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THE DIVINE COMEDY

OF

DANTE ALIGHIERI

TRANSLATED BY

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON

II
PURGATORY

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

£fe finwiDe pvess, Cambridge

1891

Copyright, 1891,
By CHARLES ELIOT NORTON.

All rights reserved*

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S.A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co.

CONTENTS.

-♦-

CANTO I.

PAGE

Invocation to the Muses. — Dawn of Easter on the
shore of Purgatory. — The Four Stars. — Cato. —
The cleansing of Dante from the stains of Hell . . 1

CANTO II.

Sunrise. — The Poets on the shore. — Coming of a boat,
guided by an angel, bearing souls to Purgatory. —
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 14

CANTO IV.

Ante-Purgatory. — Ascent to a shelf of the mountain.
— The negligent, who postponed repentance to the
last hour. — Belacqua 20

CANTO V.

Ante-Purgatory. — Spirits who had delayed repentance,
and met with death by violence, but died repentant.

IV CONTENTS.

— Jacopo del Cassero. — Buonconte da Montef eltro.

— Pia de' Tolomei 26

CANTO YI.

Ante-Purgatory. — More spirits who had deferred re-
pentance till they were overtaken by a violent death.

— Efficacy of prayer. — Sordello. — Apostrophe to
Italy 32

CANTO VII.

Virgil makes himself known to Sordello. — Sordello
leads the Poets to the Valley of the Princes who
have been negligent of salvation. — He points them
out by name 39

CANTO VIII.

Valley of the Princes. — Two Guardian Angels. — Nino
Visconti. — The Serpent. — Corrado Malaspina . . 46

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 Forehead.

— Entrance to the First Ledge 53

CANTO X.

First Ledge : the Proud. — Examples of Humility
sculptured on the Rock 61

CONTENTS. v

CANTO XI.

First Ledge : the Proud. — Prayer. — Omberto Aldo-
brandeschi. — Oderisi d' Agubbio. — Provinzan Sal-
vani 67

CANTO XII.

First Ledge : the Proud. — Examples of the punish-
ment of Pride graven on the pavement. — Meeting
with an Angel who removes one of the P's. — As-
cent to the Second Ledge 73

CANTO XIII.

Second Ledge : the Envious. — Examples of Love. —
The Shades in haircloth, and with sealed eyes. —
Sapla of Siena 80

CANTO XIV.

Second Ledge : the Envious. — Guido del Duca. —
Rinieri de' Calboli. — Examples of the punishment
of Envy 87

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. — Examples of Forbearance
seen in Vision 93

vi CONTENTS.

CANTO XVI.

Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Marco Lombardo. —
His discourse on Free Will, and the Corruption of the
World 99

CANTO XVII.

Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Issue from the Smoke.

— Vision of examples of Anger. — Ascent to the
Fourth Ledge, where Sloth is purged. — Second
Nightfall. — Virgil explains how Love is the root of
Virtue and of Sin 106

CANTO XVIII.

Fourth Ledge : the Slothful. — Discourse of Virgil on
Love and Free Will. — Throng of Spirits running iu
haste to redeem their Sin. — The Abbot of San Zeno.

— Dante falls asleep 112

CANTO XIX.

Fourth Ledge : the Slothful. — Dante dreams of the
Siren. — The Angel of the Pass. — Ascent to the Fifth
Ledge. — Pope Adrian V 119

CANTO XX.

Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — The Spirits celebrate
examples of Poverty and Bounty. — Hugh Capet. —
His discourse on his descendants. — Trembling of the
Mountain 126

CONTENTS. vn

CANTO XXI.

Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — Statius. — Cause of the
trembling of the Mountain. — Statius does honor to
Virgil 133

CANTO XXII.

Ascent to the Sixth Ledge. — Discourse of Statius and
Virgil. _ Entrance to the Ledge : the Gluttonous. —
The Mystic Tree.— Examples of Temperance . . .139

CANTO XXIII.

Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. —
Nella. Rebuke of the women of Florence .... 146

CANTO XXIV.

Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. —
Bonagiunta of Lucca. — Pope Martin IV. — Ubaldin
dalla Pila. — Bonifazio. — Messer Marchese. — Pro-
phecy of Forese concerning Gentucca, and Corso de'
Donati. — Second Mystic Tree. — The Angel of the
Pass

151

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

158
their Purification

viil CONTENTS.

CANTO XXVI.

Seventh Ledge: the Lustful. — Sinners in the fire,
going in opposite directions. — Guido Guinicelli. —
Arnaut Daniel 165

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 . . .171

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 . 177

CANTO XXIX.

The Earthly Paradise. — Mystic Procession or Triumph
of the Church 183

CANTO XXX.

The Earthly Paradise. — Beatrice appears. — Departure
of Virgil. — Reproof of Dante by Beatrice .... 190

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 . 196

CONTENTS. ix

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 Triumph
departed. — Transformation of the Chariot. — The
Harlot and the Giant 202

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 .... 210

PURGATORY

PURGATORY.

CANTO I.

Invocation to 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 its sails, and leaves behind itself
a sea so cruel ; and I will sing of that second
realm where the human spirit is purified and be-
comes worthy to ascend to heaven.

But here let dead poesy rise again, O holy
Muses, since yours I am, 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 soft color of oriental sapphire which was gath-
ered in the serene aspect of the air, pure even
to the first circle,2 renewed delight to my eyes

1 The nine daughters of Pieros, king- of Emathia, who, contend-
ing in song with the Muses, were for their presumption changed
to magpies.

2 By '' the first circle," Dante seems to mean the horizon.

2 PURGATORY.

soon as I issued forth from the dead air that 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.1 I
turned me to the right hand, and fixed my mind
upon the other pole, and saw four stars never seen
siive by the first people.2 The heavens appeared
to rejoice in their flamelets. O widowed northern
region, since thou art deprived of beholding these !
When I had withdrawn from regarding them,
turning me a little to the other j3ole, there whence
the Wain had already disappeared, I saw close to
me an old man alone, worthy in look of so much
reverence that no son owes more unto his father.3
He wore a long beard and mingled with white hair,

1 At the spring1 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.

2 These stars are the symbols of the four 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 Paradise. By the first people are probably meant
Adam and Eve, who from the terrestrial Paradise, on the summit
of the Mount of Purgatory, had seen these stars, visible only from
the Southern hemisphere. According to the geography of the
time Asia and Africa lay north of the equator, so that even to
their inhabitants these stars were invisible. Possibly the mean-
ing is that these stars, symbolizing the cardinal virtues, had been
visible only in the golden age.

3 This old man, as soon appears, is the younger Cato, and the

CANTO I. 3

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 if
the sun had been in front.

44 Who are ye that counter to the blind stream
have fled from the eternal prison ? ' said he, mov-
ing those venerable plumes. " Who has guided
you? Or who was a lamp to you, issuing forth
from the deep night that ever makes the infernal

office here given to him of warden of the souls in the outer region
of Purgatory was suggested by the position assigned to him by
Virgil in the ^Eneid, viii. 670. " Sacretosque pios, his dantem jura

Catonem."

It has been objected to Virgil's thus putting him in Elysium,
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 Monor-
chia (lib. ii.), "that he might kindle the love of liberty in the
world, showed how precious it was, by preferring death with lib-
erty 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
vet attained this freedom ; they are on the way to it, and Cato i8
allegorically fit to warn and spur them on-

4 PURGATORY.

valley black? Are the laws of the abyss thus
broken? or is a new design changed in heaven
that, being damned, ye come unto my rocks ? '

My Leader then took hold of me, and with words,
and with hands, and with signs, made my legs and
my brow reverent. Then he answered him, " Of
myself I came not ; a Lady descended from Heaven,
through whose prayers I succored this man with
my company. But since it is thy will that more of
our condition be unfolded to thee as it truly is,
mine cannot be that to thee this be denied. This
man has not seen his last evening, but through his
folly was so near thereto that very little time there
was 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 in-
tend to show him those spirits that purge them-
selves under thy ward. How I have led him, it
would be long to tell thee ; from on high descends
power that aids me to conduct him to see thee and
to hear thee. Now may it please thee to approve
his coming. He goes seeking liberty, which is so
dear, as he knows who for her refuses life. Thou
knowest it, for death for her sake was not bitter to
thee in Utica, where thou didst leave the garment
that on the great day shall be so bright. The eter-
nal edicts are not violated by us, for this one is

CANTO I. 5

alive, and Minos doth 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 ; let us go on through
thy seven realms.1 Thanks unto thee will I carry
back to her, if to be mentioned there below thou

deign.''

"Marcia so pleased my eyes while I was on
earth," said he then, " that whatsoever grace she
wished from me I did it ; now, that on the other
side of the evil stream she dwells, she can no more
move me, by that law which was made when thence
I issued forth.2 But if a Lady of Heaven move
and direct thee, as thou sayest, there is no need of
flattery ; suffice it fully to thee that for her sake
thou askest me. Go then, and. see thou gird this one
with a smooth rush, and that thou wash his face
so that thou remove all sully from it, for it were
not befitting to go with eye overcast by any cloud
before the first minister that is of those of Para-
dise. This little island, round about at its base,
down there yonder where the wave beats it, bears
rushes upon its soft ooze. No plant of other kind,
that might put forth leaf or grow hard, can there

1 The seven circles of Purgatory.

2 The law that the redeemed cannot he touched by other than

heavenly affections.

6 PURGATORY.

have life, because it yields not to the shocks.
Thereafter let not your return be this way ; the
Sun which now is rising will show you to take the
mountain by easier ascent."

So he disappeared, and I rose up, without speak-
ing, and drew me close to my Leader, and turned
my eyes to him. He began, " Son, follow my steps ;
let us turn back, for this plain slopes that way to
its low limits."

The dawn was vanquishing the matin hour which
fled before it, so that from afar I discerned the
trembling of the sea. We set forth over the soli-
tary plain like a man who turns unto the road
which he has lost, and, till he come to 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 dissipated,
my Master softly placed both his hands outspread
upon the grass. Whereon I, who perceived his de-
sign, stretched toward him my tear-stained cheeks.
Here he wholly uncovered that color of mine which
hell had hidden on me.1

We came, then, to the desert shore that never saw
navigate its waters one who afterwards had experi-
ence of return. Here he girt me, even as pleased

1 Allegorically, when the soul has entered upon the way of
purification Reason, with the dew of repentance, washes off the
stain of sin, and girds the spirit with humility.

CANTO I.

the other. O marvel ! that such as he plucked the
humble plant, it instantly sprang up again there
whence he tore it.1

1 The goods of the spirit are not diminished by appropriation.

CANTO II.

Sunrise. — The Poets on the shore. — Coming of a boat,
guided by an angel, bearing souls to Purgatory. — Their land-
ing. — Casella and his song. — Cato hurries the souls to the
mountain.

Now had the sun reached the horizon whose
meridian circle covers Jerusalem with its highest
point ; and the night which circles opposite to it
was issuing forth from Ganges with the Scales that
fall from her hand when she exceeds ; a so that
where I was the white and red cheeks of the beau-
tiful Aurora by too much age were becoming
orange.

We were still alongside the sea, like folk who
are thinking of their road, who go in heart and
linger in body ; and lo ! as, at approach of the
morning, through the dense vapors Mars glows

1 Purgatory and Jerusalem are antipodal, and in one direction
the Ganges or India was arbitrarily assumed to be their common
horizon. The night is here taken as the point of the Heavens op-
posite the sun, and the sun being in Aries, the night is in Libra.
When night exceeds, that is, at the autumnal equinox, when the
night becomes longer than the day, the Scales may be said to drop
from her hand, since the sun enters Libra.

CANTO II. 9

ruddy, 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 know not
what, white, and beneath, little by little, another
came forth from it. My Master still said not a
word, until the first white things showed themselves
wino-s ; 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 means, 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,
stroking the air with his eternal feathers that are
not changed like mortal hair."

Then, as nearer and nearer toward us came the
Bird Divine, the brighter he appeared ; so that near
by my eye endured him not, but I bent it down :
and he came on to the shore with a small vessel,
very swift and light so that the water swallowed
naught of it. At the stern stood the Celestial
Pilot, such that if but described he would make
blessed ; and more than a hundred spirits sat within.
- In exitu Israel de Egypto " l they all were singing

1 When Israel went out of Egypt." Psalm exiv.

l «

10 PURGATORY.

together with one voice, with whatso of that psalm
is after written. Then he made the sign of holy
cross upon them ; 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 him who of
new things makes essay. On all sides the Sun,
who had with his bright arrows chased from mid-
heaven the Capricorn,1 was shooting forth the day,
when the new people raised their brow toward us,
saying to us, " If ye know, show us the way to go
unto the mountain." And Virgil answered, " Ye
believe, perchance, that we are acquainted with this
place, but we are pilgrims even as ye are. Just
now we came, a little before you, by another way,
which was so rough and difficult that the ascent
henceforth will seem play to us."

The souls who had become aware concerning me
by my breathing, that I was still alive, marvelling
became deadly pale. And as to a messenger who
bears an olive branch the folk press to hear news,
and no one shows himself shy of crowding, so, at
the sight of me, those fortunate souls stopped still,
all of them, as if forgetting to go to make them-
selves fair.

1 When Aries, in which the Sun was rising, is on the horizon,
Capricorn is at the zenith.

CANTO II. 11

I saw one of them drawing forward to embrace
me with so great affection that it moved me to do
the like. O shades empty save in aspect ! Three
times behind it I clasped my hands and as oft re-
turned with them unto my breast. With marvel,
I believe, I painted me ; wherefore 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 to speak with me
it would stop a little. It replied to me, " So as I
loved thee in the mortal body, so loosed from it I
love thee ; therefore I stop ; but wherefore goest
thou?"

" Casella mine, 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 ? " 1

And he to me, " No wrong has been done me if
he2 who takes both when and whom it pleases
him ofttimes hath denied to me this passage ; for
of a just will 3 his own is made. Truly for three
months he has taken with all peace whoso has
wished to enter. Wherefore I who was now turned

1 " How has thy coming- hither been delayed so long- since thy
death?"

2 The Celestial Pilot.

3 That is, of the Divine Will ; but there is no explanation of
the motive of the delay.

12 PURGATORY.

to the seashore where the water of Tiber grows
salt was benignantly received by him. 1 To that
outlet has he now turned his wing, because always
those assemble there who towards Acheron do not
descend."

And I, " If a new law take not from thee mem-
ory or practice of the song of love which was wont
to quiet in me 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 discourseth with me," 2
began he then so sweetly that the sweetness still
within me sounds.3 My Master, and I, and that
folk who were with him, appeared so content as
if naught else could touch the mind of any.

We were all fixed and attentive to his notes ;

1 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 Christ-
mas, 1299, so that for three months now the Celestial Pilot had
received graciously all who had taken advantage of it to gain
remission of their sins.

2 The first verse of a canzone by Dante ; and the first of those
upon which he comments in his Convito.

3 Every English reader recalls Milton's Sonnet 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."

Nothing is known of Casella beyond what is implied in Dante's
affectionate record of their meeting.

CANTO II. 13

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 that lets not God be manifest to you."

As, when gathering grain or tare, the doves as-
sembled at their feeding, quiet, without display of
their accustomed pride, if aught appear of which
they are afraid, suddenly let the food alone, be-
cause they are assailed by a greater care, so I saw
that fresh troop leave the song, and go towards
the hill-side, like one that goes but knows not where
he may come out. Nor was our departure less
speedy.

CANTO III.

Ante-Purgatory. — Souls of those who have died in con-
tumacy of the Church. — Manfred.

Inasmuch as the sudden flight had scattered
them over the plain, turned to the mount whereto
reason spurs us, I drew me close to my trusty
companion. And how should I without him have
run ? Who would have drawn me up over the
mountain ? He seemed to me of his own self re-
morseful. O conscience, upright and stainless, how
bitter a sting to thee is little fault !

When his feet left the haste that takes the seem-
liness from every act, my mind, which at first had
been restrained, let loose its attention, as though
eager, and I turned my face unto the hill that
towards the heaven rises highest from the sea. The
sun, which behind was flaming ruddy, was broken
in front of me by the figure that the staying of its
rays upon me formed. When I saw the ground
darkened only in front of me, I turned me to
my side with fear of being abandoned : and my
Comfort, wholly turning to me, began to say, " Why
dost thou still distrust ? Dost thou not believe me

CANTO III. 15

with thee, and that I guide thee ? It is now even-
ing there where the body is buried within which I
cast a shadow ; Naples holds it, and from Brundu-
sium it is taken ; if now in front of me there is no
shadow, marvel not more than at the heavens of
which one hinders not the other's radiance. To
suffer torments, both hot and cold, bodies like this
the Power ordains, which wills not that how it acts
be revealed to us. Foolish is he who hopes that
our reason can traverse the infinite way which One
Substance in Three Persons holds. Be content,
human race, with the quia;1 for if ye had been
able to see everything, need had not been for Mary
to bear child : and ye have seen desiring fruit-
lessly men such 2 that their desire would have
been quieted, 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 rock so steep, that
there the legs would be agile in vain. Between
Lerici and Turbia3 the most deserted, the most

1 Quia is used here, as often in mediaeval Latin, for quod. The
meaning is, Be content to know that the thing is, seek not to
know why or how — propter quid — it is as it is.

2 If human knowledge sufficed.

3 Lerici on the Gulf of Spezzia, and Turbia, just above Monaco,
are at the two ends of the Riviera; between them the moun-

16 PURGATORY.

secluded way is a stair easy and open, compared
with that. " Now who knows on which hand the
hillside slopes," said my Master, staying his stt p,
" so that he can ascend who goeth without wings? '

And while he was holding his face low, ques-
tioning his mind about the road, and I was looking
up around the rock, on the left hand appeared to
me a company of souls who were moving their feet
towards us, and seemed not, so slowly were they
coming. " Lift," said I to the Master, "thine
eyes, lo ! on this side who will give us counsel, if
thou from thyself canst not have it." He looked
at them, and with air of relief, answered, " Let
us go thither, for they come slowly, and do thou
confirm thy hope, sweet son."

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.1 " O
ye who have made good ends, O spirits already
elect," Virgil began, " by that peace which I be-
lieve is awaited by you all, tell us, where the moun-
tains rise steeply from the shore, along which in Dante's time
there was no road.

1 They stopped, surprised, at seeing Virgil and Dante advancing
to the left, against the rule in Purgatory, where the course is al-
ways to the right, symbolizing progress in good. In Hell the
contrary rule holds.

CANTO HI. 17

tain lies so that the going up is possihle ; for to
bse time is most displeasing 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, huddling them-
selves to her if she stop, silly and quiet, and where-
fore know not ; so I saw then moving to approach,
the head of that fortunate flock, modest in face and
dignified in gait.

When those in front saw the light broken on the
ground at my right side, so that the shadow fell
from me on the cliff, they stopped, and drew some-
what back ; and all the rest who were coming be-
hind, not knowing why, did just the same. " With-
out your asking, I confess to you that this is a
human body which you see, whereby the light of
the sun on the ground is cleft. Marvel not thereat,
but believe that not without power that comes from
heaven he seeks to surmount this wall." Thus the
Master : and that worthy people said, " Turn, enter
in advance, then ; " with the backs of their hands
making sign. And one of them began, " Whoever
thou art, turn thy face as thou thus goest ; con-
sider if in the world thou didst ever see me ? ' I
turned me toward him, and looked at him fixedly :
blond he was, and beautiful, and of gentle aspect,
but a blow had divided one of his eyebrows.

18 PURGATORY.

When I had humbly disclaimed having ever
seen him, he said, " Now look ! ' and he showed
me a wound at the top of his breast. Then he
said, smiling, " I am Manfred,1 grandson of the
Empress Constance ; wherefore I pray thee, that
when thou returnest, thou go to my beautiful
daughter,2 mother of the honor of Sicily and of
Aragon, and tell to her the truth if aught else be
told. After I had my body broken by two mortal
stabs, I rendered myself, weeping, to Him who par-
dons willingly. Horrible were my sins, but the
Infinite Goodness has such wide arms that it takes
whatever turns to it. If the Pastor of Cosenza,3
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

1 The natural son of the Emperor Frederick II. He was born
in 1231 ; in 1258 he was crowned King of Sicily. In 1263 Charles
of Anjou was called by Pope Urban IV. to contend against him,
and in 1266 Manfred was killed at the battle of Benevento.

2 Constance, the daughter of Manfred, was married to Peter 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 James became King of Aragon,
and Frederick King of Sicily. Manfred naturally speaks favor-
ably of them, but Dante himself thought ill of James and Fred-
erick. See Canto VII., towards the end.

3 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 body of one excommunicated, on
the bank of the Verde.

CANTO III. 19

near Benevento, under the guard of the heavy
cairn. Now the rain bathes them, and the wind
moves them forth from the kingdom, almost along
the Verde, whither he transferred them with extin-
guished light.1 By their 2 malediction the Eternal
Love is not so lost that it cannot return, while hope
hath speck of green. True is it, that whoso dies
in contumacy of Holy Church, though he repent
him at the end, needs must stay outside 3 upon this
bank thirtyfold the whole time that he has been
in his presumption,4 if such decree become not
shorter through good prayers. See now if thou
canst make me glad, revealing to my good Con-
stance how thou hast seen me, and also this pro-
hibition,5 for here through those on earth much is
gained."

1 Not with candles burning as in proper funeral rites.

2 That is, of Pope or Bishop.

3 Outside the gate of Purgatory.

4 This seems to be a doctrine peculiar to Dante. The value of
the prayers of the good on earth in shortening the period of suf-
fering of the souls in Purgatory is more than once referred to
by him, as well as the virtue of the intercession of the souls in
Purgatory for the benefit of the living.

5 The prohibition of entering within Purgatory.

CANTO IV.

Ante-Purgatory. — Ascent to a shelf of the mountain. —
The negligent, who postponed repentance to the last hour.
— Belacqua.

When through delights, or through pains which

some power of ours may experience, the soul is all

concentrated thereon, it seems that to no other

faculty it may attend ; and this is counter to the

error which believes that one soul above another is

kindled in us.1 And therefore, when a thing is

heard or seen, which may hold the soul intently

turned to it, the time passes, and the man observes

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 loosed.

Of this had I true experience, hearing that

spirit and wondering; for full fifty degrees had

the sun ascended,2 and I had not noticed it, when

we came where those souls all together cried out

to us, " Here is what you ask."

1 Were it true that, as according- to the Platonists, there were
more than one soul in man, he might give attention to two things
at once. But when one faculty is free and called into activity,
the rest of the soul is as it were hound in inaction.

2 It was now about nine o'clock A. M.

CANTO IV. 21

A larger opening the man of the farm often
hedges up with a forkful of his thorns, when the
grape grows dark, than was the passage through
which my Leader and I behind ascended alone,
when the troop departed from us. One goes to
Sanleo, and descends to Noli, one mounts up Bis-
mantova * to its peak, with only the feet ; but here
it behoves that one fly, I mean with the swift wings
and with the feathers of great desire, behind that
guide who gave me hope and made a light for me.
We ascended in through the broken rock, and on
each side the border pressed on us, and the ground
beneath required both feet and hands.

When we were upon the upper edge of the high
bank on the open slope, " My Master," said I,
" what way shall we take ? ' And he to me, " Let
no step of thine fall back, always win up the
mountain behind me, till some sage guide appear

for us."

The summit was so high it surpassed the sight ;
and the side steeper far than a line from the
mid quadrant to the centre.2 I was weary, when
I beo-an, " O sweet father, turn and regard how I
remain alone if thou dost not stop." " My son,"
said he, " far as here drag thyself," pointing me to

1 These all are places difficult of access.

2 A steeper inclination than that of an angle of forty-five

degrees.

22 PURGATORY.

a ledge a little above, which on that side circles all
the hill. His words so spurred me, that I forced
myself, scrambling after him, until the belt was
beneath my feet. There we both sat down, turning
to the east, whence we had ascended, for to look
back is wont to encourage one. I first turned my
eyes to the low shores, then I raised them to the
sun, and wondered that on the left we were struck
by it. The Poet perceived clearly that I was stand-
ing all bewildered at the chariot of the light, where
between us and Aquilo,1 it was entering. Where-
upon he to me, " If Castor and Pollux were in
company with that mirror2 which up and down
conducts its light, thou would st see the ruddy Zo-
diac revolving still closer to the Bears, if it went
not out of its old road.3 How that may be, if
thou wishest to be able to think, collected in thy-
self imagine Zion and this mountain to stand upon
the earth so that both have one sole horizon, and
different hemispheres ; then thou wilt see that the
road which Phaeton, to his harm, knew not how to

1 The North.

2 The brightness of the sun is the reflection of the Divine
light.

3 If the sun were in the sign of the Gemini instead of being in
Aries it would make the Zodiac ruddy still farther to the north.
In Purgatory the sun being seen from south of the equator is on
the left hand, while at Jerusalem, in the northern hemisphere, it
is seen on the right.

CANTO IV. 23

drive, must needs pass on the one side of this moun-
tain, and on the other side of that, if thy intelli-
gence right clearly heeds." " Surely, my Master,"
said I, " never yet saw I so clearly, as I now discern
there where my wit seemed deficient ; for the mid-
circle of the supernal motion, which is called Equa-
tor in a certain art,1 and which always remains be-
tween the sun and the winter, for the reason that
thou tellest, from here departs toward the north,
while the Hebrews saw it toward the warm region.
But, if it please thee, willingly I would know how
far we have to go, for the hill rises higher than
my eyes can rise." And he to me, " This mountain
is such, that ever at the beginning below it is hard,
and the higher one goes the less it hurts ; there-
fore when it shall seem so pleasant to thee 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 repose from toil await : no more
I answer, and this I know for true."

And when he had said his word, a voice near
by sounded, " Perchance thou wilt be first con-
strained to sit." At the sound of it each of us
turned, and we saw at the left a great stone which
neither he nor I before had noticed. Thither we
drew ; and there were persons who were staying
in the shadow behind the rock, as one through

1 Astronomy.

24 PURGATOBY.

indolence sets himself to stay. And one of them,
who seemed to me weary, was seated, and was clasp-
ing his knees, holding his face down low between
them. " O sweet my Lord," said I, " look at him
who shows himself 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 up thou, for thou art valiant."
I recognized then who he was, and that effort which
was still quickening my breath a little hindered not
my going to him, and after I had reached him, he
scarce raised his head, saying, " Hast thou clearly
seen how the sun over thy left shoulder drives his
chariot ? '

His slothful acts and his short words moved my
lips a little to a smile , then I began, " Belacqua,1
I do not grieve for thee now,2 but tell me why just
here thou art seated ? awaitest thou a guide, or
has only thy wonted mood recaptured thee ? ' And
he, "Brother, what imports the going up? For
the bird of God that sitteth at the gate would
not let me go to the torments. It first behoves
that heaven circle around me outside the gate, as

1 Belacqua, according to Benvenuto da Imola, was a Floren-
tine, a maker of citherns and other musical instruments; 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.

