A bitter sigh I drew, then scarce found voice To answer; hardly to these sounds my lips Gave utterance, wailing: "Thy fair looks withdrawn, Things present, with deceitful pleasures, turn'd My steps aside." She answering spake : "Hadst Been silent, or denied what thou avow'st, [thou Thou hadst not hid thy sin the more; such eye Observes it. But whene'er the sinner's cheek Breaks forth into the precious-streaming tears Of self-accusing, in our court the wheel Of justice doth run counter to the edge1. Howe'er, that thou mayst profit by thy shame For errors past, and that henceforth more strength May arm thee, when thou hear'st the Syren-voice; Lay thou aside the motive to this grief, And lend attentive ear, while I unfold How opposite a way my buried flesh Should have impell'd thee.

Never didst thou spy, In art or nature, aught so passing sweet, As were the limbs that in their beauteous frame Enclosed me, and are scatter'd now in dust. If sweetest thing thus fail'd thee with my death, What, afterward, of mortal, should thy wish Have tempted? When thou first hadst felt the dart Of perishable things, in my departing [pruned For better realms, thy wing thou shouldst have To follow me; and never stoop'd again, To 'bide a second blow, for a slight girl2,

1 Counter to the edge.] "The weapons of divine justice are blunted by the confession and sorrow of the offender."

2 For a slight girl.] "Daniello and Venturi say that this alludes to Gentucca of Lucca, mentioned in the twentyfourth Canto. They did not, however, observe that Buonaggiunta there gives us to understand that Dante knew not if Gentucca were then in the world, and that Beatrice is now reprehending him for past and not for future errors." Thus Lombardi. Pelli (Memor. p. 57) acquaints us that Corbinelli, in the Life of Dante, added to the edition of the De Vulg. Eloq. says the name of this lady was "Pargoletta." But the intimation, as Pelli justly remarks, can scarcely be deemed authentic. The annotator on the Monte Casino MS. gives a very different turn to the allusion. "Quæ proca fuit, &c." "This was either a mistress; or else it is put for the poetic art, as when he says in a certain song:

Io mi son pargoletta bella e nuova

E son venuta.

which rebuke of Beatrice's may be delivered in the person of many theologians dissuading from poetry and other worldly sciences; a rebuke that should be directed against those who read the poets to gratify their own inclination, and not for the sake of instruction, that they may defeat the errors of

Or other gaud as transient and as vain.
The new and inexperienced bird1 awaits,
Twice it may be, or thrice, the fowler's aim;
But in the sight of one whose plumes are full,
In vain the net is spread, the arrow wing'd."

I stood, as children silent and ashamed
Stand, listening, with their eyes upon the earth,
Acknowledging their fault, and self-condemn'd.
And she resumed: "If, but to hear, thus pains thee;
Raise thou thy beard, and lo! what sight shall do.'
With less reluctance yields a sturdy holm,
Rent from its fibres by a blast, that blows
From off the pole, or from Iarbas' land2,
Than I at her behest my visage raised:
And thus the face denoting by the beard3,
I mark'd the secret sting her words convey'd.
No sooner lifted I mine aspect up,

Than I perceived 4 those primal creatures cease
Their flowery sprinkling; and mine eyes beheld
(Yet unassured and wavering in their view)
Beatrice; she, who towards the mystic shape,
That joins two natures in one form, had turn'd:
And, even under shadow of her veil,

And parted by the verdant rill that flow'd
Between, in loveliness she seem'd as much
Her former self surpassing, as on earth
All others she surpass'd. Remorseful goads
Shot sudden through me. Each thing else, the more

the Gentiles." It remains to be considered whether our Poet's marriage with Gemma de' Donati, and the difficulties in which that engagement involved him, may not be the object of Beatrice's displeasure.

1

66 Bird.] Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird." Prov. i. 17.

2 From Iarbas' land.] The south.

3 The beard.] "I perceived, that when she desired me to raise my beard, instead of telling me to lift up my head, a severe reflection was implied on my want of that wisdom which should accompany the age of manhood."

4 Than I perceived.] I had before translated this differently, and in agreement with those editions, which read, Posarsi quelle belle creature Da loro apparsion.

instead of

Posarsi quelle prime creature
Da loro aspersion.

"

for which reading I am indebted to Lombardi, who derives it from the Nidobeatina edition. By the "primal creatures are meant the angels, who were scattering the flowers on Beatrice.

Its love had late beguil'd me, now the more
Was loathsome. On my heart so keenly smote
The bitter consciousness, that on the ground
O'erpower'd I fell and what my state was then,
She knows, who was the cause. When now my strength
Flow'd back, returning outward from the heart,
The lady', whom alone I first had seen,

I found above me. "Loose me not," she cried:
"Loose not thy hold:" and lo! had dragg'd me high
As to my neck into the stream; while she,
Still as she drew me after, swept along,
Swift as a shuttle, bounding o'er the wave.

