66

My master; and that virtuous tribe rejoin'd: Turn, and before you there the entrance lies ;" Making a signal to us with bent hands.

Then of them one began.

"Whoe'er thou art,

Who journey'st thus this way, thy visage turn;
Think if me elsewhere thou hast ever seen."

I towards him turn'd, and with fix'd eye beheld. Comely and fair, and gentle of aspect

He seem'd, but on one brow a gash was mark'd.
When humbly I disclaim'd to have beheld
Him ever: "Now behold!" he said, and show'd
High on his breast a wound: then smiling spake.
"I am Manfredi1, grandson to the Queen
Costanza2: whence I pray thee, when return'd,

1 Manfredi.] King of Naples and Sicily, and the natural son of Frederick II. He was lively and agreeable in his manners, and delighted in poetry, music, and dancing. But he was luxurious and ambitious, void of religion, and in his philosophy an Epicurean. See G. Villani, lib. vi. cap. xlvii. and Mr. Mathias's Tiraboschi, vol. i. p. 99. He fell in the battle with Charles of Anjou in 1265, alluded to in Canto xxviii. of Hell, ver. 13. or rather in that which ensued in the course of a few days at Benevento. But the successes of Charles were so rapidly followed up, that our author, exact as he generally is, might not have thought it necessary to distinguish them in point of time; for this seems the best method of reconciling some little apparent inconsistency between him and the annalist. "Dying excommunicated, King Charles did not allow of his being buried in sacred ground, but he was interred near the bridge of Benevento; and on his grave there was cast a stone by every one of the army, whence there was formed a great mound of stones. But some have said, that afterwards, by command of the Pope, the Bishop of Cosenza took up his body and sent it out of the kingdom, because it was the land of the church; and that it was buried by the river Verde, on the borders of the kingdom and of Campagna. This, however, we do not affirm." G. Villani, Hist. lib. vii. cap. 9. Manfredi and his father are spoken of by our Poet in his De Vulg. Eloq. lib. i. cap. 12. with singular commendation. "Siquidem illustres, &c." "Those illustrious worthies, Frederick the Emperor, and his well-born son Manfredi, manifested their nobility and uprightness of form, as long as fortune remained, by following pursuits worthy of men, and disdained those which are suited only to brutes. Such, therefore, as were of a lofty spirit, and graced with natural endowments, endeavoured to walk in the track which the majesty of such great princes had marked out for them: so that whatever was in their time attempted by eminent Italians, first made its appearance in the court of crowned sovereigns; and because Sicily was a royal throne, it came to pass that whatever was produced in the vernacular tongue by our predecessors was called Sicilian; which neither we nor our posterity shall be able to change."

2 Costanza.] See Paradise, canto iii. 121.

To my fair daughter1 go, the parent glad
Of Aragonia and Sicilia's pride;

And of the truth inform her, if of me

Aught else be told. When by two mortal blows
My frame was shatter'd, I betook myself
Weeping to him, who of free will forgives.
My sins were horrible but so wide arms
Hath goodness infinite, that it receives
All who turn to it. Had this text divine
Been of Cosenza's shepherd better scann'd,
Who then by Clement2 on my hunt was set,
Yet at the bridge's head my bones had lain,
Near Benevento, by the heavy mole

Protected; but the rain now drenches them,
And the wind drives, out of the kingdom's bounds,
Far as the stream of Verde3, where, with lights
Extinguish'd, he removed them from their bed.
Yet by their curse we are not so destroy'd,
But that the eternal love may turn, while hope1
Retains her verdant blossom. True it is,
That such one as in contumacy dies
Against the holy church, though he repent,
Must wander thirty-fold for all the time
In his presumption past; if such decree
Be not by prayers of good men shorter made.
Look therefore if thou canst advance my bliss ;
Revealing to my good Costanza, how

Thou hast beheld me, and beside, the terms
Laid on me of that interdict; for here
By means of those below much profit comes.'

