DANTE'S LINES ON ST. DOMINIC.

[To TRH EDITOR OF THE " SPROTATOR."] Stn,—As I am anxious, if possible, to get a satisfactory render- ing of the lines Mr. Symonds refers to in your number for last week, perhaps you will allow me to say why I am not satisfied with his version. My chief motive for attempting to paraphrase the lines myself was the wish to get rid of the very word- "' Cherubic "—which Mr. Symonds has introduced. Every -translator hitherto has used either it or the corresponding Cherubim." Lorigfellow's rendering is this:— "The one was all seraphical in ardour ; The other, by his wisdom upon earth, A splendour was of lightoherubical."

'Wright's translation is :— " Effulgence like the Seraphim one showed ; The other—such his wisdom upon earth— Like to the Cherubim in lustre glowed."

.Cary's rendering is :— " One seraphical all

In fervency ; for wisdom upon earth, The other, splendour of cherubic light."

Knowing that the Dean of Wells had been for some time engaged on a translation of Dante, I asked him for his transla- tion, and he sent me these two :—

• " One a seraphic ardour did attain ; The other by his wisdom, did the part Or,— Of light cherubic on the earth sustain."

"The soul of one with love seraphic glowed ; The other, by his wisdom on our earth, A splendour of cherubic glory showed."

Now, I quite admit that the medimval idea of the Cherubim —all head and wings, and no body—was a most beautiful con- ception, and that the contrast with the seraphim, consumed by the fire of love, was a very striking one. But the question is, for whom do you translate ? Not surely for medimval or Italian scholars ? For them no translation of Dante is needed. I am afraid it is necessary to face the fact that the nineteenth-century idea of the cherubim is one incurably vulgarised by such things as "the Lady Caroline Gwyn's " epitaph, and even more by the French story about Noah (or, as another version has it, St. Cecilia) and the Cherub. 'Under such circumstances, looking upon "facts " as my father looked upon them, as things against which one ought not to kick, I think that it may be better to preserve Dante's intention by making the contrast he designed between Cherub and Seraph without introducing the names ; and as Mr. Gladstone had evidently felt this also, my object was simply to fish for a translation which should give the force of Mr. Gladstone's spiritual splendour," whilst showing the run of the lines.

I think Mr. Symonds has not looked up the passage in

Dante; for he has repeated a slip I made, and corrected too late for your version. The lines are, in fact, the ones which give the

keynote to the whole of the Eleventh and Twelfth cantos of the "Paradiso." Aquinas, in Paradise, is telling Dante the story

of St. Francis, and incidentally touches upon that of St. Dominic, which in the Twelfth canto is fully told by Bona- 'ventura.

2. It seems to me altogether alien to Dante's mind to render " per sapienza, "—as Longfellow, Wright, and the Dean of Wells do—by " his wisdom." In this very canto, Dante makes St. Francis marry Poverty, and speaks of St. Francis and Poverty as lovers ; but in Bartoliniano's text, " povertb," (Canto XI., line 74) is spelt with a small p, just as " sapienza " in these lines is spelt with a small s. So that there is nothing nn- Dantesque in the personification of Wisdom ; and the notion of a heavenly guide is the most familiar in all Dante. I think that " Spirit Splendour " comes nearer to the personal inten- tion of Cherub and Seraph than " spiritual " does ; but I should have been very glad to use Mr. Gladstone's word if I had seen my way to make with it the contrast between the fiery spirit of the Seraph and the illuminating spirit of the Cherub.

I fancy, further, that it is manifest, taking the whole of the two cantos into consideration, that Dante intended the words

" in terra " to be emphatic, and intended to contrast the spirit of St. Francis as one almost like that of Cardinal Newman,— anxious to free itself from earth, and be before the Throne of " Heaven, with that of St. Dominic showing his zeal in refusing all worldly position and offices while yet he lived in the world and battled for truth among men (see Canto XII., 73-103). I think this, and not St. Dominic merely as the smasher of heretics that Mr. Symonds (and no doubt with historical accu- racy), represents him to have been was in Mr. Gladstone's mind when he made the quotation. At all events, this represents the real analogy to my father, and the " Smasher of Heretics " does not represent it at all.

From these motives I think the three lines- " Van fu tutto seraflco in ardore,

L'altro per sapienza in terra fue Di cherubica lace uno splendors "-

may for English readers have their force best given somewhat in

this way :—

"The one—before the Throne a spirit fire— The other—Wisdom guiding from his birth—

Shone with a spirit's splendour o'er the Earth."

" O'er the Earth,"—not " here on Earth ;"—because the words are used by Aquinas, in Paradise : but I shall be very glad if any one can give me a better rendering.

I don't think that, when the transfer is made from St. Dominic to my father, there is any harm in translating the merely material conditions of the Paradise of Dante into those of that palace-garden of the "Kingdom of Christ," which, I suppose, the penitent thief was promised,—the only one my

father desired.—I am, Sir, &c., F. Manaus.