The Divine Comedy

by Dante Alighieri

  And he: “As much as angel or soul can know of exultation, gallantry, and poise there is in him; and we would have it so,

  for it was he who brought the victory to Mary when the Son of God had willed to bear the weight of human misery.

  But let your eyes go where my words point out among this court, and note the mighty peers of the empire of the just and the devout.

  Those two whose bliss it is to sit so close to the radiance of the Empress of All Joy are the two eternal roots of this our rose:

  The one just to the left of her blessedness is the father whose unruly appetite left man the taste for so much bitterness;

  and on her right, that ancient one you see is the father of Holy Church to whom Christ gave the twin keys to this flower of timeless beauty.

  And that one who in his prophetic sight foretold the evil days of the Sweet Bride won by the spear and nails, sits on his right.

  While by the other father and first man sits the great leader to whom manna fell to feed an ingrate and rebellious clan.

  Across the circle from Peter, behold Anna. She feels such bliss in looking at her daughter she does not move her eyes to sing ‘Hosanna!’

  And opposite the father of us all sits Lucy, who first urged your lady to you when you were blindly bent toward your own fall.

  But the time allowed for this dream vision flies. As a tailor must cut the gown from what cloth is given, just so must we move on, turning our eyes

  to the Primal Love, that as your powers advance with looking toward Him, you may penetrate as deep as may be through His radiance.

  But lest you should fall backward when you flare your mortal wings, intending to mount higher, remember grace must be acquired through prayer.

  Therefore I will pray that blessed one who has the power to aid you in your need. See that you follow me with such devotion

  your heart adheres to every word I say.” And with those words the saint began to pray.

  NOTES

  1-3. Still rapt in contemplation: Of the Virgin. His eyes have not left her. Nor do they turn again to Dante. Following his own preachment in XXXI, 112-117, he keeps his eyes on high. The text permits the assumption that Bernard turns his eyes from the Virgin to look at the various parts of the Mystic Rose as he identifies them, later, for Dante. Certainly, however, Bernard could identify every detail of the Rose without having to look at it, and every quality of Dante’s mind and style would be better honored by thinking of Bernard as staring adoringly on the Virgin throughout. the vacant office of instruction: Formerly held by Beatrice. I still can hear: A rhyme-forced addition, not in Dante’s text.

  4-6. Mary, Mother of God, sits in the uppermost tier. At her feet in the second tier sits Eve, Mother of Man. the wound: Original sin. balm so sweet: Jesus. dealt: The first fault, Eve’s disobedience. deepened: Her seduction of Adam, thus spreading sin to all mankind. in such great beauty: Eve, having been created directly by God, was perfect in her beauty.

  8-9. Rachel . . . Beatrice at her side: See Inferno, II, 102: “Where I was sitting with the ancient Rachel.” Rachel, the younger wife of Jacob, symbolizes the contemplative life, as her sister Leah, also Jacob’s wife, symbolizes the active life. In relation to Bernard she may be taken allegorically to be Contemplation and he to be the Contemplative Soul.

  10-12. Sarah: Wife of Abraham. Hebrews, xi, 11-14, cites her as the mother (by miraculous fertility in her old age) of the Jews who foresaw Christ’s coming and believed in him. Rebecca: Wife of Isaac. Judith: She killed Holofernes and freed the Jews. and she: Ruth, great-grandmother of David. the singer: David. who for his sins: His lust for Bathsheba, wife of Uriah. In order to marry Bathsheba, David sent Uriah to his death in the first line of battle. David’s lament is in Psalm L.

  Thus, the first descending rank, down tier by tier from Mary, is made up of Hebrew women, mothers of the children of God.

  18. part . . . tresses: As if the Rose were a head of hair and that vertical row of Hebrew women formed a part in it. In the next line the part becomes a wall.

  22. in full bloom: That half of the Rose-stadium that holds the pre-Christian believers would naturally be completely filled. On the other side there are thrones waiting for those who have yet to win salvation through Christ Descended. Dante, in fact, is laboring to earn one of them for himself. The Day of Judgment will be upon mankind when the last throne is filled, for Heaven will then be complete.

  32-33. the Great John: The Baptist. He denounced Herod Antipas and was beheaded two years before the Crucifixion. He had to wait in Limbo for two years, therefore, till Christ came for him at the Resurrection. For the Harrowing of Hell, see Inferno, IV, 53, note.

  40 ff. below that tier: The lower half of the rose-stadium contains the blessed infants, the souls of those who died before they had achieved the true volition of reason and faith. They could not, therefore, win salvation by their own merit. but by another’s, under strict condition: The necessary qualification for election is belief in Christ. These souls were too young at death to have formed their faith. Salvation is granted them not directly through belief in Christ but through the faith and prayers of their parents, relatives, and others of the faithful who interceded for them.

