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diff --git a/41537-0.txt b/41537-0.txt index 52a3ca0..4bf668e 100644 --- a/41537-0.txt +++ b/41537-0.txt @@ -1,33 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri - The Inferno - -Author: Dante Alighieri - -Translator: James Romanes Sibbald - -Release Date: December 2, 2012 [eBook 41537] -[Most recently updated: July 16, 2022] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: David Starner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVINE COMEDY — THE INFERNO *** - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41537 *** THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI @@ -14213,354 +14184,4 @@ Edinburgh University Press: T. AND A. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri - The Inferno - -Author: Dante Alighieri - -Translator: James Romanes Sibbald - -Release Date: December 2, 2012 [EBook #41537] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIVINE COMEDY - THE INFERNO *** - - - - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - - -THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - THE - DIVINE - COMEDY - OF - DANTE - ALIGHIERI - - - A TRANSLATION - - BY - JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD - - - EDINBURGH - PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS - MDCCCLXXXIV - - - _All Rights Reserved._ - - - - - Edinburgh University Press: - - T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY. - - - - - THE - INFERNO - - - A TRANSLATION - WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY - JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD - - - EDINBURGH - PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS - MDCCCLXXXIV - - - - -PREFACE. - - -A Translator who has never felt his self-imposed task to be a light one -may be excused from entering into explanations that would but too -naturally take the form of apologies. I will only say that while I have -striven to be as faithful as I could to the words as well as to the -sense of my author, the following translation is not offered as being -always closely literal. The kind of verse employed I believe to be that -best fitted to give some idea, however faint, of the rigidly measured -and yet easy strength of Dante's _terza rima_; but whoever chooses to -adopt it with its constantly recurring demand for rhymes necessarily -becomes in some degree its servant. Such students as wish to follow the -poet word by word will always find what they need in Dr. J. A. Carlyle's -excellent prose version of the _Inferno_, a work to which I have to -acknowledge my own indebtedness at many points. - -The matter of the notes, it is needless to say, has been in very great -part found ready to my hand in existing Commentaries. My edition of John -Villani is that of Florence, 1823. - -The Note at page cx was printed before it had been resolved to provide -the volume with a copy of Giotto's portrait of Dante. I have to thank -the Council of the Arundel Society for their kind permission to Messrs. -Dawson to make use of their lithograph of Mr. Seymour Kirkup's -invaluable sketch in the production of the Frontispiece--a privilege -that would have been taken more advantage of had it not been deemed -advisable to work chiefly from the photograph of the same sketch, given -in the third volume of the late Lord Vernon's sumptuous and rare edition -of the _Inferno_ (Florence, 1865). In this Vernon photograph, as well as -in the Arundel Society's chromolithograph, the disfiguring mark on the -face caused by the damage to the plaster of the fresco is faithfully -reproduced. A less degree of fidelity has been observed in the -Frontispiece; although the restoration has not been carried the length -of replacing the lost eye. - -EDINBURGH, _February_, 1884. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - FLORENCE AND DANTE, xvii - - GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE, cx - -The Inferno. - - CANTO I. - - The Slumber--the Wood--the Hill--the three Beasts--Virgil--the - Veltro or Greyhound, 1 - - CANTO II. - - Dante's misgivings--Virgil's account of how he was induced to - come to his help--the three Heavenly Ladies--the beginning of - the Journey, 9 - - CANTO III. - - The Gate of Inferno--the Vestibule of the Caitiffs--the Great - Refusal--Acheron--Charon--the Earthquake--the Slumber of Dante, 17 - - CANTO IV. - - The First Circle, which is the Limbo of the Unbaptized and of - the Virtuous Heathen--the Great Poets--the Noble Castle--the - Sages and Worthies of the ancient world, 24 - - CANTO V. - - The Second Circle, which is that of Carnal Sinners--Minos--the - Tempest--The Troop of those who died because of their Love-- - Francesca da Rimini--Dante's Swoon, 32 - - CANTO VI. - - The Third Circle, which is that of the Gluttonous--the Hail and - Rain and Snow--Cerberus--Ciacco and his Prophecy, 40 - - CANTO VII. - - The Fourth Circle, which is that of the Avaricious and the - Thriftless--Plutus--the Great Weights rolled by the sinners in - opposite directions--Fortune--the Fifth Circle, which is that - of the Wrathful--Styx--the Lofty Tower, 47 - - CANTO VIII. - - The