IHtVBR^ITY 09
California
SAN Diceo
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presented to the
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SAN DIEGO
hy
From the Estate of
Mrs. Anna L. Bailhache
THE
DIVINE COMEDY
DANTE ALIGHIERI
TRANSLATED BY
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
I follow here the footing of thy feete
That with thy meaning so I may the rather meetc
Spenser.
VOL. IL
BOSTON
TICKNOR AND FIELDS
1867
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co.,
Cambridge.
CONTENTS
OF VOL. II.
PURGATORIO.
CANTO I.
Page
The Shores of Purgatory. — Cato of Utica i
CANTO II.
The Celestial Pilot. — Casella 7
CANTO III.
The Foot of the Mountain. — Those who have died in Contumacy of Holy
Church. — Manfredi 13
CANTO IV.
Farther Ascent of the Mountain. — The Negligent, who postponed Repentance
till the last Hour. — Belacqua 20
CANTO V.
Those who died by Violence, but repentant. — Buonconte di Montefeltro. —
La Pia 26
CANTO VI.
Sordello 32
CANTO VII.
The Valley of the Princes 39
iv Contents
CANTO VIII.
The Guardian Angels and the Serpent. — Nino di Gallura. — Currado Ma-
laspina 45
CANTO IX.
Dante's Dream of the Eagle. — The Gate of Purgatory 51
CANTO X.
The First Circle. — The Proud. — The Sculptures on the Wall ... 58
CANTO XI.
Omberto di Santafiore. — Oderisi d' Agobbio. — Provenzan Salvani . . -64
CANTO XII.
The Sculptures dn the Pavement. — Ascent to the Second Circle . . .71
CANTO XIII.
The Second Circle. — The Envious. — Sapia of Siena "]"]
CANTO XIV.
Guido del Duca and Renier da Calboli 84
CANTO XV.
The Third Circle. — The Irascible 91
CANTO XVI.
Marco Lombardo 98
CANTO XVII.
Dante's Dream of Anger. — The Fourth Circle. — The Slothful . . . 105
Contents v
CANTO XVIII.
Virgil's Discourse of Love. — The Abbot of San Zeno 1 1 1
CANTO XIX.
Dante's Dream of the Siren. — The Fifth Circle. — The Avaricious and Prod-
igal.— Pope Adrian V ii8
CANTO XX.
Hugh Capet. — The Earthquake 125
CANTO XXI.
The Poet Statius 132
CANTO XXII.
The Sixth Circle. — The Gluttonous. — The Mystic Tree . . . .138
CANTO XXIII.
Forese ^ 145
CANTO XXIV.
Buonagiunta da Lucca. — Pope Martin IV., and others 151
CANTO XXV.
Discourse of Statius on Generation. — The Seventh Circle. — The Wanton . 158
CANTO XXVI.
Guido Guinicelli and Arnaldo Daniello 164
CANTO XXVII.
Dante's Sleep upon the Stairway, and his Dream of Leah. — Arrival at the
Terrestrial Paradise 171
vi Cojitents
CANTO XXVIII.
The Terrestrial Paradise. — The River Lethe. — Matilda . . . .178
CANTO XXIX.
The Triumph of the Church 185
CANTO XXX.
Beatrice 192
CANTO XXXI.
Reproaches of Beatrice and Confession of Dante. — The Passage of Lethe . 199
CANTO XXXII.
The Tree of Knowledge 206
CANTO XXXIII.
The River Eunoe 213
NOTES 221
ILLUSTRATIONS.
The Hero as Poet 3^5
Dante ' • • 375
Dante and Milton 3^2
The ItaHan Pilgrim's Progress 3^4
Dante and Tacitus 39°
Dante's Landscapes 394
Dante's Creed 4oi
The Divina Commedia 403
I ENTER, and I see thee in the gloom
Of the long aisles, O poet saturnine !
And strive to make my steps keep pace with thine.
The air is filled with some unknown perfume ;
The congregation of the dead make room
For thee to pass ; the votive tapers shine ;
Like rooks that haunt Ravenna's groves of pine
The hovering echoes fly from tomb to tomb.
From the confessionals I hear arise
Rehearsals of forgotten tragedies,
And lamentations from the crypts below ;
And then a voice celestial that begins
With the pathetic words, "Although your sins
As scarlet be," and ends with "as the snow."
"^ T TITH snow-white veil and garments as of flame.
She stands before thee, who so long ago
Filled thy young heart with passion and the woe
From which thy song and all its splendors came ;
And while with stern rebuke she speaks thy name,
The ice about thy heart melts as the snow
On mountain heights, and in swift overflow
Comes gushing from thy lips in sobs of shame.
Thou makest full confession ; and a gleam,
As of the dawn on some dark forest cast,
Seems on thy lifted forehead to increase ;
Lethe and Eunoe — the remembered dream
And the forgotten sorrow — bring at last
That perfect pardon which is perfect peace.
PURGATORIO
PURGATORIO.
CANTO I.
nnO run o'er better waters hoists its sail
The little vessel of my genius now,
That leaves behind itself a sea so cruel ;
And of that second kingdom will I sing
Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself, s
And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy.
But let dead Poesy here rise again,
O holy Muses, since that I am yours.
And here Calliope somewhat ascend.
My song accompanying with that sound, lo
Of which the miserable magpies felt
The blow so great, that they despaired of pardon.
Sweet color of the oriental sapphire,
That was upgathered in the cloudless aspect
Of the pure air, as far as the first circle, ^s
2 The Divine Comedy
Unto mine eyes did recommence delight
Soon as I issued forth from the dead air,
Which had with sadness filled mine eyes and breast.
The beauteous planet, that to love incites.
Was making all the orient to laugh, ^o
Veiling the Fishes that were in her escort.
To the right hand I turned, and fixed my mind
Upon the other pole, and saw four stars
Ne'er seen before save by the primal people.
Rejoicing in their flamelets seemed the heaven. -^s
O thou septentrional and widowed site.
Because thou art deprived of seeing these !
When from regarding them I had withdrawn.
Turning a little to the other pole.
There where the Wain had disappeared already, 3°
I saw beside me an old man alone.
Worthy of so much reverence in his look.
That more owes not to father any son.
A long beard and with white hair intermingled
He wore, in semblance like unto the tresses, 35
Of which a double list fell on his breast.
The rays of the four consecrated stars
Did so adorn his countenance with light.
That him I saw as were the sun before him.
Purgatorio i, ^
o
" Who are you ? ye who, counter the bUnd river, 40
Have fled away from the eternal prison ? "
Moving those venerable plumes, he said :
" Who guided you ? or who has been your lamp
In issuing forth out of the night profound.
That ever black makes the infernal valley ? 45
The laws of the abyss, are they thus broken ?
Or is there changed in heaven some counsel new.
That being damned ye come unto my crags ? '*
Then did my Leader lay his grasp upon me.
And with his words, and with his hands and signs, s°
Reverent he made in me my knees and brow ;
Then answered him : " I came not of myself;
A Lady from Heaven descended, at whose prayers
I aided this one with my company.
But since it is thy will more be unfolded 55
Of our condition, how it truly is.
Mine cannot be that this should be denied thee.
This one has never his last evening seen.
But by his folly was so near to it
That very little time was there to turn. 60
As I have said, I unto him was sent
To rescue him, and other way was none
Than this to which I have myself betaken.
4 The Divine Comedy
I Ve shown him all the people of perdition,
And now those spirits I intend to show 65
Who purge themselves beneath thy guardianship.
How I have brought him would be long to tell thee.
Virtue descendeth from on high that aids me
To lead him to behold thee and to hear thee.
Now may it please thee to vouchsafe his coming ; 70
He seeketh Liberty, which is so dear.
As knoweth he who life for her refuses.
Thou know'st it ; since, for her, to thee not bitter
Was death in Utica, where thou didst leave
The vesture, that will shine so, the great day. 75
By us the eternal edicts are not broken ;
Since this one lives, and Minos binds not me;
But of that circle I, where are the chaste
Eyes of thy Marcia, who in looks still prays thee,
0 holy breast, to hold her as thine own ; 80
For her love, then, incline thyself to us.
Permit us through thy sevenfold realm to go ;
1 will take back this grace from thee to her.
If to be mentioned there below thou deignest."
" Marcia so pleasing was unto mine eyes ss
While I was on the other side," then said he,
** That every grace she wished of me I granted ;
Pttrgatorio i. 5
Now that she dwells beyond the evil river.
She can no longer move me, by that law
Which, when I issued forth from there, was made. 90
But if a Lady of Heaven do move and rule thee.
As thou dost say, no flattery is needful;
Let it suffice thee that for her thou ask me.
Go, then, and see thou gird this one about
With a smooth rush, and that thou wash his face, 95
So that thou cleanse away all stain therefrom.
For 't were not fitting that the eye o'ercast
By any mist should go before the first
Angel, who is of those of Paradise.
This little island round about its base 1°°
Below there, yonder, where the billow beats it.
Doth rushes bear upon its washy ooze ;
No other plant that putteth forth the leaf.
Or that doth indurate, can there have life.
Because it yieldeth not unto the shocks. 105
Thereafter be not this way your return ;
The sun, which now is rising, will direct you
To take the mount by easier ascent."
With this he vanished ; and I raised me up
Without a word, and wholly drew myself "o
Unto my Guide, and turned mine eyes to him.
6 The Divine Comedy
And he began : " Son, follow thou my steps ;
Let us turn back, for on this side declines
The plain unto its lower boundaries."
The dawn was vanquishing the matin hour "s
Which fled before it, so that from afar
I recognized the trembling of the sea.
Along the solitary plain we went
As one who unto the lost road returns.
And till he finds it seems to go in vain. "o
As soon as we were come to where the dew
Fights with the sun, and, being in a part
Where shadow falls, little evaporates.
Both of his hands upon the grass outspread
In gentle manner did my Master place ; "s
Whence I, who of his action was aware.
Extended unto him my tearful cheeks ;
There did he make in me uncovered wholly
That hue which Hell had covered up in me.
Then came we down upon the desert shore 13°
Which never yet saw navigate its waters
Any that afterward had known return.
There he begirt me as the other pleased ;
O marvellous ! for even as he culled
The humble plant, such it sprang up again 13s
Suddenly there where he uprooted it.
CANTO II,
A LREADY had the sun the horizon reached
Whose circle of meridian covers o'er
Jerusalem with its most lofty point.
And night that opposite to him revolves
Was issuing forth from Ganges with the Scales s
That fall from out her hand when she exceedeth ;
So that the white and the vermilion cheeks
Of beautiful Aurora, where I was.
By too great age were changing into orange.
We still were on the border of the sea, lo
Like people who are thinking of their road.
Who go in heart, and with the body stay ;
And lo ! as when, upon the approach of morning,
Through the gross vapors Mars grows fiery red
Down in the West upon the ocean floor, 15
Appeared to me — may I again behold it ! —
A light along the sea so swiftly coming.
Its motion by no flight of wing is equalled ;
8 The Divine Comedy
From which when I a little had withdrawn
Mine eyes, that I might question my Conductor, 20
Again I saw it brighter grown and larger.
Then on each side of it appeared to me
I knew not what of white, and underneath it
Little by little there came forth another.
My master yet had uttered not a word 25
While the first whiteness into wings unfolded ;
But when he clearly recognized the pilot.
He cried : " Make haste, make haste to bow the knee !
Behold the Angel of God ! fold thou thy hands !
Henceforward shalt thou see such officers ! 3°
See how he scorneth human arguments.
So that nor oar he wants, nor other sail
Than his own wings, between so distant shores.
See how he holds them pointed up to heaven.
Fanning the air with the eternal pinions, 35
That do not moult themselves like mortal hair ! "
Then as still nearer and more near us came
The Bird Divine, more radiant he appeared.
So that near by the eye could not endure him.
But down I cast it ; and he came to shore 4°
With a small vessel, very swift and light.
So that the water swallowed naught thereof.
Purgatorio it. 9
Upon the stern stood the Celestial Pilot ;
Beatitude seemed written in his face.
And more than a hundred spirits sat within. 45
"/« exitu Israel de JEgypto!''
They chanted all together in one voice,
With whatso in that psalm is after written.
Then made he sign of holy rood upon them.
Whereat all cast themselves upon the shore, 5°
And he departed swiftly as he came.
The throng which still remained there unfamiliar
Seemed with the place, all round about them gazing,
As one who in new matters makes essay.
On every side was darting forth the day 55
The sun, who had with his resplendent shafts
From the mid-heaven chased forth the Capricorn,
When the new people lifted up their faces
Towards us, saying to us : " If ye know.
Show us the way to go unto the mountain.'* 60
And answer made Virgilius : " Ye believe
Perchance that we have knowledge of this place.
But we are strangers even as yourselves.
Just now we came, a little while before you.
Another way, which was so rough and steep, (>s
That mounting will henceforth seem sport to us."
lo The Divine Comedy
The souls who had, from seeing me draw breath.
Become aware that I was still alive.
Pallid in their astonishment became ;
And as to messenger who bears the olive 70
The people throng to listen to the news,
And no one shows himself afraid of crowding.
So at the sight of me stood motionless
Those fortunate spirits, all of them, as if
Oblivious to go and make them fair. 75
One from among them saw I coming forward.
As to embrace me, with such great affection.
That it incited me to do the like.
0 empty shadows, save in aspect only 1
Three times behind it did I clasp my hands, 80
As oft returned with them to my own breast!
1 think with wonder I depicted me ;
Whereat the shadow smiled and backward drew ;
And I, pursuing it, pressed farther forward.
Gently it said that I should stay my steps ; 85
Then knew I who it was, and I entreated
That it would stop awhile to speak with me.
It made reply to me : " Even as I loved thee
In mortal body, so I love thee free ;
Therefore I stop ; but wherefore goest thou ? " 90
Ptirmtorio ii. 1 1
^5
" My own Casella ! to return once more
There where I am, I make this journey," said I ;
"But how from thee has so much time been taken?"
And he to me : " No outrage has been done me.
If he who takes both when and whom he pleases 95
Has many times denied to me this passage.
For of a righteous will his own is made.
He, sooth to say, for three months past has taken
Whoever wished to enter with all peace ;
Whence I, who now had turned unto that shore 100
Where salt the waters of the Tiber grow,
Benignantly by him have been received.
Unto that outlet now his wing is pointed.
Because for evermore assemble there
Those who tow'rds Acheron do not descend." 105
And I : "If some new law take not from thee
Memory or practice of the song of love.
Which used to quiet in me all my longings.
Thee may it please to comfort therewithal
Somewhat this soul of mine, that with its body "o
Hitherward coming is so much distressed."
" Love, that within my mind discourses with me,*
Forthwith began he so melodiously,
The melody within me still is sounding.
12 The Divine Comedy
My master, and myself, and all that people "s
Which with him were, appeared as satisfied
As if naught else might touch the mind of any.
We all of us were moveless and attentive
Unto his notes ; and lo ! the grave old man.
Exclaiming : " What is this, ye laggard spirits ? i^o
What negligence, what standing still is this ?
Run to the mountain to strip off the slough.
That lets not God be manifest to you."
Even as when, collecting grain or tares.
The doves, together at their pasture met, "s
Quiet, nor showing their accustomed pride.
If aught appear of which they are afraid.
Upon a sudden leave their food alone.
Because they are assailed by greater care ;
So that fresh company did I behold 13°
The song relinquish, and go tow'rds the hill.
As one who goes, and knows not whitherward ;
Nor was our own departure less in haste.
CANTO III.
INASMUCH as the instantaneous flight
Had scattered them asunder o'er the plain,
Turned to the mountain whither reason spurs us,
I pressed me close unto my faithful comrade.
And how without him had I kept my course ? s
Who would have led me up along the mountain ?
He seemed to me within himself remorseful ;
O noble conscience, and without a stain.
How sharp a sting is trivial fault to thee !
After his feet had laid aside the haste i©
Which mars the dignity of every act.
My mind, that hitherto had been restrained.
Let loose its faculties as if delighted.
And I my sight directed to the hill
That highest tow'rds the heaven uplifts itself. 15
The sun, that in our rear was flaming red.
Was broken in front of me into the figure
Which had in me the stoppage of its rays ;
14 The Divine Comedy
Unto one side I turned me, with the fear
Of being left alone, when I beheld ao
Only in front of me the ground obscured.
" Why dost thou still mistrust ? " my Comforter
Began to say to me turned wholly round ; [thee ?
" Dost thou not think me with thee, and that I guide
'T is evening there already where is buried as
The body within which I cast a shadow ;
*T is from Brundusium ta'en, and Naples has it.
Now if in front of me no shadow fall.
Marvel not at it more than at the heavens.
Because one ray impedeth not another. 30
To suffer torments, both of cold and heat.
Bodies like this that Power provides, which wills
That how it works be not unveiled to us.
Insane is he who hopeth that our reason
Can traverse the illimitable way, 35
Which the one Substance in three Persons follows !
Mortals, remain contented at the ^uia ;
For if ye had been able to see all.
No need there were for Mary to give birth ;
And ye have seen desiring without fruit, 40
Those whose desire would have been quieted.
Which evermore is given them for a grief.
Purgatorio iii. 15
I speak of Aristotle and of Plato,
And many others"; — and here bowed his head.
And more he said not, and remained disturbed. 45
We came meanwhile unto the mountain's foot ;
There so precipitate we found the rock.
That nimble legs would there have been in vain.
'Twixt Lerici and Turbia, the most desert.
The most secluded pathway is a stair 5°
Easy and open, if compared with that.
" Who knoweth now upon which hand the hill
Slopes down," my Master said, his footsteps staying,
"So that who goeth without wings may mount?"-
And while he held his eyes upon the ground 55
Examining the nature of the path.
And I was looking up around the rock.
On the left hand appeared to me a throng
Of souls, that moved their feet in our direction.
And did not seem to move, they came so slowly. 6°
" Lift up thine eyes," I to the Master said ;
"Behold, on this side, who will give us counsel.
If thou of thine own self can have it not."
Then he looked at me, and with frank expression
Replied : " Let us go there, for they come slowly, 65
And thou be steadfast in thy hope, sweet son."
1 6 The Divine Comedy
Still was that people as far off from us.
After a thousand steps of ours I say,
As a good thrower with his hand would reach.
When they all crowded unto the hard masses 70
Of the high bank, and motionless stood and close.
As he stands still to look who goes in doubt.
" O happy dead ! O spirits elect already ! "
Virgilius made beginning, " by that peace
Which I believe is waiting for you all, 75
Tell us upon what side the mountain slopes.
So that the going up be possible.
For to lose time irks him most who most knows."
As sheep come issuing forth from out the fold
By ones and twos and threes, and the others stand so
Timidly, holding down their eyes and nostrils.
And what the foremost does the others do.
Huddling themselves against her, if she stop.
Simple and quiet and the wherefore know not ;
So moving to approach us thereupon 85
I saw the leader of that fortunate flock.
Modest in face and dignified in gait.
As soon as those in the advance saw broken
The light upon the ground at my right side.
So that from me the shadow reached the rock, 9°
Pttrgatorio iii. 17
They stopped, and backward drew themselves somewhat;
And all the others, who came after them.
Not knowing why nor wherefore, did the same.
"Without your asking, I confess to you
This is a human body which you see, 95
Whereby the sunshine on the ground is cleft.
Marvel ye not thereat, but be persuaded
That not without a power which comes from Heaven
Doth he endeavor to surmount this wall."
The Master thus ; and said those worthy people : joq
" Return ye then, and enter in before us,"
Making a signal with the back o' the hand.
And one of them began : " Whoe'er thou art.
Thus going turn thine eyes, consider well
If e'er thou saw me in the other world." 105
I turned me tow'rds him, and looked at him closely ;
Blond was he, beautiful, and of noble aspect.
But one of his eyebrows had a blow divided.
When with humility I had disclaimed
E'er having seen him, "Now behold!" he said, "o
And showed me high upon his breast a wound.
Then said he with a smile : " I am Manfredi,
The grandson of the Emperess Costanza ;
Therefore, when thou returnest, I beseech thee
3
1 8 The Divine Comedy
Go to my daughter beautiful, the mother "s
Of Sicily's honor and of Aragon's,
And the truth tell her, if aught else be told.
After I had my body lacerated
By these two mortal stabs, I gave myself
Weeping to Him, who willingly doth pardon. i^o
Horrible my iniquities had been ;
But Infinite Goodness hath such ample arms,
That it receives whatever turns to it.
Had but Cosenza's pastor, who in chase
Of me was sent by Clement at that time, "s
In God read understandingly this page.
The bones of my dead body still would be
At the bridge-head, near unto Benevento,
Under the safeguard of the heavy cairn.
Now the rain bathes and moveth them the wind, 130
Beyond the realm, almost beside the Verde,
Where he transported them with tapers quenched.
By malison of theirs is not so lost
Eternal Love, that it cannot return.
So long as hope has anything of green. 13s
True is it, who in contumacv dies
Of Holy Church, though penitent at last.
Must wait upon the outside of this bank
Ptir gator io iii. 19
Thirty times told the time that he has been
In his presumption, unless such decree 140
Shorter by means of righteous prayers become.
See now if thou hast power to make me happy.
By making known unto my good Costanza
How thou hast seen me, and this ban beside.
For those on earth can much advance us here." 145
CANTO IV.
Vy HENEVER by delight or else by pain,
That seizes any faculty of ours.
Wholly to that the soul collects itself.
It seemeth that no other power it heeds ;
And this against that error is which thinks s
One soul above another kindles in us.
And hence, whenever aught is heard or seen
Which keeps the soul intently bent upon it.
Time passes on, and we perceive it not.
Because one faculty is that which listens, 1°
And other that which the soul keeps entire ;
This is as if in bonds, and that is free.
Of this I had experience positive
In hearing and in gazing at that spirit ;
For fifty full degrees uprisen was 15
The sun, and I had not perceived it, when
We came to where those souls with one accord
Cried out unto us : " Here is what you ask."
Ptirgatorio iv. 21
A greater opening ofttimes hedges up
With but a little forkful of his thorns ao
The villager, what time the grape imbrowns.
Than was the passage-way through which ascended
Only my Leader and myself behind him.
After that company departed from us.
One climbs Sanleo and descends in Noli, as
And mounts the summit of Bismantova,
With feet alone ; but here one needs must fly ;
With the swift pinions and the plumes I say
Of great desire, conducted after him
Who gave me hope, and made a light for me. 3°
We mounted upward through the rifted rock.
And on each side the border pressed upon us.
And feet and hands the ground beneath required.
When we were come upon the upper rim
Of the high bank, out on the open slope, 3S
"My Master," said I, "what way shall we take?"
And he to me : " No step of thine descend ;
Still up the mount behind me win thy way.
Till some sage escort shall appear to us."
The summit was so high it vanquished sight, 4°
And the hillside precipitous far more
Than line from middle quadrant to the centre.
22 Tlie Divine Comedy
Spent with fatigue was I, when I began :
" O my sweet Father ! turn thee and behold
How I remain alone, unless thou stay!" 4s
" O son," he said, *' up yonder drag thyself,"
Pointing me to a terrace somewhat higher.
Which on that side encircles all the hill.
These words of his so spurred me on, that I
Strained every nerve, behind him scrambling up, 5°
Until the circle was beneath my feet.
Thereon ourselves we seated both of us
Turned to the East, from which we had ascended.
For all men are delighted to look back.
To the low shores mine eyes I first directed, 5S
Then to the sun uplifted them, and wondered
That on the left hand we were smitten by it.
The Poet well perceived that I was wholly
Bewildered at the chariot of the light.
Where 'twixt us and the Aquilon it entered. 60
Whereon he said to me : " If Castor and Pollux
Were in the company of yonder mirror.
That up and down conducteth with its light.
Thou wouldst behold the zodiac's jagged wheel
Revolving still more near unto the Bears, 65
Unless it swerved aside from its old track.
Pur^atorio iv.
23
How that may be wouldst thou have power to think,
Collected in thyself, imagine Zion
Together with this mount on earth to stand,
So that they both one sole horizon have, 70
And hemispheres diverse ; whereby the road
Which Phaeton, alas ! knew not to drive.
Thou 'It see how of necessity must pass
This on one side, when that upon the other.
If thine intelligence right clearly heed." 75
" Truly, my Master," said I, " never yet
Saw I so clearly as I now discern.
There where my wit appeared incompetent.
That the mid-circle of supernal motion.
Which in some art is the Equator called, 80
And aye remains between the Sun and Winter,
For reason which thou sayest, departeth hence
Tow'rds the Septentrion, what time the Hebrews
Beheld it tow'rds the region of the heat.
But, if it pleaseth thee, I fain would learn 85
How far we have to go ; for the hill rises
Higher than eyes of mine have power to rise.
And he to me : " This mount is such, that ever
At the beginning down below 't is tiresome.
And aye the more one climbs, the less it hurts. 9°
24 The Divine Comedy
Therefore, when it shall seem so pleasant to thee.
That going up shall be to thee as easy
As going down the current in a boat.
Then at this pathway's ending thou wilt be ;
There to repose thy panting breath expect ; 9S
No more I answer; and this I know for true."
And as he finished uttering these words,
A voice close by us sounded : " Peradventure
Thou wilt have need of sitting down ere that."
At sound thereof each one of us turned round, loo
And saw upon the left hand a great rock.
Which neither I nor he before had noticed.
Thither we drew ; and there were persons there
Who in the shadow stood behind the rock,
As one through indolence is wont to stand. 105
And one of them, who seemed to me fatigued.
Was sitting down, and both his knees embraced.
Holding his face low down between them bowed.
" O my sweet Lord," I said, " do turn thine eye
On him who shows himself more negligent no
Than even if Sloth herself his sister were."
Then he turned round to us, and he gave heed.
Just lifting up his eyes above his thigh.
And said : " Now go thou up, for thou art valiant."
Pier gator io iv. 25
Then knew I who he was ; and the distress, "s
That still a little did my breathing quicken,
My going to him hindered not ; and after
I came to him he hardly raised his head.
Saying : " Hast thou seen clearly how the sun
O'er thy left shoulder drives his chariot?" "o
His sluggish attitude and his curt words
A little unto laughter moved my lips;
Then I began : " Belacqua, I grieve not
For thee henceforth ; but tell me, wherefore seated
In this place art thou ? Waitest thou an escort ? 125
Or has thy usual habit seized upon thee?"
And he : " O brother, what 's the use of climbing ?
Since to my torment would not let me go
The Angel of God, who sitteth at the gate.
First heaven must needs so long revolve me round 130
Outside thereof, as in my life it did.
Since the good sighs I to the end postponed.
Unless, e'er that, some prayer may bring me aid
Which rises from a heart that lives in grace ;
What profit others that in heaven are heard not?" ns
Meanwhile the Poet was before me mounting,
And saying : " Come now ; see the sun has touched
Meridian, and from the shore the night
Covers already with her foot Morocco?"
CANTO V.
T HAD already from those shades departed,
And followed in the footsteps of my Guide,
When from behind, pointing his finger at me.
One shouted : "See, it seems as if shone not
The sunshine on the left of him below, 5
And like one living seems he to conduct him ! *\
Mine eyes I turned at utterance of these words.
And saw them watching with astonishment
But me, but me, and the light which was broken !
" Why doth thy mind so occupy itself," 10
The Master said, " that thou thy pace dost slacken ?
What matters it to thee what here is whispered ?
Come after me, and let the people talk ;
Stand like a steadfast tower, that never wags
Its top for all the blowing of the winds ; is
For evermore the man in whom is springing
Thought upon thought, removes from him the mark.
Because the force of one the other weakens."
Pzirgaiorio v. 27
What could I say in answer but "I come"?
I said it somewhat with that color tinged zo
Which makes a man of pardon sometimes worthy.
Meanwhile along the mountain-side across
Came people in advance of us a little,
Singing the Miserere verse by verse.
When they became aware I gave no place 25
For passage of the sunshine through my body,
They changed their song into a long, hoarse " Oh ! "
And two of them, in form of messengers.
Ran forth to meet us, and demanded of us,
"Of your condition make us cognizant." 3°
And said my Master : " Ye can go your way
And carry back again to those who sent you.
That this one's body is of very flesh.
If they stood still because they saw his shadow.
As I suppose, enough is answered them ; 3S
Him let them honor, it may profit them."
Vapors enkindled saw I ne'er so swiftly
At early nightfall cleave the air serene.
Nor, at the set of sun, the clouds of August,
But upward they returned in briefer time, 40
And, on arriving, with the others wheeled
Tow'rds us, like troops that run without a rein.
2 8 The Divine Comedy
** This folk that presses unto us is great.
And cometh to implore thee," said the Poet ;
** So still go onward, and in going listen." 4s
" O soul that goest to beatitude
With the same members wherewith thou wast born,"
Shouting they came, " a little stay thy steps.
Look, if thou e'er hast any of us seen.
So that o'er yonder thou bear news of him ; 5°
Ah, why dost thou go on ? Ah, why not stay ?
Long since we all were slain by violence.
And sinners even to the latest hour ;
Then did a light from heaven admonish us.
So that, both penitent and pardoning, forth ss
From life we issued reconciled to God,
Who with desire to see Him stirs our hearts."
And I : "Although I gaze into your faces.
No one I recognize ; but if may please you
Aught I have power to do, ye well-born spirits, 60
Speak ye, and I will do it, by that peace
Which, following the feet of such a Guide,
From world to world makes itself sought by me."
And one began : " Each one has confidence
In thy good offices without an oath, 65
Unless the I cannot cut off the I will ;
Pttrgatorio v. 29
Whence I, who speak alone before the others.
Pray thee, if ever thou dost see the land
That 'twixt Romagna lies and that of Charles,
Thou be so courteous to me of thy prayers 70
In Fano, that they pray for me devoutly.
That I may purge away my grave offences.
From thence was I ; but the deep wounds, through which
Issued the blood wherein I had my seat.
Were dealt me in bosom of the Antenori, 75
There where I thought to be the most secure ;
'T was he of Este had it done, who held me
In hatred far beyond what justice willed.
But if towards the Mira I had fled.
When I was overtaken at Oriaco, so
I still should be o'er yonder where men breathe.
I ran to the lagoon, and reeds and mire
Did so entangle me I fell, and saw there
A lake made from my veins upon the ground."
Then said another : "Ah, be that desire 85
Fulfilled that draws thee to the lofty mountain.
As thou with pious pity aidest mine.
I was of Montefeltro, and am Buonconte ;
Giovanna, nor none other cares for me ;
Hence among these I go with downcast front." 9°
0
o The Divine Co^nedy
And I to him : " What violence or what chance
Led thee astray so far from Campaldino,
That never has thy sepulture been known ? "
" Oh," he replied, " at Casentino's foot
A river crosses named Archiano, born 9S
Above the Hermitage in Apennine.
There where the name thereof becometh void
Did I arrive, pierced through and through the throat.
Fleeing on foot, and bloodying the plain ;
There my sight lost I, and my utterance «oo
Ceased in the name of Mary, and thereat
I fell, and tenantless my flesh remained.
Truth will I speak, repeat it to the living ;
God's Angel took me up, and he of hell
Shouted : * O thou from heaven, why dost thou rob me ?
Thou bearest away the eternal part of him, io6
For one poor little tear, that takes him from me;
But with the rest I '11 deal in other fashion ! '
Well knowest thou how in the air is gathered
That humid vapor which to water turns, "o
Soon as it rises where the cold doth grasp it.
He joined that evil will, which aye seeks evil.
To intellect, and moved the mist and wind
By means of power, which his own nature gave;
Purgatorio v. 3 1
Thereafter, when the day was spent, the valley 115
From Pratomagno to the great yoke covered
With fog, and made the heaven above intent.
So that the pregnant air to water changed ;
Down fell the rain, and to the gullies came
Whate'er of it earth tolerated not ; "o
And as it mingled with the mighty torrents.
Towards the royal river with such speed
It headlong rushed, that nothing held it back.
My frozen body near unto its outlet
The robust Archian found, and into Arno i^s
Thrust it, and loosened from my breast the cross
I made of me, when agony o'ercame me ;
It rolled me on the banks and on the bottom ;
Then with its booty covered and begirt me."
"Ah, when thou hast returned unto the world, 13°
And rested thee from thy long journeying,'*
After the second followed the third spirit,
" Do thou remember me who am the Pia ;
Siena made me, unmade me Maremma ;
He knoweth it, who had encircled first, 135
Espousing me, my finger with his gem."
CANTO VI.
^y^T'HENE'ER is broken up the game of Zara,
He who has lost remains behind despondent,
The throws repeating, and in sadness learns ;
The people with the other all depart ;
One goes in front, and one behind doth pluck him, 5
And at his side one brings himself to mind ;
He pauses not, and this and that one hears ;
They crowd no more to whom his hand he stretches.
And from the throng he thus defends himself.
Even such was I in that dense multitude, 10
Turning to them this way and that my face.
And, promising, I freed myself therefrom.
There was the Aretine, who from the arms
Untamed of Ghin di Tacco had his death.
And he who fleeing from pursuit was drowned. 15
There was imploring with his hands outstretched
Frederick Novello, and that one of Pisa
Who made the good Marzucco seem so strong.
PtLT gator io vi. 33
I saw Count Orso ; and the soul divided
By hatred and by envy from its body, »«
As it declared, and not for crime committed,
Pierre de la Brosse I say ; and here provide
While still on earth the Lady of Brabant,
So that for this she be of no worse flock !
As soon as I was free from all those shades as
Who only prayed that some one else may pray,
So as to hasten their becoming holy.
Began I : "It appears that thou deniest,
O light of mine, expressly in some text,
That orison can bend decree of Heaven; 3°
And ne'ertheless these people pray for this.
Might then their expectation bootless be ?
Or is to me thy saying not quite clear?"
And he to me : " My writing is explicit.
And not fallacious is the hope of these, 3S
If with sane intellect 't is well regarded ;
For top of judgment doth not vail itself,
Because the fire of love fulfils at once
What he must satisfy who here installs him.
And there, where I affirmed that proposition, 40
Defect was not amended by a prayer.
Because the prayer from God was separate.
5
34 The Divine Comedy
Verily, in so deep a questioning
Do not decide, unless she tell it thee.
Who light 'twixt truth and intellect shall be. 4s
I know not if thou understand ; I speak
Of Beatrice; her shalt thou see above.
Smiling and happy, on this mountain's top."
And I : "Good Leader, let us make more haste.
For I no longer tire me as before ; 50
And see, e'en now the hill a shadow casts."
" We will go forward with this day," he answered,
"As far as now is possible for us ;
But otherwise the fact is than thou thinkest.
Ere thou art up there, thou shalt see return 55
Him, who now hides himself behind the hill,
So that thou dost not interrupt his rays.
But yonder there behold ! a soul that stationed
All, all alone is looking hitherward ;
It will point out to us the quickest way." 60
We came up unto it ; O Lombard soul.
How lofty and disdainful thou didst bear thee.
And grand and slow in moving of thine eyes !
Nothing whatever did it say to us.
But let us go our way, eying us only 65
After the manner of a couchant lion ;
Pur gator io vi. 3 5
Still near to it Virgilius drew, entreating
That it would point us out the best ascent ;
And it replied not unto his demand.
But of our native land and of our life 7°
It questioned us ; and the sweet Guide began :
"Mantua," — and the shade, all in itself recluse,
Rose tow'rds him from the place where first it was,
Saying : " O Mantuan, I am Sordello
Of thine own land!" and one embraced the other. 75
Ah ! servile Italy, grief's hostelry !
A ship without a pilot in great tempest !
No Lady thou of Provinces, but brothel !
That noble soul was so impatient, only
At the sweet sound of his own native land, 80
To make its citizen glad welcome there ;
And now within thee are not without war
Thy living ones, and one doth gnaw the other
Of those whom one wall and one fosse shut in !
Search, wretched one, all round about the shores 85
Thy seaboard, and then look within thy bosom.
If any part of thee enjoyeth peace !
What boots it, that for thee Justinian
The bridle mend, if empty be the saddle ?
Withouten this the shame would be the less. 9°
36 The Divine Comedy
Ah ! people, thou that oughtest to be devout.
And to let Ca:sar sit upon the saddle,
If well thou hearest what God teacheth thee.
Behold how fell this wild beast has become.
Being no longer by the spur corrected, 95
Since thou hast laid thy hand upon the bridle.
O German Albert ! who abandonest
Her that has grown recalcitrant and savage.
And oughtest to bestride her saddle-bow,
May a just judgment from the stars down fall 100
Upon thy blood, and be it new and open.
That thy successor may have fear thereof;
Because thy father and thyself have suffered.
By greed of those transalpine lands distrained.
The garden of the empire to be waste. 105
Come and behold Montecchi and Cappelletti,
Monaldi and Fillippeschi, careless man !
Those sad already, and these doubt-depressed !
Come, cruel one ! come and behold the oppression
Of thy nobility, and cure their wounds, "o
And thou shalt see how safe is Santafiore !
Come and behold thy Rome, that is lamenting,
Widowed, alone, and day and night exclaims,
" My Cssar, why hast thou forsaken me ? "
Ptcrgatorio vi. 3 7
Come and behold how loving are the people; us
And if for us no pity moveth thee.
Come and be made ashamed of thy renown !
And if it lawful be, O Jove Supreme!
Who upon earth for us wast crucified.
Are thy just eyes averted otherwhere ? 120
Or preparation is 't, that, in the abyss
Of thine own counsel, for some good thou makest
From our perception utterly cut off?
For all the towns of Italy are full
Of tyrants, and becometh a Marcellus 125
Each peasant churl who plays the partisan !
My Florence ! well mayst thou contented be
With this digression, which concerns thee not,
Thanks to thy people who such forethought take !
Many at heart have justice, but shoot slowly, 130
That unadvised they come not to the bow.
But on their very lips thy people have it !
Many refuse to bear the common burden;
But thy solicitous people answereth
Without being asked, and crieth : " I submit." 135
Now be thou joyful, for thou hast good reason ;
Thou affluent, thou in peace, thou full of wisdom !
If I speak true, the event conceals it not.
7,S The Divine Comedy
Athens and Lacedicmon, they who made
The ancient laws, and were so civilized, 140
Made towards living well a little sign
Compared with thee, who makest such fine-spun
Provisions, that to middle of November
Reaches not what thou in October spinnest.
How oft, within the time of thy remembrance, 145
Laws, money, offices, and usages
Hast thou remodelled, and renewed thy members?
And if thou mind thee well, and see the light.
Thou shalt behold thyself like a sick woman,
Who cannot find repose upon her down, »so
But by her tossing wardeth off her pain.
CANrO VII.
A FTER the gracious and glad salutations
Had three and four times been reiterated,
Sordello backward drew and said, "Who are you?"
" Or ever to this mountain were directed
The souls deserving to ascend to God, s
My bones were buried by Octavian.
I am Virgilius ; and for no crime else
Did I lose heaven, than for not having faith " ;
In this wise then my Leader made reply.
As one who suddenly before him sees ro
Something whereat he marvels, who believes
And yet does not, saying, " It is ! it is not ! "
So he appeared; and then bowed down his brow.
And with humility returned towards him,
And, where inferiors embrace, embraced him. 15
"O glory of the Latians, thou," he said,
"Through whom our language showed what it could
O pride eternal of the place I came from, [do.
40 Tlie Divine Comedy
What merit or what grace to me reveals thee ?
If I to hear thy words be worthy, tell me *©
If thou dost come from Hell, and from what cloister."
"Through all the circles of the doleful realm,"
Responded he, " have I come hitherward ;
Heaven's power impelled me, and with that I come.
I by not doing, not by doing, lost as
The sight of that high sun which thou desirest.
And which too late by me was recognized.
A place there is below not sad with torments.
But darkness only, where the lamentations
Have not the sound of wailing, but are sighs. 3°
There dwell I with the little innocents
Snatched by the teeth of Death, or ever they
Were from our human sinfulness exempt.
There dwell I among those who the three saintly
Virtues did not put on, and without vice 35
The others knew and followed all of them.
But if thou know and can, some indication
Give us by which we may the sooner come
Where Purgatory has its right beginning."
He answered: "No fixed place has been assigned us; 4°
'T is lawful for me to go up and round;
So far as I can go, as guide I join thee.
Purgatorio vii. 41
But see already how the day declines.
And to go up by night we are not able ;
Therefore 't is well to think of some fair sojourn. 4s
Souls are there on the right hand here withdrawn ;
If thou permit me I will lead thee to them.
And thou shalt know them not without delight."
"How is this?" was the answer; "should one wish
To mount by night would he prevented be 5°
By others ? or mayhap would not have power ? "
And on the ground the good Sordello drew
His finger, saying, " See, this line alone
Thou couldst not pass after the sun is gone ;
Not that aught else would hindrance give, however, 55
To going up, save the nocturnal darkness ;
This with the want of power the will perplexes.
We might indeed therewith return below.
And, wandering, walk the hill-side round about.
While the horizon holds the day imprisoned." 60
Thereon my Lord, as if in wonder, said :
" Do thou conduct us thither, where thou sayest
That we can take delight in tarrying."
Little had we withdrawn us from that place,
When I perceived the mount was hollowed out 65
In fashion as the valleys here are hollowed.
6
42 The Divine Comedy
" Thitherward," said that shade, " will we repair,
Where of itself the hill-side makes a lap.
And there for the new day will we await."
'Twixt hill and plain there was a winding path 70
Which led us to the margin of that dell.
Where dies the border more than half away.
Gold and fine silver, and scarlet and pearl-white.
The Indian wood resplendent and serene.
Fresh emerald the moment it is broken, 75
By herbage and by flowers within that hollow
Planted, each one in color would be vanquished.
As by its greater vanquished is the less.
Nor in that place had nature painted only.
But of the sweetness of a thousand odors 80
Made there a mingled fragrance and unknown.
*^ Salve Regifia," on the green and flowers
There seated, singing, spirits I beheld.
Which were not visible outside the valley.
" Before the scanty sun now seeks his nest," 85
Began the Mantuan who had led us thither,
"Among them do not wish me to conduct you.
Better from oflFthis ledge the acts and faces
Of all of them will you discriminate.
Than in the plain below received among them. 9°
Pttrgatorio vii. 43
He who sits highest, and the semblance bears
Of having what he should have done neglected.
And to the others' song moves not his lips,
Rudolph the Emperor was, who had the power
To heal the wounds that Italy have slain, 95
So that through others slowly she revives.
The other, who in look doth comfort him.
Governed the region where the water springs.
The Moldau bears the Elbe, and Elbe the sea.
His name was Ottocar ; and in swaddling-clothes 100
Far better he than bearded Winceslaus
His son, who feeds in luxury and ease.
And the small-nosed, who close in council seems
With him that has an aspect so benign.
Died fleeing and disflowering the lily ; los
Look there, how he is beating at his breast !
Behold the other one, who for his cheek
Sighing has made of his own palm a bed ;
Father and father-in-law of France's Pest
Are they, and know his vicious life and lewd, "o
And hence proceeds the grief that so doth pierce them.
He who appears so stalwart, and chimes in.
Singing, with that one of the manly nose.
The cord of every valor wore begirt ;
44 Tlie Divine Coinedy
And if as King had after him remained "s
The stripHng who in rear of him is sitting,
Well had the valor passed from vase to vase.
Which cannot of the other heirs be said.
Frederick and Jacomo possess the realms.
But none the better heritage possesses. "o
Not oftentimes upriseth through the branches
The probity of man ; and this He wills
Who gives it, so that we may ask of Him.
Eke to the large-nosed reach my words, no less
Than to the other. Pier, who with him sings ; 125
Whence Provence and Apulia grieve already.
The plant is as inferior to its seed.
As more than Beatrice and Margaret
Costanza boasteth of her husband still.
Behold the monarch of the simple life, 13°
Harry of England, sitting there alone ;
He in his branches has a better issue.
He who the lowest on the ground among them
Sits looking upward, is the Marquis William,
For whose sake Alessandria and her war 135
Make Monferrat and Canavese weep.'*
CANTO VIII,
'" I " WAS now the hour that turneth back desire
In those who sail the sea, and melts the heart.
The day they 've said to their sweet friends farewell.
And the new pilgrim penetrates with love.
If he doth hear from far away a bell 5
That seemeth to deplore the dying day.
When I began to make of no avail
My hearing, and to watch one of the souls
Uprisen, that begged attention with its hand.
It joined and lifted upward both its palms, 10
Fixing its eyes upon the orient.
As if it said to God, " Naught else I care for."
" Te lucis ante " so devoutly issued
Forth from its mouth, and with such dulcet notes.
It made me issue forth from my own mind. 15
And then the others, sweetly and devoutly,
Accompanied it through all the hymn entire.
Having their eyes on the supernal wheels.
46 The Divine Comedy
Here, Reader, fix thine eyes well on the truth.
For now indeed so subtile is the veil, ao
Surely to penetrate within is easy.
I saw that army of the gentle-born
Thereafterward in silence upward gaze.
As if in expectation, pale and humble ;
And from on high come forth and down descend, »5
I saw two Angels with two flaming swords.
Truncated and deprived of their points.
Green as the little leaflets just now born
Their garments were, which, by their verdant pinions
Beaten and blown abroad, they trailed behind. 30
One just above us came to take his station.
And one descended to the opposite bank,
So that the people were contained between them.
Clearly in them discerned I the blond head;
But in their faces was the eye bewildered, 35
As faculty confounded by excess.
" From Mary's bosom both of them have come,"
Sordello said, " as guardians of the valley
Against the serpent, that will come anon."
Whereupon I, who knew not by what road, 40
Turned round about, and closely drew myself.
Utterly frozen, to the faithful shoulders.
Pttr gator io viii. 4.7
And once again Sordello : " Now descend we
'Mid the grand shades, and we will speak to them ;
Right pleasant will it be for them to see you." 45
Only three steps I think that I descended.
And was below, and saw one who was looking
Only at me, as if he fain would know me.
Already now the air was growing dark.
But not so that between his eyes and mine 5°
It did not show what it before locked up.
Tow'rds me he moved, and I tow'rds him did move ;
Noble Judge Nino ! how it me delighted.
When I beheld thee not among the damned !
No greeting fair was left unsaid between us ; 5S
Then asked he : " How long is it since thou camest
O'er the far waters to the mountain's foot ?"
" Oh ! " said I to him, " through the dismal places
I came this morn ; and am in the first life.
Albeit the other, going thus, I gain." 60
And on the instant my reply was heard.
He and Sordello both shrank back from me,
Like people who are suddenly bewildered.
One to Virgilius, and the other turned
To one who sat there, crying, " Up, Currado ! 65
Come and behold what God in grace has willed ! "
48 The Divine Comedy
Then, turned to me : " By that especial grace
Thou owest unto Him, who so conceals
His own first wherefore, that it has no ford,
When thou shalt be beyond the waters wide, 7°
Tell my Giovanna that she pray for me.
Where answer to the innocent is made.
I do not think her mother loves me more.
Since she has laid aside her wimple white.
Which she, unhappy, needs must wish again. 75
Through her full easily is comprehended
How long in woman lasts the fire of love.
If eye or touch do not relight, it often.
So fair a hatchment will not make for her
The Viper marshalling the Milanese so
A-field, as would have made Gallura's Cock."
In this wise spake he, with the stamp impressed
Upon his aspect of that righteous zeal
Which measurably burneth in the heart.
My greedy eyes still wandered up to heaven, 85
Still to that point where slowest are the stars.
Even as a wheel the nearest to its axle.
And my Conductor : " Son, what dost thou gaze at
Up there?" And I to him : " At those three torches
With which this hither pole is all on fire." 90
Purgatorio viil 49
And he to me : " The four resplendent stars
Thou sawest this morning are down yonder low,
And these have mounted up to where those were."
As he was speaking, to himself Sordello
Drew him, and said, " Lo there our Adversary!" 95
And pointed with his finger to look thither.
Upon the side on which the little valley
No barrier hath, a serpent was ; perchance
The same which gave to Eve the bitter food.
'Twixt grass and flowers came on the evil streak, loo
Turning at times its head about, and licking
Its back like to a beast that smoothes itself.
I did not see, and therefore cannot say
How the celestial falcons 'gan to move.
But well I saw that they were both in motion. 105
Hearing the air cleft by their verdant wings.
The serpent fled, and round the Angels wheeled.
Up to their stations flying back alike.
The shade that to the Judge had near approached
When he had called, throughout that whole assault no
Had not a moment loosed its gaze on me.
" So may the light that leadeth thee on high
Find in thine own free-will as much of wax
As needful is up to the highest azure,"
7
50 Tlie Divine Comedy
Began it, "if some true intelligence 115
Of Valdimagra or its neighborhood
Thou knowest, tell it me, who once was great there.
Currado Malaspina was I called ;
I 'm not the elder, but from him descended ;
To mine I bore the love which here refineth." no
"O," said I unto him, "through your domains
I never passed, but where is there a dwelling
Throughout all Europe, where they are not known ?
That fame, which doeth honor to your house.
Proclaims its Signors and proclaims its land, ns
So that he knows of them who ne'er was there.
And, as I hope for heaven, I swear to you
Your honored family in naught abates
The glory of the purse and of the sword.
It is so privileged by use and nature, 130
That though a guilty head misguide the world.
Sole it goes right, and scorns the evil way."
And he : " Now go ; for the sun shall not lie
Seven times upon the pillow which the Ram
With all his four feet covers and bestrides, 135
Before that such a courteous opinion
Shall in the middle of thy head be nailed
With greater nails than of another's speech.
Unless the course of justice standeth still."
CANTO IX.
" I ^HE concubine of old TIthonus now
Gleamed white upon the eastern balcony.
Forth from the arms of her sweet paramour;
With gems her forehead all relucent was,
Set in the shape of that cold animal s
Which with its tail doth smite amain the nations.
And of the steps, with which she mounts, the Night
Had taken two in that place where we were.
And now the third was bending down its wings ;
When I, who something had of Adam in me, lo
Vanquished by sleep, upon the grass reclined.
There where all five of us already sat.
Just at the hour when her sad lay begins
The little swallow, near unto the morning.
Perchance in memory of her former woes, is
And when the mind of man, a wanderer
More from the flesh, and less by thought imprisoned.
Almost prophetic in its visions is.
52 Tlie Divine Comedy
In dreams it seemed to me I saw suspended
An eagle in the sky, with plumes of gold, »©
With wings wide open, and intent to stoop.
And this, it seemed to me, was where had been
By Ganymede his kith and kin abandoned.
When to the high consistory he was rapt.
I thought within myself, perchance he strikes as
From habit only here, and from elsewhere
Disdains to bear up any in his feet.
Then wheeling somewhat more, it seemed to me.
Terrible as the lightning he descended.
And snatched me upward even to the fire. 3°
Therein it seemed that he and I were burning.
And the imagined fire did scorch me so.
That of necessity my sleep was broken.
Not otherwise Achilles started up.
Around him turning his awakened eyes, 35
And knowing not the place in which he was.
What time from Chiron stealthily his mother
Carried him sleeping in her arms to Scyros,
Wherefrom the Greeks withdrew him afterwards.
Than I upstarted, when from off my face 40
Sleep fled away ; and pallid I became.
As doth the man who freezes with affright.
Pttr gator io ix. 53
Only my Comforter was at my side.
And now the sun was more than two hours high,
And turned towards the sea-shore was my face. as
" Be not intimidated," said my Lord,
" Be reassured, for all is well with us ;
Do not restrain, but put forth all thy strength.
Thou hast at length arrived at Purgatory ;
See there the cliff that closes it around ; 5°
See there the entrance, where it seems disjoined.
Whilom at dawn, which doth precede the day.
When inwardly thy spirit was asleep
Upon the flowers that deck the land below.
There came a Lady and said : * I am Lucia ; 55
Let me take this one up, who is asleep ;
So will I make his journey easier for him.'
Sordello and the other noble shapes
Remained; she took thee, and, as day grew bright.
Upward she came, and I upon her footsteps. 60
She laid thee here ; and first her beauteous eyes
That open entrance pointed out to me ;
Then she and sleep together went away."
In guise of one whose doubts are reassured.
And who to confidence his fear doth change, ^s
After the truth has been discovered to him.
54 The Divine Comedy
So did I change; and when without disquiet
My Leader saw me, up along the cHfF
He moved, and I behind him, tow'rd the height.
Reader, thou seest well how I exalt 7°
My theme, and therefore if with greater art
I fortify it, marvel not thereat.
Nearer approached we, and were in such place.
That there, where first appeared to me a rift
Like to a crevice that disparts a wall, 7S
I saw a portal, and three stairs beneath.
Diverse in color, to go up to it.
And a gate-keeper, who yet spake no word.
And as I opened more and more mine eyes,
I saw him seated on the highest stair, so
Such in the face that I endured it not.
And in his hand he had a naked sword.
Which so reflected back the sunbeams tow'rds us.
That oft in vain I lifted up mine eyes.
" Tell it from where you are, what is 't you wish ? " 85
Began he to exclaim ; " Where is the escort ?
Take heed your coming hither harm you not ! "
" A Lady of Heaven, with these things conversant,"
My Master answered him, " but even now
Said to us, * Thither go ; there is the portal.' " 90
Purgatorio ix. 55
" And may she speed your footsteps in all good,"
Again began the courteous janitor ;
"Come forward then unto these stairs of ours."
Thither did we approach ; and the first stair
•Was marble white, so polished and so smooth, 9S
I mirrored myself therein as I appear.
The second, tinct of deeper hue than perse.
Was of a calcined and uneven stone.
Cracked all asunder lengthwise and across.
The third, that uppermost rests massively, loo
Porphyry seemed to me, as flaming red
As blood that from a vein is spirting forth.
Both of his feet was holding upon this
.The Angel of God, upon the threshold seated.
Which seemed to me a stone of diamond. 105
Along the three stairs upward with good will
Did my Conductor draw me, saying : " Ask
Humbly that he the fastening may undo."
Devoutly at the holy feet I cast me.
For mercy's sake besought that he would open, "q
But first upon my breast three times I smote.
Seven P's upon my forehead he described [wash
With the sword's point, and, " Take heed that thou
These wounds, when thou shalt be within," he said.
56 TJie Divine Comedy
Ashes, or earth that dry is excavated, ns
Of the same color were with his attire.
And from beneath it he drew forth two keys.
One was of gold, and the other was of silver ;
First with the white, and after with the yellow,-
Plied he the door, so that I was content. ^^q
" Whenever faileth either of these keys
So that it turn not rightly in the lock,"
He said to us, " this entrance doth not open.
More precious one is, but the other needs
More art and intellect ere it unlock, 1^5
For it is that which doth the knot unloose.
From Peter I have them ; and he bade me err
Rather in opening than in keeping shut.
If people but fall down before my feet."
Then pushed the portals of the sacred door, n°
Exclaiming : " Enter ; but I give you warning
That forth returns whoever looks behind."
And when upon their hinges were turned round
The swivels of that consecrated gate.
Which are of metal, massive and sonorous, 135
Roared not so loud, nor so discordant seemed
Tarpeia, when was J:a'en from it the good
Metellus, wherefore meagre it remained.
Pzirgatorio ix. 57
At the first thunder-peal I turned attentive,
And " TV DeuJ?i lauda?nus" seemed to hear 140
In voices mingled with sweet melody.
Exactly such an image rendered me
That which I heard, as we are wont to catch.
When people singing with the organ stand ;
For now we hear, and now hear not, the words. 145
CANTO X.
^IT'HEN we had crossed the threshold of the door
Which the perverted love of souls disuses.
Because it makes the crooked way seem straight.
Re-echoing I heard it closed again ;
And if I had turned back mine eyes upon it, 5
What for my failing had been fit excuse ?
We mounted upward through a rifted rock.
Which undulated to this side and that.
Even as a wave receding and advancing.
" Here it behoves us use a little art," 10
Began my Leader, " to adapt ourselves
Now here, now there, to the receding side."
And this our footsteps so infrequent made,
That sooner had the moon's decreasing disk
Regained its bed to sink again to rest, 15
Than we were forth from out that needle's eye ;
But when we free and in the open were.
There where the mountain backward piles itself.
Ptcrgatorio x. 59
I wearied out, and both of us uncertain
About our way, we stopped upon a plain 20
More desolate than roads across the deserts.
From where its margin borders on the void.
To foot of the high bank that ever rises,
A human body three times told would measure ;
And far as eye of mine could wing its flight, ^5
Now on the left, and on the right flank now.
The same this cornice did appear to me.
Thereon our feet had not been moved as yet.
When I perceived the embankment round about.
Which all right of ascent had interdicted, 3°
To be of marble white, and so adorned
With sculptures, that not only Polycletus,
But Nature's self, had there been put to shame.
The Angel, who came down to earth with tidings
Of peace, that had been wept for many a year, 35
And opened Heaven from its long interdict.
In front of us appeared so truthfully
There sculptured in a gracious attitude.
He did not seem an image that is silent.
One would have sworn that he was saying, ^^Ave"; 4°
For she was there in effigy portrayed
Who turned the key to ope the exalted love.
6o The Divine Comedy
And in her mien this language had impressed,
" Ecce ancilla DeiJ' as distinctly
As any figure stamps itself in wax. 45
" Keep not thy mind upon one place alone,"
The gentle Master said, who had me standing
Upon that side where people have their hearts ;
Whereat I moved mine eyes, and I beheld
In rear of Mary, and upon that side 5°
Where he was standing who conducted me.
Another story on the rock imposed ;
Wherefore I passed Virgilius and drew near.
So that before mine eyes it might be set.
There sculptured in the self-same marble were ss
The cart and oxen, drawing the holy ark,
Wherefore one dreads an office not appointed.
People appeared in front, and all of them
In seven choirs divided, of two senses
Made one say, "No," the other, "Yes, they sing." 60
Likewise unto the smoke of the frankincense.
Which there was imaged forth, the eyes and nose
Were in the yes and no discordant made.
Preceded there the vessel benedight.
Dancing with girded loins, the humble Psalmist, 65
And more and less than King was he in this.
Ptcrmtorio x. 6i
^
Opposite, represented at the window
Of a great palace, Michal looked upon him.
Even as a woman scornful and afflicted.
I moved my feet from where I had been standing, 70
To examine near at hand another story.
Which after Michal glimmered white upon me.
There the high glory of the Roman Prince
Was chronicled, whose great beneficence
Moved Gregory to his great victory ; 75
'T is of the Emperor Trajan I am speaking ;
And a poor widow at his bridle stood.
In attitude of weeping and of grief.
Around about him seemed it thronged and full
Of cavaliers, and the eagles in the gold 80
Above them visibly in the wind were moving.
The wretched woman in the midst of these
Seemed to be saying : " Give me vengeance. Lord,
For my dead son, for whom my heart is breaking."
And he to answer her : " Now wait until ss
I shall return." And she : " My Lord," like one
In whom grief is impatient, "shouldst thou not
Return ?" And he : "Who shall be where I am
Will give it thee." And she: "Good deed of others
What boots it thee, if thou neglect thine own ? " 90
62 The Divme Comedy
Whence he : " Now comfort thee, for it behoves me
That I discharge my duty ere I move ;
Justice so wills, and pity doth retain me."
He who on no new thing has ever looked
Was the creator of this visible language, 95
Novel to us, for here it is not found.
While I delighted me in contemplating
The images of such humility.
And dear to look on for their Maker's sake,
" Behold, upon this side, but rare they make 100
Their steps," the Poet murmured, " many people ;
These will direct us to the lofty stairs."
Mine eyes, that in beholding were intent
To see new things, of which they curious are.
In turning round towards him were not slow. 105
But still I wish not. Reader, thou shouldst swerve
From thy good purposes, because thou hearest
How God ordaineth that the debt be paid;
Attend not to the fashion of the torment.
Think of what follows; think that at the worst "o
It cannot reach beyond the mighty sentence.
"Master," began I, "that which I behold
Moving towards us seems to me not persons.
And what I know not, so in sight I waver."
Pur gator io x. (^^
And he to me: "The grievous quality us
Of this their torment bows them so to earth.
That my own eyes at first contended with it ;
But look there fixedly, and disentangle
By sight what cometh underneath those stones ;
Already canst thou see how each is stricken." 120
O ye proud Christians ! wretched, weary ones !
Who, in the vision of the mind infirm.
Confidence have in your backsliding steps.
Do ye not comprehend that we are worms.
Born to bring forth the angelic butterfly 125
That flieth unto judgment without screen?
Why floats aloft your spirit high in air ?
Like are ye unto insects undeveloped.
Even as the worm in whom formation fails !
As to sustain a ceiling or a roof, 13°
In place of corbel, oftentimes a figure
Is seen to join its knees unto its breast,
Which makes of the unreal real anguish
Arise in him who sees it ; fashioned thus
Beheld I those, when I had ta'en good heed. 135
True is it, they were more or less bent down.
According as they more or less were laden ;
And he who had most patience in his looks
Weeping did seem to say, " I can no more ! "
CANTO XI.
"/^UR Father, thou who dwellest in the heavens,
Not circumscribed, but from the greater love
Thou bearest to the first effects on high.
Praised be thy name and thine omnipotence
By every creature, as befitting is 5
To render thanks to thy sweet effluence.
Come unto us the peace of thy dominion.
For unto it we cannot of ourselves.
If it come not, with all our intellect.
Even as thine own Angels of their will • 10
Make sacrifice to thee, Hosanna singing.
So may all men make sacrifice of theirs.
Give unto us this day our daily manna,
Withouten which in this rough wilderness
Backward goes he who toils most to advance. 15
And even as we the trespass we have suffered
Pardon in one another, pardon thou
Benignly, and regard not our desert.
Pur gator io xi. 65
Our virtue, which is easily o'ercome,
Put not to proof with the old Adversary, 20
But thou from him who spurs it so, deliver.
This last petition verily, dear Lord,
Not for ourselves is made, who need it not.
But for their sake who have remained behind us."
Thus for themselves and us good furtherance 25
Those shades imploring, went beneath a weight
Like unto that of which we sometimes dream.
Unequally in anguish round and round
And weary all, upon that foremost cornice.
Purging away the smoke-stains of the world. 30
If there good words are always said for us.
What may not here be said and done for them.
By those who have a good root to their will ?
Well may we help them wash away the marks
That hence they carried, so that clean and light 35
They may ascend unto the starry wheels !
"Ah ! so may pity and justice you disburden
Soon, that ye may have power to move the wing.
That shall uplift you after your desire.
Show us on which hand tow'rd the stairs the way 40
Is shortest, and if more than one the passes.
Point us out that which least abruptly falls ;
66 The Divmc Comedy
For he who cometh with me, through the burden
Of Adam's flesh wherewith he is invested,
Against his will is chary of his climbing." 4S
The words of theirs which they returned to those
That he whom I was following had spoken.
It was not manifest from whom they came.
But it was said: "To the right hand come with us
Along the bank, and ye shall find a pass so
Possible for living person to ascend.
And were I not impeded by the stone,
Which this proud neck of mine doth subjugate,
Whence I am forced to hold my visage down.
Him, who still lives and does not name himself, 55
Would I regard, to see if I may know him
And make him piteous unto this burden.
A Latian was I, and born of a great Tuscan ;
Guglielmo Aldobrandeschi was my father ;
I know not if his name were ever with you. 60
The ancient blood and deeds of gallantry
Of my progenitors so arrogant made me
That, thinking not upon the common mother,
AH men I held in scorn to such extent
I died therefor, as know the Sienese, 65
And every child in Campagnatico.
Ptcr gator io xi. 67
I am Omberto; and not to me alone
Has pride done harm, but all my kith and kin
Has with it dragged into adversity.
And here must I this burden bear for it 70
Till God be satisfied, since I did not
Among the living, here among the dead."
Listening I downward bent my countenance ;
And one of them, not this one who was speaking.
Twisted himself beneath the weight that cramps him.
And looked at me, and knew me, and called out, 76
Keeping his eyes laboriously fixed
On me, who all bowed down was going with them.
" O," asked I him, " art thou not Oderisi,
Agobbio's honor, and honor of that art 8°
Which is in Paris called illuminating ? "
" Brother," said he, " more laughing are the leaves
Touched by the brush of Franco Bolognese ;
All his the honor now, and mine in part.
In sooth I had not been so courteous 85
While I was living, for the great desire
Of excellence, on which my heart was bent.
Here of such pride is paid the forfeiture ;
And yet I should not be here, were it not
That, having power to sin, I turned to God. 9°
68 The Divine Comedy
O thou vain glory of the human powers.
How little green upon thy summit lingers,
If 't be not followed by an age of grossness !
In painting Cimabue thought that he
Should hold the field, now Giotto has the cry, 95
So that the other's fame is growing dim.
So has one Giiido from the other taken
The glory of our tongue, and he perchance
Is born, who from the nest shall chase them both.
Naught is this mundane rumor but a breath 100
Of wind, that comes now this way and now that.
And changes name, because it changes side.
What fame shalt thou have more, if old peel off
From thee thy flesh, than if thou hadst been dead
Before thou left the pappo and the dindi, 105
Ere pass a thousand years ? which is a shorter
Space to the eterne, than twinkling of an eye
Unto the circle that in heaven wheels slowest.
With him, who takes so little of the road
In front of me, all Tuscany resounded ; no
And now he scarce is lisped of in Siena,
Where he was lord, what time was overthrown
The Florentine delirium, that superb
Was at that day as now 't is prostitute.
Pztr gator to xr. 69
Your reputation is the color of grass "s
Which comes and goes, and that discolors it
By which it issues green from out the earth."
And I : " Thy true speech fills my heart with good
Humility, and great tumor thou assuagest;
But who is he, of whom just now thou spakest?" 120
**That," he replied, "is Provenzan Salvani,
And he is here because he had presumed
To bring Siena all into his hands.
He has gone thus, and goeth without rest
E'er since he died; such money renders back i^s
In payment he who is on earth too daring."
And I : "If every spirit who awaits
The verge of life before that he repent.
Remains below there and ascends not hither,
(Unless good orison shall him bestead,) 13°
Until as much time as he lived be passed.
How was the coming granted him in largess?"
" When he in greatest splendor lived," said he,
" Freely upon the Campo of Siena,
All shame being laid aside, he placed himself; 135
And there to draw his friend from the duress
Which in the prison-house of Charles he suffered.
He brought himself to tremble in each vein.
JO The Divme Comedy
I say no more, and know that I speak darkly ;
Yet little time shall pass before thy neighbors ho
Will so demean themselves that thou canst gloss it.
This action has released him from those confines."
CANTO XII.
V
A BREAST, like oxen going in a yoke,
I with that heavy-laden soul went on.
As long as the sweet pedagogue permitted ;
But when he said, " Leave him, and onward pass.
For here 't is good that with the sail and oars, s
As much as may be, each push on his barque " ;
Upright, as walking wills it, I redressed
My person, notwithstanding that my thoughts
Remained within me downcast and abashed.
I had moved on, and followed willingly lo
The footsteps of my Master, and we both
Already showed how light of foot we were.
When unto me he said : " Cast down thine eyes ;
'T were well for thee, to alleviate the way.
To look upon the bed beneath thy feet." is
As, that some memory may exist of them.
Above the buried dead their tombs in earth
Bear sculptured on them what they were before ;
72 The Divine Comedy
Whence often there we weep for them afresh,
From pricking of remembrance, which alone 20
To the compassionate doth set its spur;
So saw I there, but of a better semblance
In point of artifice, with figures covered
Whate'er as pathway from the mount projects.
I saw that one who was created noble ^s
More than all other creatures, down from heaven
Flaming with lightnings fall upon one side.
I saw Briareus smitten by the dart
Celestial, lying on the other side.
Heavy upon the earth by mortal frost. 30
I saw Thymbraeus, Pallas saw, and Mars,
Still clad in armor round about their father,
Gaze at the scattered members of the giants.
I saw, at foot of his great labor, Nimrod,
As if bewildered, looking at the people 35
Who had been proud with him in Sennaar.
O Niobe ! with what afflicted eyes
Thee I beheld upon the pathway traced.
Between thy seven and seven children slain !
O Saul ! how fallen upon thy proper sword 4°
Didst thou appear there lifeless in Gilboa,
That felt thereafter neither rain nor dew !
Pttr gator io xii. 73
O mad Arachne ! so I thee beheld
E'en then half spider, sad upon the shreds
Of fabric wrought in evil hour for thee ! 45
0 Rehoboam ! no more seems to threaten
Thine image there ; but full of consternation
A chariot bears it off, when none pursues !
Displayed moreo'er the adamantine pavement
How unto his own mother made Alcmaeon 5°
Costly appear the luckless ornament ;
Displayed how his own sons did throw themselves
Upon Sennacherib within the temple.
And how, he being dead, they left him there ;
Displayed the ruin and the cruel carnage ^%
That Tomyris wrought, when she to Cyrus said,
" Blood didst thou thirst for, and with blood I glut
Displayed how routed fled the Assyrians [thee ! "
After that Holofernes had been slain.
And likewise the remainder of that slaughter. ^o
1 saw there Troy in ashes and in caverns;
O Ilion ! thee, how abject and debased.
Displayed the image that is there discerned !
Who e'er of pencil master was or stile.
That could portray the shades and traits which there
Would cause each subtile genius to admire? 66
10
74 Tlie Divine Comedy
Dead seemed the dead, the living seemed alive ;
Better than I saw not who saw the truth.
All that I trod upon while bowed I went.
Now wax ye proud, and on with looks uplifted, 7°
Ye sons of Eve, and bow not down your faces
So that ye may behold your evil ways!
More of the mount by us was now encompassed.
And far more spent the circuit of the sun.
Than had the mind preoccupied imagined, 75
When he, who ever watchful in advance
Was going on, began : " Lift up thy head,
'T is no more time to go thus meditating.
Lo there an Angel who is making haste
To come towards us ; lo, returning is 80
From service of the day the sixth handmaiden.
With reverence thine acts and looks adorn.
So that he may delight to speed us upward ;
Think that this day will never dawn again."
I was familiar with his admonition 85
Ever to lose no time ; so on this theme
He could not unto me speak covertly.
Towards us came the being beautiful
Vested in white, and in his countenance
Such as appears the tremulous morning star. 90
Pztr gator io xii. 75
His arms he opened, and opened then his wings ;
" Come," said he, " near at hand here are the steps.
And easy from henceforth is the ascent."
At this announcement few are they who come !
O human creatures, born to soar aloft, 95
Why fall ye thus before a little wind ?
He led us on to where the rock was cleft ;
There smote upon my forehead with his wings.
Then a safe passage promised unto me.
As on the right hand, to ascend the mount 100
Where seated is the church that lordeth it
O'er the well-guided, above Rubaconte,
The bold abruptness of the ascent is broken
By stairways that were made there in the age
When still were safe the ledger and the stave, 105
E'en thus attempered is the bank which falls
Sheer downward from the second circle there;
But on this side and that the high rock grazes.
As we were turning thitherward our persons,
" Beati pauperes spiritUy' voices no
Sang in such wise that speech could tell it not.
Ah me ! how different are these entrances
From the Infernal ! for with anthems here
One enters, and below with wild laments.
76 TJie Divine Comedy
We now were mounting up the sacred stairs, "s
And it appeared to me by far more easy
Than on the plain it had appeared before.
Whence I : " My Master, say, what heavy thing
Has been upHfted from me, so that hardly
Aught of fatigue is felt by me in walking ? " lao
He answered ; " When the P's which have remained
Still on thy face almost obliterate
Shall wholly, as the first is, be erased.
Thy feet will be so vanquished by good will.
That not alone they shall not feel fatigue, "s
But urging up will be to them delight."
Then did I even as they do who are going
With something on the head to them unknown.
Unless the signs of others make them doubt.
Wherefore the hand to ascertain is helpful, 13°
And seeks and finds, and doth fulfil the office
Which cannot be accomplished by the sight ;
And with the fingers of the right hand spread
I found but six the letters, that had carved
Upon my temples he who bore the keys ; 135
Upon beholding which my Leader smiled.
CANTO XIII.
'VIT'E were upon the summit of the stairs.
Where for the second time is cut away
The mountain, which ascending shriveth all.
There in like manner doth a cornice bind
The hill all round about, as does the first,
Save that its arc more suddenly is curved.
Shade is there none, nor sculpture that appears ;
So seems the bank, and so the road seems smooth.
With but the livid color of the stone.
" If to inquire we wait for people here,"
The Poet said, " I fear that peradventure
Too much delay will our election have."
Then steadfast on the sun his eyes he fixed.
Made his right side the centre of his motion.
And turned the left part of himself about.
" O thou sweet light ! with trust in whom I enter
Upon this novel journey, do thou lead us,"
Said he, " as one within here should be led.
78 Tlie Divine Coinedy
Thou warmest the world, thou shinest over it ;
If other reason prompt not otherwise, ^o
Thy rays should evermore our leaders be ! "
As much as here is counted for a mile.
So much already there had we advanced
In little time, by dint of ready will ;
And tow'rds us there were heard to fly, albeit ^s
They were not visible, spirits uttering
Unto Love's table courteous invitations.
The first voice that passed onward in its flight,
" Vinum non habent^' said in accents loud.
And went reiterating it behind us. 30
And ere it wholly grew inaudible
Because of distance, passed another, crying,
" I am Orestes ! " and it also stayed not.
" O," said I, " Father, these, what voices are they ? "
And even as I asked, behold the third, 35
Saying: "Love those from whom ye have had evil!"
And the good Master said : " This circle scourges
The sin of envy, and on that account
Are drawn from love the lashes of the scourge.
The bridle of another sound shall be ; 4°
I think that thou wilt hear it, as I judge.
Before thou comest to the Pass of Pardon.
Purgaforio xiii. 79
But fix thine eyes athwart the air right steadfast.
And people thou wilt see before us sitting,
And each one close against the cliff is seated." 45
Then wider than at first mine eyes I opened ;
I looked before me, and saw shades with mantles
Not from the color of the stone diverse.
And when we were a little farther onward,
I heard a cry of, " Mary, pray for us ! '* 50
A cry of, " Michael, Peter, and all Saints ! "
I do not think there walketh still on earth
A man so hard, that he would not be pierced
With pity at what afterward I saw.
For when I had approached so near to them S5
That manifest to me their acts became.
Drained was I at the eyes by heavy grief.
Covered with sackcloth vile they seemed to me.
And one sustained the other with his shoulder.
And all of them were by the bank sustained. 60
Thus do the blind, in want of livelihood.
Stand at the doors of churches asking alms,
And one upon another leans his head.
So that in others pity soon may rise.
Not only at the accent of their words, 65
But at their aspect, which no less implores.
8o Tlie Divine Comedy
And as unto the blind the sun comes not.
So to the shades, of whom just now I spake.
Heaven's Hght will not be bounteous of itself;
For all their lids an iron wire transpierces, 70
And sews them up, as to a sparhawk wild
Is done, because it will not quiet stay.
To me it seemed, in passing, to do outrage.
Seeing the others without being seen ;
Wherefore I turned me to my counsel sage. 7S
Well knew he what the mute one wished to say.
And therefore waited not for my demand.
But said : " Speak, and be brief, and to the point.'*
I had Virgilius upon that side
Of the embankment from which one may fall, so
Since by no border 't is engarlanded;
Upon the other side of me I had
The shades devout, who through the horrible seam
Pressed out the tears so that they bathed their cheeks.
To them I turned me, and, " O people, certain," 85
Began I, " of beholding the high light.
Which your desire has solely in its care.
So may grace speedily dissolve the scum
Upon your consciences, that limpidly
Through them descend the river of the mind, 90
Pttrgaforio xiii. 8i
Tell me, for dear 't will be to me and gracious.
If any soul among you here is Latian,
And 't will perchance be good for him I learn it."
" O brother mine, each one is citizen
Of one true city ; but thy meaning is, 95
Who may have lived in Italy a pilgrim."
By way of answer this I seemed to hear
A little farther on than where I stood.
Whereat I made myself still nearer heard.
Among the rest I saw a shade that waited 100
In aspect, and should any one ask how.
Its chin it lifted upward like a blind man.
" Spirit," I said, " who stoopest to ascend.
If thou art he who did reply to me.
Make thyself known to me by place or name." 105
" Sienese was I," it replied, " and with
The others here recleanse my guilty life.
Weeping to Him to lend himself to us.
Sapient I was not, although I Sapia
Was called, and I was at another's harm no
More happy far than at my own good fortune.
And that thou mayst not think that I deceive thee,
Hear if I was as foolish as I tell thee.
The arc already of my years descending.
II
82 The Divine Comedy
My fellow-citizens near unto Colle ns
Were joined in battle with their adversaries.
And I was praying God for what he willed.
Routed were they, and turned into the bitter
Passes of flight ; and I, the chase beholding,
A joy received unequalled by all others; "«
So that I lifted upward my bold face
Crying to God, * Henceforth I fear thee not,'
As did the blackbird at the little sunshine.
Peace I cfesired with God at the extreme
Of my existence, and as yet would not "s
My debt have been by penitence discharged.
Had it not been that in remembrance held mc ,
Pier Pettignano in his holy prayers.
Who out of charity was grieved for me.
But who art thou, that into our conditions 130
Questioning goest, and hast thine eyes unbound
As I believe, and breathing dost discourse ? "
" Mine eyes," I said, " will yet be here ta'en from me.
But for short space ; for small is the offence
Committed by their being turned with envy. 13s
Far greater is the fear, wherein suspended
My soul is, of the torment underneath.
For even now the load down there weighs on me."
Pttrgatorio xiii. 8
o
And she to me : " Who led thee, then, among us
Up here, if to return below thou thinkest ? " 140
And I : " He who is with me, and speaks not ;
And living am I ; therefore ask of me.
Spirit elect, if thou wouldst have me move
O'er yonder yet my mortal feet for thee."
" O, this is such a novel thing to hear," 145
She answered, " that great sign it is God loves thee ;
Therefore with prayer of thine sometimes assist me.
And I implore, by what thou most desirest.
If e'er thou treadest the soil of Tuscany,
Well with my kindred reinstate my fame. 150
Them wilt thou see among that people vain
Who hope in Talamone, and will lose there
More hope than in discovering the Diana ;
But there still more the admirals will lose."
CANTO XIV.
"^VJITHO is this one that goes about our mountain.
Or ever Death has given him pow^er of flight.
And opes his eyes and shuts them at his will ? "
" I know not who, but know he 's not alone;
Ask him thyself, for thou art nearer to him, s
And gently, so that he may speak, accost him."
Thus did two spirits, leaning tow'rds each other.
Discourse about me there on the right hand ;
Then held supine their faces to address me.
And said the one : " O soul, that, fastened still lo
Within the body, tow'rds the heaven art going.
For charity console us, and declare
Whence comest and who art thou ; for thou mak'st us
As much to marvel at this grace of thine
As must a thing that never yet has been." 15
And I : " Through midst of Tuscany there wanders
A streamlet that is born in Falterona,
And not a hundred miles of course suffice it ;,
Ptcrgatorio xiv, 85
From thereupon do I this body bring.
To tell you who I am were speech in vain, 20
Because my name as yet makes no great noise."
"If well thy meaning I can penetrate
With intellect of mine," then answered me
He who first spake, " thou speakest of the Arno."
And said the other to him : " Why concealed ^s
This one the appellation of that river.
Even as a man doth of things horrible ? "
And thus the shade that questioned was of this
Himself acquitted : " I know not ; but truly
'T is fit the name of such a valley perish ; 3°
For from its fountain-head (where is so pregnant
The Alpine mountain whence is cleft Peloro
That in few places it that mark surpasses)
To where it yields itself in restoration
Of what the heaven doth of the sea dry up, 35
Whence have the rivers that which goes with them.
Virtue is like an enemy avoided
By all, as is a serpent, through misfortune
Of place, or through bad habit that impels them ;
On which account have so transformed their nature 4°
The dwellers in that miserable valley.
It seems that Circe had them in her pasture.
86 * The Divine Comedy
*Mid ugly swine, of acorns worthier
Than other food for human use created.
It first directeth its impoverished way. 45
Curs findeth it thereafter, coming downward.
More snarhng than their puissance demands.
And turns from them disdainfully its muzzle.
It goes on falling, and the more it grows.
The more it finds the dogs becoming wolves, 5°
This maledict and misadventurous ditch.
Descended then through many a hollow gulf.
It finds the foxes so replete with fraud.
They fear no cunning that may master them.
Nor will I cease because another hears me ; ^^
And well 't will be for him, if still he mind him
Of what a truthful spirit to me unravels.
Thy grandson I behold, who doth become
A hunter of those wolves upon the bank
Of the wild stream, and terrifies them all. 60
He sells their flesh, it being yet alive ;
Thereafter slaughters them like ancient beeves ;
Many of life, himself of praise, deprives.
Blood-stained he issues from the dismal forest ;
He leaves it such, a thousand years from now 65
In its primeval state 't is not re-wooded."
Ptirgatorio xiv. 87
As at the announcement of impending ills
The face of him who listens is disturbed.
From whate'er side the peril seize upon him ;
So I beheld that other soul, which stood 70
Turned round to listen, grow disturbed and sad.
When it had gathered to itself the word.
The speech of one and aspect of the other
Had me desirous made to know their names.
And question mixed with prayers I made thereof, 75
Whereat the spirit which first spake to me
Began again : "Thou wishest I should bring me
To do for thee what thou 'It not do for me ;
But since God willeth that in thee shine forth
Such grace of his, I '11 not be chary with thee ; 80
Know, then, that I Guido del Duca am.
My blood was so with envy set on fire.
That if I had beheld a man make merry.
Thou wouldst have seen me sprinkled o'er with pallor.
From my own sowing such the straw I reap ! ss
O human race ! why dost thou set thy heart
Where interdict of partnership must be ?
This is Renier ; this is the boast and honor
Of the house of Calboli, where no one since
Has made himself the heir of his desert. 90
88 Tlic Divine Comedy
And not alone his blood is made devoid,
'Twixt Po and mount, and sea-shore and the Reno,
Of good required for truth and for diversion ;
For all within these boundaries is full
Of venomous roots, so that too tardily 95
By cultivation now would they diminish.
Where is good Lizio, and Arrigo Manardi,
Pier Traversaro, and Guido di Carpigna,
O Romagnuoli into bastards turned ?
When in Bologna will a Fabbro rise ? . : 100
When in Faenza a Bernardin di Fosco, .^';
The noble scion of ignoble seed ? '; '
Be not astonished, Tuscan, if I weep.
When I remember, with Guido da Prata,
Ugolin d' Azzo, who was living with us, 105
Frederick Tignoso and his company.
The house of Traversara, and th' Anastagi,
And one race and the other is extinct ;
The dames and cavaliers, the toils and ease
That filled our souls with love and courtesy, no
There where the hearts have so malicious grown !
O Brettinoro ! why dost thou not flee.
Seeing that all thy family is gone.
And many people, not to be corrupted ?
PzLr gator io xiv. - 89
Bagnacaval does well in not begetting, 115
And ill does Castrocaro, and Conio worse.
