NOTES.

Page 208. (Line 1.) See note to last canto, line 140. (7.) Beatrice tells him that the shout he heard was the effect of righteous zeal: "As if she had said, you are in a place where there is nothing to be afraid of, but all is full of safety and holiness."-Ottimo Commento. (10.) See last canto, line 58.

Page 209. (Line 13.) Beatrice adds, that if Dante had understood the words uttered in the shout, he would have foreknown the vengeance impending upon the Priests. (28.) St. Benedict.

Page 210. (Line 37. He founded a monastery on the side of the Cassine mount, and built an altar there to the true God, in place of an oracle of Apollo. (49.) There were two celebrated Devotees of the name of Maccarius. Romoaldo was a native of Ravenna, and founded the order of Camaldoli, in the tenth century.

Page 211. (Line 70.) See note to xxi. 28. (82.) See Inf. xi. 109. St. Benedict inveighs against the clergy for giving to relatives that which was entrusted to them for the poor.

Page 212. (Line 91.) Pietro Damiano is here spoken of. See note, canto xxi. 121. (93.) The change from white to dark is thus explained: "Reflect upon the pride, the wealth, and the arrogance to which the clergy are arrived, and you will see that the Christian virtues are changed into the opposite vices."-Costa. (94.) "The sea saw it and fled; Jordan was driven back."-Psalm. cxiv. i.e. "If great miracles were per. formed in the former case, less miracles will not be denied in the present. God will preserve his saints against a corrupt and tyrannical priesthood."

Page 213. (Line 112.) The poet apostrophizes the Gemini, under whose influence he supposed himself born, when the sun was in that constellation. (123.) i.e. "The attempt to describe the empyrean, and the Holy Trinity."-Lombardi. (125.) By the "last abode of bliss" is meant the sight of God.

Page 214. (Line 135.) “This is in order to point out the necessity of detaching oneself from earthly things in order to enjoy the delights of Paradise.”—Lombardi. "Returning to the humble concerns of the present world, and all his engagements among perishing things, man feels their unsatisfying character, and learns to pass through them under the habitual impression that this is not his rest, nor here his portion." Abercrombie. Harmony of Christian Faith and Practice. Dante seems to have had Boethius in view :

"Quicunque solam, mente præcipiti, petit,
Summumque credit, gloriam;

Latè patentes ætheris cernat plagas,

Arctumque terrarum situm."

(141.) See canto ii, 60. (142.) His vision was so sharpened that he was able to look upon the Sun,-Hyperion being fabled to be the father of the Sun. Maia and Dione were respectively the mothers] of Mercury and Venus, and their names are here used as synonymous for those planets. (145.) Jupiter is described as betwixt Mars and Saturn, his son and father.

CANTO XXIII.

ARGUMENT.

DANTE beholds the triumph of Christ, attended by an infinite number of Saints.

E'EN as the bird that resting in the nest

Of her sweet brood, the sheltering boughs among, While all things are enwrapt in night's dark vest,— Now eager to behold the looks she loves,

And to find food for her impatient young
(Whence labour grateful to a mother proves)
Forestals the time, high perch'd upon the spray,
And with impassion'd zeal the sun expecting,
Anxiously waiteth the first break of day;
Thus stood my Lady with a watchful gaze

Upright her eyes unto that part directing
Where Phoebus his impetuous steeds delays.

7

So that I, seeing her thus fondly bent,

Was like to one, who with desiring eye

Hopes somewhat new, and rests in hope content. But little was the interval that came

Betwixt the expectance and reality,

Since heaven anon was wrapt in brighter flame:
And Beatrice exclaim'd: "Behold the host

Of Christ triumphant; and the plenteous store
Of fruit which these celestial circles boast."
All glowing unto me appear'd her face;

And eyes so full of joyousness she wore,

Words would in vain their heavenly lustre trace.

As when the moon is at the full and clear,

Diana smiles the eternal Nymphs among,

13

19

25

Who paint the heavens through every part-so here I saw high o'er ten thousand Lamps divine

A single Sun, that lit up all the throng,

As doth our sun the stars that round him shine:
And with such clearness through the living light

Shone the translucent Substance on mine eyes,
That they refused to endure the dazzling sight.
O Beatrice, most sweet and precious guide!
Then she "The blaze that quells thy faculties
Glows with a virtue nothing can abide.

31

Here is the Wisdom, here the Power, that bade
A way be open'd 'twixt the earth and heaven,-
So long to many an anxious prayer delay'd."
As bursts on high, to revel in the skies,

Fire from thick cloud, by force ethereal riven ;
And falls to earth, though nature prompt to rise;
So 'mid the dainties of that heavenly board

My mind expanding wander'd far astray, And what then happen'd cannot now record. "Open thine eyes, and view me :-thou hast seen Objects so brilliant that thine eyesight may Sustain my smile, which else too bright had been."

I was like one who doth in part retain

The impression of a vision pass'd away,
And tries to bring it to his mind in vain,
When I this proffer heard, so graciously
Bestow'd, that never to my dying day
The sound shall vanish from my memory.
If now those tongues were all to lend their aid,
That Polyhymnia and the sister Nine

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43

49

55

Rich through the sweetness of their milk have made, Not to the thousandth part would be portray'd

The sacred beauty of that smile divine

Which with delight the holy look array'd: