Christians and proud! O poor and wretched ones
That, feeble in the mind's eye, lean your trust
Upon unstaid perverseness: know ye not
That we are worms, yet made at last to form
The winged insect,' imp'd with angel plumes,
That to heaven's justice unobstructed soars?
Why buoy ye up aloft your unfledged souls?
Abortive then and shapeless ye remain,
Like the untimely embryon of a worm.

As, to supports incumbent floor or roof,
For corbel, is a figure sometimes seen,
That crumples up its knees unto its breast;
With the feign'd posture, stirring ruth unfeign'd
In the beholder's fancy; so I saw

These fashion'd, when I noted well their guise.

1 The winged insect.] L'angelica farfalla.

The butterfly was an ancient and well-known symbol of the human soul. Venturi cites some lines from the Canzoni Anacreontiche of Magalotti, in which this passage is imitated.

2 Abortive.] The word in the original is entomata. Some critics, and Salvini among the rest, have supposed that Dante, finding in a vocabulary the Greek word Evropa with the article ra placed after it to denote its gender, mistook them for one word. From this error he is well exculpated by Rosa Morando in a passage quoted by Lombardi from the Osserv. Parad. III., where it is shown that the Italian word is formed, for the sake of the verse, in analogy with some others used by our Poet; and that Redi himself, an excellent Greek scholar and a very accurate writer, has even in prose, where such licenses are less allowable, thus lengthened it. It may be considered as some proof of our author's acquaintance with the Greek language, that in the Convito, p. 26, he finds fault with the version of Aristotle's Ethics made by Taddeo d'Alderotto, the Florentine physician; and that in the treatise de Monarchiâ, lib. i. p. 110, he quotes a Greek word from Aristotle himself. On the other hand, he speaks of a passage in the same writer being doubtful, on account of its being differently interpreted in two different translations, a new and an old one. Convito, p. 75. And for the word "autentin," he refers to a vocabulary compiled by Uguccione Bentivegna of Pisa, a MS. that is, perhaps, still remaining, as Cinelli, in his MS. history of Tuscan writers referred to by Biscioni in the notes on the Convito, p. 142, speaks of it as being preserved in the library of S. Francesco at Cesena. After all, Dante's knowledge of Greek must remain as questionable as Shakspeare's of that language and of Latin.

3 As, to support.] Chillingworth, cap. vi. § 54, speaks of "those crouching anticks, which seem in great buildings to labor under the weight they bear." And Lord Shaftesbury has a similar illustration in his Essay on Wit and Humor, p. 4, 3

Each, as his back was laden, came indeed
Or more or less contracted; and it seem'd
As he, who show'd most patience in his look,
Wailing exclaim'd: "I can endure no more

CANTO XI.

ARGUMENT.

After a prayer uttered by the spirits, who were spoken of in the last Čanto, Virgil inquires the way upwards, and is answered by one, who declares himself to have been Omberto, son of the Count of Santafiore. Next our Poet distinguishes Oderigi, the illuminator, who discourses on the vanity of worldly fame, and points out to him the soul of Provenzano Salvani.

"O THOU Almighty Father!' who dost make
The heavens thy dwelling, not in bounds confined,
But that, with love intenser, there thou view'st
Thy primal effluence; hallow'd be thy name:
Join, each created being, to extol

Thy might; for worthy humblest thanks and praise
Is thy blest Spirit. May thy kingdom's peace
Come unto us; for we, unless it come,
With all our striving, thither tend in vain.
As, of their will, the angels unto thee
Tender meet sacrifice, circling thy throne
With loud hosannas; so of theirs be done
By saintly men on earth. Grant us, this day,
Our daily manna, without which, he roams
Through this rough desert retrograde, who most
Toils to advance his steps. As we to each
Pardon the evil done us, pardon thou
Benign, and of our merit take no count.
'Gainst the old adversary, prove thou not
Our virtue, easily subdued; but free
From his incitements, and defeat his wiles.
This last petition, dearest Lord! is made
Not for ourselves; since that were needless now;
But for their sakes who after us remain."

Thus for themselves and us good speed imploring, Those spirits went beneath a weight like that

10 thou Almighty Father.] The first four lines are borrowed by Pulci, Morg. Magg., c. vi.

Dante in his Credo' has again versified the Lord's Prayer, if indeed the 'Credo' be Dante's, which some have doubted; and in the preface to Allacci's Collection it is ascribed to Ar tonio di Ferrara.

