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THE 
 
 DIYINE COMEDY 
 
 OP 
 
 DANTE ALIGHIEKI. 
 
 TRANSLATED VERSE FOR VERSE 
 FROM THE ORIGINAL INTO TERZA RIMA. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES INNES MINCHIN. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMANS, aREEN, AND CO. 
 
 1885. 
 

 ,,^H..MOKS.ST^rHa« 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In the month of August, 1856, I attempted the 
 experiment of translating into terza rima the beautiful 
 story of Francesca of Eimini, in the fifth Canto of the 
 " Inferno." I was then employed as a district officer in 
 the Madras Presidency, and I continued to occupy my 
 leisure in the translation of the poem, completing the 
 whole of the " Inferno" early in the following year. 
 
 Throughout the year 1857, the year of the Indian 
 Mutiny, my family being in England, I was living as 
 the only English officer in charge of a large sub-district, 
 and throughout that year I was absolutely without any 
 English companion, and with the terrible tales of 
 mutiny and massacre that reached me daily through 
 the Press, I lived unarmed and in absolute security 
 amidst a peaceful agricultural community. Such a life 
 was singularly suitable for literary labour, and during 
 my many hours of solitary leisure in that stirring year 
 I completed in the month of October my translation of 
 the " Divine Comedy." I spent the next year in a 
 careful revision of my work, and then laid it by, hoping 
 that I might live to publish it in after years. 
 
 In the year 1866 I returned to England for the first 
 time after an absence of twenty-two years, and at the 
 
 515047 
 
if PREFACE. 
 
 request of the late Professor Brewer, of King's College, 
 wlio was himself a great student of Dante, I placed in 
 his hands the MS. of my translation, which he had 
 heard from a mutual friend that I had completed. 
 Mr. Brewer greatly encouraged me by the favourable 
 opinion he kindly formed of my work, but he did much 
 more than pass such an opinion : he compared my whole 
 translation carefully with the original, and marked 
 every passage in the long poem which he considered to 
 stand in need of alteration, and advised me, after again 
 subjecting it to a complete revision, to bring it before 
 the public, telling me that he considered it the best 
 translation of the "Purgatory" and the "Paradise" 
 that had come under his notice. 
 
 On my return to India I devoted the leisure hours of 
 another year to the revision which Mr. Brewer had 
 recommended, and I in fact re-wrote every passage 
 which had been marked by him as unsatisfactory. So 
 many years had elapsed since I had written it that 
 I could judge my work as fairly as if it had not been 
 my own, and I took a critical pleasure in the justice of 
 Professor Brewer's obelisks of condemnation. The 
 correction of the marked passages was no light labour, 
 as the alteration of one crabbed line often entailed a 
 new turning of a whole triplet, the exigencies of rhyme 
 in the terza rima being generally the cause of the blots 
 requiring alteration. 
 
 After another interval of sixteen years I bring my 
 work before the general judgment of Dante students as 
 the result of the honest labour of many years of a stu- 
 
PREFACE. ▼ 
 
 dious life. I know that I cannot expect any general 
 interest in sucli work, but I shall be satisfied if it obtain 
 from other students of Dante the favourable opinion 
 which it won from my kindly critic the late Professor 
 Brewer, and I hope it will at least interest my friends 
 as the mature fruit of such literary power as I possess. 
 
 The only translations of Dante with which I am 
 acquainted are Gary's, Longfellow's, and Wright's. 
 Gary's work is that of a real scholar, but it is impos- 
 sible to represent the " Divine Gomedy" in Miltonic 
 blank verse. Faithful as is Gary's version, it does not 
 really represent Dante to the English reader. Long- 
 fellow's work is even more verbally literal, and equally 
 unlike the original. It is translated verse for verse 
 and in terza rima form, but though it is not true blank 
 verse there is no rhyme, and every one fit to appreciate 
 Dante knows that in his interlinked rhyme and mar- 
 vellous melody consists the most exquisite portion of his 
 charm. It is to these that the sweetest portions of the 
 " Purgatory" and the " Paradise" owe their perfect 
 form, which, robbed of such adjuncts, cannot be pre- 
 sented in a foreign language. 
 
 Of the above three translations Wright's is certainly 
 the best representation of the original poem, for it is 
 in rhyme, and the verse is generally melodious. But 
 the metre is not that of the original ; it is not terza 
 rima, but an ingenious imitation of it, invented by 
 Mr. Wright to avoid the technical difficulty of the triple 
 rhyme. In my opinion Dante cannot be fairly repre- 
 sented to the English reader without his triple rhyme. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 The terza rima is a metre perfectly suited for English 
 poetry, and in that metre only can a true representation 
 of the great Florentine's work be presented in English 
 verse. 
 
 I believe that more than one translation into English 
 terza rima has appeared since I made my own, and 
 that one of them by Mr. Cayley is of more than ordi- 
 nary excellence. The work never fell into my hands, 
 nor was even known to me by repute until I had for 
 many years given up my own Dante studies. I have 
 abstained from seeing his work till my own was through 
 the press, in order to avoid any possibility of assistance 
 by others' labour to my own. Should any similarity be 
 detected anywhere between our translations it can only 
 be the accidental result of two minds having engaged 
 separately in carrying out the same task on the same 
 conditions. 
 
 In my opinion, fidelity to the original is a translator's 
 first duty, and that I have refused to sacrifice in any 
 attempt at meretricious ornament. I should have wished 
 to present my own translation side by side with the 
 Italian, but have been deterred by the extra cost of 
 printing which such a mode of publication would in- 
 volve. I believe that the Italian student who will take 
 the trouble to compare my version with Dante's poem, 
 however slight his knowledge of the Italian language 
 may be, will find no difiiculty in following the original 
 line by line ; mere paraphrase of foreign poetry is easy, 
 faithful representation is hard. My effort has been 
 to reproduce with exactitude the thoughts, and, where 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 possible, the words of Dante in verse that may give the 
 English reader some idea of the exquisite harmony of 
 the original. 
 
 Wherever Dante has written in Latin I have kept 
 the words unchanged : such lines, if pronounced in the 
 Italian fashion, will generally be found fairly har- 
 monious ; of course with the old English pronunciation 
 they do not make verse at all. Proper names must also 
 be pronounced in Italian to keep the harmony of the 
 verse. For instance, Beatrice must be pronounced 
 as a word of four syllables unless it is spelt Beatrix. 
 I trust to the consideration of a fair critic if in a 
 long poem of nearly five thousand triple rhymes he 
 finds here and there a faulty rhyme which would be 
 inadmissible in a sonnet. I have purposely made use 
 of some archaic words in* the reproduction of an Italian 
 poem which is at least half a century older than the 
 works of our Chaucer. 
 
 The introduction, and the notes which will be found 
 appended to each page, have been written solely with 
 the object of enabling the ordinary reader to compre- 
 hend Dante's great poem, the interest of which is often 
 dependent on minute historical details, now little known 
 or forgotten. 
 
 JAMES INNES MINCHm. 
 
 October, 1884. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 pRErACE iii 
 
 Introduction xxiii 
 
 The Obligations of Dante to Virgil - Ivii 
 
 HELL. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 Dante having wandered in the middle of his life into a dark forest, which \ 
 represents the maze of human passions, attempts to climb the moun-i 
 tain of Virtue, and is repulsed by three beasts, the l^pard, the lion, ; 
 and the wolf, representing the lust of Pleasure, Pride, and Avarice., 
 He is rescued from these by the shade of Virgil, who promises to 
 conduct him through Hell and Purgatory, whilst another worthier 
 spirit shall finally lead him to Paradise 1 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 Dante having followed Virgil along the mountain until nightfall, is 
 oppressed with fears on account of the greatness of his undertaking, 
 and his own unfitness for such a task. Virgil reproves his cowardice, 
 and inspires him with confidence by the account of the manner in 
 which he was called by Beatrice from Heaven, to speed to his 
 assistance 5 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 Dante, following Virgil, arrives at the gates of Hell, and reads the 
 inscription written thereon. Immediately within the precincts he 
 finds the vast crowd of human beings who on earth have done 
 neither good nor evil, and who are punished there, together with 
 the Angels who were neither on the side of God nor Lucifer when the 
 latter rebelled, and who are hence excluded from Heaven and from the 
 circles of Hell itself. From there they reach the bank of the River 
 Acheron, where the Demon Charon ferries over the spirits of the 
 condemned into Hell, and there Dante falls into a sudden swoon . 10 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 Dante on recovering from his swoon finds himself on the other side of 
 the River Acheron. He follows Virgil into the " blind world," and 
 enters Limbo, which is the outer circle of Hell. Here he finds all 
 those souls who, from the want of baptism, have lost salvation, but 
 have done nothing to deserve actual punishment . . . .13 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CANTO V. 
 
 Dante enters the second circle of Hell, where he finde Minos, the judge, 
 who endeavours to stop his progress. Virgil having taken him within, 
 he sees there the punishment of carnal sinners, who are for ever tost 
 about by furious winds. Amongst the condemned he sees and con- 
 verses with Francesca of Rimini and her lover, and falls fainting to 
 the ground with pity at their fate 17 
 
 CANTO VI. 
 
 On returning to his senses Dante finds himself in the third circle, that of 
 rain, in which gluttons are punished, under the guardianship of 
 Cerberus. Amongst the condemned he finds a Florentine, nicknamed 
 Hog, and converses with him on the dissensions of their town . . 21 
 
 CANTO VII. 
 
 Dante is confronted by Pluto at the entrance of the fourth circle. Con- 
 ducted by Virgil he obtains a safe passage, and sees within the 
 avaricious and the prodigal, condemned to a like punishmeut, rolling 
 great weights against each other. Passing onwards to the fifth circle 
 they come to the Stygian lake, in which the souls of the wrathful are 
 immersed. Skirting the lake they reach at last the foot of a tower . 25 
 
 CANTO VIII. 
 
 Phlegyas, the ferryman of Styx, summoned by a signal from the tower, 
 bears Virgil and Dante across the lake. On the way they are attacked 
 by Philippo Argenti, whose punishment is described. They then 
 arrive at the city of Dis, where the fallen angels prevent their 
 entrance, closing the gate at Virgil's approach 28 
 
 CANTO IX. 
 
 Virgil pauses, waiting for heavenly assistance. In the meantime the 
 three Furies rise upon the walls of Dis and threaten Dante with the 
 sight of Medusa's head. The Angel then arrives across the Styx, and 
 the fiends retiring, the gates of the city are opened. Dante following 
 Virgil finds the heretics of all denominations punished in tombs of 
 fire .32 
 
 canto: x. 
 
 Farinata degli Uberti, the Ghibeline leader, and Cavalcante Cavalcanti, 
 the Guelph, rise from the same tomb and converse with Dante. The 
 latter inquires about the welfare of his son Guido, Dante's great 
 friend, and the former predicts Dante's exile. He explains to Dante 
 that, although able to see indistinctly future events, the spirits are 
 entirely ignorant of what is at the time going on in the world, unless 
 they are informed by spirits lately arrived from there . . .36 
 
 CANTO XI. 
 
 Resting on a rock that overhangs the seventh circle while they pause to 
 accustom themselves to the fetid atmosphere, Virgil explains to 
 Dante what crimes are punished in the three remaining circles 
 namely, violence, fraud, and treason. He shows how the crimes 
 punished in the circles outside the city of Dis are of less culpability 
 than those doomed within the walls, and how usury is particularly 
 hateful to God 40 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CANTO XII. 
 
 Descending the bank into the seventh circle, they find it guarded by the 
 Minotaur. Having reached the bottom of the cliff, Dante sees a river 
 of blood, in which are punished those who have committed violence 
 against their neighbour, being prevented from rising out of the 
 boiling stream by a band of Centaurs, who gallop with bows and 
 arrows along its bank. Three of them advance to meet Virgil 
 and Dante, and, at the former's request, one of them guides the poets 
 along the bank, and finally carries Dante across the stream on bis back 43 
 
 CANTO XIII. 
 
 Entering the second division of the seventh circle, Dante finds himself in 
 a weird wood, the trees of which are the spirits of those who have 
 committed violence against their own persons, and who are puuished 
 by being fed upon by Harpies. While Virgil converses with Pietro 
 delle Vigne, the confidant and Chancellor of the Emperor Frederic II., 
 two spirits rush through the forest, chased by black bitches, who 
 tear them to pieces, such being the punishment of those who have 
 committed violence against themselves in their estate . . .47 
 
 CANTO XIV. 
 
 The poets reach the boundary of the wood and see before them the third 
 compartment of this circle, a plain of burning sand, where are 
 punished in various ways those who have committed violence against 
 God, Nature, and Art. Amongst the first they see Capaneus, one of 
 the seven before Thebes. They reach a rivulet of blood, the river of 
 Phlegethon, which traverses the burning desert, and whose petrified 
 margins afford Dante a passage across the sand 51 
 
 CANTO XV. 
 Following the petrified margins of the stream through the circle, they 
 meet a troop of tormented spirits who have committed violence 
 against Nature. Amongst those Dante recognises his old preceptor, 
 Ser Brunetto, who accompanies him for some distance, and predicts 
 his coming exile 55 
 
 CANTO XVI. 
 
 The poets having almost crossed the desert, where they can hear the 
 falling of the torrent into the next circle, meet another troop punished 
 for the same vice, amongst whom Dante converses with three dis- 
 tinguished Florentines. Having reached the precipice, Virgil throws 
 a rope down the waterfall, upon which signal a monster rises . . 59 
 
 CANTO XVII. 
 The form of the monster Gerion is described. Virgil and Dante descend 
 a short distance to reach him, and then Dante returns alone to the 
 extreme verge of the sandy desert, where he sees seated under the 
 rain of fire those who have committed violence against art, or usurers. 
 On returning to Virgil he finds him seated on the back of Gerion, and 
 taking his place before him, the poets are carried down by the monster 
 to the next circle ' 6? 
 
 CANTO XVIII. 
 A description of the eighth circle, which is divided into ten wards, i 
 which are punished those who have committed frauds of ten differe 
 kinds. Virgil and Dante pass through the first two wards ; in the f 
 are punished those who have deceived women, who are naked 
 lashed by demons ; in the second all flatterers, who are doome 
 wallow in human excrement ........ 
 
a^ii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CANTO XIX. 
 
 Dante describes the third valley, in which Simonists are punished by being 
 buried head downwards in round apertures of the rock, their legs from 
 the knees downwards being alone visible, which they kick convulsively, 
 while the soles of the feet burn with a lambent flame. Virgil bears 
 Dante down the impassable bank into the bottom of the valley, where 
 he converses with the soul of Pope Nicholas the Third, and bitterly 
 rebukes him for his Simony and prostitution of his high office • . 70 
 
 CANTO XX. 
 
 In the fourth ward of Malebolge Dante sees the doomed passing in slow 
 procession. On closer inspection he finds that their heads are turned 
 the face behind, and that they have consequently to walk backwards. 
 These are necromancers who deceived themselves or others by attempt- 
 ing to look into the future. Amongst them is Manto, the sight of 
 whom leads Virgil into a digression on the origin of his native city . 74 
 
 CANTO XXI. 
 
 The poets pass into the fifth ward, and, looking down from the bridge, 
 Dante discovers it to be a lake of boiling pitch. While gazing into its 
 depths a demon alights on the bridge, bearing a sinner on his back, 
 whom he throws into the lake. As the wretch rises to the surface a 
 crowd of demons, hitherto concealed under the bridge, attack him 
 with their hooks and force him to dive into the boiling pitch. Virgil 
 issues forth to obtain a safe passage for Dante, and being told that 
 the bridge over the sixth valley is in rains they follow a band of 
 demons, whom their chief has directed to guide the poets to another 
 bridge over the next ward .... ... 78 
 
 CANTO XXII. 
 
 The poets following thp ten demons, they come suddenly upon a sinner, 
 who before he can escape into the lake is speared by one of the fiends. 
 With the permission of the leader, Virgil questions the sinner as to 
 himself and his companions. The trickster then induces the demons 
 to stand aside, under pretence that he will lure more of his comrades 
 into their clutches, and takes the opportunity of plunging into the 
 burning pitch ; two of the demons chasing him are caught in the slimy 
 lake, and while the rest are extricating tb cm the poets continue their way &I 
 
 CANTO XXIII. 
 
 Dante expresses to Virgil his fear that they will be pursued by the re- 
 vengeful demons, and as his alarm is fulfilled Virgil lifts him in his 
 arms and carries him down the clifi'into the next valley of Malebolge. 
 There they find hypocrites punished by being clothed in long cloaks 
 and weighty cowls of lead. Amongst these Dante converses with two 
 Eejoicing Friars, who, under the cloak of impartiality, had inflicted 
 grievous wrong on the Ghibeline party in Florence . . , .85 
 
 CANTO XXIV. 
 
 \te, with great difficulty, under Virgil's guidance .climbs the broken 
 
 ridge to the ridge that looks down into the seventh valley. Descend- 
 
 g into it, he finds robbers punished there, surrounded by multitudes 
 
 estiferous serpents. Amongst them the soul of Gianni Fucci, who 
 
 robbed the sacristy in Pistoia, predicts to him the evils that will 
 
 tly ensue to his own city and the Florentines . . . .89 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CANTO XXV. 
 
 While Fucci vents his rage in blasphemy he is attacked by the serpents, 
 and flees away, parsaed by Cacus in the shape of a centaur, whose 
 croup is covered with adders, while a fiery drai^on is seated on his 
 crest. A party of Florentines then advance under the bank where 
 the poets are standing, and four of them go through the most extraor- 
 dinary transformations 93 
 
 CANTO XXVI. 
 
 Dante ironically compliments Florence on its renown in the Infernal 
 Kegions, and prophesies its approaching misfortunes. He passes with 
 Virgil into the eighth pit, over which he sees hovering flames, like 
 will-o'-the-wisps. These he finds to be the souls of fraudulent coun- 
 sellors. Virgil converses with a flame with two horns, in which are 
 the spirits of Ulysses and Diomed, and the former relates the final 
 voyage which he and his old companions ventured into the unknown 
 regions of the West, beyond the gates of Hercules . . . .97 
 
 CANTO XXVII. 
 
 The flame which contained Ulysses and Diomed having departed, another 
 comes near the poets and addresses them finally in Tuscan. On being 
 questioned by Dante he states that he was Count Guido da Monte- 
 feltro, and relates why he was condemned to such a punishment . 101 
 
 CANTO XXVIII. 
 
 The poets reach the ninth valley, in which the promoters of schisms are 
 punished, being hewed by a fiend with a sword in frightful wounds. 
 Amongst these Dante converses with Mahomet, Pier da Medicina, 
 Mosca de' Uberti, and Bertram dal Bornio 104 
 
 CANTO XXIX. 
 
 Dante still lingers, gazing on the maimed spirits in the ninth valley, in 
 anticipation of seeing there a relation who had been murdered, and 
 whose death his family had not avenged. He then follows Virgil 
 over the ridge which crowns the last ward of Malebolge, in which are 
 punished falsifiers of various descriptions. Descending into the 
 valley, he finds them afflicted with fearful diseases, and discourses 
 with two alchemists, Grifolino of Arezzo and Capocchio of Siena . 109 
 
 CANTO XXX. 
 
 Two wild spirits rush by, tearing and haling the other plague-smitten 
 victims. These are they who in life falsified their own persons. On 
 their departure Dante listens to an altercation between Master Adam 
 of Brescia, a coiner, and Sim'on of Troy. He is rebuked by Virgil for 
 taking an interest in so base a dispute 112 
 
 CANTO XXXI. 
 
 The poets, turning from tbe last valley of Malebolge, advance towards 
 the ninth circle of Hell, the lowest and central pit. Around that 
 pit, standing within it, but rising above it from their middle upwards, 
 stand vast giants. Of these Dante sees Nimrod, Fialte, and Antaeus. 
 The last places the poets in safety at the bottom of the pit . .116 
 
xlv CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOi! 
 
 CANTO XXXII. 
 
 Dante finds himself in the bottomless pit, in which is the frozen lake of 
 Cocitus. In the outer circle are frozen the first class of traitors, their 
 heads alone being raised above the ice. The circle is called Caina, 
 after the first murderer. Camiccione de' Pazzi names to Dante 
 several of those punished in this circle. The poets then advance to 
 the second circle, called Antenora, after Antenor, the betrayer of 
 Troy, where are punished in like manner traitors to their country. 
 Bocca degli Abbati names to Dante several of his companions in 
 suffering. Finally Dante sees two forms frozen, the head of one 
 overlapping the other, and devouring the lower skull with fierce hatred 120 
 
 CANTO XXXIII. 
 
 Count Ugolin relates to Dante the fearful end of himself and his sons, 
 left to die of hunger in the Tower of Famine. The poets then pass 
 onwards to the third division of the last circle, called Idomea, in 
 which are punished those who have betrayed their benefactors. The 
 friar Alberigo explains to Dante that when men have committed the 
 height of perfidy their spirits are at once sent to torment, a fiend 
 taking possession of the body which appears to be still alive on earth 124 
 
 CANTO XXXIV. 
 The poets advance into the fourth quarter of the last circle, called 
 Judecca ; there the damned are wholly submerged beneath the frozen 
 lake of Cocitus. Advancing towards the icy blast that meets them, 
 Virgil shows Dante the gigantic form of Lucifer piercing through the 
 lake. Virgil then takes up Dante, and descends along the body of 
 the fallen archangel into the centre of the earth. From thence he 
 ascends on the other side, and, after a weary climb through a deep 
 cavern, the poets at length issue on the Antipodes .... 128 
 
 PUEGATORY. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 Dante describes the calm delight he experienced at issuing to the tender 
 light of early morning from the black night of Hell. The poets meet 
 the shade of Cato of Utica, the appointed guardian of the mountain 
 of Purgatory. On his direction they proceed to the seashore, and 
 there Virgil washes from Dante's face with dew the stains of Hell, 
 and girds him with the reeds that grow there 133 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 A light rises on the distant ocean, which, advancing with marvellous 
 speed, is seen to be the bark in which the spirits are brought to 
 Purgatory by an angel. When the troop land upon the shore, Dante 
 vainly endeavours to embrace one of the spirits, whom he recognises 
 for his friend Casella. The latter, to please Dante, sings one of his 
 canzoni, to which while all are rapt in attention Cato rebukes them 
 for dallying on their way, and all hurry towards the mountain . 137 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 As the poets advance towards the hiU, Dante is alarmed at seeing only 
 his own shadow cast by the sun behind them, and thinks that Virgil 
 has deserted him. Cleared from his error they reach the foot of the 
 mountain, and while in perplexity as to their ascent, meet a troop of 
 spirits, who show them the way. Amongst them Manfred, King of 
 Naples, urges Dante to tell his daughter of his fate, as by her 
 prayers she can shorten the time of his wanderings in the Ante- 
 Purgatory 140 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 Guided by the spirits, the poets turn into a narrow fissure cloven in the 
 hillside, and continue their ascent. Pausing on the top of a ledge 
 for rest, Dante marvels at seeing the sun travelling in the northern 
 portion of the sky, instead of in the southern, as in the other hemi- 
 sphere. They then become aware of the presence of another troop of 
 spirits, among whom Dante recognises one Belacqua, who informs 
 him that they are condemned to wander in the Ante-Purgatory for 
 as many years as they delayed repentance in life .... 144 
 
 CANTO V. 
 
 The poets meet with others, who, having deferred their repentance until 
 death, suffered violent ends, but had time to repent, and obtain 
 pardon at the last. Amongst these, Giacopo del Cassero, Buonconte 
 da Montefeltro, and Pia, a Siennese lady, describe their deaths, and 
 urge Dante to obtain on earth prayers in their behalf . . . 148 
 
 CANTO VI. 
 
 The poet continues amongst the same troop, of whom he names several 
 more. At last, freed from their importunities, he advances with 
 Virgil till they meet another solitary shade, who proves to be the 
 Mantuan Sordello. On seeing his affectionate greeting with his 
 countryman, Dante bursts into an invective against the whole of 
 Italy divided by party feuds, where, especially in Florence, such a 
 spirit was entirely lost 151 
 
 CANTO VII. 
 
 The poets learn from Sordello that it is impossble to ascend the 
 mountain during the night, and he guides them to a retired valley, 
 where they see those who, from being engrossed with affairs of State, 
 deferred their repentance to the last, and are detained in tlie Ante- 
 Purgatory. Amongst these are named the Emperor Rodolph, 
 Ottocar, King of Bohemia, Philip III. of France, Henry of Navarre, 
 Peter III. of Arragon, Charles of Anjou, Henry III. of England, 
 and William, Marquis of Montferrat 156 
 
 CANTO VIII. 
 
 At evening fall one of the spirits sings the hymn of the Church, "Te 
 lucis ante terminum," and on its close two angels, with flaming 
 swords broken off at the points, descend to guard the vale. The 
 poets then enter it, and Dante meets with joy his friend Nino, the 
 Judge of Gallura. A serpent creeps into the valley, but flees at once 
 on the advance of the angels; and Dante converses with Conrad 
 Malaspina, who predicts to liim his own exile 160 
 
 CANTO IX. 
 
 Dante dreams that he is carried by an angel to the sphere of fire. On 
 waking he finds himself alone with Virgil, who tells him that in his 
 sleep he was borne up by Lucia to that spot, which is close to the 
 gate of Purgatory. Reaching the portal, they are admitted by the 
 Angel who stands in Avard over it, as the vicar of Saint Peter . . 163 
 
 CANTO X. 
 The poets issue from the gate through a spiral staircase upon the first 
 cornice on the mountain of Purgatory. On the wall which bars the 
 further ascent of the mountain they see carved bas-reliefs repre- 
 senting various examples of humility. Finally they advance slowl;^, 
 towards these spirits, who, bowed under vast weights, are purged or' 
 the sin of Pride 167 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CANTO XI. 
 
 After the spirits liave recited the Lord's Prayer, Virgil demands of them 
 the way up the mountain. One of them directs them to accompany 
 them along the ledge, and declares himself to be Omberto, who was 
 murdered at Campagnatico. Dante then recognises in another 
 Oderisi the Illuminator, who discourses on the vanity of worldly 
 fame, and points out to him Provenzana Salvani, a chief in Siena . 171 
 
 CANTO XII. 
 
 The poets leave the burdened spirits, and as they rapidly advance, 
 Dante's attention is drawn by Virgil to the eflBgies which are drawn 
 upon the ledge, and which represent various examples of pride. They 
 are finally met by an Angel, who points out to tJiem the stairs by 
 which they are to ascend, and touching Dante's forehead with hia 
 wing effaces one of the seven P's which had been engraved there at 
 the entrance into Purgatory . . ' . . . . . 176 
 
 CANTO XIII. 
 
 They reach the second cornice, on which is purged the sin of Envy. As 
 they proceed along it they hear voices from invisible spirits inculcat- 
 ing charity. Further on they see the souls of the envious, clad in 
 sackcloth, and with their eyes sewed up with an iron wire. Amongst 
 these Dante converses with Sapia, a lady of Siena, who acquaints 
 him with her story 179 
 
 CANTO XIV. 
 
 Dante is addressed by two shadows, Guido del Duca of Brettinoro and 
 Kinieri de' Caldoli of Eomagna. The former, on Dante's mention- 
 ing that he has come from the vale of Arno, inveighs against the 
 degeneracy of its inhabitants. On leaving these, the poets hear 
 voices recording instances of the crime of Envy .... 183 
 
 CANTO XV. 
 
 The poets advancing meet an Angel, who invites them to ascend to the 
 next steep. Mounting the stairs they issue on the third cornice, 
 where the sin of Anger is purged. Dante falling into a waking 
 trance, beholds in vision various famous examples of patience — the 
 Virgin seeking Jesus amongst the doctors in the Temple, Pisistratus 
 calming his indignant wife, and the martyrdom of Stephen. As the 
 evening advances, the poets are enveloped in a thick smoke . . 187 
 
 CANTO XVI. 
 
 Dante proceeds through the smoke, guided by Virgil, and hears the 
 voices of spirits who are purged there from the sin of Anger. He . 
 converses with Marco Lombardo, from whom he inquires the reason 
 of the degeneracy of the age. The spirit points out to him the error 
 of attributing it to necessity, or the starry influences, as man is 
 gifted with free will, and explains it as the consequence of the union 
 of temporal and spiritual powers in the Papal Government . . Wl 
 
 CANTO XVII. 
 
 The poets issue from the smoke, and various scenes of anger are shown 
 to Dante in vision — Philomel, Haman, Amata. He is roused by the 
 appearance of an Angel, who directs them to mount to the next 
 cornice. The night closes as they reach the summit of the stairs, 
 ajad halting there Virgil informs Dante that spiritual sloth is purged 
 in that circle 195 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CANTO XVIII. 
 
 Virgil, continuing his discourse, explains the nature of love, which, 
 though innate in its affections, in man, does not do away wirh the 
 restraining influences of his free will. At the close of his disqui- 
 sition, a troop of shadows rush by, conapengating by their present 
 ardour for their former lukewarmness in life. Two in the van 
 encourage the rest by reciting exaniples of zeal : the Abbot of San 
 Zeno declares himself to the poets while racing by, and two bring up 
 the rear, shouting out instances of the sin which they are there 
 purging away. On their departure, Dante falls into a dreamy 
 slumber 198 
 
 CANTO XIX. 
 
 Dante beholds in vision Falsehood and Virtue, personified in two female 
 shapes. He is then led by an Angel to the stairs, and ascends to the 
 
 = fifth cornice. There he finds the shades prostrate on the ground, 
 purging tlie sin of Avarice, and amongst them he converses with 
 Pope Adrian V. 202 
 
 CANTO XX. 
 
 Continuing their journey round the cornice, Dante hears a spirit relate 
 illustrious examples of Poverty and Liberality. He tells him that 
 he is Hugh Capet, and mourns over the career of his descendants. 
 He concludes by relating notorious examples of Avarice. As the 
 poets continue their way the mountain trembles as with an earth- 
 quake, and all the spirits sing " Gloria in excelsis." .... '206 
 
 CANTO XXI. 
 Proceeding on their way, the poets are joined by the shadow of 
 Statins, who explains to them that the earthquake on the mountain 
 takes place whenever a spirit in Purgatory is released Heavenwards, 
 when all the spirits unite in praising God. He tells the poets who 
 he is, and describes his enthusiasm for Virgil, whom he then learns 
 to his delight to be one of his companions 211 
 
 CANTO XXII. 
 The poets ascend to the sixth circle, in which the sin of Gluttony is 
 purged. As they mount the stairs. Statins informs Virgil that he 
 had been a prodigal in his life, which sin, and not avarice, he had 
 cleansed in the preceding circle. As they advance round the sixth 
 cornice, they find a tree covered with odorous fruits, from which 
 issues a voice, recording brilliant examples of Temperance . . 214 
 
 CANTO XXIII. 
 
 As the poets advance round the cornice, they are overtaken by a troop 
 of spirits utterly emaciated in appearance. Amongst them Dante 
 recognises an old friend, Forese, by his voice. The spirit tells him 
 that his rapid advance through Purgatory is due to the prayers of 
 his virtuous wife, and from her he takes occasion to inveigh against 
 the general shamelessness of the women of Florence. . . . 218 
 
 CANTO XXIV. 
 
 Forese names some of the other spirits, and amongst the rest Buonagiunta 
 of Lucca, who afterwards converses with Dante. When the troop 
 of shadows depart, Forese still lingers with Dante, and foretells to 
 him the death of his political enemy, Corso Donati. Forese then 
 follows his companions, and the poets advance to a second tree, 
 from which issues a voice relating examples of intemperance. After 
 passing the tree, an Angel points out to them the ascent to the 
 next cornice 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CANTO XXV. 
 
 As they ascend the stair, Dante expresses his wonder at the leanness of 
 the spirits in the last circle, who as spirits stand in no need of 
 nourishment. On Virgil's request, Statins, to explain his diflS^culty, 
 describes the generation of the human body, its junction with 
 the soul, and the nature of the latter after its passage to another 
 world. They then reach the seventh cornice, where those who have 
 been guilty of incontinence are purified in fire. The spirits in the fire 
 record celebrated examples of Chastity 226 
 
 CANTO XXVI. 
 
 While the poets advance along the brink of the cornice, the spirits are 
 astonished at the shadow cast on the flames by Dante's body. Ere 
 he can satisfy their curiosity, another troop of spirits advance in the 
 fire from the opposite direction, and the two bands embrace and pass 
 on their way, reprobating their earthly sins. On their departure 
 Dante tells the shadows beside him that he is still alive, and he is 
 then addressed by Guido Guinicelli, the Italian poet, who afterwards 
 points out to him Arnault Daniel, the Provencal .... 230 
 
 CANTO XXVII. 
 
 As the day closes they reach the station of the Angel, who directs 
 them to pass through the fire, to ascend the last staircase. While 
 ascending this the sun sets, and the poets, unable to advance 
 during the night, halt there until the morning. Dante, sleeping 
 there, beholds in a dream two females representing the active and 
 contemplative life. In the morning they reach the height, and 
 Virgil directs Dante to follow alone his own promptings until the 
 arrival of Beatrice, as his own guardianship has ceased . • . 234 
 
 CANTO XXVIII. 
 
 Dante advances through the tranquil forest to explore the Terrestrial 
 Paradise until his progress is stopped by a stream. On the other side 
 he sees a lady, who advances at his prayer to the brink, and explains 
 to him the mystery of the place. She informs him that the river 
 has two branches ; the one before him is Lethe, whose draught 
 takes away the memory of sin, while the other is called Eunoe, by 
 drinking which the spirit recovers only the recollection of good . 237 
 
 CANTO XXIX. 
 
 As Dante advances by the side of the lady on opposite banks of the 
 stream, its course turns towards the east, and on the side of the river 
 opposite to Dante there descends an Apocalyptic vision . . 241 
 
 CANTO XXX. 
 
 In the midst of a shower of roses strewn by an Angel choir, a lady 
 descends from Heaven upon the car. Dante instinctively recognises 
 Beatrice, and turning to Virgil, finds that his faithful guide has left 
 him. Beatrice tells him not to weep on that account, but to reserve 
 his tears for the rebuke with which she greets him for his sins . 245 
 
 CANTO XXXI. 
 
 Eebuked by Beatrice, Dante confesses his error, and falls senseless to 
 the earth. On bis recovering perception he finds himself drawn 
 through the stream by the lady he had first f otmd 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 all her celestial beauty 249 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CANTO XXXII. 
 The whole procession moves on, followed by Dante, Statins, and 
 Matilda, until they reach the Tree o£ Life, to which the Gryphon 
 fastens the car. Dante falls into a slumber, and on being roused 
 finds that Beatrice, Matilda, and the cardinal virtues alone remain 
 under the Tree. The History of the Church is then typified to 
 Dante in a vision of changes that befall the car .... 253 
 
 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 Statius to drink of 
 Eunoe' 8 wave, from which he rises renewed in spirit and purified for 
 Paradise 257 
 
 PARADISE. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 After solemn invocation, Dante describes his ascent from the earthly 
 Paradise towards the first sphere of Heaven : his ignorance of how 
 he thus past out of humanity, and Beatrice's explanation of his 
 
 doubts 262 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 Dante and his guide enter the sphere of the moon, and Beatrice explains 
 to him the cause of the spots which appear on its surface . . 265 
 CANTO III. 
 
 Dante beholds in the moon the spirits of the blessed. He converses 
 with Piccarda, the sister of Forese, and learns that she, with the rest, 
 are confined to that lowest sphere through having been compelled to 
 a breach of their vows, but that God's will makes every sphere 
 perfect Paradise. She points out to him the spirit of the Empress 
 
 Constance 269 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 Dante stands absorbed by two doubts arising from what he has just 
 
 ' heard and seen. Beatrice removes both his difficulties, first with 
 
 reference to the place assigned to the blest in Heaven, and then as to 
 
 the effect of alien violence upon the will. Dante then inquires as to 
 
 the possibility of making satisfaction for a broken vow . . . 273 
 
 CANTO V. 
 
 Beatrice answers Dante's question concerning the possibility of render- 
 ing other satisfaction for a broken vow. They then ascend to the 
 sphere of Mercury, where they are met by a troop of spirits, one 
 of whom offers to explain to Dante anything he may wish to know . 277 
 
 CANTO VI. 
 
 The spirit informs Dante that he is the Emperor Justinian, and after 
 describing his own career he sketches the previous victories of the 
 Roman eagle. He then states that this sphere is allotted to those 
 who did high deeds on earth for the sake of fame rather than 
 for higher aims. Amongst them is the soul of the pilgrim Romeo, 
 
 Minister of Count Raimond 280 
 
 CANTO VII. 
 
 Justinian and the other spirits disappear singing praises to God. Dante 
 remains confused with doubt engendered by what he has heard. 
 Beatrice for their satisfaction explains the whole scheme of human /— ~- 
 redemption V^ 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CANTO VIII. 
 Dante ascends with Beatrice to the sphere of the planet Venus. 
 Amongst the troop of spirits who greet him here he converses with 
 Charles Martel, King of Hungary, who, after discoursing on the 
 prospects of his descendants then alive, explains to him how the 
 influence of the stars was used by God as a means for the advantage 
 of human polity 288 
 
 CANTO IX. 
 The spirit of Charles Martel retires, and Dante is then addressed by 
 Cunizza, the sister of Ezzelino, the tyrant of Romano, who foretells 
 to him certain near events in Italian history. She is followed by 
 Folco, the Provingal poet of Genoa, who informs him that the spirit 
 of the harlot Rahab holds the highest place in their sphere, and 
 inveighs against the Papacy for its neglect of the Holy Land, for 
 which Rahab served so faithfully 292 
 
 CANTO X. 
 
 They ascend to the sphei'e of the sun, the fourth Heaven, where they 
 are surrounded by a garland of twelve blessed spirits. One of these, 
 Thomas Aquinas, names the rest to Dante 296 
 
 CANTO XI. 
 
 When the spirits of the fathers of the Church again come to a pause 
 St. Thomas says that he has seen in God's mirror two difficalties 
 which have arisen in Dante's mind. To solve the first he relates in 
 glory of the founder of his own order, St. Dominic, the life of his 
 great rival, St. Francis, and concludes by pointing out how the 
 Dominicans have departed from the self-denying rules of their order 301 
 
 CANTO XII. 
 
 As St. Thomas ceases speating, a second circle of twelve blessed spirits 
 surrounds the first. One of these, St. Buenaventura, relates to Dante 
 the life of St. Dominic, and then regrets the decay of his own 
 Franciscan order. He then names the twelve spirits who compose 
 the outer wreath, newly arrived 304 
 
 CANTO XIII. 
 The two circles of beatified saints join in a chorus of praise to God. 
 Thomas Aquinas then explains the other difficulty, which his words 
 concerning Solomon had raised in Dante's mind, adding that his 
 superiority over all men in wisdom extended only to kings. He 
 closes by warning Dante against rash judgments .... 308 
 
 CANTO XIV. 
 In answer to Beatrice, the spirit of Solomon explains to Dante that after 
 the final resurrection the blest will resume their glorified bodies now 
 lying on earth. Beatrice and Dante are then translated to the fifth 
 Heaven, the sphere of Mars. There he sees the beatified spirits 
 moving athwart a cross of glory which is stamped upon that planet, 
 and is ravished by the melody of their hymn 312 
 
 CANTO XV. 
 The hymn of the Crusaders subsides into silence, and a spirit glides to 
 the foot of the Cross and welcomes Dante as his descendant. He 
 tells him that he is the spirit of his ancestor Cacciaguida, describes 
 the simple life of the Florentines in his days, and states how he died 
 in Palestine, fighting for the Holy Land 316 
 
 CANTO XVI. 
 
 In answer to Dante's request, Cacciaguida relates to him the time of his 
 birth, the extent of Florence at that period, and who were the chief 
 families who then resided there 320 
 
CONTENTS. xxi 
 
 PAOX 
 
 CANTO XVII. 
 
 Encouraged by Beatrice, Dante questions the spirit of his ancestors 
 concerning the future of his own life on earth. Cacciaguida foretells 
 to him his approaching exile from Florence, and exhorts him to 
 write all that he has seen in Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven . . 325 
 
 CANTO XVIII. 
 Cacciaguida names to Dante the souls of many renowned warriors in 
 the planet Mars, and quitting him to join his comrades in their song 
 of praise, Dante finds himself raised with Beatrice to the sphere of 
 Jupiter. The souls of those who had administered justice rightly in 
 the world form themselves into letters befoi-e him, exhorting rulers to 
 their own virtue, and finally settle into the shape of the head and 
 neck of an eagle. Kapt in that vision of beatified justice, Dante 
 calls on it to revisit earth and purify, where most wanted, the 
 
 avaricious Court of Rome . 329 
 
 CANTO XIX. 
 
 The collected souls of just kings, which form the shape of the eagle, 
 speak to Dante with one voice. They tell him that salvation is 
 impossible without belief in Christ, but that many who profess such 
 belief will in the last day be worse off than the heathen, and they 
 declare that many Christian kings will make a sorry figure when all 
 secrets are then revealed 332 
 
 CANTO XX. 
 
 The eagle sings the praises of certain just kings, whose spirits are 
 included in its image. Of these, six form its eye, David in the 
 pupil, and in the iris around it Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, 
 William II. of Sicily, and Ripheus. The eagle explains how 
 Trajan and Ripheus, whom Dante did not know to be Christians, 
 had become so, and obtained their seat in Paradise .... 336 
 
 CANTO XXI. 
 
 Dante ascends with Beatrice to the sphere of Saturn, where he finds a 
 ladder of gold, so lofty that he cannot see the top. Along the stairs 
 ascend and descend the spirits of those who passed their lives in holy 
 contemplation. Saint Peter Damiano approaches them, and in 
 answer to Dante's questions states who he was, concluding by a 
 vehement rebuke of the luxury of modern prelates, to which rises a 
 shout of triumphant accord 340 
 
 CANTO XXII.. 
 Beatrice clears away Dante's groundless alarm. He beholds many 
 other spirits, and is addressed by Saint Benedict, who promises him 
 that he shall see his form without its covering of splendour in the 
 highest sphere. The spirits then depart, and Dante follows Beatrice 
 tip the golden ladder to the eighth Heaven, the region of the fixed 
 8te,rs, which they enter in the constellation of the Twins. There 
 they pause, and Dante looks down on all the seven spheres through 
 which he has past to the diminished earth beneath .... 344 
 
 CANTO XXIII. 
 
 Dante beholds the triumph of Christ with His saints. The Saviour, 
 followed by his Virgin Mother, ascends out of sight into the higher 
 Heavens. The body of the sa,ints of both Testaments remains with 
 
 Dante 348 
 
 CANTO XXIV. 
 
 At Beatrice's request Saint Peter questions Dante upon his Faith, and 
 approves his exposition of his belief and the grounds on which it was 
 founded . 352 
 
ixu CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CANTO XXV. 
 
 Saint James joins Saint Peter, and questions Dante as to the grounds 
 of his Hope. After his reply, Saint John advances to his brother 
 Apostles, and Dante blinds himself by gazing too intently on his 
 flame, to see whether he has risen to Heaven with his body, which 
 Saint John declares to have been the case only with Christ and his 
 
 Virgin Mother 355 
 
 CANTO XXVI. 
 
 St. John examines Dante concerning Charity. A fourth flame then 
 advances, in-which is the soul of Adam, who acquaints Dante with 
 the real reason of his fall, and the length of time he remained in the 
 
 terrestrial Paradise 359 
 
 CANTO XXVII. 
 
 After a chorus of praise to the Holy Trinity, the spirits listen silently 
 to Saint Peter, who in an indignant outburst rebukes the govern- 
 ment of his successors in the Apostolic See. The Heavenly Host 
 glow with sympathetic indignation at his words, and all then vanish 
 in the height. Beatrice then raises Dante to the ninth Heaven, the 
 nature of which she explains to him, and blames the perversity of 
 
 mankind, whose aims are set at a lower goal 363 
 
 CANTO XXVIII. 
 
 Dante beholds in this ninth sphere the Hierarchies of Heaven in nine 
 
 choirs of angels encircling the Divine Essence 367 
 
 CANTO XXIX. 
 
 Beatrice satisfies the curiosity of Dante on certain points concerning 
 the creation of Angels and the universe, and explains to him 
 the truth as to the Angelic nature. She then vigorously blames 
 the practice of modern preachers, who, forsaking the simplicity of 
 the Gospel, te^ch as truths their own idle inventions concerning 
 
 Divine mysteries 371 
 
 CANTO XXX. 
 
 The hierarchies vanish in the height, and Dante, rapt in the inefl^ble 
 smile of Beatrice, ascends into the empyrean. There his sight being 
 strengthened by gazing into the river of light, he is able to behold 
 the triumph of the twofold Court of Heaven, the Angels and the 
 souls of the Blessed, spread out like a full white rose . . . 375 
 
 CANTO XXXI. 
 While Dante is rapt in the glorious vision of this triumph of the 
 Blest, Beatrice returns to her throne in Paradise. Saint Bernard 
 takes his place by Dante, and exhorts him to dwell on all the glories 
 before him, that he may be prepared for the supreme reward of 
 at last beholding the Deity 379 
 
 CANTO XXXII. 
 Saint Bernard points out to Dante the order of the saints in Paradise, 
 how those of the Old and New Testaments are equal in number, 
 divided, as it were, by a partition wall of celebrated Hebrew women, 
 who head each row of thrones that make the petals of the flower. 
 In the lowest grades are seated the souls of children saved by elec- 
 tion solely, and not by their own merits. St. Bernard then exhorts 
 Dante to gaze on the Virgin, so as to gain strength to behold her 
 Son, and to join with him in prayer to her for that tinal boon . . 383 
 
 CANTO XXXIII. 
 Saint Bernard prays to the Virgin that Dante may receive grace to con- 
 template the Divine Essence, and the prayer is granted. Dante then 
 prays that he may have power to record some portion of the glory he 
 beholds, and describes his final vision of the Supreme Mystery . 387 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 The great poem of Dante has beeu finely called the voice 
 of the Dark Ages. From that age of strife and brute oppres- 
 sion, of the slumber of intellect, and the tyranny of ^orce, 
 when the seeds of knowledge and the aspirations of thought 
 were buried in the cloister, the great cry of one of the 
 mightiest intellects the world has produced gave form to the 
 highest spirit of its own era, and created it to live for all 
 time. Though like all great intellects Dante was in advance 
 of his time, he was still of it. The weaknesses of his age 
 were engrafted on his own strength, and neither his principles 
 of ethics nor politics can be judged fairly by the light of the 
 present day. Nearly six centuries divide us from the great 
 Florentine, whose genius was produced at a time when its 
 fruit was to preserve the memory of long ages which would 
 otherwise have sunk in endless silence. 
 
 Dante appeared in the twilight which, succeeding the long 
 night of the centuries, preceded the returning dawn of Learn- 
 ing. In his time Italy was the foremost nation of Europe, 
 and her leading sons were preparing the glorious revival. 
 Art was still in its infancy, though Cimabue had found the 
 boy Griotto drawing from Nature amongst his father*s sheep, 
 and in that discovery called to his true vocation the first 
 great artist who heads the school of Italian painting. Archi- 
 tecture alone of the Fine Arts had attained maturity, but the 
 solemn aisles and gorgeous traceries of the Gothic cathedrals 
 seem to have had little effect on Dante's imagination, who, 
 at least, has not drawn one allusion from the subject through- 
 out his poem. His sympathies and studies were devoted to 
 man, though the incidental sketches of outward scenery show 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that he possessed a keen eye for the beauties of Nature, and 
 could draw them in a way unsurpassed by the mere landscape 
 poets of modern days. 
 
 Previous to the time of Dante Latin was the sole language 
 for composition known ia Europe. The vernacular languages 
 of the time were considered beneath the notice of men of learn- 
 ing, and though some fugitive poetry was written by Dante's 
 Italian predecessors, the " Divina Commedia" was the first 
 great work composed in one of the modern languages of 
 Europe. Dante may be considered to have created the very 
 language in which he wrote. When the English reader 
 rem'embers that Chaucer, the father of English poetry, wrote 
 at least half a century after the date of Dante's poem he will 
 be surprised to find that the latter, with the exception of a 
 few archaisms, is still the pure Tuscan of the present day. 
 Like Minerva, that language of Poetry and Passion sprang 
 forth in complete maturity at birth. 
 
 The historical allusions are so numerous throughout the 
 " Divine Comedy" that it is necessary for its appreciation to 
 recall to memory the state of the different countries of Europe 
 at its date. Written early in the fourteenth century, Dante, 
 for the purpose of introducing as prophecy many past events, 
 supposes his vision to have taken place in the year 1300, 
 when he himself was thirty-five years of age. At that period 
 Italy was the battle-field of the nations. Nominally under the 
 sway of the Western Emperor, those potentates were in 
 general too much occupied with struggles in the Germanic 
 States to admit of their acquiring any permanent hold on 
 Italy. Called there frequently by their chronic struggles 
 against the encroachments of the Papacy, the whole country 
 became divided into the rival factions of those who supported 
 the temporal authority aUd those who upheld the power of 
 the Church — the Ghibeline and the Guelph. 
 
 " The lands of Italy now swarm with the brood 
 Of tyrants, and a new Marcellus grows 
 Each peasant who takes up some party feud." 
 
 " Purgatory," Canto YI., lines 124—6. 
 
 No part of Italy, however governed, was free from those 
 
INTllODUCTION. xxv 
 
 factions. The Northern portion was split up into the petty- 
 Republics of Lombardy and Tuscany, and in each of these 
 the strife of the rival parties was endless. The Southern 
 portion formed the powerful kingdom of Naples, which in 
 the middle of the twelfth century was held firmly by its line 
 of Norman kings. Towards the close of the century, how- 
 ever, the failure of heirs to William left Constantia, daughter 
 of King Roger, as sole heiress, and thus induced the Emperor 
 Frederic I. to obtain her in marriage for his son Henry, for 
 which purpose she was taken by force from a convent when 
 already arrived at middle age. She is thus introduced in the 
 " Paradise" .— 
 
 " This is great Constance' light, who from the rude 
 Wind that the second blew from Suabia's plain 
 Produced the third, and latest of the brood." 
 
 "Paradise," Canto III., lines 119—21. 
 
 Henry VI., the second Suabian blast, succeeded in deposing 
 a bastard branch of the family of Roger, and joined the 
 kingdom of Sicily to the Western Empire. His death shortly 
 followed, but not before his son Frederic, the last of the line, 
 was elected King of the Romans while still in his infancy, 
 and succeeded afterwards to the empire. Frederic II., famous 
 for his determined opposition to the Popes, is placed in 
 Hell as a heretic amongst the followers of Epicurus, who 
 believed that there could be no separation of soul and body. 
 His firm and enterprising character is, however, acknowledged 
 in the 13th Canto, where his Chancellor Pietro delle Vigne 
 recounts his sad end and asserts his constant fidelity to his 
 master, " che fu d'onor si degno." His whole reign was spent 
 in a series of incursions into Italy, during which he took 
 ruthless execution on the independent towns of Lombardy 
 that sided with the Church. At his death in 1252 Eccelino 
 became the tyrant over several of these, and his excesses were 
 so enormous that, though he died before Dante's birth, the 
 memory of them was still vivid in the country, and he is 
 prominent amongst the tyrants placed by the poet in the 
 river of blood (" Hell," Canto XII.), while his sister Cunizza, 
 
Irxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 who appears in " Paradise," describes him in Canto IX. as a 
 firebrand 
 
 " That to that region caused sore miseries." 
 
 " Paradise," Canto IX., line 30. 
 
 Frederic II. left the kingdom of Sicily to his son Conrad, 
 •under the regency of his bastard son Manfred. The latter, 
 who inherited his father's warlike spirit, succeeded in winning 
 the goodwill of the nation, and after the death of Conrad 
 became king, in spite of the armed opposition of successive 
 Popes, who refused the investiture to one who employed 
 Saracens in his army. They consequently supported Curra- 
 dino, the infant son of Conrad, until Urban lY., a French- 
 man, called in the aid of the French prince, Charles of 
 Anjou, to whom he offered the Sicilian crown. Manfred had 
 strengthened himself by marrying his daughter Constance to 
 Peter of Arragon, and her sons eventually ruled the island of 
 Sicily, then separated from Naples, and the kingdom of 
 Arragon. 
 
 The advent of Charles of Anjou into Italy cost Manfred 
 his kingdom and his life. Charles, having been invested by 
 Clement IV., who had succeeded Urban in the Papacy, 
 advanced rapidly with his forces, and. was met by Manfred 
 near the town of Benevent. In the terrible defeat which 
 followed, A.D. 1266, Manfred, determined not to survive the 
 loss of his kingdom, and throwing himself into the thickest 
 of the fight, fell sword in hand. His body was not discovered 
 amongst the slain, in spite of a close search, until the third 
 day, so terrible had been the slaughter, and then on the 
 injunction of the Papal Legate the recusant to the Church 
 was denied a Christian burial, and his body was thrown into 
 a hole by the bridge of Benevent, over which the French, in 
 admiration of his bravery, raised a soldier's monument, each 
 man dropping a stone upon his grave. But the anger of the 
 Church was not even then satisfied. The remains of Manfred 
 were disinterred and carried like those of a dog beyond the 
 kingdom, being thrown into the stream of the Verde, which 
 forms the north-east boundary of the Neapolitan State. These 
 circumstances of his death are described in a beautiful passage 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxvii 
 
 of the " Purgatory," where the soul of Manfred addresses 
 Dante.— Canto III., lines 112—132. 
 
 The death of Manfred placed Charles of Anjou at once on 
 the throne of Naples, but his rapid successes, in conjunction 
 with the Pope, so alarmed the G-hibeline party that they 
 made overtures to Curradino, the son of Conrad, to advance 
 to their assistance and claim his rightful crown. The gallant 
 youth, who was only sixteen years of age, entered Florence 
 with a force of 10,000 G-ermans in answer to their appeal, 
 and his ranks being rapidly swelled in his advance, entered 
 Naples, where his arrival was heartily welcomed by the 
 people, tired out by one year of French exactions. Charles 
 brought up his forces to oppose him, and the decisive action 
 took place at Tagliacozzo : — 
 
 " Where less to arms, than him 
 The old Alardo, Charles his victory owes." 
 
 " Hell," XXVIII., lines 17, 18. 
 
 Young Curradino was at first successful, and his forces 
 drove before them the greater portion of the French. But 
 when thrown into disorder by their too eager pursuit the 
 critical moment was seized by Charles. Acting on the advice 
 of an old French commander, AUarde Saint Valori, they were 
 attacked in turn by the French reserve, and the fate of the 
 day was suddenly changed. The Germans and Ghibelines 
 were utterly routed, and Curradino himself taken prisoner^ 
 who, with many of his noblest companions, was shortly after- 
 wards ruthlessly executed by the conqueror. The bloodshed 
 with which Charles of Anjou stained his victory brought a 
 rapid retribution. As his grandson, Charles Martel, whom 
 Dante places in Paradise, tells the poet, the beautiful 
 Trinacria would have had his sons for kings : — 
 
 " If evil ruling, which makes desperate 
 
 The subject people, had not roused the cry 
 Of Death, still Death, within Palermo's gate." 
 
 " Paradise," Canto VIII., lines T'^Q- 
 
 John of Procida, a nobleman ruined by the fall of Manfred 
 and Charles's confiscation of his estates, stirred up the Sicilians 
 to rise on their French masters, and the massacre of the latter 
 
ixviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 throughout the island, on the ringing of the vesper bells at 
 Palermo, followed on his instigation and their own tyrannical 
 excesses. The island gave itself to Peter of Arragon, who 
 had married Manfred's daughter, all efforts of Charles to 
 recover it were fruitless, and it remained permanently severed 
 from the kingdom of Naples under the rule of Manfred's 
 descendants, whose grandson, Frederic II., enjoyed the crown 
 at the date of Dante's poem. 
 
 In the " Purgatory" both Peter of Arragon and Charles of 
 Anjou are introduced, with other sovrans of their time, and 
 their superiority to their living descendants is maintained. — 
 " Purgatory," Canto YII., lines 112 — 127. In the same group 
 appears the Emperor Eodolph, the founder of the house of 
 Hapsburg, 
 
 " Who had power alone 
 To heal the wounds that Italy hath slain.'* 
 
 Lines 94, 95. 
 
 His neglect of Italy throughout the twenty years of his 
 reign was a keen subject of regret to the poet, who reproaches 
 him and his son and successor Albert with being the cause 
 of the miseries of his country, which they did nothing to 
 prevent. — "Purgatory/' YL, lines 97 — 118. Eodolph was 
 occupied throughout his reign in consolidating the fortunes 
 of his house in Germany, and Dante represents him in Pur- 
 gatory by the side of Ottocar II., King of Bohemia, the last 
 opponent whom he overthrew. Ottocar was slain in the 
 decisive battle between them, and Eodolph married his own 
 daughter to Ottocar's son, Vinceslaus, whom he left in pos- 
 session of his kingdom. Dante's sympathies were entirely 
 with the martial Ottocar, who refused all submission to the 
 Emperor rather than with his more submissive son, so that 
 he declares that 
 
 " In his youth 
 Far better he than Yinceslaus his son. 
 Who, bearded, sank in luxury and sloth." 
 
 " Purgatory," VII., lines 101—3. 
 
 During the struggle between Eodolph and Ottocar three 
 Popes succeeded within one year to the Papal seat. Adrian Y. , 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxix 
 
 introduced in the " Purgatory" as suffering for the sin of 
 avarice, and who tells Dante 
 
 " How weigheth the great garb, kept free from shame, 
 A month, and little longer, did I know : 
 All other loads are feathers by the same.'* 
 
 " Purgatory," XIX., Hues 103—6. 
 
 He died thirty-nine days after his accession, and was suc- 
 ceeded by John XXI., who only survived him for eight months. 
 Under his own name of Pietro of Spain he is introduced 
 amongst the holy fathers in the " Paradise" in the 12th Canto. 
 He was succeeded by Nicholas III., of the family of the Orsini, 
 who, on account of his nepotism, is the principal figure in that 
 circle of Hell where simony is punisht ; — 
 
 " And of the Bears a worthy son, in haste 
 Desirous to ad.vance the little Bears, 
 There riches, here myself in purse I placed." 
 
 "Hell," XIX., Hnes 70-2. 
 
 He was, however, an energetic ruler, and in his time what 
 afterwards constituted the Papal territories were finally ceded 
 to the See by the Emperor Eodolph. On his death, in 1281, 
 he was succeeded by Martin lY., represented as purging his 
 gluttony in Purgatory : — 
 
 " And that face 
 Thinner than all the rest, beyond him, there 
 Possest the holy Church in his embrace : 
 
 He came from Tours, and fasting doth atone 
 The wine-steeped eels of famed Bolsena's race." 
 
 Canto XXIV., lines 20-4. 
 
 Martin IV. died in 1285, and his successors, Honorius IV. 
 and Nicholas IV., who completed the long period of Rodolph's 
 reign, are not alluded to by Dante throughout his poem. In 
 July, 1291, Eodolph died, and his efforts to retain the 
 empire in his family seemed at first doomed to failure, as 
 Adolphus Count of Nassau was elected King of the Romans, 
 and crowned at Aix la Chappelles. Shortly after the Papal 
 See became vacant, and remained so, owing to the intrigues 
 of rival cardinals, for two years. The astonishment of Europe 
 was not so great at this protracted vacancy as when it was 
 known that the cardinals' choice had fallen upon Pietro, the 
 
m ' INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Hermit of Merrone. After much hesitation the aged recluse 
 accepted his marvellous metamorphosis, and was crowned 
 Pope under the title of Celestine V. But the cares of 
 sovranty and worldly intrigues were so unsuited to the 
 dreamer of the mountains that he soon abandoned his uncon- 
 genial dignity and retired again from the world. This abdi- 
 cation seems to have been prompted by the purest motives, 
 but Dante could not appreciate such a lack of energetic 
 qualities, and amidst the miserable Angel crew, who sided 
 neither with God nor Lucifer, he places the unfortunate 
 recluse whom hostile Fate had made a Pope : — 
 
 " I looked, and there his shadow met my view. 
 Who made the great refusal fear advised. 
 Straightway I understood, and surely knew. 
 That this was that most miserable band. 
 Hateful to God and to His enemies too." 
 
 " Hell," III., lines 59— 63. 
 
 The cardinal, who was reputed to have both secured the 
 election and prompted the retirement of Celestine^ obtained 
 the succession for himself, and as Boniface VIIT. entered like 
 a fox into the holy See, where he was to govern like a lion 
 and die like a dog. Still alive in 1300, at the supposed date 
 of Dante's vision, the poet ingeniously prefigures his certain 
 fate by putting into the mouth of Nicholas III. the welcome 
 to Hell of his mighty successor. — Canto XIX., lines 53 — 7. 
 Boniface revived the traditions of Papal supremacy arrogated 
 by Gregory VII., and his reign was a continued contest with 
 the monarchs of his time, the Emperor Albert and Philip the 
 Fair of France. Adolphus, who had been elected Emperor 
 on the death of Rodolph, was shortly deposed by the Electors 
 and Albert chosen in his place. His success was followed by 
 a decisive victory in the field, in which Adolphus was slain 
 by his rival, and Albert, to prevent cavil, went through the 
 form of a second election, and was crowned King of the 
 Romans in 1298. Pope Boniface, however, would acknow- 
 ledge no such mutations in the Western Empire for which 
 his concurrence had not been obtained, and refusing the 
 investiture to Albert he received his ambassador with the 
 
INTRODUCTION. mi 
 
 crown of Charlemagne on his own head, declaring that he 
 was the Emperor. For five years he stirred up the Electors 
 by his intrigues to resist the rule of Albert, and undertake 
 another election ; and it was only when his quarrel with 
 Philip the Fair rendered it necessary for him to moderate 
 his tone, that in order to obtain Albert's alliance he at length 
 recognised his rule and invited him to Eome to receive at his 
 hands the Imperial crown. 
 
 By this time the contest between the Pope and the French 
 king had become of long standing. It had commenced with 
 an attempt on the part of Boniface to prevent Philip from 
 levying taxes from his clergy when engaged in war with our 
 Edward I. In reply the resolute monarch past a law that 
 no money might be transported from his kingdom on any 
 account, and thus cut off the ample revenues which the Popes 
 had previously drawn from the wealthy Galilean Church. 
 Boniface on this- occasion endeavoured to conciliate his oppo- 
 nent, and the storm that had been brewing blew over for a 
 time. But the imperious Pope was now engaged by war in 
 the very Lateran : — 
 
 " The leader of the modern Pharisees 
 Being at war within the Lateran, 
 And neither with the Saracens or Jews, 
 
 For of his foes each was a Christian man." 
 
 " Hell," XXVII., lines 85—8. 
 
 Two Cardinals of the Colonna family declared the illegality 
 of Pope Celestine's abdication, and the consequent nullity 
 of his successor's election. It was enough to make Boniface 
 determine on the total destruction of that princely house. 
 The Cardinals were degraded, a crusade preached against the 
 family, their houses destroyed, and their stronghold of Pales- 
 trina, obtained under false pretences, " scant execution of a 
 promise strong," was levelled to the ground. This episode in 
 the life of Boniface is related in the twenty- seventh Canto of 
 " Hell," where the old partisan leader, Gruido da Montefeltro, 
 is introduced as suffering for the fraudulent advice he gave 
 to Boniface on this occasion. The retreat of the proscribed 
 Cardinals to France stung to the quick the haughty Pontiff 
 
xxxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 against his former foe. Philip was threatened with excom- 
 munication, and the Pope, as God's vicegerent upon earth, 
 offered his kingdom to Albert, the German Emperor. Philip 
 determined now to enlist his whole people in the struggle. 
 The Three Estates were for the first time called in France, 
 and unanimously supported their monarch in his resistance 
 to the Papal encroachments. The Pope then published a 
 Bull explicitly asserting the supremacy of the Church over 
 kings and princes. The Bull was burnt publicly by Philip, 
 now secure of the support of his people, and before a second 
 meeting of the Three Estates the Pope was charged with 
 every imaginable iniquity, and a General Council was ap- 
 pealed to, as well as the future Pope, to be lawfully elected. 
 Boniface now retorted by excommunicating Philip, and 
 decreeing that his kingdom had past into the hands of 
 Albert. But the days of Gregory YII. had now past by, 
 and the thunders of the Vatican fell harmlessly on a united 
 king and people. Boniface, mistrusting the citizens of Eome, 
 retired to his native town of Anagni, where he thought that 
 his person would be more safe from insult in the deadly 
 struggle he had courted. But Italy was now full of French 
 troops, led by the banished Colonna Cardinals, and encou- 
 raged by the disaffected Ghibeline leaders. Boniface fell into 
 the very fate he sought to avoid, and was taken prisoner in 
 Anagni by the French forces, under his most inveterate 
 enemy, the injured Sciarra Colonna. Although he was 
 released in a few days, and returned to Eome, so heavily did 
 the blow fall upon his proud heart that it affected his reason : 
 visions of armed men breaking in on his privacy were ever 
 passing through his mind, and amidst paroxysms of de- 
 spairing rage he died within a few months of the outrage, 
 A.D. 1303, which proved to him a deathblow by showing 
 that not only the supremacy but the personal sanctity of the 
 Popes had past away. This act of sacrilege, as it was then 
 considered, was viewed with horror even by the Ghibelines, 
 and Dante, whose hostile spirit to Boniface is evident 
 throughout his poem, makes the shade of Hugh Capet in 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Purgatory thus groan in prophecy over the deed of his 
 
 iinrkimia rl Aanpn fl n.T> f • 
 
 impious descendant : 
 
 " All evil past and future to efface 
 
 Into Anagni bursts the Fleur-de-lis, 
 
 And in his vicar, Christ doth there disgrace . 
 
 Again I see Him shamed with mockery : 
 I see renewed the vinegar and gall. 
 Him slain 'twixt living thieves once more I see.'* 
 
 " Pargatory," XX., Unes 86—91. 
 
 After the death of Boniface, and the short reign of his 
 successor Benedict XI., the Papal See fell into the hands of 
 a Frenchman, Clement V., who made up the old quarrel with 
 Philip, and after some stay in his own country finally 
 transferred the seat of the Church to Avignon, and for 
 nearly a century Italy was free from the presence of one of 
 the rival Powers, whose disputes had ever filled her States 
 with strife. The Gascon, as Dante calls Clement V., was 
 even more contemptible in his eyes than his worst predeces- 
 sors, and his place in Hell is thus prescribed for him, pro- 
 bably at a time when he still ruled the Church from his seat 
 in France : — 
 
 " Since after him, with laidlier renown, 
 
 Will come a lawless shepherd from the West, 
 Such as befitteth him and me to crown. 
 
 A second Jason will he prove at least. 
 
 Like him in Maccabees, to whom was pliant 
 His king, as France will be to his behest.'* 
 
 " HeU," XIX., lines 83—8. 
 
 Such being the position of the greater Powers of Europe 
 and Italy during the last half of the thirteenth century, we 
 must now revert to Dante's native State, the politics of which 
 are the source of constant allusion throughout his poem. Of 
 all the Tuscan Republics Florence was at this period the 
 most important, though both before and after she had 
 secured an independent Grovernment the divisions amongst 
 her citizens were a constant hindrance to the growth of her 
 power. The rude but honourable simplicity of the State in 
 the twelfth century is described in the 15th Canto of the 
 " Paradise," where the shade of Dante's ancestor, Cacciaguida, 
 
 \.o 
 
exxxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 describes to him the happy condition of its citizens in his 
 time. The city was then nominally under the rule of the 
 Emperors or their lieutenants, one of whom, the Marchese 
 Ugo, is alluded to as the great Baron in Oacciaguida's 
 sketch of his own period. As the temporal power of the 
 Popes increased their partisans gradually grew in Florence, 
 though no open separation of parties took place till the com- 
 mencement of the thirteenth century, when a private feud 
 between the great families of the Buondelmonti and the 
 Uberti led to the whole city espousing one or other of the 
 rival factions : — 
 
 " O Buondelmonte, to what ill ye fled ' 
 That plighted wedding, on another fain, 
 Many would now be joyous, who are sad. 
 
 If Grod thy form in Ema's stream had thrown 
 The first time to the city thou wast led." 
 
 "Paradise," XVI., lines 140— 44. 
 
 The head of the Buondelmonti having been engaged to 
 marry one of the Amadei, closely connected with the Uberti, 
 broke off the match at the last moment, through a sudden 
 passion for a maiden of the Donati family, and on the curt 
 advice of Mosca Lamberti, 
 
 '* Who said, alas ! a deed is crowned when done, 
 "Which to the Tuscan race caused evil fare." 
 
 " HeU," XXVIII., lines 107, 8. 
 
 The Amadei, to revenge the insult, attacked Buondelmonte 
 as he was riding through the city, and slew him at the foot 
 of the ruined statue of Mars, supposed to be the Palladium 
 of Florence. The strife thus originated between the leading 
 famihes was taken up by all grades in the city, and the 
 factions of Gruelph and Ghibeline, previously unknown in 
 Florence, were introduced. The Emperor supported the 
 Uberti, and the Buondelmonti and their followers became 
 Guelphs : by the aid of Frederic II. the Ghibeline faction 
 obtained the ascendency, and banished their opponents from 
 the State. At his death, 1250, a peace was patched up 
 between the parties, the Guelphs were recalled to the city, 
 and an independent Government was for the first time intro- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxv 
 
 duced. The Guelphs, as the supporters of liberty, became 
 the most popular party, and the powers of the independent 
 Government fell naturally into their hands. But the successes 
 of Manfred against the Church, and the establishment of 
 his power in Naples, revived the hopes of the Ghibelines 
 throughout Italy, and those of Florence at once entered into 
 communication with him for the restoration of their authority. 
 They were then driven out by force to Siena, where, being 
 assisted by the forces of Manfred, they advanced under the 
 guidance of their great leader, Farinata degli TJberti, and 
 completely routed the Guelphs at the river Arbia with such 
 slaughter that Florence was at once abandoned to their 
 hands. The Guelphs fled to Lucca, and in a council of war 
 the victorious Ghibelines mooted the proposition utterly to 
 destroy the town, which could never be otherwise than a 
 harbour for their opponents, so utterly Guelph in spirit had 
 Florence become. Farinata alone refused his consent to that 
 wild measure of revenge, and the weight of his influence was 
 sufficient to prevent the whole Ghibeline party carrying out 
 their savage purpose. — " Hell," Canto X., lines 85 — 90. The 
 shade of Farinata, rising from his burning tomb, and assert- 
 ing his love for the city which he had at once saved and 
 injured, is one of the grandest pictures in Dante's poem. 
 
 The defeat and death of Manfred, Charles of Anjou being 
 partly indebted for his victory to the swords of the Guelphs 
 of Florence, again restored the latter to the ascendency, 
 which from that period they never lost. The irruption of 
 Curradino into Italy gave the Ghibelines a gleam of hope, 
 but on his defeat at Tagliacozzo their cause was lost, and 
 though efforts at mediation were made subsequently by the 
 Popes on several occasions, they were never allowed per- 
 manently to return from their long exile. Dante's family 
 was Guelph, and when Farinata accuses them of having been 
 always hostile to him, so that he twice banished them from 
 the city, Dante replies to the Ghibeline leader : — 
 
 " ' If they were banished, each time,' I replied, 
 
 * They came back to their homes from o'er the seas ; 
 Unto your friends that art has been denied.' " 
 
 " Hell," X., lines 49-51. 
 
xxxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Government of Florence was now essentially popular, 
 but the Guelph nobles, freed from the presence of their 
 rivals, paid but little respect to the authorities chosen by 
 the people, and tyrannised over the lower orders as ruthlessly 
 as the Ghibelines had ever done. Their acts of lawlessness 
 were not, however, unopposed, and the leaders of the people 
 procured the recall of some of the Ghibeline nobles, to 
 serve as a counterpoise to the insolent power of the Guelphs. 
 At the same time the Government was made more demo- 
 cratic, and the nobles being for a time restrained, Florence 
 remained for some years in unusual repose. At this period 
 they made war on the Aretines and Pisans, defeated the 
 former at the battle of Campaldino, a.d. 1289 (alluded to in 
 the fifth Canto of *' Purgatory"), and after forcing the latter 
 to capitulate at Caprona, 1260, on both which occasions 
 Dante was present, obtained a complete ascendency through- 
 out Tuscany. 
 
 The disputes between the nobles and the people now re- 
 commenced: the utter disappearance of the Ghibeline fac- 
 tion made the Guelph nobles determine to become the rulers 
 of the city, while the people were equally determined to resist 
 their designs. Corso Donati, a leading aristocrat, whose 
 restless spirit kept the city in strife until his death, killed a 
 citizen in a street combat, and being acquitted by the 
 captain of the magistracy, who was under aristocratic in- 
 fluence, the people took up arms to enforce justice. Giano 
 della Bella, a noble who had sided with the popular party, 
 withdrew from the city into voluntary exile, rather than by 
 his presence encourage a civil war. By the exertions of the 
 friends of peace on both sides the alarming crisis was got 
 over, and agreement between the people and the nobles 
 was patched up, the former retaining the chief seats of power, 
 so it was hoped at the close of the thirteenth century that 
 the troubled city would again enjoy repose. But it appeared 
 that such was never to be the case : as Dante has related the 
 belief of the time. Mars, the tutelar deity of Florence, never 
 forgave it for erecting the Baptist in his place, and " sempre 
 con I'arte sua la fera triste.'* Scarcely were the disputes 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii 
 
 between the Guelph and the Ghibeline and between the people 
 and the nobles at rest when new factions were imported from 
 the neighbouring State of Pistoia. A quarrel arose there 
 in the family of the Cancillieri, descended from a common 
 ancestor who had married two wives, one of whom was 
 called Bianca. Her descendants taking one side of the 
 quarrel were called Bianchi (Whites), the other Neri (Blacks) . 
 The cause of either party was rapidly taken up by the whole 
 town, which was thus divided into two factions, and the Neri 
 being driven out, sought assistance from Florence — 
 
 " Though in Pistoia first the Neri fail, 
 
 And Florence taketh men and customs new." 
 
 " Hell," XXIV., Unes 143, 4. 
 
 Corso Donati at once espoused the cause of the Neri, and the 
 whole of that city also was soon arrayed on the side of one 
 or other of the contending parties. All who yet remained of 
 the G-hibelines joined cause with the Neri, who had also many 
 partisans amongst the Guelphs, and their party became the 
 most powerful. Even the people were ranged on one or the 
 other side in this extraordinary strife. The Neri being the 
 weakest, under the advice of Corso Donati determined to 
 apply to the Pope to send Charles of Valois to assist them 
 and reform Florence. Their plot was discovered, and at 
 this crisis Dante, who had but recently devoted himself to 
 public affairs, was the chief magistrate of the city. Inspired 
 by his energetic counsels, the magistracy at once banished 
 Corso Donati and most of his followers, and at the same 
 time some of the leaders of the Bianchi were also banished, 
 though they were very shortly recalled. Dante then pro- 
 ceeded to Eome to secure the good offices of the Pope, but 
 during his absence Charles of Valois arrived at Florence, 
 ostensibly for the purpose of healing its differences. — "Hell," 
 VI., 64—75 ; " Purgatory," XX., 70—75. By his manoeuvres 
 and influence, aided by the opportune return of Corso 
 Donati, the Bianchi were in their turn banished from the 
 town, and Dante returning from his embassy to E-oine found 
 himself condemned to ruin and exile. Charles of Valois 
 
xxxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 having completed his task retired from Florence, and pur- 
 sued the attempt on Sicily, against Frederic, grandson of 
 Manfred, for which he had left France. In this he signally 
 failed, and returned discomfited to his own country, as Dante, 
 exulting in the shame of the prince who had brought about 
 his own ruin, makes Hugh Capet prophesy in " Purgatory'* 
 of the expedition of his descendant — 
 
 " No kingdom there, but only sin, and shame. 
 Will be his gain, to him more grievous far 
 As such a loss so lightly doth he deem." 
 
 "Purgatory,"XX., 76— 78. 
 
 Dante, who thus suddenly appears upon the scene, now as 
 the chief magistrate of his State, and now as a proscribed fugi- 
 tive, was bom in May, 1265, the year in which was fought 
 the battle of the Arbia, one year previous to Manfred's 
 defeat. His father died shortly after his birth, but though of 
 a G-uelph family the child appears to have been left quietly in 
 the city during the early misfortunes of his party. During 
 his youth the city enjoyed comparative quiet, and the young 
 Alighieri, who early showed the studious and thoughtful 
 bent of his mind, soon acquired, under the teaching of 
 Ser Brunetto, all the learning of his time. The reverent 
 affection of Dante for his old tutor is clearly shown, although 
 he does place him in Hell for a crime for which we must 
 take Dante's word that he was guilty : — 
 
 " It grieves me, what I never can forget, 
 Your mild paternal image, good and dear, 
 When in the world before me, you would set 
 
 How man can grow eternal in his sphere ; 
 And all my gratitude, while life remains, 
 'Tis fit that in my language it appear." 
 
 " HeU," XV., 82-87. 
 
 Little is known of Dante's youth beyond what he has him- 
 self incidentally told us in his works ; but the guiding 
 influence of his life must' be considered his passion for 
 Beatrice, the daughter of Folco Portinari, for whom he has 
 built so durable a memorial in his great poem. The pas- 
 sions wake early in the warm Italian clime, and Dante tells 
 us that he was not nine years old when he first felt that 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxix 
 
 worship for Beatrice whicli was to last for life. Love lias 
 ever been the spark to light in the heart of genius the flame 
 of poesy, and love, purified by lengthened expectation, and 
 made holy by misfortune, inspired the ardent soul of Dante 
 with the strains that have won for him immortal fame. It 
 was in the praise of Beatrice that he first exercised his art ; 
 it was in following this inspiration that he threw off the 
 trammels of his predecessors and created poesy anew in its 
 true law and scope, the realities of Nature. As he tells the 
 
 poet Buonagiunta, 
 
 " I am a man, who, when 
 Love breatheth, all its symptoms noteth clear ; 
 I show to others what it says within." 
 
 "Purgatory," XXIV., 52—54. 
 
 It was the love of Beatrice that first woke in him the 
 promptings of ambition, "that for her sake he left the 
 vulgar herd." — " Hell," II., 105. It was in memory of her 
 that he chose that pure spirit as his guide through the 
 glories of Paradise when sorrow and age, that could not dim 
 his passion, had purified it from mortal alloy. 
 
 Nothing more is known of the youth of Dante than that 
 he completed his studies in the Universities of Padua and 
 Bologna, and Boccaccio tells us that he even travelled at this 
 time in the pursuit of learning to Paris and Oxford. He had, 
 however, returned to Florence in time to take part in the 
 battle of Campaldino, his presence at which campaign he 
 alludes to in the opening lines of the twenty-second Canto 
 of " HeU." 
 
 " Ere now IVe witnessed knighthood move afield, 
 Pass in review and rally in the fight. 
 And prest at times for safety backwards yield : 
 
 Over your land I've seen the scouts in flight, 
 O Aretines, and seen the squadrons swell 
 For tourney and for jousting all bedight." 
 
 He was also present at the capitulation of Caprona in the 
 following year, to which he also alludes in his poem — 
 
 " So did I see of yore the soldiers fear 
 Who issued from Caprona under pact. 
 Seeing so many enemies appear." 
 
 " HeU," XXI., Hnes 94-96. 
 
^1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the meanwhile had occurred the crowning sorrow of hia 
 life. In the spring of that year, 1290, Beatrice died. The 
 dream of his youth, the hope and happiness of his early 
 manhood, was struck down, and life had lost for him its 
 source of aspiration and all its prospect of domestic joy. He 
 was stunned by the blow, and it is said that his friends even 
 despaired of his life. But it is less on the body than the 
 mind that such blows have force. To this great earthly 
 disappointment may be fairly traced much of the bitterness 
 of Dante's spirit. For him the glory had departed from the 
 grass, the splendour from the flower : he looked upon life 
 and Nature with an altered eye. The hues of romance were 
 stripped from the dull truths of life, and the world appeared 
 to him after the receding deluge all bare and desolate, life 
 without an object, existence without joy. After a short 
 interval Dante re-entered the ordinary pursuits of life, and 
 in the next year he yielded to the solicitations of his friends 
 and was married to Gemma Donati. His wife belonged to 
 the family of his constant opponent in after years, Corso 
 Donati, and the marriage was effected solely on political and 
 social considerations. Such a union could not prove a happy 
 one. The affections of Dante were irrevocably fixed else- 
 where, and while all his tenderness was concentrated on the 
 Egeria of his soul, it was not to be expected of any woman 
 to remain contented with so subordinate a position in her 
 husband's heart, even though her rival was beyond the 
 tomb. Dante makes no allusion to his wife throughout his 
 poem, unless the reproaches of Beatrice at the close of the 
 "Purgatory" may i be supposed to have reference to his 
 marriage, which does not seem likely. Dante did not con- 
 sider such a marriage as any infidelity to his love. It was a 
 mere worldly alliance, in which the heart had no share. But 
 that he felt the bitterness of his lot is shown by the feeling 
 with which he makes Jacopo Rusticucci allude to a like fate :— 
 
 " More than all the rest 
 A savage wife has caused my martyrdom." 
 
 " " Hell," XVI., lines 44, 45. 
 
 Whether the fault rested with the violent temper of 
 
INTRODUCTION. xli 
 
 t)ante's wife or with his own neglect, the unhappiness of 
 their married life is certain, and after his exile, while his 
 wife brought up his children in Florence on the wreck of 
 their father's fortune, Dante made no attempt to be joined 
 by his family, and showed clearly that he considered separa- 
 tion from his wife happier for them both. Boccaccio, in his 
 life of Dante, asserts that it was the misery of his wedded 
 life which drove the poet from the pursuits of literature, 
 and made him take up public affairs as a distraction. In 
 this career his powers were immediately recognised, and we 
 have found already that, in the year 1300, he filled the place 
 of chief magistrate in the city. Brought up in a Guelph 
 family, he had hitherto shown great moderation in his views, 
 and his object when in power was clearly to hold the balance 
 straight between the rival parties and restore peace to the 
 State. 
 
 The friends of Dante, and especially his loved companion 
 in literary studies, Guido Cavalcanti, were favourers of the 
 Bianchi, and Corso Donati, the most turbulent of the 
 Florentine nobility, had hotly espoused the Neri faction. 
 The city was in arms, and Corso was known to have applied 
 for assistance to Charles of Yalois. Dante's energy and 
 prudence entirely overcame both factions. All were com- 
 pelled, to lay aside their arms, and the leaders on both sides 
 were banished from the city. Dante's great success was, 
 however, of short duration. While absent at Rome, seeking 
 to strengthen his Republic with the Pope, his enemies 
 obtained entire possession of the city, and decreed the 
 banishment of Dante, together with all the Bianchi leaders. 
 It was while returning to Florence that the news reached 
 him, and from being the leader of the State he found 
 himself suddenly a proscribed exile, while the confiscation 
 of his property added the trials of poverty to his other cares. 
 Such was the bitter animosity in which those party struggles 
 were carried on, that shortly after the first decree of banish- 
 ment a second was past, condemning Dante, with the other 
 exiles, to be burnt if they fell into their enemies' hands. 
 
*1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 There was little meekness in Dante's disposition, and witli 
 Ms spirit soured by sucli treatment lie at once threw himself 
 into the arms of the Ghibeline party, whom he had hitherto 
 opposed, and whose leaders he now met in exile. Dante 
 loved Florence, and the bitterness of his enforced absence 
 from his country, with what he thought of the companions 
 of his misery, is clearly shown in the beautiful and probably 
 best known passage of the " Paradise," where his ancestor 
 Cacciaguida informs him of his coming doom : — 
 
 " As left Hippolytus his Athens' home, 
 
 Through his perfidious stepdame, passion fraught, 
 So to depart from Florence is thy doom, 
 
 Thus is it willed, and thus already sought : 
 
 And soon they'll bring to pass what now they scheme, 
 There, where Christ every day is sold and bought. 
 
 Upon the injured side will cast the blame 
 
 The wonted cry, but vengeance will achieve 
 Witness to truth, which it doth ever claim. 
 
 Each thing beloved most dearly thou wilt leave : 
 And this is but the earliest dart which fares 
 From the bow of exile, when it shoots to grieve. 
 
 Thyself wilt prove what bitter taste there bears 
 A stranger's bread, and what a weary road 
 Is climbing and descending strangers' stairs. 
 
 And that which most of all thy back will load 
 Will be the evil troop, with whom thou'lt fall, 
 Into this valley, scattered all abroad. 
 
 For all ungrateful, mad, and impious, all 
 Against thee will they act, but very soon 
 Their brows, not thine, will bear shame's reddened pall. 
 
 Of their bestiality the progress on 
 
 Will be the proof, to thee it will be fair 
 To have made thy party by thyself alone." 
 
 " Paradise," XVII., lines 46—69. 
 
 With little sympathy or confidence in his companions, 
 Dante at first joined them at Arezzo, and formed one of the 
 Council who devised the measures of their party. But an 
 ill-advised attempt in the following year to re-enter Florence 
 by force, in which they were completely foiled, broke all the 
 hopes of his party, which then dissolved, and Dante com- 
 menced the life of wandering exile, which continued till his 
 
INTRODUCTION. xliii 
 
 vleath. The hopes of the Ghibelines were revived on the 
 death of the Emperor Albert, whose murder while preparing 
 to crush the Swiss revolt is alluded to by Dante in his 
 poem as the coming retribution that was to fall on him for 
 his neglect of Italy : — 
 
 " O G-erman Albert, who abandoned her 
 Now savage and unconquerable grown 
 Whose saddle-bows thou shouldst have strided sure : 
 
 May from the stars just judgment fall adown 
 Upon thy blood, and that it cause the dread 
 Of thy successor, be it new, and known." 
 
 "Purgatory," VI., Hnes 97—102. 
 
 All his revived hopes turned on Henry of Luxemburg, 
 who was elected to the Imperial throne, and who at once 
 entered on an expedition to Italy to recover the influence 
 there which his later predecessors had abandoned. But the 
 attempt was made too late. The Italian States were now 
 too much confirmed in their independence to yield without a 
 desperate struggle to the yoke of the Empire. The whole 
 people joined with the Q-uelph leaders in a resistance which 
 the support of the Ghibeline party did not enable the 
 Emperor to overcome. Deceived by the promises of Pope 
 Clement, who was, in reality, in the interests of the French 
 monarch, and his relation the King of Naples, Henry wasted 
 precious time in a march to Rome for his coronation, and 
 then prepared to face the league which the people, aided by 
 the Pope and Eobert of Naples, had prepared against him. 
 He failed in an attempted siege of Florence, being called off 
 by the necessity of marching against the forces of Robert, 
 and on the way, worn out by vexation and disappointment, 
 he died, a.d. 1308, and the Gruelphs were at once relieved 
 from the perils with which they had been menaced. Many 
 of the banished nobles of Florence had been recalled by the 
 citizens in the hour of expected danger. But not Dante; 
 he was never forgiven. The death of Henry was not, how- 
 ever, only a personal disappointment to the poet in depriving 
 him of his well-grounded expectation of returning to his 
 native city under his protection, it was the deathblow of his 
 
* xliv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 political hopes for his country; the vision which he had 
 nourished throughout long years of exile, of a happy, united 
 Italy, was shattered, never to be restored. 
 
 Dante was no ordinary Ghibeline. He was a patriot in the 
 truest sense of the word ; his affections and aspirations were 
 not, as was the case of all others of his time, confined to a 
 petty State or within the walls of his native city. He loved 
 Florence well, but Italy more. Witness of the miseries of his 
 country, torn by dissensions, and shifting ever from change 
 to change, his whole hopes rested on the revival of the 
 glories of the Eoman Empire, when the passions of indi- 
 viduals would be controlled for the good of all, beneath the 
 firm sway of a central power. Thus did he apostrophise his 
 loved Florence as he then saw her : — 
 
 '* How many times, in days thou dost remember, 
 Thy money, habits, offices, and laws. 
 Hast thou remodelled, and renewed each member ? 
 
 If clearly thou beholdest thy own flaws. 
 
 Like a sick woman thou wilt see thee *plain. 
 
 Who on her pillow cannot find repose, 
 
 And seeks with constant turns to ease her pain." 
 
 "Purgatory," VI., lines 145 — 151. 
 
 Such was not the united Italy of his dreams. Dante was 
 eminently national, though he did look to foreign inter- 
 vention for the restoration of peace to his country. He was 
 no idle sentimentalist, but, like the great founder of united 
 Germany, he believed in blood and iron, and he knew of no 
 remedy but force for anarchy and sedition. Though he had 
 himself been the chief magistrate in a popular Government, 
 he had no sympathy with the populace, and was a rigid 
 aristocrat, who hardly believed in excellence outside his own 
 order. The noble struggle for independence then carried on 
 by the Swiss people is not once alluded to throughout his 
 poem, and seems not to have roused his interest. Whenever 
 any of the lower orders are alluded to by Dante it is without 
 Sympathy. The rise of such men is lamented as a sign of 
 *he degeneracy of the times : — 
 
 " Ah indeed 
 Is changed to bastard every Roman heir ! 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 When in Bologne takes root plebeian breed : 
 When in Faenza, Bernardino too, 
 Springs up a gentle growth from lowliest weed." 
 
 " Purgatory," XIV., lines 98—102. 
 
 Giano della Bella is reproached in the 16th Canto of 
 " Paradise'* for disgracing his nobility by such contact. But 
 the poet expressly avoids such subjects in his poem, and 
 compares his voice to the wind that smites most the loftiest 
 summits ; — 
 
 " This cry of thine will be like winds unpent 
 
 That strongest smite against the loftiest peaks. 
 This to thy honour is some argument. 
 
 Hence in these spheres upon thy vision breaks, 
 Upon the mount and in the dolorous vale, 
 Those souls alone of whom Fame's trumpet speaks ; 
 
 Because his mind who heareth would not hail 
 With surety the example if its root 
 Were hidden and unknown, and ever fail 
 
 Mere barren arguments to bring forth fruit." 
 
 " Paradise," XVII., lines 133—142. 
 
 In the same interview with his ancestor he tells us that ) 
 even in Paradise he took pleasure in his nobility of birth, / 
 adding the true sentiment which can alone render such pride 
 worthy — the necessity it imposes on the holder to prove that 
 he is not degenerate — that best motto for an aristocracy-^/ 
 Noblesse oblige : — 
 
 " blood's nobility of little worth. 
 
 If thou dost make mankind take pride in thee, 
 Where every longing wanders wide on earth. 
 
 From henceforth now no marvel will it be. 
 
 For there, where never doth the longing stray, 
 I say in Heaven, it glory roused in me. 
 
 Thou art a mantle that doth swiftly fray, 
 
 While Time with shears doth ever clip it round, 
 Unless we add to it from day to day." 
 
 "Paradise," XVI., lines 1—9. 
 
 Who were your ancestors ? is the first question which Dante 
 puts in the mouth of the great Ghibeline leader Farinata 
 when the poet accosts him as he rises from his burning tomb. 
 The Republics of the Middle Ages were essentially aristocratic 
 in spirit, totally unlike the Democracies of Greece. It would 
 
xlvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 be folly to judge Dante, the patriot of the fourteenth century, 
 by the liberal shibboleths of the nineteenth. He was a Corio- 
 lanus at heart, and loathed the Cleons of every time. He 
 looked to obtain a united Italy by the only means through 
 which at that period his object could be attained. It was the 
 constant struggle between the Pope and the Emperor which 
 he saw had caused all the misfortunes of his country ; — 
 
 *' Was wont old E,ome, which made the world to smile, 
 To have two suns, who each of them displayed 
 Various, the earthly, and the Godly style. 
 
 One has usurped the other, the sword blade 
 Is joined to the crosier, and together grown, 
 Through open force the ill accord is made ; 
 
 The one fears not the other when thus one. 
 If thou believest not, think upon its corn, 
 For by its seed is every herbage known. 
 
 Upon the land the Adige and Po adorn 
 
 Valour and courtesy were wont to appear 
 Ere Frederic there in battle was outborne. 
 
 Now with security can wander theie 
 
 Whoever wishes to avoid, through shame, 
 Converse with good men, nor to see them near." 
 
 "Purgatory," XVI., lines 106—120. 
 
 His remedy was a complete separation of temporal and 
 spiritual authority, the union of which in the Popes was the 
 cause of all the misgovernment in Italy. It was in no mere 
 Grhibeline spirit that he opposed the Papacy. It was with a 
 poignant regret that its earthly degradation of feeling should 
 have destroyed its spiritual influence that he wished to restore 
 it to primitive purity on an equality, but totally distinct 
 from, the Caesars, who were to hold the temporal sway. 
 Nothing could exceed his reverence for the Papal office. He 
 excuses, as it were, his own madness when in Hell he in- 
 veighs against the simony of Nicholas III. ; he kneels before 
 the shade of Adrian V. in Purgatory till told that there the 
 head of the Church is but a fellow- servant with him and 
 others to a higher power. In Paradise he makes Peter 
 declare that his seat on earth is vacant, so did the worldly 
 intrigues and turbulence of Boniface render him unworthy to 
 be considered as a true occupant of that holy seat ; — 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlvil 
 
 " He who usurps on earth that place of mine, 
 
 That place of mine, that place of mine now vacant, 
 Within the presence of God's Son Divine, 
 
 Has of my cemetery made a fecant 
 
 Cesspool of blood and filth, whence the perverse 
 Who fell from Heaven, in Hell doth joy complacent." 
 " Paradise," XXVII., lines 22—27. 
 
 His ideal Grovernment was that of a universal Church 
 and Empire, strong, and at perfect peace, the flock of Christ 
 reposing under the broad wings of the eagle, the standard of 
 Roman rule. He approved as little of the Ghibeline who 
 fought for the Emperor against the Pope to advance his own 
 faction as of the Guelph who opposed the holy standard, and 
 in Paradise he makes the Emperor Justinian condemn each . 
 party alike : — 
 
 " Now thou canst judge the rival bickerings 
 
 Which I above did blame, their faults expose, 
 Which are the cause of all your sufferings. 
 
 The Lilies to the public sign oppose 
 
 One side, the other claim it for a part, 
 'Tis hard to see which most of error shows. 
 
 Work now, ye Ghibelines, work now your art, 
 *Neath other sign ; this standard now eschew. 
 Who it and justice evermore would part : 
 
 Nor strive to strike it down. This Charles the new, 
 With all his Guelphs, its talons let him fear, 
 Who lordlier lion has ere now made rue. 
 
 Many a time the sons have wrung a tear 
 
 For the father's sins, and be it not believed 
 That, for his Lilies, God His arms will veer." 
 
 " Paradise," YI,, lines 97—111. 
 
 The enterprise, therefore, undertaken by Henry YII. to 
 revive the Empire in Italy became, in Dante's eyes, a holy 
 mission, and while revelling, in imagination, in all the glories 
 of the Empyrean, he does not scruple to pause, in the descrip- 
 tion of its ineffable magnificence, to point out the throne 
 destined for his soul's hero, and allude to his glorious failure 
 in the regeneration of the world : — 
 
 " Beatrix led me on and said, ' Behold 
 
 How great the gathering of our stoles of white ! 
 
xlviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Behold what space our city doth enfold ! 
 Behold our seats already so complete 
 That few more guests we wait to see enrolled. 
 
 Where thou dost fix thy eyes, on that high seat 
 Marked with a crown, already o'er it placed, 
 Or ere that thou this nuptial feast shalt greet, 
 
 Will sit the soul on earth Augustus graced 
 Of the great Harry, who will come to heal 
 Our Italy, or ere her mood be past." 
 
 " Paradise/' XXX., lines 128—138. 
 
 A united Italy, the mistress of the world ! Such was 
 Dante's visionary aspiration for the destiny of his country. 
 But though with the death of Henry his hopes sank for ever, 
 and the poet wore out till death his weary years of exile and 
 disappointment, the seed which he cast broadly over his land 
 has not been lost ; buried for centuries of struggle and despair, 
 it has taken root firmly, and has at last sprung to-day. 
 Though dead the spirit of the Florentine patriot yet liveth : 
 the sacred fire has been past on from generation to generation, 
 and the nationality of Italy has at last become no more 
 a dream. One can fancy the shade of Dante watching over 
 the life struggle that so long convulsed his fair land, breath- 
 ing his ardent soul into her sons, who proved themselves so 
 worthy to recover their lost heritage, and hailing in Victor 
 Emmanuel the ever-looked-for hero, the allegorical greyhound 
 of his poem, who had risen at last to chase the she-wolf back 
 to Hell and liberate his native land. 
 
 Such, then, was Dante: such were his passions, weak- 
 nesses, and aspirations, when, with a mind stored with all 
 the learning of his time, he resolved to compose the great 
 poem into which he was to pour out all his feelings, 
 knowledge, and genius, and leave a complete image of his 
 age. It is supposed that the work was commenced before 
 he entered on public life in Florence, and that the first seven 
 Cantos then written were laid aside and forgotten in the 
 whirl of politics. Boccaccio tells the story of their accidental 
 discovery in the city during his exile, when they were sent to 
 the Marchese Malespina, with whom the poet at the time 
 had found refuge, Dante acknowledged the work, and, on the 
 
INTRODUCTION. * xlix 
 
 urgent solicitation of his host, resumed his old design. The 
 commencement of the eighth Canto, " Continuing, I say, as 
 soon as we," seems to favour the truth of this tradition, and 
 in that case Dante must have fairly settled to his great 
 labour about the year 1307, as in Canto VIII. of the " Pur- 
 gatory" Currado Malaspina prophesies to him that at that 
 date he will find a refuge with his descendant. Such a work 
 must have been the occupation of many years, as Dante tells 
 us was the case in that pathetic passage where he looks 
 forward yet to be crowned as poet in his native city :— 
 
 " If it should hap, this holy poem e'er. 
 
 Which Heaven and earth have helped, and which did mar 
 My frame with abstinence for many a year. 
 
 Conquer the cruelty, which me doth bar 
 
 From the fair sheepfold, where I slept a lamb 
 Hateful to wolves, who on me made their war. 
 
 With other voice henceforth, nor hair the same, 
 A poet I'll return, and o'er the font 
 Where I was christened, the wreathed laurel claim." 
 
 " Paradise," XXV., lines 1—9. 
 From internal evidence we find that the twenty- seventh 
 Canto of the " Paradise" must have been written after the 
 accession of John XXII. to the Papal See, which took place 
 in 1316, for St. Peter laments 
 
 " They of Caorsa and of Gascony 
 
 Hasten to drink our blood : to what vile ending 
 O fair commencement hast thou hurried thee !" 
 
 " Paradise," XXVII. , lines 58-60. 
 
 The Gascon is of course Clement V., and the man of 
 Cahors John XXII., a native of that town. As Dante died 
 within five years of this period, the composition of his great 
 poem may fairly be set down as the occupation and solace of 
 his whole life of exile, and for its fair comprehension his 
 feelings during that time of hope and despair, of bitterness ^ 
 and resignation, must never be forgotten. ^^ Throughout the- X 
 poem the chief figure on the scene is Dante himself, as he 
 travels through the triple world of spirits, from the entrance- 
 gate of Hell to the final presence ^the^jtj. Dante j^ 
 o^ hero,fan(l it is, ' tkereloreTsr essential to have some 
 
 ' — -/ 
 
1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 knowledge of himself, and the influences which surrounded 
 him, to appreciate properly his mighty work. That work 
 was not original in its general design : the subject of the 
 spiritual world, and descriptions of Hell and Purgatory, 
 were favourites with monkish writers, but it was reserved 
 for Dante to create, in wonderful harmony and the minutest 
 detail, his spirit universe, and so to realise all the scenes 
 painted by his imagination, that, once known, they can never 
 again vanish from the mind. 
 
 The first Canto is purely allegorical, and is introductory 
 to the whole poem, divided into three separate portions, each 
 of thirty- thr ee Ca ntos, descriptive of HelL Pu rgatory^ ^nd 
 
 1 Paradise. jKt the age of thirty-five, the middle of life, the 
 poet finds himself lost in a wood representing the maze of 
 human error. He attempts to climb therefrom up the steep 
 hill of Virtue, but is driven back by three wild beasts, the 
 leopard, lion, and she-wolf. Luxury, Ambition, and Avarice. 
 The shade of Virgil, allegorical of human learning, rescues 
 
 ' him from his difficulties, pie tells him that he was sum- 
 m^e^d ff 6m his place in Limbo, the outer circle of Hell, 
 by Beatrice, who had quitted Paradise to send him to 
 Dante's help, no other means being left for his salvation : — 
 
 ** So low he fell, all other remedies 
 
 Unto his safety had been vainly sped 
 Except to show him Hell's lost companies." 
 
 " Purgatory," XXX., lines 137-9. 
 He came, therefore, to lead him through Hell and Pur- 
 gatory, while Beatrice herself would guide him through the 
 regions of the Blest. Dante submits himself to Virgil's 
 guidance, and the poets shortly find themselves at the gate 
 of Hell. Within the gate, but outside the regular circles 
 into which Hell is divided, is a region in which roam the 
 innumerable spirits of those who are neither damned nor 
 blest, together with the Angels who sided neither with God 
 nor Lucifer : — 
 
 "**"" To these no distant hope of death is lent. 
 And their blind life is so supremely low, 
 That any change of fate would give content. 
 
INTRODUCTION. li 
 
 Repoi-t of them the world can never know, 
 Mercy and Justice only can despise, 
 Speak not about them : look, and onwards go." 
 '^'~- " Hell," III., lines 47—52. 
 
 The River Acheron divides this miserable crew from the 
 habitations of the damned, and after crossing it Dante 
 follows his guide into the first circle of Hell, or Limbo, 
 which is not a place of real punishment, except that its 
 inhabitants are shut out for ever from the hope of bliss and 
 the presence of God. Dante, who accepted without question 
 every dogma of his Church, could allow no place in Paradise 
 to any one without its fold. Even Virgil, who conducts him 
 not only through Hell, but ascends with him through all the 
 purifying stages of the Mount of Purgatory, cannot alter his 
 immutable doom, and after wandering through the calm 
 delights of Eden, or the earthly Paradise, returns to pass 
 eternity in Limbo. There are confined the souls of all who 
 are free from sin, and who yet, from wanting baptism, or a 
 knowledge of Christ to come, can never enter the regions of 
 the Blest. The place is thus described by Virgil when ques- 
 tioned by a spirit in Purgatory of his own fate : — 
 
 " There is a place below, not sad with pain. 
 
 But only doomed to darkness, where laments 
 Sound not like wailings, but are sighings fain. 
 
 There do I stay with little innocents 
 
 Bit by the teeth of Death, before that they 
 From sin original were made exempts. 
 
 There do I stay, with those who failed to essay 
 The sacred virtues three, though without sin 
 They knew the rest, and followed them alway." 
 
 " Purgatory," VII., Unes 28—36. 
 
 Here Dante meets the heroes of antiquity, and is admitted 
 by Homer into the sacred band of poets. From this place 
 of austere calm, differing in nothing from Virgil's Elysian 
 fields, Dante is led on by his guide to the regions of punish- 
 ment, and follows him through all the circles in which 
 criminals of every grade work out their doom. At last they 
 reach the lowest pit, in the centre of earth, where, rising out 
 of the ice in which the spirits of murderers are immersed. 
 
lii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the giant form of Lucifer is seen, the king of those realms of 
 horror. Down the body of the fallen Angel Virgil carries 
 Dante, and at last, passing out on the Antipodes, they leave 
 the abodes of gloom " and issue thence to see the stars once 
 more." 
 
 The ordinary reader, whose knowledge of Dante is confined 
 to a few gloomy passages of the " Inferno," can have no true 
 conception of the poet whose highest genius rejoices in the 
 calm regions of Purgatory, and exults in the ineffable glories 
 of Paradise. 
 
 The locality of the Purgatory is a towering mountain, 
 situated on the antipodes of Jerusalem, on the steep sides of 
 which, on the seven separate cornices, the spirits are purified 
 from the taint of the seven cardinal sins. I know nothing 
 more exquisite in poetry than Dante*s description of his 
 delight on leaving Hell's circles, and being restored once 
 more to the light of Heaven : — 
 
 " The dulcet hues of orient sapphire melt. 
 And gathered all into serenest light 
 Of the pure air unto the farthest belt. 
 So that my eyes returned to new delight, 
 Soon as I issued from the lethal air, 
 Which had oppressed my breast and dimmed 
 my sight." 
 
 "Purgatory," Canto I., lines 13—18. 
 
 With dew gathered from the reeds on the ocean's verge 
 Virgil washes from Dante's face all trace of Hell ; — 
 
 " With both his hands from off the scattered grass 
 My master tenderly the moisture takes ; 
 Whence I, who of his wish perceptive was. 
 
 Extended towards him my all-tearful cheeks. 
 And then discovered, on my face once more. 
 The hue of life that Hell had shrouded, breaks." 
 
 "Purgatory," Canto I., Hnes 124—129. 
 
 They then proceed towards the mountain on the lowest 
 slopes of which are detained in the Ante-Purgatory the spirits 
 who delayed in life repentance for their sins. Through this, 
 and through the seven cornices, on each of which the spirits 
 are purified from each of the. capital sins, the poets proceed 
 
INTRODUCTION. liii 
 
 together. While the spirit of this portion of the poem is essen- 
 tially autobiographical Dante tells us how little he feared 
 the punishment allotted to envy, of which sin he felt himself 
 comparatively free, while his shoulders were already wrung 
 with the burden which he knew he should have to carry 
 to purge away his besetting sin of pride. The punishments 
 under which the spirits purify their sins of life are not 
 in general such as to necessitate their being shared by the 
 poets who are privileged to behold them, but both Dante 
 and Virgil pass through the smoke which purifies the sin of 
 anger, and being afterwards joined by Statius all three poets 
 pass through the molten flame in which those who have 
 been guilty of incontinence are cleared from its taint. 
 
 This is the last cornice of purifying punishment, and, after 
 mounting the last stair, Virgil declares that his guidance is 
 over, and that henceforth Dante may wander at his own will 
 without further prompting. They have reached the earthly 
 Paradise, the Eden which our first parents lost, after a brief 
 residence of seven hours. Here Beatrice, Dante's lifelong 
 love, descends from Heaven, and as with throbbing heart he 
 feels her presence, and turns to Virgil to express his weak- 
 ness, he finds that his faithful guide is gone : — 
 
 " Although my eyes no recognition told, 
 
 Through hidden virtue which from her there ran 
 
 Of olden love I felt the mighty hold. 
 Soon as upon my sight there smote again 
 
 Another's virtue, which had smote me quite 
 
 Ere I had issued out of childhood's reign : 
 Unto my left I turned me for respite. 
 
 Just as the infant runneth to his dame 
 
 Whene'er afflicted or whene'er in fright, 
 To say to Virgil, ' Eests within my frame 
 
 No dram of blood that doth not tremble now ; 
 
 I know the symptoms of the olden flame.' 
 But Virgil had bereaved us of him, woe ! 
 
 Virgil, the sweetest father one could grieve, 
 
 Virgil, to whom entrusted, life I owe : 
 Nor all she lost, our olden mother Eve, 
 
 Availed, upon my cheeks erst washed with dew, 
 
 But that the tears their soiling trace should leave." 
 
 "Purgatory," Canto XXX., lines 37 — 54. 
 
liv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 These tears, changed into tears of penitence at Beatrice's 
 keen rebukes for his sins, are the last that Dante sheds, when, 
 having drunk of the waters of Lethe and Eunoe, the river 
 of life whose source is in Eden, he rises 
 
 " From those most holy waves, 
 Created fresh, as plants made new once more. 
 Renewed through the birth of new green leaves. 
 Pure and prepared unto the stars to soar." 
 
 " Purgatory," Canto XXIII., lines 142—145. 
 
 The last task left to the poet, one far more arduous than to 
 describe the punishments of the damned and the purification 
 of human sins, forms the subject matter of the ** Paradise," 
 a description of the bliss G-od has prepared for them that 
 love Him. No other poet has ever attempted such a theme, 
 and if Dante has at all failed, it is only from his attempt to 
 perform what is impossible. The material out of which he 
 built his celestial spheres is the Ptolemaic system, which, 
 taking the earth for its centre, spreads around it the revolving 
 spheres in order : 1, the Moon ; 2, Mercury ; 3, Yen us ; 4, the 
 Sun ; 6, Mars ; 6, Jupiter ; 7, Saturn ; 8, the Fixed Stars ; 
 9, the Primum Mobile ; and 10th and last, the Empyrean. 
 These spheres, as they revolve in equal period round the 
 earth, all take their motion from the Primum Mobile, the 
 first source of motion, itself inspired with motion through 
 its desire to join the Empyrean, the circle of the Deity and 
 final habitation of every soul in bliss. 
 
 Dante follows also the system of Dionysius the Areopagite, 
 who laid down nine orders of Celestial Powers, and allotted 
 each separately to each sphere in order. These were — 
 
 1. Angels allotted to the sphere of the Moon. 
 
 2. Archangels „ 
 
 
 » 
 
 » 
 
 Mercury. 
 
 3. Principalities 
 
 
 » 
 
 ?> 
 
 Venus. 
 
 4. Powers „ 
 
 
 ?5 
 
 }f 
 
 Sun. 
 
 5. Virtues „ 
 
 
 ?J 
 
 J> 
 
 Mars. 
 
 6. Dominations 
 
 
 f> 
 
 » 
 
 Jupiter 
 
 7. Thrones „ 
 
 >> 1 
 
 5) 
 
 >> 
 
 Saturn. 
 
 8. The Cherubim 
 
 
 57 
 
 J5 
 
 the Fixed Stars. 
 
 9. Seraphim „ 
 
 5J 
 
 J> 
 
 the Primum Mobile, 
 
INTRODUCTION. Iv 
 
 Having once grasped this simple arrangement the reader 
 will have no difficulty in following Dante in his flight with 
 Beatrice through the ten spheres of Paradise. There is not 
 a trace of anthropomorphism in Dante's conception of the 
 Deity, in whose presence and in whose will the spirits of the 
 Blest enjoy their full fruition. Though these spirits are 
 allotted to different spheres, of different grades of glory, they 
 equally feel the perfect bliss of carrying out Grod's purposes, 
 and though placed in the different spheres, all will finally 
 resume their own bodies and occupy their own thrones in the 
 Empyrean, when God has completed the number of His 
 elect. Having past through all the lower spheres, Dante 
 is at last carried to the highest Heaven, and vouchsafed to 
 share the glory of this beatific vision, and admitted finally to 
 the presence of the Deity, which alone Dante acknowledges 
 to be beyond his mortal powers : — 
 
 " But such a flight was not for my poor plume : 
 Did not across my mind a glory steal 
 From out the splendour, whence its wish did come. 
 
 To the high fancy here my power did fail. 
 
 But turned my will already, as willed there 
 (Moved on with equal motion like a wheel), 
 
 The love which moves the sun and every star." 
 
 " Paradise," XXXIII., lines 139—45. 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIKGIL. 
 
 Dante was not acquainted with the literature of Greece, 
 except so far as it had filtered through Latin authors, and 
 it was by the study of the latter only that he perfected his 
 art, and became that master of style which even those who 
 depreciate his genius allow as his unrivalled possession. In 
 his poem he distinctly declares that in style he had taken 
 Virgil as his master, and from the study of his works 
 acquired his own excellence. Throughout Dante's poem 
 imitations from Virgil are frequent, and many of the most 
 marked of these will be found pointed out in the Notes, 
 derived chiefly from the industry of the early commentators. 
 But Dante owes more than qualities of style and beauties of 
 verbal expression to the Eoman poet, who in these excel- 
 lences is probably without a rival. The whole structure of 
 the " Inferno" is, in fact, taken from Virgil's description, and 
 in taking Virgil as his own guide through Hell Dante 
 openly acknowledges his obligation : throughout the " Inferno" 
 Dante follows Virgil as one who has thoroughly explored 
 and knows the whole region, and whose familiarity with 
 and power over the spirits of the place is enough to insure 
 his protection from all its perils. Virgil is acquainted 
 with the darkest secrets of Hell, and powerful over its 
 malignant inhabitants : when he issues from the regions of 
 gloom into the light of day, and climbs with Dante the 
 antipodal mountain of Purgatory, he accompanies him as an 
 affectionate companion, but is no more his guide. There, 
 like Dante, he has to inquire the way from others, and to 
 both poets the scene is alike strange. The idea of Purgatory 
 is a Christian belief, unknown to the Koman, as a preparation 
 
Iviii THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 for eternal felicity in a celestial Paradise. The whole work- 
 ing out of the Purgatory is Dante's own invention; but the 
 Christian Inferno differs nothing from the " domos Ditis 
 vacuas, et inania regna" of the Latin poet, and it is wholly 
 on the grand design laid out by Virgil that Daute has raised 
 his own magnificent superstructure. 
 
 In the sixth book of the " ^neid" Virgil makes his hero 
 descend into Hell, and whatever opinion may be formed of 
 the epic powers of the Augustan poet, in that book, and in 
 that description, it must be acknowledged that he has con- 
 centrated all the strength of his genius and produced one of 
 the highest efforts of the human imagination. As Dante 
 tells us that he had spent his days and nights in the study 
 of his favourite master, we may be sure that his own spirit 
 was saturated with the beauties of Virgil's masterpiece, 
 which he reproduced in his own great work. Although this 
 book of the " JEneid" has, of course, been frequently pointed 
 out as one of the sources of Dante's own poem, the subject 
 of Dante's obligations to Virgil has not yet been treated 
 fully, and I believe that a comparison carried out in some 
 detail may be of interest at least to classical readers. 
 
 The Hell of Virgil may be broadly divided into three 
 principal divisions : ** a neutral region for those who are 
 unfortunate rather than blameworthy, a barred and bolted 
 prison-house of torture for the bad, a heroic Valhalla for 
 prowess, genius, and worth," divisions which the most 
 cursory reader of Dante's poem will see that he has 
 accepted. In the "Inferno" we have the vestibule, after 
 passing through the gate, at which all who enter leave hope 
 behind, and there are crowds so vast that the poet says : — 
 
 " io non avrei creduto 
 Che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta." 
 
 And those are described as the sad souls of those who lived 
 without infamy and without praise. Then, after crossing 
 Acheron, we come to Limbo, the first true circle of the 
 Inferno, which answers to Virgil's Elysian fields. Here are 
 no tortures, no punishment. The worthies of old time, who 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. lis 
 
 from ignorance of the Christian dispensation could not share 
 the Christian Paradise, are left in the serene enjoyment of 
 their broad Elysium and the joyful fields : Dante is greeted 
 by Homer and his brother poets as one worthy of their order, 
 and with them he enters the company of the heroes of 
 old:— 
 
 " Into a meadow green we entered all. 
 
 People they were with slowly moving eyes, 
 And great authority was in their port, 
 Karely they spake with sweet-voiced cadences. 
 
 Then we withdrew into a further court, 
 An open place, both lofty and serene. 
 Where all could be beheld who there resort. 
 
 And straightway there upon the enamelled green 
 Were shown me the great souls who there arise — 
 Well may I boast of all whom I have seen." 
 
 " HeU," Canto IV., lines 111—120. 
 
 In this first circle of Hell there is serenity, there is light, 
 and the description, brief as it is, corresponds with Virgil's 
 happy seats : — 
 
 '* Largior hie campos aether, et lumine vestit 
 Purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt." 
 
 Lines 640—1. 
 
 It is only when Dante proceeds from here on his dreadful 
 journey that he enters on darkness and horror : — 
 
 " My chief conducts me by another way, 
 
 Out of the stillness to the trembling air. 
 
 And now I come where no more shines the day." 
 
 ." Hell," Canto IV., lines 149-51. 
 
 Virgil does not make ^neas visit the Tartarus, the 
 abodes of the damned : his guide, the Sibyl, pointing out 
 two ways, tells him that the one they have to follow leads to 
 Elysium, while 
 
 " Nulli fas casto sceleratum insistere limen.'* 
 
 -^neas, shuddering at the gate, is told briefly, and in a 
 summary, the various horrors that are going on within, and 
 to this rapid sketch Dante has applied the whole ingenuity 
 of his constructive genius, and worked out the details of his 
 entire primitive Hell. 
 
Ix THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 Dante is, of course, no mere imitator. In the same way 
 as Virgil had taken the materials supplied by his predeces- 
 sors and made them his own, so Dante appropriates Virgil's 
 wealth, and sends it forth again as a new coinage, stamped 
 with his own effigy. The jewels of the old master are not 
 misplaced in Dante's work, but shine in their new surround- 
 ings with even enhanced lustre. It requires, however, only 
 a careful comparison of this portion of Virgil's epic with the 
 whole "Inferno" to perceive how thoroughly Dante had 
 saturated his spirit in the work of him whom he expressly 
 cites, as his master. 
 
 In the personified woes and ills of mortality, which Virgil 
 places in the vestibule, and the elm- tree on which dreams are 
 clinging like bats under the leaves, I have been able to trace 
 no counterpart in Dante, but after the entrance we come at 
 once to the River Acheron and its ferryman Charon, whom 
 Dante has introduced almost without variation : — 
 
 " Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat 
 Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento 
 Canities inculta jacet, stant lumina flamma, 
 Sordidus ex humeris nodo dependet amictus. 
 Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat, 
 Et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba. 
 Jam senior, sed cruda Deo viridisque senectus.** 
 
 Lines 298—304. 
 
 On first coming Charon is described by Dante : — 
 
 *' When lo, upon a bark there towards us came 
 A very old man, with age- whitened hair." 
 
 '*HeU,"III.,Uiie8 82,83. 
 
 And when his opposition is controlled : — 
 
 " The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew 
 Of that dread pilot of the livid lake. 
 Around whose eyes the whirling lightning flew." 
 
 Lines 97—99. 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " The demon Charon, with his eyes ablaze." 
 
 Line 109. 
 
 Around the bank, and eager to be ferried over, press the 
 
 countless shades. 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixi 
 
 " Hue omnis turba ad ripas effusa ruebat, 
 Matres atque viri, defunctaque corpora vita 
 Magnaninam beroum, pueri innuptseque puellse, 
 Impositique rogis juvenes ante ora parentum : 
 Quam multa in silvis autuniDi frigore primo 
 Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terrain gurgite ab alto 
 Quam multae glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus 
 Trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis." 
 
 Lines 305—312. 
 
 So we have in Dante : — 
 
 " A crowd that throng the bank of a great stream, 
 And said, ' O master, unto me now mete 
 To know what race are these, and why they seem 
 So anxious to cross o'er to the other side. 
 As I discover by this feeble beam.' " 
 
 " Hell," III., lines 71-75. 
 And again : — 
 
 " Just as the withered leaves of autumn fall, 
 The one upon the other, till the bough 
 To earth yields all its garment, as a pall ; 
 
 The evil seed of Adam downwards, so 
 
 Throw themselves one by one from that sad shore, 
 At signs, hke bird that to the call doth go." 
 
 "HeU," III., lines 112-117. 
 
 Although the simile of the birds is changed, the new 
 simile adopted by Dante was unquestionably suggested by 
 the recollection of the birds coupled with the leaves in 
 Virgil. 
 
 The desire of the shades to cross the river has of course a 
 different reason in each poem : in Dante, where evil souls 
 pass only for punishment : — 
 
 " So spurs them onwards, justice all divine. 
 That to desire is changed their fear o' the rod." 
 
 Lines 125, 126. 
 In Virgil the shades of those whose bodies have not 
 found a grave cannot pass, and hence follows the pathetic 
 meeting of -^neas with the shade of Palinurus, drowned in 
 his last voyage, who beseeches his leader to take him with 
 him over the black river. But the Sibyl rejects his interces- 
 sion, and tells him to abandon his useless prayer. 
 
 " Desine fata Deum flecti sperare precando" 
 
Ixii THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 — a line concerning whicli Dante demands explanation from 
 Virgil in the sixth Canto of the " Purgatory," as being in 
 opposition to the cry of all the spirits there, for prayer 
 to assist them in their purification, to the text of which 
 Canto, lines 28 to 48, I refer the reader. 
 
 Both in the " ^neid" and in Dante Charon at first refuses 
 to accept a living freight. In Yirgil, 
 
 " Sic prior adgreditur dictis, atque increpat ultro : 
 Quisquis es, armatus qui nostra ad flumina tendis, 
 Fare age, quid venias, jam istinc, et comprime gressum." 
 
 Lines 387—389. 
 
 The last line is curiously recalled by Dante on another occa- 
 sion, when in Canto XII. the Centaur stops him with almost 
 the same formula : — 
 
 " Ditel costinci, se non I'arco tiro." 
 
 He continues : — 
 
 " Umbrarum hie locus est, Somni Noctisque soporse : 
 Corpora viva nefas Stygia vectare carina." 
 
 Lines 390, 391. 
 
 As in Dante, 
 
 " But thou, soul still living, stand aside ; 
 
 Depart from these, whom Death has made his own." 
 
 " Hell," III., lines 88, 89. 
 
 In the " Inferno" Virgil silences Charon by the expression 
 of the will of a higher power. In the "iEneid" the Sibyl 
 overpowers him by the sight of the spell, the golden bough, 
 " Tumida ex ira tum corda residunt ;" or, as Dante more 
 vividly expresses it, 
 
 <* The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew 
 Of that dread pilot of the living lake," 
 
 As ^neas enter the bark. 
 
 *' Gemuit sub pondere cymba 
 Sutilis, et multam accepit rimosa paludem." 
 
 Lines 413, 414. 
 
 Dante falls as it were in slumbering swoon at the bank of 
 
 the river, and does not know how he crosses it. In the next 
 
 Canto we find him on the other bank. But the touch of 
 
 the spirit bark sinking under mortal weight is not forgotten : 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGI. Ixiii 
 
 we have it on a later occasion. When they cross to the City 
 of Dis, over the lake, in Phlegyas' boat: — 
 
 " My leader then descended in the bark, 
 
 And made me enter at his side ; the strain 
 Only, when I was in, it seemed to mark. 
 Soon as my guide and I our seats had ta'en, 
 Cutting the water goes the ancient prow. 
 More than its wont, when others cross that main." 
 
 " Hell," VIII., liaes 25-30. 
 
 After crossing Acheron, -^neas finds Cerberus lying in a 
 cave opposite, whom the Sibyl drugs with a medicated cake, 
 and they pass on. 
 
 ", Cerberus hsec ingens latratu regna trifauci 
 Personat, adverso recubans immanis in antro. 
 Cui vates, horrere videns jam colla colubris, 
 Melle soporatam et medicatis fru gibus offam 
 Objecit. Ille fame rabida tria guttura pandens 
 Corripit objectam, atque immania terga resolvit 
 Fusus humi totoque ingens extenditur antro. 
 Occupat j^Eneas aditum custode sepulto, 
 Evaditque celer ripam inremeabilis undae." 
 
 Lines 417—425. 
 
 Dante places Cerberus as the guardian of the third circle, 
 where gluttony is punished, himself its personification. 
 
 " Wild Cerberus, of twofold nature rare. 
 
 With three throats hurleth out the doglike bark 
 Upon the people that are cowering there. 
 
 His eyes are red, his greasy beard is dark. 
 
 His belly large and fingers armed with nails ; 
 
 He tears, and fl.ays, and rends the spirits stark. 
 =* * # # 
 
 My leader stretches out his hand and draws 
 
 A clod of earth, the which with forceful blow 
 He drove right into his voracious maws. 
 
 Like to a dog, that barking but to show 
 
 His longing, eats up food with quiet mien. 
 And only fought to fill his hunger, so 
 
 Were quieted at once the jaws obscene 
 
 Of the demon Cerberus, who so dins the souls 
 That thev would very gladly deaf have been." 
 
 " Hell," Canto VI., lines 13-^3. 
 
Ixiv THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 In the first place ^neas liears the weeping cries of infants. 
 " Quos dulcis vitae exortis et ab ubere raptos 
 Abstulit atra dies et f unere mersit acerbo." 
 
 Lines 428, 429. 
 
 Those Dante also places in his Limbo, and at the close of 
 the " Paradise" reaffirms that for all who die before baptism 
 Limbo must be their bourn. 
 
 Next to the infants come those who have suffered by 
 unjust doom of death on earth, who have the sentence 
 revised. 
 
 " Quaesitor Minos urnam movet ; ille silentum 
 Conciliumque vocat vitasque et crimina discit."' 
 
 Lines 432, 433. 
 Dante advances Minos to be the universal judge of the 
 spirits doomed to Hell, and as such places him at the entrance 
 of the second circle, 
 
 " There standeth Minos, horrible, and grins ; 
 At the entrance he examineth betimes, 
 And folding each around doth judge their sins. 
 I say, that when those souls, born in ill times, 
 
 Come before him, they straightway all things tell." 
 
 "Hell," v., lines 4-8. 
 In the vicinity of Virgil's Minos are the suicides — 
 " Quam vellent aethere in alto 
 Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores !" 
 
 Lines 436 — 7. 
 
 Dante has of course a separate circle in Hell, the second 
 division of the seventh, for the punishment of those whom he 
 finds in the ghastly wood, on whose branches sit the Harpies, 
 " che cacciar delle Strofade i Trojani." — Canto XIII., line II. 
 The trees of the wood are themselves the spirits, as Dante 
 learns by breaking off a twig, when the voice of the injured 
 shade comes out with the oozing juice. The whole incident 
 is Virgilian, being taken from the story of -^neas plucking a 
 wand at the tomb of Polydorus, when he is horrified by what 
 follows : — 
 
 " Eloquar, an sileam ? gemitus lacrimabilis imo 
 Auditur tumulo, et vox reddita fertur ad auris : 
 Quid miserum, -^nea laceras ? jam parce sepulto ; 
 Parce pias sclerare manus." 
 
 Lib. III., Hnes 39—42. 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixv 
 
 Beyond the suicides stretch out the lugentes campi, where 
 the unfortunate in love wander concealed in the glens and 
 myrtle groves, " curse non ipsa in morte relinquunt." Here 
 ^neas meets again with the wretched Dido, and after ac- 
 counting for his heartless abandonment of her by the fact 
 that he did so under Divine constraint, adds that he did not 
 think she would feel it so keenly. The hero succeeded in 
 forcing up his own tears, but justly fails even to provoke an 
 answer from the injured queen. In the second circle of Hell 
 Dante places those " ch' amor di nostra vita dipartille," and 
 the frigid sketch of the Eoman poet becomes the most per- 
 fectly finished portion of the modern poem, and the passionate 
 Italian in the story of Francesca pours out the whole strength 
 of his genius and his pity. In the fourth book of the " ^Eneid" 
 Virgil has shown his own power to depict the master passion, 
 but I know nothing in the whole range of ancient or modern 
 art that can fairly be placed beside Dante's fifth Canto for 
 pathetic tenderness and exquisite perfection of rhythm and 
 style. 
 
 -^neas, after leaving Dido, passes from the mourning fields 
 to the last division of that boundary of the Inferno, broad 
 spaces in which throng those who have died in battle. The 
 shadows of the Trojan warriors press around, those of the 
 Greeks shrink from the living hero, though some of the latter 
 attempt to raise their war cry with their shrill spirit voice : — 
 
 " Atque hie Priamiden laniatum corpore toto 
 Deiphobum vidit, lacerum crudeliter ora, 
 Ora manusque ambas, populataque tempora raptis 
 Auribus, et truncas inhonesto volnere naris. 
 Yix adeo adgnovit pavitantem et dira tegentem 
 Supplicia." 
 
 Lines 494—99. 
 
 No one can doubt that Dante had this terrible description 
 in his mind when he concocted the rival horrors in his 28th 
 Canto. There, in the ninth ward of the eighth circle, we 
 find the inventors of schisms slashed by a fiend with the 
 most fearful wounds. One rivals Deiphobus : — 
 
Ixri THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 " Another, unto whom the throat was pierced ; 
 The nose sheared closely off between the eyes, 
 And in an ear who also was amerced." 
 
 Canto XXVIII., lines 64-6. 
 
 And another : — 
 
 " Then one, from whom both hands had been offsmote, 
 Raising his maimed arms in the dusky air, 
 So that the dripping blood his face did blot." 
 
 Lines 103—5. 
 
