Beneath another standard: ill is this

Follow'd of him, who severs it and justice:

And let not with his Guelphs the new-crown'd Assail it; but those talons hold in dread, [Charles1 Which from a lion of more lofty port

Have rent the casing. Many a time ere now The sons have for the sire's transgression wail'd: Nor let him trust the fond belief, that heaven Will truck its armour for his lillied shield.

"This little star is furnish'd with good spirits, Whose mortal lives were busied to that end, That honour and renown might wait on them: And, when desires 2 thus err in their intention, True love must needs ascend with slacker beam. But it is part of our delight, to measure

of the chief gentlemen in Florence, (See Par. canto xvi. v.139.) the factions of the Guelfi and Ghibellini were introduced into that city." A. G. Artegiani, Annotations on the Quadriregio, p. 180. "The same variety of opinion prevails with regard to the origin of the names. Some deduce them from two brothers, who were Germans, the one called Guelph and the other Gibel, who being the partizans of two powerful families in Pistoia, the Panciatichi, and the Cancellieri, then at enmity with each other, were the first occasion of these titles having been given to the discordant factions. Others, with more probability, derive them from Guelph or Guelfone, Duke of Bavaria, and Gibello, a castle where his antagonist, the Emperor Conrad the Third, was born; in consequence of a battle between Guelph and Henry the son of Conrad, which was fought (according to Mini, in his Defence of Florence, p. 48) A. D. 1138. Others assign to them an origin yet more ancient; asserting, that at the election of Frederic I. to the Empire, the Electors concurred in chusing him, in order to extinguish the inveterate discords between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, that prince being descended by the paternal line from the Ghibellines, and by the maternal from the Guelphs. Bartolo, however, in his tractate de Guelphis et Gibellinis, gives an intrinsic meaning to these names from certain passages in Scripture. Sicut Gibellus interpretatur locus fortitudinis, ita Gibellini appellantur confidentes in fortitudine militum et armorum, et sicut Guelpha interpretatur os loquens, ita Guelphi interpretantur confidentes in orationibus et in divinis.' What value is to be put on this interpretation, which well accords with the genius of those times when it was perhaps esteemed a marvellous mystery, we leave it to others to decide." Ibid.

1 Charles.] The Commentators explain this to mean Charles II. king of Naples and Sicily. Is it not more likely to allude to Charles of Valois, son of Philip III. of France, who was sent for, about this time, into Italy by Pope Boniface, with the promise of being made emperor? See G. Villani, lib. viii. cap. 42.

2 When desires.] When honour and fame are the chief motives to action, that love, which has heaven for its object, must necessarily become less fervent.

Our wages with the merit; and admire

The close proportion. Hence doth heavenly justice Temper so evenly affection in us,

It ne'er can warp to any wrongfulness.

Of diverse voices is sweet music made:

So in our life the different degrees

Render sweet harmony among these wheels.
"Within the pearl, that now encloseth us,
Shines Romeo's light', whose goodly deed and fair
Met ill acceptance. But the Provençals,

That were his foes, have little cause for mirth.
Ill shapes that man his course, who makes his wrong
Of other's worth. Four daughters2 were there born
To Raymond Berenger3; and every one

1 Romeo's light.] The story of Romeo is involved in some uncertainty. The name of Romeo signified, as we have seen in the note Purg. canto xxxiii. v. 78, one who went on a pilgrimage to Rome. The French writers assert the continuance of his ministerial office even after the decease of his sovereign, Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence: and they rest this assertion chiefly on the fact of a certain Romieu de Villeneuve, who was the contemporary of that prince, having left large possessions behind him, as appears by his will preserved in the archives of the bishoprick of Vence. That they are right as to the name at least, would appear from the following marginal note on the Monte Casino MS. Romeo de Villanova districtus civitatis Ventiæ de Provincia olim administratoris Raymundi Belingerj Comitis de Provincia-ivit peregrinando contemplatione ad Deum. Yet it is improbable, on the other hand, that the Italians, who lived so near the time, should be misinformed in an occurrence of such notoriety. According to them, after he had long been a faithful steward to Raymond, when an account was required from him of the revenues which he had carefully husbanded, and his master as lavishly disbursed, "he demanded the little mule, the staff, and the scrip, with which he had first entered into the count's service, a stranger pilgrim from the shrine of St. James, in Galicia, and parted as he came; nor was it ever known whence he was, or whither he went." G. Villani, lib. vi. c. 92. The same incidents are told of him at the conclusion of cap. xxviii. lib. ii. of Fazio degli Uberti's Dittamondo.

2 Four daughters.] Of the four daughters of Raymond Berenger, Margaret, the eldest, was married to Louis IX. of France; Eleanor, the next, to Henry III. of England; Sancha, the third, to Richard, Henry's brother, and King of the Romans; and the youngest, Beatrix, to Charles I. king of Naples and Sicily, and brother to Louis.

3 Raymond Berenger.] This prince, the last of the house of Barcelona, who was Count of Provence, died in 1245. He is in the list of Provençal poets. See Millot. Hist. Litt. des Troubadours, tom. ii. p. 212. But M. Raynouard could find no manuscript of his works. See Choix des Poésies des Troubadours, tom. v. p. vii.

Became a queen and this for him did Romeo,
Though of mean state and from a foreign land.
Yet envious tongues incited him to ask

A reckoning of that just one, who return'd
Twelve fold to him for ten. Aged and poor
He parted thence and if the world did know
The heart he had, begging his life by morsels,
"Twould deem the praise, it yields him,scantly dealt."