  49. many doubts: The infants are ranked in tiers that indicate degrees of heavenly merit. But if they were saved through no merit of their own, how can one be more worthy than the other? Such is Dante’s doubt, which Bernard goes on to set at rest by telling him, in essence, that God knows what He is doing.

  58-59. These . . . who had so short a pause: The infants paused only briefly in the mortal life.

  62. dares: I have no explanation of Dante’s word choice here. “Not to dare” cannot fail to suggest intimidation. But in Paradise there can be no daring: every soul is in bliss exactly to the degree it is capable of bliss, and its capacity keeps increasing as it looks upon God. To dare (ausare, or in modern Italian, osare) must be taken as an impurity from the mortal vocabulary (in the sense of “even to think of”) and not strictly of the heavenly tongue.

  66. the effect: The cause is buried in God’s mind. The effect must speak for itself.

  67-72. The reference here is to Jacob and Esau. According to Genesis, xxv, 21 ff., they were at odds while still in their mother’s womb. (Cf. the legend of Polynices and Eteocles, twin sons of Oedipus and Jocasta.) Dante follows St. Paul (Romans, ix, 11-13) in interpreting the division between Jacob and Esau as a working of God’s unfathomable will. “Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Man can note the will of God in such matters (“the effect”) but cannot plumb its causes. according to the color of their hair: For what may seem to be superficial reasons. Esau (Genesis, xxv, 25) was red-headed.

  81. sufficient force: To mount to Heaven.

  84. among the blind: Among the souls of Hell. Such infants were assigned to Limbo.

  85. on her who most resembles Christ: The Virgin Mary.

  88-99. THE GLORY OF THE VIRGIN. As Bernard directs, Dante fixes his attention on Mary and beholds her blazing in a splendor that rains down upon her in a host of angel beings. These fly from God to the Rose and back again like bees between the hive and the flower, with the difference that these bees bring the rain of light to the flower and are themselves the glorious rain.

  88. that face: Mary’s.

  94. the self-same Love: The archangel Gabriel, the Angel of the Annunciation. Dante seems to conceive of Gabriel suspended in air before her, repeating the blissful chant of the Annunciation as he had first hymned it in Nazareth.

  112. the victory: (Dante says “the palm.”) Of God’s election. Some commentators gloss it as Mary’s triumph over all other Jewish women, all of whom would have been eager to bear the promised Messiah; and possibly so, but to be chosen by God would be triumph enough itself, and any thought of outshining the ladies of the neighborhood would be trivial by comparison.

  118-126. Those two: Adam and St. Peter. Adam as Father of Mankind, Peter as Father of the Church. Note
that Peter has the place of honor on the right.

  127. that one: St. John the Evangelist. His Apocalypse was received as the prophetic book in which the entire history of the Church is foretold. He sits on Peter’s right.

  131. the great leader: Moses. As the second great figure of the Old Testament he sits to the left of Adam.

  133-135. Anna: Ste. Anna, Ste. Anne, mother of the Virgin. Her position directly across the circle from Peter’s puts her to the right of John the Baptist. does not move her eyes to sing ‘Hosanna!’: Like all the other heavenly beings, she constantly sings the praise of God. All others, naturally enough, look up as they sing. She, however, is so filled with bliss by the sight of Mary that she does not turn her eyes from her blessed daughter. She praises God while looking at Mary. This detail can be interpreted in many ways, but all of them, of course, must center on the special position of Mary in Catholic doctrine and feeling.

  136-138. Lucy: See Inferno, II, 97-100. It was she who first sent Beatrice to rescue Dante from the Dark Wood of Error. She sits opposite Adam. She would, accordingly, be to the left of John the Baptist.

  139-141. The time granted for Dante’s vision is limited. As a tailor must cut the gown from what cloth he is given, so Dante must get on with it, making what he can of his experience in the time allotted him.

  142-144. In the act of looking at God man is given the power to see Him. Such is the gift of grace, and to the extent that grace is given, a man may see more or less deeply into God’s glory.

  148. that blessed one: Mary.

  Canto XXXIII

  THE EMPYREAN

  St. Bernard

  Prayer to the Virgin

  The Vision of God

  ST. BERNARD offers a lofty PRAYER TO THE VIRGIN, asking her to intercede in Dante’s behalf, and in answer Dante feels his soul swell with new power and grow calm in rapture as his eyes are permitted the

  DIRECT VISION OF GOD.

