THE WISH.--TO GUIDO CAVALCANTI. Guido! I would that Lapo, thou, and I, Led by some strong enchantment, might ascend A magic ship, whose charmed sails should fly With winds at will, where'er our thoughts might wend: And that no change, nor any evil chance Should mar our joyous voyage; but it might be That even satiety should still enhance Between our hearts their strict community, And that the bounteous wizard there would place Vanna and Bice, and thy gentle love, Companions of our wanderings, and would grace With passionate talk, wherever we might rove Our time!--and each were as content and free As I believe that thou and I should be! [42] Sonnetto 13 (Poesie della Vita Nuova.) [43] Vita Nuova, p. 268. CHAPTER IX. DANTE AND BEATRICE CONTINUED. Through the two first parts of the Divina Commedia, (Hell and Purgatory,) Beatrice is merely announced to the reader--she does not appear in person; for what should the sinless and sanctified spirit of Beatrice do in those abodes of eternal anguish and expiatory torment? Her appearance, however, in due time and place, is prepared and shadowed forth in many beautiful allusions: for instance, it is she, who descending from the empyreal height, sends Virgil to be the deliverer of Dante in the mysterious forest, and his guide through the abysses of torment. Io son Beatrice che ti faccio andare; Vegno di loco ove tornar disio: Amor mi mosse che mi fa parlare. INFERNO, c. 2. "I who now bid thee on this errand forth Am Beatrice; from a place I come Revisited with joy; love brought me thence, Who prompts my speech." CAREY'S TRANS. And she is _indicated_, as it were, several times in the course of the poem, in a manner which prepares us for the sublimity with which she is at length introduced, in all the majesty of a superior nature, all the dreamy splendour of an ideal presence, and all the melancholy charm of a beloved and lamented reality. When Dante has left the confines of Purgatory, a wondrous chariot approaches from afar, surrounded by a flight of angelic beings, and veiled in a cloud of flowers ("un nuvola di fiori," is the beautiful expression.)--A female form is at length apparent in the midst of this angelic pomp, seated in the car, and "robed in hues of living flame:" she is veiled: he cannot discern her features, but there moves a hidden virtue from her, At whose touch The power of ancient love was strong within him. He recognises the influence which even in his childish days had smote him-- Che già m'avea trafitto Prima ch' io fuor della puerizia fosse; and his failing heart and quivering frame confess the thrilling presence of his Beatrice-- Conosco i segni dell'antica fiamma! The whole passage is as beautifully wrought as it is feelingly and truly conceived.