THE DIVINE COMEDY
OF
DANTE ALIGHIERI
TRANSLATED BY
CHARLES ELIOT NORTON ^\>. *&*
(COMPLETE EDITION THREE VOLUMES IN ONE
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COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY ELIOT NORTON
Copyright, 1891, 1892 and 1902, by Charles Eliot Norton Copyright, 1919, by Eliot Norton
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NOTE TO THE REVISED EDITION
IN the present edition of my translation I have corrected some errors and cleared up some obscurities which existed in it as first published, and I have made many minor changes in the order and rendering of words for the sake of greater fidelity to the original, or greater clear- ness of expression, or greater ease of diction. I have also added largely to the number of the notes.
In the work of revision, as originally in that of translation, I have sought assistance from the work of my predecessors in the same field, and I have not hesitated to borrow a felicitous word or phrase wherever I might find it.1
I I am thus indebted to the translations in verse of the whole poem of my late friends Mr. Longfellow and Sir Fred- erick Pollock, and to the translations in prose of my friend the Hon. William Warren Vernon, and of Mr. A. J. Butler, and also to the prose version of the Inferno by the late Dr John Carlyle, of the Purgatorio by Mr. W. S. Dugdale, and of the Paradiso by the Rev. P. H. Wicksteed. But this list comprises a very small part of the works to which I am under obligation alike in the text and in the notes.
iv NOTE TO THE REVISED EDITION
I have given, perhaps, as much time to the revision as to the original making of the trans- lation. But a translator, in proportion to his competence, is likely to recognize the defects of his work, and now, as I look over the pages of my book, I feel the desire to subject them to a fresh revision. But it is too late ; I can- not expect to do more hereafter for the im- provement of my work, than, possibly, to give it some final thumbnail touches.
In looking back over life I am not sorry to have devoted much time to the study of Dante. It has been far more to me than merely an interesting literary occupation. It is especially associated in remembrance with two dear mas- ters and friends, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Russell Lowell, and to their mem- ory I dedicate these volumes.
SHADY HILL, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, I October, 1901.
AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE "DIVINE COMEDY"
THE following translation is intended pri- marily for two classes of readers : first, for those who, unable to read the Divine Comedy in the original, desire to obtain knowledge of its con- tents ; second, for those who, with more or less acquaintance with Italian, undertake to read the poem in its original tongue, and need help in its interpretation.
For both these classes the Dante Dictionary f of Mr. Paget Toynbee is of especial value. It contains the information, in concise and con- venient form, which every student of Dante's works requires, and is in fact a universal com- ment of remarkable completeness and accuracy.
Beginners of the study of the Divine Comedy in Italian will find the English Commentary 2 by the Rev. H. F. Tozer of great service. It ex- plains the form and meaning of words, and the
1 A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante. By Paget Toynbee, M. A. Oxford, 1898.
2 An English Commentary on Dante* s Divina Commedia By the Rev. H. F. Tozer, M. A. Oxford, 1901.
iri AIDS TO STUDY
difficulties of construction, and gives the needed information in respect to the matter of the poem.
The Notes and Illustrations which accom- pany Mr. Longfellow's Translation form an admirable literary comment on the poem.
The essay on Dante by Mr. Lowell is the best general introduction for a mature reader to the life, times, and work of the poet.
With these books the beginner will find himself sufficiently equipped for the intelligent study of Dante. But as he advances in the study he will require others, among the most desirable of which are the following : —
Fay, Dr. E. A. Concordance of the Divina
Commedia. Boston, 1888. Moore, Rev. Dr. Edward. Contributions to the Textual Criticism of the Divina Com- media. Cambridge, 1889. Moore, Rev. Dr. Edward. Studies in Dante, First and Second Series. Oxford, 1896 and 1899.
All of the works of Dr. Moore, the chief of living Dante scholars, are of ex- ceptional importance and interest. Vernon, The Honble William Warren. Read- ings on the Infernoy the Purgatorio> and tht Paradiso of Dante. London, 1894-1 900. In six volumes.
AIDS TO STUDY vii
These Readings consist of a Text, Trans- lation and an elaborate and eminently use- ful Comment.
Gardner, Edmund G- Dante s Ten Heavens. A Study of the Paradiso. Westminster, 1898.
An interesting study of the interior meaning of the Paradiso. Every Italian student should possess Tutte le Opere di Dante Alighieri, nuovamente rivedute nel TestOy dal Dr. E. Moore, published at Ox- ford by the University Press. This compact, carefully edited and admirably printed volume affords the present textus receptus of Dante's works. It should be generally adopted for purposes of reference. The advantage to the scholar is great in having all the works of Dante in a single volume, because of their close mu- tual relations and frequent mutual illustration. There are numerous useful editions of the Divine Comedy with Italian notes. Two of the best are that of Casini and that of Scartaz- zini. The remarkable Enciclopedia Dantesca, in two volumes, of the last-named editor is at once a complete and elaborate vocabulary for Dante's Italian works, and a critical and expla- natory dictionary of all that pertains to his life and writings. There is no other single book which contains so large an amount of informa*
viii AIDS TO STUDY
tion indispensable to the student of Dante as these two volumes. They are a monument to the industry and learning of one of the most devoted scholars of the poet.
I will not attempt to furnish a list of works for the service of those who would become of the familiars of Dante. Their field of study is the omne scibile.
NOTE.
In the notes to the following version references to the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas are indicated by the initials S. T., followed by numerals designating the Part, the Question, and the Article referred to.
INTRODUCTION
EVERY fresh attempt at translating the Di- vine Comedy affords proof of Dante's asser- tion that " nothing harmonized by a musical bond can be transmuted from its own speech without losing all its sweetness and harmony." The coalescence of the music and the meaning of the verse, in the perfection of which the life of poetry consists, cannot be transferred from one tongue to another. A new harmony may be substituted, but the difference is fatal. The translation may have a life of its own, but it is not the life of the original.
No poem in any language displays a more indissoluble union of music and meaning, or is more informed with a rhythmic life of its own than the Divine Comedy. And yet, such is its extraordinary distinction, no poem has an intel- lectual and emotional substance more independ- ent of its metrical form. Its complex structure and its elaborate rhyme, higffly artificial as they are, are so mastered by the genius of the poet as to become the most natural expression of the spirit by which the poem is inspired ; while at the same time the thought and sentiment em*
jl, vii > 14-.
x INTRODUCTION
bodied in the verse is of such import, and the narrative of such interest, that they do not lose their worth when transferred to another tongue.
To preserve in its integrity what may be thus transferred, prose is a better medium than verse ; and it was because of my conviction to this effect that I undertook this translation, in which my aim has been to follow the words of Dante as closely as our English idiom allows, and thus to give to the reader the substance of the poem as little altered as possible.
There are, indeed, many passages in it which require explanation or illustration for Italian, and, even more, for English readers. To these I have supplied footnotes, generally brief. But I have desired to avoid distracting attention from the direct narrative, and have mainly left the understanding and appreciation of it to the intelligence and imagination of the reader.
A far deeper -lying and more pervading source of imperfect comprehension of the poem than any difficulty of construction, obscurity of argument, or remoteness of allusion exists in the double meaning that runs through it. The account of the poet's spiritual journey is so vivid and consistent that it has all the reality of an account of an actual experience ; but within and beneath runs a stream of allegory not less consistent and hardly less continuous
INTRODUCTION »
than the narrative itself. To the illustration and carrying out of this interior meaning even the minutest details of external incident are often made to contribute, with an appropriate- ness of significance, and with a freedom from forced interpretation such as no other writer of allegory has succeeded in attaining. The poem may be read with interest as a record of expe- rience with little attention to its inner mean- ing, but its full interest is only felt when this inner meaning is traced, and the moral signifi- cance of the incidents of the story apprehended by the alert intelligence. The allegory is the soul of the poem, — that is, in scholastic phrase, the form of its body, giving to it its special individuality.
Thus in order truly to understand and rightly appreciate the poern the reader must contin- ually seek the inner meaning of its story. " Taken literally," as Dante declares in his Letter to Can Grande, £^the subject is the state 1r of the soul after death, simply considered. But allegorically taken, its subject is man, according as by his good orTIl deserts he renders himself liable to the reward or punishment of Justice." It is the allegory of human life ; and not of human life as an abstraction, but of the individ- ual life ; arid herein, as Mr. Lowell has said, w lie its profound meaning and its permanent
xii INTRODUCTION
force." And herein, too, lie its perennial fresh- ness of interest and the actuality which makes it contemporaneous with every successive gen- eration. The increase of knowledge, the loss of belief in doctrines that were fundamental in Dante's creed, the changes in the order of so- ciety, the new thoughts of the world, have not lessened the moral import of the poem, any more than they have lessened its excellence as a work of art. Its real substance is as inde- pendent as its artistic beauty, of science, of creed, and of institutions. Human nature does not change from age to age ; the motives of action remain the same, though their relative force and the desires and ideals by which they are inspired vary from generation to generation. And thus it is that the moral judgments of a great poet whose imagination penetrates to the core of things, and who, from his very nature as poet, conceives and sets forth the issues of life not in a treatise of abstract morality, but by means of sensible types and images, never lose interest, and have a perpetual contemporane- ousness. They deal with the permanent and unalterable elements of the soul of man.
The scene of the poem is the spiritual world, of which we are members even while still deni- zens in the world of time. In the spiritual world the results of sin or perverted love, and
INTRODUCTION xiii
of virtue or right love, in this life of probation, are manifest. The life to come is but the ful- filment of the life that now is.
The allegory in which Dante cloaked this truth is of a character that distinguishes the Divine Comedy from all other works of similar intent. In The Pilgrim *s Progress •, for example, the personages are types of moral qualities or religious dispositions, mere simulacra of men and women. They are abstractions which the genius of Bunyan fails to inform with vitality sufficient to kindle the imagination of the reader with a sense of their actual, living and breath- ing existence. But in the Divine Comedy the personages are all from real life,, they are men~ and women with their natural passions and emo- tions, and they are undergoing an actual expe- . rience. The allegory consists in making their characters and their fates, what all human char- acters and fates really are, the types and images of spiritual law. Virgil and Beatrice, whose natures as depicted in the poem make nearest approach to purely abstract and typical exist- ence, are always consistently presented as liv- ing individuals, exalted indeed in wisdom and power, but with hardly less definite and concrete humanity than that of Dante himself.
The scheme of the created Universe held by the Christians of the Middle Ages was compar-
xiv INTRODUCTION
atively simple, and so definite that Dante, in accepting it in its main features without modi- fication, was provided with the limited stage re- quisite for his design, and of which the general disposition was familiar to all his readers. The three spiritual realms had their local bounds marked out as clearly as those of the earth it- self. Their cosmography was but an extension of the largely hypothetical geography of the time.
The Earth was supposed to be the centre of the Universe, and its northern hemisphere was the abode of man. At the middle point of this hemisphere stood Jerusalem, equidistant from the Pillars of Hercules on the west, and the Ganges on the east.
Within the body of this hemisphere was Hell, shaped as a vast hollow cone, of which the apex was the centre of the globe ; and here, accord- ing to Dante, was the seat jqf_ Lucifer. The concave of Hell hadTieen formed by his fall, when a portion of the solid earth, through fear of him, ran back to the southern uninhabited hemisphere, and formed there, directly antipo- dal to Jerusalem, the mountain of Purgatory, which rose a solid cone from the waste of waters that covered this half of the globe, and at its summit was the Terrestrial Paradise.
Immediately surrounding the atmosphere of
INTRODUCTION xv
the Earth was the sphere of elemental fire. Around this was the Heaven of the Moon, and encircling this, in succession, were the Heavens of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jove, Sat- urn, the Fixed Stars, and the Crystalline or First Moving Heaven. These nine concentric Hea- vens revolved continually around the Earth, and in proportion to their distance from it was the greater swiftness of each. Encircling all was the Empyrean, increate, incorporeal, mo- tionless, unbounded in time or space, the proper seat of God, the home of the Angels, the abode of the Elect.
The Angelic Hierarchy consisted of nine orders, corresponding to the nine moving Hea- vens. Their blessedness and the swiftness of the motion with which in unending delight they circled around God were in proportion to their nearness to Him, — first the Seraphs, then in succession the Cherubs, Thrones, Dom- inations, Virtues, Powers, Princes, Archangels, and Angels. Through them, under the gen- eral name of Intelligences, the Divine influence was transmitted to the Heavens, giving to these their circular motion, which was the ex- pression of their longing to be united with the source of their creation. The Heavens in their turn streamed down upon the Earth the Divine influence thus distributed among thems
KVI INTRODUCTION
in constantly varying proportion and power, producing divers effects in the generation and corruption of material things, and in the dispo- sitions and the lives of men.
Such was the accepted general scheme of the Universe. The intention of God in its creation was to communicate of His perfection to the creatures endowed with souls, that is, to men and to angels, and the proper end of every such
/ creature was to seek its own perfection in like- ness to the Divine. This end was attained through that knowledge of God of which the soul was capable, and through love which was in proportion to knowledge. Virtue depended on the free will of man ; it was the good use of that will directed to a right object of love. Two lights were given to the soul for guidance of
/ the will : the light of reason for natural things and for the direction of the will to moral vir- tue ; the light of grace for things supernatural, and for the direction of the will to spiritual vir- tue. Sin was the opposite of virtue, the choice by the will of false objects of love; it involved the misuse of reason and the absence of grace. As the end of virtue was blessedness, so the end of sin was misery.
The corner-stone of Dante's moral system was the Freedom of the Will ; in other words, the right of private judgment with the condition
INTRODUCTION xvii
of accountability. This is the liberty which Dante, that is, man, goes seeking in his journey through the spiritual world. This liberty is to be attained through the right use of reason, illuminated by Divine Grace ; it consists in the perfect accord of the will of man with the will of God.
With this view of the nature and end of man Dante's conception of the history of the race could not be other than that its course was providentially ordered. The fall of man had made him a just object of the vengeance of God ; but the elect were to be redeemed, and for their redemption the history of the world from the beginning was directed. Not only in His dealings with the Jews, but in His dealings with the heathen was God preparing for the reconciliation to Himself of man, to be finally accomplished in his sacrifice of Himself for them. The Roman Empire was foreordained and established for this end. It was to prepare the way for the establishment of the Roman Church. It was the appointed instrument for the political government of men. Empire and Church were alike divine institutions for the guidance of m an on_earth.__
The aim of Dante in the Divine Comedy was to set forth these truths in such wise as to affect the imaginations and touch the hearts of men,
xviii INTRODUCTION
so that they should turn to righteousness. His conviction of these truths was no mere matter of belief; it had the ardor and certainty of faith. They had appeared to him in all their -fulness as a revelation of the Divine wisdom. It was his work as poet, as poet with a Divine com- mission, to make this revelation known. His work was a work of faith ; it was sacred ; to it both Heaven and Earth had set their hands.
To this work, as I have said, the definiteness and the limits of the generally accepted theory of the Universe gave the required frame. The very narrowness of this scheme made Dante's design practicable. He had had the exgerience of a man on earth. He had been lured by false objects of desire from the pursuit of the true good. But Divine Grace, in the form of Bea- trice, who had when alive on earth led him aright, now intervened and sent to his aid Vir- gil, who, as the type of Human Reason, should bring him safe through Hell, showing to him the eternal consequences of sin, and then should conduct him, penitent, up the height of Purga- tory, till on its summit, in the Earthly Paradise, Beatrice herself should appear once more to him. Thence she, as the type of that know- ledge from which comes the love of the Divine Being, should lead him through the Heavens up to the Empyrean, to the consummation of his course in the actual vision of God.
HELL
CONTENTS
CANTO I
Dante, astray in a wood, reaches the foot of a hill which he begins to ascend ; he is hindered by three beasts ; he turns back and is met by Virgil, who proposes to guide him into the eternal world
CANTO II
Dante, doubtful of his own powers, is discouraged at the outset. — Virgil cheers him by telling him that he has been sent to his aid by a blessed Spirit from Heaven, who revealed herself as Beatrice. — Dante casts off
fear, and the poets proceed • . 9
CANTO III
The gate of Hell. — Virgil leads Dante in. — The pun- ishment of those who had lived without infamy and without praise. — Acheron, and the sinners on its bank. — Charon. — Earthquake. — Dante swoons . 16
CANTO IV
The further side of Acheron. — Virgil leads Dante into Limbo, the First Circle of Hell, containing the spirits of those who lived virtuously but without faith in Christ. — Greeting of Virgil by his fellow poets. — They enter a castle, where are the shades of ancient worthies. — After seeing them Virgil and Dante de- part 22
xx CONTENTS
CANTO V
The Second Circle, that of Carnal Sinners. — Minos.
— Shades renowned of old. — Francesca da Rimini 29
CANTO VI
The Third Circle, that of the Gluttonous. — Cerberus.
— Ciacco 35
CANTO VII
The Fourth Circle, that of the Avaricious and the Prodi- gal. — Pluto. — Fortune. — The Styx. The Fifth Circle, that of the Wrathful 41
CANTO VIII
The Fifth Circle. — Phlegyas and his boat. — Passage of the Styx. — Filippo Argenti. — The City of Dis.
— The demons refuse entrance to the poets ... 46
CANTO IX
The City of Dis. — Erichtho. — The Three Furies. —
The Heavenly Messenger. The Sixth Circle : that of the Heretics 52
CANTO X
The Sixth Circle. — Farinata degli Uberti. — Caval- cante Cavalcanti. — Frederick II 59
CANTO XI
The Sixth Circle. — Tomb of Pope Anastasius. — Discourse of Virgil on the divisions of the lower Hell 66
CANTO XII
The Seventh Circle, that of the Violent, first round : those who do violence to others. — The Minotaur.—
CONTENTS xxi
The Centaurs. — Chiron. — Nessus. — The River
of boiling blood, and the sinners in it 72
CANTO XIII
The Seventh Circle, second round : those who have done violence to themselves and to their goods. — The Wood of Self-murderers. — The Harpies. — Pier delle Vigne. — Lano of Siena and others . . 79
CANTO XIV
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done violence to God. — The Burning Sand. — Capa- neus. — Figure of the Old Man in Crete. — The rivers of Hell 86
CANTO XV
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done violence to Nature. — Brunette Latini. — Prophe- cies of misfortune to Dante 93
CANTO XVI
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done violence to Nature. — Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Al- dobrandi and Jacopo Rusticucci. — The roar of Phle- gethon as it pours downward. — The cord thrown into the abyss 99
CANTO XVII
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done violence to Art. — Geryon. — The Usurers. — De- scent to the Eighth Circle 105
CANTO XVIII
The Eighth Circle : that of the fraudulent ; first pouch : pandars and seducers. — Venedico Caccianimico. —
xxii CONTENTS
Jason. — Second pouch : false flatterers. — Alessio Interminei. — Thais in
CANTO XIX
The Eighth Circle : third pouch : simonists. — Pope Nicholas III. . l-J -. . 119
CANTO XX
The Eighth Circle : fourth pouch : diviners, soothsayers, and magicians. — Amphiaraus. — Tiresias. — Aruns. — Manto. — Eurypylus. — Michael Scott. — As- dente 127
CANTO XXI
The Eighth Circle : fifth pouch : barrators. — A mag- istrate of Lucca. — The Malebranche. — Parley with them 135
CANTO XXII
The Eighth Circle : fifth pouch : barrators. — Ciampolo of Navarre. — Fra Gomita. — Michel Zanche. — Fray of the Malebranche 142
CANTO XXIII
The Eighth Circle. — Escape from the fifth pouch. — The sixth pouch : hypocrites, in cloaks of gilded lead. — Jovial Friars. — Caiaphas. — Annas. — Frate Catalano 149
CANTO XXIV
The Eighth Circle. — The poets climb from the sixth pouch. — Seventh pouch, filled with serpents, by which thieves are tormented. — Vanni Fucci. — Prophecy of calamity to Dante . . • . . .156
CONTENTS xxiii
CANTO XXV
The Eighth Circle : seventh pouch : fraudulent thieves.
— Cacus. — Agnello Brunelleschi and others . . 1 64
CANTO XXVI
The Eighth Circle : eighth pouch : fraudulent counsel- lors.— Ulysses and Diomed 172
CANTO XXVII
The Eighth Circle : eighth pouch : fraudulent coun- sellors. — Guido da Montefeltro 179
CANTO XXVIII
The Eighth Circle : ninth pouch : sowers of discord and schism. — Mahomet and AH. — Fra Dolcino. — Pier da Medicina. — Curio. — Mosca. — Bertran de Born 1 86
CANTO XXIX
The Eighth Circle : ninth pouch. — Geri del Bello. — Tenth pouch : falsifiers of all sorts. — Alchemists.
— Griffolino of Arezzo. — Capocchio . . . .194
CANTO XXX
The Eighth Circle: tenth pouch : fa'se personators, false moneyers, and the false in words. — Myrrha. — Gianni Schicchi. — Master Adam. — Sinon of Troy . . ;i '. . o 201
CANTO XXXI
The Eighth Circle. — Giants. — Nimrod. — Ephial- tes. — Antaeus sets the Poets down in the Ninth Circle . 208
xxiv CONTENTS
CANTO XXXII
The Ninth Circle : that of traitors ; first ring : Caina.
— Counts of Mangona. — Camicion de' Pazzi. — Second ring : Antenora. — Bocca degli Abati. — Buoso da Duera. — Count Ugolino 215
CANTO XXXIII
The Ninth Circle : second ring : Antenora. — Count Ugolino. — Third ring : Ptolomea. — Frate Alberigo.
— Branca d' Oria 224.
CANTO XXXIV
The Ninth Circle : fourth ring : Judecca. — Lucifer.
— Judas, Brutus and Cassius. — Centre of the Uni- verse. — Passage from Hell. — Ascent to the surface
of the Southern Hemisphere 233
HELL
CANTO I
Dante ^astray in a wood, reaches the foot of a hill which lie begins to ascend; be is hindered^hu-three beasts, he turns back and is met by Virgil, who proposes to guide him into the eternal world.
MIDWAY upon the journey of our life I found
j myself in a dark wood, where the right way was
\ lost.1 Ah ! how hard a thing it is to tell what
^this wild and rough and difficult wood was,
which in thought renews my fear ! So bitter is
it that death is little more. But in order to
treat of the good that I found in it, I will tell
of the other things that I saw there.
I cannot well report how I entered it, so full was I of slumber at that moment when I aban- doned the true way. But after I had reached the foot of a hill,2 where that valley ended which
1 . v. 3 . The action of the poem begins on the night before Good Friday of the year 1300, as we learn from Canto xxi. 112-114. Dante was thirty-five years old, midway on the road of life, or, as he says in the Convito, iv. 24, 30, at " the summit of the arch of life." The dark wood is the forest of the world of sense, "the erroneous wood of this life'* (Id. L i 24), that is, the wood in which man loses his way.
2. v. 13. The hill is the type of the true course of life*
2 HELL [vv. 15-33
had pierced my heart with fear, I looked upward, and saw its shoulders clothed already with the rays of the planet3 which leads man aright along every path. Then was the fear a little quieted which had lasted in the lake of my heart through the night that I had passed so piteously. And even as one who with spent breath, issued forth from the sea upon the shore, turns to the peril- ous water and gazes, so did my mind, which still was flying, turn back to look again upon the pass which never left person alive.4
After I had rested a little my weary body, I again took my way along the desert slope,5 so that the firm foot was always the lower. And lo ! almost at the beginning of the steep a she- leopard,6 light and very nimble, which was
opposed to the false course in the wood of the valley. The man conscious of having lost his moral way, alarmed for his soul, seeks to escape from the sin and cares in which he is involved, by ascending the hill of virtue whose summit is "lighted by day spring from on high."
3. v. 17. According to the Ptolemaic system the sun was a planet.
4. v. 27. The pass is the dangerous road through the dark wood, "the end whereof are the ways of death," for he who walks therein is "dead in trespasses and sins."
5. v. 29. Desert, because "narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matthew vii. 14.
6. v. 32. The leopard is the type of the temptations of the flesh, the pleasures of sense with their fair, varied out- side seeming.
vv. 34-49] CANTO I 3
covered with a spotted coat. And she did not withdraw from before my face, nay, hindered so my road that I often turned to go back.
The time was the beginning of the morning, and the Sun was mounting up with those stars that were with him when the Love Divine first set in motion those beautiful things ; 7 so that the hour of the time and the sweet season were occa- sion to me of good hope concerning that wild beast with the dappled skin ; but not so that the sight which appeared to me of a lion8 did not give me fear. He appeared to be coming against me, with his head high and with ravening hunger, so that it appeared that the air was affrighted at him ; and a she-wolf,9 which in her
7. v. 40. It was a common belief, which existed from early Christian times, that the Spring was the season of the Creation. By the Julian Calendar, March 25th was the date of the Vernal Equinox, and it was assumed that on this day the Sun was created and placed in the sign of the Zodiac, Aries, to begin his course. The same date was assigned to the Annunciation and to the Crucifixion. March 25th was thus what may be called the ideal Good Friday. But in the year 1300 the actual Good Friday fell on April 8th. This is the date which Dante, following the calendar of the Church, adopted for that of his journey. The sun was rising on the morning of Good Friday, when Dante began his attempt to ascend the hill.
8. v. 47. The lion is the type of pride, the disposition which is the root of the sins of violence.
$i. v. 49. The wolf is the type of avarice, that covetous-
4 HELL [w. 50-67
leanness seemed laden with all cravings, and ere now had made many folk to live forlorn, — she brought on me so much heaviness, with the fear that came from sight of her, that I lost hope of the height. And such as is he who gains will- ingly, and the time arrives which makes him lose, so that in all his thoughts he laments and is sad, such did the beast without peace make me, which, coming on against me, was pushing me back, little by little, thither where the Sun is silent.
While I was falling back to the low place, one who appeared faint-voiced through long silence presented himself before my eyes. When I saw him in the great desert, " Have pity on me ! " I cried to him, " whatso thou be, whether shade or real man." He answered me : " Not man ; man once I was, and my
ness of earthly goods which turns the heart from seeking the goods of heaven, and is the main source of sins of fraud.
The imagery of these three beasts seems to have been sug- gested by Jeremiah v. 6. "A lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities."
These three beasts, which hinder the progress of him who would ascend the hill of virtue, correspond with the triple division of sins into those of incontinence, of violence, and of fraud which Virgil makes in the eleventh. Canto, accord- ing to which the sinners in Hell are divided into three main classes.
vv. 68-88] CANTO I 5
parents were Lombards, and both Mantuans by country. I was born sub Julio, though late,10 and I lived at Rome under the good Augustus, at the time of the false and lying gods. I was a poet, and sang of that just son of Anchises " who came from Troy, after proud I lion had been burned. But thou, why dost thou return to such great annoy ? Why dost thou not ascend the delectable mountain which is the source and cause of all joy ? " " Art thou then that Virgil and that fount which pours forth so broad a stream of speech ? " re- plied I with bashful front to him : " O honor and light of the other poets ! may the long study avail me and the great love, which have made me search thy volume ! Thou art my master and my author ; I2 thou alone art he from whom I took the fair style that has done me honor. Behold the beast because of which
10. v. 70. Virgil was twenty-five years old at the time of Caesar's death, B. c. 44.
11. v. 73. " Aeneas, than whom none was more just." Aenetd, i. 544.
12. v. 85. In the Convito Dante says that the word autore, here translated "author," has a double origin and meaning. According to the one, it signifies only the poets who practice the art of the Muses ; according to the other, it means " every one worthy of being believed and obeyed," and from this is derived the word Authority. Conv. iv. 6. 14-49.
6 HELL [w. 89-109
I turned ; help me against her, famous sage, for she makes my veins and pulses tremble." " It behoves thee to hold another course," he replied, when he saw me weeping, " if thou wouldst escape from this savage place ; for this beast, because of which thou criest out, lets not any one pass along her way, but so hinders him that she kills him ; and she has a nature so malign and evil that she never sates her greedy will, and after food has more hunger than before. Many are the animals with which she wives, and there shall be more yet, until the hound I3 shall come that will make her die of grief. He shall not feed on land or pelf,14 but wisdom and love and valor, and his birthplace shall be between Feltro and Feltro.15 Of that low Italy shall he be the salvation, for which the virgin Camilla died, and Euryalus, Turnus and Nisus of their wounds.16 He shall hunt
13. v. 101. After centuries of controversy, it is still doubtful of whom the hound is the symbol.
14. v. 103. Literally, "he shall not feed on land or pewter." The word peltro, pewter, is a rhyme- word, used in a forced meaning, perhaps analogous to our colloquial, vulgar use of " tin."
15. v. 105. No satisfactory explanation has been given of the meaning of " between Feltro and Feltro."
1 6. v. 1 08. Camilla and Turnus died for Italy fighting against the Trojans, Euryalus and Nisus died on the Trojan side. Virgil commemorates them all in the Aeneid.
w. 110-122] CANTO i 7
her through every town till he shall have put her back again in Hell, there whence envy I? first sent her forth. Wherefore I think and deem it for thy best that thou follow me, and I will be thy guide, and will lead thee hence through the eternal place where thou shalt hear the despairing shrieks, shalt see the ancient spirits woeful who each proclaim the second death.18 And then thou shalt see those who are contented in the fire,19 because they hope to come, whenever it may be, to the blessed folk ; to whom if thou wouldst then ascend, there shall be a soul 20 more worthy than I for
17. v. 1 1 1 . " The devil seeing that man through obedi- ence might ascend whence he through pride had fallen, envied him ; and he who first through pride had been the devil, that is the fallen one, became through envy Satan, that is the adversary." Petri Lombardi, Sententiae, n. 21.
1 8. v. 117. That is, who each by their misery pro- claim the torments of the second death. The appellation of " the second death," given to the sufferings endured by the sinners in Hell, is derived from Revelation xx. 10, 14 ; xxi. 8. " The souls of the good separated from the body by death are at rest ; but those of the wicked suffer punish- ment ; and the bodies of the good live again in eternal life, while those of the wicked revive for eternal death, which is called the second death." S. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, xm. 8.
19. v. 1 1 8. " Contented in the fire," that is, contented in the purifying pains of Purgatory, by which they are made fit for Paradise.
20. v. 121. Beatrice.
8 HELL [vv. 123-136
that. With her I will leave thee at my depart- ure ; for that Emperor who reigns thereabove wills not, because I was rebellious 2I to His law, that through me any one should come into His city. In all parts He governs and there He reigns : there is His city and His lofty seat.
0 happy the man whom thereto He elects ! " And I to him : " Poet, I beseech thee by that God whom thou didst not know, in order that
1 may escape this ill and worse, that thou lead me thither where thou now hast said, so that 1 may see the gate of St. Peter,22 and those whom thou reportest so afflicted."
Then he moved on, and I held behind him.
21. v. 125. Not actively rebellious, but "one who did not duly worship God." See Canto iv. 36.
22. v. 134. The gate of St. Peter is the gate of Purga- tory, which is unlocked by the keys of the Kingdom of" Heaven that Christ gave to Peter. See Purgatory, Canto ix. 127. Whoever passes through this gate is admitted tc £hat Kingdom.
CANTO II
Dante, doubtful of his own powers, is discouraged at the outset. — Firgil cheers him by telling him that he has been sent to his aid by a blessed Spirit from Heaven, who revealed herself as Beatrice. — Dante casts off fear, and the poets proceed.
THE day was going, and the dusky air was taking the living things that are on earth from their fatigues, and I alone was preparing to sustain the war alike of the journey and of the woe, which my memory that errs not shall retrace.
0 Muses, O lofty genius, now assist me ! O memory that didst inscribe that which I saw, here shall thy nobility appear !
1 began : —
" Poet, who guidest me, consider my power, if it be sufficient, before thou trust me to the deep pass, Thou sayest1 that the parent of Silvius while still corruptible went to the im- mortal world and was there in the body; and truly if the Adversary of every ill was courteous to him, it seems not unmeet to the man of I. v. 13. In the sixth book of rhe Aeneid*
io HELL [vv. 17-36
understanding, thinking on the high effect that should proceed from him, and on the who and the what 2 ; for in the empyrean heaven he was chosen for father of revered Rome and of her empire ; both which (would one say truth) were ordained for the holy place3 where the successor of the greater Peter has his seat. Through this going, whereof thou givest him vaunt, he learned things which were the cause of his victory and of the papal mantle. After- ward the Chosen Vessel 4 went thither to bring thence comfort to that faith which is the be- ginning of the way of salvation. But I, why go I thither ? or who concedes it ? I am not Aeneas, I am not Paul ; neither I nor others believe me worthy of this ; wherefore if I yield myself to go, I fear lest the going may be mad. Thou art wise, thou understandest better than I speak."
2. v. 1 8. It is not strange that God was thus gracious to him, since he was the Father of the Roman people (the Who), and founder of the Roman empire (the What).
3. v. 23. Rome as well as Jerusalem was a holy city, the Empire as well as the Church a divine institution. All profane no less than all sacred history was the divinely or- dered course of events leading up to the Incarnation and Redemption. See // Convito, iv. 5, and De Monarchic, ii. 4 and 5.
4. v. 28. St. Paul. See Act* ix. 15, and 2 Corin* tbians xii. I— A.
vv. 37-62] CANTO II it
And as is he who unwills what he willed, and by reason of new thoughts changes his purpose, so that he withdraws wholly from what he had begun, such I became on that dark hill- side : because in my thought I abandoned the enterprise which had been so hasty in its beginning.
" If I have rightly understood thy speech," replied that shade of the magnanimous one, " thy soul is hurt by cowardice, which often- times encumbers a man so that it turns him back from honorable enterprise, as false seeing does a beast when it shies. In order that thou loose thee from this fear I will tell thee why I came, and what I heard at the first moment that I grieved for thee. I was among those who are suspended,5 and a Lady blessed and beautiful called me, such that I besought her to command. Her eyes were more shining than the star, and she began to say to me sweet and clear, with angelic voice, in her speech : € O courteous Mantuan soul ! of whom the fame yet lasts in the world, and shall last so long as motion continues,6 my friend, and not of fortune, is so hindered on his road upon the
5. v. 52. In Limbo, neither in the proper Hell nor in Heaven.
6, v. 60. That is : so long as time shall last. " Time is the reckoning of the motion of the heavens/' // Convitos iv. 2, 49.
12 HELL [vv. 63-86
desert hillside that he has turned for fear, and I am afraid, through that which I have heard of him in heaven, lest he be already so astray that I may have risen late to his succor. Now do thou move, and with thy ornate speech and with whatever is needful for his deliverance, assist him so that I may be consoled thereby. I am Beatrice who make thee go. I come from a place whither I desire to return. Love moved me, that makes me speak. When I shall be before my Lord, I will often praise thee to Him/ Then she was silent, and thereon I began : c O Lady of Virtue ! through whom alone the human race excels all contained within that heaven which has the smallest circles, 7 thy command so pleases me that to obey it, were it already done, were slow to me. There is no need for thee further to open to me thy will ; but tell me the reason why thou dost not beware of descending down here into this centre, from the ample place 8 whither thou burnest to re- turn/ c Since thou wishest to know so inwardly, I will tell thee briefly/ she replied to me,
7. v. 78. The heaven of the moon, the innermost of the nine revolving heavens, the nearest to the earth. Through Beatrice, as symbol of the knowledge of the things of God revealed to man, and by reason of man's capacity to receive the revelation, the human race is exalted above all other created things save the angels alone.
8. v. 84. The Empyrean.
vv. 87-103] CANTO II 13
'wherefore I fear not to come here within. One need be afraid only of those things that have power to do one harm, of others not, for they are not fearful. __^ am made by God, thanks be to Him, such that your misery touches me not,9 nor does the flame of this burning assail me. A gentle Lady I0 is in heaven who feels compassion for this hindrance whereto I "send thee, so that she breaks stern judgment there above. She summoned Lucia " in her re- quest, and said, " Thy faithful one now has need of thee, and I commend him to thee." Lucia, the foe of every cruel one, moved and came to the place where I was, seated with the ancient Rachel.12 She said, " Beatrice, true praise of
9. v. 92. "The blessed in glory will have no compas- sion for the damned, ... for it would impugn the justice of God." S. T. Suppl. xciv. 2.
10. v. 94. The Virgin Mary, the fount of mercy, never spoken of by name in Hell.
11. v. 100. Whether any real person is intended by Lucia is doubtful, but as an allegorical figure she is the symbol, as her name indicates, of illuminating Grace.
12. v. 1 02. Rachel was adopted by the Church, from a very early period, as the type of the contemplative life, that life in which the soul withdrawing itself from earthly con- cerns, and devoting itself to the consideration of the things of God, attains to heights above the reach of reason, and has a foretaste of the felicity of heaven. The place of Beatrice, the type of instruction in the divine mysteries, is therefore rightly at the side of Rachel.
«4 HELL [vv. 104-129
God, why dost thou not succor him who so loved thee that for thee he came forth from the vulgar throng ? Dost thou not hear the pity of his plaint ? Dost thou not see the death that combats him on the stream where the sea has no vaunt ? " I3 Never were persons in the world swift to do their good, or to fly their harm, as I, after these words were uttered, came down here from my blessed seat, putting my trust in thy upright speech, which honors thee and them who have heard it.' After she had said this to me, weeping she turned her lucent eyes, whereby , she made me more quick to come. And I came to thee thus as she willed. I withdrew thee from before that wild beast which took from thee the short way on the beautiful mountain. What is it then ? Why, why dost thou hold back ? why dost thou harbor such cowardice in thy heart ? why hast thou not daring and assurance, since three such blessed Ladies care for thee in the court of Heaven, and my speech pledges thee such good ? "
As the flowerets, bent and closed by the chill of night, when the sun brightens them erect themselves all open on their stem, so I became
13. v. 1 08. Dost thou not see him in danger of death from the sins that assail him in the flood of human life, a flood more stormy with passion and darker with evil than the ocean with its tempests ?
vv. 130-142] CANTO II 15
with my drooping courage, and such good dar- ing ran to my heart that I began like a person enfreed : " O compassionate she who succored me, and courteous thou who didst speedily obey the true words that she addressed to thee ! Thou by^ thy words hast so disposed my heart with desire of going, that I have returned to my first intent. Now go, for one sole will is in us both : thou leader, thou lord, and thou master." Thus I said to him ; and when he moved on, I entered along the deep and savage road.
CANTO III
The gate of Hell.— Virgil leads Dante in.— The
punishment of those who had lived without infamy and without praise. — Acheron^ and the sinners on its bank. — Charon. — Earthquake. — Dante swoons.
" THROUGH me is the way into the woeful city ; through me is the way into the eternal woe ; through me is the way among the lost people. Justice moved my lofty maker: the divine Power, the supreme Wisdom and the primal Love made me. Before me were no things created, save eternal, and I eternal last. Leave every hope, ye who enter ! " '
These words of obscure color I saw written at the top of a gate ; whereat I : " Master, their meaning is dire to me."
And he to me, like a person well advised : " Here it behoves to leave every fear ; it be-
i. v. 8. "Creation," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "is the joint act of the whole Trinity. " S. T. i. 45. 6. This is indicated in these verses by the enumeration of the attributes asciibed respectively to the three persons cf the Trinity, according to the common teaching of the doctors of the Church. Id. i. 39. 8.
vv-I5-39] CANTO III 17
hoves that all cowardice should here be dead. We have come to the place where I have told thee that thou shalt see the woeful people, who \ have lost the good of the understanding." 2
And when he had put his hand on mine with a cheerful look, wherefrom I took courage, he brought me within to the secret things. Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resound- ing through the starless air ; wherefore at first I wept thereat. Strange tongues, horrible utter- ances, words of woe, accents of anger, voices high and faint, and sounds of hands with them, were making a tumult which whirls always in that air forever dark, like the sand when the whirlwind breathes.
And I, who had my head girt with horror, said : " Master, what is that which I hear ? and what folk is it that seems so overcome with its woe ? "
And he to me : cc The wretched souls of those who lived without infamy and without praise ,s maintain this miserable mode. They are min- gled with that caitiff choir of the angels, who were not rebels, nor were faithful to God, but were for themselves. 3 The heavens chased
2. v. 1 8. The ultimate end and felicity of human life is to see God and the truth in him (S. T. £#/>//. xcii. l) ; this is the supreme good of the understanding.
3. v. 39. This class of angels seems to have been an invention of the poet's.
i8 HELL [vv. 40-65
them out in order to be not less beautiful, nor does the deep Hell receive them, for the damned would have some boast of them/'
And I : " Master, what is so grievous to them, that makes them lament so bitterly ? "
He answered : " I will tell thee very briefly. These have not hope of death ; and their blind life is so debased, that they are envious of every other lot. Fame of them the world permits not to be ; mercy and justice disdain them. Let us not speak of them, but do thou look and pass on."
And I, who was gazing, saw a banner, which, whirling, ran so swiftly that it seemed to me disdainful of any pause, and behind it came so long a train of folk, that I should never have believed death had undone so many. After I had recognized some among them, I saw and knew the shade of him who made, through cowardice, the great refusal. 4 At once I un- derstood and was certain, that this was the sect of the caitiffs displeasing to God and to his enemies. These wretches, who never were alive, were naked, and much stung by gad-flies
4. v. 60. By him " who made the great refusal " is probably intended Pope Celestine V., who, after having held the papacy for five months in 1 294, abdicated. His suc- cessor, Boniface VIII., Dante's great enemy, put Celestine in prison, where he died in 1 296.
vv. 66-93] CANTO III 19
and by wasps that were there ; these streaked their faces with blood, which, mingled with tears, was gathered at their feet by loathsome worms.
And when I gave myself to looking onward, I saw people on the bank of a great river; wherefore I said : " Master, now grant to me that I may know who these are, and what rule makes them appear so ready to pass over, as I discern through the faint light." And he to me : " The things will be clear to thee, when we shall stay our steps on the sad shore of Acheron." Then with eyes ashamed and down- cast, fearing lest my speech might be trouble- some to him, far as to the river I refrained from speaking.
And behold ! coming toward us in a boat, an old man, white with ancient hair, crying : " Woe to you, wicked souls ! hope not ever to see the Heavens ! I come to carry you to the other bank, into the eternal darkness, into heat and into frost. And thou who art there, living soul, depart from th^se that are dead." But when he saw that I did not depart, he said : " By another way, by other ports thou shalt come to the shore, not here, for passage ; a lighter bark must carry thee." 5
5. v. 93. The boat that bears the souls of the redeemed to Purgatory. Charon recognizes that Dante is not among
20 HELL [vv. 94-118
And my Leader to him : " Charon, vex not thyself; it is thus willed there where is power for that which is willed ; and ask no more." Thereon were quiet the fleecy jaws of the ferry- man of the livid marsh, who round about his eyes had wheels of flame.
But those souls, who were weary and naked3 changed color and gnashed their teeth, soon as they heard his cruel words. They blasphemed God and their parents, the human race, the place, the time and the seed of their sowing and of their birth. Then, all of them bitterly weeping, drew together to the evil bank, which awaits every man who fears not God. Charon the demon, with eyes of glowing coal, beckoning to them, collects them all ; he beats with his oar whoever lingers.
As in autumn the leaves depart one after the other, until the bough sees all its spoils upon the earth, in like wise the evil seed of Adam throw themselves from that shore one by one, at signals, as the bird at his recall. Thus they go over the dusky wave, and before they have
the damned. The gods and other personages of heathen mythology were held by the Church to have been demons who had a real existence ; they were adopted into the Chris- tian mythology, and hence appear with entire propriety as characters in Hell. Charon and other beings of this order were familiar to the readers of the sixth book of the Aeneid.
vv. 119-136] CANTO III 21
landed on the farther side, already on this a new throng is assembled.
" My son," said the courteous Master, "those who die in the wrath of God, all come together here from every land ; and they are eager to pass over the stream, for the divine justice spurs them so that fear is turned to desire. A good soul never passes this way ; and therefore if Charon fret at thee, well mayest thou now know what his speech signifies."
This ended, the gloomy plain trembled so mightily, that the memory of the terror even now bathes me with sweat. (The tearful land gave forth a wind that flashea a crimson light which vanquished all sensation in me, and I fell as a man whom slumber seizes. I
CANTO IV
The further side of Acheron. — Virgil leads Dante Into Limbo, the First Circle of Hell, containing the spirits of those who lived virtuously but without faith in Christ. — Greeting of Virgil by bis fellow poets. — They enter a castle, where are the shades of ancient worthies. — After seeing them Virgil and Dante depart.
A HEAVY thunder broke the deep sleep in my head, so that I started up like a person who is waked by force, and, risen erect, I moved my rested eye round about, and looked fixedly to distinguish the place where I was. True it is, that I found myself on the brink of the woeful valley of the abyss which collects a thunder of infinite wailings. It was so dark, deep, and cloudy, that, though I fixed my sight on the depth, I did not discern anything there.
" Now let us descend here below into the blind world," began the Poet all deadly pale, " I will be first, and thou shalt be second."
And I, who had observed his color, said : " How shall I come, if thou fearest, who art wont to be the comfort to my doubting ? " And he to me : " The anguish of the folk who
vv. 20-42] CANTO IV 23
are here below paints on my face that pity which thou takest for fear. Let us go on, for the long way urges us."
Thus he placed himself,1 and thus he made me enter into the first circle2 that girds the abyss. Here, as one listened, there was no lamentation but that of sighs which made the eternal air to tremble ; this came of the woe without torments felt by the crowds, which were many and great, of infants and of women and of men.
The good Master to me : " Thou dost not ask what spirits are these that thou seest. Now I would have thee know, before thou goest farther, that these did not sin; and though they have merits it suffices not, because they did not have baptism,3 which is part of the faith that thou believest ; and if they were before Christianity, they did not duly worship God: and of such as these am I myself. For such defects, and not for other guilt, are we lost, and only so far harmed that without hope we live in desire."
». v. 23. In the lead, in front of Dante.
2. v. 24. The Limbo (Lat. limbus, edge, hem, border).
3. v. 35. Such merit as they might have could not secure salvation for them, for only he who receives baptism becomes a member of Christ, and through His merits is freed alike from the fault and from the penalty of original sin.
24 HELL [vv. 43-63
Great woe seized me at my heart when I heard him, because I knew that people of much worth were suspended in that limbo. " Tell me, my Master, tell me, Lord," I began, with wish to be assured of that faith which vanquishes every error, 4 " did ever any one who afterwards was blessed go forth from here, either by his own or by another's merit ? " And he, who understood my covert speech, answered : " I was new in this state 5 when I saw a Mighty One come hither crowned with sign of victory. He drew out hence the shade of the first parent, of Abel his son, and that of Noah, of Moses the law-giver and obedient, Abraham the patriarch, and David the King, Israel with his father and with his offspring, and with Rachel, for whom he did so much, and many others ; and He made them blessed : and I would have thee know that before these, human spirits were not saved." 6
4. v. 48. Wishing especially to be assured in regard to the descent of Christ into Hell.
5. v. 52. Virgil died B. c. 19.
6. v. 62. The sin of Adam infected all his descendants with the offence of original sin, and subjected them to its eter- nal punishment, from which none could be saved except by faith in Christ. Adam and the fathers of the chosen people had held implicitly the faith in Christ to come, but they were excluded from the life of glory, until the redemption of the human race by the passion of Christ. After his passion he descended into Hell, to deliver them. (S. T. iii. 52. 5.)
vv. 64-93] CANTO IV 25
We ceased not going on because he spoke, but all the while were passing through the wood, the -wood, I mean, of crowded spirits ; nor yet had our way been long from the place of my slumber, when I saw a fire, which over- came a hemisphere of darkness. 7 We were still a little distant from it, yet not so far but that I could in part discern that honorable folk possessed that place. " O thou who hon- orest both science and art, who are these, who have such honor that it separates them from the manner of the others ? " And he to me : " The honorable renown of them which sounds above in thy life wins grace in heaven which thus advances them." At this a voice was heard by me : " Honor the loftiest Poet ! his shade returns which had departed." When the voice had stopped and was quiet, I saw four great shades coming to us ; they had a sem- blance neither sad nor glad. The good Master began to say : " Look at him with that sword in hand who comes before the three, even as lord ; he is Homer, the sovereign poet ; the next who comes is Horace, the satirist; Ovid is the third, and the last is Lucan. Since each shares with me the name which the single voice sounded, they do me honor, and in that do well."
7. v. 69. The fire may be the symbol of the partial light afforded by philosophy to the virtuous heathen, whose abode the poets are approaching.
*6 HELL [w. 94-1 1 1
Thus I saw assembled the fair school of that Lord of the loftiest song who soars above the others like an eagle. After they had discoursed somewhat together, they turned to me with sign of salutation ; and my Master smiled thereat. And far more of honor yet they did me, for they made me of their band, so that I was the sixth amid so much wisdom. Thus we went on as far as the light, speaking things concern- ing which silence is becoming, even as was speech there where I was.
We came to the foot of a noble castle, seven times circled by high walls, 8 defended round about by a fair streamlet. This we passed as if hard ground ; through seven gates 9 I entered with these sages ; we came to a meadow of fresh
8. v. 107. The castle is the symbol of the abode of Philosophy, or human wisdom unenlightened by revelation; its seven high walls may perhaps signify the four moral and three intellectual virtues, — prudence, temperance, fortitude find justice, understanding, knowledge and wisdom, all which could be attained by the virtuous heathen. (S. T. ii. 65. 2.)
9. v. no. The seven gates may typify the seven liberal arts of the Trivium and the ^uadrhiumt by which names the courses of instruction in them were known in the schools of the Middle Ages. The Trivium included Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric ; the Quadrivium, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy. The following rude mnemonic verses set forth their order and meaning :
Gram, loqtntur, Dia. verba docet, Rhe. verba ministrat \ Mus. canit, Ar. numerat, Ge. ponderat, As. colit astra.
vv. 112-141] CANTO IV 27
verdure. People were there with slow and grave eyes, of great authority in their looks ; they spoke seldom, and with soft voices. There- on we withdrew ourselves upon one side, into an open, luminous, and high place, so that they all could be seen. There before me upon the green enamel were shown to me the great spirits, whom for having seen I inwardly exalt myself. I saw Electra with many companions, among whom I recognized Hector and Aeneas, Caesar in armor, with his gerfalcon eyes ; I saw Camilla and Penthesilea, on the other side I saw the King Latinus, who was sitting with Lavinia his daughter. I saw that Brutus who drove out Tarquin ; Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia ; and alone, apart, I saw the Saladin. When I raised my brows a little more, I saw the Master of those who know, I0 seated amid the philo- sophic family ; all regard him, all do him honor. Here I saw Socrates and Plato, who in front of the others stand nearest to him ; Democritus, who ascribes the world to chance ; Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales, Empedocles, Hera- clitus, and Zeno ; and I saw the good collector of the qualities, Dioscorides, I mean ; " and I saw Orpheus, Tully, and Linus, and moral
10. v. 131. Aristotle.
11. v. 140. Dioscorides, a physician in Cilicia, of the first century A. D., who in his treatise de materia medica wrote of the qualities of plants.
28 HELL [vv. 142-151
Seneca, Euclid the geometer, and Ptolemy, Hip- pocrates, Avicenna, and Galen, and Averrhoes, who made the great comment.12 I cannot re- port of all in full, because the long theme so drives me that many times the speech comes short of the fact.
The company of six is reduced to two. By another way the wise guide leads me out from the quiet into the air that trembles, and I come into a region where is nothing that can give light.
12. v. 1 44. The great comment on Aristotle.
CANTO V
The Second Circle, that of Carnal Sinners. — Minat* »*- Shades renowned of old. — Francesco da Rimini.
THUS I descended from the first circle down into the second, which girdles less space, and so much more woe that it goads to wailing. There stands Minos horribly, and snarls; he examines the transgressions at the entrance ; he judges, and he sends according as he entwines himself. I mean, that when the ill born soul comes there before him, it confesses itself wholly, and that discerner of the sins sees what place of Hell is for it ; he girds himself with his tail so many times as the grades he wills that it be sent down. Always many of them stand before him ; they go, in turn, each to the judgment ; they speak and hear, and then are whirled below.
" O thou that comest to the woeful inn," said Minos to me, when he saw me, leaving the act of so great an office, " beware how thou enterest, and to whom thou trustest thyself; let not the amplitude of the entrance deceive
30 HELL [vv. 21-47
thee." And my Leader to him : " Wherefore dost thou too cry out ? x Hinder not his fated going ; thus is it willed there where is power for that which is willed ; and ask no more."
Now the notes of woe begin to make them- selves heard by me ; now I am come where much wailing smites me. I had come into a place mute of all light, that bellows as the sea does in a tempest, if it be combated by contrary winds. The infernal hurricane which never rests carries along the spirits with its rapine ; whirling and smiting it molests them.2 When they arrive before its rush, here are the shrieks, the complaint, and the lamentation ; here they blaspheme the divine power. I understood that to such torment are condemned the carnal sinners who subject the reason to the appetite. And as their wings bear along the starlings in the cold season in a large and full troop, so did that blast the evil spirits ; hither, thither, down, up it carries them ; no hope ever com- forts them, neither of repose, nor of less pain.
And as the cranes go singing their lays, making in air a long line of themselves, so I
1. v. 21. As Charon had done.
2. v. 33. The storm and darkness are symbols of the tempest of the passions. *' Wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same alsc shall he be punished." Wisdom of Salomon xi. 1 6.
<rv. 48-69] CANTO V 3I
saw come, uttering wails, shades borne along by the aforesaid strife. Wherefore I said : " Master, who are these folk whom the black air so castigates ? " " The first of those of whom thou wishest to have knowledge,'* said he to me then, " was empress of many tongues. She was so abandoned to the vice of luxury 3 that lust she made licit in her law, to take away the blame into which she had been brought. She is Semiramis, of whom it is read that she succeeded Ninus and had been his wife ; she held the land which the Sultan rules. That other is she 4 who, for love, slew herself, and broke faith to the ashes of Sichaeus ; next is Cleopatra, the luxurious. See Helen, for whom so long a time of ill revolved ; and see the great Achilles, who fought to the end with love.5 See Paris, Tristan, — " and more than a thousand shades whom love had parted from our life he showed me, and, pointing to them, named to me.
3. v. 55. Luxury in the obsolete, Shakespearean sense of lasciviousness.
4. v. 61. Dido.
5. v. 66. According to the post - Homeric account ol the death of Achilles, which was current in the Middle Ages, he was slain by Paris in the temple of Apollo in Troy, " whither he had been lured by the promise of a meeting with Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, with whom he wai enamored."
33 HELL [vv. 70-92
After I had heard my Teacher name the dames of eld and the cavaliers, pity overcame me, and I was well nigh bewildered. I began : " Poet, willingly would I speak with those two that go together, and seem to be so light upon the wind." 6 And he to me : " Thou shalt see when they are nearer to us, and do thou then pray them by that love which leads them, and they will come." Soon as the wind sways them toward us, I lifted my voice : " O wearied souls, come to speak with us, if Another7 deny it not.''
As doves, called by desire, with wings open and steady, come through the air borne by their will to their sweet nest, these issued from the troop where Dido is, coming to us through the malign air, so strong was the compassionate cry.
"O living creature, gracious and benign, that goest through the black air visiting us who stained the world blood-red, if the King of the universe were a friend we would pray Him for
6. v. 75. These two are Francesca da Rimini, daughter of Guido Vecchio da Polenta, lord of Ravenna ; and her lover, Paolo, the brother of her husband, the son of Malatesta da Verrucchio, lord of Rimini. Their death, at the hands of her husband, took place about 1285.
7, v, 8 1 . The name of God is never spoken by the spirits in Hell, save once, in blasphemous defiance, by Vanni Fucci (xxv. 3) ; nor by Dante in addressing them.
vv. 93-122] CANTO V 33
thy peace, since thou hast pity on our perverse ill. Of what it pleases thee to hear, and what to speak, we will hear and we will speak to you, while the wind, as now, is hushed for us. The city where I was born sits upon the sea- shore, where the Po, with his followers, descends to have peace. Love, which quickly lays hold on gentle heart, seized this one for the fair person that was taken from me, and the mode still hurts me. Love, which absolves no loved one from loving, seized me for the pleasing of him so strongly that, as thou seest, it does not even now abandon me. Love brought us to one death. Cain awaits him who quenched our life." These words were borne to us from them.
Soon as I had heard those injured souls I bowed my face, and held it down so long until the Poet said to me : " What art thou think- ing ? " When I replied, I began : " Alas ! how many sweet thoughts, how great desire, led these unto the woeful pass." Then I turned me again to them, and spoke, and began : " Francesca, thy torments make me sad and piteous to weeping. But tell me, at the time of the sweet sighs, by what and how did love concede to thee to know thy dubious desires ? " And she to me : " There is no greater woe than the remembering in misery the happy time, and
34 HELL [vv. 123—142
that thy Teacher knows.8 But if thou hast so great desire to know the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and tells.
" We were reading one day, for delight, of Lancelot, how love constrained him. We were alone and without any suspicion. Many times that reading urged our eyes, and took the color from our faces, but only one point was it that overcame us. When we read of the longed-for smile being kissed by such a lover, this one, who never shall be divided from me, kissed my mouth all trembling. Gallehaut was the book, and he who wrote it.9 That day we read no farther in it."
While the one spirit said this, the other was so weeping that through pity I swooned as if I had been dying, and fell as a dead body falls.
8. v. 123. Thy Teacher who lives sorrowfully in Limbo without hope, but with memory of the life lighted by the Sun.
9. v. 137. In the Romance, it was Gallehaut that pre- vailed on Gucnever to give a kiss to Lancelot*
CANTO VI
The Third Circle, that of the Gluttonous. — Cerberus.
lacco.
AT the return of my mind, which had closed itself before the pity of these two kinsfolk, that wholly confounded me with sadness, I see around me new torments and new tormented souls wherever I move, and wherever I turn, and wherever I gaze.
I am in the third circle, that of the eternal, accursed, cold, and heavy rain : its rule and quality are never new. Coarse hail, and dark water, and snow pour down through the tene- brous air ; the earth which receives them stinks. Cerberus, a cruel and strange beast, with three throats barks dogwise above the people that are here submerged. He has red eyes, a greasy and black beard, and a big belly, and paws armed with nails : he claws the spirits, bites, and rends them. The rain makes them howl like dogs ; of one of their sides they make a screen for the other; the wretched profane ones ' often turn themselves.
i. v. 21. Profane, because "their God is their belly." nlippians iii. 19.
36 HELL [vv. 22-51
When Cerberus, the great worm, observed us, he opened his mouths, and showed his fangs to us ; not a limb had he that he held still. And my Leader opened wide his hands, took some earth, and with full fists threw it into his ravenous gullets. As is the dog that baying craves, and becomes quiet when he bites his food, and is intent and struggles only to devour it, such became those filthy faces of the demon Cerberus, who so thunders at the souls that they would fain be deaf.
We were passing over the shades whom the heavy rain subdues, and were setting our feet upon their vain show which seems a body. They all of them were lying on the ground, except one which raised itself to sit, soon as it saw us passing in front. " O thou who art led through this Hell," it said to me, " recognize me, if thou canst ; thou wast made before I was unmade." And I to it : " The anguish which thou hast, perchance withdraws thee from my memory, so that it seems not that I ever saw thee. But tell me who thou art, that art set in a place so woeful, and with such a pun- ishment, that if any other be greater, none is so displeasing." And he to me : "Thy city which is so full of envy that already the sack runs over, held me in it, in the bright life.2 You,
2. v. 5 1 . The life lighted by the sun ; in contrast to this dark and dismal region of Hell.
vv. 52-74] CANTO VI 37
citizens, called me Ciacco ; 3 for the pernicious fault of gluttony, as thou seest, I am broken by the rain : and I, wretched soul, am not alone, for all these endure like punishment for like fault : " and he spoke not a word more. I answered him : " Ciacco, thy distress so weighs upon me, that it invites me to weeping ; but tell me, if thou knowest, to what will come the citizens of the divided city ; if any one in it is just ; and tell me the cause why such great discord has assailed it."
And he to me : " After long contention they will come to blood, and the sylvan party will chase out the other with much injury. Then afterwards within three suns4 it behoves that this shall fall, and the other surmount by means of the force of a certain one who just now is tacking. It will hold high its front long time, keeping the other under heavy weights, how- ever it may lament and be shamed thereat. There are two just men, but they are not heeded there ; Pride, Envy, and Avarice are
3. v. 52. Ciacco, an abbreviation of Jacopo, seems, in popular speech, to have been the term for hog. This Ciacco figures characteristically in one of the tales of the Decameron, (ix. 8), along with Filippo Argenti, whom we find in the fifth circle, and with Corso Donati, referred to in the twenty- fourth canto of the Purgatory.
4. v. 68. "Three suns," that is, three years.
38 HELL [vv. 75-90
the three sparks that have inflamed their hearts." 5 Here he made ending of the grievous sound.
And I to him : " I would that thou instruct me further, and that of more speech thou make a gift to me. Farinata and Tegghiaio who were so worthy, Jacopo Rusticucci, Arrigo, and Mosca, and the others who set their minds on well-doing, tell me where they are, and make me to know of them, for great desire urges me to learn if Heaven sweeten them, or Hell envenom them."
And he : " They are among the blacker souls : different sin weighs them down toward the bottom ; if thou descend so far, thou mayst see them. But when thou shalt be in the sweet world I pray thee that thou bring me to the memory of others : more I say not to thee,
5. v. 75. This prophecy relates to the dissensions and violence of the parties of the Whites and the Blacks by which Florence was rent. The "sylvan party" was that of the Whites, who were mainly Ghibellines. The significance of the term selvaggia "sylvan" is uncertain; it may mean 'savage ' or simply « rustic.' By the " one who just now is tacking " Dante probably refers to the Pope, Boniface VIII., who was playing fast and loose with both. Who the " two just men " were is unknown. The words were grievous to Pante not only because of their prophecy of ill to Florence, but because in the overthrow of the Whites his own fortune* were involved.
vv. 90-112] CANTO VI 39
and more I answer thee not." Thereon he twisted his straight eyes awry, looked at me a little, and then bent his head, and fell with it level with the other blind.
And the Leader said to me: " He rouses up no more on this side the sound of the angelic trump. When the hostile Power shall come, each one will find again his dismal tomb, will resume his flesh and his shape, will hear that which through eternity reverberates/'
Thus we passed along with slow steps through the foul mixture of the shades and of the rain, touching a little on the future life ; wherefore I said : " Master, these torments will they increase after the great Sentence, or be less, or will they be just as burning? " And he to me : " Return to thy science,6 which declares that in propor- tion the thing is more perfect the more it feels the good, and so the pain. Though this ac- cursed folk never can attain to true perfection, it expects thereafter to be more than now."
We took a circling course along that road,
6. v. 1 06. The teaching of Aristotle ; see Ethics, x. 4, where the philosopher says that the exercise of every sense is attended with pleasure, and the pleasure is the greater in proportion to the completeness of the faculty. It seems a correct inference that the same is the case with pain. After the Last Judgment, when the body is reunited with the soul, and the spirit becomes thus complete, the suffering of the damned will be greater than before.
40 HELL [w. 113-115
speaking far more than I repeat ; and came to the point where the descent is. Here we found Pluto,7 the great enemy.
7. v. 1 1 5. Pluto and Plutus were not always clearly- discriminated even by the ancients, and Pluto in Italian may be correctly rendered by one or the other name. Either is appropriate here, if Pluto be taken not as Hades, the god of the lower world, but in his character as the giver of wealth.
CANTO VII
The Fourth Circle, that of the Avaricious and the. Prodigal. — Pluto. — Fortune.
The Styx. — The Fifth Circle, that of the Wrathful.
"PAPE Sat an, f ape Satan aleppe" began Pluto with his clucking voice. And that gentle Sage, who knew everything, said to comfort me: "Let not thy fear hurt thee ; for, whatever power he have, he shall not take from thee the descent of this rock." Then he turned to that swollen lip and said: "Be silent, accursed wolf! r consume thyself inwardly with thine own rage : not with- out cause is this going to the depth ; it is willed on high, there where Michael wrought the ven- geance for the proud rape." 2 As sails swollen by the wind fall in a heap when the mast snaps, so fell to earth the cruel wild-beast.
Thus we descended into the fourth hollow> taking more of the woeful bank which insacks the evil of the whole universe. Ah, justice of
1. v. 8. The wolf is the symbol of avarice, here as else- where in the poem ; see canto i. and compare Purgatory, xx. 10.
2. v. I 2. The violence of Lucifer against God, whicn had its root in his pride.
42 HELL [vv. 19-46
God ! who heaps up so many new travails and penalties as I saw ? And why does our guilt so ruin us ? As does the wave, yonder upon Charybdis, which is broken on that which it encounters, so needs must here the people counterdance.
Here I saw many more people than else- where, both on the one side and the other, with great howls rolling weights by force of chest. They struck against each other, and then there each wheeled round, rolling back, crying: "Why boldest thou ? " and "Why flingest thou away ? " Thus they turned through the dark circle on either hand to the opposite point, still crying out at each other their opprobrious measure ; then each wheeled round, when he had come through his half circle to the other joust.
And I, who had my heart as it were pierced through, said : " My Master, now declare to me what folk this is, and if all these tonsured ones on our left were clerks."
And he to me : " Each and all of these were so asquint in mind in the first life that they made no spending in it with due measure. Clearly enough their voice bays it forth, when they come to the two points of the circle where the contrary fault divides them. These were clerks who have no hairy covering on their
vv. 47-74] CANTO VII 43
heads, and Popes and Cardinals, in whom ava- rice practices its excess."
And I : " Master, among such as these I ought surely to recognize some who were pol- luted with these evils."
And he to me : " Thou harborest a vain thought ; the undiscerning life that made them foul now makes them dim to all discernment. Forever will they come to the two buttings ; these will rise from the sepulchre with closed fist, and these with shorn hair. Ill-giving and ill-keeping have taken from them the beautiful world, and set them to this scuffle ; what that is, I adorn not words for it. Now, son, thou canst see the brief jest of the goods that are committed to Fortune, for which the human race struggle with each other ; for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or that ever was, could not of these weary souls make a single one repose."
" Master," said I to him, " now tell me fur- ther, this Fortune, on which thou touchest to me, what is it, which has the goods of the world so in its clutches ? "
And he to me : " O foolish creatures, how great is that ignorance which harms you ! I would have thee now receive my opinion con- cerning her. He whose wisdom transcends all, made the heavens, and gave them their guides,
44 HELL [vv. 75-103
so that every part shines on every part, dis- tributing equally the light. In like wise for the splendors of the world, He ordained a general ministress and guide, who should from time to time transfer the vain goods from race to race, and from one blood to another, beyond the resistance of human wit. Wherefore one race rules, and another languishes, pursuant to her judgment, which is hidden like the snake in the grass. Your wisdom has no withstanding of her : she foresees, judges, and pursues her reign, as theirs the other gods. Her permuta- tions have no truce ; necessity compels her to be swift, so often comes he who obtains a turn. This is she who is so set upon the cross, even by those who ought to give her praise, giving her blame amiss and ill report. But she is blessed and hears this not : with the other Primal Creatures glad she turns her sphere, and blessed she rejoices. Now let us descend at once to greater woe : already every star is sink- ing that was rising when I set out, and too long stay is forbidden."
We crossed the circle to the other bank, above a fount that bubbles up and pours out through a trench which proceeds from it. The water was far darker than perse ; 3 and we, in
3. v. 103. " Perse is a color mixed of purple and black, in which the black predominates." Convito, iv, 20, 14,
vv. 104-130] CANTO VII 45
company with the dusky waves, entered down through a strange way. This dismal little stream, when it has descended to the foot of the malign gray slopes, makes a marsh that is named Styx. And I, who was standing intent to gaze, saw muddy people in that swamp, all naked and with look of hurt. They were smiting each other, not with hand only, but with the head, with the chest, and with the feet, mangling one another piecemeal with their teeth.
The good Master said : " Son, now thou seest the souls of those whom anger overcame ; and also I will that thou believe for certain that under the water are folk who sigh, and make this water bubble at the surface, as thine eye tells thee wherever it turns. Fixed in the slime, they say : c Sullen were we in the sweet air that is gladdened by the Sun, bearing within ourselves the sluggish fume ; now we are sullen in the black mire/ This hymn they gurgle in their throats, for they cannot speak with entire words." 4
Thus we circled a great arc of the foul fen, between the dry bank and the slough, with eyes turned on those who guzzle the mire. We came at length to the foot of a tower.
4. v. 1 26. The sinners fixed under the water in the mud would seem to be those whose anger was suppressed, showing itself not in acts of wrath, but in sullen and resentful gloom.
CANTO VIII
The Fifth Circle. — Pklegyas and his boat. — Passage of the Styx. — Filippo Argentl. — The City of Dis. — The demons refuse entrance to the poets.
I SAY, continuing, that, long before we were at the foot of the high tower, our eyes went upward to its top by reason of two flamelets that we saw set there, while another was giving signal back from so far off that the eye could hardly catch it. And I turned me to the Sea of all wisdom ; I said : " This one, what says it ? and what answers that other fire ? and who are they that made it ? " And he to me : " Upon the turbid waves already thou mayst discern that which is expected, if the fume of the marsh hide it not from thee."
Bowstring never urged arrow from itself that ran so swift a course through the air, as a little vessel which at that instant I saw coming through the water toward us, under the guid- ance of a single boatman, who cried out: "Now art thou arrived, fell soul ? "
" Phiegyas,1 Phlegyas, this time thou criest
I. v. 19. Phlegyas, a king of the Lapithae, enraged with
vv. 19-44] CANTO VIII 47
out in vain," said my Lord, " thou shalt not have us longer than only while crossing the slough." As one who listens to some great deception that has been practiced on him, and then repines thereat, such became Phlegyas in his gathered anger.
My Leader descended into the bark and then he made me enter after him, and only when I was in did it seem laden. Soon as my Leader and I were in the boat, the antique prow goes its way, cutting more of the water than it is wont with others.
While we were running through the dead channel, one full of mud set himself before me, and said : " Who art thou that comest be- fore thine hour ? " And I to him : " If I come, I do not stay ; but who art thou that art be- come so foul ?" He answered: "Thou seest that I am one who laments." And I to him, " With lamenting and with sorrow, accursed spirit, do thou remain, for I know thee, though thou be all filthy." Then he stretched to the boat both his hands, whereat the wary Master thrust him back, saying: "Away there, with the other dogs ! " Then he clasped my neck with his arms, kissed my face, and said: " Indignant
Apollo for the violation of his daughter, set fire to the temple, at Delphi, of the God, who slew him with his arrows. He finds his appropriate place here as the type of impious wra'h.
48 HELL [w. 45-69
soul, blessed be she who bore thee ! 2 That was an arrogant person in the world ; no good- ness is there that adorns his memory ; so is his shade furious here. How many now up there are held great kings who shall lie here like swine in mire, leaving of themselves horrible dispraises ! " And I : " Master, I should much like to see him soused in this broth be- fore we depart from the lake." And he to me : " Before the shore lets itself be seen by thee thou shalt be satisfied ; it is fitting that thou enjoy such a desire." A little after this I saw such rending of him by the muddy folk that I still praise God therefor, and thank Him for it. All cried : "At Filippo Argenti ! " and the raging Florentine spirit turned upon him- self with his teeth. Here we left him ; so that I tell no more of him.
But on my ears a wailing smote, whereat for- ward intent I unbar my eye. And the good Master said : " Now, son, the city draws near that is named Dis,3 with its heavy citizens, with
2. v. 45. Virgil commends Dante's feeling toward the pinner, because it was roused by righteous indignation at Filippo Argenti for the misery wrought by his deeds of cruelty. Its root was compassion for the innocent sufferers from his mad rages.
3. v. 68. Dis was a name used by the Romans for the god of the Infernal regions. Dante in giving the name to the city may have had in mind the verse of Virgil, " Night and
vv. 70-87] CANTO VIII 49
its great throng.'' And I : " Master, already in the valley therewithin I clearly discern its mosques vermilion, as if they were issuing from fire." And he said to me : " The eter- nal fire that blazes there within displays them red as thou seest in this nether Hell."
We at last arrived within the deep ditches which encompass that disconsolate city. The walls seemed to me to be of iron. Not with- out first making a great circuit did we come to a place where the boatman loudly shouted to us : " Get ye out, here is the entrance."
Upon the gates I saw more than a thousand of those rained down from heaven 4 who angrily were saying : " Who is this, that without death goes through the realm of the dead folk ? " And my wise Master made a sign of wishing to speak secretly with them.5 Then they shut
day the gate of dark Dis stands open" {AeneU+'n* understanding Dis to mean the region and not the god.
The walls of Dis close in the sinners of the lower Hell, whose sins were not those of passion or appetite, but of per- manent evil dispositions.
4. v. 83. The fallen angels now become devils; and here, for the first time, is resistance offered to the Divine will by virtue of which Dante is making his journey through Hell.
5. v. 87. To use the arguments of reason with them, which prove unavailing because of the continuance hi their disposition of that pride which had been the occasion of their
in.
50 HELL [vv. 88-112
in a little their great scorn, and said : " Come thou alone, and let him be gone who so boldly entered on this realm. Alone let him return on the mad path : let him try if he can ; for thou, who hast escorted him through so dark a region, shalt remain here." 6
Think, Reader, if I was discomforted at the sound of the accursed words, for I did not believe ever to return hither.7
" O my dear Leader, who more than seven times hast restored to me security, and drawn me from deep peril that stood confronting me, leave me not," said I, " thus undone ; and, if the passing farther onward be denied us, let us together quickly retrace our steps." And that Lord who had led me thither said to me : " Fear not, for no one can take from us our passage, by Such an one is it given to us. But here await me, and comfort thy dejected spirit and feed on good hope, for I will not leave thee in the nether world."
So the sweet Father goes away, and here abandons me, and I remain in suspense ; and yes and no contend within my head. I could not hear what he proffered to them, but he
6. v. 92. The demons are confident that human reason can be baffled and perverted by the resources of that pride of intellect which had been the cause of their own sin.
7. v. 96. To this world.
vv. 113-130] CANTO VIII 51
had not staid there with them long, when vying with each other they ran back within. These our adversaries closed the gates on the breast of my Lord, who remained without, and turned back to me with slow steps. He had his eyes upon the ground, and his brows were shorn of all hardihood, and he was saying with sighs : " Who has denied to me the houses of woe ? " And he said to me : " Because I am wroth, be not thou dismayed, for I shall win the contest, whoever circle round within for the defence. This their insolence is not new, for of old they used it at a less secret gate, which still is found without a bolt.8 Above it thou didst see the dead inscription ; and already, on this side of it, is descending the steep, passing without escort through the circles, One such that by him the city shall be opened to us."
8. v. 126. A like resistance had been offered to Christ on his descent to Hell.
CANTO IX
The City of Dis. — Erichtho. — The Three Furies. — The Heavenly Messenger. — The Sixth Circle : that of the Heresiarchs.
THAT color which cowardice painted out- wardly on me when I saw my Guide turn back, repressed more speedily his own new color.1 He stopped attentive, like a man that listens, for the eye could not lead him far through the black air, and through the dense fog.
"Yet it shall be for us to win the fight," began he, " unless — Such an one offered herself to us.2 Oh how long it is to me till Another arrive here ! " 3
I saw well how he covered up the beginning with the rest that came after, which were words different from the first ; but nevertheless his speech gave me fear, because I drew his broken
1. v. 3. The pallor of Dante checked the flush on the face of Virgil.
2. v. 8. Beatrice.
3. v. 9. The messenger from Heaven, referred to in the last verses of the kst canto. Dante more than once uses the indefinite " Another " for an unnamed superior power.
vv. 15-34] CANTO IX 53
phrase perchance to a worse meaning than it held.
" Into this depth of the dismal shell does any one ever descend from the first grade who has for penalty only hope cut off?"4 This question I put, and he answered me : " Seldom it happens that any one of us makes the jour- ney on which I am going. It is true that an- other time I was down here, conjured by that cruel Erichtho 5 who was wont to call back shades into their bodies. Short while had my flesh been bare of me, when she made me enter within that wall, in order to draw thence a spirit of the circle of Judas. That is the low- est place, and the darkest, and the farthest from the Heaven which encircles all. I know the road well ; therefore assure thyself. This marsh which breathes out the great stench girds round the woeful city wherein now we cannot enter without anger."
And more he said, but I have it not in mind,
4. v. 1 8. Dante asks for assurance that Virgil, whose station is in Limbo, " the first grade," knows the way. In Limbo the spirits are " only so far harmed that without hope they live in desire." See Canto iv. 41.
5. v. 23. Erichtho, a sorceress of Thessaly, of whom Lucan relates {Pbarsalia, vi. 506 sqq.) that, at the desire of Sextus, the son of Pompey, on the night before the battle of Pharsalia, she conjured up one of his dead soldiers to fore* tell of its issue.
54 HELL [vv. 35-54
because my eye had wholly attracted me toward the high tower with the ruddy summit, where in an instant were uprisen suddenly three in- fernal Furies,6 stained with blood, who had the limbs of women and their action, and were girt with greenest hydras. They had for hair little serpents and cerastes,7 wherewith their savage brows were bound.
And he, who well recognized the handmaids of the queen 8 of the eternal lamentation, said to me : " Behold the fell Erinnyes ; this is Megaera on the left side, she who wails on the right is Alecto, Tisiphone is in the middle : " and therewith he was silent.
With her nails each was tearing her breast ; they were beating themselves with their hands, and crying out so loud that I pressed close to the Poet through dread. " Let Medusa come, so we will make him of stone/' they all said, looking downward ; " ill was it we avenged not on Theseus his assault." 9
6. v. 38. The Furies seem to typify the self-tormenting malignant passions of the understanding perverted by pride and self-will.
7. v. 41. Horned snakes. See Paradise Lost, x. 525.
8. v. 44. Proserpine.
9. v. 53. Theseus, failing in his attempt to rescue Per- sephone, was kept in the lower world till he was delivered by Hercules. His release had been in defiance of the power of Hades.
w. 55-73] CANTO IX 55
"Turn thee round backwards, and keep thy sight closed, for if the Gorgon show her- self, and thou shouldst see her, no return up- ward would there ever be." I0 Thus said the Master, and he himself turned me, and trusted not to my hands but with his own he also blinded me.
O ye who have sound understandings, re- gard the doctrine that is hidden under the veil of the strange verses !
And already across the turbid waves was coming a crash of a sound full of terror, at which both the shores trembled. Not other- wise it was than of a wind, impetuous by reason of the opposing heats, which strikes the forest, and without any stay shatters the branches, beats down and carries them away ; forward, laden with dust, it goes superb, and makes the wild beasts and the shepherds fly.
My eyes he loosed, and said, " Now direct
10. v. 57. Medusa, who should turn Dante to stone, that is, should harden his heart to the influences of the Divine grace, may be the type of the sin of Desperatio, despair of the mercy of God, which is not, says St. Thomas, the gravest of sins, but the most dangerous. He cites the saying of Isidore, " To despair is to descend into hell." S. T. ii2. 20, 3. Virgil's declaration that "no return upward would there ever be," is illustrated by the words of St. Gregory, who affirms that by Desperatio, "via jam reversionis abscin- ditur," " the way of return is cut off." Moralia, viiL 52.
56 HELL [w. 74-101
the nerve of sight across that ancient scum, there yonder where that fume is most bitter."
As the frogs before the hostile snake all vanish through the water, till each huddles on the ground, I saw more than a thousand de- stroyed souls flying thus before One, who on foot was passing over the Styx with soles unwet. From his face he was removing that thick air, waving his left hand oft before him, and only with that trouble he seemed weary. Well I perceived that he was a messenger from Heaven, and I turned me to the Master, and he made sign that I should stand quiet and bow down to him. Ah, how full of disdain he seemed to me ! He came to the gate and with a little rod he opened it, for it had no resistance.
" O outcasts from Heaven ! folk despised," began he upon the horrible threshold, " whence is this overweening harbored in you ? Where- fore do ye kick against that Will from which its end can never be cut short, and which many a time has increased your woe ? What avails it to butt against the fates ? Your Cerberus, if ye remember well, still bears his chin and his throat peeled therefor." " Then he turned back over the filthy road, and said no word to
ii. v. 99. Because of his resistance to Hercules when dragged in chains by him from the kingdom of Hades. See Aeneidt vi. 395-6.
w. 101-126] CANTO IX 57
us, but wore the semblance of a man whom other care constrains and stings, than that of him who is before him.
Then we moved our feet toward the city, secure after his holy words. We entered there within without any strife : and I, who had desire to observe the condition which such a strong- hold locks in, soon as I was within, send my eye round about, and I see on every hand a great plain full of woe and of cruel torment.
As at Aries, where the Rhone stagnates, as at Pola, near the Quarnaro which shuts Italy in and bathes her borders, the sepulchres make all the place uneven I2 ; so did they here on every side, save that the manner was more bitter here ; for among the tombs flames were scat- tered, by which they were so wholly heated that no art requires iron more so. All their lids were lifted ; and such dire laments were issuing forth from them as truly seemed of wretches and of sufferers.
And I : " Master, who are these folk that, buried within those coffers, make themselves heard with their, woeful sighs ? " And he to
12. v. 1 1 5. The cemetery at Aries with its great tombs of stone was a famous burial-ground from Roman days on- ward through the Middle Ages. Though now desecrated the ground still is uneven with the ancient graves. The tombs at Pola have disappeared.
58 HELL [vv. 127-133
me : " Here are the heresiarchs with their fol- lowers of every sect, and the tombs are much more laden than thou thinkest. Like with like is buried here, and the monuments are more and less hot."
And after he had turned to the right hand/3 we passed between the torments and the high battlements.
13. v. 132. The general course of the poets in their descent through Hell is to the left, the sinister hand, symboliz- ing the evil direction of the course of the sinner. Here, and in one other instance (xvii. 31), they turn for a short distance to the right. The significance of these turns to the right is obscure, and no satisfactory solution of it has been proposed.
CANTO X
The Sixth Circle : Heresiarcbs. — Farinata degh Uberti. — Cavalcante Cavalcanti. — - Frederick IL
Now, along a solitary path between the wall of the city and the torments, my Master goes on, and I behind his shoulders.
" O virtue supreme," I began, " that through the impious circles dost turn me according to thy pleasure, speak to me and satisfy my desires. The folk that are lying in the sepulchres, might they be seen ? all the lids are now lifted, and no one keeps guard." And he to me : " All will be locked in when they shall return here from Jehoshaphat with the bodies which they have left on earth.1 Upon this side Epicurus / with all his followers, who make the soul mor- V tal with the body, have their burial place.
i. v. 12. The locality of the Last Judgment, when the bodies of the dead were to be reunited with their souls, was assumed to be the valley of Jehoshaphat, according to the words of Joe It iii. 2, I 2 : "I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there ... for there will I sit to judge."
60 HELL [w. 16-35
Therefore as to the request that thou makest of me, thou shalt soon be satisfied here within ; and also as to the desire of which thou art silent to me." 2 And I : " Good Leader, I hold not my heart hidden from thee except in order to speak little ; and not only now hast thou disposed me to this." 3
" O Tuscan, who goest thy way alive through the city of fire, speaking thus mod- estly, may it please thee to stop in this place. Thy mode of speech makes manifest that thou art native of that noble fatherland to which per- chance I was too molestful." Suddenly this sound issued from one of the coffers, wherefore in fear I drew a little nearer to my Leader. And he said to me : " Turn thee : what art thou doing ? See there Farinata who has risen erect ; all from the girdle upwards wilt thou see him." 4
I had already fixed my face on his, and he was straightening himself up with breast and
2. v. 1 8. Probably the wish to see Farinata, concern- ing whom Dante had questioned Ciacco (Canto ri. 79).
3. v. 21. These words may refer to Dante's supposi- tion that his question to Virgil as they were approaching Acheron had been irksome to the poet (Canto iii. 79-80).
4. v. 33. Farinata degli Uberti was the head of tne Ghibelline party in Tuscany for many years, about the middle of the thirteenth century. He was a man of valor and of wise counsel. He died not far from the time of Dante" s birth.
vv. 36-59] CANTO X 6 1
front as though he had Hell in great scorn. And the bold and ready hands of my Leader pushed me among the sepulchres to him, say- ing : " Let thy words be clear."
When I was at the foot of his tomb, he looked at me a little, and then, as though dis- dainful, asked me, " Who were thy ancestors ? " I, who was desirous to obey, concealed it not from him, but disclosed it all to him ; whereon he raised up his brows a little, then said : " They were fiercely adverse to me arid to my forefathers and to my party, so that at two times I scattered them." 5 " If they were driven out, they returned from every side," replied I to him, " both the one and the other time, but yours have not learned well that art."6
Then there arose to sight alongside of this one, a shade uncovered far as to the chin : 1 think that it had risen on its knees. It looked round about me, as if it had desire to see if another were with me, but when its expectancy was quite spent, weeping it said : " If through this blind prison thou goest by reason of lofti-
5. v. 48. Dante's ancestors were Guelfs ; Farinata had dispersed the Guelfs in 1 248 and I 260.
6. v. 51. The Guelfs had returned to Florence in 1251 and 1 266, and regaining power had finally expelled the Ghi- bellines permanently.
62 HELL [vv. bo-8o
ness of genius, where is my son ? and why is he not with thee ? " And I to him : " I come not of myself; he who waits yonder is leading me through here, whom perchance your Guido had in disdain." 7
His words and the mode of the punishment had already read to me the name of this one ; wherefore my answer was so full.
Suddenly straightening up, he cried : " How didst thou say, < he had ' ? lives he not still ? does not the sweet light strike his eyes ? " When he became aware of some delay that I made before answering, he fell again supine, and appeared no more outside.
But that other magnanimous one, at whose instance I had stayed, changed not aspect, nor moved his neck, nor bent his side. " And if," he said, continuing his first discourse, " they have ill learned that art, it torments me more than this bed. But the face of the Lady who rules here 8 will not be rekindled fifty times ere
7. v. 63. Guido Cavalcanti, Dante's first friend (see The New Life, § 3), was charged with the same sin of unbelief as his father. Dante regards this as a sin specially contrary to right reason, typified by Virgil. In 1 266-7, when an attempt was made to reconcile the Guelf and Ghi- belline parties in Florence, the daughter of Farinata was be- trothed to Guido Cavalcanti, and they were subsequently married.
8. v. 80. Proserpine, identified with the mystical He- cate, and hence with the Moon.
rv. 81-106] CANTO X 63
thou shalt know how much that art weighs. And, so mayest thou return to the sweet world, tell me wherefore is that people so pitiless against my party in its every law?" Thereon I to him : " The rout and the great carnage which colored the Arbia red cause such prayer to be made in our temple/* After he had, sighing, shaken his head, "In that I was not alone," he said, " nor surely without cause would I have moved with the others ; but I was alone there,9 where it was agreed by every one to destroy Florence, he who defended her with open face." " Ah ! so may your seed ever have repose," I prayed to him, " loose for me that knot, which has here entangled my judgment. It seems, if I hear rightly, that ye see in advance that which time is bringing with it, and as to the present have another way." I0 " We see," he said, " like him who has bad light, the things that are far from us, so much the supreme Ruler still shines on us ; when they draw near, or are, our intelli- gence is wholly vain, and, if another report not to us, we know nothing of your human state ; wherefore thou canst comprehend that
9. v. 91. At Empoli, in 1260, after the terrible rout of the Florentine Guelfs at Montaperti on the Arbia.
10. v. 99. That is, are ignorant of the present. Ciacco and Farinata have foretold future events, but Cavalcante has shown himself ignorant of present conditions.
64 HELL [w. 107-120
our knowledge will be utterly dead from that moment when the gate of the future shall be closed." " Then, as compunctious for my fault, I said : " Now, then, you " will tell to that fallen one that his son is still conjoined with the living, and if just now I was dumb to an- swer, make him know that I was so because I was already thinking in the error which you have solved for me." I3
And now my Master was recalling me, where- fore more hastily I prayed the spirit that he would tell me who was with him. He said to me: "Here I lie with more than a thousand; here within is the second Frederick I4 and the Cardinal,15 and of the others I am silent."
11. v. 1 08. After the Last Judgment, the end of earth and of time.
12. v. 1 10. The use of the plural you is to be noted as indicating the respect in which Dante held Farinata, as the " your Guido " in verse 63 shows a similar feeling toward Cavalcante. The only other person in Hell whom he treats with similar honor is Brunetto Latini, in Canto xv.
13. v. 114. Guido Cavalcanti died in August, 1300; his death was an event too near at hand at the time of Dante' s journey to be known to his father, who, probably, had him- self died but recently.
14. v. 119. The famous Frederick II., " stupor mundi," Emperor from 1212 to 1250 ; "he led an epicu- rean life," says Villani, "never making account that there would be another life." Cronica, vi. i.
15. v. 120. Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, a fierce Ghibel-
vv. 121-136] CANTO X 65
Thereon he hid himself; and I turned my steps toward the ancient Poet, reflecting on that speech which seemed hostile to me. He moved on, and then, thus going, he said to me : " Why art thou so disturbed ? " And I satis- fied him as to his question. " Let thy memory preserve that which thou hast heard against thyself," that Sage bade me, " and now give heed here — " and he raised his finger: "When thou shalt be in presence of the sweet radiance of her whose beautiful eye sees everything, from her thou shalt learn the journey of thy life." Then to the left he turned his step.
We left the wall, and went toward the middle by a path that strikes into a valley which even up there was making its stench displeasing.
line, who was reported as saying, "If there be a soul I have lost it for the Ghibellines. " He died in 1273.
CANTO XI
Tie Sixth Circle : Heretics. — Tomb of Pope Anas* tasius. - — Discourse of Virgil on the divisions of the lower Hell.
UPON the edge of a high bank which great rocks broken in a circle made, we came above a more cruel pen. And here, because of the horrible excess of the stench which the deep abyss throws out, we drew aside behind the lid of a great tomb, whereon I saw an inscription which said : " I hold Pope Anastasius, whom Photinus drew from the right way." '
"It behoves that our descent be slow, so that the sense may first accustom itself a little to the dismal blast, and then it will be of no con- cern." Thus the Master, and I said to him : " Some compensation do thou find that the time pass not lost/' And he : " Behold, I am thinking of that. My son, within these rocks," he began then to say, " are three
i . v. 9 1 . A confused tradition charged Pope Anastasius II., 496-498, with having been led by Photinus of Thessalonica Into heretkal opinions concerning the divinity of Christ. „-
w. 16-39] CANTO XI 67
lesser circles from grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving. All are full of ac- cursed spirits ; but, in order that hereafter the sight alone may suffice thee, hear how and wherefore they are in bonds.
" Of every wickedness 2 that acquires hate in heaven injury is the end, and every such end afflicts others either by force or by fraud. But because fraud is an evil peculiar to man, it more displeases God ; and therefore the fraudulent are the lower, and woe assails them more.
" The first circle 3 is wholly of the violent : but because violence is done to three persons, it is divided and constructed in three rounds. To God, to one's self, to one's neighbor may violence be done ; I say to them and to their be- longings, as thou shalt hear with plain discourse. By violence, death and grievous wounds are inflicted on one's neighbor ; and on his sub- stance ruins, burnings, and harmful extortions. Wherefore the first round torments homicides, and every one who smites wrongfully, all de- spoilers and plunderers, in various troops.
2. v. 22. Wickedness, or deliberate sin that proceeds from evil disposition, or fixed habit, distinguished from sins of incontinence, due to passionate impulse or want of self- control.
3. v. 28. The first circle below, the seventh in the order of Hell.
68 HELL [vv. 40-60
u Man may lay violent hands upon himself and on his goods ; and, therefore, in the second round it behoves that he repent without avail who deprives himself of your world, gambles away and dissipates his property, and laments there where he ought to be joyous.4
" Violence may be done to the Deity, by denying and blaspheming Him in the heart, and by contemning nature and His bounty : and therefore the smallest round seals with its sig- net both Sodom and Cahors,5 and him who, contemning God, speaks from his heart.
" The fraud, by which every conscience is stung, man may practice on one that confides in him, or on one that has no stock of confi- dence. This latter mode seems to destroy only the bond of love which nature makes 6 ; where- fore in the second circle 7 nest hypocrisy, flat- teries, and he who bewitches, falsity, robbery, and simony, panders, barrators, and such like filth.
4. v. 45. Laments on earth because of violence done by himself to what should have made him happy.
5. v. 50. Cahors, a town in southern France, on the river Lot, noted in the Middle Ages for the usurious dispo- sition and practice of its inhabitants, so that the term Caorsini was in common use as a synonym for usurers.
6. v. 56. Only the common bond of man to man.
7. v. 57. The second circle below, the eighth in tn« ordsr of Hell.
vv. 61-84] CANTO XI 69
" By the other mode that love is forgotten which nature makes and that which is there- after added, whereby special confidence is cre- ated. Hence, in the smallest circle, where is the point of the universe, upon which Dis sits, whoso betrays is consumed forever."
And I : " Master, full clearly thy discourse proceeds, and full well divides this pit, and the people that possess it ; but, tell me, they of the fat marsh, and they whom the wind drives, and they whom the rain beats, and they who encounter with such rough tongues, why are they not punished within the ruddy city 8 if God be wroth with them ? and if he be not so, why are they in such plight ? "
And he said to me : " Why does thy wit so wander beyond its wont ? or thy mind, where else is it gazing ? Dost thou not remember those words with which thy Ethics treats in full of the three dispositions that Heaven abides not ; incontinence, wickedness, and mad bestial- ity, and how incontinence less offends God, and incurs less blame ? 9 If thou consider well this
8. v. 73. In this lower Hell, within the walls of the city of Dis.
9. v. 84. Aristotle, Ethics, vii. I . Dante does not adopt Aristotle's classification as a whole, but, as has been pointed out by Dr. Moore (Studies in Dante, i. 259, ii. 157-160) follows him only "in the broad distinction between sins of
70 HELL [vv. 85-106
doctrine, and bring to mind who are those that up above suffer punishment outside,10 thou wilt see clearly why they are divided from these fel- ons, and why less wroth the divine vengeance hammers them."
" O Sun that healest every troubled vision, thou dost content me so, when thou solvest, that doubt, hot less than knowledge, pleases me ; yet turn thee a little back," said I, "to where thou sayest that usury offends the Di- vine Goodness," and loose the knot."
" Philosophy," he said to me, " points out to him who understands it, not only in one part alone, how Nature takes her course from the Divine Intellect and from Its art. And if thou note thy Physics I2 well thou wilt find, after not many pages, that your art follows her so far as it can, as the disciple does the master, so that your art is as it were grandchild of God. From these two,13 if thou bring to mind
impulse [or appetite] and sins of habit . . . and as regards the latter borrows from Cicero (De OJficiis, I. xiii. 41) the distinction between such sins when carried out by violence and when effected by fraud. ' ' Bestiality or brutishness thus has no place in Dante's scheme.
10. v. 87. Outside the walls of the city of Dis.
11. v. 96. Virgil has not said this explicitly, but has implied it in his reference to Cahors, v. 50.
12. v. 101. Aristotle, Physics > ii. 2.
13. v. 1 06. From the bounty of Nature, and the exer< cise of Art.
vv. 107-115] CANTO XI 71
Genesis at its beginning,14 it behoves mankind to gain their life and to advance. But because the usurer holds another way, he contemns Nature in herself, and in her follower,15 since upon other thing he sets his hope.16 But follow me now, for to go on pleases me ; for the Fishes are quivering on the horizon, and the Wain lies quite over Caurus,17 and far on- wards is the descent of the steep."
14. v. 107. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou cat bread.** Genesis iii. 19.
15. v. 1 10. " Her follower," that is, the arts of man- kind.
1 6. v. J 1 1 . The usurer sets his hope on gain not de- rived from the bounty of nature, nor won by the sweat of his brow in the practice of any art, and thus, as Bacon says, he " breaketh the first law that was made for mankind."
17. v. 1 14. The sign of the Fishes precedes that of the Ram, and, as the Sun was in the latter sign, the time indicated is about 4, or from 4 to 5 A. M. Caurus, the name of the northwest wind, here stands for that quarter of the heavens*
CANTO XII
The Seventh Circle, first round: those who d9 violence to others. — The Minotaur. — The Centaurs. • — Chiron. — Nessus. — The River of boiling Blood, and the Sinners in it.
THE place where we came to descend the bank was alpine, and, because also of what was there, such that every eye would be shy of it.
As is that downfall which, on this side of Trent, struck the Adige on its flank, either by earthquake or through failure of support, — for from the top of the mountain, whence it started, to the plain, the cliff has so tumbled down that it might afford some path to one that were above — such was the descent of that ravine : and on the edge of the broken chasm was out- stretched the infamy of Crete, that was conceived in the false cow. And when he saw us he bit himself even as one whom wrath rends inwardly. My Sage cried out toward him : " Perchance thou believest that here is the Duke of Athens,1
I. v. 1 6. " Whylom, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a clerk that highte Theseus, Of Athens he was lord and governour." — The Knight es Tale, 1-3.
vv. xo-43] CANTO XII 73
who up in the world gave thee thy death ? Get thee gone, beast, for this one does not come instructed by thy sister, but he goes to behold your punishments."
As is that bull which breaks his halter at the instant he has just received his mortal stroke, and cannot go, but plunges this way and that, I saw the Minotaur do the like.
And he 2 watchful cried : " Run to the pass ; while he is in a rage it is well that thou descend." So we took our way down over the discharge of those stones, which often moved under my feet because of the novel burden.
I was going along thinking, and he said; f( Thou art thinking perhaps on this ruin which is guarded by that bestial wrath which I just now quelled. Now I would have thee know that the other time when I descended here be- low into the nether hell, this cliff had not yet fallen. But in truth, if I discern aright, a little ere He came, who levied the great spoil on Dis from the uppermost circle,3 on all sides the deep foul valley trembled 4 so that I thought the universe felt love whereby, as some believe, the world has oft-times been converted into
2. v. 26. Virgil.
3. v. 39. See Canto iv. 52-63.
4. v. 41. At the moment of the death of Jesus, whcr "the earth did quake, and the rooks rent.*' Matthew xxvii. 5 i .
74 HELL [vv. 44-60
chaos : 5 and, at that moment, this ancient rock here and elsewhere made such downfall. But fix thine eyes below, for the river of blood is near, in which everyone who does harm by violence to others is boiling."
Oh blind cupidity,6 both guilty and mad, which so spurs us in the short life, and then, in the eternal, steeps us so ill !
I saw a broad ditch, according as my Guide had said, bent in an arc, as that which embraces all the plain. And between the foot of the bank and it, Centaurs were running in a file, armsd with arrows, as they were wont in the won-* to go to the chase. Seeing us descending, each stopped, and from the troop three detached themselves, with bows and darts first selected.
5. v. 43. It was the doctrine of Empedocles that Love and Hate were powers to whose conflicting influences the actual condition of the sensible world is due, the one striving to unite, the other to separate and mingle the elementary sub- stances. If one or the other gained complete supremacy, which it was supposed might be the case at vast intervals of time, the existing universe would undergo a total change in all its parts. Dante may have gained imperfect knowledge of this doctrine from Aristotle.
6. v. 49. Cupidity, the inordinate desire of temporal or material things, destructive alike of charity and justice, is the root of deeds of tyranny and violence such as are punished here. Sfe Paradise, xv. 3; xxvii. 121; De Monarr.hia, i. II, 70.
vv. 61-89] CANTO XII 75
And one cried from afar : " To what torment are ye coming, ye who descend the slope ? Tell it from there ; if not, I draw the bow." My Master said : " We will make answer unto Chiron near by there : to thy hurt was thy will ever thus hasty."
Then he touched me, and said : " That is Nessus, who died for the beautiful Dejanira, and himself wrought vengeance for himself; and that one in the middle, who is gazing on his own breast, is the great Chiron who nurtured Achilles ; that other is Pholus, who was so full of wrath. Round about the ditch they go by thousands, shooting with their arrows whatever soul lifts itself from the blood more than its crime has allotted to it."
W«? drew near to those fleet wild beasts. Chiron took a shaft, and with the notch put his beard back upon his jaws. When he had thus uncovered his great mouth he said to his com- panions : " Are ye aware that the one behind moves what he touches ? thus are not wont to do the feet of the dead." And my good Leader, who was now at his breast, where the two natures are conjoined, replied : " He is indeed alive, and thus alone it behoves me to show him the dark valley : necessity leads him and not delight. One who withdrew from singing hallelujah committed unto me this nevf
76 HELL [w. 90-112
duty ; he is no robber, nor I a fraudulent soul. But, by that Power through which I move my steps along so savage a road, give to us one of thine, to whom we may keep close, who may show us where the ford is, and may carry this one on his back, who is not a spirit that can go through the air."
Chiron turned upon his right breast, and said to Nessus : " Turn, and guide them thus, and if another troop encounter you, make it give way."
We moved on with the trusty escort along the edge of the crimson boiling, in which the boiled were uttering loud shrieks. I saw folk under it up to the brow, and the great Centaur said : " These are tyrants who laid hold on blood and plunder. Here they bewail their merciless misdeeds : here is Alexander, and cruel Dionysius who made Sicily have woeful years. And that forehead which has such black hair is Azzolino,7 and that other who is blond is Opizzo of Este,8 who of a truth was slain by his stepson up there in the world."
7. v. no. Azzolino or Ezzelino III. da Romano, son- in-law of the Emperor Frederick II., and his vicar in North' ern Italy; one of the most cruel of tyrants. He died in 1259.
8. v. in. Opizzo II. of Este, Marquis of Ferrara, a rapacious tyrant. It was believed that he was smothered by bis son, called by Dante his stepson, Azzo (referred to is
vv. 113-135] CANTO XII 77
Then I turned me to the Poet, and he said : ct Let him now be first for thee, and I second." A little further on the Centaur stopped above a folk who far as the throat seemed to come out from that boiling stream. He showed to us at one side a solitary shade, and said : "He cleft, in the bosom of God, the heart that still is honored on the Thames." 9 Then I saw folk, who were holding their heads, and even all their chests, out of the stream ; and of these I recog- nized many. Thus more and more that blood sank down, until it cooked only the feet : and here was our passage of the foss.
" As on this hand, thou seest that the boiling stream continually diminishes," said the Cen- taur, " so I would have thee believe that on this other it lowers its bed more and more, until it comes round again to where it behoves that tyranny should groan. The divine justice here goads that Attila who was a scourge on earth, and Pyrrhus and Sextus ; and forever milks the
Hell, Canto xviii. 56 ; and Purgatory, Canto v. 77) in the year 1293.
9. v. 1 20. In 1271, Prince Henry, son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, was stabbed, during the mass, in the church of St. Sylvester at Viterbo, by Guy of Montfort, to avenge the death of his father, Simon, Earl of Leicester, in 1265. The heart of the young Prince was placed in a golden cup, ac- cording to Villani (Cronica, vii. 39), on a column, at the Head of London bridge.
7 8 HELL [w. 136-139
tears which with the boiling it unlocks from
Rinier of Corneto and from Rimer Pazzo/0
who made such warfare upon the highways."
Then he turned back and repassed the ford.
10. v. 137. Two noted highway robbers who, in the thirteenth century, beset travellers on the roads between Florence and Rome, and on the Roman Campagna.
CANTO XIII
The Seventh Circle, second round: those who have done violence to themselves and to their goods. — The Wood of Self-murjlerers. — The Harpies. — Pier delle Vigne. — La no of Siena and others.
NESSUS had not yet reached the yonder bank when we set forward through a wood which was marked by no path. Not green leaves were there, but of a dusky color, not smooth boughs but gnarled and tangled, not fruits but thorns with poison. Those savage wild-beasts that hold in hate the tilled places between Cecina and Corneto ' have no thickets so rough or so dense.
Here the foul Harpies make their nests, who chased the Trojans from the Strophades with dismal announcement of future calamity.3 They have broad wings, and human necks and faces, feet with claws, and the great belly feath- ered. They make lament on the strange trees.
1 . v. 9. The little river Cecina and the town of Cor- neto on the river Marta roughly designate respectively the northern and southern limits of the Tuscan Maremma.
2. v. 12. See Aeneid, iii. 210-257.
8o HELL [w. 16-42
And the good Master began to say to me : <c Before thou enterest farther, know that thou art in the Second Round,3 and wilt be, till thou shalt come to the horrible sand. Therefore look well around, and so shalt thou see things that would take credence from my speech." 4
I heard wailings uttered on every side, and I saw no one who made them, wherefore, all be- wildered, I stopped. I believe that he believed that I believed that all these voices issued from amid those trunks from people who because of us had hidden themselves. Therefore said the Master: " If thou break off any twig from one of these plants, the thoughts thou hast will all be cut short." Then I stretched my hand a little forward and plucked a little branch from a great thorn-bush, and its trunk cried out : " Why dost thou break me ? " When it had become dark with blood it began again to cry : " Why dost thou tear me ? hast thou not any spirit of pity? Men we were, and now we are become stocks ; truly thy hand ought to be more pitiful had we been souls of ser- pents."
As from a green log that is burning at one of its ends, and drips from the other, and hisses with the air that is escaping, so from that bro-
3. v. 17. Of the Seventh Circle.
4. v. 21. Things which if told would seem incredible-
vv. 43-61] CANTO XIII »!
ken twig came out words and blood together \ whereon I let the tip fall, and stood like a man who is afraid.
"If he had been able to believe before/' replied my Sage, " O injured soul, what he has seen only in my verse,5 he would not have stretched out his hand on thee ; but the incredi- ble thing made me prompt him to an act which weighs on me myself. But tell him who thou wast, so that, by way of some amends, he may refresh thy fame in the world above, whereto it is allowed him to return."
And the trunk : 6 " Thou dost so allure me with sweet speech, that I cannot be silent, and may it not burden you, that I am enticed to talk a little. I am he who held both the keys of the heart of Frederick, and who turned them, locking and unlocking so softly, that from his secrets I kept almost every one.
5. v. 48. In the story of Polydorus, in the third book of the Aeneid.
6. v. 55. The spirit who speaks is Pier delle Vigne ; of low birth, but of great ability, he rose rapidly at the court of Frederick II., till he became the Chancellor of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and later the private secretary and confi- dential minister of the Emperor. In I 249 he fell into dis- grace, and, according to common report, his eyes were put out, and he killed himself at Pisa by dashing his head against a wall. He was one of the earliest writers of Italian verse. Dante has placed his master as well as him in Hell. See Canto x. 1 19*
82 HELL [vv. 62-88
Fidelity so great I bore to the glorious office, that I lost my sleep and my pulse thereby. The harlot/ that never from the abode of Caesar turned her strumpet eyes, — the common death and vice of courts, — inflamed all minds against me, and they, inflamed, did so inflame Augus- tus that my glad honors turned to dismal sor- rows. My mind, through scornful disgust, thinking to escape scorn by death, made me un- just toward my just self. By the strange roots of this tree I swear to you, that I never broke faith to my lord who was so worthy of honor. And if one of you returns to the world, let him comfort my memory which yet lies prostrate from the blow that envy gave it."
He paused a little, and then, " Since he is silent," said the Poet to me, "lose not the hour, but, if more please thee, speak and en- quire of him." Whereon I to him : " Do thou ask him further of what thou thinkest may sat- isfy me, for I cannot, such great pity fills my heart."
Therefore he began again : " So may this man do for thee freely that which thy speech prays for, spirit incarcerate, may it please thee yet to tell us how the soul is bound within
7. v. 64. *' Envie is lavendere of the court alway j For she ne parteth, neither nyght ne day, Out of the house of Cesar, — thus seith Dante. **
Legende of Good Womtnt 358-60.
vv. 89-114] CANTO XIII 83
these knots, and tell us, if thou canst, if from such limbs any soul is ever loosed."
Then the trunk puffed strongly, and soon the wind was changed into this voice : " Briefly shall ye be answered. When the ferocious soul departs from the body wherefrom itself has torn itself, Minos sends it to the seventh gulf. It falls into the wood, and no part is chosen for it, but where fortune flings it there it sprouts like a grain of spelt ; it rises in a sapling and to a wild plant : the Harpies, feed- ing then upon its leaves, give pain, and to the pain a window.8 Like the others we shall go for our spoils,9 but not, however, that any one may revest himself with them, for it is not just for one to have that of which he deprives him- self. Hither shall we drag them, and through the melancholy wood shall our bodies be sus- pended, each on the thorn-tree of its molested shade."
We were still attentive to the trunk, believ- ing that it might wish to say more to us, when we were surprised by an uproar, like one who perceives the wild boar and the chase coming toward his post, and hears the beasts and the
8. v. 1 02. The tearing of the leaves gives an outlet to the woe.
9. v. 103. Like other spirits, for their bodies, at the Last Judgment.
84 HELL [vv. 115-140
crash of the branches. And behold, two on the left hand, naked and scratched, flying so hard that they broke through every barrier of the wood. The one in front was shouting : " Haste now ! haste thee, Death ! " and the other, who seemed to himself too slow: " Lano, thy legs were not so nimble at the jousts of the Toppo " : I0 and since perhaps his breath was failing, of himself and of a bush he made a group. Behind them the wood was full of black bitches, ravenous and running like grey- hounds that had been slipped from the leash. On him who had squatted they set their teeth and tore him piecemeal, then carried off those woeful limbs.
My Guide then took me by the hand, and led me to the bush, which was weeping in vain through its bleeding fractures. " O Jacomo of Sant' Andrea," it was saying," "what has it vantaged thee to make of me a screen ? What blame have I for thy wicked life ? " When the Master had stopped above it, he said : "Who wast thou, who through so many wounds blow- est forth with blood a woeful speech ? " And he to us : " O souls that are arrived to see the
10. v. 121. Lano was slain in flight at the defeat of the Sienese by the Aretines, near the Pieve del Toppo, in I 280. He and Jacomo were notorious spendthrifts.
11. v. 133. It is not known who this is that speaks,.
vv. 141-151] CANTO XIII 85
shameful ravage that has thus disjoined my twigs from me, collect them at the foot of the wretched bush. I was of the city which for the Baptist changed her first patron ; I2 wherefore he will always make her sorrowful with his art. And were it not that at the passage of the Arno some semblance of him still remains, those citi- zens who afterwards rebuilt it upon the ashes that were left by Attila I3 would have done the work in vain.14 I made a gibbet for myself of my own house."
12. v. 144. The first patron of Florence was Mars ; a fragment of a statue of whom stood till 1333 at the head of the Ponte Vecchio, the Old Bridge over the Arno. See Paradise, xvi. 145—147.
13. v. 149. It was not Attila, but Totila, who in 542 besieged Florence, and, according to false popular tradition, burned it. Their names and deeds were frequently con- founded in the Dark Ages.
14. v. 150. Under these words lies a satirical reference to the devotion of the Florentines to money making. Dante means, says Benvenuto da Imola, " that after Florence gave up Mars, that is, fortitude and valor in arms, and began to worship the Baptist alone, that is, the Florin, on which is the figure of the Baptist, they met with misfortune in their wars." The fragment of the statue of Mars was a type of the little that remained of their old valor.
CANTO XIV
The Seventh Circle, third round: those who have done violence to God. — The Burning Sand. — Capaneus. — Figure of the Old Man in Crete. — The Rivers of Hell.
BECAUSE the love of my native place con- strained me, I gathered up the scattered twigs and gave them back to him who was already faint-voiced.
Thence we came to the confine, where the second round is divided from the third, and where a horrible mode of justice is seen.
To make the new things clearly manifest, I say that we had reached a plain which rejects every plant from its bed. The woeful wood is a garland round about it, even as the dismal foss to that. Here, on the very edge, we stayed our steps. The floor was an arid and dense sand, not made in other fashion than that which of old was trodden by the feet of Cato.1
O vengeance of God, how much shouldst
I . v. I 5 . On his march across the Libyan desert, from Cyrene to Utica, in the year B. c. 47. See Lucan, Pbarsalia. ix. 371-378.
vv. 16-43] CANTO XIV 87
thou be feared by every one who reads that which was manifest to my eyes !
I saw many flocks of naked souls, that were all weeping very miserably, and divers law seemed imposed upon them. Some folk were lying supine on the ground,2 some were seated all crouched up,3 and others were going about continually.4 Those who were going around were the more numerous, and those the less so who were lying down under the torment, but they had their tongues more loosed by the pain.
Over all the sand, with a slow falling, were raining down dilated flakes of fire, as of snow on alps without a wind. As the flames which Alexander in those hot parts of India saw fall- ing upon his host, unbroken to the ground, wherefore he took care to trample the soil by his troops, because the vapor was better extin- guished while it was single ; so was descending the eternal heat whereby the sand was kindled, like tinder beneath the steel, for doubling of the dole. The dance of the wretched hands was ever without repose, now there, now here, shaking off from them the fresh burning.
I began : tc Master, thou that overcomest
z. v. 22. Those who had done violence to God.
3. v. 23. Those who had done violence to Nature.
4. v. 24. Those who had done violence to Art.
88 HELL [vv. 44-66
everything, except the obdurate demons, who at the entrance of the gate came out against us, who is that great one that seems not to heed the fire, and lies despiteful and twisted, so that the rain seems not to ripen him ? " 5 And that same one who was aware that I was asking my Leader about him, cried out : " Such as I was alive, such am I dead. Though Jove weary out his smith, from whom in wrath he took the sharp thunderbolt wherewith on my last day I was smitten, or though he weary out the others, turn by turn, in Mongibello6 at the black forge, crying, ' Good Vulcan, help, help ! ' even as he did at the fight of Phlegra,7 and hurl on me with all his might, he should not have thereby glad vengeance."
Then my Leader spoke with force so great, that I had never heard him so vehement : " O Capaneus, in that thy pride is not extinct, art thou the more punished ; no torment save thine own rage would be a pain adequate to thy fury."
5. v. 48. It is Capaneus, one of the seven kings who be- sieged Thebes. He, having mounted the walls, defied Jupiter, who slew him with a thunderbolt. See Statius, Tbebaid, x. 898-939.
6. v. 56. Mt. ./Etna, called by the Saracens in Sicily, Al gebelt "The Mountain"; this designation was trans- formed by the Italians into Mongibello.
7. v. 58. The battle between the Gods and the Giants, in the vale of Phlegra in Thessaly.
vv .67-89] CANTO XIV 89
Then he turned round to me with better look, saying : " That was one of the Seven Kings who besieged Thebes, and he held, and it seems that he holds God in disdain, and it seems that he little prizes Him ; but as I said to him, his own despites are very due adornments for -his breast. Now come behind me, and take heed still not to set thy feet upon the scorched sand, but keep them always close to the wood/*
In silence we came to where a little brook, the redness of which still makes me shudder, gushes forth from the wood. As from the Bulicame 8 a rivulet issues, which then the sinful women share among them, so that went down across the sand. Its bed and both its sloping banks were made of stone, and the margins on the side, wherefore I perceived that the cross- ing9 was there.
" Among all else that I have shown to thee, since we entered through the gate whose thresh- old is denied to no one, nothing has been dis- cerned by thine eyes so notable as is the present
8. v. 79. The Bulicame, a hot spring near Viterbo, fre- quented as a bath, the use of a portion of which was assigned to " sinful women."
9. v. 84. The crossing of the breadth of the round ol burning sand, on the way inward toward the descent to the next circle.
go HELL [vv. 90-110
stream which deadens all the flamelets above it." 10 These words were of my Leader, where- fore I prayed him, that he would bestow on me the food of which he had bestowed on me the desire.
"In mid sea lies a wasted land," said he then, " which is named Crete, under whose king the world of old was chaste. A moun- tain is there which of old was glad with water and with leaves, which is called Ida ; now it is desert, like a thing outworn. Rhea chose it of old for the trusty cradle of her little son, and, the better to conceal him when he wailed, caused cries to be made there." Within the mountain a great old man stands upright, who holds his shoulders turned towards Dami- etta,12 and gazes at Rome as if his mirror. His head is formed of fine gold, and his arms and breast are pure silver ; then far as to the fork he is of brass ; from there downward he is all of chosen iron, save that his right foot is of
10. v. 90. By the steam rising from it ; see xv. 3.
11. v. 1 02. To prevent Saturn from hearing the cries of the infant Jupiter, whom, had he known him to be alive, he would have sought to devour, in order to avert the fulfillment of the prophecy that he would be dethroned by one of his children. See Ovid, Fasti, iv. 197-214.
12. v. 104. Damietta, near the chief eastern mouth of the Nile, designates here the East, where the history of man began.
vv. 111-125] CANTO XIV 91
baked earth, and he stands erect on that more than on the other.13 Every part except the gold is cleft with a fissure that drips tears, which, collected, perforate that cavern. Their course is from rock to rock into this valley ; they form Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon; then their way is down through this narrow channel till, where there is no more descend- ing, they form Cocytus, and what that pool is, thou shalt see ; therefore here it is not told."
And I to him : " If the present stream flows down thus from our world, why does it appear to us only at this border ? " I4
And he to me : " Thou knowest that the place is circular, and though thou art come far,
13. v. in. This image is taken directly from the dream of Nebuchadnezzar ( Daniel ii. 3 I— 3 3 ) . It is the type of the historic life of man, with its back to the past, its face toward Rome, — the centre of the actual world. Its upper parts of metal represent the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron ages, according to the fancy of the poets. The two legs are gen- erally interpreted as the symbols of the Empire and the Church ; the right leg, on which the image rests the most, being the type of the Church. There is much difference of opinion concerning the significance of its foot of baked earth; possibly it may refer to the element of weakness in the Papacy from the earthly character of the Popes. The tears of the sinful and suffering generations of man form the rivers of Hell.
14. v. 123. This border of the third round of the seventh circle.
92 HELL [vv. 126-142
always to the left in descending toward the bottom, thou hast not yet turned through the whole circle ; wherefore if a new thing appears to us, it ought not to bring wonder to thy face."
And I again : " Master, where are Phle- gethon and Lethe found, for of the one thou art silent, and the other thou sayest is formed by this rain ? " '5
"In all thy questions truly thou pleasest me/' he answered, " but the boiling of the red water should well solve one that thou askest.16 Lethe thou shalt see, but outside of this ditch, there where the souls go to lave themselves, when the fault repented of has been removed." Then he said, " Now it is time to quit the wood ; take heed that thou come behind me ; the mar- gins which are not burning afford way, and above them every vapor is extinguished."
15. v. 132. The rain of tears.
1 6. The color and boiling of the river of blood in the first round of this seventh circle might have told Dante that it was Phlegethon, "rapidus flammis . . . torrentibus amnis " (Acneid, vi. 556).
CANTO XV
Third round of the Seventh Circle : of those who have dont violence to Nature. — Brunetto Latini. — Prophe- cies of misfortune to Dante.
Now one of the hard margins bears us on, and the fume of the brook overshadows so that it saves the water and the banks from the fire. As the Flemings, between Wissant and Bruges, fearing the flood that rushes toward them, make the bulwark whereby the sea may be routed ; and as the Paduans along the Brenta, in order to defend their towns and their castles, ere Chi- arentana x feel the heat, — in such like were these made, though neither so high nor so thick had the master, whoever he was, made them.
We were now so remote from the wood that I could not have seen where it was though I had turned backward, when we encountered a troop of souls which was coming alongside the bank, and each of them was looking at us, as a man is wont to look at another at evening
I. v. 9. The mountain regions north of the Brenta, by the floods from which the river is swollen in the spring.
94 HELL [vv. 19-38
under the new moon ; and they so sharpened their brows toward us as the old tailor does on the needle's eye.
