The little plot that stirs our enmity,

As with the eternal Twins I turned me round,

Lay all before me, from the hills to sea:

Then mine eyes looked where brightest eyes were found.

153

CANTO XXIII.

The Stars of the Triumph of Christ-The Rose and the Lilies-The Hymn "Regina Cali."

As bird, within the leafy home it loves,

Upon the nest its sweet young fledglings share,
Resting, while night hides all that lives and moves,

Who, to behold the objects of her care,

And find the food that may their hunger stay,—
Task in which all hard-labours grateful are,—

Prevents the dawn, and, on an open spray,

With keen desire awaits the sun's bright rays,
And wistful look till gleams the new-born day;

So did my Lady then, with fixed gaze,

Stand upright, looking on that zone of Heaven.
Wherein the sun its tardiest course displays;
And when I saw her thus to rapt thought given,
I was as one who, in his fond desire,

Rests in firm hope, although by strong wish driven.
'Twixt this and that when,' short time did expire-

I mean my waiting and the vision bright

Of Heaven, each moment flushed with clearer fire;

5

10

15

153 The description indicates that the poet saw the whole of the land hemisphere of the earth, that he was therefore in the meridian of Jerusalem, the centre, in medieval geography, of that hemisphere, and that as the sun was in Gemini, also in that meridian, it was noon.

1 The image of the bird-perhaps the most beautiful of all in Dante's bird-gallery-may have been drawn from nature. Interesting parallels are, however, found in Dante's favourite poets, Virgil (Æn. xii. 473-476) and Statius (Achill. i. 212).

10 The description is analogous to those of Purg, xxx. 58-75, but with this difference, that here, carrying on the thought of C. xxii. 133-154, the astronomical facts are seen not from the standpoint of earth, but from that of the sphere of the fixed stars. The problem was a difficult one, and Dante can scarcely be said to have solved it. What is meant is that Beatrice looks to that part of the heaven (but was the glance upward or downward?) which would be to the astronomer on earth in the meridian of Jerusalem as the centre of the land hemisphere. In that region, in the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel iii. 2), according to the universal belief of the Middle Ages, the Christ was to appear at His second coming. And here accordingly there is a vision of that glory, and all the saints who had been manifested, according to their merits in the lower spheres, are here gathered together.

And Beatrice said, "Behold the might.

Of Christ's triumphant hosts; the harvest know,
Reaped from the rolling of these spheres of light."
Then seemed it as though all her face did glow,

And her clear eyes so shone with joyous sheen,

I must without a comment let them go.

As when in full-moon nights, in sky serene,

20

25

Smiles Trivia's face among those nymphs eterne,
Whose shining forms through all heaven's vaults are seen,

So I, above ten thousand lamps that burn,

Saw one bright Sun that kindled every one,
As our sun doth the orbs we see superne;
And through the living light transparent shone
The lucid substance so divinely clear,

That my frail sight was dazzled and o'erdone.

O Beatrice, gentle guide and dear!

To me she said, "That which o'ertasks thy sense
Is Might from which no refuge doth appear.
There is the Wisdom, there the Omnipotence,

That opened wide the paths 'twixt Heaven and earth,
For which so long has been desire intense."

As flash that from the storm-cloud takes its birth,

Dilating, finds not space wherein to stay,
And, 'gainst its nature, doth itself inearth,
So, as before my mind those rich feasts lay,

Itself, grown large, beyond itself it bore,
And how it fared my memory fails to say.

80

35

40

45

26 Trivia Diana the Moon, as in Æn. vi. 13, 35. The comparison will remind most readers of the well-known passage in Homer (17. viii. 555); but I can scarcely agree with Butler that that passage must have been known to Dante in the original.

29 The Sun is none other than the Christ-the true Light, Light of Light, the Dayspring from on high, the Sun of Righteousness. The "substance" through which the Light shines is the glorified human nature of the ascended Christ (C. xiv. 52).

30 The fixed stars were supposed in mediæval astronomy to shine by the sun's reflected light. Butl. takes the words as = "the eyes we upward turn" (Comp. Ć. xxxii. 99; Purg., xviii. 3).

