And after added: " Mary took more thought1
For joy and honour of the nuptial feast,
Than for herself, who answers now for you.
The women of old Rome2 were satisfied
With water for their beverage, Daniel3 fed
On pulse, and wisdom gain'd. The primal age
Was beautiful as gold: and hunger then
Made acorns tasteful; thirst, each rivulet
Run nectar. Honey and locusts were the food,
Whereon the Baptist in the wilderness
Fed, and that eminence of glory reach'd
And greatness, which th' Evangelist records."

CANTO XXIII.

ARGUMENT.

They are overtaken by the spirit of Forese, who had been a friend of our Poet's on earth, and who now inveighs bitterly against the immodest dress of their countrywomen at Florence.

On the green leaf mine eyes were fix'd, like his
Who throws away his days in idle chase

Of the diminutive birds, when thus I heard
The more than father warn me : "Son! our time
Asks thriftier using. Linger not away."

Thereat my face and steps at once I turn'd
Toward the sages, by whose converse cheer'd
I journey'd on, and felt no toil and lo!
A sound of weeping, and a song: "My lips4,

1 Mary took more thought.] "The blessed virgin, who answers for you now in heaven, when she said to Jesus, at the marriage in Cana of Galilee,' they have no wine,' regarded not the gratification of her own taste, but the honour of the nuptial banquet."

2 The women of old Rome.] See Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. 1. 3 Daniel.] "Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Michael, and Azariah, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink." Daniel, i. 11, 12.

:

As

"Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams." Ibid. 16, 17.

4 My lips.] "O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." Psalm li. 15.

O Lord!" and these so mingled, it gave birth
To pleasure and to pain. "O Sire beloved!
Say what is this I hear." Thus I inquired.

Spirits," said he, "who, as they go, perchance,
Their debt of duty pay." As on their road
The thoughtful pilgrims, overtaking some
Not known unto them, turn to them, and look,
But stay not; thus, approaching from behind
With speedier motion, eyed us, as they pass'd,
A crowd of spirits, silent and devout.

The eyes of each were dark and hollow; pale
Their visage, and so lean withal, the bones
Stood staring through the skin. I do not think
Thus dry and meagre Erisicthon show'd,
When pinch'd by sharp-set famine to the quick.
"Lo!" to myself I mused, "the race, who lost
Jerusalem, when Mary 2 with dire beak
Prey'd on her child." The sockets seem'd as rings 3,
From which the gems were dropt. Who reads the
Of man upon his forehead, there the M [name1
Had traced most plainly. Who would deem, that
Of water and an apple could have proved
Powerful to generate such pining want,
Not knowing how it wrought? While now I stood,
Wondering what thus could waste them (for the cause
Of their gaunt hollowness and scaly rind
Appear'd not) lo! a spirit turn'd his eyes
In their deep-sunken cells, and fasten'd them

1 The eyes.] Compare Ovid, Metam. lib. viii. 801.
Hirtus erat crinis; cava lumina, pallor in ore.

Dura cutis, per quam spectari viscera possent:
Ossa sub incurvis exstabant arida lumbis.

[scent

2 When Mary.] Josephus, de Bello Jud. lib. vii. c. xxi. p. 954. Ed. Genev. fol. 1611. The shocking story is well told. 3 Rings.]

Senza fior prato o senza gemma anello.

Petrarca, Son. Lasciata hai, morte.

O ring of which the rubie is outfall.

Chaucer, Troilus and Creseide, b. v.
In this habit

Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
Their precious stones new lost.

Shakspeare, Lear, act v. scene 3. 4 Who reads the name.] "He who pretends to distinguish the letters which form OMO in the features of the human face, might easily have traced out the M on their emaciated countenances." The temples, nose, and forehead are supposed to represent this letter; and the eyes the two O's placed within each side of it.

On me, then cried with vehemence aloud: [looks "What grace is this vouchsafed me ?"

By his I ne'er had recognized him: but the voice Brought to my knowledge what his cheer conceal'd. Remembrance of his alter'd lineaments Was kindled from that spark; and I agnized The visage of Forese 1. "Ah! respect This wan and leprous-wither'd skin," thus he Suppliant implored, "this macerated flesh. Speak to me truly of thyself. And who Are those twain spirits, that escort thee there? Be it not said thou scorn'st to talk with me."

"That face of thine," I answer'd him, "which dead I once bewail'd, disposes me not less

For weeping, when I see it thus transform'd.
Say then, by Heaven, what blasts ye thus? The
I wonder, ask not speech from me: unapt [whilst
Is he to speak, whom other will employs."

He thus: "The water and the plant, we pass'd,
With power are gifted, by the eternal will
Infused; the which so pines me. Every spirit,
Whose song bewails his gluttony indulged
Too grossly, here in hunger and in thirst
Is purified. The odour, which the fruit,
And spray that showers upon the verdure, breathe,
Inflames us with desire to feed and drink.
Nor once alone, encompassing our route,
We come to add fresh fuel to the pain :
Pain, said I? solace rather: for that will,
To the tree, leads us, by which Christ was led
To call on Eli, joyful, when he paid

Our ransom from his vein." I answering thus: "Forese! from that day, in which the world For better life thou changedst, not five years Have circled. If the power2 of sinning more Were first concluded in thee, ere thou knew'st That kindly grief which re-espouses us

To God, how hither art thou come so soon?

