| |
| O FOND anxiety of mortal men! | |
| How vain and inconclusive arguments | |
| Are those, which make thee beat thy wings below. | |
| For statutes one, and one for aphorisms 1 | |
| Was hunting; this the priesthood follow’d; that, | 5 |
| By force or sophistry, aspired to rule; | |
| To rob, another; and another sought, | |
| By civil business, wealth; one, moiling, lay | |
| Tangled in net of sensual delight; | |
| And one to wistless indolence resign’d; | 10 |
| What time from all these empty things escaped, | |
| With Beatrice, I thus gloriously | |
| Was raised aloft, and made the guest of Heaven. | |
| They of the circle to that point, each one, | |
| Where erst it was, had turn’d; and steady glow’d, | 15 |
| As candle in his socket. Then within | |
| The lustre, 2 that erewhile bespake me, smiling | |
| With merer gladness, heard I thus begin: | |
| “E’en as His beam illumes me, so I look | |
| Into the Eternal Light, and clearly mark | 20 |
| Thy thoughts, from whence they rise. Thou art in doubt, | |
| And wouldst, that I should bolt my words afresh | |
| In such plain open phrase, as may be smooth | |
| To thy perception, where I told thee late | |
| That ‘well they thrive’; 3 and that ‘no second such 4 | 25 |
| Hath risen,’ which no small distinction needs. | |
| “The Providence, that governeth the world, | |
| In depth of counsel by created ken | |
| Unfathomable, to the end that she, 5 | |
| Who with loud cries was ’spoused in precious blood, | 30 |
| Might keep her footing toward her well-beloved, 6 | |
| Safe in herself and constant unto Him, | |
| Hath two ordain’d, who should on either hand | |
| In chief escort her: one, 7 seraphic all | |
| In fervency; for wisdom upon earth, | 35 |
| The other, 8 splendour of cherubic light. | |
| I but of one will tell: he tells of both, | |
| Who one commendeth, which of them soe’er | |
| Be taken: for their deeds were to one end. | |
| “Between Tupino, 9 and the wave that falls | 40 |
| From blest Ubaldo’s chosen hill, there hangs | |
| Rich slope of mountain high, whence heat and cold 10 | |
| Are wafted through Perugia’s eastern gate: | |
| And Nocera with Gualdo, in its rear, | |
| Mourn for their heavy yoke. 11 Upon that side, | 45 |
| Where it doth break its steepness most, arose | |
| A sun upon the world, as duly this | |
| From Ganges doth: therefore let none, who speak | |
| Of that place, say Ascesi; for its name | |
| Were lamely so deliver’d; but the East, | 50 |
| To call things rightly, be it henceforth styled. | |
| He was not yet much distant from his rising, | |
| When his good influence ’gan to bless the earth. | |
| A dame, 12 to whom none openeth pleasure’s gate | |
| More than to death, was, ’gainst his father’s will, 13 | 55 |
| His stripling choice: and he did make her his, | |
| Before the spiritual court, 14 by nuptial bonds, | |
| And in his father’s sight: from day to day, | |
| Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereaved | |
| Of her first Husband, 15 slighted and obscure, | 60 |
| Thousand and hundred years and more, remain’d | |
| Without a single suitor, till he came. | |
| Nor aught avail’d, that, with Amyclas, 16 she | |
| Was found unmoved at rumour of his voice, | |
| Who shook the world: nor aught her constant boldness, | 65 |
| Whereby with Christ she mounted on the Cross, | |
| When Mary stay’d beneath. But not to deal | |
| Thus closely with thee longer, take at large | |
| The lovers’ titles—Poverty and Francis. | |
| Their concord and glad looks, wonder and love, | 70 |
| And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts, | |
| So much, that venerable Bernard 17 first | |
| Did bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peace | |
| So heavenly, ran, yet deem’d his footing slow. | |
| O hidden riches! O prolific good! | 75 |
| Egidius 18 bares him next, and next Sylvester, 19 | |
| And follow, both, the bridegroom: so the bride | |
| Can please them. Thenceforth goes he on his way, | |
| The father and the master, with his spouse, | |
| And with that family, whom now the cord 20 | 80 |
| Girt humbly: nor did abjectness of heart | |
| Weigh down his eyelids, for that he was son | |
| Of Pietro Bernardone, 21 and by men | |
| In wondrous sort despised. But royally | |
| His hard intention he to Innocent 22 | 85 |
| Set forth; and, from him, first received the seal | |
| On his religion. Then, when numerous flock’d | |
| The tribe of lowly ones, that traced his steps, | |
| Whose marvellous life deservedly were sung | |
| In heights empyreal; through Honorius’ 23 hand | 90 |
| A second crown, to deck their Guardian’s virtues, | |
| Was by the eternal Spirit inwreathed: and when | |
| He had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood up | |
| In the proud Soldan’s presence, 24 and there preach’d | |
| Christ and His followers, but found the race | 95 |