The blessed shore approaching, then was heard
So sweetly," Tu asperges me 2," that I
May not remember, much less tell the sound.
The beauteous dame, her arms expanding, clasp'd
My temples, and immerged me where 't was fit
The wave should drench me: and, thence raising up,
Within the fourfold dance of lovely nymphs
Presented me so laved; and with their arm
They each did cover me. "Here are we nymphs,

And in the heaven are stars 3. Or ever earth
Was visited of Beatrice, we,

Appointed for her handmaids, tended on her.
We to her eyes will lead thee: but the light
Of gladness, that is in them, well to scan,
Those yonder three 4, of deeper ken than ours,
Thy sight shall quicken." Thus began their song:
And then they led me to the Gryphon's breast,
Where, turn'd toward us, Beatrice stood.

66

Spare not thy vision. We have station'd thee Before the emeralds, whence love, erewhile,

1 The lady.] Matilda.

2 Tu asperges me.] "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Ps. li. 7. Sung by the choir, while the priest is sprinkling the people with holy water.

The author of

3 And in the heaven are stars.] See Canto i. 24. 4 Those yonder three.] Faith, hope, and charity. 5 The emeralds.] The eyes of Beatrice. Illustrations of Shakspeare, 8vo. 1807, vol. ii. p. 193, has referred to old writers, by whom the epithet green is given to eyes, as by the early French poets, and by Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, act iii. sc. 5.

an eagle, madam,

Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye.

Mr. Douce's conjecture, that eyes of this colour are much less common now than formerly, is not so probable as that writers, and especially poets, should at times be somewhat

Hath drawn his weapons on thee." As they spake,
A thousand fervent wishes riveted

Mine eyes upon her beaming eyes, that stood,
Still fix'd toward the Gryphon, motionless.
As the sun strikes a mirror, even thus
Within those orbs the twyfold being shone;
For ever varying, in one figure now
Reflected, now in other. Reader! muse
How wondrous in my sight it seem'd, to mark
A thing, albeit steadfast in itself,
Yet in its imaged semblance mutable.

Full of amaze, and joyous, while my soul
Fed on the viand, whereof still desire
Grows with satiety; the other three,
With gesture that declared a loftier line,
Advanced to their own carol, on they came
Dancing, in festive ring angelical.

66

Turn, Beatrice!" was their song:
"Oh! turn
Thy saintly sight on this thy faithful one,
Who, to behold thee, many a wearisome pace
Hath measured. Gracious at our prayer, vouchsafe
Unveil to him thy cheeks; that he may mark
Thy second beauty, now conceal'd." O splendour!
O sacred light eternal! who is he,

So pale with musing in Pierian shades,
Or with that fount so lavishly imbued,
Whose spirit should not fail him in the essay
To represent thee such as thou didst seem,
When under cope of the still-chiming heaven
Thou gavest to open air thy charms reveal'd?

CANTO XXXII.

ARGUMENT.

Dante is warned not to gaze too fixedly on Beatrice. The procession moves on, accompanied by Matilda, Statius, and Dante, till they reach an exceeding lofty tree, where divers strange chances befal.

MINE eyes with such an eager coveting

Were bent to rid them of their ten years' thirst', No other sense was waking: and e'en they

loose and general in applying terms expressive of colour, whereof an instance may be seen in some ingenious remarks by Mr. Blomfield on the word xváveos. Eschyli Persa. Edit. 1814. Glossar. p. 107.

1 Their ten years' thirst.] Beatrice had been dead ten years.

Were fenced on either side from heed of aught;
So tangled, in its custom'd toils, that smile
Of saintly brightness drew me to itself:
When forcibly, toward the left, my sight
The sacred virgins turn'd; for from their lips
I heard the warning sounds: "Too fix'd a gaze1!"
Awhile my vision labour'd; as when late
Upon the o'erstrained eyes the sun hath smote:
But soon2, to lesser object, as the view
Was now recover'd, (lesser in respect
To that excess of sensible, whence late
I had perforce been sunder'd) on their right
I mark'd that glorious army wheel, and turn,
Against the sun and sevenfold lights, their front.
As when, their bucklers for protection raised,
A well-ranged troop, with portly banners curl'd,
Wheel circling, ere the whole can change their
E'en thus the goodly regiment of heaven, [ground;
Proceeding, all did pass us, ere the car

Had sloped his beam. Attendant at the wheels
The damsels turn'd; and on the Gryphon moved
The sacred burden, with a pace so smooth,
No feather on him trembled. The fair dame,
Who through the wave had drawn me, companied
By Statius and myself, pursued the wheel,
Whose orbit, rolling, mark'd a lesser arch. [blame,
Through the high wood, now void (the more her
Who by the serpent was beguil'd) I pass'd,
With step in cadence to the harmony
Angelic. Onward had we moved, as far,
Perchance, as arrow at three several flights
Full wing'd had sped, when from her station down
Descended Beatrice. With one voice

All murmur'd" Adam ;" circling next a plant 3

1 Too fix'd a gaze.] The allegorical interpretation of Vellutello, whether it be considered as justly inferible from the text or not, conveys so useful a lesson, that it deserves our notice. "The understanding is sometimes so intently engaged in contemplating the light of divine truth in the scriptures, that it becomes dazzled, and is made less capable of attaining such knowledge, than if it had sought after it with greater moderation."

2 But soon.] As soon as his sight was recovered, so as to bear the view of that glorious procession, which, splendid as it was, was yet less so than Beatrice, by whom his vision had been overpowered, &c.

3 A plant.] Lombardi has conjectured, with much probability, that this tree is not (as preceding commentators had supposed) merely intended to represent the tree of know