[134] These curious lines are as follows:
“O nova picturae miracula, transit ad esse
Quod nihil esse potest! picturaque simia veri,
Arte nova ludens, in res umbracula rerum
Vertit, et in verum mendacia singula mutat.”
Anticlaudianus, i. cap. iv.
(Migne 196, col. 491.)
[135] The allusion here is to the fate of Hippolytus, whose chariot-horses, maddened by the wiles of Venus, dashed the chariot to pieces and caused their lord’s death.
[136] i. cap. vi. Her garb and attributes are elaborately told. In the latter part of the poem she is usually called Phronesis.
[137] A favourite commonplace; Heloïse uses it.
[138] The functions of these virgins, the Seven Liberal Arts, are poetically told. The Anticlaudianus is no text-book. But the poet apparently is following the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella, ante, Chapter IV.
[139] Compare the succession of Heavens in Dante’s Paradiso.
[140] One may recall Raphael’s painting of Theology on the ceiling of the Stanza del Segnatura in the Vatican. It is impossible not to compare the rôles of Alan’s Reason and Theology with those of Virgil and Beatrice in the Commedia.
[141] Here we are back in the Celestial Hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite.
[142] As in Dante’s Paradiso.