Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 43

So that it seems from what I learn and see, That what I say, and worse, is like to be.

"What Gano with Marsilio planned before, I know not, since I did not think thereon: But he's the same, methinks, he was of yore; Wherefore this needs no divination: A seat is waiting for him at h.e.l.l's core; And if his life's book I correctly con, That evil soul will very shortly go To weep his sins in everlasting woe."

Then spake Malagigi: "Something thou hast said Which holds my sense and reason still in doubt, That some things even from the Son are hid; This thy dark saying I can fathom not."

Then Astarotte: "Thou, it seems, hast read But ill thy Bible, or its words forgot; For when the Son was asked of that great day, Only the Father knows, He then did say.

"Mark my words, Malagigi! Thou shalt hear, Now if thou wilt, the fiend's theology: Then to thy churchmen go, and make it clear.

You say: Three Persons in one ent.i.ty, One substance; and to this we, too, adhere: One flawless, pure, unmixed activity:-- Wherefore it follows from what went before, That this alone is what you all adore.

"One mover, whence all movement is impelled: One order, whence all order hath its rise; One cause, whereby all causes are compelled; One power, whence flow all powers and energies; One fire, wherein all radiances are held; One principle, which every truth implies; One knowledge, whence all wisdom hath been given; One Good, which made all good in earth and heaven.

"This is that Father and that ancient King, Who hath made all things and can all things know, But cannot change His own wise ordering, Else heaven and earth to ruin both would go.

Having lost His friendship, I no more may wing My flight unto the mirror, where our woe Perchance e'en now is clearly shown to view; Albeit futurity I never knew.

"If Lucifer had known the doom to be, He had not brought those fruits of rashness forth; Nor had he ruined for eternity, Seeking his princely station in the North; But being impotent all things to see, He and we all were d.a.m.ned 'neath heaven and earth; And since he was the first to sin, he first Fell to Giudecca, and still fares the worst.

"Nor had we vainly tempted all the blest, Who now sit crowned with stars in Paradise, If, as I said, a veil by G.o.d's behest Had not been drawn before our mental eyes; Nor would that Saint, of Saints the first and best Been tempted, as your Gospel testifies, And borne by Satan to the pinnacle Where at the last he saw His miracle.

"And forasmuch as He makes nothing ill, And all hath circ.u.mscribed by fixed decrees, And what He made is present with Him still, Being established on just premises, Know that this Lord repents not of His will; Nay, if one saith that change hath been, he sees Falsehood for truth, in sense and judgment blind For what is now, was in the primal mind."

"Tell me," then answered Malagigi, "more, Since thou'rt an angel sage and rational!

If that first Mover, whom we all adore, Within His secret soul foreknew your fell, If time and hour were both foreseen before, His sentence must be found tyrannical, Lacking both justice and true charity; Since, while creating, and while d.a.m.ning, He

"Foreknew you to be frail and formed in sin; Nathless you call Him just and piteous, Nor was there room, you say, pardon to win:-- This makes our G.o.d the partisan of those Angels who stayed the gates of heaven within, Who knew the true from false, discerning thus Which side would prosper, which would lose the day, Nor went, like you, with Lucifer astray."

Astarotte, like the devil, raged with pain; Then cried: "That just Sabaoth loved no more Michael than Lucifer; nor made he Cain More apt than Abel to shed brother's gore: If one than Nimrod was more proud and vain, If the other, all unlike to Gabriel, swore He'd not repent nor bellow psalms to heaven, It was free-will condemned both unforgiven.

"That was the single cause that d.a.m.ned us all: His clemency, moreover, gave full time, Wherein 'twas granted us to shun the fall, And by repentance to compound our crime; But now we've fallen from grace beyond recall: Just was our sentence from that Judge sublime; His foresight shortened not our day of grace, For timely penitence aye finds a place.

"Just is the Father, Son, and just the Word!

His justice with great mercy was combined: Through pride no more than thanklessness we erred; That was our sin malignant and unkind: Nor hath remorse our stubborn purpose stirred, Seeing that evil nourished in the mind And will of those who knew the good, and were Untempted, never yet was changed to fair.

"Adam knew not the nature of his sin; Therefore his primal error was forgiven, Because the tempter took him in a gin: Only his disobedience angered heaven; Therefore, though cast from Eden, he might win Grace, when repentance from his heart had driven The wicked will, with peace to end his strife, And mercy also in eternal life.

"But the angelic nature, once debased, Can never more to purity return: It sinned with science and corrupted taste: Whence in despair incurable we burn.

Now, if that wise one answered not, nor raised His voice, when Pilate asked of him to learn What was the truth, the truth was at his side; This ignorance was therefore justified.

"Pilate was lost, because in doing well He persevered not when he washed his hand; And Judas, too, beyond redemption fell, Because, though penitent at last, he banned Hope, without which no soul escapes from h.e.l.l: His doom no Origen shall countermand, Nor who to Judas give what's meant for Judah-- _In diebus illis salvabitur Juda._

"Thus there is one first Power in heaven who knew All things, by whom all things were also made: Making and d.a.m.ning us, He still was true; On Truth and Justice all His work is laid: Future and past are present to his view; For it must follow, as I elsewhere said, That the whole world before His face should lie, From whom proceeds force, virtue, energy.

