Boldness to fix so earnestly my ken
On the everlasting splendor, that I look'd,
While sight was unconsumed; and, in that depth, Saw in one volume clasp'd of love, whate'er The universe unfolds; all properties1
Of substance and of accident, beheld, Compounded, yet one individual light The whole.
And of such bond methinks I saw The universal form; for that whene'er I do but speak of it, my soul dilates Beyond her proper self; and, till I speak, One moment neems a longer lethargy, Than five-and-twenty ages had appear'd To that emprize, that first made Neptune wonder At Argo's shadow3 darkening on his flood.
With fixed heed, suspense and motionless, Wondering I gazed; and admiration still Was kindled as I gazed. It may not be, That one, who looks upon that light, can turn To other object, willingly, his view.
For all the good, that will may covet, there Is summ'd; and all, elsewhere defective found, Complete. My tongue shall utter now, no more E'en what remembrance keeps, than could the babe's, That yet is moisten'd at his mother's breast. Not that the semblance of the living light Was changed (that ever as at first remain'd)
1 All properties.] Thus in the Parmenides of Plato, it is argued that al. conceivable quantities and qualities, however contradictory, are necessarily inherent in our idea of a universe or unity.
2 One moment.] "A moment seems to me more tedious, than five-and-twenty ages would have appeared to the Argonauts, when they had resolved on their expedition." Lombardi proposes a new interpretation of this difficult passage, and would understand our autor to say that "one moment elapsed after the vision, occasioned a greater forgetfulness of what he had seen, than the five-and-twenty centuries, which passed between the Argonautic expedition and the time of his writing this poem, had caused oblivion of the circumstances attendant on that event."
Quæ simul ac rostro ventosum proscidit æquor Tortaque remigio spumis incanduit unda, Emerseri feri candenti e gurgite vultus Equoreæ monstrum Nereides admirantes.
Catullus, De Nupt. Pel et Thet., 15.
The wondred Argo, which in wondrous piece
First through the Euxine seas bore all the flower of Greece. Spenser, Faer Queen, b. ii. c. 12, st. 44.
But that my vision quickening, in that sole Appearance, still new miracles descried, And toil'd me with the change. In that abyss Of radiance, clear and lofty, seem'd, methought, Three orbs of triple hue, clipp'd in one bound:' And, from another, one reflected seem'd,
As rainbow is from rainbow: and the third Seem'd fire, breathed equally from both. O speech! How feeble and how faint art thou, to give Conception birth. Yet this to what I saw Is less than little. O eternal light! Sole in thyself that dwell'st; and of thyself Sole understood, past, present, or to come; Thou smiledst, on that circling, which in thee Seem'd as reflected splendor, while I mused; For I therein, methought, in its own hue Beheld our image painted: steadfastly I therefore pored upon the view. As one, Who versed in geometric lore, would fain Measure the circle; and, though pondering long And deeply, that beginning, which he needs, Finds not: e'en such was I, intent to scan The novel wonder, and trace out the form, How to the circle fitted, and therein
How placed but the flight was not for my wing; Had not a flash darted athwart my mind, And, in the spleen, unfolded what it sought. Here vigor fail'd the towering fantasy: But yet the will roll'd onward, like a wheel In even motion, by the love impell'd,
That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars.
1 Three orbs of triple hue, clipp'd in one bound.] The Trinity This passage may be compared to what Plato, in his second Epistle, enigmatically says of a first, second, and third, and of the impossibility that the human soul should attain to what it desires to know of them, by means of any thing akin to itself
Che 'l pavon vi parrebbe men che poco.
Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. 5. • Thou smiledst.] Some MSS. and editions instead of "intendente te a me arridi," have "intendente te ami ed arridi," "who, understanding thyself, lovest and enjoyest thyself;" which Lombardi thinks much preferable.
That circling.] The second of the circles, "Light of Light," in which he dimly beheld the mystery of the incar nation.
EITHER EXPRESSLY MENTIONED, OR SUPPOSED TO BE REFERRED TO, IN THE PRECEDING POEM.
Abbagliato, H. xxix. 129. Abbati, Par. xvi. 109. Abbati degli, Bocca. H. xxxii. 105.
Abbati degli, Buoso. H. xxv.
