The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

OiHTo XVI. PARADISE. 321 With the old youy which first in Eome did sound, ^^ In which her family does 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 does gladness now arrive, •My mind becomes a fountain, joy to pour, ^® Or it woiild break with all it does 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 You, 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 you 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 falls still Than a blind lamb ; and oft one sword will tally a Better account of blood than five would spill. If you 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 you no novel thing, nor strange, After that cities such an ending know. All things amongst you 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 you confest ^ At what I'll tell you 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 you, 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 rags 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.