The Divine Comedy (Illustrated Edition). Dante Alighieri

      He answer’d: “The renown of their great names

      That echoes through your world above, acquires

      Favour in heaven, which holds them thus advanc’d.”

      Meantime a voice I heard: “Honour the bard

      Sublime! his shade returns that left us late!”

      No sooner ceas’d the sound, than I beheld

      Four mighty spirits toward us bend their steps,

      Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad.

      When thus my master kind began: “Mark him,

      Who in his right hand bears that falchion keen,

      The other three preceding, as their lord.

      This is that Homer, of all bards supreme:

      Flaccus the next in satire’s vein excelling;

      The third is Naso; Lucan is the last.

      Because they all that appellation own,

      With which the voice singly accosted me,

      Honouring they greet me thus, and well they judge.”

      So I beheld united the bright school

Of him the monarch of sublimest song,4

      That o’er the others like an eagle soars.

      When they together short discourse had held,

      They turn’d to me, with salutation kind

      Beck’ning me; at the which my master smil’d:

      Nor was this all; but greater honour still

      They gave me, for they made me of their tribe;

      And I was sixth amid so learn’d a band.

      Far as the luminous beacon on we pass’d

      Speaking of matters, then befitting well

      To speak, now fitter left untold. At foot

      Of a magnificent castle we arriv’d,

      Seven times with lofty walls begirt, and round

      Defended by a pleasant stream. O’er this

      As o’er dry land we pass’d. Next through seven gates

      I with those sages enter’d, and we came

      Into a mead with lively verdure fresh.

      There dwelt a race, who slow their eyes around

      Majestically mov’d, and in their port

      Bore eminent authority; they spake

      Seldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet.

      We to one side retir’d, into a place

      Open and bright and lofty, whence each one

      Stood manifest to view. Incontinent

      There on the green enamel of the plain

      Were shown me the great spirits, by whose sight

      I am exalted in my own esteem.

Electra5 there I saw accompanied

      By many, among whom Hector I knew,

      Anchises’ pious son, and with hawk’s eye

      Caesar all arm’d, and by Camilla there

      Penthesilea. On the other side

      Old King Latinus, seated by his child

      Lavinia, and that Brutus I beheld,

      Who Tarquin chas’d, Lucretia, Cato’s wife

Marcia, with Julia6 and Cornelia there;

And sole apart retir’d, the Soldan fierce.7

      Then when a little more I rais’d my brow,

I spied the master of the sapient throng,8

      Seated amid the philosophic train.

      Him all admire, all pay him rev’rence due.

      There Socrates and Plato both I mark’d,

      Nearest to him in rank; Democritus,

Who sets the world at chance,9 Diogenes,

      With Heraclitus, and Empedocles,

      And Anaxagoras, and Thales sage,

      Zeno, and Dioscorides well read

      In nature’s secret lore. Orpheus I mark’d

      And Linus, Tully and moral Seneca,

      Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrates,

      Galenus, Avicen, and him who made

That commentary vast, Averroes.10

      Of all to speak at full were vain attempt;

      For my wide theme so urges, that ofttimes

      My words fall short of what bechanc’d. In two

      The six associates part. Another way

      My sage guide leads me, from that air serene,

      Into a climate ever vex’d with storms:

      And to a part I come where no light shines.

      Footnotes

1 “Portal.” “Porta della fede.” This was an alteration made in the text by the Academicians della Crusca, on the authority, as it would appear, of only two manuscripts. The other reading is, “parte della fede,” “part of the faith.”

2 “Secret purport.” Lombardi well observes that Dante seems to have been restrained by awe and reverence from uttering the name of Christ in this place of torment; and that for the same cause, probably, it does not occur once throughout the whole of this first part of the poem.

3 “A puissant one.” Our Savior.

4 “The monarch of sublimest song.” Homer.

5 Daughter of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus, founder of Troy.

6 “Julia.” The daughter of Julius Cæsar, and wife of Pompey.

7 “The Soldan fierce.” Saladin, or Salaheddin, the rival of Richard Cœur de Lion.