Fifth Circle continued--the Signals--Phlegyas--the Skiff-- - Philip Argenti--the City of Dis--the Fallen Angels--the Rebuff - of Virgil, 55 - - CANTO IX. - - The City of Dis, which is the Sixth Circle and that of the - Heretics--the Furies and the Medusa head--the Messenger of Heaven - who opens the gates for Virgil and Dante--the entrance to the - City--the red-hot Tombs, 62 - - CANTO X. - - The Sixth Circle continued--Farinata degli Uberti--Cavalcante dei - Cavalcanti--Farinata's prophecy--Frederick II., 69 - - CANTO XI. - - The Sixth Circle continued--Pope Anastasius--Virgil explains on - what principle sinners are classified in Inferno--Usury, 77 - - CANTO XII. - - The Seventh Circle, First Division--the Minotaur--the River - of Blood, which forms the Outer Ring of the Seventh Circle-- - in it are those guilty of Violence against others--the - Centaurs--Tyrants--Robbers and Murderers--Ezzelino Romano-- - Guy of Montfort--the Passage of the River of Blood, 84 - - CANTO XIII. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Second Division consisting - of a Tangled Wood in which are those guilty of Violence against - themselves--the Harpies--Pier delle Vigne--Lano--Jacopo da Sant' - Andrea--Florence and its Patrons, 91 - - CANTO XIV. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Third Division of it, consisting - of a Waste of Sand on which descends an unceasing Shower of Fire-- - in it are those guilty of Violence against God, against Nature, - and against Art--Capaneus--the Crimson Brook--the Statue of Time-- - the Infernal Rivers, 98 - - CANTO XV. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature-- - Brunetto Latini--Francesco d'Accorso--Andrea de' Mozzi, Bishop - of Florence, 106 - - CANTO XVI. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature-- - Guidoguerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci-- - the Cataract--the Cord--Geryon, 115 - - CANTO XVII. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Art--Usurers-- - the descent on Geryon's back into the Eighth Circle, 123 - - CANTO XVIII. - - The Eighth Circle, otherwise named Malebolge, which consists of - ten concentric Pits or Moats connected by bridges of rock--in - these are punished those guilty of Fraud of different kinds-- - First Bolgia or Moat, where are Panders and Seducers, scourged - by Demons--Venedico Caccianimico--Jason--Second Bolgia, where - are Flatterers plunged in filth--Alessio Interminei, 130 - - CANTO XIX. - - The Eighth Circle--Third Bolgia, where are the Simoniacs, stuck - head downwards in holes in the rock--Pope Nicholas III.--the - Donation of Constantine, 137 - - CANTO XX. - - The Eighth Circle--Fourth Bolgia, where are Diviners and Sorcerers - in endless procession, with their heads twisted on their necks-- - Amphiaräus--Tiresias--Aruns--Manto and the foundation of Mantua-- - Eurypylus--Michael Scott--Guido Bonatti--Asdente, 145 - - CANTO XXI. - - The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia, where the Barrators, or corrupt - officials, are plunged in the boiling pitch which fills the - Bolgia--a Senator of Lucca is thrown in--the Malebranche, or - Demons who guard the Moat--the Devilish Escort, 153 - - CANTO XXII. - - The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia continued--the Navarese--trick - played by him on the Demons--Fra Gomita--Michael Zanche--the - Demons fall foul of one another, 161 - - CANTO XXIII. - - The Eighth Circle--escape from the Fifth to the Sixth Bolgia, - where the Hypocrites walk at a snail's pace, weighed down - by Gilded Cloaks of lead--the Merry Friars Catalano and - Loderingo--Caiaphas, 168 - - CANTO XXIV. - - The Eighth Circle--arduous passage over the cliff into the Seventh - Bolgia, where the Thieves are tormented by Serpents, and are - constantly undergoing a hideous metamorphosis--Vanni Fucci, 176 - - CANTO XXV. - - The Eighth Circle--Seventh Bolgia continued--Cacus--Agnello - Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa Donati, - and Guercio Cavalcanti, 184 - - CANTO XXVI. - - The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia, where are the Evil Counsellors, - wrapped each in his own Flame--Ulysses tells how he met with - death, 192 - - CANTO XXVII. - - The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia continued--Guido of Montefeltro-- - the Cities of Romagna--Guido and Boniface VIII., 200 - - CANTO XXVIII. - - The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia, where the Schismatics in Church - and State are for ever being dismembered--Mahomet--Fra Dolcino-- - Pier da Medicina--Curio--Mosca--Bertrand de Born, 209 - - CANTO XXIX. - - The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia continued--Geri del Bello--Tenth - Bolgia, where Counterfeiters of various kinds, as Alchemists and - Forgers, are tormented with loathsome diseases--Griffolino of - Arezzo--Capocchio on the Sienese, 217 - - CANTO XXX. - - The Eighth Circle--Tenth Bolgia continued--Myrrha--Gianni - Schicchi--Master Adam and his confession--Sinon, 225 - - CANTO XXXI. - - The Ninth Circle, outside of which they remain till the end of - this Canto--this, the Central