In this canto Dante, having made confession of his sins, is drawn by Matilda through the river Lethe.
Hitherto Beatrice has directed her discourse to her attendant hand-maidens around the chariot. Now she speaks directly to Dante.
As in a castle or fortress. .
As one fascinated and enamoured with them.
The sword of justice is dulled by the wheel being turned against its edge. This is the usual interpretation; but a friend suggests that the allusion may be to the wheel of St. Catherine, which is studded with sword-blades.
The grief which is the cause of your weeping.
There is a good deal of gossiping among the commentators about this little girl or Pargoletta. Some suppose it to be the same as the Gentucca of Canto XXIV. 37, and the Pargoletta of one of the poems in the Canzoniere, which in Mr. Lyell's translation runs as follows :--
"Ladies, behold a maiden fair, and young;
To you I come heaven's beauty to display,
And manifest the place from whence I am.
In heaven I dwelt, and thither shall return,
Joy to impart to angels with my light.
He who shall me behold nor be enamoured,
Of Love shall never comprehend the charm;
For every pleasing gift was freely given,
When Nature sought the grant of me from him
Who willed that your companion I should be.
Each star upon my eyes its influence sheds,
And with its light and virtue I am blest:
Beauties are mine the world hath never seen,
For I obtained them in the realms above;
And ever must their essence rest unknown,
Unless through consciousness of him in whom
Love shall abide through pleasure of another.
'These words a youthful angel bore inscribed
Upon her brow, whose vision we beheld;
And I, who to find safety gazed on her,
A risk incur that it may cost my life
For I received a wound so deep and wide
From one I saw entrenched within her eyes,
That still I weep, nor peace I since have known."
Others think the allusion is general. The Ottimo says:
"Neither that young woman, whom in his Rime he called Pargoletta, nor that Lisetta, nor that other mountain maiden, nor this one, nor that other." He might have added the lady of Bologna, of whom Dante sings in one of his sonnets:--
"And I may say
That in an evil hour I saw Bologna,
And that fair lady whom I looked upon."
Buti gives a different interpretation of the word pargoletta, making it the same as pargultà or pargolezza, "childishness or indiscretion of youth."
In all this unnecessary confusion one thing is quite evident. As Beatrice is speaking of the past, she could not. possibly allude to Gentucca, who is spoken of as one who would make Lucca pleasant to Dante at some future time:--
"'A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,'
Began he, 'who to thee shall pleasant make
My city, howsoever men may blame it.,',
Upon the whole, the interpretation of the Ottimo is the most satisfactory, or at all events the least open to objection.
Proverbs i. 17: "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird."
Iarbas, king of Gaetulia, from whom Dido bought the land for building Carthage.
The angels described in Canto XXX. 20, as"Scattering flowers above and round about."
Only six hours, according to Adam's own account in Par., XXI. 139 :--
"Upon the mount which highest o'er the wave
Rises was I, with life or pure or sinful,
From the first hour to that which is the second,
As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth."
Matilda, described in Canto XXVIII. 40:--
"A lady all alone, who went along< BR>
Singing and culling floweret after floweret,
With which her pathway was all painted
over."
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, the river without a bridge:-- "Now I further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river; but there was no bridge to go over: the river was very deep. At the sight therefore of this river, the pilgrims were much stunned; but the men that went with them said, 'You must go through, or you cannot come at the gate.' . . . .
"They then addressed themselves to the water, and entering, Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, 'I sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head, all his waves go over me. Selah.' . . . .
"Now upon the bank of the river, on the other side, they saw the two shining men again, who there waited for them. Wherefore being come out of the river, they saluted them, saying, 'We are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those that shall be heirs of salvation.'
Psalms li. 7: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."
104. The four attendant Nymphs on the left of the triumphal chariot. See Canto XXIX. 130:--
"Upon the left hand four made holiday
Vested in purple."
. 106. See Canto I. Note 23.
III. These four Cardinal Virtues lead to Divine Wisdom, but the three Evangelical Virtues quicken the sight to penetrate more deeply into it.
Standing upon the chariot still; she does not alight till line 36 of the next canto.
The colour of Beatrice's eyes has not been passed over in silence by the commentators. Lani, in his Annotazioni, says: "They were of a greenish blue, like the colour of the sea." Mechior Messirini, who thought he had discovered a portrait of Beatrice as old as the fourteenth century, affirms that she had "splendid brown eyes." Dante here calls them emeralds; upon which the Ottimo comments thus: "Dante very happily introduces this precious stone, considering its properties, and considering that griffins watch over emeralds. The emerald is the prince of all green stones; no gem nor herb has greater greenness; it reflects an image like a mirror; increases wealth; is useful in litigation and to orators; is good for convulsions and epilepsy; preserves and strengthens the sight; restrains lust; restores memory; is powerful against phantoms and demons; calms tempests; stanches blood, and is useful to soothsayers."
The beauty of green eyes, ojuelos verdes, is extolled by Spanish poets; and is not left unsung by poets of other countries. Lycophron in his "tenebrous poem" of Cassandra, says of Achilles:--
"Lo! the warlike eagle come,
Green of eye, and black of plume."
And in one of the old French Mysteries. Hist. Théat. Franc., I. 176, Joseph describes the child Jesus as having
"Les yeulx vers, Ia chair blanche et tendre
Les cheveulx blonds."
Monster is here used in the sense of marvel or prodigy.
Now as an eagle, now as a lion. The two natures, divine and human, of Christ are reflected in Theology, or Divine Wisdom. Didron, who thinks the Griffin a symbol of the Pope, applies this to his spiritual and temporal power:
"As priest he is the eagle floating in the air; as king he is a lion walking on the earth."
The Italian Caribo, like the English Carol or Roundelay, is both song and dance. Some editions read in this line "singing," instead of "dancing."