the bent form, the crippled hands, the extreme pallor, corresponding to the physiognomic signs of those evil passions. Benvenuto supports this view, as it is a mistake to suppose that the Siren represented Avarice alone. Mi venne in sogno una femmina * balba, Negli occhi guercia e sopra i piè distorta, Le fredde membra che la notte aggrava, La lingua, e poscia tutta la drizzava Come amor vuol, così lo colorava.§ There came to me in dream a woman, stammering, with 15 *femmina: Contrast the two words femmina “a female" in this line, as applied to the false Siren; and donna, "a lady," in l. 26. †scialba: pallid, from Latin exalbare. See Ariosto, Ecloga, p. 234: "Qual campestre papavero alla rosa, Qual scialbo salce al sempre verde alloro." And a MS. Translation of Palladius, cap. 14 (ap. Gran. Dis.): "Come la camera dee esser scialbata, e quale è il buono scialbo (i. e. as the room has to be whitened, and what is the best whitewash)." le facea scorta La lingua: Buti interprets this: "cioè parlevile et intelligibile," i. e. gave to her tongue utterance that was intelligible. § lo... volto, come amor vuol, così lo colorava: Some infer from Vita Nuova, § xxxvii, "d' un color pallido, quasi come d'amore," and from other passages, that Dante intended to speak of pallor as the colour of Love. But Lombardi comments: "Come richiede amore per far inamorare i risguardanti." And Andreoli "generalmente c' innamoriamo del roseo." And Dante evidently is meaning to describe some kind of change that passed over the face of the Siren. She is first described as being already pallid (di colore scialba), and under Dante's glance she changes colour. I take it therefore to signify a warm blush. squinting eyes, and distorted feet, with hands lopped off, and of a pallid hue. I gazed at her; and, as the sun revives the chilled limbs that the night benumbs, so did my look restore her tongue to liberty, and then in brief space, caused her body to become straight, and her pallid cheeks to assume that warm colour, which Love desires. Benvenuto says that the stammering tongue means Avarice, which never speaks openly and clearly but deceitfully; it means Gluttony because drunkenness makes a man speak thick, and Sensuality because it makes him a liar and a flatterer. The squinting eye denotes Avarice, because the miser is blind from the craving of acquisitiveness and of hoarding; it denotes both Gluttony and Sensuality, because over indulgence destroys the eyes both bodily and mentally. She is lame because in those three sins man never walks in the right paths. She is maimed because the Miser never uses his hands to give, and the Gluttonous and the Sensual never work, but are idle and slothful. All three, the Miser, the Glutton, and the Voluptuary, have pallid faces. And now Dante describes the soft seductive strains that issued from the mouth of her, who had assumed beauty which was a mockery and deceit. Poi ch' ell' avea il parlar così* disciolto, Cominciava a cantar sì che con pena Da lei avrei mio intento † rivolto. cost: This refers to ll. 12, 13: "Così lo sguardo mio le facea scorta La lingua," et seq. + mio intento: Compare Purg. iii, 12, 13: "La mente mia, che prima era ristretta, Lo intento rallargò, sì come vaga." "Io son," cantava,-" io son dolce Sirena,* Che i marinari in mezzo mar dismago; Rado sen parte, sì tutto l' appago."— And so soon as she had thus got her speech un- 20 Another lady is now seen by Dante in his dream, who puts to shame the Siren, the symbol of pleasure. Commentators differ very considerably as to what this new comer typifies, and Scartazzini does not agree with those, among whom is Ozanam, who think she is a symbol of Wisdom, or that she is Lucia (a symbol of Truth), or of the Church; but he thinks with the older Commentators that she represents dolce Sirena: Scartazzini observes that also in ancient mythology the Sirens were symbols of the attractiveness of worldly pleasures. Pope unconsciously reproduced Dante, when he wrote, in his Essay on Man, ii, 219: "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." + Ulisse: Benvenuto notices