and the
merchants
were kings of the earth !
Krasinski - The Undivine Comedy
He claps his
hands, gives a signal, — his hissing is like that of a ser-
pent ! Soldiers! . . . soldiers! . , . everywhere sol-
diers ! . . .
"Ask me nothing, — I have borne the name of that
man ; . . . I have sworn to be faithful to him even to the
grave ! I will not give him up to you, as he has given
his brothers up to the enemy ! . . .
156 THE "FRAGMENT. "
"Hear now my third name upon the earth: Dishon-
ored !
"Men, know ye wherefore? Because despair tore my
heart — and there came a day when I was loved, — and in
that day I beh'eved in Beauty, Goodness, Wisdom, even
upon earth ? Because, when dying, I raised my head and
cried : How blessed it is to spring from the grave into the
skies ! — Because I dared to love ! "
Again was she silent, again motionless and white as
alabaster.
And when the Seer for the third time adjured her, she
murmured, in a low voice: "Then follow me! " Taking
the lamp from below the crucifix, she left the place where
the People of women lay prostrate behind her, and fol-
lowed a tortuous path far through the subterranean space.
The walls of the narrow dungeons contracted and length-
ened before the thin hand as it approached them, bearing
the lamp with its doubtful and uncertain light.
Everywhere around her were walls reeking with hu-
midity ; everywhere a low and stifling vault ! No sound
of footsteps was there ever heard ; no breath ever played
with the doubtful flame of the lamp ! The Young Man
continued to advance, although he felt ever more languid,
more weary and oppressed. It seemed to him that the
very air necessary for breath failed on all sides ; that an
invisible weight crushed him to the earth ; that the blood
congealed in his veins, and it seemed to him that he cried
to himself: " I will go no farther ! "
The lady in the funereal robes then turned round, and,
lifting the glimmering lamp above his forehead, said:
"Although thou art a man, and a strong and courageous
one, thou canst not endure to breathe for a single hotir
here, where all my weary years forever flow and reflow !
Go ! Go, in peace ! "
But the Seer sadly asked : " Tell me, where then is he
who loved thee? "
Suddenly casting down her eyes, she answered : "There !
where his destiny as man precipitated him ! He tore me
from my solitude of heart : and left me in the utter soli-
tude of spirit ! I loved him, — he has left me ! "
Then showing a distant stone which whitened in the
THE DREAM.
157
midst of the darkness, she said : *' Wrapped in its wings
my soul is buried there ! This which you see is only a
body which has not yet been able to die ! "
And, overpowered by grief, she fell upon her knees and
cried : " Thou who knowest, tell us if it will be thus for-
ever? "
And for the first time her tears began to flow.
And the Seer, placing his hand upon her brow, said :
*' Until now you have been as the Heavenly Lilies, which
bloom knowing naught of their colors and perfumes.
The day is coming when each of you will change into a
Thinking Rose. The chords of inspiration will escape
from the hands of the men, and will pass into yours !
Kneeling at your feet, they will then implore from you a
hymn of consolation, a prophecy of hope, a vision of
beauty, — for their destiny will then have led them into
prosaic and unendurable cares, into hard and harsh
labors ! But absorbed in the contemplation of God, you
will not cast a glance upon them, you will not hear their
sighs. Then will their hearts break, as yours have done
for ages P '
"Tell me yet more! " said the lady in black, appeal-
ing to Dante with beseeching look.
He proceeded : "This will continue until the hour of
a new transformation sounds for you. Then you will again
stretch forth your hands to them ; through love you will
save the dying hearts ; and you will become as their sisters,
— forever their equals upon earth and in Heaven ! "
But the lady in black weeping with ever-increasing
emotion, he added : " Recall thy soul, and be not afraid,
for if it were possible for anything to perish, it would be
seen that in the judgments of the Lord the star of the
glory of men would sooner be forever extinguished than
the tears of one unfortunate woman be suifered to flow in
vain ! "
And when, kneeling, she appeared more tranquil, Dante
left her, and, bearing off" the Young Man with him, walked
directly to the grave, and as they passed the tomb which
whitened in the darkness, he said : " Verily, she will die
in these shadows and will rest here; — for the time 70///
come; — but it is not yet come ! "
14*
158 THE "FRAGMENT. "
And, having blessed the grave, as if borne upward by
his own power he rose through the air into higher regions.
Through the opening between the precipices, but very,
very high above him, the Young Man saw the granite
vault covering the world ! And as he rose from the depths,
it widened in its livid light. He could already dis-
tinguish the clangor of a thousand jarring bells, the in-
cessant pattering of quirk steps, the sound of myriads of
footfalls, and the groanings of pavements echoing be-
neath the tread of throngiiig men. And when the ap-
parition stopped on the edge of the opening, and with a
sign of his hand swept the Young Man on like a whirlwind,
he saw all the Nations of the Earth making their way
toward the Yellow Sun; and under this sun stood a gi-
gantic black platform, upon which many thrones glittered
in the distance.
Like vapors rising into air, like rushing streams, like
hunted herds, the throngs crowd, hurry, jostle one
another; all, all rushing in the same direction! The
sound of countless invisible bells buzzes thr. ough space ;
old and young men, women and children, brush and
bustle on, pass and repass, scramble hurriedly onward !
Vainly do the old implore the young to retard their
steps, to stop a single moment and to take them with
them. The youngrefiiseto turn, they will not even listen, —
they run on ! Pale, weary maidens forced to stop, weep
and beg their brothers, supplicate their lovers, to wait a
moment for them ; — they will not even spare the time to
recognize them, — they run and run ! Mothers with ba-
bies at their breasts join in the race; suddenly a child on
one side or the other is knocked down ; it shrieks aloud,
stretches out its little hands, and lies upon the pavement.
From all sides the crowd presses and jostles on; the mothers
turn not back nor stoop to rescue ; — they too run and run.
The Young Man stopped above one of these little
bodies crushed under the trampling feet, and asked :
" Master, is it the hour of the Last Judgment? "
The Api)arition, veiling his fare, replied : "It is only
the hour of the Judgment of the Merchants: it is the hour
of the Exchange and the Marts ! "
At these words, the Apparition transported the Young
THE DREAM. i^p
Man from side to side across the space of this world to
the opposite point, where were the Yellow Sun and the
gigantic black platform ; and it seemed to the Young
Man that, as if borne upon wings, he remained suspended
at the height of the platform, and lower than the sun : —
and the figure of the Master wrapped itself in bitter scorn
— and disappeared ! "
This sun seemed to be of gold with artificial rays, and
the platform was of black marble, with stairways which
led to many brilliant thrones. Upon those thrones sat
the Bankers and Merchants chosen among the wandering
tribes of the Orient ; they were clad in flowing robes,
wore long gray beards, and purple fillets round their brows;
— and under their feet lay enormous sacks full of sono-
rous metal.
And sometimes broken cries proceeded from the sacks,
as it were complaints, prayers, demands, and reproaches.
The Young Man perceived that these cries came from the
souls of the merchants wailing, hidden and chained, in
the bags of gold. And the more the unhappy souls com-
plained, the more the rage of the merchants increased,
and, trampling and crushing the sacks underfoot, they
thus silenced the moans of their own souls !
And when the Wretched souls were silenced, with care-
less and rough voices they commenced their consultation,
designating from time to time with their hands one or other
of the innumerable throngs of Peoples which approached
them on every side. A dense mass of black vapor rose,
overspreading space, above these hustling Peoples ; it was
deeply furrowed with tawny lights ; and the Young Man
understood it was the form of all those human souls united
and overhanging their bodies, above which they lowered
like mists of blood, like melting scorice, like immense
furnaces dying into darkness.
Like ice-floes broken by tossing waves, like the rushing
of wind-driven tempests, the Nations advanced under the
lurid reflections of their souls, as if under a Hell float-
ing above them ! Sometimes were heard the cries of
those who fell, or the dull groans of those who were
crushed and stifled underfoot by the crowd. One of the
merchants rose, gave a signal, and on one side of the
l6o THE "FRAGMENT:'
platform enormous slabs of stone were immediately raised,
subterranean caverns opened, and long files of soldiers
issued therefrom, who, mute and statue-like, with primed
arms and bayonets glittering on the points of their guns,
marched and placed themselves in line, three deep, on
either side of the stairway of marble.
And the roaring of the crowd, the uproar, the groans,
the complaints, the appeals, redoubled. Each nation,
each tribe, each throng tried to thrust itself foremost in
the race ; endeavored to force for itself the first passage.
Masses formed of thousands of hands, heads, breasts, were
overturned, prostrated, or driven forward. Sometimes the
reflection of the bloody light shone luridly upon them;
sometimes the air was gray, livid, heavy. Like a deluge
of waves and clouds, like water-spouts driven by the wind,
they at last reached the foot of the platform. The click-
ing of the firelocks of the muskets was heard as the
soldiers adjusted them for instant use. A dead silence for
a moment ensued, and a merchant rose and cried : " The
marts are open ; the sales commence ! " The clangor of
bells everywhere ringing again jarred upon the ear, mul-
tiplying until the sound was lost in distant space.
Then the merchant closely questioned the men on the
occurrences of the days last passed, and as the voices of
the Princes and Sages set over the various divisions of
men replied from below, announcing the combats, the
massacres, the discoveries, and inventions, his associates,
standing behind him, deliberated, and concerted their
plans: — and again a dead silence ensued. The murmur-
ing of the voices of the merchants alone was to be heard
in the world of granite. The red lights in the atmosphere
grew pale ; the souls of the men were blanched with ex-
pectation !