Pit of Inferno, is encircled and - guarded by Giants--Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antæus--entrance to - the Pit, 233 - - CANTO XXXII. - - The Ninth Circle--that of the Traitors, is divided into four - concentric rings, in which the sinners are plunged more or less - deep in the ice of the frozen Cocytus--the Outer Ring is Caïna, - where are those who contrived the murder of their Kindred-- - Camicion de' Pazzi--Antenora, the Second Ring, where are such - as betrayed their Country--Bocca degli Abati--Buoso da Duera-- - Ugolino, 241 - - CANTO XXXIII. - - The Ninth Circle--Antenora continued--Ugolino and his tale--the - Third Ring, or Ptolomæa, where are those treacherous to their - Friends--Friar Alberigo--Branca d'Oria, 249 - - CANTO XXXIV. - - The Ninth Circle--the Fourth Ring or Judecca, the deepest point - of the Inferno and the Centre of the Universe--it is the place - of those treacherous to their Lords or Benefactors--Lucifer with - Judas, Brutus, and Cassius hanging from his mouths--passage - through the Centre of the Earth--ascent from the depths to the - light of the stars in the Southern Hemisphere, 260 - - INDEX, 269 - - - - -FLORENCE AND DANTE. - - -Dante is himself the hero of the _Divine Comedy_, and ere many stages of -the _Inferno_ have been passed the reader feels that all his steps are -being taken in a familiar companionship. When every allowance has been -made for what the exigencies of art required him to heighten or -suppress, it is still impossible not to be convinced that the author is -revealing himself much as he really was--in some of his weakness as well -as in all his strength. The poem itself, by many an unconscious touch, -does for his moral portraiture what the pencil of Giotto has done for -the features of his face. The one likeness answers marvellously to the -other; and, together, they have helped the world to recognise in him the -great example of a man of genius who, though at first sight he may seem -to be austere, is soon found to attract our love by the depth of his -feelings as much as he wins our admiration by the wealth of his fancy, -and by the clearness of his judgment on everything concerned with the -lives and destiny of men. His other writings in greater or less degree -confirm the impression of Dante's character to be obtained from the -_Comedy_. Some of them are partly autobiographical; and, studying as a -whole all that is left to us of him, we can gain a general notion of -the nature of his career--when he was born and what was his condition in -life; his early loves and friendships; his studies, military service, -and political aims; his hopes and illusions, and the weary purgatory of -his exile. - -To the knowledge of Dante's life and character which is thus to be -acquired, the formal biographies of him have but little to add that is -both trustworthy and of value. Something of course there is in the -traditional story of his life that has come down from his time with the -seal of genuineness; and something that has been ascertained by careful -research among Florentine and other documents. But when all that old and -modern _Lives_ have to tell us has been sifted, the additional facts -regarding him are found to be but few; such at least as are beyond -dispute. Boccaccio, his earliest biographer, swells out his _Life_, as -the earlier commentators on the _Comedy_ do their notes, with what are -plainly but legendary amplifications of hints supplied by Dante's own -words; while more recent and critical writers succeed with infinite -pains in little beyond establishing, each to his own satisfaction, what -was the order of publication of the poet's works, where he may have -travelled to, and when and for how long a time he may have had this or -that great lord for a patron. - -A very few pages would therefore be enough to tell the events of Dante's -life as far as they are certainly known. But, to be of use as an -introduction to the study of his great poem, any biographical sketch -must contain some account--more or less full--of Florentine affairs -before and during his lifetime; for among the actors in these are to be -found many of the persons of the _Comedy_. In reading the poem we are -never suffered for long to forget his exile. From one point of view it -is an appeal to future ages from Florentine injustice and ingratitude; -from another, it is a long and passionate plea with his native town to -shake her in her stubborn cruelty. In spite of the worst she can do -against him he remains no less her son. In the early copies of it, the -_Comedy_ is well described as the work of Dante Alighieri, the -Florentine; since not only does he people the other world by preference -with Florentines, but it is to Florence that, even when his words are -bitter against her, his heart is always feeling back. Among the glories -of Paradise he loves to let his memory rest on the church in which he -was baptized and the streets he used to tread. He takes pleasure in her -stones; and with her towers and palaces Florence stands for the -unchanging background to the changing scenes of his mystical