Chapter XXIX: Appendix: II

PARADISE--CANTO XI.

LINES 28-123

_Dean Plumptre’s Translation_

It is probable that Dante knew the “Sacrum Commercium”; it is certain that he knew the Prayer to obtain Poverty. Therefore it may be convenient to give _in extenso_ that part of the Divine Canto which sings of the Mystic loves of Francis and the Lady Poverty.

The Providence,--which all things doth dispose 28
With such deep counsels that all mortal gaze
Is baffled ere to that great depth it goes--
That unto Him she loves might bend her ways, 31
The Bride of Him Who, with a bitter cry,
Espoused her with the blood we bless and praise,
In fuller peace, more steadfast loyalty, 34
Her, for her good, with two high chiefs endowed,
That they on either side her guides might be.
The soul of one with love seraphic glowed; 37
The other by his wisdom on our earth
A splendour of cherubic glory showed.
Of one I’ll speak; for, if we tell the worth 40
Of one, ’tis true of both, whiche’er we take,
For to one end each laboured from his birth.
Between Tupino and the streams that break 43
From the hill chosen by Ubaldo blest,
A lofty mount a fertile slope doth make;
Perugia’s Sun-gate from that lofty crest 46
Feels heat and cold; Nocer’ and Gualdo pine
Behind it, by their heavy yoke opprest.
On this slope, where less steeply doth incline 49
The hill, was born into this world a sun,
Bright as this orb doth oft o’er Ganges shine.
Whence, naming this spot, let not any one 52
Call it Ascesi--that were tame in sense--
As Orient doth its proper title run.
Such was his rise, nor was he far from thence, 55
When he began to make the wide earth share
Some comfort from his glorious excellence;
For he, a youth, his father’s wrath did dare 58
For maid, for whom not one of all the crowd,
As she were death, would pleasure’s gates unbar.
And then before court spiritual he vowed 61
_Et coram patre_--marriage-pledge to her,
And day by day more fervent love he showed.
Of her first spouse bereaved, a thousand were, 64
And more, the years she lived, despised, obscure,
And, till he came, none did his suit prefer.
Nought it availed that she was found secure 67
With that Amyclas when the voice was heard
Which made the world great terror-pangs endure;
Nought it availed that she nor shrank nor feared, 70
So that, when Mary tarried yet below,
She on the Cross above with Christ appeared.
But lest I tell it too obscurely so, 73
By these two lovers, in my speech diffuse,
Thou Poverty and Francis now mayst know.
Their concord and their looks of joy profuse, 76
The love, the wonder, and the aspect sweet,
Made men in holy meditation muse,
So that the holy Bernard bared his feet, 79
The first to start, and for such peace so tried,
That slow he thought his pace, though it was fleet.
O wealth unknown, true good that doth abide! 82
Ægidius bared his feet, Sylvester too,
Following the Bridegroom, so they loved the Bride.
Then went that Father and that Master true 85
With that his Bride and that his family,
Who round their loins the lowly girdle drew;
Nor was faint heart betrayed in downcast eye, 88
As being Pietro Bernardone’s son,
Nor yet as one despised wondrously;
But like a king his stern intention 91
To Innocent he opened, who did give
The first seal to that new religion.
Then, when the race content as poor to live 94
Grew behind him, whose life, so high renowned,
Would, in Heaven’s glory, higher songs receive,
With a new diadem once more was crowned 97
By Pope Honorius, from on high inspired,
This Archimandrite’s purpose, holy found.
And after that, with martyr zeal untired, 100
He, in the presence of the Soldan proud
Preached Christ, and those whom His example fired;
And finding that that race no ripeness showed 103
For their conversion, not to toil in vain,
He to Italia’s fields his labours vowed.
On the rough rock ’twixt Tiber’s, Arno’s, plain, 106
From Christ received he the last seal’s impress,
Which he two years did in his limbs sustain.
When it pleased Him, Who chose him thus to bless, 109
To lead him up the high reward to share
Which he had merited by lowliness,
Then to his brothers, each as rightful heir, 112
He gave in charge his lady-love most dear,
And bade them love her with a steadfast care;
And from her breast that soul so high and clear 115
Would fain depart and to its kingdom turn,
Nor for his body sought another bier.
Think now what he was who the fame did earn 118
To be his comrade, and for Peter’s barque
On the high seas the true path to discern.
And such was he, our honoured Patriarch; 121
Wherefore, who follows him as he commands,
Him laden with rich treasures thou mayest mark.

By M. CARMICHAEL.

IN TUSCANY.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] “Nota al Canto XI. (versi 43-75) del ‘Paradiso’ di Dante Alighieri,” Città di Castello, Lapi, 1894, pp. 54.

[2] “Sacrum Commercium Beati Francisci cum Domina Paupertate, Opus Anno Domini 1227 conscriptum ad fidem Variorum Codicum MS. Adjuncta versione Italica inedita, curante P. Eduardo Alinconiensi, Ord. Min. Capuccinorum Archivo Generali Præposito.” Rome, Kleinbub, 1900, 4to, pp. xviii-52.

[3] The Italian edition of the Chronicle of Mark of Lisbon (Venice, 1590, voi. ii. pp. 82-92) contains a compendium of the “Sacrum Commercium” which, however, does not merit the name of an edition.

[4] “Meditazione sulla Povertà di Santo Francesco” Scrittura inedita del Secolo XIV. Pistoia, Tip. Cino., 1847, 18mo. pp. 72.

[5] See “Bibliografia dei Testi di Lingua a Stampa citati dagli Accademici della Crusca, opera di Luigi Razzolini ed Alberto Bacchi della Lega,” 4th Edition. Bologna, 1890.