Abel, H. iv. 53. Abraham, H. iv. 55. Absalom, H. xxviii. 132. Abydos, Purg. xxviii. 74. Accorso, H. xv. 110. Accorso d', Francesco, H. XV. 111. Achan, Purg. xx. 107. Acheron, H. iii. 72; xiv. 111. Purg. ii. 100. Achilles, H. v. 65; xii. 68; xxvi. 63; xxxi. 4. Purg. ix. 32; xxi. 93. Acone, Par. xvi. 64. Acquacheta, H. xvi. 97. Acquasparta, Par. xii. 115. Acre, H. xxvii. 84. Adam, H. iii. 107; iv. 52. Purg. ix. 9; xi 45; xxix. 84; xxxii. 37; xxxiii. 62. Far. vii. 22; xiii. 34, 77; xxvi. 82, 100; xxxii. 108, 122.
Adamo of Brescia, H. xxx. 60, 103.
Adice, H. xii. 4. Purg. xvi. 117. Par. ix. 44. Adimari, Par. xvi. 113. Adrian V., Purg. xix. 97. Adriatic, Par. xxi. 114. Ægina, H. xxix. 58. Æneas, H. ii. 34; iv. 119; xxvi. 62, 92. Purg. xviii. 135; xxi. 98. Par. vi. 3;
Africanus. See Scipio. Agamemnon, Par. v. 69. Agapete I., Par. vi. 16. Agatho, Purg. xxii. 105. Aghinulfo of Romena, H.
XXX. 76. Aglauros, Purg. xiv. 142. Agnello. See Brunelles chi.
Agobbio, Purg. xi. 80. Agobbio d', Oderigi, Purg. xi. 79.
Agostino, Par. xii. 122. Aguglione d', Baldo, Par. xvi. 54.
Ahasuerus, Purg. xvii. 28 Ahitophel, H. xxviii. 133. Alagia, Purg. xix. 141. Alagna, Purg. xx. 86. Par. XXX. 145. Alardo, H. xxviii. 17. Alba, Par. vi. 38. Alberichi, Par. xvi. 87. Alberigo. See Manfredi. Albero of Sienna, H. xxix 105.
Albert I., Purg. vi. 98. Par xix. 114. Alberti degli, Alberto, H xxxii. 55.
Alberti degli, Alessandro, H. xxxii. 53. Alberti degli, Napoleone, H. xxxii. 53.
Alberto, Abbot of San Zeno, Purg. xviii. 118.
Albertus Magnus, Par. x.
Alcides, H. xxv. 30; xxxi.
123. Alcmæon, Purg. x. 46. Par. iv. 100.
Ethiop, Purg. xxvi. 18. Aldobrandesco, Guglielmo,
Omberto, | Anthony, Saint, Par. xxix
Aldobrandesco, Purg. xi. 58, 67. Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio, H. vi. 79; xvi. 42. Alecto, H. ix. 48. Alessandro of Romena, H. XXX. 76.
Alessio. See Intermine. Alexander Pheræus, H. xii. 106.
Alexander the Great, H. xiv. 28.
Alexandria, Purg. vii. 137. Ali, H. xxviii. 32. Alichino, H. xxi. 116; xxii.
Amphion, H. xxxii. 11. Amyclas, Par. xi. 63. Anacreon, Purg. xxii. 105. Ananias, Par. xxvi. 13. Ananias, the husband Sapphira, Purg. xx. 109. Anastagio, Purg. xiv. 109. Anastasius, H. xi. 9. Anaxagoras, H. iv. 135. Anchises, H. i. 69; iv. 119; xxvi. 94. Par. xv. 25; xix. 128.
Andes, Purg. xviii. 84. Andrea da Sant', Giacomo, H. xiii. 134. Angelo. See Cagnano. Ann, Saint, Par. xxxii. 119. Annas, H. xxiii. 124. Anselm, Par. xii. 128. Anselm, son of Count Ugo- lino de' Gherardeschi, H. xxxiii. 48. Antæus, H. xxxi. 92, 131.
Antandros, Par. vi. 69. Antenor, Purg. v. 75. Antenora, H. xxxii. 89. Antigone, Purg. xxii. 108. Antiochus, H. xix. 90.
Aragonia, Purg. iii. 113. Arbia, H. x. 84. Arca, Par. xvi. 90. Archiano, Purg. v. 93, 122. Arctic, Par. xxxi. 28. Ardelaffi. See Ordelaffi. Ardinghi, Par. xvi. 91. Arethusa, H. xxv. 89. Arezzo, H. xxii. 6; xxix 104; XXX. 32. Purg. vi. 14; xiv. 49.
Argenti, Filippo, H. viii
Argia, Purg. xxii. 109. Argive, H. xxviii. 81. Argo, Par. xxxiii. 92. Argus, Purg. xxix. 91; xxxii.
Argonauts, Par. ii. 17; xxxiii. 91.
