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 DANTE'S

INFERNO
614

Rev. H. F. Cary
 2.4
Dn . 37.2.

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Harvard College Library

GIFT OF THE

DANTE SOCIETY

OF

CAMBRIDGE , MASS.

17 Oct., 1888.
 BOHN'S SELECT LIBRARY.

DANTE'S INFERNO .
DANTE'S INFERNO .

TRANSLATED BY THE LATE

REV. HENRY FRANCIS CARY, M.A.

c
LONDON : GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
1888.
Dn. 37.2.4

R
HA :

OCT 17 1888

Dante Societ.
y

LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 THE VISION OF DANTE.

Hell.

CANTO I.

ARGUMENT.
The writer, having lost his way in a gloomy forest, and being hindered by
certain wild beasts from ascending a mountain, is met by Virgil, who pro-
mises to show him the punishments of Hell, and afterwards of Purgatory;
and that he shall then be conducted by Beatrice into Paradise. He fol-
lows the Roman poet.

IN the midway¹ of this our mortal life,

I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct : and e'en to tell,
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember 2 only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
Yet, to discourse of what there good befel,
All else will I relate discover'd there.
How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,
Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh'd
My senses down, when the true path I left ;

i In the midway.] That the æra of the Poem is intended by these words
to be fixed to the thirty-fifth year of the poet's age, A. D. 1300 , will appear
more plainly in Canto xxi. where that date is explicitly marked. In his
Convito, human life is compared to an arch or bow, the highest point of
which is, in those well framed by nature, at their thirty-fifth year. Opere
di Dante, ediz. Ven. 8vo, 1793. t. 1. p. 195. Which to remember.]
" Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my
flesh." Job xxi. 6.
(2) THE VISION. 13-39.

But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where closed

The valley that had pierced my heart with dread,
I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad
Already vested with that planet's beam,¹
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.
Then was a little respite to the fear,
That in my heart's recesses2 deep had lain
All of that night, so pitifully past :
And as a man, with difficult short breath,
Forespent with toiling, 'scaped from sea to shore,
Turns³ to the perilous wide waste, and stands
At gaze ; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd,
Struggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits
That none hath past and lived. My weary frame
After short pause recomforted, again
I journey'd on over that lonely steep,
The hinder foot still firmer 4. Scarce the ascent
Began, when, lo ! a panther5, nimble, light,
And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd ;
Nor, when it saw me, vanish'd ; rather strove
To check my onward going ; that oft-times,
With purpose to retrace my steps, I turn'd.
The hour was morning's prime, and on his way
Aloft the sun ascended with those stars 6,
That with him rose when Love divine first moved
Those its fair works : so that with joyous hope
All things conspired to fill me, the gay skin'

1 That planet's beam.] The sun. 2 My heart's recesses.] Nel lago

del cuor. Lombardi cites an imitation ofthis by Redi in his Ditirambo :
I buon vini son quegli, che acquetano
Le procelle sì fosche e rubelle,
Che nel lago del cuor l'anime inquietano.
Turns.] So in our Poet's second psalm :
Come colui, che andando per lo bosco,
Da spino punto, a quel si volge e guarda.
Even as one, in passing through a wood,
Pierced by a thorn, at which he turns and looks.
The hinder foot. ] It is to be remembered, that in ascending a hill the
weight of the body rests on the hinder foot. 5 A panther.] Pleasure or
luxury. With those stars. ] The sun was in Aries, in which sign he
supposes it to have begun its course at the creation. The gay skin.] A
late editor ofthe Divina Commedia, Signor Zotti, has spoken of the present
translation as the only one that has rendered this passage rightly: but Mr.
Hayley had shown me the way, in his very skilful version of the first three
Cantos ofthe Inferno, inserted in the notes to his Essay on Epic Poetry :
40-56. HELL, CANTO I. (3)
Of that swift animal, the matin dawn,
And the sweet season. Soon that joy was chased.
And by new dread succeeded , when in view
A lion¹ came, 'gainst me as it appear'd,
With his head held aloft and hunger-mad,
That e'en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf2
Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd
Full of all wants, and many a land hath made
Disconsolate ere now. She with such fear
O'erwhelm'd me, at the sight of her appall'd,
That of the height all hope I lost. As one,
Who, with his gain elated, sees the time
When all unwares is gone, he inwardly
Mourns with heart-griping anguish ; such was I,
Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace,
Who coming o'er against me, by degrees
Impell'd me where the sun in silence rests³.
I now was raised to hope sublime
By these bright omens of my fate benign,
The beauteous beast and the sweet hour of prime.
All the commentators, whom I have seen, understand our Poet to say that
the season of the year and the hour of the day induced him to hope for the
gay skin of the panther ; and there is something in the sixteenth Canto,
verse 107, which countenances their interpretation, although that which I
have followed still appears to me the more probable. A lion.] Pride
or ambition. 2 A she-wolf.] Avarice. It cannot be doubted that the
image of these three beasts coming against him is taken by our author from
the prophet Jeremiah, v. 6 : " Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay
them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over
their cities." Rossetti, following Dionisi and other later commentators, in-
terprets Dante's leopard to denote Florence, his lion the king of France, and
his wolf the Court of Rome. It is far from improbable that our author
might have had a second allegory of this sort in his view ; even as Spenser
in the introductory letter to his poem, tells us that " in the Faery Queen he
meant Glory in his general intention, but in his particular he conceived the
most excellent and glorious person of his sovereign the Queen." " And
yet" he adds, " in some places else I do otherwise shadow her." Such in-
volution of allegorical meanings may well be supposed to have been fre-
quently present to the mind of Dante throughout the composition of this
poem. Whether his acute and eloquent interpreter, Rossetti, may not have
been carried much too far in the pursuit of a favourite hypothesis, is another
question ; and I must avow my disbelief of the secret jargon imputed to our
poet and the other writers of that time in the Comment on the Divina Com-
media and in the Spirito Antipapale, the latter of which works is familiarized
to the English reader in Miss Ward's faithful translation.
3 Where the sun in silence rests.]
The sun to me is dark, When she deserts the night,
And silent as the moon, Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Milton, Sam Agon.
B 2
(4) THE VISION. 57-84.

While to the lower space with backward step

I fell, my ken discern'd the form of one
Whose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech.
When him in that great desert I espied,
"Have mercy on me," cried I out aloud,
66' Spirit ! or living man ! whate'er thou be."
He answer'd : " Now not man, man once I was,
And born of Lombard parents, Mantuans both
By country, when the power of Julius¹ yet
Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past,
Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time
Of fabled deities and false . A bard
Was I, and made Anchises' upright son
The subject of my song, who came from Troy,
When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers 2.
But thou, say wherefore to such perils past
Return'st thou ? wherefore not this pleasant mount
Ascendest, cause and source of all delight ?"
" And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring,
From which such copious floods of eloquence
Have issued ?" I with front abash'd replied.
66 Glory and light of all the tuneful train !
May it avail me, that I long with zeal
Have sought thy volume, and with love immense
Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide³ !
Thou he from whom alone I have derived
That style, which for its beauty into fame
Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.

The same metaphor will recur, Canto v. verse 29.

Into a place I came
Where light was silent all.
1 When the power ofJulius. ]
Nacqui sub Julio, ancorchè fosse tardi.
This is explained by the commentators : Although it were rather late with
respect to my birth, before Julius Cæsar assumed the supreme authority, and
made himself perpetual dictator. " Virgil indeed was born twenty-five years
before that event. 2 Ilium's haughty towers.]
Ceciditque superbum
Ilium. Virgil, En. iii. 3.
My master thou, and guide.]
Tu se' lo mio maestro, e' l mio autore,
Tu se' solo colui.
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou.
Milton. P. L. ii. 864,
85-102. HELL, CANTO I. (5)

O save me from her, thou illustrious sage !

For every vein and pulse throughout my frame
She hath made tremble." He, soon as he saw
That I was weeping, answer'd, " Thou must needs
Another way pursue, if thou wouldst ' scape
From out that savage wilderness. This beast,
At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none
To pass, and no less hindrance makes than death :
So bad and so accursed in her kind,
That never sated is her ravenous will,
Still after food¹ more craving than before.
To many an animal in wedlock vile
She fastens, and shall yet to many more,
Until that greyhound2 come, who shall destroy
Her with sharp pain . He will not life support
By earth nor its base metals, but by love,
Wisdom, and virtue ; and his land shall be
The land 'twixt either Feltro³. In his might

¹ Still afterfood.] So Frezzi :

La voglia sempre ha fame, e mai non s'empie,
Ed al più pasto più riman digiuna.
Il Quadriregio, lib. ii. cap. xi.
Venturi observes that the verse in the original is borrowed by Berni
2 That greyhound.] This passage has been commonly understood as an
eulogium on the liberal spirit of his Veronese patron, Can Grande della
Scala. 8 'Twixt either Feltro.] Verona, the country of Can della Scala, is
situated between Feltro, a city in the Marca Trivigiana, and Monte Feltro,
a city in the territory of Urbino. But Dante perhaps does not merely point
out the place of Can Grande's nativity, for he may allude further to a pro-
phecy, ascribed to Michael Scot, which imported that the " Dog of Verona
would be lord of Padua and of all the Marca Trivigiana." It was fulfilled
in the year 1329, a little before Can Grande's death. See G. Villani Hist.
1. x. cap. cv. and cxli. and some lively criticism by Gasparo Gozzi, entitled
Giudizio degli Antichi Poeti, &c. , printed at the end of the Zatta edition of
Dante, t. iv. part ii. p. 15. The prophecy, it is likely, was a forgery ; for
Michael died before 1300, when Can Grande was only nine years old. See
Hell, xx. 115, and Par. xvii. 75. Troya has given a new interpretation to
Dante's prediction, which he applies to Uguccione della Faggiola, whose
country also was situated between two Feltros . See the Veltro Allegorico
di Dante, p. 110. But after all the pains he has taken, this very able writer
fails to make it clear that Uguccione, though he acted a prominent part as a
Ghibelline leader, is intended here or in Purgatory, c. xxxiii. 38. The main
proofs rest on an ambiguous report mentioned by Boccaccio of the Inferno
being dedicated to him, and on a suspicious letter attributed to a certain friar
Ilario, in which the friar describes Dante addressing him as a stranger, and
desiring him to convey that portion of the poem to Uguccione. There is no
direct allusion to him throughout the Divina Commedia, as there is to the
other chief public protectors of our poet during his exile.
(6) THE VISION. 103-132.

Shall safety to Italia's plains¹ arise,

For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,
Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.
He, with incessant chase, through every towr.
Shall worry, until he to hell at length
Restore her, thence by envy first let loose.
I, for thy profit pondering, now devise
That thou mayst follow me ; and I, thy guide,
Will lead thee hence through an eternal space,
Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see
Spirits of old tormented, who invoke
A second death2 ; and those next view, who dwell
Content in fire³, for that they hope to come,
Whene'er the time may be, among the blest,
Into whose regions if thou then desire
To ascend, a spirit worthier than I
Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart,
Thou shalt be left : for that Almighty King,
Who reigns above, a rebel to his law
Adjudges me ; and therefore hath decreed
That, to his city, none through me should come.
He in all parts hath sway ; there rules, there holds
His citadel and throne. O happy those,
Whom there he chuses !" I to him in few :
"Bard ! by that God, whom thou didst not adore,
I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse
I may escape) to lead me where thou said'st,
That I Saint Peter's gate5 may view, and those
Who, as thou tell'st, are in such dismal plight."
Onward he moved, I close his steps pursued.

' Italia's plains.] " Umile Italia," from Virgil, Æn. lib. iii. 522.
Humilemque videmus
Italiam.
• Asecond death.] " And in these days men shall seek death, and shall
not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." Rev. ix. 6.
Content in fire.] The spirits in Purgatory. 4 A spirit worthier.]
Beatrice, who conducts the Poetthrough Paradise. 5 Saint Peter's gate.]
The gate of Purgatory, which the Poet feigns to be guarded by an angel
plared on that station by St. Peter
1-24. HELL, CANTO II. (7)

CANTO II.

ARGUMENT.
After the invocation, which poets are used to prefix to their works, he shows,
that, on a consideration of his own strength, he doubted whether it suf
ficed for the journey proposed to him, but that, being comforted by Virgil,
he at last took courage, and followed him as his guide and master.
Now was the day departing¹ , and the air,
Imbrown'd with shadows, from their toils released
All animals on earth ; and I alone
Prepared myself the conflict to sustain,
Both of sad pity, and that perilous road,
Which my unerring memory shall retrace.
O Muses ! O high genius ! now vouchsafe
Your aid. O mind2 ! that all I saw hast kept
Safe in a written record, here thy worth
And eminent endowments come to proof.
I thus began : " Bard ! thou who art my guide,
Consider well, if virtue be in me
Sufficient, ere to this high enterprise
Thou trust me. Thou hast told that Silvius' sire³,
Yet clothed in corruptible flesh, among
The immortal tribes had entrance, and was there
Sensibly present. Yet if heaven's great Lord,
Almighty foe to ill, such favour show'd
In contemplation of the high effect,
Both what and who from him should issue forth,
It seems in reason's judgment well deserved ;
Sith he of Rome and of Rome's empire wide,
In heaven's empyreal height was chosen sire :
Both which, if truth be spoken, were ordain'd
Now was the day.] A compendium of Virgil's description, En. lib. iv.
522. Compare Apollonius Rhodius, lib. iii. 744. and lib. iv. 1058.
The day gan failin ; and the darke night,
That revith bestis from their businesse,
Berafte me my booke, &c. Chaucer. The Assemble ofFoules
2 O mind.]
O thought! that write all that I met, Ofmy braine, now shall men see
And in the tresorie it set If any virtue in thee be.
Chaucer. Temple of Fame, b. ii. v. 18.
Silvius' sire.] Encas.
(8) THE VISION. 25-58.

And stablish'd for the holy place, where sits

Who to great Peter's sacred chair succeeds.
He from this journey, in thy song renown'd,
Learn'd things, that to his victory gave rise
And to the papal robe. In after-times
The chosen vessel¹ also travel'd there²,
To bring us back assurance in that faith
Which is the entrance to salvation's way.
But I, why should I there presume ? or who
Permits it ? not Æneas I, nor Paul.
Myself I deem not worthy, and none else
Will deem me. I, if on this voyage then
I venture, fear it will in folly end.
Thou, who art wise, better my meaning know'st,
Than I can speak." As one, who unresolves
What he hath late resolved, and with new thoughts
Changes his purpose, from his first intent
Removed ; e'en such was I on that dun coast,
Wasting in thought my enterprise, at first
So eagerly embraced. " If right thy words
I scan," replied that shade magnanimous,
66
Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd³, which oft
So overcasts a man, that he recoils
From noblest resolution, like a beast
At some false semblance in the twilight gloom.
That from this terror thou mayst free thyself,
I will instruct thee why I came, and what
I heard in that same instant, when for thee
Grief touch'd me first. I was among the tribe,
Who rest suspended¹, when a dame, so blest
And lovely I besought her to command,
Call'd me ; her eyes were brighter than the star
Of day ; and she, with gentle voice and soft,
Angelically tuned, her speech address'd :
1 The chosen vessel.] St. Paul. Acts ix. 15. " But the Lord said unto
him, Go thy way ; for he is a chosen vessel unto me." 2 There.] This
refers to "the immortal tribes," v. 15. St. Paul having been caught up to
heaven. 2 Cor. xii. 2. 3 Thy soul is by vile fear assail'd.]
L'anima tua è da viltate offesa.
So in Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. iii. c. i. st. 53. Se l'alma avete offesa da viltate
Who rest suspended.] The spirits in Limbo, neither admitted to a state
ofglory nor doomed to punishment.
59-88. HELL, CANTO II. (9)

' O courteous shade of Mantua ! thou whose fame

' Yet lives, and shall live long as nature lasts¹ !
A friend, not of my fortune but myself²,
' On the wide desert in his road has met
' Hindrance so great, that he through fear has turn'd.
' Now much I dread lest he past help have stray'd,
' And I be risen too late for his relief,
' From what in heaven of him I heard. Speed now,
And by thy eloquent persuasive tongue,
' And by all means for his deliverance meet,
' Assist him. So to me will comfort spring.
6
' I, who now bid thee on this errand forth,
Am Beatrice³ ; from a place I come
• Revisited with joy. Love brought me thence,
' Who prompts my speech. When in my Master's sight
' I stand, thy praise to him I oft will tell.'
" She then was silent, and I thus began :
' O Lady ! by whose influence alone
' Mankind excels whatever is contain'd¹
' Within that heaven which hath the smallest orb,
' So thy command delights me, that to obey,
' If it were done already, would seem late.
' No need hast thou further to speak thy will :
' Yet tell the reason, why thou art not loth
• To leave that ample space, where to return
' Thou burnest, for this centre here beneath .'
6
"She then : Since thou so deeply wouldst inquire,
' I will instruct thee briefly why no dread
' Hinders my entrance here. Those things alone
' Are to be fear'd whence evil may proceed ;
1 As nature lasts .] Quanto 'l moto lontana. " Mondo," instead of
" moto," which Lombardi claims as a reading peculiar to the Nidobeatina
edition and some MSS., is also in Landino's edition of 1484. Ofthis Monti
was not aware. See his Proposta, under the word " Lontanare." 2A
friend, not of my fortune but myself.] Se non fortunæ sed hominibus
solere esse amicum. Cornelii Nepotis Attici Vitæ, c. ix.
Cætera fortunæ, non mea turba, fuit. Ovid. Trist. lib. i. el. 5. 34.
My Fortune and my seeming destiny
He made the bond, and broke it not with me.
Coleridge's Death of Wallenstein, act i. sc. 7.
3 Beatrice.] The daughter of Folco Portinari, who is here invested with
the character of celestial wisdom or theology. See the Life of Dante pre-
fixed. Whatever is contain'd.] Every other thing comprised within
the lunar heaven, which, being the lowest of all, has the smallest circle.
(10) THE VISION. 89-123 .

' None else, for none are terrible beside.

I am so framed by God, thanks to his grace !
' That any sufferance of your misery
' Touches me not, nor flame of that fierce fire
Assails me. In high heaven a blessed dame 1
·
Resides, who mourns with such effectual grief
' That hindrance, which I send thee to remove,
That God's stern judgment to her will inclines.
To Lucia 2 calling, her she thus bespake :
"Now doth thy faithful servant need thy aid,
"And I commend him to thee." At her word
6
Sped Lucia, of all cruelty the foe,
' And coming to the place, where I abode
' Seated with Rachel, her of ancient days,
' She thus address'd me : " Thou true praise of God !
" Beatrice ! why is not thy succour lent
"To him, who so much loved thee, as to leave
" For thy sake all the multitude admires ?
" Dost thou not hear how pitiful his wail,
"Nor mark the death, which in the torrent flood,
"Swoln mightier than a sea, him struggling holds ? "
' Ne'er among men did any with such speed
' Haste to their profit, flee from their annoy,
6
As, when these words were spoken, I came here,
' Down from my blessed seat, trusting the force
' Of thy pure eloquence, which thee, and all
' Who well have mark'd it, into honour brings.'
"When she had ended, her bright beaming eyes
Tearful she turn'd aside ; whereat I felt
Redoubled zeal to serve thee. As she will'd ,
Thus am I come : I saved thee from the beast,
Who thy near way across the goodly mount
Prevented. What is this comes o'er thee then ?
Why, why dost thou hang back ? why in thy breast
Harbour vile fear ? why hast not courage there,

1 A blessed dame.] The Divine Mercy. 2 Lucia.] The enlightening

Grace of Heaven ; as it is commonly explained. But Lombardi has well
observed, that as our Poet places her in the Paradise, c. xxxii., amongst the
souls of the blessed, so it is probable that she, like Beatrice, had a real ex-
istence ; and he accordingly supposes her to have been Saint Lucia the
martyr, although she is here representative of an abstract idea.
124-141. HELL, CANTO II. (11)

And noble daring ; since three maids ' , so blest,

Thy safety plan, e'en in the court of heaven ;
And so much certain good my words forebode ?"
As florets², by the frosty air of night
Bent down and closed, when day has blanch'd their leaves,
Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems ;
So was my fainting vigour new restored,
And to my heart such kindly courage ran,
That I as one undaunted soon replied :
" O full of pity she, who undertook
My succour ! and thou kind, who didst perform
So soon her true behest ! With such desire
Thou hast disposed me to renew my voyage,
That my first purpose fully is resumed .
Lead on one only will is in us both.
Thou art my guide, my master thou, and lord."
So spake I ; and when he had onward moved,
I enter'd on the deep and woody way.

CANTO III.

ARGUMENT.
Dante, following Virgil, comes to the gate of Hell ; where, after having read
the dreadful words that are written thereon, they both enter. Here, as he
1 Three maids.] The Divine Mercy, Lucia, and Beatrice.
As florets.] Come fioretto dal notturno gelo
Chinato e chiuso, poi che il sol l'imbianca,
S'apre e si leva dritto sopra il stelo.
Boccaccio. Il Filostrato, p. iii. st. xiii.
But right as floures through the cold of night
Iclosed, stoupen in her stalkes lowe,
Redressen hem agen the sunne bright,
And spreden in her kinde course by rowe, &c.
Chaucer. Troilus and Creseide, b. ii.
It is from Boccaccio rather than Dante that Chaucer has taken this simile,
which he applies to Troilus on the same occasion as Boccaccio has done. He
appears indeed to have imitated or rather paraphrased the Filostrato in his
Troilus and Creseide ; for it is not yet known who that Lollius is, from whom
he professes to take the poem, and who is again mentioned in the House of
Fame, b. iii. The simile in the text has been imitated by many others ;
among whom see Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. 1. c. xii . st. 86. Marino, Adone, c.
xvii. st. 63. and Son. " Donna vestita di nero," and Spenser's Faery Queen,
b. iv. c. xii. st. 34. and b. vi. c. ii. st. 35. and Boccaccio again in the Teseide,
lib. 9. st. 28..
(12) THE VISION. 1-25 .

understands from Virgil, those were punished who had past their time (for
living it could not be called) in a state of apathy and indifference both to
good and evil. Then pursuing their way, they arrive at the river Acheron ;
and there find the old ferryman Charon, who takes the spirits over to the
opposite shore ; which as soon as Dante reaches, he is seized with terror,
and falls into a trance.

" THROUGH me you pass into the city of woe :

Through me you pass into eternal pain :
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved :
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love¹.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon2, ye who enter here."
Such characters, in colour dim, I mark’d
Over a portal's lofty arch inscribed.
Whereat I thus : " Master, these words import
Hard meaning." He as one prepared replied :
" Here thou must all distrust behind thee leave ;
Here be vile fear extinguish'd. We are come
Where I have told thee we shall see the souls
To misery doom'd, who intellectual good
Have lost." And when his hand³ he had stretch'd forth
To mine, with pleasant looks, whence I was cheer'd,
Into that secret place he led me on.
Here sighs , with lamentations and loud moans,
Resounded through the air pierced by no star,
That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues,
Horrible languages, outcries of woe,
Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,
-Power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.]
The three Persons ofthe Blessed Trinity.
All hope abandon. ] Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' entrate.
So Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. 1. c. 8. st. 53. Lascia pur della vita ogni speranza.
3 And when his hand.]
With that my hand in his he caught anone ;
On which I comfort caught, and went in fast.
Chaucer. The Assemble of Foules.
Here sighs.] " Post hæc omnia ad loca tartarea, et ad os infernalis
baratri deductus sum, qui simile videbatur puteo, loca vero eadem horridis
tenebris, fætoribus exhalantibus, stridoribus quoque et nimiis plena erant
ejulatibus, juxta quem infernum vermis erat infinitæ magnitudinis, ligatus
maxima catena." Alberici Visio, § 9.
26-50. HELL, CANTO III. (13)

With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds,

Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls
Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd,
Like to the sand¹ that in the whirlwind flies.
I then, with error 2 yet encompast, cried :
" O master ! what is this I hear ? what race
Are these, who seem so overcome with woe ?"
He thus to me : " This miserable fate
Suffer the wretched souls of those, who lived
Without or praise or blame, with that ill band
Of angels mix'd, who nor rebellious proved,
Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves
Were only. From his bounds Heaven drove them forth
Not to impair his lustre ; nor the depth
Of Hell receives them, lest the accursed tribe³
Should glory thence with exultation vain ."
I then : " Master ! what doth aggrieve them thus,
That they lament so loud ?" He straight replied :
" That will I tell thee briefly. These of death
No hope may entertain : and their blind life
So meanly passes, that all other lots
They envy. Fame 4 of them the world hath none,
Nor suffers ; mercy and justice scorn them both.
Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by."
And I, who straightway look'd, beheld a flag ",
1 Like to the sand.] -Unnumber'd as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,
Levied to side with warring winds, and poise
Their lighter wings.- Milton, P. L. b. ii. 903.
2 With error.] Instead of " error," Vellutello's edition of 1544 has " or-
ror, a reading remarked also by Landino, in his notes. So much mistaken
is the collater of the Monte Casino MS. in calling it " lezione da niuno no-
tata ;" 66 a reading which no one has observed." 3 Lest the accursed
tribe. ] Lest the rebellious angels should exult at seeing those who were
neutral, and therefore less guilty, condemned to the same punishment with
themselves. Rossetti, in a long note on this passage, has ably exposed the
plausible interpretation of Monti, who would have " alcuna gloria " mean
" no glory," and thus make Virgil say " that the evil ones would derive no
honour from the society of the neutral." A similar mistake in the same
word is made elsewhere by Lombardi. See my note on c. xii. v. 9.
Fame.] Cancel'd from heaven and sacred memory,
Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell.
Milton, P. L. b. vi. 380.
Therefore eternal silence be their doom. Ibid. 385.
Aflag.] -All the grisly legions that troop
Under the sooty flag of Acheron. Milton, Comus
(14) THE VISION. 51-77.

Which whirling ran around so rapidly,

That it no pause obtain'd : and following came
Such a long train of spirits, I should ne'er
Have thought that death so many had despoil'd.
When some of these I recognised, I saw
And knew the shade of him, who to base fear¹
Yielding, abjured his high estate. Forthwith
I understood, for certain, this the tribe
Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing
And to his foes. These wretches, who ne'er lived,
Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung
By wasps and hornets, which bedew'd their cheeks
With blood, that, mix'd with tears, dropp'd to their feet,
And by disgustful worms was gather'd there.
Then looking further onwards, I beheld
A throng upon the shore of a great stream :
Whereat I thus : " Sir ! grant me now to know
Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem
So eager to pass o'er, as I discern
Through the blear light 2 ? " He thus to me in few :
" This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive
Beside the woeful tide of Acheron."
Then with eyes downward cast, and fill'd with shame,
Fearing my words offensive to his ear,
Till we had reach'd the river, I from speech
Abstain❜d. And lo ! toward us in a bark
3
Comes on an old man ³, hoary white with eld,
1 Who to base fear
Yielding, abjured his high estate.--]
This is commonly understood of Celestine the Fifth, who abdicated the pa-
pal power in 1294. Venturi mentions a work written by Innocenzio Bar-
cellini, of the Celestine order, and printed at Milan in 1701, in which an at-
tempt is made to put a different interpretation on this passage. Lombardi
would apply it to some one of Dante's fellow-citizens, who, refusing, through
avarice or want of spirit, to support the party of the Bianchi at Florence, had
been the main occasion of the miseries that befel them. But the testimony
of Fazio degli Uberti, who lived so near the time of our author, seems almost
decisive on this point. He expressly speaks of the Pope Celestine as being
in hell. See the Dittamondo, L. iv. cap. xxi. The usual interpretation is
further confirmed in a passage in Canto xxvii. v. 101. Petrarch, while he
passes a high encomium on Celestine for his abdication of the papal power,
gives us to understand that there were others who thought it a disgraceful
act. See the De Vità Solit. b. ii. sect. iii. c. 18. 2 Through the blear
light.] Lo fioco lume. So Filicaja, canz. vi. st. 12 : Qual fioco lume.
An old man.] Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
78-103. HELL, CANTO III. (15)

Crying, "Woe to you, wicked spirits ! hope not

Ever to see the sky again. I come
To take you to the other shore across,
Into eternal darkness, there to dwell
In fierce heat and in ice¹ . And thou, who there
Standest, live spirit ! get thee hence, and leave
These who are dead." But soon as he beheld
I left them not, " By other way,” said he,
66
By other haven shalt thou come to shore,
Not by this passage ; thee a nimbler boat 2
Must carry." Then to him thus spake my guide ;
" Charon ! thyself torment not : so 't is will'd,
Where will and power are one : ask thou no more."
Straightway in silence fell the shaggy cheeks
Of him, the boatman o'er the livid lake³,
Around whose eyes glared wheeling flames. Meanwhile
Those spirits, faint and naked, colour changed,
And gnash'd their teeth, soon as the cruel words
They heard. God and their parents they blasphemed,
The human kind, the place, the time, and seed,
That did engender them and give them birth.
Then all together sorely wailing drew
To the curst strand, that every man must pass
Who fears not God. Charon, demoniac form,
With eyes of burning coal 4, collects them all,
Beckoning, and each, that lingers, with his oar
Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
Canities inculta jacet ; stant lumina flamma.
1 Virg. En. lib. vi. 298.
In fierce heat and in ice.] -The bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth.- Milton, P. L. b. ii. 601.
--The delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice. Shakspeare, Measure for
Measure, a. iii. s. 1. See note to C. xxxii. 23.
2 A nimbler boat.] He perhaps alludes to the bark " swift and light," in
which the Angel conducts the spirits to Purgatory. See Purg. c. ii. 40.
3 The livid lake. ] Vada livida. Virg. Æn. lib. vi. 320.
-Totius ut lacus putidæque paludis
Lividissima, maximeque est profunda vorago. Catullus, xviii. 10.
With eyes ofburning coal.]
His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes,
Like two great beacons, glared bright and wide.
Spenser, F. Q. b. vi. c. vii. st. 42
(16) THE VISION. 104-125

Strikes. As fall off the light autumnal leaves¹,

One still another following, till the bough
Strews all its honours on the earth beneath ;
E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood
Cast themselves, one by one, down from the shore,
Each at a beck, as falcon at his call2.
Thus go they over through the umber'd wave ;
And ever they on the opposing bank
Be landed, on this side another throng
Still gathers . " Son," thus spake the courteous guide,
" Those who die subject to the wrath of God
All here together come from every clime,
And to o'erpass the river are not loth :
For so heaven's justice goads them on, that fear
Is turn'd into desire . Hence ne'er hath past
Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain,
Now mayst thou know the import of his words."
This said, the gloomy region trembling shook
So terribly, that yet with clammy dews
Fear chills my brow. The sad earth gave a blast,
That, lightening, shot forth a vermilion flame,
Which all my senses conquer'd quite, and I
Down dropp'd, as one with sudden slumber seized.

CANTO IV.

ARGUMENT.
The Poct, being roused by a clap of thunder, and following his guide onwards
descends into Limbo, which is the first circle of Hell, where he finds the
souls of those, who, although they have lived virtuously and have not to
suffer for great sins, nevertheless, through lack of baptism , merit not the
bliss of Paradise. Hence he is led on by Virgil to descend into the second
circle.
Asfall offthe light autumnal leaves.]
Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo
Labsa cadunt folia.- Virg. Æn. lib. vi. 309.
Thick as autumnal leaves, that strew the brooks
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbower. Milton, P. L. b. i. 304.
Compare Apoll. Rhod. lib. iv. p . 214.
As falcon at his call.] This is Vellutello's explanation, and seems pre-
ferable to that commonly given : " as a bird that is enticed to the cage by the
call of another."
1-34. HELL, CANTO IV. (17)
BROKE the deep slumber in my brain a craslı
Of heavy thunder, that I shook myself,
As one by main force roused. Risen upright,
My rested eyes I moved around, and search'd,
With fixed ken, to know what place it was
Wherein I stood. For certain, on the brink
I found me of the lamentable vale,
The dread abyss, that joins a thundrous sound
Of plaints innumerable. Dark and deep,
And thick with clouds o'erspread, mine eye in vain
Explored its bottom, nor could aught discern.
"Now let us to the blind world there beneath
Descend ;" the bard began, all pale of look :
" I go the first, and thou shalt follow next.”
Then I, his alter'd hue perceiving, thus :
66 How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread,
Who still art wont to comfort me in doubt ? "
He then : "The anguish of that race below
With pity stains my cheek, which thou for fear
Mistakest. Let us on. Our length of way
Urges to haste." Onward, this said, he moved ;
And entering led me with him, on the bounds
Of the first circle that surrounds the abyss .
Here, as mine ear could note, no plaint was heard
Except of sighs, that made the eternal air
Tremble, not caused by tortures, but from grief
Felt by those multitudes, many and vast,
Of men, women, and infants. Then to me
The gentle guide : “ Inquirest thou not what spirits
Are these which thou beholdest ? Ere thou pass
Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin
Were blameless ; and if aught they merited ,
It profits not, since baptism was not theirs,
The portal 2 to thy faith. If they before

A thundrous sound.] Imitated, as Mr. Thyer has remarked, by Milton,

P. L. b. viii. 242 :
-But long, ere our approaching, heard
Noise, other than the sound of dance or song,
2 Portal.] Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.
" Porta della fede." This was an alteration made in the text
by the Academicians della Crusca, on the authority, as it would appear, of
only two MSS. The other reading is " parte della fede ; " " part ofthe faith."
(18) THE VISION. 35-59.

The Gospel lived, they served not God aright ;

And among such am I. For these defects,
And for no other evil, we are lost ;
Only so far afflicted, that we live
Desiring without hope !." Sore grief assail'd
My heart at hearing this, for well I knew
Suspended in that Limbo many a soul
Of mighty worth. " O tell me, sire revered !
Tell me, my master ! " I began, through wish
Of full assurance in that holy faith
Which vanquishes all error ; " say, did e'er
Any, or through his own or other's merit,
Come forth from thence, who afterward was blest ? "
Piercing the secret purport of my speech,
He answer'd : " I was new to that estate.
When I beheld a puissant one³ arrive
Amongst us, with victorious trophy crown'd.
He forth the shade of our first parent drew,
Abel his child, and Noah righteous man,
Of Moses lawgiver for faith approved ,
Of patriarch Abraham, and David king,
Israel with his sire and with his sons,
Nor without Rachel whom so hard he won,
And others many more, whom he to bliss
Exalted. Before these, be thou assured,

1 Desiring without hope.]

And with desire to languish without hope. Milton, P. L. b. x. 995.
2 Secret purport.] Lombardi well observes, that Dante seems to have
been restrained by awe and reverence from uttering the name of Christ in
this place of torment ; and that for the same cause, probably, it does not oc-
cur once throughout the whole of this first part of the poem. 3 A puissant
one. ] Our Saviour. He forth.] The author of the Quadriregio has
introduced a sublime description into his imitation of this passage —
Pose le reni là dove si serra ;
Ma Cristo lui e 'l catarcion d'acciajo
E queste porte allora gettò a terra.
Quando in la grotta entrò 1 lucido rajo,
Adamo disse : questo è lo splendore
Che mi spirò in faccia da primajo.
Venuto se' aspettato Signore. L. ii. cap. 3.
Satan hung writhing round the bolt ; but him,
The huge portcullis, and those gates of brass,
Christ threw to earth. As down the cavern stream'd
The radiance : " Light," said Adam, " this, that breathed
First on me. Thou art come, expected Lord ! "
Much that follows is closely copied by Frezzi from our Poet.
60-90. HELL, CANTO IV. (19)

No spirit of human kind was ever saved."

We, while he spake, ceased not our onward road,
Still passing through the wood ; for so I name
Those spirits thick beset. We were not far
On this side from the summit, when I kenn'd
A flame, that o'er the darken'd hemisphere
Prevailing shined. Yet we a little space
Were distant, not so far but I in part
Discover'd that a tribe in honour high
That place possess'd. " O thou, who every art
And science valuest ! who are these, that boast
Such honour, separate from all the rest ? "
He answer'd : " The renown of their great names,
That echoes through your world above, acquires
Favour in heaven, which holds them thus advanced."
Meantime a voice I heard : " Honour the bard
Sublime ! his shade returns, that left us late ! "
No sooner ceased the sound, than I beheld
Four mighty spirits toward us bend their steps,
Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad².
When thus my master kind began : " Mark him,
Who in his right hand bears that falchion keen,
The other three preceding, as their lord.
This is that Homer, of all bards supreme :
Flaccus the next, in satire's vein excelling ;
The third is Naso ; Lucan is the last.
Because they all that appellation own,
With which the voice singly accosted me,
Honouring they greet me thus, and well they judge."
So I beheld united the bright school
Of him the monarch of sublimest song³,

Honour the bard- Sublime. ] Onorate l'altissimo poeta. So Chiabrera,

Canz. Erioche. 32. Onorando l' altissimo poeta.
2 Ofsemblance neither sorrowful nor glad.]
She nas to sober ne to glad. Chaucer's Dream.
The monarch of sublimest song .] Homer. It appears from a passage
in the Convito, that there was no Latin translation of Homer in Dante's
time. " Sappia ciascuno, &c. " p. 20. "Every one should know, that
nothing, harmonized by musical enchainment, can be transmuted from one
tongue into another without breaking all its sweetness and harmony. And
this is the reason why Homer has never been turned from Greek into Latin,
as the other writers we have of theirs." This sentence, I fear, may well be
regarded as conclusive against the present undertaking. Yet would I will-
c 2
(20) THE VISION. 91-114.

That o'er the others like an eagle soars.

When they together short discourse had held,
They turn'd to me, with salutation kind
Beckoning me ; at the which my master smiled :
Nor was this all ; but greater honour still
They gave me, for they made me of their tribe ;
And I was sixth amid so learn'd a band.
Far as the luminous beacon on we pass'd,
Speaking of matters, then befitting well
To speak, now fitter left untold ¹ . At foot
Of a magnificent castle we arrived,
Seven times with lofty walls begirt, and round
Defended by a pleasant stream. O'er this
As o'er dry land we pass'd. Next, through seven gates,
I with those sages enter'd, and we came
Into a mead with lively verdure fresh.
There dwelt a race, who slow their eyes around
Majestically moved, and in their port
Bore eminent authority : they spake
Seldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet.
We to one side retired, into a place
Open and bright and lofty, whence each one
Stood manifest to view. Incontinent,
There on the green enamel² of the plain

ingly bespeak for it at least so much indulgence as Politian claimed for him-
self, when in the Latin translation, which he afterwards made of Homer, but
which has since unfortunately perished, he ventured on certain liberties both
of phraseology and metre, for which the nicer critics of his time thought fit
to call him to an account : " Ego vero tametsi rudis in primis non adeo ta-
men obtusi sum pectoris in versibus maxime faciundis, ut spatia ista morasque
non sentiam. Vero cum mihi de Græco pæne ad verbum forent antiquissima
interpretanda carmina, fateor affectavi equidem ut in verbis obsoletam ve-
tustatem, sic in mensurâ ipsâ et numero gratam quandam ut speravi novi-
tatem." Ep. lib. i. Baptista Guarino.
1 Fitter left untold.] Che'l tacere è bello.
So our Poet, in Canzone 14: La vide in parte che'l tacere è bello.
Ruccellai, Le Api, 789 : Ch' a dire è brutto ed a tacerlo è bello.
And Bembo: Vie più bello è il tacerle, che il favellarne. Gli Asol. lib. 1.
2 Green enamel.] " Verde smalto." Dante here uses a metaphor that
has since become very common in poetry.
O'er the smooth enamel'd green. Milton, Arcades.
"Enameling, and perhaps pictures in enamel, were common in the middle
ages, &c." Warton, Hist. of Eng. Poetry, v. i. c. xiii. p. 376. " This art
flourished most at Limoges, in France. So early as the year 1197, we have
duas tabulas æneas superauratas de labore Limogiæ. Chart. ann. 1197 apud
Ughelin. tom. vii. Ital. Sacr. p. 1274." Warton. Ibid. Additions to v. i.
115-128. HELL, CANTO IV. (21)
Were shown me the great spirits, by whose sight
I am exalted in my own esteem.
Electra there I saw accompanied
By many, among whom Hector I knew,
Anchises' pious son, and with hawk's eye
Cæsar all arm'd, and by Camilla there
Penthesilea. On the other side,
Old king Latinus seated by his child
Lavinia, and that Brutus I beheld
Who Tarquin chased, Lucretia, Cato's wife
Marcia, with Julia² and Cornelia there ;
And sole apart retired, the Soldan fierce³.
Then when a little more I raised my brow,
I spied the master of the sapient throng ",
printed in vol. ii. Compare Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England,
vol. i. c. ii. 1 Electra.] The daughter of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus
the founder of Troy. See Virg. Æn. 1. viii. 134. as referred to by Dante in
the treatise " De Monarchia," lib. ii. " Electra, scilicet, nata magni no-
minis regis Atlantis, ut de ambobus testimonium reddit poeta noster in oc-
tavo, ubi Æneas ad Evandrum sic ait, Dardanus Iliacæ,' &c." 2 Julia.]
The daughter of Julius Cæsar, and wife of Pompey. 3 The Soldan
fierce.] Saladin, or Salaheddin, the rival of Richard Cœur de Lion. See
D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. the Life of Saladin, by Bohao'edin Ebn Shedad,
published by Albert Schultens, with a Latin translation, and Knolles's Hist
ofthe Turks, p. 57 to 73. "About this time (1193) died the great Sultan
Saladin, the greatest terror of the Christians, who, mindful of man's fragility
and the vanity of worldly honours, commanded at the time of his death no
solemnity to be used at his burial, but only his shirt, in manner of an en-
sign, made fast unto the point of a lance, to be carried before his dead body
as an ensign, a plain priest going before, and crying aloud unto the people
in this sort, Saladin, Conqueror of the East, of all the greatness and riches
he had in his life, carrieth not with him any thing more than his shirt.' A
sight worthy so great a king, as wanted nothing to his eternal_commend-
ation more than the true knowledge of his salvation in Christ Jesus. He
reigned about sixteen years with great honour." He is introduced by Pe-
trarch in the Triumph of Fame, c. ii.; and by Boccaccio in the Decameron,
G. x. N. 9. Themaster ofthe sapient throng.] Maestro di color che sanno.
Aristotle. Petrarch assigns the first place to Plato. See Triumph of
Fame, c. iii.
Volsimi da man manca, e vidi Plato
Che ' n quella schiera andò piu presso al segno
A qual aggiunge, a chi dal cielo è dato.
Aristotile poi pien d' alto ingegno.
Pulci, in his Morgante Maggiore, c. xviii. says,
Tu se' il maestro di color che sanno.
The reverence in which the Stagirite was held by our author, cannot be
better shown than by a passage in his Convito, p. 142 : " Che Aristotile sia
degnissimo, &c." " That Aristotle is most worthy of trust and obedience,
may be thus proved. Amongst the workmen or artificers of different arts
and operations, which are in order to some final art or operation, he, who is
(22) THE VISION. 129-141 .

Seated amid the philosophic train.

Him all admire, all pay him reverence due.
There Socrates and Plato both I mark'd
Nearest to him in rank, Democritus,
Who sets the world at chance ¹ , Diogenes,
With Heraclitus, and Empedocles,
And Anaxagoras, and Thales sage,
Zeno, and Dioscorides well read
In nature's secret lore. Orpheus I mark'd
And Linus, Tully and moral Seneca,
Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrates,
Galenus, Avicen2, and him who made
That commentary vast, Averroes 3.

the artist or operator in that, ought chiefly to be obeyed and trusted by the
rest, as being the one who alone considers the ultimate end of all the other
ends. Thus he, who exercises the occupation of a knight, ought to be obeyed
by the sword-cutler, the bridle-maker, the armourer, and by all those trades
which are in order to the occupation of a knight. And because all human
operations respect a certain end, which is that of human life, to which man,
inasmuch as he is man, is ordained, the master or artist, who considers of
and teaches us that, ought chiefly to be obeyed and trusted : now this is no
other than Aristotle ; and he is therefore the most deserving of trust and
obedience."
1 Democritus,
Who sets the world at chance.]
Democritus, who maintained the world to have been formed by the fortui
tous concourse of atoms. 2 Avicen.] See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. arti-
cle Sina. He died in 1050. Pulci here again imitates our Poet :
Avicenna quel che il sentimento
Intese di Aristotile e i segreti,
Averrois che fece il gran comento. Morg. Mag. c. xxv.
Chaucer, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, makes the Doctour of
Phisike familiar with
--- Avicen,
Averrois.-
Sguarda Avicenna mio con tre corone,
Ch' egli fù Prence, e di scienza pieno,
E util tanto all' umane persone. Frezzi. Il Quadrır. 1. iv. cap. 9.
Fuit Avicenna vir summi ingenii, magnus Philosophus, excellens medicus,
et summus apud suos Theologus. Sebastian Scheffer, Introd. in Artein
Medicam, p. 63, as quoted in the Historical Observations on the Quadriregio.
Ediz. 1725.
3 Him who made
That commentary vast, Averroes.]
Il gran Platone, e l' altro che sta attento
Mirando il cielo , e sta a lui a lato
Averrois, che fece il gran comento.
Frezzi. Il Quadrir. 1. iv. cap. 9.
Averroes, called by the Arabians Roschd, translated and commented the
works ofAristotle. According to Tiraboschi (Storia della Lett . Ital. t. v. 1. ii.
142-148. HELL, CANTO IV. (23)

Of all to speak at full were vain attempt ;

For my wide theme so urges, that oft-times
i
My words fall short of what bechanced. In twò
The six associates part. Another way
My sage guide leads me, from that air serene,
Into a climate ever vex'd with storms :
And to a part I come, where no light shines.

CANTO V.

ARGUMENT.
Coming into the second circle of Hell, Dante at the entrance beholds Minos
the Infernal Judge, by whom he is admonished to beware how he enters
those regions. Here he witnesses the punishment of carnal sinners, who
are tost about ceaselessly in the dark air by the most furious winds.
Amongst these, he meets with Francesca of Rimini, through pity at whose
sad tale he falls fainting to the ground.
FROM the first circle¹ I descended thus
Down to the second, which, a lesser space
Embracing, so much more of grief contains,
Provoking bitter moans. There Minos stands,

c. ii. sect. 4. ) he was the source of modern philosophical impiety. The critic
quotes some passages from Petrarch (Senil. 1. v. ep. iii. et Oper. v. ii. p. 1143)
to show how strongly such sentiments prevailed in the time of that poet, by
whom they were held in horror and detestation. He adds, that this fanatic
admirer of Aristotle translated his writings with that felicity, which might be
expected from one who did not know a syllable of Greek, and who was there-
fore compelled to avail himself ofthe unfaithful Arabic versions. D'Herbelot,
on the other hand, informs us, that " Averroes was the first who translated
Aristotle from Greek into Arabic, before the Jews had made their translation ;
and that we had for a long time no other text of Aristotle, except that of the
Latin translation, which was made from this Arabic version of this great phi-
losopher (Averroes) , who afterwards added to it a very ample commentary, of
which Thomas Aquinas, and the other scholastic writers, availed themselves,
before the Greek originals of Aristotle and his commentators were known to
us in Europe." According to D'Herbelot, he died in 1198 ; 66but Tiraboschi
places that event about 1206. Averroes," says Warton, as the Asiatic
schools decayed by the indolence of the Caliphs, was one of those philosophers
who adorned the Moorish schools erected in África and Spain . He was a
professor in the University of Morocco. He wrote a commentary on all
Aristotle's works. He was styled the most Peripatetic of ul the Arabian
writers. He was born at Cordova, of an ancient Arabic family." Hist. of
Eng. Poetry, vol. i. sect. xvii. p. 441. 1 From the first circle.] Chiabre-
ra's twenty-first sonnet is on a painting, by Cesare Corte, from this Canto.
Mr. Fuseli, a much greater name, has lately employed his wonder-working
pencil on the same subject.
(24) THE VISION. 5-42.