In taking trouble to beget such Counts.
Will do well the Pagani, when their Devil
Shall have departed ; but not therefore pure
Will testimony of them e'er remain. 120
O Ugolin de' Fantoli, secure
Thy name is, since no longer is awaited
One who, degenerating, can obscure it !
But go now, Tuscan, for it now delights me
To weep far better than it does to speak, 125
So much has our discourse my mind distressed."
We were aware that those beloved souls
Heard us depart ; therefore, by keeping silent.
They made us of our pathway confident.
When we became alone by going onward, 130
Thunder, when it doth cleave the air, appeared
A voice, that counter to us came, exclaiming :
" Shall slay me whosoever findeth me ! "
And fled as the reverberation dies
If suddenly the cloud asunder bursts. 135
As soon as hearing had a truce from this.
Behold another, with so great a crash.
That it resembled thunderings following fast:
12
90 Tlie Divine Comedy
" I am Aglaurus, who became a stone ! "
And then, to press myself close to the Poet, 14°
I backward, and not forward, took a step.
Already on all sides the air was quiet ;
And said he to me : " That was the hard curb
That ought to hold a man within his bounds ;
But you take in the bait so that the hook us
Of the old Adversary draws you to him.
And hence availeth little curb or call.
The heavens are calling you, and wheel around you.
Displaying to you their eternal beauties.
And still your eye is looking on the ground ; 15°
Whence He, who all discerns, chastises you."
CANTO XV.
A S much as *twixt the close of the third hour
And dawn of day appeareth of that sphere
Which aye in fashion of a child is playing.
So much it now appeared, towards the night,
Was of his course remaining to the sun ; 5
There it was evening, and 't was midnight here ;
And the rays smote the middle of our faces.
Because by us the mount was so encircled.
That straight towards the west we now were going ;
When I perceived my forehead overpowered 10
Beneath the splendor far more than at first.
And stupor were to me the things unknown ;
Whereat towards the summit of my brow
I raised my hands, and made myself the visor
Which the excessive glare diminishes. 15
As when from off the water, or a mirror.
The sunbeam leaps unto the opposite side.
Ascending upward in the selfsame measure
92 TIic Divine Covicdy
That it descends, and deviates as far
From falling of a stone in line direct, »o
(As demonstrate experiment and art,)
So it appeared to me that by a light
Refracted there before me I was smitten ;
On which account my sight was swift to flee.
" What is that. Father sweet, from which I cannot 25
So fully screen my sight that it avail me,"
Said I, " and seems towards us to be moving ? "
" Marvel thou not, if dazzle thee as yet
The family of heaven," he answered me ;
" An angel *t is, who comes to invite us upward. 30
Soon will it be, that to behold these things
Shall not be grievous, but delightful to thee
As much as nature fashioned thee to feel."
When we had reached the Angel benedight.
With joyful voice he said : " Here enter in 35
To stairway far less steep than are the others."
We mounting were, already thence departed.
And ^^ Be ati miser icordes'" was
Behind us sung, "Rejoice, thou that o'ercomest ! "
My master and myself, we two alone 4°
Were going upward, and I thought, in going.
Some profit to acquire from words of his ;
Ptirgatorio xv. 93
And I to him directed me, thus asking :
" What did the spirit of Romagna mean.
Mentioning interdict and partnership ? " 45
Whence he to me : " Of his own greatest failing
He knows the harm ; and therefore wonder not
If he reprove us, that we less may rue it.
Because are thither pointed your desires
Where by companionship each share is lessened, 50
Envy doth ply the bellows to your sighs.
But if the love of the supernal sphere
Should upwardly direct your aspiration.
There would not be that fear within your breast ;
For there, as much the more as one says Our, 55
So much the more of good each one possesses,
And more of charity in that cloister burns.'*
" I am more hungering to be satisfied,"
I said, " than if I had before been silent,
And more of doubt within my mind I gather. 60
How can it be, that boon distributed
The more possessors can more wealthy make
Therein, than if by few it be possessed ? '*
And he to me : " Because thou fixest still
Thy mind entirely upon earthly things, 65
Thou pluckest darkness from the very light.
94 The Divine ' Comedy
That goodness infinite and inefl^able
Which is above there, runneth unto love,
As to a lucid body comes the sunbeam.
So much it gives itself as it finds ardor, 70
So that as far as charity extends.
O'er it increases the eternal valor.
And the more people thitherward aspire.
More are there to love well, and more they love there.
And, as a mirror, one reflects the other. 75
And if my reasoning appease thee not.
Thou shalt see Beatrice ; and she will fully
Take from thee this and every other longing.
Endeavor, then, that soon may be extinct.
As are the two already, the five wounds 80
That close themselves again by being painful."
Even as I wished to say, " Thou dost appease me,"
I saw that I had reached another circle.
So that my eager eyes made me keep silence.
There it appeared to me that in a vision 85
Ecstatic on a sudden I was rapt.
And in a temple many persons saw ;
And at the door a woman, with the sweet
Behavior of a mother, saying : " Son,
Why in this manner hast thou dealt with us ? 9°
Purgatorw xv. 95
Lo, sorrowing, thy father and myself
Were seeking for thee"; — and as here she ceased.
That which appeared at first had disappeared.
Then I beheld another with those waters
Adown her cheeks which grief distils whenever 95
From great disdain of others it is born.
And saying : " If of that city thou art lord.
For whose name was such strife among the gods.
And whence doth every science scintillate.
Avenge thyself on those audacious arms 100
That clasped our daughter, O Pisistratus " ;
And the lord seemed to me benign and mild
To answer her with aspect temperate :
" What shall we do to those who wish us ill.
If he who loves us be by us condemned ? " 105
Then saw I people hot in fire of wrath.
With stones a young man slaying, clamorously
Still crying to each other, " Kill him ! kill him ! "
And him I saw bow down, because of death
That weighed already on him, to the earth, "o
But of his eyes made ever gates to heaven.
Imploring the high Lord, in so great strife.
That he would pardon those his persecutors.
With such an aspect as unlocks compassion.
96 The Divine Comedy
Soon as my soul had outwardly returned 115
To things external to it which are true.
Did I my not false errors recognize.
My Leader, who could see me bear myself
Like to a man that rouses him from sleep, [stand?
Exclaimed : " What ails thee, that thou canst not
But hast been coming more than half a league m
Veiling thine eyes, and with thy legs entangled.
In guise of one whom wine or sleep subdues ? "
" O my sweet Father, if thou listen to me,
I '11 tell thee," said I, " what appeared to me, 125
When thus from me my legs were ta'en away."
And he : " If thou shouldst have a hundred masks
Upon thy face, from me would not be shut
Thy cogitations, howsoever small.
What thou hast seen was that thou mayst not fail 130
To ope thy heart unto the waters of peace.
Which from the eternal fountain are diffused.
I did not ask, * What ails thee ? ' as he does
Who only looketh with the eyes that see not
When of the soul bereft the body lies, 13s
But asked it to give vigor to thy feet;
Thus must we needs urge on the sluggards, slow
To use their wakefulness when it returns."
P^LT gator io xv. 97
We passed along, athwart the twihght peering
Forward as far as ever eye could stretch 140
Against the sunbeams serotine and lucent;
And lo ! by slow degrees a smoke approached
In our direction, sombre as the night.
Nor was there place to hide one's self therefrom.
This of our eyes and the pure air bereft us. 145
13
CANrO XVI,
■pVARKNESS of hell, and of a night deprived
Of every planet under a poor sky,
As much as may be tenebrous with cloud.
Ne'er made unto my sight so thick a veil.
As did that smoke which there enveloped us, 5
Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture ;
For not an eye it suffered to stay open ;
Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious.
Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder.
E'en as a blind man goes behind his guide, 10
Lest he should wander, or should strike against
Aught that may harm or peradventure kill him.
So went I through the bitter and foul air.
Listening unto my Leader, who said only,
" Look that from me thou be not separated." 15
Voices I heard, and every one appeared
To supplicate for peace and misericord
The Lamb of God who takes away our sins.
Purgatorio xvi. 99
Still ^^ Agnus Dei'' their exordium was ;
One word there was in all, and metre one, ao
So that all harmony appeared among them.
" Master," I said, " are spirits those I hear ? "
And he to me : " Thou apprehendest truly.
And they the knot of anger go unloosing."
" Now who art thou, that cleavest through our smoke, ^s
And art discoursing of us even as though
Thou didst by calends still divide the time ? "
After this manner by a voice was spoken ;
Whereon my Master said : " Do thou reply.
And ask if on this side the way go upward." 30
And I : " O creature that dost cleanse thyself
To return beautiful to Him who made thee.
Thou shalt hear marvels if thou follow me."
" Thee will I follow far as is allowed me,"
He answered ; " and if smoke prevent our seeing, 35
Hearing shall keep us joined instead thereof."
Thereon began I : "With that swathing band
Which death unwindeth am I going upward.
And hither came I through the infernal anguish.
And if God in his grace has me infolded, 40
So that he wills that I behold his court
By method wholly out of modern usage.
loo Tlie Divine Comedy
Conceal not from me who ere death thou wast.
But tell it me, and tell me if I go
Right for the pass, and be thy words our escort." 45
" Lombard was I, and I was Marco called ;
The world I knew, and loved that excellence.
At which has each one now unbent his bow.
For mounting upward, thou art going right."
Thus he made answer, and subjoined : " I pray thee
To pray for me when thou shalt be above." s^
And I to him : " My faith I pledge to thee
To do what thou dost ask me ; but am bursting
Inly with doubt, unless I rid me of it.
First it was simple, and is now made double 11
By thy opinion, which makes certain to me.
Here and elsewhere, that which I couple with it.
The world forsooth is utterly deserted
By every virtue, as thou tellest me.
And with iniquity is big and covered ; 60
But I beseech thee point me out the cause.
That I may see it, and to others show it ;
For one in the heavens, and here below one puts it."
A sigh profound, that grief forced into Ai !
He first sent forth, and then began he : " Brother, 65
The world is blind, and sooth thou comest from it !
Purmtojno xvr. loi
^>
Ye who are living every cause refer
Still upward to the heavens, as if all things
They of necessity moved with themselves.
If this were so, in you would be destroyed 70
Free will, nor any justice would there be
In having joy for good, or grief for evil.
The heavens your movements do initiate, /
I say not all ; but granting that I say it.
Light has been given you for good and evil, is
And free volition ; which, if some fatigue
In the first battles with the heavens it suffers.
Afterwards conquers all, if well 't is nurtured.
To greater force and to a better nature.
Though free, ye subject are, and that creates so
The mind in you the heavens have not in charge.
Hence, if the present world doth go astray.
In you the cause is, be it sought in you ;
And I therein will now be thy true spy.
Forth from the hand of Him, who fondles it 85
Before it is, like to a little girl
Weeping and laughing in her childish sport.
Issues the simple soul, that nothing knows.
Save that, proceeding from a joyous Maker,
Gladly it turns to that which gives it pleasure. 9°
I02 The Divine Comedy
Of trivial good at first it tastes the savor ;
Is cheated by it, and runs after it,
If guide or rein turn not aside its love.
Hence it behoved laws for a rein to place,
Behoved a king to have, who at the least 9S
Of the true city should discern the tower.
The laws exist, but who sets hand to them ?
No one ; because the shepherd who precedes
Can ruminate, but cleaveth not the hoof;
Wherefore the people that perceives its guide »oo
Strike only at the good for which it hankers.
Feeds upon that, and farther seeketh not.
Clearly canst thou perceive that evil guidance
The cause is that has made the world depraved.
And not that nature is corrupt in you. iqs
Rome, that reformed the world, accustomed was
Two suns to have, which one road and the other.
Of God and of the world, made manifest.
One has the other quenched, and to the crosier
The sword is joined, and ill beseemeth it no
That by main force one with the other go.
Because, being joined, one feareth not the other;
If thou believe not, think upon the grain,
For by its seed each herb is recognized.
Ptcrgatorio xvi. 103
In the land laved by Po and Adige, us
Valor and courtesy used to be found.
Before that Frederick had his controversy ;
Now in security can pass that way
Whoever will abstain, through sense of shame.
From speaking with the good, or drawing near them.
True, three old men are left, in whom upbraids i^i
The ancient age the new, and late they deem it
That God restore them to the better life :
Currado da Palazzo, and good Gherardo,
And Guido da Castel, who better named is, i^s
In fashion of the French, the simple Lombard :
Say thou henceforward that the Church of Rome,
Confounding in itself two governments.
Falls in the mire, and soils itself and burden."
" O Marco mine," I said, " thou reasonest well ; 130
And now discern I why the sons of Levi
Have been excluded from the heritage.
But what Gherardo is it, who, as sample
Of a lost race, thou sayest has remained
In reprobation of the barbarous age ? " ns
" Either thy speech deceives me, or it tempts me,"
He answered me ; " for speaking Tuscan to me.
It seems of good Gherardo naught thou knowest.
J04 TJie Divine Comedy
By other surname do I know him not,
Unless I take it from his daughter Gaia. 140
May God be with you, for I come no farther.
Behold the dawn, that through the smoke rays out,
Already whitening; and I must depart —
Yonder the Angel is — e'er he appear."
Thus did he speak, and would no farther hear me. 145
CANTO XVII.
T3 EMEMBER, Reader, if e'er in the Alps
A mist o'ertook thee, through which thou couldst see
Not otherwise than through its membrane mole.
How, when the vapors humid and condensed
Begin to dissipate themselves, the sphere 5
Of the sun feebly enters in among them.
And thy imagination will be swift
In coming to perceive how I re-saw
The sun at first, that was already setting.
Thus, to the faithful footsteps of my Master lo
Mating mine own, I issued from that cloud
To rays already dead on the low shores.
O thou. Imagination, that dost steal us
So from without sometimes, that man perceives not.
Although around may sound a thousand trumpets, is
Who moveth thee, if sense impel thee not?
Moves thee a light, which in the heaven takes form.
By self, or by a will that downward guides it.
H
io6 The Divine Comedy
Of her impiety, who changed her form
Into the bird that most dehghts in singing, 20
In my imagining appeared the trace ;
And hereupon my mind was so withdrawn
Within itself, that from without there came
Nothing that then might be received by it.
Then rained within my lofty fantasy as
One crucified, disdainful and ferocious
In countenance, and even thus was dying.
Around him were the great Ahasuerus,
Esther his wife, and the just Mordecai,
Who was in word and action so entire. 30
And even as this image burst asunder
Of its own self, in fashion of a bubble
In which the water it was made of fails.
There rose up in my vision a young maiden
Bitterly weeping, and she said : "O queen, 35
Why hast thou wished in anger to be naught ?
Thou 'st slain thyself, Lavinia not to lose ;
Now hast thou lost me ; I am she who mourns.
Mother, at thine ere at another's ruin."
As sleep is broken, when upon a sudden 40
New light strikes in upon the eyelids closed.
And broken quivers e'er it dieth wholly.
PtLT gator io xvii. 107
So this imagining of mine fell down
As soon as the effulgence smote my face,
Greater by far than what is in our wont. 45
I turned me round to see where I might be.
When said a voice, " Here is the passage up";
Which from all other purposes removed me.
And made my wish so full of eagerness
To look and see who was it that was speaking, 50
It never rests till meeting face to face ;
But as before the sun, which quells the sight.
And in its own excess its figure veils.
Even so my power was insufficient here.
" This is a spirit divine, who in the way i^
Of going up directs us without asking.
And who with his own light himself conceals.
He does with us as man doth with himself;
For he who sees the need, and waits the asking.
Malignly leans already tow'rds denial. 60
Accord we now our feet to such inviting.
Let us make haste to mount ere it grow dark ;
For then we could not till the day return."
Thus my Conductor said ; and I and he
Together turned our footsteps to a stairway ; 65
And I, as soon as the first step I reached.
io8 Tlie Divine Comedy
Near me perceived a motion as of wings.
And fanning in the face, and saying, " Beati
Pacificiy who are without ill anger."
Already over us were so uplifted 7°
The latest sunbeams, which the night pursues.
That upon many sides the stars appeared.
" O manhood mine, why dost thou vanish so ? '*
I said within myself; for I perceived
The vigor of my legs was put in truce. 75
We at the point were where no more ascends
The stairway upward, and were motionless.
Even as a ship, which at the shore arrives ;
And I gave heed a little, if I might hear
Aught whatsoever in the circle new ; , 80
Then to my Master turned me round and said :
" Say, my sweet Father, what delinquency
Is purged here in the circle where we are ?
Although our feet may pause, pause not thy speech.'*
And he to me : " The love of good, remiss 85
In what it should have done, is here restored ;
Here plied again the ill-belated oar ;
But still more openly to understand.
Turn unto me thy mind, and thou shalt gather
Some profitable fruit from our delay. 9°
Pttrgatorio xvii. 109
Neither Creator nor a creature ever.
Son," he began, " was destitute of love
Natural or spiritual ; and thou knowest it.
The natural was ever without error ;
But err the other may by evil object, 9S
Or by too much, or by too little vigor.
While in the first it well directed is,
And in the second moderates itself.
It cannot be the cause of sinful pleasure;
But when to ill it turns, and, with more care loo
Or lesser than it ought, runs after good,
'Gainst the Creator works his own creation.
Hence thou mayst comprehend that love must be
The seed within yourselves of every virtue.
And every act that merits punishment. 105
Now inasmuch as never from the welfare
Of its own subject can love turn its sight.
From their own hatred all things are secure ;
And since we cannot think of any being
Standing alone, nor from the First divided, no
Of hating Him is all desire cut off.
Hence if, discriminating, I judge well,
The evil that one loves is of one's neighbor.
And this is born in three modes in your clay.
1 1 o Tlie Divine Covicdy
There are, who, by abasement of their neighbor, us
Hope to excel, and therefore only long
That from his greatness he may be cast down ;
There are, who power, grace, honor, and renown
Fear they may lose because another rises.
Thence are so sad that the reverse they love ; no
And there are those whom injury seems to chafe,
So that it makes them greedy for revenge.
And such must needs shape out another's harm.
This threefold love is wept for down below;
Now of the other will I have thee hear, 125
That runneth after good with measure faulty.
Each one confusedly a good conceives
Wherein the mind may rest, and longeth for it ;
Therefore to overtake it each one strives.
If languid love to look on this attract you, 130
Or in attaining unto it, this cornice.
After just penitence, torments you for it.
There 's other good that does not make man happy ;
'T is not felicity, 't is not the good
Essence, of every good the fruit and root. 13s
The love that yields itself too much to this
Above us is lamented in three circles ;
But how tripartite it may be described,
I say not, that thou seek it for thyself."
CANTO XVIII.
\ N end had put unto his reasoning
The lofty Teacher, and attent was looking
Into my face, if I appeared content ;
And I, whom a new thirst still goaded on.
Without was mute, and said within : " Perchance s
The too much questioning I make annoys him."
But that true Father, who had comprehended
The timid wish, that opened not itself.
By speaking gave me hardihood to speak.
Whence I : " My sight is. Master, vivified lo
So in thy light, that clearly I discern
Whate'er thy speech importeth or describes.
Therefore I thee entreat, sweet Father dear.
To teach me love, to which thou dost refer
Every good action and its contrary." is
" Direct," he said, " towards me the keen eyes
Of intellect, and clear will be to thee
The error of the blind, who would be leaders.
1 1 2 Tlie Divme Comedy
The soul, which Is created apt to love.
Is mobile unto everything that pleases, 20
Soon as by pleasure she is v^^aked to action.
Your apprehension from some real thing
An image draws, and in yourselves displays it,
So that it makes the soul turn unto it.
And if, when turned, towards it she incline, 25
Love is that inclination ; it is nature.
Which is by pleasure bound in you anew.
Then even as the fire doth upward move
By its own form, which to ascend is born.
Where longest in its matter it endures, 3°
So comes the captive soul into desire.
Which is a motion spiritual, and ne'er rests
Until she doth enjoy the thing beloved.
Now may apparent be to thee how hidden
The truth is from those people, who aver 3s
All love is in itself a laudable thing ;
Because its matter may perchance appear
Aye to be good ; but yet not each impression
Is good, albeit good may be the wax."
" Thy words, and my sequacious intellect," 40
I answered him, " have love revealed to me ;
But that has made me more impregned with doubt ;
Ptirgatorw xviil 113
For if love from without be offered us.
And with another foot the soul go not,
If right or wrong she go, 't is not her merit.'* 4s
And he to me : " What reason seeth here.
Myself can tell thee ; beyond that await
For Beatrice, since 't is a work of faith.
Every substantial form, that segregate
From matter is, and with it is united, 5°
Specific power has in itself collected.
Which without act is not perceptible.
Nor shows itself except by its effect.
As life does in a plant by the green leaves.
But still, whence cometh the intelligence s'i
Of the first notions, man is ignorant.
And the affection for the first allurements.
Which are in you as instinct in the bee
To make its honey ; and this first desire
Merit of praise or blame containeth not. 60
Now, that to this all others may be gathered.
Innate within you is the power that counsels.
And it should keep the threshold of assent.
This is the principle, from which is taken
Occasion of desert in you, according 65
As good and guilty loves it takes and winnows.
15
1 1 4 Tlie Divine Comedy
Those who, in reasoning, to the bottom went.
Were of this innate Hberty aware,
Therefore bequeathed they Ethics to the world.
Supposing, then, that from necessity 7°
Springs every love that is within you kindled,
Within yourselves the power is to restrain it.
The noble virtue Beatrice understands
By the free will ; and therefore see that thou
Bear it in mind, if she should speak of it." 75
The moon, belated almost unto midnight.
Now made the stars appear to us more rare.
Formed like a bucket, that is all ablaze.
And counter to the heavens ran through those paths
Which the sun sets aflame, when he of Rome 80
Sees it 'twixt Sardes and Corsicans go down ;
And that patrician shade, for whom is named
Pietola more than any Mantuan town.
Had laid aside the burden of my lading;
Whence I, who reason manifest and plain 85
In answer to my questions had received,
Stood like a man in drowsy revery.
But taken from me was this drowsiness
Suddenly by a people, that behind
Our backs already had come round to us. 9°
Ptir gator io xviii. 1 1 5
And as, of old, Ismenus and Asopus
Beside them saw at night the rush and throng.
If but the Thebans were in need of Bacchus,
So they along that circle curve their step,
From what I saw of those approaching us, 95
Who by good-will and righteous love are ridden. *•
Full soon they were upon us, because running
Moved onward all that mighty multitude.
And two in the advance cried out, lamenting,
" Mary in haste unto the mountain ran, 'QQ
And Caesar, that he might subdue Ilerda,
Thrust at Marseilles, and then ran into Spain."
"Quick! quick! so that the time may not be lost
By little love ! " forthwith the others cried,
" For ardor in well-doing freshens grace ! " 105
" O folk, in whom an eager fervor now
Supplies perhaps delay and negligence.
Put by you in well-doing, through lukewarmness.
This one who lives, and truly I lie not.
Would fain ^o up, if but the sun relight us; "o
So tell us where the passage nearest is."
These were the words of him who was my Guide ;
And some one of those spirits said : " Come on
Behind us, and the opening shalt thou find ;
1 1 6 Tlie Divine Comedy
So full of longing are we to move onward, us
That stay we cannot ; therefore pardon us,
If thou for churlishness our justice take.
I was San Zeno's Abbot at Verona,
Under the empire of good Barbarossa,
Of whom still sorrowing Milan holds discourse ; izo
And he has one foot in the grave already.
Who shall erelong lament that monastery.
And sorry be of having there had power.
Because his son, in his whole body sick.
And worse in mind, and who was evil-born, i^s
He put into the place of its true pastor."
If more he said, or silent was, I know not.
He had already passed so far beyond us ;
But this I heard, and to retain it pleased me.
And he who was in every need my succor 130
Said : " Turn thee hitherward ; see two of them
Come fastening upon slothfulness their teeth."
In rear of all they shouted : " Sooner were
The people dead to whom the sea was opened.
Than their inheritors the Jordan saw ; 135
And those who the fatigue did not endure
Unto the issue, with Anchises' son.
Themselves to life withouten glory offered."
PtLTgatorio xviii. 1 1 7
Then when from us so separated were
Those shades, that they no longer could be seen, ho
Within me a new thought did entrance find.
Whence others many and diverse were born ;
And so I lapsed from one into another.
That in a reverie mine eyes I closed.
And meditation into dream transmuted. 145
CANTO XIX.
TT was the hour when the diurnal heat
No more can warm the coldness of the moon.
Vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn,
When geomancers their Fortuna Major
See in the orient before the dawn s
Rise by a path that long remains not dim.
There came to me in dreams a stammering woman.
Squint in her eyes, and in her feet distorted.
With hands dissevered, and of sallow hue.
I looked at her ; and as the sun restores lo
The frigid members, which the night benumbs.
Even thus my gaze did render voluble
Her tongue, and made her all erect thereafter
In little while, and the lost countenance
As love desires it so in her did color. is
When in this wise she had her speech unloosed.
She 'gan to sing so, that with difficulty
Could I have turned my thoughts away from her.
Ptcrgatorio xix. 1 1 9
" I am," she sang, " I am the Siren sweet
Who mariners amid the main unman, a©
So full am I of pleasantness to hear.
I drew Ulysses from his wandering way
Unto my song, and he who dwells with me
Seldom departs, so wholly I content him."
Her mouth was not yet closed again, before 35
Appeared a Lady saintly and alert
Close at my side to put her to confusion.
" Virgilius, O Virgilius ! who is this ? "
Sternly she said; and he was drawing near
With eyes still fixed upon that modest one. 30
She seized the other and in front laid open.
Rending her garments, and her belly showed me;
This waked me with the stench that issued from it.
I turned mine eyes, and good Virgilius said :
"At least thrice have I called thee; rise and come; ss
Find we the opening by which thou mayst enter."
I rose ; and full already of high day
Were all the circles of the Sacred Mountain,
And with the new sun at our back we went.
Following behind him, I my forehead bore 4°
Like unto one who has it laden with thought.
Who makes himself the half arch of a bridge.
I20 The Divine Comedy
When I heard say, " Come, here the passage is,"
Spoken in a manner gentle and benign,
Such as we hear not in this mortal region. " 45
With open wings, which of a swan appeared.
Upward he turned us who thus spake to us.
Between the two walls of the solid granite.
He moved his pinions afterwards and fanned us.
Affirming those qui lugent to be blessed, 5°
For they shall have their souls with comfort filled.
" What aileth thee, that aye to earth thou gazest ? "
To me my Guide began to say, we both
Somewhat beyond the Angel having mounted.
And I : " With such misgiving makes me go s<:>
A vision new, which bends me to itself.
So that I cannot from the thought withdraw me.'*
" Didst thou behold," he said, " that old enchantress.
Who sole above us henceforth is lamented ?
Didst thou behold how man is freed from her .? 60
Suffice it thee, and smite earth with thy heels.
Thine eyes lift upward to the lure, that whirls
The Eternal King with revolutions vast."
Even as the hawk, that first his feet surveys.
Then turns him to the call and stretches forward, 65
Through the desire of food that draws him thither,
Ptirgatorio xix. 121
Such I became, and such, as far as cleaves
The rock to give a way to him w^ho mounts,
• Went on to w^here the circling doth begin.
On the fifth circle w^hen I had come forth, 7°
People I saw upon it who were weeping.
Stretched prone upon the ground, all downward turned.
*^Adhcesit pavimento anima 7}iea,"
I heard them say with sighings so profound.
That hardly could the words be understood. 75
" O ye elect of God, whose sufferings
Justice and Hope both render less severe.
Direct ye us towards the high ascents."
" If ye are come secure from this prostration.
And wish to find the way most speedily, 80
Let your right hands be evermore outside."
Thus did the Poet ask, and thus was answered
By them somewhat in front of us ; whence I
In what was spoken divined the rest concealed.
And unto my Lord's eyes mine eyes I turned ; 85
Whence he assented with a cheerful sign
To what the sight of my desire implored.
When of myself I could dispose at will.
Above that creature did I draw myself.
Whose words before had caused me to take note, 90
16
122 Tlie Divine Comedy
Saying : " O Spirit, in whom weeping ripens
That without which to God we cannot turn.
Suspend awhile for me thy greater care.
Who wast thou, and why are your backs turned upwards.
Tell me, and if thou wouldst that I procure thee 95
Anything there whence living I departed."
And he to me : " Wherefore our backs the heaven
Turns to itself, know shalt thou ; but beforehand
S)cias quod ego fui successor Petri.
Between Siestri and Chiaveri descends 100
A river beautiful, and of its name
The title of my blood its summit makes.
A month and little more essayed I how [it;
Weighs the great cloak on him from mire who keeps
For all the other burdens seem a feather. 105
Tardy, ah woe is me ! was my conversion ;
But when the Roman Shepherd I was made.
Then I discovered life to be a lie.
I saw that there the heart was not at rest.
Nor farther in that life could one ascend ; "o
Whereby the love of this was kindled in me.
Until that time a wretched soul and parted
From God was I, and wholly avaricious ;
Now, as thou seest, I here am punished for it.
Pttr gator io xix. 123
What avarice does is here made manifest us
In the purgation of these'souls converted.
And no more bitter pain the Mountain has.
Even as our eye did not uplift itself
Aloft, being fastened upon earthly things.
So justice here has merged it in the earth. no
As avarice had extinguished our affection
For every good, whereby was action lost.
So justice here doth hold us in restraint.
Bound and imprisoned by the feet and hands ;
And so long as it pleases the just Lord i^s
Shall we remain immovable and prostrate."
I on my knees had fallen, and wished to speak ;
But even as I began, and he was 'ware.
Only by listening, of my reverence,
"What cause," he said, "has downward bent thee thus?"
And I to him : " For your own dignity, 131
Standing, my conscience stung me with remorse."
"Straighten thy legs, and upward raise thee, brother,"
He answered : " Err not, fellow-servant am I
With thee and with the others to one power. 13s
If e'er that holy, evangelic sound.
Which sayeth neque nubcnt, thou hast heard.
Well canst thou see why in this wise I speak.
124 The Divine Comedy
Now go; no longer will I have thee linger,
Because thy stay doth incommode my weeping, 140
With which I ripen that which thou hast said.
On earth I have a grandchild named Alagia,
Good in herself, unless indeed our house
Malevolent may make her by example,
And she alone remains to me on earth." »4S
CANTO XX.
TLL strives the will against a better will ;
Therefore, to pleasure him, against my pleasure
I drew the sponge not saturate from the water.
Onward I moved, and onward moved my Leader,
Through vacant places, skirting still the rock, s
As on a wall close to the battlements;
For they that through their eyes pour drop by drop
The malady which all the world pervades,
On the other side too near the verge approach.
Accursed mayst thou be, thou old she-wolf, lo
That more than all the other beasts hast prey.
Because of hunger infinitely hollow!
O' heaven, in whose gyrations some appear
To think conditions here below are changed.
When will he come through whom she shall depart ? is
Onward we went with footsteps slow and scarce.
And I attentive to the shades I heard
Piteously weeping and bemoaning them ;
126 Tlie Divine Comedy
And I by peradventure heard " Sweet Mary ! '*
Uttered in front of us amid the weeping 20
Even as a woman does who is in child-birth ;
And in continuance : " How poor thou wast
Is manifested by that hostelry
Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down."
Thereafterward I heard : " O good Fabricius, 25
Virtue with poverty didst thou prefer
To the possession of great wealth with vice.'*
So pleasurable were these words to me
That I drew farther onward to have knowledge
Touching that spirit whence they seemed to come.
He furthermore was speaking of the largess 31
Which Nicholas unto the maidens gave.
In order to conduct their youth to honor.
" O soul that dost so excellently speak,
Tell me who wast thou," said I, "and why only 35
Thou dost renew these praises well deserved ?
Not without recompense shall be thy word.
If I return to finish the short journey
Of that life which is flying to its end."
And he : "I '11 tell thee, not for any comfort 40
I may expect from earth, but that so much
Grace shines in thee or ever thou art dead.
Ptirgaiorio xx. 127
I was the root of that malignant plant
Which overshadows all the Christian world.
So that good fruit is seldom gathered from it ; 45
But if Douay and Ghent and Lille and Bruges
Had power, soon vengeance would be taken on it ;
And this I pray of Him who judges all.
Hugh Capet was I called upon the earth ;
From me were born the Louises and Philips, 5°
By whom in later days has France been governed.
I was the son of a Parisian butcher.
What time the ancient kings had perished all.
Excepting one, contrite in cloth of gray.
I found me grasping in my hands the rein 55
Of the realm's government, and so great power
Of new acquest, and so with friends abounding.
That to the widowed diadem promoted
The head of mine own offspring was, from whom
The consecrated bones of these began. 60
So long as the great dowry of Provence
Out of my blood took not the sense of shame,
'T was little worth, but still it did no harm.
Then it began with falsehood and with force
Its rapine ; and thereafter, for amends, 65
Took Ponthieu, Normandy, and Gascony.
128 The Divine Comedy
Charles came to Italy, and for amends
A victim made of Conradin, and then
Thrust Thomas back to heaven, for amends.
A time I see, not veryi distant now, 70
Which draweth forth another Charles from France,
The better to make known both him and his.
Unarmed he goes, and only with the lance
That Judas jousted with ; and that he thrusts
So that he makes the paunch of Florence burst. 75
He thence not land, but sin and infamy.
Shall gain, so much more grievous to himself
As the more light such damage he accounts.
The other, now gone forth, ta'en in his ship.
See I his daughter sell, and chaffer for her so
As corsairs do with other female slaves.
What more, O Avarice, canst thou do to us.
Since thou my blood so to thyself hast drawn.
It careth not for its own proper flesh ?
That less may seem the future ill and past, ss
I see the flower-de-luce Alagna enter.
And Christ in his own Vicar captive made.
I see him yet another time derided;
I see renewed the vinegar and gall.
And between living thieves I see him slain. 90
Pttr gator io xx. 129
I see the modern Pilate so relentless,
This does not sate him, but without decretal
He to the temple bears his sordid sails !
When, O my Lord ! shall I be joyful made
By looking on the vengeance which, concealed, 95
Makes sweet thine anger in thy secrecy ?
What I was saying of that only bride
Of the Holy Ghost, and which occasioned thee
To turn towards me for some commentary.
So long has been ordained to all our prayers 100
As the day lasts; but when the night comes on,
Contrary sound we take instead thereof.
At that time we repeat Pygmalion,
Of whom a traitor, thief, and parricide
Made his insatiable desire of gold ; 105
And the misery of avaricious Midas,
That followed his inordinate demand.
At which forevermore one needs must laugh.
The foolish Achan each one then records.
And how he stole the spoils ; so that the wrath no
Of Joshua still appears to sting him here.
Then we accuse Sapphira with her husband.
We laud the hoof-beats Heliodorus had.
And the whole mount in infamy encircles
17
130 Tlic Divine Comedy
Polymnestor who murdered Polydorus. 115
Here finally is cried : * O Crassus, tell us.
For thou dost know, what is the taste of gold?'
Sometimes we speak, one loud, another low,
4-ccording to desire of speech, that spurs us
To greater now and now to lesser pace. 120
But in the good that here by day is talked of,
Erewhile alone I was not ; yet near by
No other person lifted up his voice."
From him already we departed were.
And made endeavor to o'ercome the road 125
As much as was permitted to our power.
When I perceived, like something that is falling.
The mountain tremble, whence a chill seized on me.
As seizes him who to his death is going.
Certes so violently shook not Delos, 130
Before Latona made her nest therein
To give birth to the two eyes of the heaven.
Then upon all sides there began a cry.
Such that the Master drew himself towards me.
Saying, " Fear not, while I am guiding thee." 135
" Gloria in excels is T)eo^' all
Were saying, from what near I comprehended.
Where it was possible to hear the cry.
Ptirgatorio xx. 131
We paused immovable and in suspense.
Even as the shepherds who first heard that song, 140
Until the trembling ceased, and it was finished.
Then we resumed again our holy path.
Watching the shades that lay upon the ground,
Already turned to their accustomed plaint.
No ignorance ever with so great a strife J45
Had rendered me importunate to know.
If erreth not in this my memory,
As meditating then I seemed to have;
Nor out of haste to question did I dare.
Nor of myself I there could aught perceive; 15°
So I went onward timorous and thoughtful.
CANTO XXI,
'T^HE natural thirst, that ne'er is satisfied
Excepting with the water for whose grace
The woman of Samaria besought.
Put me in travail, and haste goaded me
Along the encumbered path behind my Leader, s
And I was pitying that righteous vengeance;
And lo ! in the same manner as Luke writeth
That Christ appeared to two upon the way
From the sepulchral cave already risen,
A shade appeared to us, and came behind us, lo
Down gazing on the prostrate multitude.
Nor were we ware of it, until it spake,
Saying, "My brothers, may God give you peace!"
We turned us suddenly, and Virgilius rendered
To him the countersign thereto conforming. is
Thereon began he : " In the blessed council.
Thee may the court veracious place in peace.
That me doth banish in eternal exile ! "
Pttr gator io xxi. 133
" How," said he, and the while we went with speed,
"If ye are shades whom God deigns not on high, 20
Who up his stairs so far has guided you ? "
And said my Teacher : " If thou note the marks
Which this one bears, and which the Angel traces.
Well shalt thou see he with the good must reign.
But because she who spinneth day and night 25
For him had not yet drawn the distaff off.
Which Clotho lays for each one and compacts.
His soul, which is thy sister and my own.
In coming upwards could not come alone.
By reason that it sees not in our fashion. 3°
Whence I was drawn from out the ample throat
Of Hell to be his guide, and I shall guide him
As far on as my school has power to lead.
But tell us, if thou knowest, why such a shudder
Erewhile the mountain gave, and why together 3s
All seemed to cry, as far as its moist feet ? "
In asking he so hit the very eye
Of my desire, that merely with the hope
My thirst became the less unsatisfied.
" Naught is there," he began, " that without order 4°
May the religion of the mountain feel.
Nor aught that may be foreign to its custom.
134 ^^^ Divine Comedy
Free is it here from every permutation ;
What from itself heaven in itself receiveth
Can be of this the cause, and naught beside ; 45
Because that neither rain, nor hail, nor snow.
Nor dew, nor hoar-frost any higher falls
Than the short, little stairway of three steps.
Dense clouds do not appear, nor rarefied.
Nor coruscation, nor the daughter of Thaumas, 5°
That often upon earth her region shifts ;
No arid vapor any farther rises
Than to the top of the three steps I spake of.
Whereon the Vicar of Peter has his feet.
Lower down perchance it trembles less or more, '^^
But, for the wind that in the earth is hidden
I know not how, up here it never trembled.
It trembles here, whenever any soul
Feels itself pure, so that it soars, or moves
To mount aloft, and such a cry attends it. 60
Of purity the will alone gives proof.
Which, being wholly free to change its convent.
Takes by surprise the soul, and helps it fly.
First it wills well ; but the desire permits not.
Which divine justice with the self-same will 65
There was to sin, upon the torment sets.
Picrgatorio xxL 135
And I, who have been lying in this pain
Five hundred years and more, but just now felt
A free volition for a better seat.
Therefore thou heardst the earthquake, and the pious 70
Spirits along the mountain rendering praise
Unto the Lord, that soon he speed them upwards."
So said he to him ; and since we enjoy
As much in drinking as the thirst is great,
I could not say how much it did me good. 75
And the wise Leader : " Now I see the net
That snares you here, and how ye are set free.
Why the earth quakes, and wherefore ye rejoice.
Now who thou wast be pleased that I may know;
And why so many centuries thou hast here so
Been lying, let me gather from thy words."
" In days when the good Titus, with the aid
Of the supremest King, avenged the wounds
Whence issued forth the blood by Judas sold.
Under the name that most endures and honors, 85
Was I on earth," that spirit made reply,
" Greatly renowned, but not with faith as yet.
My vocal spirit was so sweet, that Rome
Me, a Thoulousian, drew unto herself.
Where I deserved to deck my brows with myrtle. 90
136 Tlie Divme Comedy
Statius the people name me still on earth ;
I sang of Thebes, and then of great Achilles;
But on the way fell with my second burden.
The seeds unto my ardor were the sparks
Of that celestial flame which heated me, 95
Whereby more than a thousand have been fired;
Of the ^neid speak I, which to me
A mother was, and was my nurse in song ;
Without this weighed I not a drachma's weight.
And to have lived upon the earth what time 10°
Virgilius lived, I would accept one sun
More than I must ere issuing from my ban."
These words towards me made Virgilius turn
With looks that in their silence said, " Be silent ! "
But yet the power that wills cannot do all things; 105
For tears and laughter are such pursuivants
Unto the passion from which each springs forth.
In the most truthful least the will they follow.
I only smiled, as one who gives the wink ;
Whereat the shade was silent, and it gazed no
Into mine eyes, where most expression dwells;
And, " As thou well mayst consummate a labor
So great," it said, "why did thy face just now
Display to me the lightning of a smile ? "
Ptirgatorio xxi. 137
Now am I caught on this side and on that ; 115
One keeps me silent, one to speak conjures me.
Wherefore I sigh, and I am understood.
"Speak," said my Master, "and be not afraid
Of speaking, but speak out, and say to him
What he demands with such solicitude." 120
Whence I : " Thou peradventure marvellest,
O antique spirit, at the smile I gave ;
But I will have more wonder seize upon thee.
This one^ who guides on high these eyes of mine.
Is that Virgilius, from whom thou didst learn 125
To sing aloud of men and of the Gods.
If other cause thou to my smile imputedst,
Abandon it as false, and trust it was
Those words which thou hast spoken concerning him."
Already he was stooping to embrace 130
My Teacher's feet ; but he said to him : " Brother,
Do not ; for shade thou art, and shade beholdest."
And he uprising : " Now canst thou the sum
Of love which warms me to thee comprehend.
When this our vanity I disremember, 13s
Treating a shadow as substantial thing."
18
CANTO XXII.
\ LREADY was the Angel left behind us.
The Angel who to the sixth round had turned us,
Having erased one mark from off my face ;
And those who have in justice their desire
Had said to us, " Beati,'' in their voices, 5
With " sitioy' and without more ended it.
And I, more light than through the other passes,
Went onward so, that without any labor
I followed upward the swift-footed spirits ;
When thus Virgilius began : "The love lo
Kindled by virtue aye another kindles.
Provided outwardly its flame appean
Hence from the hour that Juvenal descended
Among us into the infernal Limbo,
Who made apparent to me thy affection, 15
My kindliness towards thee was as great
As ever bound one to an unseen person.
So that these stairs will now seem short to me.
Pttrgatorio xxii. 139
But tell me, and forgive me as a friend,
If too great confidence let loose the rein, ao
And as a friend now hold discourse with me ;
How was it possible within thy breast
For avarice to find place, 'mid so much wisdom
As thou wast filled with by thy diligence ? "
These words excited Statins at first as
Somewhat to laughter ; afterward he answered :
" Each word of thine is love's dear sign to me.
Verily oftentimes do things appear
Which give fallacious matter to our doubts.
Instead of the true causes which are hidden ! 30
Thy question shows me thy belief to be
That I was niggard in the other life.
It may be from the circle where I was ;
Therefore know thou, that avarice was removed
Too far from me ; and this extravagance 35
Thousands of lunar periods have punished.
And were it not that I my thoughts uplifted.
When I the passage heard where thou exclaimest.
As if indignant, unto human nature,
*To what impellest thou not, O cursed hunger 40
Of gold, the appetite of mortal men ? '
Revolving I should feel the dismal joustings.
140 TJie Divine Comedy
Then I perceived the hands could spread too wide
Their wings in spending, and repented me
As well of that as of my other sins ; 45
How many with shorn hair shall rise again
Because of ignorance, which from this sin
Cuts off repentance living and in death!
And know that the transgression which rebuts
By direct opposition any sin 50
Together with it here its verdure dries.
Therefore if I have been among that folk
Which mourns its avarice, to purify me.
For its opposite has this befallen me."
" Now when thou sangest the relentless weapons s5
Of the twofold affliction of Jocasta,"
The singer of the Songs Bucolic said,
" From that which Clio there with thee preludes.
It does not seem that yet had made thee faithful
That faith without which no good works suffice. 60
If this be so, what candles or what sun
Scattered thy darkness so that thou didst trim
Thy sails behind the Fisherman thereafter ? '*
And he to him : " Thou first directedst me
Towards Parnassus, in its grots to drink, 65
And first concerning God didst me enlighten.
Pttr gator io xxii. 141
Thou didst as he who walketh in the night.
Who bears his light behind, which helps him not.
But maketh wise the persons after him.
When thou didst say: *The age renews itself, 70
Justice returns, and man's primeval time.
And a new progeny descends from heaven.'
Through thee I Poet was, through thee a Christian ;
But that thou better see what I design.
To color it will I extend my hand. 75
Already was the world in every part
Pregnant with the true creed, disseminated
By messengers of the eternal kingdom ;
And thy assertion, spoken of above.
With the new preachers was in unison ; 80
Whence I to visit them the custom took.
Then they became so holy in my sight.
That, when Domitian persecuted them.
Not without tears of mine were their laments;
And all the while that I on earth remained, 85
Them I befriended, and their upright customs
Made me disparage all the other sects.
And ere I led the Greeks unto the rivers
Of Thebes, in poetry, I was baptized.
But out of fear was covertly a Christian, 90
142 The Divine Comedy
For a long time professing paganism ;
And this lukewarmness caused me the fourth circle
To circuit round more than four centuries.
Thou, therefore, who hast raised the covering
That hid from me whatever good I speak of, 9s
While in ascending we have time to spare.
Tell me, in what place is our friend Terentius,
Cascilius, Plautus, Varro, if thou knowest ;
Tell me if they are damned, and in what alley."
"These, Persius and myself, and others many," 100
Replied my Leader, "with that Grecian are
Whom more than all the rest the Muses suckled.
In the first circle of the prison blind ;
Ofttimes we of the mountain hold discourse
Which has our nurses ever with itself. 105
Euripides is with us, Antiphon,
Simonides, Agatho, and many other
Greeks who of old their brows with laurel decked.
There some of thine own people may be seen,
Antigone, Deiphile and Argia, "o
And there Ismene mournful as of old.
There she is seen who pointed out Langia ;
There is Tiresias' daughter, and there Thetis,
And there Deidamia with her sisters,"
Purgatorto xxii. 143
Silent already 'were the poets both, us
Attent once more in looking round about.
From the ascent and from the walls released ;
And four handmaidens of the day already
Were left behind, and at the pole the fifth
Was pointing upward still its burning horn, 120
What time my Guide :" " I think that tow'rds the edge
Our dexter shoulders it behoves us turn.
Circling the mount as we are wont to do."
Thus in that region custom was our ensign ;
And we resumed our way with less suspicion i^s
For the assenting of that worthy soul.
They in advance went on, and I alone
Behind them, and I listened to their speech.
Which gave me lessons in the art of song.
But soon their sweet discourses interrupted 130
A tree which midway in the road we found,
With apples sweet and grateful to the smell.
And even as a fir-tree tapers upward
From bough to bough, so downwardly did that ;
I think in order that no one might climb it. 135
On that side where our pathway was enclosed
Fell from the lofty rock a limpid water.
And spread itself abroad upon the leaves.
144 The Divine Comedy
The Poets twain unto the tree drew near.
And from among the foliage a voice ho
Cried : " Of this food ye shall have scarcity."
Then said : " More thoughtful Mary was of making
The marriage feast complete and honorable.
Than of her mouth which now for you responds ;
And for their drink the ancient Roman women hs
With water were content ; and Daniel
Disparaged food, and understanding won.
The primal age was beautiful as gold ;
Acorns it made with hunger savorous.
And nectar every rivulet with thirst. 15°
Honey and locusts were the aliments
That fed the Baptist in the wilderness ;
Whence he is glorious, and so magnified
As by the Evangel is revealed to you."
CANTO XXIII.
'TpHE while among the verdant leaves mine eyes
I riveted, as he is wont to do
Who wastes his life pursuing little birds.
My more than Father said unto me: "Son,
Come now; because the time that is ordained us
More usefully should be apportioned out."
I turned my face and no less soon my steps
Unto the Sages, who were speaking so
They made the going of no cost to me ;
And lo ! were heard a song and a lament,
^^ Labia mea, Do?7iine,'' in fashion
Such that delight and dolence it brought forth.
" O my sweet Father, what is this I hear ? "
Began I ; and he answered : ** Shades that go
Perhaps the knot unloosing of their debt."
In the same way that thoughtful pilgrims do.
Who, unknown people on the road o'ertaking,
Turn themselves round to them, and do not stop,
19
146 The Divine Comedy
Even thus, behind us with a swifter motion
Coming and passing onward, gazed upon us a©
A crowd of spirits silent and devout.
Each in his eyes was dark and cavernous,
PalHd in face, and so emaciate
That from the bones the skin did shape itself.
I do not think that so to merest rind as
Could Erisichthon have been withered up
By famine, when most fear he had of it.
Thinking within myself I said : " Behold,
This is the folk who lost Jerusalem,
When Mary made a prey of her own son.'* 3°
Their sockets were like rings without the gems ;
Whoever in the face of men reads 07no
Might well in these have recognized the in.
Who would believe the odor of an apple.
Begetting longing, could consume them so, 3s
And that of water, without knowing how?
I still was wondering what so famished them.
For the occasion not yet manifest
Of their emaciation and sad squalor ;
And lo ! from out the hollow of his head 4°
His eyes a shade turned on me, and looked keenly;
Then cried aloud; " What grace to me is this 1 "
Purgatorio xxiii. 147
Never should I have known hitn by his look ;
But in his voice was evident to me
That which his aspect had suppressed within it. 4s
This spark within me wholly re-enkindled
My recognition of his altered face.
And I recalled the features of Forese.
" Ah, do not look at this dry leprosy,"
Entreated he, " which doth my skin discolor, 5°
Nor at default of flesh that I may have ;
But tell me truth of thee, and who are those
Two souls, that yonder make for thee an escort ;
Do not delay in speaking unto me."
" That face of thine, which dead I once bewept, ss
Gives me for weeping now no lesser grief,"
I answered him, " beholding it so changed !
But tell me, for God's sake, what thus denudes you ?
Make me not speak while I am marvelling,
For ill speaks he who 's full of other longings." 60
And he to me : " From the eternal council
Falls power into the water and the tree
Behind us left, whereby I grow so thin.
All of this people who lamenting sing.
For following beyond measure appetite 65
In hunger and thirst are here re-sanctified.
148 Tlie Divine Comedy
Desire to eat and drink enkindles in us
The scent that issues from the apple-tree.
And from the spray that sprinkles o'er the verdure;
And not a single time alone, this ground 7°
Encircling, is renewed our pain, —
I say our pain, and ought to say our solace, —
For the same wish doth lead us to the tree
Which led the Christ rejoicing to say £//,
When with his veins he liberated us." 75
And I to him : " Forese, from that day
When for a better life thou changedst worlds.
Up to this time five years have not rolled round.
If sooner were the power exhausted in thee
Of sinning more, than thee the hour surprised 80
Of that good sorrow which to God reweds us.
How hast thou come up hitherward already ?
I thought to find thee down there underneath.
Where time for time doth restitution make."
And he to me : " Thus speedily has led me 85
To drink of the sweet wormwood of these torments.
My Nella with her overflowing tears ;
She with her prayers devout and with her sighs
Has drawn me from the coast where one awaits.
And from the other circles set me free. 9°
Pur gator io xxiii. 149
So much more dear and pleasing is to God
My little widow, whom so much I loved.
As in good works she is the more alone ;
For the Barbagia of Sardinia
By far more modest in its women is 95
Than the Barbagia I have left her in.
O brother sweet, what wilt thou have me say ?
A future time is in my sight already.
To which this hour will not be very old.
When from the pulpit shall be interdicted loo
To the unblushing womankind of Florence
To go about displaying breast and paps.
What savages were e'er, what Saracens,
Who stood in need, to make them covered go.
Of spiritual or other discipline ? 105
But if the shameless women were assured
Of what swift Heaven prepares for them, already
Wide open would they have their mouths to howl ;
For if my foresight here deceive me not.
They shall be sad ere he has bearded cheeks "o
Who now is hushed to sleep with lullaby.
O brother, now no longer hide thee from me;
See that not only I, but all these people
Are gazing there, where thou dost veil the sun."
150 TJie Divine Comedy
Whence I to him : " If thou bring back to mind us
What thou with me hast been and I with thee,
The present memory will be grievous still.
Out of that life he turned me back who goes
In front of me, two days agone when round
The sister of him yonder showed herself," lao
And to the sun I pointed. " Through the deep
Night of the truly dead has this one led me,
With this true flesh, that follows after him.
Thence his encouragements have led me up.
Ascending and still circling round the mount i^s
That you doth straighten, whom the world made
He says that he will bear me company, [crooked.
Till I shall be where Beatrice will be;
There it behoves me to remain without him.
This is Virgilius, who thus says to me," 13°
And him I pointed at ; " the other is
That shade for whom just now shook every slope
Your realm, that from itself discharges him."
CANTO XXIV.
'VrOR speech the going, nor the going that
Slackened ; but talking we went bravely on.
Even as a vessel urged by a good wind.
And shadows, that appeared things doubly dead.
From out the sepulchres of their eyes betrayed 5
Wonder at me, aware that I was living.
And I, continuing my colloquy.
Said : " Peradventure he goes up more slowly
Than he would do, for other people's sake.
But tell me, if thou knowest, where is Piccarda ; 10
Tell me if any one of note I see
Among this folk that gazes at me so."
"My sister, who, 'twixt beautiful and good,
I know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing
Already in her crown on high Olympus." 15
So said he first, and then : " 'T is not forbidden
To name each other here, so milked away
Is our resemblance by our dieting.
152 The Divine Comedy
This," pointing with his finger, "is Buonagiunta,
Buonagiunta of Lucca ; and that face ao
Beyond him there, more peaked than the others.
Has held the holy Church within his arms ;
From Tours was he, and purges by his fasting
Bolsena's eels and the Vernaccia wine."
He named me many others one by one; as
And all contented seemed at being named.
So that for this I saw not one dark look.
I saw for hunger bite the empty air
Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface,
Who with his crook had pastured many people. 30
I saw Messer Marchese, who had leisure
Once at Forli for drinking with less dryness,
And he was one who ne'er felt satisfied.
But as he does who scans, and then doth prize
One more than others, did I him of Lucca, 35
Who seemed to take most cognizance of me.
He murmured, and I know not what Gentucca
From that place heard I, where he felt tliQ v/ound
Of justice, that doth macerate them so.
"O soul," I said, "that seemest so desirous 40
To speak with me, do so that I may hear thee.
And with thy speech appease thyself and me."
Purgatorio xxiv. 153
"A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,"
Began he, "who to thee shall pleasant make
My city, howsoever men may blame it. 4S
Thou shalt go on thy way with this prevision;
If by my murmuring thou hast been deceived.
True things hereafter will declare it to thee.
But say if him I here behold, who forth
Evoked the new-invented rhymes, beginning, so
Ladies, that have intelligeiice of love V*
And I to him : " One am I, who, whenever
Love doth inspire me, note, and in that measure
Which he within me dictates, singing go."
" O brother, now I see," he said, " the knot 5S.
Which me, the Notary, and Guittone held
Short of the sweet new style that now I hear.
I do perceive full clearly how your pens
Go closely following after him who dictates.
Which with our own forsooth came not to pass; 60
And he who sets himself to go beyond.
No difference sees from one style to another" ;
And as if satisfied, he held his peace.
Even as the birds, that winter tow'rds the Nile,
Sometimes into a phalanx form themselves, 65
Then fly in greater haste, and go in file;
20
154 ^^^^ Divine Comedy
In such wise all the people who were there.
Turning their faces, hurried on their steps,
Both hy their leanness and their wishes light.
And as a man, who weary is with trotting, 70
Lets his companions onward go, and walks.
Until he vents the panting of his chest ;
So did Forese let the holy flock
Pass by, and came with me behind it, saying,
"When will it be that I again shall see thee?" 75
«
"How long," I answered, "I may live, I know not;
Yet my return will not so speedy be.
But I shall sooner in desire arrive;
Because the place where I was set to live
From day to day of good is more depleted, 80
And unto dismal ruin seems ordained."
"Now go," he said, "for him most guilty of it
At a beast's tail behold I dragged along
Towards the valley where is no repentance.
Faster at every step the beast is going, 85
Increasing evermore until it smites him.
And leaves the body vilely mutilated.-
Not long those wheels shall turn," and he uplifted
His eyes to heaven, "ere shall be clear to thee
That which my speech no farther can declare. 9°
Purgatorio xxiv. 155
Now stay behind ; because the time so precious
Is in this kingdom, that I lose too much
By coming onward thus abreast with thee."
As sometimes issues forth upon a gallop
A cavalier from out a troop that ride, 95
And seeks the honor of the first encounter.
So he with greater strides departed from us;
And on the road remained I with those two.
Who were such mighty marshals of the world.
And when before us he had gone so far 100
Mine eyes became to him such pursuivants
As was my understanding to his words.
Appeared to me with laden and living boughs
Another apple-tree, and not far distant,
From having but just then turned thitherward. 105
People I saw beneath it lift their hands.
And cry I know not what towards the leaves.
Like little children eager and deluded.
Who pray, and he they pray to doth not answer.
But, to make very keen their appetite, no
Holds their desire aloft, and hides it not.
Then they departed as if undeceived;
And now we came unto the mighty tree
Which prayers and tears so manifold refuses.
156 Tlie Divine Comedy
" Pass farther onward without drawing near; 115
The tree of which Eve ate is higher up,
And out of that one has this tree been raised."
Thus said I know not who among the branches ;
Whereat VirgiHus, Statius, and myself
Went crowding forward on the side that rises. 120
"Be mindful," said he, "of the accursed ones
Formed of the cloud-rack, who inebriate
Combated Theseus with their double breasts ;
And of the Jews who showed them soft in drinking,
Whence Gideon would not have them for companions,
When he tow'rds Midian the hills descended." ^^-^
Thus, closely pressed to one of the two borders.
On passed we, hearing sins of gluttony.
Followed forsooth by miserable gains;
Then set at large upon the lonely road, 130
A thousand steps and more we onward went.
In contemplation, each without a word.
"What go ye thinking thus, ye three alone?"
Said suddenly a voice, whereat I started
As terrified and timid beasts are wont. 13s
I raised my head to see who this might be,
And never in a furnace was there seen
Metals or glass so lucent and so red
Pttrgatorio xxiv. 1 5 7
As one I saw who said : " If it may please you
To mount aloft, here it behoves you turn; 140
This way goes he who goeth after peace."
His aspect had bereft me of my sight.
So that I turned me back unto my Teachers,
Like one who goeth as his hearing guides him.
And as, the harbinger of early dawn, 145
The air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance.
Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers.
So did I feel a breeze strike in the midst
My front, and felt the moving of the plumes
That breathed around an odor of ambrosia; 15°
And heard it said : " Blessed are they whom grace
So much illumines, that the love of taste
Excites not in their breasts too great desire.
Hungering at all times so far as is just."
CANTO XXV.
IVrOW was it the ascent no hindrance brooked,
Because the sun had his meridian circle
To Taurus left, and night to Scorpio;
Wherefore as doth a man who tarries not.
But goes his way, whate'er to him appear, 5
If of necessity the sting transfix him.
In this wise did we enter through the gap.
Taking the stairway, one before the other.
Which by its narrowness divides the climbers.
And as the little stork that lifts its wing 10
With a desire to fly, and does not venture
To leave the nest, and lets it downward droop.
Even such was I, with the desire of asking
Kindled and quenched, unto the motion coming
He makes who doth address himself to speak. 15
Not for our pace, though rapid it might be.
My father sweet forbore, but said : "Let fly
The bow of speech thou to the barb hast drawn."
Pztrgatorio xxv. 159
With confidence I opened then my mouth,
And I began : " How can one meagre grow 20
There where the need of nutriment appHes not? "
" If thou wouldst call to mind how Meleager
Was wasted by the wasting of a brand.
This would not," said he, "be to thee so sour;
And wouldst thou think how at each tremulous motion 25
Trembles within a mirror your own image ;
That which seems hard would mellow seem to thee.
But that thou mayst content thee in thy wish
Lo Statius here ; and him I call and pray
He now will be the healer of thy wounds." 30
"If I unfold to him the eternal vengeance,"
Responded Statius, "where thou present art.
Be my excuse that I can naught deny thee."
Then he began : " Son, if these words of mine
Thy mind doth contemplate and doth receive, 35
They '11 be thy light unto the How thou sayest.
The perfect blood, which never is drunk up
Into the thirsty veins, and which remaineth
Like food that from the table thou removest.
Takes in the heart for all the human members 40
Virtue informative, as being that
Which to be changed to them goes through the veins.
i6o Tlie Divine Comedy
Again digest, descends it where 'tis better
Silent to be than say; and then drops thence
Upon another's blood in natural vase. 4s
There one together with the other mingles,
One to be passive meant, the other active
By reason of the perfect place it springs from ;
And being conjoined, begins to operate.
Coagulating first, then vivifying s©
What for its matter it had made consistent.
The active virtue, being made a soul
As of a plant, (in so far different.
This on the way is, that arrived already,)
Then works so much, that now it moves and feels 55
Like a sea-fungus, and then undertakes
To organize the powers whose seed it is.
Now, Son, dilates and now distends itself
The virtue from the generator's heart.
Where nature is intent on all the members. 60
But how from animal it man becomes
Thou dost not see as yet ; this is a point
Which made a wiser man than thou once err
So far, that in his doctrine separate
He made the soul from possible intellect, 65
For he no organ saw by this assumed.
Pur gator io xxv. i6i
Open thy breast unto the truth that 's coming.
And know that, just as soon as in the foetus
The articulation of the brain is perfect.
The primal Motor turns to it well pleased 70
At so great art of nature, and inspires
A spirit new with virtue all replete,
Which what it finds there active doth attract
Into its substance, and becomes one soul.
Which lives, and feels, and on itself revolves. 75
And that thou less may wonder at my word,
Behold the sun's heat, which becometh wine.
Joined to the juice that from the vine distils.
Whenever Lachesis has no more thread.
It separates from the flesh, and virtually 80
Bears with itself the human and divine ;
The other faculties are voiceless all ;
The memory, the intelligence, and the will
In action far more vigorous than before.
Without a pause it falleth of itself 85
In marvellous way on one shore or the other;
There of its roads it first is cognizant.
Soon as the place there circumscribeth it.
The virtue informative rays round about.
As, and as much as, in the living members. 9°
1 62 Tlie Divine Comedy
And even as the air, when full of rain.
By alien rays that are therein reflected.
With divers colors shows itself adorned.
So there the neighboring air doth shape itself
Into that form which doth impress upon it 9S
Virtually the soul that has stood still.
And then in manner of the little flame.
Which followeth the fire where'er it shifts.
After the spirit followeth its new form.
Since afterwards it takes from this its semblance, loo
It is called shade; and thence it organizes
Thereafter every sense, even to the sight.
Thence is it that we speak, and thence we laugh ;
Thence is it that we form the tears and sighs.
That on the mountain thou mayhap hast heard. 105
According as impress us our desires
And other affections, so the shade is shaped.
And this is cause of what thou wonderest at."
And now unto the last of all the circles
Had we arrived, and to the right hand turned, no
And were attentive to another care.
There the embankment shoots forth flames of fire.
And upward doth the cornice breathe a blast
That drives them back, and from itself sequesters.
Purgatorio xxv. i6
1
Hence we must needs go on the open side, us
And one by one; and I did fear the fire
On this side, and on that the falling down.
My Leader said : "Along this place one ought
To keep upon the eyes a tightened rein,
Seeing that one so easily might err." no
" Summce Deus cletnentice y' in the bosom
Of the great burning chanted then I heard.
Which made me no less eager to turn round;
And spirits saw I walking through the flame ;
Wherefore I looked, to my own steps and theirs 125
Apportioning my sight from time to time.
After the close which to that hymn is made.
Aloud they shouted, ^^Virum non cognosco'';
Then recommenced the hymn with voices low.
This also ended, cried they : " To the wood 130
Diana ran, and drove forth Helice
Therefrom, who had of Venus felt the poison.'*
Then to their song returned they ; then the wives
They shouted, and the husbands who were chaste.
As virtue and the marriage vow imposes. 13s
And I believe that them this mode suffices.
For all the time the fire is burning them;
With such care is it needful, and such food.
That the last wound of all should be closed up.
CANTO XXVI.
'X^THILE on the brink thus one before the other
We went upon our way, oft the good Master
Said : " Take thou heed ! suffice it that I warn thee."
On the right shoulder smote me now the sun.
That, raying out, already the whole west s
Changed from its azure aspect into white.
And with my shadow did I make the flame
Appear more red ; and even to such a sign
Shades saw I many, as they went, give heed.
This was the cause that gave them a beginning lo
To speak of me; and to themselves began they
To say : " That seems not a factitious body ! "
Then towards me, as far as they could come.
Came certain of them, always with regard
Not to step forth where they would not be burned. 15
** O thou who goest, not from being slower
But reverent perhaps, behind the others.
Answer me, who in thirst and fire am burning.
Pur gator w xxvl 165
Nor to me only is thine answer needful ;
For all of these have greater thirst for it 40
Than for cold water Ethiop or Indian.
Tell us how is it that thou makest thyself
A wall unto the sun, as if thou hadst not
Entered as yet into the net of death."
Thus one of them addressed me, and I straight as
Should have revealed myself, were I not bent
On other novelty that then appeared.
For through the middle of the burning road
There came a people face to face with these.
Which held me in suspense with gazing at them. 3°
There see I hastening upon either side
Each of the shades, and kissing one another
Without a pause, content with brief salute.
Thus in the middle of their brown battalions
Muzzle to muzzle one ant meets another 35
Perchance to spy their journey or their fortune.
No sooner is the friendly greeting ended.
Or ever the first footstep passes onward.
Each one endeavors to outcry the other;
The new-come people : " Sodom and Gomorrah ! " 4°
The rest: "Into the cow Pasiphae enters.
So that the bull unto her lust may run ! "
1 66 The Divine Comedy
Then as the cranes, that to Ripha:an mountains
Might fly in part, and part towards the sands.
These of the frost, those of the sun avoidant^ 4s
One folk is going, and the other coming.
And weeping they return to their first songs.
And to the cry that most befitteth them ;
And close to me approached, even as before.
The very same who had entreated me, s©
Attent to listen in their countenance.
I, who their inclination twice had seen.
Began : " O souls secure in the possession.
Whene'er it may be, of a state of peace.
Neither unripe nor ripened have remained 55
My members upon earth, but here are with me
With their own blood and their articulations.
I go up here to be no longer blind;
A Lady is above, who wins this grace.
Whereby the mortal through your world I bring. 60
But as your greatest longing satisfied
May soon become, so that the Heaven may house you
Which full of love is, and most amply spreads.
Tell me, that I again in books may write it,
Who are you, and what is that multitude 6s
Which goes upon its way behind your backs?"
Pitr gator io xxvi. 167
Not otherwise with wonder is bewildered
The mountaineer, and staring round is dumb,
When rough and rustic to the town he goes.
Than every shade became in its appearance ; 7°
But w^hen they of their stupor were disburdened.
Which in high hearts is quickly quieted,
" Blessed be thou, who of our border-lands,"
He recommenced who first had questioned us,
" Experience freightest for a better life. 7S
The folk that comes not with us have offended
In that for which once Caesar, triumphing.
Heard himself called in contumely, * Queen.'
Therefore they separate, exclaiming, * Sodom!'
Themselves reproving, even as thou hast heard, 80
And add unto their burning by their shame.
Our own transgression was hermaphrodite;
But because we observed not human law.
Following like unto beasts our appetite.
In our opprobrium by us is read, 8s
When we part company, the name of her
Who bestialized herself in bestial wood.
Now knowest thou our acts, and what our crime was ;
Wouldst thou perchance by name know who we are.
There is not time to tell, nor could I do it. 90
1 68 The Divine Comedy
Thy wish to know me shall in sooth be granted ;
I 'm Guido Guinicelli, and now purge me.
Having repented ere the hour extreme."
The same that in the sadness of Lycurgus
Two sons became, their mother re-beholding, 9S
Such I became, but rise not to such height.
The moment 1 heard name himself the father
Of me and of my betters, who had ever
Practised the sweet and gracious rhymes of love ;
And without speech and hearing thoughtfully loo
For a long time I went, beholding him.
Nor for the fire did I approach him nearer.
When I was fed with looking, utterly
Myself I offered ready for his service.
With affirmation that compels belief. 105
And he to me : " Thou leavest footprints such
In me, from what I hear, and so distinct,
Lethe cannot efface them, nor make dim.
But if thy words just now the truth have sworn.
Tell me what is the cause why thou displayest "o
In word and look that dear thou boldest me ? "
And I to him: "Those dulcet lays of yours
Which, long as shall endure our modern fashion.
Shall make forever dear their very ink ! "
Ptir gator io xxvi. 169
" O brother," said he, " he whom I point out, 115
And here he pointed at a spirit in front,
" Was of the mother tongue a better smith.
Verses of love and proses of romance.
He mastered all; and let the idiots talk.
Who think the Lemosin surpasses him. 120
To clamor more than truth they turn their faces.
And in this way establish their opinion.
Ere art or reason has by them been heard.
Thus many ancients with Guittone did.
From cry to cry still giving him applause, "5
Until the truth has conquered with most persons.
Now, if thou hast such ample privilege
'T is granted thee to go unto the cloister
Wherein is Christ the abbot of the college.
To him repeat for me a Paternoster, 13°
So far as needful to us of this world.
Where power of sinning is no longer ours."
Then, to give place perchance to one behind.
Whom he had near, he vanished in the fire
As fish in water going to the bottom. 13s
I moved a little tow'rds him pointed out.
And said that to his name my own desire
An honorable place was making ready.
22
170 The Divine Comedy
He of his own free will began to say :
T^an 711^ abellis vostre cortes detnan, ho
^e jeu noni ptiesc ni vueill a vos cobrire ;
yen sui Arnaut, que plor e vai chant an ;
Consiros vei la passadafolor,
E 'vei jauzen lo jorn qu' esper denan,
Ara vus prec per aquella 'valor, 145
^e vus condus al som de la scalinay
Sovenga vus a temprar ma dolor. ^
Then hid him in the fire that purifies them.
* So pleases me your courteous demand,
I cannot and I will not hide me from you.
I am Arnaut, who weep and singing go ;
Contrite I see the folly of the past.
And joyous see the hoped-for day before me.
Therefore do I implore you, by that power
Which guides you to the summit of the stairs.
Be mindful to assuage my suffering !
CANTO XXVII,
\ S when he vibrates forth his earliest rays.
In regions where his Maker shed his blood,
(The Ebro falling under lofty Libra,
And waters in the Ganges burnt with noon,)
So stood the Sun ; hence was the day departing, 5
When the glad Angel of God appeared to us.
Outside the flame he stood upon the verge.
And chanted forth, '■^Beati 7nundo corde^
In voice by far more living than our own.
Then : "No one farther goes, souls sanctified, 10
If first the fire bite not; within it enter.
And be not deaf unto the song beyond."
When we were close beside him thus he said;
Wherefore e'en such became I, when I heard him.
As he is who is put into the grave. »s
Upon my clasped hands I straightened me.
Scanning the fire, and vividly recalling
The human bodies I had once seen burned.
17^ Tlie Divine Comedy
Towards me turned themselves my good Conductors,
And unto me Virgilius said: "My son, 20
Here may indeed be torment, but not death.
Remember thee, remember! and if I
On Geryon have safely guided thee.
What shall I do now I am nearer God?
Believe for certain, shouldst thou stand a full as
Millennium in the bosom of this flame.
It could not make thee bald a single hair.
And if perchance thou think that I deceive thee.
Draw near to it, and put it to the proof
With thine own hands upon thy garment's hem. 3°
Now lay aside, now lay aside all fear.
Turn hitherward, and onward come securely";
And I still motionless, and 'gainst my conscience !
Seeing me stand still motionless and stubborn.
Somewhat disturbed he said : "Now look thou. Son, 35
'Twixt Beatrice and thee there is this wall."
As at the name of Thisbe oped his lids
The dying Pyramus, and gazed upon her.
What time the mulberry became vermilion.
Even thus, my obduracy being softened, 40
I turned to my wise Guide, hearing the name
That in my memory evermore is welling.
Ptcr gator io xxvii. 173
Whereat he wagged his head, and said : " How now ?
Shall we stay on this side?" then smiled as one
Does at a child who 's vanquished by an apple. 45
Then into the fire in front of me he entered,
Beseeching Statius to come after me.
Who a long way before divided us.
When I was in it, into molten glass
I would have cast me to refresh myself, 50
So without measure was the burning there!
And my sweet Father, to encourage me.
Discoursing still of Beatrice went on.
Saying : " Her eyes I seem to see already ! "
A voice, that on the other side was singing, ^s
Directed us, and we, attent alone
On that, came forth where the ascent began.
*^Venite, bene diet i Pair is mei,^'
Sounded within a splendor, which was there
Such it o'ercame me, and I could not look. 60
"The sun departs," it added, "and night cometh ;
Tarry ye not, but onward urge your steps.
So long as yet the west becomes not dark."
Straight forward through the rock the path ascended
In such a way that I cut off the rays 65
Before me of the sun, that now was low.
174 ^'^^ Divine Comedy
And of few stairs we yet had made assay,
Ere by the vanished shadow the sun's setting
Behind us we perceived, I and my Sages.
And ere in all its parts immeasurable 70
The horizon of one aspect had become.
And Night her boundless dispensation held.
Each of Gs of a stair had made his bed ;
Because the nature of the mount took from us
The power of climbing, more than the delight. 75
Even as in ruminating passive grow
The goats, who have been swift and venturesorne
Upon the mountain-tops ere they were fed.
Hushed in the shadow, while the sun is hot.
Watched by the herdsman, who upon his staff s©
Is leaning, and in leaning tendeth them ;
And as the shepherd, lodging out of doors.
Passes the night beside his quiet flock.
Watching that no wild beast may scatter it.
Such at that hour were we, all three of us, 85
I like the goat, and like the herdsmen they.
Begirt on this side and on that by rocks.
Little could there be seen of things without ;
But through that little I beheld the stars
More luminous and larger than their wont. 90
Picrgatorio xxvii. 175
Thus ruminating, and beholding these.
Sleep seized upon me, — sleep, that oftentimes
Before a deed is done has tidings of it.
It was the hour, I think, when from the East
First on the mountain Citherea beamed, 9S
Who with the fire of love seems always burning ;
Youthful and beautiful in dreams methought
I saw a lady walking in a meadow.
Gathering flowers; and singing she was saying:
"Know whosoever may my name demand loo
That I am Leah, and go moving round
My beauteous hands to make myself a garland.
To please me at the mirror, here I deck me.
But never does my sister Rachel leave
Her looking-glass, and sitteth all day long. 105
To see her beauteous eyes as eager is she.
As I am to adorn me with my hands ;
Her, seeing, and me, doing satisfies."
And now before the antelucan splendors
That unto pilgrims the more grateful rise, "o
As, home-returning, less remote they lodge.
The darkness fled away on every side.
And slumber with it ; whereupon I rose.
Seeing already the great Masters risen.
176 The Divine Comedy
"That apple sweet, which through so many branches 115
The care of mortals goeth in pursuit of,
To-day shall put in peace thy hungerings."
Speaking to me, Virgilius of such words
As these made use; and never were there guerdons
That could in pleasantness compare with these. 120
Such longing upon longing came upon me
To be above, that at each step thereafter
For flight I felt in me the pinions growing.
When underneath us was the stairway all
Run o'er, and we were on the highest step, 125
Virgilius fastened upon me his eyes.
And said: "The temporal fire and the eternal.
Son, thou hast seen, and to a plabe art come
Where of myself no farther I discern.
By intellect and art I here have brought thee; 13°
Take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth ;
Beyond the steep ways and the narrow art thou.
Behold the sun, that shines upon thy forehead;
Behold the grass, the flowerets, and the shrubs
Which of itself alone this land produces. 13s
Until rejoicing come the beauteous eyes
Which weeping caused me to come unto thee.
Thou canst sit down, and thou canst walk among them.
Ptiv gator io xxvii. 177
Expect no more or word or sign from me ;
Free and upright and sound is thy free-will, 140
And error were it not to do its bidding ;
Thee o'er thyself I therefore crown and mitre ! "
23
CANTO XXVIII.
IMAGER already to search in and round
The heavenlyforest, dense and Hving-green,
Which tempered to the eyes the new-born day,
Withouten more delay I left the bank,
Taking the level country slowly, slowly 5
Over the soil that everywhere breathes fragrance.
A softly-breathing air, that no mutation
Had in itself, upon the forehead smote me
No heavier blow than of a gentle wind.
Whereat the branches, lightly tremulous, 10
Did all of them bow downward toward that side
Where its first shadow casts the Holy Mountain;
Yet not from their upright direction swayed.
So that the little birds upon their tops
Should leave the practice of each art of theirs ; 15
But with full ravishment the hours of prime.
Singing, received they in the midst of leaves.
That ever bore a burden to their rhymes.
Pztr gator io xxviii. 179
Such as from branch to branch goes gathering on
Through the pine forest on the shore of Chiassi, ao
When Eolus unlooses the Sirocco.
Aheady my slow steps had carried me
Into the ancient wood so far, that I
Could not perceive where I had entered it.
And lo! my further course a stream cut off, as
Which tow'rd the left hand with its little waves
Bent down the grass that on its margin sprang.
All waters that on earth most limpid are
Would seem to have within themselves some mixture
Compared with that which nothing doth conceal, 30
Although it moves on with a brown, brown current
Under the shade perpetual, that never
Ray of the sun lets in, nor of the moon.
With feet I stayed, and with mine eyes I passed
Beyond the rivulet, to look upon 3S
The great variety of the fresh may.
And there appeared to me (even as appears
Suddenly something that doth turn aside
Through very wonder every other thought)
A lady all alone, who went along 40
Singing and culling floweret after floweret.
With which her pathway was all painted over.
i8o The Divine Comedy
"Ah, beauteous lady, who in rays of love
Dost warm thyself, if I may trust to looks,
Which the heart's witnesses are wont to be, 4s
May the desire come unto thee to draw
Near to this river's bank," I said to her,
"So much that I may hear what thou art singing.
Thou makest me remember where and what
Proserpina that moment was when lost 50
Her mother her, and she herself the Spring.'*
As turns herself, with feet together pressed
And to the ground, a lady who is dancing.
And hardly puts one foot before the other.
On the vermilion and the yellow flowerets 5s
She turned towards me, not in other wise
Than maiden who her modest eyes casts down ;
And my entreaties made to be content.
So near approaching, that the dulcet sound
Came unto me together with its meaning. 60
As soon as she was where the grasses are
Bathed by the waters of the beauteous river.
To lift her eyes she granted me the boon.
I do not think there shone so great a light
Under the lids of Venus, when transfixed 65
By her own son, beyond his usual custom!
Purgatorzo xxviii. i8i
Erect upon the other bank she smiled.
Bearing full many colors in her hands.
Which that high land produces without seed.
Apart three paces did the river make us; 70
But Hellespont, where Xerxes passed across,
(A curb still to all human arrogance,)
More hatred from Leander did not suffer
For rolling between Sestos and Abydos,
Than that from me, because it oped not then. 75
"Ye are new-comers; and because I smile,'*
Began she, " peradventure, in this place
Elect to human nature for its nest.
Some apprehension keeps you marvelling;
But the psalm Delectasti giveth light 80
Which has the power to uncloud your intellect.
And thou who foremost art, and didst entreat me.
Speak, if thou wouldst hear more; for I came ready
To all thy questionings, as far as needful."
" The water," said I, " and the forest's sound, 85
Are combating within me my new faith
In something which I heard opposed to this.'*
Whence she : " I will relate how from its cause
Proceedeth that which maketh thee to wonder.
And purge away the cloud that smites upon thee. 9°
i82 The Divine Comedy
The Good Supreme, sole in itself delighting.
Created man good, and this goodly place
Gave him as hansel of eternal peace.
By his default short while he sojourned here;
By his default to weeping and to toil 95
He changed his innocent laughter and sweet play.
That the disturbance which below is made .
By exhalations of the land and water,
(Which far as may be follow after heat,)
Might not upon mankind wage any war, 100
This mount ascended tow'rds the heaven so high.
And is exempt, from there where it is locked.
Now since the universal atmosphere
Turns in a circuit with the primal motion
Unless the circle is broken on some side, 105
Upon this height, that all is disengaged
In living ether, doth this motion strike
And make the forest sound, for it is dense;
And so much power the stricken plant possesses
That with its virtue it impregns the air, no
And this, revolving, scatters it around;
And yonder earth, according as 't is worthy
In self or in its clime, conceives and bears
Of divers qualities the divers trees ;
Pttrgatorio xxviil 183
It should not seem a marvel then on earth, us
This being heard, whenever any plant
Without seed manifest there taketh root.
And thou must know, this holy table-land
In which thou art is full of every seed.
And fruit has in it never gathered there. 120
The water which thou seest springs not from vein
Restored by vapor that the cold condenses.
Like to a stream that gains or loses breath ;
But issues from a fountain safe and certain.
Which by the will of God as much regains 1*5
As it discharges, open on two sides.
Upon this side with virtue it descends.
Which takes away all memory of sin;
On that, of every good deed done restores it.
Here Lethe, as upon the other side 130
Eunoe, it is called; and worketh not
If first on either side it be not tasted.
This every other savor doth transcend;
And notwithstanding slaked so far may be
Thy thirst, that I reveal to thee no more, 13s
I '11 give thee a corollary still in grace.
Nor think my speech will be to thee less dear
If it spread out beyond my promise to thee.
184 TJie Divine Comedy
Those who in ancient times have feigned in song
The Age of Gold and its feHcity, 140
Dreamed of .this place perhaps upon Parnassus.
Here was the human race in innocence ;
Here evermore was Spring, and every fruit;
This is the nectar of which each one speaks."
Then backward did I turn me wholly round 14s
Unto my Poets, and saw that with a smile
They had been listening to these closing words;
Then to the beautiful lady turned mine eyes.
CANTO XXIX,
QINGING like unto an enamoured lady
She, with the ending of her words, continued :
" Beati quorum tecta sunt peccataj"
And even as Nymphs, that wandered all alone
Among the sylvan shadows, sedulous s
One to avoid and one to see the sun.
She then against the stream moved onward, going
Along the bank, and I abreast of her.
Her little steps with little steps attending.
Between her steps and mine were not a hundred, lo
When equally the margins gave a turn.
In such a way, that to the East I faced.
Nor even thus our way continued far
Before the lady wholly turned herself
Unto me, saying, "Brother, look and listen!" 15
And lo ! a sudden lustre ran across
On every side athwart the spacious forest.
Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.
24
1 86 The Divine Comedy
But since the lightning ceases as it comes.
And that continuing brightened more and more, 20
Within my thought I said, "What thing is this?"
And a delicious melody there ran
Along the luminous air, whence holy zeal
Made me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;
For there where earth and heaven obedient were, 25
The woman only, and but just created.
Could not endure to stay 'neath any veil;
Underneath which had she devoutly stayed,
I sooner should have tasted those delights
Ineffable, and for a longer time. 30
While 'mid such manifold first-fruits I walked
Of the eternal pleasure all enrapt.
And still solicitous of more delights.
In front of us like an enkindled fire
Became the air beneath the verdant boughs, 3s
And the sweet sound as singing now was heard.
O Virgins sacrosanct ! if ever hunger.
Vigils, or cold for you I have endured.
The occasion spurs me their reward to claim !
Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me, 40
And with her choir Urania must assist me.
To put in verse things difficult to think.
Ptcrgatorw xxix. 187
A little farther on, seven trees of gold
In semblance the long space still intervening
Between ourselves and them did counterfeit ; 4s
But when I had approached so near to them
The common object, which the sense deceives.
Lost not by distance any of its marks.
The faculty that lends discourse to reason
Did apprehend that they were candlesticks, 50
And in the voices of the song "Hosanna!"
Above them flamed the harness beautiful.
Far brighter than the moon in the serene
Of midnight, at the middle of her month.
I turned me round, with admiration filled, 5S
To good Virgilius, and he answered me
With visage no less full of wonderment.
Then back I turned my face to those high things.
Which moved themselves towards us so sedately,
They had been distanced by new-wedded brides. 60
The lady chid me: "Why dost thou burn only
So with affection for the living lights.
And dost not look at what comes after them ? "
Then saw I people, as behind their leaders.
Coming behind them, garmented in white, 6s
And such a whiteness never was on earth.
1 88 The Divine Covicdy
The water on my left flank was resplendent.
And back to me reflected my left side.
E'en as a mirror, if I looked therein.
When I upon my margin had such post 70
That nothing but the stream divided us.
Better to see I gave my steps repose ;
And I beheld the flamelets onward go,
Leaving behind themselves the air depicted.
And they of trailing pennons had the semblance, 75
So that it overhead remained distinct
With sevenfold lists, all of them of the colors
Whence the sun's bow is made, and Delia's girdle.
These standards to the rearward longer were
Than was my sight; and, as it seemed to me, 80
Ten paces were the outermost apart.
Under so fair a heaven as I describe
The four and twenty Elders, two by two.
Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce.
They all of them were singing: "Blessed thou 85
Among the daughters of Adam art, and blessed
Forevermore shall be thy loveliness."
After the flowers and other tender grasses
In front of me upon the other margin
Were disencumbered of that race elect, 9°
Pttr gator io xxix. 189
Even as in heaven star fqlloweth after star.
There came close after them four animals,
Incoronate each one with verdant leaf.
Plumed with six wings was every *one of them.
The plumage full of eyes ; the eyes of Argus 95
If they were living would be such as these.
Reader! to trace their forms no more I waste
My rhymes; for other spendings press me so.
That I in this cannot be prodigal.
But read Ezekiel, who depicteth them 100
As he beheld them from the region cold
Coming with cloud, with whirlwind, and with fire;
And such as thou shalt find them in his pages.
Such were they here; saving that in their plumage
John is with me, and differeth from him. 105
The interval between these four contained
A chariot triumphal on two wheels.
Which by a Griffin's neck came drawn along;
And upward he extended both his wings
Between the middle list and three and three, no
So that he injured none by cleaving it.
So high they rose that they were lost to sight ;
His limbs were gold, so far as he was bird.
And white the others with vermilion mingled.
190 TJie Divine Comedy
Not only Rome with no such splendid car 115
E'er gladdened Africanus, or Augustus,
But poor to it that of the Sun would be, —
That of the Sun, which swerving was burnt up
At the importunate orison of Earth,
When Jove was so mysteriously just. 120
Three maidens at the right wheel in a circle
Came onward dancing ; one so very red
That in the fire she hardly had been noted.
The second was as if her flesh and bones
Had all been fashioned out of emerald ; ^s
The third appeared as snow but newly fallen.
And now they seemed conducted by the white.
Now by the red, and from the song of her
The others took their step, or slow or swift.
Upon the left hand four made holiday 13°
Vested in purple, following the measure
Of one of them with three eyes in her head.
In rear of all the group here treated of
Two old men I beheld, unlike in habit.
But like in gait, each dignified and grave. 135
One showed himself as one of the disciples
Of that supreme Hippocrates, whom nature
Made for the animals she holds most dear;
Ptirgatorio xxix. 191
Contrary care the other manifested.
With sword so shining and so sharp, it caused ho
Terror to me on this side of the river.
Thereafter four I saw of humble aspect.
And behind all an aged man alone
Walking in sleep with countenance acute.
And like the foremost company these seven 145
Were habited; yet of the flower-de-luce
No garland round about the head they wore.
But of the rose, and other flowers vermilion;
At little distance would the sight have sworn
That all were in a flame above their brows. 150
And when the car was opposite to me
Thunder was heard ; and all that folk august
Seemed to have further progress interdicted.
There with the vanward ensigns standing still.
CANTO XXX.
'\"irHEN the Septentrion of the highest heaven
(Which never either setting knew or rising,
Nor veil of other cloud than that of sin.
And which made every one therein aware
Of his own duty, as the lower makes 5
Whoever turns the helm to come to port)
Motionless halted, the veracious people.
That came at first between it and the Griffin,
Turned themselves to the car, as to their peace.
And one of them, as if by Heaven commissioned, 10
Singing, ^'■Veni, s pons a, de Liba?to*'
Shouted three times, and all the others after.
Even as the Blessed at the final summons
Shall rise up quickened each one from his cavern,
Uplifting light the reinvested flesh, is
So upon that celestial chariot
A hundred rose ad vocem tanti senis.
Ministers and messengers of life eternal.
Pur gator io xxx. 193
They all were saying, ^^Benedictiis qui venisy'
And, scattering flowers above and round about, 20
^^ Manibus 0 date lilia pknis."
Ere now have I beheld, as day began.
The eastern hemisphere all tinged with rose,
And the other heaven with fair serene adorned ;
And the sun's face, uprising, overshadowed 25
So that by tempering influence of vapors
For a long interval the eye sustained it ;
Thus in the bosom of a cloud of flowers
Which from those hands angelical ascended.
And downward fell again inside and out, 3°
Over her snow-white veil with olive cinct
Appeared a lady under a green mantle,
Vested in color of the living flame.
And my own spirit, that already now
So long a time had been, that in her presence 3s
Trembling with awe it had not stood abashed.
Without more knowledge having by mine eyes.
Through occult virtue that from her proceeded
Of ancient love the mighty influence felt.
As soon as on my vision smote the power 4°
Sublime, that had already pierced me through
Ere from my boyhood I had yet come forth,
25
194 The Divine Comedy
To the left hand I turned with that reliance
With which the little child runs to his mother.
When he has fear, or when he is afflicted, 4s
To say unto Virgilius: "Not a drachm
Of blood remains in me, that does not tremble;
I know the traces of the ancient flame.'*
But us Virgilius of himself deprived
Had left, Virgilius, sweetest of all fathers, 50
Virgilius, to whom I for safety gave me :
Nor whatsoever lost the ancient mother
Availed my cheeks now purified from dew.
That weeping they should not again be darkened.
" Dante, because Virgilius has departed ss
Do not weep yet, do not weep yet awhile;
For by another sword thou need'st must weep."
E'en as an admiral, who on poop and prow
Comes to behold the people that are working
In other ships, and cheers them to well-doing, , 60
Upon the left hand border of the car.
When at the sound I turned of my own name.
Which of necessity is here recorded,
I saw the Lady, who erewhile appeared
Veiled underneath the angelic festival, 65
Direct her eyes to me across the river.
Ptcr gator io xxx. 195
Although the veil, that from her head descended,
Encircled with the foliage of Minerva,
Did not permit her to appear distinctly.
In attitude still royally majestic 70
Continued she, like unto one who speaks.
And keeps his warmest utterance in reserve :
"Look at me well; in sooth I'm Beatrice!
How didst thou deign to come unto the Mountain ?
Didst thou not know that man is happy here ?" 75
Mine eyes fell downward into the clear fountain.
But, seeing myself therein, I sought the grass.
So great a shame did weigh my forehead down.
As to the son the mother seems superb,
So she appeared to me; for somewhat bitter 80
Tasteth the savor of severe compassion.
Silent became she, and the Angels sang
Suddenly, "/« te, Domine, speravi'' :
But beyond pedes meos did not pass.
Even as the snow among the living rafters 8s
Upon the back of Italy congeals.
Blown on and drifted by Sclavonian winds,
And then, dissolving, trickles through itself
Whene'er the land that loses shadow breathes.
So that it seems a fire that melts a taper; 90
196 The Divine Comedy
E'en thus was I without a tear or sigh,
Before the song of those who sing forever
After the music of the eternal spheres.
But when I heard in their sweet melodies
Compassion for me, more than had they said, 95
" O wherefore, lady, dost thou thus upbraid him ? "
The ice, that was about my heart congealed.
To air and water changed, and in my anguish
Through mouth and eyes came gushing from my breast.
She, on the right-hand border of the car 100
Still firmly standing, to those holy beings
Thus her discourse directed afterwards:
"Ye keep your watch in the eternal day.
So that nor night nor sleep can steal from you
One step the ages make upon their path; 105
Therefore my answer is with greater care.
That he may hear me who is weeping yonder.
So that the sin and dole be of one measure.
Not only by the work of those great wheels.
That destine every seed unto some end, no
According as the stars are in conjunction.
But by the largess of celestial graces.
Which have such lofty vapors for their rain
That near to them our sight approaches not.
Ptirgatorw xxx. 197
Such had this man become in his new life 115
Potentially, that every righteous habit
Would have made admirable proof in him ;
But so much more malignant and more savage
Becomes the land unfilled and with bad seed,
The more good earthly vigor it possesses. lao
Some time did I sustain him with my look ; .
Revealing unto him my youthful eyes,
I led him with me turned in the right way.
As soon as ever of my second age
I was upon the threshold and changed life, 125
Himself from me he took and gave to others.
When from the flesh to spirit I ascended.
And beauty and virtue were in me increased,
I was to him less dear and less delightful;
And into ways untrue he turned his steps, 130
Pursuing the false images of good.
That never any promises fulfil;
Nor prayer for inspiration me availed.
By means of which in dreams and otherwise
I called him back, so little did he heed them. 135
So low he fell, that all appliances
For his salvation were already short.
Save showing him the people of perdition.
19S The Dii'i/iC CoweiJy
For this I visited the gates of death.
And unto hitn, who so far up has led him, 14°
My intercessions were with weeping borne.
God's lofty fiat would be violated,
If Lethe should be passed, and if such viands
Should tasted be, withouten any scot
Of penitence, that gushes forth in tears." us
CANTO XXXI,
*'(~\ THOU who art beyond the sacred river,'*
Turning to me the point of her discourse.
That edgewise even had seemed to me so keen.
She recommenced, continuing without pause,
" Say, say if this be true ; to such a charge, 5
Thy own confession needs must be conjoined."
My faculties were in so great confusion,
That the voice moved, but sooner was extinct
Than by its organs it was set at large.
Awhile she waited ; then she said : "What thinkest ? 1°
Answer me; for the mournful memories
In thee not yet are by the waters injured.'*
Confusion and dismay together mingled
Forced such a Yes ! from out my mouth, that sight
Was needful to the understanding of it. 15
Even as a cross-bow breaks, when 'tis discharged
Too tensely drawn the bowstring and the bow.
And with less force the arrow hits the mark.
200 Tlie Divine Comedy
So I gave way beneath that heavy burden,
Outpouring in a torrent tears and sighs, 20
And the voice flagged upon its passage forth.
Whence she to me: "In those desires of mine
Which led thee to the loving of that good.
Beyond which there is nothing to aspire to.
What trenches lying traverse or what chains as
Didst thou discover, that of passing onward
Thou shouldst have thus despoiled thee of the hope?
And what allurements or what vantages
Upon the forehead of the others showed.
That thou shouldst turn thy footsteps unto them ? "
After the heaving of a bitter sigh, 31
Hardly had I the voice to make response.
And with fatigue my lips did fashion it.
Weeping I said : "The things that present were
With their false pleasure turned aside my steps, 3s
Soon as your countenance concealed itself."
And she: "Shouldst thou be silent, or deny
What thou confessest, not less manifest
Would be thy fault, by such a Judge 'tis known.
But when from one's own cheeks comes bursting forth 4°
The accusal of the sin, in our tribunal
Against the edge the wheel doth turn itself.
Pttr gator io xxxi. 201
But still, that thou mayst feel a greater shame
For thy transgression, and another time
Hearing the Sirens thou mayst be more strong, 45
Cast down the seed of weeping and attend ;
So shalt thou hear, how in an opposite way
My buried flesh should have directed thee.
Never to thee presented art or nature
Pleasure so great as the fair limbs wherein 5°
I was enclosed, which scattered are in earth.
Ana if the highest pleasure thus did fail thee
By reason of my death, what mortal thing
Should then have drawn thee into its desire ?
Thou oughtest verily at the first shaft s^
Of things fallacious to have risen up
To follow me, who was no longer such.
Thou oughtest not to have stooped thy pinions downward
To wait for further blows, or little girl.
Or other vanity of such brief use. 60
The callow birdlet waits for two or three.
But to the eyes of those already fledged.
In vain the net is spread or shaft is shot."
Even as children silent in their shame
Stand listening with their eyes upon the ground, 65
And conscious of their fault, and penitent ;
26
202 TJie Divine Comedy
So was I standing; and she said: ** If thou
In hearing sufferest pain, lift up thy beard
And thou shalt feel a greater pain in seeing."
With less resistance is a robust holm 70
Uprooted, either by a native wind
Or else by that from regions of larbas.
Than I upraised at her command my chin ;
And when she by the beard the face demanded.
Well I perceived the venom of her meaning. 75
And as my countenance was lifted up.
Mine eye perceived those creatures beautiful
Had rested from the strewing of the flowers;
And, still but little reassured, mine eyes
Saw Beatrice turned round towards the monster, 80
That is one person only in two natures.
Beneath her veil, beyond the margent green.
She seemed to me far more her ancient self
To excel, than others here, when she was here.
So pricked me then the thorn of penitence, ss
That of all other things the one which turned me
Most to its love became the most my foe.
Such self-conviction stung me at the heart
O'erpowered I fell, and what I then became
She knoweth who had furnished me the cause. 90
Ptcrgatorio xxxi. 203
Then, when the heart restored my outward sense.
The lady I had found alone, above me
I saw, and she was saying, "Hold me, hold me."
Up to my throat she in the stream had drawn me.
And, dragging me behind her, she was moving 95
Upon the water lightly as a shuttle.
When I was near unto the blessed shore,
^^Asperges me," I heard so sweetly sung.
Remember it I cannot, much less write it.
The beautiful lady opened wide her arms, 100
Embraced my head, and plunged me underneath.
Where I was forced to swallow of the water.
Then forth she drew me, and all dripping brought
Into the dance of the four beautiful.
And each one with her arm did cover me. 105
"We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are stars;
Ere Beatrice descended to the world.
We as her handmaids were appointed her.
We'll lead thee to her eyes; but for the pleasant
Light that within them is, shall sharpen thine no
The three beyond, who more profoundly look."
Thus singing they began; and afterwards
Unto the Griffin's breast they led me with them.
Where Beatrice was standing, turned towards us.
204 ^/^^ Divine Conicdy
"See that thou dost not spare thine eyes," they said; us
"Before the emeralds have we stationed thee,
Whence Love aforetime drew for thee his weapons."
A thousand longings, hotter than the flame.
Fastened mine eyes upon those eyes relucent,
That still upon the Griffin steadfast stayed. "q
As in a glass the sun, not otherwise
Within them was the twofold monster shining,
Now with the one, now with the other nature.
Think, Reader, if within myself I marvelled.
When I beheld the thing itself stand still, '^s
And in its image it transformed itself.
While with amazement filled and jubilant.
My soul was tasting of the food, that while
It satisfies us makes us hunger for it.
Themselves reveahng of the highest rank 130
In bearing, did the other three advance,
Sinsine to their an2:elic saraband.
" Turn, Beatrice, O turn thy holy eyes,"
Such was their song, "unto thy faithful one.
Who has to see thee ta'en so many steps. 13s
In grace do us the grace that thou unveil
Thy face to him, so that he may discern
The second beauty which thou dost conceal."
Ptirmtorio xxxi. 20;
<*>
O splendor of the living light eternal!
Who underneath the shadow of Parnassus 140
Has grown so pale, or drunk so at its cistern,
He would not seem to have his mind encumbered
Striving to paint thee as thou didst appear.
Where the harmonious heaven o'ershadowed thee.
When in the open air thou didst unveil ? H5
CANTO XXXII.
00 steadfast arid attentive were mine eyes
In satisfying their decennial thirst.
That all my other senses were extinct,
And upon this side and on that they had
Walls of indifference, so the holy smile s
Drew them unto itself with the old net;
When forcibly my sight was turned away
Towards my left hand by those goddesses.
Because I heard from them a "Too intently!"
And that condition of the sight which is lo
In eyes but lately smitten by the sun
Bereft me of my vision some short while;
But to the less when sight re-shaped itself,
I say the less in reference to the greater
Splendor from which perforce I had withdrawn, 15
1 saw upon its right wing wheeled about
The glorious host, returning with the sun
And with the sevenfold flames upon their faces.
Pitr gator io xxxii. 207
As underneath its shields, to save itself,
A squadron turns, and with its banner wheels, 10
Before the whole thereof can change its front.
That soldiery of the celestial kingdom
Which marched in the advance had wholly passed us
Before the chariot had turned its pole.
Then to the wheels the maidens turned themselves, 25
And the Griffin moved his burden benedight.
But so that not a feather of him fluttered.
The lady fair who drew me through the ford
Followed with Statins and myself the wheel
Which made its orbit with the lesser arc. 3°
So passing through the lofty forest, vacant
By fault of her who in the serpent trusted.
Angelic music made our steps keep time.
Perchance as great a space had in three flights
An arrow loosened from the string o'erpassed, 35
As we had moved when Beatrice descended.
I heard them murmur all together, "Adam !"
Then circled they about a tree despoiled
Of blooms and other leafage on each bough.
Its tresses, which so much the more dilate 4°
As higher they ascend, had been by Indians
Among their forests marvelled at for height.
2o8 TIic Divine Comedy
"Blessed art thou, O GrifBn, who dost not
Pluck with thy beak these branches sweet to taste,
Since appetite by this was turned to evil." 4s
After this fashion round the tree robust
The others shouted; and the twofold creature:
*'Thus is preserved the seed of all the just."
And turning to the pole which he had dragged.
He drew it close beneath the widowed bough, 5°
And what was of it unto it left bound.
In the same manner as our trees (when downward
Falls the great light, with that together mingled
Which after the celestial Lasca shines)
Begin to swell, and then renew themselves, 55
Each one with its own color, ere the Sun
Harness his steeds beneath another star :
Less than of rose and more than violet
A hue disclosing, was renewed the tree
That had erewhile its boughs so desolate. 60
I never heard, nor here below is sung.
The hymn which afterward that people sang,
Nor did I bear the melody throughout.
Had I the power to paint how fell asleep
Those eyes compassionless, of Syrinx hearing, 65
Those eyes to which more watching cost so dear.
Ptcr gator io xxxii. 209
Even as a painter who from model paints
I would portray how I was lulled asleep ;
He may, who well can picture drowsihood.
Therefore I pass to what time I awoke, 70
And say a splendor rent from me the veil
Of slumber, and a calling: "Rise, what dost thou? ''
As to behold the apple-tree in blossom
Which makes the Angels greedy for its fruit.
And keeps perpetual bridals in the Heaven, " 75
Peter and John and James conducted were.
And, overcome, recovered at the word
By which still greater slumbers have been broken.
And saw their school diminished by the Joss
Not only of Elias, but of Moses, 80
And the apparel of their Master changed;
So I revived, and saw that piteous one
Above me standing, who had been conductress
Aforetime of my steps beside the river.
And all in doubt I said, "Where's Beatrice?" 8s
And she: "Behold her seated underneath
The leafage new, upon the root of it.
Behold the company that circles her;
The rest behind the Griffin are ascending
With more melodious song, and more profound." 90
27
2IO Tlie Divine Comedy
And if her speech were more diffuse I know not.
Because already in my sight was she
Who from the hearing of aught else had shut me.
Alone she sat upon the very earth.
Left there as guardian of the chariot 9s
Which I had seen the biform monster fasten.
Encircling her, a cloister made themselves
The seven Nymphs, with those lights in their hands
Which are secure from Aquilon and Auster.
"Short while shalt thou be here a forester, 100
And thou shalt be with me forevermore
A citizen of that Rome where Christ is Roman.
Therefore, for that world's good which liveth ill.
Fix on the car thine eyes, and what thou seest.
Having returned to earth, take heed thou write." 105
Thus Beatrice; and I, who at the feet
Of her commandments all devoted was.
My mind and eyes directed where she willed.
Never descended with so swift a motion
Fire from a heavy cloud, when it is raining no
From out the region which is most remote.
As I beheld the bird of Jove descend
Down through the tree, rending away the bark,
As well as blossoms and the foliage new.
Ptcrecitorw xxxil 2 1 1
«b
And he with all his might the chariot smote, "s
Whereat it reeled, like vessel in a tempest
Tossed by the waves, now starboard and now larboard.
Thereafter saw I leap into the body
Of the triumphal vehicle a Fox,
That seemed unfed with any wholesome food. 120
But for his hideous sins upbraiding him.
My Lady put him to as swift a flight
As such a fleshless skeleton could bear.
Then by the way that it before had come.
Into the chariot's chest I saw the Eagle 125
Descend, and leave it feathered with his plumes.
And such as issues from a heart that mourns,
A voice from Heaven there issued, and it said :
"My little bark, how badly art thou freighted!"
Methought, then, that the earth did yawn between 130
Both wheels, and I saw rise from it a Dragon,
Who through the chariot upward fixed his tail.
And as a wasp that draweth back its sting.
Drawing unto himself his tail malign.
Drew out the floor, and went his way rejoicing. 13s
That which remained behind, even as with grass
A fertile region, with the feathers, oflfered
Perhaps with pure intention and benign.
2 12 Tlie Divine Comedy
Reclothed itself, and with them were reclothed
The pole and both the wheels so speedily, 140
A sigh doth longer keep the lips apart.
Transfigured thus the holy edifice
Thrust forward heads upon the parts of it.
Three on the pole and one at either corner.
The first were horned like oxen ; but the four j4s
Had but a single horn upon the forehead;
A monster such had never yet been seen !
Firm as a rock upon a mountain high,
Seated upon it, there appeared to me
A shameless whore, with eyes swift glancing round, 150
And, as if not to have her taken from him.
Upright beside her I beheld a giant ;
And ever and anon they kissed each other.
But because she her wanton, roving eye
Turned upon me, her angry paramour 15s
Did scourge her from her head unto her feet.
Then full of jealousy, and fierce with wrath.
He loosed the monster, and across the forest
Dragged it so far, he made of that alone
A shield unto the whore and the strange beast. 160
CANTO XXXIII.
"T^ETO, venerunt genfes" alternating
Now three, now four, melodious psalmody
The maidens in the midst of tears began;
And Beatrice, compassionate and sighing.
Listened to them with such a countenance, 5
That scarce more changed was Mary at the cross.
But when the other virgins place had given
For her to speak, uprisen to her feet
With color as of fire, she made response :
*' Modicum, et non videbitis me; 10
Et iterutn, my sisters predilect.
Modicum, et vos vide bit is ?ne.'"
Then all the seven in front of her she placed;
And after her, by beckoning only, moved
Me and the lady and the sage who stayed. 15
So she moved onward; and I do not think
That her tenth step was placed upon the ground.
When with her eyes upon mine eyes she smote.
214 The Divine Comedy
And with a tranquil aspect, "Come more quickly,"
To me she said, "that, if I speak with thee, ^o
To listen to me thou mayst be well placed."
As soon as I was with her as I should be,
She said to me: "Why, brother, dost thou not
Venture to question now, in coming with me?"
As unto those who are too reverential, 25
Speaking in presence of superiors,
Who drag no living utterance to their teeth.
It me befell, that without perfect sound
Began I: "My necessity. Madonna,
You know, and that which thereunto is good." 30
And she to me: "Of fear and bashfulness
Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself.
So that thou speak no more as one who dreams.
Know that the vessel which the serpent broke
Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty 35
Think that God's vengeance does not fear a sop.
Without an heir shall not forever be
The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car.
Whence it became a monster, then a prey;
For verily I see, and hence narrate it, 4°
The stars already near to bring the time.
From every hindrance safe, and every bar.
• P^crgatorio xxxiii. 215
Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five,
One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman
And that same giant who is sinning with her. 4s
And peradventure my dark utterance.
Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee,
Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;
But soon the facts shall be the Naiades
Who shall this difficult enigma solve, so
Without destruction of the flocks and harvests.
Note thou; and even as by me are uttered
These words, so teach them unto those who live
That life which is a running unto death;
And bear in mind, whene'er thou writest them, t,<i
Not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant,
That twice already has been pillaged here.
Whoever pillages or shatters it.
With blasphemy of deed offendeth God,
Who made it holy for his use alone. 60
For biting that, in pain and in desire
Five thousand years and more the first-born soul
Craved Him, who punished in himself the bite.
Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it not
For special reason so pre-eminent 65
In height, and so inverted in its summit.
2i6 The Divine Comedy
And if thy vain imaginings had not been
Water of Elsa round about thy mind,
And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure.
Thou by so many circumstances only 7°
The justice of the interdict of God
Morally in the tree wouldst recognize.
But since I see thee in thine intellect
Converted into stone and stained with sin,
So that the light of my discourse doth daze thee, 75
I will too, if not written, at least painted.
Thou bear it back within thee, for the reason
That cinctwith palm the pilgrim's staff is borne."
And I : "As by a signet is the wax
Which does not change the figure stamped upon it, 80
My brain is now imprinted by yourself.
But wherefore so beyond my power of sight
Soars your desirable discourse, that aye
The more I strive, so much the more I lose it?"
"That thou mayst recognize," she said, "the school 85
Which thou hast followed, and mayst see how far
Its doctrine follows after my discourse.
And mayst behold your path from the divine
Distant as far as separated is
From earth the heaven that highest hastens on." 9°
Pttrgatorio xxxin. 217
Whence her I answered : " I do not remember
That ever I estranged myself from you,
Nor have I conscience of it that reproves me."
" And if thou art not able to remember,'*
Smiling she answered, "recollect thee now 95
That thou this very day hast drunk of Lethe ;
And if from smoke a fire may be inferred,
Such an oblivion clearly demonstrates >
Some error in thy will elsewhere intent.
Truly from this time forward shall my words «©&
Be naked, so far as it is befitting
To lay them open unto thy rude gaze."
And more coruscant and with slower steps
The sun was holding the meridian circle,
Which, with the point of view, shifts here and there.
When halted (as he cometh to a halt, »o6
Who goes before a squadron as its escort,
If something new he find upon his way)
The maidens seven at a dark shadow's edge.
Such as, beneath green leaves and branches black, no
The Alp upon its frigid border wears.
In front of them the Tigris and Euphrates
Methought I saw forth issue from one fountain.
And slowly part, like friends, from one another.
28
2i8 TJie Divine Comedy
"O light, O glory of the human race ! "s
What stream is this which here unfolds itself
From out one source, and from itself withdraws ? "
For such a prayer, 't was said unto me, ** Pray
Matilda that she tell thee"; and here answered.
As one does who doth free himself from blame, 120
The beautiful lady: "This and other things
Were told to him by me ; and sure I am
The water of Lethe has not hid them from him."
And Beatrice: "Perhaps a greater care,
Which oftentimes our memory takes away, "s
Has made the vision of his mind obscure.
But Eunoe behold, that yonder rises ;
Lead him to it, and, as thou art accustomed.
Revive again the half-dead virtue in him."
Like gentle soul, that maketh no excuse, 130
But makes its own will of another's will
As soon as by a sign it is disclosed.
Even so, when she had taken hold of me.
The beautiful lady moved, and unto Statins
Said, in her womanly manner, " Come with him." 13s
If, Reader, I possessed a longer space
For writing it, I yet would sing in part
Of the sweet draught that ne'er would satiate me ;
Ptt7^gatorio xxxiii. 219
But inasmuch as full are all the leaves
Made ready for this second canticle, ho
The curb of art no farther lets me go.
From the most holy water I returned
Regenerate, in the manner of new trees
That are renewed with a new foliage.
Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars. 145
NOTES
NOTES
CANTO I.
I. The Mountain of Purgatory is a
vast conical mountain, rising steep and
high from the waters of the Southern
Ocean, at a point antipodal to Mount
Sion in Jerusalem. In Canto III. 14,
Dante speaks of it as
"The hill
That highest tow'rds the heaven uplifts itself" j
and in ParadisOy XXVI. 139, as
"The mount that rises highest o'er the wave."
Around it run seven terraces, on which
are punished severally the Seven Deadly
Sins. Rough stairways, cut in the rock,
lead up from terrace to terrace, and on
the summit is the garden of the Ter-
restrial Paradise.
The Seven Sins punished in the
Seven Circles are, — i . Pride ; 2. Envy ;
3. Anger ; 4. Sloth ; 5. Avarice and
Prodigality ; 6. Gluttony ; 7. Lust.
The threefold division of the Pur-
gatorio, marked only by more elaborate
preludes, or by a natural pause in the
action of the poem, is, — l. From Canto
I. to Canto IX.; 2. From Canto IX.
to Canto XXVIII. ; 3. From Canto
XXVIII. to the end. The first of
these divisions describes the region
lying outside the gate of Purgatory ;
the second, the Seven Circles of the
mountain ; and the third, the Terres-
trial Paradise on its summit.
" Traces of belief in a Purgatory,"
says Mr. Alger, Doctrine of a Future
Life, p. 410, "early appear among the
Christians. Many of the gravest Fa-
thers of the first five centuries naturally
conceived and taught, — as is indeed in-
trinsically reasonable, — that after death
some souls will be punished for their
sins until they are cleansed, and then
will be released from pain. The Man-
ichasans imagined that all souls, be-
fore returning to their native heaven,
must be borne first to the moon, where
with good waters they would be washed
pure from outward filth, and then to
the sun, where they would be purged
by good fires from every inward stain.
After these lunar and solar lustrations,
they were fit for the eternal world of
light. But the conception of Purgatory
as it was held by the early Christians,
whether orthodox Fathers or heretical
sects, was merely the just and necessary
result of applying to the subject of fu-
ture punishment the two ethical ideas
224
Notes
that punishment should partake of de-
grees proportioned to guilt, and that it
should be restorative
" Pope Gregory the Great, in the
sixth century, — either borrowing some
of the more objectionable features of
the Purgatory-doctrine previously held
by the heathen, or else devising the
same things himself from a perception
of the striking adaptedness of such no-
tions to secure an enviable power to
the Church, — constructed, established,
and gave working efficiency to the dog-
matic scheme of Purgatory ever since
firmly defended by the Papal adherents
as an integral part of the Roman Catho-
lic system. The doctrine as matured
and promulgated by Gregory, giving to
the representatives of the Church an
almost unlimited power over Purgatory,
rapidly grew into favor with the clergy,
and sank with general conviction into
the hopes and fears of the laity,"
9. The Muse " of the beautiful
voice," who presided over eloquence
and heroic verse.
II. The nine daughters of Pierus,
king of Macedonia, called the Pierides.
They challenged the Muses to a trial
of skill in singing, and being van-
quished were changed by Apollo into
magpies. Ovid, Met. V., Maynwar-
ing's Tr. : —
"Beneath their nails
Feathers they feel, and on their faces scales \
Their horny beaks at once each other scare,
Their arms are plumed, and on their backs they
bear
Pied wings, and flutter in the fleeting aif.
Chatt'ring, the scandal of the woods, they fly,
And there continue still their clam'rous cry :
The same their eloquence, as maids or birds,
Now only noise, and nothing then but words."
15. The highest heaven.
19. The planet Venus.
20. ^\vi.\iQQ\, Knightcs Tale: —
" The besy larke, the messager of day,
Saleweth in hire song the morwe gray,
And firy Phebus riseth up so briglit.
That all the orient laugheth of the sight."
23. The stars of the Southern Cross.
Figuratively the four cardinal virtues.
Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Tem-
perance. See Canto XXXI. 106: —
"We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are
stars."
The next line may be interpreted in
the same figurative sense.
Humboldt, Personal 'Narrative, II.
21, Miss Williams's Tr., thus describes
his first glimpse of the Southern Cross.
" The pleasure we felt on discovering
the Southern Cross was warmly shared
by such of the crew as had lived in the
colonies. In the solitude of the seas,
we hail a star as a friend from whom
we have long been separated. Among
the Portuguese and the Spaniards pecu-
liar motives seem to increase this feel-
ing; a religious sentiment attaches them
to a constellation, the form of which
recalls the sign of the faith planted by
their ancestors in the deserts of the
New World.
" The two great stars which mark
the summit and the foot of the Cross
having nearly the same right ascen-
sion, it follows hence, that the constel-
lation is almost perpendicular at the
moment when it passes the meridian.
This circumstance is known to every
Pttrgatorio
225
nation that lives beyond the tropics, or
in the Southern hemisphere. It has
been observed at what hour of the
night, in different seasons, the Cross
o'i the South is erect or inclined. It
is a time-piece that advances very regu-
larly near four minutes a day, and no
other group of stars exhibits, to the
naked eye, an observation of time so
easily made. How often have we
heard our guides exclaim in the savan-
nahs of Venezuela, or in the desert ex-
tending from Lima to Truxillo, * Mid-
night is past, the Cross begins to bend!'
How often those words reminded us
of that aftecting scene, where Paul and
Virginia, seated near the source of the
river of Lataniers, conversed together
for the last time, and where the old
man, at the sight of the Southern Cross,
warns them that it is time to sep-
arate."
24. By the "primal people" Dante
does not mean our first parents, but
" the early races which inhabited Eu-
rope and Asia," says Mr. Barlow, Study
of Dante, and quotes in confirmation
of his view the following passage from
Humboldt's Cosmos, II. :
" In consequence of the precession
ot the equinoxes, the starry heavens are
continually changing their aspect from
every portion of the earth's surface.
The early races of mankind beheld in
the far north the glorious constellations
of the southern hemisphere rise before
them, which, after remaining long in-
visible, will again appear in those lati-
tudes after a lapse of thousands of years.
.... The Southern Cross began to
VOL. II. 29
become invisible in 52° 30' north lati-
tude 2900 years before our era, since,
according to Galle, this constellation
might previously have reached an alti-
tude of more than 10°. When it dis-
appeared from the horizon of the coun-
tries of the Baltic, the great Pyramid
of Cheops had already been erected
more than 500 years."
30. Iliad, XVIII. : " The Pleiades,
and the Hyades, and the strength of
Orion, and the Bear, which likewise
they call by the appellation of the
Wain, which there turns round and
watches Orion ; and it alone is de-
prived of the baths of Oceanus."
31. Cato of Utica. "Pythagoras
escapes, in the fabulous hell of Dante,"
says Sir Thomas Brown, IJrn Burial,
IV., " among that swarm of philoso-
phers, wherein, whilst we meet with
Plato and Socrates, Cato is found in no
lower place than Purgatory."
In the description of the shield of
^neas, ^neid, VIII., Cato is repre-
sented as presiding over the good in
the Tartarean realms: " And the good
apart, Cato dispensing laws to them."
This line of Virgil may have suggested
to Dante the idea of making Cato the
warden of Purgatory.
In the Convito, IV. 28, he expresses
the greatest reverence for him. Mar-
cia returning to him in her widow-
hood, he says, " symbolizes the noble
soul returning to God in old age."
And continues : " What man on earth
was more worthy to symbolize God,
than Cato? Surely none"; — ending
the chapter with these words : " In
226
Notes
his name it is beautiful to close what
I have had to say of the signs of nobil-
ity, because in him this nobility dis-
plays them all through all ages."
Here, on the shores of Purgatory,
his countenance is adorned with the
light oi the four stars which are the
four virtues. Justice, Prudence, Forti-
tude, and Temperance, and it is fore-
told of him, that his garments will
shine brightly on the last day. And
here he is the symbol of Liberty, since,
for her sake, to him " not bitter was
death in Utica"; and the meaning of
Purgatory is spiritual Liberty, or free-
dom from sin through purification,
" the glorious liberty of the children
of God." Therefore in thus selecting
the " Divine Cato " for the guardian
of this realm, Dante shows himself to
have greater freedom than the critics,
who accuse him of " a perverse the-
ology in saving the soul of an idolater
and suicide."
40. The " blind river " is Lethe,
which by sound and not by sight had
guided them through the winding cav-
ern from the centre of the earth to the
surface. Inf. XXXIV. 130.
42. His beard. Ford, Ladfs Trial:
" Now the down
Of softness is exchanged for plumes of age."
Dante uses the same expression. Inf.
XX. 45, and Petrarca, who became
gray at an early period, says :
" In such a tenebrous and narrow cage
Were we shut up, and the accustomed plumes
I changed betimes, and my first countenance."
52. Upon this speech of Virgil to
Cato, Mr. Barlow, Study of Dante, re-
marks : " The eighth book of the Te-
soro of Brunetto Latini is headed, ^i
comincia la Rcttorica chc c* inscgna a ben
parlare, e di governare citta e popoli.
In this art Dante was duly instructed
by his loving master, and became the
most able orator of his era in Italy.
Giov. Villani speaks of him as reto-
rico pcrfctto tanta in dittare e versijicare
come in aringhiera parlare. But with-
out this record and without acquaint-
ance with the poet's political history,
knowing nothing of his influence in
debates and councils, nor of his credit
at foreign courts, we might, from
the occasional speeches in the Divina
Commedia, be fully assured of the
truth of what Villani has said, and
that Dante's words and manner were
always skilfully adapted to the purpose
he had in view, and to the persons
whom he addressed.
" Virgil's speech to the venerable
Cato is a perfect specimen of persua-
sive eloquence. The sense of personal
dignity is here combined with extreme
courtesy and respect, and the most flat-
tering appeals to the old man's well-
known sentiments, his love of liberty,
his love of rectitude, and his devoted
attachment to Marcia, are interwoven
with irresistible art ; but though the
resentment of Cato at the approach of
the strangers is thus appeased, and he
is persuaded to regard them with as
much favor as the severity of his char-
acter permits, yet he will not have
them think that his consent to their
proceeding has been obtained by adu-
Ptirgatorio
227
lation, but simply by the assertion of
power vouchsafed to them from on
high, —
Ma se donna del Ciel ti muove e regge,
Come tu di', non c' e mestier lusinga :
Bastiti ben, che per lei mi richegge.
In this also the consistency of Cato's
character is maintained ; he is sensible
of the flattery, but disowns its influ-
ence."
']']. See Inf., V. 4.
78. See Inf., IV. 128. Also Con-
vito, IV. 28 : " This the great poet
Lucan shadows forth in the second
book of his Pharsalia, when he says
that Marcia returned to Cato, and
besought him and entreated him to
take her back in his old age. And by
this Marcia is understood the noble
soul."
Lucan, Phars., II., Rowe's Tr. : —
" When lo ! the sounding doors are heard to
turn.
Chaste Martia comes from dead Hortensius'
urn.
Forth from the monument the mournful
dame
With beaten breasts and locks dishevelled
came j
Then with a pale, dejected, rueful look,
Thus pleasing to her former lord she spoke.
'At length a barren wedlock let me prove,
Give me the name without the joys of love;
No more to be abandoned let me come,
That Cato's wife may live upon my tomb.' "
95. A symbol of humility. Ruskin,
Mod. Painters, III. 232, says: "There
is a still deeper significance in the pas-
sage quoted, a little while ago, from
Homer, describing Ulysses casting him-
self down on the rushes and the corn-
giving land at the river shore, — the
rushes and corn being to him only
good for rest and sustenance, — when
we compare it with that in which
Dante tells us he was ordered to de-
scend to the shore of the lake as he
entered Purgatory, to gather a rush,
and gird himself with it, it being to
him the emblem not only of rest, but
of humility under chastisement, the
rush (or reed) being the only plant
which can grow there ; — * no plant
which bears leaves, or hardens its bark,
can live on that shore, because it does
not yield to the chastisement of its
waves.' It cannot but strike the reader
singularly how deep and harmonious
a significance runs through all these
words of Dante, — how every syllable
of them, the more we penetrate it, be-
comes a seed of farther thought! For
follow up this image of the girding
with the reed, under trial, and see to
whose feet it will lead us. As the
grass of the earth, thought of as the
herb yielding seed, leads us to the
place where our Lord commanded the
multitude to sit down by companies
upon the green grass ; so the grass of
the waters, thought of as sustaining
itself among the waters of affliction,
leads us to the place where a stem of
it was put into our Lord's hand for his
sceptre ; and in the crown of thorns,
and the rod of reed, was foreshown
the everlasting truth of the Christian
ages, — that all glory was to be begun
in suffering, and all power in humility."
228
Notes
1 1 5. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III.
248 : " There is only one more point
to be noticed in the Dantesque land-
scape ; namely, the feeling entertained
by the poet towards the sky. And the
love of mountains is so closely con-
nected with the love of clouds, the
sublimity of both depending much on
their association, that, having found
Dante regardless of the Carrara moun-
tains as seen from San Miniato, we
may well expect to find him equally
regardless of the clouds in which the
sun sank behind them. Accordingly,
we find that his only pleasure in the
sky depends on its ' white clearness,'
— that turning into bianco aspetto di
celestro, which is so peculiarly char-
acteristic of fine days in Italy. His
pieces of pure pale light are always
exquisite. In the dawn on the purga-
torial mountain, first, in its pale white,
he sees the tremolar della marina, —
trembling of the sea ; then it becomes
vermilion ; and at last, near sunrise,
orange. These are precisely the
changes of a calm and perfect dawn.
The scenery of Paradise begins with
* day added to day,' the light of the
sun so flooding the heavens, that 'never
rain nor river made lake so wide';
and throughout the Paradise all the
beauty depends on spheres of light, or
stars, never on clouds. But the pit of
the Inferno is at first sight obscure,
deep, and so cloudy that at its bottom
nothing could be seen. When Dante
and Virgil reach the marsh in which
the souls of those who have been an-
gry and sad in their lives are forever
plunged, they find it covered with
thick fog ; and the condemned souls
say to them,
' We once were sad,
In the stueet air, made gladsome by the sun.
Now in these murky settlings are we sad.'
Even the angel crossing the marsh to
help them is annoyed by this bitter
marsh smoke, fummo acerbo, and con-
tinually sweeps it with his hand from
before his face."
123. Some commentators interpret
Ove adorezza, by " where the wind
blows." But the blowing of the wind
would produce an effect exactly oppo-
site to that here described.
135. ^neid, VI.: "When the first
is torn off, a second of gold succeeds ;
and a twig shoots forth leaves of the
same metal."
CANTO II.
I. It was sunset at Jerusalem, night or the sign of Libra, which is opposite
on the Ganges, and morning at the Aries. These scales fall from the hand
Mountain of Purgatory. of night, or are not above the horizon
The sun being in Aries, the night by night, when the night exceeds, or
would " come forth with the scales," is longer than the day.
Pttrgatorio ii.
229
7. Boccaccio, Dccamcrone, Prologue
to the Third Day, imitates this passage:
" The Aurora, as the sun drew nigh,
was already beginning to change from
vermilion to orange."
31. Argument used in the sense
of means, or appliances, as in Inf.
XXXI. 55.
44. Cervantes says in Don ^lixoie,
Pt. I. ch. 12, that the student Crisos-
tomo " had a face like a benediction."
57. Sackville, in his Induction to the
Mirror for Magistrates, says :
" Whiles Scorpio dreading Sagittarius' dart
Whose bow prest bent in fight the string had
slipped,
Down slid into the ocean flood apart."
80. Odyssey, XI., Buckley's Tr. :
*'But I, meditating in my mind, w^ished
to lay hold of the soul of my departed
mother. Thrice indeed I essayed it,
and my mind urged me to lay hold of
it, but thrice it flew^ from my hands, like
unto a shadow, or even to a dream."
And ^neid, VI., Davidson's Tr. :
" There thrice he attempted to throw
his arms around his neck ; thrice the
phantom, grasped in vain, escaped his
hold, like the fleet gales, or resembling
most a fugitive dream."
91. Casella was a Florentine musi-
cian and friend of Dante, who here
speaks to him with so much tenderness
and affection as to make us regret that
nothing more is known of him. Milton
alludes to him in his Sonnet to Mr.
H. 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."
98. The first three months of the
year of Jubilee, 1300. Milman, Hist.
Latin Christ., VI. 285, thus describes
it : " All Europe was in a frenzy of
religious zeal. Throughout the year
the roads in the remotest parts of Ger-
many, Hungary, Britain, were crowded
with pilgrims of all ages, of both sexes.
A Savoyard above one hundred years
old determined to see the tombs of the
Apostles before he died. There were
at times two hundred thousand stran-
gers at Rome. During the year (no
doubt the calculations were loose and
vague) the city was visited by millions
of pilgrims. At one time, so vast was
the press both within and without the
walls, that openings were broken for
ingress and egress. Many people were
trampled down, and perished by suffo-
cation Lodgings were exorbitantly
dear, forage scarce ; but the ordinary
food of man, bread, meat, wine, and
fish, was sold in great plenty and at
moderate prices. The oblations were
beyond calculation. It is reported by
an eyewitness that two priests stood
with rakes in their hands sweeping the
uncounted gold and silver from the
altars. Nor was this tribute, like of-
ferings or subsidies for Crusades, to be
devoted to special uses, the accoutre-
ments, provisions, freight of armies.
It was entirely at the free and irrespon-
sible disposal of the Pope. Christen-
dom of its own accord was heaping at
the Pope's feet this extraordinary cus-
tom ; and receiving back the gift of
pardon and everlasting life."
See also Inf. XVIII., Note 29.
230
Notes
loo. The sea-shore of Ostia at the
mouth of the Tiber, where the souls
of those who were saved assembled,
and were received by the Celestial
Pilot, who transported them to the
island of Purgatory. Minutius Felix,
a Roman lawyer of the third century,
makes it the scene of his Octavius,
and draws this pleasant picture of
the sands and the sea. . Reeves's Tr.,
P- 37: —
"It was vacation-time, and that gave
me aloose from my business at the bar ;
for it was the season after the summer's
heat, when autumn promised fair, and
put on the face of temperate. We set
out, therefore, in the morning early,
and as we were walking upon the sea-
shore, and a kindly breeze fanned and
refreshed our limbs, and the yielding
sand softly submitted to our feet and
made it delicious travelling, Cascilius
on a sudden espied the statue of Sera-
pis, and, according to the vulgar mode
of superstition, raised his hand to his
mouth, and paid his adoration in kisses.
Upon which Octavius, addressing him-
self to me, said : * It is not well done,
my brother Marcus, thus to leave your
inseparable companion in the depth of
Vulgar darkness, and to suffer him, in
so clear a day, to stumble upon stones;
stones, indeed, of figure, and anointed
with oil, and crowned ; but stones,
however, still they are; — for you can-
not but be sensible that your permitting
so foul an error in your friend redounds
no less to your disgrace than his.*
This discourse of his held us through
half the city ; and now we began to
find ourselves upon the free and open
shore. There the gently washing
waves had spread the extremest sands
into the order of an artificial walk ;
and as the sea always expresses some
roughness in his looks, even when the
winds are still, although he did not roll
in foam and angry surges to the shore,
yet were we much delighted, as we
walked upon the edges of the water, to
see the crisping, frizzly waves glide in
snaky folds, one while playing against
our feet, and then again retiring and
lost in the devouring ocean. Softly,
then, and calmly as the sea about us,
we travelled on, and kept upon the
brim of the gently declining shore, be-
guiling the way with our stories."
112. This is the first line of the
second canzone of the Convito.
CANTO III
15. So in Paradiso, XXVI. 139 : — ing the Bay of Naples. The inscrip-
" The mount that rises highest o'er the sea." tion upon it is :
27. The tomb of Virgil is on the Mantua me genuit: Calabri rapuere: tenet nunc
promontory of Pausilippo, overlook- Parthenope : cecini pascua, rura, duces.
Pttrgatorio in.
231
" The epitaph," says Eustace, Clas-
sical Tour, I. 499, "which, though not
genuine, is yet ancient, was inscribed
by order of the Duke of Pescolangiano,
then proprietor of the place, on a
marble slab placed in the side of the
rock opposite the entrance of the tomb,
where it still remains."
Forsyth, Italy, p. 378, says : "/^/r-
giVs totnb is so called, I believe, on the
single authority of Donatus. Donatus
places it at the right distance from
Naples, but on the wrong side of the
city ; and even there he omits the
grotto of Posilipo, which not being so
deep in his time as the two last exca-
vations have left it, must have opened
precisely at his tomb. Donatus, too,
gives, for Virgil's own composition, an
epitaph on the cliff now rejected as a
forgery. And who is this Donatus ?
— an obscure grammarian, or rather his
counterfeit. The structure itself re-
sembles a ruined pigeon-house, where
the numerous columbaria would indicate
a family-sepulchre : but who should
repose in the tomb of Virgil, but Vir-
gil alone ? Visitors of every nation,
kings and princes, have scratched their
names on the stucco of this apocryphal
ruin, but the poet's awful name seems
to have deterred them from versifying
here."
37. Be satisfied with knowing that
a thing is, without asking why it is.
These were distinguished in scholastic
language as the Dcmonstratio quia, and
the Dcmonstratio propter quid.
49. Places on the mountainous sea-
side road from Genoa to Pisa, known
as the Riviera di Levante. Of this,
Mr. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. 243,
says : —
"The similes by which he illus-
trates the steepness of that ascent are all
taken from the Riviera of Genoa, now
traversed by a good carriage road under
the name of the Cornice ; but as this
road did not exist in Dante's time, and
the steep precipices and promontories
were then probably traversed by foot-
paths, which, as they necessarily passed
in many places over crumbling and
slippery limestone, were doubtless not
a little dangerous, and as in the manner
they commanded the bays of sea below,
and lay exposed to the full blaze of the
southeastern sun, they corresponded
precisely to the situation of the path by
which he ascends above the purgatorial
sea, the image could not possibly have
been taken from a better source for the
fully conveying his idea to the reader :
nor, by the way, is there reason to dis-
credit, in this place, his powers of
climbing; for, with his usual accuracy,
he has taken the angle of the path
for us, saying it was considerable more
than forty -five. Now a continuous
mountain slope of forty-five degrees is
already quite unsafe either for ascent or
descent, except by zigzag paths ; and
a greater slope than this could not be
climbed, straightforward, but by help
of crevices or jags in the rock, and
great physical exertion besides."
Mr. Norton, Travel and Study, p. I,
thus describes the Riviera: "The Var
forms the geographical boundary be-
tween France and Italy; but it is not
232
Notes
till Nice is left behind, and the first
height of the Riviera is surmounted,
that the real Italy begins. Here the
hills close round at the north, and sud-
denly, as the road turns at the top of a
long ascent, the Mediterranean appears
far below, washing the feet of the
mountains that form the coast, and
stretching away to the Southern hori-
zon. The line of the shore is of ex-
traordinary beauty. Here an abrupt
cliff rises from the sea ; here bold and
broken masses of rock jut out into it ;
here the hills, their gray sides terraced
for vineyards, slope gently down to the
water's edge ; here they stretch into
little promontories covered with orange
and olive-trees.
** One of the first of these promon-
tories is that of Capo Sant' Ospizio.
A close grove of olives half conceals
the old castle on its extreme point.
With the afternoon sun full upon it,
the trees palely glimmering as their
leaves move in the light air, the sea so
blue and smooth as to be like a darker
sky, and not even a ripple upon the
beach, it seems as if this were the very
home of summer and of repose. It is
remote and secluded from the stir and
noise of the world. No road is seen
leading to it, and one looks down upon
the solitary castle and wonders what
stories of enchantment and romance
belong to a ruin that appears as if made
for their dwelling-place. It is a scene
out of that Italy which is the home of
the imagination, and which becomes
the Italy of memory.
"As the road winds down to the sea.
it passes under a high isolated peak, on
which stands Esa, built as a city of
refuge against pirates and Moors. A
little farther on,
* Its Roman strength Turbia showed
In ruins by the mountain road,' —
not only recalling the ancient times,
when it was the boundary city of Italy
and Gaul, and when Augustus erected
his triumphal arch within it, but as-
sociated also with Dante and the steep
of Purgatory. Beneath lies Monaco,
glowing * like a gem ' on its oval rock,
the sea sparkling around it, and the
long western rays of the sinking sun
lingering on its little palace, clinging
to its church belfry and its gray wall,
as if loath to leave them."
In the Casa Magni, on the sea-shore
near Lerici, Shelley once lived. He
was returning thither from Leghorn,
when he perished in a sudden storm at
sea.
67. After they had gone a mile, they
were still a stone's throw distant.
82. See Convito, I. 10.
112. Manfredi, king of Apulia and
Sicily, was a natural son of the Em-
peror Frederick the Second. He was
slain at the battle of Benevento, in
1265; one of the great and decisive
battles of the Guelphs and Ghibellines,
the Guelph or Papal forces being com-
manded by Charles of Anjou, and the
Ghibellines or Imperialists by Man-
fredi.
Malispini, Storia, ch. 187, thus de-
scribes his death and burial : " Man-
fredi, being left with few followers,
behaved like a valiant gentleman who
Purgatorio in.
233
preferred to die in battle rather than
to escape with shame. And putting
on his helmet, which had on it a silver
eagle for a crest, this eagle fell on the
saddle-bow before him; and seeing this
he was greatly disturbed, and said in
Latin to the barons who were near
him, *Hoc est signum Dei; for this crest
I fastened on with my own hands in
such a way that it could not fall.' But
he was not discouraged, and took heart,
and went into battle like any other
baron, without the royal insignia, in
order not to be recognized. But short
while it lasted, for his forces were al-
ready in flight ; and they were routed
and Manfredi slain in the middle of the
enemy ; and they were driven into the
town by the soldiers of King Charles,
for it was now night, and they lost
the city of Benevento. And many of
Manfredi's barons were made pris-
oners, among whom were the Count
Giordano, Messer Piero Asino degli
Uberti, and many others, whom King
Charles sent captive into Provence, and
there had them put to death in prison ;
and he imprisoned many other Ger-
mans in different parts of the kingdom.
And a few days afterwards the wife of
Manfredi and his children and his sis-
ter, who were in Nocera de' Sardini
in Apulia, were taken prisoners by
Charles ; these died in prison. And
for more than three days they made
search after Manfredi ; for he could
not be found, nor was it known if he
were dead, or a prisoner, or had es-
caped ; because he had not worn his
royal robes in the battle. And after-
VOL. II. 30
wards he was recognized by one of
his own camp-followers, from certain
marks upon his person, in the njiddle of
the battle-field ; and he threw him across
an ass, and came shouting, * Who will
buy Manfredi ? ' for which a baron of
the king beat him with a cane. And
the body of Manfredi being brought to
King Charles, he assembled all the
barons who were prisoners, and asked
each one if that was Manfredi ; and
timidly they answered yes. Count
Giordano smote himself in the face
with his hands, weeping and crying,
*0 my lord!' whereupon he was much
commended by the French, and certain
Bretons besought that he might have
honorable burial. Answered the king
and said, * I would do it willingly, if
he were not excommunicated'; and
on that account he would not have
him laid in consecrated ground, but he
was buried at the foot of the bridge of
Benevento, and each one of the army
threw a stone upon his grave, so that a
great pile was made. But afterwards,
it is said, by command of the Pope, the
Bishop of Cosenza took him from that
grave, and sent him out of the king-
dom, because it was Churth land.
And he was buried by the river Verde,
at the confines of the kingdom and the
Campagna. This battle was on a Fri-
day, the last day of February, in the
year one thousand two hundred and
sixty-five."
Villani, who in his account of the
battle copies Malispini almost literally,
gives in another chapter, VI. 46, the
following portrait of Manfredi ; but it
234
Notes
must be remembered that Villani was
a Guelph, and Manfredi a Ghibcl-
line.
** King Manfredi had for his mother
a beautiful lady of the family of the
Marquises of Lancia in Lombardy,
with whom the Emperor had an in-
trigue, and was beautiful in person, and
like his father and more than his father
was given to dissipation of all kinds.
He was a musician- and singer, delight-
ed in the company of buffoons and
courtiers and beautiful concubines, and
was always clad in green ; he was
generous and courteous, and of good
demeanor, so that he was much be-
loved and gracious ; but his life was
wholly epicurean, hardly caring for
God or the saints, but for the delights
of the body. He was an enemy of
holy Church, and of priests and monks,
confiscating churches as his father had
done ; and a wealthy gentleman was he,
both from the treasure which he in-
herited from the Emperor, and from
King Conrad, his brother, and from his
own kingdom, which was ample and
fruitful, and which, so long as he lived,
notwithstanding all the wars he had
with the Church, he kept in good con-
dition, so that it rose greatly in wealth
and power, both by sea and by land."
This battle of Bencvento is the
same as that mentioned Inf. XXVIII.
i6: —
" At Ceperano, where a renegade
Was each Apulian."
113. Constance, wife of the Em-
peror Henry the Sixth.
115. His daughter Constance, who
was married to Peter of Aragon, and
was the mother of Frederic of Sicily
and of James of Aragon.
124. The Bishop of Cosenza and
Pope Clement the Fourth.
131. The name of the river Verde
reminds one of the old Spanish ballad,
particularly when one recalls the fact
that Manfredi had in his army a band
of Saracens : —
" Rio Verde, Rio Verde,
Many a corpse is bathed in thee.
Both of Moors and eke of Christians,
Slain with swords most cruelly."
132. Those who died ** in contu-
mely of holy Church," or under ex-
communication, were buried with ex-
tinguished and inverted torches.
CANTO IV.
6. Plato's doctrine of three souls :
the Vegetative in the liver ; the Sensa-
tive in the heart ; and the Intellectual
in the brain. See Convito, IV. 7.
15. See Convito, II. 14, quoted Par.
XIV. Note 86.
25. Sanleo, a fortress on a mountain
in the duchy of Urbino ; Noli, a town
in the -Genoese territory, by the sea-
side ; Bismantova, a mountain in the
duchy of Modena.
36. Like Christian going up the hill
Ptirgatorio v.
235
Difficulty in Bunyan, Pilgrim's Pro-
gress : " I looked then after Christian
to see him go up the hill, where I per-
ceived he fell from running to going,
and from going to clambering upon his
hands and knees, because of the steep-
ness of the place,"
43. More than forty-five degrees.
61. If the sun were in Gemini, or
if we were in the month of May, you
would see the sun still farther to the
north.
64. Rubecchio is generally rendered
red or ruddy. But Jacopo dalla Lana
says: "Rubecchio in the Tuscan tongue
signifies an indented mill-wheel." This
interpretation certainly renders the im-
age more distinct. The several signs
of the Zodiac are so many cogs in the
great wheel ; and the wheel is an im-
age which Dante more than once ap-
plies to the celestial bodies.
71. The Ecliptic. See Z;// XV II.,
Note 107.
73. This, the Mountain of Purga-
tory ; and that. Mount Zion.
83. The Seven Stars of Ursa Major,
the North Star.
109. Compare Thomson's descrip-
tion of the "pleasing land of drowsy-
head," in the Castle of Indolence : —
"And there a season atween June and May,
Half prankt with spring, with summer half
imbrowned,
A listless climate made, where, sooth to say.
No living wight could work, ne cared even
for play."
123. " He loved also in life," says
Arrivabene, Commento Storico, 584, "a
certain Belacqua, an excellent maker of
musical instruments."
Benvenuto da Imola says of him :
" He was a Florentine who made gui-
tars and other musical instruments.
He carved and ornamented the necks
and heads of the guitars with great care,
and sometimes also played. Hence
Dante, who delighted in music, knew
him intimately." This seems to be all
that is known of Belacqua.
133. Measure for Measure, II. 2: —
" True prayers
That shall be up at heaven, and enter there
Ere sunrise ; prayers from preserved souls.
From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal."
CANTO V.
I. There is an air of reality about
this passage, like some personal reminis-
cence of street gossip, which gives per-
haps a little credibility to the other-
wise incredible anecdotes of Dante
told by Sacchetti and others; — such as
those of the ass-driver whom he beat.
and the blacksmith whose tools he
threw into the street fo-r singing his
verses amiss, and the woman who
pointed him out to her companions as
the man who had been in Hell and
brought back tidings of it.
38. Some editions read in this line
2-:,6
Notes
mczza nottc, midnight, instead o^ prima
notte, early nightfall.
Of meteors Brunetto Latini, Tresor,
I. pt. 3, ch. 107, writes: " Likewise it
often comes to pass that a dry vapor,
when it has mounted so high that it
takes fire from the heat which is above,
falls, when thus kindled, towards the
earth, until it is spent and extinguished,
whence some people think it is a drag-
on or a star which falls."
Milton, P^raJ. Lost, IV. 556, de-
scribing the flight of Uriel, says : —
" Swift as a shooting star
In Autumn thwarts the night, when vapors fired
Impress the air, and show the mariner
From what point of his compass to beware
Impetuous winds."
66. Shakespeare's " war 'twixt will
and will not," and " letting I dare not
wait upon I would."
67. This is Jacopo del Cassero of
Fano, in the region between Romagna
and the kingdom of Naples, then ruled
by Charles de Valois (Charles Lack-
land). He was waylaid and murdered
at Oriago, between Venice and Padua,
by Azzone the Third of Este.
74. Leviticus, x\n. 2 : "The life of
the flesh is in the blood."
75. Among the Paduans, who are
called Antenori, because their city
was founded by Antenor of Troy.
Brunetto Latini, Tresor, L ch. 39, says:
" Then Antenor and Priam departed
thence, with a great company of peo-
ple, and went to the Marca Trevi-
sana, not far from Venice, and there
they built another city which is
called Padua, where lies the body of
Antenor, and his sepulchre is still
there."
79. La Mira is on the Brenta, or one
of its canals, in the fen-lands between
Padua and Venice.
88. Buonconte was a son of Guido
di Montefeltro, and lost his life in the
battle of Campaldino in the Val d' Arno.
His body was never found ; Dante
imagines its fate.
Ruskin, Mod. Painters, IH. 252, re-
marks : —
" Observe, Buonconte, as he dies,
crosses his arms over his breast, press-
ing them together, partly in his pain,
partly in prayer. His body thus lies
by the river shore, as on a sepul-
chral monument, the arms folded into
a cross. The rage of the river, under
the influence of the evil demon, unlooses
this cross, dashing the body supinely
away, and rolling it over and over by
bank and bottom. Nothing can be
truer to the action of a stream in fury
than these lines. And how desolate is
it all ! The lonely flight, — the grisly
wound, "pierced in the throat," —
the death, without help or pity, —
only the name of Mary on the lips,
— and the cross folded over the heart.
Then the rage of the demon and the
river, — the noteless grave, — and, at
last, even she who had been most trust-
ed forgetting him, —
* Giovanna nor none else have care for me.'
There is, I feel assured, nothing else
like it in all the range of poetry ; a
faint and harsh echo of it, only, exists
in one Scottish ballad, 'The Twa Cor-
bies.' "
Purgatorio r.
237
89. The wife of Buonconte.
92. Ampere, Voyage Dantesque, p.
241, thus speaks of the battle of Cam-
paldino : "In this plain of Campaldino,
now so pleasant and covered with vine-
yards, took place, on the iith of June,
1289, a rude combat between the
Guelphs of Florence and the fuorusciti
Ghibellines, aided by the Aretines.
Dante fought in the front rank of the
Florentine cavalry ; for it must needs
be that this man, whose life was so
complete, should have been a soldier,
before being a theologian, diplomatist,
and poet. He was then twenty-four
years of age. He himself described
this battle in a letter, of which only a
few lines remain. * At the battle of
Campaldino,' he says, * the Ghibelline
party was routed and almost wholly
slain. I was there, a novice in arms ;
I had great fear, and at last great joy, on
account of the divers chances of the
fight.' One must not see in this phrase
the confession of cowardice, which
could have no place in a soul tempered
like that of Alighieri. The only fear
he had was lest the battle should be
lost. In fact, the Florentines at first
seemed beaten; their infantry fell back
before the Aretine cavalry ; but this
first advantage of the enemy was its
destruction, by dividing its forces.
These were the vicissitudes of the
battle to which Dante alludes, and
which at first excited his fears, and
then caused his joy."
96. The Convent of Camaldoli, thus
described by Forsyth, Italy y p. 117: —
*' We now crossed the beautiful vale
of Prato Vecchio, rode round the mod-
est arcades of the town, and arrived
at the lower convent of Camaldoli, just
at shutting of the gates. The sun was
set and every object sinking into re-
pose, except the stream which roared
among the rocks, and the convent-bells
which were then ringing the Angelus.
** This monastery is secluded from
the approach of woman in a deep, nar-
row, woody dell. Its circuit of dead
walls, built on the conventual plan,
gives it an aspect of confinement and
defence ; yet this is considered as a
privileged retreat, where the rule of the
order relaxes its rigor, and no monks
can reside but the sick or the super-
annuated, the dignitary or the steward,
the apothecary or the bead -turner.
Here we passed the night, and next
morning rode up by the steep traverses
to the Santo Eremo, where Saint Ro-
mualdo lived and established
de' tacenti cenobiti il coro,
L' arcane penitenze, ed i digiuni
Al Camaldoli suo.
" The Eremo is a city of hermits,
walled round, and divided into streets
of low, detached cells. Each cell con-
sists of two or three naked rooms, built
exactly on the plan of the Saint's own
tenement, which remains just as Ro-
mualdo left it eight hundred years ago;
now too sacred and too damp for a
mortal tenant.
" The unfeeling Saint has here es-
tablished a rule which anticipates the
pains of Purgatory. No stranger can
behold without emotion a number of
noble, interesting young men bound to
238
Notes
stand erect chanting at choir for eight
hours a day ; their faces pale, their
heads shaven, their beards shaggy, their
backs raw, their legs swollen, and their
feet bare. With this horrible insti-
tute the climate conspires in severity,
and selects from society the best con-
stitutions. The sickly novice is cut
off in one or two winters, the rest are
subject to dropsy, and few arrive at
old age."
97. Where the Archiano loses its
name by flowing into the Arno.
104. Epistle of Jude, 9 : " Yet Mi-
chael the archangel, when contending
with the devil he disputed about the
body of Moses, durst not bring against
him a railing accusation, but said. The
Lord rebuke thee."
And Jeremy Taylor, speaking of the
pardon of sin, says : " And while it is
disputed between Christ and Christ's
enemy who shall be Lord, the pardon
fluctuates like the wave, striving to
climb the rock, and is washed off like
its own retinue, and it gets possession
by time and uncertainty, by difficulty
and the degrees of a hard progression."
109. Brunetto Latini, Tresor, L ch.
107: "Then arise vapors like unto
smoke, and mount aloft in air, where
little by little they gather and grow,
until they become dark and dense, so
that they take away the sight of the
sun ; and these are the clouds ; but
they never are so dark as to take away
the light of day ; for the sun shines
through them, as if it were a candle
in a lantern, which shines outwardly,
though it cannot itself be seen. And
when the cloud has waxed great, so
that it can no longer support the abun-
dance of water, which is there as va-
por, it must needs fall to earth, and
that is the rain."
112. In Ephesians ii. 2, the evil
spirit is called " the prince of the
power of the air."
Compare also Inf. XXIIL 16,
" If anger upon evil will be grafted."
and Inf. XXXL 55,
"For where the argument of intellect
Is added unto evil will and power,
No rampart can the people make against it."
116. This Pratomagno is the same
as the Prato Vecchio mentioned in
Note 96. The " great yoke " is the
ridge of the Apennines.
Dr. Barlow, Study of Dante, p. 199,
has this note on the passage: —
" When rain falls from the upper
region of the air, we observe at a con-
siderable altitude a thin light veil, or
a hazy turbidness; as this increases, the
lower clouds become difiiised in it, and
form a uniform sheet. Such is the stra-
tus cloud described by Dante (v. 115)
as covering the valley from Pratomagno
to the ridge on the opposite side above
Camaldoli. This cloud is a widely-
extended horizontal sheet of vapor, in-
creasing from below, and lying on or
near the earth's surface. It is prop-
erly the cloud of night, and first ap-
pears about sunset, usually in autumn;
it comprehends creeping mists and fogs
which ascend from the bottom of val-
leys, and from the surface of lakes and
rivers, in consequence of air colder
PtLvgatorio v.
239
than that of the surface descending and
mingling with it, and from the air over
the adjacent land cooling down more
rapidly than that over the water, from
which increased evaporation is taking
place,"
118. Milton, Parad. Lost, IV. 500:
" As Jupiter
On Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds
That bring May-flowers."
1 26. His arms crossed upon his
breast.
1 34. A.mY>hrQ,Foyage Daniesque, 255 :
** Who was this unhappy and perhaps
guilty woman ? The commentators
say that she was of the family of Tolo-
mei, illustrious at Siena. Among the
different versions of her story there is
one truly terrible. The outraged hus-
band led his wife to an isolated castle
in the Maremma of Siena, and there
shut himself up with his victim, wait-
ing his vengeance from the poisoned
atmosphere of this solitude. Breathing
with her the air which was killing her,
he saw her slowly perish. This fu-
neral tete-a-tete found him always im-
passive, until, according to the ex-
pression of Dante, the Maremma had
unmade what he had once loved. This
melancholy story might well have no
other foundation than the enigma of
Dante's lines, and the terror with which
this enigma may have struck the imagi-
nations of his contemporaries.
" However this may be, one cannot
prevent an involuntary shudder, when,
showing you a pretty little brick pal-
ace [at Siena], they say, * That is the
house of the Pia.' "
Benvenuto da Imola gives a different
version of the story, and says that by
command of the husband she was
thrown from the window of her pal-
ace into the street, and died of the
fall.
Bandello, the Italian Novelist, Pt. I.
Nov. 12, says that the narrative is true,
and gives minutely the story of the
lovers, with such embellishments as his
imagination suggested.
Ugo Foscolo, Edinb. Review, XXIX.
458, speaks thus : —
" Shakespeare unfolds the character
of his persons, and presents them under
all the variety of forms which they can
naturally assume. He surrounds them
with all the splendor of his imagina-
tion, and bestows on them that full
and minute reality which his creative
genius could alone confer. Of all
tragic poets, he most amply develops
character. On the other hand, Dante,
if compared not only to Virgil, the
most sober of poets, but even to Taci-
tus, will be found never to employ
more than a stroke or two of his pen-
cil, which he aims at imprinting almost
insensibly on the hearts of his readers.
Virgil has related the story of Eury-
dice in two hundred verses ; Dante, in
sixty verses, has finished his master-
piece, — the tale of Francesca da Ri-
mini. The history of Desdemona has
a parallel in the following passage of
Dante. Nello della Pietra had es-
poused a lady of noble family at Sien-
na, named Madonna Pia. Her beauty
was the admiration of Tuscany, and
excited in the heart of her husband a
240
Notes
jealousy, which, exasperated by false
reports and groundless suspicions, at
length drove him to the desperate res-
olution of Othello. It is difficult to
decide whether the lady was quite in-
nocent ; but so Dante represents her.
Her husband brought her into the
Maremma, which, then as now, was
a district destructive to health. He
never told his unfortunate wife the
reason of her banishment to so dan-
gerous a country. He did not deign
to utter complaint or accusation. He
lived with her alone, in cold silence,
without answering her questions, or
listening to her remonstrances. He
patiently waited till the pestilential air
should destroy the health of this young
lady. In a few months she died.
Some chroniclers, indeed, tell us, that
Nello used the dagger to hasten her
death. It is certain that he survived
her, plunged in sadness and perpetual
silence. Dante had, in this incident,
all the materials of an ample and very
poetical narrative. But he bestows on
it only four verses."
For a description of the Maremma,
see Inf. XIII. Note 9.
Also Rogers, Ital^, near the end : —
" Where the path
Is lost in rank luxuriance, and to breathe
Is to inhale distemper, if not death ;
Where the wild-boar retreats, when hunters
chafe,
And, when the day-star flames, the buffalo-
herd
Afflicted plunge into the stagnant pool,
Nothing discerned amid the water-leaves,
Save here and there the likeness of a head,
Savage, uncouth ; where none in human shape
Come, save the herdsman, levelling his length
Of lance with many a cry, or Tartar-like
Urging his steed along the distant hill,
As from a danger."
CANTO VI.
1. Zara was a game of chance,
played with three dice.
13. Messer Benincasa of Arezzo,
who, while Vicario del Podesta, or
Judge, in Siena, sentenced to death a
brother and a nephew of Ghino di
Tacco for highway robbery. He was
afterwards an Auditor of the Ruota in
Rome, where, says Benvenuto, " one
day as he sat in the tribunal, in the
midst of a thousand people, Ghino di
Tacco appeared like Scasvola, terrible
and nothing daunted; and having seized
Benincasa, he plunged his dagger into
his heart, leaped from the balcony, and
disappeared in the midst of the crowd
stupefied with terror,"
14. This terrible Ghino di Tacco
was a nobleman of Asinalunga in the
territory of Siena ; one of those splen-
did fellows, who, from some real or
imaginary wrong done them, take to
the mountains and highways to avenge
themselves on society. He is the true
type of the traditionary stage bandit,
the magnanimous melodramatic hero.
Ptcrgatorio vi.
241
who utters such noble sentiments and
commits such atrocious deeds.
Benvcnuto is evidently dazzled and
fascinated by him, and has to throw
two Romans into the scale to do him
justice. His account is as follows: —
" Reader, I would have thee know
that Ghino was not, as some write, so
infamous as to be a great assassin and
highway robber. For this Ghino di
Tacco was a wonderful man, tall, mus-
cular, black-haired, and strong; as agile
as Scsvola, as prudent and liberal as
Papirius Cursor. He was of the no-
bles of La Fratta, in the county of Sie-
na ; who, being forcibly banished by
the Counts of Santafiore, held the noble
castle of Radicofani against the Pope.
With his marauders he made many and
great prizes, so that no one could go
safely to Rome or elsewhere through
those regions. Yet hardly any one fell
into his hands, who did not go away
contented, and love and praise him
If a merchant were taken prisoner,
Ghino asked him kindly how much he
was able to give him ; and if he said five
hundred pieces of gold, he kept three
hundred for himself, and gave back two
hundred, saying, ' I wish you to go on
with your business and to thrive.' If
it were a rich and fat priest, he kept
his handsome mule, and gave him a
wretched horse. And if it were a poor
scholar, going to study, he gave him
some money, and exhorted him to good
conduct and proficiency in learning."
Boccaccio, Decamerone, X. 2, relates
the following adventure of Ghino di
Tacco and the Abbot of Cligni.
VOL. II. 31
" Ghino di Tacco was a man fa-
mous for his bold and insolent robberies,
who being banished trom Siena, and at
utter enmity with the Counts di Santa
Fiore, caused the town of Radicofani
to rebel against the Church, and lived
there whilst his gang robbed all who
passed that way. Now when Boniface
the Eighth was Pope, there came to
court the Abbot of Cligni, reputed to
be one of the richest prelates in the
world, and having debauched his stom-
ach with high living, he was advised
by his physicians to go to the baths of
Siena, as a certain cure. And, having
leave from the Pope, he set out with
a goodly train of coaches, carriages,
horses, and servants, paying no respect
to the rumors concerning this robber.
Ghino was apprised of his coming, and
took his measures accordingly ; when,
without the loss of a man, he enclosed
the Abbot and his whole retinue in a
narrow defile, where it was impossible
for them to escape. This being done,
he sent one of his principal fellows to
the Abbot with his service, requesting
the favor of him to alight and visit
him at his castle. Upon which the
Abbot replied, with a great deal of pas-
sion, that he had nothing to do with
Ghino, but that his resolution was to
go on, and he would see who dared to
stop him. * My Lord,' quoth the
man, with a great deal of humility,
* you are now in a place where all ex-
communications are kicked out of doors ;
then please to oblige my master in
this thing ; it will be your best way.'
Whilst they were talking together, the
242
Notes
place was surrounded with highway-
men, and the Abbot, seeing himselt a
prisoner, went with a great deal of ill-
will with the fellow to the castle, fol-
lowed by his whole retinue, where he
dismounted, and was lodged, by Ghino's
appointment, in a poor, dark little
room, whilst every other person was
well accommodated according to his
respective station, and the carriages and
all the horses taken exact care of.
This being done, Ghino went to the
Abbot, and said, * My Lord, Ghino,
whose guest you are, requests the favor
of you to let him know whither you
are going, and upon what account ? '
The Abbot was wise enough to lay all
his haughtiness aside for the present,
and satisfied him with regard to both.
Ghino went away at hearing this, and,
resolving to cure him without a bath,
he ordered a great fire to be kept con-
stantly in his room, coming to him
no more till next morning, when he
brought him two slices of toasted bread,
in a fine napkin, and a large glass of his
own rich white wine, saying to him,
* My Lord, when Ghino was young,
he studied physic, and he declares that
the very best medicine for a pain in
the stomach is what he has now pro-
vided for you, of which these things are
to be the beginning. Then take them,
and have a good heart.' The Abbot,
whose hunger was much greater than
was his will to joke, ate the bread,
though with a great deal of indigna-
tion, and drank the glass of wine ; after
which he began to talk a little arro-
gantly, asking many questions, and
demanding more particularly to see
this Ghino. But Ghino passed over
part of what he said as vain, and the
rest he answered very courteously, de-
claring that Ghino meant to make him
a visit very soon, and then left him.
He saw him no more till next morn-
ing, when he brought him as much
bread and wine as before, and in the
same manner. And thus he continued
during many days, till he found the Ab-
bot had eaten some dried beans, which
he had left purposely in the chamber,
when he inquired of him, as from
Ghino, how he found his stomach ?
The Abbot replied, * I should be well
enough were I out of this man's clutches.
There is nothing I want now so much
as to eat, for his medicines have had
such an effect upon me, that I am fit
to die with hunger." Ghino, then,
having furnished a room with the Ab-
bot's own goods, and provided an ele-
gant entertainment, to which many
people of the town were invited, as
well as the Abbot's own domestics,
went the next morning to him, and
said, 'My Lord, now you find yourself
recovered, it is time for you to quit
this infirmary.' So' he took him by
the hand, and led him into the cham-
ber, leaving him there with his own
people ; and as he went out to give
orders about the feast, the Abbot was
giving an account how he had led his
life in that place, whilst they declared
that they had been used by Ghino with
all possible respect. When the time
came, they sat down and were nobly
entertained, but still without Ghino's
Purgatorio ri.
243
making himself known. But after the
Abbot had continued some days in that
manner, Ghino had all the goods and
furniture brought into a large room,
and the horses were likewise led into
the court-yard which was under it,
when he inquired how his Lordship
now found himself, or whether he was
yet able to ride. The Abbot made an-
swer that he was strong enough, and
his stomach perfectly well, and that he
only wanted to quit this man. Ghino
then brought him into the room where
all his goods were, showing him also
to the window, that he might take a
view of his horses, when he said, * My
Lord, you must understand it was no
evil disposition, but his being driven
a poor exile from his own house, and
persecuted with many enemies, that
forced Ghino di Tacco, whom I am,
to be a robber upon the highways, and
an enemy to the court of Rome. You
seem, however, to be a person of
honor ; as, therefore, I have cured you
of your pain in your stomach, I do not
mean to treat you as I would do an-
other person that should fall into my
hands, that is, to take what I please,
but I would have you consider my ne-
cessity, and then give me what you
will yourself. Here is all that belongs
to you ; the horses you may see out
of the window: take either part or the
whole, just as you are disposed, and go
or stay, as is most agreeable to you."
The Abbot was surprised to hear a
highwayman talk in so courteous a
manner, which did not a little please
him; so, turning all his former passion
and resentment into kindness and good-
will, he ran with a heart full of friend-
ship to embrace him : * I protest sol-
emnly, that to procure the friendship
of such an one as I take you to be, I
would undergo more than what you
have already made me suffer. Cursed
be that evil fortune which has thrown
you into this way of life!" So, taking
only a few of his most necessary things,
and also of his horses, and leaving all
the rest, he came back to Rome. The
Pope had heard of the Abbot's being a
prisoner, and though he was much
concerned at it, yet, upon seeing him,
he inquired what benefit he had re-
ceived from the baths ? The Abbot
replied, with a smile, * Holy Father,
I found a physician much nearer, who
has cured me excellently well ' ; and
he told him the manner of it, which
made the Pope laugh heartily, when,
going on with his story, and moved
with a truly generous spirit, he requested
of his Holiness one favor. The Pope,
imagining he would ask something else,
freely consented to grant it. Then
said the Abbot, * Holy Father, what
I mean to require is, that you would
bestow a free pardon on Ghino di
Tacco, my doctor, because, of all peo-
ple of worth that I ever met with, he
certainly is most to be esteemed, and
the damage he does is more the fault
of fortune than himself. Change but
his condition, and give him something
to live upon, according to his rank and
station, and I dare say you will have
the same opinion of him that I have.'
The Pope, being of a noble spirit, and
244
Notes
a great cncourager of merit, promised
to do so, it he was such a person as he
reported, and, in the mean tme, gave
letters of safe-conduct for his coming
thither. Upon that assurance, Ghino
came to court, when the Pope was
soon convinced of his worth, and rec-
onciled to him, giving him the priory
of an hospital, and creating him a
knight. And there he continued as
a friend and loyal servant to the Holy
Church, and to the Abbot of Cligni,
as long as he lived."
15. Clone de' Tarlati of Pietramala,
who, according to the Ottimo, after the
fight at Bibbiena, being pursued by the
enemy, endeavored to ford the Arno,
and was drowned. Others interpret
the line differently, making him the
pursuing party. But as he was an
Aretine, and the Aretines were routed
in this battle, the other rendering is
doubtless the true one.
17, Federigo Novello, son of Ser
Guide Novello of Casentino, slain by
one of the Bostoli. " A good youth,"
says Benvenuto, " and therefore Dante
makes mention of him."
The Pisan who gave occasion to
Marzucco to show his fortitude was
Marzucco's own son, Farinata degli
Scoringiani. He was slain by Beccio
da Caproni, or, as Benvenuto asserts,
declaring that Boccaccio told him so,
by Count Ugolino. His father, Mar-
zucco, who had become a Franciscan
friar, showed no resentment at the
murder, but went with the other friars
to his son's funeral, and in humility
kissed the hand of the murderer, ex-
torting from him the exclamation,
" Thy patience overcomes my obdu-
racy." This was an example of Chris-
tian forgiveness which even that vin-
dictive age applauded.