2 He had feared lest Belacqua might be in Hell.

CANTO IV. 25

long as it did in life, because I delayed good sighs
until the end; unless the prayer first aid me which
rises up from a heart that lives in grace : what avails
the other which is not heard in heaven ? ,:

And now the Poet in front of me was ascending,
and he said, " Come on now : thou seest that the
meridian is touched by the sun, and on the shore
the night now covers with her foot Morocco."

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'
Toloniei.

I had now parted from those shades, and was
following the footsteps of my Leader, when behind
me, pointing his finger, one cried out, " Look, the
ray seems not to shine on the left hand of that
lower one, and as if alive he seems to bear him-
self." I turned my eyes at the sound of these
words, and I sawT them watehing, for marvel, only
me, only me, and the light which was broken.

" Why is thy mind so hampered," said the Mas-
ter, " that thou slackeuest thy going ? What
matters to thee that which here is whispered ?
Come after me, and let the people talk. Stand
as a tower firm, that never wrags its top for blow-
ins: of the winds ; for alwavs the man in whom
thought on thought wells up removes from him-
self his aim, for the force of one weakens the
other." What could I answer, save "I come"?
I said it, overspread somewhat with the color,
which, at times, makes a man worthy of pardon.

CANTO V. 27

And meanwhile across upon the mountain side,
a little in front of us, were coming people, singing
" Miserere" verse by verse. When they observed
that I gave not 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,
" Of your condition make us cognizant/' And my
Master, "Ye can go back, and report to them
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 he may be dear to them."

Never did I see enkindled vapors at early night
so swiftly cleave the clear sky, nor at set of sun
the clouds of August, that these did not return up
in less time ; and, arrived there, they, with the
others, gave a turn 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 ; " wherefore still go on, and in going listen."
"O soul," they came crying, "that goest to be
happy with those limbs with which thou wast born,
a little stay thy step ; look if thou hast ever seen
any one of us, so that thou mayest carry news of
him to earth. Ah, why dost thou go on? Ah,
why dost thou not stop ? We were of old all done
to death by violence, and sinners up to the last

28 PURGATORY.

hour ; then light from Heaven made us mindful, so
that both penitent and pardoning we issued forth
from life, at peace with God, who fills our hearts
with the desire to see him." And I, " Although I
gaze upon your faces, not one I recognize ; but if
aught that I can do be pleasing to you, spirits well-
born,1 speak ye, and I will do it by that peace
which makes me, following the feet of such a
£uide, seek for itself from world to world." And
one began, " Each of us trusts in thy good turn
without thy swearing it, provided want of power
cut not off the will ; wherefore I, who alone before
the others speak, pray thee, if ever thou see that
land that sits between Romagna and the land of
Charles,2 that thou be courteous to me with thy
prayers in Fano, so that for me good orisons be
made, whereby I may purge away my grave offences.
Thence was I; but the deep wounds, wherefrom
issued the blood in which I had my seat,3 were

1 Elect from birth to the joys of Paradise, in contrast with the
ill-born, the miscreants of Hell.

2 The March of Ancona, between the Romagna and the king-
dom of Naples, then held by Charles II. of Anjou. It is Jacopo
del Cassero who speaks. He was a noted and valiant member of
the leading- Gnelph 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, whom he had offended.

3 " The life of all flesh is the blood thereof." Levit., xvii. 14.
Or, according to the Vulgate, " Anima carnis in sanguine est."

CANTO V. 29

given me in the bosom of the Antenori,1 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 I had fled toward Mira,2
when I was overtaken at Oriaco, I should still be
yonder where men breathe. I ran to the marsh,
and the reeds and the mire hampered 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 desire be
fulfilled which draws thee to the high mountain,
with good piety help thou mine. I was of Monte-
feltro, and am Buonconte.3 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 so carried thee astray from Cam-
paldino,4 that thy burial place was never known ? '

1 That is to say, in the territory of the Paduans, whose city
was reputed to have been founded by Antenor.

2 Mira is a little settlement on the bank of one of the canals
of the Brenta. Why flight thither would have been safe is mere
matter of conjecture.

3 Son of Count Guido da Montefeltro, the treacherous counsel-
lor who had told his story to Dante in Hell, Canto XXVII. Joan
was his wife.

4 The battle of Campaldino, in which Dante himself, perhaps,
took part, was fought on the 11th of June, 1289, between the
Florentine Guelphs and the Ghibellines of Arezzo. Buonconte
was the captain of the Aretines. Campaldino is a little plain in
the upper valley of the Arno.

30 PURGATORY.

" Oil ! " replied he, " at foot of the Casentino
crosses a stream, named the Archiano, which rises
in the Apennine above the Hermitage.1 Where
its proper name becomes vain2 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, " O thou
from Heaven, why dost thou rob me ? 3 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 is condensed that moist vapor
which turns to water soon as it rises where the
cold seizes it. He joined that evil will, which
seeketh only evil, with intelligence, and moved the
mist and the wind by the power that his own na-
ture gave. Then when the day was spent he cov-
ered the valley with cloud, from Pratomagno to
the great chain, and made the frost above so

1 The convent of the Calmaldoli, founded hy St. Romualdo of
Ravenna, in 1012.

2 Being- lost at its junction with the Arno.

3 St. Francis and one of the black Cherubim had had a simi-
lar contention, as will be remembered, over the soul of Buon-
conte's father.

CANTO V. 31

intense that the pregnant air was turned to water.
The rain fell, and to the gullies came of it what
the earth did not endure, 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 outlet, and
pushed it into the Arno, and loosed on my breast
the cross which I made of myself when the pain
overcame me. It rolled me along its banks, and
along its bottom, then with its spoil it covered and

girt me."

" Ah ! when thou shalt have returned unto the
world, and rested from the long journey," the third
spirit followed on the second, " be mindful of me,
who am Pia.1 Siena made me, Maremma unmade
me ; he knows it, who, wedding me, had first ringed
me with his own gem."

1 Pia is said to have been first married to Messer Baldo de' To-
lomei. She was left a widow in 1290, and afterward was married
to Nello or Paganello de' Pannoechieschi, who was reported to
have had her put to death in his stronghold of Pietra in the Tus-
can Maremma. Her fate seems the more pitiable that she does
not pray Dante to seek the prayers for her of any living person.

CANTO VI.

Ante-Purgatory. — More spirits who had deferred repent-
ance till they were overtaken by a violent death. — Efficacy
of prayer. — Sordello. — Apostrophe to Italy.

When a game of dice is broken up, lie 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 at his side one brings himself to mind.
He does not stop ; 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 de-
fends himself. Such was I in that dense crowd,
turning my face to them this way and that ; and,
promising, I loosed myself from them.

Here was the Aretine,1 who from the fierce
arms of Ghin di Tacco had his death ; and the

1 The Aretine was Messer Benincasa da Laterina, a learned
judge, who had condemned to death for their crimes two relatives
of Ghin di Tacco, the most famous freebooter of the day, whose
headquarters were between Siena and Rome. Some time after,
Messer Benincasa sitting as judge in Rome, Ghino entered the
city with a band of his followers, made his way to the tribunal,
slew Benincasa, and escaped unharmed.

CANTO VI. 33

other 2 who was drowned when running in pursuit.
Here Federigo Novello 2 was praying with hands
outstretched, and he of Pisa, who made the good
Marzueco seem strong.3 I saw Count Orso ; 4 and
the soul divided from its body by spite and by
envy, as it said, and not for fault committed,
Pierre de la Brosse,5 I mean ; and here let the

1 Another Aretine, of the Tarlati family, concerning- whose
death the early commentators are at variance. Benvenuto da
Imola says that, hotly pursuing his enemies, his horse carried
him into a marsh, from which he could not extricate himself, so
that his foes turned upon him and slew him with their arrows.

2 Federigo, son of the Count Guido Novello, of the circum-
stances of whose death, said to have taken place in 1291, nothing
certain is known. Benvenuto says, he was multum jjrobus, a good
youth, and therefore Dante mentions him.

3 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 Marzueco was a good man of the city of Pisa,
whose son was beheaded by order of Count Ugolino, the tyrant,
who commanded that his body should remain unburied. In the
evening his father went to the Count, as a stranger unconcerned
in the matter, and without tears or other sign of grief, and said,
' Surely, my lord, it would be to your honor that that poor body
should be buried, and not left cruelly as food for dogs.' Then the
Count, recognizing him, said astonished, ' Go, your patience over-
comes my obduracy,' and immediately Marzueco went and buried

lis son."

4 Of Count Orso nothing is known with certainty.

5 Pierre de la Brosse was a surgeon and confidant of Philip
the Bold of France. He lost the king's favor, and charges of
treason being brought against him he was hung. It was reported
that his death was brought about unjustly by Mary of Brabant,

34 PURGATORY.

Lady of Brabant take forethought, 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 some one else should pray,
so that their becoming holy may be speeded, I
began, " It seems that thou deniest to me, O Light
of mine, expressly, in a certain text, that orison
can bend decree of Heaven, and this folk pray
only for this, — shall then their hope be vain ? or
is thy saying not rightly clear to me ? " 1

And he to me, " My writing is plain, and the
hope of these is not fallacious, if well it is 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 stationed here must
satisfy. And there where I affirmed this proposi-
tion, defect was not amended by a prayer, because
the prayer was disjoined from God. But truly in
regard to so deep a doubt decide thou not, unless
she tell thee who shall be a light between the
truth and the understanding.2 I know not if thou

the second wife of Philip. She lived till 1321, so that Dante's
warning" may have reached her ears.

1 Virgil represents Palinurus as begging to be allowed to cross
the Styx, while his body was still unburied and without due fune-
ral rites. To this petition the Sibyl answers : —

Desine fata Deura flecti sperare precando : —
" Cease to hope that the decrees of the gods can be changed by
prayer." — ^Eneid, vi. 376.

- The question, being one that relates to the Divine will, cannot
be answered with full assurance bv human reason.

CANTO VI. 35

understandest ; I speak of Beatrice. Thou shalt
see her above, smiling and happy, upon the sum-
mit of this mountain."

And I, " Good Leader, let us go on with greater
speed, for now I am not weary as before ; and be-
hold now how the hill casts its shadow." "We
will go forward with this day," he answered, " as
much further as we shall yet be able ; but the fact
is of other form than thou supposest. Before thou
art 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 seated 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 scornful wast
thou; and in the movement of thine eyes grave and
slow ! It said not anything to us, but let us go
on, looking only in manner of a lion when he
couches. Virgil, however, drew near to it, pray-
ing that it would show to us the best ascent ; and
it answered not to his request, but of our country
and life it asked us. And the sweet Leader began,
" Mantua," — and the shade, all in itself recluse,
rose toward him from the place where erst it was,
saying, " O Mantuan, I am Sordello of thy city," 1
— and they embraced each other.

1 Sordello, who lived early in the thirteenth century, was of the
family of the Visconti of Mantua. He left his native land and

36 PURGATORY.

Ah, servile Italy, hostel of grief ! ship without
pilot in great tempest ! not lady of provinces, but
a brothel ! that gentle soul was so ready, only at
the sweet sound of his native land, to give glad wel-
come here unto his fellow-citizen : and now in thee
thy living men exist not without war, and of those
whom one wall and one moat shut in one doth
gnaw the other. Search, wretched one, around the
shores, thy seaboard, and then look within thy
bosom, if any part in thee enjoyeth peace ! What
avails it that for thee Justinian should mend the
bridle, if the saddle is empty ? Without this, the
shame would be less. Ah folk,1 that oughtest to
be devout and let Caesar sit in the saddle, if thou
rightly understandest what God notes for thee !
Look how fell this wild beast has become, through
not being corrected by the spurs, since thou didst
put thy hand upon the bridle. O German Albert,
who abandonest her who 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 strange and manifest, so that
thy successor may have fear of it ! 2 For thou and

gave up his native tongue to live and write as a troubadour in
Provence, but his fame belonged to Italy.

1 The Church-folk, the clergy, for whom God has ordained, —
" Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's."

2 Albert of Hapsburg, son of the Emperor Rudolph, was elected
King of the Romans in 1298, but like his father never went to

CANTO VI. 37

thy father, retained up there by greed, have suf-
fered the garden of the empire to become desert.
Come thou to see Montecehi and Cappelletti, Mo-
naldi and Filippeschi,1 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 wilt see
Santafiora2 how dark it is. Come to see thy
Rome, that weeps, widowed and alone, and day
and night cries, " My Caesar, wherefore dost thou
not keep me company?" Come to see the people,
how loving it is ; and, if no pity for us move thee,
come to be shamed by thine own renown ! And if
it be lawful for me, O Supreme Jove that wast on
earth crucified for us, are thy just eyes turned
aside elsewhere? Or is it preparation, that in the
abyss of thy counsel thou art making for some
good utterly cut off from our perception? For

Italy to be crowned. He was murdered by his nephew, John,
called the parricide, in 1308, at Kbnigsfelden. The successor of
Albert was Henry VII. of Luxemburg, who came to Italy in 1311,
was crowned at Rome in 1312, and died at Buonconvento the next
year. His death ended the hopes of Dante.

i Famous families, the first two of Verona, the last two of
Orvieto, at enmity with each other in their respective cities, —
types of a common condition.

2 The Counts of Santafiora were once the most powerful Ghi-
belline nobles in the Sienese territory. Their power had declined
since the Hohenstaufen Emperors had been succeeded by the
Hapsburgs, and they were now subjected to the Guelphs of Siena.

38 PURGATORY.

the cities of Italy are all full of tyrants, and every
churl that comes playing the partisan becomes a
Marcellus.1

My Florence ! surely thou mayst be content
with this digression, which toucheth thee not,
thanks to thy people that for itself takes heed.
Many have justice at heart but shoot slowly, in
order not to come without counsel to the bow ; but
thy people has it on the edge of its lips. Many
reject the common burden, but thy people, eager,
replies without being called on, and cries, " I load
myself." Now be thou glad, for thou hast truly
wherefore : thou rich, thou in peace, thou wise. If
I speak the truth, the result hides it not. Athens
and Lacedsemon, that made the ancient laws and
were so civilized, made toward living well a little
sign, compared with thee that makest such fine-
spun provisions, that to mid November reaches
not, what thou in October spinnest. How often in
the time that thou rememberest, law, money, office,
and custom, hast thou changed, and renewed thy
members ! And if thou mind thee well and see
the light, thou wilt see thyself resembling a sick
woman, who cannot find repose upon the feathers,
but with her tossing seeks to relieve her pain.

1 That is, a Litter opponent of the empire, as the Consul M
Claudius Marcellus was of Caesar.

CANTO VII.

Virgil makes himself known to Sordello. — Sordello leads
the Poets to the Valley of the Princes who have been negli-
gent 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, " Ye, who are ye ? " " Before the
souls worthy to ascend to God were turned unto
this mountain, my bones had been buried by Octa-
vian ; 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 doth and doth not believe,
saying, " It is, it is not," — so seemed that shade,
and then he bent down his brow, and humbly
turned a?;ain toward him and embraced him where
the inferior takes hold.

"O glory of the Latins," said he, "through
whom our language showed what it could do, O
honor eternal of the place where from I was, what
merit or what grace shows thee to me ? If I am
worthy to hear thy words, tell me if thou comest

40 PURGATORY.

from Hell, and from what cloister." " Through
all the circles of the realm of woe," replied he to
him, " am I come hither ; 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 whom
thou desirest, and who by me was known late. A
place there is below not sad with torments but
with darkness only, where the lamentations sound
not as wailings, but are sighs ; there stay I with
the little innocents bitten by the teeth of death
before they were exempt from human sin ; there
stay I with those who were not vested with the
three holy virtues, and without vice knew the
others and followed all of them.1 Bat if thou
knowest and canst, give us some direction whereby
we may come more speedily there where Purgatory
has its true beginning." He replied, " A certain
place is not set for us ; it is permitted me to go
upward and around ; so far as I can go I join my-
self 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 here on the right apart ; if thou
consentest to me I will lead thee to them, and not

1 The virtuous Heathen did not possess the so-called theologi-
cal virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity ; hut they practiced the
four cardinal virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and
Justice.

CANTO VII. 41

without delight will they be known to thee." " How
is this?" was answered, "he who might wish to
ascend by night, would he be hindered by another,
or would he not be able to ascend ? ' And the
good Sordello drew his finger on the ground, say-
ing, " See, only this line' thou couldst not pass
after set of sun ; not because aught else save the
nocturnal darkness would give hindrance to going
up ; that hampers the will with impotence.1 One
could, indeed, in it 2 turn downward and walk the
hillside wandering around, while the horizon holds
the day shut up." Then my Lord, as if wondering,
said, " Lead us, then, there where thou sayest one
may have delight while waiting."

Little way had we gone from that place, when I
perceived that the mountain was hollowed out in
like fashion as the vallevs hollow 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. Between steep and
level was a winding path that led us into a side of
the dale, where more than by half the edge dies
away. Gold and fine silver, and scarlet and white,
Indian wood lucid and clear,3 fresh emerald at the

1 The allegory is plain : the soul can mount the steep of purifi-
cation only when illuminated by the Sun of Divine Grace.

2 In the darkness.

8 The blue of indigo.

42 PURGATORY.

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 with sweet-
ness of a thousand odors she made there one un-
known and blended.

Upon the green and upon the flowers I saw souls
who, because of the valley, were not visible from
without, seated here singing" Salve regina"1 "Be-
fore the lessening sun sinks to his nest," began the
Mantuan who had turned us thither, " desire not
that among these I guide you. From this bank ye
will better become acquainted with the acts and
countenances of all of them, than received among
them on the. level below. He who sits highest
and has the semblance of having neglected what he
should have done, and who moves not his mouth to
the others' songs, was Rudolph the Emperor, who
mio-ht have healed the wounds that have slain Italy,
so that slowly by another she is revived.2 The

1 The beginning of a Church hymn to the Virgin, sung after
vespers, of which the first verses are : —

Salve, Regina, mater rnisericordise !
Vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve !
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae ;
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
In hac lacrymarum valle.

2 The neglect of Italy by the Emperor Rudolph (see the pre-
ceding Canto) was not to be repaired by the vain efforts of
Henry VII.

CANTO VII. 43

next, who in appearance comforts him, ruled the
land where the water rises that Moldau bears to
Elbe, and Elbe to the sea. Ottocar was his name,1
and in his swaddling clothes he was better far than
bearded Wenceslaus, his son, whom luxury and
idleness feed.2 And that small-nosed one, who
seems close in counsel with him who has so benign
an aspect, died in flight and disflowering the lily ; 3
look there how he beats his breast. See the next
who, sighing, has made a bed for his cheek with his
hand.4 Father and father-in-law are they of the
harm of France ; they know his vicious and foul
life, and thence comes the grief that so pierces
them. He who looks so large-limbed,5 and who

1 Ottocar, King of Bohemia and Dnke of Austria, had been
slain in battle against Rudolph, on the Marchfeld by the Donau,
in 1278; "whereby Austria fell to Rudolph." See Carlyle's
Frederick the Great, book ii. ch. 7.

2 Dante repeats his harsh judgment of Wenceslaus in the nine-
teenth Canto of Paradise. His first wife was the daughter of
Rudolph of Hapsburg. He died in 1305.

3 This is Philip the Bold of France, 1270-1285. Having in-
vaded Catalonia, in a war with Peter the Third of Aragon,he was
driven back, and died on the retreat at Perpignan.

4 Henry of Navarre, the brother of Thibault, the poet-king
(Hell, Canto XXII.). His daughter Joan married Philip the
Fair, "the harm of France," the son of Philip the Bold.

& Peter of Aragon (died 1285), the husband of Constance,
daughter of Manfred (see Canto III.) ; the youth who is seated
behind him is his son Alphonso, who died in 1291.

44 PURGATORY.

accords in singing with him of the masculine nose,1
wore girt the cord of every worth, and if the youth
that is sitting behind him had followed him as
king, truly had worth gone from vase to vase,
which cannot be said of the other heirs : James
and Frederick hold the realms ; 2 the better heri-
tage no one possesses. Rarely doth human good-
ness rise through the branches, and this He wills
who gives it, in order that it may be asked from
Him. To the large-nosed one also my words apply
not less than to the other, Peter, who is singing
with him ; wherefore Apulia and Provence are
grieving now.3 The plant is as inferior to its
seed, as, more than Beatrice and Margaret, Con-
stance still boasts of her husband.4 See the King
of the simple life sitting there alone, Henry of
England : he in his branches hath a better issue.5
That one who lowest among them sits on the

1 Charles of Anjou.

2 The kingdoms of Aragon and Sicily ; both James and Fred-
erick were living when Dante thus wrote of them. The " better
heritage " was the virtue of their father.

3 Apulia and Provence were grieving under the rule of Charles
II., the degenerate son of Charles of Anjou, who died in 1809.

4 The meaning is doubtful ; perha; s it 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 Pro-
vence and then of Margaret of Nevers, was inferior to Peter, the
husband of Constance.

6 Henry III., father of Edward I.

CANTO VII. 45

ground, looking upward, is William the marquis,1
for whom Alessandria and her war make Mont-
ferrat and the Canavese mourn."

1 William Spadalunga was Marquis of Montferrat and Cana-
vese, the Piedmontese 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 Guelphs, who had risen in revolt in 1290, he Avas
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. 11, as " the good marquis of Montferrat."

CANTO VIII.

4

Valley of the Princes. — Two Guardian Angels. — Nino
Visconti. — The Serpent. — Corraclo Malaspiua.

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 hears from afar a bell that seems to
deplore the dying day, — when I began to render
hearing vain, 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 orient, as if it said to God, " For aught
else I care not." " Te lucis ante"1 so devontlv
issued from his mouth and with such sweet notes
that it made me issue forth from my own mind. And

1 The opening- words of a hymn sung at Complines, 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."

CANTO VIII. 47

then the others sweetly and devoutly accompanied
it through all the hymn to the end, having their
eyes upon the supernal wheels. Here, reader,
sharpen well thine eyes for the truth, for the veil
is now indeed so thin that surely passing through
within is easy.1

I saw that army of the gentle -born silently
thereafter gazing upward as if in expectation,
pallid and humble ; and I saw issuing from on
high and descending two angels, with two fiery
swords truncated and deprived of their points.
Green as leaflets just now born were their gar-
ments, which, beaten and blown by their green
pinions, they trailed behind. One came to stand
a little above us, and the other descended on the
opposite bank, so that the people were contained

1 The allegory seems to be, that the soul which has entered
upon the way of repentance and purification, hut which is not yet
securely advanced therein, is still exposed to temptation, espe-
cially when the light of the supernal grace does not shine directly
upon it. But if the soul have steadfast purpose to resist tempta-
tion, and seek aid from God, that aid will not he wanting. 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. The angels are clad in green, the symbolic color of
hope. Their swords are truncated, because needed only for de-
fence.

48 PURGATORY.

between them. I clearly discerned in them their
blond heads, but on their faces the eye was daz-
zled, as a faculty which is confounded by excess.
" Both come from the bosom of Mary," said Sor-
clello, " for guard of the valley, because of the ser-
pent that will come straightway." Whereat I, who
knew not by what path, turned me round, and all
chilled drew me close to the trusty shoulders.

And Sordello again, " Now let us go down into
the valley among the great shades, and wre will
speak to them ; well pleasing will it be to them to
see you." Only three steps I think I had de-
scended and I was below ; and I saw one who was
gazing only at me as if he wished to know me. It
was now 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.1 Towards
me he moved, and I moved towards him. Gentle
Judge Nino,2 how much it pleased me when I saw
that thou wast not among the damned ! No fair

1 It was not yet so dark that recognition of one near at hand
was difficult, though at a distance it had heen impossible.

2 Nino (Ugolino) de' Visconti of Pisa was the grandson of Count
Ugolino, and as the leader of the Pisan Guelphs became his bitter
opponent. Sardinia was under the dominion of Pisa, and was
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, Canto XXII.)
had been his vicar. Nino died in 1296.

CANTO VIII. 49

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 dismal
places I came this morning, and I am in the first
life, albeit in going thus, I may gain the other."
And when my answer was heard, Sordello 1 and
he drew themselves back like folk suddenly bewil-
dered, the one to Virgil, and the other turned to
one who was seated there, crying, " Up, Corrado,2
come to see what God through grace hath willed."
Then, turning to me, " By that singular gratitude
thou owest unto Him who so hides His own first
wherefore3 that there is no ford to it, when thou
shalt be beyond the wide waves, say to my Joan,
that for me she cry there where answer is given
to the innocent. I do not think her mother4
loves me longer, since she changed her white wim-
ples,5 which she, wretched, needs must desire again.

1 The sun was already hidden behind the mountain when Virgil
and Dante came upon Sordello. Sordello 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.

2 Corrado, of the great Guelph family of the Malaspina, lords
of the Lunigiana, a wide district between Genoa and Pisa.

3 The reason of that which He wills.

4 Her mother was Beatrice d' Este, who, in 1300, married
Galeazzo de' Visconti of Milan.

5 The white veil or wimple and black garments were worn by
widows. The prophecy that she must needs wish for her white

50 PURGATORY.

Through her easily enough is comprehended how
long the fire of love lasts in woman, if eye or touch
does not often rekindle it. The viper 1 which leads
afield the Milanese will not make for her so fair a
sepulture as the cock of Grallura would have done."
Thus he said, marked in his aspect with the stamp
of that upright zeal which in due measure glows in
the heart.

My greedy eyes were going ever to the sky, ever
there where the stars are slowest, even as a wheel
nearest the axle. And my Leader, " Son, at what
lookest thou up there ? ' And I to him, " At those
three torches with which the pole on this side is all
aflame." 2 And he to me, " The four bright stars
which thou sawest this morning 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 trail, turning from time to time its head to its

wimple again seems merely to rest on Nino's disapproval of her
second marriage.

