The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

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, ^^

p. 340Cabto 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.