Who bends him to the likeness of an arch

That midway spans the flood; when thus I heard,
Come, enter here," in tone so soft and mild,

As never met the ear on mortal strand.

With swan-like wings dispred and pointing up,
Who thus had spoken marshal'd us along,
Where, each side of the solid masonry,

The sloping walls retired; then moved his plumes,
And fanning us, affirm'd that those, who mourn,
Are blessed, for that comfort shall be theirs.

"What aileth thee, that still thou look'st to earth?" Began my leader; while the angelic shape

A little over us his station took.

New vision," I replied, "hath raised in me
Surmisings strange and anxious doubts, whereon
My soul intent allows no other thought

Or room, or entrance." "Hast thou seen," said he,
"That old enchantress, her, whose wiles alone
The spirits o'er us weep for? Hast thou seen
How man may free him of her bonds? Enough.
Let thy heels spurn the earth; and thy raised ken
Fix on the lure, which heaven's eternal King
Whirls in the rolling spheres." As on his feet
The falcon first looks down, then to the sky
Turns, and forth stretches eager for the food,
That woos him thither; so the call I heard:
So onward, far as the dividing rock
Gave way, I journey'd, till the plain was reach'd.
On the fifth circle when I stood at large,
A race appear'd before me, on the ground
All downward lying prone and weeping sore.
"My soul hath cleaved to the dust," I heard
With sighs so deep, they well nigh choked the words.
"O ye elect of God! whose penal woes
Both hope and justice mitigate, direct

Toward the steep rising our uncertain way."

"If ye approach secure from this our doom,

Prostration, and would urge your course with speed,
See that ye still to rightward keep the brink."

"Who mourn." "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted."-Matt. v. 4.

So them the bard besought; and such the words, Beyond us some short space, in answer came.

8

I noted what remain'd yet hidden from them:"
Thence to my liege's eyes mine eyes I bent,
And he, forthwith interpreting their suit,
Beckon'd his glad assent. Free then to act
As pleased me, I drew near, and took my stand
Over that shade whose words I late had mark'd.
And, "Spirit!" I said, "in whom repentant tears
Mature that blessed hour when thou with God
Shalt find acceptance, for a while suspend
For me that mightier care. Say who thou wast;
Why thus ye grovel on your bellies prone;
And if, in naught, ye wish my service there,
Whence living I am come." He answering spake :
"The cause why Heaven our back toward his cope
Reverses, shalt thou know: but me know first,
The successor of Peter, and the name
And title of my lineage, from that stream❞
That 'twixt Chiaveri and Siestri draws
His limpid waters through the lowly glen.
A month and little more by proof I learnt,
With what a weight that robe of sovereignty
Upon his shoulder rests, who from the mire
Would guard it; that each other fardel seems
But feathers in the balance. Late, alas!
Was my conversion: but, when I became
Rome's pastor, I discerned at once the dream
And cozenage of life; saw that the heart
Rested not there, and yet no prouder height
Lured on the climber: wherefore, of that life
No more enamor'd, in my bosom love
Of purer being kindled. For till then

I was a soul in misery, alienate

From God, and covetous of all earthly things;
Now, as thou seest, here punish'd for my doting.

"I noted what remain'd yet hidden from them." They were ignorant, it appeared, whether Dante was come there to be purged of his sins.

8" The successor of Peter." Ottobuono, of the family of Fieschi, Counts of Lavagno, died thirty-nine days after he

became Pope, with the title of Adrian V, in 1276.

"That stream." The river Lavagno, in the Genoese territory; to the east of which territory are situated Siestri and Chiaveri.

Such cleansing from the taint of avarice,
Do spirits, converted, need. This mount inflicts
No direr penalty. E'en as our eyes

Fasten'd below, nor e'er to loftier clime
Were lifted; thus hath justice level'd us,

Here on the earth. As avarice quench'd our love

Of good, without which is no working; thus

Here justice holds us prison'd, hand and foot

Chain'd down and bound, while heaven's just Lord shall please, So long to tarry, motionless, outstretch'd."

My knees I stoop'd and would have spoke; but he,
Ere my beginning, by his ear perceived

I did him reverence; and "What cause," said he,
"Hath bow'd thee thus?" "Compunction," I rejoin'd,
"And inward awe of your high dignity."

"Up," he exclaim'd, "brother! upon thy feet

Arise; err not: thy fellow-servant I,

(Thine and all others') of one Sovereign Power.
If thou hast ever mark'd those holy sounds
Of gospel truth, nor shall be given in marriage,'
Thou mayst discern the reasons of my speech.
Go thy ways now; and linger here no more.
Thy tarrying is a let unto the tears,

With which I hasten that whereof thou speakest.
I have on earth a kinswoman; 10 her name

Alagia, worthy in herself, so ill

Example of our house corrupt her not:
And she is all remaineth of me there."

