Purgatorio
Canto XX
The souls of the avaricious are so many that Dante, to pass them, must keep close to the inner side of the cliff. And as he goes, he hears a spirit celebrating examples of poverty and generosity (The Virgin Mary, Fabricius, St. Nicholas). Questioning it, the spirit discloses that it is Hugh Capet, and denounces the greed of his descendants who sat on the throne of France. Among them were Charles I of Anjou, to whom Dante attributes the death of St. Thomas Aquinas (a now discredited tradition); Charles of Valois, who, like Charles I of Anjou, invaded Italy and brought about the triumph of the Blacks in Florence and the banishment of the Whites, including Dante: also Philip the Fair, who gave Pope Boniface VIII up to his enemies and who attacked the Order of the Templars. The spirit then tells how at night they proclaim warning examples of avarice. The poets depart, and suddenly the whole mountain quakes and a cry of “Glory to God on high” ascends on every side. Dante is awed and wonders what this may mean.
ILL fights a will against a better will;
Wherefore against my wish, his to content,
The sponge dipt in the water I did not fill.
Onward I moved me, and on my Leader went,
Keeping the rock close, where a space was clear,
As on a wall one hugs the battlement;
For those who are distilling, tear by tear
Through the eyes the evil of the world’s disease
On the other side approach the edge too near.
She-wolf of old, a curse upon thee seize, [10]
That more than any other beast hast prey,
For none thy hollow hunger can appease.
O Heaven, whose revolutions, as men say,
Change the condition of this world below,
When comes he who shall drive her quite away?
Now were we going with short steps and slow
And I with the prone shades preoccupied,
Whom I heard piteously beweep their woe.
And so it chanced, I heard “Sweet Mary” sighed
In front of us with so profound a moan [20]
As if a woman in her travail cried;
Continuing: “So little didst thou own,
As one may well perceive by that poor inn
Where thou didst Jay thy sacred burden down.”
“O good Fabricius,” next I heard begin,[i]25. “Fabricius”: the Roman consul famous for his incorruptibility.
“Virtue with poverty didst thou prefer
To the possession of much wealth with sin.”
These words sounded so pleasant in my ear
That I drew further on, to be acquaint
With that spirit whose voice I seemed to hear. [30]
It spoke now of that bounty of the saint
And of the damsels Nicholas endowed[ii]32. St. Nicholas, on three successive nights, secretly threw into the window of his neighbor's house enough money to provide dowries for his three daughters.
To save the honour of their youth from taint.
“O spirit that discoursest so much good,
Tell me who thou art, and why alone,” said I,
“These worthy praises thou renew’st aloud.
Thy words shall lack not recompense on high
If I return the now short space to tread,
Of life which yonder to its end doth fly.”
And he: “I'll tell thee, not for any aid [40]
That I expect from there, but I salute
Grace shining in thee so, ere thou art dead.
Of that malignant tree was I the root
Wherewith all Christian lands are shadowed o’er,
So that but rarely is plucked from it good fruit.
But if Douay, Lille, Ghent and Bruges had power,
Not long would vengeance for the treachery wait:[iii]47. They would soon wreak vengeance on Philip the Fair, who had conquered Flanders.
From him who judgeth all, this I implore.
Hugh Capet was I in my former state.[iv]49. “Hugh Capet,” king of France from 987 to 996, was the founder of the Capetian line.
Of me the Philips and the Louises [50]
Are born, by whom France has been ruled of late.
Son was I of a butcher of Paris:
When the ancient kings to an end had dwindled, all
Save one, who gave himself to the grey dress,[v]54. The last of the Carolingians became a monk.
I found firm in my hands the reins to pull
Of the realm’s government, and such resource
From new possessions, and of friends so full,
That to the widowed crown in time’s due course
The head of my son was promoted; whence
The anointed brows of those inheritors. [60]
So long as the great dowry of Provence[vi]61-66. “The great dowry of Provence”: Charles of Anjou contrived to marry Beatrice, heiress of Provence. The history of his reign became a chronicle of crimes.
Had not yet robbed of shame my dynasty,
Small power it had, but yet did no offence.
Its rapine from that day began to ply
Violence and fraud; and then seized for amends
Ponthieu and Normandy and Gascony.
Charles enters Italy; in his turn he sends
His victim Conradin to death; thereon[vii]68-69. Charles of Anjou put to death Conradin, a lad of sixteen, grandson of Frederick II.
Thrusts Thomas back to heaven, for amends.
I see a day, soon after this is done, [70]
That brings another Charles forth out of France[viii]71. “Another Charles”: Charles of Valois (see the Argument).
