Who coming o'er against me, by degrees
Impell'd me where the sun in silence rests.

While to the lower space with backward step

I fell, my ken discern'd the form of one

Whose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech. When him in that great desert I espied,

"Have mercy on me," cried I out aloud,

66

Spirit! or living man! whate'er thou be."

He answered: "Now not man, man once I was,
And born of Lombard parents, Mantuans both
By country, when the power of Julius yet
Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past,
Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time
Of fabled deities and false. A bard
Was I, and made Anchises' upright son

The subject of my song, who came from Troy,
When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.
But thou, say wherefore to such perils past
Return'st thou? wherefore not this pleasant mount
Ascendest, cause and source of all delight?"
"And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring,
From which such copious floods of eloquence
Have issued?" I with front abash'd replied.

Glory and light of all the tuneful train!

May it avail me, that I long with zeal

Have sought thy volume, and with love immense
Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide!
Thou he from whom alone I have derived
That style, which for its beauty into fame
Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.
O save me from her, thou illustrious sage!
For every vein and pulse throughout my frame
She hath made tremble." He, soon as he saw
That I was weeping, answer'd, "Thou must needs
Another way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape
From out that savage wilderness. This beast,

At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none
To pass, and no less hinderance makes than death:
So bad and so accursed in her kind,

That never sated is her ravenous will,

Still after food more craving than before.
To many an animal in wedlock vile
She fastens, and shall yet to many more,
Until that Greyhound
Her with sharp pain.

come, who shall destroy
He will not life support
By earth nor its base metals, but by love,
Wisdom, and virtue; and his land shall be
The land 'twixt either Feltro. In his might
Shall safety to Italia's plains arise,

For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,
Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.

He, with incessant chase, through every town
Shall worry, until he to hell at length
Restore her, thence by envy first let loose.
I, for thy profit pondering, now devise
That thou mayst follow me; and I, thy guide,
Will lead thee hence through an eternal space,
Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see
Spirits of old tormented, who invoke

A second death; and those next view, who dwell
Content in fire, for that they hope to come,
Whene'er the time may be, among the blest,
Into whose regions if thou then desire
To ascend, a spirit worthier 10 than I

Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart,
Thou shalt be left: for that Almighty King,
Who reigns above, a rebel to His law
Adjudges me; and therefore hath decreed

That, to His city, none through me should come.
He in all parts hath sway; there rules, there holds
His citadel and throne. O happy those,

Whom there He chuses! I to him in few:
"Bard! by that God, whom thou didst not adore,

This passage has been commonly understood as a eulogium on the liberal spirit of his Veronese patron Can Grande della Scala.

7 Verona, the country of Can della Scala, is situated between Feltro, a city in the Marca Trivigiana, and Monte Feltro, a city in the territory of Urbino.

8" A second death." "And in these days men shall seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." Rev. ix. 6.

The spirits in Purgatory. 10" A spirit worthier." Beatrice, who conducts the Poet through Paradise.

I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse
I may escape) to lead me where thou said'st,
That I Saint Peter's gate" may view, and those
Who, as thou tell'st, are in such dismal plight."
Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued.

CANTO II

ARGUMENT. After the invocation, which poets are used to prefix to their works, he shows that, on a consideration of his own strength, he doubted whether it sufficed for the journey proposed to him, but that, being comforted by Virgil, he at last took courage, and followed him as his guide and master.

N

OW was the day departing, and the air,

Imbrown'd with shadows, from their toils released
All animals on earth; and I alone
Prepared myself the conflict to sustain,
Both of sad pity, and that perilous road,
Which my unerring memory shall retrace.

O Muses! O high genius! now vouchsafe
Your aid. O mind! that all I saw hast kept
Safe in a written record, here thy worth
And eminent endowments come to proof.

