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Authors: Dante

BOOK: Paradiso
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‘But it was destined that, to the shattered stone   

               
that guards the bridge, Florence should offer

147
         
a sacrificial victim in her final days of peace.

               
‘With these noble families, and with others still,   

               
I saw Florence in such tranquility

150
         
that there was nothing that might cause her grief.

               
‘With these noble families I saw her people

               
so glorious and just, that the lily   

               
had not yet been reversed upon the lance   

154
         
nor by dissension changed to red.’   

OUTLINE: PARADISO XVII

MARS

1–6
   
simile: As
[Phaeton]
came to
Clymene
to have assurance that
[Apollo]
was his father, such did Dante seem;
7–12
   
Beatrice: “decide exactly what it is you want to know”;
13–18
   
Dante: “Since you know what things will come to pass,
19–27
   
and since while I was with
Virgil
I heard harsh things about my future, I would like to be forewarned”;
28–30
   
thus does Dante honor the will of Beatrice.
31–36
   
Cacciaguida responds, not in enigmas, but clearly;
37–99
   
his prophetic speech:
37–42
   
Contingent things are known to God without limiting the freedom of the will
43–45
   
simile: harmony from discordant sounds compared to the view of Dante’s life possessed by Cacciaguida
46–48
   
simile: perfidy of
[Phaedra]
to
Hippolytus
and of Florence to Dante
49–51
   
(1) This last is the plan of
[Boniface]
who ponders the fate of Florence in the Roman Curia;
52–54
   
(2) the offended party will of course be blamed but God’s judgment will be clear in His vengeance;
55–60
   
(3) in exile Dante will first leave behind what he loves most and then (4) know the pain of begging;
61–69
   
(5) worst will be the backbiting of his fellows: he will do well to make himself a party of one;
70–75
   
(6) Dante, leaving the exiled Whites, will be welcomed to Verona by a gracious host
[Bartolommeo]
76–99
   
(7)
[Cangrande]:
76–78
   
with Bartolommeo Dante will find Cangrande,
79–81
   
only nine years old and not much noticed,
82–84
   
but before
[Clement]
deceives
Henry VII
he will be marked as special;
85–87
   
his munificence will be so renowned that not even his enemies will be mute about it;
88–90
   
look to his generosity; he will change the condition of rich and poor alike;
91–93
   
Cacciaguida’s suppressed prophecy (Cangrande)
94–96
   
his “gloss” on the negative things Dante has heard about his life in Hell and Purgatory;
97–99
   
yet he should not envy his false neighbors, who shall be punished in his lifetime.
100–111
   
Dante’s worrisome doubts about the future and his poem:
112–120
   
dilemma: to tell the truth or not; lose “friends” or fame?
121–123
   
Cacciaguida, his smiling
tesoro
, resplendent, replies;
124–142
   
Cacciaguida’s encouragement: “Tell the truth.”
PARADISO XVII

               
Like him who came to Clymene to cast out doubt   

   

               
upon the rumor he had heard against himself,

3
             
who still makes fathers cautious with their sons,

               
such was I and such was I perceived to be

               
both by Beatrice and by the holy light

6
             
that earlier for me had changed its place.

               
And so my lady said to me: ‘Send forth   

               
the flame of your desire, and let it issue

9
             
with the clear imprint of its inner stamp,

               
‘not that our knowledge be increased by what you say

               
but that you rehearse the telling of your thirst

12
           
so that the drink be poured for you.’

               
‘O my precious root, you are raised so high   

   

               
that, even as earthly minds discern no triangle

15
           
can contain two angles, both of them obtuse,   

               
‘so you, gazing on the point that holds all time

               
are able to discern contingencies

18
           
before they are apparent in themselves.

               
‘While I was still in Virgil’s company,   

   

               
both on the mountain that restores our souls

21
           
and during our descent into the region of the dead,

               
‘grave words were said to me about my future life—

               
however much I feel myself prepared

24
           
foursquare against the blows of chance—   

               
‘so that my will would be content

               
if I could know what fate draws near,

27
           
for the arrow one expects comes slower.’   

               
I said these words to the very light

               
that had just spoken and, as Beatrice wished,

30
           
my wish was now declared.

               
Not with cloudy sayings, by which the foolish folk   

   

               
were once ensnared, before the Lamb of God,   

33
           
who takes away our sins, was slain,

               
but in plain words and with clear speech   

               
that paternal love replied,

36
           
hidden and yet revealed in his own smile:

               
‘Contingent things, which do not extend   

   

               
beyond the pages of your material world,

39
           
are all depicted in the Eternal Sight,

               
‘yet are by that no more enjoined

               
than is a ship, moved downstream on a river’s flow,

42
           
by the eyes that mirror it.

               
‘And thus, as harmony’s sweet sound may rise   

   

               
from mingled voices to the ear, so rises to my sight

45
           
a vision of the time that lies in store for you.

               
‘As Hippolytus was forced to flee from Athens,   

   

               
because of his stepmother, treacherous and fierce,

48
           
so shall you be forced to flee from Florence.

               
‘This is the plan, already set in motion,   

               
that soon will bring success to him who plots it

51
           
where Christ is bought and sold all day.   

               
‘The populace shall blame the injured party,   

               
as it always does, but vengeance

54
           
shall bear witness to the Truth that metes it out.

               
‘You shall leave behind all you most dearly love,   

               
and that shall be the arrow

57
           
first loosed from exile’s bow.

               
‘You shall learn how salt is the taste   

   

               
of another man’s bread and how hard is the way,

60
           
going down and then up another man’s stairs.

               
‘But the heaviest burden your shoulders must bear   

               
shall be the companions, wicked and witless,

63
           
among whom you shall fall in your descent.

               
‘They, utterly ungrateful, mad, and faithless,

               
shall turn against you. But soon enough they, not you,   

66
           
shall feel their faces blushing past their brows.

               
‘Of their brutish state the results   

               
shall offer proof. And it shall bring you honor

69
           
to have made a single party of yourself alone.

               
‘You shall find welcome and a first refuge   

               
in the courtesy of the noble Lombard,

72
           
the one who bears the sacred bird above the ladder.   

               
‘It is he who will hold you in such gracious favor   

               
that, as for granting and asking, between you two,

75
           
that shall be first which, between all others, happens after.

               
‘In his company you shall find one who, at birth,   

               
so took the imprint of this mighty star

78
           
that his deeds will truly be renowned.   

               
‘As yet the people, because of his youth,   

               
take small note of him, since these wheels

81
           
have revolved above him only for nine years.

               
‘But, before the Gascon can deceive the noble Henry,   

               
sparks of his virtue shall at first shine forth

84
           
in his indifference to wealth or toil,

               
‘and his munificence shall one day be so widely known   

               
even his enemies will not contrive

87
           
to keep their tongues from praising it.

               
‘Look to him and trust his gracious deeds.

               
On his account many will find alteration,   

90
           
rich men changing states with beggars.

               
‘And you shall bear this written in your memory,   

               
but shall not tell of it’—and he foretold events

93
           
that even those who witness them shall not believe.

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