66

Yet in his smile apparent; and thus spake :
Contingency', whose verge extendeth not
Beyond the tablet of your mortal mold,

Is all depictured in the eternal sight ;
But hence deriveth not necessity2,

More than the tall ship, hurried down the flood,
Is driven by the eye that looks on it.

From thence,3 as to the ear sweet harmony
From organ comes, so comes before mine eye
The time prepared for thee. Such as driven out
From Athens, by his cruel stepdame's1 wiles,
Hippolytus departed; such must thou

Depart from Florence. This they wish, and this
Contrive, and will ere long effectuate, there 5,
Where gainful merchandize is made of Christ
Throughout the livelong day. The common cry,
Will, as 't is ever wont, affix the blame
Unto the party injured: but the truth

Shall, in the vengeance it dispenseth, find

A faithful witness. Thou shalt leave each thing?
Beloved most dearly: this is the first shaft
Shot from the bow of exile. Thou shalt prove
How salt the savour is of other's bread;
How hard the passage, to descend and climb
By other's stairs. But that shall gall thee most,
Will be the worthless and vile company,

1 Contingency.]

La contingenza, che fuor del quaderno
Della vostra materia non si stende.

I had before understood this, "Contingency, which is not
exposed to view on the tablet of your nature,"
"" which is not
discoverable by your human understanding," and had trans-
lated it accordingly; but have now adopted Lombardi's ex-
planation: "Contingency, which has no place beyond the
limits of the material world."

2 Necessity.] "The evidence with which we see casual events pourtrayed in the source of all truth, no more necessitates those events, than does the image, reflected in the sight by a ship sailing down a stream, necessitate the motion of the vessel."

3 From thence.] "From the eternal sight; the view of the Deity himself."

4 His cruel stepdame.] Phædra.

5 There.] At Rome, where the expulsion of Dante's party from Florence was then plotting, in 1300.

The common cry.] The multitude will, as usual, be ready to blame those who are sufferers, whose cause will at last be vindicated by the overthrow of their enemies.

7 Thou shalt leave each thing.] Compare Euripid. Phoen. 399, &c.

With whom thou must be thrown into these straits.
For all ungrateful, impious all, and mad,
Shall turn 'gainst thee: but in a little while,
Theirs1, and not thine, shall be the crimson'd brow.
Their course shall so evince their brutishness,
To have ta'en thy stand apart shall well become thee.
"First refuge thou must find, first place of rest,
In the great Lombard's courtesy, who bears,
Upon the ladder perch'd, the sacred bird.
He shall behold thee with such kind regard,
That 'twixt ye two, the contrary to that
Which 'fals 'twixt other men, the granting shall
Forerun the asking. With him shalt thou see
That mortal3, who was at his birth imprest
So strongly from this star, that of his deeds
The nations shall take note. His unripe age
Yet holds him from observance; for these wheels
Only nine years have compast him about.
But, ere the Gascon 4 practise on great Harry 5,
Sparkles of virtue shall shoot forth in him,
In equal scorn of labours and of gold.
His bounty shall be spread abroad so widely,
As not to let the tongues, e'en of his foes,
Be idle in its praise. Look thou to him,
And his beneficence: for he shall cause
Reversal of their lot to many people;
Rich men and beggars interchanging fortunes.
And thou shalt bear this written in thy soul,
Of him, but tell it not:" and things he told
Incredible to those who witness them;
Then added: "So interpret thou, my son,

1 Theirs.] 66 They shall be ashamed of the part they have taken against thee." Lombardi, I think, is very unhappy in his conjecture, that rotta la tempia, a reading of the Nidobeatina edition, should be adopted, and that it may mean "the broken heads of his companions."

2 The great Lombard.] Either Bartolommeo della Scala; or Alboino his brother, although our Poet has spoken ambiguously of him in his Convito, p. 179. Their coat of arms was a ladder and an eagle. For an account of the rise of this family from a very mean condition, see G. Villani, lib. xi.

cap. 94.

3 That mortal.] Can Grande della Scala, born under the influence of Mars, but at this time only nine years old. He was, as the other two, a son of Alberto della Scala.

4 The Gascon.] Pope Clement V. See Hell, Canto xix. 86, and note, and Par. Canto xxvii. 53, and Canto xxx. 141.

5 Great Harry.] The Emperor Henry VII. See Canto xxx. 135.

6 In equal scorn.] See Hell, Canto i. 98.

What hath been told thee.-Lo! the ambushment
That a few circling seasons hide for thee.
Yet envy not thy neighbours: time extends
Thy span beyond their treason's chastisement."
Soon as the saintly spirit, by silence, mark'd
Completion of that web, which I had stretch'd
Before it, warp'd for weaving; I began,
As one, who in perplexity desires

Counsel of other, wise, benign and friendly :
My father! well I mark how time spurs on
Toward me, ready to inflict the blow,
Which falls most heavily on him who most
Abandoneth himself. Therefore 't is good
I should forecast, that, driven from the place'
Most dear to me, I may not lose myself?
All other by my song. Down through the world
Of infinite mourning; and along the mount,
From whose fair height my lady's eyes did lift me;
And, after, through this heaven, from light to light;
Have I learnt that, which if I tell again,
It may with many wofully disrelish:
And, if I am a timid friend to truth,

I fear my life may perish among those,
To whom these days shall be of ancient date."
The brightness, where enclosed the treasure 3
smiled,

Which I had found there, first shone glisteringly,
Like to a golden mirror in the sun;

Next answer'd: "Conscience, dimm'd or by its own
Or other's shame, will feel thy saying sharp.
Thou, notwithstanding, all deceit removed,
See the whole vision be made manifest.