Several minutes thus elapsed. The merchant then an-
nounced how much certain interests had increased in
value ; how much certain others had decreased upon the
earth ; and from these heady throngs, who almost held
their breaths to hear, a perfect avalanche of applause, of
curses, of cries, threats, and sobs hurtled through the
air ! Among the masses some cried : " We must die of
hunger ! " while others bellowed: *• Hurrah ! hurrah for
THE DREAM. l6i
the merchants ! Long live the all-powerful merchants ! "
Some leaped wild with joy, clapping their hands and
shouting: "We have won! We have won! " And
others groaned out: " O merchants ! O our gods ! have
mercy upon us ! " Then they began again to quarrel, to
fight, to beat, to choke, to kill one another : — and among
the bodies, some rolled upon the earth, and others tram-
pled over them, crushing them without pity !
The Young Man saw thousands of corpses trampled
underfoot in front of the platform ; and i)assing in un-
broken order over the dead bodies, he saw the living
begin to ascend the steps of marble. With the sceptre
in their hands, and the sword at their sides, the Princes,
surrounded by the Grand Dignitaries of the Nations,
marched at their heads. A glittering arch formed by the
bayonets of the soldiers rose above them, and protected
them as they advanced ; and when they had arrived mid-
way up the giant staircase, the merchants descended to
meet them, and, clasping them by the hand, conducted
them higher.
All the Workers of this world began to ascend behind
them : the manufacturers and the artisans, the lenders
and shopkeepers, some carrying various kinds of mer-
chandise, some immense bags, others undulating rolls of
paper closely covered with writing. As they reached the
midway of the giant stairs, they were all ordered to stop,
while a voice of thunder from above demanded their
names. Turn by turn they replied in the denomination
of the trade, the merchandise, the manufacture they sev-
erally represented, or by some adopted number ; for none
among them possessed or were any longer known by any
proper human 7iame in this world !
Behold ! after this black surge of people, and following
in their wake, appeared a strange group of melancholy
men bowed towards the ground. They held antique
swords in their hands, and wore battered and rusty
armor upon their shoulders. At this moment the Young
Man heard the words : "Look! those are the last de-
scendants of the old nobility ! " And glancing rapidly
around him, he saw the Apparition again at his side.
This train also mounted the giant stairs until it reached
1 62 THE '' FRAGMENT. "
midway, and then each man took his station upon a great
block of marble, and seemed suddenly to become enraged
against the arms he had hitherto borne; striking, break-
ing, pounding, and crushing them with axe and hammer.
The Apparition said : " Look at them ! They are trying
to extract the gold of Damascus, the turquoises of Persia,
from the bucklers of their ancestors ! They are tearing
the diamonds, tarnished by the lapse of centuries, from
those heaps of arms and sabres, in order to carry them to
the merchants ; they will sell to them the last remains of
ancient glory! " While the Shade of Dante thus com-
plained, they threw down the fragments of their armor ;
helmets, cuirasses, breastplates, and daggers rang as they
fell upon the pavement, and glittered as they broke into
sparkling fragments.
Then the sons of the valiant of old arose and ascended
higher, stretching out their hands, full of gold and spark-
ling gems, toward the merchants ; and thus being allowed
to advance, they supplicated in humble tones that they
might be permitted to enter among the merchants and
princes. A sign was mSde to them from above that their
request was granted. They proffered many thanks, and,
speaking now in louder tones, they began to haggle,
cavil, and bargain about the price of their merchandise,
their precious jewels. The features of Dante writhed
with pain ; the blood burst from his torn lips, and he
groaned out: "No. The Hell of the ancients never
caused me so much agony ! "
Placing his transparent hand upon the head of the
Young Man, he said : "Remember! " . . . But at that
very moment he again disappeared. Melting into the
transparent air, he was seen no longer.
A funereal groan, rising into a cry of fury, now rang
through this world, howling up from the depths of the
abyss : floating above the nations, it broke at last, with
fearful violence, against the Platform ! The Princes and
the Great of Earth grew suddenly pale ; but the coun-
tenances of the merchants did not change ; a strange
smile only writhed their lips as they fondly caressed their
gray beards.
Look ! look ! Giant forms break their way through
THE DREAM. 1 63
the very centre of the black masses ; they come, they
come ! They grow in numbers as they draw nearer !
And as they approached him the Young Man recognized
the Twelve who had been consecrated, and the Thir-
teenth, their chief, who held in his right hand the dag-
ger, and in his left the cup of blood.
And as he advanced, his face seemed to float above the
sea of human heads, power streamed from it, and genius
flashed around it. Leading his Giants to the first step,
he ordered them to take their seats, and there await his
return. And quite alone and asking permission from
none, and motioning away with his hands the bayonets
of the soldiers, he ascended, — gigantic, irresistible, and
irrepressible, shaking his thick hair as if it were the mane
of a lion !
One of the merchants descended to meet him, and in-
troduced him upon the platform even into the very midst
of the circle of consultation. But at this moment it
seemed to the Young Man that the eyes of the Giant lost
their fire, and the lion-like power of his brow grew mild.
Standing boldly, however, in the midst of the merchants,
he cried, in a voice resonant as thunder : " I am here for
the last time, to summon you in the name of the
Oppressed and Wretched ! For the last time we cry :
* Share with us, or die ! Division or Death ! ' "
The twelve martyrs left at the foot of the platform
greeted this cry with enthusiastic acclaim ; thousands and
thousands among the multitude repeated it, and the abyss
sent it back in echoes of thunder.
The giant leaned forward, and threw his double-bladed
sword upon the ground ; then stooping still lower, he
bent and bent until his forehead had quite disappeared
from the gaze of the nations. Thus contracted, he seated
himself upon one of the thrones of the merchants, and
said, in a low voice : ''Answer without delay! How
much will you give me for this cup of blood ? "
When the merchants had told him the price they had
fixed upon it, he said : " It is not enough for the blood I
offer you to-day ! Have you the slightest idea of what is
going on in the abyss? Have you ever had sufficient
courage to descend therein ? Severed as we may have
i64 ^-^^ *' fragment:'
been, we are all thoroughly united now ; they await my
return, ploughing their breasts with their nails in rage;
desperate and resolute; tearing their hair and howling
with fury ! Should they be again deceived to-day after
so many juggles, I cannot answer for them. They may
break into open revolt. Pleasant flattery, skillful phrases,
honeyed promises, will no longer appease them ; maddened
in their lair, their wild arms are already raised to strike
a fatal blow ! And you pause in this deadly hour to
chaffer and traffic with me ? Merchants and masters of
the world, is not your luxurious and fortunate position
worth a handful of gold to him who risks his life to aid
you to rescue it? "
The merchants answered : " Every day you repeat this
same story in our ears ! However, on condition that you
will urge no further claims, we will pay more for the
blood you have now brought us. "
And after much consultation, they offered him a larger
sum. But he again refused. "It is not enough for the
blood I have brought to-day! " And lifting up the cup,
he pretended to be in haste to leave the throne.
One of the merchants then unloosed from the band he
wore upon his head an enormous diamond, and said :
"This is a nail from the cross of Golgotha, which was
thus transformed during the night in which your God
expired ! It was torn from the wood at early dawn
the next morning by one of my own ancestors. Since
that time it has always been preserved in my family.
Will this diamond repay you for the • blood of your
brothers? "
The Giant cast a glance upon it ; then lowering the
cup, he poured out all the blood it contained at the feet
of the merchants, and said : "The nail is mine ! " The
Jew threw the diamond into the empty chalice, which
rang in melancholy cadence as it fell !
The chief of the Sacrifice then rose, and wended his
way back to the nations of the world. He broke forth
in threats and curses as he descended to his brothers, who
cried to liim: " Wlien ? Where? "
He replied to them in angry tones : " Follow me im-
mediately ! Our hour is not yet ; but it will surely
THE DREAM.
165
come! " And inducing them to follow him, he broke
away through the multitudes to the entrance of the abyss.
The merchants who had bargained with him then an-
nounced to the nations that perfect peace and absolute
security reigned upon earth ; that every one would now
be allowed to ascend and descend, to trade, buy, and sell.
Upon the thrones above sat all the merchants and all the
princes ; at their feet lay the company of nobles upon the
marble; they supported their heads upon' the sonorous
sacks in which the souls of the merchants moaned, and
clasped in the hollows of their hands the precious gems
they had torn from their swords and armor, — and thus
they lay extended, immovable, disarmed, their brows con-
tracted and great tears in their eyes.
And the common men incessantly rushed up and down
the great stairs in two contrary currents; a constant up-
roar prevailed among the people, disputing, haggling, and
agreeing about prices : and the howling multitude below
also bargained, traded, bought and sold.
Poor wretches down there were also crying that they
had lost all chance of making their daily bread: but no
one heeded their complaints. Countless groups were
there, burning with fever or shivering with cold : but no
one deigned to look at them. Crushed and mutilated
bodies were here and there lying about, still moving their
white lii)s and muttering : " Help ! Help! " but no hand
was stretched out to aid them !
