19. Chaucer, Ballade in Commen dacion of Our Ladie, 12 : 'O winde of grace! now blowe unto my saile; O auriate licour of Clio! to write My penne enspire, of that I woll indite." 20. Ovid, Met., VI., Croxall's Tr. : "When straight another pictures to their view The Satyr's fate, whom angry Phoebus slew; Who, raised with high conceit, and puffed with pride, At his own pipe the skilful God defied. One of the questions which exercised And Chaucer, House of Fame, 139, the minds of the Fathers and the Schoolchanging the sex of Marsyas "And Mercia that lost hire skinne, 36. A town at the foot of Parnassus, dedicated to Apollo, and here used for Apollo. Chaucer, Quene Annelida and False Arcite, 15: "Be favorable eke thou, Polymnia! On Parnassus that, with thy susters glade By Helicon, and not ferre from Cirrha, Singed, with voice memoriall, in the shade Under the laurer, which that maie not fade." 39. That point of the horizon where the sun rises at the equinox; and where the Equator, the Zodiac, and the equinoctial Colure meet, and form each a cross with the Horizon. 41. The world is as wax, which the sun softens and stamps with his seal. 44. "This word almost," says Buti, "gives us to understand that it was not the exact moment when the sun enters Aries." 60. Milton, Par. Lost, III. 593 : Not all parts like, but all alike informed 61. Milton, Par. Lost, V. 310:- Risen on mid-noon." 68. Glaucus, changed to sea-god by eating of the salt-meadow grass. Ovid, Met., XIII., Rowe's Tr. : men was, whether the soul were created before the body or after it. Origen, following Plato, supposes all souls to have been created at once, and to await their bodies. Thomas Aquinas combats this opinion, Sum. Theol., I. Quæst. CXVIII. 3, and maintains, that "creation and infusion are simultaneous in regard This seems also to be to the soul." See Purg. XXV. 70:"The primal Motor turns to it well pleased At so great art of nature, and inspires A spirit new, with virtue all replete." 76. It is a doctrine of Plato that the heavens are always in motion, seeking the Soul of the World, which has no determinate place, but is everywhere diffused. See also Note 1. Dante's belief. "Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; There's not the smallest orb which thou behold's, But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins Such harmony is in immortal souls; But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." And Milton, Hymn on Christ's Nativity: "Ring out, ye crystal spheres, Once bless our human ears, If ye have power to touch our senses 60. And let your silver chime Move in melodious time; And let the bass of Heaven's deep orgas blow; And, with your ninefold harmony, Make up full consort to the angelic symphouv. all your senses it is the most blunted. Thus, the people who live near the place where the Nile rushes down from very high mountains to the parts which are called Catadupa, are destitute of the sense of hearing, by reason of the greatness of the noise. Now this sound, which is effected by the rapid rotation of the whole system of nature, is so Rixner, Handbuch der Geschichte der Philosophie, I. 100, speaking of the ten heavens, or the Lyre of Pythagoras, says: "These ten celestial spheres are arranged among themselves in an order so mathematical and musical, that is so harmonious, that the sphere of the fixed stars, which is above the sphere of Saturn, gives forth the deepest tone in the music of the universe (the World-powerful that human hearing cannot Lyre strung with ten strings), and that of the Moon the highest." Cicero, in his Vision of Scipio, inverts the tones. He says, Edmonds's Tr. :"Which as I was gazing at in amazement, I said, as I recovered myself, from whence proceed these sounds so strong, and yet so sweet, that fill my ears? The melody,' replies he, which you hear, and which, though composed in unequal time, is nevertheless divided into regular harmony, is effected by the impulse and motion of the spheres themselves, which, by a happy temper of sharp and grave notes, regularly produces various harmonic effects. Now it is impossible that such prodigious movements should pass in silence; and nature teaches that the sounds which the spheres at one extremity utter must be sharp, and those on the other extremity must be grave; on which account, that highest revolution of the star-studded heaven, whose motion is more rapid, is carried on with a sharp and quick sound; whereas this of the moon, which is situated the lowest, and at the other extremity, moves with the gravest sound. For the earth, the ninth sphere, remaining motionless, abides invariably in the innermost position, occupying the central spot in the universe. comprehend it, just as you cannot look directly upon the sun, because your sight and sense are overcome by his beams.'" 