Term
| “Forget your hope of ever seeing heaven: / I come to lead you to the other shore, / to the eternal dark, to fire and frost.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “But why should I go there? Who sanctions it? / For I am not Aeneas, am not Paul; / nor I nor others think myself so worthy.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “From all that I have heard of him in Heaven, / he is, I fear, already so astray / that I have come to help him much too late.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “I was born, though late, sub Julio, / and lived in Rome under the good Augustus – the season of the false and lying gods.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “One day, to Pass the time away, we read / of Lancelot-how love had overcome him. / We were alone, and we suspected nothing.” |
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Definition
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Term
“[I]f I had not died too soon for this,/… / I should have helped sustain you in your work. / But that malicious, that
ungrateful people / come down, in ancient times, from Fiesole / … for your good deeds, will be your enemy.” |
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Definition
| Inferno, Ser Bianatti, the sodomite who was Dante’s mentor |
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Term
| “O sun, that heals all sight that is perplexed, / when I ask you, your answer so contents / that doubting pleases me as much as knowing.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “I swear to you by the peculiar roots / of this thornbush, I never broke my faith / with him who was so worthy-with my lord.” |
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Definition
| Inferno, Pier della Vigna |
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Term
“Philosophy, for one who understand, / points out, and not just in one place, / how nature follows-as she takes her
course- / the Divine Intellect and Divine Art.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Who were your ancestors? / … / They were ferocious enemies / of mine and of my parents and my party, / so that I had to scatter them twice over.” |
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Definition
| Inferno, Farinata, one of the heretics |
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Term
| “The prince of the new Pharisees … / asked me to give counsel. / … / I said: “Since you cleanse me of the sin / that I must fall into, Father, know: / long promises and very brief fulfillments / will bring a victory to your high throne.” |
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Definition
| Inferno, Guido da Montefeltro, Fraudulent counselor in Canto 24 |
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Term
| “O, Malacoda, do you think I’ve come / … already armed - / as you can see – against your obstacles, / without the will of God and helpful fate?” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Take that, o God; I square them off for you!” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Stay as you are, for you are rightly punished; / and guard with care the money got by evil. / … / And were it not that I am still prevented / by reverence for those exalted keys / that you had held within the happy life, / I’d utter words heavier than these.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Brothers, o you, who having crossed / a hundered thousand dangers, reach the west, / … / consider well the seed that gave you birth: / you were not made to live your lives as brutes, / but to be followers of worth and knowledge.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Because I severed those so joined, I carry- / alas- my brain dissevered from its source, / with is within my trunk. And thus, in me one sees the law of counter-penalty [contrapasso].” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Now blind, I started groping over each [corpse]; / and after they were dead, I called them for / two days; then fasting had more force than grief.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Love, that releases no beloved from loving, / took hold of me so strongly through his beauty / that, as you see, it has not left me yet.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “If they were slow…to learn that art, / that is more torment to me than this bed.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Because I severed those so joined, I carry— / alas, my brain dissevered from its source, / which is within my trunk. And thus, in me / one sees the law of counter-penalty.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Three times it turned her round with all the waters; / and at the fourth, it lifted up the stern / so that our prow plunged deep, as pleased an Other, / until the sea again closed—over us.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “That which I was in life, I am in death.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “When I awoke at daybreak, I could hear / my sons, who were together with me there, / weeping within their sleep, asking for bread.” |
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Definition
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Term
| "...Are you as foolish as the rest?/ Here pity only lives when it is dead:/ for who can be more impious than he/ who links God's judgment to passivity?" |
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Definition
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Term
| "...that Emperor who reigns above,/ since I have been rebellious to His law,/ will not allow me entry to His city./ He governs everywhere, but rules from there." |
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Definition
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Term
| "...to this brief waking-time that is still left/ unto your sense, you must not deny/ experience of that which lies beyond/ the sun, and of the world that is unpeopled./ Consider well the seed that gave you birth:/ you were not made to live your lives as brutes,/ but to be followers of worth and knowledge." |
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Definition
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Term
| "I was a man of arms, then wore the cord,/ believing that, so girt, I made amends;/ and surely what I thought would have been true had not the Highest Priest- may he be damned!-/ made me fall back into my former sins.../ ...and I said: 'Since you cleanse me of the sin/ that I must fall into, Father, know:/ long promises and very brief fulfillments/ will bring a victory to your high throne.' " |
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Definition
| Inferno, Guida da Montefeltro |
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Term
