Purgatory by Dante Alighieri
Before their betters, draw not forth the voice
This knotty riddle, and no damage light
Alive unto their lips, befell me shell
On flock or field. Take heed; and as these words
That I in sounds imperfect thus began:
By me are utter’d, teach them even so
“Lady! what I have need of, that thou know’st,
To those who live that life, which is a race
And what will suit my need.” She answering thus:
To death: and when thou writ’st them, keep in mind
“Of fearfulness and shame, I will, that thou
Not to conceal how thou hast seen the plant,
Henceforth do rid thee: that thou speak no more,
That twice hath now been spoil’d. This whoso robs,
As one who dreams. Thus far be taught of me:
This whoso plucks, with blasphemy of deed
The vessel, which thou saw’st the serpent break,
Sins against God, who for his use alone
Was and is not: let him, who hath the blame,
Creating hallow’d it. For taste of this,
Hope not to scare God’s vengeance with a sop.
In pain and in desire, five thousand years
Without an heir for ever shall not be
And upward, the first soul did yearn for him,
96
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory Who punish’d in himself the fatal gust.
As distant, as the disagreement is
“Thy reason slumbers, if it deem this height
‘Twixt earth and heaven’s most high and rapturous orb.”
And summit thus inverted of the plant,
“I not remember,” I replied, “that e’er
Without due cause: and were not vainer thoughts,
I was estrang’d from thee, nor for such fault
As Elsa’s numbing waters, to thy soul,
Doth conscience chide me.” Smiling she return’d:
And their fond pleasures had not dyed it dark
“If thou canst, not remember, call to mind
As Pyramus the mulberry, thou hadst seen,
How lately thou hast drunk of Lethe’s wave;
In such momentous circumstance alone,
And, sure as smoke doth indicate a flame,
God’s equal justice morally implied
In that forgetfulness itself conclude
In the forbidden tree. But since I mark thee
Blame from thy alienated will incurr’d.
In understanding harden’d into stone,
From henceforth verily my words shall be
And, to that hardness, spotted too and stain’d,
As naked as will suit them to appear
So that thine eye is dazzled at my word,
In thy unpractis’d view.” More sparkling now,
I will, that, if not written, yet at least
And with retarded course the sun possess’d
Painted thou take it in thee, for the cause,
The circle of mid-day, that varies still
That one brings home his staff inwreath’d with palm.
As th’ aspect varies of each several clime,
“I thus: “As wax by seal, that changeth not
When, as one, sent in vaward of a troop
Its impress, now is stamp’d my brain by thee.
For escort, pauses, if perchance he spy
But wherefore soars thy wish’d-for speech so high
Vestige of somewhat strange and rare: so paus’d
Beyond my sight, that loses it the more,
The sev’nfold band, arriving at the verge
The more it strains to reach it?”—”To the end
Of a dun umbrage hoar, such as is seen,
That thou mayst know,” she answer’d straight, “the school, Beneath green leaves and gloomy branches, oft
That thou hast follow’d; and how far behind,
To overbrow a bleak and alpine cliff.
When following my discourse, its learning halts:
And, where they stood, before them, as it seem’d,
And mayst behold your art, from the divine
Tigris and Euphrates both beheld,
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The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory Forth from one fountain issue; and, like friends,
Appointed for this second strain, mine art
Linger at parting. “O enlight’ning beam!
With warning bridle checks me. I return’d
O glory of our kind! beseech thee say
From the most holy wave, regenerate,
What water this, which from one source deriv’d
If ‘en as new plants renew’d with foliage new,
Itself removes to distance from itself?”
Pure and made apt for mounting to the stars.
To such entreaty answer thus was made:
“Entreat Matilda, that she teach thee this.”
NOTES TO PURGATORY
And here, as one, who clears himself of blame
CANTO I
Imputed, the fair dame return’d: “Of me
He this and more hath learnt; and I am safe
Verse 1. O’er better waves.] Berni, Orl. Inn. L 2. c. i.
That Lethe’s water hath not hid it from him.”
