pass whensoever it needeth.” With this speech he was away, and my sleep was broken up. [16] “My son, it is time for us to lay aside our counterfeiting.” [17] “I am as the centre of a circle, to the which all parts of the circumference bear an equal relation: but with thee it is not thus.” This phrase seems to have remained as obscure to commentators as Dante found it at the moment. No one, as far as I know, has even fairly tried to find a meaning for it. To me the following appears a not unlikely one. Love is weeping on Dante’s account, and not on his own. He says, “I am the centre of a circle (_Amor che muove il sole e l’altre stelle_): therefore all lovable objects, whether in heaven or earth, or any part of the circle’s circumference, are equally near to me. Not so thou, who wilt one day lose Beatrice when she goes to heaven.” The phrase would thus contain an intimation of the death of Beatrice, accounting for Dante being next told not to inquire the meaning of the speech,—”Demand no more than may be useful to thee.” Whereupon, remembering me, I knew that I had beheld this vision during the ninth hour of the day; and I resolved that I would make a ditty, before I left my chamber, according to the words my master had spoken. And this is the ditty that I made:— Song, ’tis my will that thou do seek out Love, And go with him where my dear lady is; That so my cause, the which thy harmonies Do plead, his better speech may clearly prove. Thou goest, my Song, in such a courteous kind, That even companionless Thou mayst rely on thyself anywhere. And yet, an thou wouldst get thee a safe mind, First unto Love address Thy steps; whose aid, mayhap, ’twere ill to spare, Seeing that she to whom thou mak’st thy prayer Is, as I think, ill-minded unto me, And that if Love do not companion thee, Thou’lt have perchance small cheer to tell me of. With a sweet accent, when thou com’st to her, Begin thou in these words, First having craved a gracious audience: “He who hath sent me as his messenger, Lady, thus much records, An thou but suffer him, in his defence. Love, who comes with me, by thine influence Can make this man do as it liketh him: Wherefore, if this fault _is_ or doth but _seem_ Do thou conceive: for his heart cannot move.” Say to her also: “Lady, his poor heart Is so confirmed in faith That all its thoughts are but of serving thee: ’Twas early thine, and could not swerve apart.” Then, if she wavereth, Bid her ask Love, who knows if these things be. And in the end, beg of her modestly To pardon so much boldness: saying too:— “If thou declare his death to be thy due, The thing shall come to pass, as doth behove.”