 The picture of poor Deiphobus shrinking back and endea- 
 vouring to hide his disfigurements is more affecting than that 
 of Dante's spirits exhibiting their wounds with a sort of 
 ghastly pride ; but each is suitable, the one feeling to that of 
 the wretched murdered prince in the shades, but not con- 
 demned, the other to doomed criminals in Hell. I cannot 
 but trace in the striking picture of the shade preserving in 
 after life the fearful wounds with which its body was mangled 
 on earth the seed of Dante's conception of the punishments 
 inflicted on the creators of schism, the description of which 
 arouses his pity when pity had long been dead ; — 
 
 " The various wounds and people crowded deep. 
 As if with drunkenness my eyes did blear, 
 That they were anxious but to rest and weep.'* 
 
 Canto XXIX., Hnes 1—3. 
 
 The colloquy between ^neas and Deiphobus is interrupted 
 by the Sibyl, who warns the hero that the time allotted for 
 his stay amongst the shades is short — 
 
 (" And little of our granted time doth bide." 
 
 Canto XXIX., Hne 11.) 
 
 that here the road divides, leading on one side, which they 
 must follow, to the Elysian fields, on the other to Tartarus 
 and the punishments of the accursed. Here, in fact, the 
 neutral region ceases ; it is worked out by Virgil with great 
 minuteness, and forms no inconsiderable portion of the whole 
 region of the dead, while Dante passes it by with little de- 
 scription, placing it indeed within the gates of Hell, but on 
 the hither side of Acheron. He has, however, as we have 
 seen, transferred all Virgil's descriptions to other portions of 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixvii 
 
 his " Inferno," not servilely following his master, but, hke a 
 great artist, reproducing his beauties where they would best 
 fit into his own work. 
 
 ^neas does not enter Tartarus. 
 
 " Eespicit ^neas subito, et sub rupe sinistra 
 Moenia lata videt, triplici circumdata muro. 
 Quae rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis, 
 Tartareus Phlegethon, torquetque sonantia saxa. 
 Porta adversa, ingens, solidoque adamante columnae, 
 Vis ut nulla virum, non ipsi exscindere bello 
 Coelicolse valeant ; stat ferrea turris ad auras, 
 Tisiphoneque sedens palla succincta cruenta, 
 Vestibulum exsomnis servat noctesque diesque. 
 Hinc exaudiri gemitus, et sseva sonare 
 Verbera ; turn stridor ferri, tractseque catenae." 
 
 Lines 548—58. 
 
 This magnificent passage sounds like the keynote to the 
 whole of Dante's " Inferno," but special imitations of almost 
 every line can be traced. On the borders of the lake, formed 
 by the waters of Styx, Dante places his City of Dis, the 
 approach to which is thus described : — 
 
 " ' Even now its minarets, master !' I exclaim, 
 * I see above the valley rising higher. 
 Vermeil, as though they issued out of flame.' 
 
 And he explained to me : ' The eternal fire 
 
 That glows within makes them look ruddy here, 
 As in this deep of hell thou seest each spire.' 
 
 Meanwhile within the deep-cut moat we steer 
 That trenches round that land disconsolate. 
 As if of iron wrought the walls appear." 
 
 " Hell," Canto VIII., Hnes 70-8. 
 
 Here the demons refuse all admittance, and even Virgil 
 cannot control their resistance, which is only overcome by an 
 angel messenger of the Divine Power. The tower is guarded, 
 not by Tisiphone, but by all the Furies : — 
 
 " Because I wholly had withdrawn my eyes 
 Towards the high turret, with its crest aglow, 
 When all at once I saw erect arise 
 
 The three infernal Furies, tinged with blood." 
 
 Canto IX., lines 35—8. 
 
Ixviii THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 The awful effect produced in Virgil's closing lines by the 
 sounds of the unseen horrors is keenly felt by Dante, and 
 frequently reproduced. An example can be taken from his 
 descent on Gerion into the eighth circle : — 
 
 " Because both flames I see and screams I hear, 
 At which all trembling in my seat I cower. 
 Till then unheard there strike upon my ear, 
 
 As through great pains we sank and circled on, 
 Cries that on every side approached us near." 
 
 Canto XVII., lines 122—126. 
 
 The Sibyl gives iEneas a brief description of the events of 
 the prison-house. Ehadamanthus judges the spirits as they 
 come before him : — 
 
 *' Castigatque auditque dolos, subigitque fateri, 
 Quae quis apud superos, furto Isetatus inani, 
 Distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem." 
 
 Lines 567—9. 
 
 Dante allots the task to Minos alone, and in words which I 
 have already quoted gives the same idea of extorted con- 
 fession and instant punishment. The guilty souls are handed 
 over to Tisiphone : — 
 
 '* Tum demum horrisono stridentes cardine sacrae 
 Panduntur portse." 
 
 Lines 573, 4. 
 
 Strangely enough, Dante transfers this description, imitated 
 also by Milton in his well-known lines : — 
 
 ** On a sudden open fly, 
 With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 
 The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
 Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
 Of Erebus." 
 
 " Paradise Lost," Book II., line 879 foil. 
 
 Dante, I remark, transfers the description to the gate of 
 Purgatory : — 
 
 " And when there swung upon its hinges there 
 The portals of that entrance consecrate, 
 Which were of sounding metal, strong and clear, 
 
 Creakt not so loud the famed Tarpeian Grate." 
 
 "Purgatory," Canto IX., line 133 foil. 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixix 
 
 When the gates are opened you see the Fury on the 
 threshold, Hydra yet fiercer within, and beyond the black 
 depths of Tartarus, stretching twice as far to the centre 
 as from earth to the light of Heaven. 
 
 Of the doomed within the Sibyl mentions by name only a 
 few of the Titan race, whom Dante places as the guardians 
 of his lowest circle. Having described briefly two out of the 
 many punishments, she dismisses in a rapid summary the 
 classes of criminals who suffer : — 
 
 ** Hie quibus invisi fratres, dum vita manebat, 
 Pulsatusve parens, et fraus innexa clienti, 
 Aut qui divitiis soli incubuere repertis, 
 Nee partem posuere suis, quse maxuma turba est ; 
 Quique ob adulterium csesi, quique arma secuti 
 Impia, nee veriti dominorum fallere dextras/ 
 Inclusi paenam exspectant." 
 
 Lines 608—14. 
 
 As Mr. Conington points out, we have here seven classes of 
 criminals — (1) those who have violated duty to their brothers, 
 (2) to their parents, (3) to their clients, (4) to their kindred 
 generally, through avarice, (5) to their married fellow- 
 citizens, (6) to their country, and (7) to their masters. 
 
 It will not be doubted that in Dante's elaborate classifi- 
 cation of criminals all these find a place. Caina, the first of 
 the four divisions into which the lowest circle is divided, takes 
 its name from Cain, who slew his brother, and here are 
 punished tliose, quibus invisi fratres, pulsatusve parens. The 
 third class, the evil counsellors, are punished in the eighth 
 pit of Malebolge, with Ulysses and Diomed. (See Canto 
 XXVI.) The fourth class, the avaricious, together with the 
 prodigal, hold their grotesque jousts in the fourth circle : — 
 
 " Since all the gold beneath the moon possest, 
 Or ever owned by those worn souls of yore. 
 Could not make one of them one moment rest." 
 
 Canto VII., lines 64—6. 
 
 The fifth class are tossed on the wind in the second circle, 
 quique ob adulterium csesi : — 
 
Ixx THE OBLIGATIONS OF DAKTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 " Thousands more 
 Shadows he showed me, and their names he told 
 Whom Love had hurried from our mortal shore." 
 
 Canto v., lines 67~9. 
 
 The sixth class, quique arma secuti Impia, are found in the 
 second division of the lowest circle ; and the last class, nee 
 veriti dominorum fallere dextras, are sunk in the last division 
 of all, where Judas, Cassius, and Brutus are mangled in the 
 jaws of Lucifer, as the type of all who have betrayed their 
 masters — in the eyes of Dante the worst and deadliest crime. 
 
 The Sibyl tells ^neas not to inquire too curiously into the 
 nature of their punishments. She alludes to the tortures of 
 Sisyphus, Ixion, and Theseus, and adds — 
 
 *' Phlegyasque miserrimus omnis 
 Admonet, et magna testatur voce per umbras : 
 ' Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere Divos.* " 
 
 Lines 618—20. 
 
 Dante places Phlegyas, the violator of the Temple of 
 Apollo, as boatman on the Styx, himself the type of Wrath, 
 over the spirits of wrath punished in the muddy lake : — 
 
 " Saw muddy people standing in the mire 
 
 All naked, and with looks where anger glowed. 
 Striking themselves, so did their rage transpire, 
 
 Not hands alone they used, but head and feet, 
 
 Biting themselves to pieces in their ire. 
 My gentle master said, ' O son, now greet 
 
 The souls of those whom anger overcame.* '* 
 
 " Hell," Canto VII., lines 110—16. 
 
 In the lines of the Sibyl that follow Virgil is generally 
 supposed to allude to Curio, who, bought over by Caesar 
 from Pompey's party, was the first to overcome his master's 
 scruples, and is introduced into Lucan's " Pharsalia" prompt- 
 ing the passage of the Eubicon with the words " Tolle moras : 
 nocuit semper differre paratis. 
 
 Vendidit hie auro patriam, dominumque potentem 
 Imposuit ; fixit leges pretio atque refixit." 
 
 Lines 621, 622. 
 
 Dante places Curio with the creators of schism, where his 
 tongue has been cut out by the Demon's sword ; — 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixxi 
 
 ".* 'Tis lie ; he cannot speak to you. 
 This banished man, removed from C^sar, loath, 
 All doubt, affirming that when well prepared, 
 Any delay to injury ever groweth.' 
 Ah ! how bewildered he to me appeared, 
 
 There with his tongue shorn closely in his throat, 
 Curio, who erst in speaking had so dared." 
 
 " Hell," Canto XXVIII., lines 96—102. 
 With a rapid summary the Sibyl closes her account :— 
 
 *' Ausi omnes immane nefas, ausoque potiti. 
 Non mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum, 
 Ferrea vox, omnis scelerum comprendere formas. 
 Omnia psenarum percurrere nomina possim." 
 
 Lines 624—7. 
 
 iEneas then lays down his golden bough before the Halls of 
 Pluto, and advances to the fields of Elysium. It is seen that 
 in Virgil's brief sketch of Tartarus there is hardly an allusion 
 which Dante has not made his own and worked up in his 
 elaborate structure. 
 
 It is not necessary to follow so minutely the account which 
 follows of the Elysian fields. I have shown that Dante 
 takes it as described by Virgil, with but slight modification, 
 and places it as one part of what he calls Limbo, in the first 
 circle of the Inferno. But here also there are specific imita- 
 tions. When ^neas meets his father's shade he attempts to 
 embrace it ; — 
 
 " Ter conatus ibi collo dare bracchia circum, 
 Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago. 
 Par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno."^ 
 
 Lines 700 — 2. 
 So when the soul of Statins first learns that it is the great 
 Virgil whom he has met in Purgatory he wishes to fall down 
 and embrace his feet, himself a shade forgetting the nothing- 
 ness of both : — 
 
 " Already he bent down to embrace the feet 
 Of my dear teacher : but he said, * Forbear, 
 O brother : thou a shade, a shade dost greet.' 
 
 And he arising : ' Now thou art aware 
 
 Of the great love, which towards thee me doth warm 
 When I forget we are but empty air, ' 
 
 Treating a shadow like a solid form.' " 
 
 " Purgatory," Canto XXI., lines 130-6. 
 
Ixxii THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 The doctrine of metempsycliosis, -which Virgil makes use 
 of as a poetical device to enable JSneas to see amongst the 
 shades the future heroes of Eoman history, is alien to the 
 true spirit of his Elysian fields as a place of happy repose, 
 but the artifice introduces to us a foreshadowing of Pur- 
 gatory, where the spirit goes through a course of purifying 
 punishment to get rid of the ingrained stains of its former 
 life before it enters on Elysium or is allowed to quaff Lethe, 
 the water of oblivion, so as forgetful of the past to enter on 
 life again. 
 
 The remarkable passage in which Anchises explains these 
 mysteries to his son was strongly impressed on Dante's 
 mind, and bore fruit in his poem. In the following lines 
 he explains how the stains of mortality blunt the divine 
 essence of the spirit both before and after death ; — 
 
 " Igneus est ollis vigor et coelestis origo 
 Seminibus, quantum non noxia corpora tardant 
 Terrenique hebetant artus moribundaque membra. 
 Hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque, neque auras 
 Dispiciunt clausee tenebris et carcere caeco. 
 Quin et supremo cum lumine vita reliquit, 
 Non tamen omne malum miseris nee funditus omnes 
 Corporese excedunt pestes, penitusque necesse est^ 
 Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris." 
 
 Lines 730—8. 
 
 In the " Purgatory," where the spirits in the sixth cornice 
 are purified, through leanness, of the sin of gluttony, Dante 
 is puzzled to know how spirits who require no nourishment 
 can grow lean ; and to solve his doubts Statins explains to 
 him the mystery of humanity from its generation to death, 
 and shows how then the spirit is clothed with air, on which 
 it stamps the seal of its mortal appearance and the charac- 
 teristics of its mortal being : — 
 
 " So the surrounding air hath here selected 
 
 That form which in effect the soul doth claim 
 With its own seal, which is on it reflected. 
 
 And as the fire aye follows on the flame. 
 
 There, where is shifted now the spirit's site, 
 Follows upon that spirit the new frame. 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OP DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixxiii 
 
 Thence afterwards it gains appearance, hight 
 A shadow, and its organs, hence the while 
 Each one attaineth, even to the sight. 
 
 Hence is it that we speak, and hence we smile : 
 Hence is it that we break to tears and sighs, 
 Which on the mountain thou hast seen erewhile. 
 
 According as the spirit's yearnings rise. 
 
 And its affections, so is shaped the shade." 
 
 " Purgatory," Canto XXV., lines 94—107. 
 
 A thorough comprehension of the passage in Yirgil 
 removes all difficulty from Dante's conception. In the 
 former it is the earthly limbs and vesture of decay that dim 
 the spiritual essence, and even in life cause the passions and 
 desires, while in after life the same are wonderfully ingrained 
 in the spirit, and become a part of it. In Dante the very 
 appearance and character of the mortal being are stamped 
 upon his shade, and endow it with mortal attributes, and 
 even mortal affections. 
 
 It is this mortal taint in the spirit that requires purifica- 
 tion even in Virgil's happy fields : — 
 
 " Ergo exercentur poenis, veterumque malorum 
 Supplicia expendunt : alise panduntur inanis 
 Suspensse ad ventos ; aliis sub gurgite vasto 
 Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni : 
 Quisque suos patimur Manis ; exinde per amplum 
 Mittimur Elysium, et pauci Iseta arva tenemus : 
 Donee longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe, 
 Concretam exemit labem, purunique reliquit 
 ^therium sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem. 
 Has omnis, ubi mille rotam volvere per annos, 
 Lethseum ad fluvium deus evocat agmine magno, 
 Scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisant." 
 
 Lines 739—50. 
 
 There is here unquestionably the whole theory of Pur- 
 gatory, but of the three special modes of purification indi- 
 cated in Virgil Dante introduces one only in the seven 
 cornices of his mountain, when on the highest cornice the 
 spirits of the lustful are purified in fire. It is a singular 
 fact that Dante and his guide pass through all the other 
 cornices without sharing the pains of the purifying spirits. 
 But it is not so in this instance ; — 
 
 / 
 
Ixxiv THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 " There, where God's Angel glad before us stood. 
 
 Beyond the flame he stood, above the way, 
 And sang : * Beati mundo corde,' clear 
 In voice, beyond the reach of human lay : 
 
 Then, ' Holy souls, ye cannot further steer 
 Until the flame has bit ye ; enter brave. 
 And be not deaf unto the song ye'll hear.' " 
 
 " Purgatory," Canto XXVII., lines 6—12. 
 
 Even the shade of Virgil passes through the flame, fiercer 
 than molten glass, although he only accompanies Dante as 
 far as the Terrestrial Paradise, to leave him there under 
 other guidance and return to Limbo. 
 
 Dante, following Virgil, places the river of Lethe as the 
 boundary stream, drinking which the spirit shall obtain the 
 boon of forgetfulness after completing his purification. 
 Upon his description of the Terrestrial Paradise and its 
 waters of oblivion Dante has poured out all the wealth of 
 his genius, while Virgil only gives the faintest sketch. Still 
 the germ of Dante's Terrestrial Paradise is here : — 
 
 " Interea vidit j^neas in valle reducta 
 Seclusum nemus et virgulta sonantia silvis, 
 Lethaeumque, domos placidas qui praenatat, amnem." 
 
 Lines 703—5. 
 
 Let the reader refer to the 28th Canto of the " Purgatory," 
 and read the description of the divine forest, with its murmur 
 of leaves, and the dark but crystal clear river gliding beneath 
 the perpetual shade, and he will see how Virgil's faint outline 
 is filled up into a perfect picture. 
 
 It is with no thought of depreciating Dante that I have 
 instituted this inquiry into his avowed imitations of his 
 predecessor. His deep study of Virgil is his boast, and to it 
 he himself attributes his own success in his art : — 
 
 " ' Art thou indeed that Virgil, and that fount 
 
 From which sprang forth of song so large a stream ?' 
 Answered I to him with a shame- struck front, 
 ' 0, of all other poets, pride and beam. 
 
 Avail me the great love, and study long. 
 Which made me ever ponder o'er thy theme. 
 Thou art my Master, I to thee belong : 
 
 Thou only art the one from whom I've ta'en 
 The polished style, that's brought me fame in song." 
 
 " HeU," Canto I., lines 79-87. 
 
THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. Ixxr 
 
 It has been the fashion of late years to depreciate Virgil, 
 but when we allow his inferiority to Shakespeare, Homer, 
 Dante himself, and perhaps Milton, it is impossible to find 
 any other poet of ancient or modern times who can fairly be 
 placed in the same rank with the pride of the Augustan era. 
 As a master of style he is unequalled except by his own 
 follower, Dante, though the style of the latter is distinctly 
 his own, and, except in expressions palpably imitated, is in 
 no way founded upon Yirgil's. Virgil's is copious and ornate, 
 Dante's terse to conciseness. Both indulge in rhetorical 
 commonplaces of description, evidently copied by Dante from 
 his master, and which to the student produce the like charm 
 of association, like the fragrance of a familar vintage : — 
 
 " Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile — 
 Nox ruit oceano — aurae vela vocant — 
 Vocat jam carbasus auras — 
 Cingor fulgentibus armis — " 
 
 are Virgilian commonplaces which give pleasure through 
 the very iteration. Dante has caught the trick from his 
 master, and works it in his own way. When he wishes to 
 particularise the hour it is : — 
 
 " The eternal mistress of Tithonus old, 
 Already whitened in the eastern height, 
 Quitting the dear arms that around her fold." 
 
 " Purgatory," IX., lines 1 — 3. 
 " Now in the hour, when the diurnal heat 
 
 Can warm no more the coldness of the night, 
 Conquered by chill of earth, or Saturn's seat." 
 
 " Purgatory," XIX., lines 1—3. 
 " Now without pause 'twas time to mount the height 
 Since the meridian circle of the day 
 Filled Taurus' star, the Scorpion's that of night." 
 " Purgatory," XXV., lines 1—3. 
 " So that his earliest rays were trembling o'er 
 The land in which his Maker shed his blood, 
 And Libra stood on high on Ebro's shore, 
 And Ganges' wave with midday glory glowed, 
 The sun was stationed, so that sank the day." 
 
 " Purgatory," XXVII., Hnes 1-5. 
 *' But onwards now : already seeks the main, 
 With boundary of both hemispheres in view, 
 Beyond Seville, the faggot-bearing Cain ; 
 And yestreen to its full the round moon grew." 
 
 " Hell." Canto XX., lines 124—27. 
 
Ixxvi THE OBLIGATIONS OF DANTE TO VIRGIL. 
 
 Doubtless Dante had in view, by thus calling up geogra- 
 phical details in mid- Hell, or on the cornices of his mountain 
 of Purgatory, to give the effect of reality to his vision, but 
 the constant repetition of the artifice, like Yirgil's studied 
 iterations, yields to the accustomed ear the charm of fami- 
 liarity : to the lover of either poet the trick is pleasant because 
 it is his own. 
 
 The one pre-eminent excellence both in Yirgil and Dante, 
 and in which neither is surpast in the whole range of litera- 
 ture, is graphic vigour, although their mode of workmanship 
 and the effect produced is quite distinct. If illustration be 
 taken from rival arts Virgil's is cognate with that of the 
 painter, Dante's with that of the sculptor ; but the works of 
 both are absolutely endued with life, the pictured forms have 
 all the glow and action of reality, the sculptures breathe. 
 As a narrative poet I think that Virgil is absolutely unrivalled ; 
 in his elaborate descriptions, such as of the chariot-race in the 
 *' Greorgics" — of all the games, but more especially the boat- 
 race in the "^neid'* — of Eneas' search for Creusa through the 
 streets of burning Troy — of the deaths of Priam, Dido, and 
 Turnus — his intensely dramatic spirit brings the whole scene 
 in each case before the reader, with all its realistic details : 
 the reader can say with Dante, looking at the paintings on 
 the floor of the first cornice of Purgatory : — 
 
 " Alive the living, dead the dead appear ; 
 
 Who saw the facts beheld not more than I." 
 
 " Purgatory," XII., lines 67, 68. 
 
 This intensity and vigour of conception are qualities of 
 which no modern depreciation can deprive the great poet of 
 Imperial Rome ; it cannot deprive him of the honour which 
 the enthusiastic admiration of such a man as Dante would 
 bestow on any writer ; it cannot deprive him of the glory of 
 having in an episode of his uncompleted epic laid the founda- 
 tions on which has been constructed what is, perhaps, taken 
 all in all, the noblest poem which the world will ever see. 
 
H p] L L. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 Dante having wandered in the middle of his life into a dark forest, which re- 
 presents the maze of human passions, attempts to climb the mountain of 
 Virtue, and is repulsed by three beasts, the leopard, the lion, and the wolf, 
 representing the lust of Pleasure, Pride, and Avarice. He is rescued 
 from these by the shade of Virgil, who promises to conduct him through 
 Hell and Purgatory, whilst another worthier spirit shaU finally lead him 
 to Paradise. 
 
 Upon the journey of my life midway, 
 
 I found myself within a darkling wood, 
 
 Where from the straight path I had gone astray : 
 Ah, to describe it is a labour rude, 
 
 So wild the wood, and rough, and thick, and wide, ^ 
 
 That at the thought the terror is renewed. 
 So bitter is it, 'tis to death allied : 
 
 But of the good to treat, which there I drew. 
 
 The lofty things I'll tell, I there descried. 
 How I had entered there I hardly knew, ^® 
 
 So deep was I in slumber at the part 
 
 When I had wandered from the pathway true. 
 But when the mountain's slope began to start. 
 
 There, where there ceased that valley of the night, 
 
 Which with its terror had so pierced my heart, ^^ 
 
 I looked aloft, and saw its shoulders bright 
 
 Already mantled with that planet's rays. 
 
 Which wanderers in all pathways leads aright. 
 That sight the terror of my heart allays. 
 
 Which in its depths till then no respite gave, ^ 
 
 That night I past in such a sore amaze. 
 
 Line 1. "Upon the journey of my life midway." Dante gives the date of 
 his vision at the close of his thirty-fifth year, the half of the threescore 
 years and ten allotted by the Psalmist. This was A.D. 1300, and events that 
 occurred at a later period are thus introduced as prophecy. 
 
 Line 17. " Already mantled with that planet's rays." The Sun, the rays 
 of Truth, which guide the wanderer from the maze of error, and light up the 
 summit of the mountain of Virtue. 
 
 B 
 
2 HELL. Cauto I. 
 
 And as oiie'breathles^ JfrJih^Ji watery grave, 
 
 lyti^.hf^ h^^ reached tlie. shore from out tlie sea, 
 ^^urRs ajid ip<C)ks back.^on;the perilous wave : 
 So did my soul, whicli *eVen y^l; would flee, . ^* 
 
 Turn backwards to behold the past again 
 
 From which with life none ever issued free^ 
 After my weary frame some rest had ta'en, ^ 
 
 The lower foot set firmly at each stride, 
 
 Upwards I went through that deserted plain. ^ 
 
 •When lo ! at the first ascent of that hillside, 
 
 A panther, lithe, most agile of its race. 
 
 And covered over with a spotted hide. 
 It never turned aside from 'fore my face, 
 
 And so blocked up my pathway, ne'er withdrawn, ^ 
 
 That oft I turned my footsteps to retrace. 
 The time was then the hour of early dawn, 
 
 And the sun rose, with those same stars beside, 
 
 Which were with him when first their light was drawn 
 By Love divine in beauteousness to glide. ■*" 
 
 So I had every reason to essay 
 
 The conquest of that beast with beauteous hide. 
 In that fair season and the hour of day ; 
 
 Yet none the less a panic in me woke. 
 
 The sight, which showed a lion in the way. ■** 
 
 He seemed as if 'gainst me in charge he broke. 
 
 With head aloft and maddening hunger's ire, ^ 
 
 The very air appeared to fear his stroke. 
 Then came a she- wolf, who of all desire 
 
 Appeared incarnate in her leanness grim, ^^ 
 
 Through whom vast crowds in wretchedness transpire. 
 This with such leaden weight struck every limb 
 
 From terror rising at her sight of dread, 
 
 That I lost every hope the height to climb. 
 
 Line 27. "From whicli with life none ever issued fi*ee." Hyperbolically 
 descriptive of the few who escape from the entanglement of human 
 passions. 
 
 Line 38. " And the sun rose, with those same stars beside, 
 
 Which were with him when first their light was drawn 
 By Love divine in beauteousness to glide." 
 The sun was in the constellation of Aries, the time of spring, at which 
 season Dante supposes the Creation to have taken place. 
 
 Line 41. " So I had every reason to essay." The translation in the text is 
 the interpretation of this difficult passage given by Venturi. The Italian an- 
 notators explain the difficulty by saying that the season of the day and year 
 gave the Poet heart to hope to win the panther's gay coat in sign of his 
 victory. Gary makes the beauty of the panther a cause for gaiety, which 
 must be wrong. 
 
Canto I. HELL. 3 
 
 And such is he who masseth wealth with greed, ^^ 
 
 Till comes the time all things from him to wrest, 
 And in each thought to wail, is all his meed. 
 
 So haunted me that beast that cannot rest, 
 Who foot by foot, before me, slowly reared, 
 And where the sun was silent, downwards prest. ^'^ 
 
 While to the deep abysses thus I neared, 
 A vision then arose before my face, 
 Whose voice, through lengthened silence, faint appeared. 
 
 When I beheld him in that desert place, 
 
 " Ah, miserere !" did I loudly cry, °^ 
 
 *' Art thou a shadow, or of human race ?'* 
 
 He answered me : " No man : a man was I 
 In former times, and of the Mantuan state 
 Were both my parents, in fair Lombardy. 
 
 Suh Julio born, though that came somewhat late, '** 
 
 And I, 'neath good Augustus, lived at Rome, 
 In time of the false gods, of idle prate. ) 
 
 I was a poet, and I sang his doom, 
 
 Anchises' honest son, who came from Troy, 
 
 After proud Ilion was a burning tomb. " 
 
 But wherefore turn'st thou back to such annoy ? 
 Wherefore not climb up this delicious mount. 
 The cause and the commencement of all joy ?" 
 
 *' Art thou indeed that Virgil, and that fount 
 
 From which sprang forth of song so large a stream ?" ^" 
 Answered I to him with a shame-struck front. 
 
 " O, of all other poets, pride and beam. 
 Avail me the great love, and study long, 
 Which made me ever ponder o'er thy theme. 
 
 Thou art my Master, I to thee belong : ®* 
 
 Thou only art the one from whom I've ta'en 
 The polished style, that brought me fame in song. 
 
 Line 60. " And where tbe sun was silent, downwards prest." The meta- 
 phor seems forced to modern ears : dove 'I sol tace. It is in imitation of the 
 "Luna silens" or moonless night of the classics. Probably Yirgirs"per 
 arnica silentia Lunae " is more directly imitated. 
 
 Line 63. " Whose voice, through lengthened silence, faint appeared." The 
 faint voice of the spirit in the upper world is imitated from the " vox exigua" 
 in the ^neid, attributed to the shades. 
 
 Line 70. " Suh JuUo bom, though that came somewhat late." 
 " Nacqni suh Julio, ancorche fosse tardi." 
 
 Virgil was bom twenty-five years before Julius assumed the dictatorship. 
 Venturi explains the above line, " I may say I was born under Julius Caesar, 
 though he made himself Dictator somewhat late as respects the date of my 
 birth." 
 
4 HELL. Canto I. 
 
 Behold the beast which turns me back again : 
 
 O famous wise one, give me now thy aid, 
 
 She makes me tremble in each pulse and vein." ^^ 
 
 " Some other road by thee must be essayed," 
 
 He answered, when he saw me weeping stay, 
 
 *' If yonder wilderness thou wouldst evade. 
 That beast, at which thou criest, by this way 
 
 Permits not one to pass, for evermore, ®* 
 
 But bars the passage so, that she will slay. 
 Of wickedness her nature has such store 
 
 That her keen craving ne'er is satisfied, 
 
 But after food she's hungrier than before. 
 To many animals is she allied, ^^ 
 
 And will be so to more, until the hound 
 
 Shall come, who'll make her die of griefs sharp gride. 
 This one will not be fed on pelf, or ground. 
 
 But upon Wisdom, Love, and Virtue's store. 
 
 His nation 'twixt two Feltros guarded round. ^"^ 
 
 Safety he'll bring to meek Italia's shore. 
 
 For whom Camilla, the pure virgin, died, 
 
 Eurialus and Turnus wounded sore. 
 ! Through every town he'll chase the she- wolf s pride 
 
 Until in Hell he drive her to the place "** 
 
 Whence Envy first allowed her here to bide. 
 Now for thy profit in my thoughts I trace 
 
 How thou mayst follow, I will guide thee fair, 
 
 From here I'll lead thee through eternal space, 
 Where thou shalt hear the shriekings of despair, ^^^ 
 
 Shalt see the ancient spirits grief- possest, 
 
 Who each the second death invokes with prayer. 
 There others thou shalt see contented rest 
 
 In fire, because they hope at length to be, 
 
 Whate'er the time, amidst the people blest ; ^^ 
 
 Line 100. " To many animals is slie allied." Avarice, symbolised in the 
 wolf, has its worst excesses when joined to other crimes ; alone, it injures 
 chiefly the possessor. 
 
 Line 101. " Until the hound 
 
 Shall come, who'll make her die of grief's sharp gride." 
 
 This is generally allowed to be intended for Can Grande della Scala, whose 
 country of Verona is situated between Feltro, a town, and Monte Feltro, 
 The prophecy of the regeneration of Italy, assigned by Dante to his chief 
 protector, has at last been fulfilled. 
 
 Line 117. " Who each the second death invokes with prayer." The second 
 death is that death of the soul for which the condemned will in vain pray, 
 as a close to torment. 
 
 Line 118. " There others thou shalt see contented rest 
 In fire." 
 
 This alludes to the spirits in rurgatory, where Virgil is also to guide 
 
Canto II. HELL. 5 
 
 Whom afterwards, if thou wouldst wish to see, 
 
 For that a worthier soul than mine will come, 
 
 With her I'll leave thee when I part from thee. 
 For the great Euler, who has there his home, 
 
 Because I was rebellious to his reign, ^-^ 
 
 Wills not that in his city I should roam. 
 In every part he rules, but there in main, 
 
 There is his citadel, and lofty seat. 
 
 O happy he, there chosen to remain !" 
 Then I : " O bard, my prayer I now repeat, ^^'^ 
 
 By that same God, whom erst thou didst not know, 
 
 So that I fly this ill, and greater yet, 
 Gruide me through all things which thou telledst now. 
 
 So that I see the blessed Peter's gate, 
 
 And those whom thou so mournful dost avow." ^^ 
 
 Then he moved on, and I behind him wait. 
 
 Dante, after wbich a worthier soul, Beatrice, will lead him through the 
 spheres of Paradise. 
 
 Line 134. " So that T see the blessed Peter's gate." The gate of Parga- 
 tory, not Paradise. For the latter there is no gate, but the spirits purified in 
 Purgatory ascend to the Heavenly spheres. Dante accepts Virgil's iavitation 
 to guide him through Hell and Purgatory, and so the first cauto closes, which 
 must be considered as an opening to the whole poem, and not as the first 
 canto merely of the part devoted to Hell. The poem will then be found to 
 consist of this introductory canto, which is written in the allegorical form, 
 and three parts, each consisting of thirty-threo cantos, devoted to the three 
 subjects of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 Dante having followed Virgil along the mountain until nightfall, is oppressed 
 with fears on account of the greatness of his undertalcing, and his own 
 unfitness for such a task. VirgU reproves his cowardice, and inspires 
 him with confidence by the account of the manner in which he was 
 called by Beatrice from Heaven, to speed to his assistance. 
 
 The day wore on, and past, the darkling air 
 
 Eeleased the animals upon the earth 
 
 From their fatigues, while I alone prepare 
 Still the long warfare to sustain with worth 
 
 Both of the weary road and pity's dread, ^ 
 
 Which now my mind will trace, that never err'th. 
 O Muse, O lofty genius, grant your aid, 
 
 O mind that writest what I then descried, 
 
 Here thy nobility should be displayed. 
 Thus I began : " My Poet and my guide, ^^ 
 
 Look if my virtue have the temper true 
 
 Ere thou wouldst trust me to this deed of pride. 
 
6 HELL. Canto II. 
 
 Thou say'st that Silvius' father once withdrew 
 
 Whilst still in body all corruptible ; 
 
 He living the immortal Ages knew. ^" 
 
 But if the Enemy of every ill 
 
 Was so propitious, thinking of the higher 
 
 Result to follow, and what race would swell 
 From him, such seems to human reason nigher, 
 
 Since he was of high Rome, and of its sway ^ 
 
 In the Empirean chosen for the Sire. 
 Which place, and rule, to tell the truth alway, 
 
 Were thus established, for the holy place 
 
 Where sits great Peter's heritor to-day. 
 By that descent, whence thou does vaunt his grace, ^' 
 
 Secrets he understood, which were the cause 
 
 Of his success, and of the Papal race. 
 There wandered afterwards Election's vase, 
 
 To bring back comfort from them for the Creed 
 
 Which of salvation opened first the laws. ^^ 
 
 But why should I come there ? or who concede ? 
 
 Neither Eneas nor Saint Paul am I ; 
 
 Nor I, nor others, think me worth such meed. 
 Therefore to such a venture should I hie, 
 
 I fear the act as madness must be viewed. ^ 
 
 Thou'rt wise my unspoken reason to descry." 
 Like unto one who wills not that he would, 
 
 And shifts his purpose with thought's changing tide, 
 
 So that he dare not make commencement good, 
 Thus acted I on that hill's darkened side ; *^ 
 
 In idle thought I wasted the emprise, 
 
 To which so swiftly I at first had hied. 
 
 Line 13. " Silvius' fatlier." Eneas. 
 
 Line 16. " The Enemy of every ill." God. 
 
 Line 25. " By tbat descent, whence thou dost vaunt his grace, 
 Secrets he understood, vsrhich were the cause 
 Of his success, and of the Papal race." 
 
 The favourite idea in Dante's mind, and the theory by which he looked for 
 the renovation of the world, was the separation of all mundane and spiritual 
 authority : the former to be wielded by one who should resuscitate the Koman 
 Empire, the latter by the Papal Church purified from all admixture of 
 worldly authority. Considering Eneas as the founder of the Roman Empire, 
 and of Rome where the Church was to sit enthroned, he accounts for the 
 marked favour shcrwn to him in permitting his descent into Hell to learn 
 secrets by which his mission was to be accomplished. 
 
 Line 28. ** There wandered afterwards Election's vase." There refers to the 
 Immortal Ages, not Hell in this instance, but Paradise, where Paul, the 
 " chosen vessel," was carried in vision. 
 
Canto II. HELL, 7 
 
 *' If thy words' meaning clearly I devise," 
 
 Answered tlie shadow of that noble bard, 
 
 " Thy spirit of its vileness feels the poise, ^^ 
 
 Which many a time and oft will man retard, 
 
 So that the honoured enterprise they leave, 
 
 As beasts in darkness falsely things regajrd. 
 That to this terror thou mayst give reprieve; 
 
 I'll tell thee why I came, and what I heard, ^ 
 
 At the first moment I for thee did grieve. 
 I was 'mongst those the mid-suspended herd, 
 
 The while a lady called me, blest and fair, 
 
 Such that I prayed her to vouchsafe her word. 
 Her eyes shone clearer than the morning star, ^ 
 
 And she began to address me, slow and sweet. 
 
 That of an angel speaking I was 'ware. 
 * O courteous Mantuan spirit, whom I greet, 
 
 Whose fame yet lasteth in the world below. 
 
 And will last on while Eai'th retains its seat, ^^ 
 
 My friend, but not of Fortune, now in woe. 
 
 Within a desert wild is held at bay. 
 
 That terror makes him the true path forego : 
 I fear already he has lost his way. 
 
 And to his succour I am come too late, ^^ 
 
 From what, in Heaven, of him I heard them say. 
 Now go to him, and with thy speech ornate. 
 
 And with whate'er can save him in his need. 
 
 Help him, that I be not disconsolate. 
 'Tis Beatrice who now claims thy deed ; ^® 
 
 To seek the place I've left I now am fain. 
 
 Love moved my steps, and Love now makes me plead. 
 When I return before my Lord again 
 
 I'll speak thy praises often at his throne.' 
 
 Then she was silent, and I thus began : ^^ 
 
 Line 52. " I was 'mongst those the mid-suspended herd." Virgil, with the 
 other great men of the Pagan world, was suspended in Limbo, which, though 
 within the gate of Hell, is neither in Hell nor Heaven. It is described in the 
 fourth Canto, 
 
 Line 61, " INIy friend, but not of Fortune." 
 
 " L'amico mio, e non della ventura." 
 
 I have preferred the simple translation, the meaning of which is clear. 
 Although Dante is my friend, he was never Fortune's. The commentators 
 explain the phrase, Dante loved me, but not what he could gain through me, 
 which appears to me forced, and to convey idle praise. 
 
 Line 70, " 'Tis Beatrice who now claims thy deed." In this poem Beatrice 
 allegorically represents the spirit of Eeligion. She was Dante's first and last 
 love on earth, and in most parts of the poem, though not iu all, Dante's 
 passionate adoration shows that his thoughts were with the breathing woman 
 whose name he immortalised. 
 
8 HELL. Canto II. 
 
 * O lady of all virtue, who alone 
 
 Eaisest the human race beyond compare, 
 O'er all that 'neath the Lunar skies are known, 
 
 Such pleasure have I thy command to share, 
 
 That were it done, obedience would be slow ; ^ 
 
 There was but need thy purpose to lay bare. 
 
 But tell to me the reason, why below 
 
 Thou dost not hesitate thy steps to guide 
 
 From that broad region where thou yearn'st to go.' 
 
 * Since thou wouldst know so deeply,' she replied, ^ 
 
 * I'll tell thee briefly why with holy cheer 
 
 To come even here I am not terrified. 
 Those things alone one ever ought to fear 
 
 That have the power to wreak on others ill ; 
 
 Nought else can ever cause of dread appear. ®* 
 
 I am so fashioned by God's grace and will 
 
 That me, even here, your misery cannot move, 
 
 Nor flames of all this burning work me ill. 
 A gentle lady in the skies above 
 
 So mounieth o'er this case I've told to thee, ^'' 
 
 That there stern judgment is o'ercome by love. 
 This one called Lucia to her bidding — ' He, 
 
 Thy faithful one, is now in sorest need 
 
 Of thee, and him I recommend to thee.' 
 Lucia, the foe of every cruel deed, ^^ 
 
 Started at once, and in the place appeared 
 
 Where I with E-achel have my seat decreed, 
 And said, ' O Beatrix, God's praise averred ! 
 
 Why dost not succour him, who loved thee so, 
 
 That for thy sake he left the vulgar herd ? ^"^ 
 
 Line 78. " O'er all that 'neath the Lunar skies are known." Dante's astro- 
 nomy is the Pythagorean system. It will be described afterwards in detail. 
 The earth is the centre, surrounded by the nine revolving spheres, of which 
 the moon is the lowest. The phrase means, therefore, that Beatrice excels 
 all the beings on the earth. 
 
 Line 93. " Nor flames of all this burning work roe ill." The flames and 
 burning are used metaphorically for the yearning of those in Limbo for the 
 Paradise they cannot obtain. In Limbo the poet describes no real flames, 
 the sole punishment there being the loss of happiness. 
 
 Line 94. " A gentle lady in the skies above." Supposed to be allegorical 
 of the Divine clemency. 
 
 Line 100. " Lucia.'' Allegorical of illuminating grace, as she is found after- 
 wards amongst the blessed enumerated in Paradise ; a real person is also 
 probably intended. 
 
Canto II. HELL. 9 
 
 Dost thou not hear the anguish of his woe ? 
 
 Seest thou not Death, against him armed in fight, 
 
 O'er the river, stormier than the wild sea's flow ? 
 There never yet were persons swift in flight 
 
 To gain their 'vantage, or their loss to flj, ^^^ 
 
 As after listening to those words of might 
 I came here from my hapjjy seat on high, 
 
 Confiding in thy honourable word. 
 
 That thee, and those who've heard, doth glorify/ 
 After she'd spoken thus, as thou hast heard, "* 
 
 Her beaming eyes in tears she turned away. 
 
 For which to greater haste I was bestirred. 
 And as she willed it, came to thee straightway : 
 
 Aloft I raised thee from that savage beast 
 
 Which from the pleasant mountain barred thy way : ^^^ 
 ' Then what is this ? and wherefore dost thou rest ? 
 
 Wherefore such vileness nourish in thy heart ? 
 
 Why hast not daring, and frank hope exprest, 
 Since three such blessed ladies take thy part 
 
 Within the Palace of Heaven's Infinite, ^ ^^ 
 
 And such fair promise doth my speech impart ?* 
 Like unto flowrets with the chill of night 
 
 Bent down, and closed, when o'er them shines the sun 
 
 Eaise up their stems, and open in his light, 
 Such goodly ardour to my heart there ran, ^^ 
 
 So did my weary virtue renovate, 
 
 That like one of free heart I thus began : 
 * Oh pitiful was she, who helped my Fate, 
 
 And courteous thou, who wert so prompt to obey 
 
 The words of truth she did to thee relate. ^^^ 
 
 With such desire the venture to repay 
 
 Thou hast inspired my heart with all thy speech, 
 
 I turn me to our first resolve, straightway. 
 Onwards, with us there's but one will for each. 
 
 My leader thou, my lord,, and master mild!' ^^ 
 
 So spake I, and behind his steps I reach. 
 And entered on the pathway steep and wild." 
 
 Line 108. "O'er the river, stormier than the wild sea's flow." Eealistic 
 commentators suppose from this that there was a river by the hillside not 
 before mentioned by the poet. The river probably means the whirl of human 
 passions — in truth, stormier than the ocean. 
 
10 ' HELL. Canto III. 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 ) 
 
 Dante, following Virgil, arrives at the gates of Hell, and reads tlie inscription 
 
 ) written thereon. Immediately within the precincts he finds the vast 
 
 crowd of human beings who on earth have done neither good nor evil, 
 
 and who are punished there, together with the Angels who were neither 
 
 on the side of God nor Lucifer when the latter rebelled, and who are 
 
 ■ • ience excluded from Heaven and from the circles of Hell i tself^ From 
 
 there they reach the bank of the River Acheron, wTiere tEeT)emCfirT5haron 
 ferries over the spirits of the condemned into Hell, and there Dante falls 
 into a sudden swoon. 
 
 *' Through me ye pass into tlie city of woe, 
 N Through me into eternal pain ye rove ; 
 
 Through me amidst the people lost ye go. 
 My high Creator justice first did move ; 
 ^/.,A^ Me Power Divine created, and designed, * 
 
 The highest wisdom and the primal love. 
 Previous to me was no created kind, 
 
 Save the Eternal ; I eternal last. 
 
 Ye who here enter, leave all hope behindj-' 
 Such were the words of cruel scope I traced, ' *** 
 
 Above the summit of a gateway writ. 
 
 " Master, for me stern sentence here is past.*' ) 
 And he to me, like one of prudent wit, 
 '.u^ \" Here it behoves to lay aside each doubt ; 
 
 All cowardice, as dead, one here must quit. ^•' 
 
 We've come unto the place I spake about, 
 
 Where thou the grieving people shalt behold. 
 
 Who the intellectual blessing live without." 
 And then he clasped my hand within his hold, 
 
 With joyous face from whence I comfort keep, ^^ 
 
 And placed me there, within the secret fold. 
 There sighings, and complaints, and wailings deep, 
 
 Resounded ever in the starless air. 
 
 So that at first I could not help but weep. 
 Different tongues, speech horrible to hear, ^ 
 
 Accents of anger and the words of pain, 
 
 Voices both high and low, hand-clappings there, 
 
 Lines 5 and 6. The persons of the Trinity are here described ; the high 
 Creator, whom Justice moved to make Hell. 
 
 Line 8. " Save the Eternal." The angels and other eternal things. Hell 
 being in existence before the creation of man and the world. 
 
 Line 18. "Who the intellectual blessing live without." The intellectual 
 blessing is God, to know whom is only life. 
 
Canto III. HELL. 11 
 
 MacTe up a tumult which aye whirls amain 
 
 Through the thick air, eternally obscure, 
 
 Like sand stprm^riven o'er the desert plain. ^** 
 
 i, coiiipasFround with horror, insecure, ><;^ 
 
 Said, " O my master, what is this I hear ? 
 
 And who are these whom grief doth so immure?" 
 And he to me : " After this fashion drear 
 
 These wretched souls their after-life pursue ^' 
 
 Who both from infamy and praise lived clear. 
 Mingled they are with that contemptible crew 
 
 Of angels who would not rebellion dare, 
 
 Not faithful Godwards, to themselves but true. 
 Heaven drove tbem out, lest it might be less fair, ^^ 
 
 Neither received them deepest Hell's domain, 
 V ^That from them, evjl.should no glory share,j;^-:i;>^ 
 And I: " master, what so grievous pain 
 
 Is theirs which makes them with such force lament ?" 
 
 He answered: "Very briefly I'll explain. ^^ 
 
 To these no distant hope of death is lent, 
 
 And their blind life is so supremely low, 
 
 That any change of fate would give content. 
 Report of them the world can never know, 
 
 Mercy and justice only can despise. ^* 
 
 Speak not about them ; look, and onwards go.'* 
 And I, who looked, beheld a banner rise. 
 
 That with such swiftness whirling, rushed amain. 
 
 That every thought of respite it denies ; 
 And after it there came so long a train ^' 
 
 Of people, that I would not have surmised 
 
 That Death such multitudes could e'er have slain. 
 After that I some few had recognised, 
 
 I looked, and there his shadow met my view. 
 
 Who made the great refusal, fear-advised. ^ 
 
 Straightway I understood, and surely knew 
 
 That this was that most miserable band. 
 
 Hateful to God, and to His enemies too. 
 Those wretched ones who life had never scanned, 
 
 Were naked stark and cruelly stung o'er • ^ 
 
 By flies and wasps that ever round them fanned. 
 In lines these streaked their faces with their gore, 
 
 Which mixed with tears flowed down, and at their feet 
 
 Was feasted on by dainty worms galore. 
 
 Line 60. " Who made the great refusal, fear-advised." Saint Celestine is 
 here intended, who renounced the Papacy during Dante's lifetime, and whom, 
 therefore, he was ahle to recognise amongst the ignominious crew. Celes- 
 tinc's abdication is, however, gonei'ally ascribed, not to base fear, but to tho 
 highest motives of self-abnegation. 
 
12 " HELL. Canto III. 
 
 When I had cast my eyes beyond, I weet ^^ 
 
 A crowd that throng the bank of a great stream, 
 And said, " O master, unto me now mete 
 
 To know what race are these, and why they seem 
 So anxious to cross o'er to the other side. 
 As I discover by this feeble beam." " 
 
 And he to me : " These things will be descried 
 What time we rest our footsteps at the brink 
 Of Acheron's most melancholy tide." 
 
 Then struck with shame, my eyes I downward sink. 
 
 In fear lest what I said were worthy blame, ^ 
 
 And till the stream from further parley shrink. 
 
 When lo ! upon a bark there towards us came 
 A very old man, with age-whitened hair. 
 Crying aloud, " Ah, woe, ye souls of shame ! 
 
 Hope not again to see the sky so fair. ^ 
 
 I come to take ye to the other side. 
 To shades eteme of heat and freezing there. 
 
 But thou, O soul still living, stand aside ; 
 
 Depart from these, whom Death has made his own." 
 But when he saw me still amongst them bide, ^^ 
 
 He cried, " By other ways and barks alone, 
 
 Not this way canst thou reach the other shore ; 
 A lighter boat can only bear thee on." 
 
 My leader to him : " Charon, be not sore ; 
 
 So is it willed above, where will can do ®* 
 
 That which it pleases ; do not question more." 
 
 The hairy cheeks then very quiet grew 
 Of that dread pilot of the livid lake. 
 Around whose eyes the whirling lightnings flew. 
 
 But all those souls that worn and naked quake, '^ 
 
 Changed colour, and their teeth shook loud in rage. 
 Soon as they heard the cruel words he spake. 
 
 They cursed at God and at their parentage, 
 
 The human race, the place, the time, the seed 
 
 Of their begetting, and their earliest age. '^^ 
 
 Then all of them together on proceed. 
 
 Wailing aloud, to the evil bank that stays 
 For every one of God who takes no heed. 
 
 Line 98. " A lighter boat can only bear thee on." It is generally supposed 
 by the commentators that this alludes to the bark by which the spirits are 
 taken to Purgatory, and which will be described hereafter. The words of 
 Charon appear, however, to have reference to the impossibility of a living body 
 like Dante's crossing the stream of Acheron in his boat, which can only carry 
 spirits. Indeed, we are not told how Dante crosses the river, for at the close 
 of this Canto he swoons on this side, and in the next he finds himself on the 
 other, unaware how he has past. 
 
CamoIV. hell. 13 
 
 The demon Charon, with his eyes ablaze, 
 
 Directing them by signs, collects them all, "*^ 
 
 And with his oar strikes each one that delays. 
 
 Just as the withered leaves of autumn fall, 
 The one upon the other, till the bough 
 To earth yields all its garment, as a pall ; 
 
 The evil seed of Adam downwards, so "^ 
 
 Throw themselves one by one from that sad shore. 
 At signs, like bird that to the call doth go. 
 
 So by the turbid wave they hurry o'er, 
 
 And ere on the other side they leave the boat. 
 
 Collects on this side a new-gathered store. ^^^ 
 
 " My son," explained my courteous leader, " note 
 All those who perish in the wrath of God, 
 From every land are here together brought ; 
 
 They're ready o^er the river to be rowed. 
 
 So spurs them onwards, justice all divine, ^^^ 
 
 That to desire is changed their fear o' the rod. 
 
 This way there never passeth soul benign ; 
 And if of thee old Charon would complain. 
 His meaning henceforth thou must well divine." 
 
 Scarce had he finished ere the darkened plain ^^^ 
 
 Trembled so terribly, that with the dread 
 In thought alone I'm bathed in sweat again. 
 
 Over that tearful earth a blast was sped. 
 
 Which lightening shot a vermeil glow around. 
 
 So that my senses conquered, wholly fled, ^^ 
 
 And like one seized by sleep, I fell to the ground. 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 Dante on recovering from his swoon finds himself on the other side of the 
 River Acheron. He follows Virgil into the " blind world," and enters 
 Limbo, which is the outer circle of Hell. Here he finds all those souls who, 
 from the want of baptism, have lost salvation, but who have done nothing 
 to deserve actual punishment. 
 
 Loud thunder roused me from my slumber deep, 
 So that I sudden started from my swound. 
 Like one by force awakened from his sleep. 
 
 And then my rested eyes I moved around. 
 
 When I was risen, if their gaze avail * 
 
 To recognise the place where I was found. 
 
 True is it that above the dolorous vale 
 Of the abyss, I stood upon the shore. 
 Where thunder gathers from the infinite wail ; 
 
14 HELu. Canto IV. 
 
 Obscure, profound it was, and clouded o'er, *" 
 
 That thougli into its depths my gaze inclined, 
 
 I could discern with clearness nothing more. 
 ** Now we descend into the regions blind," 
 
 Began the poet, very wan and pale, 
 
 " I will be first, and thou shalt be behind." . ^■' 
 
 And I, who had remarked his colour fail. 
 
 Exclaimed, " How can I come, if thou hast dread 
 
 Who only 'gainst my doubtings canst prevail ?" 
 And he to me: *' The anguish of the dead 
 
 Who are below has painted on my face ^'" 
 
 That pity which thou takest to be dread. 
 But onwards, for the way is long to trace." 
 
 So he advanced and made me enter there, 
 
 In the first circle which girds round Hell's space. 
 Here, in as far as hearing is aware, ^ 
 
 Was no loud weeping, but a sound of sighs. 
 
 Which ever trembled in the eternal air, 
 And these from sorrow without torments rise, 
 
 Sorrow that holds the crowds both many and great, 
 
 Men, women, children, of all age and size. ^ 
 
 Turned my good master to me : " Dost thou wait 
 
 To ask what souls are these thou seest here ? 
 
 I will that thou shouldst know at once their state. 
 These have not sinned, and if their acts were fair, 
 
 'Twas not sufficient, since they baptism lacked, \ '^"' 
 
 The gateway of the Faith which thou dost share. 
 And if they lived ere Christ's law was a fact. 
 
 They did not in fit fashion God adore ; 
 
 And I myself amongst these last am wreckt. 
 For such deficiencies, and nothing moie, • ■*" 
 
 Our penalty is fixed, the lost among, 
 
 To yearn for ever on this hopeless shore." 
 
 Lino 28. " And these from sorrow without torments rise." Seeing that 
 Dante's creed compelled him to exclude from Paradise all who had not been 
 baptised in modern times, or circumcised under the Jewish dispensation, the 
 sensitive reader will be grateful to him for having made one circle of Hell 
 tree from pain. There is indeed no difference between the doom of those in 
 Limbo and the blessed in Paradise, the joy of the latter consisting solely in 
 the presence and love of God. 
 
 Line 38. " They did not in fit fashion God adore." Previous to Christianity 
 the only persons who could be saved were the Jews, who worshipped God 
 lawfully according to their dispensation. In the Paradise Dante mates the 
 numbers of the saved equal of the two dispensations, and in line 52 and what 
 follows Virgil describes how Christ triumphant entered Hell, and bore away 
 with Him the spirits of those who imd^er the old law had looked for Hia 
 coming. 
 
Canto IV. HELL. 15 
 
 On hearing that great grief my heartstrings wrung, 
 
 To think that people of such worth should be, 
 
 As those I knew, within that Limbo hung. ^^ 
 
 '* Tell, O my master and my lord, to me," 
 
 Began I, with the wish to solve all doubt 
 
 About that faith, from every error free, 
 '* Have none by their own merit issued out, 
 
 Or through another, who were after blest ?" ^*^ 
 
 And he, who understood my speech of doubt, 
 Answered : "I was but recent in this rest, 
 
 When I beheld a power our haunt invade. 
 
 Triumphant with the victor's crown confest. 
 He drew from 'mongp^t us our first parent's shade, ^^ 
 
 Abel, his son, and Noah following ; 
 
 Moses the lawgiver, who aye obeyed ; 
 The patriarch Abraham, and David, king ; 
 
 Israel with his sons and with his sire, 
 
 And Rachel, who on him such toil did bring, •^^ 
 
 And many others who in bliss respire ; 
 
 And thou must know that previously to these 
 
 No human spirits had been saved from ire." 
 Whilst thus he spake our progress did not cease, 
 
 But ever upwards through the wood we drew, ^^ 
 
 I call a wood those souls' thick companies. 
 As yet the way we did not far pursue 
 
 Beyond the boundary, when I saw a light 
 
 That in the hemisphere of darkness grew. 
 We still were somewhat distant from its site, ^^ 
 
 But not so far but that I saw in part 
 
 For honoured people was the place bedight. 
 '*0 thou who honourest every liberal art, 
 
 What men are these possessed of so much fame, 
 
 That from the others makes them thus apart ?" ^^ 
 
 And he to me : " The honourable name 
 
 That in thy upper life to these is paid. 
 
 In Heaven to advance them doth like favour claim." 
 In the meanwhile I heard a voice that said, 
 
 " Unto the chiefest poet honour due ! ^" 
 
 But late departed, now returns his shade." 
 After the voice was hushed all silent grew, 
 
 And towards us came four lofty shadows grave, 
 
 With faces neither sad nor gay to view. 
 Then there began to speak my master suave, ^ 
 
 " Behold the one who leadeth all the rest, 
 
 Their father, in whose hand is held the glaive. 
 
16 HELL. Canto IV. 
 
 'Tis Homer, sovran poet of the past ; 
 
 Then eometh Horace, satirist of fame, 
 
 Ovid the third, and Lucian is the last. ^" 
 
 Since each as much as I can fairly claim 
 
 That title, which their voice, like one, did bear, 
 
 They show their worth in giving me the fame." 
 So did I see approach the troop so fair 
 
 Of that old master of divinest song, ®* 
 
 Who like an eagle soars o'er all in air. 
 When they had briefly spoke themselves among, 
 
 They turned to me with salutation kind. 
 
 And on my master's face the sweet smile sprung ; 
 Yet greater honour they to me assigned, ^^ 
 
 Since they elected me amongst their band. 
 
 That I was sixth amidst such noble kind. 
 So towards the light we all together wonned. 
 
 Speaking of things best kept in silence here. 
 
 Just as was best their utterance in that land. ^^ 
 
 Unto a noble castle we drew near. 
 
 Seven times encircled by a lofty wall, 
 
 And round defended by a river clear. 
 O'er this as on firm earth our footsteps fall. 
 
 And through the seven gates passing, with those wise, "'^ 
 
 Into a meadow green we entered all. 
 People they were with slowly moving eyes, 
 
 And great authority was in their port, 
 
 Rarely they spake with sweet-voiced cadences. 
 Then we withdrew into a further court, "* 
 
 An open place, both lofty and serene. 
 
 Where all could be beheld who there resort. 
 And straightway there upon the enamelled green 
 
 Were shown me the great souls who there arise — 
 
 Well may I boast of all whom I have seen. ^^^ 
 
 I saw Electra 'midst large companies, 
 
 'Mongst whom I Hector and Eneas knew. 
 
 And armed Caesar with the falcon eyes ; 
 Camilla, Penthesilea, past my view 
 
 On the other side, and the Latin king embraced ^^^ 
 
 Sate with his daughter there, Lavinia true. 
 Brutus I saw, the one who Tarquin chased, 
 
 Lucretia, Julia, and Cornelia wise. 
 
 And Saladin, in lonely grandeur placed. 
 Then when I raised a little more my eyes, ^^ 
 
 I saw the master of all those who know. 
 
 Seated with those who seek* philosophies. 
 
 Line 131. "I saw the master of all those who know." Aristotle. 
 
Canto V. HELL. l7 
 
 All gaze on him, and all their reverence show. 
 
 There Socrates and Plato I beheld, 
 
 Who o'er all others nearest to him go. ^^-^ 
 
 Democritus, our earth as chance who held, 
 
 Diogenes and Anaxagora, 
 
 Zeno and many more his followers swelled. 
 I saw the searcher into every trait, 
 
 Dioscorides I mean ; Orpheus I saw, ^^ 
 
 TuUy and Linus, moral Seneca ; 
 Euclid, the soul of geometric law, 
 
 With Avicenna and Hippocrates, 
 
 And he who the great Commentary did draw. 
 I cannot recapitulate all these, ^^ 
 
 Since the long theme compels me to despair, , 
 
 As speech must oft fall short of truth's degrees. 
 Our company of six divideth there ; 
 
 My chief conducts me by another way, 
 
 Out of the stillness to the trembling air, ^^^ 
 
 And now I come where no more shines the day. 
 
 Line 139. " I paw the searcher into every trait, 
 Dioscorides I mean." 
 Literally, " The good searcher of the how," or qualities of things. 
 
 Line 144. " And he who the great Commentary did draw." Averroes, the 
 great Arabian physician, who translated and commented on the works of Aris- 
 totle. With Avicenna and Saladin he is the only modern mentioned by Dante 
 amongst the great men in Limbo. A list of names like the above is easily 
 translated into blank verse, but the exigencies of the terza rima have here 
 driven me to sore straits, and forced me to omit one or two names introduced 
 by Dante. 
 
 CANTO V. 
 
 Dante enters the second circle of Hell, where he finds Minos, the judge, who 
 endeavours to stop bis progress s. Virgil having taken him within, he 
 sees there the punishment of carnal sinners, who are for ever tost about 
 by furious winds. Amongst the condemned he sees and converses with 
 Francesca of Rimini and her lover, and falls fainting to the ground with 
 pity at their fate. 
 
 So I descended from the outer vale 
 
 Down to the second, which less space confines, 
 And pain as much the more as causeth wail. 
 
 There standeth Minos, horrible, and prins ; 
 
 At the entrance he examineth betimes, ^ 
 
 And folding each around doth judge their sins. 
 
 Line 6. "And folding each around doth judge their sins." Minos, as 
 explained in the following lines, pronounces to which grade of Hell sinners 
 are doomed by encircling them so many times with his tail. The idea is a 
 ludicrous one, but the marvel is that'at the age in which Dante wrote he did 
 not commit more errors of taste of this nature. 
 
 C 
 
18 HELL. Canto V. 
 
 i say, that when those souls, bom in ill times, 
 
 Come before him, they straightway all things tell, 
 
 And he, that learned connoisseur in crimes, 
 Fitteth for each its proper place in Hell. ^^ 
 
 So many times he girds them with his tail 
 
 To show the grade in which each soul must dwell. 
 The crowds that stand before him never fail ; 
 
 They go, each one by turns, to the judgment room ; 
 
 They speak, and hear, and vanish in the vale. ^^ 
 
 '^ thou that comest to this house of gloom," 
 
 Said Minos to me when he saw me nigh. 
 
 Leaving awhile his ministry of doom, 
 " Look how thou enterest, and in none rely ; 
 
 Be not deceived because so wide the door." ^ 
 
 Then said my master to him, " Why this cry ? 
 Bar not his fated entrance on this shore ; 
 
 So is it willed above where will can do 
 
 That which it pleases : do not question more.'* 
 Now there begin the cries of anguish true ^ 
 
 To be heard plainly : straightway I alight 
 
 Where strikes the roar of much lament anew. 
 I came into a place deprived of light. 
 
 That bellowed like a stormy sea represt. 
 
 And struggling with the adverse wild winds' might. ^" 
 The infernal whirlwind that can never rest 
 
 Hurries along the spirits in its whirl, 
 
 And soaring strikes them onwards at its 'hest. 
 Before the ruin as they wildly swirl. 
 
 There they shriek out, and there lament and 'plain, ^ 
 
 And 'gainst Heaven's virtue all their curses hurl. 
 Then did I understand that this was pain 
 
 Reserved for those who sin in carnal things, 
 
 And over reason their desires maintain. 
 And, like the summer starlings, stretch their wings ^ 
 
 In the cold time, in large and ample train, 
 
 So that wild wind those evil spirits swings 
 Hither and thither, up and down again ; 
 
 No hope can comfort them of far repose 
 
 For evermore, nor even of lesser pain. '^ 
 
 Line 34. " Before the ruin as they wildly swirl." 
 "Quando giungon davanti alia ruina," 
 
 Gary has accepted Vellutello's explanation of the word " ruina," that it 
 here means the whirlwind. But this whirlwind drives them onward without 
 cessation, and the ruin appears to be better explained by the broken entrance 
 into Hell, through which the fallen angels were precipitated there from 
 Heaven, at sight of which the condemned spirits break into despairing curses. 
 The difficulty must remain a disputed question. 
 
Canto V. HELL. 19 
 
 And like a band of cranes that singing goes, 
 Extending in the air its lengthened train, 
 So did I see them wailing as they rose 
 
 Those shadows borne there by the stormy bane. 
 
 At last I said, " O master, who are these ^ 
 
 On whom the black air metes such cruel pain?" 
 
 " The first amongst them of whose histories 
 
 Thou fain wouldst know," he said unto me then, 
 " Was Queen o'er many-languaged Emperies. 
 
 She was so wedded unto luxury's den, ^^ 
 
 That pleasure to be lawful she decreed. 
 To take away the blame she earned from men. 
 
 She is Semiramis, of whom we read 
 
 That she succeeded Ninus, was his wife, 
 
 And ruled the nation which the Soldans lead. ^ 
 
 That one is she who amorous gave her life, 
 And broke her faith unto Sichseus' tomb : 
 Behind is Egypt's Queen, with luxury rife." 
 
 Then saw I Helen, on account of whom 
 
 Fell evil times, Achilles great in war, ®"' 
 
 Who at the last from Love received his doom. 
 
 Then saw I Paris, Tristan, thousands more 
 
 Shadows he showed me, and their names he told 
 Whom Love had hurried from our mortal shore. 
 
 When I had heard my Teacher thus unfold ™ 
 
 Names of so many an ancient dame and knight. 
 My senses almost fled at Pity's hold 
 
 Upon me. I began, " Bard, with delight 
 
 I would address those two who move together, 
 
 And tossing on the wind appear so light." ^^ 
 
 And he to me : " Wait only to see whether 
 
 They near us, then beseech them by the love 
 
 Which brought them here, and they will turn them hither.'* 
 
 Soon as the wind had bowed them from above 
 
 I raised my voice : " O spirits, anguish torn, *" 
 
 Come speak to us, if nothing else remove." 
 
 As doves to the sweet nest for which they yearn, 
 With open wings, and motionless, from high. 
 Slide through the air by their volition borne, 
 
 So sallied they from Dido's company, ^ 
 
 Approaching uswards through the air malign. 
 So powerful o'er them was my loving cry : 
 
 Line 61. "That one is she who amorous qave her life, 
 
 And broke her faith unto Sichseus' tomb." 
 Dido. Fetrarch has not accepted Virgil's version of her story, and in the 
 "Triumph of Chastity" has boldly placed Dido amongst his examples. 
 
20 HELL. Canto V. 
 
 t 
 
 *' O living being, gracious and benign, 
 
 That through the air obscure comest visiting 
 
 Us, whose blood made the earth incarnadine. '** 
 
 Were we the friends of the Almighty King, 
 
 We would beseech him for thy own dear peace, 
 Since to our evil thou dost pity bring. 
 
 Of what to hear and speak to thee may please 
 
 We will both hear, and speak to thee in turn, ^^ 
 
 The whiles the wind, as now, gives silent ease. 
 
 The land is seated wherein I was born 
 
 Upon the seashore where the Po descends 
 To rest with all its followers in their bourne. 
 
 Love, to which gentle heart so quickly tends ^^ 
 
 Made captive this one of my form so fair, 
 Snatcht from me in a way that still offends. 
 
 Love that each loved one makes the passion share 
 For him inspired me a delight so sweet, 
 That, as thou seest, he has not left me here. ^^ 
 
 Love led us both unto one death ; the seat 
 Of Caina waits for him who laid us low." 
 Such were the words with which they us did greet. 
 
 When I had heard those spirits injured so. 
 
 For such a length of time I bowed my face, "" 
 
 That the bard said to me, " What thinkest thou?" 
 
 When I began and answered him, " Alas ! 
 
 How many sweet thoughts and what yearning fears 
 Have led both these unto this dolorous pass !" 
 
 Then turned I, speaking to those listening ears, ""^ 
 
 " Francesca, at thy martyrdom my eyes 
 In sadness and in pity melt to tears. 
 
 But tell me, in that time of sweetest sighs, 
 
 Through what Love led thee howsoever lief. 
 
 Thy doubtful longings clear to recognise?" ^^'^ 
 
 * 
 
 Line 97- *' The land is seated wherein I was bom 
 Upon the seashore." 
 
 Eavenna. The hapless story of Francesca of Rimini and her passion for 
 her brother-in-law are too well known to require explanation. Upon this 
 episode Dante has poured out all the treasures of his tenderness, and in 
 reading the fate of the lovers, who can never again be separated, we forget 
 that we are in the circles of Hell. It is the last touch of pity which Dante 
 permits himself to show, and henceforth all is stern exultation and horror 
 until v\ e enter the milder regions of Purgatory. 
 
 Line 106. " The seat 
 
 Of Caina waits for him who laid us low." 
 
 Caina is the reeion of Hell to which murderers are doomed, and will be 
 described in the 32nd Canto. 
 
Canto VI. HELL. 21 
 
 And she to me : '' There is no greater grief 
 
 Than to remember us of happy time 
 
 In misery, and that thy bard's belief. 
 But since of all our love to know the prime 
 
 And early root thou hast such yearning strong, ^^5 
 
 I will tell all, though weeping all the time. 
 We read one day for pleasure, in the song 
 
 Of Launcelot, how Love him captive made ; 
 
 We were alone without one thought of wrong. 
 Many and many a time our eyes delayed i^ 
 
 The reading, and our faces paled apart ; 
 
 One point alone it was that us betrayed. 
 In reading of that worshipt smile o' the heart, 
 
 Kissed by such lover on her lips* red core. 
 
 This one, who never more from me must part, '^ 
 
 Kissed me upon the mouth, trembling all o'er ; 
 
 For us our Galeotto was that book ; 
 
 That day we did not read it any more." 
 And all the while that thus one spirit spoke. 
 
 The other wailed so that in pity's thralls ^^ 
 
 My senses failed as one whom death had strook, 
 And I fell down as a dead body falls. 
 
 Line 127. " We read one day for pleasure, in the song 
 Of Launcelot." 
 
 The " Romance of the Eound Table" where the loves of Launcelot and 
 Queen Guinevere are described. The same scene is alluded to by Dante in 
 Canto 16 of the "Paradise." 
 
 Line 137. " For us our Galeotto was that book." Galeotto was the go- 
 between in the loves of Launcelot and the Queen. In the Middle A.ges the 
 name appears to have been generally applied to persons of that profession, in 
 the same way as our word pander is derived from the officious uncle of 
 Cressida. " If ever you prove false one to another, since I have taken such 
 pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goers-between be called to the 
 world's end after my name ; call them all Pandars ; let all constant men be 
 Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-between Pandars ! say 
 amen."— Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," Act III., sc. 2. 
 
 CANTO VI. 
 
 On returning to his senses Dante finds himself in the third circle, that of rain,' 
 in which gluttons are punished, under the guardianship of Cerberus. 
 Amongst the condemned he finds a Florentine, nicknamed Hog, and con- 
 verses with him on the dissensions of their town. 
 
 After my senses were restored, which closed 
 With pity for that pair so near allied. 
 That with the sorrow I was all confused, 
 
22 HELL. Canto VI. 
 
 New torments and new sufferers are descried 
 
 Around me, wheresoe'er my sight I strain, ^ 
 
 Where'er I move or turn, on every side. 
 I stand iu the third circle, that of rain. 
 
 Eternal cursed cold and grievous sore ; 
 
 In force and volume one unvarying strain. 
 Great hailstones, turbid rain, and snowy frore ^* 
 
 Is ever poured out in the darkened air, 
 
 Stinketh the land it falls on evermore. 
 Wild Cerberus, of twofold nature rare. 
 
 With three throats hurleth out the doglike bark 
 
 Upon the people that are cowering there. ^^ 
 
 His eyes are red, his greasy beard is dark. 
 
 His belly large and fingers armed with nails ; 
 
 He tears, and flays, and rends the spirits stark. 
 They howl like hounds beneath the blinding hail, 
 
 Striving to make one side the other guard, ^" 
 
 The Godless wretches ever turning wail. 
 When Cerberus, the great worm, did us regard, 
 
 His tusks he showed us as he oped his jaws ; 
 
 He had no limb that was not working hard. 
 My leader stretches out his hand and draws ^ 
 
 A clod of earth, the which with forceful blow 
 
 He drove right into his voracious maws. 
 Like to a dog, that barking but to show 
 
 His longing, eats up food with quiet mien, 
 
 And only fought to fill his hunger, so ^ 
 
 Were quieted at once the jaws obscene 
 
 Of the demon Cerberus, who so dins the souls 
 
 That they would very gladly deaf have been. 
 We past on o'er the shadows, o'er whom rolls 
 
 The grievous rainstorm, and we placed our feet ^ 
 
 Over the nothingness of form-like souls. 
 Upon the earth they lay in mass complete. 
 
 Save one, who when he saw us drawing nigh 
 
 Rose to the sitting posture very fleet. 
 *' O thou that through this Hell art passing by," * 
 
 He said, *' remember if thou me dost know, 
 
 For thou wast born before that I did die." 
 And I to him : '* Thy anguish here below 
 
 Perchance withdraws thy memory from my mind, 
 So that it seems I've seen thee not till now. *" 
 
 But tell me who thou art who art thus confined 
 
 In such a grievous place, and to such pain, 
 If worse, none can be of more hateful kind." 
 
Canto VI. HELL. 23 
 
 And he to me : ** Thy city reeks amain 
 
 With envy, so that overflows the bag. . ** 
 
 My life serene I past in that domain. 
 You citizens were wont to call me Hog. 
 
 For the pernicious sin of gluttonhead, 
 
 Here, as thou seest, I sicken in this quag. 
 And I, sad soul, am not alone bested, ^. 
 
 But all of these like punishment endure 
 
 For a like fault," and no more word he said. 
 I answered him : " O Hog, thy misery sure. 
 
 Inviting me to weeping, weighs me down ; 
 
 But tell me, if thou know'st, what end will lure ^^ 
 
 The citizens of our divided town ? 
 
 Is any just man there ? and wherefore rife 
 
 Discord has aye disturbed its peaceful crown ?" 
 And he to me : " After a lengthened strife 
 
 They'll come to blood, and first the forest side ^* 
 
 Will chase the other with much wrong to life. 
 That faction soon will topple from its pride. 
 
 Within three years, and the other rise again, 
 
 By help of him who now waits for the tide. 
 These for long time their 'vantage will maintain, ^® 
 
 Keeping the other 'neath a grievous load. 
 
 So that they feel their shame, and deeply plain. 
 Two there are just, and are not understood ; 
 
 Pride, envy, avarice, in hateful round. 
 
 Are sparks that every heart have flamed for good." ^^ 
 
 Here to a close he brought the tearful sound. 
 
 And I to him : " Instruct me is my prayer, 
 
 And as a boon let further speech abound. 
 
 Line 52. " You citizens were wont to call me Hog." In Italian Ciacco. The 
 real name of the unfortmiate glutton has not been preserved. 
 
 Line 65. " And first the forest side 
 
 Will chase the other." 
 
 The city of Florence was then divided into the factions of the Bianchi and 
 Neri. " The forest side" is the former, to which Dante belonged, so called be- 
 cause its chief at that time was a new noble, Vieri de' Cerchi,, who had lately 
 come from the woody country of the Val de' Nievole. The- history of these 
 factions is frequently alluded to throughout the poem. 
 
 Line 69. " By help of him who now waits for the tide." Charles of Valois, 
 the brother of Philip the Handsome, is here meant. The meaning of the 
 Italian words, " chi teste piaggia," is disputed. Some consider them to mean, 
 " who is now flattering the people ;" but the most probable explanation is that 
 taken in the text, " who is now waiting on the shore for the favourable tide." 
 He was called in by the Neri, when banished from the city, to their assistance. 
 
 Line 73. " Two there are. just, and are not understood." It is not known 
 who were the two just men thus enigmatically expressed.. Some suppose 
 Dante and hia friend, Guido Cayalcanti, to be intended. 
 
24 HELL. Canto VI. 
 
 Tegghiaio, Fariiiata, worthy pair, 
 
 Jacopo Eusticucci and his crew, ^ 
 
 Arrigo, Mosca, who all strove so fair. 
 Tell me where are they, that I know them too, 
 
 Since my great longing is to learn of all. 
 
 Drink they Hell's poison, or Heaven's honey dew ?" 
 And he : " Amongst the blacker souls they fall, ^^ 
 
 Crimes diverse drive them downwards to worse pain. 
 
 If thou descend' st so far thou'lt see them all. 
 But when thou'lt be on earth's most sweet domain, 
 
 I pray thee bring me to their memories there ; 
 
 I cannot speak or answer thee again." '"^^ 
 
 He turned askance his eyes' straightforward stare. 
 
 Watched me a little, and then bowed his head ; 
 
 With that he fell with the other blind ones there. 
 " He will not wake again," my leader said, 
 
 " From this time till there sounds the trump of doom, ^^ 
 
 When will descend their hostile power in dread ; 
 Each one will seek again his wretched tomb, 
 
 Will take again his former flesh and face. 
 
 Will hear His words eternally reboom." 
 So we past on above that mixture base ^^ 
 
 Of shadows and of rain with footsteps slow, 
 
 Reasoning on future life a little space. 
 Wherefore I said ; " O master, I would know 
 
 Whether these torments after the great day 
 
 Will lessen, keep as now, or fiercer grow ?" ^^ 
 
 And he to me : " Thy science here essay. 
 
 Which wills that more a thing is perfect nursed, 
 
 The more it feels both good and evil sway. 
 And though in truth this people, all accursed, 
 
 With true perfection never can be dight, "" 
 
 Then, more than now, it looks to feel the worst." 
 
 Line 79. " Tegghiaio, Faiinata, worthy pair, 
 
 Jacopo Eusticucci and his crew, 
 Arrigo, Mosca, who all strove so fair." 
 
 All these, except Arrigo, will be met with in lower circles of the Inferno. 
 Tegghiaio appears in Canto XVI. ; Farinata, the great Ghibeline leader, in 
 Canto X., in one of the finest portions of the whole poem ; Jacopo Rusticucci, 
 in company with Tegghiaio and Mosca, in Canto XXVIII., with the blood from 
 his handless arms dropping on his face. The last advised the murder which 
 began the Florentine factions. 
 
 Line 106. " Thy science here essay." Virgil here refers to a sentence in 
 Aristotle, whom Dante everywhere advances as his master in philosophic 
 knowledge . 
 
Canto VII. HELL. 25 
 
 We went along tlie roadway's outer site, 
 
 Speaking much further than I here can show. 
 
 We reached the point at which declines the height, 
 
 There we discovered Pluto, our great foe. "^ 
 
 CANTO VII. 
 
 Dante is confronted by Pluto at the entrance of tb e fourth circle . Conducted 
 by Virgil he obtains a safe passage, and sees within the avari cious and the 
 prodigal, condemned to a like punishment, rolling great weights against 
 ^auti u tner. Passing onwards to the fifth circle t hey come to the Stygian 
 lake, in which the souls of thejjsaatthful are lmmerse d. Skirting the lake 
 tireyreaclraTIasf the toot oFatower^ ' 
 
 " Ah, marvel, Satan ! marvel. King of Hell !" 
 Pluto began with his hoarse strident shout. 
 And that kind wise one, who knew all things well, 
 
 Said for my comfort, " Do not let thy doubt 
 
 Grieve thee, for all the power which he can wage ^ 
 
 From this descent can never shut thee out." 
 
 Then to that swollen lip turned round the sage. 
 And shouted, " Be thou silent, wolf accurst ! 
 Consume within thyself thy hellish rage. 
 
 Not without reason he thy deeps has durst ; ^^ 
 
 'Tis willed on high, where o'er the boastful mind 
 Of rebel angels Michael's vengeance burst." 
 
 As when the inflated sails before the wind 
 
 Fall in a heap when topples down the mast, 
 
 So fell to earth that beast of cruellest kind. ^* 
 
 So to that fourth descent we downwards past, 
 Descending further in that grieving shore. 
 Where all the evil of the world is cast. 
 
 Line 1. "Ah, marvel, Satan ! marvel. King of Hell!" 
 
 "Pape, Satan ! pape, Satan aleppe !" 
 
 The words pape and aleppe are neither of them Italian. Pape is supposed to 
 be the Latin exclamation of surprise Papse, and aleppe to be Ah ! or Aleph, 
 the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. 
 
 Line 11. "Where o'er the boastful mind 
 
 Of rebel angels Michael's vengeance burst." 
 
 " La dive Michele 
 Fe la vendetta del superbo strupo." 
 
 The ordinary meaning of strupo is adultery, and Gary has so translated it 
 here, although he notices the rendering which I have preferred, where *' strupo" 
 is taken for a troop, and the "superbo strupo" becomes the troop of rebel 
 angels. 
 
26 HELL. Canto VII. 
 
 3'ustice of God ! who heapeth up such store 
 
 Of novel toils and pains which I have seen ! ^ 
 
 And why doth sin in such profusion pour ? 
 As o'er Chary bdis' rocks the waves careen, 
 
 "Which breaking one against the other churn, 
 
 So here the people are compelled to spin. 
 Here greater crowds than elsewhere I discern, ^* 
 
 From this side and from that with shoutings thick, 
 
 Revolving weights by pressure of the stern ; 
 I' the midst they clashed against each other, quick 
 
 Each one turned round and shouted out uproarious, 
 
 "Why dost thou grasp?" and "Wherefore dost thou 
 trick ?" *> 
 
 So in that gloomy ring they turned laborious. 
 
 From every point unto the opposite side, 
 
 Shouting out yet again this shameful chorus. 
 Then each one turned again when he had plied 
 
 Up to the centre for another joust. ^ 
 
 And I, whose heart was touched with pity, cried, 
 " O master mine, now show me what this host 
 
 Of people are ; were all these clerical too ; 
 
 Those shaven pates, who throng the left-hand coast ?" 
 And he to me : ** They had such squinting view, *® 
 
 In mental constitution, in their lives. 
 
 In their expense no proper mean they knew. 
 Clearly enough from that their speech derives, 
 
 When they have reached that portion of the ring, 
 
 Where each against the opposite error drives. ** 
 
 Churchmen were those whose hairy covering 
 
 Is shorn, both Popes and Church lords of degrees, 
 
 O'er whom fell avarice its sway did swing." 
 And I : " O master, amongst such as these, 
 
 I surely ought to recognise a few ^ 
 
 Who were afflicted with such maladies." 
 And he to me : " A vain thought, dost thou mew 
 
 The undistinguishing life which made them foul, 
 
 From every recognition bars them too. 
 
 Line 27. " Revolving weights by pressure of the stem." 
 " Voltando pesi, per forza di poppa." 
 
 Poppa is a woman's breast or the stern of a ship. In opposition to the usual 
 rendering I have here taken it in the latter acceptation. The ludicrous nature 
 of the punishment, the sinners pushing weights backwards at each other, does 
 not militate against the correctness of my view, as many of the punishments 
 in the Hell are ludicrous. If the jousters met face to face there would be no 
 need for them to turn round to address each other when they clashed in the 
 midst. 
 
Canto VII. HELL. 27 
 
 For ever to this tourney they will bowl ; ** 
 
 Those from the sepulchre will rise again 
 
 With clenched fist, those with shorn heads *neath the cowl. 
 . Our fair world vilely spent, and vilely ta'en, 
 
 Has prisoned these and placed them in this fray. 
 
 I use no words its horror to explain ; ^ 
 
 Now thou canst see, O son, the short-lived day 
 
 Of good, committed unto Fortune's 'hest, 
 
 For which the human race so strives alway. 
 Since all the gold beneath the moon possest, 
 
 Or ever owned by those worn souls of yore, ^ 
 
 Could not make one of them one moment rest." 
 " Master," said I to him, " now tell me more ; 
 
 This Fortune, about whom thou speak'st to me. 
 
 What is it that thus grasps all earthly store ?" 
 And he to me : " creatures dull to see, ^* 
 
 What ignorance is this that here offends ! 
 
 I would that thou shouldst ponder my decree. 
 He whose high knowledge everything transcends. 
 
 The heavens created once, and gave their guide. 
 
 So that in all parts he their splendour tends, ^* 
 
 Distributing the light on every side ; 
 
 In like way for magnificence mondane 
 
 He chose a general ministrant and guide, 
 Who should transpose at times its prizes vain 
 
 From one to other, and from race to race, ** 
 
 Beyond what human wit could let or gain ; 
 Therefore some rise to empire, some debase. 
 
 According to the judgment of her pleasure, 
 
 Who lieth hidden, like a snake in grass. 
 Your knowledge to her wish can place no measure, ** 
 
 She sees beforehand, judges and pursues 
 
 Her empire like the other powers at leisure. 
 Her permutations never know a truce, 
 
 Necessity compels her to such speed. 
 
 Such numerous claims her shifting laws produce. ^ 
 
 This one is she, who is so crucified. 
 
 Even by those who ought her praise to rear, 
 
 With wrongful blame and ill words vilifiad. 
 But this in happiness she cannot hear. 
 
 With all the other primal creatures gay, ** 
 
 She gladdens in her joy and turns her sphere. 
 Henceforth to greater pity wends our way ; 
 
 Now every star is fallen that arose 
 
 When I went forth, forbidding more delay." 
 
28 HELL. Canto VIII. 
 
 We cut across the circle, where there rose ^^ 
 
 A fountain that boils up and poureth down 
 
 Into a rivulet that from it flows. 
 The water was thick gray and almost brown, 
 
 And we, in company with the turbid wave, 
 
 By a wild pathway there descended down. ^"^ 
 
 A marsh, to which the name of Styx they gave, 
 
 This wretched streamlet makes, when overflowed 
 
 It sinketh at the foot of that drear grave. 
 I, who with purpose of beholding stood, 
 
 Saw muddy people standing in the mire, ^^^ 
 
 All naked, and with looks where anger glowed. 
 Striking themselves, so did their rage transpire, 
 
 Not hands alone they used, but head and feet, 
 
 Biting themselves to pieces in their ire. 
 My gentle master said, " O son, now greet "* 
 
 The souls of those whom anger overcame ; 
 
 And more, I would for certain thou shouldst weet 
 That underneath the wave are men the same, 
 
 Who breathing make the water bubbling stir. 
 
 The sight, where'er it turns, thy eye can claim. ^^ 
 
 Fixed in the mud, they say, * Wretched we were 
 
 In the sweet air, which by the sun rejoices, 
 
 Bearing within ourselves the angry slur ; 
 Now we are wretched in these miry places.* 
 
 . This hymn within the throat they gurgling chime, ^^^ 
 
 Since they can speak it not with perfect voices." 
 So we past on, skirting that filthy slime, 
 
 A segment 'twixt the dry bank and the deep. 
 
 With eyes still turned to those that gorge the grime, 
 And finally we reached a turret keep. ^^^ 
 
 CANTO yiii. 
 
 Phlegyas, the ferryman of Styx, sumraoned by a signal from the tower, bears 
 Virgil and Dante across the lake. On the way they are attacked by 
 Philippe Argenti, whose punishment is described. They then arrive at 
 the city of Dis, where the fallen angels prevent their entrance, closing 
 the gate at Virgil's approach. 
 
 Continuing, I say, as soon as we 
 
 Of that high turret fort had reached the bourne, 
 Up to its summit glanced our eyes to see 
 
 Line 1. "Continuing, I say, as soon as we." Boccaccio states that the 
 first seven Cantos were written by Dante before his banishment, and being 
 found and sent to him by a friend who urged the completion of the Poem, he, 
 then in banishment, commenced the 8*h Canto with this line. It is at least 
 
Canto VIIL. HELL. 29 
 
 Two little signal flames bung out to burn, 
 
 And one that seemed to answer from afar, * 
 
 So distant that the eye could scarce discern. 
 I, turning to that sea of knowledge fair, 
 
 Asked, " What does this explain ? and what replies 
 
 The other flame ? and who have raised them there ?" 
 And he to me ; " O'er the foul waves doth rise ^" 
 
 That which awaits us ; thou mightst see it now, 
 
 Did not the marsh's vapour dim thy eyes." 
 Arrow was never yet shot from a bow 
 
 That ran so swiftly through the nimble air 
 
 As I beheld a little pinnace row ^'' 
 
 That came towards us ere we were aware. 
 
 Beneath the guidance of one galley slave, 
 
 Who shouted out, " O wicked soul art there ?" 
 " Nay, Phlegyas, Phlegyas, thou dost idly rave 
 
 Only for this one time," my master cried, ^^ 
 
 " Thou'lt have us but to pass us o'er the wave.'* 
 As one who some tremendous trick has spied 
 
 Practised upon him, with vexed brow glooms dark. 
 
 So acted Phlegyas in his angry pride. 
 My leader then descended in the bark, ^^ 
 
 And made me enter at his side ; the strain 
 
 Only, when I was in, it seemed to mark. 
 Soon as my guide and I our seats had ta'en, 
 
 Cutting the water goes the ancient prow, 
 
 More than its wont, when others cross that main. *^ 
 
 While we thus hurried o'er the stagnant slough. 
 
 Before me rose a figure mired with clay, 
 
 And cried, " Thus coming ere thy time, who art thou ?" 
 And I : " Although I come I do not stay ; 
 
 But who art thou who'st made thyself so foul ?" *^ 
 
 He answered, " I am one who mourns for aye." 
 And I to him : " Go on to fight and howl, 
 
 Accursed spirit, here thou must abide ; 
 
 I know thee well, although thou be'st so foul." 
 Then with both hands our boat to grasp he tried, ^^ 
 
 But him my watchful master backwards threw. 
 
 Crying, " With the other whelp hounds stand aside." 
 
 worthy of remark that all traces of pity for the condemned, previously 
 indulged in, cease from this time. 
 
 Line 19. " Nay, Phlegyas, Phlegyas, thou dost idly rave." Phlegyas having 
 burnt Apollo's temple, in revenge for the god's violation of his daughter, 
 was condemned by him to Tartarus. The guardians of Dante's Christian 
 Hell are almost all taken from Pagan mythology. In the Middle Ages 
 Christianity had not dcstrr)yed the belief in the Pagan Deities, but trans- 
 formed them to Spirits of Evil. 
 
30 HELL. Canto VIII. 
 
 Then round my neck his loving arms he drew, 
 Kissed me upon my face, and said, " Be blest, 
 Indignant soul, the one who bore thee true ! *^ 
 
 This was on earth a man of proudest 'hest, 
 I No kindly trait his memory adorns ; 
 So here his furious shade can never rest. 
 
 Many great kings who now lift up their horns 
 
 Will wallow here like swine in filthy swill, ^ 
 
 Leaving their memories to most horrible scorns." 
 
 And I : " O master, it would please me well 
 Could I but see him in this hog's wash dive, 
 Before we issue from this lake of ill." 
 
 And he to me : " Before we can arrive ** 
 
 At the farther shore thou shalt be satisfied. 
 From such desire thou sure shouldst joy derive." 
 
 Soon after such a torture I descried, 
 
 When all the miry people on him fall, 
 
 I give God thanks for that wish gratified. ®® 
 
 " Philip Argenti on ye," shouted all. 
 The spirit of that Florentine of hate 
 Turned on himself his teeth at that fell call. 
 
 We left him there, and I no more relate ; 
 
 But ill my ears there rang an anguish cry, ** 
 
 On which intent I gaze before me straight. 
 
 My gentle master said, " O son, hard by 
 Neareth the dreary city, Dis by name, 
 With woeworn townsmen in great company." 
 
 " Even now its minarets, master !" I exclaim, '* 
 
 " I see above the valley rising higher. 
 Vermeil, as though they issued out of flame." 
 
 And he explained to me : *' The eternal fire 
 
 That glows within makes them look ruddy here, 
 
 As in this deep of hell thou seest each spire." " 
 
 Meanwhile within the deep-cut moat we steer 
 That trenches round that land disconsolate. 
 As if of iron wrought the walls appear. 
 
 Not without traversing a circuit great 
 
 We reached a region where our helmsman strong ^^ 
 
 Cried to us, " G-et ye out, for here's the gate." 
 
 I saw above a thousand o'er it throng. 
 
 Rained from the sky of old, who fiercely said, 
 " Who's this, who does not unto death belong. 
 
 Line 46. " This was on earth a man of proudest 'hest." Philip Argenti, we 
 are told by Boccaccio, was a Florentine of extraordinary personal strength 
 and despotic temper. Such a combination is, fortunately for the humaa 
 race, not common. 
 
Canto VIII. HELL. 31 
 
 Yet wanders through the kingdom of the dead ?" ^ 
 
 And my wise leader made to them a sign 
 
 That he would speak to them in secret stead. 
 Then seemed their anger somewhat to decline ; 
 
 They cried, " Come thou alone, and he depart, 
 
 Who entered on this realm with rash design. ^ 
 
 On his mad pathway lonely let him start. 
 
 And prove his knowledge since thou here wilt bide, 
 
 Who through this gloomy region wast his chart." 
 Think, Eeader, if I was not terrified 
 
 At sound of words accursed at the core, *® 
 
 Thinking that all return would be denied. 
 " O my dear leader, who, seven times and more. 
 
 Hast given me safety, and escape hast won 
 
 From fearful peril that beset me sore, 
 Do not abandon me, thus all undone, '^^ 
 
 And if my further passage be denied. 
 
 Back as we came let us together run." 
 That leader, who so far had been my guide. 
 
 Said to me, " Fear not, since to reach our bourne 
 
 No one can bar, with such are we allied. ^^ 
 
 But here await me, and thy spirit worn 
 
 Comfort, and feed on hope of goodly cheer ; 
 
 I will not leave thee in this world forlorn." 
 So he departeth, and he leaves me here, 
 
 My father kind, and I in doubt remain, "" 
 
 The no and yes within me so career. 
 I could not hear the language they maintain ; 
 
 But not for long time they in conference wait, 
 
 Ere each one racing turns within again. 
 Those enemies of ours had closed the gate "* 
 
 Before my leader's breast, who stayed without, 
 
 And back returned to me with pensive gait. 
 His eyes were cast to earth, his brows with doubt 
 
 Had lost all boldness, and he said with sighs, 
 
 " Who from the abodes of woe has shut me out ?" ^^^ 
 
 To me he said, ** Though in me anger rise. 
 
 Do not despond, I'll conquer in this fray 
 
 Whatever opposition they devise. 
 This insolence is nothing new to-day ; 
 
 At a less secret entrance it was tried, ^^ 
 
 Which now without a bolt is found for aye. 
 
 Line 124, " This insolence is nothing new to-day." Supposed to allude to 
 the vain resistance attempted by the Spirits of Evil when Christ entered 
 Hell in triumph to save the Saiuts in Limbo. 
 
32 HELL. Canto IX. 
 
 O'er it fell Death's inscription we descried ; 
 And ere now, on this side descendeth here, 
 Passing through every circle without guide. 
 
 One before whom this realm will open clear." ^^ 
 
 CANTO IX. 
 
 Virgil pauses, waiting for heavenly assistance. In the meantime the three 
 Furies rise upon the walls of Dis and threaten Dante with the sight of 
 Medusa's head. The Angel then arrives across the Styx, and the friends 
 retiring, the gates of the city are opened. Dante following Virgil finds 
 the heretics of all denominations punished in tombs of fire. 
 
 The hue which fear had painted on my face, 
 
 My leader back returning when I viewed, 
 
 Sooner to his restored its gentle grace. 
 Like one who listens he intently stood ; 
 
 Since to the distance eye could never pierce, ^ 
 
 Through the blank air and clouds that thickly brewed. 
 " Still I must conquer in this struggle fierce," 
 
 Began he ; ** and if not — one offered aid. 
 
 How slow his advent here to me appears !" 
 Clearly I noticed how he overlaid ^^ 
 
 The words with which he had begun with more. 
 
 Which quite a different meaning had betrayed, 
 But none the less his speech woke terror sore. 
 
 Because I dragged that broken syllable, 
 
 Perchance to meaning worse than that it bore. ^^ 
 
 *' Down to the bottom of this gloomy shell 
 
 Descends there ever one from the first sphere, 
 
 Whose only pain is helplessly to dwell ?" 
 This question made I, and he answered, " Here 
 
 Rarely it happens that amongst us one ^^ 
 
 Traceth the pathway by the which I steer. 
 'Tis true that once before I wended down, 
 
 Forced by Eryton's cruellest control, 
 
 Who called the shadows back their frames to own. 
 
 Lines 1 to 3. Virgil recovers his composure the sooner to allay Dante's fears. 
 
 Lines 16 to 18. Dante appears to think that assistance is to be rendered by 
 one of the sages in Limbo ; hence his question. 
 
 Line 23 " Forced by Eryton's cruellest control."- A witch, who in Lucan's 
 ** Phar^alia" is introduced as drawing a soul from Hell by her incantations to 
 prophesy the termination of the civil war. Eryton must have lived to a good 
 old age if it was now possible for her to employ Virgil after his death on such 
 an errand. 
 
Canto IX. HELL. 33 
 
 But newly I had stripped my fleshly stole, '-^^ 
 
 When o*er yon walls she forced me to procure 
 From Judas' circle, by her spells, a soul. 
 
 That is the lowest place, and most obscure, 
 
 And furthest from the spheres' encircling sky, 
 
 Well do I know the way, so rest secure. '^^ 
 
 This marsh, that breathes out such a stench on high, 
 Girdles around ttiis residence of woe, 
 Where, without wrath, we cannot henceforth hie." 
 
 And more he said, which now I do not know, 
 
 Because I wholly had withdrawn my eyes ^ 
 
 Towards the high turret, with its crest aglow, 
 
 When all at once I saw erect arise 
 
 The three infernal Furies, tinged with blood, 
 Who looked like females in their limbs and guise, 
 
 And were girt round with greenest Hydra's brood : *^ 
 
 Serpents and horned snakes they had for hair. 
 Which their fell brows encircling, fierce outstood, 
 
 And he, who knew them well, the slaves that bear 
 The mandates of the Queen of lasting woe, 
 ''Behold !" he cried, " the fierce Erynnes there! ^^ 
 
 That is Megera on the left hand ; lo 
 Aletto she, who waileth on the right, 
 I' the midst Tisiphone." He silent grew. 
 
 With talons each one tore her breast in spite. 
 
 Smote with her palms, and shrieked in such a tone, ^ 
 That to the bard I clung in my affright. 
 
 '• Medusa, come ! we'll turn him into stone !" 
 
 Cried they, as all their looks towards me abase, 
 " Theseus' assault unpunished we atone.'* 
 
 " Turn thyself back, and cover up thy face, ^ 
 
 If Gorgon here be shown, and thou shouldst see, 
 Nothing will ever move thee from this place." 
 
 So spake my master, and he turned me, he 
 Himself, and trusted not to hands of mine, 
 But with his own he clasped my eyes for me. ^ 
 
 Line 27. The circle of Judas Iscariot, called Guidecca, is the lowest pit in 
 the tenth and last circle, and is described in the 34th Canto. 
 
 Line 54. " Theseus' assault unpunished we atone." The Furies lament 
 that they allowed Theseus to depart from Hell in safety, through whose 
 escape another living soul has now ventured within their kingdom, a mis- 
 take they will not repeat. This is one of those rare instances in which 
 Gary's translation appears to me to be in error, though the Italian text will 
 accept his interpretation : — 
 
 " Mai non vengiammo in Teseo I'assalto." 
 " E'en when by Theseus' might assailed, we took 
 No ill revenge." 
 I read with Venturi : " Mistakenly, we did not avenge Theseus' assault.'* 
 
 D 
 
34 HELL. Canto IX. 
 
 O you, whose intellects are clear, divine 
 
 The doctrine which is ever found concealed 
 Beneath the veiling of each strangest line. 
 
 And now there came, o'er the dark waves revealed, 
 
 The crashing of a sound replete with dread, ^ 
 
 At which the shores on each side, trembling, reeled. 
 
 Not otherwise than like a wind makes head. 
 Impetuous, sweeping through the heated air, 
 That smites a wood, and irresistibly sped. 
 
 Strikes oif, and bears away the branches bare ; ^^ 
 
 Onwards it goeth in its dusty pride, 
 Chasing the shepherds and the beasts from lair. 
 
 My eyes he loosed, and said, " Now boldly guide 
 Thy eyesight upwards o'er yon hoary scum. 
 There, where the vapour densest is descried.*' - ^* 
 
 Like frogs who see their foe the adder come 
 Into the water, straightway from it flee, 
 And on the earth lie heaped, all cowering, dumb, 
 
 More than a thousand lost souls did I see 
 
 Thus fly in front of one who, walking there ^ 
 
 With foot un wetted crost o'er Styx's sea. 
 
 From 'fore his countenance the thickened air. 
 With his left hand, he ever waved away, 
 That was the only pain he seemed to share. 
 
 Well did I know a mes^nger of Day, ^ 
 
 And to my master turned, who made a sign 
 That I should bow in silence to his sway. 
 
 Ah, how he seemed replete with scorn divine ! 
 He reached the gate, and smiting with his rod. 
 Oped it in spite of every stay malign. *** 
 
 " chased from Heaven, race hateful to your God !'* 
 So o'er the horrible threshold he began, 
 " Whence was there nursed this ultra-hardihood ? 
 
 Why do ye kick against the heavenly plan. 
 
 Whose purposed end ye never could abate, ^* 
 
 And which has oft increased your suffering's span ? 
 
 Lines 61 to 63. Supposed to call the reader's attention to the mystic 
 meaning of the present Canto, and not of Virgil's present action alone. That 
 hidden sense is explained by Landiuo to be, that mere carnal sins, such as 
 those previously punished, can be restrained by Reason, which is figured in 
 the person of Virgil ; but that the heinous crimes which are to follow can 
 only be guarded against by a special grace of God, represented by the Angel. 
 There is no doubt that Dante intended his whole Poem in an allegorical 
 sense, and this is not the only place where he cautions the reader not to pass 
 over his hidden meaning. 
 
Canto IX. HELL. 35 
 
 In what avails it you to joust with Fate ? 
 Your Cerberus, ye may remember well, 
 With maw and throat all peeled, still feels the weiglit." 
 
 Then he turned back into that pathway fell, ^'^ 
 
 And made no sign to us, but kept the guise 
 Of one, o'er whom some other care holds spell 
 
 Than his, who at the time before him lies. 
 
 We moved our footsteps then towards the land, 
 
 Safe in those holy words from all surprise. *^ 
 
 Without more strife within the walls we stand, 
 And I, whose first desire was to behold 
 The state in which such fortress had been planned, 
 
 Soon as I entered, round my eyesight rolled. 
 
 And saw on each hand stretch a champaign large "*^ 
 
 All full of grief and torment manifold. 
 
 Just as at Aries, where stagnates Rhone's discharge. 
 And as at Pola, near Carnaro's waves. 
 Which boundeth Italy and bathes its marge. 
 
 The place is wholly studded o'er with graves, "^ 
 
 So were they scattered here on every side. 
 Save that their fashion greater horror craves : 
 
 For 'twixt the tombstones flames were scattered wide. 
 By which they were enkindled to such glow 
 That iron forging never with it vied. ^20 
 
 The covering stones to all were open low, 
 
 And from them issued forth laments so keen, 
 'Twas clear they came from wretched souls in woe. 
 
 And I : " O master, who may these have been. 
 
 That buried underneath each curved stone, ^-^ 
 
 By sighs of anguish make their presence seen ?" 
 
 And he to me : " Here heretics make moan . 
 
 With their disciples of each sect, and more \ 
 
 Than thau wouldst credit, do these chamels own. 
 
 Lines 98 and 99. 
 
 " Your Cerberus, ye may remember well, 
 With maw and throat all peeled, still feels the weight." 
 
 Alluding to the story related by Ovid, of Hercules dragging Cerberus 
 from Hell by an iron chain, on his attempted opposition to the hero. 
 
 Line 112. Aries, a city in Provence, and once the seat of the Roman pro- 
 vincial Government : the extent of Roman ruins in the place give to it the 
 appearance of a city of tombs, and its recollection was clearly vivid in Dante's 
 mind wh&n he introduced it in this very striking simile, or rather illustration. 
 
 Line 113. Pola, a city of Istria, on the Gulph of Qaarnaro. It is now 
 in the possession of the Austrians, who have created there a first-class naval 
 port. 
 
 Line 127. " Here heretics make moan 
 
 With their disciples of each sect." 
 
 The acute and discriminating Father Venturi is led by his Catholic pre- 
 judices into an amusing anachronism in explaining this line. Amongst the 
 
36 HELL. Canto X. 
 
 Here like with like is buried evermore, ^^ 
 
 To each in due degree the heat is cast." 
 
 So speaking to the right he went before, 
 And 'twixt the turrets and the doomed we past. 
 
 heretics in the burning tombs he mildly places Luther and the Lutherans, 
 probably in anticipation of the horrors of free thought which the great 
 Reformer was to inflict upon the Christian world. Whether Dante would 
 have placed him there, had he been gifted with prophecy, may at least be 
 considered doubtful. 
 
 CANTO X. 
 
 Farinata degli Uberti, the Ghibeline leader, and Cavalcante Cavalcanti, the 
 Guelph, rise from the same tomb and converse with Dante. The latter 
 inquires about the welfare of his son Guido, Dante's great friend, and 
 the former predicts Dante's exile. He explains to Dante that although 
 able to see indistinctly future events, the spirits are entirely ignorant of 
 what is at the time going on in the world, unleys they ai-e informed by 
 spirits lately arrived from there. 
 
 Now by a narrow street we onwards wind, 
 
 Between the region's walls and those in pain, 
 My master and I following close behind. 
 
 " O virtue chief, that through this fell domain 
 
 Gruidest me," said I, "as thou will'st to hie, * 
 
 Speak now and satisfy my wishes fain. 
 
 The people who beneath these tombstones lie, 
 Can they be seen ? Already are revealed 
 The open lids, and no one watcheth nigh." 
 
 And he to me : *' They all will then be sealed ^^ 
 
 When from Jehoshaphat's dread vale of fame 
 Each brings his body, now on earth concealed. 
 
 Their burial-place on this side do they claim 
 j With Epicurus, all his followers weak, 
 I Who make the soul as mortal as the frame. ^* 
 
 But thou, in that demand which thou didst make, 
 Within this place shalt soon be satisfied. 
 And also in the wish thou didst not speak." 
 
 And I : " Kind leader, I would never hide 
 
 From thee my heart, except to be more brief, ^ 
 
 To which thy lesson was even now applied." 
 
 " O Tuscan, through the abodes of fire and grief, 
 Who living goest with the speech so fair. 
 Please thee to rest thee here for short relief. 
 
 Line 18. " And also in the wish thou didst not speat." That of conversing 
 with some of the heretics, amongst whom Farinata and his companion are 
 placed amongst the Epicureans, since they did not believe in the immortality 
 of the soul. 
 
Canto X. HELL. 37 
 
 Thy words at once all manifest declare ^ 
 
 That thou wast born in that fair land of pride, 
 To which I haply wrought too great despair.'* 
 
 Suddenly issuing forth these words were cried 
 
 From one of the arched graves, on which I drew 
 
 In fear a little nearer to my guide. ^ 
 
 But he addressed me : '' Turn, what dost thou do ? 
 Lo, Farinata there erect has risen ; 
 From the waist upwards thou canst wholly view." 
 
 Already on his face was fixed my vision, 
 
 When slowly he upreared his brow and breast, ^'" 
 
 As if he held all Hell in great derision. 
 
 My leader's hands, cordial and ready, prest 
 
 Me towards him, through the sepulchres malign, 
 Saying, " Thy words must frankly be addresst." 
 
 Soon as I stood before his grave*& confine ' ^ 
 
 He looked at me awhile, then with disdain 
 He asked me, " What was thy ancestral line ?" 
 
 My chiefs advice to follow I was fain, 
 
 So nothing I concealed, but all avowed,^ 
 
 On which he somewhat raised his brows,, and. then '^' 
 
 Spa.ke to me : " They were adversaries proud 
 To me, my predecessors, and my side, 
 Therefore to exile twice their heads I bowed." 
 
 " If they were banished each time," I replied, 
 
 " They came back to their homes from o'er the seas ; ^** 
 Unto your friends that art has been denied." 
 
 Then into view there rose up by degrees 
 
 A shadow by his side, who showed his face, 
 I think that he had risen on his knees. 
 
 Line 32. " Lo, Farinata there erect has risen." Farinata degli Uberti, the 
 great Ghibeline leader, commanded in the battle of Monte Aperto, near the 
 river Arbia, when the Florentines were routed with great slaughter. Although 
 Dante, the Ghibeline poet, places the Ghibeline chief in his Inferno, in a 
 few broad lines he draws for him the grandest character introduced, into the 
 poem. The pains of Hell have no effect upon his indomitable pride ; he makes 
 no allusion to his sufferings, he makes no boast of fortitude, but one feels- 
 that from that soul of adamant the petty tortures of this material Hell are as 
 ineffectual in their object as those hurled by the savage Jove of the Pagan, 
 creed against the calm Prometheus. Farinata is the impersonation of the 
 inflexible aristocrat of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Line 52. ""Then into view there rose up by degrees 
 A shadow by his side." 
 
 Cavalcante Cavalcanti, father of Guido, the bosom friend of Dante, whom, 
 the father therefore expects to see in his company. Guido was a celebrated 
 poet of the time, with a reputation equal to Dante's own, until the publica- 
 tion of the " Divina Commedia." Guido,. however, preferred philosophy to 
 poetry, which is generally given as the explanation of Dante's answer that he- 
 might have disdained Virgil for his guide. The pride of the poor suffering 
 father in his son and his intense affection are portrayed in the most touching 
 manner in the following lines. 
 
38 HELL. Canto X. 
 
 ^ He looked around me anxiously through space, ^ 
 
 As though some other with me he would see ; 
 
 But when his hope had wholly given place, 
 Weeping he said, " If through this prison free 
 
 To wander thou through genius dost attain, 
 
 Where is my son, and wherefore not with thee ?'' ®*^ 
 
 " Not of myself I come here,'* I explain, 
 
 " He who awaits me there has been my guide ; 
 
 Perchance your Gruido held him in disdain." 
 His question and the punishment descried, 
 
 Already this man's name had made me know ; ^^ 
 
 Therefore at once so fully I replied. 
 Instant he rose erect and cried out, " How ? 
 
 Saidst thou he held ? and does he live no more ? 
 
 Does not the sweet light smite his dear eyes now ?'* 
 When he perceived that I made pause before ^^ 
 
 Answering that question eagerly addresst. 
 
 He fell down prone, and forth appeared no more. 
 But the other mighty soul, at whose request 
 
 I still remained, changed not his haughty mien. 
 
 Nor bent his form, nor bowed his lofty crest ^^ 
 
 *' And if," continuing his former strain, 
 
 " They have," he said, " that art for evil learned. 
 
 That gives me torment than this bed more keen. 
 But not lor fifty times there shall be burned. 
 
 The torch of Hecate, who ruleth here, ^ 
 
 Ere thou shalt know how dear that art is earned. 
 So mayst thou rule upon the sweet earth's sphere, 
 
 Say, 'gainst my friends its every law throughout, 
 
 Say, wherefore is that people so severe ?" 
 Whence I to him : " The slaughter and the rout ^^ 
 
 Which made the Arlna's wave run tinged with red, 
 
 Within our temple made them raise such shout.'* 
 Then slowly and with sighs he shook his head ; 
 
 *' I was not there alone, and none supposed 
 
 That without cause to such a length we sped. ®" 
 
 But there I was alone when 'twas proposed 
 
 By every one to march on Florence straight. 
 
 Alone in open council I opposed. 
 
 Line 82. " So mayst thou rule upon the sweet earth's sphere," &c. Fari- 
 nata conjures Dante by all his hopes o£ success in life to explain why the 
 Florentines always omitted his family, the Uberti, from every advantage 
 granted to the other Ghibelines. 
 
 Line 91. ".But there I was alone when 'twas proposed." Alluding to a 
 council held at Empoli, when the Sipnnese general proposed to destroy Flo- 
 rence, which Farinata alone of the Florentine Ghibelme leaders opposed. 
 
105 
 
 Canto X. HELL. 
 
 Ah, that repose at last your seed await !" 
 
 Besought I him, *' This difficulty clear, 
 
 Which has perplext my judgment with ita weight. 
 It seems that you can see, if well I hear. 
 
 Forward to that which Time will slow unfold, 
 
 And of the present wholly blind appear."" 
 ** Like those who have bad eyesight, we behold 
 
 Things which are distant from us," he replied, 
 
 " Such light Great God permits us still to hold. 
 When they approach or are, in vain is tried 
 
 Our knowledge, save what others here relate. 
 
 We can know nothing of your human tide. 
 But thou must know that dead to future fate 
 
 Will be our prescient knowledge from that time 
 
 When of the future will be closed the gate." 
 Then I, as one compunctious for my crime, 
 
 Said, *' You must tell him then who fell down low^ ^^®' 
 
 His son still liveth in our mortal clime. 
 And if in answering I was mute just now, 
 
 Explain it was because my thoughts did track 
 
 That puzzling secret you have made me know." 
 My master had already called me back, "* 
 
 Therefore I prayed the spirit with more speed 
 
 To tell me who were with him in the rack. 
 " More than a thousand with me share this bed ; . 
 
 My tomb's confines the second Frederic hold, 
 
 The Cardinal, of the rest I take no heed." ^^ 
 
 Then he was silent, and towards the old 
 
 Poet I turned my steps, thinking again 
 
 Of that unfriendly prophecy he told. 
 
 Line 108. " "When of the future will be closed the gate." The final judg- 
 ment, after which there will be no past nor future, but only an eternal 
 present. 
 
 Line 109. "Then I, as one compunctious for my crime." Dante's con- 
 science smites him for not having at once relieved the mind of Cavalcante 
 concerning his son, who was alive at the date the poem is supposed to have 
 taken place. The excuse Dante gives for his neglect is clearly an afterthought 
 and a bad one, for it was not till after Cavalcante had fallen down in despair, 
 under the mistaken belief in his son's death, that Farinata made to Dante 
 the mysterious announcement of his future exile. 
 
 Line 119. " My tomb's confines the second Frederic hold, 
 The Cardinal." 
 
 The Emperor Frederic II., nephew of Barbarossa, is included amongst the 
 heretics for his opposition to the Church. The Cardinal is Ottavian Ubaldini, 
 an open unbeliever and Ghibeline in spite of being a Church dignitary. He 
 it was who said, " If there is such a thing as a soul I have lost mine for the 
 Ghibelines." 
 
40 HELL. Canto XI. 
 
 The bard moved on, and as we went, " Explain," 
 
 He said, "the reason thou art thus bestirred." '^'^ 
 
 And I to answer his request was fain. 
 
 " Guard in thy mind the speech which thou hast heard 
 Against thyself," the prescient sage did say, 
 " And listen now," with this his hand he reared, 
 
 ** "When thou shalt be before the sweet light's ray ^^ 
 
 Of her whose eye sees all things without veil. 
 From her thou'lt learn of all thy life the way." 
 
 Then to the left he turned ; the outer pale 
 We left, and inwards to the centre hie, 
 Along a path which pierceth to a vale, ^^ 
 
 And even so far exhaled its stench on high. 
 
 Line 131. "Of her whose eye sees all things without veil." Beatrice, who 
 sees all things in the sight of God. 
 
 CANTO XI. 
 
 Resting on a rock that overhangs the seventh circle while they pause to 
 accustom themselves to the fetid atmosphere, Virgil explains to Dante 
 what crimes are punished in the three remaining circles, namely, violence, 
 fraud, and treason. He shows how the crimes punished in the circles out- 
 side the city of Dis are of less culpability than those doomed within the 
 walls, and how usury is particularly hateful to God. 
 
 Above the extremity of a lofty chain 
 
 Of broken rocks heaped roughly in a bank, 
 
 We issued forth upon more cruel pain. 
 And here, through the excess of odour rank 
 
 Which from the depths profound the abysses threw, * 
 
 Against the lid of a great tomb we sank, 
 Of which at once the inscription caught my view ; 
 
 " Pope Anastasius here behold," it said, 
 
 " Whom erst Photinus from the straight path drew." 
 " Now our descent must be some while delayed, ^* 
 
 So that the accustomed sense may somewhat bear 
 
 The fetid odour, hence no more dismayed." 
 My master thus, and I : " Some mode prepare 
 
 Of compensation, that the time be past 
 
 Not idly." He replied, " Thy thoughts I share. ^' 
 
 Line 8. " ' Pope Anastasius here behold,' it said." It is doubtful whether 
 either of the Popes of this name was really led astray by the heresy of 
 Photinus, a deacon of the Church of Thessalonica in the fifth century. It iff 
 certain, however, that Dante intended to place a Pope amongst his condemned 
 heretics. 
 
Canto XI. HELL. 41 
 
 Onwards, my son, witliin these rocks are placed," 
 
 Began he then to tell me, " circles three. 
 
 In steps decreasing, like the one thou'st trace<J. 
 They all are full of cursed souls, that free 
 
 Thy sight alone full knowledge may create. ^* 
 
 Hear now the how and wherefore these things be. 
 Of every malice that in Heaven wins hate 
 
 The end is injury, and each such plan 
 
 By force or fraud on some wreaks woful fate. 
 Since fraud is ill peculiar unto man 
 
 G-od it displeases more, and hence more low 
 
 The fraudulent are doomed to greater pain. 
 The violent fill the outer vale of woe. 
 
 And since in threes ways violence is shown, i 
 
 In three compartments 'tis divided so. ' 
 
 To God, oneself, one's neighbour force is done, 
 'In their own persons and affairs, I say. 
 
 As with developed reason will be known. 
 Murder by violence and fierce affray. 
 
 Attack one's neighbour's person, his estate. 
 
 Destructions, burnings, carryings away. 
 Whence homicides and all who wound in hate. 
 
 Spoilers and plunderers, all tormented lie 
 
 In this first ward, though doomed to diverse fate. 
 Man on himself his violence can try. 
 
 And on his goods, so in the second ward 
 
 'Tis fit that they repent all needlessly, 
 Whoever in your life quits life abhorred, 
 
 Gambles, and wastes away his faculty, 
 
 And waileth there where life should joy afford. 
 Force can be shown against the Deity 
 
 By cursing and denying with the heart, 
 
 Outraging Nature and her bounty free. 
 Therefore the smaller ward sealeth apart 
 
 Both Sodom and Caorsawith its seal. 
 
 And whosoe'er denies God in his heart. 
 
 Line 45. " A.nd waileth there where life should joy afTord." A causeless 
 melancholy, refusing to enjoy the gifts of God's bounty in life, is classed with 
 suicide and gambling, and punished in a lower pit of Hell than murder and 
 robbery by violence. 
 
 Line 50. " Both Sodom and Caorsa." Caorsa, a city of Guienne, infamous 
 for usury. The sins of Caorsa and Sodom are classed together, as outraging 
 God by violence, through Nature. Usury is ranked as the greater crime, as 
 it 'was undoubtedly considered throughout the Middle Ages, and Dante, with 
 all his genius, is essentially a man of his age. 
 
42 ... HELL. Canto XI. 
 
 Such fraud, for whicli all must compunction feel. 
 
 Can man exert 'gainst him whose trust he shares, 
 
 And him whose thoughts no confidence reveal. 
 This latter fashion all unseemly tears ^^ 
 
 The golden chain of love which Nature weaves. 
 
 Whence gather in the second circle's lairs 
 Hypocrisy, all flattery that deceives, 
 
 Witchcraft, lies, thefts, the Simoniac blot. 
 
 Panders, chicaners, and all similar thieves. *® 
 
 By the other mode not only is forgot 
 
 Nature's more general, but that special love 
 
 By which the special trust was erst begot. 
 Whence in the smaller circle, where above 
 
 The centre of the world is Dis's throne, ^ 
 
 All who betray eternal torments prove." 
 And I : " O master, very clear is shown 
 
 Thy argument, and hence is clear descried 
 
 Those prisons and the people which they own. 
 But say, the dwellers in the sluggish tide, '* 
 
 Whom the wind whirls and whom the rainstorms smite, 
 
 And those who with sharp tongues so fiercely plied, 
 Wherefore within this glowing city's site 
 
 Are they not punished, if beneath God's ire ? 
 
 And if not so, why doomed to such despite ?" '^ 
 
 And he to me : " What ravings now inspire 
 
 Thy thoughts to strike on this unwonted chord ? 
 
 Or to what region does thy mind respire ? 
 Dost thou not then remember thee the word 
 
 With which thy Aristotle's Ethics styled, ^ 
 
 The three bad dispositions Heaven abhorred ? 
 Incontinence, and malice, and the wild 
 
 Bestiality ? and how incontinence 
 
 Offends God less and suffers blame more mild | 
 If thou regardest well that saying's sense, , ^ 
 
 And bringest to thy mind what men are these 
 
 Who on the outside suffer pimishment. 
 Thou wouldst see clearly wherefore in degrees 
 
 All separate from these wretches, with less spite 
 
 They are afflicted by Heaven's just decrees." ^^ 
 
 " O Sun, that healest every troubled sight. 
 
 Thou so contentest me when thou mak'st clear 
 
 Doubts, that no less than knowledge they delight, 
 
 Lines 70, 72. The wrathful, the lascivious, the gluttonous, the avaricious 
 and prodigal, whose punishments have been described in the preceding 
 Cantos. 
 
Canto XII. HELL. 43 
 
 Backwards again thy thoughts a little steer, 
 
 There where thou saidst that usury offends ^^ 
 
 Goodness Divine, and make the mystery clear.'* 
 " Whoe'er," he said, " philosophy attends, 
 
 Learneth therefrom not only in one part, 
 
 How Nature duly her own course extends 
 From Intellect Divine, and from its art. *"** 
 
 And if thou'lt carefully thy Physics scan, 
 
 Thou wilt discover in the opening part 
 That your Art follows Nature as it can, 
 
 Like the disciple goes his lord behind ; 
 
 So that Grod's grandchild is the art of man. ^"* 
 
 From Art and Nature, if thou bring'st to mind 
 
 The verse of Q-enesis, 'tis doomed alone 
 
 That man should live and carry on his kind. 
 And since to usurers other ways are known, 
 
 Both Nature and her follower stand confest "" 
 
 Outraged by those whose trust is elsewhere shown. 
 Follow me now, enough has been our rest, 
 
 And on the horizon now the Pisces shine, 
 
 And all the Wain reclineth o'er the west, 
 And further up the cliflfs less steep decline." "* 
 
 Line 101. Virgil, as usual, is quoting from Aristotle. 
 
 Line 106. " From Art and Nature, if thou bring'st to mind 
 The verse of Genesis." 
 
 The curious argument by which the crime of usury is proved is this : God has 
 decreed that man shall live by the sweat of his face — i.e., by labour which 
 cultivates some art, which last is the child of Nature. Usurers live neither by 
 Nature nor by labour (or art) ; they, therefore, outrage Nature both in her- 
 self and her offspring, and are, therefore, worse even than Sodomites ! 
 
 CANTO XII. 
 
 Descending the bank into the seventh circle, they find it guarded by the 
 Minotaur. Having reached the bottom of the cliff, Dante sees a river of 
 blood, in which ai-e punished those who have committed violence against 
 their neighbour, being prevented from rising out of the boiling stream by 
 a band of Centaurs, who gallop with bows and arrows along its bank. 
 Three of them advance to meet Virgil and Dante, and, at the former's 
 request, one of them guides the poets along the bank, and finally carries 
 Dante across the stream on his back. 
 
 The place we stood on to descend the bank 
 Precipitously fell, and there beside 
 Was one from sight of whom all vision shrank. 
 
 Like to that landslip, which with 'whelming slide 
 
 Struck the Adige, above the town of Trent, * 
 
 Through earthquake moved, or action of the tide : 
 
M HELL. Canto XII. 
 
 Which from the mountain's crest from whence it went 
 
 Fell with such sheer incline into the plain 
 
 That from above it offers no descent : 
 So did that beetling cliff the valley gain : '" 
 
 And o'er the broken hollow, on its brow, 
 
 The Infamy of Crete was stretched amain 
 Conceived within the fabricated cow : 
 
 He bit himself when he beheld us near, 
 
 As one in whom quick-roused angers glow. '" 
 
 My wise one shouted towards him : " Haply here 
 
 Thou think' st that Athens' Duke again is bent, 
 Who of old slew thee in the upper sphere ? 
 Off with the beast ! for this one is not sent 
 
 Taught by thy sister how to make thee bleed, -^ 
 
 He Cometh but to see thy punishment." 
 Like to a bull the very moment freed 
 
 He has received the mortal stroke, in air 
 
 Bounds here and there, unable on to speed. 
 The Minotaur thus maddened saw I there : ^' 
 
 My prudent guide cried out : " Run to the pass, 
 
 During his furious fit, descend with care." 
 So on we hurried through the scattered mass 
 
 Of tumbled stones, that often moving slide 
 
 Beneath the unwonted weight, as on I pass. ""* 
 
 In thought I went : " Thou musest," said my guide, 
 
 " Perchance about this precipice, watched o'er 
 
 By the bestial anger which I now defied. 
 I would that thou shouldst know, that when before 
 
 Down to Hell's lowest deeps I turned my feet, ^ 
 
 This rock had not yet toppled to the shore. 
 But very shortly ere (if well I weet) 
 
 His coming, who such booty bore from Hell, 
 
 Those prisoners of the outer circle's seat, 
 In every portion, this deep valley fell ^ 
 
 So trembled, that I thought the reeling sphere 
 
 Had felt the Love, through which, there are who tell 
 
 Lines 12 and 13. The Minotaur, oflfspring of Pasipliae and her unnatural 
 passion. 
 
 Line 17. " Thou think' st that Athens' Duke again is bent." Theseus, who, 
 instructed by Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, was enabled to slay 
 the monster. 
 
 Line 37. " But very shortly ere (if well I weet) 
 His coming." 
 
 The triumphant entry of Christ, described in Canto IV. 
 
 Line 42. " Had felt the Love, through which, there are who tell 
 That oft i' the world did Chaos reappear." 
 
 The idea that through Love the atoms of the Universe separate from the 
 mass to join together like with like, and that ia this manner Chaos has been 
 
Canto XII. HELL, 15 
 
 That oft i' the world did Chaos reappear : 
 
 And in that moment this old rook from high 
 
 Down to its basement toppled here and there. ^^ 
 
 But gaze upon the valley : there draws nigh ^ 
 The river of red blood, where boil in fire 
 All who with force do others injury." 
 
 blind cupidity, O foolish ire, 
 
 Which spurs us on so in our life's short day, ^ 
 
 And soaks us till Eternity expire ! 
 
 1 saw. a broad stream bending far away, 
 
 As though its wave did all the plain embrace. 
 By the description which my guide did say ; 
 
 And 'twixt it and the mountain's foot in race ^^ 
 
 Galloped a band of Centaurs, armed with bows, 
 As in the world they erst were wont to chase. 
 
 When our descent they saw, each one stood close, 
 And three amongst them sallied from the band 
 With bows and darts, our passage to oppose ; '^'* 
 
 And one from far cried out : " What pains demand 
 Your sentence, that you thus descend the side ? 
 I shoot unless you speak from where you stand." 
 
 " Our answer," thus my master straight replied, 
 
 *' When we have reached his side, shall Chiron know ^^ 
 Badly for thee thy will could never bide." 
 
 He touched me then, and said : " 'Tis Nessys, who 
 Perished of old for Dejanira fair, 
 And from himself made his own vengeance flow. 
 
 He in the middle, with the musing air, "^^ 
 
 Is the great Chiron, to Achilles bowed : 
 The other Folus, erst so ireful. There^ 
 
 Along the stream in thousands do they crowd, 
 Shooting whatever souls themselves upreared. 
 Above the blood, more than their doom allowed.'* ^^ 
 
 Onwards, towards those active beasts we neared ; 
 And Chiron with an arrow's feathered head 
 Behind his jaws drew back his massy beard. 
 
 When his great mouth was thus laid bare, he said 
 
 To his companions, wondering : ** Do ye weet ^^ 
 
 How this one moveth all things with his tread ? 
 
 repeated more than once, is said to have originated with Empedocles, but is 
 
 probably taken by Dante from his favourite master Aristotle, who has 
 
 introduced it in his " Physics." 
 
 Line 67. " 'Tis Nessus, who." 
 
 Nessus being slain by Hercules, revenged himself by leaving his poisoned 
 
 robe to Dqanira, making her believe that it was a love charm. 
 
46 HELL. Canto XII. 
 
 So are not wont to do the dead men*s feet." 
 