  There can be no measure of how long the vision endures. It passes, and Dante is once more mortal and fallible. Raised by God’s presence, he had looked into the Mystery and had begun to understand its power and majesty. Returned to himself, there is no power in him capable of speaking the truth of what he saw. Yet the impress of the truth is stamped upon his soul, which he now knows will return to be one with God’s Love.

  “Virgin Mother, daughter of thy son; humble beyond all creatures and more exalted; predestined turning point of God’s intention;

  thy merit so ennobled human nature that its divine Creator did not scorn to make Himself the creature of His creature.

  The Love that was rekindled in Thy womb sends forth the warmth of the eternal peace within whose ray this flower has come to bloom.

  Here, to us, thou art the noon and scope of Love revealed; and among mortal men, the living fountain of eternal hope.

  Lady, thou art so near God’s reckonings that who seeks grace and does not first seek thee would have his wish fly upward without wings.

  Not only does thy sweet benignity flow out to all who beg, but oftentimes thy charity arrives before the plea.

  In thee is pity, in thee munificence, in thee the tenderest heart, in thee unites all that creation knows of excellence!

  Now comes this man who from the final pit of the universe up to this height has seen, one by one, the three lives of the spirit.

  He prays to thee in fervent supplication for grace and strength, that he may raise his eyes to the all-healing final revelation.

  And I, who never more desired to see the vision myself than I do that he may see It, add my own prayer, and pray that it may be

  enough to move you to dispel the trace of every mortal shadow by thy prayers and let him see revealed the Sum of Grace.

  I pray thee further, all-persuading Queen, keep whole the natural bent of his affections and of his powers after his eyes have seen.

  Protect him from the stirrings of man’s clay; see how Beatrice and the blessed host clasp reverent hands to join me as I pray.”

  The eyes that God reveres and loves the best glowed on the speaker, making clear the joy with which true prayer is heard by the most blest.

  Those eyes turned then to the Eternal Ray, through which, we must indeed believe, the eyes of others do not find such ready way.

  And I, who neared the goal of all my nature, felt my soul, at the climax of its yearning, suddenly, as it ought, grow calm with rapture.

  Bernard then, smiling sweetly, gestured to me to look up, but I had already become within myself all he would have me be.

  Little by little as my vision grew it penetrated further through the aura of the high lamp which in Itself is true.

  What then I saw is more than tongue can say. Our human speech is dark before the vision. The ravished memory swoons and falls away.

  As one who sees in dreams and wakes to find the emotional impression of his vision still powerful while its parts fade from his mind—

  just such am I, having lost nearly all the vision itself, while in my heart I feel the sweetness of it yet distill and fall.

  So, in the sun, the footprints fade from snow. On the wild wind that bore the tumbling leaves the Sybil’s oracles were scattered so.

  O Light Supreme who doth Thyself withdraw so far above man’s mortal understanding, lend me again some glimpse of what I saw;

  make Thou my tongue so eloquent it may of all Thy glory speak a single clue to those who follow me in the world’s day;

  for by returning to my memory somewhat, and somewhat sounding in these verses, Thou shalt show man more of Thy victory.

  So dazzling was the splendor of that Ray, that I must certainly have lost my senses had I, but for an instant, turned away.

  And so it was, as I recall, I could the better bear to look, until at last my vision made one with the Eternal Good.

  Oh grace abounding that had made me fit to fix my eyes on the eternal light until my vision was consumed in it!

  I saw within Its depth how It conceives all things in a single volume bound by Love, of which the universe is the scattered leaves;

  substance, accident, and their relation so fused that all I say could do no more than yield a glimpse of that bright revelation.

  I think I saw the universal form that binds these things, for as I speak these words I feel my joy swell and my spirits warm.

  Twenty-five centuries since Neptune saw the Argo’s keel have not moved all mankind, recalling that adventure, to such awe

  as I felt in an instant. My tranced being stared fixed and motionless upon that vision, ever more fervent to see in the act of seeing.

  Experiencing that Radiance, the spirit is so indrawn it is impossible even to think of ever turning from It.

  For the good which is the will’s ultimate object is all subsumed in It; and, being removed, all is defective which in It is perfect.

  Now in my recollection of the rest I have less power to speak than any infant wetting its tongue yet at its mother’s breast;

  and not because that Living Radiance bore more than one semblance, for It is unchanging and is forever as it was before;

  rather, as I grew worthier to see, the more I looked, the more unchanging semblance appeared to change with every change in me.

  Within the depthless deep and clear existence of that abyss of light three circles shone—three in color, one in circumference:

  the second from the first, rainbow from rainbow; the third, an exhalation of pure fire equally breathed forth by the other two.

  But oh how much my words miss my conception, which is itself so far from what I saw that to call it feeble would be rank deception!