CANTO VIII.

Argument.

The Poet ascends with Beatrice to the third heaven, which is the planet Venus; and here finds the soul of Charles Martel, king of Hungary, who had been Dante's friend on earth, and who now, after speaking of the realms to which he was heir, unfolds the cause why children differ in disposition from their parents.

THE World* was, in it's day of peril dark,
Wont to believe the dotage of fond love,
From the fair Cyprian deity, who rolls
In her third epicycle†, shed on men

*The world.] The Poet, on his arrival at the third heaven, tells us that the world, in it's days of heathen darkness, believed the influence of sensual love to proceed from this star, to which, under the name of Venus, they paid divine honours; as they worshiped the supposed mother and son of Venus, under the names of Dione and Cupid.

"In sul dosso di questo cerchio," &c. Convito di Dante, p. 48.

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By stream of potent radiance: therefore they
Of elder time, in their old error blind,

Not her alone with sacrifice ador'd

And invocation, but like honours paid

To Cupid and Dione, deem'd of them

Her mother, and her son, him whom they feign'd

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To sit in Dido's bosom*: and from her,

Whom I have sung preluding, borrow'd they

The appellation of that star, which views
Now obvious†, and now averse, the sun.

I was not ware that I was wafted up
Into it's orb; but the new loveliness,
That grac'd my lady, gave me ample proof
That we had enter'd there. And as in flame
A sparkle is distinct, or voice in voice
Discern'd, when one it's even tenour keeps,

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The other comes and goes; so in that light
I other luminaries saw, that cours'd

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Upon the back of this circle, in the heaven of Venus, whereof we are now treating, is a little sphere, which has in that heaven a revolution of it's own; whose circle the astronomers term epicycle." * To sit in Dido's bosom.] Virgil, Æn. lib. i. 718.

+ Now obvious.] Being at one part of the year, a morning, and at another an evening star. So Frezzi:

Il raggio della stella

Che'l sol vagheggia or drieto or davanti.

Il Quadrir. lib. i. cap. i.

In circling motion, rapid more or less,
As their eternal vision each impels.

Never was blast from vapour charg'd with cold,
Whether invisible to eye or no†,

Descended with such speed, it had not seem'd
To linger in dull tardiness, compar'd

To those celestial lights, that tow'rds us came,
Leaving the circuit of their joyous ring,
Conducted by the lofty seraphim.

And after them, who in the van appear'd,
Such an Hosanna sounded, as hath left
Desire, ne'er since extinct in me, to hear
Renew'd the strain. Then, parting from the rest,
One near us drew, and sole began: “We all
Are ready at thy pleasure, well dispos'd

To do thee gentle service. We are they,

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To whom thou in the world erewhile didst sing;

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"O ye! whose intellectual ministry‡

Moves the third heaven:' and in one orb we roll,
One motion, one impulse, with those who rule

* As their.] As each, according to their several deserts, partakes more or less of the beatific vision.

↑ Whether invisible to eye or no.] He calls the blast invisible, if unattended by gross vapour; otherwise, visible.

"O ye! whose intellectual ministry.]

Voi ch' intendendo il terzo ciel movete.

The first line in our Poet's first Canzone. See his Convito, p. 40.

Princedoms in heaven*; yet are of love so full,
That to please thee 't will be as sweet to rest.”

. After mine eyes had with meek reverence Sought the celestial guide, and were by her Assur'd, they turn'd again unto the light, Who had so largely promis'd; and with voice That bare the lively pressure of my zeal, "Tell who ye are," I cried. Forthwith it grew In size and splendour, through augmented joy : And thus it answer'd: "A short date, below, The world possess'd me. Had the time been more†, that will come, had never chanc'd.

Much evil,

My gladness hides thee from me, which doth shine
Around, and shroud me, as an animal

In it's own silk enswath'd. Thou lov'dst me well‡,

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* Princedoms in heav'n.] See Canto xxviii. 112. where the princedoms are, as here, made co-ordinate with this third sphere. In his Convito, p. 54. he has ranked them differently, making the thrones the moving intelligences of Venus.

↑ Had the time been more.] The spirit now speaking is Charles Martel, crowned king of Hungary, and son of Charles II. king of Naples and Sicily, to which dominions, dying in his father's lifetime, he did not succeed. The evil, that would have been prevented by the longer life of Charles Martel, was that resistance which his brother Robert, king of Sicily, who succeeded him, made to the Emperor Henry VII. See G. Villani, lib. ix. cap. xxxviii.

Thou lov'dst me well.] Charles Martel might have been known to our Poet at Florence, whither he came to meet his father in

And hadst good cause; for had my sojourning

Been longer on the earth, the love I bare thee

Had put forth more than blossoms. The left bank*, That Rhone, when he hath mix'd with Sorga, laves, 61 In me it's lord expected, and that horn

Of fair Ausoniat, with it's boroughs old,

Bari, and Croton, and Gaeta pil'd,

From where the Trento disembogues his waves,

With Verde mingled, to the salt sea-flood.
Already on my temples beam'd the crown,
Which gave me sov'reignty over the land
By Danube wash'd, whenas he strays beyond
The limits of his German shores. The realm,
Where, on the gulf by stormy Eurus lash'd,
Betwixt Pelorus and Pachynian heights,
The beautiful Trinacria§ lies in gloom,

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1295, the year of his death. The retinue and the habiliments of the young monarch are minutely described by G. Villani, who adds, that "he remained more than twenty days in Florence, waiting for his father King Charles and his brothers; during which time great honour was done him by the Florentines, and he showed no less love towards them, and he was much in favour with all." Lib. viii. cap. xiii. His brother Robert, king of Naples, was the friend of

Petrarch.

§ The beautiful Trinacria.] Sicily; so called from it's three pro