Of our first parents.1 Heaven of their rays

Seem'd joyous.
Oh thou northern site! bereft
Indeed, and widow'd, 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 2 had disappear'd, I saw an old man 3 standing by my side

3

Alone, so worthy of reverence in his look,

That ne'er from son to father more was owed.
Low down his beard, and mix'd 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
Deck'd it, that I beheld him as the sun.

66

Say who are ye, that stemming the blind stream, Forth from the eternal prison-house have fled?" He spoke and moved those venerable plumes.1

1 Our first parents.] In the terrestrial paradise, placed, as we shall see, by our Poet, on the summit of Purgatory.

2 The wain.] Charles's Wain, or Boötes.

3 An old man.] Cato.

Secretosque pios; his dantem jura Catonem.

Virg. Æn. viii. 670.

The commentators, and Lombardi amongst the rest, might have saved themselves and their readers much needless trouble if they would have consulted the prose writings of Dante with more diligence. In the Convito (iv. 28) he has himself declared his opinion of the illustrious Roman. "Quale uomo, etc." "What earthly man was more worthy to follow God than Cato? Certainly none.' And again: "Nel nome di cui, etc." whose name, whatever needs be said concerning the signs of nobility may be concluded; for, in him, that nobility displays them all throughout all ages."

"In

4 Venerable plumes.] Insperata tuæ quum veniet pluma superbiæ.

Hor. Carm. lib. iv. ode 10.

The same metaphor has occurred in Hell, Canto xx. 41.

the plumes,

That mark'd the better sex.

It is used by Ford in the Lady's Trial, act iv. sc. 2.

Now the down

Of softness is exchanged for plumes of age.

"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 ordain'd,
That thus, condemn'd, ye to my caves approach?
My guide, then laying hold on me, by words
And intimations given with hand and head,
Made my bent knees and eye submissive pay
Due reverence; then thus to him replied:

"Not of myself I come; a Dame from heaven 1
Descending, him besought me in my charge
To bring. But since thy will implies, that more
Our true condition I unfold at large,

Mine is not to deny thee thy request.
This mortal ne'er hath seen the furthest gloom;
But erring by his folly had approach'd
So near, that little space was left to turn.
Then, as before I told, I was despatch'd
To work his rescue; and no way remain'd
Save this which I have ta'en. I have display'd
Before him all the regions of the bad;
And purpose now those spirits to display,
That under thy command are purged from sin.
How I have brought him would be long to say.
From high descends the virtue, by whose aid
I to thy sight and hearing him have led.

1 A Dame from heaven.] Beatrice. See Hell, ii. 54.
2 The furthest gloom.] L'ultima sera.

So Ariosto, O. F. Canto xxxiv. st. 59.

Che non han visto ancor l'ultima sera.

And Filicaja, Canto ix. Al Sonno.

L'ultima sera.

2

And Mr. Mathias, Canzone a Guglielmo Roscoe premessa alla Storia della Poesia Italiana, p. 13.

Di morte non vedrà l'ultima sera.

Now may our coming please thee. In the search
Of liberty he journeys: that how dear,
They know who for her sake have life refused.
Thou knowest, to whom death for her was sweet
In Utica, where thou didst leave those weeds,
That in the last great day will shine so bright.
For us the eternal edicts are unmoved:
He breathes, and I of Minos am not bound,1
Abiding in that circle, where the eyes

Of thy chaste Marcia 2 beam, who still in look Prays thee, O hallow'd spirit! to own her thine. Then by her love we implore thee, let us pass Through thy seven regions; 3 for which, best thanks I for thy favour will to her return,

If mention there below thou not disdain."

"Marcia so pleasing in my sight was found," He then to him rejoin'd, "while I was there, That all she ask'd me I was fain to grant. Now that beyond the accursed stream she dwells, She may no longer move me, by that law,*

1 Of Minos am not bound.] See Hell, v. 4.

2 Marcia.]

Da fœdera prisci

Illibata tori: da tantum nomen inane
Connubii: liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis

Martia.

