And, "Oh!" they cried, "from full hands1 scatter ye
Unwithering lilies:" and, so saying, cast
Flowers over head and round them on all sides.
I have beheld, ere now, at break of day,
The eastern clime all roseate; and the sky
Opposed, one deep and beautiful serene;
And the sun's face so shaded, and with mists
Attemper'd, at his rising, that the eye

Long while endured the sight: thus, in a cloud
Of flowers2, that from those hands angelic rose,
And down within and outside of the car

Fell showering, in white veil with olive wreathed,
A virgin in my view appear'd, beneath
Green mantle, robed in hue of living flame :
And3 o'er my spirit, that so long a time

Had from her presence felt no shuddering dread,
Albeit mine eyes discern'd her not, there moved
A hidden virtue from her, at whose touch

The power of ancient love was strong within me.

1 From full hands.] Manibus date lilia plenis.

Virg. Æn. lib. vi. 884.

Lucretius, lib. ii.

Eve separate he spies,

ninguntque rosarum. Floribus, umbrantes matrem &c.

Thus Milton:

Veil'd in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood.
P. L. b. ix. v. 425.

And Thomson, in his Invocation to Spring:

veil'd in a shower

Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend.
3 And.] In the first edition it stood thus:
And o'er my spirit, that in former days
Within her presence had abode so long,

No shuddering terror crept. Mine eyes no more
Had knowledge of her; yet there moved from her
A hidden virtue, at whose touch awaked, &c.

and this was a translation of the common reading, which has con la sua presenza," instead of "che alla sua presenza,' and a full stop instead of a comma after "infranto." As I have little doubt but that the reading of the Nidobeatina edition and that of many MSS. is right in this instance, I have altered the version as it now stands in the text, which still perhaps needs some explanation. His spirit, which had been so long unawed by the presence of Beatrice (for she had been ten years dead) now felt, through a secret influence proceeding from her, its ancient love revived, though his sight had not yet distinguished her.

4 The power of ancient love.]

D'antico amor sentì la gran potenza.
Io sento si d'amor la gran possanza.

Dante, Canzone vi.

No sooner on my vision streaming, smote
The heavenly influence, which, years past, and e'en
In childhood, thrill'd me, than towards Virgil I
Turn'd me to leftward; panting, like a babe,
That flees for refuge to his mother's breast,
If aught have terrified or work'd him woe:
And would have cried, "There is no dram of blood,
That doth not quiver in me. The old flame 1
Throws out clear tokens of reviving fire."
But Virgil had bereaved us of himself;
Virgil, my best-loved father; Virgil, he
To whom I gave me up for safety: nor2
All, our prime mother lost, avail'd to save
My undew'd cheeks from blur of soiling tears.
"Dante! weep not, that Virgil leaves thee; nay,
Weep thou not yet: behoves thee feel the edge
Of other sword; and thou shalt weep for that."
As to the prow or stern, some admiral
Paces the deck, inspiriting his crew,
When 'mid the sail-yards all hands ply aloof;
Thus, on the left side of the car, I saw

(Turning me at the sound of mine own name,
Which here I am compell'd to register)
The virgin station'd, who before appear'd
Veil'd in that festive shower angelical.

Towards me, across the stream, she bent her eyes;
Though from her brow the veil descending, bound
With foliage of Minerva, suffer'd not
That I beheld her clearly: then with act
Full royal, still insulting o'er her thrall,
Added, as one who, speaking, keepeth back
The bitterest saying, to conclude the speech:
"Observe me well. I am, in sooth, I am
Beatrice. What! and hast thou deign'd at last
Approach the mountain? Knewest not, O man !
Thy happiness is here?" Down fell mine eyes
On the clear fount; but there, myself espying,
Recoil'd, and sought the greenswerd; such a weight

Sveglia d'antico amor la gran possanza.

Mr. Mathias's Ode to Mr. Nichols, Gray's Works, 4to. 1814, vol. i. p. 532.

1 The old flame.]

Agnosco veteris vestigia flammæ.

Virg. Æn. lib. iv. 23.

Giusto de' Conti, La Bella Mano.

Conosco i segni dell' antico fuoco.

2 Nor.] "Not all the beauties of the terrestrial Paradise,

in which I was, were sufficient to allay my grief."

77-106. Of shame was on my forehead. With a mien Of that stern majesty, which doth surround A mother's presence to her awe-struck child, She look'd; a flavour of such bitterness Was mingled in her pity. There her words Brake off; and suddenly the angels sang,

"In thee, O gracious Lord! my hope hath been :" But' went no farther than, "Thou, Lord! hast set My feet in ample room." As snow, that lies, Amidst the living rafters2 on the back

Of Italy, congeal'd, when drifted high
And closely piled by rough Sclavonian blasts;
Breathe but the land whereon no shadow falls3,
And straightway melting it distils away,
Like a fire-wasted taper: thus was I,
Without a sigh or tear, or ever these

Did sing, that, with the chiming of heaven's sphere,
Still in their warbling chime: but when the strain
Of dulcet symphony express'd for me

Their soft compassion, more than could the words,
Virgin! why so consumest him ?" then, the ice 1,
Congeal'd about my bosom, turn'd itself

To spirit and water; and with anguish forth
Gush'd, through the lips and eyelids, from the heart.
Upon the chariot's same edge still she stood,
Immoveable; and thus address'd her words
To those bright semblances with pity touch'd :
"Ye in the eternal day your vigils keep;

So that nor night nor slumber, with close stealth,
Conveys from you a single step, in all

1 But.] They sang the thirty-first Psalm, to the end of the eighth verse. What follows in that Psalm would not have suited the place or the occasion.

