entreaties that he would remain, he insisted on departing, poor as he came, with only his scrip, his staff, and his mule, nor was he ever heard of again (see Raynouard, Journal des Savants, 1825, p. 294 et seq., on the episode of Romée). Hence we gather that the Romeo of history, in contrast to the one of the legends, was neither poor nor a pilgrim, nor did he abandon the court to become a pilgrim. E dentro alla presente margarita * Luce la luce di Romeo, di cui Fu l' opra bella e grande mal gradita. 130 Non hanno riso, e però mal cammina *margarita: Compare Par. ii, 34, 35: "Per entro sè l' eterna margarita Ne ricevette." 135 La presente margarita here means the Sphere of Mercury. + Quattro figlie: The four daughters of Raymond Berenger were: (1) Margaret (born 1221, died 1295), married in 1234 to Louis IX of France (St. Louis). (2) Eleanor (died 1291), married in 1236 to Henry III of England. (3) Sancha (died 1261), married Richard, Duke of Cornwall, brother to Henry III, elected King of the Romans in 1257. (4) Beatrice who inherited her father's sovereignty, and married Charles I of Anjou, brother of Louis IX, and King of Naples and Sicily. biece: Casini remarks that biece, a form found also in Inf. xxv, 31, opere biece, and bieci in Par. v, 65, are all common expressions in early Italian. See Nannucci, Analisi Critica dei Verbi Italiani, p. 289, note (1). A domandar ragione a questo giusto, Che gli assegnò sette e cinque per diece.* And within this present pearl (the planet Mercury) shines the sheen of Romeo, whose good and great work was ill-requited. But the people of Provence who wrought against him have not had the laugh, and therefore that man treads an evil path who turns to his own injury the good deeds of another (i.e. by making himself guilty of Envy and Calumny). Four daughters had Raymond Berenger, and every one of them a queen, and this (i.e. the wedding of them to four kings) for him did Romeo, a man of low estate and a foreigner; and yet afterwards malignant words incited him (Count Raymond) to demand a reckoning (of his administration) from this upright man, who had rendered to him seven and five for ten. This means that Count Raymond received his own with usury. Where he had given 10, Romeo repaid him with 7+5=12. When Romeo rendered up his account, he showed the finances of the State to have enormously increased in prosperity. Indi partissi povero e vetusto ; E se il mondo sapesse il cor ch' egli ebbe 140 *sette e cinque per diece: "Ma costui gli assegnò sette e cinque, cioè dodici, per dieci; in sentenza: gli assegnò gran guadagno" (Landino). + mendicando ... a frusto a frusto: While thus describing the imaginary poverty of Romieu, Dante was probably speaking of his own privations and sufferings during the long years of his exile. În Conv. i, 3, ll. 15-33, he says of himself: "Ahi! piaciuto fosse al Dispensatore dell' Universo, che cagione della mia scusa mai non fosse stata; che nè altri contro a me avria fallato, nè io sofferto avrei pena ingiustamente; pena, dico, d'esilio e di povertà. . . . . Per le parti quasi tutte, alle quali questa lingua si stende, peregrino, quasi mendicando, sono andato, mostrando contro a mia voglia la piaga della fortuna, che suole ingiustamente al piagato molte volte volte essere imputata." Assai lo loda,* e più lo loderebbe."— Thereupon he departed poor and stricken in years; Justinian brings his long speech to an end, and this closes the Canto. * Assai lo loda: Scartazzini remarks that the whole account of this Romeo, whether taken from the legends or from history, seems to show him as anything but an ambitious or self-glorifying man. Why then is he placed in the Sphere of Mercury among those who wrought great deeds, but at the same time sought for honour and self-renown? Scartazzini thinks the answer is to be found in the words assai lo loda. While Justinian is the type of those who seek for honour and fame in great deeds, Romeo is instead the type of those who, in the exercise of humility, seek their own glory rather than that of God-in fact, men ambitious in their humility. Dante does not indeed say as much, but implies it by placing among the ambitious this man who is seemingly so humble, and so far from the love of praise and worldly fame. END OF CANTO VI. CANTO VII. SPHERE OF MERCURY (CONCLUDED)—EXPLANATION OF BEA. TRICE RESPECTING THE JUSTICE OF GOD-THE REDEMPTION OF MANKIND-THE DISSOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTS. In the last Canto the spirit of Justinian had said that, by the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God had wrought vengeance for the original sin of Adam. These words leave Dante's mind in a state of great perplexity, and in the present Canto we read how Beatrice, having by her intuitive knowledge divined his doubts, proceeds to dispel them. Benvenuto divides the Canto into three parts. In the First Division, from ver. I to ver. 51, the spirit of Justinian vanishes into a cloud of glory, and Beatrice touches on the first of Dante's doubts. In the Second Division, from ver. 52 to ver. 120, a second doubt arising out of the first is discussed. In the Third Division, from ver. 121 to ver. 148, a third doubt arising out of the second is similarly treated. Division I.-Justinian, in the very act of departing from Dante, breaks forth into a song of praise to the Lord of Hosts, and the Saints around him vanish as they join in the sacred Chorus. The hymn is in Latin, the official tongue of the Christian Church, which tongue is specially used by the Blessed. Some Hebrew words are mixed with the Latin, perhaps because Hebrew was the language of the ancient Church, so that the hymn represents the Church, both before and after Christ. -"Osanna sanctus Deus Sabaoth, Felices ignes horum malachòth ! ” †— Fu viso a me cantare essa sustanza, Mi si velar di subita distanza. "Hosannah sanctus Deus Sabaoth, superillustrans 5 *"Hosannah holy God of Sabaoth, abundantly illuming with thy brightness the blessed fires of these realms!" malachòth: The right Hebrew word is mamlachoth, but Dante, who was ignorant of Hebrew, is said to have copied the word from the Prologus Galeatus of St. Jerome, where he read "malachoth, idest regnorum." doppio lume: The expression "a twofold light is doubled," refers to Justinian as Emperor and as Legislator. In the Proamium to his Institutions he says: "Imperatoriam majestatem non solum armis decoratam, sed etiam legibus oportet esse armatam." § mossero: "Dimostra che le anime di quelle spere si voltano come il cielo con moto circolare, e che per tale moto si allontanano da Dante" (Landino). faville Compare Wisd. iii, 7 (Vulgate): "Fulgebunt justi, et tanquam scintillæ in arundineto discurrent." |