Canto IV
CANTO IV
Like a hungry man between two meals, a frightened lamb between two wolves, or a hunting dog between two deer, Dante stands paralyzed between two doubts, not knowing which to ask about first. But, just as Daniel divined and interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Beatrice discerns that the Pilgrim feels troubled by two things: the apparent injustice in assigning Piccarda and Constance a lower place, since they were forced to break their vows against their wills, and the possibility that the last end of the human soul might be to return to the star from which it came, as Plato seems to have taught (1–24). Deciding to treat the second question first, since, as contrary to faith, it is more insidious, Dante’s Teacher explains that though they have different capacities for beatitude, all the angels and saints dwell eternally in the Empyrean and only appear in the different spheres to accommodate Dante’s sensitive mode of cognition. In the same way, Sacred Scripture and the Church employ metaphors and images to convey an intellectual and spiritual truth. Yet, if one interprets Plato not literally but figuratively to mean that the planets influence human beings without determining their will, then one teaches an important part of the truth, for failure to understand the proper role of the celestial bodies once led people to consider the planets as heathen deities (25–63). The doubt about divine justice, on the other hand, presupposes that very justice; as not necessarily contrary to faith, it is less pernicious. Although Piccarda and Constance were forced from the convent against their wills, they failed out of fear of the consequences to return to conventual life when the force was no longer exerted. They would not have done so, however, had their wills been entire, like those of St. Lawrence and Mucius, for which reason a lower place befits them (64–90). Nevertheless, Piccarda’s statement that Constance “never loosed the veil upon her heart” seems to contradict what Beatrice is saying and forces her to resolve the difficulty by a distinction: Constance willed to be a nun in the abstract, as it were, but in the concrete she freely chose to break her vows rather than face some other evil. Piccarda’s words referred to the former, “absolute” volition, Beatrice’s to the latter, “relative” volition (91–114). Although Dante realizes that his intellectual desire will not be satisfied until he gazes upon God, the Truth Itself, he wishes, perhaps sympathizing with those who broke their vows, to know whether one can satisfy for an unfulfilled vow with some other good. He will find the answer in the next canto (115–142).
1 A free man might, from hunger, starve and die
Between two foods, like tempting and like near,
Before he brought one to his mouth to try;
4 A lamb would likewise stand in equal fear
Between two wolves, both craving savagely;
So would a hound stand still between two deer.
7 If I was silent when urged equally
By my two doubts, then I can neither praise
Nor blame myself—it was necessity.
10 Yes, I was mute, but my desires ablaze
Had tinged my face and shown the questions hid
With warmer hues than vivid speech could raise.
13 Then Beatrice did just as Daniel did[76]
When he appeased Nebuchadnezzar’s ire,
Which was unjustly fierce. “I see how mid
16 The one,” she said, “and other strong desire
You are so drawn that eagerness has girt
Itself and is unable to respire.
19 You reason: ‘If right will endures unhurt,
Can violence, in justice, from without
Make less the measure of my just desert?’
22 And something further gives you cause for doubt:
Souls seem to turn back to the stars, I mean,
According to what Plato taught about.[77]
25 Because these are the questions that are seen
To press upon your will with equal sway,
I’ll thus treat first the one with greater spleen.[78]
28 Select the Seraph most like God you may,[79]
Choose Moses, Samuel, or either John,[80]
Or even Mary, none of them—I say—
31 To any other heaven’s throne has gone
Than have these spirits who of late appear,
Nor are more years or less there undergone.
34 All render beautiful the highest sphere
And have sweet life in different ways as they
Feel more or less eternal breath blow near.
37 They showed themselves within this sphere’s array,
Not by some lot, but as a sign that it
Is Heaven’s lowest rank. This is the way
40 In which one has to speak to human wit
For only by the sense one apprehends
What then for intellection is made fit.
43 Thus to your powers Scripture condescends
When it ascribes the hands and feet of men
To God, since these are not what it intends.
