Lo! where, with Beatrice, many a saint Stretch their clasp'd hands, in furtherance of my suit." She looks on pious prayers: then fasten'd they For visual strength, refining more and more, Of sovran light. Thenceforward, what I saw, As one, who from a dream awaken'd, straight, (Whose height what reach of mortal thought may soar?) Yield me again some little particle Of what thou then appearedst; give my tongue Power, but to leave one sparkle of thy glory, Such keenness 2 from the living ray I met, O grace, unenvying of thy boon! that gavest On the everlasting splendour, that I look'd, 1 The Sibyl's sentence.] Virg. En. 3. 445. 2 Such keenness.] th' air, No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray, Milton, P. L. b. 3. 621. Saw in one volume clasp'd of love, whate'er The whole. And of such bond methinks I saw For all the good, that will may covet, there Is summ'd; and all, elsewhere defective found, 1 All properties.] Thus in the Parmenides of Plato, it is argued that all conceivable quantities and qualities, however contradictory, are necessarily inherent in our idea of a universe or unity. 2 One moment.] "A moment seems to me more tedious, than five-andtwenty ages would have appeared to the Argonauts, when they had resolved on their expedition." Lombardi proposes a new interpretation of this difficult passage, and would understand our author to say that "one moment elapsed after the vision, occasioned a greater forgetfulness of what he had seen, than the five-and-twenty centuries, which past between the Argonautic expedition and the time of his writing this poem, had caused oblivion of the circumstances attendant on that event." 3 Argo's shadow.] Quæ simul ac rostro ventosum proscidit æquor, Catullus, De Nupt. Pel. et Thet. 15. The wondred Argo, which in wondrous piece First through the Euxine seas bore all the flower of Greece. Spenser, Faery Queen, b. 2. c. xii. st. 44. 4 Three orbs of triple hue, clipt in one bound.] The Trinity. This passage may be compared to what Plato, in his second Epistle, enigmatically says of a And, from another, one reflected seem'd, 2 Sole in thyself that dwell'st; and of thyself I therefore pored upon the view. As one, How placed but the flight was not for my wing ; That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars. first, second, and third, and of the impossibility that the human soul should attain to what it desires to know of them, by means of any thing akin to itself. 1 Less than little.] Che 'l pavon vi parrebbe men che poco. Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. 2. cap. v. 2 Thou smiledst.] Some MSS. and editions instead of "intendente te a me arridi," have "intendente te ami ed arridi," "who, understanding thyself, lovest and enjoyest thyself;" which Lombardi thinks much preferable. 3 That circling.] The second of the circles, "Light of Light," in which he dimly beheld the mystery of the incarnation. THE END. INDEX OF PROPER NAMES, EITHER EXPRESSLY MENTIONED, OR SUPPOSED TO BE REFERRED TO Abbagliato, H. xxix. 129. Abbati degli, Bocca H. xxxii. 105. Abbati degli, Buoso, H. xxv. 131. Abraham, H. iv. 55. Absalom, H. xxviii. 132. Abydos, Purg. xxviii. 74. Accorso, H. xv. 110. Accorso d', Francesco, H. xv. 111. Acheron, H. iii. 72; xiv. 111. Purg. Achilles, H. v. 65; xii. 68; xxvi. 63; Adam, H. iii. 107; iv. 52. Pury. ix. Adimari, Par. xvi. 113. Eneas, H. ii. 34; iv. 119; xxvi. 62, Ethiop, Purg. xxvi. 18. Par. xix. 108. Africanus. See Scipio. Aghinulfo of Romena, II. xxx. 76. Agobbio d', Oderigi, Purg. xi. 79. Aguglione d', Baldo, Par. xvi. 54. Alagna, Purg. xx. 86. Par. xxx. 145. Alberichi, Par. xvi. 87. Albertus Magnus, Par. x. 95. Aldobrandesco, Omberto, Purg. xi. 58, Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio, H. vi. 79; xvi. Alecto, H. ix. 48. Alessandro of Romena, H. xxx. 76. Alichino, H. xxi. 116; xxii. 111. Alonzo X. of Spain, Par. xix. 122. Alpine, Purg. xiv. 33; xxxiii. 110. Alverna, Par. xi. 98. Amphiaräus, H. xx. 31. Par. iv. 100. Anaxagoras, H. iv. 135. Par. xv. 25; xix. 128. Andes, Purg. xviii. 84. Arles, H. ix. 111. xxx. 65; xxxiii. 83. Anchises, H. i. 69; iv. 119; xxvi. 94. Aruns, H. xx. 43. Ascesi, Par. xi. 49. 115; xxiii. 95; Asciano, Caccia of, H. xxix. 127. Andrea da Sant', Giacomo, H. xiii. Asdente, H. xx. 116. 134. Angelo. See Cagnano. Asopus, Purg. xviii. 92. Assyrians, Purg. xii. 54. Ann, Saint, Par. xxxii. 119. Annas, H. xxiii. 124. Anselm, Par. xii. 128. Athamas, H. xxx. 4. Anselm, son of Count Ugolino de' Atropos, H. xxxiii. 124. Gherardeschi, H. xxxiii. 48. Antæus, H. xxxi. 92, 103, 131. Antandros, Par. vi. 69. Antenor, Purg. v. 75. Antenora, H. xxxii. 89. Antigone, Purg. xxii. 108. Apulia, II. xxviii. 7. See Pouille. Aquinum, Purg. xxii. 14. Par. x. 96; Averroes, H. iv. 141. August, Purg. v. 38. Augustine, Saint, Par. x. 117; xxxii. Augustus, Par. xxx. 136. See Cæsar. Aurora, Purg. ii. 8; ix, 1. Babylonian, Par. xxiii. 129. Bagnacavallo, Purg. xiv. 118. Baliol, John, Par. xix. 121. Baptist. See John. Barbariccia, H. xxi. 118; xxii. 30, 57, Arezzo, H. xxii. 6; xxix. 104; xxx. Barbarossa. See Frederick. |