1 Forese.] One of the brothers of Piccarda; he who is again spoken of in the next Canto, and introduced in the Paradise, Canto iii. Cionacci, in his Storia della Beata Umiliana, Parte iv. cap. i. is referred to by Lombardi, in order to show that Forese was also the brother of Corso Donati, our author's political enemy. See next Canto, v. 81. Tiraboschi, after Crescimbeni, enumerates him among the Tuscan poets. Stor. della Poes. It. v. i. p. 139.

2 If the power.] "If thou didst delay thy repentance to the last, when thou hadst lost the power of sinning, how happens it thou art arrived here so early?"

I thought to find thee lower1, there, where time
Is recompense for time." He straight replied:
"To drink up the sweet wormwood of affliction
I have been brought thus early, by the tears
Stream'd down my Nella's2 cheeks. Her prayers
devout,

Her sighs have drawn me from the coast, where oft
Expectance lingers; and have set me free
From the other circles. In the sight of God
So much the dearer is my widow prized,
She whom I loved so fondly, as she ranks
More singly eminent for virtuous deeds.
The tract, most barbarous of Sardinia's isle3,
Hath dames more chaste, and modester by far,
Than that wherein I left her. O sweet brother!
What wouldst thou have me say 4? A time to come
Stands full within my view, to which this hour
Shall not be counted of an ancient date,

When from the pulpit shall be loudly warn'd
The unblushing dames of Florence, lest they bare
Unkerchief'd bosoms to the common gaze.
What savage women hath the world e'er seen,
What Saracens, for whom there needed scourge
Of spiritual or other discipline,

To force them walk with covering on their limbs ?

1 Lower.] In the Ante-Purgatory. See Canto ii, My Nella.] The wife of Forese.

The tract, most barbarous of Sardinia's isle.] The Barbagia is a part of Sardinia, to which that name was given, on account of the uncivilized state of its inhabitants, who are said to have gone nearly naked.

What wouldst thou have me say?] The interrogative, which Lombardi would dismiss from this place, as unmeaning and superfluous, appears to me to be the natural result of a deep feeling, and to prepare us for the invective that follows.

5.The unblushing dames of Florence.] Landino's note exhibits a curious instance of the changeableness of his countrywomen. He even goes beyond the acrimony of the original. "In those days," says the commentator, "no less than in ours, the Florentine ladies exposed the neck and bosom, a dress, no doubt, more suitable to a harlot than a matron. But, as they changed soon after, insomuch that they wore collars up to the chin, covering the whole of the neck and throat, so have I hopes they will change again; not indeed so much from motives of decency, as through that fickleness, which pervades every action of their lives."

Saracens.] "This word, during the middle ages, was indiscriminately applied to Pagans and Mahometans; in short, to all nations (except the Jews) who did not profess Christianity." Mr. Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. i. p. 196. (a note) Lond. 8vo. 1805.

Ꮓ

But did they see, the shameless ones, what Heaven
Wafts on swift wing toward them while I speak,
Their mouths were oped for howling: they shall taste
Of sorrow (unless foresight cheat me here)
Or ere the cheek of him be clothed with down,
Who is now rock'd with lullaby1 asleep.

Ah! now, my brother, hide thyself no more:
Thou seest2 how not I alone, but all,

Gaze, where thou veil'st the intercepted sun."
Whence I replied: "If thou recal to mind
What we were once together, even yet
Remembrance of those days may grieve thee sore.
That I forsook that life, was due to him

Who there precedes me, some few evenings past,
When she was round, who shines with sister lamp
To his that glisters yonder," and I show'd

The sun.
""T is he, who through profoundest night
Of the true dead has brought me, with this flesh
As true, that follows. From that gloom the aid
Of his sure comfort drew me on to climb,
And, climbing, wind along this mountain-steep,
Which rectifies in you whate'er the world
Made crooked and depraved. I have his word,
That he will bear me company as far

As till I come where Beatrice dwells:

But there must leave me. Virgil is that spirit,
Who thus hath promised," and I pointed to him;
"The other is that shade, for whom so late
Your realm, as he arose, exulting, shook
Through every pendent cliff and rocky bound."

CANTO XXIV.

ARGUMENT.

Forese points out several others by name who are here, like himself, purifying themselves from the vice of gluttony; and, amongst the rest, Buonaggiunta of Lucca, with whom our Poet converses. Forese then predicts the violent end of Dante's political enemy, Corso Donati; and, when he has quitted them, the Poet, in company with Statius and Virgil, arrives at another tree, from whence

1 With lullaby.]

Colui che mo si consola con nanna. "Nanna" is said to have been the sound with which the Florentine women hushed their children to sleep.

2 Thou seest.] Thou seest how we wonder that thou art here in a living body.