Thus eyed by that company, I was recog- nized by one who took me by the hem, and cried out : " What a marvel ! " And when he stretched out his arm to me, I fixed my eyes on his baked aspect so that his scorched visage did not prevent the recognition of him by my in- telligence ; and bending down my own to his face, I answered : " Are you here, Ser Bru- netto ? " 2 And he : " O my son, let it not dis- please thee if Brunetto Latini turns back a little with thee, and lets the train go on." I said to him : " With all my power I pray this of you, and if you will that I sit down with you I will do so, if it please him there,3 for I go with him." " O son," said he, " whoever of this herd stops for an instant, lies afterwards a hundred years
2. v. 30. Brunetto Latini, one of the most learned and able Florentines of the thirteenth century. He was ban- ished with the other chiefs of the Guelph party, after the battle of Montaperti, in I 260, and went to France, where he resided for many years. After his return to Florence he became Secretary of the Commune. His principal literary work was Li Livres dou Tresor, written in French, an inter- esting compend of the omne scibile. He died in 1 290. Dante uses the plural " you " in addressing him, as a sign of respect.
3. v. 36. Dante never speaks Virgil's name in Hell.
w. 39-63] CANTO XV 95
without fanning himself when the fire smites him ; therefore go onward : I will come at thy skirts, and then I will rejoin my band which goes lamenting its eternal penalties."
I dared not descend from the road to go level with him, but I held my head bowed like one who goes reverently. He began : "What fortune or destiny leads thee down here before thy last day ? and who is this that shows the road ? "
" There above, in the bright life," I answered him, " I went astray in a valley, before my time was full. Only yesterday morning I turned my back on it : this one appeared to me as I was returning to it, and he is leading me home- ward again along this path."
And he to me : "If thou follow thy star, thou canst not miss the glorious port, if, in the fair life, I discerned aright : and if I had not so untimely died, seeing heaven so benignant to thee, I would have given thee cheer in thy work. But that ungrateful malignant people which de- scended from Fiesole of old,4 and still smacks of the mountain and the rock, will make itself
4. v. 62. After his flight from Rome Catiline betook himself to Faesulae (Fiesole), and here for a time held out against the Roman forces. The popular tradition ran that, after his defeat, Faesuiae was destroyed, and its people, to- gether with a colony from Rome, made a settlement on the
96 HELL [vv. 64-88
hostile to thee because of thy good deeds ; and it is right, for among the bitter sorb-trees it befits not the sweet fig to bear fruit. Old re~ port in the world calls them blind ; it is an avaricious, envious, and proud folk ; from their customs take heed that thou cleanse thyself. Thy fortune reserves such honor for thee that the one party and the other shall have hunger for thee : but far from the goat shall be the grass. Let the Fiesolan beasts make litter of themselves, and let them not touch the plant, if any spring yet upon their dungheap, in which the holy seed may revive of those Romans who remained there when it became the nest of so much wickedness."
" If my entreaty were all fulfilled," replied I to him, " you would not yet be placed in ban- ishment from human nature ; for in my mind is fixed, and now fills my heart, the dear, good, paternal image of you, when in the world hour by hour you taught me how man makes him- self eternal ; and how much I hold it in grati- tude, it behoves that while I li^e should be dis- cerned in my speech. That which you tell of
banks of the Arno, below the mountain on which Faesulae had stood. The new town was named Fiora, siccome fosse in fora edificata, " as though built among flowers," but afterwards was called Fiorenza, or Florence. See G. Vil- lani, Cronica, i. 31—38.
vv. 89-110] CANTO XV 97
my course I write, and reserve it with other \ text 5 to be glossed by a Lady, who will know ; how, if I attain to her. Thus much would I / have manifest to you, that I, provided my con- science chide me not, for Fortune, as she wills, am ready. Such earnest6 is not strange unto my ears ; therefore let Fortune turn her wheel as pleases her, and the churl his mattock."
My Master thereupon turned backward to his right, and looked at me ; then said : " He listens well who notes it." 7
Not the less for this do I go on speaking with Ser Brunetto, and I ask, who are his most noted and most eminent companions. And he to me : " To know of some is good, of the others it will be laudable for us to be silent, for the time would be short for so much speech. In brief, know that all were clerks, and great men of letters and of great fame, defiled in the world by one same sin. Priscian goes along with that disconsolate crowd, and Francesco d' Accorso ; 8 and thou couldst also have seen
5. v. 89. The prophecy by Ciacco of the fall of Dante's party, Canto vi., and that by Farinata of Dante's exile, Canto x., which Virgil had promised should be made clear •'o him by Beatrice.
6. v. 94. Such warnings of what is to come.
7. v. 99. Who lays to heart what is said.
8. v. 109. Priscian, the famous grammarian of the sixth
98 HELL [vv. 111-124
there, hadst thou had hankering for such scurf, him who was translated by the Servant of Ser- vants from the Arno to the Bacchiglione, where he left his ill-strained nerves.9 Of more would I tell, but my going on and my speech cannot be longer, for I see yonder a new smoke rising from the sand-1? Folk come with whom I must not be. Let my Treasure," in which I still am living, be commended to thee, and more I ask not/1
Then he turned back, and seemed of those who run across the plain at Verona for the green cloth,12 and of these he seemed the one that wins, and not he that loses.
century; Francesco, a jurist of much repute in his time, who taught at Oxford and at Bologna, and died in I 294 ; he was son of the more eminent Accorso whose " Perpetual Com- ment ' ' is still known to students of the Roman Law.
9. v. 1 1 4. Andrea de* Mozzi, bishop of Florence, who because of his scandalous life was translated by Boniface VIII. to the less conspicuous bishopric of Vicenza, through which city the Bacchiglione runs. He died in I 296.
10. v. 117. Smoke rising from the flames that burn the bodies of another troop of the sinners.
u. v. 119. That is, Li Livres dou Tresor, f the trea- sure' of knowledge.
12. v. 122. The prize in the annual races at Verona.
CANTO XVI
The Seventh Circle, third round : those who have done violence to Nature. — Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldo- brandi and Jacopo Rusticucci. — The roar of Phlegethon as it pours downward. — The cord thrown into the abyss.
I WAS now in a place where the resounding of the water which was falling into the next circle was heard, like that hum which the bee- hives make, when three shades together sepa- rated themselves, as they ran, from a troop that was passing under the rain of the bitter tor- ment. They came toward us, and each cried out : " Stop thou, who by thy garb seemest to us to be one from our wicked city ! "
Ah me ! what wounds I saw upon their limbs, recent and old, burnt in by the flames ; it grieves me still for them but to remember it.
My Teacher gave heed to their cries ; he turned his face toward me, and : "Now wait," he said ; " to these one should be courteous, and were it not for the fire which the nature of the place shoots forth, I should say that haste better befitted thee than them."
ioo HELL [w. 19-45
As we stopped, they began again the old verse/ and when they had reached us they all three made a wheel of themselves. As cham- pions, naked and oiled, are wont to do, watch- ing for their grip and their vantage, before they exchange blows and thrusts, thus, wheeling, each directed his face on me, so that his neck was making continuous journey in contrary di- rection to his feet.
" And if the wretchedness of this soft place 2 bring us and our prayers into contempt," began one, " and our darkened and scorched aspect, let our fame incline thy mind to tell us who thou art, that so securely rubbest thy living feet through Hell. He whose tracks thou seest me trample, although he go naked and stripped of skin, was of greater degree than thou thinkest. He was grandson of the good Gualdrada ; his name was Guido Guerra, and in his life he did much with wisdom and with the sword. The other who treads the sand behind me is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose reputation should be cherished in the world above. And I, who am set with them on the cross, was Jacopo Rusticucci,3 and surely my ravage wife more than aught else injures me."
1. v. 20. The wonted burden of their lamentation. See xiv. 20.
2. v. 20. Soft with its loose sand.
3. v. 44. Concerning Tegghiaio and Rusticucci Dante
vv. 46-70] CANTO XVI ioi
If I had been sheltered from the fire I should have cast myself below among them, and I be- lieve that the Teacher would have permitted it ; but because I should have been burnt and baked, fear overcame my good will which made me greedy to embrace them, Then I began : " Not contempt, but grief, did your condition fix within me, such that slowly will it be all di- vested, soon as this my Lord said to me words by which I bethought me that such folk as ye are were coming. I am of your city ; and I have always rehearsed and heard with affection your deeds and honored names. I am leaving the gall, and going for sweet fruits promised to me by my veracious Leader ; but far as to the centre I needs must first descend."
cc So may thy soul long direct thy limbs," replied he then, " and so may thy fame shine after thee, say if courtesy and valor abide in our city as of wont, or if they have quite gone forth from it ? For Guglielmo Borsiere,4 who
had enquired of Ciacco, Canto vi. 79, 80. Tegghiaio and Guido Guerra were illustrious citizens of Florence in the thirteenth century ; of Rusticucci little is known. The good Gualdrada, famed for her beauty and her modesty, was the daughter of Messer Bellincione Berti, referred to in Cantos xv. and xvi. of Paradise as one of the early worthies of the city. See G. Villani, Cronica, v. 37.
4. v. 70. Nothing is known from contemporary record of Borsiere, but Boccaccio tells a good story of him in th« Decameron, i. 8.
102 HELL [vv. 71-95
is in torment with us but short while, and is going yonder with our companions, afflicts us greatly with his words/'
" The new people and the sudden gains s have engendered pride and excess, Florence, in thee, so that already thou weepest therefor." Thus I cried with uplifted face, and the three, who understood this for answer, looked one at the other, as one looks at truth.
" If other times it costs thee so little," replied they all, " to satisfy others, happy thou if thus thou speakest at thy pleasure.6 Wherefore, if thou escapest from these dark places, and re- turnest to see again the beautiful stars, when it shall rejoice thee to say, c I have been/ mind thou tell of us to the people." Then they broke the wheel, and in flying their swift legs seemed wings.
An amen could not have been said so quickly as they had disappeared : wherefore it seemed well to my Master to depart. I fol- lowed him, and we had gone little way before the sound of the water was so near to us, that had we spoken we had scarce been heard. As that river which first from Monte Viso holds
5. v. 73. Florence had grown rapidly in population and in wealth during the last years of the thirteenth century.
6. v. 81. Without constraint, and without peril fion> thy frank speech.
vv. 96-109] CANTO XVI 103
its own course toward the east, on the left flank of the Apennine, — which is called Acquacheta up above, before it sinks down into its low bed, and at Forli has lost that name,7 — reverberates in falling from the alp with a single leap there above San Benedetto, where ought to be shelter for a thousand ; 8 thus, down from a precipitous bank, we found that dark water resounding, so that in short while it would have hurt the ears. I had a cord girt around me, and with it I had once thought to take the leopard of the painted skin.9 After I had loosed it wholly
7. v. 99. The river which in its upper course was called Acquacheta, or Stillwater, when it reached Forli, was called the Montone or Ram ; it was the first of the rivers on the left of the Apennines that had its independent course to the Adriatic, which it entered near Ravenna ; the others being tributaries of the Po, which rises on Monte Viso.
8. v. 102. The fall was near the monastery of San Benedetto, and the common explanation of these obscure words is, that the monastery ought to have contained more monks than it actually held.
9. v. 108. The leopard of the painted skin, which had often turned back Dante from the Mountain to the Dark Wood (see Canto i.) ; the type of sensual sin. The cord symbolises the human means, the ascetic vows or whatsoever else, on which Dante had relied to capture and subdue the beast. But now that he has been led through the circles in which the penalties of lust are exacted, and has learned the lesson of resistance, the cord is no longer needed ; some i-ignal is required to summon Geryon, and Virgil uses the now needless cord for the purpose.
104 HELL [vv. 110-136
from me, as my Leader had commanded me5 I reached it to him gathered up and coiled. Whereon he turned toward the right, and threw it, somewhat far from the edge, down into that deep gulf. " And surely/* said I to myself, " it must be that some novelty respond to the novel signal which the Master so follows with his eye."
Ah ! how cautious ought men to be near those who see not only the deed, but with their wisdom look within the thoughts ! He said to me : " That which I await will soon come up, and what thy thought is dreaming must soon discover itself to thy sight."
A man ought always to close his lips so far as he can to that truth which has the aspect of falsehood, because without fault it causes shame ; I0 but here I cannot be silent, and Reader, I swear to thee, by the notes of this comedy, — so may they not be void of lasting grace, — that I saw through that thick and dark air a shape marvelous to every steadfast heart come swimming upwards, like as he returns who goes down sometimes to loose an anchor that grapples either a rock or aught else which is hidden in the sea, who stretches upward, and draws in his feet.
10. v. 126. Because the narrator is falsely taxed with falsehood.
CANTO XVII
Third round of the Seventh Circle : of those who bcrvt done violence to Art. — Geryon. — The Usurers. — De~ scent to the Eighth Circle.
" BEHOLD the wild beast with the pointed tail, that passes mountains, and breaks walls and weapons ; behold him that infects all the world." ' Thus began my Leader to speak to me ; and he beckoned to him that he should come to shore near the end of the marbles we had walked on.2 And that loathsome image of fraud came onward, and landed his head and his bust, but did not draw up his tail on the bank. His face was the face of a just man (so benignant the skin it had outwardly), and all his trunk was of a serpent ; he had two paws, hairy to the armpits ; his back and his breast and both his sides were painted with nooses and
1. v. 3. Dante makes Geryon the type and image of Fraud, thus allegorizing the triple form (forma tricorporu umbrae : Aeneid, vi. 289; tergemini Geryonae : Id. viii. 292) ascribed to him by the ancient poets.
2. v. 6. The stony margin of Phlegethon- on which Virgil and Dante have crossed the sand.
io6 HELL [vv. 16-38
rings. Tartars or Turks never made cloth with more colors of groundwork and pattern, nor were such webs laid on the loom by Arachne.
As sometimes boats lie on the shore, and are partly in water and partly on the ground, and as yonder, among the gluttonous Germans, the beaver settles himself to make his war,3 so lay that worst of beasts upon the edge of stone which closes in the sand. In the void all his tail was quivering, twisting upwards its venomous fork, which in guise of a scorpion armed the point.
The Leader said : " Now needs must our way bend a little toward that wicked beast which is couching yonder." Therefore we de- scended on the right hand side and took ten steps upon the verge in order completely to avoid the sand and the flamelets. And when we had come to him, I see, a little farther on, people sitting upon the sand near to the empty space.4
Here the Master said to me : " In order that thou mayst carry away quite full experience of
3. v. 22. With his tail in the water to attract his prey, as was popularly believed.
4. v. 36. These people seated on the edge of the pit are of the third class of sinners punished in this round of the Seventh Circle, those who have done violence to Art, the usurers. (See Canto xi. 94-111.)
vv. 39-60] CANTO XVII 107
this round, now go and see their condition. Let thy talk there be brief; until thou return- est I will speak with this beast, that it may concede to us its strong shoulders."
Thus, further up along the extreme head of that seventh circle, all alone I went where the sad people were sitting. Their woe was burst- ing forth through their eyes ; now here, now there they made help with their hands, some- times against the vapors,5 and sometimes against the hot soil. Not otherwise do the dogs in summer, now with muzzle, now with paws, when they are bitten either by fleas, or flies, or gad- flies. When I set my eyes on the face of certain of those on whom the grievous fire falls, I did not recognize one of them ; 6 but I per- ceived that from the neck of each was hanging a pouch, which had a certain color and a certain device,7 and therewith it seems their eye is fed. And as I come gazing among them, I saw upon a yellow purse azure which had the face and bearing of a lion.8 Then as the current
5. v. 48. The falling flakes of flame.
6. v. 54. Dante thus indicates that they were not worthy to be known.
7. v. 56. The blazon of their arms, by which Dante earns who they are, not nobly borne upon the shield, but
basely on the purse.
8. v. 60. In heraldic terms, or, a lion's face azure,
io8 HELL [vv. 61-82
of my look proceeded, I saw another, red as blood, display a goose whiter than butter. And one, who had his little white sack marked with an azure and gravid sow,9 said to me : x What art thou doing in this ditch ? Now get thee gone: and since thou art still alive, know that my neighbor, Vitaliano, will sit here at my left side. With these Florentines am I, a Paduan ; often they stun my ears, shout- ing: c Let the sovereign cavalier come who will bring the pouch with the three beaks/ " lo Then he twisted his mouth, and thrust out his tongue, like an ox that licks its nose. And I, fearing lest longer stay might vex him who had admonished me to stay but little, turned back from these weary souls.
I found my Leader, who had already mounted upon the croup of the fierce animal, and he said to me : " Now be thou strong and courageous ; henceforth the descent is by such
the armorial bearings of the Gianfigliazzi, a Guelf family of Florence ; the next, gules, a goose argent were those of tne Ubriachi, Ghibellines, also of Florence.
9. v. 64. Argent, a sow in brood azure, the arms of the Scrovigni of Padua. The sow, scrofa, is an instance of canting heraldry.
10. v. 73. One Giovanni Buiamonte of Florence, " who surpassed all others of the time in usury," says Benvenuto da Imola. The shield of the Buiamonu bore three beaks of eagles.
vv. 83-108] CANTO XVII 109
stairs ; " mount thou in front, for I wish to be between, so that the tail cannot do harm."
As is he who has the shivering fit of the quartan so near that his nails are already pale, and he is all of a tremble only looking at the shade, such I became at these uttered words : but his exhortations wrought shame in me, which in presence of a good lord makes a ser- vant strong.
I seated myself on those huge shoulders. " So do," I wished to say, but the voice came not as I thought, " that thou embrace me." But he who other time had succored me, in other chance, soon as I mounted, clasped me and sustained me with his arms ; and he said : " Geryon, move on now ; let thy circles be wide, and thy descending slow; consider the novel burden that thou hast."
As the little vessel goes from its place, back- ward, backward, so he thence withdrew; and when he felt himself quite at play, he turned his tail to where his breast had been, and moved it stretched out like an eel, and with his paws gathered the air to himself. Greater fear I do not think there was when Phaethon abandoned the reins, whereby heaven, as is still apparent,12 was scorched ; nor when the
11. v. 82. Not by foot nor by boat as heretofore, but Carried by living ministers of Hell.
12. v. 108. In the Milky Way.
no HELL [vv. 109-136
wretched Icarus felt his loins unfeathering by the melted wax, his father crying to him : "111 way thou holdest," than mine was, when I saw that I was in the air on every side, and saw every sight vanished, except that of the beast. It goes along swimming slowly, slowly, wheels and descends, but I perceive it not, save for the wind upon my face, and from below.
I heard now on the right hand the gulf13 making beneath us a horrible din ; wherefore I stretch out my head, with my eyes downward. Then I became more terrified at the precipice, because I saw fires and heard laments ; whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling. And I saw then, for I had not seen them before, the de- scending and the circling, by the great evils which were drawing near on divers sides.14
As the falcon which has been long on wing, that, without sight of lure or bird, makes the fal- coner say: " Ah me, thou stoopest ! " descends weary, whence it started swiftly, through a hun- dred circles, and alights disdainful and sullen far from its master ; so Geryon set us at the bottom, at the very foot of the rough hewn rock, and, disburdened of our persons, vanished as arrow from the bowstring.
13. v. 1 1 1 . Into which the red stream is falling.
14. v. 126. The fires as they came into sight from dif- ferent points, and the wailings as they struck the ear, were terrifying signs by which the circling descent could be noted.
CANTO XVIII
Eighth Circle : the fraudulent ; the first pouch: pan- ders and seducers. — Venedico Caccianimlco. — Jason. — Second valley : false flatterers. — Alessio Interminei. — Thais.
THERE is a place in Hell called Malebolge,1 all of stone and of the color of iron, as is the circular wall that environs it. Right in the middle of this malign field yawns a very wide and deep pit, the structure of which I will tell of in its place. That belt, therefore, which remains between the pit and the foot of the high hard bank is circular, and it has its bed divided into ten valleys. Such a figure as where, for guard
I. v. I. In the Eighth Circle the sinners are punished who belong to the first of the two classes of the fraudulent (see Canto xi. 52-66), that is, those who practised deceit upon persons who had no ground for special confidence in them. Its bed, which slopes gradually from the wall that environs it to the central pit of Hell, is occupied by ten deep concentric valleys, called bolge. Bolgia signifies, literally, a budget, or pouch ; and Malebolge, evil pouches. The term is adopted by Dante as a contemptuous, picturesque metaphor for these valleys in which the sinners are pouched up. Each pouch contains one or more special orders of the fraudulent
H2 HELL [vv. 11-30
of the walls, very many moats encircle castles, the place where they are presents, such image did these make here. And as in such strong- holds from their thresholds to the outer bank are little bridges, so from the base of the cliff ran crags which traversed the embankments and the moats 2 far as the pit which cuts them off and collects them.3
In this place we found ourselves, shaken off from the back of Geryon ; and the Poet held to the left, and I moved on behind. On the right hand I saw new woe, new torments, and new scourgers, with which the first pouch was replete. At its bottom were the sinners naked ; on this side the middle they came facing us 4 ; on the further side along with us, but with greater steps. As the Romans, be- cause of the great host in the year of the Jubi- lee,5 have taken means for the passage of the
2. v. 17. The bolge.
3. v. i 8. As the nave of a wheel collects and cuts off the spokes.
4. v. 26. In their long circling course round the bolgia, the panders, going in opposite direction to the poets, came facing them ; on the further side the seducers were taking the contrary course.
5. v. 29. The year I 299— I 300. The Jubilee was insti- cuted by Boniface VIII. , who issued a Bull granting plenary indulgence for a year from Christmas, I 299, to all pilgrims xo Rome who should spend fifteen days in the city, visit the
vv. 31-42] CANTO XVIII 113
people over the bridge, so that on one side all have their front toward the Castle,6 and go to Saint Peter's, and on the other rim toward the Mount.7
Along the gloomy rock, on this side and on that, I saw horned demons with great whips, who were beating them cruelly from behind.8 Ah, how they made them lift their heels at the first blows ! truly not one waited for the sec- ond, or the third.
While I was going on, my eyes were en- countered by one, and I said straightway thus : " Ere now for sight of him I have not fasted ; "
churches of St. Peter and St. Paul, and should confess and repent their sins. The throng of pilgrims from all parts of Europe was enormous, and among other precautions for their safety was that here alluded to, a barrier erected lengthwise along the bridge of Sant' Angelo, in order that the crowd going to and coming from St. Peter's might pass in opposite directions without interference.
6. v. 32. Of Sant' Angelo.
7. v. 33. The Capitoline.
8. v. 36. The fiends hitherto met with in Hell have mainly been figures derived from classical mythology, as Charon, the Furies, the Centaurs, Geryon, and others. None of them, with the exception of the brute Cerberus, have had part in the tormenting of the sinners. The Cen- taurs shot their arrows only at those who lifted themselves too much out of the river of blood. But in this valley, and in the fifth and ninth, the demons are the creatures of HeU, and administers of its torments
H4 HELL [w. 43-62
wherefore to shape him out I stayed my feet, and the sweet Leader stopped with me, and assented to my going somewhat back. And that scourged one thought to conceal himself by lowering his face, but it availed him little, for I said : " Thou that castest thine eye upon the ground, if the features that thou bearest are not false, art Venedico Caccianimico ; but what brings thee to such stinging Salse ? " 9
And he to me : " Unwillingly I tell it, but thy plain speech compels me, which makes me remember the old world. I was he who brought the beautiful Ghisola I0 to do the will of the Marquis, however the shameful tale may be reported. And not the only Bolo- gnese do I weep here ; nay, this place is so full of them, that so many tongues are not now taught between Savena and the Reno to say sipa ; " and if of this thou wishest assurance
9. v. 51. Sahey the name of a ravine near Bologna, into which the bodies of criminals were thrown. There IB perhaps a play on the word salse as meaning ' sauces.'
10. v. 55. His own sister ; the unseemly tale is known only through Dante and his fourteenth-century commenta- tors, and the latter, while agreeing that the Marquis was one of the Esti of Ferrara, do not agree as to which of them he was. Venedico was a man of note, and for a time Podesta of Pistoia, where Dante may have seen him.
11. v. 6 1 . Bologna lies between the Savena and the Reno ; sipa is the Bolognese provincialism for sia.
vv.63-8i] CANTO XVIII 115
or testimony, bring to mind our avaricious breasts." As he spoke thus a demon struck him with his thong and said : " Begone, pan- der, here are no women for coining."
I rejoined my Escort ; then with few steps we came to where a crag jutted from the bank.12 We ascended it easily enough, and turning to the right13 upon its ridge, from those eternal encircling walls M we departed.
When we were there where it is opens below to give passage to the scourged, the Leader said : " Wait, and let the sight strike on thee of these others born to ill, of whom thou hast not yet seen the face, because they have gone along together with us."
From the old bridge we looked at the train that was coming toward us on the other side, and which the scourge in like manner drives
12. v. 68. Forming one of the bridges thrown like an arch across the valley, and extending from bank to bank of the successive bolge.
13. v. 71. Thus far in the Eighth Circle the poets had been walking to the left between the high wall and the first bolgiat and they consequently turn to the right to cross the bridge.
14. v. 72. The walls enclosing the whole Eighth Cir- cle, forming the precipice circling the gulf down which Geryon had borne the poets.
15. v. 73. Where the craggy bridge forms an arch ovet the bolgia.
Ii6 HELL [vv. 82-106
on. The good Master, without my asking, said to me : " Look at that great one who is coming, and seems not to shed a tear for pain. What royal aspect he still retains ! He is Ja- son, who by courage and by wit despoiled the Colchians of their ram. He passed by the isle of Lemnos, after the bold pitiless women had given all their males to death. There with tokens and with ornate words he deceived Hyp- sipyle, the maiden, who first had deceived all the others. There he left her big with child, and lonely ; such guilt condemns him to such torment ; and also for Medea is vengeance wrought.16 With him goes whoever in such wise deceives. And let this suffice to know of the first valley, and of those that it holds in its fangs."
We were now where the narrow path inter- sects with the second embankment, and makes of that abutments for another arch. From there we heard people whining in the next pouch, and puffing with their muzzles, and beating them- selves with their palms. The banks were en- crusted with a mould by the breath from below
1 6. v. 95. In the fifth book of the Tbebaid Statius makes Hypsipyle tell in full her own story ; another source of it familiar to Dante was Ovid's Heroides, ep. vi. From the same source (ep. xii. ) and from Ovid's Metamorphoses (lib. viii. ) he had the story of Medea.
vv. 107-132] CANTO XVIII 117
which sticks on them, and was making quarrel with the eyes and with tht, nose. The bottom is so hollowed out that no place suffices us for seeing it, without mounting to the crown of the arch where the crag rises highest. Hither we came, and thence I saw down in the ditch peo- ple plunged in a filth that seemed to have come from human privies.
And while I am searching down there with my eye, I saw one with his head so foul with ordure that it was not apparent whether he were layman or clerk. He shouted to me : " Why art thou so greedy to look more at me than at the other filthy ones ? " And I to him : " Because, if I remember rightly, ere now I have seen thee with dry hair, and thou art Alessio Interminei of Lucca ; I7 therefore I eye thee more than all the rest." And he then, beating his pate : " Down here the flatteries wherewith I never had my tongue cloyed have submerged me."
Hereupon my Leader said to me : " Mind thou push thy look a little further forwards so that thou mayest quite reach with thine eyes the face of that dirty and disheveled wench, who is scratching herself there with her nasty nails, and now is crouching down and now standing on
17. v. 122. Of him little is known but what these words tell.
n8 HELL [w. 133-136
foot. She is Thais the harlot, who answered her paramour when he said : c Have I great thanks from thee ? ' — c Nay, marvelous.' l8 And here- with let our sight be satisfied."
1 8. v. 135. These words are from Terence, Eunucbus^ iii. i, but Dante had found them in Cicero, who cites them in his De Amicitia, cxxvi. § 98, as an example of the lan- guage of flattery. In Cicero's citation it does not clearly appear by whom the words are spoken, and Dante attributes to Thais what in the play is actually spoken by Gnatho. See Moore, Studies in Dante 3 i. 261.
CANTO XIX
Eight/) Circle : third pouch : simomsts. — Pope Nicb* olas III.
O SIMON MAGUS/ O wretched followers, because ye, rapacious, do prostitute for gold and silver the things of God which ought to be the brides of righteousness, now it behoves for you the trumpet sound, since ye are in the third pouch.
We were now at the next tomb,2 having mounted on that part of the crag which hangs plumb just over the middle of the ditch. O Supreme Wisdom, how great is the art which Thou dost display in heaven, on earth, and in the evil world ! and how justly does Thy Power apportion !
Upon the sides and upon the bottom, I saw the livid stone full of holes all of one size, and each was circular. They seemed to me not less wide nor larger than those that in my beautiful Saint John are made for place of the
See Acts viii. 9-24. The next bolgia.
HELL [w. 19-34
baptizers ; 3 one of which, not many years ago, I broke for the sake of one who was stifling in it : and let this be the seal to undeceive all men.4
Forth from the mouth of each were protrud- ing the feet of a sinner, and his legs up to the calf, and the rest was within. Both the soles of all of them were on fire, because of which their joints were twitching so hard that they would have snapped ropes and withes. As the flaming of things oiled is wont to move only on the outer surface, so was it there from the heels to the toes.
" Who is he, Master, who torments himself, twitching more than the others his consorts," said I, "and whom a ruddier flame is sucking?" And he to me : " If thou wilt that I carry thee down there by that bank which is the more
3. v. 17. " My beautiful Saint John " is the Baptistery of Florence. In Dante's time the infants, born during the year, were all here baptized by immersion, mostly on the day of St. John Baptist, the 24th of June. There was a large circular font in the middle of the church, and around it in its marble wall were four cylindrical standing-places, closed by doors, to protect the ministering priests from the pressure of the crowd.
4. v. 21. Some details of this incident are given by Benvenuto, and in the so-called Comento Anonimo, con- cerning which, it is to be inferred from the words of the poet, there had been false reports to Dante's discredit.
w. 35-52] CANTO XIX 121
sloping,* from him thou shalt know of himself and of his wrongs." And I : " Whatever pleases thee is to my liking : thou art Lord, and know- est that I part me not from thy will, and thou knowest that which is unspoken."
Then we went upon the fourth embank- ment, turned, and descended on the left hand, down to the bottom pierced with holes, and narrow. The good Master set me not yet down from his haunch, till he brought me to the cleft of him who was thus lamenting with his shanks.
" O wretched soul, whoso thou art, that keep- est upside down, planted like a stake," I began to say, " say a word, if thou canst." I was standing like the friar who confesses the per- fidious assassin,6 who, after he is fixed, recalls him, in order to delay his death.
And he 7 cried out : " Art thou already stand-
5. v. 35. We are told later, Canto xxiv. 37-40, that al! Malebolge slopes toward the central pit of Hell, and since the floor of each bolgia is level, it follows that the inner wall of each is lower than the outer.
6. v. 50. Such criminals were sometimes punished by being set, head downwards, in a hole in which they weie buried alive.
7. v. 52. This is Nicholas III., pope from 1277 to 1280. " He was the first Pope, or one of the first," says Villani, Cronica, vii. 54, "in whose court simony was openly practised." He takes Dante to be Boniface VIII.,
122 HELL [vv. 53-69
ing there? Art thou already standing there, Boniface ? By several years the writing lied to me. Art thou so quickly sated with that hav- ing, for which thou didst not fear to seize by guile the beautiful Lady,8 and then to do her outrage ? "
Such I became as those who, through not comprehending that which is replied to them, stand as if mocked, and know not what to answer.
Then Virgil said : cc Tell him quickly, I am not he, I am not he that thou thinkest." And I answered as was enjoined on me ; whereat the spirit writhed violently both his feet ; then, sighing and with tearful voice, he said to me : cc What then dost thou want of me ? If to know who I am concern thee so much that thou hast therefore come down the bank, know that I was vested with the Great Mantle :9 and ver-
but Boniface was not to die till 1303. What Nicholas says of the writing, that is of the book of the future, corresponds with Farinata's statement (Canto x. 100-108), concerning the foresight of the damned.
8. v. 57, The Church, — the Bride of Christ, — which Boniface had seized by guile, through the deceit that he was charged with practising on Celestine V. in order to obtain the Papacy, and to which he had done outrage in many modes, but especially by his simoniacal practices.
9. v. 69. The papal mantle, with which upon his elec- tion a Pope was invested. Cf. Canto ii. 27.
vv. 70-86] CANTO XIX 123
ily I was a son of the She-Bear,10 so eager to advance the cubs, that up there I put wealth, and here myself, into the purse. Beneath my head are the others that preceded me in simony, dragged down flattened through the fissures of the rock. Down there shall I in my turn sink, when he shall come whom I believed that thou wast, then when I put my sudden question ; but already the time is longer that I have cooked my feet, and that I have been thus upside down, than he will stay planted with his feet red ; for after him will come from westward, a shepherd without law," of uglier deed, such as befits to cover him and me. A new Jason will he be, of whom it is read in Maccabees ; " and as to
10. v. 70. Nicholas was of the Orsini family, whose cognizance was a she-bear, orsa.
11. v. 83. Bertrand de Goth, a native of Gascony, who after the short pontificate of Benedict XL, the immediate suc- cessor of Boniface VIII., was elected Pope in 1305, and who died in 1314, a little more than ten years after the death of Boniface. Nicholas had already, at the time of Dante's inter- view with him, " cooked his feet " for twenty years, and was to cook them still for more than three years before the arrival of Boniface to take his place. The prophecy of the death of Clement shows that this canto was not written till after 1314. In 1309 Clement transferred the Papal See to Avignon; this was a deed "without law," and he was beside noted for cupidity, simony, and licentiousness. Cf. Paradise, xxx. 142-148.
12. v. 86. Clement is compared to Jason, "that un-
124 HELL [vv. 87-103
that one his king was compliant, so to this one he who rules France shall be."
I know not if here I was too foolhardy that I answered him only in this strain : " Pray now tell me, how much treasure did our Lord re- quire of Saint Peter before he placed the keys in his keeping? Surely he asked nothing save: * Follow thou me/ I3 Nor did Peter or the others take gold or silver of Matthias, when he was chosen by lot to the place which the guilty soul had lost.14 Therefore stay thou, for thou art rightly punished, and guard well the ill-gotten money that made thee bold against Charles.15 And were it not that reverence for the supreme keys which thou heldest in the glad life even now forbids it to me, I would use still heavier
godly wretch and no high-priest, " who bought the high- priesthood from King Antiochus (see 2 Maccabees iv.), be- cause in order to obtain the Papacy he, like Jason, *' laboured underhand ' ' and secured his election by his promises to Philip the Fair (Philip IV.) of France, who held control of the Papal conclave.
13- v- 93° See Matthew xvi. 19, and John xxi. 19-22.
1 4. v. 96. See Acts i. I 5-26.
15. v. 99. Charles of Anjou. The Pope was charged with having been bribed to favor the conspiracy to expel the French from Sicily, which came to a head, more than a year after his death, in the Sicilian Vespers, in March, 1282. It is not the Pope's enmity to Charles for which Dante rebukes him, but for his greed of money.
vv. 104-117] CANTO XIX 125
words ; for your l6 avarice afflicts the world, trampling down the good and exalting the bad. Ye shepherds the Evangelist had in mind, when she that sitteth upon the waters was seen by him to fornicate with kings : she that was born with the seven heads, and from the ten horns had argument,17 so long as virtue pleased her spouse.18 Ye have made you a god of gold and silver : I9 and what else is there between you and the idolaters save that they worship one, and ye a hundred ? Ah Constantine ! of how much ill was mother, not thy conversion, but that dowry which the first rich Father took from thee ! " 20
1 6. v. 104. The plural "your" refers to the pastors of the Church in general.
17. v. no. Argument, that is, evidence, witness, or proof.
1 8. v. 1 1 1. Dante deals freely with the figures of the Apocalypse : Revelation xvii. The woman here stands for the Church ; her seven heads may be interpreted as the Seven Sacraments, and her ten horns as the Command- ments ; her spouse is the Pope.
19. v. 1 1 2. " Of their silver and their gold have they made them idoh." Hosea viii. 4.
20. v. 117. The reference is to the so-called Donation of Constantine, the authenticity of which was generally be- lieved in, till its forgery was conclusively exposed about 1 450 by Lauren tius Valla. Milton translates these verses : —
" Ah Constantine ! of how much ill was cause Not thy conversion, but those rich domains That the first wealthy Pope received of thee."
Of Reformation in England^ Book L
ia6 HELL [vv. 118-133
And, while I was singing these notes to him, whether anger or conscience stung him, he was kicking hard with both his feet. I believe, indeed, that it pleased my Leader, with so con- tented look did he all the while give heed to the sound of the true words uttered. There- upon with both his arms he took me, and when he had me wholly on his breast, remounted along the way whereby he had descended. Nor did he tire of holding me clasped to him, till he had thus borne me up to the top of the arch which is the passage from the fourth to the fifth embankment. Here he gently laid down his burden, gently because of the rugged and steep crag, which would be a difficult pass for goats. Thence another great valley was discovered to me.
This passage (vv. 106—117) was> by order of the -Spanish Inquisition, expurgated from copies of the Divine Comedy introduced into Spanish territory.
CANTO XX
Eighth Circle : fourth pouch : diviners, soothsayers^ and magicians. — Amphiaraus. — Tiresias. — Arum. — Manto. — Eurypylus. — Michael Scott. — Asdente.
OF a new punishment it behoves me to make verses, and give material to the twenti- eth canto of the first lay, which is of the sub- merged.1
I was now wholly in position to look into the uncovered depth which was bathed with tears of anguish, and I saw folk come, silent and weeping, along the great circular valley, at the pace which the litanies2 make in this world. As my sight descended lower on them,3 each appeared marvelously distorted between the chin and the beginning of the chest ; for their face was turned toward their reins, and they must needs go backwards, because looking for-
1. v. 3. Plunged into the misery of Hell.
2. v. 9. Religious processions chanting litanies as they move with slow steps.
3. v. 10. As they came closer to the bridge so that Dante saw them more nearly beneath him.
128 HELL [vv. 15-31
ward was taken from them. Perhaps indeed by force of palsy some one has been thus com- pletely twisted, but I never saw it, nor do I believe it can be.
So may God let thee, Reader, gather fruit from thy reading, now think for thyself how I could keep my face dry, when close at hand I saw our image so contorted that the weeping of the eyes bathed the buttocks along the cleft. Truly I wept, leaning on one of the rocks of the hard crag, so that my Guide said to me : " Art thou even yet among the other fools ?4 Here pity Jives when it is quite dead.5 Who is moic criminal than he who brings passion to the Di- vine Judgment ? 6 Lift up thy head, lift up, and
4. v. 27. After all that thou hast seen.
5. v. 28. It is impossible to give the full significance of Dante's words in a literal translation, owing to the double meaning of pie fa in the original.
" Qui vive la pieta quando e ben morta : **
that is : " Here liveth piety when pity is quite dead." A similar play upon the word occurs in Par. iv. 105, where Beatrice, speaking of Alcmaeon, says : " Per non perder pieta si fe spietato," " In order not to lose piety he pitiless became."
6. v. 30. Who is more criminal than he in whom the judgments of God arouse passionate feelings of pity ? St. Thomas Aquinas (S. T. Suppl. xciv. 3) concludes that the saints in heaven will rejoice in the sufferings of the damned per accident, contemplating in them the divine justice and their own deliverance from them, and cites, as authority for
w. 31-43] CANTO XX 129
see him 7 for whom the earth opened before the eyes of the Thebans, whereat they all shouted: 'Whither art thou rushing, Amphia- raus ? Why dost thou leave the war ? ' And he stopped not from falling headlong down far as Minos, who lays hold on every one. Look, how he has made a breast of his shoulders ! Because he wished to see too far before him, he looks behind and goes a backward path.
" Behold Tiresias,8 who changed semblance, when from male he became female, transform- ing all his members ; and afterwards he was obliged to strike again with his rod the two
this opinion, the words of Psalm Iviii. I o : " The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance." Virgil has not rebuked Dante for feeling compassion for individual sinners suffering the penalty of sin (see Cantos v. 72, 93, 117; xv. 79 ; xvi. 52), but he rebukes him here, because his tears are shed not from sympathy with a special sinner, but at the mere sight of the punishment, which, being the evi- dence of the justice of God, ought not to awaken pity.
7. v. 31. Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings who besieged Thebes; he was an augur and prophet. Dante found his story in Statius, Tbebais, vii. 690-823.
8. v. 40. The Theban soothsayer. Dante had learned of him from Ovid, Metam., iii. 320 sqq. The story con- cerning him to which Dante refers is that he saw a male and female serpent together, and striking them with his staff killed the female, wnereon he himself was transformed to a woman. Seven years later he again saw two serpents, and now killing the male became again a man.
130 HELL [vv. 44-66
entwined serpents, ere he could regain his mas- culine plumage. He who has his back to this one's belly is Aruns,9 who on the mountains of Luni (where grubs the man of Carrara who dwells below) had a cave for his abode among white marbles, whence for looking at the stars and the sea his view was not cut off.
" And she who with her loose tresses covers her breasts, which thou dost not see, and has on that side all her hairy skin, was Manto,10 who roamed through many lands, then settled there where I was born ; whereof it pleases me that thou listen a little to me. After her father had departed from life, and the city of Bac- chus " had become enslaved, she wandered long while through the world. Up in fair Italy, at foot of the alp which shuts in Ger- many above Tyrol, lies a lake which is called Benaco." By a thousand founts, I think, and more, between Garda and Val Camonica, Apen- nino I3 is bathed by the water which settles
9. v. 46. An Etruscan soothsayer of whom Lucan tells, —
" Aruns incoluit desertae tnoenia Lunae."
Phars., i. 586.
10. v. 55. The daughter of Tiresias, and herself a prophetess, of whom Virgil, Ovid, and Statius all tell.
11. v. 59. Thebes.
12. v. 63. Now Lago di Garda.
13. v. 65. Not the chain of the Apennines, but said to be the proper name of a special mountain in this locality*
vv. 67-94] CANTO XX i3I
in that lake. A place is in the middle there, where the Trentine Pastor and he of Brescia and the Veronese might each give his blessing if he took that road.14 Peschiera, a fair and strong fortress, to front the Brescians and Ber- gamasques, sits where the shore round about is lowest. There that which in the bosom of Benaco cannot stay must needs all pour forth, and it becomes a river down through green pastures. Soon as the water gathers head to run, it is no longer called Benaco, but Min- cio, far as Governo, where it falls into the Po. It has no long course before it finds a flat, on which it spreads, and makes a marsh, and is apt at times in summer to be noisome. Passing that way, the savage virgin saw land in the middle of the fen, without culture and bare of inhabitants. There, to avoid all human fel- lowship, she stayed with her servants to practice her arts, and lived, and left there her body empty. Afterward the men who were scattered round about gathered to that place, which was strong because of the fen which it had on all sides. They built the city over those dead bones, and for her, who first had chosen the place, they called it Mantua, without other augury. Formerly its people were more thick 14. v. 69. A point in the lake where the three diocese* meet.
I32 HELL [w. 95-113
within it, before the stupidity of Casalodi had been tricked by Pinamonte.15 Therefore I in- struct thee that if thou ever hearest that my city had other origin, no falsehood may defraud the truth."
And I : " Master, thy discourses are so cer- tain to me, and so lay hold on my faith, that the others would be to me as spent coals. But tell me of the people who are going onward, if thou seest any one of them worthy of note ; for only to that does my mind revert."
Then he said to me : " That one, who stretches his beard from his cheek over his dusky shoulders, was an augur when Greece was so emptied of males that they scarcely re- mained for the cradles, and with Calchas he gave the moment for cutting the first cable at Aulis. Eurypylus was his name, and thus my lofty Tragedy sings him in some place ; l6 well
15. v. 96. The Count of Casalodi, being lord of Man- tua about 1270, gave ear to the treacherous counsels of Messer Pinamonte de' Buonaccorsi, and after expelling many of the nobles was himself driven from the city, with great slaughter and dispersion of the chief families that had re- mained.
16. v. 113.
" Suspensi Eurypylum scitantem oracula Phoebi Mittimus." Ae.ne.id, ii. 1 1 a.
"In doubt we send Eurypylus to consult the oracle of Phoebus," in regard to the departure of the Greeks from
yv. 114-125] CANTO XX 133
thou knowest this, who knowest the whole of it. That other who is so spare in the flanks was Michael Scot,17 who verily knew the game of magical deceptions. Behold Guido Bo- natti,18 behold Asdente,19 who now would wish he had attended to his leather and his thread, but too late repents. Behold the wretched women who left the needle, the spool, and the spindle, and became fortune-tellers ; they wrought spells with herbs and with image.
" But come on now, for already Cain with his thorns20 holds the confines of both the
Troy. Virgil makes no mention of his being associated with Calchas in determining the moment of departure of the Greek fleet from Aulis.
17. v. 1 1 6.
" A wizard of such dreaded fame That, when in Salamanca's cave Him listed his magic wand to wave, The bells would ring in Notre Dame."
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto H.
Michael Scot's fame was great in Italy, and he lived for many years with high distinction at the court of the Emperor Frederick II. He died in Scotland about 1250.
1 8. v. 1 1 8. A famous astrologer of Forli, in the thir- teenth century.
19. v. 1 1 8. Dante, in the Convito, iv. 16, says that if noble meant being widely known, then "Asdente, the shoe- maker of Parma, would be more noble than any of his fellow- citizens. ' '
20. v. 126. The Man in the Moon, who, according to the Italian version of the old popular legend, was Cam condemned to carry forever a bundle of thorns.
134 HELL [vv. 126-130
hemispheres, and touches the wave below Se- ville ; and already yesternight was the moon round ; well shouldst thou remember it, for it did thee no harm sometimes in the deep wood." 2I Thus he spoke to me, and we went on the while.
21. v. 129. These words suggest that the moonlight is a symbol of the light of mere human knowledge, a pale and cold reflection of divine truth, but still helpful because of the virtue of its source.
CANTO XXI
Eighth Circle : fifth pouch : barrators. — A magis* irate of Lucca. — The Malebranche. — Parley with them.
THUS from bridge to bridge we went, talking of other things, which my Comedy cares not to sing, and were holding the summit,1 when we stopped to see the next cleft of Malebolge and the next vain lamentations ; and I saw it won- derfully dark.
As in the Arsenal of the Venetians, in win- ter, the sticky pitch for paying their unsound vessels is boiling, because they cannot sail the sea, and, instead thereof, one builds him a new bark, and one caulks the ribs of that which has made many a voyage ; one hammers at the prow, and one at the stern ; another makes oars, and another twists cordage ; and one patches the foresail and the mainsail, — so, not by fire, but by divine art, a thick pitch was boiling there below, which belimed the bank on
i . v. 3 . The crown of the arch of the craggy bridge across the fifth bolgia.
136 HELL [vv. 19-42
every side. I saw it, but saw not in it aught but the bubbles which the boiling raised, and all of it swelling up and again settling down compressed.
While I was gazing down there fixedly, my Leader, saying : " Beware ! beware ! " drew me to himself from the place where I was standing. Then I turned as one who is in haste to see that from which it behoves him to fly, and whom a sudden fear dismays^jind who for see- ing delays not to depart, anc(\[ saw behind us a black devil come running up along the crag, j Ah ! how fell he was in aspect, and how bitter he seemed to me in act, with his wings open, and light upon his feet ! His shoulder, which was sharp and high, was laden by a sinner with both haunches, the sinews of whose feet he held clutched. " O Malebranche 2 of our bridge," he said, " lo here, one of the Ancients of Saint Zita ! 3 put him under, for I am returning for still others to that city, which I have furnished well with them ; every man there is a barrator,4 except Bonturo : 5 there, for money, out of
2. v. 37. Malebrancbe means "Evil-claws."
3. v. 38. One of the Anziani, the chief magistrates of Lucca, whose special protectress was Santa Zita.
4. v. 41. A corrupt official, selling justice or office for bribes.
5. v. 41. Ironical ; Bonturo was the chief barrator of them all.
w. 43-65] CANTO XXI 137
Nay is made Ay." Down he hurled him and turned back along the hard crag, and never mastiff loosed was in such haste to follow a thief.
That one sank under, and rose again doubled up, but the demons that had cover of the bridge cried out: "Here the Holy Face6 has no place ; here one swims otherwise than in the Serchio ; 7 therefore, if thou dost not want our grapples, make no show above the pitch." Then they pricked him with more than a hun- dred prongs, and said : " Here thou must dance under cover, so that, if thou canst, thou mayst swindle secretly." Not otherwise do the cooks make their scullions plunge the meat with their hooks into the middle of the caul- dron, so that it may not float.
The good Master said to me : <c In order that it be not apparent that thou art here, squat down behind a jag, that thou mayst have some screen for thyself, and at any offence that may be done to me be not afraid, for I have knowledge of these things, because once before I was in such a wrangle."
Then he passed on beyond the head of the bridge, and when he arrived upon the sixth bank,
6. v. 48. The Santo f^olto, an image of Christ upon the cross, ascribed to Nicodemus, still venerated at Lucca.
7. v. 49. The river that runs not far from Lucca.
138 HELL [vv. 66-95
he had need to have a steadfast front. With that fury and with that storm, with which dogs run out upon the poor wretch, who where he stops suddenly asks alms, they came forth from under the little bridge, and turned against him all their grapples. But he cried out : " Let no one of you be savage ; before your hook take hold of me, let one of you come forward that he may hear me, and then take counsel as to grappling me." All cried out : " Let Mala- coda 8 go ; " whereon, while the rest stood still, one moved and came to him, saying : " What does this profit him ? " " Thinkest thou, Malacoda, to see me come here," said my Master, " safe hitherto from all your hin- drances, except by Divine Will and propitious fate P Let me go on, for in Heaven it is willed that I show to another this wild road." Then was his arrogance so fallen that he let the hook drop at his feet, and said to the others : " Now he may not be struck."
And my Leader to me : " O thou that sittest asquat among the splinters of the bridge, return now securely to me." Wherefore I moved and came swiftly to him ; and the devils all pressed forward, so that I feared they would not keep compact. And thus I once saw the foot-sol- diers afraid, who were coming out from Caprona
8. v. 76. Malacoda means " Evil-tail."
vv. 96-116] CANTO XXI 139
under pledge,9 seeing themselves among so many enemies. I drew close with my whole body to my Leader's side, and did not turn my eyes from their look, which was not good. They were lowering their forks, and one was saying to the other: "Wilt thou that I touch him on the rump?" and they were answering: "Yes, see that thou nick it for him." But that demon who was holding speech with my Leader turned round with all haste and said: "Quiet, quiet, Scarmiglione ! "
Then he said to us : " Further advance alone this crag is not possible, because the sixrn arcn lies all shattered at the bottom. AI**. if it be still your pleasure to go forward, go on along this ridge; near by is another crag that affords a way.10 Yesterday, five hours later than this, completed one thousand two hundred and sixty-six years since the way was broken here.11 I am sending thitherward some of these of mine, to see if any one is airing himself; I2
- " «r. Tn August, 1290, the town of Caprona, on the Arno, surrendered to fne Florentine troops, with whom Dante was serving.
._,. .,.»*. Tills, as seen appears, is a lie; aii the craggy bridges across this bolgia are broken.
11. v. 1 14. By the earthquake at the death of the Sav- iour who, it was believed, was thirty-four years old at his crucifixion.
12. v. 1 1 6. To see if any one of the sinners is showing above the pitch.
140 HELL [vv. 117-135
go ye with them, for they will not be wicked. Come forward, Alichino and Calcabrina," he began to say, " and thou, Cagnazzo ; and Bar- bariccia, do thou guide the ten. Let Libicoeco go also, and Draghignazzo, tusked Ciriatto, and Graffiacane, and Farfarello, and mad Rubi- cante.13 Search round about the boiling pitch ; let these be safe far as the next crag, which all unbroken goes over these dens."
" O me ! Master, what is this that I see ? " said I ; " pray, if thou knowest the way, let us go alone without escort, for as for myself I crave it not. If thou art as wary as thou art wont, dost thou not see that they grin, and with their brows threaten harm to us ? " And he to me : " I would not have thee afraid ; let them grin on at their will, for they are doing it at the boiled sufferers."
13. v. 123. Some of the names of these demons have as plain a significance as MaJacoda ; for example, Cagnazzo for Cagnaccio, " wretched dog " ; Barbariccia, " crisp beard " ; Graffiacane, f( scratch dog " ; while others suggest a meaning by their composition or their sound, as Alicbinoy (t bent wing"; Rubicante, "rubicund"; Scarmiglioney "dishev- elled," and so on. All the names are intended to indicate the semi-comic, contemptible, and yet mischievous and cruel nature of the demons. The images and the diction of this and the next canto are lowered, as if to indicate the extreme contempt of the poet for the sinners in this bolgia. There is a humorous element in the scenes, which relieves the strain of the horror of the cantos which precede and follow.
vv. 136-139] CANTO XXI 141
Upon the left bank they took a turn, but first each had pressed his tongue with his teeth toward their leader as a signal, and he had made a trumpet of his rump.
CANTO XXII
Eighth Circle : fifth pouch, continued : barrators. • — Ciampolo of Navarre. — Fra Gomita. — Michael Zanche. — Fray of the Malebranche.
I HAVE seen ere now horsemen moving camp, and beginning an assault, and making their muster, and sometimes retiring for their escape; I have seen foragers over your land, O Aretines, and I have seen the starting of raids, the onset of tournaments, and the run- ning of jousts, now with trumpets, and now with bells, with drums, and with signals from strongholds, and with native things and foreign, — but never to so strange a pipe did I see horsemen or footmen set forth, or ship by sign of land or star.
We were going along with the ten demons. Ah, the fell company ! but in the church with the saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons. My attention was only on the pitch in order to see every condition of the pouch, and of the people that were burning in it.
Like dolphins, when by the arching of their
vv. 20-51] CANTO XXII 143
back, they give a sign to the sailors to take heed for the safety of their vessel, so, now and then, to alleviate his pain, one of the sinners would show his back and hide it in less time than it lightens. And as at the edge of the water of a ditch the frogs 1'e with only their muzzle out, so that they conceal their feet and the rest of their bulk, so on every side were the sin- ners ; but as Barbariccia approached so did they draw back beneath the boiling. I saw, and still my heart shudders at it, one waiting, just as it happens that one frog stays and another jumps. And Graffiacane, who was nearest over against him, hooked him by his pitchy locks, and drew him up so that he seemed to me an otter. (I knew now the name of every one of them, I had so noted them when they were chosen, and afterwards when they called each other had listened how.) " O Rubicante, see thou set thy claws upon his back so thou flay him," shouted all the accursed ones together.
And I : " My Master, contrive, if thou canst, to find out who is the luckless one come into the hands of his adversaries." My Leader drew up to his side, and asked him whence he was, and he replied : " I was born in the king- dom of Navarre ; my mother placed me in ser- vice of a lord, for she had borne me to a ribald, destroy er of himself and of his substance. Af :>er-
144 HELL [vv«52-75
ward I was of the household of the good King Thibault ; 1 there I set myself to practice bar- ratry, for which I pay reckoning in this heat." And Ciriatto, from whose mouth protruded on either side a tusk, as of a boar, made him feel how one of them rips. Among evil cats had the mouse come ; but Barbariccia clasped him in his arms, and said : " Stand off, while I clutch him," and turned his face to my Master. " Ask further," said he, " if thou desirest to know more from him, before another one undo him." The Leader : " Then, tell now of the other sinners ; knowest thou any one under the pitch who is Italian ? " And he : "I parted short while since from one who there beyond was a neighbor ; a would that with him I still were so covered that I should not fear claw or hook." And Libicocco said : " We have borne too much," and seized his arm with his grap- ple so that, tearing, he carried off a sinew of it. Draghignazzo, he too wished to give him a grip down at his legs, whereat their decurion turned round about with evil look.3
i. v. 52. Probably Thibault II., the brother-in-law of St. Louis, who accompanied him on his last disastrous cru- sa'1?, and died on his way home in I 270.
I. v, 67. Not an Italian proper, but a neighbor from St-dinia.
3« v. 75. Barbariccia is annoyed at the disregard of his
vv. 76-96] CANTO XXII 145
When they were a little quieted, my Leader, without delay, asked him who was still gaz- ing at his wound : " Who was he from whom thou sayst thou madest ill parting to come to shore ? " And he replied : "It was Friar Gomita, he of Gallura,4 vessel of every fraud, who held the enemies of his lord in hand, and dealt so with them that each of them praises him for it. Money he took, and let them smoothly off, so he says ; and in his other offices besides he was no little barrator, but sovereign. With him frequents Don Michael Zanche of Logo- doro,5 and their tongues never feel tired in talk- ing of Sardinia. O me ! see ye that other who is grinning : I would say more, but I fear lest he is making ready to scratch my itch." And the grand Provost, turning to Farfarello, who was rolling his eyes as if to strike, said : " Get away there, wicked bird ! "
injunction (verse 60), and turns with the sinner in his arms to secure him for the moment from attack.
4. v. 82. Gallura, one of the four divisions of Sardinia, called judicatures, made by the Pisans, after their conquest of the island. The lord of Gomita was the noble Judge Nino, whom Dante meets in Purgatory, Canto viii. 53. Friar Gomita was hung for his frauds.
5. v. 89. Logodoro was another of the judicatures of Sardinia. Don Michael Zanche was a noted man, but of his special sins little or nothing has been recorded by the chroniclers. He was murdered about i 290, by his son-iu Saw Branca d' Oria ; see Canto xxxiii. 134-147.
146 HELL [vv. 97-119
" If ye wish to see or to hear Tuscans or Lombards," thereon began again the frightened one, " I will make some of them come ; but let the Malebranche stand a little withdrawn, so that they may not be afraid of their vengeance, and I, sitting in this very place, for one that I am, will make seven of them come, when I shall whistle, as is our wont to do whenever one of us sets himself outside." Cagnazzo at this speech raised his muzzle, shaking his head, and said : " Hear the cunning trick he has devised for casting himself below ! " Whereon he who had snares in great plenty answered : " Too cunning am I when I procure for my own com- panions greater sorrow." Alichino held not in, and, in opposition to the others, said to him : " If thou plunge, I will not come after thee at a gallop, but I will beat my wings above the pitch; let the ridge be left, and let the bank be a screen, to see if thou alone availest more than
we."6
O thou that readest, thou shalt hear a new sport ! Each turned his eyes to the other side,
6. v. 1 17. We must suppose that the boiling pitch was bordered on either side by a rocky ridge, on which the demons, the poets, and the sinner were standing, and that there was a space between the ridge and the wall of the bolgia, into which, if they descended, they could not be seen from the pitch.
rv. 120-146]- CANTO XXII 147
he first who had been most averse to doing this.7 The Navarrese chose his time well, planted his feet firmly on the ground, and in an instant leaped, and from their purpose freed himself. At this, each of them was stung with his fault, but he most who was the cause of the loss ; wherefore he started and cried out : " Thou art caught.'' But it availed little, for wings could not outstrip fear. The one went under, and the other, flying, turned his breast upward. Not otherwise the wild duck on a sudden dives under when the falcon comes near, and he returns up vexed and baffled. Calca- brina, angry at the flout, flying kept behind him,8 charmed that the sinner should escape, that he might have a scuffle ; and when the bar- rator had disappeared he at once turned his claws upon his companion, and grappled with him above the ditch. But the other was in- deed a full-grown sparrowhawk for clawing him well, and both of them fell into the middle of the boiling pool. The heat was a sudden un- grappler; but yet there was no rising from it, they had their wings so beglued. Barbariccia, in distress with the others of his troop, made four of them fly to the other side with all their
7. v. 120. Each about to descend the bank turned his back to the pitch, Cagnazzo first.
8. v. 134. Alichino.
HELL [vv. 147-151
forks, and very swiftly, on this side and that, they descended to their posts, and stretched their hooks toward the belimed ones, who were already cooked within the crust: and we left them thus embroiled.
CANTO XXIII
Eighth Circle. — Escape from the fifth pouch. — The sixth pouch : hypocrites^ in cloaks of gilded lead. — Jovial Friars. — Caiaphas. — Annas. — Frate Catalans.
SILENT, alone, and without company, we were going on, one before, the other behind, as Mi- nor friars go along the way. My thought was turned by the present brawl upon the fable of Aesop, in which he told of the frog and the mouse ; for now and this instant are not more alike than the one is to the other, if beginning and end be rightly coupled by the attentive mind.1 And as one thought bursts out from another, so then from that was born another
I. v. 9. This fable is not among those now ascribed to Aesop, but was included in a collection which went under his name, and was in common use as a school-book. Ac- cording to the fable, the frog deceitfully induced the mouse, attached by a string to his leg, to trust himself to the water. The mouse was drowned, and a kite, seeing the body float- ing on the surface, seized it, and with it the frog still tied to it, and swallowed both. The application to the demons is, that Calcabrina, intending harm to Alichino, is involved with him in tribulation.
150 HELL [w. 12-41
which made my first fear double. I was think- ing in this wise : These through us have been put to scorn, and with such harm and trick as I believe must vex them greatly ; if anger be added to ill-will, they will come after us more merciless than the dog to the hare which he snaps up.
Already I was feeling my hair all bristling with fear, and was backwards intent, when I said: "Master, if thou dost not speedily con- ceal thyself and me, I am afraid of the Male- branche ; we have them already after us ; I so imagine them that I already feel them." And he : " If I were of leaded glass,2 I should not draw to me thine outward image more quickly than I receive thine inward. Even now came thy thoughts among mine, with like action and like look, so that of both I made one sole counsel. If it be that the right bank lies so that we can descend into the next pouch, we shall escape from the imagined chase."
He had not yet finished reporting this coun- sel, when I saw them coming with wings spread, not very far off, with will to take us. My Leader on a sudden took me, as a mother who is wakened by the noise, and sees the kindled flames close to her, who takes her son and flies, and, having more care of him than of herself, 2. v. 25. A mirror.
w. 42-68] CANTO XXIII 151
stays not so long as only to put on a shift : and down from the ridge of the hard bank, he gave himself supine to the sloping rock that closes one of the sides of the next pouch. Never ran water so swiftly through a duct, to turn the wheel of a land-mill, when it approaches near- est to the paddles, as my Master over that border, bearing me along upon his breast as his son and not as a companion. Hardly had his feet reached the bed of the depth below, when they were on the ridge right over us ; but here there was no fear, for the high Providence that willed to set them as ministers of the fifth ditch deprived them all of power of departing thence.
There below we found a painted people who were going round with very slow steps, weep- ing, and in their semblance weary and subdued. They had cloaks, with hoods lowered before their eyes, fashioned of the cut which is made for the monks in Cologne. Outwardly they are gilded, so that it dazzles, but within all lead, and so heavy that those Frederick used to have put on were of straw.3 O mantle wearisome for eternity !
We turneds still ever to the left hand, along
3. v. 66. Literally, " that Frederick put them on of stiaw." The leaden cloaks which the Emperor Frederick II. caused to be put on criminals, who were then burned t<J death, were light as straw in comparison with these.
152 HELL [w. 69-91
with them, intent on their sad plaint. But be- cause of the weight, that tired folk were coming so slowly that we had fresh company at every movement of the haunch. Wherefore I to my Leader : " Contrive to find some one who may be known by deed or name, and while thus going move thine eyes around." And one who heard the Tuscan speech cried out behind us : " Stay your feet, ye who run thus through the dusky air ; perchance thou shalt have from me that which thou askest." Whereon my Leader turned and said : " Wait, and then proceed according to his pace." I stopped, and saw two show, by their look, great haste of mind to be with me, but their load and the narrow way retarded them.
When they had come up, awhile, with eye askance,4 they gazed at me without speaking a word ; then they turned to one another, and said one to the other : " This one seems alive by the action of his throat ; and if they are dead, by what privilege do they go uncovered by the heavy stole ? " Then they said to me : " O Tuscan, who to the college5 of the wretched
4. v. 85. They could not raise their heads for a straight Uok.
5 . v. 9 1 . That is, to the company, — so Benedick, in Much Ado about Nothing, speaks of "a college of wit- crackers."
vv. 92-102] CANTO XXIII 153
hypocrites art come, hold it not in disdain to tell who thou art." And I to them : " I was born and grew up on the fair river of Arno, at the great town, and I am in the body that I have always had. But who are ye, from whom such woe distils, as I see, down along your cheeks ? and what penalty is it that so glitters on you?" And one of them replied to me : " The orange hoods are of lead so thick that the weights thus make their scales to creak.6 Jovial Friars7
6. v. 1 02. The sinners, so heavily laden that their heads are bent and tears fall from their eyes, are like over- loaded scales which creak with the weights put on them.
7. v. 103. Brothers of the Military and Conventual Order of Santa Maria, established in 1261, with knightly vows and high intent. From the laxity of their rules and their free life the nickname of Frati Godenti, "Jovial Friars," was given to the members of the Order.
After the battle of Montaperti, in 1260, the Ghibellines held the upper hand in Florence for more than five years. The defeat and death of Manfred early in I 266, at the battle of Benevento, shook their power and revived the hopes of the Guelfs. As a measure of compromise, the Florentine Commune elected two podestas, one from each party ; the Guelf was Catalano de' Malavolti, the Ghibelline, Loderingo degli Andalo, both from Bologna. They were believed to have joined hands while in office for their own gain, and to have favored the reviving power of the Guelfs. In the trou- bles of the year in which they had power the houses of the Uberti, a powerful Ghibelline family, were burned ; these lay in the region of the city called the Gardingo, close to the Palazzo Vecchio.
154 HELL [vv. 103-127
were we, and Bolognese; I named Catalano and he Loderingo, and together taken by thy city, as one man alone is usually chosen, in order to preserve its peace : and we were such as still is apparent round about the Gardingo." I began : " O Friars, your ills " — but more I said not, for there struck my eye one crucified upon the ground with three stakes. When he saw me he writhed all over, blowing into his beard with sighs : and the Friar Catalano, who observed it, said to me : " That transfixed one, whom thou lookest at, counseled the Pharisees that it was expedient to put one man to torture for the people.8 Traverse and naked is he on the path, as thou seest, and he first must needs feel how much whoever passes weighs.9 And in like fashion his father-in-law I0 is stretched in this ditch, and the others of that Council which for the Jews was seed of ill." Then I saw Vir- gil marvel " over him that was outstretched in a cross so vilely in the eternal exile. After- wards he addressed this speech to the Friar:
8. v. 117. Caiaphas, who said : " It is expedient for es that one man should die for the people." John xi. 50.
9. v. i 20. The slowly moving, heavy sinners must all step on him as they pass over him.
10. v. 121. Annas; John xviii. 13, 14, 24.
11. v. 124. Virgil was unacquainted with the Gospel story.
vv.128-148] CANTO XXIII 155
<£ May it not displease you,12 if it be allowed you, to tell us if any opening lies on the right hand, whereby we two can go out hence with- out constraining any of the Black Angels to come to deliver us from this deep." He an- swered then : " Nearer than thou hopest is a rock that starts from the great encircling wall and spans all the savage valleys, save that at this one it is broken, and does not cover it. Ye will be able to mount up over the ruin that lies against the side, and heaps up at the bottom." My Leader stood a little while with bowed head, then said : " 111 did he who hooks the sinners yonder report the matter." I3 And the Friar : " Of old at Bologna I used to hear tell of vices enough of the devil, among which I heard that he is a liar, and the father of falsehood." Then my Leader went on, with great steps, dis- turbed a iittle with anger in his look; whereon I departed from the burdened ones, following the prints of the beloved feet.
12. v. 128. Virgil addresses the Friar with the "you," not as an honorary designation, but because he speaks to both while addressing one. It is to be noted that the only hypo- crites individually designated in this canto are two w.\o sinned against Florence, and two who sinned against Jesus.
13. v. 141. Malacoda had told him (xxi. ni) that he would find a bridge not far off by which to cross this sixth bolgia.
CANTO XXIV
Eighth Circle. The poets climb from the sixth pouch. — Seventh pouch, filed with serpents, by which thieves are tormented. — Vannl Fucci. — Prophecy of calamity to Dante.
IN that part of the young year when the sun tempers his locks beneath Aquarius,1 and now the nights are passing to the South,2 when the hoar frost copies on the ground the image of her white sister,3 but the temper of her pen lasts little while, the rustic, whose provision fails, gets up and looks, and sees the plain all white, whereat he smites his thigh, returns indoors, and grumbles to and fro, like the poor wretch who knows not what to do ; then goes out again and picks up hope, seeing the world to
1. v. 2. The sun enters the sign of Aquarius about the twentieth of January.
2. v. 3. As the sun in his apparent motion comes north- ward, the night, understood as the point of the heavens opposite to the sun, moves southward, and with the lengthen- ing day the nights shorten.
3. v. 5. The frost copies the look of the snow, but her »Den soon loses its make, that is, the white frost soon vanishes.
vv. 13-41] CANTO XXIV 157
have changed face in short while, and takes his crook and drives forth his sheep to pasture. Thus my Master made me dismayed, when 1 saw his brow so disturbed, and thus speedily arrived the plaster for the hurt. For when we came to the ruined bridge, the Leader turned to me with that sweet look which I first saw at the foot of the mount.4 After taking some counsel with himself, looking first well at the ruin, he opened his arms, and laid hold of me. And as one who acts and considers, and seems always to provide in advance, so, lifting me up toward the top of a great rock, he was taking note of another splinter, saying : " Grapple next on that, but try first if it be such that it can support thee." It was no way for one clothed in a cloak, for we with difficulty, he light and I pushed up, could mount from jag to jag. And had it not been that on that precinct s the bank was shorter than on the other side, I do not know about him, but I should have been com- pletely vanquished. But because all Malebolge slopes toward the opening of the lowest well, the site of each valley imports that one side is higher than the other.6 We came, however, at
4. v. 21. The hill of the first canto, at the foot of which Virgil had appeared to Dante.
5. v. 34. The inner boundary wall of the bolgia.
6. v. 40. Literally, " that one side rises and the other
158 HELL [vv. 42-64
length, to the point where the last stone is broken off. 7 The breath was so milked from my lungs when I was up that I could no farther, nay, sat me down on first arrival.
"Henceforth it behoves thee thus8 to put off sloth," said the Master, "for, sitting upon down or under quilts, one comes not to fame, without which he who consumes his life leaves such vestige of himself on earth as smoke in air, or the foam on water : and therefore rise up, conquer thy panting with the soul that wins every battle, if it be not weighed down by its heavy body. A longer stairway needs must be ascended : it is not enough to have departed from these ; 9 if thou understandest me, now act so that it avail thee." Then I rose up, show- ing myself better furnished with breath than I felt, and said : " Go on, for I am strong and resolute."
Up along the crag we took the way, which was rugged, narrow, and difficult, and far steeper than the one before. I was going along speak-
descends." The level of the whole circle slopes toward the central deep, so that the inner side of each bolgia is of less height than the outer.
7. v. 42. The last stone of the shattered bridge.
8. v. 46. By strenuous effort.
9. v. 56. It is not enough to leave sin behind; steady and hard effort is required to attain virtue.
vv. 64-88] CANTO XXIV 159
ing in order not to seem exhausted, when a voice, ill suited for forming words, came out from the next ditch. I know not what it said, though I was already upon the back of the arch which crosses here ; but he who was speak- ing seemed moved to anger. I had turned downwards, but my living eyes could not go to the bottom, through the darkness : where- fore I said : " Master, see that thou get to the next girth, and let us descend the wall/0 for as from this place I hear and do not under- stand, so I look down and shape out nothing." " Other reply," he said, " I give thee not than the doing, for the becoming request ought to be followed by the deed in silence."
We descended trie bridge at its head, where it is joined with the eighth bank, and then the pouch was apparent to rne. And I saw within it a terrible crowd of serpents,11 and of such strange kind that the memory still curdles my blood. Let Libya with her sand vaunt herself no more ; for though she bring forth chelydri, jaculi, and phareae, and cenchri with amphis- boena,12 she never, with all Ethiopia, nor with
10. v. 73. The inner wall of the bolgia.
11. v. 82.
" They saw ... a crowd
Of ugly serpents 5 horror on them fell.**
Par. Lost, x. 540.
*2. V. 87. These names of the various kinds of snakd
160 HELL [vv. 89-114
the land that lies on the Red Sea, showed either so many or so malignant plagues.
Amid this cruel and most dismal swarm were running people naked and terrified, without hope of hole or heliotrope.13 They had their hands tied behind with serpents, which fixed their tail and their head through the loins, and were twisted up in front.
And lo ! at one, who was near our bank, darted a serpent that transfixed him there where the neck is knotted to the shoulders. Nor O nor / was ever so quickly written as he took fire and burnt, and needs must become all ashes as he fell ; and when he was thus destroyed on the ground, the dust drew together of itself, and in an instant into that same one returned. Thus by the great sages it is affirmed that the Phoe- nix dies, and then is born again when she draws nigh to her five-hundredth year. In her life she feeds not on herb or grain, but only on tears of incense and amomum ; and nard and myrrh are her last winding-sheet.
And as he who falls, and knows not how, by force of a demon that drags him to ground, or of other obstruction I4 that binds the man when
are derived from Lucan's description of the plague of Libya. P bars alia f ix. 700 seqq.
13- v* 93» A precious stone, of green color, spotted with red, supposed to make its wearer invisible.
14. v. 114. Obstruction of "the vital spirits," "thf
vv. 115-130] CANTO XXIV 161
he rises and gazes around him, all bewildered by the great anguish that he has suffered, and as he looks, sighs ; such was tnat sinner after he had risen. Oh power of God ! how severe it is, that showers down such blows for vengeance !
My Leader then asked him who he was ; whereon he answered : " I rained down from Tuscany short time ago into this fell gullet. Bestial life, and not human, pleased me, like a mule that I was.15 I am Vanni Fucci, beast, and Pistoia was my fitting den." And I to my Leader : " Tell him not to slip away, and ask what sin thrust him down here, for I have seen him a man of blood and of rages." And the sinner who heard did not dissemble, but directed
closing of the passages," says Bud, "between the heart and the brain."
15. v. 125. That is, a bastard ; he was the natural son of one of the Lazzari, a noble family of Pistoia, and grew up to be, perhaps, the most notorious villain in the city, " vir sceleratissimus et ad omne facinus audacissimus. " In 1293, he with two companions broke into the Sacristy of San Jacopo, in the church of San Zeno at Pistoia. This sacristy was famous for the splendor of its adornments, and the wealth in its treasury. The thieves carried off what silver and jewels they could lay hands on, and, having concealed their booty, remained undiscovered for many months. At length, when an innocent man was about to be punished for the crime, V^anni Fucci revealed the name of the receiver of the plun- der, who was hanged for it, while he himself escaped punish ment.
162 HELL [vv. 131-151
toward me his mind and his face, and painted himself with dismal shame. Then he said : "It grieves me more, that thou hast caught me in the misery where thou seest me, than when I was taken from the other life. I cannot refuse that which thou askest. I am put so far down because I was the thief in the sacristy with the fair adornments, and it was once falsely ascribed to another. But in order that thou enjoy not this sight, if ever thou shalt be forth of these dark places, open thine ears to my announce- ment, and hear: Pistoia first strips herself of Blacks, then Florence renovates her people and her fashions. Mars draws a vapor from Val di Magra which is wrapt in turbid clouds, and with impetuous and bitter storm there shall be fighting on the Pescian plain, whence it shall suddenly rend the mist, so that every White shall be smitten by it. And this I have said in order that it may grieve thee." l6
1 6. v. 151. The dark imagery of these verses does not admit of complete interpretation. It may be partially ex- plained as follows : In May, 1301, '* Pistoia strips herself of the Blacks" by expelling from her confines the members of the Black party ; many of them were received in Florence, and, in November of the same year, the Florentine Blacks, thus reinforced, and supported by Charles of Valois who bad entered Florence as a pacificator, drove the Priors of the White party from office, chose new Priors of their own party, tud in the following January succeeded in driving from the
CANTO XXIV 163
city the great body of the Whites, of whom Dante was one. This is the renovation by Florence of her people and fashions. The lightning-vapor which Mars drew from Val di Magra was Moruello Malaspina, who was captain of the forces of the Blacks ; for years there were turbid clouds of confusion, and much desultory fighting, the Whites suffering defeat after defeat. The Pescian plain (Campo Piceno) probably de- notes a district near Pistoia, but the locality cannot be deter- minccL
CANTO XXV
Eighth Circle : seventh pouch : fraudulent thieves. — Cacus. — Agnello Brunelleschi and others.
AT the end of his words the thief raised his hands with both the figs,1 crying, " Take that, God ! for at Thee I square them." From that time forth the serpents were my friends, for then one coiled about his neck, as if it said : " I will not have thee say more ; " and another about his arms and bound him up anew,2 clinching itself so in front that he could not give a shake with them. Ah Pistoia ! Pistoia ! why dost thou not decree to make ashes of thyself, so that thou last no longer, since in evil-doing thou dost sur- pass thine own seed ? 3 Through all the dark circles of Hell I saw no spirit so arrogant to- ward God, not even that one who fell down from
1. v. 2. A coarse gesture of contemptuous defiance, made by thrusting out the fist with the thumb between the fore and middle finger.
2. v. 7. See Canto xxiv. 94.
3. v. 1 2. According to tradition, the first settlers of Pistoia, its seed, were the remnants of Catiline's forces after his defeat and death, B. c. 62.
vv. 16-36] CANTO XXV 165
the walls at Thebes.4 He fled away, and spoke not a word more.
And I saw a Centaur full of rage come cry- ing out : " Where is he, where is the obdurate one?" I do not believe Maremma5 has so many snakes as he had upon his croup up to where our semblance begins. On his shoul- ders, behind the nape, a dragon with open wings was lying upon him, which sets on fire whomsoever it encounters. My Master said : " This is Cacus, who beneath the rock of Mount Aventine often made a lake of blood. He goes not on one road with his brothers, be- cause of the fraudulent theft he committed of the great herd that he had in his neighborhood; for which his crooked deeds ceased under the club of Hercules, who perhaps dealt him a hundred blows with it, and he felt not ten of them." 6
While he was thus speaking, and that one had run by, lo ! three spirits came below us, of
4. v. 15. Capaneus ; see Canto xiv. 46-72.
5. v. 19. The desolate and unwholesome district of Tus- cany, bordering the sea.
6. v. 33. Cacus, according to Virgil, Aeneid,v\\\. 193 seqq. , was not a centaur, but a half- human fire-breathing mon- ster. He stole part of the herd of Geryon, which Hercules, having slain their master, was driving through Italy, and to conceal his theft dragged the cattle by their tails into his
but their hiding-place was revealed by their bellowing.
1 66 HELL ]_vv. 37-63
whom neither I nor my Leader was aware till when they cried out : " Who are ye ? " by which our story was stopped, and we then gave heed only to them. I did not know them, but it hap- pened, as it usually happens by some chance, that one had occasion to name another, saying : " Where can Cianfa 7 have stayed ? " Where- fore I, in order that my Leader might be atten- tive, put my finger upward from my chin to my nose.
If, Reader, thou art now slow to credit that which I shall tell, it will be no marvel, for I who saw it hardly admit it to myself. As I was holding my eyebrows raised upon tnem, lo ! a serpent with six feet darts in front of one, and takes hold all over him. With its middle feet it clasped his paunch, and with its fore feet took his arms, then struck its teeth in one and the other cheek ; its hind feet it spread out upon his thighs, and put its tail between them, and stretched it up behind along the reins. Ivy was never so bearded to a tree, as the horrible beast entwined its own through the other's limbs. Then they stuck together as if they had been of hot wax, and mingled their color ; nei- ther the one nor the other seemed now that which it had been ; even as in advance of the
7. v. 43. A sinner unknown but for this mention of Mm, but said to have been a member of the Donati family.
vv. 64-88] CANTO XXV
167
flame, a dark color proceeds up along the paper which is not yet black, and the white dies away. The other two were looking on, and each cried : " O me ! Agnel,8 how thou changest ! See, now thou art neither two nor one 1 " Now were the two heads become one, when there appeared to us two countenances mixed in one face wherein the two were lost. The two arms were made of four strips ; 9 the thighs with the legs, the belly and the chest became members that were never seen before. Every original aspect was there canceled ; two and none the perverted image appeared, and such it went away with slow step.
As the lizard under the great scourge of the dog-days, changing from hedge to hedge, seems a lightning-flash, if it cross the way, so seemed, coming toward the bellies of the two others, a little fiery serpent, livid, and black as a pepper corn. And it transfixed in one of them that part whereat our nourishment is first taken,10 then fell down stretched out before him. The transfixed one gazed at it, but said nothing;
8. v. 68. According to many of the early commenta- tors this was one Agnello de' Brunelleschi, of whom nothing is known but that he was a thief.
9. v. 73. The two fore feet of the dragon and the two arms of the man were melted into two strange arms.
10. v. 86. The navel.
168 HELL [vv. 89-111
nay, with feet fixed, he began to yawn, just as if sleep or fever had assailed him. He looked at the serpent, and that at him ; one through the wound, the other through its mouth, were smoking fiercely, and the smoke commingled,, Let Lucan henceforth be silent, where he tells of the wretched Sabellus and of Nasidius,11 and let him wait to hear that which now is related. Let Ovid be silent concerning Cadmus and Arethusa," for if, poetizing, he converts him into a serpent and her into a fountain, I grudge it not to him ; for never did he transmute two natures front to front, so that both the forms were prompt to exchange their matter. They responded to one another in such wise, that the serpent cleft his tail into a fork, and the wounded one drew his feet together.13 The legs and the thighs along with them so stuck together, that in short while the juncture made no mark that was apparent. The cleft tail was taking on the shape that the other was losing,14 and its skin was becoming soft, and that of the
11. v. 95. Sabellus, bitten by a little serpent in the Libyan desert, melts away " like snow under a hot Soutn wind," and Nasidius, stung by a snake of another kind, swells until he bursts his armor. Pharsalia ix. 763 seqq.
12. v. 97. Metam. iv. 575 seqq.t and v. 507 seqq.
13. v. 105. To form a tail.
14. v. no. The shape of legs.
vv. 112-135] CANTO XXV 169
other hard. I saw the arms entering through the armpits, and the two feet of the beast, which were short, lengthening out in proportion as the arms were shortening. Then the hinder feet, twisted together, became the member that man conceals, and the wretch from his had two stretched forth.15
While the smoke veils the one and the other with a new color, and generates hair on the one part, and strips it from the other, the one rose up, and the other fell down, not however turn- ing aside their pitiless lights,16 beneath which each was changing his muzzle. He who was erect 17 drew his in toward the temples, and, from the too much material that came in there, the ears issued on the smooth cheeks ; that which did not run back and was retained, of its superfluity made a nose for the face, and thick- ened the lips so much as was needful. He that was lying down drives his muzzle forward, and draws backward his ears into his head, as the snail does its horns. And his tongue, which before was united and fit for speech, cleaves it- self, and the forked one of the other closes up ;
15. v. 1 17. The member of the wretched one is trans- formed into two hind feet.
1 6. v. 122. Glaring steadily at each other.
17. v. 124. He who had been the serpent, now clian* gjng back to human form.
I ;o HELL [w. 136-151
and the smoke stops. The soul that had be- come a brute fled hissing along the valley, and the other, speaking, sputters behind it. Then he turned on him his new shoulders, and said to the third,18 " I want that Buoso IQ should run$ as I have done, on his belly along this path."
Thus I saw the seventh ballast 20 change and transmute, and here let the novelty be my ex- cuse, if my pen straggle 2I a little. And al- though my eyes were somewhat confused, and my mind bewildered, those could not flee away BO covertly but that I clearly distinguished Puccio Sciancato : " and he it was who alone, of the three companions that came first, was not changed ; the other 23 was he whom thou, Ga- ville, weepest.
i 8. v. 139. Turning his back to the soul changed into the serpent that was fleeing, he speaks to the third of the three spirits, the only one unchanged.
19. v. 140. Buoso, of whom nothing is known, is he who has become a snake.
20. v. 142. The ballast, — the sinners in the seventh bolgia.
21. v. 1 44. Run into unusual detail.
22. v. 148. This halting (sciancato^ Puccio is said to have been a member of the Galigai family ; of his misdeeds nothing is recorded.
23. v. 151. One Francesco Guercio de' Cavalcanti, who was slain by men of the village of Gaville, in Valdarno, which mourns for the cruel vengeance taken for his death.
The three who had first come were the three Florentine
CANTO XXV 171
thieves, Agnello, Buoso, and Puccio. Cianfa de* Donati had then appeared as the serpent with six feet, and had been incor- porated with Agnello. Lastly came Guercio (the Squinter) de' Cavalcand as the fiery little snake, and exchanged form with Buoso.
CANTO XXVI
Eighth Circle : eighth pouch : fraudulent counselors. »— • Ulysses and Diomed.
REJOICE, Florence, since thou art so great that thou beatest thy wings over sea and land, and thy name is spread through Hell ! Among the thieves I found five such, thy citizens, whereat shame comes to me, and thou dost not mount unto great honor thereby. But, if near the morning one dreams of the truth, thou shalt feel within short time what Prato, as well as others, craves for thee.1 And if already it were, it would not be too soon. So were it ! since surely it must be ; for it will weigh the more on me as the more I age.
We departed thence, and, up along the stairs which the bourns 2 had before made for our de- scent, my Leader remounted and drew me. And pursuing the solitary way among the fragments
1. v. 9. If that which I foresee is not a vain dream, the calamities which thine enemies, even thy nearest neighbors, crave for thee will soon be felt.
2. v. 1 4. The projections of the rocky wall.
vv. 17-37] CANTO XXVI 173
and the rocks of the craggy bridge, the foot sped not without the hand. I sorrowed then, and now I sorrow again when I direct my mind to what I saw ; and I curb my genius more than I am wont, that it may not run unless virtue guide it ; so that if a good star, or better thing, have given me the good, I may not grudge it to myself.3
As many as the fireflies which, in the season when he that brightens the world keeps his face least hidden from us, the rustic, who is resting on the hillside what time the fly yields to the gnat,4 sees down in the valley, perhaps there where he makes his vintage and ploughs, — with so many flames all the eighth pit was gleaming, as I perceived so soon as I was there where the bottom became apparent. And as he 5 who was avenged by the bears saw the cha- riot of Elijah at its departure, when the horses rose erect to heaven, — for he could not so fol-
3. v. 24. "That I may not grudge it to myself/' that is, that I may not by my own fault deprive myself of it. The sight which grieved the poet was that of men distin- guished for their natural gifts who, by misuse of them, had brought eternal condemnation on themselves. It turns his thought on the risks attending the use of his own genius.
4. v. 28. That is, in the summer twilight, when the flies, which have been busy through the day, give place to the gnats which trouble the evening.
5. v. 34. Elisha. 2 Kings ii. 9-24.
i;4 HELL [wo 38-59
low it with his eyes as to see aught save the flame alone, like a little cloud, mounting upward, — thus each of those flames was moving through the gulley of the ditch, for not one shows its theft, and every flame steals away a sinner.6
I was standing on the bridge, risen up to look, so that, if I had not taken hold of a rock, I should have fallen below without being pushed. And my Leader, who saw me thus intent, said : " Within these fires are the spir- its ; each is swathed by that wherewith he is burnt." " My Master," I replied, " through hearing thee am I more certain, but already I deemed that it was so, and already I wished to say to thee : Who is in that fire which comes so divided at its top that it seems to rise from the pyre on which Eteocles was put with his brother ? " 7 He answered me : " Therewithin Ulysses and Diomed are tormented, and thus they go together in their punishment, as in their wrath.8 And within their flame they groan for the ambush of the horse which made the gate
6. v. 42. Within each flame a sinner was concealed.
7. v. 54. Eteocles and Polynices, sons of Oedipus and Tocasta, who, contending at the siege of Thebes, slew each other. Such was their mutual hate that, when their bodies were burned on the same funeral pile, the flames divided in two. Statius, Tbebaid, xii. 431-2.
8. v. 57. Against the Trojans.
vv. 60-75] CANTO XXVI 175
whence the noble seed of the Romans issued forth ; within it they lament the artifice where-* by the dead Deidamia still mourns for Achil- les, and there they bear the penalty for the Palladium." 9 " If they have power to speak within those sparks," said I, " Master, much I pray thee, and repray, that my prayer avail a thousand, that thou make not to me denial of waiting till the horned flame come hither : thou seest that with desire I bend me toward it." And he to me : " Thy prayer is worthy of much praise, and therefore I accept it ; but mind that thy tongue restrain itself. Leave speech to me, for I have conceived that which thou wishest ; for, because they were Greeks, they would perhaps be disdainful of thy words." I0
9. v. 63. It was through the stratagem of the wooden horse that Troy was destroyed, and Aeneas was compelled to lead forth his followers who became the seed of the Ro- mans. Deidamia was the daughter of Lycomedes, king in the island of Scyros, to whom Thetis committed her son Achilles disguised as a maiden, that he might not go to the siege of Troy. Deidamia became the mother of a son by Achilles, and when by the craft of Ulysses, accompanied by Diomed, Achilles was discovered and persuaded to go to Troy, she slew herself. The story is told in full by Statius in his Acbilleis. The Palladium was the image of Athena, on which the safety of Troy depended, and which was stolen by the two heroes. Aeneid, ii. 163-170.
10. v. 75. The ancient heroes might be averse to taJk* ing with a common man of the strange modern world.
176 HELL [vv. 76-104
When the flame had come there where it seemed to my Leader time and place, I heard him speak to it in this form : " O ye, who are two within one fire, if I deserved of you while I lived, if I deserved of you much or little, when in the world I wrote my lofty verses, move not, but let one of you tell, whither, being lost, he went away to die/' The greater horn of the ancient flame began to wag, murmur- ing, even as a flame that the wind wearies. Then waving its tip to and fro, as if it were the tongue that spoke, it cast forth a voice, and said : —
" When I departed from Circe, who had de- tained me more than a year there near to Gaeta, before Aeneas had so named it," neither fond- ness for my son, nor piety for my old father, nor the due love which should have made Pe- nelope glad, could overcome within me the ardor which I had to become experienced of the world, and of the vices of men, and of their virtue. But I put forth on the deep, open sea, with one vessel only, and with that little com- pany by which I had not been deserted. I saw one shore and the other I2 as far as Spain, as far as Morocco and the island of Sardinia, and the
11. v. 93. In memory of his nurse Caieta, who had died there. Aeneid, vii. 1-4.
12. v. 103. Of the Mediterranean.
vv. 105-127] CANTO XXVI 177
others which that sea bathes round about. I and my companions were old and slow when we came to that narrow strait where Hercules set up his bounds, to the end that man should not put out beyond.13 On the right hand I left Seville, on the other I had already left Ceuta; c O brothers/ I said, c who through a hundred thousand perils have reached the West, to this so brief vigil of your senses which re- mains wish not to deny the experience, follow- ing the sun, of the world that has no people. Consider your origin ; ye were not made to live as brutes, but to pursue virtue and knowledge/ With this little speech I made my companions so keen for the voyage that hardly afterwards could I have held them back. And turning our stern to the morning, with our oars we made wings for the mad flight, always gaining on the left hand side.14 The night saw now all
13. v. 109. Piu oltre non ; the famous Ne plus ultra, adopted by Charles V. as his motto, with the pillars of Her- cules for an emblem.
14. v. 126. In Dante's scheme of the Earth the south- ern hemisphere was a vast expanse of water, in which the only land was the Mountain of Purgatory (see xxxiv. 122— 126), the antipodes of Jerusalem (Purg. iv. 68-71). The course of Ulysses and his companions after passing through the Pillars of Hercules was to the southeast, «* always gaming on the left hand," until, having sailed a distance eastward, corresponding to that which in the northern hemisphere lay
178 HELL [vv. 128-142
the stars of the other pole, and ours so low that it rose not forth from the ocean floor. The light beneath the moon had been five times re- kindled and as many quenched/5 since we had entered on the passage of the deep, when there appeared to us a mountain dark in the dis- tance, and it seemed to me so high as I had never seen one.16 We rejoiced, and soon it turned to lamentation, for from the new land a whirlwind rose and struck the fore part of the vessel. Three times it made her whirl with all the waters, the fourth it made her stern lift up and the prow go down, as pleased Another/7 till the sea had closed over us."
between the Pillars and the Holy City, they came in sight of the Mountain whose shore no man ever saw " who after- wards had experience of return. " Purg. i. 132.
15. v. 130. Five changes of the moon.
1 6. v. 135. " The mount which rises highest from the wave." Par. xxvi. 139; Purg. iii. 15.
17. v. 141. God, whose name is not spoken by any •inner in Hell save, in the preceding canto (v. 3), by Vanni Fucci in blasphemy.
CANTO XXVII
Eighth Circle : eighth pouch : fraudulent counselors* — Guido da Montefeltro.
THE flame was already erect and quiet, by reason of not speaking more, and already was going from us, with the permission of the sweet poet, when another, which was coming behind it, made us turn our eyes to its tip, by a confused sound that was issuing forth from it. As the Sicilian bull,1 which bellowed first with the plaint of him (and that was right) who had shaped it with his tools,2 was wont to bellow with the voice of the sufferer, so that, although it was of brass, yet it appeared transfixed with the pain, so, through not at first having way or outlet from the fire, the disconsolate words were converted into its language.3 But when they had taken
1. v. 7. The brazen bull of Phalaris, tyrant of Agri- gentum, made to hold criminals to be burned within it. Pe- rillus, its inventor, was the first to suffer. So these sinners are wrapped in the flames which their fraudulent counsels had prepared for them.
2. v. 9. Literally, "tempered it with his file."
3. v. 15. Sounding like the murmuring breath of the flame.
i8o HELL [w. 16-36
their course up through the point, giving to it in their passage that vibration which the tongue had given, we heard say : " O thou, to whom I direct my voice, and who just now wast speak- ing Lombard,4 saying : ' Now go thy way, no more I urge thee : ' 5 although I may have arrived perhaps somewhat late, let it not irk thee to stop to speak with me; behold, it irks not me, and I am burning. If thou art but now fallen into this blind world from that sweet Italian land whence I bring all my sin, tell me if the Romagnoles 6 have peace or war ; for I was of the mountains there, between Urbino and the chain from which Tiber is unlocked.'* 7
I was still downward attent and leaning over, when my Leader touched me on the side, say- ing, " Speak thou, this is an Italian." And I, who already had my answer ready, without de- lay began to speak : " O soul, that art hidden
4. v. 20. Lombard, because the speech was that of Virgil, whose "parents were Lombards," and he had used a word peculiar to the Lombard dialect.
5. v. 2 1 . The words used by Virgil in dismissing Ulysses,
6. v. 28. The people of Romagna, the region lying between the Po, the Apennines, the Adriatic Sea, and the Reno. Purg. xiv. 92.
7. v. 30. The spirit who speaks is that of the Ghibelline count, Guido da Montefeltro, the ablest and most famous man of war of his time in Italy. The district of Montefeltro lies at the foot of the Apennines, a little northwest of Urbino.
w. 37-48] CANTO XXVII 181
down there, thy Romagna is not, and never was, without war in the hearts of her tyrants, but no open war have I left there now. Ra- venna is as it has been for many years ; the eagle of Polenta8 is brooding there, so that he covers Cervia with his wings. The city that made some while ago the long struggle, and of the French a bloody heap, finds itself again be- neath the green paws.9 And the old mastiff and the new of Verrucchio,10 who made the ill dispo- sal of Montagna, make an auger of their teeth there where they are wont. The young lion of
8. v. 41. Guido da Polenta had been lord of Ravenna since 1275. He was father of Francesca da Rimini, and a friend of Dante. His shield bore an eagle, half argent on a field azure, and half gules on a field or. Cervia is a small town on the coast, about twelve miles south of Ravenna.
9. v. 45. Forli, where in 1282 Guido da Montefeltro had defeated, with great slaughter, a troop, largely of French soldiers, sent against him by Pope Martin III. It was now ruled by the Ordelaffi, whose shield, party per fess, bore on its upper half a green demi-lion on a gold field.
10. v. 46. Verrucchio was a castle some ten miles south* west of Rimini, which had long been in possession of tin Malatesta family, and gave to them their designation. " Thi old mastiff and the new " were Malatesta de' Malatesti and his son Malatestino, lords of Rimini. In 1295 they had treacherously overpowered and murdered Montagna de' Par- citati, the head of the Ghibellines in the city, and they ruled there as tyrants, sucking the blood of their subjects. They were respectively father and half-brother of the husband w»4 of the lover of Francesca da Rimini.
182 HELL [w. 49-68
the white lair,11 who changes side from summer to winter, rules the cities of Lamone and of San- terno. And she I2 whose flank the Savio bathes lives between tyranny and a free state, even as she sits between the plain and the mountain. Now I pray thee that thou tell us who thou art ; be not harder than another has been/3 so may thy name hold front in the world."
After the fire had roared for a while accord- ing to its fashion, the sharp point moved to and fro, and then gave forth this breath : " If I believed that my reply were to a person who should ever return to the world, this flame would stand without more quiverings ; but in- asmuch as, if I hear truth, never did any one return alive from this depth, I answer thee with- out fear of infamy.
" I was a man of arms, and then I was a cor- delier/4 trusting, thus girt, to make amends ;
11. v. 50. This is Maghinardo de' Pagani da Susinana, who bore on his shield a blue lion on a white field. He was a Ghibelline in Romagna, and a Guelf with the Floren- tines, says Villani. "The city of Lamone" is Faenza, near the river Lamone, and the city of Santerno is Imola, by which the Santerno runs.
12. v. 52. The city of Cesena.
13. v. 56. Refuse not to answer me as I have an- swered thee.
14. v. 67. In 1296 Guido, past seventy years old, entered the Franciscan Order, girding himself with its cord He died in I 298 at the convent at Assisi.
vv. 69-90] CANTO XXVII 18^
and surely my trust had come full but for the Great Priest,15 whom ill befall! who set me back into my first sins ; and how and wherefore, I will that thou hear from me. While I was that shape of bone and flesh which my mother gave me, my works were not leonine, but of the fox. All wily practices and covert ways I knew, and I so plied their art that the sound went forth to the end of the earth. When I saw me arrived at that part of my age where every one ought to strike the sails and coil up the ropes, what before was pleasing to me then was irksome to me, and I yielded me l6 repent- ant and confessed. Ah wretched, alas ! and it would have availed. The Prince of the new Pharisees having war near the Lateran,17 — and not with Saracens nor with Jews, for every enemy of his was Christian, and not one of them had been to conquer Acre, or a trafficker in the land of the Soldan,'8 — regarded in himself
15. v. 70. Pope Boniface VIII.
1 6. v. 83. I became a friar, giving myself to God.
1 7. v. 86. With the Colonna family, whose stronghold was Palestrina, about twenty -four miles from Rome, on a spur of the Apennines visible from the Lateran hill. In 1297 Boniface proclaimed a crusade against them, Palestrina was surrendered to him on false promises, and then demolished.
1 8. v. 90. Not one had been a renegade, to help the Saracens at the siege and capture of Acre in 1291, nor had traded with the Mussulmans, which was forbidden under penalty of excommunication.
184 HELL [vv. 91-112
neither his supreme office, nor his Holy Orders, nor in me that cord which was wont to make those girt with it more lean ; but as Constan- tine besought Sylvester within Soracte to cure his leprosy,19 so this one besought me as master to cure the fever of his pride. He asked coun- sel of me, and I kept silence, because his words seemed drunken. And then he said to me : 4 Let not thy heart mistrust ; from this time for- ward I absolve thee, and do thou teach me to act so that I may throw Palestrina to the ground. I can lock and unlock Heaven, as thou knowest ; wherefor the keys are two, which my predeces- sor held not dear/20 Then his weighty argu- ments pushed me to where silence seemed to me the worst, and I said : f Father, since thou dost wash me of that sin wherein I now must fall, long promise with short keeping will make thee triumph on the High Seat/ Francis21 came
19. v. 95. It was for this service that Constantine was supposed to have made Pope Sylvester I. (A. D. 314-355) "the first rich Father" (Canto xix. 117), by the famous " Donation " conveying to the Pope the sovereignty over Italy and the whole Western empire. Sylvester, to escape from Constantine' s previous persecution cf the Christians, had
aken refuge on Mount Soracte.
20. v. 105. Celestine V., the immediate predecessor of Boniface, had renounced the papacy.
21. v. 112. St. Francis came lor his soul, as that of one of the brethren of his Order.
rv, 113-136] CANTO XXVII 185
for me afterwards, when I was dead, but one of the black Cherubim said to him : £ Bear him not away ; do me not wrong ; he must come down among my drudges because he gave the fraud- ulent counsel, since which till now I have been at his hair ; for he who does not repent cannot be absolved, nor can repentance and will exist together, because of the contradiction which does not allow it.' " O me woeful ! how I shud- dered when he took me, saying to me : f Per- haps thou didst not think that I was a logician/ He bore me to Minos ; and he twisted his tail eight times round his hard back,23 and, after he had bitten it from great rage, he said : c This is one of the sinners of the thievish fire : ' where- fore here, where thou seest, I am lost, and going thus robed I am afflicted." When he had thus completed his speech the flame, sorrowing, de- parted, twisting and flapping its sharp horn.
We passed onward, I and my Leader, over the crag, far as to the next arch that covers the ditch in which the fee is paid by those who acquire their load by sundering.24
22. v. 1 20. Repentance of a sin and the will to commit it cannot coexist.
23. v. 125. See Canto v. 11-12.
24. v. 136. Those who, sowing discord, sever the bond which nature makes (Canto xi. 56), and thus load them' selves with the burden of sin and its penalty.
CANTO XXVIII
Eighth Circle : ninth pouch : sowers of discord and ism. — Mahomet and All. — Fra Dolcino. — Pier da * — Curio. — Mo sea. — Eertran de Born.
WHO, even with words unfettered,1 could ever tell in full, though many times narrating, of the blood and of the wounds that I now saw ? Every tongue assuredly would come short, by reason of our speech and our memory which have small capacity to comprise so much.
If all the people were again assembled, that of old upon the storm-tossed land of Apulia lamented for their blood shed by the Trojans,2
1. v. I. In prose.
2, v, 10, In Canto xxvi. 60 Virgil has spoken of the Trojans led by Aeneas as <r the noble seed of the Romans," and here Dante uses the term Trojans as synonymous with Romans. The sentence, complicated by parentheses, may be paraphrased as follows : If the people who fell in Apulia when it was conquered by the Romans, and those slain there in the Second Punic war, and those who died opposing Robert Guiscard, and those who perished at Benevento, were all brought together in one assembly, and were to show their wounds, the horrible spectacle would be nothing to that dis- played by the ninth bolgia.
vv. 10-25] CANTO XXVIII 187
and in the long war that made such vast spoil of the rings,3 as Livy writes, who does not err ; together with those who, by resisting Robert Guiscard,4 felt the pain of blows, and the others whose bones are still heaped up at Ceperano,5 where every Apulian was false, and there by Tagliacozzo,6 where the old Alardo conquered without arms, — and one should show his limb pierced through, and one his lopped off, it would be nothing to equal the hideous mode of the ninth pouch.
Truly a cask by losing mid-board or stave is not so split open, as one I saw who was cleft from the chin to where the wind is broken : his entrails were hanging between his legs, his
3. v. ii. The spoils — three bushels and a half of rings — of the battle of Cannae, in the second Punic war, which lasted more than fifteen years. Livy, xxiii. 1 2.
4. v. 14. The Norman conqueror and Duke of Apulia. He died in 1085.
5. v. 1 6. There was no battle at Ceperano, but the defence of the bridge there aver the Garigliano was treacher- ously abandoned, leaving the way open for Charles of Anjou to advance to Benevento, where, on February 26, 1 26$, the great battle was fought which ended in the defeat and death of Manfred, king of Sicily. At this battle many of the Apu- lian barons proved traitors.
6. v. 17. Here, in 1268, Conradin, the nephew of Manfred, was defeated and taken prisoner by Charles of Anjou. The victory was won, not by arms, but by a stratagem devised by Count Erard (Alardo) de Valery.
i88 HELL [w. 26-52
pluck was visible, and the dismal sack which makes ordure of what is swallowed. While I fix myself all on seeing him, he looked at me, and with his hands opened his breast, saying : " Now see how I rend myself; see how mangled is Mahomet. In front of me goes Ali7 weep- ing, cleft in the face from chin to forelock ; and all the others whom thou seest here were, when living, sowers of scandal and of schism, and therefore are they so cleft. A devil is here be- hind that fashions us so cruelly, putting again to the edge of the sword each of this throng, when we have circled the doleful road ; because the wounds are closed up before one passes again before him. But who art thou that art musing on the crag, perhaps to delay going to the punishment that has been adjudged on thine own accusations ? " 8 " Death has not reached him yet," replied my Master, " nor does guilt lead him to torment him ; but, in order to give him full experience, it behoves me, who am dead, to lead him down here through Hell, from circle to circle; and this is true, as that I speak to thee."
More than a hundred there were who, when
7. v. 32. Cousin and son-in-law of Mahomet, and him- *-,lfthe head of a schism.
8. v. 45. When the soul appears before Minos, "it confesses itself wholly." See Canto v. 8.
vv- 53-76] CANTO XXVIII 189
they heard him, stopped in the ditch to look at me, forgetting the torment in their wonder.
" Now say then to Fra Dolcino,9 thou who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun, if he wish not speedily to follow me hither, so to arm himself with provisions that stress of snow may not bring the victory to the Novarese, which to gain otherwise would not be easy." Mahomet said to me this word, after he had lifted one foot to go on, then to depart he stretched it on the ground.
Another who had his throat pierced and his nose cut off close under his brows, and had but one ear only, having stopped to gaze, for won- der, with the others, before the others opened his gullet, which outwardly was all crimson, and said : " O thou whom guilt does not condemn, and whom I saw above in the land of Italy, if exceeding resemblance deceive me not, if ever thou return to see the sweet plain which slopes from Vercelli to Marcabo,10 remember Pier da Medicina,11 and make known to the two best
9. v. 55. A noted heretic and reformer, who for two years maintained himself in Lombardy against the forces of the Pope, but finally, being reduced by famine in time of snow, in I 307, was taken captive and burnt at Vercelli.
10. v. 75. From the foot of the Alps to the Adriatic. Marcabo was a stronghold near the mouths of the Po.
n. v. 73. Medicina is a town between Bologna and
HELL [vv. 77-89
men of Fano, to Messer Guido and likewise to Angiolello,12 that, if our foresight here is not vain, they will be thrown out of their vessel and sunk near La Cattolica,13 through the treachery of a fell tyrant. Between the islands of Cyprus and Majorca I4 Neptune never saw so great a crime, not of the pirates, nor of the Argolic people.15 That traitor who sees only with one eye, and holds the city l6 from sight of which one who is here with me would wish he had fasted, will make them come to parley with him ; then will deal so that against the wind of Focara I7
Imola. Piero was a fosterer of discord among the lords of the cities of Romagna.
12. v. 77. Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Ca- gnano, treacherously drowned (about 1312) by order of the one-eyed Malatestino (cf. xxvii. 46), lord of Rimini. The word used by Dante for their drowning is the term for throw- ing into the water a person tied in a sack weighted with stone.
13. v. 80. A small town on the coast of the Adriatic between Rimini and Pesaro.
14. v. 82. From one end to the other of the Mediter- ranean.
15. v. 84. "The Argolic people," as a term for the Greeks, is borrowed from the Aeneid, ii. 78. The Greeks were held from of old to be ruthless sea-robbers.
1 6. v. 86. Rimini, which the sinner would wish never to have seen.
17. v. 89. A high foreland near La Cattolica, dreaded by mariners because of the dangerous squalls which often swept down from it.
vv. 90-106] CANTO XXVIII 191
they will not need vow or prayer." And I to him : " Show to me and declare, if thou wishest that I carry up news of thee, who is he of the bitter sight ? " l8 Then he put his hand on the jaw of one of his companions, and opened the mouth of him, crying : " This is he, and he does not speak ; this one, being banished, stifled the doubt in Caesar, affirming that the man prepared always suffered harm from delay." Oh, how aghast, with his tongue cut off in his throat, seemed to me Curio,19 who had been so bold to speak !
And one who had both hands lopped off, lifting the stumps through the murky air so that the blood made his face foul, cried out : " Thou shalt bear in mind Mosca,20 too, who
1 8. v. 93. He to whom the sight of Rimini had proved bitter, so that he might wish never to have seen it.
19. v. 1 02. Curio the Tribune, banished from Rome, fled to Cassar delaying to cross the Rubicon, which enters the Adriatic a few miles north of Rimini, and urged him on, with the argument, according to Lucan, " Tolle mar as y sem- per nocuit dijferre par at is. ' ' Pbars. i. 281.
20. v. 1 06. In 1215 one of the Buondelmonti, plighted to a maiden of the Amidei family, broke faith, and engaged himself to a damsel of the house of the Donati. The rela- tives of the girl who had been thus slighted took counsel how to avenge the affront, and Mosca de* Lamberti gave the ill advice to kill the young Buondelmonte, clenching his coun- sel with the words, Capo ha cosafatta, " Thing done has a
192 HELL [vv. 107-133
said, alas ! c Thing done has a head/ which was the seed of ill for the Tuscan people." And I added for him : " And death to thine own race." Whereat he, accumulating woe on woe, went away like a person sorrowful and mad.
But I remained to look at the erowd, and saw a thing which, without more proof, I should be afraid only to tell, were it not that conscience reassures me, the good companion which em- boldens man under the hauberk of feeling itself pure. I saw truly, and I seem to see it still, a trunk without a head going along, even as the others of the dismal herd were going. And it was holding its cut-off head by the hair, dan- gling it in hand like a lantern, and that was gaz- ing on us, and saying ° " O me ! " Of itself it was making a lamp for itself; and they were two in one, and one in two ; how it can be He knows who so ordains. When he was right at foot of the bridge, he lifted his arm high with the whole head, in order to bring its words near to us, which were : " Now see the dire punish- ment, thou that, breathing, goest seeing the dead : see if any other be great as this ! And that thou mayst carry news of me, know that
head/' it is an accomplished fact, it cannot be undone, there is no question as to its meaning, it shows its head. The murder was the beginning of long woe to Florence, and of the division of her people into Guelfs and Ghibellines.
vv. 134-142] CANTO XXVIII 193
I am Bertran de Born,21 he that gave to the young king the ill encouragements. I made father and son rebels to each other. Ahitho- phel did not more with Absalom and with David by his wicked goadings. Because I divided persons thus united, I carry my brain, alas ! divided from its source which is in this trunk. Thus the retribution is observed in me."
21. v. 134. The famous troubadour who incited the young Prince Henry to rebellion against his father, Henry IL of England. The prince died in 1 183.
CANTO XXIX
Eighth Circle : ninth pouch. — Geri del Eelln. — Tenth pouch : falsifiers of all sorts. — Alchemists. — Griffolino of Arezzo. — Capocchio.
THE many people and the divers wounds had so inebriated my eyes that they were fain to stay for weeping ; but Virgil said to me : " What art thou still watching ? why does thy gaze still rest down there among the dismal mutilated shades ? Thou hast not done so at the other pits ; consider, if thou thinkest to count them, that the valley circles two and twenty miles ; ' and already the moon is be- neath our feet ; 2 the time is little now that is
1. v. 9. Dante here, for the first time, gives a precise measurement of one of the localities of Hell ; and in the next canto he gives another, from which it appears that the circuit of the tenth boigia is but half that of this the ninth, thus, as Dr. Carlyle points out, suggesting to the imagination " the vast dimensions and population of all the Hell above/'
2. v. 10. " This is another way of saying that it was early in the afternoon, about I or 2 p. M. Dante very sig- nificantly here, as in xx. 125 and elsewhere during his pas- sage through the Inferno, avoids mention of the sun, and
vw 11-27] CANTO XXIX 195
conceded to us, and other things are to be seen than these thou seest." " If thou hadst," re- plied I thereupon, " given heed to the reason why I was looking, perhaps thou wouldst have permitted me yet to stay."
Meanwhile my Leader was going on, and I was going behind him, now making my reply, and adding : " Within that hollow where I was now holding my eyes so fixedly, I believe that a spirit of my own blood is weeping for the guilt which costs so dear down there." Then said the Master : " Let not thy thought henceforth be broken upon him ; 3 attend to other thing, and let him stay there ; for I saw him at the foot of the little bridge, pointing thee out, and threatening fiercely with his finger, and I heard him called Geri del Bello.4 Thou wert then
describes the hour by referring rather to the position of ' the face of the lady who rules here,' x. 80." Moore, Time- References, p. 50.
3. v. 22. The meaning of this forcible metaphor, which occurs in a rhyme-word, seems to be, hereafter let not specu- lation about him break in upon your thought.
4. v. 27. A first cousin of Dante's father. According to Benvenuto da Imola he was a harmful and quarrelsome person, who, having sown discord among the members of the Sacchetti family, was slain by one of them. After thirty years his death was avenged by his nephews, by the killing of one of the Sacchetti. The feud between the Alighieri and the Sacchetti seems to have continued till 1 342, when arecon*
196 HELL [w. 28-50
so wholly occupied with him who of old held Hautefort5 that thou didst not look that way ; so he went off." " O my Leader," said I, " that his violent death has not yet been avenged for him by any one who is a partner in the shame made him indignant ; wherefore, as I deem, he went on without speaking to me, and thereby he has made me the more pitiful for him."
Thus we spoke as far as the first place on the crag which shows the next valley, if more light were there, quite to the bottom. When we were above the last cloister of Malebolge, so that its lay brothers could appear to our sight, divers lamentations pierced me, which had their arrows barbed with woe ; wherefore I covered my ears with my hands.
Such suffering as there would be if, between July and September, the sick from the hospitals of Valdichiana and of Maremma and of Sar- dinia6 were all in one ditch together, such was there here ; and such stench came forth there-
ciliation was formally made between the two families. The taking vengeance for the murder of a relation was generally recognized as a duty by the members of the family of the victim. " Fair honor is won in doing vengeance " is the last verse of one of Dante's Canzoni.
5. v. 29. Bertran de Born, lord of Hautefort.
6. v. 48. The marshy valley of the sluggish Chiana, the Maremma, or flat swampy sea-coast of Tuscany, and the fens of Sardinia were noted haunts of malarial fever.
vv. 51-77] CANTO XXIX
197
from, as is wont to come from gangrened limbs. We descended upon the last bank of the long crag, ever to the left hand, and then my sight became livelier down toward the bottom, where the ministress of the High Lord — infallible Justice — punishes the falsifiers whom she registers here.
I do not believe it was a greater sorrow to see the whole people in Aegina sick, when the air was so full of harm that the animals, even to the little worm, all fell dead, and afterwards the ancient people, according as the poets hold for sure, were restored from seed of ants,7 than it was to see the spirits languishing in different heaps through that dark valley. One was lying on the belly, and one on the shoulders of an- other, and one, on all fours, was shifting himself along the dismal path. Step by step we went without speech, looking at and listening to the sick, who could not lift their persons.
I saw two seated leaning on each other, as pan is leaned against pan to warm, spotted from head to foot with scabs ; and never did I see currycomb plied by stable-boy for whom his
7. v. 64. Dante had the story from Ovid (Metam. vii. 523-657) how, when the people of Aegina had perished in a pestilence sent upon them by Juno, the island was re- peopled by Jupiter, at the prayer of the king, Aeacus, by changing ants into men.
198 HELL [vv. 78-105
lord is waiting, or by one who stays awake un- willingly, as each was incessantly plying the bite of his nails upon himself, because of the great rage of his itching which has no other relief. And the nails were dragging down the scab, as a knife does the scales of bream, or of other fish that has them larger still.
" O thou, that art dismailing thyself with thy fingers," began my Leader unto one of them, " and who sometimes makest pincers of them, tell me if any Italian is among those who are here within, so may thy nails suffice thee eter- nally for this work." " Italians are we whom here thou seest so spoiled, both of us," replied one weeping, " but who art thou that askest of us ? " And the Leader said : "I am one that descends with this living man down from ledge to ledge, and I intend to show Hell to him." Then their mutual support was broken ; and each turned trembling to me, with others who heard him by rebound.8 The good Mas- ter drew quite close to me, saying : " Say to them what thou wilt ; " and I began, since he wished it : " So may memory of you in the first world not steal away from the minds of men, but may it live under many suns, tell me
8. v. 99. The words, not addressed to them directly, reached them, as it were by rebound, from him to whom they were spoken.
vv. 106-125] CANTO XXIX 199
who ye are, and of what folk ; let not your un- seemly and loathsome punishment fright you from disclosing yourselves unto me." " I was of Arezzo," replied one of them,9 " and Al- bero of Siena had me put in the fire ; but that for which I died does not bring me here. It is true that I said to him, speaking in jest, that I knew how to raise myself through the air in flight, and he, who had lively desire and little wit, wished that I should show him the art, and only because I did not make him Daedalus, caused me to be burned by one I0 who had him for son ; but to the last pouch of the ten, Minos, to whom it is not allowed to err, condemned me by reason of the alchemy that I practiced in the world."
And I said to the Poet : " Now was ever people so vain as the Sienese ? surely not so the French by much."
Whereon the other leprous one, who heard me, replied to my words : " Excepting " Stricca,
9 . v. 1 1 o . This is supposed to be one Griffolino, of whom the old commentators tell nothing more than is implied in Dante's words.
10. v. 1 1 7. The Bishop of Siena, under whose ecclesias- tical jurisdiction Griffolino fell as a dealer in the black art. The Bishop was the reputed father of Albero.
11. v. 125. Ironical; these youths all being members of a gay company at Siena known as the brtgata godereccia or spendereccia, the "joyous " or " spendthrift brigade."
200 HE LI [w. 126-139
who knew how to make moderate spendings ; and Niccolo, who first invented the costly use of the clove,12 in the garden where such seed takes root ; and excepting the brigade in which Caccia of Asciano squandered his vineyard and his great wood, and Abbagliato showed his wit. But that thou mayst know who thus seconds thee against the Sienese, sharpen thine eye to- ward me so that my face may answer well to thee, so wilt thou see that I am the shade of Capocchio, who falsified the metals by alchemy ; and thou shouldst recollect, if I descry thee aright, how I was a good ape of nature." I3
12. v. 128. What precise extravagance is meant is un- certain. Benvenuto da Imola says that it was the roasting of pheasants and capons at a fire made of cloves.
13. v. 139. Capocchio was burnt alive at Siena in 1293. It would appear from his words that he and Dante had met in " the fair life."
CANTO XXX
Eighth Circle : tenth pouch : false per sonators, false Wioneyers, and false in words. — Myrrha. — Gianni Schicchi. — Master Adam. — Sinon of Troy.
AT the time when Juno was wroth because of Seme]e against the Theban blood, as she showed more than once, Athamas became so in- sane,1 that seeing his wife come laden on either hand with her two sons, he cried out : " Spread we the nets, so that I may take the lioness and the young lions at the pass," and then he stretched out his pitiless talons, seizing the one who was named Learchus, and whirled him and dashed him on a rock ; and she drowned her- self with her other burden. And when For- tune turned downward2 the loftiness of the Trojans which dared all, so that together with his kingdom the king was undone, Hecuba, sads
1. v. 4. It was from Ovid, Metam. iv. 511—529, that Dante drew this story. Athamas was King of Orchomenos, his wife was Nephele, but he had two children by the sister of Semele, Ino, whom Dante here calls his wife. Both he and Ino had incurred the resentment of Juno.
2. v. 13. On her ever-revolving wheeL
2O2 HELL [vv. 16-32
wretched, and captive, after she saw Polyxena dead, and descried her Polydorus on the sea- strand, she the doleful, frantic, barked like a dog, to such degree had grief distraught her mind.3
But neither furies of Thebes nor of Troy were ever seen in any one so cruel, not in goad- ing beasts much less human limbs, as those I saw in two pale and naked shades 4 who were running, biting, in the way that a boar does when he is let out from the sty. One came at Capocchio, and struck his tusks in the nape of his neck, so that dragging him it made his belly scratch along the solid bottom. And the Are- tine,5 who remained trembling, said to me : " That mad sprite is Gianni Schicchi,6 and he
3. v. 21. After the fall of Troy, Hecuba, accompanied by her daughter, Polyxena, was carried away as a slave. On the voyage to Greece Polyxena was slain as a victim on the tomb of Achilles, and near by, on the Thracian coast, Hec- uba found the body of her young son Polydorus, who had been murdered and cast into the sea by King Polymestor. See Ovid, Metam. xiii. 404 seqq.