19. Count Orso was a son of Napo-
leone d' Acerbaja, and was slain by his
brother-in-law (or uncle) Alberto.
22. Pierre de la Brosse was the sec-
retary of Philip le Bel of France, and
suffered at his hands a fate similar to
that which befell Pier della Vigna at
the court of Frederick the Second.
See Inf. XHI. Note 58. Being ac-
cused by Marie de Brabant, the wife
of Philip, of having written love-letters
to her, he was condemned to death by
the king in 1276. Benvenuto thinks
that during his residence in Paris Dante
learned the truth of the innocence of
Pierre de la Brosse.
30. In ^neid, VI. : " Cease to hope
that the decrees of the gods are to be
changed by prayers."
37. The apex juris, or top of judg-
ment ; the supreme decree of God.
Measure for Measure, II. 2 : —
" How would you be,
If He who is the top of judgment should
But judge you as you are?'"'
5 1 . Virgil's Bucolics, Eclogue I. :
" And now the high tops of the villages
smoke afar, and larger shadows fall
from the lofty mountains."
74. This has generally been sup-
posed to be Sordello the Troubadour.
But is it he ? Is it Sordello the Trou-
badour, or Sordello the Podesta of Ve-
rona ? or are they one and the same
person ? After much research, it is
Pttrgatorio vi.
24s
not easy to decide the question, and
to
" Single out
Sordello, compassed murkily about
With ravage of six long sad hundred years."
Yet as far as it is possible to learn it
from various conflicting authorities,
" Who will may hear Sordello's story told."
Dante, in his treatise De Volgari
Eloquio, I. 15, speaks of Sordello ot
Mantua as " a man so choice in his
language, that not only in his poems,
but in whatever way he spoke, he
abandoned the dialect of his province."
But here there is no question of the
Proven9al in which Sordello the Trou-
badour wrote, but only of Italian dia-
lects in comparison with the universal
and cultivated Italian, which Dante
says " belongs to all the Italian cities,
and seems to belong exclusively to
none." In the same treatise, II. 13,
he mentions a certain Gotto of Mantua
as the author of many good songs; and
this Gotto is supposed to be Sordello,
as Sordello was born at Goito in the
province of Mantua. But would Dante
in the same treatise allude to the same
person under different names ? Is not
this rather the Sordel de Goi, mentioned
by Raynouard, Poesies des Troub., V.
445 ?
In the old Proven9al manuscript
quoted by Raynouard, Poesies des Troub.,
V. 444, Sordello's biography is thus
given : —
" Sordello was a Mantuan of Sirier,
son of a poor knight, whose name was
Sir El Cort. And he delighted in
learning songs and in making them.
and rivalled the good men of the court
as far as possible, and wrote love-songs
and satires. And he came to the court
of the Count of Saint Boniface, and the
Count honored him greatly, and by
way of pastime (a forma de solatz) he
fell in love with the wife of the Count,
and she with him. And it happened
that the Count quarrelled with her
brothers, and became estranged from
her. And her brothers, Sir Icellis and
Sir Albrics, persuaded Sir Sordello to
run away with her ; and he came to
live with them in great content. And
afterwards he went into Provence, and
received great honor from all good
men, and from the Count and Countess,
who gave him a good castle and a
gentlewoman for his wife."
Citing this passage, Millot, Hist. Litt.
des Troub., II. 80, goes on to say : —
"This is all that our manuscripts tell
us of Sordello. According to Agnelli
and Platina, historians of Mantua, he
was of the house of the Visconti of
that city ; valiant in deeds of arms, fa-
mous in jousts and tournaments, he
won the love of Beatrice, daughter of
Ezzelin da Romano, Lord of the Marca
Trevigiana, and married her ; he gov-
erned Mantua as Podesta and Captain-
General ; and though son-in-law of the
tyrant Ezzelin, he always opposed him,
being a great lover of justice.
" We find these facts cited by Cres-
cimbeni, who says that Sordello was
the lord of Goito ; but as they are not
applicable to our poet, we presume
they refer to a warrior of the same
name, and perhaps of a different family.
246
Notes
" Among the pieces of Sordello,
thirty-four in number, there are some
fifteen songs of gallantry, though Nos-
trodamus says that all his pieces turn
only upon philosophic subjects."
Nostrodamus's account, as given by
Crescimbeni, Volgar Poesia, II. 105, is
as follows : —
"Sordello was a Mantuan poet, who
surpassed in Provencal song Calvo,
Folchetto of Marseilles, Lanfranco Ci-
cala, Percival Doria, and all the other
Genoese and Tuscan poets, who took
far greater delight in our Provencal
tongue, on account of its sweetness,
than in their own maternal language.
This poet was very studious, and ex-
ceeding eager to know all things, and
as much as any one of his nation ex-
cellent in learning as well as in under-
standing and in prudence. He wrote
several beautiful songs, not indeed of
love, for not one of that kind is found
among his works, but on philosophic
subjects. Raymond Belinghieri, the
last Count of Provence of that name, in
the last days of his life, (the poet being
then but fifteen years of age,) on ac-
count of the excellence of his poetry
and the rare invention shown in his pro-
ductions, took him into his service, as
Pietro di Castelnuovo, himself a Pro-
ven9al poet, informs us. He also
wrote various satires in the same lan-
guage, and among others one in which
he reproves all the Christian princes ;
and it is composed in the form of a
funeral song on the death of Blan-
casso."
In the Hist. Litt. de la France, XIX.
452, Emcric-David, after discussing the
subject at length, says : —
" Who then is this Sordello, haughty
and superb, like a lion in repose, —
this Sordello, who, in cmbyacing Vir-
gil, gives rise to this sudden explosion
of the patriotic sentiments of Dante ?
Is it a singer of love and gallantry ?
Impossible. This Sordello is the old
Podesta of Mantua, as decided a Ghib-
elline as Dante himself; and Dante
utters before him sentiments which he
well knows the zealous Ghibclline will
share. And what still more confirms
our judgment is, that Sordello embraces
the knees of Virgil, exclaiming, ' O
glory of the Latians,' &c. In this ad-
miration, in this love of the Latin
tongue, we still see the Podesta, the
writer of Latin ; we do not see the
Troubadour."
Benvenuto calls Sordello a " noble
and prudent knight," and " a man of
singular virtue in the world, though of
impenitent life," and tells a story he
has heard of him and Cunizza, but does
not vouch for it. " Ezzelino," he says,
" had a sister greatly addicted to the
pleasures of love, concerning whom
much is said in the ninth Canto of Pa-
radiso. She, being enamored of Sor-
dello, had cautiously contrived that he
should visit her at night by a back door
near the kitchen of her palace at Ve-
rona. And as there was in the street
a dirty slough in which the swine wal-
lowed, and puddles of filthy water, so
that the place would seem in no way
suspicious, he caused himself to be car-
ried by her servant to the door where
Ptirgatorio vi.
247
Cunizza stood ready to receive him.
Ezzelino having heard of this, one
evening, disguised as a servant, car-
ried Sordello, and brought him bacli.
Which done, he discovered himself to
Sordello., and said, 'Enough; abstain in
future from doing so foul a deed in so
foul a place.' Sordello, terrified, hum-
bly besought pardon; promising never
more to return to his sister. But the
accursed Cunizza again enticed him in-
to his former error. Wherefore, fear-
ing Ezzelino, the most formidable man
of his time, he left the city. But Ez-
zelino, as some say, afterwards had him
put to death."
He says, moreover, that Dante places
Sordello alone and separate from the
others, like Saladin in Inf. IV. 129, on
account of his superiority, or because
he wrote a book entitled " The Treasure
of Treasures"; and that Sordello was
a Mantuan of the village of Go'ito, —
"beautiful of person, valiant of spirit,
gentle of manner."
Finally, Quadrio, Storia d* ogni Poesia,
II. 1 30, easily cuts the knot which no one
can untie ; but unfortunately he does not
give his authorities. He writes : —
" Sordello, native of Goito, (Sordel
de Goi,) a village in the Mantuan ter-
ritory, was born in 1 184, and was the
son of a poor knight named Elcort."
He then repeats the story of Count
Saint Boniface, and of Sordello's recep-
tion by Count Raymond in Provence,
and adds : " Having afterwards returned
to Italy, he governed Mantua with the
title of Regent and Captain-General ;
and was opposed to the tyrant Ezzelino,
being a great lover of justice, as Agnelli
writes. Finally he died, very old and
full of honor, about 1280. He wrote
not only in Provencal, but also in our
own common Italian tongue ; and he
was one ot those poets who avoided
the dialect of his own province, and
used the good, choice language, as
Dante affirms in his book of Volgar
Eloquenza."
If the reader is not already suf-
ficiently confused, he can easily be-
come so by turning to Tiraboschi,
Storia della Lett. ItaL, IV. 360, where
he will find the matter thoroughly dis-
cussed, in sixteen solid pages, by the
patient librarian of Modena, who final-
ly gives up in despair and calls on the
Royal Academy for help ;
" But that were overbold ; —
Who would has heard Sordello's story told."
76. Before Dante's time Fra Guit-
tone had said, in his famous Letter to
the Florentines : " O queen of cities,
court of justice, school of wisdom,
mirror of life, and mould of manners,
whose sons were kings, reigning in
every land, or were above all others,
who art no longer queen but servant,
oppressed and subject to tribute ! no
longer court of justice, but cave of rob-
bers, and school of all folly and mad-
ness, mirror of death and mould of
felony, whose great strength is stripped
and broken, whose beautiful face is
covered with foulness and shame ;
whose sons are no longer kings but
vile and wretched servants, held, wher-
ever they go, in opprobrium and de-
rision by others."
248
Notes
See also Petrarca, Canzone XVI,,
Lady Dacrc's Tr., beginning : —
"O my own Italy ! though words arc vain
The mortal wounds to close,
Unnumbered, that thy beauteous bosom stain.
Yet may it soothe my pain
To sigh for the Tiber's woes.
And Arno's wrongs, as on Po's saddened shore
Sorrowing I wander and my numbers pour."
And Filicaja's sonnet : —
"Italy ! Italy! thou who 'rt doomed to wear
The fatal gift of beauty, and possess
The dower funest of infinite wretchedness,
Written upon thy forehead by despair ;
Ah ! would that thou wert stronger, or less
fair,
That they might fear thee more, or love
thee less,
Who in the splendor of thy loveliness
Seem wasting, yet to mortal combat dare !
Then from the Alps I should not see descending
Such torrents of armed men, nor Gallic
horde
Drinking the wave of Po, distained with
gore,
Nor should I see thee girded with a sword
Not thine, and with the stranger's arm
contending,
Victor or vanquished, slave forevermore."
89. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch.
XLIV., says : —
" The vain titles of the victories of
Justinian are crumbled into dust ; but
the name of the legislator is inscribed
on a fair and everlasting monument.
Under his reign, and by his care, the
civil jurisprudence was digested in the
immortal works of the Code, the Pan-
dects, and the Institutes ; the public
reason of the Romans has been silently
or studiously transfused into the do-
mestic institutions of Europe, and the
laws of Justinian still command the
respect or obedience of independent
nations. Wise or fortunate is the
prince who connects his own reputa-
tion with the honor and interest of a
perpetual order of men."
92. Luke xii. 17: " Render to Cae-
sar the things that are Carsar's, and to
God the things that arc God's."
And in the Vision of Piers Plovgh-
man, 563 : —
" Reddite desariy quod God,
That Casari bifalleth,
Et qua sunt Dei Deo,
Or ellis ye don ille."
97. Albert, son of the Emperor
Rudolph, was the second of the house
of Hapsburg who bore the title oi
King of the Romans. He was elected
in 1298, but never went to Italy to be
crowned. He came to an untimely
and violent death, by the hand of his
nephew John, in 1308. This is the
judgment of Heaven to which Dante
alludes.
His successor was Henry of Luxem-
bourg, Dante's "divine and triumphant
Henry," who, in 131 1, was crowned
at Milan with the Iron Crown of Lom-
bardy, // Sacro Chiodo, as it is some-
times called, from the plate of iron with
which the crown is lined, being, ac-
cording to tradition, made from a nail
of the Cross. In 1312, he was again
crowned with the Golden Crown at
Rome, and died in the following year.
" But the end of his career drew on,"
says Milman, Latin Christ., VI. 520.
" He had now advanced, at the head
of an army which his enemies dared
not meet in the field, towards Siena.
Purgatorio ri.
249
He rode still, seemingly in full vigor
and activity. But the fatal air of Rome
had smitten his strength. A carbuncle
had formed under his knee; injudicious
remedies inflamed his vitiated blood.
He died at Buonconvento, in the midst
of his awe-struck army, on the festival
of St. Bartholomew. Rumors of foul
practice, of course, spread abroad ; a
Dominican monk was said to have ad-
ministered poison in the Sacrament,
which he received with profound de-
votion. His body was carried in sad
state, and splendidly interred at Pisa.
" So closed that empire, in which,
if the more factious and vulgar Ghibel-
lines beheld their restoration to their
native city, their triumph, their re-
venge, their sole administration of pub-
lic affairs, the nobler Ghibellinism of
Dante foresaw the establishment of a
great universal monarchy necessary to
the peace and civilization of mankind.
The ideal sovereign of Dante's famous
treatise on Monarchy was Henry of
Luxembourg. Neither Dante nor his
time can be understood but through
this treatise. The attempt of the Pope
to raise himself to a great pontifical
monarchy had manifestly ignomini-
ously failed : the Ghibelline is neither
amazed nor distressed at this event.
It is now the turn of the Imperialist to
unfold his noble vision. *An universal
monarchy is absolutely necessary for
the welfare of the world'; and this is
part of his singular reasoning: 'Peace,'
(says the weary exile, the man worn
out in cruel strife, the wanderer from
city to city, each of those cities m'ore
VOL. II. 32
fiercely torn by faction than the last,)
* universal Peace is the first blessing of
mankind. The angels sang, not riches
or pleasures, but peace on earth: peace
the Lord bequeathed to his disciples.
For peace One must rule. Mankind is
most like God when at unity, for God
is One ; therefore under a monarchy.
Where there is parity there must be
strife ; where strife, judgment ; the
judge must be a third party interven-
ing with supreme authority.' With-
out monarchy can be no justice, nor
even liberty; for Dante's monarch is
no arbitrary despot, but a constitutional
sovereign ; he is the Roman law im-
personated in the Emperor; a monarch
who should leave all the nations, all
the free Italian cities, in possession of,
their rights and old municipal institu-
tions."
106. The two noble families of Ve-
rona, the Montagues and Capulets,
whose quarrels have been made familiar
to the English-speaking world by Romeo
and Juliet : —
" Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet and Montague,
Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partisans, in hands as old.
Cankered with peace, to part your cankered
hate."
107. Families of Orvieto.
111. Santafiore is in the neighbor-
hood of Siena, and much infested with
banditti.
112. The state of Rome in Dante's
time is thus described by Mr. Norton,
Travel and Study, pp. 246 - 248 : —
250
Notes
"On the slope of the Quirinal Hill,
in the quiet enclosure of the convent
of St. Catharine of Siena, stands a
square, brick tower, seven stories high.
It is a conspicuous object in any general
view of Rome; for there are few other
towers so tall, and there is not a single
spire or steeple in the city. It is the
Torre delle Milizie. It was begun by
Pope Gregory the Ninth, and finished
near the end of the thirteenth century
by his vigorous and warlike successor,
Boniface the Eighth. Many such tow-
ers were built for the purposes of pri-
vate warfare, in those times when the
streets of Rome were the fighting-
places of its noble families; but this is,
perhaps, the only one that now re-
mains undiminished in height and un-
altered in appearance. It was a new
building when Dante visited Rome ;
and it is one of the very few edifices
that still preserve the aspect they then
presented. The older ruins have been
greatly changed in appearance, and
most of the structures of the Middle
Ages have disappeared, in the vicissi-
tudes of the last few centuries. The
Forum was then filled with a confused
mass of ruins and miserable dwellings,
with no street running through their in-
tricacies. The Capitol was surrounded
with uneven battlemented walls, and
bore the character and look of an ir-
regular citadel. St. Peter's was a low
basilica ; the Colosseum had suffered
little from the attacks of Popes or
princes, neither the Venetian nor the
Farnese palace having as yet been built
with stones from its walls ; and centu-
ries were still to pass before Michel
Angelo, Bernini, and Borromini were
to stamp its present character upon the
face of the modern city. The siege
and burning of Rome by Robert Guis-
card, in 1084, may be taken as the
dividing-line between the city of the
Emperors and the city of the Popes,
between ancient and modern Rome.
.... Rome was in a state of too deep
depression, its people were too turbu-
lent and unsettled, to have either the
spirit or the opportunity for great
works. There was no established and
recognized authority, no regular course
of justice. There was not even any
strong force, rarely any overwhelming
violence, which for a time at least
could subdue opposition, and organize
a steady, and consequently a beneficent
tyranny. The city was* continually
distracted by petty personal quarrels,
and by bitter family feuds. Its obscure
annals are full of bloody civil victories
and defeats, — victories which brought
no gain to those who won them, de-
feats which taught no lesson to those
who lost them. The breath of liberty
never inspired with life the dead clay
of Rome ; and though for a time it
might seem to kindle some vital heat,
the glow soon grew cold, and speedily
disappeared. The records of Florence,
Siena, Bologna, and Perugia are as full
of fighting and bloodshed as those of
Rome ; but their fights were not mere
brawh, nor were their triumphs always
barren. Even the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, which were like the
coming of the spring after a long win-
Purgatorio vi
251
ter, making the earth to blossom, and
gladdening the hearts of men, — the
centuries which elsewhere in Italy,
and over the rest of Europe, gave birth
to the noblest mediaeval Art, when
every great city was adorning itself
with the beautiful works of the new
architecture, sculpture, and painting,
— even these centuries left scarcely any
token of their passage over Rome.
The sun, breaking through the clouds
that had long hidden it, shone every-
where but here. While Florence was
building her Cathedral and her Cam-
panile, and Orvieto her matchless Duo-
mo, — while Pisa was showing her
piety and her wealth in her Cathedral,
her Camposanto, her Baptistery, and
her Tower, — while Siena was begin-
ning a church greater and more mag-
nificent in design than her shifting for-
tune would permit her to complete, —
Rome was building neither cathedral
nor campanile, but was selling the
marbles of her ancient temples and
tombs to the builders of other cities,
or quarrying them for her own mean
uses."
1 1 8. This recalls Pope's Universal
Prater, —
" Father of all ! in every age,
In every clime, adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord ! "
125. Not the great Roman general
who took Syracuse, after Archimedes
had defended it so long with his en-
gines and burning-glasses, but a descend-
ant of his, who in the civil wars took
part with Pompey and was banished by
CfEsar. Pope's Essay on Man, Ep. IV.
257: —
" And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels,
Than Caesar with a senate at his heels."
127, Of the state of Florence, Na-
pier writes, Flor. Hist., I. 122: —
" It was not the simple movement
of one great body against another ; not
the force of a government in opposition
to the people ; not the struggle of
privilege and democracy, of poverty
and riches, or starvation and repletion ;
but one universal burst of unmitigated
anarchy. In the streets, lanes, and
squares, in the courts of palaces and
humbler dwellings, were heard the
clang of arms, the screams of victims,
and the gush of blood : the bow of
the bridegroom launched its arrows
into the very chambers of his young
bride's parents and relations, and the
bleeding son, the murdered brother, or
the dying husband were the evening
visitors of Florentine maids and ma-
trons, and aged citizens. Every art
was practised to seduce and deceive,
and none felt secure even of their
nearest and dearest relatives. In the
morning a son left his paternal roof
with undiminished love, and returned
at evening a corpse, or the most bitter
enemy ! Tepr or and death were tri-
umphant ; there was no relaxation, no
peace by day or night : the crash of
the stone, the twang of the bow, the
whizzing shaft, the jar of the trembling
mangonel from tower and turret, were
the dismal music of Florence, not only
for hours and days, but months and
years. Doors, windows, the jutting
252
Notes
galleries and roofs, were all defended,
and yet all unsafe : no spot was sacred,
no tenement secure : in the dead of
night, the most secret chambers, the
very hangings, even the nuptial bed
itself, were often known to conceal an
enemy.
** Florence in those days was studded
with lofty towers ; most of the noble
families possessed one or more, at least
two hundred feet in height, and many
of them far above that altitude. These
were their pride, their family, citadels ;
and jealously guarded ; glittering with
arms and men, and instruments of war.
Every connecting balcony was alive
with soldiers ; the battle raged above
and below, within and without; stones
rained in showers, arrows flew thick
and fast on every side ; the seraglj, or
barricades, were attacked and defended
by chosen bands armed with lances
and boar-spears ; foes were in ambush
at every corner, watching the bold or
heedless enemy ; confusion was every-
where triumphant, a demon seemed to
possess the community, and the public
mind, reeling with hatred, was steady
only in the pursuit of blood. Yet so
accustomed did they at last become to
this fiendish life, that one day they
fought, the next caroused together in
drunken gambols, foe with foe, boast-
ing of their mutual prowess ; nor was
it until after nearly five years of re-
ciprocal destruction, that, from mere
lassitude, they finally ceased thus to
mangle each other, and, as it were for
relaxation, turned their fury on the
neighboring states."
147. Upon this subject Napier,
Flor. Hist., II. 626, remarks : —
" A characteristic, and, if discreetly
handled, a wise regulation of the Flor-
entines, notwithstanding Dante's sar-
casms, was the periodical revision of
their statutes and ordinances, a weed-
ing out, as it were, of the obsolete and
contradictory, and a substitution of
those which were better adapted to
existing circumstances and the forward
movement of man. There are certain
fundamental laws necessarily permanent
and admitted by all communities, as
there are certain moral and theological
truths acknowledged by all religions ;
but these broad frames or outlines are
commonly filled up with a thick net-
work of subordinate regulations, that
cover them like cobwebs, and often
impede the march of improvement.
The Florentines were early aware of
this, and therefore revised their laws
and institutions more or less frequently
and sometimes factiously, according to
the turbulent or tranquil condition of
the times ; but in 1 394, after forty years'
omission, an officer was nominated for
that purpose, but whether permanently
or not is doubtful."
Pttrgatorio vii
253
CANTO VII
6. See Canto III. Note 7.
28. Limbo, Inf. IV. 25, the "fore-
most circle that surrounds the abyss."
"There, in so far as I had power to hear,
Were lamentations none, but only sighs,
Which tremulous made the everlasting air.
And this was caused by sorrow without tor-
ment
Which the crowds had, that many were
and great,
Of infants and of women and of men."
34. The three Theological Virtues
of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
36. The four Cardinal Virtues,
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Tem-
perance.
44. John xii. 35: *' Then Jesus said
unto them. Yet a little while is the
light with you. Walk while ye have
the light, lest darkness come upon you:
for he that walketh in darkness know-
eth not whither he goeth."
70. In the Middle Ages the longing
for rest and escape from danger, which
found its expression in cloisters, is ex-
pressed in poetry by descriptions of
flowery, secluded meadows, suggest-
ing the classic meadows of asphodel.
Dante has given one already in the In-
ferno, and gives another here.
Compare with these the following
from ne Miracles of Our Lady, by
Gonzalo de Berceo, a monk of Cala-
horra, who lived in the thirteenth
century, and is the oldest of the Cas-
tilian poets whose name has come down
to us : —
" I, Gonzalo de Berceo, in the gentle sum-
mer-tide,
Wending upon a pilgrimage, came to a meadow's
side ;
All green was it and beautiful, with flowers far
and wide,
A pleasant spot, I ween, wherein the traveller
might abide.
Flowers with the sweetest odors filled all the
sunny air,
And not alone refreshed the sense, but stole the
mind from care ;
On every side a fountain gushed, whose waters
pure and fair
Ice-cold beneath the summer sun, but warm in
winter were.
There on the thick and shadowy trees, amid
the foliage green.
Were the fig and the pomegranate, the pear and
apple seen.
And other fruits of various kinds, the tufted
leaves between ;
None were unpleasant to the taste and none
decayed, I ween.
The verdure of the meadow green, the odor
of the flowers,
The grateful shadows of the trees, tempered with
fragrant showers.
Refreshed me in the burning heat of the sultry
noontide hours ;
O, one might live upon the balm and fragrance
of those bowers.
Ne'er had I found on earth a spot that had
such power to please,
Such shadows from the summer sun, such odors
on the breeze ;
I threw my mantle on the ground, that I might
rest at ease.
And stretched upon the greensward lay in the
shadow of the trees.
There, soft reclining in the shade, all cares
beside me flung,
254
Notes
I heard the soft and mellow notes that through
the woodland rung.
Ear never listened to a strain, from instrument
or tongue,
So mellow and harmonious as the songs above
me sung."
See also Brunetto Latini, Tesorctto,
XIX. ; the Vision of Piers Ploughman ;
Gower's Confessio Amantis, VIIL, &c.
'Jl. Of this description Ruskin, Mod-
ern Painters, III. 228, remarks : —
" Now, almost in the opening of
the Purgatory, as there at the en-
trance of the Inferno, we find a com-
pany of great ones resting in a grassy
place. But the idea of the grass now
is very different. The word now used
is not * enamel,' but ' herb,' and in-
stead of being merely green, it is
covered with flowers of many colors.
With the usual mediseval accuracy,
Dante insists on telling us precisely
what these colors were, and how bright;
which he does by naming the actual
pigments used in illumination, — 'Gold,
and fine silver, and cochineal, and
white lead, and Indian wood, serene
and lucid, and fresh emerald, just bro-
ken, would have been excelled, as less
is by greater, by the flowers and grass
of the place.' It is evident that the
* emerald ' here means the emerald
green of the illuminators ; for a fresh
emerald is no brighter than one which
is not fresh, and Dante was not one to
throw away his words thus. Observe,
then, we have here the idea of the
growth, life, and variegation of the
' green herb,' as opposed to the smalto
of the Inferno ; but the colors of the
variegation are illustrated and defined
by the reference to actual pigments ;
and, observe, because the other colors
are rather bright, the blue ground (In-
dian wood, indigo .') is sober ; lucid,
but serene ; and presently two angels
enter, who are dressed in the green
drapery, but of a paler green than the
grass, which Dante marks, by telling
us that it was ' the green of leaves just
budded.'
In all this, I wish the reader to ob-
serve two things : first, the general
carefulness of the poet in defining color,
distinguishing it precisely as a painter
would (opposed to the Greek careless-
ness about it) ; and, secondly, his re-
garding the grass for its greenness and
variegation, rather than, as a Greek
would have done, for its depth and
freshness. This greenness or bright-
ness, and variegation, are taken up by
later and modern poets, as the things
intended to be chiefly expressed by
the word 'enamelled'; and, gradually,
the term is taken to indicate any kind
of bright and interchangeable coloring;
there being always this much of pro-
priety about it, when used of green-
sward, that such sward is indeed, like
enamel, a coat of bright color on a
comparatively dark ground ; and is
thus a sort of natural jewelry and
painter's work, different from loose
and large vegetation. The word is
often awkwardly and falsely used, by
the later poets, of all kinds of growth
and color; as by Milton of the flowers
of Paradise showing themselves over
its wall ; but it retains, nevertheless,
through all its jaded inanity, some half-
Purgatorlo vn.
255
unconscious vestige of the old sense,
even to the present day."
82. The old church hymn attributed
to Arminius or Hermann, Count of
Vchringen, in the eleventh century,
beginning : —
" Salve Regina, mater misericordiae.
Vita, dulcedo et spas nostra, salve."
94. Rudolph of Hapsburg, first Em-
peror of the house of Austria, was
crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1273.
** It is related," says Voltaire, Annales
de V Empire, I. 303, " that, as the im-
perial sword, which they pretended
was that of Charlemagne, could not be
found, several lords made this defect in
the formalities a pretext for not taking
the oath pf allegiance. He seized a
crucifix ; This is my sceptre, he said,
and all paid homage to him. This
single act of firmness made him re-
spectable, and the rest of his conduct
showed him to be worthy of the Em-
pire."
He would not go to Rome to be
crowned, and took so little interest in
Italian affairs, that Italy became al-
most independent of the Empire, which
seems greatly to disturb the mind of
Dante. He died in 1291.
100. Ottocar the Second, king of
Bohemia, who is said to have refused
the imperial crown. He likewise re-
fused to pay homage to Rudolph, whom
he used to call his maitre cChotcl, de-
claring he had paid his wages and owed
him nothing. Whereupon Rudolph
attacked and subdued him. According
to Voltaire, Annales de PEmpire, I.
306, " he consented to pay homage to
the Emperor as his liege-lord, in the
island of Kamberg in the middle of the
Danube, under a tent whose curtains
should be closed to spare him public
mortification. Ottocar presented him-
self covered with gold and jewels ;
Rudolph, by way of superior pomp,
received him in his simplest dress; and
in the middle of the ceremony the
curtains of the tent fell, and revealed to
the eyes of the people and of the
armies, that lined the Danube, the
proud Ottocar on his knees, with his
hands clasped in the hands of his con-
queror, whom he had often called his
maitre d' hotel, and whose Grand -Se-
neschal he now became. This story
is accredited, and it is of little impor-
tance whether it be true or not."
But the wife was not quiet under this
humiliation, and excited him to revolt
against Rudolph. He was again over-
come, and killed in battle in 1278.
101. This Winceslaus, says the Ot-
timo, was " most beautiful among all
men ; but was not a man of arms ;
he was a meek and humble ecclesiastic,
and did not live long." Why Dante
accuses him of living in luxury and
ease does not appear.
103. Philip the Third oi France,
surnamed the Bold (1270- 1285).
Having invaded Catalonia, in a war
with Peter the Third of Aragon, both
by land and sea, he was driven back,
and died at Perpignan during the re-
treat.
104. He with the benign aspect,
who rests his cheek upon his hand, is
Henry of Navarre, surnamed the Fat,
2s6
Notes
and brother of" Good King Thibault,"
Inf. XXII. 52. An old French chron-
icle quoted by Philalcthes says, that,
"though it is a general opinion that fat
men arc of a gentle and benign nature,
nevertheless this one was very harsh."
109. Philip the Fourth of France,
surnamed the Fair, son of Philip the
Third, and son-in-law of Henry of
Navarre ( 1 285 - 1 3 1 4).
112. Peter the Third of Aragon
(1276- 1285), the enemy of Charles
of Anjou and competitor with him for
the kingdom of Sicily. He is counted
among the Troubadours, and when
Philip the Bold invaded his kingdom,
Peter launched a song against him,
complaining that the " flower-de-luce
kept him sorrowing in his house," and
calling on the Gascons for aid.
113. Charles of Anjou, king of Si-
cily and Naples (1265). Villani, VII.
I, thus describes him : " This Charles
was wise and prudent, and valiant in
arms, and rough, and much feared and
redoubted by all the kings of the world;
magnanimous and of a high spirit ;
steadfast in carrying on every great
enterprise, firm in every adversity, and
true to every promise, speaking little
and doing much. He laughed but
little ; was chaste as a monk, catholic,
harsh in judgment, and of a fierce coun-
tenance ; large and muscular in person,
with an olive complexion and a large
nose, and looked the king more than
any other lord. He sat up late at night,
and slept little, and was in the habit
of saying that a great deal of time was
lost in sleeping. He was generous to
his knights, but eager to acquire land,
lordship, and money wherever he could,
to furnish means for his enterprises and
wars. In courtiers, minstrels, and play-
ers he never took delight."
Yet this is the monarch whose tyr-
anny in Sicily brought about the
bloody revenge of the Sicilian Vespers;
which in turn so roused the wrath of
Charles, that he swore that, " if he
could live a thousand years, he would
go on razing the cities, burning the
lands, torturing the rebellious slaves.
He would leave Sicily a blasted, bar-
ren, uninhabited rock, as a warning to
the present age, an example to the
future."
116. Philip the Third of Aragon
left four sons, Alfonso, James, Freder-
ick, and Peter. Whether the strip-
ling here spoken of is Alonzo or Peter
does not appear.
121. Chaucer, Wif of Bathes Tale: —
" Wei can the wise poet of Florence,
That highte Dant, speken of this sentence :
Lo, in swiche maner rime is Dantes tale.
Ful selde up riseth by his branches smale
Prowesse of man, for God of his goodnesse
Wol that we claime of him our gentillesse :
For of our elders may we nothing claime
But temporel thing, that man may hurt and
maime."
1 24. It must be remembered that
these two who are singing together
in this Valley of Princes were deadly
foes on earth ; and one had challenged
the ather to determine their quarrel by
single combat.
" The wager of battle between the
kings," says Milman, Lat'm Christianity,
Purgatorio vu.
257
VI. i68, "which maintained its solemn
dignity up almost to the appointed
time, ended in a pitiful comedy, in
which Charles of Anjou had the ig-
nominy of practising base and disloyal
designs against his adversary ; Peter,
that of eluding the contest by craft,
justifiable only as his mistrust of his
adversary was well or ill grounded,
but much too cunning for a frank and
generous knight. He had embarked
with his knights for the South of
France ; he was cast back by tempests
on the shores of Spain. He set ofF
with some of his armed companions,
crossed the Pyrenees undiscovered, ap-
peared before the gates of Bordeaux,
and summoned the English Seneschal.
To him he proclaimed himself to be
the king of Aragon, demanded to see
the lists, rode down them in slow
state, obtained an attestation that he
had made his appearance within the
covenanted time, and affixed his solemn
protest against the palpable premedi-
tated treachery of his rival, which made
it unsafe for him to remain longer at
Bordeaux. Charles, on his part, was
furious that Peter had thus broken
through the spider's web of his policy.
He was in Bordeaux when Peter ap-
peared under the walls, and had chal-
lenged him in vain. Charles presented
himself in full armor on the appointed
day, summoned Peter to appear, pro-
claimed him a recreant and a dastardly
craven, unworthy of the name of
knight."
Charles of Anjou, Peter the Third
of Aragon, and Philip the Third of
VOL. II. 33
France, all died in the same year,
1285.
126. These kingdoms being badly
governed by his son and succes-
sor, Charles the Second, called the
Lame.
128. Daughters of Raymond Beren-
ger the Fifth, Count of Provence ; the
first married to St. Louis of France,
and the second to his brother, Charles
of Anjou.
129. Constance, daughter of Man-
fredi of Apulia, and wife of Peter the
Third of Aragon.
131. Henry theThird(i2i6-i272),
of whom Hume says : " This prince
was noted for his piety and devotion,
and his regular attendance on public
worship ; and a saying of his on that
head is much celebrated by ancient
writers. He was engaged in a dispute
with Louis the Ninth of France, con-
cerning the preference between ser-
mons and masses ; he maintained the
superiority of the latter, and affirmed
that he would rather have one hour's
conversation with a friend, than hear
twenty of the most elaborate discourses
pronounced in his praise."
Dickens, Child's History of England,
Ch. XV., says of him : " He was as
much of a king in death as he had ever
been in life. He was the mere pale
shadow of a king at all times."
His " better issue " was Edward the
First, called, on account of his amend-
ment and establishment of the laws,
the English Justinian, and less respect-
fully Longshanks, on account of the
length of his legs. " His legs had
2S8
Notes
need to be strong," says the authority
just quoted, " however long, and this
they were ; for they had to support
him through many difficulties on the
fiery sands of Syria, where his small
force of soldiers fainted, died, deserted,
and seemed to melt away. But his
prowess made light of it, and he said,
'I will go on, if I go on with no other
follower than my groom.' "
134. The Marquis of Monferrato,
a Ghibelline, was taken prisoner by
the people of Alessandria in Piedmont,
in 1 290, and, being shut up in a wooden
cage, was exhibited to the public like
a wild beast. This he endured for
eighteen months, till death released
him. A bloody war was the conse-
quence between Alessandria and the
Marquis's provinces of Monferrato and
Canavesc.
135. The city of Alessandria is in
Piedmont, between the Tanaro and the
Bormida, and not far from their junc-
tion. It was built by the Lombard
League, to protect the country against
the Emperor Frederick, and named in
honor of Pope Alexander the Third, a
protector of the Guelphs. It is said
to have been built in a single year, and
was called in derision, by the Ghibel-
lines, Allessandria della Paglia (of the
Straw) ; either from the straw used in
the bricks, or more probably from the
supposed insecurity of a city built in
so short a space of time.
CANTO VIII.
I. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica,
III. 302 : —
" It was the hour when every traveller
And every watchman at the gate of towns
Begins to long for sleep, and drowsiness
Is falling even on the mother's eyes
Whose child is dead."
Also Byron, Don Juan, III. 108 : —
" Soft hour ! which wakes the wish and melts
the heart
Of those who sail the seas, on the first day
"When they from their sweet friends are torn
apart ;
Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way.
As the far bell of vesper makes him start,
Seeming to weep the dying day's decay.
Is this a fancy which our reason scorns ?
Ah ! surely nothing dies but something
mourns ! "
4. The word " pilgrim " is here
used by Dante in a general sense,
meaning any traveller.
6. Gray, Elegy : —
" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."
13. An evening hymn of the Church,
sung at Complines, or the latest ser-
vice of the day : —
" Te lucis ante terminum,
Rerum creator, poscimus
Ut pro tua dementia
Sis presul ad custodiam.
" Procul recedant somnia
Et noxium phantasmata,
Hostemque nostrum comprime,
Ne poUuantur corpora.
Purgatorio viii.
259
" Presta, Pater piissime,
Patrique compar Unice,
Cum Spiritu Paraclito
Regnans per omne saeculum."
This hymn would seem to have no
great applicability to disembodied spir-
its ; and perhaps may have the same
reference as the last petition in the
Lord's Prayer, Canto XI. 19 : —
•' Our virtue, which is easily o'ercome,
Put not to proof with the old Adversary,
But thou from him who spurs it so, deliver.
This last petition verily, dear Lord,
Not for ourselves is made, who need it not.
But for their sake who have remained be-
hind us."
Dante seems to think his meaning
very easy to penetrate. The commen-
tators have found it uncommonly diffi-
cult.
26. Genesis iii. 24: "And he placed
at the east of the garden of Eden
cherubims, and a flaming sword which
turned every way, to keep the way of
the tree of life."
27. Justice tempered with mercy,
say the commentators.
28. Green, the color of hope, which
is the distinguishing virtue of Purgatory.
On the symbolism of colors, Mrs. Jame-
son, Sacred and Legendary Arty Introd.,
says : —
" In very early Art we find colors
used in a symbolical or mystic sense,
and, until the ancient principles and
traditions were wholly worn out of
memory or set aside by the later paint-
ers, certain colors were appropriated
to certain subjects and personages, and
could not arbitrarily be applied or mis-
applied. In the old specimens of
stained glass we find these significations
scrupulously attended to. Thus : —
" White, represented by the dia-
mond or silver, was the emblem of light,
religious purity, innocence, virginity,
faith, joy, and life. Our Saviour wears
white after his resurrection. In the
judge it indicated integrity ; in the
rich man, humility ; in the woman,
chastity. It was the color consecrated
to the Virgin, who, however, never
wears white except in pictures of the
Assumption.
" Red, the ruby, signified fire, divine
love, the Holy Spirit, heat, or the
creative power, and royalty. White
and red roses expressed love and inno-
cence, or love and wisdom, as in the
garland with which the angel crowns
St. Cecilia. In a bad sense, red signi-
fied blood, war, hatred, and punish-
ment. Red and black combined were
the colors of purgatory and the Devil.
" Blue, or the sapphire, expressed
heaven, the firmament, truth, con-
stancy, fidelity. Christ and the Virgin
wear the red tunic and the blue mantle,
as signifying heavenly love and heavenly
truth.* The same colors were given
to St. John the Evangelist, with this
difference, — that he wore the blue
tunic and the red mantle ; in later pic-
tures the colors are sometimes red and
green.
" Yellow, or gold, was the symbol
of the sun ; of the goodness of God ;
* In the Spanish schools the color of our
Saviour's mantle is generally a deep rich violet.
26o
Notes
initiation, or marriage ; faith, or fruit-
fulness. St. Joseph, the husband of the
Virgin, wears yellow. In pictures of
the Apostles, St. Peter wears a yellow
mantle over a blue tunic. In a bad
sense, yellow signifies inconstancy,
jealousy, deceit ; in this sense it is
given to the traitor Judas, who is gen-
erally habited in dirty yellow.
" Green, the emerald, is the color
of spring ; of hope, particularly hope
in immortality ; and of victory, as the
color of the palm and the laurel.
"Violet, the amethyst, signified love
and truth ; or, passion and suffering.
Hence it is the color often worn by
the martyrs. In some instances our
Saviour, after his resurrection, is habited
in a violet, instead of a blue mantle.
The Virgin also wears violet after the
crucifixion. Mary Magdalene, who
as patron saint wears the red robe, as
penitent wears violet and blue, the
colors of sorrow and of constancy. In
the devotional representation of her by
Timoteo della Vite, she wears red and
green, the colors of love and hope.
** Gray, the color of ashes, signified
mourning, humility, and innocence ac-
cused ; hence adopted as the dress of
the Franciscans (the Gray Friars) ; but
it has since been changed for a dark
rusty brown.
" Black expressed the earth, dark-
ness, mourning, wickedness, negation,
death ; and was appropriate to the
Prince of Darkness. In some old il-
luminated MSS., Jesus, in the Tempta-
tion, wears a black robe. White and
black together signified purity of life.
and mourning or humiliation ; hence
adopted by the Dominicans and the
Carmelites."
50. It was not so dark that on a
near approach he could not distinguish
objects indistinctly visible at a greater
distance.
53. Nino de' Visconti of Pisa,
nephew of Count Ugolino, and Judge
of Gallura in Sardinia. Dante had
known him at the siege of Caprona, in
1290, where he saw the frightened
garrison march out under safeguard.
Inf. XXI. 95. It was this "gentle
Judge," who hanged Friar Gomita for
peculation, hif. XXII. 82.
71. His daughter, still young and
innocent.
75. His widow married Galeazzo
de' Visconti of Milan, "and much dis-
comfort did this woman suffer with her
husband," says the Otttmo, " so that
many a time she wished herself a
widow."
79. Hamlet, IV. 5 : —
" His obscure funeral,
No trophy, sword, or hatchment o'er his grave."
80. The Visconti of Milan had for
their coat of arms a viper ; and being
on the banner, it led the Milanese to
battle.
81. The arms of Gallura. "Ac-
cording to Fara, a writer of the six-
teenth century," says Valery, Voyage
en Corse et en Sardaigne, II. 37, "the
elegant but somewhat chimerical his-
torian of Sardinia, Gallura is a Gallic
colony ; its arms are a cock ; and one
might find some analogy between the
natural vivacity of its inhabitants and
Ptcrgatorio viii.
261
that of the French." Nino thinks it
would look better on a tombstone than
a viper.
89. These three stars are the Jlph^
of Euridanus, of the Ship, and of the
Golden Fish ; allegorically, if any al-
legory be wanted, the three Theologi-
cal Virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity.
The four morning stars, the Cardinal
Virtues of active life, are already set;
these announce the evening and the life
contemplative.
100. Compare this with Milton's
description of the serpent, Parad. Lost,
IX. 434, 496 : —
" Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm ;
Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen,
Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers
Imbordered on each bank.
Not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since ; but on his
rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that towered
Fold above fold, a surging maze ! his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes ;
With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant : pleasing was his shape
And lovely ; never since of serpent-kind
Lovelier, not those that in Illyria changed
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god
In Epidaurus 5 nor to which transformed
Ammonian Jove or Capitoline was seen, —
He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio, the height of Rome. With tract
oblique
At first, as one who sought access, but
feared
To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.
As when a ship, by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the
wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail;
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve.
Oft he bowed
His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck,
Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she
trod."
114. In the original al sommo smalto,
to the highest enamel ; referring either
to the Terrestrial Paradise, enamelled
with flowers, or to the highest heaven
enamelled with stars. The azure-stone,
pierre d^azur, or lapis lazuli, is perhaps
a fair equivalent for the smalto, particu-
larly if the reference be to the sky.
116. The valley in Lunigiana, through
which runs the Magra, dividing the
Genoese and Tuscan territories. Par.
IX. 89: —
" The Magra, that with journey short
Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese."
1 1 8. Currado or Conrad Malaspina,
father of Marcello Malaspina, who six
years later sheltered Dante in his exile,
as foreshadowed in line 136, It was
from the convent of the Corvo, over-
looking the Gulf of Spezia, in Lunigi-
ana, that Frate Ilario wrote the letter
describing Dante's appearance in the
cloister. See Illustrations at the end
of Vol. I.
131. Pope Boniface the Eighth.
134, Before the sun shall be seven
times in Aries, or before seven years
are passed.
137. £cc/esiastes,x'n. 11: "Thewords
of the wise are as goads, and as nails
fastened by the masters of assemblies."
139. With this canto ends the first
day in Purgatory, as indicated by the
description of evening at the beginning.
262
Notes
and the rising of the stars in line 89. the reader will not fail to notice, by
With it closes also the first subdivision the elaborate introduction of the next
of this part of the poem, indicated, as canto.
CANTO IX.
1. *' Dante begins this canto," says
Benvenuto da Imola, " by saying a
thing that was never said or imagined
by any other poet, which is, that the
aurora of the moon is the concubine
of Tithonus. Some maintain that he
means the aurora of the sun ; but this
cannot be, if we closely examine the
text." This point is elaborately dis-
cussed by the commentators. I agree
with those who interpret the passage
as referring to a lunar aurora. It is
still evening; and the hour is indicated
a few lines lower down.
To Tithonus was given the gift of
immortality, but not of perpetual youth.
As Tennyson makes him say : —
*' The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapors weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes : I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-haired shadow roaming like a dream
The ever silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn."
2. Don fixate, I. 2 : " Scarcely
had ruddy Phoebus spread the golden
tresses of his beauteous hair over the
face of the wide and spacious earth,
and scarcely had the painted little birds,
with the sweet and mellifluous harmony
of their serrated tongues, saluted the
approach of rosy Aurora, when, quitting
the soft couch of her jealous husband,
she disclosed herself to mortals through
the gates and balconies of the Manche-
gan horizon."
5. As the sun was in Aries, and it
was now the fourth day after the full
moon, the Scorpion would be rising in
the dawn which precedes the moon.
8. This indicates the time to be
two hours and a half after sunset, or
half past eight o'clock. Two hours
of the ascending night are passed, and
the third is half over.
This circumstantial way of measur-
ing the flight of time is Homeric.
Iliad, X. 250: "Let us be going, then,
for the night declines fast, and the
morning is near. And the stars have
already far advanced, and the greater
portion of the night, by two parts, has
gone by, but the third portion still re-
mains."
10. Namely, his body.
12. Virgil, Sordello, Dante, Nino,
and Conrad. And here Dante falls
upon the grass and sleeps till dawn.
There is a long pause of rest and sleep
between this line and the next, which
makes the whole passage doubly beauti-
ful. The narrative recommences like
Pttrgatorio ix.
267,
the twitter of early birds just beginning
to stir in the woods.
14. For the tragic story of Tereus,
changed to a lapwing, Philomela to a
nightingale, and Procne to a swallow,
see Ovid, Metamorph., VI. : —
" Now, with drawn sabre and impetuous speed,
In close pursuit he drives Pandion's breed ;
Whose nimble feet spring with so swift a
force
Across the fields, they seem to wing their
course.
And now, on real wings themselves they raise.
And steer their airy flight by different ways;
One to the woodland's shady covert hies.
Around the smoky roof the other flies ;
Whose feathers yet the marks of murder
stain.
Where stamped upon her breast the crimson
spots remain.
Tereus, through grief and haste to be revenged,
Shares the like fate, and to a bird is changed;
Fixed on his head the crested plumes appear,
Long is his beak, and sharpened like a spear ;
Thus armed, his looks his inward mind display.
And, to a lapwing turned, he fans his way."
See also Gower, Confes. Amant.,Y .: —
"And of her suster Progne I finde
How she was torned out of kinde
Into a swalwe swift of wing,
Which eke in winter lith swouning
There as she may no thing be sene,
And whan the world is woxe grene
And comen is the somer tide.
Then fleeth she forth and ginneth to chide
And chitereth out in her langage
What falshede is in mariage,
And telleth in a maner speche
Of Tereus the spouse breche."
1 8. Pope, Temple of Fame, 7 : —
" What time the morn mysterious visions brings,
While purer slumbers spread their golden
wings."
22. Mount Ida.
30. To the region of fire. Brunette
Latini, Tresor, Ch. CXIIL, says: "Af-
ter the environment of the air is seated
the fourth element ; this is an orb of
fire, which extends to the moon and
surrounds this atmosphere in which we
are. And know that above the fire is
in the first place the moon, and the
other stars, which are all of the nature
of fire."
37. To prevent Achilles from going
to the siege of Troy, his mother Thetis
took him from Chiron, the Centaur, and
concealed him in female attire in the
court of Lycomedes, king of Scyros.
53. As Richter says: "The hour
when sleep is nigh unto the soul."
55. Lucia, the Enlightening Grace
of heaven. Inf. II. 97.
58. Nino and Conrad.
6t,. Ovid uses a like expression: —
" Sleep and the god together went away."
94. The first stair is Confession ;
the second. Contrition ; and the third.
Penance.
97. Purple and black. See Inf. V.
Note 89.
105. The gate of Paradise is thus
described by Milton, Parad. Lost, III.
501 : —
" Far distant he descries,
Ascending by degrees magnificent
Up to the wall of heaven, a structure high;
At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared
The work as of a kingly palace gate.
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Imbellished; thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on earth
By model or by shading pencil drawn.
The stairs where such as whereon Jacob saw
264
Note
'S
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of" guardians briglit, when he from lisau fled
To Fadan-Ar.im in the field of Luz,
Dreaming by night under the open sky,
And waking cried, ' Tliis is the gate of
heaven.'
Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood
There always, but drawn up to heaven some-
times
Viewless ; and underneath a briijht sea flowed
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon
Who after came from earth sailing arrived.
Wafted by angels ; or flew o'er the lake,
Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds."
112. The Seven Sins, which are
punished in the seven circles of Purga-
tory ; Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Ava-
rice, Gluttony, Lust.
118. The golden key is the authority
of the confessor; the silver, his knowl-
edge.
132. Luke ix. 62 : " No man hav-
ing put his hand to the plough, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God." And xvii. 32 : " Remember
Lot's wife."
Boethius, Co;!J. Phil., Lib. IIL Met.
12 : —
" Heu ! noctis prope terminos
Orpheus Eurydicen suam
Vidit, perdidit, occidit.
Vos haec fabula respicit,
Quicumque in superum diem
Mentem ducere quaeritis.
Nam qui Tartareum in specus
Victus lumina flexerit,
Quicquid prascipuum trahit,
Perdit, dum videt inferos."
136. Milton, Farad. Lost, IL 879: —
" On a sudden open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound
The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder."
138. When Ca?sar robbed the Ro-
man treasury on the Tarpcian hill, the
tribune Mctcllus strove to defend it ;
but Ca;sar, drawing his sword, said to
him, " It is easier to do this than to
say it."
Lucan, Phars., IIL : —
** The tribune with unwilling steps withdrew,
While impious hands the rude assault renew :
The brazen gates with thundering strokes re-
sound.
And the Tarpeian mountain rings around.
At length the sacred storehouse, open laid.
The hoarded wealth of ages past displayed ;
There might be seen the sums proud Carthage
sent,
Her long impending ruin to prevent.
There heaped the Macedonian treasures shone,
What great Flaminius and ./Emilius won
From vanquished Philip and his hapless son.
There lay, what flying Pyrrhus lost, the gold
Scorned by the patriot's honesty of old :
Whate'er our parsimonious sires could save,
What tributary gifts rich Syria gave ;
The hundred Cretan cities' ample spoil ;
What Cato gathered from the Cyprian isle.
Riches of captive kings by Pompey borne.
In happier days, his triumph to adorn,
From utmost India and the rising morn;
Wealth infinite, in one rapacious day,
Became the needy soldiers' lawless prey ;
And wretched Rome, by robbery laid low,
Was poorer than the bankrupt Caesar now."
140. The hymn of St. Ambrose,
universally known in the churches as
the Te Deurn.
144. Th.on\son, Hymn : —
" In swarming cities vast
Assembled men to the deep organ join
The long-resounding voice, oft breaking clear
At solemn pauses through the swelling bass,
And, as each mingling flame increases each.
In one united ardor rise to heaven."
Ptcrgatorio x.
265
CANTO X.
1. In this canto is described the
First Circle of Purgatory, where the sin
of Pride is punished.
14. It being now Easter Monday,
and the fourth day after the full moon,
the hour here indicated would be four
hours after sunrise. And as the sun
was more than two hours high when
Dante found himself at the gate of
Purgatory (Canto IX. 44), he was an
hour and a half in this needle's eye.
30. Which was so steep as to allow
of no ascent; dritto di salita being used
in the sense of right of way.
32. Polycletus, the celebrated Gre-
cian sculptor, among whose works one,
representing the body-guard of the king
of Persia, acquired such fame for ex-
cellence as to be called " the Rule."
33. With this description of the
sculptures on the wall of Purgatory
compare that of the shield which Vul-
can made for Achilles, lUady XVIII.
484, Buckley's Tr. : —
" On it he wrought the earth, and
the heaven, and the sea, the unwearied
sun, and the full moon. On it also he
represented all the constellations with
which the heaven is crowned, the Plei-
ades, the Hyades, and the strength of
Orion, and the Bear, which they also
call by the appellation of the Wain,
which there revolves, and watches
Orion ; but it alone is free from the
baths of the ocean.
" In it likewise he wrought two fair
cities of articulate speaking men. In
VOL. II. 34
the one, indeed, there were marriages
and feasts ; and they were conducting
the brides from their chambers through
the city with brilliant torches, and
many a bridal song was raised. The
youthful dancers were wheeling round,
and among them pipes and lyres uttered
a sound ; and the women standing, each
at her portals, admired. And people
were crowded together in an assembly,
and there a contest had arisen; for two
men contended for the ransom-money
of a slain man : the one affirmed that
he had paid all, appealing to the peo-
ple ; but the other denied, averring
that he had received naught : and both
wished to find an end of the dispute
before a judge. The people were
applauding both, supporters of either
party, and the heralds were keeping
back the people ; but the elders sat
upon polished stones, in a sacred circle,
and the pleaders held in their hands the
staves of the clear-voiced heralds; with
these then they arose, and alternately
pleaded their cause. Moreover, in
the midst lay two talents of gold, to
give to him who should best establish
his claim among them. But round the
other city sat two armies of people glit-
tering in arms ; and one of two plans
was agreeable to them, either to waste
it, or to divide all things into two parts,
— the wealth, whatever the pleasant
city contained within it. They, how-
ever, had not yet complied, but were
secretly arming themselves for an am-
266
Notes
buscade. Meanwhile, their beloved
wives and young children kept watch,
standing above, and among them the
men whom old age possessed. But
they (the younger men) advanced; but
Mars was their leader, and Pallas Mi-
nerva, both golden, and clad in golden
dresses, beautiful and large, along with
their armor, radiant all round, and in-
deed like gods ; but the people were
of humbler size. But when they now
had reached a place where it appeared
fit to lay an ambuscade, by a river,
where there was a watering-place for
all sorts of cattle, there then they set-
tled, clad in shining steel. There,
apart from the people, sat two spies,
watching when they might perceive
the sheep and crooked-horned oxen.
These, however, soon advanced, and
two shepherds accompanied them,
amusing themselves with their pipes,
for they had not yet perceived the
stratagem. Then they, discerning
them, ran in upon them, and immedi-
ately slaughtered on all sides the herds
of oxen, and the beautiful flocks of
snow-white sheep ; and slew the shep-
herds besides. But they, when they
heard the great tumult among the oxen,
previously sitting in front of the as-
sembly, mounting their nimble-footed
steeds, pursued ; and soon came up
with them. Then, having marshalled
themselves, they fought a battle on the
banks of the river, and wounded one
another with their brazen spears.
Among them mingled Discord and Tu-
mult, and destructive Fate, holding one
alive recently wounded, another un-
wounded, but a third, slain, she drew
by the feet through the battle; and had
the garment around her shoulders crim-
soned with the gore of men. But they
turned about, like living mortals, and
fought, and drew away the slaughtered
bodies of each other.
" On it he also placed a soft fallow
field, rich glebe, wide, thrice-ploughed;
and in it many ploughmen drove hither
and thither, turning round their teams.
But when, returning, they reached the
end of the field, then a man, advancing,
gave into their hands a cup of very
sweet wine ; but they turned them-
selves in series, eager to reach the other
end of the deep fallow. But it was
all black behind, similar to ploughed
land, which indeed was a marvel be-
yond all others.
" On it likewise he placed a field
of deep corn, where reapers were cut-
ting, having sharp sickles in their hands.
Some handfuls fell one after the other
upon the ground along the furrow, and
the binders of sheaves tied others with
bands. Three binders followed the
reapers, while behind them boys gath-
ering the handfuls, and bearing them in
their arms, continually supplied them ;
and among them the master stood by
the swath in silence, holding a sceptre,
delighted in heart. But apart, beneath
an oak, servants were preparing a ban-
quet, and, sacrificing a huge ox, they
ministered ; while women sprinkled
much white barley on the meat, as a
supper for the reapers.
" On it likewise he placed a vine-
yard, heavily laden with grapes, beauti-
Purgatorio x.
267
ful, golden ; but the clusters through-
out were black ; and it was supported
throughout by silver poles. Round ic
he drew an azure trench, and about it
a hedge of tin; but there was only
one path to it, by which the gatherers
went when they collected the vintage.
Young virgins and youths, of tender
minds, bore the luscious fruit in woven
baskets, in the midst of whom a boy
played sweetly on a shrill harp ; and
with tender voice sang gracefully to
the chord ; while they, beating the
ground in unison with dancing and
shouts, followed, skipping with their
feet.
" In it he also wrought a herd of
oxen with horns erect. But the kine
were made of gold and of tin, and
rushed out with a lowing from the
stall to the pasture, beside a murmuring
stream, along the breeze-waving reeds.
Four golden herdsmen accompanied the
oxen, and nine dogs, swift of foot, fol-
lowed. But two terrible lions detained
the bull, roaring among the foremost
oxen, and he was dragged away, loudly
bellowing, and the dogs and youths
followed for a rescue. They indeed,
having torn off the skin of the great
ox, lapped up his entrails and black
blood; and the shepherds vainly press-
ed upon them, urging on their fleet
dogs. These however refused to bite
the lions, but, standing very near,
barked, and shunned them.
" On it illustrious Vulcan also form-
ed a pasture in a beautiful grove full of
white sheep, and folds, and covered
huts and cottages.
*' Illustrious Vulcan likewise adorned
it with a dance, like unto that which,
in wide Gnossus, Dsdalus contrived
for fair-haired Ariadne. There danced
youths and alluring virgins, holding
each other's hands at the wrist. These
wore fine linen robes, but those were
dressed in well-woven tunics, shining
as with oil ; these also had beautiful
garlands, and those wore golden swords,
hanging from silver belts. Sometimes,
with skilful feet, they nimbly bounded
round ; as when a potter, sitting, shall
make trial of a wheel fitted to his
hands, whether it will run : and at
other times again they ran back to
their places through one another. But
a great crowd surrounded the pleasing
dance, amusing themselves; and among
them two tumblers, beginning their
songs, spun round through the midst.
" But in it he also formed the vast
strength of the river Oceanus, near the
last border of the well-formed shield."
See also Virgil's description of the
Shield of ^neas, jEneid, VIII., and
of the representations on the walls of the
Temple of Juno at Carthage, ^neid, I.
Also the description of the Temple of
Mars, in Statius, Thebaid,Vll,, and that
of the tomb of the Persian queen in the
Alexandreis of Philip Gualtier, noticed
in Mr. Sumner's article, Atlantic Month-
ly, XVI. 754. And finally " the noble
kerving and the portreitures " of the
Temples of Venus, Mars, and Diana,
in Chaucer's Knightes Tale : —
"Why shulde I not as vvel eke tell you all
The portreiture that was upon the wall
Within the temple of mighty Mars the Rede ?
268
Notes
" First on the wall was peintcd a forest,
In which thcr wonncth neythcr man ne best ;
With knotty, knarry, barrein trees old,
Of stubbes sharpe, and hldous to behold ;
In which ther ran a romble and a swough.
As though a storme shuld bresten every bough.
And, dounward from an hill, under a bent,
Ther stood the temple of Mars Armipotcnt,
Wrought all of burned stele ; of which th' entree
Was longe and streite, and gastly for to see ;
And therout came a rage and swiche a vise,
That it made all the gates for to rise.
The northern light in at the dore shone ;
For window, on the wall, ne was ther none,
Thurgh which men mighten any light discerne.
The dore was all of athamant eterne ;
Yclenched, overthwart and endelong.
With yren tough. And, for to make it strong,
Every piler the temple to sustene
Was tonne-gret, of yren bright and shcne.
•' Ther saw I, first, the derke imagining
Of felonie, and alle the compassing ;
The cruel ire, red as any glede ;
The pikepurse ; and eke the pale drede ;
The smiler, with the knif under the cloke ;
The shepen brenning, with the blake smoke ;
The treson of the mordring in the bedde ;
The open werre, with woundes all bebledde 5
Coiiteke, with blody knif and sharp menace :
All full of chirking was that sory place.
The sleer of himself, yet, saw I there,
His herte-blood hath bathed all his here,
The naile ydriven in the shode anyght.
The colde deth, with mouth gaping upright."
40. Luke i. 28 : " And the angel
came in unto her and said. Hail, thou
that art highly favored, the Lord is
with thee."
44. Luke i. 38 : ** And Mary said.
Behold the handmaid of the Lord."
57. 2 Samuel vi. 6, 7 : " 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."
65. 2 Samuel vi. 14 : " And David
danced before the Lord with all his
might ; and David was girded with a
linen ephod."
68. 2 Samuel vi. 16 : " And as the
ark of the Lord came into the city of
David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked
through a window and saw King David
leaping and dancing before the Lord ;
and she despised him in her heart."
73. This story of Trajan is told in
nearly the same words, though in prose,
in the Fiore di Filosofi, a work attributed
to Brunetto Latini. See Nannucci,
Manuale della Letteratura del Prima
Secolo, in. 291. It may be found also
in the Legcnda Aurea, in the Cento No-
velle Antiche, Nov. 6"] , and in the Life
of St. Gregory, by Paulus Diaconus.
As told by Ser Brunetto the story
runs thus : " Trajan was a very just
Emperor, and one day, having mounted
his horse to go into battle with his
cavalry, a woman came and seized him
by the foot, and, weeping bitterly, asked
him and besought him to do justice
upon those who had without cause put
to death her son, who was an upright
•young man. And he answered and
said, 'I will give thee satisfaction when
I return.' And she said, 'And if thou
dost not return ^ ' And he answered,
* If I do not return, my successor will
give thee satisfaction.' And she said,
' How do I know that ? and suppose
he do it, what is it to thee if another
Purgatorio xi.
269
do good ? Thou art my debtor, and
according to thy deeds shalt thou be
judged ; it is a fraud for a man not to
pay what he owes ; the justice of an-
other will not liberate thee, and it will
be well for thy successor if he shall
liberate himself.' Moved by these
words the Emperor alighted, and did
justice, and consoled the widow, and
then mounted his horse, and went to
battle, and routed his enemies. A long
time afterwards St. Gregory, hearing
of this justice, saw his statue, and had
him disinterred, and found that he was
all turned to dust, except his bones and
his tongue, which was like that of a
living man. And by this St. Gregory
knew his justice, for this tongue had
always spoken it ; so that then he
wept very piteously through compas-
sion, praying God that he would take
this soul out of Hell, knowing that he
had been a Pagan. Then God, because
of these prayers, drew that soul from
pain, and put it into glory. And there-
upon the angel spoke to St. Gregory,
and told him never to make such a
prayer again, and God laid upon him
as a penance either to be two days in
Purgatory, or to be always ill with
fever and side-ache. St. Gregory as
the lesser punishment chose the fever
and side-ache {male di fianco).^^
75. Gregory's " great victory " was
saving the soul of Trajan by prayer.
124. Jeremy Taylor says : "As the
silk-worm eateth itself out of a seed to
become a little worm ; and there feed-
ing on the leaves of mulberries, it
grows till its coat be off, and then
works itself into a house of silk ; then,
casting its pearly seeds for the young
to breed, it leaveth its silk for man,
and dieth all white and winged in the
shape of a flying creature : so is the
progress of souls."
127. Gower, Confes. Amant.y 1.: —
*' The proude vice of veingloire
Remembreth nought of purgatoire."
And Shakespeare, King Henry the
Eighth, III. 2 : —
" I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory."
CANTO XI.
3. The angels, the first creation or >
effects of the divine power.
6. Wisdom of Solomon, vii. 25: "For
she is the breath of the power of God,
and a pure influence flowing from the
glory of the Almighty." In the Vul-
gate : Vapor est enim virtutis Dei.
45. See Inf. XII. Note 2.
58. Or Italian. The speaker is
Omberto Aldobrandeschi, Count of
Santaliore, in the Maremma of Siena.
"The Counts oi Santafiore were, and
are, and almost always will be at war
with the Sienese," says the Ottimo.
In one of these wars Omberto was
slain, at the village of Campagnatico.
270
Notes
" The author means," continues the
same commentator, " that he who can-
not carry his head high should bow it
down like a bulrush."
79. Vasari, Lh'cs of the Painters,
Mrs. Foster's Tr., I. 103, says : —
" At this time there lived in Rome
— to omit nothing relative to art that
may be worthy of commemoration —
a certain Oderigi of Agobbio, an ex-
cellent miniature-painter of those times,
with whom Giotto lived on terms of
close friendship ; and who was there-
fore invited by the Pope to illuminate
many books for the library of the pal-
ace : but these books have in great
part perished in the lapse of time. In
my book of ancient drawings I have
some few remains from the hand of
this artist, who was certainly a clever
man, although much surpassed by
Franco of Bologna, who executed many
admirable works in the same manner,
for the same Pontiff, (and which were
also destined for the library of the
palace,) at the same time with those
of Oderigi. From the hand of Franco
also, I have designs, both in painting
and illuminating, which may be seen
in my book above cited; among others
are an eagle, perfectly well done, and
a lion tearing up a tree, which is most
beautiful."
81. The art of illuminating manu-
scripts, which was called in Paris allu-
minare, was in Italy called miniare.
Hence Oderigi is called by Vasari a
miniatore, or miniature-painter.
83. Franco Bolognese was a pupil
of Oderigi, who perhaps alludes to this
fact in claiming a part of the honor
paid to the younger artist.
94. Of Cimabue, Vasari, Lives of
the Painters, Mrs. Foster's Tr., I. 35,
says : —
" The overwhelming flood of evils
by which unhappy Italy had been sub-
merged and devastated had not only
destroyed whatever could properly be
called buildings, but, a still more de-
plorable consequence, had totally ex-
terminated the artists themselves, when,
by the will of God, in the year 1240,
Giovanni Cimabue, of the noble family
of that name, was born, in the city of
Florence, to give the first light to the
art of painting. This youth, as he
grew up, being considered by his father
and others to give proof of an acute
judgment and a clear understanding,
was sent to Santa Maria Novella to
study letters under a relation, who was
then master in grammar to the novices
of that convent. But Cimabue, instead
of devoting himself to letters, consumed
the whole day in drawing men, horses,
houses, and other various fancies, on
his books and different papers, — an
occupation to which he felt himself
impelled by nature ; and this natural
inclination was favored by fortune, for
the governors of the city had invited
certain Greek painters to Florence, for
the purpose of restoring the art of
painting, which had not merely degen-
erated, but was altogether lost. These
artists," among other works, began to
paint the Chapel of the Gondi, situate
next the principal chapel, in Santa
Maria Novella, the roof and walls of
Ptirgatorio xi.
2Jl
which are now almost entirely destroyed
by time, — and Ciambue, often escaping
from the school, and having already
made a commencement in the art he
was so fond of, would stand watching
those masters at their work, the day
through. Judging from these circum-
stances, his father, as well as the artists
themselves, concluded him to be well
endowed for painting, and thought that
much might be hoped from his future
efforts, if he were devoted to that art.
Giovanni was accordingly, to his no
small satisfaction, placed with those
masters. From this time he labored
incessantly, and was so far aided by his
natural powers that he soon greatly
surpassed his teachers both in design
and coloring. For these masters, car-
ing little for the progress of art, had
executed their works as we now see
them, not in the excellent manner of
the ancient Greeks, but in the rude
modern style of their own day. Where-
fore, though Cimabue imitated his
Greek instructors, he very much im-
proved the art, relieving it greatly from
their uncouth manner, and doing honor
to his country by the name he ac-
quired, and by the works which he per-
formed. Of this we have evidence in
Florence from the pictures which he
painted there ; as, for example, the
front of the altar of Santa Cecilia, and
a picture of the Virgin, in Santa Croce,
which was, and is still, attached to one
of the pilasters on the right of the
choir."
95. Shakespeare, Trail, and Cres.,
HI. 3 : -
"The present eye praises the present object :
Then marvel not, thou great and complete man,
That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax ;
Since things in motion sooner catch the eye
Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee ;
And still it might, and yet it may again,
If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive,
And case thy reputation in thy tent."
Cimabue died in 1300. His epitaph is:
" Credidit ut Cimabos picturae castra tenere,
Sic tenuit vivens, nunc tenet astra poli."
Vasari, Lives of the Painters, L 93 : —
" The gratitude which the masters
in painting owe to Nature, — who is
ever the truest model of him who,
possessing the power to select the
brightest parts from her best and love-
liest features, employs himself un-
weariedly in the reproduction of these
beauties, — this gratitude, I say, is due,
in my judgment, to the Florentine
painter Giotto, seeing that he alone, —
although born amidst incapable artists,
and at a time when all good methods
in art had long been entombed beneath
the ruins of war, — yet, by the favor
of Heaven, he, I say, alone succeeded in
resuscitating Art, and restoring her to
a path that may be called the true one.
And it was in truth a great marvel, that
from so rude and inapt an age Giotto
should have had strength to elicit so
much, that the art of design, of which
the men of those days had little, if any
knowledge, was by his means effectu-
ally recalled into life. The birth of
this great man took place in the hamlet
of Vespignano, fourteen miles from the
city of Florence, in the year 1276.
His father's name was Bondone, a sim-
ple husbandman, who reared the child.
272
Notes
to whom he had given the name of
Giotto, with such decency as his con-
dition permitted. The boy was early
remarked for extreme vivacity in all his
childish proceedings, and for extraor-
dinary promptitude of intelligence ; so
that he became endeared, not only to
his father, but to all who knew him
in the village and around it. When
he was about ten years old, Bondone
gave him a few sheep to watch, and
with these he wandered about the
vicinity, — now here and now there.
But, induced by Nature herself to the
arts of design, he was perpetually draw-
ing on the stones, the earth, or the
sand, some natural object that came be-
fore him, or some fantasy that presented
itself to his thoughts. It chanced one
day that the affairs o{ Cimabue took
him from Florence to Vespignano,
when he perceived the young Giotto,
who, while his sheep fed around him,
was occupied in drawing one of them
from the life, with a stone slightly
pointed, upon a smooth, clean piece of
rock, — and that without any teaching
whatever but such as Nature herself
had imparted. Halting in astonish-
ment, Cimabue inquired of the boy if
he would accompany him to his home,
and the child replied, he would go
willingly, if his father were content to
permit it. Cimabue therefore request-
ing the consent of Bondone, the latter
granted it readily, and suffered the artist
to conduct his son to Florence, where,
in a short time, instructed by Cimabue
and aided by Nature, the boy not only
equalled his master in his own manner.
but became so good an imitator of Na-
ture that he totally banished the rude
Greek manner, restoring art to the
better path adhered to in modern times,
and introducing the custom of accu-
rately drawing living persons from na-
ture, which had not been used for more
than two hundred years. Or, if some
had attempted it, as said above, it was
not by any means with the success of
Giotto. Among the portraits by this
artist, and which still remain, is one of
his contemporary and intimate friend,
Dante Alighieri, who was no less fa-
mous as a poet than Giotto as a painter,
and whom Messer Giovanni Boccaccio
has lauded so highly in the introduction
to his story of Messer Forese da Ra-
batta, and of Giotto the painter him-
self. This portrait is in the chapel of
the palace of the Podesta in Florence ;
and in the same chapel are the portraits
of Ser Brunetto Latini, master of Dante,
and of Messer Corso Donati, an illus-
trious citizen of that day."
Pope Benedict the Ninth, hearing
of Giotto's fame, sent one of his cour-
tiers to Tuscany, to propose to him
certain paintings for the Church of St.
Peter. " The messenger," continues
Vasari, " when on his way to visit
Giotto, and to inquire what other good
masters there were in Florence, spoke
first with many artists in Siena, — then,
having received designs from them, he
proceeded to Florence, and repaired
one morning to the workshop where
Giotto was occupied with his labors.
He declared the purpose of the Pope,
and the manner in which that Pontiff
Ptirgatorio xi.
273
desired to avail himself of his assist-
ance ; and, finally, requested to have
a drawing, that he might send it to his
Holiness, Giotto, who was very cour-
teous, took a sheet of paper and a pen-
cil dipped in a red color, then, resting
his elbow on his side, to form a sort
of compass, with one turn of the hand
he drew a circle, so perfect and exact
that it was a marvel to behold. This
done, he turned smiling to the courtier,
saying, * Here is your drawing.' 'Am
I to have nothing more than this ? '
inquired the latter, conceiving himself
to be jested with. ' That is enough
and to spare,' returned Giotto ; ' send
it with the rest, and you will see if it
will be recognized.' The messenger,
unable to obtain anything more, went
away very ill satisfied, and fearing that
he had been fooled. Nevertheless,
having despatched the other drawings
to the Pope, with the names of those
who had done them, he sent that of
Giotto also, relating the mode in which
he had made his circle, without mov-
ing his arm and without compasses ;
from which the Pope, and such of the
courtiers as were well versed in the
subject, perceived how far Giotto sur-
passed all the other painters of his
time. This incident, becoming known,
gave rise to the proverb, still used in
relation to people of dull wits, — Tu sei
pill tondo che P O di Giotto ; the signif-
icance of which consists in the double
meaning of the word * tondo,' which
is used in the Tuscan for slowness of
intellect and heaviness of comprehen-
sion, as well as for an exact circle.
VOL. II. 35
The proverb has besides an interest
from the circumstance which gave it
birth
"It is said that Giotto, when he was
still a boy, and studying with Cimabue,
once painted a fly on the nose of a
figure on which Cimabue himself was
employed, and this so naturally, that,
when the master returned to continue
his work, he believed it to be real,
and lifted his hand more than once to
drive it away before he should go on
with the painting."
Boccaccio, Decamerone, VI. 5, tells
this tale of Giotto : —
" As it often happens that fortune
hides under the meanest trades in life
the greatest virtues, which has been
proved by Pampinea; so are the great-
est geniuses found frequently lodged by
Nature in the most deformed and mis-
shapen bodies, which was verified in
two of our own citizens, as I am now
going to relate. For the one, who was
called Forese da Rabatta, being a little
deformed mortal, with a flat Dutch
face, worse than any of the family of
the Baronci, yet was he esteemed by
most men a repository of the civil law.
And the other, whose name was Gi-
otto, had such a prodigious fancy, that
there was nothing in Nature, the parent
of all things, but he could imitate it
with his pencil so well, and draw it so
like, as to deceive our very senses, im-
agining that to be the very thing itself
which was only his painting : there-
fore, having brought that art again to
light, which had lain buried for many
ages under the errors of such as aimed
2 74
Notes
more to captivate the eyes of the igno-
rant, than to please the understandings
of those who were really judges, he
may be deservedly called one of the
lights and glories of our city, and the
rather as being master of his art, not-
withstanding his modesty would never
suffer himself to be so esteemed ; which
honor, though rejected by him, dis-
played itself in hirn with the greater
lustre, as it was so eagerly usurped by
others less knowing than himself, and
by many also who had all their knowl-
edge from him. But though his excel-
lence in his profession was so wonder-
ful, yet as to his person and aspect he
had no way the advantage of Signor
Forese. To come then to my story.
These two worthies had each his coun-
try-seat at Mugello, and Forese being
gone thither in the vacation time, and
riding upon an unsightly steed, chanced
to meet there with Giotto, who was
no better equipped than himself, when
they returned together to Florence.
Travelling slowly along, as they were
able to go no faster, they were over-
taken by a great shower of rain, and
forced to take shelter in a poor man's
house, who was well known to them
both ; and, as there was no appearance
of the weather's clearing up, and each
being desirous of getting home that
night, they borrowed two old, rusty
cloaks, and two rusty hats, and they
proceeded on their journey. After
they had gotten a good part of their
way, thoroughly wet, and covered with
dirt and mire, which their two shuf-
fling steeds had thrown upon them.
and which by no means improved their
looks, it began to clear up at last, and
they, who had hitherto said but little
to each other, now turned to discourse
together ; whilst Forese, riding along
and listening to Giotto, who was ex-
cellent at telling a story, began at last
to view him attentively from head to
foot, and, seeing him in that wretched,
dirty pickle, without having any regard
to himself he fell a laughing, and said,
* Do you suppose, Giotto, if a stranger
were to meet with you now, who had
never seen you before, that he would
imagine you to be the best painter in
the world, as you really are ? ' Giotto
readily replied, ' Yes, sir, I believe he
might think so, if, looking at you at
the same time, he would ever conclude
that you had learned your A, B, C
At this Forese was sensible of his mis-
take, finding himself well paid in his
own coin."
Another story of Giotto may be found
in Sacchetti, Nov. 75.
97. Probably Dante's friend, Guido
Cavalcanti, Inf. X. Note 63 ; and Gui-
do Guinicelli, Purg. XXVI. Note 92,
whom he calls
« The father
Of me and of my betters, who had ever
Practised the sweet and gracious rhymes of
love."
99. Some commentators suppose that
Dante here refers to himself. He more
probably is speaking only in general
terms, without particular reference to
any one.
103. Ben Jonson, Ode on the Death
of Sir H. Morison : —
Purgatorio xi.
275
" It Is not growing like a tree
In bulic, doth make men better be ;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear ;
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night ;
It was the plant and flower of light."
105. The babble of childhood ;
pappo for pane, bread, and dindi for da-
nari, money.
Halliwell, Die. of Areh. and Prov.
Words : " Dinders, small coins of the
Lower Empire, found at Wroxeter."
108. The revolution of the fixed
stars, according to the Ptolemaic theo-
ry, which was also Dante's, was thirty-
six thousand years.
109. "Who goes so slowly," inter-
prets the Ottimo.
112. At the battle of Monte Aperto.
See Inf. X. Note 86.
118. Henry Vaughan, Saered Po-
ems : —
" O holy hope and high humility.
High as the heavens above;
These are your walks, and you have showed
them me
To kindle my cold love ! "
And Milton, Sams. Agon., 185 : —
" Apt words have power to swage
The tumors of a troubled mind."
121. A haughty and ambitious no-
bleman of Siena, who led the Sienese
troops at the battle of Monte Aperto.
Afterwards, when the Sienese were
routed by the Florentines at the battle
of CoUe in the Val d' Elsa, {Purg.
XIII. Note 115,) he was taken prisoner
"and his head was cut off," says Vil-
lani, VII. 31, "and carried through all
the camp fixed upon a lance. And
well was fulfilled the prophecy and
revelation which the Devil had made
to him, by means of necromancy, but
which he did not understand ; for the
Devil, being constrained to tell how he
would succeed in that battle, menda-
ciously answered, and said : * Thou
shalt go forth and fight, thou shalt con-
quer not die in the battle, and thy
head shall be the highest in the camp.'
And he, believing from these words
that he should be victorious, and be-
lieving he should be lord over all, did
not put a stop after * not ' (yincerai no,
morrai, thou shalt conquer not, thou
shalt die). And therefore it is great
folly to put faith in the Devil's ad-
vice. This Messer Provenzano was a
great man in Siena after his victory at
Monte Aperto, and led the whole city,
and all the Ghibelline party of Tus-
cany made him their chief, and he was
very presumptuous in his will."
The humility which saved him was
his seating himself at a little table in
the public square of Siena, called the
Campo, and begging money of all pass-
ers to pay the ransom of a friend who
had been taken prisoner by Charles of
Anjou, as here narrated by Dante.
138. Spenser, Faery i^eene, VI. c, 7,
St. 22 : —
" He, therewith much abashed and affrayd.
Began to tremble every limbe and vaine."
141. A prophecy of Dante's banish-
ment and poverty and humiliation.
276
Notes
CANTO X I r.
1. In the first part of this canto the
same subject is continued, with exam-
ples of pride humbled, sculptured on
the pavement, upon which the Proud
are doomed to gaze as they go with
their heads bent down beneath their
heavy burdens,
" So that they may behold their evil ways."
Iliad, XIII. 700 : " And Ajax, the
swift son of Oileus, never at all stood
apart from the Telamonian Ajax ; but
as in a fallow field two dark bullocks,
possessed of equal spirit, drag the com-
pacted plough, and much sweat breaks
out about the roots of their horns, and
the well-polished yoke alone divides
them, stepping along the furrow, and
the plough cuts up the bottom of the
soil, so they, joined together, stood
very near to each other."
3. In Italy a pedagogue is not only
a teacher, but literally a leader of chil-
dren, and goes from house to house
collecting his little flock, which he
brings home again after school.
Galatians iii. 24: " The law was our
schoolmaster (Paidagogos) to bring us
unto Christ."
17. Tombs under the pavement in the
aisles of churches, in contradistinction
to those built aloft against the walls.
25. The reader v^'ill not fail to mark
the artistic structure of the passage from
this to the sixty-third line. First there
are four stanzas beginning, " I saw " ;
then four beginning, " O "; then four
beginning, " Displayed " ; and then a
stanza which resumes and unites them
all.
27. Luke X. 18: "I beheld Satan
as lightning fall from heaven."
Milton, Farad. Lost, I. 44 : —
" Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms."
28. Iliad, I. 403 : " Him of the
hundred hands, whom the gods call
Briareus, and all men ^gason." Inf.
XXI. Note 98.
He was struck by the thunderbolt
of Jove, or by a shaft of Apollo, at the
battle of Flegra. " Ugly medley of
sacred and profane, of revealed truth
and fiction ! " exclaims Venturi.
31. Thymbrsus, a surname of Apol-
lo, from his temple in Thymbra.
34. Nimrod, who " began to be a
mighty one in the earth," and his
" tower whose top may reach unto
heaven."
