By eagerness impell'd of holy love.

Soon they o'ertook us; with such swiftness moved The mighty crowd. Two spirits at their head Cried, weeping, "Blessed Mary1 sought with haste. The hilly region. Cæsar2, to subdue

Ilerda, darted in Marseilles his sting,

And flew to Spain."-" Oh, tarry not: away!"
The others shouted; "let not time be lost
Through slackness of affection. Hearty zeal
To serve reanimates celestial grace."

"O ye! in whom intenser fervency

Haply supplies, where lukewarm erst ye fail'd,
Slow or neglectful, to absolve your part

Of good and virtuous; this man, who yet lives,
(Credit my tale, though strange) desires to ascend,
So morning rise to light us. Therefore say
Which hand leads nearest to the rifted rock."
So spake my guide; to whom a shade return'd:
"Come after us, and thou shalt find the cleft.
We may not linger: such resistless will
Speeds our unwearied course. Vouchsafe us then
Thy pardon, if our duty seem to thee
Discourteous rudeness. In Verona I

Was abbot of San Zeno, when the hand
Of Barbarossa grasp'd Imperial sway,

That name ne'er utter'd without tears in Milan.
And there is he 4, hath one foot in his grave,
Who for that monastery ere long shall weep,
Ruing his power misused: for that his son,
Of body ill compact, and worse in mind,
And born in evil, he hath set in place
Of its true pastor." Whether more he spake,
Or here was mute, I know not: he had sped
E'en now so far beyond us. Yet thus much

1 Mary.] "And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill-country with haste, into a city of Judah; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.' Luke, i. 39, 40.

2 Cæsar.] See Lucan. Phars. lib. iii. and iv. and Cæsar de Bello Civili. lib. i. Cæsar left Brutus to complete the siege of Marseilles, and hastened on to the attack of Afranius and Petreius, the generals of Pompey, at Ilerda (Lerida) in Spain.

3 Abbot.] Alberto, abbot of San Zeno in Verona, when Frederick I. was emperor, by whom Milan was besieged and reduced to ashes, in 1162.

There is he.] Alberto della Scala, Lord of Verona, who had made his natural son abbot of San Zeno.

I heard, and in remembrance treasured it.
He then, who never fail'd me at my need,
Cried, "Hither turn. Lo! two with sharp remorse
Chiding their sin." In rear of all the troop
These shouted: "First they died1, to whom the sea
Open'd, or ever Jordan saw his heirs:

And they2, who with Æneas to the end
Endured not suffering, for their portion chose
Life without glory." Soon as they had fled
Past reach of sight, new thought within me rose
By others follow'd fast, and each unlike
Its fellow till led on from thought to thought,
And pleasured with the fleeting train, mine eye
Was closed, and meditation changed to dream.

The Poet, after describing his dream, relates how, at the summoning of an angel, he ascends with Virgil to the fifth cornice, where the sin of avarice is cleansed, and where he finds Pope Adrian the fifth.

It was the hour 3, when of diurnal heat

No reliques chafe the cold beams of the moon,
O'erpower'd by earth, or planetary sway
Of Saturn; and the geomancer1 sees

His Greater Fortune up the east ascend,
Where grey dawn checkers first the shadowy cone;
When, 'fore me in my dream, a woman's shape5

1 First they died.] The Israelites, who on account of their disobedience died before reaching the promised land.

2 And they.] Those Trojans, who, wearied with their voyage, chose rather to remain in Sicily with Acestes, than accompany Æneas to Italy. Virg. Æn. lib. v.

3 The hour.] Near the dawn.

4 The geomancer.] The geomancers, says Landino, when they divined, drew a figure consisting of sixteen marks, named from so many stars which constitute the end of Aquarius and the beginning of Pisces. One of these they called "the greater fortune.' Chaucer has imitated this in a description of morning, (Troilus and Creseide, b. iii.) for he did not find it in his original, Boccaccio's Filostrato ;But when the cocke, commune astrologer, Gan on his brest to bete, and after crowe,

And Lucifer the dayis messanger

Gan for to rise, and out his bemis throwe,
And estward rose, to him that could it knowe,
Fortuna Major.

5 A woman's shape.] Worldly happiness. This allegory reminds us of the "Choice of Hercules."

There came, with lips that stammer'd, eyes aslant, Distorted feet, hands maim'd, and colour pale.

I look'd upon her: and, as sunshine cheers Limbs numb'd by nightly cold, e'en thus my look Unloosed her tongue; next, in brief space, her form Decrepit raised erect, and faded face

With love's own hue1 illumed. Recovering speech,
She forthwith, warbling, such a strain began,
That I, how loth soe'er, could scarce have held
Attention from the song. " I," thus she sang,
"I am the Syren, she, whom mariners

On the wide sea are wilder'd when they hear :
Such fulness of delight the listener feels.
I, from his course, Ulysses2 by my lay
Enchanted drew. Whoe'er frequents me once,
Parts seldom so I charm him, and his heart
Contented knows no void." Or ere her mouth
Was closed, to shame her, at my side appear'd
A dame3 of semblance holy. With stern voice
She utter'd: "Say, O Virgil! who is this?"
Which hearing, he approach'd, with eyes still bent
Toward that goodly presence: the other seized her,
And, her robes tearing, open'd her before,
And show'd the belly to me, whence a smell,
Exhaling loathsome, waked me. Round I turn'd
Mine eyes and thus the teacher: "At the least
Three times my voice hath call'd thee. Rise, begone.
Let us the opening find where thou mayst pass."