46 And Holy Church plies human aspects when
It figures Gabriel, and Michael too,
And that one who made Tobit whole again.[81]
49 Conclusions on the soul Timaeus drew[82]
Are not the way you see that things here are,
For what he says he seems to think is true.
52 He says the soul returns to its own star,
Believing it was torn from there before,
As form that Nature sent away so far.
55 Perhaps his thought may have intended more
Than what his words imply, thus laying claim
To meanings not to be derided for,
58 If he should mean the honor and the blame
Of influence redound to stars instead,
His bow may truly hit in part its aim.
61 This principle, not understood, misled
The world when once to naming Mercury,
And Jupiter, and Mars, it wrongly sped.
64 The other doubt that troubles you should be[83]
Less poisonous; if there some malice lies,
It could not lead you somewhere else from me.[84]
67 Our justice seems unjust to mortal eyes;
Yet this is evidence of faith’s assent
And not the sin that heresies devise.
70 And now, because your understanding’s bent
Can penetrate quite well truths so abstruse,
I shall, as you desire, make you content.
73 If violence implies one bears abuse
But offers nothing to the force that’s plied,
These souls would not yet be without excuse.
76 The will, if it wills not, has not yet died
But does the same as Nature does with fire,
Though wrenched by force a thousand times aside.[85]
79 For, yielding much or little, will’s desire
Thus follows force, as theirs did of this band—
They could have fled to seek their holy choir.
82 For had the will been able just to stand
Intact, like that which made St. Lawrence bear
The grid and Mucius stern to his hand,[86]
85 It would have urged them on the road from where
They had been dragged as soon as they were freed;
But such a solid will is all too rare.
88 So, if you gather up my words and heed
Just as you should, the argument is burst[87]
That often would have troubled you indeed.
91 But there’s another strait to be traversed[88]
Before your eyes; you cannot cross it by
Yourself alone, for you would weary first.
94 Since to the Primal Truth they’re always nigh,
I’ve surely made within your mind quite clear
That none of these blest souls could ever lie.
97 You heard Piccarda say, though, in what dear
Affection Constance held the veil; that one
Would therefore seem to contradict me here.
100 As often happens, brother, one will run
Against one’s will to flee a threat and do
The kind of thing that never should be done.
103 Urged by his father once, Alcmaeon slew
His mother and, while hoping not to lose
In piety, grew pitiless all through.[89]
106 And at this point, I’m wanting you to muse
On something: force may mingle with the will
To cause offenses nothing can excuse.
109 What’s absolutely willed is not some ill;
But one consents because one fears the plight,
In drawing back, of greater troubles still.
112 Thus, by her words, Piccarda meant to cite
The absolute volition, mine expressed
The relative; but both spoke truth aright.”
115 So came the rippling of that stream most blest
Out of the Fount of every truth, benign;[90]
And thus it set my two desires at rest.[91]
118 “O love of that First Love, O Maid divine,[92]
Whose words flood me with warmth,” I said anew,
“And quicken ever more this life of mine,
121 The depths that my affection feels for you
Could never render grace for grace so high;[93]
May He who sees—and can—respond as due.
124 I see that nothing else can satisfy
Except the Truth that lights the minds of men,
That past whose range no other truth can lie.
127 We rest in It, like beasts inside their den,
When we have reached It—and we can, no doubt;
If not, then each desire is vain again!
130 Hence, at the foot of truth, just like a sprout,
Our doubts spring up; from hill to hill they lure
Us to the peak—it’s Nature’s work throughout.
133 And this invites me, Lady, now secure,
To ask with reverence that you unveil
Another truth that I have found obscure.
136 If man can satisfy for vows that fail
With other goods is what I wish to know,
And thus not fall too short upon your scale.”
139 And Beatrice, whose eyes divinely glow
With sparks of love, beheld me in such wise
That my defeated strength took flight, and so
142 I almost lost myself with downcast eyes.