And of a she-bear was indeed the son,
So eager to advance my whelps, that there
My having in my purse above I stow'd,
And here myself. Under my head are dragg'd
The rest, my predecessors in the guilt

Of simony. Stretch'd at their length, they lie
Along an opening in the rock. 'Midst them
I also low shall fall, soon as he comes,
For whom I took thee, when so hastily
I question'd. But already longer time
Hath past, since my soles kindled, and I thus
Upturn'd have stood, than is his doom to stand
Planted with fiery feet. For after him,
One yet of deeds more ugly shall arrive,
From forth the west, a shepherd without law',
Fated to cover both his form and mine.
He a new Jason 2 shall be call'd, of whom
In Maccabees we read; and favour such
As to that priest his king indulgent show'd,
Shall be of France's monarch3 shown to him."
I know not if I here too far presumed,
But in this strain I answer'd: "Tell me now
What treasures from Saint Peter at the first
Our Lord demanded, when he put the keys
Into his charge? Surely he ask'd no more
But Follow me!' Nor Peter, nor the rest,
Or gold or silver of Matthias took,

When lots were cast upon the forfeit place
Of the condemned soul. Abide thou then ;
Thy punishment of right is merited:
And look thou well to that ill-gotten coin,
Which against Charles 6 thy hardihood inspired.

1 From forth the west, a shepherd without law.] Bertrand de Got, Arch. bishop of Bourdeaux, who succeeded to the pontificate in 1305, and assumed the title of Clement V. He transferred the holy see to Avignon in 1308, (where it remained till 1376,) and died in 1314. A new Jason.] "But after the death of Seleucus, when Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took the kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, laboured underhand to be high-priest, promising unto the king, by intercession, three hundred and threescore talents of silver, and of another revenue eighty talents." Maccab. b. ii. ch. iv. 7, 8. 3 Of France's monarch.] Philip IV. of France. See G. Villani, lib. viii. c. lxxx. Nor Peter.] Acts of the Apostles, ch. i. 26. 5 The condemned soul.] Judas. • Against Charles. Nicholas III. was enraged

If reverence of the keys restrain'd me not,
Which thou in happier time didst hold, I yet
Severer speech might use. Your avarice
O'ercasts the world with mourning, under foot1
Treading the good, and raising bad men up.
Of shepherds like to you, the Evangelist 2

against Charles I. King of Sicily, because he rejected with scorn a proposition made by that pope for an alliance between their families. See G. Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. liv.

1 Under foot.]

So shall the world go on,

To good malignant, to bad men benign.

Milton, P. L. b. xii. 538.

