"Not without purpose once more to return, Thou find'st me, my Casella', where I am2, Journeying this way;" I said: "but how of thee Hath so much time been lost 3 ?" He answer'd straight:

"No outrage hath been done to me, if he1, Who when and whom he chuses takes, hath oft Denied me passage here; since of just will His will he makes. These three months past inHe, whoso chose to enter, with free leave [deed, Hath taken; whence I wandering by the shore Where Tiber's wave grows salt, of him gain'd kind Admittance, at that river's mouth, toward which His wings are pointed; for there always throng All such as not to Acheron descend."

Then I: "If new law taketh not from thee Memory or custom of love-tuned song,

1 My Casella.] A Florentine, celebrated for his skill in music, "in whose company," says Landino," Dante often recreated his spirits, wearied by severer studies." See Dr. Burney's History of Music, vol. ii. cap. iv. p. 322. Milton has a fine allusion to this meeting in his sonnet to Henry Lawes.

Dante shall give fame leave to set thee higher
Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing,
Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.

2 Where I am.]

"Là dove io son." Lombardi understands this differently: "Not without purpose to return again to the earth, where I am; that is, where I usually dwell."

3 Hath so much time been lost.] There is some uncertainty in this passage. If we read

Ma a te com' era tanta terra tolta?

with the Nidobeatina and Aldine editions, and many MSS., it signifies" why art thou deprived of so desirable a region as that of Purgatory? why dost thou not hasten to be cleansed of thy sins?" If with the Academicians della Crusca, we read,

Diss 'io, ma a te come tant' ora è tolta? which is not destitute of authority to support it, and which has the advantage over the other, as it marks Dante's speech from Casella's, then it must mean as I have translated it, "why hast thou lost so much time in arriving here?" Lombardi, who is for the former reading, supposes Casella to be just dead; those, who prefer the latter, suppose him to have been dead some years, but now only just arrived.

4 He.] The conducting angel.

5 These three months past.] Since the time of the Jubilee, during which all spirits not condemned to eternal punishment were supposed to pass over to Purgatory as soon as they pleased.

6 The shore.] Ostia.

That whilom all my cares had power to 'swage;
Please thee therewith a little to console
My spirit, that incumber'd with its frame,
Traveling so far, of pain is overcome."

"Love, that discourses in my thoughts'," he then Began in such soft accents, that within

The sweetness thrills me yet. My gentle guide, And all who came with him, so well were pleased, That seem'd nought else might in their thoughts have room.

Fast fix'd in mute attention to his notes We stood, when lo! that old man venerable Exclaiming," How is this, ye tardy spirits? What negligence detains you loitering here? Run to the mountain to cast off those scales, That from your eyes the sight of God conceal." As a wild flock of pigeons, to their food Collected, blade or tares, without their pride Accustom'd, and in still and quiet sort, If aught alarm them, suddenly desert Their meal, assail'd by more important care; So I that new-come troop beheld, the song Deserting, hasten to the mountain's side, As one who goes, yet, where he tends, knows not. Nor with less hurried step did we depart.

CANTO III.

ARGUMENT.

Our Poet, perceiving no shadow except that cast by his own body, is fearful that Virgil has deserted him; but he is freed from that error, and both arrive together at the foot of the mountain: on finding it too steep to climb, they inquire the way from a troop of spirits that are coming towards them, and are by them shown which is the easiest ascent. Manfredi, king of Naples, who is one of these spirits, bids Dante inform his daughter Costanza, queen of Arragon, of the manner in which he had died.

THEM Sudden flight had scatter'd o'er the plain, Turn'd towards the mountain, whither reason's voice

"Love, that discourses in my thoughts."]

"Amor che nella mente mi ragiona."

The first verse of a canzone in the Convito of Dante, which he again cites in his treatise de Vulg. Eloq. lib. ii. cap. 6. 2 As one.] Com' uom, che va, nè sa dove riesca.

So Frezzi:

Come chi va, nè sa dove camina.

Il Quadrir. lib. i. cap. 3.

Drives us: I, to my faithful company

Adhering, left it not. For how, of him
Deprived, might I have sped? or who, beside,
Would o'er the mountainous tract have led my steps?
He, with the bitter pang of self-remorse,
Seem'd smitten. O clear conscience, and upright!
How doth a little failing wound thee sore1.
Soon as his feet desisted (slackening pace)
From haste, that mars all decency of act2,
My mind, that in itself before was wrapt,
Its thought expanded, as with joy restored;
And full against the steep ascent I set

My face, where highest3 to heaven its top o'erflows.
The sun, that flared behind, with ruddy beam
Before my form was broken; for in me
His rays resistance met. I turn'd aside
With fear of being left, when I beheld
Only before myself the ground obscured.
When thus my solace, turning him around,
Bespake me kindly : Why distrustest thou?
Believest not I am with thee, thy sure guide ?
It now is evening there, where buried lies
The body in which I cast a shade, removed
To Naples from Brundusium's wall. Nor thou
Marvel, if before me no shadow fall,

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More than that in the skyey element
One ray obstructs not other. To endure
Torments of heat and cold extreme, like frames

1 How doth a little failing wound thee sore.] Ch' era al cor picciol fallo amaro morso.

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Tasso, G. L. canto x. st. 59. 2 Haste, that mars all decency of act.] Aristotle in his Physiog. c. iii. reckons it among the avaidous onusła the signs of an impudent man;” that he is ἐν ταῖς κινήσεσιν ὀξὺς, "quick in his motions." Compare Sophocles, Electra, 878. Τὸ κόσμιον μεθεῖσα.