Genesis xi. 8 : "So the Lord scat-
tered them abroad from thence upon
the face of all the earth ; and they left
off to build the city. Therefore is the
name of it called Babel ; because the
Lord did there confound the language
of all the earth, and from thence did
the Lord scatter them abroad upon the
face of all the earth."
Purgatorio xn.
V7
See also Inf. XXXI. Note tj.
36. Lombardi proposes in this line to
read "together" instead of "proud";
which Biagioli thinks is " changing a
beautiful diamond for a bit of lead; and
stupid is he who accepts the change."
37. Among the Greek epigrams is
one on Niobe, which runs as fol-
lows : —
" This sepulchre within it has no corse ;
This corse without here has no sepulchre,
But to itself is sepulchre and corse."
Ovid, Metamorph.y VI., Croxall's
Tr. : —
"Widowed and childless, lamentable state!
A doleful sight, among the dead she sate;
Hardened with woes, a statue of despair,
To every breath of wind unmoved her hair ;
Her cheek still reddening, but its color dead.
Faded her eyes, and set within her head.
No more her pliant tongue its motion keeps,
But stands congealed within her frozen lips.
Stagnate and dull, within her purple veins.
Its current stopped, the lifeless blood remains.
Her feet their usual offices refuse.
Her arms and neck their graceful gestures
lose :
Action and life from every part are gone.
And even her entrails turn to solid stone ;
Yet still she weeps, and whirled by stormy
winds.
Borne through the air, her native country
finds ;
There fixed, she stands upon a bleaky hill.
There yet her marble cheeks eternal tears
distil."
39. Homer, Iliad, XXIV. 604,
makes them but twelve. " Twelve
children perished in her halls, six
daughters and six blooming sons; these
Apollo slew from his silver bow, en-
raged with Niobe ; and those Diana,
delighting in arrows, because she had
deemed herself equal to the beautiful-
cheeked Latona. She said that Latona
had borne only two, but she herself had
borne many ; nevertheless those, though
but two, exterminated all these."
But Ovid, Metamorph., VI., says: —
" Seven are my daughters of a form divine,
With seven fair sons, an indefective line."
40. I Samuel xxxi. 4, 5 : " Then
said Saul unto his armor-bearer. Draw
thy sword and thrust me through there-
with, lest these uncircumcised come
and thrust me through and abuse me.
But his armor-bearer would not, for
he was sore afraid; therefore Saul took
a sword, and fell upon it. And when
his armor-bearer saw that Saul was
dead, he fell likewise upon his sword,
and died with him."
42. 2 Samuel \. 21 : "Ye mountains
of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither
let there be rain upon you."
43. Arachne, daughter of Idmon the
dyer of Colophon. Ovid, Metamorph.,
VI.: —
" One at the loom so excellently skilled,
That to the goddess she refused to yield.
Low was her birth, and small her native town,
She from her art alone obtained renown.
Nor would the work, when finished, please
so much,
As, while she wrought, to view each graceful
touch ;
Whether the shapeless wool in balls she
wound.
Or with quick motion turned the spindle
round.
Or with her pencil drew the neat design,
Pallas her mistress shone in every line.
278
Notes
This the proud maid with scornful air denies,
And even the goddess at her work defies;
Disowns her lieavcnly mistress every hour,
Nor asks her aid, nor deprecates her power.
Let us, she cries, but to a trial come,
And if she conquers, let her fix my doom."
It was rather an unfair trial of skill,
at the end of which Minerva, getting
angry, struck Arachne on the forehead
with her shuttle of box-wood.
" The unhappy maid, impatient of the wrong,
Down from a beam her injured person hung;
When Pallas, pitying her wretched state.
At once prevented and pronounced her fate :
'Live; but depend, vile wretch ! ' the goddess
cried,
' Doomed in suspense forever to be tied ;
That all your race, to utmost date of time,
May feel the vengeance and detest the crime.'
Then, going off, she sprinkled her with
juice
Which leaves of baneful aconite produce.
Touched with the poisonous drug, her flowing
hair
Fell to the ground and left her temples bare ;
Her usual features vanished from their place,
Her body lessened all, but most her face.
Her slender fingers, hanging on each side
With many joints, the use of legs supplied ;
A spider's bag the rest, from which she gives
A thread, and still by constant weaving lives."
46. In the revolt of the Ten Tribes.
I Kings xii. 18: "Then King Reho-
boam sent Adoram, who was over the
tribute; and all Israel stoned him with
stones, that he died ; therefore King
Rehoboam made speed to get him up
to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem."
50. Amphiaraus, the soothsayer,
foreseeing his own death if he went
to the Theban war, concealed himself,
to avoid going. His wife Eriphyle,
bribed by a " golden necklace set with
diamonds," betrayed to her brother
Adrastus his hiding-place, and Amphia-
raijs, departing, charged his son Alc-
meon to kill Eriphyle as soon as he
heard of his death.
Ovid, Metamorph., IX. : —
*' The son shall bathe his hands in parent's
blood.
And in one act be both unjust and good."
Statius, Thcb., II. 355, Lewis's Tr. : —
*' Fair Eriphyle the rich gift beheld.
And her sick breast with secret envy swelled.
Not the late omens and the well-known tale
To cure her vain ambition aught avail.
O had the wretch by self-experience known
The future woes, and sorrows not her own !
But fate decrees her wretched spouse must
bleed.
And the son's frenzy clear the mother's
deed."
53. Isaiah xxxvii. 38: "And it
came to pass, as he was worshipping
in the house of Nisroch his god, that
Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons,
smote him with the sword ; and they
escaped into the land of Armenia, and
Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his
stead."
56. Herodotus, Book I. Ch. 214,
Rawlinson's Tr. : " Tomyris, when
she found that Cyrus paid no heed to
her advice, collected all the forces of
her kingdom, and gave him battle.
Of all the combats in which the barba-
rians have engaged among themselves,
I reckon this to have been the fiercest.
.... Tlie greater part of the army of
the Persians was destroyed, and Cyrus
himself fell, after reigning nine and
twenty years. Search was made among
Purgatorio xii.
279
the slain, by order of the queen, for
the body of Cyrus, and when it was
found, she took a skin, and, filling it
full of human blood, she dipped the
head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as
she thus insulted the corse, * I live
and have conquered thee in fight, and
yet by thee am I ruined ; for thou
tookest my son with guile ; but thus I
make good my threat, and give thee thy
fill of blood.' Of the many different
accounts which are given of the death
of Cyrus, this which I have followed
appears to me most worthy of credit."
59. After Judith had slain Holo-
fernes. Judith xv, 1 : " And when
they that were in the tents heard, they
were astonished at the thing that was
done. And fear and trembling fell
upon them, so that there was no man
that durst abide in the sight of his
neighbor, but, rushing out all together,
they fled into every way of the plain
and of the hill country Now
when the children of Israel heard it,
they all fell upon them with one con-
sent, and slew them unto Chobai."
61. This tercet unites the "I saw,"
"O," and "Displayed," of the preced-
ing passage, and binds the whole as
with a selvage*
67. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. 19:
*' There was probably never a period
in which the influence of art over the
minds of men seemed to depend less
on its merely imitative power, than the
close of the thirteenth century. No
painting or sculpture at that time
reached more than a rude resemblance
of reality. Its despised perspective.
imperfect chiaroscuro, and unrestrained
flights of fantastic imagination, sepa-
rated the artist's work from nature by
an interval which there was no attempt
to disguise, and little to diminish. And
yet, at this very period, the greatest
poet of that, or perhaps of any other
age, and the attached friend of its
greatest painter, who must over and
over again have held full and free con-
versation with him respecting the ob-
jects of his art, speaks in the following
terms of painting, supposed to be car-
ried to its highest perfection : —
* Qual di pennel fu maestro, e di stile
Che ritraesse V ombre, e i tratti, ch' ivi
Mirar farieno uno ingegno sottile.
Morti li morti, e i vivi parean vivi :
Non vide me' di me, chi vide il vero,
Quant' io calcai, fin clie chinato givi.'
Dante has here clearly no other idea
of the highest art than that it should
bring back, as in a mirror or vision,
the aspect of things passed or absent.
The scenes of which he speaks are, on
the pavement, forever represented by
angelic power, so that the souls which
traverse this circle of the rock may see
them, as if the years of the world had
been rolled back, and they again stood
beside the actors in the moment of
action. Nor do I think that Dante's
authority is absolutely necessary to
compel us to admit that such art as this
might indeed be the highest possible.
Whatever delight we may have been
in the habit of taking in pictures, if it
were but truly offered to us to remove
at our will the canvas from the frame,
and in lieu of it to behold, fixed for-
28o
Notes
ever, the image of some of those mighty-
scenes which it has been our way to
make mere themes for the artist's fancy,
— if, for instance, we could again be-
hold the Magdalene receiving her par-
don at Christ's feet, or the disciples sit-
ting with him at the table of Emmaus,
— and this not feebly nor fancifully,
but as if some silver mirror, that had
leaned against the wall of the chamber,
had been miraculously commanded to
retain forever the colors that had flashed
upon it for an instant, — would we not
part with our picture, Titian's or Vero-
nese's though it might be ?"
8 1. The sixth hour of the day, or
noon of the second day.
I02. Florence is here called ironi-
cally " the well guided " or well gov-
erned. Rubaconte is the name of the
most easterly of the bridges over the
Arno, and takes its name from Messer
Rubaconte, who was Podesta of Flor-
ence in 1236, when this bridge was
built. Above it on the hill stands the
church of San Miniato. This is the
hill which Michel Angelo fortified in
the siege of Florence. In early times
it was climbed by stairways.
105. In the good old days, before
any one had falsified the ledger of the
public accounts, or the standard of
measure. In Dante's time a certain
Messer Niccola tore out a leaf from the
public records, to conceal some villany
of his; and a certain Messer Durante,
a custom-house officer, diminished the
salt-measure by one stave. This is
again alluded to. Par. XVI. 105.
no. Matthew v. 3: "Blessed are
the poor in spirit : for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven."
It must be observed that all the
Latin lines in Dante should be chanted
with an equal stress on each syllable,
in order to make them rhythmical.
CANTO XIII.
I. The Second Circle, or Cornice,
where is punished the sin of Envy ;
of which St. Augustine says : " Envy
is the hatred of another's felicity ; in
respect of superiors, because they are
not equal to them ; in respect of in-
feriors, lest they should be equal to
them ; in respect of equals, because
they are equal to them. Through envy
proceeded the fall of the world, and
the death of Christ."
9. The livid color of Envy.
14. The military precision with
which Virgil faces to the right is
Homeric. Biagioli says that Dante
expresses it " after his own fashion,
that is, entirely new and different from
mundane custom."
16. Boethius, Cons. Phil.yV. Met. 2 : —
" Him the Sun, then, rightly call, —
God \A'ho sees and lightens all."
29. John ii. 3 : " And when they
wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith
unto him. They have no wine."
Ptcrgatorio xiii.
281
Examples are first given of the virtue
opposite the vice here punished. These
are but "airy tongues that syllable men's
names"; and it must not be supposed
that the persons alluded to are actually
passing in the air.
33. The name of Orestes is here
shouted on account of the proverbial
friendship between him and Pylades.
When Orestes was condemned to death,
Pylades tried to take his place, exclaim-
ing, " I am Orestes."
36. Matthew V. 44 : " But I say
unto you. Love your enemies, bless
them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you and persecute you."
39. See Canto XIV. 147.
42. The next stairway leading from
the second to the third circle.
51. The Litany of All Saints.
92. Latian for Italian.
109. A Sienese lady living in banish-
ment at Colle, where from a tower
she witnessed the battle between her
townsmen and the Florentines. "Sapia
hated the Sienese," says Benvenuto,
** and placed herself at a window not
far from the field of battle, waiting
the issue with anxiety, and desiring the
rout and ruin of her own people. Her
desires being verified by the entire dis-
comfiture of the Sienese, and the death
of their captain," (Provenzan Salvani,
see Canto XI. Note 121,) "exultant and
almost beside herself, she lifted her bold
face to heaven, and cried, * Now, O
God, do with me what thou wilt, do me
all the harm thou canst; now my pray-
ers are answered, and I die content.'"
VOL. II. 36
1 10. Gower, Confes. Aniant., II. : —
" Whan I have sene another blithe
Of love and hadde a goodly chere,
Ethna, which brenneth yere by yere,
Was thanne nought so hote as I
Of thilk e sore which prively
Mine hertes thought withinne brenneth."
1 14. Convito, IV. 23 : " Every ef-
fect, in so far as it is effect, receiveth
the likeness of its cause, as far as it can
retain it. Therefore, inasmuch as our
life, as has been said, and likewise that
of every living creature here below, is
caused by the heavens, and the heavens
reveal themselves to all these effects, not
in complete circle, but in part thereof,
so must its movement needs be above ;
and as an arch retains all lives nearly,
(and, I say, retains those of men as well
as of other living creatures,) ascending
and curving, they must be in the simili-
tude of an arch. Returning then to
our life, of which it is now question,
I say that it proceeds in the image of
this arch, ascending and descending."
122. The warm days near the end
of January are still called in Lombardy
/ giorni del/a merla, the days of the
blackbird ; from an old legend, that
once in the sunny weather a blackbird
sang, " I fear thee no more, O Lord,
for the winter is over."
128. Peter Pettignano, or Pettinajo,
was a holy hermit, who saw visions
and wrought miracles at Siena. For-
syth, Italy, 149, describing the festival
of the Assumption in that city in 1802,
says : —
" The Pope had reserved for this
great festival the Beatification of Pe-
282
Notes
ter, a Sienese comb-maker, whom the
Church had neglected to canonize till
now. Poor Peter was honored with
all the solemnity of music, high-mass,
an officiating cardinal, a florid pane-
gyric, pictured angels bearing his tools
to heaven, and combing their own hair
as they soared ; but he received five
hundred years ago a greater honor than
all, a verse of praise from Dante."
138. Dante's besetting sin was not
envy, but pride.
144. On the other side of the world.
153. The vanity of the Sienese is
also spoken 0^ Inf. XXIX. 123.
152. Talamone is a seaport in the
Maremma, "many times abandoned by
its inhabitants," says the Ottimo, "on
account of the malaria. The town is
utterly in ruins ; but as the harbor is
deep, and would be of great utility if
the place were inhabited, the Sienese
have spent much money in repairing it
many times, and bringing in inhabit-
ants ; it is of little use, for the malaria
prevents the increase of population."
Talamone is the ancient Telamon,
where Marius landed on his return from
Africa.
153. The Diana is a subterranean
river, which the Sienese were in search
of for many years to supply the city
with water. *' They never have been
able to find it," says the Ottimo, " and
yet they still hope." In Dante's time
it was evidently looked upon as an idle
dream. To the credit of the Sienese
be it said, they persevered, and finally
succeeded in obtaining the water so
patiently sought for. The Pozxo Dia-
na, or Diana's Well, is still to be seen
at the Convent of the Carmen.
154. The admirals who go to Ta-
lamone to superintend the works will
lose there more than their hope, name-
ly, their lives.
CANTO XIV.
I. The subject of the preceding
canto is here continued. Compare the
introductory lines with those of Can-
to V.
7. These two spirits prove to be
Guido del Duca and Rinieri da Cal-
boli.
17. A mountain in the Apennines,
northeast of Florence, from which the
Arno takes its rise. Ampere, Voyage
Dantesque, p. 246, thus describes this
region of the Val d' Arno. " Farther
on is another tower, the tower of Por-
ciano, which is said to have been in-
habited by Dante. From there I had
still to climb the summits of the Falte-
rona. I started towards midnight in
order to arrive before sunrise. I said
to myself. How many times the poet,
whose footprints I am following, has
wandered in these mountains ! It was
by these little alpine paths that he
came and went, on his way to friends
in Romagna or friends in Urbino, his
Pui^gatorio xir.
283
heart agitated with a hope that was
never to be fulfilled. I figured to my-
self Dante walking with a guide under
the light of the stars, receiving all
the impressions produced by wild and
weather-beaten regions, steep roads,
deep valleys, and the accidents of a
long and difficult route, impressions
which he would transfer to his poem.
It is enough to have read this poem to
be certain that its author has travelled
much, has wandered much. Dante
really walks with Virgil. He fatigues
himself with climbing, he stops to take
breath, he uses his hands when feet are
insufficient. He gets lost, and asks the
way. He observes the height of the
sun and stars. In a word, one finds the
habits and souvenirs of the traveller in
every verse, or rather at every step of
his poetic pilgrimage.
" Dante has certainly climbed the
top of the Falterona. It is upon this
summit, from which all the Valley
of the Arno is embraced, that one
should read the singular imprecation
which the poet has uttered against this
whole valley. He follows the course
of the river, and as he advances marks
every place he comes to with fierce in-
vective. The farther he goes, the
more his hate redoubles in violence
and bitterness. It is a piece of topo-
graphical satire, of which I know no
other example."
32. The Apennines, whose long
chain ends in Calabria, opposite Cape
Peloro in Sicily. jEneid, III. 410,
Davidson's Tr. : —
" But when, after setting out, the
wind shall waft you to the Sicilian
coast, and the straits of narrow Pelorus
shall open wider to the eye, veer to
the land on the left, and to the sea on
the left, by a long circuit; fly the right
both sea and shore. These lands, they
say, once with violence and vast deso-
lation convulsed, (such revolutions a
long course of time is able to produce,)
slipped asunder ; when in continuity
both lands were one, the sea rushed
impetuously between, and by its waves
tore the Italian side from that of Sicily;
and with a narrow frith runs between
the fields and cities separated by the
shores. Scylla guards the right side,
implacable Charybdis the left, and
thrice with the deepest eddies of its
gulf swallows up the vast billows,
headlong in, and again spouts them out
by turns high into the air, and lashes
the stars with the waves."
And Lucan, Phars., II. : —
" And still we see on fair Sicilians sands
Where part of Apennine Pelorus stands."
And Shelley, Ode to Liberty : —
" O'er the lit waves every ^olian isle
From Pithecusa to Pelorus
Howls, and leaps, and glares in chorus."
40. When Dante wrote this invec-
tive against the inhabitants of the Val
d' Arno, he probably had in mind the
following passage of Boethius, Cons.
Phil., IV. Pros. 3, Ridpath's Tr. : —
** Hence it again follows, that every-
thing which strays from what is good
ceases to be ; the wicked therefore
must cease to be what they were ; but
that they were formerly men, their
human shape, which still remains, tes-
284
Notes
tifies. By degenerating into wicked-
ness, then, they must cease to be men.
But as virtue alone can exalt a man
above what is human, so it is on the
contrary evident, that vice, as it divests
him of his nature, must sink him below
humanity ; you ought therefore by
no means to consider him as a man
whom vice has rendered vicious. Tell
me. What difference is there betwixt a
wolf who lives by rapine, and a robber
whom the desire of another's wealth
stimulates to commit all manner of
violence? Is there anything that bears
a stronger resemblance to a wrathful
dog who barks at passengers, than a
man whose dangerous tongue attacks all
the world ? What is liker to a fox
than a cheat, who spreads his snares in
secret to undermine and ruin you ? to
a lion, than a furious man who is al-
ways ready to devour you ? to a deer,
than a coward who is afraid of his own
shadow ? to an ass, than a mortal who
is slow, dull, and indolent ? to the
birds of the air, than a man volatile
and inconstant ? and what, in fine, is
a debauchee who is immersed in the
lowest sensual gratifications, but a hog
who wallows in the mire ? Upon the
whole, it is an unquestionable truth
that a man who forsakes virtue ceases
to be a man ; and, as it is impossible
that he can ascend in the scale of
beings, he must of necessity degenerate
and sink into a beast."
43. The people of Casentino. For-
syth, Ital^, p. I 26 : —
" On returning down to the Casen-
tine, we could trace along the Arno
the mischief which followed a late at-
tempt to clear some Apennines of their
woods. Most of the soil, which was
then loosened from the roots and wash-
ed down by the torrents, lodged in this
plain ; and left immense beds of sand
and large rolling stones on the very
spot where Dante describes
* Li ruscclletti che de' verdi colli
Del Casentin discendon giuso in Arno,
Facendo i lor canali e freddi e molli.'
" I was surprised to find so large a
town as Bibbiena in a country devoid of
manufactures, remote from public roads,
and even deserted by its landholders ;
for the Niccolini and Vecchietti, who
possess most of this district, prefer the
obscurer pleasures of Florence to their
palaces and pre-eminence here. The
only commodity which the Casentines
trade in is pork. Signore Baglione, a
gentleman at whose house I slept here,
ascribed the superior flavor of their
hams, which are esteemed the best in
Italy and require no cooking, to the
dryness of the air, the absence of stag-
nant water, and the quantity of chest-
nuts given to their hogs. Bibbiena has
been long renowned for its chestnuts,
which the peasants dry in a kiln, grind
into a sweet flour, and then convert
into bread, cakes, and polenta.'"''
46. The people of Arezzo. For-
syth, Italy, p. 128 : —
" The Casentines were no favorites
with Dante, who confounds the men
with their hogs. Yet, following the
divine poet down the Arno, we came
to a race still more forbidding. The
Aretine peasants seem to inherit the
Purgatorio xiv.
28s
coarse, surly visages of their ancestors,
whom he styles Bottoli. Meeting one
girl, who appeared more cheerful than
her neighbors, we asked her how far it
was from Arezzo, and received for an-
swer, *^anto c'e.'
*• The valley widened as we ad-
vanced, and when Arezzo appeared,
the river left us abruptly, wheeling off
from its environs at a sharp angle,
which Dante converts into a snout,
and points disdainfully against the cur-
rish race
" On entering the Val di Chiana,
we passed through a peasantry more
civil and industrious than their Aretine
neighbors. One poor girl, unlike the
last whom we accosted, was driving a
laden ass, bearing a billet of wood on
her head, spinning with the rocca, and
singing as she went on. Others were
returning with their sickles from the
fields which they had reaped in the
Maremma, to their own harvest on the
hills. That contrast which struck me
in the manners of two cantons so near
as Cortona to Arezzo, can only be a
vestige of their ancient rivality while
separate republics. Men naturally dis-
like the very virtues of their enemies,
and affect qualities as remote from theirs
as they can well defend."
50. The Florentines.
53. The Pisans.
57. At the close of these vitupera-
tions, perhaps to soften the sarcasm by
making it more general, Benvenuto ap-
pends this note : " What Dante says
of the inhabitants of the Val d' Arno
might be said of the greater part of the
Italians, nay, of the world. Dante, be-
ing once asked why he had put more
Christians than Gentiles into Hell,
replied, * Because I have known the
Christians better.' "
58. Messer Fulcieri da Calboli of
Forli, nephew of Rinieri. He was
Podesta of Florence in 1302, and, be-
ing bribed by the Neri, had many of
the Bianchi put to death.
64. Florence, the habitation of these
wolves, left so stripped by Fulcieri, on
his retiring from office, that it will
be long in recovering its former pros-
perity.
81. Guido del Duca of Brettinoro,
near Forli, in Romagna ; nothing re-
mains but the name. He and his com-
panion Rinieri were " gentlemen of
worth, if they had not been burned up
with envy."
87. On worldly goods, where selfish-
ness excludes others ; in contrast with
the spiritual, which increase by being
shared. See Canto XV. 45.
88. Rinieri da Calboli. " He was
very famous," says the Ottimo, and his-
tory says no more. In the Cento No-
velle Antiche, Nov. 44, Roscoe's Tr.,
he figures thus : —
" A certain knight was one day en-
treating a lady whom he loved to smile
upon his wishes, and among other deli-
cate arguments which he pressed upon
her was that of his own superior
wealth, elegance, and accomplishments,
especially when compared with the
merits of her own liege-lord, * whose
extreme ugliness, madam,' he contin-
ued, * I think I need not insist upon.'
286
Notes
Her husband, who overheard this com-
pliment from the place of his conceal-
ment, immediately replied, ♦ Pray, sir,
mend your own manners, and do not
vilify other people.' The name of the
plain gentleman was Lizio di Valbona,
and Messer Rinieri da Calvoli that of
the other.
92. In Romagna, which is bounded
by the Po, the Apennines, the Adriat-
ic, and the river Reno, that passes near
Bologna.
93. For study and pleasure.
97, Of Lizio and Manardi the Ot-
tirno says : " Messer Lizio di Valbona,
a courteous gentleman, in order to give
a dinner at Forli, sold half his silken
bedquilt for sixty florins. Arrigo Ma-
nardi was of Brettinoro; he was a gen-
tleman full of courtesy and honor, was
fond of entertaining guests, made pres-
ents of robes and horses, loved honor-
able men, and all his life was devoted
to largess and good living."
The marriage of Riccardo Manardi
with Lizio's daughter Caterina is the
subject of one of the tales of the De-
camcrone, V. 4. Pietro Dante says, that,
when Lizio was told of the death of
his dissipated son, he replied, "It is
no news to me, he never was alive."
98. Of Pier Traversaro the Ottimo
says : " He was of Ravenna, a man of
most gentle blood"; and of Guido di
Carpigna : " He was of Montefeltro.
.... Most of the time he lived at
Brettinoro, and surpassed all others in
generosity, loved for the sake of loving,
and lived handsomely."
100. " This Messer Fabbro," says
the Ottimo, "was born of low parents,
and lived so generously that the author
(Dantej says there never was his like
in Bologna."
loi. The Ottimo again: "This
Messer Bernardino, son of Fosco, a
farmer, and of humble occupation, be-
came so excellent by his good works,
that he was an honor to Faenza ; and
he was named with praise, and the old
grandees were not ashamed to visit
him, to see his magnificence, and to
hear his pleasant jests."
104. Guido da Prata, from the vil-
lage of that name, between Faenza and
Forli, and Ugolin d' Azzo of Faenza,
according to the same authority, though
" of humble birth, rose to such great
honor, that, leaving their native places,
they associated with the noblemen be-
fore mentioned."
106. Frederick Tignoso was a gen-
tleman of Rimini, living in Brettinoro.
" A man of great mark," says Buti,
" with his band of friends." Accord-
ing to Benvenuto, " he had beautiful
blond hair, and was called tignoso (the
scurvy fellow) by way of antiphrase."
The Ottimo speaks of him as follows :
*' He avoided the city as much as pos-
sible, as a place hostile to gentlemen,
but when he was in it, he kept open
house."
107. Ancient and honorable fami-
lies of Ravenna. There is a story of
them in the Decamerone, Gxor.'V . Nov.
8, which is too long to quote. Upon
this tale is founded Dryden's poem of
Theodore and Honoria.
1 09. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, I. i : —
Ptirgatorio xiv.
287
"The dames, the cavaliers, the arms, the loves,
The courtesies, the daring deeds I sing."
1 12. Brettinoro, now Bertinoro, is a
small town in Romagna, between Forli
and Cesena, in which lived many of
the families that have just been men-
tioned. The hills about it are still
celebrated for their wines, as its in-
habitants were in old times for their
hospitality. The following anecdote
is told of them by the Ottimo, and also
in nearly the same words in the Cento
Novelle Antiche, Nov. 8g : —
" Among other laudable customs of
the nobles of Brettinoro was that of
hospitality, and their not permitting
any man in the town to keep an inn
for money. But there was a stone
column in the middle of the town,"
(upon which were rings or knockers.
Ho if all the front-doors were there rep-
resented,) "and to this, as soon as a
stranger made his appearance, he was
conducted, and to one of the rings
hitched his horse or hung his hat upon
it; and thus, as chance decreed, he was
taken to the house of the gentleman to
whom the ring belonged, and honored
according to his rank. This column
and its rings were invented to remove
all cause of quarrel among the noble-
men, who used to run to get possession
of a stranger, as now-a-days they al-
most run away from him."
115. Towns in Romagna. " Bag-
nacavallo, and Castrocaro, and Co-
nio," says the Ottimo, " were all habi-
tations of courtesy and honor. Now
in Bagnacavallo the Counts are extinct;
and he (Dante) says it does well to
produce no more of them because they
had degenerated like those of Conio
and Castrocaro.
118. The Pagani were Lords of
Faenza and Imola. The head of the
family, Mainardo, was surnamed "the
Devil." — See Inf. XXVII. Note 49.
His bad repute will always be a re-
proach to the family.
121. A nobleman of Faenza, who
died without heirs, and thus his name
was safe.
132. Milton, Comus: —
" Of calling shapes and beckoning shadows
dire,
And airy tongues that syllable men's names."
These voices in the air proclaim ex-
amples of envy.
133. Genesis iv. 13, 14: "And Cain
said unto the Lord, Every one
that findeth me shall slay me."
139. Aglauros through envy op-
posed the interview of Mercury with
her sister Herse, and was changed by
the god into stone. Ovid, Meta?norph.,
I., Addison's Tr. : —
" ' Then keep thy seat forever,' cries the god,
And touched the door, wide opening to his
rod.
Fain would she rise and stop him, but she
found
Her trunk too heavy to forsake the ground ;
Her joints are all benumbed, her hands are
pale,
And marble now appears in every nail.
As when a cancer in the body feeds,
And gradual death from limb to limb pro-
ceeds.
So does the chillness to each vital part
Spread by degrees, and creeps into her heart;
Till hardening everywhere, and speechless
grown,
288
Notes
She sits unmoved, and freezes to a stone.
But still her envious hue and sullen mien
Are in the sedentary figure seen."
147. The falconer's call or lure,
which he whirls round in the air to
attract the falcon on the wing.
148. Ovid, Metamorph., L, Dry-
den's Tr. : —
"Thus, while the mute creation downward bend
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend,
Man looks aloft ; and with erected eyes
Beholds his own hereditary skies."
150. Beaumont and Fletcher, The
Laws of Candy, IV. 1 : —
" Seldom despairing men »ook up to heaven,
Although it still speak to 'cm in its glories ;
For when sad thoughts perplex the mind of
man.
There is a plummet in the heart that weighs
And pulls us, living, to the dust we came
from."
CANTO XV.
I. In this canto is described the
ascent to the Third Circle of the
mountain. The hour indicated by the
peculiarly Dantesque introduction is
three hours before sunset, or the be-
ginning of that division of the canoni-
cal day called Vespers. Dante states
this simple fact with curious circum-
locution, as if he would imitate the
celestial sphere in this scherzoso move-
ment. The beginning of the day is
sunrise ; consequently the end of the
third hour, three hours after sunrise,
is represented by an arc of the celestial
sphere measuring forty-five degrees.
The sun had still an equal space to
pass over before his setting. This
would make it afternoon in Purgatory,
and midnight in Tuscany, where Dante
was writing the poem.
20. From a perpendicular.
38. Matthew v. 7 : " Blessed are
the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy"; — sung by the spirits that
remained behind. See Canto XII.
Note no.
39. Perhaps an allusion to " what
the Spirit saith unto the churches,"
Revelation ii. 7 : " To him that over-
cometh will I give to eat of the tree
of life, which is in the midst of the
paradise of God." And also the "hid-
den manna," and the " morning star,"
and the "white raiment," and the name
not blotted "out of the book of life."
55. Milton, Par. Lost, V. 71 ; —
" Since good the more
Communicated, more abundant grows."
67. Convito, IV. 20 : " According
to the Apostle, ' Every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, and
Cometh down from the Father of
lights.' He says then that God only
giveth this grace to the soul of him
whom- he sees to be prepared and
disposed in his person to receive this
divine act Whence if the soul is
imperfectly placed, it is not disposed
Purgatorto xv.
289
to receive this blessed and divine infu-
sion ; as when a pearl is badly dis-
posed, or is imperfect, it cannot receive
the celestial virtue, as the noble Gui-
do Guinizzelli says in an ode of his,
beginning,
'To noble heart love doth for shelter fly.'
The soul, then, may be ill placed in
the person through defect of tempera-
ment, or of time ; and in such a soul
this divine radiance never shines. And
of those whose souls are deprived of
this light it may be said that they are
like valleys turned toward the north,
or like subterranean caverns, where the
light of the sun never falls, unless re-
flected from some other place illumi-
nated by it."
The following are the first two stan-
zas of Guido's Ode : —
♦' To noble heart love doth for shelter fly,
As seeks the bird the forest's leafy shade ;
Love was not felt till noble heart beat
high,
Nor before love the noble heart was made ;
Soon as the sun's broad flame
Was formed, so soon the clear light filled
the air,
Yet was not till he came ;
So love springs up in noble breasts, and
there
Has its appointed space.
As heat in the bright flame finds its allotted
place.
" Kindles in noble heart the fire of love,
As hidden virtue in the precious stone ;
This virtue comes not from the stars above.
Till round it the ennobling sun has shone ;
But when his powerful blaze
Has drawn forth what was vile, the stars
impart
Strange virtue in their rays ;
VOL. II. 37
And thus when nature doth create the heart
Noble, and pure, and high,
Like virtue from the star, love comes from
woman's eye."
70. Far. XIV. 40 : —
" Its brightness is proportioned to the ardor,
The ardor to the vision, and the vision
Equals what grace it has above its merit."
89. Luke ii. 48 : ** And his mother
said unto him. Son, why hast thou thus
dealt with us ? behold, thy father and
I have sought thee sorrowing."
97. The contest between Neptune
and Minerva for the right of naming
Athens, in which Minerva carried the
day by the vote of the women. This
is one of the subjects which Minerva
wrought in her trial of skill with
Arachne. Ovid, Metamorph., VI. : —
'• Pallas in figures wrought the heavenly powers,
And Mars's hill among the Athenian towers.
On lofty thrones twice six celestials sate,
Jove in the midst, and held their warm debate ;
The subject weighty, and well known to fame,
From whom the city should receive its name.
Each god by proper features was expressed,
Jove with majestic mien excelled the rest.
His three-forked mace the dewy sea-god
shook.
And, looking sternly, smote the ragged rock;
When from the stone leapt forth a sprightly
steed.
And Neptune claims the city for the deed.
Herself she blazons, with a glittering spear.
And crested helm that veiled her braided hair.
With shield, and scaly breastplate, imple-
ments of war.
Struck with her pointed lance, the teeming
earth
Seemed to produce a new, surprising birth ;
When from the glebe the pledge of conquest
sprung,
A tree pale-green with fairest olives hung."
290
Notes
loi. Pisistratus.the tyrant ofAthcns,
who used his power so nobly as to
make the people forget the usurpation
by which he had attained it. Among
his good deeds was the collection and
preservation of the Homeric poems,
which but for him might have perished.
He was also the first to found a public
library in Athens. This anecdote is
told by Valerius Maximus, Fact, ac
Diet., VI. I.
io6. The stoning of Stephen. Acts
vii. 54: " They gnashed on him with
their teeth. But he, being full of the
Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into
heaven Then they cried out with
a loud voice, and stopped their ears,
and ran upon him with one accord, and
cast him out of the city, and stoned
him And he kneeled down, and
cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge ! And when
he had said this, he fell asleep."
1 17. He recognizes it to be a vision,
but not false, because it symbolized the
truth.
CANTO XVI
1. The Third Circle of Purgatory,
and the punishment of the Sin of
Pride.
2. Poor, or impoverished of its stars
by clouds. The same expression is
applied to the Arno, Canto XIV. 45,
to indicate its want of water.
19. In the Litany of the Saints : —
" Lamb of God, who takest away
the sins of the world, spare us, O
Lord.
" Lamb of God, who takest away
the sins of the world, graciously hear
us, O Lord.
" Lamb of God, who takest away
the sins of the world, have mercy on
us ! "
27. Still living the life temporal,
where time is measured by the calen-
dar.
46. Marco Lombardo was a Vene-
tian nobleman, a man of wit and learn-
ing and a friend of Dante. " Nearly
all that he gained," says the Ottimo,
"■ he spent in charity He visited
Paris, and, as long as his money lasted,
he was esteemed for his valor and
courtesy. Afterwards he depended
upon those richer than himself, and
lived and died honorably." There
are some anecdotes of him in the
Cento Novelle Antiche, Nov. 41, 52,
hardly worth quoting.
It is doubtful whether the name of
Lombardo is a family name, or only
indicates that Marco was an Italian,
after the fashion then prevalent among
the French of calling all Italians Lom-
bards. See Note i 24.
Benvenuto says of him that he "was
a man of noble mind, but disdainful,
and easily moved to anger."
Buti's portrait is as follows : " This
Marco was a Venetian, called Marco
Pitrgatorio xvl
291
Daca ; and was a very learned man,
and had many political virtues, and
was very courteous, giving to poor
noblemen all that he gained, and he
gained much ; for he was a courtier,
and was much beloved for his virtue,
and much was given him by the no-
bility ; and as he gave to those who
were in need, so he lent to all who
asked. So that, coming to die, and
having much still due to him, he made
a will, and among other bequests this,
that whoever owed him should not be
held to pay the debt, saying, * Who-
ever has, may keep.' "
Portarelli thinks that this Marco
may be Marco Polo the traveller ; but
this is inadmissible, as he was still
living at the time of Dante's death.
57. What Guido del Duca has told
him of the corruption of Italy, in Can-
to XIV.
64. Ovid, Metamorph.y X., Ozell's
Tr. : —
" The god upon its leaves
The sad expression of his sorrow weaves,
And to this hour the mournful purple wears
Ai.) aiy inscribed in funeral characters."
67. See the article Cabala, at the
end of Vol. III.
69. Boethius, Cons. PhiL,Y . Prosa 2,
Ridpath's Tr. : —
"*But in this indissoluble chain of
causes, can we preserve the liberty of
the will? Does this fatal Necessity re-
strain the motions of the human soul?'
— * There is no reasonable being,' re-
plied she, ' who has not freedom of
will : for every being distinguished
with this faculty is endowed with judg-
ment to perceive the differences of
things; to discover what he is to avoid
or pursue. Now what a person esteems
desirable, he desires ; but what he
thinks ought to be avoided, he shuns.
Thus every rational creature hath a
liberty of choosing and rejecting. But
I do riot assert that this liberty is equal
in all beings. Heavenly substances,
who are exalted above us, have an en-
lightened judgment, an incorruptible
will, and a power ever at command
effectually to accomplish their desires.
With regard to man, his immaterial
spirit is also free ; but it is most at
liberty when employed in the contem-
plation of the Divine mind; it becomes
less so when it enters into a body; and
is still more restrained when it is im-
prisoned in a terrestrial habitation,
composed of members of clay ; and is
reduced, in fine, to the most extreme
servitude when, by plunging into the
pollutions of vice, it totally departs
from reason : for the soul no sooner
turns her eye from the radiance of su-
preme truth to dark and base objects,
but she is involved in a mist of igno-
rance, assailed by impure desires ; by
yielding to which she increases her
thraldom, and thus the freedom which
she derives from nature becomes in
some measure the cause of her slavery.
But the eye of Providence, which sees
everything from eternity, perceives all
this ; and that same Providence dis-
poses everything she has predestinated,
in the order it deserves. As Homer
says of the sun. It sees everything and
hears everything.' "
292
Notes
Also Milton, Ptirad. Lost, II. 557: —
" Others apart sat on a hill retired,
In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will and fate,
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost."
See also Par. XVII. Note 40.
70. Boethius, Cons. PbiL,W . Prosa 3,
Ridpath's Tr. : —
" But I shall now endeavor to demon-
strate, that, in whatever way the chain
of causes is disposed, the event of
things which are foreseen is necessary ;
although prescience may not appear to
be the necessitating cause of their be-
falling. For example, if a person sits,
the opinion formed of him that he is
seated is of necessity true ; but by in-
verting the phrase, if the opinion is
true that he is seated, he must neces-
sarily sit. In both cases, then, there is
a necessity ; in the latter, that the per-
son sits ; in the former, that the opin-
ion concerning him is true : but the
person doth not sit, because the opin-
ion of his sitting is true, but the opin-
ion is rather true because the action
of his being seated was antecedent in
time. Thus, though the truth of the
opinion may be the effect of the person
taking a seat, there is, nevertheless, a
necessity common to both. The same
method of reasoning, I think, should be
employed with regard to the prescience
of God, and future contingencies ; for,
allowing it to be true that events are
foreseen because they are to happen,
and that they do not befall because
they are foreseen, it is still necessary
that what is to happen must be fore-
seen by Cod, and that what is foreseen
must take place. This then is of itself
sufficient to destroy all idea of human
liberty."
78. Ptolemy says, " The wise man
shall control the stars " ; and the Turk-
ish proverb, " Wit and a strong will
are superior to Fate."
79. Though free, you are subject to
the divine power which has immedi-
ately breathed into you the soul, and
the soul is not subject to the influence
of the stars, as the body is.
84. Shakespeare, Lear, V. 3 : —
" And take upon 's the mystery of things.
As if we were God's spies."
92. ConvitOjW . \z: "The supreme
desire of everything, and that first given
by nature, is to return to its source ;
and since God is the source of our
souls, and maker of them in his own
likeness, as is written, * Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness,'
to him this soul chiefly desireth to re-
turn. And like as a pilgrim, who goeth
upon a road on which he never was be-
fore, thinketh every house he seeth afar
off to be an inn, and, not finding it so,
directeth his trust to the next, and thus
from house to house until he reacheth
the inn; in like manner our soul, pres-
ently as she entereth the new and un-
travelled road of this life, turneth her
eyes to the goal of her supreme good;
and therefore whatever thing she seeth
that seemeth to have some good in it,
she believeth to be that. And because
her knowledge at first is imperfect,
not being experienced nor trained,
small goods seem great, and there-
Purgatorio xvi.
293
fore with them beginneth her desire.
Hence we see children desire exceed-
ingly an apple; and then, going farther,
desire a little bird; and farther still, a
beautiful dress; and then a horse; and
then a woman ; and then wealth not
very great, and then greater, and then
greater still. And this cometh to pass,
because she findeth not in any of these
things that which she is seeking, and
trusteth to find it farther on."
96. Henry Vaughan, Sacred Po-
ems : —
" They are indeed our pillar-fires,
Seen as we go ;
They are that city's shining spires
We travel to."
99. Leviticus xi. 4 : " The camel
because he cheweth the cud, but di-
videth not the hoof: he is unclean to
you." Dante applies these words to
the Pope as temporal sovereign.
loi. Worldly goods. As in the old
French satirical verses : — ■
" Au temps passe du siecle d'or,
Crosse de bois, eveque d'or;
Maintenant changent les lois,
Crosse d'or, eveque de bois."
107. The Emperor and the Pope ;
the temporal and spiritual power.
115. Lombardy and Romagna.
117. The dissension and war be-
tween the Emperor Frederick the Sec-
ond and Pope Gregory the Ninth.
Milman, Hist. Lat. Christ., Book X.
Ch. 3, says : —
" The Empire and the Papacy were
now to meet in their last mortal and
implacable strife ; the two first acts of
this tremendous drama, separated by
an interval of many years, were to be
developed during the pontificate of a
prelate who ascended the throne of St.
Peter at the age of eighty. Nor was
this strife for any specific point in dis-
pute, like the right of investiture, but
avowedly for supremacy on one side,
which hardly deigned to call itself in-
dependence ; for independence, on the
other, which remotely at least aspired
after supremacy. Caesar would bear
no superior, the successor of St. Peter
no equal. The contest could not have
begun under men more strongly con-
trasted, or more determinedly oppug-
nant in character, than Gregory the
Ninth and Frederick the Second. Greg-
ory retained the ambition, the vigor,
almost the activity of youth, with the
stubborn obstinacy, and something of
the irritable petulance, of old age. He
was still master of all his powerful fac-
ulties ; his knowledge of affairs, of
mankind, of the peculiar interests of
almost all the nations in Christendom,
acquired by long employment in the
most important negotiations both by
Innocent the Third and by Honorius
the Third ; eloquence which his own
age compared to that of Tully ; pro-
found erudition in that learning which,
in the mediaeval churchman, com-
manded the highest admiration. No
one was his superior in the science
of the canon law ; the Decretals, to
which he afterwards gave a more full
and authoritative form, were at his
command, and they were to him as
much the law of God as the Gospels
themselves, or the primary principles
294
Notes
of morality. The jealous reverence
and attachment of a great lawyer to
his science strengthened the lofty pre-
tensions of the churchman.
" Frederick the Second, with many
of the noblest qualities which could
captivate the admiration of his own
age, in some respects might appear
misplaced, and by many centuries
prematurely born. Frederick having
crowded into his youth adventures,
perils, successes, almost unparalleled in
history, was now only expanding into
the prime of manhood. A parentless
orphan, he had struggled upward into
the actual reigning monarch of his
hereditary Sicily ; he was even then
rising above the yoke of the turbulent
magnates of his realm, and the depress-
ing tutelage of the Papal See ; he had
crossed the Alps a boyish adventurer,
and won so much through his own
valor and daring that he might well
ascribe to himself his conquest, the
kingdom of Germany, the imperial
crown ; he was in undisputed posses-
sion of the Empire, with all its rights
in Northern Italy ; King of Apulia,
Sicily, and Jerusalem. He was be-
ginning to be at once the Magnificent
Sovereign, the knight, the poet, the
lawgiver, the patron of arts, letters,
and science ; the Magnificent Sovereign,
now holding his court in one of the
old barbaric and feudal cities of Ger-
many among the proud and turbulent
princes of the Empire, more often on
the sunny shores of Naples or Palermo,
in southern and almost Oriental luxury;
the gallant Knight and troubadour Poet,
not forbidding himself those amorous
indulgences which were the reward of
chivalrous valor and of the * gay sci-
ence '; the Lawgiver, whose far-seeing
wisdom seemed to anticipate some of
those views of equal justice, of the ad-
vantages of commerce, of the cultiva-
tion of the arts of peace, beyond all the
toleration of adverse religions, which
even in a more dutiful son of the
Church would doubtless have seemed
godless indifference. Frederick must
appear before us in the course of our
history in the full development of all
these shades of character ; but besides
all this, Frederick's views of the tem-
poral sovereignty were as imperious and
autocratic as those of the haughtiest
churchman of the spiritual supremacy.
The ban of the Empire ought to be
at least equally awful with that of the
Church ; disloyalty to the Emperor
was as heinous a sin as infidelity to the
head of Christendom ; the indepen-
dence of the Lombard republics was as
a great and punishable political heresy.
Even in Rome itself, as head of the
Roman Empire, Frederick aspired to
a supremacy which was not less un-
limited because vague and undefined,
and irreconcilable with that of the Su-
preme Pontiff. If ever Emperor might
be tempted by the vision of a vast
hereditary monarchy to be perpetuated
in his house, the princely house of
Hohenstaufen, it was Frederick. He
had heirs of his greatness ; his eldest
son was King of the Romans ; from
his loins might yet spring an inexhaust-
ible race of princes ; the failure of his
Purgatorio xri.
295
imperial line was his last fear. The
character of the man seemed formed to
achieve and to maintain this vast de-
sign ; he was at once terrible and pop-
ular, courteous, generous, placable to
his foes ; yet there was a depth of
cruelty in* the heart of Frederick to-
wards revolted subjects, which made
him look on the atrocities of his
allies, Eccelin di Romano, and the
Salinguerras, but as legitimate means
to quell insolent and stubborn rebel-
lion
" It is impossible to conceive a con-
trast more strong or more irreconcila-
ble than the octogenarian Gregory, in
his cloister palace, in his conclave of
stern ascetics, with all but severe im-
prisonment within conventual walls,
completely monastic in manners, hab-
its, views, in corporate spirit, in celi-
bacy, in rigid seclusion from the rest
of mankind, in the conscientious deter-
mination to enslave, if possible, all
Christendom to its inviolable unity of
faith, and to the least possible latitude
of discipline ; and the gay and yet
youthful Frederick, with his mingled
assemblage of knights and ladies, of
Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans,
of poets and men of science, met, as it
were, to enjoy and minister to enjoy-
ment,— to cultivate the pure intellect,
— where, if not the restraints of relig-
ion, at least the awful authority of
churchmen was examined with free-
dom, sometimes ridiculed with sportive
wit."
See also Inf. X. Note 119.
124. Currado (Conrad) da Palazzo
of Brescia ; Gherardo da Camino of
Treviso ; and Guido da Castello of
Reggio. Of these three the Ottimo
thus speaks : —
" Messer Currado was laden with
honor during his life, delighted in a
fine retinue, and in political life in the
government of cities, in which he ac-
quired much praise and fame.
" Messer Guido was assiduous in
honoring men of worth, who passed
on their way to France, and furnished
many with horses and arms, who came
hitherward from France. To all who
had honorably consumed their prop-
erty, and returned more poorly fur-
nished than became them, he gave,
without hope of return, horses, arms,
and money.
" Messer Gherardo da Camino de-
lighted not in one, but in all noble
things, keeping constantly at home."
He farther says, that his fame was
so great in France that he was there
spoken of as the " simple Lombard,"
just as, " when one says the City, and
no more, one means Rome." Benvenu-
to da Imola says that all Italians were
called Lombards by the French. In
the Histoire et Cronique du petit Jehan
de Saintr'e, fol. 219, ch. iv., the author
remarks : " The fifteenth day after
Saintre's return, there came to Paris
two young, noble, and brave Italians,
whom we call Lombards."
132. Deuteronomy xv'm. 2: "There-
fore shall they have no inheritance
among their brethren : the Lord is
their inheritance, as he hath said unto
them."
296
Notes
140. "This Gherardo," says Buti,
" had a daughter, called, on account of
her beauty, Gaja ; and so modest and
virtuous was she, that through all Italy
was spread the fame of her beauty and
modesty."
The Ottimo, who preceded Buti in
point of time, gives a somewhat dif-
ferent and more equivocal account.
He says : " Madonna Gaia was the
daughter of Mcsscr Gherardo da Ca-
mino : she was a lady of such conduct
in amorous delectations, that her name
was notorious throughout all Italy ;
and therefore she is thus spoken of
here."
CANTO XVII.
1. The trance and vision of Dante,
and the ascent to the Fourth Circle,
where the sin of Sloth is punished.
2. Iliad, III. 10 : "As the south
wind spreads a mist upon the brow of
a mountain, by no means agreeable to
the shepherd, but to the robber better
than night, in which a man sees only
as far as he can cast a stone."
19. In this vision are represented
some of the direful effects of anger, be-
ginning with the murder of Itys by his
mother, Procne, and her sister, Philo-
mela. Ovid, VI. : —
" Now, at her lap arrived, the flattering boy
Salutes his parent with a smiling joy ;
About her neck his little arms are thrown,
And he accosts her in a prattling tone.
When Procne, on revengeful mischief bent.
Home to his heart a piercing poniard sent.
Itys, with rueful cries, but all too late,
Holds out his hands, and deprecates his fate;
Still at his mother's neck he fondly aims,
And strives to melt her with endearing names ;
Yet still the cruel mother perseveres,
Nor with concern his bitter anguish hears.
This might suffice ; but Philomela too
Across his throat a shining cutlass drew."
Or perhaps the reference is to the
Homeric legend of Philomela, Odyssey,
XIX. 518: "As when the daughter
of Pandarus, the swarthy nightingale,
sings beautifully when the spring new-
ly begins, sitting in the thick branches
of trees, and she, frequently changing,
pours forth her much-sounding voice,
lamenting her dear Itylus, whom once
she slew with the brass through igno-
rance."
25. Esther vii. 9, 10: "And Har-
bonah, one of the chamberlains, said
before the king. Behold also, the gal-
lows, fifty cubits high, which Haman
had made for Mordecai, who had spo-
ken good for the king, standeth in the
house of Haman. Then the king
said. Hang him thereon. So they
hanged Haman on the gallows that he
had prepared for Mordecai. Then
was the king's wrath pacified."
34. Lavinia, daughter of King Lati-
nus and Queen Amata, betrothed to
Turnus. Amata, thinking Turnus dead,
hanged herself in anger and despair.
jEneid, XII. 875, Dryden's Tr. : —
Purgatorio xriii.
297
"Mad with her anguish, impotent to bear
The mighty grief, she loathes the vital air.
She calls herself the cause of all this ill.
And owns the dire effects of her ungoverned
will;
She raves against the gods, she beats her
breast,
She tears with both her hands her purple
vest ;
Then round a beam a running noose she tied,
And, fastened by the neck, obscenely died.
" Soon as the fatal news by fame was blown.
And to her dames and to her daughters known,
The sad Lavinia rends her yellow hair
And rosy cheeks; the rest her sorrow share;
With shrieks the palace rings, and madness
of despair."
53. See Par. V. 134 : —
" Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself
By too much light."
And Milton, Parad. Lost, III. 380: —
" Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear."
68. Matthew v. 9 : " Blessed are
the peacemakers : for they shall be
called the children of God."
85. Sloth. See Inf. VII. Note 115.
And Brunetto Latini, Tesoretto, XXI.
145: —
" In ira nasce e posa
Accidia niquitosa."
97. The first, the object ; the sec-
ond, too much or too little vigor.
124. The sins of Pride, Envy, and
Anger. The other is Sloth, or luke-
warmness in well-doing, punished in
this circle.
136. The sins of Avarice, Gluttony,
and Lust.
CANTO XVIII.
I. The punishment of the sin of
Sloth.
27. Bound or taken captive by the
image of pleasure presented to it. See
Canto XVII. 91.
22. Milton, Parad. Lost,Y. 100: —
" But know that in the soul
Are many lesser faculties, that serve
Reason as chief; among these Fancy next
Her office holds ; of all external things.
Which the five watchful senses represent,
She forms imaginations, aery shapes.
Which Reason joining or disjoining frames
All what we affirm or what deny, and call
Our knowledge or opinion ; then retires
Into her private cell, when Nature rests."
30. The region of Fire. Brunetto
VOL. II. 38
Latini, Trcsor, Ch. CVIIL: "After the
zone of the air is placed the fourth
element. This is an orb of fire with-
out any moisture, which extends as far
as the moon, and surrounds this atmos-
phere in which we are. And know
that above the fire is first the moon,
and the other stars, which are all of
the nature of fire."
44. If the soul follows the appetitus
naturalis, or goes not with another foot
than that of nature.
49. In the language of the Scholas-
tics, Form was the passing from the
potential to the actual. "Whatever is
Act," says Thomas Aquinas, Summa
298
Notes
ThcoL, Quasst. lxvi. Art. i, "what-
ever is Act is Form ; quod est actus est
forma" And again Form was divided
into Substantial Form, which caused a
thing to be ; and Accidental Form,
which caused it to be in a certain way,
** as heat makes its subject not simply
to be, but to be hot."
" The soul," says the same Angelic
Doctor, Quaest. lxxvi. Art. 4, *' is
the substantial form of man ; antma est
forma substantialis hominis." It is seg-
regate or distinct from matter, though
united with it.
61. "This" refers to the power
that counsels, or the faculty of Rea-
son.
66. Accepts, or rejects like chaff.
73. Dante makes Beatrice say. Par.
V. 19: —
*' The greatest gift that in his largess God
Creating made, and unto his own goodness
Nearest conformed, and that which he doth
prize
Most highly, is the freedom of the will,
Wherewith the creatures of intelligence
Both all and only were and are endowed."
76. Near midnight of the Second
Day of Purgatory.
80. The moon was rising in the
sign of the Scorpion, it being now five
days after the full ; and when the sun
is in this sign, it is seen by the in-
habitants of Rome to set between the
islands of Corsica and Sardinia.
83. Virgil, born at Pietola, near
Mantua.
84. The burden of Dante's doubts
and questions, laid upon Virgil.
91. Rivers of Boeotia, on whose
banks the Thcbans crowded at night
to invoke the aid of Bacchus to give
them rain for their vineyards.
94. The word falcare, in French
fauchcr, here translated " curve," is a
term of equitation, describing the mo-
tion of the outer fore-leg of a horse in
going round in a circle. It is the
sweep of a mower's scythe.
100. Luke i. 39: "And Mary arose
in those days and went into the hill-
country with haste."
loi. Caesar on his way to subdue
Ilerda, now Lerida, in Spain, besieged
Marseilles, leaving there part of his
army under Brutus to complete the
work.
1 18. Nothing is known of this Ab-
bot, not even his name. Finding him
here, the commentators make bold to
say that he was " slothful and deficient
in good deeds." This is like some of
the definitions in the Crusca, which,
instead of the interpretation of a Dan-
tesque word, give you back the passage
in which it occurs.
119. This is the famous Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa, who, according
to the German popular tradition, is
still sitting in a cave in the Kipphaiiser
mountains, waiting for something to
happen, while his beard has grown
through the stone-table before him.
In 1 162 he burned and devastated Mi-
lan, Brescia, Piacenza, and Cremona.
He was drowned in the Salef in Ar-
menia, on his crusade in 11 90, en-
deavoring to ford the river on horse-
back in his impatience to cross. His
character is thus drawn by Milman,
Ptirgatorio xix.
299
Lat. Christ. y Book VIII. Ch. 7, and
sufficiently explains why Dante calls
him " the good Barbarossa " : —
" Frederick was a prince of intrepid
valor, consummate prudence, unmeas-
ured ambition, justice which hardened
into severity, the ferocity of a barba-
rian somewhat tempered with a high
chivalrous gallantry ; above all, with a
strength of character which subjugated
alike the great temporal and ecclesiasti-
cal princes of Germany ; and was pre-
pared to assert the Imperial rights in
Italy to the utmost. Of the constitu-
tional rights of the Emperor, of his
unlimited supremacy, his absolute in-
dependence of, his temporal superiority
over, all other powers, even that of the
Pope, Frederick proclaimed the loftiest
notions. He was to the Empire what
Hildebrand and Innocent were to the
Popedom. His power was of God
alone; to assert that it was bestowed
by the successor of St. Peter was a lie,
and directly contrary to the doctrine of
St. Peter."
121. Alberto della Scala, Lord of
Verona. He made his natural son,
whose qualifications for the office
Dante here enumerates, and the com-
mentators repeat. Abbot of the Mo-
nastery of San Zeno.
132. See Inf. VII. Note 115.
135. Numbers xxxii. 11, 12: "Sure-
ly none of the men that came out of
Egypt, from twenty years old and up-
ward, shall see the land which I sware
unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob ; because they have not wholly
followed me : save Caleb the son of
Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua
the son of Nun ; for they have wholly
followed the Lord."
137. The Trojans who remained
with Acestes in Sicily, instead of fol-
lowing i^neas to Italy. jEneid, V. :
" They enroll the matrons for the
city, and set on shore as many of the
people as were willing, — souls that
had no desire of high renown."
145. The end of the Second Day.
CANTO XIX.
I. The ascent to the Fifth Circle,
where Avarice is punished. It is the
dawn of the Third Day.
3. Brunetto Latini, Tresor, Ch. CXI.
** Saturn, who is sovereign over all, is
cruel and malign and of a cold na-
ture."
4. 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 is thus
drawn : —
* *
*
and which by an effort of imagination
,oo
Notes
can also be formed out of some of the
last stars of Aquarius, and some of the
first of Pisces.
Chaucer, Trail, and Cres., III.
1415: —
" But whan the cocke, commune astrologer,
Gan on his brest to bete and after crowe,
And Lucifer, the dayes messanger,
Gan for to rise and out his hemes throwe,
And estward rose, to him that could it knowe,
Fortune Major. ^'
6. Because the sun is following close
behind.
7. This " stammering woman " of
Dante's dream is Sensual Pleasure,
which the imagination of the beholder
adorns with a thousand charms. The
" lady saintly and alert " is Reason,
the same that tied Ulysses to the mast,
and stopped the ears of his sailors with
wax that they might not hear the song
of the Sirens.
Gower, Conf. Amant., I. : —
" Of such nature
They ben, that with so swete a Steven
Like to the melodic of heven
In womannishe vois they singe
"With notes of so great likinge,
Of suche mesure, of suche musike,
Wherof the shippes they beswike
That passen by the costes there.
For whan the shipmen lay an ere
Unto the vois, in here airs
They wene it be a paradis,
Which after is to hem an helle."
51. "That is," says Buti, "they
shall have the gift of comforting their
souls."
Matthew v. 4 : " Blessed are they
that mourn : for they shall be com-
forted."
59. The three remaining sins to be
purged away are Avarice, Gluttony,
and Lust.
61. See Canto XIV. 148.
73. Psalms cxix. 25 : " My soul
cleaveth unto the dust : quicken thou
me according to thy word."
99. Know that I am the successor
of Peter. It is Pope Adrian the Fifth
who speaks. He was of the family of
the Counts of Lavagna, the family tak-
ing its title from the river Lavagna,
flowing between Siestri and Chiaveri,
towns on the Riviera di Genova. He
was Pope only thirty-nine days, and
died in 1276. When his kindred came
to congratulate him on his election, he
said, *' Would that ye came to a Car-
dinal in good health, and not to a dying
Pope."
134. Revelation xix. 10: "And I fell
at his feet to worship him. And he
said unto me. See thou do it not, I am
thy fellow-servant."
137. Matthew xxii. 30: "For in
the resurrection they neither marry,
nor are given in marriage, but are as
the angels in heaven." He reminds
Dante that here all earthly distinc-
tions and relations are laid aside.
He is no longer "the Spouse of the
Church."
141. Penitence; line 92 : —
" In whom weeping ripens
That without which to God we cannot turn."
142. Madonna Alagia was the wife
of Marcello Malespini, that friend of
Dante with whom, during his wan-
derings he took refuge in the Luni-
giana, in 1307.
Ptirgatorio xx.
,oi
CANTO XX.
1. In this canto the subject of the
preceding is continued, namely, the
punishment of Avarice and Prodigality.
2. To please the speaker. Pope
Adrian the Fifth, (who. Canto XIX.
139, says,
" Now go, no longer will I have thee linger,")
Dante departs without further question,
though not yet satisfied.
13. See the article Cabala at the end
of Vol. III.
15. This is generally supposed to
refer to Can Grande della Scala. See
Inf. I, Note 1 01.
23. The inn at Bethlehem.
25. The Roman Consul who re-
jected with disdain the bribes of Pyr-
rhus, and died so poor that he was
buried at the public expense, and the
Romans were obliged to give a dowry
to his daughters. Virgil, jEneid, VI.
844, calls him " powerful in poverty."
Dante also extols him in the Convito,
IV. 5.
3 1 . Gower, Conf. Amant., V. 13: —
" Betwene the two extremites
Of vice stont the propertes
Of vertue, and to prove it so
Take avarice and take also
The vice of prodegalite,
Betwene hem liberalite,
Which is the vertue of largesse
Stant and governeth his noblesse."
32. This is St. Nicholas, patron
saint of children, sailors, and travellers.
The incident here alluded to is found
in the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de
Voragine, the great storehouse of me-
dieval wonders.
It may be found also in Mrs. Jame-
son's Sacred and Legendary Art, II. 62,
and in her version runs thus : —
" Now in that city there dwelt
a certain nobleman who had three
daughters, and, from being rich, he
became poor ; so poor that there
remained no means of obtaining food
for his daughters but by sacrificing
them to an infamous life ; and often-
times it came into his mind to tell
them so, but shame and sorrow held
him dumb. Meantime the maidens
wept continually, not knowing what
to do, and not having bread to eat ;
and their father became more and
more desperate. When Nicholas heard
of this, he thought it a shame that such
a thing should happen in a Christian
land ; therefore one night, when the
maidens were asleep, and their father
alone sat watching and weeping, he
took a handful of gold, and, tying it
up in a handkerchief, he repaired to
the dwelling of the poor man. He
considered how he might bestow it
without making himself known, and,
while he stood irresolute, the moon
coming from behind a cloud showed
him a window open ; so he threw it
in, and it fell at the feet of the fa-
ther, who, when he found it, re-
turned thanks, and with it he portioned
his eldest daughter. A second time
Nicholas provided a similar sum, and
302
Notes
again he threw it in by night ; and
with it the nobleman married his sec-
ond daughter. But he greatly desired
to know who it was that came to his
aid; therefore he determined to watch,
and when the good saint came for the
third time, and prepared to throw in
the third portion, he was discovered,
for the nobleman seized him by the
skirt of his robe, and flung himself at
his feet, saying, * O Nicholas ! servant
of God ! why seek to hide thyself? '
and he kissed his feet and his hands.
But Nicholas made him promise that
he would tell no man. And many
other charitable works did Nicholas
perform in his native city."
43. If we knew from what old
chronicle, or from what Professor of
the Rue du Fouarre, Dante derived
his knowledge of French history, we
might possibly make plain the rather
difficult passage which begins with this
line. The spirit that speaks is not
that of the King Hugh Capet, but that
of his father, Hugh Capet, Duke of
France and Count of Paris. He was
son of Robert the Strong. Pasquier,
Rech. de la France, VI. i, describes
him as both valiant and prudent, and
says that, " although he was never
king, yet was he a maker and unmaker
of kings," and then goes on to draw
an elaborate parallel between him and
Charles Martel.
The ''malignant plant" is Philip
the Fair, whose character is thus
drawn by Milman, Lat. Christ., Book
XI. Ch. 8: —
" In Philip the Fair the gallantry
of the French temperament broke out
on rare occasions ; his first Flemish
campaigns were conducted with brav-
ery and skill, but Philip ever preferred
the subtle negotiation, the slow and
wily encroachment ; till his enemies
were, if not in his power, at least at
great disadvantage, he did not venture
on the usurpation or invasion. In the
slow systematic pursuit of his object he
was utterly without scruple, without
remorse. He was not so much cruel
as altogether obtuse to human suffer-
ing, if necessary to the prosecution of
his schemes; not so much rapacisus as,
finding money indispensable to his ag-
grandizement, seeking money by means
of which he hardly seemed to discern
the injustice or the folly. Never was
man or monarch so intensely selfish as
Philip the Fair : his own power was
his ultimate scope ; he extended so
enormously the royal prerogative, the
influence of France, because he was
King of France. His rapacity, which
persecuted the Templars, his vindic-
tiveness, which warred on Boniface af-
ter death as through life, was this self-
ishness in other forms."
He was defeated at the battle of
Courtray, 1302, known in history as
the battle of the Spurs of Gold, from
the great number found on the field
after the battle. This is the vengeance
imprecated upon him by Dante.
50. For two centuries and a half,
that is, from 1060 to 13 16, there was
either a Louis or a Philip on the
throne of France. The succession was
as follows : —
p
tirgatorio xx.
303
Philip I. the Amorous, 1060
Louis VI. the Fat, 1108
Louis VIL the Young, 11 37
Philip IL Augustus, 1 1 80
Louis Vin. the Lion, 1223
Louis IX. the Saint, 1226
Philip III. the Bold, 1270
Philip IV. the Fair, 1285
Louis X., 13 14
52. It is doubtful whether this pas-
sage is to be taken literally or figura-
tively. Pasquier, Rech. de la France,
Liv. VI. Ch. I (thinking it is the
King Hugh Capet that speaks), breaks
forth in indignant protest as fol-
lows : —
" From this you can perceive the
fatality there was in this family from
its beginning to its end, to the disad-
vantage of the Carlovingians. And
moreover, how ignorant the Italian
poet Dante was, when in his book
entitled Purgatory he says that our
Hugh Capet was the son of a butcher.
Which word, once written erroneously
and carelessly by him, has so crept
into the heads of some simpletons,
that many who never investigated the
antiquities of our France have fallen
into this same heresy. Francois de
Villon, more studious of taverns and
ale-houses than of good books, says in
some part of his works,
' Si feusse les hoirs de Capet
Qui fut extrait de boucherie."
And since then Agrippa Alamanni, in
his book on the Vanity of Science,
chapter Of Nobility, on this first igno-
rance declares impudently against the
genealogy of our Capet. If Dante
thought that Hugh the Great, Capet's
father, was a butcher, he was not a
clever man. But if he used this ex-
pression figuratively, as I am willing
to believe, those who cling to the
shell of the word are greater block-
heads still
** This passage of Dante being read
and explained by Luigi Alamanni, an
Italian, before Francis the First of that
name, he was indignant at the impos-
ture, and commanded it to be stricken
out. He was even excited to inter-
dict the reading of the book in his
kingdom. But for my part, in order
to exculpate this author, I wish to say
that under the name of Butcher he
meant that Capet was son of a great and
valiant warrior If Dante under-
stood it thus, I forgive him ; if other-
wise, he was a very ignorant poet."
Benvenuto says that the name of
Capet comes from the fact that Hugh,
in playing with his companions in boy-
hood, " was in the habit of pulling
off their caps and running away with
them." Ducange repeats this story
from an old chronicle, and gives also
another and more probable origin of
the name, as coming from the hood or
cowl which Hugh was in the habit of
wearing.
The belief that the family descended
from a butcher was current in Italy in
Dante's time. Villani, IV. 3, says :
" Most people say that the father was
a great and rich burgher of Paris, of a
race of butchers or dealers in cattle."
53. When the Carlovingian race
were all dead but one. And who was
.04
Notes
he ? The Ottimo says it was Rudolph,
who became a monk and afterwards
Archbishop of Rhcims. Bcnvenuto
gives no name, but says only " a monk
in poor, coarse garments." Buti says
the same. Daniello thinks it was some
Friar of St. Francis, perhaps St. Louis,
forgetting that these saints did not see
the light till some two centuries after
the time here spoken of. Others say
Charles of Lorraine ; and Biagioli de-
cides that it must be either Charles the
Simple, who died a prisoner in the
castle of Peronne, in 922 ; or Louis of
Outre-Mer, who was carried to England
by Hugh the Great, in 936, The Man
in Cloth of Gray remains as great a
mystery as the Man in the Iron Mask.
59. Hugh Capet was crowned at
Rheims, in 987. The expression
which follows shows clearly that it is
Hugh the Great who speaks, and not
Hugh the founder of the Capetian dy-
nasty.
61. Until the shame of the low ori-
gin of the family was removed by the
marriage of Charles of Anjou, brother
of Saint Louis, to the daughter of Rai-
mond Berenger, who brought him Pro-
vence as her dower.
65. Making amends for one crime
by committing a greater. The partic-
ular transaction here alluded to is the
seizing by fraud and holding by force
these provinces in the time of Philip
the Fair.
67. Charles of Anjou.
68. Curradino, or Conradin, son of
the Emperor Conrad IV., a beautiful
youth of sixteen, who was beheaded
in the square of Naples by order of
Charles of Anjou, in 1268. Voltaire,
in his rhymed chronology at the end
of his Annales de P Empire, says,
" C'est en soixante-huit que la main d'un
bourrcau
Dans Conradin son fils etcint un sang si
beau."
Endeavoring to escape to Sicily after
his defeat at Tagliacozzo, he was car-
ried to Naples and imprisoned in the
Castel deir Uovo. " Christendom
heard with horror," says Milman, Lat.
Christ., Book XI. Ch. 3, " that the royal
brother of St. Louis, that the cham-
pion of the Church, after a mock trial,
by the sentence of one judge, Robert
di Lavena, — after an unanswerable
pleading by Guido de Suzaria, a fa-
mous jurist, — had condemned the last
heir of the Swabian house — a rival
king who had fought gallantly for his
hereditary throne — to be executed as
a felon and a rebel on a public scaffold.
So little did Conradin dread his fate,
that, when his doom was announced,
he was playing at chess with Frederick
of Austria. * Slave,' said Conradin to
Robert of Bari, who read the fatal sen-
tence, * do you dare to condemn as a
criminal the son and heir of kings ?
Knows not your master that he is my
equal, not my judge ? ' He added, * I
am a mortal, and must die; yet ask the
kings of the earth if a prince be crimi-
nal for seeking to win back the heritage
of his ancestors. But if there be no
pardon for me, spare, at least, my faith-
ful companions ; or if they must die,
strike me first, that I may not behold
Pttrgatorio xx.
30s
their death.' They died devoutly,
nobly. Every circumstance aggravated
the abhorrence ; it was said — perhaps
it was the invention of that abhorrence
— that Robert of Flanders, the brother
of Charles, struck dead the judge who
had presumed to read the iniquitous
sentence. When Conradin knelt, with
uplifted hands, awaiting the blow of
the executioner, he uttered these last
words, * O my mother ! how deep
will be thy sorrow at the news of this
-day ! ' Even the followers of Charles
could hardly restrain their pity and in-
dignation. With Conradin died his
young and valiant friend, Frederick of
Austria, the two Lancias, two of the
noble house of Donaticcio of Pisa.
The inexorable Charles would not per-
mit them to be buried in consecrated
ground."
69. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic
Doctor of the Schools, died at the con-
vent of Fossa Nuova in the Campagna,
being on his way to the Council of
Lyons, in 1274. He is supposed to
have been poisoned by his physician,
at the instigation of Charles of Anjou.
71. Charles of Valois, who came
into Italy by invitation of Boniface the
Eighth, in 1301. See Inf.Yl. 69.
74. There is in old French litera-
ture a poem entitled Le Tournoyement
de V Antechristy written by Hugues de
Mery, a monk of the Abbey of St.
Germain - des - Pres, in the thirteenth
century, in which he describes a battle
between the Virtues under the banner
of Christ, and the Vices under that of
Antichrist.
VOL. II. 39
In the Vision of Piers Ploughman,
there is a joust between Christ and the
foul fiend : —
" Thanne was Fcith in a fcnestre,
And cryde a jili Da-vid,
As dooth an heraud of armes,
Whan aventrous cometh to justes.
Old Jewes of Jerusalem
For joye thei songen,
Benedictus qui -vctiit in nomine Domini.
" Thanne I frayned at Feith,
What al that fare by-mente,
And who sholde juste in Jerusalem.
' Jhesus,' he seide,
' And fecche that the fend claymeth,
Piers fruyt the Plowman.'
"'Who shal juste with Jhesus?' quod I,
* Jewes or scrybes ? '
" ' Nay,' quod he ; ' The foule fend.
And fals doom and deeth.' "
75. By the aid of Charles of Valois
the Neri party triumphed in Florence,
and the Bianchi were banished, and
with them Dante.
76. There is an allusion here to the
nickname of Charles of Valois, Senza-
terra, or Lackland.
79. Charles the Second, son of
Charles of Anjou. He went from
France to recover Sicily after the Si-
cilian Vespers. In an engagement with
the Spanish fleet under Admiral Ru-
gieri d' Oria, he was taken prisoner.
Dante says he sold his daughter, be-
cause he married her for a large sum
of money to Azzo the Sixth of Este.
82. ^zr^/V, III. 56. "Cursed thirst
of gold, to what dost thou not drive
the hearts of men."
86. The flower-de-luce is in the
banner of France. Borel, Tresor de
3o6
Notes
Recherches, cited by Roquefort, Glos-
sairc, under the word Ley, says : " The
oriflamme is so called from gold and
flame ; that is to say, a lily of the
marshes. The lilies are the arms of
France in a field of azure, which de-
notes water, in memory that they (the
French) came from a marshy country.
It is the most ancient and principal
banner of France, sown with these
lilies, and was borne around our kings
on great occasions."
Roquefort gives his own opinion
as follows : " The Franks, afterwards
called French, inhabited (before enter-
ing Gaul properly so called) the en-
virons of the Lys, a river of the Low
Countries, whose banks are still covered
with a kind of iris or flag of a yellow
color, which differs from the common
lily and more nearly resembles the
flower-de-luce of our arms. Now it
seems to me very natural that the kings
of the Franks, having to choose a sym-
bol to which the name of armorial
bearings has since been given, should
take in its composition a beautiful and
remarkable flower, which they had
before their eyes, and that they should
name it, from the place where it grew
in abundance, j^ijji'^r of the river Lys."
These are the lilies of which Dray-
ton speaks in his Ballad of Agincourt : —
" when our grandsire great,
Claiming the regal seat,
By many a warlike feat
Lopped the French lilies."
87. This passage alludes to the seiz-
ure and imprisonment of Pope Boniface
the Eighth by the troops of Philip the
Fair at Alagna or Anagni, in 1303.
Milman, Lat. Christ., Book XI. Ch. 9,
thus describes the event : —
" On a sudden, on the 7th Septem-
ber (the 8th was the day for the publi-
cation ot the Bull ), the peaceful streets
of Anagni were disturbed. The Pope
and the Cardinals, who were all assem-
bled around him, were startled with
the trampling of armed horse, and the
terrible cry, which ran like wildfire
through the city, 'Death to Pope Boni-
face ! Long live the King of France!'
Sciarra Colonna, at the head of three
hundred horsemen, the Barons of Cer-
cano and Supino, and some others, the
sons of Master Massio of Anagni, were
marching in furious haste, with the
banner of the king of France displayed.
The ungrateful citizens of Anagni, for-
getful of their pride in their holy com-
patriot, of the honor and advantage to
their town from the splendor and wealth
of the Papal residence, received them
with rebellious and acclaiming shouts.
" The bell of the city, indeed, had
tolled at the first alarm ; the burghers
had assembled ; they had chosen their
commander ; but that commander,
whom they ignorantly or treacherously
chose, was Arnulf, a deadly enemy of
the Pope. The banner of the Church
was unfolded against the Pope by the
captain of the people of Anagni. The
first attack was on the palace of the
Pope^ on that of the Marquis Gaetani,
his nephew, and those of three Cardi-
nals, the special partisans of Boniface.
The houses of the Pope and of his
nephew made some resistance. The
Purgatorio xx.
307
doors of those of the Cardinals were
beaten down, the treasures ransacked
and carried off; the Cardinals them-
selves fled from the backs of the houses
through the common sewer. Then
arrived, but not to the rescue, Arnulf,
the Captain of the People ; he had
perhaps been suborned by Reginald of
Supino. With him were the sons of
Chiton, whose father was pining in
the dungeons ot Boniface. Instead of
resisting, they joined the attack on the
palace of the Pope's nephew and his
own. The Pope and his nephew im-
plored a truce ; it was granted for
eight hours. This time the Pope em-
ployed in endeavoring to stir up the
people to his defence ; the people
coldly answered, that they were under
the command of their Captain. The
Pope demanded the terms of the con-
spirators. * If the Pope would save
his life, let him instantly restore the
Colonna Cardinals to their dignity,
and reinstate the whole house in their
honors and possessions ; after this
restoration the Pope must abdicate,
and leave his body at the disposal of
Sciarra.' The Pope groaned in the
depths of his heart. * The word is
spoken.' Again the assailants thun-
dered at the gates of the palace ; still
there was obstinate resistance. The
principal church of Anagni, that of
Santa Maria, protected the Pope's pal-
ace. Sciarra Colonna's lawless band
set fire to the gates ; the church was
crowded with clergy and laity and
traders who had brought their pre-
cious wares into the sacred building.
They were plundered with such ra-
pacity that not a man escaped with a
farthing.
" The Marquis found himself com-
pelled to surrender, on the condition
that his own life, that of his family
and of his servants, should be spared.
At these sad tidings the Pope wept
bitterly. The Pope was alone ; from
the first the Cardinals, some from
treachery, some from cowardice, had
fled on all sides, even his most familiar
friends : they had crept into the most
ignoble hiding-places. The aged Pon-
tiff alone lost not his self-command.
He had declared himself ready to per-
ish in his glorious cause ; he deter-
mined to fall with dignity. * \i I am
betrayed like Christ, I am ready to die
like Christ.' He put on the stole of
St. Peter, the imperial crown was on
his head, the keys of St. Peter in one
hand and the cross in the other : he
took his seat on the Papal throne, and,
like the Roman Senators of old, await-
ed the approach of the Gaul.
" But the pride and cruelty of Boni-
face had raised and infixed deep in the
hearts of men passions which acknowl-
edged no awe of age, of intrepidity, or
religious majesty. In William of No-
garet the blood or his Tolosan ances-
tors, in Colonna, the wrongs, the deg-
radation, the beggary, the exile of all
his house, had extinguished every feel-
ing but revenge. They insulted him
with contumelious reproaches ; they
menaced his life. The Pope answered
not a word. They insisted that he
should at once abdicate the Papacy.
3o8
Notes
* Behold my neck, behold my head,'
was the only reply. But iicrcer words
passed between the Pope and William
of Nogaret. Nogaret threatened to
drag him before the Council of Lyons,
where he sliould be deposed from the
Papacy. ' Shall I suffer myself to be
degraded and deposed by Paterins like
thee, whose fathers were righteously
burned as Paterins?', William turned
fiery red, with shame thought the par-
tisans of Boniface, more likely with
wrath. Sciarra, it was said, would
have slain him outright ; he was pre-
vented by some of his own followers,
even by Nogaret. ' Wretched Pope,
even at this distance the goodness of
my Lord the King guards thy life.'
" He was placed under close cus-
tody, not one of his own attendants
permitted to approach him. Worse
indignities awaited him. He was set
on a vicious horse, with his face to the
tail, and so led through the town to
his place of imprisonment. The pal-
aces of the Pope and of his nephew
were plundered ; so vast was the
wealth, that the annual revenues of
all the kings in the world would not
have been equal to the treasures found
and carried off by Sciarra's freeboot-
ing soldiers. His very private cham-
ber was ransacked ; nothing left but
bare walls.
" At length the people of Anagni
could no longer bear the insult and the
sufferings heaped upon their illustrious
and holy fellow-citizen. They rose
in irresistible insurrection, drove out
the soldiers by whom they had been
overawed, now gorged with plunder,
and doubtless not unwilling to with-
draw. The Pope was rescued, and
led out into the street, where the old
man addressed a few words to the peo-
ple : ' Good men and women, ye see
how mine enemies have come upon
me, and plundered my goods, those of
the Church and of the poor. Not a
morsel of bread have I eaten, not a
drop have I drunk, since my capture.
I am almost dead with hunger. If
any good woman will give me a piece
of bread and a cup of wine, if she has
no wine, a little water, I will absolve
her, and any one who will give me
their alms, from all their sins.' The
compassionate rabble burst into a cry,
* Long life to the Pope ! ' They car-
ried him back to his naked palace.
They crowded, the women especially,
with provisions, bread, meat, water,
and wine. They could not find a sin-
gle vessel : they poured a supply of
water into a chest. The Pope pro-
claimed a general absolution to all
except the plunderers of his palace.
He even declared that he wished to be
at peace with the Colonnas and all his
enemies. This perhaps was to disguise
his intention of retiring, as soon as he
could, to Rome.
*' The Romans had heard with in-
dignation the sacrilegious attack on the
person of the Supreme Pontiff. Four
hundred horse under Matteo and Gae-
tano Orsini were sent to conduct him
to the city. He entered it almost in
triumph ; the populace welcomed him
with every demonstration of joy. But
Pjcrgatorio xx.
309
the awe of his greatness was gone ; the
spell of his dominion over the minds
of men was broken. His overweening
haughtiness and domination had made
him many enemies in the Sacred Col-
lege, the gold of France had made him
more. This general revolt is his se-
verest condemnation. Among his first
enemies was the Cardinal Napoleon
Orsini. Orsini had followed the tri-
umphal entrance of the Pope. Boni-
face, to show that he desired to recon-
cile himself with all, courteously in-
vited him to his table. The Orsini
coldly answered, ' that he must receive
the Colonna Cardinals into his favor ;
he must not now disown what had
been wrung from him by compulsion.'
* I will pardon them,' said Boniface,
* but the mercy of the Pope is not to
be from compulsion.' He found him-
self again a prisoner.