4. v. 25. No mad rages were ever so merciless as those of these furious spirits.
5. v. 31. Griffolino of Arezzo.
6. v. 32. Gianni (Johnny) Schicchi was of the house of the Cavalcanti, and an elder contemporary of Dante. He was noted as a mimic ; his chief exploit in mimicry being that teferred to just below.
. 33-56] CANTO XXX
203
goes rabid dressing others thus." " Oh ! " said I to him, " so may the other not fix its teeth on thee, let it not be weariness to thee to tell who it is before it breaks away from here." And he to me : " That is the ancient soul of infamous Myrrha,7 who became loving of her father be- yond rightful love. She came thus to sinning with him by falsifying herself in another's form, even as the other, who goes off there, ventured, in order to gain the lady of the stud, to simulate in his own person Buoso Donati, making a will and giving to the will due form." 8
And after the two rabid ones, upon whom I had kept my eye, had passed on, I turned it to look at the others of the evil born. I saw one shaped in fashion of a lute, had he only had his groin cut short at the part where man is forked. The heavy dropsy which, with its ill- digested humor, so unmates the members that the face does not correspond with the belly, was making him hold his lips open, as the hectic
7. v. 38. The daughter of Cinyras, king of Cyprus. Her story is told by Ovid, Me tarn. x. 293 ff.
8. v. 45. Buoso Donati had died without making a will, whereupon his son suborned Gianni Schicchi to personate the dead man in bed, and to dictate a will in his favor. This Gianni did, inserting, however, several clauses with bequests to himself, among which was that of a favorite mare or she mule of Buoso's, reputed the best in all Tuscany.
204 HELL [vv. 57-77
does, who for thirst turns one toward his chin, and the other upward.
" Oh ye, who are without any punishment, and I know not why, in this dismal world," said he to us, cc behold and consider the misery of Master Adam. Living, I had enough of what I wished, and now, alas ! I long for a drop of water. The little brooks that from the green hills of the Casentin 9 run down into the Arno, making their channels cool and soft, stand ever before me, and not in vain ; for their image dries me up far more than the malady whereby I strip my face of flesh. The rigid justice that scourges me draws occasion from the place where I sinned to set my sighs the more in flight. There is Romena, where I falsified the coin stamped with the Baptist,10 for which on earth I left my body burnt." But if I could see here the miserable soul of Guido, or of Ales- sandro, or of their brother,12 I would not give
9. v. 65. The district of the Casentino lies in the folds of the Apennines, at the head of the valley of the Arno.
10. v. 74. The florin which bore on the obverse the figure of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, and on the reverse the lily-flower,_/fon>, from which the coin had its name, far in o.
11. v. 75. A little village near the border of the Casen- tino bears the strange name of La Consuma, perpetuating the fact that here, in i 281, Master Adam was burnt alive by the Florentines, jealous for the purity of their florin.
J2. v. 77. Counts of Romena.
vv. 78-99] CANTO XXX 205
the sight for Fonte Branda.13 One of them is here within already, if the raging shades who go around speak true ; but what does it avail me who have my limbs bound ? If I were only still so light that in a hundred years I could go one inch, I should already have set out along the path, seeking for him among this disfigured folk, although it circles round eleven miles, and has not here less than a half mile across. Be- cause of them I am among such a family ; they induced me to strike the florins which had three carats of base-metal/' I4 And I to him : " Who are the two poor wretches that are smoking like wet hands in winter, lying close to thy confines on the right ? " " Here I found them," he an- swered, " when I rained down into this trough, and they have not since given a turn, and I do not believe they will give one to all eternity. One is the false woman who accused Joseph, the other is the false Sinon the Greek, from Troy : IS because of their sharp fever they throw out such great reek."
13. v. 7 8 . The noted fountain in Siena, or perhaps one of like name in Romena.
14. v. 90. The counterfeit coins he struck contained but twenty-one carats of gold instead of twenty-four, the legal standard.
15. v. 98. The lying Greek who persuaded the Trojam to admit the Wooden Horse into their city, and " broughl Troy all utterly to sorrow." Aeneid, ii. 57 ff.
206 HELL [w. 100-129
And one of them, who took it ill perhaps to be named so darkly, with his fist struck him on his stiff paunch ; it sounded as if it were a drum ; and Master Adam struck him on the face with his arm which did not seem less hard, saying to him : " Though moving be taken from me because of my limbs which are heavy, I have an arm free for such need." Whereon he replied : " When thou wast going to the fire thou hadst it not thus ready ; but so and more thou hadst it when thou wast coining." And he of the dropsy : " Thou sayest true of this, but thou wast not so true a witness there where thou wast questioned of the truth at Troy." " If I said false, thou didst falsify the coin," said Sinon, " and I am here for a single sin, and thou for more l6 than any other demon." " Remember, perjurer, the horse," answered he who had the puffed up paunch, " and be it ill for thee that all the world knows it." " And for thee be ill the thirst wherewith thy tongue cracks," said the Greek, " and the putrid water that makes thy belly thus a hedge before thine eyes." Then the coiner : " Thy mouth gapes thus for its own harm as it is wont, for if I have thirst, and humor stuffs me, thou hast the burning, and the head that pains thee, and to lick the mirror of Narcissus thou wouldst not want many words of invitation."
1 6. v. 117. Each coin counting for a sin.
w. 130-148] CANTO XXX
207
I was wholly fixed in listening to them, when the Master said to me : " Now only look ! for it wants but little that I quarrel with thee." When I heard him speak to me with anger, I turned me toward him with such shame that even yet k circles through ni)t memory. And as is he who dreams of his harm, and, dream- ing, desires to dream, so that he longs for that which is, as if it were not, such I became, not being able to speak ; for I desired to excuse my- self, and all the while I was excusing myself, and never thought that I was doing it. " Less shame washes away a greater fault than thine has been," said the Master ; " therefore disbur- den thyself of all sadness, and make reckoning that I am always at thy side, if again it happen that fortune find thee where people may be in a similar wrangle ; for the wish to hear this is a base wish."
CANTO XXXI
The Giants around the Eighth Circle. — Nimrod. — Ephialtes. — Antaeus sets the Poets dwun in the Ninth Circle.
ONE and the same tongue first stung me, so that it tinged both my cheeks, and then sup- plied the medicine to me. Thus do I hear that the lance of Achilles and of his father was wont to be cause first of a sad and then of a good gift.1
We turned our backs to the wretched valley,* up over the bank that girds it round, crossing without any speech. Here it was less than night and less than day, so that my sight went little forward ; but I heard a loud horn sound-
1. v. 6. Ovid more than once refers to the magic power of the spear which had been given to Peleus by Chi- ron. Shakespeare makes use of it metaphorically, precisely as Dante does, speaking of one
Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear, Is able with the charge to kill and cure.
2 Henry VI. v. L
So, too, Chaucer, in The Sqmer's Tale, 238-240.
2. v. 7. The tenth and last bolgia.
vv- 13-33] CANTO XXXI 209
ing, so that it would have made every thunder faint, and this directed my eyes, following its course counter to it,3 wholly to one place.
After the dolorous rout when Charlemagne lost the holy gest, Roland sounded not so ter- ribly.4 Short while I carried my head turned thitherward, when it seemed to me that I saw many high towers ; whereon I : " Master, say, what city is this ? " And he to me : " Because thou dost cross through the darkness from too far off, it happens that then thou dost err in thy imagining. Thou wilt see well, if thou drawest nigh there, how much the sense is de- ceived at a distance ; therefore spur thyself on somewhat more/' Then he took me tenderly by the hand, and said : " Before we go further forward, in order that the fact may seem less strange to thee, know that these are not towers, but giants, and they are in the pit5 round about the bank, from the navel downward, one and all of them."
3. v. 14. My eyes were turned by the sound in the direction whence it came, consequently counter to it.
4. v. 1 8. At Roncesvalles.
*' Rollanz ad mis 1'olifan a sa buche, Empeint le bien, par grant vertut le sunet. Halt sunt li pui e la voiz est mult lunge, Granz xxx. liwes l'oirent-il respundre, Carles 1'oit e ses cumpaignes tutes."
Chanson de Roland, 1753-57.
5. v. 32. The central deep of Hell.
2io HELL [w. 34-59
As when the mist is dissipating, the look little by little shapes out what the vapor that thickens the air conceals, so, as I pierced the gross and dark air, as we drew nearer and nearer to the brink, error fled from me and fear grew upon me. For as above its circular enclosure Montereggione 6 crowns itself with towers, so with half their bodies the horrible giants, whom Jove still threatens from heaven when he thun- ders, betowered the bank which surrounds the pit.
And already I discerned the face of one of them, his shoulders, and his breast, and great part of his belly, and down along his sides both his arms. Nature, surely, when she left the art of such like living beings, did exceeding well to take such executioners from Mars : and though she repent not of elephants and of whales, he who looks subtly holds her therein more just and more discreet ; 7 for where the faculty of the mind is added to evil will and to power, the hu- man race can make no defense against it. His face seemed to me long and huge as the pine- cone 8 of St. Pete:1 ct Rome, and his other bones
6. v. 41. The towers of Montereggione in ruin still crown its broken wall, and may be se~i from the railroad not far from Siena, on the way to Florence.
7. v. 54. Elephants and whales, being devoid of reason, are not dangerous "~> mankind.
8. v. 59. This cone of gilt bronze, once the crowning
vv. 60-83] CANTO XXXI 211
were in proportion with it ; so that the bank, which was an apron from his middle downward, showed of him fully so much above, that three Frieslanders9 would have made ill vaunt to reach to his hair : for I saw of him thirty great spans down from the place where one buckles his cloak.10
" Rafel mai amech zabi almi" the fierce mouth, to which sweeter psalms were not be- fitting, began to cry. And my Leader toward him : " Foolish soul ! Keep to thy horn, and with that vent thyself, when anger or other pas- sion touches thee ; seek at thy neck, and thou wilt find the cord that holds it tied, O soul confused ! and see it lying athwart thy great breast." Then he said to me : " He accuses himself; this is Nimrod, because of whose evil thought one language only is not used in the world. Let us leave him alone, and not speak in vain ; for such is every language to him, as his to others which is known to no one."
Then turning to the left, we made a longer journey, and at a crossbow-shot we found the
ornament of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, stood in Dante's time in the fore-court of St. Peter's, and is now in the Vati- can gardens. It is about seven feet and a half high.
9. v. 64. Reputed to be tall men.
10. v. 66. That is, something more than twenty feet from his neck to his waist.
212 HELL [vv. 84-102
next, far more fierce and larger. Who had been the master to bind him I cannot tell ; but he had his right arm shackled behind, and the other in front, by a chain which held him girt from the neck downward, so that upon his uncovered, part" it was wound as far as the fifth coil. " This proud one wished to make trial of his power against the supreme Jove," said my Leader, "wherefore he has such requital. Ephialtes I2 is his name, and he made his great endeavors when the giants caused fear to the Gods : the arms which he plied he moves
nevermore."
And I to him : " If it may be, I would that my eyes might have experience of the measureless Briareus." I3 Whereon he answered : " Hard by here thou shalt see Antaeus, who speaks, and is unfettered,14 who will set us at the bottom of
11. v. 89. His body above the bank.
12. v. 94. Iphimedeia bore to Poseidon two sons, "but they were short-lived, godlike Otus and far-famed Ephialtes, whom the fruitful Earth nourished to be the tallest and much the most beautiful of mortals except renowned Orion, for at nine years old they were nine cubits in breadth, and nine fathoms tall. They even threatened the immortals, raising the din of tumultuous war on Olympus, and strove to set Ossa upon Olympus and wood-clad Pelion upon Ossa, in order to scale heaven. But Jove destroyed them both." Odyssey, xi. 306-317.
13. v. 98. "Immensus Briareus." Statius, Theb. ii. 596.
14. v. 101. Because he took no part in the war of his
vv. 103-125] CANTO XXXI 213
all sin.15 He whom thou wishest to see is much farther on, and is bound and fashioned like this one, save that he seems more ferocious in his look."
Never was earthquake so mighty that it shook a tower as violently as Ephialtes was quick to shake himself. Then more than ever did I fear death ; and for it there had been no need of more than the fright, if I had not seen his bonds.
We then proceeded further forward, and came to Antaeus, who stood full five ells, be- sides his head, above the rock. " O thou that, in the fateful valley which made Scipio the heir of glory, when Hannibal with his followers y turned his back, didst once bring a thousand lions for booty, and who hadst thou been at the high war of thy brothers, it seems that some still believe that the sons of the Earth would have conquered, set us below (and disdain not to do so) where the cold locks up Cocytus. Make us not go to Tityus, nor to Typhon ; l6 this man can give of that which is longed for here ; I7
brethren against the Gods. What Dante tells of him is de- rived from Lucan, Pbarsalia, iv. 597 sqq.
15. v. 1 02. He will lower us down the pit, to the ninth and lowest circle of Hell.
1 6. v. 124. Lucan (Pbars. iv. 600), naming these giants, says they were less strong than Antaeus ; there is subtle flattery in these words of Virgil.
17. v. I2C. To be remembered on earth.
HELL [w. 126-145
therefore stoop, and twist not thy muzzle. He can yet restore fame to thee in the world ; for he is living, and still expects long life, if Grace does not untimely call him to itself." Thus said the Master : and he in haste stretched out those hands, of which Hercules once felt the mighty grip, and took my Leader. Virgil, when he felt himself taken up, said to me : " Come hither, so that I may take thee : " then he did so that he and I were one bundle. As the Carisenda l8 seems to the view, beneath its leaning side, when a cloud is going over it so that the tower hangs counter to it, thus seemed Antaeus to me who was watching to see him stoop ; and it was a moment when I could have wished to go by another road. But lightly in the depth that swallows Lucifer with Judas he set us down ; nor, thus stooping, did he there make stay, but like the mast of a ship he raised him- self.
1 8. v. 136. The shorter but more inclined of the two famous leaning towers at Bologna. As the cloud goes over it, the tower seems to bend to meet it.
CANTO XXXII
Ninth Circle : traitors. First ring : Caina. — Counts of Mangona. — Camicion di Pazzi. — Second ring : Antenora. — Bocca dtgli Abati. — Buoso da Duera. — Count Ugolino.
IF I had rhymes both harsh and raucous, such as would befit the dismal hole on which all the other rocks thrust, I would press out more fully the juice of my conception ; but since I have them not, not without fear I bring myself to speak ; for to describe the bottom of the whole universe is no enterprise to take up in jest, nor for a tongue that cries mamma and papa. But may those Dames ' aid my verse, who aided Amphion to enclose Thebes, so that the speech may not be diverse from the fact.
O ye, beyond ail others, miscreated rabble, that are in the place whereof to speak is hard, better had ye here 2 been sheep or goats !
1. v. 10. The Muses, who endowed the lyre of Am- phion with such power that its sound charmed the rocks to move from Mount Cithaeron and build themselves up for the walls of Thebes.
2. v. 15. On earth.
216 HELL [vv. 16-34
When we were down in the dark pit beneath the feet of the giant, far lower, and I was still gazing at the high wall, I heard say to me : " Take heed how thou steppest ; go so that thou trample not with thy soles the heads of thy wretched weary brothers." Whereat I turned, and saw before me, and under my feet, a lake which by reason of frost had semblance of glass and not of water.3
The Danube in Austria never made in win- ter so thick a veil for its current, nor the Don yonder under the cold sky, as there was here : for if Tambernich 4 had fallen on it, or Pietra- pana,5 it would not have given a creak even at the edge. And as the frog lies to croak with muzzle out of the water, what time 6 the pea- sant woman often dreams of gleaning, so, livid up to where shame appears,7 were the woeful
3. v. 24. The ice in which the traitors are locked in this lowest circle of Hell is symbolic of the cold-hearted nature of their sin. The lake of ice has four concentric rings ; the first is Caina, where traitors to their kindred suffer penalty ; the second is Antenora, for traitors to their country ; the third is Ptolomea, for traitors to their friends ; the fourth is Judecca, for the worst of all sinners, traitors to their benefactors.
4. v. 28. A mountain, the locality of which is un- known.
5. v. 29. One of the Tuscan Apennines.
6. v. 32. In summer : the image of the warm days in- tensifies by contrast the sense of cold.
7. v. 34. Up to the face.
vv- 35-57] CANTO XXXII 217
shades within the ice, setting their teeth to the note of the stork.8 Every one held his face turned downward : from the mouth the cold, and from the eyes the sad heart provides testi- mony of itself among them.
When I had looked round awhile, I turned to my feet, and saw two so close that they had the hair of their heads mixed together. " Tell me, ye who thus press tight your breasts," said I, " who are ye ? " And they bent their necks,9 and after they had raised their faces to me, their eyes, which before were moist only within, gushed up through the lids, and the frost bound the tears between them, and locked them up again ; clamp never girt board to board so strongly : and thereupon they, like two he-goats, butted one another, such anger overcame them.
And one who had lost both his ears by the cold, with his face still downward, said to me : " Why dost thou so mirror thyself on us ? If thou wouldst know who are these two, the valley whence the Bisenzio descends belonged to their father Albert, and to them.10 They
8. v. 36. Chattering with cold as a stork clatters with its bill.
9. v. 44. Throwing them backwards.
10. v. 57. These brothers are the Counts Napoleone and Alessandro degli Alberti ; one was a Ghibelline, the other a Guelf. They quarrelled over their inheritance, and each
2i 8 HELL [w. 58-67
issued from one body ; and thou mayst search all Caina, and thou wilt not find shade more worthy to be fixed in ice ; not he whose breast and shadow were broken by one self-same blow by the hand of Arthur ; " not Focaccia ; " not this one who so encumbers me with his head that I see no further, and who was named Sas- sol Mascheroni ; r3 if thou art a Tuscan, thou now knowest well who he was. And that thou mayst not put me to more speech, know that I
seeking treacherously to kill the other, they were both slain. The Bisenzio, in the upper valley of which their possessions lay, is a little stream which, after flowing close by Prato, falls into the Arno some ten miles west below Florence.
11. v. 62, Sir Mordred, the usurping treacherous son of King Arthur. At Dover they met in arms, and Arthur smote Sir Mordred with such a thrust of his spear that, on the withdrawal of the lance, a ray of light passed through the wound. But Mordred had first drawn himself up on Arthur's spear, and dealt him a mortal blow with his sword,
12. v. 63. Focaccia de' Cancellieri of Pistoia, who, according to Benvenuto, enraged by a trifling offense com- mitted by a boy, his cousin, cut off the boy's hand, and then treacherously killed the boy's father. From this crime sprang the feud of the Black and the White factions, which, after raging in Pistoia, was introduced into Florence, bringing on both cities unnumbered woes, of which Dante himself had full share. The story of Focaccia's crime is told differently by other chroniclers.
13. v. 65. Sassol Mascheroni was a Florentine of the Toschi family, who murdered his nephew for an inheritance.
vv. 68-83] CANTO XXXII 219
was Camicion de' Pazzi,14 and I await Carlino to exculpate me."
Then I saw a thousand faces made currish I5 by the cold : whence a shudder comes to me, and will always come, at frozen pools.
And while we were going toward the centre l6 to which all gravity collects, and I was trem- bling in the eternal chill, whether it was will, or destiny, or fortune I know not, but, walking among the heads, I struck my foot hard in the face of one. Wailing he railed at me : " Why dost thou kick me ? If thou dost not come to increase the vengeance of Mont' Aperti, why dost thou molest me ? " And I : " My Master, now wait here for me, so that by means of this one I may free me from a doubt,17 then thou
14. v. 68. Camicion de' Pazzi is reported to have be- trayed and killed his kinsman Ubertino. The Carlino whom he awaits, and whose crime was such that his own would find excuse from its comparative triviality, was a member of the same family. In 1302 the castle of Piantravigne was held by a body of the recently exiled " Whites" of Florence, and with them was Carlino with a troop of soldiers. The castle was besieged by the " Blacks," and Carlino for a bribe opened its gates to them. Many of the chief exiles were slain, others were held for ransom.
15. v. 70. With doglike grinning, their lips being strained open and tightened by the cold.
1 6. v. 73. The centre of the earth.
17. v. 83. The mention of Mont* Aperti led Dante to
22O HELL [vv. 84-101
shalt make as much haste for me as thou wilt." The Leader stopped ; and I said to that shade who was still bitterly blaspheming : " Who art thou that thus chidest another ? " " Now who art thou, that goest through the Antenora," l8 he answered, " smiting the cheeks of others, so that if thou wert alive, it would be too much ? " " I am alive, and it may be dear to thee," was my reply, "if thou demandest fame, that I set thy name among my other notes." And he to me : " For the contrary have I desire ; take thyself hence, and give me no more trouble, for ill thou knowest to flatter on this swamp." Then I took him by the hair of the nape, and said : " It shall needs be that thou name thy- self, or that not a hair remain upon thee here." Whereon he to me, " Though thou strip me of hair, I will not tell thee who I am, nor show it
suspect who the sinner was, and he desires to ascertain if his suspicion be correct, that the shade is that of Bocca degli Abati, the most infamous of Florentine traitors, who in the heat of the battle of Mont' Aperti, in I 260, cut off the hand of the standard-bearer of the cavalry, so that the standard fell, and the Guelfs of Florence, disheartened thereby, were put to rout with frightful slaughter. Never had Florence been cast down so low. See Canto x. 85-93.
I 8. v. 88. The second division of the ninth circle ; so named after the Trojan who, though neither Homer nor Vir- gil give any ground for the accusation, was charged by later widely accepted tradition with having betrayed Troy.
vv. 102-119] CANTO XXXII 221
to thee, though thou fall a thousand times upon my head."
I had already twisted his hair in my hand, and had pulled out more than one tuft, he barking, with his eyes kept close down, when another cried out : " What ails thee, Bocca ? Is it not enough for thee to make a noise with thy jaws, but thou must bark too ? What devil is at thee ? " " Now," said I, " I do not want thee to speak, accursed traitor, for to thy shame will I carry true news of thee." " Be- gone," he answered, " and tell what thou wilt ; but be not silent, if thou go forth from here within, about him who now had his tongue so ready. He is lamenting here the silver of the French : I saw, thou canst say, him of Duera,19 there where the sinners stand cold. Shouldst thou be asked who else was there, thou hast at thy side him of the Beccheria 20 whose gorge
19. v. 1 1 6. Buoso da Duera, of Cremona, who, being in command of a part of the Ghibelline forces in Lombardy, assembled to oppose the troops of Charles of Anjou, on their way to the conquest of the kingdom of Naples in I 265, was believed to have been bribed, so as to let them pass un- molested.
20. v. 119. Tesauro de' Beccheria, Abbot of Vallom- brosa, and Papal Legate, beheaded by the Florentines in 1258, because of his treacherous dealings with the exiled Ghibellines.
222 HELL [w. 120-132
Florence cut. Gianni de' Soldanier21 I think is farther on with Ganelon," and Tribaldello 23 who opened Faenza when it was sleeping."
We had now departed from him, when I saw two frozen in one hole, so that the head of one was a hood for the other. And as bread is devoured for hunger, so the upper one set his teeth upon the other where the brain joins with the nape. Not otherwise Tydeus gnawed for despite the temples of Menalippus,24 than this one was doing to the skull and the other parts.
21. v. 121. A Ghibelline of Florence, who, after the defeat of Manfred in I 266, plotted against his own party.
22. v. 122. Ganelon, «« the traitor who brought about the destruction of Charlemagne's rear guard at Roncesvalles, where Roland and Oliver, and the rest of the twelve peers were slain. His name, like that of Antenor of Troy and Sinon the Greek, became a byword for treachery in the Middle Ages." Toynbee.
ff O newe Scariot, newe Genelon ! False dissimulour, O Greek Sinon ! "
The Nonns Priestes Ta/ey 407—8.
23. v. 122. In order to avenge a grudge against some of the Ghibellines of Bologna, who, being expelled from their city, had found refuge in Faenza, Tribaldello treacherously opened the gates of the town to their enemies, who, entering, massacred many of them. This happened in 1280.
24. v. 130. Tydeus, one of the Seven Kings against Thebes, mortally wounded by Menalippus, slew his adver- sary, and then gnawed his cut-off head. Statius, Thebaid^ viii. 740-63.
w. 133-139] CANTO XXXII 223
" O thou that by so bestial a sign showest hatred against him whom thou art eating, tell me the wherefore," said I, " with this compact, that if thou with reason complainest of him, I, knowing who ye are, and his sin, may yet make thee quits with him in the world above, if that with which I speak be not dried up."
CANTO XXXIII
Ninth cinh : traitors. Second ring : Antenora. — • Count Ugolino. — Third ring : Ptolomea. — Brother Al- berigo. — Branca d* Oria.
FROM his savage repast that sinner raised his mouth, wiping it with the hair of the head that he had spoiled behind : then he began : "Thou wishest that I should renew a desperate grief which oppresses my heart already only in thinking, ere I speak of it. But, if my words are to be seed that may bear fruit of infamy for the traitor whom I gnaw, thou shalt see me speak and weep together. I know not who thou art, nor by what mode thou art come down here, but Florentine thou seemest to me truly when I hear thee. Thou hast to know that I was Count Ugolino and this one the Archbishop Ruggieri.' Now I will tell thee why I am such
I. v. 14. Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Dono- rabco, was for many years the most powerful citizen of Pisa, during a period of bitter calamities, and of strife at home and war abroad. In I 285 he was elected Podesta of Pisa for ten years, and, whether willingly or unwillingly is not known, he
?v. 16-28] CANTO XXXIII 225
a neighbor. That, by the effect of his evil thoughts, I, trusting to him, was taken and then put to death, there is no need to tell ; but what thou canst not have heard, that is, how cruel my death was, thou shalt hear, and shalt know if he has wronged me.
" A narrow slit in the mew, which from me has the title of Hunger, and in which others must yet be shut up, had already shown me through its opening many moons, when I had the bad dream which rent for me the veil of the future.
" This one appeared to me master and lord,
permitted his ambitious grandson, Nino dei Visconti, the " noble Judge Nino," whom Dante greets in the Valley of the Princes (Purgatory, viii. 53), to share in the rule of the city. Discord soon broke out between the old and the young man ; each had his partisans ; there was tumult and bloodshed in the city, and the Guelf party was rent by this division between their leaders. The Ghibellines saw their opportunity. Their chief, the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, pretending friendship with Count Ugolino, joined forces with him to expel his grandson with his followers. The strength of the Guelfs in the city being thus weakened, the Archbishop turned against the Count. There was a great fight in the streets which ended in the defeat of the Guelfs ; the Count and two of his sons and two of his grandsons were taken prisoners, and were shut up in the tower of the Gua- ^andi alle Sette Vie. This was in July, 1288. In the suc- ceeding March the keys of the tower were thrown into the Arno, and the prisoners were starved to death.
226 HELL [vv. 29-54
chasing the wolf and his whelps upon the moun- tain 2 because of which the Pisans cannot see Lucca. With lean, eager, and trained hounds, he had put before him at the front Gualandi with Sismondi and with Lanfranchi.3 After short course, the father and his sons seemed to me weary, and it seemed to me I saw their flanks ripped by the sharp fangs.
" When I awoke before the morrow, I heard my sons, who were with me, wailing in their sleep, and asking for bread. Truly thou art cruel if already thou dost not grieve, at thought of that which my heart was foreboding : and if thou dost not weep, at what art thou wont to weep ? They were now awake, and the hour was drawing near at which food used to be brought to us, and because of his dream each one was apprehensive. And I heard the door below of the horrible tower being nailed up ; whereat I looked on the faces of my sons without saying a word- I did not weep, I was so turned to stone within. They were weeping; and my poor little Anselm said, ' Thou lookest so, father, what ails thee ? ' I shed no tear for that ; nor did I answer all that day, nor the night after, until the next sun came forth upon the
2. v. 29. Monte San Giuliano ; Lucca is about four- teen miles northeast of Pisa.
3, v. 32. TJaree of the chief GMbelline families of Pisa.
vv. 55-80] CANTO XXXIII 227
world. When a little rav made its way into the woeful prison, and I discerned by their four faces my own very aspect, I bit both my hands for woe ; and they, thinking I did it through desire of eating, of a sudden raised themselves up, and said : c Father, it will be far less pain to us if thou eat of us ; thou didst clothe us with this wretched flesh, and do thou strip it off.' I quieted me then, not to make them more sad : that day and the next we all stayed dumb. Ah, thou hard earth ! why didst thou not open ? After we had come to the fourth day, Gaddo threw himself stretched out at my feet, saying : ' My father, why dost thou not help me ? ' Here he died : and, even as thou seest me, I saw the three fall one by one between the fifth day and the sixth ; then I betook me, already blind, to groping over each, and for two days I called them after they were dead : then fasting was more powerful than woe."
When he had said this, with his eyes twisted, he seized again the wretched skull with his teeth, that were strong as a dog's upon the bone.
Ah Pisa ! reproach of the people of the fair country where the si doth sound,4 since thy
4. v. 80. Italy, whose language Dante calls // volgare di //, the common tongue in which si is the word for yes. (Convito, i. 10.) ID his De vulgari Eloquio, i. 8, Dante classifies the languages of Europe by their words of affirm- ation.
128 HELL [w. 81-104
neighbors are slow to punish thee, let Caprara and Gorgona5 move and make a hedge for Arno at its mouth, so that it may drown every person in thee : for even if Count Ugolino had repute of having betrayed thee in thy strong- holds, thou oughtest not to have set his sons on such a cross. Their young age, thou mod- ern Thebes, made Uguccione and II Brigata6 innocent, and the other two that my song names above.
We passed onward to where the ice roughly enswathes another folk, not turned downward, but all reversed.7 The very weeping allows not weeping there, and the grief, which finds a barrier on the eyes, turns inward to increase the anguish ; for the first tears form a block, and like a visor of crystal fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow.
And although, as in a callus, all feeling, be- cause of the cold, had ceased to abide in my face, it now seemed to me I felt some wind, wherefore I : " My Master, who moves this ?
5. v. 82. Two little islands not far from the mouth of the Arno, on whose banks Pisa lies.
6. v. 89. Uguccione was a son, and 11 Brigata a grand- son of Count Ugolino ; they were in fact grown men.
7. v. 93. With faces upturned, so that the tears freeze in their eyes,
vv. 105-121] CANTO XXXIII 229
Is not every vapor 8 quenched here below ? " Whereon he to me, " Speedily shalt thou be where thine eye, beholding the cause that rains down the blast, shall make answer to thee of this."
And one of the wretches of the cold crust cried out to us : " O souls so cruel that the last station has been given to you, lift from my eyes the hard veils, so that, before the weeping re- congeal, I may vent a little the woe which swells my heart." Wherefore I to him : " If thou wishest that I succor thee, tell me who thou art, and if I relieve thee not, may I have to go to the bottom of the ice." 9 He replied then : " I am friar Alberigo ; I0 I am he of the fruits of the bad garden, who here get back a date for a fig." " " Oh ! " said I to him, " art thou
8. v. 105. Wind being supposed to be caused by the action of the sun on the vapors of the atmosphere.
9. v. 117. Misleading words, with their double mean- ing.
10. v. 1 1 8. Alberigo de' Manfredi, of Faenza ; one of the Jovial Friars (see Canto xxiii. 103). Having received a blow from his younger brother Manfred, he pretended to for- give it, and invited him and his son to a feast. Toward the end of the meal he gave a preconcerted signal by calling out : " Bring the fruit," upon which his emissaries rushed in and killed the two guests. This was in 1285. The " bad fruii: of Brother Alberigo " became a proverb.
11. v. 1 20. Am paid with overplus for my sin ; a fig
230 HELL [vv. 122-138
then dead already ? " And he to me, " How my body may fare in the world above I have no knowledge. Such vantage hath this Ptolo- mea I2 that oftentimes the soul falls down here before Atropos has given motion to it.13 And that thou mayst the more willingly scrape the glassy tears from my face, know that soon as the soul betrays, as I did, its body is taken from it by a demon, who thereafter governs it until its time be all revolved. It falls headlong into such cistern as this, and perhaps the body of the shade that is wintering here behind me still appears above. Thou shouldst know him if thou comest down but now ; he is Ser Branca d' Oria,14 and many years have passed since he
is the cheapest of Tuscan fruits ; the imported date is more costly.
12. v. 1 24. The third ring of ice, named for that Ptol- emy, Captain of Jericho, who, having invited them to a ban- quet, treacherously slew his father-in-law, the high-priest Simon, and his two sons (i Maccabees xvi. 1 1-16).
13. v. 126. That is, before Atropos has cut the thread of its life on earth. This conception may have been sug- gested by Psalm Iv. 15, where the Psalmist, complaining of friend turning against friend, says, " Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick (viventes} into hell." Such traitors as friar Alberigo, having broken not only the bend which nature makes between man and man, but also the bond of love and trust in kinship (see Canto xi. 52—63), have no longer part with mankind ; their abode is Hell.
14. v. 137. A member of the famous Genoese house
vv. 139-151] CANTO XXXII* 231
was thus shut up." " I believe," said I to him, " that thou art deceiving me ; for Branca d' Oria is not yet dead, and he eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on clothes." " In the ditch of the Malebranche above," he said, " there where the sticky pitch is boiling, Micnel Zanche 15 had not yet arrived, when this one left a devil in his stead in his own body, and in that of one of his next kin, who committed the treachery together with him. But now stretch hither thy hand ; open my eyes for me." And I did not open them for him, and to be churl- ish to him was courtesy.'6
Ah Genoese ! men strange to all morality
of Doria ; murderer, in or about I 290, of his father-in-law, Michel Zanche, Governor of Logodoro, in Sardinia. The date of the death of Branca d' Oria is not known.
15. v. 144. Already heard of in the fifth bolgta (Canto xxii. 88).
16. v. 150. "Courtesy and propriety of behavior {onestade} are one and the same thing," says Dante in the Convito, ii. 11, 60. Men who by their own act have broken the bond of human relationship deserve no regard.
Pity or compassion may be rightly felt, according to St Thomas Aquinas, for sinners still on earth, for they may yet repent and turn from sin. But in the future life there is no repentance. The punishment of the sinner is the evidence of the justice of God ; there can be no pity for him ; charity cannot wish the damned to be less wretched, for this wonld be to call in question the Divine justice. S. T. Suppl. xciv. 2.
232 HELL [vv. 152-157
and full of all corruption, why are ye not scat- tered from the world ? For with the worst spirit of Romagna '7 I found one of you, such that for his deeds he is already in soul bathed in Cocytus, and in body he appears still alive on earth.
17. v. 154. That is, with Friar Alberigo.
CANTO XXXIV
Ninth Circle : traitors. Fourth ring : Judecca. -^» Lucifer. — Judas, Brutus and Cassius. — Centre of the universe. — Passage from Hell. — Ascent to the surface of the Southern Hemisphere.
" Vexilla regis prodeunt infer ni x toward us ; therefore look forward," said my Master ; " see if thou discern him." As when a thick fog- breathes, or when our hemisphere darkens to night, a mill which the wind is turning seems from afar, such a structure it seemed to me that I then saw.
Then, because of the wind, I drew me be- hind my Leader ; for no other shelter was there. I was now (and with fear I put it into verse), there 2 where the shades were wholly cov- ered, and showed through like a straw in glass.
1. v. I. "• The banners of the King of Hell advance.'1 Vexilla Regin prodeunt are the first words of a hymn in honor of the Cross, sung at vespers on the Feast cf the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and also on Monday of Holy Week.
2. v. ii. In the fourth, innermost ring of ice cf the ninth circle, — the Judecca.
234 HELL [vv. 13-41
Some are lying down ; some are upright, this one with his head, and that with his soles upper- most ; another, like a bow, bends his face to his feet.
When we had gone so far forward that it pleased my Master to show me the creature which had the fair semblance, he took himself from before me and made me stop, saying: " Lo Dis ! and lo the place where it is needful that thou arm thyself with fortitude ! " How frozen and faint I then became, ask it not, Reader, for I do not write it, because all speech would be little. I did not die, and did not re- main alive : think now for thyself, if thou hast a grain of wit, what I became, deprived of one and the other.3
The emperor of the woeful realm issued forth from the ice from the middle of his breast; and I compare better with a giant, than the giants do with his arms. See now how great must be that whole which is conformed to such a part. If he was as fair as he now is foul, and lifted up his brows against his Maker, well should all tribulation proceed from him. Oh how great a marvel it seemed to me, when I saw three faces on his head ! one in front, and that was crimson ; the others were two, which were adjoined to this above the very middle of each 3. v. 27. Deprived alike of death and of life.
vv. 42-65] CANTO XXXIV 235
shoulder, and they were joined up to the place of the crest ; and the right seemed between white and yellow, the left was such in appear- ance as those who come from there whence the Nile descends.4 Beneath each came forth two great wings, of size befitting so great a bird ; sails of the sea I never saw such. They had no feathers, but their fashion was of a bat ; and he was flapping them so that three winds were pro- ceeding from him, whereby Cocytus was all con- gealed. With six eyes he was weeping, and over three chins were trickling the tears and bloody drivel. At each mouth he was crushing a sin- ner with his teeth, in manner of a heckle, so that he thus was making three of them woeful. To the one in front the biting was nothing to the clawing, whereby sometimes his back re- mained all stripped of the skin.
" That soul up there which has the greatest punishment," said the Master, " is Judas Isca- riot, who has his head within, and plies his legs outside. Of the other two who have their heads downwards, he who hangs from the black
4. v. 45. The three faces exhibit the devilish counter- part of the attributes of the three persons of the Godhead, Impotence, Ignorance, and Hate as opposed to Power, Wis- dom, and Love (see Canto iii. 5, 6) ; Impotence scarlet with rage, Ignorance black with its own darkness, Hate pale yellow with jealousy and envy.
236 HELL [vv. 66-85
muzzle is Brutus ; see how he writhes and says not a word ; and the other is Cassius, who seems so large-limbed.5 But the night is rising again ; and now we must depart, for we have seen the whole."
As was his pleasure, I clasped his neck, and he took advantage of time and place, and when the wings were wide opened he caught hold on the shaggy flanks ; down from shag to shag he then descended between the matted hair and the frozen crusts. When we were where the thigh turns just on the thick of the haunch, my Leader, with effort and stress of breath, turned his head to where he had had his shanks, and grappled to the hair like one who mounts, so that I believed we were returning again to hell.
" Cling fast hold," said the Master, panting like one weary, " for by such stairs must we de- part from so great evil." Then he came forth through the cleft of a rock, and placed me upon
5. v. 67. Judas, Brutus and Cassius are the worst of traitors, having not only betrayed their benefactors, but also, in doing so, having done violence to the divinely ordered scheme for the well-being of mankind. Christ, betrayed by Judas, was the head of the Church, the supreme spiritual authority. Caesar, betrayed by Brutus and Cassius, was re- garded by Dante as the founder of the Empire, the supreme authority in temporal affairs. Church and Empire were in Dante's scheme equally divine institutions for the government of the world.
w. 86-101] . CANTO XXXIV 237
its edge to sit ; then stretched toward me his cautious step.
I raised my eyes, and thought to see Luci- fer as I had left him, and I saw him holding his legs upward ; and if I then became perplexed, let the dull folk suppose it, who see not what that point is which I had passed.6
"Rise up on foot," said the Master; "the way is long and the road is difficult, and already the sun returns to mid-tierce." 7
It was no hallway of a palace where we were, but a natural dungeon which had a bad floor, and lack of light. " Before I tear myself from the Abyss," said I when I had risen up, " my
6. v. 93. This point k the centre of the universe ; when Virgil had turned upon the haunch of Lucifer, the passage had been made from one hemisphere of the earth — the in- habited and known hemisphere — to the other where no living men dwell, and where the only land is the mountain of Purgatory. In changing one hemisphere for the other there is a change of time of twelve hours, from about sunset to about sunrise. A second Saturday morning begins for the poets, and they pass nearly as long a time as they have been in Hell, that is, twenty-four hours, in traversing the long and hard way that leads to the surface of the hemisphere into which they have just entered.
7. v. 96. Tierce is the name given to the first three hours after sunrise. Mid-tierce consequently at the equinox is about half-past seven o'clock. In Hell Dante never men- tions the sun to mark division of time, but now, having issued from Hell, Virgil marks the hour by a reference to the sun-
238 HELL [w. 102-122
Master, talk a little with me to draw me out of error. Where is the ice ? and this one, how is he fixed thus upside down ? and how in such short while has the sun made transit from even- ing to morning ? " And he to me : " Thou imaginest that thou still art on the other side of the centre, where I laid hold on the hair of the wicked Worm that pierces the world. On that side thou wast so long as I descended ; when I turned, thou didst pass the point to which from every part all weighty things are drawn ; 8 and thou art now arrived beneath the hemi- sphere which is opposite to that which the great dry land covers, and beneath whose zenith the Man was slain who was born and lived without sin : thou hast thy feet upon a little circle 9 which forms the other face of the Judecca. Here it is morning when it is evening there ; and this one who made a ladder for us with his hair is still fixed even as he was before. On this side he fell down from heaven, and the earth, which before was spread out on this side,
8. v. 1 1 1. The central point of the Universe, to which all matter tends by its gravity.
9. v. 1 1 6. Literally, "upon a little sphere," but " sphere " is a rhyme word, and the meaning seems to be, Thou art now standing on a little circular space of rock, which forms the other face of the Judecca, the upper or the under side, according to whether it is viewed from tne south- ern or the northern hemisphere.
vv. 123-136] CANTO XXXIV 239
through fear of him made of the sea a veil, and came to our hemisphere; and perhaps to fly from him that land which appears on this side left here this vacant space and ran back up- ward." I0
A place-is there below, stretching as far from Beelzebub as his tomb extends,11 which is not known by sight, but by the sound of a rivulet which descends here along the hollow of a rock that it has gnawed with its winding and gently sloping course.12 My Leader and I entered by that hidden road, to return into the bright world; and without care to have any repose, we mounted up, he first and I second, so far
10. v. 126. Dante's conception appears to be, that at the Creation the Southern hemisphere of the Earth was occu- pied by the dry land, while the Northern was a hemisphere of waters, and that, at the fall of Lucifer on the Southern hemisphere, the land recoiled in horror to the Northern, forcing the waters of the latter to fill the place which it left void. At the same moment the interior of the globe into which Lucifer was hurled fled from him, and rising, amid the waters of the Southern hemisphere, formed the solitary Mount of Purgatory, which bore the Earthly Paradise on its summit.
11. v. 128. Hell is his tomb ; this vacant dark passage through the opposite hemisphere is, of course, of the same depth as Hell from surface to centre.
12. v. 132. Literally, " with the course which it winds and little slopes." It is the streamlet of sin from Purgatory which finds its way back to Satan.
240 HELL [w. 137-139
that through a round opening I saw some of the beautiful things which Heaven bears, and thence we issued forth again to see the 'stars.13
13. v. 139. Each of the divisions of the pcem ends with the words — "the stars."
PURGATORY
PURGATORY
CONTENTS
CANTO I
The new theme,, — Invocation to the Muses. — Dawn of Easter on the shore of Purgatory. — The Four Stars. — Cato. — The cleansing of Dante's face from the stains of Hell „ . . I
CANTO II
Sunrise. — The Poets on the shore. — Coming of a boat, guided by an angel, bearing souls to Purga- tory. — Their landing. — Casella and his song. — Cato hurries the souls to the mountain .... 8
CANTO III
Ante- Purgatory. — Souls of those who have died in con- tumacy of the Church. — Manfred 15
CANTO IV \
Ante- Purgatory. — Ascent to a shelf of the mountain.
— The negligent, who postponed repentance to the
last hour. — iJelacqua 23
CANTO V
Ante- Purgatory. — Spirits who had delayed repentance, and met with death by violence, but died repentant. — • Jacopo del Cassero. — Buonconte da Montefeltro.
— Pia de' Toiomei 30
jfv CONTENTS
CANTO VI
Ante-Purgatory. — More spirits who had deferred re- pentance till they were overtaken by a violent death.
— Efficacy of prayer. — Sordello. — Apostrophe to Italy 38
CANTO VII
Virgil makes himself known to Sordello. — Sordello leads the Poets to the Valley of the Princes who had been negligent of salvation. — He points them out by name 47
CANTO VIII
Valley of the Princes. — Two Guardian Angels. — Nino Visconti. — The Serpent. — Corrado Malaspina . 56
CANTO IX
Slumber and Dream of Dante. — The Eagle. — Lucia.
— The Gate of Purgatory. — The Angelic Gate- keeper. — Seven P's inscribed on Dante's Foreheadc
— Entrance to the First Ledge . . .... 64
CANTO X
Purgatory proper. — First Ledge : the Proud. — Exam- ples of Humility sculptured on the rock . . . . 73
CANTO XI
First Ledge : the Proud. — Prayer. — Omberto Aldo- brandeschi. — Oderisi d* Agubbio. — Provenzan Sal- vani 80
CANTO XII
First Ledge : the Proud. — Instances of the punish-
CONTENTS v
ment of Pride graven on the pavement. — Meeting with an Angel who removes one of the P's. — As- cent to the Second Ledge 87
CANTO XIII
Second Ledge : the Envious. — Examples of Love. — The Shades in haircloth, and with sealed eyes. — Sapia of Siena 95
CANTO XIV
Second Ledge : the Envious. — Guido del Duca. — Rinieri de' Calboli. — Instances of the punishment of Envy 103
CANTO XV
Second Ledge : the Envious. — An Angel removes the second P from Dante's forehead. — Discourse con- cerning the Sharing of Good. — Ascent to the Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Vision of Examples of For- bearance ill
CANTO XVI
Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Marco Lombardo. — His discourse on Free Will, and the corruption of the World 118
CANTO XVII
Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Issue from the Smoke.
— Vision of Instances of the punishment of Anger.
— Ascent to the Fourth Ledge, where Sloth is purged. — Second Nightfall in Purgatory. — Virgil explains how Love is the root alike of Virtue and of
Sin 127
vi CONTENTS
CANTO XVIII
Fourth Ledge : the Slothful. — Discourse of Virgil on Love and Free Will. — Throng of Spirits running in haste to redeem their Sin. — Examples of Zeal. — The Abbot of San Zeno. — Instances of the punish- ment of Sloth. — Dante falls asleep 134
CANTO XIX
Fourth Ledge. — Dante dreams of the Siren. — The Angel of the Pass. — Ascent to the Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — Pope Adrian V 143
CANTO XX
Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — The Spirits celebrate examples of Poverty and Bounty. — Hugh Capet. — His discourse on his descendants. — Instances of the punishment of Avarice. — Trembling of the Moun- tain 151
CANTO XXI
Fifth Ledge. — The shade of Statius. — Cause of the trembling of the Mountain. — Statius does honor to Virgil r * ^i' . .160
CANTO XXII
Ascent to the Sixth Ledge. — Discourse of Statius and Virgil. — Entrance to the Ledge : the Gluttonous. — The Mystic Tree. — Examples of Temperance . .167
CANTO XXIII
Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. — Nella. — Rebuke of the women of Florence . . . 1 75
CONTENTS vif
CANTO XXIV
Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. — Piccarda Donati, — Bonagiunta of Lucca. — Pope Martin IV. — Ubaldin dalla Pila. — Bonifazio. — Messer Marchese. — Prophecy of Bonagiunta con- cerning Gentucca, and of Forese concerning Corso de' Donati. — Second Mystic Tree. — Instances of the punishment of gluttony. — The Angel of the Pass l8l
CANTO XXV
Ascent to the Seventh Ledge. — Discourse of Statius on generation, the infusion of the Soul into the body, and the corporeal semblance of Souls after death. — The Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — The mode of their Purification. — Examples of Chastity . . .190
CANTO XXVI
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Sinners in the fire, going in opposite directions. — Instances of the pun- ishment of Lust. — Guido Guinicelli. — Arnaut Daniel 199
CANTO XXVII
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Passage through the Flames. — Stairway in the rock. — Night upon the stairs. — Dream of Dante. — Morning. — Ascent to the Earthly Paradise. — Last words of Virgil . . 206
CANTO XXVIII
The Earthly Paradise. — The Forest. — A Lady gath- ering flowers on the bank of a little stream. — Dis- course with her concerning the nature of the place . 213
viii CONTENTS
CANTO XXIX
The Earthly Paradise., — Mystic Procession or Triumph of the Church 220
CANTO XXX
The Earthly Paradise. — Beatrice appears. — Departure of Virgil. — Reproof of Dante by Beatrice . . .229
CANTO XXXI
The Earthly Paradise. — Reproachful discourse of Bea- trice, and confession of Dante. — Passage of Lethe. — Appeal of the Virtues to Beatrice. — Her Unveiling 236
CANTO XXXII
The Earthly Paradise. — Return of the Triumphal pro- cession. — The Chariot bound to the Mystic Tree. — Sleep of Dante. — His waking to find the Tri- umph departed. — Transformation of the Chariot. — The Harlot and the Giant 243
CANTO XXXIII
The Earthly Paradise. — Prophecy of Beatrice concern- ing one who shall restore the Empire. — Her dis- course with Dante. — The river Eunoe. — Dante drinks of it, and is fit to ascend to Heaven . . .252
PURGATORY
CANTO I
The new theme. — Invocation of the Muses. — • Dawn of Easter on the shore of Purgatory. — The Four Stars. — Cato. — The cleansing of Dante from the stains of Hell.
To run over better waters the little vessel of my genius now hoists her sails, as she leaves be- hind her a sea so cruel ; and I will sing of that second realm where the human spirit is purified, and becomes worthy to ascend to heaven.
But here let dead poesy rise again, O holy Muses, since I am yours, and here let Calliope somewhat mount up, accompanying my song with that sound of which the wretched Picae felt the stroke such that they despaired of pardon.1
A sweet color of oriental sapphire, which was gathering in the serene aspect of the mid sky, pure even to the first circle,2 renewed delight to
1 . v. 1 2. The nine daughters of Pieros, king of" Ema- thia, who, contending in song with the Muses, were for their presumption changed to magpies.
2. v. 15. "The first circle" is the horizon, to which the clear blue sky extended, its color undimmed by earthly vapors.
2 PURGATORY [w. 17-33
my eyes, soon as I issued forth from the dead air which had afflicted my eyes and my breast. The fair planet which incites to love was making all the Orient to smile, veiling the Fishes that were in her train.3 I turned me to the right hand, and gave heed to the other pole, and saw four stars, never seen save by the first people.4 The heavens appeared to rejoice in their flame- lets. O widowed northern region, since thou art deprived of beholding these ! s
When I had withdrawn from regarding them, turning me a little to the other pole,6 there whence the Wain had already disappeared, I saw close to me an old man alone, in aspect worthy of so much reverence that no son owes more to his father.7 He wore his beard long
3. v. 21, At the spring equinox Venus is in the sign of the Pisces, which immediately precedes that of Aries, in which is the Sun, The time indicated is therefore an hour or more before sunrise on Easter morning, April 10.
4. v. 24, Purgatory is in the southern hemisphere, and c< the other " is the South pole. The four stars are the symbols of the cardinal virtues, — Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice, — the virtues of active life, sufficient to guide men in the right path, but not to bring them to Par- adise. These stars had been visible only in the golden age.
5. v. 27. Allegorically interpreted, these words signify that the virtues of which these stars are the symbols are little practised by mankind, whose abode is the northern hemi- sphere.
6. v. 29. The North pole.
7» v. 3 3 . This old man, as soon appears, is the younger
vv. 34-41] CANTO I 3
and mingled with white hair, like his locks, of which a double list fell upon his breast. The rays of the four holy stars so adorned his face with light, that I saw him, as though the sun had been in front.
" Who are ye that, counter to the blind stream, have fled from the eternal prison ? "
Cato, and the office here given to him of warden of the souls in the outer region of Purgatory was suggested by the posi* tion assigned to him by Virgil in the Aeneid (viii. 670).
"Secretosque pios, his dantem jura Catonem." "And far apart the good, and Cato giving them their laws."
It has been objected to Virgil's thus putting him in Ely- sium, that, as a suicide, his place was in the Mourning Fields. A similar objection may be made to Dante's separating him from the other suicides in the seventh circle of Hell (Canto xiii.). "But," says Conington, "Virgil did not aim at perfect consistency. It was enough for him that Cato was one who from his character in life might be justly conceived of as lawgiver to the dead." So Dante, using Cato as an allegoric figure, regards him as one who, before the coming of Christ, practised the virtues which are required to liberate the soul from sin, and who, as he says in the De Monarcbia (ii. 5), "that he might kindle the love of liberty in the world, showed how precious it was, by preferring death with liberty to life without it." This liberty is the type of that spiritual freedom which Dante is seeking, and which, being the perfect conformity of the human will to the will of God, is the aim and fruition of all redeemed souls. In the region of Purgatory outside the gate, the souls have not yet attained this freedom ; they are on the way to it, and Cato Is allegorically fit to warn and spur them on.
4 PURGATORY 0.42-70
said he, moving those venerable plumes. " Who has guided you ? Or who was a lamp to you, issuing forth from the deep night which ever makes the infernal valley black ? Are the laws of the abyss thus broken ? or is a new design changed in heaven that, being damned, ye come to my rocks ? "
My Leader then took hold of me, and with words, and with hands, and with signs, con- trolled to reverence my knees and brow. Then he answered him : " Of myself I came not ; a Lady descended from Heaven, by reason of whose prayers I succored this man with my company. But since it is thy will that more of our condition be unfolded to thee, how it truly is, mine cannot be that this be denied to thee. This man has not yet seen his last evening, but through his folly was so near thereto that there was very little time to turn. Even as I have said, I was sent to him to rescue him, and there was no other way than this, along which I have set myself. I have shown to him all the guilty people ; and now I intend to show him those spirits that purge themselves under thy ward. How I have brought him, it would be long to tell thee ; from on high descends power which aids me to lead him to see thee and to hear thee. Now may it please thee to look graciously upon his coming. He goes seeking
w. 71-90] CANTO I 5
liberty,8 which is so dear, as he knows who for it renounces life. This thou knowest ; for death for its sake was not bitter to thee in Utica, where thou didst leave the vesture which on the great day shall be so bright.9 The eternal edicts are not violated by us, for this one is alive, and Minos does not bind me ; but I am of the circle where are the chaste eyes of thy Marcia, who in her look still prays thee, O holy breast, that for thine own thou hold her. For her love, then, incline thyself to us ; allow us to go on through thy seven realms : I0 I will report this grace from thee to her, if thou deignest to be mentioned there below."
" Marcia so pleased my eyes while I was on earth," said he then, " that whatsoever grace she wished from me, I did ; now that she dwells on the other side of the evil stream," she can move me no more, by that law which was made when thence I issued forth.12 But if a Lady of
8. v. 71. " The glorious liberty of the children of God." Romans viii. 21. See the last words of Virgil to Dante, at the end of Canto xxvii., especially verse 140.
9. v. 75. The garment of the body. The words are interesting as indicating Dante's conviction that Cato, a heathen, is at the Last Judgment to be among the blessed.
10. v. 82. The seven circles of Purgatory.
11. v. 88. The Acheron.
12. v. 90. The law that as one of the redeemed he cannot be touched by other than heavenly affections.
6 PURGATORY [vv. 91-117
Heaven move and direct thee, as thou sayest, there is no need of flatteries ; it may well suf- fice thee that thou ask me for her sake. Go then, and see thou gird this one with a smooth rush, and that thou wash his face so that thou cleanse it from all stain, for it were not befitting to go with eye dimmed by any cloud before the first minister that is of those of Paradise.13 This little island, round about at its very base, down there yonder where the wave beats it, bears rushes upon its soft ooze. No plant of other kind, that puts forth leaf or grows hard, can there have life, because it yields not to the shocks.14 Thereafter let not your return be this way ,• the Sun, which now is rising, will show you how to take the mountain by easier as- cent."
On this he disappeared, and I rose up, without speaking, and drew me quite close to my Leader, and bent my eyes on him. He began : " Son, follow my steps ; let us turn back, for from here this plain slopes to its low bounds."
The dawn was vanquishing the matin hour, which was flying before it, so that from afar I discerned the trembling of the sea. We went
13' v- 99- 6 rst ° e anges w° o servce n Purgatory.
14. v. 105. Of the waves beating on the shore.
vv. 118-136] CANTO I y
along over the solitary plain like a man who turns to the road which he has lost, and, till he find it, seems to himself to go in vain. When we were where the dew contends with the sun, and, through being in a place where there is shade, is little dispersed, my Master softly placed both his hands outspread upon the grass ; whereon I, who was aware of his intent, stretched toward him my tearful cheeks : then he wholly uncovered on me that color which hell had concealed.15
We came, then, to the desert shore which never saw man navigate its waters who after- wards had experience of return. Here he girt me, even as pleased the other.16 O marvel ! that such as he culled the humble plant, such it instantly sprang up again there whence he had plucked it.17
15. v. 129. Color which Hell had hidden with its smoke and foul exhalations. Allegorically, when the soul enters upon the way of purification, Reason, with the dew of repentance, washes off the stain of sin, and girds the spirit with humility.
1 6. v. 133. Cato.
17. v. 136. The goods of the spirit are not diminished by appropriation.
CANTO II
Sunrise. — The Poets on the shore. — Coming of a boatj guided by an angel, bearing souls to Purgatory. — Their landing. — Casella and his song. — Cato hurries the souls to the mountain.
THE sun had now reached the horizon whose meridian circle covers Jerusalem with its high- est point ; and the night which circles opposite to him was issuing forth from the Ganges with the Scales which fall from her hand when she ex- ceeds ; f so that where I was the white and red cheeks of the beautiful Aurora were becoming orange through too much age.
We were still alongside the sea, like folk who are thinking of their road, who go in heart and
I. v. 6. Purgatory and Jerusalem are antipodal, and the Ganges or India was arbitrarily assumed to be their common horizon, the Western horizon to the one, the Eastern to the other. The night is here taken as the point of the Heavens opposite the sun, and the sun being in Aries, the night is in Libra. When night exceeds, that is, at the autumnal equi- nox, when the night becomes longer than the day, the sun enters Libra, which may therefore be said to drop from the hand of night.
w. 13-40] CANTO II 9
in body linger; and lo ! as, at approach of the morning, Mars glows ruddy through the dense vapors, down in the west above the ocean floor, such appeared to me, — so may I again behold it! — a light along the sea coming so swiftly that no flight equals its motion. From which when I had a little withdrawn my eye to ask my Leader, again I saw it, brighter become and larger. Then on each side of it appeared to me a something, I knew not what, white, and beneath, little by little, another came forth from it.2 My Master still said not a word, until the first white things appeared as wings ; then, when he clearly recognized the pilot, he cried out : " Mind, mind thou bend thy knees : Lo ! the Angel of God : fold thy hands : henceforth shalt thou see such officials. See how he scorns human instruments, so that he wills not oar, or other sail than his own wings, between such distant shores. See, how he holds them straight toward heaven, stirring the air with his eternal feathers, which are not changed like mortal hair."
Then, as the Bird Divine came more and more toward us, the brighter he appeared ; so that my eye endured him not near by, but I bent it down : and he came on to the shore
2. v. 24. This other white thing was the boat on which stood the glowing angel with his white wings.
io PURGATORY [vv. 41-48
with a little vessel, swift and light, so that the water swallowed naught of it. At the stern stood the Celestial Pilot, such that he seemed inscribed among the blest ; 3 and more than a hundred spirits sat within. " In exitu Israel de Egypto " 4 they all were singing together with one voice, with whatso of that psalm is after
3. v. 44. Literally, "blessed by inscription;" possi- bly the meaning is, " that blessedness seemed written on his countenance."
4. v. 46. In his letter to Can Grande in exposition of the plan and method of the Divine Comedy , Dante says that his poem lias many senses, the first being its literal sense, the second its allegorical or mystical s^nse, under which he in- cludes, besides the allegorical proper, the moral and the ana- gogical or spiritual sense. And for illustration of the matter, he takes the beginning of the psalm here sung by the spirits as they approach Purgatory. The psalm is the one hundred and thirteenth of the Vulgate, the one hundred and fourteenth of the English version. " When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion." " Now," says Dante, " if we regard the letter alone, it signifies the going out from Egypt of the children of Israel in the time of Moses ; if the allegory, it signifies our redemption by Christ ; if the moral meaning, it signifies the conversion of the soul from the grief and misery of sin to the state of grace ; if the anagogi- cal, it signifies the departure of the holy soul from the servi- tude of this corruption to the freedom of eternal glory." § 7.
This passage not only shows the significance of the psalm as sung by the spirits, but also affords light as to the mode u| whida the poem should throughout be read and interpreted
vv. 49-72] CANTO II if
written. Then he made them the sign of the Holy Cross ; whereon they all threw themselves upon the strand ; and he went away swift as he had come.
The crowd which remained there seemed strange to the place, gazing round about, like one who makes essay of new things. The Sun, who with his bright arrows had chased the Cap- ricorn from mid-heaven,5 was shooting forth the day on every side, when the new people raised their brows toward us, saying to us : "If ye know, show us the way to go to the mountain." And Virgil answered : " Ye perhaps believe that we are experienced of this place, but we are pilgrims, even as ye are. We came just now, a little while before you, by another way, which was so rough and difficult that the ascent hence- forth will seem play to us."
The souls, who by my breathing had become aware that I was still alive, marvelling, became deadly pale. And as to hear news the folk press to a messenger who bears an olive branch,6 and no one shows himself shy of crowding, so
5. v. 57. When Aries, in which the sun was rising, is on the horizon, Capricorn is at the zenith.
6. v. 70. It was an old custom, which lasted till the sixteenth century, for messengers, bearing news of victory or of peace, to carry an olive-branch in their hand as a sign of good tidings.
12 PURGATORY [w 73-93
all of those fortunate souls fastened themselves on my countenance, as if forgetting to go to make themselves fair.
I saw one of them drawing forward to em- brace me with so great affection, that it moved me to do the like. O shades, empty save in aspect ! Three times I clasped my hands be- hind it, and as often returned with them unto my breast. With wonder, I believe, I painted me ; whereat the shade smiled and drew back, and I, following it, pressed forward. Gently it said, that I should pause ; then I knew who it was, and I prayed it that it would stay to speak with me a little. It replied to me : " Even as I loved thee in the mortal body, so loosed from it I love thee ; therefore I stay ; but wherefore art thou going ? "
" My Casella, 7 in order to return another time to this place where I am, do I make this journey," said I, " but from thee how has so much time been taken ? " 8
7. v. 91. The only fact known in regard to Casella, beyond what is implied in Dante's affectionate record of their meeting, is learned from a record preserved in the Arcbivio di Stato at Siena, which runs : " 1282, July I 3. Fine paid by the musician Casella, for having been found wandering at night through the city," and, presumably, disturbing its sleep*- inhabitants with his songs. What a fancy-touching glimps of the past ! See the Giornale Dantesco, i. 3 I .
8. v. 93. " How has thy coming hither been delayed so long since thy death ? "
w. 94-112] CANTO II 13
And he to me: "No wrong has been done me if he who9 takes both when and whom it pleases him has many times denied to me this passage ; for of a just will I0 his own is made. For three months, indeed, he has taken with all peace whoso has wished to enter. Wherefore I, who had now turned to the seashore where the water of Tiber becomes salt, was benignantly received by him." To that outlet has he row directed his wing, because always those assemble there who towards Acheron do not descend."
And I : " If a new law take not from thee memory or practice of the song of love which was wont to quiet all my longings, may it please thee therewith somewhat to comfort my soul, which coming hither with its body is so wearied."
" Love which in my mind discourses with me" I3
9. v. 95. The Celestial Pilot.
10. v. 97. That is, of the Divine Will ; but there is no explanation of the motive of the delay.
11. v. 102. The Tiber is the local symbol of the Church of Rome, from whose bosom those who die at peace with her pass to Purgatory. The Jubilee, proclaimed by Boniface VIII., had begun at Christmas, 1289, so that for three months now the Celestial Pilot had received graciously all who had taken advantage of it to gain remission 01 their sins.
12. v. 1 12. The first verse of a canzone by Dante ; it Is the second of those upon which he comments in his Con- vito.
14 PURGATORY [vv. 113-133
he then began so sweetly, that the sweetness still within me sounds.13 My Master, and I, and that folk who were with him, appeared so con- tent as if naught else could touch the mind of any.
We were all fast and attentive to his notes ; and lo ! the venerable old man crying : " What is this, ye laggard spirits ? What negligence, what stay is this ? Run to the mountain to strip off the slough which lets not God be manifest to you."
As, when picking up grain or tares, the doves assembled at their feeding, quiet, without dis- play of their wonted pride, if aught appear of which they are afraid, suddenly let the food alone, because they are assailed by a greater care, so I saw that fresh troop leave the song, and go towards the hillside, like one that goes, but knows not where he may come out : nor was our departure less speedy.
13. v. 1 14. Every English reader recalls Milton's Son- net to Mr. Henry Lawes : —
" Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher Than his Casella, whom he woo'd to sing, Met in the milder shades of Purgatory."
CANTO III
Ante-Purgatory. — Souls of those who have died In Contumacy of the Church. — Manfred.
ALTHOUGH the sudden flight had scattered them over the plain, turned to the mount whereto reason spurs us, I drew up close to my trusty companion. And how should I have run without him ? Who would have led me up over the mountain ? He seemed to me of his own self remorseful. O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is little fault !
When his feet left the haste which mars the dignity of every act, my mind, which at first had been restrained, let loose its attention, as though eager, and I set my face against the hill which rises highest towards heaven from the sea. The sun, which behind was flaming ruddy, was broken in front of me by the figure which the staying of its rays upon me formed. When I saw the ground darkened only in front of me,1 I turned me to one side with fear of
i . v. 21. Dante till now has not observed that the spirits cast no shadow.
16 PURGATORY [TV. 22-41
having been abandoned : and my Comfort, turning wholly round to me, began to say : " Why dost thou still distrust ? Dost thou not believe me with thee, and that I guide thee ? It is already evening there where the body is buried within which I cast a shadow ; Naples holds it, and from Brundusium it was taken : if in front of me there is no shadow now, mar- vel not more than at the heavens, of which the one obstructs not the other's radiance.2 The Power, which wills not that how it acts be re- vealed to us, disposes bodies like this to suffer torments both of heat and cold. Mad is he who hopes that our reason can traverse the in- finite way which One Substance in Three Per- sons holds. Be content, O human race, with the quia ; 3 for if ye had been able to see every- thing, there had been no need for Mary to bear child : and ye have seen desiring fruitlessly men such that their desire would have been quieted,4
2. v. 30. The nine concentric heavens are transparent, so that the radiance from one passes unobstructed through the others.
3. v. 37. Quia is used here, as often in mediaeval Latin, for quod. The meaning is, Be content to know that the thing it., seek not to know why or bow — propter quid — it is as it is.
4. v. 41. If mere human wisdom sufficed for attaining to the knowledge of the things of God, the desires of the heathen sages, whom Dante saw in Limbo, would have been satisfied.
w. 42-66] CANTO III 17
which is given them eternally for a grief. I speak of Aristotle and of Plato, and of many others." And here he bowed his front, and said no more, and remained disturbed.
We had come, meanwhile, to the foot of the mountain ; here we found the cliff so steep, that the legs would there be nimble in vain. Between Lerici and Turbia 5 the most deserted, the most secluded path is a stairway easy and open, com- pared with that. " Now who knows on which hand the hillside slopes," said my Master, stay- ing his step, " so that one who goes without wings may ascend ? "
And while he was holding his face bent down, and was questioning his mind about the road, and I was looking up round about the rock, a com- pany of souls appeared to me on the left hand, who were moving their feet towards us, and seemed not doing so, so slowly were they com- ing. " Lift," said I, " Master, thine eyes ; be- hold on this side those who will give us coun- sel, if of thyself thou canst not have it." He looked at them, and with a relieved air replied : " Let us go thither, for they come slowly, and do thou confirm thy hope, sweet son."
5. v. 49. Lerici, on the Gulf" of Spezzia, and Turbia, just above Monaco, are at the two ends of the Riviera ; be« tween them the mountains rise steeply from the shore, along which in Dante's time there was no road.
18 PURGATORY [vv. 67-93
That people was still as far, — I mean after a thousand steps of ours, — as a good thrower would cast with his hand, when they all pressed up to the hard masses of the high bank, and stood still and close, as one who goes in doubt stops to look.6 " O ye who have made good ends, O spirits already elect," Virgil began, " by that peace which, I believe, is awaited by you all, tell us, where the mountain lies so that the going up is possible ; for to lose time is most displeas- ing to him who knows most."
As the sheep come forth from the fold by ones, and twos, and threes, and the others stand timid, holding eye and muzzle to the ground ; and what the first does the others also do, hud- dling themselves to it if it stop, silly and quietj and wherefore know not ; so I then saw the head of that fortunate flock moving to ap- proach, modest in countenance and dignified in gait.
When those in front saw the light broken on the ground at my right side, so that the shadow was cast by me on the rock, they stopped, and drew somewhat back ; and all the rest who were coming behind did the like, not knowing why.
6. v. 72. They stopped, surprised, at seeing Virgil and Dante advancing to the left, against the rule in Purgatory, where the course is always to the right, symbolizing progress in good. In Hell the contrary rule holds.
vv. 94-113] CANTO III 19
<c Without your asking, I confess to you that this is a human body which ye see, whereby the light of the sun on the ground is cleft. Mar- vel not, but believe that not without power which comes from heaven does he seek to sur- mount this wall." Thus the Master : and that worthy people said : " Turn, proceed before us, then ; " with the backs of their hands making sign. And one of them began : " Whoever thou art, turn thy face as thou thus goest on ; con- sider whether in the world thou didst ever see me ? " I turned me toward him, and looked at him fixedly : blond was he, and beautiful, and of gentle aspect, but a blow had divided one of his eyebrows.
When I had humbly disclaimed having ever seen him, he said : " Now look ! " and showed me a wound high upon his breast. Then he said, smiling ; " I am Manfred,7 grandson of the Empress Constance : wherefore I pray thee,
7. v. 112. The natural son of the Emperor Frederick II. He was born about i 231 ; in 1258 he was crowned King of Sicily. The Papacy was hostile to him as it had been to his father, and Pope Urban IV. and his successor Clement IV. offered the throne of Sicily to Charles of Anjou, the brother of St. Louis. In 1265 Charles came with a large force to Italy. He was crowned King of Sicily at Rome, he then advanced toward Naples, and in February, 1 26$ , routed the forces of Manfred at Benevento. Man- fred himself was slain in the battle.
20 PURGATORY [vv. 114-129
that when thou returnest, thou go to my beau- tiful daughter,8 mother of the honor of Sicily and of Aragon, and tell to her the truth 9 if aught else be told. After I had my body broken by two mortal stabs, I rendered myself, weeping, to Him who pardons willingly. My sins were horrible, but the Infinite Goodness has such wide arms that it takes whatever turns to it. If the Pastor of Cosenza,10 who was set on the hunt of me by Clement, had then rightly read this page " in God, the bones of my body would still be at the head of the bridge near Benevento, under the protection of the heavy
8. v. 115. Constance, the daughter of Manfred, was married in 1262 to Peter III. of Aragon. She had three sons, Alphonso, James, and Frederick. Alphonso succeeded his father in Aragon, and James in Sicily, but after the death of Alphonso, in 1291, James became King of Aragon, and Frederick King of Sicily. Dante himself thought ill of James and Frederick (see Canto vii., 119-120) ; and the phrase concerning them used by Manfred is to be interpreted as referring mereiy to their regal dignity.
9. v. 1 17. That, though I died excommunicated, I am not among the lost souls.
10. v. 124. The Archbishop of Cosenza, at command of the Pope, Clement IV., took the body of Manfred from his grave near Benevento, and threw it unburied, as the corpse of one excommunicated, on the bank of the Verde.
11. v. I 26. Had he so read the word and the works of God which reveal His infinite mercy, as rightly to compre- hend them.
w. 130-143] CANTO III 21
cairn. Now the rain bathes them, and the wind moves them forth from the kingdom, hard by the Verde,12 whither he transported them with extinguished light.13 By their malediction I4 one is not so lost that the Eternal Love cannot re- turn, while hope has speck of green.15 True is it, that whoso dies in contumacy of Holy Church, though he repent him at the end, needs must stay outside,16 upon this bank, thirtyfold the whole time that he has been in his presumption,17 if such decree become not shortened through good prayers. See if hereafter thou canst make me glad,18 revealing to my good Constance how thou hast seen me, and also this
12. v. 131. By the Verde Dante seems to intend the river now known as the Garigliano, which, for part of its course, formed the boundary of the States of the Church and the Kingdom of Naples.
13. v. 132. Not with candles burning, as in proper funeral rites.
14. v. 1 3 3 . That is, of Pope or Bishop.
15. v. 135. While life lasts and man may hope by re- pentance, however late, to obtain forgiveness of his sins.
1 6. v. 138. Outside the gate of Purgatory.
17. v. 140. This notion of a period of exclusion from Purgatory proper for those who have died in contumacy of Holy Church seems to be original with Dante. The power of the prayers of the good on earth to shorten the period of suffering of the souls in Purgatory is, however, the accepted doctrine of the Church.
1 8. 7.142. By securing for me the prayers of the good.
22 PURGATORY [w. 144, 145
prohibition ; IQ for here by means of those on earth much may be gained." 20
19. v. 144. The prohibition of entering within Purga- tory proper.
20. v. 145. In what measure the dead may receive assistance from the living is set forth by St. Thomas Aqui- oas (S. T. Suppl. Ixiii. 2).
CANTO IV
Ante-Purgatory. — Ascent to a shelf of the mountain. — The negligent, who postponed repentance to the last hour. — Belacqua.
WHEN by reason of delights, or of pains which any capacity of ours may experience, the soul is wholly engaged by it, to any other faculty it seems no further to give heed : and this is counter to the error which believes that one soul above another is kindled within us.1 And therefore, when a thing is heard or seen which may hold the soul intently turned to it, the time goes by, and the man perceives it not : for one faculty is that which listens, and another is that which keeps the soul entire ; the latter is as it were bound, and the former is loose.
I. v. 6. When the soul is wholly engrossed by what appeals to one of its powers, it pays no attention to what addresses its other faculties ; in other words, when one faculty is called into free activity, the other faculties of the soul are, as it were, bound in inaction ; but were it true that, as ac- cording to the Platonists, there were more than one soul in man, he might give attention to two things at once. Dante derives his argument from St. Thomas Aquinas (S. T. i. 76. 3)-
24 PURGATORY [w 13-39
Of this I had true experience, hearing that spirit and wondering : for full fifty degrees had the sun ascended,2 and I was not aware of it, when we came where those souls with one accord cried out to us : " Here is what you ask."
The man of the farm, when the grape is grow- ing dark,3 often hedges up a larger opening with a forkful of his thorns, than was the passage from which my Leader and I behind him as- cended alone, when the troop departed from us. One goes to Sanleo, and descends to Noli, one mounts up Bismantova4 to its summit, with only feet ; but here it behoves that one fly, I mean with the swift wings and with the feath- ers of great desire, behind that guide who gave me hope and made a light for me. We ascended through the cleft rock, and on each side the wall pressed close on us, and the ground be- neath required both feet and hands.
When we were upon the upper edge of the high bank, on the open hillside: "My Master," said I, " what way shall we take ? " And he to me : " Let no step of thine fall back, always win up *behind me on the mountain, till some sage guide appear for us."
2. v. 15. It was now about nine o'clock A. M.
3. v. 21. At the time of vintage.
4. v. 26. These all are places difficult of access.
vv. 40-64] CANTO IV 25
The summit was so high that it surpassed the sight ; and the mountain-side far steeper than a line from the mid quadrant to the cen- tre.5 I was weary, when I began : " O sweet Father, turn and regard how I remain alone if thou stay not." " My son," said he, " far as here drag thyself on," pointing out to me a ledge a little above, which on that side circles all the hill. His words so spurred me, that I forced myself on, scrambling after him, until the belt 6 was beneath my feet. There we both sat down, turning toward the east, whence we had ascended, for to look back is wont to encourage a man. I first turned my eyes to the low shores, then I raised them to the sun, and wondered that we were struck by it on the left. The Poet well perceived that I was all bewildered at the chariot of the light, where it was enter- ing7 between us and Aquilo. Wherefore he to me : "If Castor and Pollux were in company with that mirror8 which sheds its light up and down, thou wouldst see the Zodiac revolv-
5. v. 42. A steeper inclination than that of an angle of forty-five degrees.
6. v. 5 1 . The encircling ledge. •
7. v. 60. Dante having his face turned toward the East was bewildered at seeing the sun on his left hand. Aquilo, the north wind, is put for the North.
8. v. 62. The brightness of the sun is the reflection of the Divine light.
26 PURGATORY [vv. 65-84
ing ruddy still closer to the Bears, if it went not out of its old road.9 How this can be, if thou wishest to be able to conceive, with collected thought imagine Zion and this mountain to stand upon the earth so that both have one sole hori- zon and different hemispheres ; then thou wilt see, if thy intelligence right clearly heed, how the road which Phaethon, to his harm, knew not how to drive,10 must needs pass this moun- tain on the one side, and that " on the other." " Surely, my Master," said I, " I never saw so clearly as I now discern, there where my wit seemed deficient, that the midcircle of the su- pernal motion, which in a certain art I2 is called Equator, and which always remains between the sun and the winter, is distant, for the reason that thou tellest, as far from here toward the north, as the Hebrews saw it toward the warm region.
9. v. 66. If the sun were in the sign of the Gemini, — Castor and Pollux, — which is nearer the constellations of the Bears than Aries, in which the sun now is, it would make the Zodiac ruddy still farther to the north. In Purgatory the sun being seen from south of the equator \s on the left hand, while at Jerusalem, its antipodes in the northern hemisphere, it is seen on the right. ... ,-"
10. v. 72. This road is the Ecliptic, the great circle of the Heavens round which the sun seems to travel in his annual course.
11. v. 74. Mount Zion.
12. v. 80. Astronomy.
w. 85-115] CANTO IV 27
But, if it please thee, willingly would I know how far we have to go, for the hill rises higher than my eyes are able." And he to me : " This mountain is such, that ever at the beginning below it is hard, and the more one goes up, be- hold ! the less it troubles him ; therefore when it shall seem to thee so pleasant, that the going up will be easy to thee as going down the current in a vessel, then wilt thou be at the end of this path ; there mayst thou expect repose from toil : more I answer not, and this I know for true."
And as he ended his words, a voice near by sounded : " Perchance before then thou wilt be constrained to sit." At the sound of it each of us turned, and we saw at the left a great stone, of which neither he nor I had taken note before. Thither we drew ; and there were persons who were reposing in the shadow behind the rock, as one through indolence sets himself to repose. And one of them, who seemed to me weary, was seated, and was clasping his knees, holding his face down low between them. " O sweet my Lord," said I, " look at him, who shows him- self more indolent than if sloth were his sister." Then that one turned to us and gave heed, moving his look only up along his thigh, and said : " Now go thou up, for thou art valiant." I recognized then who he was, and that effort I3
13. v. 1 15. The effort of climbing up to the ledge.
28 PURGATORY [vv. 116-134
which was still quickening my breath a little, did not hinder my going to him, and after I had reached him, he scarcely raised his head, saying: "Hast thou clearly seen how the sun drives his chariot over thy left shoulder ? "
His lazy acts and his short words moved my lips a little to a smile ; then I began : " Bel- acqua,14 henceforth I grieve not for thee,15 but tell me why thou art seated here ? dost thou await a guide, or has only thy wonted mood recaptured thee ? " And he : " Brother, what avails the going up ? For the bird of God that sits at the gate would not let me go to the tor- ments.'6 It behoves that heaven first circle around me outside the gate, as long as it did in life, because I delayed my good sighs I7 until the end ; unless, before then, the prayer assist me which rises from a heart that lives in grace :
14. v. 123. Belacqua, according to Benvenuto da Imola, was a Florentine, a maker of citherns and other musical in- struments ; he carved with great care the necks and heads of his citherns, and sometimes he played on them. Dante, because of his love of music, had been well acquainted with him.
15. v. 124. A humorous suggestion that he had feared lest Belacqua might be in Hell.
1 6. v. 128. The angel who sits as porter at the gate of Purgatory would not allow him yet to enter to endure the torments by which his sins were to be purged away.
17. v. 132. Sighs of contrition and repentance.
vv- ^S-JSQ] CANTO iv 29
what avails the other, which is not heard in heaven ? "
And already the Poet was mounting up before me, and was saying : " Come on now : thou seest that the meridian is touched by the sun, and on the shore the night now covers Morocco with her foot." l8
1 8. v. 139. Morocco is here taken for the western verge of our hemisphere, ninety degrees from Jerusalem on the one hand, and from Purgatory on the other. At noon in Purgatory, it would be nightfall in Morocco.
CANTO V
Ante-Purgatory. — Spirits who had delayed repent* ence, and met with death by violence^ but died repentant, — "Jacopo del Cassero. — Buonconte da Montefeltro. — Pia de Tolomei.
I HAD now parted from those shades, and was following the footsteps of my Leader, when behind me one, pointing his finger, cried out : " Look how the ray seems not to shine on the left hand of that lower one, and he seems to bear himself as if alive." I turned my eyes at the sound of these words, and I saw them watching, for marvel, only me, only me, and the light which was broken.
cc Why is thy mind so caught," said the Master, " that thou slackenest thy going ? What matters to thee that which is whispered here ? Come on after me, and let the people talk. Stand like a firm tower that never wags its top for blowing of the winds : for always the man in whom thought on thought wells up re- moves from himself his mark, because one weak- ens the force of the other." ' What could I
I. v. 1 8. Dante has allowed the talk of the spirits con-
vv. 19-39] CANTO V 31
answer, save : " I come " ? I said it, overspread somewhat with the color, which, at times, makes a man worthy of pardon.
And therewhile, across upon the mountain- side, a little in front of us, were coming people, singing " Miserere" 2 verse by verse. When they observed that I gave no place for passage of the rays through my body, they changed their song into a long and hoarse Oh ! and two of them, in form of messengers, ran to meet us, and asked of us : " Make us acquainted with your condition." And my Master: " Ye can go back, and report to those who sent you, that the body of this one is true flesh. If, as I suppose, they stopped because of seeing his shadow, enough is answered them : let them do him honor and it may profit them." 3
Never did I see enkindled vapors at early night so swiftly cleave the clear sky, or the clouds of August at set of sun,4 that these did
cerning him so to engage his attention that, forgetting his main object, the ascent of the mountain, he has slackened his pace, and needs to be recalled to duty.
2. v. 24. The fiftieth Psalm in the Vulgate, the fifty- first in our English version, which begins, " Have mercy upon me, O God.'*
3. v. 36. Since Dante may secure for them the prayers of the good on his return to earth.
4. v. 39. The shooting stars in a clear sky, or the light ning in the clouds of August.
32 PURGATORY [w. 40-68
not return up in less time ; and, arrived there, they with the others wheeled round toward us, like a troop that runs without curb. " These folk that press to us are many, and they come to pray thee," said the Poet ; " yet do thou still go on, and in going listen." " O soul," they came crying, " that with those limbs with which thou wast born art on thy way to be glad, a little stay thy step. Look if thou hast ever seen any one of us, so that thou mayst carry news of him to earth. Pray, why dost thou go on ? Pray, why dost thou not stop ? We all of old were slain by violence, and sinners up to the last hour; then light from Heaven made us mind- ful, so that both penitent and pardoning we issued forth from life at peace with God, who fills our hearts with the desire of seeing Him." And I : " Although I gaze upon your faces, I recognize no one ; but if aught that I can do be pleasing to you, spirits well-born,5 speak ye, and I will do it by that peace which makes me, following the feet of such a guide, seek it from world to world." And one began : " Each of us trusts in thy good service, without thy swear- ing it, provided that want of power cut not off the will; wherefore I, who speak alone before the others, pray thee, if ever thou see that land
5. v. 60. Elect from birth to the joys of Paradise, in contrast with the ill-born, damned in Hell.
vv. 69-82] CANTO V 33
which lies between Romagna and the land of Charles,6 that thou be courteous to me with thy prayers in Fano, so that supplication may be well made in my behalf, that I may be able to purge away my grave offenses. Of that place was I ; but the deep wounds, wherefrom issued the blood in which I had my seat,7 were dealt me in the bosom of the Antenori,8 there where I thought to be most secure ; he of Este had it done, who held me in wrath far beyond what justice willed. But if, when I was overtaken at Oriaco, I had fled toward I^a Mira,9 I should still be yonder where men breathe. I ran to the marsh, and the reeds and the mire ham-
6. v. 69. The March of Ancona, between the Ro- magna and the kingdom of Naples, then held by Charles II. King of Naples and Count of Anjou. It is Jacopo del Cas- sero who speaks. He was a noted and valiant member or' the leading Guelf family in Fano. On his way to take the place of Podesta of Milan, in 1298, he was assassinated by the minions of Azzo VIII. of Este, whose enmity he had incurred.
7. v. 74. " The life of all flesh is the blood thereof." Levit. xvii. 14. Or, according to the Vulgate, " Anima enim omnis carnis in sanguine est."
8. v. 75. That is, in the territory of the Paduans, whose city was reputed to have been founded by Antenor.
9. v. 79. La Mira is a village on the bank of one of the canals of the Brenta between Padua and Venice. Why flight thither would have been safe is mere matter of conjec- ture. Oriaco, another small town, is not far from it.
34 PURGATORY ^.83-96
pered me so that I fell, and there I saw a lake made by my veins upon the ground."
Then said another : " Ah ! so may that de- sire be fulfilled which draws thee to the high mountain, with good piety do thou help mine. I was of Montefeltro, and am Buonconte.10 Joan, or any other, has no care for me, wherefore I go among these with downcast front." And I to him : " What violence, or what chance caused thee to stray so far from Campaldino,11 that thy burial place was never known ? " " Oh ! " re- plied he, " at foot of the Casentino I2 crosses a stream, named the Archiano, which rises in the Apennine above the Hermitage.13 Where its
10. v. 88. Son of Count Guido da Montefeltro, the treacherous counselor who had told his story to Dante in Hell (Canto xxvii. ). Joan was the wife of Buonconte.
11. v. 92. The battle of Campaldino, in which, if we may trust a fragment of a letter ascribed to him in Lionardo Bruni's Life of him, Dante himself took part, was fought on the nth of June, 1289, between the Florentine Guelfs and the Ghibellines of Arezzo. Buonconte was the captain of the Aretines. Campaldino is a little plain in the upper valley of the Arno.
12. v. 94. The Casentino is a «' district in Tuscany comprising the upper valley of the Arno, .and the slopes of the Etruscan Apennines/' The little streams from the hills of the Casentino were in Master Adam's memory in Hell (xx. 65).
13. v. 96. The monastery of Carnal doli, founded by St. Romualdo of Ravenna, in 1012, the earliest house of the
vv. 97-115] CANTO V 35
name becomes vain I4 I arrived, pierced in the throat, flying on foot, and bloodying the plain. Here I lost my sight, and I ended my speech with the name of Mary, and here I fell, and my flesh remained alone. I will tell the truth, and do thou repeat it among the living. The Angel of God took me, and he of Hell cried out, c O thou from Heaven, why dost thou rob me ? 1S Thou bearest away for thyself the eternal part of him for one little tear which takes him from me ; but of the rest I will make other disposal/ Thou knowest well how in the air that moist vapor is collected which turns to water soon as it rises where the cold condenses it. He l6 joined that evil will, which seeks only evil, with intelligence, and moved the mist and the wind by the power that his nature gave.17 Then, when the day was spent,
Order of Reformed Benedictines which derives its name from this locality.
14. v. 97. Being lost at its junction with the Arno.
15. v. 105. St. Francis and one of the black Cherubim had had a similar contention, with an opposite result, as will be remembered, over the soul of Buonconte's father {Hell, Canto xxvii. 112-120).
1 6. v. 112. The demon from Hell.
17. v. 114. Material things, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, are subject to spiritual things ; hence the angels may give local motion to such things as wind and rain ( S. T. i. 1 10. 3). The demons partake this power by their natur«
36 PURGATORY [vv. 116-133
he covered the valley with cloud, from Prato- magno to the great chain/8 and made the sky above so dense that the pregnant air was turned to water. The rain fell, and what of it the earth did not endure came to the gullies, and as it gathered in great streams it rushed so swiftly towards the royal river that nothing held it back. The robust Archiano found my frozen body near its mouth, and pushed it into the Arno, and loosed on my breast the cross which I made of myself 19 when the pain overcame me. It rolled me along its banks, and along its bot- tom, then with its spoil 20 it covered and girt
me."
" Pray, when thou shalt have returned unto the world, and rested from the long journey," the third spirit followed on the second, " re- member me, who am Pia.21 Siena made me,
as spiritual beings, unless restrained by the Divine will ( Id. ii.1 80. 2).
i 8. v. 1 1 6. Pratomagno is the mountain ridge which forms the western boundary of the Casendno, the upper valley of the Arno ; "the great chain" is the main ridge of the Apennines on the opposite side. (Toynbee, Dante Dictionary.}
19. v. 127. By folding his arms across his breast.
20. v. i 29. The spoil of branches, weeds, gravel, and whatever the swollen river swept along with its rushing stream.
21. v. 133. This sad Pia is supposed to have belonged
vv. 134-136] CANTO V 37
Maremma unmade me ; he knows it, who, be- fore wedding, had enringed me with his gem."
to the Sienese family of the Tolomei, and to have been the wife of Nello or Paganello de' Pannocchieschi, who was re- ported to have had her put to death in his stronghold of Pie- tra in the Tuscan Maremma. Her fate seems the more piti- able that she does not pray Dante to seek for her the prayers of any living person. Her last words are obscure, and are interpreted variously ; they may perhaps be intended " to accentuate the fact that Pia was lawfully married, after having received from her husband the ring of betrothal J ' ( Vernon).
CANTO VI
Ant ^Purgatory. — More spirits who had deferred repentance till they were overtaken by a violent death. — Efficacy of prayer. — Sordello. — Apostrophe to Italy.
WHEN the game of hazard ' is broken up, he who loses remains sorrowful, repeating the throws, and, saddened, learns ; with the other all the folk go along ; one goes before, and one plucks him from behind, and one at his side brings himself to mind : he does not stop, and listens to one and the other; the man to whom he reaches forth his hand presses on him no longer, and thus from the throng he defends himself. Such was I in that dense crowd, turn- ing my face to them this way and that ; and, promising, I loosed myself from it.
Here was the Aretine, who from the fierce arms of Ghin di Tacco had his death ; 2 and the
1. v. I. A game played with three dice.
2. v. 14. The Aretine was Messer Benincasa da Late- rina, a learned judge, who had condemned to death for theif crimes two relatives of Ghin di Tacco, the most famous high- wayman of the day, whose headquarters were between Siena and Rome, Some time after, Messer Benincasa sitting a*
vv. 15-19] CANTO VI 39
other who was drowned when running in pur- suit.3 Here Federigo Novello 4 was praying with hands outstretched, and he of Pisa, who made the good Marzucco show himself strong.5 I saw Count Orso ; 6 and the soul divided from
papal auditor in Rome, Ghino entered the city with a band of his followers, made his way to the tribunal, slew Benin- casa, and escaped unharmed.
3. v. 15. Another Aretine, of the Tarlati family, con- cerning whose death the early commentators are at variance. Benvenuto da Imola says that, while pursuing or pursued by his enemies, his horse carried him into the Arno, where he was drowned.
4. v. 17. Frederigo, son of the Count Guido Novello, of whom nothing is known but that he was slain in 1291, near Bibbiena. Benvenuto says, he was juvenis . . mul- tum pro bus, " a very good youth," and therefore Dante men- tions him.
5. v. 1 8. Of "him of Pisa" different stories are told. Benvenuto says, *' I have heard from the good Boccaccio, whom I trust more than the others, that Marzucco was a good man of the city of Pisa, who had become a Franciscan friar, whose son was beheaded by order of Count Ugolino, the tyrant, who commanded that his body should remain un- buried. At a late hour his father humbly approached the Count, and like a stranger unconcerned in the matter, and without tears or other sign of grief, he said, ' Surely, my lord, it would be proper and to your honor that that poor slain man should be buried, and not left cruelly as food for dogs.' Then the Count, recognizing him, said, astonished, ' Go, for thy patience overcomes my obduracy,' and immedi- ately Marzucco went and buried his son."
6. v. 19. Count Orso, the son of Count Napoleone
40 PURGATORY [vv. 20-33
its body by spite and by envy, as it said, and not for fault committed, Pierre de la Brosse,7 I mean ; and here let the Lady of Brabant have foresight, while she is on earth, so that for this she be not of the worse flock.
When I was free from each and all those shades who prayed only that someone else should pray, so that their becoming holy may be speeded, I began : " It seems to me, O Light of mine, that thou deniest expressly, in a certain text, that orison can bend decree of Heaven, and these folk pray only for this, — shall then their hope be vain ? or is thy saying not rightly clear to me ? " 8
degli Alberti, was murdered by his cousin, the son of Count Alessandro, who with the Count Napoleone is in the ice of Caina. See Hell, Canto xxxii. 55—60. The murder of Count Orso by his cousin was doubtless a sequel of the blood feud of their fathers.
7. v. 22. Pierre de la Brosse was chamberlain and con- fidant of Philip the Bold of France. He lost the king's favor, and being convicted on charges, the nature of which is variously reported, he was hanged. It was believed that he had incurred the hatred of the Queen, Mary of Brabant, the second wife of Philip, and that his death was brought about by her. She lived till 1321, so that Dante's warning may have reached her ears.
8. v. 33. Virgil represents Palinurus as begging to be allowed to cross the Styx, while his body was still unburied and without due funeral rites. To this petition the Sibyl
answers :
'< Desine fata Deum flecti sperare precando : "
vv. 34-49] CANTO VI 41
And he to me : " My writing is plain, and the hope of these is not fallacious, if it be well regarded with sound mind ; for top of judgment vails not itself because a fire of love may, in one instant, fulfil that which he who is here installed must satisfy. And there where I af- firmed this proposition, defect was not amended by a prayer, because the prayer was disjoined from God.9 However, in regard to matter of doubt so deep decide thou not, unless she tell it thee, who shall be a light between the truth and the understanding.10 I know not if thou understandest ; I speak of Beatrice : " thou shalt see her above, smiling and happy, upon the summit of this mountain."
And I : "My Lord, let us go on with greater
" Cease to hope that the decrees of the gods can be changed by prayer" {Aenetd', vi. 376).
9. v. 42. The prayer of Palinurus was not heard be- cause it was that of one not in the grace of God ; he was a heathen, doomed to Hell. But the prayer of " a heart that lives in grace " (Canto iv. 134) fervently interceding for a soul in Purgatory may be accepted and secure the remission of its penalty.
10. v. 45. The question, being one that relates to the mysteries of the Divine will, cannot be answered with full assurance by human reason.
11. v. 46. This is the first time in which the name of Beatrice is spoken, since Virgil's narration to Dante of her descent to Limbo, in the second canto of Hell. The men- tion of her quickens Dante's ardor to ascend.
42 PURGATORY [vv. 50-75
speed, for now I am not weary as a while ago ; and see how the hill now casts its shadow." * We will go forward with this day," he an- swered, " as much farther as is now possible for us; but the fact is otherwise than thou supposest. Before thou canst be there-above thou wilt see him return, who is now hidden by the hill-side so that thou dost not make his rays to break. But see there a soul which, stationed all alone, is looking toward us ; it will point out to us the speediest way." We came to it. O Lombard soul, how lofty and disdainful didst thou hold thyself; and in the movement of thine eyes grave and slow ! It said not anything to us, but let us go on, only eyeing us in manner of a lion when he is couching. Still Virgil drew near to it, praying that it would show to us the best ascent ; and it made no answer to his re- quest, but of our country and life enquired of us. And the sweet Leader began : " Mantua " — and the shade, all in itself recluse, rose toward him from the place where first it was, saying : " O Mantuan, I am Sordello of thy city." " And they embraced each other.
12. v. 74. Of Sordello, who lived in the thirteenth century, little is positively known, though many stories are told of him, some of them not much to his credit. He left his native land and gave up his native tongue to live and write as a troubadour in Provence, but his fame belonged to Italy,
vv. 76-94] CANTO VI 43
Ah, servile Italy ! hostel of grief ! ship without pilot in great tempest ! not lady of provinces, but a brothel ! that noble soul was so ready, only at the sweet name of his native town, to give glad welcome here unto his fellow-citizen ; and now in thee thy living men exist not with- out war, and of those whom one wall and one moat shut in one gnaws the other. Search, wretched one, around its shores, thy seaboard, and then look within thy bosom, if any part in thee enjoys peace ! What avails it that for thee Justinian readjusted thy bridle,13 if the saddle be empty ? '4 Without this, the shame would be less. Ah folk,15 that oughtest to be devout and let Caesar sit in the saddle, if thou rightly un- derstandest what God notes for thee ! Look how fell this wild beast has become, through
Some of the poems ascribed to him justify by their character the esteem in which Dante seems to have held him. In the De Vulgari Eloquio, i. 15, Dante speaks of him as tantus elvquentiae vir.
13. v. 88. By his reform of the laws.
14. v. 89. What avails it that the law exist if there be no Emperor to enforce it.
15. v. 9 1 . The Church-folk, the clergy, who ought to devote themselves to things of the spirit, and to take heed that God has said : " Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's," but who, assuming the rights of civil govern- ment which belong to the Emperor, have let Italy fall into contusion and misery.
44 PURGATORY [w. 95-111
not being corrected by the spurs, since thou didst put thy hand upon the rein. O German Albert, who abandonest her that has become untamed and savage, and oughtest to bestride her saddle-bows, may a just judgment from the stars fall upon thy blood, and may it be so strange and manifest, that thy successor may have fear thereat ! l6 For thou and thy father, held back up there '7 by greed, have suffered the garden of the empire to become desert. Come thou to see the Montecchi and Cappelletti, the Monaldi and Filippeschi,18 thou man without care, those already wretched, and these in dread. Come, cruel one, come, and see the distress of thy nobility, and cure their hurts ; and thou shalt see Santafiora19 how safe it is. Come to
1 6. v. 1 02. Albert of Hapsburg, son of the Emperor Rudolph, was elected King of the Romans in I 298, but, like his father, never went to Italy to be crowned. He was mur- dered by his nephew, John, called the Parricide, in 1308, at Konigsfelden. It is plain that the reference to him was written after the just judgment had fallen. The successor of Albert was Henry VII. of Luxemburg, who came to Italy in 1311, was crowned at Rome in 1312, and died at Buon- convento in 1313. His death ended the hopes of Dante.
17. v. 104. In your German states.
I 8. v. 107. Famous families, the first two — Montagus and Capulets — of Verona, the last two of Orvieto, at enmity with each other in their respective cities, types of a common condition.
19. v. in. The Counts of Santafiora were once the
w. 112-134] CANTO VI 45
see thy Rome, that weeps, widowed and alone, and cries day and night : cc My Caesar, where- fore dost thou not keep me company ? " Come to see how the people love one another ; and, if no pity for us move thee, come to be shamed for thine own renown ! And if it be lawful for me, O Supreme Jove, who wast on earth cruci- fied for us, are Thy just eyes turned aside else- where? Or is it preparation, which in the abyss of Thy counsel Thou art making, for some good utterly cut off from our perception ? For the cities of Italy are all full of tyrants, and every churl that comes playing the partisan becomes a Marcellus.20
My Florence ! surely thou mayst be content with this digression, which does not touch thee, thanks to thy people that takes such heed.21 Many have justice at heart, but shoot slowly, through not coming to the bow without delib- eration ; but thy people has it on the edge of its lips. Many reject the common burden, but thy people eagerly responds without being called,
most powerful Ghibelline nobles in the Sienese territory. Their power had declined, and the district was full of law- lessness and misery.
20. v. 125. That is, a bitter opponent of the Empire, as the Consul M. Claudius Marcellus was of Caesar.
21. v. 129. The bitterness of this irony is justified by the record of Florentine history in Dante's time.
46 PURGATORY [vv. 135-15!
and cries, " I load myself." Now make thee glad, for thou hast truly wherefore : thou rich, thou at peace, thou wise ! If I speak the truth, the fact does not hide it. Athens and Lace- daemon, that made the ancient laws and were so civilized, made in regard to living well but little sign, compared with thee that makest such fine-spun provisions, that what thou spinnest in October reaches not to mid November. How often in the time that thou rememberest hast thou changed law, money, office, and custom, and renewed thy members ! And if thou mind thee well and see the light, thou wilt see thyself resembling that sick woman, who cannot find repose upon the feathers, but with her tossing seeks to ease her pain."
22. v. 151. Literally, " but with giving a turn wards off her pain."
CANTO VII
Virgil makes himself known to Bordello. — Sordelk leads the Poets to the Valley of the Princes who have been negligent of salvation. — He points them out by name.
AFTER the becoming and glad salutations had been repeated three and four times, Sordello drew back and said : " Who are you ? " " Be- fore the souls worthy to ascend to God were turned to this mountain,1 my bones had been buried by Octavian ; I am Virgil, and for no other sin did I lose heaven, but for not having faith : " thus then replied my Leader.
As is he who suddenly sees a thing before him whereat he marvels, and does and does not believe, saying : " It is, it is not," — such seemed that shade, and then he bent down his brow, and humbly returned toward him, and em- braced him where the inferior lays hold.2
1. v. 4. Virgil died A. D. 19. Before the descent of Christ to Hell "human spirits were not saved " (Hell, iv. 63). Even the Saints of the Old Dispensation and the virtuous heathen were condemned to Limbo. Since the redemption souls foreordained to salvation attain it by ascent of the mount of Purgatory.
2. v. 15. Below the knees ; so Statius stoops to embrace the feet of Virgil, Canto xxi. 130.
48 PURGATORY [w. 16-39
" O glory of the Latins," said he, " through whom our language showed what it could do,
0 eternal honor of the place wherefrom I was, what merit or what grace shows thee to me f If
1 am worthy to hear thy words, tell me if thou comest from Hell, and from what cloister." " Through all the circles of the realm of woe," replied he to him, " am I come hither ; the power of Heaven moved me, and with it I come. Not by doing, but by not doing have I lost the sight of the high Sun which thou desirest, and which by me was known too late. There is a place below not sad with torments but with darkness only, where the lamentations sound not as wailings, but are sighs ; there I abide with the little innocents bitten by the teeth of death before they were exempt from human sin ; there I abide with those whom the three holy virtues did not invest, but who without vice knew the others, and followed all of them.3 But if thou knowest and canst, give us some direction whereby we may come more speedily to where Purgatory has its right beginning." He re-
3. v. 36. The virtuous heathen did not possess the so-called theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity ; but they practised the four cardinal virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice. Compare with Virgil's words the description of Limbo in the fourth canto of the Hell.
vv.40-64] CANTO VII 49
plied: "A fixed place is not assigned for us;4 it is permitted me to go upward and around ; so far as I can go, I join myself to thee as guide. But see how already the day declines, and to go up by night is not possible ; therefore it is well to think of some fair sojourn. There are souls yonder to the right, apart ; if thou consentest to me I will lead thee to them, and not without delight will they be known to thee." " How is this ? " was the answer, " would he who might wish to ascend by night be prevented by an- other, or could he not ascend because he had not the power ? " And the good Sordello drew his finger on the ground, saying : " See, only this line thou couldst not pass after the sun is gone ; not, however, that aught else than the nocturnal darkness would give hindrance to going up ; that hampers the will with impo- tence.5 One might, indeed, in the darkness turn downward, and walk the hillside wandering around, while the horizon holds the day shut up." Thereon my Lord, as if wondering, said : C( Lead us, then, there where thou sayest one may have delight while waiting."
A short distance had we gone from that
4. v. 40. Here in the Ante- Purgatory.
5. v. 57. The allegory is plain : the soul can mount the steep of purification only when illuminated by the Sun of Divine Grace.
5o PURGATORY [vv. 65-85
place, when I perceived that the mountain was hollowed out in like fashion as the valleys hol- low them here on earth. " Yonder,'* said that shade, " will we go, where the hillside makes a lap of itself, and there will we await the new day." Now steep, now level, was a winding path that led us to a side of the dale, where its border more than half dies away.6 Gold and fine silver, and cochineal and pure white, Indian wood bright and clear blue,7 fresh emerald at the instant it is split, would each be vanquished in color by the herbage and by the flowers set within that valley, as by its greater the less is vanquished. Nature had not only painted there, but of sweetness of a thousand odors she made there one unknown and blended fra- grance.
Here I saw souls 8 who, because of the val- ley, were not visible from without, seated upon the green and upon the flowers, singing " Salve Regina." 9 "Before the now diminished sun
6. v. 72. As the valley opens out on the mountain-side its rocky rim gradually diminishes in height.
7. v. 74. Indigo.
8. v. 82. The souls of kings and other rulers who had decayed repentance till the hour of death.
9. v. 82. The beginning of an antiphon recited, during certain seasons of the year, at Compline, the last service of the day, after sunset. The whole antiphon is as follows, and its pppropriateness to the condition of these sinners is manifest:—
vv, 86-95] CANTO VII 51
sink to his nest/' began the Mantuan who had turned us thither, " do not desire that I guide you among these. From this bank ye will better discern the acts and countenances of each and all, than when received among them on the level below. He who sits highest and has the semblance of having neglected that which he should have done, and who moves not his mouth to the others' songs, was Rudolph the Emperor,10 who might have healed the wounds
" Salve, Reglna, mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus, exules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrymarum valle. Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte ; et Jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post exilium ostende. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria, ora pro nobis, sancta Dei genetrix, ut digni efficiamur pro- missionibus Christi." " Hail, Queen, mother of mercy! our life, our joy, our hope, hail ! To thee we, exiled sons of Evev do cry ; to thee we sigh, groaning and weeping in this valley of tears. Come then, our Advocate, turn thy pitying eyes upon us, and show to us, after our exile, Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb. O clement, O pitiful, O sweet Virgin Mary! Pray for us, holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ."
10. v. 94. Rudolph of Hapsburg, first Emperor of the House of Austria, born in 1218, crowned Emperor at Aix- la-Chapelle in 1273, died in 1291. His neglect of Italy (see the preceding canto, v. 103) was not to be repaired by the vain efforts of Henry VII. As Emperor, Rudolph has the highest seat, but the neglect of his duty weighs on him so heavily that he cannot sing.
52 PURGATORY [vv. 96-108
that have slain Italy, so that too late is she called back to life by another. The next, who to appearance is comforting him, ruled the land where the water rises which the Moldau bears to the Elbe, and the Elbe to the sea. His name was Ottocar,11 and in his swaddling- clothes he was better far than bearded Wen- ceslaus, his son, whom luxury and idleness feed.12 And that small-nosed one,13 who seems close in counsel with him who has so benign an aspect,14 died in flight and disflowering the lily ; look there, how he beats his breast : see the next one who, sighing, has made with his hand
11. v. 100. Ottocar, King of Bohemia and Duke of Austria, was slain in battle against Rudolph, on the March- feld by the Donau, in 1278; "whereby Austria fell to Rudolph." See Carlyle's Frederick the Great, book ii. ch. 7. The two enemies on earth are friends here.
12. v. 1 02. Dante repeats his harsh judgment ofWen- ceslaus in the nineteenth canto of Paradise, v. 125. His first wife was the daughter of Rudolph of Hapsburg. He died in 1305.
13. v. 103. This is Philip III., the Bold, of France. He succeeded his father, Louis IX., St. Louis, in 1270. Having invaded Catalonia, in a war with Peter the Third of Aragon, he was driven back, and died, on his disastrous retreat, at Perpignan, in 1285.
14. v. 104. Henry of Navarre, the brother of Thi- bault, the poet-king (He/!, xxii. 52). He died in 1274. His daughter Joan married Philip IV., the Fair, "the pest of France/' the son of Philip the Bold.
w. 108-119] CANTO VII 53
a bed for his cheek. Father and father-in-law are they of the Pest of France ; I5 they know his vicious and foul life, and thence comes the grief which so pierces them. He who looks so large- limbed/6 and who accords in singing with him of the masculine nose/7 wore girt the cord of every worth, and if the youth that is sitting behind him l8 had remained after him as king, truly the worth had gone from vessel to vessel, which cannot be said of the other heirs : James and Frederick hold the realms ; I9 the better
15. v. 109. " Of all the sovereigns mentioned in the Divina Commedia, there is none who wrought such evil to the Church, or such harm to Italy, as Philippe le Bel, and against none does Dante inveigh more often, or in terms of severer censure." (Vernon. ) See Hell, xix. 87 ; Purgatory, xx. 91 ; xxxii. 152; xxxiii. 45; Paradise, xix. 118. Philip IV. died in 1314.
1 6. v. 112. Peter III. of Aragon, the husband of Con- stance, daughter of Manfred (see Canto iii. 115, 143). After the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, when the French were driven out of Sicily, Pedro was made king of Sicily. He died in 1285.
17. v. 113. Charles ofAnjou, the famous brother of St. Louis, and king, by conquest, of Naples and Sicily. See Canto xx. 67-69, for a bitterly ironical reference to Charles. He died in January, i 28^.
1 8. v. 1 1 6. This youth is Alfonso, son of Peter of Aragon, who succeeded his father as king of Aragon, but died, twenty years old, in 1291.
19. v. 119. The kingdoms of Aragon and Sicily; both
54 PURGATORY [w. 120-131
heritage no one possesses. Rarely does human goodness rise through the branches, and this He wills who gives it, in order that it may be claimed from Him.20 To the large-nosed one also my words apply not less than to the other, Peter, who is singing with him ; wherefore Apu- lia and Provence are now grieving.21 The plant is as inferior to its seed,22 as, more than Beatrice and Margaret, Constance still boasts of her hus- band.23 See the King of the simple life sitting there alone, Henry of England ; he in his
James and Frederick, the two surviving sons of Peter of Ara- gon, were living when Dante thus wrote of them. (See Canto iii. 1 16). The " better heritage " was the virtue of their father.
20. v. 123. Chaucer translates this sentence of "the wyse poete of Florence " in his Wyf of Batbis Tale, vv. 269-74 :
" Ful selde up ryseth by his branches smale Prowesse of man ; for god, of his goodnesse, Wol that of him we clayme our gentilesse. ' '
21. v. 126. Apulia and Provence were grieving under the rule of Charles II., the degenerate son of Charles of Anjou ; he died in 1309.
22. v. 127. That is, the son is as inferior to his father.
23. v. 129. These words are obscure; perhaps their meaning is, that the children of Charles of Anjou and of Peter of Aragon are as inferior to their fathers, as Charles himself, the husband first of Beatrice of Provence and then of Margaret of Nevers, was inferior to Peter, the husband of Constance.
vv. 132-136] CANTO VII 55
branches has a better issue.24 That one who lowest among them is seated on the ground, looking upward, is William the marquis,25 for whom Alessandria and her war make Montfer- rat and Canavese mourn."
24. v. 132. Henry III. (died 1272), father of Ed- ward I. * He sits alone because, perhaps, of the remoteness of England, and the slight connection of the king with the other princes.
25. v. 134. Guglielmo Spadalunga, William Long- sword, was Marquis of Montferrat and Canavese, the Pied- montese highlands and plain north of the Po. He was Imperial vicar, and the head of the Ghibellines in this region. In a war with the Guelfs, who had risen in revolt in i 290, he was taken captive at Alessandria, and for two years, till his death, was kept in an iron cage. Dante refers to him in the Convito, iv. 1 1. 127, as " the good marquis of Mont- ferrat."
CANTO VIII
Valley of the Princes. — Two Guardian Angels. — =» Nino Viscanti. — The Serpent. — Corrado Malaspina.
IT was now the hour that turns back desire in those that sail the sea, and softens their hearts, the day when they have said to their sweet friends farewell, and which pierces the new pilgrim with love, if he hear from afar a bell that seems to deplore the dying day, — when I began to render hearing vain,1 and to look at one of the souls who, uprisen, besought attention with its hand. It joined and raised both its palms, fixing its eyes toward the east, as if it said to God, " For aught else I care not." " Te lucis ante " 2 so devoutly issued
1. v. 8. When I began no longer to pay attention to the words of Sordello.
2. v. 13. The opening words of a hymn sung at Com- pline, the last service of the day : —
"Te lucis ante terminum, Rerum Creator poscimus, Ut tua pro dementia Sis presul et custodia : " —
" Before the close of light, we pray thee, O Creator, that through thy clemency, thou be our watch and guard."
vv. 14-30] CANTO VIII 57
from his mouth and with such sweet notes that it made me issue forth from my own mind.3 And then the others sweetly and devoutly accompanied it through all the hymn to the end, having their eyes on the supernal wheels. Here, reader, sharpen well thine eyes to the truth, for surely the veil is now indeed so thin that passing through within is easy.4
I saw that army of the gentle-born silently thereafter gazing upward, as if in expectation, pallid and humble ; and I saw two angels, issu- ing from on high and descending, with two flaming swords truncated and deprived of their points. Green as leaflets just now born was their raiment, which, beaten and blown by their green pinions, they trailed behind.5 One came
3. v. 15. That I lost myself in listening.
4. v. 21. The allegory seems to be, that the soul which has entered upon the way of repentance and purification, but which is not yet securely advanced therein, is still exposed to temptation. But if the soul have steadfast purpose to resist temptation, and seek aid from God, that aid will not be want- ing. The prayer of the Church which is recited after the hymn just cited has these words : " Visit, we pray thee, O Lord, this abode, and drive far from it the snares of the enemy. Let thy holy Angels abide in it, and guard us in peace.'* Pallid with self-distrust, humble with the sense of need, the soul awaits the fulfilment of its prayer.
5. v. 30. The guardian angels are clad in green, the symbolic color of hope. Their swords are truncated, because needed only for defence.
58 PURGATORY [w. 31-53
to his station a little above us, and the other descended on the opposite bank, so that the people were contained between them. I clearly discerned in them their blond heads, but on their faces the eye was dazzled, as a faculty which is confounded by excess. " Both come from the bosom of Mary," said Sordello, " for guard of the valley, because of the serpent which will straightway come." Whereat I, who knew not by what path, turned me round, and, all chilled, drew close to the trusty shoul- ders.
And Sordello again : " Now let us go down among the great shades, and we will speak to them ; well-pleasing will it be to them to see you." Only three steps I think that I de- scended and I was below ; and I saw one who was gazing only at me as if he wished to recog- nize me. It was already the time when the air was darkening, but not so that between his eyes and mine it did not reveal that which it locked up before.6 Towards me he made, and I made towards him. Noble Judge Nino,7 how
6. v. 5 1 . It was not yet so dark that recognition of one near at hand was difficult, though at a distance it had been impossible.
7. v. 53. Nino (Ugolino) de* Visconti of Pisa was the grandson of Count Ugolino (see Hell, xxxiii., note on v. 14). Sardinia was under the dominion of Pisa, and was
vv. 54-69] CANTO VIII 59
much it pleased me when I saw that thou wast not among the damned ! No fair salutation was silent between us ; then he asked : "How long is it since thou earnest to the foot of the mountain across the far waters ? "
" Oh," said I to him, " from within the dis- mal places I came this morning, and I am in the first life, although in going thus I may gain the other." And when my answer was heard, Sordello and he drew themselves back, like folk suddenly bewildered.8 The one turned to Vir- gil, and the other to one who was seated there, crying : " Up, Corrado,9 come to see what God through grace has willed." Then, turning to me : " By that singular gratitude thou owest unto Him who so hides His own first where- fore I0 that there is no ford to it, when thou
divided into four districts, each of which was governed by one of the Pisan nobles, under the title of Judge. Nino had held the judicature of Gallura, where Frate Gomita (see Hell, xxii. 81) had been his vicar. Nino died in 1296.
8. v. 63. The sun was already hidden behind the mountain when Virgil and Dante came upon Sordello. Sor- dello had not therefore seen that Dante cast a shadow, and, being absorbed in discourse with Virgil, had not observed that Dante breathed as a living man.
9. v. 65. Corrado, of the great Guelf family of the Malaspina, lords of the Lunigiana, a wide district between Genoa and Pisa.
10. v. 69. The reason of that which He wills.
60 PURGATORY [vv. 70-89
shalt be beyond the wide, waves, say to my Joan, that she cry for me there where answer is made to the innocent. I do not think her mother " loves me longer, since she changed her white wimples,12 which she, wretched, needs must even now long for. Through her one may understand easily enough how long in woman the fire of love endures, if the eye or the touch does not often rekindle it. The viper I3 which leads afield the Milanese will not make for her so fair a sepulture as the cock of Gal- lura would have done." Thus he said, marked in his aspect with the stamp of that righteous zeal which glows with due measure in the heart. My greedy eyes were going only to the sky, only there where the stars are slowest, even as a wheel nearest the axle. And my Leader: " Son, at what art thou gazing up there ? " And I to him : " At those three torches with which
11. v. 73. Her mother was Beatrice d' Este, who, in 1 300, married in second nuptials Galeazzo de' Visconti of {Jilan.
12. v. 74. The white veil or wimple and black gar- ments were worn by widows. Nothing is known of the out- come of Beatrice d' Este's second marriage to account for the declaration that she must needs wish for her " widow-like sad wimples thrown away."
13. v. 80. The viper was the cognizance of the Vis- conti, the lords of Milan ; the cock that of the Judicature of Gallura.
vv. 90-113] CANTO VIII 61
the pole on this side is all aflame." I4 And he to me : " The four bright stars which thou sawest this morning15 are low on the other side, and these are risen where those were."
As he was speaking, lo ! Sordello drew him to himself, saying: " See there our adversary ! " and pointed his finger that he should look thither. At that part where the little valley has no barrier was a snake, perhaps such as gave to Eve the bitter food. Through the grass and the flowers came the evil streak, turning now and again its head to its back, licking like a beast that sleeks itself. I did not see, and therefore cannot tell, how the celestial falcons moved, but I saw well both one and the other in motion. Hearing the air cleft by their green wings the serpent fled, and the angels wheeled upward to their posts with equal flight.
The shade which had drawn close to the Judge when he exclaimed, through all that assault had not for a moment loosed its gaze from me. " So may the lantern which is leading thee on high find in thine own free-will so much wax as is needed as far as to the enamelled sum-
14. v. 90. These three stars are supposed to symbolize the theological virtues, — faith, hope, and charity, whose light shines in the contemplative hours of night, when the foul virtues of active life are dim.
15. v. 92. See Canto i. v. 23.
62 PURGATORY [w. 114-131
mit," l6 it began, " if thou knowest true news of Valdimacra I7 or of the neighboring region, tell it to me, for there I once was great. I was called Corrado Malaspina ; I am not the elder,18 but from him I am descended ; to mine own I bore the love which is here refined." '9 " Oh/' said I to him, " through your lands I have never been, but where does man dwell in all Europe that they are not renowned ? The fame that honors your house proclaims its lords, pro- claims its district, so that he knows of them who never yet was there. And I swear to you, so may I go on high, that your honored race does not despoil itself of the praise of the purse and of the sword. Custom and nature so privi- lege it that though the guilty head 20 turn the
1 6. v. 114. So may illuminating grace find the dispo- sition in thee requisite for the support of its light, until thou shalt arrive at the summit of the Mountain, the earthly Para- dise, enamelled with perpetual flowers.
17. v. 1 1 6. A part of the district of Lunigiana, the valley of the Magra, which enters the sea near the Gulf of Spezia.
1 8. v. 119. The elder Corrado Malaspina was the hus- band of Constance, the sister of King Manfred. He died about the middle of the thirteenth century. The second Corrado was his grandson.
