent beam.
Now as beneath the touch of the warm rays Loses the earth the snow with which 'twas deckt, And its first colour, and its frozen glaze, So thee, thus stripped within thy intellect, I would inform with light whose living shine Shall tremble o'er thee in its first aspect. Within the heaven where resteth peace divine There whirls a body in whose magic power Sublies all being held in its confine.
The heaven that follows with its starry shower, That being shares to its various essences. Distinct from it, yet held within its bower. The other spheres, with changing differences. The power distinct, which doth within them glow, Dispose to their own seeds and purposes. ^ These organs of the universe thus go^ As thou dost henceforth see, from stair to stair, Above receiving, giving from below. Line 96.
An ennmeration of the trne prinoiple of Bacon's experimental pliiloBophy. Line 112. The empyrean. See ihe deecription of Dante's system of astronomy, in which moTCS the primom mobile.
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Canto III. PARADloiS. 269 Now mark me well, how I from this prepare To reach the truth which thou dost ever love, ^*^* So that henceforth aloue thou'lt pass the mere. The motion of the holy spheres above, As by the workman comes the hammer's art, Impelled bj blessed motors, aye must move. The sky yon starry beauty gleams athwart Takes from the deep soul of its guiding spirit The image and the seal 'twill thence impart. And as the soul that human dust doth 'herit Resolves itself through different limbs yet made Together unto powers of different merit, So the intelligence of the spheres displayed Its goodness through the stars all multiplied, Yet whirling in its unity arrayed. Virtue diverse has diverse compact plied With the precious body, which it vivifies. In which, as life within yourselves, 'tis tied. Glad through the nature whence it doth arise. The mingled virtue through the frame makes light. As joyousness shines out through living eyes. From this ensueth what from light to light ^*^ Seems different, and not from dense or rare. This is the formal cause that makes aright, Conformed to its own goodness, dusk or clear." Line 148. The common -sense reader will not be very satisfied with Beatrice's offered explanation. The moving angel of each sphere stirs in it like the soul in the human body, and shines oat of it like joy from hnman eyes, hence the difference in each li^rht rayed from a different power ; bnt this does not appear to account for a difference in the light rayed oat of one body by its own intelligence as the shadows visible on the moon's surface.
CANTO in. Dante beholds in the moon the spirits of the blessed. He converses with Ficcarda, the sister of Forese, and learns that she, with the rest, are confined to that lowest sphere through having been compelled to a breach of their vows, but that God's will makes every sphere perfect Paradise. She points out to him the spirit of the Empress Constance.
That sun which first with love had warmed my breast Had opened unto me of truth so fair, With proof reiterate, the aspect blest. And I, my sure conviction to declare As was most fitting, raised on high my head To her the due acknowledgment to bear.
270 PARADISE. Cahto in. I^ut there appeared a vision which waylaid My purpose, drawing my attention near, That my confession was forgot ere said. Such as through glass diaphanous and clear, ^® Or through the shining waters' tranquil deeps. Not of such depth as darkly to appear, The sketch of our own features upwards creeps So dimly, that of pearl or whitest front The eye no clearer the faint outline keeps. ^* Thus saw I many eager faces mount.
And fell into the opposite error there From that which kindled love 'twixt man and fount. Tor suddenly when I of them was 'ware.
Believing they were mirrored images, ** I turned my eyes to see of whom they were, And nothing saw, and drew them with surprise Straight on the light, which in my own sweet guide Smiling was kindled in her holy eyes. ^* Marvel thou not because I smiled," replied ** My lady, " at thy childish judgment blind, Si^ce thy foot trusteth not the truth descried.
But turns thee, as its wont, to empty wind ; True substances are these which thou dost greet, Who, through their broken vow, are here confined. ^ But speak with them, and hear, and credence mete. For the true light which in them shineth plain. From sliding any more will g^uard their feet.
And I unto the shadow which most fain Appeared to parley with me, drew my gaze, And as by eagerness confused, began, spirit ! made for good, who in the rays Of life eteme drink'st sweetness of the skies, Which tasted not, in vain the soul essays, Wouldst thou but tell me I the boon would prize. Thy name, and all the mystery of your lot.
Whence eager she replied, with smiling eyes : Our charity the portal barreth not To just desire, no more than God's own worth Which wiQs that all His Court be like Him brought. ** 1 was a holy sister on the earth ; And if thy mind will well regard me here. Will veil me not my grace of heavenly birth. Line 17- Narcissas condeived his shadow to be a reality. Dante miatakes ^he refined substanceB of the blest for shadows.
But as Piccarda thou wilt know me clear, Who stationed here amongst these other blest Are happy in the slowest whirling sphere. All our affections are alone imprest With what doth please the Holy Spirit, so Here, in His order, they rejoice at rest. And in this sphere, which seems so yery low, High Heaven our residence allotted places. Because we did not Wholly keep our vow.
Whence I to her : " Within your wondrous faces There shineth something that is so divine. That quite it changeth all your former traces ; Therefore thy likeness did my memory twine But slowly, aided by what thou dost tell More like my native tongue, I now divine. But tell me, ye who happy here do dwell, Do ye desire another higher place To see more fully, and your love to swell P" With the other shades she smiled a little space.
Then answered me with such a joy galore, That love's first fires seemed burning in her face. " Brother, our will is quieted with lore '* Of charity, which makes us only seek That which we have, nor ever thirst for more.
If higher lots for us we would bespeak Then our desires would all discordant be With His high will, who here our lots doth make. ^* Which in these circles cannot be, thou'lt see : If here to dwell in charity is need, And if thou seest the law of charity. Nay, 'tis essential to our blessed meed To be restrained within the will Divine, ^ That unto one our wills be all agreed.
So that as we throughout this kingdom shine From sphere to sphere, it pleaseth every grade. As to the King, to whose will all incline. In his high pleasure all our peace is laid ; This is that ocean unto which are brought All things which it creates, or Nature made. Line 49. The sister of Forese, introdaoed in Canto XXIV. of the ** Purgatory," and of Gorso Donati.
The latter, with some dissolute oomradefl, scaled Piccarda's monastery and forcibly took her away to marry her against her will. The legend states that before the spouse of Christ came tocher with her carnal husband she committed her virginity to the care of her Heavenly Lord, and was smitten with leprosy, and died in a few days, being thus saved from contamination.
272 PARADISE. Cahto m. Then was it clear to me how every lot In Heaven is Paradise, though the highest good His grace in one sole fashion mineth not. ^ But as it haps, when glutted with one food After another still desire doth crave For which are thanks paid, and which still is wooed. So I with words and gesture to her clave To learn from her the story of the woof, '^ The which her shuttle did not wholly weave.
" A perfect life and high desert of proof Enshrines the lady in a Heaven more high, After whose rule on earth we live- ftloof , That we may see, and slumber when we die ^^ With that dear spouse, who every vow receives Which to his pleasure mouldeth charity.
In youth I fled me from the world that grieves To follow her, and her chaste habit wore, And promised me the path her sect achieves. ^^ Men used to evil more than virtuous lore From the sweet cloister carried me away : God knows the life which afterwards I bore.
This other, who her splendour doth display At my right hand, and bums with all the light "** Allotted to our sphere, whatever I say About myself, applies to her aright ; She was a nun, and from her head was torn Even thus the shadow of her nun's veil white. But even in the world where she was borne "* Against her will, and every usage good. Within her heart the veil was ever worn.
This is great Constance' light, who from the rude Wind that the second blew from Suabia's plain, Produced the third, and latest of the brood." ^^® Thus she spake to me, and began the strain Ave Maria, vanishing with song. As heavy body through the dusky main. My vision, which still followed her as long As it was possible, when she was gone ^^ Turned to the target of my love most strong, Line 98. St. Clare, the foandress of Piocarda's order.
Line 118. Daughter of Bnggieri, King of Sicily, and taken from her monastery, at the mature age of fifty, to marry the Emperor Henry YI., the second of the House of Suabia, by whom she became mother to Frederic II., the third and last of the brood.
CANTO IV. Dante stands absorbed by two donbts arising from what he has just heard and seen. Beatrice removes both his difficalties, first with reference to the place assigned to tibie blest in Heaven, and then as to the effect of alien violence npon the will. Dante then inquires as to the possibility of making satisfaction for a broken vow. Betwixt two kinds of food, each equally Distant and tempting, ere a man could choose In freedom, he might first of hunger die. Even thus a lamb betwixt two wolfish foes. Equal in longing, would fear each the same ; * Even thus would stand a hound betwixt two does. Wherefore if 1 was silent, I nor blame (Betwixt my doubts in mute suspension thrown, Since 'twas not in my choice) nor merit claim. Silent I stood ; but my desire was shown Upon my face, and with it my demand Warmer by far than if by speech made known. Did Beatrix, as erst when Daniel's hand Nebuchadnezzar's anger cleared away, Which had excited his unjust command. " Clearly I see how draws thee," did she say, " One and the other wish, which makes thy zeal So bind itself it cannot find a way. • Thou arguest, if good intent lasts still. How can the violence by others done ^® Decrease the measure of my spirit's weal ? Again a cause for doubting thou dost own. That souls returning to their stars we find, According to the law by Plato shown. Line 1. The singular statement in the first terzina is taken from Thomas Aqninas. Line 13. Beatrix did for Dante what Daniel did for Nebuchadnezzar when he explained to him his dream, and prevented the execution of his threat against the Chaldeans who had failed in solving the mystery. Line 23. Plato, in the conversation named Timseus, advanced this theory, as again alluded to in line 49. T
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274 PARADISE. Cakto IV. These are the questions which within thy mind ^ Urge thee with equal cogence, therefore I First take the one where gall is most combined. The Seraph nearest to the Deity, Moses and Samuel, take either John Thou wilt, I say even Mary, Queen on High, ^ Hold not in any other Heaven their throne Than these souls, who did even now appear. Nor longer or more brief existence own.
All of them make the empyrean fair Though they possess sweet life in different ways, As more or less the Eternal Spirit they share. Not that this sphere is their allotted place. Here did they show themselves, but to unfold What grade they've mounted in celestial grace. Thus to your understanding must be told, Which only by sensation apprehends. What afterwards the intellect can hold.
For this the holy Scripture condescends Unto your faculties, and hands and feet, Not meaning that unto the Deity lends. The holy Church with human aspect meet Gabriel and Michael to your vision bares, And him, who made Tobias' cure complete. That which Timseus of all souls declares. Does not resemble what we here behold, Since what he says its natural meaning wears. The soul unto its star returns, we're told.
He thinking it descended first from there. When Nature gave it its own plastic mould. Haply his words another meaning bear To what their sound expresses ; this may be With purpose to escape derision's snare. If he but means that on these spheres' decree Depends the shaping influence and the blame. Haply his shaft hath hit some verity.
This truth miscomprehended led to shame All the world formerly, who wide astray Worshipped Jove, Mercury, and Mars by name. Line 27. Plato's false opinion Beatrix pronounces the most dangeroiu. Line 45. Dante's theology is wonderfully free from the anthropomorphio spirit which distinguishes Judaism, and which even the powerful mind of Milton, swathed in the trammels of Puritanism, heartily embraced.
It is this which makes Milton's conceptions of Paradise fall bo immeasurably short of those of the spiritual Florentine.
The other doubt which now doth thee bewray Hath less of poison, since its evil gust Far from my side can lead thee not away. In eyes of mortals, that appears unjust Our Heavenly justice, is an argument For faith, and not heretical mistrust. But that your understanding with assent ^® Unto this truth may clearly penetrate, As thou desirest I'll make thee all content.
If violence excuses, when doth 'bate No jot the victim to compulsion high, By this these souls would not be exciilpate. ^^ For will unless it chooses does not die, But acts like Nature in the flame, although A thousand times should force its purpose try. Because if much or little it doth bow It follows force ; and so those acted here *" With power to embrace again their holy vow.
If their intent had been unmixed with fear, As that which Laurence on the bars retained. And made stem Mucins to his hand severe. Their holy path they had once more regained ®* Whence they were taken, soon as they were freed ; But rarely is such firm resolve maintained.
And by these words, if thou dost rightly heed As fitting is, the argument's o'erthrown, Which many a time had done thee hurt at need. ^ But now another doubt athwart thee grown Flits o'er thy eyes, which well would weary thee Ere thou couldst solve it by thyself alone. Within thy mind I've placed as certainty That never can speak false a spirit blest, ^^ Since to the Primal Truth 'tis ever nigh.
And thou hast heard Piccarda now attest That Constance for the veil her love still kept. And contradiction here doth stand confest. Already, brother, many a time hath happed ^^ That peril to escape, against one's wish Something is done, the which may well be wept. Alcmeon thus of old, besought to this By a dying father, his own mother slew. Not to lose pity he grew pitiless. ^•^ Line 83. A martyr of the third century. Line 103. The story of Alomeon and his mother Eriphyle has been already introdaced in Canto XII. of the " Purgatory."
276 PARADISE. Canto IV. Upon this point thou must bethink thee true That force with men can mingle with their will, So that it cannot shrive the sins they do. Absolute will consents not to the ill : But yet consents so far, in that it fears ^'" n it hold back, some greater evU stiU.
Piccarda, therefore, when she this declares, Meaneth the will thus absolute, and I The other, neither thus the truth impairs," Thus surged that holy river, which on high ^^* Sprang from the fountain whence all truth doth move ; Thus both my wishes did it satisfy. " O Goddess, loved one of the Primal Love," I said, '^ whose parlance floodeth me around.
And vivifies with warmth from Qod above : ^^® Suffices not my love, though so profound, XJntoyour grace, with fit grace to reply, Let Ham who sees and can to this respond. Clearly I see that nought can satisfy Our intellect, unless that truth shine there, ^^ Beyond whose bounds can roam no verity. Therein it resteth, like a beast in lair, When it has joined it, and has power to join. If not, each wish would be but empty air.
Through that desire is bom, like weeds that twine *^ Beside the truth, the doubt ; and Nature's lure Thus leads from peak to peak to truth divine. This doth invite me, this doth make me sure, With reverence, lady, to request aright Another truth which still remains obscure. ^^^ I now would know, if man can e'er requite With other good deeds vows he failed to pay. That in your balance may not weigh as light.
Gazed on me Beatrix, with eye whose ray Beamed with such sparks of love, and so divine, ^*® That all my power o'ercome, I turned away, And lost as 'twere my drooping lids incline. Line 118. Piocarda merely meant that Constance's inclination still tamed to the monastic life. Beatrix asserts that her wiU was not strong enough to resist adverse circumstances.
CANTO V. Beatrice answers Dante's question concerning the possibility of rendering other satisfaction for a broken vow. They then ascend to the sphere of Mercury, where they are met by a troop of spirits, one of whom o£E!ars to ezplaon to Dante anything he may wish to know.
" If I with warmtli of love upon thee flame, Beyond the fashion which on earth is seen, So that the valour of thy eyes I tame, Marvel thou not ; for that proceeds I ween From perfect vision, which at once doth turn * To meet the good it apprehended keen. How now there shineth, clearly I discern, Within thy intellect the eternal light. Which seen alone makes love for ever burn.
And if aught else would win your love's delight, ^° It cannot be except some vestige true Be shining there, not recognised aright. Thou wouldest know if other service new For broken vows in any way can pay, And free the spirit from the judgment due. " Thus Beatrice did begin this lay, And like an orator who doth not cease.
Thus she continued on her holy way : " The greatest gift which God's creating grace Made in His largess, to His clemency ^^ The most conformed, and prized as first in place. Was of the will the perfect liberty, With which the creatures of intelligence Were dowered, and are, and they alone. Thou'lt see Henceforth from this, if thou dost argue hence, ^ The high worth of a vow which so is made. That what time thou consentest God consents.
For when 'twixt God and man this pact is laid, This treasure as a victim doth one slay By his own act, even such as now displayed. ^ What compensation therefore can one pay ? If what thou'st offered thou wouldst use for good. Thou wouldst give alms of what thou'st ta'en in prey. The greater point thou now hast understood. But since the Church dispensing doth permit ^ This seems opposed unto the truth I showed. Line 29. The treasure of free-will, just described as the greatest gift of God.
278 PABADISE. Cahto V. A little at the board thou yet must sit, Since the crude fare which thou hast swallowed now For its digestion claims assistance jet. Open thy mind to that which I will show ^ And guard within, for nought can make ye wise Though understood, unless retained enow.
Unto the essence of this sacrifice Two things pertain, the one what ye agree To do, the other in the covenant lies. ^ This last can neyer wholly cancelled be, Unless 'tis kept, concerning it I trow, Was what I spake above so rigidly. Therefore 'twas needful for the Hebrew's vow To offer something, though the offering ^^ For other might be changed, as thou shouldst know. The other, which was shown thee as the thing.
May well be such that without erring ye May in its stead some other payment bring. But from the load your back you cannot free At your own judgment nor without the will Both of the inlver and the golden key. And think each change is empty to fulfil, Unless the old is in the new contained. As in the six the four remaineth still. ^ Therefore whatever vow such weight hath gained By its own worth that it outweigheth all.
With other deed it cannot be maintained. Mortals should take no vow at idle call ; Perform your vows, and therefore be not bUnd « As Jephtha was to what might first befall : To whom 'twere better to have said, Fve sinned. Than keep his oath by worse ; in such mad gear The mighty leader of the Greeks thou'lt find : Iphigenia thence, bewailed, so fair, '® And made to weep the foolish and the wise Who ever of her sacrifice did hear.
Christians, your movements ye should better poise : Be not like feathers in each wind that blew, And think not that all water purifies. ^* Ye have the Testaments, the Old and New, And the Shepherd of the Church to be your guide, This for salvation should suffice to you. Line 57. See " Purgatory. Canto IX., the gold key denoting the Divine Antiiorit^ exercised by the Ghnrch, the silver key the learning required for using it fitly.
If evil avarice augbt eke hath cried, Ye should be men, not silly sheep or beeves, ' So that the Jew amongst je may deride. Be ye not like the lamb, who frisking leaves ^ " Its mother's milk, and in a simple fit, At its own pleasure, with its shadow strives.'' ' Thus Beatrix to me as I indite : ^ Then did she turn all yearning with desire XJnto that part where most the world is bright. Her will, and changing countenance of fire.
Silence imposed unto my questioning. Which much of new already would require. And like a dart that in the target's ring Is fixed before the trembling cord is still, So to the second kingdom did we spring. I saw my lady then such joy distil Entering that Heaven's bright glory undefiled That grew the planet's self more beaming still.
And if the star was thus transformed and smiled, What did I grow, who in my nature's sphere To change in every fashion am beguiled P As in a fishpond that is still and clear.
The fish are drawn to aught that comes above, Thinking from habit that their food is near ; So saw I more than thousand splendours move Attracted towards us, and in each was heard, ** Lo, who will bring addition to our love ?" ^°* And as came towards us each o' the holy herd The shadow full of joyousness was seen In the clear glory that from in it stirred.
Think, reader, if the inaugurated scene Were to proceed no more, what appetite To know what follows would possess thee keen : And by thyself thou'lt see the yearning might Which filled me then to hear the lots of these, Soon as their vision fell upon my sight.
" happy bom, to whom high grace decrees Thrones of the eternal triumph to behold, Ere from the militants thou'st gained release ; With the light that o'er the whole of Heaven is rolled Are we inflamed ; if therefore thou wouldst crave By us to grow more clear, thy will unfold." ^^ Line 79. Aa evident allasion to the sale of dispensations, which made the Boman Choroh a subject of derision even to the money.dealing Jew.
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280 PARADISE. Cahto VI. These words by one amongst the spirits grave Were told me, and by Beatrice, " Say, Secarely say, and as to Gods believe." " Clearly I see how thou in rest dost stay In thy own light, and draw'st it from thy eyes, ^^ That when thou smilest brighter beams their play : But who thou art I know not, nor the ties That bind thee to this sphere, most worthy sprite. Which in the sun is veiled to mortal eyes." Thus did I speak distinctly to that light Which first had spoken to me, whence it grew. Even more than it had been, all beaming bright. Just as the sun conceals itself from view By too much light, what time the heat has dried The tempering vapours of the thick-rolled dew : Through greater joyousness he so did hide His holy form from me, within his ray. And thus envelopt unto me replied As will be set forth in the following lay. Liae 129. The sphere of Mercury, which from its nearness is often hidden by the snn.
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CANTO VI. The spirit informs Dante that he is the Emperor Justinian, and after describing his own career he sketches the previous victories of tiie Boman eagle. He then states that this sphere is allotted to those who did high deeds on earth for the sake of fame rather than for higher aims. Amongst them is the soul of the pilgrim Bomeo, Minister of Connt Baimond. ** When Constantine had turned the eagle's flight Against Heaven's course, the which of old did move After Lavinia's wooer, following it. Two hundred years and more the bird of Jove Stayed in far Europe's comer, near the gloom * O' the hills from which it issued first to rove. And 'neath the shadow of its sacred plume There o'er the world from hand to hand did reign, Till it revolving unto mine did come. Line 1. Constantine in removing the seat of empire travelled towards the East, while ^neas first bore the Boman si^andard from Troy, conquering towards the West, following the sun. "Westward the course of empire holds its way."
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Osesar I was, and am Justinian, Who through the will o* the primal love I feel Expunged from laws the superfluous and the vain, And ere unto that task aroused my zeal In Christ one nature only I conf est, And with such faith contented, sought my weal. For at that season Agapete the blest Was highest shepherd, to the faith sincere Me with his holy counsel he addrest.
Him I believed, and what he told me here Clearly I see, as both the false and true In every contradiction doth appear. As soon as with the Church I moved anew It pleased God's grace my spirits to incline To my high task, and wholly cleave thereto. To Belisarius I my arms resign, On whom Heaven's favours so propitious shone, That I should rest from war it was a sign.
To thy first question were my answer done But that its tendency demands as gloss Touching the eagle something to be shown. That thou mayst see how little reason knows Each faction, moving 'gainst that standard holy, Both those who claim as well as who oppose. Behold what virtue made it worthy wholly Of reverence deep, beginning with the hour When Pallas died that it might govern solely.
Thou know'st it made its nest in Alba's bower Three hundred years and more, until that close When three 'gainst three gave battle for its power. From Sabine rape until Lucretia's woes Thou knowest its actions underneath seven kings, Conquering all round it, all its neighbouring foes. Thou know'st its actions when there bore its wings 'Gainst Brennus and 'gainst Pyrrhus, Romans high. And 'gainst all other chiefs and gatherings.
Torquatus thence, Decius, and Quintius by His unkempt locks nicknamed, and Fabius vied In fame, which I embalm thus willingly. Line 14. Justiriiaii, in fact, throughout his life favoured the heresy of Eutichus, who appears to have denied Christ's hu/riMin nature. Against this heresy Aiapete, Bishop of Borne, wrote. The Empress Theodora's influence inclined her uxorious spouse towards the sect she favoured long after the death of the saint.
Dante could not, however, place a heretic in raradise. Line 36. Killed by Tnrnus on coming to the assistance of ^neas. Mn.y lib. X. Line 46. Quintius Cincinnatus.
282 PARADISE. Cakto VI. This overcame the fell Arabians' pride, Who, led by Hannibal, found out their way ^ O'er the Alpine rocks, from which thou, Po, dost glide. Beneath this standard triumphed in youth's day Scipio and Pompey, and unto that hill Where thou wast bom most bitter seemed its sway. Then, near the time when all the world to still ** To its own habitude was Heaven's design, Ceesar the standard seized through Eome's high will.
And what it did from Yar unto the Ehine The Iser saw, and Loire, and saw the Seine, And all the vales that towards the Ehone incline. ^ Its actions from Bavenna issuing, when It crossed the Eubicon, were such in flight That cannot follow them or tongue or pen. Again towards Spain it veered its serried might. Then towards Dyrachium and Pharsalia smote, ^ That to the Nile was felt its blow's despite.
Native Antander, Simois remote, It saw again, where Hector's ashes lie, Hence soaring ill for Ptolemy it wrought. On Juba hence like lightning did it fly ; ^^ Then to your natal West again it veered, Where the Pompeian trumpet sounded, high. Its deeds with him who next its standard reared, Brutus with Cassius bark of them in Hell, Modena and Peruge in sadness feared. ^^ Sad Cleopatra waileth for it still.
Who from the asp, flying that sign before, Obtained the death she sought for, swiffc and fell. With him it ran even to the Eed Sea's shore ; With him it gave such peace unto the world ^ That Janus' temple-gate was barred once more.
But all the deeds the which that sign unfurled Had ever done or ever was to do 'Mongst mortals, while it triumphed o'er the world, Become in seeming all obscure and few, ^ If with clear eye and pure affection's Are His the third OaBsar's mission we but view. Line 54. The city of Fiesole, sacked after the defeat of Catiline. Line 87. Tiberins, under whose reign the Jews sacrificed Christ.
The deeds of Jnlios and Angnstos are said to pale before the great oonsnmmation of God's anger, of which Tiberias is represented as the unoonscions instniment.
Canto VI. PARADISE. 283 The living justice which doth me inspire Yielded unto his hand of whom I speak Glory to wreak the vengeance of his ire. •" On what I tell thee now thy wonder slake ; With Titus to revenge the standard ran The vengeance taken for man's sin antique. And when the Lombard tooth did gnawing stain The holy Church, beneath its outstretcht wings Came to her succour conquering Charlemain.
"Now thou canst judge the rival bickerings Which I above did blame, their faults expose, Which are the cause of all your sufferings. The Lilies to the public sign oppose One side, the other claim it for a part, 'Tis hard to see which most of error shows. Work now, ye G-hibelines, work now your art, 'Neath other sign ; this standard now eschew, Who it and justice evermore would part ; Nor strive to strike it down.
This Charles the new, With all his G-uelphs, its talons let him fear. Who lordlier lion has ere now made rue. Many a time the sons have wrung a tear For the father's sins, and be it not believed That, for his Lilies, God his arms will veer. Adorn this little star, as dowry sheaved. The spirits good, who erst have active been, That fame and honour hence might be achieved.
And when for such an end the wishes lean, "* Declining thus, 'tis certain that the rays Of true love upwards journey less serene. But with our merit measuring the phase Of our reward is part of our delight, Which fitly to its due doth Heaven appraise. ^^ Hence our affection. Justice' living light, So draweth towards itself with yearning sweet That it can never more be turned from right.
Different voices make the music sweet, So different stations in this life of ours ^^ Make sweeter harmony in the spheral seat. Line 107* Alluding probably, as suggested by Mr. Gary, to Charles of Yalois, son of Philip III. of France, who was sent for by Pope Boniface into Italy under promise of being made emperor. See Canto XX. of the " Purgatory*' and note. Line 112. The subject is suddenly changed, and Dante's second question answered.
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284 PARADISE. Cajtto vn. And here within this planet's pearly bowers Shineth the light of Borneo, whose high deed Was ill acknowledged by the worldly powers. But the Proven9als did not all succeed Who strove against him ; ill their road I ween Who others' worth as their own loss aread. Eaimond had daughters four, and each a queen. Such high alliances for him achieved The pilgrim Borneo, of such humble mien. And yet the jealous murmurs him deceived To call unto account that steward just, Who rendered twelve for every ten received. Thence, poor and aged, he was outwards thrust. And if the world but knew his heart unflawed. The while he begged his living crust by crust. Even more than now his virtue would it laud." Line 128. The Italian story of Romeo, steward of the Count of Provence, is that being called to an account of the revenues he had carefully husbanded, he called for the mule, scrip, and staff with which he had oome to the Count as a pilgrim of St. James, and departed no one knew whence or whither.
