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And that thou less mayst marvel at the word,
Mark the sun's heat; how that to wine doth change,
Mixed with the moisture filtered through the vine.
"When Lachesis hath spun the thread, the soul
Takes with her both the human and divine,
Memory, intelligence, and will, in act
Far keener than before; the other powers
Inactive all and mute. No pause allowed,
In wondrous sort self-moving, to one strand
Of those, where the departed roam, she falls :
Here learns her destined path. Soon as the place
Receives her, round the plastic virtue beams,
Distinct as in the living limbs before:
And as the air, when saturate with showers,
The casual beam refracting, decks itself
With many a hue; so here the ambient air
Weareth that form, which influence of the soul
Imprints on it: and like the flame, that where
The fire moves, thither follows; so, henceforth
The new form on the spirit follows still :

Hence hath it semblance, and is shadow called,
With each sense, even to the sight, endued:

Hence speech is ours, hence laughter, tears, and sighs,
Which thou mayst oft have witnessed on the mount.
The obedient shadow fails not to present
Whatever varying passion moves within us.

And this the cause of what thou marvell'st at."
Now the last flexure of our way we reached;
And to the right hand turning other care
Awaits us. Here the rocky precipice

Hurls forth redundant flames; and from the rim
A blast up-blown, with forcible rebuff

Driveth them back, sequestered from its bound.
Behoved us, one by one, along the side,

That bordered on the void, to pass; and I
Feared on one hand the fire, on the other feared
Headlong to fall: when thus the instructor warned;
"Strict rein must in this place direct the eyes.

79. Cf. Cicero, De Senectute, -
quæ, et succo terræ et colore solis augescens,
prima est peracerba gustatu, deinde maturata
dulcescit."

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the soul (lines 42, 43) forms a shadow body of the circumambient air. Dante differs from Aquinas here, and probably adopted this theory because something of the sort was necessary in

81. Statius now describes the state of the soul order to show his readers the various souls in after the death of the body. Hell and Purgatory.

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84. The other powers those which belong to the body, and which, when the bodily organs are dead, remain inoperative.

86. The damned go to the river Acheron (Hell, iii.); the saved to the mouth of the Tiber (Purg. ii. 99, 100).

104. Here we have finally the answer to Dante's question, why spirits could be so emaciated.

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105. Flexure tortura = turn of the road the seventh terrace, that of the licentious. 115. Lust comes to man through the eyes. So

89. The formative virtue which exists in Propertius says, " Oculi sunt in amore duces."

A little swerving and the way is lost."

Then from the bosom of the burning mass,
"O God of mercy!" heard I sung, and felt
No less desire to turn. And when I saw
Spirits along the flame proceeding, I

Between their footsteps and mine own was fain

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To share by turns my view. At the hymn's close
They shouted loud, "I do not know a man ;
Then in low voice again took up the strain;

Which once more ended, "To the wood," they cried,
"Ran Dian, and drave forth Callisto stung
With Cytherea's poison:" then returned
Unto their song; then many a pair extolled,
Who lived in virtue chastely and the bands
Of wedded love. Nor from that task, I ween,
Surcease they; whilesoe'er the scorching fire
Enclasps them. Of such skill appliance needs,
To medicine the wound that healeth last.

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CANTO XXVI.

ARGUMENT.

The spirits wonder at seeing the shadow cast by the body of Dante, on the flame as he passes it. This moves one of them to address him. It proves to be Guido Guinicelli, the Italian poet, who points out to him the spirit of Arnaut Daniel, the Provençal, with whom he also speaks.

WHILE singly thus along the rim we walked,

Oft the good master warned me: "Look thou well.
Avail it that I caution thee." The sun
Now all the western clime irradiate changed
From azure tinct to white; and, as I passed,
My passing shadow made the umbered flame
Burn ruddier. At so strange a sight I marked
That many a spirit marvelled on his way.

This bred occasion first to speak of me.
"He seems," said they, "no insubstantial frame:"
Then, to obtain what certainty they might,
Stretched towards me, careful not to overpass

118. Beginning of a hymn sung at matins on Saturday morning, and which contains a prayer for purity.

123. Words of the Virgin Mary to the angel Gabriel. Luke i. 34.

126. Callisto, seduced by Jupiter, was driven by Diana from her band, changed by Juno to

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a bear, and transferred by Jupiter to the sky, there to become the constellation ursa major. 133. Last of the seven P's.

8. Here, as elsewhere, the spirits notice that Dante is alive by the shadow he casts, and wonder at it.

The burning pale. "O thou! who followest
The others, haply not more slow than they,
But moved by reverence; answer me, who burn
In thirst and fire: nor I alone, but these

All for thine answer do more thirst, than doth

Indian or Æthiop for the cooling stream.
Tell us, how is it that thou makest thyself

A wall against the sun, as thou not yet
Into the inextricable toils of death

Hadst entered? Thus spake one: and I had straight

To new appearance. Meeting these, there came,

Declared me, if attention had not turned

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The shadows all press forward, severally
Each snatch a hasty kiss, and then away.

