Page:Dante (Oliphant).djvu/41

Rh him by without that sign of gracious amity. "Rushing away from the crowd, I sought a lonely spot wherein to bathe the earth with most bitter tears." Then after that first indulgence he retired to his own chamber, where his grief could flow forth unheard; and there, with his usual mingling of sacred and classical devotion, called alternately upon the Lady of Mercy, and upon Love, whose faithful servant he was. Here in his misery he fell asleep, "sobbing like a beaten child," and had a wonderful vision, in which Love appeared to him, sad and pensive, and uttering enigmatical speeches which Dante himself could not comprehend, but which seem to have some far-off reference to the death of Beatrice, that woe which was soon to darken earth and heaven. The practical result of the vision was, that Dante resolved, by the advice of Love, to throw aside all screens and pretences, and avow his true passion. Only through the direct mediation of Love himself, however, was the avowal to be made; and his heart, thus still restrained within the bonds of enigmatical utterance, poured itself forth in a song, which the lover commands "to seek out Love, and go with him where my dear lady is"—no meaner ambassador than the very god himself being worthy to treat with that supreme lady. The tumult and conflict in the poet's mind, however, now begins to rise into the following controversy:—

"After this vision which I have recorded," he says, "and having written the words that Love dictated to me, I began to be harassed by many and divers thoughts, by each of which I was sorely tempted; and in especial there were four among them that left me no rest. The first was this—'Certainly the lordship of Love is good, seeing that it diverts the mind from all mean things.' The second was