Divine Comedy: Purgatory | Page 9

with the backs of their hands making sign. And one of them began,
"Whoever thou art, turn thy face as thou thus goest; consider if in the
world thou didst ever see me?" I turned me toward him, and looked at
him fixedly: blond he was, and beautiful, and of gentle
aspect, but a
blow had divided one of his eyebrows.
When I had humbly disclaimed having ever seen him, he said, "Now
look!" and he showed me a wound at the top of his breast. Then he said,
smiling, "I am Manfred,[1] grandson of the Empress
Constance;
wherefore I pray thee, that when thou returnest, thou go to my beautiful

daughter,[2] mother of the honor of Sicily and of Aragon, and tell to
her the truth if aught else be told. After I had my body broken by two
mortal stabs, I rendered myself, weeping, to Him who pardons
willingly. Horrible were my sins, but the Infinite Goodness has such
wide arms that it takes whatever turns to it. If the Pastor of Cosenza,[3]
who was set on the hunt of me by Clement, had then rightly read this
page in God, the bones of my body would still be at the head of the
bridge near Benevento, under the guard of the heavy cairn. Now the
rain bathes them, and the wind moves them forth from the kingdom,
almost along the Verde, whither he transferred them with

extinguished light.[4] By their [5] malediction the Eternal Love is not
so lost that it cannot return, while hope hath speck of green. True is it,
that whoso dies in contumacy of Holy Church, though he repent him at
the end, needs must stay outside[6] upon this bank thirtyfold the whole
time that he has been in his presumption,[7] if such decree become not
shorter through good prayers. See now if thou canst make me glad,
revealing to my good Constance how thou hast seen me, and also this
prohibition,[8] for here through those on earth much is gained."
[1] The natural son of the Emperor Frederick II. He was born in 1231;
in 1258 he was crowned King of Sicily. In 1263 Charles of Anjou was
called by Pope Urban IV. to contend against him, and in 1266 Manfred
was killed at the battle of Benevento.
[2] Constance, the daughter of Manfred, was married to Peter of
Aragon. She had three sons, Alphonso, James, and Frederick. Alphonso
succeeded his father in Aragon, and James in Sicily, but after the death
of Alphonso James became King of Aragon. and Frederick King of
Sicily. Manfred naturally speaks favorably of them, but Dante himself
thought ill of James and Frederick. See Canto VII., towards the end.
[3] The Archbishop of Cosenza, at command of the Pope, Clement IV.,
took the body of Manfred from his grave near Benevento, and threw it
unburied, as the body of one excommunicated, on the bank of the
Verde.
[4] Not with candles burning as in proper funeral rites.

[5] That is, of Pope or Bishop.
[6] Outside the gate of Purgatory.
[7] This seems to be a doctrine peculiar to Dante. The value of the
prayers of the good on earth in shortening the period of suffering of the
souls in Purgatory is more than once referred to by him, as well as the
virtue of the intercession of the souls in Purgatory for the benefit of the
living. [8] The prohibition of entering within Purgatory.
CANTO IV. Ante-Purgatory.--Ascent to a shelf of the

mountain.--The negligent, who postponed repentance to the last
hour.--Belacqua.
When through delights, or through pains which some power of ours
may experience, the soul is all concentrated thereon, it seems that to no
other faculty it may attend; and this is counter to the error which
believes that one soul above another is kindled in us.[1] And therefore,
when a thing is heard or seen, which may hold the soul intently turned
to it, the time passes, and the man observes it not: for one faculty is that
which listens, and another is that which keeps the soul entire; the latter
is as it were bound, and the former is loosed.
[1] Were it true that, as according to the Platonists, there were more
than one soul in man, he might give attention to two things at once. But
when one faculty is free and called into activity, the rest of the soul is
as it were bound in inaction.
Of this had I true experience, hearing that spirit and wondering; for full
fifty degrees had the sun ascended,[1] and I had not noticed it, when we
came where those souls all together cried out to us, "Here is what you
ask."
[1] It was now about nine o'clock A. M.
A larger opening the man of the farm