 My leader to his breast now opposite, 
 
 There, where the horse and human nature meet, 
 Answered, " He lives, and in this lonely plight, *** 
 
 *Tis mine to show him all this dreary vale, 
 
 Necessity compels us, not delight. 
 She left her song, within Heaven's holy pale, 
 
 Who trusted unto me this office new, 
 
 No robber he, and I no spirit frail. ^^ 
 
 But by the virtue, through the which I knew 
 
 My footsteps through this pathway wild to guide, 
 
 Give one of thine to be our convoy true. 
 That he may show us where to cross the tide 
 
 And carry this my comrade on his back, ®^ 
 
 No spirit he, who through the air can glide." 
 Great Chiron to the right then turned him back. 
 
 " Turn thou, and guide them," he to Nessus cried, 
 
 " And hinder any band that thwarts their track." 
 Onwards we travelled with our trusty guide, ^'^ 
 
 Along the shore of the red boiling wave. 
 
 Where shrieked aloud those boiled within its tide. 
 Some to their brows I saw the liquid lave ; 
 
 The Centaur told me : " These were tyrants fierce \ 
 
 Who in their lives but blood and rapine gave. ' ^"* 
 Here they bewail their punishment with tears ; 
 
 See Alexander, Dionysius there. 
 
 Who gave to Sicily such dolorous years. 
 That forehead covered o'er with thick black hair 
 
 Is Azzolino, that one by his side "® 
 
 Obizzo d'Esti, with the locks all fair. 
 On earth beneath his son's own hand he died." 
 
 Then to the bard I turned, but he declared, 
 
 ** Not I, but this one here must be our guide." 
 A little way beyond the Centaur neared "* 
 
 Another troop, as far as to the throat 
 
 Above the bubbling stream were these upreared. 
 A shadow by itself he bade us note, 
 
 Saying, '* A heart, still cherished o'er the Thame, 
 
 Within the lap of God this sinner smote." ^^^ 
 
 Line 109. "That forehead covered o'er with thick black hair" is Azzo- 
 lino, a ruler of Padua and the surrounding countries, infamous for his 
 cruel tyrannies, who died in 1260. He murdered two of the numerous 
 husbands of his sister Cunizza, introduced by Dante in the " Paradise" as 
 inhabiting the sphere of Venus. Par., Canto IX. 
 
 Line 111. " Obizzo d'Esti, with the locks all fair." A Marquis of Ferrara, 
 killed by his son for the sake of his wealth. 
 
 Line 119. " A heait, still cherished o'er the Thame, 
 
 Within the lap of God this sinner smote." 
 
 Guy de Montfort, in order to revenge the death of his father Simon, 
 
Canto XIII. HELL. 47 
 
 Then saw I people who from out the stream 
 Lifted their head, and even all the breast, 
 And several of these I knew by name. 
 
 Shallower, and shallower still, the blood decreased. 
 
 Until at last it only bathed the feet, '^^ 
 
 And there our passage o'er the stream we prest. 
 
 *' As in this portion thou didst now behold, 
 
 The bubbling source has ever shallower grown, 
 
 I would that thou shouldst know," the Centaur told, 
 
 ** That so it deepens, as it circles on, ^•'^" 
 
 Until once more its circuit course it brings, 
 There, where 'tis doomed that tyranny should groan. 
 
 'Tis there that Heaven's high justice ever stings 
 That Attila who was the scourge of earth, 
 Pirrhus, and Sextus, and eternally wrings ^*''^ 
 
 The tears, which by the boiling it draws forth 
 From Pazzo and Corneto, both abhorred, 
 Who in the highways made such constant dearth." 
 
 Then he turned back, and crossed again the ford. 
 
 slew Henry, nepbew of Kinj^ Henry III. of England, during the celebration 
 of the High Mass. The Italian chronicles relate that the heart of Henry was 
 embalmed in a golden cup, and placed on a pillar over London Bridge, for a 
 memorial to the English of the said outrage. 
 
 Line 137. " From Pazzo and Corneto, both abhorred." Two highway 
 robbers of Italy, both of them of noble birth. 
 
 CANTO XIII. 
 
 Entering the second division of the seventh circle, Dante finds himself in a 
 w«ird wood, the trees of which are the spirits of those who have com- 
 mitted violence against their own persons, and who are punished by being 
 fed upon by Harpies. While Virgil converses with Pietro delle Vigne, 
 the confidant and Chancellor of the Emperor Frederic II., two spirits 
 rush through the forest, chased by black bitches, who tear them to 
 pieces, such being the punishment of those who have committed violence 
 against themselves in their estate. 
 
 Nessus had scarce departed from the place, 
 Or ere we found ourselves within a wood, 
 In which no sign of pathway marked its trace. 
 
 No leaves of tender green, but brownly hued, 
 
 No waving boughs, but gnarled and knotted growth, ^ 
 No fruit, but thorns with poisonous berries rude. 
 
 In such a thick and savage undergrowth 
 
 Eoam not the wild beasts through Maremma's lair. 
 Who all the cultivated regions loathe. 
 
48 HELL. Canto XIII. 
 
 Their nests tbe Harpies foul constructed there, ^^ 
 
 Who chased the Trojans from the Strofades, 
 
 With gloomy augury of future fare. 
 Broad wings with human necks and visages, 
 
 Clawed feet are theirs, great bellies feathered o*er, 
 
 They ma^ their moan upon the eerie trees. '^ 
 
 And my good master : " Ere thou enterest more 
 
 Know in the second circle dost thou stand," 
 
 So said he, " which extend«th on its shore 
 Tin til thou com est to the horrible sand. 
 
 But well observe, and things thou wilt behold, -^ 
 
 For which my word could ne'er thy faith demand." 
 On every side the sound of wailing rolled, 
 
 And not a soul I saw by whom 'twas wrought. 
 
 So that astonied there my steps I hold. 
 Meseemeth that he fancied that I thought ^^ 
 
 Those voices came from 'twixt the branches sent 
 
 By people who from us concealment sought. 
 ^* But," said the master, " if by thee be rent 
 
 Of any o£ these plants, some branches end. 
 
 The thoughts thou hast will straightway all be spent." ^ 
 On that my hand a little I extend. 
 
 And gathered from a briar a little bough. 
 
 When its trunk shrieked out, " Wherefore dost thou rend ?" 
 Then, when the brown blood had begun to flow, 
 
 Again it shrieked out, " Wherefore dost thou tear ? ^ 
 
 Does not thy spirit any pity know ? 
 Though now we're changed to shoots, yet men we were : 
 
 Surely thy hand more clement should have been 
 
 Had we been souls of serpents in despair." 
 As when the one end of a firebrand green ^* 
 
 Is kindled, at the other end it groans 
 
 And hisses with the hot air issuing keen. 
 So from that broken branch there issued moans 
 
 And blood together, whence I dropt the bough 
 
 And stood like one whom sudden terror owns. ^ 
 
 ** Had it been possible for him to know," 
 
 Answered my wise one, " O thou soul in pain, 
 
 By words alone that which the sight could show, 
 On thee his hand had ne'er such action ta'en. 
 
 Only the incredible marvel of the place ^ 
 
 Forced me to prompt a deed which now I plain. 
 
 Line 11. " Who chased the Trojans from the Strofades." See "-^neid," 
 book iii. 
 
Camto XIII. HELL. " 49 
 
 But tell him who thou wert, so that in gi'ace 
 
 For some amends, in the upper world thy fame 
 
 May grow where he his steps again will trace." 
 *' So with thy sweet words me thou dost inflame ^^ 
 
 That I must speak, and let it not displease 
 
 If to some little length I now declaim. 
 I am the one who carried both the keys 
 
 Of Frederic's heart, and tuned them with such sweet 
 
 Motion, both locking and unlocking these, *"* 
 
 That for his secrets no one else was meet. 
 
 With trust I exercised my high emprise. 
 
 So that for it my pulses ceased to beat. 
 Envy, the harlot whose bold, shameless eyes 
 
 Were never absent yet from Caesar's hall, "^ 
 
 Of courts the common ruin and the vice. 
 Inflamed against me there the hearts of all, 
 
 And they inflamed, Augustus so inspired. 
 
 That my glad honours changed to strife's sad pall. 
 My spirit, with disdainful passion fired, ^^ 
 
 Thinking with death alone to 'scape from scorn, 
 
 Unjustly 'gainst myself, though just, conspired. ' 
 
 By the new roots beneath this tree forlorn 
 
 I swear to ye my faith I never broke 
 
 Against my lord, to honour duly bom. '^ 
 
 And should ye either bear again earth's yoke 
 
 justify my memory, which lies 
 
 Still wounded by the force of Envy's stroke." 
 He paused awhile, and through the silences 
 
 The poet whispered, " Lose not time in vain, ^^ 
 
 But speak to him should further question please." 
 Whence I to him : " Then question him again 
 
 Of what thou thinkest will delight me best. 
 
 1 cannot speak myself for pity fain." 
 
 Therefore he recommenced : "If thy behest ^^ 
 
 This man should freely execute for thee. 
 
 Imprisoned spirit, please thee for the rest 
 To tell him how the spirit in the tree 
 
 Is here allied, and if thou canst, explain 
 
 If any from such frame can e'er be free." ^* 
 
 Line 58. " I am the one who carried both the keys 
 Of Frederic's heart." 
 
 Pietro delle Vigne, a man who from a mean condition raised himself by hia 
 talents to the post of Chancellor to the Emperor Frederic II., whom Dante 
 has already placed amongst the condemned heretics. The disgraced servant 
 speaks more honourably of his former master, " che fu d'onor si digrio." 
 
 £ 
 
60 HELL. Canto XIII. 
 
 Then violently sighed the trunk, and then 
 
 Its wind in breathing to such speech Converts. 
 " To you my answer will be brief and plain. 
 
 When from the body the fierce soul departs, 
 
 From which itself by its own deed has torn, ** 
 
 At Minos' doom to the seventh pit it starts. 
 
 Within this forest is it straightway borne. 
 
 No chosen spot, but there where Fortune shoots. 
 There does it burgeon like a grain of com. 
 
 The small branch sprouteth and the tree strikes roots, ^^ 
 Make torment and an opening for despair. 
 The Harpies feeding on the leaves and fruits. 
 
 Like others we our cast-off frames will bear. 
 But not one limb will be again arrayed. 
 What man's self spent he cannot justly wear. ^®* 
 
 Here we shall drag them, and in order laid 
 Our forms will hang along this dreary wood, 
 Each to the briar of its own hateful shade." 
 
 Intently listening to the trunk we stood, 
 
 Believing that it wished to tell us more, ^® 
 
 When we were startled by a clamour rude. 
 
 And like to one who heareth a wild boar 
 
 Break towards him, with the pack in eager chase. 
 Who hears the branches rend and the beasts roar. 
 
 When, lo ! from the left comer of the place "* 
 
 Two torn and naked forms, rushing with speed, 
 So that each branch was broken in their race. 
 
 The one in front : " O Death, come now at need !" 
 When he, who somewhat lagged behind, appealed, 
 Shouting out, " Lano this way did not speed ^^ 
 
 Those limbs of thine at Toppo's battle-field." 
 
 Then, when perchance his breath had failed him, he 
 Fell in a bush and sought there for a shield. 
 
 Behind them all the wood we swarming see 
 
 With stark black bitches, hungering to tear, ^^ 
 
 Eacing like greyhounds from the slips let free. 
 
 Line 101. " Make torment and an opening for despair, 
 
 The Harpies." 
 Through the wounds inflicted by the Harpies these spirit trees have a vent 
 for their anguish, the blood and wailing issuing together. 
 
 Line 120. " Lano this way did not speed 
 
 Those limbs of thine at Toppo's battle-field." 
 
 Lano was a Siennese, who having wasted all his fortune in riotous living, 
 and finding life intolerable, threw himself into the thickest of the enemy 
 when his countrymen were routed at Pieve del Toppo by the Aretines, and 
 refusing to fly with the rest, found the death he sought for at their hands. 
 
Canto XIV. HELt. 51 
 
 Their fangs they fixed on him who squatted there^ 
 And piece by piece, when he was wholly torn, 
 On every side his quivering limbs they bear. 
 
 My guide then took my hand, and onwards borne, ^^ 
 
 He led me to that little bush that sighed, 
 And through its bleeding fragments wailed forlorn. 
 
 " Jacopo da Sant' Andrea !" it cried, 
 
 " In seeking help from me to thee what good ? 
 
 What crime had I in thy life's guilty pride ?'* ^^ 
 
 My master said, when opposite he stood, 
 
 " Who, then, wert thou who through so many a wound 
 Breathest such dolorous parley with thy blood ?*' 
 
 And he to us ; " O spirits who are bound 
 
 Hither to witness this most shameful deed , ^^ 
 
 That thus has stripped my foliage to the ground, 
 
 Collect it at the foot of this sad weed. 
 I was of Florence, which its early lord 
 Changed for Baptista, whence has Mars decreed 
 
 It should be wretched through his art abhorred ; "* 
 
 And were it not some remnant still remains 
 Of the old sculpture upon Arno's ford. 
 
 The men who, after Attila, were fain 
 
 To raise up from the ruins the old walls 
 
 Would but have lost their labour all in vain. ^^ 
 
 I made a gibbet of my father's halls." 
 
 Line 133. Jacopo da Sant' Andrea was a Faduan spendthrift who finished 
 his career by suicide. 
 
 Line 143. " I was of Florence, which its early lord 
 Changed for Baptista." 
 
 Mars was the first patron of the city, changed in Christian times for the 
 Saint Baptista. At the date of this poem a portion of the old statue of Mars 
 was still preserved on the bridge over the Arno, and was considered the 
 Palladium of the city. 
 
 Line 151. " I made a gibbet of my father's halls.^' This Florentine suicide 
 is not named, though conjectures as to his personality have been made by the 
 early commentators. In the closing line he evidently compares his own usage 
 of lus father's house with the conduct of the pious restorers of the city, who 
 reconstructed the walls leit in ruin by their forefathers after the destruction 
 by Attiia. 
 
 CANTO XIV. 
 
 The poets reach the boimdary of the wood and see before them the third com- 
 partment of this circle, a plain of burning sand, where are punished in 
 various ways those who have committed violence against God, Nature, 
 and Art. Amongst the first they see Capaneus, one of the seven before 
 Thebes. They reach a rivulet of blood, the river of Phlegethon, which 
 traverses the burning desert, and whose petrified margins aflEbrd Dante a 
 passage across the sand. 
 
58 HELL. CahtoTIV. 
 
 Love of my country urged me with such force 
 That I collected all the scattered leaves, 
 And gave them back to him, already hoarse. 
 We came then to the boundary where one leaves 
 
 The second circle, entering on the third, ^ 
 
 Where Justice all its frightful skill conceives — 
 To make quite manifest things yet unheard, 
 I say, before a vast expanse we stood, 
 Within whose bed no vegetation stirred. 
 Its circling garland was the dolorous wood, *^ 
 
 As unto that the stream of misery ; 
 Skirting the edge our way we here pursued. 
 The space was filled with sand, minute and dry. 
 Fashioned not other than that desert drear 
 Erst trod by Cato when compelled to fly. ^* 
 
 O vengeance of great God ! with what a fear 
 Thou shouldst be held by all who read in awe 
 That which before my eyes was visibly clear ! 
 Of naked spirits many a troop I saw, 
 
 Who all were wailing with most wretched sound, ^^ 
 
 And seemed subjected unto diverse law. 
 Some of them lay supinely on the ground ; 
 Some of them sate up gathered in a heap, 
 And others without pausing moved around. 
 Most numerous were they who motion keep, ^* 
 
 And least in number who in torment lay, 
 But these cried out with anguish far more deep. 
 0*er the whole waste of sand in slow delay 
 
 There raineth down enormous flakes of flame, 
 Like snow in Alps upon a windless day. ^ 
 
 Such Alexander, when his army came 
 
 To India's hottest regions, o'er his host 
 
 Saw falling to the earth in living flame. 
 
 The which he met by trampling in the dust 
 
 By his trained bands, what time the vapours meet ^ 
 
 No other flame, and then are easiest crusht. 
 So the eternal ardour here down beat. 
 
 From which the sand, like tinder 'neath the steel, 
 Kindled for greater pain to double heat. 
 
 Line 15. " Erst trod by Cato when compelled to fly." The Libyan desert, 
 o'er which Cato, after his defeat with Pompey, led the remains of his army to 
 join King Juba, as described by Lncan. 
 
 Line 35. " What time the vapours meet 
 
 No other flame, and then are easiest crusht." 
 
 In the night-time. This somewhat apocryphal story of Alexander's Indian 
 campaign is supposed to be taken from a letter of Alexander to his teacher, 
 Aristotle, according to Venturi. 
 
Canto XIV. HELL. 53 
 
 Aje without respite was the dancing reel ^ 
 
 Of miserable hands, now here, now there, 
 Shaking aside each flake they newly feel. 
 
 " Master," I said, " who didst the victory bear 
 
 'Gainst all things save the demons fixed in deed, 
 
 Who at the city's gate did boldly dare ; ** 
 
 Who is that lofty form that does not heed 
 
 The burning, and lies there in grim disdain, 
 As if this rain could ripen not such seed ?" 
 
 And he himself, aware that I was fain 
 
 Concerning him to ask my leader, cried, "* 
 
 " Such as in life in death I so remain. 
 
 If Jpve should weary Vulcan as he plied, 
 
 From whom in wrath he took the bolt so keen 
 With which he smote me on the day I died, 
 
 Or should he weary the Cyclopean train, ^^ 
 
 Working by turns in Mongibello's forge, 
 Crying, ' Good Vulcan, help, O help again!' 
 
 Just as he did in Flegra's bloody gorge. 
 
 And dart his bolts at me with all his might. 
 
 His vengeance ne'er as triumph could he urge.'* ^* 
 
 Then cried my leader unto him outright. 
 
 So loud I ne'er had heard him speak before, 
 " O Capaneus in thy own despite, 
 
 Thy untamed pride makes punishment the more ; 
 
 No martyrdom except thy madness fell ®* 
 
 Could to thy fury pain's full measure pour." 
 
 Then he returned to me with gentler spell. 
 
 Telling me, " One of the seven kings was he 
 
 Who Thebes besieged ; he held, and seems holds still, 
 
 God in contempt, his worth of low degree ; ^® 
 
 But as I said to him, his own disdain 
 Makes for his breast the fittest frippery. 
 
 Now come behind me and with care maintain 
 Thy feet from stepping on the burning sand, 
 But closely to the wood thy path retain." '^^ 
 
 In silence we continued till at hand 
 
 From out the wood a streamlet bubbling rose, 
 Whose redness makes my hair with horror stand. 
 
 From Bulicame so the rivulet flows, 
 
 Whose healing wave the harlots there divide — ^" 
 
 Thus downwards through the sand this gliding goes. 
 
 Line 56. " Mongibello's forge." Mount Etna. 
 
 Line 58. " Flegra's bloody gorge." The battle-field where in Thessaly the 
 giants were finally destroyed by Jupiter. 
 
 Line 79. " From Bulicarae so the rivulet flows." A medicinal spring near 
 Viterbo, the waters of which are stated to have passed by a house of ill-fame. 
 
S4i HELL. Cahto XIV. 
 
 Its bottom and the banks on either side 
 
 With some slight margin had been changed to stone, 
 From which I knew our path must there be tried. 
 
 " 'Midst all the things that I to thee have shown ^ 
 
 Since we have entered through that hateful gate, 
 Whose threshold has been ever locked to none. 
 
 Nothing yet witnessed by thy eyes has weight 
 Against this present river notable, 
 O'er which the endless flames their heat abate." ^^ 
 
 Such were the words that from my master fell ; 
 On which I prayed him to complete the feast 
 For which his speech had made me hunger well. 
 
 " Far in mid ocean lies a desert waste," 
 
 He told me then, " of which the name is Crete, ^^ 
 
 Beneath whose king the world of old was chaste. 
 
 There is a mountain which of old was sweet 
 With water and with leafage, Ida hight. 
 Now 'tis deserted like a worn-out seat. 
 
 As a safe cradle Ehea chose the site ^^ 
 
 For her young son, and to conceal his cries 
 She filled the place with sounds of mad delight. 
 
 Within the mount an old man's form doth rise 
 Whose back is turned towards Damiata old, 
 And like a glass on Rome he keeps his eyes. ^^ 
 
 His head is fashioned all of finest gold. 
 
 Of purest silver are the arms and breast. 
 Of copper to the fork descends the mould ; 
 
 Thence down of choicest iron is the rest. 
 
 Except the right foot, formed of potter's clay, ""^ 
 
 And standing most on that his weight is prest. 
 
 Each part except the gold is cracked away 
 
 With a deep fissure from the which drop tears. 
 At first collected, then they form a bay. 
 
 Line 95. Crete, the kingdom of Saturn, who ruled in the Golden Age of 
 Earth. 
 
 Line 100. Rhea, the wife of Saturn, was obliged to conceal her children, 
 Jupiter, Juno, &c., in Mount Ida, to save them from her husband, who had 
 the unfortunate habit of devouring his offspring. 
 
 Line 103. The old man is Time, and the whole allegory is thus explained : 
 The statue is placed in Crete, because there Time began with the Golden Age 
 of Saturn's rule. Its back is turned to the east, and it gazes towards the 
 west (Damiata and Rome), symbolical of the Past and Future. The different 
 metals of the statue, the same as those described in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, 
 represent the different ages of the world, the foot of potter's clay being the 
 present. Every portion except the head of gold — i.e., all time except the 
 Golden Age — is rent with vice, from which fissure descend the tears that form 
 all the rivers in Hell. 
 
Canto XV. HELL. 55 
 
 Its course into this valley then it sheers, ^^* 
 
 Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon they make ; 
 Then downwards by this narrow pipe it steers 
 
 Even to the bottom, where it forms a lake, 
 Cocytus, and as that thou soon wilt see 
 Of its appearance here I nothing speak." ^ 
 
 And I to him ; " If this same streamlet be 
 
 Derived in truth from our own world on high, 
 Why on this margin is't first seen by me ?" 
 
 And he : ^' This place is round thou dost descry, 
 
 And though thou hast in truth a long way come, ^^ 
 
 Descending ever leftwards as we hie. 
 
 Thou hast not yet encircled all the dome. 
 
 Wherefore should anything its newness claim 
 The marvel need not in thy face find home.** 
 
 And I again : " master, where these streams, ^ 
 
 Lethe and Phlegethon, thou spokest of one 
 Thus formed, but thou the other didst not name ?** 
 
 " Certes thy questions please me well, my son,** 
 He answered, " but the boiling crimson wave 
 Should well have solved one doubt that thou hast shown. ^^ 
 
 Lethe thou'lt see, but not within this grave. 
 There when repentance doth the sin remove 
 The spirits go, their memories to lave.'* 
 
 Then said he, *' Now 'tis time from out this grove 
 
 To issue ; follow on my steps intent. ^^ 
 
 The unburnt margins make a way to move> 
 
 And over them is every vapour spent.** 
 
 Line 124, &c^ Dante having expressed surprise that they had not before met 
 with this river in their descent through the circles of Hell, Yirgil explains that 
 in their course, though they have by ever keeping to the left traversed a great 
 portion of the circle, there is part yet to be gone over, through which the 
 river might have descended so far as yet unseen by Dante. 
 
 Line 134. The boiling crimson wave before them is the river Phlegethon, 
 about which Dante has inquired. Lethe is not in Hell, but on the other side 
 of Purgatory, and therein the purified spirits wash away all memory of sin 
 and sorrow. 
 
 CANTO XV. 
 
 Following the petrified margins of the stream through the circle, they meet 
 a troop of tormented spirits who have committed violence against Nature. 
 Amongst^ those Dante recognises his old preceptor, Ser Brunetto, who 
 accompanies him for some distance, and predicts his coming exile. 
 
 We travel now along the margins hard. 
 
 And the stream's vapours o'er it raise a shade 
 The water and the banks from fire to guard. 
 
56 HELL. Canto XV. 
 
 Such betwixt Ghent and Bruges the Flemings made, 
 
 Fearing the flood-tides which above them beat, ^ 
 
 Their dykes, to save them, when the seas invade. 
 And such the Paduans, on the Brenta's seat, 
 
 From floods to save their towns and castles, rear. 
 
 When Chiarentana feels the summer heat. 
 In such a fashion were the dykes made here, ^^ 
 
 Save that they were not quite so high and broad, 
 
 Whoever may have been the engineer. 
 Already we had travelled from the wood 
 
 So far that I its place had not descried, 
 
 Though to behold it I had turned and stood, " 
 
 When there a band of spirits towards us hied. 
 
 Who came 'longside the bank, and each one nigh 
 
 Regarded us, as in the eventide 
 At new moon one his fellow must espy, 
 
 Even so towards us their eyes they sharply peer, ^ 
 
 Like an old tailor in his needle's eye. 
 Thus stared at by that family of fear. 
 
 One recognised me, who my garment caught 
 
 By the border, and cried out, " What marvel's here !" 
 And I, when he towards me his hand had raught, ^ 
 
 Upon his Hell-burnt face so fixed my eyes 
 
 That even those scorched-up features to my thought 
 Brought back a memory I could recognise. 
 
 And bending down my hand towards his face : 
 
 " What, Ser Brunetto ?" answered in surprise. ^ 
 
 And he : " O son of mine, grant it thy grace 
 
 If old Brunetto tumeth back with thee. 
 
 And lets his troop move on some little space." 
 I said to him, " That, all I can, I pray. 
 
 And if ye will that I with you should rest ^ 
 
 I'll do it, if my friend and guide agree." 
 <* O son," he said, " if one of us should rest 
 
 A moment, we a hundred years must bide 
 
 Powerless one scathing fire-flake to arrest. 
 
 Line 9. " When Chiarentana feels the summer heat," That portion of the 
 Alps where the Brenta rises, and which rises into floods when the summer 
 jnelts the snow on the mountains. 
 
 Line 30. *' ■ What, Ser Brunetto ?' answered in! surprise." Brunetto Latini 
 was the instructor of Dante in his youth, and although he places him in Hell 
 for a crime evidently not uncommon in the Middle Ages, he treats him with 
 marked respect. Brunetto was a most learned man, and the author of a 
 poem called the " Tesoretto," and a philosophical treatise in French called 
 the " Tresor." This work he recommends to Dante's care as his last wish on 
 parting with him, with an author's natural predilection for the children of 
 his brain. 
 
Canto XV. 
 
 HELL. 57 
 
 60 
 
 But go thou on, I'll follow at tliy side, 
 
 And afterwards my company regain. 
 
 Who go bewailing sin's eternal gride.*' 
 I dared not to descend into the plain 
 
 To walk beside him, but with head bent low 
 
 I went like one with reverential strain. 
 Then he began ; " What destiny below 
 
 Ere the last day thy footsteps thus doth guide ? 
 And who is this one who the path can show ?'* 
 " Above, in life serene," I then replied, 
 
 " Bewildered in a valley did I roam, 
 
 Ere I completed life's allotted tide. 
 But yester morning hence I thither come, 
 
 When he appeared to me retreating there, 
 
 And by this pathway leads me to my home." 
 And he to me : " In following up thy star 
 
 Thou canst not fail to reach a glorious goal, 
 
 If well I augured in my life most fair, 
 And had I longer *scaped from Death's control, 
 
 Seeing the Heavens to thee were so benign, 
 
 To this emprise I would have cheered thy soul. 
 But that ungrateful populace malign, 
 
 Who, in old times, came down from Fiesole, 
 
 And still hold somewhat of their granite line, 
 Will, for thy good, become thine enemy ; 
 
 And rightly so, the crabtree and its kind 
 
 Can never bear the sweet fig on its tree. 
 I' the world an old report has called them blind : 
 
 A people avaricious, envious, proud ; 
 
 From all their habits keep unstained thy mind. 
 To thee such honour has thy Fortune vowed. 
 
 For thee both factions shall with hunger yearn, 
 
 But to the grass the beak must not be bowed. 
 Let beasts of Fiesole their own selves turn 
 
 To litter, but of Roman plants take heed. 
 
 If on their dunghill any yet upturn 
 In whom there lives again the holy seed 
 
 Of those great Romans who remained there erst, 
 
 When it was made the nest for hate to breed." 
 
 Line 62. "Who, in old times, came down from Fiesole." The Florentine 
 traditions suppose that this city was founded by some of the colony of Sylla's 
 soldiers planted by him at Fiesole, together with some of the natives of that 
 town. This explains the allusion in lines 73 to 73. 
 
 Line 67. " I' the world an old report has called them blind." Villani states 
 that the Florentines were nicknamed blind on account of being deceived by 
 the Fisans, who sent them two false columns of porphyry, which trick was 
 not discovered till the columns were raised. 
 
 75 
 
58 HELL. Canto XV. 
 
 *' If all my prayer by Heaven had been endorsed," 
 
 I answered him, " you would not be as yet ^^ 
 
 From human nature banished and accursed ; 
 It grieves me, what I never can forget, 
 
 Your mild paternal image, good and dear, 
 
 When in the world before me you would set 
 How man can grow eternal in his sphere ; ®* 
 
 And all my gratitude, while life remains, 
 
 *Tis fit that in my language it appear. 
 That which you tell me of my future pains 
 With other texts I keep it, for a gloss 
 
 By her whose knowledge everything attains, ^ 
 
 To you this fact alone I would engross. 
 
 That since my conscience no rebuke has made, 
 
 I am prepared for Fortune's gain or loss. 
 Such earnest-money is not newly paid 
 
 Unto my ears, let Fortune turn her sphere •*" 
 
 Just as she pleases, and the serf his spade.'* 
 My master Virgil backwards turned him here 
 
 On his right hand my countenance to seek, 
 
 And said, " Who noteth well, he well doth hear." 
 But for such praise I did not cease to speak ^^ 
 
 With Ser Brunetto and request to know 
 
 Which of his comrades would most fame bespeak. 
 And he to me : " Of some 'tis good to know, 
 
 But silence is the fittest for the rest. 
 
 Time would be short so great a list to show. ^^' 
 
 But know in brief that each one is a priest. 
 
 Or skilled in lettered lore, or of great fame, 
 
 By one sin in the world all foul confest. 
 Priscian goes thither with that crowd of shame,. 
 
 And Francis of Accorso thou might'st see 
 
 (If thou hadst any wish to see such blame) 
 Him whom the slave of slaves translated free 
 
 From Arno's unto Bacchiglione's tide. 
 
 Where all his rotten nerves he left in fee. 
 I would say more, but cannot further bide, ^^^ 
 
 Nor hold more converse with thee, for I see 
 
 A new cloud rising on the desert wide. 
 
 Line 109, et sequitur. It is a groundless slander to place PtiBcian in such 
 a company. Francis of Accorso was a celebrated jurisconsult at Bologna. 
 The third party mentioned is Andrea de Mozzi, a Bishop of Florence, who,. 
 to conceal his scandalous life, was translated by the Pope (the servant of 
 servants) to the see of Vicenza, from the river of Amo to that of Bacchiglione,. 
 which runs through the latter province, where he died. 
 
 uo. 
 
Canto XVI. HELL. 59 
 
 New people come, with whom I may not be : 
 
 To my Tesoro only grant your care, 
 
 In which I still survive : no more I pray." ^^ 
 
 Then he turned back, and seemed like those who bear 
 
 The green cloth at Verona, in the race, 
 
 Along the champaign, and had all the air 
 Of the victor, not the laggard, in the chase. 
 
 Line 122. " The green cloth at Verona, in the race." There was an old 
 custom to have a footrace for a green cloth at Verona 'on the first Sunday in 
 Lent. Ser Brunetto ran so fast to rejoin his company that he appeared like 
 the winner in that struggle. 
 
 CANTO XVI. 
 
 The poets having almost crossed the desert, where they can hear the falling 
 of the torrent into the next circle, meet another troop punished for the 
 same vice, amongst whom Dante converses with three distinguished 
 Florentines. Having reached the precipice, Virgil throws a rope down 
 the waterfall, upon which signal a monster rises. 
 
 We*d reached the place, where to the ear arrive 
 
 Of falling waters the reverberate sound, 
 
 Like to the busy murmur of a hive : 
 When towards us shadows three together bound 
 
 From out the crowd that past, beneath the rain * 
 
 Of the sharp torrent, on their ceaseless round. 
 Towards us they came, and each one cried amain, 
 
 " Arrest thee there, who by thy dress must be 
 
 An habitant of our own land profane.*' 
 Ah me ! what wounds upon their limbs I see *® 
 
 Both old and recent, by the flames burnt deep ! 
 
 Still but in memory, how it grieveth me ! 
 My master stood there as they wailing weep. 
 
 And turned his face towards me : ** Now beware 
 
 To these," he said, " fit courtesy to keep. ^* 
 
 But for the fire that's darted everywhere 
 
 By the nature of the place, I'd tell thee plain 
 
 Far rather thou than these this haste should share." 
 The whiles we stand in pause, their former strain 
 
 Begins once more, and when by us they veer, ^® 
 
 Formed in a wheel, the three all turn amain. 
 
 Line 21. *' Formed in a wheel, the three all turn amain." As stated by 
 Ser Brunetto, these tormented spirits cannot rest for a moment, so the three 
 Florcntiues wheel in a circle while they stop to converse with Dante. 
 
60 HELL. Canto XVI. 
 
 As athletes stripped and oiled are wont to peer, 
 
 Watching their 'vantage and their time to seize, 
 
 Ere grappling for close combat they draw near ; 
 So wheeling round, each one their face and eyes ^^ 
 
 Fixed ever on me, while on the other hand 
 
 Their feet go onwards in contrariwise. 
 ^* Although the misery of this shifting sand 
 
 Us and our prayers to contumely compel," 
 
 Thus one began, " and this bare wretched strand, ^^ 
 
 Our fame thy spirit yet should bow, to tell 
 
 Who then thou art, who thus with living feet 
 
 Treadest securely in the paths of Hell. 
 This one, whose step thou seest me repeat. 
 
 Though naked, and with hair scorched off he be, ^* 
 
 Was of far higher grade than thou wouldst weet. 
 The good Gualdrada's grandson dost thou see ; 
 
 His name was Gruidoguerra, and on earth 
 
 With brain and sword, no little work did he. 
 He, who behind me treads this sandy dearth, ^ 
 
 Was Aldobrandi, in the Council room 
 
 His voice was ever held in highest worth : 
 And I, condemned with these to the same doom, 
 
 Was Rusticucci, more than all the rest 
 
 A savage wife has caused my martyrdom." ** 
 
 Had I been sheltered from the fire the least. 
 
 Downwards, amongst them I had thrown me there. 
 
 Nor would my leader have opposed his 'hest. 
 But since I should have been all burnt to char, 
 
 The terror overcame the wish so lief, ^^ 
 
 Which made me greedy to embrace them fair* 
 Then I began : " It was not scorn, but grief, 
 
 Which your condition fixed within my mind, 
 
 So deep it could not be removed in brief. 
 
 Line 37. Gualdrada was celebrated for her chastity. At a feast in Florence 
 her father, Bellincion Berti (mentioned in the " Paradise" by Cacciaguida as 
 one of the early Florentine worthies), offered the Emperor Otho IV., who 
 was present, authority to give her a salute. The young lady told him not to 
 be so liberal of his offers, as she would preserve such a privilege for one who 
 might be her lawful husband. The Emperor married her on the spot to one 
 of his barons, from which marriage sprang the family of the Conti Guidi. 
 Gualdrada' s grandson, Guidoguerra, was a celebrated captain, and at the 
 head of four hundred Guelphs secured the victory for Charles of Anjou 
 against Manfred of Naples, at Benevent, in 1265. 
 
 Line 41. Aldobrandi is the Tegghiajo inquired for by Dante from Ser 
 Ciacco in the Sixth Canto, and the speaker Rusticucci was named at the 
 same time amongst the Florentine worthies whom Dante would find in lower 
 circles of Hell. The feeling way in which poor Dante alludes to Rusticucci's 
 sufferings from a savage wife, with which misery he was himself well 
 acquainted, is dwelt upon by Lord Byron, himself a like victim. 
 
Canto XVI. HELL. 61 
 
 As soon as this my leader had designed ^^ 
 
 By words, through which at once I knew for sure 
 
 That men were coming of thy lofty kind. 
 Tour country is my own, and evermore 
 
 Your names all honoured, and the deeds ye show 
 
 With tender love I dwell on and adore. ^* 
 
 I leave this gall, and for sweet fruits I go 
 
 By my trustworthy leader promised me ; 
 
 Though first I sink to the central deeps below." 
 " That for a length of time thy soul may be 
 
 Thy body's habitant," he answered then, ^ 
 
 " And that thy fame may lighten after thee, 
 Of courtesy, and valour amongst men. 
 
 Say if they dwell within our town, as erst, 
 
 Or are they utterly cast out agen ? 
 For Borsiere since he entered first ^® 
 
 Amongst us lately, and who now goes there, 
 
 With such discourse has made us more accurst." 
 " Her people, and the sudden gains they share. 
 
 Such pride and such excess in thee have bred, 
 
 O Florence, now thou wail'st it in despair." ^^ 
 
 So cried I loudly with uplifted head. 
 
 And all the three received it for reply. 
 
 And gazed like those who know that truth is said. 
 " If other times, thy friends to satisfy 
 
 Costs thee as little, happy who canst bear ^ 
 
 Such ready answer," did they all reply. 
 " But if thou quitt'st this dark realm of despair, 
 
 And turn'st again the fair stars to behold. 
 
 When 'twill delight to say, ' I once was there,* 
 Cause that our story 'mongst mankind be told." ^ 
 
 Then they broke up their wheel, and as they fled 
 
 Their lithe limbs flying pinions seemed to unfold. 
 An Amen could not possibly be said 
 
 So rapidly as they had disappeared. 
 
 On which again my master onwards sped. ^^ 
 
 I followed him, and little had we stirred 
 
 Or ere the sound of water drew so nigh 
 
 That when we spake the voice was scarcely heard. 
 Like to that stream, whose unmixed waters hie 
 
 First from Mount Veso, towards the rising beam, ^^ 
 
 From Apennine's left-hand declivity, 
 
 Line 70. Borsiere is introduced with commendation by Boccaccio, in the 
 eighth novel of the first day of his " Decameron." 
 
 Line 94. ** Like to that stream, whose unmixed waters hie." The river 
 Montone, which alone falls direct into the sea, all the other rivers rising in 
 that part of the Apennines falling into the Po. 
 
62^ HELL. Canto XVI. 
 
 Called Acquacheta in its upland stream, 
 
 WMcli tumbles headlong to its bed below 
 
 At Forli, wbere it loses its first name 
 And o*er Saint Benedict re-echoing flow ^^ 
 
 Its waters from the Alps into the vale, 
 
 Site chosen for a thousand soldiers ; so 
 Down from a bank precipitous, we hail 
 
 Roaring reverberate that blood-tinged tide, 
 
 'Grainst which the stunned ear could not long avail. ^^^ 
 I had a rope around my body tied, 
 
 And with it I had some time thought to hold 
 
 That panther with the variegated hide. 
 When I had loosened from me every fold, 
 
 My master's mandates ever prompt to keep, "'^ 
 
 I gave it to him ready noosed and rolled. 
 Then to his right he turned him from the deep, 
 
 And to some little distance from the shore 
 
 He hurled it downwards, in that rocky steep. 
 Surely some novelty must be in store, "^ 
 
 I said within myself, to this new sign, 
 
 Which with his eye my master seeks before. 
 Ah me ! how cautiously should men opine 
 
 *Midst those who yet unseen the end can prove, 
 
 And others' thoughts intuitive divine ! ^^^ 
 
 He said to me : " There soon will come above 
 
 That which I wait, and which thy fancy dreams, 
 
 Soon to thy sight uncovered shall it move." 
 Of that truth always, which like falsehood seems, 
 
 Man should keep closed his eyes whene'er he can, ^^^ 
 
 Since without fault of his it bringeth shames ; 
 But here I can but speak ; and by the plan 
 
 Of this my Comedy, I swear to thee. 
 
 So may it long find favour amongst man ! 
 "That through the thick and gloomy air I see ^^® 
 
 An object swimming, upwards through it sweep. 
 
 That would wake marvel in the heart most free : 
 
 Line 102. Boccaccio has given the explanation in the text to this line. It 
 may also mean that the abbey of St. Benedict was large enough to contain a 
 thousand monks. 
 
 Line 106. Dante is believed in youth to have entered the Franciscan order* 
 with the rope, worn by whose brothers, he had thought to conquer his carnal 
 appetites, or take the panther, symbolical of pleasure, as allegorised in the 
 opening Canto of the Poem. This rope Virgil throws over the precipice to 
 lure up the monster, who is to bear them down to the next circle, and who 
 we find afterwards described as the personification of Fraud, under the name 
 of Gerion. 
 
Oanto XVII. HELL. 6a 
 
 Like one returning who has dived down steep 
 
 To clear away an anchor that has caught 
 
 Some rock or obstacle in ocean deep, ^^ 
 
 With feet stretched downwards, and who upwards raught. 
 
 CANTO XVII. 
 
 The form of the monster Gerion is described. Virgil and Dante descend a 
 short distance to reach him, and then Dante returns alone to the extreme 
 verge of the sandy desert, where he sees seated under the rain of fire 
 those who have committed violence against art, or usurers. On returning 
 to Virgil he finds him seated on the back of Gerion, and taking his place 
 before him, the poets are carried down by the monster to the next circle. 
 
 *' Behold the wild beast with the sharpened tail, 
 
 Behold the thing that makes the whole world stink, 
 That passeth mountains, breaketh walls and mail." 
 
 Thus 'gan my leader his discourse to link. 
 
 And pointed towards it as it came to shore, * 
 
 Close to that traversed river's stony brink ; 
 
 And that foul image of all fraudulent lore 
 
 Came on and reared aloft his head and bust. 
 But on the bank his tail he drew not o'er. 
 
 The face was like a man's face, mild and just, ^* 
 
 So far benignant was its show outside, 
 But like a serpent's trunk was all the rest. 
 
 Arms hairy to the pit hung on each side. 
 
 Its back and breast and both its flanks were rough 
 With little knots and varied stains endyed. ^* 
 
 With brighter colour in the warp and woof 
 
 Tartars and Turks their cloths have never wove, 
 Nor did Arachne ever work such stuff. 
 
 As sometimes on the banks the boats are hove, 
 
 When part is in the water, part on land, ^^ 
 
 As there amongst the greedy German drove. 
 
 The beaver waiting for his prey will stand. 
 So rested that wild beast detestable 
 Upon the brink of stone that girds the sand. 
 
 In empty air he jerked his quivering tail, ^* 
 
 Twisting right upwards the envenomed sting, 
 Which, like a scorpion's, armed its point so fell. 
 
 The leader said : " Our way we now must wring 
 A little from its course, that we may reach 
 Down to the wicked beast who there doth swing." ^^ 
 
64 HELL. Canto XVII. 
 
 So to the right hand do we downwards stretch, 
 
 And to avoid the burning sand and flame 
 
 We make ten paces on the furthest beach. 
 And when beside it we descending came 
 
 I see a little further on the sand "^ 
 
 Some people seated near the falling stream. 
 The master here ; " That thou mayst understand 
 
 All that this circle holds for thee to see, 
 
 Now go and see their state thus near at hand ; 
 Thy conversation with them brief must be. '*'* 
 
 With this thing will I speak while thou dost go 
 
 That it should yield us its strong shoulders free." 
 Thus once again along the furthest row 
 
 Of that seventh circle wend I all alone. 
 
 To where together sate that race of woe. ^^ 
 
 Gushed from their eyes the grief of every one ; 
 
 Now here, now there, with hands they strive to ease 
 
 The vapours now, and now the heat alone. 
 Not otherwise do dogs in summer days. 
 
 Now with the snout and now with paws, when bit ^*^ 
 
 By gnats or by mosquitoes or by fleas. 
 When on the face of some my eyes I set. 
 
 On whom that grievous fire doth never flag, 
 
 None could I recognise, but well I wit 
 That from the neck of each there hung a bag '^^ 
 
 Marked with some colour and heraldic sign. 
 
 And thence it seemed their eyes could never wag. 
 Then as I came inspecting all the line, 
 
 I saw one bag upon a field of or 
 
 That held an azure lion as design. ^*^ 
 
 Then carrying on my scrutiny before. 
 
 Another on a field of gules I trow, 
 
 A goose than butter whiter far that bore. 
 Then one who of an azure pregnant sow 
 
 Bore the impression on his satchel white, ^ 
 
 Said to me : " In this graveyard what dost thou ? 
 Now get thee on, and since a living wight. 
 
 Know that my former neighbour, Vitalian, 
 
 At my left hand beside me here will sit. 
 Amidst these Florentines I'm Paduan, '® 
 
 And oftentimes my dinned ears I would close 
 
 When they cry out, " There comes the sovran man 
 
 Line 56. The armorial bearings afterwards described belong to various 
 houses of Florence and Padua, all of whom are detailed by the early com- 
 mentators, but their dry recapitidation would be of no interest to modern 
 English readers. 
 
Canto XVII. HELL. 65 
 
 The bag with three goats who will here expose." 
 
 He twisted then his mouth and thrust his tongue 
 
 Out like a bullock when he licks his nose. '^ 
 
 And I in fear lest further stay would wrong 
 
 Him who my sojourn to be brief had told, 
 
 Turned back again from 'midst that wearied throng. 
 I found my leader had already hold 
 
 All firmly seated on that wild beast's back, ^^ 
 
 Who said to me, " Now be thou strong and bold. 
 Now by such steps we must descend this track ; 
 
 Mount thou before me, I will sit in aid, 
 
 So that for thee the tail all mischief lack." 
 Like one who waits the fever tit dismayed, ^ 
 
 With whitened nails already, trembling cold, 
 
 Watching the fixed hour on the dial's shade, 
 So was I smitten by the words he told. 
 
 But his expected threats became the goad 
 
 Which near good master makes the servant bold. '■'^ 
 
 I took my seat upon those shoulders broad. 
 
 And wished to say, only no utterance came, 
 
 Embrace me closely on this perilous road. 
 But he whose help I ne'er in vain did claim 
 
 Soon as I mounted clasped me firm and near, ^^ 
 
 And with his arms my weakness overcame. 
 He cried out : " Gerion, now right onwards steer. 
 
 Make thy wheels large and gradual the descent, 
 
 Think of the novel burden thou dost bear.'* 
 As from its launching place the ship is sent ^^"^ 
 
 Stern forwards, so his way he then addrest, 
 
 And when he felt sufficient space was lent. 
 He turned his tail to where had been his breast. 
 
 And moved it stretched out lithely like an eel, 
 
 And with his arms the air towards him prest. ^^'' 
 
 I do not think that greater fear could feel 
 
 Phaeton himself when he had dropt the reins. 
 
 At which, a.s still we see, the burnt Heavens reel. 
 Nor Icarus when he perceived his reins. 
 
 By the wax melting, from his wings let free, ""^ 
 
 His father crying out in anguish strains. 
 
 Line 97- Gerion was King of Spain, and slain by Hercules. Being cele- 
 brated for his frauds, Dante has chosen him as the perse )nitication of FrJiud 
 itself, as in the previous circles we find Cerberus represent Gluttony, the 
 Minotaur Violence, &c. 
 
 Line 108. In allusion to the Milky Way having been produced by the com- 
 bustion of the Heavens when the sun went astray under Phaeton's guidance. 
 
66 HELL. Canto XVIII. 
 
 Than was my own when all around I see 
 
 Nothing but air, and save that monstrous show, 
 All other vision vanished quite for me. 
 
 Onwards it goeth, swimming soft and slow, ^^^ 
 
 It wheels and sinks, but I of nought am 'ware. 
 Save that the air strikes upwards from below. 
 
 Already at the right the roar I hear 
 
 Beneath me rising from the horrible shower, 
 
 At which my straining eyes I downwards peer. ^^"^ 
 
 Then did my fear increase with greater power, 
 Because both flames I see and screams I hear. 
 At which all trembling in my seat I cower. 
 
 Till then unheard there strike upon my ear. 
 
 As through great pains we sank and circled on, ^^^ 
 
 Cries that on every side approached us near. 
 
 Like to a falcon that too long hath flown. 
 That cannot see the lure or any prey 
 Making the hawker murmur. Tush ! 'tis down ! 
 
 Weary descendeth whence in wheeling play ^^" 
 
 It active sprung, and distant from its lord 
 Settles disdainfully in angry bay ; 
 
 So Gerion placed us in that deep abhorred. 
 
 Standing at base of rocks that steep upspring, 
 
 And with our persons' weight no longer stored, ^^* 
 
 It vanished like an arrow from the string. 
 
 CANTO XYIII. 
 
 A description of the eighth circle, which is divided into ten wards, in which are 
 punished those who have committed frauds of ten different kinds. Virgil 
 and Dante pass through the first two wards ; in the first are punished 
 those who have deceived women, who are naked and lashed by demons ;. 
 in the second all flatterers, who are doomed to wallow in human excre- 
 ment. 
 
 Wrought all of rock, with colouring of iron, 
 A place called Malebolge is in Hell, 
 So the steep cliffs which all its site environ. 
 
 Eight in the centre of the region fell 
 
 A pit there sinketh, somewhat large and deep, ^ 
 
 Of which the arrangement its due place will tell. 
 
 Line 2. " Malebolge." Literally evil pits, the name of the eighth circle. 
 
 Line 5. The pit in the centre is the ninth and last circle of Hell, which is 
 described in the closing Cantos. The description of the eighth circle in plain 
 prose is this : it is divided into ten valleys, separated by high ridges of rock, 
 and an arched bridge crosses over each valley up to the last, where the ninth 
 circle again sinks precipitously into the very centre of the world. 
 
Canto XVIII. HELL. G7 
 
 The site remaining then is round, and sweep 
 
 The circles 'twixt the pit and high banks barred, 
 
 And are divided in ten valleys steep. 
 Like as to fortify some castle ward, ^* 
 
 Circumvallations more and more they raise 
 
 The j^recincts with security to guard. 
 In such a fashion were constructed these ; 
 
 And as from gates of fortresses there jut 
 
 Small bridges leading to the outer ways, ^® 
 
 So from the bottom of the rock abut 
 
 Arches that cross the steeps and hollows black. 
 
 Up to the pit by which they all are cut. 
 This was the place where shaken from the back 
 
 Of Gerion did we find ourselves, the bard ^ 
 
 Turned to the left, I followed on his track. 
 To the right new cause for pity I regard. 
 
 Torments all novel and flagellants new, 
 
 With which was wholly filled the opening ward. 
 In the bottom were the naked sinners' crew, . ^^ 
 
 With faces towards us those on this side ran, 
 
 Beyond they went with us but swifter flew. 
 Like as the Romans for the hosts that wonne 
 
 Across their bridge upon the Jubilee year. 
 
 To pass the people have devised a plan. ^ 
 
 Who towards the Castle and St. Peter's steer 
 
 Have one side wholly to themselves assigned, 
 
 The other for those bound to the mount is clear. 
 As from each end o'er that black rock they wind, 
 
 I saw the horned demons with a whip, ^ 
 
 Scourging them onwards cruelly behind. 
 Ah ! how they made them lift their legs and skip 
 
 At the first blows ! amongst them certes none 
 
 Ere waited to receive a second flip. 
 Whilst I walked onwards there my eyes with one ** 
 
 Chanced to encounter, and at once I said. 
 
 Surely this man ere this I must have known. 
 Wherefore my eyes on him I closely laid. 
 
 And my kind leader with me there stood still, 
 
 And to turn backwards his permission made. ^ 
 
 Lines 26, 27. Those in the half of the circle near Dante were driven along 
 in an opposite direction to that which Virgil was leading him ; those in the 
 other half of the circle were driven in the same direction as the poets were 
 themselves going. The simile of the arrangement made by the Pope m the 
 year of the Jubilee, a.d. 1200, to pass the vast crowds who came to the festival 
 in safety over the bridge of Saint Angelo, aptly illustrates and makes clear 
 the somewhat brief description of these two lines. 
 
68 HELL. Canto XVIII- 
 
 That whipt one thought his person to conceal, 
 Lowering his face, but the attempt was vain. 
 I told him, '" Thou whose bent eyes earthwards steal, 
 
 If only thy appearance speaketh plain. 
 
 Art Yenedico, as I know full well. ^^ 
 
 But what has led thee to such biting pain ?" 
 
 And he to me : " Unwillingly I tell, 
 
 But by thy speech so clear am I bested. 
 
 Which of our ancient world brings back the spell. 
 
 I erst was he who fair Grhisola led *^ 
 
 To satisfy the will of the Marchese, 
 However now the shameful tale be said. 
 
 Nor wail I only here, a Bolognese : 
 
 Rather this place is crowded with that line, 
 
 Unto so many tongues it is not easy - ^" 
 
 To utter Sissa in that town of mine. 
 
 If evidence thou wouldst that cannot fail, 
 Recall to mind how we to greed incline." 
 
 Whilst he was speaking with his leatlier flail 
 
 A demon lashed him ; " Get ye on," he cried. ®^ 
 
 " Pandar ! no prostitutes are here for sale." 
 , On this I turned and joined again my guide. 
 
 Soon after that a few steps brought us where 
 A ridge that jutted from the bank we spied, 
 
 O'er which our forms we lightly climbing rear, ^" 
 
 And turning to the right upon the rock 
 Prom those eternal boundaries on we bear. 
 
 When we had reached the centre where the block 
 
 Is arched beneath to let the scourged pass through. 
 
 My leader said, " Wait here, and cast thy look '^ 
 
 Upon the faces of that ill-born crew. 
 
 Of whom thou hast not yet beheld the face, 
 Since they together with us onwards drew." 
 
 Standing on that old bridge we watch the race 
 
 That came towards us*of that other band, ^^ 
 
 Who by the whip are likewise driven in chase. 
 
 Line 56. Venedico Caccianimico, a gentleman of Bologna, wLo, as he here 
 tells us, was bribed by Obizzo da Este, the Marchese of Ferrara, to deceive his 
 sister Ghisola into yielding herself to his desires. The Marchese has already 
 been introduced boiling in the river of blood. 
 
 Line 61. Sissa is the shibboleth of the Bolognese, being their fashion of 
 pronouncing the affirmative si. 
 
 Line 78. " Since they together with us onwards drew" — i.e., were going in 
 the same direction as the poets, before they mounted the bridge to cross the 
 valley. 
 
Canto XVIII. HELL. 69 
 
 My gentle master without my demand 
 
 Said to me, " See that lofty form who comes, 
 
 And seems in spite of grief tears to command. 
 Even yet how royally his aspect looms ! ^^ 
 
 'Tis Jason, who by intellect and heart 
 
 Conquered the Grolden Fleece from Colchian homes. 
 Passing by Lemnos' isle he played his part, 
 
 Soon after that those angered women bold 
 
 Had put the males to death by hellish art. ^" 
 
 With gestures then and the skilled words he told 
 
 Isiphile the maiden he deceived, 
 
 Who all the others had deceived of old ; 
 There pregnant he deserted her, bereaved. 
 
 Him has that crime to such a torment borne ; ®* 
 
 Revenged is also now Medea grieved. 
 With him there "go who women left forlorn. 
 
 Let this suffice thee of this vale to weet, 
 
 And of all those beneath its tushes torn." 
 Now we had reached to where the narrow street ^^* 
 
 Eeaches at length the second bank athwart, 
 
 Where this and the further valley's bridges meet. 
 There people we perceive who groan apart 
 
 In the other ward and their own bodies strike 
 
 With their own hands, and with their nostrils snort. ^^* 
 The banks with mouldiness were crusted thick, 
 
 By the breathing from below which clung thereto. 
 
 Offensive to the eyes and nose alike. 
 The bottom is so steep that for the view 
 
 No place would answer save we climbed the steep ^^® 
 
 Crown of the arch that o'er the abysses grew. 
 We came there and from thence down in the deep 
 
 Saw people smothered in a filthy smurch 
 
 From human privies gathered in a heap. 
 And whilst below my eyes commence their search ^^* 
 
 A head so smeared with excrement I rede. 
 
 One knew not whether lay or of the Church. 
 He shouted to me : " Why so great thy greed 
 
 To stare at me alone in this foul sty ?" 
 
 And I to him : " Because if well I heed, ^^ 
 
 Thee have I seen ere now with hair more dry. 
 
 And thou must be Alessio Intermenei ; 
 
 For staring at thee this the reason why." 
 
 Line 93. Isiphile had deceived the other women by saving her father from 
 f.he general slaughter of the males in the island. 
 
7d HELL. 
 
 Canto XIX. 
 
 Striking Ms pumpkin then he said to me, 
 
 " The constant flatteries have submerged me here, ' ^^^ 
 From which of old my tongue was never free." 
 
 On this my leader said to me, " Make steer 
 Thy right a little forward in the grot, 
 So that there strike upon thy vision clear 
 
 The face of that dishevelled filthy slut "o 
 
 Who scratches with her shotten nails her side. 
 And now stands upright, and now down will squat ; 
 
 The harlot's name is Thais, who replied. 
 
 When questioned by her keeper, ' Have I great 
 
 Favour with thee ?' ' Most marvellous,* and lied. ^^^ 
 
 Let this suffice our sight to satiate." 
 
 Line 133. A character in a play of Terence, from which this not very extra- 
 ordinary specimen of female flattery is quoted. 
 
 CANTO XIX. 
 
 Dante describes the third valley, in which Simonists are punished by being 
 buried head downwards in round apertures of the rock, their legs from 
 the knees downwards being alone visible, which they kick convulsively, 
 while the soles of the feet burn with a lambent flame. Virgil bears 
 Dante down the impassable bank into the bottom of the valley, where he 
 converses with the soul of Pope Nicholas the Third, and bitterly rebukes 
 him for his Simony and prostitution of his high ofiice. 
 
 O Simon Maqus ! O thy followers base. 
 
 The things of God that aye with piety 
 
 Should wedded be, rapacious ye disgrace 
 With gold and silver in adultery ! 
 
 Now fits it that for you the trumpet blare, * 
 
 Since in this third division there ye be ! 
 Already in the sequent tomb we were 
 
 Mounted above its high bridge in that part 
 
 Which o'er the centre of pits it strikes sheer. 
 O highest wisdom, how complete the art ^" 
 
 Thou shewest in the Heavens, and Earth, and Hell, 
 
 And in thy virtue how most just thou art ! 
 Along the sides and in the bottom fell 
 
 I saw the livid stones all full of holes. 
 
 All of one size and rounded like a well. ^^ 
 
 Not larger or more small appeared their boles 
 
 Than those which in my own St. John's fair shrine 
 
 Are made as places for baptising souls ; 
 
Canto XIX. HELL. 71 
 
 And one of which, not many years long syne, 
 
 To save a child that drowned within I broke ; ^" 
 
 Let this avowal clear that deed of mine. 
 
 Out of the aperture of each there stuck 
 A sinner's foot and legs up to the knee, 
 While all the rest was left within to choke. 
 
 Both feet were lit of all that company, ^* 
 
 For which so strongly did they jerk and throe 
 From bands and withes they had at once burst free. 
 
 As oily things when burnt are wont to glow, 
 
 With flame o'er all their surface wandering quick, 
 
 So were those feet ablaze from heel to toe. ^* 
 
 " My master, who is that one that doth kick 
 
 In torment more than all his comrades here ?" 
 I asked, " and whom a redder flame doth lick ?" 
 
 And he : "If thou art willing I will bear 
 
 Thee downwards thither by yon sloping way. ** 
 
 His person and his sin from him thou'lt hear.'* 
 
 And I : " What pleaseth thee is welcome aye ; 
 Thou art my lord and know'st that to thy will 
 I cling, and knowest all I do not say." 
 
 Then did we mount above o'er the fourth hill ; *" 
 
 We turned and to the left descended soon 
 Down to the hole-filled bottom straight and still. 
 
 My gentle master did not place me down 
 
 From off his hip till we had reached the hole 
 
 Of him who with his legs made all his moan. ^* 
 
 " Whoever thou mayst be, O wretched soul 
 
 Who there art fixed head downwards like a stake, 
 Give audience," said I, " if in thy control." 
 
 I stood there like a friar who doth take 
 
 Confession from a murderer buried quick^ ^* 
 
 Who calls to him some respite still to make. 
 
 And he cried out : " Art thou arrived so quick. 
 Already there art standing, Boniface ? 
 Some years was out that prophecy oblique. 
 
 Line 21. Dante appears to have been accused of sacrilege for breaking itp 
 this baptistery, of which he here solemnly affirms his innocence. 
 
 Line 49. The old punishment for murderers in Florence was to bury them 
 alive head downwards, and Dante aptly compares himself to a friar taking a 
 confession from such a victim, who still calls out that he has something 
 further to confess to delay his doom. 
 
 Line 53. The Pope in this hole mistakes Dante for his own successor in the 
 Papacy, Boniface VIII., still living, and whom he did not expect to arrive so 
 soon, owing to a prophecy he had read which promised him a longer life, and 
 to which he alludes in the next line. The " lady fair " in line 56 is the 
 Papacy. 
 
72 HELL. Canto XIX. 
 
 Art thou so soon then wearied of the place ^^ 
 
 For which such lacly fair with cunning planned, 
 Thou didst not fear to win and then disgrace ?" 
 
 Like unto those who do not understand 
 
 That which is answered to them did I bide 
 
 As scorned, not knowing what to redemand, ^ 
 
 " Tell to him quickly," then my Virgil cried, 
 " Not he, not he am I whom thou dost weet." 
 And I, as was imposed on me, replied, 
 
 On which the spirit wholly writhed his feet. 
 
 Then deeply sighing and with voice of woe ^^ 
 
 Said to me : " What wouldst have me then repeat ? 
 
 If to know who I am concerns thee so 
 
 That for such purpose thou this bank hast paced. 
 That I have worn the Papal mantle know ; 
 
 And of the Bear a worthy son, in haste ^^ 
 
 Desirous to advance the little Bears, 
 There riches, here myself in purse I placed. 
 
 Beneath my head are all the other peers 
 Who doing Simony preceded me, 
 "Within the hollowed stone concealed in layers. ^^ 
 
 I shall sink downwards in my time when he 
 Will come who I at first believed thou wert, 
 That sudden question when I made to thee. 
 
 But I already am far longer hurt 
 
 With feet thus cooked, and turned thus upside down, ®® 
 Than he with red-flame feet will here revert. 
 
 Since after him, with laidher renown. 
 
 Will come a lawless shepherd from the West, 
 Such as befitteth him and me to crown. 
 
 A second Jason will he prove at least, ^ 
 
 Like him in Maccabees to whom was pliant 
 His king, as France will be to his behest." 
 
 I know not if I was not too defiant. 
 
 And yet I answered him in such a metre. 
 
 " Ah, tell me now what treasure of his client ^'^ 
 
 Line 70. Pope Innocent III. was of the Orsi family of Rome; he therefore 
 calls the younger branches of that family whom he advanced the Orsetti, or 
 little Bears. 
 
 Line 72. " There riches, here myself in purse I placed." On earth he put 
 riches in his purse, by which he placed himself in the hole in Hell. The trans- 
 latiou in the text is verbal. 
 
 Line 83. Bertrand, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who was elected Pope in 
 1305, and assumed the name of Clement V. To please his king, Philip the 
 Fourth of France, he transferred the Holy See from Rome to Avignon, and 
 Innocent III. prophesies that he will speedily relieve Boniface from the outer 
 station iu tVie hole. 
 
 Line DO. The f(jllowing indignant burst against the errors of the Papacy is 
 justly celebrated as amongst the finest parts of the poem. 
 
Canto XIX. 
 
 HELL. . 73 
 
 Our Lord at first demanded from St, Peter, 
 
 That in his charge the keys he should deliver ? 
 * Follow thou Me,' was His demand far meeter. 
 Saint Peter and the rest from Matthew never 
 
 Asked gold or silver when they chose him free ^^ 
 
 In the place which lost one guilty soul for ever. 
 Therefore stay there, thou'rt punished properly. 
 And of thy money, ill acquired, take care. 
 Which against Carlos caused thy surquedry. 
 And were it not that still there makes me spare ^^ 
 
 That reverence for the highest keys I have. 
 Which thou possessedst in a happier air, 
 I would make use of words by far more grave ; 
 Since the world saddens at thy avarice mean. 
 Trampling the good and raising the deprave ; ^°^ 
 
 Pastors like ye the Evangelist did mean, 
 
 When she who sate above the waters borne, 
 Committing whoredoms with the kings was seen. 
 She with seven heads in beauty had been born, 
 And her ten horns in comely pride did hold, 
 The while to virtue was her husband sworn. 
 Ye've made your Grod of silver and of gold. 
 Ye from idolaters what line withdraws. 
 Save they sin once, and ye a hundredfold ? 
 Ah, Constantine, of how much ill was cause, 
 Not thy conversion but the fatal dower 
 Which the first wealthy father from thee draws !" 
 And all the while to him such notes I pour, 
 
 Whether 'twas rage or conscience that him smote. 
 With both his legs he jerked and struggled sore. ^^^ 
 
 It pleased my leader clearly as I note. 
 
 With such contented countenance did he hear 
 The sound of words that honest truth denote. 
 Then within both his arms he clasped me near. 
 
 And when he held me closely to his breast ^^ 
 
 Mounted the path he had descended there. 
 
 Line 99. Carlos of Sicily, who excited Innocent's anger by refusing to give 
 his daughter in marriage to one of the Pope's nephews. 
 
 Line 109. The harlot on the waters is here clearly the Papacy, who while 
 her own lord, the Pope, remained virtuous, in the early times was adorned 
 with the seven heads — the cardinal virtues, and the ten horns — the ten sacra- 
 ments of the Romish ritual. 
 
 Line 115. This triplet has been thus translated by Milton :— 
 
 " Ah ! Constantine, of how much ill was cause 
 Not thy conversion, but those rich domains 
 That the tirst wealthy Pope received of thee !' ' 
 
74 HELL. Canto XX. 
 
 Nor wearied lie to hold me closely prest, 
 
 But to the summit of the arch he strode 
 
 Which from the fourth to the fifth ridge was drest. 
 There tenderly he placed his darling load, ^"^ 
 
 Down on the rock precipitously high, 
 
 That unto goats had been a difficult road, 
 And there another valley I descry. 
 
 CANTO XX. 
 
 In the fourth ward of Malebolge Dante sees the doomed passing in slow 
 procession. On closer inspection lie finds that their heads are turned 
 the face behind, and tliat they have consequently to walk backwards. 
 These are necromancers who deceived themselves or others by attempting 
 to look into the future. Amongst them is Manto, the sight of whom 
 leads Virgil into a digression on the origin of bis native city. 
 
 Of novel torture I must weave the verse, 
 And to the twentieth Canto matter yield 
 Of this first song, where Hell's dooms I rehearse. 
 
 Already all my forces did I wield 
 
 To gaze into the deeps o*er which I hung, ^ 
 
 There where the anguish tears for ever rilled : 
 
 And through the circular vale I saw them throng, 
 Coming in tears and silence at the pace, 
 At which on earth the Litanies are sung. 
 
 As downwards sank my vision to their place, ^® 
 
 Miraculously did they seem deformed. 
 Each one between the upper chest and face. 
 
 For from the reins the visage was transformed. 
 And since they could not therefore forward look, 
 Compulsively they ever backwards swarmed. ^^ 
 
 Perchance by force of paralytic stroke 
 
 One might be twisted thus in branch and root, 
 I think not, nor on such did ever look. 
 
 If God permit thee, reader, to take fruit 
 
 From thy perusal, now bethink thee each, ^ 
 
 How could I keep my eyes dry, looking to 't, 
 
 When our own image, almost in my reach, 
 I saw so twisted, that their weeping eyes 
 With tears, adown its fissure, bathed their breach. 
 
 Surely I wept, supported on a rise ^^ 
 
 Of that fire-hardened rock, so that my guide 
 Said to me : " Thou too 'mongst the little wise ? 
 
Canto XX. HELL. 75 
 
 Here Pity lives alone, when it hath died. 
 
 Who is a greater scelerate than he 
 
 Who lets his passion 'gainst God's judgment bide ? ^*' 
 Lift up thy head erect, lift up and see 
 
 Whom the earth swallowed in the Thebans* sight, 
 
 On which they shouted all, ' Ah, where dost flee, 
 Anfiarus ? wherefore dost thou leave the fight ?' 
 
 But he from running downwards could not rest, ^^ 
 
 Down, down to Minos, who each soul holds tight. 
 See how his back has now become his breast ; 
 
 Because he wished to see too far before. 
 
 Backwards he looks, with steps still backwards prest. 
 Tiresias see, who changed his semblance more, ^ 
 
 When from a male a woman he became, 
 
 Shifting each member with most wondrous lore : 
 And after he was forced to smite the same 
 
 Entwisted pair of serpents with his rod 
 
 Ere his male nature he again could claim. ■** 
 
 Against his belly Aruns' back doth prod 
 
 Who, upon Luni's mountains where there slave 
 
 Carrara's peasants in their low abode. 
 Possessed amidst the marbles white a cave 
 
 For dwelling-place, whence, not as now confined, ^* 
 
 His vision swept the stars and ocean wave. 
 And she, who covers o'er her breasts behind. 
 
 Which thou seest not from here, with long thick hair, 
 
 Which on the other side hangs unconfined, 
 Was Manto, who through many a land did fare, ^* 
 
 And settled afterwards where I was born, 
 
 Of which, 'twill please me, thou shouldst somewhat hear. 
 After her father quitted life forlorn. 
 
 And Bacchus' city Thebes became a slave. 
 
 She, through the world, a long time wandered lorn. ^ 
 
 Line 34. Anfiarus, one of the seven kinejs who besieged Thebes, and who, 
 while fighting in his chariot, was swallowed up in the yawning earth. As a 
 false prophet he is placed in this ward of Malebolge. 
 
 Line 40. Tiresias, a soothsayer of Thebes, who, according to Ovid's 
 " Metamorphoses," book iii., changed himself into a woman by smiting two 
 serpents, and could not recover his old form until, seven years afterwards, 
 he met the same serpents, and again struck them with his rod. 
 
 Line 46. Aruns, a soothsayer of Tuscany. 
 
 Line 55. Manto, a sorceress, the daughter of the Theban soothsayer, 
 Tiresias. In a solitary act of forgetfulness, Dante, in Canto XXII. of the 
 " Purgatory," enumerates her among the celebrities in Limbo. She founded 
 Mantua, coiicerning which Virgil indulges in a long digression, in which 
 Dante, line 105, hints that he takes little interest. 
 
IP HELL. Canto XX. 
 
 In Upper Italy, deep waters lave 
 
 The foot of the Alps, which gird Lamagna fair, 
 
 Above the Tyrol, called Benaco's wave. 
 A thousand springs, I fancy, feed it there, 
 
 *Twixt Garda and the distant Apennine, ®^ 
 
 With water which doth stagnate in that lair. 
 There is a central spot, where the Trentine 
 
 Bishop, the Brescian, and Verona's too, 
 
 Each, that way travelling, might a blessing sign. 
 Sitteth Peschiera, strong and fair to view, ^^ 
 
 The Brescians and the Bergamots to pent. 
 
 There, where first downwards slope the banks anew. 
 There, all the surplus water down is sent, 
 
 Which in Benaco's bosom cannot flow. 
 
 And makes a river, through green pastures blent. ^^ 
 
 Soon as the wave begins to glide below 
 
 No more Benaco, Mincio is its name, 
 
 Until Governo, where it meets the Po. 
 A plain it finds, ere far hath gone its stream 
 
 In which it stretches out its waters mild, ^ 
 
 A place unhealthy in hot summer's flame. 
 Then passing on her way the virgin wild 
 
 Beheld a central station in the fen 
 
 Uncultured, nor by habitants defiled. 
 There, to escape all intercourse with men, ^ 
 
 She settled with her slaves, her art pursued 
 
 And died where she had been a denizen. 
 Afterwards, scattered round that neighbourhood, 
 
 Men gathered in that place, reputed strong 
 
 Because the marsh on all sides barred inroad. ^ 
 
 They raised a city o'er her bones ere long, 
 
 And after her, who first had chosen the site, 
 
 They called it Mantua, without rite or song. 
 Of old its people were of no mean might 
 
 Till Casalodi's madness was deceived ^ 
 
 By Pinamonti's cunning of his right. 
 
 Line 61. The lake Benaco, here so minutely described, is now called the 
 Lago di Guarda. 
 
 Line 67, &c. The three bishoprics mentioned meet in this spot. 
 
 Line 70. The garrison of Peschiera, to the south of the lake, where its 
 surplus waters flow out and form the Mincio. 
 
 Line 95. Albert, Count of Casalodi, was induced by Pinamonti to drive 
 all the nobles from the State, making him believe that this would make him 
 omnipotent with the people. Pinamonti then placed himself at the head of 
 the latter, drove out Casalodi, and usurped the sovranty of the State. 
 
CiNTo XX. HELL. 77 
 
 But I must warn thee, be it ne'er believed, 
 
 If some should otherwise originate 
 
 My town, the truth should keep them undeceived." 
 And I : " O master, all thou dost relate ^**** 
 
 To me is certain, and so wins belief. 
 
 That fuel spent for me were others* prate. 
 But tell me of yon band, who wonne in grief. 
 
 If thou seest any worthy of remark : 
 
 For only about that my mind is lief." ^** 
 
 Then he continued : " He whose shoulders dark 
 
 Are covered with his cheeks' thick-spreading beard, 
 
 What time the males of Greece did all embark. 
 So that the babes in cradles sole were spared. 
 
 Was Augur, and with Calchas gave the sign, "" 
 
 In Aulis for the cable to be sheared. 
 Euripilus his name, and by design 
 
 My epic names him in a certain place, 
 
 Thou know'st it well who know'st its every line. 
 That other who fills up a little space, "^ 
 
 Was Michel Scot, who veritably knew 
 
 Of cheating magic every secret grace. 
 Guide Bonatti see : Asdente view, 
 
 Who now would wish he ne'er had left his thread 
 
 And leather, but too late repentance grew. ^^ 
 
 Behold the wretches who the needle fled 
 
 And distaff, striving at prophetic strain. 
 
 With herbs and shapes they worked their deeds of dread. 
 But onwards now : already seeks the main. 
 
 With boundary of both hemispheres in view, ^^® 
 
 Beyond Seville, the faggot-bearing Cain : 
 And yestreen to its full the round moon grew ; 
 
 Thou shouldst remember well it did not darken 
 
 In that deep underwood the whole night through." 
 So spake he, and we walked on while I hearken. ^^ 
 
 Line 113. ^neid, book ii., lino 114: — " Saspensi Eurypylum scitatura 
 oracula Phcebi mittimus." 
 
 Lino 118. Bonatti was an astrologer of Forli, and adviser of Monte Feltro. 
 Asdente, a shoemaker of Parma, who left his business to practise the sooth- 
 sayer's art, in which he acquired a great local reputation. 
 
 Line 126. The faggot -bearing Cain is the moon, the spots on whose face 
 were supposed, in the Middle Ages, to bo Cain with a faggot of thorns. 
 The superstition still lingers in the old phrase of the man in the moon. 
 
78 HELL. Canto XXI. 
 
 CANTO XXI. 
 
 The poets pass into the fifth ward, and, looking down from the bridge, Dante 
 discovers it to be a lake of boiling pitch. While gazing into its depths a 
 demon alights on the bridge, bearing a sinner on his back, whom he 
 throws into the lake. As the wretch rises to the surface a crowd of demons, 
 hitherto concealed under the bridge, attack him with their hooks and 
 force him to dive into the boiling pitch. Virgil issues forth to obtain a 
 safe passage for Dante, and being told that the bridge over the sixth 
 valley is in ruins they follow a band of demons, whom their chief has 
 directed to guide the poets to another bridge over the next ward. 
 
 So on from bridge to bridge in parlance new, 
 Of which my Comedy no record keeps, 
 We past, and reaching to the summit, view. 
 
 Resting, that other fissure in the deeps 
 
 Of Malebolge and its wailings vain. ^ 
 
 Gazing, a marvellous darkness o'er it sweeps, 
 
 As within Venice' Arsenal, amain 
 
 In winter time the pitch tenacious burns 
 Their unsound vessels there to caulk again, 
 
 Since they can sail no longer, and by turns ^" 
 
 One builds a new ship, and one stops with tow 
 The ribs of one that from far voyage returns ; 
 
 One builds anew the stern, and one the prow ; 
 
 Some make the oars, and some the rigging start. 
 
 And some the foresail, and the mizen stow : ^^ 
 
 So not by fire, but by Almighty art. 
 
 Bubbled the lake of boiling pitch below 
 That clinging slimed the bank in every part. 
 
 I saw it, but therein nought else did know 
 
 Except the bubbles which the boiling raised, ^ 
 
 And the whole swell and fall in changing flow. 
 
 Whilst underneath I then intently gazed. 
 
 My master shouting out, " Behold there, straight !" 
 Drew me towards him from my place amazed. 
 
 Then turned I, like a man, by whom too late ^ 
 
 Is seen some object which he fain would fly. 
 Whose forces at the sudden fear abate. 
 
 And he runs instantly it strikes his eye. 
 I saw behind us both a devil dark. 
 That running o'er the sharp-set rocks drew nigh. ^^ 
 
 Ah me ! how fearful was his aspect stark ! 
 And how in action cruelly he strode 
 As his wide wings and active feet I mark ! 
 
Canto XXI. HELL. 79 
 
 Upon his shoulder towering high and broad, 
 
 And on his hips a sinning wight he bore, ^ 
 
 While by the feet he firmly gripped his load. 
 " O Malebranche," from our bridge's shore 
 
 He cried, " behold Saint Zita's magistrate ; 
 
 Dip him below the while I turn for more 
 In the same land, where many more await, *^ 
 
 Except Buonturo, each man there is cheat ; 
 
 For lucre no to yes they alter straight.'* 
 He cast him down, and o'er the steep rocks fleet 
 
 He turned away, a mastiff loosed from hold 
 
 Ne'er followed on a thief with greater heat. ■** 
 
 The sinner dived, and rose again uprolled, 
 
 When 'neath the bridge concealed the demons cried, 
 
 " This place the Holy Visage doth not hold : 
 One swims not here as in the Serchio's tide ; 
 
 But if our grappling-irons thou wouldst 'scape, *^ 
 
 Try not too much above the pitch to bide." 
 Then with a hundred hooks they clawed his shape, 
 
 And cried, " 'Neath covert thou must gambol here. 
 
 And see how much whilst hidden thou canst rape.'* 
 Not otherwise the scullion troop appear ^ 
 
 When they within the boiling cauldron drown 
 
 The meat with hooks that it may disappear. 
 Then my good master : " That it be not known 
 
 That thou art here," he said, " in some rock's shade 
 
 That giveth present shelter sit thee down. ®* 
 
 And for no injury to me essayed 
 
 Fear anything, since I these things have told, 
 
 And seen ere now the devils at parade." 
 Then did he pass beyond our bridge's hold, 
 
 And of the sixth ridge, as he reached the side, ^ 
 
 Well had he need of all his calmness b?yld. 
 With such a fury and such tempest tide ^ 
 
 As household dogs some beggar wretch surround. 
 
 Who on the sudden begs where he is tied, 
 
 Line 37- " Malebranche" — evil hounds — is the geneiic name of these 
 demons. 
 
 Line 38. " Saint Zita" was the guardian saint of Lucca, which the demon 
 asserts to be so full of public cheats. Perhaps "jobber" is the nearest 
 approximation to the Italian word barattiere, as here used by Dante. It 
 need hardly be said that the exception in favour of Buonturo Dato is ironical, 
 he being the greatest "jobber" of the batch. 
 
 Line 48. A picture of Christ's face, miraculously imprinted on a hand- 
 kerchief with which he wiped off his sweat in the agony, and which was 
 religiously preserved at Lucca. The Serchio is a river near the town. 
 
80 HELL. Canto XXI. 
 
 So from beneath the bridge they sallied round ^" 
 
 And all their prongs towards him pointed : " Stay !" 
 Cried he to them ; " your evil will be bound. 
 
 Before your hooks can rend me stand away, 
 
 And one of you come forth my words to hear, 
 
 And then consult to tear me, yea or nay." ^^ 
 
 " Go, Malacoda," cried they all, and near 
 
 Drew one, the whilst the other stood at fee. 
 Saying, *' In what will this avail him here?" 
 
 " Thinkest thou, Malacoda, thou wouldst see 
 
 Me venture here," replied the master mine, '*' 
 
 " From all your fiends' attacks so far 'scaped free 
 
 Without propitious Fate and will Divine ? 
 
 Permit my passage through this way forlorn. 
 
 Where I must guide my friend through Heaven's design." 
 
 On that his toppling pride was straightway shorn, '"^ 
 
 And he let drop his weapon to his feet. 
 And said to the others, " He must not be torn." 
 
 My leader then to me : " Thou from the seat 
 
 Where, 'midst the rocks, thou dost in hiding keep 
 
 In safety now abandon thy retreat." ^^ 
 
 Then rising towards him quickly did I creep ; 
 And all the devils pressed so very near, 
 I feared their promise they would never keep. 
 
 So did I see of yore the soldiers fear 
 
 Who issued from Caprona under pact, ^^ 
 
 Seeing so many enemies appear. 
 
 Close to my leader's form in trembling act 
 I clung, but never did I turn my eyes 
 From those fierce faces which all goodness lackt. 
 
 They dropped their hooks, but one to the other cries, ^^^ 
 
 •' Shall I just touch him up upon the breech ?" 
 Who answers, " Yes — give him a slight surprise." 
 
 But -Qiat chief demon, who had held some speech 
 With my dear leader, quickly turning, cried, 
 " Scarmiglione, peace to all and each !" ^^^ 
 
 To us then : " Further passage by the side 
 Of this rock is impossible, below ^ 
 The sixth arch shattered leaves all way denied. 
 
 Still forwards if your wish is yet to go, 
 
 You must walk upwards by yon rocky way, "* 
 
 Near which another ridge will pathway show. 
 
 Line 95. The surrender of Caprona, a castle belonging to the Pisans, to the 
 combined forces of Lucca and Florence, occurred in 1290. Dante is stated to 
 have been present at the siege. 
 
CANTO XXII. HELL. 81 
 
 Just five hours later was it yesterday 
 
 We count twelve hundred sixty and six years 
 Since first this passage was all burst away. 
 
 I now am sending there a few compeers -^^^ 
 
 To see that no one tries to sally out, 
 Go on with them ; they need not raise your fears, 
 
 Alichin, Calcabrina, step ye out," 
 
 Began he unto them, " and thou Cagnazzo 
 
 And Barbariccia, thou shalt lead the rout. ^^° 
 
 Come forward, Libicocco, Draghignazzo, 
 Ciriatto with the tusks, and G-raffiacan, 
 And Farfarel, and Rubicante mad so. 
 
 Go circle all around the boiling pan. 
 
 These till the other rock must be left free, ^^^ 
 
 Which all unbroken doth the valley span.'* 
 
 " Ah me ! my master, what is this I see ? 
 
 If thou but know'st the way I ask not these : 
 Ah ! let us walk without their company. 
 
 If thou art prudent as thy nature is, ^^^ 
 
 Dost not thou see how these their fangs lay bare, 
 And with their eyebrows threaten treacheries ?" 
 
 And he to me : " I would discourage fear ; 
 Let them grin on, as is their sense malign, 
 They do it for the souls in torment there." ^^^ 
 
 By the left bank we find our road incline. 
 
 But first their tongues, as far as they could reach, 
 Each pointed to his leader as a sign, 
 
 While he had made a trumpet of his breach. 
 
 Line 112. The demon alludes to the descent of Christ into Hell at the 
 ninth hour of the day, which took place 1,276 years before the previous day; 
 that day is fixed, therefore, as Good Friday, on which day, in reverent 
 imitation, Dante fixed the epoch of his own descent. 
 
 Line 137. The elegant pantomime between the devils and their leader is 
 intended to show their intense appreciation of the deceit which Malacoda has 
 practised on the poets. 
 
 CANTO XXII. 
 
 The poets following the ten demons, they come suddenly upon a sinner, who 
 before he can escape into the lake is speared by one of the fiends. With 
 the permission of the leader, Virgil questions the sinner as to himself and 
 his companions. The trickster then induces the demons to stand aside, 
 under pretence that he will lure more of his comrades into their clutches, 
 and takes the opportunity of plunging into the burning pitch ; two of the 
 demons chasing him are caught in the slimy lake, and while the rest are 
 extricating them the poets continue their way. 
 
82 HELL. Canto XXII. 
 
 Ere now IVe witnessed knightliood move afield, 
 
 Pass in review and rally in the fight, 
 
 And prest at times for safety backwards yield ; 
 Over your land I've seen the scouts in flight, 
 
 O Aretines, and seen the squadrons swell * 
 
 For tourney and for jousting all bedight. 
 And move to sound of trumpet, drum, and bell, 
 
 With signals flung from castled towers afar, 
 
 In native and in foreign modes as well ; 
 But never with such curious pipe of war ^^ 
 
 Have I seen men-at-arms and footmen throng, 
 
 Nor ships at signal from the shore, or star. 
 With those two demons did we move along. 
 
 Ah, fearful company ! but to the Church 
 
 Saints only and to taverns sots belong. ^^ 
 
 Engrossed alone within that pitch I search, 
 
 To witness all contained in its black grave, 
 
 And all the people turning in their smurch. 
 Like dolphins roll their backs upon the wave. 
 
 And warn the watchful wanderers of the main, ^ 
 
 Their vessels from the coming storm to save, 
 So striving to alleviate their pain. 
 
 Some of those sinners' backs would upwards float, 
 
 And quick as lightning disappear again. 
 And as around the margin of a moat ^^ 
 
 Stand frogs with heads alone that outwards peep, 
 
 Their feet and bulk all hidden to the throat, 
 Such order did those wretched sinners keep ; 
 
 But soon as Barbariccia drew him near. 
 
 So did they vanish in the boiling deep. ^ 
 
 I saw it and my heart still quakes with fear. 
 
 One sinner waited there, as hath appeared 
 
 When one frog stays while others disappear. 
 And Grafiacan, who close to him had neared. 
 
 Suddenly seized him by his pitchy hair, ^ 
 
 And dragged him upwards like an otter speared. 
 Already of their names I was aware. 
 
 Having remarked them when elect thereto. 
 
 And heard them call each other here and there. 
 " Eubicante, do thou seize him too, *" 
 
 Stick in the talons so that thou mayst flay," 
 
 Shouted together all that cursed crew. 
 And I : " My master, if thou canst, essay 
 
 To know what wretch is this such ills betide. 
 
 Thus fallen in his foemen's hands a prey." *^ 
 
Canto XXII. HELti. 83 
 
 My leader then advanced him to his side, 
 
 And asked him whence he was; " A Navarrese 
 
 Was I by birth," the wretched soul replied. 
 '* My mother gave me a lord's liveries. 
 
 Since she had borne me to a ribald thing ^^ 
 
 That wrecked his holdings and himself with these. 
 After I served the good Tibaldo, king ; 
 
 There I began to practise with chicane, 
 
 For which in heat I pay the reckoning." 
 Ciriatto, from whose mouth long tushes twain *^ 
 
 Issued on each side like a forest boar, 
 
 Of a boar's goring made him feel the pain. 
 The mouse had fallen among cats galore ; 
 
 But Barbariccia stayed him with his hand, 
 
 And shouted, " Wait there till I haul him o'er." ^ 
 
 Then to my master turned his face. " Demand 
 
 Again," said he, *' if more thou wouldest know 
 
 Of him before he's tortured by my band." 
 My leader then : " 'Mongst those bad souls below, 
 
 Knowest thou any that were Latin born ^^ 
 
 Beneath the pitch ?" And he : " Awhile ago 
 I had one for my neighbour there forlorn ; 
 
 Would I were now with him in covert laid ! 
 
 I would not then by hook and claw be torn." 
 Then Libicocco : '' We've too long delayed," ^^ 
 
 He said, and seized his arm so with his hook 
 
 That tearing it a ghastly strip he flayed. 
 And Draghignazzo also downwards strook, 
 
 To seize him by his legs ; the devils' lord 
 
 Turned round to quell them with a savage look ; ^^ 
 
 And when some quiet was again restored, 
 
 To him who only gazed upon his sore 
 
 My chief without delay addressed the word. 
 " And who was he whom when thou cam'st to shore 
 
 Thou quittedst, as thou say'st, in evil tide ?" ^^ 
 
 " Frate Gomita was the name he bore, 
 He of Galliera, vase of fraud," replied 
 
 That wretched one ; "his master's enemies 
 
 So did he treat that each his praises cried ; 
 
 Line 47- The jobber who falls into the demon's clutches is one Ciampolo ; 
 he became a favourite of Tibault, King of Navarre, in whose court he found 
 a field for his knaveries. 
 
 Line 81. Frate Gomita was a Sardinian who abused the confidence of his 
 master, the Governor of Galliera, one of the four presidencies into which the 
 island of Sardinia was divided. 
 
8* HELL. Canto XXII. 
 
 He took their coin and loosed them ; in this wise ^^ 
 
 Still doth he boast, and in all deeds before 
 
 All others he was king of jobberies. 
 So Michel Zanche, he of Logodore, 
 
 Uses this gift, and of Sardinia there 
 
 Their tongues in wagging weary nevermore. ^ 
 
 Ah ! see that other, how his fangs are bare ; 
 
 I would say more, but tremble lest that fellow 
 
 Be not preparing now to comb my hair," 
 The devils' leader turned to Farfarello, 
 
 Whose eyes were rolling in his thirst to tear, ®* 
 
 *' Stand off, thou bird of evil !" did he bellow. 
 " If you have any wish to see or hear," 
 
 Eesumed he then, who stood in terror nigh, 
 
 " Tuscans or Lombards, I will bring them here. 
 But let the Malebranche stand them by, ^^ 
 
 So that through fear they be not backwards driven. 
 
 And in this very place remaining, I, 
 Instead of my own self will bring you seven, 
 
 If I but whistle, so to sally out 
 
 Amongst us is the signal always given." ^^^ 
 
 Cagnazzo at the motion raised his snout, 
 
 Shaking his head and cried, " The malice know 
 
 Downwards to throw himself is all his thought." 
 When he, whose snares were ever ready, slow 
 
 Answered, " Malicious is indeed the spite "•* 
 
 Which for myself procureth greater woe." 
 Alichin held no more and opposite 
 
 To all the others cried : " If thou from there 
 
 Cast thyself down I'll follow on thy flight 
 Not running, o'er the pitch my wing will bear. ^^^ 
 
 Leave him the summit, from the bank stand clear, 
 
 And see what he alone 'gainst us can dare." 
 O thou who readest, novel sport shalt hear. 
 
 Each one then turned his eyes the other way ; 
 
 He first who most suspicious did appear. ^^ 
 
 The Navarrese chose time for making play, 
 
 Upon the bank his feet he firmly set. 
 
 Then bounding from their purpose burst away. 
 With that vexation each one sore beset, 
 
 And chiefly him of all their loss the cause, ^^'^ 
 
 Who chasing after cried, " I have you yet." 
 
 Line 88. Michel Zanche was Governor of Logodore, another of the four 
 Sardinian presidencies. He was said to have been murdered by his son-in-law, 
 of the powerful Genoese house of Doria, and his name will recur in Canto 
 XXXIIL, where his son-in-law is found. 
 
 Line 126. Alichin, who, opposed to all the rest, had induced them to yield 
 to the trickster's suggestion. 
 
Canto XXIII. HELL. 85 
 
 But little 'vailed it, since his wings made pause 
 By innate dread ; one vanished underneath, 
 The other rising o'er the gulf withdraws. 
 
 Not otherwise the wild duck when he seeth ^^^ 
 
 The falcon near, dives downwards at its dart, 
 And he returns all spent in wing and breath. 
 
 Then Calcabrina, angered at his heart 
 
 By such a trick, behind the other sheared, 
 
 The victim 'scaped, to combat turned his part. ^^^ 
 
 And as the trickster then had disappeared 
 On his companion his sharp talons drew. 
 And grappling with him o'er the deep they reared. 
 
 But the other also was a falcon true, 
 
 And knew full well to strike, and both in rings ^*^ 
 
 Circling fell headlong in the boiling stew. 
 
 There suddenly the heat its loosening brings, 
 But they were powerless to rise up again, 
 So thickly had their fall beslimed their wings. 
 
 Then Barbariccia grieving with his train, ^*^ 
 
 Made four fly over to the other side. 
 All with their prongs, and every one amain 
 
 From here and there towards them downward glide. 
 Stretching their hooks to those in slime immixt. 
 Who were already cooked beneath the tide ; ^^^ 
 
 And so we left them with their task perplext. 
 
 CANTO XXIII. 
 
 Dante expresses to Virgil his fear that they will be pursued by the revengeful 
 demons, and as his alarm is fulfilled Virgil lifts him in his arms and 
 carries him down the cliff into the next valley of Malebolge. There 
 they find hypocrites punished by being clothed in long cloaks and 
 weighty cowls of lead. Amongst these Dante converses with two 
 Rejoicing Friars, who, under the cloak of impartiality, had inflicted 
 grievous wrong on the Ghibeline party in Florence. 
 
 Silent, alone, without all company, 
 
 On went we, one before and one behind, 
 
 In the way Franciscan friars are wont to hie. 
 
 Upon old Esop's fable was inclined 
 
 My cogitation by that strife below, ^ 
 
 That where the tale of the Frog and Rat we find : 
 
 Line 6. The fable where the frog offering to carry a rat across a stream 
 with the intention of drowning him, both are carried off by a kite. The 
 similitude is not ao exact as Dante would make it appear. 
 
86 HELL. Canto XXIII. 
 
 For does not more resemble now and now 
 
 Than one to the other action, if all clear 
 
 The object and result of each we trow ; 
 And as thoughts follow on each other near, ^® 
 
 So sprang from this another by degrees, 
 
 Which woke with double force my former fear. 
 Thus did I think. It was through us that these 
 
 Have been befooled with loss and ridicule, 
 
 Such as I think must surely them displease. ^* 
 
 If anger over evil passion rule 
 
 They will pursue us hither crueller far 
 
 Than greyhound at the moment it would pull 
 The hare to pieces. Stood on end my hair 
 
 With terror, and intent behind, 1 said, ^® 
 
 " O master, if thou dost not now take care 
 Thee and myself at once to hide, I dread 
 
 These Malebranche ; on our track they stir ; 
 
 In thought already do I hear them tread." 
 And he replied, " If I a mirror were, ^ 
 
 Thy outward form I should not clearer show 
 
 Than do thy inward thoughts to me recur. 
 Even now thy thoughts amidst my own did flow 
 
 With similar action, and in similar wise, 
 
 So that they both to single counsel grow. ^ 
 
 If now in truth this right declivity lies, 
 
 So that to the other ward we may descend. 
 
 We will escape the chase thou didst surmise." 
 He had not brought his counsel to an end 
 
 Before I saw them with their wings outraught, ^^ 
 
 Stretching for flight, as not far olf they wend. 
 Me then my leader suddenly upcaught. 
 
 Like to a mother roused up by the roar, 
 
 Who sees th^ burning flames all near her brought, 
 And takes her child and flies, nor waits for more, *® 
 
 Having of him than of herself more care. 
 
 Dressed in the only garment which she wore. 
 So from the summit of that hard rock there 
 
 He slid adown the hanging mountain side. 
 
 Which to the other ward descendeth sheer. *^ 
 
 Faster did water ne'er through channel glide 
 
 To turn the wheels of some far inland mill. 
 
 When nearest to the whirling blades it hied. 
 Than did my master down that hanging hill, 
 
 Bearing me up in safety on his breast, ^^ 
 
 More like a son than comrade of his will. 
 
Canto XXIII. HELL. 87 
 
 But scarcely were his feet securely prest 
 
 Against the bottom, ere they joined above 
 The summit, but no longer could molest ; 
 
 Since the high Providence which made them rove ^ 
 
 Of that fifth ditch the ministers devised, 
 Dej^rived them of all power from thence to move. 
 
 Below we found a people all disguised. 
 
 Who wandered ever round with footsteps slow, 
 
 Waihng, with semblance wearied, and despised. ^ 
 
 Long cloaks they wore, with hooded cowls sunk low 
 Before their eyes, and fashioned in the mould 
 Which in Cologne the monks are wont to show. 
 
 They glittered outwardly, all bright with gold, 
 
 But inwardly were lead, and of such weight ®* 
 
 Mere straw by those were cloaks by Frederic rolled. 
 
 weary garb to wear for endless Fate ! 
 
 With these together to the left we strayed 
 Once more intent upon their dolorous state. 
 
 But wearied by the poise upon them laid, ^* 
 
 That people came so slowly, we found new 
 Companions at each onward stride we made. 
 
 Whence to my leader I : " Find for my view 
 
 One known by deed or name amidst the throng." 
 
 And walking on my eyes around I threw. ^* 
 
 Then one who understood the Tuscan tongue 
 Behind us cried aloud : " Your footsteps stay, 
 Who through this dark air speed so fast along : 
 
 Perchance thou'lt find in me what thou dost pray." 
 
 My leader then turned round and told me : " Wait, ^^ 
 
 And afterwards to his thy pace delay." 
 
 1 stayed and saw a couple show their great 
 
 Mental desire to join me in their face. 
 
 But stayed them still the crowded path, and weight. 
 
 With envious eye, when they had reached the place, ^ 
 
 They gazed upon me, but they spake no word, 
 Then 'mid themselves they talked a little space. 
 
 " He seems alive, by his throat with breathing stirred, 
 And if they're dead, by what peculiar knowledge 
 To escape this heavy garb are they preferred ?" ^^ 
 
 Then said they to me, '* Tuscan, to the college 
 Of wretched hypocrites, who thus are led. 
 Be not too proud thy person to acknowledge." 
 
 Line 63. The monks in Cologne appear to have worn cowls larger than 
 ordinary. 
 
 Line G6. Frederic II. was said to have punished those guilty of high treason 
 by wrapping them in lead and then casting them into the fire. 
 
88 HELL. Canto XXIII. 
 
 And I to tliem : " I was both born and bred 
 
 In the great town above fair Arno's wave, ^^ 
 
 And bear the body which I always had. 
 But who are ye whose cheeks so sadly lave 
 
 The tears of anguish which so great I view, 
 
 And what, that thus bursts forth, thy pain so grave?" 
 And one replied, " The cloaks of orange hue ^^ 
 
 Are made of lead so heavy, that to groan 
 
 Beneath their weight is forced the balance too. 
 Rejoicing Friars were we from Bologne, 
 
 I Catalan and he Loderingo hight, 
 
 Both chosen by thy country as on one ^^^ 
 
 From faction free the choice is wont to light, 
 
 Peace to preserve, and what we were, the blaze 
 
 Around G-ardingo bringeth still to sight.'* 
 " friars !" I began, " your evil ways " 
 
 But said no more, because one crucified ^^® 
 
 With three stakes fixed to earth drew all my gaze. 
 When he beheld me all his form he writhed, 
 
 Breathing within his beard a heavy sigh. 
 
 And Friar Catalan, who this descried. 
 Told me : " The man impaled, whom thou dost eye, "^ 
 
 Counselled the Pharisees that it was meet 
 
 That one man for the populace should die. 
 Impaled and stark he lies across the street, 
 
 As thou dost see, a-nd his the doom, to rede 
 
 Of every one that passeth o'er, the weight. ^^^ 
 
 So stretched out is his father-in-law decreed. 
 
 Within this ditch, and of the council each. 
 
 Who for the Jews were such an evil seed." 
 Then saw I Virgil marvel at that speech 
 
 O'er him upon the crucifix impaled, ^^^ 
 
 So vilely exiled on the eternal beach. 
 The friar then with such request he hailed ; 
 
 " Displease ye not, if lawful, now to say. 
 
 If the right hand will any passage yield. 
 
 Line 103. Some gentlemen of Lombardy were permitted by Pope Urban IV. 
 to found an order of knighthood with the title of " Brothers of St. Mary," but 
 as the members were chiefly amongst the rich, and led a life of splendour, 
 they obtained the nickname of Rejoicing Friars. 
 
 Line 104. The Rejoicing Friars, Catalan and Loderingo— one Guelph, the 
 other Ghibeline — were chosen as joint judges to heal the factions of the city. 
 Bought over by the Guelphs they soon chased the Ghibelines from their 
 homes, and, amongst other actions, burnt the street named Gardingo, in which 
 the Uberti, a leading Ghibeline family, resided. 
 
 Line 116. Caiaphas, with his father-in-law Annas, mentioned afterv^ards. 
 
Canto XXIV. HELL. 89 
 
 By which we both may issue on our way, ^^^ 
 
 And those black angels manage to avoid, 
 Who came but now to drive us from their bay." 
 
 " Far nearer than thou hopest," he replied, 
 " Exists a ridge that from the outer round 
 Stretches and crosseth all these valleys wide. ^^^ 
 
 Though here the broken bridge is not all sound, 
 Still climbing o'er its ruin ye can go, 
 Which riseth upwards, sloping from the ground." 
 
 My leader stood a space, with head bent low. 
 
 Then said, " He taught us badly our emprise ^^^ 
 
 To carry out, who hooks those sinners so." 
 
 The friar : " In Bologna they apprise 
 
 Of the devil many faults, 'mongst them I've heard 
 A tattler he and father of all lies." 
 
 My leader swift departed at that word, ^*^ 
 
 And in his face some anger did appear. 
 Whence I too from those laden spirits stirred. 
 
 Behind the footsteps of those feet so dear. 
 
 CANTO XXIV. 
 
 Dante, with great difficulty, under Virgil's guidance climbs the broken bridge 
 to the ridge that looks down into the seventh valley. Descending into it, 
 he finds robbers punished there, surrounded by multitudes of pestiferous 
 serpents. Amongst them the soul of Gianni Fucci, who had robbed the 
 sacristy in Pistoia, predicts to him the evils that wiU shortly ensue to his 
 own city and the Florentines. 
 
 When in the season of the youthful year 
 
 The sun beneath Aquarius dims his rays, 
 
 And equal to the day the nights draw near ; 
 When o'er the landscape the hoar frost displays 
 
 An image of the snow, its sister white, * 
 
 But very briefly its soft plumage stays. 
 The peasant whose apparel is but slight, 
 
 Eises and looks and sees the wide champaign 
 
 Whiten, on which his person he doth smite, 
 Eeturneth to his hut and doth complain, ^® 
 
 Like to the wretch who knows not what to do : 
 
 Then turneth back and taketh hope again. 
 Seeing the world hath changed its face to view 
 
 In such a little time, and takes his wand 
 
 And to their pastures drives his flocks anew ; ^^ 
 
^0 HELL. Canto XXIV. 
 
 So did my master make me all despond, 
 
 When I beheld him with such troubled brow, 
 And so to the evil was the salve at hand. 
 For as we reached the ruined bridge below 
 
 My leader turned to me with that sweet air -^ 
 
 Which at the mountain's foot I first did know. 
 His arms he opened after thought of care 
 Within himself, and comprehensive view 
 Over the ruin, he embraced me there. 
 And like a man who works and thinketh too, ^ 
 
 Who for the future seemeth aye to care. 
 So o'er a jutting summit me he drew. 
 While of a rock still higher he was 'ware. 
 
 Saying, " To that thou afterwards must hold. 
 But test it first if fit thy weight to bear." ^* 
 
 It was no path for those in long cloaks rolled. 
 Since scarcely we, he light and I upborne, 
 Were able to climb up from hold to hold. 
 And were it not that of that precinct lorn 
 
 More than the other side this hill was short, ^* 
 
 Of him I know not, I had been outworn. 
 But since the Malebolge towards the port 
 Of that down- sunken lake inclineth all. 
 The site of every valley is so wrought. 
 One side below the other aye doth fall. "*" 
 
 At length, however, to that point we came 
 Where the last fragment topples from the wall. 
 The breath within my lungs so spent became, 
 
 When there I reached my strength no further goeth, 
 So down I sat on the first stone that came. ** 
 
 " Henceforth 'tis fitting thou shouldst shake off sloth," 
 The master cried, " since idly lapt in down 
 'Neath coverlets, for him Fame never groweth. 
 Who so his life consumes without renown. 
 
 Leaves such a vestige of himself on earth, ^ 
 
 As it were froth on air or water blown. 
 Therefore arise, thy weakness stem with worth 
 Of soul, that of all battles wins the prime, 
 Unless 'tis borne down by the body's dearth. 
 Far longer stairs than these thou'lt have to climb^ ** 
 
 From these 'twill not sufiice thee to depart ; 
 Make now my counsel with thy action chime." 
 Then I arose, exhibiting with art 
 
 More force of breath than I in truth possest. 
 And said, " Gro on, I'm strong and bold of heart." ®* 
 
 Line 55. The stairs ascending the hill of Purgatory. 
 
Canto XXIV. HELL. 91 
 
 Up o'er the precipice our way we prest, 
 
 A rocky, narrow, and most hard ascent, 
 
 And even steeper yet than all the rest. 
 Not to seem weak still speaking on I went, 
 
 On which from the other moat there did transpire *^ 
 
 A voice that shouted words of shameless bent. 
 I know not what it said though standing higher, 
 
 Over the spanning bridge I now arrive, 
 
 But he who spake appeared as mo^ed with ire. 
 I gazed intent below, but eyes alive ^" 
 
 Could not pierce downwards through that gloomy hall. 
 
 " Master," I therefore said, " let us arrive 
 From the other circle and descend the wall. 
 
 For as I hear from hence nor comprehend. 
 
 So gazing down I cannot see at all." ^* 
 
 " No other answer," said he, " do I tend 
 
 Save action, for in silence with the deed 
 
 'Tis fit to carry out a fair demand." 
 We then descended by the bridge's head, 
 
 Where with the eighth ridge joineth on its road, ^" 
 
 And there the pit before me clear I rede : 
 There I beheld within a terrible brood 
 
 Of serpents, and of species so diverse, 
 
 That recollection still makes creep my blood. 
 Libya with all its deserts boasts no worse, ^^ 
 
 Though there of snakes amphibious, snakes on trees, 
 
 Snakes spotted, with two heads, it knows the curse. 
 Not ever plagues so great nor fell as these 
 
 Were seen through Ethiop's land of dread alarm. 
 
 Nor in the realm which o'er the Red Sea lies. ^ 
 
 Amidst this cruel, miserable swarm 
 
 Ran people naked all and terrified. 
 
 No hope of refuge nor of counter-charm. 
 Their hands behind them were with serpents tied ; 
 
 These in their loins fixed firm their tail and head, ^^ 
 
 While in the front their bodies twist and glide. 
 And lo ! one wretch that to our side had sped 
 
 A serpent singled out and pierced him through, 
 
 There where the shoulders and the neck are wed. 
 One could not write so quickly I or O ^^ 
 
 As this one kindled and burnt up amain. 
 
 And in a mass of ashes fell below. 
 Then when he lay on earth destroyed, not slain. 
 
 The ashes re-collect and upwards rear. 
 
 Suddenly changed to his own form again. ^^^ 
 
92 HELL. Canto XXIV. 
 
 So from the learned of old times we hear 
 
 The phoenix dies and then is born once more 
 
 When it completeth its five-hundredth year. 
 Nor grass nor corn it tasteth evermore ; 
 
 Only with tears of incense and of myrrh, ''" 
 
 Of balm and nard its funeral pile doth store. 
 And like to him who falls nor knoweth where, 
 
 By force demoniac when on earth he lies, 
 
 Or epileptic stroke, and cannot stir, 
 Gazes around when he once more doth rise, ^^^ 
 
 All 'wildered by the agony he knows 
 
 That he has suffered, and round gazmg sighs ; 
 Such was that sinner after he arose. 
 
 Justice of God ! indeed it is severe. 
 
 That for His vengeance poureth down such blows. ^^^ 
 
 My leader asked him who he was to clear. 
 
 On which he said, " From Tuscany I fell, 
 
 'Tis not long since, into this gulf of fear. 
 A bestial life, not human, pleased me well, 
 
 As suited to a bastard ; Fucci, I, ^^^ 
 
 Beast, in Pistoia found fit covert fell." 
 I to my leader : " Tell him not to fly, 
 
 And ask what crime has thrust him down so low ; 
 
 A man of blood and anger I descry," 
 The sinner heard, nor sought to disavow, ^^ 
 
 But towards me raised his soul and visage plain, 
 
 Covered all o'er with wretched shame's red glow. 
 " It grieves me more," he said, " that in this pain 
 
 Thou hast discovered me where thou dost see. 
 
 Than when from the other life I first was ta'en. ^^^ 
 
 Deny I cannot what thou askest me ; 
 
 So low I now am placed because of old 
 
 I robbed the hangings of our sacristy ; 
 And falsely 'gainst another was it told. 
 
 But that thou mayst not glory in this view, ^*** 
 
 If ever thou shouldst leave this gloomy hold, 
 Open thy ears to my announcement true : 
 
 Though in Pistoia first the Neri fail. 
 
 And Florence taketh men and customs new. 
 
 Line 125. Vanni Fucci was a bastard son of a member of theLazzeri family 
 in Pistoja : he robbed the sacristy of the church of St. James, and caused the 
 crime to be attributed to Vaani della Nona, who was thereupon executed. 
 Dante, knowing the violence of his nature, is surprised at finding him amongst 
 the fraudulent, instead of in the preceding circle. 
 
 Line 143. The Bianchi of Pistoja, assisted by the same party in Florence, 
 drove the Negri out of the former city in 1301. The Bianchi (Dante's party, 
 
93 
 
 145 
 
 Canto XXV. HELL. 
 
 Mars draws a vapour forth in Magra's vale, 
 
 With turbid clouds of vengeance circled round ; 
 And with impetuous tempest will assail, 
 
 Selecting for his field Piceno's ground. 
 
 Where suddenly thy faction will be torn, ^_.^ 
 
 And every white will there receive a wound ;^ 
 
 And I have told thee now to make thee mourn." 
 
 Fucci being of the Negri faction) were shortly after chased f^om Florence and 
 the Negrfbecame dominant ; the vapour in Magra's vale is the Marquis MaJe- 
 spina, lord of that country, who as head of the Negri gave battle to the 
 Biancbi and defeated them on the field of Piceno. These events are here re- 
 lated as prophecy, most unpalatable to Dante. 
 
 CANTO XXV. 
 
 and four of them go through the most extraordinary transformations. 
 
 When he had closed his speech the robber there 
 
 Eaised his clenched fingers with the thumb thrust through, 
 Shouting : " God take him, him to thee I bare. 
 Then did the serpents prove my guardians true, ^ 
 
 For one entwined himself around his neck. 
 As though it said. Thou shalt not speak anew. 
 Another seized his arms and bound him back, 
 Clutching him there so firmly in his sway 
 That bound by these he could not make a beck. ^^ 
 
 Pistoja! ah, Pistoja! why dost stay 
 To burn thyself away to ashes all. 
 Since in ill-doing thou advancest aye ? 
 In all the circles 'neath Hell's gloomy pall 
 
 I saw no soul towards God display such pride, ^^ 
 
 Not he who fell adown from Thebes's wall. 
 He spake no further word, but off he hied. 
 A centaur saw I come in angry storm, 
 " Where is this fierce fell spirit ? where ? he cried. 
 I do not think Maremma has such swarm ^^ 
 
 Of adders as he had upon his back, 
 Up to the point where springs the human form. 
 
 T ?np 2 " Le mani alzo con ambidue le fiche." Gave the fig with tis hands 
 an iSulLg gesture inihe Middle Ages, made by thrusting the thumb through 
 
 the clenched fingers. -^ , • n <- ytv 
 
 Line 15. Capaneus, described m Canto XLV. 
 
S4 HELL. Canto XXV. 
 
 Above his shoulders, perched upon his neck 
 
 With open wings outstretcht a dragon lay, 
 
 That kindles every one that nears its track. 
 " This one is Cacus," did my master say, ^^ 
 
 " Who 'neath Mount Aventine his rocky lair 
 
 With blood has very often made a bay. 
 He does not wander with his brethren there. 
 
 Because the theft was fraudulent which he made 
 
 Of that great herd of cattle which was near. "^ 
 
 On which his squinting deeds at once were stayed 
 
 Beneath the club of Hercules, the last 
 
 Nine-tenths he felt not of the blows on-laid." 
 Whilst thus he spake to me the centaur past. 
 
 And then beneath our bank three spirits drew, ^^ 
 
 On whom my chief and I no heed had cast. 
 Until they cried out to us, " Who are you ?" 
 
 On which our conversation we arrest. 
 
 And then on these we wholly turn our view. 
 I did not know them, but the one addresst *^ 
 
 Another, as would happen in the case 
 
 When one would name a comrade 'mid the rest. 
 Remarking, " Cianfa, dost thou bide a space ?" 
 
 On which to make my leader stand intent 
 
 I on my chin and lip my finger place. ^^ 
 
 If now, O reader, thou should st scarce be bent 
 
 To trust my speech no marvel it will be, 
 
 Since I who saw it scarcely can consent. 
 As on them I kept fixed my eyes to see. 
 
 Behold a serpent with six feet forth launch ^^^ 
 
 In front of one and seize him suddenly. 
 With its middle feet he closely gript his paunch, 
 
 And with its upper ones his arms it caught. 
 
 Then biting both its cheeks its teeth did crunch. 
 Its hinder feet around his thighs he raught, ^^ 
 
 And through between them both it thrust its tail, 
 
 Which back around his loins it twining brought. 
 Ivy close rooted never did assail 
 
 A tree so closely as the beast did ring 
 
 Around the other's limbs its writhing mail. ^ 
 
 Line 25. Dante has taken upon himself to make Cacus a centaur. In old 
 mythology he was merely a robber whom Hercules destroyed for stealing his 
 herd of cattle. See Virgil, ^n., Lib. VIII. 193. 
 
 Line 43. Cianfa and the other spirits named afterwards are known merely 
 as Florentines of good family. Cianfa had suddenly changed into a six-footed 
 serpent, who appears immediately on the scene, and had thus disappeared to 
 his companions. 
 
Canto XXV. HELL. 95 
 
 Then as if made of molten wax they cling 
 
 Together, and together mix their hues, 
 
 And either seemed no more the previous thing. 
 As placed before the flame there doth transfuse 
 
 O'er the papyrus a dull brownish shade, ^ 
 
 Not black yet, though its whiteness it doth lose. 
 The other two looked on and cried dismayed, 
 
 " Ah, Agnolo, how thou dost change and swoon ! 
 
 Behold, nor two nor one thou now art made." 
 Already the two heads had merged in one, ^^ 
 
 In which there then appeared in mingled mien 
 
 Two faces in one face where both were gone. 
 Grew the two arms into four stripes, I ween. 
 
 The thighs and legs, the belly and the chest, 
 
 Changed into limbs that never yet were seen. '^* 
 
 All primal aspect there was wholly chased; 
 
 Two and not one appeared that shape unmeet. 
 
 And such slow crawling from the scene it paced. 
 Just as a lizard 'neath the scourging heat 
 
 Of dog-days, when it shifts its hedgy bourne, *• 
 
 Appears like lightning crossing o'er the street ; 
 So seemed as towards the bellies crept in turn 
 
 Qf the other pair a serpent all ablaze. 
 
 Livid and sable like a peppercorn. 
 The navel, whence throughout prasnatal days *^ 
 
 Man draweth nourishment, to one it broke. 
 
 Then fell beneath him, stretcht at length to gaze. 
 The pierced one looked at it but nothing spoke, 
 
 He only gaped erect upon his feet, 
 
 As smit by sudden sleep or fever stroke. ®* 
 
 The serpent gazed on him and he on it ; 
 
 One through the wound, the other from its mouth, 
 
 Emitted vapour which betwixt did meet. 
 Henceforth be silent, Lucan, when he showeth 
 
 The sad Sabellus' and Nasidius' fate, '* 
 
 And hear what now my song in haste avoweth. 
 Of Arethusa let not Ovid prate. 
 
 Nor Cadmus, changed to serpent and to fount, 
 
 I envy not the tale he doth relate. 
 For two whole natures never, front to front, ^^^ 
 
 Were so transmuted that each figure donned 
 
 The other's, changing from its former wont. 
 
 Line 68. Agnolo Brunelleschi according to the earliest commentators . 
 Line 95. Lucan's " Pharsalia," Book II., where he describes the fate of the- 
 two soldiers, Sabellus and Nasidius, bitten by serpents. 
 Line 97. Ovid's "Metam.," Books IV. and V. 
 
96 HELL. Canto XXV. 
 
 Yet changing thus these mutually respond, 
 
 Ft>r while the serpent cleft its tail in two 
 
 Then were the pierced one's feet together joined. ^^^ 
 
 Upwards the legs and thighs together grew, 
 
 So closely knitted that ere long the cleft 
 
 Made no appearance, all effaced from view. 
 The tail divided took the shape which left 
 
 The other's limbs, and supple grew the skin, "'^ 
 
 While crusted o'er the man the scaly weft. 
 I saw his arms the armpits close within, 
 
 The while the beast's two feet that had been short 
 
 Lengthened as much as those had shortened in. 
 After its hinder feet together wrought "^ 
 
 Became the member which mankind conceals, 
 
 While the poor wretches changed to a double sort. 
 Meanwhile the vapour one and the other veils 
 
 With a new colour and createth hair 
 
 Upon the one and from the other peels. ^^" 
 
 The one rose up, the other fell down sheer, 
 
 Only preserving still their impious eyes, 
 
 Beneath the which exchanged each visage rare. 
 In him erect towards the temples flies 
 
 The stuff superfluous, which to shape then grew, ^^'' 
 
 That on erst vacant clieeks the ears arise. 
 The flesh that still remained nor backwards drew 
 
 With what was over formed into a nose, 
 
 And the lips thickened as was fitting too. 
 In him that lay the visage forwards grows, ^^® 
 
 And -closing in the head retire the ears, 
 
 As in its shell a snail its horns doth close. 
 The united tongue erst fit for parlance sheers 
 
 In two, the while the other's forkt tongue pieced 
 
 Together, and the vapour disappears. '^^ 
 
 The spirit that was changed into a beast 
 
 Away across the valley hissing flew, 
 
 The other one behind him foaming chased. 
 Then turning towards the last his shoulders new, 
 
 He cried to him, " I would that Buoso flee "^ 
 
 As I did, on his belly, Hell's ways through." 
 Thus those within that seventh pit did I see 
 
 Change and exchange, and be my tongue excused 
 
 When flowers it fleeth in such novelty. 
 And though in sooth my eyes had been confused ^** 
 
 No little, and my 'wildered soul surprised. 
 
 Unto their flight concealment was refused, 
 
Canxoxxvi. hell. 07 
 
 Puccio Sciancato clear I recognised ,- 
 
 And of these three companions he alone^ 
 
 W ho came remained unchanged and undisguised ; ^^ 
 
 The other was he whom thou, Gaville, dost moan. 
 
 Line 148» The three original spirits were A^nolo, Busso, and Puccio ; the 
 six-footed serpent, Cianf a ; the black adder, Francesco Cavalcante, killed in 
 the town of Gaville,. for which his relations took a terrible revenge on its in- 
 habitants, alluded to in the last hne. They were all nobles in Florence, and 
 it is not known for what acts Dante has placed them with the robbers in his- 
 seventh pit. 
 
 CANTO XXVI. 
 
 Dante ironically compliments Florence on its renown in the Infernal Eegions^ 
 and prophesies its approaching misfortunes. He passes with Virgil into 
 the eighth pit, over which he sees hovering flames, like will-o'the-wisps. 
 These he finds to be the souls of fraudulent counsellors. Virgil con- 
 verses with a flame with two horns, in which are the spirits of Ulysses- 
 and Diomed, and the former relates the final voyage which he and his 
 old companions ventured into the unknown regions of the West, beyond 
 the gates of Hercules. 
 
 Florence rejoice ! since thou so high dost swell. 
 That o'er the sea and earth thy pinion rears, 
 And thy renown has travelled even to Hell. 
 
 Amongst the robbers found I five such peers, 
 
 Thy citizens, from whence to me comes shame, * 
 
 Nor much of honour unto thee appears. 
 
 But if when morn approaches truth we dream. 
 Within a little time thou wilt deplore 
 What Prato and the rest for thee would claim ; 
 
 It would not be too soon if it were o'er : ^ 
 
 Would it were o'er, since surely it must be ; 
 As I grow older it will grieve me more. 
 
 We sallied forth, and upwards by the way 
 
 Which first descending there our foot- tracks showed, 
 My leader clambered on and guided me. ^^ 
 
 And following on that solitary road 
 
 Amid the boulders and rocks' splintered grain, 
 Unaided by the hand the foot ne'er strode. 
 
 Then did I grieve, and still I grieve again 
 
 When I direct my thoughts to what I saw, ^^ 
 
 And more than erst my intellect restrain : 
 
 Line 9. Prato is either a neighbouring territory to Florence, or else the 
 Cardinal Nicolo di Prato, very hostile to the Republic. The evils it will soon 
 deplore are said to have been the fall of a wooden bridge over the Arno, by 
 which many lives were lost ; a conflagration that destroyed 1,700 buildings ; 
 and the civil discords which broke out between the Bianchi and Neri, all within 
 the year 1304. 
 
 Line 21. The sight of the punishments in the eighth pit of men who had 
 
 n 
 
98 HELL. Canto XXVI. 
 
 Never to liie where virtue doth not draw ; 
 
 So that if star benign or higher 'hest 
 
 Has given that good to use it still with awe. 
 As when the peasant on a hill takes rest ^ 
 
 In the season when the earth's great lightener showeth 
 
 His visage from our gaze concealed the least, 
 What time the gnat, replacing flies, forth goeth, 
 
 Beholds the fireflies o'er the valley shine. 
 
 Where he perchance the vintage works, and plougheth ; ^^ 
 With flames so many was the eighth confine 
 
 Resplendent all, as I was made aware 
 
 On reaching where its pit first met my eyne. 
 And like the prophet, erst revenged by a bear, 
 
 Beheld the chariot of Elias rise, ^ 
 
 What time the heavenly horses sprang in air, 
 Who could not so pursue them with his eyes 
 
 Aught to distinguish, save the flame alone, 
 
 Just like a little cloud ascend the skies ; 
 So o'er the entrance of that pit moved on ** 
 
 Each flame, and none the soul within displayed, 
 
 Though every one was round a sinner thrown. 
 Gazing, above the precipice I swayed. 
 
 So that unless I'd seized a rock at hand. 
 
 Downwards I'd follow though no push were made. ^^ 
 
 My chief, who saw me so intently stand, 
 
 Told me : " Within the flames the spirits bide ; 
 
 Each one is swathed in his consuming band." 
 " My master, when I hear thee," I replied, 
 
 " More sure I am, but I already guessed ^ 
 
 That it was so, and wished to ask my guide, 
 Who is within the flame that forks its crest. 
 
 Which seems to rise from Eteocles' pyre. 
 
 Whose spirit with his brother's could not rest." 
 He answered : " There consume within yon fire ** 
 
 Ulysses, Diomed, together so 
 
 They wonne to punishment as erst to ire : 
 There do they groan within the flame I trow 
 
 The horse's ambush, through the city led. 
 
 From whence the Roman's noble seed we owe. ^^ 
 
 perverted their intellect to evil purposes by seducing others with evil counsels 
 struck home to Dante, who felt that in intellect this class of the condemned 
 were his peers. 
 
 Line 56. The hatred of the brothers Eteocles and Polinices was so great 
 that when both their bodies were burnt on one funereal pyre their flames 
 refused to mingle, but fled the one from the other. 
 
Canto XXVI. HELL. 
 
 Within they mourn the art, tlirougli which even dead 
 
 Still lost Achilles Deidamia doth grieve ; 
 
 They suffer there the rapt Palladium dread." 
 " If they within the flames are granted leave 
 
 To speak," I said, " O master, I beseech. 
 
 And prayer a thousand times reiterate weave, 
 Give me not now denial of their speech. 
 
 When once the biforked flame hath travelled here r 
 
 See how with longing I towards them reach." 
 And he to me replied, " I own thy prayer 
 
 Is worthy of all praise, and it I grant ; 
 
 But let thy tongue all utterance forbear. 
 Leave speech to me. I know what thou dost want 
 
 To ask them ; haply if thy speech they hear, 
 
 Those Greeks would yield thee but attention scant." 
 After the moving flame had reached to where 
 
 It seemed unto my leader time and place, 
 
 In this shape of his parley was I 'ware. 
 " you, who double in one flame embrace. 
 
 If, while I lived, I merited from you. 
 
 If I have merited from you some grace 
 When in this world, the lofty verse I drew. 
 
 Move ye not on ; but one of ye relate 
 
 Where, self- destroyed, to perish he withdrew." 
 The greater horn of the old flame thereat 
 
 Began to wave and bow with murmuring chime, 
 
 Like to a flame on which the wind doth beat. 
 Thence moving here and there its crest in time, 
 
 As though it were a tongue that uttered speech,. 
 
 It cast a voice abroad and said, " What time 
 Circe I left, who lured me in her reach 
 
 Near to Gaeta, upwards of a year, 
 
 Before Eneas had thus named the beach ; 
 Not my son's sweetness, nor compassionate fear 
 
 For my old father, nor the lawful love 
 
 That should have cheered Penelope so dear. 
 Could from my mind the ardent wish remove 
 
 Of the wide world experience to attain, 
 
 And human vices and man's worth to prove. 
 Once more I launched upon the open main ^^ 
 
 With one sole bark and those companions true. 
 
 The few who did not even desert me then. 
 
 Line 84. The highly poetical idea of this last voyage of Ulysses into the 
 unlmown ocean appears to have been invented by Dante, as no such story has 
 come down from classical times. 
 
 9« 
 
100 HELL. Cakto XXVI. 
 
 As far as Spain botli shores I past in view, 
 Morocco, and Sardinia's seagirt bourne, 
 And the other islands which those waters strew. ^^^ 
 
 I and my comrades were grown old and worn 
 When we had reached unto the narrow bar 
 Where Hercules his motto placed to warn 
 Mankind no farther o'er the waves to dare. 
 
 On the right hand I left Seville behind, "•* 
 
 On the other Ceuta was already far. 
 * brothers !' then I said, ' who here have joined 
 Through many thousand perils to the West, 
 To this so brief a vigil of the mind. 
 And high perception, that to ye doth rest, ^^* 
 
 Ye will not all experience refuse, 
 Following the sun, of the world without a guest. 
 Over your noble birthright ye should muse ; 
 
 To live like senseless brutes ye were not made, 
 But knowledge to pursue and virtue use.' ^-^ 
 
 With this concise oration which I said 
 
 I made my comrades for the voyage so fain. 
 That afterwards I scarcely them had stayed. 
 Our stem still turned towards the morn, again 
 
 With oars, we made our wings for the mad design, '^^ 
 Aye to the larboard steering o'er the main. 
 Now, of the other Pole, the stars that shine, 
 The night beheld, and ours did scarcely rise. 
 So far adown they sank, above the brine. 
 Five times there filled and vanished to our eyes ^^ 
 
 The light that streameth from the moon's low rim, 
 Since we had entered on our high emprise, 
 When there appeared to us a mountain dim 
 In the far distance, which to me appears 
 Higher than other mountain e'er could climb. ^^ 
 
 Then we rejoiced, but soon all changed to tears ; 
 For from that land new-found a storm arose, 
 And on its quarter our frail bark it sheers ; 
 Three times it turned it round with whirling throes, 
 
 At the fourth time the stern uprose in air, "** 
 
 And as to one it pleased the prow down goes 
 Until the sea had closed upon us there." 
 
 Line 107. The Straits of Gibraltar. 
 
 Line 117- In the Middle Ages it was believed that any lands that might 
 exist in the Antipodes were, and must be, uninhabited. 
 
 Line 133. The mountain of Purgatory, which Dante places in mid-ocean, 
 the antipodes to Jerusalem, which he considers the meridian of our own in- 
 habited hemisphere. 
 
Canto xxvai. HELL. , . ^ ■ ' . ; ' - 101 
 
 CANTO XKYll. 
 
 The flame which contained Ulysses and Diomed having departed, another 
 comes near the poets and addresses them finally in Tuscan. On being 
 questioned by Dante he states that lie was Count Guido da Montefeltro, 
 and relates why he was condemned to such a punishment. 
 
 Already was tlie flame erect and still, 
 
 To speak no more, and from us went away 
 With licence granted at the sweet bard's will. 
 
 Another then which came behind did stay, 
 
 And drew our eyes towards its crest, at first ® 
 
 By sound confused that from it found its way. 
 
