READINGS -'H

PURGATORIO OF DANTE

CHIEFLY BASED ON

THE COMMENTARY OF BENVENUTO DA IMOLA

BY «fHE j/»

HONBLE. WILLIAM rWARRENx) VERNON M.A.

TOitb an 5ntroDuction

BY THE

VERY REV THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S

IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I

Xonbon _

MACMILLAN AND CO.

AND NEW YORK 1889

The Right of Translation and Reprodtution is Reserved.

DRYDEN PRESS: J. DAVY AND SONS, I37, LONG ACRE, LONDON, W.C.

Bebication*

To my old and esteemed friend SIR JAMES PHILIP LACAITA, K.C.M.G.

SENATOR OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY,

I Dedicate these Readings on the Purgatorio, in grateful recognition that it was from him that I learned to love the peculiar beauties of this second Cantica of the Divina Commedia, also in affectionate remembrance of his share in editing my father's work on the Inferno (1862-68), as well as the first publication of the Commentary of Benvenuto da Imola (1887).

William Warren Vernon.

ist October, 1889.

PREFACE.

HE following *' Readings on the Purga- torio of Dante " were first undertaken about two years ago, for a few inti- mate friends at Florence, without any idea on my part of doing more than reading and translating a Canto aloud, and explaining the difficulties in it, so far as I was able. A short time before, I had enjoyed the in- estimable privilege of being one of those permitted to be present at the private weekly readings given by one of the greatest Dantists of his time — the late Duke of Sermoneta. Blind as he was, he would recite a Canto of the Divina Commedia, following it by an inter- pretation so lucid, and in language so beautiful, as literally to entrance his hearers.

In the earlier days of my Dante meetings,

viii Preface.

I used to select passages at discretion from any part of the Divina Commedia, but even- tually I settled down into a regular course of reading the whole Purgatorio, to which my attention was first particularly directed more than thirty years ago by Sir James Lacaita, who had recently, in a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, pointed out that most foreigners and many Italians confined their study of Dante to the Inferno, as the finest of Dante's works.

Throughout my readings, I have based them upon the framework and divisions that are found in the recently published Commentary of Benvenuto da Imola, which were delivered in the form of lectures on the Divina Corn- media at Bologna in 1375. He was the first public lecturer on Dante at Bologna, as was his friend Boccaccio at Florence, and I have found much interest in making large use of the commentary of one living in the times of men who had known Dante himself.

With the exception of a few disputed readings I have followed the text of Scar- tazzini, and have derived much information

Preface. ix

from that learned critic's encyclopaedic edition of the Divina Coinmedia. I have the pleasure of acknowledging my special obligations to my friend Dr. Moore, Principal of St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, and to the valuable translations and commentaries of Gary, Wright, Pollock, Longfellow, Butler, Plumptre, Hazelfoot, Frati- celli, Lubin, Lamennais, Ozanam, and others.

I must here take the opportunity of testifying to the great advantage my work has derived from its revision by Mr. H. R. Tedder, the accomplished Librarian of the Athenaeum Club. He has throughout given me advice, assistance, and encouragement, for which I can never thank him sufficiently.

It is difficult for me adequately to express my gratitude to the Dean of St. Paul's. It would ill become me to pass an opinion on the noble words which form his Introduction, but I feel that I have earned some title to the thanks of all lovers of Dante for having been the means, however unworthy, of making the author of the Essay on Dante speak once more. The value of his Intro- duction to my work is simply priceless.

X Preface.

I have never hesitated to substitute para- phrase for absolutely literal translation, in passages where the latter did not seem to me to convey the full sense, and I have freely borrowed words, expressions, transla- tions and notes, from the works of men more learned than myself; and so far from feeling any shame for having done so, I rather take pride in it, and would say to one and each of them :

" Voi mi date a parlar tutta baldezza, Voi mi levate si, ch' io son piu ch' io."

Par. xvi. i6.

William Warren Vernon.

INTRODUCTION.

R. Vernon's Preface explains sufficiently how the following work originated. It was not intended in the first instance for publi- cation, but grew out of the studies of a private class. But when it had made some progress, the utility of the method followed by Mr. Vernon, as an introduction to the study of a difficult book, became apparent ; and it was thought that the " Readings " might be welcomed as a help by others who were desirous to become familiar with the structure as well as with the details of the Divina Coitimedia.

Such works have been published on some of our own older writers, on Chaucer, on Spenser, on Bacon ; and have been found of advantage by students. Even in the case of Shakespeare, we need not be ashamed of the pleasure and instruction derived from Charles Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. Mr. Vernon's work presents more definitely in its original form and shape, the kind of lecture which a teacher would give to

xii Introduction.

his class. He gives the text in portions, and with it a free but full and careful translation, in words chosen for the most part with accuracy and taste. He gives, either in the text or in notes, the necessary explana- tions, using the copious stores of illustration which have been gradually accumulating in the copious Dantesque literature of recent years. So far there is nothing to distinguish it from any new translation or new apparatus of notes. What is distinctive is the manner in which Mr. Vernon presents his material. He recognises the difficulty, which many beginners find, of keeping in mind the thread, the steps, and the connexions of the poem : its plan, and the relations of the parts : and it is in this that these " Readings " will be found of material assistance to one who wishes to comprehend the poem as the writer meant it to be taken in, as a whole. And this comprehensive mastery over the whole is just what a learner, struggling with the difficulties of translation, and the perpetually recurring interruption and entanglement of notes, so easily loses. Striking or hard passages arrest or interest him ; but the transitions are so abrupt, and the explanations are so condensed and concise, that he often finds it a hard matter to follow the continuous line of the poet's thought. But Dante certainly did not intend to be read only in fine passages : with his immense and multifarious detail, he meant us to keep in view the idea which governs the whole from the first

Ititroduction. xiii

part to the last. The special feature of Mr. Vernon's work is that he continually reminds us of this, and helps us to recognise the carefully arranged order and development of the story.

Mr. Vernon has chosen the Purgatorio, as the subject for his mode of illustration : and he has chosen wisely. Readers of our day at least are likely to be drawn to the Purgatorio more than to the other two portions of the poem. For the Purgatorio i^ more human. In spite of famous episodes, the eternal memorials of the world's sin and woe, we shrink from the relentless and hopeless terrors of the Inferno, from its audacities, from its grotesque brutalities, of which perhaps a keener sense of the realities conveyed by words makes us more severe judges than the generation before us, who were simply overmastered and carried away by the tremen- dous power and deep tragedy of the scenes. And, with all the serene splendour of the Paradiso, most readers, at least most beginners, find it more difficult to enter into than even the Inferno. It is possible to follow in imagination the miseries of those who suffer; but who can divine or conceive what is thought or felt by spirits on the other side of death, beyond temptation and weakness and pain, glorified and made perfect ? But the Purgatorio is a great parable of the discipline on earth of moral agents, of the variety of their failures and needs of the variety of their remedies. We understand the behaviour of those who are under-

xiv Introduction.

going their figurative processes of purification. They labour as men do who feel the influence of the Spirit of God striving with their evil tendencies and lifting them up to purer and nobler things. We understand their resignation, their thankful submission to the chastise- ment which is to be the annealing to strength and peace. We understand their acquiescence and faith in the justice which appoints and measures their "majestic pains." We understand the aim and purpose which sustain them, the high-hearted courage which endures, the steady hope which knows that all is well. There is nothing transcendental in all this ; nothing but what ex- perience helps us easily to imagine ; nothing but what good men, always on the way to be better, have gone through on the scene of life. And these various trials, which represent the stages by which human character is strengthened where it is weak, and refined where it is selfish and poor, are touched with all the poet's tender- ness, and insight and sympathy. The Piirgatorio is full of the shadows and figures and divinations which beset all serious minds, in the hours when they steadily confront the thought of what is to befall them when they pass into another state of being ; the overpower- ing interest of it, and the little they can really know of it ; the certainty that their own characters, however sincere and consoling maj^- be the witness of a good conscience, are still far from having duly profited by the discipline of life, are still lamentably short of what

Introduction. xv

they ought to be, so as to be fit for the new scenes in which they expect to take their part. We know not, we cannot conceive, whom we shall meet, what we shall do, the moment the last breath has passed our lips, and we part from all that we are accustomed to ; we know not in what company, under what conditions, subject to what laws, we shall find ourselves — the selves which we have known so long and so well ; but anyhow we cannot but wish, that we could feel more sure than we do, that our will and affections and aims had issued from the training and trial of this mortal state, stronger, deeper, purer, more self-consistent No one, probably, who can think at all, but must ask himself with anxiety and wonder, what is to come next. The thrill which passed through the mind of the Greek philosopher : *

av$p(i)7rov^ 'fi€V€i airodavovTa^ a(Tcrd ovk eXTrovrai oiok

SoKcovo-iv — "Things await men when they are dead which they expect not nor think of," is not abolished by the Christian's hope and light. The Ptirgatorio, in emblem and image, is a reflection of this awful misgiving, with its consolations and its warnings, which must come over us, when we honestly think with ourselves what it must be to die.

Nor does his force fall short of the other two can- tiche. Nowhere, in the whole poem, was Dante's eye and sense more keen than in the passages which

* Heracleitus of Ephesus: quoted in Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. c. 22. §. 144. {Dind.)

xvi Introduction.

tell of the aspects and sights of his first morning and evening on the sea-girt land of holiness. Nowhere has the rapture of long-waited-for joy been told in such swift and piercing accents, as in the story of the moment in which Beatrice reveals her presence — " Guardami ben — ben son, ben son Beatrice!' In another way also the Purgatorio is more human in its interest than the Inferno and the Paradiso. It abounds with local touches, reminiscences of actual places and scenes, which had impressed themselves on the mind of a man who had travelled much and observed keenly the features of a landscape, the circumstances of a perilous adventure, the enjoyment of an interesting or happy day. Such touches are indeed wanting in none of the books, but they are more frequent in the Purgatorio. Each of the Cantos which describe the climbing of the sacred mountain, or the wanderings along its ledges, show some special mark of the experience of a man, who was familiar with the rough and dangerous paths by which travel- lers had to cross Alps or Apennines ; who had noted their characteristic appearances and difficulties : the soft falling of the accumulating snow, the apparently hopeless steepness of some sheer precipice barring the way ; who had been surprised far from shelter by the night ; who had woke up by sea-shore or moun- tain to the gradual glories of the dawn ; who had been excited and cheered by the sudden meeting with

Introduction. xvii

fellow-travellers on his desolate road. He delights to recall, by name or place, some scene which dwells in his memory : the valley of the Casentino, the course of the Amo, the steeps of Noli, Turbia, Bismantova, the "beautiful stream" that flows between Sestri and Chia- vari. He likes to recall some perhaps momentary thrill, such as that which pierces the voyager who has just parted from his friends, when he hears at sea the evening bell over the waters, " Seeming to mourn the day which is dying." In the Purgaiorio the poet finds companions who are neither below him, nor hopelessly estranged from him, as in the Inferno^ nor far above him, as in the Paradiso : they are still almost creatures of flesh and blood, certainly human characters, capable of effort, pain and self- command, going through their training as he is going through his, though on a higher level, having in view the aim and hopes which lead him on, praying the prayers which he prays, singing the psalms which he sings, receiving the absolution which is vouchsafed to him. For reasons like these, the Piirgatorio seems especially fitted for a beginning in studying Dante. It is less strange than the other Cantiche in its scenery and design ; and in truth it lies at the foundation of the ideas on which the whole poem is constructed.

Mr. Vernon calls especial attention to the observa- tions of one of the old commentators — Benvenuto da Imola. We owe to Mr. Vernon's zeal for the studies

b

xviii Introduction.

with which the name of his house is connected, and to his own liberality, the recent publication in full of these important commentaries, which were before known only either by reference and extracts, or by a worthless Italian translation. They are very volu- minous, discouraging by their bulk ordinary pub- lishers, but more than one plan was thought of for publishing them. At length the work was taken up in earnest ; Sir James Lacaita prepared an edition of the original Latin text ; and it was printed at Florence and published at the expense of Mr. Vernon, who had inherited from his father and brother the interest in Benvenuto's work. The commentaries consist of a complete set of Latin lectures on the Commedia, by a scholar who filled one of the chairs for the exposition of Dante, which became common in Italy soon after the poet's death. The first of these was filled by Boccaccio, part of whose work remains. Benvenuto was a friend and follower of Boccaccio, and wrote towards the end of the fourteenth century. His work, though not the earliest commentary, is, perhaps, the most important. It is unequal in the illustrations which he inserts, and the explanation he gives of diffi- culties ; but it contains a great mass of useful and curious information, much of it collected from per- sonal knowledge, or intercourse with those who, like Boccaccio, preserved the traditions, more vague and uncertain than we should have expected, about Dante

Introduction. xix

and his life and purposes. To comment adequately on the Commedia was beyond the power of those who in the fourteenth century undertook to do so. To comment worthily a man must have something of the deep and serious temper of the writer, and this was not the spirit of Boccaccio, who set the fashion of lecturing. Benvenuto is a scholar with a good deal of classical reading, a man of Italian good sense, Italian humour, and in considerable proportion, Italian cynicism. He will go as far as knowledge and a sensible view will carry him ; his humour and cynicism will sometimes find kindred materials in his subject, and sometimes will be out of place : but the awful and solemn depths of a soul, which had dwelt for years in the presence of the eternal world and had all but seen it, were beyond his capacity. Still, he is very instructive. He tells a great number of things which we should not otherwise know. He often shows good sense in his explanation of a passage or choice of a reading. He knows what others have said about his subject, and supplements or corrects them. He shows how the book impressed the Italians of the time. And he takes great pains to mark dis- tinctly the order and method of the story. In this point, Mr. Vernon has made much use of him. His divisions, in the analysis which he gives of each canto, are those of Benvenuto.

I cannot help hoping that Mr. Vernon's book, so b2

XX Introduction.

modest, but the result of genuine and careful work, of much honest labour, may give a fresh impulse among English students to serious and painstaking reading of the famous poem — the only reading which it ought to have. I can only say for myself that I have gone through his pages with the kind of pleasure with which one talks over well-remembered and long-known passages of a great book with a friend. It is the old familiar thing : but the talk has elicited a new freshness and spirit in one's thought and feelings about it. But, at any rate among be- ginners, I think that it is probable that there will be many who will be glad to have such a companion as Mr. Vernon has offered them. It will help them to understand the spirit of the Piirgatorio, as well as to make out the perplexities and difficulties, which the strange and terrible writer, full of the mysteries and enigmas of heaven and earth, and hurrying on in the pursuit of his purpose, did not mind leaving in the path of those who read him,

R. W. C.

Deanery, S. Paul's, April 1889.

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

At what date the Purgatorio was written.

There is every reason to suppose that the Purga- torio was written before the end of 13 14. Philippe le Bel, King of France, died 29th Novr., 13 14, and is re- ferred to as still living in the last Canto (XXXIII, 34).

" Sappi che il vaso che il serpente ruppe Fu e non h, ma chi n' ha colpa, creda Che vendetta di Dio non teme suppe."

This passage, which is intended to censure Cle- ment V and Philippe le Bel for having transferred the Papal Throne to Avignon, would seem to show that Philippe was not dead when these lines were written, and, as they occur in the last Canto of the Purgatorio, that Division of the Divina Cofmnedia must have been written previously to November, 13 14.

In the twenty-fourth Canto an allusion is made to Dante falling in love with Gentucca at Lucca, which we know cannot have happened earlier than I3I4> ^s it was only on the 14th June, 13 14, that Uguccione della Faggiuola made himself master of Lucca, which

xxii Preliminary Chapter.

city, up to that time, had been bitterly hostile to Henry VII, as well as to the Ghibellines and the Bianchi. The twenty-fourth Canto, in which Lucca is mentioned, could not have been written earlier \\\2Si June, 1 3 14, and the thirty-third or last Canto could not have been written later than November, 13 14. Thus within six months Dante must have written at least ten Cantos. The invectives against the Emperor Albert, in the Sixth Canto, appear to have been written before his successor visited Italy in 13 10. It would seem therefore that the composition of the Purgatorio must have occupied five years, from 13 10 to 13 14, or even six years. Cesare Balbo thinks it probable that Dante began it in 1309, during his quiet residence in Paris, that he continued it in 13 10 amid his first hopes of Henry's visit, and then paused : that he resumed it with fresh vigour after that Emperor's death, and finished it during the last months of 13 14. Witte {Dante-Forschungen) does not think that the Purga- torio was finished before 13 19. Dean Plumptre is of opinion that the Purgatorio was the most rapidly written of all the three parts of the Divina Commedia, and that the period of its composition embraced the years 1308-12, in which Dante was watching with hope the election of Henry VII to the Imperial Throne, and the preparations for the Italian expedition.

Preliminary Chapter. xxiii

Nature of the Purgatorio as compared with THE Inferno.

Cesare Balbo says " the Purgatorio, taking it alto- gether, is perhaps the most beautiful part of the Divina Cofmnedia, or that at least which exemplifies the best, the most beautiful part of Dante's character, his love." After passing through the Inferno, iiXlants. had nojvvjssued from the gloom of the infernal abyss, into the light, and sun, and hopes of Purgatory ; in his real existence he had abandoned the thoughts of his ungrateful country and her factions, and was cherishing hopes of peace and repose, as is natural to an exile treading a foreign land. Thus, in the first verses of the Purgatorio, he enters on a new song of love, assumes a new style, full of joy and light, which he continues with some few exceptions to the end of his poem."

In the Inferno all is gloom and darkness ; the indi- cations of the time of day are invariably given by allusions to the position of the Moon ; the Sun is never alluded to from the moment when Dante has passed within the gates of Hell, until the point when, after the Poets have passed the centre of the Earth, and are about to commence the ascent to the Southern Hemisphere, Virgil indicates the hour to Dante by a reference to the sun :

" E gik il Sole a mezza terza riede" {Inf. XXXIV, 96).

xxiv Preliminary Chapter.

^^Lssoon^as the Purgatoriois^ntered^ Dante makes us feel the sun's actual presence,

The episodes in the Purgatorio are continually recurring, and are of great beauty and interest. While out of a whole so harmonious and perfect it is difficult to select passages for marked preference, we may nevertheless dwell upon a few of unsur- passed excellence. These are : The description of the Southern Cross and the sweet colour of Oriental sapphire in Canto I. The sunrise, and the approach off the Angel in the vessel which he propels by his wings, and the singing of Casella in Canto II; the Conversations with Manfred in Canto III; Belacqua in Canto IV; Buonconte da Montefeltro, and -Pia de' Tolomei in Canto V ; the outburst of indignation against the feuds and factions of Italy in Canto VI ; the night in the flowery valley, and the souls of the great in Canto VII ; the Compline Hymn, Nino Visconti di Gallura, the serpent driven away by the Angels, and the noble words that pass between Dante and Conrad Malaspina in Canto VIII ; the Gate of Purgatory, and Dante's admittance within it in Canto IX ; the sculptures and Trajan in Canto X ; the Lord's Prayer and Oderisi d' Agobbio the minia- ture painter, in Canto XI ; Sapia of Siena in Canto XIII ; Guido del Duca's invective against the cities of Tuscany in Canto XIV ; the conversation with Marco Lombardo in Canto XVI ; the interviews with

Preliminary Chapter. xxv

Adrian V, the good Pope, in Canto XIX, and with Hugh Capet in Canto XX ; the appearance of Statius in Canto XXI; the description by Statius of the early Christians in Canto XXII ; Forese Donati in Canto XXIII; and then the beautiful picture of the Terrestrial Paradise and the appearance of Matelda in Cantos XXVII and XXVIII ; and last of all, the three allegorical Cantos, XXIX, XXX, and XXXI, when Dante again meets Beatrice after a lapse, according to the fiction, of ten years, but in reality of twenty-four years since her death,

^nrtthpr__peculiar feature in the Pur^atorio, as in contrast to the Inferno, is the numerous appearances of Angels. There is only one Angel mentioned in Hell, he who came down to open the gates of the City of Dis, and to rebuke the demons for their presumption in daring to close them, but even the identity of this personage with one of the angels of God is disputed by the late Duke of Sermoneta.

In the Purgatorio, however, angels are continually encountered, and on the appearance of the first one Virgil says to Dante :

" Omai vedrai di si fatti ufficiali." — Purg. II, 30.

The Purgatorio closes with a prophecy by Beatrice of the advent of a mysterious personage, whom she styles the " Five hundred, ten, and five." This is usually interpreted to denote the three letters, "D.X.V.," which when inverted form the word " DVX," " Leader,"

xxvi Preliminary Chapter.

and evidently mean some great Ghibelline Cap- tain of the time, but whether Can Grande della Scala, or Henry VII of Luxembourg, or Uguccione della Faggiuola, is a matter that will in all probability never be finally determined. I have followed Scar- tazzini in thinking that Can Grande della Scala is the DVX, whose coming was to make the enemies of the Church tremble.

The principal divisions of the Purgatorio.

The Mountain of Purgatory,* as described by Dante, is an immense truncated cone^sing out of the midst of the sea in the centre of the Southern Hemisphere, which, according to the Ptolemaic system of Cosmo- graphy, consisted, with the exception of the Mountain in question, of a vast Ocean. Purgatory is supposed to be situated at the exact antipodes to Jerusalem, and to have been formed by the earth which fled from Lucifer, who, according to Dean Plumptre, " fell from Heaven on the side of the water-hemisphere ; the earth's contents fled before him, and appeared above the waters, while the land, disturbed as he fell, rose to form the island-mountain, and left the cavernous opening through which the pilgrims wound their way upwards."