1 The viper was the cognizance of the Visconti of Milan.

2 These three stars are supposed to symbolize the theological
virtues, — faith, hope, and charity, whose light shines when the
four virtues of active life grow dim in night.

CANTO VIII. 51

back, licking like a beast tbat 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 about, up to their stations flying back
alike.

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 light that leadeth thee on high find in
thine own free-will so much wax as is needed up
to the enamelled summit," i it began, " if thou
knowest true news of Valdimacra 2 or of the neigh-
boring region, tell it to me, for formerly I was
great there. I was called Corrado Malaspina; I
am not the ancient,3 but from him I am descended;
to mine own I bore the love which here is refined."
" Oh," said I to him, " through your lands I have
never been, but where doth man dwell in all Eu-
rope that they are not renowned ? The fame that

1 So may illuminating- grace find the disposition in thee requi-
site for the support of its light, until thou shalt arrive at the sum-
mit of the Mountain, the earthly Paradise enamelled with per-
petual flowers.

2 A part of the Lunigiana.

3 The old Corrado Malaspina was the hushand of Constance, the
sister of King Manfred. He died ahout the middle of the thir-
teenth century. The second Corrado was his grandson.

52 PURGATORY.

honoreth your house proclaims its lords, proclaims
its district, so that he knows of them who never
yet was there ; and I swear to you, so may I go
above, that your honored race doth not despoil it-
self of the praise of the purse and of the sword.
Custom and nature so privilege it that though the
guilty head turn the world awry, alone it goes
rioht and scorns the evil road." a And he, " Now
so, for the sun shall not lie seven times in the bed
that the Ram covers and bestrides with all four
feet,2 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."

1 This magnificent eulogy of the land and the family of Mala-
spina is Dante's return for the hospitality which, in 1306, he re-
ceived from the Marquis Moroello and other members of the
house.

2 Seven years shall not pass, the sun being- at this time in the
sign of the Ram.

CANTO IX.

Slumber and Dream of Dante. — The Eagle. — Lucia. —
The Gate of Purgatory. — The Angelic Gatekeeper. — Seven
P's inscribed on Dante's Forehead. — Entrance to the First
Ledge.

The concubine of old Tithonus was now gleam-
ing white on the balcony of the orient, forth from
the arms of her sweet friend ; her forehead was
lucent with gems set in the shape of the cold ani-
mal 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 down its wings, when I, who
had somewhat of Adam with me, overcome by
sleep, reclined upon the grass, there where all five
of us were seated.

At the hour near the morning when the little

1 By the concubine of old Tithonus, Dante seems to have in-
tended the lunar Aurora, in distinction from the proper wife of
Tithonus, Aurora, who precedes the rising- Sun, and the mean-
ing- of these verses is that " the Aurora before moonrise was light-
ing 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.

54 PURGATORY.

swallow begins her sad lays,1 perchance in memory
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,2 in dream
it seemed to me that I saw poised in the sky an
eagle with feathers of gold, with wings widespread,
and intent to stoop. And it seemed to me that I
was there 3 where his own people were abandoned
by Ganymede, when he was rapt to the supreme
consistory. In myself I thought, " Perhaps this
bird strikes only here through wont, and perhaps
from other place disdains to carry anyone upward
in his feet." Then it seemed to me that, having
wheeled a little, it descended terrible as a thunder-
bolt, and snatched me upwards far as the fire.4
There it seemed that it and I burned, and the
imagined fire so scorched that of necessity the
sleep was broken.

Not otherwise Achilles shook himself, — turning
around his awakened eyes, and not knowing where

1 The allusion is to the tragic story of Progne and Philomela,
turned the one into a swallow, the other into a nightingale. Dante
found the tale in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book vi.

2 Dante passes three nights in Purgatory, and each night his
sleep is terminated by a dream towards the hour of daAvn, the time
when, according to the belief of classical antiquity, the visions of
dreams are symbolic and prophetic. (Moore.)

3 Mt. Ida.

4 The sphere of fire by which, according to the mediaeval cos-
mography, the sphere of the air was surrounded.

CANTO IX. 55

lie was, when his mother from Chiron to Scyros
stole him away, sleeping in her arms, thither
whence afterwards the Greeks withdrew him,1 —
than I started, as from my face sleep fled away ;
and I became pale, even as a man frightened
turns to ice. At my side was my Comforter only,
and the sun was now more than two hours high,2
and my face was turned toward the sea. " Have
no fear," said my Lord ; " be reassured, for we are
at a good point ; restrain not, but increase all thy
force. Thou art now arrived at Purgatory ; see
there the cliff that closes it around; see the en-
trance, there where it appears divided. A 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, ' I am Lucia ; 3 let me take this

i

Statius, in the first book of the Achilleid, tells how Thetis, to
prevent Achilles from going- to the siege of Troy, bore him sleep-
ing away from his instructor, the centaur Chiron, and carried him
to the court of King Lycomedes, on the Island of Scyros, where,
though concealed in women's garments, Ulysses and Diomed dis-
covered him. Statius relates how wonderstruck Achilles was when
on awaking he found himself at Scyros :

Quseloca? quifluctus? ubi Pelion ? omnia versa

Atque ignota videt, dubitatque agnoscere matrern. — 249-50.

2 The morning of Easter Monday.

3 Lucia seems to be here the symbol of assisting grace, the
gratia operans of the school-men. It Avas she who was called upon
by the Virgin (Hell, Canto II.) to aid Dante when he was astray
in the wood, and who had moved Beatrice to go to his succor.

56 PURGATORY.

one who is sleeping ; thus will I assist him along
his way.' Sordello remained, and the other gentle
forms : she took thee, and when the day was
bright, she came upward, and I along her foot-
prints. 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 that in perplexity is reassured, and that alters
his fear to confidence after the truth is disclosed
to him, did I change ; and when my Leader saw
me without solicitude, 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 with more art I reen-
force it.1

1 These words may be intended to call attention 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 jiistice or righteousness. Justification itself consists, ac-
cording to St. Thomas Aquinas (Surnma Theologica, Prima Secun-
dse, quaest. cxiii. art. 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 remis-
sion of sin. It must be accompanied by the sacrament of penance,
which consists of contrition, confession, and satisfaction by works
of rightsousness.

Outside the gate of Purgatory justification cannot be complete.
The souls in the Ante-Purgatory typify those who have entered on
the way towards justification, but have not yet attained it. They
undergo a period of mortification to sin, of deliberation, as St.

CANTO IX. 57

We drew near to it, and reached such place that
there, where at first there seemed to me a rift, like
a cleft which divides a wall, I saw a gate, and
three steps beneath for going to it of divers col-
ors, and a gatekeeper who as yet said not a word.
And as I opened my eye there more and more, I
saw him sitting on the upper step, such in his face
that I endured it not.1 And he had in his hand a
naked sword, which so reflected the rays toward
us that I often raised my sight in vain. " Tell
it from there, what would ye ? " began he to say ;
" where is the guide ? Beware lest the coming up
be harmful to you." 2 " A lady from Heaven with
these things acquainted," replied my Master to
him, " only just now said to us, ' Go thither, here
is the gate.' " " And may she advance your steps
in good," began again the courteous gatekeeper,
" come forward then unto our steps."

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, was of a rough and

Thomas Aquinas says : " Contingit autem quandoque quod prsece-
dit aliqua deliberatio quae non est de substantia justificationis sed
via in justificationem." Summa Theol., I. c. art. 7.

1 The angel at the gate appears to he the type of the priest
who administers absolution.

2 Unless grace has been infused into the heart it is a sin to pre-
sent one's self as ready for the sacrament.

58 PURGATORY,

scorched stone, cracked lengthwise and athwart.
The third, which above 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, seated upon the threshold that
seemed to me stone of adamant.1 Up over the
three steps my Leader drew me with good will,
saying, " Beg humbly that he undo the lock."
Devoutly 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.2 Seven P's upon my forehead he inscribed
with the point of his sword,3 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

1 The first step is the symbol of confession, the second of con-
trition, the third of satisfaction ; the threshold of adamant may
perhaps signify the authority of the Church.

2 Three times, in penitence for sins in thought, in word, and
in deed.

3 The seven P's stand for the seven so-called mortal sins, — Pec-
catij not specific acts, but the evil dispositions of the soul from
which all evil deeds spring, — pride, envy, anger, sloth (accidia),
avarice, gluttony, and lust. After justification these dispositions,
which already have been overcome, must be utterly removed from
the soul.

CANTO IX. 59

the yellow he so did to the door, that I was con-
tent.1 " Whenever one of these keys fails, and
turns not rightly in the lock," said he to us, " this
passage doth not open. More precious is one ; 2
but the other requires much art and wit before it
unlocks, because it is the one that disentangles the
knot. From Peter I hold them ; and he told me
to err rather in opening than in keeping shut,
if but the people prostrate themselves at my feet."
Then he pushed the valve of the sacred gate, say-
ing, " Enter, but I give you warning that whoso
looks behind returns outside."3 And when the piv-
ots of that sacred portal, which are of metal, sono-
rous and strong, were turned within their hinges,
Tarpeia roared not so loud nor showed herself so
harsh, when the good Metellus was taken from her,
whereby she afterwards remained lean.4

I turned away attentive to the first tone,5 and

1 The golden key is typical of the power to open, and the silver
of the knowledge to whom to open.

2 The gold, more precious because the power of absolution was
purchased by the death of the Saviour.

3 For he who returns to his sins loses the Divine Grace.

4 This roaring of the gate may, perhaps, be intended to enforce
the last words of the angel, and may symbolize the voices of his
own sins as the sinner turns his back on them. 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 re-
sisted by the tribune Metellus.

6 The first sound within Purgatory.

60 PURGATORY.

it seemed to me I heard " Te Deum laudamus " 1 in
voices mingled with 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 caught.

1 Words appropriate to the entrance of a sinner that repenteth.

CANTO X.

First Ledge : the Proud. — Examples of Humility sculp-
tured on the Rock.

When we were within the threshold of the
gate, which the souls' wrong love 1 disuses, because
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
moved on one side and on the other, even as the
wave retreats and approaches. " Here must be
used a little art," began my Leader, " in keeping
close, now here, now there to the side which re-
cedes.""2 And this made our progress so slow that
the waning disk of the moon regained its bed to
go to rest, before we had come forth from that
needle's eye. But when we were free and open
above, where the mountain backward withdraws,3 I

1 It is Dante's doctrine that love is the motive of every act ;
rightly directed, of good deeds ; perverted, of evil. See Canto
XVII.

2 The path was a narrow, steep zigzag, which, as it receded on
one side and the other, afforded the better foothold.

3 Leaving an open space, the first ledge of Purgatory.

62 PURGATORY.

weary, and both uncertain of our way, we stopped
upon a level more solitary than roads through
deserts. The space from its edge, where it bor-
ders the void, to the foot of the high bank which
rises only, a human body would measure in three
lengths ; 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. Thereon our
feet had not yet moved when I perceived that
bank round about, which, being perpendicular, al-
lowed no ascent, to be of white marble and adorned
with such carvings, that not Polycletus merely but
Nature would be put to shame there.

The Angel who came to earth with the an-
nouncement of the peace, wept for for many years,
which opened Heaven from its long interdict, ap-
peared before us here carved in a sweet attitude so
truly that he did not seem an image that is silent.
One would have sworn that he was saying " Ave; '
for there was she imaged who turned the key to
open the exalted love. And in her action she had
these words impressed, " Ecce ancilla Dei ! " 1 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. Wherefore I moved my
eyes and saw behind Mary, upon that side where

1 " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ! "

CANTO X. 63

he was who was moving me, another story dis-
played upon the rock ; whereupon I passed Virgil
and drew near so that it might be set before my
eyes. There in the very marble was carved the
cart and the oxen drawing the holy ark, because of
which men fear an office not given in charge.1 In
front appeared people; and all of them, divided
in seven choirs, of two of my senses made the one
say "iVb," the other " Yes, they are singing."2
In like manner, by the smoke of the incense that
was imaged there, mine 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 in
that proceeding. Opposite, figured at a window of
a great palace, Michal was looking on even as a
lady scornful and troubled.3

1 "And they set the ark of God on 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.

2 The hearing said "No," the sight said " Yes."

3 " 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 sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
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

64 PURGATORY.

I moved my feet from the place where I was
standing to look from near at another story which
behind Michal was shining white on me. Here
was storied the high glory of the Roman prince,
whose worth incited Gregory to his great victory : l
I speak of Trajan the emperor ; and a poor widow
was at his bridle in attitude of weeping and of
grief. Round about him there seemed a press and
throng of knights, and the eagles in the gold above
him to the sight were moving in the wind. The
wretched woman among all these seemed to be
saying, " Lord, do vengeance for me for my son
who is slain, whereat I am broken-hearted." And
he to answer her, " Now wait till I return ; " and
she, " My Lord," — like one in whom grief is
hasty, — " 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 mindless of thine own ? ' Whereon

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, SauFs daughter, looked through a win-
dow, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord ;
and she despised him in her heart." 2 Samuel, vi. 12-16.

1 -This legend of Trajan had great vogue during the Middle
Ages. It was believed that Pope Gregory the Great interceded
for him, praying that be might be delivered from Hell ; " then
God because of these prayers drew that soul from pain and put
it into glory." This was Gregory's great victory. See Canto XX.

CANTO X. Qb

he, "Now comfort thee ; for it behoves that I dis-
charge my own duty ere I go ; justice requires it,
and pity constrains me." He who hath never seen
new thing 1 had produced that visible speech, novel
to us, since on earth it is not found.

While I was delighting me with regarding the
images of sueh great humilities, and for their Mak-
er's sake dear to behold, " Lo, on this side many
people, but they make few steps," murmured the
Poet. " They will put us on the way to the high
stairs." My eyes that were intent on looking in
order to see novelties whereof they are fain, in
turning toward him were not slow.

I would not, indeed, Reader, that thou be dis-
mayed at thy good purpose, through hearing how
God wills that the debt be paid. Attend not to
the form of the suffering ; think on what follows ;
think that at worst beyond the Great Judgment it
cannot go !

I began, " Master, that which I see moving to-
ward us, seems to me not persons, but what I know
not, my look is so in vain." And he to me, " The
heavy condition of their torment so presses them to
earth, that mine own eyes at first had contention
with it. But look fixedly there, and disentangle
with thy sight that which cometh beneath those
stones ; now thou canst discern how each is smit-
ten."

1 God, to whom nothing" can be new.

66 PURGATORY.

O proud Christians, wretched weary ones, who,
diseased in vision of the mind, have confidence in
backward steps, are ye not aware that we are
worms born to form the angelic butterfly which
flies unto judgment without defence? Why doth
your mind float up aloft, since ye are as it were de-
fective insects, even as a worm in which formation
fails ?

As sometimes for support of ceiling or roof, by
way of corbel, a figure is seen joining its knees to
its breast, which out of its unreality makes a real
pang rise in him who sees it, thus fashioned saw I
these when I gave good heed. True it is that they
were more or less contracted 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."

CANTO XI.

First Ledge : the Proud. — Prayer. — Omberto Aldo-
brandeschi. — Oderisi d' Agubbio. — Provinzan Salvani.

" O OUR Father who art in Heaven, not circum-
scribed, but through the greater love which to the
first effects on high Thou hast,1 praised be Thy
name and Thy power by every creature, even as
it is befitting to render thanks to Thy sweet efflu-
ence. May the peace of Thy Kingdom come to-
wards us, for we to it cannot of ourselves, if it come
not, with all our striving. As of their will Thine
angels, sinffinsr Hosanna, make sacrifice to Thee,
so may men make of theirs. Give us this day the
daily manna, without which through this rough
desert he backward goes, who toils most to go on.
And as we pardon every one for the wrong that we
have suffered, even do Thou, benignant, pardon
and regard not our desert. Our virtue which is
easily overcome put not to proof with the old ad-
versary, but deliver from him who so spurs it.

i Not circumscribed by Heaven, but bavin- Thy seat there be-
cause of the love Thou bearest to the first effects— the angels,
and the heavens — of Thyself the First Cause.

68 PURGATORY.

This last prayer, clear Lord, truly is not made for
ourselves, for it is not needful, but for those who
behind us have remained."

Thus praying for themselves and us good speed,
those souls were going under the weight, like that
of which one sometimes dreams, unequally in an-
guish, all of them round and round, and weary,
along the first cornice, purging away the mists of
the world. If good they ask for us always there,
what can here be said and done for them by those
who have a good root for their will? Truly we
ought to aid them to wash away the marks which
they bore hence, so that pure and light they may
go forth unto the starry wheels.

" Ah ! so may justice and pity unburden you
speedily that ye may be able to move the wing,
which according to your desire may lift you, show
on which hand is the shortest way towards the
stair ; and if there is more than one pass, point
out to us that which least steeply slopes ; for this
man who comes with me, because of the load 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 follow-
ing had spoken, but it was said, " To the right
hand along the bank come ye with us, and ye will
find the pass possible for a living person to as-

CANTO XL 69

cend. And if I were not hindered by the stone
which tames my proud neck, wherefore I needs
must carry my face low, I would look at that one
who is still alive and is not named, to see if I know
him, and to make him pitiful of this burden. I
was a Latian, and born of a great Tuscan ; Gu-
glielmo Aldobrandesco was my father : I know not
if his name was ever with you.1 The ancient
blood and the gallant deeds of my ancestors made
me so arrogant that, not thinking on the common
mother, I held every man in scorn to such ex-
treme that I died therefor, as the Sienese know,
and every child in Campagnatico knows it. I
am Omberto: and not only unto me Pride doth
harm, for all my kinsfolk hath she dragged with
her into calamity; and here must I bear this
weight on her account 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 himself
under the weight that hampers him ; and he saw
me, and recognized me and called out, keeping his
eyes with effort fixed on me, who was going along

i The Aldobrandeschi were the counts of Santa Fiore (see
Canto VI.) 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 stronghold of Campagnatico, in 1259.

70 PURGATORY.

all stooping with him.1 " Oh," said I to him, " art
thou not Oderisi, the honor of Gubbio, and the
honor of that art which in Paris is called illumi-
nation ? ' " Brother," said he, " more smiling are
the leaves that Franco of Bologna pencils ; the
honor is now all his, and mine in part.2 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 here is paid
the fee ; and yet I should not be here, were it not
that, still having power to sin, I turned me unto
God. Oh vainglory of human powers ! how little
lasts the green upon the top, if it be not followed
by dull ages.3 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 one
Guido hath taken from the other the glory of the
language ; and he perhaps is born who shall drive
both one and the other from the nest.4 Worldly
renown is naught but a breath of wind, which now
comes hence and now comes thence, and changes

1 This stooping is the symbol of Dante's consciousness of pride
as his own besetting sin.

2 Oderisi of Gubbio and Franco of Bologna were both eminent
in the art called miniare in Italian, enluminer in French.

3 Ages in which no progress is made.

4 The first Guido is doubtless Guido Guinicelli, whom Dante
calls (see Canto XXVI.) his master ; the other probably Dante's
friend, Guido Cavalcanti.

CANTO XL 71

name because it changes quarter. What more fame
shalt thou have, if thou strippest old flesh from
thee, than if thou hadst died ere thou hadst left the
pap and the chink,1 before a thousand years have
passed ? — which is a shorter space compared to
the eternal than a movement of the eyelids to the
circle that is slowest turned in Heaven. With him
who takes so little of the road in front of me, all
Tuscany resounded, and now he scarce is lisped of
in Siena, where he was lord when the Florentine
rage was destroyed,2 which at that time was proud,
as now it is prostitute. Your reputation is color
of grass that comes and goes, and he 3 discolors it
through whom it came up fresh from the earth."
And I to him, " Thy true speech brings good
humility to my heart, and thou allayest a great
swelling in me : but who is he of whom thou now
wast speaking? " " He is," he answered, " Provin-
zan Salvani ; 4 and he is here, because he was pre-
sumptuous in bringing all Siena to his hands. He

1 Dante's words are pappo and dindi, childish terms for
"bread" and "money."

2 The mad Florentine people were utterly cast down in 1260, at

the battle of Montaperti.

3 The sun.

4 Provinzano 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 presumptuous. Defeated and taken
prisoner at the battle of Colle, in 1269, he was beheaded.

72 PURGATORY.

has gone thus — and he goes without repose — ever
since he died : such money doth lie pay in satisfac-
tion, who is on earth too daring." And I, " If that
spirit who awaits the verge of life ere he repents
abides there below, and unless good prayer further
him ascends not hither, ere as much time pass
as he lived, how has this coming been granted unto
him ? ' " When he was living most renowned,"
said he, " laying aside all shame, of his own ac-
cord he planted himself in the Campo of Siena,1
and there, to draw his 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 neighbors will so act that
thou wilt be able to gloss it.2 This deed released
him from those limits." 3

1 The Campo of Siena is her chief public square and market-
place, set round with palaces. The friend of Provinzano is said
by the old commentators to have fought for Conradin against
Charles of Anjou, and, being taken captive, to have been con-
demned to death. His ransom was fixed at ten thousand florins.
Provinzano, not being able to pay this sum from his own means,
took his seat in the Campo and humiliated himself to beg of the
passers-by.

2 The meaning of the dark words seems to be : Exile and pov-
erty will compel thee to beg, and begging to tremble in every
vein.

3 This deed of humility and charity released him from the ne-
cessity of tarrying outside the gate of Purgatory.

CANTO XII.

First Ledge : the Proud. — Examples of the punishment
of Pride graven on the pavement. — Meeting with an An-
gel who removes one of the P's. — Ascent to the Second
Ledge.

Side by side, like oxen who go yoked, I went
on with that burdened spirit so long as the sweet
Pedagogue allowed it ; but when he said, " Leave
him, and come on, for here it is well that, both
with sail and oars, each as much as he can should
urge his bark," I straitened up my body again, as
is required for walking, although my thoughts re-
mained both bowed down and abated.

I was moving on, and following willingly the
steps of my Master, and both now were showing
how light we were, when he said to me, "Turn
thine eyes downward ; it will be well for thee, in
order to solace the way, to look upon the bed of
thy footprints." As above the buried, so that there
may be memory of them, their tombs in earth bear
inscribed that which they were before, — whence
oftentimes is weeping for them there, through the
pricking of remembrance, which only to the pious
gives the spur, — so saw I figured there, but of

74 PURGATORY.

better semblance in respect of skill, all that for
pathway juts out from the mountain.

I saw him who was created more noble than any-
other creature,1 down from heaven with lightning
flash descending, at one side.

I saw Briareus 2 transfixed by the celestial bolt,
lying at the other side, heavy upon the earth in
mortal chill. I saw Thymbrseus,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 gazing at the people who in Shi-
nar had with him been proud.

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 here^ didst
thou appear dead on Gilboa, that after felt not
rain or dew ! i

0 mad Arachne,5 so I saw thee already half
■ spider, wretched on the shreds of the work that to

thy harm by thee was made !

1 Lucifer.

2 Examples from classic and biblical mythology alternate.

3 Apollo, so called from his temple at Thymbra, not far from
Troy, where Achilles is said to have slain Paris. Virgil (Georgics,
iv. 323) uses this epithet.

4 1 Samuel, xxxi.4, and 2 Samuel, i. 24.

5 Changed to a spider by Athena, whom she had challenged to
a trial of skill at the loom.

CANTO XII. 75

0 Rehoboam ! here tliine image seems not now
to threaten, but full of fear, a chariot bears it away
before any one pursues it.1

The hard pavement showed also how Alcmseon
made the ill-fated ornament seem costly to his
mother.2

It showed how his sons threw themselves upon
Sennacherib within the temple, and how they left
him there dead.3

It showed the ruin and the cruel slaughter that
Tomyris wrought, when she said to Cyrus, "For
blood thou hast thirsted, and with blood I fill
thee." 4

It showed how the Assyrians fled in rout after
Holof ernes was killed, and also the remainder of
the punishment.5

1 saw Troy in ashes, and in caverns. O Ilion !
how cast down and abject the image which is there
discerned showed thee !

1 1 Kings, xii. 13-18.

2 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 a golden necklace, betrayed his
hiding-place, and was killed by her son Alcniseon, for thus bring-
ing about his father's death.

3 2 Kings, xix. 37.

4 Herodotus (i. 214) tells how Tomyris, Queen of the Massa-
getse, 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 probably got from Justin.

6 Judith, xv. 1.

76 PURGATORY.

What master lias there been of pencil or of style
that could draw the shadows and the lines which
there would make every subtile genius wonder?
Dead the dead, and the living seemed 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 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 by
us, and of the sun's course far more spent, than
my mind, not disengaged, was aware, when he,
who always in advance attent was going on, began,
" Lift up thy head ; there is no more time for going
thus abstracted. See there an Angel, who is has-
tening to come toward us : see how from the ser-
vice of the day the sixth hand-maiden returns.1
With reverence adorn thine acts and thy face so
that he may delight to direct us upward. Think
that this day never dawns again."

I was well used to his admonition ever to lose no
time, so that on that theme he could not speak to
me obscurely.

To us came the beautiful creature, clothed in
white, and in his face such as seems the tremulous
morning star. Its arms it opened, and then it
opened its wings ; it said, " Come : here at hand

1 The sixth hour of the day is coming- to its end, near noon.

CANTO XII. 77

are the steps, and easily henceforth one ascends.
To this invitation very few come. O human race,
born to fly upward,, why before a little wind dost
thou so fall ? '

He led us to where the rock was cut ; here he
struck his wings across my forehead,1 then prom-
ised me secure progress.

As on the right hand, ingoing up the mountain,2
where sits the church that dominates her the well-
guided 3 city above Rubaconte,4 the bold flight of
the ascent is broken by the stairs, which were made
in an a<re when the record and the stave were se-
cure,5 in like manner, the bank which falls here
very steeply from the next round is slackened ;
but on this side and that the high rock grazes.6

1 Removing the first P that the Angel of the Gate had incised
on Dante's brow.

2 The hill of San Miniato, above Florence.

3 Ironical.

4 The upper bridge at Florence across the Arno, named after
Messer Rubaconte di Mandella, 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 1471, and dedicated to Our Lady of
Grace.

5 In the good old time when men were honest. In 1299 one
Messer Niccola Acciaioli, in order to conceal a fraudulent transac-
tion, 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 dimin-
ished by the removal of a stave.

e The stairway is so narrow.