| “What have we here, you laggard spirits? / What negligence, what lingering is this? / Quick, to the mountain to cast off the slough / that will not let you see God show Himself!” |
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Definition
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Term
“Despite the church’s curse, there is no one / so lost that the eternal love cannot / return-as long as hope shows
something green.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “I came-my throat pierced –fleeing on foot / and bloodying the plain; and there it was / that I lost sight and speech; and there as I / had finished uttering the name of Mary, I fell” |
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Definition
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Term
“Now the sword / has joined the shepherd’s crook; the two together / must of necessity result in evil…. L You can
conclude: the Church of Rome confounds / two powers in itself; into the filth / it fouls itself and its new burden.” |
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Definition
| Purgatorio, Marco Lombaro |
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Term
| “I sang of Thebes and then of great Achilles. / … / The sparks that warmed me, the seeds of my ardor, / were from theholy fire-the same that gave / more than a thousand poets light and flame. / I speak of the Aeneid; when I wrote / verse, it was mother to me, it was nurse.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “I turned aside Ulysses, although he / has longed to journey; who grows used to me / seldom departs-I satisfy him so.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “My son, there’s no Creator and no creature / who ever was without love…. / From this you see that-of necessity- / love is the seed in you of every virtue / and of all acts deserving punishment.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Dante, though Virgil’s leaving you, do not / yet weep, do not weep yet; you’ll need your tears / for what another sword must yet inflict.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Ah, don’t reproach me for the dried-out scabs / that stain my skin, nor for the lack / of flesh on me. / … / It is my Nella who, / with her abundant tears, has guided me / to drink the sweet wormwood of torments: she, / with sighs and prayers devout … / has freed me / from circles underneath this circle.” |
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Definition
Forese Donati, Dante’s friend, who explains the punishment of the Gluttonous, condemned to emaciating
hunger and thirst; praises his widow, Nella; and rebukes the shameless women of Florence. |
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Term
| “My sins were ghastly, but the Infinite / Goodness has arms so wide that It accepts / who ever would return, imploring It.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “I lost sight and speech; and there, as I / had finished uttering the name of Mary, / I fell; and there my flesh alone remained.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “From this you see that—of necessity— / love is the seed in you of every virtue / and of all acts deserving punishment.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “You did as he who goes by night and carries / the lamp behind him—he is of no help / to his own self but teaches those who follow.” |
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Definition
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Term
| "...What have we here, you laggard spirits?/ What negligence, what lingering is this?/ Quick, to the mountain to cast off the slough/ that will not let you see God show Himself!" |
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Definition
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Term
| "Await no further word or sign from me:/ your will is free, errect, and whole--to act/ against that will would be to err: therefore/ I crown and miter you over yourself." |
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Definition
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Term
| "You living ones continue to assign/ to heaven every cause, as if it were/ the necessary source of every motion./ If this were so, then your free will would be/ destroyed, and there would be no equity/ in joy for doing good, in grief for evil./ The heavens set your appetites in motion--/not all your appetites, but even if/ that were the case, you would have received both light/ on good and evil, and free will, which though/ it struggle in its first wars with the heavens,/ then conquers all, if it has been well nurtured." |
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Definition
| Purgatorio, Marco Lombardo |
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Term
| “Still young, I fled the world to follow her; / and, in her order’s habit, I enclosed / myself and promised my life to herrule. / Then men more used to malice than to good / took me violently-from my sweet cloister.” |
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Definition
| Paradiso, Piccarda Donati |
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Term
“You are to know the bitter taste / of others’ bread, how salty it is, and know / how hard it is for one who goes /
descending and ascending others’ stairs.” |
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Definition
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Term
“Brother, the power of love appeases our / will so—we only long for what we have; / we do not thirst for greater
blessedness.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Good Christian, speak, / show yourself clearly: what is faith?” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Therefore, within these spheres, upon the mountain, / and in the dismal valley, you were shown / only those souls that unto fame are known.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “When these souls left their bodies, they were not / Gentiles, as you believe, but Christians, one / with firm faith in the Feet that suffered, one / in Feet that were to suffer.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Let not Dame Bertha of Master Martin think / that they have shared God’s Counsel when they see / one rob and see another who donates: / the last may fall, the other may be saved.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “That all your longings may be satisfied, / Beatrice urged me from my place.” |
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Definition
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Term
| "Here force failed my high fantasy; but my/ desire and will were moved already--like/ a wheel revolving uniformly--by/the Love that moves the sun and the other stars." |
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Definition
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Term
