E se il mondo laggiù ponesse mente Al fondamento che natura pone, Ma voi torcete alla religïone Tal che fia nato a cingersi la spada, E fate re di tal ch'è da sermone; Onde la traccia vostra è fuor di strada."— Now that which was behind thee (i.e. hidden) is before thee (manifested); but that thou mayest know that I take pleasure in (conversing with) thee, I will have a corollary (i.e. a supplement) to enmantle thee further (i.e. complete thy erudition). Ever will nature, if she finds a destiny discordant to her, even as every other seed out of its proper climate, come to evil proof (i.e. earns a sad experience). And if the world there below would bear in mind the foundation that Nature lays (namely, the disposition inspired by heavenly influences), seconding it, it would have its inhabitants virtuous. But ye wrest aside to monastic life (alla religione) such a one as shall have been born to gird on the sword, and ye make a king of one who is (only) fit for preaching; therefore are your footsteps outside of the right road (namely, that of Nature)." + 145 Charles Martel's next eldest brother Louis abdicated Virtualmente, ch'ogni abito destro Fatto averebbe in lui mirabil prova." *Seguendo lui: "Ecco l' Educazione richiamata alla via della natura. Rousseau lo fece in apparenza, e in parola ; poichè realmente la natura da lui incoronata è monca, imperfetta, e ideale. Il consiglio che dà qui Dante è eccellente e practico, e nessuno può contestare la necessità di adoperarlo" (Gioberti). "The wisdom of God hath divided the genius of men according to the different affairs of the world; and varied their inclinations according to the variety of actions to be performed therein. Which they who consider not, rudely rushing upon professions and ways of life unequal to their natures, dishonour not only themselves and their functions, but prevent the harmony of the whole world" (Browne, on Vulgar Errors, b. i, ch. 5). his princely rights, professed the vows of the Frati Minori, and entered the priesthood. Robert, though king, wrote sermons. Villani (xii, 10) terms him a great master of theology; so the allusion here is both to Robert, and also to Louis. END OF CANTO VIII. CANTO IX. SPHERE OF VENUS (CONCLUDED)-SPIRITS RAHAB DENUNCIATION OF PAPAL DANTE and Beatrice have not yet broken off their conversation with Charles Martel, but are on the point of doing so. Benvenuto divides the Canto into three parts. In the First Division, from ver. I to ver. 66, Dante relates the departure of Charles Martel and his interview with Cunizza da Romano. In the Second Division, from ver. 67 to ver. 108, Folco of Marseilles takes the place of Cunizza, and discourses with Dante. In the Third Division, from ver. 109, to ver. 142, Folco tells Dante that the spirit at his side is Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, and contrasts her zeal in the cause of God in helping Joshua to get his first footing in the Holy Land, with the indifference of Pope Boniface VIII, who is content to see that Blessed Country in the hands of the infidels. Division I.-There is much debate among the Commentators as to the identity of the royal lady whom Dante apostrophizes as "beauteous Clemence!" Among those commentaries which I have examined, thirteen are of opinion that the lady addressed is Charles Martel's wife, the daughter of Rudolph of Hapsburg, while thirteen others think she is Charles Martel's daughter, the wife of Louis X, of France. Although these opinions are so equally balanced, I have no hesitation in deciding for Charles Martel's wife. The words in the first line, Carlo tuo, seem to me perfectly inadmissible to any relation except to a wife, a sister, or a lover, nor can I understand how any Italian can get over that objection. The chief argument in favour of the daughter is, that the wife is said to have died in 1301 (according to others 1295), before the poem actually was written, but against that Those in favour of Charles Martel's wife are: Benvenuto, Pietro di Dante, Talice da Ricaldone, the Falso Boccaccio, Serravalle, Tommaséo, Fraticelli, Camerini, De Gubernatis; and of translators into English, Longfellow, Butler, Plumptre, and Haselfoot. Poletto, who is doubtful, seems rather to side with the above Commentators than with those who are decided as to its being Charles Martel's daughter who is addressed. These latter are Lana, Anon. Fiorentino, Buti, Landino, Daniello, Lubin, Cesari, Andreoli, Scartazzini, Cornoldi, Brunone Bianchi, Casini, and Cary. Some Commentators identify Clemence with the mother of Charles Martel, but that is palpably wrong, as she was Mary of Hungary. Benvenuto writes: "unde (auctor) dirigens sermonem ad Clementiam uxorem Caroli, dicit: O bella Clemenza, quæ fuit pulcra et pudica, et digna tali viro." And Pietro di Dante: "Continuando se auctor ad precedentia, apostrophando ad reginam Clementiam uxorem dicti Karoli, et filiam regis Alberti (Rodulphi) de Austria, quae audita morte dicti sui viri, mortua est pro dolore... ut in textu patet." Talice says: "apostrophando ad uxorem istius Karoli Martelli, filiam Rodulphi." And the Falso Boccaccio: "laltore si muove parlando inverso ladonna cheffu moglie dicharlo martello la quale ebbe nome clemenza." Fraticelli writes positively: "Questa Clemenza, a cui il Poeta volge il discorso, non è la figlia di Carlo Martello, come hanno creduto i commentatori, poichè nel 1300 non contava ella che sei o sette anni d' età, ma bensì la sua sposa, chiamata pur essa Clemenza." view I quote Haselfoot: "The style of the address seems to indicate that it is the wife; who, though dead when the poem was written, was alive at the time of its supposed action (1300). She died in 1301." Dean Plumptre says that Charles Martel's wife was known to Dante in the beauty of her youth, and her daughter . . . was probably not so known. Besides, as Longfellow remarks, at the date of the poem, the daughter was only six or seven years old. To me the impossibility of using the term "thy Charles," when speaking to a daughter of her father, is absolutely conclusive. I admit that, supposing Dante really to have written the Paradiso about 1318 or 1319, Clemence the daughter would have been about twenty-five years of age, but no matter what her age, I cannot believe that a writer, so correct as Dante, would, in addressing a daughter, have mentioned her father to her as "thy Charles." Dante begins by alluding to the wrongs sustained by Clemence (the wife), in that her father-in-law, Charles II, the Lame, at his death in 1309, bequeathed the Kingdom of Naples to his third son Robert Duke of Calabria, thus dispossessing Carobert, son of Charles Martel and Clemence. He tells her, however, that to her only does he utter these words of sympathy, because the spirit of her husband, before melting away into the heavenly radiance around him, had charged Dante to keep silence, and allow events to run their natural course, and that in coming years her wrongs would surely be avenged. Dante then gives way to an explosion of wrath against those who apply their thoughts to the vanities of the world, instead of allow |