# Purgatory Canto 32

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> 
> Canto XXXII
> 
> Argument
> 
>      Dante is warned not to gaze too fixedly on Beatrice. The procession moves
> on, accompanied by Matilda, Statius, and Dante, till they reach an exceeding
> lofty tree, where divers strange chances befall.
> 
> Mine eyes with such an eager coveting
> Were bent to rid them of their ten years' thirst,[1]
> Not other sense was waking: and e'en they
> Were fenced on either side from heed of aught;
> So tangled, in its custom'd toils, that smile
> Of saintly brightness drew me to itself:
> When forcibly, toward the left, my sight
> The sacred virgins turn'd; for from their lips
> I heard the warning sounds: "Too fix'd a gaze!"
> 
> [1: "Their ten years' thirst." Beatrice had been dead ten years.]
> 
> A while my vision labour'd; as when late
> Upon the o'erstrained eyes the sun hath smote:
> But soon, to lesser object, as the view
> Was now recover'd, (lesser in respect
> To that excess of sensible, whence late
> I had perforce been sunder'd), on their right
> I mark'd that glorious army wheel, and turn,
> Against the sun and sevenfold lights, their front.
> As when, their bucklers for protection raised,
> A well - ranged troop, with portly banners curl'd,
> Wheel circling, ere the whole can change their ground;
> E'en thus the goodly regiment of Heaven
> Proceeding, all did pass us, ere the car
> Had sloped his beam. Attendant at the wheels
> The damsels turn'd; and on the Gryphon moved
> The sacred burden, with a pace so smooth,
> No feather on him trembled. The fair dame,
> Who through the wave had drawn me, companied
> By Statius and myself, pursued the wheel,
> Whose orbit, rolling, mark'd a lesser arch.
> 
> Through the high wood, now void, (the more her blame,
> Who by the serpent was beguiled), I pass'd,
> With step in cadence to the harmony
> Angelic. Onward had we moved, as far,
> Perchance, as arrow at three several flights
> Full wing'd had sped, when from her station down
> Descended Beatrice. With one voice
> All murmur'd "Adam"; circling next a plant
> Despoil'd of flowers and leaf, on every bough,
> Its tresses, spreading more as more they rose,
> Were such, as 'midst their forest wilds, for height,
> The Indians might have gazed at. "Blessed thou,
> Gryphon![2] whose beak hath never pluck'd that tree
> Pleasant to taste: for hence the appetite
> Was warp'd to evil." Round the stately trunk
> Thus shouted forth the rest, to whom return'd
> The animal twice - gender'd: "Yea! for so
> The generation of the just are saved."
> And turning to the chariot - pole, to foot
> He drew it of the widow'd branch, and bound
> There, left unto the stock whereon it grew.
> 
> [2: "Gryphon." Our Saviour's submission to the Roman Empire appears
> to be intended, and particularly his injunction to "render unto Caesar the
> things that are Caesar's."]
> 
> As when large floods of radiance from above
> Stream, with that radiance mingled, which ascends
> Next after setting of the scaly sign,
> Our plants then burgeon, and each wears anew
> His wonted colours, ere the sun have yoked
> Beneath another star his flamy steeds;
> Thus putting forth a hue more faint than rose,
> And deeper than the violet, was renew'd
> The plant, erewhile in all its branches bare.
> Unearthly was the hymn, which then arose.
> I understood it not, nor to the end
> Endured the harmony. Had I the skill
> To pencil forth how closed the unpitying eyes
> Slumbering, when Syrinx warbled, (eyes that paid
> So dearly for their watching), then, like painter,
> That with a model paints, I might design
> 
> The manner of my falling into sleep.
> But feign who will the slumber cunningly,
> I pass it by to when I waked; and tell,
> How suddenly a flash of splendour rent
> The curtain of my sleep, and one cries out,
> "Arise; what dost thou?" As the chosen three,
> On Tabor's mount, admitted to behold
> The blossoming of that fair tree,[3] whose fruit
> Is coveted of Angels, and doth make
> Perpetual feast in Heaven; to themselves
> Returning, at the word whence deeper sleeps[4]
> Were broken, they their tribe diminish'd saw;
> Both Moses and Elias gone, and changed
> The stole their Master wore; thus to myself
> Returning, over me beheld I stand
> The piteous one,[5] who, cross the stream, had brought
> My steps. "And where," all doubting, I exclaim'd,
> "Is Beatrice?" - "See her," she replied,
> "Beneath the fresh leaf, seated on its root.
> Behold the associate choir that circles her.
> The others, with a melody more sweet
> And more profound, journeying to higher realms,
> Upon the Gryphon tend." If there her words
> Were closed, I know not; but mine eyes had now
> Ta'en view of her, by whom all other thoughts
> Were barr'd admittance. On the very ground
> Alone she sat, as she had there been left
> A guard upon the wain, which I beheld
> Bound to the twoform beast. The seven nymphs
> Did make themselves a cloister round about her;
> And, in their hands, upheld those lights[6] secure
> From blast septentrion and the gusty south.
