In this canto is described the ascent to the Third Circle of the mountain. The hour indicated by the peculiarly Dantesque introduction is three hours before sunset, or the beginning of that division of the canonical day called Vespers. Dante states this simple fact with curious circumlocution, as if he would imitate the celestial sphere in this scherzoso movement. The beginning of the day is sunrise ; consequently the end of the third hour, three hours after sun-rise, is represented by an arc of the celestial sphere measuring forty-five degrees. The sun had still an equal space to pass over before his setting. This would make it afternoon in Purgatory, and midnight in Tuscany, where Dante was writing the poem.
From a perpendicular.
Matthew V. 7 : "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy;" --sung by the spirits that remained behind. See Canto XII. Note 110.
Perhaps an allusion to "what the Spirit saith unto the churches," Revelation ii. 7 : "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God" And also the "hidden manna," and the "morning star," and the "white raiment," and the name not blotted "out of the book of life."
Milton, Par.Lost V.71 :--
"Since good the more
Communicated, more abundant grows."
Convito, IV. 20 : "According to the Apostle, 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.' He says then that God only giveth this grace to the soul of him whom he sees to be prepared and disposed in his person to receive this divine act . . . .Whence if the soul is imperfectly placed, it is not disposed to receive this blessed and divine infusion ; as when a pearl is badly disposed, or is imperfect, it cannot receive the celestial virtue, as the noble Guido Guinizzelli says in an ode of his, beginning,
'To noble heart love doth for shelter fly.'
The soul, then, may be ill placed in the person through defect of temperament, or of time ; and in such a soul this divine radiance never shines. And of those whose souls are deprived of this light it may be said that they are like valleys turned toward the north, or like subterranean caverns, where the light of the sun never falls, unless reflected from some other place illuminated by it."
The following are the first two stanzas of Guido's Ode ;-
"To noble heart love doth for shelter fly,
As seeks the bird the forest's leafy shade ;
Love was not felt till noble heart heat high,
Nor before love the noble heart was made ;
Soon as the sun's broad flame
Was formed, so soon the clear light filled
the air,
Yet was not till he came ;
So love springs up in noble breasts, and there
Has its appointed space
As heat in the bright flame finds its allotted place.
"Kindles in noble heart the fire of love,
As hidden virtue in the precious stone :
This virtue comes not from the stars above,
Till round it the ennobling sun has shone ;
But when his powerful blaze
Has drawn forth what was vile, the stars
impart
Strange virtue in their rays ;
And thus when nature doth create the heart
Noble, and pure, and high,
Like virtue from the star, love comes from
woman's eye."
Par. XIV. 40
Its brightness is proportioned to the ardour
The ardour to the vision, and the vision
Equals what grace it has above its merit."
Luke ii. 48 : "And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thou dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing."
The contest between Neptune and Minerva for the right of naming Athens, in which Minerva carried the day by the vote of the women. This is one of the subjects which Minerva wrought in her trial of skill with Arachne. Ovid, Metamorph., VI.
"Pallas in figures wrought the heavenly powers,
And Mars's hill among the Athenian towers.
On lofty thrones twice six celestials sate,
Jove in the midst, and held their warm debate;
The subject weighty, and well known to fame,
From whom the city should receive its name.
Each god by proper features was expressed,
with majestic mien excelled the rest.
His three-forked mace the dewy sea-god shook,
And, looking sternly, smote the ragged rock ;
When from the stone leapt forth a sprightly
steed,
And Neptune claims the city for the deed.
Herself she blazons, with a glittering spear,
And crested helm that veiled her braided hair,
With shield, and scaly breastplate, implements
of war.
Struck with her pointed lance, the teeming earth
Seemed to produce a new, surprising birth ;
Whenfrom the glebe the pledge of conquest sprung,
A tree pale-green with fairest olives hung
Pisistratus, the tyrant of Athens, who used his power so nobly as to make the people forget the usurpation by which he had attained it. Among his good deeds was the collection and preservation of the Homeric poems, which but for him might have perished. He was also the first to found a public library in Athens. This anecdote is told by Valerius Maximus, Fact. ac Dict., VI. I.
The stoning of Stephen. Acts vii. 54: "They gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven. . . .Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. . . . And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ! And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
He recognizes it to be a vision, but not false, because it symbolized the truth.