Chapter XIII: Canto I: In a lyrical prologue of stately music (Par. i. 1-36),

the poet sings of the glory of the First Mover, and prays for light and inspiration to complete this third most arduous portion of his divine poem. Then, in the noblest season of the year and noblest hour of the day, as Beatrice gazes upon the sun and Dante upon her, his mind becomes godlike, and he ascends to Heaven swifter than lightning. To explain his ascent, Beatrice discourses upon the form and order of God’s visible image, the Universe; and on His Eternal Law, the sovereign plan of government existing in the Divine Mind, to which all movements and actions of nature are subject (_ibid._ 103-141). To all created things God has given an instinct, or principle of inclination, by which, in different ways according to their nature, He draws them all back to Himself over the great sea of being. Rational beings alone can resist the order of the Universe and defeat the Eternal Law by sin, which is expiated by temporary or eternal suffering, as Dante has seen in the lower realms; but the purified soul, in accordance with this order and law, inevitably mounts up to find its rest in union with the First Cause. It is the doctrine of spiritual gravitation (derived from St. Augustine), according to which the soul is moved by love as bodies are by their weight, and all things find their rest in order.

THE HEAVEN OF THE MOON.--They are received into the eternal pearl of the Moon (_Par._ ii.); where Beatrice first confutes Dante’s former theory concerning the luminous substance of the celestial bodies, and, by explaining how everything in the visible world depends upon the angelic movers of the sphere, gives a mystical interpretation of a natural phenomenon, on this first step of his ascent to the suprasensible. Within this eternal pearl appear faint but divinely beautiful forms of women; the souls of those who had yielded to violence and broken their solemn vow (_Par._ iii.). Piccarda Donati, sister of Corso and Forese, sets forth the perfection of celestial charity, where all wills are made absolutely one with the will of God, who has awarded different degrees or mansions of beatitude to all His chosen ones:

E la sua volontade è nostra pace,

“And His will is our peace.”[38] Transfigured now with ineffable joy, Piccarda tells the pathetic story of her frustrated life on earth; and points out to Dante the Empress Constance, mother of Frederick II., torn, like her, from the convent’s shelter. Beatrice explains to the poet the place of all the saints in the Empyrean--the “heaven of humility where Mary is,” as Dante had sung long before of Beatrice herself in the _Vita Nuova_--and the reason of this temporary apparition in the moon (_Par._ iv.). The other questions solved in this sphere are all connected with Free Will. Rectitude of will is necessary for the gaining of Paradise, and nothing whatever can take away that freedom of the will. “As regards the proper act of the will, no violence can be done to the will”; and, since Piccarda and Constance yielded through fear of greater evil, they fell voluntarily from the state of perfection to which they were called. Freedom of the will is God’s greatest gift to man (_Par._ v. 19-24); hence the sanctity of an accepted vow, wherein this supreme gift is offered to God as victim, although Holy Church has power to commute, save, apparently, in the case of solemn vows of perpetual chastity. It will be observed that this heaven is moved by the Angels, who are severally assigned to individuals as guardians, and who are the bearers of tidings of God’s bounty to men; and, corresponding to this, the questions solved relate to the salvation and guidance of individual souls, and to the great gift of liberty, whereby God’s bounty is specially shown.

THE HEAVEN OF MERCURY.--In the second sphere, the heaven of Mercury, appear the souls of those who did great things for humanity or for special nations, but who were actuated by mixed motives; personal ambition, desire of fame and honour, made “the rays of true love mount upwards less vividly” (_Par._ vi. 117); and they have thus the next lowest mansion of beatitude to the spirits that appeared in the inconstant Moon. The Emperor Justinian recites the proud history of the Roman Eagle, and shows how Divine Providence established the sway of the Roman people over all the earth, made the Eagle the instrument of the Atonement offered by Christ for all mankind, the avenger of His death, the protector of His Church. As the monarch who reformed and codified Roman Law, of which he is for Dante the personification, and who restored Italy to the Empire (the work which the _Veltro_ is to renew under altered conditions of Christendom), Justinian lifts the imperial ideal far above the factious politics of the Middle Ages, condemning Guelfs and Ghibellines alike as traitors and sowers of discord. Here, too, is Romeo of Villanova, who did in a lesser degree for Provence what Justinian did for the Empire, thus appearing with him in the sphere that is moved by the Archangels, whose function is to guide and protect particular nations. The figure of Romeo--unjustly accused of corrupt practices in office, supporting with magnanimous heart the poverty and humiliations of voluntary exile--is perhaps an unconscious portrait of Dante himself. Even as the Archangels announce messages of special import and sacredness, as Gabriel did to Mary, so Beatrice explains to Dante the mystery of man’s redemption by the Incarnation and Crucifixion, the supremest work at once of Divine Justice and Divine Mercy (_Par._ vii.), and touches somewhat upon the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body.

THE HEAVEN OF VENUS.--The third heaven, the sphere of Venus, is moved by the celestial Principalities, whose office is to influence earthly rulers to imitate the principality of God, by uniting love with their lordship. They are those, according to St. Bernard, “by whose management and wisdom all principality on earth is set up, ruled, limited, transferred, diminished, and changed.” Into this sphere descend the souls of purified lovers, brilliant lights moving circle-wise and hidden in the rays of their own joy. Carlo Martello, son of Charles II. of Naples, and son-in-law of Rudolph of Hapsburg, who, by reason of his marriage with Clemenza, might have healed the feuds of Guelfs and Ghibellines, pictures the realms over which he should have ruled, denounces the misgovernment of his own house, and explains the influence of the celestial bodies for the constitution of society and the government of states (_Par._ viii.). Cunizza da Romano, the famous sister of Ezzelino, rebukes the anarchy of the March of Treviso; a “modern child of Venus,” she here appears as the type of a perfect penitent (_Par._ ix.). Like her, Folco of Marseilles, poet then prelate, but here recorded only as troubadour, remembers the love sins of his youth, not with sorrow, but with gratitude to the Divine Mercy and wonder at the mysteries of Providence. Rahab of Jericho, the highest spirit of this sphere, is a type of the Church, saved by Christ’s blood from the ruin of the world; and, with a fine thrust at the loveless avarice of the Pope and his cardinals, Dante passes with Beatrice beyond the shadow of the earth.

