Then said to me: "That one from whom is named
Thy race, and who a hundred years and more

Has circled round the mount on the first cornice,

A son of mine and thy great-grandsire was;

Well it behoves thee that the long fatigue

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Thou shouldst for him make shorter with thy works.

Florence, within the ancient boundary

From which she taketh still her tierce and nones,
Abode in quiet, temperate and chaste.

No golden chain she had, nor coronal,

Nor ladies shod with sandal shoon, nor girdle

That caught the eye more than the person Not yet the daughter at her birth struck fear

did.

Into the father, for the time and dower
Did not o'errun this side or that the measure.

No houses had she void of families,

Not

yet had thither come Sardanapalus

To show what in a chamber can be done;

Not yet surpassed had Montemalo been

By your Uccellatojo, which surpassed

Shall in its downfall be as in its rise.

Bellincion Berti saw I go begirt

With leather and with bone, and from the mirror

His dame depart without a painted face;

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And him of Nerli saw, and him of Vecchio,

Contented with their simple suits of buff,
And with the spindle and the flax their dames.
O fortunate women! and each one was certain

Of her own burial-place, and none as yet
For sake of France was in her bed deserted.
One o'er the cradle kept her studious watch,

And in her lullaby the language used

That first delights the fathers and the mothers;

Another, drawing tresses from her distaff,

As

Told o'er among her family the tales

Of Trojans and of Fesole and Rome.

great a marvel then would have been held

A Lapo Salterello, a Cianghella,

As Cincinnatus or Cornelia now.

To such a quiet, such a beautiful

Life of the citizen, to such a safe
Community, and to so sweet an inn,

Did Mary give me, with loud cries invoked,
And in your ancient Baptistery at once
Christian and Cacciaguida I became.

Moronto was my brother, and Eliseo;

From Val di Pado came to me my wife,

And from that place thy surname was derived.

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I followed afterward the Emperor Conrad,
And he begirt me of his chivalry,

So much I pleased him with my noble deeds.

I followed in his train against that law's

Iniquity, whose people doth

usurp

Your just possession, through your Pastor's fault.
There by that execrable race was I

Released from bonds of the fallacious world,
The love of which defileth many souls,

And came from martyrdom unto this peace."

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CANTO XVI.

O THOU our poor nobility of blood,

If thou dost make the people glory in thee Down here where our affection languishes, A marvellous thing it ne'er will be to me;

For there where appetite is not perverted,

I
say in Heaven, of thee I made a boast!
Truly thou art a cloak that quickly shortens,
So that unless we piece thee day by day
Time goeth round about thee with his shears!
With You, which Rome was first to tolerate,

(Wherein her family less perseveres,)

Yet once again my words beginning made;
Whence Beatrice, who stood somewhat apart,

Smiling, appeared like unto her who coughed
At the first failing writ of Guenever.
And I began: "You are my ancestor,
You give to me all hardihood to speak,
You lift me so that I am more than I.

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So

many

rivulets with gladness fill

My mind, that of itself it makes a joy

Because it can endure this and not burst. Then tell me, my beloved root ancestral,

Who were your ancestors, and what the years That in your boyhood chronicled themselves? Tell me about the sheepfold of Saint John,

How large it was, and who the people were
Within it worthy of the highest seats.
As at the blowing of the winds a coal

Quickens to flame, so I beheld that light
Become resplendent at my blandishments.

And as unto mine eyes it grew more fair,

With voice more sweet and tender, but not in
This modern dialect, it said to me:

"From uttering of the Ave, till the birth

In which my mother, who is now a saint,

Of me was lightened who had been her burden,

Unto its Lion had this fire returned

Five hundred fifty times and thirty more,

To reinflame itself beneath his paw.

My ancestors and I our birthplace had

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Where first is found the last ward of the city

By him who runneth in your annual game.