# Paradise Canto  9

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> 
> Canto IX
> 
> Argument
> 
>      The next spirit who converses with our Poet in the planet Venus is the
> amorous Cunizza. To her succeeds Folco, or Folques, the Provencal bard, who
> declares that the soul of Rahab the harlot is there also; and then, blaming
> the Pope for his neglect of the Holy Land, prognosticates some reverse to the
> papal power.
> 
> After solution of my doubt, thy Charles,
> O fair Clemenza,[1] of the treachery[2] spake,
> That must befal his seed; but, "Tell it not,"
> Said he, "and let the destined years come round."
> Nor may I tell thee more, save that the meed
> Of sorrow well - deserved shall quit your wrongs.
> 
> [1: Daughter of Charles Martel, and second wife of Louis X of
> France.]
> 
> [2: "The treachery." He alludes to the occupation of the Kingdom of
> Sicily by Robert, in exclusion of his brother's son Carobert, or Charles
> Robert, the rightful heir.]
> 
> And now the visage of that saintly light[3]
> Was to the sun, that fills it, turn'd again,
> As to the good, whose plenitude of bliss
> Sufficeth all. O ye misguided souls!
> Infatuate, who from such a good estrange
> Your hearts, and bend your gaze on vanity,
> Alas for you! - And lo! toward me, next,
> 
> [3: Charles Martel.]
> 
> Another of those splendent forms approach'd,
> That, by its outward brightening, testified
> The will it had to pleasure me. The eyes
> Of Beatrice, resting, as before,
> Firmly, upon me, manifested forth
> Approval of my wish. "And O," I cried,
> "Blest spirit! quickly be my will perform'd;
> And prove thou to me,[4] that my inmost thoughts
> I can reflect on thee." Thereat the light,
> That yet was new to me, from the recess,
> Where it before was singing, thus began,
> As one who joys in kindness: "In that part[5]
> Of the depraved Italian land, which lies
> Between Rialto and the fountain springs
> Of Brenta and of Piava, there doth rise,
> But to no lofty eminence, a hill,
> From whence erewhile a firebrand did descend,
> That sorely shent the region. From one root
> I and it sprang; my name on earth Cunizza:[6]
> And here I glitter, for that by its light
> This star o'ercame me. Yet I naught repine,[7]
> Nor grudge myself the cause of this my lot:
> Which haply vulgar hearts can scarce conceive.
> 
> [4: The thoughts of all created minds being seen by the Deity, and
> all that is in the Deity being the object of vision to beatified spirits, such
> spirits must consequently see the thoughts of all created minds. Dante,
> therefore, requests of the spirit, who now approaches him, a proof of this
> truth with regard to his own thoughts. See v. 70.]
> 
> [5: Between Rialto in the Venetian territory, and the sources of the
> rivers Brenta and Piava, is situated a castle called Romano, the birthplace of
> the famous tyrant Ezzolino or Azzolino, the brother of Cunizza, who is now
> speaking. See Hell, Canto xii. v. 110.]
> 
> [6: "Cunizza." The adventures of Cunizza, overcome by the influence
> of her star, are related by the chronicler Rolandino, of Padua. She eloped
> from her first husband, Richard of St. Boniface, in the company of Sordello,
> with whom she is supposed to have cohabited before her marriage: then lived
> with a soldier of Trevigi, whose wife was living at the same time in the same
> city; and, on his being murdered by her brother the tyrant, was by her brother
> married to a nobleman of Braganzo: lastly, when he also had fallen by the same
> hand, she after her brother's death, was again, wedded in Verona.]
> 
> [7: "I am not dissatisfied that I am not allotted a higher place."]
> 
> "This[8] jewel, that is next me in our Heaven,
> Lustrous and costly, great renown hath left,
> And not to perish, ere these hundred years
> 
> [8: "This." Folco of Genoa, a celebrated Provencal poet, commonly
> termed Folques of Marseilles, of which place he was perhaps bishop.]
> 
> Five times[9] absolve their round. Consider thou,
> If to excel be worthy man's endeavour,
> When such life may attend the first.[10] Yet they
> Care not for this, the crowd[11] that now are girt
> By Adice and Tagliamento, still
> Impenitent, though scourged. The hour is near[12]
> When for their stubbornness, at Padua's marsh
> The water shall be changed, that laves Vicenza.
