PURGATORY(IX) of THE DIVINE COMEDY BY DANTE ALIGHIERI

Directory:THE DIVINE COMEDY

CANTO IX

ARGUMENT.—Dante is carried up the mountain, asleep and dreaming, by Lucia; and, on awakening, finds himself, two hours after sunrise, with Virgil, near the gate of Purgatory, through which they are admitted by the Angel deputed by St. Peter to keep it.

NOW the fair consort of Tithonus old,

Arisen from her name's beloved arms,

Look'd palely o'er the eastern cliff; her brow,

Lucent with jewels, glitter'd, set in sign

Of that chill animal,〖“Of that chill animal.” The scorpion.〗 who with his train

Smites fearful nations: and where then we were,

Two steps of her ascent the night had past;

And now the third was closing up its wing,〖The third was closing up its wing.” The night being divided into four watches, I think he may mean that the third was past, and the fourth and last was begun, so that there might be some faint glimmering of morning twilight; and not merely, as Lombardi supposes, that the third watch was drawing toward its close, which would still leave an insurmountable difficulty in the first verse.〗

When I, who had so much of Adam with me,

Sank down upon the grass, o'ercome with sleep,

There where all five〖“All five.” Virgil, Dante, Sordello, Nino, and Corrado Malaspina.〗 were seated. In that hour,

When near the dawn the swallow her sad lay,

Remembering haply ancient grief,〖“Remembering haply ancient grief.” Progne having been changed into a swallow after the outrage done her by Tereus.〗 renews;

And when our minds, more wanderers from the flesh,

And less by thought restrain'd are, as 't were, full

Of holy divination in their dreams;

Then, in a vision, did I seem to view

A golden-feather'd eagle in the sky,

With open wings, and hovering for descent;

And I was in that place, methought, from whence

Young Ganymede, from his associates 'reft,

Was snatch'd aloft to the high consistory.

“Perhaps,” thought I within me, “here alone

He strikes his quarry, and elsewhere disdains

To pounce upon the prey.” Therewith, it seem'd,

A little wheeling in his aëry tour,

Terrible as the lightning, rush'd he down,

And snatch'd me upward even to the fire.

There both, I thought, the eagle and myself

Did burn; and so intense the imagined flames,

That needs my sleep was broken off. As erst

Achilles shook himself, and round him roll'd

His waken'd eyeballs, wondering where he was,

Whenas his mother had from Chiron fled

To Scyros, with him sleeping in her arms;

There whence the Greeks did after sunder him;

E'en thus I shook me, soon as from my face

The slumber parted, turning deadly pale,

Like one ice-struck with dread. Sole at my side

My comfort stood: and the bright sun was now

More than two hours aloft: and to the sea

My looks were turn'd. “Fear not,” my master cried,

“Assured we are at happy point. Thy strength

Shrink not, but rise dilated. Thou art come

To Purgatory now. Lo! there the cliff

That circling bounds it. Lo! the entrance there,

Where it doth seem disparted. Ere the dawn

Usher'd the day-light, when thy wearied soul

Slept in thee, o'er the flowery vale beneath

A lady came, and thus bespake me: ‘I

Am Lucia. Suffer me to take this man,

Who slumbers. Easier so his way shall speed.’

Sordello and the other gentle shapes

Tarrying, she bare thee up: and, as day shone,

This summit reach'd: and I pursued her steps.

Here did she place thee. First, her lovely eyes

That open entrance show'd me; then at once

She vanish'd with thy sleep.” Like one, whose doubts

Are chased by certainty, and terror turn'd

To comfort on discovery of the truth,

Such was the change in me: and as my guide

Beheld me fearless, up along the cliff

He moved, and I behind him, toward the height.

Reader! thou markest how my theme doth rise;

Nor wonder therefore, if more artfully

I prop the structure. Nearer now we drew,

Arrived whence, in that part, where first a breach

As of a wall appear'd, I could descry

A portal, and three steps beneath, that led

For inlet there, of different colour each;

And one who watch'd, but spake not yet a word.