 Like Phalaris's bull (which bellowed first 
 
 With cries of him [in this most just it was] 
 Who first had wrought it with his file accurst), 
 
 Roared with the sound of torture, that its mass ^^ 
 
 Seemed to be wholly overcome with pain. 
 Although it was but fashioned out of brass ; 
 
 So from the absence of all passage plain 
 
 From the fire's summit in its own mute song 
 
 There issued forth the lamentable strain. ^* 
 
 But after it had found its way along 
 
 The fire's point, which it quivered as it past. 
 As words in passing would have done the tongue, 
 
 We heard it say, " O thou to whom I cast 
 
 My voice, who spake now in the Lombard speech, ^^ 
 
 Saying, Now go, from thee no more is askt, 
 
 Though somewhat late perchance to thee I reach. 
 Be not fatigued with me in speech to stand. 
 It irks me not although in flames I bleach. 
 
 If thou in sooth art now to this blind land ^^ 
 
 Fallen from that Latin region sweet and far, 
 To which I wholly owe the crime I planned, 
 
 Say if the Romans now have peace or war ; 
 For near Urbino I was mountaineer. 
 And where the Tiber cleaves the rocky scaur." ^ 
 
 I was still bending down intent to hear, 
 Until my leader touched me on the side. 
 Saying, *' Speak thou, a Latin soul is here." 
 
 Line 7. The instrument of torture invented for Phalaris of Sicily by Peril- 
 lus, who was chosen by the tyrant for its tirst victim. 
 
 Line 29. The town of Montefeltro, situated between Urbino and the part of 
 the Apennines in which the Tiber rises, of which Guido was a native. 
 
108 f : ^' ' / : : .. : : hell. canto xxvii. 
 
 And if' svjhc) Jiad my answer prompt, replied, 
 
 " O spirit, who iDelbw thyself dost hide, 
 
 Romagna thine is not and was not aye 
 
 Without some war within its tyrant's heart ; 
 But open war I left not in my day. 
 
 As in past years Eavenna holds its part, **^ 
 
 The eagle of Polenta broodeth there, 
 So that o'er Cervia sweeps its wings athwart. 
 
 The land that such a lengthened proof did bear, 
 And of the Frenchmen made a bloody heap, 
 'Neath the green branches doth again repair. ** 
 
 The mastiffs who possess Yerrucchio's keep, 
 And through Montagna won such ill renown. 
 Where they were wont their teeth still sharpened keep. 
 
 Lamone's city and Santerno's town 
 
 The argent-shielded lion's whelp doth bow, ^^ 
 
 Who changeth sides as springs and winters wonne. 
 
 The town by which the Savio's waters flow, 
 So as she lies betwixt the hill and plain. 
 Lives now 'neath tyranny, in freedom now. 
 
 Now who thou art I pray thee to explain, ^* 
 
 Not harder be it to thee than to the rest 
 To tell, on earth thy memory to maintain." 
 
 After the fire a little time had hissed. 
 
 In its own fashion, waved its pointed blade 
 
 Hither and thither, then this speech addresst : ®* 
 
 *' If I believed that my reply were made 
 
 To one who ever in the world could dwell, 
 
 This flame without all motion would have stayed. 
 
 But since there never from, this deep of Hell 
 
 Turned back again one soul, if truth I hear, ^^ 
 
 Fearless of infamy my tale I tell. 
 
 Line 41. Count Guido da Polenta, who bore an eagle for his coat of arms. 
 Cervia was a small maritime town near Ravenna, over which Count Guido 
 extended his rule. He was one of Dante's most munificent patrons during hig 
 exile. 
 
 Line 43. The territory of Eorli, over which Montef eltro had ruled, and where 
 he had defeated the French after a lengthy siege. The green branches were 
 the coat of arms of Odelaffi, then ruler of the country. 
 
 Line 46. The mastiffs were Malatesta and his son Malatestino, lords of 
 Rimini, who amongst other notorious acts of blood murdered Montagna, the 
 head of the Ghibeline party in Rimini. 
 
 Line 49. The towns of Faenza and Imola, situated on the above rivers, 
 ruled by Machinardo Pagano, whose arms were a lion's whelp on a silver 
 shield. He was called from his treacheries the Demon, and is alluded to under 
 that name in the "Purgatory," Canto XIV. 
 
 Line 52. Ceseua, situated between a mountain and the river Savio. 
 
Canto XXVII. HELL. 103 
 
 I was a man-at-arms and then a friar, 
 
 Believing thus rope- girt the past to mend, 
 
 And sure that trust had been fulfilled entire, 
 Had not the High Priest (whom all ill attend !) ^^ 
 
 Led me again into my early sin ; 
 
 And how and wherefore thou shalt comprehend. 
 Whilst made of bone and flesh that form was mine 
 
 The which my mother gave me, every deed 
 
 Of mine was fox-like and not leonine. ^^ 
 
 The wary wiles and hidden ways at need 
 
 I studied all and practised so the art 
 
 That to the earth's confines the fame did speed. 
 When I beheld that I had reached that part 
 
 Of human life when every one should strike ^ 
 
 His sails and his worn rigging set apart ; 
 That which had pleased me erst then caused dislike, 
 
 And penitent confession did I use, 
 
 Ah, weary wretch! and had been saved belike. 
 The leader of the modern Pharisees, ^ 
 
 Being at war within the Lateran, 
 
 And neither with the Saracens nor Jews, 
 For of his foes each was a Christian man. 
 
 And none had been with those who conquered Acre, 
 
 Trafii eking in the realm of the Soldan, ^^ 
 
 Nor his high place nor life vowed to his Maker, 
 
 Restrained him, nor did me that girdle hold 
 
 Which wont to make those girt with it far meeker. 
 But just as Constantine Silvester called 
 
 Within Soratte leprosy to heal, ^^ 
 
 So this one called me as a master bold 
 To cure the fever high which he did feel ; 
 
 Asking my counsel and I silent stayed. 
 
 Because his words delirium did reveal ; 
 And then he said : * Be not thy heart afraid ; ^^ ^^^ 
 
 Now I absolve thee, teach me what to do, 
 
 So that on earth be Palostrina laid. 
 The heavens I can lock and open too, 
 
 As thou dost know the worth of these two keys 
 
 Although my predecessor little knew.' ^^^ 
 
 Line 67. A Franciscan, which Guido de Montefeltro became in his old age. 
 
 Line 70. Pope Boniface VIII., whose enmity to the Colonna family made 
 him destroy their houses in the Lateran. He consulted Montefeltro on the 
 way by which he could get their other place, Palestrina, into his power, who 
 advised him not to use force, but deceive them by promises which he would 
 not keep. 
 
 Line 89. An allusion to the renegade Christians who had assisted the Sol- 
 dan in reconquering Acre, the last Christian possession in the East. 
 
 Line 105. Pope Celestine V., who made the great refusal. See Canto III. 
 
^^^^' Canto XXVIII. 
 
 T^e^ w^iglity arguments my mind did seize, 
 
 There where my silence would be worst advice, 
 ■nr r ,^'''^' * ^^*^er, since thou wilt release 
 Me Irom the sm which I must exercise. 
 
 Scant execution of a promise strong, no 
 
 In thy high seat to triumph will suffice. 
 When I was dead St. Francis came along 
 
 For me, but one of the fell cherubs black 
 
 Said to him, ' Take him not nor do me wrono- 
 Amidst my wretched ones he down must track "' "-^ 
 
 Because that fraudulent advice he gave ' 
 
 Since when my grip on him doth never'slack; 
 Ihe impenitent can no absolving save. 
 
 Nor penitence and evil will befall ' 
 
 Together, since they contradiction have ' 120 
 
 O wretched me, how did I tremble all 
 
 The while he seized me, saying, ' Thou perchance 
 
 -Uidst not suppose I was so logical.' 
 To Minos did he bear me who did lance 
 
 His tail eight times around his body hard 125 
 
 And then he bit himself in raging trance' 
 Sayijg^ 'He's of the wicked, fire-embarred.' 
 
 Whence as thou seest me here am I forlorn 
 wi, i'^^'''^^'''''^ vestured thus my grief I guard " 
 When thus unto an end his speech had borne, * 130 
 
 The flame departed on its way with grief ' 
 Twisting and waving wide its sharpened horn 
 Onwards we travelled then, I and my chief. 
 
 Up o'er the rocks unto the bridge that rolls 
 
 ^xru ' *^^-.P'* '"^ ^^^^^ *^^y pay tteir feof, 135 
 
 Who sowing discord burden thus their souls. 
 
 <io'i^U^^n:i'^a^tti:^^^^^^ g^e will to 
 
 absolution. This is probabirthe coS dnntr^^^^^^^ ^^""^ efficiency in 
 Church, though not asserted L bad times, o^ in any t'L bv w"'^ ^""'^'^^ 
 Zl^:ri!^:^{''''^''^-'-''^ i^ even LutS ^rid^X^^aVe te^ 
 
 ^^^<^^%S.^Z^J^^:^^ -^ Canto, in 
 
 CANTO XXVIII. 
 
Cahto XXVIII. HELL. 105 
 
 Whoe'er with words, untrammelled even by rhyme, 
 The blood and fearful wounds could wholly tell 
 Which now I saw, narrating many a time ? 
 
 Each tongue would certes in the venture fail, 
 
 Through weakness of our speech and mind that could ^ 
 Scarce comprehend the whole of such a tale. 
 
 If there were heaped together all the crowd 
 Already on Apulia's fertile soil, 
 Whose wretched blood has e'er in torrents flowed 
 
 Through Trojans, or throughout that lengthened broil, '^^ 
 Described by Livy, who aye painteth true, 
 Which of the rings made such a lofty spoil ; 
 
 With those, whom with his fearful blows o'erthrew 
 Eobert Guiscardo, whom they dared oppose, 
 And the rest, whose bones are still heaped up in view ^^ 
 
 Near Ceperan, where each Apulian rose 
 
 A traitor, or where less to arms than him. 
 The old Alardo, Charles his victory owes ; 
 
 And if each maimed and lacerated limb 
 
 Were shown, it could not rival in its scene ^ 
 
 Of that ninth prison-house the fashion grim. 
 
 A barrel by the loss of stave between 
 Was never yet so pierced as one I saw 
 Cleft from the anus upwards to the chin. 
 
 Betwixt his legs hung down his entrails raw ; ^^ 
 
 The milt appeared, and the ugly sack where glide. 
 Changed into dung, things swallowed by the maw. 
 
 Whilst wholly gazing on him me he eyed. 
 
 And with his hands his breast he widely bared. 
 
 Saying, " Now see how I myself divide. ^ 
 
 Behold how Mahomet is maimed and sheared ; 
 Before me Ali goes with wailing drear, 
 Cleft in the face, from the topknot to the beard ; 
 
 And all the rest, whom thou beholdest here, 
 
 The sowers erst of schism, and of scandal, ^ 
 
 Were when alive ; hence thus are cleft ashear. 
 
 Line 10. The war of Hannibal in Italy, described by Livy, who states that 
 after ,the battle of Cannae three bushels and a half of rings were sent to 
 Carthage, taken from the fingers of the dead Roman knights. 
 
 Line 14. Brother of the Duke of Normandy, a founder of a Neapolitan race 
 of Norman kings. 
 
 Line 15. The army of Manfredi, who by the treachery of the Apulian 
 troops was utterly routed near Ceperano by Charles of Anjou. 
 
 Line 18. The victory of Tagliacozzo, gained for the same Charles by the 
 generalship of the Sieur de Valeri, the Alardo in the text. 
 Line 32. Ali, the disciple and successor of Mahomet. 
 
106 HELL. Canto XXVIII. 
 
 Behind them is a devil, who doth handle 
 
 Most cruelly us upon his sharp-edged sword, 
 
 Again submitting to its stroke this band all, 
 When we have turned around this road abhorred ; ^ 
 
 Because the wounds are closed again, before. 
 
 In front of him, we are again restored. 
 But who art thou who o'er the rock dost pore, 
 
 Haply delaying to thy pain to wend. 
 
 Unto thy sins already judged in store ?" ^ 
 
 " Nor death hath reached him yet, nor sin doth send 
 
 Him unto torment," then my chief replied, 
 
 " But full experience unto him to lend, 
 'Tis fit that I, long dead, should him now guide 
 
 Through all the circles- of deep Hell's domain ; ^® 
 
 'Tis true as that I speaking with thee bide." 
 More than a hundred, when they heard that strain. 
 
 Stopped in the pit to gaze upon me there, 
 
 Forgetting in the marvel even their pain. 
 " Tell then my brother Dolcin to prepare, ^^ 
 
 Thou who perchance wilt shortly see the sun, 
 
 Unless he wishes here my fate to share, 
 Sufficient provender ere snows come on, 
 
 The victory to the Navarrese to yield, 
 
 Which otherwise would not be lightly won." ^^ 
 
 In act of starting one foot he upheld, 
 
 Mahomet the while that parlance he rehearsed, 
 
 Then set it down, and moved again afield. 
 Another, unto whom the throat was pierced ; 
 
 The nose sheared closely off between the eyes, ^ 
 
 And in an ear who also was amerced. 
 Who had remained to watch me with surprise, 
 
 Amongst the rest, his weasand opened then. 
 
 Streaked on the outside all with crimson dyes, 
 And said, " thou whom crime doth not condemn, ^^ 
 
 And whom in Latin realms I erst did see. 
 
 Unless thy likeness mocks me, as the same, 
 Of Pier of Medicin remember thee 
 
 If e'er thou seest once more that happy plain 
 
 Which falleth from Vercello to the sea. ^^ 
 
 Line 55. Fra Dolcin was the founder of a dissolute sect in the time of 
 Clement V. He preached the community of goods and women, and, with 
 some two thousand followers of both sexes, lived in the mountains of Novara 
 according to the principles he avowed. The depth of the snows in a severe 
 winter depriving them of provisions, he gave himself up, and was burnt, with 
 his mistress Margarita, in the town of Novara. 
 
 Line 74. The plain of Lombardy. 
 
Canto XXVIII. 
 
 HELL. 107 
 
 In Fano's town unto the noblest twain 
 
 To Messer Gruido and Angiolet make known, 
 That if prophetic sight is here not vain, 
 They from their ship will overboard be thrown. 
 
 And near Cattolica be drowned by wiles *" 
 
 And treason of a ruthless tyrannous one. 
 'Twixt Cyprus' and Majorca's distant isles, 
 
 So great a crime did Neptune never see. 
 
 By pirates or in Argolic defiles. 
 That traitor who sees only with one eye, ^^ 
 
 And holds the land (the which that he had ne'er 
 
 Seen is the wish of one that's here with me), 
 For conference with him will call them fair. 
 
 And then will act that 'gainst Focara's gale 
 
 They never more will need or vow or prayer." ^^ 
 
 And I to him : " Now tell me, if thy tale 
 
 Thou wouldst that I should upwards carry, who 
 
 Is he who rues that sight as bitter bale ?" 
 Then seizing with his hands his jaws he drew 
 
 One of his comrades, and forced wide his mouth, '**^ 
 
 Crying, " 'Tis he ; he cannot speak to you. 
 This banished man, removed from Csesar, loath, 
 
 All doubt, affirming that when well prepared. 
 
 Any delay to injury ever groweth." 
 Ah ! how bewildered he to me appeared, ^"'* 
 
 There with his tongue shorn closely in the throat, 
 
 Curion, who erst in speaking had so dared ! 
 Then one, from whom both hands had been offsmote, 
 
 Eaising his maimed arms in the dusky air. 
 
 So that the dripping blood his face did blot, ^""' 
 
 Cried, " Mosca also in thy memory bear, 
 
 Who said, alas ! a deed is crowned, when done. 
 
 Which to the Tuscan race caused evil fare." 
 
 Line 77. Guido del Cassero and Angioletto du Cagnano were invited by 
 Malatestino da Rimini (the one-eyed traitor) to a conference on some impor- 
 tant business, and were drowned neur Cattolica, between Fano and llimini, 
 on his orders. 
 
 Line 89. Focara, a mountain on that coast, from which blows a wind very 
 dangerous to the navigators there. 
 
 Line 97. Dante, struck by Pier da Medicin's allusion to a spirit who would 
 wish that he had never seen the land of Rimini, asks who he may be, and 
 learns that it is Curion, whose speech determined Julius Ccesar to proceed 
 across the Rubicon — a river betwixt Ravenna and Rimini— in the words of 
 Lucan, " Tolle moras ; nocuit semper difFerre paratis." 
 
 Line 106. The murder of Buondelmonte, the origin of the Black and White 
 factions in Florence, was urged by Mosca Uberti. Buondelmonte being 
 engaged to one of the Amadei, fell desperately in love with one of theDonati, 
 
108 HELL. Canto XXVIII. 
 
 To which I 'joined : " And death unto thy own." 
 
 Whence he, with grief on grief accumulate, ^^^ 
 
 Departed like a wretch whose wits are gone. 
 But on the crowd to gaze I still did wait. 
 
 And saw a thing, which without further proof, 
 
 I would have fear thus single to relate, 
 Were't not that conscience doth not keep aloof "^ 
 
 That company so fair, which makes man free. 
 
 When pure at heart, as if in armour proof. 
 Certes I saw, and still meseems I see, 
 
 A bust without a head walk onwards there 
 
 As walked the rest of that sad company. ^^° 
 
 The trunkless head it carried by the hair 
 
 In*s hand, just like a lantern dangling low. 
 
 And it cried woe ! as on us it did. stare. 
 Himself he made the light by which to go, 
 
 And they were one in two and two in one : ^^^ 
 
 How it could be He knows who rules it so. 
 When to the bridge's foot he straight had drawn, 
 
 With all the head, he raised his hand on high 
 
 In order that his words might nearer wonne, 
 Which were : ** Now see the dreadful penalty ^^'* 
 
 Thou who goest breathing to behold the dead ; 
 
 Any so great as this canst thou descry ? 
 And that of me the story may be sped, 
 
 Bertram of Bornio am I, know me well. 
 
 Who to King John such evil comfort shed. ^^ 
 
 I made the son against the sire rebel ; 
 
 Achitophel no worse to Absalom 
 
 And David did, with instigations fell. 
 Since I divided men so joined, I roam, 
 
 Bearing my brain thus severed from the nerve ^^^ 
 
 Of life, whose essence in this trunk has home. 
 The law of retribution here observe." 
 
 whom he married in spite of his given word to the other family. When the 
 Amadei were consulting on what revenge they should take for the insult, 
 Mosca quoted the proverb, " Cosafatta ha capo." In the strife that followed 
 the Uberti family were chief sufferers. 
 
 Line 134. Bertram, Viscomte de Hautefort in Guienne, who incited John 
 to rebel against his father, King Henry II. of England. 
 
Canto XXIX. HELL. 109 
 
 CANTO XXIX. 
 
 Dante still linger?, gazing on the maimed spirits in the ninth valley, in antici- 
 pation o£ seeing there a relation who had been murdered, and whoso 
 death his family had not avenged. He then follows Virgil over the ridge 
 which crowns the last ward of Malebolge, in which are punished falsifiers 
 of various descriptions. Descending into the valley, he finds them 
 afflicted with fearful diseases, and discourses with two alchemists, 
 Grifolino of Arezzo and Capocchio of Siena. 
 
 The various wounds and people crowded deep, 
 
 As if with drunkenness my eyes did blear. 
 
 That they were anxious but to rest and weep. 
 But Virgil said to me : "At what dost peer ? 
 
 Wherefore thy vision does it still so strain ^ 
 
 Downwards amongst those shadows, maimed and drear ? 
 In the other valleys thou wast not so fain. 
 
 Think, if thou wouldst their number calculate, 
 
 Twenty-two miles encircleth this domain. 
 The moon already is beneath our feet, ^® 
 
 And little of our granted time doth bide, 
 
 And there is more to see than thou dost weet." 
 *' If thou hadst only," straightway I replied, 
 
 ** Perceived the reason why that gaze was bent, 
 
 Perchance to tarry thou hadst not denied." ^* 
 
 He moved in part, and I behind him went. 
 
 My leader having given his reply, 
 
 I added yet : " Within that cavern pent. 
 On which I kept my eyes so fixedly, 
 
 I think a spirit of my blood doth wail 20 
 
 The crime which costs below such misery." 
 Then said my master : " Let not grief assail 
 
 Thy thoughts concerning him from henceforth more. 
 
 Think of the rest ; let him remain in bale. 
 For I beheld him stand our bridge before, ^^ 
 
 With threatening finger point thee to the host. 
 
 Geri del Bello was the name he bore. 
 Thou wert entirely at that time engrost 
 
 On him who Altaforte's keep did hold. 
 
 So that thou look'dst not there till he was lost." ^^ 
 
 Line 27. Geri del Bello was a kinsman of the poet's, and assassinated by 
 one of the Sacchetti family. It is clear that Dante considered the reproach 
 of the spirit that his death had not been avenged by any of them who shared 
 the shame of it to be a just one. 
 
 Line 29. Bertram, Viscomte of Hautefort. 
 
110 HELL. Canto XXIX. 
 
 " O leader mine, the violent death alkid bold, 
 Which has not been avenged as yet," I said, 
 " By any who with him this shame doth hold, 
 
 Made him disdainful, hence away he sped, 
 
 Without addressing me, as now I think ^^ 
 
 More pity towards him hence in me is bred." 
 
 Thus did we speak until we reached the brink, 
 
 Which from the rock the other vale would show, 
 Did not the light from its abysses shrink. 
 
 When we were on that cloister, the last woe ^^ 
 
 Of Malebolge, so that to our sight 
 All its lay brothers might be seen below, 
 
 Various lamentings on me darting smite. 
 Whose arrows were so barbed with misery 
 That with my hands my ears I closed outright. *^ 
 
 Such dolor as would be, if 'twixt July 
 
 And drear September, from each hospital 
 Of Valdichiana and Maremma nigh. 
 
 The sick within one pit were gathered all ; 
 
 Such was there here, and rose such odour rank ^" 
 
 As wont to rise from limbs that rot and crawl. 
 
 Then downwards we descended the last bank 
 
 Of the long bridge, and leftwards still we slant, 
 And then my vision with more clearness sank 
 
 Down to the bottom, where the ministrant ®* 
 
 • Of the Most High, Justice infallible, 
 The falsifiers punish in that haunt. 
 
 I think not that a sadder sight befell 
 
 WTben in Egina all the people sickened. 
 
 What time the air was full of plagues so fell ^ 
 
 That even on the beasts death's harvest thickened, 
 Down to the worm, and the human race revives 
 From seed of ants miraculously quickened. 
 
 According as the poet world believes. 
 
 Than 'twas to witness in that valley black ^ 
 
 The spirits languish in their various sheaves. 
 
 This on his belly, that upon his back, 
 One on the other lay, one on all four 
 Shifted his place along that wretched track. 
 
 Line 48. The valley through which runs the river Chiana was in those 
 times as unhealthy in autumn as the pestilential swamps of the Maremma on 
 the coast of Tuscany. 
 
 Line 59, All the inhabitants of Egina having died of plague, the king 
 obtained from Jupiter that a large ants' nest should be changed into men to 
 repeople his island. Ovid's " Metam.," book vii. 
 
Canto XXIX. HELL. Ill 
 
 Without a word we slowly journeyed o*er, ^" 
 
 Listening and ever gazing on the sick, 
 
 Who could not raise their bodies from the floor. 
 Two saw I 'gainst each other placed oblique, 
 
 As in the kitchen pan 'gainst pan is laid, 
 
 From head to foot with dry scabs spotted thick. ^^ 
 
 I never saw a currycomb so frayed 
 
 By stable lad beneath his master's eye. 
 
 Or when unwillingly from sleep delayed. 
 As each one aye his nails' keen bite did ply 
 
 Upon himself, through madness that assails ^® 
 
 From the wild itching without remedy. 
 And so there downwards peeled the scabs, their nails, 
 
 As doth a knife the coat of a sardine 
 
 Or other fish furnished with larger scales. 
 " Thou with thy fingers who thy mail dost skin," ^ 
 
 Began my leader unto one of these, 
 
 " And often turn'st them into pincers keen, 
 Tell me if any 'mid these companies 
 
 Is Latin, so I pray thy nail may last 
 
 In this its task through the eternities.'* ^^ 
 
 " We are Italian, whom thou seest aghast, 
 
 Both of us here," the one with wails replied ; 
 
 " But who art thou who from us this hast askt ?" 
 " I'm one who here descends," my leader cried, 
 
 *' With this a living man from round to round ^^ 
 
 I purpose Hell to show him as his guide." 
 Then was their mutual support unbound, 
 
 And each one turned to me in trembling fear. 
 
 With all the rest, who'd heard at the rebound. 
 My gentle master unto me drew near, ^^ 
 
 Saying : " Whate'er thou wishest to them speak,'* 
 
 And I at once obeyed his dictate clear. 
 *' So that your memory may not grow weak 
 
 In human minds upon the primal earth. 
 
 But that for many years it life may take, ^^ 
 
 Tell me now who ye are, and of what birth. 
 
 Let not your weary pain, undignified. 
 
 Deter ye from your story setting forth." 
 *M was D'Arezzo," one of them replied. 
 
 " Albero of Siena sent me to the flame, ^^^ 
 
 But here I am not doomed for what I died. 
 
 Line 109, Grifoliuo d'Arezzo was bunit at tlie stake by a bishop of Siena 
 as a necromancer on the instigation of a nephew of the latter, Albero, for the 
 simple reason given in the text. 
 
112 HELL. Canto XXX. 
 
 'Tis true that, jesting with him, I did claim 
 That I the power to fly in air had won, 
 And he, whose wish was great, nor sense the same, 
 
 Asked me that art to show him, and alone, ^^^ 
 
 Because no Daedalus I made him, made 
 Me burn through one, who held him as a son. 
 
 I in the last of the ten pits am laid 
 
 Because on earth I practised alchemy, 
 
 By Minos' doom, whose judgment never strayed." ^^^ 
 
 Then said I to the bard, " Where could we see 
 A race so prodigal as these Sanese ? 
 Sure not the French, though bad enough they be." 
 
 On which the other leper, who did seize 
 
 My meaning, added, " Stricca we must shrive, ^^ 
 
 Whom temperate expense alone could please. 
 
 And Niccolo, the man who first did hive 
 
 Cloves in his roasted pheasants, a rich mode, 
 Sown in an orchard where such seed would thrive. 
 
 We must except the band, on whom bestowed ^^^ 
 
 Caccia d'Ascian his vineyards and his groves, 
 And his good sense the Abbagliato showed. 
 
 But now, that thou mayst know who thus improves 
 Thy speech 'gainst the Sanese, close looking, try 
 My features to recall, as it behoves, ^^ 
 
 And thou wilt see Capocchio's shade am I, 
 
 With alchemy who changed each metal's shape, 
 And thou shouldst know, if thee I right descry, 
 
 How I of Nature was an excellent ape." 
 
 Line 125. Stricca, Niccolo, Caccia d'Ascian, and Abbagliato, alluded to in 
 the following lines, were members of a brotherhood called the "Brigata 
 Godereccia," who spent all they possessed in riotous living, and whose ex- 
 travagance was a proverb of that place and time. The orchard in which such 
 seed would thrive is Siena. 
 
 Line 136. Capocchio of Siena is stated to have been a fellow-student in 
 natural philosophy of Dante, and hence they were well known to each other. 
 
 CANTO XXX. 
 
 Two wild spirits rush by, tearing and haling the other plague- smitten 
 victims. These are they who in life falsified their own persons. On their 
 departure Daute listens to an altercation between Master Adam of Brescia, 
 a coiner, and Simon of Troy. He is rebuked by Virgil for taking an in- 
 terest in so base a dispute. 
 
 In former times when Juno was enraged 
 
 Through Semele against the Theban blood. 
 As more than once her jealous war she waged. 
 
Canto XXX. HELL. 113 
 
 King Atamas with such a madness glowed 
 
 That when he saw his wife with infants twain * 
 
 Bearing on either arm the darling load, 
 He cried, " We've stretcht the nets and o'er the plain 
 
 I seize the lioness and both whelps too." 
 
 And then his talons fell he raught amain, 
 And down the infant named Learcus threw, ^^ 
 
 And dashed to pieces, breaking on a stone, 
 
 And she then drowned herself and infants too : 
 Or what time later Fortune hurled adown 
 
 The Trojan grandeur all in flaming fear, 
 
 So that the old king perished with his crown, ^^ 
 
 Hecuba, captive miserably drear, 
 
 After she saw her Polisena dead, 
 
 And grieving found her Polidorus' bier, 
 Stretcht on the shore beside the deep sea bed, 
 
 Like to a dog she barked in her despair ; 20 
 
 So far had grief her mind from reason led. 
 But neither Thebans wild nor Trojans e'er 
 
 Were seen in any way so fierce to fly. 
 
 Not only beasts but human limbs to tear, 
 As I two pale and naked shades descry, 25 
 
 Who in such fashion rushed about to bite 
 
 As doth the boar-pig when escaped from sty. 
 One seized Capocchio and with tusks did smite 
 
 His neck upon the nape and dragging frayed 
 
 His belly 'gainst the bottom of the pit. ^o 
 
 And then the Aretine who trembling stayed. 
 
 Said to me : " Gianni Schicchi is the fiend 
 
 Who rabid runs the others thus to aid." 
 " Oh," said I, " that the other may not send 
 
 Her teeth into thee, be it no fatigue ** 
 
 To tell me who she be or ere she wend.'* 
 And he : " That ancient spirit with intrigue, 
 
 Mirra the scelerate, for her father nursed 
 
 A passion not with lawful love in league. 
 With him to sin she gained her end accurst ^ 
 
 When in another's form she false appeared ; 
 
 Just as the other who there wonneth durst 
 
 Line 4. Atamas, King of Thebes, married to Ino, sister to Semele. 
 
 Line 32. A Florentine of the Cavalcanti family, who possessed a wonderful 
 power of imitation. It is said that when Buoso Donati was dead, this man 
 counterfeited his person, and, lying in his bed as if in his last sickness, 
 dictated a will by which he left all the property of the dead Buoso to his 
 distant relative Simon Donati, for which piece of acting he received from the 
 latter a celebrated mare, called in line 43 the lady of the herd. 
 
 I 
 
114 HELL. Canto XXX. 
 
 To gain as prize the lady of the herd, 
 
 Buoso Donati, with his form to feign, 
 
 Devising all his goods with forms averred." *^ 
 
 After had passed away the rabid twain 
 
 On whom till now my vision I had held, 
 
 On the other born to ill I turned again. 
 One fashioned like a lute I there beheld, 
 
 Had he been only lopt off at the groin, ^° 
 
 The which o'er his shrunk legs so hugely swelled. 
 The dropsy, which the frame doth so disjoin. 
 
 Through humour unabsorbed that the same face 
 
 To the same belly no one would assign. 
 Forced him his lips to open wide in space, ^* 
 
 As a consumptive man who through his thirst 
 
 One upwards and one o'er his chin doth brace. 
 " O ye who each one, free from sickness, stirr'st 
 
 (Wherefore I know not) in this world of woe," 
 
 Said he to us, ** now wait and see the worst ^^ 
 
 Wretchedness Master Adam here doth show ; 
 
 In life I had enough for all my wills, 
 
 Now I desire one drop of water, woe ! 
 The rivulets that from the verdant hills 
 
 Of Casentine descend to Arno's plain, ^^ 
 
 Making all cool and moist their little rills. 
 Are ever here before me, not in vain, 
 
 Since the clear image makes for me more drought 
 
 Than the disease through which my face is lean. 
 The rigid justice which my doom hath wrought, ^* 
 
 From the place in which I sinned, a reason plied 
 
 To make my sighs with greater frequence fraught. 
 Eomena's here, there where I falsified 
 
 The money stamped with San Baptista's sign. 
 
 For which with body burnt on earth I died, ^^ 
 
 Here could I only see the soul malign 
 
 Of Guido or his brethren, either one, 
 
 For Branda's fount that sight I'd not resign. 
 And one of them doth here already wonne, 
 
 If the wild shades who wander round speak true. ^^ 
 
 But what avails it me whose limbs are gone ? 
 
 Line Gl. Master Adam of Brescia was induced by Guido and his two 
 brothers, Counts of Romenji, a land in the Casentine, to coiii false florins, for 
 which crime he was burnt. The Florentine florin was stamped ou one side 
 with an effigy of the Baptist, and the other a lily. 
 
 Line 78. A fountain of clearest water in Siena. 
 
Canto XXX. HELL. 115 
 
 If I in sooth were only light eno' 
 
 To walk an inch within a hundred years, 
 I had set out upon my path ere now, 
 
 To seek him out amongst his filthy peers, ^^ 
 
 Though for eleven long miles around they lie, 
 Nor less than half a mile athwart one steers. 
 
 Through them am I 'mid such a family ; 
 
 'Twas they induced me florins false to coin, 
 
 That had in them three carats of alloy.'* ^^ 
 
 And I to him : " What wretched pair recline 
 Smoking like hand immersed in water cold, 
 Stretcht out so closely at thy right confine ?" 
 
 *' They've moved not since I first did them behold," 
 
 He answered, " when within this pool I fell, ^^ 
 
 Nor do I think they'd move through ages old. 
 
 The one 'gainst Joseph the false tale did tell. 
 The other is false Simon, G-reek of Troy ; 
 Through their high fever they cast out such smell." 
 
 And one of them to whom it caused annoy, ^^^* 
 
 Perchance the being called by name so mean, 
 Against his belly hard his fist let fly ; 
 
 It sounded as it were a tambourine. 
 
 And Master Adam struck him on the face 
 
 With 's arm, which did not seem less hard I ween, '^^ 
 
 Saying to him : " Although the power to pace 
 Be taken from my limbs, of grievous weight, 
 Free for sueh work an arm I still possess." 
 
 Whence he replied : " When to thy fiery fate 
 
 Thou walkedst, thou hadst not thy arm so quick, ^^^ 
 
 But when thou coinedst it was quicker yet." 
 
 The dropsical : " In this thou truth dost speak : 
 But thou gav'st not such truthful testimony, 
 There, when from thee the Trojans truth did seek." 
 
 " If I spoke false, and thou didst coin false mo-ney," "^ 
 
 Said Simon, " I but for one fault am here. 
 But thou for more than other demon any." 
 
 " Bring back to mind the horse, thou perjurer," 
 Answered the other, *' with his paunch accurst, 
 Known unto all the world, be thine the slur." ^^o 
 
 " The guilt be thine of thirsting, whence doth burst 
 Thy tongue," cried out the Greek, " and water foul 
 Which 'fore thy eyes tliat belly pile has nursed." 
 
 Thereat the coiner : " Still may gape and roll 
 
 Thy mouth in speaking evil, as 'tis wont ; ^^^ 
 
 If I have thirst, and humour puffs me full, 
 Line 97. Potipliar's wife. 
 
130 
 
 116 HELL. Canto XXXI. 
 
 Thou hast a burning and an aching front, 
 And but to lick Narcissus' mirror bright 
 Thou wouldst not many invitations want." 
 
 In listening to them I was centered quite, 
 
 When said my master to me, " Now behold, 
 Little remains to make me vexed outright." 
 
 When I had heard his words in anger told, 
 
 With such deep shame towards him did I turn, 
 That still in memory is o'er me rolled. 
 
 And like one dreaming who doth loss discern, 
 
 Who dreaming, hopeth that he doth but dream, 
 And hopes it may not be what seems so stern. 
 
 Unable e'en to speak, so did I seem, 
 
 Who longed for pardon, and the pardon won. 
 Which all the while I did not dare to claim. 
 
 *' Less shame a greater error would atone 
 
 Than this of thine has been," my master cried, 
 " Now from all sadness clear thy heart, my son. 
 
 And think that I am always by thy side, 
 
 Should Fortune e'er again conduct thee nigher, 
 Where people in a like contention bide, 
 
 Since wishing such to hear is low desire." 
 
 CANTO XXXI. 
 
 The poets, turning from the last valley of Malebolge, advance towards 
 the ninth circle of Hell, the lowest and central pit. Around that pit, 
 standing within it, but rising above it from their middle upwards, stand 
 vast giants. Of these Dante sees Nimrod, Fialte, and Antoeus. The last 
 places the poets in safety at the bottom of the pit. 
 
 At first it stung me that rebuke so keen, 
 
 So that the blush on either cheek I feel. 
 
 And after cured me the same medicine. 
 So have I heard Achilles' lance of steel 
 
 Left to him by his father had the gift ^ 
 
 At first to wound, and afterwards to heal. 
 We turned our back upon that wretched rift. 
 
 Up by the bank with which it is embraced. 
 
 O'er which without another word we drift. 
 Less than or night or day a light was cast, ^" 
 
 So that my sight but little way could press ; 
 
 But there I heard resound a horn's shrill blast 
 So loud that thunder would have sounded less. 
 
 Which 'gainst itself, following its passage, drew 
 
 My eyesight forward wholly to* one place ; ^^ 
 
Canto XXXI. HELL. 117 
 
 After the dolorous rout wliicli overthrew 
 
 Of Charlemagne the sacred enterprise, 
 
 Not half so terribly Orlando blew. 
 A little upwards, when I raised my eyes. 
 
 It seemed that many lofty towers I saw ; ^^ 
 
 Whence I : " master, say what land is this ?" 
 And he to me : " Since thou too far dost draw 
 
 Thy eyesight through the shadows, it may be 
 
 That after what thou deem*st may prove a flaw. 
 If thou dost thither reach, thou clear wilt see ^^ 
 
 How much the senses are deceived afar ; 
 
 Therefore bestir thyself more speedily." 
 Then did he take my hand with tender care 
 
 And said to me, " Before we further reach, 
 
 In order that the fact less strange appear, ^" 
 
 Know that these are not tower.-;, but giants, stretch 
 
 Their forms around the pit's circumference here. 
 
 Hid from the navel downwards, all and each." 
 As when a cloud doth dissipate and clear, 
 
 Little by little doth the sight perceive ^^ 
 
 What erst was hid by vapour, dimmed by air ; 
 So, as that dark and thickened air we cleave. 
 
 More and more near approaching towards the shore, 
 
 Awaketh fear, as my mistake I leave ; 
 For as around its circular yard there tower "*" 
 
 Turrets round Montereggion's keep encrowned, 
 
 So round the brink which o'er the pit doth lower 
 With half their persons, turreted around 
 
 The horrible giants, whom Jove's threats yet chase. 
 
 When from the heavens there peals the thunder sound. ^^ 
 Already I perceived of one the face, 
 
 Shoulders, and breast, and of his belly part, 
 
 And both his arms adown his sides I trace. 
 Nature most surely when she left the art 
 
 Of making animals like that did well, ''" 
 
 From Mars such executioners to part ; 
 And if of elephants, and whales as well, 
 
 She yet repents not, who would keen reflect 
 
 More just and more discreet will hold her still. 
 
 Line 16. " When Charlemagne with all his peerage fell 
 At Fontarabia." 
 
 On this occasion Orlando, surrounded by the Paynim, blew so loud a blast 
 upon his miraculous horn that it was heard by the king at the distance of 
 eight leagues, who, with all his ardour, could not return iu time to the rcocue 
 of his favourite knight. 
 
 Line 41. Montereggion, a castle between Siena and Florence. 
 
118 HELL. Canto XXXI. 
 
 For where the assistance of the intellect ^^ 
 
 Is added unto evil will and power, 
 
 'Gainst it no refuge could mankind erect. 
 More long and big his face did seem to lower 
 
 Than is St. Peter's bronzen pine at Rome ; 
 
 While the other bones in due proportion tower ; ^ 
 
 So that the bank which, covering him, did come 
 
 Up to his middle, quite enough displayed 
 
 Above, that if three lofty Swiss had clomb. 
 His hair they'd reach not, one on the other laid ; 
 
 For of his length I saw thirty great palms ^ 
 
 Down from the place where the cloak's clasp is made. 
 Bafelf mai amech, zdbi alms, 
 
 Shouting, that savage mouth began to roll, 
 
 For which were never suited sweeter psalms. 
 And towards him spake my leader : " Foolish soul, ^" 
 
 Stick to thy horn ; in that pour out thy wrong, 
 
 When ire or other passions thee control. 
 Seek at thy neck and thou wilt find the thong 
 
 That ties it to thee, O thou soul confused, 
 
 And see, it lies thy brawny breast along." ^^ 
 
 Then said to me : " He has himself accused : 
 
 This one is Nimrod who did Babel rear. 
 
 Whence in the world one language is not used. 
 Leave him alone, nor speak to empty air ; 
 
 For such to him doth every language sound ^ 
 
 As his to others, he has none we're 'ware." 
 A little farther then our way we wound. 
 
 And towards the left, at a balestra's throw. 
 
 Another greater and more fierce we found. 
 Who may have been the master who could so ^^ 
 
 Bind him I cannot say, but he had bound 
 
 One arm before, the right behind I know 
 Within a chain that him did so surround 
 
 From the neck downwards, in the part we spy 
 
 It twisted round him up to the fifth round. ^ 
 
 ** This is the proud one who desired to try 
 
 His power against the might of highest Jove, 
 
 Whence he has this desert," my chief did cry : 
 
 Line 59. The bronzen cone which once crowned the arch of Adrian, and 
 was afterwards placed above St. Peter's, from whence it was thrown down by 
 lightning. 
 
 Line &J. Gibberish, written as in the original, except the final termination, 
 being altered to suit the English rhyme. It is meant to represent the con- 
 fusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel. 
 
Canto XXXI. HELL. 119 
 
 " His name is Fialte, he great deeds did prove, 
 
 When to the gods the giants gave alarm : '•'■'' 
 
 The arms which then he swung no more can move." 
 
 And I to him : " If huge Briareus' arm 
 To look on now were possible for me, 
 Experience of such sight my eyes would charm." 
 
 He answered then : " Antseus thou shalt see, *"'* 
 
 Who speaketh and is loose, not far from here, 
 And who within the pit will place us free. 
 
 He whom thou wouldst behold is not so near, 
 And he is bound, and like to this is made. 
 Save that his face more savage doth appear." ^^^ 
 
 Never was yet by terrible earthquake swayed. 
 Or rocked a turret its wild shock beneath. 
 As Fialte then to shake himself essayed. 
 
 Then did I fear, far more than ever. Death, 
 
 And never had I greater cause for dread "*^ 
 
 Had I not seen the bands still round him wreathe. 
 
 A little farther onwards then we sped, 
 
 And to Antseus came, five ells in height 
 He issued from the pit, besides his head. 
 
 " O thou who in the fortunate vale, where bright " ' 
 
 With glory Scipio won the victor's bay. 
 When Hannibal retreated from the fight, 
 
 A thousand lions seizedst for thy prey. 
 
 And hadst thou only at the great war been 
 
 Amongst thy brethren, still there are who say, *^'* 
 
 The sons of earth had victors there been seen : 
 Bear us below (let this no slur be thought), 
 There, where Cocitus' stream the cold doth chain. 
 
 To Tizio, or to Tifo, send us not ; 
 
 But bow thee down, nor twist thy mouth with shame : '^^ 
 This one can give thee that which here is sought ; 
 
 Still in the world can he procure thee fame. 
 For he doth live, and long life hath in store, 
 Unless before the time grace him should claim." 
 
 So spake my guide : Antseus stretched before ^^^ 
 
 His hand in haste, and on my leader laid. 
 Whence Hercules erst felt the pressure sore. 
 
 When Virgil felt himself ta'en up he said 
 
 To me, " Now manage that I thee may hold," 
 
 Then of himself and me one link he made. ^"^^ 
 
 Line 115. The territory of Utica, on the coast of Tunis. 
 
120 HELL. Canto XXXII. 
 
 As when the Carisenda we behold 
 
 From 'neath its leaning tower what time a cloud 
 
 Thwarts it, the tower itself appears onrolled, 
 So seemed Antseus to me as he bowed 
 
 While I was gazing, and caused such effray ^*^ 
 
 That I had gladly chosen another road ; 
 But lightly to the pit which holds its prey 
 
 Judas and Lucifer, he us did bear. 
 
 Nor so bent downwards did he make delay. 
 But like a ship's tall mast arose in air. *** 
 
 Line 136, The Carisenda is the name of the falling tower at Pisa. 
 
 CANTO XXXII. 
 
 Dante finds himself in the bottomless pit, in which is the frozen lake of 
 Cocitus. In the outer circle are frozen the first class of traitors, their 
 heads alone being raised above the ice. This circle is called Caina, after 
 the first murderer. Camiccione de' Pazzi names to Dante several of 
 those punished in this circle. The poets then advance to the second 
 circle, called Antenora, after Antenor, the betrayer of Troy, where are 
 punished in like manner traitors to their country. Bocca degli Abbati 
 names to Dante several of his companions in suffering. Finally Dante 
 sees two forms frozen, the head of one overlapping the other, and devour- 
 ing the lower skull with fierce hatred. 
 
 If I possessed the rhymes so rough and hoarse 
 As would be suited to the dreary hole 
 Whither the rocks of Hell all point their course, 
 
 Of my conceit I could express the whole 
 
 Sap more completely, but these not possest, ^ 
 
 I venture not all free from fear's control, 
 
 For 'tis no enterprise to take in jest 
 
 To paint the depths of all the universe, 
 
 Nor with a tongue that childish words addrest. 
 
 But let those ladies now assist my verse ^^ 
 
 Who helped Amphion Thebes's wall to rear, 
 So that my speech from fact be not diverse. 
 
 people more than all create for fear. 
 
 Who stand within the place to paint so hard, 
 Better had ye been sheep or goats when here. ^* 
 
 When we were sunk within the gloomy ward 
 Beneath the giant's feet, and even more low. 
 The while the lofty wall I still regard, 
 
 1 heard one say : " Take care how thou dost go. 
 
 Endeavour not to trample with thy feet ^^ 
 
 The wretched brothers' heads, all worn with woe." 
 
 Line 21. The wretched brothers, as we are told afterwards, are AUes- 
 sandro and Napoleone, sons of Alberto Alberti, who killed each other. 
 
Canto XXXII. HELL. 121 
 
 On which I turned, and saw beneath my feet, 
 
 And stretcht before, a lake, which through the cold 
 Appeared not water, but a glassy sheet. 
 
 In winter time the Danube never rolled ^* 
 
 Over its course a veil of ice so thick, 
 Nor 'neath its frozen sky the Tanais old, 
 
 As there was here, for if Mount Tabernich 
 Had fallen upon it, or Mount Pietrapane, 
 It had not from its border sounded crick. ^ 
 
 And as a frog that croaks doth but remain 
 
 With nose above the water, when there dream 
 Oftenest the peasant girls of gleaning grain, 
 
 So livid to their faces, showing shame, 
 
 The grieving souls are buried in the ice, ^ 
 
 Their teeth, like storks' notes, chattering in their frame. 
 
 Each one held down his face, and from their eyes 
 Of their sad heart, and from their mouth of cold. 
 Amongst them all the evidence doth rise. 
 
 When I had somewhat round my vision rolled ^ 
 
 I turned down to my feet, and there saw two 
 So close their hair was mixt in mingling fold, 
 
 '* Say to me, ye whose breasts so closely glue," 
 
 I said, " who are ye ?" and their necks they bent, 
 
 And when they'd raised their faces me to view, ^* 
 
 Their eyes, whose moisture was not inwards pent, 
 Flowed over through the lids, and as they flow 
 The tears are frozen ere they make descent. 
 
 Two bits of wood were never dovetailed so 
 
 As were their eyelids, whence like he- goats there ^ 
 
 They butted, so o'ercome by anger's glow. 
 
 Then one, to whom had perished either ear 
 
 By the sharp cold, with face still bent down low. 
 Said, " Wherefore upon us dost thou so stare ? 
 
 If who this couple were thou wouldest know, ^ 
 
 I' the valley where Bisenzio's stream doth fall 
 Their father Albert and themselves did grow. 
 
 One body bore them both ; and Caina all 
 
 Thou mayst search o'er and will not find a shade 
 
 More fitly fixed within this gelid caul. ^ 
 
 Line 28. Mount Tabernich, in Slavonia, and Pietrapana, a mountain in tlie 
 territory of Modena. 
 
 Line 33. The spirits are immersed in the ice up to the throat, like frogs in 
 water in the summer season, when the gleaners follow the harvest. 
 
 Line 50. The Bisenzio falls into the Aruo shortly below Florence. 
 
122 HELL. Canto XXXII. 
 
 Not he whose shadow was all open laid 
 
 At a single blow by royal Arthur's hand, 
 
 Foccaccia, no ; nor he who with his head 
 My sight obstructing doth before me stand, 
 
 And Sassol Mascheroni was his name ; ^'' 
 
 If Tuscan, who he was thou'lt understand, 
 And that more words from me thou mayst not claim, 
 
 Know Camicion de' Pazzi erst was I. 
 
 Carlin I wait, who's lessened so my blame." 
 A thousand dog-like faces I descry, ^'* 
 
 Grinning with cold, which make me shudder o'er. 
 
 Crossing that frozen ford in memory. 
 And whilst we wended towards the central shore, 
 
 Where, gravitating on, all things advance, 
 
 And I was trembling in the eternal frore, ^^ 
 
 Whether 'twas will, or destiny, or chance, 
 
 I know not, but in passing 'twixt each head 
 
 Against a face my foot did heavily glance. 
 Wailing, he shrieked out : ** Why on me dost tread ? 
 
 Unless thou comest to increase my pain **'* 
 
 For Mont' Aperti, why dost work me dread?" 
 And I : " My master, here awhile remain 
 
 So that through this one I remove a doubt, 
 
 Then quickly as thou wilt I'll onwards strain." 
 The leader pausing, I to him spake out, ^ 
 
 Who with his horrible cursing still did strive, 
 
 '' What man art thou who thus doth others flout ?" 
 *' Who, then, art thou who thus thy feet dost drive 
 
 'Gainst others' cheeks, through Antenora here ? 
 
 Too hard 'twould be if thou wert still alive." ®® 
 
 ** I am alive ; to thee it might be dear," 
 
 Was my reply, " if thou demandest fame, 
 
 That I 'mid well-known names thy own should rear." 
 
 Line 61. Mordred, the infamous son of Arthur, who, while lying in wait 
 for his father, was cloven through by the latter with his spear, so that the 
 sun past through his shadow ! 
 
 Line 63. Foccaccia, a noble of Pistoja, who murdered his uncle. Masche- 
 roni, the speaker Camiccione, and Carlino de' Pazzi were all Florentines, 
 and the first two also murdered their kinsman, while the last betrayed a 
 castle to the Florentines in which the Bianchi faction had held out against 
 them for several days. 
 
 Line 81. The speaker is Bocca degli Abbati, a Guelph, who, bought over 
 by the Ghibelines in the height of the battle of Mont' Aperti, cut off the 
 hand of the chief Guelph banner-bearer, at the fall of whose banner the 
 Guelphs gave way, and were utterly routed. See the note on the great 
 Ghibeliue Fariaata in Can to X. 
 
Canto XXXII. HELL, 12S 
 
 And he to me : " The contrary I claim. 
 
 Be off from here, nor further torture shape. ** 
 
 Thou flatterest idly in this vale of shame." 
 Then did I seize the hair upon his nape, 
 
 And said, " 'Tis fit that thou thy name declare, 
 
 Or not a hair upon thy head shall 'scape." 
 Whence he to me : " Why dost thou rend my hair ? ^^ 
 
 I will not tell thee who I am, nor show, 
 
 Though thou a thousand times my head shouldst tear." 
 His hair already round my hands I draw. 
 
 And tufts far more than one I'd stript away. 
 
 He barking, with his eyes still fixt below. ^^ 
 
 " What hast thou, Bocca ?" cried another fay. 
 
 " Is't not sufficient with thy jaws to creak 
 
 But thou must bark ? What devil rips thee ? say." 
 " Henceforth," I said, " I want thee not to speak, 
 
 Thou wicked traitor, of thy shameful state "** 
 
 Authentic tidings to the world I'll take." 
 " Off !" he replied. " Whate'er thou will'st relate. 
 
 But be not silent, wouldst thou 'scape from here. 
 
 Of him whose tongue was now so prompt to prate. 
 The silver of the French he waileth here. "^ 
 
 I saw Du Duera, thou henceforth canst say 
 
 There, where the sinners all so cool appear. 
 Hadst thou but asked of the others in this bay. 
 
 Thou seest Di Becchiera at thy side. 
 
 Whose head in Florence was cut off one day. *^ 
 
 Grianni del Soldanier I think doth bide 
 
 Beyond with Grano and Tribaldello there, 
 
 Who oped Faenza steeped in slumber's tide." 
 From him already we were parted far 
 
 When I beheld two frozen in one hole, '^* 
 
 So that one head was hood to the other's hair. 
 As bread in famine time is swallowed whole, 
 
 So the one above i' the other cranched his jaw 
 
 Where the spine's marrow to the brain doth rolL 
 Not otherwise did Tideus foully gnaw ^^ 
 
 The head of Menalippus with disdain 
 
 As he the other's skull did ravening claw. 
 " thou who by such bestial sign show'st plain 
 
 Thy hate of this one, whom thou dost devour, 
 
 Say why," I said, " and I for this am fain ^"^ 
 
 Line 116. Du Duera sold a Ghibeline position in the Parraogiano to the 
 French leader Guy de Montforfc. Di Becchiera, del Soldanier, and Tribal- 
 dello were all Italians. Gano was the traitor in the time of Charlemagne 
 through whom befell the rout at Fontarabia. 
 
124 HELL. Canto XXXIII. 
 
 If thou with reason against him doth glower, 
 Knowing his sin and who ye are, full soon 
 In the upper world to right thee. I have power 
 
 If what I offer doth not importune." 
 
 CANTO XXXIII. 
 
 Count Ugolln relates to Dante the fearful end of himself and his sons, left to 
 die of hunger in the Tower of Famine. The poets then pass onwards to 
 the third division of the last circle, called Idomea, in which are punished 
 those who have betrayed their benefactors. The friar Alberigo explains 
 to Dante that when men have committed the height of perfidy their 
 spirits are at once sent to torment, a fiend taking possession of the body 
 which appears to be still alive on earth. 
 
 His mouth he lifted from that savage food. 
 That sinner, as he wiped away with hair, 
 Torn from behind the skull, the gouts of blood. 
 
 Then he began : " Thou wouldst that I should bear 
 
 That desperate grief again, at which doth break ® 
 
 My heart, already thinking only, ere 
 
 I speak ; but if my words prove seed to wreak 
 Shame on the traitor whom I'm gnawing here. 
 At the same time thou'lt see me weep, yet speak. 
 
 I know not who thou art, nor to this sphere ^" 
 
 In what way thou art come, but Florentine 
 Thou seemest truly when thy speech I hear. 
 
 Thou then must know I was Count Ugolin, 
 And this is the Archbishop Euggieri : 
 Now I will tell thee why so close we join. ^* 
 
 That by the effect of his suggestions eerie, 
 Trusting in him, I pined a captive long. 
 Then died, with telling thee I need not weary. 
 
 But what thou hast not heard amongst the throng — 
 
 Namely, how cruel was the death I died, ^^ 
 
 Thou'lt hear, and know if he has done me wrong. 
 
 A small hole in the tower where the eagles bide, 
 
 Which men through me the Tower of Famine call. 
 And where yet further victims will be tried, 
 
 Line 13. Count Ugolin was a Guelph leader who at first, in concert with 
 the Archbishop Ruggieri, became the despotic master of his native town of 
 Pisa. His conduct finally was most extravagant, and, amongst other acts, he 
 killed with his own hands the nephew of the archbishop. The latter then 
 joined the faction of opposing nobles, and almost without resistance Count 
 Ugolin was taken and imprisoned with his sons and grandsons. His story is 
 the subject of one of Rosini's historical romances down to the point where the 
 tale is told by Dante. 
 
Canto XXXIII. HELL. 125 
 
 Had sliown unto me through its opening small ^ 
 
 Now many moons ere that bad dream I made 
 
 Which tore away for me the future's pall. 
 This one appeared to me the chief and head, 
 
 Chasing the wolf and whelps unto the hill, 
 
 Which from the Pisaus Lucca's sight doth shade. ^"^ 
 
 With ravening bitches, lean, and known for ill, 
 
 Those of Sismondi, and Lanfranchi born, 
 
 The whom he'd placed in front to work his will. 
 After a little course they seemed outworn. 
 
 The father and the sons, with fangs sharp fed, ^^ 
 
 I seemed to see their flanks in pieces torn. 
 When I awoke, before the night had fled, 
 
 I heard my sons bewailing in their sleep. 
 
 Who were with me, and asking me for bread. 
 Cruel thou art indeed, should grief not steep ^ 
 
 Thy thoughts at what that presaged to my heart ; 
 
 If thou weep'st not, at what art wont to weep ? 
 As now the hour approached, from sleep they start, 
 
 When food had hitherto been brought us, stirred 
 
 A doubt in each one, through his dream apart. *^ 
 
 The locking of the gate below I heard 
 
 At the horrible tower, on which I looked upon 
 
 The faces of my sons, nor spake a word. 
 I sobbed not, so within I grew to stone ; 
 
 But they sobbed all, and Anselmuccio said, ^® 
 
 * Father, thou look'st so, what hast thou, my own ?* 
 But I, I neither wept nor answer made 
 
 For that whole day, nor for the following night, 
 
 Until another sun moved overhead. 
 As there was cast a little ray of light ^ 
 
 Into our dolorous prison, I beheld 
 
 In those four faces my own aspect white. 
 I bit my joined hands then, by grief impelled. 
 
 And they, who thought from that that I did crave 
 
 For food, rose sudden and to me appealed, ^ 
 
 Line 28. The archbishop appeared hounding on the other nobles and the 
 people in chase of Count Ugolin and his sons (the wolf and whelps) 
 towards Mount St. Julian, half-way between Pisa and Lucca, to which the 
 count had endeavoured to retreat. 
 
 Line 39. The .sons also are afflicted with their own dreams of evil (see 
 line 45), and presage in their sleep the horrors that were to come. 
 
 Line 59, et seq., thus translated by Chaucer in his " Monkea Tale" : — 
 " His children wenden, that for hunger it was 
 That he his armes gnowe, and not for wo, 
 And sayden : fader, do not so, alas ! 
 But rather ete the flesh upon us two. 
 Our flesh thou yaf us, take our flesh us fro." 
 
 " The Canterbury Tales," line 14,757. 
 
126 HELL. Canto XXXIII. 
 
 Saying, * O father, it would far less grieve 
 
 Wouldst thou eat us, for thou didst make us wear 
 This wretched flesh, which from us thou canst reave.' 
 
 Then I grew still to make them not more drear : 
 
 That day, and all the next we silent stayed : ^ 
 
 Ah earth so hard, why didst not open there ? 
 
 When to the fourth day we had still delayed, 
 My Gaddo at my feet his form did throw, 
 Saying, ' My father, canst not give me aid ?' 
 
 H'e died there, and as thou dost see me now, ^'^ 
 
 I saw them, one by one, fall down, all three, 
 Betwixt the fifth and sixth day ; blinded now, 
 
 Oroping o'er each of them, henceforth I lay, 
 
 And three days called them after they were dead. 
 
 Then, more than grief could do, did hunger slay." ^^ 
 
 When he had spoken thus, with eyes of dread 
 Seized on the wretched skull, his teeth apace. 
 Which, like a dog's, were strong to cranch the head. 
 
 Ah, Pisa ! thou dishonour of the race 
 
 Of the fair country, where they murmur Si, ^^ 
 
 Since to revenge thy neighbours do not race, 
 
 Oapraja and Grorgona from the sea 
 
 Should move and make a dam to Arno's wave, 
 So as to drown each habitant in thee. 
 
 For if Count Ugolin thou didst believe ^ 
 
 That he for thee thy castle had betrayed, 
 Thou shouldst not doom his sons to such a grave. 
 
 Their youthful age them innocent had made, 
 XJguccion and Brigata : Thebes once more ! 
 And the other two, whose names the song displayed. ^'* 
 
 We travelled onwards then, there where the frore 
 On other people cruelly doth steep, 
 Not downwards bent, but backwards tumbled o'er. 
 
 Their very weeping would not let them weep. 
 
 The grief, which o'er their eyes found obstacle, ^^ 
 
 Turned inwards to increase their anguish deep. 
 
 Froze in a heap the tears that earliest fell. 
 And like a visor made of crystal glass, 
 Beneath their eyes had wholly filled the well. 
 
 Now by the biting cold it came to pass ^^ 
 
 That from my face all feeling did appear 
 To lose possession, so like horn it v/^as. 
 
 Line 82. Capraja and Gorgona are small islands in the mouth of the 
 Arno. 
 
Canto XXXIII. HELL. 127 
 
 » 
 
 And DOW meseemed a certain wind to hear, 
 
 Whence I : " My master, who then stirreth this ? 
 
 Is not all vapour's motion stilled down here ?" ^"^ " 
 
 Whence he to me : "Full sure thou wilt not miss 
 
 To have an answer made thee by thy sight, 
 
 Seeing the cause that agitates the abyss." 
 One of the wretches in that frozen plight 
 
 Then cried to us : " O souls so cruelly fell, *"' 
 
 That ye are bound unto the lowest pit, 
 Eemove from off my face this hardened veil, 
 
 So that I vent the grief that fills my heart 
 
 A little ere the tears again congeal." 
 Whence I to him : " First tell me who thou wert, "* 
 
 If thou want'st aid, and if I help thee not, * 
 
 To the bottom of the ice may I depart." 
 " I am the Friar Alberigo, brought 
 
 From a bad orchard, I'm a fruit," he said, 
 
 " To take back dates for figs is here my lot." ^-" 
 
 " Oh !" said I to him, " art already dead ?" 
 
 And he to me : " I've not the least idea 
 
 Whether my body on the earth doth tread. 
 Such an advantage hath this Ptolomea 
 
 That many times ere Atropos should slay ^'^^ 
 
 The spirit is hurled downwards to this layer. 
 That thou more willingly may clear away 
 
 The tears fast frozen to my visage, know 
 
 That at the time the spirit doth betray. 
 As I did, in its body straight doth go ^^^ 
 
 A demon, by the which 'tis henceforth swayed 
 
 Until its life unto completion grow. 
 The spirit in a well like this is laid. 
 
 And still perchance his form appears above. 
 
 Who here behind me winters in his shade. ^^^ 
 
 Thou ought'st to know, if thou dost lately rove 
 
 Hither, he's Branca Doria, many a year 
 
 Has passed since he was pent within this drove." 
 
 Lino 118. Alberigo de' Maufredi a Rejoicing Friar, who, having quarrelled 
 with some others of the order, invited them to a banquet under the pretence 
 of a pacification, and on his ordering the fruit to be removed, his assassins 
 appeared at the arranged signal and murdered all his guests. 
 
 Line 124. Ptolomea, the name of the third circle, probably after Ptolemy, 
 the betrayer of Pompey the Great. 
 
 Line 137. The Dorias were a leading Genoese family, and Branca is said to 
 have murdered his fathcr-iu-law Michel Zanche, the Sardinian ruler alluded 
 to already in Canto XXI I. The neighbour alluded to in lino liG as sharer in 
 Branca Doria's villainies is slated to have been his cousin. 
 
128 HELL. Canto XXXIV. 
 
 « 
 
 ** I think,'* said I, '* thou dost deceive me here, 
 
 For Branca Doria is by no means dead, "" 
 
 But eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and clothes doth wear." 
 
 ** In Malebranche's higher pit,'* he said, 
 
 " There, where the pitch tenacious boils apace, 
 Already Michel Zanche had not sped 
 
 Ere this one left the Devil in his place, '^ 
 
 Within his body, and his neighbour's, he 
 Who always ran with him his cheating race. 
 
 But stretch forth now thy hand my eyes to free." 
 Leaving his eyes still closed I onwards went, 
 For rudeness unto such is courtesy. ^*" 
 
 Ah, Genovese ! ye men in every bent 
 
 So (Averse, and so full of every shame, 
 Why from the world are ye not wholly sent ? 
 
 For with the worst soul Italy can claim 
 
 Such one of ye I found, who by his worth ^^^ 
 
 Bathes now in spirit in Cocitus' stream, 
 
 And yet in body seems alive on earth. 
 
 Line 154. The worst soul in Italy is the Priar Alberigo. 
 
 CANTO XXXIV. 
 
 The poets advance into the fourth quarter of the last circle, called Judecca ; 
 there the damned are wholly submerged beneath the frozen lake of 
 Cocitus. Advancing towards the icy blast that meets them, Virgil 
 shows Dante the gigantic form of Lucifer piercing through the lake. 
 Virgil then takes up Dante, and descends along the body of the fallen 
 archangel into the centre of the earth. From thence he ascends on the 
 other side, and, after a weary climV through a deep cavern, the poets at 
 length issue on the Antipodes. 
 
 **Vexilla regis prodeunt infernij 
 
 Towards us, therefore, forwards cast thy gaze," 
 
 My master said, " if thou wouldst see them there nigh." 
 
 As when there breathes around a misty haze. 
 
 Or when the night draws o'er our hemisphere, * 
 
 Appears from far a mill i' the wind that plays, 
 
 Such building then before me seemed to rear : 
 Then to escape the wind, behind I drew 
 My chief, no other refuge being near. 
 
 Line 1. The banners of the infernal king advance. The Latin line is a 
 parody of the opening of a hymn sung by the Church in honour of the Cross. 
 According to the principles of translation which I have imposed on myself I 
 have never felt justified in translating into English the Latin lines introduced 
 by Dante into his poem. Such lines, generally quotations from the Vulgate, 
 are very common in the " Purgatory" and " Paradise." 
 
Canto XXXIV. HELL. 129 
 
 » 
 
 (With fear I frame the verse) we'd reached unto ^® 
 
 There, where the shades with ice were covered quite, 
 And like to motes in glass were visible through. 
 
 Some were laid out at length, some stood upright, 
 Some on their heads, and others on their feet. 
 Others like bows, with head to foot drawn tight. " 
 
 When we had gone as far as seemed meet 
 Unto my master, to me to display, 
 The creature who had erst the face so sweet, 
 
 He moved from front of me, and bade me stay. 
 
 Saying, " Lo Lucifer ! and lo the place ~^ 
 
 Where thou must arm thy courage for the fray." 
 
 How frozen I became, and weak of grace, 
 
 From writing, reader, let me now be shrived, 
 For every speech were weak such state to trace. 
 
 I did not die, and yet no longer lived ; » ^* 
 
 Think for thyself, if thou hast Fancy's bloom, 
 What I became, of death and life deprived. 
 
 The emperor of that all-dolorous home. 
 
 From mid-chest issued upwards from the ice ; 
 
 And to a giant's height I nearer loom, ^^ 
 
 Then would two giants for his arms suffice ; 
 How great the whole must be, consider now, 
 To answer to such part in fit device. 
 
 If he was once as fair as hideous now, 
 
 And 'gainst his Maker raised his impious eyes, ^ 
 
 Full well from him would all contention flow. 
 
 O how his image filled me with surprise 
 When I beheld three faces to his head ! 
 The one before hued with vermilion dyes : 
 
 The other two, which unto this were wed, *^ 
 
 Were o'er the centre of each shoulder broad, 
 And at the crest together filleted. 
 
 The right with hue 'twixt white and yellow glowed, 
 The left had such a colour, as they bear 
 Who come from where the Nile has overflowed. ** 
 
 Line 38. The three faces of Lucifer are thought by Lomhardi to represent 
 the three then known quarters of the world, the red representins? Europe, the 
 yellow Asia, and the black Africa. Judas Iscariot, however, tills the place of 
 victim to the red face, and the two chief Roman conspirators against Julius 
 Caesar occupy the other two. The selection of the latter two victims is charac- 
 teristic of Dante's fundamental idea, the necessity of an empire for the world 
 like that which Caesar rai.sed, and of one Supreme Church distinct entirely 
 from secular rule. Treason against either of these separate empires was almost 
 equally criminal, and Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are chosen as the three 
 most severely punished in Hell on this account ; perhaps more as types than 
 realities. 
 
130 HELL. Canto XXXIV. 
 
 Beneath each face two vasty wings did rear 
 Of size that suited such a bird of prey : 
 Sails of such size at sea I've witnessed ne'er. 
 They were not feathered, but in bat-hke way 
 
 Were fashioned, and for ever round they sweep, ^^ 
 
 So that three winds spring upwards at their play. 
 Cocitus thence was frozen to its deep ; 
 
 With six eyes wept he, and the falling tears 
 With bloody slaver o'er three chins did drip. 
 With the teeth of every mouth he cranching tears ^^ 
 
 A sinner, as within a mashing mill. 
 So that to three such punishment he shares. 
 To the one in front the biting was as nil 
 
 Beside the clawing, since at times his back 
 Was wholly flayed beneath that gripe of ill. ®^ 
 
 " The spirit held below in fiercest rack, 
 Judas Iscariot see," my master said, 
 " Whose head's inside, the while his legs hang slack. 
 Of the other two, who outwards have their head, 
 
 Brutus is he who hangs from the black face grim ; ®^ 
 
 See how he writhes, yet speaks no word of dread : 
 The other's Cassius, he so large of limb. 
 But the night rises, and 'tis time to go. 
 Since we have seen the whole." As pleased to him. 
 Around his neck my clinging arms I throw, ^^ 
 
 And he a moment for his time did bide. 
 And when the sweeping wings an opening show, 
 Threw himself closely to that hairy side, 
 
 And then from hair to hair descended low. 
 Beneath the thick skin and the frozen tide. ^* 
 
 When we had reached unto the part where grow 
 The broadened hips, above the thighs outspread, 
 My leader with fatigue, and travail slow. 
 Where erst his legs had been, turned round his head, 
 
 And clung unto the hair like one who climbs, ^ 
 
 So that I thought that back to Hell we sped, 
 " By stairs like these, acknowledge thou betimes," 
 My master panting like one wearied spake, 
 " We fitly issue from such scene of crimes." 
 Then out he sallied, through a rocky brake, ®* 
 
 And seating me upon the brink with care, 
 Beside me courteously his place did take. 
 I raised my eyes, and thought to witness there 
 Lucifer, just as I beheld him last, 
 And I beheld his legs upraised in air. ^'^ 
 
Canto XXXIV. HELL. 131 
 
 If I then grew bewildered and aghast, 
 
 The ignorant may think, who do not see 
 
 What was the point which I had just now past. 
 '* Eise on thy feet," the master said to me, 
 
 " The way is long, the travel will be hard, ®* 
 
 Half through the third hour now the sun must be." 
 It was no passage from a palace yard, 
 
 There where we were, but Nature's prison this, 
 
 With wretched flooring, and of light debarred. 
 " Before I take my way from this abyss, ^^ 
 
 My master," said I, when erect I stood, 
 
 " To clear my error will not prove amiss. 
 Where is the ice ? and how is this one glued 
 
 Thus upside down ? and how in hours so few 
 
 Has the sun from eve to morn his path pursued ?" ^"^ 
 
 And he : '* Thou'rt still according to thy view 
 
 On that side of the centre where I late 
 
 Seized the ill worm the world that pierceth through. 
 Thou wert on that side while I went down straight, 
 
 But when I turned, the centre thou didst clear, "•^ 
 
 To which, from all parts, bodies gravitate : 
 And now thou'st reached beneath the hemisphere 
 
 Which is opposed to that which the dry earth 
 
 Covers, on whose meridian they did spear 
 The man who lived without sin from his birth. "^ 
 
 Thou hast thy feet above the little pit 
 
 Which lieth opposite Griudecca's girth. 
 'Tis morning here when there the sun doth set : 
 
 And this one, of whose hair we made our stairs. 
 
 Just as he was at first is fastened yet. ^^^ 
 
 In this place did he fall down from the spheres ; 
 
 And the dry land, not visible, 'neath the sea, 
 
 Seeking a veil, with terror disappears, 
 
 Line 96. The time is here described according to the Hebrew manner, and 
 it means an hour and a half before noon. The reader will remember that in 
 line 68 Virgil had told Dante the night was rising. This is necessary to com- 
 prehend all the doubts to which Dante in the next few lines gives utterance, 
 he imagining that when Virgil turned and commenced ascending they were 
 returning into Hell and not issuing on the Antipodes. 
 
 Line 111. " Al qual si traggon d'ogni parte i pesi." A clear statement, 
 made at the commencement of the fourteenth century, that the centre of the 
 earth was the point to which all things gravitate. It was a decided prevision 
 of a part of Newton's great discovery. 
 
 Line 112. It was believed in Dante's time that the hemisphere known to 
 mankind was alone habitable, and that the Antipodes was all ocean. The 
 meridian of the known hemisphere was considered to be Jerusalem, where 
 Christ's sacrifice was consummated. 
 
130 
 
 182 HELL. Canto XXXIV. 
 
 And came unto our hemisphere : maybe 
 
 To fly from him, it left this empty space, ' ^^ 
 
 And formed a mount above, as there thou'lt see," 
 
 From Beelzebub remote, there is a place 
 
 Which to such deeps below its grave extendeth, 
 That not by sight, but by the sound we trace, 
 
 Made by a rivulet which there descendeth 
 
 Through a rock's fissure, the rock worn away 
 By its current, with it gently sloping wendeth. 
 
 My chief and I by that mysterious way 
 
 Entered, the world of light again to find : 
 
 Xor with the thought of rest did we delay, ^^ 
 
 But clambered up, he first, and I behind. 
 
 Until I witnessed through that rounded bore 
 
 The things so fair athwart the heavens that shined, 
 
 And issued thence to see the stars once more. 
 
 Line 126. The mountain of Purgatory, placed by Dante in mid-ocean, in 
 the Antipodes. 
 
PURGATORY. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 Dante describes the calm delight he experienced at issuing to the tender 
 light of early morning from the black night of Hell. The poets meet 
 the shade of Cato of Utica, the appointed guardian of the mountain of 
 Purgatory. On his direction they proceed to the seashore, and there 
 Virgil washes from Dante's face with dew the stains of Hell, and girds 
 him with the reeds that grow there. 
 
 To steer o'er fairer waters hoists her sail 
 
 Henceforth the little vessel of my brain, 
 
 That leaves behind such cruel sea of bale. 
 And I will sing now of that second reign 
 
 In which the human spirit groweth clear, * 
 
 And worthy to ascend to Heaven's domain. 
 But here dead Poesy must reappear, 
 
 O sacred Muses, since I'm wholly thine, 
 
 And Calliopea must assist me here, 
 With her sweet sounds accompanying the line, ^^ 
 
 At which the miserable magpies felt 
 
 Their crime so great, they pardon ne'er could win. 
 The dulcet hues of orient saj)phire melt. 
 
 And gathered all into serenest light 
 
 Of the pure air unto the farthest belt, ^* 
 
 So that my eyes returned to new delight. 
 
 Soon as I issued froin the lethal air. 
 
 Which had oppressed my breast and dimmed my sight. 
 Aye dedicate to love, the planet fair 
 
 Made all the Eastern sky irradiate smile, ^" 
 
 The Pisces veiling, who escort her there. 
 Unto the right I turned and gazed awhile 
 
 On the other Pole, and saw four glorious stars, 
 
 Ne'er seen since Eden's vale was lost by guile. 
 
 Line 11. The daughters of Pierius, who, having challenged the Muses to 
 sing against them, were changed into magpies at their presumptuous failure. 
 
 Line 23. The four stars intended by the poet are the four cardinal virtues, 
 as he tells us in Canto XXXI. Dante places the terrestrial Eden on the top 
 
134 PURGATORY. Canto I. 
 
 Heaven seems to revel in their flaming cars ; ** 
 
 O widowed North, how is thy glory sheared 
 Since that sweet vision Nature from thee bars 1 
 
 As from their gaze my eyes at length I veered 
 Towards the other Pole a little thrown, 
 There, where the Wain ere now had disappeared, ^ 
 
 I saw beside me there an old man lone. 
 Worthy of every reverence in his air, 
 More than a father claimeth from a son. 
 
 His beard was long, and mixed with whitened hair, 
 
 Like to the hoary locks that graced his head, ^^ 
 
 And on his breast in double folds fell fair. 
 
 The rays of those four stars so holy shed 
 Their glory on his face, and so adorn. 
 That him I saw as 'twere the sun o'erhead. 
 
 " Who then are ye who 'gainst yon river lorn ^ 
 
 From the eternal prison take your flight ?" 
 Speaking there moved his beard with honour worn : 
 
 " Who here has guided ye ? or who was light ? 
 Issuing outwards from the night profound. 
 Which ever maketh black the infernal pit. ** 
 
 Are thus the laws of the abyss unbound ? 
 Or doth new counsel now in Heaven arise 
 That souls condemned should wander to my ground?" 
 
 My leader me with tender hands did seize, 
 
 And with his words, and hands, and signs the same, ^'^ 
 In reverent posture bent my limbs and eyes ; 
 
 Then answered : " Of myself I never came. 
 A lady wended from the sky, whose prayer 
 For him my company in aid did claim. 
 
 But since 'tis thy desire that I declare ^ 
 
 More fully our condition, truly dight. 
 My will to oppose thine own would never dare. 
 
 This one has not yet seen his latest night. 
 
 But by his madness death was near effected, 
 
 And very little time was left for flight. *® 
 
 As I have said, for this I was directed 
 
 To save him, and there was no other way 
 Than this one which I took, and him protected. 
 
 To him the impious race I did display. 
 
 And now intend to show those spirits here, ^ 
 
 Who purge themselves of sin beneath thy sway. 
 
 of his mountain of Purgatory, from whence the first parents saw these stars, 
 since unseen by man, in the other hemisphere. The constellation of the 
 Southern Cross must have appeared to the first voyagers in the Southern 
 Ocean, the same stars which Dante saw in vision. 
 
Camto I. PURGATORY. 135 
 
 How I have led him it were long to clear ; 
 
 From high came virtue which such help did lend 
 
 To lead him to behold thee and to hear. 
 His advent here now please thee to befriend ; ^° 
 
 He seeketh liberty, acknowledged dear 
 
 By one who for its sake his life did end. 
 Thou know'st it ; since for it Death had no fear 
 
 In TJtica for thee where thou hast left 
 
 The garb which on the great day will shine clear. ^^ 
 
 For us the eternal edicts are not cleft ; 
 
 Since this one lives, nor Minos bindeth me ; 
 
 But I am of the circle where bereft 
 Thy Marzia's chaste eyes still are praying thee, 
 
 O holy breast ! to hold her for thine own ! ®° 
 
 By her love then unto our prayer agree. 
 Through thy seven kingdoms grant us leave to wonne 
 
 The grace obtained from thee, to her I'll bear, 
 
 If to be named there thou dost not disown." 
 " In Marzia did my eyes such pleasure share ** 
 
 Whilst thitherwards I lingered," then he said, 
 
 *' That she obtained from me her every prayer. 
 Now that she dwells beyond that river dread, 
 
 She cannot move me more by that decree 
 
 Ordained what time that I from hence was led. ^ 
 
 But if a lady from the sky rules thee. 
 
 As thou dost say, of flattery is no need,. 
 
 Suffice it for her sake to urge thy plea. 
 Gro onwards then, and with a slender reed 
 
 See that thou gird this man, and lave his face 
 
 So that all stain of foulness hence be freed ; 
 Since 'twould be most unfitting, with the trace 
 
 Of any cloud to appear before the Prime 
 
 Gruardian, who comes of Paradisal race. 
 This islet all around to its lowest rim ^^ 
 
 Down thither, where the ocean beats its shore, 
 
 Produceth reeds upon its moistened slime. 
 
 Line 73. Dante appears to have held Cato in peculiar veneration, but there 
 is no satisfactory reason to be found for his having chosen a Pagan as the 
 guardian of his Christian Purgatory. He and Virgil are the only spirits, not 
 Christians, whom he has permitted to pass beyond the bounds of Limbo. 
 
 Line 82. The seven rounds into which it will be found that the Purgatory 
 is divided, in each of which is purged away one capital sin. 
 
 Line 94. The reed with which Dante is directed to be girt is supposed to 
 be typical of humility, and the washing with dew is clearly so of spiritual 
 purification. 
 
 95 
 
136 PURGATORY. Canto L 
 
 No other plant that leaflet ever bore, 
 
 Or that grew hard, were able there to grow ; 
 
 This yieldeth to the ocean's smiting roar. ^^^ 
 
 By this way afterwards return not : lo ! 
 
 The sun will show thy road, which soon will rise 
 
 Where easiest slopes the mountain upwards go." 
 He disappeared, and then I did arise 
 
 Without a word, and to my leader drew "^ 
 
 Entirely, and towards him raised my eyes. 
 Then lie began : " O son, my steps pursue ; 
 
 Back will we turn, for on that side declines 
 
 The plain towards its slope, as we can view." 
 Above the dawn the hour of morn now shines, ^'^ 
 
 Which fled before it, so, as far I strain, 
 
 I recognised the seashore's trembling lines. 
 We walked across the solitary plain 
 
 As one who from a lost road turns anew, 
 
 Whose wanderings until then had seemed in vain. ^'^^ 
 
 When we had reached the region where the dew 
 
 Fights with the sun, and in attempt to pass 
 
 Towards the shade, its folded cloud breaks through ; 
 With both his hands from off the scattered grass 
 
 My master tenderly the moisture takes ; ^^^ 
 
 Whence I, who of his wish perceptive was. 
 Extended towards him my all-tearful cheeks, 
 
 And there discovered, on my face once more, 
 
 The hue of life that Hell had shrouded, breaks. 
 When we had come on that deserted shore, ^^"^ 
 
 Which never yet saw navigate its main. 
 
 The man who to return possessed the lore, 
 As to that other pleased he girt me then ; 
 
 O marvel ! for the instant that he chose 
 
 The humble plant, as erst 'twas born again, ^^ 
 
 And where he plucked it suddenly upgrows. 
 
 Line 131. Across this ocean the spirits are carried to Purgatory in the 
 spirit bark described in the next Canto. Ulysses and his companions were 
 the only mortals who had attempted the voyage, and their fate is described 
 in the 26th Canto of Hell. 
 
 136. From Virgil. " Uno avulso non deficit alter." — -<3En., book vi. 
 
Canto II. PURGATORY. 137 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 A light rises on the distant ocean, which, advancing with marvellous speed, 
 is seen to be the bark in which the spirits are brought to Purgatory 
 by an angel. When the troop land upon the shore, Dante vainly 
 endeavours to embrace one of the spirits, whom he recognises for his 
 friend Casella. The latter, to please Dante, sings one of his canzoni, 
 to which while all are rapt in attention Cato rebukes them for dallying 
 on their way, and all hurry towards the mountain. 
 
 The sun already to the horizon's rim 
 
 Had travelled, whose meridian circle lieth 
 In apogee above Jerusalem : 
 
 And opposite to him the night that flieth, 
 
 Issued from out the Ganges, with the scales * 
 
 That from his hands fall when too late she hieth : 
 
 So that the white and vermeil hue that veils 
 The fair Aurora's cheeks, as rose the day 
 By waning time grows orange-hued, and pales. 
 
 Alongside of the seashore still we stay ^'^ 
 
 Like people who are thinking of their road. 
 Who go in heart, and yet with limbs delay. 
 
 And lo ! as towards the morning, red like blood 
 Through heavy vapours Mars is wont to flame, 
 Down in the West, above the ocean flood ; ^^ 
 
 So there appeared, still can I see the same, 
 Across the sea a light so swiftly sweep, 
 No flight of bird with that can semblance claim : 
 
 On which, when I a moment failed to keep 
 
 My eye, to ask my leader to explain, '■^^ 
 
 Brighter I saw it then, and grown in shape. 
 
 Then o'er the whole of it there seemed to gain 
 I know not what of white, and underneath 
 There issued by degrees its semblance twain. 
 
 As yet my master not a word essayeth, ^ 
 
 Till what was white at first as wings he sees, 
 Then when the Pilot he distinctly seeth. 
 
 He cried aloud : " Now bend, now bend thy knees : 
 Behold God's angel, towards him bow thy hands ; 
 Henceforth thou'lt see such ministers as these. ^^ 
 
 Line 1. Dante supposes himself to be now antipodal to Jerusalem, the 
 centre of the inhabited hemisphere, to whose horizon the sun was now on 
 the point of setting, and therefore rising to him. At the same time night 
 would be rising on the Ganges, or the far East, with the constellation Libra. 
 
 Line 6. A fanciful idea, expressing that when the nights grow longer than 
 the days, the sun has passed out of Libra into another constellation. 
 
138 PUEGATORY. Canto II. 
 
 See in no need of human means he stands : 
 So that he wants not oars, nor other sail 
 Except his pinions, from such distant strands. 
 
 See how he rears them towards the Heavenly pale, 
 
 Drawing the breezes with the eternal plumes, ^ 
 
 That like our mortal hair ne'er change nor fail." 
 
 Then, as towards us nearer still he looms, 
 
 The bird divine more brilliant clear appeared, 
 So that the eye shrank back as near he comes. 
 
 I bent mine down : and he the landing neared, "*" 
 
 With his small bark, so rapid and so light 
 That as it went the wave it scarcely sheared. 
 
 Stood on the stern Heaven's pilot, clothed in light, 
 Amongst the blest inscribed, did he appear ; 
 Within the bark a hundred spirits sit : *^ 
 
 In excitu Israel, from Egypt's fear. 
 
 They all together in one voice did sing. 
 
 With all that follows when that Psalm we hear. 
 
 When he had signed the holy cross, they fling 
 
 Themselves, together all, upon the plain, ^ 
 
 And as he came, he vanished, swift of wing. 
 
 Gazing around, the crowd that there remain 
 In utter ignorance of the place did seem, 
 Like one who striveth strange things to attain. 
 
 On every side there darted down its beam ^ 
 
 The sun, who from the centre of the sky 
 Had routed Capricorn with arrowy flame. 
 
 When the new people raised their foreheads high 
 Towards us, saying to us : '* If ye know, 
 Show us the path, towards the mount to hie." ^ 
 
 And Virgil said : " Ye think that w§ can show. 
 Perchance experienced in this place, the way, 
 But like yourselves, we here are pilgrims too. 
 
 Shortly before ye did we hither stray 
 
 By another path, that was so wild and rude, ^ 
 
 That any climbing henceforth will be play." 
 
 The spirits, who in me the breathing viewed. 
 Perceived from that that I was still alive, 
 And marvelling became all marble hued. 
 
 As when one bears an olive branch, arrive ^" 
 
 The people all around the news to hear. 
 And each one to approach doth press and strive ; 
 
 So gazing on my face they centered here. 
 Those happy spirits all, forgotting even 
 To travel onwards, to become more fair. ^ 
 
 Line 46. When Israel came out of Egypt. Psalm cxiv. 
 
Canto II. 
 
 PURGATORY. 139 
 
 One of them saw I pierce their ranks close riven 
 
 Me to embrace, with such a loving haste, 
 
 That I to do the same was also driven. 
 empty shadows with but semblance graced ! 
 
 Three times around his form my arms I threw, *^" 
 
 And each time drew them idly to my breast. 
 With wonder I believe I changed my hue ; 
 
 Because the shadow smiled, and past away 
 
 And pressing onwards I his steps pursue. 
 He asked me tenderly that I should stay : ** 
 
 Then knew I who he was, and him besought 
 
 For parlance with me somewhat to delay. 
 He answered me : " As I thy love have sought 
 
 In mortal body, so I love thee freed ; 
 
 Therefore I pause ; but how hast thou been brought ?" ^ 
 " Casella mine, I made this voyage decreed, 
 
 Back to return to earth, where I belong. 
 
 But why so long has been debarred thy meed ?" 
 And he to me : " No one hath done me wrong, 
 
 But he who when and whom he pleases takes, ^^ 
 
 This longed-for passage has denied me long : 
 Since of God's justest will his own he makes. 
 
 But truly for three months past he has ta'en, 
 
 In perfect peace, whoe'er an entrance seeks. 
 Whence I, who dwelt but now, towards the main ^'^ 
 
 Where mixes with the brine the Tiber's wave, 
 
 Benignantly was gathered in his train. 
 Back to that shore with outstretched wing he clave, 
 
 Because at all times he coUecteth there. 
 
 Whoe'er descend not into Acheron's grave." ^°* 
 
 And I : "If new laws do not from thee bear 
 
 The memory or use of amorous song. 
 
 Which erst was wont to quiet all my care, 
 Please thee with that to pour thy balm along 
 
 My wearied soul, that with its body joined, "*^ 
 
 In coming hither has been grieved so long." 
 " Love that now parleys with me in my mind,'^ 
 
 So sweetly then did he begin the strain, 
 
 That lingers yet the dulcet sound behind. 
 
 Line 91. A celebrated Florentine musician, and friend of Dante. 
 
 Line 93. Casella having been dead for some years, Dante asks bim how he 
 has been so long delayed in his voyage to Purgatory. ^ , . , . 
 
 Line 98. At that period the jubilee was held at Rome, since which time 
 all spirits not condemned to Hell were allowed free passage to Purgatory 
 through the pravers of the Pope. It will be noticed that from Rome only 
 Dante gives the place of departure for all spirits to the realms of purification. 
 
 Line 112. The first verse of one of Dante's canzoni, " Amor che nella mente 
 mi ragiona," introduced in the " Convito" of our author. 
 
140 I'URGATORY. Canto III. 
 
 My master, and myself, and all the train ^^'' 
 
 That were with him, such exquisite pleasure show, 
 Forgetting all things else, in rapture fain. 
 
 We thus were all engrossed with the sweet flow 
 
 Of the notes, when lo ! the honoured guardian old 
 Came crying : " What is this, ye spirits slow ? ^^ 
 
 What negligence is this, and dallying bold ? 
 
 To cast aside your shell, to the mountain speed, 
 So that God manifest ye may behold," 
 
 As when upgathering wheat, or darnel weed 
 
 The doves collecting, to the pastures steer, ^^' 
 
 Nor show the accustomed shyness of their breed. 
 
 If anything appears which wakes their fear. 
 Leave on a sudden the delicious bait, 
 Because assailed by stronger impulse there ; 
 
 So did I see that troop arrived so late, ^^^ 
 
 Their song abandoned, towards the mountain start, 
 Like one who goes, nor knows his future fate : 
 
 And no less rapidly do we depart. 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 As the poets advance towards the hill, Dante is alarmed at seeing only his 
 own shadow cast by the sun behind them, and thinks that Virgil has 
 deserted him. Cleared from his error they reach the foot of the 
 mountain, and while in perplexity as to their ascent, meet a troop of 
 spirits, who show them the way. Amongst them Manfred, King of 
 Naples, urges Dante to tell his daughter of his fate, as by her prayers 
 she can shorten the time of his wanderings in the Ante-Purgatory. 
 
 After their sudden flight had scattered these 
 Over the champaign wide, towards the hill 
 Where draws them onwards Reason's high decrees ; 
 
 I clung unto my faithful comrade still ; 
 
 How without him should I have there arrived ? V ^ 
 
 Who else had drawn me upwards to the hill ? 
 
 The appearance of remorse in him survived : 
 O conscience honourably pure, to thee 
 How is a little fault most bitterly shrived ! 
 
 When ceased his feet so rapidly to flee, ^'* 
 
 Which dignity doth lessen to the best. 
 My mind till then absorbed, became more free, 
 
 Aye curious to behold, to do its 'best. 
 
 And towards the hill I forwards raised my sight, 
 
 That to the sky reared up its lofty crest. ^'^ 
 
Canto III. PURGATORY. 141 
 
 The sun, which flamed behind us, redlj bright. 
 
 Was broken up before my figure, where 
 
 Was stopped the passage of its rays of light. 
 Then to one side I turned in sudden fear 
 
 That I was all abandoned, when I spied, ^^ 
 
 In front of me alone, the shade appear. 
 " Why art thou thus distrustful ?" to me cried 
 
 My comforter, towards me wholly turned, 
 
 " Dost thou not think me with thee, me thy guide ? 
 'Tis eve already there, where is inurned ^^ 
 
 The frame with which I once a shadow made, 
 
 Naples now keeps it, from Brundusium earned. 
 When thou dost henceforth see me cast no shade. 
 
 Wonder no more, than that two rays of Heaven 
 
 Can cross each other, nor the light invade. ^^ 
 
 To suffer torments, heat, and cold, is given 
 
 To bodies like to this, by high decree, 
 
 The how 'tis done by man cannot be riven. 
 He's mad who thinks our human reason free j( 
 
 Along the infinite career to run, ^® 
 
 Of God, the substance one in Persons three. 
 Be ye content, O man, the Why unknown : 
 
 Had ye been able to behold the whole, 
 
 No need had Mary to bring forth her son. 
 Yet such thou'st seen, who centered all the soul ^^ 
 
 Without result, such longed-for lore to seek. 
 
 To whom eternally 'tis given for dole. 
 Of Aristotle, Plato, do I speak, 
 
 And many more :" and here he bent his brow, 
 
 And said no more, and stayed with troubled cheek. ^'^ 
 
 We'd reached the bottom of the mountain now. 
 
 And there we found the cliff so steeply sheer, 
 
 That all in vain were lithest limbs 1 trow. 
 'Twixt Lerici and Turbia, the most drear, 
 
 The most deserted way, that cliff beside, ^® 
 
 Were but an easily ascended stair. 
 " Who knows now on which hand the steep doth glide 
 
 Easiest ?" said my master, pausing still, 
 
 " So that without wings one could climb its side." 
 And while he downwards kept his glance, with skill ** 
 
 Examining the secret of the way, 
 
 And I was looking upwards round the hill. 
 
 Line 27. Virgil died at Brundusium, and his body was buried at Naples. 
 Line 49. Lerici and Turbia, mountainous tracts, at that time the extremi- 
 ties of Genoa. 
 
142 PURGATORY. Canto III. 
 
 At our left hand, onwards was seen to stray 
 A troop of spirits, wlio towards us hied, 
 Yet seemed not moving, such their slow delay. ^^ 
 
 " Lift up thy eyes," I to my master cried, 
 
 " Lo ! these from whom thou counsel canst attain, 
 If in thy own thou canst not here confide." 
 He gazed upon me then with countenance fain. 
 
 And answered, " We'll go there, since they're so slow, ^^ 
 And thou, sweet son, thy confidence maintain." 
 Still was that people distant from us, so. 
 
 When we had made a thousand steps I say. 
 As a good thrower with his hand could throw, 
 When to the hard rock clung they all straightway, ^^ 
 
 On the steep bank, and stood all still and close, 
 As one who goes in doubt to gaze will stay. 
 
 " well accomplished spirits, whom God chose,'* 
 Virgil did thus begin, " by that dear peace, 
 Which I believe that none of ye will lose, ^* 
 
 Tell us where easiest slopes the precipice. 
 
 So that we there our upward path may hold : 
 
 Him who knows most time lost doth most displease." 
 
 As issue out a flock of sheep from fold. 
 
 By one, and two, and three, and the others stand, *** 
 
 And timidly their eyes and face down hold, 
 
 And what the first does do at second hand. 
 Collecting at his back if he stops short. 
 All simple, nor the wherefore understand, 
 
 So saw I move the chiefs from that escort, ^^ 
 
 Towards us then from out that blessed flock, 
 Modest in face, of honourable port. 
 
 As they in front of me beheld all broke 
 
 The light upon the earth, at my right side. 
 
 So that my shadow reached unto the rock, ^ 
 
 They stayed, then somewhat drew themselves aside. 
 And all the rest who came behind them near. 
 Knowing not wherefore, in like manner bide. 
 
 " Without your question, I confess it here. 
 
 This is a human frame that you behold, ^^ 
 
 Through which on earth the sunlight is cut sheer. 
 
 Marvel ye not at that : but rather hold 
 
 Only by virtue, sent at Heaven's command. 
 This mountain side to climb he seeketh bold." 
 
 My master thus, and that all worthy band ^"* 
 
 Said, " Turn ye then, our onward progress share,'* 
 And signed us to advance with beckoning hand. 
 
Canto III. PURGATORY. 143 
 
 And one of them did thus begin : " Whoe'er 
 
 Thou beest who wanderest thus, now turn thy face, 
 
 And think if thou hast ever seen me there." ^^ 
 
 I turned me towards him, and I gazed a space ; 
 Fair was he, tall, of gentle look serene, 
 Upon one eyebrow a deep scar I trace. 
 
 When I had told him with an humble mien 
 
 That I had never seen him, " Look," he said, "** 
 
 And pointed out a wound his breast between. 
 
 Then said he with a smile : "I am Manfred, 
 The grandson of the Empress Constance old, 
 Whence I beseech thee, when thou hence art led, 
 
 Go to my daughter, mother of the bold "* 
 
 Honour of Arragon and Sicily, 
 And say the truth, if now aught else be told. 
 
 With these two mortal punctures fatally 
 When I was smitten, I returned in time, 
 Weeping to him who pardons willingly. ^^** 
 
 Most horrible indeed had been my crime : 
 But Goodness Infinite has arms so large, 
 They can embrace, whoe'er returns to him. 
 
 Cosenza's bishop, when on Clement's charge. 
 
 He chased my dust in anger, had he read ^^^ 
 
 This text of Mercy in God's Bible's marge 
 
 My scattered bones above the bridge's head 
 Would still be lying, near to Benevent, 
 Safe in the keeping of its storm-built bed. 
 
 Now washes them the wave, and at its bent ^^^ 
 
 Drives them the wind along the Verde's shore, 
 Where they were carried out, with tapers spent. 
 
 Line 112. Manfred, King of Naples, and the natural son of the Emperor 
 Frederic II. Constance was taken out of a convent at the mature age of 
 fifty, and married to the Emperor Henry VI., and to the astonishment of 
 the then political world gave birth to a son, the father of Manfred. 
 Constance is introduced in the lowest sphere of the Paradise, being debarred 
 from higher glory through her having broken her vow of chastity in the 
 above manner. 
 
 Line 115. Manfred's daughter Constance was Queen of Peter III. of 
 Arragon, and mother of Frederic, King of Sicily, and James, King of 
 Arragon. In Canto VII. of the Purgatory these princes are represented as 
 not inheriting the virtues of their father. 
 
 Line 118. Manfred was slain in a battle fought with Charles of Anjou, in 
 1265, allusion to which has been made in the opening of Canto XXVIII. of 
 Hell, and was buried at the bridge near Benevento, each of the army 
 throwing a stone on his grave. Having died excommunicated, he was 
 disinterred by the Bishop of Cosenza, on the orders of Pope Clement IV., 
 and his remains buried by the side of the River Verde. 
 
144 PURGATORY. Canto IV. 
 
 The Papal curse condemns not evermore, 
 But still Eternal Love has power to save, 
 As long as hope preserves its verdant flower. ^^^ 
 
 True, whoso dies in contumacy grave 
 
 With Holj Church, though he repents his sin, 
 Is doomed upon this bank without to crave, 
 
 Thirty times longer than he erst had been 
 
 In his presumption, if to such decree ^^" 
 
 Eeprieve the prayers of good men do not win. 
 
 How thou canst make me joyful henceforth see, 
 Eevealing to my own good Constance, clear, 
 How thou hast seen me, and this ban on me : 
 
 Since those on earth can much advance us here." ^*'' 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 Guided by the spirits, the poets turn into a narrow fissure cloven in the hill- 
 side, and continue their ascent. Pausing on the top of a ledge for rest, 
 Dante marvels at seeing the sun travelling in the northern portion of the 
 sky, instead of in the southern, as in the other hemisphere. They then 
 become awp,re of the presence of another troop of spirits, among whom 
 Dante recognises one Belacqua, who informs him that they are con- 
 demned to wander in the Ante-Purgatory for as many years as they 
 delayed repentance in life. 
 
 When on the passion of delight or woe, 
 Such as our quality can comprehend, 
 The mind is turned, on this 'tis gathered so 
 
 That to no other power its force can bend ; 
 
 And this disproves his error, who believes * 
 
 That more than one soul in ourselves can blend.^ 
 
 And therefore, when a thing, to which there cleaves 
 The spirit strongly drawn, is heard or seen, 
 The time goes onwards, nor the man perceives. 
 
 The hearing is one faculty I ween, i® 
 
 Another that which holds the soul enrapt. 
 The last is bound, the first no chains. Confine. 
 
 Of this had I experience, true and apt, 
 Admiring as I heard that spirit fair : 
 Fifty degrees at least the sun had capt ^^ 
 
 Line 5, Alluding to the opinion that there were three souls, the vegetative, 
 the sensitive, and the intellective, which he disproves by the fact that the 
 complete occupation of one set of powers, as sight or hearing, cannot be 
 simultaneous with the action of a different set of powers. 
 
 Line 15. Three hours and twenty minutes, as while in the equinox the 
 sun mounts fifteen degrees in the hour. 
 
Canto IV. PURGATORY. 145 
 
 The Heavens, while I was wholly unaware, 
 When to a place we came, where every soul 
 Cried out to us, " The ascent ye seek is tliere.*' 
 
 With a small bunch of thorns, a greater hole 
 
 Is often filled up by a villager, ^^ 
 
 When on the grapes the ripening colours roll, 
 
 Than was that pathway, up the which we steer, 
 My leader, and beside him I alone. 
 As from our side the troop departed here. 
 
 One climbs San Leo, Noli one goes down, ^* 
 
 One mounteth Bismanfcova's farthest height 
 Upon one's feet ; but here I must have flown, 
 
 With active wings I say, and plumage dight 
 Of great desire, to follow the dear guide. 
 Who only gave me hope, and made my light. ^® 
 
 Within the broken rock we climbing glide, 
 
 And on each side the cliff's edge hemmed us close, 
 While hands and feet alike in clambering plied. 
 
 When we had reached the highest brink that rose 
 
 On the steep bank above the far-stretcht plain, ^ 
 
 " My master," said I, "now what way to choose?'* 
 
 And he to me : " With care thy step mantain : 
 Behind me still climb up the mountain height, 
 Till some experienced guide at length we gain." 
 
 The lofty summit quite o'ertopt the sight, ^^ 
 
 And upwards the incline so steeply ran. 
 It measured with its angle, half a right. 
 
 I was quite weary, when I thus began : 
 
 " my sweet father, turn thee, and behold, 
 
 Unless thou stay'st, alone I must remain." y; *^ 
 
 *' My son," he said, " to yonder spot uphold," 
 And pointed out a ledge some way above. 
 " From that side all anew the cliff is rolled.'* 
 
 So spurred me onwards then his words of love, 
 
 I forced myself, and creeping followed near, ^^ 
 
 So that at length above the cliff I move. 
 
 We both of us sate down to rest us here, 
 
 Turned to the east, from whence our path had past, 
 Grazing on labours done with wonted cheer. 
 
 O'er the low country first my eyes I cast, ** 
 
 Then raised them to the sun, and wondering saw 
 How on our left his smiliug beams he cast. 
 
 Line 25. San Leo and Nuli are in the Genoese territory, Bismantova in 
 Lombardy. 
 
 L 
 
146 PURGATORY. Canto IV. 
 
 The poet clear avised how I with awe 
 Eeniained astonied at the car of light, 
 Which 'twixt us and the north did onwards draw. ^^ 
 
 Whence he to me : "If with that mirror bright 
 Castor and Pollux were in company, 
 Which up and down the sun leads with his light, 
 
 The Zodiac's ruddy portion thou wouldst see 
 
 Whirling around yet closer to the Bear, ^ 
 
 If in its olden path it yet may be. 
 
 The cause of this, if thou wouldst think with care. 
 Imagine Sion, giving all thy mind, 
 That on its under earth this mount doth bear, 
 
 So that they both with one horizon bind ''^ 
 
 Their different hemispheres : hence lies the way, 
 Which Phaeton had not the skill to find. 
 
 Thou'lt see how on this side the solar ray 
 
 Must take a different course to the other sphere, 
 
 If thou but givest thy intellect fair play." ^* 
 
 " Certes, my master," said I, " I have ne'er 
 Seen aught so clearly as I now discern. 
 There where my intellect appeared least clear, 
 
 That the mid circle of the heavenly urn. 
 
 Called the Equator in the starry lore, ^® 
 
 Which 'twixt the sun and winter doth sojourn. 
 
 By the reason now explained, here moveth o'er 
 Towards the north, what time the Hebrews see 
 The sun strike hottest on their opposite shore. 
 
 But I would gladly know, if it pleases thee, ^^ 
 
 How far we've still to go, the hill doth rise 
 Far higher than my eyes have power to flee." 
 
 And he : " This mountain is in such a wise. 
 
 That always at the first 'tis most severe, ^ 
 
 And wearies less the more one upwards hies, ^ 
 
 But when to thee all gentle it appear. 
 
 That thou as easily couldst mount anew 
 As travel in a bark in the lower sphere. 
 
 Line 61. The meaning of Virgil's not very lucid explanation is as follows :— 
 " If the sun were now in the constellation of Gemini, and not in Aries, you 
 would see the portion of the Zodiac which his rays made red rise nearer the 
 north than it now is. For you must remember we are exactly antipodal to 
 Sion, the meridian of the other hemisphere." 
 
 Line 71- The way Phaeton could not keep is the Ecliptic. 
 
 Line 79. The Equator, which is between the part where the sun causes 
 summer and where his absence causes winter, recedes from this mountain 
 to the north, at the time when the Jews at Mount Sion see him receding to 
 the south. So Lombardi. 
 
Canio IV. PURGATORY. 147 
 
 Then will the pathway's ending be in view ; 
 
 Till then put off thy longing for repose ; ®^ 
 
 No more I answer, this I know is true." 
 When he had brought his parlance to a close, 
 
 There sounded near to us a voice : " Perchance 
 
 Ere then to rest thee thou wilt not refuse." 
 On hearing him we each turned back askance, ^"® 
 
 And to the left we saw a mossy stone 
 
 Which had not till that moment met our glance. 
 Then we moved on, and found three persons thrown 
 
 Idly behind the shadow of the rock, 
 
 As one through indolence might throw him down. ^"^ 
 
 And one of them, who seemed outworn in look, 
 
 Was seated, and with hands embraced his knees, 
 
 And downwards 'twixt them did his visage lock. 
 ** O my sweet master," said I, " only gaze 
 
 On him who shows himself more negligent ^'^ 
 
 Than if his sister's self were Idleness." 
 Then turned he towards us with a roused intent, 
 
 Eaising his visage upwards o'er his thigh. 
 
 And said, " Mount thou, of such a valiant bent." 
 Then did I know him, and the agony, ^^* 
 
 Which still my breathing somewhat quickly sped. 
 
 Did not prevent my going to him : he. 
 When I had reached him, scarcely raised his head. 
 
 '* Thou seest, then, how the sun, beyond belief. 
 
 From the left shoulder has his chariot led ?" ^^'^ 
 
 His lazy actions, and his words so brief. 
 
 My lips excited somewhat to a smile : 
 
 Then I began : " No more thou'lt cause me grief, 
 Belacqua : but explain why all this while 
 
 Art seated hither ? dost thou escort wait ? ^2* 
 
 Or hast thou ta'en again thy olden style ?" 
 *' Oh, brother, how would climbing help my fate? 
 
 Since to my pain he will not let me wend, 
 
 God's angel, who is seated at the gate. 
 First it behoves that Heaven that gate defend ^^® 
 
 From me as long as I in life delayed, 
 
 Since I postponed repentance to the end, 
 Unless before that time a prayer can aid. 
 
 Rising from heart that lives in Grace's store : 
 
 What use aught else that cannot Heaven invade ?" ^^^ 
 
 Line 124. The industry of the early commentators has not informed us 
 who this person was — a solitary exception throughout this long poem. 
 
148 PURGATORY. Canto V. 
 
 The bard already onwards went before, 
 
 And told me : " Now come on : this moment lo ! 
 The sun has reached to noon, and on the shore 
 
 Night covers with her foot Morocco now." 
 
 CANTO V. 
 
 The poets meet with others, who, having deferred their repentance until 
 death, suffered violent ends, but had time to repent, and obtain pardon 
 at the last. Amongst these, Giacopo del Cassero, Buonconte daMonte- 
 feltro, and Pia, a Siennese lady, describe their deaths, and urge Dante to 
 obtain on earth prayers in their behalf. 
 
 Already from those shadows had I gone, * 
 
 And followed in the footsteps of my guide, 
 When from behind, with finger pointing on, 
 
 " See how there does not seem to shine," one cried, 
 
 " The sunray from the left of him beneath, * 
 
 He seems alive who follows thus his guide !" 
 
 I turned my eyes at sound of what he sayeth. 
 
 And saw him gaze on me witb marvelling fear, 
 At me, and at the light my body frayeth. 
 
 " Why doth thy spirit so much interfere ^® 
 
 With these?" my master said, " to slack thy walk; 
 What is't to thee that they should murmur here ? 
 
 rollow thou me, and let the people talk : 
 Stand like a solid tower, that doth not bow 
 
 Its crest at any time, though wild winds stalk. ^* 
 
 Always the man in whom new thought doth grow 
 
 On previous thought, from his true course doth roam, 
 
 Because the one doth flag the other's glow." 
 What could I say to him, except, I come ? 
 
 I said so, whilst such hue my cheeks immerse ^ 
 
 As often wins man pardon from his doom. 
 In the meanwhile, across the hiU traverse, 
 
 A little to our front some people came, 
 
 Singing their Miserere, verse by verse. 
 When they perceived that through my bodily frame ^* 
 
 There was no passage for the rays to pierce. 
 
 They changed their song into a hoarse acclaim, 
 And two of them, in form of messengers. 
 
 Ran out to meet us, and requesting stood, 
 
 "Pray ye to tell us your condition, sirs." **• 
 
Canto V. PURGATORY. 149 
 
 My master then : *'Te can resume your road, 
 And take back unto those who made ye plead, 
 That this man's body is true flesh and blood. 
 
 If fchey remained because they saw his shade, 
 
 As I believe, enough such answer given ; ^* 
 
 Yield him due honour, he can grant them aid." 
 
 I never saw the falling stars at even, 
 
 Nor sunset lightning through an August cloud. 
 Cleave with such swiftness the serene of Heaven, 
 
 As these returned above unto the crowd, ^ 
 
 And joined there with the rest, turned towards us soon, 
 Like to a troop beneath no bridle bowed. 
 
 " This multitude, who towards us presses on. 
 Come to make prayers to thee," the poet cried, 
 " But onwards go, and hear as thou dost wonne." ^^ 
 
 ** soul, who unto joyousness dost glide. 
 
 With limbs with which thou erst wast born, to-day," 
 Crying they came, " Thy step a little bide. 
 
 Behold, if one of us thou aye didst see. 
 
 So that of him thou hence the news mayst bear ; ^° 
 
 Ah, why dost go ? Ah, wherefore dost not stay ? 
 
 All of us killed by force of old we were, 
 And sinners all unto the latest hour, 
 When of the light of Heaven we grew aware. 
 
 So, through repentance and forgiveness' power, ^* 
 
 From life we issued, Godwards pacified. 
 Who doth the heart with hope to see him dower." 
 
 " Howe'er I gaze upon ye," I replied, 
 
 " None do I recognise ; but if the grace 
 
 Ye seek is in my power, souls Heaven allied, ^^ 
 
 Speak ye, and I will do it by the peace, 
 
 Which, following such a guide through good and ill, 
 From world to world to seek, I onwards press." 
 
 And one began : " Each one will trust right well 
 
 Without an oath in this thy offered boon, ^ 
 
 For goodwill fathoms not the impossible. 
 
 Whence I, who ere the rest now speak alone. 
 Pray thee, if e'er that region thou dost see 
 Betwixt Eomagna and King Carlo's throne. 
 
 That with thy prayers thou mayst so courteous be ^* 
 
 In Fano's town, that vows for me be paid. 
 So that from weight of sin I be purged free. 
 
 Line 69. The Marco d'Ancona, between Romagna and Apulia, the kingdom 
 which Charles of Anjou conquered from Manfred. 
 
150 PURGATORY. Canto V. 
 
 Thence came I : but the passages deep laid, 
 
 Whence flowed the blood, in which in life I sate, 
 
 In the lap of the Antenori were they made, ^^ 
 
 There where I thought myself most safe from hate : 
 
 The lord of Este caused them, anger bred 
 
 Revenge in him beyond what law could sate. 
 But towards La Mira had I only fled. 
 
 At Oriaco when o'eita'en that time, ' ^ 
 
 Still in the breathing world I life had led. 
 Unto the marsh I ran, the reeds and slime 
 
 So tangled me, I fell, and saw down drop 
 
 My blood, that flowing formed a lake of crime." 
 Then said another : " Ah that this thy hope ^^ 
 
 May be fulfilled, which draws thee to the mount, 
 
 To help my wish give tender pity scope. 
 I was Buonconte, Montefeltro's count, 
 
 Giovanna, or the rest have me forgot. 
 
 Since thus I go mid these, with humbled front." ^" 
 
 And I to him : " What force or chanceful lot 
 
 Hurried thee so beyond the Campaldine, 
 
 That of thy burial-place man knoweth not ?'* 
 " O," answered he, " at the foot of the Casentine 
 
 Crosses a streamlet called the Archian, ^* 
 
 Born o'er the Desert, in the Apennine. 
 There where its proper name is changed again 
 
 Did I arrive, deep wounded in the throat, 
 
 Flying on foot, incarnading the plain. 
 I lost my speech and vision in that spot, ^^ 
 
 And died in Mary's name, 'twas there I fell, 
 
 And there remained my body all remote. 
 The truth I'll say which thou again wilt tell : 
 
 God's Angel took me : ' thou son of Heaven 
 
 Why dost thou 'prive me ?' cried the born of Hell, ^^^ 
 
 Line 73, The speaker is Jacopo del Cassero, a citizen of Fauo, who having 
 spoken ill of Azzoni III. of Este, Marquis of Ferrara, whilst he was Podesta 
 of Bologna, was assassinated by the orders of Azzoni near Oriaco, as he was 
 endeavouring to escape from the effects of his anger. 
 
 Line 74. According to the opinion, that the blood is the seat of the soul. 
 
 Line 75. In the Paduan territory, the founder of whose city was Antenor, 
 the betrayer of Troy, after whom one of the lowest circles of hell is named. 
 
 Line 88. Buon<Jonte was the son of Count Guido da Monte feltro, who has 
 been introduced in Canto XXVII. of Hell. Giovanna was the wife of the 
 former. He was slain in a battle between the Guelphsand Ghibelines on the 
 plain of the Casentine, and it appears his body was never discovered. 
 
 Line 97- The Archian loses its OAvn name on joining the Arno. 
 
 Lioe 103. In comparing this with a similar contention for the soul of the 
 father, one cannot but consider the objection raised by the fiend to be not 
 groundless. 
 
Canto VI. PURGATORY. 151 
 
 * Of him thou bear'st away the Eternal leaven 
 
 For one small tear, which he from me did take : 
 To me the rest for other fate is given.' 
 
 Thou know'st how in the air collecteth blact 
 
 The humid vapour, which returns in rain, ^^^ 
 
 When risen where the cold doth melt its rack. 
 
 Conceived the evil will that aye seeks bane. 
 
 With intellect, and moved the chmd and wind 
 By power, his nature gave him o'er their train. 
 
 The valley thence, as the blank day declined, ^*' 
 
 From Pratomagno to the gorge, with cloud 
 Was covered, and the sky grew black behind, 
 
 So that the pregnant air with water bowed ; 
 The rain fell down, and to the ditches came 
 All that the earth's drenched surface overflowed: ^^'^ 
 
 And as all centred towards the largest stream, 
 Towards the royal river, with such speed 
 It hurried headlong, nothing could reclaim. 
 
 My frozen body lying in its bed, 
 
 The rushing Archian found, and bore away ^^* 
 
 To Arno, and across my breast undid 
 
 The arms I crossed there, 'neath death's conquering sway ; 
 Along its banks and down its deep it swirled, 
 Then bound and shrouded me with all its prey." 
 
 " Ah, when thou art returned unto the world, ^^ 
 
 And from thy travels restest in idea," 
 After the second spirit said a third, 
 
 " Remember also me, who am La Pia ; 
 The life that Siena gave, Maremma fell 
 Eathely destroyed, as he who erst made me a ^^^ 
 
 Bride with his ring espousing, knoweth well." 
 
 Line 133. This lady's story has become immortal through these four lines. 
 She was married to one Nello della Pietra, a powerful noble in Siena, who, 
 after his marriage, removed her to one of his possessions in Maremma, where 
 he alone was aware of the nature of her death. It is doubtful whether he 
 killed her or whether she died from the pestilential nature of the place, to 
 which he trusted for the attainment of his end. 
 
 CANTO VI. 
 
 The poet continues amongst the same troop, of whom he names several 
 more. At last, freed from their importunities, he advances with Virgil 
 till they meet another solitary shade, who proves to be the Mantuan Sor- 
 dello. On seeing his affectionate greeting with bis countryman, Dante 
 bursts into an invective against the whole of Italy divided by party feuds, 
 where, especially in Florence, such a spirit was entirely lost. 
 
152 PURGATORY. Canto VI. 
 
 When there breaks up at last a gambling bout, 
 The one who loses, vext remains behind, 
 Repeating his lost throws in gloomy doubt, 
 
 With him who wins go all the servile kind, 
 
 One goes before, and one behind him nears, * 
 
 One at his side his presence calls to mind, 
 
 He does not stay, but this and that one hears, 
 
 He who has shared his coin, takes no more heed. 
 So, through the pressure, by his gifts he steers. 
 
 Just so was I in that thick crowd of greed, ^^ 
 
 Turning towards them here and there my face. 
 The while with promises my way I find. 
 
 Here was the Aretine, who from the base 
 
 Strong arms of Ghin di Tacco death received, 
 
 And he who drowned, while urging on the chase. '* 
 
 Here with his outstretcht arms beseechings weaved 
 Frederic Novello, and here Pisa's son 
 Who proved the worth of his good sire bereaved. 
 
 I saw Count Orso, and that spirit won 
 
 From out his frame, by spite and envy rare, -^ 
 
 As it was said, and not for ill deeds done. 
 
 Pierre de la Broche I say; and here beware 
 That lady of Brabant, while still alive 
 Lest a worse company she some day share. 
 
 When I had freed myself from all that hive ^^ 
 
 Of shadows, who for others' prayers did vie. 
 To advance the moment their poor souls to shrive, 
 
 Line 8. " A cui porge la man, piu non fa pressa." — This has hitherto been 
 translated, " He, asrainst whom he has thrust his hand, stands aside," but I 
 think it will fairly bear the meaning given in the text, and which makes the 
 comparison so far more suitable to Dante's position amongst the spirits, none 
 of whom does he thrust aside. Gary alludes to a scene in one of Cervantes' 
 novels, from which it appears, as he says, that it was usual for money to be 
 given to bystanders at play, by winners, and thus bearing out my interpreta- 
 tion. 
 
 Line 13. The Aretine is Benincasa, judge in Siena, who was murdered 
 openly in his hall by Ghino di Tacco, because he hnd sentenced to death the 
 brother of the latter for a robbery. Ghino di Tacco was a celebrated 
 marauder of those days, and is the hero of one of Boccaccio's novels. The 
 2nd of the 10th day of the " Decameron." 
 
 Tjine 15. Ciacco Tarlati, who was drowned while swimming his horse 
 across the Arno, in pursuit of bis enemies the Bostoli. 
 
 Line 17- Frederic Novello, slain by one of the above family of the Bos- 
 toli. Pisa's son was Farinata, son of Marzucco, who, having entered the 
 order of Frati Minori, pardoned the slayer of his son, kissed his hand, and 
 at the funeral exhorted his relatives to reconciliation. 
 
 Line 22. Pierre de la Broche was secretary of Philip the Fair of France, 
 and was slain, according to Italian commentators, on account of a false 
 charge brought against him by Queen Mary of Brabant, of having attempted 
 her person. 
 
Canto VI. PURGATORY. 
 
 I thus began : " It seems thou dost deny, 
 
 light of mine, expressly in one text, "^ 
 
 That prayer can alter aught decreed on high : ^^ 
 
 And yet for that those prayers are all annext : 
 
 Will then this hope of theirs be all in vain ? 
 
 Or that thy saying is it not perplext ?" 
 And he to me ; " That verse of mine is plain, 
 
 Nor will these in the hope they nourish fail, ^^ 
 
 If one views clearly with perception sane : 
 The Top of Judgment cannot seek the vale, 
 
 Because tlie fire of love at once would do 
 
 That which would satisfy these souls in bale. 
 And there, where I laid down my saying true, *® 
 
 The lack could not amended be by prayer, 
 
 Because such prayer Grod was not joined unto. 
 But truly in such lofty doubt, beware 
 
 Of certainty, till she the secret break, 
 
 Of truth and intellect the glory rare. "** 
 
 Thou mayst not know, of Beatrix I speak, 
 
 Thou wilt behold her with a happy smile,. 
 
 Upon this mountain, on its highest peak." 
 And I : " Good leader, let us haste erewhile, 
 
 1 am not now so wearied as before ; ^^ 
 And see now towards us casts its shade the hill." 
 
 " With what reraaineth of the daylight's store 
 We'll go as far," he answered, "as we may. 
 But differs from thy thought the truth galore. 
 
 Before thou gain'st the height, return thou'lt see ^^ 
 
 The sun now covered by the mountain side, 
 So that no longer thou dost break his ray. 
 
 But see a spirit there, who stands aside. 
 
 And towards us all alone his gaze doth throw, 
 
 To us the shortest passage he will guide." ^^ 
 
 We came to him : () Lombard spirit how 
 
 Thou standedst there, with high and haughty crest, 
 Moving thy eyes with gesture proud and slow ! 
 
 He not a syllable to us addrest ; 
 
 But let us near approach, the while he eyed ^^ 
 
 Just like a lion when he takes his rest. 
 
 Line 30. Referring to the Hup, Book VI., "^neid" :— 
 " D'sine fata Deum flecti sperare precando." 
 Line 37. The Top of Judgment— oima di judicio— an expression also ap- 
 plied to the Deity by Shakspeare in " Measure for Measure :" — ■ 
 
 " How would you be, 
 If He, which is the Top of Judgment, should 
 Bat judge you as you are ?" 
 I believe this extraordinary parallel passage was first noticed by Mr. Douce. 
 
154. PURGATORY. Canto VI. 
 
 Virgil drew near him then, and praying, cried, 
 
 That he the best ascent to us would show : 
 
 To that request no answer he replied, 
 But of our country and our life to know '" 
 
 He asked us ; and my leader sweet began, 
 
 " Mantua," the shadow in a trembling glow 
 From the place where he had stood towards him ran, 
 
 Saying, " Mantuan, of thy land am I, 
 
 Sordello," and they kissed each other fain. ""^ 
 
 Household of grief, ah, slavish Italy ! 
 
 Ship without pilot in the tempest fear, 
 
 No landed lady, but a harlot's sty : 
 That gentle spirit was so ready there, 
 
 But at the sweet sound of his natal land, ^" 
 
 To give a citizen such festal cheer. 
 And now in thee thy living sons ne'er stand 
 
 Except at strife, and one the other gores, 
 
 Men whom one moat and rampart comprehend. 
 Seek, seek, O wretched one around the shores ^^ 
 
 Of thy seaboard, and then gaze in thy breast, 
 
 If any part of thee but peace ignores. 
 What boots it that Justinian had redrest 
 
 Thy bridle, if thy saddle now is free ? 
 
 The bridle makes thy shame stand more confest. *® 
 
 Woe on thy people, who devout should st be. 
 
 And leave thy Caesar seated in the selle. 
 
 If thou knew'st well what Grod commandeth thee. 
 See how the beast has grown unruly, fell, 
 
 Because it has not felt the chiding spur, *^ 
 
 The instant on the reins the fingers dwell. 
 O German Albert, who abandoned her 
 
 Now savage and unconquerable grown. 
 
 Whose saddle-bows thou shouldst have strided sure : 
 May from the stars just judgment fall adown ^^ 
 
 Upon thy blood, and that it cause the dread 
 
 Of thy successor, be it new and known : 
 Thou and thy father, how have ye been led 
 
 Chained by your lustings after Oermany, 
 
 The garden of the Empire to have fled. ^^ 
 
 Line 75. Sordello, a Provengal poet of the thirteenth century. 
 
 Line 97. Albert I., who became emperor in 1298, and was murdered tea 
 years later. He and his father Rodolph both neglected Italy for their Ger- 
 man possessions. His successor is Henry VII. of Luxembourg, from whom 
 Dante yainly expected the regeneration of his country under firm imperial 
 rule. 
 
Canto VI. PURGATORY. 155 
 
 Come, the Montecchi, Cappelletti, see, 
 
 Monaldi and Phillipeschi, man of sloth, 
 
 Oppressed already, or about to be. 
 Come, cruel one, O come and see, though loath. 
 
 The pressure of thy friends, and cure each ill, ^^" 
 
 And see how Santafior securely groweth. 
 Come and behold thy Eome, who waileth still, 
 
 Widowed and lone, she calls thee night and day 
 
 My Caesar, wherefore art not with me still? 
 Come see the. people, how they love alway, "^ 
 
 And if, for us, no pity thee can move. 
 
 Come to be shamed of thy glory's bay. 
 And if 'tis lawful to me, O great Jove, 
 
 Who erst on earth for us wast crucified. 
 
 Are thy just eyes withdrawn from us above ? ^^^ 
 
 Or lofty preparation dost thou hide 
 
 Within thy counsel's deeps, to work us good, 
 
 Whose secret to our ken is all denied ? 
 The lands of Italy now swarm with the brood 
 
 Of tyrants, and a new Marcellus grows ^^^ 
 
 Each peasant who takes up some party feud. 
 My Florence, thou shouldst be content, God knows, 
 
 With this digression noways touching thee, 
 
 Thanks to thy people who so learned grows. 
 Many in heart have justice, but delay ^^^ 
 
 To shoot till they have taken counsel rare ; 
 
 Thy people have it on their lips alway. 
 Many refuse the common load to bear ; 
 
 Thy people eagerly the charge endueth. 
 
 And crieth yet uncalled, " The yoke I'll share." ^^* 
 
 Now be thou glad, for thou hast cause in sooth ; 
 
 Thou who art wealthy, dowered with peace and brain, 
 
 The effects cannot be hid if I speak truth. 
 Athens and Sparta, who composed the train 
 
 Of ancient laws, and were so civilised, ^^^ 
 
 Comparison with thee can ne'er maintain 
 In comely life, since thou hast so prevised 
 
 Thy subtle schemings, that till mid-November 
 
 Lasts not the web October saw devised. 
 How many times, in days thou dost remember, ^^* 
 
 Tby money, habits, offices, and laws. 
 
 Hast thou remodelled, and renewed each member ? 
 
 Line 106. The Montagues aud Capulets of Shakspeare. 
 
 Line 111. Santa Fiora, a castle in Siena ; its security is clearly alluded to 
 ironically, but to what the poet alludes particularly is unknown. 
 
156 PURGATORY. Canto VII. 
 
 If clearly thou beholdest thy own flaws, 
 
 Like a sick woman thoa wilt see thee 'plain, 
 
 Who on her pillow cannot fiDd repose, ^''^ 
 
 And seeks with constant turns to ease her pain. 
 
 CANTO VII. 
 
 The poets learn from Sordello that it is impossible to ascend the mountain 
 daring the night, and he guides them to a retired valley, where they see 
 those who, from being engrossed with affairs of State, deferred their 
 repentance to the last, and are detained in the Ante-Purgatory. Anioogst 
 these are named the Emperor Rodolph, Ottocar, King of Bohemia, 
 Philip III. of France, Henry of Navarre, Peter III. of Arragon, Charles 
 of Anjou, Henry III. of England, and William, Marquis of Montferrat. 
 
 After these comely greetings, glad and free. 
 
 Three and four times were given and returned, 
 Drew back Sordello, saying, " Who are ye ?" 
 
 " Before that to this mount had ever turned 
 
 The spirits worthy Godwards to arise, ^ 
 
 My body by Octavius was inurned. 
 
 Virgil am I ; and I have lost the skies, ' 
 
 From lacking faith, and not for sin in me." 
 Thus unto him my leader then replies : 
 
 Like unto one who suddenly doth see '** 
 
 Something before him, which creates surprise, 
 Who trusts, yet doubts. It is — It cannot be — 
 
 So did he seem : and then he bowed his eyes. 
 And turned towards him with respectful mien, 
 And close embraced him humbly round the knees. ^^ 
 
 " O Latin glory, by the whom is seen," 
 
 He thus addressed him, " all our tongue can do ; 
 O, of my native place, the eternal sheen ; 
 
 What worth, or grace, to me thy form doth show ? 
 