78 PURGATORY.

As we turned our persons thither, voices sang
" Beati pauperes spiritu " * in such wise that
speech could not tell it. Ah, how different are
these passes from those of Hell ! for here through
songs one enters, and there below through fierce
lamentings.

Now we were mounting up over the holy stairs,
and it seemed to me I was far more light than I
had seemed on the plain before. Whereon I,
" Master, say, what heavy thing has been lifted
from me, so that almost no weariness is felt by me
as I go on ? ' He answered, " When the P's that
almost extinct 2 still remain on thy countenance
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." Then I did like those who are
going with something on their head, unknown
by them unless the signs of others make them

1 " Blessed are the poor in spirit." As Dante passes from each
round of Purgatory, an angel removes the P which denotes the
special sin there purged away. And the removal is accompanied
with the words of one of the Beatitudes.

2 Almost extinct, because, 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 source in pride, but be-
cause every kind of sin is born of pride." Summa Theol., II. 2,
quaest. 162, art. 7.

CANTO XII. 79

suspect; wherefore the hand assists to ascertain,
and 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 only six those letters which he of the keys
had encised 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 the
second time cut back. There a cornice binds the
hill round about, in like manner as the first, except
that its arc bends more quickly. No shadow is
there, nor mark which is apparent ; 1 so that the
bank appears smooth and so the path, with the
livid color of the stone.

" If to enquire one waits here for people," said
the Poet, " I fear that perhaps our choice will have
too much delay." Then he set his eyes fixedly
upon the sun, made of his right 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."

1 No sculptured or engraved scenes.

CANTO XIII. 81

As far as here on earth is counted for a mile, so
far had we now gone there, in little time because
of ready will ; and towards us were heard to fly,
not however seen, spirits uttering* courteous invi-
tations to the table of love. The first voice that
passed flying, " Vinum non habent" 1 loudly said,
and went on behind us reiterating it. And before
it had become quite inaudible through distance,
another passed by, crying, " I am Orestes," 2 and
also did not stay. " Oh," said I, " Father, what
voices are these ? " and even as I was asking, lo !
the third, saying, " Love them from whom ye have
had wrong." And the good Master : " This circle
scourges the sin of envy, and therefore from love
are drawn the cords of the scourge. The curb
must be of the opposite sound ; I think that thou
wilt hear it before thou arrivest at the pass of
pardon.3 But fix thine eyes very fixedly through
the air, and thou wilt see in front of us people sit-
ting, and each is seated against the rock." Then
more than before I opened my eyes ; I looked in
front of me, and saw shades with cloaks in color

i " They have no wine." — John ii. 3. The words of Mary at
the wedding feast of Cana, symbolic of a kindness that is a rebuke

of envy.

2 The words of Pylades, before Egistheus, when contending

with Orestes to be put to death in his stead.

3 At the stair to the third ledge, at the foot of which stands the
angel who cancels the sin of envy.

82 PURGATORY.

not different from the stone. And when we were
a little further forward, I heard them crying, •
" Mary, pray for us ! " crying, " Michael," and
" Peter," and all the Saints.

I do not believe there goes on earth to-day a man
so hard that he had not been pricked by compas-
sion 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. They seemed to me covered with
coarse haircloth, and one supported the other with
his shoulders, and all were supported by the bank.
Thus the blind, who lack subsistence, stand at par-
dons 1 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 the
words, but by the sight which implores no less.
And as to the blind the sun profits not, so to the
shades, there where I was now speaking, the light
of Heaven wills not to make largess of itself ; for a
wire of iron pierces and sews up the eyelids of all ;
even as is done to a wild sparrow-hawk, because it
stays not quiet.

It seemed to me I was doing outrage as I went
on, seeing others, not myself being seen, wherefore

1 On occasion of special indulgences the beggars gather at the
rloor of churches frequented by those who seek the pardons to be
obtained within.

CANTO XIII. 83

I turned me to my sage Counsel ; 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, that through the horrible
stitches were pressing out the tears so that they
bathed their cheeks. I turned me to them, and,
" O folk secure," I began, " of seeing the lofty
lio-ht which alone your desire holds in its care, may
grace speedily dissolve the scum of your consciences
so that the stream of memory through them may
descend clear,1 tell me, for it will be gracious and
dear to me, if there be a soul here among you
that is Latin, and perhaps it will be good for him
if I learn it." " O my brother, each is a citizen
of one true city,2 but thou meanest, who lived in
Italy while a pilgrim." 3 This it seemed to me to
hear for answer somewhat further on than where
I was standing ; wherefore I made myself heard
still more that way. Among the others I saw a

1 Being purified from sin they will retain no memory of it.

2 " Fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of

God." — Ephesians, ii. 19.

3 "For here have we no continuing city, hut we seek one to

come." — Hebrews, xiii. 14.

84 PURGATORY.

shade that was expectant in look ; and, if any one
should wish to ask, How ? — like a blind man it
was lifting up its chin. " Spirit," said I, " that
humblest 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 a Sien-
ese," it answered, " and with these others I cleanse
here my guilty life, weeping to Him that He grant
Himself to us. Sapient I was not, although I was
called Sapia, 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
if 1 was foolish as I tell thee. The arch of my
years already descending, my fellow-citizens were
joined in battle near to Colle * with their adversa-
ries, and I prayed God for that which He willed.
They were routed there, and turned into the bitter
passes of flight ; and I, seeing the pursuit, expe-
rienced a joy unmatched by any other ; so much
that I turned upward my audacious face, crying
out to God, ' Now no more I fear thee ; ' as the
blackbird doth 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 be lessened

1 This was the battle in 1259, in which the Florentines routed
the Sienese Ghibellines, at whose head was Provenzan Salvani,
who was slain. See Canto XI.

CANTO XIII. 85

by penitence,1 had it not been that Pier Petti-
na<mo,2 who out of charity was sorry for me, held
me in memory in his holy prayers. But thou, who
art thou that goest asking of our conditions, and
bearest thine eyes loose as I think, and breathing
dost speak?" "My eyes," said I, "will yet be
taken from me here but a little time, for small is
the offence committed through their being turned
with envy. Par greater is the fear, with which my
soul is in suspense, of the torment beneath, and
already the load down there weighs upon me."
And she to me, " Who then hath led thee here up
among us, if thou thinkest to return below ? '
And I, " This one who is with me, and says not a
word : and I am alive ; and therefore ask of me,
spirit elect, if thou wouldst that I should yet move
for thee on earth my mortal feet." " Oh, this is
so strange a thing to hear," she replied, " that it
is great sign that God loves thee ; therefore assist
me sometimes with thy prayer. And I beseech
thee, by that which thou most desirest, if ever
thou tread the earth of Tuscany, that with my kin-

i I should uot yet within Purgatory have diminished my debt
of expiation, but, because I delayed repentance till the hour of
Death, I should still be outside the gate.

2 A poor comb-dealer, a man of kind heart, honest dealing's,
and good deeds, and still remembered for them in Siena. He
died in 1289.

86 PURGATORY.

dred thou restore my fame. Thou wilt see them
among that vain people which hopes in Talamone,1
and will waste more hope there, than in finding
the Diana ; 2 but the admirals will stake the most
there.3

1 A little port on the coast of Tuscany, on 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.

2 A subterranean stream supposed to flow beneath the city.

3 Of these last words the meaning is obscure.

CANTO XIV.

Second Ledge : the Envious. — Guido del Duca. — Rinieri
de' Calboli. — Examples 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 will ? " 1 "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, lean-
ing one to the other, discoursed of me there on the
rioht hand, then turned up their faces to speak to
me. And one of them said, "O soul that still
fixed in thy body goest on toward heaven, for
charity console us, and tell us whence thou comest,
and who thou art ; for thou makest us so marvel at
this thy grace, as needs must a thing that never
was before." And I, "Through mid Tuscany
there wanders a little stream, that has its rise on
Falterona,2 and a hundred miles of course does
not suffice it. From thereupon I bring this body.

i These words are spoken by Guido del Duca, who is answered
by Rinieri de' Calboli ; both of them from the Romagna.
2 One of the highest of the Tuscan Apennines.

88 PURGATORY.

To tell you who I am would be to speak in vain,
for my name as yet makes no great sound." " If I
grasp aright 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 one 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 perish, for from its source (where the rugged
mountain chain, from which Pelorus 1 is cut off, is
so teeming that in few places it passes beyond that
mark), far as there where it gives back in restora-
tion that which heaven dries up of the sea (where-
from the rivers have what flows in them), virtue is
driven away as an enemy by all men, like a snake,
either through misfortune of the place, or through
evil habit that incites them. Wherefore the in-
habitants of the wretched valley have so changed
their nature that it seems as though Circe had had
them in her feeding. Among foul hogs,2 more fit
for acorns than for other food made for human
use, it first directs its poor path. Then, coming-
down, it finds curs more snarling than their power
warrants,3 and at them disdainfully it twists its

1 The north-eastern promontory of Sicily.

2 The people of the Casentino, the upper valley of the Arno.
8 The Aretines.

CANTO XIV. 89

muzzle.1 It goes on falling, and the more it swells
so much the more the accursed and ill-f uted ditch
finds the dogs becoming wolves.2 Descending then
through many hollow gulfs, it finds foxes 3 so full
of fraud, that they fear not that wit may entrap
them. Nor will I leave to speak though another
hear me : and well it will be for this one if here-
after he mind him of that which a true spirit dis-
closes to me.

"I see thy grandson,4 who becomes hunter of
those wolves upon the bank of the fierce stream,
and terrifies them all. He sells their flesh,5 it be-
ing yet alive ; then he slays them, like an old wild
beast ; many of life, himself of honor he deprives.
Bloody he comes forth from the dismal wood ; 6 he
leaves it such, that from now for a thousand years,
in its primal state it is not re wooded." As at the
announcement of grievous ills, the face of him who
listens is disturbed, from whatsoever side the dan-
ger may assail him, so I saw the other soul, that
was turned to hear, become disturbed and sad,
when it had gathered to itself the words.

The speech of one and the look of the other

i Turning westward. 2 The wolves of Florence.

3 The Pisans.

4 Fulcieri da Calvoli, so named by Villani (viii. 69), " a fierce
and cruel man," was made podesta of Florence in 1302. He put
to death many of the White Guelphs, and banished more of them.

5 Bribed by the opposite party.

6 Florence, spoiled and undone.

90 PURGATORY.

made me wishful to know their names, and I made
request for it, mixed with prayers. Wherefore the
spirit which first had spoken to me began again,
" Thou wishest that I abase myself in doing that for
thee 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 in-
flamed with envy, that had I seen a man becoming
joyful, thou wouldst have seen me overspread with
livid hue. Of my sowing I reap this straw. O
human race, why dost thou set thy heart there
where is need of exclusion of companionship ?

" This one is Rinier ; this is the glory and the
honor of the house of Calboli,1 where no one since
has made himself heir of his worth. And between
the Po and the mountain,2 and the sea3 and the
Reno,4 not his blood alone has become stripped of
the good required for truth and for delight ; for
within these limits the ground is so full of poison-
ous stocks, that slowly would they now die out
through cultivation. Where is the good Lizio,
and Arrigo Manardi, Pier Traversaro, and Guido
di Carpigna ? 5 O men of Romagna turned to bas-

1 A noble Guelph family of Forll. 2 The Apennines.

3 The Adriatic. 4 Near Bologna.

5 These and the others named afterwards were well-born, hon-
orable, and courteous men in Romagna in the thirteenth century.

CANTO XIV. 91

tards ! When in Bologna will a Fabbro take root
again? When in Faenza a Bernardin di Fosco,
the noble scion of a mean 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 Tra-
versal, and the Anastagi, (both the one race and
the other is without heir), the ladies and the cava-
liers, the toils and the pleasures for which love and
courtesy inspired our will, there where hearts have
become so wicked. O Brettinoro ! why dost thou
not flee away, since thy family hath gone, and many
people, in order not to be guilty ? Well doth Ba-
gnacaval that gets no more sons; and ill doth Cas-
trocaro, and worse Conio that takes most trouble to
beget such counts. Well will the Pagani do when
their Demon shall go from them ; 1 yet not so that
a pure report of them can ever remain. O Ugolin
cle' Fantolin ! thy name is secure, since one who,
degenerating, can make it dark is no longer
awaited. But go thy way, Tuscan, now ; for now
it pleases me far more to weep than to speak, so
much hath our discourse wrung my mind."

What is known of them may he found in Benvenuto da Imola's
comment, and in that of Scartazzini.

i The Pagani were lords of Faenza and Imola (see Hell, Canto
XXVII.) ; the Demon was Mainardo, who died in 1302.

92 PURGATORY.

We knew that those dear souls heard us go ;
therefore by silence they made us confident of the
road. After we had become alone by going on, a
voice that seemed like lightning when it cleaves
the air, came counter to us, saying, " Everyone that
findeth me shall slay me," x and fled like thunder
which rolls away, if suddenly the cloud is rent.
Soon as our hearing had a truce from it, lo ! now
another with so great a crash that it resembled
thunderings in swift succession : " I am Aglauros
who became a stone."2 And then to draw me close
to the Poet, I backward and not forward took a
step. Now was the air quiet on every side, and he
said to me, " That was the hard curb 3 which ought
to hold man within his bound ; but ye take the bait,
so that the hook of the old adversary draws you
to him, and therefore little avails bridle or lure.
Heaven calls you, and around you circles, display-
ing to you its eternal beauties, and your eye looks
only on the ground ; wherefore He who discerns
everything scourges you."

1 The words of Cain. — Genesis, iv. 14.

2 Daughter of Cecrops, changed to stone because of envy of her
sister.

3 These examples of the fatal consequences of the sin.

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 appears, between the beginning of
the day and the close of the third hour, of the
sphere that ever in manner of a child is sporting,
so much now, toward the evening, appeared to be
remaining of his course for the sun.1 It was ves-
pers 2 there, and here 3 midnight ; and the rays
struck us across the nose,4 because the mountain
had been so circled by us that we were now going
straight toward the sunset, when I felt my fore-

1 The sun was still some three hours from his setting1. The
sphere that ever is sportive like a child has been variously inter-
preted ; perhaps Dante only meant the sphere of the heavens
which by its ever varying- aspect suggests the image of a playful
spirit.

2 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 Purgatory corresponds with
midnight in Italy.

a In Italy.

4 Full in the face.

94 PURGATORY.

head weighed down by the splendor far more than
at first, and the things not known were a wonder to
me.1 Wherefore I lifted my hands toward the top
of my brows, and made for myself the visor that
lessens the excess of what is seen.

As when from water, or from the mirror, the ray
leaps to the opposite quarter, and, mounting up in
like manner to that in which it descends, at equal
distance departs as much from the falling of the
stone,2 as experiment and art show ; so it seemed
to me that I was struck by light reflected there in
front of me, from which my sight was swift to fly.
" What is that, sweet Father, from which I can-
not screen my sight so that it avails 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 ; u it is a messenger that
comes to invite men to ascend. Soon will it be
that to see these things will not be grievous to
thee, but will be delight to thee as great as nature
fitted thee to feel."

When we had reached the blessed Angel, with a
glad voice he said, " Enter ye here to a stairway
far less steep than the others."

We were mounting, already departed thence,

1 The source of this increase of brightness being- unknown, it
caused him astonishment.

2 I. e., the perpendicular, at the point of incidence.

CANTO XV. 95

and " Bcati mlsericordes " 1 had been sung- behind
us, and " Rejoice thou that overcomest." 2 My
Master and I, we two alone, were going on up-
ward, and I was thinking to win profit as we went
from his words ; and I addressed me to him, thus
enquiring, " What did the spirit from Romagna
mean, mentioning exclusion and companionship?"3
Wherefore he to me, " Of his own greatest fault
he knows the harm, and therefore it is not to be
wondered at if he reprove it, in order that there
may be less lamenting on account of it. Because
your desires are directed there, where, through com-
panionship, a share is lessened, envy moves the bel-
lows of your sighs. But if the love of the highest
sphere 4 had turned your desire on high, that fear
would not be in your breast ; for the more there
are who there say ' ours,' so much the more of good
doth each possess, and the more of charity burnetii
in that cloister." 5 "lam more hungering to be

1 " Blessed are the merciful."

2 At the passage from each round, the Angel at the foot of the
stairs repeats words from the Beatitudes adapted to those purified
from the sin punished upon the ledge which is being left.

3 In the last canto, Guido del Duca had exclaimed, " 0 human
race, why dost thou set thy heart there where companionship
must needs be excluded ! "

4 The Empyrean.

5 "Since good, the more
Communicated, the more abundant grows."

Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 73.

96 PURGATORY.

contented," said I, "than if I had at first been
silent, and more of doubt I assemble in my mind.
How can it be that a good distributed makes more
possessors richer with itself, than if by few it is
possessed ? " 1 And he to me, " Because thou fas-
tenest thy mind only on earthly things, from true
light thou gatherest darkness. That infinite and
ineffable Good which is on high, runs to love even
as the sunbeam comes to a lucid body. As much
of itself it gives as it finds of ardor ; so that how
far soever charity extends, beyond it doth the eter-
nal bounty increase. And the more the people
who are intent on high the more there are for
loving well, and the more love is there, and like a
mirror one reflects to the other. And if my dis-
course appease not thy hunger, thou shalt see Bea-
trice, and she will fully take from thee this and
every other longing. Strive only that soon may
be extinct, as two already are, the five wounds that
are closed up by being painful." 2

As I was about to say " Thou satisfiest me," I
saw myself arrived on the next round,3 so that my
eager eyes made me silent. There it seemed to
me I was of a sudden rapt in an ecstatic vision,

1 " True love in this differs from gold and clay,
That to divide is not to take away."

Shelley, Epipsychidion.

2 The pain of contrition.

3 Where the sin of anger is expiated.

CANTO XV. 97

and saw many persons in a temple, and a lady at
the entrance, with the sweet action of a mother,
saying, " My son, why hast thou done thus toward
us ? Lo, sorrowing, thy father and I were seeking
thee ; " and when here she was silent, that which
first appeared, disappeared.

Then appeared to me another, with those waters
down along her cheeks which grief distils when it
springs from 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 sparkles forth, avenge
thyself on those audacious arms, that have em-
braced our daughter, O Pisistratus." And the
lord appeared to me, benign and mild, to answer
her, with temperate look, "What shall we do to
him who desires ill for us, if he who loves us is
by us condemned ? " 1

Then I saw people kindled with fire of wrath,
killing a youth with stones, loudly crying to each
other only, " Slay, slay." And I saw him bowed
by death, which now was weighing on him, toward
the ground, but. in such great strife he ever made
of his eyes gates for heaven, praying to the high
Lord, that He would pardon his persecutors, with
that aspect which unlocks pity.2

1 Dante translated this story from Valerius Maxinius, Facta et
dicta mem., vi. 1 .

2 See Acts, vii. 55-60.

98 PURGATORY.

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 do
like a man who looses himself from slumber, said,
" What ails thee, that thou canst not support thy-
self ? but art come more than a half league veiling
thine eyes, and with thy legs staggering like one
whom wine or slumber overcomes." " O sweet
Father mine, if thou harkenest to me I will tell
thee," said I, " what appeared 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 thyself from opening thy
heart to the waters of peace which are poured
forth from the eternal fountain. I did not ask,
4 What ails thee?' for the reason that he does who
looks only with the eye which hath no seeing when
the body lies inanimate ; but I asked, in order to
give strength to thy feet ; thus it behoves to spur
the sluggards, slow to use their wakefulness when
it returns."

We were going on through the vesper time, for-
ward intent so far as the eyes could reach against
the bright evening rays ; when, 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 barren sky, obscured by clouds as
much as it can be, never made so thick a veil to
my sight nor to my feeling so harsh of tissue as
that smoke which covered us there ; so that my eye
endured not to stay open : 1 wherefore 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 ever saying, " Take care that
thou be not cut off from me."

I heard voices, and each appeared to be praying
for peace and mercy to the Lamb of God that
taketh sins away. Only "Agnus Dei " 2 were their
exordiums : one word there was in all, and one
measure ; so that among them seemed entire con-

1 The gloom and the smoke symbolize the effects of anger on
the soul.

2 "The Lamb of God."

100 PURGATORY.

cord. " 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
yet dost speak of us even as if thou didst still
divide the time by calends ? " 1 Thus by one voice
was said : whereon my Master said, " Reply, and
ask if by this way one goeth up." And I, " O
creature, that cleansest thyself in order to return
beautiful unto Him who made thee, a marvel shalt
thou hear if thou accompanyest me." " I will fol-
low thee, 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
I go upward, and I came hither through the infer-
nal anguish. And if God hath so enclosed me in
His £race that He wills that I should see His court
by a mode wholly out of modern usage, conceal not
from me who thou wert before thy death, but tell
it to me, and tell me if I am going rightly to the
pass ; and let thy words be our guides." " Lom-
bard I was, and was called Marco ; the world I
knew, and that worth I loved, toward which every
one hath now unbent his bow. For mounting thou
art going rightly." Thus he replied, and added,

1 By those in the eternal world time is not reckoned by earthly
divisions.

CANTO XVI. 101

" I pray thee that thou pray for me when thou
shalt be above." And I to him, " I pledge my
faith to thee 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 simple, and now it
is made double by thy words which make certain
to me, here as elsewhere, that wherewith I couple
it.1 The world is indeed as utterly deserted by
every virtue as thou declarest to me, and with
iniquity is big and covered ; but I pray that thou
point out to me the cause, so that I may see it, and
that I may show it to others ; for one sets it in the
heavens, and one here below."

A deep sigh that grief wrung into "Ayme!" he
first sent forth, and then began, "Brother, the
world is blind, and thou forsooth comest from it.
Ye who are living refer every cause upward to
the heavens only, as if they of necessity moved all
things with themselves. 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

1 The doubt was occasioned by Guido del Duca's words (Canto
XV.), in regard to the prevalence of evil in Tuscany, arising either
from misfortune of the place, or through the bad habits of men.
The fact of the iniquity of men was now reaffirmed by Marco
Lombardo ; Dante accepts the fact as certain, and his doubt is
coupled with it.

102 PURGATORY.

all of them ; but, supposing that I said it, light
for good and for evil is given to you ; and free
will, which, if it endure fatigue in the first battles
with the heavens, afterwards, if it be well nurtured,
conquers everything. To a greater force, and to
a better nature, ye, free, are subjected, and that
creates the mind in you, which the heavens have
not in their charge.1 Therefore if the present
world goes astray, in you is the cause, in you let it
be sought; and of this I will now be a true in-
formant for thee.

" Forth from the hand of Him who delights in it
ere it exist, like to a little maid who, weeping and
smiling, wantons childishly, issues the simple little
soul, which knows nothing, save that, proceeding
from a glad Maker, it willingly turns to that which
allures it. Of trivial good at first it tastes the
savor ; by this it is deceived and runneth after it,
if guide or bridle bend not its love. Wherefore it
was needful to impose law as a bridle ; needful to
have a king who could 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 ruminate, but has not his hoofs di-

1 The soul of man is the direct creation of God, and is in imme-
diate subjection to His power ; it is not in charge of the Heavens,
and its will is free to resist their mingled and imperfect influ-
ences.

CANTO XVI. 103

vided.1 Wherefore the people, who see their guide
aim only at that good 2 whereof they are greedy,
feed upon that, and. seek no further. Well canst
thou see that the evil leading is the cause that
has made the world guilty, and not nature which
in you may be corrupted. Rome, which made the
world good, was wont to have two Suns,3 which
made visible both one road, and the other, that of
the world and that of God. One has extinguished
the other ; and the sword is joined to the crozier ;
and the two together must of necessity go ill,
because, being joined, one feareth not the other.
If thou believest me not, consider the grain,4 for
every herb is known by its seed.

" Within the land which the Adige and the Po
water, valor and courtesy were wont to be found
before Frederick had his quarrel ; 5 now safely

1 The shepherd who precedes the flock, and should lead it
aright, is the Pope. A mystical interpretation of the injunction
upon the children of Israel {Leviticus, xi.) in regard to clean and
unclean beasts was familiar to the schoolmen. St. Augustine
expounds the cloven hoof as symbolic of right conduct, because it
does not easily slip, and the chewing of the cud as signifying the
meditation of wisdom. Dante seems here to mean that the Pope
has the true doctrine, but makes not the true use of it for his own
guidance and the government of the world.

2 Material good.

3 Pope and Emperor.

4 The results that follow this forced union.

6 Before the Emperor Frederick II. had his quarrel with the

104 PURGATORY.

anyone may pass there who out of shame would
cease discoursing with the good, or drawing near
them. Truly three old men are still there in whom
the antique age rebukes the new, and it seems
late to them ere God restore them to the better
life ; Currado da Palazzo, and the good Gherardo,1
and Guido da Castel, who is better named, after
the manner of the French, the simple Lombard.2

" Say thou henceforth, that the Church of Kome,
through confounding in itself two modes of rule,3
falls in the mire, and defiles itself and its burden."

" O Marco mine," said I, " thou reasonest well ;
and now I discern why the sons of Levi were ex-
cluded from the heritage ; 4 but what Gherardo is
that, who, thou sayest, remains for sample of the
extinct folk, in reproach of the barbarous age ? '
" Either thy speech deceives me, or it is making
trial of me," he replied to me, " in that, speaking

Pope ; that is, before Emperor and Pope had failed in their respec-
tive duties to each other.

1 Gherardo da Camino, ' ' who was noble in his life, and whose
memory will always be noble," says Dante in the Convito, iv. 14.

2 " The French," says Benvenuto da Imola, "call all Italians
Lombards, and repute them very astute."

3 The spiritual and the temporal.

4 " 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.

CANTO XVI. 105

Tuscan to me, it seems that of the good Gherardo
thou knowest naught. By other added name I
know him not, unless I should take it from his
daughter Gaia.1 May God be with you ! for fur-
ther I come not with you. Behold the brightness
which rays already glimmering through the smoke,
and it behoves me to depart — the Angel is there
— ere I appear to him."2 So he turned, and
would not hear me more.

1 Famed for her virtues, says Buti ; for her vices, say the Ottimo
and Benvenuto.

2 His time of purgation is not yet finished ; not yet is he ready
tc meet the Angel of the Pass.

CANTO XVII.

