Purgatorio: Canto XX

Against a better will the will fights ill, wherefore, against my pleasure, to please him, I drew the sponge from the water unfilled.

I moved on, and my Leader moved on by the free spaces, ever along the rock, as one goes by a wall close to the battlements;

for the people who distill through their eyes, drop by drop, the evil that fills the whole world, on the other side approach too near the edge.

Accurst be thou, she-wolf of old, that hast more prey than all the other beasts, for thy hunger endlessly deep!

O heaven, in whose revolution it seems that conditions here below are thought to be changed, when will he come through whom she shall depart?

We went on, with steps slow and scant, and I intent on the shades that I heard piteously weeping and complaining;

and by chance I heard one in front of us calling with tears: “Sweet Mary,” even as a woman who is in travail;

and continuing: “So poor wast thou, as may be seen by that hostelry where thou didst lay down thy holy burden.”

Following I heard: “O good Fabricius, thou didst desire to possess virtue with poverty, rather than great riches with iniquity.”

These words were so pleasing to me, that I drew me forward to have knowledge of that spirit, from whom they seemed to have come.

It went on to speak of the bounty which Nicholas gave to the maidens, to lead their youth to honour.

“O spirit, that discoursest so much of good, tell me who thou wast,” said I, “and wherefore thou alone renewest these worthy lauds?

Thy words shall not be without reward, if I return to complete the short way of that life which is flying to its end.”

And he: “I will tell it thee, not for any solace that I expect from yonder, but because so much grace shineth in thee ere thou art dead.

I was the root of the evil tree which o’ershadows all Christian lands, so that rarely is good fruit plucked therefrom.

But if Douay, Lille, Ghent and Bruges had power, soon were vengeance taken for it, and I beseech this from him who judgeth all.

Hugh Capet was I called yonder; of me are born the Philips and the Lewises by whom of late France is ruled.

Son was I of a butcher of Paris. When the ancient kings came to an end, all save one given over to grey garments,

I found tight in my hands the reins of the government of the realm, and so much power from new possessions, and so rich in friends,

that to my son’s head the widowed crown was promoted, from whom began the consecrated bones of those.

So long as the great dowry of Provence had not taken shame from my race, it was of little worth, but yet it did no evil.

There by force and fraud its rapine began; and then, for amends, Ponthieu and Normandy it seized, and Gascony.

Charles came to Italy, and, for amends, made a victim of Conradin; and then thrust Thomas back to heaven, for amends.

A time I see, not long after this day, that brings another Charles forth from France, to make both him and his better known.

Forth he comes, alone, without an army, and with the lance wherewith Judas jousted; and that he couches so, that he makes the paunch of Florence to burst.

Thence shall he win, not land, but sin and shame, for himself so much the more grievous, as he the more lightly counts such wrong.

The other, who once came forth a captive from a ship, I see selling his daughter, and haggling over her, as pirates do with other bondwomen.

O avarice, what more canst thou do to us, since thou hast so drawn my race to thee, that it hath no care of its own flesh?

In order that the ill to come and past, may seem less, I see the fleur-de-lys enter Alagna, and in his vicar Christ made captive.

A second time I see him mocked; I see the vinegar and the gall renewed, and him slain between living thieves.

I see the new Pilate so cruel, that this sateth him not, but, lawlessly, he bears his greedy sails into the temple.

O my Lord, when shall I rejoice to see the vengeance, which, being hidden, maketh sweet thine anger in thy secret counsel?

What I was saying of that only Bride of the Holy Ghost, and which made thee turn toward me for some gloss,

so much is the answer to all our prayers, as long as the day lasts; but when the night cometh, a contrary sound we take up instead of that.

Then we rehearse Pygmalion, whom insatiate lust of gold made traitor, thief, and parricide,

and the misery of the avaricious Midas, which followed his greedy request, because of which ’tis right we forever laugh.

The mad Achan then each one recalls, how he stole the spoils, so that Joshua’s wrath seems here yet to bite him.

Then we accuse Sapphira and her husband; we praise the kicks which Heliodorus had; and all the mount doth circle in infamy

Polymnestor who slew Polydorus. Last of all here we cry: ‘Crassus, tell us, for thou knowest, of what savour is gold?’

Sometimes we discourse, the one loud the other low, according to the impulse which spurs us to speak, now with greater, now with lesser force;

therefore at the good we tell of here by day, I was not alone before, but here, near by, no other person was raising his voice.”

We were already parted from him, and striving to surmount the way so far as was permitted to our power,

when I felt the mountain quake, like a thing which is falling; whereupon a chill gripped me, as is wont to grip him who is going to death.

Of a surety, Delos was not shaken so violently, ere Latona made her nest therein to give birth to heaven’s two eyes.

Then began on all sides a shout, such that the Master drew toward me, saying: “Fear not while I do guide thee.”

“Gloria in excelsis Deo,” all were saying, by what I understood from those near by, whose cry could be heard.

Motionless we stood, and in suspense, like the shepherds who first heard that hymn, until the quaking ceased and it was ended.

Then we took up again our holy way, looking at the shades, that lay on the ground already returned to their wonted plaint.

No ignorance, if my memory err not in this, did ever with so great assault give me yearning for knowledge

as I then seemed to have, while pondering; nor by reason of our haste was I bold to ask; nor of myself could I see aught there: thus I went on timid and pensive.