And that thou less mayst marvel at the word, Hence hath it semblance, and is shadow called, Hence speech is ours, hence laughter, tears, and sighs, And this the cause of what thou marvell'st at." Hurls forth redundant flames; and from the rim Driveth them back, sequestered from its bound. That bordered on the void, to pass; and I 79. Cf. Cicero, De Senectute, - 88 85 90 95 100 105 IIO 115 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. = 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. == 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, Between their footsteps and mine own was fain 120 To share by turns my view. At the hymn's close Which once more ended, "To the wood," they cried, 125 130 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. This bred occasion first to speak of me. 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 5 10 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 All for thine answer do more thirst, than doth Indian or Æthiop for the cooling stream. A wall against the sun, as thou not yet Hadst entered? Thus spake one: and I had straight To new appearance. Meeting these, there came, Declared me, if attention had not turned 15 20 25 The shadows all press forward, severally E'en so the emmets, 'mid their dusky troops, 30 Their mutual road perchance, and how they thrive. Of the first onward step, from either tribe Shout "Sodom and Gomorrah!" these, "The cow That I no more 35 40 45 50 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 Confounded and struck dumb; e'en such appeared 55 60 65 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 70 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, 75 Thou know'st, and how we sinned. If thou by name 80 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. == 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 He thus bespake me: "What from thee I hear Is graved so deeply on my mind, the waves A whit less lively. But as now thy oath 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 90 95 100 105 ΠΙΟ 115 120 113. Girault de Berneil, of Limoges, flour- xi. 23. › U |