Forth from his limbs, unsheath'd. O power divine! 20
If thou to me of thine impart so much,

That of that happy realm the shadow'd form
Trac'd in my thoughts I may set forth to view;
Thou shalt behold me of thy favour'd tree

Come to the foot, and crown myself with leaves:
For to that honour thou, and my high theme
Will fit me. If but seldom, mighty Sire!
To grace his triumph, gathers thence a wreath
Cæsar, or bard*, (more shame for human wills
Deprav'd) joy to the Delphic god must spring
From the Peneian foliage, when one breast
Is with such thirst inspir'd. From a small spark +
Great flame hath risen: after me, perchance,

Others with better voice may pray, and gain,

From the Cyrrhæan city, answer kind.

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his own, when he made that daring mortal deserve to come forth unsheathed from his limbs."

* Cæsar, or bard.] So Petrarch. Son. Par. Prima.

Arbor vittoriosa e trionfale

Onor d' imperadori e di poeti.

And Frezzi. Il Quadrir. lib. iii. cap. 14.

alloro,

Che imperatori e' poeti corona.

And Spenser. F. Q. b. i. c. 1. st. 9.

The laurel, meed of mighty conquerours,

And poets sage.

+ From a small spark.]

πολλάν τ ̓ ὄρει πᾶς ἐξ ἑνὸς Σπέρματος ἐνθορὸν ἀΐσωσεν ὅλαν.

Pindar. Pyth. iii. 67.

+

Through divers passages, the world's bright lamp
Rises to mortals; but, through that* which joins
Four circles with the threefold cross, in best
Course, and in happiest constellation † set,
He comes; and, to the worldly wax, best gives
It's temper and impression. Morning there ‡,
Here eve was well nigh by such passage made;
And whiteness had o'erspread that hemisphere,
Blackness the other part; when to the left §
I saw Beatrice turn'd, and on the sun
Gazing, as never eagle fix'd his ken.

As from the first a second beam || is wont
To issue, and reflected upwards rise,

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* Through that.] "Where the four circles, the horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial colure join; the last three intersecting each other so as to form three crosses, as may be seen in the armillary sphere."

↑ In happiest constellation.] Aries. Some understand the planet Venus by the " miglior stella."

Morning there.]

It was morning where he then was, and

about eventide on the earth.

§ To the left.] Being in the opposite hemisphere to our's, Beatrice, that she may behold the rising sun, turns herself to the left. || As from the first a second beam.] "Like a reflected sunbeam," which he compares to a pilgrim hastening homewards.

Ne simil tanto mai raggio secondo

Dal primo uscì.

Filicaja. canz. xv. st. 4.

Sicut vir in peregrinatione constitutus, omni studio, omnique conatu domum redire festinat, ac retrorsum non respicit sed ad domum, quam reliquerat, reverti desiderat. Alberici Visio, § 25.

E'en as a pilgrim bent on his return ;

So of her act, that through the eyesight pass'd
Into my fancy, mine was form'd: and straight,
Beyond our mortal wont, I fix'd mine eyes

Upon the sun. Much is allow'd us there,

That here exceeds our pow'r; thanks to the place
Made for the dwelling of the human kind.
I suffer'd it not long; and yet so long,
That I beheld it bick'ring sparks around,
As iron that comes boiling from the fire †.
And suddenly upon the day appear'd

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* Made.] And therefore best adapted, says Venturi, to the good temperament and vigour of the human body and it's faculties. The Poet speaks of the terrestrial paradise where he then was.

↑ As iron that comes boiling from the fire.] Ardentem, et scintillas emittentem, ac si ferrum cum de fornace trahitur.

§ 5. This simile is repeated, § 16.

So Milton. P. L. b. iii. 594.

As glowing iron with fire.

Upon the day appear'd.]

If the heaven had ywonne

All new of God another sunne.

Alberici Visio,

Chaucer. First Booke of Fame.

E par ch' aggiunga un altro sole al cielo.

Ariosto. O. F. c. x. st. 109.

Ed ecco un lustro lampeggiar d' intorno
Che sole a sole aggiunse e giorno a giorno.

Marino. Adone. c. xi. st. 27.

Quando a paro col sol ma più lucente
L'angelo gli apparì sull' oriente.

Tasso. G. L. c. i.

A day new-ris'n; as he, who hath the power,
Had with another sun bedeck'd the sky.

Her eyes fast fix'd on the eternal wheels *,
Beatrice stood unmov'd; and I with ken
Fix'd upon her, from upward gaze remov'd,
At her aspect, such inwardly became
As Glaucus †, when he tasted of the herb
That made him peer among the ocean gods:
Words may not tell of that transhuman change;
And therefore let the example serve, though weak,
For those whom grace hath better proof in store.

If I were only what thou didst create,
Then newly, Love! by whom the heav'n is rul'd;
Thou know'st, who by thy light didst bear me up.

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70

seems another morn

Ris'n on mid-noon.

Milton. P. L. b. v. 311.

Compare Euripides. Ion. 1550. ̓Ανθήλιον πρόσωπον.

* Eternal wheels.] The heavens, eternal, and always circling. + As Glaucus.] Ovid. Met. lib. xiii. fab. 9. Plato, in the tenth book of the Republic, makes a very noble comparison from Glaucus, but applies it differently. Edit. Bipont. vol. vii. p. 317. Berkeley appears not to have been aware of the passage, when he says that "Proclus compares the soul, in her descent, invested with growing prejudices, to Glaucus diving to the bottom of the sea, and there contracting divers coats of sea-weed, coral, and shells, which stick close to him, and conceal his true shape." Siris. Ed. 1744. p. 151.

If] "Thou, O divine Spirit, knowest whether I had not risen above my human nature, and were not merely such as thou hadst then formed me."

Whenas the wheel which thou dost ever guide,
Desired Spirit! with it's harmony *,

Temper'd of thee and measur'd, charm'd mine ear;
Then seem'd to me so much of heav'n † to blaze
With the sun's flame, that rain or flood ne'er made
A lake so broad. The newness of the sound,
And that great light, inflam'd me with desire,
Keener than e'er was felt, to know their cause.
Whence she, who saw me, clearly as myself,

To calm my troubled mind, before I ask'd,
Open'd her lips, and gracious thus began:
"With false imagination thou thyself

Mak'st dull; so that thou seest not the thing,
Which thou hadst seen, had that been shaken off.
Thou art not on the earth as thou believ'st;
For lightning, scap'd from it's own proper place,
Ne'er ran, as thou hast hither now return'd."

Harmony.] The harmony of the spheres.
And after that the melodie herd he

That cometh of thilke speris thryis three,
That welles of musike ben and melodie

In this world here, and cause of harmonie.

Chaucer. The Assemble of Foules.

In their motion harmony divine

So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear

Listens delighted.

Milton. P. L. b. v. 627.

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90

↑ So much of heav'n.] The sphere of fire, as Lombardi well ex

plains it.