Per correr maggior acqua alza le vele,
And Beatrice: “Some more pressing care
O debil navicella del mio ingegno.
That oft the memory ‘reeves, perchance hath made
v. 11. Birds of chattering note.] For the fable of the daughters of Pierus, His mind’s eye dark. But lo! where Eunoe cows!
who challenged the muses to sing, and were by them changed into magpies, see Ovid, Met. 1. v. fab. 5.
Lead thither; and, as thou art wont, revive
His fainting virtue.” As a courteous spirit,
v. 19. Planet.] Venus.
That proffers no excuses, but as soon
v. 20. Made all the orient laugh.] Hence Chaucer, “Knight’s Tale”: “And As he hath token of another’s will,
all the orisont Fortitude, and Temperance. laugheth of the sight.” It is sometimes read “orient.”
Makes it his own; when she had ta’en me, thus
The lovely maiden mov’d her on, and call’d
v. 24. Four stars.] Symbolical of the four cardinal virtues, Prudence Justice, See Canto XXXI v. 105.
To Statius with an air most lady-like:
“Come thou with him.” Were further space allow’d,
v. 30. The wain.] Charles’s wain, or Bootes.
Then, Reader, might I sing, though but in part,
v. 31. An old man.] Cato.
That beverage, with whose sweetness I had ne’er
Been sated. But, since all the leaves are full,
v. 92. Venerable plumes.] The same metaphor has occurred in Hell Canto 98
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory XX. v. 41: —the plumes, That mark’d the better sex. It is used by Ford in the Lady’s Trial, a. 4. s. 2. Now the down/Of softness is exchang’d for plumes of age.
v. 75. Thrice my hands.]
v. 58. The farthest gloom.] L’ultima sera. Ariosto, Oroando Furioso c.
Ter conatus ibi eollo dare brachia eircum,
xxxiv st. 59: Che non hen visto ancor l’ultima sera. And Filicaja, c. ix.
Ter frustra eomprensa manus effugit imago,
Al Sonno. L’ultima sera.
Par levibus ventis voluerique simillima sommo.
v. 79. Marcia.]
Virg. Aen. ii. 794. Compare Homer, Od. xl. 205.
Da fredera prisci
v. 88. My Casella.] A Florentine, celebrated for his skill in music, “in
Illibata tori: da tantum nomen inane
whose company,” says Landine, “Dante often recreated his spirits
Connubil: liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis Martia
wearied by severe studies.” See Dr. B
iv. p. 322. Milton has a fine allusion to this meeting in his sonnet to Lucan, Phars. 1. ii. 344.
Henry Lawes.
v. 110. I spy’d the trembling of the ocean stream.] Connubil il
v. 90. Hath so much time been lost.] Casella had been dead some years
tremolar della marina.
but was only just arrived.
Trissino, in the Sofonisba.] E resta in tremolar l’onda marina And
Fortiguerra, Rleelardetto, c. ix. st. 17. — visto il tremolar della marine.
v. 91. He.] The eonducting angel.
v. 135. another.] From Virg, Aen. 1. vi. 143. Primo avulso non
v. 94. These three months past.] Since the time of the Jubilee, during
deficit alter
which all spirits not condemned to eternal punishment, were supposed to pass over to Purgatory as soon as they pleased.
CANTO II
v. 96. The shore.] Ostia.
v. 1. Now had the sun.] Dante was now antipodal to Jerusalem, so that v. 170. “Love that discourses in my thoughts.”] “Amor che nella mente while the sun was setting with respect to that place which he supposes mi ragiona.” The first verse of a eanzone or song in the Convito of Dante, to be the middle of the inhabited earth, to him it was rising.
which he again cites in his Treatise de Vulg. Eloq. 1. ii. c. vi.
v. 6. The scales.] The constellation Libra.
CANTO III
v. 35. Winnowing the air.] Trattando l’acre con l’eterne penne. 80
Filicaja, canz. viii. st. 11. Ma trattar l’acre coll’ eterne plume
v. 9. How doth a little failing wound thee sore.] (Ch’era al cor picciol fallo amaro morso. Tasso, G. L. c. x. st. 59.
v. 45. In exitu.] “When Israel came out of Egypt.” Ps. cxiv.