pilgrimage. - -The history of Florence during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries -agrees in general outline with that of most of its neighbours. At the -beginning of the period it was a place of but little importance, ranking -far below Pisa both in wealth and political influence. Though retaining -the names and forms of municipal government, inherited from early times, -it was in reality possessed of no effective control over its own -affairs, and was subject to its feudal superior almost as completely as -was ever any German village planted in the shadow of a castle. To -Florence, as to many a city of Northern and Central Italy, the first -opportunity of winning freedom came with the contest between Emperor -and Pope in the time of Hildebrand. In this quarrel the Church found its -best ally in Matilda, Countess of Tuscany. She, to secure the goodwill -of her subjects as against the Emperor, yielded first one and then -another of her rights in Florence, generally by way of a pious gift--an -endowment for a religious house or an increase of jurisdiction to the -bishop--these concessions, however veiled, being in effect so many -additions to the resources and liberties of the townsmen. She made Rome -her heir, and then Florence was able to play off the Papal against the -Imperial claims, yielding a kind of barren homage to both Emperor and -Pope, and only studious to complete a virtual independence of both. -Florence had been Matilda's favourite place of residence; and, -benefiting largely as it did by her easy rule, it is no wonder that her -name should have been cherished by the Florentines for ages after as a -household word.[1] Nor is the greatest Florentine unmindful of her. Foe -of the Empire though she was, he only remembers her piety; and it is by -Matilda, as representing the active religious life, that Dante is -ushered into the presence of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise.[2] - -It was a true instinct which led Florence and other cities to side -rather with the Pope than with the Emperor in the long-continued -struggle between them for predominance in Italy. With the Pope for -overlord they would at least have a master who was an Italian, and one -who, his title being imperfect, would in his own interest be led to -treat them with indulgence; while, in the permanent triumph of the -Emperor, Italy must have become subject and tributary to Germany, and -would have seen new estates carved out of her fertile soil for members -of the German garrison. The danger was brought home to many of the -youthful commonwealths during the eventful reign of Frederick Barbarossa -(1152-1190). Strong in Germany beyond most of his predecessors, that -monarch ascended the throne with high prerogative views, in which he was -confirmed by the slavish doctrine of some of the new civilians. -According to these there could be only one master in the world; as far -as regarded the things of time, but one source of authority in -Christendom. They maintained everything to be the Emperor's that he -chose to take. When he descended into Italy to enforce his claims, the -cities of the Lombard League met him in open battle. Those of Tuscany, -and especially Florence, bent before the blast, temporising as long as -they were able, and making the best terms they could when the choice lay -between submission and open revolt. Even Florence, it is true, strong in -her allies, did once take arms against an Imperial lieutenant; but as a -rule she never refused obedience in words, and never yielded it in fact -beyond what could not be helped. In her pursuit of advantages, -skilfully using every opportunity, and steadfast of aim even when most -she appeared to waver, she displayed something of the same address that -was long to be noted as a trait in the character of the individual -Florentine. - -The storm was weathered, although not wholly without loss. When, towards -the close of his life, and after he had broken his strength against the -obstinate patriotism of Lombardy, Frederick visited Florence in 1185, it -was as a master justly displeased with servants who, while they had not -openly rebelled against him, had yet proved eminently unprofitable, and -whom he was concerned to punish if not to destroy. On the complaint of -the neighbouring nobles, that they were oppressed and had been plundered -by the city, he gave orders for the restoration to them of their lands -and castles. This accomplished, all the territory left to Florence was a -narrow belt around the walls. Villani even says that for the four years -during which Frederick still lived the Commonwealth was wholly landless. -And here, rather than lose ourselves among the endless treaties, -leagues, and campaigns which fill so many pages of the chronicles, it -may be worth while shortly to glance at the constitution of Florentine -society, and especially at the place held in it by the class which found -its protector in Barbarossa. - -Much about the time at which the Commonwealth was relieved of its feudal -trammels, as a result of the favour or the necessities of Matilda, it -was