Purgatorio
Canto VII
Sordello asks Virgil who he is, and on being told, pays homage to the great poet. Night is approaching, and Sordello explains that they can only mount by daylight; he therefore escorts them to a flowery dell, where are princes and rulers who had neglected their duties; among them he points out the emperor Rudolf; Philip III of France and Henry of Navarre; Peter III of Aragon; Charles I of Anjou; and Henry III of England.
AFTER the welcomes grave and glad had now
Thrice and four times been given and returned,
Sordello, drawing back, said: “Who art thou?”
“Before the time when toward this mountain yearned
The spirits worthy to go up to God,
My bones had by Octavian been inurned.
I am Virgil; and to no guilt else I owed
Loss of Heaven, save that faith I had not got.”
Answering thus, my Guide himself avowed.
As one who hath a sudden sight of what [10]
Makes him to marvel, who believes, nor less
Disbelieves, saying “It is; No, it is not”;
Such seemed he, and then downward bent his face,
And in humility toward him once more came
And clasped him where the inferior should embrace.[i]15. Either under the arms or at the feet.
“Glory of the Latins,” said he, “by whose fame
Our tongue revealed what power was in it stored,
Eternal praise of that place whence I am,
What merit or grace hath thee to me declared?
If I am worthy to hear thee, tell wherefrom [20]
Thou comest, and, if from Hell, out of what ward?”
“Through all the circles of the sad kingdom,”
He answered him, “I am come from that my state.
Virtue from Heaven moved me; with it I come.
Not for things done but undone ’twas my fate
To lose the vision of the Sun on high,
By thee desired and known by me too late.
Down there a place is that no torments try
But only darkness grieves, where the lament
Hath not the sound of wail, but is a sigh. [30]
There dwell I with the babies innocent
Who bitten by the tooth of Death expired
Before they were from human guilt exempt.[ii]33. Before baptism.
There dwell I among those never attired
In the three holy virtues; without sin
All the others they both followed and desired.[iii]36. The souls in Limbus were ignorant of the three theological virtues, but they knew the four cardinal virtues.
But if thou know’st and canst, give us some sign
Whereby we may most speedily come to be
Where Purgatory rightly doth begin.”
“No set post is prescribed us,” answered he. [40]
“It is permitted to go up and round:
Far as I may, I will companion thee.
But see how day declines now to its bound,
And to ascend by night cannot be done;
Best then to seek a lodge on some good ground.
Here on the right are souls gathered alone.
If thou consent, I’ll lead thee to their bower.
Not without joy will they to thee be known.”
“How?” was the answer: “he who at night-hour
Would mount, will others stop him from his quest [50]
Or will he fail because he had not power?”
The good Sordello with his finger traced
The ground, saying “Look, this mere line by no skill
Wouldst thou cross over after day is past.
Not that aught else the going-up would foil,
Except alone the darkness of the night:
This, by disabling, trammelleth the will.
Downward by night return indeed one might,
Descending the steep slope with footsteps blind,
While the horizon holds day shut from sight.” [60]
Then my lord spoke, as wondering in his mind,
“Lead us then where thou sayest we may be brought
To sojourn and therein a solace find.”
Short way had we proceeded from that spot,
When I perceived the hill-side showed a scoop
Such as here too the valleys hollow out.
“There will we go,” that shade said, “where the slope
Hath made out of itself a lap of grass,
And there await the new day’s coming-up.”
Twixt steep and level a winding path there was, [70]
That led us to the shelving of that pit
Where, more than half, the rim diminishes.
Gold and fine silver, crimson, pearly white,
Indigo, smooth wood lustrous in the grain,
Fresh flake of emerald but that moment split,
Could none of them in colour near attain
The flowers and the grass in that retreat,
As less with greater rivalleth in vain.
Not only had Nature painted all complete,
But of a thousand fragrancies had made [80]
One new and indistinguishable sweet.
Singing Salve Regina, on that bed[iv]82. Salve Regina is an antiphon recited after sunset.
Of grass and flowers there saw I souls at rest,
Sight of whom from without the ridge forbade.
“Before the little sun is home in nest”
Said he who thus aside had made us go,
“Desire not that I make you manifest.
From this ridge face and gesture will ye know
Of each and all, better than if at once
Received among them in the nook below. [90]
He who sits highest and has an air which owns
Neglect of those things that he should have done,
Nor moves his mouth with the others’ antiphons,
Was the emperor Rudolf, who might well have won[v]94. Rudolf of Hapsburg.
To heal the wounds of murdered Italy.
Now for another saviour she hopes on.
The other, who seems to comfort him, is he
Who ruled the country where the water springs[vi]98-100. “The country . . .”: Bohemia. Ottocar II was killed in 1278
Which Moldau bears to Elbe and Elbe to sea,
Ottocar named, and was in leading-strings [100]
Far better than full-bearded Wenceslas,
His son, who to his sloth and lechery clings.
And that snub-nose who seems conferring close[vii]103-4. “That snub-nose” is Philip III, the Bold, of France. He is conferring with Henry the Fat of Navarre.
With him who looks so kindly, is he who fled,
Soiling the lily, and died inglorious.
Look how he beats his breast, uncomforted!
Behold the other, who with sighings vain
Has with his palm made for his cheek a bed.
Father and father-in-law of France’s bane[viii]109. “France’s bane”: Philip IV, the Fair.
Are they; they know his foulness and his sins; [110]
Hence comes the grief that stabs them with such pain.
He who appears so burly, and singing joins[ix]112-113. Peter III of Aragon, King of Sicily.—He “of the manly nose” is Charles of Anjou, conqueror of Naples and Sicily.
Him of the manly nose in one accord,
Had all worth for a girdle around his loins.
And if the youth behind him on the sward[x]115. “The youth”: Alphonse III, Peter's oldest son, who died young in 1291.
Had after him remained king, then indeed
From vessel to vessel had the worth been poured;
Which may not of the other heirs be said.
James and Frederick possess the realms, but to
The better heritage doth none succeed. [120]
Full seldom human virtue rises through
The branches; and the Giver wills it so,
That they to him for such a gift may sue.
Also to the high-nosed one do my words go
Even as to Peter, who with him lifts his chant,
Whence now Apulia’s and Provence’s woe.
So much less than its seed is the grown plant[xi]127-32. Charles II is as much inferior to Charles I as Charles I is to Peter III. Beatrice and Margaret were the successive wives of Charles I; Constance was the wife of Peter. Henry III of England was reputed to have little wit; his son, Edward I, was highly esteemed.
As, more than Beatrice and than Margaret,
Constance still maketh of her husband vaunt.
The king of the simple life see yonder, set [130]
Aloof from the others, Harry of England; more
Hath he to boast in the issue he begat.
He on the ground amongst them sitting lower
Is William the Marquis, with eyes upward thrown,[xii]134. William VII, or “Longsword,” who was Marquis of Montferrat and Canavese. In 1292 he was treacherously captured at Alessandria, in Piedmont.
Through whom Alessandria and her war
Make Monferrato and Canavese moan.”