19. v. i 20. The earthly affections are purified here, freed from material dross.
20. v, 131. Dante probably means the Pope, Boniface
VIII.
vv. 132-139] CANTO VIII 63
world awry, alone it goes straight and scorns the evil way." " And he : " Now go, for the sun shall not return to rest seven times in the bed which the Ram covers and bestrides with all four feet,22 before this courteous opinion will be nailed in the middle of thy head with greater nails than the speech of another, if course of judgment be not arrested."
21, v. 1 3 2, This magnificent eulogy of the land and the family of Malaspina is Dante's return for the hospitality which, during his exile, in I 306, he received from the Mar- quis Moroello and other members of the house.
23, v. 135. Seven years shall not pass, the sun being at this time of Dante's journey in the sign of the Ram.
CANTO IX
Slumber and Dream of Dante. — The Eagle. — Lucia. — The Gate of Purgatory. — The Angelic Gate-- keeper. — Seven P 's inscribed on Dante9 s Forehead. — Entrance to the First Ledge.
THE concubine of old Tithonus was now gleaming white on the balcony of the east, forth from the arms of her sweet friend ; her forehead was bright with gems set in the shape of the cold animal that strikes people with its tail.1 And in the place where we were the night had taken two of the steps with which she ascends, and the third was already bending its wings down- ward, when I, who had somewhat of Adam 2
1. v. 6. By "the concubine of old Tithonus," Dante seems to intend the lunar Aurora, in distinction from the proper wife of Tithonus, Aurora, who precedes the rising Sun, and the meaning of these verses is that " the Aurora before moonrise was lighting up the eastern sky, the brilliant stars of the sign Scorpio were on the horizon, and, finally, it was shortly after 8.30 p. M." (Moore.) " The steps with which the night ascends" are the six hours of the first half of the night, from 6 p. M. to midnight.
2. v. 10. His human body, requiring repose.
vv. 11-29] CANTO IX 65
with me, overcome by sleep, reclined upon the grass, there where all five of us 3 were already seated.
At the hour near the morning when the little swallow begins her sad lays,4 perhaps in mem- ory of her former woes, and when our mind, more a wanderer from the flesh and less captive to the thought, is in its visions almost divine,5 in dream I seemed to see an eagle with feathers of gold poised in the sky, with wings spread, and intent to stoop. And I seemed to be there6 where his own people were abandoned by Gany- mede, when he was rapt to the supreme consis- tory. In myself I thought, perhaps this bird strikes only here through wont, and perhaps from other place disdains to carry anyone up- ward in its feet. Then it seemed to me that, having wheeled a little, it descended terrible as a thunderbolt, and snatched me upwards far as
3. v. 12. Dante, Virgil, Sordello, Nino, and Corrado.
4. v. 13. The allusion is to the tragic story of Progne and Philomela, transformed the one into a swallow, the other into a nightingale. Dante found the tale in Ovid's Meta- morphoses, Book vi.
5. v. 1 8. Dante passes three nights in Purgatory, and each hight his sleep is terminated by a dream towards the hour of dawn, the time when, according to the belief of classical antiquity, the visions of dreams are symbolic and prophetic. (Moore.) Cf. Hell, xxvi. 7.
6. v. 22. On Mount Ida.
66 PURGATORY [vv. 30-50
the fire.7 There it seemed that it and I burned, and the imagined fire so scorched that of neces- sity my sleep was broken.
Not otherwise Achilles shook himself, — - turning around his awakened eyes, and not knowing where he was, when his mother stole him away, sleeping in her arms, from Chiron to Scyros, thither whence afterwards the Greeks withdrew him,8 — than I started, as from my face sleep fled away ; and I became pale, as does a man who, frightened, turns to ice. At my side was my Comforter alone, and the sun was now more than two hours high,9 and my face was turned toward the sea. cc Have no fear," said my Lord ; " be reassured, for we are at a good point ; restrain not, but put forth all thy strength. Thou art now arrived at Purgatory ; see there the cliff that closes it round ; see the
7. v. 30. The sphere of fire by which, according to the mediaeval cosmography, the sphere of the air was sur- rounded,
8. v. 39. Statius, in the first book of the Achilleid, tells how Thetis, to prevent Achilles from going to the siege of Troy, bore him, sleeping, away from his instructor, the centaur Chiron, and carried him to the court of King Lyco- rnedes, on the Island of Scyros, where, though concealed in women's garments, Ulysses and Diomed discovered him. Statius relates how wonderstruck Achilles was when, on awaking, he found himself at Scyros,
9. v. 44, It is the morning of Easter Monday.
vv. 51-72] CANTO IX 67
entrance there where it appears divided. Short while ago, in the dawn that precedes the day, when thy soul was sleeping within thee upon the flowers wherewith the place down yonder is adorned, came a lady, and said : c I am Lucia ; I0 let me take this one who is sleeping ; thus will I assist him along his way/ Sordello remained, and the other noble forms : she took thee up, and as the day grew bright, she came upward, and I along her footprints. Here she laid thee down : and first her beautiful eyes showed me that open entrance ; then she and slumber went away together." Like a man who in perplexity is reassured, and who changes his fear into con- fidence after the truth is disclosed to him, so did I change ; and when my Leader saw me free from disquiet, up along the cliff he moved on, and I behind, toward the height.
Reader, thou seest well how I exalt my theme, and therefore marvel not if I support it with more art.11
10. v. 55. Lucia seems to be here, as in the second canto of Helly the symbol of assisting grace, the gratia ope- rans of the schoolmen.
11. v. 72. These words may be intended to call atten- tion to the doctrine which underlies the imagery of the verse.
The entrance within the gate of Purgatory is the assurance of justification, which is the change of the soul from a state of sin to a state of justice or righteousness. Justification itself consists, according to St. Thomas Aquinas (<S. T> ii.1 112.
68 PURGATORY [w. 73-82
We drew near to it, and reached a place such that there, where at first there seemed to me to be a rift, like a cleft which divides a wall, I saw a gate, and three steps beneath for going to it, of divers colors, and a gatekeeper who as yet said not a word. And as I opened my eye upon him more and more, I saw him sitting on the upper step, such in his face that I endured it not.12 And he had in his hand a naked sword,
6 and 8), of four parts : first, the infusion of grace ; second, the turning of the free will to God through faith ; third, the turning of the free will against sin ; fourth, the remission of sin. It must be accompanied by the sacrament of penance, which consists of contrition, confession, and satisfaction by works of righteousness ; contrition is of the heart, confession of the mouth, and satisfaction of the deed.
Outside the gate of Purgatory justification cannot be com- plete. The souls in the Ante-Purgatory typify those who have entered on the way towards justification, but have not yet attained it. " Contingit autem quandoque quod praece- dit aliqua deliberatio quae non est de substantia justificationis sed via in justificationem. " S. T. I. c. 7.
12. v. 81. The Earthly Paradise forms the summit of the Mountain of Purgatory, and the Angel at the gate of Purgatory corresponds to the Cherubim with the flaming sword which turned every way, whom the Lord God placed at the east of the garden of Eden, to keep the way of the tree of life. Genesis, iii. 24. That way was by Christ opened to redeemed souls, and the Angel is the type of the priest to whom the keys of the Church are committed, and to whom alone confession is to be made, and to whom it pertains to administer absolution. S. T. Suppl. viii. I.
vv. 83-104] CANTO IX 69
which so reflected the rays toward us that I often raised my sight in vain. "Tell it from there, what would ye ? " he began to say : " Where is the guide ? Beware lest the coming up be harmful to you."13 "A lady from Heaven versed in these things," replied my Master to him, " only just now said to us : c Go thither, here is the gate/ ' " And may she speed your steps in good," began again the courteous gate- keeper, " come forward then unto our stairs."
Thither we came to the first great stair ; it was of white marble so polished and smooth that I mirrored myself in it as I appear. The second, of deeper hue than perse,14 was of a rough and scorched stone, cracked lengthwise and athwart. The third, which uppermost lies massy, seemed to me of porphyry as flaming red as blood that spirts forth from a vein. Upon this the Angel of God held both his feet, sit- ting upon the threshold, which seemed to me
13. v. 87. The angel recognizes that Dante and Virgil are not souls coming to undergo the penalties of Purgatory. His question corresponds with Cato's, " Who has guided you?" (i. 43). The inner meaning of his warning may- be, that the teaching of the reason is not sufficient so to con- vince man of his sin as to make him fit for justification ; co- operating grace must be added ; and unless the penitence be proportioned to the sin the penitent may lose rather than gain in grace. S. T. iii. 89. 2.
14. v. 97. Dark purple, inclining to black.
;o PURGATORY [w. 105-119
stone of adamant.15 Up over the three steps my Leader drew me with good will, saying: " Beg humbly that he undo the lock." De- voutly I threw myself at the holy feet ; I be- sought for mercy's sake that he would open for me ; but first upon my breast I struck three times.16 Seven P's he inscribed upon my fore- head with the point of his sword,17 and : " See that thou wash these wounds when thou art within," he said.
Ashes or earth dug out dry would be of one color with his vestment, and from beneath that he drew two keys. One was of gold and the other was of silver : first with the white and then with the yellow he so did to the gate, that
15. v. 105. The first stair is the symbol of contrition, that compunction and humility of spirit in which man sees himself as he actually is ; the second is the symbol of con- fession, in which he manifests the condition of his soul ; the third is the symbol of the satisfaction rendered by deeds of love, the works of penitence ; the threshold of adamant may signify the rock on which rests the authority of the Church.
1 6. v. in. Three times, in penitence for sins in thought, in word, and in deed.
17. v. 1 1 3. The seven P's stand for the seven so-called mortal sins, — Peccati, — not specific acts, but the evil dis- positions of the soul from which all evil deeds spring, — • pride, envy, anger, sloth (accidia}, avarice, gluttony, and lust. After justification these dispositions, which already hav« been overcome, must be utterly removed from the sou].
vv. 120-136] CANTO IX 71
I was content.18 " Whenever one of these keys fails, so that it turns not rightly in the lock/' said he to us, " this narrow entrance does not open. The one is more precious;19 but the other requires exceeding much of art and wit before it unlocks, because it is that which dis- entangles the knot.20 From Peter I hold them ; and he told me to err rather in open- ing than in keeping shut, if but the people prostrate themselves at my feet." Then he pushed the valve of the sacred gate, saying: " Enter, but I give you warning that whoso looks backward returns outside." 2I And when the pivots of that sacred portal, which are of metal, sonorous and strong, were turned within their hinges, Tarpeia roared not so loud nor
1 8. v. i 20. The golden key is typical of the power to open, and the silver of the judgment to whom to open ; the first is called potestas judicandiy the second scientia discernendi. S. T. SuppL xvii. 3.
19. v. i 24. The gold, more precious because the powei1 of absolution was purchased by the death of the Saviour.
20. v. i 26. The knot is the question as to the fitness of the suppliant to enter ; to be determined by the priest on the confession of the sinner.
21. v. 132. For he who returns to his sins loses the benefit of his former penitence, though he may, through the infinite mercy of God, again repent, and again enter on the way of salvation. S. T7. iii. 84. 10. " No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Luke* ix. 62.
72 PURGATORY [vv. 137-145
showed herself so harsh, when the good Metel- lus was taken from her, whereby she afterwards remained lean."
I turned away attentive to the first tone,23 and it seemed to me I heard " Te Deum laudamus " 24 in a voice mingled with the sweet sound. That which I heard gave me just such an impression as we are wont to receive when people stand singing with an organ, and the words now are, now are not heard.
22. v. 138. I know of no satisfactory explanation of the significance of this roaring of the gates. When Caesar forced the doors of the temple of Saturn on the Tarpeian rock, in order to lay hands on the sacred treasure of Rome, he was unsuccessfully resisted by the tribune Metellus. Lucan (Pbarsalia, iii. 153-155) tells of the clamor of the rock when Marcellus was dragged away, and (/</. 167, 168) of the impoverishment of the treasury.
23. v. 139. The first sound within Purgatory.
f /j.. v. 140. '« We praise thee, O God," words appro* to the entrance of a repentant and justified sinner.
CANTO X
Purgatory proper. — First Ledge : the Proud. — • Ex- amples of Humility sculptured on the rock.
WHEN we were within the threshold of the gate, which the evil love ' of souls disuses, be- cause it makes the crooked way seem straight, I heard by its resounding that it was closed again. And, if I had turned my eyes to it, what excuse would have been befitting for the fault ?
We were ascending through a cloven rock, which was moving to one side and to the other, even as the wave which retreats and approaches. " Here must be used a little art," began my Leader, " in keeping close, now on this hand, now on that, to the side which recedes." 2 And this made our steps so scant that the waning disk of the moon had regained its bed to go to
1. v. 2. It is Dante's doctrine that love is the motive of every act ; rightly directed, of good deeds ; perverted, of evil. See Canto xvii. 91-105.
2. v. 12. The path between walls of rock was a nar- row, steep zigzag, which, as it receded on one side and the other, afforded the better foothold.
74 PURGATORY [w. 16-43
rest, before we were out from that needle's eye.3 But when we were free and open above, where the mountain gathers itself back,4 I weary, and both uncertain of our way, we stopped upon a level more solitary than roads through deserts. From its edge, where it borders the void, to the foot of the high bank which ever rises, a human body three times told would measure ; and as far as my eye could stretch its wings, now on the left and now on the right side, such did this cornice seem to me. Our feet had not yet moved upon it, when I perceived the circling bank, which, being perpendicular, allowed no ascent, to be of white marble and adorned with such carvings, that not only Poly- cletus, but Nature herself would have been shamed there.
The Angel who came to earth with the an- nouncement of the peace, many years wept for, which opened Heaven from its long interdict, appeared before us, carved here so truly in a sweet attitude, that he did not seem an image that is silent. One would have sworn that he was saying " Ave ; " for she was imaged there who turned the key to open the exalted love. And on her action she had these words impressed,
3. v. 1 6. The time is between 8 and 9 A. M.
4. v. 1 8. Leaving an open space, the first ledge of Pur- gatory.
vv. 44-60] CANTO X 75
" Ecce ancilla Dei ! " 5 as exactly as a shape is sealed in wax.
" Keep not thy mind only on one place," said the sweet Master, who had me on that side where people have their heart. Whereupon I moved my eyes and saw, beyond Mary, upon that side where he was who was moving me, another story imposed upon the rock ; where- fore I passed Virgil, and drew near so that it might be set before my eyes. There in the very marble were carved the cart and the oxen drawing the holy ark, by reason of which men fear an office not given in charge.6 In front ap- peared people; and all of them, divided in seven choirs, of two of my senses made the one say : " No" the other : " Fes, they are singing:' 7 In
5. v. 44. " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ! " Luke i. 38.
6. v. 57. " And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house . . . and Uzzah and Ahio . . . drave the new cart . . . and when they came to Nachon's threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it ; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error ; and there he died by the ark of God." 2 Samuel, vi. 4-7. Dante makes a striking reference to this presumption of Uzzah in his Letter to the Cardinals. Ep. viii. § 5.
7. v. 60. The hearing said " No," the sight said •' Yes. ' ' The division of the people in seven bands is told of in the Vulgate, but not in the English version.
76 PURGATORY [/v. 61-76
like manner, by the smoke of the incense that was imaged there, my eyes and nose were made in Yes and No discordant. There, preceding the blessed vessel, dancing, girt up, was the humble Psalmist, and more and less than king was he on that occasion. Opposite, portrayed at a window of a great palace, Michal was look- ing on, even as a lady scornful and troubled.8
I moved my feet from the place where I was standing, in order to look from near at another story which, beyond Michal, was gleaming white to me. Here was storied the high glory of the Roman prince, whose worth incited Gregory to his great victory : 9 I speak of Trajan the
8. v. 69. " So David went and brought up the ark of God . . . into the city of David with gladness. And when they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces he sac- rificed oxen and failings. And David danced before the Lord with all his might ; and David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord ; and she despised him in her heart." 2 Samuel, vi. 12-16.
9. v. 75. This legend of Trajan had great vogue dur- ing the Middle Ages. It was believed that Pope Gregory the Great interceded for him, praying that he might be delivered from Hell ; " then God because of these prayers drew thai fioul from pain and put it into glory. ' * This was Gregory*! great victory. See Paradise, xx. 106-117.
w.77-i°3] CANTO X 77
emperor ; and a poor widow was at his bridle in attitude of weeping and of grief. Round about him it seemed trampled and thronged with knights, and above him the eagles in the gold were moving in appearance in the wind. The wretched woman among all these seemed to be saying : " Lord, do me vengeance for my son who is slain, whereat I am broken-hearted." And he to answer her : " Now wait till I re- turn ; " and she : " My Lord," — like one in whom grief is urgent, — " if thou return not ? " And he : " He who shall be where I am will do it for thee." And she : " What will the good deed of another be to thee, if thou art unmindful of thine own ? " Whereon he : " Now comfort thee ; for it behoves that I discharge my duty ere I go ; justice so wills, and pity holds me back." He who never beheld a new thing I0 produced that visible speech, novel to us, because it is not found on earth.
While I was delighting myself with looking at the images of such great humilities, and for their Maker's sake dear to see: "Behold," murmured the Poet, "on this side many peo- ple, but they make few steps ; they will put us on the way to the lofty stairs." My eyes which were intent on gazing, were not slow in turning Jo. v. 94. God, to whom nothing can be new.
78 PURGATORY [w. 104-129
toward him in order to see novelties, whereof they are fain.
I would not, indeed, Reader, that thou be diverted from thy good purpose, through hear- ing how God wills that the debt be paid. Heed not the form of the suffering ; think on what follows ; think that, at the worst, beyond the Great Judgment it cannot go !
I began : " Master, that which I see moving toward us does not seem to me to be persons, but what I know not, I am so at loss in look- ing." And he to me : " The heavy condition of their torment bows them to earth, so that my own eyes at first had contention with it. But look fixedly there, and disentangle with thy sight that which is coming beneath those stones ; already thou canst discern how each is stricken."
O proud Christians, wretched and weary, who, diseased in vision of the mind, have con- fidence in backward steps, are ye not aware that we are worms born to form the angelic butter- fly, which flies unto judgment without de- fence?" Wherefore does your mind float up aloft, since ye are as it were defective insects, even as a worm in which formation fails ? "
11. v. 126. The soul comes bare and defenceless to judgment.
12. v. 129. What reason to exalt yourselves, what
vv. 130-139] CANTO X 79
As to support ceiling or roof, by way of cor- bel, a figure is sometimes seen joining its knees to its breast, which out of the unreal gives birth to a real distress in him who sees it, thus fash- ioned did I see these, when I gave good heed. True it is, that they were more or less bowed down, according as they had more or less upon their backs ; and he who had most patience in his looks, weeping, appeared to say : " I can no more."
excuse for pride have ye men, since all men are by nature un» perfect beings ?
CANTO XI
First Ledge : the Proud. — Prayer. — Omberto Aldo-* \rrandescbi. — Oderisi d* Agubbio. — Provenzan Salvani.
" O OUR Father, who art in Heaven, not cir- cumscribed, but for the greater love which Thou hast ' to the first works on high, praised be Thy name and Thy power by every creature, as it is meet to render thanks to Thy sweet effluence. May the peace of Thy Kingdom come unto us, for if it come not, we cannot unto it of our- selves, with all our striving. As Thine angels, singing Hosanna, make sacrifice to Thee of t heir will, so may men make of theirs. Give us this day the daily manna, without which, in this rough desert, he backward goes, who toils most to go on. And as we forgive to each the wrong that we have suffered, even do Thou, benignant, forgive, and regard not our desert. Our virtue, which is easily overcome, put not
I. v. 3. Not circumscribed by Heaven, but having Thy seat there because of the love Thou bearest to " the first effects ' ' — the first works of creation, the angels, and the heavens — of Thyself the First Cause.
vv, 20-38] CANTO XI 81
to proof with the old adversary, but deliver from him who so assails it.2 This last prayer, dear Lord, is, indeed, not made for ourselves, for it is not needful, but for those who have remained behind us."3
Thus praying good speed for themselves and 'US, those shades were all going under their load, like that of which one sometimes dreams, un- equally distressed,4 round and round and weary, along the first cornice, purging away the sullies of the world. If good is always asked for us there, what can be said and done here5 for them by those who have a good root to their will ? Truly we ought to aid them to wash away the marks which they bore hence, so that pure and light they may issue forth unto the starry wheels.6
" Ah ! so may justice and pity disburden you speedily, that ye may be able to move the
2. v. 21. Literally, "spurs it." In this case, as in many others, the rhyme seems to have compelled Dante to use a word with a somewhat strained significance.
3. v. 24. Within Purgatory the Devil has no power to urge to sin ; the penitent is safe from temptation. Com- pare Canto xxvi. 130-132. In the Ante-purgatory the souls are still subject to the assaults of the Devil, as appears fiom the assault of the snake in Canto viii.
4. v. 28. More or less burdened.
5. v. 32. Here, on earth.
6. v. 36. The spheres of the heavens.
82 PURGATORY ^.39^63
wing which may lift you according to your de- sire, show on which hand is the shortest path toward the stairway ; and if there be more than one passage, point out to us that which least steeply slopes ; for this one who comes with me, because of the burden of the flesh of Adam wherewith he is clothed, is chary, against his will, of mounting up." It was not manifest from whom came the words which they returned to these that he whom I was following had spoken, but it was said : " Come with us to the right hand along the bank, and ye will find the pass possible for a living person to ascend. And were I not hindered by the stone which tames my proud neck, so that I needs must carry my face low, I would look at that one who is still alive and has not been named, to see if I know him, and to make him pitiful of this burden. I was an Italian, and the son of a great Tuscan ; Guglielmo Aldobrandesco was my father : I know not if his name was ever with you.7 The ancient blood and the gallant deeds of my ancestors made me so arrogant, that, not thinking on the common mother, I
7. v. 60. The Aldobrandeschi were the counts of Santa- fiore (see Canto vi. Hi) in the Sienese Maremma. Little is known of them, but that they were in constant feud with Siena. The one who speaks was murdered, in his own string- hold of Campagnatico, in 1259.
vv. 64-88] CANTO XI 83
held every man in scorn to such extreme that I died therefor, as the Sienese know, and every child in Campagnatico knows it. I am Om- berto : and not only to me pride does harm, for all my kinsfolk has it dragged with it into calamity ; and here must I bear this load for it till God be satisfied, — here, among the dead, since I did it not among the living."
Listening, I bent down my face ; and one of them, not he who was speaking, twisted him- self under the weight that hampers him, and saw me, and recognized me, and called out, keeping his eyes with effort fixed on me, who was going along all stooping with them.8 " Oh," said I to him, " art thou not Oderisi, the honor of Gubbio, and the honor of that art which in Paris is called illuminating ? " " Brother," said he, " more smiling are the leaves that Franco of Bologna pencils ; the honor is now all his, and mine in part.9 Truly I should not have been so courteous while I lived, because of the great desire of excelling whereon my heart was intent. Of such pride the fee is paid here ; and
8. v. 78. This stooping, as if burdened like the sinners, is the symbol of Dante's consciousness of pride as his own besetting sin; see Canto xiii. 136-138.
9. v. 84. Oderisi of Gubbio and Franco of Bologna were both eminent in the art called miniare in Italian, en' luminer in French.
84 PURGATORY [vv. 89-108
I should not yet be here, were it not that, still having power to sin, I turned me unto God. O vainglory of human powers! how short while lasts the green upon the top, if it be not fol- lowed by dull ages.10 Cimabue thought to hold the field in painting, and now Giotto has the cry, so that the fame of him is obscured. In like manner the one Guido has taken from the other the glory of our tongue ; and he per- haps is born who shall drive both one and the other from the nest.11 Worldly renown is naught but a breath of wind, which now comes this way and now comes that, and changes name because it changes quarter. What more repute shalt thou have, if thou strippest thy flesh from thee when it is old, than if thou hadst died before thou hadst left thy pap and thy rattle,12 ere a thousand years have passed? — which is a shorter space compared to the eter- nal than a movement of the eyelid to the circle which is slowest turned in Heaven. With him
10. v. 93. Dark ages, in which there is no lustre to dim that of the past.
11. v. 99. The first Guido is Guido Guinicelli, whom Dante calls his father in poesy ; see Canto xxvi. 97-99. The other, Dante's friend, Guido Cavalcanti. He who may drive both from the nest can be no other than Dante him- self.
12. v. 105. Dante's words are pappo and dindi, child- ish terms corresponding to our " pap " and "chink."
vv. 109-127] CANTO XI 85
who takes so little I3 of the road in front of me, all Tuscany resounded, and now is scarce a whisper of him in Siena, whereof he was lord when the Florentine rage was destroyed,14 which at that time was proud, as now it is prostitute. Your reputation is as the color of grass, which comes and goes, and he 15 discolors it through whom it came up fresh from the earth." And I to him : " Thy true speech fills my heart with good humility, and thou abatest a great swell- ing in me : but who is he of whom thou now wert speaking ? " " That," he answered, " is Provenzan Salvani ; l6 and he is here, because he was presumptuous in bringing all Siena to his hands. He has gone thus — and he goes without repose — ever since he died : such coin does every one pay in satisfaction, who is too daring on earth." And I : "If that spirit who
13. v. 109. Advances so slowly on the road.
14. v. 112. The mad Florentine people were utterly defeated, with vast loss of life, in 1 260, at the battle of Montaperti.
15. v. 11 6. As the sun causes the grass to spring up green, and then dries it up, so Time in his course first gives reputation to men, and then takes it away.
1 6. v. 121. Provenzano Salvani was one of the chief supporters of the Ghibelline cause in Tuscany. He was a man of great qualities and capacity, but proud and presump- tuous. Defeated and taken prisoner at the battle o
in 1 269, he was beheaded.
Hfi PURGATORY [vv, 128-144
awaits the verge of life ere he repent abides there below,17 and, if good prayer do not assist him, ascends not hither, until as long a time pass as he lived, how has this coming been granted unto him?" "When he was Jiving in greatest boast/1 said he, "laying aside all shame, he freely stationed himself in the Campo of Siena,'8 tad there, to deliver this friend from the punishment he was enduring in the prison of Charles, brought himself to tremble in every vein, More I will not say, and I know that I speak darkly ; but little time will pass, before thy neighbor! will to act that thou shalt be able to gloss it.19 This deed removed those limits for him,""
17. v. 1 19, On the lower ilopei of the mountain, out-
ni.ir Ihr K.ilr ,,| I'm Kiii, „ y .
1 8. v, 134. The Campo of Siena if her chief public •quire s&d marketplace, set round with palaces, The friend or Prevensano ii laid by the old commentator! to have fought for Conradin againit Charles of Anjou, and, being taken cap- tive, to have been condemned to death. His ransom was fixed at ten thousand florins. Provensano, not being able to pay this sum from his own means, took his station in the Campo, and humiliated himself Co beg of the passers-by.
19. v. 141, Thou wilt be able to interpret my dark laying, for exile and poverty will compel thee to beg, and, begging, to tremble in every vein.
20. v. 142. This deed of humility and charity relieved him from tarrying outside the gate.
CANTO XII
First Ltdgi : tht Proud. — Instance of tbt punish" mtnt of Pridt gravtn on tht pavtmint. — Mttting with
tin Jny/l who remove* one of the /''r. //u/-/// to tht Stcond Lidge.
WITH even pace, like oxen that go yoked, I went on with that burdened soul so long M the sweet Pedagogue allowed it ; but when he said : " Leave him, and pass on, for here it is well for every one to urge his bark, both with the sail and with the oars, as much as he can/1 1 strait- ened up my body again, as is required for walking, although my thoughts remained both stooping and abased.
I had moved on, and was following willingly the steps of my Master, and both were now showing how light we were, when he said to me : " Turn thine eyes downward ; it will be well for thee, in order to cheer the way, to look upon the bed of thy footsteps/' As above the buried, so that there may be memory of them, their tombs on the ground bear engraved what they were before, — whence often is weeping
88 PURGATORY [w. 20-40
for them there, through the pricking of remem- brance, which only to the pious gives the spur, — so I saw figured there, but of better sem- blance in respect of the workmanship, all that for pathway juts out from the mountain.
I saw, on one side, him who was created more noble than any other creature, falling down as lightning from heaven.1
I saw, Briareus,2 on the other side, transfixed by the celestial bolt, lying heavy upon the earth in mortal chill.
I saw Thymbraeus,3 I saw Pallas and Mars, still armed, around their father, gazing at the scattered limbs of the giants.
I saw Nimrod at the foot of his great toil, as if bewildered, and looking round upon the peo- ple that had been proud with him in Shinar.
O Niobe ! with what grieving eyes did I see thee portrayed upon the road between thy seven and seven children slain !
O Saul ! how on thine own sword didst thou
1. v. 27. Lucifer. " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven." Luke x. 16.
2. v. 28. Examples from classic and biblical mythology alternate. Briareus, one of the giants who fought against the gods. See Hell, xxxi. 98.
3 . v. 3 1 . Apollo, so called from his temple at Thym- bra, not far from Troy, where Achilles is said to have slain Paris. Virgil (Georgia, iv. 323) uses this epithet.
vv. 41-55] CANTO XII 89
here appear dead on Gilboa, which thereafter felt not rain or dew ! 4
O foolish Arachne,5 so did I see thee, already half spider, wretched on the shreds of the work which to thy harm by thee was made !
O Rehoboam ! here thine image seems not now to threaten, but a chariot bears it away full of terror before anyone pursues it.6
The hard pavement showed also how costly to his mother Alcmaeon made the ill-fated orna- ment appear.7
It showed how his sons threw themselves upon Sennacherib within the temple, and how, he dead, they left him there.8
It showed the ruin and the cruel butchery
4. v. 42. i Samuel xxxi. 4. " Ye mountains of Gil- boa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you." 2 Samuel 'i. 21.
5. v. 43. Changed to a spider by Athena, whom she had challenged to a trial of skill at the loom.
6. v. 48. " 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." I Kings xii. 1 8.
7. v. 51. Amphiaraiis, the soothsayer, foreseeing his own death if he went to the Theban war, hid himself to avoid being forced to go. His wife, Eriphyle, bribed by an ill-fated golden necklace made by Vulcan, betrayed his hiding- place, and was killed by her son Alcmaeon, for thus bringing about his father's death.
8. v. 54. 2 Kings xix. 37.
90 PURGATORY [vv. 56-73
that Tomyris wrought, when she said to Cyrus, " For blood thou hast thirsted, and with blood I fill thee." 9
It showed how the Assyrians fled in rout after Holofernes was killed, and also the rem- nants of the victim.10
I saw Troy in ashes, and in caverns: O Ilion, how cast down and abject did the image which is there discerned show thee !
What Master has there been of pencil or of style that could draw the shadows and the lines which there would make every subtile genius wonder ? Dead seemed the dead, and the living alive. He who saw the truth saw not better than I all that I trod on, while I went bent down. — Now be ye proud, and go your way with haughty look, ye sons of Eve, and bend not down your face so that ye may see your evil path !
More of the mountain had now been circled
9. v. 57. Herodotus (i. 214) tells how Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae, having defeated and slain Cyrus, filled a skin full of human blood, and plunged his head in it, with words such as Dante reports, and which he took from Orosius, Hist. ii. 7.
10. v. 60. "Behold Holofernes lieth upon the ground without a head. . . . And fear and trembling fell upon them, so that .... rushing out all together, they fled into every way of the plain, and of the hill country." Judith xiv. 1 8 ; xv. 2.
vv. 74-97] CANTO XII 91
by us, and of the sun's course far more spent, than my mind, not disengaged," was aware, when he, who always went attentive in advance, be- gan : " Lift up thy head ; there is no longer time for going thus abstracted. See yonder an Angel, who is making ready to come toward us : see how the sixth hand-maiden is returning from the service of the day.12 With rever- ence adorn thine acts and thy face so that it may please him to direct us upward. Think that this day never dawns again." •
I was well used to his admonition never to lose time,13 so that on that theme he could not speak to me obscurely.
The beautiful creature came toward us, clothed in white, and in his face such as seems the tremulous morning star. His arms he opened, and then he opened his wings ; he said : " Come : here at hand are the steps, and easily henceforth does one ascend. Very few come to these tidings. O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall ? "
He led us to where the rock was cleft ; here
11. v. 75. Cf. Canto iv. 7—12.
12. v. 8 1 . The sixth hour of the day is coming to its end, near noon.
13. v. 86. "To lose time most displeases him who most knows," had Virgil said the day before. Canto iii. 78.
92 PURGATORY [vv. 98-109
he struck his wings across my forehead/4 then promised me secure progress.
As on the right hand, to ascend the moun- tain,15 where the church sits which above Ruba- conte '6 dominates the well-guided '7 city, the bold flight of the ascent is broken by the stairs, which were made in an age when the record and the stave were secure,18 so the bank which falls here very steeply from the next round is made easier; but on this side and that the high rock grazes.19 *As we turned our persons thither,
14. v. 98. Removing the first P that the Angel of the Gate had incised on Dante's brow.
15. v. 100. The hill of San Miniato, above the city of Florence.
1 6. v. 1 02. The upper bridge at Florence across the Arno, named after Messer Rubaconte da Mandello, podesta of Florence, who laid the first stone of it in 1237 ; now called the Ponte alle Grazie, after a little chapel built upon it in 1 47 1 , and dedicated to Our Lady of Grace.
17. v. 102. Ironical.
1 8. v. 105. In the good old time when men were hon- est. In 1299 one Messer Niccola Acciaiuoli, in order to conceal a fraudulent transaction, had a leaf torn out from the public notarial record ; and about the same time an officer in charge of the revenue from salt, for the sake of private gain, measured the salt he received with an honest measure, but that which he sold with a measure diminished by the removal sf a stave.
19. v. 1 08. The stairway is so narrow that the rock on either side grazes him who mounts.
trv. 110-130] CANTO XII 93
voices sang " Beati pauper es spiritu"20 in such wise that speech could not tell it. Ah, how different are these passes from those of Hell ! for here one enters with songs, and there below with fierce lamentations.
Already we were mounting up over the holy stairs, and it seemed to me I was far more light than I had seemed before upon the plain. Whereon I : " Master, say, what heavy thing has been lifted from me, so that almost no fatigue is felt by me as I go on ? " He an- swered : " When the P's which, almost extinct,21 still remain on thy forehead, shall be, as one is, quite erased, thy feet will be so conquered by good-will, that not only they will not feel fatigue but it will be delight to them to be urged up- ward." Then I did like those who are going with something on their head unknown to them, unless the signs of others make them suspect ; wherefore the hand assists to ascertain, and
20. v. no. "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
21. v. 122. Almost extinct, because in the removal of the P which stood for Pride, the others had grown faint, for as St. Thomas Aquinas says, " Pride, by which we are chiefly turned from God, is the first and the origin of all sins." He adds, " Pride is said to be the beginning of every sin, not because every single sin has its immediate source in pride, but because every kind (genus~) of sin is born o£ pride." S. T. ii.2 162. 7.
94 PURGATORY [vv. 131-136
seeks and finds, and performs that office which cannot be accomplished by the sight ; and with the fingers of my right hand outspread, I found six only of those letters which he of the keys had incised upon my temples : looking at which my Leader smiled.
CANTO XIII
Second Ledge : the Envious. — Examples of Love. — The Shades in haircloth^ and with sealed eyes. — Sapia of Siena.
WE were at the top of the stairway, where the mountain, ascent of which frees one from ill, is for the second time cut back. There a cornice binds the hill round about, in like man- ner as the first, except that its arc curves more quickly.1 No figure is there, nor mark which is apparent ; 2 thus the bank appears bare and thus appears the path, with but the livid color of the stone.
" If to enquire one waits here for people," said the Poet, " I fear that perhaps our choice 3 will have too much delay." Then he set his eyes fixedly on the sun, made of his right
1 . v. 6. As the conical mountain rises each ledge around it has a less circumference.
2. v. 7. No sculptured or engraved scenes are here, because the envious, who are expiating their sin in this cor- nice, deprived of the use of the eyes which they misused on earth, would be unable to see them.
3. v. 12. The choice of the right path.
96 PURGATORY [vv. 14-32
side the centre for his movement, and turned the left part of himself. " O sweet light, with confidence in which I enter on the new road, do thou lead us on it," he said, " as there is need for leading here within. Thou warmest the world, thou shinest upon it ; if other reason prompt not to the contrary, thy rays ought ever to be guides." 4
As far as here on earth is reckoned for a mile, so far had we now gone on from there, in short time because of ready will. And toward us were heard flying, not however seen, spirits uttering courteous invitations to the table of love. The first voice which passed flying, said loudly: " Vinum non habent"s and went on behind us reiterating it. And before it had become quite inaudible through distance, an- other passed by, crying : "'I am Orestes," 6 and
4. v. 21. The Sun here, as elsewhere, is the symbol of the illuminating grace of God ; and the words, " if other reason prompt not to the contrary " may refer to the condi- tions of the souls in Purgatory, not yet capable of following upward the guidance of the Sun, but compelled, by their desire for purgation, to remain upon the ledges where their sins are expiated.
5. v. 24. " They have no wine." John\\. 3. The words of Mary at the wedding feast of Cana, symbolic of a kindness that is a rebuke of envy.
6. v. 32. The words of Pylades, before Aegisthus, when contending with Orestes to be put to death in his stead.
w. 33-57] CANTO XIII 97
also did not stay. " O Father," said I, "what voices are these ? " and even as I was asking, lo ! the third, saying : " Love them from whom ye have had evil." And the good Master : " This circle scourges the sin of envy, and therefore the lashes of the scourge are drawn from love. The curb must be of the contrary sound ; I believe, according to my judgment, that thou wilt hear it, before thou arrivest at the pass of pardon.7 But fix thine eyes intently through the air, and thou wilt see in front of us people sitting, and each is seated against the cliff." Then more than before I opened my eyes ; I looked in front of me, and saw shades with cloaks in color not different from the stone. And when we were a little further for- ward, I heard cry : " Mary, pray for us ! " and a cry on Michael, and Peter, and all the Saints.
I do not believe there goes on earth to-day a man so hard that he would not be pierced with compassion at that which I then saw. For when I had approached so near to them that their actions came surely to me, tears were drawn from my eyes by heavy grief.8 They seemed to me
7» v. 42. At the stair, leading to the third ledge, at the foot of which stands the angel who cancels the sign of envy.
8. v. 57. Literally, "through my eyes I was milked of heavy grief."
98 PURGATORY [w. 58-84
covered with coarse haircloth, and one was sup- porting the other with his shoulder, and all were supported by the bank. Thus the blind, who lack subsistence, wait at pardons 9 to beg for what they need, and one bows his head upon another, so that pity may quickly be moved in others, not only by the sound of their words, but by the sight which implores no less. And as the sun profits not the blind, so to the shades, in that place of which I was just now speaking, the light of Heaven wills not to make largess of itself ; for an iron wire pierces the eyelids of all ; even as is done to a wild hawk, because it stays not quiet.
It seemed to me I was doing outrage in going on, seeing others, not being seen myself, where- fore I turned me to my sage counsellor. Well did he know what the dumb wished to say, and therefore waited not my asking, but said : " Speak, and be brief and to the point."
Virgil was coming with me on that side of the cornice from which one may fall, because it is encircled by no rim. On the other side of me were the devout shades, who through the horrible suture were so pressing out their tears that they bathed their cheeks. I turned me to
9. v. 62. On occasion of special indulgences the beg- gars gather at the door of churches frequented by those who seek the pardons to be obtained within.
vv. 85-107] CANTO XIII 99
them, and : " O folk," I began, " assured of seeing the Light on high which your desire has alone in its care, may grace speedily dissolve the scum from off your conscience so that the stream of memory may flow down through it clear,10 tell me, for it will be gracious and dear to me, if there be a soul here among you that is Italian, and perhaps it will be good for him if I learn it." " O my brother, each of us is a citizen of one true city,11 but thou meanest one who lived in Italy while a pilgrim." " It seemed to me I heard this for answer somewhat farther on than where I was standing ; where- fore I made myself heard still more that way. Among the others I saw a shade that was ex- pectant in look ; and, if any one should wish to ask : How? — it was lifting up its chin in the manner of a blind man. " Spirit," said I, " that art subduing thyself in order to ascend, if thou art that one which answered me, make thyself known to me either by place or by name." " I was of Siena," it answered, " and with these others I cleanse here my guilty life, weeping to
10. v. 90. So that purified from sin they shall retain no memory of it.
11. v. 95. " Fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.7' Ephesians'u.. 19.
12. v. 96. " For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. ' * Hebrews xiii. 1 4.
ioo PURGATORY [vv. 108-128
Him that He vouchsafe Himself to us. Sapi- ent I was not, although I was called Sapia, I3 and I was far more glad of others' harm than of my own good fortune. And that thou mayst not believe that I deceive thee, hear whether I was foolish as I tell thee. When the arch of my years was already descending, my fellow-citizens were joined in battle near to Colle I4 with their adver- saries, and I prayed to God for that which He willed. They were routed there, and turned into the bitter passes of flight; and I, seeing the pur- suit, experienced a joy unmatched by any other ; so much that I turned upward my audacious face, crying out to God : c Henceforth no more I fear thee ; ' as the blackbird does because of a little fair weather. At the very end of my life I desired peace with God ; and even yet my debt would not have been lessened by penitence,15 had it not been that Pier Pettinagno,16 who out of
13. v. 109. A lady said by Benvenuto to have been by birth or marriage of the family of the Bigozzi, who held a stronghold about four miles from Colle, in the territory of Siena.
14. v. 1 1 5. This was the battle in I 269, in which the Florentines routed the Sienese Ghibellines, at whose head was Provenzano Salvani. See Canto xi. 121-123.
15. v. 126. I should not yet within Purgatory have di- minished my debt of expiation, but, because I delayed repent- ance till the hour of death, I should still be outside the gate.
16. v. 128. A poor comb-dealer, a man of kind heart,
vv. 129-151] CANTO XIII 101
charity was sorry for me, held me in memory in his holy prayers. But who art thou that goest asking of our conditions, and carryest thine eyes loosed as I think, and breathing dost speak ? " " My eyes," said I, " will yet be taken from me here ; but for a short time, for small is the of- fence committed through their being turned with envy. Far greater is the fear, with which my soul is in suspense, of the torment below, and the load down there already weighs upon me." And she to me : " Who then hath led thee up here among us, if thou thinkest to re- turn below ? " And I : " This one who is with me, and who says not a word : and I am alive ; and therefore ask of me, spirit elect, if thou wouldst that on earth I should yet move for thee my mortal feet." " Oh, this is so strange a thing to hear," she replied, "that it is a great sign that God loves thee ; therefore assist me sometimes with thy prayer. And I be- seech thee, by that which thou most desirest, that, if ever thou tread the earth of Tuscany, thou restore me to good fame among my kin- dred. Thou wilt see them among that vain people I7 which hopes in Talamone,18 and will
honest dealings, and good deeds, and still remembered for them in Siena. He died in 1289.
17. v. 151. Cf. Hell xxix. 122.
1 8. v. 152. A little port on the coast of Tuscany, on
102 PURGATORY [vv. 152-154
there lose more hope, than in finding the Diana ; I9 but the admirals will there lose even more." 20
which the Sienese wasted toil and money in the vain hope that, by strengthening and enlarging it, they could make themselves rivals at sea of the Pisans and Genoese.
I9' v' IS3- A subterranean stream supposed to flow be- neath the city, which the Sienese often sought in vain to find.
20. v. 154. Of these last words the meaning was ob* scure even to the earliest commentators.
CANTO XIV
Second Ledge : the Envious. — Guido del Duca. — • Rinieri de* Calboli. — Instances of the punishment of Envy.
" WHO is this that circles our mountain ere death have given him flight, and opens and shuts his eyes at his own willv? " T "I know not who he is, but I know that he is not alone. Do thou, who art nearer to him, ask him ; and sweetly, so that he may speak, accost him." Thus two spirits, leaning one to the other, dis- coursed of me there on the right hand, then turned their faces up to speak to me ; and one of them said : " O soul, that still fixed in thy body art going on toward heaven, for charity console us, and tell us whence thou comest, and who thou art ; for thou makest us so greatly marvel at this thy grace, as needs must a thing that never was before." And, I : "Through
i. v. 3. These words are spoken by Guido del Duca, who is answered by Rinieri dej Calboli ; both of them of illustrious family, and men of note and honor in the Ro- magna, during the thirteenth century. Guido was a Ghibel« line, Rinieri a Guelf.
104 PURGATORY [vv. 16-38
mid Tuscany there wanders a little stream, that has its source on Falterona,2 and a hundred miles of course does not suffice it. From there- upon I bring this body. To tell you who I am would be to speak in vain, for my name as yet makes no great sound." " If I rightly penetrate thy meaning with my understanding," then replied to me he who had spoken first, " thou speakest of the Arno." And the other said to him : " Why did he conceal the name of that river, even as a man does of horrible things ? " And the shade of whom this was asked, delivered itself thus : " I know not, but truly it is fit that the name of such a valley 3 perish, for from its source (where the rugged mountain chain, from which Pelorus is cut off, is so teeming that in. few places does it pass be- yond that mark 4), far as there where it renders itself to restore that which heaven sucks up from the sea, whence the rivers have what flows in them, virtue is driven away as an enemy by all men, even as a serpent, either through ill-
2. v. 17. One of the highest of the Tuscan Apennines.
3. v. 30. The valley derives its name from the river.
4. v. 3 3 . The chain of the Apennines, — the backbone of Italy, from which Pelorus, the high northeastern headland sf Sicily, seems, as it were, cut off, — is nowhere more teeming with waters than on Monte Falterona, where the Tiber, as well as the Arno, has its source.
w. 39-58] CANTO XIV 105
fortune of the place, or through evil habit that incites them. Wherefore the inhabitants of the wretched valley have so changed their nature that it seems as though Circe had them in her feeding. Among foul hogs,5 more fit for acorns than for other food made for human use, it first directs its poor path. Then, coming down, it finds curs,6 more snarling than their power warrants, and from them disdainfully it twists its muzzle.7 It goes on falling, and the more it swells so much the more does the accursed and ill-fated ditch find the dogs becoming wolves.8 Descending then through many hollow depths, it finds the foxes 9 so full of fraud, that they fear not wit which may entrap them. Nor will I cease to speak because another may hear me : and well it will be for this man if hereafter he mind him of that which a spirit of truth discloses to me.
" I see thy grandson,10 who becomes a hunter
5 . v. 43 . The people of the Casentino, the upper valley of the Arno.
6. v. 46. The curs of Arezzo.
7. v. 48. Turning westward.
8. v. 50. The wolves of Florence.
9. v. 53. The foxes of Pisa.
10. v. 58. Fulcieri da Calboli, — grandson of Rinierv to whom Guido del Duca is speaking, — «« a fierce and cruel man," was made podesta of Florence in 1302. He put ta death many of the White Guelfs, and banished more of them.
106 PURGATORY [w. 59-85
of those wolves upon the bank of the fierce stream, and terrifies them all. He sells their flesh," it being yet alive ; then he slaughters them like aged cattle ; many of life, himself of honor he deprives. Bloody he comes forth from the dismal wood ; I2 he leaves it such, that from now for a thousand years it is not rewooded in its primal state."
As at the announcement of grievous ills, the face of him who listens is disturbed, from what quarter soever the peril may assail him, so I saw the other soul, that was staying turned to hear, become disturbed and sad, when it had gathered to itself the words.
The speech of the one and the look of the other made me wishful to know their names, and I made request for it, mixed with prayers. Wherefore the spirit which had first spoken to me began again : " Thou wishest that I conde- scend to do for thee that which thou wilt not do for me ; but since God wills that such great grace of His shine through in thee, I will not be chary to thee ; therefore know that I am Guido del Duca. My blood was so inflamed with envy, that had I seen a man becoming joyful, thou wouldst have seen me overspread with hue of spite. Of my own sowing such
11. v. 6 1 . Bribed by the opposite party.
12. v. 64. Florence, spoiled and undone.
vv. 86-100] CANTO XIV 107
straw I reap. O human race, why dost thou set thy heart there where exclusion of a com- panion is needful ? I3
" This one is Rinier ; this is the glory and the honor of the house of Calboli,14 where no one since has made himself heir of his worth. And between the Po and the mountain, and the sea and the Reno,15 not his race only has become stripped of the good requisite for truth and for delight ; for within these boundaries the land is full of poisonous stocks, so that slowly would they now die out through cultivation. Where is the good Lizio, and Arrigo Mainardi, Pier Traversaro, and Guido di Carpigna ? l6 O men of Romagna turned to bastards ! When in Bologna will a Fabbro take root again ? When
13. v. 87. Why dost thou set thy heart on things which others cannot partake with thee ?
14. v. 89. The castle of Calboli, from which the fam- ily derived their name, was not far from Forli. It was de- stroyed by Guido da Montefeltro in 1277.
15. v. 92. That is, in all Romagna, bordered by the Po, the Apennines, the Adriatic, and the river Reno.
1 6. v. 98. These and others named afterwards were well-born, honorable, and courteous men in Romagna in the thirteenth century. Benvenuto says that Guido del Duca and Arrigo Mainardi were special friends, and when Arrigo died Guido had the wooden seat, on which they had been accus- tomed to sit together, sawn apart, declaring that no one re- mained like him in liberality and honor.
io8 PURGATORY [w. 101-121
in Faenza a Bernardin di Fosco, the noble scion of a little plant ? Marvel not, Tuscan, if I weep, when I remember, with Guido da Prata, Ugolin d' Azzo who lived with us, Fe- derico Tignoso and his company, the house of Traversara, and the Anastagi, (both the one race and the other are without heir), the ladies and the cavaliers, the toils and the repose for which love and courtesy inspired us, there where hearts have become so wicked. O Brettinoro, why dost thou not make away with thyself,17 since thy family has gone, and many people, in order not to become guilty? Bagnacaval does well that it gets no more sons ; and Castro- caro does ill, and Conio worse that it still troubles itself to beget such counts.18 The Pagani will do well after their Demon shall be gone from them ; I9 yet not so that a pure tes- timony can ever remain to them. O Ugolin de' Fantolin, thy name is secure, since no
17. v. 112. Literally: "why dost thou not flee away." Brettinoro is a small town near Forli. It was the birthplace of Guido del Duca, and the family to which he refers was, perhaps, his own.
1 8. v. 117. Bagnacavallo, Castrocaro, and Conio are three little towns in Romagna, which had once been the homes of worthy men.
19. v. 119. The Pagani were lords of Faenza and Imola ; the Demon was Maghinardo, who died in 1302. See Hell, xxvii. 49-51. &a
vv. 122-145] CANTO XIV 109
longer is one to be expected who can make it dark by his degeneracy.20 But go thy way, Tuscan, now ; for now it pleases me far more to weep than to speak, so much has our dis- course wrung my mind."
We knew that those dear souls heard us go on ; therefore by their silence they made us confi- dent of the road. After we had become alone as we proceeded, a voice, that seemed like light- ning when it cleaves the air, came counter to us, saying : " Everyone that findeth me shall slay me," 2I and fled like thunder which rolls away, if suddenly the cloud is rent. Soon as our hearing had a truce from it, lo ! now an- other with so great a crash that it resembled a thunder-clap which follows fast : " I am Aglau- ros who became a stone." 22 And then to press close to the Poet, I took a step backward and not forward. The air was now quiet on every side, and he said to me : " That 23 was the hard curb which ought to hold a man within his bound ; but ye take the bait, so that the hook
20. v. 123. Both the sons of Ugolino de' Fantolin had died without offspring. The Fantolini were of Faenza.
21. v. 133. The words of Cain. Genesis iv. 14.
22. v. 139. The daughter of Cecrops, changed to stone, because of envy of her sister.
23. v. 143. These examples of the fatal consequences of the sin of envy.
no PURGATORY [vv. 146-151
of the old adversary draws you to him, and therefore little avails bridle or lure. Heaven calls you, and revolves around you, displaying to you its eternal beauties, and your eye looks only on the ground ; wherefore He who dis- cerns all things scourges you."
CANTO XV
Second Ledge : the Envious. — An Angel removes the second P from Dante's forehead. — Discourse concerning the Sharing of Good. — Ascent to the Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Examples of Forbearance seen in Vision.
As much as, between the beginning of the day and the close of the third hour, appears of the sphere which is ever sporting in manner of a child, so much of his course toward the even- ing appeared to be now remaining for the sun.1 It was vespers2 there, and here3 midnight ; and the rays were striking us full in the face, 4 because the mountain had been so circled by us that we
1. v. 5. That is, in simple words, the sun was still some three hours from his setting. By "the sphere that ever is sportive like a child" Dante probably intends the visible sphere of the heavens, which, by its constant apparent gyra- tion and ever varying aspect, might suggest the image of a play- ful and restless child.
2. v. 6. Dante uses "vespers " as the term for the last of the four canonical divisions of the day ; that is, from three to six P. M. See Convito, iv. 23. Three o'clock in Purga- tory corresponds with midnight in Italy.
3. v. 6. In Italy.
4. v. 7. Literally, «' on the middle of the nose."
in PURGATORY [w. 9-31
were now going straight toward the sunset, when I felt my forehead weighed down by the splendor far more than at first, and the things not known were a wonder to me : 5 wherefore I lifted my hands toward the top of my brows, and made for myself the visor which lessens the excess of what is seen.
As when from water, or from a mirror, the ray leaps to the opposite quarter, mounting up in like manner to that in which it descends, and at equal distance departs as much from the fall of the stone,6 as experiment and art show ; so it seemed to me that I was struck by light re- flected7 there in front of me, wherefore my sight was swift to fly. " What is that, sweet Fa- ther, from which I cannot screen my sight so much that it may avail me," said I, " and which seems to be moving toward us ? " " Marvel not if the family of Heaven still dazzle thee," he replied to me ; " it is a messenger that comes to invite one to ascend. Soon will it be that to
5. v. 12. The source of this increase of brightness being unknown, it caused Dante astonishment.
6. v. 20. The angle of reflection of a ray being equal to that of the angle of incidence, the distance of the direct or the reflected ray from the perpendicular — the fall of a plummet — at a given point is the same.
7. v. 22. The light proceeding from the angel seemed AS if reflected, because it came from a source lower than the direct rays of the sun.
w. 32-55] CANTO XV 113
see these things will not be grievous to thee, but will be to thee a delight as great as nature has fitted thee to feel."
When we had reached the blessed Angel, with a glad voice he said : "Enter ye from here on a stairway far less steep than the others."
We were mounting, already departed thence, and " Beati mis eric or des"* was sung behind us, and : " Rejoice thou that overcomest."
My Master and I, we two alone, were going on upward, and I was thinking, as we went, to win profit from his words ; and I addressed me to him, enquiring thus : " What did the spirit from Romagna mean, in speaking of c exclusion ' and a c companion ? ' " 9 Wherefore he to me : " Of his own greatest fault he knows the harm, and therefore it is not to be wondered at if he re- buke it, in order that there may be less lament- ing for it. Because your desires are directed there, where, through companionship, a share is lessened, envy moves the bellows for your sighs. But if the love of the highest sphere I0 turned your desire upward, that fear would not be in your breast ; for the more there are who there
8. v. 38. " Blessed are the merciful."
9. v. 44. In the last canto, vv. 86-87, Guido del Duca had exclaimed, " O human race, why dost thou
there where exclusion of a companion is needful
10. v. 52. The Empyrean.
n4 PURGATORY [vv. 56-75
say ' Ours/ so much the more of good doth each possess, and the more of charity burns in that cloister/'" " I am more empty of satisfaction/'" said I, "than if I had at first been silent, and more of doubt I gather in my mind. How can it be that a good distributed can make more possessors richer with itself, than if it be pos- sessed by few ? " And he to me : " Because thou fastenest thy mind only on earthly things, thou gatherest darkness from the very light. That infinite and ineffable Good which is on high, runs to love '3 even as a sunbeam comes to a lucid body. So much it gives itself as it finds of ardor ; so that how far soever chanty extends, over it does the Eternal Valor spread. And the more the people who set their hearts on high the more there are for loving well, and the more love there is, and like a mirror one reflects to the
11. v. 57. " Char if as addit supra amor em perfectionent quamdam amor is." S. T. ii.1 26. 3.
" Since good, the more Communicated, the more abundant grows."
Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 73.
" The secret of virtue is to know that the richer another is the richer am I." Emerson, Letters to a Friend, p. 27. " True love in this differs from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away."
Shelley, Epipsychidion.
12. v. 58. Literally, "I am more fasting of being contented."
13. v. 69. Runs to meet the love which is directed to It.
/v. 76-102] CANTO XV 115
other. And if my discourse appease not thy hunger, thou shalt see Beatrice, and she will fully take from thee this and every other longing. Strive only that soon may be extinct, as are the two already, the five wounds which are closed up by being painful."14
As I was wishing to say : " Thou dost satisfy me : " I saw that I had arrived on the next round,15 so that my eager eyes made me silent. There it seemed to me I was of a sudden rapt in an ecstatic vision, and saw many persons in a temple, and a lady at the entrance, with the sweet mien of a mother, saying : " My son, why hast thou thus dealt with us ? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing." And as here she was silent, that which first appeared, disappeared.
Then appeared to me another, with those waters down along her cheeks which grief dis- tils when it is born of great despite toward others, and she was saying : " If thou art lord of the city about whose name was such great strife among the gods, and whence every science spar- kles forth, avenge thyself on those audacious arms, which have embraced our daughter, O Pi- sistratus." And the lord appeared to me, benign
14. v. 8 1 . With the pain of penitence.
15. v. 83. The third ledge, on which the sin of angei is expiated.
n6 PURGATORY [w. 103-130
and mild, to answer her, with temperate look : K What shall we do to him who desires ill for us, if he who loves us is by us condemned ? " '*
Then I saw people inflamed with fire of wrath, killing a youth with stones, loudly crying to each other only : " Slay, slay." And I saw him bowed toward the ground by death, which now was weighing on him, but in such great strife he ever made of his eyes gates for heaven, praying to the high Lord, with that aspect which unlocks pity, that He would pardon his persecutors.17
When my mind returned outwardly to the things which outside of it are true, I recognized my not false errors. My Leader, who could see me act like a man who looses himself from slumber, said : " What ails thee, thatthou canst not support thyself? but art come more than half a league veiling thine eyes, and with thy legs tangled like one whom wine or slumber bends." " O my sweet Father, if thou hark- enest to me I will tell thee," said I, " what ap- peared to me when my legs were thus taken from me." And he : " If thou hadst a hundred masks upon thy face, thy thoughts, howsoever small,would not be hidden from me. That which thou hast seen was in order that thou excuse not
1 6. v. 105. This story is from Valerius Maximus, Fact a et dicta mem., vi. I, § 2.
17. v. 1 1 4. See Acts vii. 5 5-60.
vv. 131-145] CANTO XV 117
thyself from opening thy heart to the waters of peace which are poured forth from the eter- nal fountain. I did not ask : c What ails thee ? ' for the reason that he does who looks only with the eye which has no seeing when the body lies inanimate ; but I asked, in order to give vigor to thy foot ; thus it behoves to spur the slug- gards, slow to use their wakefulness when it re- turns."
We were going on through the vesper time, forward intent so far as the eyes could reach against the late and shining rays ; and, lo ! little by little, a smoke came toward us, dark as night ; nor was there place to shelter ourselves from it. This took from us our eyes and the pure air.
CANTO XVI
Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Marco Lombardo. — » His discourse on Free Will, and the corruption of the World.
GLOOM of hell, or of night deprived of every planet, under a poor sky, darkened by clouds as much as it can be, never made so thick a veil to my sight, or of so rough a tissue to my feeling, as that smoke which covered us there; for it suffered not my eye to stay open : ' where- fore my sage and trusty Escort drew to my side and offered me his shoulder. Even as a blind man goes behind his guide, in order not to stray, and not to butt against anything that may hurt or perhaps kill him, I went along, through the bitter and foul air, listening to my Leader, who was saying only : " Take care that thou be not parted from me."
I heard voices, and each appeared to be pray- ing for peace and for mercy to the Lamb of God that taketh sins away. Only " Agnus
i. v. 7. The gloom and the smoke symbolize the effects of anger on the soul.
vv. 19-44] CANTO XVI 119
Dei " 2 were their exordiums : one word there was in all, and one measure ; so that there seemed entire concord among them. "Are these spirits, Master, that I hear?" said I. And he to me : " Thou apprehendest truly ; and they go loosening the knot of anger." " Now who art thou that cleavest our smoke, and speakest of us even as if thou didst still divide the time by calends ? " 3 Thus was it spoken by a single voice : whereon my Master said : " Reply, and ask if by this way one goes up." And I, " O creature, that art cleansing thyself, in order to return beautiful unto Him who made thee, a marvel shalt thou hear if thou accompanyest me." " I will follow thee, for so far as is permitted me," it replied, " and if the smoke allows not seeing, in its stead hearing shall keep us joined." Then I began : " With that swathing band which death unbinds 4 I go upward, and I came hither through the infer- nal anguish ; and since God has so enclosed me in His grace that He wills that I should see His court by a mode wholly out of modern usage, conceal not from me who thou wast be- fore thy death, but tell it to me, and tell me if
2. v. 19. " The Lamb of God."
3. v. 27. By those in the eternal world time is not reckoned by earthly divisions.
4. v. 38. With my mortal body.
120 PURGATORY [w. 45-62
I am going rightly to the pass ; and let thy words be our escorts." " I was a Lombard, and was called Marco ; I had knowledge of the world, and I loved that virtue, toward which everyone has now unbent his bow : 5 for mount- ing upward thou art going rightly." Thus he replied, and added : " I pray thee that thou pray for me when thou shalt be above." And I to him : "I pledge thee my faith to do that which thou askest of me ; but I am bursting inwardly with a doubt, if I free not myself of it; at first it was single, and now it is made double by thy opinion which makes certain to me, here and elsewhere, that with which I couple it.6 The world is indeed as utterly de- serted by every virtue as thou declarest to me, and is big and covered with iniquity ; but I pray that thou point out to me the cause, so that I may see it, and that I may show it to
5. v. 48. No one now aims at virtue.
6. v. 57. These words may be paraphrased as follows : — "I long for the explanation of a question first suggested by words heard elsewhere, . now renewed by what you have said in confirmation of them, whereby I am made certain of the fact of which the cause perplexes me." The doubt or question was occasioned by Guido del Duca's discourse f Canto xiv.), in regard to the prevalence of wickedness in Italy. The fact of the iniquity of men was now reaffirmed by Marco Lombardo ; Dante accepts the fact as certain, but is in doubt as to its cause.
vv. 63-81] CANTO XVI 121
others ; for one sets it in the heavens, and one here below.*' 7
A deep sigh which grief wrung into " Ay me ! " he first sent forth, and then he began : " Brother, the world is blind, and thou truly comest from it. Ye who are living refer every cause upward to the heavens only, as though they moved all things with them of necessity. If this were so, free will would be destroyed in you, and there would be no justice in having joy for good, and grief for evil. The heavens initiate your movements, I do not say all of them ; but, supposing that I said it, light for good and for evil is given to you, and free will, which, though it endure fatigue in the first battles with the heavens, afterwards, if it be well nurtured, overcomes everything. To a greater force, and to a better nature, ye, free, are sub- ject, and that creates the mind in you, which the heavens have not in their charge.8 There-
7. v. 63. One attributes it to the planetary influences, and another to the sinfulness of man's nature.
8. v. 8 1 . The soul of man is the direct creation of God, and is in immediate subjection to His power ; it is not under control of the heavens, for its will is free to resist their mingled and imperfect influences. Consequently the evil in the world is not to be ascribed to the action of the heavens, but to the perversity of man, and Marco Lombardo now proceeds to show the special cause of the actual evil condi^ tions which he deplores.
122 PURGATORY [w. 82-100
fore if the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought ; and of this I will now be a true informant for thee.
" Forth from the hand of Him who delights in it ere it exists, like to a little maid who, weep- ing and smiling, wantons childishly, issues the simple little soul, which knows nothing, save that, proceeding from a glad Maker, it turns willingly to that which allures it. At first it tastes the savor of trivial good ; by this it is deceived and runs after it, if guide or bridle bend not its love. Hence it was needful to impose law as a bridle ; needful to have a king who should discern at least the tower of the true city. The laws exist, but who set hand to them ? Not one : because the shepherd who is in advance can chew the cud, but has not his hoofs divided : 9 wherefore the people, who see
9. v. 99. The injunction upon the children of Israel, in respect to clean and unclean beasts, contained in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus, verses 3—8 : " Whatever part- eth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that shall ye eat," but the beasts which divide the hoof and chew not the cud " are unclean to you," was from an early time interpreted allegorically by the doc- tors of the church, but with various understanding. St. Augustine, for example (Serm. 149) expounds the cloven hoof as typical of right conduct, because it does not easily slip, and the chewing of the cud as typical of wisdom, be- cause Scripture says : "A treasure to be desired rests in the
vv. 101-108] CANTO XVI 123
their guide aim only at that good I0 for which they are greedy, feed upon that, and seek no further. Well canst thou see that the evil guidance is the cause which has made the world guilty, and not that nature is corrupt in you." Rome, which made the world good, was wont to have two Suns,12 which made visible both one road and the other, that of the world and
mouth of the wise, but the fool swallows it. (It is not clear what passage in Scripture the saint had in mind.)
St. Thomas Aquinas, on the other hand, explains the cloven hoof as signifying, among other things, the distin- guishing between good and evil, and the sound understand- ing of them. And he adds, "Whoso is deficient in either, is spiritually unclean." (S. T. ii. 102, 6.)
By saying that " the shepherd who is in advance can chew the cud, but has not his hoofs divided," Marco Lombardo seems to intend that, though the Pope may pos- sess the true doctrine, yet in his acts he does not discrimi- nate between good and evil, seeking temporal power and the material goods for which all men are greedy, instead of those spiritual gifts which he ought to seek.
10. v. 101. Goods of this world.
11. v. 105. It is not to the corruption of human nature in general that the guilt of the world is due, but specifically to the fault of its rulers.
12. v. 107. Pope and Emperor, each with a diverse function and authority, the one of spiritual, the other of tem- poral rule. This was the main principle in Dante's politica' creed, and to set this forth is the object of his treatise on the Monarchy. He was not Guelf nor Ghibelline, but both and neither. He made a party by himself.
PURGATORY [w. 109-124
that of God. One has extinguished the other ; and the sword is joined to the crozier; I3 and the two together must perforce go ill, because, being joined, one fears not the other. If thou belie vest me not, consider the fruit, I4 for every plant is known by its seed.
" In the land which the Adige and the Po water, virtue and courtesy were wont to be found before Frederick had his quarrel ; IS now it may be securely traversed by anyone who, out of shame, would avoid speaking with the good, or drawing near them. Three old men are indeed still there, in whom the antique age rebukes the new, and it seems late to them ere God remove them to a better life ; Corrado da Palazzo,16 and the good Gherardo,17 and Guido
13. v. no. The symbol of the shepherd's crook.
14. v. 113. Literally, the spike, the ear of corn; the meaning being, consider the results which follow from this forced union.
15. v. 117. Before the Emperor Frederick II. had his quarrel with the Pope Gregory the Ninth ; that is, before Emperor and Pope had failed in their respective duties to each other.
1 6. v. 1 24. Corrado da Palazzo was of Brescia, and in his day of high repute for fair living and honorable character.
17. v. 1 24. Gherardo da Camino, " who was noble in his life, and whose memory will always be noble," says Dante in the Convito, iv. 14, 123. Gherardo was a noble soldier of Treviso, and its ruler for many years, till his death in 1306.
vv. 125-139] CANTO XVI 125
da Castel, who is better named, in fashion of the French, the simple Lombard.18
" Say thou henceforth, that the Church of Rome, through confounding in itself two modes of rule,19 falls in the mire, and defiles itself and its burden/'
" O my Marco," said I, " thou reasonest well ; and now I discern why the sons of Levi were excluded from the heritage ; 20 but what Gherardo is that, who, thou sayest, remains for sample of the extinct folk, in reproach of this barbarous age ? " " Either thy speech deceives me, or it is making trial of me," he replied to me, " in that, speaking Tuscan to me, it seems that thou knowest naught of the good Gherardo. By other added name I do not know him,
1 8. v. 126. "The French," says Benvemito da Imola, " call all Italians Lombards, and repute them very astute." The Ottimo Comento relates that Guido da Castello, who lived at Reggio, was accustomed to supply generously the French men-at-arms, returning poor from Italy, with all they needed, horses, arms, or money.
19. v. 128. The spiritual and the temporal.
20. v. 131. " The Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren ; the Lord is his inheritance." Deuteronomy x. 8—9. By this reference Dante points out why the Church should be debarred from temporal power and material acqui- sitions.
126 PURGATORY [vv. 140-145
unless I should take it from his daughter Gaia." May God be with you ! for farther I come not with you. Behold the brightness which rays already whitening through the smoke ; and I must needs depart — the Angel is there — be- fore I become apparent to him." 22 So he turned, and would not hear me more.
21. v. 140. Famed for her virtues, says Buti ; for her vices, say the Ottimo and Benvenuto.
22. v. 144. His time of purgation is not yet finished ; not yet is he ready to meet the Angel of the Pass, whose effulgence pierces glimmering through the smoke.
CANTO XVII
Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Issue from the Smoke. — Vision of instances of punishment of Anger. — Ascent to the Fourth Ledge, where Sloth is purged. — Second Night- fall in Purgatory. — Virgil explains how Love is the root alike of Virtue and of Sin.
RECALL to mind, reader, if ever on the alps a cloud closed round thee, through which thou couldst not see otherwise than the mole through its skin, how, when the humid and dense vapors begin to dissipate, the orb of the sun enters feebly through them ; and thy imagination will be swift in coming to see, how at first I saw again the sun, which was already at its setting. Thus matching mine to the trusty steps of my Master, I issued forth from such a cloud to the rays already dead on the low shores.
O faculty of imagination, that dost sometimes so steal us from outward things that a man heeds it not, although around him a thousand trum- pets are sounding, who moves thee if the sense afford thee naught ? A light, which is formed in the heavens, moves thee by itself, or by a will which guides it downward.1
I. v. 1 8. The imagination, if no object of sense excite it,
128 PURGATORY [vv. 19-36
In my imagination appeared the vestige of the pitilessness of her2 who changed her form into the bird that most delights in singing. And here was my mind so shut up within itself that from without came nothing which then might be received by it. Then there rained down within my raised fantasy, one crucified,3 despiteful and fierce in his look, and thus was he dying. Around him were the great Ahasuerus, Esther his wife, and the just Mordecai, who was so blameless in word and deed. And as this image burst of itself, in manner of a bubble for which the water fails, under which it was formed, there rose in my vision a maiden,4 weep- ing bitterly, and she was saying: "O queen, wherefore through anger hast thou willed to be
may be roused by the influence of the stars, or directly by the Divine will.
2. v. 19. This and the two following visions presented to Dante's imagination are examples of the punishment of sins committed in the passion of anger. Progne or Philomela, ac- cording to one or the other version of the tragic myth, was changed into the nightingale, after her anger had led her to take cruel vengeance on Tereus.
3. v. 26. Haman, who, according to the English version, was hanged, but according to the Vulgate, was crucified. Esther vii.
4. v. 34. Lavinia, whose mother, Amata, the wife of King Latinus, hanged herself in a rage at hearing a premature report of the death of Turnus, to whom she desired that Lavi- nia should be married. Aeneid, xii. 595—607.
w. 37-67] CANTO XVII 129
naught ? Thou hast slain thyself in order not to lose Lavinia ; now thou hast lost me : I am she that grieves, mother, at thy destruction, before that of another."
As sleep is broken, when of a sudden the new light strikes the closed eyes, and, broken, quiv- ers before it wholly dies, so my imagining fell down, soon as a light, greater by far than that to which we are accustomed, struck my face. I was turning to see where I was, when a voice said : " Here is the ascent : " and this withdrew me from every other object of attention, and made my will so eager to behold who it was that was speaking, that it never rests till it is face to face. But, as before the sun which weighs down our sight, and by excess veils its own shape, so here my power failed. " This is a divine spirit who directs us, without our asking, on the way to go up, and with his own light conceals himself. He so deals with us as a man does with himself; for he who waits for asking and sees the need, malignly sets himself already to denial. Now let us accord our feet to such an invitation ; let us press forward to ascend before it grow dark, for after, it would not be possible until the day returns." Thus said my Leader ; and I and he turned our steps to a stairway ; and, soon as I was on the first step, I felt near me a motion as if of a wing, and a
I3o PURGATORY [w. 68-92
fanning on my face,5 and I heard say : " Eeati pacificif who are without evil anger."
Already were the last sunbeams, on which the night follows, so lifted above us, that the stars were appearing on many sides. " O my strength, why dost thou so melt away ? " I said to myself, for I felt the power of my legs put in truce. We were now where the stair no farther ascended, and we were stayed fast, even as a ship that arrives at the shore : and I listened for a while, if I might hear any thing in the new circle. Then I turned to my Master, and said : " My sweet Father, say what offence is purged here in the circle where we are : if our feet be stopped, let not thy discourse be stayed." And he to me : "The love of good, defective in its duty, is here restored ; 7 here is plied again the ill-slack- ened oar. But that thou mayst still more clearly understand, turn thy mind to me, and thou shalt gather some good fruit from our delay.
" Neither Creator nor creature," he began, cc my son, was ever without love, either natural,
5. v. 68. By which the angel removes the third P from Dante's brow.
6. ¥.69. cc Blessed are the peacemakers."
7. v. 86. It is the round on which the sin of acedia, ac- cidie, sloth, — slackness and gloom in matters of the spirit, — is purged away.
vv. 93-107] CANTO XVII I3i
or of the mind,8 and this thou knowest. The natural is always without error ; but the other may err either through an evil object, or through little, or through too much vigor. While love is directed on the primal goods,9 and with due measure on the secondary,10 it cannot be the cause of ill delight. But when it is bent to evil," or runs to good with more zeal, or with less, than it ought, against the Creator his own creature is working. Hence thou canst comprehend that love is of necessity the seed in you of every virtue, and of every action that deserves punishment.
cc Now since love can never turn its sight from the welfare of its subject," all things are
8. v. 93. Either native in the soul, or rational, deter- mined by the choice, through free will, of some object of desire in the mind. The love which is instinctive in the nature of man is always good ; but the love determined by choice may be evil, either by being set on a wrong object, or by seeking a right one too eagerly, or not eagerly enough.
9. v. 97. The primal goods are God, and future blessed- ness ; the secondary are material things. The love of the primal is natural or instinctive ; the love of the secondary is dependent on the mind, or reason, determining the will.
10. v. 98. Literally: "measures itself on the second- ary."
11. v. 100. A wrong object of desire.
12. v. 107. To however wrong an object love may be directed, the person moved by love always conceives the object of desire to be for his own good.
132 PURGATORY [w. 108-127
secure from hatred of themselves ; and since no being can be conceived of as divided from the First13 and standing by itself, from hating Him every affection is cut off. It follows, if, thus distinguishing, I rightly judge, that the evil which is loved is that of one's neighbor; and. in three modes this love has its birth in your clay. There is he who hopes to excel through the abasement of his neighbor, and only on this account longs that from his greatness he may be brought low.14 There is he who fears loss of power, favor, honor, and fame, because another surmounts ; whereat he is so saddened that he loves the contrary.15 And there is he who seems so resentful for injury that he becomes greedy of vengeance, and such a one must needs coin harm for others.16 This triform love is wept for down below.17
" Now I would that thou hear of the other, — that which runs to the good in faulty mea- sure. Every one confusedly conceives of a
13. v. 1 10. God, the First Cause, the source of being.
14. v. 117. This is the nature of pride, which is the love of superiority to one's neighbor.
15. v. 1 20. The fear of suffering by another's rise is the source of envy, which is the love of the ill success of one's neighbor.
1 6. v. 123. Anger is the love of doing harm to one's neighbor from whom one has suffered wrong.
17. v. 124. In the three lower rounds of Purgatory.
vv. 128-139] CANTO XVII 133
good l8 in which the mind may be at rest, and desires it ; wherefore every one strives to attain to it. If the love be slack that draws you to look on this, or to acquire it, this cornice, after just repentance, torments you for it. Another good there is,19 which does not make man happy ; it is not happiness, it is not the good essence, the fruit and root of every good. The love which abandons itself too much to this 20 is wept for above us in three circles ; but how it is reckoned tripartite, of this I am silent, in order that thou seek it out for thyself."
1 8. v. 127. The supreme good.
19. v. 133. Sensual enjoyment.
20. v. 136. Resulting in the sins of avarice, gluttony., and lust.
CANTO XVIII
Fourth Ledge : The Slothful. — Discourse of Virgil on Love and Free Will. — Throng of Spirits running in haste to redeem their Sin. — The Abbot of San "Zeno. — Instances of punishment of Sloth. — Dante falls asleep.
THE lofty Teacher had put an end to his dis- course, and was looking attentive on my face to see if I appeared content ; and I, whom a fresh thirst was already goading, was silent outwardly, and was saying within : " Perhaps the too much questioning I make annoys him." But that true Father, who perceived the timid wish which did not disclose itself, by speaking gave me boldness to speak. Whereupon I : " Master, my sight is so vivified in thy light, that I dis- cern clearly all that thy discourse imports or describes : therefore I pray thee, sweet Father dear, that thou expound to me the love to which thou referrest every good deed and its con- trary." " Direct," he said, " toward me the keen eyes of the understanding, and the error of the blind who make themselves leaders will be man- ifest to thee.
vv. 19-30] CANTO XVIII 135
"The mind, which is created apt to love, is mobile unto everything that pleases, so soon as by pleasure it is roused to action. Your faculty of apprehension draws an image from a real existence, and displays it within you, so that it makes the mind turn to it ; and if, thus turned, the mind incline toward it, that inclination is love ; it is nature which is bound anew in you by pleasure.1 Then, as the fire moves upward by virtue of its form, which is born to ascend thither where it most abides in its own matter,2
1 . v. 2 7 . In his discourse in the preceding canto, Virgil has declared that neither the Creator nor his creatures are ever without love : in the creature it is either native in the soul and directed to the highest good, or it proceeds from the attraction of the mind toward secondary objects. Here he explains how the mind is disposed to love, by inclination to an image within itself of some object which gives it pleasure. This inclina- tion is natural to it ; or in his difficult rhyme-word phrase, " nature is bound anew " in man by the pleasure which arouses the love. " Love," says Dante, in the Convito, iii. 2, " taken in its true sense, and considered subtly, is nothing else than the spiritual union of the soul and of the object beloved, to which union the soul, of its own proper nature, runs swiftly or slowly, according as it is free or hindered." The doc- trine in this canto is derived directly from St. Thomas Aqui- nas. "It is the property of every nature to have some incli- nation, which is a natural appetite, or love." S. T1. I. Ixxvi. i. "The first act of the will is love, says the School, for till the will love, till it would have something, it is not a will." Donne, Sermon xxiii.
2. v. 30. Form is here used in its scholastic meaning.
136 PURGATORY [w. 31-42
so the captive mind enters into longing, which is a spiritual motion, and never rests until the thing beloved makes it rejoice. Now it may be apparent to thee, how far the truth is hidden from the people who aver that every love is in itself a laudable thing, because, perchance, its subject- matter always appears to be good ; 3 but not every seal is good although the wax be good. " " Thy words, and my wit following them," replied I to him, " have revealed love to me ; but that has made me more big with doubt. For
" The active power of anything depends on its form, which is the principle of its action. For the form is either the na- ture itself of the thing, as in those which are pure form ; or it is a constituent of the nature of the thing, as in those which are composed of matter and form." S. T. 3. xiii. i. Fire, by virtue of its form, or active principle, seeks to return to its source in the elemental sphere of fire, which was sup- posed to exist between the sphere of the air and that of the moon.
3. v. 37. Because the subject-matter, that is the object of the love, appears good, this is no proof that it is so in reality. An evil object may appear good and may excite love. "Evil as evil," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "does not move the will, but only as it is esteemed good." S. T. Suppl. 98. I ; cf. i. 19. 9 ; i. 82. 2 ; ii.1 27. I. Dr. Franklin, in his excellent little essay " On true Happiness," 1735, says the same thing in words which afford a per- fect comment on this passage : " Evil as evil can never be chosen ; and though evil is often the effect of our choice, yet we never desire it but under the appearance of an imaginary good."
w.43-6o] CANTO XVIII 137
if love be offered to us from without, and if the soul go not with other foot, it is not her own merit if she go strait or crooked." 4 And he to me : " So much as reason sees here can I tell thee ; beyond that await still for Beatrice ; for it is a work of faith. Every substantial form that is distinct from matter, or that is united with it,5 has a specific virtue collected in itself which is not perceived unless in operation, nor does it show itself save by its effect, as by green leaves the life in a plant. Therefore, man does not know whence the intelligence of the first cognitions comes, nor whence the affection for the first objects of desire, which exist in you even as zeal in the bee for making honey ; and this first will admits not desert of praise or blame.6 Now in order that to this every other
4. v. 45. If love be aroused in the soul by an external object, and if it be natural to the soul to love, how, seeing that she has no other course, does she deserve praise or blame for loving ?
5. v. 50. A substance, according to the Schoolmen, is ens per se subsist ens (S. T. i. 3. 5), "a being or thing pos- sessing individual existence ; " the substantial form dat esse substantiale, (S. T7. i. 76. 4) "gives to the substance its nature or mode of existence.'' Thus the soul is the sub- stantial form of man (/«'.) ; it is distinct from the body but united with it.
6. v. 60. This first will is the natural love of the pri- mal goods, which is always without error, of which Virgil has spoken in the preceding canto, vv. 91—97.
138 PURGATORY [vv. 61-78
may be gathered,7 the virtue that counsels 8 is innate in you, and ought to hold the threshold of assent. This is the principle wherefrom the reckoning of desert in you is derived, accord- ing as it gathers in and winnows good and evil loves. Those who in reasoning went to the foundation, took note of this innate liberty, wherefore they bequeathed morals 9 to the world. If we assume, then, that every love which is kindled within you arises of necessity, in you exists the power to restrain it. This noble faculty Beatrice understands as free will, and therefore see that thou have it in mind, if she take to speaking of it with thee." I0
The moon, almost at midnight slow," shaped like a bucket '2 that is ail ablaze, was making
7. v. 61. In order that every other will may conform with the first, that is, with the natural love for the first objects of desire.
8. v. 62. The innate faculty of reason, "the virtue which counsels " and on which the direction of the free will depends, is " the specific virtue " (v. 49) of the soul.
9. v. 68. The rules of that morality which would have no existence were it not for freedom of the will.
10. v. 75. Beatrice discourses of Free Will in the fifth canto of Paradise , vv. 1 9—24.
11. v. 76. The hour was toward midnight, and the moon, now near two hours up, was to appearance moving slowly, and, though past her full, was still so bright as to dim the stars.
12. v. 78. Gibbous, like certain buckets still in use in Italy.
w. 79-98] CANTO XVIII 139
the stars appear fewer to us, and was running counter to the heavens I3 along those paths which the sun inflames, when a man at Rome sees it at its setting between Sardinia and Corsica ; I4 and . that noble shade, for whom Pietola IS is more famed than the Mantuan city, had laid down the burden of my loading : l6 so that I, who had harvested his open and plain discourse upon my questions, remained like a man, who, drowsy, wanders. But this drowsiness was taken from me suddenly by folk, who, behind our backs, had now come round to us. And such a fury and a throng as Ismenus and Asopus saw of old along their banks at night if but the The- bans were in need of Bacchus,17 such curves its way along that circle, according to what I saw, of those coming on whom good will and right love are riding. They were soon upon us ; because all that great crowd was moving at a
13' v- 79' These words describe the daily "backing of the moon through the signs from west to east." Moore, Time References, p. 104.
14. v. 8 1. These islands are invisible from Rome, but the line that runs from Rome between them is a little south of east.
15. v. 83. The modern name of Andes, the birthplace of Virgil, and therefore more famous than Mantua itself.
1 6. v. 84. With which I had laden him.
I7- v- 93- The rivers Ismenus and Asopus ran not far from Thebes, the birthplace of Bacchus, who was its tutelary deity.
PURGATORY [vv. 99-120
run ; and two in front, weeping, were crying out : " Mary ran with haste unto the moun- tain ; " l8 and : " Caesar, to subdue Ilerda, thrust at Marseilles, and then ran on to Spain." I9 " Swift, swift, that time be not lost by little love," the others were crying as they followed, "so that zeal in well-doing may make grace green again." 20 " O people, in whom keen fer- vor now perhaps redeems negligence and delay, shown by you through lukewarmness in well- doing, this one who is alive (and surely I do not lie to you) wishes to go up, if but the sun may shine again for us ; therefore tell us where is the opening near at hand." These words were of my Leader ; and one of those spirits said : " Come thou behind us, and thou wilt find the gap. We are so full of will to move on that we cannot stay ; therefore pardon, if thou hold our duty for churlishness. I was Abbot21 of San Zeno at Verona, under the empire of the good Barbarossa,22 of whom Milan, still grieving,
1 8. v. 100. "And Mary . . . went into the hill coun- try with haste." Luke i. 39.
19. v. 1 02. Examples of righteous zeal, and, as usual, taken one from sacred and one from profane history.
20. v. 105. That grace which negligence had with- ered.
21. v. 1 1 8. Unknown, save for this mention of him.
22. v. 119. The epithet " good," applied here to the Emperor Frederick I. Barbarossa, belongs to him as the repre-
vv. 121-135] CANTO XVIII 141
talks. And one there is who has one foot al- ready in the grave, 23 who soon shall lament on account of that monastery, and will be sorry for having had power over it; because in place of its true shepherd he has put his son, ill in his whole body and worse in mind, and who was evil-born." I know not if he said more, or if he were silent, so far beyond us had he already run on ; but this I heard, and to retain it pleased me.
And he who was at every need my succor, said : " Turn thee this way ; see two of them coming, giving a bite to sloth." In rear of all they were saying : " The people for whom the sea was opened were dead before the Jordan beheld his inheritors ; " 24 and : " They who
sentative in Dante's mind of the Empire, established by God to rule the earth with justice and in peace. It was in March, 1 1 6|, that Barbarossa captured and destroyed Milan.
23. v. 121. Alberto della Scala, lord of Verona ; he died in 1301. He had forced upon the monastery for its abbot his deformed and depraved illegitimate son. It is the rule of the Church, based on the injunction of the Lord to Moses (Leviticus xxi. 16—23), tnat no deformed person shall be admitted to the priesthood.
24. v. 135. Numbers xiv. 23-33. " For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord." Joshua v. 6.
142 PURGATORY [w. 136-145
endured not the toil even to the end with the son of Anchises, offered themselves to a life without glory." 2S
Then when those shades were so far parted from us that they could no more be seen, a new thought set itself within me, from which many others and diverse were born ; and I so ram- bled from one to another that, with the wan- dering, I closed my eyes, and transmuted my meditation into dream.
25. v. 138. Those of the Trojans who, weary of the trials of the long voyage, and fearing the dangers of the way, — animos nil magnte laudis egentes ; "souls that cared not for great praise," — left Aeneas, to remain with Acestes in Sicily. Aeneid, v. 700-778.
CANTO XIX
Fourth Ledge : the Slothful. — Dante dreams of the Siren. — The Angel of the Pass. — Ascent to the Fifth Ledge. • — The Avaricious. — Pope Adrian V.
AT the hour when the heat of day, vanquished by the Earth or sometimes by Saturn/ can no longer warm the coldness of the moon, — when the geomancers see in the east, before the dawn, their Greater Fortune 2 rising along a path which short while stays dark for it, — there came to me in dream3 a woman, stammering, with
1 . v. 3 . Toward dawn, when the warmth of the pre- ceding day is exhausted, and when Saturn may exert its sup- posed frigid influence.
2. v. 4. Geomancy is divination by an arrangement of points on the ground, or of pebbles, in certain figures which have special names. One of them, in this form, ' \ • • , was called the Greater Fortune; and a figure, more or less resem- bling this, is formed by some of the last stars of Aquarius and some of the first of Pisces. These are the signs that imme- diately precede Aries, in which the Sun now was, and the stars forming the figure of the Greater Fortune would be in the east about two hours before sunrise.
3. v. 7. The hour when this dream comes to Dante is "post mediam no c tern . . . cum somnia veraj* — toward
144 PURGATORY [vv. 8-27
eyes asquint, and crooked on her feet, with hands lopped off, and pallid in her color. I gazed at her ; and as the sun comforts the cold limbs which the night benumbs, so did my look make her tongue nimble, and then in short while set her wholly straight, and so colored her wan face as love requires. Then, when thus she had her speech unloosed, she began to sing, so that with difficulty should I have turned my attention from her. " I am," she sang, " I am the sweet Siren, who bewitch the mariners in mid sea, so full am I of pleasantness to hear. I turned Ulysses from his wandering way by my song;4 and whoso customs himself with me seldom departs, so wholly do I satisfy him."
Not yet was her mouth closed, when at my side a Lady5 appeared, holy and ready to put
the morning, in which it was believed that dreams have a true meaning (compare Hell, xxvi. 7). The woman seen by Dante is the deceitful Siren, who symbolizes the temptation to those sins of sense from which the spirits are purified in the three upper rounds of Purgatory. At first the temptation is recognized in its true features, then the fancy decks it with the allurements of sensual delight, and finally, under the in- fluence of Grace, the Reason reveals the essential foulness of the sin.
4. v. 22. There is no classical authority for this claim of the Siren.
5. v. 26. This lady may be the type of the conscience,
vv. 28-42] CANTO XIX 145
her to confusion. " O Virgil, O Virgil, who is this ? " she sternly said ; and he came with his eyes fixe'd only on that modest one. She took hold of the other, and in front she opened her, rending her garments, and showed me her belly ; this waked me with the stench that issued from it. 1 turned my eyes to the good Master: " At least three calls have I given thee," he said ; " arise and come on ; let us find the gate through which thou mayst enter."
I rose up, and all the circles of the sacred mountain were already full of the high day, and we went on with the new sun at our backs.6 Following him, I was bearing my forehead like one who has it laden with thought, and who makes of himself a half arch of a bridge, when I heard : " Come ye ! here is the passage," spoken
virtus intellectualiSy that calls reason to rescue the tempted soul.
6. v. 39. It is full daylight as the poets are about to enter on the fifth ledge, where Avarice and Prodigality are punished. " Observe here the admirable fitness with which Dante times his progress, so that the time spent in the cornice where Accidia, or Spiritual Sloth, is punished is exactly coin- cident with the hours of night — ' the night when no man can work.* He enters it as darkness comes on (as we read in xvii. 70—72) and leaves it next morning, as soon as he awakes with the nuovo sol (xix. 39), being mildly chided by Virgil for the length of his slumbers (xix. 34). . . . In each of the other cornices he spends from three to five hours. ** Moore, Time References, p. 106.
146 PURGATORY [vv. 43-61
in a mode soft and benign, such as is not heard in this mortal region. With open wings, which seemed as of a swan, he who had thus spoken to us turned us upward, between two walls of the hard rock. Then he moved his pinions, and fanned us, affirming qui lugenf to be blessed, for they shall have their souls mistresses of consolation.8
" What ails thee that thou gazest only on the ground ? " my Guide began to say to me, both of us having mounted up a little from the Angel. And I : " With such mistrust a recent vision makes me go, which bends me to itself so that I cannot withdraw me from the thought of it." " Hast thou seen," said he, " that ancient sorceress, who above us henceforth is alone lamented ? 9 Hast thou seen how from her man is unbound ? Let it suffice thee, and strike thy heels on the ground ; I0 turn upward thine
7. v. 50. " They that mourn/'
8. v. 51. The meaning seems to be, "they shall be possessed of comfort." Donne (Lat. dominae, i. e. "mis- tresses ' ' ) is a rhyme-word, and affords an instance of a straining of the meaning compelled by the rhyme.
9. v. 59. The sorceress who symbolises the pleasures of the senses, the lust for which is purged away in the three upper rounds of Purgatory which the poets have yet to traverse.
10. v. 61. Hasten thy steps, bending not thy head to earth.
vv. 62-84] CANTO XIX 147
eyes to the lure which the eternal King whirls with the great circles." "
Even as the falcon that first looks at his feet, then turns at the cry, and stretches forward, through desire of the food that draws him thither ; such I became, and such, so far as the rock is cleft to afford a way to him who goes up, did I go on to where the circling is begun. " When I had come forth on the fifth round, I saw people upon it who were weeping, lying on the earth all turned downwards. "Adhacsit pavimento anima mea" '3 I heard them saying with such deep sighs that the words were hardly understood. " O elect of God, whose suffer- ings both justice and hope make less hard, di- rect us toward the high ascents." "If ye come secure from the lying down, and wish to find the way most speedily, let your right hands be always outermost." I4 Thus the Poet prayed, and thus was answer made to us from a little in advance of us; wherefore I, in his speaking, marked the one who was hidden ; I5 and then I
11. v. 63. Compare xiv. 148—150.
12. v. 69. The level of the fifth cornice.
13- v- 73- " My soul cleaveth unto the dust. " Psalm cxix. 25.
14. v. 61. That is, keep steadily to the right, so that your right hands will be toward the outer edge of the cornice.
15. v. 84. The face of the speaker, turned to the ground, was concealed.
148 PURGATORY [w. 85-104
turned my eyes to my Lord : whereon he granted me, with cheerful sign, that which my look of desire was asking.
Then, when I could do with myself accord- ing to my pleasure, I drew me above that creature, whose words had first made me note him, saying : " Spirit, in whom weeping matures that l6 without which one can not turn to God, suspend a little for me thy greater care. Tell me who thou wast ; and why ye have your backs turned upward ; and if thou wouldst have me obtain aught for thee there whence I alive set forth." And he to me : " Why heaven turns to itself our backs thou shalt know ; but first, scias quod ego fui successor Petri.17 Between Sestri and Chiaveri l8 descends a beautiful stream, I9 and of its name the title of my race makes its boast. 20 One month and little more I proved how the great mantle weighs on him who guards it from the mire, so that all the
1 6. v. 92. The fruit of repentance in the purgation of the soul.
17. v. 99. " Know that I was a successor of Peter." This was the Pope Adrian V., Ottobono de' Fieschi, who died in 1276, having been Pope for thirty-eight days.
1 8. v. 100. Little towns on the Genoese sea-coast.
19. v. 101. The Lavagna, from which stream the Fies- chi derived their title of Counts of Lavagna.
20. v. 103. Literally, "makes its summit." The forced image seems compelled by the need of the rhyme.
vv. 108-133] CANTO XIX 149
other burdens seem a feather. My conversion, alas ! was tardy ; but when I became the Roman Shepherd, then I discovered how false is life. I saw that there the heart was not at rest ; nor was it possible to rise higher in that life ; where- fore the love of this was kindled in me. Up to that time I had been a wretched soul and parted from God, wholly avaricious ; now, as thou seest, I am punished for it here. That which avarice does is displayed here in the pur- gation of these converted souls, and the Moun- tain has no more bitter penalty.21 Even as our eye, fixed upon earthly things, was not lifted on high, so justice here has sunk it to earth. As avarice quenched our love for every good, whereby our working was lost, so justice here holds us close, bound and captive in feet and hands ; and, so long as it shall be the pleasure of the just Lord, so long shall we stay immov- able and outstretched."
I had knelt down and was about to speak ; but as I began, and he became aware, only by listening, of my reverence : " What cause," said he, cc has bent thee thus downward ? " And I to him : " Because of your dignity my conscience stung me for standing." " Straighten thy legs, lift thee up, brother," he replied;
21. v. 117. Others may be greater, but none more humiliating.
150 PURGATORY ^.134-145
w err not, I am fellow servant of One Power with thee and with the rest.22 If ever thou hast understood that holy gospel sound which says neque nubent^ thou mayst well see why I speak thus. Now go thy way ; I wish not that thou tarry longer ; for thy stay hinders my weeping, with which I mature that which thou hast said.24 A niece I have on earth who is named Alagia,25 good in herself, if only our house make her not wicked by example ; and she alone remains to me yonder." 26
22. v. 135. "And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not : I am thy fellow servant." Revelation xix. 10.
23. v. 137. *' They neither marry. " Matthew xxii. 30. The distinctions of earth do not exist in the spiritual world.
24. v. 141. "That without which one cannot turn to God," v. 92.
25. v. 142. Alagia was the wife of the Marquis Moroello Malaspina. See Canto viii. 118—132. Dante had probably seen her in 1306, when he was a guest of the house, in the Lunigiana.
26. v. 145. Not that she was his only living relative, but the only one whose prayers, coming from a good heart, woulc avail him.
CANTO XX
Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — The Spirits celebrate examples of Poverty and Bounty. — Hugh Capet. — His discourse on his descendants. — Trembling of the Moun- tain.
AGAINST a better will the will fights ill : wherefore against my own pleasure, in order to please him, I drew from the water the sponge not full.
I moved on ; and my Leader moved on through the spaces vacant only alongside of the rock, as upon a wall one goes close to the battle- ments ; for, on the other side, the folk, who through their eyes are pouring out drop by drop the evil that possesses all the world, ap- proach too near the edge.1
Accursed be thou, old she-wolf, that more than all the other beasts hast prey, because of thy hunger hollow without end ! O Heaven ! by whose revolution it seems that some believe conditions here below are transmuted, when
I. v. 9. Too close to the outer edge of the cornice to leave a space for walking.
152 PURGATORY [vv. 15-32
will he come through whom she shall de- part ? 2
We were going on with slow and scanty steps, and I attentive to the shades whom I heard pite- ously lamenting and bewailing ; and by chance I heard : " Sweet Mary," cried out in front of us in the lament, just as a woman does who is in travail ; and in continuance : " So poor wast thou as may be seen by that inn where thou didst lay down thy holy burden." Following this I heard : " O good Fabricius,3 thou didst wish rather for virtue with poverty, than to possess great riches with vice." These words were so pleasing to me that I drew myself far- ther on, to have acquaintance with that spirit from whom they seemed to come. It was speaking now of the largess which Nicholas 4
2. v. 14. The old she-wolf is avarice, the same who at the outset (//>//, i. 49—54) had driven Dante back and made him lose hope of the height. The He whose coming is longed for is the hound who shall chase her back to Hell. {Id. i. i o I — in.) The likeness of the two passages is striking.
3. v. 25. Caius Fabricius, the famous poor and incorrupti- ble Roman consul, who rejected the bribes of the Samnites, B. c. 282. Dante extols his worth also in the Convito, iv. 5.
4. v. 32. St. Nicholas, Bishop of Mira, who, according to the legend, knowing that, because of the poverty of their father, three maidens were exposed to the risk of leading lives of dishonor, threw secretly, at night, into the window of their house, money enough to provide each with a dowrj.
w. 33-53] CANTO XX 153
made to the damsels in order to lead theif youth to honor. " O soul that speakest so much good," said I, " tell me who thou wast, and why thou alone dost renew these worthy praises ? Thy words will not be without meed, if I return to complete the short journey of that life which is flying to its end." And he : " I will tell thee, not for comfort that I may ex- pect from yonder,5 but because so great grace shines in thee ere thou art dead. I was the root of the evil plant which overshadows all the Christian land,6 so that good fruit is seldom plucked from it. But if Douai, Lille, Ghent, and Bruges had power, there would soon be vengeance on it;7 and I implore it from him who judges all things. Yonder I was called Hugh Capet : of me are born the Philips and the Louises, by whom of late France has been ruled. I was the son of a butcher of Paris.8 When the ancient kings had all died out, save
5. v. 41. The earth.
6. v. 44. The spirit which is speaking is that of Hugh Capet, whose descendants in 1300 were ruling France, Spain, and Naples.
7. v. 47. Philip the Fair gained possession of Flanders, by force and fraud, in 1299 ; but in 1302 the French were driven out of the country, after the fatal defeat at Courtrai, here dimly prophesied.
8. v. 52. Dante here follows the incorrect popular tradi- tion.
154 PURGATORY [w. 54-68
one, betaken to gray vestments,9 I found the bridle of the government of the realm fast in my hands, and so much power of new acquest, and such fullness of friends, that to the widowed crown the head of my son was promoted, from whom the consecrated bones I0 of these began. " So long as the great dowry of Provence " took not shame away from my race, it was little worth, but still it did not ill. Then it began its rapine with force and with falsehood ; and, after, for amends,12 it took Ponthieu and Nor- mandy and Gascony ; Charles13 came to Italy, and, for amends, made a victim of Conradin,14
9. v. 54. Who had become a monk. The reference is obscure, and, indeed, throughout the speech of Capet, there is a confusion of personages and events which affords a field for the industry of commentators.
10. v. 60. An ironical reference to the ceremony of consecration at the coronation of the kings.
11. v. 6 1 . This territory came to the royal family of France through the marriage in 1246 of Charles of Anjou, brother of St. Louis (Louis IX.), with Beatrice, the heir- ess of Raymond Berenger IV., Count of Provence. See Paradise, vi. 133-135.
12. v. 65. The bitterness of Dante's irony is explained by the evil part which France had played in Italian affairs.
13. v. 67. Of Anjou.
14. v. 68. The youthful grandson of Frederick II., who, striving to wrest Naples and Sicily, his hereditary pos- sessions, from the hands of Charles of Anjou, was defeated and taken prisoner by him in 1 267, and put to death by him in 1268. His fate excited great compassion.
vv. 69-82] CANTO XX 155
and then pushed Thomas IS back to heaven, for amends. A time I see, not long after this day, which draws another Charles l6 forth from France to make both himself and his the better known. Unarmed he goes out thence alone, but with the lance with which Judas jousted ; I7 and that he thrusts so that he makes the paunch of Florence burst. Thereby he will gain not land,18 but sin and shame so much the heavier for himself, as he the lighter reckons such harm. The other,19 who once went forth a prisoner from his ship, I see selling his daughter, and bar- gaining over her, as do the corsairs with other female slaves. O Avarice, what more canst thou
15. v. 69. Charles was believed to have had St. Thomas Aquinas poisoned, on his journey from Naples to the Council of Lyons, in 1274.
1 6. v. 7 i . Charles of Valois, brother of Philip the Fair, sent by Boniface VIII., in 1301, to Florence as peacemaker. But there he wrought great harm, and siding with the Black party against the Whites, many of the latter, including Dante, were driven into exile.
17. v. 74. The lance of treachery.
1 8. v. 76. A reference to his nickname of Senza terra, or Lackland.
19. v. 79. The other Charles, Charles II., son of Charles of Anjou. In 1284 he was made captive in a sea fight, off Naples, by Ruggieri di Loria, the Admiral of Peter III. of Aragon. In 1300, or 1305, according to common report, he sold his young daughter in marriage to the old Azzo, Marquis of Este.
156 PURGATORY [w. 83-96
do with us, since thou hast so drawn my race unto thyselt that it cares not for its own flesh ? In order that the ill to come and that already done may seem the less, I see the Fleur-de-lis entering Alagna, and in his Vicar Christ made captive.20 I see him mocked a second time ; I see the vinegar and the gall renewed, and, be- tween living thieves,21 Him put to death. I see the new Pilate " so cruel that this does not sate him, but, without decretal, he bears his covetous sails into the Temple.23 O my Lord, when shall I be glad in seeing the vengeance which, hidden in thy secret, makes thine anger sweet?
20. v. 87. Notwithstanding Dante's hostility to Boni- face VIII., the worst crime of the house of France was, in his eyes, the seizure of the Pope at Anagni, in 1303, by Guillaume de Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna, the emissaries of Philip the Fair.
21. v. 90. Put to death between living thieves repre- sents "to us Boniface as it were crucified between Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna, who were standing on either side of him, mocking and insulting him, yet still vivi." Moore, Textual Criticism, p. 396. Boniface died about a month after being made captive.
22. v. 91. Dante thus terms Philip, because through his means Boniface was delivered into the hands of his deadly enemies.
23- v- 93* The suppression of the Order of the Temple, in 1312 ; "without decretal," that is, without legitimate authority, but instigated by covetous desire to get possession of the wealth of the order.
vv. 97-115] CANTO XX 157
" That which I was saying of that only bride of the Holy Spirit,24 and which made thee turn toward me for some gloss, is the response to all our prayers 2S so long as the day lasts, but when the night comes, we take up instead thereof a con- trary sound. Then we rehearse Pygmalion,26 whom his gluttonous longing for gold made a traitor and a thief and a parricide ; and the misery of the avaricious Midas, which followed on his greedy demand, at which one needs must always laugh.27 Then of the foolish Achan each be- thinks himself, how he stole the spoils, so that the anger of Joshua seems still to sting him here.28 Then we accuse Sapphira with her hus- band; 29 we praise the kicks that Heliodorus re- ceived,30 and in infamy Polymnestor who slew Polydorus 3I circles the whole mountain. Finally
24. v. 98. The Virgin, when Dante first heard him.
25. v. 100. The words, which like the chanted re sponse, follow all our prayers.
26. v. 103. The brother of Dido, and the murderer of her husband for the sake of his riches. Aeneid, i. 353-54.
27. v. 1 08. Midas, the king of Phrygia, whose prayer to Bacchus was granted, that everything he touched should turn to gold. Ovid, Met. xi. 85-145.
28. v. ill. Achan stole and hid part of the accursed spoils of Jericho. Joshua vii.
29. v. 112. Acts v. i-l I.
30. v. 113. For his attempt to plunder the treasury of the Temple. Maccabees iii. 25.
31. v. 115. Priam had entrusted Polydorus, his young
158 PURGATORY [w. 116-133
our cry here is : £ Crassus, tell us, for thou know- est, what is the taste of gold ? ' 32 Sometimes one speaks loud, and another low, according to the affection which spurs us to speak now at a greater, and now at a less pace. Therefore in the good which by day is discoursed of here, I was not alone just now, but here near by no other person was raising his voice."
We had already departed from him, and were striving to master the road so far as was permitted to our power, when I felt the moun- tain tremble, like a thing that is falling ; where- upon a chill seized me, such as is wont to seize him who is going to death. Surely Delos was not shaken so violently, before Latona made her nest therein, to give birth to the two eyes of heaven.33 Then from all sides such a cry began est son, to Polymnestor, King of Thrace, who, when the fortunes of Troy declined, slew Polydorus, that he might take possession of the treasure sent with him. Cf. Hell, xxx. 1 8.
32. v. 117. Marcus Licinius Crassus, triumvir with Caesar and Pompey, B. c. 60 ; famed as the richest and most avaricious of men ; having been defeated by the Parthians, B. c. 53, he was slain, and their king is reported to have poured molten gold down his throat in derision, with the words : " Thou hast thirsted for gold, now drink it."
33. v. 132. Delos was a floating island, tossed upon the waves, until Jupiter fixed it that it might serve for the birthplace of Apollo and Diana, the divinities of Sun and Moon. Ovid, Met. vi. 187-191.
vv. 134-151] CANTO XX 159
that the Master drew towards me, saying: " Distrust not, while I guide thee." " Gloria in excelsis Deo," 34 all were saying, by what I comprehended from near at hand where the cry could be understood. We stood, motion- less and in suspense, like the shepherds who first heard that song, until the trembling ceased, and the song was ended. Then we resumed our holy journey, looking at the shades that were lying on the ground, returned already to their wonted plaint. No ignorance ever with so great •a war made me desirous of knowing 3S — if my memory err not in this — as that which I seemed then to have in my thought : nor, for our haste, did I dare to ask, nor of myself could I discern anything there : so I went on timid and thoughtful.
34. v. 136. " Glory to God in the highest."
35. v. 146. Dante seems to have had in mind the words in the Wisdom of Solomon xiv. 22. " They lived in the great war of ignorance," or, according to the Vulgate. *f magno viventcs insdentiae bello.
CANTO XXI
Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious . — Statius. — Cause of the trembling of the Mountain. — Statius does honor to Virgil.
THE natural thirst/ which is never satisfied save with the water 2 whereof the poor woman * of Samaria besought the grace, was tormenting me, and haste was goading me along the en- cumbered way behind my Leader, and I was grieving at the just vengeance : and lo ! as Luke writes for us that Christ, now risen forth from the sepulchral cave, appeared to the two who were on the way, a shade appeared to us ; and it was coming behind us who were looking at the crowd that lay at our feet : nor were we aware of it, so it spoke first, saying, "My brothers, may God give you peace!'* We
1 . v. i . " According to that buoyant and immortal sen- tence with which Aristotle begins his Metaphysics, ' Al) mankind naturally desire knowledge.' ' Matthew Arnold, God and the Bible, ch. iv. This sentence of Aristotle i» cited by Dante in the first chapter of the Convito.
2. v. 2. The living water of truth. John'w. 13-15.
vv. 14-35] CANTO XXI 161
turned suddenly, and Virgil gave back to it the salutation which corresponds thereto ; * then he began : " In the assembly of the blest, may the righteous court, which relegates me into eternal exile, place thee in peace/' " How/* said it, — and meanwhile we went on steadily, — " if ye are shades that God deigns not on high, who has guided you so far along his stairs ? " And my Teacher: "If thou regard the marks which this one bears, and which the Angel traces, thou wilt clearly see that he is to reign with the good. But, because she who spins day and night4 had not for him yet drawn the distaff off, which Clotho loads for each one and compacts, his soul, which is thy sister and mine, coming up- wards, could not come alone, because it sees not after our fashion Wherefore I was drawn from out the ample throat of Hell to show him, and I shall show him so far on as my teaching can lead him. But tell us, if thou knowest, why just now the mountain gave such shocks, and why all seemed to cry with one voice,5 even
3. v. I £. To the salutation, "Peace be rrkh you/' the due answer is, " And with thy spirit."
4. v. 25. Lachesis, that one of the Fates who spins the thread of life from off the distaff, on which CJotho kys and compacts the flax.
5. v. 35. All the spirits seeming to join in the Gloria in Excehis.
162 PURGATORY 0.36-55
down to its moist feet." Thus asking he shot for me through the needle's eye of my desire, so that only with the hope my thirst became less craving.
The shade began : " The sacred rule of the mountain can feel nothing which is without due order, or which is beyond its wont. This place is free from every alteration ; that which from itself heaven receives into itself, and naught else, can be the cause of this 6 : because neither rain, nor hail, nor snow, nor dew, nor frost, falls higher up than the little stairway of the three short steps ; 7 clouds, thick or thin, appear not ; nor lightning, nor the daughter of Thaumas8 who yonder often changes her quarter; dry vapor does not rise farther up than to the high- est of the three steps of which I spoke, whereon the vicar of Peter has his feet. It trembles per- haps lower down, little or much ; but up here
6. v. 45. The meaning of these obscure words is ex- plained by what the spirit who is speaking goes on to say : No earthly influence is felt here, but the cause of the trem- bling and the cry is the ascent of a soul from here to Heaven. Heaven is said to receive it from itself, because originally the soul proceeded from it, issuing from the hand of God, and now Heaven receives back again that which properly belongs to it.
7. v. 48, At the gate of Purgatory.
8. v. 50. The daughter of Thaumas was Iris, the rain bow, seen now to the west, now to the east.
vv. 56-69] CANTO XXI 163
it never trembled because of wind that is hidden, I know not how, in the earth.9 It trembles here when some soul feels itself pure, so that it rises, or moves to ascend ; and such a cry seconds it. Of the purity the will alone gives proof, which surprises the soul wholly free to change its company, and rejoices it with willing. It wills from the first indeed, but the desire, — which, contrary to the will, Divine Justice sets to the torment, as it had been to the sin, — allows it not.10 And I who have lain in this woe five hundred years and more, only just now felt a free volition for a better seat. Because of
9. v. 57. Aristotle had taught, and it was the common belief, that the movement of wind confined within the earth was the cause of earthquakes.
" As when the wind, imprison'd in the ground, Struggling for passage, earth's foundation shakes."
Venus and Adonis, 1046-47.
10. v. 66. The distinction here made between the will and the desire is one familiar to the Schoolmen, under the terms of the absolute and the conditioned will. The absolute will, the will which is native in the soul for its own ultimate salvation, always exists ; but in the exercise of his free will man may yield to the temptation of subordinate, and often sinful, objects of desire ; and until the soul in Purgatory is wholly purified from its sinful disposition, its desire, or con- ditioned will, is for the punishment through which its purifica- tion is accomplished, as it had originally been for the object of its sin. But when the soul becomes pure, then the absolute will possesses it to mount to Heaven, and becomes effective. See S. T. Supp'. 72. 2.
164 PURGATORY [w. 70-90
this didst thou feel the earthquake, and hear the pious spirits upon the Mountain render praise to that Lord, who, may He speed them upward soon ! "
Thus he said to us, and since one enjoys drinking in proportion as the thirst is great, I could not say how much he did me good. And the sage Leader : " Now I see the net which snares you here, and how it is unmeshed ; and why it trembles here ; and for what ye rejoice together. Now may it please thee that I may know who thou wast, and may it be disclosed to me in thy words why for so many centuries thou hast lain here ? " " At the time when the good Titus, with the aid of the Most High King, avenged the wounds wherefrom issued the blood sold by Judas," I was famous enough on earth with the name which lasts longest, and honors most," replied that spirit, " but not as yet with faith.12 So sweet was the spirit of my voice, that me of Toulouse 13 Rome drew to itself, where I earned the right to adorn my temples with
n. v. 84. Titus besieged and destroyed Jerusalem in
A. D. 70. Statius was born between A. D. 60 and 65, an</ probably died about the end of the first century. Virgil died
B. C. 19.
12. v. 87. I had the name of Poet, but was not yet a Christian.
13. v. 89. Statius was actually born at Naples. But his Silvaet in which he mentions his birthplace, had not been
vv. 91-1*2] CANTO XXI 165
myrtle. Statius the people still name me yon- der : I sang of Thebes, and then of the great Achilles, but I fell on the way with my second load.14 Seed of my ardor were the sparks that warmed me of the divine flame whereby more than a thousand have been kindled ; I speak of the Aeneid, which was mother to me, and was nurse to me in poesy : without it I balanced not the weight of a drachm ; and to have lived yon- der, when Virgil lived, I would agree to one sun more than I owe for my issue from ban." IS These words turned Virgil to me with a look which, silent, said : " Be silent : " but the power that wills cannot do everything ; for smiles and tears are such followers on the pas- sion from which each springs, that in the most truthful they least follow the will. I only smiled, like a man who makes a sign ; whereat the shade became silent, and looked at me in the eyes where the expression is most fixed. And it said : " So mayst thou bring to a good
recovered in Dante's time, and there was a confusion be- tween him and a rhetorician of Toulouse who bore the same name.
14. v. 93. Statius died before completing his Acbilleid.
15. v. 101. " One sun," that is, one year more in Pur- gatory than is due for my punishment. This eulogy of Virgil and the Aeneid, is an echo of the words with which Statiuf ends his The bat d, in which he bids his own poem " follow the divine Aeneid at a distance, and ever adore its steps."
i66 PURGATORY [w. 113-136
end so great a labor, why did thy face just now display to me a flash of a smile? " Now am I caught on one side and the other ; one bids me be silent, the other conjures me to speak : wherefore I sigh, and am understood by my Master, and : " Have no fear to speak," he said to me, " but speak, and tell him what he asks so earnestly." Whereon I : " Perhaps thou marvellest, ancient spirit, at the smile I gave ; but I would have more wonder seize thee. This one, who guides my eyes on high, is that Virgil from whom thou didst derive the strength to sing of men and of the gods. If thou didst believe other cause for my smile, leave it as not being true, and believe it was those words which thou saidst of him." Already he was stooping to embrace the feet of my Teacher, but he said to him : " Brother, do it not, for thou art a shade, and thou seest a shade." And he ris- ing : " Now canst thou comprehend the sum of the love that warms me to thee, when I for- get our emptiness, treating the shades as if a solid thing." l6
16. v. 136. Sordello and Virgil (Canto vi. 75) em- braced each other. The shades could thus express their mutual affection. Perhaps it is out of modesty that Virgil here represses Statius, and possibly there may be the under meaning that an act of reverence is not becoming from a sou! redeemed, to one banned in eternal exile.
CANTO XXII
jf scent to the Sixth Ledge. — Discourse of Statius and. Virgil. — Entrance to the Ledge : the Gluttonous. — The Mystic Tree. — Examples of Temperance.
ALREADY was the Angel left behind us, — the Angel who had turned us to the sixth round, having erased a stroke z from my face ; and he had said to us that those who have their desire set on justice are Beati, and his words completed this with sitiunt, without the rest. a
1. v. 3. The fifth P.
2. v. 6. That is, the Angel had not recited all the words of the Beatitude, which are as follows in the Vulgate : Bead qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam : quoniam ipsi satura- buntur. He had omitted esuriunt, and said only, " Blessed are they which do thirst after righteousness," contrasting this thirst with the thirst for riches. "In order to supply the required number of appropriate Beatitudes for the several Cornici, this one had to be divided, and a separation intro- duced between * hungering * and ' thirsting ' after righteous- ness. The former is reserved for the sixth Cornice, where k affords a natural contrast to the sin of Gluttony, while the Utter offers an equally natural antithesis in the fifth Cornice to the sin of avarice, which is so constantly described as a ' thirst ' for gold that we are scarcely conscious of the metaphor." Moore, Textual Criticism, p. 409.
i6S PURGATORY [vv. 7-34
And I, more light than through the other passes, was so going on, that without any fatigue I was following upward the swift spirits, when Virgil began : " Love kindled by virtue always kindles another, provided that its flame appear outwardly ; wherefore from the hour when Juvenal descended among us in the limbo of Hell,3 and made known to me thy affection, my own good will toward thee has been such that more never bound one to an unseen person ; so that these stairs will now seem short to me. But tell me — and as a friend pardon me, if too great confidence let loose my rein, and as a friend henceforth talk with me — how could avarice find a place within thy breast, amid wisdom so great as that wherewith through thy diligence thou wast filled ? "
These words made Statius at first incline a little to a smile ; then he replied : " Every word of thine is to me a dear token of love. Truly often things are apparent which give false ma- teriai for suspicion, because the true reasons are hidden. Thy question assures me that it is thy belief, perhaps because of that circle where I was, that I was avaricious in the other life ; know then that avarice was too far removed from me,
3. v. 14. Juvenal died before the middle of the second century of our era. In a famous passage of his Seventh Satire, vv. 81-87, he speaks of Statins with high praise.
rv. 35-52] CANTO XXII 169
and this want of measure 4 thousands of courses of the moon have punished. And had it not been that I set right my care, when I understood the passage where thou dost exclaim, as if indig- nant with human nature, ' O accursed hunger of gold, through what5 dost thou not impel the appetite of mortals?'6 I, rolling, should feel the dismal jousts.7 Then I perceived that the hands could spread their wings too much in spending ; and I repented as well of that as of my other sins. How many shall rise with cropped hair8 through ignorance, which during life and in the last hours prevents repentance for this sin ! And know, that the fault which rebuts any sin with direct opposition,9 together with it dries up its verdure here. Wherefore if for my purgation I have been among that
4. v. 35. The extravagance of prodigality.
5. v. 40. Through what evil courses.
6. v. 41.
** Quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames ? " Aenti^ iii. 56-57.
7. v. 42. I should be in Hell among the prodigals roll- ing heavy weights, and striking them against those rolled by the avaricious. See Hell, vii. 25—35.
8. €v. 46. A reference to the symbolic short hair of the prodigals. See Hell, vii. 57.
9. v. 50. The sin of prodigality is the direct opposite of avarice, and both are purged on the same ledge of Purga- tory, as both are punished in the same circle of Hell.
i;o PURGATORY [w. 53-73
people who lament their avarice, by reason of its contrary this has befallen me."
