DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36582#0172
THE DORE GALLERY.
55
Nearer he drew, and many a walk travers’d
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm ;
Then, voluble and bold, now hid, now seen,
Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers
Imborder’d on each bank, the hand of Eve.” Lines 424—438.
Contemplating Eve from afar, Satan is so ravished by her beauty and her graceful
innocence that his malice is for awhile overawed, and he is abstracted from his own evil,
disarmed of enmity, guile, hatred, envy, and revenge. During that brief space he remains
“ stupidly good —a fine piece of Platonism, testifying to the essential virtue and holiness
of beauty. But his wonted malevolence soon returns in all its heat and fierceness, and
he renews his gliding way towards Eve :
“ Not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since ; but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that tower’d
Fold above fold, a surging maze ! his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes ;
With burnish’d neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape,
And lovely.” , Lines 496—504.
M. Dore has made a mistake in here representing Eve in the company of Adam
at the end of this leafy avenue. As we have just seen, she was solitary when the serpent
approached. The illustration, however, is a very fine one. Exquisitely embowered with
trees of tropical growth, and enriched by humbler plants which give a beauty and
luxuriance to the ground they mantle and almost conceal, this is a very nook of Paradise,
made fairer still by the goddess-woman who ministers to its grace.
PLATE XLVI1I.
THE PROCESSION OF THE ELDERS.
While wandering about the forest of the Terrestrial Paradise, Dante conies to a stream,
on the other side of which is a lady of great beauty, gathering flowers. After some
discourse between them, the lady moves along the banks of the river in a contrary
direction to the current, while Dante keeps pace with her on his own side. Suddenly,
the air of the forest glows under its green boughs like fire ; trails of splendour, consisting
of all colours that the sun forms in the rainbow, illuminate the heavens ; and
“ Beneath a sky
So beautiful, came four-and-twenty elders,
By two and two, with flower-de-luces crown’d.
All sang one song : ‘ Blessed be thou among
The daughters of Adam ! and thy loveliness
Blessed for ever!’” Purgatono, Canto XXIX., tines 80 85.
55
Nearer he drew, and many a walk travers’d
Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm ;
Then, voluble and bold, now hid, now seen,
Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers
Imborder’d on each bank, the hand of Eve.” Lines 424—438.
Contemplating Eve from afar, Satan is so ravished by her beauty and her graceful
innocence that his malice is for awhile overawed, and he is abstracted from his own evil,
disarmed of enmity, guile, hatred, envy, and revenge. During that brief space he remains
“ stupidly good —a fine piece of Platonism, testifying to the essential virtue and holiness
of beauty. But his wonted malevolence soon returns in all its heat and fierceness, and
he renews his gliding way towards Eve :
“ Not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since ; but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that tower’d
Fold above fold, a surging maze ! his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes ;
With burnish’d neck of verdant gold, erect
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant: pleasing was his shape,
And lovely.” , Lines 496—504.
M. Dore has made a mistake in here representing Eve in the company of Adam
at the end of this leafy avenue. As we have just seen, she was solitary when the serpent
approached. The illustration, however, is a very fine one. Exquisitely embowered with
trees of tropical growth, and enriched by humbler plants which give a beauty and
luxuriance to the ground they mantle and almost conceal, this is a very nook of Paradise,
made fairer still by the goddess-woman who ministers to its grace.
PLATE XLVI1I.
THE PROCESSION OF THE ELDERS.
While wandering about the forest of the Terrestrial Paradise, Dante conies to a stream,
on the other side of which is a lady of great beauty, gathering flowers. After some
discourse between them, the lady moves along the banks of the river in a contrary
direction to the current, while Dante keeps pace with her on his own side. Suddenly,
the air of the forest glows under its green boughs like fire ; trails of splendour, consisting
of all colours that the sun forms in the rainbow, illuminate the heavens ; and
“ Beneath a sky
So beautiful, came four-and-twenty elders,
By two and two, with flower-de-luces crown’d.
All sang one song : ‘ Blessed be thou among
The daughters of Adam ! and thy loveliness
Blessed for ever!’” Purgatono, Canto XXIX., tines 80 85.