[6] “Le Mistiche Nozze di San Francesco e Madonna Povertà. Allegoria Francescana del Secolo, xiii.” Florence, 1901, 12mo. pp. xxiv-70. I cannot help regretting that Don Minocchi has given the work a title of his own choosing, though I recognise the superiority of his title as title. As the “Meditazione” it was christened by the original translator, as the “Meditazione” first published by Fanfani and Bindi, and as the “Meditazione” it has become a Tuscan classic under the ægis of the Crusca.

[7] “Analecta Francescana,” vol. iii. p. 283. Ad Claras Aquas (Quaracchi) 1897, 4to.

[8] “Speculum Perfectionis,” p. vi., Paris, 1898. But then he is only following Alvisi.

[9] “Le Mistiche Nozze di Frate Francesco con Madonna Povertà,” Florence, Olschki, 1898, pp. 58. I have since seen his _Noterelle Francescane_, in the “Giornale Dantesco” (An. ix., Quad, iii.) in which he modifies his opinion.

[10] “Vita del Beato Giovanni da Parma,” 2nd Edition. Quaracchi, 1900, pp. 186.

[11] _Cf._ the “Miscellanea Francescana,” vol. vii. p. 182.

[12] Add to all this that the “Sacrum Commercium” contains not a single citation from the Office of St Francis--which it is natural to suppose that the imaginative writer would have here and there availed himself of--and it seems to me that the date of 1227 is proved with something like certainty, and the date of 1247 excluded beyond a doubt.

[13] _Op. cit._ p. xii. and p. 41 et ss.

[14] The “Arbor Vitæ Crucifixi Jesu,” Venice, 1485, fol.

[15] “Chronica Fratris Salimbene Parmensis.” Parma, 1857, 4to, pp. xiv.-424.

[16] Let me here render him public thanks for his courteous permission to do so, and make due public acknowledgment of my indebtedness to his critical preface. Had it not been for this scholarly work I must needs have spent months in puzzling out for myself the crabbed hands and crooked abbreviations of three or four fourteenth-century scribes.

[17] My references to the Psalms are according to the notation of the Vulgate. Perhaps it may be necessary to state for the benefit of readers not well acquainted with the Vulgate, that “Eccli.” is a reference to Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, and not to Ecclesiastes (Eccl.) or the Wisdom of the Preacher.

[18] This chapter is wanting a title in all the Codexes. I have taken the liberty of styling it “In Praise of Poverty.”

[19] In contradistinction, _e.g._ to the Meek who _shall_ possess the Land (Matt. v. 4). Only the persecuted for Justice’s sake have the same immediate privilege as the Poor in Spirit (Matt. v. 10). We shall see later on that Persecution is the noblest and most helpful of all the Lady Poverty’s sisters.

[20] Though the Author here quotes Psalm xxiii. 10, “Dominus Virtutum,” he is, from the context which follows, obviously not referring to the Lord of Hosts or Sabaoth, nor to the Virtues as one of the Orders of Angels, but to God as the Lord of the Moral Perfections.

[21] “Non sum rudis,” I am not raw or new, says the Writer, quoting Matt. ix. 16: “Nemo autem immittit commissuram panni rudis in vestimentum vetus”: No man putteth a piece of new or raw cloth into an old garment.

[22] So that Man’s first transgression after his original Sin, was, by this, his first acquisition of property, a Sin against the High Doctrine of the Lady Poverty.

[23] King James’ Bible has “ten thousand times ten thousand.”

[24] There is in a part of this Chapter so intricate an interweaving of Pauline phrases, that I make no attempt to indicate them by references.

[25] In this terrible picture of Religious life at its lowest ebb, some allowance must be made for the fervid imagination and righteous wrath of the holy writer (“_quidam sanctus doctor hujus sanctae Paupertatis professor et zelator strenuus_”). But even with sloth, gluttony, intemperance, greed of gain, hypocrisy, and ungodliness running riot in a whole Community, it is profitable to the historian to note that there is not a hint of unchastity, the truth being that a Community wholly unchaste is one of those rarities of history sought in the past, and desired, I fear, by certain historians, but scarcely existing outside the cruel inventions of interested despoilers. And lest any be amazed that the Religious life should ever have fallen even half as low as is here portrayed, let them remember that the higher the ideal, the further the fall when it comes, and that the Lady Poverty has ever punished her betrayers by the completest degradation.

[26] “Terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata.” This occurs in the Chapter at Prime in the Office of Our Lady, and hence it is here used in connection with that other Lady, Madonna Povertà. The translator of the “Meditazione,” finding it would have no associations in Italian (as of course it has none in English), quietly drops it, but I cannot take so great a liberty, nor allow myself to hide the vivid and touching imagination which the pious author thus betrays. Throughout the whole allegory the influence of the Liturgy is conspicuous.

[27] Regula S. Francisci, Cap. vi.

[28] “Non habebat aliud Christi pauper nisi duo minuta, corpus scilicet, et animam, quod posset liberali charitate largiri.” Leg. Maj. S. Bonav., Cap. ix.

[29] Romans viii. 28.

[30] Testament of St Francis.

[31] “Fioretti,” chap. xiii.

[32] _Vide_ “The Parable of Poverty,” Legenda III. Soc. Cap. xii., Bollandist Edition.

[33] Matthew v. 3.

[34] “Parochial Sermons”: _The Danger of Riches_.

[35] Scartazzini rejects the reading “salse” (“lezione priva di autorità”), and adopts “pianse.” I hope, for the sake of Dante’s great imagination, that he may be in the wrong. So competent an authority as Mr Wicksteed adheres to “salse,” basing his reason on this very prayer. See the “Paradise” of Dante Alighieri, translated by Philip H. Wicksteed, Dent, 1899.