Grinning with ghastly feature 1: he, of all

Who enter, strict examining the crimes,
Gives sentence, and dismisses them beneath,
According as he foldeth him around :
For when before him comes the ill-fated soul,
It all confesses ; and that judge severe
Of sins, considering what place in hell
Suits the transgression, with his tail so oft
Himself encircles, as degrees beneath
He dooms it to descend. Before him stand
Alway a numerous throng ; and in his turn
Each one to judgment passing, speaks, and hears
His fate, thence downward to his dwelling hurl'd.
" O thou ! who to this residence of woe
Approachest ! " when he saw me coming, cried
Minos, relinquishing his dread employ,
" Look how thou enter here ; beware in whom
Thou place thy trust ; let not the entrance broad
Deceive thee to thy harm." To him my guide :
"Wherefore exclaimest ? Hinder not his way
By destiny appointed ; so 'tis will'd,
Where will and power are one. Ask thou no more.
Now ' gin the rueful wailings to be heard.
Now am I come where many a plaining voice
Smites on mine ear. Into a place I came
Where light was silent all. Bellowing there groan'd
A noise, as of a sea in tempest torn
By warring winds. The stormy blast of hell
With restless fury drives the spirits on,
Whirl'd round and dash'd amain with sore annoy.
When they arrive before the ruinous sweep,
There shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans,
And blasphemies 'gainst the good Power in heaven.
I understood, that to this torment sad
The carnal sinners are condemn'd , in whom
Reason by lust is sway'd. As in large troops
And multitudinous, when winter reigns,
The starlings on their wings are borne abroad ;

' Grinning with ghastly feature. ] Hence Milton

Death
Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile. P. L. b. ii. 845.
43-62. HELL, CANTO V. (25)

So bears the tyrannous gust those evil souls.

On this side and on that, above, below, +
It drives them : hope of rest to solace them
Is none, nor e'en of milder pang. As cranes¹ ,
Chanting their dolorous notes, traverse the sky,
Stretch'd out in long array ; so I beheld
Spirits, who came loud wailing, hurried on
By their dire doom . Then I : " Instructor ! who
Are these, by the black air so scourged ? "—" The first
'Mong those, of whom thou question'st," he replied,
"O'er many tongues was empress. She in vice
Of luxury was so shameless, that she made
Liking2 be lawful by promulged decree,
To clear the blame she had herself incurr'd.
This is Semiramis, of whom 'tis writ,
That she succeeded Ninus her espoused³ ;
And held the land, which now the Soldan rules.
The next in amorous fury slew herself,
And to Sicheus' ashes broke her faith :
Then follows Cleopatra, lustful queen."
1 As cranes.] This simile is imitated by Lorenzo de' Medici, in his Am
ɔra, a poem, first published by Mr. Roscoe, in the Appendix to his Life of
Lorenzo :
Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes
Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried ;
And each with outstretch'd neck his rank maintains,
In marshal'd order through the ethereal void .
Roscoe, v. i. c. v. p. 257, 4to edit.
Compare Homer Il. iii. 3. Virgil, Æn. 1. x. 264. Oppian Halieut. lib. i.
320. Ruccellai, Le Api, 942. and Dante's Purgatory, xxiv. 63.
2 Liking.] His lustes were as law in his degree.
Chaucer, Monke's Tale. Nero.
3 That she succeeded Ninus her espoused.]
Che succedette a Nino e fu sua sposa.
M. Artaud, in his Histoire de Dante, p. 589, mentions a manuscript work
called Attacanti's Quadragesimale de reditu peccatoris ad Deum, in which
the line is thus cited :
Che sugger dette a Nino e fu sua sposa.
" Who suckled Ninus, and was his wife."
This remarkable reading had been before noticed by Federici. Intorno ad
alcune varianti nel testo della Divina Commedia. Ed. Milan . 1836. See
the Biblioteca Italiana. Tom. 82. p. 282. It appears from the treatise De
Monarchiâ (1. ii.) that Dante derived his knowledge of Assyrian history
from his favourite author Orosius, (1. i. c. iv.) who relates that Semiramis
both succeeded Ninus through the artifice of personating her son, and that
she committed incest with her son ; but as the name of her husband Ninus
only is there recorded, and as other historians call the son Ninias, it is pro
bable that the common reading is right.
(26) THE VISION. 63-96.

There mark'd I Helen, for whose sake so long

The time was fraught with evil ; there the great
Achilles, who with love fought to the end.
Paris I saw, and Tristan ; and beside,
A thousand more he show'd me, and by name
Pointed them out, whom love bereaved of life.
When I had heard my sage instructor name
Those dames and knights of antique days, o'erpower'd
By pity, well-nigh in amaze my mind
Was lost ; and I began : " Bard ! willingly
I would address those two together coming,
Which seem so light before the wind." He thus :
"Note thou, when nearer they to us approach.
Then by that love which carries them along,
Entreat ; and they will come." Soon as the wind
Sway'd them toward us, I thus framed my speech :
" O wearied spirits ! come, and hold discourse
With us, if by none else restrain'd." As doves
By fond desire invited, on wide wings
And firm, to their sweet nest returning home,
Cleave the air, wafted by their will along ;
Thus issued, from that troop where Dido ranks,
They, through the ill air speeding : with such force
My cry prevail'd, by strong affection urged.
" O gracious creature and benign ! who go'st
Visiting, through this element obscure ' ,
Us, who the world with bloody stain imbrued ;
If, for a friend, the King of all, we own'd,
Our prayer to him should for thy peace arise,
Since thou hast pity on our evil plight.
Of whatsoe'er to hear or to discourse
It pleases thee, that will we hear, of that
Freely with thee discourse, while e'er the wind,
As now, is mute. The land², that gave me birth,
1 Element obscure.] " L'aer perso." Much is said by the commentators
concerning the exact sense ofthe word " perso.." It cannot be explained in
clearer terms than those used by Dante himself in his Convito : "Il perso è
un colore misto di purpureo e nero, ma vince il nero." P. 185. " It is a
colour mixed of purple and black, but the black prevails.' The word re-
curs several times in this poem. Chaucer also uses it, in the Prologue to
the Canterbury Tales, Doctour of Phisike :
In sanguin and in perse he clad was alle .
The land.] Ravenna .
97-113. HELL, CANTO V. (27)

Is situate on the coast, where Po descends

To rest in ocean with his sequent streams.
" Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt ',
Entangled him by that fair form, from me
Ta'en in such cruel sort, as grieves me still :
Love, that denial takes from none beloved²,
Caught me with pleasing him so passing well,
That, as thou seest, he yet deserts me not.
Love brought us to one death : Caïna³ waits
The soul, who spilt our life." Such were their words ;
At hearing which, downward I bent my looks ,
And held them there so long, that the bard cried :
"What art thou pondering ? " I in answer thus :
" Alas ! by what sweet thoughts, what fond desire
Must they at length to that ill pass have reach'd ! "
Then turning, I to them my speech address'd,
And thus began : 66 Francesca 4 ! your sad fate

1 Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt.]

Amor, ch'al cor gentil ratto s'apprende.
A line taken by Marino, Adone, c. cxli. st. 251 .
That the reader of the original may not be misled as to the exact sense of
the word " s'apprende," which I have rendered " is learnt," it may be right
to apprise him that it signifies " is caught," and that it is a metaphor from a
thing taking fire. Thus it is used by Guido Guinicelli, whom indeed our
Poet seems here to have had in view:
Fuoco d'Amore in gentil cor s'apprende,
Come vertute in pietra preziosa.
Sonetti, &c., di diversi Antichi Toscani. Ediz. Giunti, 1527.1. ix. p. 107
The fire oflove in gentle heart is caught,
As virtue in the precious stone.
2 Love, that denial takes from none beloved.]
Amor, ch' a null' amato amar perdona.
So Boccaccio, in his Filocopo, 1. 1 .
Amore mai non perdonò l'amore a nullo amato.
And Pulci, in the Morgante Maggiore, c. iv.
E perchè amor mal volontier perdona,
Che non sia al fin sempre amato chi ama.
Indeed many of the Italian poets have repeated this verse. 3 Caïna .]
The place to which murderers are doomed. Francesca.] Francesca,
daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, was given by her father in
marriage to Lanciotto, son of Malatesta, lord of Rimini, a man of extra-
ordinary courage, but deformed in his person. His brother Paolo, who un-
happily possessed those graces which the husband of Francesca wanted,
engaged her affections ; and being taken in adultery, they were both put to
death by the enraged Lanciotto. See Notes to Canto xxvii. v. 38 and 43.
Troya relates, that they were buried together ; and that three centuries after,
the bodies were found at Rimini, whither they had been removed from
Pesaro, with the silken garments yet fresh Veltro Allegorico di Dante,
(28) THE VISION. 114-130.

Even to tears my grief and pity moves.

But tell me ; in the time of your sweet sighs,
By what, and how Love granted, that ye knew
Your yet uncertain wishes ? " She replied :
" No greater grief than to remember days
Ofjoy, when misery is at hand '. That kens
Thy learn'd instructor. Yet so eagerly
If thou art bent to know the primal root,
From whence our love gat being, I will do
As one, who weeps and tells his tale. One day ,
For our delight we read of Lancelot 2,
How him love thrall'd. Alone we were, and no
Suspicion near us. Oft-times by that reading
Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue
Fled from our alter'd cheek. But at one point 3
Alone we fell. When of that smile we read,
The wished smile so rapturously kiss'd
Ediz. 1826. p. 33. The whole of this passage is alluded to by Petrarch, ir.
his Triumph of Love, c. iii.:
Ecco quei che le carte empion di sogni
Lancilotto Tristano e gli altri erranti :
Onde convien che 'l vulgo errante agogni ;
Vedi Ginevra, Isotta e l'altre amanti ;
E la coppia d'Arimino che ' nsieme
Vanno facendo dolorosi pianti.
Mr. Leigh Hunt has expanded the present episode into a beautiful poem
in his " Story of Rimini.'
No greater griefthan to remember days
Ofjoy, when misery is at hand.]
Imitated by Chaucer :
For of Fortunis sharp adversite A man to have been in prosperite,
The worste kind of infortune is this, And it remembir when it passid is.
Troilus and Creseide, b. iii.
By Marino :
Che non ha doglia il misero maggiore,
Che ricordar la gioia entro il dolore. Adone, c. xiv. st. 100.
And by Fortiguerra:
-Rimembrare il ben perduto
Fa più meschino lo presente stato. Ricciardetto, c. xi. st. 83.
The original, perhaps, was in Boëtius de Consol. Philosoph. " In omni ad-
versitate fortunæ infelicissimum genus est infortunii fuisse felicem et non
esse." 2. pr. 4. Boëtius, and Cicero de Amicitiâ, were the two first
books that engaged
2 the attention of Dante, as he himself tells us in the Con
vito, p. 68. Lancelot.] One of the Knights of the Round Table, and
the lover of Ginevra, or Guinever, celebrated in romance. The incident
alluded to seems to have made a strong impression on the imagination
of Dante, who introduces it again, in the Paradise, Canto xvi.
At one point.] Questo quel punto fù, che sol mi vinse.
Tasso. Il Torrismondo a is 3.
131-138. HELL, CANTO V. (29)

By one so deep in love, then he, who ne'er

From me shall separate, at once my lips
All trembling kiss'd . The book and writer both
Were love's purveyors . In its leaves that day
We read no more¹." While thus one spirit spake.
The other wail'd so sorely, that heart-struck
I, through compassion fainting, seem'd not far
From death, and like a corse fell to the ground .

CANTO VI.

ARGUMENT.
On his recovery, the Poet finds himself in the third circle, where the glut-
tonous are punished. Their torment is, to lie in the mire, under a con-
tinual and heavy storm of hail, snow, and discoloured water ; Cerberus
meanwhile barking over them with his threefold throat, and rending
them piecemeal. One of these, who on earth was named Ciacco, foretels
the divisions with which Florence is about to be distracted . Dante pro-
poses a question to his guide, who solves it ; and they proceed towards the
fourth circle.
My sense reviving ³, that erewhile had droop'd
With pity for the kindred shades, whence grief
O'ercame me wholly, straight around I see
New torments, new tormented souls, which way
Soe'er I move, or turn, or bend my sight.
In the third circle I arrive, of showers
Ceaseless, accursed, heavy and cold, unchanged
For ever, both in kind and in degree.
Large hail, discolour'd water, sleety flaw
Through the dun midnight air stream'd down amain :
Stank all the land whereon that tempest fell.
1 In its leaves that day
We read no more. ] Nothing can exceed the delicacy with which Fran
cesca in these words intimates her guilt.
2 And like a corsefell to the ground. ]
E caddí, come corpo morto cade.
So Pulci : E cadde come morto in terra cade. Morgante Maggiore, c. xxii.
And Ariosto : E cada, come corpo morto cade. Orl. Fur. c. ii. st. 55.
"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead." Revelation, i. 17.
3 My sense reviving.] Al tornar della mente, che si chiuse,
Dinanzi alla pietà de' duo cognati.
Berni has made a sportive application of these lines, in his Orl. Inn. lib. iii.
. viii. st. 1.
(30) THE VISION. 12-43 .

Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange,

Through his wide threefold throat, barks as a dog
Over the multitude immersed beneath.
His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard,
His belly large, and claw'd the hands, with which
He tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs
Piecemeal disparts. Howling there spread, as curs,
Under the rainy deluge, with one side
The other screening, oft they roll them round,
A wretched, godless crew. When that great worm '
Descried us, savage Cerberus, he oped
His jaws, and the fangs show'd us ; not a limb
Of him but trembled. Then my guide, his palms
Expanding on the ground, thence fill'd with earth
Raised them, and cast it in his ravenous maw.
E'en as a dog, that yelling bays for food
His keeper, when the morsel comes, lets fall
His fury, bent alone with eager haste
To swallow it ; so dropp'd the loathsome cheeks
Of demon Cerberus, who thundering stuns
The spirits, that they for deafness wish in vain.
We, o'er the shades thrown prostrate by the brunt
Of the heavy tempest passing, set our feet
Upon their emptiness, that substance seem'd.
They all along the earth extended lay,
Save one, that sudden raised himself to sit,
Soon as that way he saw us pass. " O thou !"
He cried, " who through the infernal shades art led,
Own, if again thou know'st me. Thou wast framed
Or ere my frame was broken." I replied :
"The anguish thou endurest perchance so takes
Thy form from my remembrance, that it seems

¹ That great worm.] Juxta-infernum vermis erat infinitæ magnitudinis

ligatus maximâ catena. Alberici Visio, § 9.
In Canto xxxiv. Lucifer is called
The abhorred worm, that boreth through the world.
This is imitated by Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xlvi. st. 76. Shakspeare, Milton,
und Cowper, who well understood that the most common words are often the
inost impressive, have used the synonymous term in our language with the
best effect ; as Pindar has done in Greek:
᾿Απὸ Ταϋγέτου μὲν Λάκαιναν
ἐπὶ θηρσὶ κύνα τρέχειν πυκινώτατον ἑρπετόν.
Heyne's Pindar. Fragm Epinic. ii. 2. In Hieron.
44-73. HELL, CANTO VI. (31)
As if I saw thee never. But inform
Me who thou art, that in a place so sad
Art set, and in such torment, that although
99
Other be greater, none disgusteth more.
He thus in answer to my words rejoin'd :
" Thy city, heap'd with envy to the brim,
Aye, that the measure overflows its bounds,
Held me in brighter days. Ye citizens
Were wont to name me Ciacco¹ . For the sin
Of gluttony, damned vice, beneath this rain,
J'en as thou seest, I with fatigue am worn :
' or I sole spirit in this woe : all these
Have by like crime incurr'd like punishment."
No more he said, and I my speech resumed :
"Ciacco ! thy dire affliction grieves me much,
Even to tears. But tell me, if thou know'st,
What shall at length befal the citizens
Of the divided city 2 ; whether any
Just one in habit there : and tell the cause,
Whence jarring Discord hath assail'd it thus."
He then : " After long striving they will come
To blood ; and the wild party from the woods 3
Will chase the other with much injury forth.
Then it behoves that this must fall5, within
Three solar circles ; and the other rise
By borrow'd force of one, who under shore
Now rests7. It shall a long space hold aloof
Its forehead, keeping under heavy weight
The other opprest, indignant at the load,
And grieving sore. The just are two in number ,
1 Ciacco.] So called from his inordinate appetite ; Ciacco, in Italian, sig-
nifying a pig. The real name of this glutton has not been transmitted to
us. He is introduced in Boccaccio's Decameron, Giorn. ix. Nov. 8.
The divided city.] The city of Florence, divided into the Bianchi and
Neri factions. 3 The wild party from the woods. ] So called, because it
was headed by Veri de' Cerchi, whose family had lately come into the city
from Acone, and the woody country of the Val di Nievole. 4 The other.]
The opposite party of the Neri, at the head of which was Corso Donati.
5 This mustfall. ] The Bianchi. 6 Three solar circles.] Three years.
7 Of one, who under shore
Now rests.]
Charles of Valois, by whose means the Neri were replaced .
The just are two in number .] Who these two were, the commentators
are not agreed. Some understand them to be Dante himself and his frien
 (32) THE VISION. 74-97

But they neglected. Avarice, envy, pride ',

Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all
On fire." Here ceased the lamentable sound ;
And I continued thus : " Still would I learn
More from thee, further parley still entreat.
Of Farinata and Tegghiaio2 say,
They who so well deserved ; of Giacopo³,
Arrigo, Mosca , and the rest, who bent
Their minds on working good. Oh ! tell me where
They bide, and to their knowledge let me come.
For I am prest with keen desire to hear
If heaven's sweet cup, or poisonous drug of hell,
Be to their lip assign'd." He answer'd straight :
"These are yet blacker spirits. Various crimes
Have sunk them deeper in the dark abyss.
If thou so far descendest, thou mayst see them.
But to the pleasant world, when thou return'st,
Of me make mention, I entreat thee, there. 99
No more I tell thee, answer thee no more .'
This said, his fixed eyes he turn'd askance,
A little eyed me, then bent down his head,
And ' midst his blind companions with it fell.
When thus my guide : " No more his bed he leaves,
Ere the last angel-trumpet blow. The Power

Guido Cavalcanti. But this would argue a presumption, which our Poet
himself elsewhere contradicts ; for, in the Purgatory, he owns his conscious-
ness of not being exempted from one at least of the three fatal sparks, which
had set the hearts of all on fire." See Canto xiii. 126. Others refer the
encomium to Barduccio and Giovanni Vespignano, adducing the following
passage from Villani in support of their opinion : "In the year 1331 died in
Florence two just and good men, of holy life and conversation, and bountiful
in almsgiving, although laymen. The one was named Barduccio, and was
buried in S. Spirito, in the place of the Frati Romitani : the other, named
Giovanni da Vespignano, was buried in S. Pietro Maggiore. And by each,
God showed open miracles, in healing the sick and lunatic after divers
manners ; and for each there was ordained a solemn funeral, and many
images ofwax set up in discharge of vows that had been made. G. Villani,
lib. x. cap. clxxix.
1 Avarice, envy, pride.] Invidia, superbia ed avarizia
Vedea moltiplicar tra miei figliuoli.
Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. i. cap. xxix
2 OfFarinata and Tegghiaio. ] See Canto x. and Notes, and Canto xvi.
and Notes. 3 Giacopo. ] Giacopo Rusticucci. See Canto xvi. and Notes.
Arrigo, Mosca. ] Of Arrigo, who is said by the commentators to have
been of the noble family of the Fifanti, no mention afterwards occurs
Mosca degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, is introduced in Canto xxviii.
98-117. HELL, CANTO VI. (33)
Adverse to these shall then in glory come,
Each one forthwith to his sad tomb repair,
Resume¹ his fleshly vesture and his form,
And hear the eternal doom re-echoing rend
The vault." So pass'd we through that mixture foul
Of spirits and rain, with tardy steps ; meanwhile
Touching 2, though slightly, on the life to come.
For thus I question'd : " Shall these tortures, Sir !
When the great sentence passes, be increased,
Or mitigated, or as now severe ?"
He then " Consult thy knowledge³ ; that decides,
That, as each thing to more perfection grows,
It feels more sensibly both good and pain.
Though ne'er to true perfection may arrive
This race accurst, yet nearer then, than now,
They shall approach it." Compassing that path,
Circuitous we journey'd ; and discourse,
Much more than I relate, between us pass'd :
Till at the point, whence the steps led below,
Arrived, there Plutus, the great foe, we found.

CANTO VII.

ARGUMENT.
In the present Canto, Dante describes his descent into the fourth circle, a
the beginning of which he sees Plutus stationed. Here one like doon
awaits the prodigal and the avaricious ; which is, to meet in direful con
flict, rolling great weights against each other with mutual upbraidings.
From hence Virgil takes occasion to show how vain the goods that are
committed into the charge of Fortune ; and this moves our author to in-
quire what being that Fortune is, of whom he speaks : which question
being resolved, they go down into the fifth circle, where they find the
Resume.] Imitated by Frezzi :-
Allor ripiglieran la carne e l'ossa ;
Li rei oscuri, e i buon con splendori
Per la virtù della divina possa . Il Quadr. lib. iv. cap. xv.
Touching. ] Conversing, though in a slight and superficial manner, on
the life to come . 3 Consult thy knowledge. ] We are referred to the fol-
lowing passage in St. Augustin :-"Cum fiet resurrectio carnis, et bonorum
gaudia et malorum tormenta majora erunt."-" At the resurrection of the
flesh, both the happiness of the good and the torments of the wicked will be
increased."
D
(34) THE VISION. 1-20.

wrathful and gloomy tormented in the Stygian lake. Having made a

compass round great part of this lake, they come at last to the base of a
lofty tower.
" АH me ! O Satan ! Satan 1 ! " loud exclaim'd
Plutus, in accent hoarse of wild alarm :
And the kind sage, whom no event surprised,
To comfort me thus spake : " Let not thy fear
Harm thee, for power in him, be sure, is none
To hinder down this rock thy safe descent."
Then to that swoln lip turning, " Peace ! " he cried,
"Curst wolf ! thy fury inward on thyself
Prey, and consume thee ! Through the dark profound,
Not without cause, he passes. So 'tis will'd
On high, there where the great Archangel pour'd
Heaven's vengeance on the first adulterer proud 2."
As sails, full spread and bellying with the wind,
Drop suddenly collapsed, if the mast split ;
So to the ground down dropp'd the cruel fiend.
Thus we, descending to the fourth steep ledge,
Gain'd on the dismal shore, that all the woe
Hems in of all the universe. Ah me !
Almighty Justice ! in what store thou heap'st3
New pains, new troubles, as I here beheld.

1 Ah me! O Satan ! Satan !] Pape Satan, Pape Satan, aleppe.

66 Pape is said by the commentators to be the same as the Latin wordpapa .
strange !" Of aleppe they do not give a more satisfactory account. See
the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by Dr. Nugent, v. ii. b. iii. c. vii. p
113, where he mentions " having heard the words Paix, paix, Satan ! allez,
paix ! inthe courts ofjustice at Paris. I recollected what Dante said, when
he with his master Virgil entered the gates of hell : for Dante, and Giotto
the painter, were together in France, and visited Paris with particular at-
tention, where the court of justice may be considered as hell. Hence it is
that Dante, who was likewise perfect master ofthe French, made use of that
expression ; and I have often been surprised that it was never understood in
that sense. 2 Thefirst adulterer proud.] Satan. The word " fornica-
tion," or " adultery," "strupo," is here used for a revolt of the affections
from God, according to the sense in which it is often applied in Scripture.
But Monti, following Grassi's " Essay on Synonymes," supposes :: strupo
to mean 66 troop "; the word " strup " being still used in the Piemontese
dialect for " a flock of sheep," and answering to " troupeau " in French. In
that case, " superbo strupo " would signify "the troop of rebel angels who
sinned through pride." 3 In what store thou heap'st.] Some under-
stand " chi stipa" to mean either " who can imagine," or " who can de-
scribe the torments," &c. I have followed Landino, whose words, though
very plain, seem to have been mistaken by Lombardi : " Chi stipa, chi accu-
mula, ed insieme raccoglie ; quasi dica, tu giustizia aduni tanti supplicii. "
21-50. HELL, CANTO VII. (35)

Wherefore doth fault of ours bring us to this ?

E'en as a billow ¹ , on Charybdis rising,
Against encounter'd billow dashing breaks ;
Such is the dance this wretched race must lead,
Whom more than elsewhere numerous here I found.
From one side and the other, with loud voice,
Both roll❜d on weights, by main force of their breasts,
Then smote together, and each one forthwith
Roll'd them back voluble, turning again ;
Exclaiming these, " Why holdest thou so fast ? "
Those answering, " And why castest thou away ? "
So, still repeating their despiteful song,
They to the opposite point, on either hand,
Traversed the horrid circle ; then arrived,
Both turn'd them round, and through the middle space
Conflicting met again. At sight whereof
I, stung with grief, thus spake : " O say, my guide !
What race is this. Were these, whose heads are shorn,
On our left hand, all separate to the church ? "
He straight replied : " In their first life, these all
In mind were so distorted, that they made,
According to due measure, of their wealth
No use. This clearly from their words collect,
Which they howl forth, at each extremity
Arriving of the circle, where their crime
Contrary in kind disparts them. To the church
Were separate those, that with no hairy cowls
Are crown'd, both Popes and Cardinals 2 , o'er whom
Avarice dominion absolute maintains."
I then : "'Mid such as these some needs must be,

¹ E'en as a billow.]
As when two billows in the Irish sowndes ,
Forcibly driven with contrarie tides,
Do meet together, each aback rebounds
With roaring rage, and dashing on all sides.
That filleth all the sea with foam , divides
The doubtful current into divers wayes.
Spenser, F. Q. b. iv. c. i. st. 42.
Popes and Cardinals. ] Ariosto having personified Avarice as a strange
and hideous monster, says of her-
Peggio facea nella Romana corte,
Che v'avea uccisi Cardinali e Papi. Orl. Fur c. xxvi. st. 32
Worse did she in the Court of Rome, for there
She had slain Popes and Cardinals
D 2
(36) THE VISION. 51-81 .

Whom I shall recognise, that with the blot

Of these foul sins were stain'd." He answering thus :
"Vain thought conceivest thou. That ignoble life,
Which made them vile before, now makes them dark,
And to all knowledge indiscernible.
For ever they shall meet in this rude shock :
These from the tomb with clenched grasp shall rise,
Those with close-shaven locks. That ill they gave,
And ill they kept, hath of the beauteous world
Deprived, and set them at this strife, which needs
No labour'd phrase of mine to set it off.
Now mayst thou see, my son ! how brief, how vain,
The goods committed into Fortune's hands,
For which the human race keep such a coil !
Not all the gold that is beneath the moon,
Or ever hath been, of these toil-worn souls
Might purchase rest for one." I thus rejoin'd :
66 My guide ! of thee this also would I learn ;
This Fortune, that thou speak'st of, what it is,
Whose talons grasp the blessings of the world."
He thus : " O beings blind ! what ignorance
Besets you ! Now my judgment hear and mark.
He, whose transcendent wisdom 2 passes all,
The heavens creating, gave them ruling powers
To guide them ; so that each part 3 shines to each,
Their light in equal distribution pour'd.
By similar appointment he ordain'd,
Over the world's bright images to rule,
Superintendence of a guiding hand
And general minister 4 , which, at due time,
May change the empty vantages of life

' Not all the gold.] Tutto l'oro ch' è sotto la luna.
For all the gode under the colde mone.
Chaucer, Legende ofHypermnestra.
• He, whose transcendent wisdom.] Compare Frezzi :
Dio è primo prince in ogni parte
Sempre e di tutto, &c. Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. ii.
3 Eachpart. Each hemisphere of the heavens shines upon that hemi-
sphere ofthe earth which is placed under it. 4 General minister.] Lom-
bardi cites an apposite passage from Augustin, De Civitate Dei, lib. v. :-
" Nos eas causas , quæ dicuntur fortuitæ (unde etiam fortuna nomen accepit )
non dicimus nullas , sed latentes , easque tribuimus , vel veri Dei, vel quorum-
libet spirituum voluntati ."
82-109. HELL, CANTO VII. (37)

From race to race, from one to other's blood,

Beyond prevention of man's wisest care :
Wherefore one nation rises into sway,
Another languishes, e'en as her will
Decrees, from us conceal'd, as in the grass
The serpent train. Against her nought avails.
Your utmost wisdom . She with foresight plans,
Judges, and carries on her reign, as theirs
The other powers divine. Her changes know
None intermission : by necessity¹
She is made swift, so frequent come who claim
Succession in her favours. This is she,
So execrated e'en by those whose debt
To her is rather praise : they wrongfully
With blame requite her, and with evil word ;
But she is blessed, and for that recks not :
Amidst the other primal beings glad,
Rolls on her sphere, and in her bliss exults .
Now on our way pass we, to heavier woe
Descending : for each star² is falling now,
That mounted at our entrance, and forbids
Too long our tarrying." We the circle cross'd
To the next steep, arriving at a well,
That boiling pours itseif down to a foss
Sluiced from its source. Far murkier was the wave
Than sablest grain : and we in company
Of the inky waters, journeying by their side,
Enter'd, though by a different track³, beneath .
1 By necessity.] This sentiment called forth the reprehension of Fran
cesco Stabilì, commonly called Cecco d' Ascoli, in his Acerba, lib. i. c. i.
In ciò peccasti, O Fiorentin poeta,
Ponendo che li ben della fortuna
Necessitati sieno con lor meta.
Non è fortuna, cui ragion non vinca.
Or pensa Dante, se prova nessuna
Si può più fare che questa convinca.
Herein, O bard of Florence, didst thou err,
Laying it down that fortune's largesses
Are fated to their goal. Fortune is none,
That reason cannot conquer. Mark thou, Dante,
If any argument may gainsay this.
Each star.] So Boccaccio : " Giù ogni stella a cader cominciò , che sa-
lia." Dec. G. 3. at the end. 3 A different track. ] Una via diversa.
Some understand this " a strange path "; as the word is used in the preced-
," " monster fierce and strange"; and
ing Canto ; " fiera crudele e diversa,"
(38) THE VISION. 110-134.

Into a lake, the Stygian named, expands

The dismal stream, when it hath reach'd the foot
Of the grey wither'd cliffs. Intent I stood
Το gaze, and in the marish sunk descried
A miry tribe, all naked, and with looks
Betokening rage. They with their hands alone
Struck not, but with the head, the breast, the feet,
Cutting each other piecemeal with their fangs.
The good instructor spake : " Now seest thou, son !
The souls of those, whom anger overcame.
This too for certain know, that underneath
The water dwells a multitude, whose sighs
Into these bubbles make the surface heave,
As thine eye tells thee wheresoe'er it turn.
Fix'd in the slime, they say : ' Sad once were we,
'In the sweet air made gladsome by the sun,
' Carrying a foul and lazy mist within :
'Now in these murky settlings are we sad.'
Such dolorous strain they gurgle in their throats,
But word distinct can utter none." Our route
Thus compass'd we, a segment widely stretch'd
Between the dry embankment, and the core
Of the loath'd pool, turning meanwhile our eyes
Downward on those who gulp'd its muddy lees ;
Nor stopp'd. till to a tower's low base we came.

CANTO VIII.

ARGUMENT.
A signal having been made from the tower, Phlegyas, the ferryman of the
lake, speedily crosses it, and conveys Virgil and Dante to the other side.
On their passage, they meet with Filippo Argenti, whose fury and tor-
ment are described. They then arrive at the city of Dis, the entrance
whereto is denied, and the portals closed against them by many Demons.
My theme pursuing ' , I relate, that ere
We reach'd the lofty turret's base, our eyes
in the Vita Nuova, ,"" visages strange and
" visi diversi ed orribili a vedere,"
horrible to see.'""
¹ My theme pursuing.] It is related by some of the early commentators,
that the seven preceding Cantos were found at Florence after our Poet's
banishment, by some one, who was searching over his papers, which were
3-30. HELL, CANTO VIII. (39)

Its height ascended, where we mark'd uphung

Two cressets, and another saw from far
Return the signal, so remote, that scarce
The eye could catch its beam. I, turning round
To the deep source of knowledge, thus inquired :
66
Say what this means ; and what, that other light
In answer set : what agency doth this ? "
" There on the filthy waters," he replied,
" E'en now what next awaits us mayst thou see,
If the marsh-gendered fog conceal it not."
Never was arrow from the cord dismiss'd,
That ran its way so nimbly through the air,
As a small bark, that through the waves I spied
Toward us coming, under the sole sway
Of one that ferried it, who cried aloud :
"Art thou arrived, fell spirit ? "—" Phlegyas, Phlegyas
This time thou criest in vain," my lord replied ;
" No longer shalt thou have us, but while o'er
The slimy pool we pass." As one who hears
Of some great wrong he hath sustain'd, whereat
Inly he pines : so Phlegyas inly pined
In his fierce ire. My guide, descending, stepp'd
Into the skiff, and bade me enter next,
Close at his side ; nor, till my entrance, seem'd
The vessel freighted . Soon as both embark'd,
Cutting the waves, goes on the ancient prow,
More deeply than with others it is wont.
While we our course2 o'er the dead channel held,

left in that city ; that by this person they were taken to Dino Frescobaldi ;
and that he, being much delighted with them, forwarded them to the Mar-
chese Morello Malaspina, at whose entreaty the poem was resumed . This
account, though very circumstantially related, is rendered improbable by the
prophecy of Ciacco in the sixth Canto, which must have been written after
the events to which it alludes. The manner, in which the present Canto
opens, furnishes no proof of the truth of the report ; for, as Maffei remarks
in his Osservazioni Letterarie, tom. ii. p. 249, referred to by Lombardi, it
might as well be affirmed that Ariosto was interrupted in his Orlando Furi-
oso, because he begins c. xvi.
Dico la bella storia ripigliando.
And c. xxii. Ma tornando al lavor, che vario ordisco.
1 Phlegyas.] Phlegyas, who was so incensed against Apollo, for having
violated his daughter Coronis, that he set fire to the temple of that deity, by
whose vengeance he was cast into Tartarus. See Virg. Æn. 1. vi. 618.
• While we our course.] Solcando noi per quella morta gora.
Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. 7.
(40) THE VISION. 31-64.

One drench'd in mire before me came, and said :

" Who art thou, that thus comest ere thine hour ?"
I answer'd : " Though I come, I tarry not :
But who art thou, that art become so foul ? "
" One, as thou seest, who mourn :" he straight replied
To which I thus : "In mourning and in woe,
Curst spirit ! tarry thou. I know thee well,
E'en thus in filth disguised." Then stretch'd he forth
Hands to the bark ; whereof my teacher sage
Aware, thrusting him back : " Away ! down there
To the other dogs !" then, with his arms my neck
Encircling, kiss'd my cheek, and spake : " Ŏ soul,
Justly disdainful ! blest was she in whom
Thou wast conceived¹. He in the world was one
For arrogance noted : to his memory
No virtue lends its lustre ; even so
Here is his shadow furious. There above,
How many now hold themselves mighty kings,
Who here like swine shall wallow in the mire,
Leaving behind them horrible dispraise."
I then : " Master ! him fain would I behold
Whelm'd in these dregs, before we quit the lake."
He thus : "Or ever to thy view the shore
Be offer'd, satisfied shall be that wish,
Which well deserves completion." Scarce his words
Were ended, when I saw the miry tribes
Set on him with such violence, that yet
For that render I thanks to God, and praise.
"To Filippo Argenti2 ! " cried they all :
And on himself the moody Florentine
Turn'd his avenging fangs. Him here we left,
Nor speak I of him more. But on mine ear
Sudden a sound of lamentation smote,
Whereat mine eye unbarr'd I sent abroad.

In whom
Thou wast conceived.] "Che 'n te s'incinse." Several of the commenta-
tors have stumbled at this word, which is the same as " enceinte " in French,
and "inciens " in Latin. For many instances, in which it is thus used, see
the notes on Boccaccio's Decameron, p. 101. in the Giunti edition, 1573.
2 Filippo Argenti.] Boccaccio tells us, "he was a man remarkable for the
large proportions and extraordinary vigour of his bodily frame, and the ex
treme waywardness and irascibility of his temper." Decam. G. ix, N. 8.
65-94. HELL, CANTO VIII. (41)

And thus the good instructor : " Now, my son

Draws near the city, that of Dis is named¹ ,
With its grave denizens, a mighty throng."
I thus : “ The minarets already, Sir !
There, certes, in the valley I descry,
Gleaming vermilion, as if they from fire
Had issued." He replied : " Eternal fire,
That inward burns, shows them with ruddy ‫ دو‬flame
Illumed ; as in this nether hell thou seest.'
We came within the fosses deep, that moat
This region comfortless. The walls appear'd
As they were framed of iron. We had made
Wide circuit, ere a place we reach'd, where loud
The mariner cried vehement : " Go forth :
The entrance is here." Upon the gates I spied
More than a thousand, who of old from heaven
Were shower'd2. With ireful gestures, "Who is this,"
They cried, "that, without death first felt, goes through
The regions of the dead ? " My sapient guide
Made sign that he for secret parley wish'd ;
Whereat their angry scorn abating, thus
They spake : " Come thou alone ; and let him go,
Who hath so hardily enter'd this realm .
Alone return he by his witless way ;
If well he know it, let him prove . For thee,
Here shalt thou tarry, who through clime so dark
Hast been his escort." Now bethink thee, reader !
What cheer was mine at sound of those curst words.
I did believe I never should return.
3
" O my loved guide ! who more than seven times ³

1 The city, that ofDis is named. ] So Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xl. st. 32 :
Fatto era un stagno più sicuro e brutto,
2 Di quel che cinge la città di Dite.
From heaven
Were shower'd.] Da ciel piovuti.
Thus Frezzi : Li maladetti piovuti da cielo. Il Quadr.lib.iv. cap. 4.
And Pulci, in the passage cited in the note to C. xxi. 117. 3 Seven times.]
The commentators, says Venturi, perplex themselves with the inquiry what
seven perils these were from which Dante had been delivered by Virgil.
Reckoning the beasts in the first Canto as one of them, and adding Charon,
Minos, Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas, and Filippo Argenti, as so many others,
we shall have the number ; and ifthis be not satisfactory, we may suppose a
determinate to have been put for an indeterminate number
(42) THE VISION . 95-124

Security hast render'd me, and drawn

From peril deep, whereto I stood exposed,
Desert me not," I cried, " in this extreme.
And, if our onward going be denied ,
Together trace we back our steps with speed."
My liege, who thither had conducted me,
Replied ; " Fear not : for of our passage none
Hath power to disappoint us, by such high
Authority permitted. But do thou
Expect me here ; meanwhile, thy wearied spirit
Comfort, and feed with kindly hope, assured
I will not leave thee in this lower world."
This said, departs the sire benevolent,
And quits me. Hesitating I remain
At war, 'twixt will and will not¹ , in my thoughts.
I could not hear what terms he offer'd them,
But they conferr'd not long, for all at once
Pellmell 2 rush'd back within. Closed were the gates
By those our adversaries, on the breast
Of my liege lord : excluded, he return'd
To me with tardy steps. Upon the ground
His eyes were bent, and from his brow erased
All confidence, while thus in sighs he spake :
" Who hath denied me these abodes of woe ? "
Then thus to me ; " That I am anger'd, think
No ground of terror : in this trial I
Shall vanquish, use what arts they may within
For hindrance. This their insolence, not new ³,
Erewhile at gate less secret they display'd,
Which still is without bolt ; upon its arch
At war, 'twixt will and will not. ] Che sì, e nò nel capo mi tenzona.
Thus ourPoet in his eighth Canzone :
Ch' il sì, e'l nò tututto in vostra mano
Ha posto amore.
And Boccaccio, Ninf. Fiesol. st. 233 : Il sì e il nò nel capo gli contende.
The words I have adopted as a translation, are Shakspeare's, Measure for
Measure, a. ii. s. 1. 2 Pellmell.] A pruova. " Certatim." "A l'envi."
I had before translated "To trial ; " and have to thank Mr. Carlyle for de-
tecting the error. 3 This their insolence, not new.] Virgil assures our
poet, that these evil spirits had formerly shown the same insolence when our
Saviour descended into hell. They attempted to prevent him from entering
at the gate, over which Dante 66had read the fatal inscription. " That gate
which," says the Roman poet, an angel had just passed, by whose aid we
shall overcome this opposition, and gain admittance into the city."
125-128. HELL, CANTO VIII. (43)

Thou saw'st the deadly scroll : and even now,

On this side of its entrance, down the steep,
Passing the circles, unescorted, comes
One whose strong might can open us this land."

CANTO IX.

ARGUMENT.
After some hindrances, and having seen the hellish furies and other mon
sters, the Poet, by the help of an angel, enters the city of Dis, wherein he
discovers that the heretics are punished in tombs burning with intense
fire and he, together with Virgil, passes onwards between the sepulchres
and the walls of the city.
THE hue¹ , which coward dread on my pale cheeks
Imprinted when I saw my guide turn back,
Chased that from his which newly they had worn,
And inwardly restrain'd it. He, as one
Who listens, stood attentive : for his eye
Not far could lead him through the sable air,
And the thick-gathering cloud. "It yet behoves
We win this fight ;" thus he began : " if not,
Such aid to us is offer'd.- Oh ! how long
Me seems it, ere the promised help arrive."
I noted, how the sequel of his words
Cloked their beginning ; for the last he spake
Agreed not with the first. But not the less
My fear was at his saying ; sith I drew
To import worse, perchance, than that he held.
His mutilated speech. " Doth ever any
Into this rueful concave's extreme depth
Descend, out of the first degree, whose pain
Is deprivation merely of sweet hope ? "
Thus I inquiring. " Rarely," he replied,
It chances, that among us any makes
This journey, which I wend. Erewhile, 'tis true,
Once came I here beneath, conjured by fell
Erictho², sorceress, who compell'd the shades

1 The hue.] Virgil, perceiving that Dante was pale with fear, restrained
those outward tokens of displeasure which his own countenance had betrayed.
• Frictho.] Erictho, a Thessalian sorceress, according to Lucan, Phar
(44) THE VISION. 25-49

Back to their bodies. No long space my flesh

Was naked of me ' , when within these walls
She made me enter, to draw forth a spirit
From out of Judas' circle. Lowest place
Is that of all, obscurest, and removed
Furthest from heaven's all-circling orb. The road
Full well I know : thou therefore rest secure.
That lake, the noisome stench exhaling, round
The city of grief encompasses, which now
We may not enter without rage.” Yet more
He added : but I hold it not in mind,
For that mine eye toward the lofty tower
Had drawn me wholly, to its burning top ;
Where, in an instant, I beheld uprisen
At once three hellish furies stain'd with blood :
In limb and motion feminine they seem'd ;
Around them greenest hydras twisting roll'd
Their volumes ; adders and cerastes2 crept
Instead of hair, and their fierce temples bound.
He, knowing well the miserable hags
Who tend the queen of endless woe, thus spake :
" Mark thou each dire Erynnis. To the left,
This is Megæra ; on the right hand, she
Who wails, Alecto ; and Tisiphone
I' th' midst." This said, in silence he remain'd.

sal. 1. vi. was employed by Sextus, son of Pompey the Great, to conjure up u
spirit, who should inform him of the issue of the civil wars between his fa-
ther and Cæsar.
1 No long space myflesh
Was naked ofme.j
Quæ corpus complexa animæ tam fortis inane. Ovid. Met. 1. xiii. fab. 2.
Dante appears to have fallen into an anachronism. Virgil's death did not
happen till long after this period. But Lombardi shows, in opposition to the
other commentators, that the anachronism is only apparent. Erictho might
well have survived the battle of Pharsalia long enough to be employed in
her magical practices at the time of Virgil's decease.
2 Adders and cerastes. ]
Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis. Virg. Æn. 1. vi. 281.
spinâque vagi torquente cerastæ
*
et torrida dipsas
Et gravis in geminum vergens caput amphisbæna.
Lucan. Pharsal. 1. ix 719
So Milton : Scorpion and asp, and amphisbæna dire,
Cerastes horn'd, hydrus and elops drear,
And dipsas.- P. L. b. x. 524.
50-74. HELL, CANTO IX. (45)
Their breast they each one clawing tore ; themselves
Smote with their palms, and such thrill clamour raised,
That to the bard I clung, suspicion-bound.
"Hasten Medusa : so to adamant
Him shall we change ;" all looking down exclaim'd :
"E'en when by Theseus' might assail'd, we took
No ill revenge."
" Turn thyself round, and keep
Thy countenance hid ; for if the Gorgon dire
Be shown, and thou shouldst view it, thy return
Upwards would be for ever lost." This said,
Himself, my gentle master, turn'd me round ;
Nor trusted he my hands, but with his own
He also hid me. Ye of intellect
Sound and entire, mark well the lore¹ conceal'd
Under close texture of the mystic strain.
And now there came o'er the perturbed waves
Loud-crashing, terrible, a sound that made
Either shore tremble, as if of a wind²
Impetuous, from conflicting vapours sprung,
That 'gainst some forest driving all his might,
Plucks off the branches, beats them down, and hurls
Afar 3 ; then, onward passing, proudly sweeps
His whirlwind rage, while beasts and shepherds fly.
Mine eyes he loosed, and spake : " And now direct
Thy visual nerve along that ancient foam,

1 The lore.] The Poet probably intends to call the reader's attention to
the allegorical and mystic sense of the present Canto, and not, as Venturi
supposes, to that of the whole work. Landino supposes this hidden meaning
to be, that in the case of those vices which proceed from incontinence and
intemperance, reason, which is figured under the person of Virgil, with the
ordinary grace of God, may be a sufficient safeguard ; but that in the in
stance of more heinous crimes, such as those we shall hereafter see punished,
a special grace, represented by the angel, is requisite for our defence.
A wind.] Imitated by Berni :
Com' un gruppo di vento in la marina
L'onde, e le navi sottosopra caccia,
Ed in terra con furia repentina
Gli arbori abbatte, sveglie, sfronda e straccia.
Smarriti fuggon i lavoratori
E per le selve le fiere e' pastori. Orl. Inn. lib. i. c. ii. st. 6.
3 Afar.] " Porta i fiori," " carries away the blossoms," is the common
reading. "Porta fuori," which is the right reading, adopted by Lombardi
in his edition from the Nidobeatina, for which he claims it exclusively, I had
also seen in Landino's edition of 1484, and adopted from thence, long before
it was my chance to meet with Lombardi.
(46) THE VISION. 75-107.