 Say, if I'm worthy thy sweet speech to hear, -•^ 
 
 Comest thou from Hell, and from what vale below ?" 
 
 *' Through all the circles of that dolorous sphere," 
 To him he answered, " have I hence arrived ; 
 " Heaven's virtue helped me to conduct him here. 
 
 For what I failed to do, am I deprived 25 
 
 Of the sight o' the sun, which thou desirest to gain. 
 Whose knowledge unto me too late arrived. 
 
 Line 4. Virgil having died before the descent of Christ into Hell, the 
 purifying mountain of Purgatory was not then open. 
 
Canto VII. PURGATORY. 157 
 
 There is a place below, not sad witli pain, 
 
 But only doomed to darkness, where laments 
 Sound not like wailings, but are sighings fain. "^'^ 
 
 There do I stay with little innocents 
 
 Bit by the teeth of Death, before that they v 
 From sin original were made exempts. 
 There do I stay with those who failed to essay 
 
 The sacred virtues three, though without sin ^'' 
 
 They knew the rest, and followed them alway. 
 But if thou know'st, and mayst, point out some sign 
 Whence we can sooner climb this mountain side, 
 And entrance into Purgatory win." 
 " There is no certain entrance," he replied, ^" 
 
 " I am allowed to walk round these confines ; 
 And far as I may go, I'll be thy guide. 
 But see already how the day declines. 
 It is not possible to climb by night, 
 
 'Twere well to choose some resting-place betimes. *^ 
 
 Spirits there are some distance to our right : 
 If thou consent' st, I'll take thee unto these, 
 And thou wilt know them, not without delight.'* 
 " How's this !" was answered. " If a man should please 
 
 To climb by night, would other influence let ? ^® 
 
 Or is't impossible by high decrees ?" 
 Sordello on the earth his finger set, 
 
 Saying, " See only where I draw this line. 
 Thou couldst not pass it when the sun is set. 
 Not that would hinder thee aught else malign, ^^ 
 
 Save the night's gloom, from going up above ; 
 That binds in impotence the firm design. 
 Downwards with him thou possibly might' st rove, 
 And traverse all the hill, while wandering round. 
 Until the day above the horizon move." ^'^ 
 
 My leader then, as if in marvel wound, 
 
 " Lead us then," said he, " there, where thou didst say. 
 To solace us the while thus travel-bound." 
 From there we'd wandered but a little way. 
 
 When I perceived the mountain side descend, ^ 
 
 As on our earth the valleys slope away. 
 
 Line 28. In this beautiful description of Limbo Dante has the charity to 
 place unbaptised infants at least in a painless doom. A somewhat celebrated 
 Calvinist preacher was less merciful, when, holding out a bony hand, he used 
 to tell his hearers, " My brethren, there are children not a span long in 
 Hell !" 
 
 Line 35. The sacred virtues three are Faith, Hope, and Charity, the rest 
 alone known to the pagan world being Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and 
 Temperance. 
 
158 ' PURGATORY. Canto VII. 
 
 " There," said the shadow, " we our course must wend, 
 
 Where forms a hollow in the mountain side, 
 
 And there the new day's coming we'll attend." 
 Along the cliff a zigzag path did glide ^' 
 
 That sideways led into the valley's site, 
 
 Where the descent with^entlest slope did slide. 
 Gold and fair silver, cocnmeal and white. 
 
 The Indian wood all shining and serene, 
 
 Fresh emerald, in the hour 'tis splintered bright, ^^ 
 
 Beside the grass and flowers in that demesne, 
 
 Had they been placed, had been o'ercome inliue, 
 
 As fades the lesser by the brighter sheen. 
 Not only Nature there such colours drew, ^ •^ ^kxJ^ 
 
 But by the sweetness of its odorous showers ®° 
 
 Was made a whole confused, in beauty new. 
 Salve Begina on the grass and flowers 
 
 I saw the spirits and I heard them sing. 
 
 Unseen beyond the vale which them embowers. 
 " The whilst the sun its latest rays doth fling," ^^ 
 
 The Mantuan, who towards us turned, began, 
 
 " Ye would not that mid these I ye should bring. 
 Eaised on this cliff far better will ye scnn 
 
 Of all yon group, the acts and visages. 
 
 Than if amongst them in the vale ye wonne. ^^ 
 
 He who is seated highest, with the guise 
 
 Of one who failed in what he should have done, 
 
 Whose lips are silent mid the songs that rise. 
 Was Eodolph, Emperor, who had power alone, 
 
 To heal the wounds that Italy hath slain, ^^ 
 
 So that he cannot to their cheer be won. 
 He who to comfort him appears so fain, 
 
 Euled o'er the land, from which the water floweth 
 
 Which Elbe and Moldau carry to the main. 
 His name was Ottocar, and in his youth ^^ 
 
 Far better he than Venceslaus his son, 
 
 Who, bearded, sank in luxury and sloth. 
 He with the little nose, who seemeth one 
 
 In council with his friend of aspect blest. 
 
 Who died in flight, his lily all undone, ^^^ 
 
 Line 82. Salve Regina, the commenceraent of a hymn to the Virgin. 
 
 Line 94. The Emperor Eodolph, alluded to in the last canto. 
 
 Line 98. Bohemia. Ottocar was killed in a battle fought with Rodolph, 
 of whom he was the son-in-law. The luxury of his son Venceslaus II. is 
 alluded to in the 19th Canto of the " Paradise." 
 
 Line 103. Philip III. of France, who died at Perpignan, after the defeat 
 of his fleet by the forces of the King of Arragon. 
 
Canto VII. PURGATORY. 150 
 
 Behold him there, how he doth beat his breast : 
 
 And look upon the other, who has lain, 
 
 Sighing, his cheek upon his palm to rest ; 
 Father and father-in-law of France's bane ; 
 
 They know his life so vicious, and begrimed, "*• 
 
 Hence comes the grief, they cannot now restrain. 
 The one so large of limb, whose song is chimed 
 
 In melody with his of the aquiline nose, 
 
 With every virtue bore his nature primed : 
 And if the youth who sits behind him close "^ 
 
 Had only lived his father's realm to sway, 
 
 Worth had descended then from vase to vase. 
 That of his other heirs we caunot say : 
 
 Though James and Frederic now his kingdom own : 
 
 His better heritage does no one sway. ^^^ 
 
 But rarely in the branch again is grown 
 
 Our human excellence, so willeth He 
 
 Who gives it, that the boon be called his own. 
 To him with the aquiline nose my words agree ^^^ 
 
 Even as to Peter, who with him doth chaunt ; 
 
 Whence Provence and Apulia mourn to-day. 
 So far superior to the seed, the plant, 
 
 As more than Beatrix and Margaret, 
 
 Constantia of her husband's worth can vaunt. ^^^ 
 
 Behold the King, of life so simply fit, 
 
 Henry of England, seated there alone, 
 
 He in his branches has less cause to fret. 
 He who the lowest on the earth is thrown, 
 
 Gazing above, is William the Marchese, ^^ 
 
 Through whom did Alexandria cause to moan 
 In war, Montferrat, and the Canavese." 
 
 liine 107. Henry of Navarre, father of Jane, wife of Philip le Bel, " France's 
 banp." 
 
 Line 112. Peter III. of Arragon, the father of four sons, Alonzo, Frederic, 
 James, and Peter. Alonzo, and after his death James, succeeded their father 
 in the kingdom of Arragon and Frederic in that of Sicily, so that the youth 
 who sits close to his father is probably Peter, the only one who did not 
 beco lie a king. 
 
 Line 124. Charles of Anjou, the brother of Saint Louis, who was as far 
 superior to his successor, Charles II., as Peter to his sons. 
 
 Line 128. Constance, widow of Peter III. of Arragon, whence from the 
 context Beatrice and Margaret ought to be the wives of the above-raen- 
 tione i Frederic and James. Such, however, is not the case, and the daughters 
 of Berenger, Count of Provence, are supposed to be intended, who married 
 the two brothers Saint Lonis and Charles of Anjou. 
 
 Line 132. An allusion to Edward I., the great Plantagenet. 
 
 Line 134. William of Montferrat was taken prisoner by the Alexandrians, 
 and died in confinement ; his people of Montferiut and the Canavese in con- 
 sequence entered into a long war with Alexandria. 
 
160 PURGATORY. Canto VIII. 
 
 CANTO VIII. 
 
 At evening fall one of the spirits sings the hymn of the Church, " Te lucis 
 ante terminum," and on its close two angels, with flaming swords broken 
 off at the points, descend to guard the vale. The poets then enter it, 
 and Dante meets with joy his friend Nino, the Judge of Gallura. A 
 serpent creeps into the valley, but flees at once on the advance of the 
 angels ; and Dante converses with Conrad Malaspina, who predicts to 
 him his own exile. 
 
 'TwAS now the hour when longings rise anew 
 
 To voyagers, and the heart grown tender sighs, 
 
 The day they've said to well-loved friends adieu. f^ 
 
 When the new pilgrim thrills with love's soft ties, \ i^A^ 
 If from afar he hear the vesper bell, Ia^^^'^YX ^ 
 
 That seems to mourn above the day that dies. " ^ 
 
 When I began to shake aside the spell 
 Of listening, and to gaze upon a soul, 
 Who with his hand an audience claimed as well. 
 
 He joined both palms together, and the whole ^^ 
 
 Lifted on high, his eyes fixed towards the east, 
 As though he said to God, " I trust thee sole." 
 
 Te lucis ante with such holy zest 
 
 Fell from his mouth, and with such cadence sweet, 
 
 That on it bore me from my mind released. ^* 
 
 The others sweetly then with fervent heat 
 
 Accompanied his voice throughout the hymn. 
 Fixing their eyes upon the starry seat. 
 
 Here to the truth sharpen thy eyesight dim, 
 
 O reader, for so subtle is the veil, -® 
 
 Thou well might' st pass it by, nor see within. 
 
 I saw that gentle army in the vale 
 Grazing in silence afterwards above. 
 As if in expectation, humbly pale. 
 
 And I saw cleave the height, and downwards move -^ 
 
 Two angels, holding each a flaming sword. 
 The points of which were broken off above. 
 
 Line 1. These opening lines have been thus beautifully paraphrased by 
 Byron: — 
 
 " Soft hour ! which wakes the wish, and melts the heart, 
 Of those who sail the seas, on the first day 
 When they from their sweet friends are torn apart, 
 
 Or fills with love the pilgrim on bis way 
 As the far bell of vesper makes him start. 
 Seeming to weep the dying day's decay." 
 
 " Don Juan," Canto III. 
 
Canto VIII. PURGATORY. 161 
 
 Green as young shoots just sprouted in the sward 
 
 Their garments were, and by the rapid flight 
 
 Of their green pinions were they blown abroad. ^'^ 
 
 The one, not far above us, did alight. 
 
 The other to the farther shore did fare, 
 
 So that i' the midst they held the troop in sight. 
 One clearly could perceive their golden hair, 
 
 But from the eye their faces did escape^ ^^ 
 
 As fail the senses, rapt on aught too rare. 
 " They both of them have come from Mary's lap, 
 
 This valley to defend," Sordello cried, 
 
 " From the serpent that will swiftly come, mayhap." 
 Whence I, who knew not from which path 'twould glide, '*° 
 
 Turned me around, and very closely drew, 
 
 All frozen, unto Virgil's faithful side. 
 Sordello still, " Let us go downwards now 
 
 Mid the great shadows, and with them we'll speak ; 
 
 To see ye will delight them well I trow." *'^ 
 
 Three footsteps scarcely downwards did I take, 
 
 To join them, when a spirit I remark 
 
 Gazing, as recognition he would seek. 
 Already by this time it had grown dark, 
 
 But not so much but that his eyes and mine ^^ 
 
 Could that distinguish which the rest did mark- 
 He drew to me, and I towards him incline : 
 
 My gentle Nino, what a joy it gave 
 
 To see thou wast not doomed with the malign I 
 There lacked to us no salutation brave, ^^ 
 
 And then he asked : " How long is't since ye came 
 
 Unto this mountain, o'er the distant wave ?" 
 " O," said I to him, " from the bourns of shame 
 
 This morn I came, and still my life I own. 
 
 Though wandering, immortality I claim." ®^ 
 
 As soon as that my answer had been known, 
 
 He and Sordello drew themselves away. 
 
 As people in a sudden marvel thrown. 
 To Virgil one, the other turned to me. 
 
 Crying to one, " Currado, leave thy place, ^^ 
 
 A marvel of God's favour come to see." 
 Then turned to me : " By that peculiar grace 
 
 Thou owest unto him who so doth hide 
 
 His primal self that none to it can pass, 
 
 Line 53. Nino, Judge of Gallura, of the family of tlie Visconti of Pisa, and 
 nephew of Count Ugolino. 
 
162 PURGATORY. Cakto VIII. 
 
 WEen thou shalt be beyond that ocean wide, ^* 
 
 Tell my Giovanna, that for me she pray, 
 
 There where the innocent are not denied. 
 Her mother cannot love me more I say, 
 
 Since she has changed her widow's garb of woe, 
 
 Which still the wretched one must yearn for aye. '^ 
 
 From her example we can easily know 
 
 How long in woman fires of love endure, 
 
 If sight or touch do not keep up the glow. 
 She will not gain so fair a sepulture 
 
 From the Milani, who the viper claim, ^ 
 
 As would have given the cock that marks Gallure." 
 Thus did he speak, indignant with the flame, 
 
 Stampt on his face, of that straightforward zeal, 
 
 Which in his heart with measure did he tame. 
 My greedy eyes towards the sky did steal, ^^ 
 
 There, where the stars revolving circle slow. 
 
 As near the axle slowest turns the wheel. 
 My leader : " Son, at what art gazing so ?" 
 
 And I to him : "At those three torches bright 
 
 Whence yonder Pole above, is all aglow." ^^ 
 
 And he to me : " The four clear stars of light 
 
 Thou saw'st this morn, are not yet risen anew, 
 
 These are already mounted in their site." 
 The while he spake Sordello him withdrew, 
 
 Saying, " Behold our enemy is there," ®* 
 
 And pointed with his finger where to view. 
 On that side where the little vale was bare 
 
 Of all defence there was an adder seen. 
 
 Perchance that gave to Eve such bitter fare. 
 Slid 'twixt the grass and flowers the evil sheen, ^^ 
 
 Turning at times its head to lick its back, 
 
 As any animal its hide doth preen. 
 I saw not, and to tell must therefore lack, 
 
 How the celestial falcons rallied there. 
 
 But well I saw them both upon its track. '^•'' 
 
 Hearing their green wiugs sweeping cleave the air 
 
 The serpent fled, and back the angels flew 
 
 With equal flight unto their fixed repair. 
 
 Line 71. Giovanna is Nino's daughter, whose widow, Beatrice, Marchioness 
 of Este, made a second marriage with Galeazzo dei Visconti of Milan. The 
 ■viper alluded to in the 80th verse was the arms of the visconti, adopted as 
 the standard of the Milanese, while the cock was the standard of Nino's 
 province of Gallura. 
 
 Line 89. The three theological virtues are here intended. 
 
125 
 
 Canto IX. PURGATORY. 163 
 
 The shadow who erewhile to Nino drew 
 
 When he was called by him, throughout the fight ^^^ 
 
 One moment from me had not turned his view. 
 
 " So may the lamp which leads thee to the height 
 Find in thy free will oil enough to wait 
 Until thou reachest to the Infinite," 
 
 Thus he began : *' If thou wilt but relate ^^^ 
 
 All that thou know'st of Valdimagra famed, 
 And the surrounding parts where I was great. 
 
 Currado Malaspina was I named : 
 
 Not the elder, though from him descent I own ; 
 
 The love I bore my people here is tamed." ^^ 
 
 ** O," said I to him, " though I ne'er have gone 
 Within your country, wheresoe'er one dwells 
 Throughout all Europe, is it not well known ? 
 
 The fame, which of your house the honour swells. 
 Alike the nobles and the country cry, 
 That, though by him unwitnessed, each one tells. 
 
 I swear to ye, so may I reach on high. 
 
 Your honoured race has fallen not away 
 In prise of arms and liberality. 
 
 So are they privileged by habit's sway, ^^^ 
 
 That though the world may squint its evil head. 
 Straight on they go, and spurn the evil way." 
 
 And he : " Now go : the sun within that bed 
 
 Will not be laid seven times on which the Ram 
 
 With its four feet o'ercovering doth tread, ^^ 
 
 Ere this opinion which thou dost proclaim 
 Will be close riveted within thy head 
 With better clamps than by this general fame, 
 
 Unless the course of judgment can be stayed." 
 
 Line 109. Currado Malaspina, father of the Marchese Marcello Malaspina, 
 by whom Dante was liberally received in his exile, as is alluded to in 
 prophecy by Currado at the close of the Canto. The marquisate of Val- 
 dimagra is now called the Lunigiana, from the city of Luni, at the mouth of 
 the River Magra. 
 
 Line 133. The sun will not revisit the constellation of Aries seven times— 
 that is, seven years will not pass. 
 
 CANTO IX. 
 
 Dante dreams that he is carried by an eagle to the sphere of fire. On waking 
 he finds himself alone with Virgil, who tells him that in his sleep he was 
 borne up by Lucia to that spot, which is close to the gate of Purgatory. 
 Reaching the portal, they are admitted by the Angel who stands in ward 
 over it, as the vicar of Saint Peter. 
 
164 PUKGATORY. Canto IX. 
 
 The eternal mistress of Tithoims old, 
 
 Already whitened in the eastern height, 
 Quitting the dear arms that around her fold. 
 
 With jewels was her forehead shining bright, 
 
 Arranged in shape of that cold-blooded beast ^ 
 
 That with its poisonous tail doth piercing smite. 
 
 And of the footsteps with the which she paced, 
 Night had made two already where we were, 
 And with droopt wings the third now downwards past. 
 
 When I, who Adam's body with me bear, ^^ 
 
 Conquered by slumber on the grass repose, 
 Where five in number we were seated there. 
 
 What time commences with sad fall and close 
 The swallow's song, the hour before the morn. 
 Perchance in memory of her early woes, ^^ 
 
 And when this mind of ours is chiefly borne 
 
 Out of the flesh, and least o'ercome by thought, 
 Grows in its visions half divinely born, 
 
 Meseemed in a dream I saw upcaught, 
 
 With golden plumes, an eagle in the sky, ^ 
 
 Prepared to swoop adown, with wings outraught. 
 
 Meseemed on that olden mount to lie 
 
 Where G-anymede his comrades erst did quit, 
 When he was carried to the conclave high. 
 
 I thought perchance this bird of prey doth smite ^^ 
 
 By habit here, and in aught other place 
 Disdains to bear aloft his prey in flight. 
 
 Meseemed then it wheeled with swifter pace, 
 And terrible as lightning downwards came. 
 And dragged me upwards to the blazing space. ^'^ 
 
 Meseemed there we both were burnt in the flame. 
 And so the imagined burning singed me keen, 
 That sleep itself was broken by the dream. 
 
 Achilles roused himself with such a mien. 
 
 Gazing around with eyes just wakened, ^ 
 
 And knowing not the place where he had been, 
 
 What time his mother had from Chiron fled 
 To Scyros, he asleep upon her arm. 
 There, whence in after times the Greeks him led. 
 
 Line 7. These footsteps are supposed to mean the four watches into which 
 the night is divided, the third of which being just closed, it is three hours 
 before sunrise. At this hour Dante places the first rising of the dawn, as 
 described in the first terzina. 
 
 Line 15. Alluding to the story of Progne in Ovid's " Metamorphoses," b.vi. 
 
 Line 30. To the sphere of fire, supposed to be under the moon's concave. 
 
Canto IX- PURGATOEY. 165 
 
 So did I shake myself as slumber's charm ^'^ 
 
 Fled from me, and I grew as white as stone, 
 Like to a man who freezes in alarm. 
 
 Beside me was my comforter alone;^ 
 
 Two hours already was the sun on high, 
 
 And towards the seashore was my vision thrown. ^^ 
 
 " Fear thou no more," I heard my master cry, 
 
 " Make thyself sure, for our emprise has thrived ; 
 Loose not, but tighten now thy panoply. 
 
 To Purgatory now hast thou arrived. 
 
 Behold the cliff that girdeth its sojourn, ^'^ 
 
 See thou the entrance, where it seemeth rived. 
 
 Before the dawning that precedes the morn. 
 The while thy spirit in that slumber lay. 
 Upon the flowers which yonder vale adorn, 
 
 A lady came. * I'm Lucia,' did she say, ^* 
 
 * Let me take up your friend in slumber chained. 
 So will I help him onwards on his way.' 
 
 Sordello and the other souls remained ; 
 
 She carried thee, and as the day grew clear, 
 
 I following on her steps, this height we gained. ®*' 
 
 She pointed out, the while she placed thee here. 
 Yon open entrance, with her heaven -clear eyes, 
 Then, as sleep left thee, did she disappear." 
 
 Like to a man his doubts who certifies. 
 
 And changes into comfort his affright, *^ 
 
 When the discovered truth before him lies, 
 
 So did I rally ; and when free and light 
 My leader saw me, upwards by the steep 
 He moved, and I behind him towards the height. 
 
 Eeader, thou seest to what height doth creep ^^ 
 
 My matter, therefore marvel not, with art 
 Yet more, if I sustain its purpose deep. 
 
 We had drawn nearer, and had reached the part. 
 That there, what formerly had seemed a break. 
 As 'twere a fissure which a wall doth part, ^^ 
 
 As a gate I saw, 'neath which three steps did make 
 The ascent to reach it, each of different hue, 
 Guarded by one, who yet had nothing spake ; 
 
 And as more open to the sight it grew, 
 
 I saw him seated on the topmost stand, *® 
 
 Such in the face I could not bear the view. 
 
 A naked sword he held within his hand. 
 
 Whose dazzling rays were so reflected there, 
 That oft in vain my sight towards it wonned. 
 
166 PURGATORY. Canto IX. 
 
 *' What is your pleasure ? speak from where ye are," ^ 
 
 Began he then to say. " Where is your guide ? 
 
 Look that your coming up no damage bear." 
 ** A lady of the sky, in these things tried," 
 
 Answered my master to him, " even now 
 
 Told us, go on, the gate's on yonder side." ^ 
 
 *' Well will she help you on your path I trow," 
 
 The courteous porter thus commenced again : 
 
 " Before our steps ye may come forward now." 
 There did we come, and the first step I gain 
 
 White marble was, so polished and so bright, ** 
 
 That in it all myself was mirrored plain. 
 Darker than sable was the second pight. 
 
 Made of a rugged and fire-scathed stone 
 
 Cracked on its surface, and athwart its site. 
 The third, whose mass above them both was thrown, ^^ 
 
 Seemed to me made of flaming porphyry. 
 
 Like blood that from a vein is bubbling on. 
 O'er this both feet he planted royally 
 
 God's Angel, who was seated on the sill. 
 
 Which made of diamond appeared to me. ^^ 
 
 By the three steps above, with cheering will 
 
 My leader drew me, saying, " Seek with meet 
 
 Humility, that he thy wish fulfil." 
 I sank devoutly at the sacred feet, 
 
 And first three times upon my breast I smote, "•* 
 
 Then prayed to him to ope for pity sweet. 
 Seven P's upon my forehead then he wrote 
 
 With his sword's point, and " See that thou dost lave 
 
 These wounds," he said, " when thou within hast got." 
 Ashes on earth dug drily from a cave ^^^ 
 
 Would be the colour of his vestment's fold. 
 
 From under which he drew two keys that save. 
 The one was silver, and the other gold, 
 
 First with the white, then with the golden key. 
 
 He touched the gate, that I my longing hold. ^^^ 
 
 " Whenever either key doth fail to agree. 
 
 So that it will not travel in the wards," 
 
 He said to me, " this passage is not free. 
 
 Line 95. The three steps of white marble, rough stone, and porphyry are 
 allegorical of confession, the contrition attending on it, and the fervent charity 
 thereby attained. 
 
 Line 112. "The seven P's" denote the seven capital sins, Peccata, of 
 v^hice he is to be cleared in his passage through Purgatory. 
 
 Line 118. The golden key is the authority vested in the Churchy to absolve 
 sinners, the silver one the doctrinal learning needful to the priest for the 
 performance of that office. 
 
130 
 
 Canto X. PURGATORY. 167 
 
 More precious one, the other one accords 
 
 Only with wit and knowledge in its use, - -^ 
 
 Because by that we turn the secret wards. 
 From Peter do I hold it, its abuse, 
 
 He told, to those sunk humbly at my feet. 
 
 Be more in opening than in keeping close." 
 He thrust the portal of the sacred gate, 
 
 Bidding us " Enter, but be well aware. 
 
 Who looketh back is cast outside by Fate." 
 And when there swung upon its hinges there 
 
 The portals of that entrance consecrate, 
 
 Which were of sounding metal, strong and clear, ^^^ 
 
 Creakt not so loud the famed Tarpeian-Gate 
 
 When good Metellus there was overthrown. 
 
 And with rapt treasury 'twas desolate. 
 Wrapt in attention, after the first tone, 
 
 Te Beum Laudamus on my ear did steal, ^^ 
 
 With voices mingled in sweet undertone. 
 Such an effect exactly did reveal 
 
 That which I heard, as in a church's dome 
 
 When singing mingles with the organ's peal : 
 And now the words are heard, and now o'ercome. ^^ 
 
 Line 136. The Tarpeian Gate, in which was the Roman treasury, which the 
 tribune Metellus in vain attempted to guard against the followers of Caesar. 
 Lucan's " Pharsalia," book iii. 
 
 CANTO X. 
 
 The poets issue from the gate through a spiral staircase upon the first cor- 
 nice on the mountain of Purgatory. On the wall which bars the further 
 ascent of the mountain they see carved bas-reliefs representing various 
 examples of humility. Finally they advance slowly towai'ds these 
 spirits, who, bowed under vast weights, are purged of the sin of Pride. 
 
 When we had crossed the threshold of the gate 
 
 So little used by man on evil fain. 
 
 Which makes the crooked way appear the straight, "^ 
 Sounding with clash I heard it close again ; ^ 
 
 And if on this my glance had backwards flown, 
 
 What fit excuse had been for such a stain ? 
 We mounted by a cloven stair of stone 
 
 That upwards spirally wound on its way. 
 
 Like to a wave that flies, and then comes on., 
 " 'Tis needful here a little art to essay," ^^ 
 
 Began my leader, " and to keep us near 
 
 To either corner as it turns away." 
 
168 PURGATORY. Canto X. 
 
 By this our steps so slowly did we steer, 
 That first the circle of the sinking moon, 
 Reaching its western bed, did disappear 
 
 Ere from that needle's eye we had outgone. 
 
 But when at length freed clear, we issued out, 
 There, where the mountain side is backward thrown, 
 
 Quite wearied I, and both of us in doubt 
 
 About our path, we rested on a plain "^ 
 
 More lonely than the roads through desert's drought. 
 
 From the far edge, which binds the airy main. 
 
 To the foot of the high bank which upwards springs, 
 The human form thrice measured would attain. 
 
 And far as could my eyesight stretch its wings, ^ 
 
 Now on the left, and now on the right side. 
 The ledge with equal breadth the mountain rings. 
 
 Above no sooner had our footsteps hied, 
 
 Ere of the bank which bound the ledge'I learned, 
 
 By which all upward passage was denied, ^^ 
 
 That it was marble pure, and so adorned 
 With carvings, that not merely Polyclete, 
 But Nature's self beside it had been scorned. 
 
 The Angel, who came down the earth to greet 
 
 With news of peace, bewept for many a year, '^ 
 
 Which opened, from its olden ban, Heaven's seat. 
 
 Before us did so truthfully appear, 
 In loving attitude there sculptured, 
 No silent image it resembled here. 
 
 One would have sworn his lips the Ave said : *** 
 
 For she was also sculptured, at whose 'hest 
 Was Love unlocked on high, and earthwards led. 
 
 In her whole gesture were the words imprest, 
 Ecce Ancilla Bei, clearly shown 
 As the impression upon wax is prest. ' ■** 
 
 *' Fix not thy mind upon one place alone," 
 Said my sweet master, standing at my side, 
 On that at which the beating heart is known ; 
 
 On which I forward turned my glance and spied 
 
 Behind Maria, on the wall, where he ^ 
 
 Was stationed, who aye led me as my guide. 
 
 Carved in the rock another history ; 
 
 On which I crossed by Yirgil, and drew near, 
 That straight before my eyes the scene might be. 
 
 There was engraven in the marble sheer '"^ 
 
 The car and bullocks, with the holy ark, 
 Which to profane with service none may dare. 
 
Canto X. PURGATORY. 169 
 
 In front appeared the people as they park 
 
 Divided in seven choirs, who to the sight 
 
 Appear to sing, though hearing cannot mark ; ^ 
 
 So did the smoke of incense, rising white, 
 
 As it was imaged there, from nose and eyes. 
 
 Demand an evidence discordant quite. 
 Before the blessed vessel did uprise Dci^i 
 
 The humble Psalmist, dancing lustily, ^' 
 
 And more and less than monarch in such guise. 
 Imaged within a window that was by, 
 
 From a great palace Michol downwards gazed, 
 
 A scornful lady, and all sad to see. 
 I moved my feet from where till then I'd gazed, '^^ 
 
 Nearer to see another history, 
 
 Which beyond Michol in white marble blazed. 
 Was storied here on stone the glory high 
 
 Of that good Eoman prince, whose virtue's dower 
 
 Urged Gregory to his great victory : ^^ 
 
 Of Trajan do I speak, the Emperour : 
 
 There was a widow at his bridle rein, 
 
 Tears in her geste and steept in sorrow's power. 
 Around him did appear the trampling train 
 
 Of horsemen, and above him in the breeze *" 
 
 Fluttered the gold enwoven banners plain. 
 The wretched woman in the midst of these 
 
 Appeared to say, " My sovran, vengeance wreak 
 
 For my son's death, which grieves my aged days." 
 And he to answer her : " Now patience seek ^^ 
 
 Till I return." And she : " O lord, my own," 
 
 Like one whose grief demandeth solace quick, 
 " If thou shouldst not return ?" " He on my throne 
 
 Will do it for thee." " What will 't merit thee 
 
 If thou neglect'dst thy own, his duty done ?" ^" 
 
 " Now take thee comfort, for 'tis fit," said he, 
 
 " That ere I move I should my duty do : 
 
 Justice demands, and pity urgeth me." 
 He who has ne'er seen what to Him was new. 
 
 Rendered through gestures this most visible speech, ^^ 
 
 Novel to us, the like who never knew. 
 
 Line 75. The legend is that St. Gregory was so moved with admiration at 
 the anecdote of Trajan which forms the suhject of the succeeding bas-relief 
 — viz., that on the prayer of a widow he left his army when starting on an 
 expedition and returned to Rome to revenge her murdered sou — that by his 
 prayers he obtained his transference from Limbo to Paradise. Dante again 
 introduces this legend in the " Paradise," Canto XX. 
 
 Line 94. God. 
 
1^0 PURGATORY. 
 
 Canto X. 
 
 The whilst I took delight to gaze on each 
 Of those examples of humility, 
 Charming to dwell on, by their skill so rich; 
 
 *' Lo yonder, though they very slowly hie," 
 Murmured the poet, " many people go, 
 These will instruct us how to climb on high." 
 
 My eyes that ever were intent to know 
 
 And gaze on novelties for which they yearn, 
 In turning round towards him were not slow. 
 
 I would not, reader, thou shouldst 'wildered turn 
 From thy fair purpose in despair, to hear 
 How God wills that the proud forgiveness earn. 
 
 Linger not o'er the form of penance here : 
 
 Think of what follows, think whate'er their pain, 
 Beyond the judgment cannot last the fear. 
 
 *' That which I see, my master," I began, 
 
 " Seems not like persons who towards us come ; 
 Yet what I know not, so my sight is vain." 
 
 And he to me : '* The heavy-laden doom 
 
 Which makes their torment, bows them to the ground, 
 So that my eyes at first in doubt did roam. >i 
 
 But look intently, and make out unbound 
 
 Each huddled mass that 'neath yon stones creeps on, 
 Now thou canst see how each himself doth wound." 
 
 Proud Christians, wretched, weary, and undone ! 
 Who of your mental sight are so bereaved 
 That ye have faith in backward paths alone ; 
 
 That we are worms have ye not yet perceived, 
 Born but to form the Angelic butterfly 
 That soareth up to judgment unreprieved ? 
 
 Of what your spirit doth it vaunt so high ? 
 Since ye are unformed insects at the best. 
 Worms as it were unfinished utterly. 
 
 As roof or ceiling for support doth rest 
 Upon a bracket, which in shape is seen 
 A figure with his knees against his breast. 
 
 Which through mere fiction causeth anguish keen, 
 And true in him who looks on it ; so made 
 Those did I see, when I had pierced their mien. 
 
 True, they, as more or less was on them laid. 
 Bowed in proportion to the weights they bore, 
 And who most patience in his gestures had, 
 
 Weeping, appeared to say, " I can no more." 
 
 100 
 
Caicto XI. PURGATORY. 171 
 
 CANTO XI. 
 
 After the spirits have recited the Lord's Prayer, Virgil demands of them the 
 way up the mountain. One of them directs them to accompany them along 
 the ledge, and declares himself to be Omberto, who was murdered at 
 Campagnatico. Dante then recognises in another Odorisi the Illuminator, 
 who discourses on the vanity of worldly fame, and points out to him 
 Provenzana Salvani, a chief in Siena. 
 
 " Our Father who dost dwell in Heaven above, 
 
 Not circumscribed, but that Thou there dost place 
 
 Upon Thy primal effluence, higher love, 
 For ever hallowed be Thy Name and grace, 
 
 By each created thing, as is most right ^ 
 
 In rendering thanks Thy savour to embrace. 
 The peace of Thy own kingdom on us light, 
 
 Which of ourselves we never could attain. 
 
 Unless it come through striving with all might. 
 As, by their own desire. Thy angels fain ^^ 
 
 Singing Hosanna, sacrifice to Thee, 
 
 So may Thy will be done on earth by man. 
 Provide us with our daily manna free, 
 
 Without the which, this desert road along. 
 
 He would go back, who striveth most to flee. ^^ 
 
 And as we pardon unto each the wrong 
 
 Which we have suffered, be our pardoner, 
 
 Nor weigh the merits which to us belong. 
 Our virtue, which so easily doth err, 
 
 Do not thou test it with the ancient foe, ^ 
 
 Deliver us from him that so doth spur. 
 This last petition, O dear Lord, we owe 
 
 Not for ourselves, for whom is no more need, 
 
 E-ather for those we've left behind below." 
 So for their voyage, and for ours, good speed, ^ 
 
 Those shadows praying, 'neath their burden hied, 
 
 Like to the nightmare, which bad dreams oft breed : 
 Each in their separate proportion tried, 
 ^ Along that first ledge pass they on outworn, 
 
 Purging the fogmists of their earthly pride. ^® 
 
 Since ever there to us goodwill is borne. 
 
 For them on earth, what can they do or say. 
 
 Who with the good root dowered, to grace are born ? 
 Well should they help their sins to wash away, 
 
 Which hence they carried, so that pure and light ^ 
 
 They may ascend unto the starry ray. 
 
172 PURGATORY. Canto, XI 
 
 "Ah that both clemency and justice right 
 
 May soon unburden ye, your wings to rear, 
 
 According to your will to rise in flight ! 
 Show us the shortest way towards the stair ; *" 
 
 And if there's more than one appointed road, 
 
 Point out the one which riseth up least sheer, 
 Since he who cometh with me, by the load 
 
 Of Adam's flesh with which he still is drest, 
 
 Is slow in climbing, though goodwill be showed." ^^ 
 
 The words, which they in answer then addrest, 
 
 To those he spake, the whom I followed, quite 
 
 From whom they issued were not manifest. 
 They said : " Along the bank towards the right 
 
 Come ye with us, a passage will be shown *^ 
 
 Which can be mounted by a living wight. 
 And were I not impeded by the stone. 
 
 Which thus my proud neck doth weigh down and tame, 
 
 Whence I am forced to keep my face bent down, 
 This one who liveth still, nor tells his name, ** 
 
 I'd gaze on, if perchance to me he's known. 
 
 His pity also for this load to claim. 
 Latin was I, of a great Tuscan son, 
 
 Gruglielm' Aldobrandescho was my sire, 
 
 I know not if his name to you has flown. *^ 
 
 The ancient blood, and deeds of grace and fire 
 
 Done by my ancestors, made me so proud, 
 
 Not thinking of our common mother, mire, 
 Each man I held in such contempt avowed. 
 
 That hence I died, as the Sanesi know, ^"^ 
 
 And knows in Campagnatico the crowd. 
 Omberto I : nor me alone I trow 
 
 Has Pride thus ruined, all who with me fare 
 
 Has she drawn with her to this grievous woe. 
 And here 'tis dooomed that I this burden bear '" 
 
 For her, until I satisfy my God, 
 
 In which I living failed, 'midst dead men here." 
 Listening the words, my face I downwards bowed, 
 
 And one amongst them (not the one who spake) 
 
 Twisted himself beneath his cumbering load, /* 
 
 Line 58. Omberto, Count of Santa Flora, whose arrogance became so hate- 
 ful to the inhabitants of Siena that they murdered him in Campagnatico. It 
 was, perhaps, in allusion to this murder that in Canto VI. Dante called on 
 the Emperor Albert to see " how Santa Fior securely groweth. " " E vedra, 
 Santa Fior com e secura." 
 
Canto XI. PURGATORY. 173 
 
 And saw, and knew me, and did call me back. 
 
 Fixing with great fatigue on me his eyes, 
 
 Who, wholly bent, with them my course did take. 
 " O," said I to him, " art not Oderis ? 
 
 Agobbio's pride, and honour of the art, ^" 
 
 Illuminating called, in Paris' guise?" 
 " Brother," said he, " the shapes more hfelike start 
 
 Which Franco Bolognese's pencil drew. 
 
 Now is the honour his, and mine in part. 
 I had not been so courteous, it is true, ^^ 
 
 While I was living, for the great desire 
 
 Of excellence, which in my heart then grew. 
 Of such a pride, here do we pay the hire ; 
 
 And even here I'd be not, had I not, 
 
 While scope was left to sin, sought out God nigher. ^^ 
 O empty glory of our human lot, 
 
 How briefly lasts the green upon the bough. 
 
 Unless succeeds the fame an age of nought ! 
 In painting, Cimabue they avow 
 
 The master once, now Giotto has their cry, '^ 
 
 So that the other's fame obscureth now. 
 So the first with the latter Guido could not vie, 
 
 In pride of style, and haply one is born 
 
 Who'll chase them both from out their nest on high. 
 Mundane renown is but a breath forlorn ^^^ 
 
 Of wind that cometh now from here, now there, 
 
 Named various from the quarter whence 'tis borne. 
 If thou stripp'st off thy aged flesh, wilt share 
 
 More fame than if thou'dst early died in grace 
 
 Before thou'dst ceased thy childish prattle, ere ^^* 
 
 Line 79- Oderisi was a miniature-painter, a friend of Giotto and Dante, 
 and the master of Franco of Bologna, whose skill he extols beyond his own. 
 
 Line 93. The fame of any man is immediately eclipsed by that of his 
 successors, unless there follows an age void of excellence. 
 
 Line 94. Cimabue was the father of Italian painting : the story of his dis- 
 covering Giotto's talents, while the latter was tending sheep, is well known. 
 *' Yet rightly was young Giotto talked about. 
 Whom Cimabue found among the sheep, 
 And knew, as gods know gods, and carried home 
 
 To paint the things he painted, with a deep 
 And fuller insight, and so overcome 
 
 His chapel Virgin with a heavealier sweep 
 Of light." 
 
 Mrs. Browning's " Casa Guidi Windows." 
 Line 97- Guido Guinicelli, of a noble family in Bologna, whom Dante 
 introduces in the 26th Canto of the " Purgatory," where he avows that he was 
 his father in the art of poetry. The second Guido is Cavalcanti, Dante's 
 intimate friend, whom his father in Canto X. of the " Hell" expected to find in 
 his company. As the second Guido eclipsed the literary fame of the first, 
 so Dante hints that he will rise over both. 
 
174 PURGATORY. Canto XI. 
 
 A thousand years have past ? A briefer space 
 
 Beside the eternal, than a glance of the eye 
 
 By that star's orbit, longest whirled through space. 
 Eesounded with his name all Tuscany 
 
 Who there before me doth so slowly toil ; "** 
 
 Of him in Siena now they scarcely sigh, 
 Where he was lord, what time their arms did spoil 
 
 The rage of Florence, then so proud to view, 
 
 Whom now, a harlot, all defilements soil. 
 This your renown is like the grass's hue "^ 
 
 Which comes and goes, the sun that makes it fade, 
 
 The tender leaf from the earth's bosom drew." 
 And I to him : " What thou hast truly said 
 
 Teaches humility, and levels pride ; 
 
 But who is he, of whom thou'st parlance made?" ^^^ 
 
 ** Provenzan the Salvani," he replied. 
 
 And he is here, because presumptuous. 
 
 Beneath his hands all Siena he defied. 
 Thus hath he gone, and goes without repose 
 
 Aye since his death, who too much dares his fate, ^^* 
 
 In satisfaction such a payment owes." 
 And I : " Since every spirit who doth wait 
 
 To the brink of life, with penitence delayed, 
 
 Must dwell below, nor mount unto the gate, 
 Unless the prayers of good men grant him aid, ^^ 
 
 Till time full equal to his life has past, 
 
 How unto this one was admission made ?" 
 " What time," he said, " his life in pride was past, 
 
 Himself he humbled in Siena's plain, 
 
 And every feeling of false shame forth cast. ^^ 
 
 He then, to draw his friend from out the pain 
 
 The which in Charles's prison-house he bore. 
 
 His proud frame bowed, to tremble in each vein. 
 I know I darkly speak, yet say no more : 
 
 But little time will pass, ere friends of thine ^^^ 
 
 Will treat thee, that thou'lt read this riddle's core : 
 Him did that act absolve from the hill's confine." 
 
 Line 110. Prevenzano Salvani was the general of the Siennese: he humbled 
 himself so far, for the sake of a friend who was imprisoned by Charles of 
 Sicily, as to beseech the ,people in the market-place of Siena to contribute the 
 sum demanded for his ransom. This act of abasement Baved him from the 
 delays of the Ante-Purgatory, and Oderisi tells Dante that he will soon learn 
 from experience the bitterness of having to solicit such favours : line 141. 
 
Cakto XII. PURGATORY. 175 
 
 CANTO XII. 
 
 The poets leave the burdened spirits, and as they rapidly advance, Dante's 
 attention is drawn by Virgil to the effigies which are drawn upon the 
 ledge, and which represent various examples of pride. They are finally 
 met by an Angel, who points out to them the stairs by which they are 
 to ascend, and touching Dante's forehead with his wing effaces one of 
 the seven P's which had been engraved there at the entrance into 
 Purgatory. 
 
 Like bullocks in a yoke together go, 
 
 That burdened soul did I accompany, 
 
 As long as my sweet master would allow. 
 But when he said : " Now leave him, forwards hie, 
 
 For here 'tis well that both with oars and sail, ^ 
 
 Each one in pushing his own bark should vie :" 
 Erect, as eager the advance to hail, 
 
 I raised my person, but nathless my mind 
 
 Remained still bowed and humbled in the vale. 
 I had moved on, and willingly behind ^* 
 
 My master's steps I followed, and we both 
 
 Already showed ourselves as light as wind ; 
 *' Turn thy eyes downwards," said he as he goeth, 
 
 " To solace the long way 'twill profit thee 
 
 To look on what the bed, thy feet tread, showeth." ^^ 
 
 As, to preserve awhile their memory, 
 
 The mounded tombs 'neath which the buried sleep 
 
 Of their mute tenant bear the efSigjf 
 Whence there full many a time the passers weep 
 
 By the keen puncture of remembrance fain, ^ 
 
 The which, the gentle-hearted only keep : 
 So saw I, but the likeness better ta'en. 
 
 Traced with the sculptor's skill divinest there, 
 
 Throughout the length of that hill-circling plain. 
 Him did I see who was created fair, ^^ 
 
 More than aught other creature, down from Heaven 
 
 Descending with a lightning sheen through air. 
 I saw Briareus, hundred-handed, riven i 
 
 By the celestial weapon, yonder lie. 
 
 Prone to the eaith in lethal force down driven. ^ 
 
 I saw Apollo, Pallas, Mars, on high 
 
 In panoply around their father stand. 
 
 Viewing the giant's limbs, all scattered nigh, 
 Nimrod I saw, beneath the work he planned. 
 
 Bewildered as it were, and with surprise ^ 
 
 Watching his proud compeers on Sennaar's land. 
 
176 PURGATOHY. Canto XII. 
 
 O Niobe, with what woe-laden eyes 
 
 Did I behold thee, sculptured on that plain, 
 
 Mid thy fourteen dead sons in sacrifice ! 
 O Saul, how vividly wast figured, slain ^" 
 
 On thy own sword, upon Gilboa's hill, 
 
 Which afterwards received nor dew nor rain ! 
 O mad Aragne, so I see thee still. 
 
 Already half a spider, in the mass 
 
 Of the sad work, which wrought for thee such ill ! "*"' 
 
 Behoboam, not a threat we trace 
 
 There, in thy image, full of craven fear 
 
 A chariot bore thee, ere the foemen chase. 
 There showed us, too, that graven pavement, clear. 
 
 What price Alcmeou made his mother pay ^^ 
 
 For that unhappy necklace, won too dear. 
 It showed how his own sons conspired in fray 
 
 Against Sennacherib, in the Temple's rood, 
 
 And how they left him dead, and fled away. 
 The mangling, and the cruel deed it showed, ^ 
 
 Which Tamiris did, when she to Cyrus said, 
 
 Blood thou didst thirst, I fill thee now with blood. 
 
 Line 42. " Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be 
 rain upon you." — 2 Samuel, eh. i., v. 21. Petrarch has a similar allusion to 
 the curse of David, mourning for the death of Saul, probably imitated from 
 this passage : — 
 
 "El pastor ch'a Golia ruppe la f route 
 Pianse la ribellante sua famiglia, 
 E sopra '1 buon Saul cangio le ciglia, 
 Ond' assai piii dolersi il fiero monte.'' 
 
 Sonnetto XXXVI. 
 
 Line 43. Aragne, changed into a spider for having challenged Pallas to a 
 trial of skill in female work. Ovid's " Metam.," book vi. 
 
 Line 46. " Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute : 
 and all Israel stoned him with stones that he died : therefore King Rehoboam 
 made speed to get him up to his chariot to flee to Jerusalem." — 1 Kings, 
 chap, xii., V. 18. 
 
 Line 51. Eriphile, bribed by Poliniees with a necklace, discovered where her 
 husband Amphiaraus had hidden himself to avoid joining in the war against 
 Thebes, and on the command of the latter, their son Alcmeon slew his 
 mother in revenge. 
 
 Line 52. "And it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of 
 Nisroch his God, that Adrammelech and Shareger his sons smote him with 
 the sword ; and they escaped into the land of Armenia." — 2 Kings, chap, xix., 
 V. 37. 
 
 Line 56. Tamiris, Queen of Scythia, whose son had been killed by Cyrus^ 
 having made him prisoner, cut off his head, and placed it in a basin full of 
 blood, with the speech, " Satia te sanguine, quem sitisti." Justinian, 
 book i. 
 
Canto XII. PURGATORY. 177 
 
 It showed how in the rout the Assyrians fled 
 
 After that Holofernes had been slain, 
 
 And all the rest of their destruction dread. ^^ 
 
 Troy I beheld in caves and ashes lain ; 
 
 O Ilion, thee how lowered and how vile 
 
 Displayed the image, which is there seen plain. 
 What mastery of pencil, and of style, 
 
 Had he who drew the shades, and outlines here, ^ 
 
 Which subtlest intellects to gaze would guile. 
 Alive the living, dead the dead appear ; 
 
 Who saw the facts beheld not more than I, 
 
 Of what I trod on, whilst bent down I peer. 
 Now with high looks, keep up your surquedry, ^®. 
 
 O sons of Eve, and never bow your face, 
 
 Lest that your evil pathway ye descry. 
 Already had we turned, of the mountain's space. 
 
 And turned the sun upon his pathway, more 
 
 Than had the mind not free, the power to trace, • ^* 
 
 When he, who ever watchful walked before. 
 
 Commenced : " Lift up thy head," he 'gan to say, 
 
 " No longer is there time thus rapt to pore. 
 See yonder is an Angel on our way 
 
 Who comes towards us ; see, there doth return ^ 
 
 Now the sixth maid from service of the day. 
 With reverence now thy acts and face adorn. 
 
 That he with pleasure thy advance secure ; 
 
 Think that this day can ne'er again be born." 
 In his advice experienced, I was sure ^^ 
 
 It was 'gainst losing time, of that he ne^er 
 
 Could parley with me in a style obscure. 
 Advanced towards us the sweet creature fair 
 
 All garbed in white, in face as doth appear. 
 
 All tremulously bright the morning star. ®*^ 
 
 His arms he opened, and his wings did rear. 
 
 And said : " Come on, henceforth with ease o'er all 
 
 The mount can ye ascend, the steps are near." 
 How very few approach unto that call ; 
 
 O human race, though born above to soar, *^ 
 
 Why at the slightest breath dost thou thus fall ? 
 To where the rock was cleft he led us o'er. 
 
 There touched -one with his wings upon the front. 
 
 Then promised me an upward progress sure. 
 
 Line 81 . The liandmaids on the service of the day are the hours. Virgil 
 tells him that an Angel is approaching, and that the sixth hour is past. 
 
178 PURGATORY. Canto XII. 
 
 As on the right hand, to ascend the mount ^^ 
 
 "Where's built the church which overlooks the town, 
 
 Aye so well governed, o'er the Rubacont, 
 The labour of the ascent is softened down 
 
 Bj stairs, which in the early age were made. 
 
 "When weights and archives false were yet unknown ; ^^^ 
 So is the steepness of the bank allayed, 
 
 Which from the higher cliff doth sheer descend ; 
 
 But close on each side hangs the rock o'erhead. 
 There, as we turned the mountain to ascend, 
 
 Beati pauperes spiritu, there chanted "® 
 
 Voices, whose tones description all transcend. 
 Ah, what a difference to these straits is granted, 
 
 From the Infernal ! welcomed here with airs, 
 
 Beneath with wailings fierce of rage undaunted. 
 Now did we mount above the holy stairs, "* 
 
 And to myself meseemed in lighter mood. 
 
 Than ever till that time to me appears. 
 Whence I : " My master say, what heavy load 
 
 Is lifted off me that no trace of pain 
 
 Or toil besets me on this upward road ?" ^-^ 
 
 He answered : " When the P's which now remain 
 
 Upon thy forehead still, though somewhat faded. 
 
 Like to the one shall be entirely ta'en, 
 Thy feet by good desire will be so aided. 
 
 That not alone fatigue they will not know, ^^ 
 
 But with delight the path will be invaded." 
 Then was I like to those who onwards go 
 
 With something unperceived upon the head. 
 
 Till taught by glances which their neighbours throw : 
 Wherefore to clear my doubts, my hand doth aid, ^^ 
 
 And seeks, and finds, and doth that ofiice do, 
 
 Which by the sight alone cannot be made ; 
 And by the right hand's fingers touched, I knew 
 
 There rested but six letters, which erewhile 
 
 He of the keys upon my temples drew : ^^ 
 
 At which my leader watched me with a smile. 
 
 Line 101. The church of San Miniato, built on a hill overlooking the 
 Arno, where it is crossed by the bridge Rubaconte. The well-governed 
 town, it need hardly be said, is Florence. ^ 
 
 Line 116. Dante, having been purged of his besetting sin of Pride, is 
 surprised>t the lightness of the ascent after the removal of that burden. 
 
Cakto XIII. PURGATORY. 179 
 
 CANTO XIII. 
 
 They reach the second cornice, on which is purged the sin of Envy. As they 
 proceed along it they hear voices from invisible spirits inculcating 
 charity. Further on they see the souls of the envious, clad in sack- 
 cloth, and with their eyes sewed up with an iron wire. Amongst these 
 Dante converses with Sapia, a lady of Siena, who acquaints bim with 
 her story. 
 
 We now had reached the summit of the stairs, 
 
 Where for the second time the mount is cut, 
 
 Ascending which the soul is freed from cares. 
 There in like manner did a cornice jut, 
 
 Exactly like the first, around the hill, * 
 
 Save that its bound in closer ring is shut. 
 No shade is here, no outline drawn with skill. 
 
 Appears the bank, appears the narrow way 
 
 Like quarried rock, of livid colour still. 
 " If here to question people we should stay, ^^ 
 
 Haply I fear me," so the poet spake, 
 
 " Our choice will not be made without delay." X 
 Then on the sun a fixed gaze did he make ; 
 
 Made of his right the point on which to turn, 
 
 And swinging round his left, his course did take. ^^ 
 
 '' dulcet light, on which my trust is borne, ' 
 
 By the new path conduct us on benign," 
 
 He said, " to lead us to the wished-for bourne. 
 The earth thou warmest ; thou dost o'er it shine : 
 
 If other cause doth not oppose its bar, ^^ 
 
 Ever should be our guides those rays of thine." 
 The distance of a mile on earth, so far 
 
 From there already had we onwards gone 
 
 In little time, through will so ready there ; 
 When there were heard towards us flying on, ^^ 
 
 Although unwitnessed, spirits who did bring 
 
 Sweet invitations to Love's benison. 
 The first voice which past by upon the wing, 
 
 Vinum non habent, did it loudly say. 
 
 And from behind us the same words did fling. ^'^ 
 
 Ere from the hearing it had past away 
 
 In distance, past another like a wave, 
 
 Crying, " Orestes I," nor yet did stay. 
 
 Line 29. The speech of Mary at the wedding feast in Cana. It is not very 
 appropriately introduced as an example of Charity. 
 
 Line 33. The voice of Orestes is introduced, famous for his friendship 
 with PylacJes. 
 
180 PURGATORY. Canto XIIL 
 
 " What are these voices, father?" did I crave, 
 
 And while I asked a third had filled their place, ^ 
 
 Saying, " Love those from whom ye evil have." 
 My master then : " The sin of envy base 
 
 This circle scour geth, so with love divine 
 
 The lashes of the whip are plied in grace. 
 The curb must be of contrary design : ** 
 
 And for myself I think thou'lt hear it, ere 
 
 Unto the place of pardon thou dost join. 
 But fix thine eyes intently through the air, 
 
 A group that sit before us will be known. 
 
 And each one seated 'gainst the hillside there." *^ 
 
 Then more than erst my gaze was forward thrown, 
 
 With watchful eyes, and shadows I descry 
 
 With garb, in hue not different to the stone. 
 And after we had reached a little nigh, 
 
 I heard them cry, O Mary, for us pray ; ^® 
 
 On Michael, Peter, all the saints they cry. 
 I do not think. there goes on earth to-day 
 
 A man so hardened, but at what I saw 
 
 He would be touched beneath compassion's sway : 
 For when so near to them my steps did draw, ^ 
 
 That all their semblances were clearly seen. 
 
 That sight the anguish from my eyes did draw. 
 Covered they seemed to me, with haircloth mean. 
 
 Each on his shoulder did the other bear. 
 
 And all of them against the bank did lean. ^^ 
 
 Just so the blind, who want their daily fare, 
 \^ Stand at the church's gates to beg their needs. 
 
 And one upon the other layeth there 
 His head, whence in the heart compassion breeds, 
 
 Not only by the sound of words resigned, ^ 
 
 But at the spectacle which no less pleads. 
 And as the sun ne'er comforteth the blind. 
 
 So to the shades of whom I spake just now 
 
 The light of heaven in boon is not assigned. 
 For to them all, an iron wire doth sew ^® 
 
 Their eyelids pierced, as a wild falcon's eyes 
 
 Are treated, who in quiet will not bow. 
 Walking, it seemed with insult to despise 
 
 Gazing on others, I myself unseen, 
 
 Wherefore I turned me to my counsel wise : "^^ 
 
 Line 39. Virgil explains that the shades of the envious are scourged 
 towards purification by the voices exhorting to charity, and also restrained 
 from envy by the curb of other voices, threatening with examples of that 
 vice, which Dante will hereafter hear. 
 
Canto XIII. PURGATORY. 181 
 
 Well knew he what my silent look did mean ; 
 
 And yet he did not sanction my demand, 
 
 But told me : " Speak, and be thou brief and keen." 
 Virgil came with me on the outer hand 
 
 Of the cornice, where no balustrade was set *'^ 
 
 To guard from falling down the cliff beyond. 
 On the other side the pious shadows met, 
 
 Who by the horrible seam in dim obscure 
 
 Were suffering so that all their cheeks were wet. 
 I turned me towards them, " O thou people sure," ^^ 
 
 Thus I began, " to see the lofty light 
 
 To which alone aspire your wishes pure ; 
 So may grace speedily remove the blight 
 
 From off your conscience, so that hence descend 
 
 Into your mind, the stream of knowledge bright, ^^ 
 
 Tell me (for that to me delight will lend) 
 
 Is any Latin soul here denizen, 
 
 My knowledge haply to his good will tend." 
 " O brother mine, each one is citizen 
 
 Of one true city, but thou wouldest say, ^* 
 
 Who pilgrim lived in Ital}''s demesne." 
 This answer did I seem to hear some way 
 
 More forward than the place where I was based. 
 
 On which to look still further I essay. 
 Amongst the rest I saw a shade who gazed ^^ 
 
 In aspect : How ? if any should exclaim, 
 
 Like to the blind, the mind it upwards raised. 
 "Spirit," I said, " who to ascend dost tame 
 
 Thyself, if thou'rt the one who answered me, 
 
 Make me to know thy country or thy name." ^®* 
 
 " A lady from Siena," answered she, 
 
 " With these I purify a life of spite. 
 
 Weeping to Him, that He should come to me. 
 Sapient I was not, though Sapia hight. 
 
 In former days, and others' loss and cares, "** 
 
 More than my gain, were ever my delight. 
 That thou shouldst think not I deceive thy ears. 
 
 Hear if I was not, as I say, insane ; 
 
 Already going down the slope of years, 
 
 Line 109. The play of words in the original has been preserved, as a trans- 
 lation should exhibit flaws as faithfully as the whole body of the work, at 
 least when the flaw is intentional, as in this instance. Sapia tells her own 
 story : while living in banishment at CoUe she witnessed the defeat of her 
 countrymen by the Florentines, and prayed for immediate death, as there was 
 nothing further for her to hope or fear. 
 
182 PURGATORY. Canto XIII. 
 
 My fellow-citizens on Colle's plain ^^* 
 
 Were joined in battle with their foemen old : 
 And God willed that for which my prayers were vain. 
 
 There were they routed, and their ranks were rolled 
 In bitter fliofht, I witnessing the chase 
 Received such joy, whose like cannot be told : ^^" 
 
 So that I raised aloft my daring face, 
 
 Crying to God : * I fear thee now no more :' 
 As sings the merle at the first spring-like space. 
 
 My peace I sought with God upon the shore 
 
 Of human life, nor even yet would be ^^* 
 
 My debt, through penitence in part paid o'er, 
 
 Had he not kept me in his memory, 
 Pier Pettinagno, in his holy prayer, 
 Who gave me pity in his charity. 
 
 But who art thou, who goest questioning here ^^ 
 
 Of our conditions, and the eyes hast free 
 As I believe, and speaking breath'st the air ?" 
 
 " The eyes," I said, " will yet be sown for me, 
 But as I thus erred little, not for long, 
 Since they from envy have been almost free. ^^ 
 
 Far greater is the fear in which lies hung 
 My spirit for the torment underneath. 
 Now with the weight I feel my shoulders wrung." 
 
 And she to me : " Who then has led thy path 
 
 Amongst us, if thou thinkest to retreat ?" ^^^ 
 
 And I, " My comrade here, who nothing sayeth. 
 
 I am alive, so ask me as 'tis meet 
 
 Elected spirit, if thou wouldst that there 
 Should hurry still for thee our mortal feet." 
 
 " this is such a novel thing to hear," ^*^ 
 
 She answered, " that God loves thee 'tis a sign : 
 Therefore at times assist me with thy prayer. 
 
 And by the thing for which thou most dost pine 
 I pray thee, if thou tread' st the Tuscan plain, 
 Mid my relations clear this fame of mine. ^^^ 
 
 Thou wilt behold them 'mongst the people vain 
 
 Line 123. The merle, according to the scory, escaped from confinement at 
 the first gleam of fine weather, and had soon to lament the return of winter. 
 
 Line 128. Pier Pettinagno, a hermit of Florence. 
 
 Line 136. Dante feels that his besetting sin is Pride, and fears the punish- 
 ment of the lower cornice far more than that for Envy. 
 
 Line 151. In "Hell," Canto XXIX., Dante has already vented his satire on 
 the folly of the Siennese. He here alludes to their idle schemes of becoming 
 a great naval power through possession of Talamon, a port on the confines or 
 the Maremma, which turned out as chimerical as their former attempt to 
 discover a subterranean stream in their city, which for some unknown reason 
 was called Diana. 
 
Canto XIV. PURGATORY. 183 
 
 Who trust in Talamon, and there will lose 
 More hope, than seeking Dian's fount to gain ; 
 The admirals will risk even more than those." 
 
 CANTO XIV. 
 
 Dante is addressed by two shadows, Guido del Daca of Brettinoro and 
 Rinieri de' Caldoli of Romagua. The former, on Dante's mentioning 
 that he has come from the vale of Arno, inveighs against the degeneracy 
 of its inhabitants. On leaving these, the poets hear voices recording 
 instances of the crime of Envy. 
 
 " Who then is he, who cometh round our hill 
 
 Ere death to soar has granted him the boon, 
 
 And opes his eyes, and closes at his will ?" 
 " I know not who, but he is not alone. 
 
 Ask him thyself, since thou art placed more near, ^ 
 
 To make him speak, accost him fair in tone." 
 Two spirits thus, bent towards each other, there 
 
 At my right hand, this parley held on me, 
 
 Then to address me they their faces rear ; 
 And spake the one : *' O spirit who not free, ^" 
 
 Yet from thy body, mountest Heaven's serene. 
 
 For charity console us here, and say. 
 Whence come, and who thou art ; thy favour seen 
 
 Makes in us wonder so intensified. 
 
 As claims a thing which never yet has been." ^* 
 
 And I : '' Through central Tuscany doth glide. 
 
 In Falterona sprung, a little stream. 
 
 With course of hundred miles unsatisfied : 
 There is the region whence I bring this frame ; 
 
 To tell ye who I am were idle prate, ^ 
 
 Since yet but little doth resound my name." 
 " If thy intention well I penetrate 
 
 In understanding," made to me reply 
 
 He who first spake, " thou speak'st of Arno's seat." 
 The other then to him made parley : " Why ^ 
 
 That river's proper name did he conceal. 
 
 As man does of a thing of horrible dye ?" 
 The shadow unto whom that question fell, 
 
 Repaid it thus : "I know not, but of right 
 
 Should perish even the name of such a vale. ^^ 
 
 Line 16. The river Arno, whose course extends for 120 miles, rising in the 
 Falterona, a mountain in the Apennines. 
 
184 PURGATORY. Canto XIV. 
 
 For, from its source, where rise in pregnant might 
 
 The Alpine Hills, now from Pelorus torn, 
 
 Which rarely passes Falterona's height, 
 On to the seashore where it doth return 
 
 All that for it the skies from ocean drain, ^* 
 
 By which are rivers filled, and onwards borne, 
 All who are there, to fly from virtue strain 
 
 As 'twere an adder, either by the lot 
 
 Of the locality, or habit's bane. 
 "Whence all the dwellers in that wretched spot ^ 
 
 Are metamorphosed in their nature so. 
 
 It seemed that Circe held them in her grot. 
 Mid filthy swine, for gallnuts fit I trow. 
 
 More than for other food prepared for man, 
 
 Its miserable course at first doth flow. *** 
 
 Then it finds curs, descending to the plain, 
 
 More snarling than their strength can give them claim. 
 
 And here it twists, to avoid them, with disdain. 
 Falling it goes, and as doth swell its stream 
 
 So doth it find the curs to wolves have grown, ^ 
 
 That ditch accursed, and of unlucky fame. 
 Descended then through deeper channels down, 
 
 Foxes it finds so full of fraud, that fear 
 
 They know not to meet wit outmatch their own. 
 Kor will I cease to speak, though others hear : ^^ 
 
 Good it will be for him to bear in mind 
 
 That which the source of truth to us shows clear. 
 I see thy grandson, of the wolfish kind 
 
 Become the hunter, on the bank arrive 
 
 Of the proud river, all to him resigned. ®** 
 
 He sells their flesh, the while they're yet alive. 
 
 Then slays them like to old and fattened beeves ; 
 
 Many of life, himself of fame doth 'prive. 
 
 Line 31. From the source of the Arno in the Apennines, now separated 
 from Pelorus in Sicily, the highest of whose hills is Falterona, until it 
 enters the ocean, all the dwellers beside it fly from virtue, so that they seem 
 as if changed by Circe into animals. 
 
 Line 43. The swine are the people of the Casentine, but the Conti Guidi, 
 alluded to in Canto XXX. of the " Hell," are probably chiefly alluded to. 
 
 Line 46. The curs are the Aretines ; the river curves, leaving Arezzo four 
 miles to the right. 
 
 Line 50. The wolves are the Florentines, and the foxes the men of Pisa. 
 
 Line 55. The presence of Dante, a Tuscan, will not restrain him. 
 
 Line 58. Fulcieri de' Caldoli, grandson of Rinieri, became Podesta of 
 Florence in 1302, and massacred many of the Florentines, especially of the 
 Bianchi party, being bribed thereto by the Neri. 
 
Canto XIV. PURGATORY. 185 
 
 Bloody he issues from that wood that grieves, 
 
 He leaves it such, that in a thousand years, ®^ 
 
 Will not grow green again its withered leaves." 
 
 As at the warning of some future tears. 
 
 Troubles the face of him, who listening learns 
 From what side will assault him perilous fears : 
 
 So did I see that other soul by turns ^"^ 
 
 Listen, grow troubled, and to sorrow yield, 
 As the words' meaning pondered, clearer burns. 
 
 The speech of one, the other's woe revealed. 
 Made me desirous both their names to know. 
 And for that boon with praying I appealed. ^^ 
 
 On which the soul who first addressed me, so 
 
 Began again : " Thou wouldst I should incline 
 To tell thee, what to me thou wouldst not show. 
 
 But since God willeth that in thee should shine 
 
 His grace so much, no niggard will I be : *® 
 
 Guido del Duca, know me then in fine. 
 
 My blood from envy was so little free 
 That when I only saw a joyful man. 
 My face all steeped in paleness thou wouldst see. 
 
 Now from that seed I reap what straw I can. **^ 
 
 O human race, why set thy heart engrossed 
 There, where is need of company or ban ? 
 
 This is Einier, the honour, and the boast 
 
 Of the House of Caldoli, where owned by none, 
 
 The inheritance of all his worth is lost. ^ 
 
 And not alone, his blood all bare hath grown 
 'Twixt Po, the Hills, the Reno, and the shore, 
 Of wealth required for needs, and joyaunce' boon : 
 
 Since within all their boundaries, galore 
 
 Grows the thick crop of poisonous shoots, that ne'er ^^ 
 Will husbandry's slow toil root out the store. 
 
 Where is good Lizio, and Manardi, where 
 Carpigno, Traversaro ? Ah indeed 
 Is changed to bastard every Roman heir ! 
 
 When in Bologne takes root plebeian breed : ^^^ 
 
 When in Faenza, Bernardino too 
 Springs up a gentle growth from lowliest weed. 
 
 Line 86. This expression is explained in the following Canto. If man 
 were to seelc for heavenly good, the fact that it was shared also by others 
 would not cause envy, but gratification. 
 
 Line 92. The boundaries of Romagna, the country of Rinieri. 
 
 Line 100. At this period, one Lamhertaccio, of the lower orders, arrived at 
 supreme power in Bologna, while Bernardin di Fosco, also of low origin, 
 rose to the government of Faenza. The other names mentioned are all of 
 noble Italian families. 
 
186 PURGATORY. Canto XIV. 
 
 Marvel not, Tuscan, if I weep anew. 
 
 When with Da Prat a to nay mind I call 
 
 Ugolin D'Azzo, who hath lived with you : ^^^ 
 
 Frederic Tignoso, and his comrades all ; 
 
 Both race alike disherited one sees, 
 
 The Anastazi and Traversarian hall, 
 The ladies, and the knights, the toils, the ease 
 
 Which lured us unto love, and courtesy, "*^ 
 
 There, where all hearts have fallen in knavish ways. 
 O Brettinoro, wherefore dost not fly 
 
 Since thy own family from thee is gone. 
 
 And many more to escape from perfidy ? 
 Bagnacaval most rightly gets no son : ^^* 
 
 And Castrocar and Como both do ill. 
 
 Sons to such counts but make the broils go on. 
 Yet when their Demon has gone out, will still 
 
 Do the Pagani well, though never more 
 
 Can spring a sample of old worth and skill. ^^^ 
 
 Ugolin de' Fantolin, secure 
 
 Is thy good name, sure of no race behind 
 
 Degenerate, who can render it obscure. 
 But Tuscan go thy way, I'm now inclined 
 
 Par more to weep henceforth than parlance share, ^^^ 
 
 So has that speech of yours disturbed my mind." 
 We knew those charitable souls were 'ware 
 
 Of our departure, so their silence made 
 
 Us certain of the road we followed there. 
 When in our solitude once more we strayed, ^^^ 
 
 Like lightning cleaves the air in forked play. 
 
 From opposite there smote a voice, which said, 
 " Ah, whosoever findeth me, will slay." 
 
 And fled like thunder, which in distance growled 
 
 If suddenly the cloud doth break away. ^"* 
 
 Scarce truce from hearing that our senses hold. 
 
 And lo ! another, with such shattering tone, 
 
 Eesembled thunder which behind it rolled : 
 
 Line 112. Brettinoro was the castle belonging to the speaker, Guido del 
 Duca. 
 
 Line 115. Counts of small territories in Romagna. The Pagani were lords 
 of Faenza, one of whom, Mainardo, was surnamed the Demon on account of 
 his treachery. He is named in Canto XXVII. of the " Hell" as ruhng the 
 cities of Faenza and Imola, and always changing sides. 
 
 Line 133. The speech of Cain after God had cursed him for his brother's 
 death. Gen., ch. iv., v. 14. 
 
Canto XV. PURGATORY. 187 
 
 " I am Aglauros, who was turned to stone :" 
 
 Then closer to the poet's clasp to creep, ^"^^ 
 
 Backwards, not forwards, were my footsteps thrown. 
 
 Already did the air on all sides sleep : 
 
 And he spake thus : " That was the stern rebuke 
 Mankind within his measure meant to keep. 
 
 But ye the bait so swallow, that the hook ^^^ 
 
 Of the old enemy doth draw ye close ; 
 Hence, curb, or urging ye so little brook. 
 
 Calls ye the sky, which circling round ye goes, 
 Showing the eternal beauties of the sphere. 
 While still your eyes intent on earth repose : ^^ 
 
 Whence smites ye. He, who seeth all things clear." 
 
 Line 139. Aglauros was changed into a rock for preventing, through envy, 
 her sister Herse's intrigue with Mercury. Ovid's " Metam.," book ii. 
 
 CANTO XV. 
 
 The poets advancing meet an Angel, who invites them to ascend to the next 
 steep. Mounting the stairs they issue on the third cornice, where the sin 
 of Anger is purged. Dante falling into a waking trance, beholds in vision 
 various famous examples of patience — the Virgin seeking Jesus amongst 
 the doctors in the Temple, Pisistratus calming his indignant wife, and the 
 martyrdom of Stephen. As the evening advances, the poets are 
 enveloped in a thick smoke. 
 
 As much as 'twixt the third hour of the day 
 And morning's rise, appeareth of the sphere 
 Which ever totters like a child at play ; 
 
 So much towards the evening, did appear 
 
 Of the sun's journey through the sky to rest ; ® 
 
 'Twas evening there, when it was midnight here. 
 
 Directly on our front the rays molest, 
 
 For we had so turned round the mountain now 
 That we were walking straight towards the west, 
 
 When I perceived the splendour smite my brow ^® 
 
 With glory even more brilliant than before, 
 That I was dazed with what I did not know : 
 
 On which I lifted up my hands before 
 
 My eyebrows, making them a shade between. 
 
 To guard my sight from light's superfluous shower, ^* 
 
 Line 1. The first six lines are very obscure. The meaning is that it was 
 now three hours before sunset, which Dante makes the commencement of 
 evening. 
 
188 PUEGATORY. Canto XV. 
 
 As when from water, or a mirror keen, 
 
 Leapeth the sunraj to the opposite side 
 
 With equal angle darting up its sheen, 
 To which it fell, that differently doth glide 
 
 To a stone falling from an equal height, ^^ 
 
 As art, and our experience have descried : 
 So did I seem there by reflected light 
 
 Before me to be smote ; the which to fly 
 
 Was quite impossible unto my sight. 
 " Sweet father, what is this, which from my eye -** 
 
 I cannot banish, whatsoe'er I do," 
 
 I said, " and which towards us seems to hie ?" 
 " Be not surprised, if dazzles still thy view 
 
 The family of Heaven," he answered me, 
 
 " A messenger he comes man's heart to sue. ^** 
 
 'Twill not be long, ere such as these to see 
 
 Will not be painful, but will give thee zest, 
 
 As perfect as thy nature can agree." 
 After we'd reached unto that Angel blest. 
 
 With joyful voice he told us " Enter in 
 
 On stairs less steep than what you yet have prest." 
 Starting from there, the ascent we now begin, 
 
 Beati misericordes then was sung 
 
 Behind us, and Eejoice, who thus dost win. 
 The master and myself alone upsprung *^ 
 
 The stairs, and as we went, I thought to gain 
 
 Profit, upon his lips sweet teaching hung : 
 To him I turned me then, demanding fain, 
 
 " What that Italian spirit wished to say, 
 
 The while he spake of company and ban." ^'^ 
 
 Whence he to me, " The loss he well doth weigh, 
 
 Caused by his greatest fault, so marvel not 
 
 He blames it, that it be less wept for aye. 
 Because there ever turns your longing thought 
 
 There, where through company grows less each share, ^^ 
 
 The bellows blow with Envy's sighings hot. 
 But if the love of the eternal sphere 
 
 Human desire to heavenly aims could turn. 
 
 There would not linger in your heart that fear. 
 For there the more to say our own, we yearn, ^^ 
 
 So much doth each possess increased store, 
 
 And more of charity doth thither burn." 
 
 Line 38. " Blessed are the merciful." Matt. v. 7- 
 
 Line 44. Dante demands an explanation of Guido del Brettinoro's remark 
 at line 86 of the preceding Canto. 
 
Canto XV. PURGATORY. 189 
 
 ** Through being contented, I do hunger more 
 Than if thou first hadst silent been," I said, 
 " And in my mind I gather doubt galore, ^^ 
 
 How can it be that wealth distributed, 
 
 Numerous possessors can more richly dower, 
 Than if beyond a few it be not spread?" 
 
 And he to me : " Because thou still dost lower 
 
 Thy mind alone upon affairs terrene, ^^ 
 
 With the pure light of truth the shadows scour. 
 
 That Infinite, ineffable demesne 
 
 Which is above, so runneth love to meet 
 
 As on the polisht substance strikes the sheen. 
 
 So much, it gives, as it doth find of heat : ^^ 
 
 So that whatever charity may be 
 The eternal worth above it broodeth sweet. 
 
 The greater number can that lore agree, 
 
 The more there are to love, and more is loved, 
 
 And glasslike each the other mirrors free. ^^ 
 
 If by my speech thy hunger be not moved. 
 Thou' It see thy Beatrice ; clearly plain 
 Will every hope of thine by her be proved. 
 
 Only make haste the five wounds that remain 
 
 To clear away, as two have gone from sight, ^^ 
 
 The which are closed through the healing pain," 
 
 Wishing to say, " Thou dost content me quite :" 
 I saw that we had reached the higher round. 
 So made me silent my expectant sight. 
 
 There, on a sudden in ecstatic swound, ^ 
 
 Appeared to me my spirit to retreat : 
 A group I saw within a temple's bound ; 
 
 A lady in the entrance with the sweet 
 
 Action of mother, saying, " Son, ah why 
 
 Towards us hast thou done this thing unmeet ? ^^ 
 
 Behold with sorrowing hearts thy sire and I 
 
 Have sought thee :" and as here she silent grew 
 Vanished the scene which first I did descry. 
 
 Then there appeared another with the dew 
 
 Upon her cheeks, which grief distilleth down, ^^ 
 
 Through anger at the deeds which others do : 
 
 And said : " If thou art master of the town, 
 
 To name the which 'mongst gods the strife was shared, 
 And whence proceedeth every science known, 
 
 Line 94. This story is told of Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens. 
 Line 98. Minerva and Neptune strove for the honour, which was won by 
 Athene through her gift of the olive. 
 
190 PURGATORY. Canto XV. 
 
 Avenge thee of those shameless arms that dared, 
 
 Pisistratus ! our daughter to embrace." 
 
 And gently and benignantly appeared 
 Her lord to answer her, with grave, calm face, 
 
 " What shall we do to those who wish us ill. 
 
 If we doom one who loves us to disgrace ?" 
 Then I saw people with the flaming will 
 
 Of anger kindled, who a youth did stone. 
 
 Each crying loudly to the other, kill. 
 And him I witnessed there by death bent down, 
 
 Which bowed him towards the earth, yet still with life "® 
 
 For ever in his eyes. Heaven's glories shine : 
 Beseechiug his high Lord, in such a strife 
 
 That to his persecutors he would yield 
 
 Pardon, his aspect all with pity rife. 
 What time my spirit came back from that field. 
 
 Unto the things which in themselves are true, 
 
 I knew no fiction had my dreams revealed. 
 My leader, who might me in actions view 
 
 Like one who rouseth up from slumber deep. 
 
 Asked me : " What hast thou, that thou totterest so ? '"^* 
 For more than half a league dost thou thus creep, 
 
 Closing thy eyes, and with thy limbs awry. 
 
 In guise of one o'ercome by wine, or sleep." 
 " my sweet father," did I make reply, 
 
 '* Hear, and Til tell thee, what to me was shown, '^^ 
 
 The whilst my limbs had lost the power to hie." 
 And he : "A hundred masks if thou hadst on. 
 
 Over thy face, from me thou could st not veil 
 
 Thy thoughts, how slight soever be their tone. 
 That which thou saw'st, was shown thee, not to fail ^^'^ 
 
 Thy heart to open to the streams of peace, 
 
 Which from the eternal fountain ever well. 
 I did not ask, what hast ? like one who sees 
 
 With mortal eyes alone, which nought can weet 
 
 What time the body lies all spiritless, • ^^^ 
 
 I asked thee to give strength unto thy feet : 
 
 Thus it behoves to stimulate the slow ^ 
 
 To use their waking vigilance, as meet." 
 *Twas evening now, and we intent did go. 
 
 Looking beyond, far as the eye could scan, ^^*^ 
 
 Against the westering rays, that shone so low : 
 And lo ! a smoke, little by little 'gan. 
 
 To gather towards us like the night obscure, 
 
 Nor was it possible escape to plan ; 
 So it bereft us of the daylight pure. ^*' 
 
Canto XVI. PURGATORY. 191 
 
 CANTO XVI. 
 
 Dante proceeds throiagh the smoke, guided by Yirgil, and hears the voices of 
 spirits who are purged there from the sin of Anger. He converses with 
 Marco Lombardo, from whom he inquires the reason of the degeneracy 
 of the age. The spirit points out to him the error of attributing it to 
 necessity, or the starry influences, as man is gifted with free will, and 
 explains it as the consequence of the union of temporal and spiritual 
 powers in the Papal Grovernment. 
 
 Darkness of Hell, and of a night depriven 
 
 Of every planet 'neath a murky sky 
 
 O'er which the clouds in hurrying gloom are driven, 
 Ne'er made so thick a veil before my eye. 
 
 As did that smoke which us enshrouded there, ^ 
 
 Nor to the sense so rough, and harshly dry. 
 To stay unclosed the eyesight could not bear : 
 
 On which my escort wise, so often tried. 
 
 Drew near, and ofifered me his shoulder fair. 
 So like a blind man goes behind his guide, ^^ 
 
 Not to forsake the pathway, nor be shent 
 
 'Gainst anything where danger may abide. 
 Through that most foul and bitter air I went, 
 
 Aye listening to my leader, who did say, 
 
 *' Watch only that from me thou be'st not rent." ^^ 
 
 And voices then I heard, which seemed to pray 
 
 F,or peace, and for compassion, all and each, 
 
 Unto God's Angel, who lifts sins away. 
 The Agnus Dei aye began their speech. 
 
 In all one word, one manner did appear, ^" 
 
 To perfect concord they had seemed to reach. 
 " These must be spirits, master, whom I hear ?" 
 
 I said ; and he to me : " Thou judgest true. 
 
 Loosening the bond of anger, go they here." 
 " Now, who art thou, our smoke who cleavest through, ^ 
 
 And yet dost speak of us, as if that thou 
 
 Still time by calends didst divide anew ?" 
 Thus by a voice was spoken there I trow : 
 
 On which my master said ; " Do thou reply, 
 
 And ask if hence the way above doth go." ^^ 
 
 " O creature who dost clear thyself," said I, 
 
 *' To turn again to him, who made thee, fair, 
 
 Thou'lt hear a marvel if with me wilt hie." 
 
 Line 27. As if thou wert still living, and computing time. 
 
192 PURGATORY. Canto XVI. 
 
 '* I'll follow thee as far as I may fare," 
 
 He answered, " since the smoke doth not permit ^^ 
 
 To see, we'll keep together by the ear." 
 Then I began, *' That burden which we quit, 
 
 Dissolved by death, I bear with me above, 
 
 And here have come from the infernal pit. 
 If God has chosen me with such a love, ^ 
 
 So that he wills that I should see his court 
 
 In way, from modern use, that far doth rove, 
 Conceal not from me, who ere death thou wert, 
 
 But say and tell me, if direct I go. 
 
 Unto the pass, thy words be our escort." *^ 
 
 *' Marco Lombardo was my name below, 
 
 The world I tnew, that worth I well did love, 
 
 To which now each one has relaxed the bow : 
 To mount above, thou dost straightforward move." 
 
 So answered he, and added : '* Thee I pray ^*^ 
 
 To pray for me, when thou shalt be above." 
 And I to him : " I bind my faith to thee 
 
 To do the thing thou askest : but I own 
 
 A doubt within, I cannot clear away. 
 First it was single, now 'tis double grown "'^ 
 
 Through this thy judgment, which now makes me sure 
 
 Coupled with what was elsewhere to me shown. 
 The world in sooth is altogether poor 
 
 Of every virtue, as thou now didst say. 
 
 And covered heavily with malice' store : ^ 
 
 But point me out the reason now I pray, 
 
 Which I may see and unto others show. 
 
 Since one in Heaven, and one on earth doth lay." 
 A deep sigh laden with the soul of woe 
 
 He vented first, then, " Brother," he began, ^ 
 
 " The world is blind, thou comest from below. 
 All ye who live, attribute every plan 
 
 To skyey influence, as if that all 
 
 Through stern necessity in first grooves ran. 
 If thus it were, 'twould be the funeral ^^ 
 
 Of your free will, and justice 'twould not be 
 "^ , That joy on good, and grief 031 ill should fall. 
 
 Line 46. A Venetian gentleman, Lombard in name and nation. 
 
 Line 57. Referring to Guido del Duca, who was also a laudator temporis 
 acti. 
 
 Line 63. Some attribute this degeneracy to mankind, and some to the 
 influence of the stars, which it is impossible to evade. 
 
^ 
 
 Canto XVI. PURGATORY. 193 
 
 The sky begins your movements, I agree : 
 
 I say not all : supposing so I said, 
 
 For good and evil, light is granted ye : ^ '^ 
 
 And will all free ; which, if when sore bestead, 
 
 It can, in struggle with the sky, endure, f 
 
 Will conquer all things then, well nourished. ^ 
 To a better nature, and a higher power. 
 
 Though subject ye are free, and that doth make ^" 
 
 Your soul, on which the skies no influence shower. 
 But if the present world doth worth forsake, • 
 
 To thee the true cause will I now declare, ( 
 
 In ye the reason lies, ye there must seek. / 
 There issues from his hand, who loves it, ere ^ 
 
 It be, in fashion of a little child, 
 
 Weeping and laughing with an infant's air 
 The soul all simple, by no lore defiled. 
 
 Save that as prompted by a Maker kind, 
 
 To aught that pleases it, it turns beguiled. ^^^ 
 
 Of lower good the taste it first doth find ; 
 
 There 'tis deceived, and runneth after it. 
 
 If guide or curb its longing doth not bind. 
 Hence it behoved the laws to place for bit : 
 
 Kings it behoved to have, that one might greet ^^ 
 
 At least the turret of a city fit. 
 Laws are there, but who yields observance meet ? 
 
 No one because the Pastor who's supreme, 
 
 Can ruminate, but hath not cloven feet. 
 Therefore the people, greedy of the same, ^^^ 
 
 Seeing their guide to worldly 'vantage cleave. 
 
 Pasture on that, and nothing further claim. 
 Their evil teaching, well may ye believe 
 
 The reason why the world has grown so vile, 
 
 And not corrupted nature that you have. ^^^ 
 
 Line 73. Dante is a firm believer iu the influence of the stars on human 
 actions and natures, as will be seen fully in Canto VIII. of the "Paradise ;" 
 but he allows that the will is free, and that a man can combat successfully the 
 evil nature implanted in him by the stars. 
 
 Line 79. To God himself, the Creator of the soul. 
 
 Line 99. In the Mosaic law, those beasts are clean who chew the cud and 
 have the cloven hoof. The Pope is an unclean beast, because though he can 
 ruminate and pass good ordinances, he wants the cloven foot — i.e., he does 
 not separate the spiritual from temporal authority. This ingenious explana- 
 tion is by Venturi, who at the same time bids the reader remember that 
 Dante was a Ghibeline, and factious to fanaticism ! 
 
194 PURGATORY. Canto XVI. 
 
 Was wont old Eome, whicli made the world to smile 
 To have two suns, who each of them displayed 
 Various, the earthly, and the G-odly style. 
 
 One has usurped the other, the sword blade 
 
 Is joined to the crosier, and together grown, "® 
 
 Through open force the ill accord is made : 
 
 The one fears not the other, when thus one. 
 If thou believest not, think thee of its corn ; 
 For by its seed is every herbage known. 
 
 Upon the land the Adige and Po adorn "® 
 
 Valour and courtesy were wont to appear 
 Ere Frederic there in battle was outborne. 
 
 Now with security can wander there 
 
 Whoever wishes to avoid, through shame, 
 
 Converse with good men, nor to see them near. ^"® 
 
 Still are there three old men, through whom doth blame 
 The ancient age, the new, ah ! how they would 
 That God to a better life their souls should claim. 
 
 Pallazzo*s Conrad, the Gherardo good. 
 
 And Guido da Castel, far better named ^^^ 
 
 The simple Lombard in the Frankish mode. 
 
 Say then henceforth, the Church of Eome that claimed 
 Two opposite powers within herself to wed, 
 Falls in the mire, herself, and burden shamed." 
 
 ** O Marco mine, thou arguest well," I said, ^^ 
 
 " And now I see why from the heritage 
 The sons of Levi were disherited. 
 
 But who is that Gherardo, who as gauge 
 
 Thou saidst remained amongst a worn-out race. 
 
 As a reproof unto a barbarous age?" ^^ 
 
 *' Thy speech deceives me, or thou dost but press, 
 Since speaking Tuscan to me," he replied, 
 " Of good Gherardo thou hast heard no trace. 
 
 No other surname be to him applied, 
 
 Unless his daughter, Gaja's, be allowed, ^^ 
 
 I cannot further come, God with you bide. 
 
 Line 107. The Emperor and the Bishop of Rome. The necessity for a 
 separation of the temporal and spiritual rule is the keynote of Dante's 
 system of politics. 
 
 Line 117. Frederic II., introduced amongst the heretics in Canto X. of 
 " Hell :" his defeat before Parma, in 1248, by the Papal forces is here alluded 
 to. 
 
 Line 126. The French called all Italians Lombards. 
 
 Line 138. Gherardo da Camino, of Trevizi. Dante alludes to him honour- 
 ably in his Convito. His daughter Gaja was one of the first Italian 
 poetesses, celebrated more especially for her beauty and modesty. 
 
Canto XVII. PURGATORY. 195 
 
 Behold the light that shimmers through the cloud, 
 
 Already whiten : to appear before 
 
 The angel there, to me is disallowed :" 
 He spake, and would not hear me any more. ^*^ 
 
 CANTO XVII. 
 
 The poets issue from the smoke, and various scenes of anger are shown to 
 Dante in vision — Philomel, Haman, Amata. He is roused by the ap- 
 pearance of an Angel, who. directs them to mount to the next cornice. 
 The night closes as they reach the summit of the stairs, and halting 
 there Virgil informs Dante that spiritual sloth is purged in that circle. 
 
 Reader, recall to mind, if e'er did roll 
 
 A cloud athwart thee, on an Alpine height, 
 Through which thou saw'st no other than a mole : 
 
 How when the thick and humid vapours white 
 
 Began to rarefy, within its veil ^ 
 
 The sun's sphere dimly pierced its welcome light : 
 
 And let not thy imagination fail 
 
 To picture how, while sinking to its rest, 
 Within that smoke, the sun once more I hail. 
 
 Mine, with my master's trusty footsteps prest, ^** 
 
 So from that cloud I issued to the ray 
 That only lightened now the mountain's crest : 
 
 Imagination, that dost steal away 
 
 At times the outward scene, that man marks nought, 
 Although around a thousand trumpets bray, ^^ 
 
 What moves thee from the senses if not caught ? 
 Moves thee that light, by angel will conveyed, 
 Or self-engendered, which in Heaven is wrought. 
 
 Of her ferocious deed, who from a maid 
 
 Became the bird that most delights in song, ^^ 
 
 Upon my spirit's sight appeared the shade : 
 
 Aiid here my mind was centered with such strong 
 Absorption, that on it no trace could lie. 
 Of things that to the outward scene belong. 
 
 Then showered within to my high fantasy "' 
 
 One in his rancorous fury crucified, 
 Fierce in his aspect, and as such did die. 
 
 Line 19. Either Philomel or her sister Progne is here alluded to, some 
 poets having translated the latter also into the nightingale, Philomel, to 
 avenge the insult received from her brother-in-law, Tereus, killed his son 
 Itis, and gave some of the flesh to the father as food. Ovid's Metaro., 
 book vi. 
 
 Line 26. The end of Haman : Esther, chap. vii. 
 
196 PURGATORY. Canto XVII. 
 
 Tlie great Ahasuerus, and Lis bride 
 
 Esther were round, and justest Mordecai, 
 He, botli in speech and act so trusty tried. '^^ 
 
 And as this image, vanishing away 
 
 Broke of itself as bursts a bubble, made 
 Of falling water, when doth cease the spray : 
 There rose upon my vision a young maid 
 
 "Weeping aloud, and saying, " O my queen ^^ 
 
 In anger wherefore hast thyself betrayed ? 
 To save Lavinia, thou thyself hast slain : 
 
 Now thou hast lost me : mother, these sad eyes 
 More than all other, thy destruction 'plain." 
 As breaketh slumber, when in sudden wise '^^ 
 
 Upon the closed lids new light is thrown. 
 Which broken, struggles, as it wholly dies : 
 So my imaginations fell adown. 
 
 Soon as there smote upon my face the light. 
 Far stronger than to mortal usance known. *^ 
 
 Where I might be, I turned to take in sight, 
 
 When there exclaimed a voice, " One mounteth here,*' 
 Which from all other purpose won me quite : 
 \And made my eagerness so great to peer 
 
 Upon that form, who thus our steps did hail, ^ 
 
 That rest it could not till it saw him near. 
 ( But as against the sun the sight doth fail, 
 
 Which veils its figure through excess of light, 
 So was my virtue here of no avail. 
 " A spirit divine is this, who on the height . ^* 
 
 Without a prayer, the passage upwards shows, 
 Himself concealing with his glory bright. 
 He treats us as a man himself would use ; 
 
 For who so waits for prayer, who need doth see, 
 Already he malignly doth refuse. *"* 
 
 To such inviting let our feet agree: 
 
 To mount ere it grows darker, let us haste ; 
 Later we could not, till returns the day." 
 So spake my leader, and together prest 
 
 Our footsteps, turning to the stairs that spire : ^^ 
 
 Soon as my foot on the first step I placed, 
 I felt the moving of a pinion nigher. 
 
 And air blown o'er my face, and voices cried, 
 Beati Facific% who're free from ire." 
 
 Line 34. Lavinia, mourning over the suicide of her mother Amata, who 
 killed herself on the supposed death of Turnus. " ^neid," lib. xii. 
 
 Line &!• The Angel removes another P from Dante's brow, the sin of 
 wrath having boen purified. Beati Pacifici, Matt. v. 9. 
 
Canto XVII. PURGATORY. 197 
 
 Far overhead already we descried ^® 
 
 The last sunrays, on which there follows night, 
 
 So that the stars appeared on every side. 
 *' virtue mine, why dost thou take thy flight ?" 
 
 Unto myself I asked, as I perceived 
 
 The vigour of my limbs then fail me quite. '^^ 
 
 We. now had mounted, where no more upheaved 
 
 The staircase upwards, and we there were stayed, 
 
 Like to a vessel at i,he port arrived. 
 A little while intently I surveyed 
 
 Something to hear upon that circle new, ^'^ 
 
 Then to my master turned me, and I said : 
 " Sweet father mine, what sin will meet our view, 
 
 Purged here upon this circle where we are. 
 
 Though the feet halt, halt not the converse true." 
 And he to me : '' The love of what is fair ^ 
 
 When less than it should be, is here restored : 
 
 The tardy oar the boatman plieth here. 
 But that more clearly this be not ignored, 
 ^ <^ To me address thy mind, and thou shalt bring 
 
 From our delay some useful fruitage stored. ^" 
 
 Neither Creator, nor created thing, — -- , 
 
 Was ever without love, thou know'st, my son. 
 
 Or natural, or that from choice doth spring. 
 The natural can ne'er to error wonne. 
 
 But through wrong object can the other err, ^* 
 
 Or by excess or lack of vigour shown. 
 The while on Heavenly objects it doth steer. 
 
 Or upon earthly ones doth measure keep. 
 
 To evil joy it cannot minister. 
 But when to ill 'tis turned, or with more deep ^^ 
 
 Or lighter will than right, on good is fain. 
 
 Works 'gainst its Maker, the created shape. 
 Hence thou canst comprehend, that like to grain 
 
 In you each virtue springeth from love's seed, 
 
 And every action which doth merit pain. ^^^ 
 
 Now since Love's bent was never yet agreed 
 
 Save to the welfare of its object dear, 
 
 From its own hatred everything is freed. 
 And since the intellect we cannot sheer 
 
 From the primal effluence, standing all alone, "^ 
 
 From hating that, the mental instinct's clear. 
 
 Line 106. It is impossible for any man to hate himself, or God his first 
 cause, therefore a man can rejoice only in the evil which befalls hia 
 neighbours. 
 
198 PURGATORY. Ca«to XVin. 
 
 Kemains, if my distinctions well are shown, 
 
 That evil loved must be our neighbour's woe ; 
 
 And in your mire that love has threefold grown. 
 There is, who through his neighbour's ruin, so "^ 
 
 Hopeth pre-eminence, who hence doth call 
 
 That he from grandeur may be cast down low. 
 "^i There is, who fears to lose power, grace, and all 
 
 Honour and fame, because that others rise. 
 
 Which grieves him so that he desires their fall. ^'^ 
 
 i. There is, who seems so hurt by injuries, 
 / That he on vengeance greedily doth brood ; 
 
 And such a one another's ill must prize. 
 This triform love bewailed, beneath we've viewed : 
 
 Now of the other thou must comprehend, ^ 
 
 Which in corrupted fashion seeketh good. 
 Some good doth each confusedly apprehend. 
 
 In which to rest his spirit's longing fain, 
 
 Therefore to reach to it doth each contend. 
 If love is slow to see its real gain, ^ 
 
 Or to acquire it, yields this circling space, 
 
 After repentance, purifying pain. 
 All other good mankind can never bless : 
 
 It is not happiness, not of all good fruit 
 
 The essence, and the root of heavenly grace. ^^ 
 
 Love that to those too closely taketh root. 
 
 On three still higher circles is refined ; 
 
 This we again in triple form will note, 
 Of those I speak not, those thyself must find." 
 
 Line 115. In this, and the two following tei'zinas, are described Pride, 
 Envy, and Anger, the result of the Love of Evil, and which were purged in 
 the three preceding cornices. 
 
 CANTO XVIII. 
 
 Virgil, continuing his discourse, explains the nature of love, which, though 
 innate in its affections, in man, does not do away with the restraining 
 influences of his free will. At the close of his disquisition, a troop of 
 shadows rush by, compensating by their present ardour for their former 
 - lukewarmness in life. Two in the van encourage the rest by reciting 
 examples of zeal : the Abbot of San Zeno declares hunself to the poets 
 while racing by, and two bring up the rear, shouting out instances of the 
 sin which they are there purging away. On their departure, Dante falls 
 into a dreamy slumber. 
 
 When he had finished his discourse, the high 
 Teacher intently gazed upon my face. 
 To see if I appeared content ; and I 
 
Canto XVIII. PURGATORY. 199 
 
 AVhom thirst aye new exciting still did press, 
 
 Outwardly silent, said within, " Perchance ^ 
 
 My too much questioning will please him less." 
 
 But that true father, whose perceptive glance 
 Read all the timid wish which I concealed, 
 Speaking to me gave courage speech to lance, 
 
 Whence I : " O master, in thy light revealed, ^^ 
 
 My sight is vivified, that I see clear 
 Whate'er thy parley can describe or yield. 
 
 Therefore I pray thee, O sweet father dear. 
 
 That thou explain this love, whence springs we find 
 Each action good, or bad, in man's career." ^^ 
 
 " Towards me direct the keen light of thy mind," 
 He said, " and be to thee made manifest 
 The error of the blind who lead the blind. 
 
 The soul created prompt to love's behest, 
 
 Turneth to all the things that pleasure yield, v- ^'^ 
 
 Soon as through pleasure unto act addrest. 
 
 Your apprehensive power from truth revealed 
 Draweth the purpose, hence within designed, 
 So that towards that the spirit is impelled. 
 
 And when thus turned towards it 'tis inclined, ^^ 
 
 That inclination's love, that is the new 
 Nature which pleasure in yourselves doth bind. 
 
 Then as fire ever mounteth upwards true 
 
 By its own nature, which is born to aspire 
 
 Unto the sphere from whence it substance drew ; '" 
 
 So the caught spirit enters on desire, 
 
 The motion spiritual, which cannot rest, 
 Till it enjoy the well-loved object nigher. 
 
 How has been hidden, now appears confest, 
 
 The truth unto the people who aver ^ 
 
 Love in itself praiseworthy at the least. 
 
 Because perchance its matter may appear 
 Always a good thing ; 'tis not every seal 
 Is good, although the wax be good and clear." 
 
 " My judgment following what thy words reveal, ^" 
 
 Hath made love clear to me," I then replied, 
 " But that with doubt more pregnant makes me feel. 
 
 Line 14. It is seen that Dante considers love the groundwork of all the 
 passions, on which principle it would appear, as Gary acutely remarks, that 
 Collins has not introduced love separately amongst the passions. 
 
 Line 18. The error to be exposed is explained afterwards to be that of con- 
 sidering all love in itself praiseworthy. 
 
 Line 37. Venturi remarks that throughout this disquisition Daute uses the 
 phraseology of the Peripatetics, where matter denominates the kind of 
 things as determinable by many differences. 
 
200 PURGATORY. Canto XVIII. 
 
 Since from witliout to us is love applied, 
 
 And in no other mode the spirit strayeth, 
 
 Or right, or wrong, all merit is denied." ^^ 
 
 And he to me : " As far as reason seeth > / 
 
 Can I explain, beyond that, thou must wait 
 
 On Beatrix alone, 'tis work of faith. 
 The soul, substantial form, which separate 
 
 From matter, yet with it is linked as one, ^^ 
 
 Doth in itself specific power collate, 
 Which without operation is not known. 
 
 Nor shows itself except by its effect. 
 
 As by green leaves the life of plants is shown : 
 But from what place there cometh intellect ^^ 
 
 Of primal notions, that man nothing sees. 
 
 Nor what the primal appetites affect. 
 Which are in you, as the desire in bees 
 
 To store up honey : and this primal will 
 
 Doth not deserve itself, or blame, or praise. ^" 
 
 Unto this end, to which all gathers still, 
 
 Reason ye have innate, whose voice should make 
 /^ Counsel with due assent to guard the sill. 
 This then we find the source, from whence ye take 
 
 Reason of merit in ye, as ye keep '^^ 
 
 Love good or evil, and the husks outshake. 
 Those, who in reasoning pierced unto the deep. 
 
 Accorded all this innate liberty : 
 
 Hence left their morals for the world to reap. 
 Whence we assert, that of necessity ^*' 
 
 J All love doth rise, which in you lights its flame, 
 \' To keep it in restraint, the power's in ye. 
 The noble virtue Beatrix doth name 
 
 Free Will, remember therefore of the maze 
 
 This key, if e'er she speak upon this theme." ^^ 
 
 The moon, which now till midnight near delays, 
 
 Quenching the starlight with its brilliancies, 
 
 Rose like a rounded bucket, all ablaze. 
 'Grainst the sky's course it moved, through those degrees 
 
 In which the sun flames, when at Rome its fall *^** 
 
 Is seen 'twixt Corsican and Sardic seas. 
 And he, the gentle shade, through whom we call 
 Pictola more than any Mantuan town. 
 Had borne the burden of my questionings all. 
 
 Line 68. The moral philosophers of the old world. 
 
 Line 79. The moon rose against the course of the Heavens, in the constel- 
 lation of Scorpion, in which the sun is, when by those at Rome it is seen to 
 set between the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. 
 
 Lino 83. l*ictola, formerly called Andes, was the birthplace of Virgil. 
 
Canto XVIII. PURGATORY. 201 
 
 Whence I, who of the doubtings I had known ^^ 
 
 A clear and full solution had received, 
 Was like a man who stands in sleepy swoune. 
 But from all trace of sleepiness relieved, 
 
 I was aroused by people from behind. 
 
 Who seemed to reach us almost ere perceived. ^ 
 
 Such as Ismenus and Asopus find 
 
 Along their banks, the furious rout at night, 
 
 What time the Thebans needed Bacchus kind ; 
 So round that circle, urge their whirling flight. 
 
 Those who towards us coming I descried, ^^ 
 
 Spurred onwards by good will, and love of right. 
 Soon they had reached us, for with eager stride, 
 
 All that great crowd, still forwards racing, strain ; 
 
 And two in front of them with weeping, cried, 
 " Mary with haste unto the mountain ran ;'* ^^ 
 
 *' And Caesar, too, Ilerda to subdue. 
 
 Attacked Marseilles, and hurried into Spain." 
 " Faster, yet faster, lose not time anew 
 
 Through lack of love," the others shouted near, 
 
 " Grace groweth green through zeal good acts to do." ^'^^ 
 *' O people, in the whom keen fervour here 
 
 Makes up perchance for negligent delay. 
 
 And your lukewarmness in a former sphere ; 
 This one who lives (and certes truth I say). 
 
 Would mount above, when shines again the sun, "^ 
 
 So tell us where doth nearest lie the way." 
 Such were the words my leader said : and one 
 
 Amongst those spirits told us, " Follow ye 
 
 Behind us, and the opening will be won. 
 We are so full of the desire to flee "^ 
 
 That rest we cannot : think it not dishonour V 
 
 Since justice drives, and grant us pardon free. 
 1 was San Zeno's abbot in Verona, 
 
 Under good Barbarossa's empire suave, 
 
 Of whom Milan still weeps his hand upon her. ^'^^ 
 
 And one has now a foot within the grave, 
 
 Who through that monastery soon will mourn 
 
 In sadness, that he used it as his slave. 
 
 Line 91. Rivers near Thebes. 
 
 Line 100. When she went into the hill country to visit Elizabeth. Luke i. 
 39. 
 
 Line 101. Caesar, in the war with Pompey, left Brutus to complete the siege 
 of Marseilles, and himself hurried into Spain, and defeated the generals of 
 Pompey at Lerida. 
 
 Line 119. The Emperor Frederic I., who reduced Milan to ashes in 1162. 
 
 Line 121. Alberto della Scala, lord of Verona, who had forced his natural 
 son, a deformed person, on the monastery as its abbot. 
 
202 PURGATORY. Canto XIX. 
 
 Because he placed his son, to evil born, 
 
 Misshaped in body, and in mind more vile, . ^^ 
 
 In place of its true pastor hence uptorn." 
 
 I know not if he spake more or grew still, 
 
 So far from us ere then his course did speed, 
 But this I heard, and I retained the while. 
 
 And he, who was my help in every need, ^^ 
 
 Said, " Turn thee hither, and behold two more V 
 Chiding the sin of sloth, as on they speed." -' 
 
 In rear of all they said ; " AH those, before 
 
 Whom the Red Sea its pathway opened, died, 
 
 Ere their descendants saw the Jordan's shore." ^^^ 
 
 " Aud those who all the labours could not bide 
 Unto the end, with good Anchises' son. 
 Doomed by themselves, a life inglorious tried." 
 
 Thereafter, when so far from us had run 
 
 Those shadows, that they vanished from oar sight, ^^^ 
 Within my mind new thought its course begun. 
 
 Whence many more all diverse rose in might, 
 And I so raved o'er one and the other theme 
 That there my eyes I closed in delight. 
 
 And changed my fancy's vision to a dream. ^*^ 
 
 Line 136. Those Trojans who remained with A.cestes in Sicily, rather thau 
 accompany Eneas in his further travels and toils, "^neid," book v. 
 
 CANTO XIX. 
 
 Dante beholds in vision Falsehood and Virtue,] personified in two female 
 shapes. He is then led by an Angel to the stairs, and ascends to the 
 fifth cornice. There he finds the shades prostrate on the ground, 
 purging the sin of Avarice, and amongst them he converses with Pope 
 Adrian V. 
 
 Now in the hour, when the diurnal heat 
 
 Can warm no more the coldness of the night, 
 Conquered by chill of earth, or Saturn's seat ; 
 
 What time there rises on the Geomants' sight 
 
 The Greater Fortune, where before the morn, * 
 
 The eastern sky is shortly flecked with white : 
 
 Line 1. The hour before morning. 
 
 Line 5. The Greater Fortune was a figure drawn by Geomanti for their 
 divination, after a constellation visible in the eastern sky before the dawn. 
 
Canto XIX. PURGATORY. 203 
 
 A tongue-tied woman on my dream was borne, 
 
 With squinting eyes, distorted on her feet. 
 
 With maimed hands, and pale in hue forlorn. 
 I gazed on her ; and as the sun's bright heat ^'^ 
 
 The frigid limbs, the night hath numbed, doth warm. 
 
 So, 'neath my gaze, her tongue won parlance sweet. 
 And straightened afterwards her crippled form 
 
 In briefest time, and on her faded face, 
 
 Eevived the roseate hue which love doth charm. ^^ 
 
 Then when her tongue was granted such release, 
 
 To warble she began, that scarce with pain 
 
 I could have torn me from its witching grace. 
 " I am the Syren sweet," began her strain, 
 
 " Who in mid sea can sailor's course prevent, ^** 
 
 To hear me all possess such longing fain : 
 Ulysses from his wandering voyage I bent 
 
 Unto my song, whoe'er with me reposed 
 
 Earely departed, so I yield content." 
 Not yet her mouth of witchery was closed, *' 
 
 When there appeared a holy lady near 
 
 My side, who came to render her confused. 
 " O Virgil, Virgil, who is this one here ?" 
 
 Proudly she spake to him, while her he hailed, 
 
 With eyes fixed ever on her aspect clear ; ^^ 
 
 She seized the other, and in front unveiled, 
 
 Tearing her garments, and her belly showed. 
 
 Which woke me with the stench that hence exhaled. 
 I turned my eyes, and spake my Virgil good, 
 
 " Three"^ times at least I have called thee ; up, away, ^^ 
 
 For thee to enter, let us seek the road." 
 Upwards I rose, already with the day 
 
 The circles of the holy mountain glow, 
 
 And with the sun behind, we went our way. 
 Following upon his steps, I bore my brow ** 
 
 Like one who has a weight of thought severe, 
 
 And in a bridge's arch his frame doth bow ; 
 When I thus heard : " Come on, one passeth here," 
 
 Spoken in mode so tender and benign. 
 
 As ne'er is heard upon this mortal sphere. ^ 
 
 With open pinions, like a swan's that shine, 
 
 Directed us above, the one who spake. 
 
 Betwixt the granite walls that there incline. 
 
 Line 7. An allegory of false human happiness. 
 
20i PURGATORY. Canto XIX. 
 
 Moving his plumes, a wafture did lie make, 
 
 " Qui lugent,'' then affirmed he, ** are the blest, ^^ 
 
 Who to their master souls can comfort take." 
 " What hast thou, that thy eyes on earth still rest?" 
 
 Thus to address me straight began my guide. 
 
 When from the Angel we had upwards prest. 
 *' With such suspicion makes me go," I cried, ^^ 
 
 *' The novel vision which my thoughts enfold, 
 
 So that from it they cannot more divide." 
 " That ancient witch," he said, " didst thou behold. 
 
 Which only o'er us now each spirit wails ? 
 
 Didst thou behold how man bursts from her hold ? ^ 
 
 Enough, the earth now spurning with thy heels. 
 
 Direct thy eyes towards the Heavenly lure, 
 
 The eternal kingdom, with its whirling wheels." 
 Like to a falcon, who his feet makes sure, 
 
 Then tumeth to the cry, and upwards heaves ^ 
 
 In longing for the prey that flies before : 
 Thus did I do, and thus as far as cleaves 
 
 The rock, in passage for those upwards boune, 
 
 I clomb to where the level circle leaves. 
 As on the fifth ledge I my entrance won, '''^ 
 
 The people who were waiting there I see a- 
 
 Lying on earth, with faces aye turned down. 
 " Adhcesit pavimento anima mea,^^ 
 
 I heard them saying with such deep-drawn sighs, 
 
 That of the words one scarce could catch the idea. " 
 
 " O ye elect of God, whose miseries 
 
 Justice and hope alike reduce in sum. 
 
 Direct us towards the stairs, by which to rise." 
 " Secure from lying down, if here ye come, 
 
 And seek the shortest way, the outer side ^ 
 
 Keep ever to the right hand as ye roam." 
 So spake the poet, and was so replied. 
 
 Some way in front of us, whence from the speech 
 
 I saw one-half my mystery yet was hid. 
 And to my master's eyes my eyes I reach ; ^ 
 
 When he assented with a joyful sign 
 
 To what my look of longing did beseech. 
 
 Line 50. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." 
 Matt. V. 4. 
 
 Lme 59. In the three higher circles are purged the sins of those who lusted 
 after various forms of mere earthly good. 
 
 Line 73. " My soul cleaveth to the dust." Ps. cxix. 25. 
 
 Line 84. The shade was aware that Dante had arrived there undoomed to 
 that particular penance, but knew not that he was alive. 
 
Canto XIX. PURGATORY. 205 
 
 Then with permission given for my design, 
 
 Over the creature there I bent me down, 
 
 Whose words that knowledge made me first divine : •*" 
 Saying, " O soul, in whom tears ripen soon, 
 
 That, without which to God thou canst not turn, 
 
 Cease for a while the chief care thou dost own. 
 The who thou wert, and why all hold your stern 
 
 Turned upwards, say if thou desirest greatly "^ 
 
 That I, who live, for thee earth's prayers should earn." 
 And he : " Why Heaven our hinder parts thus meetly 
 
 E-everseth towards itself, thou'lt know, but now 
 
 Scias quod ego fui successor Petri. 
 'Twixt Siestri and Chiaveri down doth flow ^^^ 
 
 Rushing a river fair, and to its name 
 
 Our race the title of its lineage owe. 
 How weigheth the great garb, kept free from shame, 
 
 A month and little longer did I know : 
 
 All other loads are feathers by the same. ^^ 
 
 Ah woe ! my soul's conversion was but slow : 
 
 But since tlie Eoman Pastor I was made, 
 
 Thence I discovered life's false-seeming show. 
 I saw that there the heart no rest essayed, 
 
 Nor in that life could climb to loftier seat; "" 
 
 Therefore on this new-kindled love I laid. 
 Until that time, wretched and separate 
 
 From God, my greedy soul to all things clave ;X 
 
 Now I am punished here, as thou dost weet. 
 The stain, produced by avarice, here we lave "^ 
 
 In the purgation of converted spirits ; 
 
 This mountain knows no bitterness so grave. 
 As erst, in life, the soul did never steer its 
 
 Eyes to the height, engroseed on things terrene 
 
 So Justice here prostrates it, as it merits. '^^ 
 
 As erst, through avarice, our love has been 
 
 Extinguisht to all good, hence failed its spell, 
 So justice holds it here in bondage keen. 
 Tied by the hands and feet thus close and well ; 
 
 And long as it shall please just God to wreak, ^^ 
 
 So long we'll stay, stretcht out immovable." 
 I had knelt down, and was about to speak. 
 
 But ere I had commenced, to him was known, 
 Only by listening, my reverence meek. 
 
 Line 100. The speaker is Ottobuono, of the family of the Fieschi, Counts 
 of Lavagno. The river Lavagno runs through the Genoese territory. 
 Ottobuono was elected under the name of Adrian V. in 12/6, and died one 
 month and nine days after his election. 
 
206 PURGATORY. Canto XX. 
 
 *' What cause," said he, " hath bent thee thus adown ?" ^^^ 
 And I to him : " Your sacred dignity, 
 My honest conscience smote me, thus to own." 
 
 " Straighten thy limbs, and rise O brother free, 
 Err not, a fellow servant," he replied, 
 " Am I to one, with others, and with thee. ^^ 
 
 If e'er the Gospel's holy text applied. 
 
 Which sayeth Neque nuhent, thou hast known, 
 Why I thus speak, will clearly be descried. 
 
 Thy longer stay I wish not, go thee on ; 
 
 Thy presence to my weeping gives respite, ^^ 
 
 With which I ripen that which thou hast shown. 
 
 I have a niece on earth, Alagia hight. 
 
 Good in herself, since her hath lured in vain 
 Our house, by bad example, fi'om the right. 
 
 On earth she only doth to me remain." ^^^ 
 
 Line 137. Since, as Matthew says, we neither marry nor are given in 
 marriage, I am no longer the spouse of the Chnrch, nor entitled to more 
 reverence than any other servant of God. 
 
 Line 142, Alagia, wife of the Marcbese Malespina, one of Dante's 
 protectors in his exile. 
 
 CAKTO XX. 
 
 Continuing their journey round the cornice, Dante hears a spirit relate illus- 
 trious examples of Poverty and Liberality. He tells him that he is Hugh 
 Capet, and mourns over the cai'eerof his descendants. Ho concludes by 
 relating notorious examples of Avarice. As the poets continue their 
 way the mountain trembles as with an earthquake, and all the spirits sing 
 " Gloria in excelsis." 
 
 The will can strive not against stronger will ; 
 Therefore to please him, in my own despite 
 From the wave I drew the sponge I might not fill. 
 
 I and my leader moved along the site 
 
 Beside the rock encumbered, as one goes ^ 
 
 Close to the battlements on a narrow height. 
 
 Because the people, from whose eyes there flows 
 In drops the evil which the wild has nursed, 
 On the outer edge of the circle lay in rows. 
 
 O ancient she-wolf, be thou aye accurst, ^® 
 
 Who more than all the other beasts hast prey. 
 Through thy unquenchable and endless thirst. 
 
 Line 10. Avarice. See Canto I. of the "Inferno:" the advent of 
 Can Grande della Scala is supposed to be again alluded to in Line 15. 
 
Canto XX. PURGATORY. 207 
 
 O skies, since we have credence in thy sway, 
 
 To change the aspect of the world below. 
 
 When will He come, who'll chase this beast away ? ^^ 
 
 We wended on with niggard steps and slow. 
 
 And I, the shadows watching, heard them plain, 
 
 Piteously weeping, there lament their woe. 
 " Sweet Mary !" I at hazard heard the strain 
 
 Cried out in front of us as if with moan ^^ 
 
 Forced from a woman in a labour pain. 
 " Thou wast as poor," it then continued on, 
 
 " As ever could be seen, when in these mews 
 
 Thou wast delivered of thy holy son. 
 
 good Fabricius, thou didst wisely choose, ^''* 
 
 Preferring virtue even with poverty, 
 
 Than, vice accompanied, great wealth to use.** 
 
 These words such satisfaction gave to me. 
 
 That I drew onwards, with that spirit sooth 
 
 To hold relationship, and parlance free. •'*^ 
 
 It spake again of the boon, with liberal ruth 
 Which to the maidens Nicholas had made, 
 In the path of honour to preserve their youth. 
 
 " O spirit, who so very well hast said. 
 
 Tell who thou wert," I askt, " and why alone ^* 
 
 Those worthy praises a.re by thee conveyed. 
 
 Not thankless will the word to thee be known. 
 If I return, the short paths to complete 
 Of life, which to its goal still flieth on." 
 
 And he : "I'll tell thee, not for comfort sweet ** 
 
 I look for earthwards, but since grace doth grant. 
 Ere thou art dead, to thee such favour great. 
 
 1 was the root of that most evil plant. 
 
 Whose shade o'er all the Christian land so huge is, 
 That hence good fruit one can but gather scant. ** 
 
 But if the towns of Douai, Grhent, Lisle, Bruges, 
 
 Possessed the power, such vengeance soon would light. 
 Which at his hands I seek, who all things judges. 
 
 Upon the earth Hugh Capet was I hight ; 
 
 From me the Louis and Philippes go down ^ 
 
 Who recently have ruled o'er France's might. 
 
 Line 30. The legend of St. Nicholas relates that he dowered three virgins, 
 whose chastity, he learned through an angel, their father was about to sell. 
 
 Line 43. The speaker is Hugh Capet, and as acutely conjectured by Arch- 
 deacon Fisher, in the notes to Gary's " Dante," the evil plant is probably not 
 the French monarchy, but Philippe le Bel, who is a peculiar object of the 
 poet's dislike. Vide, inter alia, " Purgatory," Canto VII. The vengeance 
 looked for from the Flemish towns that Philippe le Bel ravaged during his 
 war in the Low Couuti-ies was gained in the battle of Courtrai. 
 
208 PURGATORY. Canto XX, 
 
 I of a Paris butcher was the sou, 
 
 What time the liue of ancient monarchs ended, 
 
 All except one, who the grey garb did don. 
 Into my hands the government descended ^^ 
 
 Firm in my gripe, with all the power that springs 
 
 From new-gained wealth, by troops of friends attended, 
 Which to the widowed crown promoted brings 
 
 The forehead of my son, who from that hour 
 
 Begins this line of consecrated kings. ^ 
 
 Ere was acquired the great Proven9al dower 
 
 Which from my race took honest shame away, 
 
 It did but little ill through lack of power. 
 There it began with force and fraudful sway 
 
 Its rapine, seized thereafter in amends, ^ 
 
 Ponthieu, and Normandy, and Gascony ; 
 Charles came to Italy, and in amends. 
 
 His victim Conradino there did slay. 
 
 And then to Heaven sent Thomas in amends. 
 I see the time not distant from to-day '* 
 
 Which draws another Charles from out of France, 
 
 Himself and his the better to display. 
 Unarmed he goes, or only with the lance 
 
 That Judas jousted with, and thrusts the same 
 
 So that to Florence he doth burst the paunch. " 
 
 No kingdom there, but only sin and shame 
 
 Will be his gain, to him more grievous far 
 
 As such a loss so lightly doth he deem. 
 
 Line 52. Probably alluding to bis father's sanguinary temper, not ^bis 
 trade. 
 
 Line 54. Tbe last of tbe Merovingian kings, Cbilderic III., became a 
 monk. Venturi conjectures that Dante confounded this fact with tbe close 
 of the Carlovingian line, to which Capet succeeded. 
 
 Line 61. The great Provengal dower, according to Archdeacon Fisher's 
 explanation, is the kingdom of Navarre and Duchy of Champagne, acquired 
 by marriage by Philip le Bel. 
 
 Line 66. I have not ventured to follow Cary's bold alteration of the text, 
 who reads for Ponthieu and Normandy Poitou and Navarre. Under any 
 explanation of the passage, however, the acquisition of Normandy was long 
 anterior to that of Provence, and there must be an error in the text. 
 
 Line 67. Charles of Anjou, who having taken Conradino prisoner, cut off 
 bis head publicly in 1268, and became King of Naples. Saint Thomas of 
 Aquinas was rumoured to have been poisoned by one of Charles's physicians 
 while proceeding to the Council at Lyons. 
 
 Line 71. Charles of Valois, brother of Philip le Bel. Called in by Pope 
 Boniface, and sent to settle the troubles in Florence, he intrigued with the 
 party of the Neri, and, bribed by them, drove out the Bianchi faction, 
 amongst whom Dante himself was driven from the city. 
 
Canto XX. PURGATORY. 209 
 
 The other Charles, but now a prisoner, 
 
 His daughter sells, and makes the bargain sure, ^* 
 
 As corsairs do with other slaves of war. 
 
 Avarice, how canst thou bind us more, 
 
 Since to thyself thou thus hast drawn my race 
 
 On its own flesh to place such little store ? 
 All evil past and future to efface, ^^ 
 
 Into Alagna bursts the fleur-de-lis, 
 
 And in his vicar, Christ doth there disgrace. 
 Again I see him shamed with mockery : 
 
 I see renewed the vinegar and gall, 
 
 Him slain 'twixt living thieves once more I see. ^*^ 
 
 1 see the cruel Pilate, with it all 
 
 Unsatisfied, bear on with lawless heat 
 
 His greedy sails into the temple hall. 
 O Lord, how long ere I can joy complete 
 
 In seeing vengeance which Thou now dost hide, ®^ 
 
 Thy anger o'er its secret brooding sweet ? 
 That which I spake of the one only bride 
 
 Of the Holy Spirit, and which drew thee near 
 
 In order that some gloss might be supplied, 
 Thus, amongst all of us is framed the prayer ^^ 
 
 As long as day lasts, but when night draws on 
 
 A strain all contrary in turns we bear. 
 Then speaks our burden of Pygmalion, 
 
 Who traitor, robber, and a parricide 
 
 Through his all-craving lust of gold had grown. ^^^ 
 
 And greedy Midas' misery beside, 
 
 Which followed on his gluttonous demand, 
 
 And which 'tis fit all after time deride. 
 Then each recalleth foolish Achan's end. 
 
 And how he stole the spoils, so that the ire "'^ 
 
 Of Joshua seemeth here once more to rend. 
 
 Line 79. Charles II., King of Naples, eldest son of Charles of Anjou. He 
 was taken prisoner in a naval action with the forces of Aragon, and after his 
 release he married his daughter to a Marquis of Ferrara, in consideration of 
 a heavy payment. 
 
 Line 86. Bishop Boniface VIII. was seized at Alagna by command of 
 Philip le Bel, and kept as a prisoner in his palace for three days. The indig- 
 nity so worked on his proud heart that he died three days afterwards. 
 
 Line 91. Alluding probably to the destruction of the Order of Templars 
 in 1310. 
 
 Line 97. The spirit a.t last answers Dante's question as to why he alone 
 recited the worthy praises of liberal deeds, saying that such was not the 
 case. 
 
 Line 103. Son of a king of Tyre, who killed Sicheus, Dido's husband. 
 Mu., book i., 1. 350. 
 
 Line 109. Stoned by order of Joshua for concealing the spoils. Joshua, 
 ch. vii. 
 
 P 
 
210 PURGATORY. Canto XX. 
 
 Then with, her husband, we accuse Sapphire : 
 We praise the kicks bestowed on Heliodorus : 
 And with the shame rings all the mountain's spire 
 
 Of Polinestor, who slew Polidorus. "^ 
 
 Tell us the taste of gold, for thou dost know, 
 
 Crassus ! lastly do we shout in chorus. 
 So do we speak, one high the other low. 
 
 As inclination spurreth us to say 
 
 Now in more swift, and now in time more slow. '"® 
 
 But of the good, of w^hich we speak by day, 
 
 1 spake not now alone, but near me then 
 No other voice was raised with equal sway." 
 
 From him we now had parted, and again 
 
 We strove along the encumbered path to crawl, ^^^ 
 
 As much as to our power was granted ; when ^ 
 
 I felt as something tottering to its fall. 
 
 The mountain tremble ; like one deathwards driven. 
 The sudden frore my senses did appal. 
 
 Certes, so strongly was not Delos riven ^^^ 
 
 Before Latona there her nest did hide, 
 There to bring forth the twin-born eyes of Heaven. 
 
 Then there began a cry on every side. 
 
 Such that my master closer to me drew, 
 
 Saying, " Doubt nothing while beside thy guide." ^^^ 
 
 Gloria in excelsis Deo, cried the crew 
 
 As I made out from those the nearest placed. 
 From whence the meaning of the cry I knew. 
 
 Immovable and doubtful did we rest. 
 
 Like to the shepherds who first heard that strain, "® 
 
 Till it was finisht, and the trembling ceased. 
 
 Then we resumed our holy path again, 
 
 Watching the shadows who on earth still lay 
 While in their wonted mourning they complain. 
 
 No ignorance ere felt so great a fray ^*^ 
 
 Created in me, with desire to know. 
 If on that point my memory doth not stray, 
 
 As then meseemed in my thoughts to flow ; 
 
 Nor through our haste to question did I dare, 
 - Nor by myself could I perceive the how, ^^" 
 
 Timid and thoughtful, so I travelled there. 
 
 Line 113. Sent by Seleucus against Jerusalem to spoil the temple. On 
 his crossing its threshold " there appeared unto them a horse, with a terrible 
 rider upon him, and adorned with a very fair covering, and he ran fiercely, 
 and smote at Heliodorus with his forefeet." 2 Maccabees iii. 25. 
 
 Line 115. King of Thrace, who to obtain his treasure slew the son whom 
 Priam had entrusted to his care. Virgil, .^n., book iii. 
 
 Line 132. The twin eyes of Heaven are Apollo and Diana, the sun and 
 moon.twin children of Latona. 
 
Canto XXI. PURGATORY. 211 
 
 CANTO XXI. 
 
 Proceeding on their way, the poets are joined by the shadow o£ Statins, who 
 explains to them that the earthquake on the mountain takes place 
 whenever a spirit in Purgatory is released Heavenwards, when all the 
 spirits unite in praising God. He tells the poets who he is, and describes 
 his enthusiasm for Virgil, whom he then learns to his delight to be one 
 of his companions. 
 
 That natural thirst which none can satisfy, 
 
 Except the water, for the which of old 
 
 The woman of Samaria made her cry, 
 Within me travailed, haste my steps controlled 
 
 Behind my guide o'er the strewed path to steer, ^ 
 
 The while that justest vengeance I controlled. 
 And lo, as Luke doth write, that did a,ppear 
 
 Christ unto two, upon their way, and joined 
 
 Already risen from the sepulchre. 
 So did a shadow join us from behind, ^^ 
 
 Regarding at his feet the prostrate press. 
 
 Nor were we 'ware, till his saluting kind 
 Addressed us, " Brothers mine, Grod give ye peace." 
 
 Sudden we turned, and Virgil him addressed 
 
 With salutation fitted to his grace, ^^ 
 
 And then began, " Within the conclave blest. 
 
 Place thee in peace the righteous majesty. 
 
 Though endless exile be to me its 'hest." 
 " How ?" did he say. " Then wherefore do ye hie, 
 
 If ye be shades, unworthy God's high spheres ? ^^ 
 
 And who has led ye on his steps so high ?" 
 My teacher : " If thou seest the signs he bears, 
 
 Which on his brow the Angel did indite. 
 
