The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

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 your 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 you, And you to listen may be fairly placed." When I was there, where duty bade to be, She said, " My brother, wherefore do not care Henceforth to question, as you 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 does claim You thoroughly know, and what for that is meet." ^ And she to me, '* From fearfulness and shame I would that you from henceforth should 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 does 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 your Naiades, Who will resolve for you 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 you teach them thus aright To those whose life but hastes to Death's long sleep : And bear in mind, when you do this indite, ** Not to conceal how you have seen the plant, Which has been now twice spoiled within your sight. Whoever tears it, or does spoil this haunt. With such blaspheming deed offends 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. Your 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 your 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 your own profit you would find. !But since I see you in your intellect Turned into stone, and so with sinning dyed. That dazzles you 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.