As to the good, whose plenitude of bliss
Sufficeth all. O ye misguided souls!
Infatuate, who from such a good estrange
Your hearts, and bend your gaze on vanity,
Alas for you!-And lo! toward me, next,
Another of those splendent forms approach'd,
That, by its outward brightening, testified
The will it had to pleasure me.
The eyes
Of Beatrice, resting, as before,
Firmly upon me, manifested forth

Approval of my wish. "And O," I cried,
"Blest spirit! quickly be my will perform'd;
And prove thou to me1, that my inmost thoughts
I can reflect on thee." Thereat the light,
That yet was new to me, from the recess,
Where it before was singing, thus began,
As one who joys in kindness: "In that part 2
Of the depraved Italian land, which lies
Between Rialto and the fountain-springs
Of Brenta and of Piava, there doth rise,
But to no lofty eminence, a hill,

From whence erewhile a firebrand did descend,
That sorely shent the region.

From one root

I and it sprang; my name on earth Cunizza3:
And here I glitter, for that by its light

This star o'ercame me. Yet I nought repine*,

Prove thou to me.] The thoughts of all created minds being seen by the Deity, and all that is in the Deity being the object of vision to beatified spirits, such spirits must consequently see the thoughts of all created minds. Dante therefore requests of the spirit, who now approaches him, a proof of this truth with regard to his own thoughts. See v. 70. 2 In that part.] Between Rialto in the Venetian territory, and the sources of the rivers Brenta and Piava, is situated a castle called Romano, the birth-place of the famous tyrant Ezzolino or Azzolino, the brother of Cunizza who is now speaking. The tyrant we have seen in "the river of blood." Hell, Canto xii. v. 110. 3 Cunizza.] The adventures of Cunizza, overcome by the influence of her star, are related by the chronicler Rolandino of Padua, lib. i. cap. 3, in Muratori, Rer. It. Script. tom. viii. p. 173. She eloped from her first husband, Richard of St. Boniface, in the company of Sordello, (see Purg. Canto vi. and vii.) with whom she is supposed to have cohabited before her marriage: then lived with a soldier of Trevigi, whose wife was living at the same time in the same city; and on his being murdered by her brother the tyrant, was by her brother married to a nobleman of Braganzo: lastly, when he also had fallen by the same hand, she, after her brother's death, was again wedded in Verona. Yet I nought repine.] "I am not dissatisfied that I am not allotted a higher place.'

Nor grudge myself the cause of this my lot:
Which haply vulgar hearts can scarce conceive.
"This jewel, that is next me in our heaven,
Lustrous and costly, great renown hath left,
And not to perish, ere these hundred years
Five times 2 absolve their round. Consider thou,
If to excel be worthy man's endeavour,

When such life may attend the first3. Yet they
Care not for this, the crowd that now are girt
By Adice and Tagliamento, still

Impenitent, though scourged. The hour is near 5
When for their stubbornness, at Padua's marsh
The water shall be changed, that laves Vicenza.
And where Cagnano meets with Sile, one
Lords it, and bears his head aloft, for whom
The web is now a-warping. Feltro 8 too
Shall sorrow for its godless shepherd's fault,
Of so deep stain, that never, for the like,

1 This.] Folco of Genoa, a celebrated Provençal poet, commonly termed Folques of Marseilles, of which place he was perhaps bishop. Many errors of Nostradamus, concerning him, which have been followed by Crescimbeni, Quadrio, and Millot, are detected by the diligence of Tiraboschi. Mr. Mathias's edit. v. i. p. 18. All that appears certain, is what we are told in this Canto, that he was of Genoa; and by Petrarch, in the Triumph of Love, c. iv. that he was better known by the appellation he derived from Marseilles, and at last assumed the religious habit. One of his verses is cited by Dante, De Vulg. Eloq. lib. iii. c. 6. 2 Five times.] The five hundred years are elapsed and unless the Provençal MSS. should be brought to light, the poetical reputation of Folco must rest on the mention made of him by the more fortunate Italians. What I scarcely ventured to hope at the time this note was written, has been accomplished by the great learning and diligence of M. Raynouard. See his Choix des Poésies des Troubadours and Lexique Roman, in which Folques and his Provençal brethren are awakened into the second life augured to them by our Poet. 3 When such life may attend the first.] When the mortal life of man may be attended by so lasting and glorious a memory, which is a kind of second life. The crowd.] The

people who inhabited the tract of country bounded by the river Tagliamento to the east and Adice to the west. 5 The hour is near.] Cunizza foretels the defeat of Giacopo da Carrara and the Paduans, by Can Grande, at Vicenza, on the 18th September, 1314. See G. Villani, lib. ix, cap. lxii.

which he is destined to fall.

