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Down to Lucretia's sorrow, in seven kings

       O'ercoming round about the neighboring nations;

      Thou knowest what it achieved, borne by the Romans

       Illustrious against Brennus, against Pyrrhus,

       Against the other princes and confederates.

      Torquatus thence and Quinctius, who from locks

       Unkempt was named, Decii and Fabii,

       Received the fame I willingly embalm;

      It struck to earth the pride of the Arabians,

       Who, following Hannibal, had passed across

       The Alpine ridges, Po, from which thou glidest;

      Beneath it triumphed while they yet were young

       Pompey and Scipio, and to the hill

       Beneath which thou wast born it bitter seemed;

      Then, near unto the time when heaven had willed

       To bring the whole world to its mood serene,

       Did Caesar by the will of Rome assume it.

      What it achieved from Var unto the Rhine,

       Isere beheld and Saone, beheld the Seine,

       And every valley whence the Rhone is filled;

      What it achieved when it had left Ravenna,

       And leaped the Rubicon, was such a flight

       That neither tongue nor pen could follow it.

      Round towards Spain it wheeled its legions; then

       Towards Durazzo, and Pharsalia smote

       That to the calid Nile was felt the pain.

      Antandros and the Simois, whence it started,

       It saw again, and there where Hector lies,

       And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself.

      From thence it came like lightning upon Juba;

       Then wheeled itself again into your West,

       Where the Pompeian clarion it heard.

      From what it wrought with the next standard-bearer

       Brutus and Cassius howl in Hell together,

       And Modena and Perugia dolent were;

      Still doth the mournful Cleopatra weep

       Because thereof, who, fleeing from before it,

       Took from the adder sudden and black death.

      With him it ran even to the Red Sea shore;

       With him it placed the world in so great peace,

       That unto Janus was his temple closed.

      But what the standard that has made me speak

       Achieved before, and after should achieve

       Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath it,

      Becometh in appearance mean and dim,

       If in the hand of the third Caesar seen

       With eye unclouded and affection pure,

      Because the living Justice that inspires me

       Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of,

       The glory of doing vengeance for its wrath.

      Now here attend to what I answer thee;

       Later it ran with Titus to do vengeance

       Upon the vengeance of the ancient sin.

      And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten

       The Holy Church, then underneath its wings

       Did Charlemagne victorious succor her.

      Now hast thou power to judge of such as those

       Whom I accused above, and of their crimes,

       Which are the cause of all your miseries.

      To the public standard one the yellow lilies

       Opposes, the other claims it for a party,

       So that 'tis hard to see which sins the most.

      Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft

       Beneath some other standard; for this ever

       Ill follows he who it and justice parts.

      And let not this new Charles e'er strike it down,

       He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons

       That from a nobler lion stripped the fell.

      Already oftentimes the sons have wept

       The father's crime; and let him not believe

       That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies.

      This little planet doth adorn itself

       With the good spirits that have active been,

       That fame and honour might come after them;

      And whensoever the desires mount thither,

       Thus deviating, must perforce the rays

       Of the true love less vividly mount upward.

      But in commensuration of our wages

       With our desert is portion of our joy,

       Because we see them neither less nor greater.

      Herein doth living Justice sweeten so

       Affection in us, that for evermore

       It cannot warp to any iniquity.

      Voices diverse make up sweet melodies;

       So in this life of ours the seats diverse

       Render sweet harmony among these spheres;

      And in the compass of this present pearl

       Shineth the sheen of Romeo, of whom

       The grand and beauteous work was ill rewarded.

      But the Provencals who against him wrought,

       They have not laughed, and therefore ill goes he

       Who makes his hurt of the good deeds of others.

      Four daughters, and each one of them a queen,

       Had Raymond Berenger, and this for him

       Did Romeo, a poor man and a pilgrim;

      And then malicious words incited him

       To summon to a reckoning this just man,

       Who rendered to him seven and five for ten.

      Then he departed poor and stricken in years,

       And if the world could know the heart he had,

       In begging bit by bit his livelihood,

      Though much it laud him, it would laud him more."

      VII. Beatrice's Discourse of the Crucifixion, the Incarnation, the Immortality of the Soul, and the Resurrection of the Body.

       Table of Contents

      "Osanna sanctus Deus Sabaoth,

       Superillustrans claritate tua

       Felices ignes horum malahoth!"

      In this wise, to his melody returning,

       This substance, upon which a double light

       Doubles itself, was seen by me to sing,

      And to their dance this and the others moved,

       And in the manner of swift-hurrying sparks

       Veiled themselves

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