For of so subtle texture is this veil, That thou with ease mayst pass it through unmark'd. I saw that gentle band silently next Look up, as if in expectation held, Pale and in lowly guise; and, from on high, Two angels, with two flame-illumined swords, Green as the tender leaves but newly born, The other lighted on the opposing hill; So that the troop were in the midst contain'd. Sordello paused not: "To the valley now what has been before said, that these spirits sung the whole of the hymn 'Te lucis ante terminum' throughout, even that second strophe of it Procul recedant somnia, Hostemque nostrum comprime, Ne polluantur corpora; and he must imply, that these souls, being incorporeal, did not offer up this petition on their own account, but on ours, who are yet in this world; as he afterwards makes those other spirits, who repeat the Pater Noster, expressly declare, when after that prayer they add, This last petition, dearest Lord! is made Canto xi. As, therefore, if we look through a very fine veil, the sight easily passes on, without perceiving it, to objects that lie on the other side; so here the poet fears that our mind's eye may insensibly pass on to contemplate these spirits, as if they were praying for the relief of their own wants; without discovering the veil of our wants, with which they invest themselves in the act of offering up this prayer." 1 As faculty.] My earthly by his heavenly overpower'd As with an object, that excels the sense, Milton, P. L. b. viii. 457. Converse with those great shadows: haply much And noted one who look'd as with desire 1 Nino, thou courteous judge.] Nino di Gallura de' Visconti, nephew to Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi, and betrayed by him. See Notes to Hell, Canto xxxiii. 2 Conrad.] Currado, father to Marcello Malaspina. 3 My Giovanna.] The daughter of Nino, and wife of Riccardo da Camino of Trevigi, concerning whom see Paradise, c. ix. 48. 4 Her mother.] Beatrice, Marchioness of Este, wife of Nino, and after his death married to Galeazzo de' Visconti of Milan. It is remarked by Lombardi, that the time which Dante assigns to this journey, and consequently to this colloquy with Nino Visconti, the beginning, that is, of April, is prior to the time which Bernardino Corio, in his history of Milan, part the second, fixes for the nuptials of Beatrice with Galeazzo; for he records her having been betrothed to that prince after the May of this year (1300), and her having been solemnly espoused at Modena on the 29th of June. Besides, however, the greater credit due to Dante, on account of his having lived at the time when these events happened, another circumstance in his favour is the discrepancy remarked by Giovambatista Giraldi (Commentar. delle cose di Ferrara) in those writers by whom the history of S Since she has changed the white and wimpled folds', How long in woman lasts the flame of love, "The four resplendent stars, thou saw'st this morn, Are there beneath; and these, risen in their stead." While yet he spoke, Sordello to himself Drew him, and cried: "Lo there our enemy!" Such haply as gave Eve the bitter food 5. Beatrice's life has been recorded. Nothing can set the general accuracy of our poet, as to historical facts, in a stronger point of view, than the difficulty there is in convicting him of even so slight a deviation from it as is here suspected. 1 The white and wimpled folds.] The weeds of widowhood. 2 The viper.] The arms of Galeazzo and the ensign of the Milanese. 3 Shrill Gallura's bird.] The cock was the ensign of Gallura, Nino's province in Sardinia. Hell, xxii. 80, and notes. It is not known whether Beatrice had any further cause to regret her nuptials with Galeazzo, than a certain shame which appears, however unreasonably, to have attached to a second marriage. The three torches.] The three evangelical virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity. These are supposed to rise in the evening, in order to denote their belonging to the contemplative; as the four others, which are made to rise in the morning, were probably intended to signify that the cardinal virtues belong to the active life: or perhaps it may mark the succession, in order of time, of the Gospel to the heathen system of morality. 5 Such haply as gave Eve the bitter food.] Compare Milton's description of that serpent in the ninth book of the Paradise Lost. Came on, reverting oft his lifted head; And, as a beast that smooths its polish'd coat, The spirit, (who to Nino, when he call'd, Thou know'st, tell me, who once was mighty there. The love "In your domains," I answer'd, "ne'er was I. But, through all Europe, where do those men dwell, To whom their glory is not manifest? The fame, that honours your illustrious house, And has the evil way in scorn." He then : 1 May the lamp.] "May the divine grace find so hearty a co-operation on the part of thy own will, as shall enable thee to ascend to the terrestrial paradise, which is on the top of this mountain." 2 Valdimagra.] See Hell, Canto xxiv. 144, and notes. 3 That old one.] An ancestor of Conrad Malaspina, who was also of that name. 4 Seven times the tired sun.] "The sun shall not enter into the constellation of Aries seven times more, before thou shalt have still better cause for the good opinion thou expressest of Valdimagra, in the kind reception thou shalt there meet with." Dante was hospitably received by the Marchese Marcello, or Morello Malaspina, during his banishment, A. D. 1307. The forked Aries covers, ere that kind With stronger nails than other's speech can drive; If the sure course of judgment be not stay'd." CANTO IX. ARGUMENT. Dante is carried up the mountain, asleep and dreaming, by Lucia; and, on wakening, finds himself, two hours after sunrise, with Virgil, near the gate of Purgatory, through which they are admitted by the angel deputed by Saint Peter to keep it. Now the fair consort of Tithonus old1, 1 Now the fair consort of Tithonus old.] La concubina di Titone antico. So Tassoni, Secchia Rapita, c. viii. st. 15. La puttanella del canuto amante. Venturi, after some of the old commentators, interprets this to mean an Aurora, or dawn of the moon; but this seems highly improbable. From what follows it may be conjectured, that our Poet intends us to understand that it was now near the break of day. 2 Of that chill animal.] The scorpion. 3 The third was closing up its wing.] The night being divided into four watches, I think he may mean that the third was past, and the fourth and last was begun, so that there might be some faint glimmering of morning twilight; and not merely, as Lombardi supposes, that the third watch was drawing towards its close, which would still leave an insurmountable difficulty in the first verse. At the beginning of Canto xv. our Poet makes the evening commence three hours before sunset, and he may now consider the dawn as beginning at the same distance from sunrise. Those, who would have the dawn, spoken of in the first verse of the present Canto, to signify the rising of the moon, construe the "two steps of her ascent which the night had past," into as many hours, and not watches; so as to make it now about the third hour of the night. The old Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS. alone, as far as I know, supposing the division made by St. Isidore (Orig. lib. 5.) of the night into seven parts to be adopted by our Poet, concludes that it was |