| "...My son,/ the cause of my long exile did not lie/ within the act of tasting of the tree,/ but solely in my trespass of the boundary." |
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Definition
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Term
| "...will, if it resists, is never spent,/ but acts as nature acts when fire ascends,/ though force--a thousand times--tries to compel./ So that, when will has yielded much or little,/ it has abetted force--as these souls did:/ they could have fled back to their holy shelter." |
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Definition
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Term
| "... to live in love is--here--necessity,/ if you think on love's nature carefully./ the essence of this blessed consists/ in keeping to the boundaries of God's will,/ through which our wills become one single will.../ ...all this kingdom wills/ that which will please the King whose will is rule./ And in His will there is our peace." |
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Definition
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Term
| "...let all that you have seen be manifest,/ and let them scratch wherever it may itch./ For if, at the first taste, your words molest,/ they will, when they have been digested, end/ as living nourishment. As does the wind,/ so shall your outcry do--the wind that sends/ its roughest blows against the highest peaks;/ that is no little cause for claiming honor." |
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Definition
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Term
| "...Lady,/ you are so high, you can intercede,/ that he who have grace but does not seek/ your aid, may long to fly but has no wings./ Your loving-kindness does not only answer/ the one who asks, but is often ready/ to answer freely long before the asking." |
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Definition
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Term
| “Thou wilt bring me soon / To that new world of light and bliss, amound / The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign / At they right hand voluptuous, as beseems / Thy daughter and they darling, without end.” |
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Definition
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Term
“Go therefore mighty Powers, / Terror of heav’n, though fall’n; intend at home, / While here shall be our home, what best may ease / Thy present misery …. / I abroad / Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek / Deliverence for us
all.” |
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Definition
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Term
“I know thee, stranger, who thou art, / That mighty leading angel, who of late / Made head against heav’n’s King, though overthrown. / … / Go and speed; / Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “As I bent down to look, just opposite, / A shape within the wat’ry gleam appeared / Bending to look on me, I started back, / It started back, but pleased I soon returned.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “O had his powerful destiny ordained / Me some inferior angel, I had stood / Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised / Ambition.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Behold me then, me for him, life for life / I offer, on me let thine anger fall.” |
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Definition
| Paradise Lost, God the Son |
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Term
| “Awake / My fairest, my espoused, my latest found, / Heav’n’s last best gift, my ever new delight, / Awake, the morning shines, and the fresh fields / Calls us…” |
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Definition
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Term
“Not free, what proof could they have giv’n sincere / Of true allegiance, constant fiath or love, / Where only what
they needs must do, appeared, / Not what they would? What praise could they receive? / What pleasure I from such obedience paid …. ?” |
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Definition
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Term
“I feel / The link of nature draw me: flesh of lfesh, / bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state / Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “O sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving plant, ? Mother of science, now I feel thy power / Within me clear, not only to discern / Things in their causes, but to trace the ways / Of highest agents, deemed however wise. / … / Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe, / Why but to keep you low and ignorant…. “ |
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Definition
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Term
| “Solicit now thy thoughts with matters hid, / Leave them to God above, him serve and fear; / … / be lowly wise: / think only what concerns thee and thy being.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “What call’st thou solitude? Is not the earth / With various living creatures, and the air / Replenished, and all fhese at thy command / To come and play before thee? Know’st thou not / Their language and their ways? / … With these / Find pastime, and bear rule; thy realm is large.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “[H]ear what to my mind first thoughts present. / Let us divide our labors, thou where choice / Leads thee, or where most needs, … / while I / In yonder spring of roses intermixed / With myrtle, find what to redress till noon.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “[We] now posses, / As lords, a spacious world, to our native heaven / Little inferior, / by my adventure hard / With great peril achieved.” |
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Definition
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Term
“O why did God / … / create at last / This novelty on earth, this far defect / Of nature, and not fill the world at once / With men as angels without feminine, / Or find some other way to generate Mankind?” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Easy it may be seen that I intend / Mercy colleague with justice, sending thee / Man’s friend, his mediator, his designed/ Both random and redeemer voluntary …” |
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Definition
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Term
| “[B]oth have sinned, but thou / Against God only, I against God and thee, / And to the place of judgment will return, / there with my cries importune Heaven, that all / The sentence form they head removed may light / On me…” |
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Definition
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Term