CANTO VII.

ARGUMENT.

In consequence of what had been said by Justinian, who together with the other spirits have now disappeared, some doubts arise in the mind of Dante respecting the human redemption. These difficulties are fully explained by Beatrice.

"HOSANNA1 Sanctus Deus Sabaoth Superillustrans claritate tuâ

Felices ignes horum malahoth.”

Thus chanting saw I turn that substance bright2,
With fourfold lustre to its orb again,

Revolving; and the rest, unto their dance,
With it, moved also; and, like swiftest sparks,
In sudden distance from my sight were veil'd. [me,
Me doubt possess'd; and "Speak," it whisper'd
"Speak, speak unto thy lady; that she quench
Thy thirst with drops of sweetness." Yet blank awe,
Which lords it o'er me, even at the sound
Of Beatrice's name, did bow me down

As one in slumber held. Not long that mood
Beatrice suffer'd she, with such a smile,
As might have made one blest amid the flames3,
Beaming upon me, thus her words began :
"Thou in thy thought art pondering (as I deem,
And what I deem is truth) how just revenge
Could be with justice punish'd: from which doubt
I soon will free thee; so thou mark my words;
For they of weighty matter shall possess thee.

1 Hosanna.] "Hosanna holy God of Sabaoth, abundantly illumining with thy brightness the blessed fires of these kingdoms."

2 That substance bright.] Justinian.

3 As might have made one blest amid the flames.] So Giusto de' Conti. Bella Mano. "Qual salamandra."

Che puommi nelle fiamme far beato.

Through suffering not a curb upon the power
That will'd in him, to his own profiting,
That man, who was unborn1, condemn'd himself;
And, in himself, all, who since him have lived,
His offspring whence, below, the human kind
Lay sick in grievous error many an age;
Until it pleased the Word of God to come
Amongst them down, to his own person joining
The nature from its Maker far estranged,
By the mere act of his eternal love.
Contemplate here the wonder I unfold.
The nature with its maker thus conjoin'd,
Created first was blameless, pure and good;
But, through itself alone, was driven forth
From Paradise, because it had eschew'd
The way of truth and life, to evil turn'd.
Ne'er then was penalty so just as that
Inflicted by the cross, if thou regard
The nature in assumption doom'd; ne'er wrong
So great, in reference to him, who took
Such nature on him, and endured the doom.
So different effects2 flow'd from one act:

For by one death God and the Jews were pleased;
And heaven was open'd, though the earth did quake.
Count it not hard henceforth, when thou dost hear
That a just vengeance3 was, by righteous court,
Justly revenged. But yet I see thy mind,
By thought on thought arising, sore perplex'd;
And, with how vehement desire, it asks
Solution of the maze. What I have heard,
Is plain, thou sayst: but wherefore God this way
For our redemption chose, eludes my search.
"Brother! no eye of man not perfected,
Nor fully ripen'd in the flame of love,
May fathom this decree. It is a mark,

In sooth, much aim'd at, and but little kenn'd:
And I will therefore show thee why such way

1 That man, who was unborn.] Adam.

2 Different effects.] The death of Christ was pleasing to God, inasmuch as it satisfied the divine justice; and to the Jews, because it gratified their malignity: and while heaven opened for joy at the ransom of man, the earth trembled through compassion for its Maker.

3 A just vengeance.] The punishment of Christ by the Jews, although just as far as regarded the human nature assumed by him, and so a righteous vengeance of sin, yet being unjust as it regarded the divine nature, was itself justly revenged on the Jews by the destruction of Jerusalem.

Was worthiest. The celestial love1, that spurns
All envying in its bounty, in itself

With such effulgence blazeth, as sends forth
All beauteous things eternal. What distils 2
Immediate thence, no end of being knows;
Bearing its seal immutably imprest.
Whatever thence immediate falls, is free,
Free wholly, uncontrollable by power
Of each thing new: by such conformity
More grateful to its author, whose bright beams,
Though all partake their shining, yet in those
Are liveliest, which resemble him the most.
These tokens of pre-eminence3 on man
Largely bestow'd, if any of them fail,
He needs must forfeit his nobility,

No longer stainless. Sin alone is that,

Which doth disfranchise him, and make unlike
To the chief good; for that its light in him
Is darken'd. And to dignity thus lost

Is no return; unless, where guilt makes void,
He for ill pleasure pay with equal pain.
Your nature, which entirely in its seed
Transgress'd, from these distinctions fell, no less
Than from its state in Paradise; nor means
Found of recovery (search all methods out
As strictly as thou may) save one of these,
The only fords were left through which to wade:
Either, that God had of his courtesy

Released him merely; or else, man himself
For his own folly by himself atoned.

"Fix now thine eye, intently as thou canst, On the everlasting counsel; and explore, Instructed by my words, the dread abyss.

"Man in himself had ever lack'd the means

1 The celestial love.] From Boëtius de Consol. Philos. lib. iii. Metr. 9.

Quem non externæ pepulerunt fingere causæ
Materiæ fluitantis opus, verum insita summi
Forma boni livore carens; tu cuncta superno
Ducis ab exemplo, pulchrum pulcherrimus ipse
Mundum mente gerens, similique in imagine formans,
Perfectasque jubens perfectum absolvere partes.

2 What distils.] "That, which proceeds immediately from God, and without the intervention of secondary causes, is immortal."

The before-mentioned

3 These tokens of pre-eminence.] gifts of immediate creation by God, independence on secondary causes, and consequent similitude and agreeableness to the divine Being, all at first conferred on man.