FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  
er gracious revelation, that she was in heaven, whither I in my thought oftentimes went,--as it were, seized up. And this made me desirous of death, that I might go there where she was."[N] Following upon the chapter in which this remarkable passage occurs is one which is chiefly occupied with a digression upon the immortality of the soul,--and with discourse upon this matter, says Dante, "it will be beautiful to finish speaking of that living and blessed Beatrice, of whom I intend to say no more in this book.... And I believe and affirm and am certain that I shall pass after this to another and better life, in which that glorious lady lives of whom my soul was enamored."[O] [Footnote N: _Convito_, Tratt. ii. c. 8.] [Footnote O: Id. c. 9.] But it is not from the "Convito" alone that this portion of the "Vita Nuova" receives illustration. In that passage of the "Purgatory" in which Beatrice is described as appearing in person to her lover the first time since her death, she addresses him in words of stern rebuke of his fickleness and his infidelity to her memory. The whole scene is, perhaps, unsurpassed in imaginative reality; the vision appears to have an actual existence, and the poet himself is subdued by the power of his own imagination. He tells the words of Beatrice with the same feeling with which he would have repeated them, had they fallen on his mortal ear. His grief and shame are real, and there is no element of feigning in them. That in truth he had seemed to himself to listen to and to behold what he tells, it is scarcely possible to doubt. Beatrice says,-- "Some while at heart my presence kept him sound; My girlish eyes to his observance lending, I led him with me on the right way bound. When of my second age the steps ascending, I bore my life into another sphere, Then stole he from me, after others bending. When I arose from flesh to spirit clear, When beauty, worthiness, upon me grew, I was to him less pleasing and less dear."[P] [Footnote P: Purgatory, c. xxx. vv. 118-126.--CAYLEY'S Translation.] But although Beatrice only gives utterance to the self-reproaches of Dante, we have seen already how fully he had atoned for this first and transient unfaithfulness of his heart. The remainder of the "Vita Nuova" shows how little she had lost of her power over him, how reverently he honored her memory, how constant was his love of her whom he should see never again with hi
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Beatrice
 

Footnote

 

memory

 
Convito
 

Purgatory

 

passage

 

lending

 

observance

 

girlish

 

scarcely


element

 
feigning
 

mortal

 
listen
 
presence
 

behold

 

spirit

 

atoned

 

transient

 

unfaithfulness


utterance

 

reproaches

 

remainder

 

constant

 

reverently

 
honored
 

bending

 

fallen

 

ascending

 

sphere


beauty

 

CAYLEY

 
Translation
 

worthiness

 

pleasing

 

beautiful

 

finish

 

speaking

 

living

 

digression


immortality
 
discourse
 

matter

 

blessed

 

intend

 
affirm
 

occupied

 
oftentimes
 
seized
 

thought