Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers Volume I Part 18

[Footnote 32: The cardinal's hat.]

[Footnote 33: "S che duo bestie van sott' una pelle."]

[Footnote 34:

"Dintorno a questa (voce) vennero e fermarsi, E fero un grido di s alto suono, Che non potrebbe qui a.s.somigliarsi;

Ne io lo 'ntesi, s mi vinse il tuono."

Around this voice they flocked, a mighty crowd, And raised a shout so huge, that earthly wonder Knoweth no likeness for a peal so loud;

Nor could I hear the words, it spoke such thunder.

If a Longinus had written after Dante, he would have put this pa.s.sage into his treatise on the Sublime.]

[Footnote 35: Benedict, the founder of the order called after his name.

Macarius, an Egyptian monk and moralist. Romoaldo, founder of the Camaldoli.]

[Footnote 36: The reader of English poetry will be reminded of a pa.s.sage in Cowley

"Lo, I mount; and lo, How small the biggest parts of earth's proud t.i.tle shew!

Where shall I find the n.o.ble British land?

Lo, I at last a northern speck espy, Which in the sea does lie, And seems a grain o' the sand.

For this will any sin, or bleed?

Of civil wars is this the meed?

And is it this, alas, which we, Oh, irony of words! do call Great Brittanie?"

And he afterwards, on reaching higher depths of silence, says very finely, and with a beautiful intimation of the all-inclusiveness of the Deity by the use of a singular instead of a plural verb,--

"Where am I now? angels and G.o.d is here."

All which follows in Dante, up to the appearance of Saint Peter, is full of grandeur and loveliness.]

[Footnote 37:

"Come l' augello intra l'amate fronde, Posato al nido de' suoi dolci nati La notte che le cose ci nasconde,

Che per veder gli aspetti desiati, E per trovar lo cibo onde gli pasca, In che i gravi labor gli sono aggrati,

Previene 'l tempo in su l'aperta frasca, E con ardente affetto il sole aspetta, Fiso guardando pur che l'alba nasca;

Cos la donna mia si stava eretta E attenta, involta in ver la plaga Sotto la quale il sol mostra men fretta:

S the veggendola io sospesa e vaga, Fecimi quale e quei che disiando Altro vorria, e sperando s'appaga." ]

[Footnote 38:

"Quale ne' plenilunii sereni Trivia ride tra le Ninfe eterne, Che dipingono 'l ciel per tutti i seni."

[Footnote 39: He has seen Christ in his own unreflected person.]

[Footnote 40: The Virgin Mary.]

[Footnote 41:

"Mi rendei A la battaglia de' debili cigli."]

[Footnote 42:

"Ambo le luci mi dipinse."

[Footnote 43:

"Qualunque melodia piu dolce suona Qua giu, e piu a se l'anima tira, Parebbe nube che squarciata tuona,

Comparata al sonar di quella lira Onde si coronava il bel zaffiro Del quale il ciel piu chiaro s' inzaffira." ]

[Footnote 44:

"Benedicendomi cantando Tre volte cinse me, s com' io tacqui, L' Apostolico lume, al cui comando

Io avea detto; s nel dir gli piacqui."

It was this pa.s.sage, and the one that follows it, which led Foscolo to suspect that Dante wished to lay claim to a divine mission; an opinion which has excited great indignation among the orthodox. See his _Discorso sul Testo_, ut sup. pp. 61, 77-90 and 335-338; and the preface of the Milanese Editors to the "Convito" of Dante,--_Opere Minori_, 12mo, vol ii. p. xvii. Foscolo's conjecture seems hardly borne out by the context; but I think Dante had boldness and self-estimation enough to have advanced any claim whatsoever, had events turned out as he expected. What man but himself (supposing him the believer he professed to be) would have thought of thus making himself free of the courts of Heaven, and const.i.tuting St. Peter his applauding catechist!]

[Footnote 45: The verses quoted in the preceding note conclude the twenty-fourth canto of Paradise; and those, of which the pa.s.sage just given is a translation, commence the twenty-fifth:

"Se mai continga, che 'l poema sacro Al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra S che m' ha fatto per piu anni macro,

Vinca la crudelta che fuor mi serra Del bello ovile ov' io dormi' agnello Nimico a' lupi che gli danno guerra;

Con altra voce omai, con altro vello Ritorner poeta, ed in sul fonte Del mio battesmo prender 'l capello:

Perocche ne la fede che fa conte L' anime a Dio, quiv' entra' io, e poi Pietro per lei s mi gir la fronte." ]

[Footnote 46: "Sperent in te." _Psalm_ ix. 10. The English version says, "And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee."]

[Footnote 47:

"Tal volta un animal coverto broglia S che l' affetto convien che si paia Per lo seguir che face a lui la 'nvoglia."

A natural, but strange, and surely not sufficiently dignified image for the occasion. It is difficult to be quite content with a former one, in which the greetings of St. Peter and St. James are compared to those of doves murmuring and sidling round about one another; though Christian sentiment may warrant it, if we do not too strongly present the Apostles to one's imagination.]

[Footnote 48:

"Tal ne la sembianza sua divenne, Qual diverebbe Giove, s' egli e Marte Fossero augelli e cambia.s.sersi penne."

n.o.body who opened the Commedia for the first time at this fantastical image would suppose the author was a great poet, or expect the tremendous pa.s.sage that ensues!]