Distinguish; and i' the singing trace the sound
"Hosanna." Above, their beauteous garniture
Flamed with more ample lustre, than the moon
Through cloudless sky at midnight, in her noon.
I turn'd me, full of wonder, to my guide;
And he did answer with a countenance
Charged with no less amazement: whence my view
Reverted to those lofty things, which came
So slowly moving towards us, that the bride1
Would have outstript them on her bridal day.
The lady call'd aloud: Why thus yet burns
Affection in thee for these living lights,

66

And dost not look on that which follows them ?"
I straightway mark'd a tribe behind them walk,
As if attendant on their leaders, clothed
With raiment of such whiteness, as on earth
Was never. On my left, the watery gleam
Borrow'd, and gave me back, when there I look'd,
As in a mirror, my left side portray'd.

When I had chosen on the river's edge
Such station, that the distance of the stream
Alone did separate me; there I stay'd
My steps for clearer prospect, and beheld
The flames go onward, leaving 2, as they went,
The air behind them painted as with trail
Of liveliest pencils3; so distinct were mark'd

1 The bride.]

E come va per via sposa novella

A passi rari, e porta gli occhi bassi
Con faccia vergognosa, e non favella.

2 Leaving.]

Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib i. cap. 16.

Lasciando dietro a se l'aer dipinto.
Che lascia dietro a se l'aria dipinta.

Mr. Mathias's Ode to Mr. Nichols,
Gray's Works, vol. i. p. 532.

66

3 Pencils.] Since this translation was made, Perticari has affixed another sense to the word " pennelli," which he interprets pennons" or streamers." Monti, in his Proposta, highly applauds the discovery. The conjecture loses something of its probability, if we read the whole passage, not as Monti gives it, but as it stands in Landino's edition of 1484.

Et vidi le fiamelle andar davante

lasciando drieto a se laire dipinto

che di tratti pennegli havea sembiante

Siche li sopra rimanea distinto

di sette liste tutte in que colori

onde fa larcho el sole & delia elcinto

BB

All those seven listed colours1, whence the sun
Maketh his bow, and Cynthia her zone.
These streaming gonfalons did flow beyond
My vision; and ten paces2, as I guess,
Parted the outermost. Beneath a sky
So beautiful, came four and twenty elders3,
By two and two, with flower-de-luces crown'd.
All sang one song: "Blessed be thou1 among
The daughters of Adam! and thy loveliness
Blessed for ever!" After that the flowers,
And the fresh herblets, on the opposite brink,
Were free from that elected race; as light
In heaven doth second light, came after them
Four 5 animals, each crown'd with verdurous leaf.
With six wings each was plumed; the plumage full
Of eyes; and the eyes of Argus would be such,
Were they endued with life. Reader! more rhymes
I will not waste in shadowing forth their form:
For other need so straitens, that in this

I may not give my bounty room. But read
Ezekiel; for he paints them, from the north
How he beheld them come by Chebar's flood,
In whirlwind, cloud, and fire; and even such
As thou shalt find them character'd by him,

1 Listed colours.]

Di sette liste tutte in quei colori, &c.
a bow

Conspicuous with three listed colours gay.

Milton, P. L. b. xi. 865.

2 Ten paces.] For an explanation of the allegorical meaning of this mysterious procession, Venturi refers those," who would see in the dark," to the commentaries of Landino, Vellutello, and others and adds, that it is evident the Poet has accommodated to his own fancy many sacred images in the Apocalypse. In Vassari's Life of Giotto, we learn that Dante recommended that book to his friend, as affording fit subjects for his pencil.

3 Four and twenty elders.] "Upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting." Rev. iv. 4.

4 Blessed be thou.] "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." Luke, i. 42.

5 Four.] The four evangelists.

6 Ezekiel.] "And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

"Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four

living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had

the likeness of a man.

"And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings." Ezekiel, i. 4, 5, 6.

Here were they; save as to the pennons: there,
From him departing, John' accords with me.
The space, surrounded by the four, enclosed
A car triumphal 2: on two wheels it came,
Drawn at a Gryphon's3 neck; and he above
Stretch'd either wing uplifted, 'tween the midst
And the three listed hues, on each side, three;
So that the wings did cleave or injure none;
And out of sight they rose. The members, far
As he was bird, were golden; white the rest,
With vermeil intervein'd, So beautiful 4
A car, in Rome, ne'er graced Augustus' pomp,
Or Africanus': e'en the sun's itself

Were poor to this; that chariot of the sun,
Erroneous, which in blazing ruin fell

At Tellus' prayer 5 devout, by the just doom
Mysterious of all-seeing Jove. Three nymphs,
At the right wheel, came circling in smooth dance:

1 John.] "And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him." Rev. iv. 8. "Aliter senas alas propter senarii numeri perfectionem positum arbitror; quia in sexta ætate, id est adveniente plenitudine temporum, hæc Apostolus peracta commemorat; in novissimo enim animali conclusit omnia." Primasii, Augustini discipuli, Episcopi Comment. lib. quinque in Apocal. Ed. Basil, 1544. "With this interpretation it is very consonant that Ezekiel discovered in these animals only four wings, because his prophecy does not extend beyond the fourth age; beyond that is the end of the synagogue and the calling of the Gentiles: whereas Dante beholding them in the sixth age, saw them with six wings, as did Saint John." Lombardi.