THE HEAVEN OF THE SUN.--To mark this higher grade of bliss and knowledge, Dante pauses on his entrance into the fourth sphere, the heaven of the Sun, to sing again of the Creation, the work of the Blessed Trinity, and the order of the Universe, the visible expression of the perfection of Divine art (_Par._ x. 1-21). The Sun is ruled by the celestial Powers, the angelic order that represents the Divine majesty and power, combats the powers of darkness, and stays diseases. Here, in two garlands of celestial lights surrounding Dante and Beatrice, appear the glorious souls of twenty-four teachers and doctors, who illuminated the world by example and doctrine; the twofold work of co-operation with the celestial Powers, which is seen in its supereminent degree in the lives of St. Francis and St. Dominic, the champions who led the armies of Christ against the powers of darkness and healed the spiritual diseases of the Christian world. St. Thomas Aquinas, the great light of the Dominicans, after naming the other eleven spirits of his circle (Albertus Magnus, Gratian, Peter Lombard, Solomon, Dionysius, Orosius, Boëthius, Isidore, Bede, Richard of St. Victor, and Siger), sings the glorious panegyric of St. Francis, the seraphic bridegroom of Poverty, laments the backsliding of the Dominicans (_Par._ xi.). St. Bonaventura, once minister-general of the Franciscans, extols the marvellous life of St. Dominic, the cherubical lover of Faith, the great paladin in Holy Church’s victorious battle where St. Francis bore the standard of the Crucified (_Par._ xii.). Lamenting the degenerate state of the Franciscans, he names the eleven spirits that accompany him; two of the followers of St. Francis, Illuminato and Agostino; Hugh of St. Victor; Peter Comestor, Peter of Spain (the logician whose elevation to the papacy as John XXI. may be ignored in Paradise), Nathan, Chrysostom, St. Anselm, Aelius Donatus (the Latin grammarian), Rabanus Maurus, and the Calabrian abbot Joachim. Lovers of poverty, rebukers of corruption, historians, mystics, theologians, writers of humble text-books are here associated in the same glory, as servants of truth in the same warfare against the powers of darkness. They illustrate what St. Bonaventura calls the broadness of the illuminative way. Each group closes with a spirit whose orthodoxy had been at least questioned. Siger of Brabant, the champion of Averroism at the university of Paris, had “syllogised invidious truths,” and met with a violent death at the Papal Court at Orvieto about 1284. Joachim of Flora, “endowed with prophetic spirit,” had foretold the advent of the epoch of the Holy Ghost, in which the Everlasting Gospel, the spiritual interpretation of the Gospel of Christ, would leave no place for disciplinary institutions; his later followers among the Franciscans had been condemned at the Council of Anagni in 1256.

St. Thomas further explains to Dante the grades of perfection in God’s creatures, from the Angels downwards; whereby His Divine light is more or less imperfectly reflected, and the likeness of the Divine ideas more or less imperfectly expressed--perfectly only when the Trinity creates immediately, as in the case of Adam and the humanity of Christ (_Par._ xiii.). Solomon, whose peerless wisdom St. Thomas had explained as “royal prudence,” instructs Dante concerning the splendour of the body after the resurrection, when human personality will be completed and the perfection of beatitude fulfilled (_Par._ xiv.). In a mysteriously beautiful apparition of what seems to be another garland of spirits in the Sun, this vision of the fourth heaven closes; and Beatrice and her lover are “translated to more lofty salvation” in the glowing red of Mars.

THE HEAVEN OF MARS.--The fifth heaven, the sphere of Mars, is ruled by the angelic Virtues. This is the order which images the Divine strength and fortitude; their name, according to Dionysius, signifies “a certain valiant and unconquerable virility.” According to St. Bernard, they are those “by whose command or work signs and prodigies are wrought among the elements, for the admonition of mortals,” and it is through them that the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven as foretold in the Gospel.[39] Therefore, in Mars, Dante beholds a great image of the Crucified, blood-red, formed by stars which are the souls of the warrior saints, whom the Virtues impressed at their birth with the influence of the planet (_Par._ xvii. 76-78), to be strongly and manfully valiant, and to do notable things on earth (_ibid._ 92, 93), even as the Virtues, according to St. Bernard, work signs and prodigies among the elements.

Cacciaguida passes from the right arm of the Cross to greet his descendant, like Anchises to Aeneas in Elysium. In his long discourse with the poet (_Par._ xv. and xvi.) we dimly discern a splendidly ideal picture of a free Italian commune of the twelfth century, before what Dante regards as the corrupting influence of wealth and illegitimate extension of its boundaries had fallen upon it, and before the hostility of the Church to the Empire, with the resulting confusion of persons in the city, had involved the Florentines in the feuds of Guelfs and Ghibellines. Then, having bitterly lamented the decay of the old Florentine families and the corruption of their successors, Cacciaguida co-operates with the Virtues by inspiring Dante with endurance and fortitude to suffer unjust exile and perform his life’s work (_Par._ xvii.). In the famous and most noble lines, to which reference has already been made in touching upon this epoch of Dante’s life, Cacciaguida foretells the poet’s banishment, the calumnies of his enemies, his sufferings in exile, his forming a party to himself, the future greatness of Can Grande, Dante’s own certainty of eternal fame. And let him be no timid friend to truth, but make manifest his whole vision, and especially assail corruption in highest places (_cf. Mon._ iii. 1). It is Dante’s apologia for his own life, first as citizen, then as poet. The keynote of the closing years of his life is struck at the opening of Canto xviii.: “And that Lady who was leading me to God said: ‘Change thy thought; think that I am near to Him who unburdens every wrong.’” Gazing upon her, his affection “was free from every other desire.” Then, with a charge of celestial chivalry across the sky, this vision of warriors closes; Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus, Charlemagne and Orlando, William of Orange still with Renoardo, Godfrey de Bouillon and Robert Guiscard, flash through the Cross, and are rejoined by Cacciaguida in their motion and their song.

