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!" "O ye! in whom intenser fervency Haply supplies, where lukewarm erst ye fail'd, Of good and virtuous; this man, who yet lives, Was abbot of San Zeno, when the hand That name ne'er utter'd without tears in Milan. 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. And they2, who with Æneas to the end 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, His Greater Fortune up the east ascend, 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, 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, On the wide sea are wilder'd when they hear : 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 : 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 My forehead, as a man, o'ercharged with thought, That midway spans the flood; when thus I heard, Come, enter here," in tone so soft and mild, 66 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, 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, Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. v. Io vidi poi color tutti levare Inverso il cielo, come fa 'l falcone, 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. 66 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 66 66 Towards the steep rising our uncertain way." So them the bard besought; and such the words, 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. |