2 A car triumphal.] Either the Christian church, or perhaps the Papal chair.

3 Gryphon.] Under the gryphon, an imaginary creature, the fore-part of which is an eagle, and the hinder a lion, is shadowed forth the union of the divine and human nature in Jesus Christ.

4 So beautiful.]

E certo quando Roma più onore
Di carro trionfale a Scipione
Fece, non fu cotal, nè di splendore
Passato fu da quello, il qual Fetone
Abbandonò per soverchio tremore.

Boccaccio, Teseide, lib. ix. st. 31.

Thus in the Quadriregio, lib. i. cap. 5.

Mai vide Roma carro trionfante

Quanto era questo bel, ne vedrà unquanco.

5 Tellus' prayer.] Ovid. Met. lib. ii. v. 279.

6 Three nymphs.] The three evangelical virtues: the first Charity, the next Hope, and the third Faith. Faith may be produced by charity, or charity by faith, but the inducements to hope must arise either from one or other of these.

The one so ruddy, that her form had scarce
Been known within a furnace of clear flame;
The next did look, as if the flesh and bones
Were emerald; snow new-fallen seem'd the third.
Now seem'd the white to lead, the ruddy now;
And from her song who led, the others took
Their measure, swift or slow. At the other wheel,
A band quaternion1, each in purple clad,
Advanced with festal step, as, of them, one
The rest conducted2; one, upon whose front
Three eyes were seen. In rear of all this group,
Two old men3 I beheld, dissimilar

In raiment, but in port and gesture like,
Solid and mainly grave; of whom, the one
Did show himself some favour'd counsellor
Of the great Coan4, him, whom nature made
To serve the costliest creature of her tribe :
His fellow mark'd an opposite intent;
Bearing a sword, whose glitterance and keen edge,
E'en as I view'd it with the flood between,
Appall'd me. Next, four others 5 I beheld,
Of humble seeming: and, behind them all,
One single old man", sleeping as he came,
With a shrewd visage. And these seven, each

1 A band quaternion.] The four moral or cardinal virtues, of whom Prudence directs the others.

The rest conducted.] Prudence, described with three eyes, because she regards the past, the present, and the future.

3 Two old men.] Saint Luke, the physician, characterized as the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, and Saint Paul, represented with a sword, on account, as it should seem, of the power of his style.

4 Of the great Coan.]

Hippocrates, "whom nature made for the benefit of her favourite creature, man."

5 Four others.] "The commentators," says Venturi, "suppose these four to be the four evangelists; but I should rather take them to be four principal doctors of the church.” Yet both Landino and Vellutello expressly call them the authors of the epistles, James, Peter, John, and Jude.

6 One single old man.] As some say, St. John, under his character of the author of the Apocalypse. But, in the poem attributed to Giacopo, the son of our Poet, which in some MSS. and in one of the earliest editions, accompanies the original of this work, and is descriptive of its plan, this old man is said to be Moses.

E'l vecchio, ch' era dietro a tutti loro,

Fu Moyse.

And the old man, who was behind them all,

Was Moses.

See No. 3459 of the Harl. MSS. in the British Museum.

Like the first troop were habited; but wore
No braid of lilies on their temples wreathed.
Rather, with roses and each vermeil flower,
A sight, but little distant, might have sworn,
That they were all on fire1 above their brow.

Whenas the car was o'er against me, straight Was heard a thundering, at whose voice it seem'd The chosen multitude were stay'd; for there, With the first ensigns, made they solemn halt.

m

CANTO XXX.

ARGUMENT.

Beatrice descends from heaven, and rebukes the Poet.

SOON as that polar light2, fair ornament
Of the first heaven, which hath never known
Setting nor rising, nor the shadowy veil
Of other cloud than sin, to duty there
Each one convoying, as that lower doth
The steersman to his port, stood firmly fix'd;
Forthwith the saintly tribe, who in the van
Between the Gryphon and its radiance came,
Did turn them to the car, as to their rest:
And one, as if commission'd from above,
In holy chant thrice shouted forth aloud;

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Come3, spouse! from Libanus:" and all the rest Took up the song.-At the last audit, so

The blest shall rise, from forth his cavern each
Uplifting lightly his new-vested flesh;
As, on the sacred litter, at the voice
Authoritative of that elder, sprang

A hundred ministers and messengers
Of life eternal. "Blessed thou, who comest!"

1 All on fire.] So Giles Fletcher,

The wood's late wintry head

With flaming primroses set all on fire.

Christ's Triumph after Death.

2 That polar light.] The seven candlesticks of gold, which he calls the polar light of heaven itself, because they perform the same office for Christians that the polar star does for mariners, in guiding them to their port.

3 Come.] "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me, from Lebanon." Song of Solomon, iv. 8.

4 Blessed.] "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Matt. xxi. 9.