| |
| FREELY the sage, though wrapt in musings high, | |
| Assumed the teacher’s part, and mild began: | |
| “The wound, that Mary closed, she 1 open’d first, | |
| Who sits so beautiful at Mary’s feet. | |
| The third in order, underneath her, lo! | 5 |
| Rachel with Beatrice: Sarah next; | |
| Judith; Rebecca; and the gleaner-maid, | |
| Meek ancestress 2 of him, who sang the songs | |
| Of sore repentance in his sorrowful mood. | |
| All, as I name them, down from leaf to leaf, | 10 |
| Are, in gradation, throned on the rose. | |
| And from the seventh step, successively, | |
| Adown the breathing tresses of the flower, | |
| Still doth the file of Hebrew dames proceed. | |
| For these are a partition wall, whereby | 15 |
| The sacred stairs are sever’d, as the faith | |
| In Christ divides them. On this part, where blooms | |
| Each leaf in full maturity, are set | |
| Such as in Christ, or e’er He came, believed. | |
| On the other, where an intersected space | 20 |
| Yet shows the semicircle void, abide | |
| All they, who look’d to Christ already come | |
| And as our Lady on her glorious stool, | |
| And they who on their stools beneath her sit, | |
| This way distinction make; e’en so on his, | 25 |
| The mighty Baptist that way marks the line | |
| (He who endured the desert, and the pains | |
| Of martyrdom, and, for two years, 3 of Hell, | |
| Yet still continued holy), and beneath, | |
| Augustin; 4 Francis; 5 Benedict; 6 and the rest, | 30 |
| Thus far from round to round. So Heaven’s decree | |
| Forecasts, this garden equally to fill, | |
| With faith in either view, past or to come. | |
| Learn too, that downward from the step, which cleaves, | |
| Midway, the twain compartments, none there are | 35 |
| Who place obtain for merit of their own, | |
| But have through others’ merit been advanced, | |
| On set conditions; spirits all released, | |
| Ere for themselves they had the power to chuse. | |
| And, if thou mark and listen to them well, | 40 |
| Their childish looks and voice declare as much. | |
| “Here, silent as thou art, I know thy doubt; | |
| And gladly will I loose the knot, wherein | |
| Thy subtile thoughts have bound thee. From this realm | |
| Excluded, chance no entrance here may find; | 45 |
| No more than hunger, thirst, or sorrow can. | |
| A law immutable hath stablish’d all; | |
| Nor is there aught thou seest, that doth not fit, | |
| Exactly, as the finger to the ring. | |
| It is not, therefore, without cause, that these | 50 |
| O’erspeedy comers to immortal life, | |
| Are different in their shares of excellence. | |
| Our Sovran Lord, that settleth this estate | |
| In love and in delight so absolute, | |
| That wish can dare no further, every soul, | 55 |
| Created in His joyous sight to dwell, | |
| With grace, at pleasure, variously endows. | |
| And for a proof the effect may well suffice. | |
| And ’tis moreover most expressly mark’d | |
| In holy Scripture, where the twins are said | 60 |
| To have struggled in the womb. Therefore, as grace | |
| Inweaves the coronet, so every brow | |
| Weareth its proper hue of orient light. | |
| And merely in respect to his prime gift, | |
| Not in reward of meritorious deed, | 65 |
| Hath each his several degree assign’d. | |
| In early times with their own innocence | |
| More was not wanting than the parents’ faith, | |
| To save them: those first ages past, behoved | |
| That circumcision in the males should imp | 70 |
| The flight of innocent wings: but since the day | |
| Of grace hath come, without baptismal rites | |
| In Christ accomplish’d, innocence herself | |
| Must linger yet below. Now raise thy view | |
| Unto the visage most resembling Christ: | 75 |
| For, in her splendour only, shalt thou win | |
| The power to look on Him.” Forthwith I saw | |
| Such floods of gladness on her visage shower’d, | |
| From holy spirits, winging that profound; | |
| That, whatsoever I had yet beheld, | 80 |
| Had not so much suspended me with wonder, | |
| Or shown me such similitude of God. | |
| And he, who had to her descended, once, | |
| On earth, now hail’d in Heaven; and on poised wing, | |
| “Ave, Maria, Gratia Plena,” sang: | 85 |
| To whose sweet anthem all the blissful court, | |
| From all parts answering, rang: that holier joy | |
| Brooded the deep serene. “Father revered! | |
| Who deign’st, for me, to quit the pleasant place | |
| Wherein thou sittest, by eternal lot; | 90 |
| Say, who that Angel is, that with such glee | |
| Beholds our Queen, and so enamour’d glows | |
| Of her high beauty, that all fire he seems.” | |
| So I again resorted to the lore | |
| Of my wise teacher, he, whom Mary’s charms | 95 |
| Embellish’d, as the sun the morning star; | |
| Who thus in answer spake: “In him are summ’d, | |
| Whate’er of buxomness and free delight | |
| May be in spirit, or in Angel, met: | |
| And so beseems: for that he bare the palm | 100 |
| Down unto Mary, when the Son of God | |
| Vouchsafed to clothe Him in terrestial weeds. | |
| Now let thine eyes wait heedful on my words; | |
| And note thou of this just and pious realm | |
| The chiefest nobles. Those, highest in bliss, | 105 |
| The twain, on each hand next our Empress throned, | |
| Are as it were two roots unto this rose: | |
| He to the left, the parent, whose rash taste | |
| Proves bitter to his seed; and, on the right, | |
| That ancient father of the holy Church, | 110 |
| Into whose keeping Christ did give the keys | |
| Of this sweet flower; near whom behold the seer, 7 | |
| That, ere, he died, saw all the grievous times | |
| Of the fair bride, who with the lance and nails | |
| Was won. And, near unto the other, rests | 115 |
| The leader, under whom, on manna, fed | |
| The ungrateful nation, fickle and perverse. | |
| On the other part, facing to Peter, lo! | |
| Where Anna sits, so well content to look | |
| On her loved daughter, that with moveless eye | 120 |
| She chants the loud hosanna: while, opposed | |
| To the first father of your mortal kind, | |
| Is Lucia, 8 at whose hest thy lady sped, | |
| When on the edge of ruin closed thine eye. | |
| “But (for the vision hasteneth to an end) | 125 |
| Here break we off, as the good workman doth, | |
| That shapes the clock according to the cloth; | |
| And to the Primal Love our ken shall rise; | |
| That thou mayst penetrate the brightness, far | |
| As sight can bear thee. Yet, alas! in sooth | 130 |
| Beating thy pennons, thinking to advance, | |
| Thou backward fall’st. Grace then must first be gain’d; | |
| Her grace, whose might can help thee. Thou in prayer | |
| Seek her: and, with affection, whilst I sue, | |
| Attend, and yield me all thy heart.” He said; | 135 |
| And thus the saintly orison began. | |