" This last mortification crushed the
bodily, if not the mental strength of
the Pope. Among the Ghibellines
terrible stories were bruited abroad of
his death. In an access of fury, either
from poison or wounded pride, he sat
gnawing the top of his staff, and at
length either beat out his own brains
against the wall, or smothered himself
(a strange notion !) with his own pil-
lows. More friendly, probably more
trustworthy, accounts describe him as
sadly but quietly breathing his last,
surrounded by eight Cardinals, having
confessed the faith and received the
consoling offices of the Church. The
Cardinal-Poet anticipates his mild sen-
tence from the Divine Judge.
" The religious mind of Christen-
dom was at once perplexed and hor-
ror-stricken by this act of sacrilegious
violence on the person of the Supreme
Pontiff^; it shocked some even of the
sternest Ghibellines. Dante, who
brands the pride, the avarice, the
treachery of Boniface in his most ter-
rible words, and has consigned him to
the direst doom, (though it is true that
his alliance with the French, with
Charles of Valois, by whom the poet
had been driven into exile, was among
the deepest causes of his hatred to
Boniface,) nevertheless expresses the
almost universal feeling. Christendom
shuddered to behold the Fleur-de-lis
enter into Anagni, and Christ again cap-
tive in his Vicar, the mockery, the gall
and vinegar, the crucifixion between
living robbers, the insolent and sacri-
legious cruelty of the second Pilate."
Compare this scene with that of his
inauguration as Pope, /;?/I XIX. Note 53.
91. This " modern Pilate " is Phil-
ip the Fair, and the allusion in the
following lines is to the persecution
and suppression of the Order of the
Knights Templars, in 1307— 1312.
See Milman, Lat. Christ., Book XII.
Ch. 2, and Villani, VIII. 92, who says
the act was committed per cupidigia di
guadagnarc, for love of gain ; and says
also : " The king of France and his
children had afterwards much shame
and adversity, both on account of this
sin and on account of the seizure of
Pope Boniface."
97. What he was saying of the Vir-
gin Mary, line 19.
o
lO
Notes
103. The brother of Dido and
murderer of her husband. jJLncid, I.
350: " He, impious and blinded with
the love of gold, having taken Sichrcus
by surprise, secretly assassinates him
before the altar, regardless of his sis-
ter's great affection."
106. The Phrygian king, who, for
his hospitality to Silenus, was endowed
by Bacchus with the fatal power of
turning all he touched to gold. The
most laughable thing about him was
his wearing ass's ears, as a punishment
for preferring the music of Pan to that
of Apollo,
Ovid, XL, Croxall's Tr. : —
" Pan tuned the pipe, and with his rural song
Pleased the low taste of all the vulgar throng ;
Such songs a vulgar judgment mostly please :
Midas was there, and Midas judged with
these."
See also Hawthorne's story of The
Golden Touch in his Wonder-Book.
109. Joshua vii. 21 : " When I saw
among the spoils a goodly Babylonish
garment, and two hundred shekels of
silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty
shekels weight, then I coveted them,
and took them ; and behold, they are
hid in the earth in the midst oi my
tent, and the silver under it."
112. Acts v. I, 2: "But a certain
man named Ananias, with Sapphira
his wife, sold a possession, and kept
back part of the price, his wife also
being privy to it, and brought a cer-
tain part, and laid it at the apostles'
feet."
113. The hoof-beats of the miracu-
lous horse in the Temple of Jerusalem,
when Heliodorus, the treasurer of
King Sclcucus, went there to remove
the treasure. 2 Maccabees iii. 25 :
" For there appeared unto them an
horse with a terrible rider upon
him, and adorned with a very fair
covering, and he ran fiercely, and
smote at Heliodorus with his fore-
feet, and it seemed that he that sat
upon the horse had complete harness
of gold."
115. yEneid, III. 49, Davidson's
Tr. : " This Polydore unhappy Priam
had formerly sent in secrecy, with a
great weight of gold, to be brought up
by the king of Thrace, when he now
began to distrust the arms of Troy, and
saw the city with close siege blocked
up. He, [Polymnestor,] as soon as
the power of the Trojans was crushed,
and their fortune gone, espousing Aga-
memnon's interest and victorious arms,
breaks every sacred bond, assassinates
Polydore, and by violence possesses his
gold. Cursed thirst of gold, to what
dost thou not drive the hearts of
men ! "
116. Lucinius Crassus, surnamed
the Rich. He was Consul with Pom-
pey, and on one occasion displayed his
vast wealth by giving an entertainment
to the populace, at which the guests
were so numerous that they occupied
ten thousand tables. He was slain in a
battle with the Parthians, and his head
was sent to the Parthian king, Hyrodes,
who had molten gold poured down its
throat. Plutarch does not mention this
circumstance in his Life of Crassus, but
says : —
Pur/^atorio xxi.
311
" When the head of Crassus was
brought to the door, the tables were
just taken away, and one Jason, a tragic
actor of the town of Tralles, was sing-
ing the scene in the Bacchac of Eurip-
ides concerning Agave. He was re-
ceiving much applause, when Sillaces
coming to the room, and having made
obeisance to the king, threw down the
head of Crassus into the midst of the
company. The Parthians receiving it
with joy and acclamations, Sillaces, by
the king's command, was made to sit
down, while Jason handed over the
costume of Pentheus to one of the dan-
cers in the chorus, and taking up the
head of Crassus, and acting the part of
a bacchante in her frenzy, in a rap-
turous, impassioned manner, sang the
lyric passages,
* We 've hunted down a mighty chase to-day,
And from the mountain bring the noble
prey.' "
122. This is in answer to Dante's
question, line 35 : —
" And why only
Thou dost renew these praises well deserved ?"
128. The occasion of this quaking
of the mountain is given. Canto XXI.
58: —
" It trembles here, whenever any soul
Feels itself pure, so that it soars, or moves
To mount aloft, and such a cry attends it."
130. An island in the .^^gean Sea,
in the centre of the Cyclades. It was
thrown up by an earthquake, in order
to receive Latona, when she gave birth
to Apollo and Diana, — the Sun and
the Moon.
136. Luke ii. 13, 14: *« And sud-
denly there was with the angel a multi-
tude of the heavenly host, praising
God, and saying. Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will
toward men."
140. Gower, Conf. Amant., III. 5 : —
" When Goddes sone also was bore,
He sent his aungel down therfore,
Whom the shepherdes herden singe :
Pees to the men of welwillinge
In erthe be amonge us here."
CANTO XXI
I. This canto is devoted to the in-
terview with the poet Statius, whose
release from punishment was announced
by the earthquake and the outcry at the
end of the last canto.
3. John iv. 14, 15: "Whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give
him, shall never thirst The wo-
man saith unto him. Sir, give me this
water, that I thirst not, neither come
hither to draw."
7. Luke xxiv. 13-15 : "And, behold,
two of them went that same day to a
village called Emmaus, which was from
Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
And they talked together of all these
things which had happened. And it
came to pass, that, while they com-
312
Notes
muncd together and reasoned, Jesu»
himself" drew near, and went with
them."
15. Among the monks of the Mid-
dle Ages there were certain salutations,
which had their customary replies or
countersigns. Thus one would say,
"Peace be with thee!" and the an-
swer would be, "And with thy spirit ! "
Or, "Praised be the Lord ! " and the
answer, " World without end ! "
22. The letters upon Dante's fore-
head.
25. Lachesis. Of the three Fates,
Clotho prepared and held the distaff,
Lachesis spun the thread, and Atropos
cut it.
" These," says Plato, Republic, X.,
" are the daughters of Necessity, the
Fates, Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos j
who, clothed in white robes, with gar-
lands on their heads, chant to the
music of the Sirens ; Lachesis the
events of the Past, Clotho those of the
Present, Atropos those of the Future."
33. See Canto XVIIL 46 : —
♦' What reason seeth here,
Myself can tell thee ; beyond that await
For Beatrice, since 't is a work of faith."
So also Cowley, in his poem on the
Use of Reason in Divine Matters : —
" Though Reason cannot through Faith's mys-
teries see,
It sees that there and such they be ;
Leads to heaven's door, and there does humbly
keep,
And there through chinks and keyholes peep ;
Though it, like Moses, by a sad command
Must not come into the Holy Land,
Yet thither it infallibly does guide,
And from afar 't is all descried."
40. Nothing unusual ever disturbs
the religio loci, the sacredness of the
mountain.
44. This happens only when the
soul, that came from heaven, is re-
ceived back into heaven ; not from
any natural causes affecting earth or
air.
48. The gate of Purgatory, which
is also the gate of Heaven.
50. Iris, one of the Oceanides, the
daughter of Thaumas andElectraj the
rainbow.
65. The soul in Purgatory feels as
great a desire to be punished for a sin,
as it had to commit it.
82. The siege of Jerusalem under
Titus, surnamed the " Delight of
Mankind," took place in the year 70.
Statius, who is here speaking, was born
at Naples in the reign of Claudius, and
had already become famous "under the
name that most endures and honors,"
that is, as a poet. His works are the
Siha, or miscellaneous poems ; the
Thebaid, an epic in twelve books ; and
the Achilleid, left unfinished. He wrote
also a tragedy. Agave, which is lost.
Juvenal says of him. Satire VIL,
Dryden's Tr. : —
" All Rome is pleased when Statius will re-
hearse,
And longing crowds expect the promised verse ;
His lofty numbers with so great a gust
They hear, and swallow with such eager lust:
But while the common suffrage crowned his
cause,
And broke the benches with their loud ap-
plause,
His Muse had starved, had not a piece unread,
And by a player bought, supplied her bread."
Pitrgatorio xxn.
313
Dante shows his admiration of him
by placing him here.
89. Statius was not born in Tou-
louse, as Dante supposes, but in Na-
ples, as he himself states in his Silva,
which work was not discovered till
after Dante's death. The passage oc-
curs in Book III. Eclogue V., To Clau-
dia his Wife, where he describes the
beauties of Parthenope, and calls her
the mother and nurse of both, ambo-
rum genetrix altrixque.
Landino thinks that Dante's error
may be traced to Placidus Lactantius,
a commentator of the Thebaid, who
confounded Statius the poet of Naples
with Statius the rhetorician of Tou-
louse.
loi. Would be willing to remain
another year in Purgatory.
114. Petrarca uses the same expres-
sion, — the lightning of the angelic
smile, /■/ lampeggiar delP angelica riso.
131. See Canto XIX. 133.
CANTO XXII.
I. The ascent to the Sixth Cir-
cle, where the sin of Gluttony is pun-
ished.
5. Matthew V. 6: "Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after right-
eousness ; for they shall be filled."
13. The satirist Juvenal, who flour-
ished at Rome during the last half of
the first century of the Christian era,
and died at the beginning of the sec-
ond, aged eighty. He was a contem-
porary of Statius, and survived him
some thirty years.
40. jEneid, III. 56 : " O cursed
hunger of gold, to what dost thou not
drive the hearts of men."
42. The punishment of the Avari-
cious and Prodigal. Inf. VII. 26: —
" With great howls
Rolling weights forward by main force of chest."
46. Dante says of the Avaricious
and Prodigal, Inf. VII. 56: —
VOL. II. 40
" These from the sepulchre shall rise again
With the fist closed, and these with tresses
shorn."
56. Her two sons, Eteocles and Pol-
ynices, of whom Statius sings in the
Thebaid, and to whom Dante alludes
by way of illustration. Inf. XXVI. 54.
See also the Note.
58. Statius begins the Thebaid with.
an invocation to Clio, the Muse of
History, whose office it was to record
the heroic actions of brave men, I.
" What first, O Clio, shall adorn thy page,
The expiring prophet, or ^tolian's rage ?
Say, wilt thou sing how, grim with hostile
blood,
Hippomedon repelled the rushing flood.
Lament the Arcadian youth's untimely fate,
Or Jove, opposed by Capaneus, relate ? "
Skelton, Elegy on the Earl of North-
umberland : —
3H
Notes
" Of hcvenly poems, O Clyo calde by name
In the college of musis goddess hystoriale."
63. Saint Peter.
70, Virgil's Bucolics, Eel. IV, 5, a
passage supposed to foretell the birth of
Christ : " The last era of Cumacan song
is now arrived; the great series of ages
begins anew ; now the Virgin returns,
returns the Saturnian reign ; now a
new progeny is sent down from the
high heaven."
92. The Fourth Circle of Purga-
tory, where Sloth is punished. Canto
XVII. 85: —
" The love of good, remiss
In what it should have done, is here restored 5
Here plied again the ill-belated oar."
97. Some editions read in this line,
instead of nostra amico, — nostra antico,
our ancient Terence ; but the epithet
would be more appropriate to Plautus,
who was the earlier writer.
97, 98. Plautus, C^cilius, and Ter-
ence, the three principal Latin drama-
tists ; Varro, " the most learned of the
Romans," the friend of Cicero, and
author of some five hundred volumes,
which made St. Augustine wonder how
he who wrote so many books could
find time to read so many ; and how
he who read so many could find time
to write so many.
1 00. Persius, the Latin satirist.
loi. Homer.
106. Mrs. Browning, Wine of Cy-
prus : —
" Our Euripides, the human, —
With his droppings of warm tears ;
And his touches of things common,
Till they rose to touch the spheres."
But why does Dante make no mention
here of "^schylus the thunderous "
and " Sophocles the royal " }
Antiphon was a tragic and epic poet
of Attica, who was put to death by
Dionysius because he would not praise
the tyrant's writings. Some editions
read Anacreon for Antiphon.
107. Simonides, the poet of Cos,
who won a poetic prize at the age of
eighty, and is said to be the first poet
who wrote for money.
Agatho was an Athenian dramatist,
of whom nothing remains but the name
and a few passages quoted in other
writers.
1 10. Some of the people that Sta-
tius introduces into his poems. An-
tigone, daughter of CEdipus; Deiphile,
wife of Tideus; Argia, her sister, wife
of Polynices; Ismene, another daughter
of CEdipus, who is here represented
as still lamenting the death of Atys,
her betrothed.
112. Hypsipile, who pointed out to
Adrastus the fountain of Langia, when
his soldiers were perishing with thirst
on their march against Thebes.
113. Of the three daughters of Ti-
resias only Manto is mentioned by
Statius in the Thebaid. But Dante
places Manto among the Soothsayers,
Inf. XX. 55, and not in Limbo. Had
he forgotten this ?
113, 114. Thetis, the mother of
Achilles, and Deidamia, the daughter
of Lycomedes. They are among the
personages in the Achilleid of Statius.
118. Four hours of the day were
already passed.
Purgatorio xxii.
315
131. Cowley, The Tree of Knowl-
edge : —
" The sacred tree 'midst the fair orchard grew,
The phcenix Truth did on it rest
And built his perfumed nest,
That right Porphyrian tree which did true
Logic show ;
Each leaf did learned notions give
And th' apples were demonstrative ;
So clear their color and divine
The very shade they cast did other lights
outshine."
This tree of Temptation, however,
is hardly the tree of Knowledge, though
sprung from it, as Dante says of the
next, in Canto XXIV. 117. It is meant
only to increase the torment of the starv-
ing souls beneath it, by holding its fresh
and dewy fruit beyond their reach.
142. John ii. 3 : "And when they
wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith
unto him. They have no wine."
146. Daniel i. 12: "Prove thy ser-
vants, I beseech thee, ten days ; and
let them give us pulse to eat and water
to drink And Daniel had under-
standing in all visions and dreams."
148. Compare the description of
the Golden Age in Ovid, Met., I.: —
" The golden age was first ; when man, yet
new.
No rule but uncorrupted reason knew,
And, with a native bent, did good pursue.
Unforced by punishment, unawed by fear.
His words were simple, and his soul sincere;
Needless was written law, where none opprest :
The law of man was written in his breast :
No suppliant crowds before the judge appeared.
No court erected yet, nor cause was heard :
But all was safe, for conscience was their gUard.
The mountain-trees in distant prospect please,
Ere yet the pine descended to the seas ;
Ere sails were spread, new oceans to explore ;
And happy mortals, unconcerned for more,
Confined their wishes to their native shore.
No walls were yet : nor fence, nor mote, nor
mound,
Nor drum was heard, nor trumpet's angry sound :
Nor swords were forged ; but, void of care and
crime.
The soft creation slept away their time.
The teeming earth, yet guiltless of the plough,
And unprovoked, did fruitful stores allow :
Content with food, which nature freely bred,
On wildings and on strawberries they fed ;
Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest,
And falling acorns furnished out a feast.
The flowers unsown in fields and meadows
reigned ;
And western winds immortal spring maintained.
In following years, the bearded corn ensued
From earth unasked, nor was that earth re-
newed.
From veins of valleys milk and nectar broke.
And honey sweating through the pores of oak."
Also Boethius, Book II. Met. 5, and
the Ode in Tasso's Aminta, Leigh Hunt's
Tr., beginning : —
"O lovely age of gold !
Not that the rivers rolled
With milk, or that the woods wept honey-
dew ;
Not that the ready ground
Produced without a wound.
Or the mild serpent had no tooth that slew ;
Not that a cloudless blue
Forever was in sight,
Or that the heaven which burns,
And now is cold by turns.
Looked out in glad and everlasting light ;
No, nor that even the insolent ships from far
Brought war to no new lands, nor riches
worse than war :
" But solely that that vain
And breath-invented pain,
That idol of mistake, that worshipped cheat,
3i6
Notes
That Honor, — since so called
By vulgar minds appalled, —
Played not the tyrant with our nature yet.
It had not come to fret
The sweet and happy fold
Of gentle human-kind ;
Nor did its hard law bind
Souls nursed in freedom ; but that law of
gold,
That glad and golden law, all free, all fitted,
Which Nature's own hand wrote, — What
pleases, is permitted."
Also Don Quixote's address to the
goatherds, Don ^lix.. Book II. Ch. 3,
Jarvis's Tr. : —
" After Don Quixote had satisfied
his hunger, he took up an handful of
acorns, and, looking on them atten-
tively, gave utterance to expressions
like these : —
" ' Happy times, and happy ages !
those to which the ancients gave the
name of golden, not because gold
(which, in this our iron age, is so
much esteemed) was to be had, in
that fortunate period, without toil and
labor ; but because they who then
lived were ignorant of these two
words, Meum and Tuum. In that
age of innocence, all things were in
common ; no one needed to take any
other pains for his ordinary sustenance,
than to lift up his hand and take it
from the sturdy oaks, which stood in-
viting him liberally to taste of their
sweet and relishing fruit. The limpid
fountains, and running streams, offered
them, in magnificent abundance, their
delicious and transparent waters. In
the clefts of rocks, and in the hollow
of trees, did the industrious and provi-
dent bees form their commonwealths,
offering to every hand, without usury,
the fertile produce of their most deli-
cious toil. The stout cork-trees, with-
out any other inducement than that of
their own courtesy, divested themselves
of their light and expanded bark, with
which men began to cover their houses,
supported by rough poles, only for a
defence against the inclemency of the
seasons. All then was peace, all ami-
ty, all concord. As yet the heavy
coulter of the crooked plough had not
dared to force open, and search into,
the tender bowels of our first mother,
who unconstrained offered, from every
part of her fertile and spacious bosom,
whatever might feed, sustain, and de-
light those her children, who then
had her in possession. ' Then did the
simple and beauteous young shepherd-
esses trip it from dale to dale, and from
hill to hill, their tresses sometimes plait-
ed, sometimes loosely flowing, with
no more clothing than was necessary
modestly to cover what modesty has
always required to be concealed ; nor
were there ornaments like those now-
a-days in fashion, to which the Tyrian
purple and the so-many-ways martyred
silk give a value ; but composed of
green dock-leaves and ivy interwoven ;
with which, perhaps, they went as
splendidly and elegantly decked as our
court-ladies do now, with all those
rare and foreign inventions which idle
curiosity hath taught them. Then
were the amorous conceptions of the
soul clothed in simple and sincere ex-
pressions, in the same way and manner
Purgatorio xxiii.
317
they were conceived, without seeking so much depreciate, confound, and per-
artificial phrases to set them off. Nor secute her, not daring then to disturb
as yet were fraud, deceit, and malice or offend her. As yet the judge did
intermixed with truth and plain-deal- not make his own will the measure of
ing. Justice kept within her proper justice ; for then there was neither
bounds; favor and interest, which now cause nor person to be judged.'"
CANTO XXIII.
I. The punishment of the sin of
Gluttony.
3. Shakespeare, As You Like It, II.
7: —
"Under the shade of melancholy boughs
Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time."
II. Psalms li. 15 : " O Lord, open
thou my lips ; and my mouth shall
show forth thy praise."
26. Erisichthon the Thessalian, who
in derision cut down an ancient oak in
the sacred groves of Ceres. He was
punished by perpetual hunger, till,
other food failing him, at last he
gnawed his own flesh. Ovid, Met.
VIII., Vernon's Tr.: —
" Straight he requires, impatient in demand,
Provisions from the air, the seas, the land ;
But though the land, air, seas, provisions grant.
Starves at full tables, and complains of want.
What to a people might in dole be paid.
Or victual cities for a long blockade,
Could not one wolfish appetite assuage ;
For glutting nourishment increased its rage.
As rivers poured from every distant shore
The sea insatiate drinks, and thirsts for more ;
Or as the fire, which all materials burns,
And wasted forests into ashes turns.
Grows more voracious as the more it preys,
Recruits dilate the flame, and spread the blaze:
So impious Erisichthon's hunger raves.
Receives refreshments, and refreshments craves.
Food raises a desire for food, and meat
Is but a new provocative to eat.
He grows more empty as the more supplied,
And endless cramming but extends the void."
30. This tragic tale of the siege of
Jerusalem by Titus is thus told in Jo-
sephus, Jewish War, Book VI. Ch. 3,
Whiston's Tr. : —
** There was a certain woman that
dwelt beyond Jordan ; her name was
Mary ; her father was Eleazar, of the
village Bethezub, which signifies the
house of Hyssop. She was eminent
for her family and her wealth, and
had fled away to Jerusalem with the
rest of the multitude, and was with
them besieged therein at this time.
The other effects of this woman had
been already seized upon, such I mean
as she had brought with her out of
Perea, and removed to the city. What
she had treasured up besides, as also
what food she had contrived to save,
had been also carried off by the rapa-
cious guards, who came every day run-
ning into her house for that purpose.
This put the poor woman into a very
great passion, and by the frequent re-
3i8
Notes
proaches and imprecations she cast at
these rapacious villains, she had pro-
voked them to anger against her ; but
none of them, either out of the indig-
nation she had raised against herself,
or out of commiseration of her case,
would take away her life. And if she
found any food, she perceived her la-
bors were for others and not for her-
self; and it was now become impos-
sible for her any way to find any more
food, while the famine pierced through
her very bowels and marrow, when
also her passion was fired to a degree
beyond the famine itself. Nor did she
consult with anything but with her
passion and the necessity she was in.
She then attempted a most unnatural
thing, and, snatching up her son who
was a child sucking at her breast, she
said, ' O thou miserable infant ! For
whom shall I preserve thee in this
war, this famine, and this sedition ?
As to the war with the Romans, if they
preserve our lives, we must be slaves.
This famine also will destroy us, even
before that slavery comes upon us.
Yet are these seditious rogues more
terrible than both the other. Come
on, be thou my food, and be thou a
fury to these seditious varlets, and a
byword to the world ; which is all
that is now wanting to complete the
calamities of the Jews.' As soon as
she had said this, she slew her son, and
then roasted him, and ate the one half
of him, and kept the other half by her
concealed. Upon this the seditious
came in presently, and, smelling the
horrid scent of this food, they threat-
ened her that they would cut her throat
immediately, if she did not show them
what food she had gotten ready. She
replied, that she had saved a very fine
portion of it for them ; and withal
uncovered what was left of her son.
Hereupon they were seized with a hor-
ror and amazement of mind, and stood
astonished at the sight, when she said
to them : * This is mine own son, and
what hath been done was mine own
doing. Come, eat of this food ; for
I have eaten of it myself. Do not
you pretend to be either more tender
than a woman, or more compassionate
than a mother. But if you be so
scrupulous, and do abominate this my
sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half,
let the rest be reserved for me also.'
After which those men went out trem-
bling, being never so much affrighted
at anything as they were at this, and
with some difficulty they left the rest
of that meat to the mother. Upon
which the whole city was full of this
horrid action immediately ; and while
everybody laid this miserable case be-
fore their own eyes, they trembled as
if this unheard of action had been done
by themselves. So those that were
thus distressed by the famine were very
desirous to die, and those already dead
were esteemed happy, because they
had not lived long enough either to
hear or to see such miseries."
31. Shakespeare, King Lear,Y . 3 : —
"And in this habit
Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
Their precious stones new lost."
32. In this fanciful recognition of
Purgatorio xxiii.
319
the word onto {homo, man) in the hu-
man face, so written as to place the two
o's between the outer strokes of the m,
the former represent the eyes, and the
latter the nose and cheekbones:
m
Brother Berthold, a Franciscan monk
of Regensburg, in the thirteenth cen-
tury, makes the following allusion to it
in one of his sermons. See Wacker-
nagel, Deutsches Lesebuch, I. 678. The
monk carries out the resemblance into
still further detail : —
" Now behold, ye blessed children
of God, the Almighty has created you
soul and body. And he has written it
under your eyes and on your faces, that
you are created in his likeness. He has
written it upon your very faces with
ornamented letters. With great dili-
gence are they embellished and orna-
mented. This your learned men well
understand, but the unlearned may not
understand it. The two eyes are two
o's. The h is properly no letter; it on-
ly helps the others; so that homo with
an h means Man. Likewise the brows
arched above, and the nose down be-
tween them are an m, beautiful with
three strokes. So is the ear a d, beauti-
fully rounded and ornamented. So are
the nostrils beautifully formed like a
Greek f, beautifully rounded and orna-
mented. So is the mouth an /, beauti-
fully adorned and ornamented. Now
behold, ye good Christian people, how
skilfully he has adorned you with these
six letters, to show that ye are his
own, and that he has created you!
Now read me an 0 and an m and an-
other 0 together ; that spells homo.
Then read me a d and an e and an /
together ; that spells dei. Homo dei,
man of God, man of God ! "
48. Forese Donati, the brother-in-
law and intimate friend of Dante.
"This Forese," says Buti, "was a citi-
zen of Florence, and was brother of
Messer Corso Donati, and was very
gluttonous ; and therefore the author
feigns that he found him here, where
the Gluttons are punished."
Certain vituperative sonnets, ad-
dressed to Dante, have been attributed
to Forese. If authentic, they prove
that the friendship between the two
poets was not uninterrupted. See
Rossetti, Ea7-ly Italian Poets, Appendix
to Part II.
74. The same desire that sacrifice
and atonement may be complete.
75. Matthew xxvii. 46 : "Eli, Eli,
lama sabacthani ? that is to say. My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me ? "
83. Outside the gate of Purgatory,
where those who had postponed re-
pentance till the last hour were forced
to wait as many years and days as they
had lived impenitent on earth, unless
aided by the devout prayers of those
on earth. See Canto IV.
87. Nella, contraction of Giovan-
nella, widow of Forese. Nothing is
known of this good woman but the
name, and what Forese here says in
her praise.
94. Covino, Descriz. Geograf. deW
320
Notes
Italia, p. 52, says : " In the district
ot Arborea, on the slopes of the Gen-
nargentu, the most vast and lofty
mountain range of Sardinia, spreads an
alpine country which in Dante's time,
being almost barbarous, was called the
Bar-bagia."
102. Sacchetti, the Italian novelist
of the fourteenth century, severely
criticises the fashions of the Floren-
tines, and their sudden changes, which
he says it would take a whole vol-
ume of his stories to enumerate. In
Nov. 178, he speaks of their wearing
their dresses *• far below their arm-
pits," and then ** up to their ears";
and continues, in Napier's version,
Flor. Hist., II. 539: —
" The young Florentine girls, who
used to dress so modestly, have now
changed the fashion of their hoods to
resemble courtesans, and thus attired
they move about laced up to the throat,
with all sorts of animals hanging as
ornaments about their necks. Their
sleeves, or rather their sacks, as they
should be called, — was there ever so
useless and pernicious a fashion ! Can
any of them reach a glass or take a
morsel from the table without dirtying
herself or the cloth by the things she
knocks down? And thus do the young
men, and worse ; and such sleeves are
made even for sucking babes. The
women go about in hoods and cloaks ;
most of the young men without cloaks,
in long, flowing hair, and if they throw
off their breeches, which from their
smallness may easily be done, all is off,
for they literally stick their posteriors
into a pair of socks and expend a yard
of cloth on their wristbands, while
more stuff is put into a glove than a
cloak-hood. However, I am comforted
by one thing, and that is, that all now
have begun to put their feet in chains,
perhaps as a penance for the many
vain things they are guilty of; for we
are but a day in this world, and in that
day the fashion is changed a thousand
times : all seek liberty, yet all deprive
themselves of it : God has made our
feet free, and many with long pointed
toes to their shoes can scarcely walk :
he has supplied the legs with hinges,
and many have so bound them up with
close lacing that they can scarcely sit :
the bust is tightly bandaged up ; the
arms trail their drapery along ; the
throat is rolled in a capuchin ; the
head so loaded and bound round with
caps over the hair that it appears as
though it were sawed off. And thus
I might go on forever discoursing of
female absurdities, commencing with
the immeasurable trains at their feet,
and proceeding regularly upwards to
the head, with which they may always
be seen occupied in their chambers ;
some curling, some smoothing, and
some whitening it, so that they often
kill themselves with colds caught in
these vain occupations."
132. Statius.
Pttrgatorio xxiv.
321
CANTO XXIV.
I. Continuation of the punishment
of Gluttony.
7. Continuing the words with which
the preceding canto closes, and refer-
ring to Statius.
10. Piccarda, sister of Forese and
Corso Donati. She was a nun of Santa
Clara, and is seen by Dante in the
first heaven of Paradise, which Forese
calls "high Olympus." See Par. III.
49, where her story is told more in
detail.
19. Buonagiunta Urbisani of Lucca
is one of the early minor poets of Italy,
a contemporary of Dante. Rossetti,
Early Italian Poets, jj, gives some
specimens of his sonnets and canzoni.
All that is known of him is contained
in Benvenuto's brief notice : " Buona-
giunta of Urbisani, an honorable man
of the city of Lucca, a brilliant orator
in his mother tongue, a facile producer
of rhymes, and still more facile con-
sumer of wines ; who knew our author
in his lifetime, and sometimes cor-
responded with him."
Tiraboschi also mentions him, Storia
della Lett., IV. 397 : " He was seen
by Dante in Purgatory punished among
the Gluttons, from which vice, it is
proper to say, poetry did not render
him exempt."
22. Pope Martin the Fourth, whose
fondness for the eels of Bolsena brought
his life to a sudden close, and his soul
to this circle of Purgatory, has been rid-
iculed in the well-known epigram, —
VOL. 11. 41
"Gaudent anguills, quod mortuus hlc jacet Ule
Qui quasi morte reas cxcoriabat eas."
" Martin the Fourth," says Milman,
Hist. Lat. Christ., VI. 143, "was born
at Mont Pence in Brie ; he had been
Canon of Tours. He put on at first
the show of maintaining the lofty char-
acter of the Churchman. He ex-
communicated the Viterbans for their
sacrilegious maltreatment of the Cardi-
nals; Rinaldo Annibaldeschi, the Lord
of Viterbo, was compelled to ask par-
don on his knees of the Cardinal Ros-
so, and forgiven only at the interven-
tion of the Pope. Martin the Fourth
retired to Orvieto.
" But the Frenchman soon began to
predominate over the Pontiff; he sunk
into the vassal of Charles of Anjou.
The great policy of his predecessor, to
assuage the feuds of Guelph and Ghib-
elline, was an Italian policy ; it was
altogether abandoned. The Ghibel-
lines in every city were menaced or
smitten with excommunication ; the
Lambertazzi were driven from Bologna.
Forli was placed under interdict for
harboring the exiles ; the goods of the
citizens were confiscated for the benefit
of the Pope. Bertoldo Orsini was de-
posed from the Countship of Romagna ;
the office was bestowed on John of
Appia, with instructions everywhere
to coerce or to chastise the refractory
Ghibellines."
Villani, Book VI. Ch. 106, says :
" He was a good man, and very favor-
322
Notes
able to Holy Church and to those
of the house of France, because he was
from Tours."
He is said to have died of a surfeit.
The eels and sturgeon of Bolsena, and
the wines of Orvieto and Montefias-
cone, in the neighborhood of whose
vineyards he lived, were too much for
him. But he died in Perugia, not in
Orvieto.
24. The Lake of Bolsena is in the
Papal States, a few miles northwest of
Viterbo, on the road from Rome to
Siena. It is thus described in Murray's
Handbook of Central Italy, p. 199 : —
" Its circular form, and being in the
centre of a volcanic district, hashed to
its being regarded as an extinct crater ;
but that hypothesis can scarcely be ad-
mitted when the great extent of the
lake is considered. The treacherous
beauty of the lake conceals rnalaria in
its most fatal forms ; and its shores, al-
though there are no traces of a marsh,
are deserted, excepting where a few
sickly hamlets are scattered on their
western slopes. The ground is culti-
vated in many parts down to the
water's edge, but the laborers dare not
sleep for a single night during the sum-
mer or autumn on the plains where
they work by day; and a large tract
of beautiful and productive country is
reduced to a perfect solitude by this
invisible calamity. Nothing can be
more striking than the appearance of
the lake, without a single sail upon its
waters, and with scarcely a human
habitation within sight of Bolsena ;
and nothing perhaps can give the trav-
eller who visits Italy for the first time
a more impressive idea of the effects
of malaria."
Of the Vcrnaccia or Vernage, in
which Pope Martin cooked his eels,
Henderson says. Hist. Anc. and Mod,
Wines, p. 296: " The Vernage ....
was a red wine, of a bright color, and
a sweetish and somewhat rough flavor,
which was grown in Tuscany and
other parts of Italy, and derived its
name from the thick-skinned grape,
vernaccia (corresponding with the vina-
ciola of the ancients), that was used in
the preparation of it."
Chaucer mentions it in the Merchant's
Tale: —
" He drinketh ipocras, clarre, and vernage
Of spices hot, to encreasen his corage."
And Redi, Bacchus in Tuscany, Leigh
Hunt's Tr., p. 30, sings of it thus: —
" If anybody does n't like Vernaccia,
I mean that sort that 's made in Pietrafitta,
Let him fly
My violent eye ;
I curse him, clean, through all the Alpha-
beta."
28. Ovid, Met. VII., says of Eri-
sichthon, that he
" Deludes his throat with visionary fare,
Feasts on the wind and banquets on the air."
29. Ubaldin dalla Pila was a brother
of the Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubal-
dini, mentioned Inf. X. 120, and fa-
ther of the Archbishop Ruggieri, Inf.
XXXIII. 14. According to Sacchetti,
Nov. 205, he passed most of his time
at his castle, and turned his gardener
into a priest; **and Messer Ubaldino,"
continues the novelist, ** put him into
Pztrgatorio xxiv.
323
his church ; of which one may say he
made a pigsty ; for he did not put in
a priest, but a pig in the way of eating
and drinking, who had neither gram-
mar nor any good thing in him."
Some writers say that this Boniface,
Archbishop of Ravenna, was a son of
Ubaldino; but this is confounding him
with Ruggieri, Archbishop of Pisa.
He was of the Fieschi of Genoa. His
pasturing many people alludes to his
keeping a great retinue and court, and
the free life they led in matters of the
table.
31. Messer Marchese da Forli, who
answered the accusation made against
him, that "he was always drinking," by
saying, that " he was always thirsty."
37. A lady of Lucca with whom
Dante is supposed to have been en-
amored. " Let us pass over in si-
lence," says Balbo, Life and Times of
Dante, IL 177, " the consolations and
errors of the poor exile." But Buti
says : " He formed an attachment to
a gentle lady, called Madonna Gen-
tucca, of the family of Rossimpelo, on
account of her great virtue and mod-
esty, and not with any other love."
Benvenuto and the Ottimo interpret
the passage differently, making gentuc-
ca a common noun, — gente bassa, low
people. But the passage which im-
mediately follows, in which a maiden
is mentioned who should make Lucca
pleasant to him, seems to confirm the
former interpretation.
38. In the throat of the speaker,
where he felt the hunger and thirst of
his punishment.
50. Chaucer, Complaint of the Blacke
Knight, 194: —
*' But even like as doth a skrivenere,
That can no more tell what that he shal write,
But as his maister beside dothe indite."
51. A canzone of the Vita Nuova,
beginning, in Rossetti's version. Early
Italian Poets, p. 255 : —
"Ladies that have intelligence in love,
Of mine own lady I would speak with you;
Not that I hope to count her praises throujjh,
But, telling what I may, to ease my mind."
56. Jacopo da Lentino, or " the
Notary," was a Sicilian poet who
flourished about 1250, in the later days
-of the Emperor Frederick the Second.
Crescimbeni, Hist. Volg. Poesia, IH.
43, says that Dante " esteemed him so
highly, that he even mentions him in
his Comedy, doing him the favor to
put him into Purgatory." Tassoni,
and others after him, make the careless
statement that he addressed a sonnet to
Petrarca. He died before Petrarca was
born. Rossetti gives several specimens
of his sonnets and canzonette in his
Early Italian Poets, of which the fol-
lowing is one : —
"Of his Lady in Heavew.
" I have it in my heart to serve God so
That into Paradise I shall repair, —
The holy place through the which every-
where
I have heard say that joy and solace flow.
Without my lady I were loath to go, —
She who has the bright face and the bright
hair ;
Because if she were absent, I being there,
My pleasure would be less than naught, I
know.
Look you, I say not this to such intent
324
Notes
As that I there would deal in any sin :
I only would behold her gracious mien,
And beautiful soft eyes, and lovely face,
That so it should be my complete content
To see my lady joyful in her place."
Fra Guittone d' Arczzo, a contem-
porary of the Notary, was one of the
Frati Gaudenti, or Jovial Friars, men-
tioned in Inf. XXIII. Note 103. He
first brought the Italian Sonnet to the
perfect form it has since preserved,
and left behind the earliest specimens
of Italian letter-writing. These letters
are written in a very florid style, and
are perhaps more poetical than his
verses, which certainly fall very far
short of the " sweet new style." Of
all his letters the best is that To the
Florentines, from which a brief extract
is given Canto VI. Note 76.
82. Corso Donati, the brother of
Forese who is here speaking, and into
whose mouth nothing but Ghibelline
wrath could have put these words.
Corso was the leader of the Neri in
Florence, and a partisan of Charles de
Valois. His death is recorded by Vil-
lani, VIII. 96, and is thus described
by Napier, Flor. Hist., I. 407 : —
" The popularity of Corso was now
thoroughly undermined, and the priors,
after sounding the Campana for a gen-
eral assembly of the armed citizens,
laid a formal accusation before the Po-
desta Piero Branca d' Agobbio against
him for conspiring to overthrow the
liberties of his country, and endeavor-
ing to make himself Tyrant of Flo-
rence : he was immediately cited to
appear, and, not complying, from a rea-
sonable distrust of his judges, was with-
in one hour, against all legal forms,
condemned to lose his head, as a rebel
and traitor to the commonwealth.
" Not willing to allow the culprit
more time for an armed resistance than
had been given for legal vindication,
the Scignory, preceded by the Gon-
falonier of justice, and followed by the
Podesta, the captain of the people, and
the executor, — all attended by their
guards and officers, — issued from the
palace; and with the whole civic force
marshalled in companies, with banners
flying, moved forward to execute an
illegal sentence against a single citizen,
who nevertheless stood undaunted on
his defence.
"Corso, on first hearing of the pros-
ecution, had hastily barricaded all the
approaches to his palace, but, disabled
by the gout, could only direct the ne-
nessary operations from his bed ; yet
thus helpless, thus abandoned by all
but his own immediate friends and vas-
sals ; suddenly condemned to death ;
encompassed by the bitterest foes, with
the whole force of the republic banded
against him, he never cowered for an
instant, but courageously determined to
resist, until succored by Uguccione
della Faggiola, to whom he had sent
for aid. This attack continued during
the greater part of the day, and gener-
ally with advantage to the Donati, for
the people were not unanimous, and
many fought unwillingly, so that, if the
Rossi, Bardi, and other friends had
joined, and Uguccioni's forces arrived,
it would have gone hard with the citi-
Ptirgatorio xxir.
325
zens. The former were intimidated,
the latter turned back on hearing how
matters stood ; and then only did Cor-
so's adherents lose heart and slink from
from the barricades, while the towns-
men pursued their advantage by break-
ing down a garden wall opposite the
Stinche prisons and taking their enemy
in the rear. This completed the dis-
aster, and Corso, seing no chance re-
maining, fled towards the Casentino ;
but, being overtaken by some Cata-
lonian troopers in the Florentine ser-
vice, he was led back a prisoner from
Rovezzano. After vainly endeavoring
to bribe them, unable to support the
indignity of a public execution at the
hands of his enemies, he let himself
fall from his horse, and, receiving sev-
eral stabs in the neck and flank from
the Catalan lances, his body was left
bleeding on the road, until the monks
of San Salvi removed it to their con-
vent, where he was interred next
morning with the greatest privacy.
Thus perished Corso Donati, * the
wisest and most worthy knight of his
time; the best speaker, the most expe-
rienced statesman; the most renowned,
the boldest, and most enterprising no-
bleman in Italy : he was handsome in
person and of the most gracious man-
ners, but very worldly, and caused
infinite disturbance in Florence on
account of his ambition.' * . . . .
* People now began to repose, and his
unhappy death was often and variously
discussed, according to the feelings of
friendship or enmity that moved the
* Villani, VIII. Ch. 96.
speaker; but in truth, his life was dan-
gerous, and his death reprehensible.
He was a knight of great mind and
name, gentle in manners as in blood ;
of a fine figure even in his old age,
with a beautitul countenance, delicate
features, and a fair complexion ; pleas-
ing, wise ; and an eloquent speaker.
His attention was ever fixed on im-
portant things ; he was intimate with
all the great and noble, had an exten-
sive influence, and was famous through-
out Italy. He was an enemy of the
middle classes and their supporters, be-
loved by the troops, but full of mali-
cious thoughts, wicked, and artful. He
was thus basely murdered by a foreign
soldier, and his fellow -citizens well
knew the man, for he was instantly
conveyed away : those who ordered
his death were Rosso della Tosa and
Pazzino de' Pazzi, as is commonly said
by all ; and some bless him and some
the contrary. Many believe that the
two said knights killed him, and I,
wishing to ascertain the truth, inquired
diligently, and found what I have said
to be true.'f Such is the character of
Corso Donati, which has come down
to us from two authors who must have
been personally acquainted with this
distinguished chief, but opposed to
each other in the general politics of
their country."
See also Inf. VI. Note 52.
99. Virgil and Statius.
105. Dante had only so far gone
round the circle, as to come in sight of
the second of these trees, which from
\ Dino Compagni, III. 76.
26
Notes
distance to distance encircle the moun-
tain.
1 1 6. In the Terrestrial Paradise on
the top of the mountain.
121. The Centaurs, born of Ixion
and the Cloud, and having the "dou-
ble breasts" of man and horse, became
drunk with wine at the marriage of
Hippodamia and Pirithous, and strove
to carry off the bride and the other
women by violence. Theseus and
the rest of the Lapithse opposed them,
and drove them from the feast. This
famous battle is described at great
length by Ovid, Met. XII., Dry-
den's Tr. : —
" For one, most brutal of the brutal brood,
Or whether wine or beauty fired his blood,
Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes
The bride ; at once resolved to make his prize.
Down went the board ; and fastening on her hair,
He seized with sudden force the frighted fair.
'T was Eurytus began : his bestial kind
His crime pursued ; and each, as pleased his
mind,
Or her whom chance presented, took : the feast
An image of a taken town expressed.
" Tiie cave resounds with female shrieks j
we rise
Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise :
And Theseus first, * What frenzy has possessed,
O Eurytus," he cried, ' thy brutal breast,
To wrong Pirithous, and not him alone,
But, while I live, two friends conjoined in
one ? ' "
125. Judges vii. 5, 6: *' So he
brought down the people unto the
water: and the Lord said unto Gideon,
Every one that lappeth of the water
with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him
shalt thou set by himself ; likewise
every one that boweth down upon his
knees to drink. And the number of
them that lapped, putting their hand
to their mouth, were three hundred
men ; but all the rest of the people
bowed down upon their knees to drink
water."
139. The Angel of the Seventh
Circle.
CANTO XXV.
I. The ascent to the Seventh Cir-
cle of Purgatory, where the sin of Lust
is punished.
3. When the sign of Taurus reached
the meridian, the sun, being in Aries,
would be two hours beyond it. It is
now two o'clock of the afternoon.
The Scorpion is the sign opposite
Taurus.
15. Shakespeare, Hamlet, I. 2 : —
" And did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak."
22. Meleager was the son of CEneus
and Althxa, of Calydon. At his birth
the Fates were present and predicted
his future greatness. Clotho said that
he would be brave ; Lachesis, that he
would be strong ; and Atropos, that
he would live as long as the brand
upon the fire remained unconsumed.
Purgatorio xxv.
327
Ovid, Met. VIII. : —
"There lay a log unlighted on the hearth,
When she was laboring in the throes of birth
For th' unborn chief; the fatal sisters came,
And raised it up, and tossed it on the flame
Then on the rock a scanty measure place
Of vital flax, and turned the wheel apace ;
And turning sung, ' To this red brand and
thee,
O new-born babe, we give an equal destiny " ;
So vanished out of view. The frighted dame
Sprung hasty from her bed, and quenched the
flame.
The log, in secret locked, she kept with care,
And that, while thus preserved, preserved her
heir."
Meleager distinguished himself in
the Argonautic expedition, and after-
wards in the hunt of Calydon, where
he killed the famous boar, and gave
the boar's head to Atalanta ; and when
his uncles tried to take possession of it,
he killed them also. On hearing this,
and seeing the dead bodies, his mother
in her rage threw the brand upon the
fire again, and, as it was consumed,
Meleager perished.
Mr. Swinburne, Atalanta in Caly-
don : —
CHORUS.
" When thou dravest the men
Of the chosen of Thrace,
None turned him again
Nor endured he thy face
Clothed round with the blush of the battle, with
light from a terrible place.
CENEUS,
" Thou shouldst die as he dies
For whom none sheddeth tears ;
Filling thine eyes
And fulfilling thine ears
With the brilliance of battle, the bloom and the
beauty, the splendor of spears.
CHORUS.
" In the ears of the world
It is sung, it is told.
And the light thereof hurled
And the noise thereof rolled
From the Acroceraunian snow to the ford of
the fleece of gold.
MELEAGER.
" Would God ye could carry me
Forth of all these ;
Heap sand and bury me
By the Chersonese
Where the thundering Bosphorus answers the
thunder of Pontic seas.
CENEUS.
" Dost thou mock at our praise
And the singing begun
And the men of strange days
Praising my son
In the folds of the hills of home, high places
of Calydon ?
MELEAGER.
" For the dead man no home is ;
Ah, better to be
What the flower of the foam is
In fields of the sea.
That the sea-waves might be as my raiment,
the gulf-stream a garment for me.
" Mother, I dying with unforgetful tongue
Hail thee as holy and worship thee as just
Who art unjust and unholy ; and with my
knees
Would worship, but thy fire and subtlety,
Dissundering them, devour me ; for these limbs
Are as light dustand Grumblings from mine urn
Before the fire has touched them ; and my face
As a dead leaf or dead foot's mark on snow,
And all this body a broken barren tree
That was so strong, and all this flower of life
Disbranched and desecrated miserably.
And minished all that god-like muscle and
might
And lesser than a man's : for all my veins
Fail me, and all mine ashen
down."
328
Notes
37. The dissertation which Dante
here puts into the mouth of Statius may-
be found also in a briefer prose form
in the Convito, IV. 21. It so much
excites the enthusiasm of Varchi, that
he declares it alone sufficient to prove
Dante to have been a physician, phi-
losopher, and theologian of the highest
order ; and goes on to say : " I not
only confess, but I swear, that as many
times as I have read it, which day and
night are more than a thousand, my
wonder and astonishment have always
increased, seeming every time to find
therein new beauties and new instruc-
tion, and consequently new difficul-
ties."
This subject is also discussed in part
by Thomas Aquinas, Sum. TbeoL, I.
Quaest. cxix., De propagations hominis
quantum ad corpus.
Milton, in his Latin poem, De Idea
Platonica, has touched upon a theme
somewhat akin to this, but in a manner
to make it seem very remote. Perhaps
no two passages could better show the
difference between Dante and Milton,
than this canto and Plato''s Archetypal
Man, which in Leigh Hunt's trans-
lation runs as follows : —
"Say, guardian goddesses of woods,
Aspects, felt in solitudes ;
And Memory, at whose blessed knee
The Nine, which thy dear daughters be,
Learnt "of the majestic past ;
And thou, that in some antre vast
Leaning afar off dost lie,
Otiose Eternity,
Keeping the tablets and decrees
Of Jove, and the ephemerides
Of the gods, and calendars,
Of the ever festal stars ;
Say, who was he, the sunless shade,
After whose pattern man was made j
He first, the full of ages, born
With the old pale polar morn.
Sole, yet all ; first visible thought,
After which the Deity wrought ?
Twin-birth with Pallas, not remain
Doth he in Jove's o'crshadowed brain j
But though of wide communion,
Dwells apart, like one alone ;
And fills the wondering embrace,
(Doubt it not) of size and place.
Whether, companion of the stars.
With their tenfold round he errs ;
Or inhabits with his lone
Nature in the neighboring moon ;
Or sits with body-waiting souls.
Dozing by the Lethaean pools : —
Or whether, haply, placed afar
In some blank region of our star,
He stalks, an unsubstantial heap,
Humanity's giant archetype ;
Where a loftier bulk he rears
Than Atlas, grappler of the stars,
And through their shadow-touched abodes
Brings a terror to the gods.
Not the seer of him had sight,
Who found in darkness depths of light; *
His travelled eyeballs saw him not
In all his mighty gulfs of thought : —
Him the farthest-footed good,
Pleiad Mercury, never showed
To any poet's wisest sight
In the silence of the night : —
News of him the Assyrian priest j-
Found not in his sacred list.
Though he traced back old king Nine,
And Belus, elder name divine.
And Osiris, endless famed.
Not the glory, triple-named,
Thrice great Hermes, though his eyes
Read the shapes of all the skies,
Left him in his sacred verse
Revealed to Nature's worshippers.
* Tiresias, who was blind. j- Sanchoniathon.
Pttrgatorio xxv.
329
" O Plato ! and was this a dream
Of thine in bowery Academe ?
Wert thou the golden tongue to tell
First of this high miracle,
And charm him to thy schools below ?
O call thy poets back, if so,*
Back to the state thine exiles call,
Thou greatest fabler of them all j
Or follow through the self-same gate,
Thou, the founder of the state."
48. The heart, where the blood
takes the " virtue informative," as stated
in line 40.
52. The vegetative soul, virhich in
man differs from that in plants, as be-
ing in a state of development, while
that of plants is complete already.
55. The vegetative becomes a sen-
sitive soul.
65. " This was the opinion of Aver-
roes," says the Ottimo, "which is false,
and contrary to the Catholic faith."
In the language of the Schools, the
Possible Intellect, intellcctus possibilis,
is the faculty which receives impres-
sions through the senses, and forms
from them pictures or phantasmata in
the mind. The Active Intellect, in-
tellectus agens, draws from these pic-
tures various ideas, notions, and con-
clusions. They represent the Under-
standing and the Reason.
70. God.
75. Redi, Bacchus in Tuscany: —
" Such bright blood is a ray enkindled
Of that sun, in heaven that shines.
And has been left behind entangled
And caught in the net of the many vines."
79, When Lachesis has spun out
the thread of life.
* Whom Plato banished from his imaginary
republic.
VOL. II. 42
81. Thomas Aquinas, Sum. Theol.t
I. Quaest. cxviii. Art. 3 : " Anima in-
tellectiva remanet destructo corpore.^''
86. Either upon the shores of Ache-
ron or of the Tiber.
103. jEneid, VI. 723, Davidson's
Tr. : —
" In the first place, the spirit with-
in nourishes the heavens, the earth,
and watery plains, the moon's enlight-
ened orb, and the Titanian stars ; and
the mind, diffused through all the mem-
bers, actuates the whole frame, and
mingles with the vast body of the uni-
verse. Thence the race of men and
beasts, the vital principles of the flying
kind, and the monsters which the ocean
breeds under its smooth plain. These
principles have the active force of fire,
and are of a heavenly original, so far as
they are not clogged by noxious bodies,
blunted by earth-born limbs and dying
members. Hence they fear and de-
sire, grieve and rejoice ; and, shut up
in darkness and a gloomy prison, lose
sight of their native skies. Even when
with the last beams of light their life
is gone, yet not every ill, nor all cor-
poreal stains, are quite removed from
the unhappy beings; and it is absolute-
ly necessary that many imperfections
which have long been joined to the
soul should be in marvellous ways in-
creased and riveted therein. There-
fore are they afflicted with punish-
ments, and pay the penalties of their
former ills. Some, hung on high, are
spread out to the empty winds ; in
others, the guilt not done away is
washed out in a vast watery abyss, or
330
Notes
burned away in fire. We each endure
his own manes, thence are we conveyed
along the spacious Elysium, and we,
the happy few, possess the fields of
bliss ; till length of time, after the
fixed period is elapsed, hath done
away the inherent stain, and hath left
the pure celestial reason, and the fiery
energy of the simple spirit."
121. "God of clemency supreme";
the church hymn, sung at matins on
Saturday morning, and containing a
prayer for purity.
128. Luke i. 34: "Then said Mary
unto the angel. How shall this be, see-
ing I know not a man ? "
131. Helice, or Callisto, was a daugh-
ter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia. She
was one of the attendant nymphs of
Diana, who discarded her on account
of an amour with Jupiter, for which
Juno turned her into a bear. Areas
was the offspring of this amour. Jupi-
ter changed them to the constellations
of the Great and Little Bear.
Ovid, Met. IL, Addison's Tr. : —
" But now her son had fifteen summers told,
Fierce at the chase, and in the forest bold ;
When, as he beat the woods in quest of prey,
He chanced to rouse his mother where she
lay.
She knew her son, and kept him in her sight,
And fondly gazed : the boy was in a fright,
And aimed a pointed arrow at her breast,
And would have slain his mother in the beast ;
But Jove forbad, and snatched them through
the air
In whirlwinds up to Heaven, and fixed them
there 5
Where the new constellations nightly rise,
And add a lustre to the Northern skies,
" When Juno saw the rival in her height,
Spangled with stars, and circled round with
light,
She sought old Ocean in his deep abodes,
And Tethys, both revered among the gods.
They ask what brings her there : ' Ne'er ask,*
says she,
' What brings me here ; Heaven is no place
for me.
You '11 see, when Night has covered all things
o'er,
Jove's starry bastard and triumphant whore
Usurp the heavens ; you '11 see them proudly
roll
In their new orbs, and brighten all the pole."
CANTO XXVI.
I. The punishment of the sin of
Lust.
5. It is near sunset, and the western
sky is white, as the sky always is in the
neighborhood of the sun.
12. A ghostly or spiritual body.
41. Pasiphae, wife of Minos, king
of Crete, and mother of the Mino-
taur. Virgil, Eclogue VI. 45, David-
son's Tr. : —
" And he soothes Pasiphae in her
passion for the snow-white bull: happy
woman if herds had never been ! Ah,
ill-fated maid, what madness seized
thee ? The daughters of Prcetus with
imaginary lowings filled the fields ; yet
Pttrgatorio xxvi.
331
none of them pursued such vile em-
braces of a beast, however they might
dread the plough about their necks,
and often feel for horns on their
smooth foreheads. Ah, ill-fated maid,
thou now art roaming on the moun-
tains ! He, resting his snowy side
on the soft hyacinth, ruminates the
blenched herbs under some gloomy
oak, or courts some female in the nu-
merous herd."
43. The Riphsan mountains are in
the north of Russia. The sands are
the sands of the deserts.
59. Beatrice.
62. The highest heaven. Par.
XXVII.
78. In one of Cesar's triumphs the
Roman soldiery around his chariot
called him " Queen " ; thus reviling
him for his youthful debaucheries with
Nicomedes, king of Bithynia.
87. The cow made by Dsdalus.
92. Guido Guinicelli, the best of
the Italian poets before Dante, flour-
ished in the first half of the thirteenth
century. He was a native of Bologna,
but of his life nothing is known. His
most celebrated poem is a Canzone on
the Nature of Love, which goes far to
justify the warmth and tenderness of
Dante's praise. Rossetti, Early Italian
Poets, p. 24, gives the following ver-
sion of it, under the title of The Gentle
Heart : —
" Within the gentle heart Love shelters him,
As birds within the green shade of the
grove.
Before the gentle heart, in Nature's scheme,
Love was not, nor the gentle heart ere
Love.
For with the sun, at once,
So sprang the light immediately ; nor was
Its birth before the sun's.
And Love hath his effect in gentleness
Of very self; even as
Within the middle fire the heat's excess.
"The fire of Love comes to the gentle heart
Like as its virtue to a precious stone 5
To which no star its influence can impart
Till it is made a pure thing by the sun :
For when the sun hath smit
From out its essence that which there was
vile.
The star endoweth it.
And so the heart created by God's breath
Pure, true, and clean from guile,
A woman, like a star, enamoreth.
" In gentle heart Love for like reason is
For which the lamp's high flame is fanned
and bowed :
Clear, piercing bright, it shines for its own
bliss ;
Nor would it burn there else, it is so proud.
For evil natures meet
With Love as it were water met with fire.
As cold abhorring heat.
Through gentle heart Love doth a track
divine, —
Like knowing like ; the same
As diamond runs through iron in the mine.
"The sun strikes full upon the mud all day;
It remains vile, nor the sun's worth is
less.
' By race I am gentle,' the proud man doth
say :
He is the mud, the sun is gentleness.
Let no man predicate
That aught the name of gentleness should
have,
Even in a king's estate,
Except the heart there be a gentle man's.
The star-beam lights the wave, —
Heaven holds the star and the star's radi-
ance.
332
Notes
" God, in the understanding of high Heaven,
Burns more than in our sight the living sun :
There to behold His Face unveiled is given;
And Heaven, whose will is homage paid
to One,
Fulfils the things which live
In God, from the beginning excellent.
So should my lady give
That truth which in her eyes is glorified,
On which her heart is bent,
To me whose service waiteth at her side.
*'My lady, God shall ask, ' What daredst
thou ? '
(When my soul stands with all her acts
reviewed ;)
* Thou passedst Heaven, into My sight, as
now.
To make Me of vain love similitude.
To Me doth praise belong.
And to the Queen of all the realm of grace
Who endeth fraud and wrong.'
Then may I plead : * As though from Thee
he came,
Love wore an angel's face :
Lord, if I loved her, count it not my shame.'"
94. Hypsipyle was discovered and
rescued by her sons Eumenius and Tho-
as, (whose father was the " bland Ja-
son," as Statius calls him,) just as King
Lycurgus in his great grief was about to
put her to death for neglecting the care
of his child, who through her neglect
had been stung by a serpent.
Statius, Thebaid, V. 949, says it was
Tydeus who saved Hysipyle : —
" But interposing Tydeus rushed between.
And with his shield protects the Lemnian
queen."
118. In the old Romance languages
the name of prosa was applied gener-
ally to all narrative poems, and partic-
ularly to the monorhythmic romances.
Thus Gonzalo de Berceo, a Spanish
poet of the thirteenth century, begins
a poem on the Vida del Glorioso Con-
fessor Santo Domingo de Silos : —
" De un confessor Sancto quiero fer una prosa,
Quiero fer una prosa en roman paladino.
En qual suele el pueblo fablar a su vecino,
Ca non so tan letrado per fer otro Latino."
120. Gerault de Berneil of Limoges,
born of poor parents, but a man of
talent and learning, was one of the
most famous Troubadours of the thir-
teenth century. The old Provencal bi-
ographer, quoted by Raynouard, Choix
de Poesies, V. 166, says : " He was a
better poet than any who preceded or
followed him, and was therefore called
the Master of the Troubadours
He passed his winters in study, and his
summers in wandering from court to
court with two minstrels who sang his
songs."
The following specimen of his po-
ems is from [Taylor's] Lays of the
Minnesingers and Troubadours, p. 247.
It is an Aubade, or song of the morn-
ing : —
" Companion dear ! or sleeping or awaking,
Sleep not again ! for lo ! the morn is nigh,
And in the east that early star is breaking.
The day's forerunner, known unto mine
eye;
The morn, the morn is near.
" Companion dear ! with carols sweet I call
thee ;
Sleep not again ! I hear the birds' blithe
song
Loud in the woodlands ; evil may befall
thee,
And jealous eyes awaken, tarrying long,
Now that the morn is near.
Purgatorio xxvt
333
" Companion dear ! forth from the window
looking,
Attentive mark the signs of yonder heaven ;
Judge if aright I read what they betoken:
Thine all the loss, if vain the warning given;
The morn, the morn is near.
" Companion dear ! since thou from hence wert
straying,
Nor sleep nor rest these eyes have visited ;
My prayers unceasing to the Virgin paying,
That thou in peace thy backward way
might tread.
The morn, the morn is near.
" Companion dear ! hence to the fields with me !
Me thou forbad'st to slumber through the
night.
And I have watched that livelong night for
thee ;
But thou in song or me hast no delight,
And now the morn is near.
Answer.
" Companion dear ! so happily sojourning.
So blest am I, I care not forth to speed :
Here brightest beauty reigns, her smiles
adorning
Her dwelling - place, — then wherefore
should I heed
The morn or jealous eyes ? "
According to Nostrodamus he died
in 1278. Notwithstanding his great
repute, Dante gives the palm of excel-
lence to Arnaud Daniel, his rival and
contemporary. But this is not the
gSneral verdict of literary history.
124. Fra Guittone d' Arezzo. See
Canto XXIV. Note 56.
137. Venturi has the indiscretion
to say : " This is a disgusting compli-
ment after the manner of the French ;
in the Italian fashion we should say,
* You will do me a favor, if you will
tell me your name.' " Whereupon
Biagioli thunders at him in this wise :
"Infamous dirty dog that you are, how
can you call this a compliment after
the manner of the French ? How can
you set off against it what any cobbler
might say ? Away ! and a murrain on
you ! "
142. Arnaud Daniel, the Trouba-
dour of the thirteenth century, whom
Dante lauds so highly, and whom Pe-
trarca calls " the Grand Master of
Love," was born of a noble family at
the castle of Ribeyrac in Perigord.
Millot, Hist, des Troub., II. 479, says
of him : " In all ages there have been
false reputations, founded on some in-
dividual judgment, whose authority has
prevailed without examination, until at
last criticism discusses, the truth pene-
trates, and the phantom of prejudice
vanishes. Such has been the reputa-
tion of Arnaud Daniel."
Raynouard confirms this judgment,
and says that, "in reading the works of
this Troubadour, it is difficult to con-
ceive the causes of the great celebrity
he enjoyed during his life."
Arnaud Daniel was the inventor of
the Sestina, a song of six stanzas of six
lines each, with the same rhymes re-
peated in all, though arranged in dif-
ferent and intricate order, which must
be seen to be understood. He was
also author of the metrical romance of
Lancillotto, or Launcelot of the Lake,
to which Dante doubtless refers in his
expression prose di romanzi, or proses
of romance. The following anecdote
is from the old Proven9al authority.
334
Notes
quoted both by Millot and Raynouard,
and is thus translated by Miss Costello,
Early Poetry of France, p. 37 : —
"Arnaud visited the court of Rich-
ard Coeur de Lion in England, and en-
countered there a jongleur, who defied
him to a trial of skill, and boasted
of being able to make more difficult
rhymes than Arnaud, a proficiency on
which he chiefly prided himself. He
accepted the challenge, and the two
poets separated, and retired to their
respective chambers to prepare for the
contest. The Muse of Arnaud was
not propitious, and he vainly endeav-
ored to string two rhymes together.
His rival, on the other hand, quickly
caught the inspiration. The king had
allowed ten days as the term of prep-
aration, five for composition, and the
remainder for learning it by heart to
sing before the court. On the third
day the jongleur declared that he had
finished his poem, and was ready to
recite it, but Arnaud replied that he
had not yet thought of his. It was the
jongleur's custom to repeat his verses
out loud every day, in order to learn
them better, and Arnaud, who was in
vain endeavoring to devise some means
to save himself from the mockery of
the court at being outdone in this con-
test, happened to overhear the jongleur
singing. He went to his door and
listened, and succeeded in retaining the
words and the air. On the day ap-
pointed they both appeared before the
king. Arnaud desired to be allowed
to sing first, and immediately gave the
song which the jongleur had composed.
The latter, stupefied with astonish-
ment, could c y exclaim : * It is my
song, it is my song.' * Impossible ! '
cried the king ; but the jongleur, per-
sisting, requested Richard to interro-
gate Arnaud, who would not dare, he
said, to deny it. Daniel confessed the
fact, and related the manner in which
the affair had been conducted, which
amused Richard far more than the song
itself. The stakes of the wager were
restored to each, and the king loaded
them both with presents."
According to Nostrodamus, Arnaud
died about 11 89. There is no other
reason for making him speak in Pro-
vencal than the evident delight which
Dante took in the sound of the words,
and the peculiar flavor they give to the
close of the canto. Raynouard says
that the writings of none of the Trou-
badours have been so disfigured by cop-
yists as those of Arnaud. This would
seem to be true of the very lines which
Dante writes for him; as there are at
least seven different readings of them.
Here Venturi has again the indiscre-
tion to say that Arnaud answers Dante
in "a kind of lingua-franca, part Pro-
vencal and part Catalan, joining togeth-
er the perfidious French with the vile
Spanish, perhaps to show that Arnaud
was a clever speaker of the two."
And again Biagioli suppresses him with
" that unbridled beast of a Venturi,'*
and this "most potent argument of his
presumptuous ignorance and imperti-
nence."
Pttrgatorio xxvii.
335
CANTO XXVII.
1. The description of the Seventh
and last Circle continued.
Cowley, Hymn to Light : —
"Say from what golden quivers of the sky
Do all thy winged arrows fly ? "
2. When the sun is rising at Jerusa-
lem, it is setting on the Mountain of
Purgatory ; it is midnight in Spain,
with Libra in the meridian, and noon
in India.
" A great labyrinth of words and
things," says Venturi, " meaning only
that the sun was setting ! " and this
time the " Jo/ce pedagogo " Biagioli lets
him escape without the usual reprimand.
8. Matthew v. 8: "Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God."
1 6. With the hands clasped and
turned palm downwards, and the body
straightened backward in attitude of
resistance.
23. Inf. XVII.
33. Knowing that he ought to con-
fide in Virgil and go forward.
37. The story of the Babylonian
lovers, whose trysting-place was under
the white mulberry-tree near the tomb
of Ninus, and whose blood changed
the fruit from white to purple, is too
well known to need comment. Ovid,
Met. IV., Eusden's Tr. : —
" At Thisbe's name awaked, he opened wide
His dying eyes ; with dying eyes he tried
On her to dwell, but closed them slow and
died."
48. Statius had for a long while
been between Virgil and Dante.
58. Matthew XXV. 34: "Then shall
the king say unto them on his right
hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world."
70. Dr. Furness's Hymn : —
" Slowly by God's hand unfurled,
Down around the weary world
Falls the darkness."
90. Evening of the Third Day of
Purgatory. Milton, Farad. Lost, IV.
598: —
" Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad :
Silence accompanied ; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their
nests
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale ;
She all night long her amorous descant sung;
Silence was pleased : now glowed the firma-
ment
With living sapphires : Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length,
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light.
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw."
93. The vision which Dante sees is
a foreshadowing of Matilda and Bea-
trice in the Terrestrial Paradise. In
the Old Testament Leah is a symbol
of the Active life, and Rachel of the
Contemplative ; as Martha and Mary
are in the New Testament, and Ma-
tilda and Beatrice in the Divine Com-
edy. " Happy is that house," says
Saint Bernard, " and blessed is that
congregation, where Martha still com-
plaineth of Mary."
33^
Notes
Dante says in the Convito, IV. 17 :
" Truly it should be known that we
can have in this life two felicities, by
following two different and excellent
roads, which lead thereto; namely, the
Active life and the Contemplative."
And Owen Feltham in his Re-
solves : —
" The mind can walk beyond the
sight of the eye, and, though in a
cloud, can lift us into heaven while
we live. Meditation is the soul's per-
spective glass, whereby, in her long
remove, she discerneth God as if he
were nearer hand. I persuade no man
to make it his whole life's business.
We have bodies as well as souls. And
even this world, while we are in it,
ought somewhat to be cared for. As
those states are likely to flourish, where
execution follows sound advisements,
so is man, when contemplation is sec-
onded by action. Contemplation gen-
erates ; action propagates. Without
the first, the latter is defective. With-
out the last, the first is but abortive
and embryous. Saint Bernard com-
pares contemplation to Rachel, which
was the more fair; but action to Leah,
which was the more fruitful. I will
neither always be busy and doing, nor
ever shut up in nothing but thoughts.
Yet that which some would call idle-
ness, I will call the sweetest part of
my life, and that is, my thinking."
95. Venus, the morning star, rising
with the constellation Pisces, two hours
before the sun.
100. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, lU. 221 :
" This vision of Rachel and Leah has
been always, and with unquestionable
truth, received as a type of the Ac-
tive and Contemplative life, and as an
introduction to the two divisions of
the Paradise which Dante is about to
enter. Therefore the unwearied spirit
of the Countess Matilda is understood to
represent the Active life, which forms
the felicity of Earth ; and the spirit of
Beatrice the Contemplative life, which
forms the felicity of Heaven. This
interpretation appears at first straight-
forward and certain ; but it has missed
count of exactly the most important
fact in the two passages which we have
to explain. Observe : Leah gathers
the flowers to decorate herself, and de-
lights in her own Labor. Rachel sits
silent, contemplating herself, and de-
lights in her own Image. These are
the types of the Unglorified Active and
Contemplative powers of Man. But
Beatrice and Matilda are the same
powers, glorified. And how are they
glorified ? Leah took delight in her
own labor ; but Matilda, in operibus
manuum Tuarum, — in God^s labor :
Rachel, in the sight of her own face ;
Beatrice, in the sight of God^s face."
112. The morning of the Fourth
Day of Purgatory.
115. Happiness.
Purgatorio xxviii.
337
CANTO XXVIII.
I. The Terrestrial Paradise. Com-
pare Milton, Parad. Lost, IV. 214 : —
" In this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordained :
Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste j
And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,
High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold ; and next to Life,
Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by,
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large.
Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy
hill
Passed underneath Ingulfed ; for God had thrown
That mountain as his garden mould, high raised
Upon the rapid current, which through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up drawn.
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Watered the garden ; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood.
Which from his darksome passage now appears ;
And now, divided into four main streams,
Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm
And country, whereof here needs no account }
But rather to tell how, if art could tell.
How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks,
Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold,
With mazy error under pendent shades
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed
Flowers worthy of Paradise ; which not nice art
In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain;
Both where the morning sun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierced shade
Imbrowned the noontide bowers. Thus was
this place
A happy rural seat of various view :
Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and
balm ;
Others, whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true,
VOL. II. 43
If true, here only, and of delicious taste.
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interposed j
Or palmy hillock, or the flowery lap
Of some irriguous valley spread her store ;
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the
rose.
Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant : meanwhile murmuring waters fall
Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake.
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their quire apply ; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves; while universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Led on the eternal spring."
2. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. 219:
** As Homer gave us an ideal land-
scape, which even a god might have
been pleased to behold, so Dante gives
us, fortunately, an ideal landscape,
which is specially intended for the
terrestrial paradise. And it will doubt-
less be with some surprise, after our
reflections above on the general tone
of Dante's feelings, that we find our-
selves here first entering a forest, and
that even a thick forest
" This forest, then, is very like that
of Colonos in several respects, — in its
peace and sweetness, and number of
birds ; it diiFers from it only in letting
a light breeze through it, being there-
fore somewhat thinner than the Greek
wood ; the tender lines which tell of
the voices of the birds mingling with
338
Notes
the wind, and of the leaves all turning
one way before it, have been more or
less copied by every poet since Dante's
time. They are, so far as I know, the
sweetest passage of wood description
which exists in literature."
Homer's ideal landscape, here re-
ferred to, is in Oi^ysscy V., where he
describes the visit of Mercury to the
Island of Calypso. , It is thus trans-
lated by Buckley : —
" Immediately then he bound his
beautiful sandals beneath his feet, am-
brosial, golden ; which carried him
both over the moist wave, and over
the boundless earth, with the breath
of the wind Then he rushed
over the wave like a bird, a sea-gull,
which, hunting for fish in the terrible
bays of the barren sea, dips frequently
its wings in the brine ; like unto this
Mercury rode over many waves. But
when he came to the distant island,
then, going from the blue sea, he went
to the continent ; until he came to the
great cave in which the fair-haired
Nymph dwelt ; and he found her
within. A large fire was burning on
the hearth, and at a distance the smell
of well-cleft cedar, and of frankincense,
that were burning, shed odor through
the island : but she within was singing
with a beautiful voice, and, going over
the web, wove with a golden shuttle.
But a flourishing wood sprung up
around her grot, alder and poplar,
and sweet-smelling cypress. There
also birds with spreading wings slept,
owls and hawks, and wide - tongued
crows of the ocean, to which maritime
employments are a care. There a
vine in its prime was spread about
the hollow grot, and it flourished with
clusters. But four fountains flowed in
succession with white water, turned
near one another, each in different
ways ; but around there flourished soft
meadows of violets and of parsley.
There indeed even an immortal com-
ing would admire it when he beheld,
and would be delighted in his mind ;
there the messenger, the slayer of Ar-
gus, standing, admired."
And again, at the close of the same
book, where Ulysses reaches the shore
at Phasacia : —
*' Then he hastened to the wood ;
and found it near the water in a con-
spicuous place, and he came under
two shrubs, which sprang from the
same place ; one of wild olive, the
other of olive. Neither the strength
of the moistly blowing winds breathes
through them, nor has the shining sun
ever struck them with its beams, nor
has the shower penetrated entirely
through them : so thick were they
grown entangled with one another ;
under which Ulysses came."
The wood of Colonos is thus de-
scribed in one of the Choruses of the
Gidipus Coloneus of Sophocles, Oxford
Tr., Anon. : —
*' Thou hast come, O stranger, to
the seats of this land, renowned for
the steed ; to seats the fairest on earth,
the chalky Colonus ; where the vo-
cal nightingale, chief abounding, trills
her plaintive note in the green vales,
tenanting the dark-hued ivy and the
Pttrgatorio xxvin.
339
leafy grove of the god, untrodden [by
mortal foot], teeming with fruits, im-
pervious to the sun, and unshaken by
the winds of every storm ; where Bac-
chus ever roams in revelry companion-
ing his divine nurses. And ever day
by day the narcissus, with its beaute-
ous clusters, burst into bloom by heav-
en's dew, the ancient coronet of the
mighty goddesses, and the saffron with
golden ray; nor do the sleepless founts
that feed the channels of Cephissus fail,
but ever, each day, it rushes o'er the
plains with its stainless wave, fertiliz-
ing the bosom of the earth ; nor have
the choirs of the Muses spurned this
clime ; nor Venus, too, of the golden
rein. And there is a tree, such as I
hear not to have ever sprung in the
land of Asia, nor in the mighty Doric
island of Pelops, a tree unplanted by
hand, of spontaneous growth, terror
of the hostile spear, which flourishes
chiefly in this region, the leaf of the
azure olive that nourishes our young.
This shall neither any one in youth
nor in old age, marking for destruc-
tion, and having laid it waste with his
hand, set its divinity at naught ; for
the eye that never closes of Morian
Jove regards it, and the blue-eyed Mi-
nerva."
We have also Homer's description
of the Garden of Alcinoiis, Odyssey,
VII., Buckley's Tr. : —
" But without the hall there is a
large garden, near the gates, of four
acres ; but around it a hedge was ex-
tended on both sides. And there tall,
flourishing trees grew, pears, and pome-
granates, and apple-trees producing
beautiful fruit, and sweet figs, and flour-
ishing olives. Of these the fruit never
perishes, nor does it fail in winter or
summer, lasting throughout the whole
year ; but the west wind ever blowing
makes some bud forth, and ripens
others. Pear grows old after pear,
apple after apple, grape also after
grape, and fig after fig. There a fruit-
ful vineyard was planted : one part of
this ground, exposed to the sun in a
wide place, is dried by the sun ; and
some [grapes] they are gathering, and
others they are treading, and further
on are unripe grapes, having thrown
off the flower, and others are slightly
changing color. And there are all
kinds of beds laid out in order, to the
furthest part of the ground, flourishing
throughout the whole year : and in it
are two fountains, one is spread through
the whole garden, but the other on the
other side goes under the threshold
of the hall to the lofty house, from
whence the citizens are wont to draw
water."
Dante's description of the Terres-
trial Paradise will hardly fail to re-
call that of Mount Acidale in Spenser's
Faerie ^eene, VI. x. 6 : —
"It was an Hill plaste in an open plaine,
That round about was bordered with a
wood
Of matchlesse hight, that seemed th' earth
to disdaine ;
In which all trees of honour stately stood,
And did all winter as in sommer bud,
Spredding pavilions for the birds to bowre,
Which in their lower braunches sung
aloud ;
340
Notes
And in their tops the soring hauke did
towrc,
Sitting like king of fowlcs in maicsty and
powre.
"And at the foote thereof a gentle flud
His silver waves did softly tumble downe,
Unmard with ragged mosse or filthy mud j
Ne mote wylde beastes, ne mote the ruder
clowne,
Thereto approch ; ne filth mote therein
drowne :
But Nymphcs and Faeries by the bancks
did sit
In the woods shade which did the waters
crowne,
Keeping all noysome things away from it,
And to the waters fall tuning their accents fit.
"And on the top thereof a spacious plaine
Did spred itselfe, to serve to all delight,
Either to daunce, when they to daunce would
faine,
Or else to course-about their bases light ;
Ne ought there wanted, which for pleasure
might
Desired be, or thence to banish bale :
So pleasauntly the Hill with equall hight
Did seeme to overlooke the lowly vale ;
Therefore it rightly cleeped was Mount Aci-
dale."
See also Tasso's Garden of Armida,
in the Gerusalemme, XVI.
20. Chiassi is on the sea-shore near
Ravenna. " Here grows a spacious
pine forest," says Covino, Descr. Geog.,
p. 39, ** which stretches along the sea
between Ravenna and Cervia."
25. The river Lethe.
40. This lady, who represents the
Active life to Dante's waking eyes, as
Leah had done in his vision, and whom
Dante afterwards. Canto XXXIIL 119,
calls Matilda, is generally supposed by
the commentators to be the celebrated
Countess Matilda, daughter of Boni-
face, Count of Tuscany, and wife of
Guelf, of the house of Suabia. Of
this marriage Villani, IV. 21, gives a
very strange account, which, if true, is
a singular picture of the times. Na-
pier, Flor, Hist., I. Ch. 4 and 6, gives
these glimpses of the Countess : —
"This heroine died in 1 1 15, after
a reign of active exertion for herself
and the Church against the Emperors,
which generated the infant and as yet
nameless factions of Guelf and Ghib-
elline. Matilda endured this contest
with all the enthusiasm and constancy
of a woman, combined with a manly
courage that must ever render her name
respectable, whether proceeding from
the bigotry of the age, or to oppose
imperial ambition in defence of her
own defective title. According to the
laws of that time, she could not as a
female inherit her father's states, for
even male heirs required a royal con-
firmation. Matilda therefore, having
no legal right, feared the Emperor
and clung to the Popes, who already
claimed, among other prerogatives, the
supreme disposal of kingdoms
*' The Church had ever come for-
ward as the friend of her house, and
from childhood she had breathed an
atmosphere of blind and devoted sub-
mission to its authority ; even when
only fifteen she had appeared in arms
against its enemies, and made two suc-
cessful expeditions to assist Pope Alex-
ander the Second during her mother's
lifetime.
Piirgatorio xxvni.
341
" No wonder, then, that in a super-
stitious age, when monarchs trembled
at an angry voice from the Lateran,
the habits of early youth should have
mingled with every action of Matilda's
life, and spread an agreeable mirage
over the prospect of her eternal salva-
tion : the power that tamed a Henry's
pride, a Barbarossa's fierceness, and
afterwards withstood the vast ability of
a Frederic, might without shame have
been reverenced by a girl whose feel-
ings so harmonized with the sacred
strains of ancient tradition and priestly
dignity. But from whatever motive,
the result was a continual aggrandize-
ment of ecclesiastics; in prosperity and
adversity ; during life and after death ;
from the lowliest priest to the proudest
pontiff.
" The fearless assertion of her own
independence by successful struggles
with the Emperor was an example not
overlooked by the young Italian com-
munities under Matilda's rule, who
were already accused by imperial legit-
imacy of political innovation and vis-
ionary notions of government
"Being then at a place called Monte
Baroncione, and in her sixty-ninth year,
this celebrated woman breathed her
last, after a long and glorious reign of
incessant activity, during which she dis-
played a wisdom, vigor, and determi-
nation of character rarely seen even in
men. She bequeathed to the Church
all those patrimonial estates of which
she had previously disposed by an act
of gift to Gregory the Seventh, with-
out, however, any immediate royal
power over the cities and other posses-
sions thus given, as her will expresses
it, * for the good of her soul, and the
souls of her parents.'
" Whatever may now be thought of
her chivalrous support, her bold defence,
and her deep devotion to the Church, it
was in perfect harmony with the spirit
of that age, and has formed one of her
chief merits with many even in the
present. Her unflinching adherence
to the cause she had so conscientiously
embraced was far more noble than the
Emperor Henry's conduct. Swinging
between the extremes of unmeasured
insolence and abject humiliation, he
died a victim to Papal influence over
superstitious minds ; an influence which,
amongst other debasing lessons, then
taught the world that a breach of the
most sacred ties and dearest affections
of human nature was one means of
gaining the approbation of a Being who
is all truth and beneficence.
" Matilda's object was to strengthen
the chief spiritual against the chief
temporal power, but reserving her
own independence ; a policy subse-
quently pursued, at least in spirit, by
the Guelphic states of Italy. She
therefore protected subordinate mem-
bers of the Church against feudal
chieftains, and its head against the
feudal Emperor. True to her relig-
ious and warlike character, she died
between the sword and the crucifix,
and two of her last acts, even when
the hand of death was already cold
on her brow, were the chastisement
of revolted Mantua, and the midnight
342
Notes
celebration oT Christ's nativity in the
depth of a freezing and unusually in-
clement winter."