Third Ledge : the Wrathful. — Issue from the Smoke. —
Vision of examples of Anger. — Ascent to the Fourth Ledge,
where Sloth is purged. — Second Nightfall. —Virgil explains
how Love is the root of Virtue and of Sin.

Recall to mind, reader, if ever on the alps a
clond 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 ball of the sun enters feebly
through them : and <«thy imagination will easily
come to see, how at first I saw again the sun, which
was already at its setting. So, matching mine
to the trusty steps of my Master, I issued forth
from such a cloud to rays already dead on the
low shores.

0 power imaginative, that dost sometimes so
steal us from outward things that a man heeds it
not, although around him a thousand trumpets
sound, who moveth thee if the sense afford thee
naught ? A light, that in the heavens is formed,
moveth thee by itself, or by a will that downward
guides it.1

1 If the imagination is not stirred by some object of sense, it is

CANTO XVII. 107

In my imagination appeared the impress of the
impiety of her1 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 rained down within my high fantasy, one
crucified,2 scornful and fierce in his look, and thus
was dying. Around him were the great Ahasu-
erus, Esther his wife, and the just Mordecai, who
was in speech and action so blameless. And when
this imagination burst of itself, like a bubble for
which the water fails, beneath which it was made,
there rose in my vision a maiden,3 weeping bit-
terly, and she was saying, " O queen, wherefore
through anger hast thou willed to be naught?
Thou hast killed thyself in order not to lose La-
vinia: now thou hast lost me: I am she who
mourns, mother, at thine, before another's ruin."
As sleep is broken, when of a sudden the new

moved by the influence of the stars, or directly by the Divine

■will. . .

i Proo-ne or Philomela, according 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.

2 Haman, who, according to the English version, was hanged,
but according to the Vulgate, was crucified. — Esther, vii.

3 Lavinia, whose mother, Amata, killed herself in a rage at
hearing premature report of the death of Turnus, to whom she
desired that Lavinia should be married. - ^Eneid, xii. 595-607.

108 PURGATORY.

light strikes the closed eyes, and, broken, quivers
ere 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 turned me
to see where I was, when a voice said, " Here is the
ascent ; " which from every other object of attention
removed me, 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 him-
self. He does for us as a man doth for himself ; for
he who sees the need and waits for asking, malignly
sets himself already to denial. Now let us grant
our feet to such an invitation ; let us hasten to
ascend ere it grows dark, for after, it would not be
possible until the day returns." Thus said my
Guide ; and I and he turned our steps to a stair-
way. And soon as I was on the first step, near
me I felt a motion as of wings, and a fanning on
my face,1 and I heard said, "Beati i^acijici^ who
are without ill anger."

Now were the last sunbeams on which the night
follows so lifted above us, that the stars were

1 By which the angel removes the third P from Dante's hrow.

2 "Blessed are the peacemakers."

CANTO XVII. 109

appearing on many sides. "O my virtue, why
dost thou so melt away?" to myself I said, for I
felt the power of my legs put in truce. AVe had
come where the stair no farther ascends, and we
were stayed fast even as a ship that arrives at the
shore. And I listened a little, if I might hear
anything 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 the feet are stopped, let not thy discourse stop."
And he to me, " The love of good, less than it
should have been, is here restored ; a here is plied
a^ain the ill-slackened 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," began he, " son,
ever was without love, either natural, or of the
mind,2 and this thou knowest. The natural is
always without error ; but the other may err either
through an evil object, or through too much or
through too little vigor. While love is directed on
the primal goods, and on the second moderates

1 It is the round on which the sin of acedia, sloth, is purged

away.

2 Either native in the soul, as the love of God, or determined
by the choice, through free will, of some object of desire in the
mind.

110 PURGATORY.

itself, it cannot be the cause of ill delight. But
when it is bent to evil,1 or runs to good with more
zeal, or with less, than it ought, against the Creator
works his own creature. Hence thou canst compre-
hend that love needs must be the seed in you of
every virtue, and of every action that deserves pun-
ishment.

" Now since love can never bend its sight from
the welfare of its subject,2 all things are safe from
hatred of themselves; and since no being can be
conceived of divided from the First,3 and stand-
ing by itself, from hating Him4 every affection is
cut off. It follows, if, distinguishing, I rightly
judge, that the evil which is loved is that of one's
neighbor ; and in three modes is this love born
within your clay. There is he who hopes to excel
through the abasement of his neighbor, and only
longs that from his greatness he may be brought
low.5 There is he who fears loss of power, favor,
honor, fame, because another rises ; whereat he is
so saddened that he loves the opposite.6 And
there is he who seems so outraged by injury that

1 A wrong1 object of desire.

2 To however wrong- an object love may be directed, the per-
son always believes it to be for his own good.

3 The source of being.

4 God, the First Cause.

5 This is the nature of Pride.

6 Envy.

CANTO XVII. Ill

it makes him gluttonous of vengeance, and such
a one must needs coin evil for others.1 This tri-
form love is lamented down below.2

" Now I would that thou hear of the other, — that
which runs to the good in faulty measure. Every
one confusedly apprehends a good3 in which the
mind may be at rest, and which it desires ; where-
fore every one strives to attain it. If the love be
slack that draws you to see this, or to acquire it,
this cornice, after just repentance, torments you
therefor. Another good there is,4 which doth not
make man happy, is not happiness, is not the good
essence, the root of every good fruit. The love
which abandons itself too much to this 5 is lamented
above us in three circles, but how it is reckoned
tripartite, I am silent, in order that thou seek it
for thyself."

1 Anger.

2 In the three lower rounds of Purgatory.

3 The supreme Good.

4 Sensual enjoyment.

6 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. — Dante falls
asleep.

The lofty Teacher bad put an end to his dis-
course, and looked attentive on my face to see if I
appeared content ; and I, whom a fresh thirst al-
ready was goading, was silent outwardly, and within
was saying, " Perhaps the too much questioning I
make annoys him." But that true Father, who per-
ceived the timid wish which did not disclose itself,
by speaking gave me hardihood to speak. Then I,
" My sight is so vivified in thy light that I discern
clearly all that thy discourse may imply or declare :
therefore I pray thee, sweet Father dear, that thou
demonstrate to me the love to which thou referrest
every good action and its contrary." " Direct," he
said, " toward me the keen eyes of the understand-
ing, and the error of the blind who make them-
selves leaders will be manifest to thee. The mind,
which is created apt to love, is mobile unto every-
thing that pleases, soon as by pleasure it is roused

CANTO XVIII. 113

to action. Your faculty of apprehension draws an
image from a real existence, and within you displays
it, so that it makes the mind turn to it ; and if, thus
turned, the mind incline toward it, that inclination
is love, that inclination is nature which is bound
anew in you by pleasure.1 Then, as the fire moveth
upward by its own form,2 which is born to ascend
thither where it lasts longest in its material, so the
captive mind enters into longing, which is a spirit-
ual 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 matter appears always to be

1 In his discourse in the preceding canto, Virgil has declared
that neither the Creator nor his creatures are ever without love,
either native in the soul, or proceeding from the mind. Here he
explains how the mind is disposed to love by inclination to an im-
age within itself of some object which gives it pleasure. This
inclination is natural to it ; or in his phrase, nature is bound
anew in man by the pleasure which arouses the love. All this
is a doctrine derived directly from St. Thomas Aquinas. ' It is
the property of every nature to have some inclination, which is
a natural appetite, or love." — Summa TheoL, 1, lxxvi. i.

2 Form is here used in its scholastic meaning. ' The active
power of anything depends on its form, which is the principle of
its action. For the form is either the nature 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."— Summa Theol, 3, xiii. i. Fire by its form, or nature,
seeks the sphere of fire between the ether and the moon.

114 PURGATORY.

good ; 1 but not every seal is good although the wax
be good."

u

Thy words, and my understanding which fol-
lows," replied I to him, " have revealed love to me ;
but that has made me more full of doubt. For if
love is offered to us from without, and if with other
foot the soul go not, if strait or crooked she go is
not her own merit." 2 And he to me, " So much as
reason seeth here can I tell thee ; beyond that
await still for Beatrice ; for it is a work of faith.
Every substantial form that is separata from mat-
ter, and is united with it,3 has a specific virtue
residing in itself which without action is not per-
ceived, nor shows itself save by its effect, as by
green leaves the life in a plant. Yet, whence the
intelligence of the first cognitions comes man doth
not know, 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 ad-
mits not desert of praise or blame. Now in order
that to this every other may be gathered,4 the

1 The object may seem desirable to the mind, without being- a
fit object of desire.

2 If love be aroused in the soul by an external object, and if it
be natural to the soul to love, how does she deserve praise or
blame for loving- ?

3 The substantial form is the soul, which is separate from
matter but united with it.

4 In order that every other will may conform with the first,

CAXTO XVIII. 115

virtue that counsels 1 is innate in you, and ought to
keep the threshold of assent. This is the principle
wherefrom is derived the reason of desert in you,
according as it gathers in and winnows good and evil
loves. Those who in reasoning went to the founda-
tion took note of this innate liberty, wherefore they
bequeathed morals2 to the world. Assuming then
that every love which is kindled within you arises
of necessity, the power exists in you to restrain it.
This noble virtue Beatrice calls the free will, and
therefore see that thou have it in mind, if she take
to speaking of it with thee."

The moon, belated 3 almost to midnight, shaped 4
like a bucket that is all ablaze, was making the stars
appear fewer to us, and was running counter to the
heavens 5 along those paths which the sun inflames,
when the man of Rome sees it between Sardinia
and Corsica at its setting;6 and that gentle shade,

that is, with the affection natural to man for the primal objects

of desire.

1 The faculty of reason, the virtue which counsels and on which
free will depends, is " the specific virtue " of the soul.

2 The rules of that morality which would have no existence
were it not for freedom of the will.

3 In its rising.

4 Gibbous, like certain buckets still in use in Italy.

5 " These words describe the daily backing of the moon through
the signs from west to east.1' — Moore.

6 These islands are invisible from Rome, but the line that runs
from Rome between them is a little south of east.

116 PURGATORY.

for whom Pietola1 is more famed than the Man-
tuan city, had laid down the burden of my load-
ing : 2 wherefore I, who had harvested his open
and plain discourse upon my questions, was stand-
ing like a man who, drowsy, rambles. But this
drowsiness was taken from me suddenly by folk,
who, behind our backs, had now come round to
us. And such as was the rage and throng, which
of old Ismenus and Asopus saw at night along
their banks, in case the Thebans were in need
of Bacchus, so, according to what I saw of them
as they came, those who by good will and right
love are ridden curve their steps along that circle.
Soon they were upon us ; because, running, all that
great crowd was moving on ; and two in front,
weeping, were crying out, " Mary ran with haste
unto the mountain ; 3 and Csesar, to subdue Ilerda,
thrust at Marseilles, and then ran on to Spain." 4
" Swift, swift, that time be not lost by little love,"
cried the others following, " for zeal in doing well
may refreshen grace." " O people, in whom keen
fervor now perhaps redeems your negligence and
delay, through lukewarmness, in well-doing, this
one who is alive (and surely I lie not to you)

1 The modern name of Ancles, the birthplace of Virgil, and
theref ore more famous than Mantua itself.

2 With which I had laden him.

8 Luke, i. ;)0. * Examples of zeal.

CANTO XV III. 117

wishes to go up, soon as the sun may shine again
for us ; therefore tell us where is the opening
near." These words were of my Guide ; and one
of those spirits said : " Come thou behind us, and
thou shalt find the gap. We are so filled with
desire to move on that we cannot stay ; therefore
pardon, if thou boldest our obligation for churl-
ishness. I was Abbot 1 of San Zeno at Verona,
under the empire of the good Barbarossa, of whom
Milan, still grieving, doth discourse. And he has
one foot already in the grave,2 who soon will lament
on account of that monastery, and will be sorry
for having had power there ; 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 more he said, or if he were
silent, so far beyond us he had already run by ;
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, giv-
ing a bite to sloth." In rear of all they were say-
ing : " The people for whom the sea was opened
were dead before their heirs beheld the Jordan ; 3

1 Unknown, save for this mention of him.

2 Alberto della Seala, lord of Yerona ; he died in 1301. He had
forced upon the monastery for its abbot his deformed and de-
praved illegitimate son.

8 Numbers, xiv. 23.

118 PURGATORY.

and those who endured not the toil even to the
end with the son of Anchises,1 offered themselves to
life without glory."

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 strayed from one unto
another that, thus wandering, I closed my eyes,
and transmuted my meditation into dream.

1 But left him, to remain with Acestes in Sicily. — ^Eneid, v.
751.

CANTO XIX.

Fourth Ledge : the Slothful. — Dante dreams of the Siren.
— The Angel of the Pass. — Ascent to the Fifth Ledge. —
Pope Adrian V.

At the hour when the diurnal heat, vanquished
by the Earth or sometimes by Saturn,1 can warm no
more the coldness of the moon, — when the geoman-
cers see their Greater Fortune 2 in the east, rising
before the dawn along a path which short while stays
dark for it, — there came to me in dream 3 a woman

1 Toward dawn, when the warmth of the preceding- day is ex-
hausted, Saturn was supposed to exert a frigid influence.

2 " Geomancy is divination by points in the ground, or pebbles
arranged in certain figures, which have peculiar names. Among
these is the figure called the Fortuna Major, which by an effort of
imagination can also be formed out of some of the last stars of Aqua-
rius and some of the first of Pisces." These are the signs that
immediately precede Aries, in which the Sun now wss, and the
stars forming the figure of the Greater Fortune would be in the
east about two hours before sunrise.

; The hour when this dream comes to Dante is " post mediam
noctem . . . cum somnia vera,*' — the hour in which it was com-
monly believed that dreams have a true meaning. The woman
seen by Dante is the deceitful Siren, who symbolizes the tempta-
tion to those sins of sense from which the spirits are purified in
the three upper rounds of Purgatory.

120 PURGATORY.

stammering, with 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 my
look made her tongue nimble, and then set her
wholly straight in little while, and so colored her
wan face as love requires. Then, when she had
her speech thus unloosed, she began to sing, so
that with difficulty should I have turned my atten-
tion from her. " I am," she sang, " I am the sweet
Siren, and the mariners in mid sea I bewitch,
so full am I of pleasantness to hear. I turned
Ulysses from his wandering way by my song ; and
whoso abides with me seldom departs, so wholly I
content him."

Not yet was her mouth closed when at my side a
Lady 1 appeared, holy, and ready to make her con-
fused. " O Virgil, Virgil, who is this ? " she sternly
said ; and he came with his eyes fixed 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. I turned my eyes, and
the good Virgil said, " At least three calls have I
given thee ; arise and come ; let us find the open-
ing through which thou mayst enter."

1 This lady seems to be the type of the conscience, virtus intel-
lectualis, that calls reason to rescue the tempted soul.

CANTO XIX. 121

Up I rose, and now were all the circles of the
sacred mountain full of the high day, and we went
on with the new sun at our backs, following him,
I bore my forehead like one who has it laden with
thought, and makes of himself the half arch of a
bridge, when I heard, " Come ye ! here is the pas-
sage," spoken in a mode soft and benign, such as is
not heard in this mortal region. With open wings,
which seemed of a swan, he who thus had spoken
to us turned us upward between the two walls of
the hard rock. He moved his feathers then, and
fanned us, affirming qui lugent 1 to be blessed, for
they shall have their souls mistresses of consola-
tion.2 " What ails thee that ever on the ground
thou lookest ? " my Guide began to say to me, both
of us having mounted up a little from the Angel.
"With such apprehension a recent vision makes
me go, which bends me to itself so that I cannot
from the thought withdraw me." "Hast thou
seen," said he, " that ancient sorceress who above
us henceforth is alone lamented ? Hast thou seen
how from her man is unbound? Let it suffice
thee, and strike thy heels on the ground ; 3 turn

1 " They that mourn."

2 The meaning seems to he, " they shall he possessed of com-
fort." Donne (i. e." mistresses ") is a rhyme-word, and affords an
instance of a straining of the meaning compelled by the rhyme.

3 Hasten thy steps.

122 PURGATORY.

thine eyes to the lure that the eternal King whirls
with the great circles."

Like the falcon that first looks clown, 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 goeth up, did I go on as far as
where the circling a is begun. When I was come
forth on the fifth round, I saw people upon it who
were weeping, lying upon the earth all turned
downward. " Adhcesit pavimento anima mea"2
I heard them saying with such deep sighs that the
words were hardly understood. " O elect of God,
whose sufferings both justice and hope make less
hard, direct us toward the high ascents." " If ye
come secure from the lying down, and wish to find
the speediest way, let your right hands always be
outside." So prayed the Poet, and so a little in
front was replied to us by them ; wherefore I, in
his speaking, marked the hidden one ; 3 and then
turned my eyes to my Lord, whereon he granted
me, with cheerful sign, that which the look of my
desire was asking for. Then when I could do with
myself according to my will, I drew me above that
creature whose words had first made me note him,

1 The level of the fifth round.

2 " My soul cleaveth to the dust." — Psalm exix. 25.

3 The face of the speaker, turned to the ground, was concealed.

CANTO XIX. 123

saying, " Spirit in whom weeping matures that with-
out which no one can 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 wishes t that I obtain aught for thee there
whence I alive set forth." And he to me, " Why
heaven turns to itself our hinder parts thou shalt
know ; but first, sclas quod ego fui successor Pe-
tri.1 Between Sestri and Chiaveri 2 descends a
beautiful stream,3 and of its name the title of my
race makes its top.4 One month and little more I
proved how the great mantle weighs on him who
guards it from the mire, so that all other burdens
seem a feather. My conversion, ah me ! was tardy ;
but when I had become the Roman Shepherd, then
I found out the lying life. I saw that there the
heart was not at rest ; nor was it possible to mount
higher in that life ; wherefore the love of this was
kindled in me. Up to that time a wretched soul
and parted from God had I been, avaricious of
everything ; now, as thou seest, I am punished for
it here. That which avarice doth is displayed here

1 " 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.

2 Little towns on the Genoese sea-coast.

3 The Lavagna, from which stream the Fieschi derived their
title of Counts of Lavagna.

4 Its chief boast.

124 PURGATORY.

in the purgation of these converted souls, and the
Mountain has no more bitter penalty.1 Even as
our eye, fixed upon earthly things, was not lifted
on high, so justice here to earth has depressed it.
As avarice, in which labor is lost, quenched our
love for every good, 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 immovable and outstretched."

I had knelt down and wished to speak ; but
when I began, and he became aware, only by listen-
ing, of my reverence, " What cause," said he,
" hath bent thee thus downward ? ' And I to him,
" Because of your dignity my conscience stung me
for standing." " Straighten thy legs, and lift thee
up, brother," he replied ; " err not, fellow servant
of one power am I with thee and with the rest.2 If
ever thou hast understood that holy gospel sound
which says neque nuhent? thou mayst well see why
I speak thus. Now go thy way. I will not that
thou longer stop ; for thy stay hinders my weeping,
with which I ripen that which thou hast said. A

1 Others may be greater, but none more humiliating.

2 " 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.

3 " They neither marry." — Matthew, xxii. 30. The distinctions
of earth do not exist in the spiritual world.

CANTO XIX. 125

grandchild I have on earth who is named Alagia,1
good in herself, if only our house make her not
wicked by example ■; and she alone remains to me

yonder." 2

1 Alagia was the wife of the Marquis Moroello Malaspina. See
the close of Canto VIII. Dante had probably seen her in 1306,
when he was a guest of the house, in the Lunigiana.

2 Not that she was his only living relative, but the only one
whose prayers, coming from a good heart, would avail him.

CANTO XX.

Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — The Spirits celebrate ex-
amples of Poverty and Bounty. — Hugh Capet. — His dis-
course on his descendants. — Trembling of the Mountain.

Against a better will the will fights ill : where-
fore 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 space vacant only alongside of the rock, as
upon a wall one goes close to the battlements. For
on the other side the people, that through their eyes
are pouring drop by drop the evil that possesses
all the world, approach too near the edge.1

Accursed be thou, old she-wolf, who more than
all the other beasts hast prey, because of thy hun-
ger hollow without end ! O Heaven ! by whose
revolution it seems that men believe conditions
here below are transmuted, when will he come
through whom she shall depart?2 We were going
on with slow and scanty steps, and I attentive to

1 Too close to leave a space for walking.

2 The old she-wolf is avarice, the same who at the outset (Hell,
Canto I.) had driven Dante back and made him lose hope of the
height. The likeness of the two passages is striking.

CANTO XX. 127

the shades whom I heard piteously lamenting and
bewailing; and peradventure I heard in front of
us one crying out, " Sweet Mary," in his lament,
even as a woman does who is in travail ,- and con-
tinuing, " So poor wast thou as may be seen by that
inn where thou didst lay down thy holy burden."
And following this I heard, " O good Fabricius,1
thou didst rather wish for virtue with poverty than
to possess great riches with vice." These words
were so pleasing to me that I drew myself further
on to have acquaintance with that spirit from whom
they seemed to come. He was speaking further-
more of the largess which Nicholas 2 made to the
damsels in order to conduct their youth to honor.
" O soul that discoursest so well," said I, " tell me
who thou wast, and why thou alone renewest these
worthy praises. Not without meed will be thy
words, if I return to complete the short journey of
that life which flies towards its end." And he, " I
will tell thee, not for comfort that I may expect
from yonder,3 but because such grace shineth on

1 Caius Fabricius, the famous poor and incorruptible Roman
consul, who refused the bribes of Pyrrhus, King- of Epirus.
Dante extols his worth also in the Convito, iv. 5.

2 St. Nicholas, Bishop of Mira, who, according to the legend,
knowing that owing to the poverty of their father, three maidens
were exposed to the risk of leading lives of dishonor, secretly, at
night, threw into the window of their house money enough to pro-
vide each with a dowry.

3 The earth.

128 PURGATORY.

thee ere thou art dead. I was the root of the evil
plant which so overshadows all the Christian land 1
that good fruit is rarely plucked therefrom. But
if Douai, Lille, Ghent, and Bruges had power,
soon would there be vengeance on it ; 2 and I im-
plore it from him who judges everything. Yon-
der I was called Hugh Capet : of me are born
the Philips and the Louises, by whom of late
times France is ruled. I was the son of a butcher
of Paris.3 When the ancient kings had all died
out, save one, who had assumed the grey garb,4 I
found me with the bridle of the government of the
realm fast in my hands, and with so much power
recently acquired, and so full of friends, that to
the widowed crown the head of my son was pro-
moted, from whom the consecrated bones 5 of these
began.

" So long as the great dowry of Provence 6 took

1 In 1300 the descendants of Hugh Capet were ruling France,
Spain, and Naples.

2 Philip the Fair gained possession of Flanders, hy force and
fraud, in 1299; but in 1302 the French were driven out of the
country, after a fatal defeat at Courtrai, here dimly prophesied.

3 Dante here follows the incorrect popular tradition.

4 Who had become a monk. The historical reference is ob-
scure.

5 An ironical reference to the ceremony of consecration at the
coronation of the kings.

6 Through the marriage in 1245 of Charles of Anjou, brother
of St. Louis (Louis IX.), with Beatrice, the heiress of the Court
of Provence.

CANTO XX. 129

not the sense of shame 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,1 Ponthieu and Normandy it took, and
Gascony ; Charles 2 came to Italy, and, for amends,
made a victim of Conradin,3 and then thrust
Thomas 4 back to heaven for amends. A time I
see, not long after this day, that draws forth an-
other Charles 5 from France to make both himself
and his the better known. Without arms he goes
forth thence alone, but with the lance with which
Judas jousted ; 6 and that he thrusts so that he
makes the paunch of Florence burst. Therefrom
he will gain not land,7 but sin and shame so much

1 The bitterness of Dante's irony is explained by the part
which France had played in Italian affairs.

2 Of Anjou.

3 The youthful grandson of Frederick II., who, striving- to
wrest Naples and Sicily, his hereditary possessions, from the
hands of Charles of Anjou, was defeated and taken prisoner by
him in 1267, and put to death by him in 1268. His fate excited
great compassion.

4 Charles was believed to have had St. Thomas Aquinas poi-
soned.

5 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, the Whites, includ-
ing Dante, were driven into exile.

6 The lance of treachery.

7 A reference to his nickname of Senza terra, or Lackland.

130 PURGATORY.

the heavier for himself, as he the lighter reckons
such harm. The other,1 who has already gone out
a prisoner from his ship, I see selling his daughter,
and bargaining over her, as do the corsairs with
other female slaves. O Avarice, what more canst
thou do with us, since thou hast so drawn my race
unto thyself 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
Anagna, and in his Vicar Christ made a captive.2
I see him being mocked a second time ; I see the
vinegar and the gall renewed, and between living
thieves him put to death. I see the new Pilate so
cruel that this does not sate him, but, without de-
cretal, he bears his covetous sails into the Temple.3
O my Lord, when shall I be glad in seeing thy
vengeance which, concealed, makes sweet thine
anger in thy secrecy ?

" What I was saying of that only bride of the
Holy Spirit, and which made thee turn toward me

1 Charles II., son of Charles of Anjou. In 1253 he was
made captive in a sea fight, by Ruggieri de Loria, the Admiral
of Peter II. of Aragon. In 1300, according to common report,
he sold his young daughter in marriage to the old Marquis of
Este.

2 Spite of his hostility to Boniface VIII., the worst crime of
the house of France was, in Dante's eyes, the seizure of the Pope
at Alagni, in 1303, by the emissaries of Philip the Fair.

8 The destruction of the Order of the Temple.

CANTO XX. 131

for some gloss, is ordained for all our prayers so
long as the day lasts, but when the night comes,
we take up a contrary sound instead. Then we
rehearse Pygmalion,1 whom his gluttonous longing
for gold made a traitor and thief and parricide ;
and the wretchedness of the avaricious Midas which
followed on his greedy demand, at which men must
always laugh. Then of the foolish Achan each one
recalls how he stole the spoils, so that the anger
of Joshua seems still to sting him here.2 Then we
accuse Sapphira with her husband ; we praise the
kicks that Heliodorus received,3 and in infamy
Polymnestor who slew Polydorus4 circles the whole
mountain. Finally our cry here is, 4 Crassus, tell us,
for thou knowest, what is the taste of gold ? ' 5 At
times one speaks loud, and another low, according
to the affection which spurs us to speak now at a
greater, now at a less pace. Therefore in the good

1 The brother of Dido, and the murderer of her husband for the
sake of his riches. — yffineid, i. 353-4.

2 Joshua, viii.

3 For his attempt to plunder the treasury of the Temple. — 2
Maccabees, iii. 25.

4 Priam had entrusted Polydorus, his youngest son, to Polym-
nestor, King of Thrace, who, when the fortunes of Troy declined,
slew Polydorus, that he might take possession of the treasure
sent with him.