I straightway rose. Now day, pour'd down from Fill'd all the circuits of the sacred mount; [high,

1 Love's own hue.]

A smile that glow'd

Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue.

Milton, P. L. b. viii. 619.

facies pulcherrima tunc est,

Quum porphyriaco variatur candida rubro.

Quid color hic roseus sibi vult? designat amorem :
Quippe amor est igni similis; flammasque rubentes
Ignis habere solet.

Palingenii Zodiacus Vitæ, lib. xii.

2 Ulysses.] It is not easy to determine why Ulysses, contrary to the authority of Homer, is said to have been drawn aside from his course by the song of the Syren. No improbable way of accounting for the contradiction is, to suppose that she is here represented as purposely deviating from the truth. Or Dante may have followed some legend of the middle ages, in which the wanderings of Ulysses were represented otherwise than in Homer.

3 A dame.] Philosophy, or perhaps Truth.

And, as we journey'd, on our shoulder smote
The early ray. I follow'd, stooping low

My forehead, as a man, o'ercharged with thought,
Who bends him to the likeness of an arch

That midway spans the flood; when thus I heard, Come, enter here," in tone so soft and mild,

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As never met the ear on mortal strand.

With swan-like wings dispred and pointing up, Who thus had spoken marshal'd us along, Where, each side of the solid masonry,

The sloping walls retired; then moved his plumes, And fanning us, affirm'd that those, who mourn', Are blessed, for that comfort shall be theirs.

"What aileth thee, that still thou lookst to earth?" Began my leader; while the angelic shape A little over us his station took.

"New vision," I replied, "hath raised in me Surmisings strange and anxious doubts, whereon My soul intent allows no other thought

Or room, or entrance."-" Hast thou seen," said he,
"That old enchantress, her, whose wiles alone
The spirits o'er us weep for? Hast thou seen
How man may free him of her bonds? Enough.
Let thy heels spurn the earth2; and thy raised ken
Fix on the lure, which heaven's eternal King
Whirls in the rolling spheres." As on his feet
The falcon3 first looks down, then to the sky
Turns, and forth stretches eager for the food,
That wooes him thither; so the call I heard:
So onward, far as the dividing rock

Gave way, I journey'd, till the plain was reach'd.

1 Who mourn.] "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted." Matt. v. 4.

2 Let thy heels spurn the earth.] This is a metaphor from hawking, though less apparent than in the lines that follow. 3 The falcon.]

Poi come fa 'l falcon, quando si move,
Così Umiltà al cielo alzò la vista.

Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. v.

Io vidi poi color tutti levare

Inverso il cielo, come fa 'l falcone,
Quando la preda sua prende in su l'are.

Ibid. cap. xiii.

One of our periodical critics has remarked, that Dante must have loved hawking; and "that he paints his bird always to the life." Edinburgh Review, No. lviii. p. 472. In the same manner Mr. Blomfield supposes that Eschylus was addicted to fishing, because he often takes his metaphors from fishingnets. See that gentleman's notes to the Persa. Glossar. v. 430.

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On the fifth circle when I stood at large, A race appear'd before me, on the ground All downward lying prone and weeping sore. My soul' hath cleaved to the dust," I heard With sighs so deep, they well nigh choked the O ye elect of God! whose penal woes [words. Both hope and justice mitigate, direct

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Towards the steep rising our uncertain way."
If ye approach secure from this our doom,
Prostration, and would urge your course with speed,
See that ye still to rightward keep the brink."

So them the bard besought; and such the words,
Beyond us some short space, in answer came.
I noted what remain'd yet hidden from them2:
Thence to my liege's eyes mine eyes I bent,
And he, forthwith interpreting their suit,
Beckon'd his glad assent. Free then to act
As pleased me, I drew near, and took my stand
Over that shade whose words I late had mark'd.
And, "Spirit!" I said, " in whom repentant tears
Mature that blessed hour when thou with God
Shalt find acceptance, for a while suspend
For me that mightier care. Say who thou wast;
Why thus ye grovel on your bellies prone;
And if, in aught, ye wish my service there,
Whence living I am come.' He answering spake :
"The cause why Heaven our back toward his cope
Reverses, shalt thou know: but me know first,
The successor of Peter3, and the name
And title of my lineage, from that stream1
That 'twixt Chiaveri and Siestri draws
His limpid waters through the lowly glen.
A month and little more by proof I learnt,
With what a weight that robe of sovereignty
Upon his shoulder rests, who from the mire
Would guard it; that each other fardel seems
But feathers in the balance. Late, alas!

1 My soul.] "My soul cleaveth to the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word." Psalm cxix. 25.

2 I noted what remain'd yet hidden from them.] They were ignorant, it appeared, whether Dante was come there to be purged of his sins.

3 The successor of Peter.] Ottobuono, of the family of Fieschi, Counts of Lavagno, died thirty-nine days after he became pope, with the title of Adrian V. in 1276.

4 That stream.] The river Lavagno, in the Genoese territory; to the east of which territory are situated Siestri and Chiaveri.