There, thickest where the smoke ascends." As frogs

Before their foe the serpent, through the wave
Ply swiftly all, till at the ground each one
Lies on a heap ; more than a thousand spirits
Destroy'd, so saw I fleeing before one
Who pass'd with unwet feet the Stygian sound.
He, from his face removing the gross air,
Oft his left hand forth stretch'd, and seem'd alone
By that annoyance wearied. I perceived
That he was sent from heaven ; and to my guide
Turn'd me, who signal made, that I should stand
Quiet, and bend to him. Ah me ! how full
Of noble anger seem'd he. To the gate
He came, and with his wand¹ touch'd it, whereat
Open without impediment it flew.
" Outcasts of heaven ! O abject race, and scorn'd !"
Began he, on the horrid grunsel standing,
"Whence doth this wild excess of insolence
Lodge in you ? wherefore kick you 'gainst that will
Ne'er frustrate of its end, and which so oft
Hath laid on you enforcement of your pangs ?
What profits, at the fates to butt the horn ?
Your Cerberus 2, if ye remember, hence
Bears still, peel'd of their hair, his throat and maw.”
This said, he turn'd back o'er the filthy way,
And syllable to us spake none ; but wore
The semblance of a man by other care
Beset, and keenly prest, than thought of him
Who in his presence stands. Then we our steps
Toward that territory moved , secure
After the hallow'd words. We, unopposed,
There enter'd ; and, my mind eager to learn
What state a fortress like to that might hold,
1 With his wand.]
She with her rod did softly smite the raile,
Which straight flew ope. Spenser, F. Q. b. iv. c. iii. st. 46.
Your Cerberus.] Cerberus is feigned to have been dragged by Hercules
bound with a threefold chain, of which, says the angel, he still bears the
marks. Lombardi blames the other interpreters for having supposed that
the angel attributes this exploit to Hercules, a fabulous hero, rather than to
our Saviour. It would seem as if the good father had forgotten that Cer-
berus is himself no less a creature of the imagination than the hero who en-
countered him.
 t
108-131 . HELL, CANTO IX. (47)
I, soon as enter'd, throw mine eye around,
And see, on every part, wide-stretching space,
Replete with bitter pain and torment ill.
As where Rhone stagnates on the plains of Arles ' ,
Or as at Pola², near Quarnaro's gulf,
That closes Italy and laves her bounds,
The place is all thick spread with sepulchres ;
So was it here, save what in horror here
Excell'd for 'midst the graves were scatter'd flames,
Wherewith intensely all throughout they burn'd³,
That iron for no craft there hotter needs.
Their lids all hung suspended ; and beneath,
From them forth issued lamentable moans,
Such as the sad and tortured well might raise.
I thus : " Master ! say who are these, interr'd
Within these vaults, of whom distinct we hear
The dolorous sighs." He answer thus return'd :
"The arch-heretics are here, accompanied
By every sect their followers ; and much more,
Than thou believest, the tombs are freighted : like
With like is buried ; and the monuments
Are different in degrees of heat." This said,
He to the right hand turning, on we pass'd
Betwixt the afflicted and the ramparts high.

The plains of Arles. ] In Provence. See Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. xxxix.

t. 72:
Fu da ogni parte in quest' ultima guerra
(Benche la cosa non fu ugual divisa,
Ch' assai più andar dei Saracin sotterra
Per man di Bradamante e di Marfisa)
Se ne vede ancor segno in quella terra,
Che presso ad Arli, ove il Rodano stagna,
Piena di sepolture è la campagna.
These sepulchres are mentioned in the Life of Charlemagne, which goes
under the name of Archbishop Turpin, cap. 28. and 30. and by Fazio degli
Uberti, Dittamondo, L. iv. cap. xxi. 2 At Pola.] A city of Istria,
situated near the gulf of Quarnaro, in the Adriatic sea. 3 They burn'd.
Mr. Darley observes, that in the Incantation of Hervor (v. Northern An-
tiquities, vol. ii.) the spirit of Angantyr lies in a tomb " all on fire."
(48) THE VISION. 1-23.

CANTO Х.

ARGUMENT.
Dante, having obtained permission from his guide, holds discourse with
Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante Cavalcanti, who lie in their fiery
tombs that are yet open, and not to be closed up till after the .ast judgment.
Farinata predicts the Poet's exile from Florence ; and shows him that the
condemned have knowledge of future things, but are ignorant of what is
at present passing, unless it be revealed by some new comer from earth.
Now by a secret pathway we proceed,
Between the walls, that hem the region round,
And the tormented souls : my master first,
I close behind his steps. " Virtue supreme ! "
I thus began : " who through these ample orbs
In circuit lead'st me, even as thou will'st ;
Speak thou, and satisfy my wish. May those,
Who lie within these sepulchres, be seen ?
Already all the lids are raised, and none
O'er them keeps watch." He thus in answer spake :
66
They shall be closed all, what- time they here
From Josaphat¹ return'd shall come, and bring
Their bodies, which above they now have left.
The cemetery on this part obtain,
With Epicurus, all his followers,
Who with the body make the spirit die.
Here therefore satisfaction shall be soon,
Both to the question ask'd, and to the wish2
Which thou conceal'st in silence." I replied :
" I keep not, guide beloved ! from thee my heart
Secreted, but to shun vain length of words ;
A lesson erewhile taught me by thyself."
" O Tuscan ! thou, who through the city of fire

1 Josaphat.] It seems to have been a common opinion among the Jews, as

well as among many Christians, that the general judgment will be held in
the valley of Josaphat, or Jehoshaphat : " I will also gather all nations, and
will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with
them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scat-
tered among the nations, and parted my land." Joel, iii. 2. 2 The wish.]
The wish, that Dante had not expressed, was to see and converse with the fol-
lowers of Epicurus ; among whom, we shall see, were Farinata degli Uberti
and Cavalcante Cavalcanti.
24-54 HELL, CANTO X. (49)

Alive art passing, so discreet of speech :

Here, please thee, stay awhile. Thy utterance
Declares the place of thy nativity
To be that noble land, with which perchance
I too severely dealt." Sudden that sound •
Forth issued from a vault, whereat, in fear,
I somewhat closer to my leader's side
Approaching, he thus spake : " What dost thou ? Turn :
Lo ! Farinata¹ there, who hath himself
Uplifted from his girdle upwards, all
Exposed, behold him.” On his face was mine
Already fix'd : his breast and forehead there
Erecting, seem'd as in high scorn he held
E'en hell. Between the sepulchres, to him
My guide thrust me, with fearless hands and prompt ;
This warning added : " See thy words be clear.”
He, soon as there I stood at the tomb's foot,
Eyed me a space ; then in disdainful mood
Address'd me : "6 Say what ancestors were thine."
I, willing to obey him, straight reveal'd
The whole, nor kept back aught : whence he, his brow
Somewhat uplifting, cried : " Fiercely were they
Adverse to me, my party, and the blood
From whence I sprang : twice2, therefore, I abroad
Scatter'd them." 66 Though driven out, yet they each
From all parts," answer'd I, " return'd ; an art [time
Which yours have shown they are not skill'd to learn."
Then, peering forth from the unclosed jaw,
Rose from his side a shade³, high as the chin,
Leaning, methought, upon its knees upraised.
It look'd around, as eager to explore

1 Farinata.] Farinata degli Uberti, a noble Florentine, was the leader

of the Ghibelline faction, when they obtained a signal victory over the
Guelfi at Montaperto, near the river Arbia. Macchiavelli calls him " a
man of exalted soul, and great military talents." Hist. of Flor. b. ii. His
grandson, Bonifacio, or, as he is commonly called, Fazio degli Uberti, wrote a
poem, entitled the Dittamondo, in imitation of Dante. I shall have frequent
occasion to refer to it throughout these notes. At the conclusion of cap. 27,
1. ii. he makes mention of his ancestor Farinata. See note to Life of Dante,
P. xxvi. 2 Twice.] The first time in 1248, when they were driven out by
Frederick the Second. See G. Villani, lib. vi. c. xxxiv.; and the second time
in 1260. See note to v. 83. 3 A shade.] The spirit of Cavalcante Ca-
valcanti, a noble Florentine, of the Guelph party
E
(50) THE VISION. 55-68.

If there were other with me ; but perceiving

That fond imagination quench'd, with tears
Thus spake : " If thou through this blind prison go'st,
Led by thy lofty genius and profound,
Where is my son¹ ? and wherefore not with thee ? "
I straight replied : " Not of myself I come ;
By him, who there expects me, through this clime
Conducted, whom perchance Guido thy son
Had in contempt ." Already had his words.
My son.] Guido, the son of Cavalcante Cavalcanti ; " he whom I call
the first of my friends," says Dante in his Vita Nuova, where the com-
mencement of their friendship is related. From the character given of
him by contemporary writers, his temper was well formed to assimilate
with that of our Poet. " He was," according to G. Villani, lib. viii. c. xli.
"of a philosophical and elegant mind, if he had not been too delicate and
fastidious." And Dino Compagni terms him " a young and noble knight,
brave and courteous, but of a lofty, scornful spirit, much addicted to solitude
and study." Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. t. 9. lib. i. p . 481. He died, either
in exile at Serrazana, or soon after his return to Florence, December 1300,
during the spring of which year the action of this poem is supposed to be
passing.
2 -Guido thy son
Had in contempt. ] Guido Cavalcanti, being more given to philosophy
than poetry, was perhaps no great admirer of Virgil. Some poetical com-
positions by Guido are, however, still extant; and his reputation for skill in
the art was such as to eclipse that of his predecessor and namesake Guido
Guinicelli ; as we shall see in the Purgatory, Canto xi. in the notes to which
the reader will find specimens ofthe poems that have"" been left by each ofthese
writers. His " Canzone sopra il Terreno Amore' was thought worthy of
being illustrated by numerous and ample commentaries. Crescimbeni, Ist.
della Volg. Poes. lib. v. Our author addressed him in a playful sonnet, of
which the following spirited translation is found in the notes to Hayley's
Essay on Epic Poetry. Ep. iii.:
Henry! I wish that you, and Charles, and I,
By some sweet spell within a bark were placed,
A gallant bark with magic virtue graced,
Swift at our will with every wind to fly ;
So that no changes of the shifting sky,
No stormy terrors ofthe watery waste,
Might bar our course, but heighten still our taste
Of sprightly joy, and of our social tie .
Then that my Lucy, Lucy fair and free,
With those soft nymphs, on whom your souls are bent,
The kind magician might to us convey,
To talk of love throughout the live-long day ;
And that each fair might be as well content,
As I in truth believe our hearts would be.
The two friends, here called Henry and Charles, are, in the original,
Guido and Lapo, concerning the latter of whom see the Life of Dante pre-
fixed : and Lucy is Monna Bice. A more literal version of the sonnet may
be found in the " Canzoniere of Dante, translated by Charles Lyell, Esq .'
8vo. Lond. 1835. p 407
61-83. HELL, CANTO X. (51)

And mode of punishment read me his name,

Whence I so fully answer'd. He at once
Exclaim'd, up starting, " How ! said'st thou, he had¹?
No longer lives he ? Strikes not on his eye
The blessed daylight ?" Then, of some delay
I made ere my reply, aware, down fell
Supine, nor after forth appear'd he more.
Meanwhile the other, great of soul, near whom
I yet was station'd, changed not countenance stern,
Nor moved the neck, nor bent his ribbed side.
" And if," continuing the first discourse,
66
They in this art," he cried, " small skill have shown ;
That doth torment me more e'en than this bed.
But not yet fifty times2 shall be relumed
Her aspect, who reigns here queen of this realm³,
Ere thou shalt know the full weight of that art.
So to the pleasant world mayst thou return *,
As thou shalt tell me why, in all their laws,
Against my kin this people is so fell."
" The slaughter5 and great havoc," I replied,
1 Said'st thou, he had?] In Eschylus, the shade of Darius is represented
as inquiring with similar anxiety after the fate of his son Xerxes.
Atossa. Μονάδα δὲ Ξέρξην ἔρημόν φασιν οὐ πολλῶν μέτα—
Darius. Πῶς δε δὴ καὶ ποῖ τελευτᾷν ; ἔστι τις σωτηρία ;
IEPEAI. 741. Blomfield's Edit.
Atossa. Xerxes astonish'd, desolate, alone-
Ghost ofDar. How will this end ? Nay, pause not. Is he safe ?
The Persians. Potter's Translation.
2 Not yet fifty times.] " Not fifty months shall be passed , before thou
shalt learn, by woeful
"9 experience, the difficulty of returning from banishment
to thy native city. 3 Queen ofthis realm.] The moon, one of whose
titles in heathen mythology, was Proserpine, queen of the shades below.
+ So to thepleasant world mayst thou return.]
E se tu mai nel dolce mondo reggi.
Lombardi would construe this : " And if thou ever remain in the pleasant
world." His chief reasons for thus departing from the common interpret-
ation, are, first that " se " in the sense of " So "" cannot be followed by
" mai," any more than in Latin " sic"" can be followed by " unquam ;" and
next, that " reggi " is too unlike " riedi " to be put for it. A more intimate
acquaintance with the early Florentine writers would have taught him that
" mai" is used in other senses than those which " unquam " appears to have
had, particularly in that of " pur," " yet ;" as may be seen in the notes to
the Decameron, p. 43. Ed. Giunti, 1573 ; and that the old writers both of
prose and verse changed " riedo " into " reggio," as of " fiedo " they made
66"feggio." Inf. c. xv. v. 39. and c . xvii. v. 75. See page 98 of the same
notes to the Decameron, where a poet before Dante's time is said to have
translated " Redeunt flores,"99.66 Reggiono i fiori." 5 Theslaughter.] " By
means of Farinata deli Uberti, the Guelfi were conquered by the army of
E 2
(52) THE VISION. 81-98.

" That colour'd Arbia's flood with crimson stain-

To these impute, that in our hallow'd dome
Such orisons¹ ascend ." Sighing he shook
66 In that affray
The head, then thus resumed :
I stood not singly, nor, without just cause,
Assuredly, should with the rest have stirr'd ;
But singly there I stood², when, by consent
Of all, Florence had to the ground been razed,
The one who openly forbade the deed."
" So may thy lineage³ find at last repose,"
I thus adjured him, " as thou solve this knot,
Which now involves my mind. If right I hear,
Ye seem to view beforehand that which time
Leads with him, of the present uninform❜d."
"We view , as one who hath an evil sight,"
king Manfredi, near the river Arbia, with so great a slaughter, that those
who escaped from that defeat took refuge, not in Florence, which city they
considered as lost to them, but in Lucca." Macchiavelli, Hist. of Flor. b.
ii. and G. Villani, lib. vi. c. lxxx. and lxxxi. 1 Such orisons .] This ap-
pears to allude to certain prayers which were offered up in the churches of
Florence, for deliverance from the hostile attempts ofthe Uberti : or, it may
be, that the public councils being held in churches, the speeches delivered in
them against the Uberti are termed " orisons," or prayers. 2 Singly there
I stood.] Guido Novello assembled a council of the Ghibellini at Empoli;
where it was agreed by all, that, in order to maintain the ascendancy of the
Ghibelline party in Tuscany, it was necessary to destroy Florence, which
could serve only (the people of that city being Guelfi) to enable the party
attached to the church to recover its strength. This cruel sentence, passed
upon so noble a city, met with no opposition from any of its citizens or
friends, except Farinata degli Uberti, who openly and without reserve for-
bade the measure ; affirming, that he had endured so many hardships, and
encountered so many dangers, with no other view than that of being able to
pass his days in his own country. Macchiavelli, Hist. of Flor. b. ii.
So maythy lineage. ] Deh se riposi mai vostra semenza.
Here Lombardi is again mistaken, as at v. 80, above. Let me take this
occasion to apprise the reader of Italian poetry, that one not well versed in it is
very apt to misapprehend the word " se, as I think Cowper has done in trans-
ating Milton's Italian verses. A good instance of the different meanings,
n which it is used , is afforded in the following lines by Bernardo Capello
E tu, che dolcemente i fiori e l' erba
Con lieve corso mormorando bagni,
Tranquillo fiume di vaghezza pieno ;
Se'l cielo al mar sì chiaro t' accompagni ;
Se punto di pietade in te si serba:
Le mie lagrime accogli entro al tuo seno.
Here the first " se "9 signifies "so," and the second "if,"
4 We view.] " The departed spirits know things past and to come ; yet
are ignorant of things present. Agamemnon foretels what should happen
unto Ulysses , yet ignorantly inquires what is become of his own son." Brown
on Urne Burial. Ch. iv.
99-125. HELL, CANTO X. (53)

He answer'd, " plainly, objects far remote ;

So much of his large splendour yet imparts
The Almighty Ruler : but when they approach,
Or actually exist, our intellect
Then wholly fails ; nor of your human state,
Except what others bring us, know we aught.
Hence therefore mayst thou understand, that all
Our knowledge in that instant shall expire,
When on futurity the portals close."
Then conscious of my fault ', and by remorse
Smitten, I added thus : " Now shalt thou say
To him there fallen, that his offspring still
Is to the living join'd ; and bid him know,
That if from answer, silent, I abstain'd,
"Twas that my thought was occupied, intent
Upon that error, which thy help hath solved."
But now my master summoning me back
I heard, and with more eager haste besought
The spirit to inform me, who with him
Partook his lot. He answer thus return'd :
" More than a thousand with me here are laid.
Within is Frederick², second of that name,
And the Lord Cardinal3 ; and of the rest
I speak not." He, this said, from sight withdrew.
But I my steps toward the ancient bard
Reverting, ruminated on the words
Betokening me such ill. Onward he moved,

1 Myfault.] Dante felt remorse for not having returned an immediate

answer to the inquiry of Cavalcante, from which delay he was led to believe
that his son Guido was no longer living. 2 Frederick.] The Emperor
Frederick the Second, who died in 1250. See notes to Canto xiii. 3 The
Lord Cardinal. ] Ottaviano Ubaldini, a Florentine, made cardinal in 1245,
and deceased about 1273. On account of his great influence, he was gener-
ally known by the appellation of " the Cardinal." It is reported of him,
that he declared, if there were any such thing as a human soul, he had lost
his for the Ghibellini. " I know not," says Tiraboschi, " whether it is on
sufficient grounds that Crescimbeni numbers among the poets of this age
the Cardinal Uttaviano, or Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, a Florentine, archdea
con and procurator of the church of Bologna, afterwards made Cardinal by
Innocent IV. in 1245, and employed in the most important public affairs,
wherein, however, he showed himself, more than became his character, a
favourer of the Ghibellines. He died, not in the year 1272, as Ciaconio and
other writers have reported, but at soonest after the July of 1273, at which
time he was in Mugello with Pope Gregory X. " Tiraboschi Dell: Poes.
It. Mr. Mathias's Edit. t. i. p. 140
(54) THE VISION. 126 138.

And thus, in going, question'd : " Whence the amaze

That holds thy senses wrapt ?" I satisfied
The inquiry, and the sage enjoin'd me straight :
" Let thy safe memory store what thou hast heard
To thee importing harm ; and note thou this,"
With his raised finger bidding me take heed,
" When thou shalt stand before her gracious beam ',
Whose bright eye all surveys, she of thy life
The future tenour will to thee unfold."
Forthwith he to the left hand turn'd his feet :
We left the wall, and towards the middle space
Went by a path that to a valley strikes,
Which e'en thus high exhaled its noisome steam.

CANTO XI.

ARGUMENT.
Dante arrives at the verge of a rocky precipice which encloses the seventh
circle, where he sees the sepulchre of Anastasius the Heretic ; behind the
lid of which pausing a little, to make himself capable by degrees of en-
during the fetid smell that steamed upward from the abyss, he is instructed
by Virgil concerning the manner in which the three following circles are
disposed, and what description of sinners is punished in each. He then
inquires the reason why the carnal, the gluttonous, the avaricious and
prodigal, the wrathful and gloomy, suffer not their punishments within
the city of Dis. He next asks how the crime of usury is an offence against
God ; and at length the two Poets go towards the place from whence a
passage leads down to the seventh circle.
UPON the utmost verge of a high bank,
By craggy rocks environ'd round, we came,
Where woes beneath, more cruel yet, were stow'd :
And here, to shun the horrible excess
Of fetid exhalation upward cast
From the profound abyss, behind the lid
Of a great monument we stood retired,
Whereon this scroll I mark'd : " I have in charge
Pope Anastasius2, whom Photinus drew

1 Her gracious beam.] Beatrice.

2 Pope Anastasius.] The commentators are not agreed concerning the
person who is here mentioned as a follower of the heretical Photinus. By
some he is supposed to have been Anastasius the Second ; by others, the
Fourth of that name ; while a third set, jealous of the integrity of the papal
10-43. HELL, CANTO XI. (55)

From the right path." —" Ere our descent, behoves

We make delay, that somewhat first the sense,
To the dire breath accustom'd, afterward
Regard it not." My master thus ; to whom
Answering I spake : " Some compensation find,
That the time pass not wholly lost." He then :
" Lo ! how my thoughts e'en to thy wishes tend.
My son within these rocks," he thus began,
"Are three close circles in gradation placed,
As these which now thou leavest. Each one is full
Of spirits accurst ; but that the sight alone
Hereafter may suffice thee, listen how
And for what cause in durance they abide.
" Of all malicious act abhorr❜d in heaven,
The end is injury ; and all such end
Either by force or fraud² works other's woe.
But fraud, because of man peculiar evil,
To God is more displeasing ; and beneath,
The fraudulent are therefore doom'd to endure
Severer pang. The violent occupy
All the first circle ; and because, to force,
Three persons are obnoxious, in three rounds,
Each within other separate, is it framed.
To God, his neighbour, and himself, by man
Force may be offer'd ; to himself I say,
And his possessions, as thou soon shalt hear
At full. Death, violent death, and painful wounds
Upon his neighbour he inflicts ; and wastes,
By devastation, pillage, and the flames,
His substance. Slayers, and each one that smites
In malice, plunderers, and all robbers, hence
The torment undergo of the first round,
In different herds . Man can do violence
To himself and his own blessings : and for this,

faith, contend that our Poet has confounded him with Anastasius I. Emperor
of the East. Fazio degli Uberti, like our author, makes him a pope :
Anastasio papa in quel tempo era,
Di Fotin vago a mal grado de sui. Dittamondo , 1. ii. cap. xiv.
1 My son. ] The remainder of the present Canto may be considered as a
syllabus ofthe whole of this part of the poem. Either byforce orfraud. ]
"Cum autem duobus modis, id est, aut vi, aut fraude, fiat injuria .. utrumque
homini alienissimum ; sed fraus odio digna majore." Cic. de Off. lib. i. c. xiii
(56) THE VISION. 41-78.

He, in the second round must aye deplore

With unavailing penitence his crime,
Whoe'er deprives himself of life and light,
In reckless lavishment his talent wastes,
And sorrows 1 there where he should dwell in joy
To God may force be offer'd, in the heart
Denying and blaspheming his high power,
And Nature with her kindly law contemning.
And thence the inmost round marks with its seal
Sodom, and Cahors², and all such as speak
Contemptuously of the Godhead in their hearts.
“ Fraud, that in every conscience leaves a sting,
May be by man employ'd on one, whose trust
He wins, or on another who withholds
Strict confidence. Seems as the latter way
Broke but the bond of love which Nature makes.
Whence in the second circle have their nest,
Dissimulation, witchcraft, flatteries,
Theft, falsehood, simony, all who seduce
To lust, or set their honesty at pawn,
With such vile scum as these. The other way
Forgets both Nature's general love, and that
Which thereto added afterward gives birth
To special faith. Whence in the lesser circle,
Point of the universe, dread seat of Dis,
The traitor is eternally consumed."
I thus : " Instructor, clearly thy discourse
Proceeds, distinguishing the hideous chasm
And its inhabitants with skill exact.
But tell me this : they of the dull, fat pool,
Whom the rain beats, or whom the tempest drives,
Or who with tongues so fierce conflicting meet,
Wherefore within the city fire-illumed
Are not these punish'd, if God's wrath be on them ?
And if it be not, wherefore in such guise
And sorrows.] This fine moral, that not to enjoy our being is to be
angrateful to the Author of it, is well expressed in Spenser, F. Q. b. iv. c
viii. st. 15.
For he whose daies in wilful woe are worne,
The grace of his Creator doth despise,
That will not use his gifts for thankless nigardise
Cahors.] A city of Guienne, much frequented by usurers.
79-108. HELL, CANTO XI. (57)

Are they condemn'd ?" He answer thus return'd :

" Wherefore in dotage wanders thus thy mind,
Not so accustom'd ? or what other thoughts
Possess it ? Dwell not in thy memory
The words, wherein thy ethic page¹ describes
Three dispositions adverse to Heaven's will,
Incontinence, malice, and mad brutishness,
And how incontinence the least offends
God, and least guilt incurs ? If well thou note
This judgment, and remember who they are,
Without these walls to vain repentance doom'd,
Thou shalt discern why they apart are placed
From these fell spirits, and less wreakful pours
Justice divine on them its vengeance down."
66 O sun ! who healest all imperfect sight,
Thou so content'st me, when thou solvest my doubt,
That ignorance not less than knowledge charms.
Yet somewhat turn thee back,” I in these words
Continued, " where thou said'st, that usury
Offends celestial Goodness ; and this knot
Perplex'd unravel." He thus made reply :
" Philosophy, to an attentive ear,
Clearly points out, not in one part alone,
How imitative Nature takes her course
From the celestial mind, and from its art :
And where her laws the Stagirite unfolds,
Not many leaves scann'd o'er, observing well
Thou shalt discover, that your art on her
Obsequious follows, as the learner treads
In his instructor's step ; so that your art

¹ Thy ethic page. ] He refers to Aristotle's Ethics : “ Mɛtà di Taũ¬α λɛk-

τέον, ἄλλην ποιησαμένους ἀρχὴν, ὅτι τῶν περὶ τὰ ἤθη φευκτῶν τρία ἐστὶνεἴδη,
κακία, ἀκρασία, θηριότης. Ethic. Nicomach. lib. vii. c. 1. " In the next
place, entering on another division of the subject, let it be defined, that re-
specting morals there are three sorts of things to be avoided, malice, incon-
tinence, and brutishness." 2 Her laws. ] Aristotle's Physics. " "H
τέχνη μιμεῖται τὴν φύσιν.” Arist. ΦΥΣ. ΑΚΡ. lib. ii. c. 2. " Art imitates
nature."- See the Coltivazione of Alamanni, lib. i.
l'arte umana
Altro non è da dir ch' un dolce sprone,
Un correger soave, un pio sostegno,
Uno esperto imitar, comporre accorto
Un sollecito attar con studio e'ngegno
La cagion natural, l ' effetto, e l'opra.
(58) THE VISION. 109-121.

Deserves the name of second in descent '

From God. These two, if thou recal to mind
Creation's holy book2, from the beginning
Were the right source of life and excellence
To human kind. But in another path
The usurer walks ; and Nature in herself
And in her follower thus he sets at nought,
Placing elsewhere his hope³. But follow now
My steps on forward journey bent ; for now
The Pisces play with undulating glance
Along the horizon, and the Wain 4 lies all
O'er the north-west ; and onward there a space
Is our steep passage down the rocky height."

CANTO XII.

ARGUMENT.
Descending by a very rugged way into the seventh circle, where the violent
are punished, Dante and his leader find it guarded by the Minotaur ;
whose fury being pacified by Virgil, they step downwards from crag to
crag; till, drawing near the bottom, they descry a river of blood, wherein
are tormented such as have committed violence against their neighbour.
At these, when they strive to emerge from the blood, a troop of Centaurs,
running along the side of the river, aim their arrows ; and three of their
band opposing our travellers at the foot of the steep, Virgil prevails so far,
that one consents to carry them both across the stream ; and on their
passage, Dante is informed by him ofthe course of the river, and of those
that are punished therein.
THE place, where to descend the precipice
We came, was rough as Alp ; and on its verge
Such object lay, as every eye would shun.
As is that ruin, which Adice's stream 5
1 Second in descent.] Si che vostr' arte a Dio quasi è nipote.
60 Frezzi :-Giustizia fu da cielo, e di Dio è figlia,
E ogni bona legge a Dio è nipote. Il Quadrir. lib. iv. cap. 2.
2 Creation's holy book.] Genesis, c. ii . v. 15 : " And the Lord God took
the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it."
And, Genesis, c. iii. v. 19: " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."
3 Placing elsewhere his hope.] The usurer, trusting in the produce of
his wealth lent out on usury, despises nature directly, because he does not
avail himself of her means for maintaining or enriching himself; and indi-
rectly, because he does not avail himself ofthe means which art, the follower
and imitator of nature, would afford him for the same purposes.
The Wain.] The constellation Boötes, or Charles's Wain.
Adice's stream. ] After a great deal having been said on the subject, it
5-23. HELL, CANTO XII. (59)
On this side Trento struck, shouldering the wave,
Or loosed by earthquake or for lack of prop ;
For from the mountain's summit, whence it moved
To the low level, so the headlong rock
Is shiver'd, that some passage¹ it might give
To him who from above would pass ; e'en such
Into the chasm was that descent : and there
At point of the disparted ridge lay stretch'd
The infamy of Crete², detested brood
Of the feign'd heifer³: and at sight of us
It gnaw'd itself, as one with rage distract.
To him my guide exclaim'd : " Perchance thou derm❜st
The King of Athens¹ here, who, in the world
Above, thy death contrived. Monster ! avaunt !
He comes not tutor❜d by thy sister's art 5,
But to behold your torments is he come.'
Like to a bull , that with impetuous spring
Darts, at the moment when the fatal blow
Hath struck him, but unable to proceed

still appears very uncertain at what part of the river this fall ofthe mountain
happened. 1 Some passage.] Lombardi erroneously, I think, understands
by " alcuna via " " no passage ," in which sense " alcuno " is certainly some-
times used by some old writers. Monti, as usual, agrees with Lombardi.
See note to c. iii. v. 40. 2 The infamy of Crete.] The Minotaur.
3 Thefeign'd heifer. ] Pasiphaë. The king of Athens .] Theseus, who
was enabled by the instruction of Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, to de-
stroy that monster. " Duca d'Atene." So Chaucer calls Theseus :
Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
There was a duk, that highte Theseus. The Knighte's Tale.
And Shakspeare : Happy be Theseus, our renowned Duke.
Midsummer Night's Dream, a. i. s. 1.
"This is in reality," observes Mr. Douce, " no misapplication ofa modern
title, as Mr. Stevens conceived, but a legitimate use of the word in its primi-
tive Latin sense of leader, and so it is often used in the Bible. Shakspeare
might have found Duke Theseus in the Book of Troy, or in Turberville's
Ovid's Epistles. See the argument to that of Phædra and Hippolytus."
Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare . 8vo. 1807. vol. i. p. 179.
Thy sister's art.] Ariadne.
Like to a bull. ]
Ὡς δ᾽ ὅταν ὀξὺν ἔχων πέλεκυν αἰζήϊος ἀνὴρ,
Κόψας ἐξόπιθεν κεράων βοὸς ἀγραύλοιο,
Ινα τάμη διὰ πᾶσαν, ὁ δὲ προθορὼν ἐρίπησιν.
Homer. Il. 1. xvii. 522.
As when some vigorous youth with sharpen'd axe
A pastured bullock smites behind the horns,
And hews the muscle through ; he at the stroke
Springs forth and falls. Cowper's Translation.
(60) THE VISION. 24-56.

Plunges on either side ; so saw I plunge

The Minotaur ; whereat the sage exclaim'd :
" Run to the passage ! while he storms, ' tis well
That thou descend." Thus down our road we took
Through those dilapidated crags, that oft
Moved underneath my feet, to weight like theirs
Unused. I pondering went, and thus he spake :
" Perhaps thy thoughts are of this ruin'd steep,
Guarded by the brute violence, which I
Have vanquish'd now. Know then, that when I erst
Hither descended to the nether hell,
This rock was not yet fallen. But past doubt,
(If well I mark) not long ere He arrived²,
Who carried off from Dis the mighty spoil
Of the highest circle, then through all its bounds
Such trembling seized the deep concave and foul,
I thought the universe was thrill'd with love,
Whereby, there are who deem, the world hath oft
Been into chaos turn'd³ : and in that point,
Here, and elsewhere, that old rock toppled down.
But fix thine eyes beneath the river of blood
Approaches, in the which all those are steep'd,
Who have by violence injured." O blind lust !
O foolish wrath ! who so dost goad us on
In the brief life, and in the eternal then
Thus miserably o'erwhelm us. I beheld
An ample foss, that in a bow was bent,
As circling all the plain ; for so my guide
Had told. Between it and the rampart's base,
On trail ran Centaurs, with keen arrows arm'd,
As to the chase they on the earth were wont.
At seeing us descend they each one stood ;
And issuing from the troop, three sped with bows
1 To weight.] Incumbent on the dusky air
That felt unusual weight. Milton, P. L. b. i. 227.
· He arrived.] Our Saviour, who, according to Dante, when he ascended
from hell, carried with him
men, out of the first circle. the souls of the Patriarchs, and of other just
See Canto iv. 3 Been into chaos turn'd.]
This opinion is attributed to Empedocles. The river ofblood. ] Deinde
vidi locum (Qu. lacum?) magnum totum, ut mihi videbatur, plenum
sanguine. Sed dixit mihi Apostolus, sed non sanguis, sed ignis est ad con-
cremandos homicidas, et odiosos deputatus. Hanc tamen similitudinem
propter sanguinis effusionem retinet. Alberici Visio, 871
57-89. HELL, CANTO XII. (61)

And missile weapons chosen first ; of whom

One cried from far : " Say, to what pain ye come
Condemn'd, who down this steep have journey'd. Speak
From whence ye stand, or else the bow I draw."
To whom my guide : " Our answer shall be made
To Chiron, there, when nearer him we come.
Ill was thy mind, thus ever quick and rash."
Then me he touch'd, and spake : " Nessus is this,
Who for the fair Deïanira died,
And wrought himself revenge for his own fate.
He in the midst, that on his breast looks down,
Is the great Chiron who Achilles nursed ;
That other, Pholus, prone to wrath." Around
The foss these go by thousands, aiming shafts
At whatsoever spirit dares emerge2
From out the blood, more than his guilt allows.
We to those beasts, that rapid strode along,
Drew near ; when Chiron took an arrow forth,
And with the notch push'd back his shaggy beard
To the cheek-bone, then, his great mouth to view
Exposing, to his fellows thus exclaim'd :
"Are ye aware, that he who comes behind
Moves what he touches ? The feet of the dead
Are not so wont." My trusty guide, who now
Stood near his breast, where the two natures join,
Thus made reply : " He is indeed alive,
And solitary so must needs by me
Be shown the gloomy vale, thereto induced
By strict necessity, not by delight.
She left her joyful harpings in the sky,
Who this new office to my care consign'd.
He is no robber, no dark spirit I.
But by that virtue, which empowers my step

And wrought himself revenge.] Nessus, when dying by the hand of

Hercules, charged Deianira to preserve the gore from his wound ; for that
if the affections of Hercules should at any time be estranged from her, it
would act as a charm , and recal them. Deïanira had occasion to try the
experiment ; and the venom acting, as Nessus had intended, caused Her-
cules to expire in torments. See the Trachiniæ of Sophocles. 2 Emerge.]
Multos in eis vidi usque ad talos demergi, alios usque ad genua, vel femora,
lios usque ad pectus juxta peccati vidi modum : alios vero qui majoris cri-
minis noxa tenebantur in ipsis summitatibus supersedere conspexi. Alberici
Visio, §3.
(62) THE VISION. 90-113.

To tread so wild a path, grant us, I pray,

One of thy band , whom we may trust secure,
Who to the ford may lead us, and convey
Across, him mounted on his back ; for he
Is not a spirit that may walk the air."
Then on his right breast turning, Chiron thus
To Nessus¹ spake : " Return, and be their guide.
And if ye chance to cross another troop,
Command them keep aloof." Onward we moved,
The faithful escort by our side, along
The border of the crimson-seething flood,
Whence, from those steep'd within, loud shrieks arose.
Some there I mark'd, as high as to their brow
Immersed, of whom the mighty Centaur thus :
" These are the souls of tyrants, who were given
To blood and rapine . Here they wail aloud
Their merciless wrongs . Here Alexander dwells,
And Dionysius fell, who many a year
Of woe wrought for fair Sicily. That brow,
Whereon the hair so jetty clustering hangs,
Is Azzolino² ; that with flaxen locks
Obizzo³ of Este, in the world destroy'd
By his foul step-son." To the bard revered
I turn'd me round, and thus he spake : " Let him

1 Nessus. ] Our Poet was probably induced, by the following linein Ovid,
to assign to Nessus the task of conducting them over the ford :
Nessus adit membrisque valens scitusque vadorum. Metam. 1. ix
And Ovid's authority was Sophocles, who says of this Centaur-
Ὃς τὸν βαθύῤῥουν ποταμὸν Εὔηνον βροτοὺς
Μισθοῦ πόρευε χερσὶν οὔτε πομπίμοις
Κώπαις ἐρέσσων, οὔτε λαίφεσιν νεώς. Trach . 570.
He in his arms, across Evenus' stream
Deep-flowing, bore the passenger for hire,
Without or sail or billow-cleaving oar.
Azzolino.] Azzolino, or Ezzolino di Romano, a most cruel tyrant in
the Marca Trivigiana, Lord of Padua, Vicenza, Verona, and Brescia, who
died in 1260. His atrocities form the subject of a Latin tragedy, called Ec-
cerinis, by Albertino Mussato, of Padua, the contemporary of Dante, and
the most elegant writer of Latin verse of that age. See also the Paradise,
Canto ix. Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. ii. c. xxv. st. 50. Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c. iii.
st. 33. and Tassoni, Secchia Rapita, c. viii . st. 11. 3 Obizzo of Este.]
Marquis ofFerrara and of the Marca d'Ancona, was murdered by his own
son (whom, for that most unnatural act, Dante calls his step-son) for the
sake of the treasures which his rapacity had amassed. See Ariosto, Orl.
Fur. c. iii. st. 32. He died in 1293, according to Gibbon, Ant. ofthe House
of Brunswick, Posth. Works, v. ii. 4to.
114-137. HELL, CANTO XII. (63)
Be to thee now first leader, me but next
To him in rank." Then further on a space
The Centaur paused, near some, who at the throat
Were extant from the wave ; and, showing us
A spirit by itself apart retired,
Exclaim'd : " He " in God's bosom smote the heart,
Which yet is honour'd on the bank of Thames."
A race I next espied who held the head,
And even all the bust, above the stream.
'Midst these I many a face remember'd well.
Thus shallow more and more the blood became,
So that at last it but imbrued the feet ;
And there our passage lay athwart the foss.
"As ever on this side the boiling wave
Thou seest diminishing," the Centaur said,
" So on the other, be thou well assured,
It lower still and lower sinks its bed,
Till in that part it re-uniting join,
Where ' tis the lot of tyranny to mourn.
There Heaven's stern justice lays chastising hand
On Attila, who was the scourge of earth,
On Sextus and on Pyrrhus², and extracts
Tears ever by the seething flood unlock'd
From the Rinieri, of Corneto this,

1 He.] " Henrie, the brother of this Edmund, and son to the foresaid.
king of Almaine, (Richard, brother of Henry III. of England) as he re-
turned from Affrike, where he had been with Prince Edward, was slain at
Viterbo in Italy (whither he was come about business which he had to do
with the Pope) by the hand of Guy de Montfort, the son of Simon de Mont-
fort, Earl of Leicester, in revenge of the same Simon's death. The murther
was committed afore the high altar, as the same Henrie kneeled there to
hear divine service. " A. D. 1272. Holinshed's Chron. p. 275. See also Giov.
Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. xl, where it is said " that the heart of Henry was
put into a golden cup, and placed on a pillar at London bridge over the river
Thames, for a memorial to the English of the said outrage." Lombardi
suggests that " ancor si cola " in the text may mean, not that " the heart
was still honoured," but that it was put into a perforated cup in order that
the blood dripping from it might excite the spectators to revenge. This is
surely too improbable.
Un poco prima dove più si stava
Sicuro Enrico, il conte di Monforte
L'alma del corpo col coltel gli cava.
Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. xxix.
2 On Sextus and on Pyrrhus. ] Sextus, either the son of Tarquin the
Proud, or of Pompey the Great : and Pyrrhus king of Epirus.
(64) THE VISION. 138-140.

Pazzo the other named¹ , who fill'd the ways

With violence and war."99 This said, he turn'd.
And quitting us, alone repass'd the ford.

CANTO XIII .

ARGUMENT.
Still in the seventh circle, Dante enters its second compartment, which con-
tains both those who have done violence on their own persons and those
who have violently consumed their goods ; the first changed into rough
and knotted trees whereon the harpies build their nests, the latter chased
and torn by black female mastiffs. Among the former, Piero delle Vigne
is one who tells him the cause of his having committed suicide, and more-
over in what manner the souls are transformed into those trunks. Of the
latter crew, he recognises Lano, a Siennese, and Giacomo, a Paduar : and
lastly, a Florentine, who had hung himself from his own roof, speaks to
him of the calamities of his countrymen.
ERE Nessus yet had reach'd the other bank,
We enter'd on a forest 2, where no track
Of steps had worn a way. Not verdant there
The foliage, but of dusky hue ; not light
The boughs and tapering, but with knares deform'd
And matted thick : fruits there were none, but thorns
Instead, with venom fill'd. Less sharp than these,
Less intricate the brakes, wherein abide
Those animals, that hate the cultured fields,
Betwixt Corneto and Cecina's stream3.
Here the brute Harpies make their nest, the same
Who from the Strophades the Trojan band
Drove with dire boding of their future woe.
Broad are their pennons 5, of the human form
1 -The Rinieri, of Corneto this,
Pazzo the other named.
Two noted marauders, by whose depredations the public ways in Italy
were infested . The latter was of the noble family of Pazzi in Florence.
2 A forest.] Inde in aliam vallem nimis terribiliorem deveni plenam
subtilissimis arboribus in modum hastarum sexaginta brachiorum longitudi-
nem habentibus, quarum omnium capita, ac si sudes acutissima erant, et
spinosa. Alberici Visio, § 4. 3 Betwixt Corneto and Cecina's stream.]
A wild and woody tract of country, abounding in deer, goats, and wild
boars. Cecina is a river not far to the south of Leghorn ; Corneto, a small
city on the same coast, in the patrimony of the church.
The Strophades .] See Virg. Æn. lib. iii. 210.
Broad are their pennons .]
Virginei volucrum vultus, fœdissima ventris
15-48. HELL, CANTO XIII. (65)

Their neck and countenance, arm'd with talons keen

The feet, and the huge belly fledge with wings.
These sit and wail on the drear mystic wood.
The kind instructor in these words began :
" Ere further thou proceed, know thou art now
I' th' second round, and shalt be, till thou come
Upon the horrid sand : look therefore well
Around thee, and such things thou shalt behold,
As would my speech discredit." On all sides
I heard sad plainings breathe, and none could see
From whom they might have issued. In amaze
Fast bound I stood. He, as it seem'd, believed
That I had thought so many voices came
From some amid those thickets close conceal'd,
And thus his speech resumed : " If thou lop off
A single twig from one of those ill plants,
The thought thou hast conceived shall vanish quite. "
Thereat a little stretching forth my hand,
From a great wilding gather'd I¹ a branch, [me?'
And straight the trunk exclaim'd ; " Why pluck'st thou
Then, as the dark blood trickled down its side,
These words it added : " Wherefore tear'st me thus ?
Is there no touch of mercy in thy breast ?
Men once were we, that now are rooted here.
Thy hand might well have spared us, had we been
The souls of serpents." As a brand yet green ,
That burning at one end from the other sends
A groaning sound, and hisses with the wind
That forces out its way, so burst at once
Forth from the broken splinter words and blood.
I, letting fall the bough, remain'd as one
Assail'd by terror ; and the sage replied :
"If he, O injured spirit ! could have believed
What he hath seen but in my verse described²,

Proluvies, uncæque manus et pallida semper

Ora fame.- Virg. Æn. lib. iii. 216.
' Gather'd I.] So Frezzi.
A quelle frasche stesi su la mano,
É d'una vetta un ramuscel ne colsi ;
Allora ella gridò : oimè, fa piano,
E sangue vivo uscì, ond' io lo tolsi. Il Quadrir. lib. i. cap. 4
* In my verse described. ] The commentators explain this, " If he could
F
(66) THE VISION. 49-69 .

He never against thee had stretch'd his hand.

But I, because the thing surpass'd belief,
Prompted him to this deed, which even now
Myself I rue. But tell me, who thou wast ;
That, for this wrong to do thee some amends,
In the upper world (for thither to return
Is granted him) thy fame he may revive . "
" That pleasant word of thine '," the trunk replied,
"Hath so inveigled me, that I from speech
Cannot refrain, wherein if I indulge
A little longer, in the snare detain'd,
Count it not grievous. I it was², who held
Both keys to Frederick's heart, and turn'd the wards,
Opening and shutting, with a skill so sweet,
That besides me, into his inmost breast
Scarce any other could admittance find.
The faith I bore to my high charge was such,
It cost me the life-blood that warm'd my veins.
The harlot³, who ne'er turn'd her gloating eyes
From Cæsar's household, common vice and pest
Of courts, 'gainst me inflamed the minds of all ;

have believed, in consequence of my assurances alone, that of which he hath

now had ocular proof, he would not have stretched forth his hand against
thee." But I am of opinion that Dante makes Virgil allude to his own
story of Polydorus, in the third book of the Æneid. 1 That pleasant
word of thine.] " Since you have inveigled me to speak by holding forth
so gratifying an expectation, let it not displease you if I am as it were
detained in the snare you have spread for me, so as to be somewhat prolix
in my answer. "" 2 I it was.] Piero delle Vigne, a native of Capua, who
from a low condition raised himself, by his eloquence and legal knowledge,
to the office of Chancellor to the Emperor Frederick II.; whose confidence
in him was such, that his influence in the empire became unbounded . The
courtiers, envious of his exalted situation, contrived, by means of forged
letters, to make Frederick believe that he held a secret and traitorous inter-
course with the Pope, who was then at enmity with the Emperor. In conse-
quence of this supposed crime, he was cruelly condemned, by his too credu-
lous sovereign, to lose his eyes ; and being driven to despair by his unmerited
calamity and disgrace, he put an end to his life by dashing out his brains
against the walls of a church, in the year 1245. Both Frederick and Piero
delle Vigne composed verses in the Sicilian dialect, which are now extant.
A canzone by each of them may be seen in the ninth book of the Sonetti
and Canzoni di diversi Autori Toscani, published by the Giunti in 1527.
See further the note on Purg. Canto iii. 110. The harlot. Envy.
Chaucer alludes to this, in the Prologue to the Legende of Good Women :
Envie is lavender to the court alway,
For she ne parteth neither night ne day
Out ofthe house of Cesar : thus saith Dant
70-110. HELL, CANTO XIII. (67)

And to Augustus they so spread the flame,

That my glad honours changed to bitter woes.
My soul, disdainful and disgusted, sought
Refuge in death from scorn, and I became,
Just as I was, unjust toward myself.
By the new roots, which fix this stem, I swear,
That never faith I broke to my liege lord,
Who merited such honour ; and of you,
If any to the world indeed return ,
Clear he from wrong my memory, that lies
Yet prostrate under envy's cruel blow."
First somewhat pausing, till the mournful words
Were ended, then to me the bard began :
"Lose not the time ; but speak, and of him ask,
If more thou wish to learn." Whence I replied :
" Question thou him again of whatsoe'er
Will, as thou think'st, content me ; for no power
Have I to ask, such pity is at my heart."
He thus resumed : " So may he do for thee
Freely what thou entreatest, as thou yet
Be pleased, imprison'd spirit ! to declare,
How in these gnarled joints the soul is tied ;
And whether any ever from such frame
Be loosen’d, if thou canst, that also tell.”
Thereat the trunk breathed hard, and the wind soon
Changed into sounds articulate like these :
"Briefly ye shall be answer'd. When departs
The fierce soul from the body, by itself
Thence torn asunder, to the seventh gulf
By Minos doom'd, into the wood it falls,
No place assign'd, but wheresoever chance
Hurls it ; there sprouting, as a grain of spelt,
It rises to a sapling, growing thence
A savage plant. The Harpies, on its leaves
Then feeding, cause both pain, and for the pain
A vent to grief. We, as the rest, shall come
For our own spoils, yet not so that with them
We may again be clad ; for what a man
Takes from himself it is not just he have.
Here we perforce shall drag them ; and throughout
The dismal glade our bodies shall be hung,
F 2
(68) THE VISION. 111-141 .