| Unripen’d for conversion; back once more | |
| He hasted (not to intermit his toil) | |
| And reap’d Ausonian lands. On the hard rock, 25 | |
| ’Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ | |
| Took the last signet, 26 which his limbs two years | 100 |
| Did carry. Then, the season come that He, | |
| Who to such good had destined him, was pleased | |
| To advanced him to the meed, which he had earn’d | |
| By his self-humbling; to his brotherhood, | |
| As their just heritage, he gave in charge | 105 |
| His dearest lady: 27 and enjoin’d their love | |
| And faith to her; and, from her bosom, will’d | |
| His goodly spirit should move forth, returning | |
| To its appointed kingdom; nor would have | |
| His body 28 laid upon another bier. | 110 |
| “Think now of one, who were a fit colleague | |
| To keep the bark of Peter, in deep sea, | |
| Helm’d to right point; and such our Patriarch 29 was. | |
| Therefore who follow him as he enjoins, | |
| Thou mayst be certain, take good lading in. | 115 |
| But hunger of new viands tempts his flock; 30 | |
| So that they needs into strange pastures wide | |
| Must spread them: and the more remote from him | |
| The stragglers wander, so much more they come | |
| Home, to the sheep-fold, destitute of milk. | 120 |
| There are of them, in truth, who fear their harm, | |
| And to the shepherd cleave; but these so few, | |
| A little stuff may furnish out their cloaks. | |
| “Now, if my words be clear; if thou have ta’en | |
| Good heed; if that, which I have told, recall | 125 |
| To mind; thy wish may be in part fulfill’d: | |
| For thou wilt see the plant from whence they split; 31 | |
| And he shall see, who girds him, what that means, | |
| ‘That well they thrive, not swoln with vanity.’” | |
| |
| Note 1. The study of medicine. [back] |
| Note 2. The spirit of Thomas Aquinas. [back] |
| Note 3. See the last Canto, v. 93. [back] |
| Note 4. See the last Canto, v. III. [back] |
| Note 5. “She.” The Church. [back] |
| Note 6. Jesus Christ. [back] |
| Note 7. “One.” St. Francis. [back] |
| Note 8. “The other.” St. Dominic. [back] |
| Note 9. Thomas Aquinas describes the birthplace of St. Francis, between Tupino, a rivulet near Assisi, or Ascesi, where the saint was born in 1182, and Chiascio, a stream that rises in a mountain near Agobbio, chosen by St. Ubaldo for his retirement. [back] |
| Note 10. Cold from the snow, and heart from the reflection of the sun. [back] |
| Note 11. Vellutello understands this of the vicinity of the “mountain” to Nocera and Gualdo; and Venturi of the heavy impositions laid on those places by the Perugians. [back] |
| Note 12. In the under church of St. Francis, Assisi, is a picture painted by Giotto from this subject. It is considered one of the artist’s best works. See Kugler’s “Handbook of the History of Painting, translated by a lady.” Lond. 1842, p. 48. [back] |
| Note 13. In opposition to the wishes of his natural father. [back] |
| Note 14. He made a vow of poverty in the presence of the bishop and of his natural father. [back] |
| Note 15. “Her first Husband.” Christ. [back] |
Note 16. Lucan makes Cæsar exclaim, on witnessing the secure poverty of the fisherman Amyclas:—| | “O happy poverty! thou greatest good |
| Bestow’d by Heaven, but seldom understood! |
| Here nor the cruel spoiler seeks his prey, |
| Nor ruthless armies take their dreadful way.” etc.—Rowe. |
[back] |
| Note 17. Of Quintavalle; one of the first followers of the saint. [back] |
| Note 18. “Egidius.” The third of his disciples, who died in 1262. His work, entitled “Verba Aurea,” was published in 1534, at Antwerp. [back] |
| Note 19. Another of his earliest associates. [back] |
| Note 20. “Whom now the cord.” St. Francis bound his body with a cord, in sign that it required, like a beast, to be led by a halter. [back] |
| Note 21. A man in an humble station of life at Assisi. [back] |
| Note 22. Pope Innocent III. [back] |
| Note 23. “Honorius.” His successor Honorius III, who granted certain privileges to the Franciscans. [back] |
| Note 24. The Soldan of Egypt, before whom St. Francis is said to have preached. [back] |
| Note 25. Mt. Alverna in the Apennines. [back] |
| Note 26. “The last signet.” Alluding to the stigmata, or marks resembling the wounds of Christ, said to have been found on the saint’s body. [back] |
| Note 27. “His dearest lady.” Poverty. [back] |
| Note 28. He forbade any funeral pomp to be observed at his burial; and, as it is said, ordered that his remains should be deposited in a place where criminals were executed and interred. [back] |
| Note 29. St. Dominic, to whose order Thomas Aquinas belonged. [back] |
| Note 30. “His flock.” The Dominicans. [back] |
| Note 31. “The rule of their order, which the Dominicans neglect to observe.” [back] |
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