The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

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 lies 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 : " You 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 grows. With poisonous wil&ig seeds, the uncultured sward, As of terrestrial strength the more it shows. ^ 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 show : 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 ^ Your 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.