1 My fair daughter.] Costanza, the daughter of Manfredi, and wife of Peter III. King of Arragon, by whom she was mother to Frederick, King of Sicily, and James, King of Arragon. With the latter of these she was at Rome 1296. See G. Villani, lib. viii. cap. 18. and Notes to Canto vii.

2 Clement.] Pope Clement IV.

3 The stream of Verde.] A river near Ascoli, that falls into the Tronto. The "extinguished lights" formed part of the ceremony at the interment of one excommunicated.

Passa la mora di Manfrè, cui lava
Il Verde.

4 Hope.]

Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. iii. cap. i., as corrected by Perticari.

Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde.

So Tasso, G. L. canto xix. st. 53.

infin che verde è fior di speme.

CANTO IV.

ARGUMENT.

Dante and Virgil ascend the mountain of Purgatory, by a steep and narrow path pent in on each side by rock, till they reach a part of it that opens into a ledge or cornice. There seating themselves, and turning to the east, Dante wonders at seeing the sun on their left, the cause of which is explained to him by Virgil; and while they continue their discourse, a voice addresses them, at which they turn, and find several spirits behind the rock, and amongst the rest one named Belacqua, who had been known to our Poet on earth, and who tells that he is doomed to linger there on account of his having delayed his repentance to the last.

WHEN by sensations of delight or pain,
That any of our faculties hath seized,
Entire the soul collects herself, it seems
She is intent upon that power alone;
And thus the error is disproved, which holds
The soul not singly lighted in the breast.
And therefore whenas aught is heard or seen,

1 When.] It must be owned the beginning of this Canto is somewhat obscure. Vellutello refers, for an elucidation of it, to the reasoning of Statius in the twenty-fifth Canto. Perhaps some illustration may be derived from the following passage in the Summa Theologiæ of Thomas Aquinas. "Some say that in addition to the vegetable soul, which was present from the first, there supervenes another soul, which is the sensitive, and, again in addition to that, another, which is the intellective. And so there are in man three souls, one of which exists potentially with regard to another but this has been already disproved. And accordingly others say that that same soul, which at first was merely vegetative, is, through action of the seminal virtue, carried forward till it reaches to that point, in which, being still the same, it nevertheless becomes sensitive; and at length the same by an ulterior progression is led on till it becomes intellective; not, indeed, through the seminal virtue acting in it, but by virtue of a superior agent, that is, God, enlightening it from without.' (This opinion he next proceeds to confute.) "Dicunt ergo quidam quòd supra animam vegetabilem, quæ primo inerat, supervenit alia anima, quæ est sensitiva, supra illam iterum alia quæ est intellectiva. Et sic sunt in homine tres animæ, quarum una est in potentia ad aliam, quod supra improbatum est. Et ideo alii dicunt, quòd illa eadem anima, quæ primo fuit vegetativa tantum, postmodum per actionem virtutis, quæ est in semine, perducitur ad hoc, ut ipsa eadem fiat sensitiva; et tandem ipsa eadem perducitur ad hoc, ut ipsa eadem fiat intellectiva, non quidem per virtutem activam seminis, sed per virtutem superioris agentis, scilicet Dei deforis illustrantis." Thom. Aquin. Opera. Edit. Venet. 1595, tom. x. Summa Theolog. 1ma Pars. Quæstio cxviii. Art. ii. See also Lettere di Fra Guittone, 4o. Roma, 1745. p. 15; and Routh's note on the Gorgias of Plato, p. 451.

