136-137. The “House” was that of the Amidei family. Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti, betrothed to a daughter of the Amidei, forsook her on their wedding day at the instigation of Gualdrada Donati, whose daughter he later married. This was a serious insult, and members of the indignant Amidei family murdered Buondelmonte, thereby beginning the feud that caused civil unrest in Florence for many years.
139. The “clan” included the Ucellini and Gherandini.
142-144. Cacciaguida laments all the tragedy brought to his city as a result of the arrival of the Buondelmonti family. The Ema river lies between Florence and the castle of Montebuono, the former home of this family.
How fitting for Florence to sacrifice a victim to the mutilated stone that guards her bridge to mark the end of peace!
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With these and other men who ruled like them I saw a Florence prospering in peace with no cause, then, to grieve as she has now.
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With families like these in charge I saw the glory and the justice of her people: never the lily on the staff reversed,
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nor through dissension changed from white to red. ”
CANTO XVII
WHEN CACCIAGUIDA finishes speaking, Beatrice encourages Dante to ask his ancestor what he wishes to know concerning the grave future that souls during his journey have predicted for him. Cacciaguida clarifies the prophecies by revealing to Dante that he will be exiled from Florence and that his place of refuge will be first with the great Lombard whose coat of arms is the ladder and the eagle and then with the younger one whose greatness is not yet known. Cacciaguida adds that Dante should not envy his neighbors, because his life will continue long after their perfidies are punished. Having heard the prophecy, Dante is troubled on the one hand by the bitterness of his fate and on the other by the fact that he may be too timid to reveal what he has seen and heard during his journey. His illustrious ancestor, however, urges him to tell the whole truth and assures him that while his Comedy and the criticism it levels against great and important men may at first seem harsh, it is bound to nourish mankind, and this honor should be a consolation. The fact that Dante has been introduced only to famous souls as examples of conduct in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise will give his work an enduring fame, because it is through the example of illustrious men that mankind can best learn.
153-154. After the expulsion of the Ghibellines in 1251, the Guelphs reversed the Florentine standard from a white lily in a red field to a red lily in a white field (cf. Chronicles VI, 43).
Like him who came to Clymene to learn the truth of those things said against him, he who still makes fathers chary of their sons,
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was I, and just so was I felt to be by Beatrice and that holy light who for my sake had moved from where he was.
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Wherefore my lady said: “Release the flame of your consuming wish; let it come forth marked clearly with the stamp of your desire,
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not that your words would add to what we know, but that you better learn to speak your thirst in order that your cup be filled for you. ”
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“O my own cherished root, so highly raised that, as men see no triangle contains among its angles two that are obtuse,
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you see, gazing upon the final Point where time is timeless, those contingent things before they ever come into true being.
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While I was still in Virgil’s company, climbing the mountain where the souls are healed, descending through the kingdom of the dead,
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ominous words about my future life were said to me—the truth is that I feel my soul foursquare against the blows of chance;
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and so, it is my keenest wish to know whatever fortune has in store for me: fate’s arrow, when expected, travels slow. ”
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1. On hearing that he was not Apollo’s son as he had always believed, Phaëthon went to his mother, Clymene, for the truth. She swore that, indeed, he was and urged him to ask for himself. Phaëthon did so, and at that interview he persuaded his father to let him drive the chariot of the Sun, an action that proved fatal to him (see Metamorphoses I, 750-761).
These were the words I spoke to that same light who spoke to me before, and so my wish, as Beatrice wished, was now confessed.
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Not with dark oracles that once ensnared the foolish folk before the Lamb of God, Who takes away all sins, was crucified,
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but in plain words, with clarity of thought, did that paternal love respond to me, both hidden and revealed by his own smile:
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“Contingency, which in no way extends beyond the pages of your world of matter, is all depicted in the eternal sight;
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but this no more confers necessity than does the movement of a boat downstream depend upon the eyes that mirror it.
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As organ music sweetly strikes the ear, so from this Vision there comes to my eyes the shape of things the future holds for you.
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As Hippolytus was forced to flee from Athens by his devious and merciless stepmother, just so you too shall have to leave your Florence.
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So it is willed, so it is being planned, and shall be done soon by the one who plots it there where daily Christ is up for sale.
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The public will, as always, blame the party that has been wronged; vengeance that Truth demands, although, shall yet bear witness to the truth.
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37-42. Contingent things (i. e., things derived from secondary causes) do not exist beyond the material world, as contingency has no place in eternity. The fact that these things can be seen within God does not mean that His foreknowledge necessitates events any more than the eyes, seeing a boat move downstream, determine the course of the vessel.
46-48. When Phaedra, Hippolytus’s stepmother, fell in love with him, Hippolytus rejected her advances and was forced to flee Athens when she subsequently accused him of attempting to dishonor her (see Metamorphoses XV, 497-505).