99
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory v. 11. Haste, that mars all decency of act. Aristotle in his Physiog iii.
v. 111. Costanza.] See Paradise Canto III. v. 121.
reekons it among the “the signs of an impudent man,” that he is “quick in his motions.” Compare Sophoeles, Electra, 878.
v. 112. My fair daughter.] Costanza, the daughter of Manfredi, and wife v. 26. To Naples.] Virgil died at Brundusium, from whence his body is of Peter III. King of Arragon, by whom she was mother to Frederick, said to have been removed to Naples.
King of Sicily and James, King of Arragon With the latter of these she was at Rome 1296. See G. Villani, 1. viii. c. 18. and notes to Canto VII.
v. 38. Desiring fruitlessly.] See H. Canto IV, 39.
v. 122. Clement.] Pope Clement IV.
v. 49. ‘Twixt Lerice and Turbia.] At that time the two extremities of the Genoese republic, the former on the east, the latter on the west. A very v. 127. The stream of Verde.] A river near Ascoli, that falls into he ingenious writer has had occasion, for a different purpose, to mention Toronto. The “xtinguished lights “ formed part of the ceremony t the one of these places as remarkably secluded by its mountainous situation interment of one excommunicated.
“On an eminence among the mountains, between the two little cities, Nice and Manoca, is the village of Torbia, a name formed from the Greek v. 130. Hope.] Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde. Tasso, G. L. c.
Mitford on the Harmony of Language, sect. x. p. 351. 2d edit.
xix. st. 53. — infin che verde e fior di speme.
v. 78. As sheep.] The imitative nature of these animals supplies our Poet CANTO IV
with another comparison in his Convito Opere, t. i. p 34. Ediz. Ven.
1793.
v. 1. When.] It must be owned the beginning of this Canto is somewhat obscure. Bellutello refers, for an elucidation of it, to the reasoning of v. 110. Manfredi. King of Naples and Sicily, and the natural son of Statius in the twenty-fifth canto. Perhaps some illustration may be Frederick II. He was lively end agreeable in his manners, and delighted derived from the following, passage in South’s Sermons, in which I have in poetry, music, and dancing. But he was luxurious and ambitious. Void ventured to supply the words between crotchets that seemed to be of religion, and in his philosophy an Epicurean. See G. Villani l. vi. c.
wanting to complete the sense. Now whether these three, judgement xlvii. and Mr. Matthias’s Tiraboschi, v. I. p. 38. He fell in the battle with memory, and invention, are three distinct things, both in being Charles of Anjou in 1265, alluded to in Canto XXVIII, of Hell, v. 13, distinguished from one another, and likewise from the substance of the
“Dying, excommunicated, King Charles did allow of his being buried in soul itself, considered without any such faculties, (or whether the soul sacred ground, but he was interred near the bridge of Benevento, and be one individual substance) but only receiving these several on his grave there was cast a stone by every one of the army whence there denominations rom the several respects arising from the several actions was formed a great mound of stones. But some ave said, that afterwards, exerted immediately by itself upon several objects, or several qualities by command of the Pope. the Bishop of Cosenza took up his body and of the same object, I say whether of these it is, is not easy to decide, and sent it out of the kingdom, because it was the land of the church, and it is well that it is not necessary Aquinas, and most with him, affirm the that it was buried by the river Verde, on the borders of the kingdom and former, and Scotus with his followers the latter.” Vol. iv. Serm. 1.
of Carapagna. this, however, we do not affirm.” G. Villani, Hist. l. vii.
c. 9.
v. 23. Sanleo.] A fortress on the summit of Montefeltro.
100
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory v. 24. Noli.] In the Genoese territory, between Finale and Savona.
And by Milton, P. L. b. iv. 558:
v. 25. Bismantua.] A steep mountain in the territory of Reggio.
Swift as a shooting star
v. 55. From the left.] Vellutello observes an imitation of Lucan in this passage:
In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fir’d
Impress the air.
