# Paradise Canto 17

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-21 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto XVII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Cacciaguida predicts to our Poet his exile and the calamities he had to
> infer; and, lastly, exhorts him to write the present poem.
> 
> Such as the youth,[1] who came to Clymene,
> To certify himself of that reproach
> Which had been fasten'd on him, (he whose end,
> Still makes the fathers chary to their sons),
> E'en such was I; nor unobserved was such
> Of Beatrice, and that saintly lamp,[2]
> Who had erewhile for me his station moved;
> When thus my lady: "Give thy wish free vent,
> That it may issue, bearing true report
> Of the mind's impress: not that aught thy words
> May to our knowledge add, but to the end
> That thou mayst use thyself to own thy thirst,[3]
> And men may mingle for thee when they hear."
> 
> [1: Phaeton, who came to his mother Clymene, to inquire if he were
> indeed the son of Apollo.]
> 
> [2: Cacciaguida.]
> 
> [3: "That thou mayst obtain from others a solution of any doubt that
> may occur to thee."]
> 
> "O plant, from whence I spring! revered and loved!
> Who soar'st so high a pitch, that thou as clear,[4]
> As earthly thought determines two obtuse
> In one triangle not contain'd, so clear
> Dost see contingencies, ere in themselves
> Existent, looking at the point[5] whereto
> All times are present; I, the whilst I scaled
> With Virgil the soul - purifying mount
> And visited the nether world of woe,
> Touching my future destiny have heard
> Words grievous, though I feel me on all sides
> Well squared to fortune's blows. Therefore my will
> Were satisfied to know the lot awaits me;
> The arrow, seen beforehand, slacks his flight."
> 
> [4: "Thou beholdest future events with the same clearness of evidence
> that we discern the simplest mathematical demonstrations."]
> 
> [5: The divine nature.]
> 
> So said I to the brightness, which erewhile
> To me had spoken; and my will declared,
> As Beatrice will'd, explicitly.
> Nor with oracular response obscure,
> Such as, or e'er the Lamb of God was slain,
> Beguiled the credulous nations: but, in terms
> Precise, and unambiguous lore, replied
> The spirit of paternal love, enshrined,
> Yet in his smile apparent; and thus spake:
> "Contingency,[6] whose verge extendeth not
> Beyond the tablet of your mortal mold,
> Is all depictured in the eternal sight;
> But hence deriveth not necessity,[7]
> More than the tall ship, hurried down the flood,
> Is driven by the eye that looks on it.
> From thence,[8] as to the ear sweet harmony
> From organ comes, so comes before mine eye
> The time prepared for thee. Such as driven out
> From Athens, by his cruel stepdame's[9] wiles,
> Hippolytus departed; such must thou
> Depart from Florence. This they wish, and this
> Contrive, and will ere long effectuate, there,[10]
> Where gainful merchandize is made of Christ
> Throughout the live - long day. The common cry,[11]
> Will, as 'tis ever wont, affix the blame
> 
> [6: "Contingency." Contingency, which has no place beyond the limits
> of the material world.]
> 
> [7: "The evidence with which we see casual events portrayed in the
> source of all truth, no more necessitates those events, than does the image,
> reflected in the sight by a ship sailing down a stream, necessitate the motion
> of the vessel."]
> 
> [8: From the view of the Deity Himself.]
> 
> [9: Phaedra.]
> 
> [10: "There." At Rome, where the expulsion of Dante's party from
> Florence was then plotting, in 1300.]
> 
> [11: The multitude will, as usual, be ready to blame those who are
> sufferers, whose cause will at last be vindicated by the overthrow of their
> enemies.]
> 
> Unto the party injured: but the truth
> Shall, in the vengeance it dispenseth, find
> A faithful witness. Thou shalt leave each thing
> Beloved most dearly: this is the first shaft
> Shot from the bow of exile. Thou shalt prove
> How salt the savour is of other's bread;
> How hard the passage, to descend and climb
> By other's stairs. But that shall gall thee most,
> Will be the worthless and vile company,
> With whom thou must be thrown into these straits.
> For all ungrateful, impious all, and mad,
> Shall turn 'gainst thee: but in a little while,
> Theirs,[12] and not thine, shall be the crimson'd brow.
