I saw that army of the gentle-born silently thereafter gazing upward as if in expectation, pallid and humble; and I saw issuing from on high and descending two angels, with two fiery swords truncated and deprived of their points. Green as leaflets just now born were their garments, which, beaten and blown by their green pinions, they trailed behind. One came to stand a little above us, and the other descended on the opposite bank, so that the people were contained between them. I clearly discerned in them their blond heads, but on their faces the eye was dazzled, as a faculty which is confounded by excess. "Both come from the bosom of Mary," said Sordello, "for guard of the valley, because of the serpent that will come straightway." Whereat I, who knew not by what path, turned me round, and all chilled drew me close to the trusty shoulders.

And Sordello again, "Now let us go down into the valley among the great shades, and we will speak to them; well pleasing will it be to them to see you." Only three steps I think I had descended and I was below; and I saw one who was gazing only at me as if he wished to know me. It was now the time when the air was darkening, but not so that between his eyes and mine it did not reveal that which it locked up before.[1] Towards me he moved, and I moved towards him. Gentle Judge Nino,[2] how much it pleased me when I saw that thou wast not among the d.a.m.ned! No fair salutation was silent between us; then he asked, "How long is it since thou camest to the foot of the mountain across the far waters?"

[1] It was not yet so dark that recognition of one near at hand was difficult, though at a distance it had been impossible.

[2] Nino (Ugolino) de' Visconti of Pisa was the grandson of Count Ugolino, and as the leader of the Pisan Guelphs became his bitter opponent. Sardinia was under the dominion of Pisa, and was divided into four districts, each of which was governed by one of the Pisan n.o.bles, under the t.i.tle of Judge. Nino had held the judicature of Gallura, where Frate Gomita (see h.e.l.l, Canto XXII.) had been his vicar. Nino died in 1296.

"Oh," said I to him, "from within the dismal places I came this morning, and I am in the first life, albeit in going thus, I may gain the other." And when my answer was heard, Sordello[1] and he drew themselves back like folk suddenly bewildered, the one to Virgil, and the other turned to one who was seated there, crying, "Up, Corrado,[2] come to see what G.o.d through grace hath willed."

Then, turning to me, "By that singular grat.i.tude thou owest unto Him who so hides His own first wherefore[3] that there is no ford to it, when thou shalt be beyond the wide waves, say to my Joan, that for me she cry there where answer is given to the innocent.

I do not think her mother[4] loves me longer, since she changed her white wimples,[5] which she, wretched, needs must desire again. Through her easily enough is comprehended how long the fire of love lasts in woman, if eye or touch does not often rekindle it. The viper[6] which leads afield the Milanese will not make for her so fair a sepulture as the c.o.c.k of Gallura would have done." Thus he said, marked in his aspect with the stamp of that upright zeal which in due measure glows in the heart.

[1] The sun was already hidden behind the mountain when Virgil and Dante came upon Sordello. Sordello had not therefore seen that Dante cast a shadow, and being absorbed in discourse with Virgil had not observed that Dante breathed as a living man.

[2] Corrado, of the great Guelph family of the Malaspina, lords of the Lunigiana, a wide district between Genoa and Pisa.

[3] The reason of that which He wills.

[4] Her mother was Beatrice d' Este, who, in 1300, married Galeazzo de' Visconti of Milan.

[5] The white veil or wimple and black garments were worn by widows. The prophecy that she must needs wish for her white wimple again seems merely to rest on Nino's disapproval of her second marriage.

[6] The viper was the cognizance of the Visconti of Milan.

My greedy eyes were going ever to the sky, ever there where the stars are slowest, even as a wheel nearest the axle. And my Leader, "Son, at what lookest thou up there?" And I to him, "At those three torches with which the pole on this side is all aflame." [1] And he to me, "The four bright stars which thou sawest this morning are low on the other side, and these are risen where those were."

[1] These three stars are supposed to symbolize the theological virtues, -- faith. hope, and charity, whose light shines when the four virtues of active life grow dim in night.

As he was speaking, lo! Sordello drew him to himself, saying, "See there our adversary," and pointed his finger that he should look thither. At that part where the little valley has no barrier was a snake, perhaps such as gave to Eve the bitter food. Through the gra.s.s and the flowers came the evil trail, turning from time to time its head to its back, licking like a beast that sleeks itself. I did not see, and therefore cannot tell how the celestial falcons moved, but I saw well both one and the other in motion. Hearing the air cleft by their green wings the serpent fled, and the angels wheeled about, up to their stations flying back alike.