THE HEAVEN OF JUPITER.--The silvery white sphere of Jupiter, the sixth heaven, is ruled by the Dominations, the angelic order which images the archetypal dominion in God as the source of true dominion. “We must consider in the Dominations,” writes St. Bernard, “how great is the majesty of the Lord, at whose bidding empire is established, and of whose empire universality and eternity are the bounds.” This, then, is the sphere of ideal government, the heaven of the planet that effectuates justice upon earth (_Par._ xviii. 115-117). The souls of faithful and just rulers appear as golden lights, singing and flying like celestial birds. They first form the text, _Diligite iustitiam que iudicatis terram_, “Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth” (_Wisdom_, i. 1, Vulgate), tracing successively the letters until they rest in the final golden M, the initial letter of Monarchy or Empire, under which alone can justice be paramount on earth, and then, with further transformations, become the celestial Eagle (_Par._ xviii. 100-114). This is the “sign which made the Romans reverend in the world” (xix. 101); no emblem of material conquest, but the image of the sempiternal justice of the Primal Will, the type of dominion on earth ordained by God. It is the allegorical representation of the doctrines of the _Monarchia_. And, since justice is obscured and good government rendered abortive by the simony of the pastors of the Church, which leads them to oppose the Empire, Dante has a bitter word in season for the reigning pontiff, John XXII (_Par._ xviii. 130-136).

In the perfect concord of its component spirits the Eagle, speaking with one voice, discourses upon the immutability and absolute justice of the Divine Will, which is inscrutable and incomprehensible to mortals (_Par._ xix.). Having rebuked the wickedness of all the kings and princes then reigning, from the Emperor-elect (Albert of Austria in 1300) to the King of Cyprus, it sets forth in contrast to them the example of just and righteous monarchs and rulers of olden time, the six noblest of whom now form its eye--David, Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, the Norman William II. of Sicily, and Rhipeus the Trojan (_Par._ xx.). Three exquisite lines (73-75)--introduced as a mere image--render the flight and song of the skylark with a beauty and fidelity to nature which even Shelley was not to surpass. The salvation of Trajan, through the prayers of St. Gregory, and Rhipeus, by internal inspiration concerning the Redeemer to come, unveils yet more wondrous mysteries in the treasury of Divine Justice, which suffers itself to be overcome by hope and love. Rhipeus, the justest among the Trojans and the strictest observer of right (Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 426, 427; _cf._ Acts x. 35), by his presence solves Dante’s doubt concerning the fate of the just heathen who die without baptism, and indicates that the race which gave the ancestors to the Roman people was not without Divine light.

HEAVEN OF SATURN.--The last of the seven heavens of the planets is the sphere of Saturn, over which the Thrones preside. According to Dionysius, the Thrones are associated with steadfastness, supermundane tendency towards and reception of the Divine. They represent, according to St. Bernard, supreme tranquillity, most calm serenity, peace which surpasses all understanding; and upon them God sits as judge (_cf. Par._ ix. 61, 62). In Saturn appear the contemplative saints, and the monks who kept firm and steadfast in the cloister. They pass up and down the celestial Ladder of Contemplation (_Par._ xxi. and xxii.), the stairway by which the soul mystically ascends to the consideration of the impenetrable mysteries of God which transcend all reason. In this high stage of progress towards the suprasensible Beatrice does not smile, for Dante’s human intellect could not yet sustain it, and the sweet symphonies of Paradise are silent. St. Peter Damian discourses upon the impenetrable mysteries of Divine predestination, and rebukes the vicious and luxurious lives of the great prelate and cardinals. St. Benedict describes the foundation of his own great order, and laments the shameless corruption of contemporary Benedictines. Thus in this, and, above all, in the cry like thunder which bursts from the contemplatives at the conclusion of Peter Damian’s words, threatening the Divine vengeance which is to fall upon the corrupt pastors of the Church, the saints of the seventh sphere unite themselves with the celestial Thrones, whose office is purification, and who are the mirrors of the terrible judgments of God.

THE GEMINI.--At Beatrice’s bidding, Dante follows the contemplatives up the celestial ladder, entering the Firmament at the sign of the Gemini or Twins, beneath which he was born (_Par._ xxii. 112-123). To his natal stars, and thus to the Cherubim with whose virtue they are animated, he appeals for power to complete the work for which they have inspired him. In a momentary vision, with the capacity of his inward soul enlarged, he looks down upon the whole Universe, and estimates aright the relative value of all things in heaven and earth, now that he is prepared to witness the true glories of Paradise.

THE STELLAR HEAVEN.--The Firmament or stellar heaven, the eighth sphere, is ruled by the Cherubim, who represent the Divine Wisdom; it is the celestial counterpart of the Garden of Eden. Here the fruit of man’s redemption is mystically shown in a vision of the triumph of Christ, the new Adam, surrounded by myriads of shining lights which draw their light from Him and represent the souls of the blessed whom He has sanctified (_Par._ xxiii.). After Christ has ascended from this celestial garden, where Mary is the rose and the Apostles the lilies, the Archangel Gabriel descends with ineffable melody and attends upon the new Eve, “the living garden of delight, wherein the condemnation was annulled and the tree of life planted,”[40] in her Assumption.