Each on the wild thorn of his wretched shade."

Attentive yet to listen to the trunk
We stood, expecting further speech, when us
A noise surprised ; as when a man perceives
The wild boar and the hunt approach his place
Of station'd watch, who of the beasts and boughs
Loud rustling round him hears. And lo! there came
Two naked, torn with briers, in headlong flight,
That they before them broke each fan o'th' wood ' .
"Haste now," the foremost cried, " now haste thee, death!
The other, as seem'd, impatient of delay,
Exclaiming, " Lano2 ! not so bent for speed
Thy sinews, in the lists of Toppo's field."
And then, for that perchance no longer breath
Sufficed him, of himself and of a bush
One group he made. Behind them was the wood
Full of black female mastiffs, gaunt and fleet,
As greyhounds that have newly slipt the leash.
On him, who squatted down, they stuck their fangs,
And having rent him piecemeal bore away
The tortured limbs. My guide then seized my hand,
And led me to the thicket, which in vain
Mourn'd through its bleeding wounds : " O Giacomo
Of Sant' Andrea 3 ! what avails it thee,"
It cried, "that of me thou hast made thy screen ?
For thy ill life, what blame on me recoils ? "
When o'er it he had paused, my master spake :
<< Say
who wast thou, that at so many points
Breathest out with blood thy lamentable speech ? "
He answer'd : " O ye spirits ! arrived in time
To spy the shameful havoc that from me
¹ Eachfan o' th' wood.] Hence perhaps Milton :
Leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan. P. L. b. v. 6
Some have translated " rosta " " impediment," instead of " fan."
Lano.] Lano, a Siennese, who being reduced by prodigality to a state
ur extreme want, found his existence no longer supportable ; and having
been sent by his countrymen on a military expedition to assist the Floren-
tines against the Aretini, took that opportunity of exposing himself to cer-
tain death, in the engagement which took place at Toppo near Arezzo. Sce
G.3Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. cxix.
O Giacomo
Of Sant' Andrea?] Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan, who, having
wasted his property in the most wanton acts of profusion, killed himself in
despair.
142-152. HELL, CANTO XIII. (69)

My leaves hath sever'd thus, gather them up,

And at the foot of their sad parent-tree
Carefully lay them. In that city¹ I dwelt,
Who for the Baptist her first patron changed,
Whence he for this shall cease not with his art
To work her woe : and if there still remain'd not
On Arno's passage some faint glimpse of him,
Those citizens, who rear'd once more her walls
Upon the ashes left by Attila,
Had labour'd without profit of their toil.
I slung the fatal noose2 from my own roof."

CANTO XIV.

ARGUMENT.
They arrive at the beginning of the third of those compartments into which
this seventh circle is divided. It is a plain of dry and hot sand, where
three kinds of violence are punished ; namely, against God, against Na-
ture, and against Art ; and those who have thus sinned, are tormented by
flakes of fire, which are eternally showering down upon them. Among
the violent against God is found Capancus, whose blasphemies they hear.
Next, turning to the left along the forest of self-slayers, and havingjour-
neyed a little onwards, they meet with a streamlet of blood that issues
from the forest and traverses the sandy plain. Here Virgil speaks to our
Poet of a huge ancient statue that stands within Mount Ida in Crete, from
a fissure in which statue there is a dripping of tears, from which the said
streamlet, together with the three other infernal rivers, are formed.
SOON as the charity of native land
Wrought in my bosom, I the scatter'd leaves
Collected, and to him restored, who now
Was hoarse with utterance. To the limit thence
We came, which from the third the second round
In that city.] " I was an inhabitant of Florence, that city which
changed her first patron Mars for St. John the Baptist ; for which reason
the vengeance of the deity thus slighted will never be appeased ; and
if some remains of his statue were not still visible on the bridge over the
Arno, she would have been already leveled to the ground ; and thus the
citizens, who raised her again from the ashes to which Attila had reduced
her, would have laboured in vain." See Paradise, Canto xvi. 44. The re-
lic of antiquity, to which the superstition of Florence attached so high an
importance, was carried away by a flood, that destroyed the bridge on which
it stood, in the year 1337, but without the ill effects that were apprehended
from the loss of their fancied Palladium. 2 I slung thefatal noose.] We
are not informed who this suicide was ; some calling him Rocco de Mozzi,
and others Lotto degli Agli.
(70) THE VISION. 6-39.

Divides, and where of justice is display'd

Contrivance horrible. Things then first seen
Clearlier to manifest, I tell how next
A plain we reach'd, that from its steril bed
Each plant repell'd . The mournful wood waves round
Its garland on all sides, as round the wood
Spreads the sad foss. There, on the very edge,
Our steps we stay'd . It was an area wide
Of arid sand and thick, resembling most
The soil that erst by Cato's foot was trod.
Vengeance of heaven ! Oh ! how shouldst thou be
By all, who read what here mine eyes beheld. [fear'd
Of naked spirits many a flock I saw,
All weeping piteously, to different laws
Subjected ; for on the earth some lay supine,
Some crouching close were seated, others paced
Incessantly around ; the latter tribe
More numerous, those fewer who beneath
The torment lay, but louder in their grief.
O'er all the sand fell slowly wafting down
Dilated flakes of fire 2, as flakes of snow
On Alpine summit, when the wind is hush'd.
As, in the torrid Indian clime ³, the son
Of Ammon saw, upon his warrior band
Descending, solid flames, that to the ground
Came down ; whence he bethought him with his troop
To trample on the soil ; for easier thus
The vapour was extinguish'd, while alone :
So fell the eternal fiery flood, wherewith
The marle glow'd underneath, as under stove¹
The viands, doubly to augment the pain.
Unceasing was the play of wretched hands,
Now this, now that way glancing, to shake off
The heat, still falling fresh. I thus began :
1 By Cato's foot. ] See Lucan, Phars. lib. ix.
• Dilatedflakes offire.] Compare Tasso, G. L. c. x. st. 61 .
Al fin giungemmo al loco, ove già scese
Fiamma del cielo in dilatate falde,
E di natura vendicò l'offese
Sovra la gente in mal oprar si salde.
As, in the torrid Indian clime.] Landino refers to Albertus Magnus for
the circumstance here alluded to. As under stove. ] So Frezzi :
Si come l'esca al foco del focile. Lib. i. cap. 1"
40-73. HELL, CANTO XIV. (71)
" Instructor ! thou who all things overcomest,
Except the hardy demons that rush'd forth
To stop our entrance at the gate, say who
Is yon huge spirit, that, as seems, heeds not
The burning, but lies writhen in proud scorn,
As by the sultry tempest immatured ? "
Straight he himself, who was aware I ask'd
My guide of him, exclaim'd : " Such as I was
When living, dead such now I am. If Jove
Weary his workman out, from whom in ire
He snatch'd the lightnings, that at my last day
Transfix'd me ; if the rest he weary out,
At their black smithy labouring by turns,
In Mongibello ' , while he cries aloud,
' Help, help, good Mulciber ! ' as erst he cried
In the Phlegræan warfare ; and the bolts
Launch he, full aim'd at me, with all his `might ;
He never should enjoy a sweet revenge."
Then thus my guide, in accent higher raised
Than I before had heard him: " Capaneus !
Thou art more punish'd, in that this thy pride
Lives yet unquench'd : no torment, save thy rage,
Were to thy fury pain proportion'd full."
Next turning round to me, with milder lip
He spake : " This of the seven kings was one²,
Who girt the Theban walls with siege, and held,
As still he seems to hold, God in disdain,
And sets his high omnipotence at nought.
But, as I told him, his despiteful mood
Is ornament well suits the breast that wears it.
Follow me now ; and look thou set not yet
Thy foot in the hot sand, but to the wood
Keep ever close." Silently on we pass'd
To where there gushes from the forest's bound
¹ In Mongibello.] More hot than Ætn' or flaming Mongibell .
Spenser, F. Q. b. ii. c. ix. st. 29.
Siccome alla fucina in Mongibello Batte folgori e foco col martello,
Fabrica tuono il demonio Vulcano, E con esso i suoi fabri in ogni mano
Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. i. c. xvi. st. 21.
See Virg. Æn. lib. viii. 416. It would be endless to refer to parallel pas
Lages in the Greek writers.
This of the seven kings was one.] Compare Esch. Seven Chiefs, 425
Euripides, Phan. 1179. and Statius, Theb. lib. x 821
(72) THE VISION. 74-103.

A little brook, whose crimson'd wave yet lifts

My hair with horror. As the rill, that runs
From Bulicame ' , to be portion'd out
Among the sinful women ; so ran this
Down through the sand ; its bottom and each bank
Stone-built, and either margin at its side,
Whereon I straight perceived our passage lay.
" Of all that I have shown thee, since that gate
We enter'd first, whose threshold is to none
Denied, nought else so worthy of regard,
As is this river, has thine eye discern'd,
O'er which the flaming volley all is quench'd."
So spake my guide ; and I him thence besought,
That having given me appetite to know,
The food he too would give, that hunger craved.
" In midst of ocean," forthwith he began,
"A desolate country lies, which Crete is named ;
Under whose monarch2, in old times, the world
Lived pure and chaste. A mountain rises there,
Call'd Ida, joyous once with leaves and streams,
Deserted now like a forbidden thing.
It was the spot which Rhea, Saturn's spouse,
Chose for the secret cradle of her son ;
And better to conceal him, drown'd in shouts
His infant cries. Within the mount, upright
An ancient form there stands, and huge, that turns
His shoulders towards Damiata ; and at Rome,
As in his mirror, looks. Of finest gold
His head is shaped, pure silver are the breast
And arms, thence to the middle is of brass,

¹ Bulicame.] A warm medicinal spring near Viterbo ; the waters of

which, as Landino and Vellutelli affirm, passed by a place of ill fame. Ven-
turi, with less probability, conjectures that Dante would imply that it was
the scene of much licentious merriment among those who frequented its baths.
Under whose monarch.]
Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam
In terris.- Juv. Satir. vi.
In Saturn's reign, at Nature's early birth,
There was a thing call'd chastity on earth. Dryden.
His head.] This is imitated by Frezzi, in the Quadriregio, lib. iv. cap. 14 :
La statua grande vidi in un gran piano, &c.
"This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms ofsilver, his
belly and his thighs of brass : His legs ofiron, his feet part of iron and part
ofclay." Daniel, ch. ii. 32, 33.
104-138. HELL, CANTO XIV. (73)

And downward all beneath well-temper'd steel,

Save the right foot of potter's clay, on which
Than on the other more erect he stands.
Each part, except the gold, is rent throughout ;
And from the fissure tears distil, which join'd
Penetrate to that cave. They in their course,
Thus far precipitated down the rock,
Form Acheron, and Styx, and Phlegethon ;
Then by this straiten'd channel passing hence
Beneath, e'en to the lowest depth of all,
Form there Cocytus, of whose lake (thyself
Shalt see it) I here give thee no account."
Then I to him : " If from our world this sluice
Be thus derived ; wherefore to us but now
Appears it at this edge ?" He straight replied :
"The place, thou know'st, is round : and though great part
Thou have already past, still to the left
Descending to the nethermost, not yet
Hast thou the circuit made of the whole orb.
Wherefore, if aught of new to us appear,
It needs not bring up wonder in thy looks."
Then I again inquired : " Where flow the streams
Of Phlegethon and Lethe ? for of one
Thou tell'st not ; and the other, of that shower,
Thou say'st, is form'd." He answer thus return'd :
"Doubtless thy questions all well pleased I hear.
Yet the red seething wave¹ might have resolved
One thou proposest. Lethe thou shalt see,
But not within this hollow, in the place
Whither 2, to lave themselves, the spirits go,
Whose blame hath been by penitence removed."
He added : " Time is now we quit the wood.
Look thou my steps pursue : the margins give
Safe passage, unimpeded by the flames ;
For over them all vapour is extinct."

The red seething wave. ] This he might have known was Phlegethon
Whither.] On the other side of Purgatory.
(74) THE VISION. 1-23.

CANTO XV.

ARGUMENT.
Taking their way upon one of the mounds by which the streamlet, spoken
of in the last Canto, was embanked, and having gone so far that they could
no longer have discerned the forest ifthey had turned round to look for it,
they meet a troop of spirits that come along the sand by the side of the
pier. These are they who have done violence to Nature ; and amongst
them Dante distinguishes Brunetto Latini, who had been formerly his
master ; with whom, turning a little backward, he holds a discourse which
occupies the remainder of this Canto.
ONE of the solid margins bears us now
Envelop'd in the mist, that, from the stream
Arising, hovers o'er, and saves from fire
Both piers and water. As the Flemings rear
Their mound, ' twixt Ghent and Bruges, to chase back
The ocean, fearing his tumultuous tide
That drives toward them ; or the Paduans theirs
Along the Brenta, to defend their towns
And castles, ere the genial warmth be felt
On Chiarentana's¹ top ; such were the mounds,
So framed, though not in height or bulk to these
Made equal, by the master, whosoe'er
He was, that raised them here. We from the wood
Were now so far removed, that turning round
I might not have discern'd it, when we met
A troop of spirits, who came beside the pier.
They each one eyed us, as at eventide
One eyes another under a new moon ;
And toward us sharpen'd their sight, as keen
As an old tailor at his needle's eye ².
Thus narrowly explored by all the tribe,
I was agnized of one, who by the skirt
Caught me, and cried, " What wonder have we here ? ”

1 Chiarentana.] A part of the Alps where the Brenta rises ; which river
is much swoln as soon as the snow begins to dissolve on the mountains.
2 As an old tailor at his needle's eye. ] In Fazio degli Uberti's Ditta-
mondo, l. iv. cap. 4. the tailor is introduced in a simile scarcely lev
picturesque :
Perchè tanto mi stringe a questo punto
La lunga tema, ch' io fo come il sarto
Che quando affretta spesso passa il punto
24-28. HELL, CANTO XV. (75)

And I, when he to me outstretch'd his arm,

Intently fix'd my ken on his parch'd looks ,
That, although smirch'd with fire, they hinder'd not
But I remember'd him ; and towards his face
My hand inclining, answer'd : " Ser Brunetto ¹ !

: Brunetto .] " Ser Brunetto, a Florentine, the secretary or chancellor of

the city, and Dante's preceptor, hath left us a work so little read, that both
the subject of it and the language of it have been mistaken. It is in the
French spoken in the reign of St. Louis, under the title of Tresor ; and con-
tains a species of philosophical course of lectures divided into theory and
practice, or, as he expresses it, un enchaussement des choses divines et hu-
maines," &c. Sir R. Clayton's Translation of Tenhove's Memoirs of the
Medici, vol. i. ch. ii. p. 104. The Tresor has never been printed in the
original language. There is a fine manuscript of it in the British Museum,
with an illuminated portrait of Brunetto in his study, prefixed. Mus. Brit.
MSS. 17. E. 1. Tesor. It is divided into four books : the first, on Cosmogony
and Theology; the second, a translation of Aristotle's Ethics ; the third, on
Virtues and Vices ; the fourth, on Rhetoric. For an interesting memoir
relating to this work, see Hist. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. vii. 296.
His Tesoretto, one of the earliest productions of Italian poetry, is a curious
work, not unlike the writings of Chaucer in style and numbers ; though
Bembo remarks, that his pupil, however largely he had stolen from it, could
not have much enriched himself. As it is perhaps but little known, I will
here add a slight sketch of it. Brunetto describes himself as returning from
an embassy to the King of Spain, on which he had been sent by the Guelph
party from Florence. On the plain of Roncesvalles he meets a scholar on a
bay mule-
un scolaio There a scholar I espied
Sur un muletto baio. On a bay mule that did ride.
-who tells him that the Guelfi are driven out of the city with great loss.
Struck with grief at these mournful tidings, and musing with his head bent
downwards, he loses his road, and wanders into a wood. Here Nature, whose
figure is described with sublimity, appears, and discloses to him the secrets of
her operations. After this, he wanders into a desert-
Deh che paese fiero Well-away! what fearful ground
Trovai in quella parte. In that savage part I found.
Che s'io sapessi d'arte If of art I aught could ken,
Quivi mi bisognava. Well behoved me use it then.
Che quanto più mirava More I look'd, the more I deem'd
Più mi parea selvaggio. That it wild and desert seem'd.
Quivi non a viaggio, Not a road was there in sight,
Quivi non a persone, Not a house, and not a wight ;
Quivi non a magione. Not a bird, and not a brute,
Non bestia non uccello, Not a rill, and not a root ;
Non fiume non ruscello, Not an emmet, not a fly,
Non formica non mosca, Not a thing I mote descry
Non cosa ch'io conosca. Sore I doubted therewithal
Ed io pensando forte Whether death would me befal ;
Dottai ben della morte, Nor was wonder, for around
E non è maraviglia, Full three hundred miles of groun
Che ben trecento miglia, Right across on every side
Durava d'ogni lato, Lay the desert bare and wide.
Quel pacse smagato. 管
(76) THE VISION. 29-41.
66
And are ye here ?" He thus to me : My son !
Oh let it not displease thee, if Brunetto
Latini but a little space with thee
Turn back, and leave his fellows to proceed."
I thus to him replied : " Much as I can,
I thereto pray thee ; and if thou be willing
That I here seat me with thee, I consent ;
His leave, with whom I journey, first obtain'd. "
" O son ! " said he, " whoever of this throng
One instant stops, lies then a hundred years,
No fan to ventilate him, when the fire
Smites sorest. Pass thou therefore on. I close
Will at thy garments walk, and then rejoin
-and proceeds on his way, under the protection of a banner with which
Nature had furnished him, till on the third day he finds himself in a plea
sant champain, where are assembled many emperors, kings, and sages :
Un gran piano giacondo Wide and far the champain lay,
Lo più gajo del mondo None in all the earth so gay.
E lo più degnitoso.
It is the habitation of Virtue and her daughters, the four Cardinal Virtues
Here Brunetto sees also Courtesy, Bounty, Loyalty, and Prowess, and hears
the instructions they give to a knight, which occupy about a fourth part of
the poem. Leaving this territory, he passes over valleys, mountains, woods,
forests, and bridges, till he arrives in a beautiful valley covered with flowers
on all sides, and the richest in the world ; but which was continually shift
ing its appearance from a round figure to a square, from obscurity to light,
and from populousness to solitude. This is the region of Pleasure, or Cu-
pid, who is accompanied by four ladies, Love, Hope, Fear, and Desire. In
one part of it he meets with Ovid, and is instructed by him howto conquer
the passion of love, and to escape from that place. After his escape, he
makes his confession to a friar, and then returns to the forest of visions ;
and, ascending a mountain, meets with Ptolemy, a venerable old man.
Here the narrative breaks off. The poem ends, as it began, with an address
to Rustico di Filippo, on whom he lavishes every sort of praise.
It has been observed, that Dante derived the idea of opening his poem by
describing himself as lost in a wood, from the Tesoretto of his master. I
know not whether it has been remarked, that the crime of usury is branded
by both these poets as offensive to God and Nature :-
Un altro, che non cura One, that holdeth not in mind
Di Dio ne di Natura, Law of God or Nature's kind,
Si diventa usuriere. Taketh him to usury.
-or that the sin for which Brunetto is condemned by his pupil is mentioned
in his Tesoretto with great horror. But see what is said on this subject by
Perticari, Degli Scrittori del Trecento, 1. i. c. iv. Dante's twenty-fifth son-
net is ajocose one, addressed to Brunetto, of which a translation is inserted
in the Life of Dante prefixed. He died in 1294. G. Villani sums up his
account of him by saying, that he was himself a worldly man ; but that he
was the first to refine the Florentines from their grossness, and to instruct
them in speaking properly and in conducting the affairs of the republic on
principles of policy
42-73. HELL, CANTO XV. (77)

My troop, who go mourning their endless doom."

I dared not from the path descend to tread
On equal ground with him, but held my head
Bent down, as one who walks in reverent guise.
"What chance or destiny," thus he began,
" Ere the last day, conducts thee here below ?
And who is this that shows to thee the way ? "
" There up aloft," I answer'd, “ in the life
Serene, I wander'd in a valley lost,
Before mine age¹ had to its fulness reach'd.
But yester-morn I left it : then once more
Into that vale returning, him I met ;
And by this path homeward he leads me back. ”
" If thou," he answer'd, " follow but thy star,
Thou canst not miss at last a glorious haven ;
Unless in fairer days my judgment err'd.
And if my fate so early had not chanced,
Seeing the heavens thus bounteous to thee, I
Had gladly given thee comfort in thy work.
But that ungrateful and malignant race,
Who in old times came down from Fesole 2,
Ay and still smack of their rough mountain-flint,
Will for thy good deeds show thee enmity.
Nor wonder ; for amongst ill-savour'd crabs
It suits not the sweet fig-tree lay her fruit.
Old fame reports them in the world for blind³,
Covetous, envious, proud. Look to it well :
Take heed thou cleanse thee of their ways. For thee,
Thy fortune hath such honour in reserve,
That thou by either party shalt be craved
With hunger keen : but be the fresh herb far
From the goat's tooth. The herd of Fesole

Before mine age.] On the whole, Vellutello's explanation of this is, 1

think, most satisfactory. He supposes it to mean, " before the appointed end
of his life was arrived-before his days were accomplished." Lombardi,
concluding that the fulness of age must be the same as " the midway ofthis
our mortal life," (see Canto i. v. 1.) understands that he had lost himself in
the wood before that time, and that he then only discovered his having gone
astray. 2 Who in old times came down from Fesole.] See G. Villani,
Hist. lib. iv. cap. v. and Macchiav. Hist. of Flor. b. ii. 3 Blind.] It is
said that the Florentines were thus called, in consequence of their having
been deceived by a shallow artifice practised on them by the Pisans, in the
year 1117. See G. Villani, lib. iv. cap. xxx.
(78) THE VISION. 74-110.

May of themselves make litter, not touch the plant,

If any such yet spring on their rank bed,
In which the holy seed revives, transmitted
From those true Romans, who still there remain'd,
When it was made the nest of so much ill.”
"Were all my wish fulfill'd," I straight replied,
" Thou from the confines of man's nature yet
Hadst not been driven forth ; for in my mind
Is fix'd, and now strikes full upon my heart,
The dear, benign, paternal image, such
As thine was, when so lately thou didst teach me
The way for man to win eternity :
And how I prized the lesson, it behoves,
That, long as life endures, my tongue should speak.
What of my fate thou tell'st, that write I down ;
And, with another text¹ to comment on,
For her I keep it, the celestial dame,
Who will know all, if I to her arrive.
This only would I have thee clearly note :
That, so my conscience have no plea against me,
Do Fortune as she list, I stand prepared.
Not new or strange such earnest to mine ear.
Speed Fortune then her wheel, as likes her best ;
The clown his mattock ; all things have their course."
Thereat my sapient guide upon his right
Turn'd himself back, then looked at me, and spake :
" He listens to good purpose who takes note."
I not the less still on my way proceed,
Discoursing with Brunetto, and inquire
Who are most known and chief among his tribe.
" To know of some is well ; " he thus replied,
"But of the rest silence may best beseem.
Time would not serve us for report so long.
In brief I tell thee, that all these were clerks,
Men of great learning and no less renown ,
By one same sin polluted in the world.
With them is Priscian2 ; and Accorso's son,

1 With another text. ] He refers to the prediction of Farinata, in Canto x.

2 Priscian.] There is no reason to believe, as the commentators observe,
that the grammarian of this name was stained with the vice imputed to him ;
and we must therefore suppose that Dante puts the individual for the species,
111-126. HELL, CANTO XV. (79)

Francesco ' , herds among that wretched throng :

And, if the wish of so impure a blotch
Possess'd thee, him2 thou also mightst have seen,
Who by the servants' servant³ was transferr'd
From Arno's seat to Bacchiglione, where
His ill-strain'd nerves he left. I more would add,
But must from further speech and onward way
Alike desist ; for yonder I behold
A mist new-risen on the sandy plain .
A company, with whom I may not sort,
Approaches. I commend my Treasure to thee ,
99
Wherein I yet survive ; my sole request.'
This said, he turn'd, and seem'd as one of those
Who o'er Verona's champain try their speed
For the green mantle ; and of them he seem'd,
Not he who loses but who gains the prize.

CANTO XVI.

ARGUMENT.
Journeying along the pier, which crosses the sand, they are now so near the
end of it as to hear the noise of the stream falling into the eighth circle,
when they meet the spirits of three military men ; who judging Dante,
from his dress, to be a countryman of theirs, entreat him to stop. He
complies, and speaks with them. The two Poets then reach the place
and implies the frequency of the crime among those who abused the oppor-
tunities which the education of youth afforded them, to so abominable a pur-
pose. 1 Francesco.] Accorso, a Florentine, interpreted the Roman law
at Bologna, and died in 1229 , at the age of 78. His authority was so great
as to exceed that of all the other interpreters, so that Cino da Pistoia termed
him the Idol of Advocates. His sepulchre, and that of his son Francesco
here spoken of, is at Bologna, with this short epitaph : " Sepulcrum Accursii
Glossatoris et Francisci ejus Filii." See Guidi Panziroli, De Claris Legum
Interpretibus, lib. ii. oap. xxix. Lips. 4to. 1721. 2 Him.] Andrea de'
Mozzi, who, that his scandalous life might be less exposed to observation,
was translated either by Nicolas III. or Boniface VIII. from the see of Flo-
rence to that of Vicenza, through which passes the river Bacchiglione. At
the latter of these places he died.
3 The servants' servant. ] Servo de' servi . So Ariosto, Sat. iii.
Degli servi
Io sia il gran servo.
I commend my Treasure to thee.] Brunetto's great work, the Tresor
Sieti raccomandato ' l mio Tesoro.
So Giusto de' Conti, in his Bella Mano, Son. " Occhi : "
Siavi raccomandato il mio Tesoro.
(80) THE VISION. 1-37.

where the water descends, being the termination of this third compart-
ment in the seventh circle ; and here Virgil having thrown down into the
hollow a cord, wherewith Dante was girt, they behold at that signal a
monstrous and horrible figure come swimming up to them.

Now came I where the water's din was heard,

As down it fell into the other round,
Resounding like the hum of swarming bees :
When forth together issued from a troop,
That pass'd beneath the fierce tormenting storm,
Three spirits, running swift. They towards us came,
And each one cried aloud, " Oh ! do thou stay,
Whom, by the fashion of thy garb, we deem
To be some inmate of our evil land."
Ah me ! what wounds I mark'd upon their limbs,
Recent and old, inflicted by the flames.
E'en the remembrance of them grieves me yet.
Attentive to their cry, my teacher paused,
And turn'd to me his visage, and then spake :
"Wait now : our courtesy these merit well :
And were 't not for the nature of the place,
Whence glide the fiery darts, I should have said,
That haste had better suited thee than them."
They, when we stopp'd, resumed their ancient wail,
And, soon as they had reach'd us, all the three
Whirl'd round together in one restless wheel .
As naked champions, smear'd with slippery oil
Are wont, intent, to watch their place of hold
And vantage, ere in closer strife they meet ;
Thus each one, as he wheel'd, his countenance
At me directed, so that opposite
The neck moved ever to the twinkling feet.
" If woe of this unsound and dreary waste,"
Thus one began, " added to our sad cheer
Thus peel'd with flame, do call forth scorn on us
And our entreaties, let our great renown
Incline thee to inform us who thou art,
That dost imprint, with living feet unharm'd,
The soil of Hell. He, in whose track thou sees:
My steps pursuing, naked though he be
And reft of all, was of more high estate
Than thou believest ; grandchild of the chaste
88-46. HELL, CANTO XVI. (81)

Gualdrada ' , him they Guidoguerra call'd,

Who in his lifetime many a noble act2
Achieved, both by his wisdom and his sword.
The other, next to me that beats the sand,
Is Aldobrandi³ , name deserving well,
In the upper world, of honour ; and myself,
Who in this torment do partake with them,
Am Rusticucci 4, whom, past doubt, my wife,
Of savage temper, more than aught beside

1 Gualdrada.] Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincione Berti, ofwhom

mention is made in the Paradise, Canto xv. and xvi. He was of the family
of Ravignani, a branch ofthe Adimari. The Emperor Otho IV. being at a
festival in Florence, where Gualdrada was present, was struck with her
beauty ; and inquiring who she was, was answered by Bellincione, that she
was the daughter of one who, if it was his Majesty's pleasure, would make
her admit the honour of his salute. On overhearing this, she arose from her
seat, and blushing, in an animated tone of voice, desired her father that he
would not be so liberal in his offers, for that no man should ever be allowed
that freedom except him who should be her lawful husband. The Emperor
was not less delighted by her resolute modesty than he had before been by
the loveliness of her person ; and calling to him Guido, one of his barons,
gave her to him in marriage ; at the same time raising him to the rank of a
count, and bestowing on her the whole of Casentino, and a part of the terri-
tory of Romagna, as her portion. Two sons were the offspring of this union,
Guglielmo and Ruggieri ; the latter of whom was father of Guidoguerra, a
man of great military skill and prowess ; who, at the head of four hundred
Florentines ofthe Guelph party, was signally instrumental to the victory ob-
tained at Benevento by Charles of Anjou, over Manfredi King of Naples, in
1265. One of the consequences of this victory was the expulsion of the
Ghibellini, and the re-establishment of the Guelfi at Florence. Borghini,
(Disc. dell' Orig. di Firenze, ediz. 1755. pag. 6.) as cited by Lombardi, en-
deavours by a comparison of dates to throw discredit on the above relation of
Gualdrada's answer to her father, which is found in G. Villani, lib. v. c.
xxxvii. and Lombardi adds, that if it had been true, Bellincione would have
been worthy of a place in the eighteenth Canto of Hell, rather than of being
mentioned with praise in the Paradise : to which it may be answered, that
the proposal of the father, however irreconcileable it may be to our notions of
modernrefinement, might possibly in those times have been considered rather
as a sportive sally than as a serious exposure of his daughter's innocence.
The incident is related, in a manner very unfavourable to Berti, by Francesco
Sansovino, in one of his Novelle, inserted by Mr. Thomas Roscoe in his en-
tertaining selection from the Italian Novelists, v. iii. p. 137.
2 Many a noble act.]
Molto egli oproò col senno e con la mano. Tasso, G. L. c. i. st. 1.
Aldobrandi.] Tegghiaio Aldobrandi was of the noble family of Adi-
mari, and much esteemed for his military talents. He endeavoured to
dissuade the Florentines from the attack which they meditated against the
Siennese ; and the rejection of his counsel occasioned the memorable defeat
which the former sustained at Montaperto, and the consequent banishment
of the Guelfi from Florence. Rusticucci. ] Giacopo Rusticucci, a
Florentine, remarkable for his opulence and the generosity of his spirit.
(82) THE VISION. 47-82.

Hath to this evil brought." If from the fire

I had been shelter'd, down amidst them straight
I then had cast me ; nor my guide, I deem,
Would have restrain'd my going : but that fear
Of the dire burning vanquish'd the desire,
Which made me eager of their wish'd embrace.
I then began : " Not scorn, but grief much more,
Such as long time alone can cure, your doom
Fix'd deep within me, soon as this my lord
Spake words, whose tenor taught me to expect
That such a race, as ye are, was at hand.
I am a countryman of yours, who still
Affectionate have utter'd, and have heard
Your deeds and names renown'd. Leaving the gall,
For the sweet fruit I go, that a sure guide
Hath promised to me. But behoves, that far
As to the centre first I downward tend."
" So may long space thy spirit guide thy limbs,"
He answer straight return'd ; " and so thy fame
Shine bright when thou art gone, as thou shalt tell,
If courtesy and valour, as they wont,
Dwell in our city, or have vanish'd clean :
For one amidst us late condemn'd to wail,
Borsiere¹, yonder walking with his peers,
Grieves us no little by the news he brings."
" An upstart multitude and sudden gains,
Pride and excess, O Florence ! have in thee
Engender'd, so that now in tears thou mourn'st !"
Thus cried I, with my face upraised, and they
All three, who for an answer took my words,
Look'd at each other, as men look when truth
Comes to their ear. " If at so little cost2,"
They all at once rejoin'd, " thou satisfy
Others who question thee, O happy thou !
Gifted with words so apt to speak thy thought.
Wherefore, if thou escape this darksome clime,
Borsiere.] Guglielmo Borsiere, another Florentine, whom Boccaccio, in
a story which he relates of him, terms " a man of courteous and elegant
manners, and of great readiness in conversation ." Dec. Giorn. i. Nov. 8.
2 At so little cost. ] They intimate to our poet (as Lombardi well observes)
the inconveniences to which his freedom of speech was about to expose him
in the future course of his life.
83-106 . HELL, CANTO XVI. (83)
Returning to behold the radiant stars,
When thou with pleasure shalt retrace the past ',
See that of us thou speak among mankind ."
This said, they broke the circle, and so swift
Fled, that as pinions seem'd their nimble feet.
Not in so short a time might one have said
"Amen," as they had vanish'd. Straight my guide
Pursued his track. I follow'd : and small space
Had we past onward, when the water's sound
Was now so near at hand, that we had scarce
Heard one another's speech for the loud din.
E'en as the river², that first holds its course
Unmingled, from the Mount of Vesulo,
On the left side of Apennine, toward
The east, which Acquacheta higher up
They call, ere it descend into the vale,
At Forli³, by that name no longer known,
Rebellows o'er Saint Benedict, roll'd on
From the Alpine summit down a precipice,
Where space enough to lodge a thousand spread¿a ;
Thus downward from a craggy steep we found
That this dark wave resounded, roaring loud,
So that the ear its clamour soon had stunn'd.
I had a cord that braced my girdle round,

When thou with pleasure shalt retrace the past.]

Quando ti gioverà dicere io fui.
So Tasso, G. L. c. xv. st. 38 : Quando mi gioverà narrar altrui
Le novità vedute, e dire ; io fui.
2 E'en as the river.] He compares the fall of Phlegethon to that of the
Montone (a river in Romagna) from the Apennine above the Abbey of St.
Benedict. All the other streams, that rise between the sources of the Po
and the Montone, and fall from the left side of the Apennine, join the Po,
and accompany it to the sea. 3 At Forli.] Because there it loses the
name of Acquacheta, and takes that of Montone. 4 Where space .]
Either because the abbey was capable of containing more than those who
occupied it, or because (says Landino) the lords of that territory, as Boc-
caccio related on the authority of the abbot, had intended to build a castle
near the water-fall, and to collect within its walls the population ofthe
neighbouring villages. 5 A cord.] This passage, as it is confessed by
Landino, involves a fiction sufficiently obscure. His own attempt to unravel
it does not much lessen the difficulty. That which Lombardi has made is
something better. It is believed that our poet, in the earlier part of his life,
had entered into the order of St. Francis. By observing the rules of that
profession, he had designed to mortify his carnal appetites, or, as he expresses
it, " to take the painted leopard " (that animal, which, as we have seen in a
note to the first Canto, represented Pleasure) " with this cord." This part
4 2
(84) THE VISION. 107-130.

Wherewith I erst had thought fast bound to take

The painted leopard. This when I had all
Unloosen'd from me (so my master bade)
I gather'd up, and stretch'd it forth to him.
Then to the right he turn'd, and from the brink
Standing few paces distant, cast it down
Into the deep abyss " And somewhat strange,"
Thus to myself I spake, " signal so strange
Betokens, which my guide with earnest eye
Thus follows." Ah ! what caution must men use
With those who look not at the deed alone,
But spy into the thoughts with subtle skill '.
66
Quickly shall come," he said, " what I expect ;
Thine eye discover quickly that, whereof
Thy thought is dreaming." Ever to that truth2,
Which but the semblance of a falsehood wears,
A man, if possible, should bar his lip ;
Since, although blameless, he incurs reproach.
But silence here were vain ; and by these notes³,
Which now I sing, reader, I swear to thee,
So may they favour find to latest times !
That through the gross and murky air I spied
A shape come swimming up, that might have quell'd
The stoutest heart with wonder ; in such guise

the habit he is now desired by Virgil to take off; and it is thrown down
the gulf, to allure Geryon to them with the expectation of carrying down one
who had cloaked his iniquities under the garb of penitence and self-mortifi-
cation ; and thus (to apply to Dante on this occasion the words of Milton)
He, as Franciscan, thought to pass disguised.
1 But spy intothe thoughts with subtle skill.]
Sorrise Uranio, che per entro vede
Gli altrui pensier col senno. Menzini, Sonetto. Mentre io dormia.
2 Ever to that truth.] This memorable apophthegm is repeated by Luigi
Pulci and Trissino :
Sempre a quel ver, ch' ha faccia di menzogna,
E più senno tacer la lingua cheta,
Che spesso senza colpa fa vergogna. Morgante Magg. c. xxiv.
La verità, che par mensogna,
Si dovrebbe tacer dall' uom ch'è saggio. Italia Lib. c. xvi.
Bythese notes . ] So Frezzi :
Per queste rime mie, lettor, ti giuro. Il Quadrir. lib. iii. cap. 16.
In like manner, Pindar confirms his veracity by an oath :
Ναι μὰ γὰρ Ορκον, ἐμὰν δόξαν. Nem. xi. 30.
which is imitated, as usual, by Chiabrera :
Ed io lungo il Permesso
Sacro alle Muse obligherò mia fede. Canz. Eroiche, xliii. 76.
131-134. HELL, CANTO XVI. (85)
As one returns, who hath been down to loose
An anchor grappled fast against some rock,
Or to aught else that in the salt wave lies,
Who, upward springing, close draws in his feet.

CANTO XVII.

ARGUMENT.
The monster Geryon is described ; to whom while Virgil is speaking in
order that he may carry them both down to the next circle, Dante, by
permission, goes a little further along the edge of the void, to descry the
third species of sinners contained in this compartment, namely, those who
have done violence to Art; and then returning to his master, they both
descend, seated on the back of Geryon.
" Lo ! the fell monster with the deadly sting,
Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls
And firm embattled spears, and with his filth
Taints all the world." Thus me my guide address'd,
And beckon'd him, that he should come to shore,
Near to the stony causeway's utmost edge.
Forthwith that image vile of Fraud appear'd,
His head and upper part exposed on land ,
But laid not on the shore his bestial train.
His face the semblance of a just man's wore,
So kind and gracious was its outward cheer ;
The rest was serpent all : two shaggy claws
Reach'd to the arm-pits ; and the back and breast,
And either side, were painted o'er with nodes
And orbits. Colours variegated more
Nor Turks nor Tartars e'er on cloth of state
With interchangeable embroidery wove,
Nor spread Arachne o'er her curious loom.
As oft-times a light skiff, moor'd to the shore,
Stands part in water, part upon the land ;
Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor,
The beaver settles, watching for his prey ;
So on the rim, that fenced the sand with rock,
Sat perch'd the fiend of evil. In the void

¹ The fell monster.] Fraud.

(86) THE VISION. 25-59.

Glancing, his tail upturn'd its venomous fork,

With sting like scorpion's arm'd. Then thus my guide :
"Now need our way must turn few steps apart,
Far as to that ill beast, who couches there."
Thereat, toward the right our downward course
We shaped, and, better to escape the flame
And burning marle, ten paces on the verge
Proceeded. Soon as we to him arrive,
A little further on mine eye beholds
A tribe of spirits, seated on the sand
Near to the void. Forthwith my master spake :
" That to the full thy knowledge may extend
Of all this round contains, go now, and mark
The mien these wear : but hold not long discourse.
Till thou returnest, I with him meantime
Will parley, that to us he may vouchsafe
The aid of his strong shoulders." Thus alone,
Yet forward on the extremity I paced
Of that seventh circle, where the mournful tribe
Were seated. At the eyes forth gush'd their pangs.
Against the vapours and the torrid soil
Alternately their shifting hands they plied.
Thus use the dogs in summer still to ply
Their jaws and feet by turns, when bitten sore
By gnats, or flies, or gadflies swarming round.
Noting the visages of some, who lay
Beneath the pelting of that dolorous fire,
One of them all I knew not ; but perceived,
That pendent from his neck each bore a pouch '
With colours and with emblems various mark'd,
On which it seem'd as if their eye did feed .
And when, amongst them, looking round I came,
A yellow purse2 I saw with azure wrought,
That wore a lion's countenance and port.
Then, still my sight pursuing its career,

A pouch.] A purse, whereon the armorial bearings of each were em

blazoned. According to Landino, our Poet implies that the usurer can pre-
tend to no other honour than such as he derives from his purse and his
family. The description of persons by their heraldic insignia is remarkable
both on the present and several other occasions in this poem.
24 yellow purse.] The arms of the Gianfigliazzi of Florence.
60-85. HELL, CANTO XVII. (87)
Another I beheld, than blood more red,
A goose display of whiter wing than curd.
And one, who bore a fat and azure swine2
Pictured on his white scrip, address'd me thus :
"What dost thou in this deep ? Go now and know,
Since yet thou livest, that my neighbour here
Vitaliano³ on my left shall sit.
A Paduan with these Florentines am I.
Oft-times they thunder in mine ears, exclaiming,
Oh ! haste that noble knight , he who 999 the pouch
With the three goats5 will bring.' This said, he
The mouth, and loll'd the tongue out, like an ox [writhed
That licks his nostrils. I, lest longer stay
He ill might brook, who bade me stay not long,
Backward my steps from those sad spirits turn'd.
My guide already seated on the haunch
Of the fierce animal I found ; and thus
He me encouraged. " Be thou stout : be bold .
Down such a steep flight must we now descend.
Mount thou before : for, that no power the tail
May have to harm thee, I will be i' th' midst."
As one , who hath an ague fit so near,
His nails already are turn'd blue, and he
Quivers all o'er, if he but eye the shade ;
Such was my cheer at hearing of his words.
But shame soon interposed her threat, who makes
Another.] Those of the Ubbriachi, another Florentine family of high
distinction. 2 A fat and azure swine.] The arms ofthe Scrovigni, a
noble family of Padua. 3 Vitaliano.] Vitaliano del Dente, a Paduan.
• That noble knight.] Giovanni Bujamonti, a Florentine usurer, the most
mfamous of his time. 5 Goats.] Monti, in his Proposta, had introduced
a facetious dialogue, on the supposed mistake made in the interpretation of
this word " Becchi " by the compilers of the Della Crusca Dictionary, who
translated it " goats," instead of " beaks.' He afterwards saw his own
error, and had the ingenuousness to confess it in the Appendix, p. 274.
Having in the former editions of this work been betrayed into the same mis-
understanding of my author, I cannot do less than follow so good an ex-
ample, by acknowledging and correcting it. As one.] Dante trembled
with fear, like a man who, expecting the return of a quartan ague, shakes
even at the sight of a place made cool by the shade. But shame.] 1
have followed the reading in Vellutello's edition,
Ma vergogna mi fe le sue minacce ;
which appears preferable to the common one,
Ma vergogna mi fer, &c.
It is necessary that I should observe this, because it has been imputed to me
as a mistake.
(88) THE VISION. 86-126.

The servant bold in presence of his lord.

I settled me upon those shoulders huge,
And would have said, but that the words to aid
My purpose came not, " Look thou clasp me firm."
But he whose succour then not first I proved,
Soon as I mounted, in his arms aloft,
Embracing, held me up ; and thus he spake :
"Geryon ! now move thee : be thy wheeling gyres
Of ample circuit, easy thy descent.
Think on the unusual burden thou sustain'st.'
As a small vessel, backening out from land,
Her station quits ; so thence the monster loosed,
And, when he felt himself at large, turn'd round
There, where the breast had been, his forked tail.
Thus, like an eel, outstretch'd at length he steer'd,
Gathering the air up with retractile claws.
Not greater was the dread, when Phaeton
The reins let drop at random, whence high heaven,
Whereof signs yet appear, was wrapt in flames ;
Nor when ill-fated Icarus perceived,
By liquefaction of the scalded wax,
The trusted pennons loosen'd from his loins,
His sire exclaiming loud, " Ill way thou keep'st,”
Than was my dread, when round me on each part
The air I view'd, and other object none
Save the fell beast. He, slowly sailing, wheels
His downward motion, unobserved of me,
But that the wind, arising to my face,
Breathes on me from below. Now on our right
I heard the cataract beneath us leap
With hideous crash ; whence bending down to explore,
New terror I conceived at the steep plunge ;
For flames I saw, and wailings smote mine ear :
So that, all trembling, close I crouch'd my limbs,
And then distinguish'd, unperceived before,
By the dread torments that on every side
Drew nearer, how our downward course we wound.
As falcon, that hath long been on the wing,
But lure nor bird hath seen, while in despair
The falconer cries, " Ah me ! thou stoop'st to earth,"
Wearied descends, whence nimbly be arose
127-132. HELL, CANTO XVII. (89)

In many an airy wheel, and lighting sits

At distance from his lord in angry mood ;
So Geryon lighting places us on foot
Low down at base of the deep-furrow'd rock,
And, of his burden there discharged, forthwith
Sprang forward, like an arrow from the string.

CANTO XVIII.

ARGUMENT.
The Poet describes the situation and form of the eighth circle, divided into
ten gulfs, which contain as many different descriptions of fraudulent sin-
ners ; but in the present Canto he treats only of two sorts : the first is of
those who, either for their own pleasure, or for that of another, have se-
duced any woman from her duty; and these are scourged of demons in
the first gulf: the other sort is of flatterers, who in the second gulf are
condemned to remain immersed in filth.
THERE is a place within the depths of hell
Call'd Malebolge, all of rock dark- stain'd
With hue ferruginous, e'en as the steep
That round it circling winds. Right in the midst
Of that abominable region yawns
A spacious gulf profound, whereof the frame
Due time shall tell. The circle, that remains,
Throughout its round, between the gulf and base
Of the high craggy banks, successive forms
Ten bastions, in its hollow bottom raised.
As where, to guard the walls, full many a foss
Begirds some stately castle, sure defence¹
Affording to the space within ; so here

Sure defence.] La parte dov' e' son rendon sicura.

This is the common reading ; besides which there are two others :
La parte dove il sol rende figura ;
and, La parte dov' ei son rende figura:
the former of which two, Lombardi says, is found in Daniello's edition,
printed at Venice, 1568 ; in that printed in the same city with the com-
mentaries of Landino and Velluteño, 1572 ; and also in some MSS. The
latter, which has very much the appearance of being genuine, was adopted
by Lombardi himself, on the authority of a text supposed to be in the
hand-writing of Filippo Villani, but so defaced by the alterations made in
it by some less skilful hand, that the traces of the old ink were with diffi-
culty recovered ; and it has, since the publication of Lombardi's edition,
been met with also in the Monte Casino MS. Monti is decided in favour
of Lombardi's reading, and Biagioli opposed to it.
(90) THE VISION. 14-44.