10" A kinswoman." Alagia is said to have been the wife of the Marchese Marcello Malaspina, one of the Poet's pro

tectors during his exile. See Canto viii. 133.

CANTO XX

ARGUMENT.-Among those on the fifth cornice, Hugh Capet records illustrious examples of voluntary poverty and of bounty; then tells who himself is, and speaks of his descendants on the French throne; and, lastly, adds some noted instances of avarice. When he has ended, the mountain shakes, and all the spirits sing "Glory to God."

I

'LL strives the will, 'gainst will more wise that strives:
His pleasure therefore to mine own preferr'd,

I drew the sponge yet thirsty from the wave.
Onward I moved: he also onward moved,
Who led me, coasting still, wherever place
Along the rock was vacant; as a man

Walks near the battlements on narrow wall.
For those on the other part, who drop by drop
Wring out their all-infecting malady,

Too closely press the verge. Accurst be thou,
Inveterate wolf!1 whose gorge ingluts more prey,
Than every beast beside, yet is not fill'd;

So bottomless thy maw.-Ye spheres of heaven!
To whom there are, as seems, who attribute
All change in mortal state, when is the day
Of his appearing, for whom fate reserves
To chase her hence?-With wary steps and slow
We pass'd; and I attentive to the shades,
Whom piteously I heard lament and wail;
And, 'midst the wailing, one before us heard
Cry out "O blessed Virgin!" as a dame
In the sharp pangs of childbed; and "How poor
Thou wast," it added, "witness that low roof
Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down.
O good Fabricius! thou didst virtue choose
With poverty, before great wealth with vice."

The words so pleased me, that desire to know
The spirit, from whose lip they seem'd to come,
Did draw me onward. Yet it spake the gift
Of Nicholas, which on the maidens he

3

1" Wolf." Avarice.

"Of his appearing." He is thought to allude to Can Grande della Scala. See "Hell," Canto i. 98.

"Nicholas." The story of Nicholas is, that an angel having revealed to him that the father of a family was so impoverished as to resolve on exposing the

66

Bounteous bestow'd, to save their youthful prime
Unblemish'd. Spirit! who dost speak of deeds
So worthy, tell me who thou wast," I said,
"And why thou dost with single voice renew
Memorial of such praise. That boon vouchsafed
Haply shall meet reward; if I return

To finish the short pilgrimage of life,
Still speeding to its close on restless wing."
"I," answer'd he, "will tell thee; not for help,
Which thence I look for; but that in thyself
Grace so exceeding shines, before thy time
Of mortal dissolution. I was root1

Of that ill plant whose shade such poison sheds
O'er all the Christian land, that seldom thence
Good fruit is gather'd. Vengeance soon should come,
Had Ghent and Douay, Lille and Bruges power;5
And vengeance I of heaven's great Judge implore.
Hugh Capet was I hight: from me descend
The Philips and the Louis, of whom France
Newly is govern'd: born of one, who plied
The slaughterer's trade at Paris. When the race
Of ancient kings had vanish'd (all save one'
Wrapt up in sable weeds) within my gripe

I found the reins of empire, and such powers
Of new acquirement, with full store of friends,
That soon the widow'd circlet of the crown
Was girt upon the temples of my son,

8

He, from whose bones the anointed race begins.

chastity of his three daughters to sale, he threw in at the window of their house three bags of money, containing a sufficient portion for each of them.

"Root." Hugh Capet, ancestor of Philip IV.

"Had Ghent and Douay, Lille and Bruges power." These cities had lately been seized by Philip IV. The spirit is made to intimate the approaching de feat of the French army by the Flemings, in the battle of Courtrai, which happened in 1302.

The slaughterer's trade." This reflection on the birth of his ancestor, induced Francis I to forbid the reading of Dante in his dominions. Hugh Capet, who came to the throne of France in 987, was, however, the grandson of Robert, who was the brother of Eudes, King of France in 888; and it may,

therefore, well be questioned whether by Beccaio di Parigi is meant literally one who carried on the trade of a butcher, at Paris, and whether the sanguinary disposition of Hugh Capet's father is not stigmatized by this oppro⚫ brious appellation.

7" All save one." The posterity of Charlemagne, the second race of French monarchs, had failed, with the excep tion of Charles of Lorraine, who is said, on account of the melancholy temper of his mind, to have always clothed himself in black. Venturi suggests that Dante may have confounded him with Childeric III, the last of the Merovingian, or first race, who was deposed and made a monk in 751.

8" My son." Hugh Capet caused his son Robert to be crowned at Orleans.