The four spheres of the higher planets had set forth a celestial realisation of the four cardinal virtues, Prudence, Fortitude, Justice, and Temperance, with perfect man according to the capacity of human nature; now, in this sphere of the Cherubim whose name indicates plenitude of the knowledge of God, Dante is examined upon the three theological virtues, which have God for their object as He transcends the knowledge of our reason, and which put man on the way to supernatural happiness. “If we would enter Paradise and the fruition of Truth,” writes St. Bonaventura, “the image of our mind must be clothed with the three theological virtues, whereby the mind is purified, illumined, and rendered perfect, and thus the image is reformed and made fit for the Jerusalem which is above.” Dante’s answers to St. Peter upon Faith (_Par._ xxiv.), to St. James upon Hope (_Par._ xxv.), to St. John upon Charity (_Par._ xxvi.), contain the essence of the devout wisdom of the schoolmen upon those three divine gifts, whereby man participates in the Deity, and “we ascend to philosophise in that celestial Athens, where Stoics and Peripatetics and Epicureans, by the art of the eternal Truth, harmoniously concur in one will” (_Conv._ iii. 14). For the object of Faith and Love alike Dante, even in Paradise, can appeal to the _Metaphysics_ of Aristotle (_Par._ xxiv. 130-132, xxvi. 37-39); and all the celestial music cannot quite drown the poet’s sigh for that fair Florentine sheepfold, from which he is still barred out, though Hell and Heaven have opened for him their eternal gates (_Par._ xxv. 1-12). Within a fourth light the soul of Adam appears, to instruct Dante upon the proper cause of his fall and upon his life in the Earthly Paradise, now that the poet has seen the triumph and ascent of the new Adam. Adam, in whom was directly infused all the light lawful to human nature to have (_Par._ xiii. 43), is the last soul that appears to Dante until the consummation of the vision in the Empyrean. On the close of his discourse, a hymn of glory to the Blessed Trinity resounds through Paradise, a laugh of the Universe in joy of the mystery of Redemption (_Par._ xxvii. 1-9). Then, while all Heaven blushes and there is a celestial eclipse as at the Crucifixion, St. Peter utters a terrible denunciation of the scandals and corruption in the Papacy and the Church, wherein Dante, as in the Epistle to the Italian Cardinals, takes his stand as the Jeremiah of Roman Catholicity.

THE NINTH HEAVEN.--When the saints have returned to their places in the Empyrean, Dante, after a last look to earth, passes up with his lady into the ninth sphere, the Crystalline heaven. Beatrice discourses upon the order of the heavens and the want of government upon earth, prophesying that, before very long, deliverance and reformation will come, even as St. Peter had announced in the sphere below. Here, where nature begins, Dante has a preparatory manifestation of the nine angelic orders, the ministers of Divine Providence, who ordain and dispose all things by moving the spheres. They appear as nine circles of flame, revolving round an atomic Point of surpassing brilliancy, which symbolises the supreme unity of God, the poet again having recourse to the _Metaphysics_ of Aristotle: “From that Point depends heaven and all nature” (_Par._ xxviii. 41, 42). Each angelic circle is swifter and more brilliant as it is nearer to the centre, each hierarchy striving after the utmost possible assimilation to God and union with Him. Swiftest and brightest of all are the Seraphim, who move this ninth sphere; the angelic order that, representing the Divine Love, loves most and knows most. “In the Angels,” says Colet on Dionysius, “an intensity of knowledge is love; a less intense love is knowledge.” The relation of the Seraphim to the Cherubim is that of fire to light; their special office is perfecting, as that of the Cherubim is illumination. All the orders contemplate God, and manifest Him to creatures to draw them to Him. Receiving from God the Divine light and love that makes them like to Him, the higher orders reflect this to the lower, like mirrors reflecting the Divine rays; and these lower orders reflect it to men, so rendering all things, as far as possible to each nature, like to God and in union with Him. After distinguishing between the different orders according to Dionysius, Beatrice speaks of their creation as especially illustrating the Divine Love, which the Seraphim represent (_Par._ xxix.), and their place in the order of the Universe, the fall of the rebellious, the reward of the faithful, and their immeasurable number. Each Angel belongs to a different species, and each differs from every other in its reception of Divine light and love.

THE EMPYREAN.--Dante and Beatrice now issue forth of the last material sphere into the Empyrean, the true Paradise of vision, comprehension, and fruition, where man’s will is set at rest in union with universal Good, and his intellect in the possession of universal Truth. In preparation for this Divine union, Dante is momentarily blinded by the Divine light which overpowers him with its radiance--a blindness followed by a new celestial sight and new faculties for comprehending the essence of spiritual things. The first empyreal vision is still a foreshadowing preface: a river of light, the stream which makes the city of God joyful, the wondrous flowers of celestial spring, the living sparks of angelic fire. This river of Divine grace is the fountain of wisdom from which, according to Bernard, the Cherubim drink, to pour out the streams of knowledge upon all God’s citizens; and of this fountain Dante, too, drinks with his eyes, that he may more fully see the vision of God which he has to relate, to diffuse His knowledge upon earth as the Cherubim do from Heaven. By the light of glory his mind is rendered capable of seeing those spiritual things which the blessed behold with immediate intuition, and of ultimate union with the Divine Essence (_Par._ xxx. 100-102). The river seems to change to a circular ocean of light; the saints and Angels appear in their true forms, all united in the sempiternal Rose of Paradise. Even at this height of ecstatic alienation from terrestrial things, Dante can turn in thought to Pope and Emperor who should be leading men to beatitude; a throne is prepared for Henry in this convent of white stoles, while the hell of the simoniacs is gaping for Boniface and Clement.

Eternity, as defined by Boëthius, is “the complete and perfect simultaneous possession of unlimited life”; and Dante is one who has come from time to the eternal: _a l’etterno dal tempo era venuto_ (_Par._ xxxi. 38).[41] Beatrice has returned to her throne, her allegorical mission ended; and for this supreme revelation of the Divine beauty in the mystical Rose, where there is no medium to impede the poet’s sight of the Divine light (for his is now that of a separated spirit), but blessed souls and flying Angels are absorbed in love and vision, St. Bernard completes her work, even as that of Virgil had been completed by Matelda in the Earthly Paradise. St. Bernard may represent the glorified contemplative life in our heavenly country, as Matelda may symbolise the glorified active life in the state of restored Eden; or, perhaps better, if Matelda is taken as the love rightly ordered to which the _Purgatorio_ leads, Bernard represents the loving contemplation or contemplative love, attained by the mystic in brief moments here and now, in which the eternal and unchanging life of the soul in the hereafter consists. In an exquisite lyrical inter-breathing Dante addresses Beatrice for the last time, thanking her for having led him from servitude to liberty, praying to her for final perseverance (_Par._ xxxi. 79-90). Under the guidance of Bernard, he prepares himself for the vision of the Divine Essence, by disciplining his spiritual sight in contemplation of the glory of the saints and of the ineffable beauty of Mary, surrounded by her Angels, and clothed, as Bernard himself puts it elsewhere, in the Sun by whose fire the prophet’s lips were cleansed and the Cherubim kindled with love.