 Clearly thou'lt know him of the kingdom's heirs. 
 But since the one who spinneth day and night, ^^ 
 
 Has from her spindle not yet drawn the line. 
 
 Which Clotho unto each allotteth right ; 
 His spirit, sister unto thine and mine, 
 
 Thus soaring upwards, could not venture sole. 
 
 Since in our fashion it cannot divine. ^ 
 
 Whence I was drawn from out the ample hole 
 
 Of Hell to lead him, and so far will show 
 
 An can conduct the virtue of my school. 
 
 Line 25. Lachesis, one of the Fates. 
 
212 PURGATORY. Cakto XXI. 
 
 But tell us why such shocks, if thou dost know, 
 
 The mountain gave just now, and why did cry ^ 
 
 They all together to the waves below ?" 
 So askt he, fitting in the needle's eye 
 
 Of my desire, that only with the hope 
 
 Of satisfaction grew my thirst less dry. 
 Began he : " Nothing here beyond the cope ^^ 
 
 Of order feels this mountain's piety, 
 
 And nothing haps beyond the accustomed scope. 
 From every alteration here 'tis free : 
 
 From what Heaven to and from itself doth owe. 
 
 And from no other influence may it be, ^* 
 
 Because nor either rain, nor hail, nor snow. 
 
 Nor dew, nor hoar frost e'er can fall adown 
 
 Above that stair of three low steps I trow. 
 Dense clouds, or lighter never here can wohne. 
 
 Nor lightning, nor Thaumantia's daughter bright. *" 
 
 Which ever on the earth still shifteth on. 
 Dry vapour cannot rise beyond the height 
 
 Of the three entrance stairs of which I spake. 
 
 Where plants his feet Saint Peter's vicar bright. 
 Lower perchance, it more or less can shake : ^^ 
 
 But e'er by wind, within the earth concealed, 
 
 How I know not, above it cannot quake. 
 With us it trembles, when some spirit healed 
 
 Is felt to rise, in act to soar above. 
 
 With helpful greeting there such cry is pealed. ^^ 
 
 Purification, will alone doth proye. 
 
 For wholly free to change its company, ^ 
 
 The soul it seizeth, and assists with love. 
 The will was ever there, but 'twas not free, 
 
 For justice all divine, against desire, ^^ 
 
 Proportioned to the sin the penalty. 
 And I, who've lain within that sorrowful fire 
 
 Five hundred years, and more, but now perceived 
 
 The will released to a better home to aspire. 
 Therefore thou felt'st the mountain all upheaved, ^'^ 
 
 And the pious spirits render praise to Grod, 
 
 May He soon raise them from their pain relieved." 
 
 Line 45. Venturi considers this to be light. I consider it may mean 
 simply a pure heavenly influence, distinct from every elemental cause. 
 
 Line 50. Iris, the rainbow. 
 
 Line 61. The only restraining power to keep the soul in Purgatory is the 
 will, which will not wish to depart until the penalty has been fully satis- 
 factory to the sin. 
 
Canto XXI. PURGATORY. 213 
 
 Thus spake he, and as bliss the greater flowed 
 From drinking, as the previous thirst was great, 
 I cannot tell the joy which he bestowed. ^* 
 
 Then my wise leader ; " Now I see the net 
 
 Which holds ye here, and how from hence ye go. 
 Wherefore it shakes, and ye rejoice thereat; 
 
 Now who thou wert, be pleased that I know. 
 
 And why so many ages thou wert laid **" 
 
 Here, with an answer bind me to thee now." 
 
 " In the time when worthy Titus, with the aid 
 Of the highest King, avenged the holy wounds, 
 Whence flowed the blood by Judas' lip betrayed ; 
 
 The name that longest lasts, and most redounds, ^ 
 
 Did I possess on earth," replied that spirit, 
 " Though not yet now within the true Faith's bounds. 
 
 Such sweetness did my vocal soul inherit 
 
 That from Toulouse did Rome my presence claim. 
 
 And deemed my brow the myrtle wreath to merit. ^^ 
 
 Statins on earth still me the people name : 
 I sang of Thebes, and then Achilles great, 
 Although I fell beneath that second theme. 
 
 The sparks were seeds to my poetic heat, 
 
 Which warmed me ever from that flame divine, ^^ 
 
 More than a thousand have been lit thereat. 
 
 I speak of the Eneid, mother mine. 
 
 And nurse it was in poetry sublime ; 
 Without it I had never writ a line. 
 
 And only to have lived on earth what time ^"^ 
 
 Virgil was living, I would stay a year 
 In this stern banishment, beyond my time.** 
 
 Virgil turned towards me when that smote his ear 
 With look that in its silence, silence said ; 
 But all it wishes, will cannot forbear : ^^* 
 
 For smiles and tears to diverse passion wed, 
 Upon that passion follow so instinct. 
 In open natures, will is quite outsped. 
 
 I smiled then, as a man who takes a hint t 
 
 On which the shade in silence watcht my eyes, ^'" 
 
 Where the inward thought is shown the most distinct. 
 
 " Ah to success conduct thy great emprise !" 
 
 He said, " But tell me why thy face has shown 
 Just now that rapid smile, like lightning rise?" 
 
 Line 89, Dante falls into the error of confounding the poet Statins with a 
 Rhetorician of that name who was a native of Toulouse. The poet was a 
 Napohtain. 
 
 Line 93. Statius died when he had only commenced the ** Achilleid." 
 
214 PURGATORY. Canto XXII. 
 
 Now am I straitened on each side : the one "* 
 
 Commands my silence, and the one conjures 
 That I should speak ; I sigh, and I am known. 
 
 " Speak," with a word my master reassures, 
 '* Fear not to speak out, and to tell him all 
 Which his request so eagerly procures." ^^ 
 
 Whence I ; " Perchance on thee did marvel fall, 
 
 ancient spirit, when that smile did rise : 
 
 1 will, that more of wonder thee befall. 
 This one, who guides on high my mortal eyes, 
 
 Is Virgil, from the whom thou learn'dst of old ^^* 
 
 To sing so high of men and deities. 
 
 If other reason for my smile didst hold, 
 
 Leare it as false, and this the true cause weet, 
 The words which thou concerning him hast told/* 
 
 Already he bent down to embrace the feet ^^ 
 
 Of my dear teacher : but he said, " Forbear, 
 O brother ; thou a shade, a shade dost greet." 
 
 And he arising : " Now thou art aware 
 
 Of the great love, which towards thee me doth warm. 
 When I forget we are but empty air, ^^ 
 
 Treating a shadow like a solid form." 
 
 CANTO XXII. 
 
 The poets ascend to the sixth circle, in which the sin of Gluttony is purged. 
 As they mount the stairs, Statins informs Virgil that he had been a 
 prodigal in his life, which sin, and not avarice, he had cleansed in the 
 preceding circle. As they advance round the sixth cornice, they find a 
 tree covered with odorous fruits, from which issues a voice, recording 
 brilliant examples of Temperance. 
 
 Already was the Angel left behind 
 
 To the sixth circle who had shown our way, 
 And from my brow another sin refined : 
 
 And those, whose hope alone in justice lay. 
 
 Had cried Beati, as we left their site, * 
 
 And Sitio, and therewith they closed their lay. 
 
 And I, than in the other straits, more light, 
 Without a trace of labour went above, 
 Following those rapid spirits' upward flight : 
 
 When Virgil Statins thus addressed : " The love ^^ 
 
 By virtue kindled, be there apprehended 
 Its outward flame, like passion aye will move. 
 
 Line 4. " Beati qui esuriunt, et sitiunt justitiam." Matthew v. 6. 
 
Canto XXIL PURGATORr. 215 
 
 Whence from the hour that Juvenal descended 
 
 Amongst us into Limbo, Hell's first court, 
 
 And thy affection unto me extended, ^* 
 
 Towards thee my good will was of such a sort, 
 
 As ne'er before to one unseen did tend, 
 
 So that thy presence makes this staircase short. 
 Now say, and as a friend thy pardon lend, 
 
 If too great freedom loosens now my rein, ^^ 
 
 And henceforth parley with me as a friend : 
 How wert thou able in thy breast to gain 
 
 A place for avarice, 'mid so great a mine 
 
 Of intellect, thy zeal had stored amain ?" 
 These words of Virgil, Statins did incline ^ 
 
 Somewhat to laughter first, then he replied : 
 
 "■ All thou hast said, of love is dearest sign. 
 Oftentimes truly tilings appear outside 
 
 Wrongly creating cause for doubt to be. 
 
 Since something from us the true causes hide. ^ 
 
 Thy question shows that thou believest me 
 
 Sunk in the other life, in the vice of greed, / 
 
 Haply through reason of the place I flee. 
 Too far from avarice, thou must now aread, 
 
 That I was severed, and to that excess ^ 
 
 Thousands of moons have been awarded meed, 
 And were it not that when I read that place, 
 
 My zeal was quickened, in the which thou'st told, 
 
 As 'twere in anger with the human race, 
 To what lengths, O thou cursed thirst of gold, \, ^ 
 
 Dost thou not rule the mortal appetite ? ^ 
 
 Whirling in Hell, the wretched weights I'd rolled 
 Then I perceived that with too wild a flight 
 
 The hands can scatter wealth, and I repented ; 
 
 Of that, as of all other evil plight. '*^ 
 
 How many with shorn hair will rise demented. 
 
 Who from repenting, even at the last, 
 
 Their ignorance that this was crime, prevented ! 
 And know, that whatsoever sin is placed 
 
 Directly opposite to some other sin, ^ 
 
 Doth, with it here, its green luxuriance waste. 
 If 'mongst the people therefore I have been 
 
 Who wail their avarice, my soul to clear. 
 
 Through the opposite vice that sentence did I win." 
 
 Line 40. " Quid non mortalia pectora cogis 
 
 Auri sacra fames ?" 
 
 ^n., lib. iii., v. 57. 
 Lines 42 and 46. See Canto VII. of the " Inferno." 
 
216 PUEGATOKY. Canto XXII. 
 
 " Now when thou sang'st the cruel strife of fear " 
 
 Waged by Jocasta's twin-born sons of woe," 
 
 The poet of the rural song spake here, 
 ** By that which Clio in thy stream doth show, 
 
 It seemeth not that thee, faith yet had won, 
 
 Without which good deeds are but dross below. ^^ 
 
 If it be thus, what candles or what sun 
 
 Lightened thy darkness so, that thou didst steer 
 
 Thy sails direct behind the Fisherman ?" 
 And he to him : " Thou first my course didst veer 
 
 To quaff the water on Parnassus' height, ^ 
 
 And God wards thou my darkness first didst clear. 
 Thou wert in sooth like one who goes by night 
 
 Burning a light behind, for him in vain, 
 
 Yet guideth all who follow him aright : 
 There, where thou saidst, the age is born again, '" 
 
 Justice returneth, and the primal day. 
 
 And from the heavens descends a novel strain. 
 Poet was I, and Christian, both through thee. 
 
 And this I somewhat will explain in brief, 
 
 That what I've drawn, thou mayst the clearer see. ^* 
 
 Already was the world all pregnant rife 
 
 With the true Faith, which had been sown abroad 
 f By the new heralds of Eternal Life : 
 And what thy verse, quoted above, foreshowed. 
 
 With the new Preacher's truths agreed so near, ^® 
 
 That I was drawn to seek their haunts : so good 
 And holy then to me did they appear, 
 
 That when Domitian's tyranny began, 
 
 Their woes were not without my tribute tear ; 
 And whilst on earth my allotted course I ran, ** 
 
 Their influence, and their customs pure from blame. 
 
 Made me despise all other sects in man. 
 And ere my verse the Greeks had led to the stream 
 
 Of Thebes, I had obtained baptismal rite, 
 
 A secret Christian I through fear became. ^ 
 
 For long conforming to each Pagan rite : 
 
 In the fourth circle, this my lukewarm crime 
 
 More than four centuries prolonged my flight. 
 
 Line 56. Eteocles and Polinices, the heroes of the " Thebaid." See note to 
 Canto XXVI. of the " Inferno." 
 
 Line 70. " Jam redit et Virgo, i*edeunt Saturnia regna, 
 
 Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto." 
 
 Eccl. iv. 6. 
 
Canto XXII. PURGATORY. 217 
 
 Thou then, who liftedst in my early prime 
 
 The veil, which all of good from me concealed, ^^ 
 
 Whilst we have still such distance left to climb, 
 Say, where is now our Terence famed of eld, 
 
 Cecilius, Plautus, Varro, shouldst thou know 
 
 If they are damned, say in what circle held." 
 " These, Perseus, and myself, and others too," ^^ 
 
 Answered my leader, " with that G-reek sojourn 
 
 Whom, more than all, the Muses nursed below, 
 In the first circle of the prison lorn. 
 
 We often parley of that mountain lone, 
 
 On which our nurses ever make their bourne. ^^ 
 
 Euripides is ours, Anacreon, 
 
 Simonides, and Agathon, and more 
 
 Greeks, on whose foreheads twines the laurel crown. 
 There of thy people are beheld galore, 
 
 Antigone, Deiphile, Argia, ^^* 
 
 And sad Ismene, as she was of yore. 
 She there is seen who pointed out Langia : 
 
 There is Tiresias' daughter, Thetis too. 
 
 And with her sisters, there Deidamia." 
 Each of the poets now to silence grew, ^^^ 
 
 Once more intent around the hill to gaze. 
 
 Since we had sallied from the stairs anew : 
 The first four handmaids of the day gave place, 
 
 And at the Pole the fifth was standing now, 
 
 Directing upwards still the ardent blaze, ^^^ 
 
 When spake my leader : " Still the brink I trow 
 
 In wandering we must keep upon our right, 
 
 Circling the mount as we were wont to do." 
 So custom was our guide around the height ; 
 
 And with less doubt the path we followed on, ^^* 
 
 From the consent of that most worthy sprite. 
 They went before me, and I all alone 
 
 Behind them, listened to their parlance meet, 
 
 Which taught my intellect the poet's tone. 
 
 Line 110. The characters introduced in Statins' poems. 
 
 Line 112. Hypsipyle, who pointed out the river Langia to the fainting army 
 of Adrastus. The story is again alluded to in Canto XXVI. 
 
 Line 113. Tiresias' daughter, Manto, already introduced in the eighth circle 
 of Hell as a sorceress, a solitary piece of forgetfulness on Dante's part, 
 though he may have fancied that Tiresias had another daughter, named 
 Daphne, vpho it appears was identical with Manto herself. 
 
 Line 119. It was now the fifth hour. Dante has already called the hours 
 the handmaids of the sun in Canto XII, of the " Purgatory." 
 
218 PURGATORY. Canto XXIII. 
 
 But to their arguments a pause tliey set, ^■ 
 
 Finding a tree in the centre of the way 
 
 With apples in their odour fair and sweet. 
 And as a fir-tree tapereth away 
 
 Upwards from branch to branch, this tapered down 
 
 That none should upwards there a passage fray. ^^ 
 
 Beside our pathway from the lofty stone 
 
 That hemmed us in there fell a liquor clear, 
 
 That scattered o'er the leaves its sparkling crown. 
 The poets twain unto the tree drew near : 
 
 And from amongst the leaves a voice did cry, "'^ 
 
 ** To touch the food within your reach beware." 
 Then said, " Maria thought far more to try 
 
 And make the wedding honoured and complete, 
 
 Than of herself, who prays for you on high. 
 The ancient Roman ladies, as 'twas meet, ^**- 
 
 Drank only water, and all learning's grade 
 
 Daniel acquired, and spurned the royal meat. 
 As fair as gold the first age was arrayed : 
 
 Hunger made savoury the acorns rude, 
 
 And thirst a nectar every rivulet made. ■^*® 
 
 Honey and locusts were the simple food 
 
 On which the Baptist in the desert lived ; 
 
 From whence to him such glory has ensued. 
 As through the Gospel has to you arrived." 
 
 Line 142. Mary's speech at the wedding feast in Cana has already been 
 quoted as an example of charity. 
 
 Line 146. Daniel, ch. i., vv. U, 12, 16, 17- 
 
 CANTO XXIII. 
 
 As the poets advance round the cornice, they are overtaken by a troop of 
 spirits utterly emaciated in appearance. Amongst them Dante recog- 
 nises an old friend, Forese, by his voice. The spirit tells him that his 
 rapid advance through Purgatory is due to tlie prayers of his virtuous 
 wife, and from her he takes occasion to inveigh against the general 
 shamelessness of the women of Florence. 
 
 The whilst my eyes upon that verdant leaf 
 I so had fixed, as they are wont to stare, 
 Who watching little birds waste life so brief, 
 
 My more than father said, " O son forbear. 
 
 Onwards henceforth, the time to us imposed, \i * 
 
 Unto more useful purpose we must share." ^ 
 
Canto XXIII. PURGATORY. 219 
 
 I turned my face, and with swift footstep closed 
 
 On my wise comrades, on whose parlance hung 
 
 My journey now no trace of toil imposed : 
 When lo was heard a weeping and a song, ^^ 
 
 Labia mea Domine, so clear 
 
 That from it both delight and sorrow sprung. 
 " my sweet father, what is this I hear ?" 
 
 Thus I began : and he, " The shades who go 
 
 Haply the debt of duty paying here." ^^ 
 
 In such a guise as thoughtful pilgrims do, 
 
 Meeting with unknown people on their route. 
 
 Who turn towards them, nor their speed forego. 
 So following on our backs with swifter foot 
 
 Coming and passing by on us there gazed ^^ 
 
 The crowd of spirits silent and devout. 
 The eyes of each were hollowed deep and glazed, 
 
 Pale in the face, and worn so utterly. 
 
 That through the skin the bones were clearly traced. 
 I do not think, to such extremity ^* 
 
 Was withered and reduced Erisiton, 
 
 Through hunger when it reached its agony. 
 Thinking, I said in self-communion, 
 
 " The people lo ! who lost Jerusalem 
 
 When Mary with her beak preyed on her son." ^* 
 
 Their eyes appeared like rings without the gem 
 
 Who in the face of men reads O, M, O, 
 
 Would very clearly there have seen the M. 
 Who could believe an apple's scent could so 
 
 Work upon spirits, and create desire, ** 
 
 Or that of water, knowing not the how ? 
 What thus could famish them, my thoughts inquire. 
 
 The reason not yet manifest, which bred 
 
 Their leanness and their rind than fish-scales drier : 
 When lo from the deep cavern of his head ^* 
 
 A shadow turned his eyes on me to gaze, 
 
 " What grace is given me ?" then he loudly said. 
 
 Line 11. O Lord, open thou my lips. Ps. li. 15. 
 
 Line 2G. Erisicthon, having cut down an oak consecrated to Ceres, was 
 doomed by the goddess to suffer an unappeasable hunger, which compelled 
 him, after he had consumed all his substance, to eat his own frame and die. 
 Ovid, 8 Metamorp. Kallimachos. Hymn to Demeter. 
 
 Line 30. Josephus relates the story of the woman who ate her own son, 
 during the celebrated siege of Jerusalem by Titus. 
 
 Line 32. The conceit is that Omo, a man, is written in his face ; the 
 temples and the sides of the face, with the nose, making the M, the eye& 
 being the O's. Owing to emaciation the letter M, foi-med by the bones of 
 the face, was clearly visible in these shadows. 
 
so 
 
 220 PURGATORY. Cakto XXIII. 
 
 I never should have known him by his face, 
 But in his voice there was laid bare to me, 
 Of what his aspect had lost every trace. *^ 
 
 That spark suf&ced to kindle memory 
 
 Of his changed countenance, within my mind, 
 My friend Forese's face once more I see. 
 
 " Ah, do not doubt thee, for this withered rind, 
 The skin thus all discoloured," did he pray, 
 " Nor for the want of flesh which thou dost find. 
 
 But of thyself speak truth ; and who are they 
 The pair of spirits who thy footsteps guide : 
 Unless thou speak to me, thou must not stay." 
 
 ** Thy face, which at thy death I wept beside, 
 Now makes me weep again with no less grief, 
 Seeing it so distorted," I replied. 
 
 "But say, for God's sake, what thus strips your leaf: 
 Make me not speak, while rapt in wonder keen , 
 For ill he speaks who on aught else is lief." 
 
 And he to me : " From the eternal reign 
 Falls virtue on the water and the plant 
 Behind us, through the which I grow so lean. 
 
 And all this people, who with wailing chaunt, 
 From being sunk in boundless gluttony. 
 With thirst and hunger here that weakness daunt. 
 
 To drink and eat inflames this yearning high. 
 The odour of the apple and the spray. 
 Which showereth down upon the greenery. 
 
 Nor even one revolution of this way '** 
 
 Completing, grows our penalty less rude, 
 I say our pain, solace I ought to say. 
 
 The tree we seek with the same will embued, 
 Which made Christ gladly upon Eli pray, 
 What time He freed us wholly with His blood." ^^ 
 
 And I to him : " Forese, from the day 
 
 In which thou left'st the world for a better dower, 
 Till now five years have not yet past away. 
 
 If there was finished first in thee the power 
 
 . To sin, ere God's love to acquire again, ^** 
 
 Of happy grief there came to thee the hour, 
 
 How to this height didst thou so soon attain ? 
 I thought I should have found thee far below, 
 Where for their time life lost the spirits remain." 
 
 Line 48. Forese, apparently known only as tlie brotber of Piccarda, intro- 
 duced in tbe opening sphere of Paradise, Canto III. 
 
 Line 79- If thou hadst lost the power of sinning further, before thou 
 embracedst repentance, bow bast thou soon left the Ante-Purgatory ? 
 
 65 
 
95 
 
 Canto XXIII. PURGATORY. . 221 
 
 And he to me : " So soon has made me know ^ 
 
 The draft of martyrdom's most bitter sweet, 
 
 My Nella, with her tears that ever flow. 
 The sighs and prayers she ever doth repeat, 
 
 From that delaying hill my steps have drawn, 
 
 And from the other circles freed my feet. ^ 
 
 More dear, and more beloved by God, is known 
 
 My widowed wife, whom I so loved ere while. 
 
 As in good actions is she more alone : 
 For the Barbagia of Sardinia's isle 
 
 In female shamelessness is not so bold, 
 
 As the Barbagia which I left erewhile. 
 O brother dear, what wouldst have further told ? 
 
 A future time already do I see, 
 
 In which the present day will not be old. 
 When in the Church they'll publish a decree ^^^ 
 
 Against the insolent lady Florentines, 
 
 Not to expose their breasts for all to see. 
 When were Barbarians seen or Saracens, 
 
 To whom was needed clothing to enforce. 
 
 Or spiritual, or other disciplines ? ^^ 
 
 But if the shameless ones could see the course 
 
 Which Heaven prepareth for them speedily. 
 
 Now would begin their bowlings of remorse. 
 For if I'm not deceived in what I see, 
 
 They will have sorrow ere his cheeks have hair ^^^ 
 
 Who now is soothed by nurse's lullaby. 
 Brother, no more conceal thee from my prayer : 
 
 See, not myself alone, but all my kind 
 
 With wonder see thee bar the sunshine there." 
 Whence I to him : " If thou recall' st to mind "^ 
 
 What thou to me and I to thee have done. 
 
 On earth, the memory thou wilt grievous find. 
 There turned me from that life of sin, this one 
 
 Who goes before me, some few eves ago. 
 
 When shone at full his sister ;" and the sun ^^^ 
 
 I showed ; " He through the deeps of night below 
 
 Hath led my steps, amongst the dead in truth. 
 
 With this true living flesh with which I go. 
 Hence hath he drawn me upwards by his ruth 
 
 To issue, and to travel round this hill ^^^ 
 
 Which you, with virtue, wreckt on earth, endueth. 
 
 Line 94. A mountainous tract of savage country, where the inhabitants 
 were supposed to bo naked. Hence Forese applies the name to Florence. 
 
222 PURGATORY. Canto XXIV. 
 
 He promises to be my comrade still, 
 Until I reach where Beatrix will be, 
 There I must stay without him, Heaven doth will. 
 
 Yirgil is he, who this has told to me :" ^^ 
 
 And pointed to him : " the other is the shade, 
 For whom just now there trembled suddenly 
 
 Tour kingdom, his deliverance to aid." 
 
 CANTO XXIV. 
 
 Forese names some of the other spirits, and amongst the rest Buonagiunta 
 of Lucca, who afterwards converses with Dante. When the troop of 
 shadows depart, Forese still lingers with Dante, and foretells to him the 
 death of his political enemy, Corso Donati. Forese then follows his 
 companions, and the poets advance to a second tree, from which issues a 
 voice relating examples of intemperance. After passing the tree, an 
 Angel points out to them the ascent to the next cornice. 
 
 Nor motion speech nor speech our motion made 
 More slow, but speaking onwards still we strain. 
 Like to a ship by favouring winds conveyed. 
 
 The shadows who seem dead once o'er again. 
 
 In their deep- sunken eyes fresh marvel wake, ^ 
 
 Aware that I was there a living man. 
 
 And I, continuing my parley, spake : 
 
 " His spirit haply presses on more slow 
 Than it would do, were't not for Virgil's sake. 
 
 But tell me where's Piccarda, shouldst thou know : ^"^ 
 
 Say, if I see here people of renown. 
 Amongst this crowd, who gaze upon me so." 
 
 " My sister, who 'twixt fair and good, unknown 
 The which she was the most, already glad 
 On high Olympus triumphs in her crown." ^* 
 
 Thus spake he first, and then : " 'Tis not forbade 
 Each one to name, since here has diet spare 
 All former semblance taken from each shade.'* 
 
 With finger pointing, " Buonagiunta' s here. 
 
 Buonagiunta da Lucca ; and that face ^^ 
 
 Thinner than all the rest beyond him there. 
 
 Possessed the holy Church in his embrace : 
 
 He came from Tours ; and fasting doth atone 
 The wine-steept eels of famed Bolsena's race." 
 
 Line 19. Buonagiunta of Lucca was a poet of the age just preceding Dante. 
 
 Line 22. Simon of Tours, who became Pope with the title of Martin IV. in 
 1281. He is said to have died of obesity from eating too many eels, and is in 
 consequence represented as the thinnest in Purgatory, 
 
Canto XXIV. PURGATORY. 233 
 
 He showed me many others, one by one ; ^ 
 
 As they were named, they all seemed satisfied. 
 
 Not once I saw dissatisfaction shown. 
 I saw on air their teeth by hunger plied, 
 
 Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface, 
 
 Whose crosier luxury to such crowds supplied. ^^ 
 
 I saw the marquis, who spent such a space 
 
 Of old in drink at Forli, when less dry. 
 
 Though even there his thirst could never cease. 
 But like a gazer, whom some one doth spy 
 
 Chiefly, my friend of Lucca did I claim, 35 
 
 Who seemed to see me with familiar eye. 
 He made a murmur, and Gentucca's name, 
 
 I know not how, I heard within his throat, 
 
 Where most consumeth him stern justice' flame. 
 " O soul, whose looks such eagerness denote ^^* 
 
 To speak with me, that I may understand 
 
 Speak clear, with parley to content us both." 
 " A maid is born, who yet the woman's band 
 
 Wears not," he said, " will make my city dear 
 
 To thee, although men now may reprimand. ^ 
 
 With this my prophecy right onwards steer : 
 
 If through my murmuring thou dost error prove, 
 
 Coming events will make my meaning clear. 
 But tell me, if I see the one who wove 
 
 The recent rhymes that with these words begin : ^® 
 
 Ye ladies who possess the lore of love" 
 And I to him : " I am a man who when 
 
 Love breatheth, all its symptoms noteth clear : 
 
 I show to others, what it says within." 
 " O brother, now I see," said he, " the bar ^^ 
 
 Which kept Guitton, the notary, and me 
 
 So far from your new style, so sweet to hear. 
 How your plumed pinions clung, I clearly see, 
 
 Close to the arch dictator in his flight, 
 
 Which certes with our own might never be. ®* 
 
 Line 30. Boniface, Archbishop of Ravenna, famed for his sumptuous 
 living. 
 
 Line 31. The Marquis de' Rigogliosi, who being accused of always drinking, 
 answered that he had always thirst. 
 
 Line 37- A young lady of Lucca, of whom Dante is stated to have been 
 enamoured in 1301, after his exile from Florence. 
 
 Line 51. The first line in one of the Canzoni in Dante's " Vita Nuova." 
 
 Line 56. Guittone d'Arezzo and Jacopo du Lentino, called the notary, 
 were amongst the earliest poets who wrote in the vernacular. 
 
224 PURGATORY. Canto XXIV. 
 
 Who would go further, hoping to delight, 
 
 Sees not the gulf which separates our style." 
 
 Silent he grew, as one contented quite. 
 As troops of birds who winter towards the Nile 
 
 At turns fly onwards in a serried square, °^ 
 
 Then wing with greater haste, and go in file, 
 So all the people who were with us there. 
 
 Turning their faces round, their speed increased, 
 
 Active through leanness, and the will they share. 
 And like one wearied with his trotting beast ^*^ 
 
 Lets his companions wend, and walketh slower. 
 
 Until the panting of his beast has ceased : 
 Forese so, his comrades to pass o'er, 
 
 Permitting, asked, as with me he did bide, 
 
 " How long ere I shall see thee here once more ?" " 
 
 " How long my life, I know not," I replied, 
 
 "But my return can never be so soon 
 
 But that my will will first have crost the tide. 
 Because the place in which my lot is thrown 
 
 From day to day destroyeth its fair fame, ^^ 
 
 And seems to headlong ruin rushing down." 
 " Now go," he said, " for he who's most to blame 
 
 Behind a horse's tail I see him drawn. 
 
 Towards the vale, where never ceaseth shame. 
 The beast at every stride speeds faster on, ^^ 
 
 Ever increasing, till it shakes him free. 
 
 And leaves the body horribly undone. 
 Yon wheels have not to turn for long," and he 
 
 Raised to the sky his eyes, " ere will be clear 
 
 That which I cannot more declare to thee. '"^^ 
 
 Now thou mayst stay, for me the time is dear 
 
 In this domain, and I too much have lost 
 
 Coming so slowly coupled with thee here." 
 As issues at a gallop from the host 
 
 An eager knight at times, and forwards bounds ^^ 
 
 To gain the honour of the earliest joust, 
 So did he start from us, with mightier bounds : 
 
 And I remained in travel with the pair 
 
 Who were such marshals of our earthly rounds. 
 And when before us he had gone so far, ^'^^ 
 
 That my eyes grew as dim in his pursuit. 
 
 As was my mind his prophecy to bare. 
 
 Line 82. Corso Donati, the leader of the Guelph faction, fell from his 
 horse while endeavouring to escape from the fury of the populace in 1308, 
 was dragged by the stirrup, and died as described in the poem. 
 
Canto XXIV. PURGATORY. 235 
 
 Appeared the living branches, thick with fruit 
 Of another tree, which not far distant stands. 
 Then, when towards it first was turned our route, ^^^ 
 
 People I saw beneath it raise their hands, 
 
 And cry I know not what towards the leaves. 
 Like eager children, making vain demands, 
 To whom the one besought no answer gives : 
 
 But to increase their fervent longing, rears ^"^ 
 
 On high the bait, and all unhidden leaves, 
 Then, as if undeceived, each onwards steers ; 
 And we to the great tree advanced anon, 
 The which denies so many prayers, and tears. 
 " Beware of touching me, but pass ye on ; "'"* 
 
 The tree, whose fruit Eve tasted, ye will view 
 Yet higher, though this graft from it is grown.'* 
 So 'mid the branches spake, I know not who ; 
 Whence Virgil, Statins, and myself past close 
 On that side where the mountain lifts ; anew ^^^ 
 
 It spake to us : *' Recall to memory those 
 
 Cursed sons of cloud, who their debauch scarce ended. 
 Fought against Theseus, double-breasted foes : 
 And those soft Hebrews, who their draft extended 
 
 So long, that Gideon had but comrades few ^2"' 
 
 What time 'gainst Madian he the hills descended." 
 Creeping along the cliff, we issued through. 
 Hearing those tales of sinful gluttony. 
 Followed for ever by its gains untrue. 
 Then on the path united, once more free, ^^* 
 
 A thousand steps and more we travelled on. 
 In contemplation each, and silently. 
 " What walk ye thinking of, ye three alone ?" 
 A voice spake suddenly, on which with dread 
 I started like a frighted colt half grown. ^^ 
 
 To see what it might be I raised my head, 
 And never yet in furnace were there seen 
 Metals or glass so shining, and so red. 
 As one I saw, who told us : " If ye mean 
 
 To travel upwards, ye must turn this way ; "* 
 
 Hence go they all, who seek for peace serene." 
 His aspect had my vision ta'en away. 
 
 Therefore behind my teacher's track withdrawn, 
 I went like one who listening finds his way. 
 
 Line 122. The Centaurs. Ovid, Metam. 12. 
 Line 124. Judges, ch. vii., vv. 5, G, and 7. 
 
22G PURGATOKY. Canto XXV. 
 
 And like the breezy herald of the dawn ^^ 
 
 Moveth the ah' of May and breatheth sweet, 
 All pregnant of the flowers and grassy lawn, 
 
 So on my brow I felt a soft breeze beat, 
 And clearly heard the moving of a wing 
 Scenting the soft air with ambrosia sweet : ^^^ 
 
 And words I gathered: ** Blest in whom doth spring 
 Such grace, that in their breasts the love of food 
 Cannot enkindle too great hankering, 
 
 Who ever hunger after heavenly good." 
 
 CANTO XXV. H 
 
 As they ascend the stair, Dante expresses his wonder at the leanness of the 
 spirits in the last circle, who as spirits stand in no need of nourishment. 
 On Virgil's request, Statius, to explain his difficulty, describes the gene- 
 ration of the human body, its junction with the soul, and the nature f<t 
 the latter after its passage to another world. They then reach the seventh 
 cornice, where those who have been guilty of incontinence are purified 
 in fire. The spirits in the fire record celebrated examples of Chastity. 
 
 Now without pause 'twas time to mount the height, 
 Since the meridian circle of the day 
 Filled Taurus' star, the Scorpion's that of night. 
 So, as an ekger man, who cannot stay, 
 
 But presses on his road, whate'er appears, ^ 
 
 When any purpose pricks him on his way ; 
 So entered we upon the narrow stairs, 
 The one before the other hurrying on. 
 Since climbers there, the narrow strait nnpairs. 
 And like a young stork lifts its pinion ^" 
 
 With wish to fly, but cannot yet attain 
 To rise above its nest, and falleth down ; 
 So rose in me the wish, and fell again, 
 To question, coming even to the deed 
 Of one who maketh preparation fain '^ 
 
 To speak. He did not slacken his swift speed, 
 My own sweet father, but he said : *' Shoot on 
 The shaft of speech thou'st drawn unto the head." 
 My lips I opened then, more certain grown. 
 
 And thus began : " How are they made so meagre, -^ 
 There, where no need of nourishment is known r" 
 
 Line 2. It was two o'clock in the afternoon ; the constellation of Taurus, 
 the next to that of Aries, in which was the sun, being then in the meridian, 
 and consequently that of the Scorioiou, which was opposite to Taurus, was in 
 the meridian of the night. 
 
Canto XXV. PURGATORY. 227 
 
 " If tliou wouldst call to mind how Meleager 
 
 Consumed with the consuminj^ of a brand, 
 
 This would not thus," he said, " thy thoughts beleaguer. 
 And if thou'dst think how in a mirror scanned ^^ 
 
 Your image trembles to your trembling form, 
 
 This would not be so hard to understand. 
 But inwardly thy wish complete to charm. 
 
 Statins is here : and him I now beseech 
 
 To heal the wounds of doubt that work thee harm." ^ 
 " If the eternal punishment I teach," 
 
 Statins replied, " whilst thou art by me there. 
 
 Forgive that I can nought refuse thy speech." 
 Then he began : " If in thy mind with care 
 
 My words receiving, thou dost guard my son, ^ 
 
 Unto thy question they will light declare. 
 The perfect blood that is not meant to run 
 
 Along the thirsty veins, but still remains 
 
 Like food superfluous when the feast is done, 
 Within the heart informing virtue gains 1 "^^ 
 
 For every human member, thence doth pass | 
 
 To make them afterwards, through its own veins. 
 Again prepared, to lower part it draws. 
 
 Which not to name were best, and germins there, 
 
 Upon another's blood, in natural vase. '*^ 
 
 The one and the other mix together there 
 
 Through excellence of the place from whence they're born, 
 
 The one disposed to act, and one to bear. 
 There joined, begins their operating turn ; 
 
 Coagulating first, it vivifies ^® 
 
 That which by its own matter has been born. 
 Endued with life, the active virtue lies, 
 
 As of a plant, thus different indeed 
 
 That one has reached the bourne, one onward hies : 
 Still working, now it moves and taketh heed ^^ 
 
 As the sea fungus ; and it there doth learn 
 
 To organise the powers of which 'tis seed. 
 
 Line 37. The system of generation here described is stated to be that of 
 Averroes. The generating germ is formed from perfect blood in the man's 
 heart, passes in that shape through vessels of its own to the lower organs 
 (1. 43), and passing into the womb joins the perfect blood of the female, 
 which has gone through the same process (1. 45). 
 
 Line 47. The heart, in which the perfect blood gained informing virtue. 
 
 Line 52. The foetus goes through the different stages of vegetable, zoophytie, 
 and animal life, and when the brain is completely formed God breathes into 
 it a soul. 
 
f 
 
 228 PURGATORY. Canto XXV. 
 
 Now groweth pliant son, and now doth yearn 
 
 The vh'tue of the generating heart, 
 
 In which doth Nature every member turn. **'* 
 
 But how from animal a man doth start 
 
 Thou seest not yet, and on this point was blind 
 
 One wiser than thyself in physical art, 
 Who in his doctrine held to be disjoined 
 
 The intellect receptive from the soul, ^^ 
 
 Because he saw for it no place assigned. 
 Open thy breast to the truth I now unroll, 
 
 And know the instant that articulate 
 
 The brain in the foetus is evolved a whole, 
 The Primal Cause with gladness turns to it, ""^ 
 
 Over such masterpiece of Nature's art, 
 
 And breathes a spirit new, with power replete. 
 Which, what it active finds, it doth impart 
 
 To its own substance, and creates a soul, , 
 
 Which lives and feels, reflective and apart. 7*" ^ * 
 
 The wonder my word causes to control, 
 
 Think of the sun's heat, which createth wine 
 
 Joined to the liquor from a vine-tree's bole. 
 When Lachesis has no more flax to spin, 
 
 The soul from flesh is freed, and of its fruit ^^ 
 
 Bears with it both the human and divine : 
 The other powers are altogether mute, ^ 
 
 Memory, Intelligence, and Will remain, 
 
 In act far more than e'er before acute.^^^ 
 Without a pause, self -moving it doth gain ^^ 
 
 One of the shores, miraculously sent : 
 
 There knowledge of its path doth first attain. 
 Soon as within the ambient air 'tis pent. 
 
 Informing virtue round about it rays. 
 
 As if with human limbs, its tenement. ^® 
 
 And as the air, when full of watery haze. 
 
 By the sun's light, which is on it reflected, 
 
 Groweth adorned with vari- coloured rays. 
 To the surrounding air hath here selected 
 
 That form which in effect the soul doth claim ^^ 
 
 With its own seal, which is on it reflected. 
 And as the fire aye follows on the flame. 
 
 There, where is shifted now the spirit's site. 
 
 Follows upon that spirit the new frame. 
 
 Line 63. Averroes, who is stated to have asserted that there was only a 
 common intellect for the whole human race, as he found no special organ 
 assigned to it. 
 
Canto XXV. 
 
 PURGATORY. 229 
 
 115 
 
 Thence afterwards it gains appearance, higM 
 
 A shadow, and its organs, hence the while 
 
 Each one attaineth, even to the sight. 
 Hence is it that we speak, and hence we smile : 
 
 Hence is it that we break to tears and sighs. 
 
 Which on the mountain thou hast seen erewhile. 
 According as the spirit's yearnings rise, 
 
 And its affections, so is shaped the shade, 
 
 And this explains the cause of thy surprise." 
 There, where the latest torture is essayed, 
 
 We now had reached, and turning to the right. 
 
 To other care attention now we paid. 
 There the cliff hurleth outwards flamings bright ; 
 
 And upwards from the ledge a blast doth blow 
 
 Which beats it back, and clears a narrow site. 
 On that closed pathway one is forced to go 
 
 Singly, and I on this side feared the fire, 
 
 On that I feared lest I should fall below. 
 My leader spake : " Along this narrow pier 
 
 A tight curb must be placed upon the eyes, 
 
 For easily might err the footsteps here." ^^" 
 
 In the bosom of the heat I heard arise 
 
 Summce Deus clementlce, clearly sung, 
 
 Which made me no less eagerly devise. 
 And through the flame I saw the spirits throng : 
 
 On which I looked both at my steps and them, ^'■^'' 
 
 My sight dividing as I went along. 
 When they had closed their holy requiem, 
 
 All, Virum non cognusco, cried aloud ; 
 
 Then with low voices recommenced the hymn. 
 Finished once more, they shouted, " To the wood ^^ 
 
 Diana ran, and forth Elice chased, 
 
 Who'd tasted Venus' poison in her blood." 
 Then to their song they turned : and then of chaste 
 
 Ladies and married pairs the examples cried. 
 
 Who virtue and the law of marriage graced. ^^^ 
 
 And in this fashion I believe they bide, 
 
 For all the time that they the burning feel : 
 
 With such a nourishment and zeal applied, 
 Closes alone that wound, the last to heal. 
 
 Line 122. " Summae Deus clementiiB." The beginniog of the hymn sung 
 on Sunday matins, as it stood in the ancient breviary. 
 
 Line 128. Luke i. 34. How can this be, seeing that I know not a man ? 
 
 Line 131. The nymph Calisto, driven away by Diana for unchastity, and 
 changed finally into the constellation Elice, or Greater Bear. Ovid's Motam. ii. 
 
 Line 139. The last of the seven P's, healed on the last cornice. 
 
230 PURGATORY. Canto XXVI. 
 
 CANTO XXVI. 
 
 While the poets advance along the brink of the cornice, the spirits are 
 astonished at the shadow cast on the flames by Dante's body. Ere he 
 can satisfy their curiosity, another troop of spirits advance in the fire 
 from the opposite direction, and the two bands embrace and pass on 
 their way, reprobating their earthly sins. On their departure Dante 
 tells the shadows beside him that he is still alive, and he is then addressed 
 by Guido Guinicelli, the Italian poet, who afterwards points out to him 
 Arnault Daniel, the Provengal. 
 
 The whilst tliat thus along the brink we wend 
 
 In single file, my master often said, 
 
 " See that my cautions to thy profit tend." 
 On my right shoulder the sun's rays were sped 
 
 The which already filling all the west * 
 
 On the sky's azure a white splendour shed : 
 And I, upon the flame, with shadow cast 
 
 A ruddier hue, and on that sign alone 
 
 I saw the spirits ponder as they past. 
 This was the reason which then led them on .^" 
 
 To speak of me, and they began to say, 
 
 " He seems not a fictitious frame to own." 
 Towards me, to grow as certain as they may, 
 
 They bent them then, regarding evermo' 
 
 Never to sally from the burning way. ^^ 
 
 " O thou who goest, not because more slow. 
 
 Perchance behind yon pair, in reverent heed, 
 
 Answer me, burnt in thirst and fiery glow. 
 Nor I alone for thy reply have need. 
 
 These with me, for it are more thirsting all, '^" 
 
 Than for cold water Ind or Ethiop's seed. 
 Tell us, how is't that thou dost make a wall 
 
 Unto the sun, as if not yet hadst thou 
 
 Down fallen in the net which Death doth haul." 
 So one of these spake to me, and ere now ^'' 
 
 I had declared myself, had I not been 
 
 Intent on something new the place did show. 
 For midway through the burning path I ween 
 
 A troop, with faces coming towards them, hied, 
 
 Which made me gaze once more, suspended keen. ^" 
 
 There saw I hurrying forward from each side 
 
 The shadows kiss each other tenderly, 
 
 Nor pause for stay, with brief feast satisfied. 
 
Canto XXVI, PURGATORY. 231 
 
 Just so, within their dusky company, 
 
 One with the other do the ants embrace, ^^ 
 
 Perchance their fortune or their road to spy. 
 
 As soon as these their friendly greeting cease. 
 Before a single forward step can follow. 
 Each louder than the rest to cry doth press : 
 
 The new troop shouteth, " Sodom and Gromorrah ;'* *" 
 
 The other, *' In the cow Pasiphse went 
 To bring the bull unto her lustful horror." 
 
 Then like two flocks of cranes, in passage bent 
 Towards the Riphoean hills and Lybian sands, 
 To fly the frost, or the sun's heat intent ; ^^ 
 
 So go in opposite ways the spirit bands. 
 
 And turn with weeping to their former strain. 
 And to the cries which most their zeal demands : 
 
 And as before there prest by me again 
 
 The selfsame spirits, who had me besought, ^ 
 
 With faces all intent to hear me fain. 
 
 I, who had twice beheld their yearning thought, 
 Began : " O spirits, certain at some time 
 To a state of peace, all perfect, to be brought, 
 
 Neither in tender youth nor in their prime ^^ 
 
 Eemain my limbs on earth, but borne with me. 
 With their own blood and sinews from yon clime : 
 
 Upwards I go, no longer blind to be, 
 
 A lady th^re acquii'es for me this grace. 
 
 Whence through your world I bear mortality. ^ 
 
 But that more speedily ye may embrace 
 
 Your chief desire, and reach Heaven's Infinite 
 Replete with love, that whirls through widest space. 
 
 Tell me, that I may yet their story write, 
 
 Who are ye, and who go in yonder crowd, ^^ 
 
 That straight behind your backs, speeds opposite ?" 
 
 Not otherwise his wonder is avowed 
 In silent gazing by the mountaineer 
 All wild amid the city's turmoil loud, 
 
 Than grew each shadow in his semblance here : '^ 
 
 But when from that surprise once free again. 
 The which in high hearts soon doth disappear ; 
 
 " Ah happy thou, who thus through our domain," 
 Began the one who first had questioned me, 
 " Experience freight' st, a better life to gain. ^" 
 
 Line 62. The Empyrean, or outermost eplaere of Heaven. 
 
90 
 
 2S2 PURGATORY. Canto XXVI. 
 
 The troop, who going from us thou dost see, 
 
 Did Caesar's sin, who in his triumph day 
 
 Heard 'gainst himself Queen cried in infamy. 
 Therefore they shout out Sodom on their way, 
 
 As thou now heardest in their own despite, ^° 
 
 And help the burning with their shame alway. 
 Our own offence has been hermaphrodite ; 
 
 But since the human laws we did not hold, 
 
 Following, like animals, our appetite, 
 In blame of our own selves, by us is told ^ 
 
 What times we onwards start, the name of her 
 
 Who worked her bestial end, in bestial fold. 
 Thou know'st our acts, and how we guilty were : 
 
 If haply thou desirest to know our names, 
 
 Time would be wanting, nor am I aware. 
 Of me I'll tell thee what thy longing claims ; 
 
 I'm Guinicelli, since without delay 
 
 Kepentant, I already purge my shames.'* 
 As following on Lycurgus' sorrowful day, 
 
 The sons, their mother found once more, embraced, ^^ 
 
 So I, though not so far did I give way. 
 When I heard name himself my father graced. 
 
 Father to me, and to my betters, who 
 
 Have rhymes of love and fancy ever traced : 
 And without speech or hearing, on I drew ^"* 
 
 In thought awhile, aye gazing on him still. 
 
 Nor dared approach to him that furnace through. 
 After of gazing I had ta'en my fill 
 
 Myself in service offered I to him. 
 
 With oath that gains belief from other's will. ^"* 
 
 And he to me : " Such sign of love dost limn 
 
 In what I hear, towards me, and so clear, 
 
 That Lethe cannot take away, nor dim. 
 
 Line 77. A scandal related against the youth of Julius Caesar, when in the 
 Court of Nicomedes, King of Bithynia. Suetonius gives the pasquinade 
 indulged in by his soldiers, at Caesar's triumph, which is alluded to in the 
 text — Caesar nunc triumphat, qui subegit Gallias. Nicomedes non triumphat, 
 qui subegit Csesarem. 
 
 Line 92. Guide Guinicelli, already mentioned in Canto XI. as the elder 
 Guide, so famous in his time, yet superseded by the younger Guide, Dante's 
 friend Cavalcanti. A timely repentance saved him from all delay in the 
 Ante - P urgator y . 
 
 Line 94. The story of Hypsipyle, already alluded to in Canto XXII. 
 When she was about to be put to death by Lycurgus, because his son, her 
 infant charge, was killed by a serpent, while she showed the stream Langia 
 to the Argive army, she was recognised by her sons Thoas and Euneus, and 
 Dante compares their joy on recovering her after her pardon to his own 
 delight at recognising his father in art. 
 
Canto XXVI. 
 
 PURGATORY. 233 
 
 But if just now thy words the truth did swear, 
 
 Tell me the reason why thou thus dost show "* 
 
 In speech and looks that thou dost hold me dear ?" 
 And I to him : " Your verses dulcet flow 
 
 The which as far as modern style can reach, 
 
 Will make their very ink beloved below." 
 " brother," said he, " he whom I impeach," "^ 
 
 And towards a shade in front his hand did move, 
 
 *' Was better workman in his native speech : 
 In prose romances and in lays of love 
 
 All he surpast, whate'er the fools may say 
 
 Who think Limoges' poet stands above : ^-" 
 
 To clamour more than truth men turn alway. 
 
 And hence is formed opinion 'mongst mankind, 
 
 Till art and reason at the last find way. 
 Thus many elders raised the shouting blind 
 
 Yielding Guittone guerdon over all, ^^" 
 
 Till truth has placed him many men behind. 
 Now if to thee such privilege befall, 
 
 That thou mayst enter in the College cloister. 
 
 In which is Christ the Abbot of the Hall, 
 Say to him there for me one Pater Noster, ^^^ 
 
 As far as spirits in this world have need, 
 
 Where unto us the power to sin is lost here." 
 Haply to leave his place beside me, freed 
 
 To the spirit near, he vanished in the fire. 
 
 As in the wave a fish to the depths doth speed. ^^^ 
 
 To him just shown to me I turned me nigher. 
 
 And said that to his name a gracious place 
 
 Had been made ready in my heart's desire. 
 He then began to spsak with liberal grace : 
 
 " So much doth charm me this your cou? :esy, ^*" 
 
 I would not, if I could, conceal my trace. 
 I am Arnauld, with tears and minstrelsy 
 
 I go, in sorrow see the folly past, 
 
 And joyous see the bliss I hope will be. 
 Now I adjure thee, by the virtue vast ^"^^ 
 
 Which guides ye to the summit of the spire, 
 
 Remember on my grief your aid to cast." 
 Then hid himself in the refining fire, 
 
 Line 120. Gerault Berneil, who was called the Master of the Troubadours, 
 but whom Dante ranks below the ProvenQal poet Arnauld, here introduced. 
 
234 PURGATORY. Canto XXVII. 
 
 CANTO XXVII. 
 
 As the day closes they reach the station of the Angel, who directs them to 
 pass through the fir^, to ascend the last staircase. While ascending this 
 the sun sets, and the poets, unable to advance during the night, halt 
 there until the morning. Dante, sleeping there, beholds in a dream two 
 females representing the active and contemplative life. In the morning 
 they reach the height, and Virgil directs Dante to foUovir alone his own 
 promptings until the arrival of Beatrice, as his own guardianship has 
 ceased. 
 
 So that his earliest rays were trembling o'er 
 The land in which his Maker shed his blood, 
 And Libra stood on high on Ebro's shore, 
 
 And Ganges' wave with midday glory glowed. 
 
 The sun was stationed, so that sank the day ^ 
 
 There, where G-od's Angel glad before us stood. 
 
 Beyond the flame he stood, above the way. 
 And sang : " Beati mundo corde," clear 
 In voice, beyond the reach of human lay : 
 
 Then, " Holy souls, ye cannot further steer ^^ 
 
 Until the flame has bit ye ; enter brave. 
 And be not deaf unto the song ye' 11 hear." 
 
 So spake he as we drew a near : believe 
 
 When I heard that, that I all cold became, 
 
 As one about to enter in his grave. ^■' 
 
 Upon my clasped hand I bowed, the flame 
 Regarding, and imagining beneath 
 Sights seen of old of the charred human frame. 
 
 My good guides turned towards me then, and saith 
 
 Virgil to me, " My son, undoubtedly '■^ 
 
 Here may be torment, but cannot be death. 
 
 Eemember' then, remember then, if I 
 Upon yon Grerion thee in safety led, 
 Can I fail now, more near the Deity ? 
 
 Believe for certain that within the bed ^ 
 
 Of this flame thou a thousand years might'st live, 
 Nor couldst thou lose one hair upon thy head. 
 
 And if thou think' st perchance that I deceive. 
 Approach it, and thy own experience try. 
 With thy own hands thy garment's border give. ^^ 
 
 Line 1. The sun was then rising at Jerusalem, which being the antipodes of 
 the mountain of Purgatory, it was setting there, while midday was over the 
 Gangos. and midnight in Spain. 
 
Canto XXVII. 
 
 PURGATORY. 235 
 
 Lay by henceforth, all cowardice lay by :^ 
 Turn there, and onwards in security." 
 And I, against my conscience, still deny. 
 When he my obstinate resolve did see, ^ 
 
 A little troubled spake he, " Son, descry,^ 
 This is the wall 'twixt Beatrix and thee." 
 As at the name of Thisbe oped the eye 
 Of Pyramus in death, to gaze on her. 
 What time the mulberry changed to vermeil dye ; ^^ 
 
 So all my hardness softening mellower, 
 I turned unto my leader, hearing now 
 That name which ever in my heart doth stir. 
 On which he shook his head, and uttered : " How, 
 
 We would have stayed beyond ?" and smiling bent ^^ 
 As o'er a child who to the bait doth bow : ^<rf-AA- 
 Within the flame before me then he went, 
 Beseeching Statins to come close behind. 
 Who erst bewixt us had some distance lent. 
 When once within, in boiling glass to find ^^ 
 
 Some coolness I would gladly refuge take, 
 So was the heat immeasurably refined. 
 Still my sweet father as he went did speak 
 Of Beatrice for my comforting. 
 
 Saying : " Her eyes already on me break." ^^^ 
 
 A voice did guide us onwards, which did sing 
 On the other side ; attentive to its lay we 
 Came outwards where the ascent did upwards spring. 
 " Venite, Be7iedicti Patris mei^ 
 
 Sounded within a glory there, so bright ^^ 
 
 That overcome I could not face its ray. He 
 Added, " The sun descends, and comes the night : 
 Make ye no pause, but swiftly hurry on, 
 The while the west has still its fading light." 
 The pathway rose, cut straight within the stone, ^_, 
 
 In such direction that my shade I threw 
 Before me from the now low sinking sun. 
 When we had mounted of the stairs a few, 
 By my lost shadow, that the sun had set 
 Behind us I and my wise comrades knew. ^^ 
 
 And ere the vast horizon's rim had yet 
 Endued one single aspect in the shade. 
 And wholly o'er the scene night's gloom was set, 
 
 Lino 39. The white fruit of the mulberry changed to red, dyed with the 
 blood of Pyramus. Ovid Metam. iv., 125. 
 
236 PURGATORY. Canto XXVII. 
 
 Each of us of a step bis couch had made, 
 
 Since power to climb more than our bUss assailed, 
 
 The nature of the hill to us forbade. ^^ 
 
 As while they chew the cud the goats grow mild, 
 Who ere they'd pastured on the herbage sweet 
 Upon the hilltops bounded, wayward, wild, 
 
 Still in some shady place, through midday's heat. 
 
 Watched by the shepherd, on his long staff resting, ^^ 
 Who serveth as a guardian their retreat : 
 
 And as the herdsman 'neath the bare sky nesting. 
 Beside his flock, throughout the night lies still, 
 To keep them from all beast of prey's molesting : 
 
 So were we then all three upon the hill, '^ 
 
 I as the goat, the shepherds they I ween, 
 Bound on that hillside by a higher Will. 
 
 But little of the outward world was seen. 
 Yet by that little on the stars I gaze 
 More large than their old wont, and more serene. ^^ 
 
 So deep in thought, and looking thus on these, 
 Sleep fell upon me : sleep that oftenest. 
 Before it comes to pass, the truth foresees. 
 
 I think 'twas in the hour that from the east 
 
 Upon the mount first rayed sweet Venus' beam, 
 In which the flame of love seems aye increased ; 
 
 Youthful and fair, there seemed to me in dream 
 To see a lady on a wide plain go, 
 Gathering flowers, and this her songful theme : 
 
 " Whoe'er would wish to ask my name may know, ^"^ 
 
 N^ For I am Leah, and my hands so fair 
 I use a garland weaving evermo'. 
 
 To please me in my glass, I deck me here ; 
 My sister Eachel ever doth remain 
 Before tl 3 mirror, to her soul so dear, ■'"^ 
 
 To look upon her fair eyes there, as fain, 
 As I to deck me with my hands alway : 
 Her contemplation, action me doth chain." 
 
 Now by the shepherds that precede the day. 
 
 Ever more gladly by the pilgrim eyed, "" 
 
 When turning home less distant grows the way, 
 
 Line 74. The nature of the hill prevented further ascent, but not their 
 bliss. 
 
 Line 100. Leah represents the active and Rachel the contemplative life, as 
 afterwards the two ladies, Matilda and Beatrice, whom Dante meets in the 
 Terrestrial Paradise, as the dream is clearly intended to foreshow. 
 
 Line, 103. The glass is the Deity, to please whom Leah devotes herself to 
 action, while Rachel never ceases gazing therein. 
 
 95 
 
CiNTo XXVIII. PURGATORY. 237 
 
 The shadows fled away on every side, 
 
 And with them fled my slumber, whence I rose 
 And the masters risen already I descried. 
 
 " That fruit so sweet, which through so many boughs ""* 
 
 For ever seeking, goes the mortal care. 
 To-day will bring thy hunger to repose." 
 
 Towards me Virgil, such a parlance fair 
 
 Addrest ; and never yet were gifts could bring 
 
 A pleasure that to these one could compare. ^'■^^ 
 
 Upon desire such new desire did spring 
 
 To reach the height, that as each step I rise 
 I feel my longing still expand its wing. 
 
 When all the stair surmounted 'neath us lies, 
 
 And we had reached unto the step superne, ^^'"'' 
 
 Upon me Virgil fixed his loving eyes, — . 
 
 And said : " The temporal flames and the eterne \ 
 Thou hast beheld, my son, and reached a part j 
 Where for myself no farther I discern. / 
 
 With knowledge I have led thee here, and art : ^^* 
 
 Accept henceforth thy pleasure as thy guide : 
 Beyond the narrow ways and straits thou art. 
 
 Behold, before thee beams the sun's bright tide : 
 Behold the herbage, and the flowers and trees. 
 This earth itself produces far and wide. ^^* 
 
 Until there come with joy the beauteous eyes, 
 Which weeping, made me to thy help incline, 
 Thou mayst sit down, or thou mayst walk 'mid these. 
 
 Await no more my parlance, or my sign : 
 
 Thy judgment now is healthy, just, released, ^^^ 
 
 And 'twould be sin its promptings to decline ; 
 
 So o'er thyself I crown thee king and priest.'* 
 
 CANTO XXVIII. 
 
 Dante advances througla tlie tranquil forest to explore tbe Terrestrial Para- 
 dise until his progress is stopped by a stream. On the other side ho 
 sees a lady, who advances at his prayer to the brink, and explains to 
 him the mystery of the place. She informs him that the river has two 
 branches ; the one before him is Lethe, whose draught takes away the 
 memory of sin, while the other is called Eunoe, by drinking which the 
 spirit recovers only the recollection of good. 
 
 Already eager thoroughly to explore 
 That thick and living forest, all divine, 
 Which to the eyes the young day shaded o'er. 
 
238 PURGATORY. Canto XXVIII. 
 
 Without delay I left the bank's incline, 
 
 Ascending the champaign with footsteps slow, ^ 
 
 O'er soil on all sides breathing odours fine. 
 
 A dulcet air, which change did never know, 
 Nor intermission, smote me on the front, 
 Not stronger than the softest breeze can blow : 
 
 Through which the leafy sprays with trembling wont ^" 
 
 Are altogether bent towards that side, 
 Where its first shadow casts the holy mount, 
 
 But from their level not inclined so wide 
 
 That the small songbirds there their tuneful chime 
 Upon their tops to warble are denied : *^ 
 
 But with a joy complete the hours of prime 
 Welcome with song among the foliage green, 
 Whose murmur adds its burden to their rhyme. 
 
 Such as from branch to branch goes on the strain 
 
 Along the pine trees upon Chiassi's shore, ^ 
 
 When Eolus the south wind doth unchain. 
 
 Already my slow steps had borne me o'er 
 So far within that ancient wood, that I, 
 Where I had entered, could behold no more ; 
 
 And lo ! a stream my further steps deny, ^ 
 
 Which towards the left hand, with its little waves, 
 Inclined the herbage that was growing nigh. 
 
 I' the clearest water that earth's bosom laves 
 Some mixture ever would appear to loom, 
 Beside that runlet's all- transparent waves ; ^ 
 
 Although it moveth on in holy gloom 
 
 'Neath the perpetual shade, that on it yet 
 The rays of sun and moon could never come. 
 
 Brought to a pause, my eager eyes I set 
 
 To gaze upon the endless trees which there ** 
 
 Grew fresh May boughs, beyond the rivulet : 
 
 And there appeared to me, as doth appear 
 
 Suddenly something which doth drive away, 
 Through marvel, every other thought of care, 
 
 A lady all alone, who on her way, ^ 
 
 Singing, and gathering flower on flower, did rove. 
 With which her pathway was all painted gay. 
 
 Line 20. The pine forest near Ravenna, the scene of the hunt in the story 
 of Theodore and Honoria, taken by Dryden from Boccaccio. 
 
 Line 40. The lady is afterwards named Matilda: I believe Venturi correct 
 in considering her allegorical of active religious life, as Beatrice of the spiritual, 
 though a real person may also be intended. In the dream which fore- 
 shadowed the event Dante beheld Leah and Rachel, the eidola of the two 
 ladies who were his after guides. 
 
Canto XXVIII. PURGATOllY. 239 
 
 " All lady fair, who at the rays of love 
 
 Art warmed, if I the appearance may believe, 
 Which ever the heart's truth is wont to prove, ^'' 
 
 Would that thy pleasure," thus to her I crave, 
 " Unto this bank thy steps would nearer bring. 
 That I may hear the song which thou dost weave. 
 Thou makest in my memory upspring 
 
 The vale and Proserpine, wliat time there lost ^^ 
 
 Her mother her, and she the flowers of spring." 
 As turneth in a measure, intercrost 
 
 In dance, with gliding feet a lady fair, 
 And dainty footsteps to the vision lost, 
 Upon the vermeil, yellow flowerets there ^^ 
 
 Towards me did she turn, in virgin guise, 
 Bending her chaste eyes low, with modest air : V)u*lX:/ 
 And all that I had prayed for satisfies, '^-^^^-*^'U,*<^ 
 
 So near approaching me, that her sweet strain 
 Clear with its meaning, on my ear doth rise. ^ 
 
 As soon as she had reached to where the plain 
 Was bathed by the waters of that river bright 
 To raise her eyes towards me did she deign. 
 I do not think there shone so sweet a light 
 
 Beneath the lids of Venus, by her child ^ 
 
 Pierced in a mode beyond his wonted might. 
 Upon the right bank of the stream she smiled. 
 With her fair hands collecting flowerets still, 
 Which on that upland grew, unsown and wild. 
 Three paces were we severed by the rill, ^* 
 
 But the Hellespont, where Xerxes twice crost o'er, 
 A curb for ever to the human will. 
 More hatred from Leander never bore, 
 'Twixt Sestos and Abydos rolling wide, 
 Than this from me, that would not let me o'er. "'^ 
 
 She thus began : '' Ye here but newly bide, 
 And haply that ye see me smiling here 
 I' the place which human nature's nest supplied. 
 With marvel may awake in ye some fear : 
 
 The Psalm beginning Beledasti best ^* 
 
 Can give you light, your intellect to clear. 
 
 Line 51. "0 Proserpina, 
 
 For the flowers now that frighted thon let'st fall 
 From Dis's waggon." 
 
 " Winter's Tale." 
 
 Line 80. " Thou, Lord, hast made us glad through thy work." — Ps. xcii. 4. 
 She is smiling, not at the new comers, as they may fear, but with delight at 
 the beauty of God's works iu the Terrestrial Paradise. 
 
.40 PURGATORY. Canto XXVIII. 
 
 And thou, who praying stand*st before the rest, 
 
 Say wouldst thou further hear ; I come prepared 
 For all thy questions, till I give thee rest," 
 
 " The wave," I said, " and sound in the forest stirred, ^^ 
 
 Struggle within me 'gainst belief new won 
 Of something which opposed to this I heard." 
 
 Whence she : " I'll tell thee how proceedeth on, 
 By its own law, what causeth thy surprise. 
 And purge the cloud which o'er thy sight is thrown. ®® 
 
 God, who alone unto Himself can please, 
 
 7^ Man fit for good created, and this soil 
 Grave him as earnest of Eternal Peace. 
 
 Through his default he stayed here but awhile ; 
 
 Through his default to sorrow and to tears ^^ 
 
 He changed the pleasing sport and honoured smile. 
 
 That the disturbance which beneath appears 
 The exhalation of the wave and plain, 
 Which after heat, as far as may be, veers, 
 
 Might cause no perturbation unto man, ^^'* 
 
 This mount ascended towards the heavens so high, 
 Free, when its gate the outer world doth ban. 
 
 How, since in circuit aye continuously 
 
 The air revolveth with its primal motion, 
 
 If nought doth break its current through the sky, '""' 
 
 On this fair upland, free from all commotion. 
 Such motion acts upon the living air, 
 And makes resound the forest's leafy ocean : 
 
 And the smote plaint such excellence doth share, 
 
 That it impregnates with its power the breeze, ^^" 
 
 Which whirling ever, that doth onwards bear ; 
 
 So that the earth below, in its degrees 
 
 Of soil and climate, doth conceive and bear 
 Of diverse natures, all its diverse trees. 
 
 And this once heard, hereafter will appear ^^^ 
 
 No marvel to thy mind, if any plant 
 Without apparent seed doth germin there. 
 
 And thou must know this Paradisal haunt 
 In which thou art is full of every seed 
 And bears such fruit as earth can never grant. ^^^ 
 
 The wave thou seest has no fountain head 
 
 E-estored by vapour, through cold air congealed, 
 
 As streams whose course now wither, and now speed ; 
 
 Line 86. The statement recently made to him by Statins, that there could 
 be neither wind, rain, nor vapour on the hill of Purgatory. 
 
 Line 103. The air revolves ever from the empyrean to the lower spheres, 
 with the current given to it in the primum mobile. 
 
Canto XXIX. PURGATORY, 241 
 
 But from a fount perennial is it welled, 
 
 That through the will of God has such a store, ^^^ 
 
 That with its water its two streams are filled. 
 On this side it descendeth with the power 
 
 The memory of former sin to hide ; 
 
 On the other, that of good it doth restore. 
 Here it is Lethe, on the other side ^^ 
 
 Called Eunoe : nor doth it work its spell 
 
 Fully, till tasted has been either tide. 
 All other flavours this surpasseth well : 
 
 And that I may completely satisfy 
 
 Thy thirst, although I nothing further tell, ^^ 
 
 For grace I'll give thee a corollary, 
 
 Nor think I that my speech will be less dear, 
 
 If even beyond my promise I supply. 
 Who sang in olden times, each poet seer. 
 
 The blest condition of the Age of Gold, ^^^ 
 
 Have haply dreamed of their Parnassus here 
 The human root was iimocent here of old ; 
 
 Here is perpetual spring, and every fruit : 
 
 This is the nectar of which each hath told." 
 I turned me then unto our poets, mute, ^** 
 
 And in their beaming eyes a smile did trace. 
 
 Which in that closing sentence had its root : 
 Then to the lady fair I turned my face. 
 
 CANTO XXIX. 
 
 As Dante advances by the side of the lady on opposite banks of the stream, 
 its course turns towards the east, and on the side of the river opposite to 
 Dante there descends an Apocalyptic vision. 
 
 As one enamoured, singing by the water 
 
 She still continued, till the close was won, 
 
 Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata : 
 And like the nymphs who wandered on alone 
 
 Along the sylvan shadows, with desire ^ 
 
 iTow to escape, and now to see the sun ; 
 Then did she move against the stream, yet higher 
 
 The bank ascending, while with steps decreased 
 
 On her short steps I followed, ever by her. 
 
 Line 3. Blessed are they whose transgi-essions are covered. — Ps. xxxii. 1. 
 
 K 
 
242 PURGATORY. Canto XXIX. 
 
 We had not yet a hundred footsteps paced, ^® 
 
 When the banks altered their direction there, 
 So that my face was turned towards the east. 
 Nor yet again had we proceeded far, 
 
 When towards me turned the lady mine, and said, 
 
 " My brother, now thou must behold, and hear." " 
 
 And lo ! a sudden splendour overspread, 
 
 From every quarter all the forest wide. 
 
 That in my mind the thought of lightning bred. 
 But since that lightning, as it comes, doth bide, 
 
 And as it lasts, acquireth splendour more, ^^ 
 
 " What thing is this ?" within my thoughts I cried. 
 And a soul-thrilling melody ran o'er 
 
 The luminous air, which woke my ardent zeal 
 
 Eve's hardihood to censure, and deplore : 
 That there, where earth and sky obeyed her weal, ^' 
 
 Only a woman, and but lately made. 
 
 She could not suffer one concealing veil. 
 'Neath which, devoutly if she had but strayed, 
 
 I should have tasted there ineffable 
 
 Delights before, and longer had essayed. ^ 
 
 Whilst thus I wandered, rapt within the spell 
 
 Of those first offerings of Eternal Peace, 
 
 And for yet greater joys desirous still. 
 Before us, like a fire whose flames increase, 
 
 'Neath the green boughs the air all glowing grew, '^ 
 
 And song was heard in those sweet melodies : 
 Muses, ye holy virgins, if for you 
 
 Hunger, or cold, or vigils I have known, 
 
 Good reason spurs me now to claim my due. 
 Now o'er me you must pour your Helicon, ^'^ 
 
 Urania now must help me with her quire, 
 
 To write in verse things hard for thought alone. 
 Beyond appeared seven trees of gold like fire. 
 
 In seeming by the distance falsified 
 
 Which separated them from us : when nigher ^* 
 
 I had approached them, so that closely eyed 
 
 The doubtful object which the sense deceives. 
 
 Through distance had no lineament denied, 
 That virtue which discourse to reason gives. 
 
 That they were candlesticks, and in the strain 
 
 Thitt voices sang Hosanna there, perceives. 
 
 no 
 
 Line 50. The seven golden candlesticks ^re variously interpreted 
 'pifying eit 
 toly Spirit. 
 
 typifying either the seven Sacraments of the Church or the seven ^ts of the 
 Ho' 
 
Canto XXIX. PURGATORY. 243 
 
 Above was flaming the resplendent train, 
 
 More clear by far than in the cloudless sky 
 
 The moon, that to her zenith doth attain. 
 With admiration full, I turned ray eye *^ 
 
 To my good Virgil, who to me replied 
 
 With face no less impressed with marvel high. 
 Those lofty objects then once more I eyed. 
 
 Which came towards us at a pace so slow. 
 
 That would have past them the new-wedded bride. ^^ 
 
 The lady asked me : " Why art gazing so 
 
 With rapt attention on yon living light, 
 
 And all that comes behind, seem'st not to know ?'* 
 Then did I see a people clothed in white, 
 
 That onwards, as behiud their leaders streamed, ^* 
 
 Was never on the earth such candour bright. 
 Upon my left hand all the water gleamed, 
 
 And if I looked on it, as in a glass. 
 
 All my left side upon its surface beamed. 
 When in such station on the bank I was '* 
 
 That the stream only kept me separate, 
 
 I stood to see the better what might pass : 
 And I beheld the flames advance in state. 
 
 Leaving behind them lines of painted air. 
 
 Which bore the semblance there of streamers great, ^* 
 So that above remained distinctly there 
 
 Seven bands of colours, those with which his bow 
 
 Maketh the sun, her girdle Delia fair. 
 These standards backwards to the distance flow 
 
 Beyond my sight, and well as I could see *® 
 
 The outer bands ten paces distant show. 
 Beneath a sky so fair, as shown by me, 
 
 Came four- and- twenty elders, two by two. 
 
 All of them crowned with the fleur-de-lis. 
 And all of them were singing, " Blessed thou, ^ 
 
 Amongst the daughters born of Adam, blest. 
 
 Thy beauties in eternal glory now." 
 Wliat time the flowers and other herbs that drest 
 
 Freshly in front of me the opposite shore. 
 
 By that elected troop no more were prest, ^ 
 
 As light doth follow light in Heaven's rich store, 
 
 Close on their track four beasts behind them hied, 
 
 And each a coronet of green leaves wore. 
 They were all winged with six pinions wide. 
 
 The feathers full of stars : and Argus' eyes ** 
 
 If they were living would be such descried. 
 
 Line 78. The girdle of Delia is the lunar rainbow. 
 
244 PURGA.TORY. Canto XXIX. 
 
 Their forms to tell no further I premise, 
 For other matter, reader, urges higher, 
 So that with length I cannot here avize. 
 
 But how Ezekiel painted them, admire, ^^" 
 
 When he beheld them from the freezing North 
 Come with the wind, the cloud, and with the fire : 
 
 And as thou'lt find them in his page set forth. 
 So were they here, save as regards the wings, 
 Which I beheld as John has set them forth. ^^ 
 
 'Twixt the four beasts in the central space upsprings 
 A chariot on its two triumphant wheels, 
 Drawn at its neck, the which a Gryphon brings : 
 
 Who both his pinions in the air reveals, 
 
 'Mid the seven vari-coloured lines of light, ^^® 
 
 So that he cleaveth none, and none conceals : 
 
 So high they rose, that they were lost to sight : 
 As far as he was bird, his limbs appear 
 Of gold, the rest with vermeil mixt were white. 
 
 In Rome ne'er triumphed with a car so fair, "* 
 
 Or Africanus or the great August ; 
 Poor would appear the sun's own chariot there: 
 
 The sun's own car, which from its true course thrust 
 Was fire-consumed through Tellus' pious prayer, 
 When Jove in secret purpose was most just. ^^ 
 
 By the right wheel three ladies circling bear 
 In onward dance, one of such ruddy glow 
 That in the flame she scarcely would appear ; 
 
 The other in her colour such did show. 
 
 As if her frame of emerald were made ; ^^ 
 
 The third appeared of newly-fallen snow ; 
 
 And now they seemed by the white lady led 
 Now by the ruddy, from the latter's song 
 Their measure slow or fast, the others tread. 
 
 On the left side, four other damsels throng, ^ 
 
 In purple clothed, in festal choir they glance, 
 Gruided by one, to whom three eyes belong. 
 
 Line 100. Ezekiel i. 6. And this was their appearance : they had the like- 
 ness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. 
 John, ID Eev. iv. 8, gives six wings to the four beasts. 
 
 Line 107. The chariot appears to be intended for the Church of Christ, who 
 is represented as a Gryphon, half an eagle and half a lion, symbolical of His 
 Divine and human natures. 
 
 Line 118. The story of Phaeton. Ovid's Metam. 
 
 Line 121. The three theological virtues : the ruddy one being Chai'ity, the 
 green Hope, and the white Faith. When Beatrice descends in the next 
 Canto, she will be found drest in these three colours. 
 
 Line 130. The four cardinal virtues,' led by Prudence, represented with 
 three eyes that look at the Past, Present, and Future. 
 
Canto XXX. PURGATORY. 245 
 
 And close to all the interwreathed dance 
 
 Two old men, in tlieir garb unlike, draw near, 
 
 But like in comely bearing they advance. ^^ 
 
 The one a chosen familiar did appear 
 
 Of great Hippocrates, whom Nature made 
 
 To help the beings whom she holds most dear : 
 
 The other an all-different zeal displayed, 
 
 Bearing a sword so brilliant, and so keen, ^^ 
 
 That from across the rivulet it dismayed. 
 
 Then I beheld four more of humble mien, 
 And after all of them an old man lone 
 With face Heaven -lighted, though he slept, was seen. 
 
 And all these seven like those who first had gone ^** 
 
 Were habited, except that round their brows 
 With lilies was not made their flowery crown, 
 
 Bather of vermeil flowerets, and the rose : 
 
 One would have sworn, who from some distance eyed, 
 That all of them were flaming o'er the brows. ^^ 
 
 And when the car had reached the opposite side 
 I heard it thunder, and that train so fair 
 Seemed as if further movement was denied. 
 
 And halted with the first insignia there. 
 
 Line 134. These old men are supposed to be the physician Lnke, and Paul, 
 whose cutting style is represented by the sword. 
 
 Line 142. These are either the four Evangelists, unless these were already 
 represented by the four beasts, or the authors of the Minor Epistles, James, 
 Peter, John, and Jude. In either case John appears twice over ; and is again 
 supposed to be symbolised as the author of the Apocalypse in the old man 
 with eyes closed in ecstatic vision. The poet's son, however, in his explana- 
 tion asserts that this old man is Moses. 
 
 CANTO XXX. 
 
 In the midst of a shower of roses strewn by an Angel choir, a lady descends 
 from Heaven upon the car. Dante instinctively recognises Beatrice, and 
 turning to Virgil, finds that his faithful guide has left him. Beatrice 
 tells him not to weep on that account, but to reserve his tears for the 
 rebuke with which she greets him for his sins. 
 
 When there the Empyrean Polar light, 
 
 Which never setting yet nor rising knew, 
 Nor other cloud, except sin's veiling night. 
 
 Line 1. The seven candlesticks, called the Polestar of the Empyrean, as 
 the seven gifts of the spirit guide each soul to its harbour, in the same way 
 that the Polestar of the lower sky is the guide to mariners. 
 
246 PURGATORY. Canto XXX. 
 
 And which each being to his duty drew, 
 
 Directing as our Pole star o'er the seas * 
 
 Home to his port the helmsman guideth true, 
 Had halted, all the truthful companies. 
 
 Which 'twixt it and the Gryphon erst did hie, 
 Turned round towards the car, as towards their peace. 
 And one of them, as herald of the sky, ^** 
 
 Veni, sjQOsa de Lihano, with song 
 Cried out three times, and all the others nigh ; 
 As at the final ban with hurrying throng 
 
 Troops of the blessed, each one from his cave, 
 His new-clad flesh all lightly borne along, ^* 
 
 So o'er that car divine in the concave 
 A hundred rose, ad vocem tanti senis, 
 Heralds of life eterne beyond the grave. 
 All of them cried, Benedidus qui venis. 
 
 And o'er it casting round the flowery spray, ^ 
 
 Manihus date lilia plenis. 
 I have beheld ere now in dawning day 
 
 The orient flushed all o'er with roseate hue, 
 While o'er the heaven's serene no cloudlets stray : 
 And have beheld the sun's face rising through ^ 
 
 That vaporous mist, so tempered in its tone. 
 That for some length the eye could bear the view ; 
 Thus so within a cloud of flowerets strown, ' 
 
 That from angelic hands were poured beneath, 
 And in and over all the folds fell down ^" 
 
 Upon her white veil, girt with olive wreath, 
 Appeared to me a lady, in a green 
 Mantle, above a scarlet robe beneath. 
 And my own spirit which so long had been 
 
 Before that presence troubled so of old, ^ 
 
 Through marvel trembled not, nor fluttered then. 
 Although my eyes no recognition told. 
 
 Through hidden virtue which from her there ran 
 Of olden love I felt the mighty hold. 
 Soon, as upon my sight there smote again • *® 
 
 Another's virtue, which had smote me quite 
 Ere I had issued out of childhood's reign : 
 Unto my left I turned me for respite. 
 
 Just as the infant runneth to his dame 
 
 Whene'er afflicted or whene'er in fright, ** 
 
 Line 7. The foiir-and -twenty elders — amongst whom the one mentioned 
 in V. 10 is supposed to be Solomon, who quotes his own Song, ch. iv., v. 8. 
 Line 19. Virgil, "^neid," lib. vi., v. 884. 
 
Canto XXX. PURGATORY. 247 
 
 To say to Virgil, " Eests within my frame 
 
 No dram of blood that does not tremble now ; 
 
 I know the symptoms of the olden flame.'* 
 But Virgil had bereaved us of him, woe ! 
 
 Virgil, the sweetest father one could grieve, ^^ 
 
 Virgil, to whom entrusted, life I owe : 
 Nor all she lost, our olden mother Eve, 
 
 Availed, upon my cheeks erst washed with dew, 
 
 But that the tears their soiling trace should leave. 
 " Dante, though Virgil goeth from thy view, ^^ 
 
 Weep not for that, no therefore weep not now, 
 
 Since thou for other sword must weep anew." 
 Just as an admiral on poop or prow 
 
 Cometh to see the crew their service ply 
 
 On the high masts, and cheers them zeal to show, ®^ 
 
 Upon the left side of the car, when I 
 
 Had turned me at the sound of my own name, 
 
 Which here is written of necessity, 
 I saw the lady who before did beam 
 
 Upon me, veiled in flowers angelical, ^ 
 
 Towards me direct her eyes across the stream : 
 Although the veil that from her brow did fall. 
 
 Bound with a garland of Minerva's leaves, 
 
 Displayed not to the sight her aspect all ; 
 With royal bearing, like to one that grieves, ''" 
 
 Her parlance she continued, and severe 
 
 The keenest point unto the close she leaves. 
 *' See truly, truly, Beatrix appear ; 
 
 How hast thou deigned at last to approach the mount ? 
 
 Didst thou not know that man was happy here ?'* ^* 
 
 My eyes fell downwards in the crystal fount. 
 
 But seeing there myself, unto the sward 
 
 I turned them, such a shame was on my front. 
 As seems a mother proud to child adored, 
 
 So did she seem to me, because I knew ^^ 
 
 The bitter taste of Piety's sharpened sword. 
 
 Line 53. " Alle guance nette di rugiada," The commentators explain this, 
 cheeks free from weeping, and the words may bear that signification. The 
 translators hitherto have followed this rendering, but I much prefer the 
 simple translation in the text, believing that Dante refers to the mystical 
 washing with dew described in Canto I. of the " Purgatory." Not even the 
 beauties of the Terrestrial Pai-adise availed to save from the soil of tears his 
 cheeks washed with dew from every earthly stain. 
 
 Line 63. It may be remarked that on no other occasion has Dante written 
 his name throughout the poem. 
 
248 PURGATORY. Canto XXX. 
 
 Suddenly sang the Angels, as she grew 
 To silence, In te, Bomine, speravi, 
 At pedes meos to a close they drew. 
 As on the living rafters lieth wavy ^ 
 
 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. 
 Until 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 : 
 " Te 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 G-race Divine 
 
 Which from such loffcy vapours feeds its shower, 
 That to its height our vision cannot join : 
 This one was such in new life's opening hour ^" 
 
 Fitted for good, that every virtuous growth 
 Had made in him miraculous proof of power. 
 But so much more malign and tangled groweth, 
 
 With poisonous wilding seeds, the uncultured sward, 
 
 As of terrestrial strength the more it showeth. ^^ 
 
 Line 83. The beginning of the 31st Psalm. The Angels sang to the end 
 of the eighth verse only, the rest being unsuitable. 
 
 Line 89. The land under the Equator, where, during the equinox, bodies at 
 midday cast no shadow : the verse means therefore when the south wind 
 blows. 
 
Canto XXXI. PURGATORY. 241) 
 
 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 shew : 
 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, all 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 Grod he would invade. 
 
 If Lethe he might pass, and such a cheer 7 
 
 Were tasted without any payment made I 
 Of Penitence, that bids him shed a tear." ^ "* 
 
 CANTO XXXI. 
 
 Rebuked by Beatrice, Dante confesses his error, and falls senseless to the 
 earth. On his recovering perception he finds himself drawn through 
 the stream by the lady he had first found 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 vistues 
 intercede for him with Beatrice, who at their request unveils to him all 
 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 * 
 
 Thy 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 own organ's marge. 
 
260 PURGATORY. Canto XXXI. 
 
 She paused awhile ; " What think*st thou ?" then she said, ^^ 
 " Answer me, ere all memories of woe 
 Shall by the water's charm be wholly fled." 
 Fear and confusion mixed together so, 
 
 Thrust forth a yes so feeble from my mouth, 
 Signs were required its meaning clear to show. ^^ 
 
 As a balestra breaketh when one draweth, 
 
 With too great tension of the bow, the cord. 
 
 And with less force the spear to the target goeth, 
 So broken 'neath my heavy load, I poured 
 
 Outwards my tears and sighs, with which expires ^" 
 
 My voice, or it had gone across its ford. 
 Whence she to me : " Within my own desires, 
 
 Which ever guided thee to love that good 
 
 Beyond the which no being e'er aspires. 
 What thwarting moats, what fetters hast thou viewed, " 
 
 On which account of thought to pass beyond 
 
 Thou didst strip ofi" each hope thou hadst endued ? 
 And what allurements, or what profits found, 
 
 Upon the other's brow didst thou descry. 
 
 For which thou rather there shouldst wanton, fond ?** ^ 
 After the heaving of a bitter sigh. 
 
 For words my lips with difficulty made, 
 
 I scarcely found a voice for this reply. 
 *' The things there present,'* weeping still, I said, 
 
 " With their false pleasure turned my steps aside, ^ 
 
 Soon as ye hid your face from me, and fled." 
 ** Hadst thou been silent, or hadst thou denied. 
 
 What thou confessest, none the less would note 
 
 Thy sin the Judge from whom ye nought can hide. 
 But when there issues from the sinner's throat *• 
 
 Self-accusation, in our Court above 
 
 Against the edge the blunting wheel is brought. 
 That ne'erthelcss increasing shame improve 
 
 Thy error, and that other times, whene'er 
 
 Listening the sirens, thou mayst stronger prove, ** 
 
 Lay grief aside, the seed of tears, and hear : 
 
 So wilt thou learn how to a different way 
 
 My flesh even buried should have led thee, dear. 
 Nature and Art did ne'er before thee lay 
 
 Such pleasure as the fair limbs in which I *• 
 
 Was closed, that now are only scattered clay : 
 And if thou lostest thy chief ecstasy 
 
 Through death of mine, what merely mortal thing 
 
 With ill desire should thee have led away ? 
 
Canto XXXI. 
 
 PURGATORY. 251 
 
 Clearly thou oughtest at the primal sting 
 
 Of those fallacious tilings have soared forth 
 Behind me, who was never such. Thy wing 
 
 Should not have drooped so heavily to earth, 
 
 To wait for further blows, or a little maid, ^ 
 
 Or other vanity of briefer worth. 
 
 The new-fledged birdling twice or thrice delayed ; 
 But in the eyes of the full-feathered bird 
 In vain the net is cast, in vain 'tis laid." 
 
 As children silent, in their shame averred, ^ 
 
 Stand listening the rebuke with downcast ken, 
 Knowing themselves, and to repentance stirred : 
 
 So did I stand : and she addressed me : " When 
 Thou grievest but to hear, lift up the beard. 
 And gazing, greater grief will seize thee then." ^^ 
 
 With less resistance are the roots upreared 
 Of oak robust, by blast from Arctic strand, 
 Or from larba's Afric region steered. 
 
 Then I upraised my chin at her command : 
 
 For what time by the beard she called my face ^^ 
 
 Her speech's sting I well could understand 
 
 And as my §hamed countenance I raise. 
 
 Ceasing from scattering their flowers around. 
 Those Heavenly creatures fair the eye surveys : 
 
 And my own eyes not yet assured, in swound ^ 
 
 Saw Beatrice turned towards the beast 
 That in one person had two natures crowned. 
 
 Beneath her veil, beyond the river placed. 
 
 She seemed her old self to surpass far more 
 
 Than even on earth all others she surpast. ^^ 
 
 The sting of Penitence so pricked my core 
 
 That towards all other things, which me had turned 
 Most from her love, the greater hate I bore. 
 
 Such recognition in my heart there burned 
 
 That I fell senseless : and what then I grew ^ 
 
 Knows she the cause, whose beauty on me turned. 
 
 Then, when my heart things outward once more knew, 
 The lady, whom I first had found alone, 
 I saw above me ; and she said, " Hold true." 
 
 Line 59. This alludes either to Dante's alleged amour with Gentucca, 
 which, however, took place after the assumed date of the vision, or, as 
 Gary suggests, to his marriage with Gemma Donati, which took place after 
 Beatrice's death. 
 
 Line 74. The sting is the allusion to the want of wisdom in spite of the 
 beard. 
 
252 PURGATORY. Oanto XXXI. 
 
 Up to the throat i' the stream she'd drawn me on, ' 
 
 And drawing me behind her hurried o'er ^* 
 
 Light as a shuttle o'er the water thrown. 
 When I was near unto the blessed shore, 
 
 A8j)erges me, I heard in notes so suave 
 
 I cannot write its unremembered lore. 
 The beauteous lady oped her arms to lave, . ^^^ 
 
 Embraced my head, and gently dipped me down 
 
 Where it was fit that I should drink the wave : 
 Then bore me up, and bathed she led me on 
 
 Within the dance of those four damsels fair ; 
 
 While each of them an arm had round me thrown. ^^^ 
 " We here are nymphs, in Heaven is each a star ; 
 
 Ere Beatrice to the world descended, 
 
 We were ordained as handmaids unto her. 
 We'll lead thee to her eyes ; but in the splendid 
 
 Light hid within them, will make luminous "'^ 
 
 Thy own, yon three, whose gaze has deeper wended." 
 Thus singing they began their welcome ; thus 
 
 To the G-ryphon's breast they led me in their arms, 
 
 Where Beatrix was standing, turned to us : 
 They said, " Of vision spare not now the charms ; "^ 
 
 Before her emerald eyes we've led thee nigher, 
 
 Whence Love of old upon thee drew his arms." 
 A thousand wishes, hotter far than fire. 
 
 My eyes attracted to those beaming eyes, 
 
 That still upon the G-ryphon calm aspire. ' ^^^ 
 
 As in a glass the sun, not otherwise 
 
 The double-natured beast within them rayed, 
 
 Now in his single, now in double guise. 
 Think, reader, if my marvel was allayed 
 
 When I beheld the thing itself stand still, ^^* 
 
 That thus was changed in its reflected shade. 
 Whilst full of wonder and delight, its fill 
 
 My soul devoured of that heavenly food. 
 
 For which, when satisfied, it hungers still ; 
 Showing themselves with higher birth endued, ^^ 
 
 In seemly port, the other three arise, 
 
 And Angel dance with Angel song prelude. 
 
 Line 98. Sprinkle me with hyssop : the prayer recited by the priest whea 
 he sprinkles the congregation with holy water. 
 
 Line 106. The four stars described in Canto I. The seven virtues are 
 given as handmaids to Beatrice in her allegorical character of Contemplative 
 Religion. 
 
Canto XXXII. PURGATORY. 25a 
 
 " Turn, Beatrice, turn tliy holy eyes 
 
 Upon thy faithful one," their song did steal, 
 
 " Who to behold thee has dared such emprise. ^^^ 
 
 Of grace bestow on us the grace to unveil, 
 
 Thy mouth to him, that he may now discern 
 The spiritual beauties which thou dost conceal." 
 
 O splendour of the living light eterne, 
 
 Whoe'er grows pale beneath Parnassus' shade, ^^^ 
 
 Or drinketh inspiration at its urn, 
 
 Would not appear to have his mind dismayed, 
 
 Striving to paint thee such as thou appeared' st, 
 There where the climbing heavens around thee played 
 
 When thou in open air thy beauty bared' st ? "^ 
 
 CANTO XXXII. 
 
 The whole procession moves on, followed by Dante, Statins, and Matilda, 
 until they reach the Tree of Life, to which the Gryphon fastens the car. 
 Dante falls into a slumber, and on being roused finds that Beatrice, 
 Matilda, and the cardinal virtues alone remain under the Tree. The 
 History of the Church is then typified to Dante in a vision of changes that 
 befall the car. 
 
 So were my eyes there fixed and engrossed, 
 To satisfy the thirst of ten long years. 
 That all my other senses then were lost ; 
 
 And even to my eyes a wall uprears 
 
 To heed nought else, so did that holy smile " 
 
 Draw them towards it with its olden gears. 
 
 When forcibly was turned my gaze awhile 
 Towards my left hand, by those Goddesses, 
 Whom I heard «ay too fixt a gaze were ill. 
 
 The dazed condition that is seen in eyes ^^ 
 
 That have but just been dazzled by the sun. 
 Unto my own awhile their sight denies : ' 
 
 But when my sight a moderate light could con, 
 Moderate I call it with respect to the bright 
 Marvel, from which with violence 'twas won, ^* 
 
 I saw them turned around upon their right, 
 
 That glorious troop of spirits, with their gaze 
 Turned to the sun, and those seven flames of light. 
 
 As 'neath the shields they for protection raise, 
 Turneth a troop, and wheeleth to the sign. 
 Ere the whole army can be changed in place ; 
 
 20 
 
 Line 2. The ten years that had elapsed since the death of Beatrice in 1290. 
 
254 PURGATORY. 
 
 Canto XXXII- 
 
 So that Militia of the reahns divine 
 
 Which led the van, in circuit wholly wheels 
 Before the chariot's pole began to incline. 
 
 Then turned around the ladies at the wheels 
 And moved the Gryphon the aye-blessed car, 
 Whilst not one trembling plume the load reveals. 
 
 Who drew me o'er the stream, that lady fair, 
 Statins and I, upon that wheel reverted 
 Which makes its orbit with less circuit there, 
 
 So passing through the lofty wood, deserted 
 
 Through fault of her who trusted in the snake, 
 Our steps with Angel singing were concerted. 
 
 Haply such distance as three flights would make 
 Of loosened arrow had we travelled o'er, 
 When Beatrix her station did forsake. 
 
 I heard them all 'gainst Adam murmur sore : 
 Then go in circle round a tree all bare 
 Of flowers or leaves upon its branches hoar. 
 
 Its branches, that spread wider as they rear 
 Aloft, would even in the groves of Ind 
 Be gazed at for their height with wonder rare. 
 
 " O Gryi^hon, blest art thou, that ne'er inclined 
 Thy beak towards this tree, so sweet to taste, 
 That in the belly leaves such ill behind." 
 
 So in procession round the tree robust. 
 
 Cried out they all ; the twice-born beast replied, 
 " So is preserved the seed of every just," 
 
 And turned towards the pole which he had plied, 
 He drew it to the foot of the widowed tree. 
 And to its trunk, thence fashioned, left it tied. 
 
 As earthly plants when falleth o'er the lea 
 
 The sun's light, with that starry ray imbued, 
 Which after Pisces' sign in Heaven we see, 
 
 All pregnant swell, and each is then renewed 
 With its own coloured foliage, ere as yet 
 In Taurus' star, the steeds of the sun are viewed ; 
 
 Paler than rose, darker than violet. 
 
 That plant grew new with leafy colouring, 
 Whose branches had before so bare been set. 
 
 I understood not, nor on earth they sing 
 
 The hymn which all that people chanted here, 
 Nor could I bear tte whole strange carolling. 
 
 Line 53. When the sun is in Aries, the constellation next to Pisces. 
 
Canto XXXII. PURGATORY. 255 
 
 If I had power in sleep to make appear 
 
 Those cruel eyes, when heard Siriuga's plaint, ^^ 
 
 Those eyes, whose watchfulness cost them so dear ; 
 
 As by example doth an artist paint, 
 
 I would describe how slumber closed my eyes : 
 Tell it, whoe'er can slumber draw most quaint : 
 
 But to my wakening my description flies : ^^ 
 
 I say a splendour rent aside the veil 
 Of slumber, and a cry, " What dost? arise." 
 
 As flowers of Heaven's own honey dew to hail, 
 
 Which with their fruit create the Angels' greed, 
 
 And marriage feasts in Heaven that never fail, '^^ 
 
 Peter and James, and John were erst decreed. 
 And overcome, awakened at the word, 
 At sound of which far deeper slumbers fled, 
 
 And saw departed from the band revered 
 
 Both Moses' and Elias' presence gone, *^ 
 
 And their own Lord, in human shape averred ; 
 
 So I awoke, and saw that piteous one 
 
 Standing above me, who was first the guide 
 Who led my footsteps by that river on : 
 
 And all in doubt, " Where's Beatrix?" I cried: ®^ 
 
 And she : '* Behold her seated 'neath the new 
 Foliage upon the roots. In worthy pride 
 
 The company that troopeth round her "view ; 
 The rest behind the Gryphon soar above, 
 With song more sweet, of mystery deeper too." *** 
 
 Whether her parlance any more did rove, 
 
 I know not : since upon my eyes there shone 
 She, who all else from my perception drove. 
 
 She sate upon the naked earth alone. 
 
 As though left there the guardian of the car, ®* 
 
 Which I had seen the two-formed beast bear on. 
 
 Within their circle, girdled it the fair 
 
 Seven nymphs, whose hands the holy lights retain, 
 Secure from north wind's or from south wind's blare. 
 
 " Here wdlt thou be a short time denizen, ^^^ 
 
 Then habitant with me, without an end. 
 Of that high Eome where Christ is citizen ; 
 
 Line 65. The story of Argo, put to sleep by Mercury relating the trans- 
 formation of the uymph Siringa, and afterwards slain. Ovid's Metam., 
 book i. 
 
 Line 73. Dante compares his awakening to that of the three Apostles after 
 the Transfiguration, roused by that voice which had power to raise the dead. 
 
256 PURGATORY. Canto XXXII. 
 
 But the world's evil habitudes to mend, 
 
 Graze on the car, and what tjiou seest write 
 
 When once again to earth thou must descend." ^^ 
 
 Thus Beatrix, and I whose whole delight 
 To her commands devoutly would incline, 
 As she directed, gave my mind and sight. 
 
 With such swift motion never did careen 
 
 The thunderbolt from riven cloud above, ^*® 
 
 What time it rains in Heaven's most far confine, 
 
 As I beheld descend the bird of Jove, 
 
 Through the trees' branches, stripping off the bark, 
 While flowers and leaflets all before it drove, 
 
 And smote the car with all its violence stark : ^^* 
 
 On which it staggered, as o'er stormy wave 
 To starboard and to larboard rolls the bark. 
 
 In evil fortune. Then upon the nave 
 Of the triumphal car a fox upclimbs. 
 Which only poisonous food appeared to crave. ^^^ 
 
 But keenly blaming it its laidly crimes. 
 My lady urged it to as swift a flight 
 As could effect such fleshless bones betimes. 
 
 Then from the quarter whence it erst did light 
 
 I saw the eagle glide down o'er the pile ^^^ 
 
 O' the car, and leave it with its feathers dight. 
 
 And as there breaks from heart that grieveth still, 
 
 Such voice there issued from the heavens, that cried, 
 '* O little bark of mine, what freight of ill !" 
 
 Then I beheld the earth gape open wide 
 
 'Twixt both the wheels, and hence a dragon spring. 
 That smote the car with its tail's piercing gride : 
 
 And as a wasp that draweth back its sting. 
 It drew together with its tail malign 
 A part of the car, and then went wandering. ^^^ 
 
 That which remained, as o'er rich earth doth twine 
 The weedy grass, with the feathers' offered store, 
 driven haply with intention thus benign, 
 
 Line 112. The Roman Emperors, who at the first persecuted the infant 
 Chureh. 
 
 Line 119. The fox represents the spirit of heresy which was rife in the 
 Church after the early persecutions had ceased. 
 
 Line 126. The second descent of the eagle alludes to the conversion of 
 Constantine, and the gift of its plumage describes his dona' ions to the 
 Church, which Dante has already stamped as its ruin. 
 
 Line 131. The dragon is supposed to represent Mahomet, whose creed was 
 embraced in a great portion of the earth once included in the Church. 
 
 130 
 
Canto XXXIII, 
 
 PUKGATOUY. 257 
 
 Covered itself, and was all covered o'er, 
 
 The one and the other wheel, and the pole, as soon ^""^ 
 
 As a long sigh keeps ope the lips' red core. 
 The holy edifice thus different grown, 
 
 Thrust outward heads, throughout its strange design, 
 
 Three o'er the pole, in every corner one. 
 The three upon the pole were horned like kine : ^^'^ 
 
 The four had but one horn upon each front ; 
 
 A similar monster never yet was seen. 
 Secure as castle on a lofty mount. 
 
 Seated upon it, an abandoned whore 
 
 Appeared to me, with eyes of shameless brunt. ^^^ 
 
 And that none else should seize her evermore, 
 
 I saw beside her stand a giant high : 
 
 They kissed each other often, o'er and o'er. 
 But since her roving and lascivious eye 
 
 Wandered towards me, that ferocious lover "^ 
 
 Lashed her from head to foot with cruelty. 
 Then with suspicion full, and ire all over. 
 
 He dragged the monster, from the tree released, 
 
 Into the wood, and made of that a cover 
 Unto the harlot and the new-formed beast. ^^ 
 
 Line 144. The sevea heads are interpreted ' generally as the seven capital 
 sins, of which the three with two horus are Pride, Anger, and Avarice, which 
 hurt the sinner himself and his neighbour ; the four with one horn, Gluttony, 
 Sloth, Lust, and Envy, which only injure himself. Some consider the seven 
 heads to represent the seven sacraments, and the ten horns the ten command- 
 ments. 
 
 Line 149. Pope Boniface VIII. is intimated by the harlot, and Philip the 
 Fair of France is her giant lover. The transfer of the Papal seat to Avignon 
 is pointed at in the carrying away of the car. 
 
 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 Euuoe are derived, and issue on their several 
 ways. Matilda leads Datite and Statius to drink of Eunoe's wave, from 
 which he rises renewed in spirit and purified for Parad se. 
 
 Deits venerunt gentes, now the three, 
 
 And now the four dear ladies beauteous, 
 Weeping began the dulcet psalmody. 
 
 Line 1. God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. — rs. Ixxix. 1. 
 
 S 
 
258 PURGATORY. Canto XXXIII. 
 
 And Beatrix with sighs and piteous, 
 
 In such a bearing heard, that little more * 
 
 Grief altered Mary when 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, 
 Modicum, et non videhitis me; ^^ 
 
 Et iterum, my sisters well beloved, 
 Modicum, et vos videbitis 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 had 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 thee, ^ 
 
 And thou to listen may be fairly placed." 
 When I was there, where duty bade to be. 
 
 She said, " My brother, wherefore dost not care 
 Henceforth to question, as thou 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 doth claim 
 You thoroughly know, and what for that is meet." ^ 
 
 And she to me, " From fearfulness and shame 
 
 I would that thou from henceforth shouldst 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 ? 
 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 Gospel, xvi. 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 murderer would be 
 secure from vengeance if within nine days he ate a sop of bread in wine on 
 the grave of the murdered man. Alluding to this, Beatrice says that no 
 superstitious observances, would secure the spoiler of the Church from the 
 vengeance of God. 
 
Canto XXXIII. 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 doth 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 thy Naiades, 
 
 Who will resolve for thee 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 thou teach them thus aright 
 To those whose life but hastes to Death's long sleep : 
 
 And bear in mind, when thou dost this indite, *^ 
 
 Not to conceal how thou hast seen the plant, 
 Which has been now twice spoiled within thy sight. 
 
 Whoever tears it, or doth spoil this haunt, 
 
 With such blaspheming deed offendeth 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. 
 
 Thy 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 thy 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 thy own profit thou wouldst find. 
 
 But since I see thee in thy intellect 
 
 Turned into stone, and so with sinning dyed. 
 
 That dazzles thee the light my words reflect, ^* 
 
 Line 43. Five hundred, ten, and five written in Roman letters are D, X, V, 
 which make the word Dux, a leader. Who the leader here meant may be 
 is disputed. It is supposed to he either Henry VII., the German Emperor, 
 or Can Grande della Scala, the greyhound in the first book of the 
 poem. 
 
 Line 49. Dante considered 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 Arno^ which was sup- 
 posed to possess a petrifying quality. 
 
260 PURGATORY. Canto XXXIII. 
 
 I will that, if not written, yet descried, 
 
 Thou bear it in thee, for a memory, 
 
 As is the pilgrim's staff with palm-leaves tied.'* 
 *' As with the seal the wax is stamped," said I, 
 
 " That changes not the impression on it dight, ^^ 
 
 So is my brain stamped with your seal. But why 
 Doth fly so soaringly beyond my sight 
 
 Your speech, so long yearned after by my soul, 
 
 Which most is lost when strove for most with might ?" 
 *' That thou might' st clearly know," she said, " what school ^ 
 
 Thou'st followed, and behold its doctrine fine. 
 
 How it can follow on my word's control. 
 And see how far your way from the divine 
 
 Is distant, as discordant in their lot 
 
 Earth, and the Heaven which highest hastes to shino." ^ 
 On which I answered : " I remember not 
 
 That I have ever turned away from you, 
 
 Nor does my conscience sting me for such blot." 
 " And if thou canst not that remember true," 
 
 Smiling she answered, " call thee now to mind ^'* 
 
 How thou hast drunk but now of Lethe's dew : 
 And if from smoke we argue flame to find, 
 
 This thy oblivion proveth very clear 
 
 Sin in thy will, to others too inclined. 
 Within a little truly will be bare ^^ 
 
 My words, as far as 'twill be fit to show 
 
 Their meaning to thy vision debonnair." 
 More brilliant now, and with a step more slow. 
 
 The sun attained the circle of the noon, 
 
 (Different in different sites on earth below), ^^ 
 
 When to a pause there came, as pauseth one 
 
 Who goes before as escort to a band. 
 
 If on the track a novelty be known. 
 The ladies seven, before a gloom at hand 
 
 Such as 'neath verdant leaves and dusky boughs "" 
 
 O'er the cool Alpine slopes the forests stand. 
 Before them Tigris and Euphrates rose, 
 
 Meseemed to see them in one fount embrace. 
 
 Then like to friends that part each slowly goes. 
 " O light, O glory of the human race, ■''* 
 
 What wave is this that here doth spring to-day 
 
 From its first source, and travels on in space ?" 
 To such a prayer was told me, " Thou mayst pray 
 Matilda that she tell thee," here replied. 
 
 As one who seeks some blame to clear away, ^-* 
 
Canto XXXIII. PURGATORY. 261 
 
 The lady fair. " This and much more beside 
 
 Was told him erst by me ; and I am sure 
 
 That Lethe's wave from him this cannot hide." 
 And Beatrix : " Perchance some greater care, 
 
 That oftentimes the memory deprives, ^^* 
 
 Has made his mental vision thus obscure. 
 But Eunoe behold, which here derives : 
 
 Lead him to it, and as thou'rt wont to use 
 
 See that his deadened virtue here revives." 
 Like gentle spirit who makes no excuse, ^^^ 
 
 But of another's will creates her own. 
 
 Soon as by outward sign the purpose shows ; 
 When she had ta'en me by the hand, moved on 
 
 The lady fair, to Statins who awaited, 
 
 *' Come thou with him," she said in queenly tone. ^^^ 
 
 Eeader, if longer space to me were rated 
 
 For writing, I would strive to sing in part 
 
 That draught so sweet, which never could have sated. 
 But since is now completely filled the chart 
 
 Allotted for this second book, there leaves ^*^ 
 
 No power to wander more the curb of Art. 
 I turned back from those most holy waves 
 
 Created fresh, as plants made new once more, 
 
 Kenewed through the birth of new green leaves, 
 Pure, and prepared unto the stars to soar. ^*^ 
 
 Line 139. The thirty-three Cantos allotted to each book being here com- 
 pleted for the " Purgatory," the poet says that the rule of art which he has 
 imposed on himself prevents him from describing the rapture of this 
 draught. 
 
PARADISE. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 After solemn invocation, Dante describes his ascent from the earthly Paradise 
 towards the first sphere of Heaven : his ignorance of how he thus past 
 out of humanity, and Beatrice's explanation of his doubts. 
 
 His glory who moves all dotli penetrate 
 
 Throughout the universe, and shineth bright 
 
 Here with a greater, there with lesser state. 
 In the sky which most partaketh of his light 
 
 Was I, and things I saw, which to repeat * 
 
 Knows not, and cannot whoe'er leaves that height. 
 Because approaching to its yearned-for seat 
 
 The intellect deepidiveth there so long 
 
 That memory behind it cannot fleet. 
 Of what to the holy kingdom doth belong ^® 
 
 Which I had power to treasure in my mind, 
 
 Truly shall now be subject of my song. 
 To this last labour, O Apollo kind, 
 
 Make me such vessel of thy mysteries, 
 
 To thy loved laurel the best gift assigned. " 
 
 One of the peaks that on Parnassus rise 
 
 Till now sufficed me, now the twain beneath 
 
 I must address me to the new emprise. 
 Enter my breast, thyself within me breathe. 
 
 As when of old thou Marsyas conquerest, ^^ 
 
 And drewest all his limbs from out their sheath. 
 O virtue most divine, now aid my 'best. 
 
 So that the shadow of the blessed reign 
 
 Stampt on my brain I may make manifest. 
 To thy loved tree thou'lt see me coming fain ^ 
 
 With its own leaves to crown me then, which thou, 
 
 And the subject, will have made me fit to gain. 
 If, rarely, father, there doth pluck it now 
 
 For triumph, either emperor, or bard, 
 
 (The sin and shame of human will I trow,) ^ 
 
Canto I. PARADISE. 263 
 
 Should bring forth joyaunce in the glad regard 
 
 Of Delphos' deity, the Peneian leaf, 
 
 When any one doth thirst for its reward. 
 Great flame may follow from a spark but brief ; 
 
 After me haply with a voice of might, ^ 
 
 Others may win reply from Cyrrha's chief. 
 To mortals rises aye on different site 
 
 The great lamp of the world ; but when it rears 
 
 Where with three crosses circles four unite. 
 In happiest course, with most propitious stars ^ 
 
 Conjoined it issues, and the mundane leaven 
 
 Most with its influence sealeth, and prepares. 
 Had made the morning there, and here the even, 
 
 Such a conjunction, and was clad in white 
 
 Yon hemisphere, the rest all darkly paven, ^ 
 
 When Beatrice turned within my sight 
 
 Towards the left, to gaze upon the sun ; 
 
 Ne'er gazed so long an eagle on the height. 
 And as reflected ray is wont to run 
 
 From the direct, upwards again to soar, ^ 
 
 As pilgrim eager to return alone, 
 So that her action, through my eyes did pour 
 
 Upon my thought, and fashioned mine, that near 
 
 The sun I gazed, beyond mere mortal power. 
 Much there is lawful which is not so here *^ 
 
 Unto our virtue, guerdon of the place 
 
 Made for humanity the chosen sphere. 
 I could not bear it long, but yet such space, 
 
 That all around me I beheld it gleam 
 
 Like iron glowing from the fire's embrace, ^ 
 
 And to the day there suddenly did seem 
 
 A new day joined, as though Grod's power had blazed 
 
 Upon the sky another sun to beam. 
 Upon the eternal spheres, with eyes that gazed 
 
 Stood Beatrix, and I my vision laid ^* 
 
 On her, turned hither from the height that dazed ; 
 
 Line 32. "The Peneian leaf, the laurel, meed of mighty conquerors and 
 poets sage." — Spenser, b. i., can. 1, st. 9. 
 
 Line 36. Cyrrha, a city at the foot of Parnassus, devoted to Apollo. 
 
 Line 39. When the sun rises in such a manner that the circles of the 
 horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial colure join, the last 
 three intersecting each other so as to. form three crosses, it is in the con- 
 stellation of Aries, and produces the most favourable influences ; in such a 
 conjunction was it rising on the earthly Paradise, and setting on the other 
 hemisphere, when Beatrice and Dante launched upwards to the spheres. 
 
 liine 55. Dante being on the terrestrial Paradise had his faculties so 
 attempered that he was able to look at the sun in a way impossible on the 
 inhabited hemisphere. 
 
264 PARADISE. Canto I. 
 
 Within my soul her look such influence made, 
 Such as when Glaucus tasted of the grass, 
 And grew a sea-god in the ocean bed. 
 By words cannot be told how one doth pass ^® 
 
 From human thus, the example must suffice 
 For whom experience is preserved by grace. 
 
 If I were fashioned only in such guise 
 
 As thou mad est newly, love that rulest the sky, 
 
 Thou know'st, who with thy light didst malie me rise. ^* 
 
 What time the sphere, which thou, loved deity, 
 Dost ever whirl, attracted all my gaze, 
 With its heaven-watched and tempered melody, 
 
 That portion of the sky seemed all ablaze 
 
 With the sun's flame, that never rain or stream *® 
 
 Upon the earth such widespread lake could raise. 
 
 The newness of the sound, and the bright gleam 
 To search their causes kindled such a glow 
 I ne'er had felt an ardour so extreme. 
 
 Whence she, who saw me as myself I know, ^ 
 
 To still the perturbation of my mind, 
 Spake, ere the .question to my lips could go : 
 
 And thus began : *' Thyself thou makest blind 
 With thy false fancy, that thou canst not see 
 What thou wouldst see, if this were thrown behind. ^^ 
 
 On earth thou art not, as thou think'st to be ; 
 And lightning flying from its native sphere 
 Ne'er coursed as swift as hitherwards dost flee." 
 
 If from my primal doubt I was made clear 
 
 By those few words she uttered smiling bright, ®* 
 
 I fell into another greater snare ; 
 
 And said : " Content already I alight 
 
 From my great wonder, but am now beguiled 
 To think how I mount o'er these bodies light." 
 
 When she had given a pitying sigh, her mild ^^^ 
 
 Eyes she directed towards me, with a face 
 As of a mother o'er a raving child, 
 
 And thus continued : " All the things in space 
 
 Have order 'midst themselves ; and hence arrayed 
 Beareth the universe its God-like trace. ^^^ 
 
 Here, high created beings see the shade 
 Of the Eternal Power, the sole design 
 For which this rule of order has been made. 
 
 In the order, which I tell thee of, incline 
 
 All natures, though in different lot each tends "^ 
 
 Nearer or farther from their source divine. 
 
 Line 70. They were passing tLrough the spliere of firOj beneath the moon. 
 
GiNTo II. PARADISE. 265 
 
 Hence they move onwards to their different ends, 
 Through the great sea of being, and each one 
 Is borne there by the instinct Nature lends. 
 
 This carries up the fire towards the moon : "* 
 
 This in the hearts of mortal kind doth move : 
 This binds and gathers up the earth alone : 
 
 Nor creatures only, whose low organs prove 
 
 Their want of intellect, shoots forth this bow, 
 
 But those that have both intellect and love. ^^ 
 
 The Providence which all things fitteth so. 
 The empyrean stills in its own light, 
 In which the swiftest whirling Heaven doth glow : 
 
 A nd hither now, as to our promised site. 
 
 Bears us the potent virtue of that string. ^^^ 
 
 Which to a gladsome mark aye shoots aright. 
 
 'Tis true the form intentions will not bring 
 At times unto the purposed will of art. 
 Because the matter fails in answering : 
 
 So from this Heavenward course there may depart ^'^ 
 
 Created thing at times, who has the power 
 Thus driven, to bend aside to other port, 
 
 (Just as one may behold fall down in shower 
 Fire from the cloud), if the first impetus 
 By false delight to earth be twisted lower. ^^ 
 
 Thou shouldst not think with wonder marvellous 
 Of thy ascent, but as a stream which fell 
 Down to the deeps from mount precipitous. 
 
 Marvel would be for thee, from obstacle 
 
 When freed, if thou hadst downwards fallen amain, ^^^ 
 As though on earth the living fire could dwell." 
 
 Then towards the Heaven she turned her face again. 
 
 Line 119. The bow of instinct, and again in line 125. 
 
 Line 130. The soui, abusing its liberty of will, may desert the Heavenward 
 course on which its instinct sends it, as fire, instead of rising, falls at times 
 on earth from the lightning cloud. 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 Dante and his guide enter the sphere of the moon, and Beatrice explains to 
 him the cause of the spots which appear on its surface. 
 
 O YE who follow in your little boat 
 
 Behind my bark, with hope to hear the strain 
 With which in song across the sea I float, 
 
260 PARADISE. Ca«to II. 
 
 Turn ye to see your native shores again ; 
 
 Put ye not forth on such a sea, where far, * 
 
 Ere lost, ye might be 'wildered on the main. 
 
 The course I take was never steered before ; 
 Inspires Minerva, and Apollo leads, 
 And Muses new point out the guiding star. 
 
 Ye other few, who help in time your needs ^' 
 
 With angels' bread, on which one lives even here, 
 Although the feast to fulness ne'er proceeds ; 
 
 Across this ocean wide ye well may steer 
 Your navigation, following in my lee, 
 Ere in the wave my furrow disappear. ^* 
 
 Those glorious ones who past across the sea 
 To Colchos marvelled erst, as ye will do. 
 When they saw Jason's wondrous husbandry. 
 
 The ceaseless impetus which together grew 
 
 With the God-made spheres, bore us still upwards raised ^^ 
 Nearly as swiftly as the sky ye view. 
 
 I upon her, on high Beatrice gazed. 
 And haply in the time a bolt is plied. 
 And flyeth, from the crossbow's notch released, 
 
 We had attained, where drew my sight aside ^ 
 
 A wondrous thing, so she, from whom I ne'er 
 The slightest working of my heart could hide, 
 
 Turned towards me with a face as glad as fair. 
 
 " Raise towards God the grateful mind," she said, 
 
 *' Who thus has brought us unto this first star." ^® 
 
 Meseemed that we now with cloud were clad. 
 Clear shining, thickly solid, and as bright 
 As diamond on the which the sun has rayed. 
 
 Within itself the eternal Margarite 
 
 Received us as the glassy wave receives, ^ 
 
 Retaining still its whole, a ray of light. 
 
 Being a body scarce the mind conceives 
 How matter other matter can admit. 
 Which must be, if a frame in frame enweaves 
 
 The which should kindle our desire more bright ** 
 
 To see that essence where beholds the adept 
 How human nature doth to God unite. 
 
 There shall we see that which through faith we kept. 
 Not proved to us, but known beyond a doubt. 
 Like to those first truths which mankind accept. ** 
 
 Line 19. I have adopted Venturi's explanation of this passage, which is 
 that the ceaseless whirling of the spheres drew on Dante and Beatrice now 
 that they had risen into its influence. 
 
Canto II. PARADISE. 267 
 
 " Madonna," I replied, "with heart devout 
 
 As there can be I render thanks to Him 
 Who has thus brought me from the mortal rout. 
 But tell me what are these suffusions dim 
 
 Upon this body, which below on earth *•* 
 
 Create the fable of Cain's faggots grim r" 
 She smiled a little, then " If thus there erreth 
 
 The opinion," said she, " amongst mortals where 
 
 The senses' key cannot unlock the birth, 
 Certes, no more the darts of wonder rare ^^ 
 
 Should prick thee, since behind the senses* flight 
 
 Thou seest that Eeason's wings are short to bear. 
 But tell me what thou think'st thyself of it." 
 
 And I, " What seems so different above 
 
 I think is caused by bodies dense or light." ^^ 
 
 And she : *' Thou'lt surely see enough to prove 
 
 False thy belief if thou wilt thoroughly hear 
 
 The argument with which I will disprove. 
 Lights many show to ye the far eighth sphere, 
 
 Which in their quality and in their size ^ 
 
 Unto each other different will appear. 
 If this were made by varying densities 
 
 In all but one sole virtue would there be, 
 
 Shared less or more or in equalities. 
 Different virtues must the fruitage be .70 
 
 Of varying sources, all of which save one 
 
 By thy belief would be destroyed for thee. 
 Again, were rarity the cause alone. 
 
 Thou askest, of those spots, either in part 
 
 This planet of its substance would be shown ^* 
 
 Quite wanting, or as lieth all apart 
 
 The fat and lean upon a body, so 
 
 Its volume's leaves would change from light to swart. 
 Were the first true that would we clearly know 
 
 In the eclipses of the sun, whose light ^ 
 
 As to all rarities would pierce it through. 
 
 Line 60. This opinion of the cause of the shadows on the moon's surface 
 was offered by Dante in the Convito, and which he now makes Beatrice 
 confute. 
 
 Line 64. The sphere of the fixed stars differing in size and brilliance, 
 Dante considered that these, like the moon, received their light from the sun. 
 
 Line 73. She proceeds to prove the impossibility of the shadows being 
 caused by the rarity of the moon's body, which rarity cannot pierce right 
 through the moon, or the sun's rays would be then visible during an eclipse, 
 nor if the rarity proceeds only to a certain depth, like fat on the lean of 
 animal flesh, could that produce the effect. This possible alternate rarity and 
 density is compared to the pages of a parchment volume, which are alter- 
 nately light and dark, each sheet of parchment having a brown side. 
 
268 PARADISE. Canto II. 
 
 Now this is not so. Then, to turn our sight 
 
 To the other supposition, if that too 
 
 Be broken thy conjecture falls outright. 
 If, then, this rarity does not pass through, ®* 
 
 Some boundary to it must be efifected 
 
 Where density prevents its course anew. 
 And thence the alien ray will be reflected 
 
 Just as it turneth backwards from the glass 
 
 Whose back with leaden coating is protected. *** 
 
 Now thou wilt say the dimness on the mass 
 
 Is in some places greater by the ray 
 
 That from a greater depth doth backwards pass. 
 Such a mistake to thee will clear away 
 
 Experiment, if ever thou wilt try, ^^ 
 
 O' the streams of all your arts sole source for aye. 
 Take thou three mirrors, and place equally 
 
 Before thee two, the other further on. 
 
 So placed that 'twixt the first it meet thy eye. 
 Turned towards these, behind thy back set down ^^ 
 
 A light which on the mirrors three shall gleam. 
 
 And from them all reflected towards the sun. 
 Although in quantity is not the same 
 
 The light most distant, thou wilt see it blazo 
 
 As fitteth with no less resplendent beam. ^^ 
 
 Now as beneath the touch of the warm rays 
 
 Loses the earth the snow with which 'twas deckt, 
 
 And its first colour, and its frozen glaze, 
 So thee, thus stripped within thy intellect, 
 
 I would inform with light whose living shine ^^" 
 
 Shall tremble o'er thee in its first aspect. 
 Within the heaven where resteth peace divine 
 
 There whirls a body in whose magic power 
 
 Sublies all being held in its confine. 
 The heaven that follows with its starry shower, ^* 
 
 That being shares to its various essences. 
 
 Distinct from it, yet held within its bower. 
 The other spheres, with changing differences. 
 
 The power distinct, which doth within them glow, 
 
 Dispose to their own seeds and purposes. ^^® 
 
 These organs of the universe thus go, 
 
 As thou dost henceforth see, from stair to stair, 
 
 Above receiving, giving from below. 
 
 Line 96. An enumeration of the true principle of Bacon's experimental 
 philosophy. 
 
 Line 112. The empyrean. See the description of Dante's system of 
 astronomy, in which moves the primum mobile. 
 
Canto III. PARADISE. 269 
 
 Now mark me well, how I from this prepare 
 
 To reach the truth which thou dost ever love, ^^^ 
 
 So that henceforth alone thou'lt pass the mere. 
 
 The motion of the holy spheres above, 
 
 As by the workman comes the hammer's art. 
 Impelled by blessed motors, aye must move. 
 
 The sky yon starry beauty gleams athwart ^^^ 
 
 Takes from the deep soul of its guiding spirit 
 The image and the seal 'twill thence impart. 
 
 And as the soul that human dust doth 'herit 
 
 Resolves itself through different limbs yet made 
 Together unto powers of different merit, ^^'''' 
 
 So the intelligence of the spheres displayed 
 
 Its goodness through the stars all multiplied. 
 Yet whirling in its unity arrayed. 
 
 Virtue diverse has diverse compact plied 
 
 With the precious body, which it vivifies, ^^^ 
 
 In which, as life within yourselves, 'tis tied. 
 
 Glad through the nature whence it doth arise. 
 
 The mingled virtue through the frame makes light. 
 As joyousness shines out through living eyes. 
 
 From this ensueth what from light to light ^^'^ 
 
 Seems different, and not from dense or rare. 
 This is the formal cause that makes aright, 
 
 Conformed to its own goodness, dusk or clear." 
 
 Line 148. The common -sense reader will not be very satisfied with 
 Beatrice's offered explanation. The moving angel of each sphere stirs in 
 it like the soul in the human body, and shines out of it like joy from 
 human eyes, hence the difference in each light rayed from a different power ; 
 but this does not appear to account for a difference in the light rayed out of 
 one body by its own intelligence as the shadows visible on the moon's surface. 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 Dante beholds in the moon the spirits of the blessed. He converses with 
 Piccarda, the sister of Forese, and learns that she, with the rest, are con- 
 fined to that lowest sphere through having been compelled to a breach 
 of their vows, but that God's will makes every sphere perfect Paradise. 
 She points out to him the spirit of the Empress Constance. 
 
 That sun which first with love had warmed my breast 
 
 Had opened unto me of truth so fair. 
 
 With proof reiterate, the aspect blest. 
 And I, my sure conviction to declare 
 
 As was most fitting, raised on high my head * 
 
 To her the due acknowledgment to bear. 
 
270 PARADISE. Canto III. 
 
 But there appeared a vision wliich waylaid 
 
 My purpose, drawing my attention near, 
 
 That my confession was forgot ere said. 
 Such as through glass diaphanous and clear, '^ 
 
 Or through the shining waters' tranquil deeps, 
 
 Not of such depth as darkly to appear, 
 The sketch of our own features upwards creeps 
 
 So dimly, that of pearl or whitest front 
 
 The eye no clearer the faint outline keeps. ^^ 
 
 Thus saw I many eager faces mount, 
 
 And fell into the opposite error there 
 
 From that which kindled love 'twixt man and fount. 
 For suddenly when I of them was 'ware. 
 
 Believing they were mirrored images, ^" 
 
 I turned my eyes to see of whom they were, 
 And nothing saw, and drew them with surprise 
 
 Straight on the light, which in my own sweet guide 
 
 Smiling was kindled in her holy eyes. 
 *' Marvel thou not because I smiled," replied ^ 
 
 My lady, " at thy childish judgment blind, 
 
 Since thy foot trusteth not the truth descried, 
 But turns thee, as its wont, to empty wind ; 
 
 True substances are these which thou dost greet. 
 
 Who, through their broken vow, are here confined. ^ 
 
 But speak with them, and hear, and credence mete. 
 
 For the true light which in them shineth plain, 
 
 From sliding any more will guard their feet." 
 And I unto the shadow which most fain 
 
 Appeared to parley with me, drew my gaze, ^ 
 
 And as by eagerness confused, began, 
 " spirit ! made for good, who in the rays 
 
 Of life eterne drink' st sweetness of the skies. 
 
 Which tasted not, in vain the soul essays, 
 Wouldst thou but tell me I the boon would prize, *^ 
 
 Thy name, and all the mystery of your lot." 
 
 Whence eager she replied, with smiling eyes : 
 " Our charity the portal barreth not 
 
 To just desire, no more than God's own worth 
 
 Which wills that all His Court be like Him brought. ^ 
 I was a holy sister on the earth ; 
 
 And if thy mind will well regard me here. 
 
 Will veil me not my grace of heavenly birth. 
 
 Line 17. Narcissus conceived his shadow to be a reality. Dante mistakes 
 the refined substances of the blest for shadows. 
 
Canto III. PARADISE. 271 
 
 But as Piccarda thou wilt know me clear, 
 
 Who stationed here amongst these other blest ** 
 
 Are happy in the slowest whirling sphere. 
 All our affections are alone imprest 
 
 With what doth please the Holy Spirit, so 
 
 Here, in His order, they rejoice at rest. 
 And in this sphere, which seems so very low, ** 
 
 High Heaven our residence allotted places, 
 
 Because we did not wholly keep our vow." 
 Whence I to her : " Within your wondrous faces 
 
 There shineth something that is so divine. 
 
 That quite it changeth all your former traces ; •" 
 
 Therefore thy likeness did my memory twine 
 
 But slowly, aided by what thou dost tell 
 
 More like my native tongue, I now divine. 
 But tell me, ye who happy here do dwell, 
 
 Do ye desire another higher place ®* 
 
 To see more fully, and your love to swell?" 
 With the other shades she smiled a little space, 
 
 Then answered me with such a joy galore. 
 