37 As with the great masters of theology, the mystery of the Incarnation was for Dante the loftiest and profoundest of all truths. By it, as by the ladder of Jacob's vision (C. xxi. 9, xxii. 70), the way had been opened between earth and Heaven.

40 The law of fire was, from the standpoint of Dante's physics (Conv. iii. 4), to ascend, yet the lightning falls to the earth. So the soul of the seer, expanding with its heavenly food, contrary to the law which unites it with the body, passes, as in ecstasy, into a higher region (comp. 2 Cor. xii. 2-4), and it was impossible to recall or reproduce what he had then seen and felt (C. i. 121-141).

"Open thine eyes and what I am explore,

Thou hast seen things that give thee strength to bear
Light of my smiles thou could'st not bear before."

I was as one who feels as half aware

Of some forgotten dream, and strives in vain.
To call it to his mind and keep it there,
When I this offer heard thus spoken plain,

Of such thanks worthy that no time should blot
It from the book where lives the past again.
Though now should chant in concert every throat
That Polyhymnia and her sisters made

So passing rich with sweetest milk of thought,
To help me, not a thousandth part were said,
Were they to sing that holy smile divine,
And light which o'er her holy face it shed.

So, when to tell of Paradise is mine,

Here needs must leap the consecrated song,
As one whose way some hindrance doth confine;
And whoso thinks how great the theme and long,

How frail the shoulder that the weight must bear,
Will hardly, though it tremble, count it wrong.
No sea-way for a little bark is there,

Where prow o'er-daring cleaves the surging sea,
Nor for a pilot who himself would spare.

50

65

60

65

48 In C. xxi. 4 Beatrice had told the seer that her smile-symbol of the rapture of Divine joy would utterly consume him, but the vision of glory which he had just seen has strengthened him so that he can bear it now.

50 One notes the self-portraiture of the man, who, from earliest youth onward, had seen visions and dreamt dreams (V. N. c. 3, 9, 12, et al. Sometimes these could be recalled, sometimes, as in the case of Coleridge's Kubla Khan, the endeavour to recall was all but fruitless.

53 We note the parallel with the opening words of the V. N.: "In that part of the book of my memory.'"

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55 Æn. vị. 625, Met. viii. 533, possibly John xxi. 25, and Homer, II. ii. 637, may have been in Dante's thoughts.

57 The image was a favourite one (Purg. xxii. 102), and was, in part, an echo of 1 Cor. iii. 2, Heb. v. 12, 1 Pet. ii. 2.

66 It remains true, ipso facto, that the ineffable cannot be told. The task was too great for mortal man to venture on.

07 The thought of C. ii. 1-9 is reproduced. The v. ll. give palleggio, which may=pelago= sea, and paraggio or paregio-harbour or roadstead. The sense is, of course, much the same. The latter word still forms part of the nautical vocabulary of the Adriatic, and was one with which Dante would be familiar among the sailors at Venice, Pisa, or Genoa. Other readings, each varying the vowel with modifications of meaning, need not be noticed.

69 There is a touch of pathos in the poet's reference to his own unsparing labours. Comp. C. xxv. 3.

"Why doth my face now so enamour thee,

That thou dost not to yonder garden turn,

Which 'neath the rays of Christ blooms fair to see?

There is the Rose wherein the Word Eterne

70

Was clothed in flesh, and there the lilies grow
Through whose sweet scent the way of life we learn.” 15
Thus Beatrice; and I, prompt to go

Where she did guide, gave myself yet again

To strife wherein frail eyes their weakness know.
As oft mine eyes have looked on flowery plain,

Themselves o'ershadowed, whilst clear sunlight beamed so
Through rift in cloud-banks, brighter after rain,

So saw I then more shining ones that gleamed,
With burning rays illumined from above,

85

Yet saw no source from whence the brightness streamed.
O Might that thus hast stamped them in Thy love,
Thou didst ascend on high, thus giving space

To these mine eyes, that else too weak would prove!
The name of that fair Flower, whose bounteous grace
At morn and eve I ask, my soul impelled
To see that greater glory face to face.