Throughout the Rose two descending lines divide the redeemed of the old law from the redeemed under the new. The one line passes down from Mary’s throne, composed of holy women, ancestresses of Christ or types of His Church: Eve, Rachel, Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, Ruth (_Par._ xxxii.). With Rachel, in the third row, Beatrice is seated. The opposite line passes down from the seat of the Baptist, Christ’s precursor; and begins with St. Francis, His closest and most perfect imitator, St. Benedict (in the third row opposite to Rachel and Beatrice), St. Augustine. The lower sections of each half of the Rose are occupied by the little children who died before attaining use of reason; and who yet have different degrees of bliss, according to the inscrutable mysteries of predestination and Divine Justice, which willed to give grace differently to each. Another vision of Mary, the supreme of created things, “the face that is most like to Christ, whose beauty alone can dispose thee to see Christ” (_Par._ xxxii. 85-87), is the prelude to the vision of the Deity. Before her hovers her chosen knight, Gabriel, the “strength of God,” the pattern of celestial chivalry, _leggiadria_. Round her are Adam and St. Peter, Moses and St. John the Divine; opposite the two latter are St. Anne and St. Lucy. Thus the three Ladies who took pity upon Dante in the dark wood, when the mystical journey opened, have been seen in their glory at its close.

MARY AND THE DIVINE ESSENCE.--And the poet turns finally to the Primal Love, by Mary’s grace and Bernard’s intercession, in the lyrical prayer that opens the wonderful closing canto of the _Commedia_:

Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio,

“Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son.” Setting forth her predestination from eternity to bring the Redeemer into the world, her office of love and hope to Heaven and earth, her infinite excellence and dignity, her power and never-failing love, St. Bernard implores of her grace for Dante to rise to the vision of the Divine Essence now, in ecstatic contemplation, and then for his final perseverance that, on his return to earth, her loving protection may strengthen him against the assaults of passion, until he rejoice once more in the Beatific Vision for all eternity. Human love becomes one with the divine where Beatrice--joined with him now in the union of fruition--is named for the last time in the poem as he draws near to his mystical goal.

In answer to Mary’s intercession, an anticipation is granted to Dante of the vision wherein the last and perfect beatitude of man consists. The supreme experience of the soul, recognised by the great mystics from Plotinus and Augustine to Richard of St. Victor and Bonaventura, is rendered into unsurpassable poetry with the impassioned conviction that it has been the writer’s own. All ardour of desire dies away. Entering into the Divine light, uniting his intellectual gaze with the Divine Essence, he actualises all potentialities of spiritual vision therein. In the Divine light, he beholds all nature, all Being scattered in leaves throughout the Universe here united by love into one volume; the vision of the First Cause which satisfies the understanding becomes that of the Supreme Goodness which fulfils the will; and this First Cause, this Supreme Goodness, itself remaining unchanged, becomes revealed to the poet’s ever strengthening intuition as the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, in which the Person of the Word took Human Nature.

A l’alta fantasia qui mancò possa;

“Here power failed the lofty phantasy”--the inspired imagination of the prophet; but it left the desire and will assimilated in perfect harmony with the will of God--the Divine will revealed as universal, all-pervading, and all-moving love, “the love that moves the sun and the other stars”:

L’AMOR CHE MOVE IL SOLE E L’ALTRE STELLE.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] “Della insufficienza del titolo è prova ed effetto il pronto e universale accoglimento, che, messo una volta sul frontespizio, trovò l’epiteto _divina_, che al generico _Commedia_ diede determinatezza e colore” (P. Rajna, _Il titolo del poema dantesco_, in _Studi danteschi diretti da_ M. Barbi, vol. iv.).

[29] For details of structure and scansion, the reader should consult P. E. Guarnerio, _Manuale di versificazione italiana_; G. Federzoni, _Dei versi e dei metri italiani_; F. D’Ovidio, _Versificaizone italiana e arte poetica medioevale_.

[30] _Cf._ G. Livi, _op. cit._, pp. 26, 27.

[31] Traces of an earlier design have been tentatively found in various places of the first seven cantos, and associated with Boccaccio’s story of Dante having begun the poem before his exile and resumed it after the recovery of his manuscript when the guest of Moroello Malaspina. In Boccaccio’s commentary upon the opening of _Inf._ viii., Andrea Poggi and Dino Perini are represented as rival claimants for the honor of having recovered the manuscript for Dante.

[32] _Cf. Conv._ ii. 5.

[33] _Cf. Inf._ xxxiii. 79-84 with _Phars._ viii. 827-830.

[34] See Moore’s _Time-References_.

[35] _Cf._ Sonnets lx. and lxi. of _The House of Life_.

[36] See in particular Parodi, “L’Albero dell’Impero,” in his _Poesia e storia nella Divina Commedia_.

[37] In _Purg._ xxx. 109-117, Dante thus distinguishes between the _ovra de le rote magne_ and the _larghezza di grazie divine_ in his own case. St. Gregory the Great, speaking of the correspondence of men with the angelic orders, uses the phrase: _divinae largitatis munere refecti_ (_Hom. in Evangelia_, ii. 34).

[38] I venture to retain this reading, although the _testo critico_ now gives: _E’n la sua volontade_.

[39] The Vulgate has _virtutes caelorum_, in Matt. xxiv. and Luke xxi., where the English Bible reads “the powers of the heavens.”

[40] St. John of Damascus.