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CANTO VII. Justinian and the other spirits disappear singing praises to God. Dante remains confused with doubt engendered by what he has heard. Beatrice for i^ir satisfaction explains the whole scheme of human redemption. Osanna Sandus Deus Sahaoth, Superillusbrans claritate tud Felices ignes horum rnalahoth: Hetuming thus unto his strain anew, a- G-ain was that substance heard by me to sing. O'er which the doubled glory double grew. A- While those fair spirits moved in mazy ring, Then lilce to swiftest sparks they sped away On a sudden in the distance vanishing. I was in doubt, and to myself did say, " Tell it, O tell it to my lady dear, Who with sweet drops my thirsting will allay." But the deep reverence, akin to fear, Which ever overcame me all, for Bice, Like one inclined to slumber bowed me here. Line 1. Osanna, Lord God of Sabaoth, illuminating with Thy brightneBB the happy fires of these kingdoms, malahoth being a Hebrew word. Line 14. Dante's pet name for the lady of his love.
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CiHTO VII. PARADISE. 285 Such state allowed but briefly Beatrice, And thus began, as o'er me rayed her smile, Such that in flames to happiness 'twould reach ye. " My sight infallible has seen erewhile, How just revenge can justly punished be, To doubtful thought thy reason doth beguile, But from this doubt thy mind I soon will free : And mark me well, because these words of mine Boon of great import will present to thee.
Through suffering not the curb, for will benign Imposed on him, that man who ne'er was bom, Damning himself at once damned all his line : By which the human species lay forlorn For many ages in its error great. Until the Word of Q-od was pleased to adorn That place where human nature, separate From its Creator, was with him renewed, By act of love eteme regenerate.
Now be my subject by thy vision viewed ; This nature with its Maker joined in one ^ Such as created was sincere and good : But by itself in sooth was it outthrown From Paradise, because it turned away From God, the path of truth and life alone. Therefore that penalty the Cross did lay *^ On that assumM nature if we mark, A greater justice never did it pay : And so there never was such injury stark.
If we regard the person who that doom Suffered, contracting human nature dark. ^^ Different effects from one act then did come ; Since one death pleased to G-od, and to the Jews : At it earth trembled, opened Heaven's dome. No more henceforth shouldst thou with doubt accuse, When it is told to thee that vengeance just ^ By a just court was venged with rightful dues.
But now I see thy mind again mistrust, Shaping in thought a doubt upon this theme For whose solution it doth sorely lust. Thou sayest what I hear I clearly deem, But why God chose, to me is still concealed, For our redemption this peculiar scheme. Line 20. Allading to line 90 in Jastinian's speech, where the death of Christ is called with approbation the vengeance of God s anger. Line 26. The man who ne'er was bom is Adam.
286 PARADISE. Cakto TO. This law, brother, standeth unre sealed Unto the eyes of every one, whose mind Within the flames of love is not annealed. '^ Since of a verity this truth to find. So many gaze, and yet so few discern, m say why this as worthiest was designed. Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn All labour, kindling in itself doth blaze, ^ Displaying thus its beauties all eteme.
Whatever from it without a medium rays Can know no end, since ever must remain On it the seal which once the Deity lays. Whate'er without a medium hence doih rain ^* Is wholly free, because it cannot lie 'Neath the new influence of the starry train. The most conformed to God, most charms on high. Since the holy ardour which on all things rays, O'er its own semblance most doth vivify.
" In all these things the human creature lays His 'vantage-ground, and if he &il in one The prize of his nobility decays. To disenfranchise him can sin alone. Spoiling his likeness to the chiefest good, ®® Since of the light so little he hath won. And never is his dignity renewed, Unless where sin has failed he satisfy. For evil joy just penalties endued.
Your nature when it sinned thus totally " In its first seed, even as from Paradise Was banished also from such dignity : Nor can it be regained, in subtle guise If thou regardest this by any road. Unless by one of the two I now devise. '® Either through courtesy alone must God Have this restored, or by himself must man Have satisfied his own mad hardihood. Let now thy eye be fixed, far as it can, I' the abyss of the eternal counsels deep, •* .
Intent on what I tell of Heaven's plan. While man his own allotted bounds doth keep He could not pay by his humility. However low might his obedience creep. Line 67. Whatever proceeds directly from God, without mediate intervention, is immortal, and is free from the influence of the stars.
These qualities, together with his resemblance to God, in whose image he was created, constituted the peculiar privileges of man until lost by sin, which also turned him out of Paradise. Such is the argument of the next twenty lines.
Canto VII. PARADISE. 287 His former disobedient surquedry : ^^ This is the reason why mankind alone By their own afct could never satisfy.
It needed then that Q-od, by ways His own, Unto his life entire should man restore, Either by both His ways, I say, or one. ^^'^ But since the deed delights so much the more The doer, as it most doth represent The goodness of the heart such fruit that boref Goodness Divine, that to the world hath lent His image, to proceed by every way "° To raise ye upwards was alone content.
Nor 'twixt the last night and the primal day So high and so magnificent a deed Has ever been, nor e'er can be for aye. Since Q-od was far more bounteous of His meed "'^ Giving Himself, to grant man strength to rise, Thaji had He by His mercy only freed.
And not another method could suffice The claims of justice, if the Son of God Had not been humbled in a mortal's guise. ^^ Now to content each wish, even unavowed, I turn another place to clear to thee, That thou, like I, may see it clear and broad. Thou say'st I see the air, the fire I see.
Water and earth, and all things hence arrayed, ^^ Come to corruption, and but briefly be : Yet all these things by Gk)d Himself were made : Therefore if what I said indeed be true These in corruption should be never laid. The angels, brother, and this country new ^^^ In which thou art, may well be called created. So in their essence we entirety view : But the elements of which thou now hast prated.
And all things which from them their being crave. Are influenced by a power itself created. ^^ Line 105. Both the ways mentioned in lines 91, 2, 3 — i.e., either by Meroy or Jnstioe, or by both, the latter being alone consonant to the idea of God's perfection. Line 121.
Beatrice having stated that whatever proceeds directly from ■Qodf without mediate intervention, is immortal, proceeds to show that this is not applicable to the elements, which are influenced by the stars, themselves a created power, whose ii^uence does not extend to the spiritual life of man and angels. Dante's belief in astrological influences has been already noticed, and is again dwelt upon in the following Canto.
288 . PARADISE. Cahto Vin. Created was the matter which they have : Created too was the informing power In yonder stars, which round about thetn wave. The spirit of each brute and of each flower Doth influence with potential energy ^^ The ray and motion of yon starry bower. But this our life, the high Benignity Breathes without medium, and so Alls with love That for Himself it yeameth endlessly.
And hence thou also hast the power to prove "* Your resurrection, if thou think' st elated How man was made by Q-od in Eden's grove, When both our primal parents were created."
CANTO vni. Dante ascends with Beatrice to the sphere of the planet Venns. Amongst the troop of spirits who greet him here he converses with Charles Martel, King of Hungry, who, after discoursing on the prospects of his descendants then ahve, explains to him how the influence oi the stars was used by God as a means for the advantage of human poli^. The while the world in pagan error strayed It thought that on her epicycle rolled Fair Venus o'er the world her false love raved. Therefore to her not only did they hold Their sacrifices, and their votive cry, * That ancient people in their error old, But Cupid and I^one honoured high, The last her mother, and the first her son. And said that he in Dido's lap did He. And eke from her, with whom my strain's begun, '° They took the appellation of the star Which leading now, now following, wooes the sun. Of my ascent to it I was not 'ware ; But of my entrance gave me certainty My lady, where I saw her grow more fair. ^* And as within the flame a spark we see, And as in voices joined a voice we hear. If one the tenour keeps, one ranges free, Line 2. The epicycle in the Ptolemaic system is the smaller circle in which «ach planet revolves of its own motion, independent of the greater circle of the spheres, derived from the primum mobile. Line 12. Venus being alternately the morning and evening star. " Sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name, for what is one.** Tennyson.
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So in tliat light did other lights appear, Who in their circle, less or larger, keep, According to the eternal light they share.
From a cold cloud the winds would never sweep, Or visible or not so to the ejne, But slow and hindered they would seem to creep To one who had beheld those lights divine ^* Coming towards us, as they leave the wheel Begun before, 'midst higher seraphim : And after them who first appeared did peal Hosanna, so that ever since to hear That sound again the yearnin'g do I feel.
Thence one amongst them unto us drew near, And thus began alone : " To thy desire We all are ready for thy joyaunce here. We turn with heavenly princedoms in our choir, With them one circling motion, one resolve. To whom thou in the world didst tune thy lyre ; Ye, who with knowledge the third Heaven revolve : We are so full of love, for thy delight Some pause no less of sweetness will involve.
After my eyes with reverence did invite Permission of my lady, who replied With look that gave them certainty of right. They turned unto the light who such a wide Promise had offered, and, " Who are ye, say ! With great affection by my voice was cried.
Brighter and clearer did I see him ray By the new joyousness which o'er him grew When to his joyousness I thus did say : Embellished thus he told me, " Years but few The world possessed me ; had they longer been Much ill hfi.d been not which must now accrue. It is my gla4ness which conceals my mien, And hides me from thee as it rays around. Like creature swathed in its own silken sheen. Line 21.
As each, according to his deserts, shares more or less of the Divine vision. Line 37. *'Voi ch* intendendo il terzo oiel movete. The first line in Dante's first canzone in the '' Convito. Line 40. The speaker is Charles Martel, crowned King of Hungary, and son of Charles 11. , King of Naples and Sicily, before whom he died. His brother Bobert succeeded to his father, whose evil reign Charles Martel's longer life Avonld have prevented. He visited Florence in 1295, where he appears to have won the goodwill of Dante, and his present place in Paradise. U
290 PARADISE. Cauto vm. Well didst thou love me, and for this hadst ground . " Had I lived longer, I to thee had shown More than the leaves, how much did love abound. That country on the left, laved by the Ehone When mingled with the Sorza it doth hie, Looked for the time when I should mount its throne : * And fair Ausonia's horn, where studded lie Bari, Ghieta, and Orotona's town, From where the TrentS to the sea doth fly.
Already shone upon my brow the crown O* the country where the Danube slips away ^ When from its German banks 'tis glided down ; And fair Trinacria, which above the bay Betwixt Pachinus and Pelorus, (where Eurus for ever holds his stormy sway,) Glooms with the steaming sulphur in the air, Not by Typhosus, still would kings await Sprung from my loins, to Charles and Eodolph heir.
If evil ruling, which makes desperate The subject people, had not roused the cry Of Death still Death, within Palermo's gate. ^^ And if my brother would but this descry. To save his people from the biting greed Of Catalonian harpies he would fly^: For truly it behoveth him to heed, By him or others, that his vessel's freight ^ With load on load be not sunk down indeed.
His nature from free stock degenerate Has need of such a ministry, whose zeal Would never strive full coffers to create." ** Since I believe the gladness which I feel ** Thy speech, my lord, within me sheds abroad, Where there begins and ceases every weal Line 58. Provence, and in the next terzina Naples, to which kingdom he was heir. Line 67. Sicily, called after its three promontories of Pachinns, Peloms, and Lilibeus.
Etna was supposed to be the burial-place of the giant Typhoeas, from which he vomited forth fire and smoke, Ovid, 5 Met£un. Eums per Siculas equitavit undas. Horace, Odes iv., 14, 44. Line 75. Alluding to the Sicilian Yesi)er8, where the line of kings descending from Charles I. of Naples, Charles Martel's grandfather, was overthrown. Line 82.
Charles Martel accuses his brother Robert of avarice, though the son of a liberal father; that father, Charles II. of Naples, was contemptuously branded with the same vice by Hugh Capet, in Canto XX. of " Purgatory," when he accused him of selling his daughter like a pirate his captives. Line 85. The joy thy speech causes me is greater, in that then seest it in God, the mirror of truth, and even more in that thou seest it there.
Cawto VIII. PARADISE. 291 By thee is seen, as unto me bestowed, It pleases more, and even this is dear, That thou discem'st it, gazing upon God. ^ Thou'st made md joyful, so now make me clear. Since from thy words a doubt within doth glide, How from sweet seed can issue bitter cheer. This I to him, and he to me replied : " If any truth I can to thee dispense, •* This now behind thee, shall be frontways eyed.
God, who this realm thou rangest o'er contents Eevolving, in these starry forms doth place A power that worketh for His Providence. And not alone within His mind of grace ^^^ Is every nature in itself foreseen. But all things that their safety doth embrace. For every shaft shot forth from Heaven's serene Falleth prepared to some concerted end.
As to its mark wings straight the arrow keen. ^^ Were this not so, o' the Heavens where thou dost wend Every effect such weakness would inherit That not to art but ruin would they tend. Nor might this be, unless each guiding spirit That moves these stars deficient were and frail, "^ And God deficient making their demerit. Wouldst thou this truth even yet more clearly hail ?
And I ; " No more : it is impossible That Nature in such work of need should fail. "Whence he again : " Now tell me, were it well For man on earth were he not citizen ?" ** Surely," I answered, " is no need to tell. " And could it be so if the hive of men In different ways of Uying did not roam ? No, if your master this doth truly ken. So to the point deducing did he come.
And then concluded : " For each different bourn Mankind must different qualities assume : Hence one is Solon, one is Xerxes born, And one Melchisedek, another he ^^* Who flying in the air his son did mourn. Nature revolving stamps with her decree The mortal wax, and well her art hath thriven, Though note she takes not of each family. Line 120. Aristotle, in his treatise " De Kepnblica."
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292 PARADISE. Cafto IX. Hence is it Esau differed so in leaven ^ From Jacob, hence did Eomulus upspring From sire so vile, to Mars his birth was given. Nature begotten to its path would cling * To the begettsr aye in similar guise. If not o'ercome by Heaven's foreseeing King. What was behind is now before thy eyes. But still to show the joy thou givest ray mind, A sequent truth to adorn thee I devise. For ever Nature when she Fate doth find Discordant to herself, like other seed Succeedeth not, out of its place designed. And if the world below would only heed The sure foundation Nature doth impose, By following her mankind would better speed. But ye divert unto Religion's vows One who was bom to gird on him the blade, And one who's apt to preach, as king ye choose : Hence from the path so wide your steps have strayed." * Lioe 130. The difference in the nature of men does not spring from their progenitors, but from the influence of the stars, shown even in the case of the twins Esau and Jacob, whose birth, though so nearly simultaneous, was under different astrological influences, the smallest diversity of place being held sufficient to cause a diversity in the working of the heavenly bodies. Line 145. An evident sarcasm on the fighting Popes of the Middle Ages.
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CANTO IX. The spirit of Charles Martel retires, and Dante is then addressed by Cunizza, the sister of £zzelino, the tyrant of Romano, who foretells to him certain near events in Italian history. She is followed by Folco, the Frovengal poet of Genoa, who informs him that the spirit of the harlot Bahab holds the highest place in their sphere, and inveighs against the Fanacy for its neglect of the Uoly Land, for which Bahab served so faithfmiy.
After thy father Charles, Clemenza pure ! Had solved my doubts, he showed to me the fears Which his own seed were destined to endure. He told me : " Speak not, leave the rolling years ;" So I can tell thee nothing, but thy right * Will after be avenged with justest tears. Line 1. Clemenza, daughter of Charles Martel, and second wife to Louis X. of France.
The allusion in the following Hues is to the usurpation of the kingdom of Apulia by Robert, brother of Charles Meurtel, to the exclusion of the latter* s son Canrobert, avenged afterwards by the misfortunes of the former.
Canto IX. PARADISE. 293 And now the visage of that holy light Was turned unto its sun, that fills it o*er, That good, sufficient all things to requite. Ah, souls deceived^ and impious to the core, ^° Who from such largess wrench your hearts away, Your brows directing to all idle lore !
And lo ! another splendour came straightway Towards me, and with kindling brilliance showed Its wish my thirst for knowledge to allay. ^^ The eyes of Beatrice o'er me glowed, And as the former time of dear assent Unto my wish the certainty avowed. *' Ah, the deep yearning of my heart prevent, blessed spirit ! I cried, " and prove to me ^^ 1 can reflect on thee my thoughts close pent.
On which that light that reached us recently From the star's deeps, in which it sang before. Joying in kindness thus continued free. " In that part of the vile Italian shore ^^ Which midway 'twixt the famed Rialto lies, And where the Brent and Piave their fountains pour, "Not very high, a little hill doth rise.
From whence of late a firebrand oft did flit, Tbat to that region caused sore miseries. ^^ From the same root were born both I and it : Cunizza was I called, and here I shine Because I yielded to this planet's light. But in myself I joy, nor e'er repine At the reason of my lot, nor it condemn, ^^ The which your vulgar herd may scarce divine. Of this most lustrous and transplendent gem Which here beside me doth our Heaven unfold.
Great fame remained on earth, nor will it dim Line 23. Between Venice and the sources of the Brent and Piave lies the castle of Bomano, the lord of which, Ezzelino, famous for his tyrannies, was introduced in Canto XII. of the " Hell," in the river of blood. The speaker is his sister Cunizza, celebrated for her amorous adventures, havinsr been mistress, amongst others, to Sordello the poet, introduced in Cantos YI. and VII. of the " Purgatory.
Line 32. The meaning is not that by yielding to the influence of Venus Cunizza won her place in Paradise, which would have been a forestalling of George Sand's famous doctrine on the subject, and curiouw interpretation of Christ's words to the Magdalen, but that through her failings in this respect she obtained no higher sphere, which, however, according to the laws of Paradise, can now cause her no 7 egret. Line 37.
Folco, the Provencal poet, bom at Genoa, to whom Dante here promised a reputation that should last five hundred years. It has lasted louger in his poem.
Until a hundred years five times have rolled : See if mankind ought not for worth to strive So that another life the first may hold. But thinks not thus the present human hive, Which Tagliamento and Adige inclose, Nor for their punishment their sins they shrive. But soon "will Padua in her mortal throes Crimson the water which Vincenza laves, Because her sons to right were ever foes.
And where the Sile joins Cagnano's waves One lords it, and now goes with head on high, Whom to enmesh the net even now one weaves. Feltro will also weep the infamy Of its own impious pastor, never once In Malta entered crime of such black dye.
That tub must hold a very large allowance That would receive the Ferrarese's blood, And weary work to weigh it ounce by ounce, Which by this courteous priest will be bestowed To show his party zeal : the country owns Such gifts conformed to its accustomed road. Above are mirrors, powers whom ye call thrones, From them Q-od's judgments shine upon our eyes, So that my parley only truth intones.
Here she grew sUent, and became in guise Intent on other thoughts, within the wheel. Wherein unto her former place she hies. The other joyaunce she did not reveal, Became a splendent glory in my sight. Like ruby, on the which the sun's rays steal.
With gladness there above the face grows bright As with a smile on earth ; in HeU grows black, The lost soul's shadow with the mind's despite. ** Thou seest all things in Good's visual track," I cried, " blest spirit, so that no wish springs Which to thy keen perception aye can lack. Line 44. The conntry then called the Marca Trivigiana. Line 46.
Alluding to the rout of the Fadaans by Can Grande della Scala at Yicenza in 1314, which shows that this must have been written after that date. Line 49. Kiocardo du Camino, who was killed in Trevigi while playing chess. Line 52. The Bishop of Feltro received, on a promise of protection, several fugitives of Ferrara who had rebelled against the Pope, and gave them up for slaughter* Line 54.
Malta was the name of the tower built by Cunizzo's brother Ezzelino, in which he confined his prisoners, and subjected them to nnheardof tortures. Line &I, The other joyaunce, Folco, the Provengal poet.
Canto DC. PARADISE. 295 Why then thy Heaven-delighting caroUings, Mixt ever with the song o' the pious fires, Who shroud their faces with six spreading wings, Do they not satisfy to my desires ? I would not thus have waited thy demand If thy thought thus, as mine, through thee transpires. " The greatest vale in which the waters stand," Then his celestial parley he began, ** Except that sea which garlands every land.
Betwixt discordant shores against the sun '* G-oes on so far, that its meridian With what was erst horizon grow to one. I dwelt beside that Mediterranean, 'Twixt Ebro and the Macra, which divide The shores of Q-enoa from the Tuscan plain. ^ Bises and sets alike the solar pride To Bezza, and the land which was my own. Which with its blood made warm its harbour's tide.
The people unto whom my name was known Did call me Folco, and this Heaven doth bear '^ My impress, as in life I bore its own ; For burned not ever Belus' daughter fair, Both to Sichseus and Oreusa's shame. Like I, while lasted youth's loose flowing hair. Nor she of Ehodope e'er nurst such flame '^^ For her Demophoon, nor Hercules When lole his mighty heart did tame.
Not that one here repents, one smiles at ease, Not at the &.ult, that never comes to mind, But at the power that causes and foresees. Here on that art we gaze that hath designed Such deep affection, and the good discern By which your world the path to ours doth find. But that each wish with which thou here dost yearn, Contented thou mayst carry from this sphere, ^^° It needs that somewhat further thou shouldst learn. Line 78. The seraphim.
Above it stood the seraphim ; each one had six wings. Isaiah vii. 2. Line 82. The Mediterranean, largest of all seas except the world-snrronnding ocean which extends betwecp the shores of Europe and Asia so far eastwards that what was tirst its horizon becomes its meridian. Line 91. Glenoa and Bezza lie in the same longitude, on the opposite shores of Europe and Africa.
The allusion in line 93 is to the naval victory of the Saracens over the Genoese in 936. Line 97. Dido, Sichseus being her former husband, and Creusa Eneas' former wife.
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296 PARADISE. Cahto X. Tliou wouldest know who in this light so near Beside me sparkles thus with flame divine, Like the sun's ray upon a limpid mere. Now know that there within doth tranquil shine "* The soul of Eahab, to our order wed, Is sealed her impress in the highest line. Unto this Heaven, the last to which hath sped The shadow of your world, ere any soul. From Hell by Christ triumphant was she led. ^^ Well did it fit such trophy to enrol In any Heaven, for the conquest high, Won by His nailed hands to the Cross's dole. Because she favoured the first victory Of Joshua, entering on that holy land, ^^ Which little wins the Papal memory. The city, which by him doth planted stand. Who first did turn his back to his Maker's power. And from whose envy every grief has wonned, Produces and spreads wide the accursed flower ^^ Which now has scattereth wide both lambs and sheep. And turned to a wolf the shepherd at this hour. For this the Evangelists they no more keep, Nor the great Doctors, the Decretals solely Are studied, as is proved by margins deep. ^^ The Pope and Cardinals these hare studied wholly : Their thoughts to Nazareth ne'er take their flight. Where opened Gabriel his pinions holy. But the Vatican, and every chosen site In Eome, which now a burial-place we see ^*® Of militants who fought good Peter's fight, From such adultery will soon be free." Line 130. The gold florin of Florence stamped with a lily. Line 134. The Decretal8,or Canonical law, deeply studied, as their annotated margins show, for a means of human advancement. Line 139. Alluding either to the death of his pet Pope, Boniface YIII., author of the sixth Decretal, or to the transfer of the holy see to Avignon.
CANTO X. They ascend to the sphere of the sun, the fourth Heaven, where they are surrounded by a garland of twelve blessed spirits. One of these, Thomas Aquinas, names the rest to Dante. Gazing upon the Son he loves so well With love which each breathes forth eternally, The Father, primal and ineffable,
Cakto X. PARADISE. 297 Whatever by the mind or sight we see, Makes with such order that without delight * Uf him who looks on it it cannot be. With me, O reader, then lift up thy sight Straight to those lofty spheres unto that part Where on one motion doth another smite. And there commence thy rapture in the art ^^ Of the great Master, who so loves His work That never from it doth His eye depart. Behold how from that point doth springing fork The line oblique on which the planets go To satisfy the world which claims their work. ^^ And if their path were not thus twisted so Much virtue in the Heavens would be in vain. And almost every power be dead below. And if or more or less it were to gain From the straight path than now, would greatly fail ^^ In earth and Heaven the world's pre-ordered train. Rest on thy bench now, reader, and regale In thought on the feast to which I thee invite, Wouldst thou no weariness through joyaunce feel. I've placed the food before thee, taste aright, Since to itself recalleth all my care The matter which I purposed to indite. Of Nature the most powerful minister. Which dowers the world with virtue of the sky. And with His light the time doth meting share. Joined to that station, now to memory Recalled, was rolling on His spires in air. So that each day was born more rapidly ; And I was with Him : of my journey there I had known nothing any more than man Whence his first thought had travelled is aware.
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Line 9. Where the general motion of the spheres strikes against the particular motion of each planet, -which repercnssion is sapi>osed, according to Dante's system, to be strongest at the junction of the zodiac and eq^mnoctial line, because each motion is then at its greatest velocity from bemg at the greatest distance from the poles. Sach is Yentnri's ingenious explanation. Line 19.
If the line of the zodiac were less or more oblique than it is the seasons would not be divided so happily as they now are. Line 28. The sun was in the above-mentioned intersection of the zodiac and equinoctial lines after the vernal equinox, when every day it rises earlier. Line 36. I have here adopted Venturi's interpretation. Mr. Gary translates the passage : " Thus a man is aware of his arrival before his first thought on it. The text will bear both meanings, but the last loses an original conception.
298 PARADISE. Caitto X. All ! Beatrice, she who ever ran From good to better with such sudden flight That Time her action nerer yet could scan, How needed now that she should grow more bright ! ^ What, entering in the sun, was seen by me. Not as a colour, but apparent light. Genius, art, practice could I summon free.
To fancy's eyesight I could nerer show, One can believe alone, and long to see. *f And if our fantasies indeed are low To such a height no marvel this I ween, For o'er the sun no eye did ever go. Here the great Sire's fourth family was seen. To whom the sight of His Begotten Son ^" And Spirit proceeding aye gives joy serene. " Now thank, O thank," thus Beatrix begun, " The angel's sun, who by His grace has reared Thee to such sensible perception.
Sure mortal heart was never so prepared ^ For prayer, and never sought so yearningly Wholly to yield itself to God all bared. As at those words of holy counsel, I, And so my love on Him was fixt ; it e'en Eclipsed my Beatrix in memory. *" It vexed her not : thereat she smiled serene. So that the splendour of her smiling eyes My centered mind recalled to the outrord scene.
There many clear, surpassing brilliances I saw make us the centre of their crown, ®^ Even sweeter in their voice than clear in guise. Thus do we sometimes see around the moon A halo, where so pregnant is the air It can retain the Ught that makes the zone. Within the court of Heaven, whence I repair, ^° Such that they cannot from that realm be brought. Are found a store of jewels rich and fair.
Such must the song of those pure lights be thought : Who hath not plumage for a heavenward flight. By him the account from silence must be sought. When singing thus, those suns so burning bright. Three times had moved in circle us around. Like stars that wheel close round the polar light, Line 49. The spirits of the fourth H«aven.
They seemed like ladies to the dance still bound, But who, in silence while their dance they cease, Listen to gather the new burden's sound. And one of them I heard begin : " Of grace, Since the pure ray of love its light doth gain, Which afterwards by loving doth increase, Within thee multiplied so shines amain That it conducts thee upwards by this stair, Which none descends who will not climb again.
Who to thy thirst the wine of his flask to share Would fain deny, possesses such a power As water, that to ocean must repair. Thou wouldest know what plants are those that flower Around this garland that wooes lovingly The lady fair that wins thee Heaven as dower. One of the lambs of the holy flock was I Which Dominic alon^ the path leads right. Where well they thrive who're free from vanity.
He who stands nearest to me on the right Was erst my master, Albert of Cologne, And I am Thomas of Aquinum hight. If thou wouldst all the others should be known ^^ As I describe them let thy sight the while Around the blessed garlaiid circling wonne.