I thus began: "Bard! thou who art my guide,
Consider well, if virtue be in me

Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise

Thou trust me. Thou hast told that Silvius' sire,1
Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among

The immortal tribes had entrance, and was there
Sensibly present. Yet if Heaven's great Lord,
Almighty foe to ill, such favor show'd

In contemplation of the high effect,

Both what and who from him should issue forth,
It seems in reason's judgment well deserved;
Sith he of Rome and of Rome's empire wide,
In Heaven's empyreal height was chosen sire:
Both which, if truth be spoken, were ordain'd

"The gate of Purgatory, which the Poet feigns to be guarded by

an angel placed there by St. Peter 1" Silvius' sire." Eneas.

And stablish'd for the holy place, where sits
Who to great Peter's sacred chair succeeds.
He from this journey, in thy song renown'd,'
Learn'd things, that to his victory gave rise
And to the papal robe. In after-times
The Chosen Vessel2 also travel'd there,
To bring us back assurance in that faith
Which is the entrance to salvation's way.
But I, why should I there presume? or who
Permits it? not Æneas I, nor Paul.
Myself I deem not worthy, and none else
Will deem me. I, if on this voyage then

I venture, fear it will in folly end.

Thou, who art wise, better my meaning know'st,
Than I can speak." As one, who unresolves
What he hath late resolved, and with new thoughts
Changes his purpose, from his first intent
Removed; e'en such was I on that dun coast,
Wasting in thought my enterprise, at first
So eagerly embraced. "If right thy words.
I scan," replied that shade magnanimous,
Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd, which oft
So overcasts a man, that he recoils

From noblest resolution, like a beast

At some false semblance in the twilight gloom.
That from this terror thou mayst free thyself,
I will instruct thee why I came, and what

I heard in that same instant, when for thee
Grief touch'd me first. I was among the tribe,
Who rest suspended,3 when a dame, so blest
And lovely I besought her to command,
Call'd me; her eyes were brighter than the star
Of day; and she, with gentle voice and soft,
Angelically tuned, her speech address'd:

'O courteous shade of Mantua! thou whose fame
Yet lives, and shall live long as nature lasts!

A friend, not of my fortune but myself,

On the wide desert in his road has met

"The Chosen Vessel." St. Paul. The spirits in Limbo, neither

admitted to a state of glory nor doomed to punishment.

Hindrance so great, that he through fear has turn'd.
Now much I dread lest he past help have stray'd,
And I be risen too late for his relief,

From what in heaven of him I heard. Speed now,
And by thy eloquent persuasive tongue,
And by all means for his deliverance meet,
Assist him. So to me will comfort spring.

I, who now bid thee on this errand forth,
Am Beatrice; from a place I come

Revisited with joy. Love brought me thence,

Who prompts my speech. When in my Master's sight
I stand, thy praise to him I oft will tell.'
"She then was silent, and I thus began:
'O Lady! by whose influence alone
Mankind excels whatever is contain'd

Within that heaven which hath the smallest orb,
So thy command delights me, that to obey,

If it were done already, would seem late.
No need hast thou further to speak thy will:

Yet tell the reason, why thou art not loth

To leave that ample space, where to return
Thou burnest, for this centre here beneath.'

"She then: Since thou so deeply wouldst inquire,

I will instruct thee briefly why no dread

Hinders my entrance here. Those things alone
Are to be fear'd whence evil may proceed;

None else, for none are terrible beside.

I am so framed by God, thanks to His grace!
That any sufferance of your misery

Touches me not, nor flame of that fierce fire
Assails me. In high Heaven a blessed Dame
Resides, who mourns with such effectual grief
That hindrance, which I send thee to remove,
That God's stern judgment to her will inclines.'
To Lucia, calling, her she thus bespake:
'Now doth thy faithful servant need thy aid,

"Beatrice." The daughter of Folco Portinari, who is here invested with the character of celestial wisdom or theology.

5" A blessed Dame." The Divine Mercy.

6" Lucia." The enlightening Grace of Heaven; as it is common ly explained.