While these things were passing upon the earth, the
reflection of all those souls which had at first inundated
space with a bloody light now became of a livid, ghastly
hue. As if hearts were breaking, one after the other, all
those fires, rays, lights, fell and died out. Then the smoke,
hanging round and wreathing itself about the cornices of
granite, overhung the walls of the edifice like a black cu-
pola, obscuring the Yellow Sun, and filling the immense
structure with darkness from base to pinnacle. In the
heart of this gloom, the Bankers of the Orient alone still
sat upon their thrones. And the world was all one black
Exchange !
and the merchants were kings of the earth !
All these pictures and images, mingling and fusing,
began to surge, grow dim, and disaj^pear before the eyes
15
1 66 THE '' fragment:'
of the Young Man. In the midst of this fog, always
thicker and more dismal, the figure of Dante, sad but
tranquil, again became visible; and the Young Man caught
the tones: "Depart from this Hell of the base! " And
at these words a vivifying cold, like a breath of fresh night
air, swept over his temples.
The Apparition took him by the hand, and moved
before him over white and silent clouds, permeated by
the faint perfume of an invisible verdure ! From time to
time also the sapphire of the sky was seen to break, and
little stars glittered in the distance. Lo ! on a sudden a
deep groan floated on behind the clouds, filled them, and
then died away ; but scarcely had it expired before a
second rose, — then a third, — then a fourth, — lo ! a multi-
tudinous wail of protracted pain ! And the clouds of
silver opened before it like flocks of frightened swans.
And it seemed to the Young Man that he and the Seer
stopped upon one of the clouds, and that from it, as from
a high balcony, they looked down upon a vast plain and
round a circle of pure azure illuminated by a full moon.
It seemed to him that before him in the plain he saw, as
it were, a forest of tall, slim trees ; they resembled pines,
but were cut in a most singular manner, for on each tall
trunk but two branches had been left ; and every tree rose
upon its own mound. Meanwhile, the groans became more
and more frequent, — each of them thrilled the air like a
clap of thunder, and resounded and re-echoed through
space, like the death-cries of thousands of men suffering
together !
The Shade asked : " Seest thou the Purgatory of our
present days? "
The Young Man answered: "I see nothing save this
forest and the sky. "
The Seer slowly raised his hands and said : "For the
second time thou wilt receive the gift of vision, for with
the same sight with which thou seest into the vile thou
canst not perceive the generous. But first listen atten-
tively to what I have to say to thee :
"There is no death ! Its frightful semblance alone
is f The Lord formed it nowhere, nor ever : for He lives
everywhere and forever ! No one dies eternally save
THE DREAM.
167
through an titter and voluntary degradation, and for him
who thus ends there is no longer existence nor tomb.
He is degraded to utter nothingness ; he is absorbed in
his own debasement. Perhaps in the circling thousands
of centuries something may yet reawaken within him. . . .
But no ! Such a one will never be purified nor have part
in the resurrection ! But whosoever is to live again must
be transformed, and every transformation bears tempo-
rarily the appearance of death. Such is the probation of
the grave. Full of mockery, of tears, of grief, of illusion !
Individuals and races, the Humanity and the worlds, must
alike submit to it, — every immortal must traverse it. He
who has not been able to bear it has perished forever!
Be lion-hearted, Henry, for such probations are about to
open before thee ! "
And placing his fingers upon his eyelids, he breathed
upon them.
It seemed to the Young Man that from every pine-
tree in this great forest the form of a man crucified
started forth ! He then perceived a multitude of bodies,
palpitating and bloody, thus suspended in the air, — and
at every moment their numbers augmented. Rank suc-
ceeded to rank in the wan light of the moon ; they wid-
ened, they lengthened, they extended here, there, ever
farther, even to the most distant limits of the horizon.
All space is living, breathing, palpitating, shivering with
them ! And the Young Man knew it was an entire na-
tion extended in the Passion of Christ upon its own soil,
— and his eyes swam in tears !
And the Shade said : " Look ! in spite of thy horror,
turn not away ! To conquer suffering we must master the
science of grief! Look into this limitless forest, how, by
a premeditated and powerful effort, every tree, stripped of
its branches, has been made into a cross I See how each
cross rises from a mound of heaped ruins ; and those ruins
are the skeletons of churches, of homes once full of happy
life !
"And everywhere between each mound there are equal
intervals, — but nowhere are there bushes, flowers, nor
turf ! As blocks of stone are transmuted into a city, so
have these forests been transformed into a vast cemetery
1 68 THE '' FRAGMENT. "
of torture ! None but a perfect Torturer could thus meas-
ure out grief, thus arrange the machinery of death ! "
When tlie Young Man looked again, it seemed to him
that he saw upon the mounds streamers and ribbons of fog
silvered by the moon, and although there was no wind to
stir them, he observed that sometimes they rose and some-
times they fell, as if they too suffered and could find no
rest. And he recognized that they were bands of women
and children, dressed in white and standing under the
crosses. He saw their light hands raised towards the tops
of the trees, like white wings, which would, but could not,
soar high enough to reach them, and which, in despair of
power, fell back to earth. Then began a hymn of mingled
shuddering and prayer, which died away in sobs and
tears !
And the warm blood trickled from above upon those
snowy groups, poured upon them, and flowed, ever re-
newed, among the mounds, and could be heard from afar
like threatening and swollen torrents. It seemed to the
Young Man that the Apparition again addressed him :
"Turn not thine eyes from those multitudes, who are
melting away in rivers of blood ! The Crucified are about
to feel the shivering and convulsion of Death and Trans-
ition ! They cannot die, but they will be given over to
the agony of death, — and you must contemplate and
meditate upon it. I command it : look! "
At this moment the cry of myriads of victims broke
upon the ear like claps of thunder, — the trees, even to
the utmost limit of the plain, cracked and creaked, — and
voices which break the heart shook the air like a hurri-
cane. Tossed by the same whirlwind of grief, all the
bodies shuddered and writhed upon their crosses, — and
as the summer rain after a sharj) clap of thunder pours
more heavily, so everywhere spouted and fell thicker
streams of blood ! Then this wild tem])est of human
torture began to abate; the plain gradually sank into
silence; the crosses fell back into immobility and order;
again all was mute as death, — nothing save the incessant
dropping of blood was now to be heard.
A sudden laugh rose upon and rent the air ! The
Young Man cast his eyes immediately below him, and in
THE DREAM.
169
front of the first row of crosses, in the open plain, lie saw
a far higher and far larger mound ; it was black, and com-
posed entirely of ruins and cinders, — like the wrecks of
a city after a great conflagration. The remains of can-
non and broken swords and arms still pierced through the
surface of that vast heap of coals and ashes, — and a livid
smoke oozed everywhere from it, wrapping its clouds
round a Giant, who was seen standing upon the ruins !
A ray of the moon at that moment fell upon him and
glittered on the points of his crown of steel, so that his
soldier's cloak, bound by an iron chain, could be clearly
seen ; but instead of a sword, a many-thonged whip of
leather, which fell to the very feet of this monarch, hung
from its heavy links. Whenever the groans of the cruci-
fied were heard, he stretched his head forward to listen ;
and when the broken sobs of the women rose high upon
the air, he responded by clapping his hands ! The Shade
of Dante said : " Behold, the perfect Butcher ! Listen !
he will tempt them in their agony ! "
Then it seemed to the Young Man that the crowned
Giant leaned over his mound, and stretching forth one
hand toward the martyred multitude, while with the other
he grasped his belt of chains and his whip of thongs as
if they were a sword, he cried : " Forget the Past : Re-
nounce the Future ! Deny your country and your God !
It is I ! I will be your Past — your Future — your Country
— your God ! Worship me ! and as I have ordained that
you should be nailed upon these crosses, I will ordain
that you shall be taken down ! I will call my slaves, and
they shall deliver you, and I will make you a happy
People ! I will give you plenty to eat, plenty to drink,
and you shall have all things in abundance ! Your ema-
ciated and mutilated bodies will regain their early vigor ;
they will grow fat and whole ! "
But the crucified multitude made no reply ; they uttered
not a single plaint ! Only the blood which inundated the
soil swelled into a mighty torrent, and like the waves of
the sea beat against the mound, and through all the roar
of the hurrying shock the Young Man caught the word :
No ! The snowy clouds of women made no reply, but
when the flood rolled back, they knelt, and raised their
15*
lyo THE "FRAGMENTS
infants in their arms: and the little voices of the children
lifted in the air cried : No ! And scarcely had the mur-
mur of the thousands of little voices risen upon the wind,
when a marvelous luminosity inundated space — and the
Young Man lifted his eyes!
And lo! above, but very, very high, at the utmost
summit of the wan dome of azure, it seemed as if two
milky-ways were descending from the celestial vault, and
they formed an immense, vast, and luminous cross, and
a Form was seen extended upon this cross, which ap-
proached ever nearer and nearer. The Arms were out-
spread above the world, and with every moment their arc
enlarged and increased its span. And upon the Brow
which pierced into the Heavens was a Crown of Thorns,
which, like heat-lightning, flashed in silence, and in the
hollows of the Hands and Feet the Young Man saw three
shining wounds, like three red moons, and from them for-
ever flowed, as it were, rainbows of blood, and each rain-
bow as it fell broke into swarms of stars, which scattered
through and illumined Space.
And thus in glory and in blood, crucified, but contin-
ually creating, the Figure floated down, ever lower, lower,
casting sunshine into the uttermost abysses, until the
milky-ways upon which it was borne grew into two im-
measurable rings of silver, encircling the horizon from the
East to the West, from the North to the South ; while
from the blood that flowed millions of stars sprang into
being, and they shrouded the Form in light, like a veil
woven of stars. The Eyes alone still pierced through,
like two living fonts of lightning, not dispersing over the
universe, but falling straight from Heaven to earth, until
they lighted in their fullness upon the Forest of the Cru-
cified !