That other flaming issues from the smile Of Gratian, who gave joy in Paradise When either forum he did reconcile. ^^* He who the next doth in our chorus rise Was Peter, he who with the widow gave His treasure to the Church as benefice. The fifth light, and the &iresfc which we have. Such love inspires that all the world below ^^^ Of his soul's doom to learn the tidings crave.
Within it is that light wherein doth glow Knowledge so deep that if the truth be true No second ever rose so much to know: Line 80. In those days the performance consisted of dance and song united, to which ballata, as it was called, Dante compares the choral circlings of his spirits in Paradise. Line 94. The speaker is Thomas Aquinas, of the Dominican order. Line 104.
Gratian of Chinsi, another Benedictine monk, who reconciled the canon and civil law by his compilation of the Decretals. Line 107* Fietro Lombardo, who commenced his " Liber Sententiamm" by comparing it to the two mites offered by the poor widow to the treasury. Line 109. Solomon, concerning whom in the Middle Ages it was a common question whether his soul was saved or not.
Next him that taper's splendour thou dost view, Who, while in flesh, the most did penetrate The angelic nature and their ministering crew. He, of the Christian temples advocate, Smileth within that other little light, From whom Augustus borrowed stores of weight. Now if thou passest o'er thy mental sight From flame to flame behind mj praises due, Already on the eighth thy thirst doth light.
Of every good rejoiceth in the view The holy soul, who the fallacious world Made clear to all who hear his teaching true. His body, whence by violence 'twas hurled. Lies in Cieldauro, this from martyrdom And exile came unto this peaceful world. Behold, beyond the ardent spirits loom Of Isidore, and Bede, and Richard too, Who in the power of thought past mortal doom.
This, where thy gaze returns to me anew, Is splendour of a soul whose thoughts of bliss Made death seem tardy in his longing view. The eternal light of Sigisbert is this. Who, reading deep at Paris, in Straw Street, Truths against envy well did syllogise.
Then, like a clock which doth the hour repeat, What time the bride of God with joy doth rise, The spouse she loves with matin song to greet, That one part with the other rolls and flies, Sounding its chiming bells with such sweet tone. It Alls the pious soid with loving sighs, So did I see that glorious wheel move on, In harmony so mingling voice with voice, And sweetness, such as never can be known Save there, where one for ever will rejoice.
Line 115. Dionysins the Areopa^te, author of the mystical works ** De Caalesti Hierarchia/' from which Dante borrowed his scheme of the celestial hierarchy. Line 118. Supposed to be Paulas Orosins, a father of the fifth century. Line 126. Boetius, author of the work " De Consolatione Philosophi®," here alluded to, and put to death by command of Theodoric. He was buried in a monastery in Favia called Ciel d'Oro. Line 181.
The Venerable Bede is known as an Englishman. It is not worth while to occupy space by copying from the Commentaries notices of the remainder of these forgotten fathers of the Church. Line 140. The Church, the spouse of Christ.
ca:nto XI. When the spirits of the fathers of the Charch again come to a pause St. Thomas says that he has seen in God's mirror two difficulties which have arisea in Dante's mind. To solve the first he relates in glory of the founder of his own order, St. Dominic, the life of his great rival, St. Francis, and concludes by pointing out how the Dominicans have departed from the self-denying rules of their order.
O IDLE objects for which mortals care, How are defective all the syllogisms Which ever down to earth thy pinions bear !
One after laws, one after aphorisms Was searching, one on priesthood was intent, * And one to rule by force, and one by schisms, And one to rob, one lawsuits to invent, One wallowing in his sensual delight Grew sated, one on slothful ease was bent, While I, from all these things delivered quite, ^® With Beatrice soared to Heaven's high sphere. There to be greeted with such welcome bright.
After that each to his former post drew near Within the circle ; motionless he shone Like candle burning in a chandelier, ^^ And I perceived within that beaming one Which first had parleyed with me, with a smile, Discourse commence, in light more lucid grown. " As from his ray I gather light the while On the eternal splendour gazing fair, ^° Thy thoughts I apprehend, and whence they file.
Thou doubtest, and dost wish me to explain With words that clearly, fully may arrive To make my saying all before thee plain. Both where I said before, * where well they thrive,' ^ And where thou heard'st, * no second ever rose,' And here for clear distinction must we strive.
The Providence which doth the world dispose With counsel, into which all mortal sight Is lost, or ere unto its deeps it goes, ^ That she might walk towards her own delight, That bride of God (which with His blessed blood He spoused when on the Cross He cried with might), Line 25. See lines 96 and 114 of the last Canto. Line 31.
The two guides chosen for Christ's bride, the Church, are St. Francis and St. Dominic, the founders of the two great orders.
302 PARADISE. Cahto H. Safe in herself, and with His faith endued, Two chiefs in her behalf did God endow, ^ Who on each side should guide her on the road. One was seraphic in his ardent glow, The other by his wisdom was on earth A splendour of the light which cherubs know. Of one will I now speak, because the worth *" Of each is told, whichever one we take, Since for one need the deeds of both had birth.
Between Tupino and the streams that break Falling from blest TJbaldo's chosen hill, A fertile slope hangs from the mountain peak *^ From whence both heat and cold Peruge doth feel By Porta Sole, while behind their yoke Gualdo with Nocera are wailing still. From that fair mountain side where the steep rock Is sloped upon the world, was bom a sun, ^ As this has often o'er the Giinges broke.
Therefore whoe'er this place by words makes known Let him no more Assisi curtly say, But be it styled henceforth the East alone. Par from its rising had not reached his day " Ere he began to make the earth perceive Some comfort in his mighty virtue's ray. For while a youth, although his father grieve.
He chose his lady, as to Death, the door Of Pleasure ne'er to her doth entrance give : ^ And there the bishop's spiritual court before, Et c(yi*wm pcUre, he to her was wed. After from day to day he loved her more.
She, of her former husband long bestead A thousand years and more, despised and poor, ** Till this one came was unsolicited, Nor 'vailed it aught that she was found secure Beside Amyclas when she heard the voice Which shook with fear the world, nor brave to endure. Line 43. A description of the birthplace of St. Francis, bom at Assisi, between the rivnlets of Tupino and Chiasi. Ubaldo was a saint of the Middle Ages. Line 48.
GhiaJdo and Nooera were tribntaries of Perugia. Line 68. Alluding to the lines in Lucan's "Pharwlia," lib. t., where CsBsar, amidst the tumults of war, finds the fisherman Amyclas secure with poverty : — " vitaa tuta facultas Pauperis, angustique Lares ! munera nondum Intellecta Deum ! quibus hoc contingere tempUs, Aut potuit muris, nullo trepidare tumultu, Casare& pubante manu ?"
Cahto XI. PARADISE. 308 Availed her constant courage even in loss, ^" So that when Mary mother wept below She took her place with Christ upon the Cross. But that too far my riddle should not go, Francis and poverty, those lovers true, Henceforth through this description thou mayst know. ^* Their concord, and their guise of joyful hne. Their love, their marvel, and their tender gaze.
Were cause of holy thoughts in all who view, So that the venerable Bernard lays His sandals by the first, and for such peace ^ Hasteth, and hasting thinks that he delays. O wealth unknown ! O good of sure increase ! Egidius and Sylvester bare their feet Behind that bridegroom, so the bride doth please. Thence journeys on that sire and master sweet, ^ Leading his lady and that family.
Who gird the rope already, symbol meet, Nor shame of heart did make him droop his eye That he was Pietro Bemardone*s son, Despised by those who watched him wonderingly. ^ But king-like he his rule austere made known To Innocent, and at his hand received The signet first to his religion won. Then, when the lowly people who believed Bound him increased, his marvellous renown ®* In Heavenly glory well in song is weaved.
The eternal spirit with a second crown Through Pope Honorius did his scheme illume, Upon the patriarch's holy wish rained down. And afterwards by thirst of martyrdom, ^^ Within the presence of the Soldan's pride. He preached of Christ and those who with Him come.
And when unripe that people he descried For their conversion, not to stay in vain To pluck Italian finitage back he hied. ^°* 'Twixt Tiber and the Amo of Christ slain The signet he received upon the hill. Until his death two years the marks remain. When unto him who did such grace instil It pleased to bear him upwards to the meed ^^^ Which he had conquered by his humble will. Line 106.
On the hill of Alvernia St. Francis is stated, according to the legend, to have received the stigmata, or marks of Christ's woonds on his hands and feet. The reception of the stigmata was a favourite subject with €arly artists.
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304 PARADISE. Cauto XII. Unto his brethren, as his heirs, the heed He recommended of his lady dear, That they with faith should love her he decreed. Then from his bosom sought his spirit clear ^^* To soar aloft, returning to hi^ reign. And for his body asked no other bier. Think henceforth to what height he must attain Deemed his fit colleague to support the bark Of Peter, struggling in the stormy main. ^^ And this one was our own blest patriarch. Then whoso follows him as he commands A worthy meed doth bear thou well mayst mark. But his own flock grown gluttonous, demands New provender, or else they now would not In diverse pastures spread o'er all the lands. And aye so much the more his sheep remote From their own fold in wandering spirit go, More milkless they return unto the cote. In truth there still are some who fear their woe ^^ And cling unto their shepherd, but so few A little cloth would make them cowls enow. Now if my words are not obscure to you, If in thy audience thou hast been intent, If what I've said thou dost in mind review, Thy wish in part by this is made content. Because thou'lt see the plant from which they fly, And the rebuke within my argument, * Where they thrive well if free from vanity.' " Line 117. He is said to have refused all pomp at bis funeral, and directed that be sbonld be bnried witb the common malefactors. Line 121. St. Dominic, of wbose order Thomas Aquinas was a member. Line 137. The plant is the rule of the order, from which so many of the modern Dominicans went astray.
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CANTO XII. As St. Thomas ceases speaking, a second circle of twelve blessed spirits surrounds the first. One of these, St. Buonaventura, relates to Dante the life of St. Dominic, and then regrets the decay of his own Franciscan order.
He then names the twelve spirits who compose the outer wreath, newly arrived. Soon as the blessed flame, the latest sound Of that oration from its lips let fall, The holy millstone 'gan to wheel around :
Cahto Xn. PARADISE. 805 Nor had it gone around its circle all, Before another ring did round it close, ' And step on step, and song on song did call : Song, that as far above our Muses rose, Our sirens in their sweetest melody. As light o'er the reflected rays it throws. As circle through a vaporous cloud on high ^^ Two rainbows parallel and like in hue, When Juno bids her handmaid deck the sky.
The outer from the inner springs to view, As sprang the echo from the beauteous maid Whom love^consumed, as does the sun the dew : ^^ And show the people upon earth, arrayed That sign of pact, which God to Noah sware, That never more should floods the earth invade : So, of those sempiternal roses there Circled around us the bright garlands twain, ^® And so the one to the other answered fair.
What time that merriment, and festal train, Both from their song, and from their flaming brand, Each light with light, rejoicing and serene, Together at one point in quiet stand ; ^ (Just like the eyes which at one's pleasure move.
Must close and ope together at command ;) From the heart of one of those new flames of love Issued a voice, like needle to the star My being to its presence did it move : ^ And it began : " The love which makes me fair. Prompts me to tell thee of that other guide. For whom, of mine was told the merit rare. Fitly does one stand by the other's side.
Since, as they both for the same object strove, ^ So now together shines their glory's pride The host of Christ that cost so dear to love To furnish with their panoply again, Behind their standard, slow and scattered move : What time the Emperor, who aye doth reign, *° Provideth his militia in their stress, Not for their worth, but of his grace so fain : Line 14. An allusion to the story of the nymph Hoho, oonsumed by her love for Narcissus.
As she echoes sonnds, so one rainbow echoes the other. The prodigality of illnstration in this passage constitutes its only difficulty. Line 31. The speaker is a Franciscan, who in return for Thomas Aquinas' glorification of his master St. Francis, proclaims the praises of St. Dominic. Buonaventura, thou|;h a Franciscan monk, became a Cardinal and Minister- General, to which dignities he afterwards alludes. X
3G6| PARADISE. Cabto XII. And as was told thee now; his bride to bless Gave champions twain, whose council and emprise The hosts so widely scattered would redress. ** Within that region where the zephyrs rise To ope new budding leaves with kisses sweet, Whence Europe issues clad in vernal dyes.
Not very far from where the sea waves beat, Behind the which, in a long track of flame, At times the sun from all men hides his heat, Lies Callaroga, town of blessed name, 'Neath the protection of the mighty shield, Whose arms two lions and two castles claim. Within that amorous lover was revealed ** O' the Christian faith,4hat holy athlete strong. Kind to his own, and to^his enemies steeled.
And as he was created, so did throng The living virtue in his mind, ere bom He made his mother prophesy. Ere long When finally were the*espousals sworn 'Twixt him and Faith, before the holy fount.
Where mutual safety each in dower had borne ; She, who assented there on his account, Beheld the wonderful result in dream ** Which would from him and his successors mount : And as in fact, that he might be in name, The spirit moved her hence his name to take From that possessive which filled aU his frame. Dominicus was he called ; of him I speak As of the skilful husbandman whom Christ Chose for His garden, as a helpmate meek.
Well did he seem familiar friend of Christ, Since the first love which in the child was shown, Was for the one chief counsel told by Christ. Oft by his nurse was he discovered thrown. Wakeful in silent prayer, upon the ground, As though he said, * I've come for this alone. Line 46. In Spain, the birthplace of St. Dominic, Callaroga being in Castile. Line 60.
Before he was bom his mother dreamed that she wonld be delivered of a black and white dog with a burning torch in his month, the former prefiguring the future dress of his order, and the latter his fiery zeal. Line 65. His godmother dreamed that the child had a star on his forehead and another at the back of his head, illuminating the East and West. Line 69. He was called Dominicus, the Latin possessive of Dominus.
Oahto xn. PARADISE. 807 Truly his father was a Felix found ! Truly hi& mother bore Giovanna's name, ^ If right they tell the meaning of that sound. Not for the world, for which men toil with shame, Following Taddeo's and Ostiensi's lore, But the true manna loving, he became In briefest time a doctor learned galore, ^ So that he set himself to trench the vine, Which idly tended soon grows wan and poor.
And at the seat, of old far more benign To righteous poor than now, (on it I lay No fault, 'tis his who sits there to decline,) ' ®° No dispensation lightly bought, to pray, Not to make interest for a vacant berth, Non dedmaSf quce stmt pauperum Dei, Were his to seek, but 'gainst the wandering earth Licence to combat for the holy seed, ®* From which these four-and-twenty plants had birth.
Then armed with doctrine, and delight in deed, On his apostleship he moved along Like torrent rushing from a lofty head : And on the trunks of Heresy he swung, ^^ With impetus more lively on the. land j Where most he found opposed resistance strong. After from him were various streamlets drained Watering the garden Catholic so fair.
So that its trees in living beauty stand. ^^^ I If such was one wheel of that two- wheeled car In which the holy Church her combat made. And conquered in the field of civil war. Clearly and well ^before thee is displayed The other's excellence, with courtesies "® Which Thomas ere I came did now parade. But the track's orbit, which of old did please That wheel to follow, is no longer trod, That now is mouldiness where erst were lees.
His family, that once straightforward strode "'^ Upon his footsteps, is so turned away, That backwards many now retrace their road. Line 80. Gioyanna is interpreted Grace, the gift of the Lord. Line 83. Taddeo was a lawyer of Bologna, and Ostiensi a Cardinal who wrote a commentary on the Decretals. Line 93. Not the tenths, which belong to the poor of God. Line 112. The rule of the order founded by the other wheel of the car, St. Francis, which is now neglected by his followers.
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808 BARADISE. Civro ml. And soon of sucli bad culture sliall we see The harvest, when the tares are brought to count, And wail, thrust outwards from the bam for aye. ^^ Certes I say, who leaf by leaf will hunt Our volume through, some single page may find Where he will read, * I am, as I was wont.' But not Casal's nor Acquasparta's kind, Where they who come the Scripture construe so. That one doth loose, and one too strict doth bind. Buonaventura's life within me know, From Bagnoreggio, in high place austere All objects sinister I thrust below. Illuminato, Agostino here, Were 'mongst the first of the barefooted poor Who with their cord to G-od became so dear. Hugh of San Victor, Pietro Mangiador, Are with them here, and Pietro he of Spain, Who shines below in twelve books' learned lore. ^^ Nathan the Prophet, Metropolitan Chrysostom, Anselm, and Donate who To the first art to place his hand did deign. Eaban is here, beside him shines in view The Abbot of Calabria, Joachin, Whom God with power prophetic did endue. To chant the praise of such high Paladin Excited me the flaming courtesy Of Friar Thomas and his speech serene. And with me moved all this brave company."
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Line 124. These two were Ministers-General of the Franciscan order, the first of whom relaxed its roles into licence, and the latter confined them too stringently. Line 130. Early Franciscan monks : those whose names follow are chiefly forgotten divines, whose personalities it is not worth while to trace from the Commentaries. Line 138. Donato wrote a treatise on grammar.
CANTO xin. Tlie two cirolse of heatified saints join in a chorus of praise to God. Thomas Aquinas then explains the other difficulty, which his words concerning Solomon had raised in Dante's mind, adding that his superiority ovier all men in wisdom extended only to kings. He closes by warning Dante against rash judgments.
Cahto xni. PARADISE. 309 Lbt him imagine who desires to know What then I saw (the image, too, retain Like firm-set rock, the while in words I show), Fifteen fair stars, which in its wide domain The Heavens enkindle, that thej overray * The vastest sweep of air with light serene. Let him imagine the bright wain, alway That in the bosom of our Heaven doth bum, Eevolving round its axle night and day, Let him imagine of the brilliant horn *° The summit, which points straightway to the Pole, Eound which the first wheel evermore doth turn, In Heaven as two new constellations roll. Like Ariadne, who in stars did blaze What time she felt the chill of death's control : ^* And one with the other mingle so their rays. Each within each their circles gliding through, That one still wendeth as the other strays ; And he will have some shadow of the true Bright constellation, and the double dance ^ That round me there aye circled in my view ; Though it transcendeth more mere human glance Than passeth Chiana's slowly- gliding stream The sky that swiftest whirls the Heaven's expanse. No Bacchic song they sing, no psan frame, But Persons Three in nature all Divine, And in one substance G-od and man the same. Their song they close, their measure cease to twine, And draw around us there those holy lights. Each service adding to the bliss they shrine. Then silence broke 'midst those accordant sprites The flame, by whom was told the wondrous life Of that meek pauper whom God now requites. He told me : " When the flail has threshed one sheaf. And when the gathered grain is laid aside, To the like labour then sweet love is lief.
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Lines 1 — 21. To understand what follows in the motions of the fonr-andtwenty saints, one should imagine fifteen of the largest stars in Heaven, the seven of Ursa Major and the two pointers in Ursa Minor, revolving in two circles, formed into new constellations, like Ariadne, thus metamorphosed at her death. Line 34. See Canto XI., lines 26 and 27, where Thomas mentioned the two difficulties which had arisen in Dante's mind, the first of which he then answered, and now turns to the second, roused by his assertion " that no second to Solomon ever rose," Dante being rightly of opinion that Adam and Christ were both superior to him.
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310 PARADISE. Casto xm. Thou tbink'st that in that breast, from which a side Was taken, to create the cheek so fair, Whose craving cost the world such tearful tide. And in that breast, transpiercM by the spear, Which after and before so fully paid, It turned the balance 'gainst all sin and fear. Whatever on human nature might be laid Of wisdom's light, was in completion poured By G-od's high power, who one and the other made. ** Therefore 'twas thine to marvel at my word When I declared that he no second knew. The worth that in this fifth light is upstored. Now what I answer, ope thy eyes to view. And thou wilt see thy thought, and what I tell, . ^ Like circle in its centre meet i' the true. All things, eternal and corruptible. Must each be spark of that idea, the seed Our Father, loving, generates at will. Because that living Light which doth proceed " From the Father's shining, and is never known From Him, and from the Triune Spirit freed, By His own bounty sheds His rays adown. Mirrored as 'twere on new existences, Itself eternally remaining one. ^ Thence it descends to the lowest potencies. Downwards from act to act declining so. It makes no more than brief contingencies. And these contingencies thou here mayst know All generated things, the which unfolds " With seed, or even without, Heaven's moving flow. The native wax of those, and that which moulds Are not alike, and so ea-ch 'neath the seal Ideal, more or less of glory holds : Whence 'tis that trees of the same kind reveal ™ Diversity in fruitage which they bear. And ye your difference of talent feel. Were the wax printed perfectly and clear. And were the skies in influence supreme. The glory of the seal would all appear.
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Line 55. The living Light is the Second Person of the Trinity. Line 59.
The new existences are angels and human sonls; the lowMt potencies are the elements and hrute matter. Line 67* The native wax is the matter of which all generated things are made ; the seal which stamps it is the particular power that acts thereon.
Oahto xni. PARADISE. 311 Bat Nature ever makes the process lame, And like an artist aye doth operate With trembling hand that blurs what skill would frame. But if Q-od*s warmth of love doth generate Of primal power the vision undefiled, ^ Entire perfection there He doth create. Thus fashioned was that clay, in which was piled Every perfection of mere living man ; Thus was the Holy Virgin found with child.
So I commend thy sentiment as plain, ^ That human nature never yet was known, Nor can be, such as in those persons twain. Now if no further had my reasoning gone, How then could this one be without a peer ? Thy words in answer would be thus begun. ^ But that what now is hidden may be clear, Think who he was, and what his answer bred, When he was told : what wouldst thou ask ? declare.
Thou well can see from that which I have said That he was king, who understanding sought, *" That worthily his kingship might be led. He did not seek to find the number out O' the Heavenly motors, nor if aye necesse With a contingency, necesse brought : Non si est dare primum motum esse, *®® Nor if to make triangle not a right From semicircle, were a problem easy.
If this, and what I've said, thou mark'st aright, That royal prudence, and that ken thou'lt learn On which the arrow of my aim did light. ^^ And if to that word, Eose, thy eyes dost turn, Thou'lt see it had respect to kings alone, Who're many, though few good ones we discern. With this distinction be my saying known, And thus with what thou thinkest 'twill agree. Of the first man, and Christ our joy alone. Line 79.
Where God Himself creates without the intermediate agency of Natnre, as in the cases of Adam and Christ, there mnst be perfection. Line 97* He did not ask questions of curiosity, of logical, metaphysical, or mathematical science, but for wisdom required by a king. Line 98. If a necessary premise, joined to a contingent one, produced a necessary consequence, which it does not, as conclusio sequitur debiliorem. Line 100.
If it is necessary to admit one first motion, which the rule in metaphysics forces one to do, to avoid an ad infinitum. Line 101. If the angle contained in a semicircle can ever be other than a right, which is a mathematical absurdity.
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312 PARADISE. c^to XIV. And let this to thy feet a dead weight be, Like one fatigued to make thee journey slow Towards the Yes, or No, thou dost not see. For he amongst the fools is verj low, Who without thought affirmeth, or denies. Whether to one or other step he go .; Because it happens that too often flies Public opinion into error's part, And then its influence the inteUect ties. ^^ Far worse than idly from the shore doth start, Since he returns not such as erst he went. Who fishes for the truth, and wants the art. Of this i' the world are proofs most evident, Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus, more Who wandered on, and knew not whither bent. Thus did Sabellus, Arius, and that store Of fools, who like to scimitars reflected In guise distorted the pure Scripture lore. Let not the people think themselves elected To judge like one who counteth on the com Within his field ere it be ripe. Dejected I have beheld through winter time a thorn Its rude repelling aspect show, and bear After a rose, upon its top forlorn. And I have seen a vessel swiffcly steer Through all its voyage across the ocean stream, Perish at last, the harbour's entrance near. Let not Dame Bertha nor Sir Martin deem. Because they see one rob, another pray. That they can pry within the will supreme ; For one can rise, and one can fall away." Line 125. Ancient philosophers refated by Aristotle. Line 127' Well-known fonnders of heresies. Line 139. Names applied in general to busybodies whose cnriosity exceeds their judgment.
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CANTO XIV. In answer to Beatrice, the spirit of Solomon explains to Dante that after the final resurrection the blest will resume their glorified bodies now lying on earth. Beatrice and Dante are then translated to iiie fifth Heaven, the sphere of Mars. There he sees the beatified spirits moving athwart- a cross of glory which is stamped npon that pmnet, and is ravished by the melody of their hymn.
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Cahto XIV. PARADISE. 313 FsoM centre to the rim, or backwards bound, As struck from inwards, or without the rim, Moveth the water in a vessel round. Within my mind all suddenly did swim This image which I tell, as silent grew * Of Thomas' glorious soul the saintly hymn. By the similitude which then I knew Between his speech and Beatrix' reply. Who after him was pleased to speak anew.
" This one has need, though neither voice on high, Nor even thought the wish doth yet assume, Unto the root of one more truth to hie. Then tell him if the light, with which doth bloom Your shadowy substance, will with you remain As it is now, throughout eternal doom : If it remaineth, afterwards explain. When with your bodies remade visible. How will ye bear such brilliance free from pain. As ofttimes in the joy of festival.
With rapture stirred, the dancers in a ring Hurry their motions, and their voices swell ; So to that prompt and pious questioning The holy circles showed their bliss amain. In wondrous melody and tourneying. To live above, whoever would complain That one must die, he never felt revive The coolness there of that eternal rain. " The One, and Two, and Three, who ever live.
And ever reign in Three, and Two, and One, Uncircumscribed, yet all things circumscrive," Three times was chanted there by every one Of those blessed spirits, with such melody.
To all desert were fair such guerdon won : And from the light, most like the Deity, O' the inner ring, I heard a voice released, With such perchance the angel made reply To Mary t " Howsoever long the feast Of Paradise may be, so long our love With ray around us such a beaming vest. Its fervour by this brightness it doth prove. Its fervour by its sight is bound, that solely According to its grace, its worth above. Line 1.
The physical fact appears doubtfal and diffioalt of experiment. Dante, however, compares the speech made to them from the circle, and Beatrice's address from the centre to the saints around, to the abovedescribed motion of water in a round vessel.
314 PARADISE. Ciirao XIV. What time our flesli made glorified and holy Shall be reclad, our person must be dight More gracious far through all its being whoUy: ^ Therefore must be increased that gift of light, Which grants gratuitous the highest peace, Light which to see His glory makes us fit. Whence it must be that vision will increase, Increase the fervour which from it doth flame, ^ Increase the ray which doth arise from this.
But like a burning coal which gives out flame. Surpasses that with its own living glow. That it still keeps the outline of its frame^ So this same brilliancy which swathes us now ** Will by that flesh in glory be overcome, Which for all days the earth doth cover now : Nor can such light be ever wearisome, Since strong will be the organs of the frame All things to bear, from which delight may come.
" So rapid and prepared they all did seem Both one and other choir Amen to say. For their dead frames it showed their wish supreme : Not for themselves alone perchance they pray, But for their parents' sake, and friends so dear, ^ Ere they were flames in this eternal day. And lo ! around, of equal brightness, sheer Above the splendour there new lustre heave. Like a far-off horizon growing clear.
And as at rising of the early eve '" The stars to pierce the sky commence again, So that confusedly we scarce perceive, Meseemed of new existences a train Thus to behold, who made a circle new Wheeling without the other circles twain. " O' the Holy Spirit, O that sparkle true, How suddenly it grew all glowing white Unto my eyes, that could not bear the view !
