THE VISION OF DANTE. PARADISE. CANTO I. ARGUMENT, The Poet ascends with Beatrice towards the first heaven; and is, by her, resolved of certain doubts which arise in his mind. His glory, by whose might all things are moved, 1 Pierces the universe.] Per l'universo penetra, &c. Milton, P. L. b. iii. 586. 2 Shall now.] Sarà ora materia del mio canto. cf.Ch. "her" Benign Apollo'! this last labour aid; That of that happy realm the shadow'd form 1 Benign Apollo.] Chaucer has imitated this invocation very closely, at the beginning of the Third Booke of Fame. If, divine vertue, thou Wilt helpe me to shewe now Thou shalt see me go as blive Now entre thou my breast anone. 2 Thus far.] He appears to mean nothing more than that this part of his poem will require a greater exertion of his powers than the former. 3 Do thou.] Make me thine instrument; and, through me, utter such sound as when thou didst contend with Marsyas. Marsyas.] Ovid. Met. lib. vi. fab. 7. Compare Boccaccio. Il Filocopo. lib. v. p. 25. v. ii. Ediz. Fir. 1723. "Egli nel mio petto entri," &c.-"May he enter my bosom, and let my voice sound like his own, when he made that daring mortal deserve to come forth unsheathed from his limbs." 5 Cæsar, or bard.] So Petrarch. Son. Par. Prima. Onor d' imperadori e di poeti. And Frezzi. Il Quadrir. lib. iii. cap. 14. alloro, Che imperatori e' poeti corona. And Spenser. F. Q. b. i. c. 1. st. 9. The laurel, meed of mighty conquerours, From the Peneian foliage, when one breast Through divers passages, the world's bright lamp As from the first a second beam is wont So of her act, that through the eyesight pass'd 1 From a small spark.] πολλάν τ' ὄρει πῦρ ἐξ ἑνὸς Σπέρματος ἐνθορὸν ἀΐστωσεν ὕλαν. Upon the mountain from one spark hath leapt Pindar. Pyth. iii. 67. 2 Through that.] "Where the four circles, the horizon, the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial colure join; the last three intersecting each other so as to form three crosses, as may be seen in the armillary sphere." 3 In happiest constellation.] Aries. Some understand the planet Venus by the "miglior stella." 4 Morning there.] It was morning where he then was, and about eventide on the earth. 5 To the left.] Being in the opposite hemisphere to ours, Beatrice, that she may behold the rising sun, turns herself to the left. 6 As from the first a second beam.] "Like a reflected sunbeam," which he compares to a pilgrim hastening homewards. Ne simil tanto mai raggio secondo Dal primo uscì. Filicaja, canz. xv. st. 4. Sicut vir in peregrinatione constitutus, omni studio, omnique conatu domum redire festinat, ac retrorsum non respicit sed ad domum, quam reliquerat, reverti desiderat. Alberici Visio, $ 25. That here exceeds our power; thanks to the place I suffer'd it not long; and yet so long, Her eyes fast fix'd on the eternal wheels1, As Glaucus, when he tasted of the herb 1 Made.] And therefore best adapted, says Venturi, to the good temperament and vigour of the human body and its faculties. The Poet speaks of the terrestrial paradise where he then was. 2 As iron that comes boiling from the fire.] Ardentem, et scintillas emittentem, ac si ferrum cum de fornace trahitur. Alberici Visio, 5. This simile is repeated, § 16. So Milton. P. L. b. iii. 594. As glowing iron with fire. 3 Upon the day appear'd.] E If the heaven had ywonne All new of God another sunne. par ch' aggiunga un altro sole al cielo. Chaucer, First Booke of Fame. Ariosto, O. F. c. x. st. 109. Marino, Adone. c. xi. st. 27. Ed ecco un lustro lampeggiar d' intorno Quando a paro col sol ma più lucente L'angelo gli apparì sull' oriente. Tasso, G. L. c. i. seems another morn Ris'n on mid-noon. Milton, P. L. b. v. 311. Compare Euripides. Ion. 1550. ̓Ανθήλιον πρόσωπον. 4 Eternal wheels.] The heavens, eternal, and always circling. 5 As Glaucus.] Ovid. Met. lib. xiii. fab. 9. Plato, in the tenth book of the Republic, makes a very noble comparison from Glaucus, but applies it differently. Edit. Bipont. vol. vii. p. 317. Berkeley appears not to have been aware of the passage, when he says that "Proclus compares the soul, in her descent, invested with growing prejudices, to Glaucus diving to the bottom of the sea, and there contracting divers coats of sea-weed, coral, and shells, which stick close to him, and conceal his true shape." Siris. Ed. 1744. p. 151. |