We sometimes feel in dreams; all, sore beset,
But with unequal anguish; wearied all;
Round the first circuit; purging as they go
The world's gross darkness off. In our behoof
If there vows still be offer'd, what can here
For them be vow'd and done by such, whose wills
Have root of goodness in them?1 Well beseems
That we should help them wash away the stains
They carried hence; that so, made pure and light,
They may spring upward to the starry spheres.
"Ah! so may mercy-temper'd justice rid
Your burdens speedily; that ye have power
To stretch your wing, which e'en to your desire
Shall lift you; as ye show us on which hand
Toward the ladder leads the shortest way.
And if there be more passages than one,
Instruct us of that easiest to ascend:

For this man, who comes with me, and bears yet
The charge of fleshly raiment Adam left him,
Despite his better will, but slowly mounts."
From whom the answer came unto these words,
Which my guide spake, appear'd not; but 'twas said
"Along the bank to rightward come with us;
And ye shall find a pass that mocks not toil
Of living man to climb: and were it not
That I am hinder'd by the rock, wherewith

This arrogant neck is tamed, whence needs I stoop
My visage to the ground; him, who yet lives,
Whose name thou speak'st not, him I fain would view ;
To mark if e'er I knew him, and to crave
His pity for the fardel that I bear.

I was of Latium ;2 of a Tuscan born,
A mighty one: Aldobrandesco's name,
My sire's, I know not if ye e'er have heard.
My old blood and forefathers' gallant deeds
Made me so haughty, that I clean forgot
The common mother; and to such excess
Wax'd in my scorn of all men, that I fell,
Fell therefore; by what fate, Sienna's sons,

Have root of goodness in them.] The Poet has before told us, that there are no others on earth whose prayers avail to shorten the pains of those who are in Purgatory.

2 I was of Latium.] Omberto, the son of Guglielmo Aldobrandesco, Count of Santafiore, in the territory of Sienna, His arrogance provoked his countrymen to such a pitch of fury against him, that he was murdered by them at Cam pagnatico.

Each child in Campagnatico, can tell.
I am Omberto: not me, only, pride
Hath injured, but my kindred all involved
In mischief with her. Here my lot ordains
Under this weight to groan, till I appease
God's angry justice, since I did it not
Among the living, here among the dead."

Listening I bent my visage down: and one (Not he who spake) twisted beneath the weight That urged him, saw me, knew me straight, and Holding his eyes with difficulty fix'd

Intent upon me, stooping as I went

[call'd;

Companion of their way. "O!" I exclaim'd, "Art thou not Oderigi?1 art not thou

Agobbio's glory, glory of that art

Which they of Paris call the limner's skill?"
"Brother!" said he, "with tints, that gayer smile,
Bolognian Franco's2 pencil lines the leaves.
His all the honor now; my light obscured.
In truth, I had not been thus courteous to him
The while I lived, through eagerness of zeal
For that pre-eminence my heart was bent on.
Here, of such pride, the forfeiture is paid.3
Nor were I even here, if, able still

To sin, I had not turn'd me unto God.

O powers of man! how vain your glory, nipp'd
E'en in its height of verdure, if an age

Less bright succeed not.

Cimabue thought

1 Oderigi.] The illuminator, or miniature painter, a friend of Giotto and Dante.

2 Bolognian Franco.] Franco of Bologna, who is said to have been a pupil of Oderigi's.

The forfeiture is paid.]

Di tal superbia qui si paga il fio.

So in the Inferno, c. xxvii. 135.

in che si paga il fio.

And Ariosto, Orl. Fur., c. xxii. 59.

4

Prestate olà, che qui si paga il fio.

If an age

Less bright succeed not.] If a generation of men do not follow, among whom none exceeds or equals those who have immediately preceded them. "Etati grosse ;' to which Volpi remarks a similar expression in Boileau.

Villon sût le premier, dans ces siècles grossiers, Débrouiller l'art confus de nos vieux romanciers. Art Poetique, ch. i. Cimabue.] Giovanna Cimabue, the restorer of painting, was born at Florence, of a noble family, in 1240, and died in 1300. The passage in the text is an allusion to his epitaph. Credidit ut Cimabos picturæ castra tenere,

Sic tenuit vivens: nunc tenet astra poli.