Were model'd these : and as like fortresses,

E'en from their threshold to the brink without,
Are flank'd with bridges ; from the rock's low base
Thus flinty paths advanced, that 'cross the moles
And dikes struck onward far as to the gulf,
That in one bound collected cuts them off.
Such was the place, wherein we found ourselves
From Geryon's back dislodged. The bard to left.
Held on his way, and I behind him moved.
On our right hand new misery I saw,
New pains, new executioners of wrath,
That swarming peopled the first chasm . Below
Were naked sinners. Hitherward they came,
Meeting our faces, from the middle point ;
With us beyond¹, but with a larger stride.
E'en thus the Romans2, when the year returns
Of Jubilee, with better speed to rid
The thronging multitudes, their means devise
For such as pass the bridge ; that on one side
All front toward the castle, and approach
Saint Peter's fane, on the other towards the mount.
Each diverse way, along the grisly rock,
Horn'd demons I beheld, with lashes huge,
That on their back unmercifully smote.
Ah! how they made them bound at the first stripe !
None for the second waited, nor the third.
Meantime, as on I pass'd, one met my sight,
Whom soon as view'd, " Of him," cried I, " not yet
Mine eye hath had his fill." I therefore stay'd³
My feet to scan him, and the teacher kind
Paused with me, and consented I should walk
With us beyond. ] Beyond the middle point they tended the same way
with us, but their pace was quicker than ours. 2 E'en thus the Romans.]
In the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII., to remedy the inconvenience occa
sioned by the press of people who were passing over the bridge of St. Angelo
during the time of the Jubilee, caused it to be divided lengthwise by a par-
tition ; and ordered, that all those who were going to St. Peter's should
keep one side, and those returning the other. G. Villani, who was present,
describes the order that was preserved, lib. viii. c. xxxvi. It was at this
time, and on this occasion, as the honest historian tells us, that he first con-
ceived the design of " compiling his book." 3 I therefore stay'd.] "I
piedi affissi " is the reading of the Nidobeatina edition ; but Lombardi is un-
der an error, when he tells us that the other editions have " gli occhi affissi ";
for Ve lutello's at least, printed in 1544, agrees with the Nidobeatina.
45-77. HELL, CANTO XVIII. (91)

Backward a space ; and the tormented spirit,

Who thought to hide him, bent his visage down.
But it avail'd him nought ; for I exclaim'd :
66" Thou
who dost cast thine eye upon the ground,
Unless thy features do belie thee much,
Venedico art thou . But what brings thee .
Into this bitter seasoning 2 ? " He replied :
" Unwillingly I answer to thy words.
But thy clear speech, that to my mind recals
The world I once inhabited , constrains me.
Know then 't was I who led fair Ghisola
To do the Marquis' will, however fame
The shameful tale have bruited. Nor alone
Bologna hither sendeth me to mourn.
Rather with us the place is so o'erthrong'd ,
That not so many tongues this day are taught,
Betwixt the Reno and Savena's stream,
To answer Sipa 3 in their country's phrase.
And if of that securer proof thou need,
Remember but our craving thirst for gold."
Him speaking thus, a demon with his thong
Struck and exclaim'd, " Away, corrupter ! here
Women are none for sale." Forthwith I join'd
My escort, and few paces thence we came
To where a rock forth issued from the bank.
That easily ascended, to the right
Upon its splinter turning, we depart
From those eternal barriers. When arrived
Where, underneath, the gaping arch lets pass
The scourged souls : " Pause here," the teacher said,
"And let these others miserable now
Strike on thy ken ; faces not yet beheld,
For that together they with us have walk'd ."

1 Venedico.] Venedico Caccianimico, a Bolognese, who prevailed on his

sister Ghisola to prostitute herself to Obizzo da Este, Marquis of Ferrara,
whom we have seen among the tyrants, Canto xii. 2 Seasoning.] Salse.
Monti, in his Proposta, following Benvenuto da Imola, takes this to be the
name of a place. If so, a play must have been intended on the word, which
cannot be preserved in English. 3 To answer Sipa. ] He denotes Bo-
logna by its situation between the rivers Savena to the east, and Reno to
the west of that city ; and by a peculiarity of dialect, the use of the affirma.
tive sipa instead either of si, or, as Monti will have it, of sia.
(92) THE VISION. 78-115.

From the old bridge we eyed the pack, who came

From the other side toward us, like the rest,
Excoriate from the lash. My gentle guide,
By me unquestion'd, thus his speech resumed :
"Behold that lofty shade, who this way tends,
And seems too woe-begone to drop a tear.
How yet the regal aspect he retains !
Jason is he, whose skill and prowess won
The ram from Colchos. To the Lemnian isle
His passage thither led him, when those bold
And pitiless women had slain all their males.
There he with tokens and fair witching words
Hypsipyle ' beguiled, a virgin young,
Who first had all the rest herself beguiled .
Impregnated, he left her there forlorn.
Such is the guilt condemns him to this pain.
Here too Medea's injuries are avenged.
All bear him company, who like deceit
To his have practised. And thus much to know
Of the first vale suffice thee, and of those
Whom its keen torments urge." Now had we come
Where, crossing the next pier, the straiten'd path
Bestrides its shoulders to another arch.
Hence, in the second chasm we heard the ghost ,
Who gibber in low melancholy sounds ,
With wide-stretch'd nostrils snort, and on themselves
Smite with their palms. Upon the banks a scurf,
From the foul steam condensed, encrusting hung,
That held sharp combat with the sight and smell.
So hollow is the depth, that from no part,
Save on the summit of the rocky span,
Could I distinguish aught. Thus far we came ;
And thence I saw, within the foss below,
A crowd immersed in ordure, that appear'd
Draff of the human body. There beneath
Searching with eye inquisitive, I mark'd
One with his head so grimed, 't were hard to deem
If he were clerk or layman. Loud he cried :
Ilypsipyle. ] See Apollonius Rhodius, 1. i. and Valerius Flaccus, 1.
Hypsipyle deceived the other women, by concealing her father Thoas, whe
they had agreed to put all their males to death.
116-133. HELL, CANTO XVIII. (93)

' Why greedily thus bendest more on me,

Than on these other filthy ones, thy ken ?"
" Because, if true my memory," I replied,
c. I heretofore have seen thee with dry locks ;
"
And thou Alessio¹ art, of Lucca sprung.
Therefore than all the rest I scan thee more."
Then beating on his brain, these words he spake :
" Me thus low down my flatteries have sunk,
Wherewith I ne'er enough could glut my tongue."
My leader thus : " A little further stretch
Thy face, that thou the visage well mayst note
Of that besotted, sluttish courtezan,
Who there doth rend her with defiled nails,
Now crouching down, now risen on her feet.
Thaïs 2 is this, the harlot, whose false lip
Answer'd her doting paramour that ask'd,
' Thankest me much ! '- Say rather, wondrously,'
And, seeing this, here satiate be our view."

CANTO XIX .

ARGUMENT.
They come to the third gulf, wherein are punished those who have been
guilty of simony. These are fixed with the head downwards in certain
apertures, so that no more of them than the legs appears without, and on
the soles of their feet are seen burning flames. Dante is taken down by his
guide into the bottom ofthe gulf; and there finds Pope Nicholas the Fifth,
whose evil deeds, together with those of other pontiffs, are bitterly repre-
hended. Virgil then carries him up again to the arch, which affords them
a passage over the following gulf.
WOE to thee, Simon Magus ! woe to you,
His wretched followers ! who the things of God,
Which should be wedded unto goodness, them,
Rapacious as ye are, do prostitute
For gold and silver in adultery.

1 Alessio. ] Alessio, of an ancient and considerable family in Lucca, called

the Interminei. 2 Thais .] He alludes to that passage in the Eunuchus of
Terence, where Thraso asks if This was obliged to him for the present he
lad sent her ; and Gnatho replies, that she had expressed her obligation
in the most forcible terms.
T. Magnas vero agere gratias Thaïs mihi ?
G. Ingentes. Eun. a. iii. s. i.
 THE VISION. 6-41.
(94)
Now must the trumpet sound for you, since yours
Is the third chasm. Upon the following vault
We now had mounted, where the rock impends
Directly o'er the centre of the foss.
Wisdom Supreme ! how wonderful the art,
Which thou dost manifest in heaven, in earth,
And in the evil world, how just a meed
Allotting by thy virtue unto all.
I saw the livid stone, throughout the sides
And in its bottom full of apertures ,
All equal in their width, and circular each.
Nor ample less nor larger they appear'd
Than, in Saint John's fair dome¹ of me beloved,
Those framed to hold the pure baptismal streams,
One of the which I brake, some few years past,
To save a whelming infant : and be this
A seal to undeceive whoever doubts
The motive of my deed. From out the mouth
Of every one emerged a sinner's feet,
And of the legs high upward as the calf.
The rest beneath was hid. On either foot
The soles were burning ; whence the flexile joints
Glanced with such violent motion, as had snapt
Asunder cords or twisted withs. As flame,
Feeding on unctuous matter, glides along
The surface, scarcely touching where it moves ;
So here, from heel to point, glided the flames.
" Master ! say who is he, than all the rest
Glancing in fiercer agony, on whom
A ruddier flame doth prey ? " I thus inquired.
"If thou be willing," he replied, “ that I
Carry thee down, where least the slope bank falls,
He of himself shall tell thee, and his wrongs."
I then : " As pleases thee, to me is best.
Thou art my lord ; and know'st that ne'er I quit
Thy will what silence hides, that knowest thou."

1 Saint John's fair dome.] The apertures in the rock were of the sam
dimensions as the fonts of St. John the Baptist at Florence ; one of which
Dante says, he had broken, to rescue a child that was playing near and fel
in. He intimates, that the motive of his breaking the font had been ma
liciously represented by his enemies
42-71. HELL, CANTO XIX. (95)
Thereat on the fourth pier we came, we turn'd,
And on our left descended to the depth,
A narrow strait, and perforated close.
Nor from his side my leader set me down,
Till to his orifice he brought, whose limb
Quivering express'd his pang. " Whoe'er thou art,
Sad spirit ! thus reversed, and as a stake
Driven in the soil, " I in these words began ;
"If thou be able, utter forth thy voice. "
There stood I like the friar, that doth shrive
A wretch for murder doom'd, who, e'en when fix'd ',
Calleth him back, whence death awhile delays.
He shouted : " Ha ! already standest there ?
Already standest there, O Boniface 2 !
By many a year the writing play'd me false.
So early dost thou surfeit with the wealth,
For which thou fearedst not in guile³ to take
The lovely lady, and then mangle her ? ”
I felt as those who, piercing not the drift
Of answer made them, stand as if exposed
In mockery, nor know what to reply;
When Virgil thus admonish'd : " Tell him quick,
999
' I am not he, not he whom thou believest.'
And I, as was enjoin'd me, straight replied .
That heard, the spirit all did wrench his feet,
And, sighing, next in woeful accent spake :
"What then of me requirest ? If to know
So much imports thee, who I am, that thou
Hast therefore down the bank descended, learn
That in the mighty mantle I was robed 4,
When fix'd.] The commentators on Boccaccio's Decameron, p. 72. ediz
Jiunti, 1573, cite the words of the statute by which murderers were sen
enced thus to suffer at Florence. " Assassinus trahatur ad caudam muli
seu asini usque ad locum justitiæ ; et ibidem plantetur capite deorsum, ita
quod moriatur. " Let the assassin be dragged at the tail of a mule or ass to
the place of justice ; and there let him be set in the ground with his face
downward, so that he die." 2 O Boniface !] The spirit mistakes Dante
for Boniface VIII . , who was then alive ; and who he did not expect would
have arrived so soon, in consequence, as it should seem, of a prophecy, which
predicted the death of that pope at a later period. Boniface died in 1303.
3 In guile.] " Thou didst presume to arrive by fraudulent means at the
papal power, and afterwards to abuse it. " In the mighty mantle I was
robed.
60• figliuol Nicholas III. of the Orsini family, whom the Poct therefore calls
dell' orsa," " son of the sae bear " He died in 1281 .
(96) THE VISION. 72-103.

And of a she-bear was indeed the son,

So eager to advance my whelps, that there
My having in my purse above I stow'd,
And here myself. Under my head are dragg'd
The rest, my predecessors in the guilt
Of simony. Stretch'd at their length, they lie
Along an opening in the rock. ' Midst them
I also low shall fall, soon as he comes,
For whom I took thee, when so hastily
I question'd. But already longer time
Hath past, since my soles kindled, and I thus
Upturn'd have stood, than is his doom to stand
Planted with fiery feet. For after him,
One yet of deeds more ugly shall arrive,
From forth the west, a shepherd without law ',
Fated to cover both his form and mine.
He a new Jason2 shall be call'd, of whom
In Maccabees we read ; and favour such
As to that priest his king indulgent show'd,
Shall be of France's monarch3 shown to him."
I know not if I here too far presumed,
But in this strain I answer'd : "Tell me now.
What treasures from Saint Peter at the first
Our Lord demanded, when he put the keys
Into his charge ? Surely he ask'd no more
But Follow me !' Nor Peter , nor the rest,
Or gold or silver of Matthias took,
When lots were cast upon the forfeit place
Of the condemned soul". Abide thou then ;
Thy punishment of right is merited :
And look thou well to that ill-gotten coin,
Which against Charles 6 thy hardihood inspired.

1 Fromforth the west, a shepherd without law.] Bertrand de Got, Arch-

bishop of Bourdeaux, who succeeded to the pontificate in 1305, and assumed
the title of Clement V. He transferred the holy see to Avignon in 1908,
(where it remained till 1376,) and died in 1314. 2 A new Jason.] " But
after the death of Seleucus, when Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took the
kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, laboured underhand to be high-priest,
promising unto the king, by intercession, three hundred and threescore talents
of silver, and of another revenue eighty talents." Maccab. b. ii. ch. iv. 7, 8.
s OfFrance's monarch. ] Philip IV. of France. See G. Villani,The lib. con-
viii.
c. lxxx. Nor Peter.] Acts of the Apostles, ch. i. 26. 5
demned soul.] Judas. Against Charles. Nicholas III. was enraged
104-109. HELL, CANTO XIX. (97)
If reverence of the keys restrain'd me not,
Which thou in happier time didst hold, I yet
Severer speech might use. Your avarice
O'ercasts the world with mourning, under foot¹
Treading the good, and raising bad men up.
Of shepherds like to you, the Evangelist2
against Charles I. King of Sicily, because he rejected with scorn a proposi-
tion made by that pope for an alliance between their families. See G.
Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. liv.
1 Under foot.] So shall the world go on,
To good malignant, to bad men benign.
Milton, P. L. b. xii. 538.
2 The Evangelist.] Rev. c. xvii. 1 , 2, 3. - Petrarch, in one of his Epis
tles, had his eye on these lines : " Gaude (inquam) et ad aliquid utilis in-
venta gloriare bonorum hostis et malorum hospes, atque asylum pessima
rerum Babylon feris , Rhodani ripis imposita, famosa dicam an infamis
meretrix, fornicata cum regibus terræ. Illa equidem ipsa es quam in spiritu
sacer vidit Evangelista. Illa eadem, inquam, es, non alia, sedens super
aquas multas, sive ad littora tribus cincta fluminibus sive rerum atque
divitiarum turba mortalium quibus lasciviens ac secura insides opum imme-
mor æternarum sive ut idem qui vidit, exposuit. Populi et gentes et lin-
guæ aquæ sunt, super quas meretrix sedes, recognosce habitum," & c. Pe-
trarcha Opera, ed. fol. Basil. 1554. Epist. sine titulo Liber, ep. xvi. p. 729.
The text is here probably corrupted. The construction certainly may be
rendered easier by omitting the ad before littora, and substituting a comma
for a full stop after exposuit. With all the respect that is due to a venerable
prelate and truly learned critic, I cannot but point out a mistake he has
fallen into, relating to this passage, when he observes, that " Numberless
passages in the writings of Petrarch speak of Rome under the name of Ba-
bylon. But an equal stress is not to be laid on all these. It should be re-
membered, that the popes, in Petrarch's time, resided at Avignon, greatly to
the disparagement of themselves, as he thought, and especially of Rome ; of
which this singular man was little less than idolatrous. The situation ofthe
place, surrounded by waters, and his splenetic concern for the exiled church,
(for under this idea he painted to himself the pope's migration to the banks
of Avignon, ) brought to his mind the condition of the Jewish church in the
Babylonian captivity. And this parallel was all, perhaps, that he meant to
insinuate in most of those passages. But when he applies the prophecies to
Rome, as to the Apocalyptic Babylon, (as he clearly does in the epistle under
consideration, ) his meaning is not equivocal, and we do him but justice to
give him an honourable place among the TESTES VERITATIS ." An Intro-
duction to the Study of the Prophecies, &c., by Richard Hurd, D. D. serm.
vii. p. 239. note y. ed. 1772. Now, a reference to the words printed in
Italics, which the Bishop of Worcester has omitted in his quotation, will
make it sufficiently evident, that Avignon, and not Rome, is here alluded
to by Petrarch. The application that is made of these prophecies by two
men so eminent for their learning and sagacity as Dante and Petrarch is,
however, very remarkable, and must be satisfactory to those who have re-
nounced the errors and corruptions of the papacy. Such applications
were indeed frequent in the middle ages, as may be seen in the " Ser-
mons above referred to. Balbo observes, that it is not Rome, as most
erroneously interpreted , but Avignon, and the court there, that is termed
Babylon by Dante and Petrarch. Vita di Dante, v. ii. p. 103 .
H
(98) THE VISION. 110-129 .

Was ware, when her, who sits upon the waves,

With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld ;
She who with seven heads tower'd at her birth,
And from ten horns her proof of glory drew,
Long as her spouse in virtue took delight.
Of gold and silver ye have made your god,
Differing wherein from the idolater,
But that he worships one, a hundred ye ?
Ah, Constantine¹ ! to how much ill gave birth,
Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower,
Which the first wealthy Father gain'd from thee."
Meanwhile, as thus I sung, he, whether wrath
Or conscience smote him, violent upsprang
Spinning on either sole. I do believe
My teacher well was pleased, with so composed
A lip he listen'd ever to the sound
Of the true words I utter'd. In both arms
He caught, and, to his bosom lifting me,
Upward retraced the way of his descent.
Nor weary of his weight, he press'd me close,
Ah, Constantine !] He alludes to the pretended gift of the Lateran by
Constantine to Sylvester, of which Dante himself seems to imply a doubt, in
nis treatise " De Monarchia."-" Ergo scindere Imperium, Imperatori non
icet. Si ergo aliquæ dignitates per Constantinum essent alienatæ (ut di-
cunt) ab Imperio," &c. lib. iii. " Therefore to make a rent in the empire
exceeds the lawful power of the emperor himself. If, then, some dignities
were by Constantine alienated (as they report) from the empire, &c." In
another part of the same treatise he speaks of the alienation with less doubt
indeed, but not with less disapprobation : " O felicem populum ! O Auso-
niam te gloriosam ! si vel numquam infirmator imperii tui extitisset ; vel
numquam sua pia intentio ipsum fefellisset." " O happy people ! O glori-
ous Italy! if either he who thus weakened thine empire had never been
born, or had never suffered his own pious intentions to mislead him." Lib.
ii. ad finem. The gift is by Ariosto very humorously placed in the moon,
among the things lost or abused on earth:
Di varj fiori ad un gran monte passa,
Ch' ebber già buono odore, or puzzan forte,
Questo era il dono (se però dir lece)
Che Costantino al buon Silvestro fece. Orl. Fur. c. xxxiv. st. 80.
Milton has translated both this passage and that in the text. Prose
Works, vol. i. p. 11. ed. 1753.
Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was cause
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy pope received of thee.
Then pass'd he to a flowery mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously ;
This was that gift, if you the truth will have,
That Constantine to good Silvester gave.
130-135. HELL, CANTO XIX . (99)
Till to the summit of the rock we came,
Our passage from the fourth to the fifth pier.
His cherish'd burden there gently he placed
Upon the rugged rock and steep, a path
Not easy for the clambering goat to mount.
Thence to my view another vale appear'd.

CANTO XX.

ARGUMENT.
The Poet relates the punishment of such as presumed, while living, to pre
dict future events. It is to have their faces reversed and set the contrary
way on their limbs, so that, being deprived of the power to see before
them, they are constrained ever to walk backwards. Among these Virgil
points out to him Amphiaraüs, Tiresias, Aruns, and Manto, (from the
mention of whom he takes occasion to speak of the origin of Mantua) to-
gether with several others, who had practised the arts of divination and
astrology.
AND now the verse proceeds to torments new,
Fit argument of this the twentieth strain
Of the first song, whose awful theme records
The spirits whelm'd in woe. Earnest I look'd
Into the depth, that open'd to my view,
Moisten'd with tears of anguish, and beheld
A tribe, that came along the hollow vale,
In silence weeping : such their step as walk
Quires, chanting solemn litanies, on earth.
As on them more direct mine eye descends,
Each wonderously seem'd to be reversed
At the neck-bone, so that the countenance
Was from the reins averted ; and because
None might before him look, they were compell'd
To advance with backward gait. Thus one perhaps
Hath been by force of palsy clean transposed,
But I ne'er saw it nor believe it so.
Now, reader ! think within thyself, so God

Reversed.] But very uncouth sight was to behold

How he did fashion his untoward pace ;
For as he forward moved his footing old,
So backward still was turn'd his wrinkled face ;
Unlike to men, who, ever as they trace,
Both feet and face one way are wont to lead.
Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. c viii. st. 31.
н 2
(100) THE VISION . 19-38

Fruit of thy reading give thee ! how I long

Could keep my visage dry , when I beheld
Near me our form distorted in such guise,
That on the hinder parts fallen from the face
The tears down-streaming roll'd. Against a rock
I leant and wept, so that my guide exclaim'd :
"What, and art thou, too, witless as the rest ?
Here pity most doth show herself alive,
When she is dead. What guilt exceedeth his,
Who with Heaven's judgment in his passion strives ?
Raise up thy head, raise up, and see the man
Before whose eyes 2 earth gaped in Thebes, when all
Cried out Amphiaraüs, whither rushest ?
'Why leavest thou the war ?' He not the less
Fell ruining 3 far as to Minos down,
Whose grapple none eludes. Lo ! how he makes
The breast his shoulders ; and who once too far
Before him wish'd to see, now backward looks,
And treads reverse his path. Tiresias note,
Who semblance changed, when woman he became
1 How I long
Could keep my visage dry.]
Sight so deform what heart of man could long
Dry-eyed behold ? Adam could not, but wept.
Milton, P. L. b. xi. 495.
Before whose eyes.] Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings who besieged
Thebes. He is said to have been swallowed up by an opening of the earth.
See Lidgate's Storie of Thebes, part iii. where it is told how the " Bisho,
Amphiaraus " fell down to hell :
And thus the devill, for his outrages,
Like his desert payed him his wages.
A different reason, for his being doomed thus to perish, is assigned by
Pindar:
ὁ δ᾽ ᾿Αμφιάρηΐ, &c. Nem. ix. Or ever on thy back the spear
For thee, Amphiaraus, earth, Of Periclymenus impress'd
By Jove's all-riving thunder cleft, Awoundto shame thy warlike breast
Her mighty bosom open'd wide, For struck with panic fear
Thee and thy plunging steeds to hide, The gods' own children flee.
3 Ruining.] " Ruinare." Hence, perhaps, Milton, P. L. b. vi. 868 .
Heaven ruining from heaven.
• Tiresias.] Duo magnorum viridi coëuntia sylvå
Corpora serpentum baculi violaverat ictu,
Deque viro factus (mirabile) fœmina, septem
Egerat autumnos. Octavo rursus eosdem
Vidit. Et, est vestræ si tanta potentia plagæ,
Nunc quoque vos feriam. Percussis anguibus isdem
Forma prior rediit, genitivaque venit imago.
Ovid. Met. lib. iii.
39-62. HELL, CANTO XX . (101)
Of male, through every limb transform'd ; and then
Once more behoved him with his rod to strike
The two entwining serpents, ere the plumes,
That mark'd the better sex, might shoot again.
"Aruns ' , with rere his belly facing, comes.
On Luni's mountains 'midst the marbles white,
Where delves Carrara's hind, who wons beneath,
A cavern was his dwelling, whence the stars
And main-sea wide in boundless view he held.
" The next, whose loosen'd tresses overspread
Her bosom, which thou seest not (for each hair
On that side grows ) was Manto², she who search'd
Through many regions, and at length her seat
Fix'd in my native land : whence a short space
My words detain thy audience. When her sire
From life departed, and in servitude
The city dedicate to Bacchus mourn'd,
Long time she went a wanderer through the world.
Aloft in Italy's delightful land
A lake there lies, at foot of that proud Alp
That o'er the Tyrol locks Germania in,
Its name Benacus, from whose ample breast
A thousand springs, methinks, and more, between
Camonica and Garda, issuing forth,

Aruns.] Aruns is said to have dwelt in the mountains of Luni, (from

whence that territory is still called Lunigiana,) above Carrara, celebrated
for its marble. Lucan, Phars. lib. i. 575. So Boccaccio, in the Fiammetta,
lib. iii.: " Quale Arunte," &c. " Like Aruns, who amidst the white
marbles of Luni contemplated the celestial bodies and their motions." Com-
pare Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. iii. cap. vi. 2 Manto.] The
daughter of Tiresias of Thebes, a city dedicated to Bacchus. From Manto,
Mantua, the country of Virgil, derives its name. The Poet proceeds to de-
scribe the situation of that place. But see the note to Purgatory, canto
xxii. v. 112. 3 Camonica. Lombardi, instead of
Fra Garda, e val Camonica e Apennino,
reads Fra Garda e val Camonica Pennino,
from the Nidobeatina edition, (to which he might have added that of Vellur
tello in 1544,) and two MSS. , all of which omit the second conjunction, the
only part of the alteration that affects the sense. I have re-translated the
passage, which in the former editions stood thus :
which a thousand rills
Methinks, and more, water between the vale
Camonica and Garda, and the height
Of Apennine remote.
It should be added, that Vellutello reads " Valdimonica " for " Val Ca
monica"; but which of these is right remains to be determined by a colla-
(102) THE VISION. 63-94

Water the Apennine. There is a spot !

At midway of that lake, where he who bears
Of Trento's flock the pastoral staff, with him
Of Brescia, and the Veronese, might each
Passing that way his benediction give.
A garrison of goodly site and strong 2
Peschiera stands, to awe with front opposed
The Bergamese and Brescian, whence the shore
More slope each way descends. There, whatsoe'er
Benacus' bosom holds not, tumbling o'er
Down falls, and winds a river flood beneath
Through the green pastures. Soon as in his course
The stream makes head, Benacus then no more
They call the name, but Mincius, till at last
Reaching Governo, into Po he falls.
Not far his course hath run, when a wide flat
It finds, which overstretching as a marsh
It covers, pestilent in summer oft.
Hence journeying, the savage maiden saw
Midst of the fen a territory waste
And naked of inhabitants. To shun
All human converse, here she with her slaves,
Plying her arts, remain'd, and lived, and left
Her body tenantless. Thenceforth the tribes,
Who round were scatter'd, gathering to that place,
Assembled ; for its strength was great, enclosed
On all parts by the fen. On those dead bones
They rear'd themselves a city, for her sake
Calling it Mantua, who first chose the spot,
Nor ask'd another omen for the name ;
Wherein more numerous the people dwelt,
Ere Casalodi's madness 4 by deceit
tion of editions and MSS. , and still more perhaps by a view of the country in
the neighbourhood of the lake, (now called the Lago di Garda, ) with a refer-
ence to this passage. There is a spot. ] Prato di Fame, where the dio
ceses of Trento, Verona, and Brescia meet.
2 A garrison ofgoodly site and strong. ]
Gaza, bello e forte arnese
Da fronteggiar i regni di Soria. Tasso, Ger. Lib. c. i. st. 67.
3 Peschiera.] A garrison situated to the south of the lake, where it
empties itselfand forms the Mincius. 4 Casalodi's madness. ] Alberto da
Casalodi, who had got possession of Mantua, was persuaded, by Pinamonte
Buonacossi, that he might ingratiate himself with the people, by banishing
to their own castles the nobles, who were obnoxious to them. No sooner
95-114. HELL, CANTO XX . (103)
Was wrong'd of Pinamonte. If thou hear
Henceforth another origin¹ assign'd
Of that my country, I forewarn thee now,
That falsehood none beguile thee of the truth."
I answer'd, “ Teacher, I conclude thy words
So certain, that all else shall be to me
As embers lacking life. But now of these,
Who here proceed, instruct me, if thou see
Any that merit more especial note.
For thereon is my mind alone intent."
He straight replied : " That spirit, from whose cheek
The beard sweeps o'er his shoulders brown, what time
Græcia was emptied of her males, that scarce
The cradles were supplied, the seer was he
In Aulis, who with Calchas gave the sign
When first to cut the cable. Him they named
Eurypilus so sings my tragic strain 2,
In which majestic measure well thou know'st,
Who know'st it all. That other, round the loins
So slender of his shape, was Michael Scot³,
was this done, than Pinamonte put himselfat the head of the populace, drove
out Casalodi and his adherents, and obtained the sovereignty for himself.
Another origin. ] Lombardi refers to Servius on the Tenth Book of the
Æneid. Alii a Tarchone Tyrrheni fratre conditam dicunt Mantuam autem
ideo nominatam quia Etrusca lingua Mantum ditem patrem appellant.
? So sings my tragic strain. ]
Suspensi Eurypilum scitatum oracula Phœbi
Mittimus. Virg. Æneid. ii. 14.
3 Michael Scot. ] " Egli non ha ancora guari, che in questa città fu un gran
maestro in negromanzia, il quale ebbe nome Michele Scotto, perciò che di
Scozia era." Boccaccio, Dec. Giorn. viii. nov. 9. " It is not long since
there was in this city (Florence) a great master in necromancy, who was
called Michele Scotto, because he was from Scotland." See also Giov. Vil-
lani, Hist. lib. x. cap. cv. and cxli. and lib. xii. cap. xviii. and Fazio degli
Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. xxvii. I make no apology for adding the fol-
lowing curious particulars extracted from the notes to Mr. Scott's Lay ofthe
Last Minstrel, a poem in which a happy use is made of the superstitions re-
lating tothe subject ofthis note. " Sir Michael Scott, of Balwearie, flourished
during the thirteenth century, and was one of the ambassadors sent to bring
the Maid of Norway to Scotland upon the death of Alexander III. He was
a man of much learning, chiefly acquired in foreign countries. He wrote a
commentary upon Aristotle, printed at Venice in 1496, and several treatises
upon natural philosophy, from which he appears to have been addicted to the
abstruse studies ofjudicial astrology, alchymy, physiognomy, and chiromancy.
Hence he passed among his contemporaries for a skilful magician. Dempster
informs us, that he remembers to have heard in his youth, that the magic
books of Michael Scott were still in existence, but could not be opened with-
out danger, on account ofthe fiends who were thereby invoked. Dempsteri
(104) THE VISION. 115-123.

Practised in every slight of magic wile.

"Guido Bonatti¹ see : Asdente2 mark,
Who now were willing he had tended still
The thread and cordwain, and too late repents
" See next the wretches, who the needle left.
The shuttle and the spindle, and became
Diviners : baneful witcheries they wrought
With images and herbs. But onward now :
For now doth Cain with fork of thorns3 confine

Historia Ecclesiastica, 1627, lib. xii. p. 495. Leslie characterizes Michael

Scott as " Singulari philosophiæ astronomiæ ac medicinæ laude præstans,
dicebatur penitissimos magia recessus indagàsse." A personage thus spoken
of by biographers and historians loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar
tradition. Accordingly, the memory of Sir Michael Scott survives in many
a legend ; and in the south of Scotland any work of great labour and an-
tiquity is ascribed either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wal-
lace, or of the devil. Tradition varies concerning the place of his burial :
some contend for Holme Coltrame in Cumberland, others for Melrose Ab-
bey but all agree that his books of magic were interred in his grave, or
preserved in the convent where he died." The Lay of the Last Minstrel,
by Walter Scott, Esq. Lond. 4to. 1805. p. 234, notes. Mr. Warton, speaking
of the new translations of Aristotle, from the original Greek into Latin,
about the twelfth century, observes : " I believe the translators understood
very little Greek. Our countryman, Michael Scotus, was one of the first of
them ; who was assisted by Andrew, a Jew. Michael was astrologer to
Frederic II. Emperor of Germany, and appears to have executed his trans-
lations at Toledo in Spain, about the year 1220. These new versions were
perhaps little more than corrections from those of the early Arabians, made
under the inspection of the learned Spanish Saracens." History ofEnglish
Poetry, vol. i . dissert. ii. and sect. ix. p. 292. Among the Canonici MSS.
in the Bodleian, I have seen (No 520) the astrological works of Michael
Scot, on vellum, with an illuminated portrait of him at the beginning.
¹ Guido Bonatti.] An astrologer of Forli, on whose skill Guido da Monte-
feltro, lord of that place, so much relied, that he is reported never to have
gone into battle, except in the hour recommended to him as fortunate by
Bonatti. Landino and Vellutello speak of a book which he composed on the
subject ofhis art. Macchiavelli mentions him in the History of Florence, L
i. p. 24. ed. 1550. "He flourished about 1230 and 1260. Though a learned
astronomer he was seduced by astrology, through which he was greatly in
favour with many princes of that time. His many works are miserably
spoiled by it." Bettinelli, Risorgimento d'Italia, t. i. p. 118, 8vo. 1786.
He is referred to in Brown's Vulgar Errors, b. 4. c. 12. 2 Asdente.] A
shoemaker at Parma, who deserted his business to practise the arts of
divination. How much this man had attracted the public notice appears
from a passage in our author's Convito, p. 179, where it is said, in speaking
of the derivation of the word " noble," that " if those who were best known
were accounted the most noble, Asdente, the shoemaker of Parma, would be
more noble than any one in that city." 3 Cain withfork ofthorns.] By
Cain and the thorns, or what is still vulgarly called the Man in the Moon,
the Poet denotes that luminary. The same superstition is alluded to in the
Paradise, Canto ii . 52. The curious reader may consult Brand on Popular
124-128. HELL, CANTO XX. (105)

On either hemisphere, touching the wave

Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight
The moon was round. Thou mayst remember well :
For she good service did thee in the gloom
Of the deep wood." This said, both onward moved.

CANTO XXI.

ARGUMENT.
Still in the eighth circle, which bears the name of Malebolge, they look
down from the bridge that passes over its fifth gulf, upon the barterers or
public peculators. These are plunged in a lake of boiling pitch, and
guarded by Demons, to whom Virgil, leaving Dante apart, presents him-
self; and license being obtained to pass onward, both pursue their way.
THUS we from bridge to bridge, with other talk,
The which my drama cares not to rehearse,
Pass'd on ; and to the summit reaching, stood
To view another gap, within the round
Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs.
Marvellous darkness shadow'd o'er the place.
In the Venetians' arsenal¹ as boils
Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear
Their unsound vessels ; for the inclement time
Sea-faring men restrains, and in that while
His bark one builds anew, another stops
The ribs of his that hath made many a voyage,
One hammers at the prow, one at the poop ,
This shapeth oars, that other cables twirls,
The mizen one repairs, and main-sail rent ;
So, not by force of fire but art divine,
Boil'd 2 here a glutinous thick mass, that round
Limed all the shore beneath. I that beheld,

Antiquities, 4to. 1813. vol. ii. p. 476, and Douce's Illustrations of Shak-
speare, 8vo. 1807. v. i. p. 16.
In the Venetians' arsenal.]
Come dentr' ai Navai della gran terra,
Tra le lacune del mar d'Adria posta,
Serban la pece la togata gente,
Ad uso di lor navi e di lor triremi ;
Per solcar poi sicuri il mare ondoso, &c. Ruccellai, Le Api, v. 165.
Dryden seems to have had the passage in the text before him in his Annus
Mirabilis, st. 146, &c. 2 Boil'd.] Vidi flumen magno de Inferno pro-
cedere ardens, atque piceum. Alberici Visio, § 17.
(106) THE VISION. 19-43.

But therein nought distinguish'd, save the bubbles

Raised by the boiling, and one mighty swell
Heave ' , and by turns subsiding fall. While there
I fix'd my ken below, " Mark ! mark ! " my guide
Exclaiming, drew me towards him from the place
Wherein I stood. I turn'd myself, as one
Impatient to behold that which beheld
He needs must shun, whom sudden fear unmans,
That he his flight delays not for the view.
Behind me I discern'd a devil black,
That running up advanced along the rock.
Ah ! what fierce cruelty his look bespake.
In act how bitter did he seem, with wings
Buoyant outstretch'd and feet of nimblest tread.
His shoulder, proudly eminent and sharp,
Was with a sinner charged ; by either haunch
He held him, the foot's sinew griping fast.
" Ye of our bridge ! " he cried, " keen-talon'd fiends !
Lo ! one of Santa Zita's elders 2. Him
Whelm ye beneath, while I return for more.
That land hath store of such. All men are there,
Except Bonturo, barterers 3 : of ' no '
For lucre there an ' ay ' is quickly made."
Him dashing down, o'er the rough rock he turn'd ;
Nor ever after thief a mastiff loosed
Sped with like eager haste. That other sank,
And forthwith writhing to the surface rose.
But those dark demons, shrouded by the bridge,
4
Cried, “ Here the hallow'd visage saves not : here
Is other swimming than in Serchio's wave ",
One mighty swell
Heave.] Vidi etiam os putei magnum flammas emittentem, et nunc sur-
sum nunc deorsum descendentem. Alberici Visio, § 11. 2 One of Santa
Zita's elders.] The elders or chief magistrates of Lucca, where Santa Zita
was held in especial veneration. The name of this sinner is supposed to
have been Martino Botaio. 3 Except Bonturo, barterers.] This is said
ironically of Bonturo de' Dati. By barterers are meant peculators, of every
description ; all who traffic the interests of the public for their own private
advantage. The hallow'd visage. ] A representation of the head of or
Saviour worshipped at Lucca.
5 Is other swimming than in Serchio's wave.]
Qui si nuota altrimenti che nel Serchio.
Serchio is the river that flows by Lucca. So Pulci, Morg. Magg c. xxiv
Qui si nuota nel sangue, e non nel Serchio.
49-86. HELL, CANTO XXI. (107)

Wherefore, if thou desire we rend thee not,

Take heed thou mount not o'er the pitch." This said,
They grappled him with more than hundred hooks,
And shouted : " Cover'd thou must sport thee here ;
So, if thou canst, in secret mayst thou filch."
E'en thus the cook bestirs him, with his grooms,
To thrust the flesh¹ into the caldron down
With flesh-hooks, that it float not on the top.
Me then my guide bespake : " Lest they descry
That thou art here, behind a craggy rock
Bend low and skreen thee : and whate'er of force
Be offer'd me, or insult, fear thou not ;
For I am well advised, who have been erst
In the like fray." Beyond the bridge's head
Therewith he pass'd ; and reaching the sixth pier,
Behoved him then a forehead terror- proof.
With storm and fury, as when dogs rush forth
Upon the poor man's back, who suddenly
From whence he standeth makes his suit ; so rush'd
Those from beneath the arch, and against him
Their weapons all they pointed. He, aloud :
"Be none of you outrageous : ere your tine
Dare seize me, come forth from amongst you one,
Who having heard my words, decide he then
If he shall tear these limbs." They shouted loud,
"Go, Malacoda ! " Whereat one advanced,
The others standing firm, and as he came,
"What may this turn avail him ? ” he exclaim'd.
"Believest thou, Malacoda ! I had come
99
Thus far from all your skirmishing secure,'
My teacher answer'd, " without will divine
And destiny propitious ? Pass we then ;
For so Heaven's pleasure is, that I should lead
Another through this savage wilderness ."
Forthwith so fell his pride, that he let drop
The instrument of torture at his feet,
And to the rest exclaim'd : " We have no power
To strike him." Then to me my guide : " O thou !

The flesh.] In eundem flumen corruunt : rursumque assurgentes, ac

denuo recidentes, tamdiu ibidem cruciantur, donec in morem carnium ex-
cocti, &c. Alberici Visio, § 17
(108) THE VISION. 87-117.

Who on the bridge among the crags dost sit

Low crouching, safely now to me return."
I rose, and towards him moved with speed ; the fiends
Meantime all forward drew : me terror seized,
Lest they should break the compact they had made.
Thus issuing from Caprona ' , once I saw
Theinfantry, dreading lest his covenant
The foe should break ; so close he hemm'd them round.
I to my leader's side adhered, mine eyes
With fixt and motionless observance bent
On their unkindly visage. They their hooks
Protruding, one the other thus bespake :
"Wilt thou I touch him on the hip ? " To whom
Was answer'd : " Even so ; nor miss thy aim."
But he, who was in conference with my guide,
Turn'd rapid round ; and thus the demon spake :
" Stay, stay thee, Scarmiglione ! " Then to us
He added : " Further footing to your step
This rock affords not, shiver'd to the base
Of the sixth arch. But would ye still proceed,
Up by this cavern go : not distant far,
Another rock will yield you passage safe.
Yesterday , later by five hours than now,
Twelve hundred threescore years and six had fill'd
The circuit of their course, since here the way
Was broken. Thitherward I straight dispatch
Certain of these my scouts, who shall espy
If any on the surface bask. With them
Go ye : for ye shall find them nothing fell.
Come, Alichino, forth," with that he cried,
" And Calcabrina, and Cagnazzo³ thou !

1 From Caprona.] The surrender of the castle of Caprona to the com-

bined forces of Florence and Lucca, on condition that the garrison should
march out in safety, to which event Dante was a witness, took place in 1290.
See G. Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. cxxxvi. Yesterday.] This passage fixes
the era of Dante's descent at Good Friday, in the year 1300, (34 years from
our blessed Lord's incarnation being added to 1266,) and at the thirty-fifth
year of our Poet's age. See Canto i. v. 1. The awful event alluded to, the
Evangelists inform us, happened " at the ninth hour," that is, our sixth,
when "the rocks were rent," and the convulsion, according to Dante, was
felt even in the depths of Hell. See Canto xii. v. 38. 3 Cagnuzzo .]
Pulci introduces some of these demons in a very pleasant adventure , related
near the beginning of the second Canto of his Morgante Maggiore :
118-137. HELL, CANTO XXI. (109)

The troop of ten let Barbariccia lead.

With Libicocco, Draghinazzo haste,
Fang'd Ciriatto, Graffiacane fierce,
And Farfarello, and mad Rubicant.
Search ye around the bubbling tar. For these,
In safety lead them, where the other crag
Uninterrupted traverses the dens ."
66
I then : " O master¹ ! what a sight is there.
Ah ! without escort, journey we alone,
Which, if thou know the way, I covet not.
Unless thy prudence fail thee, dost not mark
How they do gnarl upon us, and their scowl
Threatens us present tortures ? " He replied :
" I charge thee, fear not let them, as they will,
Gnarl on : 'tis but in token of their spite
Against the souls who mourn in torment steep'd."
To leftward o'er the pier they turn'd ; but each
Hal first between his teeth prest close the tongue,
Toward their leader for a signal looking,
Which he with sound obscene 2 triumphant gave.

Non senti tu, Orlando, in quella tomba

Quelle parole, che colui rimbomba ?
lo voglio andar a scoprir quello avello,
Là dove e' par che quella voce s'oda,
Ed escane Cagnazzo, e Farfarello,
O Libicocco, col suo Malacoda ;
E finalmente s'accostava a quello,
Però che Orlando questa impresa loda,
E disse ; scuopri, se vi fussi dentro
Quanti ne piovon mai dal ciel nel centro. Stanze 30, 1.
" Perceivest the words, Orlando, which this fellow
Doth in our cars out of that tomb rebellow ?
46 I'll go, and straight the sepulchre uncase,
From whence, as seems to me, that voice was heard ;
Be Farfarel and Cagnazzo to my face,
Or Libicoc with Malacoda, stirr'd :"
And finally he drew near to the place ;
The emprize Orlando praising with this word :
" Uncase it, though within as many dwell,
As ever were from heaven rain'd down to hell."
O master !] Lombardi tells us that every edition, except his favourite
Nidobeatina, has " O me " printed separately, instead of " Ome." This is
not the case at least with Landino's of 1484. But there is no end of these
inaccuracies. 2 With sound obscene.] Compare the original with Aris.
ophanes, Nubes. 165 : -
· σάλπιγξ ὁ πρωκτὸς ἐστιν
(110) THE VISION. 1-23.

CANTO XXII.

ARGUMENT.
Virgil and Dante proceed, accompanied by the Demons, and see other sin
ners of the same description in the same gulf. The device of Ciampolo,
one ofthese, to escape from the Demons, who had laid hold on him.
IT hath been heretofore my chance to see
Horsemen with martial order shifting camp,
To onset sallying, or in muster ranged,
Or in retreat sometimes outstretch'd for flight :
Light-armed squadrons and fleet foragers
Scouring thy plains, Arezzo ! have I seen,
And clashing tournaments, and tilting jousts,
Now with the sound of trumpets, now of bells,
Tabors , or signals made from castled heights,
And with inventions multiform , our own,
Or introduced from foreign land ; but ne'er
To such a strange recorder I beheld,
In evolution moving, horse nor foot,
Nor ship, that tack'd by sign from land or star.
With the ten demons on our way we went ;
Ah, fearful company ! but in the church 2
With saints, with gluttons at the tavern's mess.
Still earnest on the pitch I gazed, to mark
All things whate'er the chasm contain'd³, and those
Who burn'd within. As dolphins that, in sign
To mariners, heave high their arched backs,
That thence forewarn'd they may advise to save
Their threaten'd vessel ; so, at intervals ,
1 Tabors.] " Tabour, a drum, a common accompaniment of war, is men-
tioned as one of the instruments of martial music in this battle (in Richard
Cœur-de-Lion) with characteristical propriety. It was imported into the
European armies from the Saracens in the holy war. Joinville describes a
superb bark or galley belonging to a Saracen chief which, he says, was filled
with cymbals, tabours, and Saracen horns. Hist. de S. Loys, p. 30."
Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, v. i. § 4. p. 167. 2 In the church.]
This proverb is repeated by Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xvii. 3 Whate'er the
chasm contain'd.] Monti, in his Proposta, interprets " contegno " to mean,
not "contents " but "state," " condition."
• As dolphins .] li lieti delfini
Givan saltando sopra l'onde chiare,
Che soglion di fortuna esser divini.
Frezzi, П Quadrir. lib. i. cap. 15.
24-51. HELL, CANTO XXII. (111)
To ease the pain, his back some sinner show'd,
Then hid more nimbly than the lightning-glance.
E'en as the frogs, that of a watery moat
Stand at the brink, with the jaws only out,
Their feet and of the trunk all else conceal'd,
Thus on each part the sinners stood ; but soon
As Barbariccia was at hand, so they
Drew back under the wave. I saw, and yet
My heart doth stagger, one, that waited thus,
As it befals that oft one frog remains,
While the next springs away : and Graffiacan ',
Who of the fiends was nearest, grappling seized
His clotted locks, and dragg'd him sprawling up,
That he appear'd to me an otter. Each
Already by their names I knew, so well
When they were chosen I observed, and mark'd
How one the other call'd. " O Rubicant !
See that his hide thou with thy talons flay,"
Shouted together all the cursed crew.
Then I : " Inform thee, Master ! if thou may,
What wretched soul is this, on whom their hands
His foes have laid." My leader to his side
Approach'd, and whence he came inquired ; to whom
Was answer'd thus : "Born in Navarre's domain 2,
My mother placed me in a lord's retinue ;
For she had borne me to a losel vile,
A spendthrift of his substance and himself.
The good king Thibault ³ after that I served¹ :
Graffiacan.] Fuseli, in a note to his third Lecture, observes, that " the
Minos of Dante, in Messer Biagio da Cesena, and his Charon, have been
recognised by all ; but less the shivering wretch held over the barge by a
hook, and evidently taken from this passage." He is speaking of Michael
Angelo's Last Judgment. 2 Born in Navarre's domain. ] The name of
this peculator is said to have been Ciampolo. 3 The good king Thibault.]
" Thibault I. King of Navarre, died on the 8th of June, 1233, as much to be
commended for the desire he showed of aiding the war in the Holy Land ,
as reprehensible and faulty for his design of oppressing the rights and
privileges of the church ; on which account it is said that the whole kingdom
was under an interdict for the space of three entire years.-Thibault un-
doubtedly merits praise, as for his other endowments, so especially for his
cultivation of the liberal arts, his exercise and knowledge of music and
poetry, in which he so much excelled, that he was accustomed to compose
verses and sing them to the viol, and to exhibit his poetical compositions
publicly in his palace, that they might be criticised by all." Mariana,
History of Spain, b. xiii. c. 9. An account of Thibault, and two of his
(112) THE VISION. 52-80.