Joy, my dear sister, wings my quick return,
And with more speed than decency allows.

Potter.

3 Where highest.] Lombardi proposes, with some hesitation, a different meaning from that which has hitherto been affixed to the words,

Che 'nverso 'l ciel più alto si dislaga;

and would construe them, "that raises itself higher than every other mountain above the sea:" " sopra l'allagamento delle acque del mare." The conjecture is at least ingenious, and has obtained new force by the arguments of Monti in his Proposta.

4 To Naples.] Virgil died at Brundusium, from whence his body is said to have been removed to Naples.

That virtue hath disposed, which, how it works,
Wills not to us should be reveal'd. Insane,
Who hopes our reason may that space explore,
Which holds three persons in one substance knit.
Seek not the wherefore, race of human kind;
Could ye have seen the whole, no need had been
For Mary to bring forth. Moreover, ye
Have seen such men desiring fruitlessly1;
To whose desires, repose would have been given,
That now but serve them for eternal grief.
I speak of Plato, and the Stagirite,

And others many more."

And then he bent

Downwards his forehead, and in troubled mood2
Broke off his speech. Meanwhile we had arrived

Far as the mountain's foot, and there the rock
Found of so steep ascent, that nimblest steps
To climb it had been vain. The most remote,
Most wild, untrodden path, in all the tract
"Twixt Lerice and Turbia3, were to this
A ladder easy and open of access.

[clines ?"

Who knows on which hand now the steep deMy master said, and paused; "so that he may Ascend, who journeys without aid of wing ?" And while, with looks directed to the ground, The meaning of the pathway he explored, And I gazed upward round the stony height; On the left hand appear'd to us a troop Of spirits, that toward us moved their steps; Yet moving seem'd not, they so slow approach'd. I thus my guide address'd: Upraise thine eyes:

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1 Desiring fruitlessly.] See Hell, canto iv. 39.

2 In troubled mood.] Because he himself (Virgil) was amongst the number of spirits, who thus desired without hope.

"On

2 'Twixt Lerice and Turbia.] At that time the two extremities of the Genoese republic; the former on the east, the latter on the west. A very ingenious writer has had occasion, for a different purpose, to mention one of these places as remarkably secluded by its mountainous situation. an eminence among the mountains, between the two little cities, Nice and Monaco, is the village of Torbia, a name formed from the Greek rgózaia." Mitford on the Harmony of Language, sect. xv. p. 351. 2d edit.

4 The meaning of the pathway.] Lombardi reads, tenea 'l viso basso,

Esaminando del cammin la mente,

and explains it," he bent down his face, his mind being occupied with considering their way to ascend the mountain." I doubt much whether the words can bear that construction.

61-97. Lo! that way some, of whom thou mayst obtain Counsel, if of thyself thou find'st it not." [plied: Straightway he look'd, and with free speech re"Let us tend thither: they but softly come. And thou be firm in hope, my son beloved.”

Now was that crowd from us distant as far, (When we some thousand steps1, I say, had past) As at a throw the nervous arm could fling; When all drew backward on the massy crags Of the steep bank, and firmly stood unmoved, As one, who walks in doubt, might stand to look. "O spirits perfect! O already chosen!" Virgil to them began: "by that blest peace, Which as I deem, is for you all prepared, Instruct us where the mountain low declines, So that attempt to mount it be not vain. For who knows most, him loss of time most grieves." As sheep2, that step from forth their fold, by one, Or pairs, or three at once; meanwhile the rest Stand fearfully, bending the eye and nose To ground, and what the foremost does, that do The others, gathering round her if she stops, Simple and quiet, nor the cause discern ; So saw I moving to advance the first, Who of that fortunate crew were at the head, Of modest mien, and graceful in their gait. When they before me had beheld the light From my right side fall broken on the ground, So that the shadow reach'd the cave; they stopp❜d, And somewhat back retired: the same did all Who follow'd, though unweeting of the cause. "Unask'd of you, yet freely I confess, This is a human body which ye see. That the sun's light is broken on the ground, Marvel not: but believe, that not without Virtue derived from Heaven, we to climb Over this wall aspire." So them bespake

1 When we some thousand steps.] Mr. Carlyle puts a query to my former translation of this passage. It was certainly

erroneous.

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2 As sheep.] The imitative nature of these animals supplies our Poet with another comparison, in his Convito. p. 34. Questi sono da chiamare pecore, &c." "These may be called flocks of sheep and not men; for if one sheep should throw himself down a precipice of a thousand feet, all the rest would follow; and if one for any cause in passing a road should leap, all the rest would do the same, though they saw nothing to leap over."