But Beatrix so fair and smiling bright, Won all my gaze mid other visions here, ^ Words cannot tell, nor mind pursue such flight. My eyes thence won the power once more to rear Themselves aloft, I saw myself alone Borne with my lady to a higher sphere.
Line 67' Around the circles of saints now gather another cirde of angels, dominations as Dante calls the powers of the foarth heaven, and these are described as of equal brightness, not shining more or less like the spirits of the blest according to their extent of vision, as above explained hy Solomon.
Cahto XIV. PARADISE. 315 Well was I 'ware that I had higher gone, •* By the fire beaming smiling of the star Which seemed more ruddy than its usual tone.
With all my heart, and with that inward prayer In all the same, I gave myself to God The holocaust, that claimed such favour rare. *® Nor from my breast had yet the fervour flowed Of that my sacrifice, or ere I knew My offering was accepted and avowed : For with such glory and such roseate hue Appeared a splendour 'twixt two listed lines, ^ I cried, " EHas ! how dost deck the view !
As from the stars, lesser and greater, shines Distinct in whiteness the long Milky Way, Whose cause in vain each learned sect divines. So, with stars studded made each listed ray ^^ On Mars's sphere, that venerable sign. Which quadrants joined within a round. display.
Here Memory conquers every power of mine : For in that cross of glory lightened Ohbist, That no fit simile can I divine. ^®* But whoso takes his cross and follows Chbist, Will yet excuse this weakness, when through grace In that white gleaming, he shall witness Chsist.
From arm to arm, from top imto the base Wander the lights, throwing out sparks more strong ^^® Whene'er they meet, or pass them by in space : Thus see we here, now straight now crooked throng, Now swift, now slow, with aye-renewing dart, The atom-motes with bodies short and long. Move in the sunbeam, which doth shoot athwart ^^* At times the shadow, which the people sought, Made in defence against the glare by art.
And as a lute and harp accordant wrought With many strings, create a dulcet chime, Even to one who ne'er the notes was taught, ^*® So from the lights which there before me swim. Collected in the cross a melody Which rapt me though I did not hear the hymn. Its burden well I knew was praises high. For rise and conquer on my hearing stole, ^^ Like one who hears, nor can the sense descry. Line 85. He has now entered the planet Mars, red in colour.
Line 101 . The cross which is placed on the planet Mars in honour of the Crusaders, who fought and conquered under that sign.
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316 PARADISE. Cahto XV. Thence so enamoured grew my listening soul, Compared with it, there was no other thing That jet had bound me with such sweet control. Haply my word too daringly doth spring, ^** Lowering the pleasure from those beauteous eyes, Gazing on which my yearning folds its wing. But whoso seeth that the more they rise Those living seals more beauty have attained. And that as yet I had not turned to these, May well excuse me that, thus self-arraigned, Whilst truth I speak, myself from this to clear ; That holy pleasure is not here explained Because in mounting it grows more sincere. Line 138. Dante had not exoladed the delight he ever found supreme in gazing on the eyes of Beatrice, for these increased in beaaty as tney rose higher towards God, and he had not yet looked at her in this new sphere. The word " dischioso" means both explained and excluded. "Che'lpiacer santo non h qui dischiuso," has, therefore, been variously interpreted as that holy pleasure too is contained in the delight I experienced, or that holy pleasure was not then alluded to by me. I have, however, preferred an mgenious interpretation offered by Padre d' Aquino, that holy pleasure is not here explained by me, because in mounting it grows too exquisite for words to describe.
GJlNTO XV. The hymn of the Crusaders subsides into silence, and a spirit srlides to the foot of the Cross and welcomes Dante as his descendant. He tells him that he is the spirit of his ancestor Cacoiaguida, describes the simple life of the Florentines in his days, and states how he died in Palestine, fighting for the Holy Land. Benignant will, which doth exemplify Ever that love, which virtue's beams inspire, As will malignant, doth cupidity, Silence imposed unto that dulcet lyre, And hushed to quiet every holy chord * Which Heaven's right hand attunes to notes of fire. How can be deaf to prayer for justice poured Those beings, who to give me wiU to pray. United all, that silence to accord ? He of a truth doth nurture grief for aye, '° Who for the love of what can ne'er endure Eternally doth cast that love away. As o'er the tranquil skies serene and pure. Oft and anon doth glide a sudden blaze. Attracting careless eyes unto its lure, ^
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CiKTO XV. PARADISE. 817 And seems a star in Heaven that shifts its place Only from that part whence it kindles bright, Nothing is lost, and it so briefly stays : So from the Cross's horn, far on the right Unto its foot did sudden glide a star O' the constellation which there sheds its light.
Nor from its riband fell that jewel rare ; But through the listed ray of light came down, Seeming a flame in alabaster fair : So did Anchises' pious shadow run (Unless to Virgil's Muse we now refuse a Faith) in Elysium when he saw his son.
" O sanguis meus, super infusa Qratia Dei ; sicui tibi, cui Bis umqtuim cobU janua reclusa .'"' Thus spoke that light : to him I turned me free, Then to my lady turned once more my eyes, And here and there the marvel dazzled me. For in her eyes a beaming smile did rise Such that I thought that I the depths did near Of all my grace and all my Paradise. Then, pleasant both, to gaze on and to hear.
Things far too deep for me to understand The spirit added to his proem clear. Nor was that mystery of election planned But of necessity beyond the aim Of mortals, his conception so far wonned. And when the flight of his high soaring flame Was so allayed, that once more in the rood Of human intellect his meaning came ; The first thing which by me was understood, " For ever blessfed be the Q-od Triune, Who in my seed to me such kindness showed.
And he went on : ** The long sweet fast I've known While reading in the volume of Q-od's might, Whose pages never turn from white to brown, Thou'st satisfied my son, within this light. In which I speak to thee, through grace divine That preened thy plumage to such soaring flight. Line 26. Isque nbi tendentem adversam per gramina vidit ^aean, alacris palmas utrasque tetendit. — Virg. ^a., lib. vi., 684. Line 28.
" thou my blood, superabounding grace of God, to whom, as to thee, was the gate of Heaven ever opened twice P" Twice, because Dante now enters it alive, a certain sign that it will finally open for him a^^ain. Line 61. In the not^ to Canto II. of the ** Paradise ' it was mentioned that the leaves of parchment were brown and white alternately : the Book of God knows no change.
318 PARADISE. Caitto XV. Thou thinkest that thy thoughts within me shine " From the first source, as evermore doth ray From unity, all numbers we combine. And therefore dost not ask who I may be, Nor why in thee more joyous I appear Than any other in this concourse gay. ®* Thou deemest truth ; both less and greater here Of this life, ever on that mirror gaze In which ere thou hast thought, the thought stands clear.
But that the sacred love on which delays My endless vigil, and from which I hold ** Such sweet desire, may better work its ways ; With thy own joyous voice, secure and bold, Express thy pleasure, thy desire express, To which reply is ready ere 'tis told. I turned to Beatrix, whose smile did bless '* Ere her consent in speaking I could claim. Which added wings unto my eagerness.
Thus I began : " Knowledge and love the same Since God*s equality first met your sight In each of you an equal poise reclaim : ^* Since in that sun which ye with heat and light Lightened and warmed, so equal are the two That no similitude would show it right. But knowledge and desire in mortal crew, For reason that to you is manifest, ^ Have wings with d^ering plumage fledged untrue.
Whence I, a mortal, see in me confest This inequality, nor thanks can rate Save with my heart for this paternal feast. O living Topaz, thee I supplicate, ^ Who dost ingem this precious jewel rare, My longing, with thy name to satiate." ** O leaf of mine, in whom I bliss did share.
Even while expecting thee, thy root was I :" With such commencement did he answer fair. ^ Then told me : " He, from whom thou dost apply Thy surname, who a century and more Has turned the mountain's first ledge wearily^ Line 73. In Heaven fervour is measured by sight, or knowledge, as explained by Solomon ; amongst mortals love can exceed the power of expressing it, and Dante, therefore, can only offer his thanks in his heart. Line 91. Alighieri, Dante's great-grandfather, from whom the family name was taken, was the son of Cacoiagoida.
Was erst my son, and thy great grandsire : sure 'Tis fitting that by thee bis long distress Should be abated by thy good deeds' store. Florence within her ancient bound's recess, Whence yet she takes her matin hour and noon. Sober and modest stood in peacefulness. She had not yet her jewelled gauds or crown, No quaint-shod ladies, no such girdle rare As makes a woman nothing to her zone.
Not yet a daughter at her birth caused fear Unto her father, that in years and dower Her bridal all proportion would impair. ^^ Houses not yet were emptied of their flower ; Sardanapalus was not in the hall To show how great in chambering his power : Not yet was Montemalo conquered all By your Uccellatojo, in its rise "* As 'twas overcome, so 'twill be in its falL Bellincion Berti I have seen in guise Of leather and of bone, and from her glass His wife would come, not painted to the eyes : I've seen the Nerli and the Vecchi pass '^ Contented with uncovered jerkins poor, And at the wheel and distaff every lass.
O happy ones ! and each one there was sure Of a home burial, and as yet had none A lonely marriage bed through France's lure. ^^ To watch the cradle was the care of one, Soothing the infant with that prattle dear Which erst their mothers and their sires had won. Another drawing from the wheel the hair. With all her family told tales enow ^^ Of Trojans, Fiesol^ and Rome severe.
Cianghella for such wonder would they know And Lapo Salterello, as would be A Cincinnatus and Cornelia now. Line 98. The pnblio clock of Florence was within the circuit of its ancient walls. Line 102. Pars minima est ipsa paella sibi. — Orid. Line 109. Montemalo, an elevated spot in the suburbs of Borne, was not yet surpassed in the pride of public buil(Ung8 by Uccellatojo, in the suburbs of Florence. Line 112.
The father of Gbaldrada, alluded to in Canto XYI. of the " Hell. Line 120. From their husbands leaving them to trade in France. Line 127. Cianghella was a dissolute woman of Imola, and Lapo Salterello a lawyer of Florence, with whom Dante was at variance.
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320 PARADISE, Cahto rVL To life 80 tranquil, and so fair to see ^^ Mid citizens, to trustfalness so wise Of social life, to such sweet company, Mary vouchsafed me, called in childbed cries : And in your ancient baptistery's fane I, Cacciaguida, took on Christian ties. Moronte, Eliseo were my brethren twain : From Val de Perdo came my wife to me. Thou from her family thy name didst gain. The Emperor Conrad then I followed free. And he himself did gird me belted knight, So my good deeds did win his courtesy. With him I went the impious creed to fight, Whose people, by the shepherd's crime, controls The Holy Land, your heritage of right : There, by that race who in such foulness rolls, ^^* From a fallacious world I won release, The love of which debaseth many souls. And came from martyrdom to perfect peace." Line 133. It was the cnstom to inToke the help of Mary in the puns of childbirth. Line 137. Cacciagoida's wife, of the family of Alighieri, whose name was taken by her son, came from Ferrara, the vaUey watered by t^e Po. Line 139. The Emperor Conrad III., who joined in a cmsade, and died in 1152. Line 143. The Mahommedans, who through the snpineness of the Pope in not preaching a holy war, were left in possession of Palestine, which by right was the Christians' heritage.
CANTO XVI. In answer to Dante's request, Cacciaguida relates to him the time of his birth, the extent of Florence at that period, and who were the chief families who then resided there. O blood's nobility of little worth. If thou dost make mankind take pride in thee. Where every longing wanders wide on earth. Prom henceforth now no marvel will it be : For there, where never doth the longing stray, * I say in Heaven, it glory roused in me. Thou art a mantle that doth swiftly fray, While Time with shears doth ever clip it round, Unless we add to it from day to day.
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OiHTo XVI. PARADISE. 321 With the old youy which first in Eome did sound, ^^ In which her family doth little bide, A recommencement to my speech was found. Whence Beatrix, who somewhat stood aside, Smiling appeared like her whose cough did fire Ginevra down her frailty's brink to glide. ^* Thus I began my speech : " You are my sire : All boldness to express my thoughts you give ; You raise me thus than my own being higher.
Through such great streams doth gladness now arrive, •My mind becomes a fountain, joy to pour, ^® Or it woiild break with all it doth receive. O tell me then, my dear progenitor. Who were your fathers, and what year was known As marked with white amid your youthful store ? O tell me of the sheepfold of Saint John, What was it then, and who the human kind Within it, worthy of the highest throne ?
As glows before the breathing "of the wind A flaming coal, so did I see that light With splendour beaming to my courtesies kind. And as before my eyes it grew more bright. So with a voice more tender, and more sweet. But not with modem parlance composite. It told me : " From the day All Hail ! did greet The Virgin, till my mother, sainted now.
Brought forth myself, her burden, to the seat Of its own lion did this planet go Five hundred, fifty times, and thrice, through space, Beneath its foot to re-illume its glow. My ancestors and I were born i' the place, ^^ Where the beginning of the latest ward Is found by those who run your yearly race. Line 10.
Out of respect for his ancestor Dante does not now address him with the familiar Thou, but uses the plural You, according to the custom introduced by the later Romans. Line 14. The encouraging smile of Beatrice is compared to the gesture of Queen Ginevra's attendant, when she admitted Launcelot's first embrace — an allusion to the scene in the romance which Francesca read with her lover. " Hell," Canto V. Line 25.
Florei^be, of which St. John the Baptist was the patron saint. Line 34. The plenet Mars had returned to the constellation of Leo 553 times since the conception of the Virgin Mary down to Gacciaguida's birth. As the revolution of the planet is somewhat short of two years, this brings the date of Gacciaguida's birth to the commencement of the twelfth century, though not with the mathematical precision the commentators attempt to obtain. Line 40.
The city was divided into four compartments, and Dante's ancestors lived in the last ward, through which ran the course of the annual race. Y
322 PARADISE. Curro XVI. Suffice it of my elders tliis to liave heard : For who they were, and whence they hither came With silence more than speech is best averred. *^ 'Twixt the baptistery and Mars' sculptured fietme Those who in agi were fitted arms to wield Were then a fifth of what ye now can claim : But then the blood of citizens, now filled From Campi and Cortaldo, doomed to labour In the lowest artisan was pure revealed.
How better far 'twould be to have as neighbour Such people, and to hold your boimdary lines At Trespian and Gkduzzo, than their savour To have to bear within your own confines, Such as Agaglion's kind, and Signa's, who To fraud already his sharp eye inclines !
Had she not been to Csesar stepdame new, The race who most on earth degenerate, But like a mother to its offspring true, One now made Florentine, with traffic great, Would back have turned him into Simifonti, Where erst his grandsire used for alms to wait. Still Montemarlo would belong to the Conti : In Aeon's parish would the Cerchi be. Mayhap in Vnldigrieve the Buondelmonti.
'Mongst persons ever more confusion free Within the city was the source of ill, As in the human body, gluttony. And a blind bull more heavily falleth still Than a blind lamb ; and oft one sword will tally a Better account of blood than five would spill.
If thou regardest Luni, Urbisaglia, How they are gone, and how at this time go Behind them Chiusi too and Sinigaglia : To hear how races are destroyed below WiU be to thee no novel thing, nor strange, After that cities such an ending know. All things amongst ye carry death and change. Just like yourselves , although in some 'tis hid, Since life is brief, and theirs of longer range. Line 46.
Between the baptistery and the statae of Mars on Ponte Veochio, which stood for the bonndaries of Florence in Cacciagoida's time. Line 50. Places in the neighbourhood of Florence, which he regrets had been brought afterwards within its boundaries. Line 58.
It is supposed that Borne is here alluded to : had Borne continned in her allegiance to the emperor, the strife of Guelph and Ghibeline had not been roused, and the best citizens of Florence had not been changed for worthless strangers.
Canto XVL PARADISE. 323 And as the changing moon, with shifting tide, Covers and bares the seashores without rest, Thus unto Florence Fortune ever did. Therefore no marvel be by thee confest ^ At what I'll tell thee of high Florentines Whose fame through Time is no more manifest.
I've seen the Hugos and the Catalines, Philippi, Greci, Ormanni, Alberichi, Already on the wane, how each one shines ! ^ I've seen as great, as ancient I who speak ye, With him of Area, and Sanella too, The Soldanieri, Ardinghi, and Bostichi.
Over the gate, now laden with a new Burden of felony, too great to bear, ^ Which soon will be hurled over by the crew, The Ravignani dwelt, of whom is heir Count Guide, and whoever the great name Of high Bellincion since borrow there. Already knew the populace to tame *^ Pressa, in Galligajo's house there were Already, gilded hilt and pommel frame.
Great was the column clothed with miniver, Sacchetti, Givinchi, Si&nti, and Barucci, Galli, and they who blush at the bushel's slur. ^^ Great was the branch from which sprang the Calfucci Already, and already were thev drawn To curule chairs, the Sizii and Arrigucci. How mighty saw I those who're since undone By their own pride ! and they, the balls of gold, "^ In all their great deeds flourished Florence' dawn.
Thus in like fashion did the fathers old Of those, who ever when yon church is vacant Grow fat, the while its revenues they hold. That race of surquedry that rageth peccant ^^^ On him who flies, and unto those who show Their teeth, or even their purse, like lamb is placant, Line 94. The Circhi, enemies of Dante, now lived over the gate where formerly the Ravignani resided, of which family was Bellincion Berti. Line 102. The symbols of knighthood.
Line 105. A family which committed a fraud by using a false bnshel at the public granary, already alladed to in the " Purgatory," Canto XII. Line 112. The fathers of certain families sprung from the founders of the Bishopric of Florence, who had hence the right to manage its revenues whenever the see was temporarily vacant. Line 116.
The Adimari, who were then of such small account that Donato objected to his father-in-law, Bdlincion Berti, giving another of his daughters in marriage to one of them. Boccaccio Adimari was Dante's chief enemy in Florence, who always resisted his recall fi-om exile because he had taikeii possession of his property on his banishment.
324 PARADISE. Canto XVI. Already rose, but from a race so low That Ubertin Donato felt a smart Any connection with their blood to know. ^^^ Already Caponsacco in the mart Had come from Fiesole, and Guida too, And Infangato filled a worthy part. I'll tell a thing incredible and true : In our small bounds one entered by a gate, ^^ The which its name from those of Pera drew.
Each one who borrowed the heraldic state Of the great baron, whose high worth and name The Feast of Thomas aye doth celebrate, From him did privilege and knighthood claim, ^^ Albeit one has joined the people's den Who binds that quartering in a golden frame.
The Gualterotti and Importini then Were living, and their Borg would quiet be Had no new strangers entered on its ken. ^ The house from which was bom your misery, And which has slain ye by its just disdain, And put an end to all your life of glee, Was honoured, it, and aU its numerous train. O Buondelmonte, to what ill ye fled ^*^ That plighted wedding, on another fain ! Many would now be joyous, who are sad.
If God thy form in Ema*s stream had thrown The first time to the city thou wast led. But well 'twas fitting to that maimed stone ^** Which guards the bridge, that Florence thee should make A victim to the last peace she has known. Line 124. The incredibility is varionsly explained to consist either in the smallness of the boundaries of the city at tluit time or in Uie simplicity of the people who called one of their gates after a private family.
Line 128. The Marchese Ugo, Baron cf the Emperor Otho III., who gave leave to several Florentine families to bear his arms. In an abbey in Florence founded by bis mother, and dowered by himself, the Feast of St. Thomas was always celebrated in his memory, being the day on which he died. Line 131. Giano della Bella, who still bore the Baron's arms, but had renounced the nobility and become one of the people. A democrat of the Middle Ages.
Line 136. The family of the Amidei, who slew Buondelmonte for withdrawing from a marriage arranged with a maiden of their house through bis passion for one of the Donati, from whence arose the factions of the Bianchi and Neri in Florence. See *' Hell," Canto XXVIII. Line 143. A stream between Moutebuona, where the family of Buondelmonte resided originally, and Florence. Line 145.
The bridge where the maimed statue of Mars was still standing when Buondelmonte was slain, a fit victim to that god. See "Hell, Canto XIII.
Oahto XVII. PARADISE. 326 With others, and with those of whom I speak, Florence 1 saw in such a perfect rest, No reason had she then laments to seek. i*<* I saw her with those people, glorious, blest, And aye so just, that to the lance's head Her lilies never were reversely drest. Nor yet by civil strife were changed to red. Line 153.
The lilies, the arms of Florenoe, had never hong reversed on the spears of her enemies in token of her defeat, nor was their colour yet changed from white to red^ as they were by the Guelphs, who altered the city arms from argent lilies m a field gales to lilies gales in a field argent.
CANTO xvn. Encoorai^ed by Beatrice, Dante questions the n>irit of his ancestors conoermng the future of his own hfe on earth. Uacoiaguida foretells to him his approaching exile from Florence, and exhorts him to write all that he has seen in Hel], Purgatory, and Heaven. Like him who came to Olimene to learn The truth of what against his birth was given. He who to sons still makes all fathers stern, Such was I then, and such was I perceiven Of Beatrice, and that holy lamp * Who erst for me had changed its place in Heaven. On which my lady : " Let the flame forth ramp Of thy desire," she told me, " let it pass Distinctly sealed with its internal stamp : Not by thy speech our knowledge to increase. But that to own thy thirsting thou mayst use, That men may mingle drink to give thee peace." ** O my dear plant ! that dost so soaring muse. That as our minds behold there cannot be In one triangle angles twain obtuse, So dost thou see the far contingency Ere in itself existent, on that point Gazing where all times present thou dost see ; Line 1. Phaeton, ths son of Glimene, who inquired of her whether he was really the son of Apollo, Ovid, Metam., lib. i., whose fate in his attempt to drive the horses of the sun makes fathers sterner to a son's requests. Line 11. That thou mayst practise a frank declaration of thy difficulties, 80 that men may offer thee their solution.
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826 PABADISE. Cahto TVIL The while that I with Virgil was conjoint, Upon that mountain where the souls grow clear, * And while descending in the world defunct, Were told me of my future life severe And mournful words ; albeit every blow Of chance I feel myself well squared to bear. Therefore my wish would be content to know ^ For me what fortune has the future drest, Since dart foreseen in flight is ever slow.
Thus I that beaming light itself addrest, That first had spoken to me, and as willed My Beatrix, my longing was confest. ^ Not with such riddles, in whose snares was held The credulous world of old, or ere was slain The Lamb of God, who every sin repealed, But with clear words and open parlance plain That love paternal unto me replied, ^ Inclosed, and beaming in his smile so fain.
" Contingency, which ne'er beyond the tide Of your material world can ever reach. On the eternal sight is wholly dyed. Not that from hence necessity I teach, * More than from sight, a vessel glideth fair Adown the current, gazed on from the beach.
From that eternal sight, as fills the ear Organs' sweet harmony, to me doth come In sight that time which towards thee draweth near. *^ As left Hippolytus his Athens' home, Through his perfidious stepdame, passion fraught, So to depart from Florence is thy doom. Thus is it willed, and thus already sought ; And soon they'll bring to pass what now they scheme, '^ There, where Christ every day is sold and bought.
Upon the injured side will cast the blame The wonted cry ; but vengeance will achieve Witness to truth, whichever it doth claim. Line 20. In " Purgatory" Conrad Malaspina, Canto VIII., and Oderisi the Illuminator in Canto XI., had hinted to Dante of his coming hanishment, and in " Hell" Farinata degli Uberti, Canto X., and Sir Brunetti in Canto XV», had done the same. He now asks for clearer warnings. Line 40.
Necessity does not follow from God's knowledge more than when one gazes on a ship floating down the tide the sight causes it to descend. Line 46. Owing to the unnatural passion of his stepmother Fhsedra. Line 51. In Rome, where they were plotting the expulsion of the Ghibeline party from Florence. Line 54. According to the then belief in the trial by duellum, that vengeance would declare itself always on the side of truth.
Canto XVII. PARADISE. 327 Each thing beloved most dearly thou wilt leave : ^'^ And this is but the earliest dart which fares From the bow of exile, when it shoots to grieve. Thyself wilt prove what bitter taste there bears The alien's bread, andjwhat a weary road Is climbing and descending alien stairs. ^ And that which most of all thy back will load, Will be the evil troop, with whom thou'lt fall Into this valley, scattered all abroad.
For all ungrateful, mad, and impious all. Against thee will they act, but very soon ^^ Their brows, not thine, will bear shame's reddened pall. Of their bestiality the progress on Will be the proof, to thee it will be fair To have made thy party by thyself alone. Thy earliest refuge and thy first repair '^ Will be the courtesy of the great Lombard, Who bears the holy bird above the stair.
For he on thee will show such kind regard, That between act and asking 'twixt ye twain, That will be first which others most retard. ^^ With him thou' It see the youth who bears such strain Of this strong planet, even from his birth, That notable will be his actions' train. Not yet have people knowledge of his worth, By his young age, since yet have wheeled these starry ®^ Spheres round him but nine years since he went forth.
But ere the Gascon shall deceive great Harry, Such sparks of his high virtue will be shown, In that for coin or toil he will not tarry. His liberalities will then be known, ^ So that his very enemies who hate, Will not be able to shun speech thereon.
For him and for his favours do thou wait : By him much people will be changed in lot, Altering alike of rich and poor the state : *^ And do thou bear it written in thy thought Of him, but tell it not :" and things he said Incredible to those who see it wrought. " These are the glosses, son," he then did add, " On that which has been told thee, lo ! the snares ** Which 'neath a few short years are hidden laid. Line 71.
Alboino della Soala, whose arms were an eagle on a stair of gold. Line 76. Can Grande, brother of the above. See ''Hell," Canto I. Line 82. Before the Pope Clement Y. shall deceive the Emperor Henry VII.
328 PARADISE. Cakto XVII. I would not thou sliouldst envj thence thy peers, Since thy own life will in the future grow Beyond their punishment, through distant years.*' In silence then completed did he show, ^^ That holy spirit, all the woof which I Had placed before him to be woven through.
Then I began, like one who doubtingly Longeth for counsel from a person wise, Who seeth true and wisheth lovingly : ^^ " My sire, I clearly see how spurring hies Towards me Time, to inflict on me a blow. Heaviest to him who self -abandoned lies. Therefore with foresight I must arm me now. So that when ta'en from me the place most dear, "® My verse may lose me not all others too.
Down in that world of never-ending care, And on the mountain, from whose beauteous height The sweet eyes of my lady me did rear. And afterwards in Heaven, from light to light, "* That have I learnt, which should I say again. To many would have savour of despite : And if from truth I timidly refrain.
Midst those I fear to forfeit life alwav " ion Who'll call the present times the antique strain." ^ The light where smiled my treasure, which that day I there had foand, first made a sparkling gleam Like golden mirror in the solar ray. Then answered me : ** That conscience, which with shame Or of itself or others may be stained, ^^ Will surely feel the stinging of thy theme. But ne'ertheless be every lie refrained.
Let all thy vision be made manifest. And let him wince who feels his withers strained : For if thy voice in any way molest ^** At the first taste, a vital nutriment 'Twill leave behind to him who doth digest. This cry of thine will be like winds unpent.
That strongest smite against the loftiest peaks : This to thy honour is some argument. ^^ Hence in those spheres upon thy vision breaks, Upon the mount, and in the dolorous vale, Those souls alone of whom Fame's trumpet speaks ; Because his mind, who heareth, would not hail With trust the given example, if its root ^^ Were hidden and unknown, and ever fail Mere barren arguments to bring forth fruit."
CANTO XVIII. Cacciagaida names to Daate the souls of many renowned warriors in the planet Mars, and quitting him to join his comrades in their song of praise, Dante finds himself raised with Beatrice to the sphere of Jupiter. The souls of those who had administered justice rightly in the world form themselves into letters before him, exhorting rcuers to their own virtue, and finally settle into the shape of the head and neck of an eagle.