To peculating here my thoughts were turn'd,

Whereof I give account in this dire heat."
Straight Ciriatto, from whose mouth a tusk
Issued on either side, as from a boar,
Ripp'd him with one of these. 'Twixt evil claw3
The mouse had fallen : but Barbariccia cried,
Seizing him with both arms : "Stand thou apart
While I do fix him on my prong transpierced."
Then added, turning to my guide his face,
" Inquire of him, if more thou wish to learn,
Ere he again be rent." My leader thus :
" Then tell us of the partners in thy guilt ;
Knowest thou any sprung of Latian land
Under the tar ?" "I parted," he replied,
"But now from one, who sojourn'd not far thence ;
So were I under shelter now with him ,
Nor hook nor talon then should scare me more."
" Too long we suffer," Libicocco cried ;
Then, darting forth a prong, seized on his arm,
And mangled bore away the sinewy part.
Him Draghinazzo by his thighs beneath
Would next have caught ; whence angrily their chief,
Turning on all sides round, with threatening brow
Restrain'd them. When their strife a little ceased,
Of him, who yet was gazing on his wound,
My teacher thus without delay inquired :
"Who was the spirit, from whom by evil hap
Parting, as thou hast told, thou camest to shore ? "-
"It was the friar Gomita¹," he rejoin'd,
songs, with what were probably the original melodies, may be seen in Dr
Burney's History of Music, v. ii. c. iv. His poems, which are in the French
language, were edited by M. l'Evêque de la Ravallière. Paris. 1742. 2 vol.
12mo. Dante twice quotes one of his verses in the Treatise de Vulg. Eloq.
lib. i. c. ix. and lib. ii. c. v. and refers to him again, lib. ii. c. vi. From
" the good king Thibault " are descended the good, but more unfortunate
monarch, Louis XVI. of France, and consequently the present legitimate
Sovereign of that realm. See Henault, Abrégé Chron. 1252, 3, 4. 41
served.] Again Lombardi misrepresents the readings of other editions, 2
he does throughout this Canto in several instances, wherein he professes to
follow that which he has selected for his model ; but, as these varieties regard
certain delicacies of the original language, and do not affect the sense, I shall
not trouble my readers by noticing them.
1 The friar Gomita. ] He was intrusted by Nino de' Visconti with the
government of Gallura, one of the four jurisdictions into which Sardinia was
divided. Having his master's enemies in his power he took a bribe from
81-117. HELL, CANTO XXII. (113)

" He of Gallura, vessel of all guile,

Who had his master's enemies in hand,
And used them so that they commend him well.
Money he took, and them at large dismiss'd ;
So he reports ; and in each other charge
Committed to his keeping play'd the part
Of barterer to the height. With him doth herd
The chief of Logodoro, Michel Zanche¹ .
Sardinia is a theme whereof their tongue
Is never weary. Out ! alas ! behold
That other, how he grins. More would I say,
But tremble lest he mean to maul me sore."
Their captain then to Farfarello turning,
Who roll'd his moony eyes in act to strike,
Rebuked him thus : " Off, cursed bird ! avaunt ! "
"If ye desire to see or hear," he thus
Quaking with dread resumed, " or Tuscan spirits
Or Lombard, I will cause them to appear.
Meantime let these ill talons bate their fury,
So that no vengeance they may fear from them,
And I, remaining in this self-same place,
Will, for myself but one, make seven appear,
When my shrill whistle shall be heard for so
Our custom is to call each other up."
Cagnazzo at that word deriding grinn'd,
Then wagg'd the head and spake : " Hear his device,
Mischievous as he is, to plunge him down ."
Whereto he thus, who fail'd not in rich store
Of nice-wove toils : " Mischief, forsooth, extreme !
Meant only to procure myself more woe."
No longer Alichino then refrain'd,
But thus, the rest gainsaying, him bespake :
" If thou do cast thee down, I not on foot
Will chase thee, but above the pitch will beat
My plumes. Quit we the vantage ground, and let
The bank be as a shield ; that we may see,
If singly thou prevail against us all."

them, and allowed them to escape. Mention of Nino will recur in the notes
to Canto xxxiii. and in the Purgatory, Canto viii. 1 Michel Zanche
The president of Logodoro, another of the four Sardinian jurisdictions. See
Canto xxxiii. Note to v. 136
I
(114) THE VISION. 118-148 .

Now, reader, of new sport expect to hear.

They each one turn'd his eyes to the other shore,
He first, who was the hardest to persuade.
The spirit of Navarre chose well his time,
Planted his feet on land, and at one leap
Escaping, disappointed their resolve.
Them quick resentment stung, but him the most
Who was the cause of failure : in pursuit
He therefore sped, exclaiming, " Thou art caught."
But little it avail'd ; terror outstripp'd
His following flight ; the other plunged beneath,
And he with upward pinion raised his breast :
E'en thus the water-fowl, when she perceives
The falcon near, dives instant down, while he
Enraged and spent retires. That mockery
In Calcabrina fury stirr'd, who flew
After him, with desire of strife inflamed ;
And, for the barterer had 'scaped, so turn'd
His talons on his comrade . O'er the dyke
In grapple close they join'd ; but the other proved
A goshawk able to rend well his foe ;
And in the boiling lake both fell. The heat
Was umpire¹ soon between them ; but in vain
To lift themselves they strove, so fast were glued
Their pennons. Barbariccia, as the rest,
That chance lamenting, four in flight dispatch'd
From the other coast, with all their weapons arm'd .
They, to their post on each side speedily
Descending, stretch'd their hooks toward the fiends,
Who flounder'd, inly burning from their scars :
And we departing left them to that broil.

CANTO XXIII.

ARGUMENT.
The enraged Demons pursue Dante, but he is preserved from them by Vir-
gil. On reaching the sixth gulf, he beholds the punishment of the hypo-
crites ; which is, to pace continually round the gulf under the pressure of
1 Umpire.] Schermidor. The reader, if he thinks it worth while, may
consult the Proposta of Monti on this word, which, with Lombardi he would
alter to sghermitor.
1-34. HELL, CANTO XXIII. (115)
caps and hoods, that are gilt on the outside, but leaden within. He is ad-
dressed by two of these, Catalano and Loderingo, knights of Saint Mary,
otherwise called Joyous Friars of Bologna. Caiaphas is seen fixed to a
cross on the ground, and lies so stretched along the way, that all tread on
him in passing.
IN silence and in solitude we went,
One first, the other following his steps,
As minor friars journeying on their road.
The present fray had turn'd my thoughts to muse
Upon old Æsop's fable ', where he told
What fate unto the mouse and frog befel ;
For language hath not sounds more like in sense,
Than are these chances, if the origin
And end of each be heedfully compared .
And as one thought bursts from another forth,
So afterward from that another sprang,
Which added doubly to my former fear.
For thus I reason'd : " These through us have becn
So foil'd, with loss and mockery so complete,
As needs must sting them sore. If anger then
Be to their evil will conjoin'd, more fell
They shall pursue us, than the savage hound
Snatches the leveret panting 'twixt his jaws."
Already I perceived my hair stand all
On end with terror, and look'd eager back.
66
Teacher," I thus began, " if speedily
Thyself and me thou hide not, much I dread
Those evil talons. Even now behind
They urge us : quick imagination works
So forcibly, that I already feel them ."
He answer'd : " Were I form'd of leaded glass,
I should not sooner draw unto myself
Thy outward image, than I now imprint
That from within. This moment came thy thoughts
Presented before mine, with similar act
And countenance similar, so that from both
I one design have framed. If the right coast
Incline so much, that we may thence descend
Into the other chasm, we shall escape

Esop'sfable. ] The fable ofthe frog, who offered to carrythe mouse across
a ditch, with the intention of drowning him, when both were carried off by a
kite. It is not among those Greek fables which go under the name ofEsop
I2
(116) THE VISION. 35-68.
"
Secure from this imagined pursuit.
He had not spoke his purpose to the end,
When I from far beheld them with spread wings
Approach to take us. Suddenly my guide
Caught me, even as a mother that from sleep
Is by the noise aroused, and near her sees
The climbing fires, who snatches up her babe
And flies ne'er pausing, careful more of him
Than of herself, that but a single vest
Clings round her limbs. Down from the jutting beach
Supine he cast him to that pendent rock,
Which closes on one part the other chasm.
Never ran water with such hurrying pace
Adown the tube to turn a land-mill's wheel,
When nearest it approaches to the spokes,
As then along that edge my master ran,
Carrying me in his bosom, as a child,
Not a companion. Scarcely had his feet
Reach'd to the lowest of the bed beneath,
When over us the steep they reach'd but fear
In him was none ; for that high Providence,
Which placed them ministers of the fifth foss,
Power of departing thence took from them all.
There in the depth we saw a painted tribe,
Who paced with tardy steps around, and wept,
Faint in appearance and o'ercome with toil.
Caps had they on, with hoods, that fell low down
Before their eyes, in fashion like to those
Worn by the monks in Cologne². Their outside
Was overlaid with gold, dazzling to view,
But leaden all within, and of such weight,
That Frederick's³ compared to these were straw.
Oh, everlasting wearisome attire !
We yet once more with them together turn'd
¹ He had not spoke.] Cumque ego cum angelis relictus starem pavidus,
unus ex illis tartareis ministris horridis (Qu. horridus ?) hispidis (Qu . his
pidus ?) aspectuque procerus festinus adveniens me impellere, et quomodo-
cumque nocere conabatur : cum ecce apostolus velocius accurrens, meque
subito arripiensin quendam locum gloriose projecit visionis. Alberici Visio,
§ 15. Monks in Cologne. ] They wore their cowls unusually large.
Frederick's.] The Emperor Frederick II. is said to have punished those
who were guilty of high treason by wrapping them up in lead, and casting
them into a furnace.
69-103. HELL, CANTO XXIII. (117)
To leftward, on their dismal moan intent.
But by the weight opprest, so slowly came
The fainting people, that our company
Was changed, at every movement of the step.
Whence I my guide address'd : " See that thou find
Some spirit, whose name may by his deeds be known ;
And to that end look round thee as thou go'st."
Then one, who understood the Tuscan voice,
Cried after us aloud : " Hold in your feet,
Ye who so swiftly speed through the dusk air.
Perchance from me thou shalt obtain thy wish."
Whereat my leader, turning, me bespake :
"Pause, and then onward at their pace proceed."
I staid, and saw two spirits in whose look
Impatient eagerness of mind was mark'd
To overtake me ; but the load they bare
And narrow path retarded their approach.
Soon as arrived, they with an eye askance
Perused me, but spake not : then turning, each
To other thus conferring said : " This one
Seems, by the action of his throat, alive ;
And, be they dead, what privilege allows
They walk unmantled by the cumbrous stole ?"
Then thus to me : "Tuscan, who visitest
The college of the mourning hypocrites,
Disdain not to instruct us who thou art."
" By Arno's pleasant stream," I thus replied,
" In the great city I was bred and grew,
And wear the body I have ever worn.
But who are ye, from whom such mighty grief,
As now I witness, courseth down your cheeks ?
What torment breaks forth in this bitter woe ? "
" Our bonnets gleaming bright with orange hue¹ "
One of them answer'd, " are so leaden gross,
That with their weight they make the balances

1 Our bonnets gleaming bright with orange hue.] It is observed by Ven-

turi, that the word " rance " does not here signify " rancid or disgustful,"
as it is explained by the old commentators, but " orange-coloured," in
which sense it occurs in the Purgatory, Canto ii. 9. Bythe erroneous inter-
pretation Milton appears to have been misled ; " Ever since the day peepe,
till now the sun was grown somewhat ranke." Prose Works, v. i. p. 160.
ed. 1753
(118) THE VISION. 104-124.

To crack beneath them. Joyous friars ' we were,

Bologna's natives ; Catalano I,
He Loderingo named ; and by thy land
Together taken, as men use to take
A single and indifferent arbiter,
To reconcile their strifes. How there we sped,
Gardingo's vicinage 2 can best declare."
" O friars ! " I began, " your miseries—"
But there brake off, for one had caught mine eye,
Fix'd to a cross with three stakes on the ground :
He, when he saw me, writhed himself, throughout
Distorted, ruffling with deep sighs his beard.
And Catalano, who thereof was 'ware,
Thus spake : " That pierced spirit³, whom intent
Thou view'st, was he who gave the Pharisees
Counsel, that it were fitting for one man
To suffer for the people. He doth lie
Transverse ; nor any passes, but him first
Behoves make feeling trial how each weighs.
In straits like this along the foss are placed
The father of his consort 4, and the rest
1
Joyousfriars.] " Those who ruled the city of Florence on the part of the
Ghibellines perceiving this discontent and murmuring, which they were
fearful might produce a rebellion against themselves, in order to satisfy the
people, made choice oftwo knights, Frati Godenti (joyous friars) of Bologna,
on whom they conferred the chief power in Florence ; one named M. Cata-
lano de' Malavolti, the other M. Loderingo di Liandolo ; one an adherent of
the Guelph, the other of the Ghibelline party. It is to be remarked, that
the Joyous Friars were called Knights of St. Mary, and became knights on
taking that habit : their robes were white, the mantle sable, and the arms
a white field and red cross with two stars : their office was to defend widows
and orphans : they were to act as mediators ; they had internal regulations,
like other religious bodies. The above-mentioned M. Loderingo was the
founder of that order. But it was not long before they too well deserved the
appellation given them, and were found to be more bent on enjoying them-
selves than on any other object. These two friars were called in by the
Florentines, and had a residence assigned them in the palace belonging to the
people, over against the Abbey. Such was the dependence placed on the
character of their order, that it was expected they would be impartial, and
would save the commonwealth any unnecessary expense ; instead of which,
though inclined to opposite parties, they secretly and hypocritically con- ""
curred in promoting their own advantage rather than the public good . '
G. Villani,b. vii. c. xiii. This happened in 1266. 2 Gardingo's vicinage.]
The name of that party of the city which was inhabited by the powerful
Ghibelline family of the Uberti, and destroyed under the partial and ini-
quitous administration of Catalano and Loderingo. 3 That pierced spirit.]
Caïaphas. Thefather ofhis consort.] Annas, father-in-law to Caïaphas.
125-151. HELL, CANTO XXIII. (119)
Partakers in that council, seed of ill
And sorrow to the Jews." I noted then,
How Virgil gazed with wonder upon him,
Thus abjectly extended on the cross
In banishment eternal. To the friar
He next his words address'd : " We pray ye tell,
If so be lawful, whether on our right
Lies any opening in the rock, whereby
We both may issue hence, without constraint
On the dark angels, that compell'd they come
To lead us from this depth ." He thus replied :
"Nearer than thou dost hope, there is a rock
From the great¹ circle moving, which o'ersteps
Each vale of horror, save that here his cope
Is shatter❜d. By the ruin ye may mount :
For on the side it slants, and most the height
Rises below." With head bent down awhile
My leader stood ; then spake : “ He warn'd us ill²,
Who yonder hangs the sinners on his hook."
To whom the friar : "At Bologna erst
I many vices of the devil heard ;
Among the rest was said, ' He is a liar 3,
And the father of lies !"" When he had spoke,
My leader with large strides proceeded on,
Somewhat disturb'd with anger in his look.
I therefore left the spirits heavy laden,
And, following, his beloved footsteps mark'd.

CANTO XXIV.

ARGUMENT.
Under the escort of his faithful master, Dante not without difficulty makes
his way out of the sixth gulf; and in the seventh, sees the robbers tor-
mented by venomous and pestilent serpents. The soul of Vanni Fucci,
who had pillaged the sacristy of Saint James in Pistoia, predicts some
calamities that impended over that city, and over the Florentines.
1 Great.] In the former editions it was printed " next." The error was
observed by Mr. Carlyle. 2 He warn'd us ill.] He refers to the false-
hood told him by the demon. Canto xxi. 108. 3 He is a liar.] " He is
a liar and the father of it." John, c. viii. 44. Dante had perhaps heard
this text from one ofthe pulpits in Bologna.
(120) THE VISION. 1-33.

In the year's early nonage¹, when the sun

Tempers his tresses in Aquarius' urn,
And now towards equal day the nights recede ;
Whenas the rime upon the earth puts on
Her dazzling sister's image2, but not long
Her milder sway endures ; then riseth up
The village hind, whom fails his wintry store³,
And looking out beholds the plain around
All whiten'd ; whence impatiently he smites
His thighs, and to his hut returning in,
There paces to and fro, wailing his lot,
As a discomfited and helpless man ;
Then comes he forth again, and feels new hope
Spring in his bosom, finding e'en thus soon
The world hath changed its countenance , grasps his crook,
And forth to pasture drives his little flock :
So me my guide dishearten'd, when I saw
His troubled forehead ; and so speedily
That ill was cured ; for at the fallen bridge
Arriving, towards me with a look as sweet,
He turn'd him back, as that I first beheld
At the steep mountain's foot. Regarding well
The ruin, and some counsel first maintain'd
With his own thought, he open'd wide his arm
And took me up . As one, who, while he works,
Computes his labour's issue, that he seems
Still to foresee the effect ; so lifting me
Up to the summit of one peak, he fix'd
His eye upon another. "Grapple that,"
Said he, " but first make proof, if it be such
As will sustain thee." For one capt with lead
This were no journey. Scarcely he, though light,
And I, though onward push'd from crag to crag,
1 In the year's early nonage.] " At the latter part of January, when
the sun enters into Aquarius, and the equinox is drawing near, when the
hoar-frosts in the morning often wear the appearance of snow, but are
melted by the rising sun.'
* Her dazzling sister's image.] λιγνὺν μέλαιναν, ἀιόλην πυρὸς κάσιν.
Eschyl. Septem Contra Thebas, v. 490. Blomfield's edit
κάσις
πnλoũ ¿úvovços, difía kóvis. Æschyl. Agamemnon , v. 478. Blomfield
Whom fails his wintry store.] A cui la roba manca.
So in the Purgatorio, c. xiii. 61. Così gli ciechi a cui la roba manca.
34-60. HELL, CANTO XXIV. (121) !
Could mount. And if the precinct of this coast
Were not less ample than the last, for him
I know not, but my strength had surely fail'd.
But Malebolge all toward the mouth
Inclining of the nethermost abyss,
The site of every valley hence requires,
That one side upward slope, the other fall.
At length the point from whence¹ the utmost stɔne
Juts down, we reach'd ; soon as to that arrived,
So was the breath exhausted from my lungs
I could no further, but did seat me there.
"Now needs thy best of man ;" so spake my guide :
" For not on downy plumes 2, nor under shade
Of canopy reposing, fame is won ;
Without which whosoe'er consumes his days,
Leaveth such vestige of himself on earth,
As smoke in air or foam upon the wave.
Thou therefore rise : vanquish thy weariness³
By the mind's effort, in each struggle form'd
To vanquish, if she suffer not the weight
Of her corporeal frame to crush her down.
A longer ladder yet remains to scale.
From these to have escaped sufficeth not,
If well thou note me, profit by my words."
I straightway rose, and show'd myself less spent
Than I in truth did feel me. " On," I cried,
"For I am stout and fearless." Up the rock
From whence.] Mr. Carlyle notes the mistake in my former transla
tion ; and I have corrected it accordingly.
2 Not on downyplumes .]
Lettor, tu dei pensar che, senza ardire,
Senza affanno soffrir, l'uomo non puote
Fama acquistar, ne gran cose fornire.
Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, lib. iv. cap. iv.
Nessun mai per fuggir, o per riposo,
Venne in altezza fama ovver in gloria.
Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. ii.
Signor, non sotto l'ombra in piaggia molle
Tra fonti e fior, tra Ninfe e tra Sirene,
Ma in cima all'erto e faticoso colle
Della virtù riposto è il nostro bene. Tasso, G. L. c. xvii. st. G1 .
Vanquish thy weariness.]
Quin corpus onustum
Hesternis vitis animum quoque prægravat una,
Atque affigit humi divinæ particulam auræ. Hor Sat. ii. lib. ii. 78
(122) THE VISION. 61-92.

Our way we held, more rugged than before,

Narrower, and steeper far to climb. From talk
I ceased not, as we journey'd, so to seem
Least faint ; whereat a voice from the other foss
Did issue forth, for utterance suited ill.
Though on the arch that crosses there I stood,
What were the words I knew not, but who spake
Seem'd moved in anger. Down I stoop'd to look ;
But my quick eye might reach not to the depth
For shrouding darkness ; wherefore thus I spake :
“ To the next circle, teacher, bend thy steps,
And from the wall dismount we ; for as hence
I hear and understand not, so I see
Beneath, and nought discern."—"“ I answer not,”
Said he, " but by the deed. To fair request
Silent performance maketh best return."
We from the bridge's head descended, where
To the eighth mound it joins ; and then, the chasm
Opening to view, I saw a crowd within
Of serpents terrible, so strange of shape
And hideous, that remembrance in my veins
Yet shrinks the vital current. Of her sands 2
Let Libya vaunt no more : if Jaculus,
Pareas and Chelyder be her brood,
Cenchris and Amphisbæna, plagues so dire
Or in such numbers swarming ne'er she show'd,
Not with all Ethiopia, and whate'er
Above the Erythræan sea is spawn'd .
Amid this dread exuberance of woe
Ran naked spirits wing'd with horrid fear,
Nor hope had they of crevice where to hide,
3
Or heliotrope to charm them out of view.

1 Serpents. ] Vidi locum horridum tenebrosum factoribus exhalantibus

flammis crepitantibus serpentibus, draconibus repletum. Alberici
Visio, § 12. 2 Of her sands. ] Compare Lucan, Phars. lib. ix. 703.
3 Heliotrope.] Viridi colore est (gemma heliotropion) non ita acuto sed
nubilo magis et represso, stellis puniceis superspersa. Causa nominis de
effectu lapidis est et potestate. Dejecta in labris æneis radios solis mutat
sanguineo repercussu, utraque aqua splendorem aëris abjicit et avertit.
Etiam illud posse dicitur, ut herbà ejusdem nominis mixta et præcantatio-
nibus legitimis consecrata, eum, a quocunque gestabitur, subtrahat visibus
obviorum. Solinus, c. xl. " A stone," says Boccaccio, in his humorous
tale of Calandrino, " which we lapidaries call heliotrope, of such extraordi-
93-112. HELL, CANTO XXIV. (123)

With serpents were their hands behind them bound,

Which through their reins infix'd the tail and head,
Twisted in folds before. And lo ! on one
Near to our side, darted an adder up,
And, where the neck is on the shoulders tied,
Transpierced him. Far more quickly than e'er pen
Wrote O or I, he kindled, burn'd, and changed
To ashes all, pour'd out upon the earth.
When there dissolved he lay, the dust again
Uproll'd spontaneous, and the self- same form
Instant resumed. So mighty sages tell,
The Arabian Phoenix ', when five hundred years
Have well nigh circled, dies, and springs forthwith
Renascent blade nor herb throughout his life
He tastes, but tears of frankincense 2 alone
And odorous amomum : swaths of nard
And myrrh his funeral shroud. As one that falls,
He knows not how, by force demoniac dragg'd
To earth, or through obstruction fettering up
In chains invisible the powers of man,

nary virtue, that the bearer of it is effectually concealed from the sight ofall
present." Decam. G. viii. N. 3. In Chiabrera's Ruggiero, Scaltrimento
begs of Sofia, who is sending him on a perilous errand, to lend him the he-
liotrope.
-In mia man fida
L'elitropia, per cui possa involarmi
Secondo il mio talento agli occhi altrui. c. vi.
Trust to my hand the heliotrope, by which
I may at will from others' eyes conceal me.
Compare Ariosto, Il Negromante, a. 3. s. 3. Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xxv
and Fortiguerra, Ricciardetto, c. x. st. 17. Gower, in his Confessio Amantis,
lib. vii. enumerates it among the jewels in the diadem of the sun :-
Jaspis and helitropius.
1 The Arabian Phoenix.] This is translated from Ovid, Metam. lib. xv. :—
Una est quæ reparat, seque ipsa reseminat ales ;
Assyrii Phonica vocant. Nec fruge neque herbis,
Sed thuris lacrymis, et succo vivit amomi.
Hæc ubi quinque suæ complevit secula vitæ,
Ilicis in ramis, tremulæve cacumine palmæ,
Unguibus et pando nidum sibi construit ore.
Qua simul ut casias, et nardi lenis aristas,
Quassaque cum fulvâ substravit cinnama myrrhâ,
Se super imponit, finitque in odoribus ævum.
See also Petrarch, Canzone : -Qual piu, &c.
2 Tears offrankincense. ] Incenso e mirra è quello onde si pasce.
Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, in a gorgeous description of the Phoenix
lib. ii. cap. v.
(124) THE VISION. 113-143

Who, risen from his trance, gazeth around ' ,

Bewilder'd with the monstrous agony
He hath endured, and wildly staring sighs ;
So stood aghast the sinner when he rose.
Oh ! how severe God's judgment, that deals out
Such blows in stormy vengeance. Who he was,
My teacher next inquired ; and thus in few
He answer'd : " Vanni Fucci2 am I call'd,
Not long since rained down from. Tuscany
To this dire gullet. Me the bestial life
And not the human pleased, mule that I was,
Who in Pistoia found my worthy den."
I then to Virgil : " Bid him stir not hence ;
And ask what crime did thrust him hither : onco
A man I knew him, choleric and bloody."
The sinner heard and feign'd not, but towards me
His mind directing and his face, wherein
Was dismal shame depictured, thus he spake :
" It grieves me more to have been caught by thee
In this sad plight, which thou beholdest, than
When I was taken from the other life.
I have no power permitted to deny
What thou inquirest. I am doom'd thus low
To dwell, for that the sacristy by me
Was rifled of its goodly ornaments,
And with the guilt another falsely charged.
But that thou mayst not joy to see me thus,
So as thou e'er shalt 'scape this darksome realm,
Open thine ears and hear what I forebode.
Reft of the Neri first Pistoia ³ pines ;
Then Florence¹ changeth citizens and laws ;
1 Gazeth around. ] Su mi levai senza far più parole,
Cogli occhi intorno stupido mirando,
Si come l'Epilentico far suole.
Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. iii
2 Vanni Fucci.] He is said to have been an illegitimate offspring of the
family of Lazari in Pistoia, and, having robbed the sacristy of the church of
St. James in that city, to have charged Vanni della Nona with the sacri-
lege ; in consequence of which accusation the latter suffered death.
Pistoia.] " In May 1301, the Bianchi party of Pistoia, with the assist-
ance and favour of the Bianchi, who ruled Florence, drove out the party of ""
the Neri from the former place, destroying their houses, palaces, and farms.'
Giov. Villani, Hist. lib. viii. c. xliv. 4 Then Florence.] " Soon after
the Bianchi will be expelled from Florence, the Neri will prevail, and the
144-150. HELL, CANTO XXIV. (125)
From Valdimagra ' , drawn by wrathful Mars,
A vapour rises, wrapt in turbid mists,
And sharp and eager driveth on the storm
With arrowy hurtling o'er Piceno's field,
Whence suddenly the cloud shall burst, and strike
Each helpless Bianco prostrate to the ground.
This have I told, that grief may rend thy heart."

CANTO XXV.

ARGUMENT.
The sacrilegious Fucci vents his fury in blasphemy, is seized by serpents,
and flying is pursued by Cacus in the form of a Centaur, who is described
with a swarm of serpents on his haunch, and a dragon on his shoulders
breathing forth fire. Our Poet then meets with the spirits of three of his
countrymen, two of whom undergo a marvellous transformation in his
presence.
WHEN he had spoke, the sinner raised his hands 2
Pointed in mockery, and cried : " Take them, God !

laws and people will be changed." 1 From Valdimagra.] The com.

mentators explain this prophetical threat to allude to the victory obtained by
the Marquis Morello Malaspina of Valdimagra, (atract of country now called
the Lunigiana,) who put himself at the head of the Neri, and defeated their
opponents, the Bianchi, in the Campo Piceno near Pistoia, soon after the
occurrence related in the preceding note on v. 142. Of this engagement
find no mention in Villani. Balbo (Vita di Dante, v. ii. p. 143.) refers to
Gerini, Memorie Storiche di Lunigiana, tom. ii. p. 123. for the whole history
of this Morello or Moroello. Currado Malaspina is introduced in the eighth
Canto of the Purgatory ; where it appears, that although on the present oc-
casion they espoused contrary sides, most important favours were never-
theless conferred by that family on our Poet, at a subsequent period of his
exile, in 1307.
2 His hands.] Le mani alzò, con ambeduo le fiche.
So Frezzi : E fe le fiche a Dio 'l superbo vermo.
Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. xix.
Io vidi l'ira poi con crudel faccia ;
E fe le fiche a Dio il mostro rio,
Stringendo i denti ed alzando le braccia. Ib. lib. iii. c. x.
And Trissino : Poi facea con le man le fiche al cielo
Dicendo : Togli, Iddio ; che puoi più farmi ?
L'Ital. Liberata, c. xii.
"The practice of thrusting out the thumb between the first and second
fingers, to express the feelings of insult and contempt, has prevailed very
generally among the nations of Europe, and for many ages had been de
nominated making the fig,' or described at least by some equivalent ex
pression." Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 492. ed. 1807.
The passage in the original text has not escaped this diligent commentator.
(126) THE VISION. 3-38.

I level them at thee." From that day forth

The serpents were my friends ; for round his neck
One of them rolling twisted, as it said,
" Be silent, tongue ! " Another, to his arms
Upgliding, tied them, riveting itself
So close, it took from them the power to move.
Pistoia ! ah, Pistoia ! why dost doubt
To turn thee into ashes, cumbering earth
No longer, since in evil act so far
Thou hast outdone thy seed¹ ? I did not mark,
Through all the gloomy circles of the abyss,
Spirit, that swell'd so proudly 'gainst his God ;
Not him2, who headlong fell from Thebes. He fled ,
Nor utter'd more ; and after him there came
A centaur full of fury, shouting, " Where,
Where is the caitiff?" On Maremma's marsh³
Swarm not the serpent tribe, as on his haunch
They swarm'd, to where the human face begins.
Behind his head, upon the shoulders, lay
With open wings a dragon, breathing fire
On whomsoe'er he met. To me my guide :
" Cacus4 is this, who underneath the rock
Of Aventine spread oft a lake of blood.
He, from his brethren parted, here must tread
A different journey, for his fraudful theft
Of the great herd that near him stall'd ; whence found
His felon deeds their end, beneath the mace
Of stout Alcides, that perchance laid on
A hundred blows5, and not the tenth was felt."
While yet he spake, the centaur sped away :
And under us three spirits came, of whom
Nor I nor he was ware, till they exclaim'd,
66
Say who are ye !" We then brake off discourse,
Intent on these alone. I knew them not :
But, as it chanceth oft, befel, that one
Had need to name another. 66'Where," said he,

1 Thy seed. ] Thy ancestry. 2 Not him.] Capancus. Canto xiv.

3 On Maremma's marsh.] An extensive tract near the sea-shore of
Tuscany. Cacus.] Virgil. En. lib. viii. 193. A hundred blows.j
Less than ten blows, out of the hundred Hercules gave him, had deprived
him of feeling.
39-61. HELL, CANTO XXV. (127)
" Doth Cianfa¹ lurk ? " I, for a sign my guide
Should stand attentive, placed against my lips
The finger lifted. If, O reader ! now
Thou be not apt to credit what I tell,
No marvel ; for myself do scarce allow
The witness of mine eyes. But as I look'd
Toward them, lo ! a serpent with six feet
Springs forth on one, and fastens full upon him :
His midmost grasp'd the belly, a forefoot
Seized on each arm (while deep in either cheek 2
He flesh'd his fangs) ; the hinder on the thighs
Were spread, 'twixt which the tail inserted curl'd
Upon the reins behind. Ivy ne'er clasp'd³
A dodder'd oak, as round the other's limbs
The hideous monster intertwined his own.
Then, as they both had been of burning wax,
Each melted into other, mingling hues,
That which was either now was seen no more.
Thus up the shrinking paper , ere it burns,
A brown tint glides, not turning yet to black,
And the clean white expires. The other two
Look'd on, exclaiming, " Ah ! how dost thou change,
Agnello ! See ? Thou art nor double now,

1 Cianfa.] He is said to have been of the family of Donati at Florence.

In either cheek.] Ostendit mihi post hoc apostolus lacum magnum tetrum,
et aquæ sulphureæ plenum, in quo animarum multitudo demersa est, ple-
num serpentibus ac scorpionibus ; stabant vero ibi et dæmones serpentes te-
nentes et ora vultus et capita hominum cum eisdem serpentibus percuti-
entes. Alberici Visio, § 23.
3 Ivy ne'er clasp'd.] Ὁποῖα κισσὸς δρυὸς ὅπως τῆσδ᾽ ἕξομαι.
Euripides, Hecuba, v. 102.
Like ivy to an oak, how will I cling to her!
Thus up the shrinking paper.] Many of the commentators suppose
that by " papiro " is here meant the wick of a lamp or candle, and Lombardi
adduces an extract from Pier Crescenzio (Agricolt. lib. vi. cap. ix.) to show
that this use was then made of the plant. But Tiraboschi has proved that
paper made of linen came into use towards the latter half of the fourteenth
century, and that the inventor of it was Pier da Fabiano, who carried on
his manufactory in the city of Trevigi ; whereas paper of cotton, with, per-
haps, some linen mixed, was used during the twelfth century. Stor. della
Lett, Ital. tom. v. lib. i. cap. iv. sect. 4.
All my bowels crumble up to dust.
I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen
Upon a parchment ; and against this fire
Do I shrink up. Shakspeare, K. John, act v. sc. 7.
Agnello. ] Agnello Brunelleschi.
(128) THE VISION. 62-94.

Nor only one." The two heads now became

One, and two figures blended in one form
Appear'd, where both were lost. Of the four lengths
Two arms were made : the belly and the chest,
The thighs and legs, into such members changed
As never eye hath seen. Of former shape
All trace was vanish'd. Two, yet neither, seem'd
That image miscreate, and so pass'd on
With tardy steps. As underneath the scourge
Of the fierce dog-star that lays bare the fields,
Shifting from brake to brake the lizard seems
A flash of lightning, if he thwart the road ;
So toward the entrails of the other two
Approaching seem'd an adder all on fire,
As the dark pepper-grain livid and swart.
In that part¹, whence our life is nourish'd first,
One he transpierced ; then down before him fell
Stretch'd out. The pierced spirit look'd on him,
But spake not ; yea, stood motionless and yawn'd,
As if by sleep or feverous fit assail'd².
He eyed the serpent, and the serpent him.
One from the wound, the other from the mouth
Breathed a thick smoke, whose vapoury columns join'd
Lucan³ in mute attention now may hear,
Nor thy disastrous fate, Sabellus, tell,
Nor thine, Nasidius. Ovid4 now be mute.
What if in warbling fiction he record
Cadmus and Arethusa, to a snake
Him changed, and her into a fountain clear,
I envy not ; for never face to face
Two natures thus transmuted did he sing,
Wherein both shapes were ready to assume
The other's substance . They in mutual guise
In that part.] The navel.
As ifby sleep or feverous fit assail'd. ]
O Rome ! thy head
Is drown'd in sleep, and all thy body fev'ry. Ben Jonson's Catiline.
3 Lucan.] Phars. lib. ix. 766 and 793.
Lucan di alcun di questi poetando
Conta si come Sabello e Nasidio
Fù punti e trasformati ivi passando.
Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, L v cap. xvi
Ovid.] Metam lib. iv. and v.
95-132. HELL, CANTO XXV. (129)

So answer'd, that the serpent split his train

Divided to a fork, and the pierced spirit
Drew close his steps together, legs and thighs
Compacted, that no sign of juncture soon
Was visible the tail, disparted, took
The figure which the spirit lost ; its skin
Softening, his indurated to a rind.
The shoulders next I mark'd, that entering join'd
The monster's arm-pits, whose two shorter feet
So lengthen'd, as the others dwindling shrunk.
The feet behind then twisting up became
That part that man conceals, which in the wretch
Was cleft in twain. While both the shadowy smoke
With a new colour veils, and generates
The excrescent pile on one, peeling it off
From the other body, lo ! upon his feet
One upright rose, and prone the other fell.
Nor yet their glaring and malignant lamps
Were shifted, though each feature changed beneath.
Of him who stood erect, the mounting face
Retreated towards the temples, and what there
Superfluous matter came, shot out in ears
From the smooth cheeks ; the rest, not backward dragg'd,
Of its excess did shape the nose ; and swell'd
Into due size protuberant the lips.
He, on the earth who lay, meanwhile extends
His sharpen'd visage¹ , and draws down the ears
Into the head, as doth the slug his horns.
His tongue, continuous before and apt
For utterance, severs ; and the other's fork
Closing unites . That done, the smoke was laid.
The soul, transform'd into the brute, glides off,
Hissing along the vale, and after him
The other talking sputters ; but soon turn'd
His new-grown shoulders on him, and in few
Thus to another spake : " Along this path
Crawling, as I have done, speed Buoso² now ! "
So saw I fluctuate in successive change

¹ His sharpen'd visage. ] Compare Milton, P. L. b. x. 511 , &c. 2 Buoso.]

He is also said by some to have been of the Donati family ; but by other
the Abbati.
K
(130) THE VISION. 133-140

The unsteady ballast of the seventh hold :

And here if aught my pen¹ have swerved, events
So strange may be its warrant. O'er mine eyes
Confusion hung, and on my thoughts amaze.
Yet scaped they not so covertly, but well
I mark'd Sciancato 2 : he alone it was
Of the three first that came, who changed not : thos
The other's fate, Gaville ! still dost rue.

CANTO XXVI.

ARGUMENT.
Remounting by the steps, down which they had descended to the seventh
gulf, they go forward to the arch that stretches over the eighth, and from
thence behold numberless flames wherein are punished the evil counsel-
lors, each flame containing a sinner, save one, in which were Diomede and
Ulysses, the latter of whom relates the manner of his death.
FLORENCE, exult ! for thou so mightily
Hast thriven, that o'er land and sea¹ thy wings
Thou beatest, and thy name spreads over hell.
Among the plunderers, such the three I found
Thy citizens ; whence shame to me thy son,
And no proud honour to thyself redounds.
But if our minds , when dreaming near the dawn,
Are of the truth presageful, thou ere long
Shalt feel what Prato (not to say the rest)

My pen.] Lombardi justly prefers " la penna'" to " la lingua ; " but,
when he tells us that the former is in the Nidobeatina, and the latter in
the other editions, he ought to have excepted at least Landino's of 1484,
and Vellutello's of 1544, and, perhaps, many besides these. 2 Sciancato.]
Puccio Sciancato, a noted robber, whose family, Venturi says, he has not
been able to discover. The Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS . in-
forms us that he was one of the Galigai of Florence, the decline of which
house is mentioned in the Paradise, Canto xvi. 96. 3 Gaville. ] Francesco
Guercio Cavalcante was killed at Gaville, near Florence ; and in revenge
of his death several inhabitants of that district were put to death.
O'er land and sea.]
For he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas. Milton, Son. viii.
5 But ifour minds.]
Namque sub Auroram, jam dormitante lucernâ ,
Somnia quo cerni tempore vera solent. Ovid, Epist. xix.
The same poetical superstition is alluded to in the Purgatory, Canto ix
and xxvii. Shalt feel what Prato. ] The Poet prognosticates the calami.
ties which were soon to befal his native city, and which, he says, even her
10-35. HELL, CANTO XXVI . (131)

Would fain might come upon thee ; and that chance

Were in good time, if it befel thee now.
Would so it were, since it must needs befal !
For as time wears me, I shall grieve the more.
We from the depth departed ; and my guide
Remounting scaled the flinty steps 2, which late
We downward traced, and drew me up the steep.
Pursuing thus our solitary way
Among the crags and splinters of the rock,
Sped not our feet without the help of hands.
Then sorrow seized me, which e'en now revives,
As my thought turns again to what I saw,
And, more than I am wont 3, I rein and curb
The powers of nature in me, lest they run
Where Virtue guides not ; that, if aught of good
My gentle star or something better gave me,
I envy not myself the precious boon.
As in that season, when the sun least veils
His face that lightens all, what time the fly
Gives way to the shrill gnat, the peasant then,
Upon some cliff reclined, beneath him sees
Fire-flies innumerous spangling o'er the vale,
Vineyard or tilth, where his day-labour lies ;
With flames so numberless throughout its space
Shone the eighth chasm, apparent, when the depth
Was to my view exposed. As he, whose wrongs 4
nearest neighbour, Prato, would wish her. The calamities more particularly
pointed at are said to be the fall of a wooden bridge over the Arno, in May,
1304, where a large multitude were assembled to witness a representation
of hell and the infernal torments, in consequence of which accident many
lives were lost ; and a conflagration, that in the following month destroyed
more than seventeen hundred houses, many of them sumptuous buildings.
See G. Villani, Hist. lib. viii. c. lxx. and lxxi. 1 As time.] " I shall feel
all calamities more sensibly as I am further advanced in life." 2 The
flinty steps.] Venturi, after Daniello and Volpi , explains the word in the
original, borni, " to mean the stones that project from a wall, for other
buildings to be joined to, which the workmen call " toothings.' 3 More
than I am wont. ] "When I reflect on the punishment_allotted to those
who do not give sincere and upright advice to others, I am more anxi-
ous than ever not to abuse to so bad a purpose those talents, whatever
they may be, which Nature, or rather Providence, has conferred on me.'
It is probable that this declaration was the result of real feeling in the mind
of Dante, whose political character would have given great weight to any
opinion or party he had espoused, and to whom indigence and exile might
have offered strong temptations to deviate from that line of conduct, which a
strict sense of duty prescribed. As he, whose wrongs . ] Kings, b. ii. c. ii
x 2
(132) THE VISIÓN. 36-67.

The bears avenged, at its departure saw

Elijah's chariot, when the steeds erect
Raised their steep flight for heaven ; his eyes, meanwhile,
Straining pursued them, till the flame alone,
Upsoaring like a misty speck, he kenn'd :
E'en thus along the gulf moves every flame,
A sinner so enfolded close in each,
That none exhibits token of the theft.
Upon the bridge I forward bent to look,
And grasp'd a flinty mass, or else had fallen,
Though push'd not from the height. The guide, who mark'd
How I did gaze attentive, thus began :
"Within these ardours are the spirits, each
Swathed in confining fire. "-" Master ! thy word,”
I answer'd, " hath assured me ; yet I deem'd
Already of the truth, already wish'd
To ask thee who is in yon fire, that comes
So parted at the summit, as it seem'd
Ascending from that funeral pile ' where lay
The Theban brothers." He replied : " Within,
Ulysses there and Diomede endure
Their penal tortures, thus to vengeance now
Together hasting, as erewhile to wrath.
These in the flame with ceaseless groans deplore
The ambush of the horse2, that open'd wide
A portal for that goodly seed to pass,
Which sow'd imperial Rome ; nor less the guile
Lament they, whence, of her Achilles 'reft,
Deïdamia yet in death complains.
And there is rued the stratagem that Troy
Of her Palladium spoil'd."—" If they have power
Of utterance from within these sparks," said I,

1 Ascending from that funeral pile.] The flame is said to have divided
on the funeral pile which consumed the bodies of Eteocles and Polynices, as
if conscious of the enmity that actuated them while living.
Ecce iterum fratris primos ut contigit artus
Ignis edax, tremuere rogi, et novus advena busto
Pellitur, exundant diviso vertice flammæ,
Alternosque apices abruptâ luce coruscant. Statius, Theb. lib. xii.
Compare Lucan, Pharsal. lib. i. 145.
2 The ambush of the horse.] " The ambush of the wooden horse, that
caused Æneas to quit the city of Troy and seek his fortune in Italy, where
his descendants founded the Roman empire."
68-98. HELL, CANTO XXVI. (133)

" O master ! think my prayer a thousand-fold

In repetition urged, that thou vouchsafe
Το pause till here the horned flame arrive.
See, how toward it with desire I bend."
He thus : " Thy prayer is worthy of much praise,
And I accept it therefore ; but do thou
Thy tongue refrain : to question them be mine ;
For I divine thy wish ; and they perchance,
For they were Greeks¹ , might shun discourse with thee."
When there the flame had come, where time and place
Seem'd fitting to my guide, he thus began :
66 0 ye, who dwell two spirits in one fire !
If, living, I of you did merit aught,
Whate'er the measure were of that desert,
When in the world my lofty strain I pour'd,
Move ye not on, till one of you unfold
In what clime death o'ertook him self-destroy'd."
Of the old flame forthwith the greater horn
Began to roll, murmuring, as a fire
That labours with the wind, then to and fro
Wagging the top, as a tongue uttering sounds,
Threw out its voice, and spake : " When I escaped
From Circe, who beyond a circling year
Had held me near Caieta2 by her charms,
Ere thus Æneas yet had named the shore ;
Nor fondness for my son³, nor reverence
Of my old father, nor return of love,
That should have crown'd Penelope with joy,
Could overcome in me the zeal I had
To explore the world, and search the ways of life,
Man's evil and his virtue. Forth I sail'd

For they were Greeks. ] By this it is, perhaps, implied that they were
haughty and arrogant. So, in our Poet's twenty-fourth Sonnet, of which a
translation is inserted in the Life prefixed, he says,
Ed ella mi rispose, come un Greco.
2 Caieta.] Virgil, Æneid , lib. vii. 1 .
3 Nor fondness for my son. ] Imitated by Tasso, G. L. c. viii. st. 7.
Ne timor di fatica ò di periglio, Del vecchio genitor, si degno affette
Ne vaghezza del regno, ne pietade Intiepedir nel generoso petto.
This imagined voyage of Ulysses into the Atlantic is alluded to by Pulci :-
E sopratutto commendava Ulisse,
Che per veder nell' altro mondo gisse. Morg. Magg. c. xxv.
And by Tasso, G. L. c. xv. 25.
(134) THE VISION. 99-128.

