Sender’s note: Happy Halloween!
Singing like unto an enamoured lady
She, with the ending of her words, continued:
"Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata."
And even as Nymphs, that wandered all alone
Among the sylvan shadows, sedulous 5
One to avoid and one to see the sun,
She then against the stream moved onward, going
Along the bank, and I abreast of her,
Her little steps with little steps attending.
Between her steps and mine were not a hundred, 10
When equally the margins gave a turn,
In such a way, that to the East I faced.
Nor even thus our way continued far
Before the lady wholly turned herself
Unto me, saying, "Brother, look and listen!" 15
And lo! a sudden lustre ran across
On every side athwart the spacious forest,
Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.
But since the lightning ceases as it comes,
And that continuing brightened more and more, 20
Within my thought I said, "What thing is this?"
And a delicious melody there ran
Along the luminous air, whence holy zeal
Made me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;
For there where earth and heaven obedient were, 25
The woman only, and but just created,
Could not endure to stay 'neath any veil;
Underneath which had she devoutly stayed,
I sooner should have tasted those delights
Ineffable, and for a longer time. 30
While 'mid such manifold first-fruits I walked
Of the eternal pleasure all enrapt,
And still solicitous of more delights,
In front of us like an enkindled fire
Became the air beneath the verdant boughs, 35
And the sweet sound as singing now was heard.
O Virgins sacrosanct! if ever hunger,
Vigils, or cold for you I have endured,
The occasion spurs me their reward to claim!
Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me, 40
And with her choir Urania must assist me,
To put in verse things difficult to think.
A little farther on, seven trees of gold
In semblance the long space still intervening
Between ourselves and them did counterfeit; 45
But when I had approached so near to them
The common object, which the sense deceives,
Lost not by distance any of its marks,
The faculty that lends discourse to reason
Did apprehend that they were candlesticks, 50
And in the voices of the song "Hosanna!"
Above them flamed the harness beautiful,
Far brighter than the moon in the serene
Of midnight, at the middle of her month.
I turned me round, with admiration filled, 55
To good Virgilius, and he answered me
With visage no less full of wonderment.
Then back I turned my face to those high things,
Which moved themselves towards us so sedately,
They had been distanced by new-wedded brides. 60
The lady chid me: "Why dost thou burn only
So with affection for the living lights,
And dost not look at what comes after them?"
Then saw I people, as behind their leaders,
Coming behind them, garmented in white, 65
And such a whiteness never was on earth.
The water on my left flank was resplendent,
And back to me reflected my left side,
E'en as a mirror, if I looked therein.
When I upon my margin had such post 70
That nothing but the stream divided us,
Better to see I gave my steps repose;
And I beheld the flamelets onward go,
Leaving behind themselves the air depicted,
And they of trailing pennons had the semblance, 75
So that it overhead remained distinct
With sevenfold lists, all of them of the colours
Whence the sun's bow is made, and Delia's girdle.
These standards to the rearward longer were
Than was my sight; and, as it seemed to me, 80
Ten paces were the outermost apart.
Under so fair a heaven as I describe
The four and twenty Elders, two by two,
Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce.
They all of them were singing: "Blessed thou 85
Among the daughters of Adam art, and blessed
For evermore shall be thy loveliness."
After the flowers and other tender grasses
In front of me upon the other margin
Were disencumbered of that race elect, 90
Even as in heaven star followeth after star,
There came close after them four animals,
Incoronate each one with verdant leaf.
Plumed with six wings was every one of them,
The plumage full of eyes; the eyes of Argus 95
If they were living would be such as these.
Reader! to trace their forms no more I waste
My rhymes; for other spendings press me so,
That I in this cannot be prodigal.
But read Ezekiel, who depicteth them 100
As he beheld them from the region cold
Coming with cloud, with whirlwind, and with fire;
And such as thou shalt find them in his pages,
Such were they here; saving that in their plumage
John is with me, and differeth from him. 105
The interval between these four contained
A chariot triumphal on two wheels,
Which by a Griffin's neck came drawn along;
And upward he extended both his wings
Between the middle list and three and three, 110
So that he injured none by cleaving it.
So high they rose that they were lost to sight;
His limbs were gold, so far as he was bird,
And white the others with vermilion mingled.
