And such intense desire to climb the height
Came o'er me at each step which upward led,
I felt wings growing to assist my flight.1
When the whole staircase, now beneath our tread,
Was pass'd, and o'er the topmost step we turn,
Upon me Virgil fix'd his eyes and said,

"The fires both temporary and eterne,

2

Son, thou hast seen, and now hast reach'd a part
Where of myself no further I discern
Hither I've led thee by my skill and art.

Take thine own pleasure for thy guidance now;
Freed from the steep and straiten'd way thou art.
Behold the sun that shines upon thy brow,

Behold the herbs, the flowers, the fruit-trees rare, Which from the land without compulsion grow,3 Till she arrive with beaming eyes and fair,

Whose weeping sent me to thine aid along:
Thou canst sit down or wander here and there.
Expect not that our converse I prolong.

And since thy will is healthy, right, and free,
To disregard whose impulse would be wrong,
Lord of thyself I crown and mitre thee."

1 See Paradise Lost, ix. 1009-11.

4

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140

• The fires of Purgatory and of Hell.-See Inferno, i. 112-120. 3 "They passed into another most delightful plain. The plain itself splendid, sweet, and lovely, was of such magnitude, glory, and beauty, as no tongue can relate: for it was full of mirth and gladness and joy. There the odour of lilies and of roses, there the fragrance of all spices perfumed the air, there the land flowed over with manna and the abundance of all eternal delights. In the middle of this plain is Paradise."-The Vision of Alberic, sec. 20.

4"And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth."-Rev. v. 10.

CANTO XXVIII.

THE ARGUMENT.

Arrived at the summit of the mountain, the poets enter a verdant and delightful forest. They come to a pure stream of water, which impedes Dante's progress, but on the opposite bank there appears a fair lady, singing and gathering flowers. She explains to him the nature of the place, which is the Terrestrial Paradise, and of the river, which is Lethe, twin-born with another stream called Eunoë. Identity of Man's primeval condition here with the golden age sung by the ancient poets.

EAGER to enter and around survey

The fresh-green forest form'd by heavenly art,
Which temper'd to mine eyes the new-born day,1
No more I wait, but from the bank depart ;2
And o'er the plain my way at leisure find,
Whose fragrant soil breathed sweets in every part.
A pleasant breeze which ne'er to change inclined,
So self-sustaining, smote me on the brow
With softest impulse, like a gentle wind,3

1 "This region is the terrestrial Paradise from which man was first expelled for his sins."-Vision of the Knight Owen. ROGER WENDOVER, p. 519.

2 The edge or extremity bordering on vacancy.

3

"Wild birds their song among the branches make,

Azure and yellow, red, and white, and green;

Each murmuring rivulet and quiet lake

More limpid than the crystal's ray serene:

To whose mild influence all the branches bow

1

Their trembling foliage towards the quarter where
The holy mount casts its first shadow now;
Yet not so discomposed thereby they were,
But that the birds upon each top sublime
Were left at ease their songs to warble there.2
And they with full delight the hours of prime
Welcomed in their melodious minstrelsy
Among the leaves, which did in chorus chime :3
Such as from bough to bough make melody
Through the pine-forest on Chiassi's shore,1

A pleasant breeze, which seems its way to take
Ever the same, nor change can intervene,

So tremulously shakes the air around,

That from the noontide heat no hurt is found."

ARIOSTO, Orl. Fur. xxxiv. 50.

10

20

1 The morning shadow cast by the mountain towards the west. The gentle wind was blowing westward also, and as it smote on the poet's brow, consequently he was now journeying east with his face towards the rising sun.