Let us bear in mind that Dante supposes our first

* The supposed appearance of the mountain is represented in the woodcut prefixed to p. i.

Prelifninary Chapter. xxxi

The time occupied in passing through the

purgatorio, and the supposed date of the

Vision.

Dr. Moore observes that the date 1 300 has been all but universally accepted, from the time of the earliest Commentators down to the present day.

There are four passages which strongly support this argument.

First. — In the opening line of the Inferno Dante speaks of himself as being half-way through the path- way of his life. In Convito, IV, 23, he states definitely that human life is like an arch, whose highest point is 35 years ; and for this reason it was the will of Christ to die in his 34th year, so that His Divinity might not be on its decline {stare in descensione). Dante then has interpreted the first line of the Inferno as meaning that he was 35 years old, and, as he was born in the year 1265, he would consequently be of that age in the year 1300.

Second. — Guido Cavalcanti is known to have died in the winter between 1 300 and 1 301. In Inferno, X, 1 10- III, Dante informs Guido's father that he was alive.

Third. — In Purg. II, 98, Casella tells Dante that the Indulgence, connected with the Jubilee of Boni- face VIII, began just three months before, and that he and other spirits, delayed at the mouth of the Tiber, had felt the benefit of it. This Indulgence was pro- claimed on the 22nd February, 1300, but its privileges

xxxii Preliminary Chapter.

were antedated in the Bull itself from the Christmas Day preceding. This, as Dr. Moore po«nts out, ne- cessitates the spring of 1300.

Finally Dante relates all events that had happened before 1300 as past, but speaks prophetically of all that occurred after 1300 as future events.

Throughout the Purgatorio Dante gives continual indications of time, and we are thus able to trace his progress through it far more closely than in the Inferno, which he took 25 hours to traverse.

He is four days going through the Purgatorio.

In the Antipurgatorio one day, Easter Day. (Canto I, 19, to Canto IX, 9.)

In Purgatory proper two days, namely, Easter Monday (Canto IX, 13, to Canto XVIII, ^6\ and Easter Tuesday (Canto XIX, i, to Canto XXVII, 89).

In the Terrestrial Paradise one day, Easter Wed- nesday (Canto XXVII, 94, to XXXIII, 103).

Although there is much dispute as to the day of the week, or month, on which the journey through Purgatory is supposed to take place, and also as to some of the hours indicated on several days, there is no doubt about the aggregate of time allowed.

There are as many as thirty definite references to time. The last is in Canto XXXIII, 103, and refers to the hour of noon on Easter Wednesday, 13th April, 1300-

ERRATA.

Vol. I.

Page i8 (h'neis). iv7r"Ante-Purgatorio'V^a^"Anti-Purgatorio." „ 31 (h'ne 14 and footnote). For " Balances " read " Scales." » 32 {footnote). For " Lamenais " read " Lamennais " „ i^A {footnote). For " Bocca degli Albati" read "Bocca

degli Abati." „ 47 {line 4). Delete quotation marks after " purgation." „ ^o{linez). For "occupied their minds: they had lost,

&c.," read " occupied their minds. They had lost,

&c" „ 67 {footnote). For " papel " read " Papal." „ 74 {line 4). For " unless " read " if." „ ^^ {footnote). For " Haselfoot " read " Hazelfoot." „ 96 {line 19). Instead of "from v. 64 to v. 85 " read " from

V. 64 to V. 84," and line 22 instead of " from v. 86

to V. 136" read "from v. 85 to v. 136." „ 248 {line 16). Delete "and." „ 249 {footnote). For " Cacciagnida " twice^ read " Caccia-

guida " twice. „ 253 {line last but one). For " 104 " read " 106." „ 254 (//«^ 12.) Delete '^ a.nd."

„ 294 {footnote). For " Lamenais " read " Lamennais." „ 300. For " Alcmeon " in three places^ read " Alcmason " in

three places. „ 308 {bottom of page). Delete quotation marks after " ease." ,,318 {footnote). For " Haselfoot " read " Hazelfoot." „ 341 {line 2). For " interceded God " read " interceded with

God." » 355 {line 2). For " Pelorum " read " Pelorus." „ 387 {line i). For " line " twice, read " angle " twice. » 396 {footnote). For " Guinizzelli " read " Guinicelli." „ 398 {line 1 5.) /v?r "Anger " read " Envy." „ 403 {line 18). ^</</ " yet " before " none." ,,416 {footnote). For " verse 45 " read " verse 42." „ 42 1 {line 3). For " volentem trahunt " read " nolentem

trahunt." » 437 C'^^'^-y 2 a«^ 1 1). For " De Camino" read "Di Camino." » 437 {footnote). For "Riccardo de Camino" twice, read

"Riccardo di Camino" twice. „ 44 1 {line I ). For " it " read " them." „ 442 (line 14 of footnote). Delete "and." „ 452. This page is erroneously paged 45 7. » 453 {footnote). For " alza le leve " read " alza le vele."

THE PURGATORIO.

VOL. I. CANTO I.

The Invocation. Cato of Utica. The Four Stars.

ENVENUTO DA Imola* says that this first

introductory chapter, or Canto, which is as

noble as it is difficult, may be briefly divided

into four general parts.

TJie First Divisio?i, from v. i to v. 12, is simply

the poet's proposition of the matter to be treated, and

his Invocation.

hi the Second Division^ from v. 13 to v. 48, he describes his delight at beholding the beautiful sun- rise, and the appearance of Cato of Utica, the venerable guardian of this sacred region.

In the Third Division^ from v. 49 to v. 84, he relates how Virgil satisfied the interrogatories of Cato. In the Fourth Division, from v. 85 to v. 136, he relates how Cato sanctioned their entrance into the Ante-Purgatory, and how Virgil, by Cato's order, washed from Dante's cheeks, with dew off the fresh

* Benvenuti de Rambaldis de Imola, Comentuin super Dantis Aldigherii Covicediam, nunc primum integre in lucem editum. Sumptibus Guilielmi Warren Vernon curante Jacobo Philippe Lacaita. Florenttce, iZ^j. 5 vols, large 8vo.

B

2 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto I,

grass, the gloom that the shades of Hell had left upon them, and how he afterwards took him down to the sea-shore, and girded him with one of the rushes that grew there, as a token of Dante's humility.

Division I. Dante's opening words show with what an intense sense of relief he leaves behind him the gloomy scenes, that he has witnessed during the twenty-five hours he spent in Hell.

Per correr miglior acqua alza le yele Omai la navicella del mio ingegno, Che lascia dietro a s6 mar si crudele. E cantero di quel secondo regno,

Ove 1' umano spirito si purga, 5

E di salire al ciel diventa degno. To run over better waters {i.e. to treat of a subject that is less gloomy and repulsive) the little vessel of my genius (the little bark which is sufficiently large to carry all the genius that I can boast of) now hoists her sails as she leaves behind her so cruel a sea {i.e. Hell). And I will sing of that second realm, in which the human soul is purified, and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven.

Benvenuto wishes us to observe that the "prima acqua" the first subject treated by Dante, was good, as far as justice goes, and that Dante does not draw the contrast of saying : " The last subject I treated of was bad, this one shall be good ;" but, rather he would say : " My last subject was good for me, and for those for whose benefit I write my poem ; but the present subject-matter, inasmuch as it speaks of holier things, is better."

Dante now, having laid the plan of his poem before his readers, proceeds to make his invocation, as he

Canto I. Readings on the Purgatorio. 3

had done in the second Canto of the Inferno, to the Muses in general {Inf. 1 1, 7), only here he further calls on one in particular.*

Ma qui la morta poesi risurga,

O sante Muse, poich^ vostro sono,

E qui Calliop^ alquanto surga, Seguitando il mio canto con quel suono, 10

Di cui le Piche misere sentiro

Lo colpo tal, che disperar perdono. But here (in this second Cantica of the Purgatorio)^ O sacred Muses, let the poetry that was dead (because in the first Cantica, the Inferno, it treated of those who were dead to grace), rise again, since I am your devoted follower, wholly dedicated to the study of poetry, and let Calliope here (in this Cantica), rise again for a while, accompanying my verses with that melodious song, whereof the ill-fated Picae felt the power to be so great, that they, from the moment they heard it, despaired of pardon ; that is, lost all hope of recovation of their doom.-f*

Dante invokes Calliope to rise again for a while to a somewhat greater height, and he lays stress on qui, meaning, that in this second Cantica he is singing in

* It is somewhat remarkable, and fully bears out what has been noted as a special characteristic of Dante, the perfect symmetry with which he brings in comparisons or contrasts. We have noticed in the introduction, that Canto I of the Inferno was only an introduction to the whole poem, and that Canto II is really the first Canto. Now in Inf. II, and at line 7, we find the invocation to the Muses, which here in the Purgatorio occurs in precisely the same line : —

" O Muse, o alto ingegno, or m' aiutate ! " — Inf. II, 7.

t The Picas were the nine daughters of Pierius, King of Thessaly. They challenged the Muses to a trial of skill in singing, and chose to sing the praises of the Titans who warred

B 2

4 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto I.

a more elevated style than he was, when singing of Hell, and he calls upon Calliope to help him further than before, but only to a limited extent, as, in the third Cantica, the Paradiso, he will invoke her to rise to her full height.

Division II. Here begins the Second Division of this first Canto, in which Dante, having uttered his noble invocation to the Muses, proceeds to enter upon his subject matter, and first describes under how lovely an aspect of nature (says Benvenuto), he commences his most beautiful work,*

Dolce color d' oriental zaffiro,

Che s' accoglieva nel sereno aspetto Dell' aer, puro infino al primo giro, 15

Agli occhi miei ricomincio diletto,

Tosto ch' i' uscii fuor dell' aura morta, Che m' avea contristato gli occhi e il petto. A lovely hue of Oriental sapphire, that was diffused through the serene aspect of the atmosphere, and was pure as far as the first sphere of Heaven, that is, of

against Jupiter. Being vanquished, they were changed into magpies, and the Muses assumed their name of Pierides. See Ovid, Mel. V, Maynwarding's Translation. " 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 air. 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." * He describes the beauty of the dawn, Benvenuto adds, first by its effect, viz., the brightness and purity of the atmosphere :

Canto I. Readings on the Ptirgatorio. 13

Then he answered him : — " I came not of my own free will ; a Lady, Beatrice, descended from Heaven, in obedience to whose prayers I have aided this one, meaning Dante, with my company." Beatrice's visit to Virgil in Limbo is related in Inf. II, 52-75. Before answering Cato's first question, Virgil premises by a full acknowledgment of Cato's right to question them.

Ma da ch' h tuo voler che piii si spieghi 55

Di nostra condizion, com' ella k vera, Esser non puote il mio che a te si nieghi.

" But since it is thy will that more should be explained of our condition, what it really is (which is not that of souls escaped from their doom in Hell), my will cannot be, that (this due explanation^ should be denied to thee." And he proceeds to give it—

Questi non vide mai 1' ultima sera,

Ma per la sua follia le fu si presso,

Che molto poco tempo a volger era. 60

" This man, Dante, never saw the last evening of life {i.e. he is not yet dead), but, through his own folly and sin, had approached so near to it, the last evening, that there was very little time to revolve before he would actually have died."

Buti says that Dante here speaks of the death of the body in the literal sense, and that one must also understand allegorically the spiritual death. Compare also Convito, IV, 7.*

* Follia^ compare Inf. I, 3 :

" Ch^ la diritta via era smarrita."

</

14 Readings on the Piirgatorio. Canto I.

Si com' io dissi, fui mandate ad esso

Per lui campare, e non c' era altra via Che questa per la quale io mi son messo.

Mostrato ho lui tutta la gente ria ;

Ed ora intendo mostrar quegli spirti 65

Che purgan s^ sotto la tua balia.

"As I have said, I was sent unto him for the purpose of saving him, nor was there any other way of doing so than this way to which I have betaken myself {i.e. there was no other way of saving him than by taking him to see the kingdoms of death, and the conse- quences of sin). I have shown him all the multitudes of the lost (lit the guilty race), and it is my present purpose to show him those spirits who are going through their purgation under thy jurisdiction."*

Virgil excuses himself from giving Cato a detailed account of their journey.

Come io 1' ho tratto, saria lungo a dirti : Deir alto scende virtu che m' aiuta Conducerlo a vederti e ad udirti.

" How I have brought him it would be long to tell thee : (bu^ there is power descended from on high which is aiding me to lead him to see thee and to hear thee" (so that he may learn from thy lips how he must prepare himself to pass through the regions of Pur- gatory). Virgil wishes to show that without divine

* Bulla : bailiwick, jurisdiction, from balire=^reggere, nianeg- giare. Thomas Aquinas says in the Sumnia : " La potestk del balio h governato da quella del re." Therefore the word dalla distinctly defines what Cato's jurisdiction is, viz., authority delegated to him by God over "i sette regni," his seven pro- vinces, meaning the seven cornices of Purgatory, which are under his superintendence.

Canto I. Readings on the Purgatorio. 5

the Moon, now brought back to my eyes the old delight, which I had not enjoyed since my entrance into Hell, so soon as I issued forth from the atmos- phere of deadly gloom, which had filled my eyes and my breast with sadness.

Dean Plumptre* says that the first circle was that of the Moon as nearest the Earth, and that the whole scene is that of a cloudless Eastertide morning on the Mediterranean. He says the Oriental sapphire was that which was held by jewellers in higher esteem than others. Its colour was recognized as a symbol of Hope. Hence, perhaps, it was chosen specially for Bishops' rings. Compare Ex. XXIV, 10, and Ezekiel I, 26. He describes the planet Venus as being the cause of this serene appearance of the firmament — Lo bel pianeta che ad amar conforta,

Faceva rider tutto I'oriente, 20

Velando i Pesci ch'erano in sua scorta.

That beautiful planet that incites men to love, that is, the planet Venus,' was making the whole East to beam forth into a radiant smile, veiling the Con- secondly, from its cause, the apparition of " Lucifer," the morning star, the harbinger of sunrise.

Benvenuto explains that this briefly implies that, while in Hell, Dante had been seeing a murky, foetid atmosphere, ever unquiet, threatening thunder, lightning and tempests ; but now that he is entering into Purgatory he finds an atmosphere full of light and purity, " and his soul exults in its recovered freedom," says Dean Plumptre, " in its old joy, in itself a purifying joy, in light and the fresh breeze of dawn." He had entered into Hell as the shades of night were closing around him, he enters into Purga- tory in all the brightness of returning day.

* The Commedia and Canzoniere of Dante Alighieri. A new translation by E. H. Plumptre, D.D., Dean of Wells. London, 1886.

6 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto I.

stellation of the Pisces that were in its escort ;fthat is, by its superior brilliancy, dimming their lustre!r

He then proceeds to describe how he saw the four stars of the Southern Cross,

lo mi volsi a man destra, e posi mente Air altro polo, e vidi quattro stelle Non viste mai fuor che alia prima gente.

* Dr. Moore says^ : "Our first reference is an hour or so before sunrise on Easter morning, April loth. The only point calling for notice here is the curious piece of hypercriticism on the part of some ingenious persons, who have discovered by computation that " Lo bel pianeta che ad amar conforta," i.e. of course Venus, was not actually a morning star in April, 1300, but rose after the sun. But it is evident that Dante wishes to describe the hour before sunrise under its most familiar, and, so to speak, its typical aspect in the popular mind, and with that hour the brilliant morning star is generally asso- ciated. We may add, too, that if it were actually visible at that season, it would of course be associated (as Dante has with a realistic touch indicated) with the constellation Pisces, the sun being in the next following sign of Aries. This is an illustration of the principle that I have already contended for, that Dante, in his astronomical allusions, does not feel bound to sacrifice poetic effect, or a picture that strikes vividly on the popular imagina- tion, to the exigencies of strict scientific (shall I not rather say, pedantic?) accuracy. You might as well object to a landscape painter that he had slightly altered the actual position of a tree or a house, as tested by the results of mensuration or trigonometry.

Precisely the same question arises in Purg. XXVII, 94-6, when the hour before dawn is again described in similar lan- guage." {Time References, pages 64, 65)

Dean Plumptre too says on this passage — " It is scarcely worth while to examine the Poet's description by the test of science.^^

^ The Time References in the Divina Commedia, and their bearing on the assumed date of the vision, by the Rev. Edward Moore, D.D., Principal of St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, and Barlow Lecturer on Dante in University College, London. 1887.

Canto I. Readings on the Purgatorio. 7

Goder parea il ciel di lor fiamelle. 25

O settentrional vedovo sito, Poi che privato sei di mirar quelle!

I turned me to my right hand, and gave my atten- tion to the other, the antarctic pole, and saw four stars which none but the earliest race of mankind had ever before then looked upon. The (whole heaven seemed to beUJLup with gladness by thejr flaming- ray<;. _0 regions of the North, hew widowed are ye, seeing that ye are debarred from gazing on such stars as these.*

* On V. 22 to 24. Both in the Northern and in the Southern Hemispheres, whoever turns his face to the East has the Antarctic pole on his right.

Quattro stelle. The Southern Cross — Philalethes says that Dante may have heard of the existence of this constellation from Marco Polo, who in 1295 was in Venice after his return from his voyage, which he had pushed as far as Java and Madagascar. . . . Perhaps Dante only heard of the four stars without knowing precisely their position in the heavens, or the hours of their rising and setting.

By la prima gente must be understood Adam and Eve, not as inhabiting, according to our view, the Terrestrial Paradise in a region near to the Euphrates valley, but as, according to Dante's fiction, inhabiting the Terrestrial Paradise on the sum- mit of the Mountain of Purgatorj', which he describes as in the centre of the Southern Hemisphere, where of course the Southern Cross is visible.

But there is no doubt, says Scartazzini,' that these four stars have an allegorical meaning, and represent the four cardinal virtues.

In this Canto, at verse 37, he calls them luci sante.

In Canto XXXI, 106. Not siam quininfe, e ?ul ciel siamo stelle.

Canto VIII, 91. Le quattro chiare stelle

Che vedevi staman son di la basse, would point to their being real stars that Dante wishes to describe.

' Scartazzini, G. A. La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri. 1874-82.

8 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto I.

And now Dante, having described the purity of the atmosphere, and the beauty of the heavens, goes on to speak of the venerable old man who was the Guardian of the place. This was Cato of Utica, who was born B.C. 95 and died by his own hand B.C. 46. " The choice of him as the Warder of Purgatory," says Dean Plumptre, " seems strange enough. As a virtuous heathen, he might have been placed with his wife, Marcia, in the Limbo; as a suicide, he might have been doomed, like Pier delle Vinee, to the seventh circle of Hell ; as an enemy of Caesar, he might have gone yet lower down. Lucan however, (probably also the single reference in j^En. VIII, 670), had obviously impressed Dante's mind with a profound admiration for Cato as one of the great heroes of the ancient world. He had chosen death rather than loss of

• liberty [Mon. II, 5.). He was (quoting from Dante, Conv. IV, 28) worthy more than any man, to be a type of God, whose call he obeyed even in the manner of his death." In the Convito IV. 27, Dante relates the whole history of Cato, and compares the return to him of his divorced wife Marcia (after the death of an intermediate husband) as the return of the soul to God.

He was held by all writers of antiquity as the most

x^erfect-type of the free citizen, and therefore Dante seems to have considered him as the most appropriate guardian of the souls in Purgatory who are endeavour- ing to regain their true liberty.

Com' io dal loro sgnardo fui partito,

Un poco me volgendo all' altro polo,

Lk onde il Carro gik era sparito, 30

Canto I. Readings on the Piirgatorio. 9

Vidi presso di me un veglio solo,

Degno di tanta riverenza in vista,

Che piu non dee a padre alcun figliuolo.

When I had withdrawn myself from gazing upon them,(the four stars,) turning myself a little towards the other/^he arctic 'pole, ^n my left) from which point the Wain was no longer to be seen, I beheld close by me an old man alone, worthy in his aspect of so much reverence, that no son owes more to a father.

We may remember in verse 19 that Dante had turned to his right, which made him face the antarctic pole, and catch sight of the Southern Cross ; he now turns back somewhat towards the arctic pole.

Lunga la barba e di pel bianco mista

Portava, a' suoi capegli simigliante, 35

De' quai cadeva al petto doppia lista.

He wore his beard long, and mingled with white hair like unto the tresses on his head, of which a double fold fell upon his breast.

Li raggi delle quattro luci sante

Fregiavan si la sua faccia di lume,

Ch' io '1 vedea come il sol fosse davante.

The beams of the four holy stars, which symbolized the four cardinal virtues, so adorned his face with light, that I saw him as though the sun were striking in my face.*

We now learn how Cato put three questions to Dante and Virgil. First. Whether they are lost souls who have escaped from Hell. Secondly. If so, who

* Benvenuto says that it seemed to Dante as though it were bright daylight, which it was not as yet, but the brightness of Cato's face eked out the dawning day, and rendered himself clearly visible.

lO Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto I.

has guided their steps. Thirdly. If they have not escaped from Hell, whether there has been any special indulgence of Divine grace shown to them.

" Chi siete voi, che contro al cieco fiume 40

Fuggito avete la prigione etema ? " Diss' ei, movendo quell' oneste piume.