The shade which had drawn close to the Judge when he exclaimed, through all that a.s.sault had not for a moment loosed its gaze from me. "So may the light that leadeth thee on high find in thine own free-will so much wax as is needed up to the enamelled summit,"[1] it began, "if thou knowest true news of Valdimacra[2]

or of the neighboring region, tell it to me, for formerly I was great there. I was called Corrado Malaspina; I am not the ancient,[3] but from him I am descended; to mine own I bore the love which here is refined." "Oh," said I to him, "through your lands I have never been, but where doth man dwell in all Europe that they are not renowned? The fame that honoreth your house proclaims its lords, proclaims its district, so that he knows of them who never yet was there; and I swear to you, so may I go above, that your honored race doth not despoil itself of the praise of the purse and of the sword. Custom and nature so privilege it that though the guilty head turn the world awry, alone it goes right and scorns the evil road."[4] And he, "Now go, for the sun shall not lie seven times in the bed that the Ram covers and bestrides with all four feet,[5] before this courteous opinion will be nailed in the middle of thy head with greater nails than the speech of another, if course of judgment be not arrested."

[1] So may illuminating grace find the disposition in thee requisite for the support of its light, until thou shalt arrive at the summit of the Mountain, the earthly Paradise enamelled with perpetual flowers.

[2] A part of the Lunigiana.

[3] The old Corrado Malaspina was the husband of Constance, the sister of King Manfred. He died about the middle of the thirteenth century. The second Corrado was his grandson.

[4] This magnificent eulogy of the land and the family of Malaspina is Dante's return for the hospitality which, in 1306, he received from the Marquis Moroello and other members of the house.

[5] Seven years shall not pa.s.s, the sun being at this time in the sign of the Ram.

CANTO IX. Slumber and Dream of Dante.--The Eagle.--Lucia.--The Gate of Purgatory.--The Angelic Gatekeeper.--Seven P's inscribed on Dante's Forehead.--Entrance to the First Ledge.

The concubine of old t.i.thonus was now gleaming white on the balcony of the orient, forth from the arms of her sweet friend; her forehead was lucent with gems set in the shape of the cold animal that strikes people with its tail.[1] And in the place where we were the night had taken two of the steps with which she ascends, and the third was already bending down its wings, when I, who had somewhat of Adam with me, overcome by sleep, reclined upon the gra.s.s, there where all five of us were seated.

[1] By the concubine of old t.i.thonus, Dante seems to have intended the lunar Aurora, in distinction from the proper wife of t.i.thonus, Aurora, who precedes the rising Sun, and the meaning of these verses is that " the Aurora before moonrise was lighting up the eastern sky, the brilliant stars of the sign Scorpio were on the horizon, and, finally, it was shortly after 8.30 P.M."

(Moore.) "The steps with which the night ascends" are the six hours of the first half of the night, from 6 P.M. to midnight.

At the hour near the morning when the little swallow begins her sad lays,[1] perchance in memory of her former woes, and when our mind, more a wanderer from the flesh and less captive to the thought, is in its visions almost divine,[2] in dream it seemed to me that I saw poised in the sky an eagle with feathers of gold, with wings widespread, and intent to stoop. And it seemed to me that I was there[3] where his own people were abandoned by Ganymede, when he was rapt to the supreme consistory. In myself I thought, "Perhaps this bird strikes only here through wont, and perhaps from other place disdains to carry anyone upward in his feet." Then it seemed to me that, having wheeled a little, it descended terrible as a thunderbolt, and s.n.a.t.c.hed me upwards far as the fire.[4] There it seemed that it and I burned, and the imagined fire so scorched that of necessity the sleep was broken.

[1] The allusion is to the tragic story of Progne and Philomela, turned the one into a swallow, the other into a nightingale.

Dante found the tale in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book vi.

[2] Dante pa.s.ses three nights in Purgatory, and each night his sleep is terminated by a dream towards the hour of dawn, the time when, according to the belief of cla.s.sical antiquity, the visions of dreams are symbolic and prophetic. (Moore.)

[3] Mt. Ida.

[4] The sphere of fire by which, according to the mediaeval cosmography, the sphere of the air was surrounded.