Bapt in that vision of beatified justice, Dante calls on it to revisit earth and purify, where most wanted, the avaricious Court of Rome. Albeady in his word rejoiced apart That blessed spirit, on my thoughts I fed, Tempering the sweetness with the promised smart : When she, mj ladj, who me Godwards led, " Change now thy train of thought ; think I am near * Him Who doth recompense each wrong," she said.
I turned me at that amorous voice so dear Of her my solace, and what I descried Of love in holy eyes I try not here : Not that I fear alone speech vainly tried, ^® But that my mind could never so return Above itself if others do not guide.
This only of that fact can I discern, That gazing on her my desire was freed From every other longing there to yearn, ^^ Until the eternal peace, which straightly rayed On Beatrice in reflected guise From her fair face on me contentment laid. Cercoming me with light of smiling eyes, She said unto me ; " Turn thee now and hear, *® Not in my eyes alone is Paradise.
As many a time and oft is witnessed here The longing in the face when nourished so That all the mind is centered in the care. So in the flaming of that holy glow ^ To which I turned me then, the eager bent To speak to me once more I clear did know, And it began : ** In this the fifth ascent Of the tree which draws life downwards from its height, And aye bears fruit, while ne'er a leaf is rent, ^ Are blessM spirits on your earthly site. Or ere they came to Heaven was great their fame, To every Muse were each a chrysolite.
Gaze on the Cross's horns, as I will name Each spirit will glide there by me rehearsed, As in the cloud doth flash the nimble flame. I saw along the Cross a glorj burst As Joshua was named ; as past it shone I know not whether speech or deed was first. At the name of Maccabee I saw thereon Another moving by in whirling train, And gladness was the whip that spurs it on.
So for Orlando, and for Charlemain, Followed the twain my own intent regard, As on the falcon's flight the eye doth strain. Along that Cross then William and Kenard, And the great leader Godfrey drew my sight, With the heroic chief, Eobert Guiscard. Thence moved, and mingling with each other light, The spirit who had spoken to me showed What artist he, 'mid singers in Heaven's height.
To my right hand my vision then I bowed To see in Beatrix what course to steer. Either by spoken words or sign avowed, And I beheld her eyes so limpid clear, So filled with gladness that their semblance bright O'ercame all else, even her last wonted cheer.
And as by more perception of delight, Doing good deeds, a man from day to day Perceiveth that his virtue grows in might, ^ So was I 'ware that with the whirling sway O' the whirling Heavens my circle was increased. Seeing that miracle's beauty clearer ray.
And as in momentary time is chased The hue from maiden's cheek which lately burned ^ With burden of shame's blush, as quick displaced, So seemed it to my eyes when I had turned Into the whiteness of that tempered star, The sixth, which me within itself inumed. I saw within that torch of Jupiter fair. Before my eyes, the letters of our speech, Shaped by the lights of Love that revelled there. Line 46.
Probably two of the comiades of Duke Godfrey of Boiiillon in the first Crnsade. Line 48. The conqaeror of the kingdom of Naples, alladed to in Canto XXVIII. of " Hell. Line 57. The beauty of her eyes surpassed what it had reached even in the last planet of Mars, as Uiey have entered a higher sphere. Line 67* From the ruddy planet Mars to the silvery Jupiter.
Cahto XVni. PARABISE. 331 And as birds risen from a river's beach, As 'twere with greeting to their new-found mead, Now in long line and now in circle stretch, So in those lights the holy creatures swayed, Wreathing new figures as they soared in song, And now a D, an I, an L they made. First singing to their notes they move along, Then having ranged themselves into a sign, A little while they paused, and silent throng.
O Pegasean goddess ! who divine To genius, glory and long life dost spare, As it, to realms and cities, by thy line, Illume me with thyself, those shapes so fair ** That I may rise again as seen in Heaven : In these brief verses let thy might appear. Thus were there shown before me five times seven Yowels and consonants, and as they past I noted them as they appeared engraven. ®° Diligite jusHtiam first were cast.
The verb and noun full blazoned, nothing slurred : Qui jvdicatis terrain followed last. Thereafter on the M of the fifth word They stayed, in order ranged, so that Jove's star •* Like silver studded o'er with gold appeared. And other lights I saw descendiug, where Was the M's summit, and they then grew still, Singing, methinks, that Good, their onlv care. Then, just as burning firebrands shaken spill ^^ Innumerable sparks which seek the skies.
Whence fools are wont to show their augur skill, More than a thousand lights seemed hence to rise, And soaring, mount above, some more, some less, As pleased that sun who gave their flaming dyes : And each one settled down into its place, An eagle's head and neck in fire descried Distinctly represented I could trace. He who paints there has no one for his guide.
But guides himself, and from himself is lent ^^® The virtue which each station signified. Line 82. Muse that givest glory and long life to genius, as genius by thy strains giTes the same to realms and cities, illume me, &c. Line 88. Thirty-fiTe letters, forming the sentence " Diligite justitiam, qui rudicatis terram" — " Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth.— Wisdom of Solomon i. 1.
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832 PARADISE. Cahto XIX. The other blessedness, which seemed content At first with lilies to adorn the M, To the bird's impress with slow motion bent. thou sweet star, how many a brilliant gem Was shown me there to prove our justice all . Bom of that Heaven which thou dost diadem ! Therefore with prayers the mind divine I call Whence springs thy virtue to look forth abroad Where the smoke rises which thy ray doth pall, So that once more just anger be renewed 'Gainst purchasing and selling in that temple Erst buUt by miracles and. martyrs' blood. Militia of the sky I view so ample, pray for those who on our earth have strayed Far from the road, behind a bad example. Of old one went to battle with the blade, Now by denying either here or there The bread, a pious sire for all has laid. But thou, who writest but to cancel dear, Think thee that Paul and Peter, who have died For the vine Thou spoilest, still are living here. Well mayst thou say : " My heart is so allied To him who ever sought to live alone, To him who for a dance was crucified, The Fisherman and Paul are both unknown."
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Line 112. The other band of beatified spirits formed the rest of the eagle. Line 122. The Chorch of Borne, polluted by the simony of the popes. Line 127. By interdicts and excommunications, refasing the rites of the sacrament, the bread (rod spreads for all. Line 130. Addressing Pope Boniface, who wrote his censures only to obtain as high a price as possible for cancelling them. Line 133. I cHng so to St. John the Baptist, at least to the coins of Florence stamped with his figure, that Paul and Peter are utterly forgotten.
CANTO XIX. The collected souls of just kings, which form the shape of the eagle, speak to Dante with one voice. They tell him that salvation is impossible without belief in Christ, but that many who profess such belief will in the last day be worse off than the heathen, and they declare that many Christian kings will make a sorry figure when all secrets are then revealed.
Appeared before me with wide-open wings That image fair, while in fruition sweet To its collected spirits gladness springs.
Canto XH. PARADISE. 333 Each one of them appeared a rabinet On which the sun's ray with such burning shone ^ That in my eyes was its refraction set.
That which has now by me to be made known, Like never yet has wrote, nor voice did speak, Nor e'er was felt in fantasy alone : Because I clearly saw and heard that beak '® Speaking with voice that sounded I, and mine, Where we and ours as meaning we must take. ** Through being just and good," did it begin, " Am I exalted to such glory here. That leaveth nought for which desire can pine. ^ And on the earth I left such memory clear.
That even wicked people give it praise, Although they follow not its deeds severe. As one sole heat from many coals that blaze Makes itself felt, so from these numerous powers ^ That image but one single sound did raise.
Whence I all eager : " perpetual flowers Of the eternal gladness, who as one Bring to my sentience all your odorous showers, Breathing, appease that mighty fast alone, ^ Which for so long has held me in its ties, Since upon earth no food for it was known.
Well am I 'ware that if in other skies Makes its own mirror justice all Divine, That in your own no veil before ye lies. ^ Te know with what attention I incline To listen, and ye know what is the doubt With which I hunger from such weary syne.
Like falcon who from hood doth issue out, Moveth his head, and shakes his wings abroad, ^ Showing his eagerness and grace throughout, So I beheld that symbol, who with laud Of grace Divine was interwoven through, And song they know who in Heaven's courts applaud.
Then it began : " He who the compass drew ** Unto the world's extreme, and in that space So much both hid and manifest did show, On all the universe could not impress His power so far but that His wisdom's might Must aye remain in infinite excess. *^ Line 40.
The Divine nature conld not so express itself in its works but that it most still remain incomprehensible, as was shown in the case even of the highest lower intellect, Lacifer, son of the morning.
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34 PARADISE. CAirro XIX. And this we know for sure, since he, the height Of all created things, the primal pride, Imperfect fell through waiting not for light. Hence every minor nature is implied A cramped receptacle for such a good Which knows no end, and to itself supplied Its only measurement. Our vision rude, Which can be but a raying from the mind With which all things in nature are imbued, Cannot such power in its own being find But that its source it ever must discern From what it is, far different in kind. Therefore, within the justice sempiteme, The vision granted to your worldly lore Enters as doth the eye in ocean's urn : For well one sees the bottom from the shore, But not in the midmain ; and ne'ertheless 'Tis there, although the far deeps shroud it o'er. All light must come from that serene recess Which ne'er is troubled, or it is but shade, ^ Or phantom, or the poison of the flesh. Enough the darkness has been now displayed Which hid from thee G-od's justice' living beam, Of which such frequent question thou hast made. For thou didst say, " A man by Indus' stream Is bom, and there is no one there to tell Of Christ, and none to read or write such theme : And all his wishes, and his deeds as well, Are good, as far as human nature seeth, Sinless in life, by act or syllable : Yet unbaptised he dies, and without faith : Where is the justice which would him impeach ? Where is his fault who, unbelieving, strayeth ? Now who art thou who wouldest sit and preach, To judge at distance of a thousand miles With sight beyond a span that cannot reach ?
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Line 56. Must see how God differs £rom itself. Line 70. It will be observed that no answer is attempted to be given to the difficulty which Dante so boldly proposes. The inquirer is put down, as usaal in such cases, by a reference to authority. This of course the advocate of Free Thought will not admit of as satisfactory — a fact Dante allows in the 84th line.
In truth the doctrine of eternal damnation out of the bounds of a particular faith is an insult to the justice of God and the sense of man. Dante, by the invention of his Limbo, attempted to save the doctiine from its worst shape.
Cakto XIX. PARADISE. 335 Certes to him who with me tries such guiles Were not the Holy Scripture o*er ye all, No wonder if he fell in doubt's defiles. O earthly beings, minds of grossest pall, ®* The Primal Will, that in itself is good, Prom its perfection never yet did fall.
Justice is solely as with it imbued ; No good created draws it e'er aside, But from its rays hath every good ensued." ^ As when the stork its young ones hath supplied With food, above its nest it slow doth soar. And as they gazing in its love confide, So did I raise my eyes, and so sailed o'er That blessed image, which did move its wings ** Borne by such host of counsellors galore.
And told me as it sang in circling rings : " As are my notes not understood by thee, Eternal justice such, to mortal things. Thus they continued their high minstrelsy, ^^^ Those lights of the Holy Spirit, in the sign Which gave the Romans their world victory. It recommenced : " Unto this realm Divine Never rose one who trusted not in Christ, Either before or since He died benign. '®* But many wilt thou see who cry, Christ, Christ !
Who in the judgment-day will be less near To Him than some who never heard of Christ : The Ethiop will condemn such Christians here. When shall be ranged apart the cohorts twain, "* One to eternal wealth, and one to care. What will the Persians of your kings maintain. When they shall see that volume opened wide.
In which their ^tilings are all written plain P There will be seen, midst Albert's deeds of pride, ^^* That which will soon give motion to the pen. When Prague is ruined 'neath his sword-blade's gride. There will be seen the grief which o'er the Seine, Debasing coin, that monarch shall array. Who 'neath a wild boar's tushes shall be slain. ^ There will be seen the pride which lusteth sway, And makes the Scot and Englishman so wild.
That they within their bounds can never stay. Line 115. The Emperor Albert I. See " Purgatory," Canto VI. Line 118. Philip le Bel, who died in 1314 by a fall from his horse, apset by the charge of a wild boar.
Will be seen the luxury and the life so mild Of him of Spain, of him too of Boheme Who valour never knew, and never willed. Against the cripple of Jerusalem Signed with an I his liberality. The account against him wiU display an M. Will be seen the avarice and the villainy Of him who guardeth Etna's flaming isle, Where old Anchises, full of years, did die ; And to display how he is very vile.
The account in maimed letters will be made, That in short space will note a world of guile. And will appear to all each laidly deed Of his uncle and his brother, who such great Family and two crowns have cuckolded. And they of Portugars and Norway's State Will there be known, and he of Eascia too. Who Venice* mint did badly imitate.
O happy Hungary, wouldst thou but eschew Further ill-treatment ! and blest Navarre, Would she but arm the hills that gird her view ! And now in earnest of such final jar, ^** Both Nicosea's and Famagosta's town Against their beast complain, in urban war. Who from the others' side has never gone. Line 124. Probably, as proposed by Mr. Gary, Ferdinand IV., who died in 1312 of intemperance. Line 126.
Yenceslans, mentioned in the " Pnrgatory," Canto VIT. Line 127* Charles II. of Naples and Jemsalem, the father of Charles Martel, and also praised by him for liberality in Canto YIIl. of the " Paradise" by implication, and stamped previously with the vice of avarice by Hugh Capet in Purgatory," Canto XX., which shows that Dante's judgments were sometimes not carefully weighed. Line 130. Frederick of Sicily, son of Peter III. of Arragon.
His unde and brother were James, King of Majorca, and James II. of Arragon. See " Purgatory," Canto VII. Line 143. Navarre was at that time under the rale of France, but shortly, following Dante's advice, it revolted frum its sul]|jection. ' Line 145.
Cities in the kingdom of Cyprus, who by their loud complaints against their monarch Henry II., as bad as the others before mentioned foreshadowed what would be entered against him in the Book of Doom.
CANTO XX. The ea^Ie sings the praises of certain just kings, whose spirits are included in its image. Of these, six form its eye, David in the pupil, and in the iris around it Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William II. of Sicily, and Ripheus.
The eagle explains how Trajan and Bipheus, whom Dante did not know to be Christians, had become so, and obtained their seat in Paradise.
Cahio XX. PARADISS. 337 What time the orb that lighteth all the world Descendeth from our hemisphere, the day In every part consumed, and downwards hurled, The sky, erst kindled solely by its ray. Its darkness suddenly doth re-adorn '^ With numeix>us lights, in which one shines alway. This skyey change across my mind was borne What time that standard of earth's chiefs of might Grew silent in its beak's all blest sojourn.
For then, of the multitude, each living light ^® Shining more clear, began their songs to trill Such as from memory fleet and vanish quite.
O sweet love that dost clothe thee with a smile, How in those sparkles didst thou burning swell, Whose spirit knew but thoughts all pure from guile ! ^^ After those precious stones ineffable With which I saw ingemmed that sixth light's course, Silence imposed to each angelic bell, Meseemed to hear a river's murmur hoarse, That clear descendeth down from stone to stone, ^ Showing the copious bounty of its source.
And as from frame of cithern doth the tone Take up its shape, and as from out each hole Of flageolet the wind is breathing blown ; So with a sweetly-linked delay did roll ^ The murmur from the eagle issuing, From out its neck, as though 'twere pierced, it stole. There it became a voice, and thence did spring From out its beak, in form of words made known.
Such as my heart could to its record bring. ^* " The part in me which sees and bears the sun In mortal eagles," thus did it begin, " I would that thou shouldst fixedly gaze upon. For of the fires through which this shape I win. Those, whence the eye within my head doth blaze, ^ Are of the highest grade of all within.
He that as pupil in the middle rays Was the sweet singer of the Holy Spirit, Who bore about the ark from place to place : Now of his song he knoweth all the merit, ^ In that 'twas prompted of his piety, Through the proportioned guerdon it doth 'herit. Line 6. The fixed stars, aocording to Dante's belief, receiving their light from the snn. Line 42. David knows now the fnll worth of his spiritual songs, by the proportionate reward allotted to him in Paradise. 21
3S8 PARADISE. Cahto XX. Of the five who make the circle to my eye, He who unto my beak is placed most near For her lost son consoled the widow's cry ; He knoweth now how it doth cost one dear Christ not to know, through his experience Of this sweet life, and the opposite of fear.
The next to him in the circumference Of which I speak, along the arch supeme, ^ Delayed his death by his true penitence : He knoweth now that judgment's doom eteme Is never changed, although by worthy prayer To-day becomes to-morrow on earth's bourn. The next, the Roman laws, and me did bear, ^"^ With good intention that bore evil fruit. To yield unto the Pope, to Greece afar.
He knoweth now that though of ill the root, No harms to him from his good deeds derive, Though hence the world be ruined branch and root. ^ Whom next upon the arc thou dost perceive Was William, whom that kingdom still deplores. Which Charles and Frederic living cause to grieve. He knoweth now how much of love Heaven stores For a just monarch here, and in the guise ^ Of his shining splendour still that knowledge pours.
Who could believe below in the world of lies That in this orb Bipheus of Trojan birth Were fifth amidst those holy mysteries ? He knoweth now full well of what the earth ^* Has not the power to see of Grace Divine, Though to its depths his vision goes not forth. Like little lark, that in the hyaline First launches forth in song, and then content Grows silent in its latest burst divine, '* Line 45.
See " Purgatory," Canto X., for the story of Trajan and the widow. The legend introduced by Dante is that the sonl of Tr^an was won back to life from Hell by the prayers of St. Gregory, in order that he might be converted and saved. See Ime 106 and sequitur. Line 49. The next on the npper arch of the eagle's iris is Hezekiah. Line 60. By the temporal qjithority of Borne being left with the Pope. Line 62.
William II. of Sicily, who reigned in the latter part of the 12th century, and whose death was as much lamented as the presence in the island at that time of Charles II. of Ai^'on and Frederic of Arragon. Line 68. A character in the "^neid," whose death is thus recorded :" " Cadit et Biphens, justissimns nnus, Qui fuit in Teucris, et servantissimus sequi." ^neid, lib. ii., p. 427* Dante naturally wonders at finding him in the Christian Paradise.
Cahto XX. PARADISE. 339 So seemed to me that shape, which bore the print Of the Eternal Pleasure, at whose will Each thing is fashioned in its native bent. And though mj doubt was there, as clear the while As upon painted glass the blazonries, ^ I could not for a moment keep me still, But from my mouth, my doubt, " What things are these ? Was driven by the force of its own weight ; On which beamed brighter those festivities.
Then sudden with its kindled eye elate ^^ That blessed sign of Heaven to me replied. That I no longer in suspense might wait. " I see these things are not by thee denied Because I tell them, but thou seest not how ; They are believed by thee, but not descried. ^ Thou dost like him, who leameth to avow A thing by name, but of its excellence Can nothing see, unless another show.
Begnimi Ccdorwm suffers violence From glowing love, and from a living hope, ^'^ Which conquereth the Will Divine, in sense Not such as doth a man a man o'ertop, But conquers it, since 'twould be conquered so : And conquered, conquers in its mercy's scope. The first light, and the fifth my eye doth show, ^^ Make thee to marvel, wherefore thou dost see The realm of angels with their glory glow.
They rose not from their frames, as seems to thee, Gentiles, but Christians, in a firm-set faith One on Christ past, and one on Christ to be. ^^ For one of them, from Hell, where never swayeth The soul to good' will, to his bones returned, And this of living hope was glory's wreath. Of living hope, that with such fervour yearned In prayer to God, that soul from death to wake, "* To move the Will Divine, his fervour earned.
The glorious spirit, of the which I speak. Its flesh resumed, a brief while to respire. Believed in him who could his safety make. And so believing, kindled with such fire • ^'* Of truest love, that at his second death Was worthy to this joyaunce to aspire. The other one, by grace that issueth From fount so deep, that never creature yet Unto its source with eyesight foUoweth, ^^
340 PARADISE. Cabto XXL On rigliteousiiess below his whole life set ; Wherefore from grace to grace God oped his eyes Future redemption in his life to greet : Whence he believed in it, and all the lies Suffered no more of stinking Paganism, ^ And blamed for it his countrymen unwise. Those ladies three were his baptismal chrism, Whom by the chariot's right wheel thou didst note, A thousand years ere Baptism had arisen.
Predestination, ah, how far remote ^ Dwelleth thy root from erery feeble ken. That never the First Cause hath wholly caught ! And keep ye cautiously, O mortal men. From judgment : since ourselves, who Gx>d behold, Of the elect the number cannot ken. '^ And sweetness doth such lack of knowledge hold ; Since in that Good our own good doth refine, And as God willeth, so our wills we mould. Thus by that image of the bird divine.
My own shortsighted vision to make dear, ^^ Was proffered to me the sweet medicine. And as the harpist by the singer near Accompanies with tinkling of the cord. Whence in the song more pleasure greets the ear, So while it spake, my memory doth record, ^** That I beheld those two blest lights the same, Like movement of two eyes in sweet accord. Move with the words, in coruscating flame. Line 146. The spirits of Trajan and Bipheiu.
CANTO XXI. Dante ascends with Beatrice to the sphere of Satnm, where he finds a ladder of gold, BO lofty that he cannot see the top. Along the stairs ascend and descend the spirits of those who passed tiieir lives in holy contemplatioii* Saint Peter Damiano approaches them, and in answer to Dante^ questions states who he was, condnding by a vehement rebnke of the lozuiy of modem prelates, to which rises a shont of trininphant accord. My eyes already on that sweet face gazed Of her my lady, and my soul the while. And every other thought was all erased : And she smiled not : but, " Were I now to smile, Thus she began to tell me, " thou wouldst be Like Semele, who fell an ashen pile :
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Cahto XXI. PABADISE. 841 Because mj beauty more exceedingly Kindles along the Eternal Palace stair, As it ascends on high, erst proved to thee : So would it shine were it not tempered here, That thy poor mortal being in its blaze Would be like leaf the thunderbolt doth shear. In the seventh splendour now our soaring stays.
Which 'neath the lion's burning blazonries Its influence, somewhat mingled, downwards* rays. ^ Fix now thy mind intently in thy eyes, And be they to the shape a mirror made. Which in this mirror will to thee arise. Whoe'er perceiveth with what sweetness fed My sight ecstatic on that aspect blest, ^ When thus to other object I was led. Will recognise how I with grateful zest To my celestial guide obedience paid.
To pleasure counterpoising her behest. Within that crystal, which in circle swayed ^ Around the world, named after its dear king. Beneath whose rule all wickedness lay dead. Of golden <x>lour, where the sunrays cling In splendour, I beheld a mounting stair. Unto whose top my vision could not wing. ^ And on its steps I saw descending there Such splendours, that I thought that every light Was there diffused, which in the heavens shine fair.
And as in Nature at the fall of night, The choughs together at the dawn of day To warm their frozen plumage move in flight ; Then some without return go on their way. Others to whence they moved once more repair.
And others, wheeling round their nest delay, So did it seem to me was acted there ^ In all that glittering, which together came, Until it reached unto a certain stair : And one that lingered nearest us, in flame Became so bright, that in my thoughts I said, " Clearly I see the love which I may claim." *^ But she, on whom my how and when is laid Of speech and silence, resteth still, whence I Bightly, though loath, no questioning essayed. Line 14.
The planet Saturn being then in the constellation Leo. Line 18. Like what will be shown in the mirror if the planet Saturn be reflected in the mirror of thy eyes. Line 27. The sign of Satunii and the Golden Age of earth.
Whence she, who that my silence did descry In looking upon Him who all things sees, " Release thy fervent wish," to me did cry. And I began : ** My little worthiness Makes me unfit to merit thy reply, Save for her sake who sanctions my address : blessed life, who hidest in mystery Within thy rapturous joy, to me make known The cause that to my side brings thee so nigh : And say why silent in this sphere alone The dulcet symphony of Paradise, Which sounds in lower spheres such holy tone." ^ " Thy hearing is but mortal, like thine eyes," He answered me, " and hence one sings not here. As Beatrice now her smile denies. Down by the steps of this most holy stair With festival to greet thee am I come, " Of parley and of light that clothes me fair : Nor speeds me here my love's exceeding sum ; Above us more and equal love doth glow. As show to thee the flames that here illume. But the High Charity which makes us bow '® To serve his schemes in the world's governance, Electeth here, as thou mayst clearly know." '• holy light," I said, " doth see my glance How in this court sufficeth love most free To execute the Eternal Providence. " But this is what I find most hard to see. Wherefore wert thou predestined all alone, Unto this duty, midst this company." 1 had not to the latest word past on. Ere round its central soul the glory plied, Revolving like a swiftly- whirled millstone. And then the love that was within replied, " A light divine shed over me I find, Piercing through this one, in the which I hide ; Whose influence with my proper vision joined. So lifts me o'er myself, my sight doth claim The Highest Essence, from the which 'tis coined. Thence comes the rapturous joy with which I flame. For in proportion as we clear descry Shineth the brilliance of our light the same.
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Gahto XXI. PARADISE. 343 But not that soul most lustrous upon high, That seraphin who most on Qod doth gaze. This thj demand could ever satisfy : For what thou askest, in the deepest maze Of the eternal law is hid, a bourn ^* Impossible to all created gaze. And when to mortal earth thou dost return, Report thou this, that they may ne'er presume To such a mark their mortal feet to turn.
The mind that here is light is smoky fume ^^ On earth, then think how can they fathom there What we can see not, though in Heaven we bloom.
As thus his words prescribed, I did forbear That question, and withdrew me, to demand Humbly that who he was he would declare. ^^* " 'Twixt the two shores of Italy there stand Mountains, so high the thunders never fall Upon their tops ; not distant from thy land, And make a hunch which people Catria call, Beneath the which is consecrate a cell, ^^^ Confined of old to Gk>d's pure worship all.
Thus for the third time recommenced the swell Of speech, continuing he told me, " There Unto Q-od's service did I bind me well. So that with olives for my only fare, ^^^ Begardless did I pass through heat and cold. Content in contemplation, and in prayer. Was wont to bear for Heaven, that cloister's fold.
With great luxuriance, now 'tis grown so vain That soon must Gk)d its worthlessness unfold. ^^ I, in that place was Peter Damiane : Peter, a sinner in Our Lady's hall. Beside the shore of the Adriatic main. Brief life was left me, when as cardinal I was importuned to accept the hat, ^^^ Which still from evil unto worse doth fall. Came Cephas, and then came the vessel great O' the Holy Spirit, barefooted and lean.
Taking their food at the first open gate : Line 106. Betwixt the shores of the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas, on a ridge of the Apennines, where is now tiie Abbey of Santa Croce, in the Duchy of Urbino. Line 121. A monk bom in- the early part of the eleventh century, who became a bishop and cardinal, and closed his career in retirement. Line 127. Saint Peter and Saint Paul, vas eleotionis.
344 PABADISfi. Casio XXII. Now on each side they must be propped between, ^^ These modem shepherds, and they must b^ led, And hoisted from behind their burly mien. With their own mantles are their palfreys clad. So that two beasts within one skin repair. Patience, thou indeed art sore bestead !" ^ Upon that word I saw from stair to stair The numerous flames descend, and whirl, renew^ At every whirl they seemed to grow more fair.
Around this flame they came, and there they stood, And raised a shout of such a mighty sound ^^ 1 cannot liken it here : I understood Nought, so the thunder all my senses drowned. Line 139. Arotmd Peter Damiano, their diout be]zi£r» m ezidained in the next Canto by Beatrice, on accoont of the approaching vBngeanoe for snch backsliding in the Church which they saw in the councils of Grod: alluding to the approaching fate of Boni&ce YIII. See ''Purgatory/' Canto XX.