| “O son, why sit we here each other viewing / Idly, while Satan our great author thrives / In other worlds, and happier seat provides / For us his offspring dear?” |
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Definition
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Term
| “I go to judge / On earth these transgressors; but thou know’st / Whoever judged, the worst on me must light, / When time shall be, for so I undertook / Before thee.” |
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Definition
| Paradise Lost, God the Son |
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Term
| “And to the place of judgment will return, / there with my cries importune Heaven, that all / the sentence from thy head removed may light / on me, sole cause to thee of all this woe, / me me only just object of his ire.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Heav’n is for thee too high / to know what passes there; be lowly wise: / think only what concerns thee and thy being.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “To reign is worth ambition though in hell: / better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “I made him just and right, / sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.” |
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Definition
| Paradise Lost, God the Father |
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Term
| “So God shall uncreate, / be frustrate, do, undo, and labor lose, / not well conceived of God.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “Queen of this universe, do not believe / those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die: / how should ye? By the fruit? It gives you life / to knowledge. By the threat’ner? Look on me.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “My sentence is for open war: of wiles / more unexpert, I boast not.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “His puissance, trusting in th’ Almight’s aid, / I mean to try, whose reason I have tried / unsound and false; nor is it ought but just, / that he who in debate of truth hath won, / should win in arms.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “And what is faith, love, virtue unassayed / alone, without exterior help sustained? / Let us not then suspect our happy state / left so imperfect by the Maker wise, / as not secure to single or combined. / Frail is our happiness, if this be so, / and Eden were no Eden thus exposed.” |
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Definition
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Term
“I also erred in overmuch admiring / what seemed in thee so perfect, that I thought / No evil durst attempt thee, but I rue / That error now, which is become my crime. / And thou th’accuser. Thus it shall befall / Him who to worth in
women overtrusting / Lets her will rule; restraint she will not brook. / And left to herself, if evil thence ensue, / She his weak indulgence will accuse.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “O glorious trial of exceeding love, / Illustrious evidence example high! / Engaging me to emulate, but short / Of thy perfection, how shall I attain, / Adam, from whose dear side I boast me sprung…” |
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Definition
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Term
“Well hast thou motioned, well thy thoughts employed / How we might best fulfill the work which here God hath
assigned us, not of me shalt pass / Unpraiesd: for nothing lovelier can be found / in woman, than to study household
good. / And good works in her husband to promote.” |
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Definition
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Term
“… the more I see / Pleasures about me, so much more I feel / Torment within me, as from the hateful siege / Of
contraries; all good to me becomes / Bane, and in heav’n much worse would be my state. / But neither here seek I, no nor in heav’n / To dwell….” |
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Definition
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Term
| “No more of talk where God or angel guest / With man, as with his friend, familiar used / To sit ingulgent, and with him partake / Rural repast, permitting him while / Venial discourse unblamed: I now must change / These notes to Tragic; foul distrust, and breach / Disloyal on the part of man, revolt / And disobedience: on the part of heav’n / Now alienated, distance and distaste, / Anger and just rebuke, and judgment giv’n…” |
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Definition
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Term
“See, Father, what first-fruits on earth are sprung / From thy implanted grace in man, these sighs and prayers, which in this golden censer, mixed / with incense, I thy priest before thee bring” |
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Definition
| Paradise Lost, God the Son |
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Term
“O unexpected stroke, worse than of Death! / Must I thus leave thee Paradise? Thus leave / Thee native soil, these
happy walks and shades, / Fit haunt of gods? Where I had hope to spend, Quiet though sad, the respite of that day / That must be mortal to us both.” |
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Definition
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Term
“O prophet of glad tidings, finisher / Of upmost hope! Now clear I understand / What oft my steadiest thoughts have
searched in vain, / Why our greatest expectation should be called / The Seed of Woman: Virgin Mother, hail, / High in the love of Heav’n, yet from my loins / Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son / Of God Most High; so God with man unites.” |
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Definition
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Term
| “… Lest therefore his now bolder hand / reach also of the Tree of Life, and eat, / And live forever, dream at least to live / Forever, to remove him I decree, / And send him from the garden forth to till / The ground whence he was taken, fitter soul.” |
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Definition
| Paradise Lost, God the Father |
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Term
| “This having learnt, thou hast attained the sum / Of Wisdom; hope no higher, though all the Stars / Thou knew’st by name, … only add / Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add Faith, / Add Virtue, Patience, Temperance, add Love, / By name to come called Charity, the soul / Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loth / To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess / A paradise within thee, happier far” |
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Definition
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