And all the pale and bloody bodies, and all the sinking
heads and corpse-like faces, with their dying eyes, were
fully pictured in this Divine Gaze ! It seemed to the
Young Man that he saw the whole Crucified Nation float-
ing there in a sea of celestial light ! and he cried : " Too
late ! too late ! "
The vShade of Dante, kneeling upon a cloud, then said :
"Verily! verily! This is the Purgatory of the present
THE DREAM.
171
days, for each body here must endure its passion ; but
over the soul of this Nation watches the Mysterious, the
Beloved r
But as the Young Man struck his breast, wept, and re-
fused to be comforted, the Master continued : " Weep not
for these, but for those below who inhabit the world of
granite, for there is dissolution, damnation, and hell !
Here there is only grief ! Have I not told thee the spirit
resuscitates from grief? hut from infamy there is no resur-
rection /' '
The curtain of clouds fell low as he spake : and the
plain, the forest, the heavens, and the gaze of flame of
the Divine Form, — all disappeared !
The air now grew lighter, fresher, clearer. The crown
which glittered upon the brow of the Seer vanished. And
it seemed to the Young Man that he again saw the interior
of a chapel, the fields, the mountains, and the rising sun.
Stretching out his hands, he cried: '^Master! master!
Show me Heaven — it is the third — upon the earth ! "
The Shade of Dante condensed again into a form, and
appeared entire in the midst of the dawning light. But
his voice had other tones; as if already from afar, and
returning to the glory whence he had come, the Young
Man heard : "Until the present hour there have been in
your world only Hell and Purgatory. But the Spirit of the
Lord has chosen His dwelling in your bosoms ! You are
like abysses ; and in your depths also hides the blue of
Heaven ! Let Faith bathe it in its light, let your holy will
force it to external manifestation, let it surround you on
all sides, let it fill your horizon ! It is the miracle of love !
Then will Heaven begin to dawn upon the earth. But
watch with care, for no other path will lead you there:
neither blind chance, nor fatal destiny, nor the caprices
of license, nor the delusions of pride. Woe ! woe to the
centuries, should infernal violence attack the mercy of
God ! For God, your Creator, has respected you to such
a degree as to leave you free to attack even Himself; to
conquer Him through your own evil: — but conquered.
He, who is the very Being of every being, will abandon
you, and in exchange for eternal life there will only re-
main in you an eternal void, an eternal want, an eternal
172
THE '^ fragment:'
nothingness ! Watch closely, then, over the destinies of
your planet ! "
And vanishing in the glory of the light of dawn —
leaving in the air a last trace of silver — through circles
ever larger and more luminous, — like a whirlpool of agi-
tated waters — like the breath of dying winds — like a pass-
ing dream, — the figure of Dante mounted in space, — far
into the light of the sun, — then it sped on into the invisi-
ble Infinite !
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY.
" To the accumulated errors of their ancestors they added aults un-
known to them, — Hesitation and Fear: therefore it came to pass that
they vanished from the face of the earth, and a deep silence fell upon
them. "
L'Anonyme.
" To be, or not to be, that is the question. "
Hamlet.
(WRITTEN IN 1834-1835. )
Translation coUated from the version in German by R. Bafornicki, Leip-
sic, 1841 ; from the z'ersion in French in the Rcvtie dcs Deux Afondes,
Oct. I, 1846 ; and from that published by Ladislas Mickiewicz, in Paris,
1869: " CEuvres Completes dit Po'ete Anonyme. "
In this drama, or rather dramatic vision, our Author de-
sires to point out to his countrymen the two rocks which
he dreads for them : the first, is that alluring enthusiasm
which is born of the imagination rather than of the heart,
which seduces by its antique and brilliant forms, but is
powerless to understand, and consequently to create, any-
thing in the Present ; the second, is that excess of ma-
terial force which destroys without rebuilding, which
pulls down without reconstructing, because, like the base-
less idealism, it also lacks the vivifying inspiration of the
heart. These two excesses are represented in the persons
of Count Henry and Pancras. The one, led astray by
the phantoms of love and glory, sacrifices the happiness
of his family, the interests of his country, to a double chi-
173
174
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY.
mera ; the other, after having conquered the world by the
power of his intellect, and having multiplied ruins and
piled corpses around him, is overwhelmed by the convic-
tion of his own impotence, totters and expires in the face
of a superior power, which he, as well as the Count, had
not acknowledged. Is it necessary to name that power?
It is Christianity, which, subjecting both the imagination
and the intellect -to the heart, places its ideal in the union
of these three Divine forces. Thus not without design does
our Poet represent the Count and Pancras in mortal com-
bat, — the dreamer, whose imagination is fascinated by a
false ideal, and the thinker, whose intellect has proclaimed
to him the blind rule of force. The logical tendencies
of the two natures inevitably urge them to serve two in-
imical principles ; to arm, one in the name of the dreams
of the Past, and the other in the cause of the supposed
realities of the Present. Both are doomed to perish, and,
in their fatal duel, our Poet evinces no preference for
either champion.
Each part of "The Undivine Comedy" is preceded by
a prologue, in which the general thought is foreshadowed.
In the following invocation, our Author addresses himself
to such poets and poetry as sacrifice the heart and its
duties to a baseless imagination. We are about to see the
peace of domestic life ruined by this false enthusiasm, and
our Author indicates in this lyrical invective the principal
traits in the character of Count Henry, who represents
the fatal victory of iniag^iiiation over duty. — Revue des
Deux Mondes, ler dctobre,"T846.
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY. *
INVOCATION.
Stars circle round thy head, and at thy feet
Surges the sea, upon whose hurrying waves
A Rainbow glides before thee, cleaving the clouds !
Whate'er thou look'st upon is thine ! Coasts, ships,
Men, mountains, cities, all belong to thee !
Master of Heaven as earth, it seems as naught
Could equal thee in glory !
To ears which heed thy lays, thou givest joys,
Raptures ineffable ! Thou weavest hearts
Together, then untwin'st them like a wreath.
As wild caprice may guide thy flame-lit fingers !
Thou forcest tears, then driest them with a smile ;
Then scar'st away the smile from paling lips.
Perhaps but for a moment, a few hours,
Perhaps for evermore !
But thou ! — What dost thou fee/, and what create?
A living stream of beauty flows through thee.
But Beauty thou art not ! woe ! woe to thee !
The weeping child upon its mother's breast,
The field flower knowing not its perfumed gift,
More merit have before the Lord than thou !
Whence com'st thou, fleeting shadow? to the Light
Still bearing witness, though thou know'st it not,
* The appropriateness of this name must excuse its coinage. It has
been thought best not to attempt to alter the occasional irregularities in
the rhythm of this metrical translation, lest a weakening of its vigor
might be the result. — Eu.
'75
176
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY.
Hast never seen it, nor wilt ever see !
In anger, or in mockery wert thou made?
So full of self deceit, that thou canst play
The angel to the moment when thou fall'st,
And crawlest like a reptile upon earth.
Stifled in mud, or feeding upon dust !
Thou and the woman have like origin ! *
Alas ! thou sufferest, too, although thy pangs
Bring naught to birth, nothing create, nor serve 1
The groans of the unfortunate are weighed ;
The lowest beggar's sighs counted in Heaven,
Gathered and sung upon celestial harps, —
But thy despair and sighs fall to the earth,
Where Satan gathers them ; — adds them with joy
To his own lies, illusions, mockeries !
The Lord will yet disown them, as they have
Ever disowned the Lord !
Not that I rise against thee. Poetry,
Mother of Beauty, of ideal Life !
But I must pity him condemned to dwell
Within the limits of these whirling worlds
In dying agonies, or yet to be,
Doomed to sad memories, or prophecies,
Perchance remorse, or vague presentiments, — •
Who gives himself to thee ! for everywhere
Thou ruinest wholly those who consecrate
Themselves, with all they are, to thee alone.
Who solely live the voices of thy glory !
Blessed is he in whom thou mak'st thy home,
As God dwelt in the world, concealed, unknown.
But grand and mighty in each separate part ;
The unseen God, before whom creatures bow.
And kneeling, cry : " Behold Him ! He is here ! "
A guiding star, he bears thee on his brow,
And no unfaithful word will sever him
* Imaginative and emotional : not working in the world of Actuality.
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY.
From thy true love ! He will love men, and be
A man himself, encircled by his brothers !
From him, who keeps not with i\\tQ perfect failh,
Betrays thee to the hour, or his own needs,
Devotes thee to man's perishable joys.
Painting the sensual with thy hues divine, —
Thou turn'st away thy face, while scattering
Perchance upon his brow some fading flowers,
Of which he strives to twine a funeral crown.
Spending tiis life to weave a wreath of death !
He and the woman have one orisrin !
177
FIRST PERIOD.
" De toutes les choses serieuses, le mariage est la plus bouffonne. "!
BEAUMARCHAIS '
SCENE I. Morning. The castle of Count Henry is
seen. The Guardian Angel descends.
Guardian Angel. Peace upon earth to all men of good
will !
Among the created, blessed ever be
The man who has a heart ; he may be saved !
Wife, good'aii^ piire7~reveal thyself to him.
And a fair child be born unto their House !