> And where Cagnano meets with Sile, one[13]
> Lords it, and bears his head aloft, for whom
> The web[14] is now a - warping. Feltro[15] too
> Shall sorrow for its godless shepherd's fault,
> Of so deep stain, that never, for the like,
> Was Malta's[16] bar unclosed. Too large should be
> The skillet[17] that would hold Ferrara's blood,
> And wearied he, who ounce by ounce would weigh it,
> The which this priest,[18] in show of party - zeal,
> Courteous will give; nor will the gift ill suit
> The country's custom. We descry above
> Mirrors, ye call them Thrones, from which to us
> Reflected shine the judgments of our God:
> Whence these our sayings we avouch for good."
> 
> [9: The 500 years are elapsed.]
> 
> [10: When the mortal life of man may be attended by so lasting and
> glorious a memory, which is a kind of second life.]
> 
> [11: The people who inhabited the country bounded by the Tagliamento
> to the east and Adice to the west.]
> 
> [12: Cunizza foretells the defeat of Giacopo da Carrara and the
> Paduans, by Can Grande, at Vicenza, on September 18, 1314.]
> 
> [13: "One." She predicts also the fate of Riccardo da Camino, who is
> said to have been murdered at Trevigi (where the rivers Sile and Cagnano meet)
> where he was engaged in playing at chess.]
> 
> [14: "The web." The net, or snare, into which he is destined to
> fall.]
> 
> [15: The Bishop of Feltro having received a number of fugitives from
> Ferrara, who were in opposition to the Pope, under a promise of protection,
> afterward gave them up; so that they were reconducted to that city, and the
> greater part of them there put to death.]
> 
> [16: "Malta's." A tower, either in the citadel of Padua, which, under
> the tyranny of Ezzolino, had been "with many a foul and midnight murder fed";
> or (as some say) near a river of the same name, that falls into the Lake of
> Bolsena, in which the Pope was accustomed to imprison such as had been guilty
> of an irremissible sin.]
> 
> [17: "The skillet." The blood shed could not be contained in such a
> vessel, if it were of the usual size.]
> 
> [18: The bishop, who, to show himself a zealous partisan of the Pope,
> had committed the above - mentioned act of treachery. The commentators are not
> agreed as to his name. Troya calls him Alessandro Novello, and relates the
> circumstances at full.]
> 
> She ended; and appear'd on other thoughts
> Intent, re - entering on the wheel she late
> Had left. That other joyance meanwhile wax'd
> A thing to marvel at, in splendour glowing,
> Like choicest ruby stricken by the sun.
> For, in that upper clime, effulgence[19] comes
> Of gladness, as here laughter: and below,
> As the mind saddens, murkier grows the shade.
> 
> [19: As joy is expressed by laughter on earth, so is it by an
> increase of splendor in Paradise; and, on the contrary, grief is betokened in
> Hell by augmented darkness.]
> 
> "God seeth all: and in Him is thy sight,"
> Said I, "blest spirit! Therefore will of His
> Cannot to thee be dark. Why then delays
> Thy voice to satisfy my wish untold;
> That voice, which joins the inexpressive song,
> Pastime of Heaven, the which those Ardours sing,
> That cowl them with six shadowing wings[20] outspread?
> I would not wait thy asking, wert thou known
> To me, as thoroughly I to thee am known."
> 
> [20: "Above it stood the seraphims; each one had six wings." - Is.
> vi. 2.]
> 
> He, forthwith answering, thus, his words began:
> "The valley of waters,[21] widest next to that[22]
> Which doth the earth engarland, shapes its course,
> Between discordant shores,[23] against the sun
> Inward so far, it makes meridian[24] there,
> Where was before the horizon. Of that vale
> Dwelt I upon the shore, 'twixt Ebro's stream
> And Macra's,[25] that divides with passage brief
> Genoan bounds from Tuscan. East and west
> Are nearly one to Begga[26] and my land
> Whose haven[27] erst was with its own blood warm.
> Who knew my name, were wont to call me Folco;
> And I did bear impression of this Heaven,[28]
> 
> [21: The Mediterranean Sea.]
> 
> [22: "That." The great ocean.]
> 
> [23: Europe and Africa.]