2 In ordinary cases, when the winds are rough, the birds are silent, as in terror.

3 The whisper occasioned by the gentle wind among the leaves, mingled with the song of the birds.

4 On the shores of the Adriatic, near the city of Ravenna, stood the town of Chiassi, anciently Classis. In the time of Cæsar it was close to the sea, which flowed up to the walls of Ravenna, though now four miles distant. The harbour, called Portus Classis, was built by Augustus, instead of the old one at the mouth of the Ronco, and was capable of containing 250 ships. He joined the new harbour with the Po by a canal, and built a causeway to it from the city. When, A.D. 404, Honorius chose Ravenna as the seat of the Western empire, the deposits of the Po accumulating on the coast had filled up the port of Augustus, and the forest of pines which supplied the Roman fleet with timber, had usurped the spot where the fleet had before anchored, and had spread far along the shore. The strength of its position and the

When Eolus hath set Sirocco free.1 Already had my slow steps wander'd o'er

The ground so far within an ancient wood,
That I its entrance could perceive no more;
And lo, a brook my onward march withstood,
While towards the left the herbs which by it grow
Bend with the wavelets of its crystal flood.
The purest streams that from earth's fountains flow
With them some taint or feculence combine,
Compared with this which nothing hides below;
Yet black with shade its limpid waves decline
Under that verdant roof's perpetual screen,
Through which no Sun or Moon can ever shine.
My steps were stay'd, but with mine eyes the scene
Beyond the stream I reach'd, amazed to see
The varied bloom of branches fresh and green.
All on a sudden there appear'd to me,

As when aught strikes us with astonishment,
Causing all other thoughts at once to flee,

A lady2 unaccompanied, that went

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40

fortifications added by Honorius, baffled the fierce invaders under Radagaldus and Alaric, and saved the city; but in 728, Chiassi or Classe was destroyed by Luitprand, king of the Lombards, with the exception of its church, the noble Basilica of S. Apollinare, in Classe, on the skirts of the Pineta or Pine-forest, which extends along the shores of the Adriatic twenty-five miles, from Lamone on the north of Ravenna to Cervia on the south, and covers a sandy tract, varying in breadth from one to three miles. One part of this venerable forest still retains the name of the Vicolo de' Poeti, from a tradition that it is the spot where Dante loved to meditate. It is also the scene of Boccaccio's most thrilling tale, Nastagio degli Onesti, and of Dryden's Theodore and Honoria.

1 Æolus, the god of winds. Sirocco, the rainy south-east wind. 2 By this lady Dante probably intended to represent the union of contemplation and activity. But, as in the case of Beatrice,

Singing and gathering flowers, from flowers that wove

Along her path its rich embellishment.

"O lady fair, that with the rays of lovel

Art warm'd, if I may trust the sighs which long
Have the heart's witnesses been wont to prove ;
May thy good pleasure move thy steps along,"
To her I said, "unto this brooklet near,
So that I may distinctly hear thy song.
For thou remindest me of what and where

Was Proserpine at that time when her mother
Lost her, and she her spring-time too lost there."2

50

Lucia, and others, a real person may also be alluded to, considered as the type of those virtues. In Canto xxxiii. 119, she is called Matilda, perhaps in allusion to the Countess Matilda, daughter of Boniface, duke of Tuscany and his duchess Beatrice, daughter of the emperor Conrade II. and sister to Henry III. She flourished about two centuries before Dante, and was the most powerful and wealthy Italian princess of her time. She was the head of the Guelf league, and defended the papacy with her troops against the emperor Henry IV. Her first husband Godfrey duke of Lorraine died in 1076. Her second was Welph or Guelph, duke of Bavaria, who married her in 1089 and was separated from her in 1105. Matilda was induced by Pope Gregory VII. to settle all her possessions on him and his successors in the Papal chair. This bequest was warmly contested by Henry V. and others, nor could the pontiffs retain more than a part, which has constituted a portion of the Papal States down to our own times. Matilda died A.D. 1115.

1 In the allegorical or figurative sense, Divine Love is always to be understood.

"To whom the angel, with a smile that glow'd
Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue,

Answer'd, 'Let it suffice thee that thou know'st
Us happy, and without love no happiness.'

Paradise Lost, viii. 618.

2 Inferno, vii. 12, note; and x. 81, note.