by Dante
97–101
during the day they sing the praises Dante has heard
V. Exemplars of Avarice
101–102
at night they sing a different tune:
103–105
Pygmalion
106–108
Midas
109–111
Achan (vs. Joshua)
112
Sapphira [& Ananias]
113
Heliodorus
114–115
Polymnestor (vs. Polydorus)
116–117
Crassus
118–123
each of the penitents cries out louder or softer according to the ardor that moves him; thus Hugh was not alone in his singing, but only making sounds that were louder than those made by others
A singular event: the earthquake
124–126
Dante and Virgil are moving quickly away from Hugh
127–132
earthquake and simile (Delos)
133–138
“Gloria!”: Virgil’s reaction and Dante’s comprehension
139–141
Dante and Virgil like the shepherds who first heard it
142–144
they resume their path through the strewn souls
145–151
Dante’s enormous desire to understand the cause of the earthquake; but he does not question Virgil about it
PURGATORIO XX
The will strives ill against a worthier will. →
Therefore, against my wish but granting his,
3
I drew the sponge, not full yet, from the water.
I moved on and my leader picked his way, →
keeping to the clear path near the rock
6
as one must walk on ramparts, tight against the wall,
for the people from whose eyes dissolves,
drop by drop, the evil filling all the world
9
were crowded near the outer edge’s rim.
May you be cursed, you age-old wolf, →
who take more prey than any other beast
12
to feed your bottomless appetite!
O heavens, whose wheels transmute →
the state of those on earth, as some believe,
15
when will he come from whom the wolf shall flee? →
We made our way with scant, slow steps,
my attention fixed upon those weeping shades
18
as I listened to their piteous lamentations,
when by chance I heard one up ahead call out →
‘Sweet Mary!’ through his tears,
21
even as a woman does in labor,
and I heard the voice go on:
‘How poor you were is witnessed by the inn
24
where you set down your holy burden.’
After that I heard: ‘O good Fabricius, →
you chose poverty with virtue
27
rather than possess great wealth in wickedness.’
These words gave me such pleasure
that I pressed forward to encounter
30
the spirit who I thought had spoken
and he went on to tell the generous gifts →
that Nicholas conferred upon the maidens
33
to guide their youthful innocence to honor.
‘O soul that speak of so much goodness, →
tell me who you were,’ I said, ‘and why you alone
36
rehearse these deeds so fit for praise.
‘Your words shall not go unrewarded
if I return to finish my brief journey
39
in that life which rushes to its ending.’
And he: ‘I will tell you, not for any comfort →
I await from there, but for the grace that shines
42
in you, reflected even short of death.
‘I was the root of the evil tree →
that casts its shadow over all the Christian lands
45
so that good fruit is rarely gathered there.
‘If Douai, Lille, Ghent, and Bruges →
but had the power, there would soon be vengeance—
48
and this I beg of Him who judges all.
‘On earth I was known as Hugh Capet. →
Of me were born the Philips and the Louis →
51
who lately have been rulers over France.
‘I was the son of a butcher of Paris. →
When the ancient line of kings had all died out, →
54
except for one, a gray-robed monk,
‘I found the reins to govern all the kingdom →
firm in my hands, and soon had in possession
57
such power and so very many friends
‘that to the widowed crown
my son’s head was put forward.
60
His issue is entombed as consecrated bones.
‘As long as the great dowry of Provence →
had not yet stripped my house of feeling shame,
63
it counted little, but at least it did no harm.
‘Then, with fraud and pillage, the rape began
and afterwards, to make amends,
66
my heirs took Ponthieu, Normandy, and Gascony.
‘Charles came into Italy and, to make amends, →
made Conradin a victim and then,
69
to make amends, drove Thomas back to Heaven.
‘I see a time, not very long from now,
that brings another Charles away from France
72
to make himself and then his kin more known.
‘He comes alone, armed only with the lance
that Judas used for jousting. And with one thrust
75
he bursts the swollen paunch of Florence.
