sparks that warmed me of the divine flame whereby more than a
thousand have been kindled; I speak of the Aeneid, which was
mother to me, and was my nurse in poesy: without it I balanced
not the weight of a drachm; and to have lived yonder, when Virgil
lived, I would agree to one sun more than I owe for my issue from
ban."[3]

[1] The name of Poet.

[2] Statius died before completing his Achilleid.

[3] A year more in Purgatory than is due for my punishment.


These words turned Virgil to me with a look which, silent, said,
"Be silent:" but the power that wills cannot do everything; for
smiles and tears are such followers on the emotion from which
each springs, that in the most truthful they least follow the
will. I merely smiled, like a man who makes a sign; whereat the
shade became silent, and looked at me in the eyes where the
expression is most fixed. And it said, "So mayst thou in good
complete so great a labor, why aid thy face just now display to
me a flash of a smile?" Now am I caught on one side and the
other: one bids me be silent, the other conjures me to speak;
wherefore I sigh and am understood by my Master, and "Have no
fear to speak," he said to me, "but speak, and tell him what he
asks so earnestly." Whereon I, "Perhaps thou marvellest, ancient
spirit, at the smile I gave; but I would have more wonder seize
thee. This one who guides my eyes on high is that Virgil from
whom thou didst derive the strength to sing of men and of the
gods. If thou didst believe other cause for my smile, dismiss it
as untrue, and believe it to be those words which thou saidst of
him." Already he was stooping to embrace the feet of my Leader,
but he said to him, "Brother, do it not, for thou art a shade,
and thou seest a shade." And he rising, "Now canst thou
comprehend the sum of the love that warms me to thee when I
forget our vanity, treating the shades as if a solid thing."[1]

[1] Sordello and Virgil (Canto VI.) embraced each other. The
shades could thus express their mutual affection. Perhaps it is
out of modesty that Virgil here represses Statius, and possibly
there may be the under meaning that an act of reverence is not
becoming from a soul redeemed, to one banned in eternal exile.



CANTO XXII. Ascent to the Sixth Ledge.--Discourse of Statius and
Virgil.--Entrance to the Ledge: the Gluttonous.--The Mystic
Tree.--Examples of Temperance.


Already was the Angel left behind us,--the Angel who had turned
us to the sixth round,--having erased a stroke[1] from my face;
and he had said to us that those who have their desire set on
justice are Beati, and his words ended with sitiunt, without the
rest.[2] And I, more light than through the other passes, was
going on so that without any labor I was following upward the
swift spirits, when Virgil began, "Love kindled by virtue always
kindles another, provided that its flame appear outwardly;
wherefore from the hour when amid us Juvenal descended into the
limbo of Hell, and made known to me thy affection, my own good
will toward thee was such that more never bound one to an unseen
person; so that these stairs will now seem short to me. But tell
me (and as a friend pardon me, if too great confidence let loose
my rein, and as a friend now talk with me) boxy avarice could
find a place within thy breast, amid wisdom so great as that
wherewith through thy diligence thou wast filled?"

[1] The fifth P.

[2] The Angel had not recited all the words of the Beatitude, but
only, "Blessed are they which do thirst after righteousness,"
contrasting this thirst with the thirst for riches.


These words first moved Statius a little to smiling; then he
replied, "Every word of thine is a dear sign to me of love. Truly
oftentimes things have such appearance that they give false
material for suspicion, because the true reasons lie hid. Thy
question assures me of thy belief, perhaps because of that circle
where I was, that I was avaricious in the other life; know then
that avarice was too far removed from me, and this want of
measure thousands of courses of the moon have punished. And had
it not been that I set right my care, when I understood the
passage where thou dost exclaim, as if indignant with human
nature, "O cursed hunger of gold, to what dost thou not impel the
appetite of mortals?"[1] I, rolling, should share the dismal
jousts.[2] Then I perceived that the bands could spread their
wings too much in spending; and I repented as well of that as of
my other sins. How many shall rise with cropped hair[3] through
ignorance, which during life and in the last hours prevents
repentance for this sin! And know, that the vice which rebuts any
sin with direct opposition,[4] together with it here dries up its
verdure. Wherefore if to purify myself I have been among the
people who lament their avarice, because of its contrary this has
befallen me." "Now when thou wast singing[5]the cruel strife of
the twofold affliction[6] of Jocasta," said the Singer of the
Bucolic songs, "it does not appear from that which Clio
touches[7] with thee there,[8] that the faith, without which good
works suffice not, had yet made thee faithful. If this be so,


<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 |