2 The living rafters.] "Vive travi." The leafless woods on the Apennine.

Trabibusque obscurus acernis.

3 The land whereon no shadow falls.]

Virg. Æn. lib. vi. 181.

Ibid. lib. ix. 87. "When the wind

blows from off Africa, where, at the time of the equinox, bodies, being under the equator, cast little or no shadow; or, in other words, when the wind is south."

4 The ice.] Milton has transferred this conceit, though scarcely worth the pains of removing, into one of his Italian poems, Son. v.

5 Same edge.] The Nidobeatina edition, and many MSS. here read "detta coscia," instead of "destra," or "dritta coscia" and it is probable from what has gone before, that the former is the right reading. See v. 60.

The goings on of time; thence, with more heed
I shape mine answer, for his ear intended,
Who there stands weeping; that the sorrow now
May equal the transgression. Not alone
Through operation of the mighty orbs,

That mark each seed to some predestined aim,
As with aspect or fortunate or ill

The constellations meet; but through benign
Largess of heavenly graces, which rain down
From such a height as mocks our vision, this man
Was, in the freshness of his being1, such,
So gifted virtually, that in him

All better habits wonderously had thrived.
The more of kindly strength is in the soil,
So much doth evil seed and lack of culture
Mar it the more, and make it run to wildness.
These looks sometime upheld him; for I show'd
My youthful eyes, and led him by their light
In upright walking. Soon as I had reach'd
The threshold of my second age2, and changed
My mortal for immortal; then he left me,
And gave himself to others. When from flesh
To spirit I had risen, and increase

Of beauty and of virtue circled me,

I was less dear to him, and valued less.
His steps were turn'd into deceitful ways,
Following false images of good, that make
No promise perfect. Nor avail'd me aught
To sue for inspirations, with the which,
I, both in dreams of night, and otherwise,
Did call him back; of them, so little reck'd him.
Such depth he fell, that all device was short
Of his preserving, save that he should view
The children of perdition. To this end

I visited the purlieus of the dead :

And one,

who hath conducted him thus high, Received my supplications urged with weeping. It were a breaking of God's high decree,

1 In the freshness of his being.]

Nella sua vita nuova.

Some suppose our poet alludes to the work so called, written in his youth.

2 The threshold of my second age.] In the Convito, our Poet makes a division of human life into four ages, the first of which lasts till the twenty-fifth year. Beatrice, therefore, passed from this life to a better, about that period. See the Life of Dante prefixed.

If Lethe should be past, and such food1 tasted,
Without the cost of some repentant tear."

CANTO XXXI.

ARGUMENT.

Beatrice continues her reprehension of Dante, who confesses his error, and falls to the ground: coming to himself again, he is by Matilda drawn through the waters of Lethe, and presented first to the four virgins who figure the cardinal virtues; these in their turn lead him to the Gryphon, a symbol of our Saviour; and the three virgins, representing the evangelical virtues, intercede for him with Beatrice, that she would display to him her second beauty.

"O THOU!" her words she thus without delay Resuming, turn'd their point on me, to whom They, with but lateral edge 2, seem'd harsh before : Say thou, who stand'st beyond the holy stream, If this be true. A charge, so grievous, needs Thine own avowal." On my faculty

Such strange amazement hung, the voice expired Imperfect, ere its organs gave it birth.

A little space refraining, then she spake : "What dost thou muse on? Answer me. The wave On thy remembrances of evil yet

Hath done no injury." A mingled sense
Of fear and of confusion, from my lips
Did such a "Yea" produce, as needed help
Of vision to interpret. As when breaks,
In act to be discharged, a cross-bow bent
Beyond its pitch, both nerve and bow o'erstretch'd ;
The flagging weapon feebly hits the mark:
Thus, tears and sighs forth gushing, did I burst
Beneath the heavy load: and thus my voice
Was slacken'd on its way. She straight began:
"When my desire invited thee to love
The good, which sets a bound to our aspirings;
What bar of thwarting foss or linked chain
Did meet thee, that thou so shouldst quit the hope
Of further progress? or what bait of ease,
Or promise of allurement, led thee on [wait ?"
Elsewhere, that thou elsewhere shouldst rather

1 Such food.] The oblivion of sins.

2 With but lateral edge.] The words of Beatrice, when not addressed directly to himself, but spoken to the angel of him, Dante had thought sufficiently harsh.