> Their course shall so evince their brutishness,
> To have ta'en thy stand apart shall well become thee.
> 
> [12: "They shall be ashamed of the part they have taken against
> thee."]
> 
> "First refuge thou must find, first place of rest,
> In the great Lombard's[13] courtesy, who bears,
> Upon the ladder perch'd, the sacred bird.
> He shall behold thee with such kind regard,
> That 'twixt ye two, the contrary to that
> Which 'falls 'twixt other men, the granting shall
> Forerun the asking. With him shalt thou see
> That mortal,[14] who was at his birth imprest
> So strongly from this star, that of his deeds
> The nations shall take note. His unripe age
> Yet holds him from observance; for these wheels
> Only nine years have compasst him about.
> But, ere the Gascon[15] practise on great Harry,[16]
> Sparkles of virtue shall shoot forth in him,
> In equal scorn of labours and of gold
> His bounty shall be spread abroad so widely,
> As not to let the tongues, e'en of his foes,
> Be idle in its praise. Look thou to him,
> And his beneficence: for he shall cause
> Reversal of their lot to many people;
> 
> [13: Either Bartolommeo della Scala or Alboino his brother. Their
> coat-of-arms was a ladder and an eagle.]
> 
> [14: "That mortal." Can Grande della Scala, born under the influence
> of Mars, but at this time only nine years old. He was a son of Alberto della
> Scala.]
> 
> [15: "The Gascon." Pope Clement V.]
> 
> [16: The Emperor Henry VII.]
> 
> Rich men and beggars interchanging fortunes.
> And thou shalt bear this written in thy soul'
> Of him, but tell it not:" and things he told
> Incredible to those who witness them;
> Then added: "So interpret thou, my son,
> What hath been told thee. - Lo! the ambushment
> That a few circling seasons hide for thee.
> Yet envy not thy neighbours: time extends
> Thy span beyond their treason's chastisement."
> 
> Soon as the saintly spirit, by silence, mark'd
> Completion of that web, which I had stretch'd
> Before it, warp'd for weaving; I began,
> As one, who in perplexity desires
> Counsel of other, wise, benign and friendly:
> "My father! well I mark how time spurs on
> Toward me, ready to inflict the blow,
> Which falls most heavily on him who most
> Abandoneth himself. Therefore 'tis good
> I should forecast, that, driven from the place[17]
> Most dear to me, I may not lose myself[18]
> All other by my song. Down through the world
> Of infinite mourning; and along the mount,
> From whose fair height my lady's eyes did lift me;
> And, after, through this Heaven, from light to light;
> Have I learnt that, which if I tell again,
> It may with many wofully disrelish:
> And, if I am a timid friend to truth,
> I fear my life may perish among those,
> To whom these days shall be of ancient date."
> 
> [17: "The place." Our poet here discovers both that Florence, much as
> he inveighs against it, was still the dearest object of his affections, and
> that it was not without some scruple he indulged his satirical vein.]
> 
> [18: "That being driven out of my country, I may not deprive myself
> of every other place by the boldness with which I expose in my writings the
> vices of mankind."]
> 
> The brightness, where enclosed the treasure[19] smiled,
> Which I had found there, first shone glisteringly,
> Like to a golden mirror in the sun;
> Next answer'd: "Conscience, dimm'd or by its own
> Or other's shame, will feel thy saying sharp.
> Thou, notwithstanding, all deceit removed,
> 
> [19: "The treasure." Cacciaguida.]
> 
> See the whole vision be made manifest;
> And let them wince, who have their withers wrung.
> What though, when tasted first, thy voice shall prove
> Unwelcome: on digestion, it will turn
> To vital nourishment. The cry thou raisest,
> Shall, as the wind doth, smite the proudest summits;
> Which is of honour no light argument.
> For this, there only have been shown to thee,
> Throughout these orbs, the mountain, and the deep,
> Spirits, whom fame hath note of. For the mind
> Of him, who hears, is loth to acquiesce
> And fix its faith, unless the instance brought
> Be palpable, and proof apparent urge."
>
> — *Paradise Canto 17*