Now go; no longer will I have thee linger, Because thy stay doth incommode my weeping, Good in herself, unless indeed our house And she alone remains to me on earth.” 140 145 CANTO XX. ILL strives the will against a better will; Therefore, to pleasure him, against my pleasure I drew the sponge not saturate from the water. Onward I moved, and onward moved my Leader, Through vacant places, skirting still the rock, As on a wall close to the battlements; For they that through their eyes pour drop by drop verge approach. On the other side too near the That more than all the other beasts hast Because of hunger infinitely hollow! O heaven, in whose gyrations some appear prey, To think conditions here below are changed, When will he come through whom she shall depart? 15 Onward we went with footsteps slow and scarce, And I attentive to the shades I heard Piteously weeping and bemoaning them; And I by peradventure heard “Sweet Mary!" Even as a woman does who is in child-birth; Is manifested by that hostelry Where thou didst lay thy sacred burden down.” Thereafterward I heard: "O good Fabricius, Virtue with poverty didst thou prefer To the possession of great wealth with vice." So pleasurable were these words to me That I drew farther onward to have knowledge Touching that spirit whence they seemed to come. He furthermore was speaking of the largess Which Nicholas unto the maidens. gave, In order to conduct their youth to honor. "O soul that dost so excellently speak, 20 25 31 Tell me who wast thou," said I, "and why only 35 Not without recompense shall be thy word, If I return to finish the short journey Of that life which is flying to its end." And he "I'll tell thee, not for any comfort I 40 I was the root of that malignant plant Which overshadows all the Christian world, So that good fruit is seldom gathered from it; But if Douay and Ghent and Lille and Bruges Had power, soon vengeance would be taken on it; And this I pray of Him who judges all. Hugh Capet was I called upon the earth; From me were born the Louises and Philips, By whom in later days has France been governed. I was the son of a Parisian butcher, What time the ancient kings had perished all, gray. I found me grasping in my hands the rein Of the realm's government, and so great power The head of mine own offspring was, from whom So long as the great dowry of Provence Out of my blood took not the sense of shame, 'T was little worth, but still it did no harm. Then it began with falsehood and with force 45 50 55 60 65 Charles came to Italy, and for amends A victim made of Conradin, and then Thrust Thomas back to heaven, for amends. A time I see, not very distant now, Which draweth forth another Charles from France, The better to make known both him and his. Unarmed he goes, and only with the lance That Judas jousted with; and that he thrusts So that he makes the paunch of Florence burst. He thence not land, but sin and infamy, Shall gain, so much more grievous to himself See I his daughter sell, and chaffer for her What more, O Avarice, canst thou do to us, Since thou my blood so to thyself hast drawn, That less may seem the future ill and past, And Christ in his own Vicar captive made. I see him yet another time derided; I see renewed the vinegar and gall, And between living thieves I see him slain. 75 80 85 90 70 |