Io son Beatrice che ti faccio andare;
Vegno di loco ove tornar disio:
Amor mi mosse che mi fa parlare.
Inferno, c. 2.
"I who now bid thee on this errand forth
Am Beatrice; from a place I come
Revisited with joy; love brought me thence,
Who prompts my speech."
Carey's Trans.
And she is indicated, as it were, several times in the course of the poem, in a manner which prepares us for the sublimity with which she is at length introduced, in all the majesty of a superior nature, all the dreamy splendour of an ideal presence, and all the melancholy charm of a beloved and lamented reality. When Dante has left the confines of Purgatory, a wondrous chariot approaches from afar, surrounded by a flight of angelic beings, and veiled in a cloud of flowers ("un nuvola di fiori," is the beautiful expression.)—A female form is at length apparent in the midst of this angelic pomp, seated in the car, and "robed in hues of living flame:" she is veiled: he cannot discern her features, but there moves a hidden virtue from her,
At whose touch
The power of ancient love was strong within him.
He recognises the influence which even in his childish days had smote him—
Che già m'avea trafitto
Prima ch' io fuor della puerizia fosse;
and his failing heart and quivering frame confess the thrilling presence of his Beatrice—
Conosco i segni dell'antica fiamma!