Purgatory Canto 32
Canto XXXII
Argument
Dante is warned not to gaze too fixedly on Beatrice. The procession moves on, accompanied by Matilda, Statius, and Dante, till they reach an exceeding lofty tree, where divers strange chances befall.
Mine eyes with such an eager coveting Were bent to rid them of their ten years' thirst, Not other sense was waking: and e'en they Were fenced on either side from heed of aught;
So tangled, in its custom'd toils, that smile Of saintly brightness drew me to itself: When forcibly, toward the left, my sight The sacred virgins turn'd; for from their lips I heard the warning sounds: "Too fix'd a gaze!"
[1: "Their ten years' thirst." Beatrice had been dead ten years.]
A while my vision labour'd; as when late Upon the o'erstrained eyes the sun hath smote: But soon, to lesser object, as the view Was now recover'd, (lesser in respect To that excess of sensible, whence late I had perforce been sunder'd), on their right I mark'd that glorious army wheel, and turn, Against the sun and sevenfold lights, their front.
As when, their bucklers for protection raised, A well - ranged troop, with portly banners curl'd, Wheel circling, ere the whole can change their ground;
E'en thus the goodly regiment of Heaven Proceeding, all did pass us, ere the car Had sloped his beam. Attendant at the wheels The damsels turn'd; and on the Gryphon moved The sacred burden, with a pace so smooth, No feather on him trembled. The fair dame, Who through the wave had drawn me, companied By Statius and myself, pursued the wheel, Whose orbit, rolling, mark'd a lesser arch.
Through the high wood, now void, (the more her blame, Who by the serpent was beguiled), I pass'd, With step in cadence to the harmony Angelic. Onward had we moved, as far, Perchance, as arrow at three several flights Full wing'd had sped, when from her station down Descended Beatrice. With one voice All murmur'd "Adam"; circling next a plant Despoil'd of flowers and leaf, on every bough, Its tresses, spreading more as more they rose, Were such, as 'midst their forest wilds, for height, The Indians might have gazed at. "Blessed thou, Gryphon! whose beak hath never pluck'd that tree Pleasant to taste: for hence the appetite Was warp'd to evil." Round the stately trunk Thus shouted forth the rest, to whom return'd The animal twice - gender'd: "Yea! for so The generation of the just are saved."
And turning to the chariot - pole, to foot He drew it of the widow'd branch, and bound There, left unto the stock whereon it grew.
[2: "Gryphon." Our Saviour's submission to the Roman Empire appears to be intended, and particularly his injunction to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's."]
As when large floods of radiance from above Stream, with that radiance mingled, which ascends Next after setting of the scaly sign, Our plants then burgeon, and each wears anew His wonted colours, ere the sun have yoked Beneath another star his flamy steeds;
Thus putting forth a hue more faint than rose, And deeper than the violet, was renew'd The plant, erewhile in all its branches bare.
Unearthly was the hymn, which then arose.
I understood it not, nor to the end Endured the harmony. Had I the skill To pencil forth how closed the unpitying eyes Slumbering, when Syrinx warbled, (eyes that paid So dearly for their watching), then, like painter, That with a model paints, I might design
The manner of my falling into sleep.
But feign who will the slumber cunningly, I pass it by to when I waked; and tell, How suddenly a flash of splendour rent The curtain of my sleep, and one cries out,
"Arise; what dost thou?" As the chosen three, On Tabor's mount, admitted to behold The blossoming of that fair tree, whose fruit Is coveted of Angels, and doth make Perpetual feast in Heaven; to themselves Returning, at the word whence deeper sleeps Were broken, they their tribe diminish'd saw;
Both Moses and Elias gone, and changed The stole their Master wore; thus to myself Returning, over me beheld I stand The piteous one, who, cross the stream, had brought My steps. "And where," all doubting, I exclaim'd,
"Is Beatrice?" - "See her," she replied,
"Beneath the fresh leaf, seated on its root.
Behold the associate choir that circles her.
The others, with a melody more sweet And more profound, journeying to higher realms, Upon the Gryphon tend." If there her words Were closed, I know not; but mine eyes had now Ta'en view of her, by whom all other thoughts Were barr'd admittance. On the very ground Alone she sat, as she had there been left A guard upon the wain, which I beheld Bound to the twoform beast. The seven nymphs Did make themselves a cloister round about her;
And, in their hands, upheld those lights secure From blast septentrion and the gusty south.
