The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) 📕

seen,
For I obtained them in the realms above;
And ever must their essence rest unknown,
Unless through consciousness of him in whom
Love shall abide through pleasure of another.
These words a youthful angel bore inscribed
Upon her brow, whose vision we beheld;
And I, who to find safety gazed on her,
A risk incur that it may cost my life;
For I received a wound so deep and wide
From one I saw entrenched within her eyes,
That still I weep, nor peace I since have known.”

Others think the allusion is general. The Ottimo says:⁠—

“Neither that young woman, whom in his ‘Rime’ he called Pargoletta, nor that Lisetta, nor that other mountain maiden, nor this one, nor that other.”

He might have added the lady of Bologna, of whom Dante sings in one of his sonnets:⁠—

“And I may say
That in an evil hour I saw Bologna,
And that fair lady whom I looked upon.”

Buti gives a different interpretation of the word pargoletta, making it the same as pargultà or pargolezza, “childishness or indiscretion of youth.”

In all this unnecessary confusion one thing is quite evident. As Beatrice is speaking of the past, she could not possibly allude to Gentucca, who is spoken of as one who would make Lucca pleasant to Dante at some future time:⁠—

“ ‘A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,’
Began he, ‘who to thee shall pleasant make
My city, howsoever men may blame it.’ ”

Upon the whole, the interpretation of the Ottimo is the most satisfactory, or at all events the least open to objection. ↩

Proverbs 1:17:⁠—

“Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.”

↩

Iarbas, king of Gaetulia, from whom Dido bought the land for building Carthage. ↩

The angels described in Canto XXX 20, as

“Scattering flowers above and round about.”

↩

Matilda, described in Canto XXVIII 40:⁠—

“A lady all alone, who went along
Singing and culling floweret after floweret,
With which her pathway was all painted over.”

↩

Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, the river without a bridge:⁠—

“Now I further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river; but there was no bridge to go over: the river was very deep. At the sight therefore of this river, the pilgrims were much stunned; but the men that went with them said, ‘You must go through, or you cannot come at the gate.’⁠ ⁠…

“They then addressed themselves to the water, and, entering. Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, ‘I sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head, all his waves go over me. Selah.’⁠ ⁠…

“Now upon the bank of the river, on the other side, they saw the two shining men again, who there waited for them. Wherefore being come out of the river, they saluted them, saying, ‘We are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those that shall be heirs of salvation.’ ”

↩

Psalms 51:7:⁠—

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”

↩

The four attendant Nymphs on the left of the triumphal chariot. See Canto XXIX 130:⁠—

“Upon the left hand four made holiday
Vested in purple.”

↩

See Note 537. ↩

These four Cardinal Virtues lead to Divine Wisdom, but the three Evangelical Virtues quicken the sight to penetrate more deeply into it. ↩

Standing upon the chariot still; she does not alight till line 36 of the next canto. ↩

The color of Beatrice’s eyes has not been passed over in silence by the commentators. Lani, in his “Annotazioni,” says:⁠—

“They were of a greenish blue, like the color of the sea.”

Mechior Messirini, who thought he had discovered a portrait of Beatrice as old as the fourteenth century, affirms that she had “splendid brown eyes.” Dante here calls them emeralds; upon which the Ottimo comments thus:⁠—

“Dante very happily introduces this precious stone, considering its properties, and considering that griffins watch over emeralds. The emerald is the prince of all green stones; no gem nor herb has greater greenness; it reflects an image like a mirror; increases wealth; is useful in litigation and to orators; is good for convulsions and epilepsy; preserves and strengthens the sight; restrains lust; restores memory; is powerful against phantoms and demons; calms tempests; stanches blood, and is useful to soothsayers.”

The beauty of green eyes, ojuelos verdes, is extolled by Spanish poets; and is not left unsung by poets of other countries. Lycophron in his “tenebrous poem” of “Cassandra,” says of Achilles:⁠—

“Lo! the warlike eagle come,
Green of eye, and black of plume.”

And in one of the old French Mysteries, Hist. Théat. Franç., I 176, Joseph describes the child Jesus as having

“Les yeulx vers, la chair blanche et tendre
Les cheveulx blonds.”

↩

Monster is here used in the sense of marvel or prodigy. ↩

Now as an eagle, now as a lion. The two natures, divine and human, of Christ are reflected in Theology, or Divine Wisdom. Didron, who thinks the Griffin a symbol of the Pope, applies this to his spiritual and temporal power:⁠—

“As priest he is the eagle floating in the air; as king he is a lion walking on the earth.”

↩

The Italian Caribo, like the English Carol or Roundelay, is both song and dance. Some editions read in this line “singing,” instead of “dancing.” ↩

A mystical canto, in which is described the tree of the forbidden fruit, and other wonderful and mysterious things. ↩

Beatrice had been dead ten years. ↩

Goethe, Hermann and Dorothea, Cochrane’s Tr., p. 103:⁠—

“Ev’n as the wanderer,