> 
> [24: "Meridian." Extending to the east, the Mediterranean at last
> reaches the coast of Palestine, which is on its horizon when it enters the
> Straits of Gibraltar.]
> 
> [25: Ebro, a river to the west, and Macra, a river to the east, of
> Genoa, where Folco was born; others think that Marseilles, and not Genoa, is
> here described; and then Ebro must be understood of the river in Spain.]
> 
> [26: "Begga." A place in Africa.]
> 
> [27: Alluding to the slaughter of the Genoese by the Saracens in
> 936.]
> 
> [28: The planet Venus, by which Folco declares himself to have been
> formerly influenced.]
> 
> That now bears mine: for not with fiercer flame
> Glow'd Belus' daughter,[29] injuring alike
> Sichaeus and Creusa, than did I,
> Long as it suited the unripen'd down
> That fledged my cheek; nor she of Rhodope,[30]
> That was beguiled of Demophoon;
> Nor Jove's son,[31] when the charms of Iole
> Were shrined within his heart. And yet there bides
> No sorrowful repentance here, but mirth,
> Not for the fault, (that doth not come to mind,)
> But for the virtue, whose o'erruling sway
> And providence have wrought thus quaintly. Here
> The skill is look'd into, that fashioneth
> With such effectual working, and the good
> Discern'd, accruing to the lower world
> From this above, But fully to content
> Thy wishes all that in this sphere have birth,
> Demands my further parle. Inquire thou wouldst,
> Who of this light is denizen, that here
> Beside me sparkles, as the sunbeam doth
> On the clear wave. Know then, the soul of Rahab[32]
> Is in that gladsome harbour; to our tribe
> United, and the foremost rank assign'd.
> She to this Heaven,[33] at which the shadow ends
> Of your sublunar world, was taken up,
> First, in Christ's triumph, of all soul redeem'd:
> For well behoved, that, in some part of Heaven,
> She should remain a trophy, to declare
> The mighty conquest won with either palm;[34]
> For that she favour'd first the high exploit
> Of Joshua on the Holy Land, whereof
> The Pope[35] recks little now. Thy city, plant
> Of him,[36] that on his Maker turn'd the back,
> And of whose envying so much woe hath sprung,
> 
> [29: "Belus' daughter." Dido.]
> 
> [30: "She of Rhodope." Phyllis.]
> 
> [31: "Jove's son." Hercules.]
> 
> [32: "Rahab." Heb. xi. 31.]
> 
> [33: "This planet of Venus, at which the shadow of the earth ends
> (Almagest) writes Ptolemy." - Vellutello.]
> 
> [34: By both hands nailed to the cross.]
> 
> [35: "Who cares not that the Holy Land is in the possession of the
> Saracens."]
> 
> [36: "Of him." Of Satan.]
> 
> Engenders and expands the cursed flower,[37]
> That hath made wander both the sheep and lambs,
> Turning the shepherd to a wolf. For this,
> The Gospel and great teachers laid aside,
> The decretals,[38] as their stuff margins show,
> Are the sole study. Pope and Cardinals,
> Intent on these, ne'er journey but in thought
> To Nazareth, where Gabriel oped his wings.
> Yet it may chance, ere long, the Vatican,[39]
> And other most selected parts of Rome,
> That were the grave of Peter's soldiery,
> Shall be deliver'd from the adulterous bond."
> 
> [37: The coin of Florence, the florin; the covetous desire of which
> has excited the Pope to so much evil.]
> 
> [38: "The decretals." The canon law. So in the "De Monarchia," lib.
> iii. p. 137: "There are also a third set, whom they call Decretalists. These,
> alike ignorant of theology and philosophy, relying wholly on their decretals
> (which I indeed esteem not unworthy of reverence), in the hope I suppose of
> obtaining for them a paramount influence, derogate from the authority of the
> empire. Nor is this to be wondered at, when I have heard one of them
> impudently maintaining, that traditions are the foundation of the faith of the
> Church."]
> 
> [39: He alludes either to the death of Pope Boniface VIII or to the
> coming of the Emperor Henry VII into Italy; or else to the transfer of the
> Holy See from Rome to Avignon, which took place in the pontificate of Clement
> V.]
>
> — *Paradise Canto  9*