Not only Rome with no such splendid car 115
E'er gladdened Africanus, or Augustus,
But poor to it that of the Sun would be,--
That of the Sun, which swerving was burnt up
At the importunate orison of Earth,
When Jove was so mysteriously just. 120
Three maidens at the right wheel in a circle
Came onward dancing; one so very red
That in the fire she hardly had been noted.
The second was as if her flesh and bones
Had all been fashioned out of emerald; 125
The third appeared as snow but newly fallen.
And now they seemed conducted by the white,
Now by the red, and from the song of her
The others took their step, or slow or swift.
Upon the left hand four made holiday 130
Vested in purple, following the measure
Of one of them with three eyes in her head.
In rear of all the group here treated of
Two old men I beheld, unlike in habit,
But like in gait, each dignified and grave. 135
One showed himself as one of the disciples
Of that supreme Hippocrates, whom nature
Made for the animals she holds most dear;
Contrary care the other manifested,
With sword so shining and so sharp, it caused 140
Terror to me on this side of the river.
Thereafter four I saw of humble aspect,
And behind all an aged man alone
Walking in sleep with countenance acute.
And like the foremost company these seven 145
Were habited; yet of the flower-de-luce
No garland round about the head they wore,
But of the rose, and other flowers vermilion;
At little distance would the sight have sworn
That all were in a flame above their brows. 150
And when the car was opposite to me
Thunder was heard; and all that folk august
Seemed to have further progress interdicted,
There with the vanward ensigns standing still.
NOTES
1 - 1
The Terrestrial Paradise and the Apocalyptic Procession of the Church Triumphant.
3 - 3
Psalm xxxii. 1: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
10 - 10
Counted together, their steps were not a hundred in all.
41 - 41
The Muse of Astronomy, or things celestial, represented as crowned with stars and robed in azure. Milton, Parad. Lost, VII. 1, makes the same invocation: –
“Descend from heaven, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing.
The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st; but, heavenly-born,
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song.”47 - 47
The general form which objects may have in common, and by which they resemble each other.
49 - 49
The faculty which lends discourse to reason is apprehension, or the faculty by which things are first conceived. See Canto XVIII. 22: –
“Your apprehension from some real thing
An image draws, and in yourselves displays it,
So that it makes the soul turn unto it.”50 - 50
Revelation i. 12, 20: “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And, being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks.....And the seven candlesticks.....are the seven churches.”
Some commentators interpret them as the seven Sacraments of the Church; others, as the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.
78 - 78
Delia or Diana, the moon; and her girdle, the halo, sometimes seen around it.
83 - 83
Revelation iv. 4: “And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.”
These four and twenty elders are supposed to symbolize here the four and twenty books of the Old Testament. The crown of lilies indicates the purity of faith and doctrine.
85 - 85
The salutation of the angel to the Virgin Mary. Luke i. 28: “Blessed art thou among women.” Here the words are made to refer to Beatrice.
92 - 92
The four Evangelists, of whom the four mysterious animals in Ezekiel are regarded as symbols. Mrs. Jameson, Sacret and legendary Art, I. 99: –
“The general application of the Four Creatures to the Four
Evangelists is of much earlier date than the separate and
individual application of each symbol, which has varied at
different times; that propounded by St. Jerome, in his
commentary on Ezekiel, has since his time prevailed
universally. Thus, then, – 1. To St. Matthew was given
the CHERUB, or human semblance, because he begins his Gospel
with the human generation of Christ; or, according to
others, because in his Gospel the human nature of the
Saviour is more insisted on the divine. In the most ancient
mosaics, the type is human, not angelic, for the head is
that of a man with a beard. 2. St. Mark has the LION,
because he has set forth the royal dignity of Christ; or,
according to others, because he begins with the mission of
the Baptist, – 'the voice of one crying in the
wilderness,' – which is figured by the lion: or, according
to a third interpretation, the lion was allotted to St. Mark
because there was, in the Middle Ages, a popular belief that
the young of the lion was born dead, and after three days
was awakened to vitality by the breath of its sire; some
authors, however, represent the lion as vivifying his young,
not by his breath, but by his roar. In either case the
application is the same; the revival of the young lion was
considered as symbolical of the resurrection, and Mark was
commonly called the 'historian of the resurrection.'