Into the deep illimitable main,

With but one bark, and the small faithful band
That yet cleaved to me. As Iberia far,
Far as Marocco, either shore I saw,
And the Sardinian and each isle beside
Which round that ocean bathes. Tardy with age
Were I and my companions, when we came
To the strait pass¹ , where Hercules ordain'd
The boundaries not to be o'erstepp'd by man.
The walls of Seville to my right I left,
On the other hand already Ceuta past.
" O brothers !' I began, ' who to the west
• Through perils without number now have reach'd ;
To this the short remaining watch, that yet
'Our senses have to wake, refuse not proof
' Of the unpeopled world, following the track
'Of Phoebus. Call to mind from whence ye sprang :
' Ye were not form'd to live the life of brutes,
' But virtue to pursue and knowledge high .'
With these few words I sharpen'd for the voyage
The mind of my associates, that I then
Could scarcely have withheld them. To the dawn
Our poop we turn'd, and for the witless flight
Made our oars wings 2 , still gaining on the left.
Each star of the other pole night now beheld³,
And ours so low, that from the ocean floor
It rose not. Five times re-illumed , as oft
Vanish'd the light from underneath the moon,
Since the deep way we enter'd, when from far
Appear'd a mountain dim4, loftiest methought
1 The strait pass .] The straits of Gibraltar.
2 Made our oars wings . ]
Οὐδ᾽ εὐήρε έρετμὰ, τά τε πτερὰ νηυσὶ πέλονται. Hom. Od. xi. 121
So Chiabrera, Canz. Eroiche. xiii. Farò de' remi un volo.
And Tasso, Ibid. 26.
3 Night now beheld.] Petrarch is here cited by Lombardi :- :-
Ne la su sopra il cerchio della luna
Vide mai tante stelle alcuna notte. Canz. xxxvii. 1.
Nor there above the circle of the moon
Did ever night behold so many stars.
A mountain dim.] The mountain of Purgatory.-Amongst the various
opinions of theologians respecting the situation of the terrestrial paradise,
Pietro Lombardo relates, that " it was separated by a long space, either of
a or land, from the regions inhabited by men, and placed in the ocean,
129-135. HELL, CANTO XXVI. (135)

Of all I e'er beheld. Joy seized us straight ;

But soon to mourning changed. From the new land
A whirlwind sprung, and at her foremost side
Did strike the vessel. Thrice 1 it whirl'd her round
With all the waves ; the fourth time lifted up
The poop, and sank the prow : so fate decreed :
And over us the booming billow closed 2."

CANTO XXVII.

ARGUMENT.
The Poet, treating of the same punishment as in the last Canto, relates that
he turned towards a flame in which was the Count Guido da Montefeltro,
whose inquiries respecting the state of Romagna he answers ; and Guido
is thereby induced to declare who he is, and why condemned to that
torment.
Now upward rose the flame, and still'd its light
To speak no more, and now pass'd on with leave
From the mild poet gain'd ; when following came
Another, from whose top a sound confused,
Forth issuing, drew our eyes that way to look.
As the Sicilian bull 3, that rightfully
His cries first echoed who had shaped its mould ,
Did so rebellow, with the voice of him
Tormented, that the brazen monster seem'd
Pierced through with pain ; thus, while no way they found,
Nor avenue immediate through the flame,
Into its language turn'd the dismal words :

reaching as far as to the lunar circle, so that the waters of the deluge did
not reach it." Sent. lib. ii. dist. 17. Thus Lombardi.
1 Thrice.] - Ast illum ter fluctus ibidem
Torquet agens circum, et rapidus vorat æquore vortex.
Virg. Æn. lib. i. 116.
2 Closed.] Venturi refers to Pliny and Solinus for the opinion tnat
Ulysses was the founder of Lisbon, from whence he thinks it was easy for
the fancy of a poet to send him on yet further enterprises. Perhaps the
story (which it is not unlikely that our author will be found to have bor-
rowed from some legend of the middle ages) may have taken its rise partly
from the obscure oracle returned by the ghost of Tiresias to Ulysses, (see the
eleventh book of the Odyssey, ) and partly from the fate which there was rea-
son to suppose had befallen some adventurous explorers ofthe Atlantic ocean.
3 The Sicilian bull.] The engine of torture invented by Perillus, for the
tyrant Phalaris.
136) THE VISION. 13-38.

But soon as they had won their passage forth,

Up from the point, which vibrating obey'd
Their motion at the tongue, these sounds were heard
"O thou ! to whom I now direct my voice,
That lately didst exclaim in Lombard phrase,
' Depart thou ; I solicit thee no more ; '
Though somewhat tardy I perchance arrive,
Let it not irk thee here to pause awhile,
And with me parley : lo ! it irks not me,
And yet I burn. If but e'en now thou fall
Into this blind world, from that pleasant land
Of Latium, whence I draw my sum of guilt,
Tell me if those who in Romagna dwell
Have peace or war. For of the mountains there '
Was I, betwixt Urbino and the height
Whence Tiber first unlocks his mighty flood ."
Leaning I listen'd yet with heedful ear,
When, as he touch'd my side, the leader thus :
" Speak thou : he is a Latian." My reply
Was ready, and I spake without delay :
" O spirit ! who art hidden here below,
Never was thy Romagna without war
In her proud tyrants' bosoms, nor is now :
But open war there left I none. The state ,
Ravenna hath maintain'd this many a year,
Is stedfast. There Polenta's eagle2 broods ;

Ofthe mountains there. ] Montefeltro. Polenta's eagle.] Guido

Novello da Polenta, who bore an eagle for his coat of arms. The name
of Polenta was derived from a castle so called, in the neighbourhood of
Brittonoro. Cervia is a small maritime city, about fifteen miles to the
south of Ravenna. Guido was the son of Ostasio da Polenta, and made
himself master of Ravenna in 1265. In 1322 he was deprived of his
sovereignty, and died at Bologna in the year following. This last and most
munificent patron of Dante is himself enumerated, by the historian of
Italian literature, among the poets of his time. Tiraboschi, Storia della
Lett. Ital. tom. v. lib. iii. c. ii. sect. 13. The passage in the text might have
removed the uncertainty which Tiraboschi expressed , respecting the dura-
tion of Guido's absence from Ravenna, when he was driven from that city
in 1295, by the arms of Pietro, archbishop of Monreale. It must evidently
have been very short, since his government is here represented (in 1300) as
not having suffered any material disturbance for many years. In the
Proëmium to the Annotations on the Decameron of Boccaccio, written by
those who were deputed to that work, Ediz. Giunti, 1573, it is said of Guido
Novello, " del quale si leggono ancora alcune composizioni, per poche che
elle sieno, secondo quella età, belle e leggiadre : and in the collection
39-55. HELL, CANTO XXVII. (137)

And in his broad circumference of plume

O'ershadows Cervia. The green talons grasp
The land¹ , that stood erewhile the proof so long
And piled in bloody heap the host of France.
" The old mastiff of Verruchio and the young²,
That tore Montagna³ in their wrath, still make,
Where they are wont, an augre of their fangs .
" Lamone's city, and Santerno's , range
Under the lion of the snowy lair³,
Inconstant partisan, that changeth sides,
Or ever summer yields to winter's frost.
And she, whose flank is wash'd of Savio's wave",
As 'twixt the level and the steep she lies,
Lives so 'twixt tyrant power and liberty.
" Now tell us, I entreat thee, who art thou :
Be not more hard than others . In the world,
So may thy name still rear its forehead high."
edited by Allacci at Naples, 1661 , p. 382, is a sonnet of his, which breathes
a high and pure spirit of Platonism. Among the MSS. of the Iliad in the
Ambrosian Library at Milan, described by Mai, there is one that was in the
possession of Guido. Iliadis Fragmenta, &c. fol. Mediol. 1819. Proœ-
mium, p. xlviii . It was, perhaps, seen by Dante. To this account I must
now subjoin that which has since been given, but without any reference to
authorities, by Troya: "In the course of eight years, from 1310 to 1318,
Guido III . of Polenta, father of Francesca, together with his sons Bernardino
and Ostasio, had died. A third son, named Bannino, was father of Guido IV.
Of these two it is not known whether they held the lordship of Ravenna.
But it came to the sons of Ostasio, Guido V. called Novello, and Rinaldo
the archbishop : on the sons of Bernardino devolved the sovereignty of the
neighbouring city of Cervia." Veltro Allegorico di Dante, ed. 1826, p. 176.
The land.] The territory of Forli, the inhabitants of which, in 1282,
were enabled, by the stratagem of Guido da Montefeltro, who then governed
it, to defeat with great slaughter the French army by which it had been be-
sieged. See G. Villani, lib. vii, c. lxxxi. The Poet informs Guido, its
former ruler, that it is now in the possession of Sinibaldo Ordolaffi, or Arde-
laffi, whom he designates by his coat of arms, a lion vert. 2 The old mastiff
of Verruchio and the young.] Malatesta and Malatestino his son, lords of
Rimini, called, from their ferocity, the mastiffs of Verruchio, which was the
name of their castle. Malatestino was, perhaps, the husband of Francesca,
daughter of Guido da Polenta. See notes to Canto v. 113. 3 Montagna .]
Montagna de' Parcitati, a noble knight, and leader of the Ghibelline party
at Rimini, murdered by Malatestino. 4 Lamone's city and Santerno's.]
Lamone is the river at Faenza, and Santerno at Imola. 5 The lion ofthe
snowy lair.] Machinardo Pagano, whose arms were a lion azure on a field
argent ; mentioned again in the Purgatory, Canto xiv. 122. See G. Villani
passim, where he is called Machinardo da Susinana. 6 Whose flank is
wash'd of Savio's wave. ] Cesena, situated at the foot of a mountain, and
washed by the river Savio, that often descends with a swoln and rapid stream
from the Apennine.
(138) THE VISION. 56-78.

Then roar'd awhile the fire, its sharpen'd point

On either side waved, and thus breathed at last :
" If I did think my answer were to one
Who ever could return unto the world,
This flame should rest unshaken . But since ne'er,
If true be told me, any from this depth
Has found his upward way, I answer thee,
Nor fear lest infamy record the words.
" A man of arms at first, I clothed me then
In good Saint Francis' girdle, hoping so
To have made amends. And certainly my hope
Had fail'd not, but that he, whom curses light on,
The high priest 2, again seduced me into sin.
And how, and wherefore, listen while I tell.
Long as this spirit moved the bones and pulp
My mother gave me, less my deeds bespake
The nature of the lion than the fox ".
All ways of winding subtlety I knew,
And with such art conducted, that the sound
Reach'd the world's limit. Soon as to that part
Of life I found me come, when each behoves
To lower sails and gather in the lines ;
That, which before had pleased me, then I rued,
1 A man ofarms.] Guido da Montefeltro.
2 The high priest.] Boniface VIII.
3 The nature ofthe lion than the fox. ] Non furon leonine ma di volpe.
So Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xix. :
E furon le sue opre e le sue colpe
Non creder leonine ma di volpe.
Fraus quasi vulpeculæ, vis leonis videtur. Cicero de Officiis, lib. i. c. 13.
To lower sails. ] Our Poet had the same train of thought as when he
wrote that most beautiful passage in his Convito, beginning " E quì è da
sapere, che siccome dice Tullio in quello di Senettute, la naturale morte,
&c." p. 209. "As it hath been said by Cicero, in his treatise on old age,
natural death is like a port and haven to us after a long voyage ; and even as
the good mariner, when he draws near the port, lowers his sails, and enters
it softly with a weak and inoffensive motion, so ought we to lower the sails of
our worldly operations, and to return to God with all our understanding and
heart, to the end that we may reach this haven with all quietness and with
all peace. And herein we are mightily instructed by nature in a lesson of
mildness ; for in such a death itself there is neither pain nor bitterness ; but,
as ripe fruit is lightly and without violence loosened from its branch, so our
soul without grieving departs from the body in which it hath been ."
So mayst thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop
Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease
Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd, for death mature.
Milton, P. L. b. xi. 567.
79-89. HELL, CANTO XXVII. (139)

And to repentance and confession turn'd,

Wretch that I was ; and well it had bested me.
The chief of the new Pharisees ¹ meantime,
Waging his warfare near the Lateran,
Not with the Saracens or Jews, (his foes
All Christians were, nor against Acre one
Had fought 2, nor traffick'd in the Soldan's land,)
He, his great charge nor sacred ministry,
In himself reverenced, nor in me that cord
Which used to mark with leanness whom it girded .
As in Soracte, Constantine besought³,

1 The chiefofthe new Pharisees .] Boniface VIII. , whose enmity to the

family of Colonna prompted him to destroy their houses near the Lateran.
Wishing to obtain possession of their other seat, Penestrino, he consulted
with Guido da Montefeltro how he might accomplish his purpose, offering
him at the same time absolution for his past sins, as well as for that which
he was then tempting him to commit. Guido's advice was, that kind words
and fair promises would put his enemies into his power ; and they accord-
ingly soon afterwards fell into the snare laid for them, A. D. 1298. See G.
Villani, lib. viii. c. xxiii. There is a relation similar to this in the history of
Ferreto Vincentino, lib. ii. anno 1294 ; and the writer adds, that our Poct
had justly condemned Guido to the torments he has allotted him. Sec
Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. ix. p. 970, where the Editor observes : " Probosi
hujus facinoris narrationi fidem adjungere nemo probus velit, quod facile
confinxerint Bonifacii æmuli, & c." And indeed it would seem as if Dante
himself had either not heard, or had not believed, the report of Guido's
having sold himself thus foolishly to the Pope, when he wrote the passage
in the Convito cited in the note to v. 76 ; for he soon after speaks of him
as one of those noble spirits " who, when they approached the last haven,
lowered the sails of their worldly operations, and gave themselves up to re-
ligion
2 - in theiragainst
old age, laying aside every worldly delight and wish.'
Nor Acre one
Had fought.] He alludes to the renegade Christians, by whom the
Saracens, in April, 1291 , were assisted to recover St. John d'Acre, the last
possession ofthe Christians in the Holy Land. The regret expressed by the
Florentine annalist, G. Villani, for the loss of this valuable fortress, is well
worthy of observation, lib. vii. c. cxliv. " From this event Christendom suf-
fered the greatest detriment : for by the loss of Acre there no longer remained
in the Holy Land any footing for the Christians ; and all our good maritime
places of trade never afterwards derived half the advantage from their mer-
chandise and manufactures ; so favourable was the situation of the city of
Acre, in the very front of our sea, in the middle of Syria, and as it were in
the middle of the inhabited world, seventy miles from Jerusalem, both
source and receptacle of every kind of merchandise, as well from the east as
from the west ; the resort of all people from all countries, and of the eastern
nations of every different tongue ; so that it might be considered as the ali-
ment ofthe world." 3 As in Soracte, Constantine besought. ] So in Dante's
treatise De Monarchiâ : " Dicunt quidam adhuc, quod Constantinus Impera-
tor mundatus a leprâ intercessione Sylvestri, tunc summi pontificis, imperii
sedem, scilicet Romam, donavit ecclesiæ, cum multis aliis imperii dignitati
bus." Lib. iii. Compare Fazio degli Überti, Dittamondo, lib. ii. cap. xii.
(140) THE VISION. 90-128.

To cure his leprosy, Sylvester's aid ;

So me, to cure the fever of his pride,
This man besought my counsel to that end
He ask'd ; and I was silent ; for his words
Seem'd drunken : but forthwith he thus resumed :
'From thy heart banish fear of all offence
' I hitherto absolve thee. In return,
'Teach me my purpose so to execute,
' That Penestrino cumber earth no more.
' Heaven, as thou knowest, I have power to shut
' And open and the keys are therefore twain,
' The which my predecessor ' meanly prized.'
" Then, yielding to the forceful arguments,
Of silence as more perilous I deem'd,
And answer'd : Father ! since thou washest me
' Clear of that guilt wherein I now must fall,
'Large promise with performance scant, be sure,
' Shall make thee triumph in thy lofty seat.'
"When I was number'd with the dead, then came
Saint Francis for me ; but a cherub dark
He met, who cried, ' Wrong me not ; he is mine,
' And must below to join the wretched crew,
'For the deceitful counsel which he gave.
' E'er since I watch'd him, hovering at his hair.
' No power can the impenitent absolve ;
' Nor to repent, and will, at once consist,
'By contradiction absolute forbid.'
Oh misery ! how I shook myself, when he
Seized me, and cried, ' Thou haply thought'st me not
'A disputant in logic so exact !"
To Minos down he bore me ; and the judge
Twined eight times round his callous back the tail,
Which biting with excess of rage, he spake :
This is a guilty soul, that in the fire
' Must vanish.' Hence, perdition-doom'd , I rove
A prey to rankling sorrow, in this garb."
When he had thus fulfill'd his words, the flame
In dolour parted, beating to and fro,
And writhing its sharp horn. We onward went,

My predecessor.] Celestine V See notes to Canto iii

129-132. HELL, CANTO XXVII. (141)

I and my leader, up along the rock,

Far as another arch, that overhangs
The foss, wherein the penalty is paid
Of those who load them with committed sin.

CANTO XXVIII .

ARGUMENT.
They arrive in the ninth gulf, where the sowers of scandal, schismatics, and
heretics, are seen with their limbs miserably maimed or divided in differ
ent ways. Among these thePoet finds Mahomet, Piero da Medicina, Cu-
rio, Mosca, and Bertrand de Born.
WHO, e'en in words unfetter'd, might at full
Tell of the wounds and blood that now I saw,
Though he repeated oft the tale ? No tongue
So vast a theme could equal, speech and thought
Both impotent alike. If in one band
Collected, stood the people all, who e'er
Pour'd on Apulia's happy soil¹ their blood,
Slain by the Trojans 2, and in that long war³,
When of the rings the measured booty made
A pile so high, as Rome's historian writes
Who errs not ; with the multitude, that felt

Happysoil. ] There is a strange discordance here amongthe expounders.

" Fortunata terra." Because of the vicissitudes of fortune which it ex-
perienced : Landino. Fortunate, with respect to those who conquered in it.
Vellutello. Or on account of its natural fertility : Venturi. The context
requires that we should understand, by " fortunata," " calamitous," " dis-
graziata," to which sense the word is extended in the Vocabulary of La
Crusca : Lombardi. Volpi is silent. On this note the late Archdeacon
Fisher favoured me with the following remark : " Volpi is, indeed, silent at
the passage ; but in the article " Puglia," in his second Index, he writes,
Dante la chiama fortunata, cioè pingue e feconda. This is your own trans-
lation ; and is the same word in meaning with rudaíuwv and felix, in
Xenophon's Anabasis and Horace passim." 2 The Trojans. ] Some MSS.
have Romani ; " and Lombardi has admitted it into the text. Venturi
had, indeed, before met with the same reading in some edition, but he has
nottold us in which. 3 In that long war.] The war of Hannibal in Italy.
" When Mago brought news of his victories to Carthage, in order to make
his successes more easily credited, he commanded the golden rings to be
poured out in the senate-house, which made so large a heap, that, as some
relate, they filled three modii and a half. A more probable account repre-
sents them not to have exceeded one modius." Livy, Hist. lib. xxiii. 12.
• The rings.] So Frezzi : Non quella, che riempie i moggi d'anella.
Il Quadrir. lib. ii . cap 9
(142) THE VISION. 12-44.

The griding force of Guiscard's Norman steel ',

And those the rest2, whose bones are gather'd yet
At Ceperano, there where treachery
Branded the Apulian name, or where beyond
Thy walls, O Tagliacozzo 3, without arms.
The old Alardo conquer'd ; and his limbs
One were to show transpierced, another his
Clean lopt away ; a spectacle like this
Were but a thing of nought, to the hideous sight
Of the ninth chasm. A rundlet, that hath lost
Its middle or side stave, gapes not so wide
As one I mark'd, torn from the chin throughout
Down to the hinder passage : 'twixt the legs
Dangling his entrails hung, the midriff lay
Open to view, and wretched ventricle,
That turns the englutted aliment to dross.
Whilst eagerly I fix on him my gaze,
He eyed me, with his hands laid his breast bare,
And cried, " Now mark how I do rip me : lo !
How is Mohammed mangled : before me
Walks Ali weeping, from the chin his face
Cleft to the forelock ; and the others all,
Whom here thou seest, while they lived, did sow
Scandal and schism, and therefore thus are rent.
A fiend is here behind, who with his sword
Hacks us thus cruelly, slivering again
Each of this ream, when we have compast round
The dismal way; for first our gashes close
Ere we repass before him. But, say who
Art thou, that standest musing on the rock,
Haply so lingering to delay the pain
Sentenced upon thy crimes."- " Him death not yet,"
My guide rejoin'd, " hath overta'en, nor sin
1 Guiscard's Norman steel. ] Robert Guiscard, who conquered the king
dom of Naples, and died in 1110. G. Villani, lib. iv. cap. xviii. He is intro-
duced in the Paradise, Canto xviii. And those the rest. ] The army of
Manfredi, which, through the treachery of the Apulian troops, was over-
come by Charles of Anjou in 1265, and fell in such numbers, that the bones
of the slain were still gathered near Ceperano. G. Villani, lib. vii. cap. ix.
See the Purgatory, Canto iii. O Tagliacozzo.] He alludes to the vic
tory which Charles gained over Conradino, by the sage advice of the Sieur
de Valeri, in 1268. G. Villani, lib. vii. c. xxvii. Ali.] The disciple of
Mohammed.
45-69. HELL, CANTO XXVIII. (143)
Conducts to torment ; but, that he may make
Full trial of your state, I who am dead
Must through the depths of hell, from orb to orb,
Conduct him. Trust my words ; for they are true."
More than a hundred spirits, when that they heard.
Stood in the foss to mark me, through amaze
Forgetful of their pangs. " Thou, who perchance
Shalt shortly view the sun, this warning thou
Bear to Dolcino'¹ : bid him, if he wish not
Here soon to follow me, that with good store
Of food he arm him, lest imprisoning snows
Yield him a victim to Novara's power ;
No easy conquest else :" with foot upraised
For stepping, spake Mohammed, on the ground
Then fix'd it to depart. Another shade,
Pierced in the throat, his nostrils mutilate
E'en from beneath the eyebrows, and one ear
Lopt off, who, with the rest, through wonder stood
Gazing, before the rest advanced, and bared
His wind-pipe, that without was all o'ersmear'd
With crimson stain. " O thou ! " said he, " whom sin
Condemns not, and whom erst (unless too near
Resemblance do deceive me) I aloft
Have seen on Latian ground, call thou to mind
Piero of Medicina², if again
1 Dolcino.] " In 1305, a friar, called Dolcino, who belonged to no regu
lar order, contrived to raise in Novara, in Lombardy, a large company of
the meaner sort of people, declaring himself to be a true apostle of Christ,
and promulgating a community of property and of wives, with many other
such heretical doctrines. He blamed the pope, cardinals, and other prelates
of the holy church, for not observing their duty, nor leading the angelic life,
and affirmed that he ought to be pope. He was followed by more than three
thousand men and women, who lived promiscuously on the mountains toge-
ther, like beasts, and, when they wanted provisions, supplied themselves by
depredation and rapine. This lasted for two years, till many, being struck
with compunction at the dissolute life they led, his sect was much diminish-
ed; and, through failure of food and the severity of the snows, he was taken
by the people of Novara, and burnt, with Margarita, his companion, and
many other men and women whom his errors had seduced." G. Villani,
lib. viii. c. lxxxiv. Landino observes, that he was possessed of singular elo-
quence, and that both he and Margarita endured their fate with a firmness
worthy of a better cause. For a further account of him, see Muratori, Rer.
Ital. Script. tom . ix. p. 427. Fazio degli Uberti , speaking of the polygamy
allowed by Mahomet, adds ;
E qui con fra Dolcin par che s intenda. Dittamondo, lib. v. cap. xii.
Medicina ] A place in the territory of Bologna. Piero fomented dis
(144) THE VISION. 70-91.

Returning, thou behold'st the pleasant land¹

That from Vercelli slopes to Mercabò ;
And there instruct the twain 2, whom Fano boasts
Her worthiest sons, Guido and Angelo,
That if ' tis given us here to scan aright
The future, they out of life's tenement³
Shall be cast forth, and whelm'd under the waves
Near to Cattolica, through perfidy
Of a fell tyrant. "Twixt the Cyprian isle
And Balearic, ne'er hath Neptune seen
An injury so foul, by pirates done,
Or Argive crew of old. That one-eyed traitor
(Whose realm, there is a spirit here were fain
His eye had still lack'd sight of) them shall bring
To conference with him, then so shape his end,
That they shall need not 'gainst Focara's wind¹
Offer up vow nor prayer." I answering thus :
" Declare, as thou dost wish that I above
May carry tidings of thee, who is he,
In whom that sight doth wake such sad remembrance.”
Forthwith he laid his hand on the cheek-bone
Of one, his fellow-spirit, and his jaws
Expanding, cried : " Lo ! this is he I wot of:
He speaks not for himself : the outcast this,
Who overwhelm'd the doubt in Cæsar's mind ,

sensions among the inhabitants of that city, and among the leaders of the
neighbouring states. 1 The pleasant land.] Lombardy.
2 The twain.] Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Cagnano, two of the
worthiest and most distinguished citizens ofFano, were invited by Malatestino
da Rimini to an entertainment, on pretence that he had some important busi-
ness to transact with them ; and, according to instructions given by him, they
were drowned in their passage near Cattolica, between Rimini and Fano.
3 Out of life's tenement.] " Fuor di lor vasello," is construed by the old
Latin annotator on the Monte Casino MS. and by Lombardi, " out of the
ship." Volpi understands " vasello " to mean their city or country."
Others take the word in the sense according to which, though not without
some doubt, it is rendered in this translation. 4 Focara's wind. ] Focara
is a mountain, from which a wind blows that is peculiarly dangerous to the
navigators of that coast. 5 The doubt in Cæsar's mind. ] Curio, whose
speech (according to Lucan) determined Julius Cæsar to proceed when he
had arrived at Rimini, (the ancient Ariminum, ) and doubted whether he
should prosecute the civil war.
Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis. Pharsal. 1. i. 281
Haste then thy towering eagles on their way ;
When fair occasion calls, ' tis fatal to delay. Rowe
95-124 . HELL, CANTO XXVIII. (145)
Affirming that delay to men prepared
Was ever harmful." Oh ! how terrified
Methought was Curio, from whose throat was cut
The tongue, which spake that hardy word. Then one,
Maim'd of each hand, uplifted in the gloom
The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots
Sullied his face, and cried ; " Remember thee
Of Mosca¹ too ; I who, alas ! exclaim'd,
" The deed once done, there is an end,' that proved
A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race."
I added : " Ay, and death to thine own tribe.”
Whence, heaping woe on woe, he hurried off,
As one grief-stung to madness . But I there
Still linger'd to behold the troop, and saw
Thing, such as I may fear without more proof
To tell of, but that conscience makes me firm ,
The boon companion , who her strong breastplate
Buckles on him, that feels no guilt within,
And bids him on and fear not. Without doubt
I saw, and yet it seems to pass before me,
A headless trunk, that even as the rest
Of the sad flock paced onward . By the hair
It bore the sever'd member, lantern- wise
Pendent in hand, which look'd at us, and said,
"Woe's me !" The spirit lighted thus himself ;
And two there were in one, and one in two.
How that may be, he knows who ordereth so.
When at the bridge's foot direct he stood,
His arm aloft he rear'd, thrusting the head
Full in our view, that nearer we might hear

¹ Mosca. ] Buondelmonte was engaged to marry a lady of the Amidei

family, but broke his promise, and united himself to one of the Donati.
This was so much resented by the former, that a meeting of themselves and
their kinsmen was held, to consider of the best means of revenging the in-
sult. Mosca degli Uberti, or de' Lamberti, persuaded them to resolve on
the assassination of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them, " the thing once
done, there is an end." The counsel and its effects were the source of many
terrible calamities to the state of Florence. " This murder," says G. Vil-
lani, lib. v. cap. xxxviii., " was the cause and beginning of the accursed
Guelph and Ghibelline parties in Florence." It happened in 1215. See the
Paradise, Canto xvi. 139.
The boon companion.]
What stronger breastplate than a beart untainted ?
Shakspeare, 2 Hen. VI. act iii. sc. 3
L
(146) THE VISION . 125-138 .

The words, which thus it utter'd : " Now behold

This grievous torment, thou, who breathing go'st
To spy the dead : behold, if any else
Be terrible as this. And, that on earth
Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I
Am Bertrand ', he of Born, who gave king John
The counsel mischievous. Father and son
I set at mutual war. For Absalom
And David more did not Ahitophel,
Spurring them on maliciously to strife.
For parting those so closely knit, my brain
Parted, alas ! I carry from its source,
That in this trunk inhabits . Thus the law
Of retribution fiercely works in me."

CANTO XXIX.

ARGUMENT.
Dante, at the desire of Virgil, proceeds onward to the bridge that crosses the
tenth gulf, from whence he hears the cries of the alchemists and forgers,
who are tormented therein ; but not being able to discern any thing on
account of the darkness, they descend the rock, that bounds this the last
of the compartments in which the eighth circle is divided, and then behold
the spirits who are afflicted by divers plagues and diseases. Two ofthem ,
namely, Grifolino of Arezzo and Capocchio of Sienna, are introduced
speaking.
So were mine eyes inebriate with the view
Of the vast multitude, whom various wounds

1 Bertrand.] Bertrand de Born, Vicomte de Hautefort, near Perigueux

in Guienne, who incited John to rebel against his father, Henry II. of
England. Bertrand holds a distinguished place among the Provençal poets.
He is quoted in Dante, de Vulg. Eloq. lib. ii . cap. 2. where it is said, " that
he treated of war, which no Italian poet had yet done." " Arma vero nul-
lum Italum adhuc poetasse invenio. " The triple division of subjects for
poetry, made in this chapter of the de Vulg. Eloq. , is very remarkable. It
will be found in a note on Purgatory, Canto xxvi. 113. For the translation
of some extracts from Bertrand de Born's poems, see Millot, Hist. Littéraire
des Troubadours, tom. i. p. 210 ; but the historical parts of that work are, I
believe, not to be relied on. Bertrand had a son of the same name, who
wrote a poem against John, king of England. It is that species of composi-
tion called the serventese ; and is in the Vatican, a MS. in Cod. 3204. See
Bastero. La Crusca Provenzale, Roma. 1724. p. 80. For many particulars
respecting both Bertrands, consult Raynouard's Poésies des Troubadours ; in
which excellent work, and in his Lexique Roman, Paris, 1838, several of
their poems, in the Provençal language, may be seen.
3-38. HELL, CANTO XXIX . (147)
Disfigured, that they long'd to stay and weep.
But Virgil roused me : "What yet gazest on ?
Wherefore doth fasten yet thy sight below
Among the maim'd and miserable shades ?
Thou hast not shown in any chasm beside
This weakness. Know, if thou wouldst number them ,
That two and twenty miles the valley winds
Its circuit, and already is the moon
Beneath our feet : the time permitted now
Is short ; and more, not seen, remains to see."
" If thou," I straight replied, " hadst weigh'd the cause,
For which I look'd, thou hadst perchance excused
The tarrying still." My leader part pursued
His way, the while I follow'd, answering him,
And adding thus : " Within that cave I deem,
Whereon so fixedly I held my ken,
There is a spirit dwells, one of my blood,
Wailing the crime that costs him now so dear.”
Then spake my master : " Let thy soul no more
Afflict itself for him. Direct elsewhere
Its thought, and leave him. At the bridge's foot
I mark'd how he did point with menacing look
At thee, and heard him by the others named
Geri of Bello ¹. Thou so wholly then
Wert busied with his spirit, who once ruled
The towers of Hautefort, that thou lookedst not
That way, ere he was gone."- -" O guide beloved !
His violent death yet unavenged,” said I,
66
By any, who are partners in his shame,
Made him contemptuous ; therefore, as I think,
He pass'd me speechless by ; and , doing so,
Hath made me more compassionate his fate."
So we discoursed to where the rock first show'd
The other valley, had more light been there,
E'en to the lowest depth. Soon as we came
O'er the last cloister in the dismal rounds
1 Ger of Bello. ] A kinsman of the Poet's, who was murdered by one of
the Sacchetti family. His being placed here, may be considered as a proof
that Dante was more impartial in the allotment of his punishments than has
generally been supposed . He was the son of Bello, who was brother to
Bellincione, our Poet's grandfather. Pelli, Mem. per la Vita di Dante.
Opere di Dante. Zatta ediz. tom. iv. part. ii. p. 23.
· L 2
(148) THE VISION. 39-60.

Of Malebolge, and the brotherhood

Were to our view exposed, then many a dart
Of sore lament assail'd me, headed all
With points of thrilling pity, that I closed
Both ears against the volley with mine hands.
As were the torment ' , if each lazar -house
Of Valdichiana2, in the sultry time
'Twixt July and September, with the isle
Sardinia and Maremma's pestilent fen³,
Had heap'd their maladies all in one foss
Together ; such was here the torment : dire
The stench, as issuing steams from fester'd limbs.
We on the utmost shore of the long rock
Descended still to leftward. Then my sight
Was livelier to explore the depth, wherein
The minister of the most mighty Lord,
All-searching Justice, dooms to punishment
The forgers noted on her dread record.
More rueful was it not methinks to see
The nation in Ægina¹ droop, what time
Each living thing, e'en to the little worm,
All fell, so full of malice was the air,
1 As were the torment.] It is very probable that these lines gave Milton
the idea of his celebrated description :
Immediately a place
Before their eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark.
A lazar-house it seem'd, wherein were laid
Numbers of all diseased, all maladies, &c. P. L. b. xi. 477
Yet the enumeration of diseases, which follows, appears to have been taken
by Milton from the Quadriregio :
Quivi eran zoppi, monchi, sordi, e orbi,
Quivi era il mal podagrico e di fianco,
Quivi la frenesia cogli occhi torbi.
Quivi il dolor gridante, e non mai stanco,
Quivi il catarro con la gran cianfarda,
L'asma, la polmonia quivi eran' anco.
L'idropisia quivi era grave e tarda,
Di tutte febbri quel piano era pieno,
Quivi quel mal, che par che la carne arda. Lib. ii. cap. 8.
Of Valdichiana.] The valley through which passes the river Chiana,
bounded by Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano, and Chiusi. In the heat of
autumn it was formerly rendered unwholesome by the stagnation of the
water, but has since been drained by the Emperor Leopold II. The Chi-
ana is mentioned as a remarkably sluggish stream, in the Paradise, Canto
xiii. 21. 3 Maremma's pestilent fen.] See note to Canto xxv. v. 19.
In Arina.] He alludes to the fable of the ants changed int . Myrmi-
dons. Ovid, Met. lib. vii.
61-101. HELL, CANTO XXIX. (149)

(And afterward, as bards of yore have told,

The ancient people were restored anew
From seed of emmets, ) than was here to see
The spirits, that languish'd through the murky vale,
Up-piled on many a stack. Confused they lay,
One o'er the belly, o'er the shoulders one
Roll'd of another ; sideling crawl'd a third
Along the dismal pathway. Step by step
We journey'd on, in silence looking round,
And listening those diseased, who strove in vain
To lift their forms. Then two I mark'd, that sat
Propt ' gainst each other, as two brazen pans
Set to retain the heat. From head to foot,
A tetter bark'd them round. Nor saw I e'er
Groom currying so fast, for whom his lord.
Impatient waited, or himself perchance
Tired with long watching, as of these each one
Plied quickly his keen nails, through furiousness
Of ne'er abated pruriency. The crust
Came drawn from underneath in flakes , like scales
Scraped from the bream, or fish of broader mail.
" O thou ! who with thy fingers rendest off
Thy coat of proof, " thus spake my guide to one,
" And sometimes makest tearing pincers of them,
Tell me if any born of Latian land
Be among these within : so may thy nails
Serve thee for everlasting to this toil."
" Both are of Latium," weeping he replied,
"Whom tortured thus thou seest : but who art tho
That hast inquired of us ?" To whom my guide :
"One that descend with this man, who yet lives,
From rock to rock, and show him hell's abyss,"
Then started they asunder, and each turn'd
Trembling toward us, with the rest, whose ear
Those words redounding struck. To me my liege
Address'd him : " Speak to them whate'er thou list.
And I therewith began : 66 So may no time
Filch your remembrance from the thoughts of men
In the upper world , but after many suns
Survive it, as ye tell me, who ye are,
And of what race ye come. Your punishment,
(150) THE VISION. 102-122.

Unseemly and disgustful in its kind,

Deter you not from opening thus much to me.”
" Arezzo was my dwelling ' ," answer'd one,
" And me Albero of Sienna brought
To die by fire : but that, for which I died,
Leads me not here. True is, in sport I told him,
That I had learn'd to wing my flight in air ;
And he, admiring much, as he was void
Of wisdom , will'd me to declare to him
The secret of mine art : and only hence,
Because I made him not a Dædalus,
Prevail'd on one supposed his sire to burn me.
But Minos to this chasm, last of the ten,
For that I practised alchemy on earth,
Has doom'd me. Him no subterfuge eludes."
Then to the bard I spake : " Was ever race
Light as Sienna's² ? Sure not France herself
Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain."
The other leprous spirit heard my words,
And thus return'd : " Be Stricca³ from this charge
Exempted, he who knew so temperately

Arezzo was my dwelling.] Grifolino of Arezzo, who promised Albero,

son ofthe Bishop of Sienna, that he would teach him the art of flying ; and,
because he did not keep his promise, Albero prevailed on his father to have
him burnt for a necromancer .
2 Was ever race
Light as Sienna's ?] The same imputation is again cast on the Sien-
nese, Purg. Canto xiii. 141. 3 Stricca.] This is said ironically. Stricca,
Niccolo Salimbeni, Caccia of Asciano, and Abbagliato or Meo de' Folcac-
chieri, belonged to a company of prodigal and luxurious young men in
Sienna, called the " brigata godereccia." Niccolo was the inventor of a
new manner of using cloves in cookery, not very well understood by the
commentators, and which was termed the " costuma ricca." Pagliarini, in
his Historical Observations on the Quadriregio, lib. iii. cap. 13. adduces a
passage from a MS. History of Sienna, in which it is told that these spend-
thrifts, out of the sum raised from the sale of their estates, built a palace,
which they inhabited in common, and made the receptacle of their apparatus
for luxurious enjoyment ; and that, amongst their other extravagancies, they
had their horses shod with silver, and forbade their servants to pick up the
precious shoes if they dropped off. The end was, as might be expected, ex-
treme poverty and wretchedness. Landino says, they spent two hundred
thousand florins in twenty months. Horses shod with silver are mentioned
by Fazio degli Uberti :
Ancora in questo tempo si fù visto
Quel Roberto Guiscardo, che d'argento
I cavagli ferrò per far l'acquisto.
Dittamondo, 1. ii . c. 24, as corrected by Perticari.
123-138. HELL, CANTO XXIX . (151)

To lay out fortune's gifts ; and Niccolo,

Who first the spice's costly luxury
Discover'd in that garden ' , where such seed
Roots deepest in the soil : and be that troop
Exempted, with whom Caccia of Asciano
Lavish'd his vineyards and wide- spreading woods,
And his rare wisdom Abbagliato 2 show'd
A spectacle for all. That thou mayst know
Who seconds thee against the Siennese
Thus gladly, bend this way thy sharpen'd sight,
That well my face may answer to thy ken ;
So shalt thou see I am Capocchio's ghost³,
Who forged transmuted metals by the power
Of alchemy ; and if I scan thee right,
Thou needs must well remember how I aped
Creative nature by my subtle art."

CANTO XXX.

ARGUMENT.
In the same gulf, other kinds of impostors, as those who have counterfeited
the persons of others, or debased the current coin, or deceived by speech
under false pretences, are described as suffering various diseases. Sinon
of Troy and Adamo of Brescia mutually reproach each other with their
several impostures .
WHAT time resentment burn'd in Juno's breast
For Semele against the Theban blood,
As more than once in dire mischance was rued ;
Such fatal frenzy seized on Athamas ,
In that garden . ] Sienna. 2 Abbagliato .] Lombardi understands
66' Abbagliato " not to be the name of a man, but to be the epithet to
' senno," and construes " E l'abbagliato suo senno proferse,'" " and mani-
fested to the world the blindness of their understanding." So little doubt,
however, is made of there being such a person, that Allacci speaks of his
grandfather Folcacchiero de' Folcacchieri of Sienna, as one who may dis-
pute with the Sicilians the praise of being the first inventor of Italian
poetry. Tiraboschi, indeed , observes, that this genealogy is not authenti-
cated by Allacci ; yet it is difficult to suppose that he should have men-
tioned it at all, if Meo de' Folcacchieri, or Abbagliato, as he was called, had
never existed. Vol. i. p. 95. Mr. Mathias's edit. 3 Capocchio's ghost.]
Capocchio of Sienna, who is said to have been a fellow-student of Dante's,
in natural philosophy.
Athamas. ] From Ovid , Metam. lib. iv. Protinus Æolides, &c.
(152) THE VISION. 3-35.

That he his spouse beholding with a babe

Laden on either arm, " Spread out," he cried,
"The meshes, that I take the lioness
And the young lions at the pass :" then forth
Stretch'd he his merciless talons, grasping one,
One helpless innocent, Learchus named,
Whom swinging down he dash'd upon a rock ;
And with her other burden ' , self-destroy'd,
The hapless mother plunged. And when the pride
Of all presuming Troy fell from its height,
By fortune overwhelm'd, and the old king
With his realm perish'd ; then did Hecuba²,
A wretch forlorn and captive, when she saw
Polyxena first slaughter'd, and her son,
Her Polydorus³, on the wild sea-beach
Next met the mourner's view, then reft of sense
Did she run barking even as a dog ;
Such mighty power had grief to wrench her soul.
But ne'er the Furies, or of Thebes, or Troy,
With such fell cruelty were seen, their goads
Infixing in the limbs of man or beast,
As now two pale and naked ghosts I saw,
That gnarling wildly scamper'd, like the swine
Excluded from his stye. One reach'd Capocchio,
And in the neck-joint sticking deep his fangs,
Dragg'd him, that, o'er the solid pavement rubb'd
His belly stretch'd out prone. The other shape,
He of Arezzo, there left trembling, spake :
" That sprite of air is Schicchi4 ; in like mood
Of random mischief vents he still his spite."
To whom I answering : " Oh ! as thou dost hope

1 With her other burden.]

Seque super pontum nullo tardata timore
Mittit, onusque suum. Ovid, Metam. lib. iv.
2 Hecuba.] See Euripides, Hecuba ; and Ovid, Metam. lib. xiii.
3 Her Polydorus .]
Aspicit ejectum Polidori in littore corpus. Ovid, Ibid.
Schicchi. ] Gianni Schicchi, who was of the family of Cavalcanti, pos-
sessed such a faculty of moulding his features to the resemblance of others,
that he was employed by Simon Donati to personate Buoso Donati, then
recently deceased, and to make a will, leaving Simon his heir ; for which
service he was remunerated with a mare of extraordinary value, here called
"the lady of the herd."
36-71. HELL, CANTO XXX. (153)
The other may not flesh its jaws on thee,
Be patient to inform us, who it is,
Ere it speed hence. " That is the ancient soul
Of wretched Myrrha¹," he replied, " who burn'd
With most unholy flame for her own sire,
And a false shape assuming, so perform'd
The deed sin ; e'en as the other there,
That onward passes, dared to counterfeit
Donati's features, to feign'd testament
The seal affixing, that himself might gain,
For his own share, the lady of the herd."
When vanish'd the two furious shades, on whom
Mine eye was held, I turn'd it back to view
The other cursed spirits. One I saw
In fashion like a lute, had but the groin
Been sever'd where it meets the forked part.
Swoln dropsy, disproportioning the limbs
With ill-converted moisture, that the paunch
Suits not the visage, open'd wide his lips,
Gasping as in the hectic man for drought,
One towards the chin, the other upward curl'd.
66
" O ye ! who in this world of misery,
Wherefore I know not, are exempt from pain,"
Thus he began, " attentively regard
Adamo's woe2. When living, full supply
Ne'er lack'd me of what most I coveted ;
One drop of water now, alas ! I crave.
The rills, that glitter down the grassy slopes
Of Casentino³, making fresh and soft
The banks whereby they glide to Arno's stream,
Stand ever in my view ; and not in vain ;
For more the pictured semblance dries me up,
Much more than the disease, which makes the flesh
Desert these shrivel'd cheeks . So from the place,
Where I transgress'd, stern justice urging me,
Takes means to quicken more my labouring sighs.
1 Myrrha.] See Ovid, Metam . lib. x. 2 Adamo's woe. ] Adamo of
Brescia, at the instigation of Guido, Alessandro, and their brother Aghi-
nulfo, lords of Romena, counterfeited the coin of Florence ; for which crime
he was burnt. Landino says, that in his time the peasants still pointed out
a pile of stones near Romena, as the place of his execution. See Troya,
Viltro Allegorico, p. 25. 3 Casentino. Romena is a part of Casentino.
(154) THE VISION. 72-98.

There is Romena, where I falsified

The metal with the Baptist's form imprest,
For which on earth I left my body burnt.
But if I here might see the sorrowing soul
Of Guido, Alessandro, or their brother,
For Branda's limpid spring 1 I would not change
The welcome sight. One is e'en now within,
If truly the mad spirits tell, that round
Are wandering. But wherein besteads me that ?
My limbs are fetter'd. Were I but so light,
That I each hundred years might move one inch,
I had set forth already on this path ,
Seeking him out amidst the shapeless crew,
Although eleven miles it wind, not less 2
Than half of one across. They brought me down
Among this tribe ; induced by them, I stamp'd
The florens with three carats of alloy 3."
"Who are that abject pair," I next inquired,
" That closely bounding thee upon thy right
Lie smoking, like a hand in winter steep'd
In the chill stream ?"-" When to this gulf I dropp'd,"
He answer'd, " here I found them ; since that hour
They have not turn'd, nor ever shall, I ween,
Till time hath run his course . One is that dame ,
The false accuser 4 of the Hebrew youth ;
Sinon the other, that false Greek from Troy.
Sharp fever drains the reeky moistness out,
1 Branda's limpid spring. ] A fountain in Sienna. 2 Less.] Lom-
bardi justly concludes that as Adamo wishes to66 exaggerate the difficulty
of finding the spirit whom he wished to see, men," and not " più,'39
("less," and not " more "" than the half of a mile,) is probably the true
reading ; for there are authorities for both. 3 The florens with three
carats of alloy.] The floren was a coin that ought to have had twenty-four
carats of pure gold. Villani relates, that it was first used at Florence in
1252, an era of great prosperity in the annals of the republic ; before which
time their most valuable coinage was of silver. Hist. lib. vi. c. liv. Fazio
degli Uberti uses the word to denote the purest gold.
Pura era come l'oro del fiorino. Dittamondo, L. ii. cap. xiv.
" Among the ruins of Chaucer's house at Woodstock they found an an-
cient coin of Florence ; I think, a Florein, anciently common in England.
Chaucer, Pardon. Tale v. 2290.
For that the Floraines been so fair and bright.
Edward the Third, in 1344, altered it from a lower value to 6s. 8d. The
particular piece I have mentioned seems about that value." Warton, Hist. of
Eng. Poetry, v. ii. sect. ii. p. 44. The false accuser.] Potiphar's wife
99-139. HELL, CANTO XXX. (155)

In such a cloud upsteam'd." When that he heard,

One, gall'd perchance to be so darkly named,
With clench'd hand smote him on the braced paunch ,
That like a drum resounded : but forthwith
Adamo smote him on the face, the blow
Returning with his arm, that seem'd as hard.
" Though my o'erweighty limbs have taʼen from me
The power to move," said he, " I have an arm
At liberty for such employ." To whom
Was answer'd : " When thou wentest to the fire,
Thou hadst it not so ready at command,
Then readier when it coin'd the impostor gold."
And thus the dropsied : " Ay, now speak'st thou true :
But there thou gavest not such true testimony,
When thou wast question'd of the truth, at Troy."
" If I spake false, thou falsely stamp'dst the coin,"
Said Sinon ; " I am here for but one fault,
And thou for more than any imp beside ."
" Remember," he replied, " O perjured one !
The horse remember, that did teem with death ;
And all the world be witness to thy guilt."
" To thine," return'd the Greek, " witness the thirst
Whence thy tongue cracks, witness the fluid mound
Rear'd by thy belly up before thine eyes,
A mass corrupt." To whom the coiner thus :
" Thy mouth gapes wide as ever to let pass
Its evil saying. Me if thirst assails,
Yet I am stuft with moisture. Thou art parch'd :
Pains rack thy head : no urging wouldst thou need
To make thee lap Narcissus' mirror up."
I was all fix'd to listen, when my guide
Admonish'd : " Now beware. A little more,
And I do quarrel with thee." I perceived
How angrily he spake, and towards him turn'd
With shame so poignant, as remember'd yet
Confounds me. As a man that dreams of harm
Befallen him, dreaming wishes it a dream,
And that which is, desires as if it were not ;
Such then was I, who, wanting power to speak,
Wish'd to excuse myself, and all the while
Excused me, though unweeting that I did.
(156) THE VISION. 140-145.

