The Rose in which the Word became incarnate is there. There are the lilies by whose odor men found the road that evermore runs straight.”
Thus Beatrice. And I, prompt to her guidance in fullest eagerness, raised my feeble lids once more to battle with that radiance.
At times when the sun, through broken clouds, has rayed one perfect beam, I have seen a field of flowers blazing in glory, my own eyes still in shade:
just so, I saw a host of hosts made bright by rays of splendor striking from above, but could not see the source of that pure light.
O Majesty that seals them in such glory! you raised yourself on high, withdrawing there in order that my feeble eyes might see!
The name of that Sweet Flower to which I pray morning and night, seized all my soul and moved it to fix my eyes upon the brightest ray;
and when both my eyes had been allowed to know the luster and magnitude of that chosen star that triumphs there as it triumphed here below,
from Heaven’s height a torch of glory came, shaped like a ring or wreath, and spinning round her, it wound and crowned her in its living flame.
The sweetest strain that ever swelled aloud to draw the soul into itself down here, would be as thunder from a shattered cloud,
compared to the melody that then aspired from the bright lyre that crowned the purest gem by which the brightest heaven is ensapphired.
“I am the Angelic Love that wheels around the lofty ecstasy breathed from the womb in which the hostel of Our Wish was found;
so shall I wheel, Lady of Heaven, till you follow your great Son to the highest sphere and, by your presence, make it holier still.”
Thus the encircling melody of that flame revealed itself; and all the other lamps within that garden rang out Mary’s name.
The royal mantle whose folds are spread abroad round all the spheres, and that most burns and quickens being nearest to the breath and ways of God,
turned its inner shore at such a height above the point at which I then was standing that I could not yet bring it into sight.
I could not, therefore, with my mortal eyes follow the flight of that crowned flame that soared to join her son in the highest Paradise.
And as a newly suckled infant yearns after its mother with its upraised arms, expressing so the love with which it burns;
each of the splendors of that company extended its flame on high in such a way as made its love of Mary plain to me.
Then they remained there, still within my sight, singing “Regina coeli” in tones so sweet the memory still fills me with delight.
Oh what treasures cram and overflow those richest coffers of the eternal grace who sowed such good seed in the world below!
Here is true life and relish of the treasure their tears laid up in the Babylonian exile, in which Christ left man gold beyond all measure.
Here sits in triumph under the lofty Son of God and the Virgin Mary in His triumph, and in the company of everyone
crowned from the New or the Old Consistory, the soul that holds the great keys to such glory.
NOTES
1-15. THE EAGERNESS OF BEATRICE. Beatrice is awaiting the vision of the Triumph of Christ. Dante does not know what expected delight has filled her with such bliss, but seeing her so tranced in expectation, he, too, begins to yearn for what has not yet been revealed.
The poet expresses this feeling of intense and joyous anticipation in a memorable long-tail simile of a mother bird that has spent the night covering its young, held there by love and by the night that keeps her from the joyous labors of hunting their food. Before the light of day, the mother bird is already out of the leaf-canopy, poised on an open bough to await the new dawn, and to begin her love’s labors at the first possible instant.
Beatrice is compared to that mother bird. (Thematically, this expectation of a great new rebirth of the light must certainly be related to the fact that Dante is in Gemini, his zodiacal birth sign.) Dante, as if he were her fledgling, is fired by the contagion of Beatrice’s blissful expectation.
This memorable figure marks the transition to the upper Heaven, for Dante and Beatrice are now beyond the planetary spheres, in the sphere of the Fixed Stars, and beyond them lies only the Empyrean itself, which is the total presence of God.
12. the sun’s daily pace relents: At meridian the Sun seems to slow its pace. Beatrice is looking toward that part of Heaven where the Sun (Divine Illumination) is at its noon height. It is all but inevitable that the vision of the Triumph of Christ should come from that portion of the sky.
16. when: Dante uses “when” (quando) as it is used in Scholastic terminology, meaning “time of” or “duration.”
20-21. all the fruit harvested from the turning of the spheres: The first-created angels of Heaven did, of course, share in Christ’s triumph, but they were not part of its harvest, which consisted of the redemption of the souls of men. Once the soul had entered into that triumph (mounted to Heaven), it would manifest itself in one of the spheres, though it was in essence in the choir of the Empyrean. Thus the militia of Christ must contain all the souls of glory whose manifestations populate the spheres of Heaven (including now the Sphere of the Fixed Stars).
In another sense “harvested from the turning of the spheres” intends the shaping influences of the spheres upon the souls of men, disposing them to the good that gains their triumph. And, of course, the phrase also intends “harvested from time” (i.e., distinct from the angels, who were never temporal).
24. unconstrued: In Scholastic terminology “to construe” meant “to express the true essence of a thing.”
25-26. Trivia: Diana, the Moon, in her manifestation as a nymph. eternal nymphs: The stars. See Purgatorio, XXXI, 106.