Another commentator observes that Mark begins his Gospel
with 'roaring,' – 'the voice of one crying in the
wilderness'; and ends it fearfully with a curse, – 'He that
believeth shall not be damned'; and that, therefore, his
appropriate attribute is the most terrible of beasts, the
lion. 3. Luke has the OX, because he has dwelt on the
priesthood of Christ, the ox being the emblem of
sacrifice. 4. John has the EAGLE, which is the symbol of
the highest inspiration, because he soared upwards to he
contemplation of the divine nature of the Saviour.”100 - 100
Ezekiel i. 4: “And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof, as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst therof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearence; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet as like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.”
105 - 105
In Revelation iv. 8, they are described as having “each of them six wings”; in Ezekiel, as having only four.
107 - 107
The triumphal chariot is the Church. The two wheels are generally interpreted as meaning the Old and New Testaments; but Dante, Par. XII. 106, speaks of them as St. Dominic and St. Francis.
108 - 108
The Griffin, half lion and half eagle, is explained by all the commentators as a symbol of Christ, in his divine and human nature. Didron, in his Christian Iconography, interprets it differently. He says, Millington's Tr., I. 458: –
“The mystical bird of two colors is understood in the
manuscript of Herrade to mean the Church; in Dante, the bi-
formed bird is the representative of the Church, the Pope.
The Pope, in fact, is both priest and king; he directs the
souls and governs the persons of men; he reigns over things
in heaven. The Pope, then, is but one single person in two
natures, and under two forms; he is both eagle and lion. In
his character of Pontiff, or as an eagle, he hovers in the
heavens, and ascends even to the throne of God to receive
his commands; as the lion or king he walks upon the earth in
strength and power.”He adds in a note:
“Some commentators of Dante have supposed the griffin to be
the emblem of Christ, who, in fact, is one single person
with two natures; of Christ, in whom God and man are
combined. But in this they are mistaken; there is, in the
first place, a manifest impropriety in describing the car as
drawn by God as by a beast of burden. It is very doubtful
even whether Dante can be altogether freed from the
imputation of a want of reverence in harnessing the Pope to
the car of the Church.”110 - 110
The wings of the Griffin extend upward between the middle list or trail of splendor of the seven candles and the three outer ones on each side.
117 - 117
The chariot of the sun, which Phaeton had leave to drive for a day, is thus described by Ovid, Met. II., Addison's Tr.: –
“A golden axle did the work uphold,
Gold was the beam, the wheels were orbed with gold.
The spokes in rows of silver pleased the sight,
The seat with party-colored gems was bright;
Apollo shined amid the glare of light.”120 - 120
In smiting Phaeton with a thunderbolt. Ovid, Met. II.: –
“Jove called to witness every power above,
And even the god whose son the chariot drove,
That what he acts he is compelled to do,
Or universal ruin must ensue.
Straight he ascends the high ethereal throne,
From whence he used to dart his thunder down,
From whence his showers and storms he used to pour,
But now could meet with neither storm nor shower;
Then, aiming at the youth, with lifted hand,
Full at his head he hurled the forky brand,
In dreadful thund'rings. Thus th'almighty sire
Suppressed the raging of the fires with fire.”See also Inf. XVII. Note 107.
121 - 121
The three Theological or Evangelical Virtues, Charity, Hope, and Faith. For they symbolism of colors in Art, see Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, quoted Canto VIII. Note 28.
130 - 130
The four Cardinal Virtues, Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance. They are clothed in purple to mark their nobility. Prudence is represented with three eyes, as looking at the past, the present, and the future.
133 - 133
St. Luke and St. Paul.
136 - 136
St. Luke is supposed to have been a physician; a belief founded on Colossians iv. 14, “Luke, the beloved physican.” The animal that nature holds most dear is man.