Ignotum vobis, Arabes, venistis in orbem,
Umbras mirati nemornm non ire sinistras.
v. 67. That land.] The Marca d’Ancona, between Romagna and Apulia, the kingdom of Charles of Anjou.
Phars. s. 1. iii. 248
v. 76. From thence I came.] Giacopo del Cassero, a citizen of Fano who v. 69 Thou wilt see.] “If you consider that this mountain of Purgatory having spoken ill of Azzo da Este, Marquis of Ferrara, was by his orders and that of Sion are antipodal to each other, you will perceive that the put to death. Giacopo, was overtaken by the assassins at Oriaco a place sun must rise on opposite sides of the respective eminences.”
near the Brenta, from whence, if he had fled towards Mira, higher up on that river, instead of making for the marsh on the sea shore, he might v. 119. Belacqua.] Concerning this man, the commentators afford no have escaped.
information.
v. 75. Antenor’s land.] The city of Padua, said to be founded by Antenor.
CANTO V
v. 87. Of Montefeltro I.] Buonconte (son of Guido da Montefeltro, whom v. 14. Be as a tower.] Sta ome torre ferma Berni, Orl. Inn. 1. 1. c. xvi.
we have had in the twenty-seventh Canto of Hell) fell in the battle of st. 48:
Campaldino (1289), fighting on the side of the Aretini.
In quei due piedi sta fermo il gigante
Com’ una torre in mezzo d’un castello.
v. 88. Giovanna.] Either the wife, or kinswoman, of Buonconte.
v. 91. The hermit’s seat.] The hermitage of Camaldoli.
And Milton, P. L. b. i. 591.
v. 95. Where its name is cancel’d.] That is, between Bibbiena and Poppi, Stood like a tower.
where the Archiano falls into the Arno.
v. 115. From Pratomagno to the mountain range.] From Pratomagno now v. 36. Ne’er saw I fiery vapours.] Imitated by Tasso, G. L, c. xix t. 62: called Prato Vecchio (whic
Tal suol fendendo liquido sereno
Stella cader della gran madre in seno.
v. 131. Pia.] She is said to have been a Siennese lady, of the family of
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory Tolommei, secretly made away with by her husband, Nello della Pietra,
“Pierre de la Brosse, formerly barber to St. Louis, afterwards the favorite of the same city, in Maremma, where he had some possessions.
of Philip, fearing the too great attachment of the king for his wife Mary, accuses this princess of having poisoned Louis, eldest son of Philip, by CANTO VI
his first marriage. This calumny is discovered by a nun of Nivelle in Flanders. La Brosse is hung.” Abrege Chron. t. 275, &c.
v. 14. Of Arezzo him.] Benincasa of Arezzo, eminent for his skill in jurisprudence, who, having condemned to death Turrino da Turrita v. 30. In thy text.] He refers to Virgil, Aen. 1, vi. 376. Desine fata deum brother of Ghino di Tacco, for his robberies in Maremma, was murdered flecti sperare precando, 37. The sacred height Of judgment.
by Ghino, in an apartment of his own house, in the presence of many Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, a. ii. s. 2. If he, which is the top of witnesses. Ghino was not only suffered to escape in safety, but (as the judgment.
commentators inform us) obtained so high a reputation by the liberality with which he was accustomed to dispense the fruits of his plunder, and v. 66. Eyeing us as a lion on his watch.] A guisa di Leon quando si posa.
treated those who fell into his hands with so much courtesy, that he was A line taken by Tasso, G. L. c. x. st. 56.
afterwards invited to Rome, and knighted by Boniface VIII. A story is told of him by Boccaccio, G. x. N. 2.
v. 76. Sordello.]The history of Sordello’s life is wrapt in the obscurity of romance. That he distinguished himself by his skill in Provencal v. 15. Him beside.] Ciacco de’ Tariatti of Arezzo. He is said to have been poetry is certain. It is probable that he was born towards the end of the carried by his horse into the Arno, and there drowned, while he was in twelfth, and died about the middle of the succeeding century. Tiraboschi pursuit of certain of his enemies.