CANTO XXXIII ARGUMENT. After a hymn sung, Beatrice leaves the tree, and takes with her the seven virgins, Matilda, Statius, and Dante. She then darkly predicts to our Poet some future events. Lastly, the whole band arrive at the fountain, from whence the two streams, Lethe and Eunoë, separating, flow different ways; and Matilda, at the desire of Beatrice, causes our Poet to drink of the latter stream. 661 "T HE heathen,' Lord! are come:" responsive thus, Quaternion, their sweet psalmody began, Weeping; and Beatrice listen'd, sad And sighing, to the song, in such a mood, That Mary, as she stood beside the Cross, Was scarce more changed. But when they gave her place Before her then she marshal'd all the seven; 8 So on she pass'd; and had not set, I ween, 1" The heathen." "O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance."-Psalm 1xxix. 1. 2" Yet a little while." "A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again a little while, and ye shall see me."-John xvi. 16. 3" That remaining sage." Statius. 66 Lady! what I have need of, that thou know'st; And what will suit my need." She answering thus: "Of fearfulness and shame, I will that thou Henceforth do rid thee; that thou speak no more,. As one who dreams. Thus far be taught of me: The vessel which thou saw'st the serpent break, Was, and is not:* let him, who hath the blame, Hope not to scare God's vengeance with a sop. Without an heir for ever shall not be 6 That eagle, he, who left the chariot plumed, On flock or field. Take heed; and as these words By me are utter'd, teach them even so To those who live that life, which is a race To death: and when thou writest them, keep in mind 7 That twice hath now been spoil'd. This whoso robs, 4" Was, and is not." "The beast that was, and is not."-Rev. xvii. 11. 5" Hope not to scare God's vengeance with a sop." Let not him who hath occasioned the destruction of the Church, that vessel which the serpent brake, hope to appease the anger of the Deity by any outward acts of religious, or rather superstitious, ceremony; such as was that, in our Poet's time, performed by a murderer at Florence, who imagined himself secure from vengeance if he ate a sop of bread in wine upon the grave of the per son murdered, within the space of nine days." "That eagle." He prognosticates that the Emperor of Germany will not always continue to submit to the usurpations of the Pope, and foretells the coming of Henry VII, Duke of Luxemburg, signified by the numerical figures DVX; or, as Lombardi supposes, of Can Grande della Scala, appointed the leader of the Ghibelline forces. 7" Twice." First by the eagle and next by the giant. Sins against God, who for His use alone "Thy reason slumbers, if it deem this height, And summit thus inverted, of the plant, Without due cause: and were not vainer thoughts, 8 And their fond pleasures had not dyed it dark In the forbidden tree. But since I mark thee, And, to that hardness, spotted too and stain'd, I will, that, if not written, yet at least That one brings home his staff inwreathed with palm.” The more it strains to reach it?"—"To the end That thou mayst know," she answer'd straight," the school, When following my discourse, its learning halts: As distant, as the disagreement is 'Twixt earth and Heaven's most high and rapturous orb." "I not remember," I replied, "that e'er I was estranged from thee; nor for such fault Doth conscience chide me." Smiling she return'd: How lately thou hast drunk of Lethe's wave; 8" Elsa's numbing waters." The Elsa, a little stream, which flows into the Arno about twenty miles below Florence, is said to possess a petrifying quality. In that forgetfulness itself conclude In thy unpractised view." More sparkling now, And, where they stood, before them, as it seem'd, Forth from one fountain issue; and, like friends, O glory of our kind! beseech thee say What water this, which, from one source derived, To such entreaty answer thus was made: "Entreat Matilda, that she teach thee this." And here, as one who clears himself of blame 66 And Beatrice: Some more pressing care, That oft the memory 'reaves, perchance hath made His mind's eye dark. But lo, where Eunoe flows! Lead thither; and, as thou art wont, revive His fainting virtue." As a courteous spirit, That proffers no excuses, but as soon As he hath token of another's will, Makes it his own; when she had ta'en me, thus The lovely maiden moved her on, and call'd To Statius, with an air most lady-like: "Come thou with him." Were further space allow'd, Then, Reader! might I sing, though but in part, That beverage, with whose sweetness I had ne'er |