Canto XXIII
Dante is with Beatrice in the eighth circle, that of the fixed stars. She is gazing upwards, watching for the descent of the Triumph of Christ.
Even as a bird, ’mid the belovèd leaves, Quiet upon the nest of her sweet brood Throughout the night, that hideth all things from us, Who, that she may behold their longed-for looks, And find the nourishment wherewith to feed them, In which, to her, grave labours grateful are, Anticipates the time on open spray, And with an ardent longing waits the sun, Gazing intent, as soon as breaks the dawn: Even thus my Lady standing was, erect And vigilant, turned round towards the zone Underneath which the sun displays least haste;[66] So that beholding her distraught and eager, Such I became as he is, who desiring For something yearns, and hoping is appeased. But brief the space from one When to the other; From my awaiting, say I, to the seeing The welkin grow resplendent more and more. And Beatrice exclaimed: “Behold the hosts Of the triumphant Christ, and all the fruit Harvested by the rolling of these spheres!”[67] It seemed to me her face was all on flame; And eyes she had so full of ecstasy That I must needs pass on without describing. As when in nights serene of the full moon Smiles Trivia among the nymphs eternal Who paint the heaven through all its hollow cope, Saw I, above the myriads of lamps, A sun that one and all of them enkindled, E’en as our own does the supernal stars.[68] And through the living light transparent shone The lucent substance so intensely clear Into my sight, that I could not sustain it. O Beatrice, my gentle guide and dear! She said to me: “That which o’ermasters thee A virtue is which no one can resist. There are the wisdom and omnipotence That oped the thoroughfares ’twixt heaven and earth, For which there erst had been so long a yearning.” As fire from out a cloud itself discharges, Dilating so it finds not room therein, And down against its nature, falls to earth, So did my mind among those aliments Becoming larger, issue from itself, And what became of it cannot remember. [69]“Open thine eyes, and look at what I am: Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough Hast thou become to tolerate my smile.” I was as one who still retains the feeling Of a forgotten dream, and who endeavours In vain to bring it back into his mind, When I this invitation heard, deserving Of so much gratitude, it never fades Out of the book that chronicles the past. If at this moment sounded all the tongues That Polyhymnia and her sisters made Most lubrical with their delicious milk, To aid me, to a thousandth of the truth It would not reach, singing the holy smile, And how the holy aspect it illumined. And therefore, representing Paradise, The sacred poem must perforce leap over, Even as a man who finds his way cut off. But whoso thinketh of the ponderous theme, And of the mortal shoulder that sustains it, Should blame it not, if under this it trembles. It is no passage for a little boat This which goes cleaving the audacious prow, Nor for a pilot who would spare himself. “Why does my face so much enamour thee, That to the garden fair thou turnest not, Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming? There is the Rose[70] in which the Word Divine Became incarnate; there the lilies are By whose perfume the good way was selected.” Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels Was wholly ready, once again betook me Unto the battle of the feeble brows.[71] As in a sunbeam, that unbroken passes Through fractured cloud, ere now a meadow of flowers. Mine eyes with shadow covered have beheld, So I beheld the multitudinous splendours Refulgent from above with burning rays, Beholding not the source of the effulgence. O thou benignant power that so imprint’st them! Thou didst exalt thyself[72] to give more scope There to the eyes, that were not strong enough. The name of that fair flower I e’er invoke Morning and evening utterly enthralled My soul to gaze upon the greater fire.[73] And when in both mine eyes depicted were The glory and greatness of the living star Which conquers there, as here below it conquered, Athwart the heavens descended a bright sheen[74] Formed in a circle like a coronal, And cinctured it, and whirled itself about it. Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth On earth, and to itself most draws the soul, Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders, Compared unto the sounding of that lyre Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful Wherewith gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue.[75] “I am Angelic Love, that circle round The joy sublime which breathes from out the bosom That was the hostelry of our Desire:[76] And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while Thou followest thy Son, and makest diviner The sphere supreme, because thou enterest it.” Thus did the circulated melody Seal itself up; and all the other lights Were making resonant the name of Mary. The regal mantle[77] of the volumes all Of that world, which most fervid is and living With breath of God and with His works and ways, Extended over us its inner curve, So very distant, that its outward show, There where I was, not yet appeared to me. Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power Of following the incoronated flame, Which had ascended near to its own seed.[78] And as a little child, that towards its mother Extends its arms, when it the milk has taken, Through impulse kindled into outward flame, Each of those gleams of light did upward stretch So with its summit, that the deep affection They had for Mary was revealed to me. Thereafter they remained there in my sight, Regina Cœli[79] singing with such sweetness, That ne’er from me has the delight departed. Oh, what exuberance is garnered up In those resplendent coffers, which had been For sowing here below good husbandmen! There they enjoy and live upon the treasure Which was acquired while weeping in the exile[80] Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left. There triumpheth beneath the exalted Son Of God and Mary, in his victory, Both with the ancient council and the new, He who doth keep the keys of such a story.[81]
[66] Under the meridian, or at noon, the shadows being shorter, move slower, and therefore the sun seems less in haste.
[67] By the beneficent influences of the stars.
[68] The old belief that the stars were fed by the light of the sun. So Milton:—
“Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repair, and in their golden urns draw light.”
Here the stars are souls, the sun is Christ.
[69] Beatrice speaks.Return to passage
[70] The rose is the Virgin Mary, Rosa Mundi, Rosa mystica; the lilies are the Apostles and other saints.Return to passage
[71] The struggle between his eyes and the light.Return to passage
[72] Christ reascends, that Dante’s dazzled eyes, too feeble to bear the light of his presence, may behold the splendours around him.Return to passage
[73] The greater fire is the Virgin Mary, greater than any of those remaining. She is the living star, surpassing in brightness all other saints in heaven, as she did here on earth; Stella Maris, Stella Matutina.Return to passage
[74] The Angel Gabriel, or Angelic Love.Return to passage
[75] Sapphire is the colour in which the old painters arrayed the Virgin.Return to passage
[76] Christ, the Desire of the nations.Return to passage
[77] The regal mantle of all the volumes, or rolling orbs, of the world is the crystalline heaven, or Primum Mobile, which enfolds all the others like a mantle.Return to passage
[78] The Virgin ascends to her Son.Return to passage
[79] Easter hymn to the Virgin.Return to passage
[80] Caring not for gold in the Babylonian exile of this life, they laid up treasures in the other.Return to passage
[81] St. Peter, keeper of the keys, with the holy men of the Old and New Testament.Return to passage
Canto XXIV
“O company elect to the Great Supper Of the Lamb glorified, who feedeth you, So that for ever full is your desire, If by the grace of God this man foretastes Of whatsover falleth from your table, Or ever death prescribes to him the time, Direct your mind to his immense desire,[82] And him somewhat bedew; ye drinking are For ever from the fount[83] whence comes his thought.” Thus Beatrice; and those enraptured spirits Made themselves spheres around their steadfast poles; Flaming intensely in the guise of comets. And as the wheels in works of horologes Revolve so that the first to the beholder Motionless seems, and the last one to fly, So in like manner did those carols, dancing[84] In different measure, by their affluence Make me esteem them either swift or slow. From that one which I noted of most beauty Beheld I issue forth a fire so happy That none is left there of a greater splendour; And about Beatrice three several times[85] It whirled itself with so divine a song, My fantasy repeats it not to me; Therefore the pen skips, and I write it not, Since our imagination for such folds, Much more our speech, is of a tint too glaring.[86] “O holy sister mine,[87] who us implorest With such devotion, by thine ardent love Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere.” Thus, having stopped, the beatific fire Unto my Lady did direct its breath, Which spake in fashion as I here have said. And she: “O light eterne of the great man To whom our Lord delivered up the keys He carried down of this miraculous joy, This one examine on points light and grave, As good beseemeth thee, about the Faith By means of which thou on the sea didst walk, If he loves well, and hopes well, and believes, Is hid not from thee; for thou hast thy sight Where everything beholds itself depicted.