50. Ovid, Met. v., Maynwaring's
Tr. : —
" Here, while young Proserpine, among the
maids,
Diverts herself in these delicious shades ;
While like a child with busy speed and care
She gathers lilies here, and violets there ;
While first to fill her little lap she strives.
Hell's grizzly monarch at the shade arrives ;
Sees her thus sporting on the flowery green.
And loves the blooming maid, as soon as
seen.
His urgent flame impatient of delay.
Swift as his thought he seized the beauteous
prey.
And bore her in his sooty car away.
The frighted goddess to her mother cries,
But all in vain, for now far oiFshe flies.
Far she behind her leaves her virgin train ;
To them too cries, and cries to them in vain.
And while with passion she repeats her call,
The violets from her lap, and lilies fall :
She misses them, poor heart ! and makes new
moan 5
Her lilies, ah ! are lost, her violets gone."
65. Ovid, Met. X., Eusden's Tr. : —
" For Cytherea's lips while Cupid prest.
He with a heedless arrow razed her breast.
The goddess felt it, and, with fury stung.
The wanton mischief from her bosom flung :
Yet thought at first the danger slight, but
found
The dart too faithful, and too deep the wound.
Fired with a mortal beauty, she disdains
To haunt th' Idalian mount, or Phrygian
plains.
She seeks not Cnidos, nor her Paphian shrines.
Nor Amathus, that teems with brazen mines :
Even Heaven itself with all its sweets un-
sought,
Adonis far a sweeter Heaven is thought."
72. When Xerxes invaded Greece
he crossed the Hellespont on a bridge
of boats with an army of five million.
So say the historians. On his return
he crossed it in a fishing boat almost
alone, — "a warning to all human arro-
gance."
Leander naturally hated the Helles-
pont, having to swim it so many times.
The last time, according to Thomas
Hood, he met with a sea nymph, who,
enamored of his beauty, carried him to
the bottom of the sea. See Hero and
Leander, stanza 45 : —
*' His eyes are blinded with the sleety brine.
His ears are deafened with the wildering
noise 5
He asks the purpose of her fell design.
But foamy waves choke up his struggling
voice,
Under the ponderous sea his body dips,
And Hero's name dies bubbling on his
lips.
" Look how a man is lowered to his grave,
A yearning hollow in the green earth's
lap;
So he is sunk into the yawning wave,
The plunging sea fills up the watery gap;
Anon he is all gone, and nothing seen.
But likeness of green turf and hillocks
green.
" And where he swam, the constant sun lies
sleeping,
Over the verdant plain that makes his
bed;
And all the noisy waves go freshly leaping,
Like gamesome boys over the churchyard
dead ;
The light in vain keeps looking for his face,
Now screaming sea-fowl settle in his place."
80. Psalm xcii. 4: "For thou. Lord,
hast made me glad through thy work :
Purgatorio xxix.
343
I will triumph in the works of thy
hands."
87. Canto XXI. 46 : —
"Because that neither rain, nor hail, nor snow,
Nor dew, nor hoar-frost any higher falls
Than theshort, little stairway of three steps."
94. Only six hours, according to
Adam's own account in Par. XXI.
139: —
" Upon the mount which highest o'er the
wave
Rises was I, with life or pure or sinful,
From the first hour to that which is the
second.
As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth."
102. Above the gate described in
Canto IX.
146. Virgil and Statius smile at this
allusion to the dreams of poets.
CANTO XXIX.
I. The Terrestrial Paradise and the
Apocalyptic Procession of the Church
Triumphant.
3. Psalm xxxii. i : "Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered."
10. Counted together, their steps
were not a hundred in all.
41. The Muse of Astronomy, or
things celestial, represented as crowned
with stars and robed in azure. Milton,
Par ad. Lost, VII. i, makes the same
invocation : —
" Descend from heaven, Urania, by that
name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar.
Above the flight of Pegasean wing.
The meaning, not the name, I call : for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st ; but, heavenly-born,
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of the Almighty Father,' pleased
With thy celestial song."
47. The general form which ob-
jects may have in common, and by
which they resemble each other.
49. The faculty which lends dis-
course to reason is apprehension, or
the faculty by which things are first
conceived. See Canto XVIII. 22 : —
"Your apprehension from some real thing
An image draws, and in yourselves dis-
plays it.
So that it makes the soul turn unto it."
50. Revelation i. 12, 20: "And I
turned to see the voice that spake
with me. And, being turned, I saw
seven golden candlesticks And
the seven candlesticks are the
seven churches." <
Some commentators interpret them
as the seven Sacraments of the Church ;
others, as the seven gifts of the Holy
Ghost.
78. Delia or Diana, the moon ; and
her girdle, the halo, sometimes seen
around it.
344
Notes
83. Revelation iv. 4: "And round
about the throne were four and twenty
seats : and upon the seats I saw four
and twenty elders sitting, clothed in
white raiment ; and they had on their
heads crowns of gold."
These four and twenty elders are
supposed to symbolize here the four
and twenty books of the Old Testa-
ment. The crown pf lilies indicates
the purity of faith and doctrine.
85. The salutation of the angel to the
Virgin Mary. Luke i. 28 : " Blessed
art thou among women." Here the
words are made to refer to Beatrice.
92. The four Evangelists, of whom
the four mysterious animals in Eze-
kiel are regarded as symbols. Mrs.
Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art,
I. 99: —
"The general application of the Four
Creatures to the Four Evangelists is of
much earlier date than the separate and
individual application of each symbol,
which has varied at different times ;
that propounded by St. Jerome, in his
commentary on Ezekiel, has since his
time prevailed universally. Thus,
then, — I. To St. Matthew was given
the Cherub, or human semblance, be-
cause he begins his Gospel with the
human generation of Christ ; or, ac-
cording to others, because in his Gos-
pel the human nature of the Saviour is
more insisted on than the divine. In
the most ancient mosaics, the type is
human, not angelic, for the head is that
of a man with a beard. 2. St. Mark
has the Lion, because he has set forth
the royal dignity of Christ ; or, ac-
cording to others, because he begins
with the mission of the Baptist, — * the
voice of one crying in the wilderness^ —
which is figured by the lion : or, ac-
cording to a third interpretation, the
lion was allotted to St. Mark because
there was, in the Middle Ages, a pop-
ular belief that the young of the lion
was born dead, and after three days
was awakened to vitality by the breath
of its sire ; some authors, however,
represent the lion as vivifying his
young, not by his breath, but by his
roar. In either case the application is
the same ; the revival of the young
lion was considered as symbolical of
the resurrection, and Mark was com-
monly called the * historian of the res-
urrection.' Another commentator ob-
serves that Mark begins his Gospel
with 'roaring,' — 'the voice of one cry-
ing in the wilderness'; and ends it
fearfully with a curse, — * He that be-
lieveth not shall be damned'; and that,
therefore, his appropriate attribute is
the most terrible of beasts, the lion.
3. Luke has the Ox, because he has
dwelt on the priesthood of Christ,
the ox being the emblem of Sacrifice.
4. John has the Eagle, which is the
symbol of the highest inspiration, be-
cause he soared upwards to the con-
templation of the divine nature of the
Saviour."
100. Ezekiel i. 4: "And I looked,
and behold, a whirlwind came out of
the north, a great cloud, and a fire
infolding itself, and a brightness was
about it, and out of the midst there-
of, as the color of amber, out of the
Purgatorio xxix.
345
midst of the fire. Also out of the
midst thereof came the likeness of four
living creatures. And this was their
appearance ; they had the likeness of
a man. And every one had four faces,
and every one had four wings. And
their feet were straight feet ; and the
sole of their feet was like the sole of a
calf's foot ; and they sparkled like the
color of burnished brass."
105. In Revelation iv. 8, they are
described as having " each of them six
wings"; in Ezekiel, as having only
four.
107. The triumphal chariot is the
Church. The two wheels are gen-
erally interpreted as meaning the Old
and New Testaments; but Dante, Par.
XII. 106, speaks of them as St. Domi-
nic and St. Francis.
108. The Griffin, half lion and half
eagle, is explained by all the commen-
tators as a symbol of Christ, in his di-
vine and human nature. Didron, in
his Christian Iconography, interprets it
differently. He says, Millington's Tr.,
1.458:-
" The mystical bird of two colors is
understood in the manuscript of Her-
rade to mean the Church ; in Dante,
the bi-formed bird is the representative
of the Church, the Pope. The Pope,
in fact, is both priest and king ; he
directs the souls and governs the per-
sons of men ; he reigns over things in
heaven. The Pope, then, is but one
single person in two natures, and under
two forms ; he is both eagle and lion.
In his character of Pontiff, or as an
eagle, he hovers in the heavens, and
VOL. II. 44
ascends even to the throne of God to
receive his commands ; as the lion or
king he walks upon the earth in strength
and power."
He adds in a note : " Some com-
mentators of Dante have supposed the
griffin to be the emblem of Christ,
who, in fact, is one single person with
two natures ; of Christ, in whom God
and man are combined. But in this
they are mistaken; there is, in the first
place, a manifest impropriety in de-
scribing the car as drawn by God as
by a beast of burden. It is very doubt-
ful even whether Dante can be alto-
gether freed from the imputation of a
want of reverence in harnessing the
Pope to the car of the Church."
no. The wings of the Griffin ex-
tend upward between the middle list
or trail of splendor of the seven candles
and the three outer ones on each side.
1 1 7. The chariot of the sun, which
Phaeton had leave to drive for a day,
is thus described by Ovid, Met. II.,
Addison's Tr. : —
" A golden axle did the work uphold,
Gold was the beam, the wheels were orbed
with gold.
The spokes in rows of silver pleased the
sight,
The seat with party-colored gems was bright;
Apollo shined amid the glare of light."
120. In smiting Phaeton with a
thunderbolt. Ovid, Met. II. : —
"Jove called to witness every power above.
And even the god whose son the chariot drove,
That what he acts he is compelled to do.
Or universal ruin must ensue.
Straight he ascends the high ethereal throne,
From whence he used to dart his thunder down,
346
Notes
From whence his showers and storms he used
to pour,
But now could meet with neither storm nor
shower ;
Then, aiming at the youth, with lifted hand.
Full at his head he hurled the forky brand.
In dreadful thund'rings. Thus th' almighty
sire
Suppressed the raging of the fires with fire."
See also Inf. XVII. Note 107.
121. The three Theological or
Evangelical Virtues, Charity, Hope,
and Faith. For the symbolism of
colors in Art, see Mrs. Jameson, Sacred
and Legendary Art, quoted Canto VIII.
Note 28.
130. The four Cardinal Virtues,
Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Tem-
perance. They are clothed in purple
to mark their nobility. Prudence is
represented with three eyes, as look-
ing at the past, the present, and the
future.
133. St. Luke and St. Paul.
136. St. Luke is supposed to have
been a physician ; a belief founded on
Colossians iv. 14, " Luke, the beloved
physician." The animal that nature
holds most dear is man.
140. The sword with which St.
Paul is armed is a symbol of warfare
and martyrdom ; " I bring not peace,
but a sword." St. Luke's office was
to heal ; St. Paul's to destroy. Mrs.
Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, I.
188, says : —
" At what period the sword was
given to St. Paul as his distinctive at-
tribute is with antiquaries a disputed
point ; certainly much later than the
keys were given to Peter. If we
could be sure that the mosaic on the
tomb of Otho the Second, and another
mosaic already described, had not been
altered in successive restorations, these
would be evidence that the sword was
given to St. Paul as his attribute as
early as the sixth century ; but there
are no monuments which can be ab-
solutely trusted as regards the intro-
duction of the sword before the end of
the eleventh century ; since the end
of the fourteenth century it has been so
generally adopted, that in the devotion-
al effigies I can remember no instance
in which it is omitted. When St.
Paul is leaning on the sword, it ex-
presses his martyrdom; when he holds
it aloft, it expresses also his warfare in
the cause of Christ : when two swords
are given to him, one is the attribute,
the other the emblem; but this double
allusion does not occur in any of the
older representations. In Italy I never
met with St. Paul bearing two swords,
and the only instance I can call to
mind is the bronze statue by Peter
Vischer, on the shrine of St. Sebald, at
Nuremberg."
142. The four Apostles James, Pe-
ter, John, and Jude, writers of the Ca-
nonical Epistles. The red flowers,
with which their foreheads seem all
aflame, are symbols of martyrdom.
Massinger, Virgin Martyr, V. i : —
" What flowers are these ?
In Dioclesian's gardens, the most beauteous
Compared with these are weeds."
143. St. John, writer of the Apoca-
lypse ; here represented as asleep ; as
if he were "in the spirit on the Lord's
Ptirgatorio xxix.
347
day, and heard behind him a great
voice as of a trumpet." Or perhaps
the allusion may be to the belief of the
early Christians that John did not die,
but was sleeping till the second coming
of Christ. This subject has been re-
presented in mediaeval Art as follows.
Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary
Art, I. 139 : —
" St. John, habited in priest's gar-
ments, descends the steps of an altar
into an open grave, in which he lays
himself down, not in death, but in
sleep, until the coming of Christ; 'be-
ing reserved alive with Enoch and Eli-
jah (who also knew not death), to
preach against the Antichrist in the
last days.' This fanciful legend is
founded on the following text: 'Peter,
seeing the disciple whom Jesus loved
following, saith unto Jesus, Lord, and
what shall this man do ? Jesus saith
unto him. If I will that he tarry till I
come, what is that to thee ? Then
went this saying abroad among the
brethren that that disciple should not
die.' (John xxi. 21, 22.)"
154. Of this canto and those that
follow. Barlow, Study of the Div. Com.,
p. 270, says : —
" Dante's sublime pageant of the
Church Militant is one of the most
marvellous processions ever marshalled
on paper. In the invention, arrange-
ment, grouping, and coloring the poet
has shown himself a great master in
art, familiar with all the stately require-
ments of solemn shows, festivals, and
triumphs. Whatever he may have
gathered from the sacred records, and
from classic writers, or seen in early
mosaics, or witnessed in the streets of
Florence with her joyous population,
her May-day dancers, and the military
pomp of her magnificent Carroccio,
like the arc of the covenant going forth
with the host, has here been surpassed
in invention and erudition, and a pic-
ture produced at once as original as
it is impressive, as significant as it is
grand. Petrarca was, probably, in-
debted to it for his ' Trionfi,' so
frequently in favor with Italian art-
ists.
" This canto with the four that fol-
low form a poem which, though an
essential portion of the Divina Com-
media, may be separately considered as
the continuation of the poetic vision
mentioned in the Vita Nuova, and the
fulfilment of the intention there ex-
pressed.
" It represents the symbolical pas-
sage of the Christian Church, preceded
by the Hebrew dispensation, and fol-
lowed by the disastrous effects of
schism, and the corruptions induced
by the unholy conduct of political
Pontiffs. The soul of this solemn ex-
hibition, the living and glorified prin-
ciple of the beatitude which Religion
pure and holy confers upon those who
embrace it, is personified in the • Don-
na,' to whom Dante from his earliest
youth had been more or less devoted,
the Beatrice of the Vita Nuova, 'Loda
di Dio vera,' who concentrates in her-
self the divine wisdom with which the
Church is inspired, whom angels de-
light to honor, and whose advent on
348
Notes
earth had been prepared from all eter-
nity by the moral virtues.
" Beatrice is here presented as the
principle of divine beatitude, or that
which confers it, and bears a resem-
blance to the figure of the New Jerusa-
lem seen by St. John descending from
heaven • as a bride adorned for her
husband ' (^Rev. xxi. 2) ; a representa-
tion of which, in the manner of Ra-
phael, occurs in one of the tapestries
of the Vatican, and, though not arrayed
in the colors of the Christian virtues.
Faith, Hope, and Charity, white and
green and red, as was Beatrice, may
yet be regarded as a Roman version
of her."
Didron, describing the painting of
the Triumph of Christ in the Church
of Notre Dame de Brou, Christian
Iconography, Millington's Tr., I. 315,
says : —
** In the centre of all rises the Hero
of the Triumph, Jesus Christ, who is
seated in an open car with four wheels.
He alone is adorned with a nimbus
formed of rays, departing from each
point of the head, and which illumines
everything around. With one glance
he embraces the past which precedes,
and the future which is to succeed him.
His face resembles that drawn by Ra-
phael and the masters of the period of
Renaissance, agreeing with the descrip-
tion given by Lentulus and Damasce-
nus ; it is serious and gentle. In the
centre of the chariot is placed a starry
globe traversed by the ecliptic, on
which the twelve signs of the zodiac
are brilliantly figured. This globe is
symbolic of the world, and forms a
throne for Christ : the Son of God is
seated on its summit. The car is
placed upon four wheels, and drawn
by the four attributes or symbols of
the Evangelists. The angel of St.
Matthew, and the eagle of St. John,
are of celestial whiteness ; the lion of
St. Mark, and the ox of St. Luke, are
of a reddish yellow, symbolizing the
earth on which they dwell. The
eagle and angel do, in fact, fly ; while
the lion and the ox walk. Yet upon
the painted window all the four have
wings. A rein of silver, passing round
the neck of each of the four symbols,
is attached to the pole of the chariot.
The Church, represented by the four
most elevated religious potentates, by
the Pope, the Cardinal, the Arch-
bishop, and Bishop, or by the four
chief Fathers, St. Gregory, St. Jerome,
St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine, drives
the four-wheeled car, and, in conjunc-
tion with the Evangelists, urges it on-
ward. Jesus guides his triumph, not
holding reins, but shedding blessings
from his right hand wherever he
passes.
" The entire assemblage of persons
represented on the window are seen
marching onwards, singing with joy.
Within the spaces formed by the mul-
lions which trellis the upper part of
the window, forty-six angels are repre-
sented with long golden hair, white
transparent robes, and wings of yellow,
red, violet, and green ; they are all
painted on a background of azure, like
the sky, and celebrate with blended
Purgatorio xxix.
349
voices, or with musical instruments,
the glory of Christ. Some have in
their hands instruments of different
forms, others books of music. The
four animals of the Evangelists seem
with sonorous voice to swell the accla-
mations of the hosts of saints ; the ox
with his bellowing, the lion with his
roar, the eagle with his cry, and the
angel with his song, accompany the
songs of the forty-six angels who fill
the upper part of the window. At the
head of the procession is an angel who
leads the entire company, and, with a
little cross which he holds in his hand,
points out to all the Paradise they are
to enter. Finally, twelve other an-
gels, blue as the heaven into which
they melt, join in adoration before the
triumph of Christ
** Dante has given a description of a
similar triumph, but marked by some
interesting differences. The Floren-
tine poet formed his cortege of figures
taken from the Apocalypse and Chris-
tian symbolism. At Brou, with the
exception of the attributes of the Evan-
gelists, everything is historical. In
the sixteenth century, in fact, history
began to predominate over symbol-
ism, which in the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries had reigned supreme.
Dante, who was a politic poet, drew
the triumph, not of Christ, but of
the Church ; the triumph of Catholi-
cism rather than of Christianity. The
chariot by which he represents the
Church is widowed of Christ, whose
figure is so important on the window
of Brou ; the chariot ia empty, and
Dante neither discovered this deficien-
cy, nor was concerned to rectify it ;
for he was less anxious to celebrate
Christ and his doctrine, for their own
sake, than as connected with the or-
ganization and administration of the
Church. He described the car as
drawn by a griffin, thereby represent-
ing the Pope, for the griffin unites in
itself the characteristics of both eagle
and lion. Now the Pope is also two-
fold in character ; as priest he is the
eagle floating in the air ; as king, he is
a lion, walking upon the earth. The
Ultramontane poet regarded the Church,
that is the Papacy, in the light of an
absolute monarchy; not a limited mon-
archy as with us, and still less a re-
public, as amongst the schismatics of
Greece and of the East. Consequent-
ly, while, at Brou, the Cardinal, the
Archbishop, and Bishop assist the Pope
in guiding the car of the Church,
in the * Divina Commedia,' the Pope
is alone, and accepts of no assistance
from the other great ecclesiastical dig-
nitaries. At Brou the car is guided by
the Evangelists, or by their attributes ;
ecclesiastical power is content merely
to lend its aid. According to the Ital-
ian poet, the Evangelists, although pres-
ent at the Triumph, do not conduct
it ; the Pope is himself -the sole guide
of the Church, and permits neither
the Evangelists to direct nor ecclesias-
tics to assist him. The Pope seems to
require no assistance ; his eye and arm
alone are sufficient for him."
350
Notes
CANTO XXX
I. In this canto Beatrice appears.
The Seven Stars, or Septcntrion of
the highest heaven, are the seven lights
that lead the procession, the seven gifts
of the Holy Ghost, by which all men
are guided safely in things spiritual, as
the mariner is by the Septentrion, or
Seven Stars of the Ursa Minor, two of
which are called the " Wardens of the
Pole," and one of which is the Cyno-
sure, or Pole Star. These lights pre-
cede the triumphal chariot, as in our
heaven the Ursa Minor precedes, or is
nearer the centre of rest, than the Ursa
Major or Charles's Wain.
In the Northern Mythology the God
Thor is represented as holding these
constellations in his hand. The old
Swedish Rhyme Chronicle, describing
the statues in the church of Upsala,
says : —
" The God Thor was the highest of them 5
He sat naked as a child,
Seven stars in his hand and Charles's Wain.
Spenser, Faerie ^eene, I. ii. i : —
" By this the northern wagoner had set
His sevenfold teme behind the steadfast
starre
That was in ocean waves yet never wet,
But firme is fixt, and sendeth light from
farre
To all that in the wide deep wandering arre."
1 1 . Song of Solomon iv. 8 : " Come
with me from Lebanon, my spouse,
with me from Lebanon."
17. At the voice of so venerable an
old man.
19. The cry of the multitude at
Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Mat-
thew xxi. 9 : "Blessed is he that com-
eth in the name of the Lord."
21. JEneid, VI. 833: "Give me
lilies in handfuls ; let me scatter pur-
ple flowers."
25. Milton, Par ad. Lost, I. 194: —
" As when the sun new-risen
Shines through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams."
32. It will be observed that Dante
makes Beatrice appear clothed in the
colors of the three Theological Virtues
described in Canto XXIX. 121. The
white veil is the symbol of Faith ; the
green mantle, of Hope ; the red tunic,
of Charity. The crown of olive de-
notes wisdom. This attire somewhat
resembles that given by artists to the
Virgin. " The proper dress of the
Virgin," says Mrs. Jameson, Legends of
the Madonna, Introd., liii., " is a close,
red tunic, with long sleeves, and over
this a blue robe or mantle Her
head ought to be veiled."
35. Beatrice had been dead ten
years at the date of the poem, 1300.
36. Fully to understand and feel
what is expressed in this line, the
reader must call to mind all that Dante
says in the Vita Nuova of his meetings
with Beatrice, and particularly the first,
which is thus rendered by Mr. Norton
in his New Life of Dante, p. 20 : —
" Nine times now, since my birth,
the heaven oi light had turned almost
Purgatorio xxx.
351
to the same point in its gyration, when
first appeared before my eyes the glori-
ous lady of my mind, who was called
Beatrice by many who did not know
why they thus called her. She had
now been in this life so long, that in
its course the starry heaven had moved
toward the east one of the twelve
parts of a degree ; so that about the
beginning of her ninth year she ap-
peared to me, and I near the end of
my ninth year saw her. She appeared
to me clothed in a most noble color, a
becoming and modest crimson, and she
was girt and adorned in the style that
became her extreme youth. At that
instant, I say truly, the spirit of life,
which dwells in the most secret cham-
ber of the heart, began to tremble
with such violence, that it appeared
fearfully in the least pulses, and, trem-
bling, said these words : Ecce deus for-
tior me, qui veniens dominabitur mihi !
* Behold a god, stronger than I, who,
coming, shall rule me ! '
" At that instant, the spirit of the
soul, which dwells in the high cham-
ber to which all the spirits of the
senses bring their perceptions, began
to marvel greatly, and, addressing the
spirits of the sight, said these words :
Apparuit jam beatitudo vestra, — * Now
hath appeared your bliss.' At that
instant the natural spirit, which dwells
in that part where the nourishment is
supplied, began to weep, and, weep-
ing, said these words : Heu miser ! quia
* frequenter impeditus ero deinceps, — * Woe
is me wretched ! because frequently
henceforth shall I be hindered.'
" From this time forward I say that
Love lorded it over my soul, which
had been thus quickly put at his dis-
posal ; and he began to exercise over
me such control and such lordship,
through the power which my imagi-
nation gave to him, that it behoved me
to perform completely all his pleasure.
He commanded me many times that
I should seek to see this youthful an-
gel, so that I in my boyhood often
went seeking her, and saw her of such
noble and praiseworthy deportment,
that truly of her might be said that
saying of the poet Homer : * She does
not seem the daughter of mortal man,
but of God.' And though her image,
which stayed constantly with me, in-
spired confidence in Love to hold lord-
ship over me, yet it was of such noble
virtue, that it never suffered that Love
should rule without the faithful counsel
of Reason in those matters in which
such counsel could be useful."
48. Dante here translates Virgil's
own words, as he has done so many
times before. jEneid, IV. 23 : Agnosco
veteris vestigia Jlamm^e.
52. The Terrestrial Paradise lost
by Eve.
83. Psalm xxxi. i, 8: "In thee,
O Lord, have I put my trust
Thou hast set my feet in a large room."
85. ^neid,V\.\%o: "Down drop
the firs ; crashes, by axes felled, the
ilex ; and the ashen rafters and the
yielding oaks are cleft by wedges."
And IX. 87 : "A wood .... dark
with gloomy firs, and rafters of the
maple."
352
Notes
Denistoun, Mem. of the Duke of Ur-
binOf I. 4, says: "On the summit grew
those magnificent pines, which gave to
the district of Massa the epithet of
Trabaria, from the beams which were
carried thence for the palaces of Rome,
and which are noticed by Dante as
' The living rafters
Upon the back of Italy.'"
87. Shakespeare, ^/«/^r'j Tale, IV.
3: —
" The fanned snow
That 's bolted by the northern blast twice o'er."
And Midsummer Night's Dream : —
" High Taurus' snow
Fanned with the eastern wind."
113. Which are formed in such
lofty regions, that they are beyond hu-
man conception.
125. Beatrice died in 1290, at the
age of twenty-five.
136. How far these self-accusations
of Dante were justified by facts, and
how far they may be regarded as ex-
pressions of a sensitive and excited
conscience, we have no means o^ de-
termining. It is doubtless but simple
justice to apply to him the words
which he applies to Virgil, Canto
III. 8: —
" O noble conscience, and without a stain,
How sharp a sting is trivial fault to thee ! "
This should be borne in mind when
we read what Dante says of his own
shortcomings ; as, for instance, in his
conversation with his brother-in-law
Forese, Canto XXIII. 115: —
" If thou bring back to mind
What thou with me hast been and I with thee,
The present memory will be grievous still."
But what shall we say of this sonnet
addressed to Dante by his intimate
friend, Guido Cavalcanti ? Rossetti,
Early Italian Poets, p. 358 : —
" I come to thee by daytime constantly,
But in thy thoughts too much of baseness
find:
Greatly it grieves me for thy gentle mind,
And for thy many virtues gone from thee.
It was thy wont to shun much company.
Unto all sorry concourse ill inclined ;
And still thy speech of me, heartfelt and
kind,
Had made me treasure up thy poetry.
But now I dare not, for thine abject life,
Make manifest that I approve thy rhymes;
Nor come I in such sort that thou may'st
know.
Ah ! prythee read this sonnet many times :
So shall that evil one who bred this strife
Be thrust from thy dishonored soul, and
go-"
CANTO XXXI.
1. In this canto Dante, having made
confession of his sins, is drawn by Ma-
tilda through the river Lethe.
2. Hitherto Beatrice has directed
her discourse to her attendant hand-
maidens around the chariot. Now she
speaks directly to Dante.
25. As in a castle or fortress.
Ptirgatorio xxxi.
353
30. As one fascinated and enamored
with them.
42. The sword of justice is dulled
by the wheel being turned against its
edge. This is the usual interpretation;
but a friend suggests that the allusion
may be to the wheel of St. Catherine,
which is studded with sword-blades.
46. The grief which is the cause of
your weeping.
59. There is a good deal of gossip-
ing among the commentators about this
little girl or Pargoletta. Some sup-
pose it to be the same as the Gentucca
of Canto XXIV. 37, and the Pargo-
letta of one of the poems in the Can-
zoniere, which in Mr. Lyell's trans-
lation runs as follows : —
" Ladies, behold a maiden fair, and young ;
To you I come heaven's beauty to display,
And manifest the place from whence I
am.
In heaven I dwelt, and thither shall return,
Joy to impart to angels with my light.
He who shall me behold nor be enamored,
Of Love shall never comprehend the charm j
For every pleasing gift was freely given.
When Nature sought the grant of me.from
him
Who willed that your companion I should
be.
Each star upon my eyes its influence sheds.
And with its light and virtue I am blest :
Beauties are mine the world hath never
seen.
For I obtained them in the realms above ;
And ever must their essence rest unknown.
Unless through consciousness of him in
whom
Love shall abide through pleasure of an-
other.
These words a youthful angel bore inscribed
Upon her brow, whose vision we beheld ;
And I, who to find safety gazed on her,
VOL. II. 45
A risk incur that it may cost my life ;
For I received a wound so deep and wide
From one I saw entrenched within her eyes,
That still I weep, nor peace I since have
known."
Others think the allusion is general.
The Ottimo says: "Neither that young
woman, whom in his Rime he called
Pargoletta, nor that Lisetta, nor that
other mountain maiden, nor this one,
nor that other." He might have added
the lady of Bologna, of whom Dante
sings in one of his sonnets : —
" And I may say
That in an evil hour I saw Bologna,
And that fair lady whom I looked upon."
Buti gives a different interpretation
of the word pargoletta, making it the
same as pargulta or pargolezza, " child-
ishness or indiscretion of youth."
In all this unnecessary confusion one
thing is quite evident. As Beatrice is
speaking of the past, she could not
possibly allude to Gentucca, who is
spoken of as one who would make
Lucca pleasant to Dante at some fu-
ture time : —
" 'A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,'
Began he, * who to thee shall pleasant make
My city, howsoever men may blame it.' "
Upon the whole, the interpretation
of the Ottimo is the most satisfactory,
or at all events the least open to objec-
tion.
63. Proverbs i. 17: "Surely in vain
the net is spread in the sight of any
bird."
72. larbas, king of Gaetulia, from
whom Dido bought the land for build-
ing Carthage.
354
Notes
77. The angels described in Canto
XXX. 20, as
"Scattering flo^vcrs above and round about."
92. Matilda, described in Canto
XXVIII. 40: —
" A lady all alone, who went along
Singing and culling floweret after floweret,
With which her pathway was all painted
over."
95. Bunyan, Pilgrirn's Progress, the
river without a bridge : —
" Now I further saw that betwixt
them and the gate was a river ; but
there was no bridge to go over : the
river was very deep. At the sight
therefore of this river, the pilgrims
were much stunned ; but the men that
went with them said, * You must go
through, or you cannot come at the
gate.' ....
" They then addressed themselves
to the water, and, entering. Christian
began to sink, and crying out to his
good friend Hopeful, he said, * I sink
in deep waters ; the billows go over
my head, all his waves go over me.
Selah.'
" Now upon the bank of the river,
on the other side, they saw the two
shining men again, who there waited
for them. Wherefore being come out
of the river, they saluted them, saying,
♦ We are ministering spirits, sent forth
to minister for those that shall be heirs
of salvation.' "
98. Psalms li. 7 : " Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean : wash me
and I shall be whiter than snow."
104. The four attendant Nymphs
on the left of the triumphal chariot.
Sec Canto XXIX. 130: —
" Upon the left hand four made holiday
Vested in purple."
106. See Canto I. Note 23.
III. These four Cardinal Virtues
lead to Divine Wisdom, but the three
Evangelical Virtues quicken the sight
to penetrate more deeply into it.
1 14. Standing upon the chariot still;
she does not alight till line 36 of the
next canto.
116. The color of Beatrice's eyes has
not been passed over in silence by the
commentators. Lani, in his Annota-
zioni, says: "They were of a greenish
blue, like the color of the sea." Me-
chior Messirini, who thought he had
discovered a portrait of Beatrice as
old as the fourteenth century, affirms
that she had " splendid brown eyes."
Dante here calls them emeralds ; upon
which the Ottimo comments thus :
** Dante very happily introduces this
precious stone, considering its proper-
ties, and considering that griffins watch
over emeralds. The emerald is the
prince of all green stones ; no gem nor
herb has greater greenness ; it reflects
an image like a mirror ; increases
wealth ; is useful in litigation and to
orators ; is good for convulsions and
epilepsy; preserves and strengthens the
sight; restrains lust ; restores memory;
is powerful against phantoms and de-
mons; calms tempests; stanches blood,
and is useful to soothsayers."
The beauty of green eyes, ojuelos
verdes, is extolled by Spanish poets ;
and is not left unsung by poets of other
countries. Lycophron in his " tene-
Purgatorio xxxn.
355
brous poem " of Cassandra, says of
Achilles : —
" Lo ! the warlike eagle come,
Green of eye, and black of plume."
And in one of the old French Mys-
teries, Hist. Theat. Fran^., I. 176,
Joseph describes the child Jesus as
having
" Les yeulx vers, la chair blanche et tendre
Les cheveulx blonds."
122. Monster is here used in the
sense of marvel or prodigy.
123. Now as an eagle, now as a
lion. The two natures, divine and hu-
man, of Christ are reflected in Theol-
ogy, or Divine Wisdom. Didron, who
thinks the Griffin a symbol of the Pope,
applies this to his spiritual and tempo-
ral power: "As priest he is the eagle
floating in the air ; as king he is a lion
walking on the earth."
132. The Italian Caribo, like the
English Carol or Roundelay, is both
song and dance. Some editions read
in this line ** singing," instead of
" dancing."
CANTO XXXII.
1. A mystical canto, in which is de-
scribed the tree of the forbidden fruit,
and other wonderful and mysterious
things.
2. Beatrice had been dead ten years.
10. Goethe, Hermann and Dorothea,
Cochrane's Tr., p. 103 : —
" Ev'n as the wanderer, who, ere the sun dips
his orb in the ocean,
One last look still takes of the day-god, fast
disappearing ;
Then, amid rocks rude -piled, umbrageous
forests, and copsewoods,
Sees his similitude float, wherever he fixes
his vision ;
Finding it glancing before him, and dancing
in magical colors."
35. A disfrenata saetta, an uncurbed
arrow, like that which Pandarus shot
at Menelaus, Iliad, IV. 124: "The
sharp-pointed arrow sprang forth, eager
to rush among the crowd."
38. Genesis ii. 16: "Of every tree
of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
But of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it :
for in the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die."
Some commentators suppose that
Dante's mystic tree is not only the
tree of knowledge of good and evil,
but also a symbol of the Roman Em-
pire.
41 . Virgil, Georgics, IT. 1 23 : " The
groves which India, nearer the ocean,
the utmost skirts of the globe, pro-
duces, where no arrows by their flight
have been able to surmount the airy
summit of the tree ; and yet that na-
tion is not slow at archery."
43. Christ's renunciation of tempo-
ral power.
51. The pole of the chariot, which
was made of this tree, he left bound to
the tree.
356
Notes
Buti says : " This chariot represents
the Holy Church, which is the con-
gregation of the faithful, and the pole
of this chariot is the cross of Christ,
which he bore upon his shoulders, so
that the author well represents him as
dragging the pole with his neck."
The statement that the cross was made
of the tree of knowledge, is founded
on an old legend. When Adam was
dying, he sent his son Seth to the
Garden of Paradise to bring him some
drops of the oil of the mercy of God.
The angel at the gate refused him en-
trance, but gave him a branch from the
tree of knowledge, and told him to
plant it upon Adam's grave ; and that,
when it should bear fruit, then should
Adam receive the oil of God's mercy.
The branch grew into a tree, but never
bore fruit till the passion of Christ ;
but " of a branch of this tree and of
other wood," says Buti, " the cross
was made, and from that branch was
suspended such sweet fruit as the body
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then
Adam and other saints had the oil of
mercy, inasmuch as they were taJien
from Limbo and led by Christ into
eternal life."
54. In the month of February,
when the sun is in the constellation
of the Fishes. Dante here gives it
the title of the Lasca, the Roach or
Mullet.
58. The red and white of the apple-
blossoms is symbolical of the blood and
water which flowed from the wound
in Christ's side. At least so thinks
Vellutelli.
Ruskin, Mod. Painters, IIL 226,
says : " Some three arrow-flights farther
up into the wood we come to a tall
tree, which is at first barren, but, after
some little time, visibly opens into
flowers, of a color * less than that of
roses, but more than that of violets.'
It certainly would not be possible,
in words, to come nearer to the defini-
tion of the exact hue which Dante
meant, — that of the apple- blossom.
Had he employed any simple color-
phrase, as a * pale pink,' or ' violet
pink,' or any other such combined
expression, he still could not have
completely got at the delicacy of the
hue ; he might perhaps have indicated
its kind, but not its tenderness ; but
by taking the rose-leaf as the type of
the delicate red, and then enfeebling
this with the violet gray, he gets, as
closely as language can carry him, to
the complete rendering of the vision,
though it is evidently felt by him to
be in its perfect beauty inefi^able ; and
rightly so felt, for of all lovely things
which grace the spring-time in our fair
temperate zone, I am not sure but this
blossoming of the apple-tree is the
fairest."
65. The eyes of Argus, whom Mer-
cury lulled asleep by telling him the
story of Syrinx, and then put to death.
Ovid, Met., L, Dryden's Tr. : —
" While Hermes piped, and sung, and told
his tale,
The keeper's winking eyes began to fail.
And drowsy slumber on the lids to creep ;
Till all the watchman was at length asleep.
Then soon the god his voice and song sup-
prest.
Pttrgatorio xxxii.
357
And with his powerful rod confirmed his rest ;
Without delay his crooked falchion drew,
And at one fatal stroke the keeper slew."
73". The Transfiguration. The pas-
sage in the Song of Solomon, ii. 3, "As
the apple-tree among the trees of the
wood, so is my beloved among the
sons," is interpreted as referring to
Christ ; and Dante here calls the
Transfiguration the blossoming of that
tree.
77. Matthew xvii. 5 : " While he
yet spake, behold, a bright cloud over-
shadowed them : and, behold, a voice
out of the cloud, which said. This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased; hear ye him. And when the
disciples heard it, they fell on their
face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus
came and touched them, and said.
Arise, and be not afraid. And when
they had lifted up their eyes, they saw
no man, save Jesus only."
82. Matilda.
98. The seven Virtues holding the
seven golden candlesticks, or the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit.
112. The descent of the eagle upon
the tree is interpreted by Buti as the
persecution of the Christians by the
Emperors. The rending of the bark
of the tree is the " breaking down of
the constancy and fortitude of holy
men " ; the blossoms are " virtuous
examples or prayers," and the new
leaves, " the virtuous deeds that holy
men had begun to do, and which were
interrupted by these persecutions."
115. Buti says: "This descent of
the eagle upon the chariot, and the
smiting it, mean the persecution of the
Holy Church and of the Christians by
the Emperors, as appears in the chron-
icles down to the time of Constan-
tine."
119. The fox is Heresy.
126. The gift of Constantine to the
Church. Inf. XIX. 125: —
" Ah, Constantine ! of how much woe was
mother,
Not thy conversion, but that marriage-
dower
Which the first wealthy Father took from
thee ! "
131. Mahomet. Revelation x\\. '^ :
" And there appeared another wonder
in heaven ; and, behold, a great red
dragon, having seven heads and ten
horns, and seven crowns upon his
heads. And his tail drew the third
part of the stars of heaven, and did
cast them to the earth."
144. These seven heads, say the
Ottimo and others, " denote the seven
deadly sins." But Biagioli, following
Buti, says : " There is no doubt that
these heads and the horns represent
the same that we have said in Canto
XIX. of the Inferno ,• namely, the ten
horns, the Ten Commandments of
God ; and the seven heads, the Seven
Sacraments of the Church." Never
was there a wider difference of inter-
pretation. The context certainly fa-
vors the first.
150. Pope Boniface the Eighth.
152. Philip the Fourth of France.
For his character see Canto XX.
Note 43.
156. This alludes to the maltreat-
ment of Boniface by the troops of
358
Notes
Philip at Alagna. See Canto XX.
Note 87.
159. The removal of the Papal See
from Rome to Avignon.
The principal points of the allegory
of this canto may be summed up as
follows. The triumphal chariot, the
Church J the seven Nymphs, the Vir-
tues Cardinal and Evangelical ; the
seven candlesticks, the seven gifts of
the Holy Spirit ; the tree of knowl-
edge, Rome ; the Eagle, the Imperial
power ; the Fox, heresy ; the Dragon,
Mahomet ; the shameless whore. Pope
Boniface the Eighth ; and the giant,
Philip the Fair of France.
CANTO XXXIII.
I. In this canto Dante is made to
drink of the river Eunoe, the memory
of things good.
Psalm Ixxix., beginning : " O God,
the heathen are come into thine in-
heritance ; thy holy temple have they
defiled." The three Evangelical and
four Cardinal Virtues chant this psalm,
alternately responding to each other.
The Latin words must be chanted,
in order to make the lines rhythmical,
with an equal emphasis on each syl-
lable.
7. When their singing was ended.
10. John xvi. 16 : "A little while,
and ye shall not see me: and again, a
little while, and ye shall see me ; be-
cause I go to the Father."
15. Dante, Matilda, and Statius.
27. As in Canto XXXI. 7 : —
" My faculries were in so great confusion,
That the voice moved, but sooner was extinct
Than by its organs it was set at large."
34. Is no longer what it was. Rev-
elation xvii. 8 : " The beast that thou
sawest was, and is not."
36. In the olden time in Florence,
if an assassin could contrive to eat a
sop of bread and wine at the grave of
the murdered man, within nine days
after the murder, he was free from the
vengeance of the family ; and to pre-
vent this they kept watch at the tomb.
There is no evading the vengeance of
God in this way. Such is the inter-
pretation of this passage by all the old
commentators.
37. The Roman Empire shall not
always be without an Emperor, as it
was then in the eyes of Dante, who
counted the "German KXbtxx." Alberto
tedesco, as no Emperor, because he
never came into Italy. See the appeal
to him. Canto VI. 96, and the male-
diction, because he suffered
"The garden of the empire to be waste."
43. The Roman numerals making
DVX, or Leader. The allusion is to
Henry of Luxemburgh, in whom Dante
placed his hopes of the restoration of
the Imperial power. He was the suc-
cessor of the German Albert of the
Purgatorio xxxiii.
359
preceding note, after an interregnum of
one year. He died in 131 2, shortly
after his coronation in Rome. See
Canto VI. Note 97.
Villani, though a Guelf, pays this
tribute of respect to his memory. Book
IX. Ch. I : *• He was wise and just
and gracious, valiant in arms, dignified,
and catholic ; and although of low
estate in lineage, he was of a magnani-
mous heart, feared and redoubted, and
if he had lived longer, he would have
done great things."
When Henry entered Italy in Sep-
tember, 13 10, Dante hastened to meet
him, full of faith and hope. Whether
this interview took place at Susa, Tu-
rin, or Milan, is uncertain ; nor is
there any record of it, except the allu-
sion in the following extract from a
letter of Dante, " written in Tuscany,
at the sources of the Arno, on the
14th of May, 131 1, in the first year
of the happy journey of the divine
Henry into Italy." Dante was dis-
appointed that his hero should linger
so long in the Lombard towns, and
wished him to march at once against
Florence, the monster " that drinketh
neither of the headlong Po, nor of thy
Tyber." In this letter, Mr. Greene's
Tr., he says : —
" The inheritance of peace, as the
immense love of God witnesseth, was
left us, that in the marvellous sweet-
ness thereof our hard warfare might
be softened, and by the use thereof
we might deserve the joys of our tri-
umphant country. But the hatred of
the ancient and implacable enemy.
who ever and secretly layeth snares
for human prosperity, — disinheriting
some of those who were willing, —
impiously, in the absence of our pro-
tector, despoiled us also, who were
unwilling. Wherefore we wept long
by the rivers of confusion, and inces-
santly implored the protection of the
just king, to scatter the satellites of
the cruel tyrant, and restore us to our
just rights. And when thou, succes-
sor of Ccesar and of Augustus, crossing
the chain of the Apennines, brought
back the venerable Tarpeian ensigns,
our long sighings straightway ceased,
the fountains of our tears were stayed,
and a new hope of a better age, like a
sun suddenly risen, shed its beams over
Latium. Then many, breaking forth
into jubilant vows, sang with Mars the
Saturnian reign, and the return of the
Virgin.
" But since our sun (whether the
fervor of desire suggests it, or the
aspect of truth) is already believed to
have delayed, or is supposed to be
going back in his course, as if a new
Joshua or the son of Amos had com-
manded, we are compelled in our un-
certainty to doubt, and to break forth
in the words of the Forerunner : * Art
thou he that should come, or look we
for another?' And although the fury
of long thirst turns into doubt, as is its
wont, the things which are certain be-
cause they are near, nevertheless we
believe and hope in thee, asserting
thee to be the minister of God, and
the son of the Church, and the pro-
moter of the Roman glory. And I,
36o
Notes
who write as well for myself as for
others, when my hands touched thy
feet and my lips performed their office,
saw thee most benignant, as becometh
the Imperial majesty, and heard thee
most clement. Then my spirit ex-
ulted within me, and I silently said to
myself, * Behold the lamb of God, who
taketh away the sins of the world."
Dante, Par. XXX. 133, sees the
crown and throne that await the " no-
ble Henry " in the highest heaven : —
" On that great throne on which thine eyes are
fixed
For the crown's sake already placed upon it,
Before thou suppest at this wedding feast,
Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augustus
On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come
To reform Italy ere she be prepared."
47. Themis, the daughter of Coelus
and Terra, whose oracle was famous in
Attica, and who puzzled Deucalion and
Pyrrha by telling them that, in order
to repeople the earth after the deluge,
they must throw "their mother's bones
behind them."
The Sphinx, the famous monster
born of Chimasra, and having the head
of a woman, the wings of a bird, the
body of a dog, and the paws of a lion ;
and whose riddle, "What animal walks
on four legs in the morning, on two at
noon, and on three at night ? " so puz-
zled the Thebans, that King Creon
offered his crown and his daughter
Jocasta to any one who should solve
it, and so free the land of the uncom-
fortable monster ; a feat accomplished
by CEdipus apparently without much
difficulty.
49. The Naiades having undertaken
to solve the enigmas of oracles, The-
mis, offended, sent forth a wild beast
to ravage the flocks and fields of the
Thebans ; though why they should
have been held accountable for the
doings of the Naiades is not very ob-
vious. The tradition is founded on a
passage in Ovid, Met.y VII. 757 : —
" Carmina Naiades non intellecta priorum
Solvunt."
Heinsius and other critics say that the
lines should read,
" Carmina Laiades non intellecta priorum
Solverat ";
referring to CEdipus, son of Laius. But
Rosa Moranda maintains the old read-
ing, and says there is authority in Pau-
sanias for making the Naiades inter-
preters of oracles.
54. Cop las de Manrtque : —
" Our cradle is the starting place,
Life is the running of the race."
57. First by the Eagle, who rent its
bark and leaves ; then by the giant,
who bore away the chariot which had
been bound to it.
6 1. The sin of Adam, and the death
of Christ.
66. Widening at the top, instead of
diminishing upward like other trees.
68. The Elsa is a river in Tuscany,
rising in the mountains near Colle, and
flowing northward into the Arno, be-
tween Florence and Pisa. Its waters
have' the power of incrusting or petri-
fying anything left in them. " This
power of incrustation," says Covino,
Descriz. Geog. deW It alia ^ "is espe-
Pztrgatorio xxxiii.
361
cially manifest a little above Colic,
where a great pool rushes impetuously
from the ground."
69. If the vain thoughts thou hast
been immersed in had not petrified
thee, and the pleasure of them stained
thee ; if thou hadst not been
"Converted into stone and stained with sin."
78. The staff wreathed with palm,
the cockle-shell in the hat, and the
sandal-shoon were all marks of the pil-
grim, showing he had been beyond
sea and in the Holy Land. Thus in
the old ballad of The Friar of Orders
Gray : —
"And how should I your truelove know
From many another one ?
O by his cockle-hat and staff,
And by his sandal-shoone."
In the FI(a Nuova, Mr. Norton's Tr.,
p. 71, is this passage: "Moreover, it
is to be known that the people who
travel in the service of the Most High
are called by three distinct terms.
Those who go beyond the sea, whence
often they bring back the palm, are
called palmers. Those who go to the
house of Galicia are called pilgrims, be-
cause the burial-place of St. James was
more distant from his country than that
of any other of the Apostles. And those
are called romei who go to Rome."
85. How far Philosophy differs from
Religion. Isaiah Iv. 8 : " For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts."
VOL. II. 46
104. Noon of the Fourth Day of
Purgatory.
112. Two of the four rivers that
watered Paradise. Here they are
the same as Lethe and Eunoe, the
oblivion of evil, and the memory of
good.
127. Bunyan, Pilgrim'' s Progress : —
" I saw then, that they went on
their way to a pleasant river, which
David the king called * the river of
God'; but John, 'the river of the
water of life.' Now their way lay
just upon the bank of the river : here
therefore Christian and his compan-
ion walked with great delight : they
drank also of the water of the river,
which was pleasant, and enlivening to
their weary spirits. Besides, on the
banks of this river, on either side, were
green trees for all manner of fruit ;
and the leaves they ate to prevent sur-
feits and other diseases that are inci-
dent to those that heat their blood by
travels. On either side of the river
was also a meadow, curiously beauti-
fied with lilies ; and it was green all
the year long. In this meadow they
lay down and slept ; for here they
might lie down safely. When they
awoke, they gathered again of the
fruits of the trees, and drank again of
the water of the river, and then lay
down again to sleep."
129. Sir John Denham says : —
" The sweetest cordial we receive at last
Is conscience of our virtuous actions past."
145. The last word in this division
of the poem, as in the other two, is
the suggestive word " Stars."
ILLUSTRATIONS
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE HERO JS POET.
From Heroes and Hero Worship, by Thomas Carlyle.
Many volumes have been written by There is in it, as foundation of it, the
way of commentary on Dante and his softness, tenderness, gentle affection as
Book ; yet, on the whole, with no of a child ; but all this is as if con-
great result. His biography is, as it gealed into sharp contradiction, into
were, irrecoverably lost for us. An abnegation, isolation, proud, hopeless
unimportant, wandering, sorrow-strick- pain. A soft, ethereal soul looking out
en man, not much note was taken of so stern, implacable, grim-trenchant,
him while he lived ; and the most of as from imprisonment of thick-ribbed
that has vanished, in the long space ice ! Withal it is a silent pain too,
that now intervenes. It is five centu- a silent, scornful one : the lip is curled
ries since he ceased writing and living in a kind of godlike disdain of the
here. After all commentaries, the Book thing that is eating out his heart, — as
itself is mainly what we know of him. if it were withal a mean, insignificant
The Book, — and one might add that thing, as if he whom it had power to
Portrait commonly attributed to Giot- torture and strangle were greater than
to, which, looking on it, you cannot it. The face of one wholly in protest,
help inclining to think genuine, who- and life -long, unsurrendering battle,
ever did it. To me it is a most against the world. Affection all con-
touching face ; perhaps, of all faces verted into indignation ; an implacable
that I know, the most so. Lonely indignation ; slow, equable, silent, like
there, painted as on vacancy, with the that of a god ! The eye too, it looks
simple laurel wound round it ; the out as in a kind of surprise, a kind ot
deathless sorrow and pain, the known inquiry. Why the world was of such
victory which is also deathless; — sig- a sort ? This is Dante : so he looks,
nificant of the whole history of Dante! this "voice often silent centuries,"
I think it is the mournfulest face that and sings us "his mystic, unfathomable
ever was painted from reality; an al- song."
together tragic, heart -affecting face. The little that we know of Dante's
366
Ilhcstrations
Life corresponds well enough with this
Portrait and this Book. He was born
at Florence, in the upper class of so-
ciety, in the year 1265. His educa-
tion was the best then going ; much
school-divinity, Aristotelean logic, some
Latin classics, — no inconsiderable in-
sight into certain provinces of things :
and Dante, with his earnest, intelligent
nature, we need not doubt, learned
better than most all that was learnable.
He has a clear, cultivated understand-
ing, and of great subtlety ; this best
fruit of education he had contrived to
realize from these scholastics. He
knows accurately and well what lies
close to him ; but in such a time,
without printed books or free inter-
course, he could not know well what
was distant : the small, clear light, most
luminous for what is near, breaks itself
into singular chiaroscuro striking on
what is far off. This was Dante's
learning from the schools. In life, he
had gone through the usual destinies; —
been twice out campaigning as a sol-
dier for the Florentine state; been on
embassy ; had in his thirty-fifth year,
by natural gradation of talent and ser-
vice, become one of the chief magis-
trates of Florence. He had met in
boyhood a certain Beatrice Portinari,
a beautiful little girl of his own age
and rank, and grown up thenceforth in
partial sight of her, in some distant
intercourse with her. All readers
know his graceful, affecting account of
this ; and then of their being parted ;
of her being wedded to another, and
of her death soon after. She makes a
great figure in Dante's Poems ; seems
to have made a great figure in his life.
Of all beings it might seem as if she,
held apart from him, far apart at last
in the dim Eternity, were the only
one he had ever with his whole strength
of affection loved. She died : Dante
himself was wedded ; but it seems not
happily, far from happily. I fancy,
the rigorous, earnest man, with his keen
excitabilities, was not altogether easy
to make happy.
We will not complain of Dante's
miseries : had all gone right with him
as he wished it, he might have been
Prior, Podesta, or whatsoever they call
it, of Florence, well accepted among
neighbors, — and the world had wanted
one of the most notable words ever
spoken or sung. Florence would have
had another prosperous Lord Mayor ;
and the ten dumb centuries continued
voiceless, and the ten other listening
centuries (for there will be ten of
them and more) had no Divina Corn-
media to hear ! We will complain of
nothing. A nobler destiny was ap-
pointed for this Dante ; and he, strug-
gling like a man led towards death and
crucifixion, could not help fulfilling it.
Give him the choice of his happiness !
He knew not, more than we do, what
was really happy, what was really
miserable.
In Dante's Priorship, the Guelph-
Ghibelline, Bianchi-Neri, or some
other confused disturbances, rose to
such a height, that Dante, whose party
had seemed the stronger, was with his
friends cast unexpectedly forth into
The Hero as Poet
3(>7
banishment ; doomed thenceforth to a
life of woe and wandering. His prop-
erty was all confiscated, and more ; he
had the fiercest feeling that it was en-
tirely unjust, nefarious in the sight of
God and man. He tried what was in
him to get reinstated ; tried even by
warlike surprisal, with arms in his
hand : but it would not do ; bad only
had become worse. There is a record,
I believe, still extant in the Florence
Archives, dooming this Dante, where-
soever caught, to be burnt alive. Burnt
alive ; so it stands, they say : a very
curious civic document. Another curi-
ous document, some considerable num-
ber of years later, is a Letter of Dante's
to the Florentine Magistrates, written
in answer to a milder proposal of
theirs, that he should return on con-
dition of apologizing and paying a fine.
He answers, with fixed, stern pride :
" If I cannot return without calling
myself guilty, I will never return, nun-
quam revertar"
For Dante there was now no home
in this world. He wandered from
patron to patron, from place to place ;
proving, in his own bitter words,
** How hard is the path. Come e duro
calk." The wretched are not cheer-
ful company. Dante, poor and ban-
ished, with his proud, earnest nature,
with his moody humors, was not a man
to conciliate men. Petrarch reports
of him, that being at Can della Scala's
court, and blamed one day for his
gloom and taciturnity, he answered in
no courtier-like way. Delia Scala
stood among his courtiers, with mimes
and buffoons {nebuhnes ac histriones')
making him heartily merry ; when,
turning to Dante, he said : " Is it not
strange, now, that this poor fool should
make himself so entertaining ; while
you, a wise man, sit there day after
day, and have nothing to amuse us
with at all .'' " Dante answered bit-
terly : " No, not strange ; your High-
ness is to recollect the proverb. Like
to Like "i — given the amuser, the
amusee must also be given ! Such a
man, with his proud, silent ways, with
his sarcasms and sorrows, was not made
to succeed at court. By degrees, it
came to be evident to him that he had
no longer any resting-place, or hope of
benefit, in this earth. The earthly
world had cast him forth, to wander ;
no living heart to love him now ; for
his sore miseries there was no solace
here.
The deeper naturally would the
Eternal World impress itself on him ;
that awful reality over which, after all,
this Time-world, with its Florences
and banishments, only flutters as an
unreal shadow. Florence thou shalt
never see: but Hell and Purgatory and
Heaven thou shalt surely see ! What
is Florence, Can della Scala, and the
World and Life altogether ? Eter-
nity : thither, of a truth, not else-
whither, art thou and all things bound!
The great soul of Dante, homeless on
earth, made its home more and more
in that awful other world. Naturally
his thoughts brooded on that, as on the
one fact important for him. Bodied
or bodiless, it is the one fact important
368
Ilbcstratio7is
for all men: but to Dante, in that age,
it was bodied in fixed certainty of
scientific shape ; he no more doubted
of that Malebolge Pool, that it all lay
there with its gloomy circles, with its
alti guaiy and that he himself should
see it, than we doubt that we should
see Constantinople if we went thither.
Dante's heart, long filled with this,
brooding over it in speechless thought
and awe, bursts forth at length into
"mystic, unfathomable song"; and this
his Divine Comedy, the most remarkable
of all modern Books, is the result. It
must have been a great solacement to
Dante, and was, as we can see, a proud
thought for him at times, that he,
here in exile, could do this work; that
no Florence, nor no man or men, could
hinder him from doing it, or even
much help him in doing it. He knew
too, partly, that it was great ; the
greatest a man could do. " If thou
follow thy star, Se tu segui tua Stella, "
— so could the Hero, in his forsaken-
ness, in his extreme need, still say to
himself: " Follow thou thy star, thou
shalt not fail of a glorious haven ! "
The labor of writing, we find, and in-
deed could know otherwise, was great
and painful for him ; he says, This
Book " which has made me lean for
many years." Ah yes, it was won, all
of it, with pain and sore toil, — not in
sport, but in grim earnest. His Book,
as indeed most good Books are, has
been written, in many senses, with his
heart's blood. It is his whole history
this Book. He died after finishing it ;
not yet very old, at the age of fifty-
six ; — broken-hearted rather, as is
said. He lies buried in his death-city
Ravenna : Hie claudor Dantes patriis
extorris ab orris. The Florentines
begged back his body, in a century
after ; the Ravenna people would not
give it. " Here am I Dante laid, shut
out from my native shores."
I said, Dante's Poem was a Song :
it is Tieck who calls it " a mystic, un-
fathomable Song"; and such is liter-
ally the character of it. Coleridge
remarks very pertinently somewhere,
that wherever you find a sentence
musically worded, of true rhythm and
melody in the words, there is some-
thing deep and good in the meaning
too. For body and soul, word and
idea, go strangely together here as
everywhere. Song : we said before,
it was the Heroic of Speech ! All old
Poems, Homer's and the rest, are au-
thentically Songs. I would say, in
strictness, that all right Poems are ;
that whatsoever is not sung is properly
no Poem, but a piece of Prose cramped
into jingling lines, — to the great injury
of the grammar, to the great grief of
the reader, for most part ! What we
want to get at is the thought the man
had, if he had any : why should he
twist it into jingle, if he could speak it
out plainly ? It is only when the
heart of him is rapt into true passion
of melody, and the very tones of him,
according to Coleridge's remark, be-
come musical by the greatness, depth,
and music of his thoughts, that we can
give him right to rhyme and sing; that
we call him a Poet, and listen to him
The Hero as Poet
369
as the Heroic of Speakers, — whose
speech is Song. Pretenders to this are
many ; and to an earnest reader, I
doubt, it is for most part a very mel-
ancholy, not to say an insupport-
able business, that of reading rhyme !
Rhyme that had no inward necessity
to be rhymed ; — it ought to have told
us plainly, without any jingle, what it
was aiming at. I would advise all
men who can speak their thought, not
to sing it ; to understand that, in a
serious time, among serious men, there
is no vocation in them for singing it.
Precisely as we love the true song, and
are charmed by it as by something
divine, so shall we hate the false song,
and account it a mere w^ooden noise,
a thing hollow, superfluous, altogether
an insincere and oiFensive thing.
I give Dante my highest praise
when I say of his Divine Comedy that
it is, in all senses, genuinely a Song.
In the very sound of it there is a canto
fermo ; it proceeds as by a chant.
The language, his simple terza rima,
doubtless helped him in this. One
reads along naturally with a sort of
//'//. But I add, that it could not be
otherwise ; for the essence and ma-
terial of the work are themselves
rhythmic. Its depth, and rapt passion
and sincerity, makes it musical ; — go
deep enough, there is music every-
where. A true inward symmetry,
what one calls an architectural har-
mony, reigns in it, proportionates it
all : architectural ; which also par-
takes of the character of music. The
three kingdoms. Inferno, Purgatorio,
VOL. II. 47
Paradiso, look out on one another like
compartments of a great edifice ; a great
supernatural world-cathedral, piled up
there, stern, solemn, awful ; Dante's
World of Souls ! It is, at bottom,
the sincerest of all Poems ; sincerity,
here too, we find to be the measure
of worth. It came deep out of the
author's heart of hearts ; and it goes
deep, and through long generations,
into ours. The people of Verona,
when they saw him on the streets,
used to say : "Eccovi ? uom ch' ^ stato
alP Inferno, See, there is the man that
was in Hell ! " Ah, yes, he had been
in Hell ; — in Hell enough, in long,
severe sorrow and struggle ; as the like
of him is pretty sure to have been.
Commedias that come out divine are
not accomplished otherwise. Thought,
true labor of any kind, highest virtue
itself, is it not the daughter of Pain ?
Born as out of the black whirlwind ;
true effort, in fact, as of a captive strug-
gling to free himself: that is Thought.
In all ways we are "to become perfect
through suffering." — But, as I say, no
work known to me is so elaborated as
this of Dante's. It has all been as if
molten, in the hottest furnace of his
soul. It had made him " lean " for
many years. Not the general whole
only ; every compartment of it is
worked out, with intense earnestness,
into truth, into clear visuality. Each
answers to the other ; each fits in its
place, like a marble stone accurately
hewn and polished. It is the soul of
Dante, and in this the soul of the
Middle Ages, rendered forever rhyth-
370
lUitstrations
mically visible there. No light task ;
a right intense one : but a task which
is doTie.
Perhaps one would say, intensity,
with the much that depends on it, is
the prevailing character of Dante's
genius. Dante does not come before
us as a large catholic mind ; rather as
a narrow, and even sectarian mind :
it is partly the fruit of his age and posi-
tion, but partly too of his own nature.
His greatness has, in all senses, con-
centred itself into fiery emphasis and
depth. He is world-great not because
he is world-wide, but because he is
world-deep. Through all objects he
pierces as it were down into the heart
of Being. I know nothing so intense
as Dante. Consider, for example, to
begin with the outermost development
of his intensity, consider how he paints.
He has a great power of vision; seizes
the very type of a thing; presents that
and nothing more. You remember
that first view he gets of the Hall of
Dite : red pinnacle, red-hot cone of
iron glowing through the dim immen-
sity of gloom ; so vivid, so distinct,
visible at once and forever ! It is an
emblem of the whole genius of Dante*.
There is a brevity, an abrupt precision
in him : Tacitus is not briefer, more
condensed; and then in Dante it seems
a natural condensation, spontaneous to
the man. One smiting word ; and
then there is silence, nothing more
said. His silence is more eloquent
than words. It is strange with what
a sharp, decisive grace he snatches the
true likeness of a matter ; cuts into the
matter as with a pen of fire. Plutus,
the blustering giant, collapses at Vir-
gil's rebuke ; it is " as the sails sink,
the mast being suddenly broken." Or
that poor Brunetto, with the cotto as-
petto, " face iaked," parched brown and
lean ; and the " fiery snow " that falls
on them there, a " fiery snow without
wind," slow, deliberate, never-ending !
Or the lids of those Tombs ; square
sarcophaguses, in that silent dim-burn-
ing Hell, each with its Soul in tor-
ment ; the lids laid open there ; they
are to be shut at the Day of Judgment,
through Eternity. And how Farinata
rises; and how Cavalcante falls — at
hearing of his Son, and the past tense
"/"ue ! " The very movements in
Dante have something brief; swift,
decisive, almost military. It is of the
inmost essence of his genius this sort
of painting. The fiery, swift Italian
nature of the man, so silent, passionate,
with its quick abrupt movements, its
silent " pale rages," speaks itself in
these things.
For though this of painting is one of
the outermost developments of a man,
it comes like all else from the essential
faculty of him ; it is physiognomical
of the whole man. Find a man whose
words paint you a likeness, you have
found a man worth something ; mark
his manner of doing it, as very charac-
teristic of him. In the first place, he
could not have discerned the object at
all, or seen the vital type of it, unless
he had, what we may call, sympathized
with it, — had sympathy in him to be-
stow on objects. He must have been
The Hero as Poet
371
sincere about it too ; sincere and sym-
pathetic : a man without worth cannot
give you the likeness of any object ;
he dwells in vague outwardness, fallacy
and trivial hearsay, about all objects.
And indeed may we not say that in-
tellect altogether expresses itself in this
power of discerning what an object is ?
Whatsoever of faculty a man's mind
may have will come out here. Is it
even of business, a matter to be done ?
The gifted man is he who sees the
essential point, and leaves all the rest
aside as surplusage ; it is his faculty,
too, the man of business's faculty, that
he discern the true likeness^ not the
false, superficial one, of the thing he
has got to work in. And how much
o{ morality is in the kind of insight we
get of anything ; " the ^ye seeing in
all things what it brought with it the
faculty of seeing ! " To the mean eye
all things are trivial, as certainly as to
the jaundiced they are yellow. Ra-
phael, the Painters tell us, is the best
of all Portrait-painters withal. No
most gifted eye can exhaust the signifi-
cance of any object. In the commonest
human face there lies more than Ra-
phael will take away with him.
Dante's painting is not graphic only,
brief, true, and of a vividness as of fire
in dark night ; taken on the wider
scale, it is every way noble, and the
outcome of a great soul. Francesca
and her Lover, what qualities in that !
A thing woven as out of rainbows, on
a ground of eternal black. A small
flute-voice of infinite wail speaks there,
into our very heart of hearts. A touch
of womanhood in it too : della bella
persona^ che mi fu tolta ; and how, even
in the Pit of woe, it is a solace that he
will never part from her ! Saddest
tragedy in these alti guai. And the
racking winds, in that aer bruno, whirl
them away again, to wail forever ! —
Strange to think: Dante was the friend
of this poor Francesca's father ; Fran-
cesca herself may have sat upon the
Poet's knee, as a bright innocent little
child. Infinite pity, yet also infinite
rigor of law : it is so Nature is made ;
it is so Dante discerned that she was
made. What a paltry notion is that
of his Divine Comedy's being a poor
splenetic, impotent, terrestrial libel ;
putting those into Hell whom he could
not be avenged upon on earth ! I sup-
pose if ever pity, tender as a mother's,
was in the heart of any man, it was in
Dante's. But a man who does not know
rigor cannot pity either. His very
pity will be cowardly, egoistic, — sen-
timentality, or little better. I know
not in the world an affection equal to
that of Dante. It is a tenderness, a
trembling, longing, pitying love : like
the wail of ^olian harps, soft, soft ;
like a child's young heart ; — and then
that stern, sore-saddened heart ! These
longings of his towards his Beatrice ;
their meeting together in the Paradiso ;
his gazing in her pure transfigured
eyes, her that had been purified by
death so long, separated from him so
far : — one likens it to the song of an-
gels ; it is among the purest utterances
of affection, perhaps the very purest
that ever came out of a human soul.
372
IlhLstrations
For the intense Dante is intense in
all things ; he has got into the essence
of all. His intellectual insight, as
painter, on occasion too as rcasoner, is
but the result of all other sorts of in-
tensity. Morally great, above all, we
must call hini ; it is the beginning of
all. His scorn, his grief, are as tran-
scendent as his love ; — as, indeed, what
are they but the inverse or converse of
his love ? "A Dio Spiacenti, ed a* ne-
mici sui. Hateful to God and to the
enemies of God ": lofty scorn, un-
appeasable silent reprobation and aver-
sion : "Non ragionam di lor. We will
not speak of them, look only and pass."
Or think of this: "They have not the
hope to die, ISIon han speranza di morte."
One day, it had risen sternly benign
on the scathed heart of Dante, that
he, wretched, never-resting, worn as
he was, would full surely die ; " that
Destiny itself could not doom him not
to die." Such words are in this man.
For rigor, earnestness, and depth he is
not to be paralleled in the modern
world; to seek his parallel we must go
into the Hebrew Bible, and live with
the antique Prophets there.
I do not agree with much modern
criticism, in greatly preferring the In-
ferno to the two other parts of the
Divine Commedia. Such preference
belongs, I imagine, to our general By-
ronism of taste, and is like to be a
transient feeling. The Purgatorio and
Paradiso, especially the former, one
would almost say, is even more ex-
cellent than it. It is a noble thing
that Purgatorio, " Mountain of Purifi-
cation "; an emblem of the noblest
conception of that age. If Sin is so
fatal, and Hell is and must be so rigor-
ous, awful, yet in Repentance too is
man purified ; Repentance is the grand
Christian act. It is beautiful how
Dante works it out. The tremolar delP
onde, that " trembling " of the ocean-
waves under the first pure gleam of
morning, dawning afar on the wander-
ing Two, is as the type of an altered
mood. Hope has now dawned; never-
dying Hope, if in company still with
heavy sorrow. The obscure sojourn
of demons and reprobate is under foot;
a soft breathing of penitence mounts
higher and higher, to the Throne of
Mercy itself. " Pray for me," the
denizens of that Mount of Pain all say
to him. " Tell my Giovanna to pray
for me," my daughter Giovanna; "I
think her mother loves me no more ! "
They toil painfully up by that wind-
ing steep, " bent down like corbels of
a building," some of them, — crushed
together so "for the sin of pride";
yet nevertheless in years, in ages, and
£eons they shall have reached the top,
which is Heaven's gate, and by Mercy
shall have been admitted in. The joy
too of all, when one has prevailed ;
the whole Mountain shakes with joy,
and a psalm of praise rises, when one
soul has perfected repentance, and got
its sin and misery left behind ! I call
all this a noble embodiment of a true,
noble -thought.
But indeed the Three compartments
mutually support one another, are in-
dispensable to one another. The Pa-
The Hero as Poet
m
radiso, a kind of inarticulate music to
me, is the redeeming side of the In-
ferno ; the Inferno without it were
untrue. All three make up the true
Unseen World, as figured in the Chris-
tianity of the Middle Ages ; a thing
forever memorable, forever true in the
essence of it, to all men. It was per-
haps delineated in no human soul with
such depth of veracity as in this of
Dante's ; a man sent to sing it, to keep
it long memorable. Very notable with
what brief simplicity he passes out of
the every-day reality, into the Invisi-
ble one ; and in the second or third
stanza, we find ourselves in the World
of Spirits ; and dwell there, as among
things palpable, indubitable ! To
Dante they were so ; the real world,
as it is called, and its facts, was but
the threshold to an infinitely higher
Fact of a World. At bottom, the one
was as />rr/^rnatural as the other. Has
not each man a soul ? He will not
only be a spirit, but is one. To the
earnest Dante it is all one visible Fact;
he believes it, sees it ; is the Poet of
it in virtue of that. Sincerity, I say
again, is the saving merit, now as al-
ways.
Dante's Hell, Purgatory, Paradise,
are a symbol withal, an emblematic
representation of his Belief about this
Universe : — some Critic in a future
age, like those Scandinavian ones the
other day, who has ceased altogether
to think as Dante did, may find this
too all an " Allegory," perhaps an idle
Allegory ! It is a sublime embodi-
ment, our sublimest, of the soul of
Christianity. It expresses, as in huge
world-wide architectural emblems, how
the Christian Dante felt Good and Evil
to be the two polar elements of this
Creation, on which it all turns ; that
these two differ not by prcfcrability of
one to the other, but by incompat-
ibility absolute and infinite ; that the
one is excellent and high as light and
Heaven, the other hideous, black as
Gehenna and the Pit of Hell ! Ever-
lasting Justice, yet with Penitence, with
everlasting Pity, — all Christianism, as
Dante and the Middle Ages had it, is
emblemed here. Emblemed: and yet,
as I urged the other day, with what
entire truth of purpose ; how uncon-
scious of any embleming ! Hell, Pur-
gatory, Paradise : these things were
'not fashioned as emblems ; was there,
in our Modern European Mind, any
thought at all of their being emblems !
Were they not indubitable, awful facts;
the whole heart of man taking them
for practically true, all Nature every-
where confirming them ? So is it al-
ways in these things. Men do not
believe in Allegory. The future Critic,
whatever his new thought may be, who
considers this of Dante to have been
all got up as an Allegory, will commit
one sore mistake ! — Paganism we rec-
ognized as a veracious expression of
the earnest, awe-struck feeling of man
towards the Universe ; veracious, true
once, and still not without worth for
us. But mark here the difi"erence of
Paganism and Christianism ; one great
difference. Paganism emblemed chiefly
the Operations of Nature ; the desti-
374
Illustrations
nics, efforts, combinations, vicissitudes
of things and men in this world : Chris-
tianism emblemed the Law of Human
Duty, the Moral Law of Man. One
was for the sensuous nature : a rude
helpless utterance of the first Thought
of men, — the chief recognized virtue.
Courage, Superiority to Fear. The
other was not for the sensuous nature,
but for the moral. What a progress is
here, if in that one respect only ! — •
And so in this Dante, as we said,
had ten silent centuries, in a very
strange way, found a voice. The Di-
vina Commedia is of Dante's writing ;
yet in truth it belongs to ten Christian
centuries, only the finishing of it is
Dante's. So always. The craftsman
there, the smith with that metal of nis,
with these tools, with these cunning
methods, — how little of all he does is
properly his work ! All past inventive
men work there with him ; — as in-
deed with all of us, in all things.
Dante is the spokesman of the Mid-
dle Ages ; the Thought they lived by
stands here, in everlasting music. These
sublime ideas of his, terrible and beauti-
ful, are the fruit of the Christian Medi-
tation of all the good men who had
gone before him. Precious they ; but
also is not he precious ? Much, had
not he spoken, would have been dumb;
not dead, yet living voiceless.
On the whole, is it not an utterance,
this mystic Song, at once of one of the
greatest human souls, and of the highest
thing that Europe had hitherto realized
for itself? Christianism, as Dante sings
it, is another than Paganism in the rude
Norse mind ; another than " Bastard
Christianism " half-articulately spoken
in the Arab Desert, seven hundred
years before! — The noblest idea made
real hitherto among men, is sung, and
emblemed forth abidingly, by one of
the noblest men. In the one sense
and in the other, arc we not right glad
to possess it ? As I calculate, it may
last yet for long thousands of years.
For the thing that is uttered from the '
inmost parts of a man's soul differs
altogether from what is uttered by the
outer part. The outer is of the day,
under the empire of mode ; the outer
passes away, in swift endless changes ;
the inmost is the same yesterday, to-
day, and forever. True souls, in all
generations of the world, who look on
this Dante, will find a brotherhood
in him ; the deep sincerity of his
thoughts, his woes and hopes, will
speak likewise to their sincerity ; they
will feel that this Dante too was a
brother. Napoleon in Saint Helena is
charmed with the genial veracity of old
Homer. The oldest Hebrew Prophet,
under a vesture the most diverse from
ours, does yet, because he speaks from <
the heart of man, speak to all men's '
hearts. It is the one sole secret of
continuing long memorable. Dante,
for depth of sincerity, is like an antique
Prophet too ; his words, like theirs,
come from his very heart. One need
not wonder if it were predicted that
his Poem might be the most enduring
thing our Europe has yet made ; for i
nothing so endures as a truly spoken
word. All cathedrals, pontificalities.
Dante
375
brass and stone, and outer arrangement still of importance to men, when these
never so lasting, are brief in compari- had all sunk into new irrecognizahle
son to an unfathomable heart-song like combinations, and had ceased individu-
this : one feels as if it might survive, ally to be.
D ANTE.
From the Essays of T. B. Macaulay.
The beginning of the thirteenth
century was, as Machiavelli has re-
marked, the era of a great revival of
this extraordinary system. The policy
of Innocent, — the growth of the In-
quisition and the mendicant orders, —
the wars against the Albigenses, the
Pagans of the East, and the unfortunate
princes of the house of Swabia, agitated
Italy during the two following genera-
tions. In this point Dante was com-
pletely under the influence of his age.
He was a man of a turbid and melan-
choly spirit. In early youth he had
entertained a strong and unfortunate pas-
sion, which, long after the death of her
whom he loved, continued to haunt
him. Dissipation, ambition, misfor-
tunes, had not eifaced it. He was not
only a sincere, but a passionate, be-
liever. The crimes and abuses of the
Church of Rome were indeed loath-
some to him ; but to all its doctrines
and all its rites he adhered with enthu-
siastic fondness and veneration ; and
at length, driven from his native coun-
try, reduced to a situation the most
painful to a man of his disposition,
condemned to learn by experience that
no food is so bitter as the bread of de-
pendence, and no ascent so painful as
the staircase of a patron, his wound-
ed spirit took refuge in visionary devo-
tion. Beatrice, the unforgotten object
of his early tenderness, was invested
by his imagination with glorious and
mysterious attributes ; she was en-
throned among the highest of the celes-
tial hierarchy : Almighty Wisdom had
assigned to her the care of the sinful
and unhappy wanderer who had loved
her with such a perfect love. By a
confusion, like that which often takes
place in dreams, he has sometimes lost
sight of her human nature, and even of
her personal existence, and seems to
consider her as one of the attributes of
the Deity.
But those religious hopes which had
released the mind of the sublime en-
thusiast from the terrors of death had
not rendered his speculations on human
life more cheerful. This is an incon-
sistency which may often be observed
in men of a similar temperament. He
hoped for happiness beyond the grave :
but he felt none on earth. It is from
this cause, more than from any other.
376
Illustrations
that his description of Heaven is so far
inferior to the Hell or the Purgatory.
With the passions and miseries of the
suffering spirits he feels a strong sym-
pathy. But among the beatified he
appears as one who has nothing in
common with them, — as one who is
incapable of comprehending, not only
the degree, but the nature of their en-
joyment. We think that we see him
standing amidst those smiling and radi-
ant spirits with that scowl of unuttera-
ble misery on his brow, and that curl
of bitter disdain on his lips, which
all his portraits have preserved, and
which might furnish Chantrey with
hints for the head of his projected
Satan.
There is no poet whose intellectual
and moral character are so closely con-
nected. The great source, as it ap-
pears to me, of the power of the Di-
vine Comedy is the strong belief with
which the story seems to be told. In
this respect, the only books which ap-
proach to its excellence are Gulliver's
Travels and Robinson Crusoe. The
solemnity of his asseverations, the con-
sistency and minuteness of his details,
the earnestness with which he labors
to make the reader understand the
exact shape and size of everything that
he describes, give an air of reality to
his wildest fictions. I should only
weaken this statement by quoting in-
stances of a feeling which pervades the
whole work, and to which it owes
much of its fascination. This is the
real justification of the many passages
in his poem which bad critics have
condemned as grotesque. I am con-
cerned to see that Mr. Cary, to whom
Dante owes more than ever poet owed
to translator, has sanctioned an accusa-
tion utterly unworthy of his abilities.
" His solicitude," says that gentleman,
" to define all his images in such a
manner as to bring them within the
circle of our vision, and to subject
them to the power of the pencil, ren-
ders him little better than grotesque,
where Milton has since taught us to ex-
pect sublimity." It is true that Dante
has never shrunk from embodying his
conceptions in determinate words, that
he has even given measures and num-
bers, where Milton would have left his
images to float undefined in a gorgeous
haze of language. Both were right.
Milton did not profess to have been in
heaven or hell. He might therefore
reasonably confine himself to magnifi-
cent generalities. Far different was
the office of the lonely traveller, who
had wandered through the nations of
the dead. Had he described the abode
of the rejected spirits in language re-
sembling the splendid lines of the Eng-
lish poet, — had he told us of
"An universe of death, which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good,
Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature
breeds
Perverse all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, unutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feigned, or fear con-
ceived,
Gorgons, and hydras, and chimasras dire," —
this would doubtless have been noble
writing. But where would have been
that strong impression of reality, which.
Dante
377
in accordance with his plan, it should
have been his great object to produce ?
It was absolutely necessary for him to
delineate accurately "all monstrous, all
prodigious things," — to utter what
might to others appear " unutterable,"
— to relate with the air of truth what
fables had never feigned, — to embody
what fear had never conceived. And
I will frankly confess that the vague
sublimity of Milton affects me less than
these reviled details of Dante. We
read Milton ; and we know that we
are reading a great poet. When we
read Dante, the poet vanishes. We
are listening to the man who has re-
turned from " the valley of the dolo-
rous abyss"; — we seem to see the
dilated eye of horror, to hear the shud-
dering accents with which he tells his
fearful tale. Considered in this light,
the narratives are exactly what they
should be, — definite in themselves, but
suggesting to the mind ideas of awful
and indefinite wonder. They are made
up of the images of the earth : they
are told in the language of the earth.
Yet the whole effect is, beyond ex-
pression, wild and unearthly. The
fact is, that supernatural beings, as long
as they are considered merely with
reference to their own nature, excite
our feelings very feebly. It is when
the great gulf which separates them
from us is passed, when we suspect
some strange and undefinable relation
between the laws of the visible and
the invisible world, that they rouse,
perhaps, the strongest emotions of
which our nature is capable. How
VOL. II. 48
many children, and how many men,
are afraid of ghosts, who are not afraid
of God ! And this, because, though
they entertain a much stronger convic-
tion of the existence of a Deity than
of the reality of apparitions, they have
no apprehension that he will manifest
himself to them in any sensible man-
ner. While this is the case, to de-
scribe superhuman beings in the lan-
guage, and to attribute to them the
actions ot humanity, may be grotesque,
unphilosophical, inconsistent ; but it
will be the only mode of working upon
the feelings of men, and therefore the
only mode suited for poetry. Shake-
speare understood this well, as he un-
derstood everything that belonged to
his art. Who does not sympathize
with the rapture of Ariel, flying after
sunset on the wings of the bat, or
sucking in the cups of flowers with
the bee ? Who does not shudder at
the caldron of Macbeth ? Where is
the philosopher who is not moved
when he thinks of the strange connec-
tion between the infernal spirits and
" the sow's blood that hath eaten her
nine farrow " ? But this difficult task
of representing supernatural beings to
our minds in a manner which shall be
neither unintelligible to our intellects,
nor wholly inconsistent with our ideas
of their nature, has never been so well
performed as by Dante. I will refer
to three instances, which are, perhaps,
the most striking; — the description of
the transformation of the serpents and
the robbers, in the twenty-fifth canto
of the Inferno, — the passage concern-
378
I Ihistrations
ing Nimrod, in the thirty-first canto of
the same part, — and the magnificent
procession in the twenty-ninth canto
of the Purgatorio.
