Into the mart from Fesole: and Giuda
And Infangato" were good citizens.
A thing incredible I tell, though true:
The gateway, named from those of Pera, led
Into the narrow circuit of your wells.

Each one, who bears the sightly quarterings

25

Of the great Baron, (he whose name and worth
The festival of Thomas still revives,)

His knighthood and his privilege retain'd;
Albeit one," who borders them with gold,

This day is mingled with the common herd.
In Borgo yet the Gualterotti dwelt,

And Importuni:" well for its repose,

Had it still lack'd of newer neighbourhood."

The house," from whence your tears have had their spring,
Through the just anger, that hath murder'd ye

And put a period to your gladsome days,
Was honour'd; it, and those consorted with it.
O Buondelmonte! what ill counselling
Prevail'd on thee to break the plighted bond?
Many, who now are weeping, would rejoice,
Had God to Ema given thee, the first time

30

Thou near our city camest. But so was doom'd: Florence! on that maim'd stone" which guards the bridge, The victim, when thy peace departed, fell.

24 Guida Guidi and the family of Infangati.

25 The Marchese Ugo, who resided at Florence as lieutenant of the Emperor Otho III, gave many of the chief families license to bear his arms. A vision is related, in consequence of which he sold all his possessions in Germany, and founded seven abbeys, in one whereof his memory was celebrated at Florence on St. Thomas's day. The marquis, when hunting, strayed away from his people, and, wandering through a forest, came to a smithy, where he saw black and deformed men tormenting others with fire and hammers; and, asking the meaning of this, he was told that they were condemned souls, who suffered this punishment, and that the soul of the Marchese Ugo was doomed to suffer the same if he did not repent. Struck with horror, he commended

himself to the Virgin Mary; and soon after founded the seven religious houses.

26 Giano della Bella, of one of the families thus distinguished, who no longer retained his place among the nobility, and had yet added to his arm a bordure or.

27 Two families in the compartment of the city called Borgo.

28 Some understand this of the Bardi; and others, of the Buondelmonti.

29 The house." Of Amidei.

30" To Ema." It had been well for the city if thy ancestor had been drowned in the Ema, when he crossed that stream on his way from Montebuono to Florence.

31 Near the remains of the statue of Mars, Buondelmonti was slain, as if he had been a victim to the god; and Florence had not since known the blessing of peace.

"With these and others like to them, I saw
Florence in such assured tranquillity,

She had no cause at which to grieve: with these
Saw her so glorious and so just, that ne'er

32

The lily from the lance had hung reverse,
Or through division been with vermeil dyed."

CANTO XVII

ARGUMENT.-Cacciaguida predicts our Poet's exile and the calamities he had to suffer; and exhorts him to write the present poem.

S

UCH as the youth, who came to Clymene,

To certify himself of that reproach

Which had been fasten'd on him, (he whose end,

Still makes the fathers chary to their sons,)
E'en such was I; nor unobserved was such
Of Beatrice, and that saintly lamp,"

Who had erewhile for me his station moved;
When thus my lady: "Give thy wish free vent,
That it may issue, bearing true report

Of the mind's impress: not that aught thy words
May to our knowledge add, but to the end
That thou mayst use thyself to own thy thirst,
And men may mingle for thee when they hear."

66

O plant, from whence I spring! revered and loved!

Who soar'st so high a pitch, that thou as clear,

As earthly thought determines two obtuse

In one triangle not contain'd, so clear
Dost see contingencies, ere in themselves
Existent, looking at the point whereto
All times are present; I, the whilst I scaled
With Virgil the soul-purifying mount
And visited the nether world of woe,

The arms of Florence had never hung reversed on the spear of her enemies; nor been changed from argent to gules; as they afterward were, when the Guelfi gained the predominance.

1Phaeton, who came to his mother Clymene, to inquire if he were indeed the son of Apollo.

? Cacciaguida.

"That thou mayst obtain from others a solution of any doubt."

"Thou beholdest future events with the same clearness of evidence that we discern the simplest mathe matical demonstrations.'

The divine nature.

Touching my future destiny have heard

Words grievous, though I feel me on all sides

Well squared to fortune's blows. Therefore my will
Were satisfied to know the lot awaits me;

The arrow, seen beforehand, slacks his flight."
So said I to the brightness, which erewhile
To me had spoken; and my will declared,
As Beatrice will'd, explicitly.

Nor with oracular response obscure,

Such as, or e'er the Lamb of God was slain,
Beguiled the credulous nations: but, in terms
Precise, and unambiguous lore, replied
The spirit of paternal love, enshrined,
Yet in his smile apparent; and thus spake:
"Contingency, whose verge extendeth not
Beyond the tablet of your mortal mold,
Is all depictured in the eternal sight;
But hence deriveth not necessity,"

More than the tall ship, hurried down the flood,
Is driven by the eye that looks on it.