[88] But since this kingdom has made citizens By means of the true Faith, to glorify it ’Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof.” As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not Until the master doth propose the question, To argue it and not to terminate it, So I did arm myself with every reason, While she was speaking, that I might be ready For such a questioner and such confession. “Speak on,[89] good Christian; manifest thyself; Say, what is Faith?” whereat I raised my brow Unto that light from which this was breathed forth, Then turned I round to Beatrice, and she Prompt signals made to me that I should pour The water forth from my internal fountain. “May grace, that suffers me to make confession,” Began I, “to the great Centurion[90] Cause my conceptions all to be explicit!” And I continued: “As the truthful pen, Father, of thy dear brother wrote of it, Who put with thee Rome into the good way, Faith is the substance of the things we hope for, And evidence of those that are not seen; And this appears to me its quiddity.”[91] Then heard I: “Very rightly thou perceivest, If well thou understandest why he placed it With substances and then with evidences.” And I thereafterward: “The things profound, That here vouchsafe to me their outward show, Unto all eyes below are so concealed, That they exist there only in belief, Upon the which is founded the high hope, And therefore takes the nature of a substance. And it behoveth us from this belief, To reason without having other views, And hence it has the nature of evidence.” Then heard I: “If whatever is acquired Below as doctrine were thus understood, No sophist’s subtlety would there find place.” Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love; Then added: “Thoroughly has been gone over Already of this coin the alloy and weight; But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?” And I: “Yes, both so shining and so round, That in its stamp there is no peradventure.” Thereafter issued from the light profound That there resplendent was: “This precious jewel, Upon the which is every virtue founded, Whence hadst thou it?” And I: “The large outpouring Of the Holy Spirit, which has been diffused Upon the ancient parchments and the new,[92] A syllogism is, which demonstrates it With such acuteness, that, compared therewith, All demonstration seems to me obtuse.” And then I heard: “The ancient and the new Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive, Why dost thou take them for the word divine?” And I: “The proofs, which show the truth to me, Are the works subsequent, whereunto Nature Ne’er heated iron yet, nor anvil beat.” ’Twas answered me: “Say, who assureth thee That those works ever were? the thing itself We wish to prove, nought else to thee affirms it.” “Were the world to Christianity converted,” I said, “withouten miracles”, this one Is such, the rest are not its hundredth part; For thou didst enter destitute and fasting Into the field to plant there the good plant, Which was a vine, and has become a thorn!“ This being finished, the high, holy Court Resounded through the spheres, “One God we praise!” In melody that there above is chanted. And then that Baron,[93] who from branch to branch, Examining, had thus conducted me, Till the remotest leaves we were approaching, Did recommence once more: “The Grace that lords it Over thy intellect thy mouth has opened, Up to this point, as it should opened be, So that I do approve what forth emerged; But now thou must express what thou believest. And whence to thy belief it was presented.” “O holy father, O thou spirit, who seest What thou believedst, so that thou o’ercamest, Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet,”[94] Began I, “thou dost wish me to declare Forthwith the manner of my prompt belief, And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest, And I respond: In one God I believe, Sole and eterne, who all the heaven doth move, Himself unmoved, with love and with desire; And of such faith not only have I proofs Physical and metaphysical, but gives them Likewise the truth that from this place rains down Through Moses, through the Prophets, and the Psalms, Through the Evangel, and through you, who wrote After the fiery Spirit sanctified you;[95] In Persons three eterne believe I, and these One essence I believe, so one and trine, They bear conjunction both with sunt and est. With the profound conjunction and divine, Which now I touch upon, doth stamp my mind Ofttimes the doctrine evangelical. This the beginning is, this is the spark Which afterwards dilates to vivid flame, And, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me.” Even as a lord, who hears what pleases him, His servant straight embraces, giving thanks For the good news, as soon as he is silent; So, giving me its benediction, singing, Three times encircled me, when I was silent, The apostolic light at whose command I spoken had, in speaking I so pleased him.