[41] Note the scansion of the previous line (37): _Io che al divino da l’umano_. There is no syneresis in _ïo_, no elision of the _e_ in _che_; thus emphasising Dante’s personal experience, his wonder that it should be vouchsafed to him, and producing the slow movement, the solemn intonation of the line.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX

The following notes do not attempt to give a full bibliography, but merely a selection of works that will be found useful by the readers of this Primer.

A. TEXT OF COMPLETE WORKS OF DANTE, DICTIONARIES AND CONCORDANCES

_Le Opere di Dante, testo critico della Società Dantesca Italiana_, a cura di M. Barbi, E. G. Parodi, F. Pellegrini, E. Pistelli, P. Rajna, E. Rostagno, G. Vandelli. Con indice analitico dei nomi e delle cose di Mario Casella. Florence, 1921. The “Sexcentenary Dante.”

_Le Opere di Dante Alighieri_, a cura del Dr. E. Moore, nuovamente rivedute nel testo dal Dr. Paget Toynbee. Fourth edition. Oxford, 1923.

_A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante_, by Paget Toynbee. Oxford, 1898.

_A Concise Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante_, by Paget Toynbee, Oxford, 1914.

_Concordance of the “Divina Commedia.”_ By E. A. Fay. Boston, 1888.

_Concordanza delle opere italiane in prosa e del Canzoniere di Dante Alighieri._ By E. S. Sheldon and A. C. White. Oxford, 1905.

_Dantis Alagherii Operum Latinorum Concordantiae._ By E. K. Rand and E. H. Wilkins, Oxford, 1912.

B. HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF DANTE’S TIMES

Caggese, R., _Firenze dalla decadenza di Roma al Risorgimento d’Italia_. Vols. i. and ii. Florence, 1912-1913.

Casini, T., _Letteratura italiana: storia ed esempi_. Vols. i. and ii. Rome, 1909.

Dino Compagni, _La Cronica_ con introduzione e commento di G. Luzzatto. Milan, 1906. (English translation of the _Chronicle_ by E. Benecke and A. G. F. Howell in the “Temple Classics,” London.)

D’Ancona, A., and Bacci, O., _Manuale della letteratura italiana_, vol. i. Florence.

Gaspary, A., _History of Early Italian Literature to the Death of Dante_, translated by H. Oelsner. London, 1901.

Del Lungo, I., _Dino Compagni e la sua Cronica_ (Florence, 1879-1887); _I Bianchi e i Neri_ (second edition. Milan, 1921).

Piccioni, L., _Da Prudenzio a Dante_. Turin, 1916.

Rossi, V., _Storia della Letteratura Italiana per uso dei Licei_. Voi. i. (Il Medio Evo). Milan, sixth edition, 1914.

Salvemini, G., _Magnati e Popolani in Firenze dal 1280 al 1295_. Florence, 1899.

Villani, Giovanni, _Croniche (Istorie) fiorentine_. (Best edition at present, Florence, 1823.)

Villani, Giovanni, _Selections from the first Nine Books_, translated by Rose Selfe and edited by P. H. Wicksteed. London. 1906.

Villari, P., _I primi due secoli della storia di Firenze_, new edition, Florence, 1905. (English translation by Linda Villari from the first edition.)

For the expedition of Henry of Luxemburg, the reader should study Caggese, _Roberto d’Angiò e i suoi tempi_, vol. i. chap. ii. (Florence, 1922).

C. BIOGRAPHY, ETC.

_Codice Diplomatico Dantesco: i documenti della vita e della famiglia di Dante_, ed. G. Biagi and G. L. Passerini. Florence (in course of publication).

Barbadoro, B., _La condanna di Dante e le fazioni politiche del suo tempo_. In _Studi danteschi_, ed. M. Barbi, vol. ii. Florence, 1920.

Boccaccio, _Il comento alla Divina Commedia e gli altri scritti intorno a Dante_, a cura di D. Guerri. Three vols. Bari, 1918. Vol. i. contains the _Vita di Dante_ and the _Compendio_.

Bruni, Leonardo, _Vita di Dante_ (in _Le vite di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio scritte fino al secolo decimosesto_, ed. A. Solerti. Milan, 1904).

Foligno, C., _Dante_. Bergamo, 1921.

Howell, A. G. F., _Dante_ (in “The People’s Books,” London).

Del Lungo, I., _Dell’esilio di Dante_. Florence, 1881.

Ricci, C., _L’ultimo rifugio di Dante_. Second edition. Milan, 1921.

Scherillo, M., _Alcuni capitoli della biografia di Dante_. Turin, 1896.

Toynbee, P., _Dante Alighieri, his Life and Works_. Fourth edition. London, 1910.

Wicksteed, P. H., _The Early Lives of Dante_ (translated). London, 1904.

Zingarelli, N., _Dante_ (Milan, 1903); _Vita di Dante in compendio_ (Milan, 1905).

D. THE MINOR WORKS

The _Convivio_ or _Convito_ was first printed at Florence in 1490. Eighteen _canzoni_ (erroneously numbered as fourteen) were published at the end of a Venetian edition of the _Commedia_ in November, 1491. Fifteen genuine Dantesque _canzoni_, with others wrongly ascribed to him, are contained in a collection printed at Milan and at Venice in 1518. The first partially complete edition of Dante’s lyrical poetry is contained in the first four books of _Sonetti e canzoni di diversi antichi autori toscani in dieci libri raccolte_, edited by Bernardo di Giunta at Florence in 1527. The _Vita Nuova_ was first printed at Florence in 1576; but its lyrics had been given in the first book of the 1527 _Sonetti e canzoni_. The _De Vulgari Eloquentia_ was published in Trissino’s Italian translation at Vicenza in 1529, and in the original Latin at Paris in 1577; the _Monarchia_ in 1559 at Basle. The latter work had been translated into Italian by Marsilio Ficino in the latter half of the fifteenth century. The Letter to Henry VII. was first published in an old Italian version in 1547; in its original Latin by Witte in 1827.