‘From this he shall acquire, not land,
but sin and shame, so much the heavier for him
78
the lighter he considers such disgrace.
‘Still another Charles: once led, a prisoner,
from his own ship, I see him sell his daughter
81
after haggling, as pirates do for female slaves.
‘O avarice, what greater harm can you do, →
since my blood is so attached to you
84
it has no care for its own flesh?
‘That past and future evil may seem less, →
I see the fleur-de-lis proceed into Anagni
87
and, in His vicar, make a prisoner of Christ.
‘I see Him mocked a second time.
I see renewed the vinegar and gall—
90
between two living thieves I see Him slain.
‘I see that this new Pilate is so brutal →
this does not sate him, and, unsanctioned,
93
I see him spread his greedy sails against the Temple.
‘O my Lord, when shall I be gladdened →
at the sight of vengeance that, as yet concealed,
96
hidden in your mind, makes sweet your wrath?
‘The words that I called out before, →
of the Holy Spirit’s one and only bride,
99
which made you turn to me for explanation,
‘are the response, as long as it is day,
in all our prayers, but when night falls
102
we then intone an opposite refrain.
‘Then we recall Pygmalion, → →
whose all-devouring lust for gold
105
made him a traitor, thief, and parricide,
‘and the misery of avaricious Midas →
that came on h
im for his intemperate demand
108
and must always be a cause for laughter.
‘Each then remembers reckless Achan →
and how he stole the spoils, so that the wrath
111
of Joshua seems here to strike at him again.
‘Then we accuse Sapphira with her husband. →
We celebrate the hoof-blows that Heliodorus bore. →
114
In disgrace the name of Polymnestor, →
‘for slaying Polydorus, circles all the mountain.
Last, the cry is: “Tell us, Crassus, →
117
since you know, what is the taste of gold?”
‘Sometimes one speaks loud, another low, →
according to the zeal that spurs our speech,
120
at times with greater, at times with lesser force.
‘Therefore, in giving voice to goodness,
as here we do by day, I was not alone just now,
123
even though no other raised his voice nearby.’
We had already left him there behind us →
and strove to pick our way
126
as nimbly as the narrow path allowed,
when I felt the mountain tremble →
as though it might collapse, and a chill,
129
like the chill of death, subdued me.
Surely Delos was not so shaken →
before Latona built her nest
132
and there gave birth to the twofold eyes of heaven.
Then there rose up a great cry all around us →
so that my master drew up closer to me,
135
saying: ‘Have no fear while I’m your guide.’
‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’ all were shouting →
from what I understood from those nearby,
138
where their outcry could be better heard.
We stood stock still and in suspense,
like the shepherds who first heard that song,
141
until the trembling ceased and the song was done.
Then we continued on our holy path, →
our eyes cast down to see the shades along the ground,
144
who had returned to their accustomed weeping.
Never did ignorance attack me with such fury →
against so great a need to know—
147
if in this my memory does not err—
as then I felt deep in my thoughts.
But, since we had to hurry, I dared not ask,
nor could I of myself find answers there.
151
I went on, afraid to ask and full of thought.
