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When she stood there inside the locked garden, and did not open the door nor yet yield her body, but silently turned away, preferred to expose her face to the world in the light of the Sun who had always been her faithful friend, she was a picture of that chaste woman, honored, not shamed, not scorned, though timid, faint, and ashen-colored at this, His coming to men, whom belief in God sustained. Faith said, "gaze upon an Apollo, whose slightest ray passing by bathes us all in starlight. His touching her would make her radiant, stronger, ever more lovely to everyone who saw her. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
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Notes: From V LXXXIV:244. See also B S1:102:136; Valgrisi 103. A second in a series to the Virgin. References: Susannah in the Apocryphal text; to the Virgin Mary; to Vittoria and Pescara. Mazetti call this an enigmatic grotesque sonnet, one of a series referring to female figures of Christian legend and myth (p 93n137). The crystal vessel, line 2 ("bel cristallo," which Chastity is pictured holding) becomes the virgin hymen and stands for Susannah's body. Key |