{The angel vanishes.
hands, gives a signal, — his hissing is like that of a ser-
pent ! Soldiers! . . . soldiers! . , . everywhere sol-
diers ! . . .
"Ask me nothing, — I have borne the name of that
man ; . . . I have sworn to be faithful to him even to the
grave ! I will not give him up to you, as he has given
his brothers up to the enemy ! . . .
156 THE "FRAGMENT. "
"Hear now my third name upon the earth: Dishon-
ored !
"Men, know ye wherefore? Because despair tore my
heart — and there came a day when I was loved, — and in
that day I beh'eved in Beauty, Goodness, Wisdom, even
upon earth ? Because, when dying, I raised my head and
cried : How blessed it is to spring from the grave into the
skies ! — Because I dared to love ! "
Again was she silent, again motionless and white as
alabaster.
And when the Seer for the third time adjured her, she
murmured, in a low voice: "Then follow me! " Taking
the lamp from below the crucifix, she left the place where
the People of women lay prostrate behind her, and fol-
lowed a tortuous path far through the subterranean space.
The walls of the narrow dungeons contracted and length-
ened before the thin hand as it approached them, bearing
the lamp with its doubtful and uncertain light.
Everywhere around her were walls reeking with hu-
midity ; everywhere a low and stifling vault ! No sound
of footsteps was there ever heard ; no breath ever played
with the doubtful flame of the lamp ! The Young Man
continued to advance, although he felt ever more languid,
more weary and oppressed. It seemed to him that the
very air necessary for breath failed on all sides ; that an
invisible weight crushed him to the earth ; that the blood
congealed in his veins, and it seemed to him that he cried
to himself: " I will go no farther ! "
The lady in the funereal robes then turned round, and,
lifting the glimmering lamp above his forehead, said:
"Although thou art a man, and a strong and courageous
one, thou canst not endure to breathe for a single hotir
here, where all my weary years forever flow and reflow !
Go ! Go, in peace ! "
But the Seer sadly asked : " Tell me, where then is he
who loved thee? "
Suddenly casting down her eyes, she answered : "There !
where his destiny as man precipitated him ! He tore me
from my solitude of heart : and left me in the utter soli-
tude of spirit ! I loved him, — he has left me ! "
Then showing a distant stone which whitened in the
THE DREAM.
157
midst of the darkness, she said : *' Wrapped in its wings
my soul is buried there ! This which you see is only a
body which has not yet been able to die ! "
And, overpowered by grief, she fell upon her knees and
cried : " Thou who knowest, tell us if it will be thus for-
ever? "
And for the first time her tears began to flow.
And the Seer, placing his hand upon her brow, said :
*' Until now you have been as the Heavenly Lilies, which
bloom knowing naught of their colors and perfumes.
The day is coming when each of you will change into a
Thinking Rose. The chords of inspiration will escape
from the hands of the men, and will pass into yours !
Kneeling at your feet, they will then implore from you a
hymn of consolation, a prophecy of hope, a vision of
beauty, — for their destiny will then have led them into
prosaic and unendurable cares, into hard and harsh
labors ! But absorbed in the contemplation of God, you
will not cast a glance upon them, you will not hear their
sighs. Then will their hearts break, as yours have done
for ages P '
"Tell me yet more! " said the lady in black, appeal-
ing to Dante with beseeching look.
He proceeded : "This will continue until the hour of
a new transformation sounds for you. Then you will again
stretch forth your hands to them ; through love you will
save the dying hearts ; and you will become as their sisters,
— forever their equals upon earth and in Heaven ! "
But the lady in black weeping with ever-increasing
emotion, he added : " Recall thy soul, and be not afraid,
for if it were possible for anything to perish, it would be
seen that in the judgments of the Lord the star of the
glory of men would sooner be forever extinguished than
the tears of one unfortunate woman be suifered to flow in
vain ! "
And when, kneeling, she appeared more tranquil, Dante
left her, and, bearing off" the Young Man with him, walked
directly to the grave, and as they passed the tomb which
whitened in the darkness, he said : " Verily, she will die
in these shadows and will rest here; — for the time 70///
come; — but it is not yet come ! "
14*
158 THE "FRAGMENT. "
And, having blessed the grave, as if borne upward by
his own power he rose through the air into higher regions.
Through the opening between the precipices, but very,
very high above him, the Young Man saw the granite
vault covering the world ! And as he rose from the depths,
it widened in its livid light. He could already dis-
tinguish the clangor of a thousand jarring bells, the in-
cessant pattering of quirk steps, the sound of myriads of
footfalls, and the groanings of pavements echoing be-
neath the tread of throngiiig men. And when the ap-
parition stopped on the edge of the opening, and with a
sign of his hand swept the Young Man on like a whirlwind,
he saw all the Nations of the Earth making their way
toward the Yellow Sun; and under this sun stood a gi-
gantic black platform, upon which many thrones glittered
in the distance.
Like vapors rising into air, like rushing streams, like
hunted herds, the throngs crowd, hurry, jostle one
another; all, all rushing in the same direction! The
sound of countless invisible bells buzzes thr. ough space ;
old and young men, women and children, brush and
bustle on, pass and repass, scramble hurriedly onward !
Vainly do the old implore the young to retard their
steps, to stop a single moment and to take them with
them. The youngrefiiseto turn, they will not even listen, —
they run on ! Pale, weary maidens forced to stop, weep
and beg their brothers, supplicate their lovers, to wait a
moment for them ; — they will not even spare the time to
recognize them, — they run and run ! Mothers with ba-
bies at their breasts join in the race; suddenly a child on
one side or the other is knocked down ; it shrieks aloud,
stretches out its little hands, and lies upon the pavement.
From all sides the crowd presses and jostles on; the mothers
turn not back nor stoop to rescue ; — they too run and run.
The Young Man stopped above one of these little
bodies crushed under the trampling feet, and asked :
" Master, is it the hour of the Last Judgment? "
The Api)arition, veiling his fare, replied : "It is only
the hour of the Judgment of the Merchants: it is the hour
of the Exchange and the Marts ! "
At these words, the Apparition transported the Young
THE DREAM. i^p
Man from side to side across the space of this world to
the opposite point, where were the Yellow Sun and the
gigantic black platform ; and it seemed to the Young
Man that, as if borne upon wings, he remained suspended
at the height of the platform, and lower than the sun : —
and the figure of the Master wrapped itself in bitter scorn
— and disappeared ! "
This sun seemed to be of gold with artificial rays, and
the platform was of black marble, with stairways which
led to many brilliant thrones. Upon those thrones sat
the Bankers and Merchants chosen among the wandering
tribes of the Orient ; they were clad in flowing robes,
wore long gray beards, and purple fillets round their brows;
— and under their feet lay enormous sacks full of sono-
rous metal.
And sometimes broken cries proceeded from the sacks,
as it were complaints, prayers, demands, and reproaches.
The Young Man perceived that these cries came from the
souls of the merchants wailing, hidden and chained, in
the bags of gold. And the more the unhappy souls com-
plained, the more the rage of the merchants increased,
and, trampling and crushing the sacks underfoot, they
thus silenced the moans of their own souls !
And when the Wretched souls were silenced, with care-
less and rough voices they commenced their consultation,
designating from time to time with their hands one or other
of the innumerable throngs of Peoples which approached
them on every side. A dense mass of black vapor rose,
overspreading space, above these hustling Peoples ; it was
deeply furrowed with tawny lights ; and the Young Man
understood it was the form of all those human souls united
and overhanging their bodies, above which they lowered
like mists of blood, like melting scorice, like immense
furnaces dying into darkness.
Like ice-floes broken by tossing waves, like the rushing
of wind-driven tempests, the Nations advanced under the
lurid reflections of their souls, as if under a Hell float-
ing above them ! Sometimes were heard the cries of
those who fell, or the dull groans of those who were
crushed and stifled underfoot by the crowd. One of the
merchants rose, gave a signal, and on one side of the
l6o THE "FRAGMENT:'
platform enormous slabs of stone were immediately raised,
subterranean caverns opened, and long files of soldiers
issued therefrom, who, mute and statue-like, with primed
arms and bayonets glittering on the points of their guns,
marched and placed themselves in line, three deep, on
either side of the stairway of marble.
And the roaring of the crowd, the uproar, the groans,
the complaints, the appeals, redoubled. Each nation,
each tribe, each throng tried to thrust itself foremost in
the race ; endeavored to force for itself the first passage.
Masses formed of thousands of hands, heads, breasts, were
overturned, prostrated, or driven forward. Sometimes the
reflection of the bloody light shone luridly upon them;
sometimes the air was gray, livid, heavy. Like a deluge
of waves and clouds, like water-spouts driven by the wind,
they at last reached the foot of the platform. The click-
ing of the firelocks of the muskets was heard as the
soldiers adjusted them for instant use. A dead silence for
a moment ensued, and a merchant rose and cried : " The
marts are open ; the sales commence ! " The clangor of
bells everywhere ringing again jarred upon the ear, mul-
tiplying until the sound was lost in distant space.
Then the merchant closely questioned the men on the
occurrences of the days last passed, and as the voices of
the Princes and Sages set over the various divisions of
men replied from below, announcing the combats, the
massacres, the discoveries, and inventions, his associates,
standing behind him, deliberated, and concerted their
plans: — and again a dead silence ensued. The murmur-
ing of the voices of the merchants alone was to be heard
in the world of granite. The red lights in the atmosphere
grew pale ; the souls of the men were blanched with ex-
pectation !