30. lights all the bodies: Lights all stars (which are supposed, as the moon does, to send forth only the reflection of the sun’s light).
32. the Radiant Substance: Of Christ.
33. my vision dazzled: Only a moment ago (XXII, 142-143) Dante had looked straight into the Sun without discomfort. At the vision of the radiance of Christ, however, Dante’s senses reel, and in a moment he will swoon. The art of juxtaposing details in a way that constantly gives scale to an all-containing system of values is one of the marvels of Dante’s genius.
35. the very power: Of Christ.
40. fire: Lightning.
42. against its nature: The nature of fire is to ascend toward the Sphere of Fire (v. I, 115, and Purgatorio, XXXII, 109 ff.). Contrary to its nature (which is to rise to God), Dante’s spirit swoons and falls.
43. That feast of bliss: The vision of the Triumph of Christ.
46-48. See XXI, 4 ff. and 62 ff. There Beatrice had to hold back her smile of ecstasy because it would have destroyed Dante, whose sense could not have contained it. Now, allegorically, having sustained the vision of the Triumph of Christ and looked upon His Radiant Substance, Dante’s eyes have been prepared for the full glory of Beatrice (Divine Revelation).
56-57. Polyhymnia: The Muse of sacred songs. (Her name means “many-hymned.”) She and her eight sisters were the fountainhead of all song and all poetry. their sweetest milk: The Muses gave suck to the poets, thereby transmitting to them the powers of song. How these virgin sisters maintained their milk supply is one more item to be filed among the sacred mysteries.
61. Just so: Just as it is impossible to describe to mortal sensibilities the glory of the smile of Beatrice (an allegory of revelation), so must the poem that would describe Heaven leap over such matters as human understanding cannot fathom.
67-69. Cf. the opening lines of Canto II.
73-75. The Rose: The Virgin Mary. the Word: Logos. the lilies: Primarily, perhaps, the Apostles, but also the total of all souls that share in the Triumph of Christ, their example forever showing the straight way to others. whose odor: Cf. the common pious phrase, “odor of sanctity.”
77. lids: Rather than eyes. Dante has just swooned at the radiance of Christ. Now, obedient to the command of Beatrice, h
e turns to look again, but with his eyes lidded, his mortal senses bracing themselves to bear the ineffable radiance (cf., too, his admonition in line 69. Only the spirit that will risk all may dare the glories of Heaven).
79-87. The figure is based on the common phenomenon of seeing a ray of sun light a field of flowers while one is standing in the shadow of covering cloud. So the rays of Christ’s glory strike down to illuminate the souls of the redeemed, Christ, of his infinite mercy, having withdrawn from Dante’s sight, for it could not have borne the full glory of His shining. Lines 85-87 may certainly be pondered as a possible allegory of the resurrection of Christ.
85. seals: The seal here would be the ray; the flowers, the wax that takes the impress of the light and shines forth as marked by the light.
88 ff. THE VISION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. Beatrice (line 73) has told Dante that Mary was among the radiances he saw before him. When Dante finally manages to fix his eyes on the splendor before him (the radiance of Christ having withdrawn mercifully) he makes out the brightest star in that host of splendors. As he watches, a crown of flame descends from the Empyrean and encircles her. This new radiance is God’s messenger, Gabriel, the Angel of the Annunciation. Sweet Flower, brightest ray: The Virgin Mary. had been allowed to know: As always in Paradise, it is not Dante’s will that discerns the vision (though he wills it utterly) but the souls that reveal themselves to him.
101-102. gem . . . ensapphired: The original is zaffiro . . . s’inzaffira. Dante must have chosen the sapphire as the gem of purest blue, the color of Heaven. purest gem: The Virgin Mary. the bright lyre: The Angel Gabriel. the brightest heaven: The Sphere of the Fixed Stars.
105. Our Wish: Christ. The womb of Mary was the hostel in which the Word found lodging in mortal flesh.
107. the highest sphere: The Empyrean.
110. revealed itself: Dante says literally, “impressed its seal,” the equivalent of writing its signature, i.e., “identified itself.”
112-114. the royal mantle: The Primum Mobile. most burns: With ardent joy. and quickens: Being the outer sphere whose revolutions control the turning of all those it encloses, it turns faster than any of the others.
115. its inner shore: The spheres, of course, have depth. Could Dante’s vision have reached to see the Primum Mobile it would have seen only its inner surface, here called a shore.
120. to join her son: As Gabriel had prayed her to do.
128. Regina coeli: Queen of Heaven.
133-135. Both the text and the interpretation of the original are disputed. I have settled for what seems to be the most direct rendering, taking “the Babylonian exile” to signify the soul’s time on earth. Heaven, then, would be the longed-for Jerusalem. In their exile, in steadfast faith and holy tears, these souls laid up the heavenly treasure they now enjoy, as Christ left it to all men.