 That love's first fires seemed burning in her face. 
 " Brother, our will is quieted with lore ^^ 
 
 Of charity, which makes us only seek 
 
 That which we have, nor ever thirst for more. 
 If higher lots for us we would bespeak 
 
 Then our desires would all discordant be 
 
 With His high will, who here our lots doth make. ^* 
 
 Which in these circles cannot be, thou'lt see : 
 
 If here to dwell in charity is need, 
 
 And if thou seest the law of charity. 
 Nay, 'tis essential to our blessed meed 
 
 To be restrained within the will Divine, ** 
 
 That unto one our wills be all agreed. 
 So that as we throughout this kingdom shine 
 
 From sphere to sphere, it pleaseth every grade. 
 
 As to the King, to whose will all incline. 
 In his high pleasure all our peace is laid ; ** 
 
 This is that ocean unto which are brought 
 
 All things which it creates, or Nature made." 
 
 Line 49. The sister of Forese, introduced in Canto XXIV. of the " Pur- 
 gatory," and of Corso Donati. The latter, with some dissolute comrades, 
 scaled Piccarda's monastery and forcibly took her away to marry her against 
 her will. The legend states that before the spouse of Christ came together 
 with her carnal husband she committed her virginity to the care of her 
 Heavenly Loi*d, and was smitten with leprosy, and died in a few days, being 
 thus saved from contamination. 
 
272 PARADISE. Canto III. 
 
 Then was it clear to me how every lot 
 
 In Heaven is Paradise, though the highest good 
 
 His grace in one sole fashion raineth not. ^^ 
 
 But as it haps, when glutted with one food 
 
 After another still desire doth crave 
 
 For which are thanks paid, and which still is wooed, 
 So I with words and gesture to her clave 
 
 To learn from her the story of the woof, ^'' 
 
 The which her shuttle did not wholly weave. 
 *' A perfect life and high desert of proof 
 
 Enshrines the lady in a Heaven more high, 
 
 After whose rule on earth we live aloof. 
 That we may see, and slumber when we die ^^ 
 
 With that dear spouse, who every vow receives 
 
 Which to his pleasure mouldeth charity. 
 In youth I fled me from the world that grieves 
 
 To follow her, and her chaste habit wore, 
 
 And promised me the path her sect achieves. ^^ 
 
 Men used to evil more than virtuous lore 
 
 From the sweet cloister carried me away : 
 
 God knows the life which afterwards I bore. 
 This other, who her splendour doth display 
 
 At my right hand, and burns with all the light "'^ 
 
 Allotted to our sphere, whate'er I say 
 About myself, applies to her aright ; 
 
 She was a nun, and from her head was turn 
 
 Even thus the shadow of her nun's veil white. 
 But even in the world where she was borne "* 
 
 Against her will, and every usage good. 
 
 Within her heart the veil was ever worn. 
 This is great Constance' light, who from the rude 
 
 Wind that the second blew from Suabia's plain. 
 
 Produced the third, and latest of the brood." ^-^ 
 
 Thus she spake to me, and began the strain 
 
 Ave Maria, vanishing with song. 
 
 As heavy body through the dusky main. 
 My vision, which still followed her as long 
 
 As it was possible, when she was gone '^^ 
 
 Turned to the target of my love most strong, 
 
 Line 98. St. Clare, the foundress of Piccarda's order. 
 
 Line 118. Daughter of Euggieri, King of Sicily, and taken from her 
 monastery, at the mature age of fifty, to marry the Emperor Henry VL, 
 the second of the House of Suabia, by whom she became mother to 
 Frederic II., the third and last of the brood. 
 
Canto IV. PARADISE. 273 
 
 And centered there in Beatrix alone ; 
 
 But she in glory beamed upon my gaze 
 
 Such that at first I could not look upon, 
 And that awhile my questioning delays. ^^ 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 Dante stands absorbed by two doubts arising from what he has just heard 
 and seen. Beatrice removes both his difficulties, first with reference to 
 the place assigned to the blest in Heaven, and then as to the effect of 
 alien violence upon the will. Dante then inquires as to the possibility of 
 making satisfaction for a broken vow. 
 
 Betwixt two kinds of food, each equally 
 
 Distant and tempting, ere a man could choose 
 
 In freedom, he might first of hunger die. 
 Even thus a lamb betwixt two wolfish foes, 
 
 Equal in longing, would fear each the same ; * 
 
 Even thus would stand a hound betwixt two does. 
 Wherefore if I was silent, I nor blame 
 
 (Betwixt my doubts in mute suspension thrown, 
 
 Since 'twas not in my choice) nor merit claim. 
 Silent I stood ; but my desire was shown ^^ 
 
 Upon my face, and with it my demand 
 
 Warmer by far than if by speech made known. 
 Did Beatrix, as erst when Daniel's hand 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's anger cleared away. 
 
 Which had excited his unjust command. ^^ 
 
 " Clearly I see how draws thee," did she say, 
 
 " One and the other wish, which makes thy zeal 
 
 So bind itself it cannot find a way. 
 Thou arguest, if good intent lasts still, 
 
 How can the violence by others done ^® 
 
 Decrease the measure of my spirit's weal ? 
 Again a cause for doubting thou dost own, 
 
 That souls returning to their stars we find. 
 
 According to the law by Plato shown. 
 
 Line 1. The singular statement in the first terzina is taken from Thomas 
 Aquinas. 
 
 Line 13. Beatrix did for Dante what Daniel did for Nebuchadnezzar when 
 he explained to him his dream, and prevented the execution of his threat 
 against the Chaldeans who had failed in solving the mystery. 
 
 Line 23. Plato, in the conversation named Timseus, advanced this theory, 
 as again alluded to in line 49. 
 
 T 
 
274 PARADISE. Canto IV. 
 
 These are the questions whicli within thy mind ^ 
 
 Urge thee with equal cogence, therefore I 
 
 First take the one where gall is most combined. 
 The Seraph nearest to the Deity, 
 
 Moses and Samuel, take either John 
 
 Thou wilt, I say even Mary, Queen on High, ^ 
 
 Hold not in any other Heaven their throne 
 
 Than these souls, who did even now appear, 
 
 Nor longer or more brief existence own. 
 All of them make the empyrean fair 
 
 Though they possess sweet life in different ways, ^ 
 
 As more or less the Eternal Spirit they share. 
 Not that this sphere is their allotted place. 
 
 Here did they show themselves, but to unfold 
 
 What grade they've mounted in celestial grace. 
 Thus to your understanding must be told, *^ 
 
 Which only by sensation apprehends. 
 
 What afterwards the intellect can hold. 
 For this the holy Scripture condescends 
 
 Unto your faculties, and hands and feet, 
 
 Not meaning that unto the Deity lends. ■*^ 
 
 The holy Church with human aspect meet 
 
 Gabriel and Michael to your vision bares. 
 
 And him, who made Tobias' cure complete. 
 That which Timseus of all souls declares. 
 
 Does not resemble what we here behold, ^ 
 
 Since what he says its natural meaning wears. 
 The soul unto its star returns, we're told. 
 
 He thinking it descended first from there, 
 
 When Nature gave it its own plastic mould. 
 Haply his words another meaning bear ^^ 
 
 To what their sound expresses ; this may be 
 
 With purpose to escape derision's snare. 
 If he but means that on these spheres' decree 
 
 Depends the shaping influence and the blame, 
 
 Haply his shaft hath hit some verity. 
 This truth miscomprehended led to shame 
 
 All the world formerly, who wide astray 
 
 Worshipped Jove, Mercury, and Mars by name. 
 
 Line 27. Plato's false opinion Beatrix pronounces the most dangerous. 
 
 Line 45. Dante's theology is wonderfully free from the anthropomorphic 
 spirit which distinguishes Judaism, and which even the powerful mind of 
 Milton, swathed in the trammels of Puritanism, heartily embraced. It is this 
 which makes Milton's conceptions of Paradise fall so immeasurably short of 
 those of the spiritual Florentine. 
 
 60 
 
Canto IV. PARA.DISE. 275 
 
 The other doubt which now doth thee bewray 
 
 Hath less of poison, since its evil gust ®^ 
 
 Far from my side can lead thee not away. 
 In eyes of mortals, that appears unjust 
 
 Our Heavenly justice, is an argument 
 
 For faith, and not heretical mistrust. 
 But that your understanding with assent ^® 
 
 * Unto this truth may clearly penetrate. 
 
 As thou desirest I'll make thee all content. 
 If violence excuses, when doth 'bate 
 
 No jot the victim to compulsion high. 
 
 By this these souls would not be exculpate. ^^ 
 
 For will unless it chooses does not die, 
 
 But acts like Nature in the flame, although 
 
 A thousand times should force its purpose try. 
 Because if much or little it doth bow 
 
 It follows force ; and so those acted here *" 
 
 With power to embrace again their holy vow. 
 If their intent had been unmixed with fear. 
 
 As that which Laurence on the bars retained, 
 
 And made stern Mucins to his hand severe, 
 Their holy path they had once more regained *^ 
 
 Whence they were taken, soon as they were freed ; 
 
 But rarely is such firm resolve maintained. 
 And by these words, if thou dost rightly heed 
 
 As fitting is, the argument's o'erthrown, 
 
 Which many a time had done thee hurt at need. ®® 
 
 But now another doubt athwart thee grown 
 
 Flits o'er thy eyes, which well would weary thee 
 
 Ere thou couldst solve it by thyself alone. 
 Within thy mind I've placed as certainty 
 
 That never can speak false a spirit blest, ^^ 
 
 Since to the Primal Truth 'tis ever nigh. 
 And thou hast heard Piccarda now attest 
 
 That Constance for the veil her love still kept, 
 
 And contradiction here doth stand confest. 
 Already, brother, many a time hath happed ^^ 
 
 That peril to escape, against one's wish 
 
 Something is done, the which may well be wept. 
 Alcmeon thus of old, besought to this 
 
 By a dying father, his own mother slew. 
 
 Not to lose pity he grew pitiless. ^^^ 
 
 Line 83. A martyr of the third century. 
 
 Line 103. The story of Alcmeon and his mother Eriphyle has been already 
 introduced in Canto XII. of the "Purgatory." 
 
276 PARADISE. Canto IV. 
 
 Upon this point thou must bethink thee true 
 
 That force with men can mingle with their will, 
 
 So that it cannot shrive the sins they do. 
 Absolute will consents not to the ill : 
 
 But yet consents so far, in that it fears ^^" 
 
 If it hold back, some greater evil still. 
 Piccarda, therefore, when she this declares, 
 
 Meaneth the will thus absolute, and I 
 
 The other, neither thus the truth impairs." 
 Thus surged that holy river, which on high "* 
 
 Sprang from the fountain whence all truth doth move ; 
 
 Thus both my wishes did it satisfy. 
 " O Goddess, loved one of the Primal Love," 
 
 I said, " whose parlance floodeth me around, 
 
 And vivifies with warmth from God above : ^^® 
 
 Suffices not my love, though so profound, 
 
 Unto your grace, with fit grace to reply. 
 
 Let Him who sees and can to this respond. 
 Clearly I see that nought can satisfy 
 
 Our intellect, unless that truth shine there, ^^ 
 
 Beyond whose bounds can roam no verity. 
 Therein it resteth, like a beast in lair, 
 
 When it has joined it, and has power to join, 
 
 If not, each wish would be but empty air. 
 Through that desire is bom, like weeds that twine ^^^ 
 
 Beside the truth, the doubt ; and Nature's lure 
 
 Thus leads from peak to peak to truth divine. 
 This doth invite me, this doth make me sure, 
 
 With reverence, lady, to request aright 
 
 Another truth which still remains obscure. ^^* 
 
 I now would know, if man can e'er requite 
 
 With other good deeds vows he failed to pay. 
 
 That in your balance may not weigh as light." 
 Gazed on me Beatrix, with eye whose ray 
 
 Beamed with such sparks of love, and so divine, ^*® 
 
 That all my power o'ercome, I turned away, 
 And lost as 'twere my drooping lids incline. 
 
 Line 113. Piccarda merely meant that Constance's inclination still turned 
 to the monastic life. Beatrix asserts that her will was not strong enough to 
 resist adverse circumstances. 
 
CANTO V. PARADISE. 277 
 
 CANTO V. 
 
 Beatrice answers Dante's question concerning the possibility of rendering 
 other satisfaction for a broken vow. They then ascend to the sphere of 
 Mercury, where they are met by a troop of spirits, one of whom offers 
 to explain to Dante anything he may wish to know. 
 
 " If I with warmth of love upon thee flame, 
 
 Beyond the fashion which on earth is seen, 
 
 So that the valour of thy eyes I tame, 
 Marvel thou not ; for that proceeds I ween 
 
 From perfect vision, which at once doth turn ^ 
 
 To meet the good it apprehended keen. 
 How now there shineth, clearly I discern. 
 
 Within thy intellect the eternal light. 
 
 Which seen alone makes love for ever burn. 
 And if aught else would win your love's delight, ^^ 
 
 It cannot be except some vestige true 
 
 Be shining there, not recognised aright. 
 Thou wouldest know if other service new 
 
 For broken vows in any way can pay, 
 
 And free the spirit from the judgment due." ^^ 
 
 Thus Beatrice did begin this lay. 
 
 And like an orator who doth not cease, 
 
 Thus she continued on her holy way : 
 " The greatest gift which Grod's creating grace 
 
 Made in His largess, to His clemency ^" 
 
 The most conformed, and prized as first in place^ 
 Was of the will the perfect liberty. 
 
 With which the creatures of intelligence X 
 
 Were dowered, and are, and they alone. Thou'lt see 
 Henceforth from this, if thou dost argue hence, ^^ 
 
 The high worth of a vow which so is made. 
 
 That what time thou consentest God consents. 
 For when 'twixt God and man this pact is laid. 
 
 This treasure as a victim doth one slay 
 
 By his own act, even such as now displayed. ** 
 
 What compensation therefore can one pay i' 
 
 If what thou'st offered thou wouldst use for good.. 
 
 Thou wouldst give alms of what thou'st ta'en in prey. 
 The greater point thou now hast understood. 
 
 But since the Church dispensing doth permit ^ 
 
 This seems opposed unto the truth I showed. 
 
 Line 29, The treasure of free-will, just described as the greatest gift 
 of God. 
 
278 PARADISE. Canto V. 
 
 A little at the board thou yet must sit, 
 
 Since the crude fare which thou hast swallowed now 
 
 For its digestion claims assistance yet. 
 Open thy mind to that which I will show ^^ 
 
 And guard within, for nought can make ye wise 
 
 Though understood, unless retained enow. 
 Unto the essence of this sacrifice 
 
 Two things pertain, the one what ye agree 
 
 To do, the other in the covenant lies. ■** 
 
 This last can never wholly cancelled be, 
 
 Unless 'tis kept, concerning it I trow, 
 
 Was what I spake above so rigidly. 
 Therefore 'twas needful for the Hebrew's vow 
 
 To offer something, though the offering ^® 
 
 'for other might be changed, as thou shouldst know. 
 The other, which was shown thee as the thing, 
 
 May well be such that without erring ye 
 
 May in its stead some other payment bring. 
 But from the load your back you cannot free " 
 
 At your own judgment nor without the will 
 
 Both of the silver and the golden key. 
 And think each change is empty to fulfil, 
 
 Unless the old is in the new contained, 
 
 As in the six the four remaineth still. ^ 
 
 Therefore whatever vow such weight hath gained 
 
 By its own worth that it outweigheth all. 
 
 With other deed it cannot be maintained. 
 Mortals should take no vow at idle call ; 
 
 Perform your vows, and therefore be not blind ^ 
 
 As Jephtha was to what might first befall : 
 To whom 'twere better to have said, I've sinned. 
 
 Than keep his oath by worse ; in such mad gear 
 
 The mighty leader of the Greeks thou'lt find : 
 Iphigenia thence, bewailed, so fair, '* 
 
 And made to weep the foolish and the wise 
 
 Who ever of her sacrifice did hear. 
 Christians, your movements ye should better poise : 
 
 Be not like feathers in each wind that blew. 
 
 And think not that all water purifies. ^^ 
 
 Ye have the Testaments, the Old and New, 
 
 And the Shepherd of the Church to be your guide, 
 
 This for salvation should suffice to you. 
 
 Line 57. See "Purgatory," Canto IX., the gold key denoting the Divine 
 Authority exercised by the Church, the silver key the learning required for 
 using it fitly. 
 
Canto V. PARADISE. 279 
 
 If evil avarice aught else hath cried, 
 
 Ye should be men, not silly sheep or beeves,'' ^^ 
 
 So that the Jew amongst ye may deride. 
 Be ye not like the lamb, who frisking leaves 
 
 Its mother's milk, and in a simple fit. 
 
 At its own pleasure, with its shadow strives." 
 Thus Beatrix to me as I indite : ^^ 
 
 Then did she turn all yearning with desire 
 
 Unto that part where most the world is bright. 
 Her will, and changing countenance of fire. 
 
 Silence imposed unto my questioning. 
 
 Which much of new already would require. ^^ 
 
 And like a dart that in the target's ring 
 
 Is fixed before the trembling cord is still, 
 
 So to the second kingdom did we spring. 
 I saw my lady then such joy distil 
 
 Entering that Heaven's bright glory undefiled ^^ 
 
 That grew the planet's self more beaming still. 
 And if the star was thus transformed and smiled, 
 
 What did I grow, who in my nature's sphere 
 
 To change in every fashion am beguiled ? 
 As in a fishpond that is still and clear, ^^ 
 
 The fish are drawn to aught that comes above. 
 
 Thinking from habit that their food is near ; 
 So saw I more than thousand splendours move 
 
 Attracted towards us, and in each was heard, 
 
 "Lo, who will bring addition to our love?" 
 And as came towards us each o' the holy herd 
 
 The shadow full of joyousness was seen 
 
 In the clear glory that from in it stirred. 
 Think, reader, if the inaugurated scene 
 
 Were to proceed no more, what appetite ^^® 
 
 To know what follows would possess thee keen : 
 And by thyself thou'lt see the yearning might 
 
 Which filled me then to hear the lots of these. 
 
 Soon as their vision fell upon my sight. 
 " O happy born, to whom high grace decrees ^^^ 
 
 Thrones of the eternal triumph to behold, 
 
 Ere from the militants thou'st gained release ; 
 With the light that o'er the whole of Heaven is rolled 
 
 Are we inflamed ; if therefore thou wouldst crave 
 
 By us to grow more clear, thy will unfold." ^^* 
 
 Line 79. An evident allusion to the sale of dispensations, which made the 
 Roman Church a subject of derision even to the money-dealing Jew. 
 
 105 
 
280 PARADISE. Canto VI. 
 
 These words by one amongst the spirits grave 
 Were told me, and by Beatrice, " Say, 
 Securely say, and as to Gods believe." 
 
 ** Clearly I see bow tbou in rest dost stay 
 
 In tby own light, and draw'st it from thy eyes, ^^* 
 
 That when thou smilest brighter beams their play : 
 
 But who thou art I know not, nor the ties 
 
 That bind thee to this sphere, most worthy sprite, 
 Which in the sun is veiled to mortal eyes." 
 
 Thus did I speak distinctly to that light ^^® 
 
 Which first had spoken to me, whence it grew, 
 Even more than it had been, all beaming bright. 
 
 Just as the sun conceals itself from view 
 
 By too much light, what time the heat has dried 
 
 The tempering vapours of the thick-rolled dew : ^^ 
 
 Through greater joy ousness he so did hide 
 His holy form from me, within his ray, 
 And thus envelopt unto me replied 
 
 As will be set forth in the following lay. 
 
 Liae 129. The sphere of Mercury, which from its nearness is often hidden 
 by the sun. 
 
 CANTO VI. 
 
 The spirit informs Dante that he is the Emperor Justinian, and after de- 
 scribing his own career he sketches the previous victories of the Roman 
 eagle. He then states that this sphere is allotted to those who did high 
 deeds on earth for the sake of fame rather than for higher aims. 
 Amongst them is the soul of the pilgrim Romeo, Minister of Count 
 Raimond. 
 
 " When Constantine had turned the eagle's flight 
 
 Against Heaven's course, the which of old did move 
 After Lavinia's wooer, following it. 
 
 Two hundred years and more the bird of Jove 
 
 Stayed in far Europe's corner, near the gloom ® 
 
 O' the hills from which it issued first to rove, 
 
 And 'neath the shadow of its sacred plume 
 
 There o'er the world from hand to hand did reign, 
 Till it revolving unto mine did come. 
 
 Line 1. Constantine in removing the seat of empire travelled towards the 
 East, while --JBneas first bore the Roman standard from Troy, conquering 
 towards the West, following the sun. "Westward the course of empire 
 holds its way." 
 
Canto VI. 
 
 PARADISE. 281 
 
 25 
 
 80 
 
 Caesar I was, and am Justinian, 
 
 Who through the will o' the primal love I feel 
 
 Expunged from laws the superfluous and the vain, 
 And ere unto that task aroused my zeal 
 
 In Christ one nature only I confest. 
 
 And with such faith contented, sought my weal, 
 For at that season Agapete the blest 
 
 Was highest shepherd, to the faith sincere 
 
 Me with his holy counsel he addrest. 
 Him I believed, and what he told me here 
 
 Clearly I see, as both the false and true 
 
 In every contradiction doth appear. 
 As soon as with the Church I moved anew 
 
 It pleased God's grace my spirits to incline 
 
 To my high task, and wholly cleave thereto. 
 To Belisarius I my arms resign. 
 
 On whom Heaven's favours so propitious shone, 
 
 That I should rest from war it was a sign. 
 To thy first question were my answer done 
 
 But that its tendency demands as gloss 
 
 Touching the eagle something to be shown. 
 That thou mayst see how little reason knows 
 
 Each faction, moving 'gainst that standard holy, 
 
 Both those who claim as well as who oppose. 
 Behold what virtue made it worthy wholly ^^ 
 
 Of reverence deep, beginning with the hour 
 
 When Pallas died that it might govern solely. 
 Thou know'st it made its nest in Alba's bower 
 
 Three hundred years and more, until that close 
 
 When three 'gainst three gave battle for its power. ^ 
 
 From Sabine rape until Lucretia's woes 
 
 Thou knowest its actions underneath seven kings, 
 
 Conquering all round it, all its neighbouring foes. 
 Thou know'st its actions when there bore its wings 
 
 'G-ainst Brennus and 'gainst Pyrrhus, Eomans high, ^^ 
 
 And 'gainst all other chiefs and gatherings. 
 Torquatus thence, Decius, and Quintius by 
 
 His unkempt locks nicknamed, and Fabius vied 
 
 In fame, which I embalm thus willingly. 
 
 Line 14. Justinian, in fact, throughout his life favoured the heresy of 
 Eutichus, who appears to have denied Christ's Jmman nature. Against tins 
 heresy Agapete, Bishop of Rome, wrote. The Empress Theodora s inAiience 
 inclined her uxorious spouse towards the sect she favoured long after tne 
 death of the saint. Dante could not, however, place a heretic in Tara^e. 
 
 Line 36. Killed by Turnus on coming to the assistance ot ^neas. 
 ^n., lib. X. 
 
 Line 46. Quintius Cincinnatus. 
 
282 PARADISE. Canto VI. 
 
 This overcame the fell Arabians' pride, 
 
 Who, led by Hannibal, found out their way ^® 
 
 O'er the Alpine rocks, from which thou, Po, dost glide. 
 
 Beneath this standard triumphed in youth's day 
 Scipio and Pompey, and unto that hill 
 Where thou wast born most bitter seemed its sway. 
 
 Then, near the time when all the world to still ^* 
 
 To its own habitude was Heaven's design, 
 Caesar the standard seized through Eome's high will, 
 
 And what it did from Var unto the Rhine 
 
 The Iser saw, and Loire, and saw the Seine, 
 
 And all the vales that towards the Rhone incline. ^ 
 
 Its actions from Ravenna issuing, when 
 
 It crossed the Rubicon, were such in flight 
 That cannot follow them or tongue or pen. 
 
 Again towards Spain it veered its serried might, 
 
 Then towards Dyrachium and Pharsalia smote, ^ 
 
 That to the Nile was felt its blow's despite. 
 
 Native Antander, Simois remote, 
 
 It saw again, where Hector's ashes lie, 
 Hence soaring ill for Ptolemy it wrought. 
 
 On Juba hence like lightning did it fly ; '•* 
 
 Then to your natal West again it veered. 
 Where the Pompeian trumpet sounded high. 
 
 Its deeds with him who next its standard reared, 
 Brutus with Cassius bark of them in Hell, 
 Modena and Peruge in sadness feared. ^* 
 
 Sad Cleopatra waileth for it still, 
 
 Who from the asp, flying that sign before, 
 Obtained the death she sought for, swift and fell. 
 
 With him it ran even to the Red Sea's shore ; 
 
 With him it gave such peace unto the world ^® 
 
 That Janus* temple-gate was barred once more. 
 
 But all the deeds the which that sign unfurled 
 Had ever done or ever was to do 
 'Mongst mortals, while it triumphed o'er the world, 
 
 Become in seeming all obscure and few, ^^ 
 
 If with clear eye and pure affection's fire 
 His the third Caesar's mission we but view. 
 
 Line 54. The city of Fiesole, sacked after the defeat of Catiline. 
 
 Line 87. Tiberius, under whose reign the Jews sacrificed Christ. The 
 deeds of Julius and Augustus are said to pale before the great consummation 
 of God's anger, of which Tiberius is represented as the unconscious instru- 
 ment. 
 
Canto VI. PARADISE. 283 
 
 The living justice which doth me inspire 
 Yielded unto his hand of whom I speak 
 Glory to wreak the vengeance of his ire. *^ 
 
 On what I tell thee now thy wonder slake ; 
 With Titus to revenge the standard ran 
 The vengeance taken for man's sin antique. 
 
 And when the Lombard tooth did gnawing stain 
 
 The holy Church, beneath its outstretcht wings ^^ 
 
 Came to her succour conquering Charlemain. 
 
 Now thou canst judge the rival bickerings 
 
 Which I above did blame, their faults expose. 
 Which are the cause of all your sufferings. 
 
 The Lilies to the public sign oppose ^^ 
 
 One side, the other claim it for a part, 
 'Tis hard to see which most of error shows. 
 
 Work now, ye Ghibelines, work now your art, 
 'Neath other sign ; this standard now eschew, 
 Who it and justice evermore would part ; ^"* 
 
 Nor strive to strike it down. This Charles the new, 
 With all his Guelphs, its talons let him fear, 
 Who lordlier lion has ere now made rue. 
 
 Many a time the sons have wrung a tear 
 
 For the father's sins, and be it not beheved "*^ 
 
 That, for his Lilies, God his arms will veer. 
 
 Adorn this little star, as dowry sheaved, 
 
 The spirits good, who erst have active been, 
 That fame and honour hence might be achieved. 
 
 And when for such an end the wishes lean, "* 
 
 Declining thus, 'tis certain that the rays 
 Of true love upwards journey less serene. 
 
 But with our merit measuring the phase 
 Of our reward is part of our delight. 
 Which fitly to its due doth Heaven appraise. ^^® 
 
 Hence our affection, Justice' living light. 
 
 So draweth towards itself with yearning sweet 
 That it can never more be turned from right. 
 
 Different voices make the music sweet, 
 
 So different stations in this life of ours ^^^ 
 
 Make sweeter harmony in the spheral seat. 
 
 Line 107. Alluding probably, as suggested by Mr. Gary, to Charles of 
 Valois, son of Philip III. of France, who was sent for by Pope Boniface into 
 Italy under promise of being made emperor. See Canto XX. of the " Pur- 
 gatory" and note. 
 
 Line 112. The subject is suddenly changed, and Dante's second question 
 answered. 
 
284 PARADISE. • Canto VII. 
 
 And here within this planet's pearly bowers 
 Shineth the light of Romeo, whose high deed 
 Was ill acknowledged by the worldly powers. 
 
 But the Proven9als did not all succeed ^^" 
 
 Who strove against him ; ill their road I ween 
 Who others' worth as their own loss aread. 
 
 E-aimond had daughters four, and each a queen, 
 Such high alliances for him achieved 
 The pilgrim Romeo, of such humble mien. ^^^' 
 
 And yet the jealous murmurs him deceived 
 To call unto account that steward just, 
 Who rendered twelve for every ten received. 
 
 Thence, poor and aged, he was outwards thrust, 
 
 And if the world but knew his heart unflawed, ^^'^ 
 
 The while he begged his living crust by crust, 
 
 Even more than now his virtue would it laud." 
 
 Line 128. The Italian story of Romeo, steward of the Count of Provence, 
 is that being called to an account of the revenues he had carefully husbanded, 
 he called for the mule, scrip, and staff -with which he had come to the Count 
 as a pilgrim of St. James, and departed no one knew whence or whither. 
 
 CANTO VII. 
 
 Justinian and the other spirits disappear singing praises to God. Dante 
 remains confused with doubt engendered by what he has heard. Beatrice 
 for their satisfaction explains the whole scheme of human redemption. 
 
 Osanna Sandus Beus Sabaoth, 
 
 Superillustrans claritate tud 
 
 Felices ignes horum malahoth: 
 Returning thus unto his strain anew, a- 
 
 G-ain was that substance heard by me to sing, * 
 
 O'er which the doubled glory double grew. A- 
 While those fair spirits moved in mazy ring, 
 
 Then like to swiftest sparks they sped away 
 
 On a sudden in the distance vanishing. 
 I was in doubt, and to mvself did say, ^° 
 
 " Tell it, tell it to my lady dear, 
 
 Who with sweet drops my thirsting will allay." 
 But the deep reverence, akin to fear, 
 
 Which ever overcame me all, for Bice, 
 
 Like one inclined to slumber bowed me here. ^^ 
 
 Line 1. Osanna, Lord God of Sabaoth, illuminating with Thy brightness 
 the happy fires of these kingdoms, malahoth being a Hebrew word. 
 Line 14. Dante's pet name for the lady of his love. 
 
Canto VII. < PARADISE. 
 
 Such state allowed but briefly Beatrice, 
 
 And thus began, as o'er me rayed her smile, 
 
 Such that in flames to happiness 'twould reach ye. 
 " My sight infallible has seen erewhile, 
 
 How just revenge can justly punished be, 
 
 To doubtful thought thy reason doth beguile, 
 But from this doubt thy mind I soon will free : 
 
 And mark me well, because these words of mine 
 
 Boon of great import will present to thee. 
 Through suffering not the curb, for will benign 
 
 Imposed on him, that man who ne'er was born, 
 
 Damning himself at once damned all his line : 
 By which the human species lay forlorn 
 
 For many ages in its error great, 
 
 Until the Word of God was pleased to adorn 
 That place where human nature, separate 
 
 From its Creator, was with him renewed, j 
 
 By act of love eterne regenerate. 
 Now be my subject by thy vision viewed ; 
 
 This nature with its Maker joined in one 
 
 Such as created was sincere and good : 
 But by itself in sooth was it outthrown 
 
 From Paradise, because it turned away 
 
 From God, the path of truth and life alone. 
 Therefore that penalty the Cross did lay ' ■** 
 
 On that assumed nature if we mark, 
 
 A greater justice never did it pay : 
 And so there never was such injury stark. 
 
 If we regard the person who that doom 
 
 Suffered, contracting human nature dark. *^ 
 
 Different effects from one act then did come ; 
 
 Since one death pleased to God, and to the Jews : 
 
 At it earth trembled, opened Heaven's dome. 
 No more henceforth shouldst thou with doubt accuse, 
 
 When it is told to thee that vengeance just ^^ 
 
 By a just court was venged with rightful dues. 
 But now I see thy mind again mistrust, 
 
 Shaping in thought a doubt upon this theme 
 
 For whose solution it doth sorely lust. 
 Thou sayest what I hear I clearly deem, ^ 
 
 But why God chose, to me is still concealed. 
 
 For our redemption this peculiar scheme. 
 
 Line 20. Alluding to line 90 in Justinian's speech, where the death of 
 Christ is called with approbation the vengeance of God's anger. 
 Line 26. The man who ne'er was bom is Adam. 
 
286 PARADISE. Canto VII. 
 
 This law, O brother, standeth unrev^ealed 
 Unto the eyes of every one, whose mind 
 Within the flames of love is not annealed. ^® 
 
 Since of a verity this truth to find, 
 
 So many gaze, and yet so few discern, 
 I'll say why this as worthiest was designed. 
 Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn 
 
 All labour, kindling in itself doth blaze, ^* 
 
 Displaying thus its beauties all eterne. 
 Whate'er from it without a medium rays 
 Can know no end, since ever must remain 
 On it the seal which once the Deity lays. 
 Whate'er without a medium hence doth rain '^ 
 
 Is wholly free, because it cannot lie 
 'Neath the new influence of the starry train. 
 The most conformed to God, most charms on high. 
 Since the holy ardour which on all things rays, 
 O'er its own semblance most doth vivify. ''* 
 
 In all these things the human creature lays 
 His 'vantage- ground, and if he fail in one 
 The prize of his nobility decays. 
 To disenfranchise him can sin alone. 
 
 Spoiling his likeness to the chiefest good, **** 
 
 Since of the light so little he hath won. 
 And never is his dignity renewed. 
 
 Unless where sin has failed he satisfy, 
 For evil joy just penalties endued. 
 Your nature when it sinned thus totally ^* 
 
 In its first seed, even as from Paradise 
 Was banished also from such dignity : 
 Nor can it be regained, in subtle guise 
 If thou regardest this by any road. 
 
 Unless by one of the two I now devise. ®® 
 
 Either through courtesy alone must God 
 
 Have this restored, or by himself must man 
 Have satisfied his own mad hardihood. 
 Let now thy eye be fixed, far as it can, 
 
 I' the abyss of the eternal counsels deep, ®^ 
 
 Intent on what I tell of Heaven's plan. 
 While man his own allotted bounds doth keep 
 He could not pay by his humility, 
 However low might his obedience creep, 
 
 Line 67. Whatev^er proceeds directly from God, without mediate interven- 
 tion, is immortal, and is free from the influence of the stars. These qualities, 
 together with his resemblance to God, in whose image he was created, con- 
 stituted the peculiar privileges of man until lost by sin, which also turned 
 him out of Paradise. Such is the argument of the next twenty lines. 
 
Canto VII. PARADISE. 287 
 
 His former disobedient surquedry : ^"* 
 
 This is tlie reason why mankind alone 
 
 By their own act could never satisfy. 
 It needed then that God, by ways His own, 
 
 Unto his life entire should man restore, 
 
 Either by both His ways, I say, or one. ^''^ 
 
 But since the deed delights so much the more 
 
 The doer, as it most doth represent 
 
 The goodness of the heart such fruit that bore ; 
 Goodness Divine, that to the world hath lent 
 
 His image, to proceed by every way "^ 
 
 To raise ye upwards was alone content. 
 Nor 'twixt the last night and the primal day 
 
 So high and so magnificent a deed 
 
 Has ever been, nor e'er can be for aye. 
 Since God was far more bounteous of His meed "'^ 
 
 Giving Himself, to grant man strength to rise. 
 
 Than had He by His mercy only freed. 
 And not another method could suffice 
 
 The claims of justice, if the Son of God 
 
 Had not been humbled in a mortal's guise. ^^** 
 
 Now to content each wish, even unavowed, 
 
 I turn another place to clear to thee. 
 
 That thou, like I, may see it clear and broad. 
 Thou say'st I see the air, the fire I see, 
 
 Water and earth, and all things hence arrayed, ^^^ 
 
 Come to corruption, and but briefly be : 
 Yet all these things by God Himself were made : 
 
 Therefore if what I said indeed be true 
 
 These in corruption should be never laid. 
 The angels, brother, and this country new ^^* 
 
 In which thou art, may well be called created. 
 
 So in their essence we entirety view : 
 But the elements of which thou now hast prated. 
 
 And all things which from them their being crave. 
 
 Are influenced by a power itself created. ^^^ 
 
 Line 105. Both the ways mentioned in lines 91, 2, 3 — i.e., either by Mercy 
 or Justice, or by both, the latter being alone consonant to the idea of God's 
 perfection. 
 
 Line 121. Beatrice having stated that whatever proceeds directly from 
 God, without mediate intervention, is immortal, proceeds to show that this 
 is not applicable to the elements, which are influenced by the stars, them- 
 selves a created power, whose influence does not extend to the spiritual life 
 of man and angels. Dante's belief in astrological influences has been already 
 noticed, and is again dwelt upon in the following Canto. 
 
288 PARADISE. Canto VIII. 
 
 Created was the matter which they have : 
 
 Created too was the informing power 
 
 In yonder stars, which round about them wave. 
 The spirit of each brute and of each flower 
 
 JJoth influence with potential energy "** 
 
 The ray and motion of yon starry bower. 
 But this our life, the high Benignity 
 
 Breathes without medium, and so fills with love 
 
 That for Himself it yearneth endlessly. 
 And hence thou also hast the power to prove "^ 
 
 Your resurrection, if thou think' st elated 
 
 How man was made by Grod in Eden's grove, 
 When both our primal parents were created." 
 
 CANTO VIII. 
 
 Dante ascends with Beatrice to the sphere of the planet Venus. Anjongst 
 the troop of spirits who greet him here he converses with Charles Martel, 
 King of Hungary, who, after discoursing on the prospects of his descen- 
 dant then alive, explains to him how the influence of the stars was used 
 by God as a means for the advantage of human polity. 
 
 The while the world in pagan error strayed 
 
 It thought that on her epicycle rolled 
 
 Fair Yenus o'er the world her false love rayed. 
 Therefore to her not only did they hold 
 
 Their sacrifices, and their votive cry, ^ 
 
 That ancient people in their error old, 
 But Cupid and Dione honoured high, 
 
 The last her mother, and the first her son, 
 
 And said that he in Dido's lap did lie. 
 And eke from her, with whom my strain's begun, ^^ 
 
 They took the appellation of the star 
 
 Which leading now, now following, wooes the sun. 
 Of my ascent to it I was not 'ware ; 
 
 But of my entrance gave me certainty 
 
 My lady, where I saw her grow more fair. ^* 
 
 And as within the flame a spark we see. 
 
 And as in voices joined a voice we hear. 
 
 If one the tenour keeps, one ranges free, 
 
 Line 2. The epicycle in the Ptolemaic system is the smaller circle in which 
 each planet revolves of its own motion, independent of the greater circle of 
 the spheres, derived from the primum mobile. 
 
 Line 12. Venus being alternately the morning and evening star. " Sweet 
 Hesper- Phosphor, double name, for what is one." Tennyson. 
 
Canto VIII. PARADISE. 289 
 
 So in that light did other lights appear. 
 
 Who in their circle, less or larger, keep, ^^ 
 
 According to the eternal light they share. 
 From a cold cloud the winds would never sweep. 
 
 Or visible or not so to the eyne. 
 
 But slow and hindered they would seem to creep 
 To one who had beheld those lights divine 25 
 
 Coming towards ns, as they leave the wheel 
 
 Begun before, 'midst higher seraphim : 
 And after them who first appeared did peal 
 
 Hosanna, so that ever since to hear 
 
 That sound again the yearning do I feel. ^° 
 
 Thence one amongst them unto us drew near, 
 
 And thus began alone : " To thy desire 
 
 We all are ready for thy joyaunce here. 
 We turn with heavenly princedoms in our choir, 
 
 With them one circling motion, one resolve, ^ 
 
 To whom thou in the world didst tune thy lyre ; 
 Ye, who with knowledge the third Heaveyi revolve : 
 
 We are so full of love, for thy delight 
 
 Some pause no less of sweetness will involve." 
 After my eyes with reverence did invite *^ 
 
 Permission of my lady, who replied 
 
 With look that gave them certainty of right. 
 They turned unto the light who such a wide 
 
 Promise had offered, and, " Who are ye, say !" 
 
 With great affection by my voice was cried. " 
 
 Brighter and clearer did I see him ray 
 
 By the new joyousness which o'er him grew 
 
 When to his joyousness I thus did say : 
 Embellished thus he told me, " Years but few 
 
 The world possessed me ; had they longer been ^'^ 
 
 Much ill had been not which must now accrue. 
 It is my gladness which conceals my mien, 
 
 And hides me from thee as it rays around. 
 
 Like creature swathed in its own silken sheen. 
 
 Line 21. As eacli, according to his deserts, shares more or less o£ the 
 Divine vision. 
 
 Line 37. ''Voi oh' "intendendo il terzo ciel movete." The first line in 
 Dante's first canzone in the " Convito." 
 
 Line 40. The speaker is Charles Martel, crowned King of Hungary, and 
 son of Charles II. , King of Naples and Sicily, before whom he died. His 
 brother Robert succeeded to his father, whose evil reign Charles Martel's 
 longer life would have prevented. He visited Florence in 1295, where he 
 appears to have won the goodwill of Dante, and his present place iu 
 Paradise. 
 
 U 
 
290 PARADISE. Canto VIII. 
 
 Well didst thou love me, and for this hadst ground . *^ 
 
 Had I lived longer, I to thee had shown 
 
 More than the leaves, how much did love abound. 
 That country on the left, laved by the Rhone 
 
 When mingled with the Sorza it doth hie. 
 
 Looked for the time when I should mount its throne : ^ 
 And fair Ausonia's horn, where studded lie 
 
 Bari, Gaeta, and Crotona's town, 
 
 From where the Trente to the sea doth fly. 
 Already shone upon my brow the crown 
 
 O' the country where the Danube slips away ®* 
 
 When from its German banks 'tis glided down ; 
 And fair Trinacria, which above the bay 
 
 Betwixt Pachinus and Pelorus, (where 
 
 Eurus for ever holds his stormy sway,) 
 Glooms with the steaming sulphur in the air, ^® 
 
 Not by Typhosus, still would kings await 
 
 Sprung from my loins, to Charles and Eodolph heir. 
 If evil ruling, which makes desperate 
 
 The subject people, had not roused the cry 
 
 Of Death still Death, within Palermo's gate. '* 
 
 And if my brother would but this descry. 
 
 To save his people from the biting greed 
 
 Of Catalonian harpies he would fly^: 
 For truly it behoveth him to heed, 
 
 By him or others, that his vessel's freight ** 
 
 With load on load be not sunk down indeed. 
 His nature from free stock degenerate 
 
 Has need of such a ministry, whose zeal 
 
 Would never strive full coffers to create." 
 " Since I believe the gladness which I feel ** 
 
 Thy speech, my lord, within me sheds abroad, 
 
 Where there begins and ceases every weal 
 
 Line 58. Provence, and in the next terzina Naples, to whicli kingdom lie 
 was lieir. 
 
 Line 67. Sicily, called after its three promontories of Pachinus, Pelorus, 
 and Lilibeus. Etna was supposed to be the burial-place of the giant Typhosus, 
 from which he vomited forth fire and smoke, Ovid, 5 Metam. Eurus per 
 Siculas equitavit undas. Horace, Odes iv., 14, 44. 
 
 Line 75. Alluding to the Sicilian Vespers, where the line of kings descend- 
 ing from Charles I. of Naples, Charles Martel's grandfather, was over- 
 thrown. 
 
 Line 82. Charles Martel accuses his brother Robert of avarice, though the 
 son of a liberal father ; that father, Charles II. of Naples, was con- 
 temptuously branded with the same vice by Hugh Capet, in Canto XX. of 
 " Purgatory," when he accused him of selling his daughter like a pirate his 
 captives. 
 
 Line 85, The joy thy speech causes me is greater, in that theu seest it in 
 XJod, the mirror of truth, and even more in that thou seest it there. 
 
Canto VIII. PARADISE. 291 
 
 By thee is seen, as unto me bestowed, 
 
 It pleases more, and even this is dear, 
 
 That thou discern'st it, gazing upon Grod. ^ 
 
 Thou'st made me joyful, so now make me clear, 
 
 Since from thy words a doubt within doth glide, 
 
 How from sweet seed can issue bitter cheer." 
 This I to him, and he to me replied : 
 
 " If any truth I can to thee dispense, ^^ 
 
 This now behind thee, shall be frontways eyed. 
 God, who this realm thou rangest o'er contents 
 
 Eevolving, in these starry forms doth place 
 
 A power that worketh for His Providence. 
 And not alone within His mind of grace ^^ 
 
 Is every nature in itself foreseen. 
 
 But all things that their safety doth embrace. 
 For every shaft shot forth from Heaven's serene 
 
 Falleth prepared to some concerted end, 
 
 As to its mark wings straight the arrow keen. ^^^ 
 
 Were this not so, o' the Heavens where thou dost wend 
 
 Every effect such weakness would inherit 
 
 That not to art but ruin would they tend. 
 Nor might this be, unless each guiding spirit 
 
 That moves these stars deficient were and frail, "" 
 
 And God deficient making their demerit. 
 Wouldst thou this truth even yet more clearly hail ?'* 
 
 And I ; " No more : it is impossible 
 
 That Nature in such work of need should fail.'* 
 Whence he again : " Now tell me, were it well "* 
 
 For man on earth were he not citizen ?" 
 
 ** Surely," I answered, *' is no need to tell." 
 " And could it be so if the hive of men 
 
 In difi'erent ways of living did not roam ? 
 
 No, if your master this doth truly ken." ^^^ 
 
 So to the point deducing did he come, 
 
 And then concluded ; " For each different bourn 
 
 Mankind must different qualities assume : 
 Hence one is Solon, one is Xerxes born, 
 
 And one Melchisedek, another he ^^^ 
 
 Who flying in the air his son did mourn. 
 Nature revolving stamps with her decree 
 
 The mortal wax, and well her art hath thriven, 
 
 Though note she takes not of each family. 
 
 Line 120. Aristotle, in his treatise " De Republica." 
 
292 PARADISE. Cakto IX. 
 
 Hence is it Esau differed so in leaven ^^° 
 
 From Jacob, hence did Romulus upspring 
 
 From sire so vile, to Mars his birth was given. 
 Nature begotten to its path would cling 
 
 To the begetter aye in similar guise. 
 
 If not o'ercome by Heaven's foreseeing King. ^^^ 
 
 What was behind is now before thy eyes. 
 
 But still to show the joy thou givest my mind, 
 
 A sequent truth to adorn thee I devise. 
 For ever Nature when she Fate doth find 
 
 Discordant to herself, like other seed ^^" 
 
 Succeedeth not, out of its place designed. 
 And if the world below would only heed 
 
 The sure foundation Nature doth impose. 
 
 By following her mankind would better speed. 
 But ye divert unto Religion's vows • ^*^ 
 
 One who was born to gird on him the blade, 
 
 And one who's apt to preach, as king ye choose : 
 Hence from the path so wide your steps have strayed." 
 
 Line 130. The difference in the nature of men does not spring from their 
 progenitors, but from the influence of the stars, shown even in the case of 
 the twins Esau and Jacob, whose birth, though so nearly simultaneous, was 
 under different astrological influences, the smallest diversity of place being 
 held sufficient to cause a diversity in the working of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 Line 145. An evident sarcasm on the fighting Popes of the Middle Ages. 
 
 CANTO IX. 
 
 The spirit of Charles Martel retires, and Dante is then addressed by Cunizza, 
 the sister of Ezzelino, the tyrant of Romano, who foretells to him certain 
 near events in Italian history. She is followed by Folco, the Provencal 
 poet of Genoa, who informs him that the spirit of the harlot Rahab holds 
 the highest place in their sphere, and inveighs against the Papacy for 
 its neglect of the Holy Land, for which Rahab served so faithfully. 
 
 After thy father Charles, Clemenza pure ! 
 
 Had solved my doubts, he showed to me the fears 
 
 Which his own seed were destined to endure. 
 He told me ; " Speak not, leave the rolling years ;" 
 
 So I can tell thee nothing, but thy right * 
 
 Will after be avenged with justest tears. 
 
 Line 1. Clemenza, daughter of Charles Martel, and second wife to Louis X. 
 of France. The allusion in the following lines is to the usurpation of the 
 kingdom of Apulia by Robert, brother of Charles Martel, to the exclusion of 
 the latter's son Canrobert, avenged afterwards by the misfortunes of the 
 former. 
 
CANTO IX. PARADISE. 293 
 
 And now the visage of that holy light 
 
 Was turned unto its sun, that fills it o'er, 
 
 That good, sufficient all things to requite. 
 Ah, souls deceived, and impious to the core, ^^ 
 
 ^Vho from such largess wrench your hearts away, 
 
 Your brows directing to all idle lore ! 
 And lo ! another splendour came straightway 
 
 Towards me, and with kindling brilliance showed 
 
 Its wish my thirst for knowledge to allay. ^^ 
 
 The eyes of Beatrice o'er me glowed, 
 
 And as the former time of dear assent 
 
 Unto my wish the certainty avowed. 
 " Ah, the deep yearning of my heart prevent, 
 
 blessed spirit !" I cried, " and prove to me ^^ 
 
 1 can reflect on thee my thoughts close pent." 
 On which that light that reached us recently 
 
 From the star's deeps, in which it sang before, 
 Joying in kindness thus continued free. 
 
 ** In that part of the vile Italian shore ^* 
 
 Which midway 'twixt the famed Eialto lies, 
 And where the Brent and Piave their fountains pour, 
 
 Not very high, a little hill doth rise, 
 
 From whence of late a firebrand oft did flit, 
 
 That to that region caused sore miseries. ^^ 
 
 From the same root were born both I and it : 
 Cunizza was I called, and here I shine 
 Because I yielded to this planet's light. 
 
 But in myself I joy, nor e'er repine 
 
 At the reason of my lot, nor it condemn, ^* 
 
 The which your vulgar herd may scarce divine. 
 
 Of this most lustrous and transplendent gem 
 
 Which here beside me doth our Heaven unfold. 
 Great fame remained on earth, nor will it dim 
 
 Line 25. Between Venice and the sources of the Brent and Piave lies the 
 castle of Romano, the lord of which, Ezzelino, famous for his tyrannies, was 
 introduced iu Canto XII. of the " Hell," in the river of blood. The speaker is 
 his sister Cunizza, celebrated for her amorous adventures, having been 
 mistress, amongst others, to Sordello the poet, introduced in Cantos VI. and 
 VII. of the " Purgatory." 
 
 Line 32. The meaning is not that by yielding to the influence of Venus 
 Cunizza won her place in Paradise, which would have been a forestalling of 
 George Sand's famous doctrine on the subject, and curious interpretation of 
 Christ's words to the Magdalen, but that through her failings in this respect 
 she obtained no higher sphere, which, however, according to the laws of 
 Paradise, can now cause her no regret. 
 
 Line 37. Folco, the Provengal poet, born at Genoa, to whom Dante here 
 promised a reputation that should last five hundred years. It has lasted 
 longer in his poem. 
 
^94 PARADISE Canto IX. 
 
 Until a hundred years five times have rolled : *" 
 
 See if mankind onght not for worth to strive 
 
 So that another life the first may hold. 
 But thinks not thus the present human hive, 
 
 Which Tagliamento and Adige inclose, 
 
 Nor for their punishment their sins they shrive. ^^ 
 
 But soon will Padua in her mortal throes 
 
 Crimson the water which Vincenza laves, 
 
 Because her sons to right were ever foes. 
 And where the Sile joins Cagnano's waves 
 
 One lords it, and now goes with head on high, ^^ 
 
 Whom to enmesh the net even now one weaves. 
 Feltro will also weep the infamy 
 
 Of its own impious pastor, never once 
 
 In Malta entered crime of such black dye. 
 That tub must hold a very large allowance *^ 
 
 That would receive the Ferrarese's blood. 
 
 And weary work to weigh it ounce by ounce, 
 Which by this courteous priest will be bestowed 
 
 To show his party zeal : the country owns 
 
 Such gifts conformed to its accustomed road. '^^ 
 
 Above are mirrors, powers whom ye call thrones. 
 
 From them God's judgments shine upon our eyes. 
 
 So that my parley only truth intones." 
 Here she grew silent, and became in guise 
 
 Intent on other thoughts, within the wheel, ^ 
 
 Wherein unto her former place she hies. 
 The other joyaunce she did not reveal, 
 
 Became a splendent glory in my sight. 
 
 Like ruby, on the which the sun's rays steal. 
 With gladness there above the face grows bright "^^ 
 
 As with a smile on earth ; in Hell grows black, 
 
 The lost soul's shadow with the mind's despite. 
 ** Thou seest all things in Grod's visual track," 
 
 I cried, " blest spirit, so that no wish springs 
 
 Which to thy keen perception aye can lack. '^^ 
 
 Line 44. The country then called the Marca Trivigiana. 
 
 Line 46. Alluding to the rout of the Paduans by Can Grande della Scala 
 at Vicenza in 1314, which shows that this must have been written after that 
 date. 
 
 Line 49. Riccardo du Camino, who was killed in Trevigi while playing chess. 
 
 Line 52. T^he Bishop of Feltro received, on a promise of protection, several 
 fugitives of Ferrara who had rebelled against the Pope, and gave them up 
 for slaughter. 
 
 Line 54. Malta was the name of the tower built by Cunizzo's brother 
 Ezzelino, in which he confined his prisoners, and subjected them to unheard- 
 of tortures. 
 
 Line 67. The other joyaunce, Folco, the Provengal poet. 
 
Canto IX. PARADISE. 295 
 
 Why then thy Heaven-delighting caroUings, 
 Mixt ever with the song o' the pious fires, 
 Who shroud their faces with six spreading wings, 
 
 Do they not satisfy to my desires ? 
 
 I would not thus have waited thy demand ^^ 
 
 If thy thought thus, as mine, through thee transpires." 
 
 " The greatest vale in which the waters stand," 
 Then his celestial parley he began, 
 *' Except that sea which garlands every land, 
 
 Betwixt discordant shores against the sun ^^ 
 
 Goes on so far, that its meridian 
 With what was erst horizon grow to one. 
 
 I dwelt beside that Mediterranean, 
 
 'Twixt Ebro and the Macra, which divide 
 
 The shores of Genoa from the Tuscan plain. ^'^ 
 
 Rises and sets alike the solar pride 
 
 To Bezza, and the land which was my own. 
 Which with its blood made warm its harbour's tide. 
 
 The people unto whom my name was known 
 
 Did call me Folco, and this Heaven doth bear ^* 
 
 My impress, as in life I bore its own ; 
 
 For burned not ever Belus' daughter fair, 
 Both to Sichaeus and Creusa's shame, 
 Like I, while lasted youth's loose flowing hair. 
 
 Nor she of Rhodope e'er nurst such flame ^^^ 
 
 For her Demophoon, nor Hercules 
 When lole his mighty heart did tame. 
 
 Not that one here repents, one smiles at ease. 
 Not at the fault, that never comes to mind. 
 But at the power that causes and foresees. ^"* 
 
 Here on that art we gaze that hath designed 
 Such deep affection, and the good discern 
 By which your world the path to ours doth find. 
 
 But that each wish with which thou here dost yearn, 
 
 Contented thou mayst carry from this sphere, "'^ 
 
 It needs that somewhat further thou shouldst learn. 
 
 Line 78. The seraphim. Above it stood the seraphim ; each one had six 
 wings. Isaiah vii. 2. 
 
 Line 82. The Mediterranean, largest of all seas except the world-sur- 
 rounding ocean which extends between the shores of Europe and Asia so far 
 eastwards that what was tirst its horizon becomes its meridian. 
 
 Line 91. Genoa and Bezza lie in the same longitude, on the opposite shores 
 of Europe and Africa. The allusion in line 93 is to the naval victory of the 
 Saracens over the Genoese in 93G. 
 
 Line 97- Dido, Sichseus being her former husband, and Creusa Mne&s' 
 former wife. 
 
296 PARADISE. Camto X. 
 
 Thou wouldest know who in this light so near 
 
 Beside me sparkles thus with flame divine, 
 
 Like the sun's ray upon a limpid mere. 
 Now know that there within doth tranquil shine "^ 
 
 The soul of Eahab, to our order wed, 
 
 Is sealed her impress in the highest line. 
 Unto this Heaven, the last to which hath sped 
 
 The shadow of your world, ere any soul, 
 
 From Hell by Christ triumphant was she led. ^^^ 
 
 Well did it fit such trophy to enrol 
 
 In any Heaven, for the conquest high, 
 
 Won by His nailed hands to the Cross's dole. 
 Because she favoured the first victory 
 
 Of Joshua, entering on that holy land, ^^ 
 
 Which little wins the Papal memory. 
 The city, which by him doth planted stand. 
 
 Who first did turn his back to his Maker's power, 
 
 And from whose envy every grief has wonned, • 
 Produces and spreads wide the accursed flower ^^" 
 
 Which now has scattereth wide both lambs and sheep. 
 
 And turned to a wolf the shepherd at this hour. 
 For this the Evangelists they no more keep, 
 
 Nor the great Doctors, the Decretals solely 
 
 Are studied, as is proved by margins deep. ^^ 
 
 The Pope and Cardinals these have studied wholly : 
 
 Their thoughts to Nazareth ne'er take their flight, 
 
 Where opened G-abriel his pinions holy. 
 But the Vatican, and every chosen site 
 
 In Eome, which now a burial-place we see "® 
 
 Of militants who fought good Peter's fight, 
 From such adultery will soon be free." 
 
 Line 130. The gold florin of Florence stamped with a lily. 
 
 Line 134. The I)ecretals,or Canonical law, deeply studied, as their annotated 
 margins show, for a means of human advancement. 
 
 Line 139. Alluding either to the death of his pet Pope, Boniface VIII., 
 author of the sixth Decretal, or to the transfer of the holy see to Avignon. 
 
 CANTO X. 
 
 They ascend to the sphere of the sun, the fourth Heaven, where they are 
 surrounded by a garland of twelve blessed spirits. One of these, Thomas 
 Aquinas, names the rest to Dante. 
 
 CrAziNG upon the Son he loves so well 
 
 With love which each breathes forth eternally, 
 The Father, primal and ineffable, 
 
Canto X. PARADISE. 297 
 
 Whatever by the mind or sight we see, 
 
 Makes with such order that without delight ^ 
 
 Of him who looks on it it cannot be. 
 With me, O reader, then lift up thy sight 
 
 Straight to those lofty spheres unto that part 
 
 Where on one motion doth another smite. 
 And there commence thy raj^ture in the art ^^ 
 
 Of the great Master, who so loves His work 
 
 That never from it doth His eye depart. 
 Behold how from that point doth springing fork 
 
 The line oblique on which the planets go 
 
 To satisfy the world which claims their work. ^^ 
 
 And if their path were not thus twisted so 
 
 Much virtue in the Heavens would be in vain. 
 
 And almost every power be dead below. 
 And if or more or less it were to gain 
 
 From the straight path than now, would greatly fail ^* 
 
 In earth and Heaven the world's pre-ordered train. 
 Rest on thy bench now, reader, and regale 
 
 In thought on the feast to which I thee invite, 
 
 Wouldst thou no weariness through joyaunce feel. 
 Tve placed the food before thee, taste aright, ^* 
 
 Since to itself recalleth all my care 
 
 The matter which I purposed to indite. 
 Of Nature the most powerful minister. 
 
 Which dowers the world with virtue of the sky, 
 
 And with His light the time doth meting share, ^" 
 
 Joined to that station, now to memory 
 
 Eecalled, was rolling on His spires in air, 
 
 So that each day was born more rapidly ; 
 And I was with Him : of my journey there 
 
 I had known nothing any more than man ^* 
 
 Whence his first thought had travelled is aware. 
 
 Line 9. Where the general motion of the spheres strikes against the 
 particular motion of each planet, which repercussion is supposed, according 
 to Dante's system, to be strongest at the junction of the zodiac and equi- 
 noctial line, because each motion is then at its greatest velocity from being 
 at the greatest distance from the poles. Such is Venfcuri's ingenious expla- 
 nation. 
 
 Line 19. If the line of the zodiac were less or more oblique than it is the 
 seasons would not be divided so happily as they now are. 
 
 Line 28. The sun was in the above-mentioned intersection of the zodiac 
 and equinoctial lines after the vernal equinox, when every day it rises earlier. 
 
 Line 36. I have here adopted Venturi's interpretation. Mr. Gary translates 
 the passage : " Thus a man is aware of his arrival before his first thought on 
 it." The text will bear both meanings, but the last loses an original con- 
 ception. 
 
298 PARADISE. Canto X. 
 
 Ah ! Beatrice, she who ever ran 
 
 From good to better with such sudden flight 
 
 That Time her action never yet could scan, 
 How needed now that she should grow more bright ! *^ 
 
 What, entering in the sun, was seen by me, 
 
 Not as a colour, but apparent light. 
 Genius, art, practice could I summon free, 
 
 To fancy's eyesight I could never show, 
 
 One can believe alone, and long to see. *^ 
 
 And if our fantasies indeed are low 
 
 To such a height no marvel this I ween, , 
 
 For o'er the sun no eye did ever go. 
 Here the great Sire's fourth family was seen. 
 
 To whom the sight of His Begotten Son *" 
 
 And Spirit proceeding aye gives joy serene. 
 " Now thank, O thank," thus Beatrix begun, 
 
 " The angel's sun, who by His grace has reared 
 
 Thee to such sensible perception." 
 Sure mortal heart was never so prepared ** 
 
 For prayer, and never sought so yearningly 
 
 Wholly to yield itself to God all bared. 
 As at those words of holy counsel, I, 
 
 And so my love on Him was fixt ; it e'en 
 
 Eclipsed my Beatrix in memory. ®" 
 
 It vexed her not : thereat she smiled serene, 
 
 So that the splendour of her smiling eyes 
 
 My centered mind recalled to the outward scene. 
 There many clear, surpassing brilliances 
 
 I saw make us the centre of their crown, ^* 
 
 Even sweeter in their voice than clear in guise. 
 Thus do we sometimes see around the moon 
 
 A halo, where so pregnant is the air 
 
 It can retain the light that makes the zone. 
 Within the court of Heaven, whence I repair, '^^ 
 
 Such that they cannot from that realm be brought, 
 
 Are found a store of jewels rich and fair. 
 Such must the song of those pure lights be thought : 
 
 Who hath not plumage for a heavenward flight, 
 
 By him the account from silence must be sought. ""^ 
 
 When singing thus, those suns so burning bright, 
 
 Three times had moved in circle us around. 
 
 Like stars that wheel close round the polar light, 
 
 Line 49. The spirits of tbe fourth Heaven. 
 
Canto X. PARADISE. 299 
 
 Thej seemed like ladies to the dance still bound, 
 
 But who, in silence while their dance they cease, *^ 
 
 Listen to gather the new burden's sound. 
 And one of them I heard begin : " Of grace, 
 
 Since the pure ray of love its light doth gain, 
 
 Which afterwards by loving doth increase, 
 Within thee multiplied so shines amain ^ 
 
 That it conducts thee upwards by this stair, 
 
 Which none descends who will not climb again, 
 Who to thy thirst the wine of his flask to share 
 
 Would fain deny, possesses such a power 
 
 As water, that to ocean must repair. ^^ 
 
 Thou wouldest know what plants are those that flower 
 
 Around this garland that wooes lovingly 
 
 The lady fair that wins thee Heaven as dower. 
 One of the lambs of the holy flock was I 
 
 Which Dominic along the path leads right, ^^ 
 
 Where well they thrive who're free from vanity. 
 He who stands nearest to me on the right 
 
 Was erst my master, Albert of Cologne, 
 
 And I am Thomas of Aquinum hight. 
 If thou wouldst all the others should be known ^^ 
 
 As I describe them let thy sight the while 
 
 Around the blessed garland circling wonne. 
 That other flaming issues from the smile 
 
 Of Gratian, who gave joy in Paradise 
 
 When either forum he did reconcile. ^^^ 
 
 He who the next doth in our chorus rise 
 
 Was Peter, he who with the widow gave 
 
 His treasure to the Church as benefice. 
 The fifth light, and the fairest which we have. 
 
 Such love inspires that all the world below ^^^ 
 
 Of his soul's doom to learn the tidings crave. 
 Within it is that light wherein doth glow 
 
 Knowledge so deep that if the truth be true 
 
 No second ever rose so much to know. 
 
 Line 80. In those days the performance consisted of dance and song united, 
 to which ballata, as it was called, Dante compares the choral circlings of his 
 spirits in Paradise. 
 
 Line 94. The speaker is Thomas Aquinas, of the Dominican order. 
 
 Line 104. Gratian of Chiusi, another Benedictine monk, who reconciled the 
 canon and civil law by his compilation of the Decretals. 
 
 Line 107- Pietro Lombardo, who commenced his " Liber Sententiarum" 
 by comparing it to the two mites offered by the poor widow to the treasury. 
 
 Lino 109. Solomon, concerning whom in the Middle Ages it was a common 
 question whether his soul was saved or not. 
 
300 PARADISE. Canto X. 
 
 Next him that taper's splendour thou dost view, "* 
 
 Who, while in flesh, the most did penetrate 
 The angelic nature and their ministering crew. 
 
 He, of the Christian temples advocate, 
 Smileth within that other little light. 
 From whom Augustus borrowed stores of weight. ^^^^ 
 
 Now if thou passest o'er thy mental sight 
 
 From flame to flame behind mj praises due, 
 Already on the eighth thy thirst doth light. 
 
 Of every good rejoiceth in the view 
 
 The holy soul, who the fallacious world ^^* 
 
 Made clear to all who hear his teaching true. 
 
 His body, whence by violence 'twas hurled. 
 Lies in Cieldauro, this from martyrdom 
 And exile came unto this peaceful world. 
 
 Behold, beyond the ardent spirits loom ^^ 
 
 Of Isidore, and Bede, and Richard too. 
 Who in the power of thought past mortal doom. 
 
 This, where thy gaze returns to me anew, 
 
 Is splendour of a soul whose thoughts of bliss 
 
 Made death seem tardy in his longing view. ^^* 
 
 The eternal light of Sigisbert is this. 
 
 Who, reading deep at Paris, in Straw Street, 
 Truths against envy well did syllogise." 
 
 Then, like a clock which doth the hour repeat. 
 
 What time the bride of God with joy doth rise, "® 
 
 The spouse she loves with matin song to greet, 
 
 That one part with the other rolls and flies. 
 
 Sounding its chiming bells with such sweet tone, 
 It fills the pious soul with loving sighs, 
 
 So did I see that glorious wheel move on, "* 
 
 In harmony so mingling voice with voice, 
 And sweetness, such as never can be known 
 
 Save there, where one for ever will rejoice. 
 
 Line 115. Dionysius the Areopagite, author of the mystical works " De 
 Cselesti Hierarchia," from which Dante borrowed his scheme of the celestial 
 hierarchy. 
 
 Line 118. Supposed to be Paulus Orosius, a father of the fifth century. 
 
 Line 125. Boetius, author of the work " De Consolatione Philosophiap," 
 here alluded to, and put to death by command of Theodoric. He was buried 
 in a monastery in Pavia called Ciel d'Oro. 
 
 Line 131, The Venerable Bede is known as an Englishman. It is not worth 
 while to occupy space by copying from the Commentaries notices of the 
 remainder of these forgotten fathers of the Church. 
 
 Line 140. The Church, the spouse of Christ. 
 
Canto XI. PARADISE. 301 
 
 CANTO XI. 
 
 When the spirits of the fathers of the Church again come to a pause 
 St. Thomas says that he has seep, in God's mirror two difficulties which 
 have ariaea iti Dante's mind. To solve the first he relates in glory of the 
 founder of his own order, St. Dominic, the life of his great rival, 
 St. Francis, and concludes by pointing out how the Dominicans have 
 departed from the self-denying rules of their order. 
 
 O IDLE objects for whicli mortals care, 
 
 How are defective all the syllogisms 
 
 Whicli ever down to earth thy pinions bear ! 
 One after laws, one after aphorisms 
 
 Was searching, one on priesthood was intent, * 
 
 And one to rule by force, and one by schisms, 
 And one to rob, one lawsuits to invent, 
 
 One wallowing in his sensual delight 
 
 G-rew sated, one on slothful ease was bent, 
 While I, from all these things delivered quite, ^^ 
 
 With Beatrice soared to Heaven's high sphere. 
 
 There to be greeted with such welcome bright. 
 After that each to his former post drew near 
 
 Within the circle ; motionless he shone 
 
 Like candle burning in a chandelier, ^* 
 
 And I perceived within that beaming one 
 
 Which first had parleyed with me, with a smile, 
 
 Discourse commence, in light more lucid grown. 
 " As from his ray I gather light the while 
 
 On the eternal splendour gazing fair, 20 
 
 Thy thoughts I apprehend, and whence they file. 
 Thou doubtest, and dost wish me to explain 
 
 With words that clearly, fully may arrive 
 
 To make my saying all before thee plain. 
 Both where I said before, * where well they thrive,' ^^ 
 
 And where thou heard'st, * no second ever rose,' 
 
 And here for clear distinction must we strive. 
 The Providence which doth the world dispose 
 
 With counsel, into which all mortal sight 
 
 Is lost, or ere unto its deeps it goes, ^ 
 
 That she might walk towards her own delight. 
 
 That bride of God (which with His blessed blood 
 
 He spoused when on the Cross He cried with might), 
 
 Line 25. See lines 96 and 114 of the last Canto. 
 
 Line 31. The two guides chosen for Christ's bride, the Church, are 
 St. Francis and St. Dominic, the founders of the two great orders. 
 
302 PARADISE. Canto XI. 
 
 Safe in lierself, and with His faith endued, 
 
 Two chiefs in her behalf did God endow, ^^ 
 
 Who on each side should guide her on the road. 
 One was seraphic in his ardent glow, 
 
 The other by his wisdom was on earth 
 
 A splendour of the light which cherubs know. 
 Of one will I now speak, because.the worth *^ 
 
 Of each is told, whichever one we take, 
 
 Since for one need the deeds of both had birth. 
 Between Tupino and the streams that break 
 
 Falling from blest Ubaldo's chosen hill, 
 
 A fertile slope hangs from the mountain peak ** 
 
 Prom whence both heat and cold Peruge doth feel 
 
 By Porta Sole, while behind their yoke 
 
 Gualdo with Nocera are wailing still. 
 Prom that fair mountain side where the steep rock 
 
 Is sloped upon the world, was born a sun, ^ 
 
 As this has often o'er the Granges broke. 
 Therefore whoe'er this place by words makes known 
 
 Let him no more Assisi curtly say, 
 
 But be it styled henceforth the East alone. 
 Par from its rising had not reached his day ^ 
 
 Ere he began to make the earth perceive 
 
 Some comfort in his mighty virtue's ray, 
 Por while a youth, although his father grieve. 
 
 He chose his lady, as to Death, the door 
 
 Of Pleasure ne'er to her doth entrance give : ®* 
 
 And there the bishop's spiritual court before, 
 
 JEt corum patre, he to her was wed. 
 
 After from day to day he loved her more. 
 She, of her former husband long bestead 
 
 A thousand years and more, despised and poor, ^ 
 
 Till this one came was unsolicited, 
 Nor 'vailed it aught that she was found secure 
 
 Beside Amyclas when she heard the voice 
 
 Which shook with fear the world, nor brave to endure, 
 
 Line 43. A description of the birthplace of St. Francis, bom at Assisi, 
 between the rivulets of Tupino and Chiasi. Ubaldo was a saint of the Middle 
 Ages. 
 Line 48. Gualdo and Nocera were tributaries of Perugia. 
 Line 68. Alluding to the lines in Luean's "Pharsalia," lib. v., where 
 Caesar, amidst the tumults of war, finds the fisherman Amyclas secure with 
 poverty 4 — 
 
 "0 vitse tuta facultas 
 Pauperis, angustique Lares ! O munera nondum 
 Intellecta Deum ! quibus hoc contingere templis, 
 Aut potuit muris, nuUo trepidare tumultu, 
 Casarea pulsante manu ?" 
 
Canto XI. PARADISE. 303 
 
 Availed her constant courage even in loss, ^^ 
 
 So that when Mary mother wept below 
 She took her place with Christ upon the Cross. 
 But that too far my riddle should not go, 
 Francis and poverty, those lovers true, 
 Henceforth through this description thou mayst know. ^* 
 Their concord, and their guise of joyful hue, 
 
 Their love, their marvel, and their tender gaze. 
 Were cause of holy thoughts in all who view, 
 So that the venerable Bernard lays 
 
 His sandals by the first, and for such peace ^ 
 
 Hasteth, and hasting thinks that he delays, 
 O wealth unknown ! good of sure increase ! 
 Egidius and Sylvester bare their feet 
 Behind that bridegroom, so the bride doth please. 
 Thence journeys on that sire and master sweet, ^* 
 
 Leading his lady and that family. 
 Who gird the rope already, symbol meet, 
 Nor shame of heart did make him droop his eye 
 That he was Pietro Bernardone's son, 
 Despised by those who watched him wonderingly. ^ 
 
 But king-like he his rule austere made known 
 To Innocent, and at his hand received 
 The signet first to his religion won. 
 Then, when the lowly people who believed 
 
 Eiound him increased, his marvellous renown . ^* 
 
 In Heavenly glory well in song is weaved. 
 The eternal spirit with a second crown 
 
 Through Pope Honorius did his scheme illume, 
 Upon the patriarch's holy wish rained down. 
 And afterwards by thirst of martyrdom, ^"° 
 
 Within the presence of the Soldan's pride, 
 He preached of Christ and those who with Him come. 
 And when unripe that people he descried 
 For their conversion, not to stay in vain 
 To pluck Italian fruitage back he hied. ^^^ 
 
 'Twixt Tiber and the Arno of Christ slain 
 The signet he received upon the hill. 
 Until his death two years the marks remain. 
 When unto him who did such grace instil 
 
 It pleased to bear him upwards to the meed "*^ 
 
 Which he had conquered by his humble will, 
 
 Liae 106. On the hill of Alvernia St. Francis is stated, according to the 
 legend, to have received the stigmata, or marks of Christ's wounds on his 
 hands and feet. The reception of the stigmata^ was a favourite subject with 
 early artists. 
 
304 PARADISE. Canto XII. 
 
 Unto his brethren, as his heirs, the heed 
 
 He recommended of his lady dear, 
 
 That they with faith should love her he decreed. 
 Then from his bosom sought his spirit clear ""^ 
 
 To soar aloft, returning to his reign, 
 
 And for his body asked no other bier. 
 Think henceforth to what height he must attain 
 
 Deemed his fit colleague to support the bark 
 
 Of Peter, struggling in the stormy main. ^^'^ 
 
 And this one was our own blest patriarch. 
 
 Then whoso follows him as he commands 
 
 A worthy meed doth bear thou well mayst mark. 
 But his own flock grown gluttonous, demands 
 
 New provender, or else they now would not ^^^ 
 
 In diverse pastures spread o'er all the lands. 
 And aye so much the more his sheep remote 
 
 From their own fold in wandering spirit go, 
 
 More milkless they return unto the cote. 
 In truth there still are some who fear their woe ^^^ 
 
 And cling unto their shepherd, but so few 
 
 A little cloth would make them cowls enow. 
 Now if my words are not obscure to you, 
 
 If in thy audience thoa hast been intent. 
 
 If what I've said thou dost in mind review, ^^* 
 
 Thy wish in part by this is made content. 
 
 Because thou'lt see the plant from which they fly, 
 
 And the rebuke within my argument, 
 ' Where they thrive well if free from vanity.' " 
 
 Line 117- He is said to have refused all pomp at his funeral, and directed 
 that he should be buried with the common malefactors. 
 
 Line 121. St. Dominic, of whose order Thomas Aquinas was a member. 
 
 Line 137. The plant is the rule of the order, from which so many of the 
 modern Dominicans went astray. 
 
 CANTO XII. 
 
 As St. Thomas ceases speaking, a second circle of twelve blessed spirits 
 surrounds the first. One of these, St. Buenaventura, relates to Dante 
 the life of St. Dominic, and then regrets the decay of his own Franciscan 
 order. He then names the twelve spirits who compose the outer wreath, 
 newly arrived. 
 
 Soon as the blessed flame, the latest sound 
 Of that oration from its lips let fall, 
 The holy millstone 'gan to wheel around : 
 
Canto XII. PAEADISE. 305 
 
 Nor had it gone around its circle all, 
 
 Before another ring did round it close, ^ 
 
 And step on step, and song on song did call : 
 
 Song, that as far above our Muses rose, 
 Our sirens in their sweetest melody. 
 As light o'er the reflected rays it throws. 
 
 As circle through a vaporous cloud on high ^^ 
 
 Two rainbows parallel and like in hue, 
 When Juno bids her handmaid deck the sky. 
 
 The outer from the inner springs to view, 
 
 As sprang the echo from the beauteous maid 
 
 Whom love^consumed, as does the sun the dew : *^ 
 
 And show the people upon earth, arrayed 
 
 That sign of pact, which Grod to Noah sware, 
 That never more should floods the earth invade : 
 
 So, of those sempiternal roses there 
 
 Circled around us the bright garlands twain, ^^ 
 
 And so the one to the other answered fair. 
 
 What time that merriment, and festal train, 
 
 Both from their song, and from their flaming brand. 
 Each light with light, rejoicing and serene, 
 
 Together at one point in quiet stand ; ^^ 
 
 (Just like the eyes which at one's pleasure move, 
 Must close and ope together at command ;) 
 
 From the heart of one of those new flames of love 
 Issued a voice, like needle to the star 
 My being to its presence did it move : ^^ 
 
 And it began : " The love which makes me fair, 
 Prompts me to tell thee of that other guide. 
 For whom, of mine was told the merit rare. 
 
 Fitly does one stand by the other's side. 
 
 Since, as they both for the same object strove, ^^ 
 
 So now together shines their glory's pride. 
 
 The host of Christ that cost so dear to love 
 To furnish with their panoply again. 
 Behind their standard, slow and scattered move : 
 
 What time the Emperor, who aye doth reign, *^ 
 
 Provideth his militia in their stress. 
 Not for their worth, but of his grace so fain : 
 
 Line 14. An allusion to the story of the nymph Echo, consumed by her 
 love for Narcissus. As she echoes sounds, so one rainbow echoes the other. 
 The prodigality of illustration in this passage constitutes its only difficulty. 
 
 Line 31. The speaker is a Franciscan, who in return for Thomas Aquinas' 
 glorification of his master St. Francis, proclaims the praises of St. Dominic. 
 Baonaventura, though a Fi-anciscan monk, became a Cardinal and Minister- 
 General, to which dignities he afterwards alludes. 
 
 X 
 
306) PARADISE. Cakto XII. 
 
 And as was told thee now, his bride to bless • 
 
 Gave champions twain, whose council and emprise 
 
 The hosts so widely scattered would redress. "** 
 
 Within that region where the zephyrs rise 
 
 To ope new budding leaves with kisses sweet. 
 Whence Europe issues clad in vernal dyes. 
 
 Not very far from where the sea waves beat, 
 
 Behind the which, in a long track of flame, ^^ 
 
 At times the sun from all men hides his heat, 
 
 Lies Callaroga, town of blessed name, 
 
 'Neath the protection of the mighty shield. 
 Whose arms two lions and two castles claim. 
 
 Within that amorous lover was revealed *^ 
 
 O' the Christian faith, that holy athlete strong, 
 Kind to his own, and to his enemies steeled. 
 
 And as he was created, so did throng 
 The living virtue in his mind, ere born 
 He made his mother prophesy. Ere long ®® 
 
 When finally were the'espousals sworn 
 
 'Twixt him and Faith, before the holy fount, 
 Where mutual safety each in dower had borne ; 
 
 She, who assented there on his account, 
 
 Beheld the wonderful result in dream ^* 
 
 Which would from him and his successors mount : 
 
 And as in fact, that he might be in name, 
 
 The spirit moved her hence his name to take 
 From that possessive which filled all his frame. 
 
 Dominicus was he called ; of him I speak ^" 
 
 As of the skilful husbandman whom Christ 
 Chose for His garden, as a helpmate meek. 
 
 Well did he seem familiar friend of Christ, 
 
 Since the first love which in the child was shown, 
 
 Was for the one chief counsel told by Christ. ^* 
 
 Oft by his nurse was he discovered thrown. 
 Wakeful in silent prayer, upon the ground, 
 As though he said, * I've come for this alone.' 
 
 Line 46. In Spain, the birthplace of St. Dominic, Callaroga being in 
 Castile. 
 
 Line 60. Before he was born his mother dreamed that she wonld be 
 delivered of a black and white dog with a burning torch in his mouth, the 
 former prefiguring the future dress of his order, and the latter his fiery zeal. 
 
 Line 65. His godmother dreamed that the child had a star on his fore- 
 head and another at the back of his head, illuminating the East and West. 
 
 Line 69. He was called Dominicus, the Latin possessive of Dominus. 
 
Canto XII. PARADISE. 307 
 
 Truly his father was a Felix found ! 
 
 Truly his mother bore Giovanna's name, ^^ 
 
 If right they tell the meaning of that sound. 
 Not for the world, for which men toil with shame. 
 
 Following Taddeo's and Ostiensi's lore, 
 
 But the true manna loving, he became 
 In briefest time a doctor learned galore, ^* 
 
 So that he set himself to trench the vine, 
 
 Which idly tended soon grows wan and poor. 
 And at the seat, of old far more benign 
 
 To righteous poor than now, (on it I lay 
 
 No fault, 'tis his who sits there to decline,) '"' 
 
 No dispensation lightly bought, to pray, 
 
 Not to make interest for a vacant berth, 
 
 Non decimas, quce sunt paujoerum Dei, 
 Were his to seek, but 'gainst the wandering earth 
 
 Licence to combat for the holy seed, ^^ 
 
 From which these four-and-twenty plants had birth. 
 Then armed with doctrine, and delight in deed, 
 
 On his apostleship he moved along 
 
 Like torrent rushing from a lofty head : 
 And on the trunks of Heresy h.& swung, ^"^ 
 
 With impetus more lively on the land 
 
 Where most he found opposed resistance strong. 
 After from him were various streamlets drained 
 
 Watering the garden Catholic so fair, 
 
 So that its trees in living beauty stand. ^^^ 
 
 If such was one wheel of that two- wheeled car 
 
 In which the holy Church her combat made. 
 
 And conquered in the field of civil war, 
 Clearly and well before thee is displayed 
 
 The other's excellence, with courtesies "^ 
 
 Which Thomas ere I came did now parade. 
 But the track's orbit, which of old did please 
 
 That wheel to follow, is no longer trod. 
 
 That now is mouldiness where erst were lees. 
 His family, that once straightforward strode ""^ 
 
 Upon his footsteps, is so turned away, 
 
 That backwards many now retrace their road. 
 
 Line 80. Giovanna is interpreted Grace, tlie gift of the Lord. 
 
 Line 83. Taddeo was a lawyer of Bologna, and Ostiensi a Cardinal who 
 ■j^ote a commentary on the Decretals. 
 
 Line 93. Not the tenths, which belong to the poor of God. 
 
 Line 112. The rule of the order founded by the other wheel of the car, 
 St. Francis, which is now neglected by his followers. 
 
130 
 
 308 PARADISE, Canto XIII. 
 
 And soon of sncli bad culture shall we see 
 
 The harvest, when the tares are brought to count, 
 
 And wail, thrust outwards from the barn for aye. ^'^ 
 
 Certes I say, who leaf by leaf will hunt 
 
 Our volume through, some single page may find 
 Where he will read, * I am, as I was wont.* 
 
 But not Casal's nor Acquasparta's kind. 
 
 Where they who come the Scripture construe so, ^^^ 
 
 That one doth loose, and one too strict doth bind. 
 
 Buenaventura's life within me know, 
 
 From Bagnoreggio, in high place austere 
 All objects sinister I thrust below. 
 
 Illuminate, Agostino here, 
 
 Were 'mongst the first of the barefooted poor 
 Who with their cord to God became so dear. 
 
 Hugh of San Victor, Pietro Mangiador, 
 
 Are with them here, and Pietro he of Spain, 
 
 Who shines below in twelve books' learned lore. ^^^ 
 
 Nathan the Prophet, Metropolitan 
 
 Chrysostom, Anselm, and Donate who 
 
 To the first art to place his hand did deign. 
 
 Eaban is here, beside him shines in view 
 
 The Abbot of Calabria, Joachin, "** 
 
 Whom God with power prophetic did endue. 
 
 To chant the praise of such high Paladin 
 Excited me the flaming courtesy 
 Of Friar Thomas and his speech serene. 
 
 And with me moved all this brave company." "^ 
 
 Line 124. These two were Ministers- General of the Franciscan order, the 
 first of whom relaxed its rules into licence, and the latter confined them too 
 stringently. 
 
 Line 130. Early Franciscan monks ; those whose names follow are chiefly 
 forgotten divines, whose personalities it is not worth while to trace from the 
 Commentaries. 
 
 Line 138. Donato wrote a treatise on grammar. 
 
 CANTO XIII. 
 
 The two circlse of beatified saints join in a chorus of praise to God. Thomas 
 Aquinas then explains the other difficulty, which his words concerning 
 Solomon had raised in Dante's mind, adding that his superiority over all 
 men in wisdom extended only to kings. He closes by warning Dante 
 against rash judgments. 
 
Canto XIII. PARADISE. 309 
 
 Let him imagine who desires to know 
 
 What then I saw (the image, too, retain 
 
 Like firm- set rock, the while in words I show), 
 
 Fifteen fair stars, which in its wide domain 
 
 The Heavens enkindle, that they overray ^ 
 
 The vastest sweep of air with light serene. 
 
 Let him imagine the bright wain, alway 
 
 That in the bosom of our Heaven doth burn, 
 Revolving round its axle night and day, 
 
 Let him imagine of the brilliant horn ^^ 
 
 The summit, which points straightway to the Pole, 
 Round which the first wheel evermore doth turn, 
 
 In Heaven as two new constellations roll. 
 Like Ariadne, who in stars did blaze 
 What time she felt the chill of death's control : ^^ 
 
 And one with the other mingle so their rays. 
 
 Each within each their circles gliding through, 
 That one still wendeth as the other strays ; 
 
 And he will have some shadow of the true 
 
 Bright constellation, and the double dance ^ 
 
 That round me there aye circled in my view ; 
 
 Though it transcendeth more mere human glance 
 Than passeth Chiana's slowly- gliding stream 
 The sky that swiftest whirls the Heaven's expanse. 
 
 No Bacchic song they sing, no pa3an frame, ^^ 
 
 But Persons Three in nature all Divine, 
 And in one substance God and man the same. 
 
 Their song they close, their measure cease to twine, 
 And draw around us there those holy lights, 
 Each service adding to the bliss they shrine. ^^ 
 
 Then silence broke 'midst those accordant sprites 
 The flame, by whom was told the wondrous life 
 Of that meek pauper whom God now requites. 
 
 He told me : " When the flail has threshed one sheaf, 
 
 And when the gathered grain is laid aside, ^^ 
 
 To the like labour then sweet love is lief. 
 
 Lines 1—21. To understand what follows in the motions of the four-and- 
 twenty saints, one should imagine fifteen of the largest stars in Heaven, the 
 seven of Ursa Major and the two pointers in Ursa Minor, revolving in two 
 circles, formed into new constellations, like Ariadne, thus metamorphosed at 
 her death. 
 
 Line 34. See Canto XI., lines 26 and 27, where Thomas mentioned the two 
 difiiculties which had arisen in Dante's mind, the first of which he then 
 answered, and now turns to the second, roused by his assertion "that no 
 second to Solomon ever rose," Dante being rightly of opinion that Adam 
 and Christ were both superior to him. 
 
310 PARADISE. Canto XIII. 
 
 Thou think' st that in that breast, from which a side 
 Was taken, to create the cheek so fair. 
 Whose craving cost the world such tearful tide, 
 And in that breast, transpierced by the spear, *° 
 
 Which after and before so fully paid. 
 It turned the balance 'gainst all sin and fear, 
 Whate'er on human nature might be laid 
 
 Of wisdom's light, was in completion poured 
 By Grod's high power, who one and the other made. *^ 
 Therefore 'twas thine to marvel at my word 
 When I declared that he no second knew. 
 The worth that in this fifth light is upstored. 
 Now what I answer, ope thy eyes to view, 
 
 And thou wilt see thy thought, and what I tell, ^^ 
 
 Like circle in its centre meet i' the true. 
 All things, eternal and corruptible. 
 
 Must each be spark of that idea, the seed 
 Our Father, loving, generates at will. 
 Because that living Light which doth proceed ^ 
 
 From the Father's shining, and is never known 
 From Him, and from the Triune Spirit freed. 
 By His own bounty sheds His rays adown, 
 Mirrored as 'twere on new existences, 
 Itself eternally remaining one. ^ 
 
 Thence it descends to the lowest potencies. 
 Downwards from act to act declining so. 
 It makes no more than brief contingencies. 
 And these contingencies thou here mayst know 
 
 All generated things, the which unfolds ^ 
 
 With seed, or even without. Heaven's moving flow. 
 The native wax of those, and that which moulds 
 Are not alike, and so each 'neath the seal 
 Ideal, more or less of glory holds : 
 Whence 'tis that trees of the same kind reveal ''^ 
 
 Diversity in fruitage which they bear, 
 And ye your difference of talent feel. 
 Were the wax printed perfectly and clear, 
 And were the skies in influence supreme. 
 The glory of the seal would all appear. '^ 
 
 Line 55. The living Light is the Second Person of the Trinity. 
 
 Line 59. The new existences are angels and human souls j the lowest 
 potencies are the elements and brute matter. 
 
 Line 67^ The native wax is the matter of which all generated things are 
 made ; the seal which stamps it is the particular power that acts thereon. 
 
Canto XIII. 
 
 PARADISE. 311 
 
 But Nature ever makes the process lame, 
 And like an artist aye doth operate 
 With trembling hand that blurs what skill would trame. 
 But if God's warmth of love doth generate ^^ 
 
 Of primal power the vision undefiled, 
 Entire perfection there He doth create. 
 Thus fashioned was that clay, in which was piled 
 ■ Every perfection of mere living man ; 
 
 Thus was the Holy Virgin found with child. ^ 
 
 So I commend thy sentiment as plain, 
 
 That human nature never yet was known, 
 Nor can be, such as in those persons twain. 
 Now if no further had my reasoning gone. 
 
 How then could this one be without a peer ? ^^ 
 
 Thy words in answer would be thus begun. 
 But that what now is hidden may be clear, 
 
 Think who he was, and what his answer bred, 
 When he was told : what wouldst thou ask? declare. 
 Thou well can see from that which I have said ^_^ 
 
 That he was king, who understanding sought, 
 That worthily his kingship might be led. 
 He did not seek to find the number out 
 
 O' the Heavenly motors, nor if aye necesse 
 With a contingency, necesse brought : ^^ 
 
 Non si est dare primum motum esse, 
 Nor if to make triangle not a right 
 From semicircle, were a problem easy. 
 If this, and what I've said, thou mark'st aright, 
 
 That royal prudence, and that ken thou'lt learn . ^^_ 
 
 On which the arrow of my aim did light. 
 And if to that word. Rose, thy eyes dost turn, 
 Thou'lt see it had respect to kings alone, 
 Who' re many, though few good ones we discern. 
 With this distinction be my saying known, 
 
 And thus with what thou thinkest 'twill agree. 
 Of the first man, and Christ our joy alone. 
 
 T.ine 79 Where God Himself creates without the intermediate agency of 
 Nature, as in the cases of Adam and Christ, there must be perfection. 
 
 Line 97 He did not ask questions of curiosity, of logical, metaphysical, or 
 mathematical science, but for wisdom required by a king. 
 
 Line 98. If a necessary premise, joined to a contingent one, produced a 
 nec^SLy consequence, which it does not, as conclusio sequitur debiliorem. 
 
 Line 100. If it is necessary to admit one first motion, which the rule in 
 metaphysics forces one to do, to avoid an ad infinitum. 
 
 Liae 101. If the angle contained in a semicircle can ever be other than a 
 right, which is a mathematical absurdity. 
 
312 PARADISE. Canto XIV • 
 
 And let this to thy feet a dead TN^eight be, 
 
 Like one fatigued to make thee journey slow 
 
 Towards the Yes, or No, thou dost not see. 
 For he amongst the fools is very low, "* 
 
 Who without thought affirmeth, or denies, 
 
 Whether to one or other step he go ; 
 Because it happens that too often flies 
 
 Public opinion into error's part. 
 
 And then its influence the intellect ties. ^^® 
 
 Far worse than idly from the shore doth start, 
 
 Since he returns not such as erst he went, 
 
 Who fishes for the truth, and wants the art. 
 Of this i' the world are proofs most evident, 
 
 Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus, more ^^^ 
 
 Who wandered on, and knew not whither bent. 
 Thus did Sabellus, Arius, and that store 
 
 Of fools, who like to scimitars reflected 
 
 In guise distorted the pure Scripture lore. 
 Let not the people think themselves elected • '^® 
 
 To judge like one who counteth on the corn 
 
 Within his field ere it be ripe. Dejected 
 I have beheld through winter time a thorn 
 
 Its rude repelling aspect show, and bear 
 
 After a rose, upon its top forlorn. ^^^ 
 
 And I have seen a vessel swiftly steer 
 
 Through all its voyage across the ocean stream. 
 
 Perish at last, the harbour's entrance near. 
 Let not Pame Bertha nor Sir Martin deem, 
 
 Because they see one rob, another ptay, ^*^ 
 
 That they can pry within the will supreme ; 
 For one can rise, and one can fall away." 
 
 Line 125. Ancient philosopliers refuted by Aristotle. 
 
 Line 127. Well-known founders of heresies. 
 
 Line 139. Names applied in general to busybodies whose curiosity exceeds 
 their judgment. 
 
 CANTO XIV. 
 
 In answer to Beatrice, the spirit of Solomon explains to Dante that after 
 the final resurrection the blest will resume their glorified bodies now 
 lying on earth. Beatrice and Dante are then translated to the fifth 
 Heaven, the sphere of Mars. There he sees tbe beatified spirits moving 
 athwart a cross of glory which is stamped upon that planet, and is 
 ravished by the melody of their hymn. 
 
Ca«to XIV. PARADISE. 313 
 
 From centre to the rim, or backwards bound, 
 
 As struck from inwards, or without the rim, 
 
 Moveth the water in a vessel round, 
 Witliin my mind all suddenly did swim 
 
 This image which I tell, as silent grew ^ 
 
 Of Thomas' glorious soul the saintly hymn. 
 By the similitude which then I knew 
 
 Between his speech and Beatrix' reply, 
 
 Who after him was pleased to speak anew. 
 " This one has need, though neither voice on high, ^^ 
 
 Nor even thought the wish doth yet assume. 
 
 Unto the root of one more truth to hie. 
 Then tell him if the light, with which doth bloom 
 
 Your shadowy substance, will with you remain 
 
 As it is now, throughout eternal doom : ^^ 
 
 If it remaineth, afterwards explain. 
 
 When with your bodies remade visible. 
 
 How will ye bear such brilliance free from pain." 
 As ofttimes in the joy of festival. 
 
 With rapture stirred, the dancers in a ring ^ 
 
 Hurry their motions, and their voices swell ; 
 So to that prompt and pious questioning 
 
 The holy circles showed their bliss amain, 
 
 In wondrous melody and tourneying. 
 To live above, whoever would complain ^ 
 
 That one must die, he never felt revive 
 
 The coolness there of that eternal rain. 
 " The One, and Two, and Three, who ever live, 
 
 And ever reign in Three, and Two, and One, 
 
 Uncircumscribed, yet all things circumscrive," ^^ 
 
 Three times was chanted there by every one 
 
 Of those blessed spirits, with such melody. 
 
 To all desert were fair such guerdon won : 
 And from the light, most like the Deity, 
 
 O' the inner ring, I heard a voice released, ^ 
 
 With such perchance the angel made reply 
 To Mary t " Howsoever long the feast 
 
 Of Paradise may be, so long our love 
 
 With ray around us such, a beaming vest. 
 Its fervour by this brightness it doth prove, *^ 
 
 Its fervour by its sight is bound, that solely 
 
 According to its grace, its worth above. 
 
 Line 1. The physical fact appears doubtful and difficult of experiment. 
 Dante, however, compares the speech made to them from the circle, and 
 Beatrice's address from the centre to the saints around, to the above- 
 described motion of water in a round vessel. 
 
314 PARADISE. Canto XIV. 
 
 What time our flesli made glorified and holy 
 
 Shall be reclad, our person must be dight 
 
 More gracious far through all its being wholly: . ^^ 
 Therefore must be increased that gift of light, 
 
 Which grants gratuitous the highest peace, 
 
 Light which to see His glory makes us fit. 
 Whence it must be that vision will increase, 
 
 Increase the fervour which from it doth flame, ^^ 
 
 Increase the ray which doth arise from this. 
 But like a burning coal which gives out flame, 
 
 Surpasses that with its own living glow. 
 
 That it still keeps the outline of its frame. 
 So this same brilliancy which swathes us now ^ 
 
 Will by that flesh in glory be overcome. 
 
 Which for all days the earth doth cover now ; 
 Nor can such light be ever wearisome. 
 
 Since strong will be the organs of the frame 
 
 All things to bear, from which delight may come." . ^*^ 
 So rapid and prepared they all did seem 
 
 Both one and other choir Amen to say. 
 
 For their dead frames it showed their wish supreme : 
 Not for themselves alone perchance they pray. 
 
 But for their parents' sake, and friends so dear, ^^ 
 
 Ere they were flames in this eternal day. 
 And lo ! around, of equal brightness, sheer 
 
 Above the splendour there new lustre heave. 
 
 Like a far-off horizon growing clear. 
 And as at rising of the early eve '*> 
 
 The stars to pierce the sky commence again, 
 
 So that confusedly we scarce perceive, 
 Meseemed of new existences a train 
 
 Thus to behold, who made a circle new 
 
 Wheeling without the other circles twain. '* 
 
 O* the Holy Spirit, O that sparkle true. 
 
 How suddenly it grew all glowing white 
 
 Unto my eyes, that could not bear the view ! 
 But Beatrix so fair and smiling bright, 
 
 Won all my gaze mid other visions here, ^ 
 
 Words cannot tell, nor mind pursue such flight. 
 My eyes thence won the power once more to rear 
 
 Themselves aloft, I saw myself alone 
 
 Borne with my lady to a higher sphere. 
 
 Line 67. Around the circles of saiats now gather another circle of angels, 
 dominations as Dante calls the powers of the fourth heaven, and these are 
 •described as of equal brightness, not shining more or less like the spirits of 
 the blest according to their extent of vision, as above explained by Solomon. 
 
Canto XIV. 
 
 PARADISE. 315 
 
 Well was I 'ware that I had higher gone, 
 By the fire beaming smiling of the star 
 Which seemed more ruddy than its usual tone. ""rYU^yio 
 With all my heart, and with that inward prayer 
 
 In all the same, I gave myself to G-od ^^ 
 
 The holocaust, that claimed such favour rare. 
 Nor from my breast had yet the fervour flowed 
 Of that my sacrifice, or ere I knew 
 My offering was accepted and avowed : 
 For with such glory and such roseate hue ^^ 
 
 Appeared a splendour 'twixt two listed lines, 
 I cried, " Elias ! how dost deck the view !" 
 As from the stars, lesser and greater, shines 
 Distinct in whiteness the long Milky Way, 
 Whose cause in vain each learned sect divines, ^^^ 
 
 So, with stars studded made each listed ray 
 On Mars' s sphere, that venerable sign, 
 Which quadrants joined within a round display. 
 Here Memory conquers every power of mine : 
 
 For in that cross of glory lightened Christ, ^^^ 
 
 That no fit simile can I divine. 
 But whoso takes his cross and follows Christ, 
 
 Will yet excuse this weakness, when through grace 
 In that white gleaming, he shall witness Christ. - ^^c, 
 
 From arm to arm, from top imto the base ^"""^^lo ^^^ 
 
 Wander the lights, throwing out sparks more strong 
 Whene'er they meet, or pass them by in space ; 
 Thus see we here, now straight now crooked throng, 
 Now swift, now slow, with aye-renewing dart. 
 The atom-motes with bodies short and long, ^^^ 
 
 Move in the sunbeam, which doth shoot athwart 
 At times the shadow, which the people sought. 
 Made in defence against the glare by art. 
 And as a lute and harp accordant wrought 
 
 With many strings, create a dulcet chime, ^^^ 
 
 Even to one who ne'er the notes was taught. 
 So from the lights which there before me swim, 
 Collected in the cross a melody 
 Which rapt me though I did not hear the hymn. 
 Its burden well I knew was praises high, ^^ 
 
 For rise and conquer on my hearing stole. 
 Like one who hears, nor can the sense descry. 
 
 Line 85. He lias now entered tbe planet Mars, red in colour. 
 Line 101. The cross which is placed on the planet Mars in honour of the 
 Crusaders, who fought and conquered under that sign. 
 
316 PARADISE. Canto XV. 
 
 Thence so enamoured grew my listening soul, 
 Compared with it, there was no other thing 
 That yet had bound me with such sweet control. 
 
 Haply my word too daringly doth spring, ^^" 
 
 Lowering the pleasure from those beauteous eyes, 
 Gazing on which my yearning folds its wing. 
 
 But whoso seeth that the more they rise 
 
 Those living seals more beauty have attained, 
 
 And that as yet I had not turned to these, ^^^ 
 
 May well excuse me that, thus self-arraigned, 
 
 Whilst truth I speak, myself from this to clear ; 
 That holy pleasure is not here explained 
 
 Because in mounting it grows more sincere. 
 
 Line 138. Dante had not excluded the delight he ever found supreme in 
 gazing on the eyes of Beatrice, for r.hese increased in beauty as they I'ose 
 higher towards God, and he had not yet looked at her in this new sphere. 
 The word "dischiuso" means both explained and excluded. "Che '1 piacer 
 santo non h qui dischiuso," has, therefore, been variously interpreted as 
 that holy pleasure too is contained in the delight I experienced, or that holy 
 pleasure was not then alluded to by me. I have, however, preferred an 
 ingenious interpretation offered by Padre d' Aquino, that holy pleasure is not 
 here explained by me, because in mounting it grows too exquisite for worda 
 to describe. 
 
 CANTO XV. 
 
 The hymn of the Crusaders subsides into silence, and a spirit glides to the 
 foot of the Cross and welcomes Dante as his descendant. He tells him 
 that he is the spirit of his ancestor Cacciaguida, describes the simple life 
 of the Florentines in his days, and states how he died in Palestine, 
 fighting for the Holy Land. 
 
 Benignant will, which doth exemplify 
 
 Ever that love, which virtue's beams inspire, 
 
 As will malignant, doth cupidity. 
 Silence imposed unto that dulcet lyre. 
 
 And hushed to quiet every holy chord * 
 
 Which Heaven's right hand attunes to notes of fire. 
 How can be deaf to prayer for justice poured 
 
 Those beings, who to give me will to pray. 
 
 United all, that silence to accord ? 
 He of a truth doth nurture grief for aye, '" 
 
 Who for the love of what can ne'er endure 
 
 Eternally doth cast that love away. 
 As o'er the tranquil skies serene and pure, 
 
 Oft and anon doth glide a sudden blaze, ' 
 
 Attracting careless eyes unto its lure, ^* 
 
Canto XV. PARADISE. 317 
 
 And seems a star in Heaven that shifts its place 
 
 Only from that part whence it kindles bright, 
 
 Nothing is lost, and it so briefly stays : 
 So from the Cross's horn, far on the right 
 
 Unto its foot did sudden glide a star ^^ 
 
 O' the constellation which there sheds its light. 
 Nor from its riband fell that jewel rare ; 
 
 But through the listed ray of light came down. 
 
 Seeming a flame in alabaster fair : 
 So did Anchises' pious shadow run ^ 
 
 (Unless to Yirgil's Muse we now refuse a 
 
 Faith) in Elysium when he saw his son. 
 " sanguis mens, super infusa 
 
 Gratia Dei ; sicut tihi, cui 
 
 Bis umquam cceli janua reclusa .'"' ^^ 
 
 Thus spoke that light : to him I turned me free. 
 
 Then to my lady turned once more my eyes. 
 
 And here and there the marvel dazzled me. 
 For in her eyes a beaming smile did rise 
 
 Such that I thought that I the depths did near ^^ 
 
 Of all my grace and all my Paradise. 
 Then, pleasant both^to gaze on and to hear, 
 
 Things far too deep for me to understand 
 
 The spirit added to his proem clear. 
 Nor was that mystery of election ]planned *** 
 
 But of necessity beyond the aim 
 
 Of mortals, his conception so far wonned. 
 And when the flight of his high soaring flame 
 
 Was so allayed, that once more in the rood 
 
 Of human intellect his meaning came ; ^^ 
 
 The first thing which by me was understood, 
 
 " For ever blessed be the Grod Triune, 
 
 Who in my seed to me such kindness showed." 
 And he went on : " The long sweet fast I've known 
 
 While reading in the volume of Grod's might, ^^ 
 
 Whose pages never turn from white to brown, 
 Thou'st satisfied my son, within this light. 
 
 In which I speak to thee, through grace divine 
 
 That preened thy plumage to such soaring flight. 
 
 Line 26. Isque ubi tendentem adversum per gramina vidit 
 
 ^nean, alacris palmas utrasque tetendit. — Virg. ^q., lib.vi., 684. 
 
 Line 28. " thou my blood, O superabounding grace of God, to whom, as 
 to thee, was the gate of Heaven ever opened twice ?" Twice, because Dante 
 now enters it alive, a certain sign that it will finally open for him again. 
 
 Line 51. In the notes to Canto II. of the " Paradise" it was mentioned that 
 the leaves of parchment were brown and white alternately : the Book of God 
 knows no change. 
 
31:8 PARADISE. Canto XV. 
 
 Thou thinkest that thy thoughts writhin me shine ^^ 
 
 From the first source, as evermore doth ray 
 
 From unity, all numbers we combine. 
 And therefore dost not ask who I may be. 
 
 Nor why in thee more joyous I appear 
 
 Than any other in this concourse gay. ^ 
 
 Thou deemest truth ; both less and greater here 
 
 Of this life, ever on that mirror gaze 
 
 In which ere thou hast thought, the thought stands clear. 
 But that the sacred love on which delays 
 
 My endless vigil, and from which I hold ^ 
 
 Such sweet desire, may better work its ways ; 
 With thy own joyous voice, secure and bold, 
 
 Express thy pleasure, thy desire express, 
 
 To which reply is ready ere 'tis told." 
 I turned to Beatrix, whose smile did bless '" 
 
 Ere her consent in speaking I could claim, 
 
 Which added wings unto my eagerness. 
 Thus I began : " Knowledge and love the same 
 
 Since God's equality first met your sight 
 
 In each of you an equal poise reclaim : ^* 
 
 Since in that sun which ye with heat and light 
 
 Lightened and warmed, so equal are the two 
 
 That no similitude would show it right. 
 But knowledge and desire in mortal crew, 
 
 For reason that to you is manifest, ^® 
 
 Have wings with differing plumage fledged untrue. 
 Whence I, a mortal, see in me confest 
 
 This inequality, nor thanks can rate 
 
 Save with my heart for this paternal feast. 
 O living Topaz, thee I supplicate, ^ 
 
 Who dost ingem this precious jewel rare, 
 
 My longing, with thy name to satiate." 
 " leaf of mine, in whom I bliss did share, 
 
 Even while expecting thee, thy root was I :" 
 
 With such commencement did he answer fair. ^ 
 
 Then told me : " He, from whom thou dost apply 
 
 Thy surname, who a century and more 
 
 Has turned the mountain's first ledge wearily. 
 
 Line 73. In Heaven fervour is measured by sight, or knowledge, as explained 
 by Solomon ; amongst mortals love can exceed the power of expressing it, and 
 Dante, therefore, can only offer his thanks in his heart. 
 
 Line 91. Alighieri, Dante's great-grandfather, from whom the family name 
 was taken, was the son of Cacciaguida. 
 
Canto XV. PARADISE. 319 
 
 Was erst my son, and thy great grandsire ; sure 
 
 'Tis fitting that by thee his long distress '"^^ 
 
 Should be abated by thy good deeds' store. 
 Florence within her ancient bound's recess, 
 
 Whence yet she takes her matin hour and noon, 
 
 Sober and modest stood in peacefulness. 
 She had not yet her jewelled gauds or crown, ^^ 
 
 No quaint-shod ladies, no such girdle rare 
 
 As makes a woman nothing to her zone. 
 Not yet a daughter at her birth caused fear 
 
 Unto her father, that in years and dower 
 
 Her bridal all proportion would impair. ^^^ 
 
 Houses not yet were emptied of their flower ; 
 
 Sardanapalus was not in the hall 
 
 To show how great in chambering his power : 
 Not yet was Montemalo conquered all 
 
 By your TJccellatojo, in its rise ^^^ 
 
 As 'twas o'ercome, so 'twill be in its fall. 
 Bellincion Berti I have seen in guise 
 
 Of leather and of bone, and from her glass 
 
 His wife would come, not painted to the eyes : 
 I've seen the Nerli and the Vecchi pass ^^ 
 
 Contented with uncovered jerkins poor. 
 
 And at the wheel and distaff every lass. 
 O happy ones ! and each one there was sure 
 
 Of a home burial, and as yet had none 
 
 A lonely marriage bed through France's lure. ^^ 
 
 To watch the cradle was the care of one. 
 
 Soothing the infant with that prattle dear 
 
 Which erst their mothers and their sires had won. 
 Another drawing from the wheel the hair, 
 
 With all her family told tales enow ^^^ 
 
 Of Trojans, Fiesole, and Eome severe. 
 Cianghella for such wonder would they know 
 
 And Lapo Salterello, as would be 
 
 A Cincinnatus and Cornelia now. 
 
 Line 9S. The public clock of Florence was within the circuit of its ancient 
 walls. 
 
 Line 102. Pars minima est ipsa pueUa sibi. — Ovid. 
 
 Line 109. Montemalo, an elevated spot in the suburbs of Rome, was not yet 
 surpassed in the pride of public buildings by Uccellatojo, in the suburbs of 
 Florence. 
 
 Line 112. The father of Grualdrada, alluded to in Canto XVI. of the " Hell." 
 
 Line 120. From their husbands leaving them to trade in France. 
 
 Line 127- Cianghella was a dissolute woman of Iraola, and Lapo Salterello 
 a lawyer of Florence, with whom Dante was at variance. 
 
320 PAEADISE. Canto XVI. 
 
 To life so tranquil, and so fair to see ^^^ 
 
 Mid citizens, to trustfulness so wise 
 
 Of social life, to sucli sweet company, 
 Mary vouchsafed me, called in childbed cries : 
 
 And in your ancient baptistery's fane 
 
 I, Cacciaguida, took on Christian ties. '^^ 
 
 Moronte, Eliseo were my brethren twain : 
 
 From Val de Perdo came my wife to me. 
 
 Thou from her family thy name didst gain. 
 The Emperor Conrad then I followed free. 
 
 And he himself did gird me belted knight, ^^^ 
 
 So my good deeds did win his courtesy. 
 With him I went the impious creed to fight, 
 
 Whose people, by the shepherd's crime, controls 
 
 The Holy Land, your heritage of right : 
 There, by that race who in such foulness rolls, ^^^ 
 
 From a fallacious world I won release. 
 
 The love of which debaseth many souls. 
 And came from martyrdom to perfect peace." 
 
 Line 133 . It was the custom to invoke the help of Mary in the pains of 
 childbirth. 
 
 Line 137. Cacciaguida' s wife, of the fanjily of Alighieri, whose name was 
 taken by her son, came from Ferrara, the valley watered by the Po. 
 
 Line 139. The Emperor Conrad III., who joined in a crusade, and died 
 in 1152. 
 
 Line 143. The Mahommedans, who through the supineness of the Pope in 
 not preaching a holy war, were left in possession of Palestine, which by right 
 was the Christians' heritage. 
 
 CANTO XVI. 
 
 In answer to Dante's request, Cacciaguida relates to him the time of his 
 birth, the extent of Florence at that period, and who were the chief 
 families who then resided there. 
 
 O blood's nobility of little worth. 
 
 If thou dost make mankind take pride in thee. 
 
 Where every longing wanders wide on earth. 
 From henceforth now no marvel will it be : 
 
 For there, where never doth the longing stray, '^ 
 
 1 say in Heaven, it glory roused in me. 
 Thou art a mantle that doth swiftly fray, 
 
 While Time with shears doth ever clip it round. 
 
 Unless we add to it from day to day. 
 
Canto XVI. PARADISE. 321 
 
 With the old you, which first in Eome did sound, ^^ 
 
 In which her family doth little bide, 
 
 A recommencement to my speech was found. 
 Whence Beatrix, who somewhat stood aside. 
 
 Smiling appeared like her whose cough did fire 
 
 Grinevra 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 doth gladness now arrive, 
 
 My mind becomes a fountain, joy to pour, ^^ 
 
 Or it would break with all it doth 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 modern 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 Thou, 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. Florence, of which St. John the Baptist was the patron saint. 
 
 Line 34. The planet Mara had returned to the constellation of Leo 553 
 times since the conception of the Virgin Mary down to Cacciaguida's birth. 
 As the revolution of the planet is somewhat short of two years, this brings 
 the date of Cacciaguida'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, throiagh which i*an the course of the annual race. 
 
 Y 
 
60 
 
 322 PARADISE. Canto XVI. 
 
 Suffice it of my elders this to have heard : 
 
 For who they were, and whence they hither came 
 
 With silence more than speech is best averred. ^^ 
 
 'Twixt the baptistery and Mars' sculptured fame 
 Those who in age were fitted arms to wield 
 Were then a fifth of what ye 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 boundary lines 
 At Trespian and G-aluzzo, 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 Caesar 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 Valdigrieve 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 falleth still 
 
 Than a blind lamb ; and oft one sword will tally a 
 Better account of blood than five would spill. 
 
 If thou 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 
 
 Will be to thee no novel thing, nor strange. 
 After that cities such an ending know. 
 
 All things amongst ye 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 statue of Mars on Ponte Vecchio, 
 which stood for the boundaries of Florence in Cacciaguida'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 Eome is here alluded to : had Rome continued 
 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. 
 
 70 
 
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 thee confest ^ 
 
 At what I'll tell thee of high Florentines 
 
 Whose fame through Time is no more manifest. 
 I*ve seen the Hugos and the Catalines, 
 
 Philippi, Greci, Ormauni, Alberichi, 
 
 Already on the wane, how each one shines ! ^ 
 
 I've seen as great, as ancient I who speak ye, 
 
 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 Eavignani dwelt, of whom is heir 
 
 Count Gruido, and whoever the great name 
 
 Of high Bellincion since borrow there. 
 Already knew the populace to tame ^^ 
 
 Pressa, in Gralligajo's house there were 
 
 Already, gilded hilt and pommel frame. 
 Great was the column clothed with miniver, 
 
 Sacchetti, Givinchi, Sifanti, 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 they 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 rageth 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 bushel 
 at the public granary, already alluded 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 115. The Adimari, who were then of such small account that Donato 
 objected to his father-in-law, Bellincion Berti, giving another of his daughters 
 in marri9-ge to one of them. Boccaccio Adimari was Dante's chief enemy in 
 Florence, who always resisted his recall from exile because he had taken 
 possession of his property on his banishment. 
 
324. PARADISE. Canto XVI. 
 
 Already rose, but from a race so low 
 
 That TJbertin Donato felt a smart 
 
 Any connection with their blood to know. ^^® 
 
 Already Caponsacco in the mart 
 
 Had come from Fiesole, and Guida too, 
 
 And Infangato filled a worthy part. 
 I'll tell a thing incredible and true : 
 
 In our small bounds one entered by a gate, ^^^ 
 
 The which its name from those of Pera drew. 
 Each one who borrowed the heraldic state 
 
 Of the great baron, whose high worth and name 
 
 The Feast of Thomas aye doth celebrate, 
 From him did privilege and knighthood claim, ^^ 
 
 Albeit one has joined the people's den 
 
 "Who binds that quartering in a golden frame. 
 The Gualterotti and Importini then 
 
 Were living, and their Borg would quiet be 
 
 Had no new strangers entered on its ken. ^ 
 
 The house from which was born your misery, 
 
 And which has slain ye by its just disdain, 
 
 And put an end to all your life of glee. 
 Was honoured, it, and all its numerous train. 
 
 Buondelmonte, to what ill ye fled ^^'^ 
 
 That plighted wedding, on another fain ! 
 Many would now be joyous, who are sad. 
 
 If Grod thy form in Ema's stream had thro"vyn 
 
 The first time to the city thou wast led. 
 But well 'twas fitting to that maimed stone ^^ 
 
 Which guards the bridge, that Florence thee should make 
 
 A victim to the last peace she has known. 
 
 Line 124. The incredibility is variously explained to consist either in the 
 smallness of the boundaries of the city at that time or in the simpHcity of 
 the people who called one of their gates after a private family. 
 
 Line 128. The Marchese Ugo, Baron cf the Emperor Otho III., who gave 
 leave to several Florentine families to bear his arms. In an abbey in Florence 
 founded by his mother, and dowered by himself, the Feast of St. Thomas was 
 always celebrated in his memory, being the day on which he died. 
 
 Line 131. Giano della Bella, who still bore the Baron's arms, but had 
 renounced the nobility and become one of the people. A democrat of the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 Line 136. The family of the Amidei, who slew Buondelmonte for with- 
 drawing from a marriage arranged with a maiden of their house through his 
 passion for one of the Donati, from whence arose the factions of the Bianchi 
 and Neri in Florence. See " Hell," Canto XXVIII. 
 
 Line 143. A stream between Montebuona, where the family of Buondel- 
 monte resided originally, and Florence. 
 
 Line 145. The' bridge where the maimed statue of Mars was still standing 
 when Buondelmonte was slain, a fit victim to that god. See " Hell," 
 Canto XIII. 
 
Canto XVII. PARADISE. 325 
 
 With others, and with those of whom I speak, 
 
 Florence 1 saw in such a perfect rest, 
 
 No reason had she then laments to seek. ^*^ 
 
 I saw her with those people, glorious, blest. 
 
 And aye so just, that to the lance's head 
 
 Her lilies never were reversely drest. 
 Nor yet by civil strife were changed to red." 
 
 Line 153. The lilies, the arms of Florence, had never hung reversed on the 
 spears of her enemies in token of her defeat, nor was their colour yet changed 
 from white to red, as they were by the Guelphs, who altered the city arms 
 from argent lilies in a field gules to lilies gules in a field argent. 
 
 CANTO XVII. 
 
 Encouraged by Beatrice, Dante questions the spirit of his ancestors con- 
 cerning the future of his own life on earth. Cacciaguida foretells to him 
 his approaching exile from Florence, and exhorts him to write all that he 
 has seen in Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. 
 
 Like him who came to Climene to learn 
 
 The truth of what against his birth was given. 
 He who to sons still makes all fathers stern. 
 
 Such was I then, and such was I perceiven 
 
 Of Beatrice, and that holy lamp ^ 
 
 Who erst for me had changed its place in Heaven. 
 
 On which my lady : " Let the flame forth ramp 
 Of thy desire," she told me, " let it pass 
 Distinctly sealed with its internal stamp : 
 
 Not by thy speech our knowledge to increase, *** 
 
 But that to own thy thirsting thou mayst use, 
 That men may mingle drink to give thee peace." 
 
 " my dear plant ! that dost so soaring muse, 
 That as our minds behold there cannot be 
 In one triangle angles twain obtuse, ^* 
 
 So dost thou see the far contingency 
 Ere in itself existent, on that point 
 Gazing where all times present thou dost see ; 
 
 Line 1. Phaeton, ths son of Climene, who inquired of her whether he was 
 really the son of Apollo, Ovid, Metam., lib. i., whose fate in his attempt to 
 drive the horses of the sun makes fathers sterner to a son's requests. 
 
 Line 11. That thou mayst practise a fi-ank declaration of thy ditficullioa, 
 -o that men may ofier thee their solution. 
 
aae paradise. canto xvii. 
 
 The while that I with Virgil was conjoiut, 
 
 Upon that mountain where the souls grow clear, ^^ 
 
 And while descending in the world defunct, 
 Were told me of my future life severe 
 
 And mournful words ; albeit every blow 
 Of chance I feel myself well squared to bear. 
 Therefore my wish would be content to know ^ 
 
 For me what fortune has the future drest, 
 Since dart foreseen in flight is ever slow." 
 Thus I that beaming light itself addrest, 
 
 That first had spoken to me, and as willed 
 My Beatrix, my longing was confest. ^ 
 
 Not with such riddles, in whose snares was held 
 The credulous world of old, or ere was slain 
 The Lamb of God, who every sin repealed. 
 But with clear words and open parlance plain 
 
 That love paternal unto me replied, ^ 
 
 Inclosed, and beaming in his smile so fain. 
 " Contingency, which ne'er beyond the tide 
 Of your material world can ever reach. 
 On the eternal sight is wholly dyed. 
 Not that from hence necessity I teach, ** 
 
 More than from sight, a vessel glideth fair 
 Adown the current, gazed on from the beach. 
 From that eternal sight, as fills the ear 
 
 Organs' sweet harmony, to me doth come 
 In sight that time which towards thee draweth near. ^^ 
 As left Hippolytus his Athens' home, 
 
 Through his perfidious stepdame, passion fraught, 
 So to depart from Florence is thy doom. 
 Thus is it willed, and thus already sought ; 
 
 And soon they'll bring to pass what now they scheme, *'' 
 There, where Christ every day is sold and bought. 
 Upon the injured side will cast the blame 
 
 The wonted cry ; but vengeance will achieve 
 "Witness to truth, whichever it doth claim. 
 
 Line 20. In " Purgatory" Conrad Malaspina, Canto VIII., and Oderisi 
 the Illuminator in Canto XI., had hinted to Dante of his coming banish- 
 ment, and in " Hell". Farinata degli Uberti, Canto X., and Sir Brunetti in 
 Canto XV«, had done the same. He now asks for clearer warnings. 
 
 Line 40. Necessity does not follow from God's knowledge more than when 
 one gazes on a ship floating down the tide the sight causes it to descend. 
 
 Line 46. wing to the unnatural passion of his stepmother Phaedra, 
 
 Lino 51. In Rome, where they were plotting the expulsion of the Ghibeline 
 party from Florence. 
 
 Line 54. According to the then belief in the trial by duellum, that ven- 
 geance would declare itself always on the side of truth. 
 
Canto XVII. PARADISE. 327 
 
 Each thing beloved most dearly thou wilt leave : ^^ 
 
 And this is but the earliest dart which fares 
 
 From the bow of exile, when it shoots to grieve. 
 Thyself wilt prove what bitter taste there bears 
 
 The alien's bread, and|what a weary road 
 
 Is climbing and descending alien stairs. ^ 
 
 And that which most of all thy back will load, 
 
 Will be the evil troop, with whom thou'lt fall 
 
 Into this valley, scattered all abroad. 
 For all ungrateful, mad, and impious all. 
 
 Against thee will they act, but very soon ^'^ 
 
 Their brows, not thine, will bear shame's reddened pall. 
 Of their bestiality the progi'ess on 
 
 Will be the proof, to thee it will be fair 
 
 To have made thy party by thyself alone. 
 Thy earliest refuge and thy first repair '^ 
 
 Will be the courtesy of the great Lombard, 
 
 Who bears the holy bird above the stair. 
 For he on thee will show such kind regard, 
 
 That between act and asking 'twixt ye twain, 
 
 That will be first which others most retard. ^^ 
 
 With him thou'lt see the youth who bears such strain 
 
 Of this strong planet, even from his birth, 
 
 That notable will be his actions' train. 
 Not yet have people knowledge of his worth, 
 
 By his young age, since yet have wheeled these starry ^^ 
 
 Spheres round him but nine years since he went forth. 
 But ere the Gascon shall deceive great Harry, 
 
 Such sparks of his high virtue will be shown, 
 
 In that for coin or toil he will not tarry. 
 His liberalities will then be known, ^ 
 
 So that his very enemies who hate, 
 
 Will not be able to shun speech thereon. 
 For him and for his favours do thou wait : 
 
 By him much people will be changed in lot, 
 
 Altering alike of rich and poor the state : ^"^ 
 
 And do thou bear it written in thy thought 
 Of him, but tell it not :" and things lie said 
 Incredible to those who see it wrought. 
 " These are the glosses, son," he then did add, 
 
 " On that which has been told thee, lo ! the snares ^^ 
 
 Which 'neath a few short years are hidden laid. 
 
 Line 71. Alboino della Scala, whose arms were an eagle on a stair of gold. 
 
 Line 7Q' Can Grande, brother of the above. See " Hell," Canto I. 
 
 Line 82. Before the Pope Clement V. shall deceive the Emperor Henry VII. 
 
328 PARADISE. Cakxo XVII. 
 
 I would not thou sliouldst envy thence thy peers, 
 
 Since thy own life will in the future grow 
 Beyond their punishment, through distant years." 
 In silence then completed did he show, ^^ 
 
 That holy spirit, all the woof which I 
 
 Had placed before him to be woven through. 
 Then I began, like one who doubtingly 
 
 Longeth for counsel from a person wise. 
 
 Who seeth true and wisheth lovingly : ^*^ 
 
 " My sire, I clearly see how spurring hies 
 
 Towards me Time, to inflict on me a blow, 
 
 Heaviest to him who self-abandoned lies. 
 Therefore with foresight I must arm me now. 
 
 So that when ta'en from me the place most dear, ^'^ 
 
 My verse may lose me not all others too. 
 Down in that world of never-ending care. 
 
 And on the mountain, from whose beauteous height 
 
 The sweet eyes of my lady me did rear, 
 And afterwards in Heaven, from light to light, "* 
 
 That have I learnt, which should I say again. 
 
 To many would have savour of despite : 
 And if from truth I timidly refrain. 
 
 Midst those I fear to forfeit life alway 
 
 Who'll call the present times the antique strain." ^-** 
 
 The light where smiled my treasure, which that day 
 
 I there had foand, first made a sparkling gleam 
 
 Like golden mirror in the solar ray. 
 Then answered me : ** That conscience, which with shame 
 
 Or of itself or others may be stained, ^-^ 
 
 Will surely feel the stinging of thy theme. 
 But ne'ertheless be every lie refrained. 
 
 Let all thy vision be made manifest, 
 
 And let him wince who feels his withers strained : 
 For if thy voice in any way molest ^^ 
 
 At the first taste, a vital nutriment 
 
 'Twill leave behind to him who doth digest. 
 This cry of thine will be like winds unpent. 
 
 That strongest smite agairst the loftiest peaks : 
 
 This to thy honour is some argument. ^^ 
 
 Hence in those spheres upon thy vision breaks, 
 
 Upon the mount, and in the dolorous vale. 
 
 Those souls alone of whom Fame's trumpet speaks ; 
 Because his mind, who heareth, would not hail 
 
 With trust the given example, if its root ^^ 
 
 Were hidden and unknown, and ever fail 
 Mere barren arguments to bring forth fruit." 
 
Canto XVIII. PARADISE. 329 
 
 CANTO XVIII. 
 
 Cacciaguida names to Dante the soulg of many renowned warriors in the 
 planet Mars, and quitting him to join his comrades in their song of praise^ 
 Dante finds himself raised with Beatrice to the sphere of Jupiter. The 
 souls of those who had administered justice rightly in the world form 
 themselves into letters before him, exhorting rulers to their own virtue, 
 and finally settle into the shape of the head and neck of an eagle. Rapt 
 in that vision of beatified justice, Dante calls on it to revisit earth and 
 purify, where most wanted, the avaricious Court of Rome. 
 
 Already in his word rejoiced apart 
 
 That blessed spirit, on my thoughts I fed, 
 
 Tempering the sweetness with the promised smart : 
 When she, my lady, who me Godwards led, 
 
 " Change now thy train of thought ; think I am near * 
 
 Him who doth recompense each wrong," she said. 
 I turned me at that amorous voice so dear 
 
 Of her my solace, and what I descried 
 
 Of love in holy eyes I try not here : 
 Not that I fear alone speech vainly tried, ^^ 
 
 But that my mind could never so return 
 
 Above itself if others do not guide. 
 This only of that fact can I discern. 
 