To make both him and his the better known.
Forth comes he, alone, without arms save the lance
That Judas jousted with; so true his aim,
The paunch of Florence bursts at its advance.
Thence shall he gain, not lands, but sin and shame,
Upon himself so much the heavier
As he the lighter reckoneth such blame.
The other, who from his ship a prisoner[ix]79. A third Charles—Charles II, king of Apulia—sold his young daughter Beatrice in marriage to the old Marquis of Ferrara.
Came, I see sell his daughter, as pirates do [80]
With other girl-slaves, haggling over her.
O Avarice, what more have we to rue
From thee, since thou our race didst so persuade
That even to its own flesh it is untrue?
That future ill and past may seem outweighed,[x]85-93. The crowning infamy of the race shall be the seizure of Pope Boniface VIII at Anagni (Alagna) by two creatures of Philip the Fair. The fate of Christ was renewed in that of his Vicar. Then Philip, that “second Pilate,” directed his “greedy sails” toward the Order of the Templars.
I see Alagna by the Lilies ta’en,
And in his Vicar Christ a captive made.
I see him scorned and mocked at once again;
I see the vinegar, the gall, renewed,
And him ’twixt living malefactors slain. [90]
I see the second Pilate’s cruel mood
Grow so insatiate that without decree
His greedy sails upon the Temple intrude.
O my Lord, when shall I rejoice to see
The chastisement which, being hidden from us,
Makes sweet thine anger in thy secrecy?
What I was saying of that only spouse[xi]97. Having replied to Dante’s first question (line 35), Hugh proceeds to answer his second (line 36). Cf. Matt. 1:20: “that which is conceived in her [Mary] is of the Holy Ghost.”
Of the Holy Ghost, and which a question bred
In thee, and turned thee toward me for a gloss,
This as response to all our prayers is said [100]
As long as day lasts; but when night doth fall
An opposite strain we take up in its stead.
Pygmalion’s story then do we recall,[xii]103. Pygmalion, brother of Dido, killed her husband for the sake of his wealth.
Whom gluttonous of gold, his appetite
Made traitor and thief, and parricide withal,
And avaricious Midas’ wretched plight,
Which came for answer to his greedy prayer;
At which we laugh forever, as ’tis right.
Fool Achan each remembers then, who bare[xiii]109. Achan, having stolen some of the spoils of Jericho, was stoned to death at Joshua’s command.
The stolen spoils away, so that the pain [110]
Of Joshua’s wrath seems still to bite him here.
Sapphira and her husband we arraign;[xiv]112-113. “Her husband”: Ananias (see Acts 5:1-10). “Heliodorus”: see Macc. 3:7, 25-27.
We praise the hoof-kicks Heliodorus had:
And all the mount execrates in refrain
Polymnestor, who smote Polydorus dead.
Last of all cry we: ‘Crassus, thou dost know;
Say, did the taste of gold make thy mouth glad?”[xv]117. Crassus, triumvir with Caesar and Pompey, was famous for his wealth and his greed.
Sometimes we talk, one loud and the other low,
According as the impulse spurreth speech
At greater or at lesser pace to go. [120]
The good, then, that by day we tell of each
Not I alone rehearsed, but at that hour
None else near did his voice so loudly pitch.”
From him we had already gone before,
And now were striving to surmount the path
So far as was permitted to our power,
When, like a thing that falling tottereth,
I felt the mountain tremble, and ice-cold fear
Seized on me, as on one going to his death.
Delos quaked not so violently, I swear, [130][xvi]130. Delos, before Latona took refuge there to bring forth Apollo and Diana (sun and moon, “the two eyes of heaven”), was a wandering island.
In that time ere her nest Latona made
Therein, the two eyes of the heavens to bear.
Then from all parts a shout my ears dismayed
Such that the Master drew him to my side
Saying: “While I guide thee, be not thou afraid.”
Gloria in excelsis Deo they all cried,
By what from those near by I understood,
Whose words could through the shouting be descried.
Motionless stood we in suspended mood,
Like to the shepherds who first heard that chant, [140]
Until the trembling ceased and naught ensued.
Then took we again the pathway pure of taint,
Eyeing the shades which on the terrace lay,
Returned already to their wonted plaint.
No ignorance ever fretted me to pray
For knowledge with so troublesome a sting,
If my remembrance go not here astray,
As then I seemed to feel while pondering;
And, for our haste, question I ventured not,
Nor of myself could I see anything. [150]
Thus I went on, fearful and full of thought.