Divine Comedy: Paradise | Page 9

mantle of thick vapours prey'd;
Within its proper ray the saintly shape

Was, through increase of gladness, thus conceal'd;
And, shrouded
so in splendour answer'd me,
E'en as the tenour of my song declares.
CANTO VI
"After that Constantine the eagle turn'd
Against the motions of the
heav'n, that roll'd
Consenting with its course, when he of yore,

Lavinia's spouse, was leader of the flight,
A hundred years twice told
and more, his seat
At Europe's extreme point, the bird of Jove
Held,
near the mountains, whence he issued first.
There, under shadow of
his sacred plumes
Swaying the world, till through successive hands

To mine he came devolv'd. Caesar I was,
And am Justinian; destin'd

by the will
Of that prime love, whose influence I feel,
From vain
excess to clear th' encumber'd laws.
Or ere that work engag'd me, I
did hold
Christ's nature merely human, with such faith
Contented.
But the blessed Agapete,
Who was chief shepherd, he with warning
voice
To the true faith recall'd me. I believ'd
His words: and what
he taught, now plainly see,
As thou in every contradiction seest
The
true and false oppos'd. Soon as my feet
Were to the church reclaim'd,
to my great task,
By inspiration of God's grace impell'd,
I gave me
wholly, and consign'd mine arms
To Belisarius, with whom heaven's
right hand
Was link'd in such conjointment, 't was a sign
That I
should rest. To thy first question thus
I shape mine answer, which
were ended here,
But that its tendency doth prompt perforce
To
some addition; that thou well, mayst mark
What reason on each side
they have to plead,
By whom that holiest banner is withstood,
Both
who pretend its power and who oppose.
"Beginning from that hour, when Pallas died
To give it rule, behold
the valorous deeds
Have made it worthy reverence. Not unknown

To thee, how for three hundred years and more
It dwelt in Alba, up to
those fell lists
Where for its sake were met the rival three;
Nor
aught unknown to thee, which it achiev'd
Down to the Sabines' wrong
to Lucrece' woe,
With its sev'n kings conqu'ring the nation round;

Nor all it wrought, by Roman worthies home
'Gainst Brennus and th'
Epirot prince, and hosts
Of single chiefs, or states in league combin'd

Of social warfare; hence Torquatus stern,
And Quintius nam'd of
his neglected locks,
The Decii, and the Fabii hence acquir'd
Their
fame, which I with duteous zeal embalm.
By it the pride of Arab
hordes was quell'd,

When they led on by Hannibal o'erpass'd
The
Alpine rocks, whence glide thy currents, Po!
Beneath its guidance, in
their prime of days
Scipio and Pompey triumph'd; and that hill,

Under whose summit thou didst see the light,
Rued its stern bearing.
After, near the hour,
When heav'n was minded that o'er all the world

His own deep calm should brood, to Caesar's hand
Did Rome

consign it; and what then it wrought
From Var unto the Rhine, saw
Isere's flood,
Saw Loire and Seine, and every vale, that fills
The
torrent Rhone. What after that it wrought,
When from Ravenna it
came forth, and leap'd
The Rubicon, was of so bold a flight,
That
tongue nor pen may follow it. Tow'rds Spain
It wheel'd its bands,
then tow'rd Dyrrachium smote,
And on Pharsalia with so fierce a
plunge,
E'en the warm Nile was conscious to the pang;
Its native
shores Antandros, and the streams
Of Simois revisited, and there

Where Hector lies; then ill for Ptolemy
His pennons shook again;
lightning thence fell
On Juba; and the next upon your west,
At
sound of the Pompeian trump, return'd.
"What following and in its next bearer's gripe
It wrought, is now by
Cassius and Brutus
Bark'd off in hell, and by Perugia's sons
And
Modena's was mourn'd. Hence weepeth still
Sad Cleopatra, who,
pursued by it,
Took from the adder black and sudden death.
With
him it ran e'en to the Red Sea coast;
With him compos'd the world to
such a peace,
That of his temple Janus barr'd the door.
"But all the mighty standard yet had wrought,
And was appointed to
perform thereafter,
Throughout the mortal kingdom which it sway'd,

Falls in appearance dwindled and obscur'd,
If one with steady eye
and perfect thought
On the third Caesar look; for to his hands,
The
living Justice, in whose breath I move,
Committed glory, e'en into his
hands,
To execute the vengeance of its wrath.
"Hear now and wonder at what next I tell.
After with Titus it was sent
to wreak
Vengeance for vengeance of the ancient sin,
And, when
the Lombard tooth, with fangs impure,
Did gore the bosom of the
holy church,
Under its wings victorious, Charlemagne
Sped to her
rescue. Judge then for thyself

Of those, whom I erewhile accus'd to
thee,
What they are, and how grievous their offending,
Who are the
cause of all your ills. The one
Against the universal ensign rears

The yellow lilies, and with partial aim
That to himself the other

arrogates:
So that 't is hard to see which more offends.
Be yours, ye
Ghibellines, to veil your arts
Beneath another standard: ill is this

Follow'd of him, who severs it and justice:
And let not with his
Guelphs the new-crown'd Charles
Assail it, but those talons hold in
dread,
Which from a lion of more lofty port
Have rent the easing.
Many a time ere now
The sons