Mourns with heart-griping anguish; such was I, "Have mercy on me," cried I out aloud, Spirit! or living man! whate'er thou be." He answer'd: "Now not man, man once I was, The subject of my song, who came from Troy, 66 Glory and light of all the tuneful train! May it avail me, that I long with zeal Have sought thy volume, and with love immense I Where the sun in silence rests.] The sun to me is dark, And silent as the moon, When she deserts the night, Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. Milton, Sam. Agon. The same metaphor will recur, Canto v. verse 29. Into a place I came Where light was silent all. 2 When the power of Julius.] Nacqui sub Julio, ancorchè fosse tardi. This is explained by the Commentators: "Although it were rather late with respect to my birth, before Julius Cæsar assumed the supreme authority, and made himself perpetual dictator." Virgil indeed was born twenty-five years before that event., 3 Ilium's haughty towers.] Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide1! That never sated is her ravenous will, Still after food2 more craving than before. She fastens, and shall yet to many more, 1 My master thou, and guide.] Tu se' lo mio maestro, e'l mio autore, Tu se' solo colui. Thou art my father, thou my author, thou. 2 Still after food.] So Frezzi: Milton, P. L. ii. 864. La voglia sempre ha fame, e mai non s'empie, Il Quadriregio, lib. ii. cap. xi. Venturi observes that the verse in the original is borrowed by Berni. 3 That greyhound.] This passage has been commonly understood as an eulogium on the liberal spirit of his Veronese patron, Can Grande della Scala. 4 'Twixt either Feltro.] Verona, the country of Can della Scala, is situated between Feltro, a city in the Marca Trivigiana, and Monte Feltro, a city in the territory of Urbino. But Dante perhaps does not merely point out the place of Can Grande's nativity, for he may allude further to a prophecy, ascribed to Michael Scot, which imported that the Dog of Verona would be lord of Padua and of all the Marca Trivigiana." It was fulfilled in the year 1329, a little before Can Grande's death. See G.Villani Hist. 1. x. cap. cv. and exli. and some lively criticism by Gasparo Gozzi, entitled Giudizio degli Antichi Poeti, &c. printed at the end of the Zatta edition of Dante, t. iv. part. ii. p. 15. The prophecy, it is likely, was a forgery; for Michael died before Shall safety to Italia's plains1 arise, He, with incessant chase, through every town That thou mayst follow me; and I, thy guide, A second death2; and those next view, who dwell Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart, But. 1300, when Can Grande was only nine years old. See Hell, xx. 115, and Par. xvii. 75. Troya has given a new interpretation to Dante's prediction, which he applies to Uguccione della Faggiola, whose country also was situated between two Feltros. See the Veltro Allegorico di Dante, p. 110. after all the pains he has taken, this very able writer fails to make it clear that Uguccione, though he acted a prominent part as a Ghibelline leader, is intended here or in Purgatory, c. xxxiii. 38. The main proofs rest on an ambiguous report mentioned by Boccaccio of the Inferno being dedicated to him, and on a suspicious letter attributed to a certain friar Ilario, in which the friar describes Dante addressing him as a stranger, and desiring him to convey that portion of the poem to Uguccione. There is no direct allusion to him throughout the Divina Commedia, as there is to the other chief public protectors of our poet during his exile. 1 Italia's plains.] "Umile Italia," from Virgil, Æn. lib. iii. 522. Humilemque videmus Italiam. 2 A second death.] "And in these days men shall seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." Rev. ix. 6. 3 Content in fire.] The spirits in Purgatory. 4 A spirit worthier.] Beatrice, who conducts the Poet through Paradise. I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse m CANTO II. ARGUMENT. After the invocation, which poets are used to prefix to their works, he shows, that, on a consideration of his own strength, he doubted whether it sufficed for the journey proposed to him, but that, being comforted by Virgil, he at last took courage, and followed him as his guide and master. Now was the day departing 2, and the air, Prepared myself the conflict to sustain, I thus began: "Bard! thou who art my guide, Consider well, if virtue be in me Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise Thou trust me. Thou hast told that Silvius' sire 4, Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among The immortal tribes had entrance, and was there Sensibly present. Yet if heaven's great Lord, Saint Peter's gate.] The gate of Purgatory, which the poet feigns to be guarded by an angel placed on that station by St. Peter. Now was the day.] A compendium of Virgil's description, Æn. lib. iv. 522. Compare Apollonius Rhodius, lib. iii. 744. and lib. iv. 1058. The day gan failin; and the darke night, That revith bestis from their businesse, Berafte me my booke, &c. 30 mind.] Chaucer. The Assemble of Foules. O thought! that write all that I met, Of my braine, now shall men see If any virtue in thee be. Chaucer. Temple of Fame, b. ii. v. 18. Silvius' sire.] Eneas. E Almighty foe to ill, such favour show'd In contemplation of the high effect, Both what and who from him should issue forth, I venture, fear it will in folly end. Thou, who art wise, better my meaning know'st, 66 From noblest resolution, like a beast At some false semblance in the twilight gloom. The chosen vessel.] St. Paul. Acts, ix. 15. "But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me." 2 There.] This refers to "the immortal tribes," v. 15. St. Paul having been caught up to heaven. Cor. xii. 2. 3 Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd.] L'anima tua è da viltate offesa. So in Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. iii. c. i. st. 53. Se l'alma avete offesa da viltate. 4 Who rest suspended.] The spirits in Limbo, neither admitted to a state of glory nor doomed to punishment. |