140 - 140
The sword with which St. Paul is armed is a symbol of warfare and martydom; “I bring not peace, but a sword.” St. Luke's office was to heal; St. Paul's to destroy. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, I. 188, says: –
“At what period the sword was given to St. Paul as his
distinctive attribute is with antiquaries a disputed point;
certainly much later than the keys were given to Peter. If
we could be sure that the mosiac on the tomb of Otho the
Second, and another mosaic already described, had not been
altered in successive restorations, these would be evidence
that the sword was given to St. Paul as his attribute as
early as the sixth century; but there are no monuments which
can be absolutely trusted as regards the introduction of the
sword before the end of the eleventh century; since the end
of the fourteenth century has been so generally adopted,
that in the devotional effiges I can remember no instance in
which it is ommitted. When St. Paul is leaning on the
sword, it expresses his martyrdom; when he holds it aloft,
it expresses also his warfare in the cause of Christ: when
two swords are given to him, one is the attribute, the other
the emblem; but this double allusion does not occur in any
of the older representations. In Italy I never met with St.
Paul bearing two swords, and the only instance I can call to
mind is the bronze statue by Peter Vischer, on the shrine of
St. Sebald, at Nuremberg.”142 - 142
The four Apostles James, Peter, John, and Jude, writers of the Canonical Epistles. The red flowers, with which their foreheads seem all aflame, are symbols of martyrdom. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, V. 1: –
“What flowers are these? In Dioclesian's gardens, the most beauteous Compared with these are weeds.”
143 - 143
St. John, writer of the Apocalypse; here represented as asleep; as if he were “in spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind him a great voice as of a trumpet.” Or perhaps the allusion may be to the belief of the early Christians that John did not die, but was sleeping till the second coming of Christ. This subject has been represented in mediaeval Art as follows. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, I. 139: –
“St. John, habited in priest's garments, descends the steps
of an altar into an open grave, in which he lays himself
down, not in death, but in sleep, until the coming of
Christ; 'being reserved alive with Enoch and Elijah (who
also knew not death), to preach against the Antichrist in
the last days.' This fanciful legend is founded on the
following text: 'Peter, seeing the disciple whom Jesus loved
following, saith unto Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man
do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I
come, what is that to thee? Then went this saying abroad
among the brethren that disciple should not die.' (John xxi.
21, 22.)”154 - 154
Of this canto and those that follow, Barlow, Study of the Div. Com., p. 270, says: –
“Dante's sublime pageant of the Church Militant is one of
the most marvellous processions ever marshalled on paper.
In the invention, arrangement, grouping, and coloring the
poet has shown himself a great master in art, familiar with
all the stately requirements of solemn shows, festivals, and
triumphs. Whatever he may have gathered from the sacred
records, and from classic writers, or seen in early mosaics,
or witnessed in the streets of Florence with her joyous
population, her May-day dancers, and the military pomp of
her magnificant Carroccio, like the arc of the covenant
going forth with the host, has here been surpassed in
invention and erudition, and a picture produced at once as
original as it is impressive, as significant as it is grand.
Petrarca was, probably, indebted to it for his 'Trionfi,' so
frequently in favor with Italian artists.
”This canto with the four that follow form a poem which,
though an essential portion of the Divina Commedia, may be
separately considered as the continuation of the poetic
vision mentioned in the Vita Nuova, and the fulfilment of
the intention there expressed.
“It represents the symbolical passage of the Christian
Church, preceded by the Hebrew dispensation, and followed by
the disastrous effects of schism, and the corruptions
induced by the unholy conduct of political Pontiffs. The
soul of this solemn exhibition, the living and glorified
principle of the beatitude which Religion pure and holy
confers upon those who embrace it, is personified in the
'Donna,' to whom Dante from his earliest youth had been more
or less devoted, the Beatrice of the Vita Nuova, 'Loda di
Dio vera,' who concentrates in herself the divine wisdom
with which the Church is inspired, whom angels delight to
honor, and whose advent on earth had been prepard from all
eternity by the mortal virtues.
