CANTO VI. phrases purposely so, as to challenge doubt and discussion as to their final doom a mode of writing both philosophically sceptical in itself, and sufficiently familiar to his style; being somewhat akin to what we already observed in the case of Francesca da Rimini (1). This desire that Ciacco is made to express, of being remembered on earth, were alone sufficient proof that it was not intended to represent him as vile. If Mr. Ginguené thought this Canto inferior to the preceding, it was, perhaps, because he did not understand it (2). It must have been a conscious. ness of having been, not despised, but beloved and courted during life, as an aimable private gentleman, that instigated Ciacco's wish to be recollected: his inoffensive manners were no slight recommendation in that desperate age; and his luxurious habits, not having betrayed him into any consummate iniquities, would have scarcely merited reprehension, if it were not for example's sake in a republic not to be upheld without prudence and sobriety; virtues that were already on the decline in Florence, and on whose final disappearance that free city was to be enslaved by one of its own subjects -a plebeian merchant soon. (1) Hell, Comment, Canto v. p. 335. (2) Ce Chant est très-inférieur aux précédents. Hist. Litt. d'Italie. Vol. 2. p. 53. SANTO VI. swelled into a Ducal one. Dante ill performed this request of preserving Ciacco's memory; whether from judging further explanation superfluous with regard to a man well known, or from tenderness to the individual, or from a belief that the satire would be more generally useful by being less particularly applied (1). Alfieri remarks (and with good reason) that in the original the rhythm of this tiercet is very imitative of the drowsy fall it describes. We are to recollect Ciacco was only sitting, not standing, up. The abrupt exclamation of Virgil is surely sublime; and as such, equally beyond praise and controversy, it is pointed out by M. Merian (2). “ I willingly apply to the poet himself' (writes a French reviewer) his own magnificent verse:' for strains, that are fated to live eternally, may be well pronounced · (1) I find the very same reasons for the selection of Ciacco in the Ouimo perchè fu di leggiadri costumi, molto famoso in delectatione, e di belli motti. Such a character may be reprehended by a rigid republican and moralist, but what has it to merit M. Ginguené's vile? (2) Mem. de l'Acad. de Berlin. 1784. (3) J'applique volontiers à Dante lui même sou vers sublime: Udirà quel che in eterno rimbomba. Journal des Savans. Nov. 1818. P. CV. CANTO VI. There is something so gloomy in the idea of the eternal separation of a pair who had been long united most closely, that men (without any refe rence to the comparative veracity of their creeds) seem to have agreed in considering it unnatural : and the Platonists, Pythagoreans, Magi, and endless varieties of idolators, as well as Christians, speak of the body and soul being destined to meet again after their separation. It is indeed hard to convince ourselves, either of our own parting for ever from our present form, or of those we hold dear from theirs; and even if it were not a difficult, it would be a melancholy persuasion. But, in truth, what is melancholy is usually difficult; and what we sincerely wish, we readily believe: so we continue to cherish the soothing doc Whether Mr. Cary intended to make this voice of the Eternal, instead of echoing thoughout illimitable space, have the specific effect of rending the vaults of the dead, I do not know: but his version bears that aspect "And hear the eternal doom re-echoing rend The vault". - and it is not certainly the figure given by Dante, nor (in my opinion) half so majestic as his. How poor is doom instead of His quel! For I translate verbatim shall hear Him who echoes through eternity: ' making quel mean colui, or Iddio ( God), and not quel suono which last word is considered by some commentators as understood but unnecessarily and, I think, most injudiciously. If quel refers to suono, the indicative (rimbomba ) must be put for the future, rimbomberà; but apply it as I do, and the words are to be construed precisely as they are written. CANTO VI trine, that, though death separates us from that oldest of our friends, the body, with whose pains we had sympathized and whose imperfections we had borne, we shall again find it; and rejoice that it has become incapable of suffering, and of more prompt and faithful service than ever. It will then be without murmuring (what it ought always to be) subservient to the spirit: and such an expectation the spirit may indulge when disrobing here below; and, though on flight towards beatitude, may linger for a moment to cast a look on its terrene brother; and, losing his present abjection in a clear foresight of his future glory, and the sorrow of farewell in the joyfulness of an endless meeting, it without affectation or offence, be repre may, sented as saluting him in the words of a fine imitator of Dante: Rest in 'Rest in peace, dear companion of my woes and toils, until the great day when the majestic trumpet shall summon thee to arise! In the mean while, light be the turf about thee; gentle and pious, be the breezes and show, ers; and far be it from any passer-by to visit thee with an unkind word (1).' Whether, on their reu (1) Poscia l'ultimo sguardo al corpo affisse, Dormi in pace, dicendo, o di mie pene Lieve intanto la terra, e dolci e pie Ti sian l'aure e le pioggie, e a te non dica La Morte di Bass-ville. Canto 1. CANTO VI. nion, the virtuous and beautiful spirit shall employ itself in beautifying its corporeal consort, and receive an increase of felicity from the occupation, is a speculation that will always interest mankind: although the shape in which we should put it may occasionally require changing; for fashion is often capricious in the dress, without alteration of the substance, of things. It is this same question which Dante starts (under a different form) when he asks, whether the evil spirit shall suffer more intensely when finding itself anew in conjunction with the body? For if this latter be demonstrated affirmatively, the former is so too. The spirit that is beautiful and virtuous will go on eternally increasing in beauty and virtue; and the deformed and wicked, in deformity and vice: the former will be always aspiring and attaining to higher beatitude; and the latter voluntarily (at least so Origen, as well as Dante held (1)) sinking into profounder misery. If the bodies of these are to partake of their immortal abjection, it follows that the bodies of those shall partake of their immortality, light, and bliss. Q. GX. It is an axiom of the Peripatetics that every animal in proportion as it reaches perfection is more sensible to joy, aud therefore to sorrow like (1) Hell, Comment, Canto ur. p. 216. |