(2) As unto those who are too reverential, Speaking in presence of superiors, Who drag no living utterance to their teeth, It me befell, that without perfect sound Began I: "My necessity, Madonna, You know, and that which thereunto is good." And she to me: "Of fear and bashfulness Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself, So that thou speak no more as one who dreams. Know that the vessel which the serpent broke Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty Think that God's vengeance does not fear a sop. Without an heir shall not for ever be The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car, Whence it became a monster, then a prey; For verily I see, and hence narrate it, The stars already near to bring the time, From every hindrance safe, and every bar, Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five, One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman And that same giant who is sinning with her. And peradventure my dark utterance, Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee, Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;

(170) O security! the devil watcheth for thee. O high-mindedness! thou art a hellish fire. O beauty, pomp or bravery! thou art a dark valley. O potency of dominion! thou art a raging and a tearing of the hellish fire. O selfvindication or vengeance! thou art the fierce wrath of God.

(2) For nothing does torment the devil more than when his glory is upbraided to him, by signifying what a glorious king and prince he has been: When this is objected to him, then he is in a rage and madness, as if he would storm and overflow all the world.

(3) There is a serpent on the brow of that hill, five hundred cubits in length, three cubits of his forepart are pierced with swords

(24) Thou shalt not come towards me, thy venom will not penetrate into me. Thy poison is fallen and thrown down, and thy lips are in a hole

(59) But I have a little against thee. I have drawn thee out of the thorny Bath, wherein thou wast a wild Beast, and have figured thee for my Image, and yet thy wild Beast stands in the thorny Bath, which I will not take into my Bosom, thou standest yet in kthy wild Beast; now when the World takes its wild Beast which belongs thereto, then I will take thee, and so every one shall have its own.

(15) And now when the [sour] harsh Matrix is [made so very humble, thin, and sweet, by the Light, the [stern or] strong Horror (which was so very poisonous before the Light [kindled]) In true Resignation. flies upward; for it is terrified at the Meekness of the Matrix; and it is a Terror of great Joy, yet it retains its strong [or stern] Right [or Property,] and cannot be changed; neither can it get far from thence (for it is withheld by the Fiat) but it raises itself suddenly aloft, and the Terror makes it a Film from the [sour or] harsh Fiat which holds the Terror fast, and that is now the Gaily of the Heart.

(14) O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

(1) "Behold the monster with the pointed tail, Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and weapons, Behold him who infecteth all the world." Thus unto me my Guide began to say, And beckoned him that he should come to shore, Near to the confine of the trodden marble; And that uncleanly image of deceit Came up and thrust ashore its head and bust, But on the border did not drag its tail. The face was as the face of a just man, Its semblance outwardly was so benign, And of a serpent all the trunk beside. Two paws it had, hairy unto the armpits; The back, and breast, and both the sides it had Depicted o'er with nooses and with shields. With colours more, groundwork or broidery Never in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks, Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid. As sometimes wherries lie upon the shore, That part are in the water, part on land; And as among the guzzling Germans there, The beaver plants himself to wage his war; So that vile monster lay upon the border, Which is of stone, and shutteth in the sand.

(226) 225 To say: One serpent is encircled by another serpent, 225 when a toothless (?) calf born on pasture-land is encircled. 225 Earth, devour that which has come forth from thee. Monster (beast), lie down, glide away. 226 A servant (holy person) who belongs to the Ennead (pelican) is fallen in water. 226 Serpent, turn over that R` may see thee.

(48) And though thou prayest, yet thou keepest thy dark Garment on still, which is defiled with mere Calumny, with Usury, Covetousness, High-mindedness, Lechery, Whoredom, Wrath, Envy, and Robbery, [thy Mind] is murderous, envious, and malicious; thou criest to God that he shall hear thee, and thou wilt not pull off this furred Coat. Dost thou think that such a Devil shall enter into God, or that God will let such a rough Devil into him? Thy mind stands in the Figure of a Serpent, Wolf, Lion, Dragon, or Toad; and when thou a earnest thyself so sprucely, thou art scarce [thought] a subtle Fox; but as the Will and the Source [or Quality] of thy Heart is, so stands thy Figure also [before God,] and such a Form thy Soul has. And dost thou suppose that thou shalt bring such a pretty Beast into the Kingdom of God?