Dante's mistake in representing Ulysses as having been fascinated by the Siren, for he remarks (erroneously) that, in the Odyssey, Homer tells us that Ulysses avoided the Sirens and filled his ears with wax so as not to hear their song. He thinks Dante must have meant Circe, who detained Ulysses for one year, or Calypso, who kept him a prisoner for several years. Reason, Temperance, Philosophy, or Intellectual Virtue. She addresses Virgil in a tone of indignant remonstrance for allowing Dante, their joint pupil, to gaze on the deceitful pleasures of the world. Ancor non era sua bocca richiusa, Quando una donna * apparve santa e presta Lunghesso me + per far colei confusa. -"O Virgilio, o Virgilio, chi è questa ?”- Con gli occhi fitti pure in quella onesta. L'altra prendeva, § e dinanzi l' apria Fendendo i drappi, e mostravami il ventre ; 25 30 * donna: Benvenuto points out that whereas Dante had called the Siren femmina, a female (1. 7), he styles this one donna, a far more honourable term. Benvenuto's words are: Bene vocat istam dominam, ubi illam vocaverat famulam, quia ratio debet dominari, et passio famulari." + Lunghesso me: "By my side." Compare Vita Nuova, xxxv: "In quel giorno. . . io mi sedea in parte, nella quale ricordandomi di lei, disegnava un angelo sopra certe tavolette : e mentre io 'l disegnava, volsi gli occhi, e vidi lungo me uomini a' quali si convenia far onore." Tei venia: On this see Benvenuto: "et sic vide quod oculus Dantis in carne positus respiciebat tantum cum delectatione illam primum lubricam, sed oculus Virgilii sine carne respiciebat istam secundam cum veneratione: illa enim videbatur pulchra et amabilis, ista vero rigidia, sed venerabilis." L'altra prendeva: Scartazzini agrees with the majority of the Commentators, e. g. the Ottimo, Benvenuto, Buti, Daniello Venturi, Biagioli, Witte, Ozanam and others, in thinking that the saintly lady seized the stammering one; but some, among whom are Landino, Vellutello, Cesari, Brunone Bianchi, and Philalethes, think it was Virgil who laid hold on the Siren. puzzo: On this Gioberti has: "Nota lo schifo che ingenera l'ultimo verso. Dante non era poeta molle, che volesse risparmiare ai lettori il disgusto quando è necessario a ritrarre la verità dell' obietto, e tanto più quando conferisce allo scopo morale. Questa donna, dal cui ventre aperto usciva così gran puzzo è colei che tutto 'l mondo appuzza (Inf. xvii), cioè la frode, Not yet was her mouth closed again, (i.e., while she still was singing) when quick at my side there appeared a saintly lady to put her to confusion. "O Virgil, Virgil, who is this?" she sternly exclaimed ; and he advanced with his eyes fixed solely upon that honourable one. She seized the other one, and laid her bare in front, rending her drapery, and showed me her belly; this awoke me with the stench that issued from it. "L'antagonisme du vice et de la vertu était le sujet d'une fable qui fut chère comme symbole aux mythographes de l'antiquité, et à ses philosophes comme leçon. Le poète italien s'en empare et la rajeunit. Deux femmes lui ont apparu. L'une était pâle, difforme et bègue; mais le regard arrêté sur elle semblait lui rendre la beauté, la couleur et la voix : elle chantait, et Sirène harmonieuse elle captivait déjà les oreilles imprudentes. L'autre se montrait à son tour simple et vénérable, elle jetait un superbe regard sur sa rivale, et faisant déchirer ses vêtements, la laissait voir atteinte d'une infecte corruption. De ces femmes, l'une était la volupté, l'autre la sagesse." (Ozanam, Dante et la Philosophie Catholique, p. 138). Benvenuto praises the words of the Poet with much enthusiasm; and asks if the filth of the miser does not befoul everything beautiful and honourable with its misery, just like the harpies befouled the feast. How great the filth of the glutton. Into what mire does not the drunkard fall from his drunkenness ? Division II. We now learn how Dante, having been called upon three times by Virgil to awake, l'inganno, la bugia." Gioberti is very full of admiration for the life and vivacity of these three lines. |