The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

Canto XXYII. PARADISE. 865 In shepherd garb rapacious wolves are seen ^ From here o'er every pasture wandering free. shield of God, why do so still remain ! They of Caorsa and of Gascony Hasten to drink our blood, to what vile ending fair commencement have you hurried you ! ^ But the high Providence of old defending At Eome, with Scipio, the world's glorious spoil As I perceive, will soon be succour lending ; And you, O son, who through your mortal coil Once more below must turn you, ope your mouth, ^ From what I hide not, do not you recoil." As upon earth, from frozen vapours, snows Our lower air, what time in Capricorn The sun along his winter solstice goes ; So I beheld o'er ether upwards borne ™ The beauteous snow of that triumphant cloud, Which there, till then, with us had made sojourn. My vision on their semblances pursued, And followed them till midway, when the height The power to soar yet farther disallowed : ^^ On which my lady, who beheld me quite Eapt in that upwards gazing, said, '' To know How you have turned you, downwards cast your sight." Since that hour when my glance I first did throw, 1 found I'd traversed all the arc so great ^^ From the meridian to the horizon low. So that I saw on this side Gades' strait, Ulysses' mad emprise, on that the shore From whence Europa made so sweet a freight : And of the earth my sight had travelled o'er ^ A further space, had not the sun gone on Beneath my feet a Zodiac's sign and more. The enamoured spirit which does ever wonne In dalliance with my lady, her to greet My eyes with more than previous ardour won. '^ Line 58. John XXII. of Caorsa and Clement Y. of Gascony, who transferred the Holy See to Avignon in 1308, and was allnded to in Canto XIX. of the " Hell." Line 79. Since he had last looked down on entering the sphere of the fixed stars, Canto XXII., he had past from the meridian circle to the eastern horizon, one half of the hemisphere. The sun has travelled six hoars, and Dante, above it, has travelled the same space in the last but one of the whirling spheres. Line 82. The Straits of Gibraltar, from whence Ul^ses sailed into midocean — see^ Canto XXYI. of the " Hell" — and Fhoenioia, from the i^ore of which Jnpiter bore Europa as a bull.

366 PARADISE. c^to XXVIl. And whether Art or Nature make a bait To win the soul with beauty through the eyes. In human flesh and blood, or pictured state, All heaped together I would nothing prize Beside the bliss divine, which on me shone, ^ What time I turned unto her smiling guise. And the new virtue from that gaze alone From the fair nest of Leda me did lift, And in the swiftest Heaven, enwafbed on. Its portions all, diaphanous and swift, ^^ Are so alike, 'twere idle to inquire In what part Beatrice chose to drift. But she who clearly saw my whole desire. Smiling, began with such a joyous air, That God seemed through her visage to transpire. ^^ ** The nature of the movement circular. Still in the midst, while all the rest moved round, Commencs hence, as from its goal afar. And in this Heaven is neither place nor bound Save God's Divine, in which is lit the love "" Which whirls it, and the power that hence is found. Of light and love the circle bounds above. As this the other spheres, and He alone That precinct understands, who thus has wove. Its motion is not by the others shown, "* But all the rest by this take measurement, As by the half or fifth the ten is known. And as within this vase Time's roots are pent. Henceforth upon the others for its leaves To be beheld, your vision must be bent. ^ O worldly lust, that mortals so enweaves Beneath its waters, that no one has power Upwards to cast his eyes beyond its waves ! In men, desire of good does fairly flower. But withers through sin's continuous rain ^^ To abortive growths, each fruit that decked their bower. Pure faith and innocence, with all their train. Are found in children only, then each one Flies ere the cheek the down of manhood gain. Line 96. From the constellatioii of the Gemini, so called from Leda being the mother of Castor and Pollux. Line 112. The empyrean circles this sphere as this sphere circles all the others. Line 118. Time takes its measnrement from the motion of the primnm mobile, although its apparent measure be the sun, stars, or moon. From this Beatrice marvels at human nature, which cannot soar from earth to the contemplation of Heavenly things.

Cahto XXVin. PARADISE. 367 Who, while in childhood's prattle fasts, grown "® To loosened tongue devours of sinful snares All food soever, under any moon. Who, while in childhood's prattle, loves and hears His mother, when hi« speech is perfect, now Desirous for her burial, counts the years. ^^ So into sable does the white skin grow From its first aspect, in his beauteous child Who brings mom, and leaves eve below. You, that this cause not in you wonder wild. Think that on earth none rules the people o'er, ^*^ Whence is humanity so far beguiled. Ere January pass from winter frore Through the neglected hours that mar your date, These spheres supernal will so loudly roar, That Fortune, that does now with longing wait, ^** Will shift each stem, where points now the prow, So that straight onwards will career the fleet ; And after flowers true fruit will stud the bough." Line 136. So rapidly does man — child of the sun — degenerate from his fair childhood. The generating power of the son has been before alluded to. Line 142. Before the fractions, left out in each year, so alter the seasons as to take January out of winter : a periphrasis merely for before many years, before long. The introduction of the Gregorian Calendar has prevented the occurrence of such a catastrophe, which would otherwise have taken place. Line 146. I^nte probably alludes here to no known event, but merely to his own political hopes for the future of Italy, which have since been realised.