[3: "The blossoming of that fair tree." Our Saviour's transfiguration. "As the apple - tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." - Solomon's Song, ii. 3.]
[4: \"Deeper sleeps." The sleep of death, in the instance of the ruler of the synagogue's daughter and of Lazarus."]
[5: "The piteous one." Matilda.]
[6: \"Those lights." The tapers of gold.]
"A little while thou shalt be forester here;
And citizen shalt be, forever with me, Of that true Rome, wherein Christ dwells a Roman,
[7: "Of that true Rome." Of Heaven.]
To profit the misguided world, keep now Thine eyes upon the car; and what thou seest, Take heed thou write, returning to that place."
[8: "To that place." To the earth.]
Thus Beatrice: at whose feet inclined Devout, at her behest, my thought and eyes I, as she bade, directed. Never fire, With so swift motion, forth a stormy cloud Leap'd downward from the welkin's farthest bound, As I beheld the bird of Jove, descen Down through the tree; and, as he rush'd, the rind Disparting crush beneath him; buds much more, And leaflets. On the car, with all his might He struck; whence, staggering, like a ship it reel'd, At random driven, to starboard now, o'ercome, And now to larboard, by the vaulting waves.
[9: "The bird of Jove." This, which is imitated from Ezekiel, xvii.
3, 4, is typical of the persecutions which the Church sustained from the Roman emperors.]
Next, springing up into the chariot's womb, A fox[10] I saw, with hunger seeming pined Of all good food. But, for his ugly sins The saintly maid rebuking him, away Scampering he turn'd, fast as his hide - bound corpse Would bear him. Next, from whence before he came, I saw the eagle dart into the hull O' the car, and leave it with his feathers lined:[11]
And then a voice, like that which issues forth From heart with sorrow rived, did issue forth From Heaven, and "O poor bark of mine!" it cried,
"How badly art thou freighted." Then it seem'd That the earth open'd, between either wheel;
And I beheld a dragon[12] issue thence, That through the chariot fix'd his forked train;
And like a wasp, that draggeth back the sting, So drawing forth his baleful train, he dragg'd Part of the bottom forth; and went his way, Exulting. What remain'd, as lively turf
[10: "A fox." By the fox probably is represented the treachery of the heretics.]
[11: \"With his feathers lined." In allusion to the donations made by Constantine to the Church.]
[12: \"A dragon." Probably Mohammed; for what Lombardi offers to the contrary is far from satisfactory.]
With green herb, so did clothe itself with plumes,[13]
Which haply had, with purpose chaste and kind, Been offer'd; and therewith were clothed the wheels, Both one and other, and the beam, so quickly, A sigh were not breathed sooner. Thus transform'd, The holy structure, through its several parts, Did put forth heads;[14] three on the beam, and one On every side: the first like oxen horn'd;
But with a single horn upon their front, The four. Like monster, sight hath never seen.
O'er it[15] methought there sat, secure as rock On mountain's lofty top, a shameless whore, Whose ken roved loosely round her. At her side, As 't were that none might bear her off, I saw A giant stand; and ever and anon They mingled kisses. But, her lustful eyes Chancing on me to wander, that fell minion Scourged her from head to foot all o'er; then full Of jealousy, and fierce with rage, unloosed The monster, and dragg'd on,[16] so far across The forest, that from me its shades alone Shielded the harlot and the new - form'd brute.
[13: \"With plumes." The increase of wealth and temporal dominion, which followed the supposed gift of Constantine.]
[14: \"Heads." By the seven heads, it is supposed with sufficient probability, are meant the seven capital sins: by the three with two horns, pride, anger, and avarice, injurious both to man himself and to his neighbor: by the four with one horn, gluttony, gloominess, concupiscence, and envy, hurtful, at least in their primary effects, chiefly to him who is guilty of them.]
[15: \"O'er it." The harlot is thought to represent the state of the Church under Boniface VIII, and the giant to figure Philip IV of France.]
[16: \"Dragg'd on." The removal of the Pope's residence from Rome to Avignon is pointed at.]