" Who are ye that have escaped from the eternal prison, /Hell, coming up against the course of the dark, ^subterranean) rivulet " (alluding to that, along whose banks the poets had come since they left Lucifer, and journeyed up to Purgatory), said he, with a movement of his venerable locks?*

Chi v' ha guidati ? o chi vi fu lucerna, Uscendo fuor della profonda notte Che sempre nera fa la valle inferna? 45

" Who has guided you } or who has been the lantern

/^unto your steps as you issued forth from that profound

night which makes the Abyss of Hell for ever black ? "

Son le leggi d' abisso cosi rotte ?

O h mutato in ciel nuovo consiglio, Che, dannati, venite alle mie grotte ?

* Cato must have been standing close to the cavern by which the poets issued from Hell ; for as soon as Dante had taken in all the beauty of dawning day, and of the Southern Cross, he turned back towards the North and became aware that Cato was standing by him. Cato may have seen them come forth from the subterranean passage, and have come to the very natural conclusion that they were lost souls trying to escape their doom. Or he may have taken it for granted that they had come that way, if he was watching on the sea shore and not seen any vessel arrive with its angel pilot, such a^ is described in Canto II. He certainly could have no doubt on the subject, by noticing on Dante's face that sudiciume, grimy mist, which (in 95-6) he orders Virgil to wash away.

Canto I. Readiftgs on the Purgatorio. 1 1

" Are the laws of the pit^e^ be* thus broken ? or has some change caused new counsels ^to be brought' in Heaven, that ye, being damned, come to my caverns ? " By the latter Cato means his seven kingdoms, or seven Cornices of Purgatory.*

Division III. This is the Third Division of the Canto, in which Dante shows how Virgil, in the first place, answered Cato's questions satisfactorily, and secondly, begged for Dante's admission with himself into Purgatory.

He first describes how Virgil, on seeing the vener- able old man, compelled Dante to pay him an imme- diate act of respect.

Lo duca mio allor mi di& di piglio,

E, con parole, e con mani e con cenni, (50)

Riverenti mi fe' le gambe e il ciglio.

My Leader then laid hold on me, and both by words of command, with his hands, and with signs (or, as Benvenuto says, in every way that he could at such short notice), he made me reverent both with my legs and my brow, that is, he forced me to bend my knees, and to incline my head.i*

It is worth noticing that on Dante's entrance into

* The laws of Hell ordered the lost souls who entered into it to abandon all hope. Cato asks whether any new law has been passed in Heaven, which would permit souls in Hell still to hope for Redemption, and issue forth from Hell, t We learn from verse 109

" Cos! spari ; ed io su mi levai

Senza parlare," that Dante continued kneeling during the whole interview.

12 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto I.

Hell, he finds himself in presence of an old man, Charon, whose weird appearance and excited manner contrast remarkably with the calm, collected, dignified manner of Cato. In both cases is Dante summoned to account for his presence, by Charon in Hell and by Cato in Purgatory. In both cases does Virgil reply : to Charon by a simple assertion of Divine authority ; to Cato by the most courteous and full explanation. Benvenuto says that Virgil commences, by replying to Cato's second question as to who had guided their steps thus far,

Poscia rispose lui : — " Da me non venni ;* Donna scese del ciel, per li cui preghi Delia mia compagnia cestui sovvenni.

* How like Dante's reply to Farinata degli Uberti — " Da me stesso non vegno Colui che attende Ik per cui mi mena."

Inf. X, 61-2 Scartazzini says that before answering the question " Who are ye?" Virgil tries to calm Cato's indignation by answering first his other question: "Who guided you hither?" Upon this speech of Virgil to Cato, Dr. Barlow [Study of Dante) remarks :

" Virgil's speech to the venerable Cato is a perfect

specimen of persuasive eloquence. The sense of personal dignity is here combined with extreme courtesy and respect, and the most flattering 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 favour as the severity of his character permits, yet he will not have them think that his consent to their proceeding has been obtained by adulation, but simply by the assertion of power vouchsafed to them from on high. In this also the con- sistency of Cato's character is maintained ; he is sensible of the flattery but disowns its influence."

Canto I. Readings on the Purgatorio. 1 5

aid he would not have been able to perform his mission.

Virgil now makes his petition to Cato to admit Dante, inasmuch as, like Cato himself, he is an enthusiast for liberty.

Or ti piaccia gradir la sua venuta : 70

Libertk va cercando, che h si cara, Come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta.

"Now may it please thee to look favourably on his entrance (here) : He comes in search of liberty, which is so dear, as knows he {i.e. Cato), who for the sake of it, renounced his life."

Fraticelli contends that the sense is allegorical. Dante says in the Convito that liberty is free course given to the will to fulfil the law ; free will is the free judgment of the will ; and the judgment is free, if it 'is the first to move the appetite, and is not to be in any way forestalled by the appetite. Dean Plumptre explains that the liberty which Dante was seeking was spiritual ; that for which Cato died political ; but here, also, the two thoughts overlap one another. Cato had lived, not for himself, but for the whole world. {Conv. IV, 27. Mon. II, 5).*

* Scartazzini quotes from St. John VIII, 36 : —

" If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

And 2 Cor. Ill, 17 : —

" Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

hxi^Rom. VIII, 2 :—

"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

Scartazzini observes that what Dante is in search of are : —

1 6 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto I.

And what Dante has followed after with the aid of Beatrice, was not the liberty of Italy, but the freedom from the slavery of his own passions and from sin.*

Virgil next alludes to the fact that Cato sacrificed his life for liberty's sake.

Tu il sai ; ch^ non ti fu per lei amara In Utica la morte, ove lasciasti La vesta che al gran di sark si chiara. 75

" Thou know'st thyself; for death for the sake of it (liberty), was not bitter to thee in Utica, where thou didst leave the garment-f- (that is, thy body, the garment of thy soul), which at the last great day of Judgment shall shine forth so gloriously.''^

Virgil now proceeds to answer Cato's third question as to whether the laws of Hell had been altered or violated.

"I dolci pomi "—/«/: XVI, 61.

"Quel dolce porno che per tanti rami Cercando va la cura de' mortali. . ."

P«r^. XXVII, 115.

* See Par XXXI, 85, where he says to Beatrice : " Tu m' hai di servo tratto a libertate Per tutte quelle vie, per tutti i modi, Che di cio fore avean la potestate."

+ vesta, plural veste ; and veste, plural vesti, were equally used by old writers both in prose and verse.

Compare /"^/ra^f^ ; . . . " Ove la bella vesta

Presse delle terrene membra La donna . . . . " % chiara:

Compare Dan. XI I, 3 : "They that be wise shall shine as the

Canto I. Readings on the Purgatorio. ly

Non son gli editti etemi per noi guasti : Ch^ questi vive, e Minos me non lega ; Ma son del cerchio ove son gli occhi casti

Di Marzia tua, che in vista ancor ti prega,

O santo petto, che per tua la tegni : 80

Per lo suo amore adunque a noi ti piega.

"The eternal edicts, ihe immutable laws of God) have not been violated by us : for this man,;l)ant^, is alive, and Minos does not bind,fhas not condemned,! me, to any of the circles of the damned ; but I am an inmate of that circle, viz. Limbo, where dwell the chaste eyes of thy Marcia,* who still seems to pray thee, O sacred breast (blessed spirit), that thou wouldest hold her for thine own : For her love then incline thyself to us/to the petition that I now am about to make to thee on our behalf.'v

In Conv. IV, 5, Dante writes, " O sacratissimo petto di Catone, chi presumera di te parlare ? "

Virgil makes his special petition to Cato, saying :

brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."

And Matt. XIII, 43. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

And Par. XIV, 43.

" Come la came gloriosa e santa Fia rivestita, la nostra persona Piu grata fia, per esser tutta quanta."

Scartazzini says that the expression used by Dante here, meaning vesta . . . chz'ara, compared with the biblical passages I on which it is evidently founded, excludes all doubt of his meaning to say that Cato will, in process of time, be saved.

Benvenuto devotes 12 pages to Cato alone, exclusive of the text. His admiration for him appears to equal that of Dante.

* Marcia was the daughter of the Consul L. Martius Philippus, and wife of Cato of Utica, who gave her up to his friend Hor-

c

1 8 Readings on the Pitrgatorio. Canto I.

Lasciane andar per li tuoi sette regni : Grazie riporterb di te a lei, Se d' esser mentovato laggiu degni.

" Grant us permission to pass through thy seven- fold kingdom : fthe seven cornices of Purgatoryt I will carry back to her the thanks we owe to thee, at least if thou deignest to be mentioned there below."

The Ottimo paraphrases this passage: "This ser- vice which thou will render us is deserving of praise ; and we will speak thy praises to her." Cp. Inf. II, 73, 74.

Division IV. We now enter upon the Fourth and concluding Division of the Canto, in which Dante re- lates how Cato sanctioned their entrance into the Ante-Purgatorio and how, in obedience to his direc- tions, Virgil washed from Dante's cheeks the gloom of Hell, and girded him with a reed. Cato says to

tensius the Orator. On the death of the latter Marcia inherited his wealth, and then Cato took her back again to be his wife. Lucan makes out that Cato did so at Martia's earnest request. Luc. Phars. II, 341, Rowe's Trans. 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 breast and locks dishevelled came ; 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 a name without the joys of love ; No more to be abandoned let me come, That Cato's wife may live upon my tomb.

Canto I. Readings 07i the Purgatorio. 19

Virgil that though he admits them into the Antfi'- Purgatorio, he does so in deference to the wishes of a lady from Heaven, and not from any influence that the mention of the name of his heathen wife Marcia could have over him.

" Marzia piacque tanto agli occhi miei, 85

Mentre ch' io fui di Ik," — diss' egli allora, — " Che quante grazie voile da me, fei.

Or che di Ik dal mal fiume dimora.

Pill mover non mi puo, per quella legge

Che fatta fu quando me n' uscii fuora. 90

" Marcia," said he thereupon, " was so pleasing unto mine eyes while I was yonder, in the other world,*) that all the favours she wished to have from me, I performed. But now that she dwells on the far side of the evil stream,/6f Acheron, she can no longer move me, by that law which was made when I issued forth from thence, 2>. from the circle of Limbo, where Cato remained for 80 years,-f- until Christ withdrew him from it with others."

Ma se donna del ciel ti move e regge

Come tu di', non c' e mestier lusinghe : Bastiti ben che per lei mi richegge.

" But if, as thou sayest, a Lady from Heaven moves and rules thee, .that is, has caused thee to come here, and is guiding thy steps) no flattering speech is

* Benvenuto takes di la to mean Limbo.

+ per quella legge. The law that absolutely separates the damned from the blessed.

The " law " implied, says Dean Plumptre, " seems to be that which separated Cato from the other souls, who, on the descent into Hades, were placed in the Limbo, while he was made warder of the Mountain of Cleansing, to which none, before that date, had been admitted. The husband and the wife, in the in-

C 2

20 Readings o?i the Purgatorio. Canto I.

necessary to influence me: let it be quite sufficient for thee that thou makest thy request in her name."

Benvenuto remarks that it appears but empty flattery to make a request to a very grave old man in the name of the empty love of a woman whom he may have loved in former years. Cato now formally sanc- tions their admission.

Va dunque, e fa che cestui ricinghe

D' un giunco schietto, e che gli lavi il viso, 95

Si che ogni sudiciume quindi stinghe : Ch^ non si converria I'occhio sorpriso

D' alcuna nebbia andar dinanzi al primo

Ministro, che e quei di Paradise.

"Go then, and see that thou gird this man with a smooth rush, and that thou wash his face, so that thou mayest efface from it {quindi), all foulness: for it would not be fitting that he should go into the presence of the first Angel, who is of those of Paradise, with his eyes dimmed by any of the mist ^remaining in them from Hell,"] and, in the allegorical sense, with any remains of the recollection of all the evil that he has

scrutable decrees of God, had to remain in the place assigned to each, and the ties that had united them were broken.

Me v) uscii fuora. Buti, Landino, Vellutello, Costa, Giuliani, Camerini and others think this means " when I died ; " but in Inf. IV, 63, we are expressly told that before the descent of Christ into Limbo " spiriti umani non eran salvati." When Cato died, eighty years before the death of Christ, there was no law forbidding the redeemed to retain any affection for those "di Ik del mal fiume." That law, Scartazzini says, was made when "that Mighty One descended into Limbo {Inf. IV, 53) and took from thence the spirits of the Patriarchs, " e molti altri," among whom must have been Cato. Besides, " ne," in v. 90 must refer to il " mal fiume," which is in the same terzina, and not to "dilk"in V. 86.

Canto I, Readings on the Purgatorio. 2i

been contemplating, which would be injurious to the purity of his soul, and to the clearness of vision which is the condition of seeing God (Plumptre).*

Cato then tells Virgil where he will find the rushes on the sea shore.

Questa isoletta intomo ad imo ad imo, lOO

Laggiu colk dove la batte 1' onda, Porta de' giunchi sovra il molle lime. Null' altra pianta che facesse fronda, O indurasse, vi puote aver vita, Pero che alle percosse non seconda. 105

" This little island round about its lowest base down yonder where the waves are plashing on the

* Richegge — ricinghe — stinghe are the ancient forms of the present subjunctive for richegga — ricinga — stinga.

Schietto means smooth, deprived of its leaves.

The rush, is, according to some commentators, a symbol of simple humihty. Dante in v. 135 of this Canto calls it "!' umile pianta."

Benvenuto's explanation is very interesting.

He notes that Cato says

"■ fa che cestui ricinghe D' un giunco schietto " and says ricinghe means that Dante was to be girded over again, because in Inf. XVI, 106-117, we read that he had a cord girded round his waist, with which at one time he had thought to capture the panther, by which he intended to say that formerly, by donning the garb of St. Francis he had hoped to have conquered the concupiscence of the flesh. This cord covered with knots, says Benvenuto, was taken from him by Virgil, and cast down to Geryon into Malebolge ; and therefore Dante must now be regirded with 2l giunco schietto, a rush with- out knots, a sign of humility.

Primo Ministro. By this Dante evidently intends to signify the angel who sits as the Guardian of the Gate of Purgatory, (Canto IX, 78.) The first Angel he saw was the one in the boat mentioned in the next Canto, but he never looked at Dante and Virgil, but " sen gi come venne veloce."

22 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto. I.

shore, produces rushes in the soft ooze. No other plant that puts forth leaves, or that hardens [from mature growth, can live there, because it does not yield to the shocks of the surf.T Cato's concluding words are:

Poscia non sia di qua vostra reddita ; Lo sol vi mostrerk che surge omai, Prender lo monte a piu lieve salita.

"After that thou shalt have girded and washed Dante, let not your return be this way ; the sun which is on the point of rising will direct you how to take the mountain by an easier ascent.""f"

Cato now disappears.

Cosi span ; ed io su mi levai

Senza parlare, e tutto mi ritrassi no

Al duca mio, e gli occhi a lui drizzai.

With these words he vanished ; and I rose from my knees without speaking, and drew myself more closely up to my leader, and fixed my eyes upon him, (as a sign that I gave myself up completely to his will.'

Ei comincio : — " Figliuol, segui i miei passi : Volgiamei indietro, ch6 di qua dichina Questa pianura a' suoi termini bassi." —

* Benvenuto sees an allegory running all through these last lines. Dean Plumptre puts them in a very concise form.

" The natural man prides himself on resisting the adverse blasts of fortune (as Dante himself seems to do), but true humility sees in them the discipline appointed by the Divine will and submits." Par. XVII, 23.

t Lo Sol vi mostrerh : the Sun would direct their steps, for, as we learn in Inf. I, 18, it is that planet "Che mena dritto altrui per ogni calle." The conversation with Cato and the moments occupied in looking around them, had made the time pass so quickly that dawn had already commenced, and sunrise was not far distant. (Antonelli.)

Canto 1. Readings on the Purgatorio. 23

He began: — " My Son, follow in my steps: Let us turn back towards the shore, for, from where we are now standing, this plain slopes down to its lowest boundaries." They were facing the abrupt ascent of the mountain, but had been ordered first to go down to the shore for which purpose they turned back- wards.

Dante next describes how the day was breaking.

L' alba vinceva 1' ora mattutina* 115

Che fuggia innanzi, si che di lontano Conobbi il tremolar della marina.

The dawn was overcoming the breeze of early morning, which was retreating before it, so that even from afar I could see the ruffling that it caused on the surface of the sea. Dr. Moore describes this as an exquisite picture of the breeze that precedes sunrise. In Canto II, i, we have the sun actually on the horizon.

^ >

* L'ora mattutina for aura. Dean Plumptre says that the ora of the Italian stands for '^u^" not " Hora." The da\vn scatters the early mist and shews the trembling of the waters. Line 1 17 is an echo of the " splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus " of ^n. VII, 9, which Conington translates:

The breezes freshen towards the night,

Nor doth the moon refuse Her guiding lamp: its tremulous light

The glancing deep bestrews.

Some understand " ora " = hour, as do Benvenuto and Buti> others " ora " =^ shade.

Scartazzini agrees with Dean Plumptre. Jacopo della Lana, who does not comment on the word, writes it with a circumflex over ora, so that one may take it for granted that he understands " aura."

24 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto I.

Noi andavam per lo solingo piano

Com' uom che torna alia smarrita strada

Che infino ad essa gli par ire in vano. 120

We began walking along the solitary plain (un- tenanted save by Cato, and he too had vanished) like a man that turns to seek the way that he has missed, and, until he has found it, he thinks he is walking to no purpose.

Dante tells us how Virgil, in obedience to Cato's commands washed his face.

Quando noi fummo dove la rugiada

Pugna col sole, e per essere in parte Ove adorezza, poco si dirada ;

Ambo le mani in su 1' erbetta sparte

Soavemente il mio maestro pose ; 125

Ond' io che fui accorto di su' arte,

P6rsi ver lui le guance lagrimose : Quivi mi fece tutto discoverto Quel color che 1' inferno mi nascose.

As soon as we had reached a spot where the dew yet strives with the sun, and from being in a place where it is shady, evaporates but little ; my Master gently and gracefully spread both his hands upon the herbage ; on which I, becoming aware of his intention, extended towards him my cheeks still covered with tears (which had flowed during my passage through Hell at the sufferings I witnessed in it) : and there he brought thoroughly to light again that colour which Hell had covered up in me, that is, by washing my cheeks with the dew, he washed from them the traces of tears upon them, and restored to them their rosy hue. The place to which Virgil brought Dante was probably on the south side of the mountain, where the Sun, says

Canto I. Readings on the Purgatorio. 25

Mr. Butler, has least power, and the dew can resist its influence.*

In conclusion Dante describes how Virgil girded him with a rush, and the spot where the rushes grew.

Venimmo poi in sxil lito diserto, 130

Che mai non vide navicar sue acque Uomo, che di tornar sia poscia esperto.

Quivi mi cinse si come altrui piacque : O maraviglia ! che qual egli scelse L' umile pianta, cotal si rinacque 135

Subitamente Ik onde la svelse.

After this we came down to the lonely shore, which never yet beheld man sail upon its waters, and after- wards have experience of return.f

Here did he gird me as that other one, Cato, had willed; O wonderful to tell! that just like unto the humble rush that he selected and pulled up, so there sprang up another straightway in the spot from which he had plucked it forth ; meaning that divine grace is inexhaustible, and never diminishes.^

End of Canto I.

.Co^^^-X .

* Scartazzini says : " The rays of the rising Svm reach the lowest base of the island later than the upper parts of the moun- tain, and therefore the dew lasts there longer."

t On the powerlessness of man to navigate the waters of the sea surrounding the hill of Purgatory, see the account given to Dante by Ulysses in Inf. XXVI, 142, of his ill-fated voyage and death.

X rinacque subitamente^ &c. Compare /EneidVX, 144. " Primo avulso non deficit alter Aureus ; et simili frondescit virga metallo." Conington's translation gives it :

26 Readings on the Purgatorio.

Digression on the Account of the Sun-rise

IN Canto II, 1-9. Canto III, 25. Canto IV,

138-9. Canto V, 1-6. Canto XXVII, 1-6.

From Dr. Moore s Time References in the Divina Commedia {p. 66).

"The next passage (II, 1-9) is one of a group of five or six similar in character, which may therefore conveniently be considered together, since the key to their explanation is the same. To understand them, a brief exposition of the rude system of geography adopted by Dante here and in the Convito is necessary. It was in fact the same as was current in his day, and its main features are to be found in such writers as Orosius, Isidore, and Brunetto Latini (with all of whom Dante was acquainted), and in almost any of the old Mappse Mundi, such as that of Hereford

" Yet none may reach the shades without The passport of that golden sprout : For so has Proserpine decreed That this should be her beauty's meed. One plucked, another fills its room, And burgeons with like precious bloom."

[To burgeon, v. n. to bud, from the French bourgeonner. See

Webster's Lexicon^

Readings on the Purgatorio. 27

Cathedral, and many others which are given by Lelewel in his Giograpliie du Moyen Age. The habitable world was of course confined to the Northern Hemisphere, the other was the " moftdo senza gente" of Inf. XXVI, 117. The Southern Hemisphere in fact contained no land excepting the Mountain of Purgatory, and the belief in the possibility of Anti- podes would no doubt have been held, as by St. Augustine {De Civ. XVI, 9) to be unscriptural. The Northern Hemisphere was symmetrically divided into two parts, Asia in the East, and Europe and Africa in the West. Asia in which Egypt was included (see Br. Latini, Tes. HI, c. 2), was held to be equal in size to Europe and Africa together ; this being sometimes accounted for by the a priori consideration that it was the inheritance of Shem, the first born, who had con- sequently a double portion !

