"O leaf of mine, in whom I pleasure took

E'en while awaiting, I was thine own root!"
Such a beginning he in answer made me.
Then said to me: "That one from whom is named
Thy race, and who a hundred years and more
Has circled round the mount on the first cornice,
A son of mine and thy great-grandsire was;
Well it behoves thee that the long fatigue

90

95

Thou shouldst for him make shorter with thy works. Florence, within the ancient boundary

From which she taketh still her tierce and nones,
Abode in quiet, temperate and chaste.
No golden chain she had, nor coronal,

did.

Nor ladies shod with sandal shoon, nor girdle
That caught the eye more than the person
Not yet the daughter at her birth struck fear
Into the father, for the time and dower
Did not o'errun this side or that the measure.
No houses had she void of families,

Not yet had thither come Sardanapalus
To show what in a chamber can be done;
Not yet surpassed had Montemalo been
By your Uccellatojo, which surpassed
Shall in its downfall be as in its rise.
Bellincion Berti saw I go begirt

100

105

110

With leather and with bone, and from the mirror
His dame depart without a painted face;

115

And him of Nerli saw, and him of Vecchio,
Contented with their simple suits of buff,
And with the spindle and the flax their dames.
O fortunate women! and each one was certain
Of her own burial-place, and none as yet
For sake of France was in her bed deserted.
One o'er the cradle kept her studious watch,
And in her lullaby the language used

That first delights the fathers and the mothers;

120

Another, drawing tresses from her distaff,

Told o'er among her family the tales

125

Of Trojans and of Fesole and Rome.

As great a marvel then would have been held
A Lapo Salterello, a Cianghella,

As Cincinnatus or Cornelia now.

To such a quiet, such a beautiful

130

Life of the citizen, to such a safe
Community, and to so sweet an inn,

Did Mary give me, with loud cries invoked,
And in your ancient Baptistery at once
Christian and Cacciaguida I became.
Moronto was my brother, and Eliseo;

From Val di Pado came to me my wife,

And from that place thy surname was derived.

I followed afterward the Emperor Conrad,
And he begirt me of his chivalry,

So much I pleased him with my noble deeds.

I followed in his train against that law's
Iniquity, whose people doth usurp

Your just possession, through your Pastor's fault.
There by that execrable race was I

Released from bonds of the fallacious world,
The love of which defileth many souls,

And came from martyrdom unto this peace."

CANTO XVI.

O THOU Our poor nobility of blood,

If thou dost make the people glory in thee Down here where our affection languishes, A marvellous thing it ne'er will be to me; For there where appetite is not perverted, say in Heaven, of thee I made a boast!

5

Truly thou art a cloak that quickly shortens,
So that unless we piece thee day by day
Time goeth round, about thee with his shears!
With You, which Rome was first to tolerate,
(Wherein her family less perseveres,)
Yet once again my words beginning made;
Whence Beatrice, who stood somewhat apart,
Smiling, appeared like unto her who coughed
At the first failing writ of Guenever.
And I began: "You are my ancestor,

You give to me all hardihood to speak,
You lift me so that I am more than I.
So many rivulets with gladness fill

My mind, that of itself it makes a joy
Because it can endure this and not burst.
Then tell me, my beloved root ancestral,

Who were your ancestors, and what the years
That in your boyhood chronicled themselves?
Tell me about the sheepfold of Saint John,
How large it was, and who the people were
Within it worthy of the highest seats."
As at the blowing of the winds a coal

Quickens to flame, so I beheld that light
Become resplendent at my blandishments.

And as unto mine eyes it grew more fair,
With voice more sweet and tender, but not in
This modern dialect, it said to me:

"From uttering of the Ave, till the birth
In which my mother, who is now a saint,

35

Of me was lightened who had been her burden,

Unto its Lion had this fire returned

Five hundred fifty times and thirty more,
To reinflame itself beneath his

paw.

My ancestors and I our birthplace had

Where first is found the last ward of the city
By him who runneth in your annual game.

40

Suffice it of my elders to hear this;

But who they were, and whence they thither came,

Silence is more considerate than speech.

All those who at that time were there between
Mars and the Baptist, fit for bearing arms,
Were a fifth part of those who now are living;
But the community, that now is mixed

With Campi and Certaldo and Figghine,
Pure in the lowest artisan was seen.

45

50

O how much better 'twere to have as neighbors
The folk of whom I speak, and at Galluzzo
And at Trespiano have your boundary,

Than have them in the town, and bear the stench
Of Aguglione's churl, and him of Signa

55

Who has sharp eyes for trickery already.

Had not the folk, which most of all the world
Degenerates, been a step-dame unto Cæsar,
But as a mother to her son benignant,

60

Some who turn Florentines, and trade and discount,
Would have gone back again to Simifonte

There where their grandsires went about as beggars.

At Montemurlo still would be the Counts,
The Cerchi in the parish of Acone,

65

Perhaps in Valdigrieve the Buondelmonti.
Ever the intermingling of the people
Has been the source of malady in cities,
As in the body food it surfeits on;

And a blind bull more headlong plunges down
Than a blind lamb; and very often cuts
Better and more a single sword than five.

If Luni thou regard, and Urbisaglia,

How they have passed away, and how are passing
Chiusi and Sinigaglia after them,

To hear how races waste themselves away,
Will seem to thee no novel thing nor hard,
Seeing that even cities have an end.

All things of yours have their mortality,

Even as yourselves; but it is hidden in some
That a long while endure, and lives are short;
And as the turning of the lunar heaven

Covers and bares the shores without a pause,
In the like manner fortune does with Florence.
Therefore should not appear a marvellous thing
What I shall say of the great Florentines
Of whom the fame is hidden in the Past.

I saw the Ughi, saw the Catellini,

Filippi, Greci, Ormanni, and Alberichi,
Even in their fall illustrious citizens;
And saw, as mighty as they ancient were,
With him of La Sannella him of Arca,
And Soldanier, Ardinghi, and Bostichi.
Near to the gate that is at present laden
With a new felony of so much weight
That soon it shall be jetsam from the bark,
The Ravignani were, from whom descended

The County Guido, and whoe'er the name
Of the great Bellincione since hath taken.
He of La Pressa knew the art of ruling

Already, and already Galigajo

Had hilt and pommel gilded in his house.
Mighty already was the Column Vair,

Sacchetti, Giuochi, Fifant, and Barucci,
And Galli, and they who for the bushel blush.
The stock from which were the Calfucci born
Was great already, and already chosen
To curule chairs the Sizii and Arrigucci.

O how beheld I those who are undone

By their own pride! and how the Balls of Gold
Florence enflowered in all their mighty deeds!

So likewise did the ancestors of those

Who evermore, when vacant is your church,
Fatten by staying in consistory.