8

From thence, as to the ear sweet harmony
From organ comes, so comes before mine eye
The time prepared for thee. Such as driven out
From Athens, by his cruel stepdame's wiles,
Hippolytus departed; such must thou

Depart from Florence. This they wish, and this
Contrive, and will ere long effectuate, there,"
Where gainful merchandize is made of Christ
Throughout the live-long day. The common cry,"
Will, as 'tis ever wont, affix the blame
Unto the party injured: but the truth
Shall, in the vengeance it dispenseth, find

A faithful witness. Thou shalt leave each thing
Contingency." Contingency,

which has no place beyond the lim-
its of the material world.

7 The evidence with which we see casual events portrayed in the source of all truth, no

more ne

cessitates those events, than does the image, reflected in the sight by a ship sailing down a stream, necessitate the motion of the vessel.

8 From the view of the Deity Himself.

9 Phædra.

10" There." At Rome, where the expulsion of Dante's party from Florence was then plotting, in 1300.

11 The multitude will, as usual, be ready to blame those who are sufferers, whose cause will at last be vindicated by the overthrow of their enemies.

Beloved most dearly: this is the first shaft
Shot from the bow of exile. Thou shalt prove
How salt the savour is of other's bread;

How hard the passage, to descend and climb
By other's stairs. But that shall gall thee most,
Will be the worthless and vile company,

With whom thou must be thrown into these straits.
For all ungrateful, impious all, and mad,

Shall turn 'gainst thee: but in a little while,

12

Theirs, and not thine, shall be the crimson'd brow.
Their course shall so evince their brutishness,

To have ta'en thy stand apart shall well become thee.
"First refuge thou must find, first place of rest,
In the great Lombard's courtesy, who bears,

13

Upon the ladder perch'd, the sacred bird.

He shall behold thee with such kind regard,
That 'twixt ye two, the contrary to that
Which 'fals 'twixt other men, the granting shall
Forerun the asking. With him shalt thou see
That mortal," who was at his birth imprest
So strongly from this star, that of his deeds
The nations shall take note. His unripe age
Yet holds him from observance; for these wheels
Only nine years have compasst him about.

15

But, ere the Gascon practise on great Harry,
Sparkles of virtue shall shoot forth in him,
In equal scorn of labours and of gold
His bounty shall be spread abroad so widely,
As not to let the tongues, e'en of his foes,
Be idle in its praise. Look thou to him,
And his beneficence: for he shall cause
Reversal of their lot to many people;

Rich men and beggars interchanging fortunes.
And thou shalt bear this written in thy soul,
Of him, but tell it not:" and things he told
Incredible to those who witness them;

12 They shall be ashamed of the part they have taken against thee.

13 Either Bartolommeo della Scala or Alboino his brother. Their coatof-arms was a ladder and an eagle.

14" That mortal." Can Grande

16

della Scala, born under the influence of Mars, but at this time only nine years old. He was a son of Alberto della Scala.

15" The Gascon." Pope Clement V. 18 The Emperor Henry VII.

Then added: "So interpret thou, my son,
What hath been told thee.-Lo! the ambushment
That a few circling seasons hide for thee.
Yet envy not thy neighbours: time extends
Thy span beyond their treason's chastisement."
Soon as the saintly spirit, by silence, mark'd
Completion of that web, which I had stretch'd
Before it, warp'd for weaving; I began,
As one, who in perplexity desires

17

Counsel of other, wise, benign and friendly:
"My father! well I mark how time spurs on
Toward me, ready to inflict the blow,
Which falls most heavily on him who most
Abandoneth himself. Therefore 'tis good
I should forecast, that, driven from the place'
Most dear to me, I may not lose myselfis
All other by my song. Down through the world
Of infinite mourning; and along the mount,
From whose fair height my lady's eyes did lift me;
And, after, through this Heaven, from light to light;
Have I learnt that, which if I tell again,

It may with many wofully disrelish:
And, if I am a timid friend to truth,

I fear my life may perish among those,

To whom these days shall be of ancient date."
The brightness, where enclosed the treasure" smiled,
Which I had found there, first shone glisteringly,
Like to a golden mirror in the sun;

66

Next answer'd: Conscience, dimm'd or by its own
Or other's shame, will feel thy saying sharp.
Thou, notwithstanding, all deceit removed,

See the whole vision be made manifest;

And let them wince, who have their withers wrung.
What though, when tasted first, thy voice shall prove
Unwelcome: on digestion, it will turn

17"The place." Our Poet here discovers both that Florence, much as he inveighs against it, was still the dearest object of his affections, and that it was not without some scruple he indulged his satirical vein.

18 That being driven out of my country, I may not deprive myself of every other place by the boldness with which I expose in my writings the vices of mankind.

19" The treasure.'
"Cacciaguida.