beginning to extend its commerce and increase its industry. Starting -somewhat late on the career on which Venice, Genoa, and Pisa were -already far advanced, Florence was as if strenuous to make up for lost -time, and soon displayed a rare comprehension of the nature of the -enterprise. It may be questioned if ever, until quite modern times, -there has been anywhere so clear an understanding of the truth that -public wellbeing is the sum of private prosperity, or such an -enlightened perception of what tends to economical progress. Florence -had no special command of raw material for her manufactures, no sea-port -of her own, and no monopoly unless in the natural genius of her people. -She could therefore thrive only by dint of holding open her -communications with the world at large, and grudged no pains either of -war or diplomacy to keep at Pisa a free way out and in for her -merchandise. Already in the twelfth century she received through that -port the rough woollens of Flanders, which, after being skilfully -dressed and dyed, were sent out at great profit to every market of -Europe. At a somewhat later period the Florentines were to give as -strong a proof of their financial capacity as this was of their -industrial. It was they who first conducted a large business in bills of -exchange, and who first struck a gold coin which, being kept of -invariable purity, passed current in every land where men bought and -sold--even in countries where the very name of Florence was unknown.[3] - -In a community thus devoted to industry and commerce, it was natural -that a great place should be filled by merchants. These were divided -into six guilds, the members of which, with the notaries and lawyers, -who composed a seventh, formed the true body of the citizens. -Originally the consuls of these guilds were the only elected officials -in the city, and in the early days of its liberty they were even charged -with political duties, and are found, for example, signing a treaty of -peace with a neighbouring state. In the fully developed commune it was -only the wealthier citizens--the members, we may assume, of these -guilds--who, along with the nobles,[4] were eligible for and had the -right of electing to the public offices. Below them was the great body -of the people; all, that is, of servile condition or engaged in the -meaner kinds of business. From one point of view, the liberties of the -citizens were only their privileges. But although the labourers and -humbler tradesmen were without franchises, their interests were not -therefore neglected, being bound up with those of the one or two -thousand citizens who shared with the patricians the control of public -affairs. - -There were two classes of nobles with whom Florence had to reckon as she -awoke to life--those within the walls, and those settled in the -neighbouring country. In later times it was a favourite boast among the -noble citizens--a boast indulged in by Dante--that they were descended -from ancient Roman settlers on the banks of the Arno. A safer boast -would in many cases have been that their ancestors had come to Italy in -the train of Otho and other conquering Emperors. Though settled in the -city, in some cases for generations, the patrician families were not -altogether of it, being distinguished from the other citizens, if not -always by the possession of ancestral landward estates, at least by -their delight in war and contempt for honest industry. But with the -faults of a noble class they had many of its good qualities. Of these -the Republic suffered them to make full proof, allowing them to lead in -war and hold civil offices out of all proportion to their numbers. - -Like the city itself, the nobles in the country around had been feudally -subject to the Marquis of Tuscany. After Matilda's death they claimed to -hold direct from the Empire; which meant in practice to be above all -law. They exercised absolute jurisdiction over their serfs and -dependants, and, when favoured by the situation of their castles, took -toll, like the robber barons of Germany, of the goods which passed -beneath their walls. Already they had proved to be thorns in the side of -the industrious burghers; but at the beginning of the twelfth century -their neighbourhood became intolerable, and for a couple of generations -the chief political work of Florence was to bring them to reason. Those -whose lands came up almost to the city gates were first dealt with, and -then in a widening circle the country was cleared of the pest. Year -after year, when the days were lengthening out in spring, the roughly -organised city militia was mustered, war was declared against some -specially obnoxious noble and his fortress was taken by surprise, or, -failing that, was subjected to a siege. In the absence of a more -definite grievance, it was enough to declare his castle dangerously near -the city. These expeditions were led by the nobles who were already -citizens, while the country neighbours of the victim looked on with -indifference, or even helped to waste the lands or force the stronghold -of a rival. The castle once