More nimble than along the other straits,
So journey'd, that, without the sense of toil,
I follow'd upward the swift-footed shades;
When Virgil thus began: "Let its pure flame
From virtue flow, and love can never fail
To warm another's bosom, so the light
Shine manifestly forth. Hence, from that hour,
When, 'mongst us in the purlieus of the deep,
Came down the spirit of Aquinum's bard',
Who told of thine affection, my good will
Hath been for thee of quality as strong
As ever link'd itself to one not seen.

Therefore these stairs will now seem short to me.
But tell me and, if too secure, I loose

The rein with a friend's licence, as a friend
Forgive me, and speak now as with a friend:
How chanced it covetous desire could find
Place in that bosom, 'midst such ample store
Of wisdom, as thy zeal had treasur'd there ?"
First somewhat moved to laughter by his words,
Statius replied: "Each syllable of thine
Is a dear pledge of love. Things oft appear,
That minister false matter to our doubts,
When their true causes are removed from sight.
Thy question doth assure me, thou believest
I was on earth a covetous man; perhaps
Because thou found'st me in that circle placed.
Know then I was too wide of avarice :
And e'en for that excess, thousands of moons
Have wax'd and waned upon my sufferings.
And were it not that I with heedful care
Noted, where thou exclaim'st as if in ire
With human nature, Why2, thou cursed thirst
Of gold! dost not with juster measure guide
The appetite of mortals?' I had met
The fierce encounter3 of the voluble rock.
Then was I ware that, with too ample wing,
The hands may haste to lavishment; and turn'd,

1 Aquinam's bard.] Juvenal had celebrated his contemporary, Statius, Sat. vii. 82; though some critics imagine that there is a secret derision couched under his praise. 2 Why.] Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,

Auri sacra fames?

Virg. Æn. lib. iii. 57. Venturi supposes, that Dante might have mistaken the meaning of the word sacra, and construed it "holy," instead of" cursed." But I see no necessity for having recourse to so improbable a conjecture.

3 The fierce encounter.] See Hell, Canto vii. 26.

As from my other evil, so from this,

In penitence. How many from their grave
Shall with shorn locks arise, who living, ay,
And at life's last extreme, of this offence,
Through ignorance, did not repent! And know,
The fault, which lies direct from any sin
In level opposition, here, with that,

Wastes its green rankness on one common heap.
Therefore, if I have been with those, who wail
Their avarice, to cleanse me; through reverse
Of their transgression, such hath been my lot."
To whom the sovran of the pastoral song:
"While thou didst sing that cruel warfare waged
By the twin sorrow of Jocasta's womb2,

From thy discourse with Clio3 there, it seems
As faith had not been thine; without the which,
Good deeds suffice not. And if so, what sun
Rose on thee, or what candle pierced the dark,
That thou didst after see to hoise the sail,
And follow where the fisherman had led ?"

He answering thus: "By thee conducted first,
I enter'd the Parnassian grots, and quaff'd
Of the clear spring; illumined first by thee,
Open'd mine eyes to God. Thou didst, as one,
Who, journeying through the darkness, bears a light
Behind, that profits not himself, but makes
His followers wise, when thou exclaimed'st, 'Lo!
A renovated world 4, Justice return'd,
Times of primeval innocence restored,
And a new race descended from above.'
Poet and Christian both to thee I owed.

That thou mayst mark more clearly what I trace, My hand shall stretch forth to inform the lines With livelier colouring. Soon o'er all the world, By messengers from heaven, the true belief

1 With shorn locks.] Ibid. 58.

2 The twin sorrow of Jocasta's womb.] Eteocles and Polynices. 3 With Clio.]

Quem prius heroum Clio dabis? immodicum iræ
Tydea? laurigeri subitos an vatis hiatus?

4 A renovated world.]

Stat. Thebaid. i. 42.

Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo.
Jam redit et Virgo; redeunt Saturnia regna;
Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto.

Virg. Ecl. iv. 5. For the application of Virgil's prophecy to the incarnation, see Natalis Alexander, Hist. Eccl. Sæc. i. Dissert. 1. Paris. 1679. v. i. p. 166. *

Teem'd now prolific; and that word of thine,
Accordant, to the new instructors chimed.
Induced by which agreement, I was wont
Resort to them; and soon their sanctity
So won upon me, that, Domitian's rage
Pursuing them, I mix'd my tears with theirs;
And, while on earth I stay'd, still succour'd them;
And their most righteous customs made me scorn
All sects besides. Before1 I led the Greeks,
In tuneful fiction, to the streams of Thebes,
I was baptized; but secretly, through fear,
Remain'd a Christian, and conform'd long time
To Pagan rites. Four centuries and more,
I, for that lukewarmness, was fain to pace
Round the fourth circle. Thou then, who hast raised
The covering which did hide such blessing from me,
Whilst much of this ascent is yet to climb,
Say, if thou know, where our old Terence2 bides,
Cæcilius, Plautus, Varro: if condemn'd
They dwell, and in what province of the deep."
"These," said my guide, "with Persius and myself,
And others many more, are with that Greek 5,
Of mortals, the most cherish'd by the nine,
In the first ward of darkness. There, oft-times,
We of that mount hold converse, on whose top
For aye our nurses live. We have the bard
Of Pella, and the Teian, Agatho9,

1 Before.] Before I had composed the Thebaid.

2 Our old Terence.] "Antico" which is found in many of the old editions, seems preferable to "amico."

3 Cæcilius.] Cæcilius Statius, a Latin comic poet, of whose works some fragments only remain. Our poet had Horace in his eye.

Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro,
Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi,
Vincere Cæcilius gravitate, Terentius arte.

Epist. lib. ii. 1.

