University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD THE DIVINA COMEDIA The Divine Comedy is not a comedy in the sense in which we now under- stan d the word. This was a term the ancients used to classify productions whereof the denouement was a happy one, and in which the style was neither the studiously elegant nor the common, but couched rather in a middle tone. Hence the fitness of this unique title; for its final scene was one of happiness, and its story was told in the poet ' s native tongue, the Tuscan, which was considered neither as refined nor as ele- gant as the Latin. It was not, how- ever, called Divine by Dante, but was so styled subsequently by transcribers owing to the sacredness of the theme and the seeming inspiration of the author. The poem presents an unequalled unity of construction. It consists of a hundred cantos each containing from 130 to 140 verses, the Vi bole scheme divided into three sections of thirty- three cantos each. The first canto is a kind of an introduction to the three sec- tions devoted respectively to Hell, Pur- gatory and Paradise. The measure of the poem is the ierza rima, consisting of a triple recurrence of the same rhyme alternated by another series of three. The verses, thus interlinked, are com- posed of eleven syllables, divided into five iambics, the last being an overheat; so that all through the lines have an undertone of vibrant sonorousness. All immortal poetry is the chant of the mystery that everywhere surrounds us, an investigation of the primal ques- tions — What are we? Whither do we tend? Are we sailing into the sunset, to vanish, when night has come, in the sea of oblivion, or is the bark of life straining towards the dawn? This is the question that comes to us all, that is solved only in the light of faith, that presents an enigma to the haughty, re- sulting in atheism. Dante, proud and strong-willed, his heart scalded by the injustice of his countrymen, gazed into the west with its sinking sun; but the light afterwards rose again for him unto another day. Drawn to Rome by the jubilee insti- tuted by Boniface VIII, he was thrilled by the intensity of the faith that brought the whole of Christendom on a pilgrim- age to the Vatican, and thus impressed with the sincerity of the faithful, in the splendor and pomp exhibited he saw something of the splendors of heaven. Chastened as he had been by pain and sorrow, he was now inspired to take up his visionary pilgrimage into the life that lies beyond the visible, with its three kingdoms of punishment, puri- fication and happiness. Having in vision entered the path of death, Dante begins his descent into the infernal regions. These according to him are situated directly beneath Jeru- salem, consisting of gradually narrow- ing circles terminating in the centre of the globe. On the antipodes of this the

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Entered Dec. S, i )n , at Santa Clara, Calif, as second-class matter, under Act of Congress of March , •879. VOL. VI. SANTA CLARA, CAL., OCTOBER, 1906. No. i. AMBITION W ci from ihe enchanied kingdom held in fee Cf anay, clu iered round with fairies bright, i: cro22 the shadowland of Jlevery (Faint echoing nnusia fills me wiblb deli£hi. J liear it Joy the lone, surf-heaien shore, Jn many a dreamy vale and cIoud-£irt hill, ( mid the city ' s tumult and the roar f)f crowded marts J feel its mystic thrill. c h, who may read the nneanin£p Jet to me hose darkling steps it oft hath nerved to rise hove the baleful depths of Jxethar£y Jt seems an an el-son from paradise. Sophomore

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THE REDWOOD mountain of Purgatory rises in terraced plains to a Terrestrial Paradise on the summit, whence the entrance to Heaven. The poet is first beset by three wild beasts, and retreats in terror, when he is intercepted by the spirit of Virgil, who promises to guide him through the regions of woe. Thus reassured he fol- lows the Roman to the portal of Hell, over which stands the inscription, Through me is the road to the dolor- ous city, Through me is the road to everlasting sorrows, Through me is the road to the lost peo- ple, Justice was the motive of my exalted ruler! They enter the sightless gulf, con- taining the souls of neither the good or bad. Collecting the multitude on the banks of a stream into his boat, the fiery-eyed Charon ' Beats with his oar whoever lags be- hind: As in the autumn time the leaves fall off, First one and then another, till the branch Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils; In similar wise the evil seed of Adam Throw themselves from that margin one by one. ' The limbo of the unbaptised opens, impenetrable through sooty clouds and mist, and noticing even Virgil pale, Dante asks, Master, if thou art afraid what is to become of me! Pity, not fear, replies his guide, causes me to blanch. Thence they come to a sec- ond gulf narrower than the first, at the entrance of which Minos sits as judge. Here driven before an unceasing wind appear the multitudes brought thither by unrestrained passion, and Francesca di Rimini with her silent companion at her side, tells that touching tale of love and woe, w hich Dante concludes, While thus one spoke, the other spirit mourned, With wail so woeful that at his remorse I felt as though I should have died. I turned Stone-still; and to the ground fell like a corpse. Virgil conducts him by Plutus, guar- dian of the avaricious and sullen; Phlegyas, ferryman over the stagnant water of Arragonce; the city of Dis with its iron towers and battlements, glowing dull-red through the gloom; the ceme- tery of the heretics, laid with red hot tombs to be sealed on the day of Judg- ment; Alexander, Attila and other wield- ers of the sword in a river of blood; the sombre forest of the suicides — each tree, black-boughed, leafless, charred, enclos- ing a self-murderer; the desert of burn- ing sand on which ' Were raining down dilated flakes of fire As of snow on Alps without a wind. ' In a hole of ice Count Ugolino, be- trayer of the Pisans, is discovered de- vouring Ruggieri. He tells the horri- ble tale of his imprisonment along with his children in the Tower of Famine where one by one they famished through lack of food.