The Evangelist.] Rev. c. xvii. 1, 2, 3.-Petrarch, in one of his Epistles, had his eye on these lines: "Gaude (inquam) et ad aliquid utilis inrenta gloriare bonorum hostis et malorum hospes, atque asylum pessima rerum Babylon feris, Rhodani ripis imposita, famosa dicam an infamis meretrix, fornicata cum regibus terræ. Illa equidem ipsa es quam in spiritu sacer vidit Evangelista. Illa eadem, inquam, es, non alia, sedens super aquas multas, sive ad littora tribus cincta fluminibus sive rerum atque divitiarum turba mortalium quibus lasciviens ac secura insides opum immemor æternarum sive ut idem qui vidit, exposuit. Populi et gentes et linguæ aquæ sunt, super quas meretrix sedes, recognosce habitum," &c. Petrarche Opera, ed. fol. Basil. 1554. Epist. sine titulo Liber, ep. xvi. p. 729. The text is here probably corrupted. The construction certainly may be rendered easier by omitting the ad before littora, and substituting a comma for a full stop after exposuit. With all the respect that is due to a venerable prelate and truly learned critic, cannot but point out a mistake he has fallen into, relating to this passage, when he observes, that "Numberless passages in the writings of Petrarch speak of Rome under the name of Babylon. But an equal stress is not to be laid on all these. It should be remembered, that the popes, in Petrarch's time, resided at Avignon, greatly to the disparagement of themselves, as he thought, and especially of Rome; of which this singular man was little less than idolatrous. The situation of the place, surrounded by waters, and his splenetic concern for the exiled church, (for under this idea he painted to himself the pope's migration to the banks of Avignon,) brought to his mind the condition of the Jewish church in the Babylonian captivity. And this parallel was all, perhaps, that he meant to insinuate in most of those passages. But when he applies the prophecies to Rome, as to the Apocalyptic Babylon, (as he clearly does in the epistle under consideration,) his meaning is not equivocal, and we do him but justice to give him an honourable place among the TESTES VERITATIS." An Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies, &c., by Richard Hurd, D. D. serm. vii. p. 239. note y. ed. 1772. Now, a reference to the words printed in Italics, which the Bishop of Worcester has omitted in his quotation, will make it sufficiently evident, that Avignon, and not Rome, is here alluded to by Petrarch. The application that is made of these prophecies by two men so eminent for their learning and sagacity as Dante and Petrarch is, however, very remarkable, and must be satisfactory to those who have renounced the errors and corruptions of the papacy. Such applications were indeed frequent in the middle ages, as may be seen in the "Sermons" above referred to. Balbo observes, that it is not Rome, as most erroneously interpreted, but Avignon, and the court there, that is termed Babylon by Dante and Petrarch. Vita di Dante, v. ii. p. 103.

H

waves,

Was ware, when her, who sits upon the
With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld;
She who with seven heads tower'd at her birth,
And from ten horns her proof of glory drew,
Long as her spouse in virtue took delight.
Of gold and silver ye have made your god,
Differing wherein from the idolater,

But that he worships one, a hundred ye?
Ah, Constantine! to how much ill gave birth,
Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower,
Which the first wealthy Father gain'd from thee."
Meanwhile, as thus I sung, he, whether wrath
Or conscience smote him, violent upsprang
Spinning on either sole. I do believe

My teacher well was pleased, with so composed
A lip he listen'd ever to the sound

Of the true words I utter'd. In both arms
He caught, and, to his bosom lifting me,

Upward retraced the way of his descent.

Nor weary of his weight, he press'd me close,

Ah, Constantine!] He alludes to the pretended gift of the Lateran by Constantine to Sylvester, of which Dante himself seems to imply a doubt, in his treatise "De Monarchiâ.". -"Ergo scindere Imperium, Imperatori non licet. Si ergo aliquæ dignitates per Constantinum essent alienata (ut dicunt) ab Imperio," &c. lib. iii. Therefore to make a rent in the empire exceeds the lawful power of the emperor himself. If, then, some dignities were by Constantine alienated (as they report) from the empire, &c." In another part of the same treatise he speaks of the alienation with less doubt indeed, but not with less disapprobation: "O felicem populum! O Ausoniam te gloriosam! si vel numquam infirmator imperii tui extitisset; vel numquam sua pia intentio ipsum fefellisset."-"O happy people! O glorious Italy! if either he who thus weakened thine empire had never been born, or had never suffered his own pious intentions to mislead him.' Lib. ii. ad finem. The gift is by Ariosto very humorously placed in the moon, among the things lost or abused on earth:

Di varj fiori ad un gran monte passa,

Ch' ebber già buono odore, or puzzan forte,
Questo era il dono (se però dir lece)

Che Costantino al buon Silvestro fece. Orl. Fur. c. xxxiv. st. 80. Milton has translated both this passage and that in the text. Prose Works, vol. i. p. 11. ed. 1753.

Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was cause
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy pope received of thee.
Then pass'd he to a flowery mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously;
This was that gift, if you the truth will have,
That Constantine to good Silvester gave.

Till to the summit of the rock we came,
Our passage from the fourth to the fifth pier.
His cherish'd burden there gently he placed
Upon the rugged rock and steep, a path
Not easy for the clambering goat to mount.
Thence to my view another vale appear'd.