And let them wince, who have their withers wrung.
What though, when tasted first, thy voice shall prove
Unwelcome on digestion, it will turn

:

To vital nourishment. The cry thou raisest1,

1 The place.] Our Poet here discovers both that Florence, much as he inveighs against it, was still the dearest object of his affections, and that it was not without some scruple he indulged his satirical vein.

2 I may not lose myself.] "That being driven out of my country, I may not deprive myself of every other place by the boldness, with which I expose in my writings the vices of mankind.'

3 The treasure.] Cacciaguida.

The cry thou raisest.] "Thou shalt stigmatize the faults of those who are most eminent and powerful; for men are naturally less moved by instances, adduced from among those who are in the lower classes of life."

Shall, as the wind doth, smite the proudest summits;
Which is of honour no light argument.

For this, there only have been shown to thee,
Throughout these orbs, the mountain, and the deep,
Spirits, whom fame hath note of. For the mind
Of him, who hears, is loth to acquiesce
And fix its faith, unless the instance brought
Be palpable, and proof apparent urge."

m

CANTO XVIII.

ARGUMENT.

Dante sees the souls of many renowned warriors and crusaders in the planet Mars; and then ascends with Beatrice to Jupiter, the sixth heaven, in which he finds the souls of those who had administered justice rightly in the world, so disposed, as to form the figure of an eagle. The Canto concludes with an invective against the avarice of the clergy, and especially of the pope.

Now in his word, sole, ruminating, joy'd
That blessed spirit: and I fed on mine,

Tempering the sweet with bitter2. She meanwhile,
Who led me unto God, admonish'd: "Muse
On other thoughts: bethink thee, that near Him
I dwell, who recompenseth every wrong.'

Thus much

At the sweet sounds of comfort straight I turn'd;
And, in the saintly eyes what love was seen,
I leave in silence here, nor through distrust
Of my words only, but that to such bliss
The mind remounts not without aid.
Yet may I speak; that, as I gazed on her,
Affection found no room for other wish.
While the everlasting pleasure, that did full
On Beatrice shine, with second view

From her fair countenance my gladden'd soul
Contented; vanquishing me with a beam

Of her soft smile, she spake: "Turn thee, and list.
These eyes are not thy only Paradise."

As here, we sometimes in the looks may see The affection mark'd, when that its sway hath ta'en

1 Now.]

The spirit of Cacciaguida enjoyed its own

thoughts in silence.

2 Tempering the sweet with bitter.]

Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy.

Shakspeare, As you Like it, act 3. scene 3.

The spirit wholly; thus the hallow'd light',
To whom I turn'd, flashing, bewray'd its will
To talk yet further with me, and began:
"On this fifth lodgment of the tree 2, whose life
Is from its top, whose fruit is ever fair
And leaf unwithering, blessed spirits abide,
That were below, ere they arrived in heaven,
So mighty in renown, as every muse

Might grace her triumph with them. On the horns
Look, therefore, of the cross: he whom I name,
Shall there enact, as doth in summer cloud
Its nimble fire." Along the cross I saw,
At the repeated name of Joshua,

A splendour gliding; nor, the word was said,
Ere it was done: then, at the naming, saw,
Of the great Maccabee3, another move

With whirling speed; and gladness was the scourge
Unto that top. The next for Charlemain1
And for the peer Orlando, two my gaze
Pursued, intently, as the eye pursues
A falcon flying. Last, along the cross,
William, and Renard, and Duke Godfrey drew

1 The hallow'd light.] In which the spirit of Cacciaguida

was enclosed.

2 On this fifth lodgment of the tree.] Mars, the fifth of the heavens.

3 The great Maccabee.] Judas Maccabeus. 4 Charlemain.]

L. Pulci commends Dante for placing Charlemain and Orlando here:

Io mi confido ancor molto quì a Dante,
Che non sanza cagion nel ciel su misse
Carlo ed Orlando in quelle croci sante,
Che come diligente intese e scrisse.

Morg. Magg. c. xxviii. 5 William, and Renard.] Probably, not, as the commentators have imagined, William II. of Orange, and his kinsman Raimbaud, two of the crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, (Maimbourg, Hist. des Croisades, ed. Par. 1682, 12mo. tom. i. p. 96.) but rather the two more celebrated heroes in the age of Charlemain. The former, William I. of Orange, supposed to have been the founder of the present illustrious family of that name, died about 808, according to Joseph de la Pise. Tableau de l'Hist. des Princes et Principauté d' Orange. Our countryman, Ordericus Vitalis, professes to give his true life, which had been misrepresented in the songs of the itinerant bards. "Vulgo canitur a joculatoribus de illo cantilena; sed jure præferenda est relatio autentica." Eccl. Hist. in Duchesne. Hist. Normann. Script. p. 598. The latter is better known by having been celebrated by Ariosto, under the name of Rinaldo.

6 Duke Godfrey.] Godfrey of Bouillon.

Poi venia solo il buon duce Goffrido,
Che fè l'impresa santa e i passi giusti;