Several minutes thus elapsed. The merchant then an-
nounced how much certain interests had increased in
value ; how much certain others had decreased upon the
earth ; and from these heady throngs, who almost held
their breaths to hear, a perfect avalanche of applause, of
curses, of cries, threats, and sobs hurtled through the
air ! Among the masses some cried : " We must die of
hunger ! " while others bellowed: *• Hurrah ! hurrah for
THE DREAM. l6i
the merchants ! Long live the all-powerful merchants ! "
Some leaped wild with joy, clapping their hands and
shouting: "We have won! We have won! " And
others groaned out: " O merchants ! O our gods ! have
mercy upon us ! " Then they began again to quarrel, to
fight, to beat, to choke, to kill one another : — and among
the bodies, some rolled upon the earth, and others tram-
pled over them, crushing them without pity !
The Young Man saw thousands of corpses trampled
underfoot in front of the platform ; and i)assing in un-
broken order over the dead bodies, he saw the living
begin to ascend the steps of marble. With the sceptre
in their hands, and the sword at their sides, the Princes,
surrounded by the Grand Dignitaries of the Nations,
marched at their heads. A glittering arch formed by the
bayonets of the soldiers rose above them, and protected
them as they advanced ; and when they had arrived mid-
way up the giant staircase, the merchants descended to
meet them, and, clasping them by the hand, conducted
them higher.
All the Workers of this world began to ascend behind
them : the manufacturers and the artisans, the lenders
and shopkeepers, some carrying various kinds of mer-
chandise, some immense bags, others undulating rolls of
paper closely covered with writing. As they reached the
midway of the giant stairs, they were all ordered to stop,
while a voice of thunder from above demanded their
names. Turn by turn they replied in the denomination
of the trade, the merchandise, the manufacture they sev-
erally represented, or by some adopted number ; for none
among them possessed or were any longer known by any
proper human 7iame in this world !
Behold ! after this black surge of people, and following
in their wake, appeared a strange group of melancholy
men bowed towards the ground. They held antique
swords in their hands, and wore battered and rusty
armor upon their shoulders. At this moment the Young
Man heard the words : "Look! those are the last de-
scendants of the old nobility ! " And glancing rapidly
around him, he saw the Apparition again at his side.
This train also mounted the giant stairs until it reached
1 62 THE '' FRAGMENT. "
midway, and then each man took his station upon a great
block of marble, and seemed suddenly to become enraged
against the arms he had hitherto borne; striking, break-
ing, pounding, and crushing them with axe and hammer.
The Apparition said : " Look at them ! They are trying
to extract the gold of Damascus, the turquoises of Persia,
from the bucklers of their ancestors ! They are tearing
the diamonds, tarnished by the lapse of centuries, from
those heaps of arms and sabres, in order to carry them to
the merchants ; they will sell to them the last remains of
ancient glory! " While the Shade of Dante thus com-
plained, they threw down the fragments of their armor ;
helmets, cuirasses, breastplates, and daggers rang as they
fell upon the pavement, and glittered as they broke into
sparkling fragments.
Then the sons of the valiant of old arose and ascended
higher, stretching out their hands, full of gold and spark-
ling gems, toward the merchants ; and thus being allowed
to advance, they supplicated in humble tones that they
might be permitted to enter among the merchants and
princes. A sign was mSde to them from above that their
request was granted. They proffered many thanks, and,
speaking now in louder tones, they began to haggle,
cavil, and bargain about the price of their merchandise,
their precious jewels. The features of Dante writhed
with pain ; the blood burst from his torn lips, and he
groaned out: "No. The Hell of the ancients never
caused me so much agony ! "
Placing his transparent hand upon the head of the
Young Man, he said : "Remember! " . . . But at that
very moment he again disappeared. Melting into the
transparent air, he was seen no longer.
A funereal groan, rising into a cry of fury, now rang
through this world, howling up from the depths of the
abyss : floating above the nations, it broke at last, with
fearful violence, against the Platform ! The Princes and
the Great of Earth grew suddenly pale ; but the coun-
tenances of the merchants did not change ; a strange
smile only writhed their lips as they fondly caressed their
gray beards.
Look ! look ! Giant forms break their way through
THE DREAM. 1 63
the very centre of the black masses ; they come, they
come ! They grow in numbers as they draw nearer !
And as they approached him the Young Man recognized
the Twelve who had been consecrated, and the Thir-
teenth, their chief, who held in his right hand the dag-
ger, and in his left the cup of blood.
And as he advanced, his face seemed to float above the
sea of human heads, power streamed from it, and genius
flashed around it. Leading his Giants to the first step,
he ordered them to take their seats, and there await his
return. And quite alone and asking permission from
none, and motioning away with his hands the bayonets
of the soldiers, he ascended, — gigantic, irresistible, and
irrepressible, shaking his thick hair as if it were the mane
of a lion !
One of the merchants descended to meet him, and in-
troduced him upon the platform even into the very midst
of the circle of consultation. But at this moment it
seemed to the Young Man that the eyes of the Giant lost
their fire, and the lion-like power of his brow grew mild.
Standing boldly, however, in the midst of the merchants,
he cried, in a voice resonant as thunder : " I am here for
the last time, to summon you in the name of the
Oppressed and Wretched ! For the last time we cry :
* Share with us, or die ! Division or Death ! ' "
The twelve martyrs left at the foot of the platform
greeted this cry with enthusiastic acclaim ; thousands and
thousands among the multitude repeated it, and the abyss
sent it back in echoes of thunder.
The giant leaned forward, and threw his double-bladed
sword upon the ground ; then stooping still lower, he
bent and bent until his forehead had quite disappeared
from the gaze of the nations. Thus contracted, he seated
himself upon one of the thrones of the merchants, and
said, in a low voice : ''Answer without delay! How
much will you give me for this cup of blood ? "
When the merchants had told him the price they had
fixed upon it, he said : " It is not enough for the blood I
offer you to-day ! Have you the slightest idea of what is
going on in the abyss? Have you ever had sufficient
courage to descend therein ? Severed as we may have
i64 ^-^^ *' fragment:'
been, we are all thoroughly united now ; they await my
return, ploughing their breasts with their nails in rage;
desperate and resolute; tearing their hair and howling
with fury ! Should they be again deceived to-day after
so many juggles, I cannot answer for them. They may
break into open revolt. Pleasant flattery, skillful phrases,
honeyed promises, will no longer appease them ; maddened
in their lair, their wild arms are already raised to strike
a fatal blow ! And you pause in this deadly hour to
chaffer and traffic with me ? Merchants and masters of
the world, is not your luxurious and fortunate position
worth a handful of gold to him who risks his life to aid
you to rescue it? "
The merchants answered : " Every day you repeat this
same story in our ears ! However, on condition that you
will urge no further claims, we will pay more for the
blood you have now brought us. "
And after much consultation, they offered him a larger
sum. But he again refused. "It is not enough for the
blood I have brought to-day! " And lifting up the cup,
he pretended to be in haste to leave the throne.
One of the merchants then unloosed from the band he
wore upon his head an enormous diamond, and said :
"This is a nail from the cross of Golgotha, which was
thus transformed during the night in which your God
expired ! It was torn from the wood at early dawn
the next morning by one of my own ancestors. Since
that time it has always been preserved in my family.
Will this diamond repay you for the • blood of your
brothers? "
The Giant cast a glance upon it ; then lowering the
cup, he poured out all the blood it contained at the feet
of the merchants, and said : "The nail is mine ! " The
Jew threw the diamond into the empty chalice, which
rang in melancholy cadence as it fell !
The chief of the Sacrifice then rose, and wended his
way back to the nations of the world. He broke forth
in threats and curses as he descended to his brothers, who
cried to liim: " Wlien ? Where? "
He replied to them in angry tones : " Follow me im-
mediately ! Our hour is not yet ; but it will surely
THE DREAM.
165
come! " And inducing them to follow him, he broke
away through the multitudes to the entrance of the abyss.
The merchants who had bargained with him then an-
nounced to the nations that perfect peace and absolute
security reigned upon earth ; that every one would now
be allowed to ascend and descend, to trade, buy, and sell.
Upon the thrones above sat all the merchants and all the
princes ; at their feet lay the company of nobles upon the
marble; they supported their heads upon' the sonorous
sacks in which the souls of the merchants moaned, and
clasped in the hollows of their hands the precious gems
they had torn from their swords and armor, — and thus
they lay extended, immovable, disarmed, their brows con-
tracted and great tears in their eyes.
And the common men incessantly rushed up and down
the great stairs in two contrary currents; a constant up-
roar prevailed among the people, disputing, haggling, and
agreeing about prices : and the howling multitude below
also bargained, traded, bought and sold.
Poor wretches down there were also crying that they
had lost all chance of making their daily bread: but no
one heeded their complaints. Countless groups were
there, burning with fever or shivering with cold : but no
one deigned to look at them. Crushed and mutilated
bodies were here and there lying about, still moving their
white lii)s and muttering : " Help ! Help! " but no hand
was stretched out to aid them !
While these things were passing upon the earth, the
reflection of all those souls which had at first inundated
space with a bloody light now became of a livid, ghastly
hue. As if hearts were breaking, one after the other, all
those fires, rays, lights, fell and died out. Then the smoke,
hanging round and wreathing itself about the cornices of
granite, overhung the walls of the edifice like a black cu-
pola, obscuring the Yellow Sun, and filling the immense
structure with darkness from base to pinnacle. In the
heart of this gloom, the Bankers of the Orient alone still
sat upon their thrones. And the world was all one black
Exchange !
and the merchants were kings of the earth !