E'en so the emmets, 'mid their dusky troops,
Peer closely one at other, to spy out

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Their mutual road perchance, and how they thrive.
That friendly greeting parted, ere dispatch

Of the first onward step, from either tribe
Loud clamor rises: those, who newly come,

Shout "Sodom and Gomorrah!" these, "The cow
Pasiphaë entered, that the beast she wooed
Might rush unto her luxury." Then as cranes,
That part towards the Riphæan mountains fly,
Part towards the Lybic sands, these to avoid
The ice, and those the sun; so hasteth off
One crowd, advances the other; and resume
Their first song, weeping, and their several shout.
Again drew near my side the very same,
Who had erewhile besought me; and their looks
Marked eagerness to listen. I, who twice
Their will had noted, spake: "O spirits! secure,
Whene'er the time may be, of peaceful end;
My limbs, nor crude, nor in mature old age,
Have I left yonder: here they bear me, fed
With blood, and sinew-strung.

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That I no more

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36. Pasiphaë was wife of Minos, and mother of the Minotaur, "the infamy of Crete."

38. Vague expression for mountains in the extreme north.

42. First song = "O God of Mercy." See Canto xxv. 118.

Several shout the examples of Chastity (Ibid. 123 ff.).

48. Dante being thirty-five was neither young

nor old.

May live in blindness, hence I tend aloft.

There is a dame on high, who wins for us

This grace, by which my mortal through your realm

I bear. But may your utmost wish soon meet
Such full fruition, that the orb of heaven,
Fullest of love, and of most ample space,
Receive you; as ye tell (upon my page
Henceforth to stand recorded) who ye are ;
And what this multitude, that at your backs
Have past behind us." As one, mountain-bred,
Rugged and clownish, if some city's walls
He chance to enter, round him stares agape,

Confounded and struck dumb; e'en such appeared
Each spirit. But when rid of that amaze,
(Not long the inmate of a noble heart,)

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He, who before had questioned, thus resumed:

"O blessed! who, for death preparing, takest

Experience of our limits, in thy bark;

Their crime, who not with us proceed, was that

For which, as he did triumph, Cæsar heard

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The shout of 'queen,' to taunt him. Hence their cry

Of 'Sodom,' as they parted; to rebuke

Themselves, and aid the burning by their shame.

Our sinning was Hermaphrodite: but we,
Because the law of human kind we broke,
Following like beasts our vile concupiscence,
Hence parting from them, to our own disgrace
Record the name of her, by whom the beast
In bestial tire was acted. Now our deeds

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Thou know'st, and how we sinned. If thou by name

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55. The Empyrean, where the souls have their seat in the celestial rose. See Par. xxx. 39 ff. 66. He = Guinicelli. See lines 13 ff. 67. Takest experience, etc. = imbarche figurative for "to gain." Dante is gaining experience of Purgatory in order to be saved after death.

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lust, in contradistinction to bestiality, which is the sin of the group going in the opposite direction. 78. Her = Pasiphaë.

83. Guido Guinicelli, celebrated poet of Bologna, died in exile in 1276. Dante in the De Vulg. Eloq. calls him "maximus," and in the Convito, "nobile." See also Purg. xi. 96. 87. King of Nemea. He was sad on account of the death of his child, left by Hypsipile in the 69. The crime of those who go in the opposite grass when she went to show the army of the direction. seven kings marching against Thebes the stream 70. Cf. Suetonius, J. Cæsar, 49. of Langia (Purg. xxii. 110). She was about to 74. Hermaphrodite here = excess of natural be killed when her two sons, Thoas and Eume

(Save that I more repressed it) when I heard
From his own lips the name of him pronounced,
Who was a father to me, and to those
My betters, who have ever used the sweet
And pleasant rhymes of love. So naught I heard
Nor spake; but long time thoughtfully I went
Gazing on him; and, only for the fire,
Approached not nearer. When my eyes were fed
By looking on him; with such solemn pledge,
As forces credence, I devoted me
Unto his service wholly. In reply

He thus bespake me: "What from thee I hear

Is graved so deeply on my mind, the waves
Of Lethe shall not wash it off, nor make

A whit less lively. But as now thy oath
Has sealed the truth, declare what cause impels
That love, which both thy looks and speech bewray."
"Those dulcet lays," I answered; "which, as long
As of our tongue the beauty does not fade,
Shall make us love the very ink that traced them."
"Brother!" he cried, and pointed at the shade
Before him, "there is one, whose mother speech
Doth owe to him a fairer ornament.
He in love ditties, and the tales of prose,
Without a rival stands; and lets the fools
Talk on, who think the songster of Limoges
O'ertops him. Rumor and the popular voice
They look to, more than truth; and so confirm
Opinion, ere by art or reason taught.
Thus many of the elder time cried up
Guittone, giving him the prize, till truth
By strength of numbers vanquished.
So ample privilege, as to have gained
Free entrance to the cloister, whereof Christ
Is Abbot of the college; say to him
One paternoster for me, far as needs
For dwellers in this world, where power to sin

nius, found and recognized her, just in time to save her life. See Statius, Theb. v. 721 ff. 90. Father in the art of poetry.

104. "What is the cause of thy love for me, which thou hast just shown so plainly?" See lines 95 ff.

109. This is Arnaut Daniel, a Provençal poet, who flourished toward the end of the twelfth century. Dante refers to him again in the De Vulg. Eloq. His high opinion of him is not shared by modern critics. See Diez, Leben und Werke der Troubadours, 279 ff.

If thou own

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113. Girault de Berneil, of Limoges, flour- xi. 23. ›

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