Ariadne, Par. xiii. 12. Aries, Purg. viii. 135; xxxii. 52. Par. i. 39; xxviii. 106.
Arius, Par. xiii. 123. Aristotle, H. iv. 128; xi. 104. Purg. iii. 41. Par. viii. 125.
Arles, H. ix. 111. Arnault. See Daniel. Arno, H. xiii. 148; xv. 115; xxiii. 95; xxx. 65; xxxiii. 83. Purg. v. 123; xiv. 26. Par. xi. 99. Arrigo. See Fifanti. Arrigucci, Par. xvi. 106. Arthur, H. xxxii. 59. Aruns, H. xx. 43. Ascesi, Par. xi. 49. Asciano of, Caccia, H. xxix 127.
Asdente, H. xx. 116. Asopus, Purg. xviii. 92.
Aventine, H. xxv. 25. Averroes, H. iv. 141. August, Purg. v. 38. Augustine, Saint, Par. x. 117; xxxii. 30. Augustus, Par. xxx. 136. See Cæsar. Avicen, H. iv. 140. Aulis, H. xx. 109. Aurora, Purg. ii. 8; ix. 1. Ausonia, Par. viii. 63. Ausonian, Par. xi. 98. Austrian, H. xxxii. 26. Azzo of, Ubaldini, Purg. xiv. 107.
Azzolino. See Romano.
Babylonian, Par. xxiii. 129. Bacchiglione, H. xv. 115. Par. ix. 47. Bacchus, H. xx. 55. Purg. xviii. 93. Par. xiii. 22. Bagnacavallo, Purg. xiv.
Bagnoregio, Par. xii. 119. Balearic, H. xxviii. 79. Baliol, John, Par. xix. 121. Baptist. See John. Barbariccia, H. xxi. 118; xxii. 30, 57, 142. Barbarossa. See Frederick. Bari, Par. viii. 64. Barucci, Par. xvi. 102. Battifolle da, Frederigo No- vello, Purg. vi. 17. Beatrice, daughter of Folco Portinari, passim. Beatrice, Marchioness of Es- te, Purg. viii. 73. Beatrix, wife of Charles I. king of Naples, Purg. vii. 129. Par. vi. 135. Beccaria, H. xxxii. 116. Bede, Par. x. 127. Begga, Par. ix. 88. Belacqua, Purg. iv. 119. Belisarius, Par. vi. 25. Bella della, Giano, Par. xvi. 130.
Bellincion. See Berti.
Belus, Par. ix. 93. Belzebub, H. xxxiv. 122. Benacus, H. xx. 60, 72, 75.. Benedict, Saint, Par. xxii. 38; xxxii. 30. Benedict, Saint, the Abbey, H. xvi. 100. Benevento, Purg. iii. 124. Benincasa d' Arezzo, Purg. vi. 14.
Berenger, haymond, Par. vi. 136.
Bergamese, H. xx. 70. Bernard the Franciscan Par. xi. 72.
Bernard, Saint, Par. xxxi. 55, 93, 130; xxxii. 1; xxxiii. 47.
Bernardin. See Fosco. Bernardone, Pietro, Par. xi. 83.
Berti, Bellincion, Par. xv 106; xvi. 96, 119. Bertrand. See Born. Bethlehem, Purg. xx. 135. Bianco, H. xxiv. 149. Billi, Par. xvi. 100. Bindi, Par. xxix. 111. Birtha, Par. xiii. 135. Bisenzio, H. xxxii. 54. Bismantua, Purg. iv. 25. Bocca. See Abbati. Boëtius, Par. x. 119. Bohemia, Purg. vii. 98. Par. xix. 116. Bohemian, Par. xix. 123. Bologna, H. xviii. 58; xxiii.
105, 144. Purg. xiv. 102. Bolognian, Purg. xi. 83. Bolsena, Purg. xxiv. 25. Bonatti, Guido, H. xx. 116. Bonaventura, Saint, Par. xii. 25, 118. Boniface, Purg. xxiv. 30. Boniface VIII., H. xix. 55; xxvii. 81. Purg. xx. 85; xxxii. 146. Par. ix. 134; xii. 82; xxii. 14; xxvii. 20; xxx. 145. Bonturo. See Dati. Borgo, Par. xvi. 132. Born de, Bertrand, H. xxviii. 130; xxix. 27.
Borneil de, Giraud, Purg. xxvi. 113.
Borsiere, Guglielmo, H. xvi.
Bello del, Geri, H. xxix. 26. Botaio, Martino, H. xxi. 37.
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