Page images
PDF
EPUB

For yonder beast, who so to howl thee made,

By no man ever lets her road be past,
But hinders them, yea slays them as her trade;
Whose nature hath so foul and wrong a cast,
That she her greedy will can never sate,
But seems more famished after food than fast.
Of many an animal she makes her mate,

And many more will have, until that hound

95

100

Shall come, who must with grief cut short her date;

Whose meat in land or dross shall not be found,

But virtue, wisdom, love, shall feed him ever,

And Feltro unto Feltro be his bound;

He shall this humbled Italy deliver,

For which Euryalus, Nisus, Turnus, fell
Bewounded, and Camilla knew man never;
He shall this beast from tower and town compel,

Till whence she came he force her to return,
Whence envy roused her, to the hold of hell.
Now for thy weal this method I discern

And counsel, that thou follow me as guide, And I will take thee hence, by tracts eterne,

105

110

Where wailings of despair thy sense will gride,
And ancient spirits thou wilt see tormented,
By each of whom the second death is cried.

And thou wilt see the souls that live contented

115

In flames, thro' which they hope to mount up higher

To blessed realms, when heaven has once consented; To which, if thou wilt afterwards aspire,

Behold, a spirit worthier than I

Shall come, and I, departing, leave thee by her;
For yonder emperor, that reigns on high,

Because I have obeyed not his decree,

Will have me not his city to draw nigh.

O'er all with might, and there with majesty

He reigns, there keeps his city and high throne;

O blessed, whom he chooses there to see."

121

125

"I charge thee, by that God, to thee unknown, 130

Poet," I cried, "to lead me as thou sayest,

That I may flee this hurt, nor this alone,

Till on St. Peter's gate mine eyes may rest,

And those who by thy telling make such moan." Then forth he moved, and I behind him prest.

135

CANTO II.

DAY was departing, and the air embrowned
Had summoned all, that lives on earth, away
From toil and pain; I, only I, was bound
At once the double warfare to assay,

By travel and by ruth upon me laid,
Which Memory that errs not shall portray.
O Muses, O high Genius, now give aid;

O Mind that wrotest down what I descried,

Herein thy nobleness shall be displayed.
I thus began, "Poet, that art my guide,
Weigh well my puissance, if it suffice,
Ere that high quest unto me thou confide.
Thou sayest that Silvius' ancestor with eyes
Corruptible the eternal realm surveyed,
And there was present, after fleshly guise;

10

15

Still, though the enemy of Evil laid

This grace on him, minding the high effect

Of who? and what? should from his root be made, It seems not vain to human intellect;

For he of parent Rome and all her sway Was founder, in the empyreal heavens elect: All which (to speak the truth if I assay)

Were thus establisht for the sacred seat,

Which heirs o' th' elder Peter hold alway.

20

This proud adventure, which thou makest him meet, 25
Led him to hear such things as framed his fate
Of conquest, and the Pope's array complete.
Since then the chosen 'Vas' beheld your state,
To carry thence assurance to our creed,
Which to the path of welfare is the gate.
But I! if I go, who shall bid me speed?

For no Eneas, nor no Paul am I;
My claims nor I nor others would concede.
If then upon this enterprise I fly,

I fear me, that like folly it may close;
Thy sense, what ill I argue, can supply."

30

35

336

And like a man unchoosing what he chose,

Whose former mind by some new thought is crost,

Till far astray from his first plan he goes;

Thus I became, upon this lightless coast,

And, thinking, all that fire of enterprise, Which I had in me at the first, I lost. "If well the sense thou speakest I surmise,"

Replied that shade magnanimous, "thy mind Must be offended' here with cowardice;

The which full oft encumbereth mankind,

And turns them back from honoured high career, Like seeing beasts, when shadows pass behind. From this misgiving then thy soul to clear,

I'll tell thee why I came, and, when I erst Took thought for thee, what tale had reacht my ear. I stood among the neither saved nor curst,

When called me such a blest and beauteous One,

That to command me I besought her first.

45

50

Her eyes more brightly than the Planet shone,

55

And she addrest me, O how smooth and sweet,

With angel voice, in language of her own:

« PreviousContinue »