Dante's Purgatorio: Canto XXXIII
Lament over the State of the Church. Final Reproaches of Beatrice. The River Eunoe.
"Deus venerunt gentes," alternating
Now three, now four, melodious psalmody
The maidens in the midst of tears began;
And Beatrice, compassionate and sighing,
Listened to them with such a countenance, 5
That scarce more changed was Mary at the cross.
But when the other virgins place had given
For her to speak, uprisen to her feet
With colour as of fire, she made response:
"'Modicum, et non videbitis me; 10
Et iterum,' my sisters predilect,
'Modicum, et vos videbitis me.'"
Then all the seven in front of her she placed;
And after her, by beckoning only, moved
Me and the lady and the sage who stayed. 15
So she moved onward; and I do not think
That her tenth step was placed upon the ground,
When with her eyes upon mine eyes she smote,
And with a tranquil aspect, "Come more quickly,"
To me she said, "that, if I speak with thee, 20
To listen to me thou mayst be well placed."
As soon as I was with her as I should be,
She said to me: "Why, brother, dost thou not
Venture to question now, in coming with me?"
As unto those who are too reverential, 25
Speaking in presence of superiors,
Who drag no living utterance to their teeth,
It me befell, that without perfect sound
Began I: "My necessity, Madonna,
You know, and that which thereunto is good." 30
And she to me: "Of fear and bashfulness
Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself,
So that thou speak no more as one who dreams.
Know that the vessel which the serpent broke
Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty 35
Think that God's vengeance does not fear a sop.
Without an heir shall not for ever be
The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car,
Whence it became a monster, then a prey;
For verily I see, and hence narrate it, 40
The stars already near to bring the time,
From every hindrance safe, and every bar,
Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five,
One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman
And that same giant who is sinning with her. 45
And peradventure my dark utterance,
Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee,
Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;
But soon the facts shall be the Naiades
Who shall this difficult enigma solve, 50
Without destruction of the flocks and harvests.
Note thou; and even as by me are uttered
These words, so teach them unto those who live
That life which is a running unto death;
And bear in mind, whene'er thou writest them, 55
Not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant,
That twice already has been pillaged here.
Whoever pillages or shatters it,
With blasphemy of deed offendeth God,
Who made it holy for his use alone. 60
For biting that, in pain and in desire
Five thousand years and more the first-born soul
Craved Him, who punished in himself the bite.
Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it not
For special reason so pre-eminent 65
In height, and so inverted in its summit.
And if thy vain imaginings had not been
Water of Elsa round about thy mind,
And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure,
Thou by so many circumstances only 70
The justice of the interdict of God
Morally in the tree wouldst recognize.
But since I see thee in thine intellect
Converted into stone and stained with sin,
So that the light of my discourse doth daze thee, 75
I will too, if not written, at least painted,
Thou bear it back within thee, for the reason
That cinct with palm the pilgrim's staff is borne."
And I: "As by a signet is the wax
Which does not change the figure stamped upon it, 80
My brain is now imprinted by yourself.
But wherefore so beyond my power of sight
Soars your desirable discourse, that aye
The more I strive, so much the more I lose it?"
"That thou mayst recognize," she said, "the school 85
Which thou hast followed, and mayst see how far
Its doctrine follows after my discourse,
And mayst behold your path from the divine
Distant as far as separated is
From earth the heaven that highest hastens on." 90
Whence her I answered: "I do not remember
That ever I estranged myself from you,
Nor have I conscience of it that reproves me."
"And if thou art not able to remember,"
Smiling she answered, "recollect thee now 95
That thou this very day hast drunk of Lethe;
And if from smoke a fire may be inferred,
Such an oblivion clearly demonstrates
Some error in thy will elsewhere intent.
Truly from this time forward shall my words 100
Be naked, so far as it is befitting
To lay them open unto thy rude gaze."
And more coruscant and with slower steps
The sun was holding the meridian circle,
Which, with the point of view, shifts here and there 105
When halted (as he cometh to a halt,
Who goes before a squadron as its escort,
If something new he find upon his way)
The ladies seven at a dark shadow's edge,
Such as, beneath green leaves and branches black, 110
The Alp upon its frigid border wears.
In front of them the Tigris and Euphrates
Methought I saw forth issue from one fountain,
And slowly part, like friends, from one another.
"O light, O glory of the human race! 115
What stream is this which here unfolds itself
From out one source, and from itself withdraws?"
For such a prayer, 'twas said unto me, "Pray
Matilda that she tell thee;" and here answered,
As one does who doth free himself from blame, 120
The beautiful lady: "This and other things
Were told to him by me; and sure I am
The water of Lethe has not hid them from him."
And Beatrice: "Perhaps a greater care,
Which oftentimes our memory takes away, 125
Has made the vision of his mind obscure.
