แ What avarice does is here made manifest In the purgation of these souls converted, And no more bitter pain the Mountain has. Even as our eye did not uplift itself Aloft, being fastened upon earthly things, So justice here has merged it in the earth. As avarice had extinguished our affection For every good, whereby was action lost, I on my knees had fallen, and wished to speak; "What cause," he said, "has downward bent thee thus ?* Standing, my conscience stung me with remorse." Straighten thy legs, and upward raise thee, brother," He answered: “Err not, fellow-servant am I With thee and with the others to one power. If e'er that holy, evangelic sound, Which sayeth neque nubent, thou hast heard, Well canst thou see why in this wise I speak. Now go; no longer will I have thee linger, Because thy stay doth incommode my weeping, With which I ripen that which thou hast said. On earth I have a grandchild named Alagia, Good in herself, unless indeed our house Malevolent may make her by example, And she alone remains to me on earth." CANTO XX. ILL strives the will against a better will; Accursed mayst thou be, thou old she-wolf, That more than all the other beasts hast prey, O heaven, in whose gyrations some appear To think conditions here below are changed, And I attentive to the shades I heard Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down." To the possession of great wealth with vice." That I drew farther onward to have knowledge Touching that spirit whence they seemed to come. He furthermore was speaking of the largess Which Nicholas unto the maidens gave, In order to conduct their youth to honour. "O soul that dost so excellently speak, Tell me who wast thou," said I, "and why only I may expect from earth, but that so much Which overshadows all the Christian world, Had power, soon vengeance would be taken on it; Hugh Capet was I called upon the earth; From me were born the Louises and Philips, I was the son of a Parisian butcher, What time the ancient kings had perished all, I found me grasping in my hands the rein Of the realm's government, and so great power The head of mine own offspring was, from whom So long as the great dowry of Provence Out of my blood took not the sense of shame, A victim made of Conradin, and then Thrust Thomas back to heaven, for amends. A time I see, not very distant now, Which draweth forth another Charles from France, Unarmed he goes, and only with the lance That Judas jousted with; and that he thrusts So that he makes the paunch of Florence burst. He thence not land, but sin and infamy, Shall gain, so much more grievous to himself As the more light such damage he accounts. The other, now gone forth, ta'en in his ship, See I his daughter sell, and chaffer for her Since thou my blood so to thyself hast drawn, I see the flower-de-luce Alagna enter, I see renewed the vinegar and gall, I see the modern Pilate so relentless, This does not sate him, but without decretal By looking on the vengeance which, concealed, What I was saying of that only bride ? Of the Holy Ghost, and which occasioned thee M So long has been ordained to all our prayers As the day lasts; but when the night comes on, At that time we repeat Pygmalion, Of whom a traitor, thief, and parricide Made his insatiable desire of gold; And the misery of avaricious Midas, That followed his inordinate demand, At which forevermore one needs but laugh. The foolish Achan each one then records, And how he stole the spoils; so that the wrath Here finally is cried: 'O Crassus, tell us, According to desire of speech, that spurs us And made endeavour to o'ercome the road The mountain tremble, whence a chill seized on me, Certes so violently shook not Delos, Before Latona made her nest therein To give birth to the two eyes of the heaven. Then upon all sides there began a cry, Such that the Master drew himself towards me, Were saying, from what near I comprehended, We paused immovable and in suspense, Even as the shepherds who first heard that song, Then we resumed again our holy path, Watching the shades that lay upon the ground, No ignorance ever with so great a strife Nor out of haste to question did I dare, So I went onward timorous and thoughtful. 145 130 CANTO XXI. THE natural thirst, that ne'er is satisfied Put me in travail, and haste goaded me Along the encumbered path behind my Leader That Christ appeared to two upon the way Thee may the court veracious place in peace, Which this one bears, and which the Angel traces For him had not yet drawn the distaff off, His soul, which is thy sister and my own, In coming upwards could not come alone, Of Hell to be his guide, and I shall guide him |