The Epistle to Can Grande was first published in 1700, the Eclogues in 1719. The Letters as a whole were edited by Witte in 1827 and by Torri in 1842.

Special editions and studies. (_a_) VITA NUOVA. Critical edition by M. Barbi (Florence, 1907); with notes and commentary by M. Scherillo (Milan, 1911, reprinted with the _Canzoniere_); G. Salvadori, _Sulla vita giovanile di Dante_ (Rome, 1906); _Vita Nuova_ and _Canzoniere_, text, translation, and notes by P. H. Wicksteed and T. Okey (“Temple Classics”). For the “dolce stil nuovo,” V. Rossi, in _Lectura Dantis, Le Opere Minori_ (Florence, 1906), and Parodi, _Poesia e storia nella D.C._ A new edition of the _Vita Nuova_ is published by K. McKenzie (London, 1923). (_b_) RIME OR CANZONIERE. M. Barbi, _Studi sul Canzoniere di Dante_ (Florence, 1915); G. Zonta, _La lirica di Dante_ (in _Miscellanea dantesca_, supplement 18-21 of _Giornale storico della letteratura italiana_, Turin, 1922); E. G. Gardner, _The Lyrical Poetry of Dante_ (in preparation). For the tenzone with Forese F. Torraca, _Nuovi studi danteschi_ (Naples, 1921), and A. F. Massèra, _Sonetti burleschi e realistici dei primi due secoli_ (Bari, 1920); for the tenzone with Dante da Maiano, S. Santangelo, _Dante Alighieri e Dante da Maiano_ (in _Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana_, N. S., XXVII., 1920); for the canzone of the _Tre donne_, Torraca, _op. cit._, and Carducci, _Opere_ xvi (“Poesia e Storia”). The majority of the _Rime_ are translated by Wicksteed in the “Temple Classics” volume cited above. (_c_) CONVIVIO. Translation by W. W. Jackson (Oxford, 1909); translation and commentary by Wicksteed in the “Temple Classics”; Wicksteed, _From Vita Nuova to Paradiso_ (Manchester University Press, 1922). (_d_) DE VULGARI ELOQUENTIA. Critical edition by P. Rajna (Florence, 1896); facsimile reproduction of Berlin MS., L. Bertalot, _Il Codice B del “De Vulgari Eloquentia”_ (Florence, 1923); studies by F. D’Ovidio, _Versificazione italiana e arte poetica medioevale_ (Milan, 1910); translation and commentary by A. G. F. Howell in “Temple Classics Latin Works of Dante”; C. Foligno, _Dante, the Poet_ (Brit. Acad. Annual Italian Lecture, 1921). (_e_) MONARCHIA. C. Cipolla, _Il trattato “De Monarchia” di D. A. e l’opuscolo “De potestate regia et papali” di Giovanni da Parigi_ (reprinted in _Gli studi danteschi di Carlo Cipolla_, Verona, 1921); F. Ercole, _L’unità politica della nazione italiana e l’Impero nel pensiero di Dante_ (in _Archivio storico italiano_, LXXV., Florence, 1917), and _Per la genesi del pensiero politico di Dante_ (in _Giornale storico della letteratura italiana_, LXXII., _Turin_, 1918); E. G. Parodi, _Del concetto dell’Impero in Dante e del suo averroismo_ (in _Bull. d. Soc. Dantesca Italiana_, N.S., XXVI., Florence, 1919); A. Solmi, _Il pensiero politico di Dante_ (Florence, 1922); C. Foligno, _The Date of the Monarchia_ (in Dante, _Essays in Commemoration_, University of London Press, 1921); translation and commentary by P. H. Wicksteed in “Temple Classics Latin Works of Dante.” (_f_) EPISTOLAE. P. Toynbee, _Dantis Alagherii Epistolae_ (The Letters of Dante, emended text, with introduction, translation, notes, etc., Oxford, 1920); F. Torraca, _Le lettere di Dante_ (in _Nuovi studi danteschi_); E. Moore, _The Genuineness of the Dedicatory Epistle to Can Grande_ (in _Studies in Dante_, Series III.). (_g_) ECLOGAE. P. H. Wicksteed, _Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio_ (London, 1902); G. Albini, _Dantis Eclogae_, etc. (Florence, 1903). (_h_) QUAESTO DE AQUA ET TERRA. Edited and translated by C. L. Shadwell (Oxford, 1909); ed. V. Biagi, with critical dissertation (Modena, 1907); E. Moore, _Studies in Dante_, Series II. (Oxford, 1899); Wicksteed, translation and commentary in “Temple Classics Latin Works of Dante.”

E. THE “DIVINA COMMEDIA”

_Editions with Notes and Commentaries_

[The first three editions of the _Divina Commedia_ were printed in 1472, at Foligno, Mantua, and Jesi. They were reprinted, together with the Neapolitan edition of 1477, by Lord Vernon and Panizzi: _Le Prime Quattro Edizioni della Divina Commedia letteralmente ristampate_ (London, 1858). The first Venetian edition is dated 1477, the first Florentine 1481. There were about fifteen editions of the _Divina Commedia_ published before the end of the fifteenth century. The first Aldine was printed in 1502. The two earliest dated manuscripts, the Landiano (1336) and the Trivulziano (1337), have been published in facsimile: _Il Codice Trivulziano 1080 della D.C._, with introduction by L. Rocca (Milan, 1921); _Il Codice Landiano_ with preface by A. Balsamo and introduction by G. Bertoni (Florence, 1921).]

_La Divina Commedia nuovamente commentata da_ F. Torraca. Milan and Rome, third edition 1915.

_La Divina Commedia commentata da_ G. A. Scartazzini. Seventh edition revised by G. Vandelli, Milan, 1914.

_La Divina Commedia con il commento di Tommaso Casini._ Sixth edition renovated and augmented by S. A. Barbi. Florence, 1923.