You shall be forced to leave behind those things you love most dearly, and this is the first arrow the bow of your exile will shoot.
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And you will know how salty is the taste of others’ bread, how hard the road that takes you down and up the stairs of others’ homes.
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But what will weigh you down the most will be the despicable, senseless company whom you shall have to bear in that sad vale;
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and all ungrateful, all completely mad and vicious, they shall turn on you, but soon their cheeks, not yours, will have to blush from shame.
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Proof of their bestiality will show through their own deeds! It will be to your honor to have become a party of your own.
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Your first abode, your first refuge, will be the courtesy of the great Lombard lord who bears the sacred bird upon the ladder,
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and he will hold you in such high regard that in your give and take relationship the one will give before the other asks.
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With him you shall see one who at his birth was stamped so hard with this star’s seal that all of his achievements will win great renown.
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62-69. The “company” is that of the Bianchi, or White Guclphs, who were exiled with Dante. After the exile in 1302, they made several attempts to march on Florence. Dante did not participate in the last attempt in 1304, and about this time he broke from the party. Specific reasons for this severance are unknown.
70-72. The “great Lombard lord” is believed to be a member of the Scalinger family, Bartolommeo della Scala of Verona, whose arms consisted of the Imperial eagle perched upon a golden ladder. Dante took refuge with him in Verona immediately after separating from the other exiled members of his party.
76-78. The young man is Can Grande della Scala, yo
unger brother of Bartolommeo, who was born in 1291. Can Grande is said to have been “stamped so hard with this star’s seal” (77) in the sense that, born under the influence of Mars, his great achievements would be in the field of the martial arts.
The world has not yet taken note of him; he is still very young, for Heaven’s wheels have circled round him now for just nine years.
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But even before the Gascon tricks proud Henry, this one will show some of his mettle’s sparks by scorning wealth and making light of toil.
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Knowledge of his munificence will yet be spread abroad: even his enemies will not be able to deny his worth.
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Look you to him, expect from him good things. Through him the fate of many men shall change, rich men and beggars changing their estate.
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Now write this in your mind but do not tell the world”—and he said things concerning him incredible even to those who see
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them all come true. Then he said: “Son, you have my gloss of what was told you. Now you see the snares that hide behind a few years’ time!
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No envy toward your neighbors should you bear, for you will have a future that endures far longer than their crime and punishment. ”
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When, by his silence, that blest soul revealed that he had ceased weaving the woof across the warp that I had set in readiness,
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I said, as one who is in doubt and longs to have the guidance of a soul who sees the truth and knows of virtue and has love:
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82. Before 1312, Pope Clement V, the Gascon, had supported Emperor Henry VII and invited him to Italy; however, Clement apparently changed his mind, withdrew support, and even fostered opposition to Henry.
91-94. Dante the Poet cannot tell the world (only the Pilgrim knows) because these things that Can Grande did still have to be done. We must remember that the time of the Poem is 1300, and Can Grande is only nine years of age.
95. The “gloss” is Cacciaguida’s clarification of the many predictions Dante heard during his journey through the Inferno and Purgatory.
“Father, well do I see how time attacks, spurring toward me to deal me such a blow as falls the hardest on the least prepared;
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so, it is good that foresight lend me arms; thus, should the place most dear to me be lost, my verse, at least, shall not lose me all others.
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Down through the world of endless bitterness and on the mountain from whose lovely crown I was raised upward by my lady’s eyes,
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then through the heavens, rising from light to light— I learned things that, were they to be retold, would leave a bitter taste in many mouths;
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yet, if I am a timid friend to truth, I fear my name may not live on with those who will look back at these as the old days. ”
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The light that was resplendent in the treasure I had found there began to flash more light, just like a golden mirror in the sun,
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and then replied: “The conscience that is dark with shame for his own deeds or for another’s, may well, indeed, feel harshness in your words;
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nevertheless, do not resort to lies, let what you write reveal all you have seen, and let those men who itch scratch where it hurts.
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Though when your words are taken in at first they may taste bitter, but once well-digested they will become a vital nutriment.
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110. The “place most dear” is Florence.