" Now when thou wast singing the cruel strife of the twofold affliction of Jocasta," 10 said the Singer of the Bucolic songs, " it does not appear by that which Clio touches with thee there," that the Faith, without which good works do not suffice, had as yet made thee faithful. If this be so, what Sun, or what candles,12 did so disperse thy darkness that thou didst there- after set thy sails behind the Fisherman ? " I3 And he to him, " Thou first didst direct me on the way toward Parnassus to drink in its grots, and then, on the way to God, thou didst en- lighten me. Thou didst like him, who goes by night, and carries the light behind him, and profits not himself, but makes the persons fol- lowing him wise, when thou saidst, c The world is renewed ; Justice returns, and the primeval time of man, and a new progeny descends from heaven/ I4 Through thee I became a poet,
10. v. 56. In the eleventh book of his Thebaid, Statius recounts the strife and death of Eteocles and Polynices, the two sons of Jocasta. See He//, xxvi. 52-54.
11. v. 5 8. Statius invokes Clio as her " in whose power tre the ages and ancient times ranged in order.'* Tlpebaid, x. 625.
12. v. 61. What light from Heaven or from earth.
13. v. 63. St. Peter.
14. v. 72. The famous prophecy of the Cumaean Sibyl
vv. 74-97] CANTO XXII 171
through thee a Christian. But in order that thou mayst better see that which I outline, I, will stretch my hand to color it. Already was the whole world teeming with the true belief, sown by the messengers of the eternal realm ; and thy words just mentioned were so in har- mony with the new preachers, that I adopted the practice of visiting them. Then they came to seem to me so holy, that, when Domittan per- secuted them, their lamentations were not with- out my tears. And so long as I remained in yonder world, I succored them ; and their up- right customs made me scorn all other sects. And before I had led the Greeks to the rivers of Thebes in my verse, I received baptism ; but through fear I was a secret Christian, for a long while making show of paganism : and this lukewarmness made me circle round the fourth circle,15 longer than to the fourth cen- tury. Thou, therefore, that didst lift for me the covering that was hiding from me such great good as I say, tell me, while we have remain- der of ascent, where is our ancient Terence,
in Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, which was applied, as early as the fourth century, to the coming of Christ : —
" Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo. Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna : Jam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto."
Ecloga iv. 5— 7»
15. v. 92. Where love too slack is punished.
172 PURGATORY [w. 98-114.
Caecilius, Plautus, and Varro, if thou knowest it ; tell me if they are damned, and in what re- gion ? " " They, and Persius, and I, and many others," replied my Leader, " are with that Greek whom the Muses suckled more than ever any other, in the first girdle of the blind prison. Often we discourse of the mountain l6 that has our nurses17 always with itself. Euripides is there with us, and Antiphon, Simonides, Aga- thon, and many other Greeks who of old adorned their brows with laurel. There of thine own people are seen Antigone, Deiphile and Argia, and Ismene sad as she lived.18 There she is seen who showed Langia ; I9 there is the daughter ofTiresias and Thetis,20 and Deidamia with her sisters/' 2I
1 6. v. 104. Parnassus.
17. v. 105. The Muses.
1 8. v. in. Of the people celebrated in thy poems are seen the sisters Antigone and Ismene, daughters of Oedipus and Jocasta, Ismene sad as she was on earth ; together with Deiphile and Argia, also sisters, daughters of Adrastus, King of Argos.
19. v. 112. Hypsipyle, who showed the fountain Lan- gia to Adrastus and the other kings, when their soldiers were perishing with thirst. See Hell, xviii. 92—95, and Purga- tory, xxvi. 94-96.
20. v. 113. Manto is the only daughter of Tiresias who is mentioned by Statius ; but Manto is in the eighth circle hi Hell.
21. v. 1 1 4. Deidamia, the daughter of Lycomedes, king
TV. 115^137] CANTO XXII 173
Now both the poets became silent, intent afresh on looking around, free from the ascent and from the walls ; " and four of the handmaids of the day were now remaining behind,23 and the fifth was at the pole,24 directing still upward its blazing horn, when my Leader : " 1 think that it behoves us to turn our right shoulders to the outer edge, circling the Mount as we are wont to do." Thus usage was there our guide, and we took the way with less doubt because of the assent of that worthy soul.25
They were going on in front, and I solitary behind, and I was listening to their speech which was giving me understanding for poesy. But soon the pleasant converse was interrupted by a tree which we found in the mid road, with apples sweet and good to smell. And as a fir- tree tapers upward from branch to branch, so downward did that, I think in order that no one may go up. On the side upon which our way was closed, a limpid water was falling from
in Scyros, and beloved by Achilles while he was in hiding there. See Hell, xxvi. 62.
22. v. 117. Having reached the ledge where gluttony is purged away.
23. v. 1 1 9. The first four hours of the day were spent. It was between ten and eleven o'clock.
24. v. 119. Of the car of the day.
25. v. 126. Because Statius, who might be supposed to be rightly inspired as to the way, assented.
174 PURGATORY [vv. 138-154
the high rock and spreading itself over the foliage above. The two poets approached the tree, and a voice from within the leaves cried : " Of this food ye shall have dearth." Then it said: " Mary thought more, how the wedding26 should be honorable and complete, than of her own mouth,27 which answers now for you ; and the ancient Roman women were content with water for their drink ; 28 and Daniel despised food and gained wisdom.29 The primal age was beautiful as gold ; with hunger it made acorns savory, and with thirst every streamlet nectar. Honey and locusts were the viands which nourished the Baptist in the desert, where- fore he is in glory, and so great as by the Gos- pel is revealed to you." 3°
26. v. 143. At Cana. See Canto xiii. 29.
27. v. 144. Than of gratifying her appetite.
28. v. 146. "According to Valerius Maximus the women of old among the Romans did not drink wine." S. T. ii.2 149. 4.
29. v. 147. See Daniel i. 8—17.
30. v. 1 54. " Verily I say unto you, Among them thai Are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." Matthew xi. n. See, also, Luke vii. 28.
CANTO XXIII
Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. — >« Nella. — Rebuke of the women of Florence.
WHILE I was fixing my eyes upon the green leafage, just as he who wastes his life following the little bird is wont to do, my more than Father said to me : " Son, come on now, for the time that is assigned to us must be more usefully apportioned." I turned my eyes, and no less quickly my step after the Sages, who were speaking so that they made the going of no cost to me ; and lo ! a lament and song were heard : " Labia mea, Domine" l in such fashion that it gave birth to delight and pain. " O sweet Father, what is that which I hear ? " I began, and he : " Shades which go, perhaps loosing the knot of their debt."
Even as do pilgrims rapt in thought, who,
i. v. ii. "O Lord, open thou my lips." Psalm li. i 5. This Psalm is the so-called Miserere, from its first word in the Vulgate ; in the English version " Have mercy upon me, O God." The words sung here are appropriate, as suggestive of the misuse of the lips in gluttony.
176 PURGATORY [w. 17-38
overtaking on the road unknown folk, turn themselves to them, and stay not ; so behind us, moving more quickly, coming up and pass- ing by, a crowd of souls, silent and devout, was gazing at us. Each was dark and hollow in the eyes, pallid in the face, and so wasted that the skin took its shape from the bones. I do not think that Erisichthon 2 was so dried up to utter rind by hunger, when he had most fear of it. I said to myself in thought : " Behold the people who lost Jerusalem, when Mary struck her beak into her son." 3 The sockets of their eyes seemed rings without gems. Whoso in the face of men reads OMO,4 would surely there have recognized the M. Who would believe that the scent of an apple, and that of a water, begetting a longing, could so control, if he knew not how ?
I was still wondering what so famished them, the cause of their meagreness and of their
2. v. 26. Punished for sacrilege by Ceres with insatiable hunger, so that at last he turned his teeth upon himself. See Ovid, Metam., viii. 738 sqq.
3. v. 30. The story of this wretched woman is told by Josephus in his narrative of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus : De Bella Jud., vi. 3.
4. v. 32. Finding in each eye an O, and an M in the lines of the brows and nose, making the word for "man.'* 5< Dante's characters are to be found in skulls as well as faces," says Sir Thomas Browne, in his Urn Burial, ch. Hi.
vv. 39-62] CANTO XXIII 177
wretched scurf5 not yet being manifest, and lo ! from the depth of its head, a shade turned his eyes on me, and looked fixedly, then cried out loudly : " What grace to me is this ! " Never should I have recognized him by his face ; but in his voice was manifest to me that which his aspect had annulled in itself.6 This spark re- kindled in me all my knowledge of the altered visage, and I recognized the face of Forese.7
"Ah, strive not8 with the dry scab that discolors my skin," he prayed, " nor with my lack of flesh, but tell me the truth about thy- self; and who are those two souls, who yonder make an escort for thee : stay not thou from speaking to me." "Thy face," replied I to him, " which once I wept for dead, now gives me no less a grief for weeping seeing it so dis- figured ; therefore, tell me, for God's sake, what so despoils you; make me not speak while I am marvelling, for ill can he speak who is full of other wish." And he to me : " By the eter- nal counsel a virtue falls into the water and upon
5. v. 39. The scurf, or scaliness of the skin is one of the signs of extreme starvation.
6. v. 45. His voice revealed who he was, which his actual aspect concealed.
7. v. 48. Brother of the famous Corso Donati, and re- lated to Dante's wife, Gemma de' Donati.
8. v. 51. Do not, for striving to see me through my changed look, delay to speak.
178 PURGATORY [vv. 63-85
the plant, now left behind, whereby I grow so lean. All this folk who sing weeping, because of following their appetite beyond measure, are here in hunger and in thirst making them- selves holy again. The odor which issues from the fruit and from the spray which is spread over the verdure, kindles in us desire to eat and drink. And not once only, as we circle this floor, is our pain renewed ; I say pain, and ought to say solace, for that will leads us to the tree, which led Christ with joy to say: 'Eli/9 when with his blood he delivered us." And I to him : " Forese, from that day on which thou didst change world to a better life, up to this time, five years have not rolled round. If the power of sinning further had ended in thee, before the hour supervened of the good sorrow which re-weds us to God, how hast thou come up hither ? I thought to find thee still down there below, where time is made good by time." I0 Whereon he to me : " My Nella with her bursting tears has brought me thus speedily
9. v. 74. Rejoicing to accept his suffering, even when he exclaimed : " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " Matthew xxvii. 46.
10. v. 82. If thou didst delay repentance until thou couldst sin no more, how is it that thou hast arrived here so speedily without spending, outside the gate of Purgatory, a time equal to that spent on earth. See Canto iv. 130-
vv. 86-114] CANTO XXIII 179
to drink of the sweet wormwood of these tor- ments. With her devout prayers and with sighs has she drawn me from the hill-side where one waits, and has delivered me from the other cir- cles. So much the more dear and more precious to God is my poor widow, whom I loved so well, as she is the more solitary in good conduct ; for cne Barbagia " of Sardinia is far more modest in its women than the Barbagia where I left her. O sweet brother, what wouldst thou that I say ? A future time is already in my sight, to which this hour will not be very old, when from the pulpit it shall be interdicted to the brazen-faced dames of Florence to go about displaying the bosom with the paps. What barbarian, what Saracen women were there ever for whom either spiritual or other discipline was needed to make them go covered ? But if the shameless ones were assured of that which the swift heaven is preparing for them, already would they have their mouths open for howling. For if my foresight here does not deceive me, they will be sad before he who is now consoled with the lullaby shall have bearded cheeks. Ah brother, now no longer conceal thyself from me ; thou seest that not only I, but all these people are gazing there where thou dost veil the sun."
ii. v. 94. A mountainous district in Sardinia, inhabited by people of barbarous customs.
180 PURGATORY 0.115-133
Whereon I to him : " If thou bring back to mind what thou wast with me, and what I was with thee, the present remembrance will even now be grievous. From that life he who goes in front of me turned me the other day, when the sister of him," I2 and I pointed to the sun, " there showed herself round. Through the deep night, from the truly dead, he has led me, with this real flesh which follows him. Thence his encouragements have drawn me upward, ascending and circling the mountain that sets you straight whom the world made crooked. He says that he will bear me company so long till I shall be there where Beatrice will be ; there it behoves that I remain without him. Virgil is this one who says thus to me," and I pointed to him, " and this other is that shade for whom just now your realm, which from itself releases him, shook every slope."
12. v. 1 20. The Moon, Diana, twin child of Leda, with Apollo, the Sun.
CANTO XXIV
Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. — Piccarda Donati. — Bonagiunta of Lucca. — Pope Mar- tin IF. — Ubaldin dalla Pila. — Bonifazio. — Messer Marchese. — Prophecy of Bonagiunta concerning Gentucca, and of Forese concerning Corso de* Donati. — Second Mystic Tree. — The Angel of the Pass.
SPEECH made not the going, nor did the going make that more slow ; but, talking, we went on apace, even as a ship urged by a good wind. And the shades, that seemed things doubly dead, through the pits of their eyes drew in wonder at me, perceiving that I was alive.
And I, continuing my talk, said : " He ' goes up for the sake of another perchance more slowly than he would do. But, tell me, if thou knowest, where is Piccarda ; 2 tell me if I see any person to be noted among this folk that so gazes at me." " My sister, who, between fair and good,
1. v. 8. Statius ; more slowly, for the sake of remain- ing with Virgil.
2. v. 10. The sister of Forese, whom Dante meets in Paradise, Canto iii.
i82 PURGATORY [w. 14-30
was I know not which the most, triumphs al- ready rejoicing in her crown on high Olympus." So he said first, and then : " Here it is not for- bidden to name each one, since our semblance is so milked away by the diet. 3 This/' and he pointed with his finger, "is Bonagiunta,4 Bona- giunta of Lucca ; and that face beyond him, more pricked through than the others, had the Holy Church in his arms : 5 he was from Tours ; and by fasting he purges the eels of Bolsena, and the Vernaccia wine." Many others he named to me, one by one, and at their naming all appeared content; so that for this I saw not one dark mien. I saw, using their teeth through hunger on emptiness, Ubaldin dalla Pila,6 and Boni- face, 7 who shepherded many people with his
3. v. 1 8. Recognition by the looks was thus impossible.
4. v. 19. Bonagiunta Urbiciani, a poet of Lucca who lived and wrote in the last half of the thirteenth century. In the De Vulgari Eloquio, i. 13, Dante speaks of him as one of the Tuscan poets who used the local dialect and not the courtly and illustrious tongue of Italy in their rhymes.
5. v. 22. " Had the Church in his arms/* that is, was Pope. It is Martin IV., native of Tours, Pope from 1281 to I 284 ; as Frenchman he used the Papal power to promote the interests in Sicily and Italy of Charles of Anjou. He is said to have died from a surfeit at Orvieto.
6. v. 29. Of this Ubaldino little is known with cer- tainty.
7. v. 29. Bonifazio de' Fieschi, Archbishop of Ravenna from 1274 to 1294.
vv. 31-49] CANTO XXIV 183
crook. I saw Messer Marchese,8 who once had leisure for drinking at Forli with less thirst, and even so was such that he felt not sated.
But as one does who looks, and then makes more account of one than of another, so did I of him of Lucca, who seemed most to wish ac- quaintance with me. He was murmuring, and I heard something like " Gentucca " from there9 where he felt the chastisement of the justice which so strips them. " O soul," said I, " who seemest so desirous to speak with me, do so that I can understand thee, and satisfy both thyself and me by thy speech." cc A woman is born, and wears not yet the veil," I0 he began, " who will make my city pleasant to thee, however men may blame it. " Thou shalt go on with this prevision : if from my murmuring thou hast conceived error, the true things will hereafter clear it up for thee. But tell me, if I here see
8. v. 31. A man of note in his day, of one of the chief families of Forli.
9. v. 38. Literally, "and I know not what Gentucca I heard," that is, "from his mouth I heard an indistinct murmur in which I seemed to catch the name Gentucca."
10. v. 43. The veil of a married woman.
11. v. 45. This honorable and delightful reference to the otherwise unknown maiden, Gentucca of Lucca, has given occasion to much worthless comment. Dante was at Lucca, during his exile, in 1314. He himself was one of those who blamed the city ; see Hell, Canto xxi. 40—42.
184 PURGATORY [w. 50-69
him, who drew forth the new rhymes, begin- ning : c Ladies who have intelligence of Love ' ? " I3 And I to him : " I am one who, when Love inspires me, notes, and in that mode which he dictates within, I go uttering." " O brother, now I see," said he, " the knot which held back the Notary, I3 and Guittone, '4 and me short of the sweet new style which I hear. I see clearly how your pens go on close following the dicta- tor, which surely was not the case with ours. And he who most sets himself to look farther sees nothing more between one style and the other." IS And, as if contented, he was silent. As the birds that winter along the Nile some- times make a troop in the air, then fly in greater haste, and go in file, so all the folk that were there, light both through leanness and through
12. v. 5 1 . The first verse of the first canzone of The New Life.
13. v. 56. The Sicilian poet, Jacopo da Lentino.
14. v. 56. Guittone d' Arezzo, commonly called Fra Guittone, as one of the order of the Frati Gaudenti, mentioned in Hell, xxiii. 103. Dante refers to him again in Canto xxvi. 124. He died probably in 1293.
15. v. 62. He who seeks for other reason does not find it. — The poems of Bonagiunta, of the Notary, and of Guit- .tone, which have come down to us, justify this criticism.
Dante alone had learned the lesson which the Muse taught Sidney, " ' Fool,' said my Muse to me, ' look in thy heart and write.' J>
vv. 70-90] CANTO XXIV 185
will, turning away their faces, quickened again their pace. And as the man who is weary of running lets his companions go on, and then walks, until the panting of his chest be abated, so Forese let the holy flock pass on and came along behind with me, saying : " When shall it be that I see thee again ? " " I know not," 1 replied to him, " how long I may live ; but truly my return will not be so speedy, that I shall not in desire be sooner at the shore ; l6 be- cause the place where 1 was set to live, strips itself more of good from day to day, and seems ordained to dismal ruin." " Now go," said he, " for I see him who is most to blame for this l? dragged at the tail of a beast, toward the val- ley l8 where never is there exculpation. The beast at every step goes faster, with ever increas- ing speed, till it strikes him, and leaves his body vilely undone. Those wheels have not far to turn," and he raised his eyes to heaven, " ere that will be clear to thee which my speech may
1 6. v. 78. Of Purgatory.
17. v. 8 2. Corso de' Donati, the leader of the Black Guelphs, and chief cause of the evils of the city. On the 1 5th September, 1308, his enemies having risen against him, he was compelled to fly from Florence. Near the city he was thrown from his horse and dragged along, till he was overtaken and killed by his pursuers.
1 8. v. 84. " The woful valley of the abyss." Hell* if. 8.
186 PURGATORY [w. 91-110
not further declare. Now do thou stay behind, for time is so precious in this kingdom, that I lose too much coming thus at even pace with thee."
As a cavalier sometimes sets forth at a gal- lop from a troop which is riding, and goes to win the honor of the first encounter,19 so with longer strides did he depart from us ; and I remained on the way with only those two who were such great marshals of the world.20 And when he had passed on so far before us that my eyes became such followers of him as my mind was of his words, 2I there appeared to me the laden and living branches of another apple-tree, and not far distant, because only then had I turned thitherward.22 I saw people beneath it raising their hands and crying, I know not what, toward the leaves, like eager and fond little children who pray, and he to whom they pray does not answer, but, to make their longing the
19. v. 96. This essay of honor was not infrequent with the young cavaliers, desirous to win their spurs.
20. v. 99. "A marshal is a governor of the court and of the army under the emperor, . . . and should know how to command what ought to be done, as those two poets knew what it was befitting to do in the world in respect to moral and civil life." Bud.
21. v. 1 02. Could no longer follow him distinctly.
22. v. 105. In the circling course around the moun- tain.
vv.iii-126] CANTO XXIV 187
more keen, holds aloft their desire, and conceals it not. Then they departed as if undeceived : 23 and upon this we came to the great tree which rejects so many prayers and tears. " Pass ye farther onward, without drawing near ; the tree 24 which was eaten of by Eve is higher up, and this plant was raised from it." Thus said I know not who among the branches ; wherefore Virgil and Statius and I, drawing close together, proceeded onward along the side that rises.25 " Bethink ye," the voice was saying, " of the accursed ones, 26 formed in the clouds, who, when glutted, strove against Theseus with their double breasts; and of the Hebrews, who, at the drinking, showed themselves weak,27 wherefore Gideon had them not for compan- ions, when he went down the hills toward Midian."
23. v. 112. Having found vain the hope of reaching the fruit.
24. v. 1 1 6. The tree of knowledge, in the Earthly- Paradise : Canto xxxii. 38 ff.
25. v. i 20. Along the inner side, by the wall of the mountain.
26. v. 121. The centaurs, who were said to have been born of Ixion and a phantom cloud, and who fought with Theseus at the marriage feast of Peirithous.
27. v. 124. Literally :" Showed themselves soft," that is, did not resist the impulse to drink too eagerly. Judges vii. 4-7.
i88 PURGATORY [vv. 127-152
Thus keeping close to that one of the two mar- gins, 28 we passed by, hearing of sins of gluttony followed, indeed, by miserable gains. Then going at large along the lonely road, full a thousand steps and more had carried us on- ward, each of us in meditation without a word. " Why go ye thus in thought, ye three alone ? " said a sudden voice ; whereat I started, as do terrified and timid beasts. I lifted up my head to see who it might be, and never were glass or metals in a furnace seen so shining and ruddy, as one I saw who said : " If it please you to mount upward, here there is need to turn ; this way he goes who would go for peace." His aspect had taken my sight from me, wherefore I turned to go behind my teachers, like one who goes according as he hears.29
And as the breeze of May, a herald of the dawn, stirs and smells sweet, all impregnate with the herbage and with the flowers, such a wind I felt strike upon the middle of my forehead, and I clearly felt the motion of the plumage, which made me perceive the odor of ambrosia. And I heard say : " Blessed are they whom so much grace illumines, that the love of taste
28. v. 127. The inner margin of the ledge.
29. v. 144. Blinded for the moment by the dazzling brightness of the angel, Dante drops behind his teachers to follow them as one guided by hearing only.
w. 153, 154] CANTO XXIV 189
kindles not too great desire in their breasts, hungering always so much as is right." 3°
30. v. 154. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness." Matthew v. 6.
Dante has already cited this Beatitude (Canto xxii. 5— 6), applying it to those who are purging themselves from the inordinate desire for riches ; there omitting the word " hun- ger," as here he omits "and thirst."
CANTO XXV
Ascent to the Seventh Ledge. — Discourse of Statins on generation, the infusion of the Soul into the body, and the corporeal semblance of Souls after death. — The Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — The mode of their Puri- fication.
IT was the hour in which the ascent allowed no delay ; for the Sun had left the meridian circle to the Bull, and the Night to the Scorpion ; * wherefore as does the man who, whatever may appear to him, does not stop, if the goad of ne- cessity prick him, but goes on his way, so did we enter through the gap, one before the other, taking the stairway which by its narrowness un- pairs the climbers.
And as the little stork that lifts its wing through will to fly, and dares not abandon the
i . v. 3 . The Bull follows on the Ram in the Zodiac, BO that the hour indicated is about 2 p. M. The " Night, here and elsewhere, when spoken of generally as being in any spot, naturally stands for midnight as its central point." Moore, Time- References, p. 70. When the Sun is in the Sign of the Ram, the Night is in that of the Scales, which precedes that of the Scorpion.
vv. 12-34] CANTO XXV 191
nest, and lets it drop, so was I, with will to ask kindled and quenched, coming as far as to the motion that he makes who proposes to speak. Nor, though our going was swift, did my sweet Father forbear, but he said : " Discharge the bow of speech which up to the iron 2 thou hast drawn." Then I opened my mouth confidently, and began : " How can one become lean, where the need of nourishment is not felt ? " " If thou wouldst call to mind," he said, " how Meleager was consumed by the consuming of a brand, this would not be so difficult to thee ; and if thou wouldst think, how at your quiver- ing your image quivers within the mirror, that which seems hard would seem easy to thee. But in order that thou mayst be inwardly at ease in respect to thy wish, lo, here is Statius, and I call on him, and pray that he be now the healer of thy wounds." " If I explain to him the eternal view," 3 replied Statius, " where thou art present, let it excuse me that to thee I can- not make denial." 4
Then he began, " If, son, thy mind regards
2. v. 1 8. Up to the arrow-head.
3 . ¥.31. What is seen here in the eternal world con* cerning the nature of the soul.
4. v. 33. Here and elsewhere Statius seems to represent allegorically human philosophy enlightened by Christian teach" ing dealing with questions of knowledge, not of faith.
I92 PURGATORY [w. 35-50
and receives my words, they will be for thee a light unto the f How/ which thou askest.5 Per- fect blood, which is never drunk up by the thirsty veins, but remains like the food which thou removest from the table, takes in the heart a virtue informative of all the human members, as being that which goes through the veins to be- come them.6 Digested still further, it descends to the part whereof it is more becoming to be silent than to speak; and from there, afterwards, it drops upon another's blood in the natural vessel. There one and the other meet together ; the one ordained to be passive, and the other7 to be active because of the perfect place 8 where- from it is pressed out ; and, conjoined with the former, the latter begins to operate, first by coagulating, and then it quickens that to which
5. v. 36. The doctrine set forth by Statius in regard to generation is derived from St. Thomas Aquinas, S. T.9 i. 1 1 8, 119, who, in his turn, drew much of it from Aris- totle. It is to be found, more briefly stated, in the Convito, iv. 21.
6. v. 42. The perfect blood, which constitutes the semen, remains over and above that blood which is requisite for the nourishment of the body, and acquires in the heart the virtue by which, after it has been still further digested, it finally gives form to the various bodily organs.
7. v. 47. The one is the female blood, the other the male blood.
8. v. 48. The heart.
vv. 51-61] CANTO XXV. 193
it gives consistency for its own material. 9 The active virtue having become a soul, like that of a plant I0 (in so far different that this is on the way, and that already arrived),11 then so works, that now it moves and feels, as a sea-fungus does ; I2 and then it proceeds to organize the powers of which it is the germ. I3 Now, son, the virtue is displayed, now it is diffused, which issues from the heart of the begetter, where na- ture is intent on all the members. But how from an animal it becomes a rational being, I4
9. v. 5 1 . It quickens to life the material to be shaped by the informative virtue into a human body.
10. v. 53. The doctrine of S. Thomas Aquinas, which Dante here follows, is that of the three natures of souls, the vegetative or nutritive, the sensitive, and the intellective ; the first two are not created directly by God, but proceed from the active virtue of the begetter of the body in which they exist. They are corruptible. But the anima intellectivay pro- ceeding directly from God, is breathed into the human embryo, is incorruptible, and includes in itself the faculties of the lower corruptible souls of beasts and plants.
11. v. 54. The soul in the plant has attained its full development, "has arrived ; " while in the human embryo this vegetative soul is "on the way," is but a stage in the development of being.
12. v. 56. From the vegetative, the soul becomes the sensitive, — anima sensitiva.
1 3' v- 57- That virtue which the blood acquired in the heart of the begetter now begins to show itself in. the forma- tion of the limbs and organs of the body.
14. v. 61. Literally, "a speaking being.*' Thou dod
I94 -PURGATORY [w. 62-69
thou as yet seest not ; this is such a point that once it made one wiser than thou to err, so that in his teaching he separated from the soul the potential intellect, because he saw no organ as- sumed by it. l5 Open thy breast to the truth which is coming, and know that, so soon as the articulation of the brain is perfect in the embryo,
not yet see, how from a mere animal, with a soul dependent on its material existence, it becomes a speaking, that is a rational being, possessed of an anima intellectiva, an intellec- tual and immortal soul.
15. v. 66. The "one wiser than thou" who fell into error, is generally understood to refer to Averroes, whose error was in his exposition of Aristotle's doctrine as set forth in the third book of his treatise On the Soul. Aristotle there distinguishes two intellectual principles, in other words two intellects, the one material or passive, the other formal or active. The passive, the so-called possible intellect, was adapted to receive passively impressions or images ; the active intellect rendered these images intelligible, and formed ideas. The active intellect is separate, impassible, imperishable ; the passive intellect is perishable, and cannot dispense with the active intellect. " Now the true intellect is the separate in- tellect, and that alone is eternal and immortal." This doc- trine led Averroes to the conclusion that the active intellect was undivided and impersonal, and united not formally but instrumentally only with the individual. Hence it was but a step to the denial of the immortality of the individual soul. Dante seems to have fallen into the error of believing that Averroes separated the potential or possible intellect from the soul, whereas it was really to the active intellect that he ascribed unity and separateness.
vv. 70-84] CANTO XXV 195
the Primal Motor l6 turns to it with joy over such art of nature, and breathes into it a new spirit replete with virtue, which draws into its own substance that which it finds active there,17 and becomes one single soul which lives and feels and circles on itself. And that thou mayst the less wonder at my words, consider the warmth of the sun which, combining with the juice that flows from the vine, becomes wine. l8 And when Lachesis has no more thread, this soul is loosed from the flesh, and virtually bears away with itself both the human and the di- vine ; '9 the other faculties all of them mute,20 but memory, understanding, and will 2I far more acute in action than before. Without a stop,
1 6. v. 70. The Primal Motor, that is, God. *7* v* 73* The vegetative and the sensitive soul.
1 8. v. 78. The fact that the spirit breathed into the foetus, in other words the intellectual soul, absorbs the sensi- tive and vegetative souls, or, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, S. T. i. 76. 4, tf contains in its own virtue what- ever the sensitive soul of brutes and the nutritive soul of plants possess," — this fact is illustrated, imperfectly indeed, by the action of the Sun upon the juice of the grape, converting the raw juice into wine.
19. v. 8 1. The human, that is, the bodily faculties ; the divine, that is, the inteilectual or spiritual faculties.
20. v. 82. The faculties of sense mute because their organs no longer exist.
21. v. 83. The spiritual faculties, independent of the lenses.
ig6 PURGATORY [w. 85-109
it falls of itself, marvellously, to one of the banks.22 Here it first knows its own roads. Soon as the place there23 circumscribes it, the formative virtue rays out around it, in like shape and size, as in the living members. And a? the air when it is full of rain becomes adorned with divers colors, by reason of the rays of another 24 which are reflected in it, so here the neighboring air shapes itself in that form which the soul that has stopped 2S virtually imprints upon it. And then like the flamelet which fol- lows the fire whithersoever it shifts, so does its new form follow the spirit. Since thereafter it has its aspect from this, it is called a shade ; and thence it organizes every sense even to the sight; thence we speak, and thence we laugh, thence we make the tears and the sighs, which thou mayst have heard on the mountain. Ac- cording as our desires and our other affections impress us, the shade is shaped ; and this is the cause of that at which thou wonderest." 26 And now we had come to the last circuit,
22. v. 86. Of Acheron (see Hell, iii. 78), or of Tiber (see Purgatory, ii. 100-105), according as the soul is damned or saved.
23. v. 88. Whether Purgatory or Hell.
24. v. 92. " Another," that is, the Sun.
25. v. 96. Stopped in the place allotted to it.
26. v. 1 08. The emaciation of the spirits on this ledge,
vv. 110-130] CANTO XXV 197
and had turned to the right hand, and were in- tent upon another care. Here the bank shoots forth flame, and the ledge breathes a blast up- ward which drives it back, and sequesters a path from it.27 Wherefore it was needful to go one by one along the open side ; and on the one hand I was afraid of the fire, and on the other I was afraid of falling off. My Leader said, " Along this place, one must keep tight the rein upon the eyes, because for little one might go astray." " Summae Deus clementiae" 28 I then heard being sung, in the bosom of the great burning, which made me care not less to turn.2' And I saw spirits going through the flame ; wherefore I looked at them and at my own steps, apportioning to each my sight from mo- ment to moment. After the end that is made to that hymn, they loudly cried : " Virum non cognosco ; " 3° then began again the hymn with low voice ; this finished, they cried anew : " To the wood Diana kept herself, and drove there-
27. v. 1 14. Secures a safe pathway along the outer edge of the ledge.
28. v. 121. "God of clemency supreme," the begin- ning of a hymn, sung at Matins on Saturday, containing a prayer for purity.
29. v. 123. Caring not less to see who was singing, than to keep his eyes fixed on the narrow way.
30. v. 128. " I know not a man," the words of Mary to the angel. Luke i. 34.
198 PURGATORY [w. 131-139
from Helice,31 who had tasted the poison of Venus." Then they returned to their singing ; then they cried aloud wives and husbands who were chaste, as virtue and marriage enjoin upon us. And I believe this mode suffices them for all the time that the fire burns them. With such cure it is needful, and with such diet, that the last wound of all 32 should be closed up.
31. v. 1 3 1 . Helice, or Callisto, the nymph who bore a son to Jupiter, and, having been changed to a bear by Juno, was by Jove transferred with her child to the heavens, where they are seen as the Great and Little Bear.
32. v. 1 39. The last of the mortal sins, the last P.
CANTO XXVI
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Sinners in the fre^ going in opposite directions. — Guido Guinicelli. — Ar- naut Daniel.
WHILE we were thus going on along the edge, one before the other, the good Master was often saying : " Take heed ! let it avail that I warn thee." The sun, which now, with his radiance, was changing all the west from azure to a white aspect, was striking me on the right shoulder ; and with my shadow I was making the flame appear more ruddy, and only to that indication ' I saw many shades, as they went on, giving heed. This was the occasion which gave them a beginning to speak of me, and they began to say : " He does not seem a ficti- tious body ; " then certain of them came toward me, so far as they could do so, always with re- gard not to come out where they would not be burned.
" O thou, who goest behind the others, not
i. v. 8. At this sign that Dante's body was that of a fiving man.
200 PURGATORY [w. 17-45
from being slower, but perhaps from reverence, reply to me, who am burning in thirst and fire : nor by me only is thy reply needed, for all these have a greater thirst for it than Indian or Ethiop for cold water. Tell us how it is that thou makest of thyself a wall to the sun, as if thou hadst not yet entered within the net of death/' Thus spoke one of them to me ; and I should at once have made myself known, if I had not given attention to another new thing which then appeared ; for along the middle of the burning road were coming people with their faces opposite to these, which held me engaged to look at them. There I see, on either side, each shade making haste and one kissing the other, without stopping, content with a brief greeting. Thus within their brown troop one ant touches muzzle with another, perchance to spy out their way and their fortune.
Soon as they end the friendly salutation, be- fore the first step runs onward by, each strives to outcry the other ; the new-come folk : " So- dom and Gomorrah," and the other: " Into the cow enters Pasiphae, that the bull may run to her lust." Then like cranes, which should fly part to the Riphaean mountains,2 and part toward the sands,3 these shunning the frost and
2. v. 43. Mountains vaguely placed by the early geo- graphers in the far North.
3. v. 44. The deserts of Libya.
*v. 46-69] CANTO XXVI 201
those the sun, the one folk goes, the other comes on, and, weeping, they return to their first chants,4 and to the cry which most befits them.
And those same who had prayed me drew near to me as before, intent in their looks to listen. I, who twice had seen their desire, be- gan : " O souls, secure of having, whenever it may be, a state of peace, my limbs have not remained yonder, either unripe nor mature, but are here with me, with their blood, and with their joints. I go hence upward in order to be no longer blind. A Lady is on high who wins grace for us,5 whereby I bring my mortal body through your world. But so may your greatest wish soon become satisfied, in such wise that that heaven may harbor you which is full of love, and most amply spreads,6 tell me, in order that I may yet rule the paper for it, who are ye, and who are that crowd which go their way behind your backs."
Not otherwise is the astonished mountain- eer confused, and gazing round is dumb, when rough and rustic he enters the town, than each
4. v. 47. Summae Deus clementiae. Canto xxv. 121.
5. v. 59. The Virgin Mary ; see Hell, ii. 94-96, " who wins grace for us," that is, for all for whom she in- tercedes, not for Dante alone.
6. ¥.63. The Empyrean, the seat of Paradise.
202 PURGATORY [vv. 70-93
shade became in its appearance ; but, after they were unburdened of their astonishment, which in high hearts is quickly abated : " Blessed thou," began again the one who first had ques- tioned me, " who, in order the better to die, dost, ship experience of our regions. The people who do not come with us offended in that for which once Caesar in his triumph heard c Queen ' shouted out against him ; therefore they go off crying c Sodom,' upbraiding themselves, as thou hast heard, and they help the burning by their shame. Our sin was hermaphrodite ; but be- cause, following our appetite like beasts, we did not observe human law, when we part from them we recite, in opprobrium of ourselves, the name of her who bestialized herself in the beast- shaped planks. Now thou knowest our deeds, and of what we were guilty ; if, perchance, thou wishest to know by name who we are, there is not time to tell, and I should not know. I will indeed make thee short of wish about myself; I am Guido Guinicelli ; 7 and I am purging myself already, because I truly repented before my last hour."
7. v. 92. Of Bologna; the most illustrious of the Ital- ian poets before Dante ; the date of his death is uncertain, but he was living in 1274. Of his life little is known, but tome of his verses survive and justify Dante's words concern- ing them. See Canto xi. 97.
w. 94-1 13] CANTO XXVI 203
Such as in the frenzy of Lycurgus her two sons became at seeing again their mother,8 such I became, but I rise not so far,9 when I hear name himself the father of me, and of the others my betters who ever used sweet and gra- cious rhymes of love; and without hearing or speaking, full of thought, I went on, gazing a long time upon him ; nor, for the fire, did I draw nearer to him. When I was fed with look- ing, I offered myself wholly ready for his ser- vice, with the affirmation which makes another believe. And he to me : " By what I hear, thou leavest such impression on me, and so clear,10 that Lethe cannot take it away nor make it dim. But, if thy words just now swore truth, tell me what is the reason why thou displayest in speech and look that thou dost hold me dear? " And I to him, " The sweet ditties of yours, which, so long as the modern use " shall en-
8. v. 95. "Lycurgus, King of Nemea, enraged with Hypsipyle for leaving his infant child, who was killed by a serpent, while she was showing the river Langia to the Ar- gives. (see Canto xxii. 112), was about to kill her, when she was found and rescued by her own sons." (Pollock.) The story is told by Statius in the fifth book of his Tbebaid.
9. v. 96. I was more restrained than they, not rushing forward as they did.
10. v. 107. That is, " Thy words so convince me of thy affection for me.'*
11. v. 113, The modern use of the vulgar tongue in poetry.
204 PURGATORY [w. 114-135
dure, will still make dear their ink." " O bro- ther," said he, " this one whom I point out to thee with my finger," and he pointed to a spirit in advance,12 " was a better smith of his mother tongue. In verses of love and proses of ro- mances he surpassed all ; and let the foolish talk who think that he of Limoges I3 excels him ; to rumor more than to the truth they turn their faces, and thus establish their opinion, before art or reason is listened to by them. Thus did many of old concerning Guittone,14 from cry to cry giving the prize only to him, until the truth prevailed with more persons. Now if thou hast such ample privilege that it is permitted thee to go unto the cloister in which Christ is abbot of the college, say to him for me one pater- noster, so far as is needful for us in this world, where power to sin is no longer ours." IS
Then, perhaps to give place to one who was near behind him, he disappeared through the fire, like a fish going through the water to the
12. v. 1 1 6. Arnaut Daniel, a famous Provencal trouba- dour of the end of the 1 2th century. Modern judgment does not confirm Dante's opinion of his excellence as a poet.
13. v. 1 20. Giraut de Borneil, another famous poet, contemporary with Arnaut Daniel.
14. v. 124. Guittone d' Arezzo ; see Canto xxiv. 56.
15. v. 132. The words in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead as not into temptation," are not needed for the spirits in Pur* gatory.
w. 136-148] CANTO XXVI 205
bottom. I moved forward a little to him who had been pointed out to me, and said, that for his name my desire was preparing a gracious place. He readily began to say : l6 " Your courteous request so pleases me that I cannot, nor do I wish to hide me from you. I am Ar- naut, who weep and go singing ; contrite I see my past folly, and glad I see before me the joy 1 hope for. Now I pray you, by that Power which guides you to the summit of this stair- way, at due time be mindful of my pain." Then he hid himself in the fire which refines them.
1 6. v. 139. Tne words of Arnaut are in the Provencal tongue.
CANTO XXVII
Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Passage through the Flames. — Stairway in the rock. — Night upon the stairs. ' — Dream of Dante. — Morning. — Ascent to the Earthly Paradise. — Last words of Virgil.
As when he darts forth his first rays there where his Maker shed His blood (Ebro falling under the lofty Scales, and the waves in the Ganges scorched by noon) so the sun was now standing ; * and thus the day was departing, when the glad Angel of God appeared to us. Outside the flame he was standing on the bank, and was singing : Beati mundo corde? in a voice far more living than ours. Then : " No one goes farther, ye holy souls, if first the fire sting not : enter into it, and to the song beyond be ye not deaf," he said to us, as we drew near to him : whereat I became such, when I heard him,
1. v. 5. It was near sunrise at Jerusalem, and conse- quently near sunset in Purgatory, midnight in Spain, and mid- day at the Ganges.
2. y. 8. " Blessed are the pure in heart."
vv. 15-41] CANTO XXVII 207
as is he who is put in the pit.3 I stretched forward above my clasped hands, looking at the fire, and vividly imagining human bodies I had once seen burnt. My good Escorts turned toward me, and Virgil said to me : " My son, here may be torment, but not death. Bethink thee ! bethink thee ! . . . lo, if I even upon Geryon guided thee safe, what shall I do now that I am nearer God ? Believe for certain that if within the belly of this flame thou shouldst stand full a thousand years it could not make thee bald of a single hair. And if perchance thou believest that I am deceiving thee, draw towards it, and make trial for thyself with thine own hands upon the hem of thy gar- ments. Put aside now, put aside every fear, turn hitherward, and come on secure."
And I still motionless and against con- science !
When he saw me still stand motionless and obdurate, he said, disturbed a little : " Now see, son, between Beatrice and thee is this wall. "
As at the name of Thisbe, Pyramus, at point of death, opened his eyelids and looked at her, what time the mulberry became dark red, so, my obduracy becoming softened, I turned to my wise Leader, hearing the name that in my
3. v. 15. As the criminal who is about to be buried alive.
208 PURGATORY [vv. 42-67
memory is ever welling up. Whereat he nodded his head, and said : " How? do we want to stay on this side ? " then he smiled as one does at a child who is conquered by an apple.
Then within the fire he set himself in front of me, praying Statius, that he would come be- hind, who previously, for a long way, had di- vided us. When I was within, I would have thrown myself into boiling glass to cool me, so without measure was the burning there. My sweet Father, to encourage me, went talking only of Beatrice, saying : " I seem already to see her eyes."
A voice which was singing on the other side was guiding us, and we, attentive ever to it, came forth where the ascent began. " Venite, benedicti patris met,"4 sounded within a light that was there such that it overcame me, and I could not look on it. " The sun is going," it added, " and the evening comes ; tarry not, but hasten your steps so long as the west grows not dark."
The way mounted straight, through the rock, in such direction 5 that in front of me I cut off the rays of the sun which was already low. And of few stairs had we made essay ere, by the
4. v. 58. " Come, ye blessed of my Father.'* Mat' tbew xxv. 34.
5. v. 65. Toward the east, so that Dante's shadow fell in front of him.
vv. 68-96] CANTO XXVII 209
vanishing of my shadow, both I and my Sages perceived the setting of the sun behind us. And before the horizon in all its immeasurable regions had become of one aspect, and night had all her dispensations, each of us made his bed of a stair ; for the nature of the mountain took from us the power, more than the delight, of ascending.
As goats, that have been swift and wanton on the peaks ere they were fed, become tranquil while they ruminate, hushed in the shade so long as the sun is hot, watched by the shepherd, who on his staff is leaning and, leaning, tends them ; and as the herdsman, who lodges out of doors, passes the night beside his quiet flock, watching that the wild beast may not scatter it : such were we all three then, I like a goat, and they like shepherds, hemmed in on this side and on that by the high rock. Little of the outside could there be seen, but in that little I saw the stars both brighter and larger than their wont. Thus ruminating, and thus gazing upon them, sleep overcame me, sleep which oft before the deed be done knows news thereof.
At the hour, I think, when from the east Cytherea, who with fire of love seems always burning, first beamed upon the mountain,6 I
6. v. 95. In the dawn, when Cytherea, that is, Venus, the morning star, was rising. Cf. Canto i. 1 9, 20. Cytherea,
2io PURGATORY [vv. 97-117
seemed in dream to see a lady, young and beau- tiful, going through a meadow gathering flow- ers, and singing she was saying: "Let him know, whoso asks my name, that I am Leah, and I go moving my fair hands around to make me a garland. To please me at the mirror I here adorn me, but my sister Rachel never departs from her looking-glass, and sits all day. She is as fain to look at her fair eyes as I to adorn me with my hands. Her, seeing, and me, doing satisfies.'* 7
And now before the splendors which precede the sun, and rise the more grateful unto pil- grims as in returning they lodge less far away,8 the shadows were fleeing on every side, and my sleep with them ; whereupon I rose, seeing the great Masters already risen. " That sweet fruit which the care of mortals goes seeking upon so many branches, to-day shall set at peace thy
as an epithet of Venus, was derived from the name of the island, Cythera (now Cerigo), off the southeastern point of Laconia, the spot where the goddess landed after her birth from the foam of the sea.
7. v. 1 08. Leah and Rachel are the types of the active and the contemplative life. The seeing which contents Ra- chel is the contemplation of the Divine mysteries, the doing which contents Leah is work according to the Divine will. Rachel gazes at her own fair eyes in the mirror because they reflect to her the vision of God.
8. v. 1 1 1 . As they come nearer home.
vv. 118-135] CANTO XXVII 211
hungerings." 9 These words did Virgil use to- ward me, and never were there gifts which for pleasure were equal to these. Such great wish upon wish came to me to be above, that at every step thereafter I felt my wings growing for the flight.
When beneath us all the stairway had been run over, and we were on the topmost step, Virgil fixed his eyes on me, and said : " The temporal fire and the eternal I0 thou hast seen, Son, and art come to a place where of myself I discern no farther. " I have brought thee here with under- standing and with art ; thine own pleasure take thou henceforward for guide: forth art thou from the steep ways, forth art thou from the narrow. See there the sun, which is shining on thy front ; see the young grass, the flowers, and the shrubs, which here the earth of itself alone produces.
9. v. 117. In his De Monarcbia, iii. 16, Dante says, Providence set before man two ends to be striven for, of which the first is beatitude in this life, which consists in the activity of his own virtue, and is figured by the terrestrial Paradise.
10. Y. 127. The temporal fire is that of Purgatory, the eternal that of Hell.
11. v. 129. Human reason, rightly exercised, suffices to guide through the difficult paths of earthly life, to the at- tainment of its beatitude ; but for the attainment of the beati- tude of eternal life there is need of the illumination of Divine grace.
212 PURGATORY [w, 136-142
Until the beautiful eyes come rejoicing, which weeping made me come to thee, thou canst sit down and thou canst go among them. Expect no more or word or sign from me. Free, up- right, and sound is thine own will, and it would be wrong not to act according to its choice ; wherefore thee over thyself I crown and mitre." "
12. v. 142. The crown is the symbol of temporal power, the mitre of spiritual.
CANTO XXVIII
The Earthly Paradise. — The Forest. — A Lady gathering flowers on the bank of a little stream. — - Z)/V- course with her concerning the nature of the place.
FAIN now to search within and round about the divine forest dense and living, which was tempering the new day to my eyes, without longer waiting I left the bank,1 taking the level ground very slowly, over the soil which on every side breathed fragrance. A sweet breeze that had no variation in itself smote me on the brow, not with heavier stroke than a soft wind ; at which the branches, readily trembling, one and all were bending toward the quarter where the holy mountain casts its first shadow ; 2 yet not so swayed from their uprightness, that the little birds among the tops had to leave the practice of their every art ; but, singing with full joy, they received the early breezes among the
1 . v. 4. The outer edge of the mountain.
2. v. 12. The branches bent toward the West, for the breeze was the movement of the air produced by the revolu- tion of the spheres from East to West. (See verse 103.)
214 PURGATORY [w. 18-43
leaves, which were keeping a burden to their rhymes, such as gathers from bough to bough through the pine forest on the shore ofChiassi,3 when Aeolus lets forth the Scirocco.4
Now had my slow steps carried me within the ancient wood so far that I could not see back to where I had entered it : and lo, a stream took from me further progress, which with its little waves was bending toward the left the grass that sprang up on its bank. All the waters, that are purest here on the earth, would seem to have some mixture in them, compared with that which hides nothing, although it moves along dusky under the perpetual shadow,5 which never lets the sun or moon shine there.
With my feet I stood still, and with my eyes I passed to the other side of the streamlet, to gaze at the great variety of the fresh blossoms ; and there, even as a thing appears suddenly which turns aside through wonder every other thought, appeared to me a solitary lady, who was going along, singing, and culling flower from flower, wherewith all her path was painted. " Ah, fair Lady,6 who warmest thyself in the
3. v. 20. Classe, the old port of Ravenna, from which the sea long since receded.
4. v. 21. The southeast wind.
5. v. 32. Of the dense wood.
6. v. 43. This lady corresponds to Leah as the type of
vv. 44-68] CANTO XXVIII 215
rays of love, if I may trust to looks which are wont to be witnesses of the heart, may the will come to thee," said I to her, " to draw forward toward this stream, so far that I may hear what thou art singing. Thou makest me remember where and what was Proserpine, at the time when her mother lost her,. and she the spring." As a lady who is dancing turns, with feet close to the ground and to each other, and hardly sets foot before foot, she turned on the red and the yellow flowerets toward me, not otherwise than a virgin who lowers her modest eyes, and made my prayers content, approach- ing so that the sweet sound came to me with its meaning. So soon as she was there where the grasses are just bathed by the waves of the fair stream, she gave me the boon of lifting her eyes. I do not believe that so great a light shone beneath the eyelids of Venus, when trans- fixed by her son quite out of his custom.7 She was smiling upon the right bank opposite, gathering with her hands the many colors which
the life of virtuous activity. Her name, as appears later, is Matilda. Why this name was chosen for her, and whether she stands for any earthly personage, has been the subject of vast and still open debate.
7. v. 66. According to Ovid, Metam. x. 525, 526, Cupid wounded his mother unintentionally, thereby causing her to love Adonis.
216 PURGATORY ^.69-87
that high land brings forth without seed. The stream made us three paces apart ; but the Hellespont where Xerxes passed it — still a curb on all human pride — endured not more hatred from Leander for swelling between Sestos and Abydos, than that from me because it did not then open. " Ye are new come," she be- gan, " and, perchance, why I smile in this place chosen for human nature as its nest, some doubt holds you marvelling ; but the psalm ' De/ec- tasti ' 8 affords light which may uncloud your understanding. And thou who art in front,9 and didst pray to me, say, if aught else thou wouldst hear, for I came ready for every question of thine, so far as may suffice." " The water," said I, " and the sound of the forest, impugn within me recent faith in something which I heard contrary to this." I0 Whereon she : " I
8. v. 80. Psalm xcii. 4. " Deiectasti me, Domine, in factura tua, et in operibus mamium tuarum exultabo." " For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work ; I will triumph in the works of thy hands." Delight in the work of the Lord is the motive of the lady's smile.
9. v. 82. Dante is now preceding his former guides.
10. v. 87. Statius had told Dante (Canto xxi. 43—53) that the exhalations of water or of earth, which are the cause of wind and the source of streams, do not rise above the gate of Purgatory, but the rivulet by which they are standing, and the breeze which sounds through the forest seem to contradict his statement.
vv. 88-107] CANTO XXVIII 217
will tell how that which makes thee wonder proceeds from its own cause ; and I will clear away the mist which falls upon thee.
" The supreme Good, which Itself alone is pleasing to Itself, made man good, and for good, and gave to him this place for earnest of eternal peace. Through his own default he dwelt here little while; through his own default he changed honest laughter and sweet sport to tears and to toil. In order that the disturbance, which the exhalations of the water and of the earth (that follow after the heat so far as they can) produce down below, should not make any war on man, this mountain rose so high toward heaven, and is free from them, from there where it is locked in. Now because the whole air revolves in a circuit with the primal revolution," if its circling be not broken by some obstacle,12 upon this height, which is wholly disengaged in the living air, this motion strikes, and makes the wood,
n. v. 1 04. With the movement given to it by the revo- lution of the crystalline heaven, the so-called Primum Mobile, from which the other heavenly spheres derive their motion.
iz. v. 105. Literally, «< by some corner." The steady revolution of the air is broken on the Mount of Purgatory, which rises free toward the heavens, and thus the breeze is caused which, stirring the plants that are brought forth with- out seed, in the Terrestrial Paradise, then carries their virtue to the inhabited parts of the earth, where, if the soil be fit and the climate favorable, the trees and the flowers spring up.
218 PURGATORY [w. 108-131
because it is thick-set, resound ; and the plant thus struck has such power that with its virtue it impregnates the breeze, and this in its whirl- ing then scatters it around ; and the rest of the earth, according as it is fit in itself, or through its sky, conceives and brings forth divers trees of divers virtues. It should not then, this being heard, appear a marvel on earth, when some plant takes root there without apparent seed. And thou must know that the holy plain where thou art is full of every seed, and has within itself fruit which is never gathered yonder upon earth.
" The water which thou seest does not rise from a vein which vapor condensed by the frost restores, like a stream that gains and loses breath; but it issues from a constant and sure fountain, which by the will of God regains as much as it pours forth open on two sides. On this side it descends with virtue that takes from one the memory of sin ; on the other it restores that of every good deed. On this side it is called Lethe,13 so on the other Eunoe ; and it works
13. v. 130. Lethe, after flowing through the 'Earthly Paradise, must be supposed to fall to the foot of the Mountain, and there to enter the earth, thence wearing its way down to the centre, bearing thither that which it has washed from the memory of the purified sinner. It is the little stream the sound of whose winding course had guided Dante and Virgil
yv. 132-148] CANTO XXVIII 219
not if first it be not tasted on this side then on that.14 To all other savors this is superior.
" And though thy thirst may be fully sated even if I reveal no more to thee, I will yet give thee a corollary as a favor ; nor do I think my speech will be less dear to thee, if it extend with thee beyond my promise. Those who in old time sang of the Golden Age, and of its happy state, perchance, upon Parnassus, dreamed of this place : here was the root of mankind in- nocent ; here is always spring, and every fruit ; this is the nectar of which each one of them tells."
I turned me backward then wholly to my Poets, and saw that with a smile they had heard the last words ; then to the beautiful Lady I turned again my eyes.
through the dark cavernous passage by which they passed from Hell to Purgatory. See Hell, xxxiv. 127-132.
14. v. 132. The water does not produce its full effect unless both streams be tasted.
CANTO XXIX
The Earthly Paradise. — Mystic Procession or Tri- umph of the Church.
SINGING like a lady enamored, she, at the ending of her words, continued : " Beati, quorum tecta sunt peccata" r And, like the nymphs who were wont to go solitary through the sylvan shades, one desiring to see and one to avoid the sun, she then moved on counter to the stream, going up along the bank, and I at even pace with her, following her little step with little. Of her steps and mine there were not a hundred, when the banks both alike gave a turn, in such wise that I faced again toward the east. Nor even thus had our way been long, when the lady turned wholly round to me, saying: "My brother, look and listen." And lo ! a sudden lustre ran through the great forest on every side, so that it made me question if it were lightning. But because the lightning stays even as it comes,2
1. v. 3. " Blessed are they whose transgressions are for' given." Psalm xxxii. I.
2. v. 19. Its stay is but for the moment of its coming.
vv. 20-45] CANTO XXIX 221
and this, lasting, became more and more re- splendent, in my thought I said, " What thing is this ? " And a sweet melody ran through the luminous air ; whereupon a righteous zeal made me reproach the hardihood of Eve, who, there, where the earth and the heavens were obedient, the only woman, and but just now formed, did not endure to stay under any veil ; under which if she had stayed devout, I should have tasted those ineffable delights before, and for a longer time. While I was going on amid so many first fruits of the eternal pleasure, all enrapt, and still desirous of more joys,3 in front of us the air, beneath the green branches, be- came like a blazing fire, and the sweet sound was now heard as a song.
O Virgins sacrosanct ! if for you I have ever endured hunger, cold, or vigils, the occasion spurs me that I claim reward therefor. Now it behoves that Helicon pour forth for me, and that Urania aid me with her choir to put into verse things difficult to think.
A little farther on, the long tract of space which was still between us and them shewed
3. v. 33. Virgil had told Dante that he should see Beatrice upon the summit of the Mountain. See Canto vi. 46-48.
222 PURGATORY [w. 46-61
falsely in their seeming seven trees of gold. But when I had come so near to them that the common object, which deceives the sense,4 lost not through distance any of its attributes, the power which supplies discourse to reason 5 dis- tinguished them as candlesticks,6 and in the voices of the song, " Hosanna" On high the fair array was flaming, brighter by far than the moon in the clear sky at midnight, in the middle of her month. I turned me round full of wonder to the good Virgil, and he replied to me with a look charged not less with amaze- ment. Then I turned back my gaze to the high things, which were moving toward us so slowly that they would have been outstripped by new-made brides. The lady chided me :
4. v. 47. An object which has properties common to many things, so that at a distance the sight cannot distinguish its specific nature.
5. v. 49. The faculty of perception or apprehension. See Canto xviii. 22.
6. v. 50. The imagery of the Triumph of the Church here described is largely taken from the Apocalypse. " And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks." Revelation i. 12. "And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.*' Id. iv. 5. " And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." Isaiah xi. 2.
vv. 62-83] CANTO XXIX 223
" Why art thou only thus ardent in gazing on the living lights, and dost not look at that which comes behind them ? " Then I saw folk com- ing behind, as if after their leaders, clothed in white, and such whiteness there never was on earth.7 The water was resplendent on the left flank, and reflected to me my left side, if I looked in it, even as a mirror. When I had such position on my bank that only the stream separated me, in order to see better, I gave halt to my steps, and I saw the flamelets go for- ward leaving the air behind them painted, and they had the semblance of streaming pennons, so that it remained divided overhead by seven stripes, all in those colors whereof the sun makes his bow, and Delia her girdle.8 These banners stretched to the rear beyond my sight, and ac- cording to my judgment the outermost were ten paces apart. Under so fair a sky as I de- scribe, twenty-four elders,9 two by two, were
7. v. 66. " And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white them." Mark ix. 3.
8. v. 78. Delia, the moon, and her girdle the halo.
9. v. 83. "And round about the throne were four and twenty seats : and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment." Revelation iv. 4. These four and twenty elders in white raiment, and crowned with white lilies, white being the color of faith, symbolize the books of the Old Testament. The reckoning of the
224 PURGATORY [w. 84-105
coming crowned with flower-de-luce. All were singing : " Blessed art thou among the daugh- ters of Adam, and blessed forever be thy beau- ties."
After the flowers and the other fresh herbage, opposite to me on the other bank, were free from those folk elect, there came behind them, even as light follows light in heaven, four liv- ing creatures, each crowned with green leaves. Each was feathered with six wings, the feathers full of eyes ; and the eyes of Argus, if they were living, would be such. I0 To describe their forms, Reader, I scatter rhymes no more, for other spending so constrains me that in this I cannot be liberal. But read Ezekiel, who de- picts them as he saw them coming from the cold quarter with wind, with cloud, and with fire ; and such as thou wilt find them in his pages such were they here, save that as to the wings John is with me, and differs from him,11
number of these books as twenty-four is made by St. Jerome in his preface to the Scriptures, called Prologus gale- atusy by counting five books of Moses, eight of the prophets (those of the twelve minor prophets being reckoned as one), and eleven of the historical and other books; and these twenty-four books are symbolized, according to the Saint, by the four and twenty elders of the Apocalypse.
10. v. 96. The eyes were keen and vigilant as those of the living Argus.
11. v. 105. These four living creatures, which represent
rv. 106-119] CANTO XXIX 225
The space between these four contained a tri- umphal chariot upon two wheels, which came drawn along by the neck of a Griffon.12 And he stretched up the one and the other of his wings between the midmost stripe, and the three and three others, so that he did harm to no one of them by cleaving it : so high they rose that they were lost to sight. His members were of gold so far as he was bird, and the rest were white mixed with crimson. Not Africanus, or indeed Augustus, gladdened Rome with so beautiful a chariot ; I3 but even that of the Sun would be poor to it, — that of the Sun, which, going astray,14 was consumed at the prayer of
the four Evangelists, are described by Ezekiel (i. 6) as having four wings, but in the Revelation (iv. 8) John gives to each of them six wings : " and they were full of eyes within." They are crowned with green, as the color of hope ; their wings may indicate the heavenly nature of the truth of which they are the messengers, and the eyes their spiritual in- sight.
12. v. 1 08. The griffon, half eagle and half lion, repre- sents Christ in his double nature, divine and human. His head and neck and wings, the parts of him symbolizing his divine nature, are of gold, while his body, symbolizing his human nature, is white and crimson, the colors of flesh and blood. " My beloved is white and ruddy, . . . his head is as the most fine gold." Song of Solomon v. 10, 11. The chariot which he draws is the Church.
13. v. 1 1 6. On occasion of their Triumphs.
14. v. 1 1 8. When driven by Phaethon.
226 PURGATORY [w. 120-138
the devout Earth, when Jove in his secrecy was just. Three ladies/5 at the right wheel, came dancing in a circle ; one so ruddy that hardly would she have been noted within the fire ; the next was as if her flesh and bones had been made of emerald ; the third seemed as snow fresh fallen. And now they seemed led by the white, now by the red,16 and the others took their step both slow and swift from the song of her who led. On the left, four,17 robed in purple, made festival, following the measure of one of them who had three eyes in her head.
Behind all the group thus described, I saw two old men, unlike in dress, but like in de- meanor, both dignified and staid. The one showed himself one of the familiars of that su- preme Hippocrates whom Nature made for the creatures that she holds most dear; l8 the other
15. v. 121. The theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, of the colors respectively appropriate to them.
1 6. v. 128. Hope must always follow Faith or Love.
17. v. 130. The four cardinal Virtues, in purple, the imperial color, typifying their rule over human conduct, — Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude : Prudence has three eyes, as looking at the past, the present, and the future, and she leads the others because she is *' the directress of all die moral virtues." S. T. iii. 85. 3.
1 8. v. 138. The book of Acts, represented under the type of its author, St. Luke, called " the beloved physi-
w. 139-154] CANTO XXIX 227
showed the contrary care/9 with a shining and sharp sword, such that it caused me fear on the hither side of the stream. Then I saw four of humble aspect, and behind all an old man alone, coming asleep with a keen countenance.20 And these seven were robed like the first band ;21 but they made not a crown of lilies round their heads, rather of roses, and of other red flowers.22 The sight at little distance would have sworn that all were aflame above their brows.
And when the chariot was abreast of me, a peal of thunder was heard, and those worthy people seemed to have their farther progress in- terdicted, stopping there with the first ensigns.23
dan." Cclossians iv. 14. Man is the creature whom Nature holds dearest.
19. v. 139. The Pauline Epistles, typified by their writer, whose sword is the symbol of war and martyrdom, a ''contrary care" to the healing of men.
20. v. 144. The four "humble in appearance" are the representatives in their writers of the minor Epistles, and they are followed by St. John, as the writer of the Reve- lation, asleep, and yet with lively countenance, because he was " in the Spirit " when he beheld his vision.
21. v. 146. In white raiment.
22. v. 148. The red flowers are symbolic of the fires of Christian love.
23. v. 154. The seven candlesticks with their pennons. Veliutello has pointed out that the procession of the Church is in the form of a cross : the candlesticks forming its foot, the four and twenty elders its lower limb, the chariot with tne
228 PURGATORY [v. 154
Virtues on either side fashioning its crossing and arms, and the seven "apparelled like the first band " its upper limb.
The allegory of the procession itself seems to be that the Church, the Divine institution for bringing sinful men to God, comes to meet the penitent sinner, manifesting to him its sublime nature, and receiving him finally (see Canto xxxii. 29) as one of its own members.
CANTO XXX
The Earthly Paradise. — Beatrice appears. — De- parture of Virgil. — Reproof of Dante by Beatrice.
WHEN the Septentrion of the first heaven x (which never knew setting nor rising, nor veil of other cloud than sin, and which was making every one there acquainted with his duty, as the lower2 makes him who turns the helm to come to port) stopped still, the truthful people3 who had come first between the Griffon and it,4 turned to the chariot as to their peace, and one of them, as if sent from heaven, singing, cried thrice: "Veni> sponsa> de Libano"* and all the others after.
1 . v. i . The seven candlesticks, symbols of the seven- fold spirit of the Lord, whose abode is the first heaven, the Empyrean.
2. v. 5. The lower septentrion, or the seven stars of the Great Bear.
3. v. 7. The personifications of the truthful books of the Old Testament.
4. v. 8. The septentrion of the first heaven.
5. v. 1 1. " Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse." The Song of Solomon iv. 8. In the Vulgate the Veni is
230 PURGATORY [vv. 13-27
As the blessed at the last trump will arise swiftly, each from his tomb, singing Hallelujah with reinvested voice,6 so, upon the divine wagon, ad vocem tanti senis,7 rose up a hundred ministers and messengers of life eternal. All were saying: " Benedictus, qui veniSy' 8 and, scat- tering flowers above and around, Manibus o date lilia plenis?
I have seen ere now at the beginning of the day the eastern region all rosy, and the rest of heaven beautiful with fair clear sky, and the face of the sun rising shaded, so that through the tempering of vapors I0 the eye sustained it
thrice repeated, " Veni de Libano, sponsa mea, veni de Li- bano, veni."
6. v. 1 5. " And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in Heaven, saying, Alleluia." Revelation xix. i.
7. v. 17. " At the voice of so great an elder ; }> these words are in Latin apparently for the sake of matching the rhyme with that of the two following verses.
8. v. 19. " Blessed thou that comest," words derived from Psalm cxviii. 26, and shouted by the multitude at the en- trance of Jesus to Jerusalem (Matthew xxi. 9), but here used with a change in the verb from the third to the second person.
9. v. 21. «« Oh, give lilies with full hands;" words from the Aeneid, vi. 884 ; and whether they are to be taken as sung by the angels, or as descriptive of the angelic action, supreme honor is paid to Virgil by their introduction in this sacred scene.
10. v. 26. The mists at the horizon.
vv. 28-52] CANTO XXX 231
a long while ; thus within a cloud of flowers, which was ascending from the angelic hands and falling down again within and without, a lady, with wreath of olive over a white veil, appeared to me, robed with the color of living flame under a green mantle.11 And my spirit which now for so long a time had not been broken down, trembling with awe at her presence, without having more knowledge by the eyes, through occult virtue that proceeded from her, felt the great potency of ancient love.
Soon as the lofty virtue smote my sight, which already had transfixed me ere I was out of boyhood, I turned me to the left, with the confidence with which the little child runs to his mother when he is frightened, or when he is troubled, to say to Virgil : " Less than a drachm of blood remains in me that does not tremble ; I recognize the signals of the ancient flame." 12 But Virgil had left us deprived of himself; Virgil, sweetest Father; Virgil, to whom for my salvation I gave me. Nor did ill which the ancient mother lost I3 avail unto
11. v. 3 3 . The olive is the symbol of wisdom and of peace ; the three colors are those of Faith, Charity, and Hope.
12. v. 48. "Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae." Aeneid iv. 28.
13- v' 53- All the beauty of the Earthly Paradise whicb Eve lost and which now surrounded Dante.
232 PURGATORY [w. 53-79
rny cheeks, cleansed with dew,14 that they should not turn dark again with tears.
" Dante,15 though Virgil be gone away, weep not yet, weep not yet, for by another sword thou needst must weep."
Like an admiral who, on poop or on prow, comes to see the people that are serving on the other ships, and encourages them to do well, upon the left-hand border of the chariot — when I turned me at the sound of my own name, which of necessity is registered here, — I saw the Lady, who had first appeared to me veiled beneath the angelic festival, directing her eyes toward me across the stream. Although the veil, which descended from her head, circled by the leaf of Minerva, did not allow her to appear distinctly, royally, still severe in her mien, she went on, as one who speaks, and keeps back his warmest words : " Look at me well : I am, indeed, I am, indeed, Beatrice. How hast thou deigned to approach the moun- tain ? Didst thou not know that here man is happy ? " My eyes fell down to the clear fount ; but seeing myself in it I drew them to the grass, such great shame weighed on my brow. As to her son the mother seems
14. v. 53. See Canto i. 121—129.
15. v. 55. The only mention of Dante's name in the poem.
vv, 80-93] CANTOXXX 233
haughty, so she seemed to me ; for somewhat bitter tastes the savor of tart pity.
She was silent, and the angels sang of a sud- den : " In tey Domine, speravi ; " but beyond " pedes meos"16 they did not pass. Even as the snow, among the living rafters upon the back of Italy,17 is congealed, blown and packed by Sclavonian winds, then melting, trickles through itself, if only the land which loses sha- dow breathe,18 so that it seems as fire melting the candle : thus was I without tears and sighs before the song of them who always sing fol- lowing the notes of the eternal spheres ; but
1 6. v. 84. " In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust ; let me never be ashamed : deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me ; deliver me speedily : be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress ; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me : for thou art my strength. Into thine hand I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. I have hated them that regard lying vanities : but I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy : for thou hast considered my trouble ; thou hast known my soul in adversities. And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy : thou hast set my feet in a large room." Psalm xxxi. 1-8.
17. v. 86. The forests upon the Apennines.
1 8. v. 89. The snow, frozen by the winds from the north, melts when the wind blows from Africa, which, with advance of the Spring, loses shadow.
234 PURGATORY [vv. 94-116
when I heard in their sweet melodies their com- passion for me, more than if they had said: " Lady, why dost thou so confound him ? " the ice that was bound tight around my heart be- came breath and water, and with anguish issued from my breast, through my mouth and through my eyes.
She, still standing motionless on the afore- said side of the chariot, then turned her words to those pious I<? beings thus : " Ye watch in the eternal day, so that nor night nor slumber robs from you one step the world may make along its ways ; wherefore my reply is with greater care, that he who is weeping yonder may understand me,20 in order that fault and grief may be of one measure. Not only through the working of the great wheels,21 which direct every seed to some end according as the stars are its companions, but through largess of di- vine graces, which have for their rain " vapors so lofty that our sight goes not near thereto, — this man was virtually such in his new life,23 that every right disposition would have made
19. v. 101. Both devout and piteous.
20. v. 107. My reply is, for his sake, fuller than is need* ful for you who know everything that happens in the world.
21. v. 109. The circling heavens.
22. v. 113. As source of their rain.
23. v. 115. In his youth.
vv. 117-145] CANTO XXX 235
admirable proof in him. But so much the more malign and wild does the ground become with bad seed and unfilled, as it has the more of good earthly vigor. Some time did I sustain him with my face ; showing my youthful eyes to him, I led him with me turned in right direc- tion. So soon as I was on the threshold of my second age, and had changed life, he took himself from me, and gave himself to others. When I had risen from flesh to spirit, and beauty and virtue were increased in me, I was less dear and less pleasing to him ; and he turned his steps along a way not true, following false images of good, which pay no promise in full. Nor did it avail me to obtain 24 inspirations with which, both in dream and otherwise, I called him back ; so little did he heed them. So low he fell that all means for his salvation were already short, save showing him the lost peo- ple. For this I visited the gate of the dead, and to him, who has conducted him up hither, my prayers were borne with weeping. The high decree of God would be broken, if Lethe should be passed, and such viand25 should be tasted, without some scot of repentance which may pour forth tears."
24. v. 133. Through the grace of God.
25. v. 143. The living water of Lethe, which takes away the memory of committed sin.
CANTO XXXI
The Earthly Paradise. — Reproachful discourse of Beatrice, and confession of Dante. — Passage of Lethe. — Appeal of the Virtues to Beatrice. — Her Unveiling.
" O THOU, who art on the farther side of the sacred river," turning her speech to me with the point, which only with the edge had seemed to me keen, she began anew, going on without delay, " Say, say, if this is true : to so heavy a charge thine own confession must needs be con- joined." My faculties were so confused, that the voice moved, and became extinct before it had been released from its organs. A little while she waited, then said : " What thinkesf thou ? Reply to me ; for the sad memories in thee are not yet injured by the water." ' Con- fusion and fear mingled together forced such a " Yes " from out my mouth, that the eyes were needed for the hearing of it.
As a cross-bow breaks its cord and its bow when it shoots with too great tension, and the shaft hits the mark with less force, so did I
i. v. 12. Are still vivid, not yet obliterated by the water of Lethe.
vv. 19-43] CANTO XXXI 237
burst under that heavy load, pouring forth tears and sighs, and the voice slackened along its passage. Whereupon she to me : " Within those desires of mine 2 that were leading thee to love the Good beyond which there is no- thing to which one may aspire, what trenches running traverse, or what chains didst thou find, for which thou shouldst thus have despoiled thyself of the hope of passing onward ? And what satisfactions, or what advantages were dis- played on the brow of the others, for which thou shouldst have lingered before them ? " After the drawing of a bitter sigh, hardly had I the voice to make answer, and the lips with difficulty gave it form. Weeping, I said : " The present things with their false pleasure turned my steps, soon as your face was hid- den/' And she : " Hadst thou been silent, or hadst thou denied that which thou dost confess, thy fault would not be less known, by such a Judge is it known. But when the accusation of the sin bursts from one's own mouth, in our court the wheel turns itself back against the edge.3 Yet still, that thou mayst now bear
2. v. 22. Inspired by me.
3. v. 42. The grindstone turns back against that which is being sharpened, and blunts its edge. The edge of the sword of Divine justice is blunted by Divine mercy for the penitent sinner.
238 PURGATORY [vv. 44-67
shame for thy error, and that another time, hearing the Sirens, thou mayst be stronger, lay aside the sowing of tears,4 and listen ; so shalt thou hear how my buried flesh should have moved thee in opposite direction. Never did nature or art present to thee pleasure such as the fair limbs wherein I was enclosed, and which are scattered in earth. And if the supreme pleasure 3 thus failed thee through my death, what mortal thing should afterward have drawn thee into its desire ? Forsooth thou oughtest, at the first arrow of things fallacious, have risen upward after me, who was no longer such. Nor oughtest thou to have weighed thy wings downward to await more blows, either of some young girl or other vanity of so brief a use. The young bird awaits two or three ; but before the eyes of the full-fledged, the net is spread in vain, or the arrow shot." 6
As children, silent in shame, with their eyes upon the ground, stand listening and conscience- stricken and repentant, so was I standing. And
4. v. 46. " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." Psalm cxxvi. 5.
5. v. 52. The beauty of Beatrice was as a miracle lift- ing the heart, not only of her lover but also of all who saw her, toward God. See The New Life, xxvii., xxx.
6. v. 63. " Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight Pf any bird." Proverbs \. 17.
vv. 68-88J CANTO XXXI 239
she said : " Since thou art grieved through hear- ing, lift up thy beard, and thou shalt take greater grief from seeing." With less resistance is a sturdy oak uprooted by a native wind, or by one from the land of larbas,7 than I raised my chin at her command ; and when by the beard she asked for my eyes, truly I recognized the venom of the argument.8 And when my face was lifted up, my sight perceived that those pri- mal creatures were resting from their strewing,9 and my eyes, still little assured, saw Beatrice turned toward the animal that is one person only in two natures.10 Beneath her veil, and beyond the stream, she seemed to me more to surpass her ancient self, than she seemed to sur- pass all others here when she was here. So pricked me there the nettle of repentance, that of all other things the one which most had turned me to its love became the most my foe." Such self-conviction stung my heart that 1
7. v. 72. From the South; the land of larbas, the son of Jupiter Ammon, was Libya, of which he was king. Aeneid, iv. 196.
8. v. 75. Because indicating the lack of that wisdom which should pertain to manhood.
9. v. 78. Of flowers.
10. v. 81. The Griifon, the type of Chrst, God and Man.
11. v. 87. That object which had most seduced me from the love of Beatrice was now the most hateful to me.
240 PURGATORY [w. 89-108
fell overcome ; and what I then became she knows who afforded me the cause.
Then, when my heart restored my outward faculties, I saw above me the lady whom I had found alone,12 and she was saying : " Hold me, hold me." She had drawn me into the stream up to the throat, and dragging me after her was moving over the water, light as a shuttle. When I was near the blessed shore,13 I heard " Asper- ges me " 14 so sweetly that I cannot remember it, far less can write it. The beautiful lady opened her arms, clasped my head, and im- mersed me where I had perforce to swallow of the water. Then she took me, and pre- sented me, thus bathed, within the dance of the four beautiful ones,15 and each of them covered me with her arm. " Here we are nymphs, and in heaven we are stars : l6 before Beatrice had descended to the world we were ordained unto her for her handmaids. We will lead thee
12. v. 92. On his entrance to the Earthly Paradise.
*3- v* 97- The blessed bank, because on that side of the stream was Beatrice, and because when Dante reaches it, having drunk of the water of Lethe, he will have lost the bitter memories of sin.
14. v. 98. The first words of the seventh verse of the fifty-first Psalm : " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : wash me, and 1 shall be whiter than snow. ' '
15. v. 104. The four Cardinal Virtues.
1 6. v. 1 06. See Canto i. 23.
vv. 109-133] CANTO XXXI
to her eyes ; but for the joyous light which is within them, the three yonder who look more deeply shall sharpen thine own." I? Thus sing- ing, they began ; and then to the breast of the Griffon they led me with them, where Beatrice was standing turned toward us. They said : " See that thou spare not thy sight : we have placed thee before the emeralds, whence Love of old drew his darts against thee." A thou- sand desires hotter than flame bound fast my eyes to the relucent eyes which ever stayed fixed upon the Griffon. Not otherwise than as the sun in a mirror, was the twofold animal gleaming therewithin, now with one, now with the other mode of being.18
Think, Reader, if I marvelled when I saw the thing stay quiet in itself, and in its image trans- muting itself.
While, full of awe and glad, my soul was tasting that food which, sating in itself, causes longing for itself, the other three, showing themselves of the loftier order in their bearing, came forward dancing to their angelic carol. " Turn, Beatrice, turn thy holy eyes," was their
17. v. 1 1 1 . The Cardinal Virtues lead up to Theology, or the revealed knowledge of Divine things, but the Evangelic Virtues are needed to penetrate within them.
1 8. v. 123. The divine and the human, united in tho Griffon.
242 PURGATORY [vv. 134-145
song, " upon thy faithful one, who to see thee has taken so many steps. Of thy grace do us the grace that thou unveil to him thy mouth, so that he may discern the second beauty which thou dost conceal." I9
O splendor of living light eternal ! Who has become so pallid under the shadow of Par- nassus, or has so drunk at its cistern, that he would not seem to have his mind encumbered, trying to render thee as thou didst appear there where with its harmony the heaven hangs over thee, when in the open air thou didst thyself disclose ?
19. v. 138. "The eyes of Wisdom archer demonstra- tions by which one sees the truth most surely ; and her smile is her persuasions in which the interior light of Wisdom is displayed without any veil ; and in these two is felt that loftiest pleasure of Beatitude, which is the chief good in Paradise." Convito, iii. 15.
CANTO XXXII
The Earthly Paradise. — Return of the Triumphal procession. — The Chariot bound to the Mystic Tree. — Sleep of Dante. — His waking to find the Triumph de~ parted. — Transformation of the Chariot. — The Harlot and the Giant.
So fixed and intent were my eyes to relieve their ten years' thirst, that my other senses were all extinct : and they themselves, on one side and the other, had a wall of indifference, so did the holy smile draw them to itself with the ancient net ; when perforce my sight was turned toward my left by those goddesses,1 because I heard from them a " Too fixedly."2 And the condition which exists for seeing, in eyes but just now smitten by the sun, caused me to be for a while without sight. But when my vision reshaped itself to the lesser sensation (I say to the lesser, in respect to the great one where-
1. v. 8. The three heavenly Virtues.
2. v. 9. " Thou lookest too intently ; thou hast yet to learn much before thou canst penetrate to the depths of the Divine mysteries.'*
244 PURGATORY [vv. 15-34
from by force I had removed myself),3 I saw that the glorious army had wheeled upon its right flank, and was returning with the sun and with the seven flames in its face.
As under its shields to protect itself a troop turns and wheels with its banner, before it all can change about,4 that soldiery of the celestial realm which was in advance had wholly gone past us, before its front beam 5 had bent the chariot round. Then to the wheels the ladies returned,6 and the Griffon moved his blessed burden, in such wise however that no feather of him shook. The beautiful lady who had drawn me at the ford, and Statius and I were following the wheel which made its orbit with the smaller arc.7 Thus passing through the lofty wood, empty through fault of her who trusted to the serpent, an angelic song set the time to our steps. Perhaps an arrow loosed from the
3 . v. I 5 . The splendor of the procession was not to be compared with the dazzling brightness of Beatrice.
4. v. 21. The vanguard with the banner turns before the rear faces about.
5. v. 24. Its pole.
6. v. 25. The four ladies had come from the left wheel of the chariot to lead Dante to the eyes of Beatrice, and the other three had advanced from the right wheel to pray her to unveil her smile to him.
7. v. 30. The right-hand wheel, the turn being made (v. 1 6) to the right.
^v- 35-49] CANTO XXXII 245
string had traversed in three flights as great a distance as we had advanced, when Beatrice descended. I heard " Adam ! " murmured by all : 8 then they encircled a plant despoiled of flowers and of other leafage on every bough.9 Its tresses, which the wider spread the higher up they are,10 would be wondered at for height by the Indians in their woods.
" Blessed art thou, Griffon, that thou dost not break off with thy beak of this wood sweet to the taste, since the belly is ill racked thereby/' Thus around the sturdy tree the others cried ; and the animal of two natures : " Thus is pre- served the seed of all righteousness." " And turning to the pole which he had drawn, he
8. v. 37. In reproach of him who had in disobedience tasted of the fruit of this tree. " O thou Adam, what hast thou done ? For though it was thou that sinned, thou art not fallen alone, but we all that come of thee." 2 Esdras vii.
48.
9. v. 39. By the disobedience of Adam the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the type of the law of God, was despoiled of virtue until the obedience of Christ restored it.
10. v. 41. The branches of the Tree of Knowledge spread widest as they are nearest to the Divine Source of truth.
11. v. 45. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." "That as sin had reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ, our Lord." Romans v. 19, 21.
446 PURGATORY [vv. 50-64
dragged it to the foot of the widowed trunk, and that which was of it I2 he left bound to it.
As when the great light falls downward mingled with that which shines behind the celestial Carp,13 our plants become swollen, and then renew themselves, each in its own color, before the sun yokes his coursers under another star, so, disclosing a color less than of roses and more than of violets, the plant renewed itself, which at first had its boughs so bare.14 I did not understand, nor here I5 is sung, the hymn which that folk then sang, nor did I bear the melody to the end.
If I could portray how the pitiless eyes x*
12. v. 51. The pole, the mystic type of the cross of Christ, which was, according to an old legend, made of the wood of this tree. The fastening of the Chariot, the type of the Church, to the tree seems intended to symbolize the bestowal by God upon the Church of such knowledge of good and evil as was requisite for the discharge of its functions upon earth, and also the fact that these functions could only be fulfilled by obedience to the law of God.
13. v. 54. In the spring, when the Sun is in the sign of the Ram, which follows that of the Fishes, here termed the Carp, and its great light is mingled with that of the constel- lation.
14. v. 60. The obedience of Christ restores the flowers and foliage to the tree, for through his life and teaching was the Law of God revealed, as through his death it was vindicated.
15. v. 61. On earth.
1 6. v. 65. The hundred eyes of Argus, who, when
vv. 65-80] CANTO XXXII 247
sank to slumber, while hearing of Syrinx, — • the eyes to which much watching cost so dear, — like a painter who paints from a model I would depict how I fell asleep ; but whoso would, let him be one who can represent slum- ber well.17 Therefore I pass on to when I awoke, and I say that a splendor rent for me the veil of sleep, and a call : " Arise, what doest thou ? "
As, to see some of the flowerets of the apple- tree l8 which makes the Angels greedy for its fruit,19 and makes perpetual marriage feasts in Heaven,20 Peter and John and James were led,21 and being overcome, came to themselves at the word by which greater slumbers 22 were broken, and saw their band diminished alike by Moses
watching lo, fell asleep while listening to the tale of the loves of Pan and Syrinx, and was then slain by Mercury. See Ovid, Metam., i. 568—721.
17. v. 69. The sleep of Dante may signify the impo- tency of human reason to explain the mysteries of redemption.
1 8. v. 73. "As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons/' The Song of Solomon ii. 3.
19. v. 74. The full glory of Christ in Heaven.
20. v. 75. The marriage supper of the Lamb. Rev- elation xix. 9.
21. v. 76. To behold at the Transfiguration Moses and Elias, flowerets of the apple-tree. Matthew xvii. I— 8.
22. v. 78. Those of the dead called back to life by Jesus.
248 PURGATORY [vv. 81-103
and Elias, and the raiment of their Master changed, so I came to myself, and saw that compassionate one standing above me, who had before been conductress of my steps along the stream ; and all in doubt I said : " Where is Beatrice ? " And she : " Behold her under the new leafage, sitting upon its root. Behold the company which surrounds her ; the rest are going on high behind the Griffon, with sweeter song and more profound." 23 And if her speech was further poured forth I know not, because already in my eyes was she who from attending to aught else had closed me in. She was sit- ting alone upon the bare ground, like a guard left there of the chariot which I had seen bound by the biform animal. In a circle the seven Nymphs were making of themselves an enclo- sure for her, with those lights in their hands which are secure from Aquilo and from Aus- ter.**
"Here shalt thou be short time a forester; and thou shalt be with me without end a citizen of that Rome whereof Christ is a Roman. Therefore for profit of the world which lives
23. v. 90. Christ having ascended, Beatrice, the type of Theology, or the knowledge of the things of God, is left seated by the chariot, the type of the Church on earth.
24. v. 99. From the north wind or the south ; that is, from any earthly blast.
vv. 104-126] CANTO XXXII 249
ill, keep now thine eyes upon the chariot ; and what thou seest, mind that thou write when thou hast returned to earth." Thus Beatrice ; and I, who at the feet of her commands was all devout, gave my mind and my eyes where she willed.
Never with so swift a motion did fire descend from a dense cloud, when it falls from that re- gion which stretches most remote, as I saw the bird of Jove swoop down through the tree, breaking the bark, as well as the flowers and new leaves ; and he struck the chariot with all his force, whereat it reeled, like a ship in a tem- pest beaten by the waves now to starboard, now to larboard.25 Then I saw a she fox,26 which seemed fasting from all good food, leap into the body of the triumphal vehicle ; but, rebuk- ing her for her ugly sins, my Lady turned her to such flight as her fleshless bones allowed.27 Then, from there whence he had first come, I saw the eagle descend down into the ark of the car and leave it feathered from himself.28
25. v. 1 1 7 . The descent of the eagle, — the type of the Empire, — breaking the tree, symbolizes the disobedience of the emperors to the law of God ; and the attack on the char- iot their persecution of the Church.
26. v. 1 19. The fox represents the early heresies.
27. v. 123. Heresy is refuted by that knowledge of divine things which is held by the Church, and of which Beatrice is the type.
28. v. 1 26. The feathering of the car is the type of the
250 PURGATORY 0^.127-147
And a voice, such as issues from a heart that is afflicted, issued from Heaven, and thus spoke : " O little bark of mine, how ill art thou laden ! " Then it seemed to me that the earth opened be- tween the two wheels, and I saw a dragon issue from it, who fixed his tail upward through the chariot : and, like a wasp that retracts its sting, drawing to himself his malignant tail, he drew out part of the floor, and went wandering away.29 That which remained covered itself again, as lively soil with grass, with the plum- age, offered perhaps with sane and benign in- tention ; and both one and the other wheel and the pole were again covered with it in such time that a sigh holds the mouth open longer.30 Thus transformed, the holy structure put forth heads upon its parts, three upon the pole, and one on each corner.31 The first were horned like oxen, but the four had a single horn upon the forehead.32 A like monster was never seen
donation of Constantine, — the temporal endowment of the Church.
29. v. 135. The dragging off by the dragon of a part of the car may figure the schism of the Greek Church in the 9th century.
30. v. 141. This new feathering signifies the fresh and fapidly growing endowments of the Church.
31. v. 144. The imagery is derived, as before, from the Apocalypse. "And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns." Revelation xii. 3.
32. v. 146. The seven heads have been interpreted as
vv. 148-160] CANTO XXXII 251
before. Secure, as a fortress on a high moun- tain, there appeared to me a dishevelled har- lot sitting upon it, with bold brows glancing round.33 And, as if in order that she should not be taken from him, I saw a giant standing at her side, and now and then they kissed each other. But because she turned her lustful and roving eye on me that fierce paramour scourged her from head to foot. Then full of jealousy, and cruel with anger, he loosed the monster, and dragged it through the wood so far, that he made of that alone a shield from me for the harlot and for the strange beast.34
the seven mortal sins, which grew up in the transformed church, the result of its wealth and temporal power. Pride, Envy, and Anger are two-horned as being sins against others, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust have each a single horn as sins against one's self alone.
33. v. 150. "I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-col- oured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.'* Revelation xvii. 3.
34. v. 1 60. The harlot and the giant stand respectively for the Pope and the king of France. The meaning of the turning of her eyes upon Dante by the harlot is obscure, and no satisfactory interpretation of it has been proposed ; the dragging of the car, transformed into a monster, through the wood, so far as to hide it from the poet, may be taken as typifying the removal of the seat of the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, in 1305.
CANTO XXXIII
The Earthly Paradise. — Prophecy of Beatrice con- cerning one who shall restore the Empire. — Her dis- course with Dante. — The river Eunoe. — Dante drinks of //, and is fit to ascend to Heaven.
" Deus, venerunt gentes" ' the ladies began, alternating, now three now four, a sweet psalm- ody, and weeping ; and Beatrice, sighing and pitiful, was listening to them with such as- pect that scarce was Mary at the cross more changed. But when the other virgins gave place to her to speak, risen upright upon her feet, she answered, colored like fire : " Modi- cum, et non videbitis me, et iterum, my beloved Sisters, modicum^ et vos videbitis me." 2 Then she set all the seven in front of her; and behind
1 . v. I . The first words of the seventy-ninth Psalm : " O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance ; thy holy temple have they defiled ; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps." The whole Psalm, picturing the actual desolation of the Church, but closing with confident prayer to the Lord to restore his people, is sung by the holy ladies.
2. v. 12. "A little while and ye shall not see me : and again, a little while and ye shall see me." John xvi. 16. An answer and promise corresponding to the complaint and the petition of the Psalm.
vv. 13-36] CANTO XXXIII 253
her, by a sign only, she placed me, and the Lady, and the Sage who had remained.3 Thus she moved on ; and I do not think her tenth step had been set upon the ground, when with her eyes she smote mine, and with tranquil aspect said to me : " Come more forward, so that if I speak with thee, thou mayst be well placed for listening to me." So soon as I was with her as I should be, she said to me : " Brother, why dost thou not venture to question me, now thou art coming with me ? "
As befalls those who with exceeding rever- ence are speaking in presence of their superiors, that they drag not their voice living to the teeth,4 it befell me that without perfect utter- ance I began : " My Lady, you know my need, and that which is good for it." And she to me : " From fear and from shame I wish that thou henceforth disentangle thyself, so that thou mayst speak no more like one who dreams. Know thou, that the vessel which the serpent broke 5 was, and is not ; 6 but let him who has the blame thereof7 think that the vengeance of
3. v. 15. The lady, Matilda, and the sage, Statius.
4. v. 27. Are unable to speak with distinct words.
5. v. 34. The body of the chariot broken by the dragon.
6. v. 35. "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not." Revelation xvii. 8.
7. v. 35. For the disappearance of the chariot.
254 PURGATORY [vv. 37-47
God fears not sops.8 The eagle that left its feathers on the car, whereby it became a mon- ster, and then a prey, shall not be for all time without an heir ; for I see surely, and therefore I tell it, stars already close at hand, secure from every obstacle and from every hindrance, to give to us a time in which a Five hundred, Ten, and Five sent by God shall slay the abandoned woman together with that giant who is sinning with her.9 And perchance my narration, dark like that of Themis and the Sphinx,10 less per-
8. v. 36. According to a belief, which the old com- mentators report as commonly held by the Florentines, if a murderer could contrive, within nine days of the murder, to eat a sop of bread dipped in wine, above the grave of his victim, he would escape from the vengeance of the family of the murdered man. The meaning of the words is, Let not him who has carried away the chariot, now become a mon- ster, fancy that any means he may take can avert the ven- geance of God for the wrong.
9. v. 45. This dark prophecy does not admit of a com- plete interpretation. Beatrice declares that the empire, which had been in Dante's view practically vacant, should not re- main so indefinitely. She sees near at hand a 515, in Ro- man numerals a DXV, which letters by transposition form DVX, "a leader,'' sent by God, who shall reestablish the Divine order upon earth. The prophecy is so positive that it seems probable that it was written when Dante's hopes were high as to the results of Henry VII. 's expedition to Italy in 1310.
10. v. 47. Obscure as the oracles of Themis or the enigmas of the Sphinx.
vv. 48-66] CANTO XXXIII 255
suades thee, because after their fashion it clouds the understanding. But soon the facts will be the Naiades " which shall solve this difficult enigma, without harm of flocks or of harvest. Do thou note ; and even as these words are uttered by me, so do thou teach them to those alive with that life which is a running unto death ; and bear in mind when thou writest them, not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant, which here has now been twice de- spoiled.12 Whoever robs or breaks it, with blasphemy of deed offends God, who for His own use alone created it holy. For biting it, the first soul, in pain and in desire, for five thou- sand years and more, longed for Him who pun- ished on Himself the bite. Thy wit sleeps, if it deem not that for a special reason it is so lofty and so inverted at its top.13 And if thy
11. v. 49. According to a blunder in the manuscripts of Ovid's Me tarn., vii. 759, the Naiades solved the riddles of the oracles, at which Themis, offended, sent forth a wild beast to ravage the flocks and fields. The correct reading is Laiades, that is, Oedipus, the son of Laius ; but this emen- dation was not made till the seventeenth century.
12. v. 57. First by Adam, secondly by the giant who took from it "that which was of it." Canto xxxii. 51, 158.
13. v. 66. Inverted at its top, that is, with its upper branches more wide-spread than its lower. See Canto xxxii. 40-41.
256 PURGATORY [w. 67-89
vain thoughts had not been as water of Elsa M round about thy mind, and their pleasantness as Pyramus to the mulberry,15 by so many cir- cumstances alone thou wouldst have recognized morally the justice of God in the interdict upon the tree. But though I see thee in thy under- standing made of stone, and thus stony, dark, so that the light of my speech dazzles thee, I yet would have thee bear it hence within thee, even if not written, at least depicted, for the reason that the pilgrim's staff is carried wreathed with palm." "6 And I : " Even as wax, which does not change the figure imprinted by a seal, is my brain now stamped by you. But why do your desired words fly so far above my sight, that the more it strives the more it loses them ? " "In order that thou mayst know," she said, " that school which thou hast followed, and mayst see how its doctrine can follow my word;17 and mayst see that your way is distant so far from the divine, as the
14. v. 67. A river of Tuscany, whose waters have a petrifying quality.
15. v. 69. Darkening thy mind as the blood of Pyra- mus dyed the mulberry.
1 6. v. 78. If not clearly inscribed, at least so imprinted on the mind, that, like the palm on the returning pilgrim's staff, it may be a sign of where thou hast been and of what thou hast seen.
17. v. 87. How far its doctrine is from my teaching.
vv. 90-112] CANTO XXXIII 257
heaven which highest hastens on is remote from earth." l8 Whereon I replied to her : " I do not remember that I ever estranged myself from you, nor have I conscience of it that re- proaches me/' "And if thou canst not remem- ber it," she replied smiling, " now call to mind how this very day thou hast drunk of Lethe; and if from the smoke fire is inferred, this thy forgetfulness clearly proves fault in thy will intent elsewhere.10 Truly my words shall henceforth be naked so far as it is befitting to uncover them to thy rude sight."
And more flashing, and with slower steps, the sun was holding the circle of the meridian, which appears here or there according to the point of view,20 when, as he, who goes in ad- vance of people as a guide, halts if he find some strange thing on his track, the seven ladies halted at the edge of a pale shadow, such as beneath green leaves and black boughs the Alp casts over its cold streams. In front of them, it seemed to me I saw Euphrates and Tigris
1 8. v. 90. " For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah iv. 9.
19. v. 96. The having been obliged to drink of Lethe is the proof that thou hadst sin to be forgotten, and that thy will had turned thee to other things than me.
20. v. 105. Which shifts as seen from one place at another.
258 PURGATORY [vv. 113-136
issue from one fountain, and, like friends, depart slowly from one another.
" O light, O glory of the human race, what water is this which here pours forth from one source, and from itself divides itself away ? " To this prayer answer was made to me : " Pray Matilda21 that she tell it to thee." And here- upon the beautiful Lady answered, as one who frees himself from blame : " This and other things have been told to him by me; and I am sure that the water of Lethe has not hidden them from him." And Beatrice : " Perhaps a greater care, which oftentimes takes the memory away, has darkened the eyes of his mind. But behold Eunoe,22 which flows forth yonder, lead him to it, and, as thou art wont, revive his life- less power." As a gentle soul which makes not excuse, but makes its own will of another's will, soon as by a sign it is outwardly disclosed, even so, when I had been taken by her, the beautiful Lady moved on, and to Statius she said, with manner of a lady, " Come with him."
If I had, Reader, longer space for writing, I
21. v. 119= Here for the first and only time is the beautiful Lady called by name.
22. v. 127. Eunoe, "the memory of good," whicn its waters restore to the purified soul. See Canto xxviii. 1 29— 1 3 1 . The poetic conception of this fair stream is exciu« sively Dante's own.
vv. 137-145] CANTO XXXIII 259
would in part at least sing of the sweet draught which never would have sated me ; but, be- cause all the leaves destined for this second canticle are full, the curb of my art lets me go no farther.
I returned from the most holy wave, reani- mate, even as new plants renewed with new foliage, pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.
PARADISE
CONTENTS
CANTO I
Proem. — Invocation. — Beatrice, and Dante trans- humanized, ascend through the Sphere of Fire toward the Moon. — Beatrice explains the cause of then- as- cent 1
CANTO II
Proem. — Ascent to the Moon. — The cause of Spots on the Moon. — Influence of the Heavens . . I o
CANTO III
The Heaven of the Moon. — Spirits whose vows had been broken. — Piccarda Donati. — The Empress Constance 19
CANTO IV
Doubts of Dante, respecting the justice of Heaven and the abode of the blessed, solved by Beatrice. — Ques- tion of Dante as to the possibility of reparation for broken vows . ... - V • .... . • . 26
CANTO V
The sanctity of vows, and the seriousness with which they are to be made or changed. — Ascent to the Heaven of Mercury. — The shade of Justinian . . 34
iv CONTENTS
CANTO VI
Justinian tells of his own life. — The story of the Ro- man Eagle. — Spirits in the planet Mercury. — Romeo 41
CANTO VII
Discourse of Beatrice. — The Fall of Man. — The scheme of his Redemption 49
CANTO VIII
Ascent to the Heaven of Venus. — Spirits of Lovers. — Charles Martel. — His discourse on the order and the varieties in mortal things . 56
CANTO IX
The planet Venus. — Conversation of Dante with Cunizza da Romano. — With Folco of Marseilles. — Rahab. — Avarice of the Papal Court .... 66
CANTO X
Ascent to the Sun. — Spirits of the wise, and the learned in theology. — St. Thomas Aquinas. — He names to Dante those who surround him 76
CANTO XI
The Vanity of worldly desires. — St. Thomas Aquinas undertakes to solve two doubts perplexing Dante. — He narrates the life of St. Francis of Assisi ... 85
CANTO XII
Second circle of the spirits of wise religious men, doc- tors of the Church and teachers. — St. Bonaventura
CONTENTS v
narrates the life of St. Dominic, and tells the names
of those who form the circle with him . . . . 93
CANTO XIII
St. Thomas Aquinas speaks again, and explains the relation of the wisdom of Solomon to that of Adam and of Christ, and declares the vanity of human judgment IO2
CANTO XIV
At the prayer of Beatrice, Solomon tells of the glori- fied body of the blessed after the Last Judgment. — Ascent to the Heaven of Mars. — Spirits of the Sol- diery of Christ in the form of a Cross with the figure of Christ thereon. — Hymn of the Spirits . . .ill
CANTO XV
Dante is welcomed by his ancestor, Cacciaguida. — Cac- ciaguida tells of his family, and of the simple life of Florence in the old days 1 1 8
CANTO XVI
The boast of blood. — Cacciaguida continues his dis- course concerning the old and the new Florence . .126
CANTO XVII
Dante questions Cacciaguida as to his fortunes. — Cac- ciaguida replies, foretelling the exile of Dante, and the renown of his Poem 137
CANTO XVIII
The Spirits in the Cross of Mars. — Ascent to the Heaven of Jupiter. — Words shaped in light upon
vi CONTENTS
the planet by the Spirits. — Denunciation of the ava- rice of the Popes 1 44
CANTO XIX
The voice of the Eagle. — It speaks of the mysteries of Divine justice ; of the necessity of Faith for salva- tion ; of the sins of certain kings 151
CANTO XX
The song of the Just. — Princes who have loved right- eousness, in the eye of the Eagle. — Spirits, once Pagans, in bliss. — Faith and Salvation. — Predesti- nation 159
CANTO XXI
Ascent to the Heaven of Saturn. — Spirits of those who had given themselves to devout contemplation. — The Golden Stairway. — St. Peter Damian. — Predesti- nation. — The luxury of modern Prelates. — Dante alarmed by a cry of the spirits 1 66
CANTO XXII
Beatrice reassures Dante. — St. Benedict appears. — He tells of the founding of his Order, and of the falling away of its brethren. — Beatrice and Dante ascend to the Starry Heaven. — The constellation of the Twins. — Sight of the Earth . . • . . .173
CANTO XXIII The Triumph of Christ . . . c'V 1 80
CANTO XXIV
St. Peter examines Dante concerning Faith, and ap- proves his answer 186
CONTENTS vii
CANTO XXV
St. James examines Dante concerning Hope. — St. John appears, with a brightness so dazzling as to deprive Dante, for the time, of sight 193
CANTO XXVI
St. John examines Dante concerning Love. — Dante's sight restored. — Adam appears, and answers ques- tions put to him by Dante 201
CANTO XXVII
Denunciation by St. Peter of his degenerate successors. — Dante gazes upon the Earth. — Ascent of Bea- trice and Dante to the Crystalline Heaven. — Its nature. — Beatrice rebukes the covetousness of mor- tals 208
CANTO XXVIII The Heavenly Hierarchy 216
CANTO XXIX
Discourse of Beatrice concerning the creation and nature of the Angels. — She reproves the presumption and foolishness of preachers 223
CANTO XXX
Ascent to the Empyrean. — The River of Light. — The celestial Rose. — The seat of Henry VII. — The last words of Beatrice . . 231
CANTO XXXI
The Rose of Paradise. — St. Bernard. — Prayer to Bea- trice. — The glory of the Blessed Virgin . . .238
viii CONTENTS
CANTO XXXII
St. Bernard describes the order of the Rose, and points out many of the Saints. — The children in Para- dise. — The angelic festival. — The patricians of the Court of Heaven 244
CANTO XXXIII
Prayer to the Virgin. — The Beatific Vision. — The Ultimate Salvation .......... 252
PARADISE
CANTO I
Proem. — Invocation. — Beatrice, and Dante trans* humanized, ascend through the Sphere of Fire toward the Moon. — Beatrice explains the cause of their ascent.
THE glory of Him who moves everything penetrates through the universe, and is resplen- dent in one part more and in another less. In the heaven which receives most of His light I have been,1 and have seen things which he who descends from thereabove neither knows how nor has power to recount ; because, drawing near to its own desire,2 our intellect enters so deep, that the memory cannot follow after. Truly whatever of the Holy Realm I could treasure up in my mind shall now be the theme of my song.
O good Apollo, for this last labor make me such a vessel of thy worth as thou demandest
1. v. 5. The Empyrean. See Dante's Letter to Can Grande, §§ 24, 25.
2. v. 7. The innate desire of the soul is to attain the vision of God, in which " ultimate and perfect beatitude con- sists." S. T. ii.1 3. 8.
2 PARADISE [vv. 15-32
for the gift of the beloved laurel.3 Thus far one summit of Parnassus has been enough for me, but now with both4 I need to enter the remaining arena. Enter into my breast, and breathe thou in such wise as when thou drew- est Marsyas from out the sheath of his limbs.5 O divine Power, if thou lend thyself to me so that I may make manifest the image of the Blessed Realm imprinted within my head, thou shalt see me come to thy chosen tree, and crown myself then with those leaves of which the theme and thou will make me worthy. So rarely, Father, are they gathered for triumph or of Caesar or of poet, (fault and shame of human wills,) that the Peneian leaf6 should bring forth joy unto the joyous Delphic deity,
3. v. 15. So inspire me in this labor that I may de- serve the gift of the laurel.
4. v. 17. Parnassus (see Lucan, Phars. v. 72) was supposed to have two peaks, and Dante here assumes that the Muses dwelt upon one, Apollo upon the other. At the opening of the preceding parts of his poem Dante has in- voked the Muses only. The allegorical meaning seems to be that the teaching of the reason and the light of Philosophy have sufficed for him thus far in his poem, but that now, in treating of things supersensual, he requires also the Divine grace and the guidance of Theology.
5. v. 21. As thou drewest Marsyas from the sheath of his limbs, so draw me from human limitations.
6. v. 32. Daphne, who was changed to the laurel, was the daughter of Peneus.
w. 33-44] CANTO I 3
whenever it makes any one to long for it. Great flame follows a little spark : perhaps after me prayer shall be made with better voices, whereto Cyrrha 7 may respond.
The lamp of the world rises to mortals through different passages, but from that which joins four circles with three crosses it issues with better course and conjoined with a better star, and it tempers and seals the mundane wax more after its own fashion.8 Almost such a passage had made morning there and evening here ; 9 and there all that hemisphere was white,
7. v. 36. Cyrrha, a city on the Crissaean gulf, sacred to Apollo, not far from the foot of Parnassus, and here used as synonymous with Delphi, of which it was the port.
8. v. 42. At the vernal equinox the sun rises from a point on the horizon where the four great circles, namely, the horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial co- lure, meet, and, cutting each other, form three crosses. The sun is in the sign of Aries, " a better star," because the in- fluence of this constellation was supposed to be benignant, and under it the earth reclothes itself. It was the season assigned to the Creation and to the Annunciation.
9. v. 44. There, in the Earthly Paradise ; here, on earth. The vernal equinox (according to the calendar) be- ing a few days passed, the sun had entered not by the pre- cise passage described in the preceding verses, but " almost " by it.
The last indication of time given in the Purgatory is in tne last canto, in the words : «« the sun was holding the circle
4 PARADISE [vv. 45-49
and the other part black, when I saw Beatrice turned to her left side, and gazing upon the sun : never did eagle so fix himself upon it. And even as a second ray is wont to issue from
of the meridian, " v. 104, at the moment when the seven ladies stopped before the fount from which the Euphrates and the Tigris were issuing. Then follows a brief conversation, after which Matilda takes Dante to the Eunoe, of which he drinks, and whence he returns to Beatrice " pure and dis- posed to mount unto the stars." It would seem natural that the ascent to them should at once begin. But the verses in this canto, describing the passage of the sun at its rising, have led many interpreters of the poem to believe that they in- dicate sunrise as the hour of the ascent, and that, consequently, a period of about eighteen hours elapses, unaccounted for, be- tween the last scene of Purgatory and the first of Paradise. This view seems to derive confirmation from the words, " such a passage had made morning here and evening there." But it is perhaps better to hold with other commentators, that no long interval passed between the draught of Eunoe and the ascent to Paradise ; that the description of the pas- sage of the sun is not to be taken as defining the hour, but simply as indicating the favorable season ; and that by morn- ing and evening are meant the time from sunrise to noon, and from sunset to midnight. If this be the correct interpreta- tion, the ascent of Dante and Beatrice to the Heavens was at noon, the appropriate hour for the entrance to Paradise. The entrance to Hell had been at nightfall ; to Purgatory at dawn, the hour of hope ; and now the entrance to Paradise is at noon, when the Sun is in full glory. " The sixth hour, that is, midday," says Dante in the Convitf (iv. 23, 145), "is the most noble hour of the whole day, and has thf most power."
VVt 50-71] CANTO I 5
the first, and mount upward again, like a pil- grim who wishes to return ; so from her action, infused through the eyes into my imagination, mine was made, and I fixed my eyes upon the sun beyond our wont. Much is permitted there which here is not permitted to our facul- ties, by virtue of the place made for the human race as its proper seat.10 Not long did I en- dure it, nor so little that I did not see it sparkle round about, like iron that issues boiling from the fire. And on a sudden,11 day seemed to be added to day, as if He who has the power had adorned the heaven with another sun.
Beatrice was standing with her eyes wholly fixed on the eternal wheels, and on her I fixed my eyes from thereabove removed. Looking at her I inwardly became such as Glaucus I2 be- came on tasting of the grass which made him consort in the sea of the other gods. Trans- humanizing cannot be signified in words ; there- fore let the example I3 suffice him for whom
10. v. 57. The Earthly Paradise, made for man in his original excellence as his proper abode.
11. v. 6 1 . So rapid was his ascent as he was drawn up- ward, following Beatrice, through the gleaming sphere of fire, which was supposed to be between the sphere of the air and that of the moon.
12. v. 68. A fisherman changed to a sea-god. The story is in Ovid (Metamorphoses, xiii. 943—949).
13. v. 71. Just cited, ofGiaucus.
6 PARADISE [w. 72-89
grace reserves the experience. If I was only that of me which thou didst the last create/4 O Love that governest the heavens, Thou know- est, who with Thy light didst lift me. When the revolution which Thou, being desired, makest eternal,15 made me attent unto itself with the harmony which Thou dost attune and modulate, so much of the heaven then seemed to me enkindled by the flame of the sun, that rain or river never made so widespread a lake.
The novelty of the sound and the great light kindled in me a desire concerning their cause, never before felt with such keenness. Whereon she, who saw me as I see myself, to quiet my perturbed mind opened her mouth, ere I mine to ask, and began : " Thou thyself makest thy- self dull with false imagining, so that thou seest
14. v. 73. In the twenty-fifth Canto of Purgatory, Dante has said that when the articulation of the brain is per- fect God breathes into it a new spirit, the living soul ; and he means here that, like St. Paul, he was caught up into Heaven, and cannot tell " whether in the body or out of the body" (2 Corinthians xii. 3).
15. v. 76. The desire to be united with God is the scarce of the eternal revolution of the heavens. " The Empyrean ... is the cause of the most swift motion of the First Moving Heaven, because of the most ardent desire of every part of the latter to be conjoined with every part of that naost divine and quiet heaven." Convito, ii. 4, 19-25.
w. 90-110] CANTO I 7
not what thou wouldst see, if thou hadst shaken it off. Thou art not on earth, as thou believ- est ; but lightning, flying from its proper site, never ran as thou who art returning there- unto." '6
If I was divested of my first doubt by these brief little smiled-out words, within a new one was I the more enmeshed. And I said : " Al- ready I rested content concerning a great won- der ; but now I wonder how I can transcend these light bodies." Whereon she, after a pitying sigh, directed her eyes toward me, with that look which a mother turns on her deliri- ous child, and she began : " All things whatso- ever have order among themselves ; and this is the form which makes the universe like unto God.17 Herein the exalted creatures l8 see the im- print of the Eternal Power, which is the end for which the aforesaid rule is made. In the order of which I speak, all natures are disposed, by
1 6. v. 93. To thine own proper site, — Heaven, the true home of the soul.
17. v. 105. The order of the created universe is the outward manifestation of the ideas of God, and that which God chiefly intends in created things is the good which con- sists in likeness to Himself. See S. T. i. 45. 3 ; 50. I. The whole of this discourse of Beatrice is closely conformed to the teaching of the Summa Theologiae.
1 8. v. 1 06. The created beings endowed with souls, — angels and men.
8 PARADISE [w. 111-131
diverse lots, more or less near to their source ; I9 wherefore they are moved to different ports over the great sea of being, and each with the instinct given to it which bears it on. This bears the fire upward toward the moon ; this is the motive force in mortal hearts ; this binds together and unites the earth. Nor does this bow shoot forth 20 only the created things which are without intelligence, but also those which have understanding and love. The Provi- dence that ordains all this, makes always quiet with its own light the heaven 2I within which that one which has the greatest speed revolves. And thither now, as to a site decreed, the vir- tue of that bowstring is bearing us on, which directs to a joyful mark whatever it shoots. It is true, that as the form often does not ac- cord with the intention of the art, because the material is deaf to respond, so the creature sometimes deviates from this course ; for it has
19. v. 1 1 1. The likeness to God is participated by dif- ferent things in different modes, and their common inclination to the universal good varies with their different modes of being. See S. T. i. 45. 3 ; 49. i.
20. v. 119. This instinct directs to their proper end animate as well as inanimate things, as the bow shoots the arrow to its mark.
2\. v. 122. The Empyrean, within which the Crys- talline heaven, the Primum Mobile, the first and swiftest of the moving heavens, revolves.
vv. 132-142] CANTO I 9
power, though thus impelled, to bend in an- other direction (even as the fire of a cloud may be seen to fall22), if the first impetus, diverted by false pleasure, turn it earthwards. Thou shouldst not, if I deem aright, wonder more at thy ascent, than at a stream if it descends from a high mountain to the base. It would be a marvel in thee, if, deprived of hindrance, thou hadst sat below, even as quiet in living fire on earth would be."
Thereon she turned again her face toward heaven.
22. v. 133. Contrary to its true nature.
CANTO II
Proem. — Ascent to the Moon. — The cause of Spots on the Moon. — Influence of the Heavens.
O YE who in a little bark, desirous to listen, have followed behind my craft which singing passes on, turn to see again your shores ; put not out upon the deep ; for haply, losing me, ye would remain astray. The water which I take was never crossed. Minerva breathes,1 and Apollo guides me, and nine Muses point out to me the Bears.
Ye other few, who have lifted up your necks betimes for the bread of the Angels, on which one here subsists,2 but never becomes sated of it, ye may well put forth your vessel over the deep brine, keeping my wake before you on the water which turns smooth again. Those glorious ones who passed over to Colchos wondered not when they saw Jason become a ploughman, as ye shall do.3
1. v. 8. The breath of Minerva fills the sails.
2. v. 12. Here on earth this bread is the true food of the soul. " Oh, blessed those few who sit at that table where the bread of the Angels is eaten." Convito, i. i. 51.
3. v. 1 8. When, to obtain the golden fleece, Jason
w. 19-37] CANTO II ii
The concreate and perpetual thirst for the deiform realm 4 was bearing us on swift almost as ye see the heavens. Beatrice was gazing up- ward, and I upon her, and perhaps in such time as a quarrel 5 rests, and flies, and from the notch is unlocked,6 1 saw myself arrived where a won- derful thing drew my sight to itself; and there- fore she, from whom the working of my mind could not be hid, turning toward me, glad as beautiful, said to me : " Uplift thy grateful mind to God, who has united us with the first star." 7
It seemed to me that a cloud had covered us, lucid, dense, solid, and polished, as if a dia- mond which the sun had struck. Within itself the eternal pearl had received us, even as water receives a ray of light, remaining undivided. If I was body (and here 8 it is not conceivable how
yoked the two fire-breathing oxen, and ploughed with them, sowing the dragon's teeth in the furrows. See Ovid, Me tarn. vii. 104—122.
4. v. 20. That instinct of which Beatrice has spoken in the preceding canto.
5. v. 23. The bolt for a cross-bow.
6. v. 24. The inverse order indicates the instantaneous- ness of the act.
7. v. 30. The moon.
8. v. 37. On earth, by mortal faculties. "The body in glory will pass through the spheres of the heavens, without division of them, not because of its subtility, but by divine virtue." S. T. Suppl. 85. 2.
12 PARADISE [w. 38-54.
one dimension brooked another, which needs must be if body enter body), the desire ought the more to kindle us to see that Essence, in which is seen how our nature and God were united. There will be seen that which we hold by faith, not demonstrated, but it will be known of itself like the first truth which man believes.9
I replied : " My Lady, devoutly, to the ut- most that I can, do I thank Him who has re- moved me from the mortal world. But tell me, what are the dusky marks of this body, which there below on earth make people fable about Cain ? " '°
She smiled a little, and then she said to me : " If the opinion of mortals errs where the key of sense does not unlock, surely the shafts of
9. v. 45. Not demonstrated by argument,, but known by direct cognition, like the self-evident primary truths, first principles, per se nota.
i o. v. 5 1 . Fancying the dark spaces on the surface of the moon to represent Cain carrying a thorn-bush for the fire of his sacrifice. In the ascent to the Empyrean each sphere is, as it were, a step in the attainment of knowledge of divine things, in which Dante is instructed by Beatrice, or by the spirits that appear to him. The questions solved are not asked casually, but are appropriate to the nature of the sphere and its place in the scheme of the universe. In this lowest sphere the question relates to a mere physical phenom- enon, but the explanation of it gives opportunity to Beatrice to expound the whole doctrine of the influences of the hea- vens.
vv. 55-71] CANTO II 13
wonder ought not to pierce thee now, since thou seest that the reason following the senses has short wings. But tell me what thou thy- self thinkest of it." And I : " That which up here appears to us diverse, I believe is caused by bodies rare and dense/' And she: "Surely thou shaft see that thy belief is quite sub- merged in error, if thou listen well to the argu- ment that I shall make against it. The eighth sphere " displays to you many lights, which may be noted of different aspects in quality and quantity. If rarity and density effected all this,12 one single virtue, more or less or equally distributed, would be in all. Different virtues must needs be fruits of formal principles;13 and
n. v. 64. The heaven of the fixed stars.
12. v. 67. If all this difference in the stars were caused merely by difference in rarity and density, which Dante had supposed to be the cause of the difference in the aspect of the moon.
13. v. 71. The argument, which is much condensed, is as follows : The stars differ in quality and quantity of brightness one from another ; if the rarity and density of their substance were the exclusive cause of this difference there would be but one virtue in them. But they exercise various influences, their virtues differ. These virtues result from formal principles, that is, from the principles which determine the form or specific being of their material substance. Hence, their virtues being various, the formal principles must be various, and it follows that differences in aspect cannot be accounted for solely by the principles of rarity and density.
14 PARADISE [vv. 72-91
these, all but one, would, in pursuance of thy reasoning, be destroyed. Further, if rarity were the cause of that duskiness about which you ask,14 this planet would either be thus deficient of its matter in part quite through and through, or else, as a body divides the fat and the lean, so this would interchange the leaves in its volume. If the first were the case, it would be manifest in the eclipses of the sun, by the shining through of the light, as when it is poured upon any other rare body. This is not so ; therefore we must look at the other sup- position, and if it happen that I quash this, thy opinion will be proved false. If it be that this rarity does not pass through,15 there must needs be a limit, beyond which its contrary allows it not to pass farther; and thence the ray from another body is thrown back, just as color returns through a glass which hides lead behind itself. Now thou wilt say that the ray
14. v. 74. The reason why the rarity was supposed to be the cause of the dark spots in the moon is stated by Dante in the Convito (ii. 14. 70—77) : "If the Moon be well observed two things are seen peculiar to it. ... One is the shadow in it which is nothing but the rarity of its body, in which the rays of the sun cannot terminate, and be reflected as in the other parts. The other is the variation of its bright- ness."