CANTO xxn. Beatrice clears away Dante's groundless alarm. He beholds many other spirits, and is addressed by Saint Benedict, who promises^ him that he uiall see his form without its covering of splendour in the highest sphere. The spirits then depart, and Dante follows Beatrice up the golden ladder to the eighth Heaven, the region of the fixed stars, which they enter in the constellation of the Twins. There they pause, and Dante looks down on all the seven spheres through which he has past to the diminished earth beneath. Opfbessed with stupor, to my loving guide I turned me, like a little child in tears Who seeketh her where most he doth confide. She, like a mother whose caressing cares Instantly soothe her pale and breathless son ^ With the sweet voice that wont to calm his fears. Told me, '' Know'st not that thou in Heaven dost wonne, And know'st thou not that Heaven is ever holy, And what is done here springs from zeal alone ? How would their singing have transformed thee wholly, Or I by smiling, thou canst now descry, Since has so moved thee this their shouting solely, In which, hadst thou but heard their prayers on high. Already would the vengeance be seen- clear Which thou wilt surely see ere thou dost die. Line 15. See the final note to the laat Canto.
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Cahto zxn. PARADISE. 346 Neither in haste nor tardily doth sheer The sword of Heaven, except as he may deem, Who waits for it with longing or with fear. But now let others on thy vision beam, Ulustrious spirits sure will meet thy gaze, ^ If , as I tell, thou tum'st thee unto them. As pleased to her my vision did I raise, And saw a hundred little spheres, who dress Each other gaily with their mutual rays.
I stood like one who in himself doth press ^ The point of his desire, and does not dare To question, so he feareth all excess.
And then the largest and most lustrous there Amongst those Margarites advanced to me, Contentment to my longing wish to bear. ^ Within its flame I heard : ** Didst thou but see Like I the loving that doth in us bum Thou wouldst have told thy inward fieincy free, But that through waiting to thy lofty bourn Thou mayst not tarry, I will make replies ^ Even to the thoughts thou dost so close inum.
The mountain on whose slope Oassino lies Was peopled of old time upon its height By a race deceived by foul idolatries, And I am he who first bore to that site ^ The name of Him who on the earth educed The truth which leads to so sublime a height.
And such a grace upon me was infused That the surrounding townships I withdrew From the impious worship which the world seduced. ^'^ Those other fires were all contemplants too : Men who were kindled with that ardour clear Which maketh flowers and holy fruits ensue. Here is Macarius, Eomoaldo here ; Here are my brethren who their feet did rest ^ Within my cloister with firm heart of cheer.
And I to him : '' The love thou hast expressed Speaking with me, and the fair semblant show I see and mark in every ardent breast, Line 87. A casfcle in the Terra di Lavoro, where Saint Benedict fotmd on ancient temple in which the rostics round still worshipped Apollo. He converted the people from idolab^, and built a shrine to St. John where tlie altar of Apollo nad stood. Line 49. Macarius, an Egyptian monk, and Bomoaldo, the founder of the order of Gamaldoli, who died in 1027.
Has made my courage burgeon *iieath its glow, As doth the sun the rose when openly It bares its bosom in its fullest blow, Therefore I pray thee, father, certify If to so high a grace I may aspire, Thee, with thy shape enshrouded to descry." ^ Whence he : "0 brother, this thy high desire Will be fulfilled within the furthest sphere, Where all our wishes are fulfilled entire.
Perfect, completed, and mature is there Every desire : within that sphere alone Where aye they were are all things everywhere. Since there nor place nor whirHng poles are known : Even to it our ladder mounteth high, Hence so beyond thy vision hath it flown. Dreaming, the patriarch Jacob did descry Its rounds uprearing, even to that height When laden with that angel company.
To climb it now there never more take flight Feet set upon our earth, and hence my rule Is but a waste of leaves on which 'tis writ. The walls which wont to form my convent's school Are grown to caves, and full of musty meal Is changed into a sack each hooded cowl. But does not sin so much against Qod's weal The grossest usury, as that fruit which tends To make the monkish heart so madly reel.
What pelf soe'er the Church as her own defends, Belongs to those who ask for God's own sake. Not to relations, nor for far worse ends. The flesh of mortal man is all so weak That good beginnings there give little claim From the oak's birth the acorn crop to seek. Without or gold or silver Peter came, I, Benedict, with fasting and with prayer. His convent humbly did Saint Francis frame. And if thou look'st at each commencement fair.
And then regardest where they each have gone, Thou'lt see the white indeed discoloured there. Now of a truth hath Jordan backward run. More marvellous was the Eed Sea's flight to view When God so willed, than here his succour won."
Cahto XXn. PARADISE. 347 Thus did he speak to me, and thence withdrew Amongst his comrades, who together closed Then like a whirlwind all of them upflew. Behind them my sweet ladj me disposed *^ With a mute sign to mount aloft that stair. So much her virtue o'er my power imposed.
On earth ascending or descending ne'er Was ever motion of such swiftness ta'en That could be equal to my pinion there. *°* So may I, reader, once return again Unto that triumph, for the which I wail My sins and ever smite my breast amain, Thou wouldst not with such speed the flame assail, And draw thee back, as I beheld the sign ^^^ Which follows Taurus and within it sail. glorious stars !
O pregnant light benign Of mighty virtue, from the which I bear My genius all, whatever share be mine With you was bom, and with you sought his lair. The sun, the father of all life 'mongst men. What time I breathed first the Tuscan air, And when was granted me such benison To enter the high sphere in which ye wheel Your region was allotted to me then.
To you devoutly now the sighs appeal Of my rapt heart fit virtue to acquire For the hard task which claimeth all its zeal.
" Thou art so near the sum of all desire," Began my Beatrice, " that indeed Clearness and strength thy vision should inspire, And therefore ere thou farther dost proceed G-aze downwards and behold how vast a world Beneath thy feet thou hast already laid, So that thy heart, with fullest joy unfurled, ^° Unto the host triumphant may draw near. Which joyous cometh, through this ether whirled. My vision I turned back through every sphere.
The seven beneath me, and this globe I saw Such that I smiled, so mean did it appear, ^^ And I approve as best that sage's law Which most despises it, and who doth dream Of other worlds, I think has least of flaw. Line 110. The constellation of the Gemini, in which sign. Dante makes his entry into the sphere of the fixed stars, as it waa under Uuit constellation that he was bom.
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346 PARADISE. Cajito XXm.
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145
I saw the daughter of Latona beam Without that shadow, which my reason won Falsely of old, of rare and dense to deem. The visage of thy son, Hyperion, There I sustained, and there I saw how near Around him Maja and Dione wonne. The tempering of Jove did thence appear Betwixt his sire and son, and thence the change Their stations underwent to me was clear. And all the seven were shown me in their range. How vast in space, and how each swiftly sways, And how in distant grooves they onwards range, The area where we fiercely strive our days, I, with the eternal Twins revolving iJiere, Appeared to me with all its hills and bays : Thence turned my eyes unto those eyes so fair. Line 139. I saw the moon without its spots. See Gaato II. Line 144. Merouryand Yenoa, here named reepeotively after their muthers. Line 146. Between Sotom and Kan.
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CANTO xxni. Dante beholds the trinmph of Christ with His saints. The Savioor, followed by his Yiigin Mother, ascends out of sight into the higher Heavens. The body of the saints of both Testaments remains with I^te. As 'midst the loved leaves the small bird bides With her sweet young ones resting in the nest Throughout the night, which aU things from us hides, And both to see those objects loved the best.
And for their pasture to find food enow, * For which all toil to her is sweet as rest, Forestals the time, and on the open bough With ardent longing waiteth for the sun, Fixed in her gaze, until the dawning, glow, So stood erect my lady, towards the moon *^ Of Heaven's nigh concave turned, with gaze intent, Where the sun seems least hurriedly to wonne ; So that beholding her suspense unpent, I then became like one who something new Desireth, and in hope remains content. Line 12. The sun appearing to tmvel slowest when in mid-Heaven.
CorroXZin. PARADISE. 349 'Twixt one and other bnt brief spaoe I knew, I mean 'twixt expectation and 'twixt sight, When more and more the Heavens resplendent grew. ** Of Christ's high triumph, lo ! the serried flight, And all the fruit," did Beatrix exclaim, ^ '' TJpgathered from those spheres of whirling light. It seemed to me her face was all aflame. And in her eyes such store of gladness shone; All undeyelopt I must pass that theme.
As in the nights serene of bright full moon ^ Fair Trivia smileth 'midst the nymphs eteme, Which paint the Heavens through all its glorious noon, Saw I, above the thousand lights that burn. One sun, that all the others kindled there, As does our own the starry train supeme, ^ And through that living light beyond compare The shining substance beamed so briUiant clear That in my eyes the sight I could not bear. Beatrice ! my sweet guide and dear.
Who told me " He who overpowers thy sight ^ Is power 'gainst which resistance 'vails not. Here Is the Etemdl Wisdom and the might Which sped the pathway 'twixt the sky and earth, For whidi was erst such longing infinite. Like fire expanding in a cloud takes birth *^ That cannot hold it longer, and released.
Against its nature, down to earth flies forth, So did my mind 'midst that celestial feast Issue from out itself, enlarged the while, And memory knows not how it then increased. ^^ ^ Open thy eyes to see me now awhile. Things thou hast now beheld to give thee power Amply sufficient to sustain my smile.
1 was like one in truth who thinketh o'er Some dream forgotten, and who strives in vain ^ Within his mind its image to restore, What time I heard that all-thankworthy strain Proffered unto me, to be rased no more From that book where the past is written plain. If all those tuneful tongues the chorus bore, '^^ Which, nourished with their sweetest milk apart, Fair Polyhymnia and her train of yore Line 26. A name of Diana, or the moon. Line 37. Jesns Christ. Line 57. The Muses.
350 PARADISE. Canto XHn. To aid me, of the truth in thousandth part That holy smile would not be shown, nor how Beamed clear that holy face, with all their arfr. ^ Thus I, who Paradise am painting now. Must leap o'er much of this my holy theme, As one who finds his path cut off, I trow. But of the weighty object if one deem, And of the mortal shoulder that doth bear, ^ Although it tremble, still one would not blame.
This is no sea for little bark to steer, Cleaving through which goes on my daring prow. Nor for a helmsman who himself would spare. " Why does my face so wholly charm thee now ^" That for this garden fair thou dost not pine, Which 'neath the rays of Christ doth bloom and blow? Here is the Eose, in which the Word Divine The flesh became ; and here the Lilies rise, Win the true path who seek their odorous wine.
" Thus Beatrix, and I, to her advice Who aye was ready, turned me once again Unto that strife for my poor dazzled eyes. As 'neath a sun ray which doth glance between A broken cloud, of old a flowery field ^ My own eyes covered with a shade have seen, So the vast crowd of splendours I beheld Lit from above with lightning's burning rays, Nor saw the source from which the glory welled.
Benignant virtue ! which did o'er them blaze, " Thou raisedst thyself above, to leave me room That my poor powerless eyes might hither gaze. The name of that fair flower, the Eose, to whom Morning and eventide I make my vow, Called to her flame my soul as to its home. ^ And while on both my eyeballs did it glow. The size and nature of that living star.
Which conquers all above as erst below, Within the Heavens a light descended there, Formed in a circle like a coronal, ** And girt her round, and wheeled around her fair. Whatever melody most sweet doth fall On earth, and mostly doth the soul inspire, Would seem like thunder burst from cloudy pall Line 78. The Virgin Mary, termed by the Church Bosa Mjstica. Line 75. The Lilies are explained to mean the twelve Apostles. Line 94. Stated by the commentators to be intended for the Angel Gabriel, who first announced to the Virgin her high destiny.
Cakto XXIII. PARADISE. 351 Compared unto tlie sounding of that lyre *^ With which the beauteous Sapphire was encrowned, Through whom Heaven's Sapphire glows with brighter fire.
" I am the angelic love that wheels around The rapture high, that breatheth from the womb Where for our love a dwelling-place was found. ^^ And, Lady of the Sky, I'll thee illume While following thy Son ; the sphere most high Thou mak'st more Godlike when thou there dost come. Then was that sweet revolving melody Brought to a close, and every other light "^ The name of Mary sounded through the sky.
That royal garb, which all the spheres with might Surroundeth, and which glows most vivified Beneath the breathing of G-od's infinite, Was stretched above us, with its inner side "* So distant that its semblance at that hour Where we were stationed could not be descried- Therefore my eyes did not possess the power To follow after that crowned flame above.
Which soared aloft behind the seed it bore. ^^ And like a little child its arms doth move Towards its mother when it milk has ta'en Through that affection which its gestures prove, Each of those whitest flames did upwards strain Its soaring crest that the affection deep ^^ They bore for Mary unto me was plain.
Thence in my" presence they their station keep, JRegina Codi with such sweetness singing That evermore the rapture do I reap. what a wealth of bliss is there upspringing ^^ In those rich storehouses, who erst below The seed of good deeds aye abroad were -flinging !
Here they enjoy that treasure evermo,' The which in exile and with tears they won In Babylon, whose gold they did not know. ^^* Here doth there triumph, 'neath the lofty Son Of God and Mary, with the saints o' the Old And the New Testament in unison. He who the keys of glory here doth hold. Line 103. The beauteous Sappliire is the Virgin. Line 112. The ninth Heaven, called the Primum Mobile, which enfolds and gives motion to the lower eight.
CANTO XXIV. ^i Beatrice's rCK^tnest Saint Peter qnestiooB Dante npon hia Faith, and approTes his exposition of hie belief and the gronndB on which it was fonnded. '* O GUESTS elected to the Supper high Of the Blessed Lamb, who spreads for ye a feast, Which your desire doth wholly satisfy ; If, by the grace of God, this one foretaste The crumbs which from your table ye let fall, ^ Or ere that Death his bound of time hath traced.
Unto his will immense, attention call, And sprinkle him with dew, since eyer ye Drink from that fount whence come his dreamings all/' So Beatrice, and those souls in glee, ^' Spheres on their firmly-fix^d poles became. Like comets, blazing yet more brilliantly.
And as the wheels witlun some clockwork frame Go round in manner, that the first as still, The last as flying rapidly doth seem, ^' So did those carol dances, as they wheel In different measure, unto me make known, Or swift, or slow, the wealth that each doth fill. Out of that carol which the fairest shone I saw there issue forth such rapturous fire, ^ That none were left so bnlliant in their tone.
And thrice around my Beatrix the spire BevolvM, with a song so all divine, Cannot repeat it fantasy's desire : My pen goes o'er it, nor records my line, ^ For our ima^^ation has no hues. Much less our speech, such rich folds to design. *^ saintly sister mine, what thou dost use Of prayer devoutly, through thy ardent love. Me from that beauteous circle doth unloose.'* ^ Then, when that blessed flame had ceased to move.
Towards my lady grew erect the spire. Which spake as I have written it above. And she : " light eteme of the great sixe, To whom our Lord did leave the keys, which He ^ Carried below from this rejoicing choir, Line 16. The carol dance, as already explained, was formed by a set who while dancing sang to their measure.
The spirits here formed sevenJ carol dances, in which the Tarious sets showed their amount of grace by the velocity of their movements.
Camto XXIV. PARADISE. 353 Try this man on the points that pleaseth thee, Or light or hard, concerning that true Faith By which of old thou walkedst on the sea. If he loves well, and hopeth well, and hath *® Belief, is hid not to thee, since thou'st seen There, where one everything depicted seeth.
But since this realm hath made each citizen Through the true Faith to make its glories shine, 'Twere good to speak of it within his ken." ** Just as a sdiolar doth his thoughts combine And speaks not, till the master hath laid bare The question, to approve it, not define, So every argument did I prepare The while she spake, that I might ready be '^^ For such profession and such questioner.
" Speak, O good Christian : make it clear to see What is this Faith ?" on which I raised my front Towards the light whence this was breathed on me. Then turned to Beatrix, whose cheering wont Encouraged me, that I should outwards pour The water stored in my eternal fount. " May grace, which granteth to confess me o'er To the high leader of our Church, assoil With clear expression my thought's inmost lore !
Then I continued : " As the truthful style Of thy dear brother, father, writes it clear, Who, with thee, to the truth won Rome erewhile, Faith is the substance of things hoped for here, And argument of things that are not seen ; ^^ And this to me its essence doth appear. Then heard I : " Thou dost feel it right I ween, If thou well understand* st why Faith he brings. The substances and arguments between.
And quickly I : " The deep mysterious things Whose sight is granted to me here as boon, Are so concealed from mortal conmiunings, That there their being is in Faith alone. Upon the which is built Hope's soaring height : And therefore as a substance is it shown : Aind from this Faith, without all other sight, . 'Tis fit that man his reasoning powers should ply. And therefore as an argument 'tis hight.
354 PARA.DISE. Cahto XXIV. Then heard I : "If whate'er by leai*ning high Is gained below were but thus understood, ^ No place would be for sophist's casuistry. Thus breathed from out that love, which kindling glowed : Thereto was joined : " In metal and in print The coin is current, and I own it good.
But tell me of thy purse, dost bear it in't ?" ** And I : " I have it there so bright and round That nought can make me doubtful of its mint.'' Quickly there issued from the light profound Which there was beaming bright, ** This jewel good. Built upon which all virtue must be found, ** Whence did it come to thee ? " The bounteous flood O' the Holy Spirit, which upon the Old And the New Testament is shed abroad.
Is argument, so subtle in its fold Conclusive, that beside it to the view •* All demonstration as obtuse I hold. " The ancient proposition, and the new," After I heard, " which thee do so persuade. Why dost thou hold them for Divine and true ? And I : " The proof, which hath that truth displayed, *"* Is in the miracles, which Nature ne'er Wrought with her steel, nor on her anvil laid.
Was answered to me 2 " Say who makes thee 'ware Those miracles in truth to be the same Which they would vouch for ? others do not swear." ^^ " Had the world grown to Christian," I exclaim, " Without those miracles, this very one More power than all a hundredfold would claim. That thou didst enter poor and fasting, on The field, in which thou sowedst the holy plant, "* Which erst was vine, and now a briar has grown.
This finished, in that loffcy court each saint Shouted along their spheres, " One Qod we praise," In melody the which m Heaven they chaunt. And that high peer, whose questions me did raise, "* Examining, thus on from bough to bough, So that we neared unto the highest sprays. Began again : " The grace which courteth now With thy own mind, hath made thee ope thy mouth.
Just as it should have opened, until now ; ^ That I approve the whole that it avoweth ; But now thy credence to express were meet, And to what cause thy soul that credence oweth."
Canto XXV. PARADISE. 355 " O holy father, who in Gtod dost greet What thou believedst, so that thou didst go "* Within the sepulchre, ere younger feet," Thus I began : " thou wouldst that I should show The form of the belief to which I cleave, And also of its motive thou wouldst know. And I reply : I in one God believe, "^ Sole and eteme, who moveth all the Heaven With love, nor His own nature ere doth leave : And to such faith not only proofs are given. Both physical and metaphysical, But rather proves that truth the rained leaven "* Through Moses and the Psalms and Prophets all, The Gospel, and yourselves who wrote in turn, Because the Holy Ghost on ye did fall. And I believe in Persons Three Eteme, These I believe an Essence, One and Trine, ^** Where Singular and Plural I discern. Of that profoundest nature so Divine Which now I touch, my mind has caught the mark Beading so many a time the Gospel line. This is the source : this is the little spark *** Which broadens after to such living flame, And shines on me, like star in Heaven's high arc." As when a master hears some pleasing theme, His servant thence embraces, who doth stand Silent, once told the errand whence he came. So singing o'er me benediction bland, Girt me three times as I to silence drew The Apostolic light, at whose command I'd spoken : so I pleased with parlance true. Line 126. St. John zx. 4, 5, 6. In the origpnal Dante writes, " towa/rds the sepnlchre," which Yenturi considers a sHp, as John outran Peter : the slight alteration I have adopted reconciles the poem with John's account of the fact.
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CANTO XXV. Saint James joins Saint Peter, and questions Dante as to the grounds of his Hope. After his reply, Saint John advances to his brother Apostles and Dante blinds himself by gazing too intently on his flame, to see whether he has risen to Heaven with his body, which Saint John declares to have been the case only with Christ and his Yirgin Mother.
956 PARADISE. Cahto XXV.
If it should hap this holy poem e'er, Which Heaven and earth have helped, and which did mar My frame with abstinence for many a year, Conquer the cruelty which me doth bar From the fair sheepfold where I slept a lamb ^ Hateful to wolves, who on me made their war ; With other voice henceforth, nor hair the same, A poet I'd return, and o'er the font Where I was christened, the wreathed laurel claim : For in the Faith, which only makes account ^" Souls unto God, I entered there, and then For it did Peter circle thus my front.
Thence towards us moved another denizen Out of the troop, from whence had issued The earliest vicar left by Christ o'er men. ^* And my dear lady full of gladness said, " Look up, look up, behold the holy peer For whom, below, Galicia's roads they tread.
As when a dove doth place itself anear Its comrade, one and other sheds abroad ^' Circling and murmuring their afEection dear : So I beheld the one with welcome good Greeting the other great and glorious chief. The while the food they feast in Heaven they laud. But when were closed their gratulations brief, " Silent, before me, each its place did take So blazing, they o'ercame my sight though lief.
Then with a smile did Beatrice speak : " life of glory ! by the whom was writ The hope-won gladness of our palace, make ^ Hope's praises now resound upon this height. How often thou didst shape it thou dost know, Since Christ to thee displayest Himself most bright," " Lift up thy head, and confidence avow : For what comes hither from the mortal earth ^ Must surely in our rays to ripeness grow.
This comfort from the second fire had birth : On which, unto those hills I raised my eyes. Which erst had bowed them with their too great worth. Line 5. The fair sheepfold, Florence, whence he was banished. Line 17. The Apostle St. James, whose shrine at Compostella was a favonrite resort for pilgrims from all Europe. Line 83.
When at the Transfigoratiou the three Apostles, Peter, James, and John, were present, representing the three spiritual virtues of Faith, Ho^, and Charity. Line 37. The second flame, St. James.
Cahto XXV. PARADISR. 357 " Since Grace doth will that thou in mortal gmse, *^ Ere Death has ta'en thee, shouldst our emperor see, Amidst his peers in secret'st mysteries, So that this Court's true glory seen by thee, Hope, that below wins love with amplest dower, In thee and others rise to certainty : ** Say what it is, and how its bloom doth flower Within thy mind, and whence to thee descried :" Thus did proceed that second flame of power.
And pious Beatrice, who did guide My pinions' plumage to such lofty flight, '^ Preventing my response, for me replied. " In the Church Militant no son doth fight With more of hope, as written in that sun, God, who aye rayeth o'er our cohorts bright. Therefore to come is granted him as boon ** From Egypt to Jerusalem, to see. Or ere his militant course on earth be run.
The other points, asked not to satisfy Mere knowledge, but that he may hence record How much this virtue ever pleascth thee, ^ I leave to him ; for they will not be hard. Nor cause him boasting ; let him now reply, And may God's grace its aid to him accord !
As a disciple, prompt and willingly In what he knows, that he may favour win, ®* Unto his master's questions makes reply : ** Hope is a certain waiting," I define, " Upon the future glory, built upon Preceding merit and the Grace Divine. From many stars this light to me did wonne : ^^ But he who first distilled it in my heart Was the sweet singer of God's heavenly throne.
In Thee will place their trust, in sacred art Of song said this one, they who know thy name. And who knows not, who hath my faith at heart ? Thou didst the next instil it, with the flame In thy Epistle, so that on the rest, I, who am full, pour o'er your holy stream. Lizie 56. From Egypt to Jerosalem, from earth to Heaven. Line 73. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee.— Psahn iz. 10. Line 77* The author of the E|)i8tle is allowed to be the younger James, and not the elder disciple here introduced.
358 PARADISE. Casto XXT.
The while I spake, within the Hying breast Of that eiddndled flame, a glimmer welled ^ Sudden and ofb like lightning quickly chased: Thence there breathed out : " The love in me revealed Towards this virtue still, which to me clung, Till with the palm I issued from the field, Wills that I breathe of it to thee, whose tongue " Delights in it ; 'twill please me thou shouldst saj That which this hope hath promised thee so long.
And I : " The Scriptures Old and New display The bourn of hope, the which itself I greet In souls whom God has filled with love for aye. Each will be clad, Isaiah doth repeat. In their own region with a double vest, And their own region is this life so sweet. And thy own brother even more confest, There, where he treateth of the robes of white This revelation maketh manifest.
Soon as my words were ended, on the height Spereni in te, above us sounded near, To which made answer every carolling light. Then from amongst them drew a light so clear, ^^ That if in Cancer did such crystal glance. Winter's first month would but one day appear. And as doth rise, and ent«r on the dance, A joyous virgin, with no thought of sin.
But to the bride to do obeisance, ^^ So I beheld that coruscating sheen Move to the pair, revolving in their wheel As fitted to their glowing love I ween. He joined them in their song ineffable : And on them gazed my lady unreprest "® Like spouse, in silence, and immovable.
" This is the one who lay upon the breast Of our own Pelican : and this was he Chosen on the Cross unto the high behest/' My lady thus, nor ne'ertheless did she '" Her vision move from gazing there attent, After, as ere the words she spake to me. Line 91. Therefore in their land they shall poasesB the donble.— Isaiah Ixi. 7« Line 94. St. John in the Apocalypse. Line 101.
Were a star of such brilliance in the constellation of Cancer, which shines throughout the night during the first month of the ¥nnt0r solstice, the sun would in reality never set, and the whole month would be as one day.
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Ci^irao XXVL PARADISE. 359 liko unto liim who f^azes with intent To see awhile eclipse the solar beam, Through too much gazing has his yision spent, So grew I, looking on that latest flame, Whilst it was told me : '* Why, a thing to see Which here is not, dost face mj dazzlmg gleam ? My frame is earth on earth, and so will be With all the rest, until our sum be brought Equal in number imto God's decree. With their two garments in this blessed Court Are those two lights alone, who now ascended : And this within thy world thou mayst report." With this the glowing wheel its circling ended, *^^ Together with the sweet accompaniment • Which from the trinal spiral's murmur blended : Just as for pause, or peril to prevent, The oars that erst within the water plied. When sounds the signal, sudden rest suspent. ^^ Ah ! in my mind how I was terrified What time I turned to see my Beatrix, That her I could not see, though by her side I there was standing in the World of Bliss ! Line 121. Dante looks thus intently on the spirit, wbicli he learns is St. John, to see whether he has risen with his body to Heaven, according to the donbt raised by the words of Christ to the disciples, " If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" Line 128. Christ and Mary, who were described in the last Canto as ascending to the higher Heaven, while the saints remained.
CANTO XXVI. St. John examines Dante concerning Charity. A fourth flame then advances, in which is the sool of Adam, who acquaints Dante with the real reason of his fall, and the length of nme he remained in the terrestrial Paradise. The while in doubt I stood, through vision spent.
From out the beaming flame which dazzled it, There issued words which made me all intent, Saying, " While thou thy vision dost refit, Which gazing on me thou hast lost, 'twere well * That converse now should compensate for sight. Begin, then, and declare, on what doth dwell Thy soul's desire, and meanwhile understand Thy sight not dead, but wandering for a spell,
360 PARADISE. Cahto XXYI. Because the lady who throughout this laud ^^ Divine doth lead thee, in her look doth claim The virtue granted Ananias' hand. " Or swift or slow as her good will may deem, May healing clear the eyes, which were the gates Through which she entered with my deathless flame ! ^^ That Good, which wholly in this Court elates. Is Alpha and Omega of the whole Which love or lightly or with strength relates.