112. The “world of endless bitterness” is Hell.
113. The mountain is that of Purgatory.
Your cry of words will do as does the wind striking the hardest at the highest peaks, and this will be for honor no small grounds;
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and so you have been shown, here in these spheres, down on the Mount and in the pain-filled valley only those souls whose names are known to fame,
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because the listener’s mind will never trust or have faith in the kind of illustration based on the unfamiliar and obscure—
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or demonstration that is not outstanding. ”
CANTO XVIII
WHILE DANTE AND Cacciaguida are rapt in thought, Beatrice calls to the Pilgrim to look into her eyes that are filled with Divine Love, the love that releases him from all other desires. Beatrice breaks his rapture by telling him to turn and listen once more to his ancestor, because Paradise is not only in her eyes. Then Cacciaguida introduces Dante to a number of famous soldier-souls who appear in the cross flashing like lightning at the mention of their names. Dante turns to Beatrice and is again lost in her gaze when suddenly he realizes that he has been transported from the rosy glow of the fifth sphere of Mars to the silvery sixth sphere of Jupiter. In this sphere the shining souls group together to form, one at a time, the letters of the first verse of the Book of Wisdom: DILIGITE IUSTITIAM QUI IUDICATIS TERRAM, appearing as gold against silver. Having formed the final letter M, the souls stop. More lights descend singing on the summit of the M and then suddenly shoot up to form the neck and head of an eagle. The souls of the M now move to fill out the rest of the design of the eagle. Moved by this vision of Justice Dante, in a bitter apostrophe against the Pope, accuses him of having forgotten the example of his predecessors Peter and Paul who died for the Church he is now in the process of ruining.
134. The “highest peaks” refer to the powerful and eminent men such as popes and politicians who will hear his words.
135. Striking at “the highest peaks” takes much courage.
136-142. Only by using well-known persons as examples can the Comedy be efficacious; Dante can convince no one by citing unknown examples or proof drawn from obscure facts.
That holy mirror was rejoicing now in his own thoughts, and I was left to taste and temper mine, the bitter with the sweet.
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Then she who was my guide to God said: “Stop, think other thoughts. Think that I dwell with Him Who lifts the weight of every wrong man suffers. ”
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Those loving words made me turn round to face my Solace. What love within her holy eyes I saw just then—too much to be retold;
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not only do I fear my words may fail, but to such heights my mind cannot return unless Another guides it from above.
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I can recall just this about that moment: as I was gazing at her there, I know my heart was freed of every other longing,
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for the Eternal Joy was shining straight into my Beatrice’s face, and back came its reflection filling me with joy;
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then, with a smile whose radiance dazzled me, she said: “Now turn around and listen well, not in my eyes alone is Paradise. ”
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As here on earth the eyes sometimes reveal their deepest wish, if it is wished with force enough to captivate all of the soul,
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1. The “holy mirror” is Cicciaguida, whose soul reflects the light of God, as do the souls of all the Blest.
2-3. Dante’s thoughts focus on the predictions, good and bad, which he has heard concerning his future.
8. Cf. Virgil’s role in Purgatory III, 22; IX, 43, where he is addressed with the same words, mio conforto, as is Beatrice here (“my Solace”).
so, in the flaring of the sacred fire to which I turned, I recognized his wish: I saw that he had something more to say.
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He spoke: “Upon the fifth tier of the tree whose life comes from its crown and which bears fruit in every season, never shedding leaves,
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blest spirits dwell whose fame below on earth, before they came to Heaven, was so widespread that any poet would be enriched by them.
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Now look up and observe the cross’s arms, each soul that I shall name there you will se
e flash quick as lightning flashes through a cloud. ”
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I saw, as he pronounced the name of Joshua, a streak of light flashing across the cross— no sooner was it said than it was done.
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And at the name of the great Maccabees I saw another whirling light flash through— the cord that spun that top was its own joy!
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Then came the names Roland and Charlemagne, and eagerly I followed these two lights, as hunters watch their falcons on the wing.
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William of Orange, then, and Renouard and the Duke Godfrey drew my sight with them along the cross; then came Robert Guiscard.
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40. Maccabees was Judas Maccabaeus, the great warrior who succeeded in resisting the attempts of the kings of Syria to destroy the Jewish religion.
43. Charlemagne (742-814), king of the Franks and Holy Roman emperor, and Roland, his nephew and greatest warrior, are presented here for their efforts against the Saracens.
46. William, count of Orange, is the hero of a group of Old French epics, the Aliscans being the best known.
47. Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade (1096), became the first Christian king of Jerusalem.
48. In the latter half of the eleventh century, the Norman warrior Robert Guiscard took southern Italy and Sicily from the Saracens. He died in Salerno in 1085.
The light who spoke to me now moved away to mix with other lights and let me hear the artist that he was in Heaven’s choir.
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I turned to Beatrice at my right to learn from her by word or by a sign what she thought I should do, and I beheld
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new brilliance in her eyes, such purity, such ecstasy, her countenance was now more beautiful than it had ever been.
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And as a man feeling from day to day more joy in doing good, becomes aware thereby that virtue grows in him, just so,
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seeing that miracle grow lovelier, I noticed that my circling with the heavens had taken on a greater arc of space.
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