Not otherwise Achilles shook himself,--turning around his awakened eyes, and not knowing where he was, when his mother from Chiron to Scyros stole him away, sleeping in her arms, thither whence afterwards the Greeks withdrew him,[1]--than I started, as from my face sleep fled away; and I became pale, even as a man frightened turns to ice. At my side was my Comforter only, and the sun was now more than two hours high,[2] and my face was turned toward the sea. "Have no fear," said my Lord; "be rea.s.sured, for we are at a good point; restrain not, but increase all thy force. Thou art now arrived at Purgatory; see there the cliff that closes it around; see the entrance, there where it appears divided. A while ago in the dawn that precedes the day, when thy soul was sleeping within thee, upon the flowers wherewith the place down yonder is adorned, came a lady, and said, "I am Lucia; let me take this one who is sleeping; thus will I a.s.sist him along his way.' Sordello remained, and the other gentle forms: she took thee, and when the day was bright, she came upward, and I along her footprints. Here she laid thee down: and first her beautiful eyes showed me that open entrance; then she and slumber went away together." Like a man that in perplexity is rea.s.sured, and that alters his fear to confidence after the truth is disclosed to him, did I change; and when my Leader saw me without solicitude, up along the cliff he moved on, and I behind, toward the height.

[1] Statius, in the first book of the Achilleid, tells how Thetis, to prevent Achilles from going to the siege of Troy, bore him sleeping away from his instructor, the centaur Chiron, and carried him to the court of King Lycomedes, on the Island of Scyros, where, though concealed in women's garments, Ulysses and Diomed discovered him. Statius relates how wonderstruck Achilles was when on awaking he found himself at Scyros: Quae loca? qui fluctus? ubi Pelion? onmia versa Atque ignota videt, dubitatque agnoscere matrem--249-50.

[2] The morning of Easter Monday.

[3] Lucia seems to be here the symbol of a.s.sisting grace, the gratia operans of the school-men. It was she who was called upon by the Virgin (h.e.l.l, Canto II.) to aid Dante when he was astray in the wood, and who had moved Beatrice to go to his succor.

Reader, thou seest well how I exalt my theme, and therefore marvel not if with more art I reenforce it.[1]

[1] These words may be intended to call attention to the doctrine which underlies the imagery of the verse.

The entrance within the gate of Purgatory is the a.s.surance of justification, which is the change of the soul from a state of sin to a state of justice or righteousness. Justification itself consists, according to St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, Prima Secundae, quaest. cxiii. art. 6 and 8), of four parts: first, the infusion of grace; second, the turning of the free will to G.o.d through faith; third, the turning of the free will against sin; fourth, the remission of sin. It must be accompanied by the sacrament of penance, which consists of contrition, confession, and satisfaction by works of righteousness.

Outside the gate of Purgatory justification cannot be complete.

The souls in the Ante-Purgatory typify those who have entered on the way towards justification, but have not yet attained it. They undergo a period of mortification to sin, of deliberation, as St.

Thomas Aquinas says: "Contingit autem quandoque quod praecedit aliqua deliberatio quae non est do substantia justificationis sed via in justificationem." Summa Theol., l. c. art. 7.

We drew near to it, and reached such place that there, where at first there seemed to me a rift, like a cleft which divides a wall, I saw a gate, and three steps beneath for going to it of divers colors, and a gatekeeper who as yet said not a word. And as I opened my eye there more and more, I saw him sitting on the upper step, such in his face that I endured it not.[1] And he had in his hand a naked sword, which so reflected the rays toward us that I often raised my sight in vain. "Tell it from there, what would ye?" began he to say; "where is the guide? Beware lest the coming up be harmful to you." [2] "A lady from Heaven with these things acquainted," replied my Master to him, "only just now said to us, 'Go thither, here is the gate.'" "And may she speed your progress in good," began again the courteous gatekeeper, "come forward then unto our steps."

[1] The angel at the gate appears to be the type of the priest who administers absolution.

[2] Unless grace has been infused into the heart it is a sin to present one's self as ready for the sacrament.

Thither we came to the first great stair; it was of white marble so polished and smooth that I mirrored myself in it as I appear.

The second, of deeper hue than perse, was of a rough and scorched stone, cracked lengthwise and athwart. The third, which above lies ma.s.sy, seemed to me of porphyry as flaming red as blood that spirts forth from a vein. Upon this the Angel of G.o.d held both his feet, seated upon the threshold that seemed to me stone of adamant.[1] Up over the three steps my Leader drew me with good will, saying, "Beg humbly that he undo the lock." Devoutly I threw myself at the holy feet; I besought for mercy's sake that he would open for me; but first upon my breast I struck three times.[2] Seven P's upon my forehead he inscribed with the point of his sword,[3] and "See that thou wash these wounds when thou art within," he said.