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

from it;
But if Douay and Ghent, and Lille and Bruges
Had power, soon vengeance would be taken on it;
And this I pray of Him who judges all.
Hugh Capet was I called upon the earth;
From me were born the Louises and Philips,909
By whom in later days has France been governed.
I was the son of a Parisian butcher,910
What time the ancient kings had perished all,911
Excepting one, contrite in cloth of gray.
I found me grasping in my hands the rein
Of the realm’s government, and so great power
Of new acquest, and so with friends abounding,
That to the widowed diadem promoted
The head of mine own offspring was, from whom912
The consecrated bones of these began.
So long as the great dowry of Provence913
Out of my blood took not the sense of shame,
’Twas little worth, but still it did no harm.
Then it began with falsehood and with force
Its rapine; and thereafter, for amends,914
Took Ponthieu, Normandy, and Gascony.
Charles came to Italy, and for amends915
A victim made of Conradin, and then916
Thrust Thomas back to heaven, for amends.917
A time I see, not very distant now,
Which draweth forth another Charles from France,918
The better to make known both him and his.
Unarmed he goes, and only with the lance
That Judas jousted with; and that he thrusts919
So that he makes the paunch of Florence burst.920
He thence not land, but sin and infamy,921
Shall gain, so much more grievous to himself
As the more light such damage he accounts.
The other, now gone forth, ta’en in his ship,922
See I his daughter sell, and chaffer for her
As corsairs do with other female slaves.
What more, O Avarice, canst thou do to us,923
Since thou my blood so to thyself hast drawn,
It careth not for its own proper flesh?
That less may seem the future ill and past,
I see the flower-de-luce Alagna enter,924
And Christ in his own Vicar captive made.925
I see him yet another time derided;
I see renewed the vinegar and gall,
And between living thieves I see him slain.
I see the modern Pilate so relentless,926
This does not sate him, but without decretal
He to the temple bears his sordid sails!
When, O my Lord! shall I be joyful made
By looking on the vengeance which, concealed,
Makes sweet thine anger in thy secrecy?
What I was saying of that only bride927
Of the Holy Ghost, and which occasioned thee
To turn towards me for some commentary,
So long has been ordained to all our prayers
As the day lasts; but when the night comes on,
Contrary sound we take instead thereof.
At that time we repeat Pygmalion,928
Of whom a traitor, thief, and parricide
Made his insatiable desire of gold;
And the misery of avaricious Midas,929
That followed his inordinate demand,
At which forevermore one needs but laugh.
The foolish Achan each one then records,930
And how he stole the spoils; so that the wrath
Of Joshua still appears to sting him here.
Then we accuse Sapphira with her husband,931
We laud the hoof-beats Heliodorus had,932
And the whole mount in infamy encircles
Polymnestor who murdered Polydorus.933
Here finally is cried: ‘O Crassus, tell us,934
For thou dost know, what is the taste of gold?’
Sometimes we speak, one loud, another low,
According to desire of speech, that spurs us
To greater now and now to lesser pace.
But in the good that here by day is talked of,
Erewhile alone I was not; yet near by935
No other person lifted up his voice.”
From him already we departed were,
And made endeavor to o’ercome the road
As much as was permitted to our power,
When I perceived, like something that is falling,
The mountain tremble, whence a chill seized on me,936
As seizes him who to his death is going.
Certes so violently shook not Delos,937
Before Latona made her nest therein
To give birth to the two eyes of the heaven.
Then upon all sides there began a cry,
Such that the Master drew himself towards me,
Saying, “Fear not, while I am guiding thee.”
“Gloria in excelsis Deo,” all938
Were saying, from what near I comprehended,
Where it was possible to hear the cry.
We paused immovable and in suspense,
Even as the shepherds who first heard that song,939
Until the trembling ceased, and it was finished.
Then we resumed again our holy path,
Watching the shades that lay upon the ground,
Already turned to their accustomed plaint.
No ignorance ever with so great a strife
Had rendered me importunate to know,
If erreth not in this my memory,
As meditating then I seemed to have;
Nor out of haste to question did I dare,
Nor of myself I there could aught perceive;
So I went onward timorous and thoughtful. Canto XXI

The poet Statius.

The natural thirst, that ne’er is satisfied940
Excepting with the water for whose grace
The woman of Samaria besought,941
Put me in travail, and haste goaded me
Along the encumbered path behind my Leader,
And I was pitying that righteous vengeance;
And lo! in the same manner as Luke writeth942
That Christ appeared to two upon the way
From the sepulchral cave already risen,
A shade appeared to us, and came behind us,
Down gazing on the prostrate multitude,
Nor were we ware of it, until it spake,
Saying, “My brothers, may God give you peace!”
We turned us suddenly, and Virgilius rendered
To him the countersign thereto conforming.943
Thereon began