5 HaATing been slain in battle with the Parthians, their king
poured molten gold down his throat in derision, because of his
fame as the richest of men.

132 PURGATORY.

which by day is here discoursed of, of late I was
not alone, but here near by no other person lifted
up his voice."

We had already parted from him, and were
striving to advance along the road so far as was
permitted to our power, when I felt the Mountain
tremble, like a thing that is falling ; whereupon a
chill seized me such as is wont to seize him who
goes to death. Surely Delos shook not so violently,
before Latona made her nest therein to give birth
to the two eyes of heaven.1 Then began on all
sides such a cry that the Master drew towards me,
saying : " Distrust not, while I guide thee." " Glo-
ria in excelsis Deo" 2 all were saying, according to
what I gathered from those near at hand whose cry
it was possible to understand. We stopped, mo-
tionless and in suspense, like the shepherds who
first heard that song, until the trembling ceased,
and it was ended. Then we took up again our
holy journey, looking at the shades that were lying
on the ground, returned already to their wonted
plaint. No ignorance ever with so sharp attack
made me desirous of knowing — if my memory err
not in this — as it seemed to me I then experienced
in thought. Nor, for our haste, did I dare to ask,
nor of myself could I see aught there. So I went
on timid and thoughtful.

1 Apollo and Diana, the divinities of Sun and Moon.

2 " Glory to God in the highest."

CANTO XXI.

Fifth Ledge : the Avaricious. — Statius. — Cause of the
trembling of the Mountain. — Statius does honor to Virgil.

The natural thirst,1 which is never satisfied save
with the water2 whereof the poor woman of Sa-
maria besought the grace, was tormenting me, and
haste was goading me along the encumbered 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
looking at the crowd that lay at its feet : nor did
we perceive it, so it spoke first, saying, " My
Brothers, may God give you peace ! " We turned
suddenly, and Virgil gave back to it the greeting
which answers to that ; 3 then he began : "In

1 "According to that buoyant and immortal sentence with which
Aristotle begins his Metaphysics, ' All mankind naturally desire
knowledge.'" Matthew Arnold, God and the Bible, ch. iv. This
sentence of Aristotle is cited by Dante in the first chapter of the
Convito.

2 The living water of truth.

3 To the salutation, " Peace be with you," the due answer is,
"And with thy spirit."

134 PURGATORY.

the assembly of the blest may the true 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 hath guided you so far
along his stairs ? " And my Teacher, " If thou re-
gardest the marks which this one bears, and which
the Angel traces, thou wilt clearly see it behoves
that with the good he reign. But, because she
who spinneth day and night 1 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 upwards could not come alone, be-
cause 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 together, even
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 : " There is nothing which with-
out order the religion of the mountain can feel, or
which can be outside its wont.2 Free is this place

1 Lachesls.

2 The religion, the sacred rule, of the Mountain admits nothing
that is not ordained and customary.

CANTO XXI. 135

from every alteration ; of whatso the heavens with-
in themselves receive from there may be here, but
nothing that proceeds from other cause ; * because
nor rain, nor hail, nor snow, nor clew, nor frost,
falls higher up than the little stairway of the three
short steps ; clouds appear not, or thick or thin ;
nor lightning, nor the daughter of Thaumas 2 who
yonder often changes her quarter ; dry vapor 3 rises
not farther up than the top of the three steps of
which I spoke, where the vicar of Peter has his
feet. It trembles perhaps lower down little or
much ; but up here it never trembles because of
wind that is hidden, I know not how, in the earth.
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 makes
proof, which surprises the soul wholly free to
change its company, and helps it with the will.
The soul wills at first indeed, but the inclination,
— which, contrary to the will, Divine Justice sets
to the torment, as erst to the sin, — allows it not.4
And I who have lain in this pain five hundred years

1 Whatever happens here is occasioned only by the direct in-
fluences of the heavens.

2 Iris, the rainbow.

3 Dry vapor, according to Aristotle, was the source of wind and
of earthquake.

4 Until the soul is wholly purified from its sinful disposition*,
it desires the punishment through which its purification is accom-

136 PURGATORY.

and more, only just now felt a free volition for a
better seat. Wherefore thou didst feel the earth-
quake, and hear the pious spirits through the
Mountain giving praise to that Lord, who — may
He speed them upward soon ! "

Thus he said to us, and since one enjoys drink-
ing 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 ; wherefore it trembles
here ; and for what ye rejoice together. Now who
thou wast may it please thee that I know, and
that from thy words I learn why for so many cen-
turies thou hast lain here ? ' " At the time when
the good Titus, with the aid of the Most High
Kins:, avenged the wounds wherefrom issued the
blood sold by Judas, I was famous enough on
earth with the name which lasts longest, and hon-
ors most," x replied that spirit, " but not as yet
with faith. So sweet was my vocal spirit, that me
of Toulouse Eome drew to itself, where I deserved
to adorn my temples with myrtle. Statins the peo-
ple still on earth name me. I sang of Thebes, and
then of the great Achilles, but I fell on the way

plished, as it had originally desired the object of its sin. But
when it becomes pure, then the will possesses it to mount to
Heaven.

1 The name of Poet.

CANTO XXI. 137

with my second load.1 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 JEneid, which was mother to me,
and was my nurse in poesy : without it I balanced
not the weight of a drachm ; and to have lived
yonder, when Virgil lived, I would agree to one
sun more than I owe for my issue from ban." 2

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 emotion from which
each springs, that in the most truthful they least
follow the will. I merely 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 in good
complete 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

1 Statius died before completing his Achilleid.

2 A year more in Purgatory than is due for my punishment

138 PURGATORY.

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, dismiss it
as untrue, and believe it to be those words which
thou saiclst of him." Already he was stooping to
embrace the feet of my Leader, but he said to him,
" Brother, do it not, for thou art a shade, and thou
seest a shade." And he rising, " Now canst thou
comprehend the sum of the love that warms me to
thee when I forget our vanity, treating the shades
as if a solid thing." 1

1 Sordello and Virgil (Canto VI.) embraced 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 soul redeemed, to one banned in eternal exile.

CANTO XXII.

Ascent 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 1 from my face ; and he
had said to us that those who have their desire set
on justice are Beati, and his words ended with
sitiunt, without the rest.2 And I, more light
than through the other passes, was going on so
that without any labor 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 amid us Juvenal descended into the limbo of
Hell, and made known to me thy affection, my
own good will toward thee was such that more
never bound one to an unseen person ; so that
these stairs will now seem short to me. But tell

1 The fifth P.

2 The Angel had not recited all the words of the Beatitude, hut
only, " Blessed are they which do thirst after righteousness,"
contrasting this thirst with the thirst for riches.

140 PURGATORY.

me (and as a friend pardon me, if too great confi-
dence let loose my rein, and as a friend now talk
with me) how avarice could find a place within
thy breast, amid wisdom so great as that where-
with through thy diligence thou wast filled ? "

These words first moved Statius a little to smil-
ing; then he replied, " Every word of thine is a
dear sign to me of love. Truly oftentimes things
have such appearance that they give false material
for suspicion, because the true reasons lie hid. Thy
question assures me of 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, and this want of measure thou-
sands 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 indignant with human nature, 4 O cursed hunger
of gold, to what dost thou not impel the appetite
of mortals?'1 I, rolling, should share the dismal
jousts.2 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

1 Auri sacra fames !
Quid non mortalia pectora cogis.

u^Eneid, iii. 56-57.
2 I should be in Hell among the prodigals rolling- heavy weights
and striking them against those rolled by the avaricious. See
Hell, Canto VII.

CANTO XXII. 141

many shall rise with cropped hair 1 through igno-
rance, which during life and in the last hours pre-
vents repentance for this sin ! And know, that the
vice which rebuts any sin with direct opposition,2
together with it here dries up its verdure. Where-
fore if to purify myself I have been among the
people who lament their avarice, because of its
contrary this has befallen me." " Now when thou
wast singing3 the cruel strife of the twofold afflic-
tion 4 of Jocasta," said the Singer of the Bucolic
songs, " it does not appear from that which Clio
touches5 with thee there,6 that the faith, without
which good works suffice not, had yet made thee
faithful. If this be so, what sun, or what candles
dispersed thy darkness so that thou didst thereafter
set thy sails behind the Fisherman ? " 7 And he to
him, " Thou first directedst me toward Parnassus
to drink in its grots, and then, on the way to God,
thou enlightenedst me. Thou didst like him, who
goes by night, and carries the light behind him,
and helps not himself, but makes the persons fol-

i A reference to the symbolic short hair of prodigals in Hell.

2 As, for instance, avarice and prodigality.

3 In the Thebaid.

4 Eteocles and Polynices, the two sons of Jocasta. See Hell,

Canto XXVI.

5 On her lyre.

6 From the general course of thy poems.

7 St. Peter.

142 PURGATORY .

lowing him wise, when thou saidst, ' The ages are
renewed; Justice returns, and the primeval time of
man, and a new progeny descends from heaven.' x
Through thee I became a poet, through thee a
Christian. But in order that thou mayst better see
that which I sketch, I will stretch out my hand to
color it. Already was the whole world teeming
with the true belief, sown by the messengers of the
eternal realm ; and these words of thine touched
upon just now were in harmony with the new preach-
ers, wherefore I adopted the practice of visiting
them. They came to me then appearing so holy,
that, when Domitian persecuted them, not without
my tears were their lamentings. And so long as
I remained on earth I succored them ; and their
upright 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 out
of fear I was a secret Christian, for a long while
making show of paganism : and this lukewarmness
made me circle round the fourth circle,2 longer than
to the fourth century. Thou, therefore, that didst

1 The famous prophecy of the Cumsean Sihyl, very early applied
to the coming of Christ : —

Magnus ab integro sseclorum nascitur ordo.
Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna :
Jam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.

Ecloga, iv. 5-7.

2 Where love too slack is punished.

CANTO XXII. 143

lift for me the covering that was hiding from me
such great good as I say, while we have remainder
of ascent, tell me where is our ancient Terence,
Csecilius, Plautus, and Varro, if thou knowest it ;
tell me if they are damned, and in what region?'
"They, and Persius, and I, and many others,"
replied my Leader, "are with that Greek whom
the Muses suckled more than any other ever, in the
first girdle of the blind prison. Oftentimes we
discourse of the mountain 1 that hath our nurses 2
always with itself. Euripides is there with us, and
Antiphon, Simonides, Agathon, and many other
Greeks who of old adorned their brows with laurel.
There of thine own people3 are seen Antigone,
Deiphile, and Argia, and Ismene sad 4 even as she
was. There she is seen who showed Langia;5 there
is the daughter of Tiresias and Thetis,6 and Dei-
damia with her sisters."

Now both the poets became silent, once more in-
tent on looking around, free from the ascent and
from the walls ; and four of the handmaids of the

1 Parnassus. 2 The Muses.

3 The people celebrated in thy poems.

4 Two pairs of sisters, and, of the four, Ismene, sister of An-
tigone, had the hardest lot.

6 Hypsipyle, who showed the fountain Langia to Adrastus, and
the other kings, when their army was perishing with thirst.

6 Manto is the only daughter of Tiresias, who is mentioned by
Statius ; but Manto is the eighth circle in Hell. See Canto XX.

144 PURGATORY.

day were now remaining behind,1 and the fifth was
at the pole,2 directing still upward its burning
horn, when my Leader, " I 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.

They were going on in front, and I solitary be-
hind, and I was listening to their speech which
gave me understanding in poesy. But soon the
pleasant discourse was interrupted by a tree which
we found in the mid road, with apples sweet and
pleasant to the smell. And as a fir-tree tapers up-
ward from branch to branch, so downwardly did
that, I think in order that no one may go up. On
the side on which our way was closed, a clear water
fell from the high rock and spread itself over the
leaves above. The two poets approached the tree,
and a voice from within the leaves cried : " Of this
food ye shall have want." Then it said, " Mary
thought more, how the wedding 3 should be honor-
able and complete, than of her mouth,4 which an-

1 The first four hours of the day were spent. It was between
ten and eleven o'clock.

2 Of the car.

3 At Cana.

4 Than of gratifying her appetite.

CANTO XXII. 145

swers now for you ; and the ancient Roman women
were content with water for their drink ; and Dan-
iel despised food and gained wisdom. The primal
age, which was beautiful as gold, with hunger made
acorns savory, and with thirst every streamlet nec-
tar. Honey and locusts were the viands that nour-
ished the Baptist in the desert, wherefore he is in
glory, and so great as by the Gospel is revealed to
you."

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 parcelled out more use-
fully." I turned my face, 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, Do-
mine" 1 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, over-
taking on the road unknown folk, turn themselves
to them, and stay not ; so behind us, moving more
quickly, coming up and passing by, a crowd of
souls, silent and devout, gazed at us. Each was
dark and hollow in the eyes, pallid in the face, and

1 " 0 Lord, open thou my lips." — Psalm li. 15.

CANTO XX III. 147

so wasted that the skin took its shape from the
bones. I do not think that Erisichthon * 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." 2 The sockets of their eyes
seemed rings without gems. Whoso in the face of
men reads OMO,3 would surely there have recog-
nized the M. Who would believe that the scent of
an apple, begetting longing, and that of a water,
could have such mastery, if he knew not how ?

I was now wondering what so famished them,
the cause of their meagreness and of their wretched
husk not yet being manifest, and lo ! from the
depths 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 recog-
nized him by his face ; but in his voice that was
disclosed to me which his aspect in itself had sup-
pressed.4 This spark rekindled in me all my

1 Punished for sacrilege by Ceres with insatiable hunger, so
that at last he turned his teeth upon himself. See Ovid, Metam.,
viii. 738 sqq.

2 The story of this wretched woman is told by Josephus in his
narrative of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus : Be Bello Jud., vi. 3.

3 Finding in each eye an 0, and an M in the lines of the brows
and nose, making the word for " man."

4 His voice revealed who he was, which his actual aspect con-
cealed.

148 PURGATORY.

knowledge of the altered visage, and I recognized
the face of Forese.1

" Ah, strive not 2 with the dry scab that discol-
ors my skin," he prayed, "nor with my lack of
flesh, but tell me the truth about thyself ; and who
are these two souls, who yonder make an escort for
thee : stay not thou from speaking to me." " Thy
face, which once I wept for dead, now gives me for
weeping no less a grief," replied I, " seeing it so dis-
figured ; therefore, tell me, for God's sake, what so
despoils you ; make me not speak while I am mar-
velling ; for ill can he speak who is full of another
wish." And he to me, " From the eternal council
falls a power into the water and into the plant, now
left behind, whereby I become so thin. All this
folk who sing weeping, because of following their
appetite beyond measure, here in hunger and in
thirst make themselves holy again. The odour
which issues from the apple and from the spray that
spreads 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 gladly to say, 'Eli,'3 when with his

1 Brother of the famous Corso Donati, and related to Dante,
whose wife was Gemma de' Donati.

2 Do not, for striving to see- me through my changed look,
delay to speak.

3 Willingly to accept his suffering, even when he exclaimed,

CANTO XXIII. 149

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, ere the hour supervened of the good

grief that to God reweds us, how hast thou come

up hither ? l I thought to find thee still down

there below, where time is made good by time."

And he to me, " My Nella with her bursting tears

has brought me thus quickly to drink of the sweet

wormwood of these torments. With her devout

prayers and with sighs has she drawn me from the

shore where one waits, and has delivered me from

the other circles. So much the more dear and

more beloved of God is my little widow, whom I

loved so much, as she is the more solitary in good

works ; for the Barbagia 2 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, in which from

the pulpit it shall be forbidden to the brazenfaced

dames of Florence to go displaying the bosom

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " — Matthew,
xxvii. 46.

1 If thou didst delay repentance until thou eouldst sin no more,
how is it that so speedily thou hast arrived here ?

2 A mountainous district in Sardinia, inhabited by people of
barbarous customs.

150 PURGATORY.

with the paps. What Barbarian, what Saracen
women were there ever who required either spirit-
ual or other discipline to make them go covered?
But if the shameless ones were aware of that
which the swift heaven is preparing for them, al-
ready would they have their mouths open for
howling. For if foresight here deceives me not,
they will be sad ere he who is now consoled
with the lullaby covers his cheeks with hair. 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."
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 be grievous
still. From that life he who goes before me
turned me the other day, when the sister of him
yonder," and I pointed to the sun, " showed her-
self round. Through the deep night, from the
true dead, he has led me, with this true flesh which
follows him. Thence his counsels have drawn me
up, ascending and circling the mountain that sets
you straight whom the world made crooked. So
long he says that he will bear me company till I
shall be there where Beatrice will be ; there it be-
hoves that I remain without him. Virgil is he 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."

CANTO XXIV.

Sixth Ledge : the Gluttonous. — Forese Donati. — Bona-
giunta of Lucca. — Pope Martin IV. — Ubaldin dalla Pila.
— Bonifazio. — Messer Marchese. — Prophecy of Forese
concerning Gentucca, and Corso de' Donati. — Second Mys-
tic Tree. — The Angel of the Pass.

Speech made not the going, nor the going made
that more slow ; but, talking, we went on apace even
as a ship urged by 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 discourse, said, "He1
goeth up perchance for another's sake more slowly
than he would do. But, tell me, if thou knowest,
where is Piccarda ; 2 tell me if I see person of note
among this folk that so gazes at me." " My sister,
who, between fair and good, was I know not
which the most, triumphs rejoicing in her crown
already on high Olympus." So he said first, and
then, "Here it is not forbidden to name each

1 Statius ; more slowly, for the sake of remaining- with Virgil.

2 The sister of Forese, whom Dante meets in Paradise (Canto
III.).

152 PURGATORY.

other, since our semblance is so milked away by the
diet.1 This," and he pointed with his finger, "is
Bonagiunta,2 Bonagiunta of Lucca ; and that face
beyond him, more sharpened than the others, had
the Holy Church in his arms : 3 from Tours he
was ; 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.
For hunger using their teeth on emptiness, I saw
Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface,4 who shepherded
many people with his crook. I saw Messer Mar-
chese, who once had leisure to drink at Fori! with
less thirst, and even so was such that he felt not
sated. But as one does who looks, and then makes
account more of one than of another, did I of him
of Lucca, who seemed to have most cognizance of
me. He was murmuring ; and I know not what,
save that I heard " Gentucca " there 5 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 may hear thee, and
satisfy both thyself and me by thy speech." " A

1 Recognition by the looks being thus impossible.

2 Bonagiunta Urbiciani ; he lived and wrote in the last half of
the thirteenth century.

3 Martin IV., Pope from 1281 to 1284.

4 Archbishop of Ravenna.
6 Upon his lips.

CANTO XXIV. 153

woman is born, and wears not yet the veil," 1 he
began, " who will make my city pleasant to thee,
however men may blame it.2 Thou shalt go on
with this prevision : if from my murmuring thou
hast received error, the true things will yet clear it
up for thee. But say, if I here see him, who drew
forth the new rhymes, beginning, 4 Ladies who
have intelligence of Love ' ? " 3 And I to him, " I
am one, who, when Love inspires me, notes, and in
that measure which he dictates within, I go reveal-
ing." " O brother, now I see," said he, " the knot
which held back the Notary,4 and Guittone,5 and
me short of the sweet new style that I hear. I see
clearly how your pens go on close following the
dictator, which surely befell not with ours. And
he who most sets himself to look further sees no-
thing more between one style and the other."6
And, as if contented, he was silent.

1 Of a married woman.

2 This honorable and delightful reference to the otherwise un-
known maiden, Gentueca of Lucca, has given occasion to much
worthless and base comment. Dante was at Lucca during his
exile, in 1314. He himself was one of those who blamed the city ;
see Hell, Canto XXI.

3 The first verse of the first canzone of The New Life.

4 The Sicilian poet, Jacopo da Lentino.

6 Guittone d' Arezzo, commonly called Fra Guittone, as one of
the order of the Frati Gaudenti. Dante refers to him again in
Canto XXVI.

6 He who seeks for other reason does not find it.

154 PURGATORY.

As the birds that winter along the Nile some-
times make a flock in the air, then fly in greater
haste, and go in file, so all the folk that were there,
lio-ht both through leanness and through will, turn-
ing away their faces, quickened again their pace.
And as the man who is weary of running lets his
companions go on, and himself walks, until he
vents the panting of his chest, 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," I 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 ; *
because the place where I was set to live, denudes
itself more of good from day to day, and seems
ordained to wretched ruin." " Now go," said he,
" for I see him who hath most fault for this 2
draped at the tail of a beast, toward the valley
where there is no disculpation ever. The beast at
every step goes faster, increasing always till it
strikes him, and leaves his body vilely undone.
Those wheels have not far to turn," and he raised
his eyes to heaven, " for that to become clear to

1 Of Purgatory.

2 Corso de' Donati, the leader of the Black Guelphs and chief
cause of the evils of the city. On the 15th 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.

CANTO XXIV. 155

thee which my speech cannot 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 gallop
from a troop which rides, and goes to win the
honor of the first encounter, so he went away from
us with greater strides ; and I remained on the
way with only those two who were such great mar-
shals of the world.1 And when he had entered so
far before us that my eyes became such followers
on him as my mind was on his words,2 there ap-
peared to me the laden and lusty branches of an-
other apple-tree, and not far distant, because only
then had I turned thitherward.3 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 they pray to an-
swers not, but, to make their longing very keen,
holds aloft their desire, and conceals it not. Then
they departed as if undeceived : 4 and now we came
to the great tree that rejects so many prayers and

1"A marshal is a ruler of the court and of the array under the
emperor, and should know how to command what ought to he
done, as those two poets knew what it was befitting to do in the
world in respect to moral and civil life." — Buti.

2 Could no longer follow him distinctly.

3 In the circling course around the mountain.

4 Having found vain the hope of reaching the fruit

156 PURGATORY.

tears. "Pass further onward, without drawing
near ; the tree * is higher up which was eaten of by-
Eve, and this plant has been raised from that."
Thus among the branches I know not who was
speaking ; wherefore Virgil and Statius and I, draw-
ing close together, went onward along the side that
rises.2 " Be mindful," the voice was saying, " of
the accursed ones,3 formed in the clouds, who, when
glutted, strove against Theseus with their double
breasts ; and of the Hebrews, who, at the drinking,
showed themselves soft,4 wherefore Gideon wished
them not for companions, when he went down the
hills toward Midian."

Thus keeping close to one of the two borders,
we passed by, hearing of sins of gluttony followed,
in sooth, by wretched gains. Then going at large
along the lonely road, full a thousand steps and
more had borne us onward, 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 seen so shining and ruddy

1 The tree of knowledge, in the Earthly Paradise: Canto

XXXII.

2 On the inner side, by the wall of the mountain.

3 The centaurs.

4 Judges, vii. 4-7.

CANTO XXIV. 157

in a furnace as one I saw who said, " If it please
you to mount up, here must a turn be taken ; this
way he goes who wishes to go for peace." His
aspect had taken my sight from me, wherefore I
turned me back to my teachers like one who goes
according as he hears.1 And, as harbinger of the
dawn, the breeze of May 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 clearly felt the motion of the plumes
which made me perceive the odor of ambrosia.
And I heard said, " Blessed are they whom so
much grace illumines, that the love of taste in-
spires not in their breasts too great desire, hunger-
ing always so far as is just." 2

1 Guided by hearing only.

2 " Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous-
ness." — Matthew, v. 6.

Dante has already cited this Beatitude (Canto XXII.), applying
it to those who are purging themselves from the inordinate desire
for riches; he there omits the word "hunger," as here he omits
the " and thirst."

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.

It was the hour in which the ascent allowed no
delay ; for the meridian circle had been left by the
Sun to the Bull, and by the Night to the Scor-
pion ; 1 wherefore as the man doth who, whatever
may appear to him, stops not, but goes on his
way, if the goad of necessity prick him, so did we
enter through the gap, one before the other, taking
the stairway which by its narrowness unpairs the
climbers.

And as the little stork that lifts its wing through
will to fly, and dares not abandon the nest, and
down it drops, so was I, with will to ask, kindled
and quenched, coming even 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

1 Taurus follows on Aries, so that the hour indicated is about
2 P. M. The Night here means the part of the Heavens opposite
to the Sun.

CANTO XXV. 159

to the iron thou hast drawn." Then I opened my
mouth confidently, and began, " How can one be-
come thin, where the need of nourishment is not
felt ? " " If thou hadst called to mind how Me-
leager was consumed by the consuming of a brand
this would not be," he said, " so difficult to thee ;
and if thou hadst thought, how at your quivering
your image quivers within the mirror, that which
seems hard would seem easy to thee. But that
thou mayst to thy pleasure be inwardly at ease, 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," replied Statius, " where
thou art present, let it excuse me that to thee I can-
not make denial." 1

Then he began, " If, son, thy mind regards and
receives my words, they will be for thee a light
unto the ' how,' which thou askest.2 The perfect
blood which is never drunk by the thirsty veins,
but remains like the food which thou removest
from the table, takes in the heart virtue infor-
mative of all the human members; even as that

1 Here and elsewhere Statius seems to represent allegorically
human philosophy enlightened by Christian teaching, dealing with
questions of knowledge, not of faith.

2 The doctrine set forth by Statius in the following discourse is
derived from St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa TheoL, i. 118, 119, who,
in his turn, derived it from Aristotle. It is to be found, more
briefly stated, in the Convito, iv. 21.

160 PURGATORY.

blood does, which passes through the veins to be-
come those members.1 Digested yet again, it de-
scends to the part whereof it is more becoming
to be silent than to speak ; and thence, 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 other to be active
because of the perfect place 2 wherefrom it is
pressed out ; and, conjoined with the former, the
latter begins to operate, first by coagulating, and
then by quickening that to which it gives consist-
ency for its own material. The active virtue hav-
ing become a soul, like that of a plant (in so far
different that this is on the way, and that already
arrived),3 so worketh then, that now it moves and
feels, as a sea-fungus doth ; and then it proceeds
to organize the powers of which it is the germ.
Now, son, the virtue is displayed, now it is dif-
fused, which issues from the heart of the begetter,
where nature is intent on all the members.4 But

1 A portion of the blood remains after the veins are supplied ;
in the heart all the blood receives the virtue by which it gives
form to the various organs of the body.