15. v. 85. Does not extend quite through the substance of the moon.
vv. 92-113] CANTO II 15
shows itself dimmer there than in the other parts, because it is reflected there from farther back. From this objection experiment, which is wont to be the fountain to the streams of your arts, may deliver thee, if ever thou try it. Thou shalt take three mirrors, and set two of them at an equal distance from thee, and let the other, more remote, meet thine eyes between the first two. Turning toward them, cause a light to be placed behind thy back, which may shine upon the three mirrors, and return to thee reflected from all. Although the more distant image may not reach thee so great in quantity, thou wilt there see how it must needs be of equal brightness with the others.
" Now, as beneath the blows of the warm rays that which lies under the snow remains bare both of the former color and the cold/6 thee, thus remaining in thy intellect, will I inform with light so living that it shall tremble in its aspect to thee.17
" Within the heaven of the divine peace re- volves a body, in whose virtue lies the being
1 6. v. 1 08. The color of the snow and the cold dis- appear from the earth.
17. v. 1 1 1 . My argument has removed the error which covered thy mind, and now I will tell thee the true cause of the variety in the aspect of the moon.
16 PARADISE [vv. 114-127
of all that it contains.18 The following heaven,19 which has so many sights, distributes that be- ing through divers essences20 distinct from it, and contained by it. The other circles, by va- rious differences, dispose the distinctions which they have within themselves unto their ends and their sowings.21 These organs of the world thus proceed, as thou now seest, from grade to grade ; for they receive from above, and operate below. Observe me well, how I ad- vance through this place to the truth which thou desirest, so that hereafter thou mayst know to keep the ford alone. The motion and the virtue of the holy spheres must needs be
1 8. v. 114. Within the motionless Empyrean revolves the Crystalline Heaven, the Primum Mobile ', from whose vir- tue, communicated to it from the Empyrean, all the inferior spheres contained within it derive their special mode of being.
19. v. 115. The heaven of the Fixed Stars. "Al- though the Starry Heaven is uniform in its substance it has multiplicity in its virtue, by reason of which it must needs have that diversity in its parts which we see, in order that through different organs it may exert the influence of differ- ent virtues.'* Quaestio de Aqua et Terra, §21.
20. v. 1 1 6. Through the planets, called essences be- cause each has a specific mode of being.
21. v. 120. Each of the seven inferior heavens distri- butes its specific virtues in such wise as to secure their due ends, and to make them seed for the production of further effects. " The rays of the heavens are the way by which their virtue descends to the things below." Convito> ii. 7,90,
vv. 128-141] CANTO II 17
inspired by blessed motors,22 as the work of the hammer by the smith. And the heaven, which so many lights make beautiful, takes its image from the deep mind 23 which revolves it, and makes thereof a seal. And as the soul within your dust is diffused through different mem- bers, and conformed to divers potencies, so does the Intelligence24 display its goodness multi- plied through the stars, itself circling upon its own unity. Divers virtue makes divers alloy with the precious body that it quickens, where- in it is bound, even as life in you.25 Be- cause of the glad nature whence it flows, the mingled virtue shines through the body, as glad- ness through the living pupil. From this * comes what seems different between light and
22. v. 129. The blessed motors are the Orders of the angels, which are called Intelligences, as being the instruments through which the Divine Intelligence is transmitted to the created universe.
23. v. 1 3 1 . The deep mind of the angelic motors, be- cause it reflects the mind of God, and is actuated by it.
24. v. 136. The Angelic Intelligence. Intelligence is, probably, to be interpreted here a collective noun, used for the Order of the Angels who are the motors of the Heaven of the Fixed Stars. Cf. xxviii. 78.
25. v. 141. The divers virtues proceeding from God, through the instrumentality of the blessed motors or angelic Intelligences, produce different results in the different bodies which they quicken.
26. v. 145. From this diversity of virtues diversely diffused through the stars and the planets.
i8 PARADISE [vv. 142-148
light, not from density and rarity ; this is the for- mal principle which produces, conformably with its own goodness, the dark and the bright." 27
27. v. 148. It may seem surprising to the reader on first becoming acquainted with the preceding canto, which has so little poetic charm, that Dante's first enquiry of Beatrice, after his overwhelming experience in entering the superterres- trial world, and his marvellous reception into the sphere of the Moon, should be concerning a mere physical phenomenon, and especially a matter so apparently trivial as the cause of the light and dark spots on the face of the Moon, and seem- ingly suggested to him only by finding himself in the body of the planet. But the surprise will vanish, and the inten- tion of the poet will become manifest, on consideration of the full significance of the reply made by Beatrice. She begins with the lesson that in the supersensual world the evi- dence of the senses is not to be trusted, since even in the world of sense conclusions drawn from their evidence are often erroneous (vv. 52—105). She then proceeds to set forth the mode of operation of the Heavens, begun in the Crystalline Heaven, — the Primum Mobile, — and thence transmitted to the inferior spheres (vv. 112-123). But " their motion and their virtue," from which the differences in themselves and the differences in the natures and aspects of mortal things proceed, are not inherent in themselves, but are inspired by angelic Intelligences, ministers of the Divine Will to carry out the Divine plan in the order of the Uni- verse, and to impress upon it the image of the Divine idea (vv. 127-148).
Thus the apparently trivial question asked by Dante has Jed to an exposition of the Divine scheme of the Universe, requisite for the understanding of the nature of the realm into which the poet has been uplifted.
CANTO III
The Heaven of the Moon. — Spirits whose vows had been broken. — Pice ar da Donati. — The Empress Con- stance.
THAT sun which first had heated my breast with love had uncovered to me, proving and disproving, the sweet aspect of fair truth ; and I, to confess myself corrected and assured, so far as was needful raised my head more erect to speak. But a sight appeared which held me so fast to itself, to look on it, that I did not bethink me of my confession.
As through transparent and polished glasses, or through clear and tranquil waters, not so deep that their bed be lost, the lineaments of our faces return so faintly, that a pearl on a white brow comes not less readily to our eyes, such I saw many faces eager to speak ; wherefore I ran into the contrary error to that which kindled love between the man and the fountain.1 At once,
I. v. 1 8. Narcissus conceived the image to be a true face ; Dante takes the real faces to be reflections of persons behind him. The spirits which appear here, and in the other
20 PARADISE [w. 19-30
as soon as I was aware of them, supposing them mirrored faces, I turned round my eyes to see of whom they were, and saw nothing ; and I turned them forward again, straight into the light of my sweet guide who, with a smile, was glowing in her holy eyes. " Do not wonder that I smile," she said to me, " at thy childish thought, since thy foot does not trust itself yet upon the truth, but turns thee, as it is wont, to emptiness. These which thou seest are real substances/ relegated here for failure in their
heavens successively, to welcome Dante, have temporarily left their seats in the Empyrean, in order to reveal to him the truths of utility or delight (see Letter to Can Grande, § 33) concerning which he needs or desires instruction. These truths deal mainly with relations of things human to things divine, not to the mysteries of heaven. In this the lowest sphere of all, typifying the lowest grade of bliss, the spirits are visible like fair ghosts, not wholly concealed by the radi- ance of their joy ; in the next heaven, that of Mercury, the shining forms of the spirits are at first seen, but the one of them who speaks with Dante becomes hidden in the in- creasing effulgence which proceeds from the joy of love dis- played in act toward the poet. In the heaven of Venus the spirits are completely swathed m light, and so from heaven to heaven their radiance becomes more and more dazzling and resplendent.
2. v. 29. These are not images, but real persons. A substance was, according to the schoolmen, a created being or thing possessing independent existence, " essentia cui corn- petit per se esse," S. T. \. 3. 5.
w. 31-52] CANTO III 21
vows. Therefore speak with them, and hear, and believe ; for the veracious light which satis- fies them does not allow them to turn their feet from itself."
And I directed myself to the shade that seemed most eager to speak, and I began, like a man whom an excessive desire confuses : " O well-created spirit, who in the rays of life eternal art tasting the sweetness, which if not tasted is never understood, it will be gracious to me, if thou content me with thy name, and with your lot." 3 Whereon she promptly, and with smil- ing eyes : " Our charity does not lock its door to a just wish, any more than that 4 which wills that all its court be like itself. In the world I was a virgin Sister,5 and if thy memory look back well, my being more beautiful will not con- ceal me from thee ; but thou wilt recognize that I am Piccarda,6 who, placed here with these other blessed ones, am blessed in the slowest sphere. Our affections, which are inflamed onl^
5. v. 41. " Your lot ; rr the "your" includes all the spirits who have presented themselves in the Moon.
4. v, 44. The Divine charity.
5. v. 46. A nun, of the order of St. Clare,
6. v. 49. The sister of COTSO Donati and of Forese : see Purgatory, Canto xxiv. 10-15. ^ may not ^e without intention that the first blessed spirit whom Dante sees in Par* idise is a relative of his own wife, Gemma dei Donati.
22 PARADISE [vv. 53-73
in the pleasure of the Holy Spirit, rejoice in being formed according to His order ; 7 and this lot, which appears so far down, is given to us, because our vows were neglected and void in some particular." Whereon I to her : " In your marvellous aspects there shines I know not what divine which transmutes you from our former conceptions ; therefore I was not swift in remembering ;8 but now that which thou sayest to me assists me, so that to reshape is easier to me. But tell me, ye who are happy here, do ye desire a more exalted place, in order to see more, or to make for yourselves more friends ? " With those other shades she first smiled a little, then answered me so glad, that she seemed to burn in the first fire of love: " Brother, virtue of charity 9 quiets our will, and makes us wish only for that which we have, and quickens not our thirst for aught else. If we desired to be more on high, our desires would
7. v. 54. Rejoice in whatever grade of bliss is assigned to them in that order of the universe which is the form that — akes it like unto God.
8. v. 61. Compare Dante* s words to Ciacco, Helly Canto vi. 43—45. In Hell anguish, in Paradise joy trans- figures the spirits and makes recognition of them difficult.
9. v. 71. Charity, in the sense of love, quiets their will. ' * There is no envy among the saints, for each attains the end of his desire, which is proportioned to the goodness of his nature." Convito, iii. 15, 101-104.
vv. 74-98] CANTO III 23
be discordant with the will of Him who assigns us here, which thou wilt see is not possible in these circles, if to exist in charity is here of ne- cessity, and if thou dost well consider its nature. Nay, it is the essence of this blessed existence to hold itself within the divine will, whereby our wills themselves are made one. So that as we are, from seat to seat throughout this realm, to all the realm is pleasing, as to the King who inwills us with His will; and His will is our peace ; it is that sea whereunto everything is moving which It creates and which nature makes/'
Then was it clear to me, how everywhere in Heaven is Paradise, even if the grace of the Supreme Good does not there rain down in one measure.
But as it happens, if one food sates, and for another the appetite still remains, that this is asked for, and thanks returned for that ; even thus did I, with act and with word, to learn from her, what was the web wherein she had not drawn the shuttle to the end.10 " Perfect life and high desert enheaven a lady " higher up,"
10. v. 96. To learn from her what was the vow whiclj she did not fulfil.
11. v. 98. Santa Clara, the friend of St. Francis, who, in 1 21 2, established under his direction a religious order for virgins, of extreme austerity. The order bore her name, and
24. PARADISE [vv. 99-118
she said to me, " according to whose rule, in your world below, there are who vest and veil themselves, in order that, even till death, they may wake and sleep with that Spouse who ac- cepts every vow which love conforms unto His pleasure. A young girl, I fled from the world to follow her, and in her garb I enclosed my- self, and pledged me to the pathway of her Order. Afterward men, more used to ill than good, dragged me forth from the sweet clois- ter ; I2 and God knows what then my life be- came. And this other splendor, which shows itself to thee at my right side, and which is en- kindled with all the light of our sphere, under- stands of herself that which I say of me.13 She was a Sister ; and from her head in like manner the shadow of the sacred veil was taken. But after she too was returned unto the world, against her liking and against good usage, she was never loosed from the veil of the heart.14 This is the light of the great Constance/5 who
spread widely through Europe. She died in 1253, and was canonized in 1255.
12. v. 107. According to the old commentators, her brother Corso forced Ficcarda by violence to leave the con- vent, in order to make a marriage which he desired for her.
13. v. 112. Her experience was similar to that of Pic- carda.
14. v. 1 17. She remained a nun at heart.
15. v. 1 1 8. Constance, daughter of the king of Sicily,
TV. 119-130] CANTO III 25
from the second wind l6 of Swabia conceived the third and the last power."
Thus she spoke to me, and then began sing- ing "Ave Maria" and singing vanished, as through deep water some heavy thing. My sight, that followed her so far as was possible, after it lost her, turned to the mark of greater desire, and wholly reverted to Beatrice ; but she so flashed upon my gaze that at first my sight endured it not : and this made me more slow in questioning.
Roger I. ; married, in 1186, to the Emperor, Henry VI., the son of Frederick Barbarossa, and father of Frederick II., who died in 1250, the last Emperor of his line.
1 6. v. 119. The significance of this metaphor is not clear. It, perhaps, refers to the stormy natures or lives of the Swabian emperors, so that "wind "stands for "blast" or •"« whirl wind. "
CANTO IV
Doubts of Dante, respecting the justice of Heaven and the abode of the blessed, solved by Beatrice. — Question oj Dante as to the possibility of reparation for broken vows.
BETWEEN two viands, distant and attractive in equal measure, a free man would die of hun- ger, before he would bring one of them to his teeth.1 Thus a lamb would stand between two ravenings of fierce wolves, fearing both alike ; thus would stand a dog between two does. Wherefore if, urged in equal measure by my doubts, I was silent, I do not blame myself; nor, since it was necessary, do I commend.
I was silent, but my desire was depicted on my face, and my questioning with that far more fervent than by distinct speech. Beatrice did what Daniel did,2 when he lifted Nebuchad-
1 . v. 3 . This is the same sophism that became widely known, later in the fourteenth century, under the name of the Ass of Buridan. Buridan was one of the chief nominalists of the generation after Dante.
2. v. 13. As the dream of Nebuchadnezzar had been revealed to Daniel, as well as the interpretation of it by which he quenched the anger of the king, so, the unuttered questions
vv. 14-27] CANTO IV 27
nezzar from anger, which had made him un- justly cruel, and she said : " I see well how one and another desire draws thee, so that thy care so binds itself that it breathes not forth.3 Thou reasonest: ' If the good will endure, by what reckoning does the violence of others lessen for me the measure of desert ? ' Fur- ther, that the souls appear to return to the stars, in accordance with the opinion of Plato, gives thee occasion for doubt.4 These are the questions that thrust equally upon thy wish ; and therefore I will treat first of that which has the most venom.5
which perplexed Dante being visible to Beatrice, she pro- ceeded to quench his thirst for their solution.
3. v. 1 8. Dante's equal eagerness to have each question solved hampered his power of expression of either.
4. v. 24. Plato, in his Timaeus (41, 42), says that the creator of the universe assigned each soul to a star, whence they were to be sown in the vessels of time. "He who lived well during his appointed time was to return to the stal which was his habitation, and there he would have a blessed and suitable existence." Jowett's translation. — Dante's doubt has arisen from the words of Piccarda (Canto iii. 50, 51), which implied that her station was in the sphere of the Moon.
5. v. 27. This question has the most poison, becausf the belief that the souls returned to the stars would be con« trary to the faith that the true end of the soul is the attain- ment of bliss in the vision of God in the Empyrean, and woul^ tend to divert the soul from its effort to make itself worthy ot
28 PARADISE [vv. 28-48
" Of the Seraphim he who is most in God, Moses, Samuel, and whichever John thou wilt take, I say even Mary, have not their seats in another heaven than those spirits who just now appeared to thee, nor have they more or fewer years for their existence ; but all make the first circle beautiful, yet have sweet life di- versely, through feeling more or less the eter- nal breath.6 These showed themselves here, not because this sphere is allotted to them, but to afford sign of the celestial grade which is least exalted. It is needful to speak thus to your wit, since only through objects of sense does it apprehend that which it afterward makes worthy of the intellect. For this the Scripture condescends to your capacity, and attributes feet and hands to God, and means otherwise ; and Holy Church represents to you Gabriel and Michael with human aspect, and the other who made Tobias whole again.7 That which
this bliss. It also involved the theory, condemned as heresy by the council of Constantinople, in 540, that the soul was created separate from the body.
6. v. 36. The abode of all the blessed is the Empyrean, — the first circle, counting from above ; but there are degrees in blessedness, each spirit enjoying according to its capacity ; no one is conscious of any lack.
7. v. 48. The archangel Raphael, who restored sight to the old Tobias, so named in the Vulgate, but named Tobk in the English version of the book of Tobit.
vv. 49-69] CANTOIV 29
Timaeus argues of the souls is not like this which is seen here, since it seems that he thinks as he says.8 He says that the soul returns to its own star, believing it to have been severed thence, when nature gave it for form.9 But perhaps his opinion is of other guise than his words sound, and may be of a meaning not to be derided. If he means that the honor of their influence and the blame return to these wheels,, perhaps his bow hits some truth. This prin- ciple, ill understood, formerly turned awry almost the whole world, so that it ran astray in naming Jove, Mercury, and Mars.10
" The other dubitation which disturbs thee has less venom, for its malice could not lead thee from me elsewhere. That our justice seems unjust in the eyes of mortals is argument of faith," and not of heretical iniquity. But
8. ¥.51. It seems that his words are the expression oi his real opinion.
9. v. 54. The intellectual soul is united with the body as its substantial form. The form of anything is that by means of which it performs its functions (operatur). The soul is that by which the body lives, and hence is its form. S. T. i. 76. i.
10. v. 63. Men were led astray so far as to ascribe the influence of the stars to the gods after whom they were named.
n. v. 69. Mortals would not trouble themselves con- cerning the justice of God, unless they had faith in it. These perplexities are then arguments or proofs of faith ; as St.
30 PARADISE [w. 70-83
because your intelligence can well penetrate to this truth, I will make thee content, as thou desirest. If it be violence when he who suffers contributes nothing to what forces him, these souls were not by reason of that excused ; for will, unless it wills, is not quenched,12 but does as nature does in fire, though violence a thou- sand times may wrest it ; I3 because if it bend much or little,14 it follows the force ; and thus did these, when they had power to return to the holy place. If their will had been entire, such as held Lawrence 1S on the gridiron, and
Thomas Aquinas says, " The merit of faith consists in this, that man, out of obedience to God, assents to what he does not see." S. T. iii. 7. 3. But in this case, as Beatrice goes on to show, mere human intelligence is sufficient to see that the injustice is only apparent.
12. v. 76. Violence has no power over the will if the will be opposed to it.
13. v. 78. These souls who were drawn by violence from the cloister were not by that relieved from their vow, but the moment constraint was removed should have returned to their original course, as fire which cannot be kept by any restraint from mounting upward.
14. v. 79. If it give way to what Shakespeare calls "accessary yiel dings." Lucre ce, v. 1658.
15. v. 83. St. Lawrence, who suffered martyrdom A. D. 258. " His love of Christ was not to be overcome by the flame, and the fire which burned without was weaker than that which glowed within." Breviarium Rom. Die 10. Aug.
w. 84-105] CANTO IV 31
made Mucius l6 severe to his own hand, it would have urged them back, so soon as they were loosed, along the road on which they had been dragged ; but will so firm is too rare. And by these words, if thou hast gathered them up as thou shouldst, is the argument quashed which would have given thee annoy yet many times. " But now another pass runs traverse before thine eyes, such that by thyself thou wouldst not issue from it ere thou wert weary. I have put it in thy mind for certain, that a soul in bliss cannot lie, since it is always near to the Primal Truth ; and then thou mightst hear from Piccarda that Constance retained affection for the veil ; so that she seems in this to con- tradict me.17 Many a time ere now, brother, has it happened that, in order to escape peril, that which it was not meet to do has been done against one's liking; even as Alcmaeon (who, thereto entreated by his father, slew his own mother), not to lose piety, pitiless became.18 On
1 6. v. 84. " Who shall say that it was without Divine inspiration . . . that Mucius burned his own hand, because he had missed the blow which he thought should deliver Rome." Convito, iv. 5, 107-118.
17. v. 99. The difficulty is this : if Constance "was never in her heart loosed from the veil " (iii. 117) how is it that she did not return to the cloister ?
1 8. v. 105. Amphiaraus, the seer, having been betrayed to his death at the siege of Thebes by his wife Eriphyle,
32 PARADISE [vv. 106-129
this point, I wish thee to think that the force mingles itself with the will, and they so act that the offences cannot be excused. Will ab- solute does not consent to the wrong ; but it consents in so far thereto, as it fears, if it draw back, to fall into greater trouble. Therefore when Piccarda says this, she means it of the absolute will ; and I of the other : I9 so that we both speak truth together."
Such was the rippling of the holy stream which issued from the fount whence every truth flows forth ; and such it set at rest one and the other desire.
" O beloved of the First Lover, O divine one," said I then, " whose speech overflows me and warms, so that it quickens me more and more, my affection is not so deep that it can suffice to render to you grace for grace,20 but may He who sees and can, respond for this. I clearly see that our intellect is never satis- fied unless the Truth illume it, beyond which nothing true extends. In that it reposes, as a wild beast in his lair, so soon as it has reached it : and it can reach it ; otherwise every desire would be in vain. Because of this, doubt
enjoined on his son Alcmaeon to avenge him by slaying her. See Purgatory, xii. 49—51.
19. v. 114. The other, that is, the qualified will.
20. v. 122. Thanks equivalent to the favor.
vv. 130-142] CANTO IV 33
springs up like a shoot, at the foot of the truth ; and it is nature which urges us to the summit from height to height.21 This invites me, this gives me assurance, Lady, with rever- ence to question you of another truth which is obscure to me. I wish to know if man can so make satisfaction to you22 for defective vows with other goods, that in your scales they may not be light ? " Beatrice looked at me with eyes so divine, full of the sparks of love, that my power, vanquished, turned its back, and I almost lost myself with eyes cast down.
21. v. 132. Because of this constant desire for truth, there springs up naturally in man, with the attainment of each new truth, a doubt or question which urges him in the pur- suit of that further truth which may solve it.
22. v. 136. To you ; that is, to the court of Heaven.
CANTO V
The sanctity of vows, and the seriousness with which they are to be made or changed. — Ascent to the Heaven of Mercury. — The shade of "Justinian.
" IF I flame upon thee in the heat of love, beyond the measure that is seen on earth, so that I vanquish the valor of thine eyes, marvel not, for it proceeds from perfect vision, which, ac- cording as it apprehends, so does it move its foot to the apprehended good.1 I see clearly how already in thy intellect is shining the eter- nal light,2 which, only seen, always enkindles love ; and if any other thing seduce your love, M: is naught but some vestige of that light, ill-recognized, which therein shines through.3
1. v. 6. The heat of love which dazzles thine eyes proceeds from the vision of God which, in proportion as it illuminates the soul with knowledge of Him, quickens its love for Him.
2. v. 8. Dante's words in the last canto (vv. 124— 126) have shown this.
3. v. 12. This corresponds with the doctrine concern- ing love set forth in the seventeenth and eighteenth cantos of Purgatory.
™. I3-33J CANTO V 35
Thou wishest to know if for an unfulfilled vow so much can be paid with other service as may secure the soul from suit." 4
So Beatrice began this chant, and as one who breaks not off his speech, she thus con- tinued her holy discourse : " The greatest gift which God in His bounty bestowed in creating, and the most conformed to His own good- ness, and that which He prizes the most, was the freedom of the will, with which the creatures that have intelligence, they all and they alone, were and are endowed. Now, if thou argue from this, the high worth of the vow will ap- pear to thee, if it be such that God consent when thou consentest ;s for, in closing the com- pact between God and man, victim is made of this treasure, such as I say,6 and made by its own act. What then can be rendered in com- pensation? If thou think to make good use of that which thou hast offered, thou wishest to do good work with ill-gotten gain.7
4. v. 1 5. Brought by God for the fulfilment of the claim established by the original vow.
5. v. 27. If the vow be valid through its acceptance by God.
6. v. 29. This treasure of the freedom of the will, so precious as Beatrice has just declared it to be.
7. v. 33. The intent to put what had been vowed to another, though good, use, affords no excuse for the breaking of the vow.
36 PARADISE [w. 34-55'
" Thou art now assured as to the greater point;8 but since Holy Church in this grants dispensation, which seems contrary to the truth that I have disclosed to thee, it behoves thee still to sit a little at table, because the tough food which thou hast taken requires still some aid for thy digestion. Open thy mind to that which I reveal to thee, and shut it therewithin ; for to have heard without retaining does not make knowledge.
" Two things combine in the essence of this sacrifice ; the one is that in respect to which it is made, the other is the covenant. This last is never cancelled if not kept ; and concern- ing this was my preceding speech so precise. Therefore it was only imperative on the He- brews to make offering, while the special thing offered might be changed, as thou shouldst know.9 The other, which is known to thee as the matter,10 may indeed be such that there is no fault if it be exchanged for some other matter. But let not any one shift the load
8. v. 34. That no other service can be substituted for a broken vow, for nothing can be offered comparable to the sacrifice of the free will.
9. v. 51. See Leviticus xxvii., in respect to commuta- tion allowed.
10. v. 52. That is, as the subject-matter of the vow, the thing offered.
vv. 56-68] CANTO V 37
upon his shoulder at his own will, without the turning both of the white and of the yellow key." And let him deem every permutation foolish, if the thing laid down be not contained in that which is taken up, as four in six.12 There- fore whatever thing weighs so much, through its own worth, that it can drag down every bal- ance, cannot be made good with other spending. " Let not mortals take a vow as a trifle : be faithful, and not awry in so doing, as Jeph- thah was in his first offering ; I3 to whom it rather behoved to say : < I have done ill,' than, by keeping his vow, to do worse.14 And thou
11. v. 57. Without the turning of the keys of St. Peter, that is, without clerical dispensation ; the key of gold signi- fying authority, that of silver, knowledge. See Purgatory, ix. 118-126.
12. v. 60. The matter substituted must exceed in worth that of the original vow, but not necessarily in a defi- nite proportion. The injunction in Leviticus xxvii. is to add a fifth part of the money of the estimation.
13. v. 66. Be faithful in the keeping of the vow, but keep it not in any mistaken fashion, as Jephthah did ; see Judges xi. 30—39. "In his first offering" is explained by the words of the Vulgate (verse 31), " quicunque primus fuerit egressus foribus domus meae . . . eum holocausturn offeram Domino.'*
14. v. 68.
" For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss Is but amiss when it is truly done ; And being not done, where doing tends to ill, The truth is then most done not doing it." — King John, Hi. I.
38 PARADISE [vv. 69-94
mayst find the great leader of the Greeks in like manner foolish ; IS wherefore Iphigenia wept for her fair face, and made weep for her both the simple and the wise, who heard tell of such like observance. Be ye, Christians, more grave in moving ; be not like a feather to every wind, and think not that every water may wash you. Ye have the Old and the New Tes- tament, and the Shepherd of the Church who guides you ; let this suffice you for your salva- tion. If evil covetousness cry aught else to you, be ye men, and not silly sheep, so that the Jew among you may not laugh at you. Do not ye as the lamb, which leaves its mother's milk, and, simple and wanton, at its own plea- sure combats with itself."
Thus Beatrice to me, even as I write ; then all desireful turned again to that region where the world is most alive.16 Her silence and her changed look imposed silence on my eager mind, which already had new questions in ad- vance. And as an arrow that hits the mark before the bowstring is quiet, so we ran into the second realm.17 Here I saw my lady so
15. v. 69. Thus foolish was Agamemnon in keeping the vow which resulted in the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia.
1 6. v. 87. Looking upward, toward the Empyrean. !?• v- 93- The Heaven of Mercury, where blessed
spirits who have been active in the pursuit of honor and fame show themselves. The shadow of the earth still reaches
vv. 95-117] CANTO V 39
joyous as she entered into the light of that hea- ven, that the planet itself became the brighter for it. And if the star was changed and smiled, what did I become, who even by my nature am transmutable in every wise !
As in a fishpond, which is still and clear, the fish draw to that which comes in such man- ner from without that they deem it their food, so I saw full more than a thousand splendors drawing toward us, and in each was heard : " Lo, one who shall increase our loves ! " l8 And as each one came to us, the shade was seen full of joy by the bright effulgence that issued from it.
Think, Reader, if that which is here begun should not proceed, how thou wouldst have a grievous craving to know more ; and by thy- self thou wilt see what my desire was to hear from these of their conditions, soon as they became manifest to mine eyes.
" O well-born,19 to whom Grace concedes to see the thrones of the eternal triumph ere the warfare is abandoned,20 with the light which
here, and the low grade in Heaven of the spirits who appear here is assigned to them because the love of earthly glory- diverted their affections too much from the glory of Heaven.
1 8. v. 105. By giving us occasion to manifest our love.
19. v. 1 1 5. That is, born to good, to attain blessedness.
20. v. 117. Ere thy life on earth, as a member of the Church Militant, is ended.
40 PARADISE [vv. 118-139
spreads through the whole heaven we are enkindled, and therefore if thou desirest to enlighten thyself by means of us, sate thyself at thy pleasure." Thus was it said to me by one of those pious spirits ; and by Beatrice : " Speak, speak securely, and trust even as to gods."21 "I see clearly, how thou dost nest thyself in thine own light, and that thou draw- est it through thine eyes, because they sparkle as thou smilest ; 22 but I know not who thou art, nor why, O worthy soul, thou hast the grade of the sphere which is veiled to mortals by an- other's rays." 23 This I said, addressed to the light which first had spoken to me ; whereon it became far more lucent than it had been. Even as the sun, which, when the heat has consumed the tempering of the dense vapors, conceals it- self by excess of light, so, by reason of more joy, did the holy shape hide itself from me within its own radiance, and thus close enclosed, it answered me in the fashion which the follow- ing canto sings.
21. v. 123. "Even as all holy men are called gods." S. T. iii. 16. i.
22. v. 125. This is the last occasion, till he reaches the Empyrean, on which the features of the blessed are visible to Dante. In the succeeding spheres they are completely hidden in the radiance within which the spirits are enclosed
23. v. i 29. Mercury is veiled by the Sun.
CANTO VI
^Justinian tells of his own life. — The story of the Ro man Eagle. — Spirits in the planet Mercury. — Romeo.
" AFTER Constantine turned the Eagle coun- ter to the course of the heavens which it had followed behind the ancient who took to wife Lavinia,1 a hundred and a hundred years and more 2 the bird of God held itself on the verge of Europe, near to the mountains3 from which it first came forth, and there it governed the world beneath the shadow of its sacred wings, from hand to hand, and thus changing, descended unto mine. Caesar I was,4 and am Justinian,
1. v. 3. Constantine, transferring the seat of Empire from Rome to Byzantium, carried the Eagle from West to East, counter to the course which it took with Aeneas from Troy to Italy, where he was to become the father of the Roman people, and the founder of the Empire of whose power the bird of God was the symbol.
2. v. 4. From A. D. 324, when the transfer was begun, to 527, when Justinian became Emperor.
3. v. 6. Of the Troad, opposite Byzantium.
4. v. 10. On earth Emperor, but in Heaven earthlj dignities exist no longer.
42 PARADISE [vv, 11-27
who, by will of the primal Love which I feel, drew out from among the laws the super- fluous and the vain.5 And before I was intent on this work, I believed one nature to be in Christ, not more,6 and with such faith was I content ; but the blessed Agapetus, who was the supreme pastor, directed me to the pure faith with his words. I believed him ; and that which was in his faith I now see clearly, even as thou seest that every contradiction is both false and true.'7 Soon as with the Church I moved my feet, it pleased God, through grace, to inspire me with this high task, and I gave myself wholly to it. And I entrusted my arms to my Belisarius, with whom the right hand of Heaven was so conjoined that it was a sign that I should rest me.
5. v. 12. The allusion is to Justinian's codification of the Roman Law.
6. v. 14. The divine nature only; this was known as the Monophysite or Eutychian heresy. Agapetus was Pope for only ten months, in 535—536. He was sent to Constantinople by the Gothic King Theodahad, to en- deavor to make peace for him with the Emperor. In this errand the Pope failed ; but he induced Justinian to depose the Patriarch of Constantinople, on the ground of his hold- ing the Monophysite doctrine, and thus confirmed the claim of the Roman Papacy over the Church of the East as well as over that of the West.
7. v. 26. Of the two terms of a contradictory proposi< don one must be true, the other false.
vv. 28-43] CANTO VI 43
" Now here to the first question 8 my answer comes to the stop ; but its condition constrains me to add a sequel to it, in order that thou mayst see with how much reason9 he moves against the sacrosanct ensign, who appropriates it to himself,10 and he too who opposes himself to it." See how great virtue has made it worthy of reverence." And he began from the hour when Pallas I2 died to give it a kingdom. " Thou knowest that it made its abode in Alba for three hundred years and more, till at the end when the three against the three I3 fought for it still. And thou knowest what it did, from the wrong of the Sabine women down to the woe of Lu- cretia, in seven kings, conquering the neighbor- ing peoples round about. Thou knowest what it did when borne by the illustrious Romans
8. v. 28. The question contained in the words, "I know not who thou art " (v. 127). The condition attached to the answer was, that Justinian, having said that he was emperor, is constrained to speak of the nature and authority of the Empire, as symbolized by the eagle its standard.
9. v. 31. Ironical. The meaning is, " how wrongly."
10. v. 32. The Ghibelline.
11. v. 33. The Guelf.
12. v. 36. Son of Evander, King of Latium, sent by his father to aid Aeneas. His death in battle against Turnus led to that of Turnus himself, and to the possession of the Latin kingdom by Aeneas.
13> v» 39- The Horatii and Curiatii.
44 PARADISE [w. 44-65
against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, and against the other princes and confederates ; whereby Torquatus, and Quinctius who was named from his neglected locks, the Decii and the Fabii acquired the fame which willingly I embalm. It struck to earth the pride of the Arabs,14 who, following Hannibal, passed the Alpine rocks from which thou, Po, dost glide. Under it, in their youth, Scipioand Pompey triumphed, and to that hill beneath which thou wast born, it seemed bitter.15 Afterward, near the time when all Heaven willed to bring the world to its own serene mood, Caesar, by the will of Rome, took it ; and what it did from the Var even to the Rhine, the Isere beheld, and the Saone, and the Seine beheld, and every valley whence the Rhone is rilled. That which it did after it came forth from Ravenna, and leaped the Rubicon, was of such flight that neither tongue nor pen could follow it. Toward Spain it wheeled its troop ; then toward Durazzo, and smote Phar-
14. v. 49. In Dante's time the territory of Carthage was held by the Arabs, and, with characteristic disregard of the anachronism, ne calls the Carthaginians of old by the name of the modern race, which happens to suit the rhyme.
15. v. 54. According to popular tradition, recorded by Giovanni Villani, Cronica, i. 37, Fiesole, which lies on a hill overlooking Florence, had been the headquarters of Catiline's army, and was destroyed by the Romans after his defeat and death.
vv. 66-83] CANTO VI 45
salia so that to the warm Nile the pain was felt. It saw again Antandros and the Simois, whence it had set forth, and there where Hector lies ; l6 and ill for Ptolemy then it shook itself. Thence it swooped flashing down on Juba; then wheeled again unto your west, where it heard the Pom- peian trumpet. Of what it did with its next standard-bearer,17 Brutus with Cassius howls in Hell; and it made Modena and Perugia woful. Because of it the sad Cleopatra is still weeping, who, fleeing before it, took from the asp sudden and black death. With him it ran far as the Red Sea shore ; with him it set the world in such peace that his temple was locked up on Janus.18
" But what the ensign which makes me speak had done before, and after was to do, through
1 6. v. 68. It was from Antandros, on the coast of Troas, that Aeneas set sail with his followers for Italy. Aeneidy iii. 5. The Simois ran not far off.
I7- v« 73- Augustus.
1 8. v. 8 1. The temple of Janus — of which the doors were closed only in time of peace, for in time of war the god was supposed to be absent with the armies — had been locked up but twice during the whole life of the Roman Re- public. But under Augustus they were closed three times ; and in one of those periods when " Heaven willed to bring the world to its own serene mood" (v. 56) it has been sup- posed that Christ was born ; and then, "no war, or battle's eound was heard the world around."
46 PARADISE [vv. 84-105
the mortal realm which is subject to it, becomes in appearance little and obscure, if it be looked on in the hand of the third Caesar I9 with clear eye and with pure affection ; for the Living Justice which inspires me granted to it, in the hand of him of whom I speak, the glory of doing vengeance for Its own wrath.20 Now mar- vel here at that which I unfold to thee : after- ward with Titus it sped to do vengeance for the vengeance of the ancient sin.21
"And when the Lombard tooth bit the Holy Church, under its wings Charlemagne, conquer- ing, succored her.
" Now canst thou judge of such as those whom I accused above, and of their misdeeds, which are the cause of all your ills. To the public ensign one opposes the yellow lilies,22 and the other appropriates it to a party, so that it is hard to see which is most at fault. Let the Ghibellines practice, let them practice their art under another ensign, for this one he ever follows ill who parts justice and it. And let
19. v. 86. Tiberius.
20. v. 90. It was under the authority of Rome that Christ was crucified, whereby the sin of Adam was avenged.
21. v. 93. Vengeance was taken on the Jews for the vengeance which they had wrought for the sin of Adam, be- cause, although the death of Christ was divinely ordained* their crime in it was none the less.
22. v. 100. The fleur-de-lys of France-
w. 106-127] CANTO VI 47
not this new Charles 23 strike it down with his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons, which have stripped the fell from a loftier lion. Many a time ere now the sons have wept for the sin of the father ; and let him not believe that for his lilies God will change His arms.24
" This little star is adorned with good spirits who have been active in order that honor and fame may follow them. And when the desires thus deviating mount thitherward, the rays of the true love must needs mount upward less living.25 But in the equal measure of our wages with our desert is part of our joy, because we see them neither less nor greater. Hereby the Living Justice makes our affection so sweet within us, that it can never be bent aside to any iniquity. Divers voices make sweet melo- dies ; thus in our life divers seats render sweet harmony among these wheels.26
" And within the present pearl shines the
23. v. 1 06. Charles II., King of Naples, son of Charles of Anjou.
24. v. in. That God will change the emblem or- dained by Him as the armorial ensign of the Empire which was His instrument for the government of men on earth.
25. v. 117. When the desires are set on fame and worldly honors the love of things divine is less living in the heart.
26. v. 125. The different grades of the blessed mani- fest in the circling spheres.
48 PARADISE [vv. 120-142
light of Romeo, whose beautiful and great work was ill requited.27 But the Provencals who wrought against him have not the laugh ; and forsooth he goes an ill road who makes harm for himself28 of another's good deed. Four daughters, and each a queen, had Raymond Berenger, and Romeo, a humble person and a pilgrim, did this 29 for him. And then crooked words moved him to demand a reckoning of this just man, who had rendered to him seven and five for ten. Thereon he departed, poor and old, and if the world but knew the heart he had, while begging his livelihood bit by bit, much as it lauds him it would laud him more."
27. v. 129. According to Giovanni Villani (vi. 90), one Romeo, a pilgrim to Rome (whence, perhaps, his appel- lation), came to the court of Raymond Berenger IV., Count of Provence (who died in 1245), and winning the count's favor, served him with such wisdom and fidelity that by his means his master's revenues were greatly increased, and his four daughters married to four kings, — Margaret, to Louis IX., St. Louis, of France ; Eleanor, to Henry III. of Eng- land ; Sanzia, to Richard, Earl of Cornwall (brother of Henry III.), elected King of the Romans ; and Beatrice, to Charles of Anjou (brother of Louis IX. ), King of Naples and Sicily. The Prove^al nobles, jealous of Romeo, procured his dismissal, and he departed, with his mule and his pil- grim's staff and scrip, and was never seen more.
28. v. 132. By envy or calumny.
29. v. 134. The making each a queen.
CANTO VII
Discourse of Beatrice. — The Fall of Man. — Tbi Scheme of his Redemption.
" OSANNA sanctus Deus Sabaoth, sup erillus trans claritate tua felices ignes horum malachoth ! " x — thus, revolving to its own melody, that sub- stance,2 upon which a double light is twinned,3 was seen by me to sing ; and it and the others moved in their dance, and like swiftest sparks veiled themselves to me with sudden distance.4 I was in doubt, and was saying : " Tell her, tell her," within myself, " tell her," I was saying,
1. v. 3. " Hosanna ! Holy God of Sabaoth, illumina- ting from above with thy brightness the blessed fires of these realms." The Hebrew word malachoth Dante found, in- terpreted as regnorum, in St. Jerome's so-called Prologus galeatust prefixed to the Vulgate.
2. v. 5. Substance, as a scholastic term, signifies a be- ing subsisting by itself with a quiddity, or specific nature, of its own. " Substantias nomen significat essentiam cui corn- petit sic esse, id est per se esse ; quod tamen esse non est ipsa ejus essentia." S. T. i. 3. 5.
3. v. 6. The light of his beatitude doubled by that of nis joy in enlightening Dante ; see Canto v. 131—137.
4. v. 9. Returning to the Empyrean, their abode.
50 PARADISE [vv. 12-34
" my Lady, who slakes my thirst with her sweet distillings ; " but that reverence which is wholly mistress of me, only by BE and by ICE,S bowed me again like one who drowses. Short while did Beatrice suffer me thus, and she began, irra- diating me with a smile such as would make a man in the fire happy : "According to my infal- lible advisement,6 how a just vengeance could be justly avenged has set thee thinking ; but I will quickly loose thy mind : and do thou listen, for my words will make thee the gift of a great doctrine.
" By not enduring a curb for his own good upon the power which wills, that man who was not born, damning himself, damned all his off- spring; wherefore the human race lay sick down there7 for many centuries, in great error, until it pleased the Word of God to descend where He, by the sole act of His eternal love, united with Himself in person the nature which had estranged itself from its Maker.
" Now turn thy sight to that which now I
5. v. 14. Only by the sound of her name.
6. v. 19. Beatrice sees Dante's thoughts reflected in the mind of God on which she is gazing, gaining therefrom un- erring information of the perplexity to which the words of Justinian (Canto vi. 90-93), concerning the vengeance taken for the vengeance, had occasioned.
7. v. 29. On earth.
w. 35-61] CANTO VII 51
say : This nature, thus united with its Maker, was pure and good such as it was created; but by itself it had been banished from Paradise, because it turned aside from the way of truth and from its own life. The penalty therefore which the cross afforded, if it be measured by the nature assumed, — none ever so justly stung ; and, so, none was ever of such great wrong, if we regard the Person who suffered, in whom this nature was contracted. There- fore from one act issued things diverse; for one death was pleasing to God and to the Jews : at it the earth trembled and the heaven was opened. Henceforth it ought no longer to seem difficult to thee, when it is said that a just vengeance was afterward avenged by a just court.8
" But I see now thy mind bound up, from thought to thought, within a knot, the loosing of which is awaited with great desire. Thou sayest : c I discern clearly that which I hear ; but why God willed only this mode for our re- demption is hidden from me/ This decree, brother, lies buried to the eyes of every one whose wit is not matured in the flame of love. Yet, inasmuch as on this mark there is much
8. v. 51. The court of the Empire, with rightful juris- diction over all mankind, " for the whole human race was punished in the flesh of Christ." De Monarchia, ii. 13, 42.
52 PARADISE [vv. 62-82
gazing, and little is discerned, I will tell why such mode was the most worthy. The Divine Goodness, which from > Itself spurns all envy,9 burning in Itself so sparkles that It displays the eternal beauties. That wrhich distils immedi- ately I0 from It, thereafter has no end, for when It seals Its imprint can never be removed. That which rains down immediately from It is wholly free, because it is not subject to the power of the new things.11 It I2 is the most con- formed to It, and therefore pleases It the most; for the Holy Ardor which irradiates everything is most living in what is most like Itself. With all these things I3 the human creature is advan- taged, and if one fail, he needs must fall from his nobility. Sin alone is that which disfran- chises him, and makes him unlike the Supreme Good, so that he is little illumined by Its light ; and to his dignity he never returns, unless,
9. v. 65. " Envy " signifies here the contrary of love.
10. v. 67. Without the intervention of a second cause.
11. v. 72. That is, not subject to the power of the heavens moved by the angelic Intelligences, which are new things in comparison with that First Cause by which they themselves were created.
12. v. 73. That which proceeds immediately from the Divine Goodness.
13. v. 76. That is, with immediate creation, with im- mortality, with free will, with likeness to God, and the love of God for it. Compare Canto v. 1 9—24.
w. 83-106] CANTO VII 53
where fault empties, he fill up with just penal- ties against evil delight. Your nature, when it sinned totally in its seed,14 was removed from these dignities, even as from Paradise ; nor could it recover them, if thou considerest full subtly, by any way, without passing by one of these fords : — either that God, solely by His courtesy, should have remitted ; or that man by himself should have made satisfaction for his folly.15 Fix now thine eye within the abyss of the eternal counsel, as closely fastened on my words as thou art able. Man within his own limits could never make satisfaction, through not being able to descend in humility, by sub- sequent obedience, so far as in his disobedience he had intended to ascend ; and this is the rea- son why man was shut off from power to make satisfaction by himself. Therefore it was need- ful for God with His own ways l6 to restore man to his perfect life, — I mean with one way, or else with both. But because the deed of the
14. v. 86. Its seed was Adam, and all human nature sinned in his fall.
15. v. 93. "I applied my heart ... to know tl wickedness of folly." Ecclesiastes vii. 25.
1 6. v. 103. " All the paths of the Lord are mercy ano truth." Psalm xxv. 10. Truth is to be understood here as justice. " The justice of God which establishes the ordei ji things conformed to rule of his wisdom, which is his law, is properly named truth." S. T.\. 21. 2.
54 PARADISE [vv. 107-132
doer is so much the more prized, the more it displays of the goodness of the heart whence it issues, the Divine Goodness which sets its impress on the world was content to proceed by all Its ways I7 to lift you up again ; nor be- tween the last night and the first day has there been or will there be so exalted and so magni- ficent a procedure either by the one way or by the other. For God was more bounteous l8 in giving Himself to make man sufficient to up- lift himself, than if He only of Himself had remitted ; and all the other modes were scanty in respect to justice, if the Son of God had not humbled Himself to become incarnate.
" Now to fulfil for thee every desire, I return to a certain place to make it clear, in order that there thou mayst see as I do. Thou sayest : c I see the water, I see the fire, the air, and the earth, and all their mixtures come to corrup- tion, and endure short while, and yet these things were created things ; ' so that, if what I have said I9 has been true, they ought to be se- cure against corruption. The Angels, brother, and the pure country in which thou art, may be called created, just as they are, in their
17. v. 1 10. Its paths of mercy and of justice.
1 8. v. 115. Showed greater mercy.
19. v. 128. In regard to that which distils immediately <rom God. See v. 67.
wv. 133-148] CANTO VII 55
entire being; but the elements which thou hast named, and those things which are made of them, are informed by a created virtue.20 The matter of which they consist was created ; the informing virtue in these stars which go round about them was created. The ray and the mo- tion of the holy lights draw out from its poten- tiate elements 2I the soul of every brute and of the plants ; but the Supreme Benignity inspires your life without intermediary, and enamors it of Itself so that ever after it desires It. And hence 22 thou further canst infer your resurrec- tion, if thou reflect how the human flesh was made when the first parents were both made."
20. v. 135. The elements are informed, that is, receive their specific being, not immediately from God, but mediately through the angelic Intelligences from whom the spheres de- rive the virtue which informs them.
21. v. 140. Literally, "from potentiate compound" {complession potenziata), that is, from the various matter endowed with the potentiality of becoming informed by the vegetative and the sensitive soul. In the Convito (iv. 25, 36) Dante explains complessione as gli element! legati, " the united elements."
22. v. I45.( From the principle that what proceeds im- mediately from God is immortal, the resurrection of the body is to be inferred, God having Himself created the flesh a* well as the spirit of man.
CANTO VIII
Ascent to the Heaven of Venus. — Spirits of Lovers. »•— Source of the order and the varieties in mortal things.
THE world in its peril x was wont to believe that the beautiful Cyprian2 revolving in the third epicycle 3 rayed out mad love ; wherefore the ancient people in their ancient error not only unto her did honor with sacrifice and with votive cry, but they honored Dione4 also and Cupid, the one as her mother, the other as her son, and they said that he had sat in Dido's lap ; 5 and from her, from whom I take my be- ginning, they took the name of the star which
1. v. i. In heathen times.
2. v. 2. Venus, so called from her birth in Cyprus.
3 . v. 3 . In the astronomy of the ancients the term epi- cycle designated a circle having its centre on the circumfer- ence of another circle. In order to account for the apparent motions of the planets, Ptolemy, whose astronomical system prevailed till overthrown by the discoveries of Copernicus adopted the hypothesis that each planet moved in an epicycle upon the great circle of the heavens, which revolved arouru,. the earth.
4. v. 7. Dione, daughter of Oceanus and Thetis, mother of Venus.
5. v. 9. Under the semblance of Ascanius, as Virgii tells in the first book of the Aeneid.
rv. 12-33] CANTO VIII 57
the sun woos, now behind her now before.6 I ;vas not aware of the ascent to it ; but of being in it, my Lady gave me full assurance, whom I saw become more beautiful.
And as a spark is seen within a flame, and as within a voice a voice is distinguished when one is steady and the other goes and returns, I saw within that light other lamps moving in a circle, speeding more or less, according to the mea- sure, I believe, of their eternal vision. From a cold cloud winds, whether visible or not,7 never descended so swiftly, that they would not seem impeded and slow to him who had seen these divine lights coming to us, leaving the circling begun first in the exalted Seraphim.8 And within those who appeared most in front was sounding Hosanna, in such wise that never since have I been without desire of hearing it again. Then one drew nearer to us, and alone began : " We all are ready at thy pleasure, that thou mayst have joy of us. With one circle,
6. v. 12. According as Venus is morning or evening star. Literally, "now at her nape, now at her brow."
7. v. 23. Whether visible as lightning, according to Aristotle's doctrine "that lightning was simply wind ren- dered visible by ignition" (Moore, Studies, i. 132) ; or invisible blasts.
8. v. 27. The circling of these spirits corresponds with the circular dance of the Seraphim, the most exalted of thfl Orders of the Angels, in the Empyrean.
58 PARADISE [vv. 34-49
with one circling, and with one thirst,9 we re- volve with the celestial Princes,10 to whom thou in the world once didst say : c Te whose intelli- gence moves the third heaven ; ' " and we are so full of love that, in order to please thee, a little quiet will not be less sweet to us."
After my eyes had offered themselves rever- ently to my Lady, and she had made them of herself contented and assured, they turned again to the light which had promised so much ; and : " Say who ye are," was my utterance, imprinted with great affection. Ah ! how much greater in quantity and quality12 did I see it become, through the new gladness which was added to its gladnesses when I spoke ! Thus become, it said to me : I3 " The world held me below
9. v. 35. One circle in space, one circling in eternity, one thirst for the vision of God.
10. v. 34. The third in ascending order of the hierarchy of the Angels, the Intelligences or motors of the heaven of Venus.
11. v. 37. This is the first verse of the first Canzone of the Convito.
12. v. 46. That is, in size and brightness.
13. v. 49. It is Charles Martel, eldest son of Charles II. of Naples, who speaks. He was born probably in 1271 ; he married in 1291 Clemence the daughter of the Emperol Rudolph I. ; in the spring of I 29^ he was at Florence for more than twenty days, and at this time he may have be- come acquainted with Dante. Great honor was done him by the Florentines, and he showed much love to them, so
vv. 50-62] CANTO VIII 59
but short while ; and had it been longer much evil had not been which will befall.14 My joy, which rays around me, holds me concealed from thee, and hides me like a creature swathed in its own silk. Much didst thou love me, and hadst good reason why ; for had I stayed below I had shown thee of my love more than the leaves. That left bank which is bathed by the Rhone, after it has mingled with the Sorgue, awaited me in due time for its lord ; I§ as well as that horn of Ausonia l6 which has for suburbs Bari, and Gaeta, and Catona,17 from where the Tronto
that he won favor from everybody, says Villani. He died in 1295.
14. v. 51. Literally, "had it been more, much of ill shall be which should not be." These words probably refer to the fact that, on the death of Charles II. in 1309, the kingdom of Naples, to which Charles Martel would have succeeded, was secured, to the exclusion of his son, Carlo Roberto, by his brother Robert, who brought many ills upon the country. See verses 76—84.
15. v. 60. Charles of Anjou, grandfather of Charles Martel, had received that part of Provence which lies east of the Rhone as dowry of his wife Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Raymond Berenger. Cf. vi. 133—136.
1 6. v. 61. A name for Italy of uncertain derivation, used in classical times only by the poets.
17. v. 62. Bari on the Adriatic, Gaeta on the Medi- terranean, and Catona at the toe of Italy, together with the two rivers named, give roughly the boundaries of the King- dom of Naples.
60 PARADISE [w. 63-75
and the Verde disgorge into the sea. Already was shining on my brow the crown of that land which the Danube waters after it abandons its German banks ; l8 and the fair Trinacria IQ (which between Pachynus and Pelorus, on the gulf which receives greatest annoy from Eurus, is darkened, not by Typhoeus but by nascent sul- phur) would be still awaiting its kings sprung through me from Charles and Rudolph,20 if evil rule, which always embitters the subject people, had not moved Palermo to shout: ' Die ! Die ! ' " And if my brother had forenoted
18. v. 66. The mother of Charles Martel was sister of Ladislaus IV. , King of Hungary. He died without offspring, and Charles II. claimed the kingdom by right of his wife.
19. v. 67. Sicily ; the gulf darkened by sulphurous fiimes is the Bay of Calabria, which lying between Cape Pachynus, the extreme southeastern point of the island, and Cape Pelorus, the extreme northeastern, is exposed to the full violence of Eurus or the East wind. Clouds of smoke from Aetna sometimes darken it. The eruptions of Aetna were ascribed by Ovid (Metam., v. 346—353) to the strug- gles of Typhoeus, one of the Giants who made war upon the Gods, and who, being overthrown by Zeus with a thun- derbolt, was buried under Mount Aetna. Ovid's verses suggested this description.
20. v. 72. From his father, Charles II., or his grand- father, Charles of Anjou, and from the Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg, the father of his wife.
21. v. 75. By the insurrection which began at Palermo in 1282, — the famous Sicilian Vespers, — the French were
vv. 76-89] CANTO VIII 61
this,22 he would ere now be flying from the greedy poverty of Catalonia, in order that it might not do him harm : for truly it is needful for him or for some other to provide, so that on his laden bark more load be not put. His own nature, which descended niggardly from a liberal one, would have need of such a soldiery as should not care for putting into a chest/' 23
" Because I believe that the deep joy which thy speech, my lord, infuses in me, is seen by thee there where every good has end and has beginning,24 even as I see it, it is the more grateful to me ; and this also I hold dear, that
driven from the island, and the rule over it of Charles of Anjou was brought to an end. The sovereignty, thus vacant, was conferred by the people on Peter III. of Aragon, as being the husband of the daughter of Manfred, the illegiti- mate son of the Emperor Frederick II.
22. v. 76. " Had my brother, before coming to the throne, noted how evil rule sets the hearts of the people against their rulers, he would already be getting rid of the greedy crowd of his impoverished followers." This brother was Robert, the third son of Charles II. He had been kept as a hostage in Catalonia from 1288 to 1295, and when he became King of Naples in 1 309 he introduced into his ser- vice many Catalonian officials. The words of Charles Mat- tel are prophetic of the evils resulting from the avarice of King Robert and the greed of his courtiers.
23. v. 84. Officials who would not, by oppression of the subjects, seek to fill their own coffers.
24. v. 87. Is seen in the mind of God.
62 PARADISE [vv. 90-110
thou discernest it, gazing upon God.25 Thou hast made me glad ; and so now do thou make clear to me (since in speaking thou hast moved me to doubt) how from sweet seed can issue bitterness." This I to him ; and he to me : " If I can make one truth plain to thee, thou wilt hold thy face toward that which thou ask- est, as thou dost now hold thy back. The Good which revolves and contents all the realm that thou art ascending, makes its foresight to be a power in these great bodies.26 And not only are the natures foreseen in the Mind which by it- self is perfect, but they together with their well- being.27 Wherefore whatsoever this bow shoots falls disposed to its foreseen end, even as a thing directed to its aim. Were this not so, the heaven through which thou art journeying would produce its effects in such wise that they would not be works of art but ruins ; and that cannot be, if the Intelligences which move these stars are not defective, and defective the Prime
25. v. 90. It is also dear to me, that thou discernest that my joy is the greater because thou knowest it.
26. v. 99. God causes his foresight, or providence, to become a power in the spheres of Heaven, by which their respective influences, acting upon the objects or natures sub- ject to them, operate to produce the foreordained effects.
27. v. 103. Not only are all natures — that is, all created things — foreseen, but also the order of nature by which all things are disposed to their respective ends.
vv. 111-124] CANTO VIII 63
Intelligence in that it did not make them per- fect.28 Dost thou wish that this truth be made still clearer to thee ? " And I : " No, truly ; because I see it to be impossible that Nature should weary in that which is needful." 29 Whereupon he again : " Now, say, would it be worse for man on earth if he were not a citi- zen ? " 3° " Yes/' answered I, " and here I ask not the reason." 3I " And can he be so, unless he live there below diversely for diverse du- ties?32 No; if your master33 writes well of this." Thus he came deducing far as here ; then he concluded : " Therefore the roots of your works must needs be diverse ; 34 on which account one is born Solon, and another Xerxes,
28. v. in. Defect in the subordinate Intelligences would imply defect in God, which is impossible.
29. v. 114. It is impossible that the order of nature should fail, that order being the design of God in creation.
30. v. 1 1 6. That is, united with other men in society.
31. v. 1 17. For the fact is evident that man is by na- ture a social animal, and cannot attain his true end except as a member of a community.
32. v. 119. Society cannot exist without diversity in the functions of its members.
33. v. 120. Aristotle, " the master of human reason." The whole of this discourse is derived from various passages in the Ethics and Politics of Aristotle.
34. v. 123. Human dispositions, the roots of human works, must be diverse in order that those works may be different.
64 PARADISE [vv. 125-144
another Melchisedech, and another he who, fly- ing through the air, lost his son.35 The circu- lar nature, which is the seal of the mortal wax, performs its art well, but does not distinguish one inn from another.36 Hence it happens that Esau differs in seed from Jacob, and Quirinus comes from so mean a father that he is ascribed to Mars. A begotten nature would always make its course like its begetters, if the divine foresight did not overcome.
" Now that which was behind thee is before thee, but that thou mayst know that I have joy in thee, I will that thou cloak thyself with a corollary.37 Ever does a nature, if it find fortune discordant with itself, like every other seed out of its region, come to ill result. And if the world there below would fix attention on the foundation which Nature lays, following that, it would have its people good.38 But ye
35. v. 126. Daedalus and Icarus.
36. v. 129. The circular nature, that is, the world of the spheres, pours down in its revolutions its various influ- ences without discrimination of the individuals upon whom they fall ; hence sons differ in their dispositions from their fathers.
37. v. 138. This additional statement completes the instruction, as a cloak completes the clothing of a body.
38. v. 144. If men were but brought up and employed in accordance with their natural dispositions, the world would be the better off.
vv. 145-148] CANTO VIII 65
wrest to religion one who shall have been born to gird on the sword, and ye make a king of one who is for preaching ; so that your track is outside of the road." 39
39. v. 148. The path you follow is not the way of nature. The condensed argument of the reply of Charles Martel to Dante's question is made the more difficult to fol- low, because of the various meanings in which the word nature is employed. First, in v. 100 natures signify the products of Nature in its generic sense; in v. 114 Na- ture stands for the personified order of the created world ; in v. 127 "the circular nature " is equivalent to the system of the spheres; in vv. 133 and 139 nature is used for the individual creature, though in the latter instance it is held by many commentators to signify Nature with the same meaning which it has in v. 142, where the word is employed in its generic and personified sense.
CANTO IX
The Heaven of Venus. — Conversation of Dante with Cunizza da Romano. — With Folco of Marseilles. — Rabab. — Avarice of the Papal Court.
AFTER thy Charles, O beautiful Clemence,1 had enlightened me, he told me of the frauds which his seed must experience ; 2 but he said : " Keep silence, and let the years revolve ; " so that I can say nothing, except that just lamentation shall follow on your wrongs.3
And now the life of that holy light had turned again unto the Sun which fills it, as that Good which suffices for every thing. Ah, souls deceived, and creatures impious, who from such Good turn away your hearts, directing your foreheads unto vanity !
And lo ! another of those splendors made to- wards me, and by brightening outwardly was signifying its will to please me. The eyes of
1 . v.i. The widow of Charles Martel.
2. v. 2. Frauds by which his son Caroberto was de- prived of his rights of succession to the throne of Naples.
3. v. 8. Those who have done the wrong shall justly lament therefor. This seems to be a mere general affirms tion, for no special facts are known to justify it in this case
vv. 16-35] CANTO IX 67
Beatrice, which were fixed upon me, as before,4 made me assured of dear assent to my desire. " Pray, blessed spirit," I said, " afford speedy satisfaction to my wish, and give me proof that what I think I can reflect on thee." 5 Whereon the light which was still new to me, from out its depth, wherein before6 it was singing, pro- ceeded, as one whom doing good delights :
" In that part 7 of the wicked Italian land which lies between Rialto and the founts of the Brenta and the Piave, rises a hill,8 and mounts not very high, wherefrom a torch descended which made a great assault upon that district. From one root both I and it were born ; I was called Cunizza ; and I am refulgent here because the light of this star overcame me. But gladly do I grant myself indulgence for the occasion of my lot, and it does not trouble me ; 9 which per-
4. v. 17. See Canto viii. 42.
5. v. 21. That thou, gazing on the mind of God, seest therein my thoughts reflected from it.
6. v. 23. See Canto viii. 28—30.
7. v. 25. The March of Treviso, lying between Ven- ice (Rialto) and the Alps.
8. v. 28. The hill on which stood the little stronghold of Romano, the birthplace of the tyrant Azzolino, or Ezze- lino (1194-1259), whom Dante had seen in Hell (Cantc xii. 109) punished for his horrible misdeeds in the river of boiling blood, Cunizza was his sister.
Q. v. 35. The sin which has limited the capacity a
68 PARADISE [vv. 36-50
haps would seem a hard saying to your vulgar. Of this resplendent and precious jewel of our kingdom,10 which is nearest to me, great fame has remained, and ere it die away this hundredth year shall yet come round five times. See if man ought to make himself excellent, so that the first life may leave another ! " And this the present crowd, which the Tagliamento and the Adige shut in,12 considers not ; nor yet, though it be scourged, does it repent. But it will soon come to pass that because her people are stubborn against duty,13 Padua at the marsh will change the water which bathes Vicenza. And where the Sile and the Cagnano unite, one lords it, and goes with his head high, for catch- bliss, and has determined the low grade of Cunizza in Para- dise, is pardoned to herself and forgotten, and she, like Pio carda, wishes only for that blessedness which she has.
10. v. 38. Folco, or Folquet, of Marseilles, once a dis- solute and famous troubadour, then bishop of Toulouse. He died in 1231.
11. v. 42. Another, that is, the enduring life of good fame.
12. v. 44. The people of the region where Cunizza lived.
13. v. 48. During the years in which Dante was writ- ing his poem the Paduan Guelfs, resisting the Emperor, to whom they owed duty, were defeated more than once, near Vicenza, by Can Grande, the Imperial Vicar, staining with their blood the waters of the marsh which the Bacchiglione forms near Verona.
w. 51-62] CANTO IX 69
ing whom the web is already made.14 Feltro will yet weep the crime of its impious shepherd, which will be so shameful, that, for a like, none ever entered Malta.15 Too large would be the vat which should receive the Ferrarese blood, and weary he who should weigh it ounce by ounce, which this courteous priest will give to show himself of his party ; l6 and such gifts will be conformed to the living of the country. Above are mirrors, ye call them Thrones,1' wherefrom God in judgment shines on us, so
14. v. 5 1 . The Sile and the Cagnano unite at Treviso, whose lord, Riccardo da Camino, was assassinated in 1312. Riccardo was the son of*' the good Gherardo," mentioned in Purgatory, xvi. 121—138 ; and by some early authori- ties he is said to have married Giovanna, the daughter of Nino de' Visconti, of whom her father speaks, Purgatory, viii. 70-72.
15. v. 54. An act of treachery in 1314 on the part of Alessandro Novello, the Bishop and Lord of Feltre, in de- livering up certain Ghibelline refugees from Ferrara, whence they had fled after failing in a conspiracy. Some of them were beheaded and others hanged. This breach of faith was so vile that in the prison called Malta no such crime as his was ever punished. There is great difference among the early commentators as to the locality of Malta.
1 6. v. 59. The designation of" The Party " was ap- propriated by the Guelfs.
17. v. 61. The Thrones were the third order of the Angelic Hierarchy, and according to St. Gregory
34), that through which God executes his judgments.
70 PARADISE [vv- 63'-Sl
that these words seem good to us." l8 Here she was silent, and had to me the semblance of being turned elsewhither by the wheel in which she set herself as she was before.19
The other joy, which was already known to me as an illustrious thing,20 became to my sight like a fine ruby whereon the sun should strike. Through joy effulgence is gained there on high, even as a smile here ; but below 2I the shade darkens outwardly, as the mind is sad.
" God sees everything, and thy vision, blessed spirit, is in Him," said I, " so that no wish can steal itself away from thee. Thy voice, then, which forever charms the heavens, together with the song of those devout fires which make a cowl for themselves with their six wings,22 why does it not satisfy my desires ? Surely I should not wait for thy request if I in-theed myself, as thou thyself in-meest." 23 " The greatest
1 8. v. 63. Because we see reflected from the Thrones the judgment of God about to fall on the guilty.
19. v. 66. See Canto viii. 19—21, and 34—35.
20. v. 68. By the words of Cunizza, verses 37-40.
21. v. 71. In Hell.
22. v. 78. The Seraphim, who with their wings cover themselves. See Isaiah vi. 2.
23. v. 81. If .1 saw thee inwardly as thou seest me. Dante invents the words he uses here, and they are no less unfamiliar in Italian than in English.
vv. 82-98] CANTO IX 71
valley in which the water spreads," 24 began then his words, " except of that sea which garlands the earth, extends between its discordant shores so far counter to the sun, that it makes a meri- dian where first it is wont to make the hori- zon.25 I was a dweller on the shore of that valley, between the Ebro and the Macra,26 which, with short course, divides the Genoese from the Tuscan. With almost the same sun- set and the same sunrise sit Buggea and the city whence I was, which once made its harbor warm with its own blood.27 That people to whom my name was known called me Folco, and this heaven is imprinted by me, as I was by it. For the daughter of Belus,28 wronging both Sichaeus and Creiisa, burned not more than I, so long
24. v. 82. The Mediterranean.
25. v. 87. In the rude system of geography current in Dante's day the Mediterranean was held to extend from west to east, " counter to the sun/' from the Pillars of Hercules to Jerusalem, over ninety degrees of longitude. Hence its western end, which formed the horizon at sunrise, would be under the zenith at noon.
26. v. 89. Between the Ebro in Spain and the Macra in Italy lies Marseilles, under almost the same meridian as Buggea (now Bougie), on the African coast, which was for a time during the Middle Ages an important port.
2 7* v* 93« When the fleet of Caesar defeated that of Pompey with its contingent of vessels and soldiers of Mar- seilles, B. c. 49.
28. v. 97. Dido, who by her passion for Aeneas
72 PARADISE [vv. 99-108
as it befitted my locks ; 29 nor she of Rhodope who was deluded by Demophoon ; 3° nor Alci- des when he had enclosed lole in his heart.31 Yet here we repent not, but smile ; not for the fault, which does not return to the memory, but for the Power which ordained and foresaw0 Here we gaze on the art which adorns so great a work,32 and we discern the good whereby the world below turns to that above.33
wronged alike her dead husband Sichaeus, and Creiisa the dead wife of Aeneas.
29. v. 99. So long as youth lasted.
30. v. 100. Phyllis, daughter of the king of Thrace, who hanged herself, believing herself to have been deserted by Demophoon, the son of Theseus. Rhodope was the name of the chain of mountains between Thrace and Macedonia.
31. v. 1 02. lole was the daughter of a king of Thes- saly, and the love of Hercules for her so excited the jealousy of his wife Dejaneira that she brought about his death.
32. v. 107. Which makes the created universe beautiful.
33. v. 108. The doctrine of this canto, which, as Cu- nizza says, may "appear difficult to the common herd" (v. 36), is expressed, although somewhat obscurely, in verses 103—108. The mere sensual passion of love, such as that which possessed Cunizza and Folco, is in itself a fault ; but, under the providence of God exerted through the good influences of the Heavens, it may be transmuted into that pure love which fills the spirits who manifest themselves in the heaven of Venus. The fire of the earthly passion is the type of the ardent flame of the spiritual. The spirits, after due repentance, having purged away their fault in Purgatory, Have forgotten it as fault, and smile at recognizing how the
vv. 109-121] CANTO IX 73
" But in order that thou mayst bear away all fulfilled thy wishes which have been born in this sphere, I must needs proceed still further. Thou wouldst know who is in this light, which beside me here so sparkles, as a sunbeam on clear water. Now know that therewithin Ra- hab 34 is at rest, and being joined with our order it is sealed by her in the supreme degree.35 By this heaven, in which the shadow that your world makes comes to a point,36 she was taken up before any other soul of the triumph of Christ. It was well befitting to leave her in
Divine power ordained it to be, as it were, the indication and measure of their capacity of heavenly love ; and they gaze upon the art which makes the creation beautiful, discerning the working of the good influences by which the earth, the lower world, is brought into harmony with the world on high, and that which was imperfect and faulty upon earth is turned to good.
34. v. 1 1 6. " By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not." Hebrews xi. 31. See Joshua ii. 1—21 ; vi. 17 ; James ii. 25.
35. v. 117. Our ranks are brightened by her splendor more than by any other.
36. v. 1 1 8. The conical shadow of the earth ended, according to Ptolemy, at the heaven of Venus. The refer- ence to it has an allegorical meaning, the moral shadow of the earth being shown in the feebleness of will, the worldly ambition, and the inordinate love, which have allotted the souls who appear in the three shadowed spheres to the lowest grades in Paradise.
74 PARADISE [w. 122-136
some heaven, as a palm of the high victory which was acquired with one palm and the other,37 because she favored the first glory of Joshua in the Holy Land,38 which little touches the memory of the Pope.39
" Thy city, which was planted by him who first turned his back on his Maker, and whose envy has been so bewept,40 produces and scat- ters the accursed flower41 which has caused the sheep and the lambs to stray, because it has made a wolf of the shepherd. For this the Gospel and the great Doctors are deserted, and there is study only of the Decretals,42 as is
37. v. 122. By the hands nailed to the cross.
38. v. 125. The first glory of Joshua was the taking and destruction of Jericho, to which Rahab lent assistance by hiding the messengers whom he had sent to spy out the city. See Joshua ii. vi. Joshua was often held by the mediaeval expositors of Scripture to be a type of the Saviour, and Rahab a type of the Church saved by the blood of Christ, of which the scarlet thread which she bound in the window was typical.
39. v. 126. The Pope, Boniface VIII., gave little thought to the recovery of the Holy Land. Cf. Hell, xxvii. 85-87.
40. v. 129. "Through envy of the devil came death into the world." Wisdom of Solomon ii. 24.
41. v. 130. The lily on the florin.
42. v. 134. The books of the Canon Law, by means of the study of which wealth may be acquired. Their mar- gins are covered with notes, and soiled by continual use,,
vv. 137-142] CANTO IX 75
apparent by their margins. On this the Pope and the Cardinals are intent ; their thoughts go not to Nazareth, there where Gabriel spread his wings. But the Vatican, and the other chosen parts of Rome, which have been the burial place for the soldiery that followed Peter, shall soon be free from this adultery." 43
43. v. 142. By the removal in 1 305 of the Papal Court to Avignon. Possibly, however, this prophecy may refer to the coming of that unnamed leader who was to be the libera- tor of Italy.
CANTO X
Ascent to the Sun. — Spirits of the wise, and tbt learned in theology. — St. Thomas Aquinas. — He names to Dante those who surround. him.
LOOKING upon His Son with the Love which the one and the other eternally breathe forth, the primal and ineffable Power made every- thing which revolves through the mind or through space with such order that he who contemplates it cannot be without taste of Him.1 Lift then thy sight, Reader, with me to the lofty wheels, straight to that region where the one motion strikes on the other ; 2 and there
1. v. 6. All things, as well the spiritual and invisible objects of the intelligence as the corporeal and visible objects of sense, were made by God the Father, operating through the Son, with the love of the Holy Spirit, and made in such order that he who contemplates the creation beholds the par- tial image of the Creator.
2. v. 9. At the equinox, the season of Dante* s journey, the sun in Aries is at the intersection of the ecliptic and the equator of the celestial sphere, and his apparent movement, in his annual revolution in the zodiac, cuts his apparent diurnal motion, which is parallel to the equator.
vv. 10-33] CANTO X 77
begin to gaze with delight on the art of that Master who within Himself so loves it that His eye never departs from it. See how from that point the oblique circle which bears the plan- ets 3 branches off, to satisfy the world which calls on them ; 4 and if their road were not bent, much virtue in the heavens would be in vain, and well-nigh every potency dead here below ; * and if its departure were more or less distant from the straight line, much of the order of the world, both below and above, would be defec- tive. Now remain, Reader, upon thy bench,6 pursuing in thought that which is foretasted if thou wouldst be glad far sooner than weary. I have set before thee ; henceforth feed thou thy- self, for that theme whereof I have been made the scribe wrests all my care unto itself.
The greatest minister of nature, which im- prints the world with the worth of the hea- vens, and with his light measures the time for us, conjoined with that region which is men- tioned above, was circling through the spirals in which from day to day he earlier presents him-
3. v. 14. The zodiac, which branches off from the
equator at the equinoctial point.
4. v. 15. Which invokes their influence.
5. v. 1 8. Because on the obliquity of their path depends Ac variety of their influence.
6. v. 22. As a scholar.
78 PARADISE [vv. 34-52
self.7 And I was with him ; but of the ascent I was not aware, otherwise than is a man, before his first thought, aware of its coming. It is Beatrice who thus conducts from good to bet- ter, so instantaneously that her act does not extend through time.
How lucent in itself must that have been which was apparent not by color but by light within the sun where I had entered ! Though I should call on genius, art, and use, I could not tell it so that it could ever be imagined ; but one may believe it, and let him long to see it. And if our fancies are low for such loftiness, it is no marvel, for beyond the sun there was never eye could go. Such 8 was here the fourth family of the exalted Father, who always sat- isfies it, showing how He breathes forth, and how He begets.9 And Beatrice began : " Give
7. v. 33. In that region which has been mentioned above, where the equator and the zodiac intersect, the sun was pursuing his spiral course, according to the Ptolemaic system, in which, after the vernal equinox, he rises every day a little earlier and a little farther north. So Donne : — •
" Where the Sun rose to-day He comes no more, but with a cozening line, Steals by that point, and so is serpentine."
An Anatomie of the World.
8. v. 49. So lucent, brighter than the sun.
9. ¥.51. Showing himself in the Holy Spirit and in the Son.
vv. 53-80] CANTO X 79
thanks, give thanks to the Sun of the Angels, who to this visible one has raised thee by His grace." Heart of mortal was never so disposed to devotion, and so ready, with its whole will, to render itself up to God, as I became at those words ; and all my love was so set on Him that it eclipsed Beatrice in oblivion. It did not displease her ; but she so smiled thereat that the splendor of her smiling eyes divided upon many things my mind intent on one.
I saw many living and surpassing effulgences make of us a centre, and make of themselves a crown ; more sweet in voice than shining in as- pect. Thus girt we sometimes see the daugh- ter of Latona, when the air is so impregnate that it holds the thread which makes her zone.10 In the court of Heaven, wherefrom I return, are found many jewels so precious and beauti- ful that they cannot be brought from the king- dom, and of these was the song of those lights. Let him who does not wing himself so that he may fly up thither, await tidings thence from the dumb.
After those blazing suns, thus singing, had circled three times round about us, like stars near to the fixed poles, they seemed to me as ladies not released from a dance, but who stop
10. v. 69. When the air is so full of vapor that it forma & halo.
8o PARADISE [vv. 81-99
silent, listening till they have caught the new notes. And within one I heard begin : " Since the ray of grace, by which true love is kindled, and which then in loving grows multiplied, so shines on thee that it conducts thee upward by that stair which, without reascending, no one descends," he who should deny to thee the wine of his flask for thy thirst, would not be more at liberty than water which descends not to the sea." Thou wishest to know with what plants this garland is enflowered, which, round about her, gazes with delight upon the beautiful Lady who strengthens thee for heaven. I was of the lambs of the holy flock which Dominic leads along the way I3 where they fatten well if they do not stray.14 This one who is nearest to me on the right was my brother and master ; and he was Albert of Cologne,15 and I Thomas of
II. v. 87. Once received into Paradise no one can de- scend from it but to ascend again : so in the second canto of Purgatory, vv. 91,92, Dante says to Casella, " In order to return another time there where I am, I make this journey."
I 2. v. 90. He would be restrained against his nature, as water prevented from seeking the level of the sea.
13' v* 95« That is, he was of the Order of St. Dominic.
14. v. 96. Where one acquires spiritual good, if he be not distracted by the allurement of worldly things.
15. v. 98. So famed for his learning that he became known as Albertus Magnus, and was styled Doctor Univer* sails. He was born in 1 193 and died in 1280.
vv. 100-109] CANTO X 81
Aquino.16 If thus of all the rest thou wouldst be informed, come, following my speech, with thy sight circling around upon the blessed wreath. That next flaming issues from the smile of Gratian, who so aided one court and the other that it pleases in Paradise.17 The next, who at his side adorns our choir, was that Peter who, like the poor woman, offered his treasure to Holy Church.18 The fifth light, which is most beautiful among us,19 breathes
1 6. v. 99. St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor Angelicus, whose Sum-ma Theologiae is the chief source of Dante's theo- logical doctrine, and is still the authorized doctrinal text-book of the Roman Church. He was born about 1225 and died in 1274.
17. v. 105. Gratian was an Italian Benedictine monk, who lived in the twelfth century, and compiled the famous work known as the Decretum Gratiani, composed of texts of Scripture, of the Canons of the Church, of Decretals of the Popes, and of extracts from the Fathers, designed to establish the agreement of the civil and canon law, — a work pleasing in Paradise because promoting concord between the two authorities.
1 8. v. 1 08. Peter Lombard, a theologian of the twelfth century, known as Magister Sententiarum, from his compi- lation of extracts from the works of the Fathers relating to the chief doctrines of the Church, under the title of Senten- tiarum Libri IV. In the proem to his work he says that he desired, "like the poor widow" {Luke xxi. 1-4), " to cast something from his penury into the treasury of the Lord. ' ' His book was for a long time the favorite manual of theology in the Schools.
19. v. 109. Solomon.
82 PARADISE [vv. 110-123
from such love that all the world there below is greedy to know tidings of it : 20 within it is the lofty mind wherein wisdom so profound was put, that, if the truth be true, to see so much no second has arisen.21 At its side be- hold the light of that candle which, below in the flesh, saw most inwardly the angelic nature, and its ministry.22 In the next little light smiles that advocate of the Christian times, with whose discourse Augustine provided himself.23 Now if thou leadest the eye of the mind, following my praises, from light to light, thou stayest already thirsting for the eighth. Therewithin,
20. v. 1 1 1 . It was matter of debate among the doctors of the Church, whether Solomon was among the blessed or the damned.
21. v. 114. " Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart ; so that there was none like thee be- fore thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee." I Kings iii. 12.
22. v. 117. Dionysius the Areopagite, the disciple of St. Paul {Acts xvii. 34), to whom was ascribed a book of great repute, written by an unknown author, probably in the fifth or sixth century, On the Celestial Hierarchy.
23. v. 120. Paulus Orosius, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, and wrote at the request of St. Augustine, his History against the Pagans, to defend Christianity from the charge brought against it by the Gentiles of being the source of the calamities which had befallen the Roman world. His work might be regarded as a supplement to St. Augus- tine's De Civitate Dei.
w. 124-138] CANTO X 83
through seeing every good, the holy soul re- joices which makes the fallacious world mani- fest to him who hearkens to it well.24 The body whence it was chased out lies below in Cieldauro,25 and from martyrdom and from exile it came to this peace. Beyond, see flam- ing the glowing breath of Isidore, of Bede, and of Richard who in contemplation was more than man.26 This one from whom thy look returns to me is the light of a spirit to whom, in his grave thoughts, it seemed that death came slow. It is the eternal light of Siger,27 who, reading in the Street of Straw, syllogized invidious truths."
24. v. 126. Boethius, statesman and philosopher, who was born about 475, and died in 525 ; his work, De Conso- latione Pbilosopbiae, was one of the books held in highest esteem by Dante. He cites it frequently in the Convito ; see especially, ii. 13, and 16.
25. v. 128. Boethius, who was put to death hi Pavia, in 525, was buried in the church of S. Pietro in Cielo d' Oro — St. Peter's of the Golden Ceiling.
26. v. 132. Isidore, bishop of Seville, died 636 ; the Venerable Bede, died 735 ; Richard, prior of the Monastery of St. Victor, at Paris, a mystic of the twelfth century ; all eminent theologians.
27. v. 136. Siger of Brabant, who in the last half ot the thirteenth century, as doctor in the University of Paris, gave instruction in the Rue du Fouarre. The meaning of the words veri invidiosiy "invidious truths" or "truths which were hated," is uncertain ; but he took an active part in th«
84 PARADISE ^.139-148
Then, as a horologe which calls us at the hour when the Bride of God28 rises to sing matins to her Bridegroom that he may love her, in which the one part draws and urges the other, sounding ting! ting! with such sweet note that the well-disposed spirit swells with love, so did I see the glorious wheel move, and render voice to voice in concord and in sweet- ness which cannot be known save there where joy is everlasting.
disputes in the University, and it is stated, on somewhat un- certain authority, that he was put to death by the Court of Rome, at Orvieto.
zS. v. 140. The Church.
CANTO XI
The Vanity of worldly desires. — St. Thomas Aquina\ undertakes to solve two doubts perplexing Dante. — He narrates the life of St. Francis of Assist.
O INSENSATE care of mortals ! how defective are those syllogisms which make thee down- ward beat thy wings \ One was going after the laws, and one after the aphorisms/ and one fol- lowing the priesthood, and one to reign by force or by sophisms, and one to rob, and one to civic business, one, involved in pleasure of the flesh, was wearying himself, and one was giving himself to idleness, when I, loosed from all these things, with Beatrice, up in Heaven was thus gloriously received.
After each2 had returned to that point of the circle at which it was at first, it stayed still, as a candle in a candlestick. And within that light which first had spoken to me 1 heard,
1. v. 4. The Aphorisms of Hippocrates, meaning here, the study of medicine.
2. v. 13. Each of the lights which had encircled Bea- trice and Dante*
86 PARADISE [w. 18-39
as making itself more clear, it smiling began : tc Even as I am resplendent with its radiance, so, looking into the Eternal Light, I apprehend whence is the occasion of thy thoughts. Thou art perplexed, and hast the wish that my speech be explained in language so open and so full that it may be level to thy sense, where I said just now : c Where they fatten well,' 3 and there where I said: c No second has been born;*4 and here is need that one distinguish well.
" The Providence which governs the world with that counsel, in which every created vision is vanquished ere it reach its depth, in order that the Bride5 of Him, who with loud cries6 espoused her with His blessed blood, might go toward her beloved, secure in herself and also more faithful to Him, ordained two princes in her favor, who on this side and that should be to her for guides./ The one was all seraphic in ardor,7 the other, through wisdom, was on earth a splendor of cherubic light.8 I will speak
3. v. 25. Canto x. 96.
4. v. 26. Canto x. 114. The phrase is slightly changed.
5. v. 32. The Church.
6. v. 3 2. «« And Jesus [on the cross] cried with a loud voice." Matthew xxvii. 46 and 50.
7. v. 37. St. Francis of Assisi. The seraphs burn with ardent love, the cherubs shine with the splendor of the radi« wice of knowledge of God.
8. v. 39. St. Dominic. ;„**
w. 40-56] CANTO XI 87
of one, because in praising one whichever be taken, both are spoken of, for to one end were their works.
" Between the Tupino and the water9 which descends from the hill chosen by the blessed Ubald, hangs the fertile slope of a high moun- tain, wherefrom Perugia at Porta Sole I0 feels cold and heat, while behind it Nocera and Gualdo weep because of their heavy yoke.11 From this slope, where it most breaks its steepness, a Sun rose upon the world, as this one some- times does from the Ganges. Wherefore let him who talks of this place not say Ascesi,12 which were to speak short, but Orient,13 if he would speak properly. He was not yet very far from his rising when he began to make the
9. v. 43. The Chiassi, which flows from the hill near Gubbio chosen for his hermitage by St. Ubald.
10. v. 47. The gate of Perugia, which fronts Monte Subasio, on which Assisi lies, some fifteen miles to the south. The mountain makes it hot in summer, and cold in winter.
11. v. 48. Little towns, southeast of Assisi, held in sub- jection by Perugia.
12. v. 53. So the name of Assisi was sometimes spelled, and here with a play on ascesi (as if from ascendere} "I rose."
13. v. 54. As the sun at the vernal equinox, the sacred season of the Creation and the Incarnation, rises in the due east or orient, represented in the geographical system of the time by the Ganges, so the place where this new Sun of righteousness arose should be called Orient or dayspring.
88 PARADISE [w. 57-76
earth feel some comfort from his great virtue s for, while still a youth, he ran into strife with his father '4 for sake of a lady such as to whom, as unto death, no one unlocks the gate of plea- sure ; and before his spiritual court et cor am patre I5 he was united to her ; and thereafter from day to day he loved her more ardently. She, deprived of her first husband,16 for eleven hundred years and more, despised and obscure, even till him had remained unwooed ; I7 nor had it availed l8 to hear, that he, who caused fear to all the world, found her undisturbed with Amyclas at the sound of his voice ; I9 nor had it availed to have been constant and un~ daunted, so that, where Mary remained below, she mounted on the cross with Christ.
But that I may not proceed too obscurely, henceforth in my diffuse speech take Francis and Poverty for these lovers. Their concord and their glad semblances made love, and won-
14. v. 59. Devoting himself to Poverty against his father's will.
15. v. 62. Before the Bishop of Assisi, and "in pre- sence of his father," he renounced his worldly possessions.
1 6. v. 64. Christ.
17. v. 66. St. Francis was born in 1182.
1 8. v. 67. To procure suitors for her.
19. v. 69. When Caesar knocked at the door of Amy- clas his voice caused no alarm, because Poverty made the fisherman secure. Lucan, Pbarsalia, v. 515 ff.
v. 77-94] CANTO XI 89
der, and sweet regard 20 to be the cause of holy thoughts ; so that the venerable Bernard first bared his feet,21 and ran following such great peace3 and, running, it seemed to him that he was slow. O unknown riches ! O fertile good ! Egidius bares his feet and Sylvester bares his feet,22 following the bridegroom ; so pleasing is the bride. Then that father and that master goes on his way with his lady, and with that family which the humble cord was now gird- ing.23 Nor did baseness of heart weigh down his brow for being the son of Pietro Bernar- done,24 nor for appearing marvellously despised; but royally he opened his hard intention to Innocent, and from him received the first seal for his Order.*5 After the poor folk had
20. v. 77. In the hearts of those who beheld them.
21. v. 80. The followers of Francis imitated him in going barefoot. Bernard, a wealthy citizen of Assisi, was his first disciple. He distributed his goods among the poor, and embracing the rule of poverty gave his life to deeds of mercy. After the death of Francis he was chosen head of the Order.
22. v. 83. Egidius, the blessed Giles of Assisi, and Sylvester were not only two of the first, but also two of the most devoted followers of their master.
23. v. 87. The cord for their girdle, instead of the leathern belt commonly worn by the monastic orders ; whence the Franciscans were called Cordeliers.
24. v. 89. For being the son of a rich father, and being scoffed at for his own abject indigence.
25. v. 93. In or about 1210 Pope Innocent III. ap- proved the Rule of St. Francis.
90 PARADISE [95-1 n
increased behind him, whose marvellous life would be better sung in the glory of the hea- vens, the holy purpose of this archimandrite26 was adorned with a second crown by the Eter- nal Spirit, through Honorius.27 And after that, through thirst for martyrdom, he had preached Christ and the others who followed him, in the proud presence of the Sultan,28 and because he found the people too unripe for conversion, and in order not to stay in vain, had returned to the fruit of the Italian herbage,29 on the harsh rock,30 between the Tiber and the Arno, he re- ceived from Christ the last seal,31 which his limbs bore for two years. When it pleased Him, who had allotted him to such great good, to draw him up to the reward which he had gained in making himself lowly,33 he com-
26. v. 99. "The head of the fold:*' a term of the Greek Church, designating the head of one or more monas- teries.
27. v. 98. In 1223, Honorius III. confirmed the sanc- tion of the Order.
28. v. 101. Francis, with some of his followers, accom- panied the crusaders of the fifth crusade to Egypt in 1219, and is said to have been sent for by the Sultan of the land and to have preached before him.
29. v. 105. To the harvest of good grain in Italy.
30. v. 1 06. Mount Alvernia, in the Casentino, thff Upper valley of the Arno.
31. v, 107. The Stigmata.
32. v. 1 1 1 . The word in the original which I translate
vv. 112-134] CANTO XI 91
mended his most dear lady to his brethren as to rightful heirs, and commanded them to love her faithfully ; and from her bosom his illus- trious soul willed to depart, returning to its realm, and for his body he willed no other bier.33
" Think now what he was,34 who was a wor- thy colleague to keep the bark of Peter on the deep sea to its right aim ! And this was our Patriarch : 3S wherefore thou canst see that whoever follows him as he commands loads good merchandise. But his flock has become so greedy of strange food 36 that it cannot but be scattered over diverse meadows : and the farther his sheep, remote and vagabond, go from him, the more empty of milk do they return to the fold. Some of them indeed there are who fear the harm, and keep close to the shep- herd ; but they are so few that little cloth fur- nishes their cowls. Now if my words are not faint, if thy hearing has been attentive, if thou
«' lowly " is pu silk, which in its Latin form pusillus is used in the Vulgate in passages where in the English version we find "little one" or "little." See Matthew xviii. 6, 10, II ; Mark ix. 41 ; Luke xii. 32, xvii. 2.
33. v. 117. St. Francis died in 1226.
34. v. 1 1 8. How holy he must have been.
35. v. 121. St. Dominic.
36. v. 124. The food of riches and ecclesiastical digni- ties, strange to the true flock.
92 PARADISE [vv. 135-139
recallest to mind that which I have said, thy wish will be content in part, because thou wilt see the plant wherefrom they are hewn,37 and thou wilt see how the wearer of the thong rea- sons — ' Where they fatten well if they do not stray/ "
37. v. 1 3 7* The plant of which the words are splinters or chips ; in other terms, " thou wilt understand the whole ground of my assertion, and thou wilt see what St. Thomas Aquinas, wearer of the leathern thong of the Dominican Order, means, when he says that the flock of Dominic fatten, if they stray not from the road on which he leads them."
CANTO XII
Second circle of the spirits of wise religious men, doc- tors of the Church and teachers. — St. Bonaventura nar- rates the life of St. Dominic, and tells the names of those who form the circle with him.
SOON as the blessed flame took to speaking its last word the holy mill-stone ' began to re- volve, and had not wholly turned in its gyra- tion before another enclosed it with a circle, and matched motion with motion, song with song ; song which in those sweet pipes as much surpasses our Muses, our Sirens, as a primal splendor that which it reflected.2 As two bows parallel and like in colors are turned across a thin cloud, when Juno gives the order to her handmaid,3 the one without born of the one within (in manner of the speech of that wander- ing one4 whom love consumed, as the sun does
1. v. 3. The circle of spirits surrounding Beatrice and Dante.
2. v. 9. As an original ray is brighter than one re» fleeted.
3. v. 12. Iris.
4. v. 14. The nymph Echo.
94 PARADISE [w. 16-38
vapors), and make the people here5 to be pre- sageful, by reason of the covenant which God established with Noah concerning the world, that it shall nevermore be flooded ; so the two garlands of those sempiternal roses were turn- ing around us, and so did the outer correspond to the inner. After the dance and the exalted great festivity, alike of the singing and of the flaming, light with light joyous and bland, had become quiet together at one instant and with one will, even as the eyes which must needs close and lift themselves together at the pleasure that moves them, from the heart of one of the new lights there came a voice, which made me seem as the needle to the star in turning me to its whereabout ; and it began : 6 " The love which makes me beautiful draws me to discourse of the other leader, by whom 7 so well it has been spoken here of mine. It is fit that where one is the other be led in, so that as they waged war united, so together may their glory shine.
" The army of Christ, which it cost so dear to arm afresh,8 was moving behind the stand-
5. v. 1 6. On earth.
6. v. 31. It is St. Bonaventura, the biographer of Sf Francis, who speaks. He became General of the Order in 1256, and died in 1276.
7. v. 33. By whom, through one of his brethren, St. Thomas Aquinas.
8. v. 38. The elect, who had lost grace through Adam's
w. 39-60] CANTO XII 95
ard,9 slow, mistrustful, and scanty, when the Emperor who forever reigns made provision for his soldiery that were in peril, of His grace only, not because it was worthy, and, as has been said, succored His Bride with two cham- pions, by whose deeds, by whose words, the people gone astray were brought back.
"In that region where the sweet Zephyr rises to open the new leaves wherewith Europe is seen to reclothe herself, not very far from the beating of the waves behind which, over their long course, the sun sometimes hides himself from every man,10 sits the fortunate Callaroga, under the protection of the great shield on which the Lion is subject and subjugates.11 Therein was born the amorous lover of the Christian faith, the holy athlete, benignant to his own, and harsh to his enemies ; ia and so soon as it was created, his mind was so replete with living virtue, that in his mother it made
sin, were armed afresh by the costly sacrifice of the Son of God.
9. v. 38. The Cross.
10. v. 51. The sun sinking in the West rises over the Southern hemisphere, "the world without people. " Hell, xxvi. 117.
11. v. 54. Callaroga, now Calahorra, a city in Old Castile. On the shield of Castile two lions and two castles are quartered, one lion below and one above.
12. v. 57. St. Dominic, born in 1170.
96 PARADISE (Vv. 61-71
her a prophetess.13 After the espousals be- tween him and the Faith I4 were completed at the sacred font, where they dowered each other with mutual salvation, the lady who gave the assent for him saw in a dream the marvellous fruit which should issue from him and from his heirs ; IS and in order that he might be con- strued as he was,16 a spirit went forth from here I? to name him with the possessive of Him whose he wholly was. Dominic l8 was he called ; and I speak of him as of the husbandman
13. v. 60. His mother dreamed that she gave birth to a dog, black and white in color, with a lighted torch in its mouth, which set the world on fire ; symbols of the black arid white robe of the Order, and of the flaming zeal of its breth- ren. Hence arose a play of words on their name, Domini- can?, as if Domini canes, t( the dogs of the Lord."
14. v. 62. As Poverty became the bride of Francis, so the Faith becomes the bride of Dominic.
15. v. 66. The godmother of Dominic saw in dream a star on the forehead and another on the back of the head of the child, signifying the light that should stream from him over East and West.
1 6. v. 67. Literally, "in order that he might be what he was in construing ; " costrutto is a forced rhyme, and makes the interpretation of the verse difficult, but the mean- ing is, " in order that when he was spoken of (in construing) his name might truly express his nature."
17. v. 68. From heaven.
1 8. v. 69. Dominicusy the possessive of Dominus, "Be- longing to the Lord."
vv. 72-88] CANTO XII 97
whom Christ elected to His garden to assist Him. Truly he seemed the messenger and familiar of Christ ; for the first love that was manifest in him was for the first counsel which Christ gave.19 Oftentimes was he found by his nurse upon the ground silent and awake, as though he would say : f I am come for this/ O father of him truly Felix ! O mother of him truly Joanna, if this, being interpreted, means as is said ! 20
"Not for the world,21 for which men now toil, following him of Ostia and Thaddeus,22 but for love of the true manna, he became in short time a great teacher, such that he set himself to go about the vineyard, which quickly grows white if the vinedresser be at fault ; and of the Seat,2' which was formerly more benign unto the
19. v. 75. " Sell that thou hast and give to the poor." Matthew xix. 21.
20. v. 8 1. Felix, signifying "happy/* and Joanna, said to mean, "the grace of the Lord/*
21. v. 82. The goods of this world,
22. v. 83. Henry of Susa, cardinal of Ostia (d. 1271) who wrote a much studied commentary on the Decretals, and Taddeo d* Alderotto of Bologna, who, says Giovanni Villani, recording his death in 1303, "was the greatest physician in Christendom.*' The thought is the same as that at the beginning of Canto xi., where Dante speaks of " one following the laws, and one the aphorisms.'
23. v. 88. The Papal throne.
98 PARADISE [vv. 89-106
righteous poor (not by reason of itself but by reason of him who sits there and is degener- ate 24), he asked not to dispense or two or three for six,25 not the fortune of the first vacancy, non decimas, quae sunt pauperum Dei,26 but leave to fight against the errant world for that seed 2? of which four and twenty plants surround thee.28 Then with doctrine and with will, together with the apostolic office,29 he went forth like a torrent which a lofty vein presses out, and on the heret- ical stocks his onset smote with most vigor there where the resistance was the greatest. From him proceeded thereafter divers rills whereby the catholic garden is watered, so that its bushes are more living.
" If such was the one wheel of the chariot on
. 24. v. 90 The meaning is, that the change in the tem- per of the See of Rome is due not to the fault of the Papal dignity itself, but to that of the degenerate Pope.
25. v. 9 1 . Not for license to compound for unjust ac- quisitions by devoting a part of them to pious uses, to take six and give but two or three.
26. v. 93. "Not the tithes which belong to God's poor."
27. v. 95. The true faith ; "the seed is the word oj God." Luke viii. 1 1.
28. v. 96. The twenty-four blessed spirits of the tw», garlands.
29. v. 98. The authority conferred on him by Inno- cent III.
w. 107-125] CANTO XII 99
which the Holy Church defended herself and vanquished in the field her civil strife,30 surely the excellence of the other should be very plain to thee, concerning whom Thomas before my coming was so courteous. But the track which the highest part of its circumference made is derelict ; 3I so that there is mould where the crust was.32 His household, which set out aright with their feet upon his footprints, are so turned round that they set the forward foot on that behind ; 33 and soon shall there be sight of the harvest of the ill culture, when the tare will complain that the bin is taken from it.34 Nevertheless I say, he who should search our volume leaf by leaf35 might still find a page where he would read : c I am that which I am wont/ But it will not be from Casale nor from Acquasparta,36 whence come such to the
30. v. 1 08. The heresies within her own borders.
31. v. 1 13. The track made by St. Francis is deserted.
32. v. 114. The change of metaphor is sudden ; good wine makes a crust, bad wine makes mould in the cask.
33. v. 117. They go in an opposite direction from that followed by the saint.
34. v. 1 20. That it is thrown out from the bin in the granary. See Matthew xiii. 30.
35. v. 122. The volume is the Franciscan Order, the leaves are its members.
36. v. 1 24. Frate Ubertino of Casale, the leader of a party of zealots among the Franciscans, enforced the " writ-
ioo PARADISE [vv. 126-136
writing that one evades it, and the other con- tracts it.
" I am the life of Bonaventura of Bagnoregio, who in great offices always set the sinister37 care behind. Illuminate and Augustin are here, who were among the first barefoot poor that in the cord made themselves friends to Gcd. Hugh of St. Victor38 is here with them, and Peter Mangiadore, and Peter of Spain,39 who down below shines in twelve books; Nathan the prophet, and the Metropolitan Chryso-
ing," that is, the written Rule of the Order, with excessive strictness ; Matteo of Acquasparta, general of the Francis- cans in 1257, relaxed it.
37. v. 129. The sinister, that is, the left hand care ; care for temporal things ; so in Proverbs iii. 16 ; "in sinistra illius divitiae et gloria," " in her left hand riches and honor."
38. v. 133. Hugh (1097—1141), a noted theologian of the mystic school, of the famous abbey of St. Victor at Paris.
39. v. 134. Peter Mangiador, or Comestor, "the Eater," so called as being a devourer of books. He himself wrote a book famous in its time, the His tor ia Scbo^astica. He was canon of St. Victor and chancellor of the University of Paris, and died toward the end of the twelfth century.
Peter of Spain was born at Lisbon. His compendium of Logic, Summae logicalesy in twelve books, was long held in high repute. He was made Cardinal Bishop of Tuscu'lum in 1 27 3, and was chosen Pope in 1276, taking the name of John XXI. He was killed in May, i 277, by the fall of the ceiling of the chamber in which he was sleeping, in the Papal palace at Viterbo. He is the only contemporary Pope wnom Dante meets in Paradise.
vv. 137-145] CANTO XII 101
stom,40 and Anselm,41 and that Donatus 42 who deigned to set his hand to the first art ; Raban 43 is here, and at my side shines the Calabrian abbot Joachim,44 endowed with prophetic spirit. " The flaming courtesy of Brother Thomas, and his well advised discourse, moved me to envy 4S so great a paladin ; and with me moved this company."
40. v. 137. The Greek golden-mouth father of the Church, patriarch of Constantinople.
41. v. 137. Born about 1033 at Aosta in Piedmont, consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, died 1109 ; " magnus et subtilis doctor in theologia."
42. v. 137. The compiler of the treatise on Grammar (the first of the seven arts of the Trivium and the Quadri- vium) which was in use throughout the Middle Ages.
43. v. 139. Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz, in the ninth century ; a great scholar and writer, " cui similem suo tempore non habuit Ecclesia."
"44. v. 140. Joachim, Abbot of Flora, in Calabria. He died in 1202. He wrote apocalyptic and prophetic treatises, in which he expounded in mystic terms the " Everlasting Gospel " of Revelation xiv. 6. His doctrine was that the dispensation of the Father and of the Son, contained in the Old and the New Testament, was to be speedily followed by that of the Holy Spirit, the consummation of the Divine revelation for the redemption of the world. During the thirteenth century this doctrine had a widespread influence.
45. v. 142. The meaning is, that the courtesy of Brother Thomas, a Dominican, in praising St. Francis, the founder of a rival Order, and the nature of his discourse moved me, a Franciscan, to a noble envy of his master St. Dominic, and hence to celebrate him.
CANTO XIII
St. Thomas Aquinas speaks again, and explains the re- lation of the wisdom of Solomon to that of Adam and of Christ , and declares the vanity of human judgment.
LET him imagine,1 who desires to understand well that which I now saw (and let him retain the image like a firm rock, while I am speak- ing), fifteen stars which in different regions viv- ify the heaven with brightness so great that it overcomes every thickness of the air ; let him imagine that Wain 2 for which the bosom of our heaven suffices both night and day, so that with the turning of its pole it does not disappear ; let him imagine the mouth of that horn3 which
1 . v. I . To form an idea of the brightness and the mo- tion of the two circles of spirits, let the reader, says the poet, imagine fifteen of the brightest separate stars, joined with the seven stars of the Great Bear, and with the two brightest of the Lesser Bear, to form two constellations like Ariadne's Crown, and to revolve one within the other, one following the movement of the other.
2. v. 7. Charles's Wain, the Great Bear, which never sets.
3. v. 10. The Lesser Bear may be imagined as having the shape of a horn, of which the small end is near the pole of the heavens around which the Primum Mobile revolves.
vv. 11-30] CANTO XIII 103
begins at the point of the axle on which the primal wheel goes round, — to have made of themselves two signs in the heavens, like chat which the daughter of Minos made, when she felt the frost of death,4 and one to have its rays within the other, and both to revolve in such manner that one should go first and the other after ; and he will have as it were the shadow of the true constellation, and of the double dance, which was circling round the point where I was ; since it is as much beyond our wont as the motion of the heaven which outspeeds all the rest is swifter than the movement of the Chiana.5 There was sung not Bacchus, not Paean, but three Persons in the divine nature, and It and the human in one Person. The singing and the revolving completed each its measure, and those holy lights gave heed to us, making themselves happy from care to care.6
4. v. 15. Dionysus bore Ariadne, deserted by Theseus, to heaven, and changed her crown into a constellation.
If the reader imagine these twenty-four most brilliant stars to form two circular constellations, like Ariadne's crown, moving with the revolution of the Heavens, he will have a faint image of the two bright garlands of twelve saints each which were revolving around Dante and Beatrice.
5. v. 23. The Chiana was one of the most sluggish of the streams of Tuscany.
6. v. 30. Rejoicing in the change from dance and song to tranquillity, for the sake of giving satisfaction to Dante.
104 PARADISE [vv. 31-^48
Then the light 7 within which the marvellous life of the poor man of God had been narrated to me broke the silence among those concor- dant divinities,8 and said : " Since one straw is threshed, since its seed is now garnered, sweet iove invites me to beat out the other.9 Thou believest that into the breast, wherefrom the rib was drawn to form the beautiful cheek of her whose palate costs dear to all the world, and into that which, pierced by the lance, both after and before made such satisfaction that it overcomes the balance of all sin,10 whatever of light it is allowed to human nature to have was all infused by that Power which made one and the other ; and therefore thou wonderest at that which I said above, when I told that the good which is inclosed in the fifth light had no second. Now
7. v. 32. The light of St. Thomas Aquinas.
8. v. 31. Filled with the Divine Grace, " they are, as it were, gods." See Convito, iv. 20, 26.
9. v. 36. The saint has already explained the meaning of his saying, " Where they fatten well if they do not stray " (Canto x. 96 and xi. 139), and now proceeds to explain how it could properly be said of Solomon that " to see so much no second has arisen " (Canto x. 114), inasmuch as both Adam and Christ were endowed with fulness of know- ledge, so far as was possible for human nature.
10. v. 42. Balanced against the sins of mankind, the life and the death of the Saviour made such satisfaction as to outweigh them all.
vv. 49-67] CANTO XIII 105
open thine eyes to that which I answer to thee, and thou wilt see thy belief and my speech be- come in the truth as the centre in a circle.
" That which dies not and that which can die are naught but the splendor of that idea which in His love our Sire brings to birth ; " for that living Light, which so streams from its Lucent Source that It is not disunited from It, nor from the Love which with them is intrined, doth of Its own goodness collect Its rays, as it were mirrored, in nine subsistences, Itself eter- nally remaining one. Thence It descends to the ultimate potentialities, downward from act to act becoming such, that finally It makes naught save brief contingencies: and these con- tingencies I understand to be the generated things which the moving heavens produce with seed and without it.12 The wax of these, and
11. v. 54. The creation of things eternal and of things temporal alike is the resplendent manifestation of the idea which the triune God, in His love, generates. The living light in the Son, emanating from its lucent source in the Father, in union with the love of the Holy Spirit, the three remaining always one, pours out its radiance through the nine orders of the Angelic Hierarchy, who distribute it by means of the Heavens of which they are the Intelligences.
12. v. 66. Through the various movements and con- junctions of the Heavens, the creative light descends to the lowest elements, producing all the varieties of contingent things.
Io6 PARADISE [vv. 68-82
that which moulds it, are not of one mode, and therefore under the signet of the idea It more or less shines through ; I3 whence it comes to pass that one same plant in respect to species bears better or worse fruit, and that ye are born with diverse dispositions. If the wax were exactly worked,14 and the heavens were supreme in their power, the whole light of the seal would be apparent. But nature always gives it defec- tive,15 working like the artist who has the prac- tice of his art and a hand that trembles. Yet if the fervent Love disposes and imprints the clear Vision of the primal Power, complete perfection is acquired there.16 Thus of old the earth was made worthy of the complete
13. v. 69. The material of contingent or temporal things, and the influences of the Heavens which shape them, are of various sort, so that under the signet or impress of the idea, that is, in the specific shape which they receive accord- ing to the idea of God, the living Light shines through them more or less, and is apparent in them in different degree.
14. v. 73. If the material were always fit to receive the impression.
15. v. 76. Nature never affords the material perfect and capable of giving an exact impression of the idea.
1 6. v. 8 1 . If, however, the Creator acts directly, — the fervent Love of the Holy Spirit imprinting the clear Vision of the Son which emanates from the primal Power of the Father, — there can be no imperfection in the created thing ; it answers to the Divine idea, that is, to " the clear Vision " in the mind of God.
w. 83-99] CANTO XIII 107
perfection of the living being ; I7 thus was the Virgin made impregnate ; l8 so that I com- mend thy opinion that human nature never was, nor will be, what it was in those two per- sons.
" Now, if I should not proceed farther, c How then was that one without a peer ? ' would thy words begin. But, in order that that which is not apparent may clearly appear, consider who he was, and the cause which moved him to make request, when it was said to him : c Ask.' I9 I have not so spoken that thou canst not clearly see that he was a king, who asked for wisdom, in order that he might be a worthy king ; not to know the number of the motors here on high,20 or if necesse with a contingent ever made
17. v. 83. Thus, by the immediate action of the Cre- ator, the earth of which Adam was formed was made the perfect material for the complete perfection of the creature with a living soul.
1 8. v. 84. In like manner, by the direct act of the Creator.
19- v* 93- "In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night : and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, . . . Thou hast made thy servant king . . . and I am but a little child. . . . Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad." I Kings iii. 5-9.
20. v. 98. The number of the Angelic Intelligences who move the Heavens.
io8 PARADISE [vv. 100-114
necesse ; 2I non si esf dare primum motum esse,22 or if in the semicircle a triangle can be made so that it should not have one right angle.23 Wherefore if thou notest what I said and also this, a kingly prudence is that peerless seeing, on which the arrow of my intention strikes.24 And if thou directest clear eyes to the c has arisen/ thou wilt see it has respect only to kings, who are many, and the good are rare. With this distinction 25 take thou my saying, and thus it can stand with that which thou believest of the first father, and of our Beloved one.26 And let this ever be as lead to thy feet, to make thee move slowly as a weary man, both to the yea and to the nay which thou seest not ; for he
21. v. 99. If from two premises, one necessary and one contingent, a necessary conclusion is to be deduced.
22. v. 100. "If a prime motion is to be granted,'* that is, a motion not the effect of another.
23. v. 1 02. He did not ask through idle curiosity to know the number of the Angels ; nor for the solution of a logical puzzle; nor for that of a question in metaphysics, or of a problem in geometry.
24. v. 104. " If thou understandest this comment on my former words, "to see so much no second has arisen, " my meaning will be clear that his vision was unmatched in respect to the wisdom which it behoves a king to possess.
25. v. 109. Thus distinguishing, it is apparent that Solo- mon is not brought into comparison, in respect to perfection of wisdom, with Adam or with Christ.
26. v. in. The Lord Jesus.
vv. 115-136] CANTO XIII 109
is very low down among the fools who affirms or denies without distinction, alike in the one and in the other case : because it happens, that often- times the hasty opinion bends in false direc- tion, and then self love binds the intelligence.27 Far more than in vain does he leave the bank, since he returns not such as he sets out, who fishes for the truth, and has not the art ; 2& and of this Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson/9 are manifest proofs to the world, and many others who went on and knew not whither. Thus did Sabellius, and Arius,30 and those fouls who were as swords unto the Scriptures in making their straight faces crooked. Let not the folk be yet too confident in judgment, like him who reckons up the ears in the field ere they are ripe ; for I have seen the briar first show itself stiff and rugged all winter long, then bear the rose upon its top ; and once I saw a bark run
27. v. 1 20. The natural predilection for one's own opinion prevents the unprejudiced action of the intelligence.
28. v. 123. He who seeks the truth without regard to the method and means of obtaining it, ends his search in- volved in greater error than that in which he was at first ; as the fisherman who goes to fish without the required means returns empty-handed and exhausted.
29. v. 125. Heathen philosophers who went astray in seeking for the truth.
30. v. 127. Sabellius denied the Trinity, Arius denied the Consubstantiality of the Father and the Son.
no PARADISE [vv. 137-142
straight and swift over the sea through all her course, and perish at last at entrance of the harbor. Let not dame Bertha or master Mar- tin, seeing one rob, and another make offering, believe to see them within the Divine coun- sel : 3I for the one may rise and the other may fall."
31. v. 141. Let not any wiseacre fancy to understand the judgments of God, hidden in the mystery of predestina- tion.
CANTO XIV
At the prayer of Beatrice, Solomon tells of the glorified bodies of the blessed after the Last 'Judgment. — Ascent to the Heaven of Mars. — Souls of the Soldiery of Christ in the form of a Cross with the figure of Christ thereon. — Hymn of the Spirits.
FROM the centre to the rim, and so from the rim to the centre, the water in a round vessel moves, according as it is struck from without or within. This which I say fell suddenly into my mind as the glorious life of Thomas became silent, because of the similitude which was born of his speech and that of Beatrice, whom after him it pleased thus to begin : ' " This man has need, and he tells it not to you, neither with his voice nor as yet in thought, of going to the root of another truth. Tell him if the light
I. v. 9. The " glorious life," that is, the glorified spirit of St. Thomas, had spoken from his place in the ring of saints which formed a circle around Beatrice and Dante ; Beatrice begins now to speak from the centre where she stood ; and as the voice of the Saint had *snoved from the circum- ference to the centre, so hers proceeds from the centre to the circumference.
112 PARADISE [vv. 13-36
wherewith your substance blossoms will remain with you eternally even as it is now ; and if it remain, tell how, after ye shall be again made visible,2 it can be that it will not hurt your sight."
As, when urged and drawn on by increase of delight, those who are dancing in a ring all at once lift their voice and gladden their mo- tions, so, at that ready and devout petition, the holy circles showed new joy in their turning and in their marvellous melody. Whoso laments because we die here to live there on high, has rot seen here the refreshment of the eternal rain.3
That One and Two and Three which ever lives, and ever reigns in Three and Two and One, uncircumscribed, and circumscribing all things, was thrice sung by each of those spirits with such a melody that for every merit it would be adequate reward. And I heard in the divinest light of the smaller circle a modest voice,4 perhaps such as was that of the Angel
2. v. 1 8. The souls of the blessed are hidden in the light which emanates from them ; after the resurrection of the body they will become visible, but how will the eyes endure such brightness as will then be that of the saints ?
3. v. 27. He who on earth laments having to die has never duly taken account of the joy of the perpetual effluence of the Grace of God upon the soul in Heaven.
4. v. 35. Probably that of Solomon, who in the tenth
w. 37-61] CANTO XIV 113
to Mary, make answer : " As long as the festi- val of Paradise shall be, so long will our love radiate around us such a garment. Its bright- ness will follow our ardor, the ardor our vision, and that is great in proportion as it receives of grace above its own worth.5 When the flesh, glorious and sanctified, shall be clothed on us again, our • persons will be more acceptable through being all complete ; wherefore whatever of gratuitous light the Supreme Good gives us will be increased, — light which enables us to see Him ; so that our vision must needs in- crease, our ardor increase which by that is kin- dled, our radiance increase which comes from this. But even as a coal which gives forth flame, and by a vivid glow surpasses it, so that its own aspect is defended,6 thus this effulgence, which already encircles us, will be vanquished in ap- pearance by the flesh which all this while the earth covers ; nor will so great a light have, power to fatigue us, for the organs of the body will be strong for everything which can delight us." So sudden and ready both one and the
Canto, v. 109, is said to be "the light which is the most beautiful among us."
5. v. 42. The brightness of the garment of light pro- ceeds from and is proportioned to the fervency of love, and that to the vision of God.
6. v. 54. The coal is seen glowing through the flame.
H4 PARADISE [vv. 62-84
other choir seemed to me in saying " Amen/' that truly they showed desire for their dead bodies, perhaps not only for themselves, but also for their mothers, for their fathers, and for the others who were dear before they became sempiternal flames.
And lo ! round about, of a uniform bright- ness, arose a lustre, beyond that which was there, like an horizon which is growing bright. And as at rise of early evening new appearances begin in the heavens, so that the sight seems and seems not true, it seemed to me that there I began to see new subsistences, and a circle forming outside the other two circumferences.7 O true sparkling of the Holy Spirit ! how sud- den and glowing it became to my eyes, which, vanquished, endured it not ! But Beatrice showed herself to me so beautiful and smiling that it must be left among those sights which followed not my memory.
Therefrom my eyes regained power to raise themselves again, and I saw myself, alone with my Lady, translated to more exalted salvation.8
7. v. 29. This new circle, vast in circumference, like the horizon, is composed of the multitude of the spirits of the wise in the things of the Spirit, who now display themselves, shining in this sphere as the brightness of the firmament.
8. v. 84. To a higher grade of blessedness, that of the Fifth Heaven, the sphere of Mars.
vv. 85-106] CANTO XIV 115
That I was more uplifted I perceived clearly by the fiery smile of the star, which seemed to me ruddier than its wont. With all my heart and with that speech which is one in all men,9 I made to God a holocaust such as was befitting to the new grace ; and the ardor of the sacrifice was not yet exhausted in my breast before I knew that offering had been accepted and pro- pitious ; for with such a glow and such a ruddi- ness splendors appeared to me within two rays, that I said : " O Helios,10 who dost so adorn them ! "
Even as, distinct with less and greater lights, the Galaxy so whitens between the poles of the world that it makes even the wise to ques- tion," thus, constellated in the depth of Mars, those rays made the venerable sign which join- ings of quadrants in a circle make.12 Here my memory overcomes my genius, for that Cross was flashing forth Christ, so that I know not to find worthy example. But he who takes his cross and follows Christ shall yet
9. v. 89. The unuttered voice of the soul.
10. v. 96. Whether Dante forms this word from the Hebrew Eli (my God), or adopts the Greek ^Atos (sun), is uncertain.
11. v. 99. " Concerning the Galaxy philosophers have held different opinions." Convito, ii. 15.
12. v. 102. The cross formed by the intersection of two diameters of a circle, at a right angle one with the other
H6 PARADISE [vv. 107-134
excuse me for that which I omit, when he beholds Christ lightening in that glow.
From horn to horn/3 and between the top and the base, lights were moving, brightly scin- tillating as they met together and in their pass- ing by. Thus here I4 are seen the atoms of bodies, straight and athwart, swift and slow, changing appearance, long and short, moving through the sunbeam, wherewith sometimes the shade is striped which people with skill and art contrive for their protection. And as a viol or harp, strung in accord of many strings, makes a sweet tinkling to one by whom the tune is not caught, thus from the lights which there appeared to me a melody was gathered through the Cross, which rapt me without my under- standing the hymn. I was indeed aware that it was of lofty praise, because there came to me : " Arise and conquer ! " as to one who understands not, and yet hears. I was so en- amoured therewith that until then there had not been anything which had fettered me with such sweet bonds. Perchance my word ap- pears too daring, in setting lower the pleasure from the beautiful eyes, gazing into which my desire has repose. But he who considers that the living seals 1S of every beauty have more
13. v. 109. From arm to arm of the cross.
14. v. 112. On earth.
15. v. 133. The Heavens, which are "the seal ot
w. 135-139] CANTO XIV 117
effect the higher they are, and that I had not there turned round to those eyes, may excuse me for that whereof I accuse myself in order to excuse myself, and may see that I speak truth ; for the holy pleasure is not excluded here, be- cause it becomes the purer as it mounts.
mortal wax" (Canto viii. 127), increase in power as they are respectively nearer the Empyrean, so that every joy in each, as it is higher up, is greater than any in the heavens below. To this time Dante had felt no joy equal to that afforded him by this song, not even that which the eyes of Beatrice had afforded him in the preceding spheres. But now a still greater joy awaited him in turning to those eyes, to which, since he entered the Fifth Heaven, the Sphere of Mars, he had not yet turned, but which there, as elsewhere, were to afford the supreme delight.
