and scarcely puts foot before foot, she turned towards me over the red and yellow flowers like a virgin who casts down her modest eyes; and answered my prayers by drawing so near that the sweet sound came to me with its meaning.

CANTO XXIX, Lines 16–21.

And lo! a sudden brightness ran from all sides through the great forest so that it made me suspect lightning. But since lightning ceases as it comes, and this, continuing, brightened more and more, I said in my thought: "What thing is this?"

Lines 97-99.

To describe their forms I waste not more rhymes, reader; for other spending constrains me so that in this I cannot be lavish.

Lines 121-126.

Three ladies at the right wheel came dancing in a circle; one so ruddy that she would hardly have been noticed in the fire;

L'altr'era, come se le carni e l'ossa
Fossero state di smeraldo fatte;
La terza parea neve testè mossa.

CANTO XXX, Lines 28-48.

Cosi dentro una nuvola di fiori,
Che dalle mani angeliche saliva
E ricadeva giù dentro e di fuori,
Sovra candido vel cinta d'oliva

Donna m'apparve, sotto verde manto,
Vestita di color di fiamma viva.
E lo spirito mio, che già cotanto
Tempo era stato ch'alla sua presenza
Non era di stupor tremando, affranto,
Senza degli occhi aver più conoscenza,
Per occulta virtù, che da lei mosse,
D'antico amor sentì la gran potenza.
Tosto che nella vista mi percosse

L'alta virtù, che già m'avea trafitto
Prima ch'io fuor di puerizia fosse,
Volsimi alla sinistra col rispitto

Col quale il fantolin corre alla mamma, Quando ha paura o quando egli è afflitto,

the next was as if her flesh and bones had been made of emerald; and the third seemed like new-fallen snow.

CANTO XXX, Lines 28-48.

Thus within a cloud of flowers, which from the angelic hands was rising and falling down again within and without, crowned with olive over a white veil appeared a lady, robed with the color of living flame beneath a green mantle. And my spirit, that for so long a time had not been o'erwhelmed with trembling wonder in her presence, without more knowledge through the eyes, but by reason of the hidden virtue that moved from her, felt the great power of an old love. Soon as on my sight the lofty power smote, that had already pierced me ere I was out of boyhood, I turned to the left with that reliance with which the child runs to his mother when he is frightened or in trouble,

A lady: Beatrice.

Per dicere a Virgilio: Men che dramma
Di sangue m'è rimasa, che non tremi;
Conosco i segni dell'antica fiamma.

Lines 76-81.

Gli occhi mi cadder giù nel chiaro fonte;
Ma, veggendomi in esso, io trassi all'erba,
Tanta vergogna mi gravò la fronte.
Cosi la madre al figlio par superba,
Com'ella parve a me; perchè d'amaro
Sente il sapor della pietate acerba.

Lines 115-141.

Questi fu tal nella sua vita nuova
Virtualmente, ch'ogni abito destro
Fatto averebbe in lui mirabil prova.
Ma tanto più maligno e più silvestro

Si fa il terren col mal seme e non colto, Quant'egli ha più del buon vigor terrestro. Alcun tempo il sostenni col mio volto;

Mostrando gli occhi giovinetti a lui, Meco il menava in dritta parte volto. Si tosto come in sulla soglia fui,

to say to Virgil: Less than a dram of blood remains to me that does not tremble; I recognize the traces of the ancient flame."

Lines 76-81.

My eyes drooped down to the clear fountain, but seeing myself therein I drew them to the grass, so great shame burdened my brow. As a mother seems to her son proud, so she seemed to me; for stern pity has a bitter flavor.

Lines 115-141.

This man was so endowed in his young life, that every right habit would have shown in him a wonderful example. But the more earthly vigor the soil has the more malign and wild it becomes when ill sown and untilled. Some time did I sustain him with my countenance, showing him my young eyes, and led him with me in the right way. So soon as I was on the threshold