The selfsame voice which caused away to roll The terror of my sudden dazzlement, ^ To further parley prompted still my soul, And told me : '' Thou must sift thy argument Certes through finer sieve, 'twere fit for thee To say who aimed thy bow to such intent. And I : " By proofs of high philosophy ^* And by authority which from here descends, Such love was fitly printed upon me. For good, in what of good one apprehends.
So kindles love proportioned, and the more That it the more of goodness comprehends. ^ Then for the essence which contains such store. That every good which out of it is found, Is but a ray of its own light galore ; More than in others then must it abound Within his loving mind who seeth clear ^ The truth on which this argument is found.
Such truth unto my intellect lays bare He, who displays to me the primal love Of all the beings in the eternal sphere. And that true author's voice doth also prove, ^ Who unto Moses of himself did speak : * I'll make before thee all my goodness move ! Thou also makest it plain, where thou dost wake The proem high, which more than every ban, . The secret of the Heavens to earth doth break. " ** Line 12.
Who by placing his* hands on Saul restored his lost sight.— Acts ix. Line 16. Dante here replies to St. John's question as to what oonstitatea his soul's desire, which he declares to be God, the Highest Good. Line 37. Supposed to be either Aristotle or Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote concerning the Celestial Hierarchies, already introduced in Canto X., and again alluded to in Canto XXVIII. Line 42.
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee.— Exodus xxxiii. 19. Line 45. The commencement of St. John's Gospel.
Cahto XXYI. paradise. 361 And then I heard : " By intellect of man, And by authority with it agreeing, Beyond all else thy love to God maintain. But tell me still, if thou dost feel thy being With other cords drawn towards Him, to descry ^ How many fangs of love are on thee preying.*' The holy purpose of Christ's eagle high Was hidden not from me, but well I knew Where my confession he desired to ply.
" Each grappling fang," I then began anew, '^ " Which unto God the heart with power is swaying, Unto my charity is helpmeet true. The being of the world, and my own being. That I might live the death which He sustained, What each believer hopes, with me agreeing, With that the living knowledge now explained, Of evil love hath drawn me from the sea, And to the shore of right love me have chained.
The leaves, of all the garden's greenery Of the eternal Gardener, love I solely As each from Him hath goodness won in fee. As I grew still a song of sweetness wholly Eesounded through the sky, and with the rest My lady chanted Holy, Holy, Holy. As bright light chases dreams from one at rest. By the visual organ which doth greet the light, Piercing the retina from vest to vest, And he awakened, what doth greet his sight.
Through sudden vigil doth not clear behold Until his judgment helpeth him aright ; ^^ So from my eyes each mote away was rolled By a bright ray from Beatrice's eyes, Which shone upon me thousand, thousand fold. Whence better than before my sight descries.
And of a fourth light, as one stupefied ^ I questioned, which I saw amongst us rise. ** Behind those rays," my lady then replied, " The first soul there does his Creator woo, Who first made virtue, since he first was tried. Just as the leaf doth bend upon the bough ®* When breathes the passing wind, and then doth rise By its own virtue rearing it anew. So- did I reverent bow, while she replies.
Awestruck, and then once more emboldened grown By the desire to speak which in me lies, ®* Line 52. Christ's eagle — St. John.
362 PARADISE, Cakto XXVI. I thus began : " apple, who alone Wast ripe created, ancient sire ! who aye Each wedded bride dost for thy daughter own, And daughter-in-law, devoutly thee I pray To speak to me : my wish thou well dost note. Which, to hear sooner, I forbear to say.
Just as at times a dog doth sleek its coat As its affection prompteth, to display The feeling its appearance doth denote, So there that first soul, in a similar way Through medium of its covering made me see How much to please me grew its spirit gay.
Then breathed : " Without its being told by thee, To me thy whole desire is better known Than aught by thee of greatest certainty : Because I see it that true glass upon, Which makes itself parhelion to all things. While nothing makes of it parhelion.
Thou'dst hear how long, since God my sojoumings Granted within that garden, whence this maid Thy steps along this lengthened ladder brings : And to my eyes how long its gladness stayed, And the true reason why God banished me. And what the language which I used and made. My son, it was not tasting of the tree That was the reason of so great exile. But only disobeying the decree.
There, whence thy lady Virgil moved erewhile, Four thousand and three hundred years and twain. For this high conclave was I yearning still : ^^ And the sun passing through the Zodiac's train I saw nine hundred times and thirty more, The while on earth my living course I ran. The language which I spake was wholly o'er, Or ere in their impossible emprise ^^ The race of Nimrod strove to raise their tower.
Since nothing which on man's mere reason lies Was everlasting, since the human will Aye changes 'neath the influence of the skies. Line 108. A parhelion is an image of the sun, formed by its reflected light. God reflects His light on all thmgs, bat is Himself reflected by none. Line 119.
By this computation of the length of time in which Adam remained in Limbo, antU borne hence in Christ's triumph over the powers of Hell, the birth of Christ is placed 5,200 years after the Creation.
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Cahto XXyn. PARADISE. 363 That man should speak is work of Nature still : ^^ But so and so to speak doth Nature leave Unto yourselves, according to your will. Ere I descended to the infernal grave, The Highest Good on earth was called El, From whom doth now this joy around me weave. ^^ Eli 'twas after called : the change is well ; For use of mortals is like leaf on bough Which goes, and other cometh whence it fell. On the highest mount that soars o*er ocean's flow Was I in life of purity and shame. From the first hour until the seventh, whereto Changes its quadrant the sun's westering flame." > Line 140. The stay of our first parents in Eden, botli before and after their fall, amounted to seven hours : such from a legend of the Middle Ages was the belief accepted by Dante, for which there is probably as much authority as for the Miltonio theory by which Protestant belief is guided as to the Adamite period. •
CANTO xxvn. After a chorus of praise to the Holy Trinity, the spirits listen silently to Saint Peter, who in an indignant outburst rebukes the government of his successors in the Apostolic See. The Heavenly Host glow with sympathetic indignation at his words, and all then vanish in the height. Beatrice then raises Dante to the ninth Heaven, the nature of which she explains to him, and blames the perversity of mankind, whose aims are set at a lower goal. Unto the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Glory throughout all Paradise began, That in the sweet song were my senses lost. That which I saw, meseemed a smile that ran Throughout the universe, since rapture newer * By sight and hearing through my being ran. O joy ineffable ! O gladness pure ! life entire of love and tranquil good ! O free from every longing wealth secure ! Before me the four torches kindled stood, ^® And the Apostle who the first did come, With growing brilliancy before me glowed : And in his semblance such did he become As Jove might do, were he and Mars's pride. Grown birds, to interchange them plume for plume. ^ Line 15. St. Peter, glowing with indignation, assumed the sanguine hue of Mars in plaoe of his former silvery light.
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364 PARADISE. Cawto XXVIL The Providence which order doth provide And change of duty here, *mid this blest crew Had silence now imposed on every side What time I heard : " If I take colour new Marvel thou not, for while my words begin ^ Thou wilt behold each one of these change hue. He who usurps on earth that place of mine, That place of mine/ that place of mine now vacant.
Within the presence of Grod's Son Divine, Has of my cemetery made a fecant Cesspool of blood and £lth, whence the perverse Who fell from Heaven, in Hell doth joy complacent. That roseate hue, which o'er a cloud adverse The sun d,oth paint at eventide and mom, Beheld I then o'er all the Heaven asperse. And like a virtuous lady who would scorn All sin herself, if only she doth hear Of others' frailty, groweth all forlo^:n.
So Beatrice changed her semblance here. And so methinks eclipsed the Heavens that hour ^ In which the Christ was suffering mortal fear : Proceeded then his words of angry power. With voice so changed from its own former tone.
That even his semblance was not altered more. ** The spouse of Christ was fed not with my own, *® With Linus', and with Cletus' blood for this, Now as a thing of purchase to be known : But to acquire this perfect life of bliss. Urban, Calixtus, Sextus, Pius too. Their lifeblood shed, after long agonies. ^ It was not our intention that a few Alone should sit at our successors' right, And at his left the rest o' the Christian crew.
Nor that the keys, granted to me with might. Should e'er become the standard in a war *® For those who 'gainst their christened foemen fight : Nor that my image should be signet for Mendacious privileges sold for gain. At which I oft glow red and sparkle o'er. Line 41. All the martyrs named by St. Peter were amongst his snocessors, the Bishops of Borne in the second and fourth centuries. Line 47.
Alluding to the division between Guelphs and Ghibelines, factions fomented by the PopeSj who of course favoured their own party. Line 52. The seal of St. Peter being affixed to the Papal Bulls, by which were often purchased iniquitous privileges.
Canto XXYII. PARADISE. 865 In shepherd garb rapacious wolves are seen ^ From here o'er every pasture wandering free. shield of God, why dost so still remain !
They of Caorsa and of Gascony Hasten to drink our blood, to what vile ending fair commencement hast thou hurried thee ! ^ But the high Providence of old defending At Eome, with Scipio, the world's glorious spoil As I perceive, will soon be succour lending ; And thou, O son, who through thy mortal coil Once more below must turn thee, ope thy mouth, ^ From what I hide not, do not thou recoil.
As upon earth, from frozen vapours, snoweth Our lower air, what time in Capricorn The sun along his winter solstice goeth ; So I beheld o'er ether upwards borne ™ The beauteous snow of that triumphant cloud, Which there, till then, with us had made sojourn.
My vision on their semblances pursued, And followed them till midway, when the height The power to soar yet farther disallowed : ^^ On which my lady, who beheld me quite Eapt in that upwards gazing, said, '' To know How thou hast turned thee, downwards cast thy sight. Since that hour when my glance I first did throw, 1 found I'd traversed all the arc so great ^^ From the meridian to the horizon low.
So that I saw on this side Gades' strait, Ulysses' mad emprise, on that the shore From whence Europa made so sweet a freight : And of the earth my sight had travelled o'er ^ A further space, had not the sun gone on Beneath my feet a Zodiac's sign and more. The enamoured spirit which doth ever wonne In dalliance with my lady, her to greet My eyes with more than previous ardour won. '^ Line 58.
John XXII. of Caorsa and Clement Y. of Gascony, who transferred the Holy See to Avignon in 1308, and was allnded to in Canto XIX. of the " Hell. Line 79. Since he had last looked down on entering the sphere of the fixed stars, Canto XXII., he had past from the meridian circle to the eastern horizon, one half of the hemisphere.
The sun has travelled six hoars, and Dante, above it, has travelled the same space in the last but one of the whirling spheres. Line 82. The Straits of Gibraltar, from whence Ul^ses sailed into midocean — see^ Canto XXYI. of the " Hell" — and Fhoenioia, from the i^ore of which Jnpiter bore Europa as a bull.
366 PARADISE. c^to XXVIl. And whether Art or Nature make a bait To win the soul with beauty through the eyes. In human flesh and blood, or pictured state, All heaped together I would nothing prize Beside the bliss divine, which on me shone, ^ What time I turned unto her smiling guise. And the new virtue from that gaze alone From the fair nest of Leda me did lift, And in the swiftest Heaven, enwafbed on.
Its portions all, diaphanous and swift, ^^ Are so alike, 'twere idle to inquire In what part Beatrice chose to drift. But she who clearly saw my whole desire. Smiling, began with such a joyous air, That God seemed through her visage to transpire. ^^ ** The nature of the movement circular. Still in the midst, while all the rest moved round, Commenceth hence, as from its goal afar.
And in this Heaven is neither place nor bound Save God's Divine, in which is lit the love "" Which whirls it, and the power that hence is found. Of light and love the circle bounds above. As this the other spheres, and He alone That precinct understands, who thus hath wove. Its motion is not by the others shown, "* But all the rest by this take measurement, As by the half or fifth the ten is known. And as within this vase Time's roots are pent.
Henceforth upon the others for its leaves To be beheld, thy vision must be bent. ^ O worldly lust, that mortals so enweaves Beneath its waters, that no one has power Upwards to cast his eyes beyond its waves ! In men, desire of good doth fairly flower. But withereth through sin's continuous rain ^^ To abortive growths, each fruit that decked their bower. Pure faith and innocence, with all their train.
Are found in children only, then each one Flies ere the cheek the down of manhood gain. Line 96. From the constellatioii of the Gemini, so called from Leda being the mother of Castor and Pollux. Line 112. The empyrean circles this sphere as this sphere circles all the others. Line 118. Time takes its measnrement from the motion of the primnm mobile, although its apparent measure be the sun, stars, or moon. From this Beatrice marvels at human nature, which cannot soar from earth to the contemplation of Heavenly things.
Cahto XXVin. PARADISE. 367 Who, while in childhood's prattle fasteth, grown "® To loosened tongue devours of sinful snares All food soever, under any moon. Who, while in childhood's prattle, loves and hears His mother, when hi« speech is perfect, now Desirous for her burial, counts the years. ^^ So into sable doth the white skin grow From its first aspect, in his beauteous child Who bringeth mom, and leaveth eve below.
Thou, that this cause not in thee wonder wild. Think that on earth none rules the people o'er, ^*^ Whence is humanity so far beguiled.
Ere January pass from winter frore Through the neglected hours that mar your date, These spheres supernal will so loudly roar, That Fortune, that doth now with longing wait, ^** Will shift each stem, where pointeth now the prow, So that straight onwards will career the fleet ; And after flowers true fruit will stud the bough. Line 136. So rapidly does man — child of the sun — degenerate from his fair childhood.
The generating power of the son has been before alluded to. Line 142. Before the fractions, left out in each year, so alter the seasons as to take January out of winter : a periphrasis merely for before many years, before long. The introduction of the Gregorian Calendar has prevented the occurrence of such a catastrophe, which would otherwise have taken place. Line 146.
I^nte probably alludes here to no known event, but merely to his own political hopes for the future of Italy, which have since been realised.
CANTO xxvni. Dante beholds in this ninth sphere the Hierarchies of Heaven in nine choirs of angels encircHng the Divine Essence.
When she who doth imparadise my soul 0' the present state of wretched mortals* thrall Had thus laid bare to me the truthful scroll ; As when upon a mirror there doth fall A torch's flame, enkindled from behind, * Ere the spectator think of it at all, And he turns round to certify his mind Whether the glass speak truth, which doth accord With fact, like music unto words designed :
368 PARADISE. Cahto XXVHI. Just SO my memory doth here record ^" That I did, gazing on those eyes so fair, From whence to bind me, Love hath made his cord : And as I turned me roimd, and was aware Of what within that volume meets the sight Of whoso gazeth on that whirling sphere, ^^ A point I saw, which radiated light So vivid, that the eye on which it blazed Must close perforce, through its intenseness bright.
That star, which from our earth appears the least. Beside it placed, would like the moon appear, ^ As star with star in Heaven is interplaced. Perchance such distance as appeareth near The light unto its halo, thence im pearled. What time the vapour is most dense in air, Such distance round that point, so swiftly whirled ^ A circle of fire, that it in speed had past The sphere, whose motion swiftest girds the world.
And this within another Was enchased. That by a third, the third by a fourth again. And further yet a fifth and sixth were placed. ^ Above, a seventh one followed round the train, Spread out so wide that Iris' coloured zone Were all too small its circle to contain.
So on the eighth and ninth ; and every one Revolved more slowly, as its distance grew ^ Yet further from the central unison : And each one had its flame of clearer hue As it was nearer to the crystal fire, From which each one its truthful essence drew. My lady, who beheld me in desire ^^ Of knowledge rapt, then told me : ** Hangs the Heaven From that one point, and Nature's self entire.
That circle see, whose place is nearest given, And know, its motion whirleth with such speed Through the fire-glowing love with which 'tis driven." ** And I to her : " If the visible world were laid In the order that I see amid yon spheres. That had sufficed me which has now been said. Line 11. Dante, startled by the vision reflected in the eyes of Beatrice, toms round to gaze upon the reality. Line 14.
" That volume" has been differently interpreted, but apparently means the ninth sphere, in which is visible this image of the hierarchies of Heaven. Line 46. The celestial spheres whirl faster the further they recede from the central point, the earth : the vision here beheld by Dante shows him each
G^jiTO ZXYIII. PARADISE. 369 But in the spheres celestial there appears That each with motion more divine doth move ** As to the centre less and less it nears, Whence if my longing may solution prove, Within this wondrous and angelic temple, Which has for boundaries only light and love, 'Tis meet I still should hear how this ensample ** And thing exemplified at variance go, In vain I ponder on a theme so ample." " If of such knot thy fingers do not know The secret 'tis no marvel, since the way As yet untried doth make it hard I trow." ®® My lady thus, then said to me, ** Essay That which I'll tell thee, if thou wouldst be taught, And round about it let thy fancy play. The spheres of Heaven are wide and narrow wrought, According to the virtue more or less. The which through all their parts is interfraught. The greater goodness doth more greatly bless ; Through all its parts if equal be the glow. The greater flame gives greater blessedness. This ninth sphere, then, which whirleth with its flow The lofty universe, doth correspond Unto that ring which most doth love and know. Therefore if thou wouldst stretch thy measuring wand Unto the virtue, not unto the seeming Of substances, now shown to thee in round, Thou wouldst behold a wondrous fitness streaming Of great to more, and less to less I ween In every Heaven unto its angels' dreaming." As there remaineth splendid and serene The hemisphere of air what time there blows The north wind in his mood of gentlest mien,
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sphere, on the contrary, whirling faster the nearer it is to its centre — God. Beatrice's previous reply made no explanation of this contrariety, for which he now asks for the solution. Line 64.
In the material universe the spheres differ in size according to the extent of their power of good : all parts being equally perfect, the more ample the spheres the greater is the power of good, and the swifter must be the motion to complete the circle synchronously with the spheres of less amplitude.
The intelligential spheres, which represent the intelligences or guiding spirits of each of the material spheres, revolve in speed according to the extent of their Divine vision, and so the ring, that which is nearest to the' central point answers to the ninth Heaven, and so on every ring or choir of Heavenly powers answers to its corresponding material sphere. Such is the argument m the text, rendered difficult chiefly by its elliptical form of expression. 2 B
S70 PARADISE. Canto XXVni.
By whicli the scudding rack right onwards goes That erst defiled the sky, and all the Heaven Throughout its vault in smiling beauty glows ; So grew I, after that to me was given " By my dear lady in her answer clear, The truth as manifest as star in Heaven : And when her words fell silent on the ear, Not otherwise than glowing iron flares, In coruscations glittered every sphere. ** Each sparkle blazing its ranged order bears ; And such their number, that a thousandfold They past the doubling of the chessboard's squares.
From choir to choir I heard Hosanna rolled To the first point, that holds them in their place '^ Unchanging, and for evermore will hold. And she exclaimed, who in my mind did trace My doubtful thought : '* Those circles first .in view Display the seraph and the cherub race. So in their orbits do they swift pursue, ^^ Growing more like the centre evermo'. As is their sight of it sublime and true.
The other loves that round about them go Are called thrones, before the gaze of bliss. With whom the first trine ends. And thou must know ^^ That all possess apportioned happiness As pierces deep their -sight into the truth, In which all knowledge rests in blessedness.
Hence canst thou see how happiness endueth Its essence wholly in the act of seeing, "* And not in loving, though that hence ensueth : To each the meed of sight is given agreeing With what goodwill and grace bring forth and bear ; So it proceeds from grade to grade of being. The other trine, that all its burgeons fair, ^^ Doth open in that sempiternal spring.
Never despoiled by autumn's nightly star, Summering on high, Hosannas ever sing With threefold melodies, that sound in three Orders of gladness, in their trinal ring. ^ Three Heavenly orders in this hierarchy. The dominations first, the virtues then, Ahd third in order, powers thou there dost see. Line 93.
Goimtiiig one for the first square, two for the next, and doubling the product onwards to the last square of the sixty-f our, gives a final result of ft number with twenty ciphers.
Canto XXIZ. PARADIS£. 371 In the penultimate dancing orbs again The princedoms and archangels circling move, "* The last is all of angels' festal train. All of these orders Godwards gaze above, And influence so beneath, that Godwards all Are drawn, and Godwards still all draw in love. And Dionysius on this festival ^^ Of orders pondered with such fervency That he distinguished each, and each did call.
Then Gregory with him did disagree ; Who, when his eyes were oped 'mid seraphim, Could not but smile his old mistake to see. ^^ And if a truth so secret e'er could limn Mortal on earth, no marvel need be thine, Since one who saw above made plain to him This, and much else about these spheres divine. Line 130.
The Areopagite, in his book " De Csalesti HierarohiA/' from which Dante took his system of the Heavenly Powers attached to each sphere : with this system Gregory the Great disagreed in a trifling particular, changing the relatiye positions of the princedoms and virtues. Line 138. St. Paul. The work of Dionysias is, however, of a much later age.
CANTO XXIX. Beatrice satisfies the onriositv of Dante on certain^ points concerning the creation of Angels and the universe, and explains to him the truth as to the Angelic nature. She then vigorously blames the practice of modem preachers, who, forsaking the simplicity of the Gospel, teach as truths their owu idle inventions concerning Divine mysteries. When of Latona's offspring, either one 'Neath Aries' sign, and Libra's, in the skies Together of the horizon make their zone. Such time as each in equilibrium lies, Until exchanging hemispheres there dips '^ The sun's vast orb the while the moon doth rise, So long a time with bright smile on her lips Was silent Beatrice, gazing on That point, which o'er my senses cast eclipse. Then she began : " I ask not, but make known What thou wouldst wish to hear, which I have seen There, where all place and time doth meet alone.
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Line 1. So long as the sun and moon hang on the verge of the horizon opposite to each otiier, while one is setting and the other rising, for such a momentary duration Beatrice was silent.
372 PARADISE. Gijrro ZXIX. Not to increase its excellence, I ween That cannot be, but that its splendour might Shining in power, assert its life serene : ^* The eternal love, beyond Time's £nite sight, Or comprehension, in eternity, New loves created for its own delight. Nor did it lie in torpor previously ; For not in dates of after and before " Went forth God's spirit, brooding o'er this sea.
Both form and substance, mixed as well as pure, Sprang into being, from all error free As arrows three from thrice-stringed bow made sure. And as on crystal, amber, glass, the ray ^ So shines in passing through, that in the beam When issuing forth no interval we see. So issuing from its sire, the threefold stream Launched into being, all together rayed Without distinction as to whence it came.
'^ Together with the substances was made This order, of pure intellect the Eace, Over the world their sovranty arrayed. Pure power, or chaos held the lowest place ; Betwixt them, power with intellect was whirled ^ In such firm bond, that nought can e'er imlaoe. St. Jerome in his pages has unfurled That through long ages Angels were created. Ere the creation of another world.
But this my truth in many texts is stated ^ By writers, through the Holy Spirit taught. Which thou wilt see if carefully collated : And even reason this hath somewhat caught, Since one cannot conceive those powers I trow Short of perfection could so long be wrought. ** Now thou dost know the where, the when, the how, These Angels were created, so that three Are satisfied of thy heart-longings now. Line 22.
Form applies to pure intelligence, the highest order of created beings, substance to power or matter, the lowest, and between them intelligence mixed with power, forming the three arrows simnltaneoosly shot from the tluree-stringed bow. As explained more fully in lines 28 to 37* this describes the simultaneous creation of the Ang^, Chaos, and tb^ Celestial Spheres composed of matter and Angelic nature mixed. Line 37.
St. Jerome had advanced the contrary opinion that Angels were created loDg anterior to the universe, which was controverted by St. Thomtf Aouinas, whose views are adopted by Dante. Line 45. It was impossible to conceive that the Angels could have be6B created before the Celestial Spheres, of which they were the motors^ as thBj would iiieu have existed without object, and consequent perfectaon.
Casto ZXIX. paradise. 873 Thou couldst not twenty count so rapidly, As of the Angel throng there fell a part, '^ Troubling your elemental mystery. The rest remained, and then began this art Which thou discernest, with such deep delight That never from this circling they depart. The reason of the fall was his despite ** And pride accurst whom thou beheldest bound *Neath the world's weight, within the lowest pit.
Those whom thou seest here were lowly found To know they all things to his goodness owe, Who them with aptness for such knowledge crowned. ^ Therefore their vision was exalted so With their own merit, and illuming grace, That will complete, which cannot fall, they know. And doubt not, but as certainty embrace, That to receive Q-od's grace is meritorious, •* According as the affection gives it place.
Henceforth around their hierarchies glorious Gaze at thy will, if thou my words dost store Thou need'st no other aid to be victorious.
But since according to the schoolmen's lore, ^® They read on earth, the Angelic nature made To understand, remember, will, yet more I'll tell thee, that the truth all naked laid Thou mayst behold, confounded all below Equivocating in such studied braid. ^* Since first those substances delight did know Before the face of Q-od, they never turned From it, where nought was hid for evermo*.
Therefore on novel objects never yearned Their vision, and they therefore never claim ^ The help of memory for thought returned. So that on earth do men, while waking dream. And some believe, some not, that truth they speak, Unto the last is greater sin and shame. Philosophy's straight path ye do not take ** On earth : so much the mundane love of show And singularity ye ever seek.
And even this far less of blame doth know In Heaven, than when the Holy Scriptures good Are overruled, and strained aside below. ^ Line 72. It is an error to attribute to Angels the gift of memory : as they always see all things in God's mirror, they can never require memory to call back an object that has past away. See line 81.
874 PARADISE. Cahto XXIX. Ye do not think how much it cost of blood To sow it in the world, and what reward Is his, who welcomes it in humble mood. Still for appearance each one struggles hard, And makes his own inventions, which are theme •* For preachers, while the Gospel is debarred. One says that in Christ's dying hour supreme The moon returned back, and interposed So that below could shine not the sun's beam.
Others that light within itself inclosed, So that to Spaniards, Indians, and to Jews, To all alike was such eclipse imposed. So many Lapi and Bindi in her stews Florence knows not, as in a year are told Within her pulpits such fallacious views. So that the sheep, all ignorant, to the fold Eetum from pasture only fed with wind. Not pardoned that their loss they ne'er behold.
Christ spake not to His followers in this kind, Q-o forth, and preach ye fables to the world, But truth for their foundation He assigned : And that so fervently their preaching hurled, That for the battle, true faith to attest Their shield and lance was Gospel truth unfurled. Now they but seek for fine words, and a jest, "* In preaching, and who only wins a smile Swells in his cowl, and asks no further test.
But in that cowl what bird doth nest the while If by the crowd were seen, they then would see What pardon 'tis they trust in to assoil : For which so grows the foolish greedery. That without any evidence or sign, To every promise doth the crowd agree. By this Saint Anthony makes fat his swine, And other things, than swine far worse, beside, Purchased and paid for with unminted coin. But since enough we now have wandered wide.
To the straight path henceforth thy vision bear, That hastening the lost time may be supplied. Line 102. Taken as the people inhabiting the extreme west, centre, and east of the inhabitable earth. The darkness was universal. Line 103. GQmmon names in Florence: the Smiths and Browns of the place. Line 124.
By ihe sale of these false indulgences, *' unminted," not genuine coin, the brothers of Saint Anthony, formed into an independent otder by Boniface YIII., grow rich and support their paramours.