The ascent from sphere to sphere is the type of the ad- vance of the purified soul in knowledge of divine things, and of its deeper entrance into the mysteries of the faith. With each step the vision becomes clearer, but the things seen re- quire interpretation, and the chief element in this spiritual pro- gress is the revelation by Theology of the significance of these things. This is the joy which the eyes of Beatrice afford, For "the eyes of this Lady/* says Dante, speaking in the Canvito of Philosophy, '« are her demonstrations, whicn, di- rected to the eyes of the understanding, enamour the deliv- ered soul. O sweetest and ineffable looks, the sudden captors of the minds of men, which appear in the demonstrations in the eyes of Philosophy when she discourses with her lovers ! Truly in you is the salvation by which he is made blessed who looks on you, and is saved from the death of ignorance and sin." Convito, iL 16, 27—37.
CANTO XV
Dante is welcomed by his ancestor, Cacciaguida.~-~ Cacciaguida tells of bis family , and of the simple life of Florence in the old days.
A BENIGN will, wherein the love which right- eously inspires always manifests itself, as cupid- ity * does in the evil will, imposed silence on that sweet lyre, and quieted the holy strings which the right hand of heaven slackens and draws tight. How shall those beings be deaf to righteous prayers, who, in order to give me the will to pray to them, were concordant in silence ? 2 Well is it that he should grieve with- out end, who, for the love of thing which does not last, despoils himself forever of this love.
As, through the tranquil and pure evening skies, a sudden fire shoots from time to time, moving the eyes which were steady, and seems to be a star which changes place, save that from the region whence it was kindled nothing is
1. v. 3. Cupidity, that is, inordinate and ill-directed Jove. See Purgatory, xviii. 62-75.
2. v. 9. Leaving the joy of their song.
vv. 18-36] CANTO XV 119
lost, and it lasts short while ; so from the arm which extends on the right, ran a star of the constellation which is resplendent there, down to the foot of that Cross. Nor from its ribbon did the gem depart, but through the radial strip it ran along and seemed like fire behind ala- baster. With like affection did the shade of Anchises stretch forward (if our greatest Muse merits belief), when in Elysium he perceived his son.3
" O sanguis meus ! o superinfusa gratia Dei ! sicut tibi) cui bis unquam coeli janua reclusa ? "4 Thus that light ; whereat I gave heed to it ; then I turned back my sight to my Lady, and on the one side and the other I was awestruck ; for within her eyes was glowing such a smile, that with my own I thought to touch the depth of my grace and of my Paradise.
3. v. 27. "And he (Anchises), when he saw Aeneas advancing to meet him over the grass, stretched forth both hands eagerly, and the tears poured down his cheeks, and he- cried out, * Art thou come at length ? ' ' ' Aeneidy vi. 684-7.
4. v. 30. " O blood of mine ! O overflowing grace of God ! To whom, as to thee, was ever the gate of Hea- ven twice opened?" "Twice opened," once now, and \Q be a second time opened after death. It is the spirit of Cacciaguida, the great- great-grandfather of Dante, who thus speaks. Nothing is known of him but what the poet tells in this and the next canto.
120 PARADISE [vv. 37-57
Then, joyous to hearing and to sight, the spirit added to his beginning things which I did not understand, so deep was his speech. Nor did he hide himself from me by choice, but by necessity, for his conception was set above the irrark of mortals. And when the bow of his ardent affection was so relaxed that his speech descended towards the mark of our understand- ing, the first thing that was understood by me was : " Blessed be Thou, Trine and One, who art so greatly courteous in my seed." And he went on : "A pleasing and long-felt hunger, derived from reading in the great volume where wliite or dark is never changed,5 thou hast re- lieved, my son, within this light6 in which I speak to thee, thanks to her who clothed thee with plumes for the lofty flight. Thou be- lievest that thy thought flows to me from Him who is First, even as from the unit, if that be known, ray out the five and six ; 7 and there-
5. v. 51. In the mind of God, in which there is no change, as there is in the books of men by erasures or addi- tions.
6. v. 52. His own radiance.
7. v. 57. The thought of man rays out, reflected from the mind of God, the prime Unity, as all numbers proceed from the unit ; and the thought thus becomes known to th< blessed gazing upon God. See Canto ix. 73-75. This is what Donne (Sermon xxiii. ) calls " Gregory's wild specu- lation, Qui videt videntem omnia, omnia videty because we
vv. 58-81] CANTO XV 121
fore who I am, and why I appear to thee more joyful than any other in this blithe throng, thou askest me not. Thou believest the truth ; for the lesser and the great of this life gaze upon the mirror in which, before thou thinkest, thou dost display thy thought. But in order that the sacred Love, in which I watch with perpetual vision, and which makes me thirst with sweet desire, may be fulfilled the better, let thy voice, secure, bold, and glad, sound forth the will, sound forth the desire, to which my answer is already decreed."
I turned me to Beatrice, and she heard before I spoke, and granted me a sign which made grow the wings to my desire. Then I began thus : " When the Prime Equality 8 appeared to you, the affection and the intelligence became of one weight for each of you ; because the Sun which illumined and warmed you with its heat and with its light is of such equality that all simili- tudes are defective. But will and discourse in mortals, for the reason which is manifest to you, are diversely feathered in their wings.9 Where-
shall see him that sees all things, we shall see all things uj him, for then we should see the thoughts of men."
8. v. 74. God, all whose attributes are in perfect equality.
9. v. 81. But will and the discourse of reason, corre- sponding to affection and intelligence (v. 73), are unequal in
122 PARADISE [vv. 82-99
fore I, who am mortal, feel myself in this in- equality, and therefore I give not thanks, save with my heart, for thy paternal welcome. Truly I beseech thee, living topaz, that dost ingem this precious jewel, that thou make me content with thy name ? " " O leaf of -mine, in whom, while only awaiting, I took pleasure, I was thy root." Such a beginning he, answering, made to me. Then he said to me : " He from whom thy family is named,10 and who for a hundred years and more has circled the mountain on the first ledge, was my son and was thy great-grand- sire ; truly it behoves that thou shorten for him his long fatigue with thy works." Florence, within the ancient circuit of her walls where- from she still takes both tierce and nones,12 was abiding in peace, sober and modest. She had
mortals, by reason of their human imperfection ; the affection is greater than the capacity to express it.
10. v. 92. Alighiero, from whom, it would appear from his station in Purgatory, Dante inherited the sin of pride, as well as his name.
11. v. 96. By thy prayers.
12. v. 90. The bell of the church called the Badia or Abbey, which stood close to the old walls of Florence and, rebuilt, still stands in the Piazza San Firenze, rang daily the hours for labor and for worship, and measured the time for the Florentines. Tierce is the first division of the canonical hours of the day, from six to nine ; nones, the third, from twelve to three.
vv. i oo-n 5] CANTO XV 123
not necklace .nor coronal, nor dames with orna- mented shoes, nor girdle which was more to be looked at than the person. Not yet did the daughter at her birth cause fear to the father, for the time and dowry did not outrun due mea- sure on this side and that.13 She had not houses empty of families;14 nor had Sardanapalus yet arrived there to show what may be done in a chamber.15 Not yet by your Uccellatoio was Montemalo surpassed, which, as it has been surpassed in its rise, shall be so in its fall.16 I saw Bellincion Berti 1? go girt with leather and bone,18 and his dame come from her mirror without a painted face. And I saw him of the Nerli, and him of the Vecchio,19 contented with
13. v. 105. Fear lest the age of the bride should be too young, her dowry too large.
14. v. 1 06. Palaces too large for their occupants, built for ostentation.
15. v. 107. The luxury and effeminacy of Sardanapalus were proverbial.
1 6. v. ill. The view from Montemalo, better known as Monte Mario, of Rome in its splendor was not yet surpassed by that of Florence from the height of Uccellatoio ; and the fall of Florence shall be greater even than that of Rome.
17. v. 112. Bellincion Berti was " an honorable citizen of Florence," says Giovanni Villani ; "a noble soldier," adds Benvenuto da Imola. He was father of the *' good Gualdrada." See He//, xvi. 37.
1 8. v. 113. With a plain leathern belt fastened with a clasp of bone.
19. v. 1 1 5. Two ancient and honored families.
124 PARADISE [vv. 116-132
the unlined skin,20 and theit dames with the spindle and the thread. O fortunate women ! Each one was sure of her burial place ; 2I and as yet no one was deserted in her bed for France.22 One over the cradle kept her care- ful watch, and, comforting, she used the idiom which first amuses fathers and mothers.23 An- other, drawing the tresses from her distaff, told to her household tales of the Trojans, of Fiesole, and of Rome.24 A Cianghella, a Lapo Salterello 2* would then have been held as great a marvel as Cincinnatus or Cornelia would be now.
" To so reposeful, to so fair a life of citizens, to such a trusty community, to such a sweet
20. v. 1 1 6. Clothed in garments of plain dressed skin not covered or lined with cloth.
21. v. 119. Not fearing to die in exile.
22. v. 1 20. Left by her husband gone to seek fortune in France, or other foreign lands.
23. v. 123. The playful and soothing baby-talk.
24. v. 126. These old tales may be read in the first book of Villani's Chronicle.
25. v. 128. Cianghella was a contemporary of Dante ; "a. most arrogant and intolerable woman, and very wanton hi her life," says Benvenuto da Imola. Lapo Salterello was a lawyer and judge, whom Benvenuto describes as «' a rash and bad citizen, a litigious and tonguy (finguosus) man." He was banished from Florence at the same time with Dante, March 10, 1302, his name standing third on the list. Cf XviL 61—63.
vv. 133-148] CANTO XV 125
inn, Mary, called on with loud cries,26 gave me ; and in your ancient Baptistery I became at once a Christian and Cacciaguida. Mo- ronto was my brother, and Eliseo ; my dame came to me from the valley of the Po, and thence was thy surname. Afterward I fol- lowed the emperor Conrad,27 and he belted me of his soldiery,28 so much by good deeds did I come into his favor. Behind him I went against the iniquity of that law ^ whose people usurp your jurisdiction,30 through fault of the Pastors. There by that foul folk was I re- leased from the deceitful world, the love of which debases many souls, and I came from martyrdom to this peace."
26. v. 133. The Virgin, called on in the pains of childbirth. Cf. Purgatory, xx. 19-21.
27. v. 139. Conrad III. of Suabia. In 1 1 47 he joined in the disastrous second Crusade.
28. v. 140. Made me a belted knight.
29. v. 143. The law of Mahomet.
30. v. 144. The Holy Land, by right belonging to the Christians, but. of which they are dispossessed by the Saracens, through the fault of the Popes.
CANTO XVI
The boast of blood. — Cacciaguida continues bis dis- course concerning the old and the new Florence.
O OUR petty nobility of blood ! If thou makest folk glory in thee down here, where our affection languishes, it will nevermore be a marvel to me ; for there, where appetite is not perverted, I mean in Heaven, I myself gloried in thee. Truly art thou a cloak which quickly shortens, so that, if naught be added from day to day, Time goes round about thee with his shears.
With the TOK* which Rome was first to tol- erate, in which her family least perseveres,2 my words began again. Whereat Beatrice, who was a little withdrawn, smiling, seemed like her, who coughed at the first fault that is writ- ten of Guenever.3 I began : " You are my
1. v. 10. The plura pronoun, used as a mark of re- spect. This usage was introduced in the later Roman Empire.
2. v. 1 1. The Romans no longer show respect to those Worthy of it.
3. v. 15. Beatrice stands a little aside, theology Laving
vv. 17-37] CANTO XVI 127
fatner, you give me all confidence to speak ; you uplift me so that I am more than I. By so many streams is my mind filled with gladness that it makes of itself a joy, in that it can bear this and not burst.4 Tell me then, my beloved forefather, who were your ances- tors, and what were the years that were reck- oned in your boyhood. Tell me of the sheep- fold of St. John,5 how large it was then, and who were the people within it worthy of the highest seats."
As a coal is quickened into flame at the breath- ing of the winds, so I saw that light glow at my blandishments; and as it became more beautiful to my eyes, so with voice more sweet and soft, but not with this modern speech, it said to me: " From that day on which A ve was said,6 unto the child-birth in which my mother, who now is sainted, was lightened of me with whom she had been burdened, this fire had come to its
no part in this colloquy. She smiles at Dante's vainglory, observant, like the Dame de Malehaut, who coughed at seeing the first kiss received by Queen Guenever from Sir Lance- lot.
4. v. 2 1 . It rejoices that it has capacity to endure such great joy.
5. v. 25. Florence, whose patron saint was St. John the Baptist.
d v. 34. From the day of the Annunciation.
128 PARADISE [w. 38-50
Lion 7 five hundred, fifty, and thirty times to reinflame itself beneath his paw.8 My ances- tors and I were born in the place where the last ward is first reached by him who runs in your annual game.9 Let it suffice thee to hear this of my elders ; as to who they were, and whence they came hither, silence is more be- coming than speech.
" All those able to bear arms who at that time were there, between Mars and the Bap- tist,10 were the fifth of them who are living. But the citizenship, which is now mixed with Campi, with Certaldo and with Fighine/1 was
7. v. 37. The Lion is the sign Leo in the Zodiac, ap- propriate to Mars by supposed conformity of disposition : —
"Mars As he glow'd like a ruddy shield on the Lion's breast."
Tennyson, Maud, part III.
8. v. 39. Five hundred and eighty revolutions of Mars are accomplished in a few months more than ten hundred and ninety years.
9. v. 42. The place designated was the boundary of the division of the city called that of "the Gate of St. Peter," where the Corso passes by the Mercato Vecchio or " Old Market." The races were run along the Corso on the 24th June, the festival of St. John the Baptist.
10. v. 47. Between the Ponte Vecchio, at the head of which stood the statue of Mars, and the Baptistery, — two points marking the circuit of the ancient walls.
n. v. 50. Small towns in the territory of Florence,
rv. 51-61] CANTO XVI 129
LO be seen pure in the lowest artisan. Oh, how much better it would be that those folk of whom I speak were neighbors, and to have your boundary at Galluzzo and at Trespiano,12 than to have them within, and to endure the stench of the churl of Aguglione,13 and of him of Signa, who already has his eye sharp for bar- ratry !
" If the folk who are the most degenerate in the world I4 had not been as a stepdame unto Caesar, but like a mother benignant to her son, there is one who has become a Florentine,15 and
from which, as from many others, there had been emigration to the thriving city, to the harm of its own people.
12. v. 54. It would have been better to keep these people at a distance, as neighbors, not to admit them as fellow- citizens, and to have narrow bounds for the territory of the city. Galluzzo and Trespiano are villages some two or three miles only from Florence.
13. v. 56. The churl of Aguglione was, according to Benvenuto da Imola, a lawyer named Baldo, " qui fuit mag- nus canis." He became one of the priors of Florence in 1311. He of Signa is supposed to have been one Bonifazio, who, says Bud, "sold his favors and offices."
14. v. 58. That is, the priesthood or the rulers of the Church : if they had not quarrelled with the Emperor, bringing about factions and disturbances in the world, there would not have been such shifting of population and of rank.
15. v. 61. "I have not discovered who this is," says Buti. Simifonti was a stronghold in the Val d' Elsa, which ivas destroyed by the Florentines in 1302.
130 PARADISE [vv. 62-81
is a money-changer and trader, who would have been turned back to Simifonti, where his grand- sire used to go about begging ; Montemurlo would still belong to its Counts, the Cerchi would be in the parish of Acone, and perhaps the Buondelmonti in Valdigreve.16 The inter- mingling of persons was ever the beginning of harm to the city, as the food which is loaded on is to the body.17 And a blind bull falls more headlong than the blind lamb ; and often- times one sword cuts more and better than five. If thou regard Luni and Urbisaglia,18 how they have gone, and how Chiusi and Siniga- glia are going their way after them, it will not appear to thee a strange thing or a hard, to hear how families are undone, since even cities have their term. All things of yours have their death even as yourselves ; but it is con- cealed in some that last long, while lives are
1 6. v. 66. The Conti Guidi, unable to defend then stronghold of Montemurlo from the Pistoians, had been com- pelled to sell it to the Florentines. The Cerchi and the Buondelmonti had been forced by the Florentine Com- mune to surrender their fortresses and to take up their abode in the city, where they became powerful, and where the bitterness of intestine discord and party strife had been greatly enhanced by their quarrels.
17. v. 69. Food added to that already in process o' digestion and which is consequently not assimilated.
1 8. v. 73. Cities once great, now fallen.
vv. 82-99] CANTO XVI 13:
short. And as the revolution of the heaven of the Moon covers and uncovers the shores without a pause, so Fortune does with Flo- rence. Wherefore what I shall tell of the high Florentines, whose fame is hidden by time, should not appear to thee a marvellous thing. I saw the Ughi, and I saw the Catellini, Filippi, Greci, Ormanni, and Alberichi, even in their decline, illustrious citizens ; and I saw, as great as they were old, with him of La Sannella, him of L' Area., and Soldanieri, and Ardinghi, and Bostichi.19 Over the gate (which at present is laden with new felony 20 of such great weight that soon there will be jettison from the bark21), were the Ravignani, from whom the Count Guido is descended, and whosoever has since taken the name of the high Bellincione.22 He
*9' v* 93' All once great families, but now extinct, or fallen. It is of interest to note how many of these names are of Teutonic origin.
20. v. 95. Above the Gate of St. Peter rose the walls of the abode of the Cerchi, who, though not one of the old families of the city, had acquired great wealth and power, and making themselves the head of the White faction, became chief promoters of the civil strife which brought misery to Florence.
21. v. 96. The casting overboard was the exile in 1302 of many of the Cerchi with other leaders of the Whites.
22. v. 99. The Count Guido married Gualdrada the daughter of Btiiincione Berti. See Canto xv. 1 1 2. and Hell, xvi. 37.
132 PARADISE [w. 100-113
of La Pressa knew already how one should rule, and Galigaio already had in his house the gilded hilt and pummel.23 Great were already the column of the Vair,24 the Sacchetti, Giuochi, Fifanti, and Barucci, and Galli, and they who blush for the bushel.25 The stock from which the Calfucci sprang was already great,26 and already the Sizii and Arrigucci had been drawn to the curule chairs.27 Oh, how great did I see those who have been undone by their pride !28 and the balls of gold29 made Florence flourish with all their great deeds. So did the fathers of those who whenever your church is
23. v. 102. Symbols of knighthood ; the use of gold in their accoutrements being reserved for knights.
24. v. 103. The family of the Pigli, whose scutcheon was, in heraldic terms, gules, a pale, vair ; in other words, a red shield divided longitudinally by a stripe of the heraldic representation of the fur called vair.
25. v. 105. The Chiaramontesi, one of whom in the old days, being the officer in charge of the sale of salt for the Commune, had cheated both the Commune and the people by using a false measure. See Purgatory, xii. 104, 105.
26. v. 107. This stock was the house of the Donati.
27. v. 1 08. To high civic office.
28. v. no. The Uberti, the great family of which Farinata (see Hell, Canto x.) was the most renowned mem- ber.
29. v. no. The Lamberti, who bore golden balls on tneir shields. For Mosca de' Lamberti, see Hell, xxviliu 103-111
vv. 114-126] CANTO XVI 133
vacant, become fat by staying in consistory.30 The overweening race which is as a dragon behind him who flies, and to him who shows tooth or purse is gentle as a lamb,31 already was coming up, but from small folk, so that it did not please Ubertin Donate that his father- in-law afterward made him their kinsman.32 Already had Caponsacco descended into the market place down from Fiesole, and already was Giuda a good citizen, and Infangato.33 I will tell a thing incredible and true : into the little circle one entered by a gate which was named for those of La Pera.34 Every one who
30. v. 114. The Visdomini, and the Tosinghi, guard- ians of the Bishopric of Florence, who had the right, during any vacancy of the See, of administering its revenues, and thus after the death of a bishop, by securing delay in dis- appointment of his successor, grew fat on the episcopal reve- nues.
31. v. 117. The Adimari. Benvenuto da Imola re- ports that one Boccacino of this family, after Dante's banish- ment, got possession of his property, and always afterward was his bitter enemy.
32. v. 1 20. Ubertino de' Donati married a daughter of Bellincione Berti, and was displeased when her sister was afterwards given to one of the humble stock of the Ad;_ mari.
33. v. 123. There seems to be a touch of humor in these three names of " Head in bag," " Judas," and '« Be- mired."
34. v. 126. The Peruzzi, who bore the pear as &
PARADISE [vv. 127-136
bears the beautiful ensign of the great baron35 whose name and whose worth the feast of Thomas keeps fresh, from him had knighthood and privilege ; although to-day he who binds it with a border unites himself with the populace.36 Already there were Gualterotti and Importuni ; and the Eorgo 37 would even now be more quiet, if they had gone fasting of new neighbors. The house of which was born your weeping,38
charge upon their scutcheon. The incredible thing may have been that one of the gates of the city should have been named for a family now sunk so low as the Peruzzi. The " little circle " was the circle of the old walls.
35. v. 128. Hugh, imperial vicar of Tuscany in the time of Otho II. and Otho III., was "the great baron." He died on St. Thomas's Day, December 2 1st, 1006, and was buried in the Badia, the foundation of which is ascribed to him ; there his monument is still to be seen, and there of old, on the anniversary of his death, a discourse in his praise was delivered. Several families, whose heads were knighted by him, adopted his arms, with some distinctive addition* His scutcheon was paly of four, argent and gules.
36. v. 132. Giano della Bella, the great leader of the Florentine commonalty in the latter years of the I3th century. He bore the arms of Hugh with a border of gold.
37. v. 134. The Borgo Sant' Apostolo, the quarter of the city in which these families lived, would have been more tranquil if the Buondelmonti had not come to take up their abode in it after the destruction of their stronghold of Monte- buono in 1135.
38. v. 136. The Amidei, who were the source of muci
vv. 137-152] CANTO XVI 135
by reason of its just indignation which has slain you, and put an end to your glad living, was honored, both itself and its consorts. Oh Buon- delmonte, how ill didst thou flee its nuptials through the persuasions of another ! 39 Many would be glad who now are sorrowful, if God had conceded thee to the Ema4° the first time that thou earnest to the city. But it behoved that Florence in her last hour of peace should offer a victim to that mutilated stone which guards the bridge.41
" With these families, and with others with them, I saw Florence in such repose that she had no occasion why she should weep. With these families I saw her people so glorious and so just, that the lily was never set reversed
of the misery of Florence, through their long and bitter feud with the Buondelmonti, by which the whole city was di- vided.
39. v. 141. The quarrel between the Amidei and the Buondelmonti arose from the slighting by Buondelmonte del Buondelmonti of a daughter of the former house, to whom he was betrothed, for a daughter of the Donati, induced thereto by her mother. This was in 1215.
40. v. 143. The Ema, a little stream that has to be crossed in coming from Montebuono to Florence.
41. v. 147. That victim was Buondelmonte himself, slain by the outraged Amidei, at the foot of the mutilated statue of Mars, which stood at the end of the Ponte Vecchio j and since that murder Florence had had no peace.
136 PARADISE [vv. 153-154
upon the staff, nor made vermilion by divi- sions." 42
42. v. 154. The banner of Florence had never fallen into the hands of her enemies, to be reversed by them in scoff. Of old it had borne a white lily in a red field, but in 1250, when the Ghibellines were expelled, the Guelfs adopted a red lily in a white field, and this became the en- «ign of the Commune.
CANTO XVII
Dante questions Gacciaguida as to his fortunes. — Cac- ciaguida replies, foretelling the exile of Dante, and the renown of his Poem.
As he who still makes fathers chary toward their sons came to Clymene, to ascertain con- cerning that which he had heard against him- self; x such was I, and such was I perceived to be both by Beatrice, and by the holy lamp which previously for my sake had changed its station. Wherefore my Lady said to me : " Send forth the flame of thy desire in such wise that it may issue imprinted well by the internal stamp ; not in order that our know- ledge may increase through thy speech, but in order that thou accustom thyself to tell thy thirst, so that one may give thee drink."
i. v. 3. Phaethon, son of Clymene by Apollo, having been told that Apollo was not his father, went to his mother to ascertain the truth. He makes fathers chary toward their sons, by reason of the calamitous result of Apollo's granting his prayer to be allowed to drive the horses of the chariot of the Sun.
138 PARADISE [w. 13-33
" O dear root of me, who so upliftest thyself that, even as earthly minds see that two obtuse angles can not be contained in a triangle, so thou, gazing upon the Point to which all times are present, dost see contingent things, ere in themselves they are;2 while I was conjoined with Virgil, up over the mountain which cures the souls, and while descending in the dead world, grave words were said to me of my future life ; although I feel myself truly four- square against the blows of chance. Where- fore my wish would be contented by hearing what fortune is drawing near for me ; for arrow foreseen comes more slack." 3 Thus said I unto that same light which had spoken to me before, and, as Beatrice willed, was my wish confessed.
Not with ambiguous terms in which the fool- ish folk of old were entangled,4 before the Lamb of God which taketh away sins had been slain,
2. v. 17. Dost see contingent events, that is, events which may or may not happen, with not less certitude than that of a geometrical axiom.
3. v. 27. This seems to have been a proverbial expres- sion. The commentators cite a verse attributed to Ovid, but said not to be found in his works : — " Nam previsa minus laedete tela solent."
In the Chronicle of Fra Salimbene, A. D. 1286, we find : — " Minus enim jacula feriunt quae praevidentur. ' '
4. v. 3 2 . Not with riddles such as the oracles gave out before they fell silent at the coming of Christ.
vv. 34-59] CANTO XVII 139
but with clear words and with plain speech that paternal love, enclosed and made manifest by its own smile, made answer : " Contingency, which does not extend outside the volume of your matter,5 is all depicted in the Eternal Vision. Yet thence it does not take necessity,6 more than does a ship which is going down the stream from the eye in which it is mirrored. Therefrom,7 even as sweet harmony comes to the ear from an organ, comes to my sight the time that is preparing for thee. As Hippolytus departed from Athens, by reason of his pitiless and perfidious stepmother, so from Florence thou must needs depart. This is willed, this is already sought for, and will soon be brought to pass, by him 8 who meditates it there where every day Christ is bought and sold. The blame will follow the injured party, in outcry, as is wont ; but the vengeance will be testi- mony to the truth which dispenses it. Thou shalt leave everything beloved most dearly; and this is the arrow which the bow of exile shoots first. Thou shalt make proof how the bread of others savors of salt, and how hard a
5. v. 38. The material world.
6. v. 40. From its being seen in the Eternal Vision.
7. v. 43. From the Eternal Vision.
8. v. 50. Boniface VIII., in Rome, where, day in, day out, there is traffic in the things of God.
140 , PARADISE [vv. 60-77
path is the descending and the mounting of another's stairs. And that which will weigh heaviest upon thy shoulders will be the evil and senseless company 9 with which thou wilt fall into this valley ; I0 which all ungrateful, all mad and malevolent will turn against thee ; but short while after, it, not thou, shall have the forehead red therefor. Of its bestiality, its own procedure will afford the proof; so that it will be well-becoming for thee to have made thee a party by thyself.
" Thy first refuge and first inn shall be the courtesy of the great Lombard " who bears the holy bird upon the ladder, who will have for thee such benign regard that, in doing and in asking, between you two, that will be first, which between others is the slowest. With him shalt thou see one,12 who was so impressed, at his birth, by this strong star,13 that his deeds
9. v. 62. The other Florentine exiles of the party of the Whites.
10. v. 63. This valley of exile and misfortune.
11. ¥.71. Bartolommeo della Scala, lord of Verona, whose armorial bearings were the imperial eagle upon a ladder (scala} .
12. v. 76. Can Grande della Scala, the youngest bro- ther of Bartolommeo, and in 1312, his successor as lord of Verona. He was made Imperial Vicar in 1311, and ou him the hopes of the Ghibellines rested.
13. v. 77. The planet Mars.
vv. 78-99] CANTO XVII I4I
will be notable. Not yet are the people aware of him, because of his young age ; for these wheels have revolved around him only nine years. But ere the Gascon cheat the lofty Henry14 some sparkles of his virtue shall ap- pear, in his caring not for money nor for toils. His magnificences shall hereafter be so known, that his enemies will not be able to keep their tongues mute about them. Look thou to him, and to his benefits ; by him shall many people be transformed, rich and mendicant changing condition. And thou shalt bear hence written of him in thy mind, but thou shalt not tell it," — and he told things incredible to those who shall be present.15 Then he added : " Son, these are the glosses on what was said to thee ; be- hold the snares which are hidden behind few revolutions.16 Yet I would not that thou hate thy neighbors, because thy life has a future far beyond the punishment of their perfidies."
14. v. 82. Before the Gascon Pope Clement V., under whom the Papal see was established at Avignon, shall deceive the Emperor, Henry VII. , by professions of support, while secretly promoting opposition to his expedition to Italy in 1310.
!5' v- 93- He told of deeds such that they shall seem past belief even to those who witness them.
1 6. v. 96. These are the explanations of the predictions of which thou hast sought the interpretation ; few revolutions of the spheres will pass before thy trcvubles will begin.
142 PARADISE [vv. 100-127
When by its silence that holy soul showed it had finished putting the woof into that web which I had held out to it, warped/7 I began, as he who, in doubt, longs for counsel from a person who sees, and wills uprightly, and loves : " I see well, my Father, how the time spurs on toward me to give me such a blow as is heaviest to him who most deserts himself; wherefore it is good that I arm me with fore- sight, so that if the place most dear be taken from me, I may not lose the others by my songs. Down through the world of endless bitterness, and over the mountain from whose fair summit the eyes of my Lady uplifted me, and then through heaven from light to light, I have learned that which, if I tell again, will have for many a savor of great bitterness ; and if I am a timid friend to the truth, I fear to lose life among those who will call this time an- cient." The light, within which my treasure that I had found there was smiling, first be- came flashing as a mirror of gold in the sun- beam ; then it replied : " A conscience dark, either with its own or with another's shame, will indeed feel thy speech to be harsh ; but nevertheless, all falsehood laid aside, make thy
17. v. 1 02. Cacciaguida had, as it were, woven in the pattern of the cloth, in telling of the future course of Dante'a fife.
vv. 1 28-142] CANTO XVII 143
whole vision manifest, and let then the scratch- ing be where the itch is ; for if at the first taste thy voice shall be molestful, afterwards, when it shall be digested, it will leave vital nourish- ment. This cry of thine shall do as the wind, which strikes hardest the loftiest summits ; and that is no little argument of honor. Therefore only the souls which are known of fame have 'been shown to thee within these wheels, upon the mountain, and in the woeful valley ; for the mind of him who hears rests not, nor confirms its faith, by an example which has its root un- known and hidden, nor by other argument which is not apparent." l8
1 8. v. 142. Only the souls of personages well known have been shown to thee, to the end that their examples, when thou tellest of them, may be efficacious ; for examples of unknown persons, or arguments drawn from obscure facts, have little weight.
CANTO XVIII
The Spirits in the Cross of Mars. — Ascent to the Heaven of 'Jupiter. — Words shaped in light upon the planet by the Spirits. — Denunciation of the avarice of the Popes.
Now was that blessed mirror enjoying only its own thoughts,1 and I was tasting mine, temper- ing the bitter with the sweet, and that Lady who was leading me to God said : " Change thy thought; think that I am near to Him who lightens the burden of every wrong." I turned me round at the loving sound of my Comfort, and what love I then saw in the holy eyes, I here leave it ; not only because I distrust my own speech,2 but because of the memory which
1. v. I. Literally, "its own word"; "the interior conception of the mind is called the word " («£. T. i. 34, l). Dante speaks of Cacciaguida as "that blessed mirror/' be- cause the blessed spirits reflect the splendor of the Divine glory, and gazing upon the mind of God reflect also what they be- hold therein.
2. v. 10. " The tongue is not capable of completely fol- iowing that which the understanding sees.'* Convito, iii. 3. 126. See also Ibid. iii. 4. 18.
w. 11-36] CANTO XVIII 145
cannot return so far above itself, unless another guide it. Thus much of that moment can I recount, that, again beholding her, my affection was free from every other desire.
While the Eternal Pleasure, which was ray- ing directly upon Beatrice, was contenting me with its second aspect3 from her fair face, van- quishing me with the light of a smile, she said to me : " Turn thee, and listen, for not only in my eyes is Paradise."
As sometimes here the affection is seen in the countenance, if it be so great that the whole soul is taken up by it, so in the flaming of the holy effulgence to which I turned me, I recog- nized the will in it still to discourse somewhat with me. It began: "In this fifth seat4 of the tree, which has life from its top, and always bears fruit, and never loses leaf, are blessed spirits, who below, before they came to heaven, were of great renown, so that every Muse would be rich with them.5 Therefore gaze upon the arms of the Cross ; he, whom I shall name, will there do the act which in a cloud its own swift fire does." At the naming of Joshua,
3. v. 1 8. Its aspect reflected from the eyes of Beatrice.
4. v. 28. Mars, the fifth resting-place in the ascent of Heaven.
5. v. 33. "Every Muse," that is, every poet; so in Canto xv. 26, Dante calls Virgil "our greatest Muse."
146 PARADISE [vv. 37-60
even as it was done, I saw a light drawn along the Cross ; nor was the word noted by me be- fore the fact. And at the name of the lofty Maccabeus 6 I saw another move revolving, and gladness was the whip of the top. Thus for Charlemagne and for Roland my attentive gaze followed two of them, as the eye follows its falcon as he flies. Afterward William, and Renouard,7 and the duke Godfrey,8 and Robert Guiscard9 drew my sight along that Cross. Then, moving, and mingling among the other lights, the soul which had spoken with me showed me how great an artist it was among the singers of the heaven.
I turned me round to my right side to see in Beatrice my duty signified either by speech or by act, and I saw her eyes so clear, so joy- ous, that her semblance surpassed her other and her latest wont. And even as, through feeling more delight in doing well, a man from day to day becomes aware that his virtue
6. v. 42. Judas Maccabeus, who " was renowned to the utmost part of the earth." See I Maccabees ii.— ix.
7. v. 46. Two heroes of romance, William, Count of Orange, and Renouard his companion in arms, paladins of Charlemagne.
8. v. 47. Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the first crusade.
9. v. 48. The founder of the Norman kingdom of Naples.
vv.6i-82] CANTO XVIII 147
makes advance, so I, seeing that miracle more adorned, became aware that my circling round together with the heaven had increased its arc. And such as is the change, in brief passage of time, in a pale lady, when her countenance discharges itself of the load of bashfulness, such was there to my eyes, when I turned, because of the whiteness of the temperate sixth star which had received me within itself.10 1 saw, within that torch of Jove, the sparkling of the love which was there, shaping out our speech to my eyes. And as birds, risen from the shore, as if rejoicing together at their pasture, make of themselves a troop now round, now of other shape, so within the lights " holy creatures were singing as they flew, and in their figures made of themselves now D, now I, now L." At first, as they sang, they moved to their own notes, then as they became one of these char- acters, they stopped a little, and were silent. O divine Pegasea,13 who makest the wits
10. v. 69. The change, quick as the disappearance of a blush, was from the red light of Mars to the white light of Jupiter, a planet called by astrologers the " temperate " star, PS lying between the heat of Mars and the coldness of Saturn, ijee Convito, ii. 14. 195—202.
11. v. 76. The sparkles of the love which was there.
12. v. 78. Th« first letters of Diligite, " Love ye/' as shortly appears.
13. v. 82. An appellation appropriate to the Muses in
148 PARADISE [w. 83-108
of men glorious, and renderest them Jong- lived, as they, through thee, the cities and the kingdoms, illumine me with thyself that I may set forth their shapes, as I have conceived them ; let thy power appear in these brief verses !
They showed themselves then in five times seven vowels and consonants ; and I noted the parts as they seemed as if spoken to me. Diligite justitiam were the first verb and noun of all the picture ; qui judicatis terram I4 were the last. Then in the M of the fifth word they remained arranged, so that Jove seemed silver patterned there with gold. And I saw other lights descending where the top of the M was; •and become quiet there, singing, I believe, the Good which moves them to Itself. Then, as on the striking of burning logs rise innumerable sparks, wherefrom the foolish are wont to draw auguries, so thence there seemed to rise again more than a thousand lights, and mount, some much and some little, according as the Sun which kindles them allotted to them ; and, each having become quiet in its place, I saw the head and the neck of an eagle represented by that
general, whose fountain, Hippocrene, sprang up at the stamp of Pegasus.
14. v. 93. "Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth." Wisdom of Solomon i. i.
*v. 109-127] CANTO XVIII 149
patterned fire. He who paints there, has none who may guide Him, but He Himself guides, and from Him is recognized that virtue which is form for the nests.15 The rest of the blessed spirits, which at first seemed content to lily themselves*6 on the M, with a slight motion followed out the imprint.
O sweet star, what and how many gems made plain to me that our justice is the effect of that heaven which thou dost ingem ! Where- fore I pray the Mind, in which thy motion and thy virtue have beginning, that It look down there whence issues the smoke which vitiates thy radiance, so that now, a second time, It may be wroth at the buying and the selling in the temple, which was built up with blood and martyrdoms. O soldiery of Heaven whom I contemplate, pray ye for those on earth who are all gone astray after the bad example ! Of old it was the wont to make war with swords, but now it
15. v. in. The words are obscure; they may mean that a virtue, or instinct, inspired by Gody similar to that in the bird which teaches it to build its ne&t, iopelled the spirits in the shaping of these letters.
16. v. 1 1 3. Ingigliare9 a word invented \>y Dante, and used only by him. The meaning is that these spirits seemed first like lilies on the M, then moved to join in forming the head and neck of an eagle. The eagle is the emblem of the Empire, which Dante held to be the Divine institution fo* maintaining justice upon earth.
150 PARADISE [vv. 128-130
is made by taking away, now here now there,17 the bread which the pitying Father locks up from none.
But thou that writest only in order to cancel,18 bethink thee that Peter and Paul, who died for the vineyard which thou art laying waste, are still alive. Thou canst say indeed : " I have my desire set so on him who willed to live alone, and for a dance was dragged to martyrdom,19 that I know not the Fisherman nor Paul."
17. v. 128. Making war by depriving men of the sac- raments of the Church by means of excommunication and in- terdict.
1 8. v. 130. The Pope, who writes censures, excom- munications, and the like, only that he may be paid to cancel &em.
19. v. 135. The image of St. John Baptist was on the florin, which was the chief object of desire of the Pope.
CANTO XIX
The voice of the Eagle. — It speaks of the mysteries of Divine justice ; of the necessity of Faith for salvation ; of the sins of certain kings.
WITH outspread wings appeared before me the beautiful image which the interwoven souls, joyful in their sweet fruition, were making. Each of them appeared as a little ruby on which a ray of the sun should glow so enkindled as to reflect him into my eyes. And that which it now behoves me to retrace, never did voice re- port, nor ink write, nor was it ever comprised by fancy ; for I saw, and also heard the beak speaking, and uttering with its voice both / and My, when in conception it was We and Our.1
And it began : " Through being just and pious am I here exalted to that glory which allows not itself to be surpassed by desire ; and on earth I left my memory such that the evil people there commend it, but follow not its story." Thus one sole heat makes itself felt
I. v. 12. An image of the concordant will of the Just and of the unity of Justice under the Empire. •
152 PARADISE [w. 19-44
from many embers, even as from many loves one sole sound issued from that image. Whereon I at once : " O perpetual flowers of the eternal gladness, ye which make all your odors seem to me only one, solve for me, by your breath, the great fast which long has held me hungering, not finding for it any food on earth. Well do I know that if the Divine Justice makes another realm in heaven its mirror,2 yours does not apprehend it through a veil. Ye know how intently I prepare myself to listen ; ye know what is that doubt3 which is so old a fast to me."
As a falcon which, issuing from the hood, moves its head, and claps its wings, showing its will, and making itself fine; so I saw this em- blem, which was woven of praise of the Divine Grace, become, with songs such as he knows who thereabove rejoices. Then it began : " He who turned the compasses at the verge of the world, and distributed within it so much occult and manifest, could not so imprint His Power on all the universe that His Word should not
2. v. 29. The reference is to the Order of the Thrones, the Intelligences who presided over the sphere of Saturn. In the ninth canto, verses 61, 62, Cunizza says : "Above are mirrors, ye call them Thrones, whence God in his judg- ments shines to us.'*
3. v. 33." Concerning the Divine Justice.
. 45-65] CANTO XIX
'53
remain in infinite excess.4 And this makes cer- tain that the first proud one, who was the top of every creature, through not awaiting light, fell immature.5 And hence it appears, that every lesser nature is a scant receptacle for that Good which has no end, and measures Itself by Itself. Therefore our vision, which must needs be one of the rays of the Mind with which all things are replete, cannot in its own nature be so potent as not to discern its origin far beyond that which is apparent to it.6 Therefore the sight into the Eternal Justice which your world receives 7 penetrates within as the eye into the sea; which, though from the shore it can see the bottom, on the main it sees it not, and nevertheless it is there, but the depth conceals it. There is no light but that which comes from the serene which is never clouded ; nay, rather there is darkness, either shadow of the
4. v. 45. The Word, that is, the thought or wisdom of God, must infinitely exceed the expression of it in the creation.
5. v. 48. Lucifer fell through pride, fancying himself, though a created being, equal to his Creator. Had he awaited the full light of Divine grace, he would have recognized his own inferiority.
6. v. 57. Our vision is not powerful enough to reach to the source from which it proceeds, for reach as far as it may, it must still see its source in God to be far beyond its range,
?• Vt 59- It 'ls ^e &
I54 PARADISE [vv. 66-85
flesh, or its poison.8 The hiding-place is now open enough to thee, which concealed from thee the living Justice concerning which thou didst make such frequent question ; 9 for thou saidst : ' A man is born on the bank of the Indus, and no one is there who may tell of Christ, nor who may read, nor who may write; and all his wishes and acts are good, so far as human reason sees, without sin in life or in speech. He dies unbaptized, and without faith; where is this Justice which condemns him? where is his sin if he does not believe ? ' Now who art thou, that, with the short vision of a single span, wouldst sit upon a bench to judge a thousand miles away ? Assuredly, for him who subtilizes with me,10 if the Scripture were not above you, there would be marvelous occasion for doubting. Oh earthly animals? oh gross minds ! "
8. v. 66. There is no light but that which proceeds from God, the light of Revelation. Lacking this, man is in the darkness of ignorance, which is the shadow of the flesh, or of sin, which is its poison.
9. v. 69. The hiding-place is the insufficiency of the human intellect to penetrate to the depth of the Divine de- crees, the justice of which man, in his self-confidence, under*, takes to question.
10. v. 82. Who questions concerning the mysteries of the Divine Justice of which I am the symbol.
11. v. 85. The Scriptures teach you that "the judg-
vv. 86-no] CANTO XIX 155
"The primal Will, which of Itself is good, has never moved from Itself, which is the Supreme Good. So much is just as is conso- nant with It; no created good draws It to itself, but It, raying forth, is the cause of that good."
As the stork circles above her nest, after she has fed her brood, and as the one that has been fed looks up at her, such became the blessed image, which impelled by so many counsels " moved its wings, and I so raised my brows. Wheeling it sang, and said : " As are my notes to thee who understandest them not, such is the Eternal Judgment to you mortals."
After those shining flames of the Holy Spirit became quiet, still in the sign which made the Romans reverend to the world, it began again : " To this kingdom no one ever ascended, who had not believed in Christ either before or after he was nailed to the tree. But behold, many cry Christ, Christ, who, at the Judgment, shall be far less near to him, than some one who knows not Christ ; and the Ethiop will condemn such Christians when the two companies shall be
ments of God are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out ; " why, foolish, do ye disregard them ?
12. v. 96. The counsels of the multitude of spirits composing it, uniting in a single will.
156 PARADISE [vv. 111-125
separated, the one forever rich, and the other poor. What may the Persians say to your kings, when they shall see that volume open in which are written all their dispraises ? I3 There shall be seen among the deeds of Albert that which will soon set the pen in motion, by which the kingdom of Prague shall be made a desert.14 There shall be seen the woe which he who shall die by the blow of a wild boar is bringing upon the Seine by falsifying the coin/5 There shall be «een the pride that quickens thirst, which makes the Scot and the Englishman mad, so that neither can keep within his own bounds.16 The luxury shall be seen, and the effeminate living of him of Spain, and of him of Bohemia,
13. v. 114. The Persians, who know not Christ, will rebuke the sins of kings professedly Christians, when the book of life shall be opened at the Last Judgment.
14. v. 117. The devastation of Bohemia in 1303, by Albert of Austria (the " German Albert " of the sixth canto of Purgatory}, will soon set in motion the pen of the record- ing angel.
15. v. 119. After his terrible defeat at Courtray, in 1302, Philip the Fair, to provide himself with means,debased the coin of the realm. He died in 1314 from the effects of a fall from his horse, overthrown by a wild boar in the forest of Fontainebleau.
1 6. v. 123. The wars of Edward I. and Edward II. with the Scotch under Wallace and Bruce were carried on with little intermission during the first twenty years of the fourteenth century.
vv. 126-137] CANTO XIX 157
who never knew valor, nor wished it.17 The goodness of the cripple of Jerusalem shall be seen marked with an I, while an M shall mark the contrary.18 The avarice and the cowardice shall be seen of him who guards the island of the fire, where Anchises ended his long life ; and, to give to understand how paltry he is, the writing for him shall be in abridged letters which shall note much in little space.19 And to every one shall be apparent the foul deeds of his uncle and of his brother,20 who have
17. v. 126. By "him of Spain/' Ferdinand IV. of Castile (1295-1312) seems to be intended ; and by "him of Bohemia,** Wenceslaus IV., "whom luxury and idleness feed;*' see Purgatory, vii. 102.
1 8. v. 129. The virtues of the lame Charles II., King of Naples, 1285-1309, titular king of Jerusalem, shall be marked in Roman numerals with a one, but his vices with a thousand. The one virtue of Charles seems to have been his liberality ; see Canto viii. 82.
19. v. 135. Frederick of Aragon, King of Sicily, 1296— 1337, too worthless to have his many misdeeds written out m full; see Purgatory, vii. 119. Charles II. from 1296 to 1302 vainly attempted to dispossess Frederick of Sicily. When finally peace was made between them, Frederick mar- ried a daughter of Charles. Dante's scorn of Frederick was doubtless enhanced by his desertion of the Ghibellines after the death of Henry VII.
20. v. 137. James, King of Majorca and Minorca, and James, King of Aragon, whose worthlessness is referred to in Purgatory, vii. 120.
158 PARADISE [vv. 138-148
dishonored so eminent a race and two crowns. And he of Portugal,21 and he of Norway " shall be known there ; and he of Rascia,23 who, to his harm, has seen the coin of Venice. Oh happy Hungary, if she allow herself no longer to be maltreated ! and happy Navarre, if she arm herself with the mountains which bind her round ! 24 And all should believe that, for ear- nest of this, Nicosia and Famagosta are now lamenting and complaining because of their beast which departs not from the side of the others." 2S
21. v. 139. Dionysius, King of Portugal, 1279— 1325, to whom a base love of money-getting was ascribed.
22. v. 139. Hakon IV. , misnamed Longshanks, 1299— 1319, of whose cruel wars with Denmark Dante may have .heard.
23. v. 140. Rascia, so called from a Slavonic tribe, which occupied a region south of the Danube, embracing a part of the modern Servia and Bosnia. The kingdom was established in 1 170. One of its kings, Stephen Ouros, who died in i 307, imitated the coin of Venice with a debased coinage.
24. v. 144. If she would make the Pyrenees her de- fence against France, into the hands of whose kings Navarre fell in 1304.
25. v. 148. The lot of these cities in Cyprus, which are now lamenting under the rule of Henry II. of the house of Lusignan, a beast who goes along with the rest in evil doing, is a proof in advance of what sort of fate falls to those who do not defend themselves.
CANTO XX
The song of the Just. — Princes who have hv±j righteousness, in the eye of the Eagle. — Spirits, once Pagans, in bliss. — Faith and Salvation. — Predestina- tion.
WHEN he who illumines all the world de- scends from our hemisphere so that the day on every side is spent, the heaven, which before is enkindled by him alone, suddenly makes itself again conspicuous with many lights, wherein one alone is shining.1 And this act of heaven came to my mind when the ensign of the world and of its leaders became silent in its blessed beak ; because all those living lights, shining far more, began songs which have lapsed and fallen from my memory.
O sweet Love, that mantlest thyself with a smile, how ardent didst thou appear in those flutes2 which had the breath alone of holy thoughts !
1. v. 6. One, that is, the sun, supposed to be the source of the light of the stars.
2. v. 14. That is, in those singers.
160 PARADISE fvv. 16-41
After the precious and shining stones, where- with I saw the sixth luminary 3 ingemmed, im- posed silence on their angelic chime, I seemed to hear the murmur of a stream which falls down clear from rock to rock, showing the abundance of its mountain source. And as the sound takes its form at the cithern's neck, and as at the vent of the bagpipe wind which enters it, thus, with- out pause cf waiting, that murmur of the Eagle rose up through its neck, as if it were hollow. There it became voice, and thence it issued through its beak in form of words, such as the heart whereon I wrote them was awaiting.
" The part in me which in mortal eagles sees and endures the sun," it began to me, " must now be gazed at fixedly, because of the fires whereof I make my shape, those with which the eye in my head is sparkling are the chief of all their grades. He who shines in the middle, as the pupil, was the singer of the Holy Spirit, who bore about the ark from town to town ; 4 now he knows the merit of his song, so far as it was the effect of his own counsel,5 by the remuneration which is proportioned to it. Of
3. v. 17. The sixth planet, Jupiter.
4. v. 39. David. See 2 Samuel vi. ; cf. Purgatory^ x. 64-67.
5. v. 41. So far as it proceeded from his own free will open to the inspiration of grace.
rv. 43-61] CANTO XX 161
the five which make a circle for my brow, he who is nearest to my beak consoled the poor widow for her son ; 6 now he knows, by the experience of this sweet life and of its opposite, how dear it costs not to follow Christ. And he who on the rising arc comes next in the cir- cumference of which I speak, by true penitence delayed death ; 7 now he knows that the eternal judgment is not transmuted, when worthy prayer there below makes to-morrow's that which was to-day's. The next who follows,8 with a good intention which bore bad fruit, made himself Greek, together with the laws and me, in order to give place to the Pastor ; 9 now he knows how the ill deduced from his good action is not hurtful to him, although thereby the world be destroyed. And he whom thou seest in the down-bent arc was
6. v. 45. Trajan. See Purgatory, x. 73—93.
7. v. 51. King Hezekiah was sick unto death, and the prophet Isaiah declared to him that the Lord said : '< Thou shalt die." And Hezekiah wept sore. And the Lord came again to Isaiah saying : " Turn again, and tell Hezekiah that I have heard his prayer and seen his tears, and will heal him, and will add unto his days fifteen years.*5 See 2 Kings xx. 1—6 ; Isaiah xxxviii. 1—5.
8. v. 55. The Emperor Constantine.
9. v. 57. Constantine, by ceding Rome to the PopC| and by transferring the seat of empire to Constantinople^ made himself, the laws, and the eagle, Greek.
l6v PARADISE [vv. 62-79
William,10 whom that land deplores which weeps for Charles and Frederick living ; " now he knows how heaven is enamoured of a just king, and by the aspect of his effulgence makes it still seen. Who, down in the erring world, would believe that Rhipeus the Trojan I2 was the fifth of the holy lights in this circle ? Now he knows much of that which the world cannot see of the divine grace, although his sight cannot discern the bottom."
Like a little lark that in the air expatiates, first singing, and then is silent, content with the last sweetness which satisfies her, such seemed to me the image of the imprint of the Eternal Pleasure, according to whose desire everything becomes that which it is.13
And though I was there, in respect to my
10. v. 62. William II., called "the Good," King of Sicily and Apulia, 1 166— 1 169.
11. v. 63. The same Charles and Frederick whom thfl Eagle has reproached in the last canto, vv. 1 27—135.
12. v. 68.
" Rhipeus, iustissimus unus Qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus aequi." Aeneid^ \\. 426—427.
" Rhipeus, the one justest man and heedfullest of right among the Trojans."
13. v. 78. So seemed the image (that is, the eagle), satiated with its bliss, whether in the speech or the silence imposed upon it by the Eternal Pleasure, in accoi dance with which all things fulfil their ends.
w. 80-104] CANTO XX iO>
doubt/4 Jike glass to the color which it clothes, it15 endured not to bide its time in silence, but with the force of its own weight urged from my mouth : " What things are these ? " whereat I saw great festival of flashing. Then at once, with its eye more enkindled, the blessed en- sign answered me, in order not to keep me in wondering suspense : " I see that thou believ- est these things because I say them, but thou seest not how ; so that, although believed in, they are hidden. Thou dost as one who fully apprehends a thing by name, but cannot see its quiddity unless another explain it. Regnum coelorum l6 suffers violence from fervent love, and from living hope which vanquishes the di- vine will ; not in such wise as man overcomes man, but vanquishes it, because it wills to be vanquished, and, vanquished, vanquishes with its own benignity. The first life of the eyebrow and the fifth make thee marvel, because thou seest the region of the Angels painted with them. From their bodies they did not issue Gentiles, as thou believest, but Christians, with firm faith,
14. v. 79. How Trajan and Rhipeus could be in Para- dise, since none but those who had believed in Christ were there. See Canto xix. 103—105.
15. v. 80. My doubt.
1 6. v. 94. "The kingdom of Heaven." Matthetf id. 12.
164 PARADISE [vv. 105-127
one in the Feet that were to suffer, one in the Feet that had suffered.17 For the one came back unto his bones from Hell, where there is never return to righteous will ; and that was the reward of living hope ; of living hope, which put its power into the prayers made to God to raise him up, so that it might be pos- sible for his will to be moved.18 The glorious soul, of whom I speak, returning to the flesh, in which it was but little while, believed in Him who had power to aid it ; and in believ- ing was kindled to such fire of true love, that at its second death it was worthy to come unto this festivity. The other, through grace which distils from a fount so deep that creature never pushed the eye far as its primal wave, there below set all his love on righteousness ; where- fore from grace to grace God opened his eye to our future redemption, so that he believed in it, and thenceforth endured no more the stench of paganism, and reproved therefor the perverse folk. Those three Ladies whom thou hast seen
17. v. 105. Rhipeus died before the coming of Christ ; Trajan after.
1 8. v. 1 1 1 . In Hell there can be neither repentance nor a righteous will ; and therefore, according to the legend, St. Gregory the Great prayed that the soul of Trajan, because of his great worth, might be restored to his body in life long enough for his will to turn to righteousness, and for him to profess his faith in Christ.
vv. 128^-148] CANTO XX 165
at the right wheel I9 were to him for baptism, more than a thousand years before baptizing.20 O predestination, how remote is thy root from the vision of those who see not the First Cause entire ! And ye, mortals, keep yourselves re- strained in judging; for we who see God know not yet all the elect ; and to us such defect is sweet, for our good is perfected in this good, — that what God wills we also will."
Thus, to make my short sight clear, sweet medicine was given to me by that divine image. And as a good lutanist makes the vibration of the string accompany a good singer, whereby the song acquires more pleasantness, so I re- member that, while it spake, I saw the two blessed lights 2I moving their flamelets to the words, just as the winking of the eyes concords.
19. v. 128. Of the Chariot drawn by the Griffon. See Purgatory, xxix. 121.
20. v. 129. Before the divine institution of the rite of baptism, his faith, hope, and charity served him in lieu thereof.
21. v. 1 06. Trajan and Rhipeus.
CANTO XXI
Ascent to the Heaven of Saturn. — Spirits of those who had given themselves to devout contemplation. — The Golden Stairway. — St. Peter Damian. — Predestina- tion. — The luxury of modern Prelates.
ALREADY were my eyes fixed again upon the countenance of my Lady, and my mind with them, and from every other intent it was with- drawn ; and she was not smiling, but: " If I should smile," she began to me, " thou wouldst become such as Semele was when she became ashes ; for my beauty, which along the stairs of the eternal palace is kindled the more, as thou hast seen, the higher the ascent, is so resplen- dent that, were it not tempered, at its effulgence thy mortal power would be as a bough shattered by thunder. We are lifted to the seventh splen- dor, which beneath the breast of the burning Lion now radiates downward mingled with his strength.1 Fix thy mind behind thine eyes, and make of them mirrors for the figure which in this mirror shall be apparent to thee."
I. v. 15. The seventh splendor is Saturn, which was in the sign of the Lion, whence its rays fell to earth mingled with the strong influences of the sien.
vv. 19-43] CANTO XXI 167
He who should know what was the pasture of my sight in her blessed aspect, when I trans- ferred me to another care, would know, by counterpoising one side with the other, how pleasing it was to me to obey my celestial escort.
Within the crystal which, circling round the world, bears the name of its illustrious leader, under whom all wickedness lay dead,2 I saw, of the color of gold on which a sunbeam is shin- ing, a ladder rising up so high that my eye followed it not. I saw, moreover, so many splendors descending along the steps, that I thought every light which appears in heaven had been poured down from it.
And as, by their natural custom, the daws, at the beginning of the day, move about together, in order to warm their cold feathers ; then some go away without return, others wheel round to whence they started, and others, cir- cling, make a stay ; 3 such fashion it seemed to, me was here in that sparkling which came together, so soon as it struck on a certain step;4 and that one which stopped nearest to
2. v. 27. Saturn, in the golden age.
3. v. 39. Keep flying in a circle.
4. v. 42. The splendors descending together when they reached a certain step divided, like the daws, in various com* panics, and moved in various directions.
168 PARADISE [vv. 44-72
us became so bright that I said in my thought : " I see well the love which thou dost signify to me. But she, from whom I await the how and the when of speech and of silence, stays still ; wherefore I, contrary to desire, do well not to ask." Whereupon she, who saw my silence, in the sight of Him who sees everything, said to me : " Let loose thy warm desire."
And I began : " My own merit does not make me worthy of thy answer ; but for her sake who concedes to me the asking, O blessed life, that art hidden within thine own joy, make known to me the cause which has placed thee so near me ; and tell why in this wheel the sweet symphony of Paradise is silent, which below through the others so de- voutly sounds." " Thou hast thy hearing mor- tal, as thy sight," it replied to me ; " therefore no song is here for the same reason that Beatrice has no smile. Down over the steps of the holy stairway I have descended so far, only to give thee glad welcome with my speech and with the light that mantles me; nor has more love made me to be more ready, for as much and more love is burning up there, even as the flaming manifests to thee ; but the high charity, which makes us prompt servants to the Counsel that governs the world, allots here,5 even as thou
5. v, 72. The high charity, that is the deep love which
. 73-93] CANTO XXI
169
observest." " I see well," said I, " O sacred lamp, how free love suffices in this Court for following the eternal Providence ; but this is what seems to me hard to discern, why thou alone among thy consorts wert predestined to this office/' 6 I had not come to the last word before the light made a centre of its middle, whirling itself like a swift millstone. Then the love that was within it answered : " A divine light is directed on me, penetrating through this wherein I embosom me ; the virtue of which, conjoined with my vision, lifts me above myself so far that I see the Supreme Essence from which it emanates.7 Thence comes the joy wherewith I flame, because to my vision, in proportion as it is clear, I match the clearness of my flame. But that soul in Heaven which is most enlightened, 8 that Seraph who has his eye most fixed on God, could not satisfy thy
inspires us, in accordance with the will of God, assigns its part to each spirit.
6. v. 78. At his first entrance into Paradise Dante had learned from Piccarda (Canto iii. 52-87) that the love with which the spirits in Heaven are filled made their wills one with the will of God ; but concerning the question of pre- destination, which what he had seen in the sphere of Jupiter, tnd the discourse of the Eagle thereupon, had brought vividly to his mind, he is perplexed.
7. v. 87. Literally, " from which it is milked.*'
8. v. 91. With the Divine light.
170 PARADISE [w. 94-119
demand ; because that which them askest lies so deep within the abyss of the eternal statute, that from every created sight it is cut off. And when thou returnest to the mortal world, carry this back, so that it may no longer presume to move its feet toward such a goal. The mind which shines here, on earth is smoky ; where- fore consider how can it do there below that which it cannot do though Heaven assume it." So did its words prescribe to me, that I left the question, and drew me back to ask it hum- bly who it was. " Between the two shores of Italy, and not very distant from thy native land, rise rocks so high that the thunders sound far lower down, and they form a ridge which is called Catria, beneath which a hermitage is con- secrated which was wont to be devoted to wor- ship only." 9 Thus it began again to me with its third speech, and then, continuing, said : "There in the service of God I became so steadfast, that, only with food of olive juice, lightly I used to pass the heats and frosts, con- tent in contemplative thoughts. That cloister was wont to render in abundance to these hea- vens ; and now it is become so empty as needs
9. v. 1 1 1 . Catria is a high offshoot to the east from the chain of the Apennines, between Urbino and Gubbio. Fal up on its side was the monastery of Santa Croce di Fonte. Avellana, belonging to the order of the Camaldolites.
vv. 120-135] CANTO XXI
171
must soon be revealed. In that place was I Peter Damian,10 and Peter the sinner had I been in the house of Our Lady on the Adriatic shore.11 Little of mortal life was remaining for me, when I was sought for and dragged to that hat " which ever is passed down from bad to worse. Cephas I3 came, and the great vessel of the Holy Spirit '4 came, lean and barefoot, taking the food of whatsoever inn. Now the modern pastors require one to prop them up on this side and that, and one to lead them, so heavy are they, and one to hold up their trains behind. They cover their palfreys with their mantles, so that two beasts go under one hide. O Patience, that dost endure so much ! "
I o. v. 121. A famous doctor of the Church in the eleventh century, chiefly noted for his endeavors to improve the discipline of the Church. He was for many years abbot of the monastery of Fonte Avellana.
n. v. 123. These last words are obscure, and have given occasion to much discussion, after which they remain no clearer than before. It is uncertain what house of Our Lady on the Adriatic shore is here referred to.
12. v. 125. The Cardinal's hat. In 1058 St. Peter Damian, much against his will, was made Cardinal Bishop of Ostia ; he died in 1072.
13. v. 127. St. Peter. " Thou art Simon the son of Jona : thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpreta- tion, a stone." John i. 42.
14. v. 128. St. Paul. "He is a chosen vessel unto me." Acts ix. 15.
172 PARADISE [w. 136-142
At these words I saw more flamelets from step to step descending and whirling, and every whirl made them more beautiful. Round about this one they came, and stopped, and uttered a cry of such deep sound that here could be none like it ; nor did I understand it, the thunder so overcame me.
CANTO XXII
Beatrice reassures Dante. — St. Benedict appears. — » He tells of the founding of bis Order , and of the falling away of its brethren. — Beatrice and Dante ascend to the Starry Heaven. — The constellation of the Twins." — Sight of the Earth.
OPPRESSED with amazement, I turned me to my Guide, like a little child who always runs back thither where he most confides ; and she, like a mother who quickly succors her pale and breathless son with her voice, which is wont to reassure him, said to me : " Knowst thou not that thou art in Heaven ? and knowst thou not that Heaven is all holy, and whatever is done here comes from righteous zeal ? How the song would have transformed thee, and I by smiling, thou canst now conceive, since the cry has so greatly moved thee; in which, if thou hadst understood its prayers, already would be known to thee the vengeance which thou shalt see before thou diest. The sword of here on high cuts not in haste, nor tardily, save to the seeming of him who, desiring or fearing, awaits
174 PARADISE [w. 19-44
it. But turn thee round now toward the others ; for many illustrious spirits thou shalt see., if, as I bid, thou carry back thy look."
As was her pleasure I directed my eyes, and saw a hundred little spheres, which together were making themselves more beautiful with their mutual rays. I was standing as one who within himself represses the point of his desire, and attempts not to ask, he so fears the too- much. And the largest and most lustrous of those pearls came forward to make my wish concerning itself content. Then within it I heard : " If thou couldst see, as I do, the char- ity which burns among us, thy thoughts would be expressed; but that thou, by waiting, mayst not retard thy high end, I will make answer to thee, even to the thought about which thou so restrainest thyself.
" That mountain x on whose slope Cassino is, was of old frequented on its summit by the deluded and ill-disposed people, and I am he who first bore up there the name of Him who brought to earth the truth which so high exalts us : and such grace shone upon me that I drew away the surrounding villages from the
I. v. 37. Monte Cassino, in the Kingdom of Naples, on which a temple of Apollo had stood, was chosen by St. Benedict (480—543) as his abode, and became the site, in 5 29, of the parent and most famous monastery of his Order.
rv. 45-68] CANTO XXII 175
impious worship which seduced the world. All these other fires were contemplative men, kin- dled by that heat which brings to birth holy flowers and fruits. Here is Macarius, here is Romualdus,2 here are my brothers, who fixed their feet within the cloisters, and held their heart steadfast." And I to him : " The affec- tion which thou displayest in speaking with me, and the good semblance which I see and note in all your ardors, have expanded my con- fidence as the sun does the rose, when she becomes open as wide as she has power to be. Therefore I pray thee, and do thou, Father, assure me if I am capable of receiving so great grace, that I may see thee with uncovered shape." Whereon he : " Brother, thy high desire shall be fulfilled up in the last sphere, where are fulfilled all others and my own. There every desire is perfect, mature, and whole ; in that alone is every part there where it always was : for it is not in space, and it has not poles ; 3 and our ladder reaches up to it, so that
2. v. 49. There was more than one St. Macarius ; but St. Benedict probably here refers to St. Macarius of Alexan- dria, a disciple of St. Antony, who did much to promote the monastic rule in the East. He died in 405, St. Romualdus was the founder of the Order of Camaldoli in 1012.
3. v. 67. The Empyrean is immovable, having no axis with poles upon which it revolves, like the created spheres.
176 PARADISE [vv. 69-94
thus from thy sight it steals itself. Far up as there the patriarch Jacob saw it stretch its upper part, when it appeared to him so laden with Angels. But no one now lifts his feet from earth to ascend it ; and my Rule remains for waste of paper. The walls, which used to be an abbey, have become dens, and the cowls are sacks full of bad meal. But heavy usury is not levied so counter to God's pleasure, as that fruit which makes the heart of the monks so mad ; for whatsoever the Church has in keeping is all for the folk that ask it in God's name, not for kindred, or for others more vile.4 The flesh of mortals is so soft that on earth a good beginning does not suffice from the springing of the oak to the forming of the acorn.5 Peter began with- out gold and without silver, and I with prayers and with fasting, and Francis his convent with humility ; and if thou lookest at the beginning of each, and then lookest again to where it has run astray, thou wilt see the white changed to dark. Truly, Jordan turned back, and the sea
4. v. 84. The sm of usury is not so displeasing to God as the misappropriation by the monks of the alms given for pious uses, to the enriching of their relatives, or even their paramours.
5. v. 87. This general reflection refers especially to the rapid relaxation of monastic rules from their original strict* ness. .
rv.gs-nS] CANTO XXII 177
fleeing when God willed, were more marvellous to behold than to see succor here." 6
Thus he said to me, and then drew back to his company, and the company closed together ; then like a whirlwind all gathered itself upward.
The sweet Lady urged me behind them, with only a sign, up over that ladder ; so did her virtue overcome my nature. But never here below, where one mounts and descends natur- ally, was there motion so rapid that it could be compared unto my wing. So may I return, Reader, to that devout triumph, for the sake of which I often bewail my sins and beat my breast, thou hadst not drawn out and put thy finger in the fire so quickly as I saw the sign which follows the Bull,7 and was within it.
O glorious stars, O light impregnate with great virtue, from which I acknowledge all my genius, whatever it may be ; with you was born and with you was hiding himself8 he who is father of every mortal life, when I first felt the Tuscan air ; 9 and then, when grace was bestowed
6. v. 96. Were God now to interpose to correct the evils of the Church, the marvel would be less than that of the miracles of old, because the need is greater.
7. v. 1 10. The sign of the Gemini, or Twins, in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars.
8. v. 115. That is, " was rising and was setting. ' '
9. v. 117. At the time of Dante's birth the sun was in the sign of the Twins.
178 PARADISE [w. 119-141
on me to enter within the lofty wheel which turns you, your region was allotted to me. To you my soul now devoutly sighs that it may acquire virtue for the hard pass which draws her to it- self.10
" Thou art so near the ultimate salvation," began Beatrice, " that thou oughtest to have thine eyes clear and keen. And therefore ere thou enter farther into it, look back down- ward, and see how great a world I have already set beneath thy feet, in order that thy heart may present itself joyous to its utmost unto the triumphant throng which comes glad through this round ether." With my sight I returned through all and each of the seven spheres, and saw this globe " such that I smiled at its mean semblance ; and that counsel I approve as best which holds it of least account ; and he who thinks of other things may be called truly righteous. I saw the daughter of Latona en- kindled without that shadow which had been the cause why I once believed her rare and
10. v. 123. The order of the Angelic Intelligences who are the movers of the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, is that of the Cherubim, whose name signifies Plenitude of Know- ledge. It is their light which Dante craves to enable him fitly to complete his task in the description of his vision of God.
11. v. 134. The earth.
vv. 142-154] CANTO XXII
179
dense.12 The aspect of thy son, Hyperion,13 here I endured, and I saw how Maia and Dione '4 move around and near him. Then appeared to me the temperateness of Jove, between his father and his son,15 and then was clear to me the varying which they make in their position. And all the seven were displayed to me, — how great they are and how swift they are, and how far apart they are in their abodes. While I was revolving with the eternal Twins, the little threshing-floor l6 which makes us so fierce all appeared to me, from its hills to its river- mouths.
Then I turned back my eyes to the beautiful eyes.
12. v. 141. From his station in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars Dante saw the other face of the moon than that which is seen from the earth, so that its dusky marks were not appar- ent to him. Cf. Canto ii. 49—148.
13. v. 142. The Titan Hyperion was held to be the father of Helios, the Sun.
14. v. 144. Maia and Dione were respectively the mothers of Mercury and Venus, and by their names these planets are here designated.
15. v. 146. Saturn and Mars.
1 6. v. 151. The inhabited earth.
CANTO XXIII
The Triumph of Christ.
As the bird, among the beloved leaves, hav- ing reposed on the nest of her sweet brood through the night which hides things from us, who, in order to see their longed-for looks and to find the food wherewith she may feed them, in which her heavy toils are pleasing to her, an- ticipates the time, upon the open twig, and with ardent affection awaits the sun, fixedly looking till the dawn may break ; so was my Lady, standing erect and expectant, turned toward the region beneath which the sun shows least haste ; ' so that I, seeing her rapt and eager, became such as he who in desire would fain have something else and in hope is satisfied. But short while was there between one and the other when ; of my awaiting, I mean, and of my seeing the heavens become more and more resplendent. And Beatrice said : " Behold the hosts of the Triumph of Christ, and all the fruit harvested by the revolution of these spheres."*
1. v. 12. The meridian.
2. v. 21. By the beneficent influences of the planet*.
vv. 22-47] CANTO XXIII 181
It seemed to me her face was all aflame, and her eyes were so full of joy that I must needs pass on without description.
As in the clear skies at the full moon Trivia3 smiles among the eternal nymphs who paint the heaven through all its depths, I saw, above thousands of lamps, a Sun that was enkindling each and all of them, as ours kindles the super- nal shows ; 4 and through its living light the lucent Substance s gleamed so bright upon my face that I sustained it not.
Oh Beatrice, sweet guide and dear !
She said to me : " That which overcomes thee is a virtue against which naught defends itself. Here is the Wisdom and the Power that opened the roads between heaven and earth, for which there erst had been such long desire."
As fire is unlocked from a cloud, by dilating so that it has not room there, and contrary to its own nature falls down to earth, so my mind, becoming greater amid those feasts, issued from itself, and what it became it cannot remember.
" Open thine eyes and look on what I am ; thou hast seen things such that thou art become
3. v. 26. An appellation of Diana, and hence of the moon.
4. v. 30. " With the light of the Sun all the other stars are informed. " Convito,\\. 14. 125.
5. v. 32. Christ in his glorified body.
i82 PARADISE [vv. 48-75
able to sustain my smile." I was as one who comes to himself from a forgotten vision and endeavors in vain to bring it back to mind, when 1 heard this invitation, worthy of such gratitude that it is never to be effaced from the book which records the past. If now all those tongues which Polyhymnia and her sisters made most rich with their sweetest milk should sound to aid me, it would not come to a thousandth of the truth in singing the holy smile and how it lighted up the holy face. And thus, depict- ing Paradise, the consecrated poem must needs make a leap, even as one who finds his way cut off. But whoso should consider the ponderous theme and the mortal shoulder which is laden therewith would not blame it if under this it tremble. It is no voyage for a little barque, this which my venturous prow goes cleaving, nor for a pilot who would spare himself.
cc Why does my face so enamour thee that thou turnest not to the fair garden which blos- soms beneath the rays of Christ ? Here is the Rose,6 in which the Divine Word became flesh : here are the lilies 7 by whose odor the good way was taken."
6. v. 73. The Virgin.
7. v. 74. The Apostles and Saints. The image is de- rived from St. Paul (2 Corinthians ii. 14) . "Now thanki be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ,
w. 76-95] CANTO XXIII 183
Thus Beatrice : and I, who to her counsels was wholly ready, again gave myself up to the battle of the feeble brows.
As my eyes, covered with a shadow, have ere now seen a meadow of flowers under a sunbeam which streams bright through a rifted cloud, so saw I many throngs of splendors flashed upon from above by burning rays, though I saw not the source of the gleams. O benignant Power which dost so imprint them, thou didst raise thyself on high to bestow scope there for my eyes, which were powerless.8
The name of the fair flower which I ever in^ voke, both morning and evening, wholly con- strained my mind to gaze upon the greater fire.9 And when the brightness and the magnitude I0 of the living star, which up there conquers as it conquered here below, were depicted in both my eyes, from within the mid heavens a torch, formed in a circle in fashion of a crown,
and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place." In the Vulgate the words are, " odorem notitiae suae manifestat per nos."
8. v. 87. The eyes of Dante, incapable of enduring the sight of the glorified body of Christ, are able, when that is withdrawn on high, to look upon those whom the light of Christ illumines.
9. v. 90. The Virgin, — Rosa mtstica, — the brightest of all the host that remained.
10. v. 92. Literally, " the quality and the quantity*"
184 PARADISE ^.96-123
descended, and engirt her, and revolved around her. Whatever melody sounds sweetest here below, and to itself most draws the soul, would seem a cloud which, being rent, thunders, com- pared with the sound of that lyre wherewith was crowned the beauteous sapphire by which the brightest Heaven is ensapphired. " I am An- gelic Love, and I circle round the lofty joy which breathes from out the womb which was the hostelry of our Desire ; and I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, until thou shalt follow thy Son and make the supreme sphere more divine because thou enterest it." Thus the circling melody sealed itself, and all the other lights made the name of Mary resound.
The royal mantle " of all the revolutions of the world, which is most fervid and most quick- ened in the breath of God and in His ways, had its inner shore so distant above us that sight of it, there where I was, did not yet appear to me. Therefore my eyes had not power to follow the crowned flame, which mounted up- ward after her offspring. And as an infant which, when it has taken the milk, stretches its arms toward its mother, because of its affection which flames up outwardly, each of these splen-
ii. v. 112. The Primum Mobile, the ninth Heaven, which, enveloping the other spheres, revolves around them and causes them to revolve.
?v. 124-139] CANTO XXIII 185
dors stretched upward with its flame, so that the exalted love which they had for Mary was mani- fest to me. Then they remained there in my sight, singing Regina coeli I2 so sweetly that never has the delight departed from me. Oh how great is the abundance which is heaped up in those most rich coffers which were good fields for sowing here below ! I3 Here they live and enjoy the treasure which was acquired while they wept in the exile of Babylon, where the gold was left aside.14 Here, under the exalted Son of God and of Mary, together with the ancient and with the new council, he triumphs in his victory who holds the keys of such glory.15
12. v. 128. " O Queen of Heaven ; " the first words of an antiphon sung in the office of the Virgin at Compline on certain days after Easter. It is as follows, and its ap- propriateness here is manifest : " O Queen of Heaven, re- joice, for He whom thou wert worthy to bear rose as he promised ; pray to God for us. Hallelujah."
13. v. 132. " Those most rich coffers," those blessed souls, now in the full enjoyment of Heaven, which were good ground for the seed of righteousness on earth.
14. v. 1 3 5. Despising the treasures of the world, in the Babylonish exile of this life, they laid up for themselves treasures in Heaven.
15. v. 139. Here St. Peter, in company with the saints of the Old and of the New Covenant, triumphs in the victory of the Churcn.
CANTO XXIV
St. Peter examines Dante concerning Faith, and ap- proves his answer.
" O FELLOWSHIP elect to the great supper of the blessed Lamb, who feeds you so that your desire is always full, since by grace of God this man foretastes of that which falls from your table, before death prescribe the time for him, give heed to his immense longing, and somewhat bedew him ; ye drink ever of the fount whence comes that' of which he is thinking." ' Thus Beatrice ; and those glad souls made themselves spheres upon fixed poles, flaming brightly after the manner of comets. And as wheels within the fittings of clocks revolve, so that to him who gives heed the first seems quiet, and the last to fly, so these carols,2 differently dancing, swift and slow, made me rate their riches.
1. v. 9. " Ye drink ever from the Divine source of the truth on which his mind is set, and concerning which he needs the enlightenment which ye can give him."
2. v. 1 6. A carol was a dance with song; here used for the revolving circles of the spirits, the difference in the speed of which gave to Dante the measure of the respective blessedness of the saints who composed them.
rv. 19-45] CANTO XXIV 187
From the one which I noted of greatest beauty, I saw issue a fire so happy that it left there none of greater brightness ; and it re- volved three times round Beatrice with a song so divine that my fancy repeats it not to me ; wherefore my pen makes a leap, and I write it not, for our imagination, much more our speech, is of too vivid color for such folds.3 " O holy sister mine, who dost so devoutly pray to us, by thine ardent affection thou dost unloose me from that fair sphere : " after it had stopped, the blessed fire directed to my Lady its breath, which spoke thus as I have said. And she : " O light eternal of the great man to whom our Lord left the keys, which he bore below, of this marvellous joy, test this man on points light and grave, as pleases thee, concerning the Faith, through which thou didst walk upon the sea. If he loves rightly, and hopes rightly, and be- lieves, is not hidden from thee, for thou hast thy sight there where everything is seen de- picted. But since this realm has made citi- zens by the true faith, it is well that to glorify it speech of it should fall to him."4
3. v. 27. The metaphor is a little obscure ; the mean- ing seems to be, that our imagination and our speech are in- capable of describing such delights as this divine song, even as too lively colors are unfit for depicting the folds in drapery.
4. v. 45. The meaning seems to be : Thou knowest
i88 PARADISE [vv. 46-64
Even as the bachelor arms himself, — and dost not speak, until the master propounds the question, — in order to adduce the proof, not to decide it,5 so, while she was speaking, I was arming me with every reason, in order to be ready for such a questioner, and for such a profession.
"Speak, good Christian, declare thyself; Faith, what is it ? " Whereon I raised my brow to that light whence this was breathed forth, then turned me to Beatrice, and she made prompt signals to me that I should pour the water fortK from my internal fount. " May the Grace," I began, " which grants to me that I confess myself to the chief centurion cause my conceptions to be well expressed." And I went on : " As the veracious pen, Father, of thy dear brother 6 (who with thee set Rome on the good track) wrote of it, Faith is the substance of things
that he has true faith, and since by faith one becomes a citi- zen of this realm, it is well that he should celebrate it.
5. v. 48. The bachelor at a university before proceed- ing to the Degree of Doctor was required to pass an exami- nation or maintain a thesis propounded by a Master. Du- cange cites from the old Statute of the University of Paris words which afford a good illustration of Dante's verses : — • " Quilibet Baccalaureus in Theologia . . . tenebitur respondere in Theologia ad minus semel de disputatione tentadva sub Magistro."
6. v. 62. St. Paul.
rv. 65-85] CANTO XXIV 189
hoped for, and evidence of things not seen : * and this appears to me its essence." Then I heard : " Rightly dost thou think, if thou un- derstandest weJl why he placed it among the substances, and then among the evidences." And I thereon : " The deep things which grant unto me here the sight of themselves, are so hidden to eyes below that there their existence is in belief alone, upon which the lofty hope is founded, and therefore it takes the designation of substance ; and from this belief we needs must syllogize, without having other sight, wherefore it receives the designation of evi- dence."8 Then I heard: "If all that is ac- quired down below for doctrine, were so under- stood, the wit of sophist would have no place there." These words were breathed forth from that enkindled love ; then it added : " Very well have the alloy and the weight of this coin been now gone over, but tell me if thou hast it in thy
7. v. 65. Hebrews xi. i.
8. v. 78. The argument is as follows : The things of the spiritual world having no visible existence upon earth, the hope of blessedness rests only on belief unsupported by mate- rial proof ; this belief is Faith, and since on it alone does our high hope rest, it is properly called its substance, that is, what stands under it, its support. See, for this signification of substance, S. T. \. 29. 2. And since our belief supplies all our material for reasoning concerning spiritual things, Faith is tlso properly called evidence.
190 PARADISE [vv. 86-102
purse ? " Whereupon I : " Yes, I have it so shining and so round that in its stamp nothing is doubtful to me." Then issued from the deep light which was shining there : " This pre- cious jewel, whereon every virtue is founded, whence came it to thee ? " And I : " The abun- dant rain of the Heavenly Spirit, which is shed over the Old and over the New parchments, is a syllogism which has proved it to me with such acuteness, that in comparison with this every demonstration seems to me obtuse/' 9 I heard then : " The Old proposition and the New which are so conclusive to thee, — why dost thou hold them for Divine speech ? " I0 And I : " The proof which discloses the truth to me are the works that followed, for which nature never heated iron, nor beat anvil/'" It was replied
9. v. 96. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit manifest in the Old and the New Testament is an irresistible argument for our Faith.
10. v. 98. "The Old and the New Testament being thus the two propositions or premises from which thou ciraw- est thy conclusion, what proof hast thou that thy conclusion that they are the word of God is correct ? ' '
11. v. I o i . The miracles afford proof that the Bible is the word of God. But, replies St. Peter, it is from the Bible that you learn of the miracles. How then do they afford proof of its inspiration ? To which Dante answers, that the conversion of the world to Christianity without miracles would have been a miracle so much more marvellous than
vv. 103-125] CANTO XXIV 191
to me : " Say, what assures thee that these works were ? The very thing itself which re- quires to be proved, naught else, affirms it to thee." " If the world were converted to Chris- tianity," said I, " without miracles, this alone is such that the others are not the hundredth part ; for thou didst enter poor and fasting into the field to sow the good plant, which once was a vine and now has become a bramble."
This ended, the high holy Court resounded through the spheres a " We praise thee, O God," in the melody which up there is sung.
And that Baron I2 who thus from branch to branch, examining, had now drawn me on, so that we were approaching the last leaves, began again : " The Grace that holds courteous con- verse with thy mind has opened thy mouth thus far as it should be opened, so that I approve that which has issued forth, but now it is befit- ting to express what thou believest, and whence it was offered to thy belief." " O holy father, spirit who seest that which thou didst so believe that thou, toward the sepulchre, didst outdo
those reported in the Scriptures, that the latter must be believed.
12. v. 115. During the Middle Ages this term of high dignity was not infrequently applied to the most eminent among the Saints, and even to Christ himself.
192 PARADISE [vv. 126-154
younger feet," I3 began I, " thou wishest that I should here declare the form of my ready belief, and also thou hast asked the cause of it. And I answer : I believe in one God, sole and eternal, who, unmoved, moves all the Heavens with love and with desire ; and for such belief I have not only proofs physical and metaphy- sical, but that truth also gives it to me which hence rains down through Moses, through Prophets, and through Psalms, through the Gospel, and through you who wrote after the fiery Spirit made you reverend. And I believe in three Eternal Persons, and these I believe to be one essence, so one and so threefold that it will admit to be conjoined with are and is. Of the profound divine condition on which I touch, the evangelic doctrine many times sets the seal upon my mind. This is the beginning, this is the spark which afterwards dilates into a vivid flame, and like a star in heaven scintil- lates within me."
Even as a lord who hears what pleases him, thereon, rejoicing in the news, embraces his ser- vant, soon as he is silent, thus, blessing me as he sang, the apostolic light, at whose command I had spoken, thrice encircled me when I was silent; so had I pleased him in my speech.
13. v. 126. " The other disciple did outrun Peter," but Peter first " went into the sepulchre/' See "John xx. 4—6-
CANTO XXV
St. 'James examines t)ante concerning Hope. — S'U John appears, with a brightness so dazzling as to deprive Dante, for the time, of sight.
IF it ever happen that the sacred poem to which both heaven and earth have so set hand, that it has made me lean for many years, should overcome the cruelty which bars me out of the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slept, foe to the wolves that give it war, then with other voice, with other fleece, a Poet will I return, and on the font of my baptism will I take the crown ; because there I entered into the Faith which makes the souls known to God ; and afterward Peter, for its sake, thus encircled my brow.
Then a light moved toward us from that sphere whence had issued the first-fruit which Christ left of His vicars ; and my Lady, full of gladness, said to me : " Look, look ! behold the Baron for whose sake there below Galicia is visited." '
I. v. 1 3. It was believed that St. James, the brother of
194 PARADISE [w. 19-34
As when the dove alights near his mate, and each, circling and cooing, displays its affection to the other, so by the one great Prince glorious I saw the other greeted, praising the food which feeds them thereabove. But after their gratu- lation was completed, silent cor am me 2 each stopped, so blazing that it overcame my sight. Then Beatrice, smiling, said : " Illustrious life, by whom the bounty of our basilica was writ- ten,3 do thou make Hope resound upon this height ; thou knowest that thou dost represent it as many times as Jesus displayed most bright- ness to the three." 4 " Lift up thy head, and
St. John, was buried at Compostella, in Galicia. His shrine was one of the chief objects of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages. Froissart says (iii. 30) : "Or eurent ils affection et devotion d'aller en pelerinage au Baron Saint Jacques."
2. v. 26. "Before me." Here, as sometimes else- where, it is not evident why Dante uses Latin words.
3. v. 30. The reference is to the Epistle of James, which Dante, falling into a common error, attributes to St. James the Greater. The special words he had in mind may have been : " God, that giveth to all men liberally," i. 5 ; and " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights," i. 17. By "basilica " is meant the royal court of heaven.
4. v. 33. Peter, James, and John were chosen by theif Master to be present at the raising of the daughter of Jairus, at his Transfiguration, and at his Agony in the Garden. As Peter personified Faith, and John Love, James was held to be the personification of Hope.
^v. 35-57] CANTO XXV 195
mind thou reassure thyself; for that which comes up here from the mortal world needs must be ripened in our rays." This comfort came to me from the second fire ; whereon I lifted up my eyes unto the mountains which had bent them down before with excess of weight.
" Since, through grace, our Emperor wills that thou, before thy death, come face to face with his Counts in Hi? most secret hall, so that, having seen the truth of this Court, thou may- est therewith confirm in thyself and others the Hope which there below rightly enamours, say what it is, and how thy mind blossoms with it, and say whence it came to thee ; " thus further did the second light proceed. And that com- passionate one, who guided the feathers of my wings to such lofty flight, thus in the reply an- ticipated me : 5 " The Church militant has not any child possessed of more hope, as is written in the Sun which irradiates all our band ; there- fore it is conceded to him, that from Egypt he should come to Jerusalem, to behold, before his term of warfare is completed.6 The other
5. v. ^i. Beatrice answers the question to which the reply, had it been left to Dante, might seem to involve self- praise.
6. v. 57. Before his term of service in the Church mil- itant on earth has expired.
<96 PARADISE [vv. 58-80
two points which are asked not for sake of knowing, but that he may report how greatly this virtue is pleasing to thee, I leave to him, for they will not be difficult to him, nor of vainglory, and let him answer thereto, and may the grace of God accord this to him."
As a scholar who follows his teacher, prompt and glad in that wherein he is expert, so that his worth may be disclosed : " Hope," said I, " is a sure expectation of future glory, which divine grace produces, and preceding merit.7 From many stars this light comes to me, but he first instilled it into jny heart who was the supreme singer of the Supreme Leader. c Let them hope in Thee, who know Thy name/ he says in his theody ; 8 and who knows it not, if he has my faith ? Thou afterwards in thy Epistle9 didst instil it into me together with his instilling, so that I am full, and upon others shower down your rain.'*
While I was speaking, within the living bosom of that fire a flash was trembling, sud-
7. v. 69. These words are taken directly from Peter Lombard, Liber Sententiarum, iii. 26.
8. v. 73. Divine song: "And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee." Psalm ix. 10.
9. v. 77. There is no direct mention of hope in the Epistle of James, but much which breathes its spirit, as, ib* instance, "Be ye also patient ; stablish your hearts ; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." v. 8.
vv. 81-98] CANTO XXV 197
den and frequent, in the manner of lightning. Then it breathed : " The love wherewith I still glow toward the virtue which followed me even to the palm, and to the issue of the field, wills that I breathe again to thee, who dost delight in it ; and it is my pleasure, that thou tell that which Hope promises to thee." And I : " The new and the old Scriptures set up the mark, and that points it out to me.10 Of the souls whom God hath made his friends, Isaiah says that each one shall be clothed in his own land with a double garment," and his own land is this sweet life ; and thy brother, far more explicitly, there where he treats of the white robes, makes manifest to us this revelation." I2
At first, close on the end of these words, <k Sperent in te " I3 was heard above us, to which
10. v. 89. These obscure words may perhaps be inter- preted, the Scriptures indicate in symbolic terms that which we are to hope for, and these symbols point it out to me. In the next sentence Dante mentions two of the symbols, and declares their meaning.
11. v. 92. "Therefore in their land they shall possess the double : everlasting joy shall be unto them.'* Isaiah Jxi. 7. In the possession by the friends of God of the double vesture of the glorified natural body and of the spir- itual body, will be the fulness of their capacity of enjoyment of the bliss of Heaven.
12. v. 96. Revelation vii. 9—17.
13. v. 98. " Et sperent in te, qui noverunt nomen
198 PARADISE [w. 99-1 A 7
all the carols made answer ; then among them a light became so bright that, if the Crab had one such crystal, winter would have a month of one sole day.14 And as a glad maiden rises and goes and enters in the dance, only to do honor to the new bride, and not for any failing,15 so did I see the brightened splendor come to the two who were turning in a wheel, such as was befitting their ardent love. It set itself there into the song and into the measure, and my Lady kept her gaze upon them, even as a bride silent and motionless. " This is he who lay upon the breast of our Pelican,16 and who was chosen from upon the cross for the great office." 1? Thus my Lady ; but no more after than before her words did she move her look from its fixed
titum," is the Vulgate rendering of the first words of Psalm «, 10 ; in the English version : " They that know thy name will put their trust in thee."
14. v. 1 02. If the sign of Cancer, which rises at sunset i* early winter, had a star as bright as this light, the night would be light as day. It is the light with which St. John is clothed.
15. v. 105. Not for vanity, or love of display.
1 6. v. 113. A common type of Christ during the Mid- dk Ages, because of the popular belief that the pelican killed iti brood, and then revived them with its blood.
17. v. 1 14. " Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother ! and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." John xix. 27.
vv. 118-134] CANTO XXV 199
attention. As is he who gazes and endeavors to see the sun a little eclipsed, and who through seeing becomes sightless, so did I become in respect to that last fire, till it was said : " Why dost thou dazzle thyself in order to see a thing which has no place here ? l8 On earth my body is earth ; and it will be there with the others until our number corresponds with the eternal purpose.19 With the two robes in the blessed cloister are only those two lights which as- cended : 20 and this thou shalt carry back unto your world."
At this word the flaming gyre became quiet, together with the sweet mingling made of the sound of the trinal breath,21 even as, for avoid- ing of fatigue or danger, the oars, erst driven
1 8. v. 123. Dante seeks to see whether St. John is pre- sent in the earthly as well as the spiritual body ; his desire having its source in the words of the Gospel : "Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? . . . Then went this saying abroad among the breth- ren, that that disciple should not die." John xxi. 22, 23. From these words arose a legend that, immediately on his apparent death, St. John, still hi the body, was taken up to heaven.
19. v. 126. Till the predestined number of the elect is complete.
20. v. 128. Jesus and Mary, who had been seen to ascend. See Canto xxiii. vv. 86, 120.
21. v. 132. The voices of the three apostles.
200 PARADISE [vv. 135-139
through the water, all stop at the sound of a whistle.
Ah ! how greatly was I disturbed in mind, when I turned to see Beatrice, at not being able to see her,22 although I was near her, and in the happy world.
22. v. 138. Because blinded by the excess of ligM shining out from St. John.
CANTO XXVI
St. "John examines Dante concerning Love. — Dante*$ light restored. — Adam appears, and answers questions, ^ut to him by Dante.
WHILE I was apprehensive because of my quenched sight, a breath which made me atten- tive issued from the effulgent flame that had quenched it, saying : " While thou art regain- ing the sense of sight which thou hast consumed on me, it is well that thou make up for it by discourse. Begin then, and tell at what thy soul is aimed, and make thy reckoning that thy sight is confounded in theeand not dead; because the Lady who conducts thee through this divine region has in her look the virtue which the hand of Ananias had/' x I said : " At her pleasure, or soon or late, let the cure come to the eyes which were the gates when she entered with the fire wherewith I ever burn. The Good which makes this court content is Alpha and Omega of every scripture that Love reads
I. v. 12. The power of restoring sight. See Acts\x* 1 8.
202 PARADISE [vv. 18-41
to me, either low or loud." 2 That same voice which had taken from me fear in regard to the sudden dazzling, laid on me the charge to speak further, and said : " Surely with a finer sieve it behoves thee to sift ; it behoves thee to tell who directed thy bow to such a target." And I : " By philosophic arguments and by authority that descends from here, such love must needs be impressed on me ; for the good, inasmuch as it is good, as soon as it is understood, kindles love ; and so much the greater as the more of goodness it comprises in itself. Therefore, to the Essence (wherein is such supremacy that every good which is found outside of It is naught else than a beam of Its own radiance), more than to any other, the mind of every one who discerns the truth on which this argument is founded must needs be moved in love.3 This truth does he make plain to my intelligence, who demonstrates to me the first love of all the sempiternal substances.4 The voice of the true Author makes it plain who, speaking of Him-
2. v. 1 6. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord." Revelation i. 8.
3. v. 36. The argument is : Whatever is good kindles love for itself; the greater the good the greater the love ; God is the supreme good and therefore the chief object of love.
4. v. 39. Aristotle is meant, who taught that the eternal and unmoved First Cause is the source of the motion of the heavens, " the sempiternal substances," by their desire for it
vv. 42-60] CANTO XXVI 205
self, says to Moses : c I will make thee see all goodness/ 5 Thou, too, makest it plain to me, beginning the lofty announcement which below on earth, above all other trump, proclaims the secret of this place on high." 6 And I heard : " By human understanding, and by authorities concordant with it,7 thy sovran love looks unto God ; but say, further, if thou feelest other cords draw thee towards Him, so that thou mayst declare with how many teeth this love doth bite thee."
The holy intention of the Eagle of Christ was not latent to me ; nay, rather I perceived whither he wished to lead my profession ; there- fore, I began again : " All those bitings which can make the heart turn to God have been con- current unto my love ; for the existence of the world, and my own existence, the death which He endured that I may live, and that which all the faithful hope even as I do, together with the
5. v. 42. "I will make all my goodness pass before thee." Exodus xxxiii. 19.
6. v. 45. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.'* These words of the eighth verse of the first chapter of Revelation are perhaps those to which Dante here refers. The Almighty, the source of all good, is of necessity the chief object of love.
7. v. 47. By reason of philosophic arguments, and of the authority of the Holy Scriptures.
204 PARADISE [vv. 61-84
aforesaid living consciousness,8 have drawn me from the sea of perverted love, and have set me on the shore of the right. The leaves, wherewith all the garden of the Eternal Gar- dener is enleaved, I love in measure of the good borne unto them from Him."
Soon as I was silent a most sweet song re- sounded through the heavens, and my Lady said with the others : " Holy, Holy, Holy."
And as at a keen light sleep is broken by the spirit of sight, which runs to the splendor that goes from coat to coat,9 and he who awakes shrinks from what he sees, so ignorant is his sudden wakening, until his judgment comes to his aid ; I0 thus Beatrice chased away every mote from my eyes with the radiance of her own, which were refulgent more than a thousand miles ; so that I then saw better than before ; and, as one amazed, I asked concerning a fourth light which I saw with us. And my Lady: " Within those rays the first soul which the First Power ever created gazes with joy upon its Maker."
8. v. 61. That God is the supreme good, and therefore the supreme object of love.
9. v. 72. The spirit of the sight runs to meet the light which flashes through the successive coats of the eye.
10. v. 74. Waked of a sudden he knows not at first what has awaked him.
vv. 85-108] CANTO XXVI 205
As the bough which bends its top at passing of the wind, and then uplifts itself by its own virtue which raises it, so did I, in amazement, while she was speaking ; and then a desire to speak, wherewith I was burning, gave me again assurance, and I began : " O fruit, that wast alone produced mature, O ancient Father, to whom every bride is daughter and daughter- in-law, devoutly as I can, I supplicate thee that thou speak to me ; thou seest my wish, and that I may hear thee speedily, I do not tell it."
Sometimes an animal, when covered up, so stirs, that its impulse must needs be apparent because of the corresponding movement which its wrapping makes ; and in like manner the first soul made evident to me, through its cov- ering, how gladly it came to do me pleasure. Then it breathed forth : " Without its being uttered to me by thee, I better discern thy wish, than thou whatever thing is most certain to thee ; because I see it in the truthful Mirror which makes of Itself a reflection of other things, while nothing makes of itself a reflection of It." Thou
ii. v. 1 08. All things are seen in God as if reflected in a mirror, the image of them is in Him ; but nothing can reflect an image of God. " In the eternal Idea, as in a glass, the works of God are more perfectly seen than in themselves. , . . But it is impossible for a thing created to represent that
206 PARADISE [vv. 109-134
wouldst hear how long it is since God placed me in the lofty 'garden where this Lady made rhee ready for so long a stairway ; and how long it was a delight to rny eyes ; and the proper cause of the great wrath ; and of the idiom which I used and which I made. Now, my son, the tasting of the tree was not by itself the cause of so great an exile, but only the overpassing of the bound. In that place whence thy Lady moved Virgil, I longed for this assembly during four thousand three hundred and two revolutions of the sun ; and while I was on earth I saw him return to all the lights of his path " nine hundred and thirty times. The tongue which I spoke was all extinct long before the people of Nimrod attempted their unaccomplishable work ; for never was any product of the reason durable for ever, because of human liking, which alters, following the heavens.13 That man speaks is work of nature ; but, thus or thus, nature then leaves to you to do according as it pleases you. Before I descended to the infernal anguish, the Supreme Good, whence comes the gladness that
which is increated." John Norton, The Orthodox Evangel" ist, 1654, P- 332-
12. v. 122. In his course through the Zodiac.
13. v. i 29. Speech, a product of human reason, changes iccording to the pleasure of man, which alters from time to time under the influence of the heavens.
vv. 135-142] CANTO XXVI 207
swathes me, was on earth called /; afterwards it was called El ; I4 and that must needs be,15 for the custom of mortals is as a leaf on a branch, which goes away and another comes. On the mountain which rises highest from the wave I was, with pure life and sinful, from the first hour to that which follows the sixth, when the sun changes quadrant." l6
14. v. 136. /is here to be pronounced jah, and the meaning is, that God was known in the primitive language by a letter corresponding to the Hebrew letter Jod, the initial of the name Jah : <« Sing unto God . . . extol Him ... by his name Jah." Psalm Ixviii. 4.
15. v. 136. Such change in the name was inevitable, because of the changing customs of thought and speech.
1 6. v. 142. Adam's stay in the Earthly Paradise, on the summit of the mount of Purgatory, was thus a little more than six hours ; the sun changes quadrant, that is, completes his course through the fourth part of a circle, with every six hours.
CANTO XXVII
Denunciation by St. Peter of bis degenerate successor s< — Dante gazes upon the Earth. — Ascent of Beatrice, and Dante to the Crystalline Heaven. — Its nature. — Beatrice rebukes the covetousness of mortals.
" To the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit be glory," all Paradise began, so that the sweet song was inebriating me. That which I was seeing seemed to me a smile of the uni- verse ; for my inebriation was entering through the hearing and through the sight. O joy ! O ineffable gladness ! O life entire of love and of peace ! O riches secure, without longing ! *
Before my eyes the four torches were stand- ing enkindled, and that which had come first began to make itself more vivid, and in its sem- blance became such as Jupiter would become, if he and Mars were birds, and should ex- change plumage.2 The Providence which here assigns turn and office, had imposed silence on the blessed choir on every side, when I heard :
1 . v. 9. Which leave nothing for desire.
2. v. 15. The pure white light becoming red, as if th« planet Jupiter were to change color with Mars.
w. 19-45] CANTO XXVII 209
" If I change color, marvel not ; for, as I speak, thou shalt see all these change color. He who on earth usurps my place, my place, my place, which is vacant in the presence of the Son of God,3 has made of my cemetery a sewer of blood and of filth, wherewith the Perverse One who fell from here above, below there is pla- cated."
With that color which, by reason of the op- posite sun, paints the cloud at evening and at morning, I then saw the whole Heaven over- spread. And as a modest lady who abides sure of herself, and at the fault of another, on only hearing of it, becomes timid, thus did Beatrice change semblance ; and such eclipse, I believe, there was in heaven when the Supreme Power suffered.
Then his words proceeded, in a voice so trans- muted from itself that his countenance was not more changed : " The Bride 6f Christ was not nurtured on my blood, and that of Linus and of Cietus, to be employed for acquist of gold ; but for acquist of this glad life Sixtus and Pius and Calixtus and Urban4 shed their blood after
j). v. 24. Dante held that Boniface VIII. had no right to the Papal throne, because his election to it lacked validity, having taken place while Celestine V., his predecessor, was still alive, and having been secured by bribery and deception.
4. v. 44. Early Popes, martyred for the faith.
210 PARADISE [vv. 46-68
much weeping. It was not our intention that part of the Christian people should sit on the right hand of our successors, and part on the other ; nor that the keys which were entrusted to me should become a device upon a banner which should fight against the baptized;5 nor that I should be made a figure on a seal to venal and mendacious privileges, whereat I often red- den and flash. Rapacious wolves, in garb of shepherd, are seen from here on high over all the pastures : O defence of God, why dost thou yet lie still ! To drink our blood Cahorsines and Gascons are making ready;6 O good begin- ning, to what vile end must thou fall ! But the high Providence, which with Scipio defended for Rome the glory of the world, will succor speedily, as I conceive. And thou, son, who because of thy mortal weight wilt again return below, open thy mouth, and conceal not that which I conceal not."
Even as our air snows down flakes of frozen vapors, when the horn of the Goat of heaven
5. v. 51. A reference to the war which Boniface VIII waged against the Colonna family. See Inferno, Canto xxvii. 85-111.
6. v. 59. John XXII. , Pope from 1316 to 1334, was a native of Cahors ; his immediate predecessor, Clement V. , 1305-1314, was a Gascon. The passage is interesting as showing that this portion of the poem was Li hand during the last years of Dante's life.
<rv.69-82] CANTO XXVII 211
is touched by the sun,7 so I saw the aether ebecome adorned, and flaked upward with the tri- umphant vapors which had made sojourn there with us.8 My sight was following their sem- blances, and followed, till the intermediate space by its vastness took from it the power of pass- ing farther onward. Whereon my Lady, who saw me freed from gazing upward, said to me : " Cast down thy sight, and look how thou hast revolved."
I saw that, since the hour when I had first looked, I had moved through the whole arc which the first climate makes from its middle to its end ; 9 so that beyond Cadiz I saw the
7. v. 69. In midwinter, when the sun is in Capricorn.
8. v. 72. As in winter the flakes of snow descend, so now the host of triumphant souls rise upward to the higher heaven, like flakes of flame.
9. v. 81. The old geographers divided the earth into seven zones, called climates, by circles parallel to the equator. The first climate extended twenty degrees to the north of the equator. The sign of the Gemini, in which Dante was re- volving in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, is in the zone of the Heavens corresponding to the first climate, and from his first look downward from the Heavens (see Canto xxii. 133-153) to the present moment, he had, he says, moved over the arc which the first climate describes from its middle to its end.
As each climate extended on the habitable hemisphere for one hundred and eighty degrees, the arc from its middle to its end would be of ninety degrees, a distance supposed to be comprised between Jerusalem and Cadiz, and the time required
212 PARADISE [vv. 83-99
mad track of Ulysses, and on the other side almost the shore10 on which Europa became a sweet burden. And more of the site of this little threshing-floor would have been discovered to me, but the sun was proceeding beneath my feet, a sign and more removed."
My enamoured mind, that ever pays court to my Lady, was more than ever burning to bring back my eyes to her. And if nature or art has made bait in human flesh or in paintings of it, to catch the eyes in order to possess the mind, all united would seem naught compared to the divine pleasure which shone upon me when I turned me to her smiling face. And the virtue which that look vouchsafed to me, tore me from the fair nest of Leda,12 and impelled me to the swiftest heaven.13 for passing through it would be six hours, one fourth of the diurnal revolution of the Heavens.
10. v. 83. On the one side, to the West, Dante saw the ocean, — the mad track of Ulysses ; on the other side almost the coast of Phoenicia, whence Europa was carried off by Jupiter.
n. v. 87. The sun in Aries, being separated by Taurus from Gemini, was some three hours in advance to the West, and therefore the extreme eastern part of the hemisphere of the earth as seen from Gemini was not illuminated by it, so that the coast of Phoenicia and the region beyond it were in the shadow of night.
1 2. v. 98. From Gemini, the constellation of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Leda.
13. v. 99. The Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven.
rv. 100-117] CANTO XXVII 213
Its parts, most living and lofty, are so uni- form that I cannot tell which of them Beatrice chose for a place for me. But she, who saw my desire, began, smiling so glad that God seemed to rejoice in her countenance : " The nature of the universe which holds the centre quiet, and moves all the rest around it, begins here as from its starting-point.14 And this heaven has no other Where than the Divine Mind, wherein is kindled the love that revolves it, and the virtue which it rains down. Light and love enclose it with one circle, even as it does the others, and of that cincture He who girds it is the sole Intelligence.15 The motion of this heaven is not marked out by another, but the others are measured by this, just as ten by its half and by its fifth.16 And how time can
14. v. 1 08. The properties inherent in the universe, by virtue of which its centre, the earth, is immovable while all the rest of the material creation revolves around it, have their origin here.
15. v. 114. The Angelic Intelligences are the agents who move the lower Heavens, but over the Empyrean, the cincture of light and love by which the First Moving Hea- ven is enclosed, God himself immediately presides.
1 6. v. 117. The fixed unit of time is the cay, which is established by the revolution of the Crystalline Heaven, the swiftest of all. It determines the slower motions of the Heavens below it, and fixes their proportionate measure. The verse " as ten by the half and the fifth " seems reversed as an illustration.
\
214 PARADISE [vv. 118-139
have its roots in such a flower-pot, and in the others its leaves, may now be manifest to thee. " O covetousness,17 which dost so whelm mortals beneath thee, that no one has power to withdraw his eyes from out thy waves ! Well does the will blossom in men, but the contin- ual rain converts the true plums into blighted fruit. Faith and innocence are found only in children ; then each flies away before the cheeks are covered. One, so long as he lisps, keeps the fasts, who afterward, when his tongue is loosed, devours whatever food under what- ever moon ; and one, while he lisps, loves his mother and listens to her, who afterward, when his speech is perfect, desires to see her buried. So the skin of the fair daughter of him who brings morning and leaves evening, white in its first aspect, becomes black.18 Do thou, in order
17. v. 121. The connection of the preceding ideas with this denunciation of covetousness, or selfishness, is not at first apparent. But the transition is not unnatural, from the con- sideration of the Heaven which pours down Divine influence, to the thought of the engrossment of men in the pursuit of their selfish and transitory ends, in which they are blinded to heavenly and eternal good.
1 8. v. 138. By ' the fair daughter of the sun* Dante seems to mean ' human nature,' probably having in mind a saying of Aristotle, which he cites in De Monarchia, i. ix., where he says, "The human race is the child of heaven . . . for man and the sun beget man according to [Ar.istotle»
vv. 140-148] CANTO XXVII 215
that thou make no marvel of it, reflect that on earth there is no one who governs ; wherefore the human family goes thus astray. But ere January be all un-wintered by that hundredth part which is down there neglected,19 these su- pernal circles shall so roar that the storm which has been so long awaited shall turn round the sterns to where the prows are, so that the fleet shall run straight, and true fruit shall come' after the flower/' 20
Phys. ii. 2]." The meaning is that the nature of man, fair in infancy, degenerates as life goes on.
19. v. 143. Before January falls in spring, owing to the error in the calendar, by which the year was lengthened by about a day in each century. It is as if the poet said : Before a thousand years shall pass ; meaning : Within short while. The error was not corrected till 1582, when the reformed calendar was established by Pope Gregory XIII.
20. v. 148. This last verse is a recurrence to the image in w. 125, 126.
CANTO XXVII!
The Heavenly Hierarchy
AFTER she who imparadises my mind had disclosed the truth counter to the present life of wretched mortals ; as one who sees in a mir- ror the flame of a torch which is lighted behind him, ere he has it in sight or in thought, and turns round to see if the glass tell him the truth, and sees that it accords with it as the note with its measure ; ' so my memory recol- lects that I did, looking into the beautiful eyes, wherewith Love made the cord to capture me.a And when I turned, and mine were touched by what is apparent in that sphere whenever one gazes fixedly on its circling,3 I saw a Point
1 . v. 9. As the notes of the song with the metre of the verse.
2. v. 12. The eyes of Beatrice reflected, as a mirror, .he light which shone from God, and Dante, seeing the reflec- tion, turns to gaze on the Light itself.
3 . v. 1 5 . The word translated by « sphere ' is volume. Dante uses this word nine times in the Divine Comedy ; ia six instances it has the meaning of « volume ' in its simpk sense ; once, Paradise, xxvi. 119, it means « revolutions/
/v. 16-36] CANTO XXVIII 217
which was raying out light so keen that the sight on which it blazes must needs close be- cause of its intense keenness.4 And whatever star seems smallest from here 5 would seem a moon if placed beside it, as star with star is placed. Perhaps as near as a halo seems to girdle the light which paints it, when the vapor that bears it is most dense, at such distance around the Point a circle of fire was whirling so rapidly that it would have surpassed that motion which most swiftly girds the world ; and this was girt around by another, and that by the third, and the third then by the fourth, by the fifth the fourth, and then by the sixth the fifth. Thereon the seventh followed, so wide- spread now in compass that the messenger of Juno entire 6 would be narrow to contain it. So the eighth and the ninth ; and each was moving more slowly, according as it was in number more distant from the unit.7 And that one had
once, Paradise, xxiii. 112, it is equivalent to 'revolving spheres.' Here it signifies the Crystalline Heaven, the Pri- mum Mobile, which in its revolution displays the light and love that enclose it.
4. v. 1 8. This Point is the Glory of God, and the type, in its indivisibility, of the Unity of the Godhead.
5. v. 19. From here on earth.
6. v. 32. The complete circle of Iris, the rainbow.
7. v. 36. These circles of fire are the nine Orders of ihe Angels.
2i8 PARADISE [vv. 37-61
the clearest flame from which the Pure Spark was least distant ; I believe because it partakes more of Its truth.
My Lady, who saw me deeply suspense in heed, said: "On that Point Heaven and all nature are dependent. Look on that circle which is most conjoined to It, and know that its motion is so swift because of the burning love whereby it is spurred." And I to her: f< If the world were disposed in the order which I see in those wheels, that which is set before me would have satisfied me ; but in the world of sense the revolutions may be seen so much the more divine as they are more remote from the centre.8 Wherefore if my desire is to have end in this marvellous and angelic temple, which has for confine only love and light, I need yet to hear why the example and the exemplar go not in one fashion, because by myself I con- template this in vain." 9 " If thy fingers are insufficient for such a knot, it is no wonder, so hard has it become through not being tried/' Thus my Lady ; then she said : " Take that
8. v. 51. The spheres of the created universe partake more of the divine nature, and move more swiftly, the more distant they are from the earth, their centre ; but these circles of fire in the Empyrean show a reverse condition.
9. v. 57. The angelic circles are the example, or patternj the spheres of the material universe are the exemplar, or copy.
rv. 62-81] CANTO XXVIII 2x9
which I shall tell thee, if thou wouldest be satis- fied, and sharpen thy wit about it. The cor- poreal circles are wide or narrow according co the more or less of virtue which is diffused through all their parts. Greater goodness must work greater weal ; the greater body, if it has its parts equally complete, contains the greater weal.10 Hence this one, which sweeps along with itself all the rest of the universe, corre- sponds to the circle which loves most, and knows most." Therefore, if thou draw thy measure round the virtue, not round the appear- ance of the beings which seem circular to thee, thou wilt see in each heaven a marvellous agree- ment with its Intelligence, of greater to more and of smaller to less." ia
As the hemisphere of the air remains splen- did and serene when Boreas blows from that cheek wherewith he is mildest,13 whereby the
10. v. 69. In this sentence 'goodness* corresponds with the "virtue" of the preceding sentence. The greater body, if it be perfect in its parts, possesses greater virtue than the smaller, and consequently works more salutary influence.
11. v. 72. The ninth sphere, the greatest of all, corre- sponds in its superior virtue with the first and innermost circle of the angelic hierarchy, that of the Seraphim.
12. v. 78. Each sphere of the material heavens in pro- portion to its size corresponds to each circle of the angelic In- telligences in proportion to the nearness of the latter to God.
13. v. 8 1. When Boreas blows the north wind moro
220 PARADISE [vv. 82-98
mist which before troubled it is cleared and dis- solved, so that the heaven smiles to us with the beauties of its every region, so I became after my Lady had provided me with her clear an- swer, and, like a star in heaven, the truth was seen.
And after her words had stopped, not other- wise does molten iron throw out sparks than the circles sparkled. Every scintillation fol- lowed its blaze,14 and they were so many that their number was of more thousands than the doubling of the chess.15 I heard Hosannah sung from choir to choir to the fixed Point that holds them, and will forever hold them, at the Ubi^ in which they have ever been. And she, who saw the questioning thoughts within my mind/7 said : " The first circles have shown to
from the east than from the west. The north-east wind was held to clear the sky of clouds.
14. v. 91. The innumerable sparks each kept to its flaming circle, revolving with it.
15. v. 93. The doubling of the chess alludes to the story that the inventor of the game asked, as his reward from the King of Persia, a grain of wheat for the first square of the board, two for the second, four for the third, and so on with successive duplication to the last or sixty-fourth square. The number reached by this process extends to twenty figures.
1 6. v. 95. The where y the appointed place.
17. v. 98. The questioning thoughts of Dante were in regard to the arrangement of the Orders of the Heavemj>
rv. 99-114] CANTO XXVIII 221
thee the Seraphim and the Cherubim. Thus swiftly they follow their own bonds,18 in order to liken themselves to the Point as most they can, and they can in proportion as they are ex- ulted to see. Those other loves, which go around them, are called Thrones of the divine aspect, because they terminated the first triad.19 And thou shouldst know that all have delight in proportion as their vision penetrates into the Truth in which every understanding is at rest. Hence may be seen how beatitude is founded on the act which sees, not on that which loves, which follows after. And the merit, to which grace and good-will give birth, is the measure of this seeing ; thus is the progress from grade to grade.
Hierarchy, which Beatrice now proceeds to declare to him, following in her account the teaching of the treatise Concern- ing the Heavenly Hierarchy, which was generally ascribed during the Middle Ages to Dionysius the Areopagite (see Acts xvii. 34 ) to whom, it was believed, St. Paul communi- cated the knowledge concerning heavenly things which he hac? gained when caught up to Heaven ; see 2 Cor. xii. 2—4.
1 8. v. loo. The course of their respective circles tc which they are bound.
19. v. 105. Called Thrones of the divine aspect, be- cause at the Creation God completed the first ternary of the Angelic host with them, constituting them the mirrors whence his judgments shine upon the world below. See Canto ix. 6l
122 PARADISE fvv. 115-139
" The next triad, that in like manner bour- geons in this sempiternal spring which the nightly Aries despoils not,20 perpetually sing Hosannah with three melodies, which sound in the three orders of joy wherewith it is three- fold. In this hierarchy are the three divinities, first Dominations, and then Virtues ; the third order is of Powers. Then, in the two penul- timate dances, the Principalities and Archan- gels circle; the last is wholly of Angelic sports. These orders all gaze upward, and downward so prevail, that toward God all are drawn, and all draw. And Dionysius with such great desire set himself to contemplate these orders, that he named and divided them, as I. But Gregory21 afterward separated from him ; wherefore, so soon as he opened his eyes in this Heaven, he smiled at himself. And if a mortal declared on earth so much of secret truth, I would not have thee wonder, for he who saw it here on high disclosed it to him, with much else of the truth of these circles."
20. v. 117. At the autumnal equinox, the time of frosts, Aries — the Ram — is the sign in which the night rises.
21. v. 1 3 3 . The Pope, St. Gregory, who differs slightly from Dionysius in his arrangement of the Orders of the Hea venly host.
CANTO XXIX
Discourse of Beatrice concerning the creation and nature, 9f the Angeh. — She reproves the presumption and foolish- ness of preachers.
WHEN the two children of Latona, covered by the Ram and by the Scales, both at one mo- ment make a zone of the horizon, as long as from the instant the zenith holds them in bal- ance, till one and the other, changing their hemisphere, are unbalanced from that girdle,1 so long, with her countenance painted with a smile, was Beatrice silent, looking fixedly upon the Point which had overcome me. Then she began : " I tell, not ask, what thou wishest to hear, for I have seen it where every where and every when are centred. Not for the gain of good unto Himself, which cannot be, but that His splendor might, in resplendence, say,
I. v. 6. When at the spring equinox, the sun (Apollo) heing in the sign of Aries or the Ram, and the moon (Diana) in that of Libra or the Scales, are opposite to each other on the horizon, the one just rising and the other setting, they seem as if held for a moment in a balance which hangs from the zenith.
?24 PARADISE [vv. 15-34
I am ; * in His own eternity, outside of time, out- side of every other limit, as it pleased Him, the Eternal Love disclosed Himself in new loves. Nor before, as if inert, did He lie ; for neithei before nor after 3 did the moving of God upon these waters proceed. Form and matter, con- joined and simple, came into being which had no defect, as three arrows from a three-stringed bow ; and as in glass, in amber, or in crystal a ray shines so that there is no interval between its coming and its being complete, so did the triform effect 4 ray forth from its Lord into its being all at once, without distinction of begin- ning. Order was concreate and established for the substances ; and those in which pure act was produced were top of the world.5 Pure poten- tiality held the lowest part ; 6 in the middle such
2. v. I 5. His glory resplendent in the created universe, reflecting Himself, declares : Subsisto, " I am."
3. v. 20. See Genesis i. 2. In eternity there is no be- fore or after ; time had no existence till the creation, and has relevancy only to created things.
4. v. 28. Pure form, pure matter, and form conjoined with matter.
$. v. 33. The substances in which pure act was pro- duced were the angels, created of pure form. S. T. i. 50. I. They were of pure act because of their pure form, " for it the very instant in which form is acquired the thing begins td operate according to its form." S. T. ii2. 113. 6.
6. v. 34. Pure potentiality is matter pure and simple^ not differentiated by form.
w. 35-51] CANTO XXIX 225
a bond tied up potentiality with act, that it is never unbound.7 Jerome wrote for you of the Angels, as being created a long tract of cen- turies before the rest of the world was made ; but this truth 8 is written on many pages by the writers of the Holy Spirit, and thou wilt thy- self discern it there, if thou watchest well for it ; and also the reason sees it somewhat, which would not admit that the motors could be so long without their perfection.9 Now thou knowest where and when these Loves were created, and how ; so that three flames of thy desire are already quenched.