Gervaise of Tilbury and Fazio degli Uberti in the Dittaviondo both make this statement. " Europe and Africa were again symmetrically sub-divided by the Mediterranean, which (as we learn from Par. IX, 84-87) was regarded by Dante as reaching half-way across the hemisphere, and thus extending over ninety d^rees of longitude. His words are that from the Ocean which surrounds the world

" Contra il sole {i.e. eastwards) Tanto sen va, che fa meridiano Lk dove 1' orizzonte pria far suole." Par. IX, 87.

Jerusalem was in the system of Dante, as of the other authors we have referred to, and, indeed, in general mediaeval belief the, 'o/xCpaXo? t^C 7175, and this is, therefore, the " Greenwich," so to speak, of Dante's computations of longitude, and consequently of time.

28

Readings on the Purgatorio.

On either side of Jerusalem, at the distance of ninety degrees, were the Ganges on the east, and the Pillars of Hercules on the west, this limit being also variously indicated by Dante as Spain, the Ebro, Seville, Gades, or Morocco. Half-way between Jeru- salem and Spain, and, therefore, in the centre of the Mediterranean, and at about 45 degrees west longi- tude, was Italy.

Finally, the direct antipodes of Jerusalem, and, therefore, at 1 80 degrees either east or west longitude, was the Mountain of Purgatory. We find this dis- tinctly expounded in Purg. IV. 67-71."

Table.

		c	5^	3 •	i
3	1	B
a.	yj	hH •— > k-l
y	\ /	^ )	*	^ >	\

180°

90-

w.

45^

Longitude.

90"

A

180°

E.

A reference to the annexed Table and Diagram, constructed to illustrate this, will make it clear at a glance.

As 15 degrees of longitude =1 hour, .*. 45 degrees = 3 hours, and 90 degrees =6 hours ; and of course (as in the case of the antipodes) 180 degrees ==12 hours difference of time.

Readifigs on the Purgatorio.

29

Diagram.

AM

AM

PM

PM

It follows at once from this simple and symme- trical system of geography that if it be, for example, noon at Jerusalem, it will be 6 a.m. at Spain {i.e. roughly speaking, sunrise at the time of the Equinox); 9 a.m. in Italy; 6 p.m. (or Sunset) in India; and mid- night in Purgatory.

30 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

CANTO II.

-^ The Dawn.

^ The Angel Pilot.

^ Casella.

As in the precedinp^ Canto, which was an introduc- tory one, Dante stated his proposition, made his

invocation, and_ described howT by means _of Cato, he enteredinto_ Purgatory, and was washed and "girded'by Virgil, he now proceeds_jD the prf^f"^ "Cantojto treat of those who delayed their repentance untn their death, and are on that account relegated to the Ante-Purgatory.

The Canto may be divided, according to Benvenuto, into four Divisions : —

In the First Division, v. i to v. 9, he describes the time and the place in beautiful language.

In the Second Division,v. 10 to v. 51, he describes how an Angel brought a band of spirits to Purgatory in a boat.

In the Third Division, v. 52 to v. 105, we hear of Dante's interview with the Spirits, among whom he recognizes his old friend Casella, the musician. \/

In the Fourth Division, v. 106 to v. 133, Dante persuades Casella to sing, but his minstrelsy is inter- rupted by the severe censures of Cato. j/

Division I. The first three lines, says Dr. Moore, describe sunset at Jerusalem ; it was consequently sunrise at Purgatory.

Canto II. Readings on the Piirgatorio. 31

Gik era il sole all' orizzonte giunto,

Lo cui meridian cerchio coverchia Jerusalem col suo piu alto punto :

Now had the sun reached the horizon of that hemisphere, the northern, whose meridian circle hangs, at its most elevated point, above Jerusalem. By horizon understand that point of the horizon.

E la notte, che opposita a lui cerchia,

Uscia di Gange fuor colle bilance, 5

Che le caggion di man quando soverchia.

And the night, which describes her circle in the opposite direction to him, the Sun, who was in the constellation of Aries, was coming forth from the Ganges with the Balances (that is, the constellation of Libra, exactly opposite to that of Aries), which fall from out of her hand, that is, she departs from that constellation when the night predominates over the day.*

Let us again follow Dr. Moore here. Dante de- scribes " Sunset at Jerusalem : it was consequently sunrise in Purgatory, — ' La dove io era ' (v. 8) — and

* Giuliani {Metodo di comtnentare la Coinmedia di Dante, Florence, 1861) comments: "Now had the sun reached the horizon of the Hemisphere, beneath whose highest point, which is the summit of the Meridian circle, stands Jerusalem, where "I'Uomo che nacque e visse senza pecca {Inf. XXXIV, 115) sparse il suo sangue." Purg. XXVII, 2.

And the night, which like unto a " pianeta oscuro," circles in direct opposition to the sun, was issuing forth from the Ganges

in the sign of ■< , balances H''^™ which constellation she de- parts, to descend into that of the Scorpion, when the sun mounts up into another constellation beyond Aries. From this we may determine that the sun was just touching the West of Jerusalem, and was about to show himself in the East of Purgatory.

32 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

midnight on the Ganges : for night, here and else- where, when spoken of generally as being in any spot, naturally stands for midnight, as its central point. In passing, a word on the obscure lines 5 and 6 may not be amiss. The Sun being in Aries, the night revolving exactly opposite to him, is considered to be in Libra {le bilance), and the Scales are said to fall from the hand of night when night overcomes the day {soverchia), i.e. becomes longer than the day. This, of course, it does after the autumnal Equinox, and since the Sun then enters Libra, that constella- tion ceases to be within the range of night, and so the Scales are poetically said to fall from the hand of night." {Dr. Moore, Time References, p. 70).

He describes how the colours of sunrise were be- coming more glowing.*

Si che le bianche e le vermiglie guance, Lk dove io era, della bella Aurora, Per troppo etade divenivan ranee.

So that the white and the vermilion cheeks of beautiful Aurora, at the place where I was, through too much age, that is, as the dawn changed more into day, were taking an orange tint.f

* Lamenais {La Divine Comedie de Dante Aiighieri, Paris, 1855) says: " Le Po&te indique ici les trois couleurs diverses dont le ceil se nuance avant le lever du soleil, le blanc de I'aube, le vermeil de I'aurore, et I'orangd qui precede un peu le Soleil." Scartazzini uses exactly the same words in Italian.

t The Rev. Henry Francis Gary {The Vision of Datite Aiighieri, London, 1886) quotes a parallel passage from the Decam. of Boccaccio : " L'aurora gik di vermiglia cominciava appressandosi il sole a divenir rancia." In a note on Inf. XXIII, loi, Gary says: "It is observed by Venturi, that the word 'ranee'

Canto II. Readings on the Purgatorio. 33

Division II. Here commences the Second Division of the Canto, in which Dante speaks of an Angel, whose duty it is to transport spirits to Purgatory.

Benvenuto says : " As the text here is difficult, and the meaning obscure and far fetched, I wish you to know, that the poet means to say that while he and Virgil were still standing on the shore, thinking of which way to go, he saw on a sudden an exceedingly bright dazzling light coming over the sea, glowing red like the planet Mars, and moving with surprising velocity; and the nearer this light approached, the more powerful it became. This was an Angel, who in a very light bark was conveying to that shore a band of spirits who were to be purged."

Dante first describes how he and Virgil were stand- ing:

Noi eravam lunghesso il mare ancora, 10

Come gente che pensa a suo cammino, Che va col cuore, e col corpo dimora:

We were still on the sea-shore, like unto people who are thinking of the way they will go, who move on with their heart, but in body remain where they are, from indecision.*

They were standing on the shore at the place where

does not here signify ' rancid ' or ' disgustful,' as it is explained by the old commentators, but ' orange-coloured,' in which sense it occurs in the Purgatory, Canto II, 9." By the erroneous interpretation Milton appears to have been misled : " Ever since the day peepe, till now, the sun was grown somewhat ranke." Milton, Prose Works, Vol. I, p. 160, ed. 1753.

* Giuliani quotes a parallel passage from the Vita Nuova^ § XIII, "E ciascun pensiero mi combatteva tanto, che mi facevan stare come colui che non sa per qual via pigli il sue cammino, che vuole andare e non sa onde si vada."

D

34 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

Virgil had pulled up a rush wherewith to gird Dante. They were anxious to move on, but knew not in which direction to turn their steps. They now catch the first sight of the Angel in the far distance.

In Conv. II, 14, Dante mentions that fiery vapours in the form of a cross were seen near the planet Mars at Florence in the beginning of her troubles.

Ed ecco qual, sul presso del mattino, Per li grossi vapor, Marte rosseggia Giu nel ponente sopra il suol marino ; 1 5

Cotal m' apparve (s' io ancor lo veggia!) Un lume per lo mar venir si ratto, Che il mover suo nessun volar pareggia.

And lo ! just as the planet Mars, sul presso del matlmo=su[V ora presso del mattino, at the hour when morning is at hand, grows fiery red through the thick vapours down in the West over the ocean floor, i.e. on the edge of the horizon in the extreme West, and over the sea ; so there became visible to me (and may God grant that I may so see it a second time) a light coming over the sea with so swift a motion, that no flight of bird could rival such speed.*

* In Par. XXII, 104, Dante reverses the phrase and says he ascended into the sign of Gemini with such speed that never down here in the world was there in nature so quick a flight of wing that could compare to this.

" Naturalmente fu si ratto moto,

Ch' agguagliar si potesse alia sua ala."

S'to ancor lo vegga : = so may I see it once more!

Dante wishes to see the same light again after his death, being certain in that case of eventually arriving among the Blessed.

On the various readings of "sul presso del mattino," Mr. Butler {The Pttrgatory of Dante, London, 1880), says:

"Witte writes 'sorpreso dal,' to which it is reasonably

Canto II. Readings on the Ptirgatorio. 35

He next describes how the light kept increasing in size and brilliancy.

Dal qual com' io un poco ebbi ritratto

L' occhio per dimandar lo duca mio, 20

Rividil piu lucente e maggior fatto.

From which, whilst for a moment, I had withdrawn my gaze, to ask my guide as to what this might be, I saw it, this same light, already increased both in brilliancy and in size ; so much nearer to us had the extreme rapidity of its motion brought it to us.

Dante's eye begins to discern the details of the form of the approaching Angel.

v/

Poi d' ogni lato ad esso m' appario

Un non sapea che bianco, e di sotto* A poco a poco un altro a lui n' uscio.

Then {poi), a second or two afterwards, I began to see appearing to me, something, but what I knew not,

objected that to speak of a setting planet as surprised by the rising Sun, is not a very good image. Scartazzini prefers ' suol presso del,' which will not construe, for his theory that roseggia is the infinitive is untenable. Dante did not Avrite in Piedmontese. ' Sul presso del ' is the only reading which gives a good sense ; and to Fanfani's objection that this substantial use of presso is not old, it may be replied that Bembo and Landino presumably knew their own language. Bianchi compares such phrases as all' incirca, nel mentre."

I may mention that in my father's Quattro Edizioni I find all four editions give " sol presso," the only difference being that Foligno and Mantua have ' sol presso del mattino,' while Jesi and Naples have ' sol presso dal mattino.' Jacopo deUa Lana, Benvenuto and Buti ' su '1 presso del mattino.'

* Of the first four editions Mantua reads " Un non sapea che biancheggiar di sotto," the other three read " bianco, e di sotto."

D2

36 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

of white, something indistinct, projecting from either side of the figure (these were the Angel's radiant wings), and, little by little, another something of in- distinct white, which was the vessel guided by the Angel, loomed out from under it*

Virgil, as soon as he finds out the sacred character of the pilot, bids Dante kneel down, and fold his hands.

Lo mio maestro ancor non fece motto 25

Mentre che i primi bianchi apparser ali: AUor che ben conobbe 11 galeotto,

Grido: — " Fa, fa che le ginocchia cali ; Ecco r angel di Dio: piega le mani: Omai vedrai di si fatti uficiali. 30

My Master had not as yet uttered a word, until the first-mentioned white objects appeared as wings : then, as soon as he recognized the sacred pilot, he cried out : " See, see that thou bend thy knees ; be- hold the Angel of God : fold thy hands : from now henceforward thou wilt see these kind of ministers and messengers of life eternal " (as Dante calls them mPurg. XXX, i8).t

* Scartazzini and Giuliani think the white underneath was the angel's shining raiment, but I have adopted Benvenuto's interpretation, that it was the vessel, brilliantly white, and directed and propelled by the Angel's wings.

t Benvenuto comments on (v. 30) that as Dante had been con- tinually seeing in Hell evil Angels, terrible, horrible dark, fero- cious, armed, yelling, threatening, and dragging men (homines) to the tortures of the damned ; so now in Purgatory he would see good Angels, bright, shining, sweet, gentle, ever singing, and directing men to salutary penance. And as, at the entrance to Hell, Dante describes the ferryman who had to carry over

Canto II. Readings on the Purgatorio. 37

Virgil points out to Dante in what a marvellous way the celestial pilot was propelling the vessel.

Vedi che sdegna gli argomenti umani, Si che remo non vuol, n^ altro velo Che 1' ale sue, tra liti si lontani.

Vedi come le ha dritte verso il cielo,

Trattando 1' aere con 1' eterne penne 35

Che non si mutan ^"'jif mnrtp' pelo.

" See how he scorns all human instruments, so that he seeks not oars, nor any other sail than his own wings to propel the vessel, and that between shores that are so far apart as the shores of Purgatory and the mouth of the Tiber (whence, as we shall see, the Angel had come). See he holds them pointed up towards heaven, beating the air with those everlasting feathers, that do not undergo any periodical change, as does the mortal plumage of birds."

Benvenuto particularly points out that mortal pelo must not be taken to mean the changes that human hair is subject to, as some try to make out, but the whole comparison is between the Angel and a bird. The more a bird is favoured with feathers, and not hampered with too much flesh, the more it can soar up in the air, the lighter it is, the better it can fly. Benvenuto thinks Dante is right in de- picting the Angel with wings, to denote his rapid movements, and the speed with which he performs his duties.

the river Acheron all the spirits of the doomed in a boat ; so now he introduces a ship master (patronum), who has to transport to Purgatory in a ship all the spirits that have to go through purgation.

38 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

Next Dante shows how the more quickly the Angel drew near, the more intense was the radiance that his presence exhibited.

Poi come piii e piu verso noi venne

L'uccel divino, piu chiaro appariva; Per che I'occhio da presso nol sostenne :

Ma china '1 giuso. E quei sen venne a riva 40

Con un vasello* snelletto, e leggierot Tan to, che I'acqua nulla ne inghiottiva.

And then, as the Bird of God came nearer and nearer towards us, the more radiant he appeared ; so much so, that mine eye could not endure the sight of him near : but I had to cast it, my eye, downwards. And he approached the shore with a small vessel, swift, and so light, that the water swallowed naught of it ; that is, the vessel, though it had more than a hundred souls on board, was so light, that it floated right on the top of the waters. The Angel, as the Commander of the vessel, stands on the poop.

Da poppa stava il celestial nocchiero, Tal che faria beato pur descripto ; E piu di cento spirti entro sediero. 45

The heavenly pilot stood on the poop, and was of such an appearance, that not only to behold him, but even to attempt to describe him, would make blessed him who would do so, or, was of such an appearance, that he seemed to carry his blessedness written on his

* Vasello occurs in the Inferno, Canto XXVIII, 79.

" Gittati saran fuor di lor vasello " t Leggiero tanto: in Inf. VIII, 29, we read just the contrary. " Secando se ne va 1' antica prora

Deir acqua piu che non suol con altrui."

Canto II. Readings on tJte Purgatorio. 39

brow ; * and more than a hundred spirits sat within the vessel.f

In exitu Israel de /Egypto

Cantavan tutti insieme ad una voce, Con quanto di quel salmo h poscia scripto. They were all singing together in unison, "In exitu Israel de ^gypto" (when Israel came out of Egypt), with all the rest of that psalm.|

The angel then dismisses the spirits with the sign of the Cross, as a farewell benediction.

Poi fece il segno lor di santa croce ;

Ond 'ei si gittar tutti in su la piaggia, 50

Ed ei sen gio, come venne, veloce.

Then he made them the sign of the holy Cross ; on

* The reading "farea beato pur descripto" is adopted by Scartazzini, Giuliani, Witte, whereas for the reading "parea beato per iscritto," I find the following authorities: Mantua, Naples, Foligno, Jacopo della Lana, Benvenuto, Buti, Camerini, Fraticelli, and both the Aldine editions. Talice da Ricaldone reads "tal che faria beato per iscritto." The Jesi "tal che faria beato pur iscritto."

Dean Plumptre says of "faria beato pur descripto," that it "gives the suggestive thought that even to hear the report of the angel's majesty would be as a foretaste of the blessedness of Heaven."

t Benvenuto remarks that Charon carried many more than a hundred spirits at a time in his ferry boat, since for one spirit that turns to penitence there are thousands that turn to sin.

X In exitu Israel de ^gypto. These words are in the first verse of Psalm CXIV, which in ancient times was sung by the priests while carrj'ing the dead into the Church. Dante, in his letter to Can Grande, comments on this Psalm himself, saying that, if we look at the spiritual sense, it typifies the depar- ture of the sanctified soul from the slavery of this corruption, in order to pass over to the liberty of eternal glory.

40 Readings on the Ptirgatorio. Canto II,

which they all cast themselves upon the shore, eager to commence their work of purgation, and he, the Angel, departed as swiftly as he had come.

Division III. In the Third Division of the Canto, which begins here, Dante describes the band of spirits conveyed by the Angel, and among them he recog- nizes the soul of a much beloved friend. He first speaks of their wonder at the spot to which they have been brought, and their hesitation as to what they have to do next.

La turba che rimase li, selvaggia

Parea del loco, rimirando intorno Come colui che nuove cose assaggia.

The throng that remained there on the shore, after the departure of the Angel, appeared to have no knowledge of the locality, and, stupified with wonder, gazed around them like one who is gaining his first experience in matters which are new to him.*

Before describing what took place between the spirits and the two poets, Dante wishes us to under- stand that it was now bright day, and the sun well up above the horizon.

* Giuliani compares

" Non altrimenti stupido si turba

Lo montanaro, e rimirando ammuta, Quando rozzo e salvatico s' innurba."

Purg. XXVI, 66.

"Just in the same way the mountaineer stands confused in stupified wonder, and gazing round is dumb, when, rough and rustic, he comes into the town."

Canto II. Readings on the Pnrgatorio. 41

Da tutte parti saettava il giomo 55

Lo sol, ch' avea colle saette conte Di mezzo il ciel cacciato il Capricomo,*

Quando la nuova gente alzo la fronte,

Ver noi, dicendo a noi : — "Se voi sapete, Mostratene la via di gire al monte." — 60

On every side the sun was now darting forth the day, the sun, that with his radiant shafts had chased the sign of Capricorn from the mid-heaven, when the spirits who were but newly arrived lifted up their faces towards us, saying: "If ye know it, show us the way to approach the ascent of the mountain."

E Virgillo rispose : — "Voi credete

Forse che siamo esperti d' esto loco ; Ma noi siam peregrin, come voi siete.t

Dianzi venimmo, innanzi a voi un poco,

Per altra via, che fu si aspra e forte,t 65

Che lo salire omai ne parrk gioco."

and Virgil answered : — "You imagine perchance that we are well acquainted with this place ; but we are just as much strangers here as you yourselves are. We arrived here just now, only a little while before you did, by another way, that was so rough and

* Diniezzoil ciel cacciato il Capricorno. The sun had driven the sign of Capricorn beyond the meridian. Dr. Moore says that, if Capricorn had cleared the meridian, Aries would have cleared the horizon. Delia Valle considers that the sun would be precisely nine degrees above the horizon, which would repre- sent about forty minutes after sunrise, and if so, about 6 a.m.

t Dante, in the Vita Nuova^ § 4i) says :

" Peregrino dicesi chiunque h fuori della patria sua."

t Aspra e forte. Compare Inf. I, 5:

" Questa selva salvaggia ed aspra e forte."

42 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

difficult, that the ascent that is now before us will seem to us but child's play compared to the other."

The spirits now become aware of Dante being a living man from observing his respiration,* and ac- tually turn pale with wonder.

L' anime che si fur di me accorte,

Per lo spirar, ch' io era ancor vivo, Maravigliando diventaro smorte. The spirits, who had begun to notice me, and, by seeing me breathe, perceived that I was yet alive, turned pale with awe and astonishment. Dean Plumptre says : The newly arrived souls gaze on the living man whom they see on landing, as the crowd at Florence gaze on a messenger of good tidings bearing on high a branch of olive.

E come a messagier, che porta olive, 70

Tragge la gente per udir novelle, E di calcar nessun si mostra schivo ; Cosi al viso mio s' affisar quelle, Anime fortunate tutte quante. Quasi obbliando d' ire a farsi belle. 75

And like as people throng round a messenger who bears the olive branch as a token of peace, so that they may hear intelligence, and no one shows himself shy of crowding ; so every one of those happy spirits fastened their eyes on my coun- tenance, almost forgetting to go onwards to render themselves beautiful by purgation and absolution.!

* Compare Inf. XXIII, 88:

" Costui par vivo all' atto della gola." t Quasi obbliando. Compare Inf. XXVIII, 52, where the spirits in Hell, from wonder, almost forget their torments : " Pill fur di cento che, quando 1' udiro,

S' arrestaron nel fosso a riguardarmi. Per maraviglia obbliando il martiro."