The metaphors and comparisons of
Dante harmonize admirably with that
air of strong reality of which I have
spoken. They have a very peculiar
character. He is perhaps the only
poet whose writings become much less
intelligible if all iflustrations of this
sort were expunged. His similes are
frequently rather those of a traveller
than of a poet. He employs them not
to display his ingenuity by fanciful
analogies, — not to delight the reader
by affording him a distant and passing
glimpse of beautiful images remote from
the path in which he is proceeding, —
but to give an exact idea of the objects
which he is describing, by comparing
them with others generally known.
The boiling pitch in Malebolge was
like that in the Venetian arsenal ; —
the mound on which he travelled along
the banks of Phlegethon was like that
between Ghent and Bruges, but not so
large ; — the cavities where the Simo-
niacal prelates are confined resembled
the fonts in the Church of John at
Florence. Every reader of Dante will
recall many other illustrations of this
description, which add to the appear-
ance of sincerity and earnestness from
which the narrative derives so much of
its interest.
Many of his comparisons, again, are
intended to give an exact idea of his
feelings under particular circumstances.
The delicate shades of grief, of fear, of
anger, are rarely discriminated with
sufficient accuracy in the language of
the most refined nations. A rude dia-
lect never abounds in nice distinctions
of this kind. Dante therefore employs
the most accurate and infinitely the
most poetical mode of marking the pre-
cise state of his mind. Every person
who has experienced the bewildering
effect of sudden bad tidings, — the
stupefaction, — the vague doubt of the
truth of our own perceptions which
they produce, — will understand the
following simile: — "I was as he is
who dreameth his own harm, — who,
dreaming, wishes that it may be all a
dream, so that he desires that which is
as though it were not." This is only
one out of a hundred equally striking
and expressive similitudes. The com-
parisons of Homer and Milton are mag-
nificent digressions. It scarcely injures
their effect to detach them from the
work. Those of Dante are very dif-
ferent. They derive their beauty from
the context, and reflect beauty upon it.
His embroidery cannot be taken out
without spoiling the whole web. I
cannot dismiss this part of the subject
without advising every person who can
muster sufficient Italian to read the
simile of the sheep, in the third canto
of the Purgatorio. I think it the most
perfect passage of the kind in the
world, the most imaginative, the most
picturesque, and the most sweetly ex-
press^ed.
No person can have attended to the
Divine Comedy without observing how
little impression the forms of the ex-
Dante
379
ternal world appear to have made on
the mind of Dante. His temper and
his situation had led him to fix his ob-
servation almost exclusively on human
nature. The exquisite opening of the
eighth canto of the Purgatorio affords
a strong instance of this. He leaves
to others the earth, the ocean, and the
sky. His business is with man. To
other writers, evening may be the sea-
son of dews and stars and radiant
clouds. To Dante it is the hour of
fond recollection and passionate devo-
tion,— the hour which melts the heart
of the mariner and kindles the love of
the pilgrim, — the hour when the toll
of the bell seems to mourn for another
day, which is gone and will return no
more.
The feeling of the present age has
taken a direction diametrically oppo-
site. The magnificence of the physi-
cal world, and its influence upon the
human mind, have been the favorite
themes of our most eminent poets.
The herd of blue-stocking ladies and
sonneteering gentlemen seems to con-
sider a strong sensibility to the "splen-
dor of the grass, the glory of the flow-
er," as an ingredient absolutely indis-
pensable in the formation of a poetical
mind. They treat with contempt all
writers who are unfortunately
"nee ponere lucum
Artifices, nee rus saturum laudare."
The orthodox poetical creed is more
Catholic. The noblest earthly object
of the contemplation of man is man
himself. The universe, and all its fair
and glorious forms, are indeed included
in the wide empire of the imagination;
but she has placed her home and her
sanctuary amidst the inexhaustible va-
rieties and the impenetrable mysteries
of the mind.
" In tutte parti impcra, e quivi regge ;
Quivi e la sua cittade, e 1' alto seggio."
Othello is perhaps the greatest work in
the world. From what does it derive
its power ? From the clouds ? From
the ocean? From the mountains? Or
from love strong as death, and jeal-
ousy cruel as the grave ! What is it
that we go forth to see in Hamlet ?
Is it a reed shaken with the wind ?
A small celandine ? A bed of daf-
fodils ? Or is it to contemplate a
mighty and wayward mind laid bare
before us to the inmost recesses ? It
may perhaps be doubted whether the
lakes and the hills are better fitted for
the education of a poet than the dusky
streets of a huge capital. Indeed, who
is not tired to death with pure descrip-
tion of scenery ? Is it not the fact,
that external objects never strongly
excite our feelings but when they are
contemplated in reference to man, as
illustrating his destiny, or as influen- I
cing his character ? The most beauti-
ful object in the world, it will be
allowed, is a beautiful woman. But
who that can analyze his feelings is not
sensible that she owes her fascination
less to grace of outline and delicacy of
color, than to a thousand associations
which, often unperceived by ourselves,
connect those qualities with the source
of our existence, with the nourishment
of our infancy, with the passions of
38o
I lhistratio7is
our youth, with the hopes of our age,
with elegance, with vivacity, with ten-
derness, with the strongest of natural
instincts, with the dearest of social ties?
To those who think thus, the in-
sensibility o'i the Florentine poet to
the beauties of nature will not appear
an unpardonable deficiency. On man-
kind no writer, with the exception of
Shakespeare, has looked with a more
penetrating eye. I have said that his
poetical character had derived a tinge
from his peculiar temper. It is on
the sterner and darker passions that he
delights to dwell. All love, excepting
the half mystic passion which he still
felt for his buried Beatrice, had palled
on the fierce and restless exile. The
sad story of Rimini is almost a single
exception. I know not whether it has
been remarked, that, in one point, mis-
anthropy seems to have aiFected his
mind as it did that of Swift. Nause-
ous and revolting images seem to have
had a fascination for his mind ; and he
repeatedly places before his readers,
with all the energy of his incompara-
ble style, the most loathsome objects
of the sewer and the dissecting-room.
There is another peculiarity in the
poem of Dante, which, I think, de-
serves notice. Ancient mythology has
hardly ever been successfully inter-
woven with modern poetry. One class
of writers have introduced the fabulous
deities merely as allegorical representa-
tives of love, wine, or wisdom. This
necessarily renders their works tame
and cold. We may sometimes admire
their ingenuity; but with what interest
can we read of beings of whose per-
sonal existence the writer does not suf-
fer us to entertain, for a moment, even
a conventional belief? Even Spenser's
allegory is scarcely tolerable, till we
contrive to forget that Una signifies
innocence, and consider her merely as
an oppressed lady under the protection
of a generous knight.
Those writers who have, more judi-
ciously, attempted to preserve the per-
sonality of the classical divinities have
failed from a different cause. They
have been imitators, and imitators at a
disadvantage. Euripides and Catullus
believed in Bacchus and Cybele as little
as we do. But they lived among men
who did. Their imaginations, if not
their opinions, took the color of the
age. Hence the glorious inspiration
of the Bacchs and the Atys. Our
minds are formed by circumstances :
and I do not believe that it would be
in the power of the greatest modern
poet to lash himself up to a degree of
enthusiasm adequate to the production
of such works.
Dante alone, among the poets of
later times, has been, in this respect,
neither an allegorist nor an imitator ;
and, consequently, he alone has intro-
duced the ancient fictions with effect.
His Minos, his Charon, his Pluto, are
absolutely terrific. Nothing can be
more beautiful or original than the
use which he has made of the river
of Lethe. He has never assigned to
his mythological characters any func-
tions inconsistent with the creed of
the Catholic Church. He has relat-
Da7ite
381
ed nothing concerning them which a
good Christian of that age might not
believe possible. On this account,
there is nothing in these passages that
appears puerile or pedantic. On the
contrary, this singular use of classical
names suggests to the mind a vague and
awful idea of some mysterious revela-
tion, anterior to all recorded history,
of which the dispersed fragments might
have been retained amidst the impos-
tures and superstitions of later religions.
Indeed the mythology of the Divine
Comedy is of the elder and more co-
lossal mould. It breathes the spirit of
Homer and ^schylus, not of Ovid and
Claudian.
This is the more extraordinary, since
Dante seems to have been utterly igno-
rant of the Greek language ; and his
favorite Latin models could only have
served to mislead him. Indeed, it is
impossible not to remark his admira-
tion of writers far inferior to himself;
and, in particular, his idolatry of Vir-
gil, who, elegant and splendid as he is,
has no pretensions to the depth and
originality of mind which characterize
his Tuscan worshipper. In truth, it
may be laid down as an almost univer-
sal rule that good poets are bad critics.
Their minds are under the tyranny of
ten thousand associations impercepti-
ble to others. The worst writer may
easily happen to touch a spring which
is connected in their minds with a long
succession of beautiful images. They
are like the gigantic slaves of Aladdin,
gifted with matchless power, but bound
by spells so mighty that, when a child
whom they could have crushed touched
a talisman, of whose secret he was igno-
rant, they immediately became his vas-
sals. It has more than once happened
to me to see minds, graceful and ma-
jestic as the Titania of Shakespeare,
bewitched by the charms of an ass's
head, bestowing on it the fondest ca-
resses, and crowning it with the sweet-
est flowers. I need only mention the
poems attributed to Ossian. They are
utterly worthless, except as an edifying
instance of the success of a story with-
out evidence, and of a book without
merit. They are a chaos of words
which present no image, of images
which have no archetype ; — they are
without form and void ; and darkness
is upon the face of them. Yet how
many men of genius have panegyrized
and imitated them !
The style of Dante is, if not his high-
est, perhaps his most peculiar excel-
lence. I know nothing with which it
can be compared. The noblest models
of Greek composition must yield to it.
His words are the fewest and the best
which it is possible to use. The first
expression in which he clothes his
thoughts is always so energetic and
comprehensive, that amplification would
only injure the effect. There is prob-
ably no writer in any language who
has presented so many strong pictures
to the mind. Yet there is probably no
writer equally concise. This perfec-
tion of style is the principal merit of
the Paradiso, which, as I have already
remarked, is by no means equal in
other respects to the two preceding
382
Illustrations
parts of the poem. The force and
felicity of the diction, however, irresist-
ibly attract the reader through the
theological lectures and the sketches of
ecclesiastical biography, with which
this division of the work too much
abounds. It ipay seem almost absurd
to quote particular specimens o{ an
excellence which is diffused over all
his hundred cantos. I will, however,
instance the third canto of the Inferno,
and the sixth of the Purgatorio, as pas-
sages incomparable in their kind. The
merit of the latter is, perhaps, rather
oratorical than poetical ; nor can I rec-
ollect anything in the great Athenian
speeches which equals it in force of
invective and bitterness of sarcasm. I
have heard the most eloquent statesman,
of the age remark that, next to Demos-
thenes, Dante is the writer who ought
to be most attentively studied by every
man who desires to attain oratorical
eminence.
DANTE AND MILTON.
From the Essays of T. B. Macaulay.
The only poem of modern times
which can be compared with the
Paradise Lost is the Divine Comedy.
The subject of Milton, in some points,
resembled that of Dante ; but he has
treated it in a widely different manner.
We cannot, we think, better illustrate
our opinion respecting our own great
poet, than by contrasting him with the
father of Tuscan literature.
The poetry of Milton differs from
that of Dante, as the hieroglyphics of
Egypt differed from the picture-writ-
ing of Mexico. The images which
Dante employs speak for themselves ;
they stand simply for what they are.
Those of Milton have a signification
which is often discernible only to the
initiated. Their value depends less on
what they directly represent than on
what they remotely suggest. How-
ever strange, however grotesque, may
be the appearance which Dante under-
takes to describe, he never shrinks from
describing it. He gives us the shape,
the color, the sound, the smell, the
taste ; he counts the numbers ; he
measures the size. His similes are the
illustrations of a traveller. Unlike
those of other poets, and especially of
Milton, they are introduced in a plain,
business-like manner ; not for the sake
of any beauty in the objects from which
they are drawn ; not for the sake of
any ornament which they may impart
to the poem ; but simply in order to
make the meaning of the writer as clear
to the reader as it is to himself. The
ruins of the precipice which led from
the sixth to the seventh circle of hell
were like those of the rock which fell
into the Adige on the south of Trent.
Dante and Milton
83
The cataract of Phlegcthon was like
that of Aqua Cheta at the monastery
of St. Benedict. The place where
the heretics were confined in burning
tombs resembled the vast cemetery of
Aries.
Now let us compare with the exact
details of Dante the dim intimations of
Milton. We will cite a few examples.
The English poet has never thought of
taking the measure of Satan. He gives
us merely a vague idea of vast bulk.
In one passage the fiend lies stretched
out huge in length, floating many a
rood, equal in size to the earth-born
enemies of Jove, or to the sea-monster
which the mariner mistakes for an
island. When he addresses himself to
battle against the guardian angels, he
stands like Teneriffe or Atlas: his stat-
ure reaches the sky. Contrast with
these descriptions the lines in which
Dante has described the gigantic spectre
of Nimrod. " His face seemed to me
as long and as broad as the ball of St.
Peter's at Rome ; and his other limbs
were in proportion ; so that the bank
which concealed him from the waist
downwards nevertheless showed so
much of him, that three tall Germans
would in vain have attempted to reach
to his hair." We are sensible that we
do no justice to the admirable style of
the Florentine poet. But Mr. Gary's
translation is not at hand ; and our ver-
sion, however rude, is sufficient to illus-
trate our meaning.
Once more, compare the lazar-house
in the eleventh book of the Paradise
Lost with the last ward of Malebolge in
Dante. Milton avoids the loathsome
details, and takes refuge in indistinct
but solemn and tremendous imagery.
Despair hurrying from couch to couch
to mock the wretches with his attend-
ance. Death shaking his dart over
them, but, in spite of supplications,
delaying to strike. What says Dante ?
" There was such a moan there as
there would be if all the sick who,
between July and September, are in
the hospitals of Valdichiana, and of
the Tuscan swamps, and of Sardinia,
were in one pit together ; and such a
stench was issuing forth as is wont to
issue from decayed limbs."
We will not take upon ourselves the
invidious office of settling precedency
between two such writers. Each in
his own department is incomparable ;
and each, we may remark, has wisely,
or fortunately, taken a subject adapted
to exhibit his peculiar talent to the
greatest advantage. The Divine Com-
edy is a personal narrative. Dante is
the eye-witness and ear-witness of that
which he relates. He is the very man
who has heard the tormented spirits
crying out for the second death, who
has read the dusky characters on the
portal within which there is no hope,
who has hidden his face from the ter-
rors of the Gorgon, who has fled from
the hooks and the seething pitch of
Barbariccia and Draghignazzo. His
own hands have grasped the shaggy
sides of Lucifer. His own feet have
climbed the mountain of expiation.
His own brow has been marked by the
purifying angel. The reader would
384
Ilhcstratio7is
throw aside such a tale in incredulous
disgust, unless it were told with the
strongest air of veracity, with a sobriety
even in its horrors, with the greatest
precision and multiplicity in its details.
The narrative of Milton in this respect
differs from that of Dante, as the ad-
ventures of Amadis differ from those
of Gulliver
Poetry which relates to the beings
of another world ought to be at once
mysterious and picturesque. That of
Milton is so. That of Dante is pictu-
resque indeed beyond any that ever was
written. Its effect approaches to thiit
produced by the pencil or the chisel.
But it is picturesque to the exclusion
of all mystery. This is a fault on the
right side, a fault inseparable from the
plan of Dante's poem, which, as we
have already observed, rendered the
utmost accuracy of description neces-
sary. Still it is a fault. The super-
natural agents excite an interest ; but
it is not the interest which is proper
to supernatural agents. We feel that
we could talk to the ghosts and demons
without any emotion of unearthly awe.
We could, like Don Juan, ask them to
supper, and eat heartily in their com-
pany. Dante's angels are good men
with wings. His devils are spiteful,
ugly executioners. His dead men are
merely living men in strange situations.
The scene which passes bcwccn the
poet and Farinata is justly celebrated.
Still, Farinata in the burning tomb is
exactly what Farinata would have been
at an auto da fe. Nothing can be more
touching than the first interview of
Dante and Beatrice. Yet what is it
but a lovely woman chiding, with sweet,
austere composure, the lover for whose
affection she is grateful, but whose vices
she reprobates ? The feelings which
give the passage its charm would suit
the streets of Florence as well as the
summit of the Mount of Purgatory.
THE ITALIAN PI LG R I M' S PROGRESS.
Leigh Hunt's Stories from the Italian Poets.
Dante entitled the saddest poem in
the world a Comedy, because it was
written in a middle style; though some,
by a strange confusion of ideas, think
the reason must have been because it
** ended happily ! " that is, because be-
ginning with hell (to some), it termi-
nated with "heaven" (to others). As
well might they have said, that a morn-
ing's work in the Inquisition ended
happily, because, while people were
being racked in the dungeons, the of-
ficers were making merry in the draw-
ing-room. For the much-injured epi-
thet of " Divine," Dante's memory is
not responsible. He entitled his poem,
arrogantly enough, yet still not with
that impiety of arrogance, " The Com-
Tlie I la I i an Pilgrinis Progress 385
edy of Dante Alighicri, a Florentine by
nation, hut not by habits." The word
" divine " was added by some tran-
scriber; and it heaped absurdity on ab-
surdity, too much of it, alas ! being
literally infernal tragedy. I am not
speaking in mockery, any further than
the fact itself cannot help so speaking.
I respect what is to be respected in
Dante ; I admire in him what is ad-
mirable ; would love (if his infernali-
ties would let me) what is lovable ;
but this must not hinder one of the
human race from protesting against
what is erroneous in his fame, when it
jars against every best feeling, human
and divine. Mr. Cary thinks that
Dante had as much right to avail him-
self of " the popular creed in all its
extravagance," as Homer had of his
gods, or Shakespeare of his fairies.
But the distinction is obvious. Homer
did not personally identify himself with
a creed, or do his utmost to perpetuate
the worst parts of it in behalf of a
ferocious inquisitorial church, and to
the risk of endangering the peace of
millions of gentle minds.
The great poem thus misnomercd is
partly a system of theology, partly an
abstract of the knowledge of the day,
but chiefly a series of passionate and
imaginative pictures, altogether forming
an account of the author's times, his
friends, his enemies, and himseU, writ-
ten to vent the spleen of his exile, and
the rest of his feelings, good and bad,
and to reform church and state by
a spirit of resentment and obloquy,
which highly needed reform itself. It
VOL. II. 49
has also a design strictly self-referential.
The author feigns that the beatified
spirit of his mistress has obtained leave
to warn and purify his soul by showing
him the state of things in the next
world. She deputes the soul of his
master Virgil to conduct him through
hell and purgatory, and then takes him
herself through the spheres of heaven,
where St. Peter catechises and confirms
him, and where he is finally honored
with sights of the Virgin Mary, of
Christ, and even a glimpse of the Su-
preme Being !
His hell, considered as a place, is,
to speak geologically, a most fantastical
formation. It descends from beneath
Jerusalem to the centre of the earth,
and is a funnel graduated in circles,
each circle being a separate place ot
torment for a different vice or its co-
ordinates, and the point of the funnel
terminating with Satan stuck into ice.
Purgatory is a corresponding mountain
on the other side of the globe, com-
mencing with the antipodes of Jerusa-
lem, and divided into exterior circles
of expiation, which end in a table-land
forming the terrestrial paradise. From
this the hero and his mistress ascend
by a flight, exquisitely conceived, to
the stars ; where the sun and the plan-
ets of the Ptolemaic system (for the
true one was unknown in Dante's time)
form a series of heavens for different
virtues, the whole terminating in the
empyrean, or region of pure light, and
the presence of the Beatific Vision.
The boundaries of old and new,
strange as it may now seem to us.
86
Ilhtst7^atio7is
were so confused in those days, and
books were so rare, and the Latin poets
held in such invincible reverence, that
Dante, in one and the same poem,
speaks of the false gods of Paganism,
and yet retains much of its lower my-
thology ; nay, invokes Apollo himself
at the door of paradise. There was,
perhaps, some mystical and even philo-
sophical inclusion oi the past in this
medley, as recognizing the constant
superintendence of Providence ; but
that Dante partook of what may be
called the literary superstition of the
time, even for want of better knowl-
edge, is clear from the grave historical
use he makes of poetic fables in his
treatise on Monarchy, and in the very
arguments which he puts into the
mouths of saints and apostles. There
are lingering feelings to this effect even
now among the peasantry of Italy ;
where, the reader need not be told.
Pagan customs of all sorts, including
religious and most reverend ones, are
existing under the sanction of other
names, — heathenisms christened. A
Tuscan postilion, once enumerating to
me some of the native poets, concluded
his list with Apollo; and a plaster-cast
man over here, in London, appeared
much puzzled, when conversing on the
subject with a friend of mine, how to
discrepate Samson from Hercules.
Dante, accordingly, while, with the
frightful bigotry of the schools, he puts
the whole Pagan world into hell-borders,
(with the exception of two or three,
whose salvation adds to the absurdity,)
mingles the hell of Virgil with that of
Tertullian and St. Dominic ; sets Mi-
nos at the door as judge ; retains Cha-
ron in his old oflice of boatman over
the Stygian lake ; puts fabulous people
with real among the damned. Dido,
and Cacus, and Ephialtcs, with Ezze-
lino and Pope Nicholas the Fifth; and
associates the Centaurs and the Furies
with the agents of diabolical torture.
It has pleased him also to elevate Cato
of Utica to the office of warder of pur-
gatory, though the censor's poor, good
wife, Marcia, is detained in the regions
below. By these and other far greater
inconsistencies, the whole place of pun-
ishment becomes a reductio ad absur-
dum, as ridiculous as it is melancholy ;
so that one is astonished how so great
a man, and especially a man who
thought himself so far advanced beyond
his age, and who possessed such powers
of discerning the good and beautiful,
could endure to let his mind live in so
foul and foolish a region for any length
of time, and there wreak and harden
the unworthiest of his passions. Ge-
nius, nevertheless, is so commensurate
with absurdity throughout the book,
and there are even such sweet and balmy
as well as sublime pictures in it occa-
sionally, nay often, that not only will
the poem ever be worthy of admiration,
but, when those increasing purifications
of Christianity which our blessed re-
formers began shall finally precipitate
the whole dregs of the author into the
mythology to which they belong, the
world will derive a pleasure from it to
an amount not to be conceived till the
arrival of that day. Dante, meantime.
The Italian Pilgrims Progress i^^^
with an impartiality which has been
admired by those who can approve the
assumption of a theological tyranny at
the expense of common feeling and
decency, has put friends as well as foes
into hell, — tutors of his childhood,
kinsmen of those who treated him
hospitably, even the father of his be-
loved friend, Guido Cavalcante
Milton has spoken of the " milder
shades of Purgatory " ; and truly they
possess great beauties. Even in a theo-
logical point of view they are some-
thing like a bit of Christian refresh-
ment after the horrors of the Inferno.
The first emerging from the hideous
gulf to the sight of the blue serenity of
heaven is painted in a manner inex-
pressibly charming. So is the sea-
shore with the coming of the angel ;
the valley, with the angels in green ;
the repose at night on the rocks ; and
twenty other pictures of gentleness and
love. And yet special and great has
been the escape of the Protestant world
from this part of Roman Catholic be-
lief; for Purgatory is the heaviest stone
that hangs about the neck of the old
and feeble in that communion. Hell
is avoidable by repentance; but Pur-
gatory what modest conscience shall
escape ? Mr. Gary, in a note on a
passage in which Dante recommends
his readers to think on what follows
this expiatory state, rather than what
is suffered there, looks upon the poet's
injunction as an " unanswerable objec-
tion to the doctrine of purgatory," it
being difficult to conceive " how the
best can meet death without horror.
if they believe it must be followed
by immediate and intense suffering."
Luckily, assent is not belief; and man-
kind's feelings are for the most part
superior to their opinions ; otherwise
the world would have been in a bad
way indeed, and Nature not been vin-
dicated of her children. But let us
watch and be on our guard against all
resuscitations of superstition.
As to our Florentine's Heaven, it is
full of beauties also, though sometimes
of a more questionable and pantomimi-
cal sort than is to be found in either
of the other books. I shall speak of
some of them presently; but the gen-
eral impression of the place is, that it is
no heaven at all. He says it is, and
talks much of its smiles and its beati-
tude ; but always excepting the poetry,
— especially the similes brought from
the more heavenly earth, — we realize
little but a fantastical assemblage of
doctors and doubtful characters, far
more angry and theological than celes-
tial ; giddy raptures of monks and in-
quisitors dancing in circles, and saints
denouncing popes and Florentines ; in
short, a heaven libelling itself with in-
vectives against earth, and terminating
in a great presumption
The people of Sienna, according to
this national and Christian poet, were
a parcel of coxcombs; those of Arezzo,
dogs ; and of Casentino, hogs. Lucca
made a trade of perjury. Pistoia was
a den of beasts, and ought to be re-
duced to ashes ; and the river Arno
should overflow and drown every soul
in Pisa. Almost all the women in
388
Ilhcstratioiis
Florence walked half naked in public,
and were abandoned in private. Every
brother, husband, son, and father, in
Bologna, set their women to sale. In
all Lombardy were not to be found
three men who were not rascals ; and
in Genoa and Romagna people went
about pretending to be men, but in re-
ality were bodies inhabited by devils,
their souls having gone to the " lowest
pit of hell " to join the betrayers of
their friends and kinsmen.
So much for his beloved country-
men. As for foreigners, particularly
kings, Edward the First of England
and Robert of Scotland were a couple
of grasping fools ; the Emperor Albert
was an usurper ; Alphonso the Second
of Spain, a debauchee ; the King of
Bohemia, a coward; Frederick of Ara-
gon, a coward and miser ; the Kings
of Portugal and Norway, forgers ; the
King of Naples, a man whose virtues
were expressed by a unit, and his vices
by a million ; and the King of France,
the descendant of a Paris butcher, and
of progenitors who poisoned St.Thomas
Aquinas, their descendants conquering
with the arms of Judas rather than of
soldiers, and selling the flesh of their
daughters to old men, in order to ex-
tricate themselves from a danger
But truly it is said, that, when Dante
is great, nobody surpasses him. I doubt
if anybody equals him, as to the con-
stant intensity and incessant variety of
his pictures ; and what-ever he paints,
he throws, as it were, upon its own
povfers ; as though an artist should
draw figures that started into life, and
proceeded to action for themselves,
frightening their creator. Every mo-
tion, word, and look of these creatures
becomes full of sensibility and sugges-
tions. The invisible is at the back of
the visible ; darkness becomes palpable ;
silence describes a character, nay, forms
the most striking part of a story ; a
word acts as a flash of lightning, which
displays some gloomy neighborhood,
where a tower is standing, with dread-
ful faces at the window ; or where, at
your feet, full of eternal voices, one
abyss is beheld dropping out of another
in the lurid light of torment
Ginguene has rem.arked the singular
variety, as well as beauty, of Dante's
angels. Milton's, indeed, are common-
place in the comparison. In the eighth
canto of the Inferno, the devils inso-
lently refuse the poet and his guide an
entrance into the city of Dis. An
angel comes sweeping over the Stygian
lake to enforce it ; the noise of his
wings makes the shores tremble, and
is like a crashing whirlwind, such as
beats down the trees and sends the
peasants and their herds flying before
it. The heavenly messenger, after re-
buking the devils, touches the portals
of the city with his wand ; they fly
open ; and he returns the way he came
without uttering a word to the two
companions. His face was that of one
occupied with other thoughts. This
angel is. announced by a tempest. An-
other, who brings the souls of the de-
parted to Purgatory, is first discovered
at a distance, gradually disclosing white
splendors, which are his wings and
The Italiaii Pilgrinis P?^ogress 389
garments. He comes in a boat, of
which his wings are the sails ; and as
he approaches, it is impossible to look
him in the face for its brightness.
Two other angels have green wings
and green garments, and the drapery is
kept in motion like a flag by the vehe-
ment action of the wings. A fifth has
a face like the morning star, casting
forth quivering beams. A sixth is of
a lustre so oppressive, that the poet
feels a weight on his eyes before he
knows what is coming. Another's
presence affects the senses like the fra-
grance of a May morning ; and an-
other is in garments dark as cinders,
but has a sword in his hand too spark-
ling to be gazed at. Dante's occasional
pictures of the beauties of external
nature are worthy of these angelic
creations, and to the last degree fresh
and lovely. You long to bathe your
eyes, smarting with the fumes of hell,
in his dews. You gaze enchanted on
his green fields and his celestial blue
skies, the more so from the pain and
sorrow in midst of which the visions
are created.
Dante's grandeur of every kind is
proportionate to that of his angels, al-
most to his ferocity; and that is saying
everything. It is not always the spir-
itual grandeur of Milton, the subjection
of the material impression to the moral;
but it is equally such when he chooses,
and far more abundant. His infernal
precipices — his black whirlwinds —
his innumerable cries and claspings of
hands — his very odors of huge loath-
someness— his giants at twilight stand-
ing up to the middle in pits, like
towers, and causing earthquakes when
they move — his earthquake of the
mountain in Purgatory, when a spirit
is set free for heaven — his dignified
Mantuan Sordello, silently regarding
him and his guide as they go by, "like
a lion on his watch" — his blasphemer,
Capaneus, lying in unconquered rage
and sullenness under an eternal rain of
flakes o^ fire (human precursor of Mil-
ton's Satan) — his aspect of Paradise,
" as if the universe had smiled " — his
inhabitants of the whole planet Saturn
crying out so loud, in accordance with
the anti- Papal indignation of Saint
Pietro Damiano, that the poet, though
among them, could not hear zvhat they
said — and the blushing eclipse, like
red clouds at sunset, which takes place
at the Apostle Peter's denunciation of
the sanguinary filth of the court of
Rome, — all these sublimities, and many
more, make us not know whether to
be more astonished at the greatness of
the poet or the raging littleness of the
man. Grievous is it to be forced to
bring two such opposites together ;
and I wish, for the honor and glory of
poetry, I did not feel compelled to do
so. But the swarthy Florentine had
not the healthy temperament of his
brethren, and he fell upon evil times.
Compared with Homer and Shake-
speare, his very intensity seems only
superior to theirs from an excess of the
morbid ; and he is inferior to both in
other sovereign qualities of poetry, —
to the one, in giving you the healthiest
general impression of nature itself, — to
390
Illustrations
Shakespeare, in boundless universality,
— to most great poets, in thorough har-
mony and dclightfulness. He wanted
(generally speaking) the music of a
happy and a happy-making disposition.
Homer, from his large vital bosom,
breathes like a broad fresh air over the
world, amidst alternate storm and sun-
shine, making you aware that there is
rough work to be faced, but also activ-
ity and beauty to be enjoyed. The
feeling of health and strength is pre-
dominant. Life laughs at death itself,
or meets it with a noble confidence, —
is not taught to dread it as a malignant
goblin. Shakespeare has all the smiles
as well as tears of Nature, and discerns
the "soul of goodness in things evil."
He is comedy as well as tragedy, — the
entire man in all his qualities, moods,
and experiences ; and he beautifies all.
And both those truly divine poets make
Nature their subject through her own
inspiriting medium, — not through the
darkened glass of one man's spleen and
resentment. Dante, in constituting
himself the hero of his poem, not only
renders her, in the general impression.
as dreary as himself, in spite of the
occasional beautiful pictures he draws
of her, but narrows her very immen-
sity into his pettiness. He fancied,
alas ! that he could build her uni-
verse over again out of the politics
of old Rome and the divinity of the
schools ! . . . .
All that Dante said or did has its
interest for us in spite of his errors,
because he was an earnest and suffering
man and a great genius ; but his fame
must ever continue to lie where his
greatest blame does, in his principal
work. He was a gratuitous logician,
a preposterous politician, a cruel theo-
logian ; but his wonderful imagination,
and (considering the bitterness that was
in him) still more wonderful sweet-
ness, have gone into the hearts of his
fellow-creatures, and will remain there
in spite of the moral and religious ab-
surdities with which they are mingled,
and of the inability which the best-
natured readers feel to associate his
entire memory, as a poet, with their
usual personal delight in a poet and his
name.
DANTE AND TACITUS.
By Rev. H. H. Milman, History of Latin Christianity, Book XIV. eh. 5.
Christendom owes to Dante the crea- inflexible bondage of the established
tion of Italian Poetry, through Italian, hierarchical Latin of Europe. He had
of Christian Poetry. It required all almost yielded, and had actually com-
the courage, firmness, and prophetic menced the Divine Comedy in the
sagacity of Dante to throw aside the ancient, it seemed, the universal and
Da7ite and Tacitus
391
eternal language. But the poet had
profoundly meditated, and deliberately
resolved on his appeal to the Italian
mind and heart. Yet even then he
had to choose, to a certain extent to
form, the pure, vigorous, picturesque,
harmonious Italian which was to be
intelligible, which was to become na-
tive and popular to the universal ear of
Italy. He had to create ; out of a
chaos he had to summon light. Every
kingdom, every province, every district,
almost every city, had its dialect, pecu-
liar, separate, distinct, rude in con-
struction, harsh, in different degrees,
in utterance. Dante in his book on
Vulgar Eloquence ranges over the
whole land, rapidly discusses the Sicil-
ian and Apulian, the Roman and Spo-
letan, the Tuscan and Genoese, the
Romagnole and the Lombard, the Tre-
visan and Venetian, the Istrian and
Friulian; all are coarse, harsh, muti-
lated, defective. The least bad is the
vulgar Bolognese. But high above all
this discord he seems to discern, and to
receive into his prophetic ears, a noble
and pure language, common to all, pe-
culiar to none, a language which he de-
scribes as Illustrious, Cardinal, Courtly,
if we may use our phrase. Parliamen-
tary, that is, of the palace, the courts
of justice, and of public affairs. No
doubt it sprung, though its affiliation is
by no means clear, out of the universal
degenerate Latin, the rustic tongue,
common not in Italy alone, but in all
the provinces of the Roman Empire.
Its first domicile was the splendid Si-
cilian and Apulian Court of Frederick
the Second, and of his accomplished
son. It has been boldly said, that it
was part of Frederick's magnificent
design of universal empire : he would
make Italy one realm, under one king,
and speaking one language. Dante
does homage to the noble character of
Frederick the Second. Sicily was the
birthplace of Italian Poetry. The
Sicilian Poems live to bear witness to
the truth of Dante's assertion, which
might rest on his irrefragable authority
alone. The Poems, one even earlier
than the Court of Frederick, those of
Frederick himself, of Pietro della Vig-
na, of King Enzio, of King Manfred,
with some peculiarities in the forma-
tion, orthography, use, and sounds of
words, are intelligible from one end of
the peninsula to the other. The lan-
guage was echoed and perpetuated, or
rather resounded spontaneously, among
poets in other districts. This courtly,
aristocratical, universal Italian, Dante
heard as the conventional dialect in the
Courts of the Ciesars, in the republics,
in the principalities throughout Italy.
Perhaps Dante, the Italian, the Ghibel-
line, the assertor of the universal tem-
poral monarchy, dwelt not less fondly
in his imagination on this universal and
noble Italian language, because it would
supersede the Papal and hierarchical
Latin ; the Latin, with the Pope him-
self, would withdraw into the sanc-
tuary, into the service of the Church,
into affairs purely spiritual.
However this might be, to this ve-
hicle of his noble thoughts Dante fear-
lessly intrusted his poetic immortality.
392
Illustrations
which no poet anticipated with more
confident security. While the scholar
Petrarch condescended to the vulgar
tongue in his amatory poems, which he
had still a lurking fear might be but
ephemeral, in his Africa and in his
Latin verses he laid up, as he fondly
thought, an imperishable treasure of
fame. Even Boccaccio, happily for his
own glory, followed the example of
Dante, as he too probably supposed in
his least enduring work, his gay De-
camerone. Yet Boccaccio doubted,
towards the close of his life, whether
the Divine Comedy had not been more
sublime, and therefore destined to a
more secure eternity, in Latin.
Thus in Italy, with the Italian lan-
guage, of which, if he was not abso-
lutely the creator, he was the first who
gave it permanent and vital being, arose
one of the great poets of the world.
There is a vast chasm between the
close of Roman and the dawn of Ital-
ian letters, between the period at which
appeared the last creative work written
by transcendent human genius in the
Roman language, while yet in its con-
summate strength and perfection, and
the first in which Italian poetry and
the Italian tongue came forth in their
majesty ; between the history of Taci-
tus and the Divina Commedia. No
one can appreciate more highly than
myself (if I may venture to speak of
myself) the great works of ecclesias-
tical Latin, the Vulgate, parts of the
Ritual, St. Augustine : yet who can
deny that there is barbarism, a yet
unreconciled confusion of uncongenial
elements, of Orientalism and Occiden-
talism, in the language ? From the
time of Trajan, except Claudian, Latin
letters are ahr.ost exclusively Chris-
tian ; and Christian letters are Latin,
as it were, in a secondary and degen-
erate form. The new era opens with
Dante.
To my mind there is a singular kin-
dred and similitude between the last
great Latin and the first great Italian
writer, though one is a poet, the other
an historian. Tacitus and Dante have
the same penetrative truth of observa-
tion as to man and the external world
ot man ; the same power of express-
ing that truth. They have the com-
mon gift of flashing a whole train of
thought, a vast range of images on the
mind, by a {^y^ brief and pregnant
words ; the same faculty of giving life
to human emotions by natural images,
of imparting to natural images, as it
were, human life and human sympa-
thies : each has the intuitive judgment
of saying just enough j the stern self-
restraint which will not say more than
enough; the rare talent of compressing
a mass of profound thought into an
apophthegm ; each paints with words,
with the fewest possible words, yet the
picture lives and speaks. Each has that
relentless moral indignation, that awful
power of satire, which in the historian
condemns to an immortality of earthly
infamy, in the Christian poet aggravates
that gloomy immortality of this world
by ratifying it in the next. Each might
seem to embody remorse. Patrician,
high, imperial, princely. Papal crimi-
Dante and Tacittts
393
nals are compelled to acknowledge the
justice of their doom. Each, too, writ-
ing, one of times just passed, of which
the influences were strongly felt in the
social state and fortunes of Rome, — the
other of his own, in which he had
been actively concerned, — throws a
personal passion (Dante of course the
most) into his judgments and his lan-
guage, which, whatever may be its
effect on their justice, adds wonderfully
to their force and reality. Each, too,
has a lofty sympathy with good, only
that the highest ideal of Tacitus is a
death-defying Stoic, or an all-accom-
plished Roman Proconsul, an Helvidius
Thrasea, or an Agricola ; that of Dante,
a suffering, and so purified and beatified
Christian saint, or martyr ; in Tacitus
it is a majestic and virtuous Roman
matron, an Agrippina, in Dante an un-
real mysterious Beatrice.
Dante is not merely the religious
poet of Latin or medieval Christianity;
in him that medieval Christianity is
summed up as it were, and embodied
for perpetuity. The Divine Comedy
contains in its sublimest form the whole
mythology, and at the same time the
quintessence, the living substance, the
ultimate conclusions of the Scholastic
Theology. The whole course of Le-
gend, the Demonology, Angelology,
'the extra mundane world, which in
the popular belief was vague, fragmen-
tary, incoherent, in Dante, as we have
seen, becomes an actual, visible, har-
monious system. In Dante heathen
images, heathen mythology, are blended
in the same living reality with those of
VOL. II. 50
Latin Christianity, but they are real in
the sense of the early Christian Fathers.
They are acknowledged as a part of the
vast hostile Demon world, just as the
Angelic Orders, which from Jewish or
Oriental tradition obtained their first
organization in the hierarchy of the
Areopagite. So, too, the schools of
Theology meet in the poet. Aquinas,
it has been said, has nothing more sub-
tile and metaphysical than the Paradise,
only that in Dante single lines, or
pregnant stanzas, have the full meaning
of pages or chapters of divinity. But
though his doctrine is that of Aquinas,
Dante has all the fervor and passion of
the Mystics; he is Bonaventura as well
as St. Thomas.
Dante was in all respects but one,
his Ghibellinism, the religious poet of
his age, and to many minds not less
religious for that exception. He was
anti-Papal, but with the fullest rever-
ence for the spiritual supremacy of the
successor of St. Peter. To him, as to
most religious Imperialists or Ghibel-
lines, to some of the spiritual Francis-
cans, to a vast host of believers through-
out Christendom, the Pope was two
distinct personages. One, the tempo-
ral, they scrupled not to condemn with
the fiercest reprobation, to hate with
the bitterest cordiality : Dante damns
pontiffs without fear or remorse. But
the other, the Spiritual Pope, was
worthy of all awe or reverence ; his
sacred person must be inviolate ; his
words, if not infallible, must be heard
with the profoundest respect ; he is
the Vicar of Christ, the representative
394
Illustrations
of God upon earth. With his Ghibel-
line brethren Dante closed his eyes
against the incongruity, the inevitable
incongruity, of these two discordant
personages meeting in one : the same
Boniface is in hell, yet was of such
acknowledged sanctity on earth that it
was spiritual treason to touch his awful
person. The Saints of Dante are the
Saints of the Church ; on the highest
height of wisdom is St. Thomas, on
the highest height of holiness, St. Bene-
dict, St. Dominic, St. Francis. To
the religious adversaries o'l the Church
he has all the stern remorselessness of
an inquisitor. The noble Frederick
the Second, whom we have just heard
described as the parent of Italian poetry,
the model of a mighty Emperor, the
Cassar of Caesars, is in hell as an arch-
heretic, as an atheist. In hell, in the
same dreary circle, up to his waist in
fire, is the noblest of the Ghibellines,
Farinata degli Uberti. In hell for the
same sin is the father oi his dearest
friend and brother poet Guido Caval-
canti. Whatever latent sympathy seems
to transpire for Fra Dolcino, he is un-
relentingly thrust down to the com-
panionship of Mohammed. The Cath-
olic may not reverse the sentence of the
Church.
DANTE'S LANDSCAPES.
From Ruskin's Modern Painters, Vol. III. ch. 14.
The thing that must first strike us in
this respect, as we turn our thoughts to
the poem, is, unquestionably, the for-
mality of its landscape.
Milton's eiFort, in all that he tells us
of his Inferno, is to make it indefinite ;
Dante's, to make it definite. Both, in-
deed, describe it as entered through
gates ; but, within the gate, all is wild
and fenceless with Milton, having in-
deed its four rivers, — the last vestige
of the mediseval tradition, — but rivers
which flow through a waste of moun-
tain and moorland, and by " many a
frozen, many a fiery alp." But Dante's
Inferno is accurately separated into
circles drawn with well-pointed com-
passes ; mapped and properly surveyed
in every direction, trenched in a thor-
oughly good style of engineering from
depth to depth, and divided in the
" accurate middle " {dritto mezzo) of
its deepest abyss into a concentric se-
ries of ten moats and embankments,
like those about a castle, with bridges
from each embankment to the next ;
precisely in the manner of those bridges
over Hiddekel and Euphrates, which
Mr. Macaulay thinks so innocently de-
signed, apparently not aware that he is
also laughing at Dante. These larger
fosses are of rock, and the bridges also;
but as he goes further into detail, Dante
tells us of various minor fosses and em-
Dante's Landscapes
395
bankments, in which he anxiously points
out to us not only the formality, but
the neatness and perfectness, of the
stone-work. For instance, in describ-
ing the river Phlegethon, he tells us
that it was " paved with stone at the
bottom, and at the sides, and over the
edges of the sides " just as the water is
at the baths of Bulicame ; and for fear
we should think this embankment at all
larger than it really was, Dante adds,
carefully, that it was made just like
the embankments of Ghent or Bruges
against the sea, or those in Lombardy
which bank the Brenta, only " not so
high, nor so wide," as any of these.
And besides the trenches, we have two
well-built castles ; one like Ecbatana,
with seven circuits of wall (and sur-
rounded by a fair stream), wherein the
great poets and sages of antiquity live ;
and another, a great fortified city with
walls of iron, red-hot, and a deep fosse
round it, and full of " grave citizens,"
— the city of Dis.
Now, whether this be in what we
moderns call " good taste," or not, I
do not mean just now to inquire, —
Dante having nothing to do with taste,
but with the facts of what he had
seen ; only, so far as the imaginative
faculty of the two poets is concerned,
note that Milton's vagueness is not the
sign of imagination, but of its absence,
so far as it is significative in the matter.
For it does not follow, because Milton
did not map out his Inferno as Dante
did, that he could not have done so if
he had chosen ; only, it was the easier
and less imaginative process to leave it
vague than to define it. Imagination
is always the seeing and asserting fac-
ulty; that which obscures or conceals
may be judgment, or feeling, but not
invention. The invention, whether
good or bad, is in the accurate en-
gineering, not in the fog and uncer-
tainty.
When we pass with Dante from the
Inferno to the Purgatory, we have in-
deed more light and air, but no more
liberty; being now confined on various
ledges cut into a mountain-side, with a
precipice on one hand and a vertical
wall on the other ; and, lest here also
we should make any mistake about
magnitudes, we are told that the ledges
were eighteen feet wide, and that the
ascent from one to the other was by
steps, made like those which go up
from Florence to the church of San
Miniato.
Lastly, though in the Paradise there
is perfect freedom and infinity of space,
though for trenches we have planets,
and for cornices constellations, yet
there is more cadence, procession, and
order among the redeemed souls than
any others ; they fly so as to describe
letters and sentences in the air, and
rest in circles, like rainbows, or deter-
minate figures, as of a cross and an
eagle ; in which certain of the more
glorified natures are so arranged as to
form the eye of the bird, while those
most highly blessed are arranged with
their white crowds in leaflets, so as to
form the image of a white rose in the
midst of heaven.
Thus, throughout the poem, I con-
396
Ilhtstrations
ceive that the first striking character of
its scenery is intense definition ; pre-
cisely the reflection of that definiteness
which we have already traced in picto-
rial art. But the second point which
seems noteworthy is, that the flat
ground and embanked trenches are re-
served for the Inferno ; and that the
entire territory of the Purgatory is a
mountain, thus marking the sense of
that purifying and perfecting influence
in mountains which we saw the medi-
aeval mind was so ready to suggest.
The same general idea is indicated at
the very commencement of the poem,
in which Dante is overwhelmed by
fear and sorrow in passing through a
dark forest, but revives on seeing the
sun touch the top of a hill, afterwards
called by Virgil " the pleasant mount,
— the cause and source of all delight."
While, however, we find this greater
honor paid to mountains, I think we
may perceive a much greater dread and
dislike of woods. We saw that Homer
seemed to attach a pleasant idea, for
the most part, to forests ; regarding
them as sources of wealth and places
of shelter; and we find constantly an
idea of sacredness attached to them,
as being haunted especially by the
gods ; so that even the wood which
surrounds the house of Circe is spoken
of as a sacred thicket, or rather as a
sacred glade, or labyrinth of glades (of
the particular word used I shall have
more to say presently) ; and so the
wood is sought as a kindly shelter by
Ulysses, in spite of its wild beasts ;
and evidently regarded with great affec-
tion by Sophocles, for, in a passage
which is always regarded by readers of
Greek tragedy with peculiar pleasure,
the aged and blind Qidipus, brought to
rest in " the sweetest resting-place " in
all the neighborhood of Athens, has
the spot described to him as haunted
perpetually by nightingales, which sing
** in the green glades and in the dark
ivy, and in the thousand-fruited, sun-
less, and windless thickets of the god "
(Bacchus) ; the idea of the complete
shelter from wind and sun being here,
as with Ulysses, the uppermost one.
After this come the usual staples of
landscape, — narcissus, crocus, plenty
of rain, olive-trees ; and last, and the
greatest boast of all, — "it is a good
country for horses, and conveniently
by the sea "; but the prominence and
pleasantness of the thick wood in the
thoughts of the writer are very notable ;
whereas to Dante the idea of a forest
is exceedingly repulsive, so that, as
just noticed, in the opening of his
poem, he cannot express a general
despair about life more strongly than
by saying he was lost in a wood so
savage and terrible, that "even to think
or speak of it is distress, — it was so
bitter, — it was something next door
to death " ; and one of the saddest
scenes in all the Inferno is in a forest,
of which the trees are haunted by lost
souls ; while, (with only one excep-
tion,) whenever the country is to be
beautiful, we find ourselves coming out
into open air and open meadows.
It is quite true that this is partly a
characteristic, not merely of Dante, or
Dante's Landscapes
397
of medla;val writers, but of Southern
writers ; for the simple reason that the
forest, being with them higher upon
the hills, and more out of the way, than
in the north, was generally a type of
lonely and savage places ; while in
England, the "greenwood" coming up
to the very walls of the towns, it was
possible to be " merry in the good
greenwood," in a sense which an Ital-
ian could not have understood. Hence
Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare send
their favorites perpetually"to the woods
for pleasure or meditation ; and trust
their tender Canace, or Rosalind, or
Helena, or Silvia, or Belphoebe, where
Dante would have sent no one but a
condemned spirit. Nevertheless, there
is always traceable in the medieval
mind a dread of thick foliage, which
was not present to that of a Greek; so
that, even in the North, we have our
sorrowful "children in the wood," and
black huntsmen of the Hartz forests,
and such other wood terrors; the prin-
cipal reason for the difference being,
that a Greek, being by no means given
to travelling, regarded his woods as so
much valuable property, and, if he
ever went into them for pleasure, ex-
pected to meet one or two gods in the
course of his walk, but no banditti ;
while a mediaeval, much more of a
solitary traveller, and expecting to meet
with no gods in the thickets, but only
with thieves, or a hostile ambush, or a
bear, besides a great deal of trouble-
some ground for his horse, and a very
serious chance, next to a certainty, of
losing his way, naturally kept in the
open ground as long as he could, and
regarded the forests, in general, with
anything but an eye of favor.
These, I think, are the principal
points which must strike us, when we
first broadly think of the poem as com-
pared with classical work. Let us now
go a little more into detail.
As Homer gave us an ideal land-
scape, which even a god might have
been pleased to behold, so Dante gives
us, fortunately, an ideal landscape,
which is specially intended for the ter-
restrial paradise. And it will doubtless
be with some surprise, after our reflec-
tions above on the general tone of
Dante's feelings, that we find ourselves
here first entering a forest, and that
even a thick forest. But there is a pe-
culiar meaning in this. With any
other poet than Dante, it might have
been regarded as a wanton inconsist-
ency. Not so with him: by glancing
back to the two lines which explain
the nature of Paradise, we shall see
what he means by it. Virgil tells him,
as he enters it, " Henceforward, take
thine own pleasure for guide ; thou art
beyond the steep ways, and beyond all
Art " ; — meaning, that the perfectly
purified and noble human creature,
having no pleasure but in right, is past
all effort, and past all rule. Art has
no existence for such a being. Hence,
the first aim of Dante, in his landscape
imagery, is to show evidence of this
perfect liberty, and of the purity and
sinlessness of the new nature, convert-
ing pathless ways into happy ones.
So that all those fences and formalisms
398
Illustrations
which had been needed for him in
imperfection are removed in this para-
dise ; and even the pathlessness of the
wood, the most dreadful thing possible
to him in his days of sin and short-
coming, is now a joy to him in his days
of purity. And as the fcncelessness
and thicket of sin led to the fettered
and fearful order of eternal punish-
ment, so the fencelcssness and thicket
of the free virtue lead to the loving
and constellated order of eternal hap-
piness.
This forest, then, is very like that
of Colonos in several respects, — in its
peace and sweetness, and number of
birds ; it differs from it only in letting
a light breeze through it, being ,there-
fore somewhat thinner than the Greek
wood ; the tender lines which tell of
the voices of the birds mingling with
the wind, and of the leaves all turning
one way before it, have been more or
less copied by every poet since Dante's
time. They are, so far as I know, the
sweetest passage of wood description
which exists in literature.
Before, however, Dante has gone far
in this wood, — that is to say, only so
far as to have lost sight of the place
where he entered it, or rather, I sup-
pose, of the light under the boughs of
the outside trees, and it must have been
a very thin wood indeed if he did not
do this in some quarter of a mile's
walk, — he comes to a little river,
three paces over, which bends the
blades of grass to the left, with a mead-
ow on the other side of it ; and in
this meadow
"A lady, graced with solitude, who went
Singing and setting flower by flower apart,
By which the path she walked on was besprent.
•Ah, lady beautiful, that basking art
In beams of love, if I may trust thy face,
Which useth to bear witness of the heart,
Let liking come on thee,' said I, ' to trace
Thy path a little closer to the shore,
Where I may reap the hearing of thy lays.
Thou mindest me, how Proserpine of yore
Appeared in such a place, what time her
mother
Lost her, and she the spring, forevermore.'
As, pointing downwards and to one another
Her feet, a lady bendeth in the dance,
And barely setteth one before the other.
Thus, on the scarlet and the saffron glance
Of flowers with motion maidenlike she bent
(Her modest eyelids drooping and askance) j
And there she gave my wishes their content,
Approaching, so that her sweet melodies
Arrived upon mine ear with what they meant.
When first she came amongst the blades that rise.
Already wetted, from the goodly river,
She graced me by the lifting of her eyes."
Cayley.
I have given this passage at length,
because, for our purposes, it is by much
the most important, not only in Dante,
but in the whole circle of poetry.
This lady, observe, stands on the op-
posite side of the little stream, which,
presently, she explains to Dante is
Lethe, having power to cause forget-
fulness of all evil, and she stands just
among the bent blades of grass at its
edge. She is first seen gathering flower
from flov/er, then "passing continually
the multitudinous flowers through her
hands," smiling at the same time so
brightly, that her first address to Dante
is to prevent him from wondering at
her, saying, " if he will remember the
verse of the ninety-second Psalm, be-
Dante's Landscapes
399
ginning 'Delectasti,' he will know why
she is so happy."
And turning to the verse of the
Psalm, we find it written, " Thou,
Lord, hast made me glad through thy
works. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands ",• or, in the very words in
which Dante would read it, —
" Quia delectasti me, Domine, in factura tua,
Et in operibus manuum Tuarum exultabo."
Now we could not for an instant
have had any difficulty in understand-
ing this, but that, some way farther on
in the poem, this lady is called Matilda,
and it is with reason supposed by the
commentators to be the great Countess
Matilda of the eleventh century; nota-
ble equally for her ceaseless activity,
her brilliant political genius, her per-
fect piety, and her deep reverence for
the see of Rome. This Countess Ma-
tilda is therefore Dante's guide in the
terrestrial paradise, as Beatrice is after-
wards in the celestial ; each of them
having a spiritual and symbolic char-
acter in their glorified state, yet retain-
ing their definite personality.
The question is, then, what is the
symbolic character of the Countess
Matilda, as the guiding spirit of the
terrestrial paradise? Before Dante had
entered this paradise he had rested on
a step of shelving rock, and as he
watched the stars he slept, and dreamed,
and thus tells us what he saw : —
"A lady, young and beautiful, I dreamed,
Was passing o'er a lea ; and, as she came,
Methought I saw her ever and anon
Bending to cull the flowers; and thus she sang:
* Know ye, whoever of my name would ask,
That I am Leah ; for my brow to weave
A garland, these fair hands unwearied ply;
To please me at the crystal mirror, here
I deck me. But my sister Rachel, she
Before her glass abides the livelong day,
Her radiant eyes beholding, charmed no less
Than I with this delightful task. Her joy
In contemplation, as in labor mine.* "
This vision of Rachel and Leah has
been always, and with unquestionable
truth, received as a type of the Active
and Contemplative life, and as an intro-
duction to the two divisions of the
Paradise which Dante is about to enter.
Therefore the unwearied spirit of the
Countess Matilda is understood to rep-
resent the Active life, which forms
the felicity of Earth ; and the spirit of
Beatrice the Contemplative life, which
forms the felicity of Heaven. This
interpretation appears at first straight-
forward and certain, but it has missed
count of exactly the most important
fact in the two passages which we have
to explain. Observe : Leah gathers
the flowers to decorate herself, and de-
lights in Her Own Labor. Rachel sits
silent, contemplating herself, and de-
lights in Her Ozvn Image. These are
the types of the Unglorified Active and
Contemplative powers of Man. But
Beatrice and Matilda are the same
powers. Glorified. And how are they
Glorified ? Leah took delight in her
own labor ; but Matilda — " in operi-
bus manuum Tuarum " — in God^s la-
bor ; — Rachel in the sight of her own
face ; Beatrice in the sight of God^s
face.
And thus, when afterwards Dante
sees Beatrice on her throne, and prays
400
Ilbistrations
her that, when he himself shall die,
she would receive him with kindness,
Beatrice merely looks down for an in-
stant, and answers with a single smile,
then " towards the eternal fountain
turns."
Therefore it is evident that Dante
distinguishes in both cases, not be-
tween earth and heaven, but between
perfect and imperfect happiness, wheth-
er in earth or heaven. The active
life which has only the service of
man for its end, and therefore gath-
ers flowers, with Leah, for its own
decoration, is indeed happy, but not
perfectly so ; it has only the happiness
of the dream, belonging essentially to
the dream of human life, and passing
away with it. But the active life which
labors for the more and more discovery
of God's work, is perfectly happy, and
is the life of the terrestrial paradise,
being a true foretaste of heaven, and
beginning in earth, as heaven's vesti-
bule. So also the contemplative life
which is concerned with human feel-
ing and thought and beauty — the life
which is in earthly poetry and imagery
of noble earthly emotion — is happy,
but it is the happiness of the dream ;
the contemplative life which has God's
person and love in Christ for its ob-
ject, has the happiness of eternity.
But because this higher happiness is also
begun here on earth, Beatrice descends
to earth ; and when revealed to Dante
first, he sees the image of the twofold
personality of Christ reflected in her
e^es ; as the flowers, which are, to the
medijEval heart, the chief work of God,
are forever passing through Matilda's
hands.
Now, therefore, we see that Dante,
as the great prophetic exponent of the
heart of the Middle Ages, has, by the
lips of the spirit of Matilda, declared
the mediaeval faith, — that all perfect
active life was " the expression of
man's delight in God^s work "; and that
all their political and warlike energy,
as fully shown in the mortal life of
Matilda, was yet inferior and impure,
— the energy of the dream, — com-
pared with that which on the opposite
bank of Lethe stood " choosing flower
from flower." And what joy and
peace there were in this work is
marked by Matilda's being the person
who draws Dante through the stream
of Lethe, so as to make him forget all
sin, and all sorrow : throwing her
arms round him, she plunges his head
under the waves of it; then draws him
through, crying to him, ^'Hold me, hold
me'''' (Tiemmi, tiemmi), and so presents
him, thus bathed, free from all painful
memory, at the feet of the spirit of the
more heavenly contemplation.
Dante s Creed
401
DAN T E'S CREED,
From the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. LXV. Art. I.
Another thought sustained him, and
was the end towards which he directed
all the energies which love had roused
within him ; and this must be specially
insisted upon, because, wonderfully
enough ! even in the present day it is
either misunderstood or lightly treated
by all who busy themselves about
Dante. This aim is the national aim,
— the same desire that vibrates instinc-
tively in the bosoms of twenty-two
millions of men, and which is the
secret of the immense popularity Dante
has in Italy. This idea and the almost
superhuman constancy with which he
pursued it, render Dante the most com-
plete individual incarnation of this aim
that we know, and, notwithstanding,
this is just the point upon which his bi-
ographers are the most uncertain
It must be said and insisted upon,
that this idea of national greatness is
the leading thought in all that Dante
did or wrote. Never man loved his
country with a more exalted or fervent
love ; never had man such projects of
magnificent and exalted destinies for
her. All who consider Dante as a
Guelph or a Ghibelline grovel at the
base of the monument which he desired
to raise to Italy. We are not here
required to give an opinion upon the
degree of feasibility of Dante's ideas,
— the future must decide this point.
What we have to do is to show what
VOL. II. 51
Dante aimed at, in order that those
who desire to come to a just estimate of
his life may have sufficient grounds to
judge him. This we shall do as rapidly
as possible, relying upon passages in
the Convito, and his little treatise De
Monarchia, for our authority. The
following, then, is a summary of what,
in the thirteenth century, Dante be-
lieved.
God is one, — the universe is one
thought of God, — the universe there-
fore is one. All things come from
God, — they all participate, more or
less, in the Divine nature, according to
the end for which they are created.
They all float towards different points
over the great ocean of existence, but
they are all moved by the same will.
Flowers in the garden of God all merit
our love according to the degree of ex-
cellence he has bestowed upon each ;
of these Man is the most eminent.
Upon him God has bestowed more of
his own nature than upon any other
creature. In the continuous scale of
being, that man whose nature is the
most degraded touches upon the ani-
mal ; he whose nature is the most
noble approaches that of the angel.
Everything that comes from the hand
of God tends towards the perfection of
which it is susceptible, and man more
fervently and more vigorously than all
the rest. There is this difference be-
402
Illustrations
tween him and other creatures, that his
perfectibility is what Dante calls pos-
sible, meaning indefinite. Coming from
the bosom of God, the human soul
incessantly aspires towards Him, and
endeavors by holiness and knowledge
to become reunited with Him. Now
the life of the individual man is too
short and too weak to enable him to
satisfy that yearning in this world; but
around him, before him, stands the
whole human race to which he is allied
by his social nature, — that never dies,
but works through one generation of its
members after another onwards, in the
road to eternal truth. Mankind is one.
God has made nothing in vain, and if
there exists a multitude, a collective of
men, it is because there is one aim for
them all, — one work to be accom-
plished by them all. Whatever this aim
may be, it does certainly exist, and we
must endeavor to discover and attain it.
Mankind, then, ought to work togeth-
er, in order that all the intellectual
powers that are bestowed amongst them
may receive the highest possible de-
velopment, whether in the sphere of
thought or action. It is only by har-
mony, consequently by association, that
this is possible. Mankind must be one,
even as God is one ; — one in organiza-
tion, as it is already one in its princi-
ple. Unity is taught by the manifest
design of God in the external world,
and by the necessity of an aim. Now
unity seeks for something by which it
may be represented, and this is found
in a unity of government. There must
then of necessity be some centre to
which the general inspiration of man-
kind ascends, thence to flow down again
in the form of Law, — a power strong
in unity, and in the supporting advice of
the higher intellects naturally destined
to rule, providing with calm wisdom
for all the different functions which are
to be fulfilled, — the distinct employ-
ments, — itself performing the part of
ilot, of supreme chief, in order to
bring to the highest perfection what
Dante calls " the universal religion
of human nature "; that is, empire, —
Imperium. It will maintain concord
amongst the rulers of states, and this
peace will diffuse itself from thence
into towns, from the towns among each
cluster of habitations, into every house,
into the bosom of each man. But
where is the seat of this empire to be ?
At this question Dante quits all ana-
lytic argumentation, and takes up the
language of synthetical and absolute af-
firmation, like a man in whom the least
expression of doubt excites astonish-
ment.
He is no longer a philosopher, he is a
believer. He shows Rome, the Holy
City, as he calls her, — the city whose
very stones he declares to be worthy
of reverence, — " nere is the seat of
empire." There never was, and there
never will be, a people endowed with
more gentleness for the exercise of
command, with more vigor to maintain
it, and more capacity to acquire it, than
the Italian nation, and above all, the
Holy Roman people. •
Tlie Dhina Comviedia
403
THE DIVINA CO M M E D lA.
From the German of Schelling.
In the sanctuary where Religion "is
married to immortal verse " stands
Dante as high-priest, and consecrates all
modern Art to its vocation. Not as a
solitary poem, but representing the
whole class of the New Poetry, and
itself a separate class, stands the " Di-
vine Comedy," so entirely unique, that
any theory drawn from peculiar forms
is quite inadequate to it; — a world
by itself, it demands its own peculiar
theory. The predicate of Divine was
given it by its author,* because it treats
of theology and things divine ; Comedy
he called it, after the simplest notion
of this and its opposite kind, on ac-
count of its fearful beginning and its
happy ending, and because the mixed
nature of the poem, whose material is
now lofty and now lowly, rendered a
mixed kind of style necessary.
One readily perceives, however, that,
according to the common notion, it
cannot be called Dramatic, because it
represents no circumscribed action.
So far as Dante himself may be looked
upon as the hero, who serves only as
a thread for the measureless series of
visions and pictures, and remains rather
passive than active, the poem seems to
approach nearer to a Romance ; yet
this definition does not completely ex-
* The title of "Divina" was not given to
the poem till long after Dante's death. It first
appears in the edition of 1516. — Tr.
haust it. Nor can we call it Epic, in
the usual acceptation of the word, since
there is no regular sequence in the
events represented. To look upon it
as a Didactic poem is likewise impos-
sible, because it is written with a far
less restricted form and aim than that
of teaching. It belongs, therefore, to
none of these classes in particular, nor
is it merely a compound of them ; but
an entirely unique, and as it were or-
ganic, mixture of all their elements,
not to be reproduced by any arbitrary
rules of art, — an absolute individu-
ality, comparable with itself alone, and
with naught else.
The material of the poem is, in
general terms, the express identity of
the poet's age ; — the interpenetration
of the events thereof with the ideas of
Religion, Science, and Poetry in the
loftiest genius of that century. Our
intention is not to consider it in its
immediate reference to its age ; but
rather in its universal application, and
as the archetype of all modern Poetry.
The necessary law of this poetry,
down to the still indefinitely distant
point where the great epic of modern
times, which hitherto has announced
itself only rhapsodically and in broken
glimpses, shall present itself as a per-
fect whole, is this, — that the individ-
ual gives shape and unity to that por-
tion of the world which is revealed to
404
Ilhtstrations
him, and out of the materials of his
time, its history, and its science, creates
his own mythology. For as the an-
cient world is, in general, the world of
classes, so the modern is that of indi-
viduals. In the former, the Universal
is in truth the Particular, the race acts
as an individual ; in the latter, the
Individual is the point of departure,
and becomes the Universal. For this
reason, in the former all things are
permanent and imperishable : number
likewise is of no account, since the
Universal idea coincides with that of
the Individual ; — in the latter con-
stant mutation is the fixed law ; no
narrow circle limits its ends, but one
which through Individuality widens
itself to infinitude. And since Uni-
versality belongs to the essence of
poetry, it is a necessary condition that
the Individual through the highest pe-
culiarity should again become Univer-
sal, and by his complete speciality be-
come again absolute. Thus, through
the perfect individuality and uniqueness
of his poem, Dante is the creator of
modern art, which without this arbi-
trary necessity, and necessary arbitrari-
ness, cannot be imagined.
From the very beginning of Greek
Poetry, we see it clearly separated from
Science and Philosophy, as in Homer;
and this process of separation continued
until the poets and the philosophers
became the antipodes of each other.
They in vain, by allegorical interpre-
tations of the Homeric poems, sought
artificially to create a harmony between
the two. In modern times Science has
preceded Poetry and Mythology, which
cannot be Mythology without being
universal, and drawing into its circle all
the elements of the then existing cul-
ture. Science, Religion, and even Art,
and joining in a perfect unity the mate-
rial not only of the present but of the
past. Into this struggle (since Art de-
mands something definite and limited,
while the spirit of the world rushes
towards the unlimited, and with cease-
less power sweeps down all barriers)
must the Individual enter, but with
absolute freedom seek to rescue per-
manent shapes from the fluctuations of
time, and within arbitrarily assumed
forms to give to the structure of his po-
em, by its absolute peculiarity, internal
necessity and external universality.
This Dante has done. He had be-
fore him, as material, the history of
the present as well as of the past. He
could not elaborate this into a pure
Epos, partly on account of its nature,
partly because, in doing this, he would
have excluded other elements of the
culture of his time. To its complete-
ness belonged also the astronomy, the
theology, and the philosophy of the
time. To these he could not give ex-
pression in a didactic poem, for by so
doing he would again have limited
himself. Consequently, in order to
make his poem universal, he was
obliged to make it historical. An in-
vention entirely uncontrolled, and pro-
ceeding from his own individuality,
was necessary to unite these materials,
and form them into an organic whole.
To represent the ideas of Philosophy
I
The Divina Coimnedia
405
and Theology in symbols was impos-
sible, for there then existed no sym-
bolic Mythology, He could quite as
little make his poem purely allegorical,
for then, again, it could not be histori-
cal. It was necessary, therefore, to
make it an entirely unique mixture of
Allegory and History. In the emble-
matic poetry of the ancients no clew
of this kind was possible. The Indi-
vidual only could lay hold of it, and
only an uncontrolled invention fol-
low it.
The poem of Dante is not allegorical
in the sense that its figures only signi-
fied something else, without having any
separate existence independent of the
thing signified. On the other hand,
none of them is independent of the
thing signified in such a way as to be
at once the idea itself and more than
an allegory of it. There is therefore
in his poem an entirely unique mean
between Allegory and symbolic-objec-
tive Form. There is no doubt, and
the poet has himself elsewhere declared
it, that Beatrice, for example, is an
Allegory, namely, of Theology. So
her companions ; so many other char-
acters. But at the same time they
count for themselves, and appear on
the scene as historic personages, with-
out on that account being symbols.
In this respect Dante is archetypal,
since he has proclaimed what the mod-
ern poet has to do, in order to embody
into a poetic whole the entire history
and culture of his age, — the only
mythological material which lies before
him. He must, from absolute arbitra-
riness, join together the allegorical and
historical: he must be allegorical, (and
he is so, too, against his will,) because
he cannot be symbolical ; and he must
be historical, because he wishes to be
poetical. In this respect his invention
is always peculiar, a world by itself,
and altogether characteristic.
The only German poem of universal
plan unites together in a similar manner
the outermost extremes in the aspira-
tions of the times, by a very peculiar
invention of a subordinate mythology,
in the character of Faust; although, in
the Aristophanic meaning of the word,
it may far better be called a Comedy,
and in another and more poetic sense
Divine, than the poem of Dante.
The energy with which the individ-
ual embodies the singular mixture of
the materials which lie before him in
his age and his life, determines the
measure in which he possesses mytho-
logical power. Dante's personages
possess a kind of eternity from the po-
sition in which he places them, and
which is eternal ; but not only the
actual which he draws from his own
time, as the story of Ugolino and the
like, but also what is pure invention,
as the death of Ulysses and his com-
panions, has in the connection of his
poem a real mythological truth.
It would be of but subordinate in-
terest to represent by itself the Phi-
losophy, Physics, and Astronomy of
Dante, since his true peculiarity lies
only in his manner of fusing them with
his poetry. The Ptolemaic system,
which to a certain degree is the foun-
4o6
Ilhistratmis
dation of his poetic structure, has al-
ready in itself a mythological coloring.
If, however, his philosophy is to be
characterized in general as Aristotelian,
we must not understand by this the pure
Peripatetic philosophy, but a peculiar
union of the same with the ideas of the
Platonic then entertained, as may be
proved by many passages of his poem.
We will not dwell upon the power
and solidity of separate passages, the
simplicity and endless naivete of sepa-
rate pictures, in which he expresses his
philosophical views, as the well-known
description of the soul which comes
from the hand of God as a little girl
** weeping and laughing in its childish
sport," a guileless soul, which knows
nothing, save that, moved by its joyful
Creator, " willingly it turns to that
which gives it pleasure"; — we speak
only of the general symbolic form of
the whole, in whose absoluteness, more
than in anythiug else, the universal
value and immortality of this poem is
recognized.
If the union of Philosophy and Po-
etry, even in their most subordinate
synthesis, is understood as making a
didactic poem, it becomes necessary,
since the poem must be without any
external end and aim, that the inten-
tion (of instructing) should lose itself
in it, and be changed into an absolute-
ness {in eine Absolutheit verwandelt),
so that the poem may seem to exist for
its own sake. And this is only con-
ceivable, when Science (considered as
a picture of the universe, and in per-
fect harmony therewith, as the most
original and beautiful Poetry) is in it-
self already poetical. Dante's poem is
a much higher interpenetration of Sci-
ence and Poetry, and so much the more
must its form, even in its freer self-
existence, be adapted to the universal
type of the world's aspect.
The division of the universe, and
the arrangement of the materials ac-
cording to the three kingdoms of Hell,
Purgatory, and Paradise, independently
of the peculiar meaning of these ideas
in Christian theology, are also a gen-
eral symbolic form, so that one does
not see why under the same form every
remarkable age should not have its own
Divine Comedy. As in the modern
Drama the form of five acts is assumed
as the usual one, because every event
may be regarded in its Beginning, its
Progress, its Culmination, its Denoue-
ment, and its final Consummation, so
this trichotomy, or threefold division
of Dante in the higher prophetic po-
etry, which is to be the expression of
a whole age, is conceivable as a gen-
eral form, which in its filling up may
be infinitely varied, as by the power of
original invention it can always be
quickened into new life. Not alone,
however, as an external form, but as
an emblematical expression of the in-
ternal type of all Science and Poetry,
is that form eternal, and capable of
embracing in itself the three great ob-
jects of science and culture, — Nature,
History, and Art. Nature, as the
birth of all things, is the eternal Night;
and as that unity through which these
are in themselves, it is the aphelion of
The Divina Commedia
407
the universe, the point of farthest
removal from God, the true centre.
Life and History, whose nature is
gradual progress, are only a process
of clarification, a transition to an abso-
lute condition. This can nowhere be
found save in Art, which anticipates
eternity, is the paradise of life, and is
truly in the centre.
Dante's poem, therefore, viewed from
all sides, is not an isolated work of a
particular age, a particular stage of cul-
ture ; but it is archetypal, by the uni-
versal interest which it unites with the
most absolute individuality, — by its
universality, in virtue of which it ex-
cludes no side of life and culture, —
and, finally, by its form, which is not
a peculiar type, but the type of the
theory of the universe in general.
The peculiar internal arrangement of
the poem certainly cannot possess this
universal interest, since it is formed
upon the ideas of the time, and the
peculiar views of the poet. On the
other hand, as is to be expected from
a work so artistic and full of purpose,
the general inner type is again exter-
nally imaged forth, through the form,
color, sound, of the three great divis-
ions of the poem.
From the extraordinary nature of his
material, Dante needed for the form of
his creations in detail some kind of
credentials which only the Science of
his time could give, and which for him
are, so to speak, the Mythology and
the general basis which supports the
daring edifice of his inventions. But
even in the details he remains true to
his design of being allegorical, without
ceasing to be historical and poetical.
Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise are, as
it were, only his system of Theology
in its concrete and architectural devel-
opment. The proportion, number,
and relations which he observes in
their internal structure were prescribed
by this science, and herein he re-
nounced intentionally the freedom of
invention, in order to give, by means
of form, necessity and limitation to his
poem, which in its materials was un-
limited. The universal sanctity and
significancy of numbers is another ex-
ternal form upon which his poetry
rests. So in general the entire logical
and syllogistic lore of that age is for
him only form, which must be granted
to him in order to attain to that region
in which his poetry moves.
And yet in this adherence to relig-
ious and philosophical notions, as the
most universally interesting thing which
his age offered, Dante never seeks an
ordinary kind of poetic probability ;
but rather renounces all intention ot
flattering the baser senses. His first
entrance into Hell takes place, as it
should take place, without any unpo-
etical attempt to assign a motive for it
or to make it intelligible, in a condition
like that of a Vision, without, how-
ever, any intention of making it appear
such. His being drawn up by Bea-
trice's eyes, through which the divine
power is communicated to him, he ex-
presses in a single line : what is won-
derful in his own adventures he im-
mediately changes to a likeness of the
4o8
I Ihtstraiions
mysteries of religion, and gives it cred-
ibility by a yet higher mystery, as
when he makes his cntranc"C into the
moon, which he compares to that of
light into the unbroken surface of
water, an image of God's incarna-
tion.
To show the perfection of art and
the depth of purpose which was carried
even into the minor details of the inner
structure of the three worlds, would be
a science in itself. This was recog-
nized shortly after the poet's death by
his nation, in their appointing a dis-
tinct Lectureship upon Dante, which
was first filled by Boccaccio.
But not only do the several incidents
in each of the three parts of the poem
allow the universal character of the first
form to shine through them, but the
law thereof expresses itself yet more
definitely in the inner and spiritual
rhythm, by which they are contra-
distinguished from each other. The
Inferno, as it is the most fearful jn its
objects, is likewise the strongest in ex-
pression, the severest in diction, and in
its very words dark and awful. In one
portion of the Purgatorio deep silence
reigns, for the lamentations of the
lower world grow mute ; upon its
summits, the forecourts of Heaven, all
becomes Color : the Paradiso is the
true music of the spheres.
The variety and diiference of the
punishments in the Inferno are con-
ceived with almost unexampled in-
vention. Between the crime and the
punishment there is never any other
than a poetic relation. Dante's spirit
is not daunted by what is terrible ;
nay, he goes to its extreme limits. But
it could be shown, in every case, that
he never ceases to be sublime, and in
consequence truly beautiful. For that
which men who are not capable of
comprehending the whole have some-
times pointed out as low, is not so in
their sense of the term, but it is a ne-
cessary element of the mixed nature of
the poem, on account of which Dante
himself called it a Comedy. The
hatred of evil, the scorn of a godlike
spirit, which are expressed in Dante's
fearful composition, are not the in-
heritance of common souls. It is in-
deed very doubtful still, though quite
generally believed, whether his banish-
ment from Florence, after he had pre-
viously dedicated his poetry to Love,
first spurred on his spirit, naturally in-
clined to whatever was earnest and
extraordinary, to the highest invention,
in which he breathed forth the whole
of his life, of the destiny of his heart
and his country, together with his in-
dignation thereat. But the vengeance
which he takes in the Inferno, he takes
in the name of the Day of Judgment,
as the elected Judge with prophetic
power, not from personal hate, but
with a pious soul roused by the abomi-
nations of the times, and a love of his
native land long dead in others, as he
has himself represented in a passage in
the Paradiso, where he says : —
"If e'er it happen that the Poem sacred,
To which both Earth and Heaven have lent
their hand.
Till it hath made me meagre many a year,
The Divina Commedia
409
Conquer the cruelty that shut* me out
Of the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slumbered,
An enemy to the wolves that war upon it,
With other voice forthwith, with other fleece,
The poet shall return, and at the font
Baptismal shall he take the crown of laurel."
He tempers the horror of the tor-
ments of the damned by his own feel-
ing for them, which at the end of so
much suffering so overwhelms him that
he is ready to weep, and Virgil says
to him, " Wherefore then art thou
troubled ? "
It has already been remarked, that
the greater part of the punishments of
the Inferno are symbolical of the
crimes for which they are inflicted,
but many of them are so in a far more
general relation. Of this kind is, in
particular, the representation of a meta-
morphosis, in which two natures are
mutually interchanged, and their sub-
stance transmuted. No metamorpho-
sis of Antiquity can compare with this
for invention, and if a naturalist or a
didactic poet were able to sketch with
such power emblems of the eternal
metamorphoses of nature, he might
congratulate himself upon it.
As we have already remarked, the
Inferno is not only distinguished from
the other parts by the external form
of its representation, but also by the
circumstance that it is peculiarly the
realm of forms, and consequently the
plastic part of the poem. The Purga-
torio must be recognized as the pic-
turesque part. Not only are the pen-
ances here imposed upon sinners at
times pictorially treated, even to bright-
voL. II. 52
ness of coloring, but the journey up
the holy mountain of Purgatory pre-
sents in detail a rapid succession of
shifting landscapes, scenes, and mani-
fold play of light; until upon its outer-
most boundary, when the poet has
reached the waters of Lethe, the high-
est pomp of painting and color displays
itself, in the picturing of the divine
primeval forest of this region, of the
celestial clearness of the water overcast
with its eternal shadow, of the maiden
whom he meets upon its banks, and
the descent of Beatrice in a cloud of
flowers, beneath a white veil, crowned
with olive, wrapped in a green mantle,
and " vested in colors of the living
flame."
The poet has urged his way to light
through the very heart of the earth :
in the darkness of the lower world
forms alone could be distinguished : in
Purgatory light is kindled, but still in
connection with earthly matter, and
becomes color. In Paradise there re-
mains nothing but the pure music of
the light ; reflection ceases, and the
Poet rises gradually to behold the color-
less pure essence of Deity itself.
The astronomical system which the
age of the poet invested with a mytho-
logical value, the nature of the stars
and of the measure of their motion,
are the ground upon which his inven-
tions, in this part of the poem, rest.
And if he in this sphere of the uncon-
ditioned still suffers degrees and differ-
ences to exist, he again removes them
by the glorious word which he puts
into the mouth of one of the sister-
4IO
Illustrations
souls whom he meets in the moon, that
"every Where in heaven is Paradise."
The plan of the poem renders it
natural that, on the very ascent through
Paradise, the loftiest speculations of
theology should be discussed. His
deep reverence for this science is sym-
bolized by his love of Beatrice. In
proportion as the field of vision en-
larges itself into the purely Universal,
it is necessary that Poetry should be-
come Music, form vanish, and that, in
this point of view, the Inferno should
appear the most poetic part of the
work. But in this work it is abso-
lutely impossible to take things sepa-
rately ; and the peculiar excellence of
each separate part is authenticated and
recognized only through its harmony
with the whole. If the relation of the
three parts to the whole is perceived,
we shall necessarily recognize the Para-
diso as the purely musical and lyrical
portion, even in the design of the poet,
who expresses this in the external form
by the frequent use of the Latin words
of Church hymns.
The marvellous grandeur of the
poem, which gleams forth in the min-
gling of all the elements of poetry and
art, reaches in this way a perfect mani-
festation. This divine work is not
plastic, not picturesque, not musical,
but all of these at once and in accord-
ant harmony. It is not dramatic, not
epic, not lyric, but a peculiar, unique,
and unexampled mingling of all these.
I think I have shown, at the same
time, that it is prophetic, and typical
of all the modern Poetry. It embraces
all its characteristics, and springs out
of the intricately mingled materials of
the same, as the first growth, stretch-
ing itself above the earth and toward
the heavens, — the first fruit of trans-
figuration. Those who would become
acquainted with the poetry of modern
times, not superficially, but at its foun-
tain-head, may train themselves by this
great and mighty spirit, in order to
know by what means the whole of the
modern time may be embraced in its
entireness, and that it is not held to-
gether by a loosely woven band. They
who have no vocation for this can apply
to themselves the words at the begin-
ning of the first part, —
" Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' intrate."
END OF VOL. II.
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