" More grievous fault than thine has been, less shame,”
My master cried, " might expiate. Therefore cast
All sorrow from thy soul ; and if again
Chance bring thee where like conference is held,
Think I am ever at thy side. To hear
Such wrangling is a joy for vulgar minds."

CANTO XXXI.

ARGUMENT.
The poets, following the sound of a loud horn, are led by it to the ninth
circle, in which there are four rounds, one enclosed within the other, and
containing as many sorts of Traitors ; but the present Canto shows only
that the circle is encompassed with Giants, one of whom, Antæus, takes
them both in his arms and places them at the bottom of the circle.
THE very tongue¹ , whose keen reproof before
Had wounded me, that either cheek was stain'd,
Now minister'd my cure. So have I heard,
Achilles ' and his father's javelin caused
Pain first, and then the boon of health restored.
Turning our back upon the vale of woe,
We cross'd the encircled mound in silence. There
Was less than day and less than night, that far
Mine eye advanced not : but I heard a horn
Sounded so loud, the peal it rang had made
The thunder feeble. Following its course
The adverse way, my strained eyes were bent

1 The very tongue.]

Vulnus in Herculeo quæ quondam fecerat hoste
Vulneris auxilium Pelias hasta fuit. Ovid, Rem. Amor. 47.
The same allusion was made by Bernard de Ventadour, a Provençal poet
in the middle of the twelfth century ; and Millot observes, that "it was a
singular instance of erudition in a Troubadour." But it is not impossible,
as Warton remarks, (Hist. of Engl. Poetry, vol. ii. sect. x. p. 215) but that
he might have been indebted for it to some of the early romances. In
Chaucer's Squier's Tale, a sword of similar quality is introduced :
And other folk have wondred on the sweard,
That could so piercen through every thing ;
And fell in speech of Telephus the king,
And of Achilles for his queint spere,
For he couth with it both heale and derc.
So Shakspeare, Henry VI. P. II. act v. sc. 1 .
Whose smile and frown like to Achilles' spear
Is able with the change to kill and cure.
13-45. HELL , CANTO XXXI . (157)
On that one spot. So terrible a blast
Orlando¹ blew not, when that dismal rout
O'erthrew the host of Charlemain, and quench'd
His saintly warfare. Thitherward not long
My head was raised, when many a lofty tower
Methought I spied. " Master," said I, " what land
Is this ?" He answer'd straight : " Too long a space
Of intervening darkness has thine eye
To traverse thou hast therefore widely err'd
In thy imagining. Thither arrived
Thou well shalt see, how distance can delude
The sense. A little therefore urge thee on.”
Then tenderly he caught me by the hand;
"Yet know," said he, " ere further we advance,
That it less strange may seem, these are not towers,
But giants. In the pit they stand immersed,
Each from his navel downward, round the bank.”
As when a fog disperseth gradually,
Our vision traces what the mist involves
Condensed in air ; so piercing through the gross
And gloomy atmosphere, as more and more
We near'd toward the brink, mine error fled
And fear came o'er me. As with circling round
Of turrets, Montereggion² crowns his walls ;
E'en thus the shore, encompassing the abyss ,
Was turreted with giants³, half their length
Uprearing, horrible, whom Jove from heaven
Yet threatens, when his muttering thunder rolls.
Of one already I descried the face,
Shoulders, and breast, and of the belly huge
Great part, and both arms down along his ribs.
All-teeming Nature, when her plastic hand
Left framing of these monsters, did display
1 Orlando.] When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
At Fontarabia. Milton, P. L. b. i. 586.
See Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. i. sect. iii. p. 132. " This is the
horn which Orlando won from the giant Jatmund, and which, as Turpin
and the Islandic bards report, was endued with magical power, and might
be heard at the distance of twenty miles." Charlemain and Orlando are
introduced in the Paradise, Canto xviii. 2 Montereggion. ] A castle near
Sienna. 3 Giants.] The giants round the pit, it is remarked by Warton,
are in the Arabian vein of fabling. See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orientale. V
Rocail. p. 717. a.
(158) THE VISION. 46-76.

Past doubt her wisdom, taking from mad War

Such slaves to do his bidding ; and if she
Repent her not of the elephant and whale,
Who ponders well confesses her therein
Wiser and more discreet ; for when brute force
And evil will are back'd with subtlety,
Resistance none avails. His visage seem'd
In length and bulk, as doth the pine¹ that tops
Saint Peter's Roman fane ; and the other bones
Of like proportion, so that from above
The bank, which girdled him below, such height
Arose his stature, that three Friezelanders
Had striven in vain to reach but to his hair.
Full thirty ample palms was he exposed
Downward from whence a man his garment loops.
“ Raphel® bai ameth , sabi alm :
So shouted his fierce lips, which sweeter hymns
Became not ; and my guide address'd him thus :
" O senseless spirit ! let thy horn for thee
Interpret therewith vent thy rage, if rage
Or other passion wring thee. Search thy neck,
There shalt thou find the belt that binds it on.
Spirit confused³ ! lo, on thy mighty breast
Where hangs the baldrick !" Then to me he spake :
" He doth accuse himself. Nimrod is this,
Through whose ill counsel in the world no more
One tongue prevails. But pass we on, nor waste
Our words ; for so each language is to him,
As his to others, understood by none."
Then to the leftward turning sped we forth,
And at a sling's throw found another shade

The pine.] " The large pine of bronze, which once ornamented the top
of the mole of Adrian, was afterwards employed to decorate the top of the
belfry of St. Peter ; and having (according to Buti) been thrown down by
lightning, it was, after lying some time on the steps of this palace, transfer-
red to the place where it now is, in the Pope's garden, by the side of the
great corridore of Belvedere. In the time of our poet, the pine was then
either on the belfry or on the steps of St. Peter." Lombardi. 2 Raphel,
& c.] These unmeaning sounds, it is supposed, are meant to express the
Confusion of languages at the building of the tower of Babel. 3 Spirit
confused.] I had before translated " Wild spirit ! " and have altered "it at
the suggestion of Mr. Darley, who well observes, that " anima confusa' 18
peculiarly appropriate to Nimrod, the author of the confusion at Babel.
77-114. HELL, CANTO XXXI. (159)

Far fiercer and more huge. I cannot say

What master hand had girt him ; but he held
Behind the right arm fetter'd, and before,
The other, with a chain, that fasten'd him
From the neck down ; and five times round his form
Apparent met the wreathed links. " This proud one
Would of his strength against almighty Jove
Make trial," said my guide : " whence he is thus
Requited : Ephialtes him they call.
Great was his prowess, when the giants brought
Fear on the gods : those arms, which then he plied,
Now moves he never." Forthwith I return'd :
" Fain would I, if ' t were possible, mine eyes,
Of Briareus immeasurable, gain'd
Experience next." He answer'd : " Thou shait see
Not far from hence Antæus, who both speaks
And is unfetter'd, who shall place us there
Where guilt is at its depth. Far onward stands
Whom thou wouldst fain behold, in chains, and made
Like to this spirit, save that in his looks
More fell he seems ." By violent earthquake rock'd
Ne'er shook a tower, so reeling to its base,
As Ephialtes . More than ever then
I dreaded death ; nor than the terror more
Had needed, if I had not seen the cords
That held him fast. We, straightway journeying on,
Came to Antæus, who, five ells complete
Without the head, forth issued from the cave.
" O thou, who in the fortunate vale¹ , that made
Great Scipio heir of glory, when his sword
Drove back the troop of Hannibal in flight,
Who thence of old didst carry for thy spoil
An hundred lions ; and if thou hadst fought
In the high conflict on thy brethren's side,
Seems as men yet believed, that through thine arm
The sons of earth had conquer'd ; now vouchsafe
To place us down beneath, where numbing cold
Locks up Cocytus . Force not that we crave

The fortunate vale.] The country near Carthage. Sce Liv. Hist. 1.
KXX. and Lucan, Phars. 1. iv. 590, &c. Dante has kept the latter of these
writers in his eye throughout all this passage.
(160) THE VISION. 115-136 .

Or Tityus' help or Typhon's. Here is one

Can give what in this realm ye covet. Stoop
Therefore, nor scornfully distort thy lip.
He in the upper world can yet bestow
Renown on thee ; for he doth live, and looks
For life yet longer, if before the time
Grace call him not unto herself." Thus spake
The teacher. He in haste forth stretch'd his hands
And caught my guide. Alcides¹ whilom felt
That grapple, straiten'd sore. Soon as my guide
Had felt it, he bespake me thus : " This way,
That I may clasp thee ;" then so caught me up,
That we were both one burden. As appears
The tower of Carisenda2, from beneath
Where it doth lean, if chance a passing cloud
So sail across, that opposite it hangs ;
Such then Antæus seem'd, as at mine ease
I mark'd him stooping. I were fain at times
To have past another way. Yet in the abyss,
That Lucifer with Judas low ingulfs,
Lightly he placed us ; nor, there leaning, stay'd ;
But rose, as in a bark the stately mast.

CANTO XXXII.

ARGUMENT.
This Canto treats of the first, and, in part, of the second of those rounds,
into which the ninth and last, or frozen circle, is divided. In the former,
called Caïna, Dante finds Camiccione de' Pazzi, who gives him ' an account
of other sinners who are there punished ; and in the next, named Ante-
nora, he hears in like manner from Bocca degli Abbati who his fellow-
sufferers are.
COULD I command rough rhymes and hoarse, to suit
That hole of sorrow o'er which every rock
1 Alcides.] The combat between Hercules and Antæus is adduced by
the poet in his treatise " De Monarchia," lib. ii. as a proof of the judgment
of God displayed in the duel, according to the singular superstition of those
times. " Certamine vero dupliciter Dei judicium aperitur vel ex collisione
virium, sicut fit per duellum pugilum, qui duelliones etiam vocantur ; vel ex
contentione plurium ad aliquod signum prævalere conantium, sicut fit per
pugnam athletarum currentium ad bravium. Primus istorum modorum
apud gentiles figuratus fuit in illo duello Herculis et Antæi, cujus Lucanus
meminit in quarto Pharsaliæ, et Ovidius in nono de rerum transmutatione.'
The tower of Carisenda.] The leaning tower at Bologna.
3-29. HELL, CANTO XXXII. (161)

His firm abutment rears, then might the vein

Of fancy rise full springing : but not mine
Such measures, and with faltering awe I touch
The mighty theme ; for to describe the depth
Of all the universe, is no emprize
To jest with, and demands a tongue not used
To infant babbling . But let them assist
My song, the tuneful maidens, by whose aid
Amphion wall'd in Thebes ; so with the truth
My speech shall best accord. Oh ill-starr'd folk,
Beyond all others wretched ! who abide
In such a mansion, as scarce thought finds words
To speak of, better had ye here on earth
Been flocks, or mountain goats. As down we stood
In the dark pit beneath the giants ' feet,
But lower far than they, and I did gaze
Still on the lofty battlement, a voice
Bespake me thus : "Look how thou walkest. Take
Good heed, thy soles do tread not on the heads
Of thy poor brethren ." Thereupon I turn'd,
And saw before and underneath my feet
A lake 2, whose frozen surface liker seem'd
To glass than water. Not so thick a veil
In winter e'er hath Austrian Danube spread
O'er his still course, nor Tanais far remote
Under the chilling sky. Roll'd o'er that mass
Had Tabernich or Pietrapana³ fallen ,
1 A tongue not used
To infant babbling. ] Nè da lingua, che chiami mamma, o babbo.
Dante in his treatise " De Vulg. Eloq . " speaking of words not admissible in
the loftier, or, as he calls it, tragic style of poetry, says " In quorum numero
nec puerilia propter suam simplicitatem ut Mamma et Babbo," lib. 1. c. vii.
2 A lake.] The same torment is introduced into the Edda, compiled in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries. See the " Song of the Sun," translated
by the Rev. James Beresford , London , 1805 ; and compare Warton's Hist.
of Eng. Poetry, v. i. dissert . i. and Gray's Posthumous Works, edited by
Mr. Mathias, v. ii. p. 106. Indeed, as an escape from " the penalty of
Adam, the season's difference," forms one of the most natural topics of con-
solation for the loss of life, so does a renewal of that suffering in its fiercest
extremes of heat and cold bring before the imagination of men in general
(except indeed the terrors of a self- accusing conscience) the liveliest idea of
future punishment. Refer to Shakspeare and Milton in the notes to Canto
ii. 82 ; and see Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, 8vo. 1807, v. i. p. 182.
3 Tabernich or Pietrapana.] The one a mountain in Sclavonia, the
other in that tract of country called the Garfagnana, not far from Lucca
M
(162) THE VISION. 30-60.

Not e'en its rim had creak'd. As peeps the frog

Croaking above the wave, what time in dreams
The village gleaner oft pursues her toil,
So, to where modest shame appears¹ , thus low
Blue pinch'd and shrined in ice the spirits stood,
Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork 2.
His face each downward held ; their mouth the cold,
Their eyes express'd the dolour of their heart.
A space I look'd around, then at my feet
Saw two so strictly join'd, that of their head
The very hairs were mingled. " Tell me ye,
Whose bosoms thus together press," said I,
" Who are ye ?" At that sound their necks they bent ;
And when their looks were lifted up to me,
Straightway their eyes, before all moist within,
Distill'd upon their lips, and the frost bound
The tears betwixt those orbs, and held them there.
Plank unto plank hath never cramp closed up
So stoutly. Whence, like two enraged goats,
They clash'd together : them such fury seized.
And one, from whom the cold both ears had reft,
Exclaim'd, still looking downward : " Why on us
Dost speculate so long ? If thou wouldst know
Who are these two 3, the valley, whence his wave
Bisenzio slopes, did for its master own
Their sire Alberto, and next him themselves.
They from one body issued : and throughout
Caïna thou mayst search, nor find a shade
More worthy in congealment to be fix'd ;
Not him , whose breast and shadow Arthur's hand
At that one blow dissever'd ; not Focaccia 5 ;
To where modest shame appears.] " As high as to the face."
2 Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork. ]
Mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna.
So Boccaccio, G. viii. N. 7. " Lo scolar cattivello quasi cicogna divenuto si
forte batteva i denti." 3 Who are these two.] Alessandro and Napo-
leone, sons of Alberto Alberti, who murdered each other. They were pro-
prietors of the valley of Falterona, where the Bisenzio has its source, a river
that falls into the Arno about six miles from Florence. Not him.]
Mordrec, son of King Arthur. In the romance of Lancelot of the Lake,
Arthur, having discovered the traitorous intentions of his son, pierces him
through with the stroke of his lance, so that the sunbeam passes through
the body of Mordrec; and this disruption of the shadow is no doubt what
our Poet alludes to in the text. Focaccia. ] Focaccia of Cancellieri,
61--$8. HELL, CANTO XXXII. (163)

No, not this spirit, whose o'erjutting head

Obstructs my onward view : he bore the name
Of Mascheroni¹ : Tuscan if thou be,
Well knowest who he was. And to cut short
All further question, in my form behold
What once was Camiccione 2. I await
Carlino³ here my kinsman, whose deep guilt
Shall wash out mine." A thousand visages
Then mark'd I, which the keen and eager cold
Had shaped into a doggish grin ; whence creeps
A shivering horror o'er me, at the thought
Of those frore shallows. While we journey'd on
Toward the middle, at whose point unites
All heavy substance, and I trembling went
Through that eternal chilness, I know not
If will it were, or destiny, or chance,
But, passing ' midst the heads, my foot did strike
With violent blow against the face of one.
"Wherefore dost bruise me ? " weeping he exclaim'd
" Unless thy errand be some fresh revenge
For Montaperto5, wherefore troublest me ?"
I thus : " Instructor, now await me here,
That I through him may rid me of my doubt :
Thenceforth what haste thou wilt." The teacher paused
And to that shade I spake, who bitterly
Still cursed me in his wrath. "What art thou, speak,
That railest thus on others ? " He replied :
" Now who art thou, that smiting others' cheeks ,
(the Pistoian family, ) whose atrocious act of revenge against his uncle is
said to have given rise to the parties of the Bianchi and Neri, in the year
1300. See G. Villani, Hist. lib. viii. c. xxxvii. and Macchiavelli, Hist. lib. ii.
The account of the latter writer differs much from that given by Landino in
his Commentary. 1 Mascheroni. ] Sassol Mascheroni, a Florentine, whc
also murdered his uncle. 2 Camiccione. ] Camiccione de' Pazzi of Val-
darno, by whom his kinsman Ubertino was treacherously put to death.
3 Carlino. ] One of the same family. He betrayed the Castel di Piano Tra-
vigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines, after the refugees of the Bianca and
Ghibelline party had defended it against a siege for twenty-nine days, in the
summer of 1302. See G. Villani, lib. viii. c. lii. and Dino Compagni, lib. ii.
If will. ] Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate.
Milton, P. L. b. i. 133.
5 Montaperto.] The defeat of the Guelfi at Montaperto, occasioned by
the treachery of Bocca degli Abbati, who, during the engagement, cut off
the hand of Giacopo del Vacca de' Pazzi, bearer of the Florentine standard.
G. Villani, lib. vi. c. lxxx. and notes to Canto x. This event happened in 1260
M 2
(164) THE VISION. 89-118.

Through Antenora ' roamest, with such force

As were past sufferance, wert thou living still ? ”
" And I am living, to thy joy perchance,"
Was my reply, " if fame be dear to thee,
That with the rest I may thy name enrol. "
"The contrary of what I covet most,"
Said he, " thou tender'st : hence ! nor vex me more.
Ill knowest thou to flatter in this vale."
Then seizing on his hinder scalp I cried :
"Name thee, or not a hair shall tarry here. "
"Rend all away," he answer'd, " yet for that
I will not tell, nor show thee, who I am,
Though at my head thou pluck a thousand times. "
Now I had grasp'd his tresses, and stript off
More than one tuft, he barking, with his eyes
Drawn in and downward, when another cried,
" What ails thee, Bocca ? Sound not loud enough
Thy chattering teeth, but thou must bark outright ?
What devil wrings thee ?"—" Now," said I, " be dumb,
Accursed traitor ! To thy shame, of thee
True tidings will I bear." "Off !" he replied ;
" Tell what thou list : but, as thou scape from hence,
To speak of him whose tongue hath been so glib,
Forget not here he wails the Frenchman's gold.
'Him of Duera 2,' thou canst say, ' I mark'd,
'Where the starved sinners pine.' If thou be ask'd
What other shade was with them, at thy side
Is Beccaria³, whose red gorge distain'd
The biting axe of Florence. Further on,
If I misdeem not, Soldanieri 4 bides,

¹ Antenora.] " So called from Antenor, who, according to Dictys Cretensis

(de Bello Troj . lib. v.) and Dares Phrygius (De Excidio Troja) betrayed
Troy his country." Lombardi. See note on Purg. Canto v. 75. Antenor
acts this part in Boccaccio's Filostrato, and in Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide.
2 Him of Duera.] Buoso of Cremona, of the family of Duera, who was
bribed by Guy de Montfort, to leave a pass between Piedmont and Parma,
with the defence of which he had been intrusted by the Ghibellines, oper
to the army of Charles of Anjou , A. D. 1265, at which the people of Cre-
mona were so enraged, that they extirpated the whole family. G. Villani,
lib. vii. c. iv. 3 Beccaria.] Abbot of Vallombrosa, who was the Pope's
Legate at Florence, where his intrigues in favour of the Ghibellines being
discovered, he was beheaded. I do not find the occurrence in Villani, noi
do the commentators say to what Pope he was legate. By Landino he is re-
ported to have been from Parma ; by Vellutello, from Pavia. • Soldanieri .
119-136. HELL, CANTO XXXII . (165)

With Ganellon , and Tribaldello 2, him

Who oped Faenza when the people slept."
We now had left him, passing on our way,
When I beheld two spirits by the ice
Pent in one hollow, that the head of one
Was cowl unto the other ; and as bread
Is raven'd up through hunger, the uppermost
Did so apply his fangs to the other's brain,
Where the spine joins it. Not more furiously
On Menalippus' temples Tydeus 3 gnawed,
Than on that skull and on its garbage he.
"O thou ! who show'st so beastly sign of hate
'Gainst him thou prey'st on, let me hear," said I,
" The cause, on such condition, that if right
Warrant thy grievance, knowing who ye are,
And what the colour of his sinning was,
I may repay thee in the world above,
If that, wherewith I speak, be moist so long."

CANTO XXXIII.

ARGUMENT.
The Poet is told by Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi of the cruel manner in
which he and his children were famished in the tower at Pisa, by com-
mand of the Archbishop Ruggieri. He next discourses of the third round,
called Ptolomea, wherein those are punished who have betrayed others
under the semblance of kindness ; and among these he finds the Friar
Alberigo de' Manfredi, who tells him of one whose soul was already tor-
mented in that place, though his body appeared still to be alive upon the
earth, being yielded up to the governance of a fiend.
" Gianni Soldanieri," says Villani, Hist. lib. vii. c. xiv. " put himself at the
head of the people, in the hopes of rising into power, not aware that the re-
sult would be mischief to the Ghibelline party, and his own ruin ; an event
which seems ever to have befallen him who has headed the populace in
Florence."-A. D. 1266. 1 Ganellon.] The betrayer. of Charlemain,
mentioned by Archbishop Turpin. He is a common instance of treachery
with the poets of the middle ages.
Trop son fol e mal pensant,
Pis Valent que Guenelon. Thibaut, Roi de Navarre.
O new Scariot and new Ganilion,
O false dissembler, &c. Chaucer, Nonne's Prieste's Tale.
And in the Monke's Tale, Peter of Spaine.
2 Tribaldello. Tribaldello de' Manfredi, who was bribed to betray the
eity of Faenza, A. D. 1282. G. Villani, lib. vii. c. lxxx. 3 Tydeus ] See
Statius, Theb. lib. viii ad finem.
(166) THE VISION. 1-14.

His jaws uplifting from their fell repast,

That sinner wiped them on the hairs o' the head,
Which he behind had mangled, then began :
66
Thy will obeying, I call up afresh
Sorrow past cure ; which, but to think of, wrings
My heart, or ere I tell on 't. But if words,
That I may utter, shall prove seed to bear
Fruit of eternal infamy to him,
The traitor whom I gnaw at, thou at once
Shalt see me speak and weep. Who thou mayst be
I know not, nor how here below art come :
But Florentine thou seemest of a truth,
When I do hear thee. Know, I was on earth
Count Ugolino ', and the Archbishop he
1 Count Ugolino .] " In the year 1288, in the month of July, Pisa was
much divided by competitors for the sovereignty ; one party, composed of
certain of the Guelfi, being headed by the Judge Nino di Gallura de'
Visconti ; another, consisting of others of the same faction, by the Count
Ugolino de' Gherardeschi ; and a third by the Archbishop Ruggieri degli
Ubaldini, with the Lanfranchi, Sismondi, Gualandi, and other Ghibelline
houses. The Count Ugolino, to effect his purpose, united with the Arch-
bishop and his party, and having betrayed Nino, his sister's son, they con-
trived that he and his followers should either be driven out of Pisa, or their
persons seized. Nino hearing this, and not seeing any means of defending
himself, retired to Calci, his castle, and formed an alliance with the Floren-
tines and people of Lucca, against the Pisans. The Count, before Nino was
gone, in order to cover his treachery, when every thing was settled for his
expulsion, quitted Pisa, and repaired to a manor of his called Settimo ;
whence, as soon as he was informed of Nino's departure, he returned to Pisa
with great rejoicing and festivity, and was elevated to the supreme power
with every demonstration of triumph and honour. But his greatness was
not of long continuance. It pleased the Almighty that, a total reverse of
fortune should ensue, as a punishment for his acts of treachery and guilt ;
for he was said to have poisoned the Count Anselmo da Capraia, his sister's
son, on account of the envy and fear excited in his mind by the high esteem
in which the gracious manners of Anselmo were held by the Pisans.- The
power of the Guelfi being so much diminished, the Archbishop devised
means to betray the Count Ugolino, and caused him to be suddenly attacked
in his palace by the fury of the people, whom he had exasperated, by telling
them that Ugolino had betrayed Pisa, and given up their castles to the
citizens of Florence and of Lucca. He was immediately compelled to sur-
render ; his bastard son and his grandson fell in the assault ; and two of his
sons, with their two sons also, were conveyed to prison." G. Villani, lib.
vii. c. cxx. " In the following March, the Pisans, who had imprisoned the
Count Ugolino, with two of his sons and two of his grandchildren, the off-
spring of his son the Count Guelfo, in a tower on the Piazza of the Anziani,
caused the tower to be locked, the key thrown into the Arno, and all food to
be withheld from them. In a few days they died of hunger ; but the Count
first with loud cries declared his penitence, and yet neither priest nor friar
was allowed to shrive him. All the five, when dead, were dragged out of
15-45. HELL, CANTO XXXIII. (167)

Ruggieri. Why I neighbour him so close,

Now list. That through effect of his ill thoughts
In him my trust reposing, I was ta'en
And after murder'd, need is not I tell.
What therefore thou canst not have heard, that is,
How cruel was the murder, shalt thou hear,
And know if he have wrong'd me. A small grate
Within that mew, which for my sake the name
Of famine bears, where others yet must pine,
Already through its opening several moons 1
Had shown me, when I slept the evil sleep
That from the future tore the curtain off.
This one, methought, as master of the sport,
Rode forth to chase the gaunt wolf, and his whelps,
Unto the mountain 2 which forbids the sight
Of Lucca to the Pisan. With lean brachs
Inquisitive and keen , before him ranged
Lanfranchi with Sismondi and Gualandi.
After short course the father and the sons
Seem'd tired and lagging, and methought I saw
The sharp tusks gore their sides . When I awoke,
Before the dawn, amid their sleep I heard
My sons (for they were with me) weep and ask
For bread. Right cruel art thou, if no pang
Thou feel at thinking what my heart foretold ;
And if not now, why use thy tears to flow ?
Now had they waken'd ; and the hour drew near
When they were wont to bring us food ; the mind
Of each misgave him through his dream, and I
Heard, at its outlet underneath lock'd up
The horrible tower : whence, uttering not a word,
the prison, and meanly interred ; and from thenceforward the tower was
called the tower of famine, and so shall ever be." Ibid. c. cxxvii. Troya
asserts that Dante, for the sake of poetical effect, has much misrepresented
the real facts . See his Veltro Allegorico di Dante. Ed. 1826, p. 28, 9. This
would render a conjecture, which the same writer elsewhere hazards, still
more improbable ; that the story might have been written by Dante when the
facts were yet recent, and afterwards introduced into his poem. Ibid. p. 96.
Chaucer has briefly told Ugolino's story. See Monke's Tale, Hugeline of Pise.
1 Several moons.] Many editions, and the greater part of the MSS. in-
stead of "più lune," read " più lume ;" according to which reading Ugolino
would say, that the day had broke, and shone through the grated window of
the prison, before he fell asleep. 2 Unto the mountain.] The mountain
S. Giuliano between Pisa and Lucca.
(168) THE VISION. 46-77.

I look'd upon the visage of my sons.

I wept not so all stone I felt within ' .
They wept and one, my little Anselm, cried,
'Thou lookest so ! Father, what ails thee ? ' Yet
I shed no tear, nor answer'd all that day
Nor the next night, until another sun
Came out upon the world. When a faint beam
Had to our doleful prison made its way,
And in four countenances I descried
The image of my own, on either hand
Through agony I bit ; and they, who thought
I did it through desire of feeding, rose
O'the sudden, and cried, Father, we should grieve
' Far less, if thou wouldst eat of us : thou gavest
'These weeds of miserable flesh we wear ;
' And do thou strip them off from us again.'
Then, not to make them sadder, I kept down
My spirit in stillness. That day and the next
We all were silent. Ah, obdurate earth !
Why open'dst not upon us ? When we came
To the fourth day, then Gaddo at my feet
Outstretch'd did fling him, crying, ' Hast no help
' For me, my father !' There he died ; and e'en
Plainly as thou seest me, saw I the three
Fall one by one 'twixt the fifth day and sixth :
Whence I betook me, now grown blind, to grope
Over them all, and for three days aloud
Call'd on them who were dead. Then, fasting got
The mastery of grief." Thus having spoke,
Once more upon the wretched skull his teeth
He fasten'd like a mastiff's 'gainst the bone,
Firm and unyielding. Oh, thou Pisa ! shame

1 All stone Ifelt within.] "6 My heart is turn'd to stone ; I strike it, and
it hurts my hand." Shakspeare, Othello, act iv. sc. 1.
Thou gavest. ] Tu ne vestisti
Queste misere carni, e tu le spoglia.
Imitated by Filicaja, Canz. iii.
Di questa Imperial caduca spoglia
Tu, Signor, me vestisti e tu mi spoglia :
Ben puoi ' l Regno me tor tu che me 'l desti.
And by Maffei in the Merope :
Tu disciogleste
Queste misere membra e tu le annodi.
78-110. HELL, CANTO XXXIII. (169)

Of all the people, who their dwelling make

In that fair region ' , where the Italian voice
Is heard ; since that thy neighbours are so slack
To punish, from their deep foundations rise
Capraia and Gorgona2, and dam up
The mouth of Arno ; that each soul in thee
May perish in the waters. What if fame
Reported that thy castles were betray'd
By Ugolino, yet no right hadst thou
To stretch his children on the rack. For them,
Brigata, Uguccione, and the pair
Of gentle ones, of whom my song hath told,
Their tender years, thou modern Thebes, did make
Uncapable of guilt. Onward we pass'd,
Where others, skarf'd in rugged folds of ice,
Not on their feet were turn'd, but each reversed .
There, very weeping suffers not to weep³ ;
For, at their eyes, grief, seeking passage, finds
Impediment, and rolling inward turns.
For increase of sharp anguish : the first tears
Hang cluster'd, and like crystal vizors show,
Under the socket brimming all the cup.
Now though the cold had from my face dislodged
Each feeling, as ' t were callous, yet me seem'd
Some breath of wind I felt. "Whence cometh this,"
Said I, " my Master ? Is not here below
All vapour quench'd ? "—" Thou shalt be speedily,"
He answer'd, " where thine eyes shall tell thee whence,
The cause descrying of this airy shower."
Then cried out one, in the chill crust who mourn'd :
" O souls ! so cruel, that the farthest post
Hath been assign'd you, from this face remove
The harden'd veil ; that I may vent the grief
1 In that fair region. ] Del bel paese là, dove ' l sì suona.
Italy, as explained by Dante himself, in his treatise De Vulg. Eloq. lib. i.
cap. 8. " Qui autem Si dicunt a prædictis finibus (Januensium) Orientalem
(Meridionalis Europæ partem) tenent ; videlicet usque ad promontorium
illud Italiæ, qua sinus Adriatici maris incipit et Siciliam ."
2 Capraia and Gorgona. ] Small islands near the mouth of the Arno.
There, very weeping suffers not to weep. ]
Lo pianto stesso lì pianger non lascia.
50 Giusto de' Conti, Bella Mano. Son. " Quanto il ciel."
Che il troppo pianto a me pianger non lassa.
(170) THE VISION. 111-134.

Impregnate at my heart, some little space,

Ere it congeal again." I thus replied :
" Say who thou wast, if thou wouldst have mine aid ;
And if I extricate thee not, far down
As to the lowest ice may I descend ."
" The friar Alberigo¹ ," answer'd he,
" Am I, who from the evil garden pluck'd
Its fruitage, and am here repaid, the date2
More luscious for my fig."- " Hah ! " I exclaim'd,
"Art thou too dead ? "—" How in the world aloft
It fareth with my body," answer'd he,
"I am right ignorant. Such privilege
Hath Ptolomea³, that oft-times the soul 4
Drops hither, ere by Atropos divorced.
And that thou mayst wipe out more willingly
The glazed tear-drops that o'erlay mine eyes,
Know that the soul, that moment she betrays,
As I did, yields her body to a fiend
Who after moves and governs it at will,
Till all its time be rounded : headlong she
Falls to this cistern. And perchance above
Doth yet appear the body of a ghost,
Who here behind me winters. Him thou know'st,
If thou but newly art arrived below.

The friar Alberigo.] Alberigo de' Manfredi of Faenza, one ofthe Frati
Godenti, Joyous Friars, who having quarreled with some of his brotherhood,
under pretence of wishing to be reconciled, invited them to a banquet, at
the conclusion of which he called for the fruit, a signal for the assassins to
rush in and dispatch those whom he had marked for destruction. Hence,
adds Landino, it is said proverbially of one who has been stabbed, that he
has had some of the friar Alberigo's fruit. Thus Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xxv.
Le frutte amare di frate Alberico.
2 The date.] Come Dio rende dataro per fico.
Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. iv. cap. xix.
3 Ptolomea.] This circle is named Ptolomea from Ptolemy the son of
Abubus, by whom Simon and his sons were murdered, at a great banquet
he had made for them. See 1 Maccabees, ch. xvi. Or from Ptolemy, king
of Egypt, the betrayer of Pompey the Great. The soul.] Chaucer
seems to allude to this in the Frere's Tale, where a fiend assumes the person
of a yeoman, and tells the Sompnour that he shall one day come to a place
where he shall understand the mystery of such possessions,
Bet than Virgile, while he was on live,
Or Dant also.
See Mr. Southey's Tale of Donica.
The glazed tear-drops.] sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears.
Shakspeare, Rich. II. act ii. sc. 2.
135-155. HELL, CANTO XXXIII. (171)

The years are many that have past away,

Since to this fastness Branca Doria¹ came."
" Now," answer'd I, " methinks thou mockest me ;
For Branca Doria never yet hath died,
But doth all natural functions of a man,
Eats, drinks, and sleeps 2, and putteth raiment on."
He thus : Not yet unto that upper foss
By th' evil talons guarded, where the pitch
Tenacious boils, had Michel Zanche reach'd,
When this one left a demon in his stead
In his own body, and of one his kin ,
Who with him treachery wrought. ‫دو‬ But now put forth
Thy hand, and ope mine eyes.' I oped them not.
Ill manners were best courtesy to him.
Ah Genoese ! men perverse in every way,
With every foulness stain'd, why from the earth
Are ye not cancel'd ? Such an one of yours
I with Romagna's darkest spirit³ found,
As, for his doings, even now in soul
Is in Cocytus plunged, and yet doth seem
In body still alive upon the earth .

CANTO XXXIV.

ARGUMENT.
In the fourth and last round of the ninth circle, those who have betrayed
their benefactors are wholly covered with ice. And in the midst is Lu-
cifer, at whose back Dante and Virgil ascend, till by a secret path they
reach the surface of the other hemisphere of the earth, and once more ob-
tain sight of the stars.
" THE banners of Hell's Monarch do come forth
Toward us ; therefore look, " so spake my guide,

¹Branca Doria.] The family of Doria was possessed of great influence

in Genoa. Branca is said to have murdered his father-in-law, Michel Zanche,
introduced in Canto xxii.
2 Eats, drinks, and sleeps . ] But ' tis a spirit.
Pro. No, wench, it eats and sleeps, and hath such senses
As we have, such. Shakspeare, Tempest, act i. sc. 2.
3 Romagna's darkest spirit.] The friar Alberigo.
4 The banners .] Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni.
A parody of the first verse in a hymn that was sung by the church in praisa
of the cross.
(172) THE VISION. 3-32.

" If thou discern him." As, when breathes a cloud

Heavy and dense, or when the shades of night
Fall on our hemisphere, seems view'd from far
A windmill ' , which the blast stirs briskly round ;
Such was the fabric then methought I saw.
To shield me from the wind, forthwith I drew
Behind my guide : no covert else was there.
Now came I (and with fear I bid my strain
Record the marvel) where the souls were all
Whelm'd underneath, transparent, as through glass
Pellucid the frail stem. Some prone were laid ;
Others stood upright, this upon the soles,
That on his head, a third with face to feet
Arch'd like a bow. When to the point we came,
Whereat my guide was pleased that I should see
The creature eminent in beauty once,
He from before me stepp'd and made me pause.
" Lo ! " he exclaim'd, " lo Dis ; and lo the place,
Where thou hast need to arm thy heart with strength."
How frozen and how faint I then became,
Ask me not, reader ! for I write it not ;
Since words would fail to tell thee of my state.
I was not dead nor living2. Think thyself,
If quick conception work in thee at all,
How I did feel. That emperor, who sways
The realm of sorrow, at mid breast from the ice
Stood forth ; and I in stature am more like
A giant³, than the giants are his arms.
Mark now how great that whole must be, which suits
With such a part. If he were beautiful
A windmill.] The author of the Caliph Vathek, in the notes to that
tale, justly observes that it is more than probable that Don Quixote's mis
take of the windmills for giants was suggested to Cervantes by this simile.
2 I was not dead nor living. ]
οὔτ᾽ ἐν τοῖς φθιμένοις,
οὔτ᾽ ἐν ζῶσιν ἀριθμουμένη.
Euripides, Supplices, v. 979. Markland's edit.
tum ibi me nescio quis arripit
Timidam atque pavidam, nec • vivam nec mortuam.
Plautus, Curculio, act v. sc. 2 ·
A giant. ] Nel primo clima sta come signore
Colli giganti ; ed un delle sue braccie
Più che nullo di loro è assai maggiore.
Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. i.
33-46. HELL, CANTO XXXIV. (173)

As he is hideous now, and yet did dare

To scowl upon his Maker, well from him
May all our misery flow. Oh what a sight !
How passing strange it seem'd, when I did spy
Upon his head three faces ' : one in front
Of hue vermilion, the other two with this
Midway each shoulder join'd and at the crest ;
The right 'twixt wan and yellow seem'd ; the left
To look on, such as come from whence old Nile
Stoops to the lowlands. Under each shot forth
Two mighty wings, enormous as became
A bird so vast. Sails 2 never such I saw
Outstretch'd on the wide sea. No plumes had they,
But were in texture like a bat³ ; and these
Three faces. ] It can scarcely be doubted, but that Milton derived his
description of Satan, in those lines-
-Each passion dimm'd his face
Thrice changed with pale ire, envy, and despair. P. L. b. iv. 144.
from this passage, coupled with the remark of Vellutello upon it : " The
first of these sins is anger, which he signifies by the red face ; the second, re-
presented by that between pale and yellow, is envy, and not, as others have
said, avarice ; and the third, denoted by the black, is a melancholy humour
that causes a man's thoughts to be dark and evil, and averse from all joy and
tranquillity." Lombardi would understand the three faces to signify the
three parts of the world then known, in all of which Lucifer had his sub-
ects : the red denoting the Europeans, who were in the middle ; the yellow,
the Asiatics, on the right ; and the black, the Africans, who were on the left ;
according to the position of the faces themselves.
Sails. ] Argo non ebbe mai si grande vela,
Ne altra nave, come l'ali sue ;
Ne mai tessuta fù si grande tela.
Frezzi, Il Quadrir. lib. ii. cap. xix.
His sail-broad vans
He spreads for flight. Milton, P. L. b. ii. 927.
Compare Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. xi. st. 10 ; Ben Jonson's Every Man out
of his Humour, v. 7; and Fletcher's Prophetess, act 2. scene 3. In his de-
scription of Satan, Frezzi has departed not less from Dante than our own
poet has done ; for he has painted him on a high throne, with a benignant
and glad countenance, yet full of majesty, a triple crown on his head, six
shining wings on his shoulders, and a court thronged with giants, centaurs,
and mighty captains, besides youths and damsels, who are disporting in the
neighbouring meadows with song and dance ; but no sooner does Minerva,
who is the author's conductress , present her crystal shield, than all this tri-
umph and jollity is seen through it transformed into loathsomeness and hor-
ror. There are many touches in this picture that will remind the reader of
Milton. 3 Like a bat.] The description of an imaginary being, who is
called Typhurgo, in the Zodiacus Vitæ, has something very like this of
Dante's Lucifer.
Ingentem vidi regem, ingentique sedentem
In solio, crines flammanti stemmate cinctum,
(174) THE VISION. 47-63.

He flapp'd i' th' air, that from him issued still

Three winds, wherewith Cocytus to its depth
Was frozen . At six eyes he wept : the tears
Adown three chins distill'd with bloody foam.
At every mouth his teeth a sinner champ'd,
Bruised as with ponderous engine ; so that three
Were in this guise tormented. But far more
Than from that gnawing, was the foremost pang'd
By the fierce rending, whence oft-times the back
Was stript of all its skin. " That upper spirit,
Who hath worst punishment," so spake my guide,
“ Is Judas, he that hath his head within
And plies the feet without. Of th' other two,
Whose heads are under, from the murky jaw
Who hangs, is Brutus¹ : lo ! how he doth writhe
And speaks not. The other, Cassius, that appears
So large of limb. But night now re-ascends ;
utrinque patentes
Alæ humeris magnæ, quales vespertilionum
Membranis contextæ amplis-
Nudus erat longis sed opertus corpora villis.
M. Palingenii, Zod. Vit. lib. ix.
A mighty king I might discerne,
Placed high on lofty chaire,
His haire with fyry garland deckt
Puft up in fiendish wise.
•·
Large wings on him did grow
Framde like the wings of flinder mice, &c. Googe's Translation.
Brutus.] Landino struggles, but I fear in vain, to extricate Brutus
from the unworthy lot which is here assigned him. He maintains, that by
Brutus and Cassius are not meant the individuals known by those names,
but any who put a lawful monarch to death. Yet if Cæsar was such, the
conspirators might be regarded as deserving of their doom. " O uomini
eccellenti ! " exclaims the commentator, with a spirit becoming one who felt
that he lived in a free state, " ed al tutto degni a quali Roma fosse patria, e
de' quali resterà sempre eterna memoria ; legginsi tutte le leggi di qualun
que republica bene instituta, e troveremo che a nessuno si propose maggior
premio che a chi uccide il tiranno." Cowley, as conspicuous for his loyalty
as for his genius, in an ode inscribed with the name of this patriot, which,
though not free from the usual faults of the poet, is yet a noble one, has
placed his character in the right point of view-
Excellent Brutus! of all human race
The best, till nature was improved by grace.
If Dante, however, believed Brutus to have been actuated by evil motives
in putting Cæsar to death, the excellence of the patriot's character in other
respects would only have aggravated his guilt in that particular. " Totius
autem injustitiæ nulla capitalior est quam eorum, qui cum maxime fallunt
id agunt, ut viri boni esse videantur.' Cic. de Off. lib. i. cap xiii,
64-101. HELL, CANTO XXXIV. (175)

And it is time for parting. All is seen ."

I clipp'd him round the neck ; for so he bade :
And noting time and place, he, when the wings
Enough were oped, caught fast the shaggy sides,
And down from pile to pile descending stepp'd
Between the thick fell and the jagged ice.
Soon as he reach'd the point, whereat the thigh
Upon the swelling of the haunches turns,
My leader there, with pain and struggling hard,
Turn'd round his head where his feet stood before,
And grappled at the fell as one who mounts ;
That into hell methought we turn'd again.
" Expect that by such stairs as these," thus spake
The teacher, panting like a man forespent,
"We must depart from evil so extreme :"
Then at a rocky opening issued forth,
And placed me on the brink to sit, next join'd
With wary step my side. I raised mine eyes,
Believing that I Lucifer should see
Where he was lately left, but saw him now
With legs held upward. Let the grosser sort,
Who see not what the point was I had past,
Bethink them if sore toil oppress'd me then.
" Arise," my master cried, " upon thy feet.
The way is long, and much uncouth the road ;
And now within one hour and half of noon¹
The sun returns ." It was no palace -hall
Lofty and luminous wherein we stood,
But natural dungeon where ill- footing was
And scant supply of light. " Ere from the abyss
I separate," thus when risen I began :
66
' My guide ! vouchsafe few words to set me free
From error's thraldom. Where is now the ice ?
How standeth he in posture thus reversed ?
And how from eve to morn in space so brief
Hath the sun made his transit ? " He in few
Thus answering spake : " Thou deemest thou art still
On the other side the centre, where I grasp'd
1 Within one hour and halfofnoon . ] The Poet uses the Hebrew manner
of computing the day, according to which the third hour answers to our
twelve o'clock at noon.
(176) THE VISION. 102-133.

The abhorred worm that boreth through the world.

Thou wast on the other side, so long as I
Descended ; when I turn'd, thou didst o'erpass
That point ' , to which from every part is dragg'd
All heavy substance. Thou art now arrived
Under the hemisphere opposed to that,
Which the great continent doth overspread,
And underneath whose canopy expired
The Man, that was born sinless and so lived.
Thy feet are planted on the smallest sphere,
Whose other aspect is Judecca. Morn
Here rises, when there evening sets : and he,
Whose shaggy pile we scaled, yet standeth fix'd,
As at the first. On this part he fell down
From heaven ; and th' earth, here prominent before,
Through fear of him did veil her with the sea,
And to our hemisphere retired. Perchance,
To shun him, was the vacant space left here,
By what of firm land on this side appears²,
That sprang aloof. " There is a place beneath,
From Belzebub as distant, as extends
The vaulted tomb 3 ; discover'd not by sight,
But by the sound of brooklet, that descends
This way along the hollow of a rock,
Which, as it winds with no precipitous course,
The wave hath eaten. By that hidden way
My guide and I did enter, to return
To the fair world : and heedless of repose
We climb'd, he first, I following his steps,
Till on our view the beautiful lights of heaven
Dawn'd through a circular opening in the cave :
Thence issuing we again beheld the stars.

That point. ] Monti observes, that if this passage had chanced to mee
the eye of Newton, it might better have awakened his thought to conceive
the system of attraction, than the accidental falling of an apple. Proposta
v. iii. pte 2. p. lxxviii. 8°. 1824. 2 By what of firm land on this side ap"
pears. The mountain of Purgatory. 3 The vaulted tomb. ] " La tomba
This word is used to express the whole depth of the infernal region.
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