Blest there. The limbs, whence it was driven, lie
Down in Cieldauro'; and from martyrdom
And exile came it here. Lo! further on,
Where flames the ardurous spirit of Isidore2;
Of Bede3; and Richard1, more than man, erewhile,
In deep discernment, Lastly this, from whom
Thy look on me reverteth, was the beam
Of one, whose spirit, on high musings bent,
Rebuked the lingering tardiness of death.
It is the eternal light of Sigebert 5

Who 'scaped not envy, when of truth he argued,
Reading in the straw-litter'd street"." Forthwith,
As clock, that calleth up the spouse of God?
To win her bridegroom's love at matin's hour,
Each part of other fitly drawn and urged,
Sends out a tinkling sound, of note so sweet,
Affection springs in well-disposed breast;
Thus saw I move the glorious wheel; thus heard
Voice answering voice, so musical and soft,
It can be known but where day endless shines.

1 Cieldauro.] Boëtius was buried at Pavia, in the monastery of St. Pietro in Ciel d'oro.

2 Isidore.] He was Archbishop of Seville during forty years, and died in 635. See Mariana. Hist. lib. vi. cap. vii.

Mosheim, whose critical opinions in general must be taken with some allowance, observes, that "his grammatical, theological, and historical productions, discover more learning and pedantry than judgment and taste."

3 Bede.] Bede, whose virtues obtained him the appellation of the Venerable, was born in 672, at Wermouth and Jarrow, in the bishopric of Durham, and died in 735. Invited to Rome by Pope Sergius I. he preferred passing almost the whole of his life in the seclusion of a monastery. A catalogue of his numerous writings may be seen in Kippis's Biographia Britannica, v. ii.

Richard.] Richard of St. Victor, a native either of Scotland or Ireland, was canon and prior of the monastery of that name at Paris; and died in 1173. "He was at the head of the Mystics in this century; and his treatise, intitled the Mystical Ark, which contains as it were the marrow of this kind of theology, was received with the greatest avidity." Maclaine's Mosheim, v. iii. cent. xii. p. ii. c. ii. § 23.

5 Sigebert.] "A monk of the abbey of Gemblours, who was in high repute at the end of the eleventh, and beginning of the twelfth century." Dict. de Moreri.

6 The straw-litter'd street.] The name of a street in Paris: the "Rue de Fouarre."

7 The spouse of God.] The church.

G G

CANTO XI.

ARGUMENT.

Thomas Aquinas enters at large into the life and character of St. Francis; and then solves one of two difficulties, which he perceived to have risen in Dante's mind from what he had heard in the last Canto.

O FOND anxiety of mortal men1!
How vain and inconclusive arguments

Are those, which make thee beat thy wings below.
For statutes one, and one for aphorisms2

Was hunting; this the priesthood follow'd; that, By force or sophistry, aspired to rule ;

To rob, another; and another sought,

By civil business, wealth; one, moiling, lay
Tangled in net of sensual delight;

And one to wistless indolence resign'd;

What time from all these empty things escaped, With Beatrice, I thus gloriously

Was raised aloft, and made the guest of heaven.
They of the circle to that point, each one,
Where erst it was, had turn'd; and steady glow'd,
As candle in his socket. Then within

The lustre3, that erewhile bespake me, smiling
With merer gladness, heard I thus begin:
"E'en as his beam illumes me, so I look
Into the eternal light, and clearly mark [doubt,
Thy thoughts, from whence they rise. Thou art in
And wouldst, that I should bolt my words afresh
In such plain open phrase, as may be smooth
To thy perception, where I told thee late

That well they thrive1;' and that 'no second such 5
Hath risen,' which no small distinction needs.
"The Providence, that governeth the world,
In depth of counsel by created ken
Unfathomable, to the end that she",

Who with loud cries was 'spoused in precious blood,
Might keep her footing towards her well-beloved',

1 O fond anxiety of mortal men.] Lucretius, lib. ii. 14.
O miseras hominum mentes! O pectora cæca!
Qualibus in tenebris vitæ, quantisque periclis
Degitur hoc ævi quodcunque est!

2 Aphorisms.] The study of medicine.

3 The lustre.] The spirit of Thomas Aquinas.

4 That well they thrive.' ] See the last Canto, v. 93. 5 No second such.'] See the last Canto, v. 111.

6 She.] The church.

7 Her well-beloved.] Jesus Christ.

Safe in herself and constant unto him,
Hath two ordain'd, who should on either hand
In chief escort her: one1, seraphic all
In fervency; for wisdom upon earth,
The other2, splendour of cherubic light.
I but of one will tell he tells of both,
Who one commendeth, which of them soe'er
Be taken for their deeds were to one end.

"Between Tupino3, and the wave that falls
From blest Ubaldo's chosen hill, there hangs
Rich slope of mountain high, whence heat and cold 4
Are wafted through Perugia's eastern gate :
And Nocera with Gualdo, in its rear,

Mourn for their heavy yoke. Upon that side,
Where it doth break its steepness most, arose
A sun upon the world, as duly this

From Ganges doth: therefore let none, who speak
Of that place, say Ascesi; for its name
Were lamely so deliver'd; but the East",
To call things rightly, be it henceforth styled.
He was not yet much distant from his rising,
When his good influence 'gan to bless the earth.
A dame 7, whom none openeth pleasure's gate
More than to death, was, 'gainst his father's will,
His stripling choice: and he did make her his,
Before the spiritual court, by nuptial bonds,

1 One.] Saint Francis.

2 The other.] Saint Dominic.

3 Tupino.] Thomas Aquinas proceeds to describe the birth-place of Saint Francis, between Tupino, a rivulet near Assisi, or Ascesi, where the saint was born in 1182, and Chiasciò, a stream that rises in a mountain near Agobbio, chosen by Saint Ubaldo for the place of his retirement.