"But now that thou hast bound me to relate, My master thou, the cause of our mischance, Thou fain would'st hear why He who rules o'er fate, And of our fall foresaw each circ.u.mstance, Labored in vain, and made us reprobate?-- Sealed is that rubric, closed from every glance, Reserved for Him, the Lord victorious: I know not, I can only answer thus!

"Nor speak I this to put thy mind to proof; But forasmuch as I discern that men Weave on this warp of doubts a misty woof, Seeking to learn; albeit they cannot ken Whence flows the Nile--the Danube's not enough!

a.s.sure thy soul, nor ask the how and when, That heaven's high Master, as the Psalmist taught, Is just and true in all that he hath wrought.

"The things whereof I speak are known not by Poet or prophet, moralist or sage: Yet mortal men in their presumption try To rank the hierarchies, stage over stage!

A chieftain among Seraphim was I; Yet knew not what in many a learned page Denys and Gregory wrote!--Full surely they Who paint heaven after earth will go astray!

"But above all things see thou art not led By elves and wandering sprites, a tricksy kind, Who never speak one word of truth, but shed Doubt and suspicion on the hearer's mind; Their aim is injury toward fools ill-sped: And, mark this well, they ne'er have been confined To gla.s.s or water, but reside in air, Playing their pranks here, there, and everywhere.

"From ear to ear they pa.s.s, and 'tis their vaunt Ever to make things seem that are not so: For one delights in horseplay, jeer and jaunt; One deals in science; one pretends to show Where treasures lurk in some forgotten haunt: Others, more grave, futurity foreknow:-- But now I've given thee hints enough, to tell That courtesy can even be found in h.e.l.l!"

MORGANTE XXV. 282.

And when Rinaldo had learned all his need, "Astarotte," he cried, "thou art a perfect friend, And I am bound to thee henceforth indeed!

This I say truly: if G.o.d's will should bend, If grace divine should e'er so much concede As to reverse heaven's ordinance, amend Its statutes, sentences, or high decrees, I will remember these thy services.

"More at the present time I cannot give: The soul returns to Him from whom it flew: The rest of us, thou knowest, will not live!

O love supreme, rare courtesy and new."-- I have no doubt that all my friends believe This verse belongs to Petrarch; yet 'tis true Rinaldo spoke it very long ago: But who robs not, is called a rogue, you know.--

Said Astarotte: "Thanks for your good will!

Yet shall those keys be lost for us for ever: High treason was our crime, measureless ill.

Thrice happy Christians! One small tear can sever _Your_ bonds!--One sigh, sent from the contrite will: Lord, to Thee only did I sin!--But never Shall _we_ find grace: we sinned once; now we lie Sentenced to h.e.l.l for all eternity.

"If after, say, some thousand million ages We might have hope yet once to see again The least spark of that Love, this pang that rages Here at the core, could scarce be reckoned pain!-- But wherefore annotate such dreary pages?

To wish for what can never be, is vain.

Therefore I mean with your kind approbation To change the subject of our conversation."

MORGANTE XXV. 73.

What G.o.d ordains is no chance miracle.

Next prodigies and signs in heaven were seen; For the sun suddenly turned ghastly pale, And clouds with rain o'erladen flew between, Muttering low prelude to their thunder-knell, As when Jove shakes the world with awful spleen: Next wind and fury, hail and tempest, hiss O'er earth and skies--Good G.o.d, what doom is this?

Then while they cowered together dumb with dread, Lightning flashed forth and hurtled at their side, Which struck a laurel's leaf-embowered head, And burned it; cleft unto the earth, it died.

O Phoebus! yon fair curls of gold outspread!

How could'st thou bear to see thy love, thy pride, Thus thunder-smitten? Hath thy sacred bay Lost her inviolable rights to-day?

Marsilio cries: "Mahound! What can it mean!

What doleful mystery lies hid beneath?

O Bianciardino, to our State, I ween, This omen brings some threat of change or death!"

But, while he spoke, an earthquake shook the scene, Nay, shook both hemispheres with bl.u.s.tering breath: Falseron's face changed hue, grew cold and hot, And even Bianciardino liked it not.

Yet none for very fear dared move a limb, The while above their heads a sudden flush Spread like live fire, that made the daylight dim; And from the font they saw the water gush In gouts and crimson eddies from the brim; And what it sprinkled, with a livid flush Burned: yea, the gra.s.s flared up on every side; For the well boiled, a fierce and sanguine tide.

Above the fountain rose a locust-tree, The tree where Judas hanged himself, 'tis said; This turned the heart of Gano sick to see, For now it ran with ruddy sweat and bled, Then dried both trunk and branches suddenly, Moulting its scattered leaves by hundreds dead; And on his pate a bean came tumbling down, Which made the hairs all bristle on his crown.

The beasts who roamed at will within the park, Set up a dismal howl and wail of woe; Then turned and rushed amuck with yelp and bark, b.u.t.ting their horns and charging to and fro: Marsilio and his comrades in the dark Watched all dismayed to see how things would go; And none knew well what he should say or do, So dreadful was heaven's wrath upon the crew.

MORGANTE XXV. 115.

I had it in my mind once to curtail This story, knowing not how I should bring Rinaldo all that way to Roncesvale, Until an angel straight from heaven did wing, And showed me Arnald to recruit my tale: He cries, "Hold, Louis! Wherefore cease to sing?

Perchance Rinaldo will turn up in time!"

So, just as he narrates, I'll trim my rhyme.

I must ride straight as any arrow flies, Nor mix a fib with all the truths I say; This is no story to be stuffed with lies!