THE
DIVINE COMEDY
OF
DANTE ALIGHIERI
TRANSLATED BY
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
I follow here the footing of thy feete
That with thy meaning so I may the rather meete
Spenser.
VOL. II.
BOSTON
TICKNOR AND FIELDS
1867
I ENTER, and I see thee in the gloom
Of the long aisles, O poet saturnine!
And strive to make my steps keep pace with thine.
The air is filled with some unknown perfume;
The congregation of the dead make room
For thee to pass; the votive tapers shine;
Like rooks that haunt Ravenna's groves of pine
The hovering echoes fly from tomb to tomb.
From the confessionals I hear arise
Rehearsals of forgotten tragedies,
And lamentations from the crypts below;
And then a voice celestial that begins
With the pathetic words, "Although your sins
As scarlet be," and ends with "as the snow."
WITH snow-white veil and garments as of flame,
She stands before thee, who so long ago
Filled thy young heart with passion and the woe
From which thy song and all its splendors came;
And while with stern rebuke she speaks thy name,
The ice about thy heart melts as the snow
On mountain heights, and in swift overflow
Comes gushing from thy lips in sobs of shame.
Thou makest full confession; and a gleam,
As of the dawn on some dark forest cast,
Seems on thy lifted forehead to increase;
Lethe and Eunoe—the remembered dream
And the forgotten sorrow—bring at last
That perfect pardon which is perfect peace.
CONTENTS
OF VOL. II.
.
The Shores of Purgatory.—Cato of Utica |
1 |
The Celestial Pilot.—Casella |
7 |
The Foot of the Mountain.—Those who have died in Contumacy of Holy Church.—Manfredi |
13 |
Farther Ascent of the Mountain.—The Negligent, who postponed Repentance till the last Hour.—Belacqua |
20 |
Those who died by Violence, but repentant.—Buonconte di Montefeltro.—La Pia |
26 |
Sordello |
32 |
The Valley of the Princes |
39 |
The Guardian Angels and the Serpent.—Nino di Gallura.—Currado Malaspina |
45 |
Dante's Dream of the Eagle.—The Gate of Purgatory |
51 |
The First Circle.—The Proud.—The Sculptures on the Wall |
58 |
Omberto di Santafiore.—Oderisi d' Agobbio.—Provenzan Salvani |
64 |
The Sculptures on the Pavement.—Ascent to the Second Circle |
71 |
The Second Circle.—The Envious.—Sapia of Siena |
77 |
Guido del Duca and Renier da Calboli |
84 |
The Third Circle.—The Irascible |
91 |
Marco Lombardo |
98 |
Dante's Dream of Anger.—The Fourth Circle.—The Slothful |
105 |
Virgil's Discourse of Love.—The Abbot of San Zeno |
111 |
Dante's Dream of the Siren.—The Fifth Circle.—The Avaricious and Prodigal.—Pope Adrian V. |
118 |
Hugh Capet.—The Earthquake |
125 |
The Poet Statius |
132 |
The Sixth Circle.—The Gluttonous.—The Mystic Tree |
138 |
Forese |
145 |
Buonagiunta da Lucca.—Pope Martin IV., and others |
151 |
Discourse of Statius on Generation.—The Seventh Circle.—The Wanton |
158 |
Guido Guinicelli and Arnaldo Daniello |
164 |
Dante's Sleep upon the Stairway, and his Dream of Leah.—Arrival at the Terrestrial Paradise |
171 |
The Terrestrial Paradise.—The River Lethe.—Matilda |
178 |
The Triumph of the Church |
185 |
Beatrice |
192 |
Reproaches of Beatrice and Confession of Dante.—The Passage of Lethe |
199 |
The Tree of Knowledge |
206 |
The River Eunoe |
213 |
221 |
The Hero as Poet |
365 |
Dante |
375 |
Dante and Milton |
382 |
The Italian Pilgrim's Progress |
384 |
Dante and Tacitus |
390 |
Dante's Landscapes |
394 |
Dante's Creed |
401 |
The Divina Commedia |
403 |
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co.,
Cambridge.