Argument
Dante is warned not to gaze too fixedly on Beatrice. The procession moves on, accompanied by Matilda, Statius, and Dante, till they reach an exceeding lofty tree, where divers strange chances befall.
Mine eyes with such an eager coveting Were bent to rid them of their ten years' thirst, Not other sense was waking: and e'en they Were fenced on either side from heed of aught;
So tangled, in its custom'd toils, that smile Of saintly brightness drew me to itself: When forcibly, toward the left, my sight The sacred virgins turn'd; for from their lips I heard the warning sounds: "Too fix'd a gaze!"
[1: "Their ten years' thirst." Beatrice had been dead ten years.]
A while my vision labour'd; as when late Upon the o'erstrained eyes the sun hath smote: But soon, to lesser object, as the view Was now recover'd, (lesser in respect To that excess of sensible, whence late I had perforce been sunder'd), on their right I mark'd that glorious army wheel, and turn, Against the sun and sevenfold lights, their front.
As when, their bucklers for protection raised, A well - ranged troop, with portly banners curl'd, Wheel circling, ere the whole can change their ground;
E'en thus the goodly regiment of Heaven Proceeding, all did pass us, ere the car Had sloped his beam. Attendant at the wheels The damsels turn'd; and on the Gryphon moved The sacred burden, with a pace so smooth, No feather on him trembled. The fair dame, Who through the wave had drawn me, companied By Statius and myself, pursued the wheel, Whose orbit, rolling, mark'd a lesser arch.
Through the high wood, now void, (the more her blame, Who by the serpent was beguiled), I pass'd, With step in cadence to the harmony Angelic. Onward had we moved, as far, Perchance, as arrow at three several flights Full wing'd had sped, when from her station down Descended Beatrice. With one voice All murmur'd "Adam"; circling next a plant Despoil'd of flowers and leaf, on every bough, Its tresses, spreading more as more they rose, Were such, as 'midst their forest wilds, for height, The Indians might have gazed at. "Blessed thou, Gryphon! whose beak hath never pluck'd that tree Pleasant to taste: for hence the appetite Was warp'd to evil." Round the stately trunk Thus shouted forth the rest, to whom return'd The animal twice - gender'd: "Yea! for so The generation of the just are saved."
And turning to the chariot - pole, to foot He drew it of the widow'd branch, and bound There, left unto the stock whereon it grew.
[2: "Gryphon." Our Saviour's submission to the Roman Empire appears to be intended, and particularly his injunction to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's."]
As when large floods of radiance from above Stream, with that radiance mingled, which ascends Next after setting of the scaly sign, Our plants then burgeon, and each wears anew His wonted colours, ere the sun have yoked Beneath another star his flamy steeds;
Thus putting forth a hue more faint than rose, And deeper than the violet, was renew'd The plant, erewhile in all its branches bare.
Unearthly was the hymn, which then arose.
I understood it not, nor to the end Endured the harmony. Had I the skill To pencil forth how closed the unpitying eyes Slumbering, when Syrinx warbled, (eyes that paid So dearly for their watching), then, like painter, That with a model paints, I might design
The manner of my falling into sleep.
But feign who will the slumber cunningly, I pass it by to when I waked; and tell, How suddenly a flash of splendour rent The curtain of my sleep, and one cries out,
"Arise; what dost thou?" As the chosen three, On Tabor's mount, admitted to behold The blossoming of that fair tree, whose fruit Is coveted of Angels, and doth make Perpetual feast in Heaven; to themselves Returning, at the word whence deeper sleeps Were broken, they their tribe diminish'd saw;
Both Moses and Elias gone, and changed The stole their Master wore; thus to myself Returning, over me beheld I stand The piteous one, who, cross the stream, had brought My steps. "And where," all doubting, I exclaim'd,
"Is Beatrice?" - "See her," she replied,
"Beneath the fresh leaf, seated on its root.
Behold the associate choir that circles her.
The others, with a melody more sweet And more profound, journeying to higher realms, Upon the Gryphon tend." If there her words Were closed, I know not; but mine eyes had now Ta'en view of her, by whom all other thoughts Were barr'd admittance. On the very ground Alone she sat, as she had there been left A guard upon the wain, which I beheld Bound to the twoform beast. The seven nymphs Did make themselves a cloister round about her;
And, in their hands, upheld those lights secure From blast septentrion and the gusty south.
