Its topmost round; when it appear'd to him
With angels laden. But to mount it now
None lifts his foot from earth: and hence my rule
Is left a profitless stain upon the leaves;
The walls, for abbey rear'd, turn'd into dens;
The cowls, to sacks choak'd up with musty meal.
Foul usury doth not more lift itself
Against God's pleasure, than that fruit, which makes 1 The hearts of monks so wanton: for whate'er Is in the church's keeping, all pertains
To such, as sue for heaven's sweet sake; and not
To those, who in respect of kindred claim,
Or on more vile allowance. Mortal flesh
Is grown so dainty, good beginnings last not
From the oak's birth unto the acorn's setting.
His convent Peter founded without gold
Or silver; I, with prayers and fasting, mine;
And Francis, his in meek humility.
And if thou note the point, whence each proceeds,
Then look what it hath err'd to; thou shalt find
The white grown murky. Jordan was turn'd back:
And a less wonder, than the refluent sea,
May, at God's pleasure, work amendment here."
So saying, to his assembly back he drew :
And they together cluster'd into one;
Then all roll'd upward, like an eddying wind.
The sweet dame beckon'd me to follow them:
And, by that influence only, so prevail'd
Over my nature, that no natural motion,
Ascending or descending here below,
Had, as I mounted, with my pennon vied.
So, reader, as my hope is to return
Unto the holy triumph, for the which
I oft-times wail my sins, and smite my breast;
Thou hadst been longer drawing out and thrusting
Thy finger in the fire, than I was, ere
The sign', that followeth Taurus, I beheld,
And enter'd its precinct. O glorious stars!
O light impregnate with exceeding virtue!
To whom whate'er of genius lifteth me
heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." Gen. xxviii. 12. So Milton, P. L. b. iii. 510. The stairs were such, as whereon Jacob saw Angels ascending and descending, bands Of guardians bright.
1 The sign.] The constellation of Gemini.
Above the vulgar, grateful I refer;
With ye the parent of all mortal life
Arose and set, when I did first inhale
The Tuscan air; and afterward, when grace
Vouchsafed me entrance to the lofty wheel2
That in its orb impels ye, fate decreed
My passage at your clime. To you my soul
Devoutly sighs, for virtue, even now,
To meet the hard emprize that draws me on.
"Thou art so near the sum of blessedness,"
Said Beatrice," that behoves thy ken
Be vigilant and clear. And, to this end,
Or ever thou advance thee further, hence
Look downward, and contemplate, what a world
Already stretch'd under our feet there lies:
So as thy heart may, in its blithest mood,
Present itself to the triumphal throng, [joicing."
Which, through the ethereal concave, comes re-
I straight obey'd; and with mine eye return'd
Through all the seven spheres; and saw this globe3
So pitiful of semblance, that perforce
It moved my smiles: and him in truth I hold
For wisest, who esteems it least; whose thoughts
Elsewhere are fix'd, him worthiest call and best.
I saw the daughter of Latona shine
Without the shadow 4, whereof late I deem'd
That dense and rare were cause. Here I sustain'd The visage, Hyperion, of thy son5;
And mark'd, how near him with their circles, round Move Maia and Dione; here discern'd
The parent.] The sun was in the constellation of the Twins at the time of Dante's birth.
2 The lofty wheel.] The eighth heaven; that, of the fixed stars.
3 This globe.] So Chaucer, Troilus and Cresseide, b. v.
And down from thence fast he gan avise
This little spot of earth, that with the sea
Embraced is, and fully gan despise
This wretched world.
All the world as to mine eye
No more seemed than a prike.
Compare Cicero. Somn. Scip. "Jam ipsa terra ita mihi parva visa est," &c. Lucan. Phars. lib. ix. 11. and Tasso, G. L. c. xiv. st. 9, 10, 11.
A Without the shadow.] See Canto ii. 71.
5 Of thy son.] The sun.
Maia and Dione.] The planets Mercury and Venus: Dione being the mother of the latter, and Maia of the former deity.
Jove's tempering 'twixt his sire and son1; and hence,
Their changes and their various aspects,
Distinctly scann'd. Nor might I not descry
Of all the seven, how bulky each, how swift;
Nor, of their several distances, not learn.
This petty area (o'er the which we stride
So fiercely) as along the eternal Twins
I wound my way, appear'd before me all,
Forth from the havens stretch'd unto the hills.
Then, to the beauteous eyes, mine eyes return'd.
He sees Christ triumphing with his church. The Saviour ascends, followed by his virgin Mother. The others remain with Saint Peter.
E'EN as the bird, who midst the leafy bower
Has, in her nest, sat darkling through the night,
With her sweet brood; impatient to descry
Their wished looks, and to bring home their food,
In the fond quest unconscious of her toil:
She, of the time prevenient, on the spray,
That overhangs their couch, with wakeful gaze
Expects the sun; nor ever, till the dawn,
Removeth from the east her eager ken:
So stood the dame erect, and bent her glance
Wistfully on that region2, where the sun
Abateth most his speed; that, seeing her
Suspense and wondering, I became as one,
In whom desire is waken'd, and the hope
Of somewhat new to come fills with delight.