" One would not reach to twenty, in count- ing, so quickly as a part of the Angels disturbed the lowest of your elements.10 The rest re-
7. v. 36. Potency and act are united in the objects of the material creation in which matter and form are con- joined.
8. v. 40. ' This truth,' namely (the truth here set forth, contrary to Jerome's assertion) that the creation of the Angels was contemporaneous with that of the rest of the Universe of which they were the Intelligences. St. Jerome's opinion is to be found in his comment on the Epistle of Paul to Titus. It is discussed and rejected by St. Thomas Aquinas, S. T. i. 61. 3.
9. v. 45. Without scope for their action as movers of the spheres, by which they fulfilled the object of their exist- ence.
10. v. 51. Instantly on their creation a part of the Angels rebelled, and were cast from Heaven to Hell iif
226 PARADISE [vv. 52-74
mained and began this art which thou behold- est, with such great delight that they never cease from circling. The origin of the fall was the accursed pride of him whom thou hast seen opprest by all the weights of the world. Those whom thou seest here were modest to recognize themselves as from the Goodness which had made them apt for intelligence so great ; " wherefore their vision was exalted by illumi- nating grace and by their merit, so that they have a full and steadfast will. And I would not that thou doubt, but be certain, that to receive grace is meritorious in proportion as the affec- tion is open to it.
" Henceforth, if my words have been har- vested, thou canst contemplate much in regard to this consistory without other assistance. But since on earth it is taught in your schools that the angelic nature is such that it under- stands, and remembers, and wills, I will speak further, in order that thou mayest see the sim- ple truth, which there below is confused, by the
the body of the earth. Dante calls the earth the ' substratum of the elements/ that is, the nethermost of them, lying below the water, the air and the fire. See Hell, xxxiv. 122—126.
II. 7. 60. The good angels were modest in recogniz- ing that their existence proceeded from God, who had made tfiem capable of understanding the significance of their OWB creation
w. 75-92] CANTO XXIX 227
equivocation in such like teaching. These sub- stances, since first they were gladdened by the face of God, have not turned their sight from it, from which nothing is concealed ; therefore they have not a vision interrupted by new ob- jects, and therefore do not need to remember by a divided conception.12 So that down there men dream when not asleep, believing and not believing to speak truth ; but in the one is more fault and more shame.13 Ye below go not along one path in philosophizing; so much do the love of display and the thought of it trans- port you ; and yet this is endured here on high with less indignation than when the divine Scripture is set aside, or when it is perverted. Men think not there how much blood it costs to sow it in the world, or how much he pleases
12. v. 8 1 . The angels, looking always upon God, to whom all things are present, have no need of memory, with what Dante calls its "divided conception." This phrase, ef divided conception," is peculiar, and of uncertain meaning. It may perhaps be the equivalent of the modern term « ab- stract concept. ' The concepts of memory are divided or ab- stracted from the impression made by the direct vision of the object remembered.
13. v. 84. Many of the doctrines of men on earth are like dreams, because they have no foundation in truth ; and \vhile some honestly believe in them, there are others, who, liiough not believing, are guilty of teaching these doctrines as truth.
228 PARADISE [w. 93-120
who humbly keeps close to it. Every one strives for display, and makes his own inven- tions, and those are treated of by the preach- ers, and the Gospel is silent. One says that the moon turned back at the passion of Christ and interposed herself, so that the light of the sun reached not down ; and others that the light hid itself of its own accord, so that this eclipse answered for the Spaniards and for the Indians as well as for the Jews. Florence has not so many Lapi and Bindi I4 as fables such as these that are shouted the year long from the pulpits, on every side ; so that the poor flocks, who know naught, return from the pas- ture fed with wind ; and not seeing the harm does not excuse them. Christ did not say to his first company : ' Go, and preach idle stories to the world,* but he gave to them the true foun- dation ; and that alone sounded in their mouths, so that to fight for kindling of the faith they made shield and lance of the Gospel. Now men go forth to preach with jests and with buffooneries, and so there be only a good laugh the cowl puffs up, and nothing more is asked ; but such a bird is nesting in the tail of the hood, that if the crowd should see it, they would see in what pardoning they are trust-
14. v. 103. Common nicknames in Florence; Lapo ia derived from Jacopo, Bindo from Ildebrando.
vv. 121-133] CANTO XXIX 229
ing ; wherefore IS such great folly has grown on earth, that, without proof of any testimony, men would flock to every promise. On this the pig of St. Antony fattens,16 and others also, who are far more pigs, paying with money that has no stamp of coinage.
" But because we have digressed enough, turn back thine eyes now toward the straight path, so that the way be shortened with the time.17 This nature l8 so exceedingly extends in number, that never was there speech or mortal concept that can go so far. And if thou consider that which is revealed by Daniel thou wilt see that
15. v. 1 2 1 . By this evil preaching men are rendered so credulous that they put faith in any sort of indulgence.
1 6. v. 124. St. Antony of Egypt, the Patriarch of Monks, " whose example and instructions," says Albar. Butler, "have been the most perfect rule for the monastic- life in all succeeding ages," is represented with a hog under his feet, as a symbol of his mastery of sensual temptations. The monks of his Order kept herds of pigs, which were allowed to feed at public charge, and which it was a profana- tion to steal or kill. Dante gives the name of pigs to his degenerate followers, many of whom were among the worst of the mendicant preachers and pardoners of the Middle Ages, who grew fat on the sale of false indulgences.
17. v. 129. That what remains to say may be propor- tioned to the short time that there is for stay in this sphere.
1 8. v. 130. The Angelic nature. " The angels are of a multitude which exceeds every material multitude." S. T.
230 PARADISE [w. 134-145
in his thousands I9 a determinate number is con- cealed. The Primal Light that irradiates it all is received in it by as many modes as are the splendors with which It pairs Itself.20 Where- fore, since the affection follows upon the act that conceives,21 in this nature the sweetness of love diversely glows and warms. Behold now the height and the breadth of the Eternal Good- ness, since it has made for itself so many mir- rors on which it is broken, One in itself remain- ing as before."
19. v. 134. "Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him." Daniel vii. I o.
20. v. 130. No two angels are of the same species. Each receives the Primal Light in its own individual measure.
21. v. 139. Since love follows on knowledge through
Vision.
CANTO XXX
Ascent to the Empyrean. — The River of Light. — The celestial Rose. — The seat of Henry VIL — The last words of Beatrice.
THE sixth hour is glowing perhaps six thou- sand miles distant from us, and this world now inclines its shadow almost to a level bed, when the mid heaven, deep above us, begins to become such that some one star loses its show so far as to this depth ; ' and as the brightest handmaid of the sun comes farther on, so the heaven is closed from light to light, even to the most beautiful. Not otherwise the Triumph, that plays forever round the Point which vanquished me, seeming enclosed by that which it encloses, was extin- guished little by little to my sight ; 2 wherefore my seeing nothing and my love constrained me
1 . v. 6. When it is noon, — the sixth hour, — six thou- sand miles away from us to the east, it is about daybreak where we are ; the shadow of the earth lies in the plane of vision, and with the growing light the stars one after another become invisible at this depth, that is, to one on earth.
2. v. 13. Losing itself in the light which streams from the Divine point.
232 PARADISE [vv. 15-42
to turn with my eyes to Beatrice. If what has been said of her so far as here were all included in a single praist, it would be little to furnish forth this turn. The beauty which I saw tran- scends measure not only beyond our reach, but surely I believe that its Maker alone can enjoy it all.
By this pass I concede myself vanquished more than ever comic or tragic poet was over- come by crisis of his theme. For as the sun does to the sight which trembles most, even so remembrance of the sweet smile deprives my memory of its very self. From the first day when in this life I saw her face, until this sight, the following with my song has not been cut off for me, but now needs must my pursuit desist from further following her beauty in my verse, as at his utmost every artist.
Such, as I leave her for a greater heralding than that of my trumpet, which is bringing its arduous theme to a close, with act and voice of a leader whose talk is accomplished she began again : " We have issued forth from the great- est body to the Heaven3 which is pure light: light intellectual full of love, love of true good full of joy, joy which transcends every sweet-
3. v. 39. From the Primum Mobile, the Crystalline Heaven, the greatest of the material spheres of the universe, to the Empyrean.
<rv, 43-66] CANTOXXX 233
ness. Here thou shalt see the one and the other soldiery of Paradise ; and the one in those aspects which thou shalt see at the Last Judgment." 4
As a sudden flash which scatters the spirits of the sight so that it deprives the eye of the action of the strongest objects,5 so did a vivid light shine round about me, leaving me swathed with such a veil of its own effulgence that nothing was visible to me.
" The Love which quieteth this Heaven always welcomes to itself with such a salutation, in order to make the candle fit for its flame." No sooner had these brief words come within me than I comprehended that I was surmount- ing above my own power ; and I rekindled me with a new vision, such that no light is so pure that my eyes could not have withstood it. And I saw light in form of a river glowing with efful- gence, between two banks painted with marvel- lous spring. From this stream were issuing living sparks, and on every side were setting themselves in the flowers, like rubies which
4. v. 45. The spirits of the redeemed who fought against the temptations of the world, and the good angels who fought against the rebellious ; and here the souls in bliss will be seen in their bodily shapes.
5. v. 48. So that the clearest objects produce no effect upon the eye.
234 PARADISE [vv. 67-9?
gold encompasses. Then, as if inebriated by the odors, they plunged again into the wonder- ful flood, and as one was entering another was issuing forth.
" The high desire which now inflames and urges thee to have knowledge concerning that which thou seest, pleases me the more the more it swells; but thou must needs drink of this water before so great a thirst in thee be slaked." Thus the Sun of my eyes said to me ; then added : " The stream, and the topazes which enter and issue, and the smiling of the herbage, are shadowy prefaces of their truth ; 6 not that these things are difficult in themselves,7 but there is defect on thy part that thou hast not yet vision so exalted/*
There is no babe who so hastily springs with face toward the milk, if he awake much later than his wont, as I did, to make yet better mirrors of my eyes, stooping to the wave which flows in order that we may be bettered in it. And even as the eaves of my eyelids drank of it, so it seemed to me from its length to have become round. Then as folk who have been
6. v. 78. The stream, the sparks, the flowers are not such in reality as they seem to be ; they are but images fore shadowing the truth.
7. v. 79. The things themselves are not difficult to see, but thy eyes cannot yet see them as they actually are.
vv. 92-122] CANTO XXX 235
under masks, who seem other than before, if they divest themselves of the semblance not their own wherein they disappeared, in such wise for me the flowers and the sparks were changed into greater festival, so that I saw both the Cou*-^ of Heaven made manifest.
O oplendor of God, through which I saw the h.5<i triumph of the true kingdom, give to me power to tell how I saw it !
Light is thereabove which makes the Creator visible to that creature which has its peace only in seeing Him ; and it spreads in circular shape so far that its circumference would be too large a girdle for the sun. Its whole appearance is made of a ray reflected from the summit of the First Moving Heaven, which from it takes its life and potency. And as a hill mirrors itself in water at its base, as if to see itself adorned, when it is rich with verdure and with flowers, so, above the light, round and round about, on more than a thousand seats, I saw mirrored, as they rose, all that c - us have made return on high. And if the lowest row gather within itself so great a light, how vast is the spread of this rose in its outermost leaves ! My sight lost not itself in the breadth and in the neight, but took in all the quantity and the quality of that joy. There near and far nor add nor take away ; for where God governs
236 PARADISE [vv. 123-144
without intermediary the natural law is of no relevancy.
Into the yellow of the sempiternal rose, which spreads wide, rises in tiers, and breathes forth odor of praise unto the Sun that makes perpet- ual spring, Beatrice, like one who is silent and wishes to speak, drew me and said, " Behold, how vast is the convent of the white stoles ! 8 See our city, how wide its circuit ! See our benches so full that few people are now wanting here.9 On that great seat, on which thou bold- est thine eye because of the crown which already is set above it, ere thou dost sup at this wed- ding-feast, shall sit the soul (which on earth will be imperial) of the lofty Henry who, to set Italy straight, will come ere she is ready.10 The blind cupidity which bewitches you has made you like the little child who dies of hunger, and drives away his nurse ; and such a one will then be prefect in the divine forum that openly or cov- ertly he will not go with him along one road ; "
8. v. 129. "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment." Revelation iii. 5.
9. v. 132. "We are now in the last age of the world, and we are awaiting, truly, the consummation of the motion of the Heavens." Convitoy\\. 15, 115.
10. v. 138. Henry VII., elected Emperor 1308, crowned at Milan 1311, died 1313.
11. v. 1 44. The Pope, Clement V. , for a time osten- sibly supported Henry VII. in his Italian expedition, but
vv. 145-148] CANTO XXX 237
but short while thereafter shall he be endured by God in the holy office ; for he shall be thrust down there where Simon Magus is for his de- serts, and shall make him of Anagna go lower."
gradually in underhand fashion turned against him. He died in 1314, eight months after the death of Henry. Beatrice here condemns him to the third bolgia of the eighth circle of Hell, whither, as Dante had learned from Pope Nicholas III. (see Hell, xix. 79—84) he was to follow Boniface VIII., — him of Anagna, — and push him deeper in the hole where the simoniacal Popes were punished. Boniface is called ' him of Anagna, ' because he was born in that town, and was imprisoned there in 1303. The modern form of the name of the town is Anagni.
CANTO XXXI
The Rose of Paradise. — St. Bernard. — Prayer t» Beatrice. — The glory of the Blessed Virgin.
IN form then of a pure white rose the holy host was shown to me, which, in His own blood, Christ made His bride. But the other,1 which, flying, sees and sings the glory of Him who enamours it, and the goodness which made it so great, like a swarm of bees which one while inflower themselves and one while return to where their work acquires savor, were descend- ing into the great flower which is adorned with so many leaves, and thence rising up again to where their love always abides. They had their faces all of living flame, and their wings of gold, and the rest so white that no snow reaches that limit. When they descended into the flower, from bench to bench, they imparted of the peace and of the ardor which they acquired as they fanned their sides. Nor did the interpos- ing of so great a flying plenitude, between what was above and the flower, impede the sight or I. v. 4. The angelic host.
rv. 22-43] • CANTO XXXI 239
the splendor ; for the divine light penetrates through the universe, according as it is worthy, so that naught can be an obstacle to it. This secure and joyous realm, thronged with ancient and with modern folk, had its look and love all on one mark.
O Trinal Light, which in a single star, scin- tillating on their sight, dost so satisfy them, look down here upon our tempest !
If the Barbarians, coming from a region such that every day it is covered by Helice,2 revolv- ing with her son of whom she is fond, when they beheld Rome and her lofty work, — what time Lateran rose above mortal things,3 — were wonder-struck, I, who to the divine from the human, to the eternal from the temporal, had come, and from Florence to a people just and sane, with what amazement must I have been full ! Truly what with it and with the joy I was well pleased not to hear, and to stand mute. And as a pilgrim who is refreshed within the
2. v. 32. The nymph Callisto, or Helice, bore to Zeus a son, Areas ; she was metamorphosed by Hera into a bear, and then transferred to Heaven by Jupiter as the constellation of the Great Bear, while her son was changed into the constellation of Arctophylax or the lesser Bear. In the far north these constellations are always high in the hea- vens.
3. v. 36. When Rome was mistress of the world and the Lateran the seat of imperial or papal power.
240 PARADISE [vv. 44~74
temple of his vow as he looks around, and hopes some day to report how it was, so, jour- neying through the living light, I carried my eyes over the ranks, now up, now down, and now circling about. I saw faces persuasive to love, beautified by the light of Another and by their own smile, and actions graced with every dignity.
My look had now comprehended the general form of Paradise as a whole, and on no part had my sight as yet been fixed ; and I turned me with rekindled wish to ask my Lady about things as to which my mind was in suspense. One thing I purposed, and another answered me ; I was thinking to see Beatrice, and I saw an old man, robed like the people in glory, His eyes and his cheeks were overspread with benignant joy, his mien kindly such as befits a tender father. And : " Where is she ? " on a sudden said I. Whereon he: "To terminate thy desire, Beatrice urged me from my place, and if thou lookest up to the third circle from the highest rank, thou wilt again see her upon the throne which her merits have allotted to her." Without answering I lifted up my eyes, and saw her as she made for herself a crown reflecting from herself the eternal rays. From that region which thunders highest up no mor- tal eye is so far distant, in whatsoever sea it lets
vv. 75-102] CANTO XXXI 241
itself sink deepest,4 as there from Beatrice was my sight. But this was naught to me, for her image did not descend to me blurred by aught between.
" O Lady, in whom my hope is strong, and who, for my salvation, didst endure to leave thy footprints in Hell, of all those things which I have seen through thy power and through thy goodness, I recognize the grace and the virtue. Thou hast drawn me from servitude to liberty by all those ways, by all the modes whereby thou hadst the power to do it. Guard thou in me thine own magnificence so that my soul, which thou hast made whole, may, pleasing to thee, be unloosed from the body." Thus I prayed ; and she, so distant, as it seemed, smiled and looked at me ; then turned to the eternal fountain.
And the holy old man said: " In order that thou mayst complete perfectly thy journey, for which end prayer and holy love sent me, fly with thine eyes through this garden ; for seeing it will prepare thy look to mount further through the divine radiance. And the Queen of Heaven, for whom I burn wholly with love, will grant us every grace, because I am her faithful Bernard." 5
4. v. 75. From the highest region of the air to the low- est depth of the sea.
5. v. 102. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, to whom, because
242 PARADISE [vv. 103-122
As is he who comes perchance from Croatia to see our Veronica,6 who by reason of its an- cient fame is never sated, but says in thought, so long as it is shown : " My Lord Jesus Christ, true God, was then your semblance like to this? " 7 such was I, gazing on the living char- ity of him who, in this world, in contemplation, tasted of that peace.
" Son of Grace, this glad existence," began he, " will not be known to thee holding thine eyes only down here at the base, but look on the circles even to the most remote, until thou seest upon her seat the Queen to whom this realm is subject and devoted." I lifted up my eyes; and as at morning the eastern parts of the horizon surpass that where the sun declines, thus, as if going with my eyes from valley to mountain, I saw a part on the extreme verge
of his fervent devotion to her, the Blessed Virgin had deigned to show herself during his life.
6. v. 104. The likeness of the Saviour miraculously impressed upon the kerchief presented to him by a holy woman, on his way to Calvary, wherewith to wipe the sweat and dust from his face, and now religiously preserved at Rome, and shown at St. Peter's, on certain of the chief holydays.
7. v. 1 08. The pilgrim, who has long heard of the Veronica and desired to see it, cannot sate his desire in gaz- ing at it, and in his thought says : " This, then, Lord Jesust is your likeness."
vv. 123-142] CANTO XXXI 243
vanquishing in light all the rest of the front.8 And even as there where the pole which Phae- thon guided ill is awaited,9 the glow is bright- est, and on this side and that the light dimin- ishes, so that pacific oriflamme I0 was vivid at the middle, and on each side in equal measure the flame slackened. And at that mid part I saw more than a thousand jubilant Angels with wings outspread, each distinct both in efful- gence and in act. I saw there, smiling at their sports and at their songs, a Beauty " which was joy in the eyes of all the other saints. And if I had such wealth in speech as in imagining, I should not dare to attempt the least of its de- lightfulness.
Bernard, when he saw my eyes fixed and in- tent upon the object of his own burning glow, turned his own with such affection to it, that he made mine more ardent to gaze anew.
8. v. 123. All the rest of the circumference.
9. v. 125. Where the chariot of the sun is about to rise.
10. v. 127. This oriflamme of peace is the part of the rose of Paradise where the Virgin is seated, and its mid point is the Virgin herself. It is called ' the pacific ' in contrast with the warlike oriflamme, the banner given by the archangel Gabriel to the ancient kings of France, which bore a flame on a field of gold, whence its name, aurea flamrna*
11. v. 134. The Blessed Virgin.
CANTO XXXII
St. Bernard describes the order of the Rose, and point tut many of the Saints. — The children in Paradise. — • The angelic festival. — The patricians of the Court of Heaven.
WITH affection set on his Delight, that con- templator freely assumed the office of a teacher, and began these holy words : " The wound which Mary closed up and anointed, that one who is so beautiful at her feet is she who opened it and who pierced it. Beneath her, in the order which the third seats make, sits Rachel with Beatrice, as thou seest. Sara, Rebecca, Judith, and she1 who was great-grandmother of the singer who, through sorrow for his sin, said Miserere mei? thou mayst see thus from rank to rank in gradation downward, as with the name of each I go downward through the rose from leaf to leaf. And from the seventh row down- wards, even as down to it, Hebrew women fol- low in succession, dividing all the tresses of the flower ; because these are the wall by which the
1. v. 10. Ruth.
2. v. 12. " Have mercy upon me." Psalm li. I.
,v. 19-36] CANTO XXXII 245
sacred stairs are separated according to the look which faith turned on Christ. On this side, where the flower is mature with all its leaves, are seated those who believed in Christ about to come. On the other side, where the semi- circles are broken by empty spaces, are those who turned their faces on Christ already come.3 And as on this side the glorious seat of the Lady of Heaven, and the other seats below it, make so great a division, thus, opposite, does the seat of the great John, who, ever holy, en- dured the desert and martyrdom, and then Hell for two years ; 4 and beneath him Francis and Benedict and Augustine and others are allotted thus to divide, far down as here from circle to
3. v. 27. The circle of the Rose is divided vertically in two equal parts. In the upper tiers of the one half, far as midway down the flower, the saints of the Old Dispensation, who believed in Christ about to come, are seated. These benches are full. On the corresponding benches of the other half, on which are some empty spaces, sit the redeemed of the New Dispensation who have believed in Christ already come. On one side the line of division between the semi- circles is made by the Hebrew women from the Virgin Mary downwards ; on the opposite side the line is made by St. John Baptist and other saints who had rendered special service to Christ and his Church. The lower tiers of seats are occu- pied by innocent children elect to bliss.
4. v. 3 3 . The two years from the death of John to thf death of Christ and his descent to Hell, to draw from the limbus pair urn the souls predestined to salvation.
Z4& PARADISE [vv. 37-6*
circle. Now behold the high divine foresight; for one and the other aspect of the faith will fill this garden equally. And know that down- wards from the row which midway cleaves 5 the two divisions, they are seated for no merit of their own, but for that of others, under certain conditions ; for all these are spirits absolved ere they had true power of choice. Well canst thou perceive it by their faces, and also by their child- ish voices, if thou lookest well upon them and if thou listenest to them. Now thou art per- plexed, and in perplexity art silent ; but I will loose for thee the strong bond in which thy subtle thoughts fetter thee.6 Within the am- plitude of this realm a casual point can have no place,7 any more than sadness, or thirst, or hun- ger ; for whatever thou seest is established by eternal law, so that here the ring answers exactly to the finger. And therefore this folk, hastened to true life, is not sine causa more and less ex- cellent here among themselves.8 The King,
5. v. 40., Those who are seated below the row which cleaves horizontally the two halves are children too young to have merit of their own.
6. v. 51. The perplexity was, How can there be differ- ence of merit in the innocent, assigning them to different seats in Paradise ?
7. v. 53. No least thing can here be matter of chance,
8. v. 60. It is not " without cause " that these children enjoy different measures of bliss.
vv. 61-76] CANTO XXXII 247
through whom this realm reposes in such great love and in such great delight that no will dares for more, creating all the minds in His own glad aspect, endows with grace diversely accord- ing to His pleasure ; and here let the fact suf- fice.9 And this is expressly and clearly noted for you in the Holy Scripture in the case of those twins who, within their mother, had their anger stirred.10 Therefore, according to the color of the hair of such grace,11 the highest light must needs befittingly crown them. With- out, then, merit from their own ways, they are placed in different grades, differing only in their primary keenness of vision.12 In the early cen-
9. v. 66. Without attempt to account for it or to seek the '« wherefore " of the will of God.
10. v. 69. Jacob and Esau. See Genesis xxv. 22. " For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to elec- tion, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth ; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger." Ro- mans ix. 1 1-12.
11. v. 7 1 . This strange metaphor has been apparently suggested by the reference to Jacob and Esau, who differed in color and skin. See Genesis xxv. 25. The argument is, that God imparts grace to one or another according to his plea- sure ; and as the hair of children differs in color without ap- parent reason, so the endowment of grace differs in measure for each, and in proportion to this diversity, does the light of Heaven crown them.
12. v. 75. In their innate capacity to see God, which is in proportion to the grace vouchsafed to them before birth
248 PARADISE [vv. 77-104
turies, indeed, the faith of parents alone sufficed, together with innocence, to secure salvation ; after the first ages were complete, it was need- ful for males, through circumcision, to acquire power for their innocent wings. But after the time of grace had come, without perfect baptism in Christ, such innocence was held back there below.13
" Look now upon the face which most re- sembles Christ, for only its brightness can prepare thee to see Christ."
I saw raining down on her such great joy, borne in the holy minds created to fly across through that height, that whatsoever I had seen before held me not suspended in such great wonder, nor showed to me such likeness unto God. And that Love which had before de- scended to her,14 in front of her spread wide his wings, singing " Ave, Maria, gratia plena" The blessed Court responded to the divine song from all sides, so that every countenance became thereby the more serene.
" O holy Father, who for me endurest to be here below, leaving the sweet place in which thou sittest by eternal allotment, who is that Angel who with such joy looks into the eyes of
13. v. 84. In the limbo of children.
1 4. v. 94. In the heaven of the Fixed Stars ; Canto xxiii. 94.
<v 105-132] CANTO XXXII 249
our Queen, so enamoured that he seems of fire ? " Thus did I again recur to the teaching of him who was deriving beauty from Mary, as the morning star from the sun. And he to me, " Confidence and grace as much as there can be in Angel and in soul, are all in him, and we would have it so, for he it is IS who bore the palm down to Mary, when the Son of God willed to load Himself with our burden.
" But come now with thine eyes, as I shall proceed speaking, and note the great patricians of this most just and pious empire. Those two who sit there above, most happy through being nearest to the Empress, are, as it were, two roots of this rose. He who on the left is next her is the Father because of whose auda- cious tasting the human race tastes so much bit- terness. On the right see that ancient Father of Holy Church, to whom Christ entrusted the keys of this lovely flower. And he l6 who saw before his death all the grievous times of the fair bride, who was won with the spear and with the nails, sits at his side ; and by the other rests that leader, under whom the ingrate, fickle and stubborn people lived on manna. Opposite
15. v. 112. The angel Gabriel ; Luke i. 26.
1 6. v. 127. St. John, the Evangelist, who in his long life witnessed and suffered from the persecutions which the early Church had to endure.
250 PARADISE [vv. 133-146
Peter see Anna sitting, so content to gaze upon her daughter, that she moves not her eyes as she sings Hosannah ; and opposite the eldest father of a family sits Lucia,17 who moved thy Lady, when thou didst bend thy brow to . rush downward.18
" But because the time flies which holds thee slumbering,19 here will we make a stop, like a good tailor who makes the gown according as he has cloth, and we will direct our eyes to the First Love, so that, looking towards Him, thou mayst penetrate so far as is possible through His effulgence. But, lest perchance, moving thy wings, thou go backward, believing
17. v. 137. The introduction of Lucia here is not less enigmatic than the choice of her for the functions which she performs in the other parts of the poems, Hell, ii. 97—108 ; Purgatory, ix. 55-63.
1 8. v. 138. When in despair of reaching the height thou wert speeding down into the low place. See Hell, i. 61.
19. v. 139. Dante has told us at the beginning of his ascent through the Heavens that he knows not whether he was there in body or only in spirit (Cantos i. 73-75 ; ii. 37- 39). The hint of slumber let fall thus obiter in this verse affords, perhaps, the clue to his real conception. The body was lying in apparent physical sleep, while the soul, far from the body, was actually visiting the spiritual world. The journey through Paradise is the type of the deliverance of the soul from captivity to the law of sin, and from the body of this death.
w. 147-151] CANTO XXXII 251
to advance, it is needful that grace be obtained by prayer ; grace from her who has the power to aid thee ; and do thou follow me with thy affection so that thy heart depart not from my speech."
And he began this holy prayer.
CANTO XXXIII
Prayer to the Fir gin. — The Beatific Vision. — The Ultimate Salvation.
" VIRGIN Mother, daughter of thine own Son, humble and exalted more than any crea- ture, fixed term of the eternal counsel, thou art she who didst so ennoble human nature that its own Maker disdained not to become its crea- true. Within thy womb was rekindled the Love through whose warmth this flower has thus blossomed in the eternal peace. Here thou art to us the noonday torch of charity, and below, among mortals, thou art the living fount of hope. Lady, thou art so great, and so availest, that whoso would have grace, and has not recourse to thee, would have his desire fly without wings. Thy benignity not only succors him who asks, but oftentimes freely foreruns the asking. In thee mercy, in thee pity, in thee magnificence, in thee whatever of goodness is in any creature, are united. Now doth this man, who, from the lowest abyss of the universe, far even as here, has seen one after one the spiritual lives, supplicate thee of grace,
vv. 25-51] CANTO XXXIII 253
for power such that he may be able with his eyes to uplift himself higher toward the Ultimate Sal- vation. And I, who never for my own vision burned more than I do for his, proffer to thee all my prayers, and pray that they be not scant, that with thy prayers thou wouldst dispel for him every cloud of his mortality, so that the Supreme Pleasure may be displayed to him. Further I pray thee, Queen, who canst whatso thou wilt, that, after so great a vision, thou wouldst preserve his affections sound. May thy guardianship vanquish human impulses. Behold Beatrice with all the Blessed for my prayers clasp their hands to thee." x
The eyes beloved and venerated by God, fixed on the speaker, showed to us how pleas- ing unto her are devout prayers. Then to the Eternal Light were they directed, to which it may not be believed that eye so clear of any creature enters in.
And I, who to the end of all desires was approaching, even as I ought, ended within my- self the ardor of my longing.2 Bernard made a sign to me, and smiled, that I should look upward ; but I was already, of myself, such as
1. v. 39. In the Second Nan's Tale Chaucer has ren- dered, with great beauty, the larger part of this prayer.
2. v. 48. The ardor of longing ceased in the consum- mation and enjoyment of desire.
254 PARADISE ^.52-76
he wished ; for my sight, becoming pure, was entering more and more through the radiance of the lofty Light which in Itself is true.
Thenceforward my vision was greater than our speech, which yields to such a sight, and the memory yields to such excess.3
As is he who dreaming sees, and after the dream the passion remains imprinted, and the rest returns not to the mind, such am I ; for my vision almost wholly departs, while the sweet- ness that was born of it yet distils within my heart. Thus the snow is by the sun unsealed ; thus by the wind, on the light leaves, was lost the saying of the Sibyl.
0 Supreme Light, that so high upliftest Thyself from mortal conceptions, re-lend to my mind a little of what Thou didst appear, and make my tongue so powerful that it may be able to leave one single spark of Thy glory for the folk to come ; for, by returning somewhat to my memory and by sounding a little in these verses, more of Thy victory shall be conceived.
1 think that by the keenness of the living ray
3- v. 57.
" Vague words ! but ah, how hard to frame In matter-moulded forms of speech, Or ev'n for intellect to reach Thro' memory that which I became."
In Memoriamy XCV.
TV. 77-96] CANTO XXXIII 255
which I endured, I should have been dazed if my eyes had been averted from it ; and I re- member that on this account I was the more hardy to sustain it till I conjoined my gaze with the Infinite Goodness.
0 abundant Grace, whereby I presumed to fix my look through the Eternal Light till that there I consummated the seeing !
1 saw that in its depth is enclosed, bound up with love in one volume, that which is dis- persed in leaves through the universe ; sub- stance and accidents and their modes, fused together, as it were, in such wise, that that of which I speak is one simple Light. The uni- versal form of this knot4 I believe that I saw, because, in saying this, I feel that I rejoice more spaciously. One single moment only is greater oblivion for me than five and twenty centuries to the emprise which made Neptune wonder at the shadow of Argo.5
4. v. 9 1 . This union of substance and accident and their modes ; the unity of creation in the Creator.
5. v. 96. The larger joy felt in the mention of what he saw, is proof that it was seen, but the vision so surpassed human faculties, though their power was exalted by grace, that they could not retain it in its completeness, but lost more of it in a single moment, than any loss which long lapse of time may work for past events.
Neptune wondered at the shadow of Argo because it was the first vessel that sailed the sea.
256 PARADISE [vv. 97-125
Thus my mind, wholly rapt, was gazing fixed, motionless, and intent, and ever with gazing grew enkindled. In that Light one be- comes such that it is impossible he should ever consent to turn himself from it for other sight ; because the Good which is the object of the will is all collected in it, and outside of it that is defective which is perfect there.
Now will my speech fail more short, even in respect to that which I remember, than that of an infant who still bathes his tongue at the breast. Not because more than one simple semblance was in the Living Light wherein I was gazing, which is always such as it was be- fore ; but through my sight, which was growing strong in me as I looked, one sole appearance, as I myself changed, was altering itself to me.
Within the profound and clear subsistence of the lofty Light appeared to me three circles of three colors and of one dimension ; and one seemed reflected by the other, as Iris by Iris,6 and the third seemed fire which from the one and from the other is equally breathed forth.
O how inadequate is speech, and how feeble toward my conception ! .and this toward what I saw is such that it suffices not to call it little.
O Light Eternal, that sole abidest in Thy- self, sole understandest Thyself, and, by Thy-
6. v. 1 18. As one arch of the rainbow by the other.
«rv. 126-145] CANTO XXXIII 257
self understood and understanding, lovest and smilest on Thyself! That circle, which ap- peared in Thee generated as a reflected light, being awhile surveyed by my eyes, seemed to me depicted with our effigy within itself, of its own very color ; wherefore my sight was wholly set upon it. As is the geometer who wholly applies himself to measure the circle, and finds not by thinking that principle of which he is in need, such was I at that new sight. I wished to see how the image was conformed to the circle, and how it has its place therein ; but my own wings were not for this, had it not been that my mind was smitten by a flash in which its wish came.
To the high fantasy here power failed ; but now my desire and my will were revolved, like a wheel which is moved evenly, by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.7
7. v. 145. By the grace of God Dante's desire was fill filled in this vision, and his beatitude perfected in the con formity of his will with the Divine.
INDEX TO THE DIVINE COMEDY
[The references are to Canto and Verse]
Abati, Bocca degli. Hell, xxxii. 106.
Abbagliato. Hell, xxix. 132.
Abbey of San Benedetto. Hell, xvi.
100.
Abel. Hell, iv. 56. Abraham. Hell, iv. 58. Absalom. Hell, xxviii. 137. Abydos. Purg. xxviii. 74. Accorso, Francis of. Hell, xv. no. Achan. Purg. xx. 109. Acheron. Hell, iii. 78; xiv. 116;
Purg. ii. 105. Achilles. Hell, v. 65 ; xii. 71 ; xxvi.
62; xxxi. 5; Purg. ix. 34; xxi. 92. Achitophel. Hell, xxviii. 137. Acone. Par. xvi. 65. Acquacheta. Hell, xvi. 97-99. Acquasparta. Par. xii. 124. Acre. Hell, xxvii. 89. Adam. Hell, iii. 115; iv. 55; Purg.
ix. lo ; xi. 44; xxix. 86; xxxii, 37;
xxxiii. 62; Par. vii. 26; xiii. 37, 82;
xxvi. 83, 91, 92 ; xxxii. 120, 122, 136. Adam of Brescia. Hell, xxx. 61, 104. Adige. Hell, xii. 5; Purg. xvi. 115;
Par. ix. 44.
Adimari, family. Par. xvi. 115. Adrian V. Purg. xix. 79. Aegidius. Par. xi. 83. Aeneas. Hell, ii. 32 ; iv. 122 ; xxvi. 93 ;
Purg. xviii. 137 ; Par. vi. 3 ; xv, 27. Aeneid. Purg. xxi. 97. Aeolus. Purg. xxviii. 21. Aesop. Hell, xxiii. 4. Africanus, Scipio. Purg. xxix. 116. Agamemnon. Par. v. 69. Agapetus. Par. vi. 16. Agathon. Purg. xxii. 107. Aglauros. Purg. xiv. 139. Agnello Brunelleschi. Hell, xxv. 68. Aguglione. Par. xvi. 56. Ahasuerus, King. Purg. xvii. 28. Alagia. Purg. xix. 142. Alardo. Hell, xxviii. 18. Alba Longa. Par. vi. 37. Alberichi, family. Par. xvi. 89. Alberigo, Jovial Friar. Hell, xxxiii.
Albert of Austria. Purg. vi. 97 ; Par.
xix. 115.
Albert of Siena. Hell, xxix. 109. Alberti, Alessandro and Napoleone
degli. Hell, xxxii. 21 Alberto degli Alberti. Hell, xxxii. 57. Alberto della Scala. Purg. xviii. 121. Albertus Magnus. Par. x. 98. Alboino della Scala. Par. xvii. 71. Alchemists. Hell, xxix. Alcides. Par. ix. 101. Alcmaeon. Purg. xii. 50; Par. iv. 103. Aldobrandeschi, Guglielmo. Purg. xi.
Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio. Hell, vi. 79;
xvi. 41.
Alecto. Hell, ix. 47. Alessandria. Purg. rii. 135. Alessandro, Count of Romena. Hell,
xxx. 77. Alessandro degli Alberti. Hell, xxxii.
21.
Alessio Interminei. Hell, xviii. 122. Alexander, Tyrant of Pherae. Hell,
xii. 107. Alexander the Great. Hell, xii. 107;
xiv. 31.
Alfonso of Aragon. Purg. vii. 116. AH, disciple of Mahomet. Hell, xxviii.
32. Alichino, demon. Hell, xxi. 118; xxiL
112.
Alighieri, family. Par. xv. 92. Alps Hell, xx. 62 ; Purg. xvii. i ;
xxxiii. in.
Altaforte. Hell, xxix. 29. Alvernia, Mount. Par. xi. 106, 107. Amata. Purg. xvii. 35. Amidei, family. Par. xvi. 136. Amphiaraus. Hell, xx. 34. Amphion. Hell, xxxii. ir. Amphisbaena, serpent. Hell, xxiv. 87. Avnyclas. Par. xi. 68. Ana'gna. Purg. xx. 86; Par. xxx. 148. Ananias. Par. xxvi. 12. Anastagi, family. Pure. xiv. 107. Anastasius, Pope. Hell, xi. & Anaxagoras. Hell. iv. 137.
260
INDEX
Anchises. Hell, i. 74; Purg. xviii.
137; Par. xv. 25 ; xix. 132. Angels. Par. xxviii. 126; xxxi. 4-18. Angels, rebel. Par. xxix. 38. Angiolello da Cagnano. Hell, xxviii.
Anna, St., mother of the Virgin Mary.
Par. xxxii. 133. Annas. Hell, xxiii. 121. Anselm, St. Par. xii. 137. Anselm, grandson of Ugolino. Hell,
xxxiii. 50.
Antaeus. Hell, xxxi. 100, 113, 139. Antandros. Par. vi. 67. Antenora. Hell, xxxii. 88. Antenori (Paduans). Purg. v. 75. Antigone. Purg. xxii. no. Antiochus Epiphanes. Hell, xix. 87. Antiphon. Purg. xxii. 106. Antony, St. Par. xxix. 124. Apennines. Hell, xvi. 96; xx. 65;
xxvii. 30 ; Purg. v. 96 ; xiv. 32, 92 ;
xxx. 86 ; Par. xxi. 106. Apocalypse. Hell, xix. 106-108 ; Purg.
xxix. 105, 143-148; Par. xxv. 94-96. Apollo. Purg. 8.
xx. 132 ; Par. i. 13; ii.
Apostles. Purg. xxii. 78.
Apulia. Hell, xxviii. 9; Purg. v. 69;
vii. 126; Par. viii. 61-63. Apulians. Hell, xxviii. 17. Aquarius, sign of the Zodiac. Hell,
xxiv. 2.
Aquilo. Purg. iv. 60 ; xxxii. 99. Aquinas, St. Thomas. Par. x. 99 ; xii.
no, 144.
Arabs. Par. vi. 49. Arachne. Hell, xyii. 18; Purg. xii. 43. Aragon. Purg. iii. 116. Aragonese. Par. xix. 131. Arbia. Hell, x. 86. Area, family. Par. xvi. 92. Archangels. Par. xxviii. 125. Archiano. Purg. v. 95, 125. Ardinghi, family. Par. xvi. 93. Arethusa. Hell, xxv. 97.
Aretine, Benincasa. Purg. vi. 13. retine, Griff 120; xxx. 31.
Aretine, Griffolino. He
g. v. 13. ll, xxix. 1
09-
Aretines. Hell, xxii. 5 ; Purg. xiv. 46-
47-
Arezzo. Hell, xxix. 109. Argenti, Filippo. Hell, viii. 61. Argia. Purg. xxii. no. Argo. Par. xxxiii. 96. Argolic people. Hell, xxviii. 84. Argonauts. Par. ii. 16. Argus. Purg. xxix. 95 ; xxxii. 64-66. Ariadne. Hell, xii. 20; Par. xiii. 14. Aries, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. xxxii.
53: Par. i. 40; xxviii. 117. Aristotle. Hell, iv. 131 ; Purg. iii. 43 ;
Par. viii. 120.
Arms. Par. xiii 127.
Ark, the holy. Purg. x. 56; Par. ani
39-
Aries. Hell, ix. 112. Arnaut, Daniel. Purg. xxvi. 142, 170. Arno. Hell, xiii. 146; xv. 113; xxiii.
95 ; xxx. 65 ; xxxiii. 83 ; Purg. y.
126; xiv. 17, 24, 26, 51, 60; Par. xL
106.
Arrigo Mainardi. Purg. xiv. 97. Arrigucci family. Par. xvi. 108. Arsenal of Venice. Hell, xxi. 7. Arthur, iting. Hell, xxxii. 62. Aruns. Hell, xx. 46. Ascesi, or Assisi. Par. xi. 53. Asciano. Hell, xxix. 131. Asdente. Hell, xx. 118. Asopus. Purg. xviii. gi. Assyrians. Purg. xii. 59. Athamas. Hell, xxx. 4. Athens. Hell, xii. 17; Purg. vi. 139;
xv. 97 ; Par. xvii. 46. Atrppos. Hell, xxxiii. 126. Attila. Hell, xii. 134 : xiii. 149. Augustin, one of the first followers o£
St. Francis. Par. xii. 130. Augustine, St. Par. x. 120; xxxii. 35. Augustus Caesar. Hell, i. 71 ; Purg.
xxix. 116; Par. vi. 73. Augustus (Frederick II.). Hell, xiii.
68.
Aulis. Hell, xx. in. Aurora. Purg. ii. 8 ; ix. x. Ausonia. Par. viii. 61. Auster. Purg. xxxii. 99. Austria. Hell, xxxii. 26. Avaricious, the. Hell, vii.; Purg.
xix. ; xx. ; xxi.
Aventine, Mount. Hell, xxv. 261 Averroes. Hell, iv. 144. Avicenna. Hell, iv. 143. Azzo degli Ubaldini. Purg. xiv. 105. Azzolino, or Ezzelino. Hell, xii. no;
Par. ix. 29.
B and Ice, Bice (Beatrice). Par. vii.
14.
Babylon. Par. xxiii. 135. Bacchantes. Purg. xviii. 92. Bacchiglione. Hell, xv. 113; Par. ix.
Bacchus. Heft, xx. 59; Purg. xviii.
93 ; Par. xiii. 25. Bagnacaval. Purg. xiv. 115. Bagnoregio. Par. xii. 128. Baldo d' Aguglione. Par. xvi. 56. Baptist, St. John the. Hell, xiii. 143;
xxx. 74 ; Purg. xxii. 152 ; Par. xvi.
25. 47 ! xv»>- *34» 135 5 xxxii. 31. Baptistery of Florence. Par. xxv. 134. Barbagia of Sardinia. Purg. xxiii. 94;
96. Barbarians, Northern. Par. xxxi. 31.
INDEX
261
Barbariccia, demon. Hell, xxi. 120;
xxii. 29, 59, 145. Barbarossa, Frederick I. Purg. xviii.
119.
Bari. Par. viii. 62. Barrators (peculators). Hell, xxi. Bartolomeo della Scala. Par. xvii. 71. Barucci family. Par. xvi. 104. Bears, constellations of the. Purg. iv.
65; Par. ii. 9", xiii. 7. Beatrice. Hell, ii. 70, 103 ; x. 131 ; xii.
88; xv. 90; Purg. i. 53; vi. 46; xy.
77; xviii. 48, 73; xxiii. 128; xxvii.
36, 53, 136; xxx. 73; xxxi. 80, 107,
114, 133; xxxii. 36, 85, 106; xxxiii.
4, 124 ; Par. i. 46, 64 ; ii. 22 ; iii.
127; iv. 13, 39; v. 16, 85, 122; vii.
16; ix. 16; x. 37, 52, 60; xi. n ;
xiv. 8, 79; xv. 70; xvi. 13; xvii. 5,
30; xviii. 17, 53; xxi. 63 ; xxii. 125;
xxxiii. 19, 34, 76; xxiv. 10, 22, 55;
xxv. 28, 137; xxvi. 77; xxvii. 34,
102; xxix. 8; xxx. 14, 128; xxxi. 59,
66, 76 ; xxxii. 9 ; xxxiii. 38. Beatrice, Queen. Purg. vii. 128. Beccheria, Abbot of. Hell, xxxii. 119. Bede, the Venerable. Par. x. 131. Beelzebub. Hell, xxxiv. 127. Belacqua. Purg. iy. 123. Belisarius. Par. vi. 25. Bellincion Berti. Par. xv. 112; xvi. 99. Bello, Geri del. Hell, xxix. 27. Belus, King of Tyre. Par. ix. 97. Benaco. Hell, xx. 63, 74, 77. Benedetto, San, Abbey of. Hell, xvi.
100. Benedict, St. Par. xxii. 28, 58 ; xxxii.
Benevento. Purg. iii. 128. Benincasa of Arezzo. Purg. vi. 13. Berenger, Raymond. Par. vi. 134. Bergamasque. Hell, xx. 71. Bernard, Friar. Par. xi. 79. Bernard, St., Abbot. Par. xxxi. 102,
139; xxxii. i, 107.
Bernardin di Fpsco. Purg. xiv. 101. Bernardone, Pietro. Par. xi. 89. Bertha, Dame. Par. xiii. 139. Berti, Bellincion. Par. xv. 112; xvi.
99-
Bertran de Born. Hell,xxviii. 134. Bianchi, White Party. Hell, vi. 65. Bice (Beatrice). Hell, ii. 53, 76, 103. Billi or Pigli, family. Par. xvi. 3. Bindi, abbreviation of Ildebrando.
Par. xxix. 103. Bisenzio. Hell, xxxii. 56. Bismantova. Purg. iv. 26. Bocca degli Abati. Hell, xxxii. 106. Boethius, Severinus. Par. x. 124-129. Bohemia. Pure. vii. 99; Par. xix. 125 Bologna. HelH xxiii. 142 ^ Purg. xiv.
100.
Bolognese. Hell, xxiii. 103.
Bolsena. Pure. xxiy. 24.
Bonagiunta Uroiciani, 01 Lucca. Purg.
xxiv. iq, 20.
Bonatti, Guido. Hell, xx. 118. Bonaventura, St. Par. xii. 127. Boniface, Archbishop of Ravenna.
Purg. xxiv. 29. Boniface VIII. Hell, xix. 53; xxvii.
70, 85; Purg. xx. 87; xxxii. 149;
Par. ix. 142: xii. 90; xvii. 49-51;
xxvii. 22-24; xxx. 148. Boniface of Signa. Par. xvi. 56. Bonturo de' Dati. Hell, xxi. 41. Boreas. Par. xxviii. 81. Borgo of Florence. Par. xvi. 134. Born, Bertran de. Hell, xxviii. 134. Borsiere, Guglielmo. Hell, xvi. 70. Bostichi, family. Par. xvi. 93. Brabant, Lady of. Purg. vi. 23. Branca d' Oria. Hell, xxxiii. 137, 140. Branda, fountain. Hell, xxx. 78. Brennus. Par. vi. 44. Brenta. Hell, xv. 7; Par. ix. 27. Brescia. Hell, xx. 68. Brescians. Hell, xx. 71. Brettinoro. Purg. xiv. 112. Briareus. Hell, xxxi. 98 ; Purg. xii.
28.
Bridge of St. Angelo. Hell, xviii. 29. Brigata. Hell, xxxiii. 89. Brissus. Par. xiii. 125. Brosse, Pierre de la. Purg. vi. 22. Bruges. Hell, xv. 4 ; Purg. xx. 46. Brundusium. Purg. iii. 27. Brunelleschi, Agnello. Hell, xxv. 68. Brunette Latini. Hell, xy. 30, 32, 101. Brutus, enemy of Tarquin. Hell, iv.
127.
Brutus and Cassias. Par. vi. 74. Buggia. Par. ix. 92. Buiamonte, Giovanni. Hell, xvii. 72. Bulicame, hot spring of Viterbo. Hell,
xiv. 79. Buonconte di Montefeltro. Purg. v.
88.
Buondelmonte. Par. xvi. 140. Buondelmomi, family. Par. xvi. 66. Buoso da Duera. Hell, xxxii. 106,
114, 116.
Buoso degli Abati. Hell, xxv. 140. Buoso Donati. Hell, xxx. 44.
Caccia d' Asciano. Hell, xxix. 131. Cacciaguida. Par. xv. 20, 22, 31, 52,
85, 89, 135 ; xvi. 16, 17, 18, 2*, 30;
xviii. 2, 25, 50, 51. Caccianimico, Venedico. Hell, xviii
S°-
Cacus. Hell, xxv. 25. Cadiz. Par. xxvii. 82. Cadmus. Hell, xxv. 97. Caecilius. Purg. xxii. 98.
262
INDEX
Caesar. Hell, xiii. 65 ; Purg. vi. 92, 114; Par. i. 92 ; vi. 114; xvi. 59.
Caesar, Julius. Hell, i. 70; iv. 123; xxviii. 98; Purg. xviii. 131; xxvi. 77 ; Par. vi. 57.
Caesar, Tiberius. Par. vi. 10.
Cagnano, Angiolello da. Hell, xxviii.
Cagnano. Par. ix. 49.
Cagnazzo, demon. Hell, xxi. 119.
Cahors. Hell, xi. 50 ; Par. xxvii. 58.
Caiaphas. Hell, xxiii. in, 115.
Cain. Purg. xiv. 133.
Cain and his thorns (man in the moon).
Hell, xx. 126; Par. ii. 51. CaTna. Hell, v. 107; xxxii. 58. Calaroga. Par. xii. 52. Calboh family. Purg. xiv. 89. Calcabrina, demon. Hell, xxi. 118;
xxii. 133.
Calchas. Hell, xx. 110. Calfucci, family. Par. xvi. 106. Calixtus I. Par. xxvii. 44. Calliope. Purg. i. 9. Callisto (Helice). Purg. xxv. 131. Camaldoli. Purg. v. 96. Camicion de' Pazzi. Hell, xxxii. 68. Camilla. Hell, i. 107 ; iv. 124. Camino, Gherardo da. Purg. xvi. 124,
133, 138.
Camino, Riccardo da. Par. ix. 49-51. Camonica, Val. Hell, xx. 65. Campagnatico. Purg. xi. 66. Campaldino. Purg. v. 92. Campi. Par. xvi. 50. Canavese. Pure:, vii. 136. Cancellieri, family. Hell, xxxii. 63. Cancer, sign of the Zodiac. Par. xxv.
101. Can Grande della Scala. Par. xvii. 76,
93-
Capaneus. Hell, xiv. 63. Capet, Hugh. Purg xx. 43. Capocchio. Hell, xxix. 136; xxx. 28. Caponsacco. Par. xvi. 121. Cappelletti, family. Purg. vi. 106. Caprara. Hell, xxxiii. 82. Capricorn, sign of the Zodiac. Purg.
ii. 57; Par. xxvii. 69. Caprona. Hell, xxi. 95. Cardinal, the (Ottaviano degli Ubal-
dini). Hell, x. 120. Carisenda. Hell, xxxi. 136. Carlino de' Pazzi. Hell, xxxii. 69. Carpigna, Guido di. Purg. xiv. 98. Carrarese. Hell, xx. 48. Casale. Par. xii. 124. Casalodi, family. Hell, xx. 95. Casella. Purg. ii. 91. Casentino. Hell, xxx. 65 ; Purg. v. 94;
xiv. 43
Cassero, Guido del. Hell, xxviii. 77. Cassero, Jacopo del. Purg. v. 64-84.
Cassino, Monte. Par. xxii. 37. Cassius, murderer of Caesar. Hell,
xxxiv. 67.
Cassius and Brutus. Par. vi. 74. Castel, Guido da. Purg. xvi. 125. Casiile. Par. xii. 49-54. Castle of St. Angelo in Rome. Hell,
xviii. 29. Castor and Pollux. Purg. iv. 61 ; Par.
xxvii. 98.
Castrocaro. Pnrg. xiv. 116. Catalan de' Malavolti. Hell, xxiii.
104, 114.
Catalonia. Par. viii. 77. Catellini, family. Par. xvi. 88. Cato of Utica. Hell, xiv. 15; Purg. i,
3i, 73> 133; "• ."9- Catona. Par. viii. 62. Catria. Par. xxi. 109. Cattolica. Hell, xxviii. 80. C&valcante de' Cavalcanti. Hell, x.
53. no. Cavalcanti, Guercio. Hell, xxv. 35,
«3, 151.
Cavalcanti, Guido. Hell, x. 63. Cecina. Hell, xiii. 9. Celestine V. Hell, iii. 59; xxvii. 105. Cenchri, serpents. Hell, xxiv. 87. Centaur. Hell, xii. 104, 115, 129; Purg.
xxiv. 121-123.
Ceperano. Hell, xxviii. 16. Cephas. Par. xxi. 127. Cerberus Hell, vi. 13, 22, 32 ; ix. 98. Cerchi, family. Par. xvi. 65. Ceres. Purg. xxviii 49-51. Certaldo. Par. xvi. 50. Cervia. Hell, xxvii. 42. Cesena. Hell, xxvii. 52. Ceuta (Setta). Hell, xxvi. in. Chaos. Hell, xii. 43. Charity, St. John examines Dante on.
Par. xxvi. Charlemagne, Emperor. Hell, xxxi.
17 ; Par. vi. 94 ; xviii. 43. Charles of Anjou. Purg. vii. 113; xi.
Charles of Valois (Senzaterra, Lack-
land). Purg. xx. 71. Charles Martel. Par. viii. 31 ; ix. i. Charles Robert of Hungary. Par.
viii. 72. Charles II. of Apulia. Purg. vii. 127,"
xx. 79; Par. vi. 106; xix. 127; xx.
63. Charles's Wain, the Great Bear. Hell,
xi. 114; Purg. i. 30; Par. xiii. 7. Charon. Hell, iii. 94, 109, 128. Charybdis. Hell, vii. 22. Chastity, examples of. Purg. xxv. 133 Chelydri, serpents. Hell, xxiv. 86. Cherubim. Par. xxviii. 99. Chiana. Par. xiii. 23. Chiareutana. Hell, xv. 9.
INDEX
263
Chiascio, river. Par. xi. 43, 44. Chiassi. Purg. xxviii. 20. Chiaveri. Purg. xix. 120. Chiron. Hell, xii. 65, 71, 77, 97
Purg. ix. 37. Chiusi. Par. xvi. 75. Christ. Hell, xxxiv. 115; Purg. xv. 89
xx. 87; xxi. 8; xxiii. 74; xxvi. 129
xxxii. 81, 102 ; xxxiii. 63 ; Par. vi. 14
ix. 120; xi. 72, 102, 107; xii. 37, 71
xiv. 104; xvii. 33, 51; xix. 72, 104
xx. 47; xxiii. 20, 72, 107, 136; xxv
'5, 72, 113; xxix. 98, 109; xxxi. 3
107 ; xxxii. 20, 24, 27, 83, 85, 87, 125
xxxiii. no. Christians. Purg. x. 121 ; Par. v. 73
xix. 109; xx. 104. Chrysostom, St. Par. xii. 137. Church of Rome. Hell, xix. 57; Purg.
xvi. 127 ; Par. xvii. 72. Ciacco. Hell, vi. 52. Ciampolo, or Giampolo. Hell, xxii. 32,
44, i2i.
Cianfa de' Donati. Hell, xxv. 43. Cianghella. Par. xv. 128. Ciddauro. Par. x. 128. Cimabue. Purg. xi. 94. Cincinnatus, Quinctius. Par. vi. 46;
xv. 129.
Circe. Hell, xxvi. 91 ; Purg. xiv. 42. Ciriatto, demon. Hell, xxi. 122;
xxii. 55.
Clara, St., of Assisi. Par. iii. 98. Clemence, Queen. Par. ix. i. Clement IV. Purg. iii. 125. Clement V. Hell, xix. 83 ; Par. xvii.
82 ; xxx. 197.
Cleopatra. Hell, y. 63; Par. vi. 76. Cletus. Par. xxvii. 41. Clio. Purg. xxii. 58. Clotho. Purg. xxi. 27. Clymene. Par. xvii. i. Cock, arms of Gallura. Purg. viii. 8r. Cocytus. Hell, xiv. 119; xxxi. 123,
173; xxxiii. 156; xxxiv. 52. Colchians. Hell, xviii. 87. Colchos. Par. ii. 16. Colle. Pursj. xiii. 115. Cologne. Hell, xxiii. 63. Colonnesi, family. Hell, xxvii. 86. Comedy. Dante thus names his poem.
Hell, xvi. ,28. Cunio. Purg. xiv. 116. Conrad or Corrado Malaspina. Purg.
viii. 65; 118. ( >nrad or Corrado III., Emperor.
Par. xv. 139. Cjnrad or Corrado da Palazzo. Purg.
Kvi. 124.
i''->nradin. Purg. xx. 68. ( \mscience. Hell, xxviii. 115. I'f.nstance, Queen of Aragon. Purg. iii. 115, 143; vii. 129.
Constance, wife of Henry VI. of Ger.
many. Purg. iii. 113 ; Par. iii. 118;
iv. 98. Constantino the Great. Hell, xix. 115;
xxvii. 94; Purg. xxxii. 124; Par. vi. t»
xx. 55.
Constantinople. Par. vi. 5. Cornelia. Hell, iv. 128; Par. xv. 129, Corneto. Hell, xii. 137. Corsica. Purg. xviii. 81. Corso de' Donati. Purg. xxiv. 82. Corus, northwest wind. Hell, xi. 114. Cosenza. Purg. iii. 124. Counsellors, evil. Hell, xxvi. Counterfeiters of money, speech, of
person. Hell, xxx. Crassus. Purg. xx. 116. Crete. Hell, xii. 12 ; xiv. 95. Creusa. Par. ix. 98. Croatia. Par. xxxi. 103. Crusaders and Soldiers of tne Faith.
Par. xiv. Cunizza, sister of Ezzelino III. Paf
ix. 32.
Cupid. Par. viii. 7. Curiatii, the. Par. vi. 39. Curio. Hell, xxviii. 102. Cyclops. Hell, xiv. 55. Cypriote, the (Venus). Par. viii. 2. Cyprus. Hell, xxviii. 82; Par. xix
146.
Cyrrha. Par. i. 36. Cyrus. Purg. xii. 56. Cytherea (trie planet Venus). Purg
xxvii. 95.
Daedalus. Hell, xvii. in; xxix. 1164
Par. viii. 125.
Daniian, Peter. Par. xxi. 121. Damietta. Hell, xiv. 104. Daniel, Prophet. Purg. xxii. 146 ; Par.
iv. 13 ; xxix. 134.
Daniel, Arnaut. ,Purg. xxvi. 116, 142. Dante. Purg. xxx. 55. Danube. Hell, xxxii. 26; Par. viii. 65. David, King. Hell, iv. 58; xxviii. 138;
Purg. x. 63 ; Par. xx. 38 ; xxv. 72 ;
xxxii. 1 1, 204. Decii, the. Par. vi. 47. Decretals, Book of. Par. ix. 134. Deidamia. Hell, xxvi. 62 ; Purg. xxii.
Deiphile. Purg. xxii. 10.
Dejanira. Hell, xii. 68.
Delia (the Moon). Purg. xx. <j2{
xxix. 78.
Delos. Purg. xx. 130. Democritus. Hell, iv. 136. Demophoon. Par. ix. 101, Denis, King of Portugal. Par. xix
139-' Diana. Purg. xx. 133; xxv. 131; Pal
xxiii. 26, 149.
264
INDEX
Diana, subterranean river. Purg. xiii.
'S3-
Dido. Hell, v. 85 ; Par. viii. 9. Diligence, examples of. Purg. xviii.
88.
Diogenes. Hell, iv. 137. Diomed. Hell, xxvi. 56. Dione, Venus. Par. viii. 7; Planet
Venus, xxii 144. Dionysius the Areopagite. Par. x.
115 ; xxviii. 130.
DioTiysius, Tyrant. Hell, xii. 107. Dioscorides. Hell, iv. 140. Dis, city of. Hell, viii. 68; xi. 104;
xii. 39 ; xxxiv. 20. Dolcino, Fra. Hell, xxviii. 5*. Dominations, order of angels. Par.
xxviii. 122. Dominic, St. Par. x. 95; xi. 35, 118;
xii. 55- 7°, 77- Dominicans. Par. xi. 124. Domitian, Emperor. Purg. xxii. 83. Don, river. Hell, xxxii. 27. Donati, Buoso. Hell, xxx. 44. Donati, Corso. Purg. xxiv. 82. Donati, Forese. Purg. xxiii. 48, 76;
xxiv. 74.
Donati, Ubertin. Par. xvi. 119. Donatus. Par. xii. 137. Douai. Purg. xx. 46. Draghignazzo, demon. Hell, xxi. 121 ;
xxii. 73.
Dragon. Purg. xxxii. 131. Duca, Guido del. Purg. xiv. 81; xv.
44-
Duera, Buoso da. Hell, xxxii. 106. Duke of Athens, Theseus. Hell, ix.
54; xii. 17; Purg. xxiv. 123. Dyrrachium. Par. vi. 65.
Ebro. Purg. xxvii. 3 ; Par. ix. 89.
Edoeue IV. of Virgil. Purg. xxii. 57.
Egidius. Par. xi. 83.
Egina. Hell, xxix. 59.
Egypt. Par. xxv. 55.
Elbe. Purg. vii. 99.
El and Eli, names of God. Par. xxvi.
134-
Electra. Hell, iv. 121. Elias. Purg. xxxii. 80. Elijah, Pronhet. Hell, xxvi. 35. Eliseo, ancestor of Dante. Par. xv.
136.
Elisha, Prophet. Hell, xxvi. 35. Elsa. Purjr. xxxiii. 67. Elvsium. Par. xv. 27. Ema. Par. xvi. 143. Empedocles. Hell, iv. 138. Empyrean. Par. xxx. England. Purg. vii. 131. Envious, the. Purg. xiii. ; xiv. Ephialtes. Hell, xxxi. 94, 108. Epicurus. Hell, x. 14.
Equator. Purg. iv. 80. Equinoctial sunrise. Par. i. 38. Erichtho. Hell, ix. 23. Erinnyes, the Furies. Hell, ix. 45. Eriphyle. Purg. xii. 50. Erisichthon. Purg. xxiii. 26. Esau. Par. viii. 130; xxxii. 68. Essence, the Divine. Par. xxxiii. 16. Este, or Esti, Azzone da. Purg. v. 77, Este, or Esti, Obizzo da. Hell, xii
III.
Esther. Purg. xvii. 29. Eteocles and Polynices. Hell, xxvi.
54; Purg. xxii. 56.
Ethiop. Purg. xxvi. 21; Par. xix. 109, Ethiopia. Hell, xxiv. 89. Euclid. Hell, iv. 142. Eunoe. Purg. xxviii. 131; xxxiii. 127. Euphrates. Purg. xxxiii. 112. Euripides. Purg. xxii. 106. Europa, daughter of Agenor. Par*
xxvii. 84.
Europe. Purg. viii. 123; Par. xii. 48. Eurus, southeast wind. Par. viii. 69. Euryalus. Hell, i. 108. Eurypylus. Hell, xx. 112. Evangelists, the four. Purg. xxix. 92. Eve. Purg. viii. 99; xii. 71; xxiv.
116; xxix. 24; xxx. 52; xx,:ii. 32;
Par. xiii. 37.
Evil counsellors. Hell, xxvi. Ezekiel, Prophet. Purg. xxix. too. Ezzelino, or Azzoliuo. Hell, xii. uoj
Par. ix. 29.
Fabbro. Purg. xiv. 100.
Fabii, the. Par. vi. 47.
Fabricius. Purg. xx. 25.
Faenza. Hell, xxvii. 49; xxxii. 1235
Purg. xiv. 101. Faith, St. Peter examines Dante on.
Par. xxiv.
Falterona. Purg. xiv. 17. Famagosta. Par. xix. 146. Fame, seekers of, by noble enterprises.
Par. v.
Fano. Hell, xxviii. 76; Purg. v. 71. Fantolin, Ugolin de'. Purg. xiv. 121. Farfarello, demon. Hell, xxi. 123 ;
xxii. 94. Farinata degli Uberti. Hell, vi. 79;
x 32.
Federigo Novello. Purg. vi. 17. Federipo Tignoso. Purg. xiv. 106. Kelix Guzman. Par. xii. 79. Feltro. Hell, i. 105 ; Par. ix. 52. Ferrani. Par. xv. 137. Fieschi, Counts of Lavagna. Purg.
xix. 102. Fiesole. Hell, xv. 62, 96 ; Par. vi. 53;
xv. 126; xvi. 122. Fifanti, family. Pai. xvi. 104. Figghine. Par. xvi. 50
INDEX
26)
Filippeschi and Monaldi, families.
Purg. vi. 107.
Filippi, family. Par. xvi. 89. Fislies, sign of the Zodiac. Hell, xi.
113; Purg. i. 21 ; xxxii. 54. Flatterers. Hell, xviii. Flemings. Hell, xv. 4. Fleur-de-lys, of France. Purg. xx. 86
Par. vi. 100. Florence. Hell, x. 92 ; xiii. 143 ; xvi
75 ; xxiii. 95 ; xxiv. 144 ; xxvi. i
xxxii. 120; Purg. vi. 127; xii. 102
xiv. 64; xx. 75 ; xxiv. 79; Par. vi
53; ix. 127; xv. 97; xvi. 25, 84, in
146, 149; xvii. 48 ; xxv. 5 ; xxix. 103
xxxi. 29. Florentines. Hell, xv. 61 ; xvi. 73
xvii. 70 ; Purg. xiv. ; Par. xvi. 86. Florentine women. Purg. xxiii. 101. Focaccia de' Cancellieri. Hell, xxxii. 63. Focara. Hell, xxviii. 89. Folco of Marseilles. Par. ix. 94. Forese Donati. Purg. xxiii. 48, 76;
xxiv. 74.
Forli. Hell, xvi. 99; xxvii. 43. Fortune. Hell, vii. 62 ; xv. 46. Fortune, the greater. Purg. xix. 4. Fosco, Bernardin di. Purg. xiv. 101. France. Hell, xix. 87; Purg. vii. 109;
xx. 51, 71 ; Par. xy. 120. Francesca da Rimini. Hell, v. 116. Francesco of Accorso. Hell, xv. no. Francis of Assisi, St. Hell, xxvii. 112;
Par. xi. 50, 74, 118; xxii. 90; xxxii.
Franciscans. Par. xii. 115. Franco of Bologna. Purg. xi. 83. Fraud, sin of. Hell, xi. 25. Frederick I., Barbarossa. Purg. xviii.
119. Frederick II., Emperor. Hell, x. 119;
xiii. 59; xxiii. 66; Purg. xvi. 117;
Par. lii. 120. Frederick, King of Sicily. Purg. vii.
119; Par. xix. 131 ; xx. 63. Free will. Purg. xvi. 71 ; xvi". 74. French people. Hell, xxvii. ^4 ; xxix.
123; xxxii. 115; Par. viii. 75. Friars, Jovial (Frati Gaudenti), of
Santa Maria. Hell, xxiii. 103. Frieslanders. Hell, xxxi. 64. Fucci, Vanni. Hell, xxiv. 125. Fulcieri da Calboli. Purg. xiv. 58. Furies. Hell, ix. 38.
Gabriel, Archangel. Purg. x. 34; Par.
iv. 47; ix. 138; xiv. 36; xxiii. 94;
xxxii. 94, 103. Gaddo, son of Ugolino. Hell, xxxiii.
68.
Gaeta. Hell, xxvi. 92 ; Par. viii. 62. Gaia, daughter of Gherardo. Purg.
jtri. 140.
Galahaut. Hell, v. 137.
Galaxy. Par. xiv. 99.
Galen. Hell, iv. 143.
Galicia. Par. xxv. 18.
Galigaio. Par. xvi. 101.
Galh, family. Par. xvi. 105.
Gallura. Hell, xxii. 82 ; Purg. viii. 81,
Galluzzo. Par. xvi. 53.
Ganellpn, or Gano, of Magonza. Hel\
xxxii. 122. Ganges. Purg. ii. 5; xxvii. 4; Par.
xi. 51.
Ganymede. Purg. ix. 23. Garda, lake of. Hell, xx. 65. Gardingo, district of Florence. Hell,
xxiii. 108.
Gascons. Par. xxvii. 58. Gascony. Purg. xx. 66. Gate of Purgatory. Purg. ix. 51. Gaville. Hell, xxv. 151. Gemini, sign of the Zodiac. Par. xxii.
152.
Genesis. Hell, xi. 107. Genoese. Hell, xxxiii. 151 ; Par. ix,
90.
Gentucca. Purg. xxiv. 37. Geomancers. Purg. xix. 4. Gerault de Berneil. Purg. xxvi. iao, Geri del Bello. Hell, xxix. 27. Germans. Hell, xvii. 21. Germany. Hell, xx. 62. Geryon. Hell, xvii. 97, 133 ; xviii. 20;
Purg. xxvii. 23. Ghent. Purg. xx. 46. Gherardo da Camino. Purg. xvi. 124
Ghibellines and Guelfs- Par. vi. 103. Ghin di Tacco. Purg. vi. 14. Ghispla, sister of Caccianimico. Hell,
xviii. 55.
Gianfigliazzi, family. Hell, xvii. 59. Gianni Schicchi. Hell, xxx. 32. Gianni del Soldanieri. Hell, xxxii. 121. Giano della Bella. Par. xvi. 132. Giants. Hell, xxxi. 31 ; Purg. xii. 33. Gideon. Purg. xxiv. 125. Gilboa, Mount. Purg. xii. 41. Giotto. Purg. xi. 95. Ginda. Par. xvi. 123. Giuochi, family. Par. xvi. 104. Glaucus. Par. i. 68. Gluttons. Hell, vi. ; Purg. xxii.|
xxiii. ; xxiv.
Godfrey of Bouillon. Par. xviii. 47. Gomita, Brother. Hell, xxii. 81. Gomorrah. Purg xxvi. 40. Gorgon, head of Medusa. Hell, ix. 561 Gorgona. Hell, xxxiii. 82. Governo, now Governolo. Hell, xx
76. Graffiacane, demon. Hell, xxj. iaa'
xxii. 34. Gratian. Par. x. 104.
266
INDEX
Greci, family. Par. xvi. 89.
Greece. Hell, xx. 108.
Greeks. Hell, xxvi. 75 ; Purg. ix. 39;
xxii. 88 ; Par. v. 69. Gregory the Great, St. Purg. x. 75 ;
Par. xx. 108 ; xxviii. 133. Griffolino d' Arezzo. Hell, xxix. 109. Griffon. Purg. xxix. 108 ; xxxii. 26. Gualandi, fami'y. Hell, xxxiii. 32. Gualdo. Par. xi. 48. Gualdrada. Hell, xvi. 37. Gualterotti, family. Par. xvi. 133. Gubbio. Pure:, xi. 80. Guelfs and Ghibellines. Par. vi. 107. Guenever. Par. xvi. 15. Guglielmo Aldobrandesco. Purg. xi.
59.
Guglielmo Borsiere. Hell, xvi. 70. Guidi, Counts. Par. xvi. 64. Guido Bonatti. Hell, xx. 118. Guido di Carpigna. Purg. xiv. 98. Guido del Cassero. Hell, xxviii. 77. Guido da Castel. Purg. xvi. 125. Guido Cavalcanti. Hell, x. 63, in;
Purg. xi. 97.
Guido del Duca. Purg. xiv. 81. Guido Guinicelli. Purg. xi. 97; xxvi.
92.
Guido da Montefeltro. Hell, xxvii. 4. Guido da Praia. Purg. xiv. 104. Guido Ravignani. Par. xvi. 98. Guido, Count of Romena. Hell, xxx.
Guidoguerra. Hell, xvi. 38. Guiscard, Robert. Hell, xxviii. 14 ;
Par. xviii. 48. Guittone d' Arezzo. Purg. xxiv. 56;
xxvi. 124. Guy of Montfort. Hell, xii. 118.
Halo. Par. xxviii. 23.
Haman. Purg. xvii. 26.
Hannibal. Hell, xxxi. 117; Par. vi.
50. _
Harpies. Hell, xiii. 10, 101. Hebrews. Purg. iv. 83 ; xyiii. 134 ;
xxiv. 124 ; Par. v. 49 ; xxxii. 132. Hebrew women. Par. xxxii. 17. Hector. Hell, iv. 122 ; Par. vi. 68. Hecuba. Hell, xxx. 16. Helen. Hell, v. 64. Helice. (Callisto) Purg. xxv. 131.
(Great Bear) Par. xxxi. 32. Helicon. Purg. xxix. 40. Heliodorus Purg. xx. 113. Helios (the sun), God. Par. xiv. 96. Hellespont. Purg. xxviii. 71. Henry III. of England. Purg. vii. 131. Henry VI., Emperor. Par. hi. 119. Henry VII., Emperor. Par. xvii. 82 ;
xxx. M7. Henry, Prince, of England, the Young
King. Hell, xxviii. 135.
Heraclitus. Hell, iv. 138.
Hercules. Hell, xxv. 32; xxvi, 108}
xxxi. 132.
Heretics. Hell, x. Hermitage of Camaldoli. Purg. v.
96.
Hezekiah, King. Par. xx. 49. Hierarchies, Angelic. Par. xxviii. Hippocrates. Hell, iv. 143. Hippplytus, son of Theseus. Par.
xvii. 46.
Holofen es. Purg. xii. 59. Holy Land. Par. ix. 125 ; xv. 144. Homer. Hell, iv. 88 ; Purg. xxii. 101. Homicides. Hell, xii. Honorius III., Pope. Par. xi. 98. Hope, St. James examines Dante on.
Par. xxv.
Horace. Hell, iv. 89. Horatii, the. Par. vi. 39. Hugh Capet. Purg. xx. 43. Hugh of St. Victor. Par. xii. 133. Humility, examples of. Purg. xii. Hungary. Par. viii. 65; xix. 184. Hyperion. Par. xxii. 142. Hypocrites. Hell, xxiii. Hypsipyle. Hell, xviii. 92 ; Purg. xxii.
95 ; xxvi. 112, 168.
larbas. Purg. xxxi. 72.
Icarus. Hell, xvii. 109 ; Par. viii. 126.
Ida, Mount. Hell, xiv. 98.
Ilerda. Purg. xviii. 101.
Ilion. Hell, i. 75 ; Purg. xii. 62.
Illuminato. Par. xii. 130.
Importuni, family. Par. xvi. 133.
India. Hell, xiv. 32.
Indians. Purg. xxxii. 41 ; Par. xxix.
toil
Indulgences. Par. xxix. 123. Indus. Par. xix. 71. Infangato. Par. xvi. 123. Innocent III., Pope. Par. xi. 92. Ino, wife of Athamas. Hell, xxx. 5. Interminei, Alessio. Hell, xviii. 122. lole. Par. ix. 102. Iphigenia. Par. v. 70. Irascible, the. Hell, vii. ; viii ; Purg.
xv. ; xvi. Iris. Purg. xxi. 50 ; xxix. 78 ; Par.
xii. 12; xxviii. 32; xxxiii. 118. Isaac, patriarch. Hell, iv. 59. Isaiah, prophet. Par. xxv. 91. I sere. Par. vi. 59. Isidore, St. Par. x. 131. Ismene, daughter of CEdipus. Purg.
xxii. in.
Ismenus. Purg. xyiii. 91. Israel (Jacob), patriarch. Hell, iv. 59 Italy. Hell, i. 106; ix. 114; xx. 61 ;
xxvii. 27 ; xxxiii. 80 ; Purg. vi. 76!
105, 124; vii. 95; xiii. 96; xx. 67;
xxx. 86 ; Par. xxi. 106 ; xxx. 137.
INDEX
267
Jacob, patriarch. Par. viii. 131; xxii.
71, 144; xxxii. 68. Jacopo del Cassero. Purg. v. 64. Jacopo da Lentino, the Notary. Purg.
xxiv. 56. Jacopo Rusticucci. Hell, vi. 80 ; xvi.
Jacopo of Sant' Andrea. Hell, xiii.
Taculi (serpents). Hell, xxiv. 86. James, St. (son of Alpheus), apostle.
Purg. xxix. 142; xxxii. 76. James, St. (son of Zebedee), apostle,
Par. xxv. 17, 77. James, King of Aragon. Purg. vii.
119; Par. xix. 137. James, King of the Balearic Isles.
Par. xix. 137. Janus. Par. vi. 81. Jason, leader of the Argonaut*. Hell,
xviii. 86 ; Par. ii. 18. ehoshaphat. Hell, x. n. ephthah. Par. v. 66. ericho. Par. ix. 124. erome, St. Par. xxix. 37. erusalem. Hell, xxxiv. 114 Purg.
ii. 3; xxiii. 29; Par. xix. 127; xxv.
56. Jews. Hell, xxiii. 123; xxvii. 87 ; Par.
vii. 47 ; xxix. 102. Joachim, Abbot. Par. xii. 140. Joan of Montefeltro. Purg. v. 89. Joan, Visconti. Purg. viii. 71. Joan, mother of St. Dominic. Par.
xii. 80. Jocasta, Queen of Thebes. Purg. xxii.
John the Baptist, St. Hell, xiii. 143 ;
xxx. 74; Purg. xxii. 152; Par. xvi.
25,47; xviii. 134; xxxii. 31. > John Chrysostom, St. Par. xii. 137. John, St., evangelist. Hell, xix. 106;
Purg. xxix. 92, 105, 143 ; xxxii.
76; Par. xxiv. 126; xxv. 112; xxxii.
1.27. John, St., church in Florence. Hell,
xix. 17. See Baptistery. John XXII., Pope. Par. xxvii. 58. Jordan. Purg. xviii. 135; Par. xxii.
-04 •
Joseph, Patriarch. Hell, xxx. 97. Joseph, St., husband of Virgin Mary.
Purg. xv. 91. Joshua. Purg. xx. in ; Par. ix. 125;
xviii. 38. Jove. Hell, xiv. 52 ; xxxi. 45, 92 ;
Purg. xii. 32; xxix. 120; xxxii. 112;
Par. iv. 62. Jove, Supreme (appellation of the
Christian God). Purg. vi. 118. Tuba. Par. vi. 170. Jubilee of the year 1300. Hell, xviii.
29; Purg. ii. 98.
Judas Iscariot. Hell, ix. 27 ; xix. 961
xxxiv. 62; Purg. xx. 74; xxi. 84. Judas Maccabeus. Par. xviii. 40. Judecca. Hell, xxxiv. 117. Judith. Par. xxxii. 10. Julia, daughter of Caesar. Hell, iv.
128. Julius Caesar. Hell, i. 70; iv. 123;
xxviii. 98: Purg. xviii. 101 ; xxvi.
77; Par. vi. 57 ; xi. 69. Juno. Hell, xxx. i; Par. xn. 12;
xxviii. 32. Jupiter, planet. Par. xviii. 70, 95, 115;
xxii. 145 ; xxvii. 14. Justinian, Emperor. Purg. vl. 89;
Par. vi. 10 ; vii. i. Juvenal. Purg. xxii. 14.
Lacedaemon (Sparta). Purg. vi. 139. Lachesis. Purg. xxi. 25 ; xxv. 79. Lamberti, family. Par. xvi. no. Lamone. Hell, xxvii. 49. Lancelot. Hell, v. 128. Lanciotto, Malatesta. Hell, v. 107. Lanfranchi, family. Hell, xxxiii. 32. Langia, fountain of. Purg. xxii. 112. Lano. Hell, xiii. 120. Lapo, abbreviation of Jacopo, plural
Lapi. Par. xxix. 102. Lapo Salterello. Par. xv. 128. Lasca, the celestial. Purg. xxxii. 54. Lateran church. Hell, xxvii. 86. Latian, for Italian. Hell, xxvii. 33;
xxix. 88 ; Purg. xi. 58. Latian land, Italy. Hell, xxvii. 27;
xxviii. 71.
Latini, Brunetto. Hell, xv. 30; 101. Latinus, King. Hell, iv. 125. Latona. Purg. xx. 131; Par. x. 67;
xxii. 139 ; xxix. i. Lavagna. Purg. xix. 101. Lavinia. Hell, iv. 126 ; Purg. xvii. 37;
Par. vi. 3.
Lawrence, St. Par. iv. 83. Leah. Purg. xxvii. 101. Leander. Pure, xxviii. 73. Learchus and Melicertes. Hell, xxx.
10.
Lebanon. Purg. xxx. xx. Leda. Par. xxvii. 98. Lemnos. Hell, xviii. 88. Lentino, Jacopo da. Purg. xxiv. 56. Leopard, she-. Hell, i. 32. Lerici. Purg. iii. 49. Lethe. Hell, xiv. 131, 136; Purg.
xxvi. 108 ; xxviii. 130; xxx. 143;
xxxiii. 96, 123. Levi. Purg. xvi. 132. Liberality, examples of. Purg. xx. 31 Libicocco, demon. Hell, xxi. 121 ;xxii
Libra, sign of the Zodiac. Purjf. xxvii
268
INDEX
Libya. Hell, xxiv. 85.
Lily (flower-de-luce), arms of France.
Purg. vii. 105. Limbo. Hell, ii. 52; iv. 45; Purg.
xxii. 14; Par. xxxii. 84. Limoges. Purg. xxvi. 120. Linus, the poet. Hell, iv. 141. Linus, Pope. Par. xxvii. 41. Lion. Hell, i. 45- Lion; sign of the Zodiac. Par. xvi. 37 ;
xxi. 14.
Livy. Hell, xxviii. 12. Lizio. Pure. xiv. 97. Loderingo degli Andal6. Hell, xxiii.
104.
Logodoro. Hell, xxii. 89. Lombard dialect. Hell, xxvii. 20. Lombard, the great, Bartolommeo
della Scala. Par. xvii. 71. Lombard, the simple, Guido da Cas-
tello. Purg. xvi. 126. Lombardo, Marco. Purg. xvi. 46. Lombards. Hell, xxii. 99. Lombardy and the Marca Trivigiana.
Hell, xxviii. 74; Purg. xvi. 115. Louises, Kings of France. Purg. xx. 50. Lovers. Par. viii. Lucan. Hell, iv. 90 ; xxv. 94. Lucca. Hell,xyiii. 122; xxi. 40; xxxiii.
30; Purg. xxiv. 20. Lucia, St. Hell, ii. 97 ; Purg. ix. 55 ;
Par. xxxii. 137. Lucifer. Hell, xxxi. 143 ; xxxiy. 89 ;
Purg. xii. 25 ; Par. ix. 127 ; xix. 47 ;
xxix. 56.
Lucretia. Hell, iv. 128; Par. vi. 41. Luke, St. Purg. xxi. 7 ; xxix. 92. Luni. Hell, xx. 47 ; Par. xvi. 73. Lycurgus, King of Nemaea. Purg.
xxvi. 94.
Macarius, St. Par. xxii. 49. Maccabees. Hell, xix. 86. Maccabeus. Par. xviii. 40. Maghinardo da Susinana. Hell, xxvii.
50.
Magra, river. Par. ix. 89. Magus, Simon. Hell, xix. i. Mahomet. Hell, xxviii. 31, 62. Maia (for the planet Mercury). Par.
xxii. 144.
Mainardi, Arrigo. Purg. xiv. 97. Mainardo, Pagani. Purg. xiv. 118. Majorca. Hell, xxviii. 82; Par. xix.
r37- Malacoda, demon. Hell, xxi. 76, 79;
xxiii. 141. Malaspina, Corrado. Purg. viii. 65 ;
118.
Malatesta of Rimini. Hell, xxvii. 46. Malatestino. Hell, xxviii. 81. Malebolge. Hell, xviii. i ; xxi. 5 ; xxiv.
47: rxix. 41.
Malebranche, demons. Hell, xxi. 371 xxii. 100 ; xxiii. 23; xxxiii. 142.
Malta, prison. Par. ix. 54.
Manfred, King of Apulia. Purg. iii. 112.
Manfredi, Aberigo de', of Faenza. Hell, xxxiii. 118.
Manfredi, Tribaldello de'. Hell, xxxii.
122.
Mangiadore, Peter. Par. xii. 134. Manto. Hell, xx. 55 ; Purg. xxii.
113. Mantua. Hell, xx. 93 ; Purg. vi. 72 ;
xviii. 83. Mantuan. (Virgil) Hell, ii. 58 ; Purg.
vi. 74. (Sordello) Purg. vii. 86. Mantuans. Hell, i. 69. Marcab6. Hell, xxviii. 75. Marcellus. Purg. vi. 125. March of Ancona. Purg. v. 68. March of Treviso. Purg. xvi. 115;
Par. ix. 25.
Marchese, Messer. Purg. xxiv. 31. Marcia, wife of Cato. Hell, iv. 128;
Purg. i. 79.
Marco Lombardo. Purg. xvi. 46. Maremma. Hell, xxv. 19 ; xxix. 48 ;
Purg. v. 134. Margaret, Queen of Aragon. Purg.
vii. 128. Marquis (Obizzo) da Este. Hell, xviii.
56. Marquis (William) of Monferrata
Purg. vii. 134. Mars. Hell, xiii. 144 ; xxiv. 145 ; xxxi.
51; Purg. xii. 31; Par. iv. 63; viii.
132; xvi. 47, 145 ; xxii. 146. Mars, planet. Purg. ii. 14 ; Par. iv.
63; xiv. 101 ; xvi. 38; xvii. 77;
xxvii. 14.
Marseilles. Purg. xviii. 102. Marsyas. Par. i. 20. Martin IV., Pope. Purg- xxiv. 20. Martin, Master. Par. xiii. 139. Mary, Hebrew woman. Purg. xxiii
3°- Mary, the Virgin. Purg. iii. 39 ; v. loi?
viii. 37 ; x. 50; xiii. 50; xv. 88 ; xviii.
100 ; xx. 19, 97 ; xxii. 142 ; xxxiii.
6; Par. iii. 122; iv. 30; xi. 71 ; xiii.
84; xiv. 36; xv. 133; xvi. 34; xxiii.
in, 126, 137; xxxii. 4, 95, 104, 107,
113 ; xxxiii. i, 34. Marzucco. Purg. vi. 18. Mascheroni, Sassol. Hell, xxxii. 65. Matilda. Purg. xxviii. 40; xxxi. 93;
xxxii. 28, 82; xxxiii. 119. Matteo of Acquasparta, Cardinal. Par.
xii. 124.
Matthias, St., Apostle. Hell, xix. 94. Medea. Hell, xviii. 96. Medicina, Pier da. Hell, xxviii. 7$. Mediterranean Sea. Par. ix. 82;
Medusa. Hell, ix. 52. Megaera. Hell, ix. 46. Melchisedec. Par. viii. 125. Meleager. Purg. xxv. 22. Melice'rtes and Learchus, sons of Atha-
mas. Hell, xxx. 5. Melissus. Par. xiii. 125. Menalippus. Hell, xxxii. 131. Mercury. Par. iv. 63. Mercury, planet. Par. v. 96. Metellus. Purg. ix. 137. Michael, Archangel. Hell, vii. ii;
Purg. xiii. 51 ; Par. iv. 47. Michael Scott. Hell, xx. 116. Michael Zanche. Hell, xxii. 88 ; xxxiii.
144. Michal, Saul's daughter. Purg. x. 68,
72-
Midas. Purg. xx. 106. Midian. Purg. xxiv. 126. Milan. Purg. xviii. 120. Milanese. Purg. viii. 80. Mincio. Hell, xx. 77. Minerva. Purg. xxx. 68 ; Par. ii. 8. Minos. Hell, v. 4; xiii. 96; xx. 36;
xxvii. 124; xxix. 120; Purg. i. 77;
Par. xiii. 14.
Minotaur. Hell, xii. 12, 25. Mira, La. Purg. v. 79. Miserere. Purg. v. 24. Modena. Par. vi. 75. Moldau. Purg. vii. 99. Monaldi and Filippeschi, families.
Purg. vi. 107.
Monferrato. Purg. vii. 136. Mongibello (Mt. Aetna). Hell, xiv.
56 ; Par. viii. 70.
Montagna, cavalier. Hell, xxvii. 47. Mont' Aperti. Hell, xxxii. 81. Montecchi and Cappelletti, families.
Purg. vi. 106.
Monte Feltro. Purg. v. 88. Montemalo (now Montemario). Par.
xv. 109.
Montemurlo. Par. xvi. 64. Montereggione. Hell, xxxi. 41. Montfort, Guy of. Hell, xii. 118. Montone. Hell, xvi. 99. Moon. Hell, x. 80; xix. 97; Par. xvi.
82.
Mordecai. Purg. xvii. 29. Mordred, son of King Arthur. Hell,
xxxii. 61. Morocco. Hell, xxvi. 104; Purg. iv.
139. Moronto, brother of Cacciaguida. Par.
xv. 136. Mosca (degli Uberti, or Lamberti).
Hell, vi. 80 ; xxviii. 106. Moses. Hell, iv. 57 ; Purg. xxxii. 80 ;
Par. iv. 29; xxiv. 136; xxvi. 41. Mozzi, Andrea dei. Hell, xv. 112. Muses. Hell, ii. 7; xxxii. 10; Purg.
INDEX 269
i. 8; xxii. 102; xxix. 37; Par. ii. #
xii. 7 ; xxiii. 56.
Mucius (Scaevola). Par. iv. 84. Myrrha. Hell, xxx. 38.
Naiades. Purg. xxxiii. 49.
Naples. Purg. iii. 27.
Narcissus. Hell, xxx. 128 ; Par. iii. it
Nasidius. Hell, xxv. 95.
Nathan, Prophet. Par. xii. 136.
Navarre. Hell, xxii. 48 ; Par. xix
143. Navarrese, the (Ciampolo). Hell, xxii.
48, 121.
Nazareth. Par. ix. 137. Nebuchadnezzar. Par. iv. 14. Negligent of repentance, the. Purg.
ii. to vii.
Nella, wife of Forese. Purg. xxiii. 87. Neptune. Hell, xxviii. 83 ; Par. xxxiii
96.
Neri, Black Party. Hell, vi. 64. Nerli, family. Par. xv. 115. Nessus. Hell, xii. 67, 98, 115 ; xiii. i. Niccoli (Salimbeni) of Siena. Hell,
xxix. 127.
Nicholas, St., of Bari. Purg. xx. 32. Nicholas III., Pope. Hell, xix. 70. Nicosia. Par. xix. 146. Nile. Hell, xxxiv. 45; Purg. xxiv.64;
Par. vi. 66. Nimrod. Hell, xxxi. 77 ; Purg. xii.
34 ; Par. xxvi. 126. Nino de' Visconti, of Pisa. Purg. viiL
S3. 109-
Ninus. Hell, v. 59. Niobe. Queen of Thebes. Purg. xii
Nisus. Hell, i. 108.
Noah. Hell, iv. 56 ; Par. xii. 17.
Nocera. Par. xi. 48.
Noli. Purg. iv. 25.
Normandy. Purg. xx. 66.
Norway. Par. xix. 139.
Notary, the, Jacopo da Lentino. Purg
xxiv. 56.
Novarese, the. Hell, xxviii. 59. Novello, Federigo. Purg. vi. 17. Numidia. Purg. xxxi. 72. Nymphs, Naiades. Purg. xxix. 4;
xxxi. 106.
Nymphs, stars. Par. xxiii. 26. Nymphs, Virtues. Purg. xxxii. 98.
Obizzo of Esti. Hell, xii. m ; xviii. Octavian Augustus. Hell, i. 71 ; Purg
vii. 6.
Oderisi of Gnbbio. Purg. xi. 79. Olympus. Purg. xxiv. 15. Omberto of Santafiore. Purg. xi. 67, Ordelaffi of Forli. Hell, xxvii. 45. Orestes. Purg. xiii. 32. Oriaco. Purg. v. 80.
2JO
INDEX
Ormanni, family. Par. xri. 89.
Orpheus. Hell, iv. 140.
Orsini, family. Hell, xix. 70.
Orso, Count. Purg. vi. 19.
Ostia. Purg. ii. 100.
Ostia, Cardinal of. Par. xii. 83.
Ottocar, King of Bohemia. Purg. vii.
IOO.
Ovid. Hell, iv. 90 ; xxv. 97.
Pachynus. Par. viii. 68. Padua. Par. ix. 46. Paduans. Hell, xv. 7. Pagani, family. Purg. xiv. 118. Palazzo, Corrado da. Purg. xvi. 124. Palermo. Par. viii. 75. Palestrina. Hell, xxvii. 102. Palladium. Hell, xxvi. 63. Pallas (Minerva). Purg. xii. 31. Pallas, son of Evander. Par. vi. 36. Paradise, Terrestrial. Purg. xxviii. Paris, city. Purg. xi. 81 ; xx. 52. Paris, Trojan. Hell, y. 67. Parmenides. Par. xiii. 125. Parnassus. Purg. xxii. 65, 104; xxviii.
141 ; xxxi. 141 ; Par. i. 16. Pasiphae. Hell, xii. 13 ; Purg. xxvi.
41, 86. Paul, Apostle. Hell, ii. 32; Purg.
xxix. 134; Par. xviii. 131 ; xxi. 127;
xxiv. 62 ; xxviii. 138. Paulus Orosius. Par. x. 119. Pazzi, family. (Rinier Pazzo) Hell,
xii. 137. (Camicion de' Pazzi) Heli,
xxxii. 68. Pear, family of the (the Peruzzi). Par.
xvi. 126.
Peculators. Hell, xxi.; xxii. Pegasea (Calliope). Par. xviii. 82. Peleus. Hell, xxxi. 5. Pelican (Christ). Par. xxv. 113. Pelorus. Purg. xiv. 32 ; Par. viii. 68. Penelope. Hell, xxvi. 96. Penthesilea. Hell, iv. 124. Perillus. Hell, xxvii. 7. Persians. Par. xix. 112. Persius. Purg. xxii. 100. Perugia. Par. vi. 75 ; xi. 46. Peschiera. Hell, xx. 70. Peter, St., Apostle. Hell, i. 134; ii.
24; xix. 91; Purg. ix. 127; xiii. 51 ;
xix. qf) ; xxi. 54 ; xxii. 63 ; xxxii. 76 ;
Par. ix. 141 : xi. 130 ; xviii. 131; xxi.
127; xxii. 88; xxiii. 139; xxiv. 59,
115, 124, 153; xxv. 12; xxvii. 49;
xxxii. 124, 133. Peter. St., Church of. Hell, xviii. 32 ;
xxxi. 59.
Peter Damian. Par. xxi. 122. Peter Lombard. Par. x. 107. Peter Mangiadore. Par. xii. 134. Peter of Aragon. Purg. vii. 112 » 125. Peter of Spam. Par. xii. 134.
Peter a sinner. Par. xxi. 127. Pettignano, Pier. Purg. xiii. 128. Phaedra. Par. xvii. 47. Phaethon. Hell, xvii. 107 ; Purg. i>
72; xxix. 118; Par. xvii. 3; xxxi
125.
Phalaris. Hell, xxvii. 7. Phareae, serpents. Hell, xxiv. 86. Pharisees. Hell, xxiii. 116 ; xxvii. 85. Pharsalia. Par. vi. 65. Philippe Argenti. Hell, viii. 61. Philip 1 1 1 ..the Bold, of France. Purg.
vi. 20 ; vii. 103. Philip IV., the Fair, of France. Hell,
xix. 87; Purg. vii. 109; xx. 50, 86 j
xxxii. 152 ; Par. xix. 120. Philips, Kings of France. Purg. xx.
50.
Phlegethon. Hell, xiv. 116, 131. Phlegra. Hell, xiv. 58. Phlegyas. Hell, viii. 19, 24. Phoenicia. Par. xxvii. 83. Phoenix. Hell, xxiv. 107. Pholus. Hell, xii. 72. Photinus. Hell, xi. 9. Phyllis. Par. ix. 100. Pia of Siena. Purg. v. 133. Piave, river. Par. ix. 27. Piccarda de' Donati. Purg. xxiv. 10;
Par. iii. 49 ; iv. 97. Piceno, Campo. Hell, xxiv. 148. Pier da Medicina. Hell, xxviii. 73. Pier Pettignano. Purg. xiii. 128. Pier Traversaro. Purg. xiv. 98. Pier delle Vigne. Hell, xiii. 32. Pierre de la Brosse. Purg. vi. 22. Pietola. Purg. xviii. 83. Pietrapana. Hell, xxxii. 29. Pigli, family. Par. xvi. 103. Pila, Ubaldin dalla. Purg. xxiv. 29. Pilate, the modern (Philip the Fair).
Purg. xx. 91.
Pinamonte, Buonacorsi. Hell, xx. 96. Pine-cone of St. Peter's. Hell, xxxi.
90.
Pisa. Hell, xxxiii. 79 ; Purg. vi. 17. Pisans. Hell, xxxiii. 30; Purg. xiv.
53-
Pisistratus. Purg. xv. 101. Pistoia. Hell, xxiv. 126, 143; xxv. 10. Pius I. Par. xxvii. 44. Plato. Hell, iv. 134 ; Purg. iii. 43 ; Par
iv. 24, 49.
Plautus. Purg. xxii. 98. Pluto. Hell, vi. 115. Po. Hell, v. 98; xx. 78; Purg. xiv
92; xvi. 115; Par. vi. 51; xv. 137. Pola. Hell, ix. 113. Pole, North. Purg. i. 29. Pole, South. Purg. i. 23. Polenta, family. Hell, xxvii. 41. Pollux, Castor and. Purg. iv. 61* Polycletus. Purg, x. 32.
INDEX
271
Polydorus. Hell, xxx. 18; Purg. xx.
115.
Polyhymnia. Par. xxiii. 56. Polymnestor. Purg. xx. 115. Polynices. Hell, xxvi. 54 ; Purg. xxii.
Polyxena. Hell, xxx. 17. Pompey the Great. Par. vi. 53. Ponthieu. Purg. xx. 66. Porta Sole of Perugia. Par. xi. 47. Portugal. Par. xix. 139. Potiphar's wife. Hell, xxx. 97. Poverty, examples of. Purg. xx. 22. Powers, order of angels. Par. xxviii.
123-
Prague. Par. xix. 117. Prata, Guido da. Purg. xiv. 104. Prato. Hell, xxvi. 9. Pratomagno. Purg. v. 116. Preachers, rebuked. Par. xxix. 90. Pressa (della), family. Par. xvi. 100. Priam, King of Troy. Hell, xxx. 15,
Priest, the High, Boniface VIII. Hell,
xxvii. 70. Primum Mobile. Par. xxvii. 68, 99,
118. Princes, order of angels. Par. viii. 34 ;
xxviii. 125.
Priscian. Hell, xv. 109. Prodigal, the. Hell, vii. Progne. Purg. xvii. 19. Proserpine. Hell, ix. 44; x. 80; Purg.
xxviii. 50.
Proud, the, Purg. x. ; xi. ; xii. Provencals, the. Par. vi. 130. Provence. Purg. vii. 126 ; xx. 61 ; Par.
viii. 58.
Provenzan Salvani. Purg. xi. 121. Psalmist David. Purg. x. 65. Ptolemy, the astronomer. Hell, iv.
142.
Ptolemy, King of Egypt. Par. vi. 69. Ptolomaea. Hell, xxxiii. 124. Puccio Sciancato. Hell, xxv. 148. Pygmalion. Purg. xx. 103. Pyramus. Purg. xxvii. 38 ; xxxiii. 69. Pyrenees. Par. xix. 144. Pyrrhus. Hell, xii. 135; Par. vi. 44.
Quarnaro, Gulf of. Hell, ix. 113. Quinctius (Cincinnatus). Par. vi. 46. Quirinus (Romulus). Par. viii. 131.
Raban. Par. xii. 139.
Rachel. Hell, ii. 102; iv. 60; Purg.
xxvii. 104 ; Par xxxii. 8. Rahab. Par. ix. 116. Ram, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. viii.
134; Par xxix 2. Raphael, Archangel. Par. iv. 48. Rascia, part of the mcw'tra Servia.
Par. xix. 140.
Ravenna. Hell, v. 97; xxvii. 40; Par.
vi. 6 1 ; xxi. 123.
Ravignani, family. Par. xvi. 97. Raymond Beranuer. Par. vi. 134. Rebecca. Par. xxxii. 10. Red Sea. Hell, xxiv. 90; Purg. xviii
134 ; Par. vi. 79. Rehoboam. Purg. xii. 46. Reno, river. Hell, xviii. 61 ; Purg.
xiv. 92.
Renouard. Par. xviii. 46. Resurrection of the body. Par. vii.
146; xiv. 43. Rhea. Hell, xiv. 100. Rhine, the. Par. vi. 58. Rhipeus, the Trojan. Par. xx. 68. Rhodope, she of (Phyllis). Par. ix.
100. Rhone, the. Hell, ix. 112 ; Par. vi. 60;
viii. 59.
Rialto (Venice). Par. ix. 26. Riccardo da Camino. Par. ix. 50. Richard of St. Victor. Par. x. 13 1. Rimini. Hell, xxviii. 86. Rinier of Calboli. Purg. xiv. 38. Rinier of Corneto. Hell, xii. 137. Rinier Pazzo. Hell, xii. 137. Riphaean Mountains. Purg. xxvi. 43. Robert Guiscard. Hell, xviii. 14 ; Par.
xviii. 48. Robert, King of Apulia. Par. viif.
76. Roland. Hell, xxxi. 18 ; Par. xviii.
Romagna. Hell, xxvii. 37 ; xxxiii. 154$
Purg. v. 69 ; xiv. 92 ; xv. 44. Romagnuoli. Hell, xxvii. 28; Purg.
xiv. 99.
Roman buildings. Par. xv. 106. Roman Church. Hell, xix. 57 ; Par.
xvii. 72.
Roman Emperors. Purg. xxxii. 113. Roman Kings. Par. vi. 47. Roman Prince, Trajan. Purg. x. 76. Romans. Hell, xv. 77 ; xviii. 28 ; xxvi.
60 ; xxviii. 28 ; Par. vi. 44 ; xix.
102. Roman Shepherd, Pope Adrian V.
Purg. xix. 107. Roman women, ancient. Purg. xxii.
145. Rome, city. Hell, i. 71; ii. 20; xiv.
105; xxxi. 59; Purg. vi. 112; xvi.
106, 127; xviii. 80; xxi. 89; xxix.
115; xxxii. 149; Par. vi. 57; ix. 140;
xv. 126; xvi. 10 ; xxiv. 63 ; xxvii. 251
62 ; xxxi. 34. Romena. Hell, xxx. 73. Romeo of Provence. Par. vi. 128, 13$ Romuald, St. Par xxii. 49. Romulus (Quirinus). Par. viii. 131. Roncesvalles. Hell, xxxi. 16. Rose, the Heavenly. Par. xxx. ; xxii
172
INDEX
Rubaconte, the bridge. Purg. xii. 102. Rubicante, demon. Hell, xxi. 123;
xxii. 40.
Rubicon. Par. vi. 62. Rudolph of Hapsburg. Purg. vi. 103 ;
vii. 94; Par. viii. 72. Ruegieri, degli Ubaldini, Archbishop
otPisa. Hell, xxxiii. 14. Rulers, just. Par. xviii. Rusticucci, Jacopo. Hell, vi. 80 ; xvi.
Ruth. Par. xxxii. 10.
Sabellius. Par. xiii. 127. Sabellus. Hell, xxv. 9$. Sabine women. Par. vi. 40. Sacchetti, family. Par. xvi. 104. Saint Victor, Hugh of. Par. xii. 133. Saints of the Old and New Testament.
Par. xxxii.
Saladin. Hell, iv. 129. Salimbeni, Niccolo. Hell, xxix. 127. Salterello, Lapo. Par. xv. 128. Salvani, Provenzan. Purg. xi. 121. Samaria, woman of. Purg. xxi. 3. Samuel, Prophet. Par. iv. 29. San Miniato. Purg. xii. 101. Sanleo. Purg. iv. 25. Sannella, family. Par. xvi. 92. Sant' Andrea, Jacomo da. Hell, xiii.
»33- Santafiore, Counts of. Purg. vi. in;
xi. 58.
Santerno. Hell, xxvii. 49. Saone, river. Par. vi. 59. Sapia, lady of Siena. Purg. xiii. 109. Sapphira and Ananias. Purg. xx. 112. Saracens. Hell, xxvii. 87; (Saracen
women) Purg. xxiii. 103. Sara, wife of Abraham. Par. xxxii.
10.
Sardanapalus. Par. xv. 107. Sardinia. Hell, xxii. 89; xxvi. 104;
xxix. 48; Purg. xviii. 81 ; xxiii. 94. Sassol Mascheroni. Hell, xxxii. 65. Satan. Hell, vii. i. Saturn. Hell, xiv. 96 ; Par. xxi. 26. Saturn, the planet. Purg. xix. 3 ; Par.
xxi. 13 ; xxii. 146. Saul. Purg. xii. 40. Savena, river. Hell, xviii. 61. Savio, river. Hell, xxvii. 52. Scaevola, Mucius. Par. iv. 84. Scala, Alberto della. Purg. xviii. 121. Scala, Bartolommeo della. Par. xvii.
Scala, Can Grande della. Par. xvii.
76. Scales, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. ii. 5 ;
Par. xxix. 2.
Scarmiglione, demon. Hell, xxi. 105. Schicchi, Gianni. Hell, xxx. 32. Schismatics. Hell, xxviii. ; xxix.
Sciancato, Puccio. Hell, xxv. 148. Scipio, Africanus. Hell, xxxi. 116;
Purg. xxix. 116; Par. vi. 53; xxvii.
61.
Sclavonian winds. Purg. xxx. 87. Scorpio, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. ix,
5 ; xxv. 3.
Scot, the. Par. xix. 122. Scott, Michael. Hell, xx. 116. Scrovigni, family. Hell, xvii. 64. Scyros. Piirjt. ix. 37. Seducers. Hell, xviii. Seine, the. Par. vi. 59; xix. 118. Semele. Hell, xxx. 2 ; Par. xxi. 6. Semiramis. Hell, v. 58. Seneca. Hell, iv. 141. Sennacherib. Purg. xii. 53. Seraph. Par. xxi. 92. Seraphim. Par. iv. 28; viii. 27; ix.
77 ; xxviii. 72, 99. Serchio, river. Hell, xxi. 49. Serpents of Libya. Hell, xxiv. 85. Sestos. Purg. xxviii. 74. Seven Kings against Thebes. Hell,
xiv. 68.
Seville. Hell, xx. 126 ; xxyi. no. Sextus I., Pope. Par. xxvii. 44. Sextus (Tarquinius). Hell, xii. 135. Shinar. Purg. xii. 36. Sibyl, Cumaean. Par. xxxiii. 66. Sichaeus. Hell, v. 62 ; Par. ix. 98. Sicilian Vespers. Par. viii. 75. Sicily. Hell, xii. 108; Purg. iii. 116;
Par. viii. 67; xix. 131. Siena. Hell, xxix. 109; Purg. v. 134$
xi. in, 123. Sienese. Hell, xxix. 122, 134; Purg.
xi. 65; xiii. 115, 151. Siestri. Purg. xix. 100. Sigier. Par. x. 136. Sile, river. Par. ix. 49. Silvius. Hell, ii. 13. Simifonti. Par. xvi. 62. Simois, river. Par. vi. 67. Simon Magus. Hell, xix. i ; Par. xxx.
147.
Simoniacs. Hell, xix. Simonides. Purg. xxii. 107. Sinigaglia. Par. xvi. 7C. Sinon the Greek. Hell, xxx. 98. Siren. Purg. xix. 19. Sirens. Purg. xxxi. 45 ; Par. xii. 8. Sirocco. Purg. xxviii. 21. Sismondi, family. Hell, xxxiii. 32. Sizii, family. Par. xvi. 108. Slothful, the. Hell, vii. ; viii. ; Purg.
xvii.; xviii.
Socrates. Hell.iv. 134. Sodom. Hell, xi. 50; Purg. xxvi. 40,
ovu. Hell, xv.
Soldanier, Gianni del. Hell, xxxii
INDEX
273
Soldanieri, family. Par. xvi. 93. Solitary and Contemplative, the. Par.
xxi. Solomon. Par. x. 109; xiii. 48, 89;
xiv. 35.
Solon. Par. viii. 124. Soothsayers. Hell, xx. Soracte. Hell, xxvii. 95. Sordello. Purg. vi. 74; vii. 3, 52, 85 ;
viii. 38, 62, 94; ix. 58. Sorgue, river. Par. viii. 59. Sow, arms of the bcrovigni. Hell, xvii.
Spain. Hell, xxvi. 103; Purg. xviii.
102; Par. vi. 64; xii. 46; xix. 125. Spaniards. Par. xxix. 101. Sphinx. Purg. xxxiii. 43. Spirit, Holy. Purg. xx. 98 ; Par. iii.
Stars, fixed. Par. xxii.
Stars, last word of Hell, Purg., Par.
Stars of the South Polar region. Purg.
i- 23. Statius. Purg. xxi. 10, 91 ; xxii. 25,
64; xxiv. 119; xxv. 29; xxvii. 47;
xxxii. 29; xxxiii. 134. Statue of Time, source of Acheron,
Styx, Phlegethon. Hell, xiv. 103. Stephen, St. Purg. xv. 106. Stigmata of St. Francis. Par. xi. 107. Street of Straw (Rue du Fouarre).
Par. x. 137.
Stricca. Hell, xxix. 125. Strophades. Hell, xiii. n. Styx. Hell, vii. 109; ix. 81; xiv. 116. Suabia. Par. iii. 119. Suicides. Hell, xiii. Sultan. Hell, v. 60; xxvii. 90; Par.
xi. 101.
Sylvester, Fra. Par. xi. 83. Sylvester, St., Pope. Hell, xix. 117;
xxvii. 94 ; Par. xx. 57. Syrinx. Purg. xxxii. 65.
Tacco, Ghin di. Purg. yi. 14. Tagliacozzo. Hell, xxviii. 17. Tagliamento, river. Par. ix. 44. Talamone. Pure;, xiii. 152. Tambernich. Hell, xxxii. 28. Tarlati, Cione de'. Purg. vi. 15.. Tarpeian Rock. Purg. ix. 137. Tarquin. Hell, iv. 127. Tartars. Hell, xvii. 17. Taurus, sign of the Zodiac. Purg. xxv.
3 ; Par. xxii. in. Tegghiaio Aldobrandi. Hell, vi. 79 ;
xvi. 41.
Temple, the. Purg. xx. 93. Terence. Purg. xxii. 97. Tesoro of Brunette Latini. Hell, xv.
119.
Thaddeus. Par. xii. 83. Thai's. Hell, xviii. 133.
Thales. Hell, iv. 137. Thames, the. Hell, xii. 120. Thaumas. Purg. xxi. 50. Thebaid, poem of Statius. Purg. xxi
Theban blood. Hell, xxx. 2. Thebans. Hell, xx. 32; Purg. xviii.
93- Thebes. Hell, xiv. 69; xx. 59; xxv.
1 5 ; xxx. 22 ; xxxii. 1 1 ; xxxiii. 89 ;
Purg. xxi. 92 ; xxii. 89. Thebes, modern (Pisa). Hell, xxxiii.
89.
Themis. Purg. xxxiii. 47. Theologians. Par. x. Theseus. Hell, ix. 54; xii. 17; Purg-
xxiv. 123.
Thetis. Purg. ix. 37 ; xxii. 113. Thibault II., King. Hell, xxii. 52. Thieves. Heli, xxiv. Thisbe. Purg. xxvii. 37. Thoas and Euneos. Purg. xxvi, 95. Thomas, St., Apostle. Par. xvi. 129. Thomas Aquinas. Purg. xx. 69 ; Par.
x. 82; xii. no, 144; xiii. 32; xiv. 6. Throne and Crown for Henry VII. of
Luxemburg. Par. xxx. 137. Thrones, order of angels. Par. ix. 61;
xxviii. 104.
Thymbraeus (Apollo). Purg. xii. 31. Tiber. Hell, xxvii. 30 ; Purg. ii. xoi;
Par. xi. 1 06.
Tiberius Caesar. Par. vi. 86. Tignoso, Federico. Purg. xiv. 106. Tigris, the. Purg. xxxiii. 112. Timaeus, the, of Plato. Par. iv. 49. Tiresias. Hell, xx. 40; Purg. xxii.
Tisiphone. Hell, ix. 48.
Tithonus. Purg. ix. i.
Titus, Emperor. Purg. xxi 82; Par.
vi. 92.
Tityus. Hell, xxxi. 124. Tobias. Par. iv. 48. Tomyris. Purg. xii. 56. Toppo, the. Hell, xiii. 121. Torquatus, Titus Manlius. Par. vi.
46.
Tours. Purg. xxiv. 23. Traitors. Hell, xxxii. ; xxxiii.; xxxiv. Trajan, Emperor. Purg. x. 76; Par.
xx. 44, 112.
Transfiguration, the. Purg. xxxii. 73. Traversara, family. Purg. xiv. 107. Traversaro, Pier. Purg. xiv. 98. Trent. Hell, xii. 5. Trentine Pastor. Hell, xx. 67. Trespiano. Par. xvi. 54. Tribaldello. Hell, xxxii. 122. Trinacria (Sicily). Par. viii. 67. Trinity, the. Par. xiii. 26; xxxiii. 115 Tristan. Hell, v. 67. Trivia (Diana). Par. xxiii. 26.
INDEX
Troad, mountains of the. Par. vi. 6. Trojan Furies. Hell, xxx. 22. Trojans. Hell, xiii. n ; xxx. 14; Purg.
xviii. 136; Par. xv. 126. Tronic, river. Par. viii. 63. Troy. Hell, i. 74 ; xxx. 98. 1 14 ; Purg.
Tully. ''Hell, iv. 14 1.
Tupino, river. Par. xi. 43.
Turbia. Purg. iii. 49.
Turks. Hell, xvii. 17; Par. xv. 145.
Turnus. Hell, i. 108.
Tuscan language. Purg. xyi. 137.
Tuscan (Dante). Hell, xxiii. 91 ; xxxii.
66.
Tuscans. Hell, xxii. 99 ; Purg. xi. 58. Tuscany. Hell, xxiv. 122; Purg. xi.
no; xiii. 149; xiv. 16. Tydeus. Hell, xxxii. 130. Typhoeus. Par. viii. 70. Typhon. Hell, xxxi. 124. Tyrants. Hell, xii. 103. Tyrol. Hell, xx. 63.
Ubaldin dalla Pila. Purg. xxiv. 29. Ubaldini, Octaviano degli. Hell, x.
120.
Ubaldini, Ruggieri degli. Hell, xxxiii.
14.
TJbaldo, St., of Gubbio. Par. xi. 44. Uberti, family. Par. xvi. 109. Ubertin, Donati. Par. xyi. 119. Ubertino, Krate. Par. xii. 124. Ubriachi, family. Hell. xvii. 62. Uccellatoio, Mount. Par. xv. no. Ughi, family. Par. xvi. 88. Ugolin d' Azzo. Purg. xiv. 105. Ugolin de' Fantoli. Purg. xiv. 12 T. Ugolinp della Gherardesca. Hell,
xxxiii. 13.
Uguccione. Hell, xxxiii. 89. Ulysses. Hell, xxvi. 56 ; Purg. xix.
22 : Par. xxvii. 83. Unbelievers. Hell, x. Urania. Purg. xxix. 41. Urban I. xPar. xxvii. 44. Urbino. Hell, xxvii. 29. Urbisaglia. Par. xvi. 73. Usurers. Hell, xvii. 44. Utica. Purg. i. 74. Uzzah. Purg. x. 57.
Val Camonica. Hell, xx. 65. Valdarno, in Tuscany. Purg. xiv. 30. Valdichiana, in Tuscany. Hell, xxix.
Valdigreve, in Tuscany. Par. xvi. 66. Val di Magra. Hell, xxiv. 145; Purg.
viii. 116.
Vanni Fucci. Hell, xxiv. 125. V*r, river. Par. vi. 58.
Varro. Purg. xxii. 98.
Vatican. Par. ix. 139.
Vecchio, family of the. Par. xv. 115.
Venetians, arsenal of the. Hell, xxi. 7.
Venice, coin of. Par. xix. 141.
Venus. Purg. xxv. 132 ; xxviii. 65.
Venus, planet. Purg. i. 19; Par. viiL
Vercelli.' Hell, xxviii. 75.
Verde, river. Purg. iii. 131 ; Par. viii.
63- Verona. Hell, xv. 122; Purg. xviii.
118.
Veronica, the. Par. xxxi. 104. Verrucchio. Hell, xxvii. 46.
Veso, Mount. Hell. xvi. 05. Vespers, Sicilian. Par. viii.
sper Vicenza. Par. ix. 47.
Hell
75.
Vigne, Pier delle. Hell, xiii. 32. -Violators of monastic vows. Par. Hi. Violent, the, against others. Hell, xii.;
against themselves, xiii. ; against
Gcd, xiv. ; against Nature, xv. ; xvi. ;
against Art, xvii. Viper, arms of the Milanese Visconti.
Purg. viii. 80. Virgil. Hell, i. 79; Purg. iii. 74 ; vii.
7; viii. 64: xviii. 82, 112; Par. xv.
26; xvii. 19; xxvi. 118. Virtues, order of angels. Par. xxviii.
122.
Visconti of Milan. Purg. viii. 80. Visconti of Pisa. Purg. viii. 53, 109. Visdomini, family. Par. xvi. 112. Vision, the bePtific. Par. xxxiii. Vitalianodel Dente. Hell, xvii. 68. Vows, not performed. Par. iv 137. Vulcan. Hell, xiv. 52.
Wain, Charles's. Hell, xi. 114; Purg;
i. 30; Par. xiii. 7. Wenceslaus IV., of Bohemia. Purg.
vii. 10 r ; Par. xix. 125. Will, free. Purg. xvi. 76; xviii. 74. William, Marquis of Monferrato. Purg.
Wissant. ' Hell, xv. 4.
Xerxes. Purg. xxviii. 71 ; Par. viik 124.
Zanche, Michael. Hell, xxii. 88?
xxxiii. 144.
Zara, game of hazard. Purg. vi. i. Zeno, Hell, iv. 138. Zeno. San, monastery at Verona. Purg
xviii. 118.
Zephyr. Par. xii. 47. Zion, Mount. Purg. iv. 68. Zua, Saint. Hell, xxi. 38. Zodiac. Purg. iv. 64 ; Par. x. 14.
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