One.] She predicts also the fate of Riccardo da Camino, who is said to have been murdered at Trevigi, (where the rivers Sile and Cagnano meet,) while he was engaged in playing at chess. The web.] The net, or snare, into 8 Feltro.] The Bishop of Feltro having received a number of fugitives from Ferrara, who were in opposition to the Pope, under a promise of protection, afterwards gave them up; so that they were reconducted to that city, and the greater part of them there put to death,

Was Malta's bar unclosed.

Too large should be

The skillet2 that would hold Ferrara's blood,

4

And wearied he, who ounce by ounce would weigh it,
The which this priest3, in show of party-zeal,
Courteous will give; nor will the gift ill suit
The country's custom. We descry above
Mirrors, ye call them thrones, from which to us
Reflected shine the judgments of our God:
Whence these our sayings we avouch for good."
She ended; and appear'd on other thoughts
Intent, re-entering on the wheel she late
Had left. That other joyance meanwhile wax'd
A thing to marvel at 6, in splendour glowing,
Like choicest ruby7 stricken by the sun.
For, in that upper clime, effulgence comes
Of gladness, as here laughter: and below,
As the mind saddens, murkier grows the shade.
"God seeth all: and in him is thy sight,"
Said I, "blest spirit! Therefore will of his
Cannot to thee be dark. Why then delays
Thy voice to satisfy my wish untold ;

That voice, which joins the inexpressive song,

1 Malta's.] A tower, either in the citadel of Padua, which, under the tyranny of Ezzolino, had been "with many a foul and midnight murder fed;" or (as some say) near a river of the same name, that falls into the lake of Bolsena, in which the Pope was accustomed to imprison such as had been guilty of an irremissible sin. 2 The skillet.] The blood shed could not be contained in such a vessel, if it were of the usual size. 3 This priest.] The bishop, who, to show himself a zealous partizan of the Pope, had committed the above-mentioned act of treachery. The commentators are not agreed as to the name of this faithless prelate. Troya calls him Alessandra Novello, and relates the circumstances at full. Veltro Allegorico, p. 139. 4 We descry.] "We behold the things that we predict, in the mirrors of eternal truth. That other joyance.] Folco. 6 A thing to marvel at.] Preclara cosa. A Latinism according to Venturi; but the word "preclara " had been already naturalised by Guido Guinicelli:

Oro ed argento e ricche gioje preclare.

See the sonnet, of which a version has been given in a note to Purg. Canto xi. v. 96. Choicest ruby.] Balascio.

No saphire in Inde no rube rich of grace

There lacked then, nor emeraude so green,
Bales.

Chaucer, The Court of Love. Mr. Tyrwhitt, I should suppose erroneously as to the sense at least intended by Chaucer, calls it "a sort of bastard ruby." 8 Effulgence.] As joy is expressed by laughter on earth, so is it by an increase of splendour in Paradise; and, on the contrary, grief is betokened in Hell by augmented darkness.

Pastime of heaven, the which those ardours sing,
That cowl them with six shadowing wings outspread?
I would not wait thy asking, wert thou known
To me, as throughly I to thee am known."