Canto II. Readmgs on the Purgatorio. 43

One of the spirits now recognizes Dante.

lo vidi una di lor traersi avante

Per abbracciarmi con si grande affetto, Che mosse me a far lo simigliante.

I saw one of them dart forward to embrace me with such a demonstration of affection, that it moved me to do the same thing. Dante had not as yet recog- nized the spirit. The spirit and Dante had both of them now cause for wonderment — the spirit, at find- ing that Dante was aHve, and Dante, at finding the impossibility of embracing the shadowy form.

O ombre vane, fuor che nell' aspetto !

Tre volte dietro a lei le mani avvinsi, 80

E tante mi tornai con esse al petto.

O shadows that are empty except in outward ap- pearance ! Three times did I twine mine arms, and clasp my hands behind that form, and as many times did I return with them to my own breast.*

* In Purg. XXI, 132-136, Statius is dissuaded by Virgil from embracing his feet, seeing that they are both shadows. Statius answers —

" Or puoi la quantitate Comprender dell' amor che a te mi scalda, Quando dismento nostra vanitate Trattando 1' ombre come cosa salda."

In Inf. VI, 35, Dante says they were walking upon the unsub- stantial bodies of the gluttonous.

" e ponevam le piante Sopra lor vanitk che par persona." In Virgil JSneid, VI, 699, ^neas in vain attempts to embrace his father Anchises.

Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum: Ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago, Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno. Which Conington translates:

44 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

Dante tells us that he changed colour with awe.

Di maraviglia, credo, mi dipinsi;

Per che I'ombra sorrise e si ritrasse,

Ed io seguendo lei, oltre mi pinsi. Soavemente disse ch' io posasse: 85

AUor conobbi chi era, e pregai

Che per parlarmi un poco s'arrestasse.

I think my face must have changed colour (as Dante says in Vita Ntiova, § XV, Mostrando ivi Io color del core); for the spirit smiled at my disappoint- ment, and drew back, and I pursuing it, pressed farther forwards. Gently it bade me desist from my vain endeavours to embrace it: and then I knew who he was, and begged him to tarry a while and converse with me, Dante had now recognized the spirit of Casella, who had been a Florentine mu- sician and a friend of the poet. Casella complies with the request, and tells Dante why he does so.*

Thrice strove the son his sire to clasp; Thrice the vain phantom mocked his grasp, No vision of the drowsy night, No airy current, half so light.

Dante was carried by Virgil on his shoulder. He was able to tear out the hair of Bocca degli Albati, to push Argenti back into the mud, but here he fails to embrace Casella. Yet Virgil and Sordello embrace each other, and Matelda draws both Dante and Statius through Lethe. Scartazzini thinks that Dante makes the spirits in. Purgatory of forms sometimes pal- pable and at others impalpable, but the spirits of the Lost always palpable.

* Casella. I gather from Dean Plumptre and Scartazzini that there is in the Vatican library a madrigal of Lemmo da Pistoja (who flourished about 1300) with this inscription, " Casella diede il suono;" meaning that the words of Lemmo

Canto II. Readings on the Purgatorio. 45

Risposemi: — "Cos! com' io t 'amai

Nel mortal corpo, cosi t 'amo sciolta;

Pero m 'arresto: ma tu perch^ vai?" 90

He answered me: — "Just as I loved thee in my mortal body, when I was alive, so do I love thee, now that my soul is loosed from its earthly tabernacle; and therefore I tarry as thou desirest ; but why dost thou, alive, go upon this journey that is usually only travelled by the dead ? "

Dante answers in the most affectionate terms, stat- ing that he journeys with the intention and object of thereby avoiding damnation, and so to be able to return to Purgatory a second time after his death. Scartazzini says these words are of the highest im- portance in deciding what was the fundamental con- ception of the poem.

" Casella mio, per tornare altra volta

Lk dove io son, fo io questo viaggio," — Diss' io; — "ma a te com' h tant' ora tolta?"*

had been set to music by Casella. Very little 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." Scartazzini gives the following quotation from UOttimo: — " Fue Casella da Pistoja grandissimo musico, et massimamente neir arte dello' ntonare ; et fu molto dimestico dell' Autore, per6 che in sua giovinezza fece Dante molte canzone et ballate, che questi intono ; et a Dante diletto forte 1' udirle da lui, et mas- simamente al tempo ch' era innamorato di Beatrice."

* Berlan, La piii belle pagine della Divina Comedm, has the

f^'-'.i lyjj^g explanation of " Com' e tant' ora tolta ? " which I trans-

^^""^ — " According to the Poet, they who die reconciled to God,

"^^er to pass to Purgatory, assemble at the mouth of the

46 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

" O my Casella," said I," I am performing this journey- in order to avoid damnation, and to be able to return after death to this place, Purgatory, where I now am, though alive ; — but how has so much time been taken from thee? i.e. how is it that thou hadst been kept waiting so long before coming here?" Casella hastens to assure Dante of his complete submission to the will of God, and at once disclaims any right to com- plain of the delay he has had to undergo.

Ed egli a me: — " Nessun m' h fatto oltraggio,

Se quei, che leva e quando e cui gli place, 95

Piu volte m' ha negato esto passaggio;

Ch& di giusto voler lo suo si face.

Veramente da tre mesi egli ha tolto Chi ha voluto entrar con tutta pace.

And he to me : " No wrong has been done me, if he, the Angel, who takes off in his vessel, both those he may select, and at what time he may deem best, has several times refused me this passage ; for the will of the Angel {lo suo voter) is made, is derived di giusto voler from the righteous will of God. Notwithstanding which, during the last three months, he has taken off in his bark, con tutta pace, without making the slightest difficulty, all those

'i'iber; but the angel destined to transport them in his bark takes

those whom he will, first, and, at his discretion, leaves others

for another time. Casella had beeru denied a passage several

times, but at last, at the time of the Jubilee, the angel having

granted the favour to whoever asked it of him, took him also

on board, as he stood gazing earnestly at the sea. The fiction

of the delay is taken from mythology, where it is admitted that

souls are more or less delayed on the banks of the St.^:, ^.10 vT'^

being ferried over to the other bank, towards which \ . .jtion,

stretch their hands." . „^m

in otf

mo

Canto II. Readings on the Purgatorio. 47

spirits, who having made their peace with God, have earnestly desired to enter into that bark which was to convey them to the region of penitence and pur- gation."*

Casella tells Dante how he was allowed to take advantage of the Indulgence granted at the Jubilee.

Ond' io che era ora alia marina volto, 100

Dove 1' acqua di Tevere s' insala,

Benignamente fui da lui ricolto A quella foce, ov' egli ha dritta 1' ala:

Pero che sempre quivi si ricoglie,

Qual verso d' Acheronte non si cala." 105

So that I, who at that time, was waiting on the shore, where the waters of the Tiber become salt by entering the sea (or, according to Benvenuto, Scartazzini and othQrs=mtrat sa/um, flows into the sea) at Ostia, was by him graciously taken on board, and conducted to that river's mouth {quella foce), to which he, the Angel, has now directed his wing (on his return voyage to fetch off more spirits), for it is always there that are taken off those who do not descend to Acheron," meaning, all, except those who are doomed to Hell, must make the mouth of the Tiber their starting point for Purgatory. This is perhaps a symbol of the dogma " extra Ecclesiam nulla salus."

* Da tre jnest. This means since Christmas 1299, at which time the Jubilee commenced. " Dante,"' says Dean Plumptre, " wonders that Casella is among the new arrivals. The explana- tion is that he might have stayed still longer but that the Indul- gence proclaimed for the year of Jubilee had led the Angel to bring all who sought to come.

48 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

Division IV. This is the Fourth and Concluding Division of the Canto, in which we learn how Dante persuaded Casella to sing, and how his singing was interrupted by Cato.

Dante has some doubts as to whether Casella may not be prevented by some new law of this land of spirits from practising or even remembering his powers of singing, recollecting that a few minutes before Cato had professed utter indifference to Marcia, whom he had so loved in life. Nevertheless he asks him to sing.*

Ed io: — " Se nuova legge non ti toglie

Memoria o uso all' amoroso canto,

Che mi solea quetar tutte mie voglie, Di ci6 ti piaccia consolare alquanto

L' anima mia, che con la sua persona 1 10

Venendo qui, h affannata tanto."

And I : — *' If no new law deprives thee, in thy present existence, of the recollection and power of singing those songs of love which, in days gone by,

* Scartazzini, quoting from Giuliani, says the nuova legge was made at the time when Cato was rescued from Limbo, and that Dante has some doubts as to whether a new law or decree of Heaven may not have taken from Casella the memory or practice of his songs of love.

Boccaccio, in his life of Dante, particularly states how he used to delight in songs of love, and what pleasure he took in the society of those who could compose or sing them.

In Convito II, 14, he speaks of music as drawing to itself human spirits, which are chiefly vapours of the heart, so much so, that they almost cease from whatever work they are performing; so intent is the soul on sweet harmony, when it hears it, and the faculties of all others seem to run towards the sensitive spirit that receives the sound.

Canto II. Readings on the Purgaiorio. 49

were wont to soothe all the passions that used to agitate my soul, may it please thee now to give there- with some comfort to my spirit, which is so sorely troubled at coming here with the mortal body be- longing to it ;" by which he means that had he come after death, without his mortal body, his salvation would be already assured, whereas now he has after- wards to return to the world, and may have to go through many years of trials and temptations before he will be able to make his calling and election sure. Benvenuto notices the prompt kindness with which Casella at once complied with Dante's request, and did not hesitate or refuse, as is the common vice of all singers, when invited to sing.

'■'■Amor che nella mente mi ragiona^ Comincio egli allor si dolcemente, Che la dolcezza ancor dentro mi suona.

" O Love, that with my soul dost converse hold," he then began so sweetly, that the soft melody still resounds within me.*

Casella's hearers listen with enraptured attention.

Lo mio maestro, ed io, e quella gente 115

Ch' eran con lui, parevan si contenti, Come a nessun toccasse altro la mente.

My Master, Virgil, and I, and those people who were with him, that is the band of more than a hundred spirits who were with Casella, appeared to

* Amor che nella mente mi ragiona. This is the first verse of a Canzone of Dante, of which he has himself written a long and philosophical interpretation in Convito III, 2. Probably Casella had set it to music.

E

50 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto II.

be as delighted, as if no other care or thought oc- cupied their minds : they had lost all recollection of the mountain that was before them, and which they had to ascend.

Cato now interposes, and breaks in upon the min- strelsy that was riveting their attention, severely censuring them for their negligence.

Noi eravam tutti fissi ed attenti

Alle sue note; ed ecco il veglio onesto, Gridando: — " Che h cio, spiriti lenti ? I20

Qual negligenza, quale stare h questo ?

Correte al monte a spogliarvi lo scoglio, Ch' esser non lascia a vol Dio manifesto."

We were all standing motionless, and eagerly drink- ing in every note, when lo ! the venerable old man, Cato, came upon us crying out : — " What is this, lag- gard spirits .!* What means this negligence, this halting by the way } Hasten to the mountain, there to get stripped from your eyes those scales, which are still dimming their power of beholding the manifestation of God."* The spirits hasten away, at the command

* Benvenuto draws attention to the consummate art with which Dante has first of all described his delight, and then the bitter censure of Cato. Benvenuto thinks that, notwithstanding the warm praise Dante has bestowed upon the music, it is quite right that he should be censured by Cato; first, because he was no longer young; secondly, because he was again beginning to take interest in songs of love, which in former days had had too fast a hold on him ; thirdly, as he was entering on a course of penitence, it was better for him now to attain happiness weeping, than while singing "come to grief." (Benvenuto's words are : — Quam cantando pervenire ad planctum^ Ben- venuto adds that, while serious and well governed measures produce excellent results, music that is enervating and sensuous is just the contrary. He says that Plato, who was a great musi-

Canto II. Readings on the Piirgatorio. 5 1

of Cato, like a flock of pigeons rising suddenly from a field.

Come quando, cogliendo biada o loglio,

Gli colombi adunati alia pastura, 125

Queti senza mostrar 1' usato orgoglio, Se cosa appare ond' elli abbian paura, Subitamente lasciano star 1' esca, Perch^ assaliti son di maggior cura:

Just as when a flock of pigeons gathered toge- ther at feeding time stand picking corn or tares, from the ground, quiet, without showing their wonted pride of manner; should anything show itself, of which they have fear, such as a hawk, or other bird of prey, immediately they take to flight, and desert their food, because they are assailed by a matter of greater need, viz. to escape from danger:

Cosi vid' io quella masnada fresca 130

Lasciar il canto, e gire in v^r la costa, Come uom che va, ne sa dove riesca.

N^ la nostra partita fu men tosta.

In the same way did I see this newly arrived com- pany turn instantly away from listening to the song, and flee towards the hillside, as a man who goes straight ahead, and does not know at what point his path will bring him out. Nor was our departure (that of Virgil and myself) one whit less prompt.

End of Canto II.

cian, would only allow boys to be instructed in music that was simple and manly, such as the Spartans used in Greece, and the Romans in Italy, to instil into the minds of young men love of war, and disposition to work; but he set his face against effeminate music which enervates manliness.

E 2

52 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

CANTO III.

The Anti-Purgatorio.

Souls of the Excommunicated.

Manfred, King of Sicily.

In the preceding Canto we read Dante's description of the first class of spirits, whose entrance into Pur- gatory is withheld for a time, because they delayed their repentance until their death.

In the present Canto he treats of the second class of those who are shut out from Purgatory, because they died excommunicated, in wilful contumacy of the Church.

The Canto may be divided into three parts : — In the First Division, from v. i to v. 45, Virgil answers a question of Dante's as to the kind of body spirits have — shadowless, and yet capable of bodily sufferings.

In the Second Division, from v. 46 to v. 102, another band of spirits is seen and described.

In the Third Division, from v. 103 to v. 145, Dante is accosted by the spirit of Manfred (natural son of the Emperor Frederick II), King of Sicily, and a great Ghibelline leader ; a conversation then takes place between them, in which Manfred informs Dante of the penance required of those who die in contumacy of Holy Church.

Division I. Dante first relates how, after the cen- sures of Cato had caused the band of spirits to hurry away scattered over the plain, he did not mix with

Canto III. Readings on the Purgatorio. 53

them, but drew close up to Virgil who was hastening towards the mountain.

Avvegna che la subitana fuga ,

Dispergesse color per la campagna, Rivolti al monte ove ragion ne fruga: lo mi ristrinsi alia fida compagna.

E come sare' io senza lui corso ? 5

Chi m' avria tratto su per la montagna ? Notwithstanding the sudden flight of the spirits had scattered them asunder over the plain, turned as they were towards the mountain where divine justice searches us out and chastens us, I drew close up to my faithful comrade, Virgil. And how should I have sped without him ? Who would have led me up over the mountain .-**

Virgil is somewhat abashed at having allowed Dante to tarry by the way.

Ei mi parea da s^ stesso rimorso. Oh dignitosa coscienza e netta. Come t' h picciol fallo amaro morso!

He seemed to feel the sting of remorse and self-

* Ragion ne fruga. Scartazzini says ragion is la divina giustizia; and cites a perfect mass of commentators, including Lana, Benvenuto, Ottimo, Velutello, Tommaseo, Witte, Fraticelli, and Ozanam, besides many others. Buti, Biagioli, Philalethes, Camerini, Giuliani, and Blanc understand : " The reasoning faculty, free from the illusions of the senses, urges us forward to the Mount of Purgatory to penitence;" but Scartazzini says that frugare does not mean stimolare, but pungere, punire ; besides which it would be contrary to Christian doctrine that human reason should urge man to penitence. Tommaseo notes that Dante frequently uses ragione in the Convito in the sense of diritto or giustizia.

Tratto su per la montagna. Compare Purg. XXVII, 130, where Virgil, at the close of his mission, says to Dante: " Tratto t' ho qui con ingegno e con arte."

y

54 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

reproach. O noble and stainless conscience, how bitter a sting is a small failing to thee ! Benvenuto says that Virgil's error here was a very small one, namely, to have run too little (ciicurrisse parum) ; but in the same page, he goes on to say that Virgil's little fault was his undignified haste.*

Dante then shows that as soon as Virgil had sub- sided into a more dignified pace, he recovered himself and gave his mind to ascending the mountain.

Quando li piedi suoi lasciar la fretta, lo

Che 1' onestade ad ogni ^tto dismaga, La mente mia, che prima era ristretta,

Lo intento rallargo, si come vaga;

E diedi il viso mio incontro al poggio,

Che inverso il del piu alto si dislaga. 15

As soon as his, Virgil's, feet had desisted from that haste which mars the dignity of all one's movements, my mind, that hitherto had been absorbed in one idea (probably about Casella, his singing, and Cato's re- proof), allowed its thoughts to take a wider range, as if desirous of knowing more ; and I raised my eyes towards the steep ascent of the mountain that rises highest into space out of the expanse of waters.-f*

* Benvenuto, speaking of undignified haste, says: "For as gravity and modesty beseem the wise man in his words and actions, so also in his gait. For haste is more fitting for mer- chants and traders than for philosophers and poets; and, in truth, to see Virgil running over that plain, and Dante after him with his long robe, must have afforded food for mirth even to that stiff old Cato " {et vere videre Virgilium currere per illam planitiem, et Dantem post eum cum sua ampla toga, debebat pr (Est are materiem risus etiam illi rigido Catoni).

t Dislaga: which uplifts itself in the middle of the great lake, the sea of 'the southern hemisphere, higher than any other mountain. <'

Canto III. Readings on the Pnrgatorio. 5 5

Dante now, seeing his own shadow only, fears that Virgil has vanished, but is reassured by the latter, who tells him why his form casts no shadow. Lo sol, che dietro fiammegiava roggio, Rotto m' era dinanzi, alia figura Ch' aveva in me de' suoi raggi 1' appoggio.

The sun, which was blazing red behind us, was broken in front of me with a shape similar to that which the stoppage of its rays had in me. This means simply that the shadow had the form of a human body. Scartazzini says that the older commentators have one and all shirked interpreting this passage.* lo mi volsi dallato con paura

D' esser abbandonato, quand' io vidi 20

Solo dinanzi a me la terra oscura.

I turned me to one side, in fear lest I had been abandoned (by Virgil), when I saw the earth darkened by a shadow in front of me only.^f*

Benvenuto says that Dante was terrified by this phe- nomenon, because in Hell he had never seen his own shadow, with the contrast of Virgil without one, for the simple reason that in Hell the sun does not shine. Virgil reassures him —

E il mio Conforto; — " Perch^ pur diffidi ?" A dir mi comincio tutto rivolto; " Non credi tu me teco, e ch' io ti guidi ?

* Lo Sol .... fiammeggiava roggio. Dr. Moore says this phenomenon does not generally last more than one hour after sunrise.

t Ozanam {Le Purgatoire de Dante, par A. F. Ozanam. Paris, 1875) says: " Ceux qui peuplent ces regions mdlancho- liques s'y montrent revetus de corps subtils, impalpables, echap- pant k qui les veut embrasser, n'interceptant point la lumiere, et toutefois organises pour que la souffrance soit possible au dedans et visible au dehors."

56 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

Vespero h gik colk dov' h sepolto 25

Lo corpo dentro al quale io facea ombra : Napoli 1' ha, e da Brandizio h tolto. And Virgil, who {Inf. IV, 18) was wont to be my comforter in every doubt, turning quite round to me began to say: "Why dost thou still mistrust? Dost thou not believe that I am with thee, and that I am guiding thee ? It is already the hour of Vespers there in Italy where lies buried the body within which I cast a shadow : Naples now has it, and it was taken from Brundusium.*

Benvenuto says that Virgil clears up Dante's doubts, and tells him that in reality he himself has got no body of flesh with him, for he has left it buried in the northern hemisphere ; and the separated soul is a substance that is simple, incorporeal, spiritual, having no density which could oppose an obstacle to the rays of the sun.

* Virgil died at Brundusium A.D. 19. His body was after- wards transferred to Naples. The supposed tomb is situated on the promontory of Posilipo, overlooking the Bay of Naples. The following inscription is upon it :

Mantua me genuit : Calabri rapuere : tenet nunc Parthenope: cedni pascua, rura, duces. It is much doubted whether the tomb is really that of Virgil. In the following verses, taken from a hymn said to have been sung up to the end of the XV th century at Mantua, at the Mass of St. Paul, mention is made of the Apostle going to Naples to visit Virgil's sepulchre.

Ad Maronis mausoleum Ductus fudit super eum,

Piae rorem lacrimae: Quantum, inquit, te fecissem, Vivum si te invenissem, Poetarum maxime !

Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus, 534.

Canto III. Readings on the Purgatorio. 57

He goes on to say, that, like as the various spheres of heaven are transparent, and throw no shadow, so is it with his spiritual form.

Ora, se innanzi a me nulla s' adombra, Non ti maravigliar piii che de' cieli, Che r uno all' altro raggio non ingombra. 30

Now, that no shadow is cast in front of me ought not to cause any greater astonishment than, in the spheres of Heaven, the fact that the light of one sphere does not obstruct the light of another sphere. Which, Mr. Butler says, means that Virgil's spiritual form no more hinders the passage of the Sun's rays than does one of the spheres, which compose the universe, hinder the rays which proceed from another sphere.

A sofferir tormenti, caldi e gieli Simili corpi la virtu dispone, Che, come fa, non vuol che a noi si sveli.