CANTO XX.

ARGUMENT.

The Poet relates the punishment of such as presumed, while living, to predict future events. It is to have their faces reversed and set the contrary way on their limbs, so that, being deprived of the power to see before them, they are constrained ever to walk backwards. Among these Virgil points out to him Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, and Manto, (from the mention of whom he takes occasion to speak of the origin of Mantua) together with several others, who had practised the arts of divination and astrology.

AND now the verse proceeds to torments new,
Fit argument of this the twentieth strain
Of the first song, whose awful theme records
The spirits whelm'd in woe. Earnest I look'd
Into the depth, that open'd to my view,
Moisten'd with tears of anguish, and beheld
A tribe, that came along the hollow vale,
In silence weeping: such their step as walk
Quires, chanting solemn litanies, on earth.

As on them more direct mine eye descends,
Each wonderously seem'd to be reversed1
At the neck-bone, so that the countenance
Was from the reins averted; and because
None might before him look, they were compell'd
To advance with backward gait. Thus one perhaps
Hath been by force of palsy clean transposed,
But I ne'er saw it nor believe it so.

Now, reader! think within thyself, so God

1 Reversed.] But very uncouth sight was to behold

How he did fashion his untoward pace;
For as he forward moved his footing old,

So backward still was turn'd his wrinkled face;
Unlike to men, who, ever as they trace,

Both feet and face one way are wont to lead.

Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. c. viii. st. 31.

1

Fruit of thy reading give thee! how I long
Could keep my visage dry, when I beheld
Near me our form distorted in such guise,
That on the hinder parts fallen from the face
The tears down-streaming roll'd. Against a rock
I leant and wept, so that my guide exclaim'd:
"What, and art thou, too, witless as the rest?
Here pity most doth show herself alive,
When she is dead. What guilt exceedeth his,
Who with Heaven's judgment in his passion strives?
Raise up thy head, raise up, and see the man

Before whose eyes 2 earth gaped in Thebes, when all
Cried out Amphiaraüs, whither rushest?

'Why leavest thou the war?' He not the less
Fell ruining 3 far as to Minos down,

Whose grapple none eludes. Lo! how he makes
The breast his shoulders; and who once too far
Before him wish'd to see, now backward looks,
And treads reverse his path. Tiresias note,
Who semblance changed, when woman he became

How I long

Could keep my visage dry.]

Sight so deform what heart of man could long
Dry-eyed behold? Adam could not, but wept.
Milton, P. L. b. xi. 495.
2 Before whose eyes.] Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings who besieged
Thebes. He is said to have been swallowed up by an opening of the earth.
See Lidgate's Storie of Thebes, part iii. where it is told how the " Bishop
Amphiaraus" fell down to hell:

And thus the devill, for his outrages,
Like his desert payed him his wages.

A different reason, for his being doomed thus to perish, is assigned by Pindar:

ὁ δ ̓Αμφιάρη, &c. Nem. ix.
For thee, Amphiaraus, earth,
By Jove's all-riving thunder cleft,
Her mighty bosom open'd wide,
Thee and thy plunging steeds to hide,

Or ever on thy back the spear
Of Periclymenus impress'd
A wound to shame thy warlike breast.
For struck with panic fear
The gods' own children flee.

Ruining.] "Ruinare." Hence, perhaps, Milton, P. L. b. vi. 868 :
Heaven ruining from heaven.

• Tiresias.]

Duo magnorum viridi coëuntia sylva
Corpora serpentum baculi violaverat ictu,
Deque viro factus (mirabile) fœmina, septem
Egerat autumnos. Octavo rursus eosdem
Vidit. Et, est vestræ si tanta potentia plaga,

Nunc quoque vos feriam. Percussis anguibus isdem

Forma prior rediit, genitivaque venit imago.

Ovid. Met. lib. iii.