As he looked again, her eyes, less
severe from the veil that enveloped her, were fixed on him as she rebuked
him, and he was sustained only by the compassion in the sweet voices of
the angels, which soothed him until the tears rained down his cheeks.
After her death, when she had arisen from flesh to spirit, Beatrice
complained that her influence was dimmed, and that he had sought such
depths that she had been compelled to go to the gates of hell to implore
Vergil to bring him hither that he might learn his future sufferings if he
did not repent. As he answered her, blaming the things that had led him
aside with joys deceitful, he tried to gaze into her eyes, but stung with
penitential thorns, fell senseless to the ground. Matilda, who stood by,
seized him and plunged him into the river Lethe, that he might forget his
past sin. Dripping, he was given to the four lovely maidens, who led him
before Beatrice that he might look into her eyes, fixed on the Gryphon. A
thousand longings held him fast while, "weary from ten years' thirsting,"
he gazed upon her lovely eyes, now unveiled in their full splendor.
Reproached at last by the seven virtues for his too intent gaze, Dante
watched the car move on to the Tree of Knowledge, to which its pole was
attached by the Gryphon. Dante, lulled to sleep by the hymn, was aroused
by Matilda, who pointed out to him the radiant Beatrice, sitting under a
tree surrounded by the bright forms of her attendants.
Pages:
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388