139. Old and New Consistory: The Old and the New Testament.
140. the soul that holds the keys: St. Peter.
Canto XXIV
THE EIGHTH SPHERE: THE FIXED STARS
The Triumph of Christ
St. Peter
The Examination of Faith
CHRIST AND MARY having ascended to the Empyrean, St. Peter remains as the chief soul of the Garden of Christ’s Triumph. Beatrice addresses the souls in Dante’s behalf, and they, in their joy, form into a dazzling VERTICAL WHEEL OF SPINNING RADIANCES.
Beatrice then begs St. Peter to conduct an EXAMINATION OF DANTE’S FAITH. St. Peter thereupon questions Dante on the NATURE OF FAITH, THE POSSESSION OF FAITH, THE SOURCES OF FAITH, THE PROOF OF THE TRUTH OF FAITH, MAN’S MEANS OF KNOWING THAT THE MIRACLES OF FAITH ACTUALLY TOOK PLACE, and finally on THE CONTENT OF CHRISTIAN FAITH.
Dante answers eagerly, as would a willing candidate being examined by his learned master. The examination concluded, St. Peter shows his pleasure by dancing three times around Dante.
“O spirits of that chosen company that feeds on the Lamb of God, the flesh of which satisfies hunger to all eternity—
if by God’s grace this man is given a foretaste of what falls from your table, before death takes him from time and lays his body waste,
consider the boundless thirst with which he burns; bedew him from your plenty. You drink forever the waters of that spring for which he yearns!”
So spoke Beatrice, and those blissful souls, flaming as bright as comets, formed themselves into a sphere revolving on fixed poles.
As the wheels within a clockwork synchronize so that the innermost, when looked at closely seems to be standing, while the outermost flies;
just so those rings of dancers whirled to show and let me understand their state of bliss, all joining in the round, some fast, some slow.
From one I saw, the loveliest of them all, there grew a radiance of such blessedness that it outshone the hosts of the celestial.
Three times it danced round Beatrice to a strain so heavenly that I have not the power so much as to imagine it again.
Therefore my pen leaps and I do not write; not words nor fantasy can paint the truth: the folds of heaven’s draperies are too bright.
“O sacred sister whose prayer is so devout, the ardor of your love enters my bliss within that lovely sphere and calls me out.”
—When it had come to rest, that Fire of Love directed its breath to my lady and spoke these words exactly as I have set them down above.
And she: “Eternal Light of the great priest to whom Our Lord brought down and gave the keys to the sublimities of this joyous feast;
at your own pleasure, whatever it may be, test this man on the greater and lesser points of the faith in which you once walked on the sea.
If love and hope and faith are truly his you will discover it, for your eyes are turned where you can see the image of all that is.
But since this realm is peopled from the seed of the true faith, he will the better praise it, could he discuss with you the perfect creed.”
As a bachelor arms himself for disquisition in silence till the master sets the terms for defending, not deciding, the proposition;
so did I arm myself for the expression of every proof, preparing while she spoke for such an examiner, and such profession.
“Speak, good Christian, manifest your worth: what is faith?”—At which I raised my eyes to the light from which these words had been breathed forth:
then turned to look at Beatrice, and she urged me with her eyes to let the waters of the spring that welled within my soul pour free.
“May the Grace that grants the grace of this confession to the captain of the first rank,” I began, “grant that my thoughts may find worthy expression!”
Continuing: “Father, as it was set down by the pen of your dear brother, who, with you, set Rome on the road that leads to glory’s crown,
faith is the substance of what we hope to see and the argument for what we have not seen. This is its quiddity, as it seems to me.”
Next I heard: “This is, in fact, the essence. But do you understand why he classifies it first with substances, then with argument?”
And I in answer: “The profundities that here reveal themselves so liberally are so concealed, down there, from mortal eyes
they exist in belief alone. On belief the structure of high hope rises. It is substant, therefore, or ‘standing under’ by its very nature.
Starting with this belief, it is evident, we must reason without further visible proofs. And so it partakes, by nature, of argument.”
I heard: “If all that mortal man may know through mortal teaching were as firmly grasped, sophists would find no listeners there below.”
Such was the breath from that Love’s Ecstasy, continuing then: “You have assayed this coinage, its weight and metal content, accurately;
now tell me if you have it in your possession.” And I then: “Yes. I have. So bright, so round, usage has worn down none of its impression.”
After these words the breath once more resounded from the light that shone before me: “This
dear gem on which all good and power of good are founded—
whence comes it to you?” And I, “The shower of gold of the Holy Ghost, which pours down endlessly over the sacred Scrolls, both New and Old,
reasons it to such logical certainty that, by comparison, all other reasoning can only seem confused and dull to me.”
And I heard: “These propositions, the Old and New that move you to this conclusion, for what reason do you accept them as divinely true?”