Short space ensued ; I was not held, I say,
Long in expectance, when I saw the heaven
Wax more and more resplendent; and "Behold,"
Cried Beatrice, " the triumphal hosts
Of Christ, and all the harvest gather'd in,
Made ripe by these revolving spheres." Meseem'd,
That, while she spake, her image all did burn;
And in her eyes such fulness was of joy,
As I am fain to pass unconstrued by.
1 'Twixt his sire and son.] Betwixt Saturn and Mars.
2 That region.] Towards the south, where the course of the sun appears less rapid, than when he is in the east or the west.
As in the calm full moon, when Trivia1 smiles,
In peerless beauty, 'mid the eternal nymphs2,
That paint through all its gulfs the blue profound;
In bright pre-eminence so saw I there
O'er million lamps a sun, from whom all drew
Their radiance, as from ours the starry train :
And, through the living light, so lustrous glow'd
The substance, that my ken endured it not.
O Beatrice! sweet and precious guide,
Who cheer'd me with her comfortable words:
Against the virtue, that o'erpowereth thee,
Avails not to resist. Here is the Might3,
And here the Wisdom, which did open lay
The path, that had been yearned for so long,
Betwixt the heaven and earth." Like to the fire,
That, in a cloud imprison'd, doth break out
Expansive, so that from its womb enlarged,
It falleth against nature to the ground;
Thus, in that heavenly banqueting, my soul
Outgrew herself; and, in the transport lost,
Holds now remembrance none of what she was.
"Ope thou thine eyes, and mark me: thou hast seen
Things, that empower thee to sustain my smile."
I was as one, when a forgotten dream
Doth come across him, and he strives in vain
1 Trivia.] A name of Diana.
2 The eternal nymphs.] The stars.
Σελάνα τε κατ' αἰθερὰ,
Λαμπάδ ̓, ἵν ̓ ὠκυθόαι νύμφαι
Ἱππεύουσι δι ̓ ὄρφναίας.
Eurip. Supp. 995. Edit. Barnes.
Those starry nymphs, which dance about the pole.
Musgrave and Herman would dismiss the word νύμφαι. nymphs," from this passage in Euripides; but the use of it by our Author in the text, tends to prove that it is the genuine reading and it is thus that poets of the most distant ages, and without any knowledge of each other's writings (for we can scarcely imagine Dante to have read the plays of Euripides) may often protect one another against the verbal critics. Drummond, I believe, had learning enough to be indebted to either of his predecessors. Expressions somewhat similar, in Theocritus and Tibullus, are observed by Markland.
3 The Might.] Our Saviour.
4 A forgotten dream.]
Hunt half a day for a forgotten dream.
Wordsworth, Hart-Leap Well.
To shape it in his fantasy again :
Whenas that gracious boon was proffer'd me,
Which never may be cancel'd from the book
Wherein the past is written. Now were all
Those tongues to sound, that have, on sweetest milk
Of Polyhymnia and her sisters, fed
And fatten'd; not with all their help to boot,
Unto the thousandth parcel of the truth,
My song might shadow forth that saintly smile,
How merely, in her saintly looks, it wrought.
And, with such figuring of Paradise,
The sacred strain must leap, like one that meets
A sudden interruption to his road.
But he, who thinks how ponderous the theme,
And that 't is laid upon a mortal shoulder,
May pardon, if it tremble with the burden.
The track, our venturous keel must furrow, brooks
No unribb'd pinnace, no self-sparing pilot.
"Why doth my face," said Beatrice, "thus
Enamour thee, as that thou dost not turn
Unto the beautiful garden, blossoming
Beneath the rays of Christ? Here is the rose1,
Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate;
And here the lilies2, by whose odour known
The way of life was follow'd." Prompt I heard
Her bidding, and encounter'd once again
The strife of aching vision. As, erewhile,
Through glance of sun-light, stream'd through
broken cloud,
Mine eyes a flower-besprinkled mead have seen;
Though veil'd themselves in shade: so saw I there
Legions of splendours, on whom burning rays
Shed lightnings from above; yet saw I not
The fountain whence they flow'd. O gracious virtue!
Thou, whose broad stamp is on them, higher up
Thou didst exalt thy glory3, to give room
To my o'erlabour'd sight; when at the name
1 The rose.] The Virgin Mary, who, says Lombardi, is termed by the church, Rosa Mystica. "I was exalted like a palm-tree in Engaddi, and as a rose-plant in Jericho." Ecclesiasticus, xxiv. 14.
2 The lilies.] The Apostles. "And give ye a sweet savour as frankincense, and flourish as a lily." Ecclesiasticus, xxxix. 14.
* Thou didst exalt thy glory.] The divine light retired upwards; to render the eyes of Dante more capable of enduring the spectacle which now presented itself.
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