The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

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 has numbed, does 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 does 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 you ; up, away, ** For you 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 does bow ; When I thus heard : " Come on, one passes 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 have you, that your 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, " did you behold. Which only o'er us now each spirit wails ? Didst you behold how man bursts from her hold ? ^ Enough, the earth now spurning with your heels, Direct your eyes towards the Heavenly lure, The eternal kingdom, with its whirling wheels." Like to a falcon, who his feet makes sure, Then turns 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 you 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 you come, And seek the shortest way, the outer side ^ Keep ever to the right hand as you 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 oleavs 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.