That firmly keeps the soul toward it turn'd,
Time passes, and a man perceives it not.
For that, whereby we hearken, is one power;
Another that, which the whole spirit hath :
This is as it were bound, while that is free.
This found I true by proof, hearing that spirit,
And wondering; for full fifty steps aloft
The sun had measured, unobserved of me,
When we arrived where all with one accord
The spirits shouted, "Here is what ye ask."
A larger aperture oft-times is stopt,
With forked stake of thorn by villager,
When the ripe grape imbrowns, than was the path,
By which my guide, and I behind him close,
Ascended solitary, when that troop
Departing left us. On Sanleo's 2 road
Who journeys, or to Noli 3 low descends,

Or mounts Bismantua's1 height, must use his feet;
But here a man had need to fly, I mean
With the swift wing and plumes of high desire,
Conducted by his aid, who gave me hope,
And with light furnish'd to direct my way.

We through the broken rock ascended, close
Pent on each side, while underneath the ground
Ask'd help of hands and feet. When we arrived
Near on the highest ridge of the steep bank,
Where the plain level open'd, I exclaim'd,
"O Master say, which way can we proceed."
He answer'd," Let no step of thine recede.
Behind me gain the mountain, till to us
Some practised guide appear."
That eminence
Was lofty, that no eye might reach its point;
And the side proudly rising, more than line
From the mid quadrant to the centre drawn.
I, wearied, thus began: "Parent beloved!
Turn and behold how I remain alone,

If thou stay not."-" My son!" he straight replied,

1 Full fifty steps.] Three hours and twenty minutes, fifteen degrees being reckoned to an hour.

2 Sanleo.] A fortress on the summit of Montefeltro. The situation is described by Troya, Veltro Allegorico, p. 11. It is a conspicuous object to travelers along the cornice on the riviera di Genoa.

3 Noli.] In the Genoese territory, between Finale and Savona. 4 Bismantua.] A steep mountain in the territory of Reggio. 5 With the swift wing.] Compare Paradise, canto xxxiii. 17. 6 More than line.] It was much nearer to being perpendicular than horizontal.

"Thus far put forth thy strength;" and to a track
Pointed, that, on this side projecting, round
Circles the hill. His words so spurr'd me on,
That I, behind him, clambering, forced myself,
Till my feet press'd the circuit plain beneath.
There both together seated, turn'd we round
To eastward, whence was our ascent: and oft
Many beside have with delight look'd back.

First on the nether shores I turn'd mine eyes,
Then raised them to the sun, and wondering mark'd
That from the left1 it smote us. Soon perceived
That poet sage, how at the car of light
Amazed2 I stood, where 'twixt us and the north
Its course it enter'd. Whence he thus to me:
"Were Leda's offspring3 now in company
Of that broad mirror, that high up and low
Imparts his light beneath, thou mightst behold
The ruddy Zodiac nearer to the Bears
Wheel, if its ancient course it not forsook.
How that may be, if thou wouldst think; within
Pondering, imagine Sion with this mount
Placed on the earth, so that to both be one
Horizon, and two hemispheres apart,
Where lies the path that Phaeton ill knew
To guide his erring chariot: thou wilt see5

1 From the left.] Vellutello observes an imitation of Lucan in this passage:

Ignotum vobis, Arabes, venistis in orbem,
Umbras mirati nemorum non ire sinistras.

Phurs. lib. iii. 248.

Amazed.] He wonders that being turned to the east he should see the sun on his left, since in all the regions on this side of the tropic of Cancer it is seen on the right of one who turns his face towards the east; not recollecting that he was now antipodal to Europe, from whence he had seen the sun taking an opposite course.

3 Were Leda's offspring.] " As the constellation of the Gemini is nearer the Bears than Aries is, it is certain that if the sun, instead of being in Aries, had been in Gemini, both the sun and that portion of the Zodiac made' ruddy' by the sun, would have been seen to wheel nearer to the Bears.' By the ruddy Zodiac' must necessarily be understood that portion of the Zodiac affected or made red by the sun; for the whole of the Zodiac never changes, nor appears to change, with respect to the remainder of the heavens."Lombardi.

4 The path.] The ecliptic.

5 Thou wilt see.] "If you consider that this mountain of Purgatory, and that of Sion, are antipodal to each other, you will perceive that the sun must rise on opposite sides of the respective eminences."