_Inferno_, _Purgatorio_, and _Paradiso_, Italian text with English prose translation on opposite pages, maps and notes, three vols., “Temple Classics” (London). _Inferno_, Carlyle’s translation with notes by H. Oelsner; _Purgatorio_, translation and notes by T. Okey; _Paradiso_, translation and notes by P. H. Wicksteed.

Vernon, W. W., _Readings on the Inferno_, _Purgatorio_, and _Paradiso_, chiefly based upon the Commentary of Benvenuto da Imola. Six vols. (two on each part). London, new edition, 1906-1909.

_La Divina Commedia_, edited and annotated by C. H. Grandgent. London, 1914.

_La Divina Commedia nella figurazione artistica e nel secolare commento_, a cura di Guido Biagi. Turin, 1921, et seq.

F. SUBSIDIARY TO THE “COMMEDIA” AND GENERAL.

Benvenuto da Imola, _Comentum super Dantis Aldigherii Comoediam_, ed. W. W. Vernon and J. P. Lacaita. Five vols. Florence, 1887.

Croce, B., _La poesia di Dante_. Bari, 1921. (English translation by Douglas Ainslie, London, 1922.)

D’Ancona, A., _Scritti danteschi_. Florence, 1913.

D’Ovidio, F., _Studi sulla Divina Commedia_ (Milan, 1901); _Nuovi studi danteschi_ (two vols., Milan, 1906-7).

Farinelli, A., _Dante in Spagna--Francia--Inghilterra--Germania_. Turin, 1922.

Gardner, E. G., _Dante and the Mystics_. London, 1913.

Hauvette, H., _Études sur la Divine Comédie_. Paris, 1922.

Holbrook, R. T., _Portraits of Dante from Giotto to Raffael_. London, 1911.

Livi, G., _Dante suoi primi cultori sua gente in Bologna_ (Bologna, 1918); _Dante e Bologna_ (Bologna, 1921).

Moore, E., _Textual Criticism of the Divina Commedia_ (Cambridge, 1889); _Studies in Dante_, four series (Oxford, 1896-1917); _Time-References in the Divina Commedia_ (Oxford, 1887).

Parodi, E. G., _Poesia e storia nella Divina Commedia_ (Naples, 1921); _Il Fiore e il Detto d’Amore_ (edited in appendix to the _Opere di Dante_, Florence, 1922).

Reade, W. H. V., _The Moral System of Dante’s Inferno_. Oxford, 1909.

Ricci, C., _La Divina Commedia illustrata nei luoghi e nelle persone_ (Edizione del secentenario della morte di Dante). Milan, 1921.

Rocca, L., _Di alcuni commenti della D.C. composti nei primi vent’ anni dopo la morte di Dante_. Florence, 1891.

Santangelo, S., _Dante e i trovatori provenzali_. Catania, 1922.

Torraca, F., _Studi danteschi_ (Naples, 1912); _Nuovi studi danteschi_ (Naples, 1921).

Toynbee, P., _Dante Studies and Researches_ (London, 1902); _Dante in English Literature from Chaucer to Cary_ (two vols., London, 1909); _Dante Studies_ (London, 1921).

Wicksteed, P. H., _Dante and Aquinas_ (London, 1913); _From Vita Nuova to Paradiso_, two essays on the vital relations between Dante’s successive works (Manchester University Press, 1922).

Witte, K., _Essays on Dante_: selected, translated and edited, with introduction, notes, and appendices, by C. M. Lawrence and P. H. Wicksteed. London, 1898.

Besides Boccaccio and Benvenuto da Imola, the modern editions of the other early commentators, Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli (Udine, 1892), Jacopo della Lana (Bologna, 1866, etc.), the Ottimo (Pisa, 1827-29), Pietro Alighieri (Florence, 1845), Francesco da Buti (Pisa, 1858-62), are worth consulting. Extracts, with notably better texts, are given by Biagi in _La D.C. nella figurazione artistica e nel secolare commento_.

For the question of the Letter of Frate Ilario, see P. Rajna, _Testo della lettera di frate Ilario e osservazioni sul suo valore storico_, in _Dante e la Lunigiana_ (Milan, 1909). On the date of composition of the _Divina Commedia_, _cf._ Parodi, _Poesia e storia nella D.C._; Ercole, _Le tre fasi del pensiero politico di Dante_, in the _Miscellanea dantesca_ of the _Gior. stor. della lett. ital._, and D’Ovidio in the _Nuova Antologia_, March, 1923. In addition to the works already cited, published for the sexcentenary of 1921, may be particularly mentioned the sumptuous volume _Dante e Siena_ (Siena, 1921), and _Dante, la Vita, le Opere, le grandi città dantesche, Dante e l’Europa_ (Milan, 1921).

The _Giornale Dantesco_, the _Bullettino della Società Dantesca Italiana_, and _Studi danteschi diretti da_ Michele Barbi (Florence) are invaluable periodical publications.

Of the numerous English translations of the _Divina Commedia_, besides those of Cary and Longfellow, may be mentioned that of C. E. Norton in prose; Haselfoot and M. B. Anderson in _terza rima_; G. Musgrave of the _Inferno_ in Spenserian stanzas, and H. J. Hooper in amphiambics; C. L. Shadwell of the _Purgatorio_ and _Paradiso_ in the metre used by Andrew Marvell in his Horatian “Ode to Cromwell.” The _terza rima_ is a measure not easily adapted to English speech. First introduced into English by Chaucer, with the modifications which the difference of our prosody from the Italian requires, in two fragments of _A Compleint to his Lady_ (Minor Poems vi. in Skeat’s _Student’s Chaucer_), it was used by Wyatt and Surrey, by Sir Philip Sidney and other Elizabethans, and even once by Milton (in his paraphrase of Psalm ii.). Among the few notable English poems in _terza rima_ written during the nineteenth century, Shelley’s unfinished _Triumph of Life_ stands supreme, and in it we may in very truth:

Behold a wonder worthy of the rhyme

Of him who from the lowest depths of hell,
Through every paradise and through all glory,
Love led serene, and who returned to tell

The words of hate and awe; the wondrous story
How all things are transfigured except Love.