Part 8 (1/2)

[188] _Papal gown_: 'The great mantle' Dante elsewhere terms it; the emblem of the Papal dignity. It was only in Dante's own time that coronation began to take the place of invest.i.ture with the mantle.

[189] _Chosen Vessel_: Paul, who like aeneas visited the other world, though not the same region of it. Throughout the poem instances drawn from profane history, and even poetry and mythology, are given as of authority equal to those from Christian sources.

[190] _A dame_: Beatrice, the heroine of the _Vita Nuova_, at the close of which Dante promises some day to say of her what was never yet said of any woman. She died in 1290, aged twenty-four. In the _Comedy_ she fills different parts: she is the glorified Beatrice Portinari whom Dante first knew as a fair Florentine girl; but she also represents heavenly truth, or the knowledge of it--the handmaid of eternal life.

Theology is too hard and technical a term to bestow on her. Virgil, for his part, represents the knowledge that men may acquire of Divine law by the use of their reason, helped by such illumination as was enjoyed by the virtuous heathen. In other words, he is the exponent of the Divine revelation involved in the Imperial system--for the Empire was never far from Dante's thoughts. To him it meant the perfection of just rule, in which due cognisance is taken of every right and of every duty. The relation Dante bears to these two is that of erring humanity struggling to the light. Virgil leads him as far as he can, and then commits him to the holier rule of Beatrice. But the poem would lose its charm if the allegorical meaning of every pa.s.sage were too closely insisted on. And, worse than that, it cannot always be found.

[191] _Dubious state_: The limbo of the virtuous heathen (Canto iv.).

[192] _The star_: In the _Vita Nuova_ Dante speaks of the star in the singular when he means the stars.

[193] _In narrowest s.p.a.ce_: The heaven of the moon, on the Ptolemaic system the lowest of the seven planets. Below it there is only the heaven of fire, to which all the flames of earth are attracted. The meaning is, above all on earth.

[194] _The region vast_: The empyrean, or tenth and highest heaven of all. It is an addition by the Christian astronomers to the heavens of the Ptolemaic system, and extends above the _primum mobile_, which imparts to all beneath it a common motion, while leaving its own special motion to each. The empyrean is the heaven of Divine rest.

[195] _Burning_: 'Flame of this burning,' allegorical, as applied to the limbo where Virgil had his abode. He and his companions suffer only from unfulfilled but lofty desire (_Inf._ iv. 41).

[196] _A n.o.ble lady_: The Virgin Mary, of whom it is said (_Parad._ x.x.xiii. 16) that her 'benignity not only succours those who ask, but often antic.i.p.ates their demand;' as here. She is the symbol of Divine grace in its widest sense. Neither Christ nor Mary is mentioned by name in the _Inferno_.

[197] _Lucia_: The martyr saint of Syracuse. Witte (_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. 30) suggests that Lucia Ubaldini may be meant, a thirteenth-century Florentine saint, and sister of the Cardinal (_Inf._ x. 120). The day devoted to her memory was the 30th of May. Dante was born in May, and if it could be proved that he was born on the 30th of the month the suggestion would be plausible. But for the greater Lucy is to be said that she was especially helpful to those troubled in their eyesight, as Dante was at one time of his life. Here she is the symbol of illuminating grace.

[198] _Thy va.s.sal_: Saint Lucy being held in special veneration by Dante; or only that he was one that sought light. The word _fedele_ may of course, as it usually is, be read in its primary sense of 'faithful one;' but it is old Italian for va.s.sal; and to take the reference to be to the duty of the overlord to help his dependant in need seems to give force to the appeal.

[199] _Rachel_: Symbol of the contemplative life.

[200] _A flood, etc._: 'The sea of troubles' in which Dante is involved.

[201] _Tears_: Beatrice weeps for human misery--especially that of Dante--though unaffected by the view of the sufferings of Inferno.

[202] _My Guide, etc._: After hearing how Virgil was moved to come, Dante accepts him not only for his guide, as he did at the close of the First Canto, but for his lord and master as well.

CANTO III.

Through me to the city dolorous lies the way, Who pa.s.s through me shall pains eternal prove, Through me are reached the people lost for aye.

'Twas Justice did my Glorious Maker move; I was created by the Power Divine,[203]

The Highest Wisdom, and the Primal Love.

No thing's creation earlier was than mine, If not eternal;[204] I for aye endure: Ye who make entrance, every hope resign!

These words beheld I writ in hue obscure 10 On summit of a gateway; wherefore I: 'Hard[205] is their meaning, Master.' Like one sure Beforehand of my thought, he made reply: 'Here it behoves to leave all fears behind; All cowardice behoveth here to die.

For now the place I told thee of we find, Where thou the miserable folk shouldst see Who the true good[206] of reason have resigned.'

Then, with a glance of glad serenity, He took my hand in his, which made me bold, 20 And brought me in where secret things there be.

There sighs and plaints and wailings uncontrolled The dim and starless air resounded through; Nor at the first could I from tears withhold.

The various languages and words of woe, The uncouth accents,[207] mixed with angry cries And smiting palms and voices loud and low, Composed a tumult which doth circling rise For ever in that air obscured for aye; As when the sand upon the whirlwind flies. 30 And, horror-stricken,[208] I began to say: 'Master, what sound can this be that I hear, And who the folk thus whelmed in misery?'

And he replied: 'In this condition drear Are held the souls of that inglorious crew Who lived unhonoured, but from guilt kept clear.

Mingled they are with caitiff angels, who, Though from avowed rebellion they refrained, Disloyal to G.o.d, did selfish ends pursue.

Heaven hurled them forth, lest they her beauty stained; Received they are not by the nether h.e.l.l, 41 Else triumph[209] thence were by the guilty gained.'

And I: 'What bear they, Master, to compel Their lamentations in such grievous tone?'

He answered: 'In few words I will thee tell.

No hope of death is to the wretches known; So dim the life and abject where they sigh They count all sufferings easier than their own.

Of them the world endures no memory; Mercy and justice them alike disdain. 50 Speak we not of them: glance, and pa.s.s them by.'

I saw a banner[210] when I looked again, Which, always whirling round, advanced in haste As if despising steadfast to remain.

And after it so many people chased In long procession, I should not have said That death[211] had ever wrought such countless waste.