> 
> [3: "The blossoming of that fair tree." Our Saviour's
> transfiguration. "As the apple - tree among the trees of the wood, so is my
> beloved among the sons." - Solomon's Song, ii. 3.]
> 
> [4: "Deeper sleeps." The sleep of death, in the instance of the ruler
> of the synagogue's daughter and of Lazarus."]
> 
> [5: "The piteous one." Matilda.]
> 
> [6: "Those lights." The tapers of gold.]
> 
> "A little while thou shalt be forester here;
> And citizen shalt be, forever with me,
> Of that true Rome,[7] wherein Christ dwells a Roman,
> 
> [7: "Of that true Rome." Of Heaven.]
> 
> To profit the misguided world, keep now
> Thine eyes upon the car; and what thou seest,
> Take heed thou write, returning to that place."[8]
> 
> [8: "To that place." To the earth.]
> 
> Thus Beatrice: at whose feet inclined
> Devout, at her behest, my thought and eyes
> I, as she bade, directed. Never fire,
> With so swift motion, forth a stormy cloud
> Leap'd downward from the welkin's farthest bound,
> As I beheld the bird of Jove,[9] descen
> Down through the tree; and, as he rush'd, the rind
> Disparting crush beneath him; buds much more,
> And leaflets. On the car, with all his might
> He struck; whence, staggering, like a ship it reel'd,
> At random driven, to starboard now, o'ercome,
> And now to larboard, by the vaulting waves.
> 
> [9: "The bird of Jove." This, which is imitated from Ezekiel, xvii.
> 3, 4, is typical of the persecutions which the Church sustained from the Roman
> emperors.]
> 
> Next, springing up into the chariot's womb,
> A fox[10] I saw, with hunger seeming pined
> Of all good food. But, for his ugly sins
> The saintly maid rebuking him, away
> Scampering he turn'd, fast as his hide - bound corpse
> Would bear him. Next, from whence before he came,
> I saw the eagle dart into the hull
> O' the car, and leave it with his feathers lined:[11]
> And then a voice, like that which issues forth
> From heart with sorrow rived, did issue forth
> From Heaven, and "O poor bark of mine!" it cried,
> "How badly art thou freighted." Then it seem'd
> That the earth open'd, between either wheel;
> And I beheld a dragon[12] issue thence,
> That through the chariot fix'd his forked train;
> And like a wasp, that draggeth back the sting,
> So drawing forth his baleful train, he dragg'd
> Part of the bottom forth; and went his way,
> Exulting. What remain'd, as lively turf
> 
> [10: "A fox." By the fox probably is represented the treachery of the
> heretics.]
> 
> [11: "With his feathers lined." In allusion to the donations made by
> Constantine to the Church.]
> 
> [12: "A dragon." Probably Mohammed; for what Lombardi offers to the
> contrary is far from satisfactory.]
> 
> With green herb, so did clothe itself with plumes,[13]
> Which haply had, with purpose chaste and kind,
> Been offer'd; and therewith were clothed the wheels,
> Both one and other, and the beam, so quickly,
> A sigh were not breathed sooner. Thus transform'd,
> The holy structure, through its several parts,
> Did put forth heads;[14] three on the beam, and one
> On every side: the first like oxen horn'd;
> But with a single horn upon their front,
> The four. Like monster, sight hath never seen.
> O'er it[15] methought there sat, secure as rock
> On mountain's lofty top, a shameless whore,
> Whose ken roved loosely round her. At her side,
> As 't were that none might bear her off, I saw
> A giant stand; and ever and anon
> They mingled kisses. But, her lustful eyes
> Chancing on me to wander, that fell minion
> Scourged her from head to foot all o'er; then full
> Of jealousy, and fierce with rage, unloosed
> The monster, and dragg'd on,[16] so far across
> The forest, that from me its shades alone
> Shielded the harlot and the new - form'd brute.
> 
> [13: "With plumes." The increase of wealth and temporal dominion,
> which followed the supposed gift of Constantine.]
> 
> [14: "Heads." By the seven heads, it is supposed with sufficient
> probability, are meant the seven capital sins: by the three with two horns,
> pride, anger, and avarice, injurious both to man himself and to his neighbor:
> by the four with one horn, gluttony, gloominess, concupiscence, and envy,
> hurtful, at least in their primary effects, chiefly to him who is guilty of
> them.]
> 
> [15: "O'er it." The harlot is thought to represent the state of the
> Church under Boniface VIII, and the giant to figure Philip IV of France.]
> 
> [16: "Dragg'd on." The removal of the Pope's residence from Rome to
> Avignon is pointed at.]
>
> — *Purgatory Canto 32*