2 The heart.

3 The vegetative soul in the plant has attained its full develop-
ment, " has arrived ; " in the animal is " on the way " to perfec-
tion.

4 From the vegetative, the soul has become sensitive, — anima
sensitiva.

CANTO XXV. 161

how from an animal it becomes a speaking being,1
thou as yet seest not ; this is such a point that
once it made one wiser than thee to err, so that in
his teaching- he separated from the soul the poten-
tial intellect, because he saw no organ assumed by
it.2 Open thy heart unto the truth that is coming,
and know that, so soon as in the foetus the articu-
lation of the brain is perfect, the Primal Motor
turns to it with joy over such art of nature, and
inspires a new spirit replete with virtue, which
draws that which it finds active there into its own
substance, and makes one single soul which lives
and feels and circles on itself. And that thou
mayst the less wonder at this doctrine, consider
the warmth of the sun which, combining with the
juice that flows from the vine, becomes wine. 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 divine ; the
other faculties all of them mute,3 but memory, un-
derstanding, and will4 far more acute in action

1 A being- possessed of intellect, — the last stage in the progress
of the soul, when it becomes anima intellectiva.

2 Averroes asserted the intellect to be impersonal and undi-
vided in essence ; not formally, but instrumentally only, united
with the individual. Hence there was no personal immortality.

The faculties of sense mute because their organs no longer
exist.

4 The spiritual faculties.

162 PURGATORY.

than before. Without staying, it falls of itself,
marvellously to one of the banks.1 Here it first
knows its own roads. Soon as the place there cir-
cumscribes it, the formative virtue rays out around
it in like manner, and as much as in the living
members.2 And as the air when it is full of rain
becomes adorned with divers colors by another's
rays which are reflected in it, so here the neighbor-
ing air shapes itself in that form which is virtually
imprinted upon it by the soul that hath stopped.3
And then like the flamelet which follows the fire
wherever it shifts, so its new form follows the
spirit. Since thereafter from this it has its aspect,
it is called a shade ; and by this it shapes the organ
for every sense even to the sight ; by this we
speak, and by this we laugh, by this we make the
tears and the sighs, which on the mountain thou
mayst have perceived. According as the desires
and the other affections impress us the shade is
shaped; and this is the cause of that at which thou
wonderest."

And now we had come to the last circuit,4 and

1 Of Acheron or of Tiber, according1 as the soul is damned or
saved.

2 In this account of the formation of the bodily semblance in
the spiritual realms, Statius no longer follows the doctrine of
Aquinas. The conception is derived from Plato ; but the form
given to it is peculiar to Dante.

3 Stopped in the place allotted to it.

4 The word in the original is tortura. Benvenuto's comment is,

CANTO XXV. 163

turning to the right hand, we were intent upon
another care. Here the bank shoots forth flame,
and the ledge breathes a blast upward which drives
it back, and sequesters a path from it.1 Where-
fore it was needful to go one by one along the unen-
closed 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, "Through this place, one
must keep tight the rein upon the eyes, because for
little one might go astray." " Summce Deus de-
mentia?" 2 in the bosom of the great burning then
I heard singing, which made me care not less to
turn. And I saw spirits going through the flame ;
wherefore I looked at them and at my own steps,
apportioning to each my sight from moment to mo-
ment. After the end of 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
therefrom Helice,4 who had felt the poison of

" nunc incipiebant torquere et flectere viam, ideo talem deflec-
tionem appellat torturam." Buti, on the contrary, says, utor-
tura cioe tormento."

1 Secures a safe pathway along the ledge.

2 -'God of clemency supreme," the beginning of a hymn, sung
at Matins, containing a prayer for purity.

3 " I know not a man," the words of Mary to the angel.— Luke,

i. 34.

4 Helice, or Callisto, the nymph who bore a son to Jupiter, and,

164 PURGATORY.

Venus." Then they turned to singing ; then wives
they cried out, and husbands who were chaste, as
virtue and marriage enjoin upon us. And I be-
lieve this mode suffices them through all the time
the fire burns them. With such cure it is needful,
and with sugIi food, that the last wound of all should
be closed up.

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.

CANTO XXVI.

Seventh Ledge : the Lustful. — Sinners in the fire, going
in opposite directions. — Guido Guinicelli. — Arnaut Daniel.

While we were going on thus along the edge,
one before the other, and the good Master was
often saying, " Take heed ! let it avail that I warn
thee," the sun was striking me on the right shoul-
der, and now, raying out, was changing all the
west from azure to a white aspect ; and with my
shadow I was making the flame appear more
ruddy, and only at such an indication1 I saw
many shades, as they went on, give attention.
This was the occasion which gave them a begin-
ning to speak of me, and they began to say, " He
seems not a fictitious body;' then toward me,
so far as they could do so, certain of them came,
always with regard not to come out where they
would not be burned.

" O thou ! who goest, not from being slower, but
perhaps from reverence, behind the others, reply
to me who in thirst and fire am burning. Nor to
me only is thy reply of need, for all these have a

1 At this sign that Dante's body was that of a living man.

106 PURGATORY.

greater thirst for it than Indian or Ethiop of cold
water. Tell us how it is that thou makest of thy-
self a wall to the sun, as if thou hadst not ye4
entered within the net of death." Thus spoke to
me one of them ; and I should now have disclosed
myself, if I had not been intent on another new
thing which then appeared ; for through the mid-
dle of the burning road were coming people with
their faces opposite to these, who made me gaze
in suspense. There I see, on every side, all the
shades making haste and kissing each other, with-
out stopping, content with brief greeting. Thus
within their brown band one ant touches muzzle
with another, perchance to spy out their way and
their fortune.

Soon as they end the friendly salutation, before
the first step runs on beyond, each strives to out-
cry the other ; the new-come folk : " Sodom and
Gomorrah," and the other, " Into the cow enters
Pasiphae, that the bull may run to her lust."
Then like cranes, of whom part should fly to the
Kiphsean mountains,1 and part toward the sands,2
these shunning the frost and those the sun, one
folk goes, the other comes on, and weeping they
return to their first chants, and to the cry which
most befits them.

1 Mountains vaguely placed by the early geographers in t&3
far North.

2 The deserts of the South.

CANTO XXVI. 167

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, began, " O souls
secure of having, whenever it may be, a state of
peace, neither unripe nor mature have my limbs
remained yonder, but they are here with me with
their blood, and with their joints. I go up in order
to be no longer blind. A Lady is on high who
winneth grace for us, whereby I bring my mortal
part through your world. But so may your greater
will soon become satisfied, in such wise that the
heaven may harbor you which is full of love, and
most amply spreads, tell me, in order that I may
yet rule the paper for it, who are ye, and who are
that crowd which goes its way behind your backs."

Not otherwise stupefied, the mountaineer is con-
fused, and gazing round is dumb, when rough and
savage he enters the town, than each shade became
in his appearance ; but, after they were unbur-
dened of their bewilderment, which in high hearts
is quickly assuaged, " Blessed thou," began again
that one who first had asked me, " who of our re-
gions dost ship experience for dying better. The
people who do not come with us offended in that
for which once Caesar in his triumph heard ' Queen '
cried out against him ; therefore they go off shout-
ing 4 Sodom,' reproving themselves as thou hast
heard, and aid the burning by their shame. Our

1G8 PURGATORY.

sin was hermaphrodite ; but because we observed
not human law, following our appetite like beasts,
when we part from them, the name of her who bes-
tialized herself in the beast-shaped planks is uttered
by us, in opprobrium of ourselves. 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 could not do it.
I will indeed make thee short of wish about my-
self ; I am Guido Guinicelli ; 1 and now I purify
myself, because I truly repented before my last
hour.

Such as in the sorrow of Lycurgus her two sons
became at seeing again their mother,2 such I be-
came, but I rise not so far,3 when I heard name
himself the father of me, and of my betters who
ever used sweet and gracious 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. After I was fed with

1 Of Bologna ; lie was living after the middle of the thirteenth
century. Of his life little is known, hut his verses survive and
justify Dante's words concerning them.

2 ' ' Lycurgus, King of Nemsea, enraged with Hypsipyle for
leaving his infant child, who was killed by a serpent, while she
was showing the river Langia to the Argives (see Canto XXII.),
was about to kill her, when she was found and rescued by her
own sons." — Statius, Thebaid, v. 721 (Pollock).

8 I was more restrained than they.

CANTO XXVI. 169

looking, I offered myself wholly ready for his ser-
vice, with the affirmation that makes another
believe. And he to me, " By what I hear thou
leavest such trace in me, and so bright, that Lethe
cannot take it away nor make it dim. But if thy
words have now sworn truth, tell me what is the
cause why in speech and look thou showest that
thou dost hold me dear?" And I to him, " The
sweet verses of yours, which, so long as the modern
fashion shall endure, will still make dear their ink."
"O brother," said he, "this one whom I distin-
guish for thee with my finger," and he pointed to
a spirit in advance,1 " was a better smith of the
maternal speech. In verses of love, and prose of
romances, he excelled all, and let the foolish talk
who think that he of Limoges 2 surpasses him ; to
rumor more than to truth they turn their faces,
and thus confirm their own opinion, before art or
reason is listened to by them. Thus did many of
old concerning Guittone,3 from cry to cry only to
him giving the prize, until the truth has prevailed
with more persons. Now if thou hast such ample
privilege that it be permitted thee to go unto the
cloister in which Christ is abbot of the college, say
for me to him one paternoster, so far as needs for

1 Arnaut Daniel, a famous troubadour.

2 Gerault de Berneil.

3 Guittone d' Arezzo (see Canto XXIV.).

170 PURGATORY.

us in this world where power to sin is no longer

ours." *

Then, perhaps to give place to the other who
was near behind him, he disappeared through the
fire, even as through the water a fish going to
the bottom. I moved forward a little to him who
had been pointed out to me, and said, that for
his name my desire was making ready a gracious
place. He began graciously to say,2 " So pleaseth
me your courteous demand that I cannot, and I will
not, hide me from you. I am Arnaut who weep
and go singing ; contrite I see my past folly, and
joyful I see before me the day I hope for. Now I
pray you by that virtue which guides you to the
summit of the stair, at times be mindful of my
pain." Then he hid himself in the fire that re-
fines them.

1 The words in the Lord's Prayer, " Deliver us from tempta-
tion," are not needed for the spirits in Purgatory.

2 The words of Daniel 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 stand-
ing ; 1 so that 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" 2 in a voice far more living
than ours : then, " No one goes further, 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,
when we were near him. Whereat I became such,
when I heard him, as is he who in the pit is put.3
With hands clasped upwards, I stretched forward,
looking at the fire, and imagining vividly human

1 It was near sunrise at Jerusalem, and consequently near sun-
set in Purgatory, midnight in Spain, and midday at the Ganges.

2 " Blessed are the pure in heart."

3 Who is condemned to be buried alive.

172 PURGATORY.

bodies I had once seen burnt. The good Escorts
turned toward me, and Virgil said to me, " My
son, here may be torment, but not death. Bethink
thee ! bethink thee ! and 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 one
hair. And if thou perchance believest that I de-
ceive thee, draw near to it, and make trial for thy-
self with thine own hands on 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 conscience !

When he saw me still stand motionless and ob-
durate, 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 vermilion, so, my obdu-
racy becoming softened, I turned me to the wise
Leader, hearing the name that in my 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 doth at a child who
is conquered by an apple.

Then within the fire he set himself before me,
praying Statius, that he would come behind, who

CANTO XXVII. 173

previously, on the long road, had divided us.
When I was in, into boiling glass I would have
thrown myself to cool me, so without measure was
the burning there. My sweet Father, to encour-
age me, went talking ever of Beatrice, saying, " I
seem already to see her eyes."

A voice was guiding us, which was singing on
the other side, and we, ever attentive to it, came
forth there where was the ascent. " Ve?iite, bene-
dicti patris mei" 1 sounded within a light that was
there such that it overcame me, and I could not
look on it. " The sun departs," 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, iu
such direction 2 that I cut off in front of me the
rays of the sun which was already low. And of
few stairs had we made essay ere, by the vanishing
of the shadow, both I and my Sages perceived
behind us the setting of the sun. And before
the horizon in all its immense regions had become
of one aspect, and night had all her dispensations,
each of us made of a stair his bed ; for the nature
of the mountain took from us the power more than
the delight of ascending.

As goats, who have been swift and wayward on

1 " Come, ye blessed of my Father." — Matthew, xxv. 34.

2 Toward the east.

174 PURGATORY.

the peaks ere they are fed, become tranquil as they
ruminate, silent in the shade while the sun is hot,
watched by the herdsman, who on his staff is lean-
ing and waits on their repose ; and as the shep-
herd, 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 appear, but through 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 a deed be done knows news thereof.

At the hour, I think, when from the east on the
mountain first beamed Cytherea, who with fire of
love seems always burning, I seemed in dream to
see a lady, young and beautiful, going through a
meadow gathering flowers, and singing she was say-
ing, " Let him know, whoso asks my name, that I
am Leah, and I go moving my fair hands around
to make myself a garland. To please me at the
glass here I adorn me, but my sister Rachel never
withdraws from her mirror, and sits all day. She
is as fain to look with her fair eyes as I to adorn
me with my hands. Her seeing, and me doing, sat-
isfies."1

1 Leah and Rachel are the types of the active and the contem-
plative life.

CANTO XXVII. 175

And now before the splendors which precede the
dawn, and rise the more grateful unto pilgrims as
in returning they lodge less remote,1 the shadows
fled away on every side, and my sleep with them ;
whereupon I rose, seeing my great Masters already
risen. " That pleasant apple which through so
many branches the care of mortals goes seeking,
to-day shall put in peace thy hungerings." Virgil
used words such as these toward me, and never
were there gifts which could be equal in pleasure
to these. Such wish upon wish came to me to be
above, that at every step thereafter I felt the fea-
thers growing for my flight.

When beneath us all the stairway had been run,
and we were on the topmost step, Virgil fixed his
eyes on me, and said, " The temporal fire and the
eternal thou hast seen, son, and art come to a place
where of myself no further onward I discern. I
have brought thee here with understanding and
with art; thine own pleasure now take thou for
guide : forth art thou from the steep ways, forth
art thou from the narrow. See there the sun,
which on thy front doth shine ; see the young
grass, the flowers, the shrubs, which here the earth
of itself alone produces. Until rejoicing come the
beautiful eyes which weeping made me come to
thee, thou canst sit down and thou canst go among

1 As they come nearer home.

176 PURGATORY.

them. Expect no more or word or sign from me.
Free, upright, and sane is thine own free will, and
it would be wrong not to act according to its plea-
sure ; wherefore thee over thyself I crown and
mitre."

CANTO XXVIII.

The Earthly Paradise. — The Forest. — A Lady gathering
flowers on the bank of a little stream. — Discourse with her
concerning the nature of the place.

Fain now to searcli within and round about the
divine forest dense and living, which tempered the
new day to my eyes, without longer waiting I left
the bank, taking the level ground very slowly, over
the soil that everywhere breathes fragrance. A
sweet breeze that- had no variation in itself struck
me on the brow, not with heavier blow than a soft
wind ; at which the branches, readily trembling, all
of them were bending to the quarter where the
holy mountain casts its first shadow; yet not so
far parted from their straightness, that the little
birds among the tops would leave the practice of
their every art ; but with full joy singing they re-
ceived the early breezes among the leaves, which
kept a burden to their rhymes, such as gathers
from bough to bough through the pine forest upon
the shore of Chiassi, when Eolus lets forth Si-

rocco.1

1 The south-east wind.

178 PURGATORY.

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 toward the left with
its little waves was bending the grass that sprang
upon its bank. All the waters, that are purest on
the earth, would seem to have some mixture in
them, compared with that which hides nothing,
although it moves along dusky under the perpet-
ual shadow, which never lets the sun or moon shine
there.

With feet I stayed, and with my eyes I passed
to the other side of the streamlet, to gaze at the
great variety of the fresh may ; and there appeared
to me, even as a thing appears suddenly which
turns aside through wonder every other thought, a
solitary lady, who was going along, singing, and
culling flower from flower, wherewith all her path
was painted. " Ah, fair Lady,1 who warmest thy-
self in the 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 for-
ward toward this stream, so far that I can under-
stand what thou art singing. Thou makest me

1 This lady is the type of 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.

CANTO XXVIII. 179

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 herself on the red and
on the yellow flowerets toward me, not otherwise
than a virgin who lowers her modest eyes, and
made my prayers content, approaching so that the
sweet sound came to me with its meaning. Soon
as she was there where the grasses are now bathed
by the waves of the fair stream, she bestowed on me
the gift of lifting her eyes. I do not believe that
so great a lis-ht shone beneath the lids of Venus,
transfixed by her son, beyond all his custom. She
was smiling upon the opposite right bank, gather-
ing with her hands more colors which that high
land brings forth without seed. The stream made
us three paces apart; but the Hellespont where
Xerxes passed it — a curb still on all human pride

endured not more hatred from Leander for

swelling between Sestos and Abydos, than that
from me because it opened not then. "Ye are
new come," she began, "and, perchance, why I smile
in this place chosen for human nature as its nest,
some doubt holds you marvelling ; but the psalm
'Delectasti ' 1 affords light which may uncloud your

1 Psalm xcii. 4. " Delectasti me, Domine, in factura tua, et in

180 PURGATORY.

understanding. And thou who art in front, and
didst pray to me, say, if 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 that I heard contrary to this."
Whereon she, " I will tell, how from its own cause
proceeds that which makes thee wonder ; and I
will clear away the mist which strikes thee.

" The supreme Good, which itself alone is pleas-
ing to itself, made man good, and for good, and
gave this place for earnest to him of eternal peace.
Through his own default he dwelt here little while ;
through his own default to tears and to toil he
changed honest laughter and sweet play. In order
that the disturbance, which the exhalations of the
water and of the earth (which follow so far as
they can the heat) produce below, might not make
any war on man, this mountain rose so high toward
heaven, and is free from them from the point
where it is locked in.1 Now because the whole air
revolves in circuit with the primal revolution,2 if

operibus manuum tuarum exultabo." " For thou, Lord, hast made
me glad through thy work ; I will triumph in the works of thy
hands."

1 Above the level of the gate through which Purgatory is en-
tered, as Statius has already explained (Canto XXI.), the vapors
of earth do not rise.

2 With the movement given to it by the motion of the heavens.

CANTO XX VIII. 181

its circle be not broken by some projection, upon
this height, which is wholly disengaged in the liv-
ing air, this motion strikes, and makes the wood,
since it is dense, resound; and the plant being
struck hath such power that with its virtue it im-
pregnates the breeze, and this then in its whirling
scatters it around : and the rest of the earth, ac-
cording as it is fit in itself, or through its sky, con-
ceives and brings forth divers trees of divers vir-
tues. It should not seem a marvel then on earth,
this being heard, when some plant, without manifest
seed, there takes hold. And thou must know that
the holy plain where thou art is full of every seed,
and has fruit in it which yonder is not gathered.
The water which thou seest rises not from a vein
restored by vapor which the frost condenses, like a
stream that gains and loses breath, but it issues
from a fountain constant and sure, which by the
will of God regains as much as, open on two sides,
it pours forth. On this side it descends with vir-
tue that takes from one the memory of sin ; on the
other it restores that of every good deed. Here
Lethe, so on the other side Eunoe it is called ; and
it works not if first it be not tasted on this side
and on that. To all other savors this is superior.

" And though thy thirst may be fully sated even
if I disclose no more to thee, I will yet give thee
a corollary for grace ; nor do I think my speech

182 PUBGATORY.

may be less dear to thee, if beyond promise it en-
large itself with thee. Those who in ancient time
told in poesy of the Age of Gold, and of its happy
state, perchance upon Parnassus dreamed of this
place : here was the root of mankind innocent ;
here is always spring, and every fruit ; this is the
nectar of which each tells."

I turned me back then wholly to my Poets, and
saw that with a smile they had heard the last
sentence ; then to the beautiful Lady I turned my
face.

CANTO XXIX.

The Earthly Paradise. — Mystic Procession or Triumph
of the Church.

Singing like a lady enamored, she, at the end-
ing of her words, continued : "Beati, quorum tecta
sunt peccata ; " 1 and, like nymphs who were wont
to go solitary through the sylvan shades, this one
desiring to see and that to avoid the sun, she
moved on then counter to the stream, going up
along the bank, and I at even rate with her, match-
ing her little steps with little. Of her steps and
mine were not a hundred, when the banks both
alike £ave a turn, in such wise that toward the

O 7

east I faced again. Nor thus had our way been
long, when the lady wholly turned round to me,
saying, " My brother, look and listen." And lo !
a sudden lustre ran from all quarters through
the great forest, so that it put me in suspect of
lightning. But because the lightning ceases even
as it comes, and this, lasting, became more and
more resplendent, in my thought I said, " What

1 " Blessed' are they whose transgressions are forgiven." —
Psalm xxxii. 1.

184 PURGATORY.

tiling is this ? " And a sweet melody ran through
the luminous air ; whereupon a righteous zeal caused
me to blame the temerity of Eve, that, there, where
the earth and the heavens were obedient, the wo-
man only, and but just now formed, did not endure
to stay under any veil; under which if she had
devoutly stayed I should have tasted those ineffa-
ble delights before, and for a longer time. While
I was o'oin2 on mid such first fruits of the eternal
pleasure, all enrapt, and still desirous of more joys,
in front of us the air under the green branches
became like a blazing fire, and the sweet sound
was now heard as a song.

0 Virgins sacrosanct, if ever hunger, cold, or
vigils I have endured for you, the occasion spurs
me that I claim reward therefor. Now it behoves
that Helicon pour forth for me, and Urania aid
me with her choir to put in verse things difficult

to think.

A little further on, the long tract of space which
was still between us and them presented falsely
what seemed seven trees of gold. But when I had
come so near to them that the common object,
which deceives the sense,1 lost not through dis-
tance any of its attributes, the power which sup-
plies discourse to reason distinguished them as

1 An object which has properties common to many things, so
that at a distance the sight cannot distinguish its specific nature.

CANTO XXIX. 185

candlesticks,1 and in the voices of the song, " Ho-
sanna." From above the fair array was flaming,
brighter by far than the Moon in the serene of
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 amazement. Then I turned back my face to
the high things that were moving toward us so
slowly they would have been outstripped by new-
made brides. The lady cried to me, " Why burn-
est thou only thus with affection for the living
lights, and lookest not at that which comes behind
them ? " Then saw I folk coming behind, as if after
their leaders, clothed in white, and such unspotted-
ness there never was on earth. 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 on my bank I had such position that only
the stream separated me, in order to see better, I
gave halt to my steps. And I saw the flamelets

1 The imagery of the Triumph of the Church here described is
larg-ely 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." — J<s?.,iv. 5. "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon
him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of coun-
sel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the
Lord." — Isaiah, xi. 2.

186 PURGATORY.

go forward leaving the air behind them painted,
and they had the semblance of streaming pennons,
so that there above it remained divided by seven
stripes all in those colors whereof the sun makes
his bow, and Delia her girdle.1 These banners to
the rear were longer than my sight, and according
to my judgment the outermost were ten paces
apart. Under so fair a sky as I describe, twenty-
four elders,2 two by two, were coming crowned with
flower-de-luce. All were singing, " Blessed thou
among the daughters of Adam, and blessed forever
be thy beauties."

After the flowers, and the other fresh herbage
opposite to me on the other bank, were free from
those folk elect, even as light followeth light in
heaven, came behind them four living creatures,
crowned each one with green leaves. Every one
was feathered with six wings, the feathers full of
eyes ; and the eyes of Argus were they living
would be such. To describe their forms I scatter
rhymes no more, Reader ; for other spending con-
strains me so that in this I cannot be liberal. But
read Ezekiel, who depicts them as he saw them

1 Delia, the moon, and her girdle the halo.

2 "And round ahout the throne were four and twenty seats : and
upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting1, 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.

CANTO XXIX. 187

coming from the cold region witli 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.1

The space between these four contained a tri-
umphal chariot upon two wheels, which by the
neck of a griffon2 came drawn along. And he
stretched up one and the other of his wings be-
tween the midmost stripe, and the three and three,
so that he did harm to no one of them by cleaving
it. So far they rose that they were not seen. His
members were of gold so far as he was bird, and
the rest were white mixed with red. Not Africa-
nus, or indeed Augustus, gladdened Eome with so
beautiful a chariot; but even that of the Sun
would be poor to it, — that of the Sun which, going
astray,3 was consumed at the prayer of the devout
Earth, when Jove in his secrecy was just. Three
ladies,4 at the right wheel, came dancing in a cir-

1 These four living- creatures symbolize the Gospels. Ezekiel
(i. 6) describes the creatures with four wings, but in the Revela-
tion (iv. 8) John assigns to each of them six wings: "and they
were full of eyes within." They are crowned with green, as the
color of hope.

2 The griffon, half eagle and half lion, represents Christ in his
double nature, divine and human. The car which he draws is the
Church.

3 When driven by Phaethon.

4 The theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, of the
colors respectively appropriate to them.

188 PURGATORY.

cle ; one so ruddy that hardly would she have been
noted in the fire ; the next was as if her flesh and
bones had been made of emerald ; the third seemed
snow just fallen. And now they seemed led by
the white, now by the red, and from her song the
others took their step both slow and swift. On the
left four : robed in purple made festival, following
the measure of one of them who had three eyes in
her head.

Next after all the group described, I saw two
old men, unlike in dress, but like in action, both
dignified and staid. The one showed himself one
of the familiars of that supreme Hippocrates
whom Nature made for the creatures that she
holds most dear ; 2 the other showed the contrary
care,3 with a shining and sharp sword, such that it
caused me fear on the hither side of the stream.
Then I saw four humble in appearance, and behind
all an old man solitary coming asleep with lively
countenance.4 And these seven were robed like

1 The four cardinal Virtues, in purple, the imperial color, typi-
fying their rule over human conduct. Prudence has three eyes, as
looking at the past, the present, and the future.

2 The book of Acts, represented under the type of its author, St.
Luke, " the beloved physician." Colossians, iv. 14. Man is the
creature whom Nature holds dearest.