 That gazing on her my desire was freed 
 
 From every other longing there to yearn, ^^ 
 
 Until the eternal peace, which straightly rayed 
 
 On Beatrice in reflected guise 
 
 From her fair face on me contentment laid. 
 O'ercoming me with light of smiling eyes, 
 
 She said unto me ; " Turn thee now and hear, ^^ 
 
 Not in my eyes alone is Paradise." 
 As many a time and oft is witnessed here 
 
 The longing in the face when nourished so 
 
 That all the mind is centered in the care, 
 So in the flaming of that holy glow ^* 
 
 To which I turned me then, the eager bent 
 
 To speak to me once more I clear did know, 
 And it began : *' In this the fifth ascent 
 
 Of the tree which draws life downwards from its height, 
 
 And aye bears fruit, while ne'er a leaf is rent, ^ 
 
 Are blessed spirits on your earthly site. 
 
 Or ere they came to Heaven was great their fame, 
 
 To every Muse were each a chrysolite. 
 
330 PARADISE. Canto XVIII, 
 
 Gaze on the Cross's horns, as I will name 
 
 Each spirit will glide there by me rehearsed, ^^ 
 
 As in the cloud doth flash the nimble flame." 
 I saw along the Cross a glory burst 
 
 As Joshua was named ; as past it shone 
 
 I know not whether speech or deed was first. 
 At the name of Maccabee I saw thereon *" 
 
 Another moving by in whirling train, 
 
 And gladness was the whip that spurs it on. 
 So for Orlando, and for Charlemain, 
 
 Followed the twain my own intent regard, 
 
 As on the falcon's flight the eye doth strain. *^ 
 
 Along that Cross then William and Renard, 
 
 And the great leader Godfrey drew my sight. 
 
 With the heroic chief, Eobert Guiscard. 
 Thence moved, and mingling with each other light. 
 
 The spirit who had spoken to me showed ^^ 
 
 What artist he, 'mid singers in Heaven's height. 
 To my right hand my vision then I bowed 
 
 To see in Beatrix what course to steer. 
 
 Either by spoken words or sign avowed, 
 And I beheld her eyes so limpid clear, ^* 
 
 So filled with gladness that their semblance bright 
 
 O'ercame all else, even her last wonted cheer. 
 And as by more perception of delight, 
 
 Doing good deeds, a man from day to day 
 
 Perceiveth that his virtue grows in might, ^ 
 
 So was I 'ware that with the whirling sway 
 
 O' the whirling Heavens my circle was increased, 
 
 Seeing that miracle's beauty clearer ray. 
 And as in momentary time is chased 
 
 The hue from maiden's cheek which lately burned ^^ 
 
 With burden of shame's blush, as quick displaced. 
 So seemed it to my eyes when I had turned 
 
 Into the whiteness of that tempered star, 
 
 The sixth, which me within itself inurned. 
 I saw within that torch of Jupiter fair, ^** 
 
 Before my eyes, the letters of our speech, 
 - Shaped by the lights of Love that revelled there. 
 
 Line 46. Probably two of the comrades of Duke Godfrey of Bouillon in 
 the first Crusade. 
 
 Line 48. The conqueror of the kingdom of Naples, alluded to in Canto 
 XXVIII. of " Hell." 
 
 Line 57. The beauty of her eyes surpassed what it had reached even in the 
 last planet of Mars, as they have entered a higher sphere. 
 
 Line 67. From the ruddy planet Mars to the silvery Jupiter. 
 
Canto XVIII. PARADISE. 331 
 
 And as birds risen from a river's beach, 
 
 As 'twere with greeting to their new-found mead, 
 
 Now in long line and now in circle stretch, ^* 
 
 So in those lights the holy creatures swayed, 
 
 Wreathing new figures as they soared in song. 
 
 And now a D, an I, an L they made. 
 First singing to their notes they move along. 
 
 Then having ranged themselves into a sign, ^* 
 
 A little while they paused, and silent throng. 
 O Pegasean goddess ! who divine 
 
 To genius, glory and long life dost spare. 
 
 As it, to realms and cities, by thy line. 
 Illume me with thyself, those shapes so fair ^ 
 
 That I may rise again as seen in Heaven : 
 
 In these brief verses let thy might appear. 
 Thus were there shown before me five times seven 
 
 Yowels and consonants, and as they past 
 
 I noted them as they appeared engraven. ^ 
 
 Diligite justitiam first were cast. 
 
 The verb and noun full blazoned, nothing slurred: 
 
 Qui judicatis terram followed last. 
 Thereafter on the M of the fifth word 
 
 They stayed, in order ranged, so that Jove's star ** 
 
 Like silver studded o'er with gold appeared. 
 And other lights I saw descending, where 
 
 Was the M's summit, and they then grew still, 
 
 Singing, methinks, that Good, their only care. 
 Then, just as burning firebrands shaken spill '** 
 
 Innumerable sparks which seek the skies, 
 
 Whence fools are wont to show their augur skill, 
 More than a thousand lights seemed hence to rise, 
 
 And soaring, mount above, some more, some less. 
 
 As pleased that sun who gave their flaming dyes : ^'^ 
 
 And each one settled down into its place, 
 
 An eagle's head and neck in fire descried 
 
 Distinctly represented I could trace. 
 He who paints there has no one for his guide, 
 
 But guides himself, and from himself is lent "® 
 
 The virtue which each station signified. 
 
 Line 82. Muse that givest glory and long life to genius, as genius by thy 
 strains gives the same to realms and cities, illume me, &c. 
 
 Line 88. Thirty-five letters, forming the sentence " Diligite justitiam, qui 
 .ludicatis terram" — " Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth." — 
 Wisdom of Solomon i. 1. 
 
332 PARADISE. Canto XIX. 
 
 The other blessedness, which seemed content 
 
 At first with lilies to adorn the M, 
 
 To the bird's impress with slow motion bent. 
 O thou sweet star, how many a brilliant gem ^^^ 
 
 Was shown me there to prove our justice all 
 
 Born of that Heaven which thou dost diadem ! 
 Therefore with prayers the mind divine I call 
 
 Whence springs thy virtue to look forth abroad 
 
 Where the smoke rises which thy ray doth pall, ^^ 
 
 So that once more just anger be renewed 
 
 'Grainst purchasing and selling in that temple 
 
 Erst built by miracles and martyrs' blood. 
 Militia of the sky I view so ample, 
 
 O pray for those who on our earth have strayed ^'^ 
 
 Far from the road, behind a bad example. 
 Of old one went to battle with the blade, 
 
 Now by denying either here or there 
 
 The bread, a pious sire for all has laid. 
 But thou, who writest but to cancel dear, ^^ 
 
 Think thee that Paul and Peter, who have died 
 
 For the vine Thou spoilest, still are living here. 
 Well mayst thou say : " My heart is so allied 
 
 To him who ever sought to live alone, 
 
 To him who for a dance was crucified, ^^^ 
 
 The Fisherman and Paul are both unknown." 
 
 Line 112. The other band of beatified spirits formed the rest of the eagle. 
 
 Line 122. The Church of Eome, polluted by the simony of the popes. 
 
 Line 127. By interdicts and excommunications, refusing the rites of the 
 sacrament, the bread God spreads for all. 
 
 Line 130. Addressing Pope Boniface, who wrote his censures only to obtain 
 as high a price as possible for cancelling them. 
 
 Line 133. I cling so to St. John the Baptist, at least to the coins of Florence 
 stamped with his figure, that Paul and Peter are utterly forgotten. 
 
 CANTO XIX. 
 
 The collected souls of just kings, which form the shape of the eagle, speak to 
 Dante with one voice. They tell him that salvation is impossible without 
 belief in Christ, but that many who profess such belief will in the last 
 day be worse off than the heathen, and they declare that many Christian 
 kings will make a sorry figure when all secrets are then revealed. 
 
 Appeared before me with wide-open wings 
 That image fair, while in fruition sweet 
 To its collected spirits gladness springs. 
 
Canto XIX. PARADISE. 333 
 
 Eacli one of them appeared a rubinet 
 
 On wliicli the sun's ray with such burning shone ^ 
 
 That in my eyes wa.s its refraction set. 
 That which has now by me to be made known, 
 
 Like never yet has wrote, nor voice did speak, 
 
 Nor e*er was felt in fantasy alone : 
 Because I clearly saw and heard that beak ^* 
 
 Speaking with voice that sounded I, and mine, 
 
 Where we and ours as meaning we must take. 
 " Through being just and good," did it begin, 
 
 " Am I exalted to such glory here, 
 
 That leaveth nought for which desire can pine. ^* 
 
 And on the earth I left such memory clear, 
 
 That even wicked people give it praise, 
 
 Although they follow not its deeds severe." 
 As one sole heat from many coals that blaze 
 
 Makes itself felt, so from these numerous powers ^^ 
 
 That image but one single sound did raise. 
 Whence I all eager : " O perpetual flowers 
 
 Of the eternal gladness, who as one 
 
 Bring to my sentience all your odorous showers, 
 Breathing, appease that mighty fast alone, ^ 
 
 Which for so long has held me in its ties, 
 
 Since upon earth no food for it was known. 
 Well am I 'ware that if in other skies 
 
 Makes its own mirror justice all Divine, 
 
 That in your own no veil before ye lies. ^ 
 
 Ye know with what attention I incline 
 
 To listen, and ye know what is the doubt 
 
 With which I hunger from such weary syne." 
 Like falcon who from hood doth issue out, 
 
 Moveth his head, and shakes his wings abroad, ^ 
 
 Showing his eagerness and grace throughout. 
 So I beheld that symbol, who with laud 
 
 Of grace Divine was interwoven through, 
 
 And song they know who in Heaven's courts applaud. 
 Then it began : " He who the compass drew *® 
 
 Unto the world's extreme, and in that space 
 
 So much both hid and manifest did show, 
 On all the universe could not impress 
 
 His power so far but that His wisdom's might 
 
 Must aye remain in infinite excess. "** 
 
 Line 40. The Divine nature could not so express itself in its works but that 
 it must still remain incomprehensible, as was shown in the case even of the 
 highest lower intellect, Lucifer, son of the morning. 
 
884 PARADISE. Canto XIX. 
 
 And this we know for sure, since he, the height 
 
 Of all created things, the primal pride, 
 
 Imperfect fell through waiting not for light. 
 Hence every minor nature is implied 
 
 A cramped receptacle for such a good ^^ 
 
 Which knows no end, and to itself supplied 
 Its only measurement. Our vision rude. 
 
 Which can be but a raying from the mind 
 
 With which all things in nature are imbued. 
 Cannot such power in its own being find 
 
 But that its source it ever must discern 
 
 From what it is, far different in kind. 
 Therefore, within the justice sempiteme, 
 
 The vision granted to your worldly lore 
 
 Enters as doth the eye in ocean's urn : ^ 
 
 For well one sees the bottom from the shore, 
 
 But not in the midmain ; and ne'ertheless 
 
 'Tis there, although the far deeps shroud it o'er. 
 All light must (;ome from that serene recess 
 
 Which ne'er is troubled, or it is but shade, ^^ 
 
 Or phantom, or the poison of the flesh. 
 Enough the darkness has been now displayed 
 
 Which hid from thee God's justice' living beam, 
 
 Of which such frequent question thou hast made. 
 For thou didst say, " A man by Indus' stream ^^ 
 
 Is born, and there is no one there to tell 
 
 Of Christ, and none to read or write such theme : 
 And all his wishes, and his deeds as well. 
 
 Are good, as far as human nature seeth, 
 
 Sinless in life, by act or syllable : ^* 
 
 Yet unbaptised he dies, and without faith : 
 
 Where is the justice which would him impeach ? 
 
 Where is his fault who, unbelieving, strayeth ? 
 Now who art thou who wouldest sit and preach. 
 
 To judge at distance of a thousand miles ^^ 
 
 With sight beyond a span that cannot reach ? 
 
 Line 56. Must see how God differs from itself. 
 
 Line 70. It will be observed that no answer is attempted to be given to the 
 •difficulty which Dante so boldly proposes. The inquirer is put down, as 
 usual in such cases, by a reference to authority. This of course the advocate 
 of Free Thought will not admit of as satisfactory — a fact Dante allows in the 
 84th line. In truth the doctrine of eternal damnation out of the bounds of 
 a particular faith is an insult to the justice of God and the sense of man. 
 Dante, by the invention of his Limbo, attempted to save the doctrine from its 
 worst shape. 
 
Canto XIX. PARADISE. 99$ 
 
 Certes to him who with me tries such guiles 
 
 Were not the Holy Scripture o'er ye all, 
 
 No wonder if he fell in doubt's defiles. 
 O earthly beings, minds of grossest pall, ** 
 
 The Primal Will, that in itself is good, 
 
 From its perfection never yet did fall. 
 Justice is solely as with it imbued ; 
 
 Ko good created draws it e'er aside. 
 
 But from its rays hath every good ensued." ^ 
 
 As when the stork its young ones hath supplied 
 
 With food, above its nest it slow doth soar, 
 
 And as they gazing in its love confide. 
 So did I raise my eyes, and so sailed o'er 
 
 That blessed image, which did move its wings ^ 
 
 Borne by such host of counsellors galore. 
 And told me as it sang in circling rings : 
 
 " As are my notes not understood by thee, 
 
 Eternal justice such, to mortal things." 
 Thus they continued their high minstrelsy, ^°® 
 
 Those lights of the Holy Spirit, in the sign 
 
 Which gave the Eomans their world victory. 
 It recommenced : " Unto this realm Divine 
 
 Never rose one who trusted not in Christ, 
 
 Either before or since He died benign. '^^ 
 
 But many wilt thou see who cry, Christ, Christ ! 
 
 Who in the judgment-day will be less near 
 
 To Him than some who never heard of Christ : 
 The Ethiop will condemn such Christians here. 
 
 When shall be ranged apart the cohorts twain, "® 
 
 One to eternal wealth, and one to care. 
 What will the Persians of your kings maintain. 
 
 When they shall see that volume opened wide. 
 
 In which their failings are all written plain ? 
 There will be seen, midst Albert's deeds of pride, "* 
 
 That which will soon give motion to the pen. 
 
 When Prague is ruined 'neath his sword-blade's gride. 
 There will be seen the grief which o'er the Seine, 
 
 Debasing coin, that monarch shall array. 
 
 Who 'neath a wild boar's tushes shall be slain. ^^^ 
 
 There will be seen the pride which lusteth sway, 
 
 And makes the Scot and Englishman so wild. 
 
 That they within their bounds can never stay. 
 
 Line 115. The Emperor Albert I. See " Purgatory," Canto VI. 
 Line 118. Philip le Bel, who died in 1314 by a fall from his horse, upset 
 by the charge of a wild boar. 
 
336 PARADISE. Canto XX. 
 
 125 
 
 Will be seen the luxury and the life so mild 
 
 Of him of Spain, of him too of Boheme 
 
 Who valour never knew, and never willed. 
 Against the cripple of Jerusalem 
 
 Signed with an I his liberality, 
 
 The account against him will display an M. 
 Will be seen the avarice and the villainy ^^ 
 
 Of him who guardeth Etna's flaming isle. 
 
 Where old Anchises, full of years, did die ; 
 And to display how he is very vile. 
 
 The account in maimed letters will be made. 
 
 That in short space will note a world of guile, ^^ 
 
 And will appear to all each laidly deed 
 
 Of his uncle and his brother, who such great 
 
 Family and two crowns have cuckolded. 
 And they of Portugal's and Norway's State 
 
 Will there be known, and he of Rascia too, ^^ 
 
 Who Venice' mint did badly imitate. 
 O happy Hungary, wouldst thou but eschew 
 
 Further ill-treatment ! and O blest Navarre, 
 
 Would she but arm the hills that gird her view ! 
 And now in earnest of such final jar, "'^ 
 
 Both Nicosea's and Famagosta's town 
 
 Against their beast complain, in urban war, 
 Who from the others' side has never gone." 
 
 Line 124. Probably, as proposed by Mr. Gary, Ferdinand IV., who died in 
 1312 of intemperance. 
 
 Line 125. Venceslaus, mentioned in the " Pnrgatory," Canto VII. 
 
 Line 127. Charles II. of Naples and Jerusalem, the father of Charles Martel, 
 and also praised by him for liberality in Canto VIII. of tbe "Paradise" by 
 implication, and stamped previously with the vice of avarice by Hugh Capet 
 in " Purgatory," Canto XX., which shows that Dante's judgments were some- 
 times not carefully weighed. 
 
 Line 130. Frederick of Sicily, son of Peter III. of Arragon. His uncle 
 and brother were James, King of Majorca, and James II. of Arragon. See 
 "Purgatory," Canto VII. 
 
 Line 143. Navarre was at that time under the rule of France, but shortly, 
 following Dante's advice, it revolted from its subjection. 
 
 Line 145. Cities in the kingdom of Cyprus, who by their loud complaints 
 against their monarch Henry II., as bad as the others before mentioned, fore- 
 shadowed what would be entered against him in the Book of Doom. 
 
 CANTO XX. 
 
 The eagle sings the praises of certain just kings, whose spirits are included 
 in its image. Of these, six form its eye, David in the pupil, and in the 
 iris around it Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William II. of Sicily, 
 and Ripheus. The eagle explains how Trajan and Ripheus, whom Dante 
 did not knoAv to be Christians, had become so, and obtained their seat in 
 Paradise. 
 
Canto XX. PARADISE. 337 
 
 What time the orb that lighteth all the world 
 
 Descendeth from our hemisphere, the day 
 
 In every part consumed, and downwards hurled, 
 The sky, erst kindled solely by its ray, 
 
 Its darkness suddenly doth re-adorn * 
 
 With numerous lights, in which one shines alway. 
 This skyey change across my mind was borne 
 
 What time that standard of earth's chiefs of might 
 
 G-rew silent in its beak's all blest sojourn. 
 For then, of the multitude, each living light ^^ 
 
 Shining more clear, began their songs to trill 
 
 Such as from memory fleet and vanish quite. 
 O sweet love that dost clothe thee with a smile, 
 
 How in those sparkles didst thou burning swell, 
 
 Whose spirit knew but thoughts all pure from guile ! ^^ 
 After those precious stones ineffable 
 
 With which I saw ingemmed that sixth light's course, 
 
 Silence imposed to each angelic bell, 
 Meseemed to hear a river's murmur hoarse, 
 
 That clear descendeth down from stone to stone, ^ 
 
 Showing the copious bounty of its source. 
 And as from frame of cithern doth the tone 
 
 Take up its shape, and as from out each hole 
 
 Of flageolet the wind is breathing blown ; 
 So with a sweetly-linked delay did roil ^ 
 
 The murmur from the eagle issuing. 
 
 From out its neck, as though 'twere pierced, it stole. 
 There it became a voice, and thence did spring 
 
 From out its beak, in form of words made known. 
 
 Such as my heart could to its record bring. ^** 
 
 ** The part in me which sees and bears the sun 
 
 In mortal eagles," thus did it begin, 
 
 " I would that thou shouldst fixedly gaze upon. 
 For of the fires through which this shape I win. 
 
 Those, whence the eye within my head doth blaze, ^ 
 
 Are of the highest grade of all within. 
 He that as pupil in the middle rays 
 
 Was the sweet singer of the Holy Spirit, 
 
 Who bore about the ark from place to place : 
 Now of his song he knoweth all the merit, ^ 
 
 In that 'twas prompted of his piety, 
 
 Through the proportioned guerdon it doth 'herit. 
 
 Line 6. The fixed stars, according to Dante's belief, receiving their light 
 from the sun. 
 
 Line 42. David knows now the full worth of his spiritual songs, by the 
 proportionate reward allotted to him in Paradise. 
 
 Z 
 
338 PARADISE. Canto 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 superne, *® 
 
 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 Eoman 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 Ripheus of Trojan birth 
 Were fifth amidst those holy mysteries ? j 
 
 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 soul of Trajan was won back to 
 life from Hell by the prayers of St. Gregory, in order that he might be 
 converted and saved. See line 106 and sequitur. 
 
 Line 49. The next on the upper arch of the eagle's iris is Hezekiah. 
 Line 60. By the temporal authority of Rome 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 Anjou and Frederic of Arragon. 
 Line 68. A character in the "-^Eneid," whose death is thus recorded : — 
 " Cadit et Ripheus, justissimus unus, 
 Qui fuit in Teucris, et servantissimus tequi." 
 
 .^neid, lib. ii., p. 427. 
 Dante naturally wonders at finding him in the Christian Paradise. 
 
 65 
 
Canto XX. PARADISE. 889 
 
 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 my 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 learneth to avow 
 
 A thing by name, but of its excellence 
 
 Can nothing see, unless another show. 
 Begnum Coelorum 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 followeth, 
 
340 PARADISE. Cakto XXI. 
 
 On righteousness 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 every feeble ken, 
 
 That never the First Cause hath wholly caught ! 
 And keep ye cautiously, mortal men, 
 
 From judgment : since ourselves, who God 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 clear, **® 
 
 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 Ripheus. 
 
 CANTO XXI. 
 
 Dante ascends with Beatrice to the sphere of Saturn, where he finds a ladder 
 of gold, so lofty that he cannot see the top. Along the stairs ascend and 
 descend the spirits of those who passed their lives in holy contemplation. 
 Saint Peter Damiano approaches them, and in answer to Dante's ques- 
 tions states who he was, concluding by a vehement rebuke of the luxury 
 of modern prelates, to which rises a shout of triumphant accord. 
 
 My eyes already on that sweet face gazed 
 
 Of her my lady, and my soul the while. 
 
 And every other thought was all erased : 
 And she smiled not : but, " Were I now to smile,'* 
 
 Thus she began to tell me, " thou wouldst be * 
 
 Like Semele, who fell an ashen pile : 
 
Canto XXI. PARADISE. 341 
 
 Because my beauty more exceedingly 
 
 Kindles along the Eternal Palace stair, 
 
 As it ascends on high, erst proved to thee : 
 So would it shine were it not tempered here, *** 
 
 That thy poor mortal being in its blaze 
 
 Would be like leaf the thunderbolt doth shear. 
 In the seventh splendour now our soaring stays, 
 
 Which 'neath the lion's burning blazonries 
 
 Its influence, somewhat mingled, downwards rays. ^'^ 
 
 Fix now thy mind intently in thy eyes, 
 
 And be they to the shape a mirror made. 
 
 Which in this mirror will to thee arise." 
 Whoe'er perceiveth with what sweetness fed 
 
 My sight ecstatic on that aspect blest, ^ 
 
 When thus to other object I was led. 
 Will recognise how I with grateful zest 
 
 To my celestial guide obedience paid. 
 
 To pleasure counterpoising her behest. 
 Within that crystal, which in circle swayed ^* 
 
 Around the world, named after its dear king. 
 
 Beneath whose rule all wickedness lay dead, 
 Of golden colour, where the sunrays cling 
 
 In splendour, I beheld a mounting stair. 
 
 Unto whose top my vision could not wing. ^ 
 
 And on its steps I saw descending there 
 
 Such splendours, that I thought that every light 
 
 Was there diffused, which in the heavens shine fair. 
 And as in Nature at the fall of night. 
 
 The choughs together at the dawn of day ®* 
 
 To warm their frozen plumage move in flight ; 
 Then some without return go on their way. 
 
 Others to whence they moved once more repair. 
 
 And others, wheeling round their nest delay, 
 So did it seem to me was acted there 
 
 In all that glittering, which together came. 
 
 Until it reached unto a certain stair ; 
 And one that lingered nearest us, in flame 
 
 Became so bright, that in my thoughts I said, 
 
 " Clearly I see the love which I may claim." 
 But she, on whom my how and when is laid 
 
 Of speech and silence, resteth still, whence I 
 
 Eightly, though loath, no questioning essayed. 
 
 Line 14. The planet Saturn being then in the couateilation Leo. 
 Line 18. Like what will be shown in the mirror if the planet Saturn be 
 reflected in the mirror of thy eyes. 
 Line 27. The sign of Saturn, and the Golden Age of earth. 
 
342 PARADISE. Cakto XXI. 
 
 Whence she, who that my silence did descry 
 
 In looking upon Him who all things sees, ^ 
 
 *' Eelease thy fervent wish," to me did cry. 
 
 And I began : " My little worthiness 
 Makes me unfit to merit thy reply, 
 Save for her sake who sanctions my address : 
 
 blessed life, who hidest in mystery ** 
 
 Within thy rapturous joy, to me make known 
 
 The cause that to my side brings thee so nigh : 
 And say why silent in this sphere alone 
 
 The dulcet symphony of Paradise, 
 
 Which sounds in lower spheres such holy tone." ^ 
 
 " Thy hearing is but mortal, like thine eyes," 
 
 He answered me, " and hence one sings not here, 
 
 As Beatrice now her smile denies. 
 Down by the steps of this most holy stair 
 
 With festival to greet thee am I come, *" ** 
 
 Of parley and of light that clothes me fair : 
 Nor speeds me here my love's exceeding sum ; 
 
 Above us more and equal love doth glow. 
 
 As show to thee the flames that here illume. 
 But the High Charity which makes us bow ^® 
 
 To serve his schemes in the world's governance, 
 
 Electeth here, as thou mayst clearly know." 
 ** O holy light," I said, " doth see my glance 
 
 How in this court sufiBceth love most free 
 
 To execute the Eternal Providence. ^* 
 
 But this is what I find most hard to see. 
 
 Wherefore wert thou predestined all alone. 
 
 Unto this duty, midst this company." 
 
 1 had not to the latest word past on. 
 
 Ere round its central soul the glory plied, ^ 
 
 Eevolving like a swiftly-whirled millstone. 
 And then the love that was within replied, 
 
 " A light divine shed over me I find. 
 
 Piercing through this one, in the which I hide ; 
 Whose influence with my proper vision joined, ^ 
 
 So lifts me o'er myself, my sight doth claim 
 
 The Highest Essence, from the which 'tis coined. 
 Thence comes the rapturous joy with which I flame. 
 
 For in proportion as we clear descry 
 
 Shineth the brilliance of our light the same. ®® 
 
 Line 67- The spirit is not impelled to Dante by a love exceeding that of the 
 others round them, as shown by their glowing radiance, but by God's 
 election. 
 
CKxoXXI. PARADISE. 343 
 
 But not tliat soul most lustrous upon high, 
 That seraphin who most on God doth gaze, 
 This thy demand could ever satisfy : 
 For what thou askest, in the deepest maze ^^ 
 
 Of the eternal law is hid, a bourn 
 Impossible to all created gaze. 
 And when to mortal earth thou dost return, 
 
 Report thou this, that they may ne'er presume 
 To such a mark their mortal feet to turn. ^^^ 
 
 The mind that here is light is smoky fume 
 
 On earth, then think how can they fathom there ^^ 
 What we can see not, though in Heaven we bloom. 
 As thus his words prescribed, I did forbear 
 
 That question, and withdrew me, to demand ^^. 
 
 Humbly that who he was he would declare. 
 " 'Twixt the two shores of Italy there stand 
 Mountains, so high the thunders never fall 
 Upon their tops ; not distant from thy land. 
 And make a hunch which people Catria call, ^^^ 
 
 Beneath the which is consecrate a cell, ^^ 
 Confined of old to God's pure worship all 
 Thus for the third time recommenced the swell 
 Of speech, continuing he told me, Ihere 
 Unto God's service did I bind me well, ^^^ 
 
 So that with olives for my only fare, 
 
 Regardless did I pass through heat and cold. 
 Content in contemplation, ^^^^ ^^ P^^^J' ... 
 Was wont to bear for Heaven, that cloister s fold 
 With great luxuriance, now 'tis grown so vam 
 That soon must God its worthlessness unfold. 
 I, in that place was Peter pamiane : 
 Peter, a sinner in Our Lady s hall. 
 Beside the shore of the Adriatic mam. 
 Brief life was left me, when as cardinal ,^5 
 
 I was importuned to accept the hat 
 Which still from evil unto worse doth tali. 
 Came Cephas, and then came the vessel great 
 O' the Holy Spirit, barefooted and lean. 
 Taking their food at the first open gate : 
 
 Line 127. Saint Peter and Saint Paul, vas electioms. 
 
344 PARADISE. Canto XXII. 
 
 Now on each side they must be propped between, ^^" 
 
 These modern shepherds, and they must be led, 
 And hoisted from behind their burly mien. 
 
 With their own mantles are their palfreys clad. 
 So that two beasts within one skin repair. 
 
 Patience, thou indeed art sore bestead !" ^ 
 Upon that word I saw from stair to stair 
 
 The numerous flames descend, and whirl, renewed 
 At every whirl they seemed to grow more fair. 
 Around this flame they came, and there they stood, 
 
 And raised a shout of such a mighty sound ^^ 
 
 1 cannot liken it here ; I understood 
 Nought, so the thunder all my senses drowned. 
 
 Line 139. Around Peter Damiano, their shout being, as explained in the 
 next Canto by Beatrice, on account of the approaching vengeance for 
 such backsliding in the Church which they saw in the councils of God: 
 alluding to the approaching fate of Boniface Vlll. See "Purgatory," 
 Canto XX. 
 
 CANTO XXII. 
 
 Beatrice clears away Dante's groundless alarm. He beholds many other 
 spirits, and is addressed by Saint Benedict, who promises him that he 
 shall see his form without its covering of splendour in the highest sphere. 
 The spirits then depart, and Dante follows Beatrice up the golden ladder 
 to the eighth Heaven, the region of the fixed stars, which they enter in 
 the constellation of the Tvdns. There they pause, and Dante looks down 
 on all the seven spheres through which he has past to the diminished 
 earth beneath. 
 
 Oppressed with stupor, to my loving guide 
 I turned me, like a little child in tears 
 Who seeketh her where most he doth confide. 
 
 She, like a mother whose caressing cares 
 
 Instantly soothe her pale and breathless son * 
 
 With the sweet voice that wont to calm his fears, 
 
 Told me, *' Know'st not that thou in Heaven dost wonne. 
 And know'st thou not that Heaven is ever holy. 
 And what is done here springs from zeal alone ? 
 
 How would their singing have transformed thee wholly, ^^ 
 Or I by smiling, thou canst now descry, 
 Since has so moved thee this their shouting solely. 
 
 In which, hadst thou but heard their prayers on high, 
 Already would the vengeance be seen clear 
 Which thou wilt surely see ere thou dost die. ^* 
 
 Line 15. See the final note to the last Canto. 
 
Canto XXII. PARADISE. 345 
 
 Neither in haste nor tardily doth sheer 
 
 The sword of Heaven, except as he may deem, 
 Who waits for it with longing or with fear. 
 
 But now let others on thy vision beam, 
 
 Illustrious spirits sure will meet thy gaze, ^ 
 
 If, as I tell, thou turn'st thee unto them." 
 
 As pleased to her my vision did I raise, 
 
 And saw a hundred little spheres, who dress 
 Each other gaily with their mutual rays. 
 
 I stood like one who in himself doth press ^ 
 
 The point of his desire, and does not dare 
 To question, so he feareth all excess. 
 
 And then the largest and most lustrous there 
 Amongst those Margarites advanced to me, 
 Contentment to my longing wish to bear. ^ 
 
 Within its flame I heard : " Didst thou but see 
 Like I the loving that doth in us burn 
 Thou wouldst have told thy inward fancy free, 
 
 But that through waiting to thy lofty bourn 
 
 Thou mayst not tarry, I will make replies ^^ 
 
 Even to the thoughts thou dost so close inurn. 
 
 The mountain on whose slope Cassino lies 
 Was peopled of old time upon its height 
 By a race deceived by foul idolatries. 
 
 And I am he who first bore to that site *** 
 
 The name of Him who on the earth educed 
 The truth which leads to so sublime a height. 
 
 And such a grace upon me was infused 
 
 That the surrounding townships I withdrew 
 
 From the impious worship which the world seduced. ^^ 
 
 Those other fires were all contemplants too : 
 Men who were kindled with that ardour clear 
 Which maketh flowers and holy fruits ensue. 
 
 Here is Macarius, Romoaldo here ; 
 
 Here are my brethren who their feet did rest ** 
 
 Within my cloister with firm heart of cheer." 
 
 And I to him : ** The love thou hast expressed 
 Speaking with me, and the fair semblant show 
 I see and mark in every ardent breast, 
 
 Line 37. A castle in the Terra di Lavoro, where Saiat Beaedict found an 
 ancient temple in which the rustics round still worshipped Apollo. He con- 
 verted the people from idolatry, and built a shrine to St. John where the 
 altar of Apollo had stood. 
 
 Line 49. Macarius, an Egyptian monk, and Romoaldo, the founder of the 
 order of Camaldoli, who died in 1027. 
 
346 PARADISE. Cahto XXII. 
 
 Has made my courage burgeon 'neath its glow, ^* 
 
 As doth the sun the rose when openly 
 
 It bares its bosom in its fullest blow, 
 Therefore I pray thee, father, certify 
 
 If to so high a grace I may aspire, 
 
 Thee, with thy shape enshrouded to descry." ^ 
 
 Whence he : " ,0 brother, this thy high desire 
 
 Will be fulfilled within the furthest sphere, 
 
 Where aU our wishes are fulfilled entire. 
 Perfect, completed, and mature is there 
 
 Every desire : within that sphere alone ^* 
 
 Where aye they were are all things everywhere, 
 Since there nor place nor whirhng poles are known ; 
 
 Even to it our ladder mounteth high, 
 
 Hence so beyond thy vision hath it flown. 
 Dreaming, the patriarch Jacob did descry ^® 
 
 Its rounds uprearing, even to that height 
 
 When laden with that angel company. 
 To climb it now there never more take flight 
 
 Feet set upon our earth, and hence my rule 
 
 Is but a waste of leaves on which 'tis writ. " 
 
 The walls which wont to form my convent's school 
 
 Are grown to caves, and full of musty meal 
 
 Is changed into a sack each hooded cowl. 
 But does not sin so much against Grod's weal 
 
 The grossest usury, as that fruit which tends ^ 
 
 To make the monkish heart so madly reel. 
 What pelf soe'er the Church as her own defends, 
 
 Belongs to those who ask for God's own sake, 
 
 Not to relations, nor for far worse ends. 
 The flesh of mortal man is all so weak ®* 
 
 That good beginnings there give little claim 
 
 From the oak's birth the acorn crop to seek. 
 Without or gold or silver Peter came, 
 
 I, Benedict, with fasting and with prayer, 
 
 His convent humbly did Saint Francis frame, ^" 
 
 And if thou look'st at each commencement fair, 
 
 And then regardest where they each have gone, 
 
 Thou'lt see the white indeed discoloured there. 
 Now of a truth hath Jordan backward run. 
 
 More marvellous was the Eed Sea's flight to view °* 
 
 When God so willed, than here his succour won.'* 
 
 Line 62. In the empyrean, where there is neither time, place, nor motion, 
 and where all the spirits of the blest have their seat. 
 
Canto XXII. PARADISE. 347 
 
 Thus did he speak to me, and thence withdrew 
 Amongst his comrades, who together closed 
 Then like a whirlwind all of them upflew. ^^ 
 
 Behind them my sweet lady me disposed 
 
 With a mute sign to mount aloft that stair. 
 So much her virtue o'er my power imposed. 
 On earth ascending or descending ne'er 
 
 Was ever motion of such swiftness ta'en ^^^ 
 
 That could be equal to my pinion there. 
 So may I, reader, once return again 
 
 Unto that triumph, for the which I wail 
 My sins and ever smite my breast amain, 
 Thou wouldst not with such speed the flame assail, ^^^ 
 
 And draw thee back, as I beheld the sign 
 Which follows Taurus and within it sail. 
 O glorious stars ! O pregnant light benign 
 Of mighty virtue, from the which I bear 
 My genius all, whatever share be mine ^ ^^^ 
 
 With you was born, and with you sought his lair, 
 The sun, the father of all life 'mongst men, 
 What time I breathed first the Tuscan air, 
 And when was granted me such benison 
 
 To enter the high sphere in which ye wheel ^^^ 
 
 Your region was allotted to me then. 
 To you devoutly now the sighs appeal 
 Of my rapt heart fit virtue to acquire 
 For the hard task which claimeth all its zeal. 
 *' Thou art so near the sum of all desire," 
 Began my Beatrice, " that indeed 
 Clearness and strength thy vision should mspire, 
 And therefore ere thou further dost proceed 
 
 Gaze downwards and behold how vast a world 
 Beneath thy feet thou hast already laid, 
 So that thy heart, with fullest joy unfurled, 
 Unto the host triumphant may draw near. 
 Which joyous cometh, through this ether whirled. 
 My vision I turned back through every sphere. 
 
 The seven beneath me, and this globe I saw ^^^ 
 
 Such that I smiled, so mean did it appear, 
 And I approve as best that sage's law 
 
 Which most despises it, and who doth dream 
 Of other worlds, I think has least of flaw. 
 
 Line 110. The constellation of the Gemini, in which sign Dant^ makes his 
 entry into the sphere of the fixed stars, a^ it was under that constellation that 
 he was born. 
 
 126 
 
 130 
 
348 PARADISE. Canto XXIII. 
 
 I saw the daughter of Latona beam 
 
 Without that shadow, which my reason won ^*^ 
 
 Falsely of old, of rare and dense to deem. 
 The visage of thy son, Hyperion, 
 
 There I sustained, and there I saw how near 
 
 Around him Maja and Dione wonne. 
 The tempering of Jove did thence appear ^*^ 
 
 Betwixt his sire and son, and thence the change 
 
 Their stations underwent to me was clear. 
 And all the seven were shown me in their range. 
 
 How vast in space, and how each swiftly sways, 
 
 And how in distant grooves they onwards range. ^^^ 
 
 The area where we fiercely strive our days, 
 
 I, with the eternal Twins revolving there, 
 
 Appeared to me with all its hills and bays : 
 Thence turned my eyes unto those eyes so fair. 
 
 Line 139. I saw the moon without its spots. See Canto II. 
 
 Line 144. Mercury and Venus, here named respectively after their mothers. 
 
 Line 146. Between Saturn and Mars. 
 
 CANTO XXIII. 
 
 Dante beholds the triumph of Christ with His saints. The Saviour, followed 
 by his Virgin Mother, ascends out of sight into the higher Heavens. The 
 body of the saints of both Testaments remains with Dante. 
 
 As 'midst the loved leaves the small bird bides 
 With her sweet young ones resting in the nest 
 Throughout the night, which all things from us hides, 
 
 And both to see those objects loved the best, 
 
 And for their pasture to find food enow, '^ 
 
 For which all toil to her is sweet as rest, 
 
 Forestals the time, and on the open bough 
 With ardent longing waiteth for the sun. 
 Fixed in her gaze, until the dawning glow, 
 
 So stood erect my lady, towards the moon ^® 
 
 Of Heaven's high concave turned, with gaze intent, 
 - Where the sun seems least hurriedly to wonne ; 
 
 So that beholding her suspense unpent, 
 
 I then became like one who something new 
 
 Desireth, and in hope remains content. ^^ 
 
 Line 12. The sun appearing to travel slowest when in mid-Heaven. 
 
Canto XXIII. PARADISE. 34^ 
 
 'Twixt one and other but brief space I knew, 
 I mean 'twixt expectation and 'twixt sight, 
 When more and more the Heavens resplendent grew. 
 
 " Of Christ's high triumph, lo ! the serried flight, 
 
 And all the fruit," did Beatrix exclaim, ^^ 
 
 " Upgathered from those spheres of whirling light." 
 
 It seemed to me her face was all aflame. 
 
 And in her eyes such store of gladness shone, 
 All undevelopt I must pass that theme. 
 
 As in the nights serene of bright full moon ^ 
 
 Fair Trivia smileth 'midst the nymphs eteme, 
 Which paint the Heavens through all its glorious noon, 
 
 Saw I, above the thousand lights that burn. 
 One sun, that all the others kindled there, 
 As does our own the starry train supeme, ^ 
 
 And through that living light beyond compare 
 The shining substance beamed so brilliant clear 
 That in my eyes the sight I could not bear. 
 
 Beatrice ! my sweet guide and dear. 
 
 Who told me " He who overpowers thy sight ^ 
 
 Is power 'gainst which resistance 'vails not. Here 
 Is the Eternal Wisdom and the might 
 
 Which sped the pathway 'twixt the sky and earth, 
 
 For which was erst such longing infinite." 
 Like fire expanding in a cloud takes birth *^ 
 
 That cannot hold it longer, and released. 
 
 Against its nature, down to earth flies forth, 
 So did my mind 'midst that celestial feast 
 
 Issue from out itself, enlarged the while. 
 
 And memory knows not how it then increased. ■** 
 
 " Open thy eyes to see me now awhile. 
 
 Things thou hast now beheld to give thee power 
 
 Amply sufficient to sustain my smile." 
 
 1 was like one in truth who thinketh o'er 
 
 Some dream forgotten, and who strives in vain *^ 
 
 Within his mind its image to restore. 
 What time I heard that all-thankworthy strain 
 
 Proffered unto me, to be rased no more 
 
 From that book where the past is written plain. 
 If all those tuneful tongues the chorus bore, ** 
 
 Which, nourished with their sweetest milk apart. 
 
 Fair Polyhymnia and her train of yore 
 
 Line 26. A name of Diana, or the moon. 
 Line 37. Jesus Christ. 
 Line 57. The Muses. 
 
350 PARADISE. Canto XXIII. 
 
 To aid me, of the truth in thousandth part 
 
 That holy smile would not be shown, nor how 
 
 Beamed clear that holy face, with all their art. ^" 
 
 Thus I, who Paradise am painting now, 
 
 Must leap o'er much of this my holy theme, 
 As one who finds his path cut off, I trow. 
 
 But of the weighty object if one deem, 
 
 And of the mortal shoulder that doth bear, ^^ 
 
 Although it tremble, still one would not blame. 
 
 This is no sea for little bark to steer, 
 
 Cleaving through which goes on my daring prow, 
 Nor for a helmsman who himself would spare. 
 
 " Why does my face so wholly charm thee now ^" 
 
 That for this garden fair thou dost not pine, 
 Which 'neath the rays of Christ doth bloom and blow ? 
 
 Here is the Eose, in which the Word Divine 
 The flesh became ; and here the Lilies rise, 
 Win the true path who seek their odorous wine.'* ^^ 
 
 Thus Beatrix, and I, to her advice 
 
 Who aye was ready, turned me once again 
 Unto that strife for my poor dazzled eyes. 
 
 As 'neath a sun ray which doth glance between 
 
 A broken cloud, of old a flowery field ^^ 
 
 My own eyes covered with a shade have seen. 
 
 So the vast crowd of splendours I beheld 
 
 Lit from above with lightning's burning rays. 
 Nor saw the source from which the glory welled. 
 
 Benignant virtue ! which did o'er them blaze, ®^ 
 
 Thou raisedst thyself above, to leave me room 
 That my poor powerless eyes might hither gaze. 
 
 The name of that fair flower, the Eose, to whom 
 Morning and eventide I make my vow, 
 Called to her flame my soul as to its home. ^*^ 
 
 And while on both my eyeballs did it glow, 
 The size and nature of that living star. 
 Which conquers all above as erst below, 
 
 Within the Heavens a light descended there, 
 
 Formed in a circle like a coronal, ^* 
 
 And girt her round, and wheeled around her fair. 
 
 Whatever melody most sweet doth fall 
 
 On earth, and mostly doth the soul inspire, 
 Would seem like thunder burst from cloudy pall 
 
 Line 73. The Virgin Mary, termed by the Church Rosa Mystica. 
 Line 75. The Lilies are explained to mean the twelve Apostles. 
 Line 94. Stated by the commentators to be intended for the Angel Gabriel, 
 who first announced to the Virgin her high destiny. 
 
Canto XXIII. PARADISE. 351 
 
 Compared unto the sounding of that lyre ^'^^ 
 
 With which the beauteous Sapphire was encr owned, 
 Through whom Heaven's Sapphire glows with brighter fire. 
 *' I am the angelic love that wheels around 
 
 The rapture high, that breatheth from the womb 
 
 Where for our love a dwelling-place was found. ^^* 
 
 And, Lady of the Sky, I'll thee illume 
 
 While following thy Son ; the sphere most high 
 
 Thou mak'st more Godlike when thou there dost come." 
 Then was that sweet revolving melody 
 
 Brought to a close, and every other light "® 
 
 The name of Mary sounded through the sky. 
 That royal garb, which all the spheres with might 
 
 Surroundeth, and which glows most vivified 
 
 Beneath the breathing of Grod's infinite. 
 Was stretched above us, with its inner side *^^ 
 
 So distant that its semblance at that hour 
 
 Where we were stationed could not be descried. 
 Therefore my eyes did not possess the power 
 
 To follow after that crowned flame above. 
 
 Which soared aloft behind the seed it bore. ^^^ 
 
 And like a little child its arms doth move 
 
 Towards its mother when it milk has ta'en 
 
 Through that affection which its gestures prove, 
 Each of those whitest flames did upwards strain 
 
 Its soaring crest that the affection deep ^^ 
 
 They bore for Mary unto me was plain. 
 Thence in my presence they their station keep, 
 
 Begina Coeli with such sweetness singing 
 
 That evermore the rapture do I reap. 
 O what a wealth of bliss is there upspringing ^^^ 
 
 In those rich storehouses, who erst below 
 
 The seed of good deeds aye abroad were flinging ! 
 Here they enjoy that treasure evermo,' 
 
 The which in exile and with tears they won 
 
 In Babylon, whose gold they did not know. "* 
 
 Here doth there triumph, 'neath the lofty Son 
 
 Of God and Mary, with the saints o' the Old 
 
 And the New Testament in unison. 
 He who the keys of glory here doth hold. 
 
 Line 103. The beauteous Sapphire is the Virgin. 
 
 Line 112. The ninth Heaven, called the Primum Mobile, which enfolds and 
 gives motion to the lower eight. 
 
352 PAEADISE. Canto XXIV. 
 
 CANTO XXIV. 
 
 At Beatrice's request Saint Peter questions Dante upon his Faith, and approves 
 his exposition of his belief and the grounds on which it was founded. 
 
 *' O GUESTS elected to the Supper high 
 
 Of the Blessed Lamb, who spreads for ye a feast, 
 Which your desire doth wholly satisfy ; 
 
 If, by the grace of God, this one foretaste 
 
 The crumbs which from your table ye let fall, ^ 
 
 Or ere that Death his bound of time hath traced, 
 
 Unto his will immense, attention call. 
 
 And sprinkle him with dew, since ever ye 
 
 Drink from that fount whence come his dreamings all." 
 
 So Beatrice, and those souls in glee, ^'^ 
 
 Spheres on their firmly-fixed poles became, 
 Like comets, blazing yet more brilliantly. 
 
 And as the wheels within some clockwork frame 
 Go round in manner, that the first as still. 
 The last as flying rapidly doth seem, '^ 
 
 So did those carol dances, as they wheel 
 
 In different measure, unto me make known. 
 Or swift, or slow, the wealth that each doth fill. 
 
 Out of that carol which the fairest shone 
 
 I saw there issue forth such rapturous fire, ^^ 
 
 That none were left so brilliant in their tone. 
 
 And thrice around my Beatrix the spire 
 Eevolved, with a song so all divine, 
 Cannot repeat it fantasy's desire : 
 
 My pen goes o'er it, nor records my line, ** 
 
 For our imagination has no hues. 
 Much less our speech, such rich folds to design. 
 
 " O saintly sister mine, what thou dost use 
 
 Of prayer devoutly, through thy ardent love, 
 
 Me from that beauteous circle doth unloose." ^^ 
 
 Then, when that blessed flame had ceased to move, 
 Towards my lady grew erect the spire, 
 Which spake as I have written it above. 
 
 And she : " O light eterne of the great sire, 
 
 To whom our Lord did leave the keys, which He ^ 
 
 Carried below from this rejoicing choir. 
 
 Line 16. The carol dance, as already explained, was formed by a set who 
 while dancing sang to their measure. The spirits here formed several carol 
 dances, in which the various sets showed their amount of grace by the 
 velocity of their movements. 
 
Canto XXIV. PARADISE. 353 
 
 Try this man on the points that pleaseth thee, 
 
 Or light or hard, concerning that true Faith 
 
 By which of old thou walkedst on the sea. 
 If he loves well, and hopeth well, and hath *o 
 
 Belief, is hid not to thee, since thou'st seen 
 
 There, where one everything depicted seeth. 
 But since this realm hath made each citizen 
 
 Through the true Faith to make its glories shine, 
 
 'Twere good to speak of it within his ken." *^ 
 
 Just as a scholar doth his thoughts combine 
 
 And speaks not, till the master hath laid bare 
 
 The question, to approve it, not define. 
 So every argument did I prepare 
 
 The while she spake, that I might ready be *® 
 
 For such profession and such questioner. 
 " Speak, O good Christian : make it clear to see 
 
 What is this Faith ?" on which I raised my front 
 
 Towards the light whence this was breathed on me. 
 Then turned to Beatrix, whose cheering wont ^^ 
 
 Encouraged me, that I should outwards pour 
 
 The water stored in my eternal fount. 
 *' May grace, which granteth to confess me o'er 
 
 To the high leader of our Church, assoil 
 
 With clear expression my thought's inmost lore !" *" 
 
 Then I continued : " As the truthful style 
 
 Of thy dear brother, father, writes it clear. 
 
 Who, with thee, to the truth won Rome erewhile. 
 Faith is the substance of things hoped for here, 
 
 And argument of things that are not seen ; ^* 
 
 And this to me its essence doth appear." 
 Then heard I : " Thou dost feel it right I ween. 
 
 If thou well understand'st why Faith he brings. 
 
 The substances and arguments between." 
 And quickly I : " The deep mysterious things ™ 
 
 Whose sight is granted to me here as boon. 
 
 Are so concealed from mortal communings. 
 That there their being is in Faith alone. 
 
 Upon the which is built Hope's soaring height : 
 
 And therefore as a substance is it shown : ^^ 
 
 And from this Faith, without all other sight, 
 
 'Tis fit that man his reasoning powers should ply. 
 
 And therefore as an argument 'tis hight." 
 
 Line 62. St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, xi. 1. 
 
 2a 
 
364, PARADISE. Canto XXIV. 
 
 Then heard I ; "If whate'er by learning high 
 
 Is gained below were but thus understood, ^ 
 
 No place would be for sophist's casuistry." 
 
 Thus breathed from out that love, which kindling glowed : 
 Thereto was joined : " In metal and in print 
 The coin is current, and I own it good. 
 
 But tell me of thy purse, dost bear it in't ?" ^ 
 
 And I : " I have it there so bright and round 
 That nought can make me doubtful of its mint." 
 
 Quickly there issued from the light profound 
 
 Which there was beaming bright, ** This jewel good, 
 Built upon which all virtue must be found, ^"^ 
 
 Whence did it come to thee ?" " The bounteous flood 
 O' the Holy Spirit, which upon the Old 
 And the New Testament is shed abroad, 
 
 Is argument, so subtle in its fold 
 
 Conclusive, that beside it to the view '* 
 
 All demonstration as obtuse I hold." 
 
 " The ancient proposition, and the new," 
 
 After I heard, " which thee do so persuade. 
 Why dost thou hold them for Divine and true?" 
 
 And I : *' The proof, which hath that truth displayed, ^^ 
 
 Is in the miracles, which Nature ne*er 
 Wrought with her steel, nor on her anvil laid." 
 
 Was answered to me : " Say who makes thee 'ware 
 Those miracles in truth to be the same 
 Which they would vouch for? others do not swear." ^"^ 
 
 "Had the world grown to Christian," I exclaim, 
 *' Without those miracles, this very one 
 More power than all a hundredfold would claim. 
 
 That thou didst enter poor and fasting, on 
 
 The field, in which thou sowedst the holy plant, "^ 
 
 Which erst was Tine, and now a briar has grown." 
 
 This finished, in that lofty court each saint 
 
 Shouted along their spheres, " One Cod we praise," 
 In melody the which m Heaven they chaunt. 
 
 And that high peer, whose questions me did raise, "* 
 
 Examining, thus on from bough to. bough. 
 So that we neared unto the highest sprays, 
 
 Began again : " The grace which courteth now 
 
 With thy own mind, hath made thee ope thy mouth. 
 Just as it should have opened, until now ; ^^^ 
 
 That I approve the whole that it avoweth : 
 But now thy credence to express were meet, 
 And to what cause thy soul that credence oweth." 
 
Canto XXV. PARADISE. 365 
 
 125 
 
 " O holy father, who in God dost greet 
 
 What thou believedst, so that thou didst go 
 
 Within the sepulchre, ere younger feet," 
 Thus I began : " thou wouldst that I should show 
 
 The form of the belief to which I cleave. 
 
 And also of its motive thou wouldst know, 
 And I reply : I in one God believe, ^ 
 
 Sole and eterne, who moveth all the Heaven 
 
 With love, nor His own nature ere doth leave-: 
 And to such faith not only proofs are given, 
 
 Both physical and metaphysical, 
 
 But rather proves that truth the rained leaven ^ 
 
 Through Moses and the Psalms and Prophets all, 
 
 The Gospel, and yourselves who wrote in turn, 
 
 Because the Holy Ghost on ye did fall. 
 And I believe in Persons Three Eterne, 
 
 These I believe an Essence, One and Trine, ^*® 
 
 Where Singular and Plural I discern. 
 Of that profoundest nature so Divine 
 
 Which now I touch, my mind has caught the mark 
 
 Reading so many a time the Gospel line. 
 This is the source : this is the little spark ^** 
 
 Which broadens after to such living flame. 
 
 And shines on me, like star in Heaven's high arc." 
 As when a master hears some pleasing theme, 
 
 His servant thence embraces, who doth stand 
 
 Silent, once told the errand whence he came, "** 
 
 So singing o'er me benediction bland, 
 
 Girt me three times as I to silence drew 
 
 The Apostolic light, at whose command 
 I'd spoken : so I pleased with parlance true. 
 
 Line 126. St. John xx. 4, 5, 6. In the original Dante writes, " towards 
 the sepulchre," which Venturi considers a slip, as John outran Peter : the 
 slight alteration I have adopted reconciles the poem with John's account 
 of the fact. 
 
 CANTO XXV. 
 
 Saint James joins Saint Peter, and questions Dante as to the grounds of 
 his Hope. After his reply, Saint John advances to his brother Apostles 
 and Dante blinds himself by gazing too intently on his flame, to see 
 whether he has risen to Heaven with his body, which Saint John declares 
 to have been the case only with Christ and his Virgin Mother. 
 
356 PARADISE. Canto XXV. 
 
 If it should hap this holy poem e'er, 
 
 Which Heaven and earth have helped, and which did mar 
 My frame with abstinence for many a year. 
 Conquer the cruelty which me doth bar 
 
 From the fair sheepfold where I slept a lamb * 
 
 Hateful to wolves, who on me made their war ; 
 With other voice henceforth, nor hair the same, 
 A poet I'd return, and o'er the font 
 Where I was christened, the wreathed laurel claim : 
 For in the Faith, which only makes account ^^ 
 
 Souls unto God, I entered there, and then 
 For it did Peter circle thus my front. 
 Thence towards us moved another denizen 
 Out of the troop, from whence had issued 
 The earliest vicar left by Christ o'er men. " 
 
 And my dear lady full of gladness said, 
 " Look up, look up, behold the holy peer 
 For whom, below, Galicia's roads they tread." 
 As when a dove doth place itself anear 
 
 Its comrade, one and other sheds abroad *' 
 
 Circling and murmuring their affection dear : 
 So I beheld the one with welcome good 
 
 Greeting the other great and glorious chief. 
 The while the food they feast in Heaven they laud. 
 But when were closed their gratulations brief, ^* 
 
 Silent, before me, each its place did take 
 So blazing, they o'ercame my sight though lief. 
 Then with a smile did Beatrice speak : 
 
 " O life of glory ! by the whom was writ 
 The hope-won gladness of our palace, make ^ 
 
 Hope's praises now resound upon this height, 
 
 How often thou didst shape it thou dost know. 
 Since Christ to thee display est Himself most bright." 
 " Lift up thy head, and confidence avow : 
 
 For what comes hither from the mortal earth ^ 
 
 Must surely in our rays to ripeness grow." 
 This comfort from the second fire had birth : 
 On which, unto those hills I raised my eyes, 
 Which erst had bowed them with their too great worth. 
 
 Line 5. The fair sheepfold, Florence, whence he was banished. 
 
 Line 17. The Apostle St. James, whose shrine at Compostella was a 
 favourite resort for pilgrims from all Europe. 
 
 Line 33. When at the Transfiguration the three Apostles, Peter, James, 
 and John, were present, representing the three spiritual virtues of Faith, 
 Hope, and Charity. 
 
 Line 37. The second flame, St. James. 
 
Canto XXV. PARADISE. 357 
 
 " Since Grace doth will that thou in mortal guise, ^^ 
 
 Ere Death has ta'en thee, shouldst our emperor see, 
 Amidst his peers in secret'st mysteries, 
 
 So that this Court's true glorj seen by thee, 
 
 Hope, that below wins love with amplest dower, 
 
 In thee and others rise to certainty : ** 
 
 Say what it is, and how its bloom doth flower 
 
 Within thy mind, and whence to thee descried :" 
 Thus did proceed that second flame of power. 
 
 And pious Beatrice, who did guide 
 
 My pinions' plumage to such lofty flight, *® 
 
 Preventing my response, for me replied. 
 
 " In the Church Militant no son doth fight 
 
 With more of hope, as written in that sun, V 
 God, who aye rayeth o'er our cohorts bright. ' 
 
 Therefore to come is granted him as boon ** 
 
 From Egypt to Jerusalem, to see, 
 Or ere his militant course on earth be run. 
 
 The other points, asked not to satisfy 
 
 Mere knowledge, but that he may hence record 
 
 How much this virtue ever pleaseth thee, ^ 
 
 I leave to him ; for they will not be hard, 
 
 Nor cause him boasting ; let him now reply, 
 And may God's grace its aid to him accord !" 
 
 As a disciple, prompt and willingly 
 
 In what he knows, that he may favour win, •* 
 
 Unto his master's questions makes reply : 
 
 " Hope is a certain waiting," I define, 
 " Upon the future glory, built upon 
 Preceding merit and the Grace Divine. 
 
 From many stars this light to me did wonne : ^'^ 
 
 But he who first distilled it in my heart 
 Was the sweet singer of God's heavenly throne. 
 
 In Thee will place their trust, in sacred art 
 
 Of song said this one, they who know thy name. 
 
 And who knows not, who hath my faith at heart ? ^* 
 
 Thou didst the next instil it, with the flame 
 In thy Epistle, so that on the rest, 
 I, who am full, pour o'er your holy stream.'* 
 
 Line 56. From Egypt to Jerusalem, from earth to Heaven. 
 
 Line 73. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee.— 
 Psalm ix. 10. 
 
 Line 77- The author of the Epistle is allowed to be the younger James, 
 and not the elder disciple here introduced. 
 
358 PARADISE. Canto XXV. 
 
 The while I spake, within the living breast 
 
 Of that enkindled flame, a glimmer welled ®" 
 
 Sudden and oft like lightning quickly chased : 
 Thence there breathed out : " The love in me revealed 
 
 Towards this virtue still, which to me clung, 
 
 Till with the palm I issued from the field, 
 Wills that I breathe of it to thee, whose tongue ^* 
 
 Delights in it ; 'twill please me thou shouldst say 
 
 That which this hope hath promised thee so long." 
 And I : " The Scriptures Old and New display 
 
 The bourn of hope, the which itself I greet 
 
 In souls whom Ood has filled with love for aye. ^^ 
 
 Each will be clad, Isaiah doth repeat, 
 
 In their own region with a double vest. 
 
 And their own region is this life so sweet. 
 And thy own brother even more confest. 
 
 There, where he treateth of the robes of white •* 
 
 This revelation maketh manifest." 
 Soon as my words were ended, on the height 
 
 Sperent in te, above us sounded near, 
 
 To which made answer every carolling light. 
 Then from amongst them drew a light so clear, ^^ 
 
 That if in Cancer did such crystal glance. 
 
 Winter's first month would but one day appear. 
 And as doth rise, and enter on the dance, 
 
 A joyous virgin, with no thought of sin. 
 
 But to the bride to do obeisance, ^'^ 
 
 So I beheld that coruscating sheen 
 
 Move to the pair, revolving in their wheel 
 
 As fitted to their glowing love I ween. 
 He joined them in their song ineffable : 
 
 And on them gazed my lady unreprest ^^® 
 
 Like spouse, in silence, and immovable. 
 ** This is the one who lay upon the breast 
 
 Of our own Pelican : and this was he 
 
 Chosen on the Cross unto the high behest." 
 My lady thus, nor ne'ertheless did she "* 
 
 Her vision move from gazing there attent, 
 
 After, as ere the words she spake to me. 
 
 Line 91. Therefore in their land they shall possess the double. — Isaiah 
 Ixi. 7. 
 
 Line 94. St. John in the Apocalypse. 
 
 Line 101. Were a star of such brilliance in the constellation of Cancer, 
 which shines throughout the night during the first month of the winter 
 solstice, the san would in reality never set, and the whole month would 
 be ad one day. 
 
Canto XXVI. PARADISE. 359 
 
 Like unto him who p^azes with intent 
 
 To see awhile eclipse the solar beam, 
 
 Through too much gazing has his vision spent, ^^ 
 
 So grew I, looking on that latest flame, 
 
 Whilst it was told me : " Why, a thing to see 
 
 Which here is not, dost face my dazzling gleam ? 
 My frame is earth on earth, and so will be 
 
 With all the rest, until our sum be brought ^^5 
 
 Equal in number unto God's decree. 
 With their two garments in this blessed Court 
 
 Are those two lights alone, who now ascended : 
 
 And this within thy world thou mayst report." 
 With this the glowing wheel its circling ended, ^^^ 
 
 Together with the sweet accompaniment 
 
 Which from the trinal spiral's murmur blended : 
 Just as for pause, or peril to prevent, 
 
 The oars that erst within the water plied. 
 
 When sounds the signal, sudden rest suspent. ^^ 
 
 Ah ! in my mind how I was terrified 
 
 What time I turned to see my Beatrix, 
 
 That her I could not see, though by her side 
 I there was standing in the World of Bliss ! 
 
 Line 121. Dante looks thus intently on the spirit, which he learns is 
 St. John, to see whether he has risen with his body to Heaven, according to 
 the doubt raised by the words of Christ to the disciples, " If I will that 
 he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ?" 
 
 Line 128. Christ and Mary, who were described in the last Canto as 
 ascending to the higher Heaven, while the saints remained. 
 
 CANTO XXVI. 
 
 St. John examines Dante concerning Charity. A fourth flame then advances, 
 in which is the soul of Adam, who acquaints Dante with the real reason 
 of his fail, and the length of time he remained in the terrestrial Paradise. 
 
 The while in doubt I stood, through vision spent. 
 From out the beaming flame which dazzled it. 
 There issued words which made me all intent, 
 
 Saying, " While thou thy vision dost refit, 
 
 Which gazing on me thou hast lost, 'twere well ^ 
 
 That converse now should compensate for sight. 
 
 Begin, then, and declare, on what doth dwell 
 Thy soul's desire, and meanwhile understand 
 Thy sight not dead, but wandering for a spell, 
 
360 PARADISE. Cahto XXVI- 
 
 Because the lady who throughout this land ** 
 
 Divine doth lead thee, in her look doth claim 
 The virtue granted Ananias' hand." 
 
 " Or swift or slow as her good will may deem, 
 
 May healing clear the eyes, which were the gates 
 Through which she entered with my deathless flame ! ^* 
 
 That Grood, which wholly in this Court elates. 
 Is Alpha and Omega of the whole 
 Which love or lightly or with strength relates." 
 
 The selfsame voice which caused away to roll 
 
 The terror of my sudden dazzlement, ^ 
 
 To further parley prompted still my soul. 
 
 And told me : " Thou must sift thy argument 
 Certes through finer sieve, 'twere fit for thee 
 To say who aimed thy bow to such intent." 
 
 And I : "By proofs of high philosophy ** 
 
 And by authority which from here descends, 
 Such love was fitly printed upon me. 
 
 For good, in what of good one apprehends. 
 So kindles love proportioned, and the more 
 That it the more of goodness comprehends. ** 
 
 Then for the essence which contains such store. 
 That every good which out of it is found. 
 Is but a ray of its own light galore ; 
 
 More than in others then must it abound 
 
 Within his loving mind who seeth clear ^ 
 
 The truth on which this argument is found. 
 
 Such truth unto my intellect lays bare 
 He, who displays to me the primal love 
 Of all the beings in the eternal sphere. 
 
 And that true author's voice doth also prove, *® 
 
 Who unto Moses of himself did speak : 
 * I'll make before thee all my goodness move ! 
 
 Thou also makest it plain, where thou dost wake 
 The proem high, which more than every ban. 
 The secret of the Heavens to earth doth break.' " *^ 
 
 Line 12. Who by placing his hands on Saul restored his lost sight. — 
 Acts ix. 
 
 Line 16. Dante here replies to St. John's question as to what constitutes 
 his soul's desire, which he declares to be God, the Highest Good. 
 
 Line 37. Supposed to be either Aristotle or Dionysius the Areopagite, who 
 wrote concerning the Celestial Hierarchies, already introduced in Canto X., 
 and again alluded to in Canto XXVIII. 
 
 Line 42. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. — 
 Exodus xxxiii. 19. 
 
 Line 45. The commencement of St. John's Gospel. 
 
Canto XXVI. 
 
 PARADISE. 361 
 
 And then I heard : " By intellect of man, 
 And by authority with it agreeing, 
 Beyond all else thy love to God maintain. 
 But tell me still, if thou dost feel thy being ^ 
 
 With other cords drawn towards Him, to descry 
 How many fangs of love are on thee preying." 
 The holy purpose of Christ's eagle high 
 
 Was hidden not from me, but well I knew 
 Where my confession he desired to ply. ^ 
 
 « Each grappling fang," I then began anew, 
 
 " Which unto God the heart with power is swaying. 
 Unto my charity is helpmeet true. 
 The being of the world, and my own being. 
 
 That I might live the death which He sustained, ^^ 
 
 What each believer hopes, with me agreeing, 
 With that the living knowledge now explained. 
 Of evil love hath drawn me from the sea, 
 And to the shore of right love me have chained. 
 The leaves, of all the garden's greenery ^ 
 
 Of the eternal Gardener, love I solely ^^ 
 
 As each from Him hath goodness won m tee. 
 As I ffrew still a song of sweetness wholly 
 
 Eesounded through the sky, and with the rest 
 My lady chanted Holy, Holy, Holy. ^ 
 
 As bripht light chases dreams from one at I'est, 
 By the visual organ which doth greet the hght. 
 Piercing the retina from vest to vest, 
 And he awakened, what doth greet his sight 
 
 Through sudden vigil doth not clear behold ^ 
 
 Until his judgment helpeth him aright ; 
 So from my eyes each mote away was roiled 
 By a bright ray from Beatrice's eyes, 
 Which shone upon me thousand, thousand fold. 
 Whence better than before my sight descries, ^ 
 
 And of a fourth light, as one stupehed 
 I questioned, which I saw amongst us rise. 
 - Behind those rays," my lady then replied, 
 
 " The first soul there does his Creator woo, ^^ 
 Who first made virtue, since he first was tried. ^ 
 
 Just as the leaf doth bend upon the bough 
 
 When breathes the passing wmd, and then doth rise 
 Bv its own virtue rearing it anew. 
 So did I reverent bow, while she replies, 
 
 Awestruck, and then once more emboldened grown 
 By the desire to speak which m me hes. 
 Line 52. Christ's eagle— St. John. 
 
100 
 
 105 
 
 362 ; PARADISE. Canto XXVI. 
 
 I thus began : " O apple, who alone 
 
 Wast ripe created, ancient sire ! who aye 
 
 Each wedded bride dost for thy daughter own, 
 And daughter-in-law, devoutly thee I pray 
 
 To speak to me : my wish thou well dost note, ^ 
 
 Which, to hear sooner, I forbear to say." 
 Just as at times a dog doth sleek its coat 
 
 As its aflPection prompteth, to display 
 
 The feeling its appearance doth denote. 
 So there that first soul, in a similar way 
 
 Through medium of its covering made me see 
 
 How much to please me grew its spirit gay. 
 Then breathed : " Without its being told by thee, 
 
 To me thy whole desire is better known 
 
 Than aught by thee of greatest certainty : 
 Because I see it that true glass upon, • 
 
 Which makes itself parhelion to all things, 
 
 While nothing makes of it parhelion. 
 Thou'dst hear how long, since God my sojoumings 
 
 Granted within that garden, whence this maid 
 
 Thy steps along this lengthened ladder brings : 
 And to my eyes how long its gladness stayed, 
 
 And the true reason why God banished me, 
 
 And what the language which I used and made. 
 My son, it was not tasting of the tree 
 
 That was the reason of so great exile. 
 
 But only disobeying the decree. 
 There, whence thy lady Virgil moved erewhile, 
 
 Four thousand and three hundred years and twain, 
 
 For this high conclave was I yearning still : 
 And the sun passing through the Zodiac's train 
 
 I saw nine hundred times and thirty more, 
 
 The while on earth my living course I ran. 
 The language which I spake was wholly o'er, 
 
 Or ere in their impossible emprise ^^ 
 
 The race of Nimrod strove to raise their tower. 
 Since nothing which on man's mere reason lies 
 
 Was everlasting, since the human will 
 
 Aye changes 'neath the influence of the skies. 
 
 Line 108. A parhelion is an image of the sun, formed by its reflected light. 
 God reflects His light on all things, but is Himself reflected by none. 
 
 Line 119. By this computation of the length of time in which Adam remained 
 in Limbo, until borne hence in Christ's triumph over the powers of Hell, the 
 birth of Christ is placed 5,200 years after the Creation. 
 
 120 
 
Canto XXVH. PARADISE. 363 
 
 That man should speak is work of Nature still : ^^® 
 
 But so and so to speak doth Nature leave 
 Unto yourselves, according to your will. 
 
 Ere I descended to the infernal grave, 
 
 The Highest Good on earth was called El, 
 
 From whom doth now this joy around me weave. ^^* 
 
 Eli 'twas after called : the change is well ; 
 For use of mortals is like leaf on bough 
 Which goes, and other cometh whence it fell. 
 
 On the highest mount that soars o'er ocean's flow 
 
 Was I in life of purity and shame, ^*^ 
 
 From the first hour until the seventh, whereto 
 
 Changes its quadrant the sun's westering flame." 
 
 Line 140. The stay of our first parents in Eden, both before and after their 
 fall, amounted to seven hours : such from a legend of the Middle Ages was 
 the belief accepted by Dante, for which there is probably as much authority 
 as for the Miltonic theory lay which Protestant belief is guided as to the 
 Adamite period. 
 
 CANTO XXVII. 
 
 After a chorus of praise to the Holy Trinity, the spirits listen silently to 
 Saint Peter, who in an indignant outburst rebukes the government of 
 his successors in the Apostolic See. The Heavenly Host glow with 
 sympathetic indignation at his words, and all then vanish in the height. 
 Beatrice then raises Dante to the ninth Heaven, the nature of which she 
 explains to him, and blames the perversity of mankind, whose aims are 
 set at a lower goal. 
 
 Unto the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 
 Glory throughout all Paradise began, 
 That in the sweet song were my senses lost. 
 
 That which I saw, meseemed a smile that ran 
 
 Throughout the universe, since rapture newer ^ 
 
 By sight and hearing through my being ran. 
 
 O joy ineffable ! gladness pure ! 
 
 O life entire of love and tranquil good ! 
 O free from every longing wealth secure ! 
 
 Before me the four torches kindled stood, ^^ 
 
 And the Apostle who the first did come, 
 With growing brilliancy before me glowed : 
 
 And in his semblance such did he become 
 
 As Jove might do, were he and Mars's pride. 
 
 Grown birds, to interchange them plume for plume. ^* 
 
 Line 15. St. Peter, glowing with indignation, assumed the sanguine hue 
 of Mars in place of his former silvery light. 
 
364 PARADISE.: Canto XXVII. 
 
 The Providence which order doth provide 
 
 And change of duty here, 'mid this blest crew 
 
 Had silence now imposed on everj side 
 What time I heard : " If I take colour new 
 
 Marvel thou not, for while my words begin ^ 
 
 Thou wilt behold each one of these change hue. 
 He who usurps on earth that place of mine, 
 
 That place of mine, that place of mine now vacant, 
 
 Within the presence of G-od's Son Divine, 
 Has of my cemetery made a fecant ^* 
 
 Cesspool of blood and filth, whence the perverse 
 
 Who fell from Heaven, in Hell doth joy complacent." 
 That roseate hue, which o'er a cloud adverse 
 
 The sun doth paint at eventide and morn. 
 
 Beheld I then o'er all the Heaven asperse. *** 
 
 And like a virtuous lady who would scorn 
 
 All sin herself, if only she doth hear 
 
 Of others' frailty, groweth all forlorn, 
 So Beatrice changed her semblance here. 
 
 And so methinks eclipsed the Heavens that hour ^ 
 
 In which the Christ was suffering mortal fear : 
 Proceeded then his words of angry power. 
 
 With voice so changed from its own former tone, 
 
 That even his semblance was not altered more. 
 " The spouse of Christ was fed not with my own, *® 
 
 With Linus', and with Cletus' blood for this, 
 
 Now as a thing of purchase to be known : 
 But to acquire this perfect life of bliss. 
 
 Urban, Calixtus, Sextus, Pius too, 
 
 Their lifeblood shed, after long agonies. "** 
 
 It was not our intention that a few 
 
 Alone should sit at our successors' right, 
 
 And at his left the rest o' the Christian crew. 
 Nor that the keys, granted to me with might. 
 
 Should e'er become the standard in a war ^ 
 
 For those who 'gainst their christened foemen fight ; 
 Nor that my image should be signet for 
 
 Mendacious privileges sold for gain. 
 
 At which I oft glow red and sparkle o'er. 
 
 Line 41. All the martyrs named by St. Peter were amongst his successors, 
 the Bishops of Rome in the second and fourth centuries. 
 
 Line 47. Alluding to the division between Guelphs and Ghibelines, factions 
 fomented by the Popes, who of course favoured their own party. 
 
 Line 52. The seal of St. Peter being affixed to the Papal Bulls, by which 
 were often purchased iniquitous privileges. 
 
Canto XXVII. PARADISE. 36S 
 
 In shepherd garb rapacious wolves are seen * 
 
 From here o'er every pasture wandering free. 
 O shield of God, why dost so still remain ! 
 
 They of Caorsa and of Gascony 
 
 Hasten to drink our blood, to what vile ending 
 
 fair commencement hast thou hurried thee ! ^ 
 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 thou, O son, who through thy mortal coil 
 
 Once more below must turn thee, ope thy mouth, ^* 
 
 From what I hide not, do not thou recoil." 
 
 As upon earth, from frozen vapours, snoweth 
 Our lower air, what time in Capricorn 
 The sun along his winter solstice goeth ; 
 
 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 
 
 Rapt in that upwards gazing, said, " To know 
 
 How thou hast turned thee, downwards cast thy 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 doth 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 V. of Gascony, who trans- 
 ferred the Holy See to Avignon in 1308, and was alluded to in Canto XIX. of 
 the " Hell." 
 
 Line 79. Since he had last looked down on entering the sphere of the 
 fixed stars, Canto XXIL, he had past from the meridian circle to the eastern 
 horizon, one half of the hemisphere. The sun has travelled six hours, 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 Ulysses sailed into mid- 
 ocean— see Canto XXVI. of the " Hell"— and Phoenicia, from the shore of 
 which Jupiter bore Europa as a bull. 
 
366 PARADISE. Cakto XXVII. 
 
 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, enwaffced 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, 
 
 Commenceth 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 hath 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, thy vision must be bent. ^^ 
 
 p 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 doth fairly flower, 
 
 But withereth 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 98. From the constellation of the Gemini, so called from Leda being 
 the motl^er o£ Castor and Pollux. 
 
 Line 112. The empyrean circles this sphere as this sphere circles all the 
 others. 
 
 Line 118. Time takes its measurement from the motion of the primum 
 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. 
 
Canto XXVIII. PARA.DISE. 367 
 
 Who, while in childhood's prattle fasteth, 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 his speech is perfect, now 
 Desirous for her burial, counts the years. ^^^ 
 
 So into sable doth the white skin grow 
 
 From its first aspect, in Ms beauteous child 
 Who bringeth morn, and leaveth eve below. 
 
 Thou, that this cause not in thee 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 doth now with longing wait, ^** 
 
 Will shift each stem, where pointeth 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 sun has been before alluded to. 
 
 Line 142. Before the fractions, left out in each year, so alter the seasons 
 as to talce January out of winter : a periphrasis merely for before many 
 years, before long. The introduction of the Gregorian Calendar has pre- 
 vented the occurrence of such a catastrophe, which would otherwise have 
 taken place. 
 
 Line 146. Dante probably alludes here to no known event, but merely to 
 his own political hopes for the future of Italy, which have since been 
 realised. 
 
 CANTO XXYIII. 
 
 Dante beholds in this ninth sphere the Hierarchies of Heaven in nine choirs 
 of angels encircling the Divine Essence. 
 
 When she who doth imparadise my soul 
 
 O' the present state of wretched mortals' thrall 
 Had thus laid bare to me the truthful scroll ; 
 
 As when upon a mirror there doth fall 
 
 A torch's flame, enkindled from behind, * 
 
 Ere the spectator think of it at all. 
 
 And he turns round to certify his mind 
 
 Whether the glass speak truth, which doth accord 
 With fact, like music unto words designed : 
 
36S PARADISE. Cakto XXVIII. 
 
 Just SO my memory doth here record ^® 
 
 That I did, gazing on those eyes so fair, 
 From whence to bind me, Love hath made his cord : 
 
 And as I turned me round, and was aware 
 Of what within that volume meets the sight 
 Of whoso gazeth on that whirling sphere, ^* 
 
 A point I saw, which radiated light 
 
 So vivid, that the eye on which it blazed 
 
 Must close perforce, through its intenseness bright. 
 
 That star, which from our earth appears the least, 
 
 Beside it placed, would like the moon appear, ^^ 
 
 As star with star in Heaven is interplaced. 
 
 Perchance such distance as appeareth near 
 The light unto its halo, thence im pearled. 
 What time the vapour is most dense in air. 
 
 Such distance round that point, so swiftly whirled ^'' 
 
 A circle of fire, that it in speed had past 
 The sphere, whose motion swiftest girds the world. 
 
 And this within another was enchased. 
 
 That by a third, the third by a fourth again. 
 
 And further yet a fifth and sixth were placed. ^ 
 
 Above, a seventh one followed round the train. 
 Spread out so wide that Iris' coloured zone 
 Were all too small its circle to contain. 
 
 So on the eighth and ninth ; and every one 
 
 Eevolved more slowly, as its distance grew ^'^ 
 
 Yet further from the central unison : 
 
 And each one had its flame of clearer hue 
 As it was nearer to the crystal fire, 
 i'rom which each one its truthful essence drew. 
 
 My lady, who beheld me in desire *^ 
 
 Of knowledge rapt, then told me : " Hangs the Heaven 
 From that one point, and Nature's self entire. 
 
 That circle see, whose place is nearest given, 
 
 And know, its motion whirleth with such speed 
 Through the fire-glowing love with which 'tis driven." *^ 
 
 And I to her : " If the visible world were laid 
 In the order that I see amid yon spheres. 
 That had sufficed me which has now been said. 
 
 Line 11, Dante, startled by the vision reflected in the eyes of Beatrice, turns 
 round to gaze upon the reality. 
 
 Line 14. " That volume" has been differently interpreted, but apparently 
 means the ninth sphere, in which is visible this image of the hierarchies of 
 Heaven. 
 
 Line 46. The celestial spheres whirl faster the further they recede from the 
 central point, the earth : the vision here beheld by Dante shows him each 
 
65 
 
 Canto XXVIII. PARADISE. 369 
 
 But in the spheres celestial there appears 
 
 That each with motion more divine doth move '^ 
 
 As to the centre less and less it nears, 
 Whence if my longing may solution prove, 
 
 Within this wondrous and angelic temple, 
 
 Which has for boundaries only light and love, 
 'Tis meet I still should hear how this ensample *^ 
 
 And thing exemplified at variance go, 
 
 In vain I ponder on a theme so ample." 
 ** If of such knot thy fingers do not know 
 
 The secret 'tis no marvel, since the way 
 
 As yet untried doth make it hard I trow." ^° 
 
 My lady thus, then said to me, " Essay 
 
 That which I'll tell thee, if thou wouldst be taught, 
 
 And round about it let thy fancy play. 
 The spheres of Heaven are wide and narrow wrought, 
 
 According to the virtue more or less. 
 
 The which through all their parts is interfraught. 
 The greater goodness doth more greatly bless ; 
 
 Through all its parts if equal be the glow. 
 
 The greater flame gives greater blessedness. 
 This ninth sphere, then, which whirleth with its flow '^^ 
 
 The lofty universe, doth correspond 
 
 Unto that ring which most doth love and know. 
 Therefore if thou wouldst stretch thy measuring wand 
 
 Unto the virtue, not unto the seeming 
 
 Of substances, now shown to thee in round, ^^ 
 
 Thou wouldst behold a wondrous fitness streaming 
 
 Of great to more, and less to less I ween 
 
 In every Heaven unto its angels* dreaming." 
 As there remaineth splendid and serene 
 
 The hemisphere of air what time there blows ^^ 
 
 The north wind in his mood of gentlest mien, 
 
 sphere, on the contrary, whirling faster the nearer it is to its centre — God. 
 Beatrice's previous reply made no explanation of this contrariety, for which 
 he now asks for the solution. 
 
 Line 64. In the material universe the spheres differ in size according to the 
 extent of their power of good : all parts bemg equally perfect, the more ample 
 the spheres the greater is the power of good, and the swifter must be the 
 motion to complete the circle synchronously with the spheres of less ampli- 
 tude. The intelligential spheres, which represent the intelligences or guiding 
 spirits of each of the material spheres, revolve in speed according to the extent 
 of their Divine vision, and so the ring, that which is nearest to the central 
 point answers to the ninth Heaven, and so on every ring or choir of Heavenly 
 powers answers to its corresponding material sphere. Such is the argument 
 in the text, rendered difficult chiefly by its elliptical form of expression. 
 
 2 B 
 
37Q PARADISE. Canto XIVIII. 
 
 By whicli tlie scudding rack right onwards goes 
 That erst defiled the sky, and all the Heaven 
 Throughout its vault in smiling beauty glows ; 
 So grew I, after that to me was given ** 
 
 By my dear lady in her answer clear, 
 The truth as manifest as star in Heaven : 
 And when her words fell silent on the ear, 
 Not otherwise than glowing iron flares, 
 In coruscations glittered every sphere. '" 
 
 Each sparkle blazing its ranged order bears ; 
 And such their number, that a thousandfold 
 They past the doubling of the chessboard's squares. 
 From choir to choir I heard Hosanna rolled 
 
 To the first point, that holds them in their place ** 
 
 Unchanging, and for evermore will hold. 
 And she exclaimed, who in my mind did trace 
 
 My doubtful thought : " Those circles first in view 
 Display the seraph and the cherub race. 
 So in their orbits do they swift pursue, ^^ 
 
 Growing more like the centre evermo'. 
 As is their sight of it sublime and true. 
 The other loves that round about them go 
 Are called thrones, before the gaze of bliss. 
 With whom the first trine ends. And thou must know ^^^ 
 That all possess apportioned happiness 
 
 As pierces deep their sight into the truth, 
 In which all knowledge rests in blessedness. 
 Hence canst thou see how happiness endueth 
 
 Its essence wholly in the act of seeing, ^^® 
 
 And not in loving, though that hence ensueth : 
 To each the meed of sight is given agreeing 
 
 With what goodwill and grace bring forth and bear ; 
 So it proceeds from grade to grade of being. 
 The other trine, that all its burgeons fair, "* 
 
 Doth open in that sempiternal spring. 
 Never despoiled by autumn's nightly star, 
 Summering on high, Hosannas ever sing 
 
 With threefold melodies, that sound in three 
 Orders of gladness, in their trinal ring. ^ 
 
 Three Heavenly orders in this hierarchy. 
 The dominations first, the virtues then. 
 And third in order, powers thou there dost see. 
 
 Line 93. Counting one for the first square, two for the next, and doubling the 
 product onwards to the last square of the sixty-four, gives a final result of a 
 number with twenty ciphers. 
 
Canto XXIX. PARADISE. 371 
 
 In the penultimate dancing orbs again 
 
 The princedoms and archangels circling move, ^^ 
 
 The last is all of angels' festal train. 
 
 All of these orders Grodwards gaze above, 
 
 And influence so beneath, that Godwards all 
 Are drawn, and Godwards still all draw in love. 
 
 And Dionysius on this festival ^^'^ 
 
 Of orders pondered with such fervency 
 That he distinguished each, and each did call. 
 
 Then Gregory with him did disagree ; 
 
 Who, when his eyes were oped 'mid seraphim, 
 
 Could not but smile his old mistake to see. ^^ 
 
 And if a truth so secret e'er could limn 
 
 Mortal on earth, no marvel need be thine. 
 Since one who saw above made plain to him 
 
 This, and much else about these spheres divine." 
 
 Line 130. The Areopagite, in his book " De Cselesti Hierarchifi,," from which 
 Dante took his system of the Heavenly Powers attached to each sphere : with 
 this system Gregory the Great disagreed in a trifling particular, changing 
 the relative positions of the princedoms and virtues. 
 
 Line 138. St. Paul. The work of Dionysius is, however, of a much 
 later age. 
 
 CANTO XXIX. 
 
 Beatrice satisfies the curiosity of Dante on certain points concerning the 
 creation of Angels and the universe, and explains to him the truth as 
 to the Angelic nature. She then vigorously blames the practice of 
 modern preachers, who, forsaking the simplicity of the Gospel, teach aa 
 truths their owu idle inventions concerning Divine mysteries. 
 
 When of Latona's offspring, either one 
 
 'Neath Aries' sign, and Libra's, in the skies 
 Together of the horizon make their zone. 
 
 Such time as each in equilibrium lies. 
 
 Until exchanging hemispheres there dips * 
 
 The sun's vast orb the while the moon doth rise, 
 
 So long a time with bright smile on her lips 
 Was silent Beatrice, gazing on 
 That point, which o'er my senses cast eclipse. 
 
 Then she began : " I ask not, but make known *® 
 
 What thou wouldst wish to hear, which I have seen 
 There, where all place and time doth meet alone. 
 
 Line 1. So long as the sun and moon hang on the verge of the horizon 
 opposite to each other, while one is setting and the other rising, for such a 
 momentary duration Beatrice was silent. 
 
372 PARADISE. Cahto XXIX. 
 
 Not to increase its excellence, I ween 
 
 That cannot be, but that its splendour might 
 
 Shining in power, assert its life serene : " 
 
 The eternal love, beyond Time's finite sight, 
 
 Or comprehension, in eternity, 
 
 New loves created for its own delight. 
 Nor did it lie in torpor previously ; 
 
 For not in dates of after and before ^ 
 
 Went forth God's spirit, brooding o'er this sea. 
 Both form and substance, mixed as well as pure, 
 
 Sprang into being, from all error free 
 
 As arrows three from thrice-stringed bow made sure. 
 And as on crystal, amber, glass, the ray ^* 
 
 So shines in passing through, that in the beam 
 
 When issuing forth no interval we see. 
 So issuing from its sire, the threefold stream 
 
 Launched into being, all together rayed 
 
 Without distinction as to whence it came. '® 
 
 Together with the substances was made 
 
 This order, of pure intellect the Eace, 
 
 Over the world their sovranty arrayed. 
 Pure power, or chaos held the lowest place ; 
 
 Betwixt them, power with intellect was whirled ^ 
 
 In such firm bond, that nought can e'er unlace. 
 St. Jerome in his pages has unfurled 
 
 That through long ages Angels were created, 
 
 Ere the creation of another world. 
 But this my truth in many texts is stated *® 
 
 By writers, through the Holy Spirit taught. 
 
 Which thou wilt see if carefully collated : 
 And even reason this hath somewhat caught. 
 
 Since one cannot conceive those powers I trow 
 
 Short of perfection could so long be wrought. ■** 
 
 Now thou dost know the where, the when, the how, 
 
 These Angels were created, so that three 
 
 Are satisfied of thy heart-longings now. 
 
 Line 22. Form applies to pure intelligence, the highest order of created 
 beings, substance to power or matter, the lowest, and between them intel- 
 ligence mixed with power, forming the three arrows simultaneously shot 
 from the three-stringed bow. As explained more fully in lines 28 to 37, 
 this describes the simultaneous creation of the Angels, Chaos, and the 
 Celestial Spheres composed of matter and Angelic nature mixed. 
 
 Line 37. St. Jerome had advanced the contrary opinion that Angels were 
 created long anterior to the universe, which was controverted by St. Thomas 
 Aquinas, whose views are adopted by Dante. 
 
 Line 45. It was impossible to conceive that the Angels could have been 
 created before the Celestial Spheres, of which they were the motors, as they 
 would then have existed without object, and consequent perfection. 
 
Cawto XXIX. PARADISE. 878 
 
 Thou couldst not twenty count so rapidly, 
 
 As of the Angel throng there fell a part, ^ 
 
 Troubling your elemental mystery. 
 The rest remained, and then began this art 
 
 Which thou discernest, with such deep delight 
 
 That never from this circling they depart. 
 The reason of the fall was his despite '^^ 
 
 And pride accurst whom thou beheldest bound 
 
 *Neath the world's weight, within the lowest pit. 
 Those whom thou seest here were lowly found 
 
 To know they all things to his goodness owe. 
 
 Who them with aptness for such knowledge crowned. ^^ 
 Therefore their vision was exalted so 
 
 With their own merit, and illuming grace, 
 
 That will complete, which cannot fall, they know. 
 And doubt not, but as certainty embrace, 
 
 That to receive God's grace is meritorious, ^^ 
 
 According as the affection gives it place. 
 Henceforth around their hierarchies glorious 
 
 Gaze at thy will, if thou my words dost store 
 
 Thou need'st no other aid to be victorious. 
 But since according to the schoolmen's lore, ^^ 
 
 They read on earth, the Angelic nature made 
 
 To understand, remember, will, yet more 
 I'll tell thee, that the truth all naked laid 
 
 Thou mayst behold, confounded all below 
 
 Equivocating in such studied braid. '* 
 
 Since first those substances delight did know 
 
 Before the face of God, they never turned 
 
 From it, where nought was hid for evermo'. 
 Therefore on novel objects never yearned 
 
 Their vision, and they therefore never claim ^ 
 
 The help of memory for thought returned. 
 So that on earth do men, while waking dream, 
 
 And some believe, some not, that truth they speak. 
 
 Unto the last is greater sin and shame. 
 Philosophy's straight path ye do not take ** 
 
 On earth : so much the mundane love of show 
 
 And singularity ye ever seek. 
 And even this far less of blame doth know 
 
 In Heaven, than when the Holy Scriptures good 
 
 Are overruled, and strained aside below. *'* 
 
 Line 72. It is an error to attribute to Angels the gift of memory : as they 
 always see all things in God's mirror, they can never require memory to call 
 back an object that has past away. See line 81. 
 
374 PARADISE. Camto XXIX. 
 
 Ye do not think how much it cost of blood 
 To sow it in the world, and what reward 
 Is his, who welcomes it in humble mood. 
 
 Still for appearance each one struggles hard, 
 
 And makes his own inventions, which are theme •* 
 
 For preachers, while the Gospel is debarred. 
 
 One says that in Christ's dying hour supreme 
 The moon returned back, and interposed 
 So that below could shine not the sun's beam. 
 
 Others that light within itself inclosed, ^'° 
 
 So that to Spaniards, Indians, and to Jews, 
 To all alike was such eclipse imposed. 
 
 So many Lapi and Bindi in her stews 
 
 Florence knows not, as in a year are told 
 
 Within her pulpits such fallacious views. ■'*'^ 
 
 So that the sheep, all ignorant, to the fold 
 Be turn from pasture only fed with wind, 
 Not pardoned that their loss they ne'er behold. 
 
 Christ spake not to His followers in this kind, 
 
 Gro forth, and preach ye fables to the world, ^* 
 
 But truth for their foundation He assigned : 
 
 And that so fervently their preaching hurled, 
 That for the battle, true faith to attest 
 Their shield and lance was Gospel truth unfurled. 
 
 Now they but seek for fine words, and a jest, - ^^* 
 
 In preaching, and who only wins a smile 
 Swells in his cowl, and asks no further test. 
 
 But in that cowl what bird doth nest the while 
 If by the crowd were seen, they then would see 
 What pardon 'tis they trust in to assoil : ^^^ 
 
 For which so grows the foohsh greedery, 
 That without any evidence or sign, 
 To every promise doth the crowd agree. 
 
 By this Saint Anthony makes fat his swine, 
 
 And other things, than swine far worse, beside, ^** 
 
 Purchased and paid for with unminted coin. 
 
 But since enough we now have wandered wide, 
 To the straight path henceforth thy vision bear. 
 That hastening the lost time may be supplied. 
 
 Line 102. Taken as the people inhabiting the extreme west, centre, and 
 east of the inhabitable earth. The darkness was universal. 
 
 Line 103. Common names in Florence : the Smiths and Browns of the 
 place. 
 
 Line 124. By the sale of these false indulgences, "unminted," not genuine 
 coin, the brothers of Saint Anthony, formed into an independent order by 
 Boniface VIII., grow rich and support their paramours. 
 
Canto XXX. PARADISE. 375 
 
 The Angelic nature mounts from star to star '^^^ 
 
 In such a multitude, that speech had failed, 
 And mortal thought had never gone so far. 
 
 And if thou look'st on what has been revealed 
 By Daniel, in his thousands thou wouldst see 
 That all determinate number is concealed. ^** 
 
 The primal light which over all doth ray- 
 Doth in a different fashion mingling flow 
 In every splendour, where 'tis paired for aye : 
 
 Whence since to action that conceives, we know 
 
 The affection corresponds, the dulcet love ^*'^ 
 
 Germins in each of them with different glow. 
 
 In future all the height and breadth approve 
 Of the Eternal Worth which thus hath rent 
 Itself in all these mirrors spread above. 
 
 Still as before remaining permanent." ^^* 
 
 Line 134. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand 
 times ten thousand stood before him. — Daniel vii. 10. 
 
 Line 137. God communicates His nature differently to each of the myriad 
 Angelic host, so that each one differs from the rest in love and glory. 
 
 CANTO XXX. 
 
 The hierarchies vanish in the height, and Dante, rapt in the ineffable smile 
 of Beatrice, ascends into the empyrean. There his sight being strengthened 
 by gazing into the river of light, he is able to behold the triumph of the 
 twofold Court of Heaven, the Angels and the souls of the Blessed, spread 
 out like a full white rose. 
 
 There glows, perchance six thousand miles afar. 
 
 The fervid noon, the while our Tuscan land 
 
 Strips off the shadow of night's flying car. 
 When the mid sky, the deepest o'er us spanned. 
 
 Begins to change, that every starry light ^ 
 
 Loses its semblance where on earth we stand ; 
 And as the handmaid of the sun most bright 
 
 Advanceth onwards, so the Heaven doth close. 
 
 Over each star through all its infinite. 
 Not otherwise the triumph which arose ^® 
 
 Ever around that point which me o'erthrew. 
 
 Appearing girt by what it doth inclose, 
 
 Line 1. Dante compares the disappearance of the hierarchies in the height 
 to the stars vanishing in the sky when it is dawn at Florence and noon six 
 thousand miles away. 
 
 Line 12. The hierarchies were inclosed in God, though apparently revolving 
 around Him. 
 
376 PARADISE. Cahto XXX. 
 
 Little by little from my sight withdrew, 
 
 Whence love, and nought to gaze at, me constrained 
 
 To turn my eyes on Beatrix anew. ^* 
 
 If whatsoe'er till now of her was penned 
 
 Were all included in one mighty praise, 
 
 It had not of this turn the height maintained. 
 The beauty that I saw so passes ways 
 
 Not merely human, but I think alone ^ 
 
 Its Maker could its joyaunce all appraise. 
 That I am conquered by this pass I own 
 
 More than was ever bard of whom could boast 
 
 The sock or buskin in a flight unknown. 
 For as the sun, the sight that trembles most, ^* 
 
 So the remembrance of that smile so sweet 
 
 From my own self my mind hath wholly lost. 
 From the first day when I that face did greet 
 
 In this our life until that sight divine 
 
 My song to follow was not all unmeet ; *" 
 
 But now *tis fit that henceforth I resign 
 
 Her beauty to pursue in poet aim, 
 
 As yields each artist to his art's confine. 
 Such, then, I leave her to more high acclaim 
 
 Than that of my weak trumpet, which draws on ^^ 
 
 Unto a final close its arduous theme. 
 Of conquering chief with gesture and with tone 
 
 She recommenced : " Now, issued forth, we move 
 
 In the Heaven of purest light, from the ninth zone. 
 Light intellectual, and full of love, *> 
 
 The love of Truth, all full of gladness aye,^ 
 
 Gladness, all thought of sweetness far above. 
 Here both the serried armies thou shalt see 
 
 Of Paradise, and one in such a seeming 
 
 As thou shalt see them on the judgment day.** ** 
 
 As sudden light that with its rapid gleaming 
 
 Blindeth the visual powers, depriving quite 
 
 The eye of objects that are brightest beaming, 
 So did there shine around me living light, 
 
 And left me shrouded with such veiling stream *^ 
 
 Of its own blaze that nothing met my sight. 
 " Ever the love that stills the Heaven supreme 
 
 With such a weal doth welcome to its home, 
 
 To make the taper fitted for its flame." 
 
 Line 43. The hosts of Angels and of the souls of the Blest, the latter appear- 
 ing as they will do on the final day of doom. 
 
Canto XXX. PARADISE. 377 
 
 Not a whit sooner than to me did come ** 
 
 These words so brief or ere I felt again 
 
 My soul surmounting, with new virtue bloom, 
 And with new vision was I kindled then, 
 
 Such that no glory's clearest lightening 
 
 But that my eyes were able to sustain. •'* 
 
 I saw the light in form of river fling 
 
 Its blazing stream, the which two banks enfold, 
 
 Impainted with the wonder-breathing Spring. 
 From such a river living sparks uproUed, 
 
 And everywhere they set them on the flowers, ®* 
 
 Like unto rubies girt around with gold. 
 Then, as inebriate with the odorous showers. 
 
 They plunged again into the wondrous stream. 
 
 Whence one still issued as another lowers. 
 " The high desire that thee doth now inflame '** 
 
 To seek for knowledge of what thou dost see 
 
 Pleases me more the more it swells thy aim. 
 But ere such thirst be satisfied in thee 
 
 'Tis needful of this wave that thou shouldst drink," 
 
 The day star of my eyes thus spake to me. ^* 
 
 Thereto : " The river, with its smiling brink 
 
 Of flowers and topazes that sink and glide, 
 
 Of their own truth a shadowy prelude link. 
 Not that themselves are not all glorified. 
 
 But the defect is on thy part alone, *** 
 
 Who hast not yet thy vision purified." 
 An unweaned child had not so swiftly run 
 
 With mouth towards the milk, when he doth wake 
 
 Far later than his wont, than I flew on 
 Yet better mirrors of my eyes to make, ^ 
 
 Inclining me with rapture to the waves 
 
 That flow to heal whoe'er his thirst doth slake. 
 The instant that there drank of it the eaves 
 
 Of my drooped lids the stream before my eyes 
 
 Into a circling ring its length enweaves. 
 Then like to people 'neath a masked disguise 
 
 Who others seem than erst, themselves confest 
 
 When stript away their semblant fantasies, 
 So did there change to jubilee increased 
 
 The flowers and sparkles that I there beheld ^* 
 
 Both Courts of Heaven before me manifest. 
 
 Line 61. "The pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out 
 of the Throne of God and of the Lamb." Apocalypse xxii. 1. 
 
 Line 64. Dante as yet beholds the vision dimly, and the Angela appear to 
 him as sparks, the souls of the Blest as flowers. See line 97. 
 
 90 
 
378 PARADISE. Canto XXX. 
 
 O splendour of my God, whence I beheld 
 
 The lofty triumph of the truthful reign, 
 
 Give me the power to say how I beheld ! 
 Light is above that maketh visible plain ^®® 
 
 The Maker to the creature, who alone 
 
 In seeing Him doth perfect peace attain. 
 And in a circular shape it rayeth on. 
 
 Of such a size that its circumference 
 
 Unto the sun would be too large a zone. ^"* 
 
 Upon the primum mobile it hence 
 
 Imprints its semblance with reflected sheen. 
 
 Which thence doth draw its life and influence. 
 And like a cliff that o'er the wave serene 
 
 Mirrors itself, as 'twere, to see how fair "* 
 
 Is all its wealth of flowerets and of green, 
 So standing o'er the light in circles there 
 
 I saw them glassed on more than thousand thrones, 
 
 All of our race who thither made repair. 
 And as the central grade within it owns "* 
 
 So great a light, how vast doth spread in size 
 
 This Rose's petals in its furthest zones ! 
 In all its height and amplitude my eyes 
 
 Were not bewildered, but took in it all, 
 
 The quantity and nature of its joys. "® 
 
 Nearness and distance do not there befall, 
 
 For where God rules immediate and supernal 
 
 The laws of Nature have no sway at all. 
 Within the yellow of the Kose eternal, 
 
 Which opens out in grades and breathes delight *^* 
 
 And odorous praise to the sun for ever vernal, 
 Like one who, silent, fain would speak, forthright 
 
 Beatrix led me on, and said, " Behold 
 
 How great the gathering of our stoles of white ! 
 Behold what space our city doth enfold ! ^^ 
 
 Behold our seats already so complete 
 
 That few more guests we wait to see enrolled. 
 Where thou dost fix thy eyes, on that high seat 
 
 Marked with a crown, already o'er it placed. 
 
 Or ere that thou this nuptial supper greet, ^^ 
 
 Shall sit the soul on earth Augustus graced 
 
 Of the great Harry, who will come to heal 
 
 Our Italy, or ere her mood be past. 
 
 Line 136. Henry VII., who died in 1313, and on whom Dante's hopes for 
 the restoration of a united Italy were always turned. 
 
Camto XXXI. PARADISE. 379 
 
 Blind Avarice that doth witch your common weal 
 
 Hath made ye like the child who drives away ^*^ 
 
 Its nurse, and pining, dies of hunger. Still 
 
 Such prefect will possess the Papal sway 
 Who openly and with his fraudc? unjust 
 Will walk not with him on his noble way, 
 
 But for short period in his holy trust • '** 
 
 Will Grod allow him, hence will he be thrown 
 Where Simon Magus has his meed, and thrust 
 
 The prelate of Alagna lower down." 
 
 Line 142. Pope Clement V., who transferred the Holy See to Avignon, and 
 died in 1314, when he would relieve the prelate of Alagna, Pope Boniface 
 VIII., from the outer place in the pit in which simoniacal Popes are 
 punished. See " HeU," Canto XIX. 
 
 CANTO XXXI. 
 
 While Dante is rapt in the glorious vision of this triumph of the Blest, 
 Beatrice returns] to her throne in Paradise. Saint Bernard takes his 
 place by Dante, and exhorts him to dwell on all the glories before him, 
 that he may be prepared for the supreme reward of at last beholding 
 the Deity. 
 
 There then in fashion of a pure white Rose 
 Displayed itself the holy Host of Heaven, 
 Whom Christ in His dear blood had made His spouse. 
 
 But the Angel Host on wing, by them perceiven, 
 
 His glory sings, who filled their hearts with love ^ 
 
 And goodness, who to them so much had given. 
 
 So like a swarm of bees that now doth move 
 Over the flowers, now doth again return 
 There, where their labour doth its sweetness prove. 
 
 O'er the vast flower it settled now, adorn ^^ 
 
 With leaves so many, and thence upwards flew 
 There where its love doth ever make its bourn. 
 
 Of living flame were all their faces* hue, 
 
 Their wings of gold, and all the rest so white, 
 
 Driven snow so stainless never met the view. " 
 
 When on the flower they dropt, from site to site 
 They shed abroad the peace and ardent power 
 Which they acquired in their transcendent flight. 
 
 Nor did their passing 'twixt the height and flower 
 
 In all the hovering of their swarming state ^ 
 
 Hinder the vision and the splendour shower. 
 
9m PARADISE. CxwTo XXXI. 
 
 Because tlie light Divine doth penetrate 
 
 Throughout the universe, as it is fain, 
 
 So that its passage nothing can rebate. 
 This safely harboured and rejoicing reign ^ 
 
 Frequented by the new race and antique, 
 
 Vision and love shared all throughout their train. 
 
 trinal light that in a star unique 
 
 Shines on their vision with such perfect sway 
 
 Gaze down in pity on our stormy peak ! ^ 
 
 If the barbarians from the Arctic Sea 
 
 (O'er which there daily smiles Helice's smile, 
 With her loved child careering round for aye), 
 
 Beholding Rome and all its mighty pile. 
 
 Were stupefied, what time in grand design ** 
 
 The Lateran surpassed all mortal style ; 
 
 1 who from human unto the Divine 
 
 From time unto eternity had come. 
 
 And out of Florence to a race benign, 
 With what surprise must I have been overcome ! *" 
 
 Certes, 'twixt it and joy, I found it sweet 
 
 Listening to nought to stand in rapture dumb. 
 And like a pilgrim who doth gazing greet 
 
 With holy joy the temple of his vow, 
 
 And hopeth its description to repeat, ^ 
 
 So wandering o'er the light of living glow 
 
 My eyes glanced onwards over every grade. 
 
 Now circling round, now upwards, now below. 
 Faces I saw that charity persuade. 
 
 Adorned with G-od's own light and their own bliss, ^® 
 
 And acts with every comeliness arrayed. 
 The form in general of Paradise 
 
 Already had my gaze all comprehended, 
 
 Whilst on no special part were fixed my eyes, 
 And with new-kindled ardour I intended " 
 
 To ask my lady of some mystery 
 
 On which my mind was eagerly suspended : 
 On one I thought, another answered me : 
 
 An old man garbed like all that glorious race 
 
 I saw when Beatrix I thought to see. ** 
 
 There was diffused o'er his eyes and face 
 
 Benignant gladness, pitiful his air. 
 
 Such as a tender father well might grace. 
 
 Line 26. The saints of the new and old dispensations. 
 
 Line 32. Callisto and her son Areas, changed into the constellations of 
 Ursa Major and Bootes. — Ovid Metam., book ii. 
 
Canto XXXI. PARADISE. 381 
 
 " And where is she ?" I sudden asked him, " where ?" 
 
 When he : "To bring thy longing to an end ®* 
 
 Beatrix sent me from my station there. 
 And from the height, if thou thy search doth wend 
 
 To the third row, she there will meet thy gaze 
 
 Upon the throne her merits have attained." 
 Without reply my eyes I upwards raise, ^^ 
 
 And saw her where she made herself a crown, 
 
 Reflecting from her the eternal rays. 
 Whoever in the sea dived deepest down 
 
 Hath not to raise his mortal eye so far 
 
 Up to the region where the thunders groan, '* 
 
 As was my sight from Beatrice there ; 
 
 But it was nothing, for her effigy 
 
 To me descending did no medium bar. 
 " lady, thou in whom my hope is high. 
 
 Thou for my safety who didst even deign ^ 
 
 To leave thy traces in Hell's precincts, I, 
 By all the wondrous things which I have seen, 
 
 Both of thy mighty power and clemency. 
 
 The virtue and the grace acknowledge fain. 
 From slave thou'st raised me unto liberty ^ 
 
 By all the various paths, by all the ways 
 
 Which had the power to work such alchemy. 
 O still thy liberal segis o'er me raise, 
 
 So that my soul, which thou hast made all sane, 
 
 May win thy favour when it gains release." ^* 
 
 Thus did I pray, and she looked on me fain. 
 
 And smiled on me from her far glory seat. 
 
 Then to the Eternal Fountain turned again. 
 And the holy old man told me : '* To complete 
 
 To full perfection thy accomplished way, ** 
 
 For which her prayer and love did send my feet, 
 Over this garden let thy vision stray. 
 
 For gazing there will kindle thy regard 
 
 To soar aloft to the divinest ray. 
 The Queen of Heaven may such a grace award, ^^ 
 
 Fur whom I burn with ardent love unbated, 
 
 Because I am her faithful son Bernard." 
 
 Line 102. St. Bernard, the chief promoter of the second Crusade. Mr. Gary 
 has pointed out that Dante was in error in attributing to him this particular 
 reverence for the Virgin, as he opposed the doctrine of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception, so recently revived once more in the Roman Church. 
 
S82 PARADISE. Canto XXXI. 
 
 Like one who from Croatia come hath waited 
 
 Our true Veronica to gaze upon, 
 
 Whose gazing, through its fame, is never sated, ^^ 
 
 But says in thought, as long as it is shown, 
 
 O Jesus Christ, my Lord, true God adored, 
 
 In such a semblance then was made your own ? 
 Thus on his living countenance I pored. 
 
 Glowing with charity, who while on earth ^^® 
 
 Tasted Heaven's peace, contemplating his Lord. 
 " child of grace, all this rejoicing worth," 
 
 Thus he began, " thou never more wilt note 
 
 The while thy eye this lowly view preferreth. 
 But gaze upon the circles most remote, "* 
 
 So as to see upon her throne the Queen, 
 
 To whom this realm is subject and devout." 
 I raised my eyes, and as in morning sheen 
 
 Of the horizon all the Eastern front 
 
 Surpasses all the rest of Heaven's domain, ^^^ 
 
 So passing as it were from vale to mount 
 
 With my own eyes I saw the furthest verge 
 
 O'er all the rest in glory light surmount. 
 And as Heaven brightens where there doth upsurge 
 
 The chariot Phaeton drove with skilless aim, ^^^ 
 
 While here and there the starry lights submerge ; 
 In such a way that peaceful oriflamme 
 
 I' the midst glowed brightly, and on every side 
 
 In equal fashion dimmed each lesser flame. 
 And o'er that centre with wings open wide ^^" 
 
 I saw above a thousand Angels glance. 
 
 Each separately endowed and glorified. 
 There saw I at their singing and their dance 
 . Her perfect beauty smiling, that a joy 
 
 Was in the eyes of all that holy trance. ^ 
 
 If for the scene such words I could employ 
 
 Even where my fancy soars, I would not dare 
 
 To essay to paint the least part of that joy. 
 When Bernard saw me with my eyes fixt there 
 
 Upon the warmth which did his love enfold, ^^ 
 
 He with such passion turned his own on her 
 That it made mine more ardent to behold. 
 
 Line 104. The Veronica was the picture o£ Christ, miraculously stamped 
 upon the handkerchief with which He wiped the sweat from His face, and 
 which holiest of relics was preserved in the church of St. Peter at Eome. 
 
 liine 127. The Virgin Mother. 
 
Canto XXXII, PARADISE. 
 
 CANTO XXXII. 
 
 Saint Bernard points out to Dante the order of the saints in Paradise, how 
 those of the Old and New Testaments are equal in number, divided, as 
 it were, by a partition wall of celebi-ated Hebrew women , who head 
 each row of thrones that make the petals of the flower. In the lowest 
 grades are seated the souls of children saved by election solely, and not 
 by their own merits. St. Bernard then exhorts Dante to gaze on the 
 Virgin, so as to gain strength to behold her Son, and to join with him in 
 prayer to her for that final boon. 
 
 In Ms own pleasure rapt, the dreaming man 
 
 Freely the Teacher's office then assumed, 
 
 And thus his holy parlance he began : 
 *' The wound, which Mary closed and balm-perfumed, 
 
 That lovely one who sitteth at her feet * 
 
 First opened, when 'gainst God she first presumed. 
 The next in order there, on the third seat, 
 
 Sits Eachel, underneath our mother Eve, 
 
 Beside her Beatrice thou mayst greet. 
 Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and the grave ^^ 
 
 Ancestress of the Psalmist, who in grief 
 
 Of sin his miserere mei gave : 
 Thou canst behold them thus from sheaf to sheaf 
 
 Descending downwards, while thus name by name 
 
 I go adown the Rose from leaf to leaf : ^* 
 
 And from the seventh grade downwards, just the same 
 
 To this, along the flower the rows succeed. 
 
 And each one headed with a Hebrew dame. 
 Because according to the sight that made 
 
 Their faith in Christ, these as partition wall ^* 
 
 To separate the holy steps are laid. 
 On this side, where the flower is ripened all 
 
 With all its spreading leaves, are seated those 
 
 Who on a Christ to come with faith did call. 
 On the other side, where the semicircular rows ^* 
 
 Are set with vacant places, sit in state 
 
 Who on Christ past their vision did repose. 
 And as on this side doth the glorious seat 
 
 Of Heaven's high Queen, and every other throne 
 
 Beneath it, such a boundary line create, '* 
 
 Line 6. Eve, when she yielded to the temptation. 
 Line 9. On the third row from the top sits Beatrice, beside Rachel. 
 " lo mi sedea coll' antice Rachele." " Hell," Canto II. 
 
 Line 11- Ruth, ancestress of David. 
 
38i PARADISE. Cakto XXXII. 
 
 So opposite, the seat of miglity John, 
 
 Who holy aye, the wilds, and martyr's woe, 
 
 And afterwards Hell's pains two years had known. 
 And him beneath there separating go 
 
 Francis, and Benedict, and Angustin, ^^ 
 
 With others lower down from row to row. 
 Now see the lofty purposes divine. 
 
 That one and other aspect of the faith 
 
 Within this garden equally shall shine. 
 Know too that 'neath the grade, whose cincture rayeth ^ 
 
 In equal portions the compartments two. 
 
 Sit none by personal merit that he hath ; 
 But by another's, with conditions too : 
 
 For all of these are spirits who were freed 
 
 Before that they had made election true. ^ 
 
 This by their faces thou mayst well aread. 
 
 And even by their youthful voices clear. 
 
 If well to look and listen thou dost heed. 
 Now thou dost doubt, nor dost thy doubtings bar : 
 
 But I will loose for thee the mighty bond ^ 
 
 On which thy subtile thoughts have bound thee here. 
 Within the breadth of all this kingdom's bound 
 
 A place chance granted never could upspring, 
 
 As sadness, thirst, and hunger ne'er are found. 
 For by the laws eternal, everything ~ ^ 
 
 Which thou dost see is 'stablished, justly hence 
 
 It answers as the finger to the ring. 
 Therefore these spirits rathely gathered thence, 
 
 Have come not to true life without a cause : 
 
 Here entering with degrees of excellence. ^ 
 
 The king, through whom this kingdom maketh pause 
 
 In so great love, and in so great delight. 
 
 That daring will its wish no farther draws, 
 The minds of all, in its own aspect bright 
 
 Creating, at his pleasure dowers with grace ®* 
 
 Diversely ; let the effect suffice thy sight. 
 
 Line 33. St. John tlie Baptist having to remain two years in Limbo, 
 awaiting the death of Christ and his triumph over Hell. 
 
 Line 49. The doubt unexpressed by Dante, and which Bernard endeavours 
 to clear away, is why these souls of children, saved by no merit of their own, 
 and only absolved from the stain of original sin by the Atonement, have in 
 Paradise different grades of glory, which would appear to be granted by 
 chance. This difficulty Bernard answers by asserting the doctrine of Elec- 
 tion, which must be accepted from its visible effect, and not further ques- 
 tioned. See line 66. 
 
Canto XXXII. PARADISE. 385 
 
 And this express, and clearly ye may trace 
 
 In Holy Scripture, which those twins declare 
 
 To have struggled in their mother's womb for place. 
 Therefore according as is hued the hair ^® 
 
 Of such a granted grace, that highest light 
 
 It fitteth worthily that one should wear. 
 Then without merit of their deeds done right. 
 
 They here are placed in different grades of glory, 
 
 Though differing only in their granted sight. '^ 
 
 Sufficed it in the earliest years of story, 
 
 With innocence, salvation to attain. 
 
 Only their parents' faith hereditary. 
 When the first ages were completed, then 
 
 To males it needed for their innocent plume, ^ 
 
 Through circumcision, virtue to obtain. 
 But after that the time of grace had come, 
 
 Without the perfect bapti^n of Christ 
 
 Such innocence was held below in doom. 
 Now gaze upon the face, that unto Christ ^ 
 
 Eesembles most, since that all crystal light 
 
 Alone can thee dispose to look on Christ." 
 I saw above her showered so great delight. 
 
 Borne on the holy minds of the Angel brood, 
 
 Created aye to hover o'er that height, "" 
 
 That whatsoever I before had viewed 
 
 Me in such admiration ne'er suspended, 
 
 Nor of our Grod such semblance ever shewed. 
 And the Angel love, who first had there descended 
 
 Ave Maria, gratia plena, sung, ^■'' 
 
 And over her his golden wings extended. 
 Unto the song divine an answer rung 
 
 From every portion of the blessed Court, 
 
 That o'er each face serene new beauty sprung. 
 " O holy father, who dost here resort 
 
 For my sake, leaving the sweet station higher 
 
 In which thou sittest by eternal sort ; 
 Who is that angel, that with such desire 
 
 Looks in the eyes of our dear Queen so fair, 
 
 Enamoured so, he seemeth all on fire ?" 
 
 Line 68. The doctrine of Election asserted by Saint Paul, and exemplified 
 by the case of the twins Esau and Jacob :— " For the chUdren being not yet. 
 born, neither having done any good or evil, that the promise of God according 
 to Election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. Romans ix. 
 10, 11. 
 
 2 C 
 
386 PARADISE. Canto XXXII. 
 
 Thus to the le£lrning still did I repair 
 
 Of him, who caught from Mary beauty free, 
 As from the sun sweet Venus' morning star. 
 
 " Boldness and gladness such," said he to me, 
 
 " As e'er can be in angel or in spirit, "^ 
 
 Is all in Him, as fitly it should be. 
 
 For this is He, who bore the palm of merit 
 Below to Mary, when the Son of God 
 Willed all our mortal burden to inherit. 
 
 But henceforth let thy eyes be cast abroad, "* 
 
 While my speech wandering, every leader shows 
 Of this most pious and most just abode. 
 
 The twain that most in happiness repose 
 By being nearest to Augusta placed, 
 Are as it were the twin roots of this Eose. ^^^ 
 
 The one who on her left hand sitteth graced 
 
 Is the first sire, through wtose heart lusting bold 
 The human race such bitterness doth taste. 
 
 On her right hand thou seest the father old 
 
 Of the Holy Church, to whom Christ gave the keys ^^* 
 Of the garden which this crowning flower doth hold. 
 
 He, who saw all the time of heaviness. 
 
 Or ere he perished, of the beauteous bride, 
 Whom by the lance and nails Christ won for his, 
 
 Beside him sits : the other one beside, *"*^ 
 
 Eesteth that chief, 'neath whom there lived on manna 
 The people ingrate, fickle, cursed with pride. 
 
 To Peter opposite see seated Aima, 
 
 To gaze upon her daughter so content 
 
 Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna. ^^^ 
 
 Before the sire of all men's races blent, 
 
 Sits Lucia, who thy lady moved to wonne, 
 When thou didst bend thy brows, on ruin bent. 
 
 But since thy vision to an end draws on, 
 
 Here will we pause, like tailor who doth prove "^ 
 
 His skiU, as cloth is given to make the gown. 
 
 Line 127- St. John, wlio saw and related in the Apocalypse the early 
 persecutions of the Church. 
 
 Line 130. The Virgin divides the saints of the old and new dispensations. 
 On her left hand are Adam, Moses, &c. ; on her right Peter and John, &c., 
 until the semicircles unite in John the Baptist, seated opposite to the Virgin. 
 John the Baptist has for his neighbours Anna and Lucia, opposite to Peter 
 and Adam, Lucia being supposed to represent Grace, though, from her 
 rank in the first row of Paradise, some real person would appear to be 
 intended, as 'the poet's love Beatrice also represents spiritual religion. 
 
Canto XXXIII. PARADISE. 387 
 
 And we will raise our eyes to the primal love, 
 That looking towards it thou mayst penetrate, 
 As far as possible, its beams above. 
 
 Yet of a truth, the while thy pinions beat, "* 
 
 Thou dost fall back, believing thou dost speed, 
 'Tis fit that first for grace I should entreat : 
 
 Grace given by her, who hath the power to aid : 
 And thou wilt follow me with yearning there. 
 That to my words thy heart be closely laid." ^^^ 
 
 Therewith he thus began this holy prayer. 
 
 CANTO xxxin. 
 
 Saint Bernard prays to the Virgin that Dante may receive grace to contem- 
 plate the Divine Essence, and the prayer is granted. Dante then prays 
 that he may have power to record some portion of the glory he beholds, 
 and describes his final vision of the Supreme Mystery. 
 
 " O Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, 
 Humble and lofty more than any creature. 
 The fixt bound where the eternal councils run. 
 
 Thou art the perfect one who human nature 
 
 Didst so ennoble that did not disdain * 
 
 Its Maker from thee to take form and feature. 
 
 Within thy womb the love was lit again. 
 
 Through warmth of which in its eternal peace 
 This flower in beauty hath thus bloomed amain. 
 
 Thou art the midday torch within this place ^^ 
 
 Of charity, and unto mortals lower 
 The living fountain of all hope and grace. 
 
 Lady, thou art so great and hast such power 
 That whoso willeth grace and runs to thee. 
 Would without pinions wish his will could soar. ^* 
 
 Not only succours thy benignity 
 
 Whoso demands it, but full many a time. 
 Or ere the prayer be formed, 'tis offered free. 
 
 In thee fair Mercy, in thee Pity's prime. 
 
 In thee magnificence, in thee unite ^ 
 
 Whatever goodness doth in creature limn. 
 
 Behold this man, who from the lowest pit 
 O' the universe unto this height hath seen 
 Of spiritual life the phases infinite. 
 
 Of grace he prays to thee for virtue keen, ^* 
 
 Such that his human eyes may upwards yearn 
 Until the sovran mystery be seen. 
 
388 PARADISE. Canto XXXIH. 
 
 And I, who for my vision ne'er did burn 
 
 More than I do for his, my prayers in whole 
 
 Offer, and pray they have not scant return. ^* 
 
 Thou, therefore, from him every cloud uproU 
 
 Of his mortality with prayers of thine. 
 
 So that the highest bliss shine on his soul. 
 Again I pray to thee, O queen benign, 
 
 Who canst whate'er thou wilt, his passions all ** 
 
 Keep ever pure after such sight divine. 
 Let thy protection guard him from a fall. 
 
 See Beatrice with all these the blest 
 
 Join their raised palms in furtherance of my call." 
 The eyes by G-od for ever loved the best *® 
 
 Fixt on the speaker, then how holy prayers 
 
 Are grateful to them made all manifest. 
 Thence to the Eternal Light their vision rears, 
 
 In which believe that never creature higher 
 
 Within its mystery such clear eye bears : ** 
 
 And I, who to the end of all desire 
 
 Was then approaching, as was fit the while, 
 
 Finisht the ardour of my yearning's fire. 
 Then beckoned to me Bernard with a smile 
 
 That I should upwards gaze, but I, in sooth, '® 
 
 Already gazed where he my sight would guile. 
 And as my vision more of strength endueth 
 
 Yet more and more it entered through the ray 
 
 O' the sovran light, which in itself is truth. 
 r" From here henceforward more than parlance may " 
 
 My vision knew ; here words to sight must yield, 
 
 And memory to such excess give way. 
 Like one who sees in dreaming things revealed, 
 
 And when the dream is o'er passion's impress 
 I Remains, while to the mind all else is sealed, ^ 
 
 ^"^ So am I now, that all, as 'twere, doth cease 
 
 My vision, while there yet on me distils 
 
 Within the heart, born from it. Heavenly peace. 
 Thus in the sun the snow dissolves in rills ; 
 
 Thus in the wind, inscribed in flying leaves, ^ 
 
 Are lost for aye the sibyl's oracles. 
 O highest light, that so itself upheaves 
 
 Above all mortal thought, upon me shower 
 
 Some likeness which thy witnessed image leaves, 
 And make this tongue of mine possess such power ""^ 
 
 That of thy glory but one spark alone 
 
 To future ages it may leave as dower. 
 
Canto XXXni. PARADISE. 389 
 
 If but returns ilpon my mind a tone, 
 
 And in these verses but the briefest sound, 
 
 Thy victory more perfect will be known. '* 
 
 I think I should have fallen in a s wound f^ 
 
 The while I bore that blaze of living light ; 
 
 If once, hence straying, were my vision found. 
 And I remember that I gathered might 
 
 By this to bear so much that I illumed ^ 
 
 My vision with perfection infinite. 
 O grace abounding, whence I there presumed 
 
 Upon the Eternal Light to fix my gaze 
 
 So long as vision was not all consumed ! 
 Within its depths I saw, wheTein doth blaze *** 
 
 Bound up with love into one volume bright, 
 
 Whate'er the mighty universe displays : 
 Substance and accident in endless might. 
 
 All breathed together, in such fashion planned 
 
 That what I now describe is simple light. ^ 
 
 The universal form of the world's band 
 
 Methinks I saw, because where thus displayed 
 
 More largely I perceive my joy expand. 
 One moment's pause had me even more delayed 
 
 Than five- and- twenty ages the emprise ^^ 
 
 Which Neptune's wonder won at Argo's shade. 
 So my mind, gathering all its energies. 
 
 Grazed fixt, immovable, and all intent. 
 
 And ever more enkindled through the eyes. 
 Upon that light, whoever's gaze is bent, ^^''^ 
 
 From it towards any other sight to veer 
 
 Impossible that he can e'er consent. 
 Because all good, for which desire forms prayer, 
 
 In it is centered, and beyond its rood 
 
 All is defective which is perfect there. ^^ 
 
 Henceforth my speech must fail in what I viewed. 
 
 Even so far as I remember, more 
 
 Than un weaned child's that craves its milky food. 
 Not that the semblance other image bore 
 
 Within the living light on which I gazed, '^" 
 
 Which ever is the same it was before, 
 
 Line 85. The Deity is figured as every quality of His universe condensed 
 into what appeared at first as purely light. 
 
 Line 94. The pause of a moment at such a time were to him greater than a 
 delay of twenty-five ages to the Argonauts. 
 
 Line 109. There was no change in the Deity, which appeared as light, but 
 through increased strength of vision the seer caught a glimpse of its mysteries 
 revealed to him. 
 
390 PARADISE. Canto XXXIII. 
 
 But through my vision, which more keenly blazed 
 As still I looked on it, one single seeming 
 Before me travailed, as I changed amazed. 
 
 Within the substance, deep and clearly gleaming ^^* 
 
 Of the high light, three wheels appeared, which shone 
 With colours three, and in one boundary beaming. 
 
 And as from Iris, Iris, one from one 
 
 Appeared reflected, and the third seemed fire 
 
 That from them both was equally breathed on. ^'^ 
 
 O how my speech falls short, and doth retire 
 Below my thought, and that, to what I saw, 
 To say 'twere little answers not desire. 
 
 O light eterne, who in thee dost withdraw 
 
 Alone, self-comprehended, self-perceived, ^-^ 
 
 On me thou smiled' st down thy light and law. 
 
 That second circling wheel, which so conceived, 
 Appeared in thee as a reflected light, 
 When somewhat further by my eyes received, 
 
 Within itself, with its own colour bright, ^^^ 
 
 Appeared as painted with our efiigy, 
 Wherefore on it my vision pored with might. 
 
 Like the geometrician who doth try 
 
 To square the circle, and can never find 
 
 In thought the principle he needeth, I ^^* 
 
 Was thus before that vision new designed. 
 
 I wished to see how there the shape found home 
 Within the. circle, and how there confined : 
 
 But such a flight was not for my poor plume, 
 
 Did not across my mind a glory steal '^^ — ^-^ "** 
 
 From out the splendour, whence its wish did come. 
 
 To the high fancy here my power did fail. 
 But turned my will already as willed there 
 (Moved on with equal motion like a wheel), 
 
 The love which moves the sun and every star. ^^ 
 
 Line 116. The Trinity. The Second wheel reflected from the first, the Third 
 progressing from the other two. 
 
 Line 127. In the Second Person he beholds a glimpse of the incarnation of 
 the Deity clothed in human form, but such a mystery was beyond his powers 
 
 Line 140. The glory of the Deity breaking on Dante's soul inspired it with 
 perfect accordance to the Divine Will, and left him content not to aspire after 
 the unattainable. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PKINTED BY JAS. WADK, TAVISTOCK STREET, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN.