Mark now how great that whole must be, which suits
With such a part. If he were beautiful
As he is hideous now, and yet did dare
To scowl upon his Maker, well from him
May all our misery flow. Oh what a sight!
How passing strange it seemed, when I did spy
Upon his head three faces: one in front
Of hue vermilion, the other two with this
Midway each shoulder joined and at the crest;
The right 'twixt wan and yellow seemed; the left
To look on, such as come from whence old Nile
Stoops to the lowlands. Under each shot forth
Two mighty wings, enormous as became
A bird so vast. Sails never such I saw

Outstretched on the wide sea. No plumes had they,
But were in texture like a bat; and these

He flapped i' th' air, that from him issued still
Three winds, wherewith Cocytus to its depth
Was frozen. At six eyes he wept: the tears
Adown three chins distilled with bloody foam.
At every mouth his teeth a sinner champed,
Bruised as with ponderous engine; so that three
Were in this guise tormented. But far more
Than from that gnawing, was the foremost panged
By the fierce rending, whence oft-times the back
Was stript of all its skin. That upper spirit,
Who hath worst punishment," so spake my guide,
"Is Judas, he that hath his head within

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And plies the feet without. Of th' other two,
Whose heads are under, from the murky jaw
Who hangs, is Brutus: lo! how he doth writhe
And speaks not. The other, Cassius, that appears
So large of limb. But night now re-ascends;
And it is time for parting. All is seen."

37. Dante probably meant by these three faces to indicate the three parts of the world then known,- Europe (" of vermilion hue "), Asia ("twixt wan and yellow "), and Africa ("such as come," etc.).

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of the world. While at first sight it might seem strange to find Brutus and Cassius in the same category as Judas, the reason seems clear when we remember Dante's theory of the relations between the Roman Empire and the Church.

Others interpret them to mean envy, anger, Judas betrayed the founder of the Church, our and melancholy, whence Milton, — "Each passion dimmed his face

Saviour, while Brutus and Cassius betrayed Cæsar, the founder of the Roman Empire. The theory that the latter was foreordained by God to rule the world in temporal matters runs all through the Divine Comedy, and is treated of at length in De Monarchia.

I clipped him round the neck; for so he bade:
And noting time and place, he, when the wings
Enough were oped, caught fast the shaggy sides,
And down from pile to pile descending stepped
Between the thick fell and the jagged ice.

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Soon as he reached the point, whereat the thigh
Upon the swelling of the haunches turns,
My leader there, with pain and struggling hard,
Turned round his head where his feet stood before,
And grappled at the fell as one who mounts;
That into hell methought we turned again.

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"Expect that by such stairs as these,” thus spake
The teacher, panting like a man forespent,
"We must depart from evil so extreme: "
Then at a rocky opening issued forth,

And placed me on the brink to sit, next joined
With wary step my side. I raised mine eyes,
Believing that I Lucifer should see
Where he was lately left, but saw him now
With legs held upward. Let the grosser sort,
Who see not what the point was I had passed,
Bethink them if sore toil oppressed me then.
"Arise," my master cried, "upon thy feet.
The way
is long, and much uncouth the road;
And now within one hour and half of noon
The sun returns." It was no palace-hall
Lofty and luminous wherein we stood,
But natural dungeon where ill-footing was

And scant supply of light. "Ere from the abyss
I separate," thus when risen I began:
"My guide! vouchsafe few words to set me free
From error's thraldom. Where is now the ice?
How standeth he in posture thus reversed?
And how from eve to morn in space so brief
Hath the sun made his transit?" He in few
Thus answering spake: "Thou deemest thou art still
On the other side the centre, where I grasped
The abhorred worm that boreth through the world.
Thou wast on the other side, so long as I

89. The early church divided the day into four parts, - tierce, sext, nones, and vespers. The tierce begins at sunrise, hence "Il sole a mezza terza riede," means the sun is an hour and a half high. Cary's translation is not very clear.

98. The poets had only spent a short time in climbing over Lucifer's body; yet Virgil says it is now morning, whereas when they had left Judecca, he had said it was evening. Dante has not yet thoroughly understood that he has changed hemispheres.

Descended; when I turned, thou didst o'erpass
That point, to which from every part is dragged
All heavy substance. Thou art now arrived
Under the hemisphere opposed to that,
Which the great continent doth overspread,
And underneath whose canopy expired
The Man, that was born sinless and so lived.
Thy feet are planted on the smallest sphere,
Whose other aspect is Judecca. Morn
Here rises, when there evening sets: and he,
Whose shaggy pile we scaled, yet standeth fixed,
As at the first. On this part he fell down
From heaven; and th' earth, here prominent before,
Through fear of him did veil her with the sea,
And to our hemisphere retired. Perchance,
To shun him, was the vacant space left here,
By what of firm land on this side appears,
That sprang aloof." There is a place beneath,
From Belzebub as distant, as extends
The vaulted tomb; discovered not by sight,
But by the sound of brooklet, that descends
This way along the hollow of a rock,

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Which, as it winds with no precipitous course,

The wave hath eaten. By that hidden way

My guide and I did enter, to return

To the fair world: and heedless of repose
We climbed, he first, I following his steps,
Till on our view the beautiful lights of heaven
Dawned through a circular opening in the cave:
Thence issuing we again beheld the stars.