92. The region of fire. Brunetto Latini, Tresor, Ch. CVIII.: "After the zone of the air is placed the fourth element. This is an orb of fire without any moisture, which extends as far as the moon, and surrounds this atmosphere in which we are. And know that above the fire is first the moon, and the other stars, which are all of the nature of fire." 109. Milton, Par. Lost. V. 469 : All things proceed, and up to him return, leaves More aery; last, the bright consummate flower 121. Filicaja's beautiful sonnet on Providence is thus translated by Leigh "Now these eight directions, two of which have the same powers, effect seven sounds, differing in their modulations, which number is the connecting Hunt :principle of almost all things. Some learned men, by imitating this harmony "Just as a mother, with sweet, pious face, with strings and vocal melodies, have pened a way for their return to this place as all others have done, who, endued with pre-eminent qualities, have cultivated in their mortal life the pursuits of heaven. "The ears of mankind, filled with these sounds, have become deaf, for of Yearns towards her little children from ner seat, Gives one a kiss, another an embrace, Takes this upon her knees, that on her feet; And while from actions, looks, complaints, pretences, She learns their feelings and their various To this a look, to that a word, dispenses, still i So Providence for us, high, infinite, wants, And even if it denies what seems our right, Either denies because 'twould have us ask, 122. The Empyrean, within which the Primum Mobile revolves "with so great desire that its velocity is almost incomprehensible." 141. Convito, III. 2: "The human soul, ennobled by the highest power, that is by reason, partakes of the divine nature in the manner of an eternal Intelligence; because the soul is so ennobled by that sovereign power, and denuded of matter, that the divine light shines in it as in an angel; and therefore man has been called by the philosophers a divine animal." CANTO II. I. The Heaven of the Moon, in which are seen the spirits of those who, having taken monastic vows, were forced to violate them. Life and Times of Dante, II. Ch. 15, "The last part of the Commedia, which Dante finished about this time (1320). is said to be the most difficult and obscure part of the whole poem. And it is so; and it would be in vain for us to attempt to awaken in the generality of readers that attention which Dante has not been able to obtain for himself. Readers in general will always be repulsed by the difficulties of its numerous allegories, by the series of heavens, arranged according to the now forgotten Ptolemaic system, and more than all by disquisitions on philosophy and theology which often degenerate into mere scholastic themes. With the exception of the three cantos relating to Cacciaguida, and a few other episodes which recall us to earth, as well as those verses in which frequently Dante's love for Beatrice shines forth, the Paradiso must not be considered as pleasant reading for the general reader, but as an especial recreation for those who find there, expressed in sublime verse, those contemplations that have been the subIn Dante's symbolism this heaven re-jects of their philosophical and theological presents the first science of the Trivium. Convito, II. 14: "I say that the heaven of the Moon resembles Grammar; because it may be compared therewith; for if the Moon be well observed, two things are seen peculiar to it, which are not seen in the other stars. One is the shadow in it, which is nothing but the rarity of its body, in which the rays of the sun cannot terminate and be reflected as in the other parts. The other is the variation of its brightness, which now shines on one side, and now upon the other, according as the sun looks upon it. And Grammar has these two properties; since, on account of its infinity, the rays of reason do not terminate in it in any special part of its words; and it shines now on this side, and now on that, inasmuch as certain words, certain declinations, certain constructions, are in use which once were not, and many once were which will be again." For the influences of the Moon, see Canto III. Note 30. The introduction to this canto is at once a warning and an invitation. Balbi, studies. But few will always be the students of philosophy and theology, and much fewer those who look upon these sciences as almost one and the same thing, pursued by two different methods; these, if I am not mistaken, will find in Dante's Paradiso, a treasure of thought, and the loftiest and most soothing words of comfort, forerunners of the joys of Heaven itself. Above all, the Paradiso will delight those who find themselves, when they are reading it, in a somewhat similar disposition of mind to that of Dante when he was writing it; those in short who, after having in their youth lived in the world, and sought happiness in it, have now arrived at maturity, old age, or satiety, and seek by the means of philosophy and theology to know as far as possible of that other world on which their hopes now rest. Philosophy is the romance of the aged, and Religion the only future history for us all. Both these subjects of contemplation we find in Dante's Paradiso, and pursued with a rare modesty, not beyond the limits of our understanding, and with due sub. mission to the Divine Law which placed these limits." 8. In the other parts of the poem "one summit of Parnassus" has sufficed; but in this Minerva, Apollo, and the nine Muses come to his aid, as wind, helmsman, and compass. 11. The bread of the Angels is Knowledge or Science, which Dante calls the "ultimate perfection." Convito, I. 1 :"Everything, impelled by the providence of its own nature, inclines towards its own perfection; whence, inasmuch as knowledge is the ultimate perfection of our soul, wherein consists our ultimate felicity, we are all naturally subject to its desire. O blessed those few who sit at the table where the bread of the Angels is eaten." 