Dante as Philosopher, Patriot, and Poet: With an Analysis of the Divina Commedia, Its Plot and EpisodesScribner, 1865 - 413 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
angels answered appears battle of Campaldino beam Beatrice beauty behold beneath Bianchi Cacciaguida cause Charles de Valois Charles of Anjou Christian Church circle Corso Donati cried crown Dante death descend Divina Commedia divine doth E'en e'er earth emperor empire eternal evil exclaimed exile eyes father flame Florence Florentine Ghibelins Giano della Bella Guelphs Guido Guido Cavalcanti hast hath heart heaven Holy human idea Inferno influence intellectual Italian Italy King lady light living lofty look mind Monarchia moral moved nature ne'er Neri never o'er papacy papal Paradiso party passed philosophic poem poet political pope Purgatorio Rome says seemed shades shalt side sight smile song soon soul spake speak sphere spirit splendor stars sweet symbolic thee thence thine things thou truth turned Ugo Foscolo unto Virgil virtue Vita Nuova voice whence wings words
Popular passages
Page 157 - Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me was the task of Power divine, Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love. 19 Before me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.
Page 166 - Alas ! by what sweet thoughts, what fond desire Must they at length to that ill pass have reach'd !" Then turning, I to them my speech address'd, And thus began : " Francesca ! your sad fate Even to tears my grief and pity moves. But tell me ; in the time of your sweet sighs, By what, and how Love granted, that ye knew Your yet uncertain wishes ?" She replied: " No greater grief than to remember days Of joy, when misery is at hand.
Page 149 - IN the midway * of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray Gone from the path direct ; and e'en to tell, It were no easy task, how savage wild That forest, how robust and rough its growth, Which to remember only, my dismay Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
Page 404 - There is in Heaven a light, whose goodly shine Makes the Creator visible to all Created, that in seeing Him alone Have peace ; and in a circle spreads so far, That the circumference were too loose a zone To girdle in the sun.
Page 409 - Here thou to us, of charity and love, Art, as the noonday torch ; and art, beneath, To mortal men, of hope a living spring. So mighty art thou, lady, and so great, That he, who grace desireth, and comes not To thee for aidance, fain would have desire Fly without wings.
Page 157 - Here sighs, with lamentations and loud moans, Resounded through the air pierced by no star, That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues, Horrible languages, outcries of woe, Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds, Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd, Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.
Page 165 - As doves By fond desire invited, on wide wings And firm, to their sweet nest returning home, Cleave the air, wafted by their will along ; Thus issued, from that troop where Dido ranks, They, through the ill air speeding : with such force My cry prevail'd, by strong affection urged.
Page 140 - Mountain shakes with joy, and a psalm of praise rises, when one soul has perfected repentance, and got its sin and misery left behind ! I call all this a noble embodiment of a true noble thought. But indeed the Three compartments mutually support one another, are indispensable to one another. The Paradiso, a kind of inarticulate music to me, is the redeeming side of the Inferno ; the Inferno without it were untrue.
Page 155 - As florets, by the frosty air of night Bent down and closed, when day has blanch'd their leaves, Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems; So was my fainting vigour new restored...
Page 150 - And as a man, with difficult short breath, Forespent with toiling, 'scaped from sea to shore, Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands At gaze...