A mystical canto, in which is described the tree of the forbidden fruit, and other wonderful and mysterious things.
Beatrice had been dead ten years.
Goethe, Hermann and Dorothea, Cochrane's Tr., p. 103:--
"Ev'n as the wanderer, who, ere the sun dips his orb in the ocean,
One last look still takes of the day-god, fast
disappearing;
Then, amid rocks rnde-piled, umbrageous
forests, and copsewoods,
Sees his similitude float, wherever he fixes his
vision;
Finding it glancing before him, and dancing in magical colours."
A disfrenata saetta, an uncurbed arrow, like that which Pandarus shot at Menelaus, Iliad, IV. 124: "The sharp-pointed arrow sprang forth, eager to rush among the crowd."
Genesis ii. 16: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."
Some commentators suppose that Dante's mystic tree is not only the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but also a symbol of the Roman Empire.
Virgil, Georgics, II. 123: "The groves which India, nearer the ocean, the utmost skirts of the globe, produces, where no arrows by their flight have been able to surmount the airy summit of the tree; and yet that nation is not slow at archery."
Christ's renunciation of temporal power.
The pole of the chariot, which was made of this tree, he left bound to the tree. Buti says : "This chariot represents the Holy Church, which is the congregation of the faithful, and the pole of this chariot is the cross of Christ, which he bore upon his shoulders, so that the author well represents him as dragging the pole with his neck." The statement that the cross was made of the tree of knowledge, is founded on an old legend. When Adam was dying, he sent his son Seth to the Garden of Paradise to bring him some drops of the oil of the mercy of God. The angel at the gate refused him entrance, but gave him a branch from the tree of knowledge, and told him to plant it upon Adam's grave; and that, when it should bear fruit, then should Adam receive the oil of God's mercy. The branch grew into a tree, but never bore fruit till the passion of Christ; but "of a branch of this tree and of other wood," says Buti, "the cross was made, and from that branch was suspended such sweet fruit as the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then Adam and other saints had the oil of mercy, inasmuch as they were taken from Limbo and led by Christ into eternal life."
In the month of February, when the sun is in the constellation of the Fishes. Dante here gives it the title of the Lasca, the Roach or Mullet.
The red and white of the apple-blossoms is symbolical of the blood and water which flowed from the wound in Christ's side. At least so thinks Vellutelli.
Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III, 226, says: "Some three arrow-flights farther up into the wood we come to a tall tree, which is at first barren, but, after some little time, visibly opens into flowers, of a colour 'less than that of roses, but more than that of violets.' It certainly would not be possible, in words, to come nearer to the definition of the exact hue which Dante meant, --that of the apple-blossom. Had he employed any simple colour-phrase, as a 'pale pink,' or 'violet pink,' or any other such combined expression, he still could not have completely got at the delicacy of the hue; he might perhaps have indicated its kind, but not its tenderness; but by taking the rose-leaf as the type of the delicate red, and then enfeebling this with the violet gray, he gets, as closely as language can carry him, to the complete rendering of the vision, though it is evidently felt by him to be in its perfect beauty ineffable; and rightly so felt, for of all lovely things which grace the spring-time in our fair temperate zone, I am not sure but this blossoming of the apple-tree is the fairest."
The eyes of Argus, whom Mercury lulled asleep by telling him the story of Syrinx, and then put to death.
Ovid, Met., I., Dryden's Tr.:--
"While Hermes piped, and sung, and told his
tale,
The keeper's winking eyes began to fail,
And drowsy slumber on the lids to creep
Till all the watchman was at length asleep.
Then soon the god his voice and song supprest,
And with his powerful rod confirmed his rest;
Without delay his crooked falchion drew,
And at one fatal stroke the keeper slew."
The Transfiguration. The passage in the Song of Solomon, ii. 3, "As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons," is interpreted as referring to Christ; and Dante here calls the Transfiguration the blossoming of that tree.
Matthew xvii. 5: "While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and, behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only."
Matilda.
The seven Virtues holding the seven golden candlesticks, or the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
. The descent of the eagle upon the tree is interpreted by Buti as tile persecution of the Christians by the Emperors. The rending of the bark of the tree is the "breaking down of the constancy and fortitude of holy men"; the blossoms are 'virtuous examples or prayers," and the new leaves, "the virtuous deeds that holy men had begun to do, and which were interrupted by these persecutions."
Buti says: "This descent of the eagle upon the chariot, and the smiting it, mean the persecution of the Holy Church and of the Christians by the Emperors, as appears in the chronicles down to the time of Constantine."
The fox is Heresy.
The gift of Constantine to the Church. Inf. XIX. 125:--
Ah, Constantine of how much woe was mother,
Not thy conversion, but that marriage-dower
Which the first wealthy Father took from
thee!"
Mahomet. Revelation xii. 3:
"And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and, behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth."
These seven heads, say the Ottimo and others, "denote the seven deadly sins." But Biagioli, following Buti, says: "There is no doubt that these heads and the horns represent the same that we have said in Canto XIX. of the Inferno; namely, the ten horns, the Ten Commandments of God; and the seven heads, the Seven Sacraments of the Church." Never was there a wider difference of interpretation. The context certainly favours the first.
Pope Boniface the Eighth.
Philip the Fourth France. For his character see Canto XX. Note 43.
This alludes to the maltreatment of Boniface by the troops of Philip at Alagna. See Canto XX. Note 87.
The removal of the Papal See from Rome to Avignon. The principal points of the allegory of this canto may be summed up as follows. The triumphal chariot, the Church; the seven Nymphs, the Virtues Cardinal and Evangelical ; the seven candlesticks, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; the tree of knowledge, Rome; the Eagle, the Imperial power ; the Fox, heresy; the Dragon, Mahomet ; the shameless whore, Pope Boniface the Eighth; and the giant, Philip the Fair of France.