105. The centre of the earth. 110. Our Saviour.

III. This sphere forms the counterpart of Judecca, and is apparently of the same size and shape as the latter.

115. The general thought in these lines is as follows: Lucifer, hurled from Heaven, fell on the side of the earth opposite to Jerusalem and sank to the centre of gravity, where of course he remained fixed. The land which once formed

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the whole southern hemisphere now covered itself with the waters of the sea. The portion of the earth, which was thrust one side by the fall of Lucifer, leaped up (like splashing water) behind him and formed Mount Purgatory.

122. The way up to the foot of Purgatory is naturally as long as the whole depth of Hell. 133. Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise all end with the word stars.

THE DIVINE COMEDY.

Purgatory.

CANTO I.

ARGUMENT.

The Poet describes the delight he experienced at issuing a little before dawn from the infernal regions, into the pure air that surrounds the isle of Purgatory; and then relates how, turning to the right, he beheld four stars never seen before but by our first parents, and met on his left the shade of Cato of Utica, who, having warned him and Virgil what is needful to be done before they proceed on their way through Purgatory, disappears; and the two poets go towards the shore, where Virgil cleanses Dante's face with the dew, and girds him with a reed, as Cato had commanded.

O'ER better waves to speed her rapid course
The light bark of my genius lifts the sail,
Well pleased to leave so cruel sea behind;
And of that second region will I sing,

In which the human spirit from sinful blot
Is purged, and for ascent to Heaven prepares.
Here, O ye hallowed Nine! for in your train

I follow, here the deadened strain revive;
Nor let Calliope refuse to sound

A somewhat higher song, of that loud tone
Which when the wretched birds of chattering note
Had heard, they of forgiveness lost all hope.
Sweet hue of eastern sapphire, that was spread
O'er the serene aspect of the pure air,
High up as the first circle, to mine eyes

3. Cruel sea = Hell. 4. Purgatory.

8. The deadened strain = la morta poesia, so-called because it sang of Hell, the region of the dead.

9. Calliope was the Muse of Epic Poetry.

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11. The reference is to the nine daughters of Pierus, King of Thessaly, who were changed into magpies for presuming to challenge the Muses to sing. Cf. Ovid, Met. V. 302 ff.

15. The first circle = the heaven of the moon or, according to some, the horizon.

Unwonted joy renewed, soon as I 'scaped
Forth from the atmosphere of deadly gloom,
That had mine eyes and bosom filled with grief.
The radiant planet, that to love invites,
Made all the orient laugh, and veiled beneath
The Pisces' light, that in his escort came.

To the right hand I turned, and fixed my mind
On the other pole attentive, where I saw
Four stars ne'er seen before save by the ken
Of our first parents. Heaven of their rays
Seemed joyous. O thou northern site! bereft
Indeed, and widowed, since of these deprived.

As from this view I had desisted, straight
Turning a little towards the other pole,
There from whence now the wain had disappeared,
I saw an old man standing by my side

Alone, so worthy of reverence in his look,

That ne'er from son to father more was owed.

Low down his beard, and mixed with hoary white,
Descended, like his locks, which, parting, fell
Upon his breast in double fold. The beams
Of those four luminaries on his face

So brightly shone, and with such radiance clear
Decked it, that I beheld him as the sun.

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"Say who are ye, that stemming the blind stream,
Forth from the eternal prison-house have fled?”
He spoke and moved those venerable plumes.
"Who hath conducted, or with lantern sure
Lights you emerging from the depth of night,
That makes the infernal valley ever black?
Are the firm statutes of the dread abyss
Broken, or in high heaven new laws ordained,
That thus, condemned, ye to my caves approach?
My guide, then laying hold on me, by words
And intimations given with hand and head,

19. Venus, at this season, the morning star.

21. The constellation of Pisces precedes that of Aries in which the sun now is. Hence the time is between one and two hours before sunrise.

24. These stars represent the four cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. It is possible, however, that they may also allude to the Southern Cross, mentioned by Ptolemy in his Almagest, which was known to Dante.

25. Paradise is situated on the top of Mount Purgatory, which itself lies in the Southern hemisphere; hence Adam and Eve could have seen the four stars.

28. The North Pole.

30. The major.

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wain Charles' wain ursa

31. Cato of Utica. As a pagan, Dante ought to have placed him in Limbo; as a suicide, in the second round of the seventh circle of Hell. The reason why he is made the guardian of Purgatory is the great reverence which antiquity- and Dante himself - felt for him, as the type of the free citizen. Here he is used allegorically for true liberty and this is what the souls in Purgatory are seeking. Dante probably had the line of Virgil also in mind. "Secretosque pios; his dantem jura CatoEn. viii. 670.

nem."

42. Plumes = beard.