Lucan, Phars. lib. ii. 344.

Our author's habit of putting an allegorical interpretation on everything, a habit which appears to have descended to that age from certain fathers of the church, is nowhere more apparent than in his explanation of this passage. See Convito (iv. 28.) "Marzia fu vergine, etc.' "Marcia was a virgin, and in that state she signifies childhood; then she came to Cato, and in that state she represents youth; she then bare children, by whom are represented the virtues that we have said belong to that age." Dante would surely have done well to remember his own rule laid down in the De Monarch. lib. iii. "Advertendum, etc." "Concerning the mystical sense it must be observed that we may err in two ways, either by seeing it where it is not, or by taking it otherwise than it ought to be taken."

8 Through thy seven regions.] The seven rounds of Purgatory, in which the seven capital sins are punished.

4 By that law.] When he was delivered by Christ from limbo, a change of affections accompanied his change of place.

Which was ordain'd me, when I issued thence.
Not so, if Dame from heaven, as thou sayst,
Moves and directs thee; then no flattery needs.
Enough for me that in her name thou ask.
Go therefore now: and with a slender reed 1
See that thou duly gird him, and his face
Lave, till all sordid stain thou wipe from thence.
For not with eye, by any cloud obscured,
Would it be seemly before him to come,
Who stands the foremost minister in heaven.
This islet all around, there far beneath,
Where the wave beats it, on the oozy bed
Produces store of reeds. No other plant,
Cover'd with leaves, or harden'd in its stalk,
There lives, not bending to the water's sway.
After, this way return not; but the sun
Will show you, that now rises, where to take 2
The mountain in its easiest ascent."

He disappear'd; and I myself upraised
Speechless, and to my guide retiring close,
Toward him turn'd mine eyes. He thus began:

My son! observant thou my steps pursue.

We must retreat to rereward; for that way
The champain to its low extreme declines."

The dawn had chased the matin hour of prime, Which fled before it, so that from afar

I spied the trembling of the ocean stream.3

1 A slender reed.] The reed is here supposed, with sufficient probability, to be meant for a type of simplicity and patience.

2 Where to take.] "Prendere il monte,' a reading which Lombardi claims for his favourite Nidobeatina edition, is also found in Landino's of 1484.

3 I spied the trembling of the ocean stream.]

Conobbi il tremolar della marina.

So Trissino in the Sofonisba.

E resta in tremolar l'onda marina.

And Fortiguerra, Ricciardetto, Canto ix. st. 17.

visto il tremolar della marina.

We traversed the deserted plain, as one Who, wander'd from his track, thinks every step Trodden in vain till he regain the path.

When we had come, where yet the tender dew Strove with the sun, and in a place where fresh The wind breathed o'er it, while it slowly dried; Both hands extended on the watery grass

My master placed, in graceful act and kind.
Whence I of his intent before apprized,

Stretch'd out to him my cheeks suffused with tears.
There to my visage he anew restored

That hue which the dun shades of hell conceal'd.
Then on the solitary shore arrived,
That never sailing on its waters saw

Man that could after measure back his course,
He girt me in such manner as had pleased
Him who instructed; and O strange to tell!
As he selected every humble plant,
Wherever one was pluck'd another 1 there
Resembling, straightway in its place arose.

CANTO II

ARGUMENT

They behold a vessel under conduct of an angel, coming over the waves with spirits to Purgatory, among whom, when the passengers have landed, Dante recognises his friend Casella; but, while they are entertained by him with a song, they hear Cato exclaiming against their negligent loitering, and at that rebuke hasten forward to the mountain.

Now had the sun 2 to that horizon reach'd,
That covers, with the most exalted point

1 Another.] From Virg. Æn. lib. vi. 143. Primo avulso non deficit alter.

2 Now had the sun.] Dante was now antipodal to Jerusalem; so