[3: "The blossoming of that fair tree." Our Saviour's transfiguration. "As the apple - tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." - Solomon's Song, ii. 3.]
[4: \"Deeper sleeps." The sleep of death, in the instance of the ruler of the synagogue's daughter and of Lazarus."]
[5: "The piteous one." Matilda.]
[6: \"Those lights." The tapers of gold.]
"A little while thou shalt be forester here;
And citizen shalt be, forever with me, Of that true Rome, wherein Christ dwells a Roman,
[7: "Of that true Rome." Of Heaven.]
To profit the misguided world, keep now Thine eyes upon the car; and what thou seest, Take heed thou write, returning to that place."
[8: "To that place." To the earth.]
Thus Beatrice: at whose feet inclined Devout, at her behest, my thought and eyes I, as she bade, directed. Never fire, With so swift motion, forth a stormy cloud Leap'd downward from the welkin's farthest bound, As I beheld the bird of Jove, descen Down through the tree; and, as he rush'd, the rind Disparting crush beneath him; buds much more, And leaflets. On the car, with all his might He struck; whence, staggering, like a ship it reel'd, At random driven, to starboard now, o'ercome, And now to larboard, by the vaulting waves.
[9: "The bird of Jove." This, which is imitated from Ezekiel, xvii.
3, 4, is typical of the persecutions which the Church sustained from the Roman emperors.]
Next, springing up into the chariot's womb, A fox[10] I saw, with hunger seeming pined Of all good food. But, for his ugly sins The saintly maid rebuking him, away Scampering he turn'd, fast as his hide - bound corpse Would bear him. Next, from whence before he came, I saw the eagle dart into the hull O' the car, and leave it with his feathers lined:[11]
And then a voice, like that which issues forth From heart with sorrow rived, did issue forth From Heaven, and "O poor bark of mine!" it cried,
"How badly art thou freighted." Then it seem'd That the earth open'd, between either wheel;
And I beheld a dragon[12] issue thence, That through the chariot fix'd his forked train;
And like a wasp, that draggeth back the sting, So drawing forth his baleful train, he dragg'd Part of the bottom forth; and went his way, Exulting. What remain'd, as lively turf
[10: "A fox." By the fox probably is represented the treachery of the heretics.]
[11: \"With his feathers lined." In allusion to the donations made by Constantine to the Church.]
[12: \"A dragon." Probably Mohammed; for what Lombardi offers to the contrary is far from satisfactory.]
With green herb, so did clothe itself with plumes,[13]
Which haply had, with purpose chaste and kind, Been offer'd; and therewith were clothed the wheels, Both one and other, and the beam, so quickly, A sigh were not breathed sooner. Thus transform'd, The holy structure, through its several parts, Did put forth heads;[14] three on the beam, and one On every side: the first like oxen horn'd;
But with a single horn upon their front, The four. Like monster, sight hath never seen.
O'er it[15] methought there sat, secure as rock On mountain's lofty top, a shameless whore, Whose ken roved loosely round her. At her side, As 't were that none might bear her off, I saw A giant stand; and ever and anon They mingled kisses. But, her lustful eyes Chancing on me to wander, that fell minion Scourged her from head to foot all o'er; then full Of jealousy, and fierce with rage, unloosed The monster, and dragg'd on,[16] so far across The forest, that from me its shades alone Shielded the harlot and the new - form'd brute.
[13: \"With plumes." The increase of wealth and temporal dominion, which followed the supposed gift of Constantine.]
[14: \"Heads." By the seven heads, it is supposed with sufficient probability, are meant the seven capital sins: by the three with two horns, pride, anger, and avarice, injurious both to man himself and to his neighbor: by the four with one horn, gluttony, gloominess, concupiscence, and envy, hurtful, at least in their primary effects, chiefly to him who is guilty of them.]
[15: \"O'er it." The harlot is thought to represent the state of the Church under Boniface VIII, and the giant to figure Philip IV of France.]
[16: \"Dragg'd on." The removal of the Pope's residence from Rome to Avignon is pointed at.]