taken, it was either levelled with the -ground, or was restored to the owner on condition of his yielding -service to the Republic. And, both by way of securing a hold upon an -unwilling vassal and of adding a wealthy house and some strong arms to -the Commonwealth, he was compelled, along with his family, to reside in -Florence for a great part of every year. - -With a wider territory and an increasing commerce, it was natural for -Florence to assume more and more the attitude of a sovereign state, -ready, when need was, to impose its will upon its neighbours, or to join -with them for the common defence of Tuscany. In the noble class and its -retainers, recruited as has been described, it was possessed of a -standing army which, whether from love of adventure or greed of plunder, -was never so well pleased as when in active employment. Not that the -commons left the fighting wholly to the men of family, for they too, at -the summons of the war-bell, had to arm for the field; but at the best -they did it from a sense of duty, and, without the aid of professional -men-at-arms, they must have failed more frequently in their enterprises, -or at any rate have had to endure a greatly prolonged absence from their -counters and workshops. And yet, esteem this advantage as highly as we -will, Florence surely lost more than it gained by compelling the crowd -of idle gentlemen to come within its walls. In the course of time some -of them indeed condescended to engage in trade--sank, as the phrase -went, into the ranks of the _Popolani_, or mere wealthy citizens; but -the great body of them, while their landed property was being largely -increased in value in consequence of the general prosperity, held -themselves haughtily aloof from honest industry in every form. Each -family, or rather each clan of them, lived apart in its own group of -houses, from among which towers shot aloft for scores of yards into the -air, dominating the humbler dwellings of the common burghers. These, -whenever they came to the front for a time in the government, were used -to decree that all private towers were to be lopped down to within a -certain distance from the ground. - -It is a favourite exercise of Villani and other historians to trace the -troubles and revolutions in the state of Florence to chance quarrels -between noble families, arising from an angry word or a broken troth. -Here, they tell, was sown the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline wars in -Florence; and here that of the feuds of Black and White. Such quarrels -and party names were symptoms and nothing more. The enduring source of -trouble was the presence within the city of a powerful idle class, -constantly eager to recover the privilege it had lost, and to secure -itself by every available means, including that of outside help, in the -possession of what it still retained; which chafed against the curbs put -upon its lawlessness, and whose ambitions were all opposed to the -general interest. The citizens, for their part, had nothing better to -hope for than that Italy should be left to the Italians, Florence to the -Florentines. On the occasion of the celebrated Buondelmonti feud (1215), -some of the nobles definitely went over to the side of the people, -either because they judged it likely to win in the long-run, or -impelled unconsciously by the forces that in every society divide -ambitious men into two camps, and in one form or another develop party -strife. They who made a profession of popular sympathy did it with a -view of using rather than of helping the people at large. Both of the -noble parties held the same end in sight--control of the Commonwealth; -and this would be worth the more the fewer there were to share it. The -faction irreconcilable with the Republic on any terms included many of -the oldest and proudest houses. Their hope lay in the advent of a strong -Emperor, who should depute to them his rights over the money-getting, -low-born crowd. - - -II. - -The opportunity of this class might seem to have come when the -Hohenstaufen Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, ascended the throne, -and still more when, on attaining full age, he claimed the whole of the -Peninsula as his family inheritance. Other Emperors had withstood the -Papal claims, but none had ever proved an antagonist like Frederick. His -quarrel seemed indeed to be with the Church itself, with its doctrines -and morals as well as with the ambition of churchmen; and he offered the -strange spectacle of a Roman Emperor--one of the twin lights in the -Christian firmament--whose favour was less easily won by Christian -piety, however eminent, than by the learning of the Arab or the Jew. -When compelled at last to fulfil a promise extorted from him of -conducting a crusade to the Holy Land, he scandalised Christendom by -making friends of the Sultan, and by using his presence in the East, not -for the deliverance of the Sepulchre, but for the furtherance of -learning and commerce. Thrice excommunicated, he had his revenge by -proving with how little concern the heaviest anathemas of the Church -could