Every reader of Dante will remember the sublime hymn towards the close of the Paradiso:—­

  “Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio! 
  Umile ed alta piu che creatura,
  Terrains fisso d’eterno consiglio;

  Tu se’ colei che l’umana natura
  Nobilitasti si, che ’l suo fattore
  Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura;

  Nel ventre tuo si raccese l’amore
  Per lo cui caldo nell’ eterna pace
  Cosi e germinato questo fiore;

  Qui se’ a noi meridiana face
  Di caritade, e giuso intra mortali
  Se’ di speranza fontana vivace: 

  Donna, se’ tanto grande e tanto vali,
  Che qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre
  Sua disianza vuol volar senz’ ali;

  La tua benignita noa pur soccorre
  A chi dimanda, ma molte fiate
  Liberamente al dimandar precorre;

  In te misericordia, in te pietate,
  In te magnificenza, in te s’ aduna
  Quantunque in creatura e di bontate!”

To render the splendour, the terseness, the harmony, of this magnificent hymn seems impossible.  Cary’s translation has, however, the merit of fidelity to the sense:—­

  “Oh, Virgin-Mother, daughter of thy Son! 
  Created beings all in lowliness
  Surpassing, as in height above them all;
  Term by the eternal counsel preordain’d;
  Ennobler of thy nature, so advanc’d
  In thee, that its great Maker did not scorn
  To make himself his own creation;
  For in thy womb, rekindling, shone the love
  Reveal’d, whose genial influence makes now
  This flower to germin in eternal peace: 
  Here thou, to us, of charity and love
  Art as the noon-day torch; and art beneath,
  To mortal men, of hope a living spring. 
  So mighty art thou, Lady, and so great,
  That he who grace desireth, and comes not
  To thee for aidance, fain would have desire
  Fly without wings.  Not only him who asks,
  Thy bounty succours; but doth freely oft
  Forerun the asking.  Whatsoe’er may be
  Of excellence in creature, pity mild,
  Relenting mercy, large munificence,
  Are all combin’d in thee!”

It is interesting to turn to the corresponding stanzas in Chaucer.  The invocation to the Virgin with which he commences the story of St. Cecilia is rendered almost word for word from Dante:—­

  “Thou Maid and Mother, daughter of thy Son! 
  Thou wel of mercy, sinful soules cure!”

The last stanza of the invocation is his own, and as characteristic of the practical Chaucer, as it would have been contrary to the genius of Dante:—­

  “And for that faith is dead withouten workis,
  So for to worken give me wit and grace! 
  That I be quit from thence that most dark is;
  O thou that art so fair and full of grace,
  Be thou mine advocate in that high place,
  There, as withouten end is sung Hozanne,
  Thou Christes mother, daughter dear of Anne!”