The Heaven of the Fixed Stars continued. The Triumph of Christ.
Milton, Par. Lost, III. 38 :--
"As the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note."
Towards the meridian, where the sun seems to move slower than when nearer the horizon.
Didron, Christ. Iconog., Millington's Tr., I. 308: "The triumph of Christ is, of all subjects, that which has excited the most enthusiasm amongst artists; it is seen in numerous monuments, and is represented both in painting and sculpture, but always with such remarkable modifications as impart to it the character of a new work. The eastern portion of the crypt of the cathedral of Auxerre contains, in the vaulting of that part which corresponds with the sanctuary, a fresco painting, executed about the end of the twelfth century, and representing, in the most simple form imaginable, the triumph of Christ. The background of the picture is intersected by a cross, which, if the transverse branches were a little longer, would be a perfect Greek cross. This cross is adorned with imitations of precious stones, round, oval, and lozenge-shaped, disposed in quincunxes. In the centre is a figure of Christ, on a white horse with a saddle; he holds the bridle in his left hand, and in the right, the hand of power and authority, a black staff, the rod of iron by which he governs the nations. He advances azure or bluish nimbus, intersected by a cross gules; his face is turned towards the spectator. In the four compartments formed by the square in which the cross is enclosed are four angels who form the escort of Jesus ; they are all on horseback, like their master, and with wings outspread; the right hand of each, which is free, is open and raised, in token of adoring admiration. 'And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean.' Such is the language of the Apocalypse, and this the fresco at Auxerre interprets, although with some slight alterations, which it will be well to observe."
See also Purg, XXIX. Note 154.
By the beneficent influences of the stars.
The Moon Trivia is one of the surnames of Diana, given her because she presided over all the places where three roads met.
Purg. XXXI. 106:--
We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are stars."
Iliad, VIII. 550, Anon. Tr. "As when in heaven the beauteous stars appear round the bright moon, when the air is breathless, and all the hills and lofty summits and forests are visible, and in the sky the boundless ether opens, and all the stars are seen, and the shepherd is delighted in his soul."
Christ.
The old belief that the stars were fed by the light of the sun. Milton, Par. Lost, VII. 364:--
" Hither as to their fountain other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light."
And Calderon, El Principe Constante, sonnet in Jor.II.:--
"Those glimmerings of light, those scintillations,
That by supernal influences draw
Their nutriment in splendours from the sun."
Beatrice speaks.
The Muse of harmony. Skelton, Elegy on the Earl of Northumberland, 155:--
"If the hole quere of the musis nyne
In me all onely wer sett and comprisyde,
Enbreathed with the blast of influence dyvyne,
And perfightly as could be thought or promysyde;
To me also allthouche it were promysyde
Of laureat Phebus holy the eloquence,
All were to littill for his magnyficence."
Beatrice speaks again.
The Virgin Mary, Rosa Mundi, Rosa Mystica."
The Apostles, by following whom the good way was found.
Shirley, Death's Final Conquest:--
"Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust."
The struggle between his eyes and the light.
Christ, who had reascended, so that Dante's eyes, too feeble to bear the light of his presence, could now behold the splendour of this "meadow of flowers."
The Rose, or the the Virgin Mary, to whom Beatrice alludes in line 73. Afterwards he hears the hosts of heaven repeat her name, as described in line 110:--
"And all the other lights
Were making to resound the name of Mary."
This greater fire is also the Virgin, greatest of the remaining splendours.
Stella Maris, Stella Matutina, are likewise titles of the Virgin, who surpasses in brightness all other souls in heaven, as she did here on earth.
The Angel Gabriel.
The mystic virtues of the sapphire are thus enumerated by Marbodus in his Lapidarium, King's Antique Gems, p. 395:--
By nature with superior honours graced,
As gem of gems above all others placed;
Health to preserve and treachery to disarm,
And guard the wearer from intended harm.
No envy bends him, and no terror shakes;
The captive's chains its mighty virtue breaks:
The gates fly open, fetters fall away
And send their prisoner to the light o' day.
E'en Heaven is movèd by its force divine
To list to vows presented at its shrine."
Sapphire is the colour in which the old painters arrayed the Virgin, "its hue," says Mr. King, "being the exact shade of the air or atmosphere in the climate of Rome." This is Dante's
"Dolce color d' oriental zaffiro," in Purg. I. 113.
Haggaii. ii 7:,, "The desire of all nations shall come."
The Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven, which infolds all the other volumes or rolling orbs of the universe like a mantle.
Cowley, Hymn to Light:--
Thou Scythian-like dost round thy lands above
The sun's gilt tent for ever move.;
And still as thou in pomp dost go
,
The shining pageants of the world attend thy show."
The Virgin ascending to her son. Fray Luis Ponce de Leon, Assumption of the Virgin:--
"Lady! thine upward flight
The opening heavens receive with joyful song;
Blest who thy mantle bright
May seize amid the throng,
And to the sacred mount float peacefully along!
"Bright angels are around thee,
They that have served thee from thy birth are there;
Their hands with stars have crowned thee;
Thou, peerless Queen of air,
As sandals to thy feet the silver moon dost wear!"
An Easter Hymn to the Virgin:--
"Regina coeli, laetare! Alleluia.
Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia,
Resurrexit, sicut dixit. Alleluia."
This hymn, according to Collin de Plancy, Légendes des Commandements de l'Église, p. 14, Pope Gregory the Great heard the angels singing, in the pestilence of Rome in 890, and on hearing it added another line:--
"Ora pro nobis Deum ! Alleluia."
Caring not for gold and silver in the Babylonian exile of this life, they laid up treasures in the other.
St. Peter, keeper of the keys, with the saints of the Old and New Testament.
Milton, Lycidas, 108:--
"Last came, and last did go,
The pilot of the Galilean lake:
Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain)."
And Fletcher, Purple Island, VII. 62:--
"Not in his lips, but hands, two keys he bore,
Heaven's doors and Hell's to shut and open
wide."