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XXI
1–6
the action continues, while the poet underlines the protagonist’s desire to understand the earthquake
7–10
simile: as Christ appeared to two disciples so now a shade appears to Dante and Virgil
11–13
the shade comes up behind them and utters a greeting
14–15
they turn; Virgil’s gesture in response
16–18
Virgil’s hope for the shade’s eventual salvation
19–21
the shade takes the travelers for damned souls
22–33
Virgil explains Dante’s special status and his own role
34–36
Virgil asks for explanations of the earthquake and of the shout of all the penitents on the mountain
37–39
again the poet underlines the protagonist’s eagerness
The singular event now explained by the shade
40–57
(a) the mountain is never changed by earthly weather once one passes into purgatory proper from below it
58–60
(b) here there is a tremor when a soul knows it is ready to ascend to heaven—and then everyone cries out
61–66
(c) then the will is no longer hindered by the desire to suffer justly, as it has been
67–72
the speaker knows this because he has experienced it, and hopes it will happen soon to all who celebrate his freedom
73–75
the poet reports the protagonist’s gratitude at finally understanding these things
76–81
now Virgil asks the speaker to identify himself
IV. The speakers (3)
82–87
when Titus captured Jerusalem the speaker was already known as a poet, but not yet as a Christian
88–90
he was so good a poet that Rome called him from Toulouse and crowned him with myrtle
91–93
he was called Statius and sang of Thebes and of Achilles, but did not finish that second poem
94–102
the Aeneid meant everything to him and to have known Virgil he would gladly spend a year more purging himself
103–104
Virgil signals Dante to keep his silence
105–109
Dante’s feelings conquer his will and he smiles
110–114
Statius stares at Dante in an attempt to understand
115–120
Dante’s double bind and Virgil’s permission to speak
121–129
Dante: this is Virgil, the reason for his smile
130–132
Statius bends to embrace Virgil’s feet; Virgil objects
133–136
Statius rises, saying that Virgil now can understand how much he cares for him, so much that he acts irrationally
PURGATORIO XXI
The natural thirst that never can be quenched →
except with that water the woman Samaritan →
3
begged to be given as a special grace
tormented me. And in haste I followed my leader →
over bodies strewn along the way,
6
still grieved at their just punishment.
And lo, as Luke sets down for us that Christ, →
just risen from the cave that was His sepulcher,
9
revealed himself to two He walked with on the road,
there appeared a shade, coming up behind us →
while we, intent upon the crowd prone at our feet,
12
were not aware of him until he spoke
and said: ‘O my brothers, may God grant you peace.’
We turned at once and Virgil answered him →
15
with the gesture that befits this greeting
and then began: ‘May the unerring court →
that confines me in eternal exile
18
bring you in peace to the assembly of the blessed.’
‘What?’ the other asked—even as we hurried on— →
‘if you are shades whom God does not deem worthy,
21
who has led you up so far along His stairs?’
And my teacher said: ‘If you behold the signs →
that this man bears, traced by the angel,
24
you will know that he must reign among the good.
‘Since she that spins both day and night →
had not used up the flax that for each mortal
27
Clotho loads and winds upon the distaff,
‘his soul, which is your sister—mine as well,
could not attempt the climb unaided
30
because it cannot see things quite as we do.
‘I, for this reason, was drawn from hell’s wide jaws
to be his guide, and I shall guide him
33
as far as my own teaching will allow. →
‘But tell us, if you can, why did the mountain shake →
so hard just now and why
did it emit
36
such clamor, down to its wave-washed base?’
With this question he threaded the needle of my wish
with such precision that, with only hope
39
for an answer, he made my thirst less parching.
The other offered this response: →
‘The mountain’s holy law does not allow
42
anything disordered or that violates its rule.
‘Here nothing ever changes.
Only by that which Heaven gathers from Itself,
45
and from nothing else, can any change be wrought,
‘so that not rain nor hail nor snow
nor dew nor hoarfrost falls above
48
the gentle rise of those three steps below.
‘Clouds, dense or broken, do not appear,
nor lightning-flash, nor Thaumas’ daughter,
51
who appears in many places in the sky down there,
‘nor does dry vapor rise above the highest
of those three steps of which I spoke,
54
where Peter’s vicar sets his feet.
‘Lower down, perhaps, it trembles more or less,
but from the wind concealed in earth
57
it has not, I know not why, ever trembled here above.
‘Here it trembles when a soul feels it is pure,
ready to rise, to set out on its ascent,
60
and next there follows that great cry.
‘Of its purity the will alone gives proof, →
and the soul, wholly free to change its convent,
63
is taken by surprise and allows the will its way.
‘It wills the same before, but holy Justice sets
the soul’s desire against its will,
66
and, as once it longed to sin, it now seeks penance.