The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) · 48 of 63 · tr. L. Williams
Fifth Dialogue-d
Be it far from me to make complaint of love, Love, without whom I will not happy be, And though through him these weary toils I bear.
Yet what is given my will shall not reject.
Be clear the sky or dark, burning or cold, To that one ph[oe]nix e'er the same I'll be, No fate nor destiny can e'er untie That knot which death unable is to loose; To heart, to spirit, and to soul, No pleasure is, no liberty, no life, No smile, no rapture, no delight, So sweet, so grateful, so divine, As these hard bonds, this death of mine, To which by fate, by will, by nature I incline.
Here, in the figure, he shows the resemblance between the enthusiast and the butterfly attracted towards the light; in the sonnet, however, he demonstrates rather difference and dissimilarity; as it is commonly believed, that if the butterfly foresaw its destruction, it would fly from the light more eagerly than it now pursues it, and would consider it an evil to lose its life through being absorbed into that hostile fire.
But to him (the enthusiast) it is no less pleasing to perish in the flames of amorous ardour than to be drawn to the contemplation of the beauty of that rare splendour, under which, by natural inclination, by voluntary election, and by disposition of fate, he labours, serves, and dies more gaily, more resolutely, and more courageously than under whatsoever other pleasure which may offer itself to the heart, liberty which may be conceded to the spirit, and life which may be discovered in the soul.
Cic .
Tell me why he says, "ever the same I'll be?" Tans .
Because it seems suitable to bring forward a reason for his constancy, seeing that the sage does not change with the moon, although the fool does so.
Thus he is unique, as the ph[oe]nix is unique.
V.
Cic .
But what signifies that branch of palm, around which is the legend, "Cæsar adest?" Tans.
Without further talk, all may be understood by that which is written on the tablet: 29.
Unconquered victor of Pharsalia, Though all thy warriors be well-nigh spent, At sight of thee they rise once more; Their strength returns, they conquer their proud foes; So does my love—that equals love of heaven— Become a living presence through my thoughts; Thoughts that my haughty soul had killed with scorn, Love brings again stronger than love himself; Thy presence is enough, oh memory!
These to reanimate in all their strength, And with imperious sov'reignty they rule And govern each opposing force.
May I be happy in this governance And with these bonds, and may that light ne'er cease.
There are times when the inferior powers of the soul—like a vigorous and hostile army, which finds itself in its own country practised, expert, and ready—revolt against the foreign adversary, who comes down from the height of the intelligence to curb the people of the valley and of the boggy plains, where, through the baneful presence of the enemies and of such obstacles as deep ditches, advancing they lose themselves, and would be entirely lost, if there were not a certain conversion towards the splendour of intellectual things through the act of contemplation, by means of which they are converted from inferior degrees to superior ones.
Cic.
What degrees are these?
Tans.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
The 'enthusiast' is defined by a transcendent irrational rapture (furore/mania) that surpasses ordinary reason, with the butterfly's deliberate flight into destructive flames and the phoenix's constancy serving as symbols of this ecstatic, non-rational divine possession.
The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition.
The passage asserts that the enthusiast's emotional and erotic drive—'by natural inclination, by voluntary election, and by disposition of fate'—is the primary mode by which the soul knows, labours, and dies toward the divine, surpassing intellectual cognition as the path to truth.
Sufi self-effacement in God — the via by which the lover is unmade as a separate ego and recovered as God's act; specifies the practice/event rather than mystical_union's resulting state.
The enthusiast embraces 'this death of mine' as the sweetest and most divine of all pleasures, and the butterfly's deliberate self-destruction in the light figures the ego's unmaking as the lover is recovered as the divine's act.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage identifies 'the act of contemplation' as the means by which the soul is 'converted from inferior degrees to superior ones,' presenting direct experiential knowledge of the divine as the soteriological mechanism rather than faith or moral works.
Bruno's eroici furori — a passionate, ennobling spiritual ardor that drives the soul toward divine wisdom; distinguished from base or animal passions by its orientation to infinite truth.
[auto] The passage explicitly defines the enthusiast's passionate ardour and willingness to die for love/beauty, which is the central subject of Bruno's work.
Diotima's staged ascent from love of beautiful bodies → beautiful souls → beautiful pursuits → beautiful knowledge → Beauty itself; the canonical scala amoris that grounds Plotinus's On the Beautiful and Bruno's Eroici Furori — distinct from generic spiritual_ascent in that eros is the specific motive force.
[auto] The text describes a staged ascent from inferior to superior degrees driven specifically by eros and contemplation of beauty.