And I, continuing my discourse, said, “He[1] goeth up perchance for another’s sake more slowly than he would do. But, tell me, if thou knowest, where is Piccarda[2] tell me if I see person of note among this folk that so gazes at me.” “My sister, who, between fair and good, was I know not which the most, triumphs rejoicing in her crown already on high Olympus.” So he said first, and then, “Here it is not forbidden to name each other, since our semblance is so milked away by the diet.[3] This,” and he pointed with his finger, “is Bonagiunta,[4] Bonagiunta of Lucca; and that face beyond him, more sharpened than the others, had the Holy Church in his arms:[5]from Tours he was; and by fasting he purges the eels of Bolsena, and the Vernaccia wine.” Many others he named to me, one by one, and at their naming all appeared content; so that for this I saw not one dark mien. For hunger using their teeth on emptiness, I saw Ubaldin dalla Pila, and Boniface,[6] who shepherded many people with his crook. I saw Messer Marchese, who once had leisure to drink at Forum with less thirst, and even so was such that he felt not sated. But as one does who looks, and then makes account more of one than of another, did I of him of Lucca, who seemed to have most cognizance of me. He was murmuring; and I know not what, save that I heard “Gentucca” there[7] where he felt the chastisement of the justice which so strips them. “O soul,” said I, “who seemest so desirous to speak with me, do so that I may hear thee, and satisfy both thyself and me by thy speech.” “A woman is born, and wears not yet the veil,”[8] he began, “who will make my city pleasant to thee, however men may blame it.[9] Thou shalt go on with this prevision: if from my murmuring thou hast received error, the true things will yet clear it up for thee. But say, if I here see him, who drew forth the new rhymes, beginning, ‘Ladies who have intelligence of Love’?”[10] And I to him, “I am one, who, when Love inspires me, notes, and in that measure which he dictates within, I go revealing.” “O brother, now I see,” said he, “the knot which held back the Notary,[11] and Guittone,[12] and me short of the sweet new style that I hear. I see clearly how your pens go on close following the dictator, which surely befell not with ours. And he who most sets himself to look further sees nothing more between one style and the other.”[13] And, as if contented, he was silent. [1] Statius; more slowly, for the sake of remaining with Virgil. [2] The sister of Forese, whom Dante meets in Paradise (Canto III.). [3] Recognition by the looks being thus impossible. [4] Bonagiunta Urbiciani; he lived and wrote in the last half of the thirteenth century. [5] Martin IV., Pope from 1281 to 1284. [6] Archbishop of Ravenna. [7] Upon his lips. [8] Of a married woman.