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That sun was not yet very distant from
his rising, when he caused the earth to take
some comfort from his mighty influence;
for even as a youth, he ran to war
against his father, on behalf of her—
the ladya unto whom, just as to death,
none willingly unlocks the door; before
his spiritual court et coram patre,b
he wed her; day by day he loved her more.
She was bereft of her first husband; scorned,
obscure, for some eleven hundred years,
until the sun came, she had had no suitor.c
Nor did it help her when men heard that he
who made earth tremble found her unafraid—
serene, with Amyclasd—when he addressed her;
nor did her constancy and courage help
when she, even when Mary stayed below,
suffered with Christ upon the cross.e But so
that I not tell my tale too darkly, you
may now take Francis and take Poverty
to be the lovers meant in my recounting.
Their harmony and their glad looks, their love
and wonder and their gentle contemplation,
served others as a source of holy thoughts;
so much so, that the venerable Bernard
went barefoot first;f he hurried toward such peace;
and though he ran, he thought his pace too slow.
- Dante here takes up the imagery of Francis's seeking Lady Poverty as his bride, first developed in the ScEx 4-5, cf. FA:ED I 530. It seems likely that Dante had only a second-hand knowledge of this work; Ubertino incorporated much of it in TL.
- Et coram patre [in the presence of his father], a reference to Francis' trial before the bishop of Assisi, when he stripped himself, renouncing his possessions and family, cf. LMj II 4, FA:ED II 538.
- Cf. ScEx, 16-21, 30-31, FA:ED I 534-6, 539.
- The one "who made earth tremble" was Julius Caesar. At Pharsalis, where he battled Pompey, he entered the house of Amyclas, a poor fisherman, demanding loudly to be ferried across the Adriatic. Amyclas was unperturbed; as a poor man, he had nothing to lose.
- ScEx 21: "And on that cross, his body stripped, his arms outstretched, his hands and feet pierced, you (Lady Poverty) suffered with Him, so that nothing would appear more glorious in Him than you." Cf. FA:ED I 536. Ubertino says that Poverty was thus able to follow Christ even further than Mary, who had to remain beneath the cross, cf. TL 5, 3, supra 161-2.
- Francis had begun to go barefoot after hearing the Gospel text (Mt 10:9); the "venerable Bernard" is Bernard of Quintavalle, Francis's first follower, cf. LMj III 1-3, FA:ED II 542-4.