He, forthwith answering, thus his words began:
"The valley of waters 2, widest next to that3
Which doth the earth engarland, shapes its course,
Between discordant shores, against the sun
Inward so far, it makes meridian 5 there,
Where was before the horizon. Of that vale
Dwelt I upon the shore, 'twixt Ebro's stream
And Macra's, that divides with passage brief
Genoan bounds from Tuscan. East and west
Are nearly one to Begga7 and my land

8

Whose haven erst was with its own blood warm.
Who knew my name, were wont to call me Folco;
And I did bear impression of this heaven",
That now bears mine: for not with fiercer flame
Glow'd Belus' daughter 10, injuring alike

Sichæus and Creusa, than did I,

1 Six shadowing wings.] "Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings." Isaiah, vi. 2. Ante majestatis ejus gloriam cherubim senas habentes alas semper adstantes non cessant clamare, sanctus, sanctus, sanctus. Alberici Visio, § 39.

six wings he wore to shade His lineaments divine.

Milton, P. L. b. v. 278. 2 The valley of waters.] The Mediterranean sea. 3 That.] The great ocean. 4 Discordant shores.] Europe and Africa. 5 Meridian.] Extending to the east, the Mediterranean at last reaches the coast of Palestine, which is on its horizon when it enters the Straits of Gibraltar. "Wherever a man is," says Vellutello, "there he has, above his head, his own particular meridian circle."

6 -'Twixt Ebro's stream

And Macra's.] Ebro, a river to the west, and Macra, to the east of Genoa where Folco was born; others think that Marseilles and not Genoa is here described; and then Ebro must be understood of the river in Spain. Begga.] A place in Africa. 8 Whose haven.] Alluding to the terrible slaughter of the Genoese made by the Saracens in 936; for which event Vellutello refers to the history of Augustino Giustiniani. Those, who conceive that our Poet speaks of Marseilles, suppose the slaughter of its inhabitants made in the time of Julius Cæsar to be alluded to. It must however have been Genoa, as that place, and not Marseilles, lies opposite to Buggea or Begga on the African coast. Fazio degli Uberti describes Buggea as looking towards Majorca.

Vidi Buggea che vè di grande loda;
Questa nel mare Maiorica guata.

Dittamondo, 1. v. cap. 6. This heaven.] The planet Venus, by which Folco declares himself to 10 Belus' daughter.] Dido.

have been formerly influenced.

Long as it suited the unripen'd down

That fledged my cheek; nor she of Rhodope1,
That was beguiled of Demophoon ;

Nor Jove's son 2, when the charms of Iole

Were shrined within his heart. And yet there bides
No sorrowful repentance here, but mirth,

Not for the fault, (that doth not come to mind,)
But for the virtue, whose o'erruling sway

And providence have wrought thus quaintly. Here
The skill is look'd into, that fashioneth

4

With such effectual working 3, and the good
Discern'd, accruing to the lower world
From this above. But fully to content
Thy wishes all that in this sphere have birth,
Demands my further parle. Inquire thou wouldst,
Who of this light is denizen, that here

Beside me sparkles, as the sun-beam doth

On the clear wave.

Know then, the soul of Rahab 5

Is in that gladsome harbour; to our tribe
United, and the foremost rank assign'd.

She to this heaven, at which the shadow ends
Of
your sublunar world, was taken up,

First, in Christ's triumph, of all souls redeem'd:
For well behoved, that, in some part of heaven,
She should remain a trophy, to declare

The mighty conquest won with either palm7;
For that she favour'd first the high exploit
Of Joshua on the holy land, whereof

8

The Pope recks little now. Thy city, plant

1 She of Rhodope.] Phyllis. 2 Jove's son.] Hercules. 3 With such effectual working.] All the editions, except the Nidobeatina, do not, as Lombardi affirms, read " contanto; " for Vellutello's of 1544 is certainly one exception. 4 To the lower world.] I have altered my former translation here, in compliance with a reading adopted by Lombardi from the Nidobeatina; Perche'l mondo instead of Perche al mondo. But the passage is still obscure. 5 Rahab.] Heb. xi. 31. This heaven.] "This planet of Venus, at which the shadow of the earth ends, as Ptolemy writes in his Almagest." Vellutello. With either palm.] By both his hands nailed to the cross. The Pope.] "Who cares not that the holy land is in the possession of the Saracens." See also Canto xv. 136.

Ite superbi, O miseri Christiani

Consumando l'un l'altro; e non vi caglia
Che 'l sepolcro di Cristo è in man di cani.

Petrarca, Trionfo della Fama, cap. ii.