4 Heat and cold.] Cold from the snow, and heat from the reflection of the sun.

5 Yoke.] Vellutello understands this of the vicinity of the mountain to Nocera and Gualdo; and Venturi (as I have taken it) of the heavy impositions laid on those places by the Perugians. For giogo, like the Latin jugum, will admit of either sense.

6 The East.]

This is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Shakspeare.

7 A dame.] There is in the under church of St. Francis, at Assisi, a picture painted by Giotto from this subject. It is considered one of the artist's best works. See Kugler's Hand-book of the History of Painting, translated by a lady. Lond. 1842. p. 48.

s 'Gainst his father's will.] In opposition to the wishes of his natural father.

9 Before the spiritual court.] He made a vow of poverty in the presence of the bishop and of his natural father.

And in his father's sight: from day to day,
Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereaved
Of her first husband 1, slighted and obscure,
Thousand and hundred years and more, remain'd
Without a single suitor, till he came.

Nor aught avail'd, that, with Amyclas2, she
Was found unmoved at rumour of his voice, [ness
Who shook the world: nor aught her constant bold-
Whereby with Christ she mounted on the cross,
When Mary stay'd beneath. But not to deal
Thus closely with thee longer, take at large
The lovers' titles-Poverty and Francis.
Their concord and glad looks, wonder and love,
And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts,
So much, that venerable Bernard3 first
Did bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peace
So heavenly, ran, yet deem'd his footing slow.
O hidden riches! O prolific good!

4

Egidius bares him next, and next Sylvester 5,
And follow, both, the bridegroom: so the bride
Can please them. Thenceforth goes he on his way,
The father and the master, with his spouse,
And with that family, whom now the cord
Girt humbly: nor did abjectness of heart
Weigh down his eyelids, for that he was son

1 Her first husband.] Christ.

2 Amyclas.] Lucan makes Cæsar exclaim, on witnessing the secure poverty of the fisherman Amyclas:

O vitæ tuta facultas

Pauperis, angustique lares! O munera nondum
Intellecta deum! quibus hoc contingere templis,
Aut potuit muris, nullo trepidare tumultu,
Cæsareâ pulsante manu?

Phars. lib. v. 531.

O happy poverty! thou greatest good
Bestow'd by heaven, but seldom understood!
Here nor the cruel spoiler seeks his prey,
Nor ruthless armies take their dreadful way, &c.

Rowe.

A translation in prose of these lines is introduced by our Poet in his Convito, p. 170.

3 Bernard.] Of Quintavalle; one of the first followers of the saint.

4 Egidius.] The third of his disciples, who died in 1262. His work, entitled Verba Aurea, was published in 1534, at Antwerp. See Lucas Waddingus, Annales Ordinis Minoris, P. 5.

5 Sylvester.] Another of his earliest associates.

6 Whom now the cord.] Saint Francis bound his body with a cord, in sign that he considered it as a beast, and that it required, like a beast, to be led by a halter.

Of Pietro Bernardone1, and by men
In wonderous sort despised. But royally
His hard intention he to Innocent 2

Set forth; and, from him, first received the seal
On his religion. Then, when numerous flock'd
The tribe of lowly ones, that traced his steps,
Whose marvelous life deservedly were sung
In heights empyreal; through Honorius'3 hand
A second crown, to deck their Guardian's virtues,
Was by the eternal Spirit inwreath'd: and when
He had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood up
In the proud Soldan's presence, and there preach'd
Christ and his followers, but found the race
Unripen'd for conversion; back once more
He hasted, (not to intermit his toil)

And reap'd Ausonian lands. On the hard rock 5,
"Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ
Took the last signet, which his limbs two years
Did carry. Then, the season come that he,
Who to such good had destined him, was pleased
To advance him to the meed, which he had earn'd
By his self-humbling; to his brotherhood,
As their just heritage, he gave in charge
His dearest lady7: and enjoin'd their love
And faith to her; and, from her bosom, will'd
His goodly spirit should move forth, returning
To its appointed kingdom; nor would have
His body laid upon another bier.

8

"Think now of one, who were a fit colleague To keep the bark of Peter, in deep sea,

1 Pietro Bernardone.] A man in an humble station of life at Assisi.

2 Innocent.] Pope Innocent III.

3 Honorius.] His successor Honorius III. who granted certain privileges to the Franciscans.

In the proud Soldan's presence.] The Soldan of Egypt, before whom Saint Francis is said to have preached.

5 On the hard rock.] The mountain Alverna in the Apennine.

6 The last signet.] Alluding to the stigmata, or marks resembling the wounds of Christ, said to have been found on the saint's body.

7 His dearest lady.] Poverty.

8 His body.] He forbad any funeral pomp to be observed at his burial; and, as it is said, ordered that his remains should be deposited in a place where criminals were executed and interred.