And when, portrayed in them, mine eyes beheld
The size, the beauty of the living star,

Which there excels as it on earth excelled,

A little flame athwart the heaven from far,

90

Formed like a band wherewith the brow is crowned, 93
Engirdled it in windings circular.

70 The implied thought is that the contemplation of the highest human beauty, even of the highest human wisdom, is but a small matter as compared with that which has for its object the glory of Christ and His Church. The "garden" is, of course, Paradise; the Rose--the Rosa mystica of the Litany of the Rom. Brev.-is the Virgin; the fragrant lilies are the saints. The words are as a mystical exposition of the Song of Solomon, ii. 1, 16, after the manner of mediæval interpreters. That passage, we may note, forms in the Rom. Brev. a lesson for July 2d, the Festival of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

79 The beatific vision, however, comes not yet. The personal glory of the Christ is reserved for a further stage, and the eyes of the seer gaze upon that glory as manifested in the saints of God, as he had on earth looked on the fair flowers in a sunlit meadow, while he himself was shaded from its rays. Line 80 finds a parallel in 2 Sam. xxiii. 4.

88 The Ave Maria was, as was natural with a devout Catholic, united with the Paternoster in Dante's morning and evening prayers. The Virgin is the "greater fire" of 1. 90. Butler suggests ingeniously that the name of S. Maria del Fiore, as the title under which the Duomo of Florence was dedicated, may have been in the poet's thoughts.

92 Another echo from the Rom. Brev. (Scart.), “ Ave maris Stella" (Hymn for the Feasts of the B. V. M.). As she excelled all others in the graces of her life on earth, so she excels them in the glory of her life in Paradise.

9 The "little flame" from the Empyrean Heaven is the Archangel Gabriel, who revolves around the Virgin. The sweetest melody of earth would be as harsh thunder-roar compared with the infinite sweetness of his song.

What melody soe'er doth sweetest sound

On earth, and draws the soul in rapt desire,
Would be like broken clouds that thunder round,
Compared with that sweet music from the lyre

That o'er that sapphire bright was then entwined,
Which doth the heaven most lustrous ensapphire.
Angelic Love am I, and thus I wind

For joy of Him whom once thy pure womb bore,
Where He we yearn for did a hostel find;
And I will wind me, Lady, evermore,

While thou thy Son shalt follow, and shalt make
The highest sphere more heavenly than before."
Thus did the ever-circling music take

Its closing note, and every other light

With name of MARY did the echoes wake.
That robe which, as with regal glory dight,

Wraps all the spheres of world that lives and glows,
Filled with God's breath and all His ways of might,

So high above us in its concave rose,

That where I stood its order fair did hide
Its beauty from us, nor did half disclose :
Wherefore mine eyes no power to me supplied

To track the course of that encrowned crest,
That rose and rested at her Son's dear side.
And, as a babe that to its mother's breast,

When it hath had its fill, doth stretch its hand,
And inward love by outward glow attest,

So each of those white gleams erect did stand,

And with its summit so inclined, that I

Their love for Mary well could understand.

101 Sapphire, as the symbol at once of purity and of the divine glory. See note on Purg, i. 13, and Exod. xxiv. 10. So in medieval art the Virgin is commonly painted with a robe of sapphire-blue. The "broken cloud" imagery reminds us of 1. 81.

109 The words paint the glory seen in the Heaven of stars, in itself but a prelude to that of the Empyrean Heaven from which Gabriel has descended.

112 The "regal mantle" is the sphere of the Primum Mobile, which encircles all the other spheres. I follow the readings avviva rather than "saliva," and "alito" rather than abito," ""interna" rather than " eterna. Dante's gaze failed to follow what we may call the new "assumption" of the Virgin to the presence of her Son in the Empyrean Heaven.

"

121 Another of the child-picture from Dante's gallery. Comp. H. xxiii. 38; Purg. xxx. 44, xxxi. 64.