All these pictures and images, mingling and fusing,
began to surge, grow dim, and disaj^pear before the eyes
15
1 66 THE '' fragment:'
of the Young Man. In the midst of this fog, always
thicker and more dismal, the figure of Dante, sad but
tranquil, again became visible; and the Young Man caught
the tones: "Depart from this Hell of the base! " And
at these words a vivifying cold, like a breath of fresh night
air, swept over his temples.
The Apparition took him by the hand, and moved
before him over white and silent clouds, permeated by
the faint perfume of an invisible verdure ! From time to
time also the sapphire of the sky was seen to break, and
little stars glittered in the distance. Lo ! on a sudden a
deep groan floated on behind the clouds, filled them, and
then died away ; but scarcely had it expired before a
second rose, — then a third, — then a fourth, — lo ! a multi-
tudinous wail of protracted pain ! And the clouds of
silver opened before it like flocks of frightened swans.
And it seemed to the Young Man that he and the Seer
stopped upon one of the clouds, and that from it, as from
a high balcony, they looked down upon a vast plain and
round a circle of pure azure illuminated by a full moon.
It seemed to him that before him in the plain he saw, as
it were, a forest of tall, slim trees ; they resembled pines,
but were cut in a most singular manner, for on each tall
trunk but two branches had been left ; and every tree rose
upon its own mound. Meanwhile, the groans became more
and more frequent, — each of them thrilled the air like a
clap of thunder, and resounded and re-echoed through
space, like the death-cries of thousands of men suffering
together !
The Shade asked : " Seest thou the Purgatory of our
present days? "
The Young Man answered: "I see nothing save this
forest and the sky. "
The Seer slowly raised his hands and said : "For the
second time thou wilt receive the gift of vision, for with
the same sight with which thou seest into the vile thou
canst not perceive the generous. But first listen atten-
tively to what I have to say to thee :
"There is no death ! Its frightful semblance alone
is f The Lord formed it nowhere, nor ever : for He lives
everywhere and forever ! No one dies eternally save
THE DREAM.
167
through an titter and voluntary degradation, and for him
who thus ends there is no longer existence nor tomb.
He is degraded to utter nothingness ; he is absorbed in
his own debasement. Perhaps in the circling thousands
of centuries something may yet reawaken within him. . . .
But no ! Such a one will never be purified nor have part
in the resurrection ! But whosoever is to live again must
be transformed, and every transformation bears tempo-
rarily the appearance of death. Such is the probation of
the grave. Full of mockery, of tears, of grief, of illusion !
Individuals and races, the Humanity and the worlds, must
alike submit to it, — every immortal must traverse it. He
who has not been able to bear it has perished forever!
Be lion-hearted, Henry, for such probations are about to
open before thee ! "
And placing his fingers upon his eyelids, he breathed
upon them.
It seemed to the Young Man that from every pine-
tree in this great forest the form of a man crucified
started forth ! He then perceived a multitude of bodies,
palpitating and bloody, thus suspended in the air, — and
at every moment their numbers augmented. Rank suc-
ceeded to rank in the wan light of the moon ; they wid-
ened, they lengthened, they extended here, there, ever
farther, even to the most distant limits of the horizon.
All space is living, breathing, palpitating, shivering with
them ! And the Young Man knew it was an entire na-
tion extended in the Passion of Christ upon its own soil,
— and his eyes swam in tears !
And the Shade said : " Look ! in spite of thy horror,
turn not away ! To conquer suffering we must master the
science of grief! Look into this limitless forest, how, by
a premeditated and powerful effort, every tree, stripped of
its branches, has been made into a cross I See how each
cross rises from a mound of heaped ruins ; and those ruins
are the skeletons of churches, of homes once full of happy
life !
"And everywhere between each mound there are equal
intervals, — but nowhere are there bushes, flowers, nor
turf ! As blocks of stone are transmuted into a city, so
have these forests been transformed into a vast cemetery
1 68 THE '' FRAGMENT. "
of torture ! None but a perfect Torturer could thus meas-
ure out grief, thus arrange the machinery of death ! "
When tlie Young Man looked again, it seemed to him
that he saw upon the mounds streamers and ribbons of fog
silvered by the moon, and although there was no wind to
stir them, he observed that sometimes they rose and some-
times they fell, as if they too suffered and could find no
rest. And he recognized that they were bands of women
and children, dressed in white and standing under the
crosses. He saw their light hands raised towards the tops
of the trees, like white wings, which would, but could not,
soar high enough to reach them, and which, in despair of
power, fell back to earth. Then began a hymn of mingled
shuddering and prayer, which died away in sobs and
tears !
And the warm blood trickled from above upon those
snowy groups, poured upon them, and flowed, ever re-
newed, among the mounds, and could be heard from afar
like threatening and swollen torrents. It seemed to the
Young Man that the Apparition again addressed him :
"Turn not thine eyes from those multitudes, who are
melting away in rivers of blood ! The Crucified are about
to feel the shivering and convulsion of Death and Trans-
ition ! They cannot die, but they will be given over to
the agony of death, — and you must contemplate and
meditate upon it. I command it : look! "
At this moment the cry of myriads of victims broke
upon the ear like claps of thunder, — the trees, even to
the utmost limit of the plain, cracked and creaked, — and
voices which break the heart shook the air like a hurri-
cane. Tossed by the same whirlwind of grief, all the
bodies shuddered and writhed upon their crosses, — and
as the summer rain after a sharj) clap of thunder pours
more heavily, so everywhere spouted and fell thicker
streams of blood ! Then this wild tem])est of human
torture began to abate; the plain gradually sank into
silence; the crosses fell back into immobility and order;
again all was mute as death, — nothing save the incessant
dropping of blood was now to be heard.
A sudden laugh rose upon and rent the air ! The
Young Man cast his eyes immediately below him, and in
THE DREAM.
169
front of the first row of crosses, in the open plain, lie saw
a far higher and far larger mound ; it was black, and com-
posed entirely of ruins and cinders, — like the wrecks of
a city after a great conflagration. The remains of can-
non and broken swords and arms still pierced through the
surface of that vast heap of coals and ashes, — and a livid
smoke oozed everywhere from it, wrapping its clouds
round a Giant, who was seen standing upon the ruins !
A ray of the moon at that moment fell upon him and
glittered on the points of his crown of steel, so that his
soldier's cloak, bound by an iron chain, could be clearly
seen ; but instead of a sword, a many-thonged whip of
leather, which fell to the very feet of this monarch, hung
from its heavy links. Whenever the groans of the cruci-
fied were heard, he stretched his head forward to listen ;
and when the broken sobs of the women rose high upon
the air, he responded by clapping his hands ! The Shade
of Dante said : " Behold, the perfect Butcher ! Listen !
he will tempt them in their agony ! "
Then it seemed to the Young Man that the crowned
Giant leaned over his mound, and stretching forth one
hand toward the martyred multitude, while with the other
he grasped his belt of chains and his whip of thongs as
if they were a sword, he cried : " Forget the Past : Re-
nounce the Future ! Deny your country and your God !
It is I ! I will be your Past — your Future — your Country
— your God ! Worship me ! and as I have ordained that
you should be nailed upon these crosses, I will ordain
that you shall be taken down ! I will call my slaves, and
they shall deliver you, and I will make you a happy
People ! I will give you plenty to eat, plenty to drink,
and you shall have all things in abundance ! Your ema-
ciated and mutilated bodies will regain their early vigor ;
they will grow fat and whole ! "
But the crucified multitude made no reply ; they uttered
not a single plaint ! Only the blood which inundated the
soil swelled into a mighty torrent, and like the waves of
the sea beat against the mound, and through all the roar
of the hurrying shock the Young Man caught the word :
No ! The snowy clouds of women made no reply, but
when the flood rolled back, they knelt, and raised their
15*
lyo THE "FRAGMENTS
infants in their arms: and the little voices of the children
lifted in the air cried : No ! And scarcely had the mur-
mur of the thousands of little voices risen upon the wind,
when a marvelous luminosity inundated space — and the
Young Man lifted his eyes!
And lo! above, but very, very high, at the utmost
summit of the wan dome of azure, it seemed as if two
milky-ways were descending from the celestial vault, and
they formed an immense, vast, and luminous cross, and
a Form was seen extended upon this cross, which ap-
proached ever nearer and nearer. The Arms were out-
spread above the world, and with every moment their arc
enlarged and increased its span. And upon the Brow
which pierced into the Heavens was a Crown of Thorns,
which, like heat-lightning, flashed in silence, and in the
hollows of the Hands and Feet the Young Man saw three
shining wounds, like three red moons, and from them for-
ever flowed, as it were, rainbows of blood, and each rain-
bow as it fell broke into swarms of stars, which scattered
through and illumined Space.
And thus in glory and in blood, crucified, but contin-
ually creating, the Figure floated down, ever lower, lower,
casting sunshine into the uttermost abysses, until the
milky-ways upon which it was borne grew into two im-
measurable rings of silver, encircling the horizon from the
East to the West, from the North to the South ; while
from the blood that flowed millions of stars sprang into
being, and they shrouded the Form in light, like a veil
woven of stars. The Eyes alone still pierced through,
like two living fonts of lightning, not dispersing over the
universe, but falling straight from Heaven to earth, until
they lighted in their fullness upon the Forest of the Cru-
cified !