The Omnipotence of God renders corporeal forms, like this one which clothes my soul, capable of ex- periencing bodily sufferings, both of heat and cold, and it wills not that the manner of its operation be ^ revealed to us.* ^ .

J.. ^

1 r^

* Human reason cannot take in any departure from the usual routine of nature; but we read in the i Cor. XV, that ' there are celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, and the same chapter tells us that God giveth a body as it hath pleased him. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. There- fore Virgil is explaining to Dante that the Almighty is perfectly able to give him a form capable of experiencing bodily suffering, which is, at the same time, transparent and impalpable.

St. Thomas Aquinas writes: "Alii dixerunt, quod, quamvis

58 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

Virgil next urges mankind to abstain from proud curiosity, and not to attempt, by natural reasoning, to investigate the hidden mysteries of God.

Matto h chi spera che nostra ragione

Possa trascorrer la infinita via, 35

Che tiene una sustanzia in tre persone.

Insane is he who hopes that our reason can travel over the boundless space that is held by One Substance in Three Persons; meaning that the human intellect cannot penetrate the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity.*

Mankind must acquiesce in the fact that these mysteries exist, without seeking to learn the reason why, and bring their minds into subjection to simple faith.

State content!, umana gente, al quia; Ch^, si potuto aveste veder tutto, Mestier non era partorir Maria.

Rest satisfied, O human race, with the * quia ' (with the fact) ; be content to know that such is, and seek not to know the ^ propter quid,' the reason why; for, if, with your human finite intellects, you had been able to see all, to penetrate all these mysteries, then there was no necessity for Mary to bring forth,

Ignis corporeus non possit animam exurere, tamen anima appre- hendit ipsum ut nocivum sibi, et ad talem apprehensionem afficitur dolore." Sum. Theol. P. Ill, Sup. 83. See also Isaiah L V, 8 : " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord."

* Scartazzini says that Dante here reminds one very oppor- tunely of the incomprehensibility of the Divine Essence itself when wishing to prove the incomprehensibility of its operations.

Canto III, Readings on the Purgatorio. 59

(that is, for the Incarnation of Jesus Christ).* Reve- lation would have been unnecessary ; men could have done without the Light of the World.

Virgil next says, in confirmation of his argument, that if it had been possible for human reason and acquired knowledge to comprehend these divine mysteries, certainly such men as Aristotle and Plato, whose grief in Limbo is their unslaked desire after such know- ledge, would have been the first to comprehend them.

E disiar vedeste senza frutto 40

Tai, che sarebbe lor disio quetato,

Ch' eternalmente h dato lor per lutto. lo dico d' Aristotele e di Plato,

E di mold altri:" — e qui chino la fronte;

E pill non disse, e rimase turbato, 45

And, in proof of what I say, I will remind thee that thou hast seen desiring, and desiring in vain, a deeper insight into the hidden things of God, men of

* " Quia" in Mediaeval Latin is the same as "quod," and states a fact, without asking a reason. In Aristotle the oTi(= the fact) is contrasted with the SjoV* (= the reason why).

Dean Plumptre says: "Had man's intellect not been finite and clouded, there would have been no need of the Incarnation. Reason must be content to receive the revealed truth in the lowliness of faith." [N.B. Benvenuto uses the same expression, " in obsequium fidei."] It was through the limitations of their intellect that the wisest of the heathens (and in the "many others" Virgil sorrowfully includes himself) failed to attain to the knowledge of God, the absence of which kept them in the outer limbus of unsatisfied desires. Benvenuto says that if God had wished man to know everything, He would not have forbidden our first parents to touch the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they had not disobeyed, the human race would not have been doomed, and there would have been no need of the Incarnation of Christ, and the Redemption of Man.

6o Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

such sublime intellects, that, had they been able to penetrate all these things, their present unslaked thirst after such knowledge (which is given them as their eternal sorrow in Limbo), would have been satisfied. I speak of Aristotle and of Plato, .... and .... of many others: " — and here he bowed his head; and said no more, but remained much moved, choked with emotion. Virgil was evidently alluding to himself, remembering that (as he had said in hif. IV. 39), he was himself one of those placed in Limbo.

Division II. In the Second Division of the Canto, which begins here, Dante describes a second company of spirits compelled to remain outside Purgatory.

He first speaks of the place which they were ap- proaching as being exceedingly lofty and steep.

Noi divenimmo intanto a pi^ del monte : Quivi trovammo la roccia si erta, Che indarno vi sarien le gambe pronte.

Meanwhile, during the above mentioned explana- tion given by Virgil, we had reached the lower slopes at the foot of the mountain : here we found the cliff so precipitous, that nimble legs would there have been of no use. That is, not even the most agile and practised mountaineer would have succeeded in climbing up there.

Benvenuto compares the lowest slopes of the moun- tain, so difficult to ascend, with the difficulty expe- rienced by a sinner in first returning to the path of virtue. He also compares the inaccessibility of the mountain of Purgatory to the difficulties that beset

Canto III. Readings on the Ptirgatorio. 6i

the path of him who travels between Nice and Spezzia; and one can well imagine that in the time of Dante, before the Corniche Road was made, they must have been very great.

Tra Lerici e Turbfa, la piu diserta,

La piu romita via h una scala, 50

Verso di quella, agevole ed aperta.

Between Lerici near Spezia, and Turbia near Nice (the East and West points respectively of the Italian Riviera), the most deserted, the most sequestered path would have been an easy and open staircase compared to this.

— " Or chi sa da qual man la costa cala," —

Disse il maestro mio, fermando il passo, — " Si che possa salir chi va senz' ala ? " —

" — ^Who knows now on which side the cliff slopes, (that is, is least precipitous), and more accessible," — said my Master, checking his steps, — " so that any one less agile than a bird can ascend it?" — {lit; so that one who goes without wings may ascend there).

And now, while Virgil is absorbed in thought, with head cast down, Dante looks up at the cliff above him and sees another band of spirits moving slowly to- wards them, but a considerable distance off. (See

V. ^7>i

E mentre che, tenendo il viso basso, 55

Esaminava del cammin la mente, Ed io mirava suso intorno al sasso,

Da man sinistra m' appari una gente D'anime, che movieno i pi^ ver noi, E non parevan, si venivan lente. 60

And while he, Virgil, with downcast eyes, was racking his thoughts as to where the way should be, and I was looking upwards round the cliff, there came

62 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

into view on my left hand a troop of spirits, who were moving their feet towards us, and yet hardly appeared to be doing so, so slowly did they come on. These were the souls of those who died excommunicated* and Benvenuto thinks that their slow movements were symbolical of their having put off their repen- tance till the time of their death.

Dante points out the new comers to Virgil —

— " Leva," — diss'io, — " maestro, gli occhi tuoi : Ecco di qua chi ne dark consiglio, Se tu da te medesmo aver nol puoi." —

" Raise thine eyes, O my Master,' said I : — " See ! there are some yonder, who can give us information about the way to go, where the mountain inclines most, if thou canst not have it from thine own self"

Virgil cheerfully takes the hint.

Guard6 allora e con libero piglio

Rispose: — "Andiamoin Ik, ch'ei vegnon piano; 65 E tu ferma la speme, dolce figlio."

He looked up as I had asked him to do, and then with cheerful mien answered : — " Let us go there, for they are coming on but slowly, and we must not waste time in waiting for them to come to us, my gentle son, be of good cheer, and sustain thy hopes."

Dante and Virgil advance towards the spirits, but do not get within speaking distance of them until they have walked a thousand paces.

Ancora era quel popol di lontano, lo dico, dopo i nostri mille passi, Quanto un buon gittator trarria con mano,

Quando si strinser tutti ai duri massi 70

Dell' alta ripa, e stetter fermi e stretti, Come a guardar, chi va dubbiando, stassi.

Canto III. Readings on the Piirgatorio. 63

This people was still so far off from us, I mean after we had walked a thousand paces nearer to them, as a good thrower might throw with his hand, when they all drew back to the massive crags of the lofty wall of rock overhanging their path, and stood still all gathered up together, like one who hesitating as to his way, stops short to look for it. Their astonish- ment was caused by seeing that the two poets, violating all the rules of Purgatory, were walking the opposite wayTo~lhemselves7 and, as we shairiee in verse foT, were walking away from the Gate of Purgatory. Virgil enquires the way from them —

— " O ben finiti, o gik spiriti eletti," —

Virgilio incomincio, — " per quella pace Ch' io credo che per voi tutti si aspetti, 75

Ditene dove la montagna giace,

Si che possibil sia I'andare in suso ;

Chfe perder tempo a chi piu sa piu spiace." —

" Oh spirits who died in the grace of God, and elect already to eternal salvation," — Virgil began, — "in the name of that peace which is, I believe, awaited by you all, tell us where the mountain is least precipitous, so as to make it possible for us to ascend, for loss of time is most felt by the man who has most learnt, and who best knows the value of it."*

* Dante says, in the Convito IV, 2 — " Tutte le nostre brighe, se bene vegnamo a cercare i loro principii, procedono quasi dal non conoscere I'uso del tempo." Benvenuto says of V. 78 that this is a maxim sanctioned and endorsed by all wise men, and that Virgil has himself expressed the same opinion in ^n. X, 467.

Stat sua cuique dies ; breve et irreparabile tempus, Omnibus est vitse ; sed famam extendere factis. Hoc virtutis opus.

64 Readings on the Piirgatorio. Canto III.

Dante now describes, by a well-known simile, the effect that Virgil's address had upon that band of spirits, by showing that they acted just like a flock of sheep, who, in all their movements, do precisely what the first one does. If it delays, the others hesitate and delay, if it moves on, the others follow, but they know not how, when, or wherefore they go.

Come le pecorelle escon del chiuso

Ad una, a due, e tre, e 1' altre stanno 80

Timidette, atterrando 1' occhio e il muso ;

E cio che fa la prima, e 1' altre fanno, Addossandosi a lei s' ella s' arresta, Semplici e queti, e lo 'mperch^ non sanno:

Si vid' io muovere a venir la testa 85

Di quella mandria fortunata allotta, Pudica in faccia, e nell' andare onesta.

Like sheep come forth out of the fold, by ones, and \ twos, and threes, and the others stand timid, turning their eyes and noses down to the earth ; and what- ever the foremost one does, so the others do, huddling close up to it if it stops, simple and quiet, and do not V. know any reason for" what they do : so did I see the C front ranks of that fortunate flock (fortunate in not / having died in the wrath of God) then move forward I to draw near to us, modest in looks, and dignified in I their gait. '

Dante says in the Convito I, 11, "■ Se una pecora si gittasse da una ripa di mille passi, tutte V altre V andrebbono dietro ; e se una pecora per alcuna cagione al passar d' una strada salta, tutte le altre saltano, eziaiidio Jiulla veggendo di saltare. E io ne vidi gia molte in un pozzo saltare, per una che dentro vi saltb, forse credendo di saltare un mure ; non

Canto III. Readitigs on the Purgatorio. 65

ostante che il pastore, pimigendo, e gridando colle braccia e coll petto dinanzi si parava. — Convito I, i\*

The company of spirits had stopped short when they had seen that Dante and Virgil were walking in the opposite direction to themselves, but when they perceived that the former had a shadow, they started back altogether in fear and astonishment. Come color dinanzi vider rotta

La luce in terra dal mio destro canto, Si che r ombra era da me alia grotta, 90

Restaro, e trasser s^ indietro alquanto, E tutti gli altri che venieno appresso, Non sapendo il perchfe, fenno altrettanto.

When those who stood in the foremost rank ob- served the light of the sun interrupted on the ground on my right side, so that the shadow from me was cast upon the overhanging wall of rock, they stopped short, and drew themselves a little backward, and all the others who were coming behind them, without knowing why or wherefore, did the same.

* Benvenuto says: "This simile is wonderfully apt to the occa- sion, for as a flock of simple, quiet sheep bUndly follow their leader, so did this band of ignorant spirits follow the spirit of King Manfred who was preceding them. How many thousands of men, in ignorance and stupidity, followed that reigning king, although he was in great error, and now they follow him when he is righteously pressing forward to penitence. Truly the greater part of the human race sit in a boat with an ignorant

helmsman, and perish with him and under this simile

of the sheep, the Poet wishes to express that the greater number of men in the world live like inconsiderate sheep, without choice or reason, doing just what they see the rest of the world do, whether right or wrong, but chiefly do they follow their leaders ; and as Claudianus says: " Mobile mutatur semper cum principe valgus."

F

66 Reading's on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

Dante and Virgil had turned to their left to go towards the spirits ; they had the sun on their left, and the wall of rock on their right; Dante's shadow therefore was cast on his right. Virgil, fully aware of the reason of their astonishment, without waiting to be asked, tells them the reason of the shadow.*

— " Senza vostra dimanda io vi confesso

Che questo h corpo uman che voi vedete, 95

Per che il lume del sole in terra h fesso.

"Without your asking, I own to you that this is a human body that you see here, on account of which the sun's light is parted on the ground ; (or, in other words) He whom you see here, Dante, is a living man, and therefore his body casts a shadow."

Non vi maravigliate ; ma credete

Che, non senza virtu che dal ciel vegna,

Cerchi di soverchiar questa parete." —

Do not marvel at it ; but believe, that, not without

* Mr. Butler has an excellent note here. He says : " It is still early morning, for but just now the sun was shining red ; and it is not till after some time that he has gone through 50 degrees of arc. Dante has therefore his left side towards the east, and these approaching folk are approaching from the south, (see V. 58). The general direction of the course through Purga- tory is with the sun, /. e. from east to west, by the North (see IV, 60). By the first evening they have got somewhat to the north, but not enough to see the setting sun (VI, 57). On the second evening they have the sun full in their faces (XV, 9- 141), and the next morning they start with the sun at their backs (XIX, 39), /. e. they are on the north side of the mountain. On the last evening they sleep on the west side, as appears from the fact that, when they reach the summit, Dante has the morning sun full on his face (XXVII, 133). It must be remembered that the time is just after the equinox."

Canto III. Readings on tJie Purgatorio. 67

a power which comes from Heaven, he seeks to sur- mount this wall of rock." Benvenuto, by "parete" understands the whole mountain of Purgatory.

The spirits, on hearing this explanation, point out the way.

Cos^ il maestro. E quella gente degna : 100

— "Tomate" — disse, — "intrate innanzi dunque," — Coi dossi delle man facendo insegna.

Thus spoke my Master. And those spirits, who had been deemed worthy of entering Purgatory, replied: — "Turn back then" — said they — "and walk on before us:" and, as they said this, they made the sign of bidding us turn back with the backs of their hands waved towards us.

Division III. Here begins the Third and conclud- ingJOivision^o? the Canto, in which Dante describes a conversation that he has with Manfred.*

* For a description of Manfred I copy Dean Plumptre's note : "Manfred, a natural son of the Emperor Frederick II, bom in Sicily, 1231. Villani speaks of him as inheriting both the accomplishments and the nobleness of his father. Their papel enemies charged Manfred with being an epicurean, like Frederick, and with indulging in the same license, and accused him of having caused the death of his brothers, Conrad and Henry, and even of his father. He was excommunicated by Innocent IV, and was still under that sentence when he fell in 1266 at the battle of Benevento. His body, after being carried through the streets of that town on an ass, was brought before Charles of Anjou. Even the French nobles begged that it might have Christian burial, but the King refused, on the ground that he was still excommunicated, and the body was buried under a cairn of stones at the foot of the bridge of Benevento.

F 2

68 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto ill.

Ed un di loro incomincio : — " Chiunque Tu se', cosi andando volgi il viso, Pon mente se di Ik mi vedesti unque." — 105

And one of them (the spirit of Manfred) began : — *' Whoever thou art, turn thy face round this way, and continue to walk on before me so as not -to lose time, and consider whether thou ever sawest me in the world {di la)!' '

Manfred died at the age of 35, and we know that

Even this, however, did not satisfy the hatred of his Papal foes, and Clement IV sent the Cardinal Archbishop of Cosenza to urge that the body should not be allowed to pollute a land which belonged to the Church, and so the corpse was disinterred and found a final resting-place on the banks of the Verde, identified by some writers with the Liris or Garigliano, on the confines of Apulia and the Campagna. We note once more as in the case of Francesca and Ugolino the creative insight of Dante's psychology. No historian records Manfred's penitence: no one had been present to report his last words in the heat of battle. Historians represent him as being licentious and irre- ligious. But what Dante had heard of his character, perhaps also what he had heard of the expression of his face, led him to feel that, in the absence of the unbelief which placed his father in Hell, such a one must have repented. A Sicilian chronicle describes him as "Homo firmus amoena facie, aspectu placabilis, in maxillis rubeus, sidereis oculis, per totum niveus, statura mediocris."

His mother was a beautiful woman of the family of the Marchesi Lancia of Lombardy. Benvenuto draws attention to the fact of his being perfectly silent about his father during this interview; for Manfred being (according to Benve- nuto) reconciled to the Church at his own death, would feel compunction of speaking of Frederick II, who was the con- tinual scourge of the Church. He mentions his own name and that of the Empress Constance, his father's mother, but not that of his father.

Canto Til. Readings on the Pnrgatorio. 69

Dante was 35, The apparent similarity of their ages must have deceived Manfred, who evidently forgot that he had been wandering about in the Anti- Purgatorio fo/_3^years, and had died when Dante was only nine months o|d.

lo mi volsi ver lui, e guardail fiso :

Biondo era, e bello, e di gentile aspetto ; Ma 1' un de' cigli un colpo avea diviso.

I turned round towards him, and looked at him attentively: he was fair-haired, beautiful, and of noble aspect ; but a gash had divided one of his eyebrows. This wound is one of the two mortal wounds, of which he speaks in v. 119.

Buti draws a conclusion, from Manfred's showing this scar, that the corporeal forms of the spirits in Purgatory are in all things identical in appearance with what their bodies were on earth at the time of their death.

Quand' io mi fui umilmente disdetto

D' averlo visto mai, ei disse : — "Or vedi : " — no E mostrommi una piaga a sommo il petto.

When with great reverence I had disclaimed ever having seen him before, he said : " Now behold ! " and showed me a wound in the upper part of his breast. This was the second of the two mortal wounds.

Poi sorridendo disse: — "Io son Manfredi,

Nipote di Gostanza imperadrice :

Ond' io ti prego che, quando tu riedi, Vadi a mia bella figlia, genitrice 1 15

Deir onor di Cicilia e d' Aragona,

E dichi a lei il ver, s' altro si dice.

Then he said with a smile: "I am Manfred, grand-

JO Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

son of the Empress Constance:* therefore I beg thee, when thou returnest to the world, to go to my beautiful daughter, mother of the honour of Sicily and Aragon, and tell her the truth, viz. that thou hast. seen me in a state of salvation, in case the contrary may have been said of me, viz. that, having died ex- xommunicated by t>ip <"hnt-<;;hj my soul is among the

Then he tells Dante how it happened that he made his peace with God.

Poscia ch' i' ebbi rotta la persona

Di due punte mortali, io mi rendei

Piangendo a Quei che volentier perdona. 120

After that I had had my body pierced with two mortal wounds, I yielded myself weeping with con- trition for my sins to Him who pardons willingly.

* Benvenuto adds that Manfred does like the mule, who, on being asked by the lion whose son he was, answered: ''I am grandson of the horse," although he was the son of the ass. Constance, daughter of Roger, King of Sicily, was the wife of the Emperor Henry VI, the father of Frederick II, See /'^r. Ill, 118.

t V. 116, Onor di Cicilia e (V Aragona. This refers to the daughter of Manfred, another Constance, wife of Pedro III, King of Aragon, and after the Sicilian Vespers, King of Sicily. She bore him three sons :

Alfonso, died young in 1291. Frederick, King of Sicily (onor della Cicilia) and Jacopo, King of Aragon (onor dell' Aragona)

It is worthy of notice that although Dante, both in Purg. VII, and in Conv. IV, 6, speaks very disparagingly of these princes, yet he makes Manfred, who was their grandfather, allude to them as the honour of their respective realms, and discreetly reticent as to their shortcomings.

Canto III. Readings on the Purgatorio. yi

Orribil furon li peccati miei ;

Ma la bontk infinita ha si gran braccia, Che prende cio che si rivolge a lei.

My iniquities had been awful ; but the infinite goodness of God has such wide-opened arms, that it embraces whosoever turns to it in penitence. ■~ Manfred then speaks of the implacable hatred with which he was persecuted even after death by the Roman Hierarchy.

Se il pastor di Cosenza, che alia caccia

Di me fu messo per Clemente, allora 125

Avesse in Dio ben letta questa faccia,

L' ossa del mio corpo sarieno ancora

In co' del ponte presso a Benevento, Sotto la guardia della grave mora.

If the Pastor (the Archbishop) of Cosenza,* who was sent by Pope Clement IV to hunt me down, had read faithfully in the word of God, this passage (lit. page) to which I have just referred as to the Infinite Goodness and Mercy of God, the bones of my body would still be resting at the Bridge-head, near Benevento, under the guard of the heavy cairn."

* II pastor di Cosenza was Cardinal Bartolomeo Pignatello, Archbishop of Cosenza. According to Villani, Charles of Anjou, not allowing the body of Manfred, who was slain at the battle of Benevento, to be interred in consecrated ground as he had died excommunicated, caused it to be buried in a pit at the head of the bridge at Benevento, and every soldier of the army cast a stone upon it until a great cairn was formed above it. Mora was the word then used to express a cairn. According to Villani, the Archbishop, by order of the Pope, had the bones exhumed from this spot, as it was within the States of the Church, and removed to the banks of the river Verde, or Gariglano.