[82] Hunger and thirst after things divine.Return to passage
[83] The Grace of God.Return to passage
[84] The carol was a dance as well as a song.Return to passage
[85] St. Peter thrice encircles Beatrice, as the Angel Gabriel did the Virgin Mary in the preceding canto.Return to passage
[86] Too glaring for painting such delicate draperies of song.Return to passage
[87] St. Peter speaks to Beatrice.Return to passage
[88] Fixed upon God, in whom are all things reflected.Return to passage
[89] St. Peter speaks to Dante.Return to passage
[90] The great Head of the Church.Return to passage
[91] In the Scholastic Philosophy the essence of a thing, distinguishing it from all other things, was called its Quiddity; an answer to the question, Quid est?Return to passage
[92] The Old and New Testaments.Return to passage
[93] In the Middle Ages earthly titles were sometimes given to the saints. Thus Boccaccio speaks of Baron Messer San Antonio.Return to passage
[94] St. John xx. 3-8. St. John was the first to reach the sepulchre, but St. Peter the first to enter it.Return to passage
[95] St. Peter and the other Apostles, after Pentecost.Return to passage
Canto XXV
If it e’er happen that the Poem Sacred,[96] To which both heaven and earth have set their hand Till it hath made me meagre many a year, O’ercome the cruelty that bars me out From the fair sheepfold where a lamb I slumbered,[97] Obnoxious to the wolves that war upon it, With other voice henceforth, with other fleece Will I return as poet, and at my font[98] Baptismal will I take the laurel crown; Because into the faith that maketh known All souls to God there entered I, and then Peter for her sake so my brow encircled. Thereafterward towards us moved a light Out of that band whence issued the first fruits Which of his vicars Christ behind him left, And then my Lady, full of ecstasy, Said unto me: “Look, look! behold the Baron,[99] For whom below Galicia is frequented.” In the same way as, when a dove alights Near his companion, both of them pour forth, Circling about and murmuring, their affection, So I beheld one by the other grand Prince glorified to be with welcome greeted, Lauding the food that there above is eaten. But when their gratulations were completed, Silently coram me each one stood still, So incandescent it o’ercame my sight. Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice: “Spirit august, by whom the benefactions Of our Basilica[100] have been described, Make Hope reverberate in this altitude; Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it As Jesus to the three[101] gave greater light.”— “Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured; For what comes hither from the mortal world Must needs be ripened in our radiance.” This exhortation from the second fire[102] Came; and mine eyes I lifted to the hills,[103] Which bent them down before with too great weight.[104] “Since through his grace, our Emperor decrees Thou shouldst confronted be, before thy death, In the most secret chamber, with his Counts,[105] So that, the truth beholding of this court, Hope, which below there rightly fascinates In thee, and others may thereby be strengthened; Say what it is, and how is flowering with it Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee;” Thus did the second light continue still And the Compassionate,[106] who piloted The plumage of my wings in such high flight, In the reply did thus anticipate me; “No child whatever the Church Militant Of greater hope possesses, as is written In that Sun[107] which irradiates all our band; Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt To come into Jerusalem to see,[108] Or ever yet his warfare is completed. The other points, that not for knowledge’ sake Have been demanded,[109] but that he report How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing, To him I leave; for hard he will not find them, Nor to be boasted of; them let him answer; And may the Grace of God in this assist him!” As a disciple, who obeys his teacher, Ready and willing, where he is expert, So that his excellence may be revealed, “Hope,”[110] said I, “is the certain expectation Of glory in the hereafter, which proceedeth From grace divine and merit precedent. From many stars this light comes unto me; But he instilled it first into my heart, Who was chief singer[111] unto the Chief Captain, Hope they in thee, in the high Theody He says, all those who recognise thy name;[112] And who does not if he my faith possesses? Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling In the Epistle, so that I am full, And upon others rain again your rain.”[113] While I was speaking, in the living bosom Of that effulgence quivered a sharp flash, Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning. Then breathed: “The love wherewith I am inflamed Towards the virtue still, which followed me Unto the palm and issue of the field, Wills that I whisper thee, thou take delight In her; and grateful to me is thy saying Whatever things Hope promises to thee.” And I: “The ancient Scriptures and the new The mark establish,[114] and this shows it me, Of all the souls whom God has made His friends, Isaiah saith, that each one garmented In his own land shall be with twofold garments,[115] And his own land is this delicious life. Thy brother,[116] too, far more explicitly, There where he treateth of the robes of white, This revelation manifests to us.” And first, and near the ending of these words, Sperent in te from over us was heard, To which responsive answered all the carols.[117] Thereafterward among them gleamed a light,[118] So that, if Cancer such a crystal had, Winter would have a month of one sole day,[119] And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance A joyous maiden, only to do honour To the new bride, and not from any failing,[120] So saw I the illuminated splendour Approach the two,[121] who in a wheel revolved, As was beseeming to their ardent love. It joined itself there in the song and music; And fixed on them my Lady kept her look, Even as a bride, silent and motionless. “This is the one who lay upon the breast Of him[122] our Pelican; and this is he To the great office[123] from the cross elected.” My Lady thus; but therefore none the more Removed her sight from its fixed contemplation. Before or afterward, these words of hers. Even as a man who gazes, and endeavours To see the eclipsing of the sun a little, And who, by seeing, sightless doth become, So I became before that latest fire,[124] While it was said, “Why dost thou daze thyself To see a thing which here has no existence? Earth upon earth my body is,[125] and shall be With all the others there, until our number With the eternal proposition tallies;[126] With the two garments[127] in the blessed cloister Are the two lights[128] alone that have ascended: And this shalt thou take back into your world.”[129] And at this utterance the flaming circle Grew quiet, with the dulcet intermingling Of sound that by the trinal[130] breath was made, As to escape from danger or fatigue The oars that erst were in the water beaten Are all suspended at a whistle’s sound. Ah, how much in my mind was I disturbed, When I turned round to look on Beatrice, At not beholding her, although I was Close at her side and in the Happy World.
[96] This “Divina Commedia,” in which human science or Philosophy is symbolized in Virgil, and divine science or Theology in Beatrice.
[97] “Fiorenza la Bella,” Florence the Fair. In one of his canzoni Dante says:—
“O mountain song of mine, thou goest thy way; Florence my town thou shalt perchance behold, Which bars me from itself, Devoid of love and naked of compassion.”
[98] This allusion to the Church of San Giovanni: “Il mio bel San Giovanni,” as Dante calls it elsewhere (Inf. xix. 17), is a fitting prelude to the canto in which St. John is to appear. Like the “laughing of the grass” in canto xxx. 77, it is a foreshadowing preface, ombrifero prefazio of what follows.
[99] St. James. Pilgrimages were made to his tomb at Compostella, in Galicia.
[100] The general epistle of St. James, called the Epistola Cattolica, i. 17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights.” Our Basilica; the Church Triumphant, Paradise.
[101] Peter, James, and John, representing the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, and distinguished above the other Apostles by clearer manifestations of their Master’s favour.
[102] St. James speaks.
[103] “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”—Psalm cxxi. I.
[104] The three Apostles, luminous above him overwhelming him with light.
[105] The most august spirits of the celestial city.
[106] Beatrice.Return to passage
[107] In God,Return to passage
“Where everything beholds itself depicted.”