And all the pale and bloody bodies, and all the sinking
heads and corpse-like faces, with their dying eyes, were
fully pictured in this Divine Gaze ! It seemed to the
Young Man that he saw the whole Crucified Nation float-
ing there in a sea of celestial light ! and he cried : " Too
late ! too late ! "
The vShade of Dante, kneeling upon a cloud, then said :
"Verily! verily! This is the Purgatory of the present
THE DREAM.
171
days, for each body here must endure its passion ; but
over the soul of this Nation watches the Mysterious, the
Beloved r
But as the Young Man struck his breast, wept, and re-
fused to be comforted, the Master continued : " Weep not
for these, but for those below who inhabit the world of
granite, for there is dissolution, damnation, and hell !
Here there is only grief ! Have I not told thee the spirit
resuscitates from grief? hut from infamy there is no resur-
rection /' '
The curtain of clouds fell low as he spake : and the
plain, the forest, the heavens, and the gaze of flame of
the Divine Form, — all disappeared !
The air now grew lighter, fresher, clearer. The crown
which glittered upon the brow of the Seer vanished. And
it seemed to the Young Man that he again saw the interior
of a chapel, the fields, the mountains, and the rising sun.
Stretching out his hands, he cried: '^Master! master!
Show me Heaven — it is the third — upon the earth ! "
The Shade of Dante condensed again into a form, and
appeared entire in the midst of the dawning light. But
his voice had other tones; as if already from afar, and
returning to the glory whence he had come, the Young
Man heard : "Until the present hour there have been in
your world only Hell and Purgatory. But the Spirit of the
Lord has chosen His dwelling in your bosoms ! You are
like abysses ; and in your depths also hides the blue of
Heaven ! Let Faith bathe it in its light, let your holy will
force it to external manifestation, let it surround you on
all sides, let it fill your horizon ! It is the miracle of love !
Then will Heaven begin to dawn upon the earth. But
watch with care, for no other path will lead you there:
neither blind chance, nor fatal destiny, nor the caprices
of license, nor the delusions of pride. Woe ! woe to the
centuries, should infernal violence attack the mercy of
God ! For God, your Creator, has respected you to such
a degree as to leave you free to attack even Himself; to
conquer Him through your own evil: — but conquered.
He, who is the very Being of every being, will abandon
you, and in exchange for eternal life there will only re-
main in you an eternal void, an eternal want, an eternal
172
THE '^ fragment:'
nothingness ! Watch closely, then, over the destinies of
your planet ! "
And vanishing in the glory of the light of dawn —
leaving in the air a last trace of silver — through circles
ever larger and more luminous, — like a whirlpool of agi-
tated waters — like the breath of dying winds — like a pass-
ing dream, — the figure of Dante mounted in space, — far
into the light of the sun, — then it sped on into the invisi-
ble Infinite !
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY.
" To the accumulated errors of their ancestors they added aults un-
known to them, — Hesitation and Fear: therefore it came to pass that
they vanished from the face of the earth, and a deep silence fell upon
them. "
L'Anonyme.
" To be, or not to be, that is the question. "
Hamlet.
(WRITTEN IN 1834-1835. )
Translation coUated from the version in German by R. Bafornicki, Leip-
sic, 1841 ; from the z'ersion in French in the Rcvtie dcs Deux Afondes,
Oct. I, 1846 ; and from that published by Ladislas Mickiewicz, in Paris,
1869: " CEuvres Completes dit Po'ete Anonyme. "
In this drama, or rather dramatic vision, our Author de-
sires to point out to his countrymen the two rocks which
he dreads for them : the first, is that alluring enthusiasm
which is born of the imagination rather than of the heart,
which seduces by its antique and brilliant forms, but is
powerless to understand, and consequently to create, any-
thing in the Present ; the second, is that excess of ma-
terial force which destroys without rebuilding, which
pulls down without reconstructing, because, like the base-
less idealism, it also lacks the vivifying inspiration of the
heart. These two excesses are represented in the persons
of Count Henry and Pancras. The one, led astray by
the phantoms of love and glory, sacrifices the happiness
of his family, the interests of his country, to a double chi-
173
174
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY.
mera ; the other, after having conquered the world by the
power of his intellect, and having multiplied ruins and
piled corpses around him, is overwhelmed by the convic-
tion of his own impotence, totters and expires in the face
of a superior power, which he, as well as the Count, had
not acknowledged. Is it necessary to name that power?
It is Christianity, which, subjecting both the imagination
and the intellect -to the heart, places its ideal in the union
of these three Divine forces. Thus not without design does
our Poet represent the Count and Pancras in mortal com-
bat, — the dreamer, whose imagination is fascinated by a
false ideal, and the thinker, whose intellect has proclaimed
to him the blind rule of force. The logical tendencies
of the two natures inevitably urge them to serve two in-
imical principles ; to arm, one in the name of the dreams
of the Past, and the other in the cause of the supposed
realities of the Present. Both are doomed to perish, and,
in their fatal duel, our Poet evinces no preference for
either champion.
Each part of "The Undivine Comedy" is preceded by
a prologue, in which the general thought is foreshadowed.
In the following invocation, our Author addresses himself
to such poets and poetry as sacrifice the heart and its
duties to a baseless imagination. We are about to see the
peace of domestic life ruined by this false enthusiasm, and
our Author indicates in this lyrical invective the principal
traits in the character of Count Henry, who represents
the fatal victory of iniag^iiiation over duty. — Revue des
Deux Mondes, ler dctobre,"T846.
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY. *
INVOCATION.
Stars circle round thy head, and at thy feet
Surges the sea, upon whose hurrying waves
A Rainbow glides before thee, cleaving the clouds !
Whate'er thou look'st upon is thine ! Coasts, ships,
Men, mountains, cities, all belong to thee !
Master of Heaven as earth, it seems as naught
Could equal thee in glory !
To ears which heed thy lays, thou givest joys,
Raptures ineffable ! Thou weavest hearts
Together, then untwin'st them like a wreath.
As wild caprice may guide thy flame-lit fingers !
Thou forcest tears, then driest them with a smile ;
Then scar'st away the smile from paling lips.
Perhaps but for a moment, a few hours,
Perhaps for evermore !
But thou ! — What dost thou fee/, and what create?
A living stream of beauty flows through thee.
But Beauty thou art not ! woe ! woe to thee !
The weeping child upon its mother's breast,
The field flower knowing not its perfumed gift,
More merit have before the Lord than thou !
Whence com'st thou, fleeting shadow? to the Light
Still bearing witness, though thou know'st it not,
* The appropriateness of this name must excuse its coinage. It has
been thought best not to attempt to alter the occasional irregularities in
the rhythm of this metrical translation, lest a weakening of its vigor
might be the result. — Eu.
'75
176
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY.
Hast never seen it, nor wilt ever see !
In anger, or in mockery wert thou made?
So full of self deceit, that thou canst play
The angel to the moment when thou fall'st,
And crawlest like a reptile upon earth.
Stifled in mud, or feeding upon dust !
Thou and the woman have like origin ! *
Alas ! thou sufferest, too, although thy pangs
Bring naught to birth, nothing create, nor serve 1
The groans of the unfortunate are weighed ;
The lowest beggar's sighs counted in Heaven,
Gathered and sung upon celestial harps, —
But thy despair and sighs fall to the earth,
Where Satan gathers them ; — adds them with joy
To his own lies, illusions, mockeries !
The Lord will yet disown them, as they have
Ever disowned the Lord !
Not that I rise against thee. Poetry,
Mother of Beauty, of ideal Life !
But I must pity him condemned to dwell
Within the limits of these whirling worlds
In dying agonies, or yet to be,
Doomed to sad memories, or prophecies,
Perchance remorse, or vague presentiments, — •
Who gives himself to thee ! for everywhere
Thou ruinest wholly those who consecrate
Themselves, with all they are, to thee alone.
Who solely live the voices of thy glory !
Blessed is he in whom thou mak'st thy home,
As God dwelt in the world, concealed, unknown.
But grand and mighty in each separate part ;
The unseen God, before whom creatures bow.
And kneeling, cry : " Behold Him ! He is here ! "
A guiding star, he bears thee on his brow,
And no unfaithful word will sever him
* Imaginative and emotional : not working in the world of Actuality.
THE UNDIVINE COMEDY.
From thy true love ! He will love men, and be
A man himself, encircled by his brothers !
From him, who keeps not with i\\tQ perfect failh,
Betrays thee to the hour, or his own needs,
Devotes thee to man's perishable joys.
Painting the sensual with thy hues divine, —
Thou turn'st away thy face, while scattering
Perchance upon his brow some fading flowers,
Of which he strives to twine a funeral crown.
Spending tiis life to weave a wreath of death !
He and the woman have one orisrin !
177
FIRST PERIOD.
" De toutes les choses serieuses, le mariage est la plus bouffonne. "!
BEAUMARCHAIS '
SCENE I. Morning. The castle of Count Henry is
seen. The Guardian Angel descends.
Guardian Angel. Peace upon earth to all men of good
will !
Among the created, blessed ever be
The man who has a heart ; he may be saved !
Wife, good'aii^ piire7~reveal thyself to him.
And a fair child be born unto their House !
{The angel vanishes.