As more and more mine eye did stretch its view,

I mark'd him seated on the highest step,

In visage such, as past my power to bear.

Grasp'd in his hand, a naked sword glanced back

The rays so toward me, that I oft in vain

My sight directed. “Speak, from whence ye stand;”

He cried: “What would ye? Where is your escort?

Take heed your coming upward harm ye not.”

“A heavenly dame, not skill-less of these things,”

Replied the instructor, “told us, even now,

‘Pass that way: here the gate is.’”—“And may she,

Befriending, prosper your ascent,” resumed

The courteous keeper of the gate: “Come then

Before our steps.” We straightway thither came.

The lowest stair〖The white step suggests the conscience of the penitent reflecting his offences; the burnt and cracked one, his contrition on their account; the porphyry, the fervor with which he resolves on the future pursuit of piety and virtue.〗 was marble white, so smooth

And polish'd, that therein my mirror'd form

Distinct I saw. The next of hue more dark

Than sablest grain, a rough and singed block,

Crack'd lengthwise and across. The third, that lay

Massy above, seem'd porphyry, that flamed

Red as the life-blood spouting from a vein.

On this God's angel either foot sustain'd,

Upon the threshold seated, which appear'd

A rock of diamond. Up the trinal steps

My leader cheerly drew me. “Ask,” said he,

“With humble heart, that he unbar the bolt.”

Piously at his holy feet devolved

I cast me, praying him for pity's sake

That he would open to me; but first fell

Thrice on my bosom prostrate. Seven times〖“Seven times.” Seven P's, to denote the seven sins (Peccata) of which he was to be cleansed in his passage through Purgatory.〗

The letter, that denotes the inward stain,

He, on my forehead, with the blunted point

Of his drawn sword, inscribed. And “Look,” he cried,

“When enter'd, that thou wash these scars away.”

Ashes, or earth ta'en dry out of the ground,

Were of one colour with the robe he wore.

From underneath that vestment forth he drew

Two keys,〖“Two keys.” Lombardi remarks that painters have usually drawn St. Peter with two keys, the one of gold and the other of silver; but that Niccolo Alemanni, in his Dissertation de Parietinis Lateranensibus, produces instances of his being represented with one key, and with three. We have here, however, not St. Peter, but an angel deputed by him.〗 of metal twain: the one was gold,

Its fellow silver. With the pallid first,

And next the burnish'd he so ply'd the gate,

As to content me well. “Whenever one

Faileth of these, that in the key-hole straight

It turn not, to this alley then expect

Access in vain.” Such were the words he spake.

“One is more precious:〖The golden key denotes the divine authority by which the priest absolves the sinners; the silver, the learning and judgment requisite for the due discharge of that office.〗 but the other needs

Skill and sagacity, large share of each,

Ere its good task to disengage the knot

Be worthily perform'd. From Peter these

I hold, of him instructed that I err

Rather in opening, than in keeping fast;

So but the suppliant at my feet implore.”

Then of that hallow'd gate he thrust the door,

Exclaiming, “Enter, but this warning hear:

He forth again departs who looks behind.”

As in the hinges of that sacred ward

The swivels turn'd, sonorous metal strong,

Harsh was the grating; nor so surlily

Roar'd the Tarpeian, when by force bereft

Of good Metellus, thenceforth from his loss

To leanness doom'd. Attentively I turn'd,

Listening the thunder that first issued forth;

And “We praise thee, O God,” methought I heard,

In accents blended with sweet melody.

The strains came o'er mine ear, e'en as the sound

Of choral voices, that in solemn chant

With organ〖“Organ.” Organs were used in Italy as early as in the sixth century. If I remember rightly there is a passage in the Emperor Julian's writings, which shows that the organ was not unknown in his time.〗 mingle, and now high and clear

Come swelling, now float indistinct away.

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