72 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

Or le bagna la pioggia e move il vento 130

Di fuor del regno, quasi lungo il Verde, Dov' ei le trasmut6 a lume spento.

Now the rain drenches them, and the wind scatters them about as they lie unburied outside the confines of the Kingdom of Naples, hard by the river Verde, whither he, the Archbishop, transferred them with extinguished tapers.*

Manfred then anticipates a question which Dante might have put to him : "Can, then, the souls of those who die excommunicated be saved ?" And he says " Yes, they can be saved ; for unless a man dies har- dened and impenitent, the excommunication of a prelate cannot prevent his being saved."

Per lor maladizion si non si perde

Che non possa tornar 1' eterno amore,

Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde. 135

The Eternal Love of God is not so completely lost through the maledictions of them, the Popes and Prelates, that it cannot return, so long as hope retains any of its greenf — meaning for so

* Pietro di Dante says that Clement IV. ordered the Arch- bishop of Cosenza to have the bones of Manfred cast out of the kingdom. Hence with extinguished tapers and tolling of bells, after the custom of the Church, the Archbishop had the bones, as those of an anathematized heretic, cast down by the river Verde, which is the boundary between Apulia and the Marche. Landino says that the Legate had sworn to drive Manfred out of the kingdom, and, as he could not do so when he was alive, he cast out his body when he was dead.

t Scartazzini says thaty?<?r is not a noun substantive, but an adverb here, and means so long as hope has "anything of" green. See Fanfani's Dictionary on Jiore adverb=^«« poco.

Canto III. Readings on the Purgatorio. 73

long as man is still in life, and has yet time to repent and turn himself to God. Benvenuto says that although Dante makes out that Manfred re- pented at his death, he certainly could not know it, for we know that he died in the thick of the fight, and his body was not found for three days ; but Benvenuto says that he has seen, in several letters of Manfred's, that he made overtures to the Church and to Charles of Anjou, but that the Pope forbad peace being made with him.*

Manfred then anticipates another supposed ques- tion of Dante's : " What reason, then, is there to fear excommunication by the Church ? What harm can it do "i " Manfred replies that the excommunicated soul is farther removed from God, and has greater difficulty in returning to Him.

Ver h che quale in contumacia muore

Di santa Chiesa, ancor che al fin si penta, Star gli convien da questa ripa in fuore

Per ogni tempo ch' egli h stato, trenta,

In sua presunzion, se tal decreto 140

Piu corto per buon preghi non diventa.

True it is that whosoever dies in contumacy of Holy Church, that is, who dies without being recon- ciled to it, even though he repents of his sins, and turns to God for forgiveness in his last hour, yet is he obliged to remain excluded from these precincts of

* The same may be noticed about Dante's circumstantial account of the death and the carrying away by the inundated Archiano of the dead body of Buonconte da Montefeltro. All that was really known was that he died fighting gallantly in the thick of the fight, and nothing more was heard of him, as his body was never found.

74 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto III.

Purgatory for a period of thirty times as much as the period that he remained in his presumption, i. e.^ that he was excommunicated and under the ban of the Church, unless this decree become not shortened by the prayers of righteous people on earth.* Manfred concludes his address to Dante by entreating him to ask his daughter to pray for him, and to inform her that he is not amongst the lost.

Vedi oramai se tu mi puoi far lieto

Rivelando alia mia buona Gostanza Come m' hai visto, ed anco esto divieto. Ch^ qui per quel di Ik molto s' avanza." — 145

See now if thou canst make me glad by revealing to my good Constance in what condition thou hast seen me (that is that I am not among the damned), and also tell her of this interdict which keeps me for so long a time in outer Purgatory. For in this • region we can derive great benefit by the prayers of those who remain alive on earth."-]-

End of Canto III.

* Compare Par. XV, 91.

Quel, da cui si dice Tua cognazione, e che cent' anni e piue Girato ha il monte in la prima cornice, Mio figlio fu e tuo bisavo fue ;

Beu si convien che la lunga fatica Tu gli raccorci con le opere tue. and Purg. VIII, 70.

Quando sarai di Ik delle larghe onde,

Di' a Giovanna mia, che per me chiami Lk dove agli innocenti si risponde. t Observe that Manfred, who is in Purgatory, alludes to it as quiy and to the earth as di Id, whereas Dante's own allusions are always just the contrary.

Canto IV. Readings on the Purgatorio. 75

CANTO IV.

Difficult Ascent to the first outer

CIRCLE OF THE ANTIPURGATORIO.

The Indolent, and Belacqua.

In the preceding Canto, Dante described the Second Class of Spirits whose entrance into Purgatory is de- layed, because they died in contumacy of Holy Church.

In the present Canto are mentioned those, who, through sheer indolence of character, ceased from / active works of virtue until their death.

Benvenuto divides the Canto into three parts. The first Division, from v. i to v. 5i> contains Dante's description of the concentration of his mind ^ > on the one thought of conversing with Manfred, and, [/^ when he had shaken off that absorption, the difficulty he found in commencing the ascent of the mountain.

/« the second Division, from v. 5 2 to v. 84, Virgil explains to Dante the reason of the sun being on his left hand, and the general disposition of the heavenly bodies in the Southern Hemisphere.

In the Third Division, from v. 85 to v. 139, Dante relates how they met a third company of spirits, whose repentance having been delayed till death from indolence, are, like the others, relegated to Outer Purgatory.*

* Benvenuto remarks that this Canto is no less elevated in its matter than the preceding one. He says, the First Division is natural ; the Second, astrological ; the Third, moral.

y^ Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto IV,

Division I. Benvenuto says that in this first part Dante wishes briefly to say that he had been listening to Manfred's discourse with such concentrated atten- tion that a considerable time had passed, without his being aware of it. And to show this, he first describes that abstraction which at times lays hold on the mind with such force, that occasionally it is unable to notice anything else ; as may happen in excessive joy or excessive grief; or it may be so absorbed by the sound of song or of weeping, that it does not seem to perceive anything that is passing around it. Benvenuto adds that the text here is no less intricate than the abstruse opinions concealed in it.*

Quando per dilettanze ovver per doglie, Che alcuna virtu nostra comprenda, L' anima bene ad essa si raccoglie,

* Francesco da Buti says that, in the first i8 lines of the "Canto, Dante solves a doubt that certain philosophers had, viz. whether man has four souls (i) the vegetative; (2) the sensitive; (3) the imaginative; (4) the reasoning. Dante contends that were this the case, man would be able to give his attention to various things at the same time, which is manifestly impossible. He then touches on two of the principal passions that move the human soul, Joy and Grief, which are caused as follows : — Present good causes Joy; Present evil causes Grief. In the same way — Future good causes Hope ; Future evil causes Fear.

We cannot in the same moment apply

a Our sentiment to one thing.

iS Our imagination to a second thing.

7 Our reasoning to a third.

If Dante had had all these souls in him, he would not, through absence of mind, have talked so long to Manfred as to let the time sHp away without noticing how it was passing. Both his sensitive soul and his reasoning soul would have recalled his attention to the fact.

Canto IV. Readings on the Purgatorio. jy

Par che a nulla potenza piu intenda ;

E questo e contra quello error, che crede 5

Che un' anima sovr' altra in noi s' accenda.

Whenever, through a feeling of deh'ght or of pain, that lays powerful hold on any faculty of ours, the mind concentrates itself wholly on that faculty, it seems to give no heed to any other of its powers ; and this is a proof of the erroneousness of that belief which some have held, that one soul above another is enkindled within us. This refers to Plato's doctrine of three souls ; the Vegetative in the liver ; the Sen- sitive in the heart ; and the Intellectual in the brain.

Dante mentions this in Convito, IV, 7.

Benvenuto says that the next three lines show the effect of what he speaks of before :

E pero, quando s' ode cosa o vede,

Che tenga forte a s^ 1' anima volta, Vassene il tempo, e 1' uom non se n' awede :

Ch' ahra potenza h quella che 1' ascolta, 10

Ed altra h quella che ha 1' anima intera : Questa h. quasi legata, e quella e sciolta.

And hence when any particular thing is heard or seen, which keeps the soul intently bent upon it, the time passes, without one being aware of it : for one faculty is that which listens, and quite different is that faculty which retains the exclusive attention of the soul, and is not in contact with external objects ; the one faculty is, as it were, fast bound, and the other in a state of activity.*

* V. 10-12. Mr. Haselfoot says in a note : " It appears to me that the meaning is : The power which listens is one, and the power which the soul keeps entire, i. e. which exists in the soul, but is in no way brought into exercise, is another. One (the

78 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto IV.

Di cio ebb' io esperienza vera,

Udendo quello spirto ed ammirando :

Ch^ ben cinquanta gradi salito era 1 5

Lo sole, ed io non m' era accorto, quando Venimmo dove quell' anime ad una Griddro a noi : — " Qui h vostro domando." —

Of this I had a very striking proof, while listening to the discourse of that spirit, Manfred, and marvelling at all his revelations about himself, and at what he had said of the mercy of God : for the sun had ascended full fifty degrees in the heavens above the horizon, and I had not observed it, when we reached a point where all those spirits, as with one voice, called out to us : " Here is what you were asking for," referring to Virgil's request to them in the last Canto, V. ^6, that they would tell him where the mountain was least precipitous, so that they could best com- mence the ascent.*

power that is in abeyance) is in bonds ; the other (the power that listens) is free from bonds, because it is in full activity." This is Bianchi's explanation — Hazelfoofs Trans. 1887.

* Dr. Moore says that the sun being fully 50 degrees above the horizon means about 3^ hours since sunrise, or 2^ hours since the last time given : and that the hour would be from about 8.45 to 9 a.m. Some commentators have made a difficulty that this gives more than two hours for the colloquy with

Manfred in the previous canto but we know that

(i) Dante apologizes, so to speak, in the lines preceding this, for the lapse of so much time wasted ; (2) the whole of the intermediate time is not devoted to the interview with Manfred, since some time may probably have been lost in hunting for the road in which both Virgil and Dante are represented as occupied in III, 52-57 ; and also (3) after that they are expressly stated to have walked a mile.

Canto IV. Readings on the Purgatorio. 79

The two poets now come to an opening in the rocky ch'ff, through which an exceedingly steep path leads upwards, Dante compares the opening to a very small gap in a hedge.

Maggiore aperta molte volte impruna,

Con una forcatella di sue spine, 20

L' uom della villa, quando 1' uva imbruna, Che non era la calla, onde saline

Lo duca mio ed io appresso, soli,

Come da noi la schiera si partine.

Often does the villager block up, with a small fork- full of his thorns, a wider gap in the hedge, at the time when the grapes are turning brown, than was the entrance to the way upwards, from which my leader ascended, and I after him, after that the troop of spirits had parted from us, and left us by ourselves.*

Benvenuto thinks the narrow gap in the hedge is a simile of Dante's difficulty in passing from vice into the cultivated vineyard of virtue, the entrance into which is beset with thorns, that is, with the besetting sins which so hinder man from drawing near to God. He also wishes us to note that this point is the first entrance to the mountain, and comparison shows that, difficult as the entrance to a vineyard is through a gap in a hedge at the time of the vintage, the access to the mountain was far more so, and the ascent infinitely more steep than any of the most precipitous heights in Italy that were known to Dante.

* Benvenuto reminds his readers that the band, among whom was Manfred, parted from Dante and Virgil when they had pointed out the entrance to the ascent, because they themselves could not pass through it, but had to continue wandering round and round the base of the mountain.

8o Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto IV.

Vassi in Sanl^o, e discendesi in Noli: 25

Montasi su Bismantova in cacume Con esse i pi^ ; ma qui convien ch' uom voli ;

Dico con r ali snelle e con le piume

Del gran disio, diretro a quel condotto,

Che speranza mi dava, e facea lume. 30

One clambers up to San Leo,* and scrambles down to Noli.-f* One ascends to the summit of Bismantova;]: with the aid of one's feet alone {con esso i pi^)', but to climb this steep one literally needs to fly ; I mean with the swift wings and plumes of earnest will that

* San Llo : formerly called Cittk Feltria, a little town in the ancient Duchy of Urbino, not far from San Marino, and situated on the ridge of the precipitous Montefeltro.

t Nolz: a small township in Piedmont, on the Riviera of Genoa, at the foot of the well-known headland Capo di Noli. Though at the present time it is situated on the Corniche Road, and is passed by all who travel that way, in the time of Dante it could only be reached either by sea, or by most precipitous steps cut in the rocks, by which one descended to it from the perpendicular amphitheatre of hills that surrounded Noli, and separated it from the rest of the world. Benvenuto says that Noli rightly seems to say to the descending traveller " No/z ad me accedere.^''

X Bismantova is a lofty rocky height in the mountains of Reggio di Modena, which overtops all the neighbouring peaks. It has a circular road running round it which is the only access to the summit, and Benvenuto says that a few resolute men could defend it against the whole world ; on the top there is a flat table-land, which can be cultivated when necessary to supply a garrison, and all the surrounding country is wild and woody ; so that in war time it provides a refuge for the inhabitants of the plain. When Henry VI, being in alliance with Ghiberto of Gortz, attacked Reggio, the nobles of Reggio retired there. Benvenuto thinks that the hill of Bismantova may have suggested to Dante the idea of the Mountain of Purgatory.

Canto IV. Readings on the Purgatorio. 8i

animated me, conducted, as I was, and following be- hind him, my leader Virgil, who comforted me with hope, and gave'light unto my path. Having described the entrance to the way, he now describes the way itself.

Noi salivam per entro il sasso rotto,

E d' ogni lato ne stringea lo stremo, E piedi e man voleva il suol di sotto.

We commenced mounting through the fissured rock by a hollow way, whose walls pressed close upon us on either hand, and the ascent was so steep that the ground beneath us required that we should use our hands as well as our feet.

Poiche noi fummo in su 1' orlo supremo

Deir alta ripa, alia scoverta piaggia : 35

— " Maestro mio " — diss' io — " che via faremo ? " —

When we had got up to the highest ridge of the lofty cliff, and had come out of the hollow way to where the level plateau opened out : I said : " My Master, which way shall we take now ? "*

Ed egli a me — " Nessun tuo passo caggia ; Pur su al monte dietro a me acquista, Fin che n' appaja alcuna scorta saggia " — .

And he to me : " Do not let a single step of thine turn to the right or left, but continue to gain ground up the mountain behind me, until there appear to us some practised guide."

* che via faremo f Scartazzini says that Dante was beginning to find out that some new rule prevailed in Purgatory. In Hell they had always, as a matter of course, turned to the left, and we read in Purg. III. 58, that when they saw the spirits on their left they turned naturally towards them. Virgil did not as yet appear to know if he was to turn to the right or to the left

G

82 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto IV.

Dante now shows how steep was the side of the mountain.

Lo sommo er* alto che vincea la vista, 40

E la costa superba piti assai, • Che da mezzo quadrante a centro lista.

The summit was so elevated that it rose higher than my eye could reach, and the scarp of the mountain was considerably steeper than a line drawn through the centre of a right angle.* He means that they were scaling the side of the mountain, the slope of which was at a sharper angle than 45 degrees.

After a few minutes of so much exertion, Dante is overcome by fatigue.

lo era lasso, quando cominciai :

— " O dolce padre, volgiti, e rimira

Com' io rimango sol, se non ristai." — 45

I was exhausted, when I began to call out to Virgil: " O my gentle Father, turn round, and look how much I am left behind alone, unless thou stoppest."

Virgil does not comply with his request, but urges him to persevere until he shall have reached a point higher up.

— " Figliuol mio," — mi disse, " infin quivi ti tira," — Additandomi un balzo poco in sue, Che da quel lato il poggio tutto gira.

" My Son," said he to me, " drag thyself on up to here," pointing out to me a terrace a little above me,

* Benvenuto remarks that in Hell, when the Poets come to places that were impassable, Virgil carried Dante up or down them, as in Inf. XIX, 34 and 43, but in Purgatory this never occurs.

Canto IV. Readings on the Pnrgatorio. 83

which, starting from that side, winds all round the mountain.

Si mi spronaron le parole sue,

Ch' io mi sforzai, carpando appresso lui, 50

Tanto che il cinghio sotto i pi6 mi fue.

These words of his so stimulated me (lit. spurred me on), that I renewed my exertions, clambering up behind him, until the encircling ledge lay under my feet; that is, until at last I stood on the ledge that Virgil had pointed out to me.

Division II. Here commences the Second Division of the Canto, in which Virgil explains to Dante the reason of the sun being on his left hand, and the general disposition of the heavenly bodies in the Southern Hemisphere.

Having reached the terrace or ledge of rock,* the Poets sit down and begin to look round them, and, as Benvenuto quaintly puts it, Dante gives himself up to resting his body, and working his mind.

A seder ci ponemmo ivi ambedui

Volti a levante, ond' eravam saliti ; Ch^ suole, a riguardar giovare altrui.

There we both sat down, turned towards the East, whence we had ascended with our faces turned towards the West; and we gazed at the way by which we had come; for all travellers, on reaching the summit of a hill, like to look back.

* This ledge of rock would appear to be one of the ripiani, or balzi, terraces that encircled the base of the Mountain, or Ante- Purgatory, and these ripiani, &c., are not to be confounded with the comici^ cornices of Purgatory proper.

G 2

84 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto IV.

Benvenuto says that at this point Dante turned his attention to the shores of Purgatory, now lying far below him, so as to rest his eyes, in order that he might the better endure to gaze on the sun, and one can well imagine that, as he looked down on the place where his face had been washed with the dew, he said within himself: "If I had not so much humiliated myself down there, I should not now be so much exalted up here."

Gli occhi prima drizzai a' bassi liti ; 55

Poscia gli alzai al sole, ed ammirava Che da sinistra n' eravam feriti.

I first directed my eyes towards the low shores; then I raised them to the sun, and I marvelled to see that we were struck by his rays on our left side, so that my shadow was cast on the right.*

Ben s' avvide il Poeta che io stava Stupido tutto al carro della luce, Ove tra noi ed Aquilone intrava. 60

The poet, Virgil, fully perceived that I (not knowing that we were at the Antipodes) was standing stupified with astonishment to see the chariot of light, i.e. the sun, because it had risen between where we were standing and the north,

Benvenuto says that Virgil now proceeds to explain how it is that the Sun rises in one way in that hemi- sphere, and in another way in ours.-f

* In our Hemisphere when one turns towards the East the sun is on one's right, and one's shadow is projected on one's left.

t Benvenuto gives a very full description of the heavens, the equinox, the tropics, the signs of the Zodiac, and the heavenly bodies, too long to quote here.

Canto IV. Readings on the Purgatorio. 85

Ond 'egli a me : — " Se Castore e PoUuce

Fossero in compagnia di quelle specchio Che su e giu del suo lume conduce,

Tu vederesti il Zodiaco rubecchio

Ancora all' Orse piu stretto rotare, 65

Se non uscisse fuor del cammin vecchio.

Then he said to me: "If Castor and Pollux (the constellation of Gemini)* were in company of that bright mirror which reflects the light of God, and which carries the benefits of its light both up in the Northern, and down in the Southern Hemispheres in due rotation, thou would'st see the Zodiac, fiery with the rays of the sun, revolving still more closely to the Greater and Lesser Bears, that is, nearer to the North Pole than Aries, in which we now are, always supposing that it, the sun, does not diverge from its accustomed path, i.e. the ecliptic.

Some commentators take rubecchio to be a substan- tive with the meaning of a cog-wheel, and Zodiaco as an adjective. It would then be translated "the Zodiacal cog-wheel," the teeth of the wheel repre- senting the signs of the Zodiacf

* Dante was himself bom in Gemini, and it was considered a propitious constellation, which is perhaps the reason he so often speaks of it.

t There were six Northern Signs of the Zodiac, viz. — (i) Aries — II Montone. (4) Cancer.

(2) Taurus — (5) Leo —

(3) Gemini — Castore e PoUuce. (6) Virgo —

And we on earth have summer and heat when the sun is in those signs, and strikes more directly upon us.

The other six are called the Southern or Austral signs as they look to the south, viz. :

86 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto IV.

In the verses that follow, says Delia Valle,* Dante desires to show how it is that in Purgatory one always sees the sun in the north while at Sion or Jerusalem it is always seen in the south. He says, however, that the two places have but one horizon and different hemispheres, and therefore are antipodes to each other. But these two conditions are not sufficient for the above view, because if the two places were within the two Tropics, or in the circle of the Ecliptic, it is clear that they might be antipodal, without one of them always seeing the sun in the north, and the other in the south. It stands to reason then that they must both be outside of the Tropics, and of the ecliptic. Dante does not express such a condition, but implies it ; and, as it is Virgil who is speaking, he also supposes it in Dante's mind. Virgil cannot believe that Dante should not know that Jerusalem is on this side of the Tropic of Cancer, and should not consequently take for granted that the Mountain of Purgatory is equally as far beyond the Tropic of Capricorn, after he has declared to him that the two are antipodes to each other. These ideas Dante supposes in his readers, just as Virgil supposes them in him, since Dante cannot and ought not to pre-suppose in whoever reads his poem, says Delia Valle, ignorance of the most elementary knowledge of astronomical geography.

(7) Libra— Le Bilance. (10) Capricorn—

(8) Scorpio — II freddo animale. (11) Aquarius —

(9) Sagittarius— (12) Pisces—

When the sun is in these latter signs, it strikes us obliquely and causes winter on earth.

