Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

woke up by sea-shore or mountain to the gradual glories of the dawn; who had been excited and cheered by the sudden meeting with fellow-travellers on his desolate road. He delights to recall, by name or place, some scene which dwells in his memory. He likes to

recall some perhaps momentary thrill, such as that which pierces the voyager who has just parted from his friends, when he hears at sea the evening bell over the waters 'seeming to mourn the day which is dying.'1

"In the Purgatorio the poet finds companions who are neither below him, nor hopelessly enstranged from him, as in the Inferno, nor far above him, as in the Paradiso : they are still almost creatures of flesh and blood, certainly human characters, capable of effort, pain, and self-command, going through their training as he is going through his, though on a higher level, having in view the aims and hopes which lead him on, praying the prayers which he prays, singing the psalms which he sings, receiving the absolution which is vouchsafed to him.'

A further attraction in the Purgatorio is supplied by the scenery and surroundings. Instead of being confounded by the horrors and pitchy blackness of Hell, or bewildered by the almost dazzling radiance of the heavenly spheres, we find ourselves here in the presence of the beauties of nature and of art, in a world where music and poetry, painting and sculpture, still charm the ear aud eye, and where the heart is gladdened, amid flowers and trees

1 Purgatorio, viii. 5-6: "Squilla di lontano, Che paia il giorno pianger che muore"-the original of Gray's "curfew tolls the knell of parting day."

Introduction by the Dean of St. Paul's (R. W. Church) to Readings on the Purgatorio of Dante, by the Honble. William Warren Vernon, 1897, vol. i. pp. xiii. foll.

and streams, by the light of the sun and of the

stars.

The Purgatorio is especially rich in beautiful and touching episodes, such as that (in the second Canto) of the meeting of Dante with

"His Casella, whom he woo'd to sing; Met in the milder shades of Purgatory ";

his interview (in the third Canto) with the comely and accomplished Manfred, the hapless King of Sicily; the account given (in the fifth Canto) by Buonconte da Montefeltro of his death at Campaldino, and of the fate of his body after the battle; the sudden kindling into life of the Mantuan Sordello (in the sixth Canto), at the name of his native place pronounced by Virgil, at whom he had previously been gazing "haughty and disdainful, like a lion in repose ";-the meeting of Statius and Virgil, and the former's account (in the twenty-second Canto) of how by Virgil's means he had been converted to Christianity, wherein Virgil did as one who goes by night bearing a lantern, and helps not himself, but shows the way to those who come behind";-the appearance of Matilda (in the twenty-eighth Canto) gathering flowers along the banks of the stream in the Terrestrial Paradise, singing as she goes;—and lastly (in the thirtieth Canto), Dante's distress at finding Virgil gone, "Virgil his beloved father," at the very moment when at last Beatrice reveals her

presence, the moment for which he had thirsted during ten long years.1

[ocr errors]

These are some of the "beauties of Dante contained in the Purgatorio; but it should be borne in mind, as Dean Church is careful to remind us, that "Dante certainly did not intend to be read only in fine passages"-to be properly understood, and properly appreciated, he must be read as a whole, and studied as a whole.

To Dante's readers, as to Dante himself, the passage through the Purgatorio is a preparation for higher things. Few who read this second Cantica with due attention and with due reverence will fail to feel something of what Dante felt after tasting the waters of Eunoe

"Back turned I from that wave most blest, Fresh, as fresh plant with fresh leaves dressed, Prepared, all clean from cares,

To mount unto the stars. "2

1 Purgatorio, xxxii. 2.

2 Purgatorio, xxxiii. 142-145 (Shadwell's translation):

"Io ritornai dalla santissim' onda

Rifatto sì, come piante novelle
Rinnovellate di novella fronda,

Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle."

THE VISION OF DANTE

PURGATORY

CANTO I

ARGUMENT

X

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 1 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 hallow'd Nine! for in

your

I follow, here the deaden'd strain revive;
Nor let Calliope refuse to sound

1 O'er better waves.] So Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. ii. c. i.

Per correr maggior acqua alza le vele,

O debil navicella del mio ingegno.

train

A somewhat higher. song, of that loud tone
Which when the wretched birds of chattering note1
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,2 to mine eyes
Unwonted joy renew'd, soon as I 'scaped
Forth from the atmosphere of deadly gloom,
That had mine eyes and bosom fill'd with grief.
The radiant planet,3 that to love invites,
Made all the orient laugh, and veil'd beneath
The Pisces' light,5 that in his escort came.

To the right hand I turned, and fix'd my On the other pole attentive, where I saw Four stars ne'er seen before save by the ken

mind

1 Birds of chattering note.] For the fable of the daughters of Pierus who challenged the muses to sing, and were by them changed into magpies, see Ovid, Met. lib. v. fab. 5.

2 The first circle.] Either, as some suppose, the moon; or, as Lombardi (who likes to be as far off the rest of the commentators as possible) will have it, the highest circle of the stars.

3 Planet.] Venus.

4 Made all the orient laugh.] Hence Chaucer, Knight's Tale : And all the orisont laugheth of the sight.

It is sometimes read "orient."

5 The Pisces' light.] The constellation of the Fish veiled by the more luminous body of Venus, then a morning star.

6 Four stars.] Venturi observes that "Dante here speaks as a poet, and almost in the spirit of prophecy; or, what is more likely, describes the heaven about that pole according to his own invention. In our days," he adds, "the cross, composed of four stars, three of the second and one of the third magnitude, serves as a guide to those who sail from Europe to the south; but in the age of Dante these discoveries had not been made: yet it appears probable, that either from long tradition, or from the relation of later voyagers, the real truth might not have been unknown to our Poet. Seneca's prediction of the discovery of America may be accounted for in a similar manner. But whatever may be thought of this, it is certain that the four stars are here symbolical of the four cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. See Canto xxxi. v. 105. M. Artaud mentions a globe constructed by an Arabian in Egypt, with the date of the year 622 of the Hegira, corresponding to 1225 of our era, in which the southern cross is positively marked. See his Histoire de Dante, ch. xxxi. and xl. 8°. Par. 1841.

« AnteriorContinuar »