But Eunoe behold, that yonder rises;
Lead him to it, and, as thou art accustomed,
Revive again the half-dead virtue in him."
Like gentle soul, that maketh no excuse, 130
But makes its own will of another's will
As soon as by a sign it is disclosed,
Even so, when she had taken hold of me,
The beautiful lady moved, and unto Statius
Said, in her womanly manner, "Come with him." 135
If, Reader, I possessed a longer space
For writing it, I yet would sing in part
Of the sweet draught that ne'er would satiate me;
But inasmuch as full are all the leaves
Made ready for this second canticle, 140
The curb of art no farther lets me go.
From the most holy water I returned
Regenerate, in the manner of new trees
That are renewed with a new foliage,
Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars. 145
NOTES
1 - 1
In this canto Dante is made to drink of the river Eunoë, the memory of things good.
Psalm lxxix., beginning: “O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled.” The three Evangelical and four Candinal Virtues chant this psalm, alternately responding to each other. The Latin words must be chanted, in order to make the lines rhythmical, with an equal emphasis on each syllable.
7 - 7
When their singing was ended.
10 - 10
John xvi. 16: “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me; because I go to the Father.”
15 - 15
Dante, Matilda, and Statius.
27 - 27
As in Canto XXXI. 7: –
“My faculties were in so great confusion,
That the voice moved, but sooner was extinct
Than by its organs it was set at large.”
34 - 34
Is no longer what it was. Revelation xvii. 8: “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not.”
36 - 36
In the olden time in Florence, if an assassin could contrive to eat a sop of bread and wine at the grave of the murdered man, within nine days after the murder, he was free from the vengeance of the family; and to prevent this they kept watch at the tomb. There is no evading the vengeance of God in this way. Such is the interpretation of this passage by all the old commentators.
37 - 37
The Roman Empire shall not always be without an Emperor, as it was then in the eyes of Dante, who counted the “German Albert,” Alberto tedesco, as no Emperor, because he never came into Italy. See the appeal to him, Canto VI. 96, and the malediction, because he suffered.
“The garden of the empire to be waste.”
43 - 43
The Roman numerals making DVX, or Leader. The allusion is to Henry of Luxemburgh, in whom Dante placed his hopes of the restoration of the Imperial power. He was the successor of the German Albert of the preceding note, after an interregnum of one year. He died in 1312, shortly after his coronation in Rome. See Canto VI. Note 97.
Villani, though a Guelf, pays this tribute of respect to his memory, Book IX. Ch. I: “He was wise and just and gracious, valiant in arms, dignified, and catholic; and although of low estate in lineage, he was of a magnanimous heart, feared and redoubted, and if he had lived longer, he would have done great things.”
When Henry entered Italy in September, 1310, Dante hastened to meet him, full of faith and hope. Whether this interview took place at Susa, Turin, or Milan, is uncertain; nor is there any record of it, except the allusion in the following extract from a letter of Dante, “written in Tuscany, at the sources of the Arno, on the 14th of May, 1311, in the first year of the happy journey of the divine Henry into Italy.” Dante was disappointed that his hero should linger so long in the Lombard towns, and wished him to march at once against Florence, the monster “that drinketh neither of the headlong Po, nor of thy Tyber.” In this letter, Mr. Green's Tr., he says: –
“The inheritance of peace, as the immense love of God
witnesseth, was left us, that in the marvellous sweetness
thereof our hard warfare might be softened, and by the use
thereof we might deserve the joys of our triumphant country.
But the hatred of the ancient and implacable enemy, who ever
and secretly layeth snares for human prosperity, –
disinheriting some of those who were willing, – impiously,
in the absence of our protector, despoiled us also, who were
unwilling. Wherefore we wept long by the rivers of
confusion, and incessantly implored the protection of the
just king, to scatter the satellites of the cruel tyrant,
and restore us to our just rights. And when thou, successor
of Caesar and of Augustus, crossing the chain of the
Apennines, brought back the venerable Tarpeian ensigns, our
long sighings straightway ceased, the fountains of our tears
were stayed, and a new hope of a better age, like a sun
suddenly risen, shed its beams over Latium. Then many
breaking forth into jubilant vows, sang with Mars the
Saturnian reign, and the return of the Virgin.
