It is the mighty ocean, whither tends

Whatever it creates and nature makes."

Then saw I clearly how each spot in heav'n

Is Paradise, though with like gracious dew

The

supreme virtue show'r not over all.

But as it chances, if one sort of food Hath satiated, and of another still

The appetite remains, that this is ask'd,

And thanks for that return'd; e'en so did I,

In word and motion, bent from her to learn

What web it was*, through which she had not drawn
The shuttle to it's point. She thus began:
"Exalted worth and perfectness of life
The Lady't higher up inshrine in heaven,
By whose pure laws upon your nether earth
The robe and veil they wear; to that intent,

That e'en till death they may keep watch, or sleep,
With their great bridegroom, who accepts each vow,
Which to his gracious pleasure love conforms.

I from the world, to follow her, when young

90

100

*What web it was.

"What vow of religious life it was that she had been hindered from completing, had been compelled to break."

The Lady.] St. Clare, the foundress of the order called after her. She was born of opulent and noble parents at Assisi, in 1193, and died in 1253. See Biogr. Univ. t. i. p. 598, 8vo, Paris, 1813.

Escap'd; and, in her vesture mantling me,
Made promise of the way her sect enjoins.
Thereafter men, for ill than good more apt,
Forth snatch'd me from the pleasant cloister's pale.
God knows how, after that, my life was fram'd.
This other splendid shape, which thou beholdst
At my right side, burning with all the light
Of this our orb, what of myself I tell
May to herself apply. From her, like me
A sister, with like violence were torn
The saintly folds, that shaded her fair brows.
E'en when she to the world again was brought

110

*God knows.] Rodolfo da Tossignano, Hist. Seraph. Relig. P. i. p. 138, as cited by Lombardi, relates the following legend of Piccarda." Her brother Corso, inflamed with rage against his virgin sister, having joined with him Farinata, an infamous assassin, and twelve other abandoned ruffians, entered the monastery by a ladder, and carried away his sister forcibly to his own house; and then tearing off her religious habit, compelled her to go in a secular garment to her nuptials. Before the spouse of Christ came together with her new husband, she knelt down before a crucifix and recommended her virginity to Christ. Soon after her whole body was smitten with leprosy, so as to strike grief and horror into the beholders; and thus in a few days, through the divine disposal, she passed with a palm of virginity to the Lord." Perhaps, adds the worthy Franciscan, our Poet not being able to certify himself entirely of this occurrence, has chosen to pass it over discreetly, by making Piccarda say—

God knows how, after that, my

In spite of her own will and better wont,
Yet not for that the bosom's inward veil
Did she renounce. This is the luminary

Of mighty Constance*, who from that loud blast,
Which blew the second+ over Suabia's realm,
That power produc'd, which was the third and last."
She ceas'd from further talk, and then began
"Ave Maria" singing; and with that song
Vanish'd, as heavy substance through deep wave.
Mine eye, that, far as it was capable,

Pursu'd her, when in dimness she was lost,

120

* Constance.] Daughter of Ruggieri, king of Sicily, who being taken by force out of a monastery where she had professed, was married to the Emperor Henry VI. and by him was mother to Frederick II. She was fifty years old or more at the time, and "because it was not credited that she could have a child at that age, she was delivered in a pavilion, and it was given out that any lady, who pleased, was at liberty to see her. Many came, and saw her; and the suspicion ceased." Ricordano Malespini in Muratori, Rer. It. Script. t. viii. p. 939.; and G. Villani, in the same words, Hist. lib. v. c. 16.

The French translator abovementioned speaks of her having poisoned her husband. The death of Henry VI. is recorded in the Chronicon Siciliæ, by an anonymous writer, (Muratori, t. x.) but not a word of his having been poisoned by Constance; and Ricordano Malespini even mentions her decease as happening before that of her husband, Henry V. for so this author, with some others, terms him.

The second.] Henry VI. son of Frederick I. was the second emperor of the house of Suabia; and his son Frederick II. "th third and last."

Turn'd to the mark where greater want impell'd,
And bent on Beatrice all it's gaze.

But she, as lightning, beam'd upon my looks;
So that the sight sustain❜d it not at first.
Whence I to question her became less prompt.

130

CANTO IV.

Argument.

While they still continue in the moon, Beatrice removes certain doubts, which Dante had conceived respecting the place assigned to the blessed, and respecting the will absolute or conditional. He inquires whether it is possible to make satisfaction for a vow broken.

BETWEEN two kinds of food*, both equally
Remote and tempting, first a man might die
Of hunger, ere he one could freely choose.
E'en so would stand a lamb between the maw
Of two fierce wolves, in dread of both alike:
E'en so between two deer† a dog would stand.
Wherefore, if I was silent, fault nor praise

I to myself impute; by equal doubts

* Between two kinds of food.] "Si aliqua dico sunt penitus æqualia, non magis movetur homo ad unum quam ad aliud; sicut famelicus, si habet cibum æqualiter appetibilem in diversis partibus, et secundum æqualem distantiam, non magis movetur ad unum quam ad alterum." Thomas Aquinas, Summ. Theolog. i.ma ii.ndæ Partis. Quæstio. xiii. Art. vi.

↑ Between two deer.]

Tigris ut, auditis, diversâ valle duorum,
Extimulata fame, mugitibus armentorum,
Nescit utrò potius ruat, et ruere ardet utroque.

Ovid, Metam. lib. v. 166.