* Delia Valle. // senso Geogrqfico-Astronomico dei luoghi delta Divina Commedia (Faenza, 1869).

Canto IV. Readings on the Purgatorio. 87

Come cio sia, se il vuoi poter pensare, Dentro raccolto immagina Sion Con questo monte in su la terra stare

Si, che ambedue hanno un solo orizzon, 70

E diversi emisperj ; onde la strada, Che mal non seppe carreggiar Feton,*

Vedrai come a costui convien che vada

Dair un, quando a colui dall' altro fianco,

Se r intelletto tuo ben chiaro bada." — 75

If thou wilt only try to think out how it is that this happens, that the sun passes between us and the north, collect thy thoughts, and picture to thyself Mount Sion, Jerusalem, standing on the earth in relation to this Mountain of Purgatory, in such wise that both have one common horizon and distinct hemispheres, {i.e. are antipodes to each other); whence, if thy intellect really considers it closely, thou wilt see that the road, on which Phaethon, to his own destruc- tion {mal), knew not how to drive, must perforce pass by this Mountain of Purgatory on the one side(« costui), while on the other side it passes by Jerusalem {a colui).

Dante admits to Virgil that he could not by any possibility have had a more fucid explanation of what had been a complete puzzle to him before.

— " Certo, maestro mio," — diss' io, — " unquanco Non vid' io chiaro si, com' io discemo, Lk dove mio ingegno parea manco.

* Che mal non seppe carreggiar Feton. Phaethon, son of Apollo and Clymene, begged his father to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun for one day. Neglecting Apollo's directions he let the horses drag the chariot out of its regular course, and already heaven and earth were threatened with a universal conflagration, when Jupiter struck Phaethon with a thunderbolt, and he fell into the river Po.

88 Readings on the Purgatovio. Canto IV.

Ch^ il mezzo cerchio del moto supemo,

Che si chiama Equatore in alcun' arte, 80

E che sempre riman tra il sole e il vemo, Per la ragion che di', quinci si parte

Verso settentrion, quanto gli Ebrei

Vedevan lui verso la calda parte.

" Truly, my Master," said I, " never did I see any- thing more clearly than I now discern this thing, in which before my intelligence seemed to fall short, for, from the reason that thou hast given me, (viz. that the two hills of Sion and Purgatory are antipodes to each other), the mid-circle of the highest and most remote of the heavens which move round, which circle is, in a certain art (the science of astronomy) called the equator, and which ever remains between the tropic, where the presence of the sun makes it summer, and the tropic, where the absence of the sun makes it winter, retires from this mountain towards the North, to exactly the same distance as the Hebrews (when they used to inhabit Jerusalem) were wont to see it {lui), that is, the sun, towards the warm quarter (the South)."

Division III. We now reach the Third and con- cluding Division of the Canto, which, Benvenuto says, not only contains the moral, but is the most beautiful part of it, in which Dante gives a description of the slothful in general, and of one of them in particular. Before, however, they reach the spot where they meet with the spirits, Dante has a conversation with Virgil as to the nature of the mount and its attributes. He begins by saying :

Canto IV. Readings on the Pnrgatorio. 89

Ma se a te piace, volentier saprei 85

Quanto avemo ad andar, ch& il poggio sale Piu che salir non posson gli occhi miei." —

But if it please thee, I should be very glad to know how far we have to go, for the mountain soars on high far beyond what my eyes can attain." *

Virgil answers him allegorically, comparing the difficulty of commencing the ascent of Purgatory to the hard task of entering into a life of virtue, but that the more one perseveres therein the more the difficulties disappear.

Ed egli a me : — " Questa montagna h tale, Che sempre al cominciar di sotto h grave, E quanto uom piu va su, e men fa male." — 90

And he to me : "This mountain is of such a nature that it is always more difficult and toilsome for those who ascend it at the commencement, but the higher a man goes up, the less it pains him.

Per6 quand' ella ti parrk soave

Tanto, che il su andar ti sia leggiero, Come a seconda giuso andar per nave;

AUor sarai al fin d' esto sentiero ;

Quivi di riposar 1' aflfanno aspetta. 95

Piu non rispondo ; e questo so per vero." —

When therefore it shall appear to thee so pleasant that the ascent will be to thee as easy as going down the current in a skiff, then thou wilt have reached the end of this path, and wilt have gained the summit, where is the Terrestrial Paradise ; there thou mayest hope and expect to repose thyself from thy weary

* // poggio sale piii, &c. ; compare v. 40 : " Lo sommo er' alto che vincea la vista."

90 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto IV.

task. I do not answer more of thy question, but this much which I have told thee I know to be true."

Benvenuto says that here Dante cleverly introduces one of the slothful spirits, whose voice, just when Virgil has been stimulating Dante to fresh exertions, is heard trying to dissuade him from the same.

E, com' egli ebbe sua parola detta,

Una voce di presso sono : — " Forse

Che di sedere in prima avrai distretta." —

And as he finished speaking these words, a voice sounded close to us, which said: "Perchance before thou reachest that same spot, where the end of this path is, thou wilt first have need to sit down."

Al suon di lei ciascun di noi si torse, lOO

E vedemmo a mancina un gran petrone, Del qual n^ io ne ei prima s' accorse.

At the sound of this voice we both turned round, and beheld on our left hand a great stone, which neither Virgil nor I had noticed up to that moment.*

Lk ci traemmo; ed ivi eran persone

Che si stavano all' ombra dietro al sasso,

Com' uom per negligenza a star si pone. 105

We drew near to that spot ; and there were people there lying down in the shade behind the crag, as men do from sheer idleness and sloth.f

* The spirits were quite close to them, but as Dante and Virgil had turned to the right on reaching the terrace from below, they had not noticed the spirits to their left, nor the great stone, behind which they were sitting.

t Benvenuto is full of admiration at the admirable way that Dante, in a few brief words, has so fully conveyed the idea of the contemptible creatures, who in cold weather bask in the sun, and in hot weather loll in the shade. The sun being now high in the heavens, they had sought the shade behind the crag;

Canto IV. Readings on the Purgatorio. 91

Dante now meets a former friend of his, who was notorious in his life for surpassing all his contempo- raries in laziness. This is Belacqua, of whom more anon. He is described sitting in a listless, lazy attitude, and will not even raise his head to converse with Dante,

Ed un di lor che mi sembrava lasso,

Sedeva ed abbracciava le ginocchia, Tenendo il vise giii tra esse basso.

And one of these spirits who appeared to me to be fatigued, was sitting down and clasping his knees holding his face low down between them,

Benvenuto says that this spirit, Belacqua, is most justly forbidden to look at heaven for a considerable while, as he, for so long a time, did not cease from looking down to the earth, Dante cannot forbear from pointing out his lazy attitude to Virgil in terms of censure and contempt,

— " O dolce Signor mio," — diss' io, — " adocchia

Colui che mostra se piu negligente, lio

Che se pigrizia fosse sua sirocchia." —

" O my gentle Master," said I, " look at this man, who shows himself more indolent than if Sloth itself had been his own sister." Belacqua, hearing Dante's derisive remarks about him, is somewhat irritated, and retaliates by urging Dante to the exertion which he himself so much dislikes.

for such people at all times, and in all places, shirk work, flee from cold or heat, and so pass away like a shadow. And so the Poet passes them by as briefly and as lightly as he did the slothful in Hell. For the slothful are not only careless of good works, but even of their own private business, so that they would even let their own houses tumble about their ears, sooner than take trouble to prevent its happening.

92 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto IV.

Allor si volse a noi, e pose mente,

Movendo il viso pur su per la coscia,

E disse : — " Or va su tu, che se' valente." —

At these words of mine he turned towards us and looked attentively, but only just moving his face along his thigh, and said : " O very well, then go up thyself, thou who art so energetic."

Dante recognises him at once, probably, Benvenuto thinks, from his drawling mode of speaking.

Conobbi allor chi era ; e quell' angoscia,* 1 1 5

Che m' avacciava un poco ancor la lena, Non m' impedi I'andare a lui ; e poscia

Che a lui fui giunto, alzo la testa appena,t Dicendo : — " Hai ben veduto come il sole Dall' omero sinistro il carro mena?" — 120

Then, on hearing his voice, I knew who it was ; and my recent exertion, which was still quicken- ing my breath a little, did not prevent me from approaching him ; and, as soon as I got near to him, he barely raised his head, saying : — '* Well, hast thou made out, quite to thy satisfaction, how it is that the sun drives his chariot over thy left shoulder, at which I heard thee expressing so much astonishment just now ? " He had heard what Dante had said to Virgil in V. 'j6^ and these words are spoken in derision at Dante's simplicity at not knowing at once why the sun was striking him on the left.

Dante's amusement prevails over his indignation at the sight of the contemptible creature before him.

* Avacciava — was causing to quicken ; derived from abtgere, abactus, abactiare.

t Belacqua had at first just glanced sideways over his thigh, so as not to give himself the trouble of raising his head; but now he so far condescends as to raise his head slightly.

Canto IV. Readmgs on the Purgatorio. 93

Gli atti suoi pigri, e le corte parole

Mosson le labbra mie un poco a riso ;

Poi cominciai : — "Belacqua, a me non duole

Di te omai ; ma dimmi, perchfe assise

Quiritta sei? attend! tu iscorta, 125

O pur lo modo usato t' ha ripriso?" —

His indolent movements, and curt sentences, just brought a smile to my lips ; and then I began : " Belacqua, I see now that henceforward I need not make myself uneasy about thee ; but tell me, why art thou sitting in this particular spot ? Art thou waiting for a conductor, or is it only that thy wonted habits have seized upon thee ?"*

Belacqua answers Dante's question, but Benvenuto notices that his mode of address has now changed, and

* Belacqua. But little is known of him. L'Anonimo Fioren- tino writes "This Belacqua was a citizen of Florence, who manufactured the necks of lutes and guitars, and was the most indolent man that ever lived; and it is said of him that he used to come to his shop in the morning, and sit down, and never rose from his chair all day except to eat and to sleep. Dante was very intimate with him, and used often to take him to task for his laziness ; and one day, Belacqua answered his censures by saying in the words of Aristotle : ' By sitting down and resting, the soul is rendered wise;' to which Dante retaliated: ' Certainly, if one becomes wise by sitting down, none was ever so wise as thou.'"

Benvenuto says he was a musical instrument maker, and a wonderful carver, besides being a fair musician.

Un poco al riso, &c. Scartazzini remarks that Dante's amuse- ment does not exceed the bounds of that moderation, which the gravity of the place and surrounding circumstances required, as well as the seriousness of the philosopher, and Dante's own maxims. " The fool will uplift his voice in laughter ; but the wise man will hardly even give way to a silent laugh." — Koran, Struck, xxi, 22.

94 Readings on the Ptirgatorio. Canto IV.

he reverently confesses the sin of his tardy deathbed repentance.

Ed ei : — " Frate, 1' andare in su che porta ? Ch^ non mi lascierebbe ire ai martiri L' uccel di Dio che siede in su la porta.

Prima convien che tanto il ciel m' aggiri 130

Di fuor da essa, quanto fece in vita, Perch' io indugiai al fin li buon sospiri,

Se orazione in prima non m' aita,

Che surga su di cor che in grazia viva :

L' altra che val ? che in ciel non h udita." — 135

And he answered: "Brother, what advantage would it be to me to ascend } seeing that the bird of God (the Angel) that sits at the gate would not allow me to pass through to the torments.* Before that he (the Angel) will allow me to do so, it is necessary that the heavens revolve round me, as I lie waiting in this outer Purgatory, for precisely the same number of years, as the same heavens revolved round me in life, because I delayed my repentance (/ buon sospiri) up to the hour of my death, unless, before then, a prayer should come to my aid which shall rise to heaven from the heart of one who is living in the Grace of God : what profit to me would be the other, i.e. the prayer of one living in sin 1 Such prayers are not even heard in heaven. "

* We must remember that Belacqua would, when admitted within the Gate of Purgatory, be relegated to the Fourth Cornice, and there be kept running swiftly, and have to utter aloud the praises of zeal and energy.

Compare Purg. II, 37-38, where the Angel of God is spoken of as a bird :

" Poi come piii e piu verso noi venne

L' uccel divino, piu chiaro appariva."

Canto IV. Readings on the Purgatorio. 95

Dante concludes the Canto by mentioning that Vir- gil, who seems to have turned away in some contempt from Belacqua, is already ascending towards another terrace, and calls to Dante to follow him, as it is noon.

E gik il Poeta innanzi mi saliva,

E dicea : — " Vienne omai, vedi ch' h tocco Meridian dal sole, e dalla riva

Copre la notte gik col pi^ Morrocco." — 139

And already had the Poet recommenced the ascent in front of me, and said : " Come on now, see the sun has touched the meridian, and here it is noon, while night, with her footsteps, is covering Morocco, the extreme west, from the bank of the Ganges {dalla riva), the extreme east."*

* V. 137-139. Dr. Moore says : . . "it is midday in Purga- tory and, following out the same calculation as before, it will be midnight at Jerusalem, and consequently sunrise on the Ganges, and sunset in Spain or Morocco ; and the hemisphere of night will consequently extend from the Ganges to Morocco. Now this is exactly what Dante means by saying that starting from the bank or river's edge (taking the reading della riva), night's advancing foot just falls upon Morocco, i.e. night is just com- mencing there."

Others read — " ed alia riva " — but Scartazzini is very positive that that is a blunder which causes a complete misconception of the idea Dante wished to express.

End of Canto IV.

g6 Reading's on the Purgatorio. Canto V.

CANTO V.

The Penitent in violent death. Jacopo del Cassero. buonconte da montefeltro. PlA de' Tolomei.

Having, in the last Canto, treated of the third class of spirits, viz, of those who neglected their repentance from sheer laziness, Dante proceeds, in the present Canto, to speak of a fourth class, who deferred turning to God, until the moment of being overcome by- violent death. Benvenuto divides the Canto into four parts.

In the First Division, from v. i to v. 21, he is sharply reproved by Virgil for stopping to listen to the exclamations of astonishment uttered by the spirits when they perceived that he had a shadow.

In the Second Divisioji, from v. 22 to v. 63, he describes the fourth class of the spirits relegated to Outer Purgatory.

In the Third Division, from v. 64 to v. 85, occurs Dante's conversation with Jacopo del Cassero, who describes to him his violent death.

In the Fourth Divisio?t, from v. 86 to v. 136, he describes his interview with Buonconte da Monte- feltro, who relates his death after the Battle of Campaldino.

He also mentions how Pia de' Tolomei accosted him.

Canto V, Readings on the Purgatorio. 97

Division I. Dante had left the spirits of the indo- lent, among whom was Belacqua, having apparently- seen quite enough of such poor creatures, and had recommenced the ascent to the terrace higher up, following close on the steps of Virgil, when his atten- tion was recalled to them by their astonished exclama- tions at the sight of his shadow, though Dante is very careful to let it be noticed that their tardy observation of it was in character with their sloth.

lo era g^ci da quell' ombre partito,

E seguitava 1' orme del mio duca, Quando diretro a me drizzando il dito,

Una grid6 : — " Ve', che non par che luca

Lo raggio da sinistra a quel di sotto, 5

E come vivo par che si conduca." —

I had already departed from those spirits, and was following in the footsteps of my guide (Virgil), when, from behind me, one of the spirits, pointing with his finger, called out to another : —

" Look, how the ray of the sun does not seem to shine on the left of him that is mounting up below the other (meaning that Dante's body was casting a shadow), and he seems to move, as though he were alive." Dante, according to Benvenuto, was not dis- pleased at the notice he was attracting.

Gli occhi rivolsi al suon di questo motto, E vidile guardar maraviglia Pur me, pur me, e il lume ch' era rotto.

I turned my eyes back at the sound of these words, and saw the other spirits, gazing in wonder at me, at me alone (of us two), and at my shadow {lit. at the light of the sun that was intercepted by my body).*

* Benvenuto warns his readers, that although this canto

H

98 Readings on the Purgatorio. Canto V.

Dante next relates how Virgil, thinking he was getting too much puffed up by the observation of the crowd of foolish spirits, sharply rebuked him.

— " Perch^ 1' animo tuo tanto s' impiglia," — lo

Disse il maestro, — " che 1' andare allenti ? Che ti fa cio che quivi si pispiglia ? Vien dietro a me, e lascia dir le genti ; Sta come torre ferma, che non crolla Giammai la cima per sofifiar de' venti. 15

" Why doth thy mind occupy itself so much with what others are saying about thee," said my Master, " as to make thee slacken thy pace ? What matters it to thee what they are muttering over there ? Come on after me, and let the people talk ; stand as firm as a tower, which never allows its summit to be shaken, for all the blowing of the winds.

These last words refer unnlistakably to Dante's having turned his head round, with some complacency,

seems quite clear, it nevertheless contains many obscure passages. And first of all, one must not understand the mere bare fact that the spirits marvelled at Dante being alive, that he thereupon gloried in their wonderment, and Virgil reproved him for that only. The indolent spirits marvelled that Dante, being alive, should come among so many^that were dead, because he had entered into Purgatory before the time of his death to amend his sinful life ; they marvelled to see a wise man among so many ignorant ; for they who are conscious of their own ignorance wonder at wise men ; they also marvelled to see him going through so sacred a duty by himself, and thereby inviting those still living in the world to profit by his example, and be con- verted while they have time. But Dante, hearing their voices praising him, exulted, and suffered them to continue saying that he was a man of unique virtue, without a rival, whereas he ought rather to have said like the apostle " By the Grace of God I am what I am^^

Canto V. Readings on the Purgatorio. 99

at the exclamations about his having a shadow, and Virgil's reproof says in so many words : ' Do not heed such a light wind as the praises of the populace ; dost thou think that thy wisdom is nought if thy fame be not proclaimed by others? or, hast thou really deserved glory, if people point the finger at thee, and men talk about thee ? rather follow after me, who am conducting thee to eternal, not to vain glory ; stand firm on the judgment of thine own conscience, not on that of the mob.'

Ch^ sempre 1' uomo, in cui i)ensier rampolla Sovra pensier, da s^ dilunga il segno, Perche la foga 1' un dell' altro insolla." — For that man, in whose mind thought is ever springing up upon thought, removes from himself the end at which he was aiming, for the one thought enfeebles the force of the other thought."*

Benvenuto says that Dante acts as a good man would, who does not resent reproof, or endeavour to excuse his fault, but reverently and prudently amends it, and obeys the injunctions given to him.

Che poteva io ridir, se non : — " lo vegno ?" —

Dissilo, alquanto del color consperso 20

Che fa 1' uom di perdon tal volta degno.

What other answer could I make except to say: —

"I come?" — I said it, with my countenance somewhat

flushed with that colour (the blush of shame), which

at times may render a man deserving of forgiveness.f

* Benvenuto says that when a vain thought arises above a good thought, it impedes the acquisition of the first one. The man, who abandons himself to too many thoughts, is slow at arriving at the primary object he aims at, because the thoughts so clash that one retards the course of the other.

t Benvenuto begs us to note that Dante here shows clearly H 2

lOO Readings on the Pnrgatorio. Canto V.

Division II. Here begins the Second Division of the Canto, in which Dante describes a fresh troop of spirits, who approached singing devoutly.

E intanto per la costa da traverse

Venivan genti innanzi a noi un poco, Cantando Miserere a verso a verso.

Meanwhile, along the hill side, not ascending it, but walking across it, there came some, a little way before us, who sang the Miserere in responsive strains.*

Again we have the same outspoken expression of wonder, on the part of the spirits, at the evidence of Dante being still alive, that was afforded by his shadow.

Quando s' accorser ch' io non dava loco 25

Per lo mio corpo al trapassar de' raggi, Mutar lor canto in un Oh lungo e roco.

When they perceived that I did not give place to the passage of the rays of the sun through my body

that he has really begun to pass through Purgatory, being now quick to feel compunction and repentance: for modesty and grief are two steep stairs by which man mounts up in Purgatory. Benvenuto cannot help saying that he invariably finds all authors, philosophers, poets, orators, and historians fall into the same error : all of them declaim, bark and contend against the populace. One calls the mob ignorant ; another, insane ; another, vain ; another, changeable ; and so on ; and all con- demn its judgments, opinions, manners, words and deeds ; and yet, in times of adversity, all of them seek out by art and contrivance, with labour and zeal, for favour, praise, good name, and honours from the populace. Therefore it was quite right that Dante should blush, on hearing himself censured, and censured justly, for the fact that he was then exulting over the empty praise of this same populace.

* Benvenuto enlarges a good deal on the Penitential Psalms, and on the multitude of the mercies of God.

Canto V. Readings on the Purgatorio. lOi

they suddenly changed their chaunt into a prolonged and hoarse Oh !

Two now issue from the band and run to question Dante. One is Jacopo del Cassero, the other, Buon- conte da Montefeltro.

E due di loro in forma di messaggi

Corsero incontro a noi, e dimandarne : — " Di vostra condizion fatene saggi." — 30

And two of them, in guise of messengers, ran out to meet us, and demanded : " Make us acquainted with your condition."

Virgil, knowing that after his recent reproof, which Dante had received so meekly, the latter would not seek to praise himself, in answer to the spirits, praises Dante, and begs them to honour him.

E il mio maestro : — " Voi potete andarne, E ritarre a color che vi mandaro, Che il corpo di costui ^ vera came.

So per veder la sua ombra restaro,

Com' io avviso, assai h lor risposto : 35

Facciangli onore, ed esser puo lor caro." —

And my