4 Varro.] "Quam multa pene omnia tradidit Varro." Quintilian. Instit. Orat. lib. xii. "Vix aperto ad philosophiam aditu, primus M. Varro veterum omnium doctissimus.' dolet. de liberis recte instit. Edit. Lugd. 1533. p. 137.

5 That Greek.] Homer.

6 In the first ward.] In Limbo.

8 The Teian.] Euripide v' è nosco e Anacreonte.

Sa

The Monte Casino MS. reads "Antifonte" "Antipho," instead of "Anacreonte." Dante probably knew little more of these Greek writers than the names.

9 Agatho.] Chaucer, speaking of the Daisy as a representation of Alcestis, refers to Agaton:

Simonides, and many a Grecian else

Ingarlanded with laurel.

Of thy train1,

Antigone is there, Deïphile,

Argia, and as sorrowful as erst

Ismene, and who show'd Langia's wave2:
Deïdamia with her sisters there,

And blind Tiresias' daughter3, and the bride

No wonder is though Jove her stellifie,
As tellith Agaton for her goodnesse.

Legende of Good Women. And Mr. Tyrwhitt tells us that "he has nothing to say of this writer except that one of the same name is quoted in the Prol. to the tragedie of Cambises by Thomas Preston. There is no reason," he adds, "for supposing with Gloss. Ur. that a philosopher of Samos is meant, or any of the Agathoes of antiquity." I am inclined, however, to believe that Chaucer must have meant Agatho, the dramatic writer, whose name, at least, appears to have been familiar in the middle ages; for, besides the mention of him in the text, he is quoted by Dante in the Treatise De Monarchiâ, lib. iii. "Deus per nuncium facere non potest, genita non esse, genita, juxta sententiam Agathonis." The original is to be found in Aristotle, Ethic. Nicom. lib. vi. c. 2.

Μόνου γὰρ αὐτοῦ καὶ θεὸς στερίσκεται
̓Αγένητα ποιεῖν ἅσσ ̓ ἂν ᾖ πεπραγμένα.

Agatho is mentioned by Xenophon in his Symposium, by
Plato in the Protagoras, and in the Banquet, a favourite
book with our author, and by Aristotle in his Art of Poetry,
where the following remarkable passage occurs respecting
him, from which I will leave it to the reader to decide whether
it is possible that the allusion in Chaucer might have arisen:
ἐν ἐνίαις μὲν ἓν ἢ δύο τῶν γνωρίμων ἐστὶν ὀνομάτων, τὰ δὲ
ἄλλα πεποιημένα· ἐν ἐνίαις δὲ οὐθέν· οἷον ἐν τῷ ̓Αγάθωνος
Ανθει. ὁμοίως γὰρ ἐν τούτῳ τά τε πράγματα καὶ τὰ
ὀνόματα πεποίηται, καὶ οὐδὲν ἧττον εὐφραίνει. Edit. 1794.
p. 33.
"There are, however, some tragedies, in which one
or two of the names are historical, and the rest feigned;
there are even some, in which none of the names are histo-
rical; such is Agatho's tragedy called the Flower; for in that
all is invention, both incidents and names; and yet it pleases."
Aristotle's Treatise on Poetry, by Thomas Twining, 8vo. Edit.
1812. vol. i. p. 128.

1 of thy train.] "Of those celebrated in thy Poem." 2 Who show'd Langia's wave.] Hypsipile. See note to Canto xxvi. v. 87.

3 Tiresias' daughter.] Dante, as some have thought, had forgotten that he had placed Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, among the sorcerers. See Hell, Canto xx. Vellutello endea

vours, rather awkwardly, to reconcile the apparent inconsistency, by observing, that although she was placed there as a sinner, yet, as one of famous memory, she had also a place among the worthies in Limbo.

Sea-born of Peleus'." Either poet now
Was silent; and no longer by the ascent
Or the steep walls obstructed, round them cast
Inquiring eyes. Four handmaids2 of the day
Had finish'd now their office, and the fifth
Was at the chariot-beam, directing still
Its flamy point aloof; when thus my guide:
"Methinks, it well behoves us to the brink
Bend the right shoulder, circuiting the mount,
As we have ever used." So custom there
Was usher to the road; the which we chose
Less doubtful, as that worthy shade3 complied.
They on before me went: I sole pursued,
Listening their speech, that to my thoughts con-
Mysterious lessons of sweet poesy.

[vey'd
But soon they ceased; for midway of the road
A tree we found, with goodly fruitage hung,
And pleasant to the smell: and as a fir,
Upward from bough to bough, less ample spreads;
So downward this less ample spread4; that none,
Methinks, aloft may climb. Upon the side,
That closed our path, a liquid crystal fell
From the steep rock, and through the sprays above
Stream'd showering. With associate step the bards
Drew near the plant; and, from amidst the leaves,
A voice was heard: "Ye shall be chary of me;"

Lombardi, or rather the Della Crusca academicians, excuse our author better, by observing that Tiresias had a daughter named Daphne. See Diodorus Siculus. lib. iv. § 66. I have here to acknowledge a communication made to me by the learned writer of an anonymous letter, who observes that Manto and Daphne are only different names for the same person; and that Servius, in his Commentary on the Æneid. x. 198, says, that some make Manto the prophetess to be a daughter of Hercules.

1- The bride

Sea-born of Peleus.] Thetis.

2 Four handmaids.] Compare Canto xii. v. 74.

3 That worthy shade.] Statius.

4 Downward this less ample spread.] The early commentators understand that this tree had its root upward and the boughs downward; and this opinion, however derided by their successors, is not a little countenanced by the imitation of Frezzi, who lived so near the time of our Poet:

Su dentro al cielo avea la sua radice,

E giù inverso terra i rami spande.

- It had in heaven

Il Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 1.

Its root above, and downward to the earth
Stretch'd forth the branches.