Been sated. But, since all the leaves are full, 137. Leaves the thirty-three cantos destined to the Purgatory. Dante gives to his poem a wonderful symmetry of proportion. Each cantica has thirty-three cantos, except the Hell, which has an introductory canto. Even the 140 number of verses are almost the same in the three great divisions, Hell having 4720, Purgatory 4755, and Paradise 4758. 142. Each of the canticas ends with the word stars. THE DIVINE COMEDY. Paradise. CANTO I. ARGUMENT. The Poet ascends towards the first heaven with Beatrice, who explains certain doubts which arise in his mind. His glory, by whose might all things are moved, Sheds more resplendence, elsewhere less. In heaven, 5 That largeliest of his light partakes, was I, his magnetic beam, that gently warms The universe, and to each inward part With gentle penetration, though unseen, Shoots invisible virtue ev'n to the deep." Milton, P. L. iii. 586. = the Empyrean, seat of the God 3. Heaven head. 6. The original idea is more complete, "Nè sa nè può qual di lassù discende" = Where sa = knows, that is, his mind cannot remember, and può = is able, that is, words are not sufficient to describe. ΤΟ 15 7. God is the ultimate goal of the soul's desires. Cf. Purg. xxxi. 23, and Par. xxxiii. 45. 14. "Inspire me with such poetic power as he must have who deserves to be crowned with thy laurel." Of me beloved is wrong; the laurel is loved by Apollo on account of Daphne, who was changed into it. 15. Ovid mentions the two peaks of Parnassus in Met. i. 316. One was sacred to the Muses, the other to Apollo. Allegorically the meaning is, hitherto human wisdom has been sufficient, now divine wisdom is necessary. Sufficed me; henceforth, there is need of both Forth from his limbs, unsheathed. O power divine 20 That of that happy realm the shadowed form Is with such thirst inspired. From a small spark Through divers passages, the world's bright lamp He comes; and, to the worldly wax, best gives 25 30 35 40 45 36. Lamp = sun; passages=foci = places on the horizon where the sun rises at the four seasons of the year. 37. That the point of the horizon where the zodiac, the equator, and the equinoctial colure meet, and thus form three crosses. This happens at the spring equinox. == 39. Constellation = Aries, whose influence is especially benign. According to tradition, the world was created at this season. = 41. There Purgatory. 42. Here in the northern hemisphere. 46. The strength of the eagle's eye is proverbial. Cf. "Et sa nature est de esgarder contre le soleil si fermement que si oil ne remuent goute" (B. Latini, Trésor, i. 5, 97), and, "A lover's eye will gaze an eagle blind." Shakespeare, L. L. Lost, iv. 3. That here exceeds our power; thanks to the place 55 I suffered it not long; and yet so long, Tempered of thee and measured, charmed mine ear 55. Earthly Paradise, where Adam dwelt body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, before his sin. 58. "Ardentem, et scintillas emittentem, ac si ferrum cum de fornace trahitur." Alberici Visio, § 5. 60. As he as if he (God). 62. The heavens. I cannot tell: God knoweth.' 2 Cor. xii. 2. 74. The motion of the heavens. The desire for God is the source of the motion of the celestial spheres. 75. The harmony of the spheres. "In their motion harmony divine 66. A fisherman who, seeing the fish he had So smooths her charming tones, that God's own caught eating the grass and thus recovering life, ear ate himself of it and became immortal. Ovid, Listens delighted." Met. xiii. 898 ff. 70. Whom God shall some day bring to the same experience. 71. Allusion to St. Paul, - "Whether in the Milton, P. L. v. 627. 77. Dante, gazing into the eyes of Beatrice, has been drawn up to the sphere of fire, which seems to him like a burning lake. To calm my troubled mind, before I asked, Makest dull; so that thou seest not the thing, Although divested of my first-raised doubt Whence, after utterance of a piteous sigh, Whither the line is drawn. All natures lean, That Providence, who so well orders all, With her own light makes ever calm the heaven, In which the substance, that hath greatest speed, 120 Of that strong cord, that never looses dart 85. Dante does not know he has left the earth. footprints of the Deity, who is the beginning 89. Proper place sphere of fire. = 90. Hither heaven, the home of the soul. 96. He cannot understand how he, a heavy body, can rise through air and fire. 97. Piteous, on account of his ignorance and weakness. 99. Frenzied = deliro = delirious. 103. In the divine order the higher creatures (angels and the blessed) see more plainly the and the end of the universe. 110. All creatures have an instinct to seek God as their end. |