”But since our sun (whether the fervor of desire suggests
it, or the aspect of truth) is already believed to have
delayed, or is supposed to be going back in his course, as
if a new Joshua or the son of Amos had commanded, we are
compelled in our uncertainty to doubt, and to break forth in
the words of the Forerunner: 'Art thou he that should come,
or look we for another?' And although the fury of long
thirst turns into doubt, as is its wont, the things which
are certain because they are near, nevertheless we believe
and hope in thee, asserting thee to be the minister of God,
and the son of the Church, and the promoter of the Roman
glory. And I, who write as well for myself as for others,
when my hands touched thy feet and my lips performed their
office, saw thee most benignant, as becometh the Imperial
majesty, and heard thee most clement. Then my spirit
exulted within me, and I silently said to myself, 'Behold
the lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.“
Dante, Par. XXX. 133, sees the crown and throne that await the ”noble Henry“ in the highest heaven: –
On that great throne on which thine eyes are fixed
For the crown's sake already placed upon it,
Before thou suppest at this wedding feast,
Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augustus
On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come
To reform Italy ere she be prepared.”
47 - 47
Themis, the daughter of Coelus and Terra, whose oracle was famous in Attica, and who puzzled Deucalion and Pyrrha by telling them that, in order to repeople the earth after the deluge, they must throw “their mother's bones behind them.”
The Sphinx, the famous monster born of Chimaera, and having the head of a woman, the wings of a bird, the body of a dog, and the paws of a lion; and whose riddle, “What animal walks on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, and on three at night?” so puzzled the Thebans, that King Creon offered his crown and his daughter Jocasta to any one who should solve it, and so free the land of the uncomfortable monster; a feat accomplished by OEdipus apparently without much difficulty.
49 - 49
The Naiades having undertaken to solve the enigmas of oracles, Themis, offended, sent forth a wild beast to ravage the flocks and fields of the Thebans; though why they should have been held accountable for the doings of the Naiades is not very obvious. The tradition is founded on a passage in Ovid, Met., VII. 757: –
“Carmina Naïades non itellecta priorum
Solvunt.”
Heinsius and other critics say that the lines should read,
“Carmina Laïades non intellecta priorum
Solverat”;
referring to OEdipus, son of Laius. But Rosa Moranda maintains the old reading, and says there is authority in Pausanias for making the Naiades interpreters of oracles.
54 - 54
Coplas de Manrique: –
“Our cradle is the starting place,
Life is the running of the race.”
57 - 57
First by the Eagle, who rent its bark and leaves; then by the giant, who bore away the chariot which had been bound to it.
61 - 61
The sin of Adam, and the death of Christ.
66 - 66
Widening at the top, instead of diminishing upward like other trees.
68 - 68
The Elsa is a river in Tuscany, rising in the mountains near Colle, and flowing northward into the Arno, between Florence and Pisa. Its waters have the power of incrusting or petrifying anything left in them. “This power of incrustation,” says Covino, Descriz. Georg. dell'Italia, “is especially manifest a little above Colle, where a great pool rushes impetuously from the ground.”
69 - 69
If the vain thoughts thou hast been immersed in had not petrified thee, and the pleasure of them stained thee; if thou hadst not been
“Converted into stone and stained with sin.”
78 - 78
The staff wreathed with palm, the cockle-shell in the hat, and the sandal-shoon were all marks of the pilgrim, showing he had been beyond sea and in the Holy Land. Thus in the old ballad of The Friar of Orders Gray: –
“And how should I your truelove know
From many another one?
O by his cockle-hat and staff,
And by his sandal-shoone.”
In the Vita Nuova, Mr. Norton's Tr., p. 71, is this passage: “Moreover, it is to be known that the people who travel in the service of the Most High are called by three distinct terms. Those who go beyond the sea, whence often they bring back the palm, are called palmers. Those who go to the house of Galicia are called pilgrims, because the burial-place of St. James was more distant from his country than that of any other of the Apostles. And those are called romei who go to Rome.”
85 - 85
How far Philosophy differs from Religion. Isaih lv. 8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
104 - 104
Noon of the Fourth Day of Purgatory.
112 - 112
Two of the four rivers that watered Paradise. Here they are the same as Lethe and Eunoë, the oblivion of evil, and the memory of good.
127 - 127
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress: –
“I saw then, that they went on their way to a pleasant
river, which David the king called 'the river of God'; but
John, 'the river of the water of life.' Now their way lay
just upon the bank of the river: here therefore Christian
and his companion walked with great delight: they drank also
of the water of the river, which was pleasant, and
enlivening to their weary spirits. Besides, on the banks of
this river, on either side, were green trees for all manner
of fruit; and the leaves they ate to prevent surfeits and
other diseases that are incident to those that heat their
blood by travels. On either side of the river was also a
meadow, curiously beautified with lilies; and it was green
all the year long. In this meadow they lay down and slept;
for here they might lie down safely. When they awoke, they
gathered again of the fruits of the trees, and drank again
of the water of the river, and then lay down again to
sleep.”
129 - 129
Sir John Denham says: –
“The sweetest cordial we receive at last
Is conscience of our virtuous actions past.”
145 - 145
The last word in this division of the poem, as in the other two, is the suggestive word “Stars.”