3 The Pauline Epistles, typified by their writer, whose sword is
the symbol of war and martyrdom, a contrary care to the healing

of men.

4 The four humble in appearance are personifications of the

CANTO XXIX. 189

the first band ; but they made not a thicket of
lilies round their heads, rather of roses, and of
other red flowers. The sight at little distance
would have sworn that all were aflame above their
brows. And when the chariot was opposite to
me thunder was heard, and those worthy people
seemed to have further progress interdicted, stop-
ping there with the first ensigns.

writers of the minor Epistles, followed by St. John, as the writer
of the Revelation, asleep, and yet with lively countenance, because
he was "in the Spirit" when he beheld his vision.

CANTO XXX.

The Earthly Paradise. — Beatrice appears. — Departure
of Virgil. — Reproof of Daiite by Beatrice.

When the septentrion of the first heaven 1 which
never setting knew, nor rising, nor veil of other
cloud than sin, — and which was making every one
there acquainted with his duty, as the lower 2
makes whoever turns the helm to come to port, —
stopped still, the truthful people 3 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"b and all the others after.

As the blessed at the last trump will arise swiftly,
each from his tomb, singing Hallelujah with recov-
ered voice,6 so upon the divine chariot, ad vocem

1 The seven candlesticks, symbols of the sevenfold spirit of the
Lord.

2 The lower septentrion, or the seven stars of the Great Bear.

8 The personifications of the truthful books of the Old Testa-
ment.

4 The septentrion of candlesticks.

5 " Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse." — The Song of
Solomon, iv. 8.

6 "And after these things I heard a great voice of much
people in Heaven, saying, Alleluia." — Revelation, xix. 1.

CANTO XXX. 191

tanti senis,1 rose up a hundred ministers and mes-
sengers of life eternal. All were saying, " Bene-
dictus, qui vends" 2 and, scattering flowers above
and around, " Manibus o date lilia plenis." 3

I bave seen ere now at the beginning of the
day the eastern region all rosy, while the rest of
heaven was beautiful with fair clear sky ; and the
face of the sun rise shaded, so that through the
tempering of vapors the eye sustained it a long
while. Thus within a cloud of flowers, which from
the angelic hands was ascending, and falling down
again within and without, a lady, with olive wreath
above a white veil, appeared to me, robed with the
color of living flame beneath a green mantle.4
And my spirit that now for so long a time had
not been broken down, trembling with amazement
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 upon my sight the lofty virtue smote,
which already had transfixed me ere I was out
of boyhood, I turned me to the left with the

1 "At the voice of so great an elder ; " these words are in Latin
apparently only for the sake of the rhyme.

2 " Blessed thou that cometh."

3 "Oh, give lilies with full hands ; " words from the JEneid,
vi. 884, sung hy the angels.

4 The olive is the symbol of wisdom and of peace ; the three
colors are those of Faith, Charity, and Hope.

192 PURGATORY.

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 doth not tremble ; I
recognize the signals of the ancient flame," 1 —
but Virgil had left us deprived of himself ; Virgil,
sweetest Father, Virgil to whom I for my salvation
gave me. Nor did all which the ancient mother
lost 2 avail unto my cheeks, cleansed with dew,3 that
they should not turn dark again with tears.

u Dante, though Virgil be gone away, weep not
}ret, weep not yet, for it behoves thee to weep by
another sword."

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 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 haughty in her
mien, she went on, as one who speaks, and keeps

1 " Agnosco veteris vestigia flammse." — yEneid, iv. 23.

2 All the beauty of Paradise which Eve lost.

3 See Canto I.

CANTO XXX. 193

back his warmest speech : " Look at me well : I
am, indeed, I am, indeed, Beatrice. How hast
thou deigned to approach the mountain? Didst
thou know that man is happy here ? ' My eyes
fell down into the clear fount ; bat seeing myself
in it I drew them to the grass, such great shame
burdened my brow. As to the son the mother
seems proud, so she seemed to me ; for somewhat
bitter tasteth the savor of stern pity.

She was silent, and the angels sang of a sudden,
"In te, Domine, sfieravi;" but beyond "pedes
meos " 1 they did not pass. Even as the snow,
among the living rafters upon the back of Italy,
is congealed, blown and packed by Sclavonian
winds, then melting trickles through itself, if only
the land that loses shadow breathe,2 so that it

1 " 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 : he 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 re-
deemed me, 0 Lord God of truth. I have hated them that re-
gard lying vanities : hut I trust in the Lord. I will he 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.

2 If the wind blow from Africa.

194 PURGATORY.

seems a fire tliat melts the candle : so was I with-
out tears and sighs before the song of those who
time their notes after the notes of the eternal cir-
cles. But when I heard in their sweet accords
their compassion 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 poured
from my breast through my mouth and eyes.

She, still standing motionless on the aforesaid
side of the chariot, then turned her words to those
pious 1 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 ; where-
fore my reply is with greater care, that he who is
weeping yonder may understand me, so that fault
and grief may be of one measure. Not only
through the working of the great wheels,2 which
direct every seed to some end according as the
stars are its companions, but through largess of
divine graces, which have for their rain vapors so
lofty that our sight goes not near thereto, — this
man was such in his new life, virtually, that
every right habit would have made admirable
proof in him. But so much the more malign and
more savage becomes the land ill-sown and un-
tilled, as it has more of good terrestrial vigor.

1 Both devout and piteous. 2 The circling- heavens.

CANTO XXX. 195

Some time did I sustain him with my face ; show-
ing- my youthful eyes to him I led him with me
turned in right direction. So soon as I was upon
the threshold of my second age, and had changed
life, this one took himself from me, and gave him-
self to others. When from flesh to spirit I had
ascended, 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 1 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 people. For this I vis-
ited the gate of the dead, and to him, who has con-
ducted him up hither, my prayers were borne with
weeping. The high decree of God would be
broken, if Lethe should be passed, and such
viands should be tasted without any scot of repen-
tance which may pour forth tears."

1 Through the grace of God.

CANTO XXXI.

The Earthly Paradise. — Reproachful discourse of Bea-
trice, and confession of Dante. — Passage of Lethe. — Ap-
peal of the Virtues to Beatrice. — Her Unveiling.

" O thou who art on the further side of the
sacred river," turning her speech with the point to
me, which only by the edge had seemed to me keen,
she began anew, going on without delay, " say,
say, if this is true : to so great an accusation it be-
hoves that thine own confession be conjoined."
My power was so confused, that the voice moved,
and became extinct before it could be released
bv its organs. A little she bore it; then she said,
" What thinkest thou ? Reply to me ; for the sad
memories in thee are not yet injured by the water." 1
Confusion and fear together mingled forced such a
" Yes " from out my mouth, that the eyes were
needed for the understanding of it.

As a cross-bow breaks its cord and its bow when
it shoots with too great tension, and with less force
the shaft hits the mark, so did I burst under that
heavy load, pouring forth tears and sighs, and the
voice slackened along its passage. Whereupon

1 Are still vivid, not yet obliterated by the water of Lethe.

CslNTO XXXI. 197

she to me, " Within those desires of mine 2 that
were leading thee to love the Good beyond which
there is nothing whereto man may aspire, what
trenches running traverse, or what chains didst
thon find, for which thou wert obliged thus to
abandon the hope of passing onward? And what
enticements, or what advantages on the brow of
the others were displayed,2 for which thou wert
obliged to court them ? ' After the drawing of a
bitter sigh, hardly had I the voice that answered,
and the lips with difficulty gave it form. Weep-
ing, I said, "The present things with their false
pleasure turned my steps, soon as your face was
hidden." And she : " Hadst thou been silent, or
hadst thou denied that which thou dost confess,
thy fault would be not less noted, by such a Judge
is it known. But when the accusation of the sin
bursts from one's own cheek, in our court the
wheel turns itself back against the edge. But yet,
that thou mayst now bear shame for thy error, and
that another time, hearing the Sirens, thou mayst
be stronger, lay aside the seed of weeping, and
listen ; so shalt thou hear how in opposite direc-
tion my buried flesh ought to have moved thee.
Never did nature or art present to thee pleasure
such as the fair limbs wherein I was enclosed ; and

1 Inspired by me.

2 The false pleasures of the world.

198 PURGATORY.

they are scattered in earth. And if the supreme
pleasure thus failed thee through my death, what
mortal thing ought then to have drawn thee into
its desire? Forsooth thou oughtest, at the first
arrow of things deceitful, to have risen up, follow-
ing me who was no longer such. Nor should thy
wings have weighed thee downward to await more
blows, either girl or other vanity of so brief a use.
The young little bird awaits two or three ; but
before the eyes of the full-fledged, the net is spread
in vain, the arrow shot."

As children, ashamed, dumb, with eyes upon the
ground, stand listening and conscience - stricken
and repentant, so was I standing. And she said,
" Since through hearing thou art grieved, lift up
thy beard, and thou shalt receive more grief in see-
ing." With less resistance is a sturdy oak uprooted
by a native wind, or by one from the land of Iar-
bas,1 than I raised up my chin at her command ;
and when by the beard she asked for my eyes, truly
I recognized the venom of the argument.2 x4.nd as
my face stretched upward, my sight perceived that
those primal creatures were resting from their
strewing, and my eyes, still little assured, saw
Beatrice turned toward the animal that is only one

1 From Numidia, of which Iarbas was king-.

2 Because indicating the lack of that wisdom which should
pertain to manhood.

CANTO XXXI. 199

person in two natures.1 Beneath her veil and be-
yond the stream she seemed to me more to surpass
her ancient self, than she surpassed the others
here when she was here. So pricked me there the
nettle of repentance, that of all other things the
one which most turned me aside unto its love be-
came most hostile to me.2

Such contrition stung my heart that I fell over-
come ; and what I then became she knows who
afforded me the cause.

Then, when my heart restored my outward facul-
ties, I saw above me the lady whom I had found
alone,3 and she was saying, " Hold me, hold me."
She had drawn me into the stream up to the
throat, and dragging me behind was moving upon
the water light as a shuttle. When I was near the
blessed shore, "Asperges me"* I heard so sweetly
that I cannot remember it, far less can write it.
The beautiful lady opened her arms, clasped my
head, and plunged me in where it behoved that I
should swallow the water.5 Then she took me,

1 The griffon.

2 That object which had most seduced me from the love of
Beatrice was now the most hateful to me.

3 Matilda.

4 The first words of the seventh verse of the fifty-first Psalm :
"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow."

5 The drinking of the waters of Lethe which obliterate the
memory of sin.

200 PURGATORY.

and, thus bathed, brought me within the dance of
the four beautiful ones,1 and each of them covered
me with her arm. " Here we are nymphs, and in
heaven we are stars : ere Beatrice had descended
to the world we were ordained unto her for her
handmaids. We will lead thee to her eyes ; but
in the joyous light which is within them, the three
yonder who deeper gaze shall make keen thine
own."2 Thus singing, 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 sparest not thy sight :
we have placed thee before the emeralds whence
Love of old drew his arrows upon thee." A thou-
sand desires hotter than flame bound my eyes to
the relucent eyes which only upon the griffon were
standing fixed. As the sun in a mirror, not other-
wise the twofold animal was gleaming therewithin,
now with one, now with another mode.3 Think,
Reader, if I marvelled when I saw the thing stand
quiet in itself, while in its image it was transmut-
ing itself.

While, full of amazement and glad, my soul was

1 The four Cardinal Virtues.

2 The Cardinal Virtues lead up to Theology, or the knowledge
of Divine things, hut the Evangelic Virtues are needed to. pene-
trate within them.

3 Mode of being, — the divine and the human.

CANTO XXXI. 201

tasting that food which, sating of itself, causes
hunger for itself, the other three, showing them-
selves in their bearing of loftier order, came for-
ward dancing to their angelic melody. "Turn,
Beatrice, turn thy holy eyes," was their song,
" upon thy faithful one, who to see thee has taken
so many steps. For grace do us the grace that
thou unveil to him thy mouth, so that he may dis-
cern the second beauty which thou concealest." l

Oh splendor of living light eternal ! Who hath
become so pallid under the shadow of Parnassus,
or hath so drunk at its cistern, that he would not
seem to have his mind encumbered, trying to rep-
resent thee as thou didst appear there where in
harmony the heaven overshadows thee when in the
open air thou didst thyself disclose ?

i <<

The eyes of Wisdom are her demonstrations 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 pro-
cession.— The Chariot bound to the Mystic Tree. — Sleep
of Dante. — His waking to find the Triumph departed. —
Transformation of the Chariot. — The Harlot and the Giant.

So fixed and intent were mine 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 disregard, so did the holy
smile draw them to itself with the old 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 some time without sight. But
when the sight reshaped itself to the little (I say
to the little, in respect to the great object of the
sense wherefrom by force I had removed myself),
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.

1 The three heavenly Virtues.

2 " Thou lookest too fixedly ; thou hast yet other duties than
contemplation.' '

CANTO XXXII. 203

As under its shields to save itself a troop turns
and wheels with its banner, before it all can change
about, that soldiery of the celestial realm which
was in advance had wholly gone past us before
its front beam 1 had bent the chariot round.
Then to the wheels the ladies returned, and the
griffon moved his blessed burden, in such wise
however that no feather of him shook. The beau-
tiful lady who had drawn me at the ford, and
Statius and I were following the wheel which
made its orbit with the smaller arc. So walking
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 bow had in three fli^nts reached
such a distance as we had advanced, when Bea-
trice descended. I heard " Adam ! ' murmured
by all : 2 then they circled a plant despoiled of
flowers and of other leafage on every bough.3 Its
branches, which so much the wider spread the
higher up they are,4 would be wondered at for
height by the Indians in their woods.

1 Its pole.

2 In reproach of him who had in disobedience tasted of the
fruit of this tree.

3 After the sin of Adam the plant was despoiled of virtue till
the coming1 of Christ.

4 The branches of the tree of knowledge spread widest as they
are nearest to the Divine Source of truth.

204 PURGATORY.

" 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." 1 Thus
around the sturdy tree the others cried ; and the
animal of two natures : " So is preserved the seed
of all righteousness."2 And turning to the pole
that he had drawn, he dragged it to the foot of
the widowed trunk, and that which was of it 3 he
left bound to it.

As our plants, when the great light falls down-
ward mingled with that which shines behind the
celestial Carp,4 become swollen, and then renew
themselves, each in its own color, ere the sun yoke
his coursers under another star, so disclosing a
color less^fean of roses and more than of violets,
the plant renewed itself, which first had its boughs
so bare.5 I did not understand the hymn, and it

1 " For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." — Ro-
mans, v. 19.

2 "That as sin had reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ, our
Lord." — Id., v. 21.

3 The pole, the mystic type of the cross of Christ, supposed to
have been made of the wood of this tree.

4 In the spring, when the Sun is in Aries, the sign which fol-
lows that of the Pisces here termed the Carp.

5 Tbe tree, after the death of Christ, still remains the symbol
of the knowledge of good and of evil, as well as the sign of obe-
dience to the Divine Will. Its renewal with flowers and foliage

CANTO XXXII. 205

is not sung here,1 which that folk then sang, nor
did I bear the melody to the end.

If I could portray how the pitiless eyes 2 sank to
slumber, while hearing of Syrinx, the eyes to which
too 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 picture slumber well.3 Therefore I pass on
to when I awoke, and 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 4 which makes the Angels greedy of its fruit,5
and makes perpetual bridal feasts in Heaven,6
Peter and John and James were led,7 and being
overcome, came to themselves at the word by
which greater slumbers 8 were broken, and saw

seems to be the image at once of the revelation of Divine truth
through Christ, and of his obedience unto death.

1 On earth.

2 The hundred eyes of Argus, who, when watching Io, fell
asleep while listening to the tale of the loves of Pan and Syrinx,
and was then slain by Mercury.

3 The sleep of Dante may signify the impotency of human rea-
son to explain the mysteries of redemption.

4 "As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my be-
loved among the sons." — The Song of Solomon, ii. 8.

5 The full glory of Christ in Heaven.

6 The marriage supper of the Lamb. — Revelation, xix. 9.

7 The transfiguration. — Matthew, xvii. 1-8.

8 Those of the dead called back to life by Jesus.

206 PURGATORY.

their band diminished alike by Moses and Elias,
and the raiment of their Master changed, so I
came to myself, and saw that compassionate one
standing above me, who first had 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 that surrounds her ; the rest
are going on high behind the griffon, with sweeter
song and more profound." 1 And if her speech was
more diffuse I know not, because already in my
eyes was she who from attending to aught else had
closed me in. Alone she was sitting 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
enclosure for her, with those lights in their hands
that are secure from Aquilo and from Auster.2

" 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 that lives ill, keep now thine
eyes upon the chariot ; and what thou seest, having
returned to earth, mind that thou write." Thus

1 Christ having ascended, Beatrice, the type of Theology, is
left by the chariot, the type of the Church on earth.

2 From the north wind or the south ; that is, from any earthly
blast.

CANTO XXXII. 207

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 is raining from that
region which stretches most remote, as I saw the
bird of Jove stoop downward 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 tempest
beaten by the waves now to starboard, now to lar-
board.1 Then I saw leap into the body of the
triumphal vehicle a she fox,2 which seemed fasting
from all good food ; but rebuking her for her foul
sins my Lady turned her to such flight as her flesh-
less bones allowed. Then, from there whence he
had first come, I saw the eagle descend down into
the ark of the chariot and leave it feathered from
himself.3 And a voice such as issues from a heart
that is afflicted issued from Heaven, and thus
spake, uO little bark of mine, how ill art thou
laden ! ' Then it seemed to me that the earth
opened between the two wheels, and I saw a

1 The descent and the attack of the eagle symbolize the rejec-
tion of Christianity and the persecution of the Church by the em-
perors.

2 The fox denotes the early heresies.

3 The feathering- of the car is the type of the donation of Con-
stantine, — the temporal endowment of the Church.

208 PURGATORY.

dragon issue from it, which through the chariot
upward fixed his tail: and, like a wasp that re-
tracts its sting, drawing to himself his malign tail,
drew out part of the bottom, and went wandering
away.1 That which remained covered itself again,
as lively soil with grass, with the plumage, offered
perhaps with sane and benign intention ; 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.2 Thus transformed, the holy
structure put forth heads upon its parts, three
upon the pole, and one on each corner. The first
were horned like oxen, but the four had a single
horn upon the forehead.3 A like prodigy was
never seen before. Secure, as fortress on a high
mountain, there appeared to me a loose harlot sit-
ting upon it, with eyes roving around. And, as
if in order that she should not be taken from him,
I saw standing at her side a giant, and some while
they kissed each other. But because she turned
her lustful and wandering eye on me that fierce
paramour scourged her from head to foot. Then

1 The dragging off by the dragon of a part of the car probably
figures the schism of the Greek Church in the 9th century.

2 This new feathering signifies the fresh and growing endow-
ments of the Church.

3 The seven heads have been interpreted as the seven mortal
sins, which grew up in the transformed church, the result of its
wealth and temporal power.

CANTO XXXII. 209

full of jealousy, and cruel with anger, he loosed
the monster, and drew it through the wood so far
that only of that he made a shield from me for the
harlot and for the strange beast.1

1 The harlot and the giant stand respectively for the Pope (both
Boniface VIII. and his successor Clement V.) and the kings of
France, especially Philip the Fair. The turning of the eyes of the
harlot upon Dante seems to signify the dealings of Boniface with
the Italians, which awakened the jealousy of Philip; and 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 typify-
ing the removal of the seat of the Papacy from Rome to Avignon,
in 1305.

CANTO XXXIII.

The Earthly Paradise. — Prophecy of Beatrice concerning
one who shall restore the Empire. — Her discourse with
Dante. — The river Eunoe. — Dante drinks of it, and is fit
to ascend to Heaven.

" Deus, venerunt gentes," 1 the ladies began,
alternating, now three now four, a sweet psalm-
ody, and weeping. And Beatrice, sighing and
compassionate, was listening to them so moved
that scarce more changed was Mary at the cross.
But when the other virgins gave place to her to
speak, risen upright upon her feet, she answered,
colored like fire : " Ifodicum, 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 her, by a sign only, she

1 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 "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 petition of the Psalm.

CANTO XXX III. 211

placed me, and the Lady, and the Sage who had
stayed.1 So she moved on ; and I do not think
her tenth step had been set upon the ground, when
with her eyes my eyes she smote, and with tranquil
aspect said to me, " Come more quickly, so that if
I speak with thee, to listen to me thou mayst be
well placed." So soon as I was with her as I
should be, she said to me, " Brother, why dost thou
not venture to ask of me, now thou art coming
with me ? "

Even as befalls those who with excess of rever-
ence are speaking in presence of their superiors,
and drag not their voice living to the teeth,2 it be-
fell me that without perfect sound 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 divest thyself,
so that thou speak no more like a man who dreams.
Know thou, that the vessel which the serpent3
broke was, and is not ; 4 but let him who is to blame
therefor believe that the vengeance of God fears
not sops.5 Not for all time shall be without an

1 The lady, Matilda, and the sage, Statius.

2 Are unable to speak with distinct words.

3 The dragon.

4 " The beast that thou sawest was, and is not." — Revelation,
xvii. 8.

5 According" to a belief, which the old commentators report as
commonly held by the Florentines, if a murderer could contrive

212 PURGATORY.

heir the eagle that left its feathers on the car,
whereby it became a monster, and then a prey.1
For I see surely, and therefore I tell it, stars al-
ready 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 God2 shall slay
the thievish woman 3 and that giant who with her
is delinquent. And perchance my narration, dark
as Themis and the Sphinx,4 less persuades thee,
because after their fashion it clouds the under-
standing. But soon the facts will be the Naiades 5
that shall solve this difficult enigma, without harm

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 ven-
geance of the family of the murdered man.

1 The meaning is that an Emperor shall come, who shall re-
store the Church from its captivity, and reestablish the Divine
order upon earth, in the mutually dependent and severally inde-
pendent authority of Church and Empire.

2 This prophecy is too obscure to admit of a sure interpretation.
Five hundred, ten, and five, in Roman numerals, give the letters
D X V ; which by transposition form the word Dux, a leader.

3 The harlot, who had no right in the car, but had stolen her
place there, or, in plain words, the Popes who by corruption had
secured the papal throne.

4 Obscure as the oracles of Themis or the enigmas of the
Sphinx.

6 According to a misreading of a verse in Ovid's Meiam., vii.
759, the Naiades solved the riddles of the oracles, at which The-
mis, offended, sent forth a wild beast to ravage the flocks and
fields.

CANTO XXXIII. 213

of flocks or of harvest. Do thou note ; and even
as they are borne from me, do thou so report these
words to those alive with that life which is a run-
ning; unto death; and have in mind when thou
writest them, not to conceal what thou hast seen
the plant, which now has been twice plundered
here. Whoso robs that, or breaks it,1 with blas-
phemy in act offends God, who only for His own
use created it holy. For biting that, the first soul,
in pain and in desire, five thousand years and
more, longed for Him who punished on Himself
the bite. Thy wit sleeps, if it deem not that for
a special reason it is so high and so inverted at its
top. And if thy vain thoughts had not been as
water of Elsa2 round about thy mind, and their
pleasantness as Py ramus to the mulberry,3 by so
many circumstances only thou hadst recognized
morally the justice of God in the interdict upon
the tree. But since I see thee in thy understand-
ing made of stone, and thus stony, dark, so that the
light of my speech dazzles thee, I would yet that
thou bear it hence within thee, — and if* not writ-
ten, at least depicted, — for the reason that the

1 Robs it as Adam did, splinters it as the Emperors did.

2 A river of Tuscany, whose waters have a petrifying1 quality.

8 Darkening thy mind as the blood of Pyramus dyed the mul-
berry.

214 PURGATORY.

pilgrim's staff is carried wreathed with palm."1
And I, " Even as by a seal wax which alters not
the imprinted figure, is my brain now stamped by
you. But why does your desired word fly so far
above my sight, that the more it strives the more
it loses it ? " " In order that thou mayst know,"
she said, " that school which thou hast followed, and
mayst see how its doctrine can follow my word ; 2
and mayst see your path distant so far from the
divine, as the heaven which highest hastens is re-
mote from earth." Whereon I replied to her, " I
do not remember that I ever estranged myself
from you, nor have I conscience of it that may
sting me." " And if thou canst not remember it,"
smiling she replied, " now bethink thee how this
day thou hast drunk of Lethe. And if from
smoke fire be inferred, such oblivion clearly
proves fault in thy will elsewhere intent.3 Truly
my words shall henceforth be naked so far as it
shall be befitting to uncover them to thy rude
sight."

And more coruscant, and with slower steps, the

1 If not clearly inscribed, at least so imprinted on the mind,
that, like the palm on the pilgrim's staff, it may be a sign of where
thou hast been and of what thou hast seen. 0

2 How far its doctrine is from my teaching.

3 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.

CANTO XX XIII. 215

sun was holding the circle of the meridian, which
is set here or there according to the aspect,1 when
even as he, who goes before a troop as guide,
stops if he find some strange thing, or traces
of it, the seven ladies stopped at the edge of a
pale shade, 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 issue from one fountain, and, like
friends, part slow from one another.

" O light, O glory of the human race, what water
is this which here spreads from one source, and
from itself withdraws itself?' To this prayer it
was said to me, "Pray Matilda2 that she tell it to
thee ; " and here the beautiful Lady answered, as
one does who frees himself from blame, " This and
other things have been told 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 deprives the memory has
darkened the eyes of his mind. But see Eunoe,3
which flows forth yonder, lead him to it, and, as
thou art accustomed, revive his extinct power."

1 Which shifts as seen from one place or another.

2 Here for the first and only time is the beautiful Lady called
by name.

3 Eunoe, "the memory of good," which its waters restore to
the purified soul. The poetic conception of this fair stream is
exclusively Dante's own.

216 PURGATORY.

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 was
taken by her, the beautiful Lady moved on, and
to Statius said, with manner of a lady, " Come with
him."

If I had, Reader, longer space for writing I
would yet partly sing the sweet draught which
never would have sated me. But, because all the
leaves destined for this second canticle are full, the
curb of my art lets me go no further. I returned
from the most holy wave, renovated as new plants
renewed with new foliage, pure and disposed to
mount unto the stars.

Poetrp ant* ^Scllcfitettrcs

Translations of Dante.

Divina Commedia. New Riverside Edition. Uniform
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The Divine comedy of Dante Alighieri;

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