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Cahto XXX. PARADISE. 376 The Angelic nature mounts from star to star ^ In such a multitude, that speech had failed, And mortal thought had never gone so far. And if thou look'st on what has been revealed By Daniel, in his thousands thou wouldst see That all determinate number is concealed. ^" The primal light which over all doth ray Doth in a different fashion mingling flow In every splendour, where *tis paired for aye : Whence since to action that conceives, we know The affection corresponds, the dulcet love Germins in each of them with different glow. In future all the height and breadth approve Of the Eternal Worth which thus hath rent Itself in all these mirrors spread above, Still as before remaining permanent."
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^ Line 134. Thousand thoasanda ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. — Daniel vii. 10. Line 137. Grod commnnicates His nature differently to eaoh of the myriad Angelio host, so that eaoh one differs from the rest in love and glory.
CANTO XXX. The hierarchies yanish in the height, and Dante, rapt in the ineffiible smile of Beatrice, ascends into the empyrean. There his sight being strengthened by gazing into the river of light, he is able to behold the triumph of the twofold Court of Heaven, the Angels and the souls of the Blessed, spread out Uke a full white rose. Thxse glows, perchance six thousand miles afar, The fervid noon, the while our Tuscan land Strips off the shadow of night's flying car, When the mid sky, the deepest o'er us spanned. Begins to change, that every starry light ^ Loses its semblance where on earth we stand ; And as the handmaid of the sun most bright Advanceth onwards, so the Heaven doth close, Over each star through aU its infinite. Not otherwise the triumph which arose Ever around that point which me o'erthrew^ Appearing girt by what it doth inclose,
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Line 1. Dante compares the disappearance of the hierarchies in the height to the stars vanishing in the sky when it is dawn at Florence and noon six thousand miles away. Line 12. The hierarchies were inclosed in God, though apparently revolving around Him.
376 PARADISE. Cahto ZIX. Little by little from my sight withdrew, Whence love, and nought to gaze at, me constrained To turn my eyes on Beatrix anew. " If whatsoe'er till now of her was penned Were all included in one mighty praise, ^ It had not of this turn the height maintained. The beauty that I saw so passes ways Not merely human, but I think alone " Its Maker could its joyaunce all appraise.
That I am conquered by this pass I own More than was ever bard of whom could boast The sock or buskin in a flight unknown. Por as the sun, the sight that trembles most, ** So the remembrance of that smile so sweet Prom my own self my mind hath wholly lost.
Prom the first day when I that face did greet In this our life until that sight divine My song to follow was not all unmeet ; ^ But now 'tis fit that henceforth I resign Her beauty to pursue in poet aim, As yields each artist to his art's confine. Such, then, I leave her to more high acclaim Than that of my weak trumpet, which draws on " Unto a final close its arduous theme.
Of conquering chief with gesture and with tone She recommenced : " Now, issued forth, we move In the Heaven of purest light, from the ninth zone. Light intellectual, and full of love, ^ The love of Truth, all full of gladness aye. Gladness, all thought of sweetness far above.
Here both the serried armies thou shalt see Of Paradise, and one in such a seeming As thou shalt see them on the judgment day." ** As sudden light that with its rapid gleaming Blindeth the visual powers, depriving quite The eye of objects that are brightest beaming, So did there shine around me living light, And left me shrouded with such veiling stream ^ Of its own blaze that nothing met my sight.
" Ever the love that stills the Heaven supreme With such a weal doth welcome to its home, To make the taper fitted for its flame. Line 43. The hosts of Angels and of the sonls of the Blest, the latter appearing as they will do on the final day of doom.
Cahto ZXX. paradise. S77 Not a whit sooner than to me did come *' These words so brief or ere I felt again Mj soul surmounting, with new virtue bloom, And with new vision was I kindled then. Such that no glory's clearest lightening But that mj eyes were able to sustain. I saw the light in form of river fling Its blazing stream, the which two banks enfold, Impainted with the wonder-breathing Spring. From such a river living sparks uprolled.
And everywhere they set them on the flowers, Like unto rubies girt around with gold. Then, as inebriate with the odorous showers, They plunged again into the wondrous stream. Whence one still issued as another lowers. ** The high desire that thee doth now inflame ^^ To seek for knowledge of what thou dost see Pleases me more the more it swells thy aim.
But ere such thirst be satisfied in thee 'Tis needful of this wave that thou shouldst drink/' The daystar of my eyes thus spake to me. ^* Thereto : " The river, with its smiling brink Of flowers and topazes that- sink and glide, Of their own truth a shadowy prelude link. Not that themselves are not all glorified, But the defect is on thy part alone, ®* Who hast not yet thy vision purified.
An unweaned child had not so swiftly run With mouth towards the milk, when he doth wi^e Ear later than his wont, than I flew on Yet better mirrors of my eyes to make, Inclining me with rapture to the waves That flow to heal whoe'er his thirst doth slake. The instant that there drank of it the eaves Of my drooped lids the stream before my eyes Into a circling ring its length enweaves.
Then like to people 'neath a masked disguise Who others seem than erst, themselves confest When stript away their semblant fantasies. So did there change to jubilee increased The flowers and sparkles that I there beheld •* Both Courts of Heaven before me manifest. Line 61. " Thepore river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb. Apocalypse zxii. 1. Line 64.
Dante as yet beholds the vision dimly, and the Angels appear io him as sparks, the souis of the Blest as flowers. See line 97*
378 PARADISE. Cavto O splendour of my God, whence I beheld The lofty triumph of the truthful reign, Give me the power to say how I beheld I Light is above that maketh visible plain ^^ The Maker to the creature, who alone In seeing Him doth perfect peace attain. And in a circular shape it rayeth on.
Of such a size that its circumference Unto the sun would be too large a zone. *®* Upon the primum mobile it hence Imprints its semblance with reflected sheen. Which thence doth draw its life and influence. And like a cliff that o'er the wave serene Mirrors itself, as 'twere, to see how fair **® Is all its wealth of flowerets and of green.
So standing o'er the light in circles there I saw them glassed on more than thousand thrones, All of our race who thither made repair. And as the central grade within it owns So great a light, how vast doth spread in size This Eose's petals in its furthest zones ! In all its height and amplitude my eyes Were not bewildered, but took in it all. The quantity and nature of its joys.
Nearness and distance do not there befall, For where God rules immediate and supernal The laws of Nature have no sway at all. Within the yellow of the Kose eternal, Which opens out in grades and breathes delight And odorous praise to the sun for ever vernal, Like one who, silent, fain would speak, forthright Beatrix led me on, and said, '* Behold How great the gathering of our stoles of white ! Behold what space our city doth enfold !
Behold our seats already so complete That few more guests we wait to see enrolled. Where thou dost fix thy eyes, on that high seat Marked with a crown, already o'er it placed. Or ere that thou this nuptial supper greet, Shall sit the soul on earth Augustus graced Of the great Harry, who will come to heal Our Italy, or ere her mood be past. Line 136. Henry YII., who died in 1318, and on whom Dajite's hopes for the restoration of a united Italy were always tamed.
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Cahto mi. PARADISE. 379
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Blind Avarice that doth witch your common weal Hath made je like the child who drives away Its nurse, and pining, dies of hunger. Still Such prefect will possess the Papal swav Who openly and with his frauds unjust 'Will walk not with him on his noble way, But for short period in his holy trust Will God allow him, hence will he be thrown Where Simon Magus has his meed, and thrust The prelate of Alagna lower down." Line 142. Pope Clement Y., who transferred the Holy See to Avig^non, and died in 1314, when he would relieve the prelate of Ala^a, Pope Boniface YIII., from the outer place in the pit in which simonuusal Popes are punished. See " Hell," Canto XIX.
CANTO XXXI. While Dante is rapt in the glorious vision of this triumph of the Blest, Beatrice returns to her tiirone in Paradise. Saint Bernard takes his place by Dante, and exhorts him to dwell on all the glories before him, that he may be prepared for the supreme reward of at last beholding the Deity. These then in fashion of a pure white Eose Displayed itself the holy Host of Heaven, Whom Christ in His dear blood had made His spouse. But the Angel Host on wing, by them perceiven, His glory sings, who filled their hearts with love '^ And goodness, who to them so much had given. So like a swarm of bees that now doth move Over the flowers, now doth again return There, where their labour doth its sweetness prove, O'er the vast flower it settled now, adorn ^^ With leaves so many, and thence upwards flew There where its love doth ever make its bourn. Of living flame were all their faces' hue, Their wings of gold, and all the rest so white, Driven snow so stainless never met the view. ^* When on the flower they dropt, from site to site They shed abroad the peace and ardent power Which they acquired in their transcendent flight. Nor did their passing 'twixt the height and flower In all the hovering of their swarming state ^ Hinder the vision and the splendour shower.
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380 PARADISE. Casio XXXL Because tlie light Diyine doth penetrate Throughout the universe, as it is fain, So that its passage nothing can rebate. This safely harboured and rejoicing reign ^ Frequented by the new race and antique, Vision and love shared all throughout their train. tnnal light that in a star unique Shines on their vision with such perfect sway Ga.ze down in pity on our stormy peak !
If the barbarians from the Arctic Sea (O'er which there daily smiles Helice's smile, With her loved child careering round for aye). Beholding Eome and all its mighty pile, Were stupefied, what time in grand design The Lateran surpassed all mortal style ; 1 who from human unto the Divine From time unto eternity had come, And out of Florence to a race benign. With what surprise must I have been o'ercome !
Certes, 'twixt it and joy, I found it sweet Listeoing to nought to stand in rapture dumb. And like a pilgrim who doth gazing greet With holy joy the temple of his vow, And hopeth its description to repeat, So wandering o'er the light of living glow My eyes glanced onwards over every grade, Now circling round, now upwards, now below. Faces I saw that charity persuade.
Adorned with God's own light and their own bliss, And acts with eveiy comeliness arrayed. The form in general of Paradise Already had my gaze all comprehended.
Whilst on no special part were fixed my eyes, And with new-kindled ardour I intended ** To ask my lady of some mystery On which my mind was eagerly suspended : On one I thought, another answered me : An old man garbed like all that glorious race I saw when Beatrix I thought to see. ** There was diffused o'er his eyes and face Benignant gladness, piti^l his air, Such as a tender father well might grace. Line 26.
The saints of the new and old dispensations. Line 32. Callisto and her son Areas, changed into the constellationB of Ursa Major and Bootes. — Ovid Metam., book ii.
Ca»to XXXI. PARADISE. 881 " And where is she ? I sudden asked him, " where ?*' When he : " To bring thy longing to an end •* Beatrix sent me from my station there. And from the height, if thou thy search doth wend To the third row, she there will meet thy gaze Upon the throne her merits have attained.*' Without reply my eyes I upwards raise, And saw her where she made herself a crown, Reflecting from her the eternal rays.
Whoever in the sea dived deepest down Hath not to raise his mortal eye so far Up to the region where the thunders groan, ^* As was my sight from Beatrice there ; But it was nothing, for her efl&gy To me descending did no medium bar. " O lady, thou in whom my hope is high, Thou for my safety who didst even deign To leave thy traces in HelFs precincts, I, By all the wondrous things which I have seen, Both of thy mighty power and clemency.
The virtue and the grace acknowledge fain. Prom slave thou'st raised me unto liberty By all the various paths, by all the ways Which had the power to work such alchemy. O still thy liberal SBgis o'er me raise, So that my soul, which thou hast made all sane. May win thy favour when it gains release." *^ Thus did I pray, and she looked on me fain. And smiled on me from her hx glory seat, Then to the Eternal Fountain turned again.
And the holy old man told me : ** To complete To full perfection thy accomplished way, •* For which her prayer and love did send my feet, Over this garden let thy vision stray. For gazing there will kindle thy regard To soar aloft to the divinest ray. The Queen of Heaven may such a grace award, ^^ For whom I bum with ardent love unbated. Because I am her faithful son Bemflrd. Line 102. St. Bernard, the chief promoter of the seoond Crusade.
Mr. Gary has pointed out that Dante was in error in attributing to him this particular reverence for the Virgin, as he opposed the doctrine of the Immaculate Con* ception, so recently revived once more in the Roman Church.
S82 PARADISE. Caxto XZXI. Like one who from Croatia come hath waited Our true Veronica to gaze upon, Whose gazing, through its fame, is never sated, But says in thought, as long as it is shown, Jesus Christ, my Lord, true Grod adored, In such a semblance then was made your own ? Thus on his living countenance I pored. Glowing with charity, who while on earth Tasted Heaven's peace, contemplating his Lord.
" O child of grace, all this rejoicing worth," Thus he began, " thou never more wilt note The while thy eye this lowly view preferreth. But gaze upon the circles most remote. So as to see upon her throne the Queen, To whom this realm is subject and devout. I raised my eyes, and as in morning sheen Of the horizon all the Eastern front Surpasses all the rest of Heaven's domain.
So passing as it were from vale to mount With my own eyes I saw the furthest verge O'er all the rest in glory light surmount. And as Heaven brightens where there doth upsurge The chariot Phaeton drove with skilless aim, ^** While here and there the starry lights submerge ; In such a way that peaceful oriflamme I* the midst glowed brightly, and on every side In equal fashion dimmed each lesser flame.
And o'er that centre with wings open wide 1 saw above a thousand Angels glance. Each separately endowed and glorified. There saw I at their singing and their dance Her perfect beauty smiling, that a joy Was in the eyes of all that holy trance. If for the scene such words I could employ Even where my fancy soars, I would not dare To essay to paint the least part of that joy.
When Bernard saw me with my eyes fixt there Upon the warmth which did his love enfold, He with such passion turned his own on her That it made mine more ardent to behold. Line 104. The Veronica was the picture of Christ, miracnlonsly stamped npon the handkerchief with which He wiped the sweat from His face, and wnich holiest of relics was preserved in the chnrch of St. Peter at Borne. Line 127. The Virgin Mother.
CANTO xxxn. Saint Bernard points out to Dante the order of the saints in ParadisOi how those of the Old and New Testaments are equal in number, divided, as it were, by a partition wall of celebrated Hebrew women , who head each row of thrones that make the petals of the flower. In the lowest grades are seated the souls of children saved by election solely, and not by their own merits.
St. Bernard then exhorts Dante to gaze on the virgin, so as to gain strength to behold her Son, and to join wiUi him in prayer to her for that final boon. In Ills own pleasure rapt, the dreaming man Freely the Teacher's office then assumed, And thus his holy parlance he began : " The wound, which Mary closed and balm-perfumed, That lovely one who sitteth at her feet * First opened, when 'gainst God she first presumed.
The next in order there, on the third seat, Sits Bachel, underneath our mother Eve, Beside her Beatrice thou mayst greet.
Sarah, Eebecca, Judith, and the grave ^^ Ancestress of the Psalmist, who in grief Of sin his miserere mei gave : Thou canst behold them thus from sheaf to sheaf Descending downwards, while thus name by name I go adown the Eose from leaf to leaf : ^* And from the seventh grade downwards, just the same To this, along the flower the rows succeed, And each one headed with a Hebrew dame.
Because according to the sight that made Their faith in Christ, these as partition wall ^ To separate the holy steps are laid. On this side, where the flower is ripened all With all its spreading leaves, are seated those Who on a Christ to come with faith did call. On the other side, where the semicircular rows ** Are set with vacant places, sit in state Who on Christ past their vision did repose.
And as on this side doth the glorious seat Of Heaven's high Queen, and every other throne Beneath it, such a boundary line create, Line 6. Eve, when she yielded to the temptation. Line 9. On the third row from the top sits Beatrice, beside Bachel. " lo mi sedea coU' antice Baohele. " Hell," Canto II. Line 11- Bnth, ancestress of David.
984 PARADISE. Cavto XZZU. So opposite, the seat of mighty John, Who holy aye, the wilds, and martyr's woe, And afterwards Hell's pains two years had known, And him beneath there separating go Francis, and Benedict, and Augustin, ^* With others lower down from row to row. Now see the lofty purposes divine. That one and other aspect of the faith Within this garden equally shall shine.
Know too that 'neath the grade, whose cincture rayeth ^ In equal portions the compartments two. Sit none by personal merit that he hath ; But by another's, with conditions too : For all of these are spirits who were freed Before that they had made election true. ** This by their faces thou mayst well aread, And even by their youthful voices clear. If well to look and listen thou dost heed.
Now thou dost doubt, nor dost thy doubtings bar : But I will loose for thee the mighty bond ^ On which thy subtile thoughts have bound thee here. Within the breadth of all this kingdom's bound A place chance granted never could upspring, As sadness, thirst, and hunger ne'er are found. For by the laws eternal, everything Which thou dost see is 'stablished, justly henco It answers as the finger to the ring.
Therefore these spirits rathely gathered thence, Have come not to true life without a cause : Here entering with degrees of excellence. The king, through whom this kingdom maketh pause In so great love, and in so great delight, That daring wUl its wish no farther draws. The minds of all, in its own aspect bright Creating, at his pleasure dowers with grace •* Diversely ; let the effect suffice thy sight. * Line 83.
St. Jolin the Baptist having to remain two years in Limbo, awaiting the death of Christ and his triumph over Hell. Line 49. The donbt unexpressed by Dante, and which Bernard endeavonrs to clear away, is why these souls of children, saved by no merit of their own, and only absolved from the stain of ori^nal sin by the Atonement, have in Paradise different grades of glory, which would appear to be^ granted by chance.
This difficulty Bernard answers b^ asserting the doctrine of Election, which must be accepted from its visible effect, and not further questioned. See line 66.
Cakto XXXII. PARADISE. 386 And this express, and clearly ye may trace In Holy Scripture, which those twins declare To have struggled in their mother's womb for place. Therefore according as is hued the hair ^^ Of such a granted grace, that highest light It fitteth worthily that one should wear.
Then without merit of their deeds done right, They here are placed in different grades of glory, Though differing only in their granted sight. ^* Sufficed it in the earliest years of story, With innocence, salvation to attain, Only their parents' faith hereditary. When the first ages were completed, then To males it needed for their innocent plume, ^ Through circumcision, virtue to obtain. But after that the time of grace had come.
Without the perfect baptism of Christ Such innocence was held below in doom. Now gaze upon the face, that unto Christ " Eesembles most, since that all crystal light Alone can thee dispose to look on Christ. I saw above her showered so great delight. Borne on the holy minds of the Angel brood.
Created aye to hover o'er that height, ^ That whatsoever I before had viewed Me in such admiration ne'er suspended, Nor of our God such semblance ever shewed. And the Angel love, who first had there descended Ave Maria, gratia plena, sung, *^ And over her his golden wings extended. Unto the song divine an answer rung From every portion of the blessed Court, That o'er each £a«ce serene new beauty sprung.
" holy father, who dost here resort ^ ^^ For my sake, leaving the sweet station higher In which thou sittest by eternal sort ; Who is that angel, that with such desire Looks in the eyes of our dear Queen so fair. Enamoured so, he seemeth all on fire ?" ^^' Line 68.
The doctrine of Meotion asserted by Saint Panl, and exemplified by the case of the twins Ssan and Jacob :—" K)r the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the promise of God accordmg to Election might i^and, not of worker but of him that oalleth. Romans ix. 10, 11. 2 C
386 PARADISE. Casto XXXH. Thus to the learning still did I repair Of him, who caught from Mary beauty free, As from the sun sweet Venus' morning star. " Boldness and gladness such," said he to me, " As e'er can be in angel or in spirit, "® Is all in Him, as fitly it should be. For this is He, who bore the palm of merit Below to Mary, when the Son of God Willed all our mortal burden to inherit.
But henceforth let thy eyes be cast abroad, ^^^ While my speech wandering, every leader shows Of this most pious and most just abode. The twauQ that most in happiness repose By being nearest to Augusta placed, Are as it were the twin roots of this Eose. ^^ The one who on her left hand sitteth graced Is the first sire, through whose heart lusting bold The human race such bitterness doth taste.
On her right hand thou seest the father old Of the Holy Church, to whom Christ gave the keys ^^ Of the garden which this crowning flower doth hold. He, who saw all the time of heaviness. Or ere he perished, of the beauteous bride, Whom by the lance and nails Christ won for his. Beside him sits : the other one beside, ^^^ Sesteth that chief, 'neath whom there lived on maima The people ingrate, fickle, cursed with pride.
To Peter opposite see seated Aima, To gaze upon her daughter so content Her eyes ^ moves not while she sings Hosanna. ^^^ Before the sire of all men's races blent. Sits Lucia, who thy lady moved to wonne, When thou didst bend thy brows, on ruin bent. But since thy vision to an end draws on, Here will we pause, like tailor who doth prove ^*® His skiU, as cloth is given to make the gown. Line 127.
St. John, wlio saw and related in the Apocalypse the early perseontions of the Ghuroh. Line 180. The Yiigin divides the saints of the old and new dispensations. On her left hand are Adam, Moses, &o, ; on her right Peter and John^ &o., until the semidrclesnnite in John the Baptist,. seated opposite to the Virgin.
John the Baptist has for his neighbonrs Anna and Luina, opposite to Peter and Adam, Lncia being supposed to represent Grace, though, from her rank in the first row of Pazndise, some real person would appear to be intended, as the poet's love Beatrice also represents Qpixitoal religion.
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Oahto XXXIII. paradise. 387 And we will raise our eyes to the primal love, That looking towards it thou mayst penetrate, As far as possible, its beams above. Yet of a truth, the while thy pinions beat. Thou dost fall back, believing thou dost speed, 'Tis fit that first for grace I should entreat : G-race given by her, who hath the power to aid : And thou wilt follow me with yearning there. That to my words thy heart be closely laid." Therewith he thus began this holy prayer.
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CANTO xxxin. Saint Bernard prays to the Virgin that Dante may receive grace to contemplate the Divine Essence, and the prayer is granted. Dante then prays that he may have power to record some portion of the glory he beholdsi and describes his final vision of the Supreme Mystery. " O Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, Humble and lofty more than any creature. The fixt bound where the eternal councils run, Thou art the perfect one who human nature Didst so ennoble that did not disdain ^ Its Maker from thee to take form and feature. Within thy womb the love was lit again. Through warmth of which in its eternal peace This flower in beauty hath thus bloomed amain. Thou art the midday torch within this place ^° Of charity, and unto mortals lower The living fountain of all hope and grace. Lady, thou art so great and hast such power That whoso willeth grace and runs to thee. Would without pinions wish his will could soar. ^* Not only succours thy benignity Whoso demands it, but full many a time. Or ere the prayer be formed, 'tis offered free. In thee fair Mercy, in thee Pity's prime. In thee magnificence, in thee unite ^^ Whatever goodness doth in creature limn. Behold this man, who from the lowest pit 0' the universe unto this height hath seen Of spiritual life the phases infinite. Of grace he prays to thee for virtue keen, -^ Such that his human eyes may upwards yearn Until the sovran mystery be seen.
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388 PAEADISE. Cahto XXXm. And I, who for my vision ne'er did bum More than I do for his, my prayers in whole Offer, and pray they have not scant return. Thou, therefore, from him every cloud uproll Of his mortality with prayers of thine, So that the highest bliss shine on his soul. Again I pray to thee, O queen benign, Who canst whatever thou wilt, his passions aU Keep ever pure after such sight divine. Let thy protection guard him from a fall.
See Beatrice with all these the blest Join their raised palms in furtherance of my call. The eyes by God for ever loved the best *• Fixt on the speaker, then how holy prayers Are grateful to them made all manifest. Thence to the Eternal Light their vision rears.
In which believe that never creature higher Within its mystery such clear eye bears : ^ And I, who to the end of all desire Was then approaching, as was fit the while, Finisht the ardour of my yearning's fire. Then beckoned to me Bernard with a smile That I should upwards gaze, but I, in sooth. Already gazed where he my sight would guile.
And as my vision more of strength endueth Yet more and more it entered through the ray 0' the sovran light, which in itself is truth. From here henceforward more than parlance may My vision knew ; here words to sight must yield, And memory to such excess give way.
Like one who sees in dreaming things revealed, And when the dream is o'er passion's impress Eemains, while to the mind all else is sealed, ^ So am I now, that all, as 'twere, doth cease My vision, while there yet on me distils Within the heart, bom from it. Heavenly peace. Thus in the sun the snow dissolves in rills ; Thus in the wind, inscribed in flying leaves, ** Are lost for aye the sibyl's oracles.
O highest light, that so itself upheaves Above all mortal thought, upon me shower Some likeness which thy witnessed image leaves. And make this tongue of mine possess such power ^" That of thy glory but one spark alone To future ages it may lea^e as dower.
Cabto XXXni. PARADISE. 389 If but returns upon mj mind a tone, And in these verses but the briefest sound, Thy victory more perfect will be known. ^^ I think I should have fallen in a swound The while I bore that blaze of living light If once, hence straying, were my vision found. And I remember that I gathered might By this to bear so much that I illumed My vision with perfection infinite.
O grace abounding, whence I there presumed Upon the Eternal Light to fix my gaze So long as vision was not all consumed ! Within its depths I saw, wherein doth blaze Bound up with love into one volume bright, Whate'er the mighty universe displays : Substance and accident in endless might, All breathed together, in such feishion planned That what I now describe is simple Ught.
The universal form of the world's band Methinks I saw, because where thus displayed More largely I perceive my joy expand. One moment's pause had me even more delayed Than five-and-twenty ages the emprise Which Neptune's wonder won at Argo's shade. So my mind, gathering all its energies, GtLzed fixt, immovable, and all intent, And ever more enkindled through the eyes. Upon that light, whoever's gaze is bent.
From it towards any other sight to veer Impossible that he can e'er consent. Because all good, for which desire forms prayer, In it is centered, and beyond its rood All is defective which is perfect there. Henceforth my speech must fiidl in what I viewed. Even so far as I remember, more Than unweaned child's that craves its milky food.
Not that the semblance other image bore Within the living Ught on which I gazed, "® Which ever is the same it was before, Line 85. The Deity is figured as every quality of His universe condenfled into what apneared at first as purely light. Line 94. Tne pause of a moment at such a time were to him greater than a delay of twenty-five ages to the Argonauts. Line 109.
There was no change in the Deity, which appeared as light, but through increased strength of vision the seer caught a glimpse of its mysteriea revealed to him.
390 PARADISE. Camto XXXni. But through my vision, which more keenly blazed As still I looked on it, one single seeming Before me travailed, as I changed amazed. Within the substance, deep and clearly gleaming ^^^ Of the high light, three wheels appeared, which shono With colours three, and in one boundary beaming.
And as from Iris, Iris, one from one Appeared reflected, and the third seemed fire That from them both was equally breathed on. ^'° O how my speech falls short, and doth retire Below my thought, and that, to what I saw. To say 'twere little answers not desire. O light eteme, who in thee dost withdraw Alone, self-comprehended, self-perceived, ^-^ On me thou smiled' st down thy light and law. That second circling wheel, which so conceived.
Appeared in thee as a reflected light, When somewhat further by my eyes received. Within itself, with its own colour bright, ^*® Appeared as painted with our eflfigy, Wherefore on it my vision pored with might. Like the geometrician who doth try To square the circle, and can never find In thought the principle he needeth, I ^^ Was thus before that vision new designed.
I wished to see how there the shape found home Within the circle, and how there confined : But such a flight was not for my poor plume. Did not across my mind a glory steal ^*^ From out the splendour, whence its wish did come. To the high fancy here my power did fail. But turned my will already as willed there (Moved on with equal motion like a wheel). The love which moves the sun and every star. ^*^ Line 116. The Trinity.
The Second wheel reflected from the first, the Third progressing from the other two. Line 127* In the Second Person he beholds a glimpse of the incarnation of the Deity clothed in human form, but such a mystery was beyond his powers Line 140. The glory of the Deity breaking on Dante's soul inspired it with perfect accordance to the Divine Will, and left him content not to aspire after the unattainable.