”Beatrice is here presented as the principle of divine
beatitude, or that which confers it, and bears a resemblance
to the figure of the New Jerusalem seen by St. John
descending from heaven 'as a bride adorned for her husband'
(Rev. xxi. 2); a representation of which, in the manner of
Raphael, occurs in one of the tapestries of the Vatican,
and, though not arrayed in the colors of the Christian
virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, white and green and red,
as was Beatrice, may yet be regarded as a Roman version of
her.“Didron, describing the painting of the Truimph of Christ in the Church of Notre Dame de Brou, Christian Iconography, Millington's Tr., I. 315, says: –
”In the centre of all rises the Hero of the Triumph, Jesus
Christ, who is seated in an open car with four wheels. He
alone is adorned with a nimbus formed of rays, departing
from each point of the head, and which illumines everything
around. With one glance he embraces the past which
precedes, and the future which is to succeed him. His face
resembles that drawn by Raphael and the masters of the
period of Renaissance, agreeing with the description given
by Lentulus and Damascenus; it is serious and gentle. In
the centre of the chariot is placed a starry globe traversed
by the ecliptic, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac are
brilliantly figured. This globe is symbolic of the world,
and forms a throne for Christ: the Son of God is seated on
its summit. The car is placed upon four wheels, and drawn
by the four attributes or symbols of the Evangelists. The
angel of St. Matthew, and the eagle of St. John, are of
celestial whiteness; the lion of St. Mark, and the ox of St.
Luke, are of a reddish yellow, symbolizing the earth on
which they dwell. The eagle and angel do, in fact, fly;
while the lion and ox walk. Yet upon the painted window all
the four have wings. A rein of silver, passing round the
neck of each of the four symbols, is attached to the pole of
the chariot. The Church, represented by the four most
elevated religious potentates, by the Pope, the Cardinal,
the Archbishop, and Bishop, or by the four chief Fathers,
St. Gregory, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine,
drives the four-wheeled car, and, in conjunction with the
Evangelists, urges it onward. Jesus guides his triumph, not
holding reins, but shedding blessing from his right hand
wherever he passes.
“The entire assemblage of persons represented on the window
are seen marching onwards, singing with joy. Within the
spaces formed by the mullions which trellis the upper part
of the window, forty-six angels are represented with long
golden hair, white transparent robes, and wings of yellow,
red, violet, and green; they are all painted on a background
of azure, like the sky, and celebrate with blended voices,
or with musical intruments, the glory of Christ. Some have
in their hands instruments of different forms, others books
of music. The four animals of the Evangelists seem with
sonorous voice to swell the acclamations of the hosts of
saints; the ox with his bellowing, the lion with his roar,
the eagle with his cry, and the angel with his song,
accompany the songs of the forty-six angels who fill the
upper part of the window. At the head of the procession is
an angel who leads the entire company, and, with a little
cross with which he holds in his hand, points out to all the
Paradise they are to enter. Finally, twelve other angels,
blue as the heaven into which they melt, join in adoration
before the triumph of Christ.....
”Dante has given a description of a similar triumph, but
marked by some interesting differences. The Florentine poet
formed his cortége of figures taken from the Apocalypse and
Christian symbolism. At Brou, with the exception of the
attributes of the Evangelists, everything is historical. In
the sixteenth century, in fact, history began to predominate
over symbolism, which in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries had reigned supreme. Dante, who was a politic
poet, drew the triumph, not of Christ, but of the Church;
the triumph of Catholicism rather than of Christianity. The
chariot by which he represents the Church is widowed of
Christ, whose figure is so important on the window of Brou;
the chariot is empty, and Dante neither discovered this
deficiency, nor was concerned to rectify it; for he was less
anxious to celebrate Christ and his doctrine, for their own
sake, than as connected with the organization and
administration of the Church. He described the car as drawn
by a griffin, thereby representing the Pope, for the griffin
unites in itself the characteristics of both eagle and lion.
Now the Pope is also two-fold in character; as priest he is
the eagle floating in the air; as king, he is a lion,
walking upon the earth. The Ultramontane poet regarded the
Church, that is the Papacy, in the light of an absolute
monarchy; not a limited monarchy as with us, and still less
a republic, as amongst the schismatics of Greece and of the
East. Consequently, while, at Brou, the Cardinal, the
Archbishop, and Bishop assist the Pope in guiding the car of
the Church, in the 'Divina Commedia,' the Pope is alone, and
accepts of no assistance from the other great ecclesiastical
dignitaries. At Brou the car is guided by the Evangelists,
or by their attributes; ecclesiastical power is content
merely to lend its aid. According to the Italian poet, the
Evangelists, although present at the Triumph, do not conduct
it; the Pope is himself the sole guide of the Church, and
permits neither the Evangelists to direct nor ecclesiastics
to assist him. The Pope seems to require no assistance; his
eye and arm alone are sufficient for him.“