16. The Argonauts, when they saw their leader Jason ploughing with the wild bulls of Aetes, and sowing the land with serpents' teeth. Ovid, Met., VII., Tate's Tr. : "To unknown yokes their brawny necks they yield, And, like tame oxen, plough the wondering field. The Colchians stare; the Grecians shout, and raise Their champion's courage with inspiring praise. Emboldened now, on fresh attempts he goes, With serpents' teeth the fertile furrows sows; The glebe, fermenting with enchanted juice, Makes the snakes' teeth a human crop produce." 19. This is generally interpreted as referring to the natural aspiration of the soul for higher things; characterized in Purg. XXI. 1, as "The natural thirst that ne'er is satisfied, Excepting with the water for whose grace The woman of Samaria besought." But Venturi says that it means the " "being borne onward by the motion of the Primum Mobile, and swept round so as to find himself directly beneath the moon. 23. As if looking back upon his jour ney through the air, Dante thus rapidly describes it in an inverse order, the arrival, the ascent, the departure ;--the striking of the shaft, the flight, the discharge from the bow-string. Here again we are reminded of the arrow of Pandarus, Iliad, IV. 120. 51. Cain with his bush of thorns. See Inf. XX. Note 126. 59. The spots in the Moon, which Dante thought were caused by rarity or density of the substance of the planet. Convito, II. 14: "The shadow in it, which is nothing but the rarity of its body, in which the rays of the sun cannot ter minate and be reflected, as in the other parts." Milton, Par. Lost, V. 419 : "Whence in her visage round those spots unpurged, Vapours not yet into her substance turned." 64. The Heaven of the Fixed Stars. run through the body of the Moon, or 73. Either the diaphanous parts must the rarity and density must be in layers one above the other. 90. As in a mirror, which Dante else. where, Inf. XXIII. 25, calls impiombato vetro, leaded glass. lies under it; "the mountain that remains 107. The subject of the snow is what naked," says Buti. Others give a scholastic interpretation to the word, defining it "the cause of accident," the cause of colour and cold. III. Shall tremble like a star. "When a man looks at the stars," says Buti, “he sees their effulgence tremble, and this is because their splendour scintillates as fire does, and moves to and fro like the flame of the fire." The brighter they burn, the more they tremble. 112. The Primum Mobile, revolving in the Empyrean, and giving motion to all the heavens beneath it. 115. The Heaven of the Fixed Stars. Greek Epigrams, III. 62 : With all the eyes on thee." : "If I were heaven, of heaven would I look dowr 1. The Heaven of the Moon continued. Of the influence of this planet, Buti, quoting the astrologer Albumasar, says: "The Moon is cold, moist, and phlegmatic, sometimes warm, and gives lightness, aptitude in all things, desire of joy, of beauty, and of praise, beginning of all works, knowledge of the rich and noble, prosperity in life, acquisition of things desired, devotion in faith, superior sciences, multitude of thoughts, necromancy, acuteness of mind in things, geometry, knowledge of lands and waters and of their measure and number, weakness of the sentiments, noble women, marriages, pregnancies, nursings, embassies, falsehoods, accusations ; the being lord among lords, servant among servants, and conformity with every man of like nature, oblivion thereof, timid, of simple heart, flattering, honourable towards men, useful to them, not betraying secrets, a multitude of infirmities and the care of healing bodies, cutting hair, liberality of food, chastity. These are the significations (influences) of the Moon upon the things it finds, the blame and honour of which, according to the astrologers, belong to the planet; but the wise man follows the good influences, and leaves the bad; though all are good and necessary to the life of the universe." 18. Narcissus mistook his shadow for a substance; Dante, falling into the opposite error, mistakes these substances for shadows. 41. Your destiny; that is, of yourself and the others with you. 49. Piccarda was a sister of Forese and Corso Donati, and of Gemma, Dante's wife. In Purg. XXIV. 13, Forese says of her : "My sister, who, 'twixt beautiful and good, I know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing Already in her crown on high Olympus." She was a nun of Santa Clara, and was dragged by violence from the cloister by her brother Corso Donati, who married her to Rosselin della Tosa. As she herself says: "God knows what afterward my life became," It was such that she did not live long. For this crime the "excellent Baron,' according to the Ottimo, had to do penance in his shirt. 70. Milton, Par. Lost, XII. 583:"Add Love, By name to come called Charity, the soul Of all the rest." 118. Constance, daughter of Roger of Sicily. She was a nun at Palermo, but was taken from the convent and married to the Emperor Henry V., son of Barba these "winds of Suabia," or Emperors rossa and father of Frederic II. Of of the house of Suabia, Barbarossa was Frederic II. the third, and, as Dante the first, Henry V. the second, and calls him in the Convito, IV. 3, "the the last of the Suabian line. last of the Roman Emperors," meaning CANTO IV. 1. The Heaven of the Moon continued. 2. Montaigne says: "Ifany one should place us between the bottle and the bacon (entre la bouteille et le jambon), with an equal appetite for food and drink, there would doubtless be no remedy but to die of thirst and hunger." 6. Ovid, Met., V., Maynwaring's Tr.:"As when a hungry tiger near him hears Two lowing herds, awhile he both forbears; Nor cau his hopes of this or that renounce, So strang he lusts to prey on both at once? |