(5) Upon the side on which the little valley No barrier hath, a serpent was; perchance The same which gave to Eve the bitter food. 'Twixt grass and flowers came on the evil streak, Turning at times its head about, and licking Its back like to a beast that smoothes itself. I did not see, and therefore cannot say How the celestial falcons 'gan to move, But well I saw that they were both in motion. Hearing the air cleft by their verdant wings, The serpent fled, and round the Angels wheeled, Up to their stations flying back alike. The shade that to the Judge had near approached When he had called, throughout that whole assault Had not a moment loosed its gaze on me. "So may the light that leadeth thee on high Find in thine own free-will as much of wax As needful is up to the highest azure," Began it, "if some true intelligence Of Valdimagra or its neighbourhood Thou knowest, tell it me, who once was great there. Currado Malaspina was I called; I'm not the elder, but from him descended; To mine I bore the love which here refineth."

(1) At the conclusion of his words, the thief Lifted his hands aloft with both the figs, Crying: "Take that, God, for at thee I aim them." From that time forth the serpents were my friends; For one entwined itself about his neck As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;" And round his arms another, and rebound him, Clinching itself together so in front, That with them he could not a motion make. Pistoia, ah, Pistoia! why resolve not To burn thyself to ashes and so perish, Since in ill-doing thou thy seed excellest? Through all the sombre circles of this Hell, Spirit I saw not against God so proud, Not he who fell at Thebes down from the walls! He fled away, and spake no further word; And I beheld a Centaur full of rage Come crying out: "Where is, where is the scoffer?" I do not think Maremma has so many Serpents as he had all along his back, As far as where our countenance begins. Upon the shoulders, just behind the nape, With wings wide open was a dragon lying, And he sets fire to all that he encounters.

(164) O noble guest! O, why didst thou depart from us! O fierceness, wrath and astringency or severity, thou art the cause of it! O fierce wrathful devil! O, what hast thou done, who hast sunk down thyself and thy beautiful bright angels into darkness? Woe, woe for ever!

(42) The Egyptian devil, Typhon, was often symbolized by the Set monster whose identity is obscure. It has a queer snoutlike nose and pointed ears, and may have been a conventional hyena. The Set monster lived in the sand storms and wandered about the world promulgating evil. The Egyptians related the howling of the desert winds with the moaning cry of the hyena. Thus when in the depths of the night the hyena sent forth its doleful wail it sounded like the last despairing cry of a lost soul in the clutches of Typhon. Among the duties of this evil creature was that of protecting the Egyptian dead against: grave robbers.

(10) Oh impart to me Terror and rouse in me Might that the gods of the Tuat may fear me and their battlements war on my behalf

(68) For so long as the Image stands in the Anger, it is the Image of the Serpent; but if it goes forth [from the Lust of Sin, or Desire of Evil] into the breaking [or destroying thereof,] then a heavenly Image is figured by the Treader upon the Serpent, and uthe Serpent's Head is broken; the two Kingdoms fight [or wrestle] one with another, and that which overcomes, figures the Image.

(98) Moses writes here as if the Serpent had beguiled Eve, because God cursed it, [and said;] That it should eat Earth, and creep upon its Belly; but Moses here puts the Vail before our Eyes, that he cannot be looked in the Face. For all Prophecies stand in dark Woods, that the Devil may not know [nor apprehend them,] and learn the Times, and that he may not strow his false Seed, before the Wonders of God appear; as may be seen in all the Prophets, who prophesied of the Treader upon the Serpent.

(2) Here is the one who is to devour me. They wait apart. The serpent Seksek passeth over me

(49) And though indeed thou must walk here with thy Body in the dark Night among Thorns and Thistles, (so that the Devil and also this World does rend and tear thee, and not only buffet, despise, deride, and villify thee outwardly, but also many Times stop thy dear Mind, and lead it captive in the Lust of this World into the Bath [or Lake] of S wines,) yet then the noble Virgin will help thee still, and will call upon thee to desist from thy ungodly mWays.