Paradiso
Canto XVIII
Cacciaguida points out to Dante a number of illustrious souls, who appear as stars on the cross, and move as they are named. Dante and Beatrice now ascend from the heaven of Mars to the “temperate star” of Jupiter, the sixth heaven, where are spirits conspicuous for justice. The lights in which the spirits are hidden form themselves into the pattern of an eagle.
At the end of the Canto Pope John XXII is denounced for his love of money. The Florentine florin was stamped with the image of St. John the Baptist; and in the concluding lines the Pope is ironically represented as being so devoted to this coin. that he has forgotten Peter and Paul.
THAT blessed mirror was now lost in joy
Of its own thought; and savouring mine, I stood
Tempering the bitter with the sweet alloy;
And she whom I was following unto God
Said: “Change thy thought! Remember I am near
To Him who of all wrong lifts off the load!”
I turned me to the sound, loving and dear,
Of my own Comfort; and what love then shone
In the holy eyes I leave unwritten here,
Not because I mistrust my speech alone [10]
But memory, which returns not to excel
Itself so far, save it be guided on.
Only this of that moment I can tell,
That my affection, as she filled my gaze,
Was freed from all else only on her to dwell,
While the eternal joy which beamed its rays
Immediate on the beauty of Beatrice
Rapt me with its reflection on her face.
And vanquishing me with a smile of bliss
She spoke to me: “Turn now and listen anew! [20]
Not only in my eyes is Paradise.”
As sometimes in the very features’ hue
Appears the affection, if it be so strong
As to possess the whole soul through and through,
So in the glow the sacred flame outflung[i]25. “The sacred flame”: Cacciaguida.
To which I turned, a craving I could see
In it, a little our converse to prolong.
He began: “In this fifth tier of the tree[ii]28. The fifth “tier” of the tree of the heavens is Mars.
Which from its top lives, and can never lose
One leaf, and puts forth fruit continually, [30]
Are blessed spirits whose names were glorious
On earth, before into this heaven they came,
Such as would richly furnish every Muse.
Gaze therefore on the cross: he whom I name
Shall on its arms that suddenness enact
Which happeneth when the cloud lets forth the flame.”[iii]36. As lightning flashes across a cloud.
Gliding along the cross.a light I tracked
At Joshua’s naming; spoken, it was done;
Nor did I learn the word before the act.
At mighty Maccabeus’ name there shone [40][iv]40. Judas “Maccabaeus” delivered his people from the tyranny of the Syrians.
Another, whirling bright before my eyes;
And gladness whipt the top, as round it spun.
For Charlemagne and Roland in like wise
Two more were followed by my earnest look,
As the eye follows a falcon as it flies.
Next William, Rainouart, and then the Duke[v]46-47. “William,” Count of Orange, is the hero of a group of Old French epics. “Rainouart”: a knight of Saracen birth, but baptised. “Godfrey” of Bouillon: the leader of the first crusade. ‘Robert Guiscard”: a Norman conqueror.
Godfrey, and Robert Guiscard, did their part,
When swift along the cross my sight they took.
The soul I had spoken with I now saw dart
Among the other lights, with whom it vied, [50]
Showing how great in Heaven’s choir was its art.
I turned me thereupon to my right side
To see in Beatrice what I was to do,
Whether by speech or gesture signified.
And I beheld her eyes so clear and true,
So joyous, that the semblance which she wore
Surpassed all former wont, and the last too.
And as a man, by feeling hour by hour
In the doing of good works increased delight,
Perceives his virtue growing more and more, [60]
So I perceived that this my circling flight[vi]61-63. Thus from an increase of Beatrice’s loveliness I inferred that I had risen to a greater and swifter sphere.
With the heaven had widened its circumference,
Seeing this wonder yet more wondrous-bright.
Such a change as pale cheeks experience
When a lady, suddenly from shame relieved,
Sheddeth the brief blush from her countenance
Was in my eyes, when turning I perceived
The whiteness round me of the temperate star,[vii]68. The change is from the red light of Mars to the whiteness of Jupiter.
The sixth, whereinto I had been received.
And in that torch of Jove, I was aware [70]
Of sparkles from the love within it warm,
Spelling our speech to me in letters there.
As birds that risen above a stream in swarm,
As though rejoicing to have fed them well,
Take now a round and now a different form,
Those holy beings the lights made visible
Sang flying, and in the shaping of their throng
Became now D, and now I, and now L.
They moved first to the notes of their own song;
Then, as each letter, one by one, was made [80]
Complete, they paused and held awhile their tongue.
O Goddess Pegasea who hast arrayed[viii]82. “O Goddess Pegasea”: O Muse.
Genius in glory, and given it long renown,
As it for city and realm does with thine aid,
Lend me thy light, that so I may set down
In right relief their shapes as limned in Heaven:
Through these few verses let thy power be known!
Then they disposed themselves in five times seven
Vowels and consonants; and my mind held fast
Each member as in the alphabet ’twas given. [90]
DILIGITE JUSTICIAM was traced[ix]91-94. They spell the first verse of the Book of Wisdom: Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth. The “M” is the symbol of Monarchy.
The first of all, in verb and noun displayed;
QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM was the last.
Then in the M of the fifth word arrayed
They halted, so that Jove was made to seem
Silver with patterning of gold inlaid.
And I saw other lights descending gleam
On the M’s top and come there to a stand,
Hymning, I think, the Good that draweth them.
As at the beating of a smouldering brand [100]
Innumerable sparks rise, from whose flight
Fools in their folly an augury demand,
Seemed thence to rise a thousand sparks of light
And mount, some much, some little, according as
The Sun which kindled them ordained their height.
And when each quieted in its place, my gaze
Beheld that figured fire present the crest,
And neck beneath it that an eagle has.[x]108. “An eagle”: the Imperial Eagle.
He who paints there hath none to guide the wrist[xi]109. “He who paints there” is God.
But guides himself; from him, we call to mind, [110]
The instinct is informed that builds the nest.
The other blessèd, seeming first designed
To shape a lily in flower upon the M,
Moved slightly and with the pattern were combined.
O sweet star, with how many and rare a gem
Didst thou prove that the justice we obey
Proceedeth from the heaven thou dost begem!
Therefore the Mind that set thee upon thy way,
And prompts thy power, I pray to watch wherefrom
Issues the smoke that tarnishes thy ray, [120]
That once again the enkindled wrath may come
On the hucksters in the temple that was reared
And walled with miracle and martyrdom.
O hosts of Heaven I contemplate, be heard
Your prayers to aid all those on earth, led on
By bad example, who have strayed and erred!
Once war was made with swords; now it is done
By the withholding in this place and that[xii]128. “By the withholding . . .”: of the sacraments, by means of excommunications.
Of bread the all-pitying Father bars from none.
Thou who recordest but to obliterate, [130][xiii]130. “Thou who . . .”: Pope John XXII, who issued and revoked many excommunications.
Consider that Peter and Paul, who died to save
The vineyard thou hast spoiled, are living yet.
Thou canst well say: “So ardently I crave
For him who willed to live apart from all[xiv]134. “For him . . .”: St. John the Baptist (see the Argument).
And whom a dance brought to a martyr’s grave,
That I know not the Fisherman, nor Paul.”