CANTO II.*

DAY was departing, and the air embrowned
Had summoned all, that lives on earth, away

From toil and pain; I, only I, was bound

At once the double warfare to assay,

By travel and by ruth upon me laid,

Which Memory that errs not shall portray.

O Muses, O high Genius, now give aid;

O Mind that wrotest down what I descried,

Herein thy nobleness shall be displayed.
I thus began, "Poet, that art my guide,
Weigh well my puissance, if it suffice,

Ere that high quest unto me thou confide.
Thou sayest that Silvius' ancestor with eyes
Corruptible the eternal realm surveyed,
And there was present, after fleshly guise;

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Still, though the enemy of Evil laid

This grace on him, minding the high effect

Of who? and what? should from his root be made, It seems not vain to human intellect;

For he of parent Rome and all her sway Was founder, in the empyreal heavens elect: All which (to speak the truth if I assay)

Were thus establisht for the sacred seat,

Which heirs o' th' elder Peter hold alway.

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This proud adventure, which thou makest him meet, 25
Led him to hear such things as framed his fate
Of conquest, and the Pope's array complete.
Since then the chosen 'Vas' beheld your state,

To carry thence assurance to our creed,
Which to the path of welfare is the gate.
But I! if I go, who shall bid me speed?

For no Eneas, nor no Paul am I;
My claims nor I nor others would concede.
If then upon this enterprise I fly,

I fear me, that like folly it may close;
Thy sense, what ill I argue, can supply."

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And like a man unchoosing what he chose,

Whose former mind by some new thought is crost,

Till far astray from his first plan he goes;

Thus I became, upon this lightless coast,
And, thinking, all that fire of enterprise,
Which I had in me at the first, I lost.

"If well the sense thou speakest I surmise,"
Replied that shade magnanimous, "thy mind
Must be offended' here with cowardice;

The which full oft encumbereth mankind,

And turns them back from honoured high career, Like seeing beasts, when shadows pass behind. From this misgiving then thy soul to clear,

I'll tell thee why I came, and, when I erst

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Took thought for thee, what tale had reacht my ear. I stood among the neither saved nor curst,

When called me such a blest and beauteous One,

That to command me I besought her first.

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Her eyes more brightly than the Planet shone,

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And she addrest me, O how smooth and sweet,

With angel voice, in language of her own:

'O Mantuan soul, with courtesies replete,

Whose fame endures on earth, and sees no end,
And shall endure, till earth her doom do meet;

A friend of mine, whom Fortune doth not friend,
Is so much hindered in the desert strand,
That fear has driven him from his course to bend;
And he may now have strayed so far from hand,

That I have risen too late relief to gain,
By tidings, which in heaven I understand.
Now go, and by thy words adorned strain,

And all that else can for his rescue be, So speed him, that consoled I may remain. My name is Beatris, who summon thee;

I come from where I would again abide; The love that sent me forth now speaks in me: When I shall stand before my Lord,' she cried,

'Thy praises ever on my tongue will lie.' And there she ended; thereon I replied,

'O Lady of the puissance, whereby

The race of man doth every bound exceed, Within the circles of the greater sky;

Thy gentle hest so pleaseth me indeed,

That forthwith to obey would seem too late; 80 To tell thy pleasure is no further need.

But tell me now, what reason may create

Thy boldness to come down to this dread centre, From thy wide home of happy, longed-for state?' 'If thou so deeply into all wouldst enter,'

She answered with a smile, 'I will make known, Why without dread into this place I venture. All dread should be conceived from things alone Which have the power to work us harm and bale;

From others not, for dread in such is none.

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Now I'm so made by God, (thus far avail

His gifts), that your woe finds in me no room,
Nor flames from yon great burning me assail.
A gentle Lady is in heaven, of whom

This obstacle is mourned, where thou art sent;
She breaks on high the force of bitter doom.

This Lady with her quest to Lucia went,

And said, "Thy loyal one has need of thee,

And I commend him unto thy content."

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