be met by one who was armed in unbelief. Literature, art, and -manners were sedulously cultivated in his Sicilian court, and among the -able ministers whom he selected or formed, the modern idea of the State -may be said to have had its birth. Free thinker and free liver, poet, -warrior, and statesman, he stood forward against the sombre background -of the Middle Ages a figure in every respect so brilliant and original -as well to earn from his contemporaries the title of the Wonder of the -World. - -On the goodwill of Italians Frederick had the claim of being the most -Italian of all the Emperors since the revival of the Western Empire, and -the only one of them whose throne was permanently set on Italian soil. -Yet he never won the popular heart. To the common mind he always -appeared as something outlandish and terrible--as the man who had driven -a profitable but impious trade in the Sultan's land. Dante, in his -childhood, must have heard many a tale of him; and we find him keenly -interested in the character of the Emperor who came nearest to uniting -Italy into a great nation, in whose court there had been a welcome for -every man of intellect, and in whom a great original poet would have -found a willing and munificent patron. In the _Inferno_, by the mouth of -Pier delle Vigne, the Imperial Chancellor, he pronounces Frederick to -have been worthy of all honour;[5] yet justice requires him to lodge -this flower of kings in the burning tomb of the Epicureans, as having -been guilty of the arch-heresy of denying the moral government of the -world, and holding that with the death of the body all is ended.[6] It -was a heresy fostered by the lives of many churchmen, high and low; but -the example of Frederick encouraged the profession of it by nobles and -learned laymen. On Frederick's character there was a still darker stain -than this of religious indifference--that of cold-blooded cruelty. Even -in an age which had produced Ezzelino Romano, the Emperor's cloaks of -lead were renowned as the highest refinement in torture.[7] But, with -all his genius, and his want of scruple in the choice of means, he built -nothing politically that was not ere his death crumbling to dust. His -enduring work was that of an intellectual reformer under whose -protection and with whose personal help his native language was refined, -Europe was enriched with a learning new to it or long forgotten, and the -minds of men, as they lost their blind reverence for Rome, were prepared -for a freer treatment of all the questions with which religion deals. He -was thus in some respects a precursor of Dante. - -More than once in the course of Frederick's career it seemed as if he -might become master of Tuscany in fact as well as in name, had Florence -only been as well affected to him as were Siena and Pisa. But already, -as has been said, the popular interest had been strengthened by -accessions from among the nobles. Others of them, without descending -into the ranks of the citizens, had set their hopes on being the first -in a commonwealth rather than privates in the Imperial garrison. These -men, with their restless and narrow ambitions, were as dangerous to have -for allies as for foes, but by throwing their weight into the popular -scale they at least served to hold the Imperialist magnates in check, -and established something like a balance in the fighting power of -Florence; and so, as in the days of Barbarossa, the city was preserved -from taking a side too strongly. The hearts of the Florentine traders -were in their own affairs--in extending their commerce and increasing -their territory and influence in landward Tuscany. As regarded the -general politics of Italy, their sympathy was still with the Roman See; -but it was a sympathy without devotion or gratitude. For refusing to -join in the crusade of 1238 the town was placed under interdict by -Gregory IX. The Emperor meanwhile was acknowledged as its lawful -overlord, and his vicar received something more than nominal obedience, -the choice of the chief magistrates being made subject to his approval. -Yet with all this, and although his party was powerful in the city, it -was but a grudging service that was yielded to Frederick. More than once -fines were levied on the Florentines; and worse punishments were -threatened for their persevering and active enmity to Siena, now -dominated by its nobles and held in the Imperial interest. Volunteers -from Florence might join the Emperor in his Lombard campaigns; but they -were left equally free by the Commonwealth to join the other side. At -last, when he was growing old, and when like his grandfather he had been -foiled by the stubborn Lombards, he turned on the Florentines as an -easier prey, and sent word to the nobles of his party to seize the city. -For months the streets were filled with battle. In January 1248, -Frederick of Antioch, the natural son of the Emperor, entered Florence -with some squadrons of men-at-arms, and a few days later the nobles that -had fought on the popular side were driven into banishment. This is -known in the Florentine annals as the first dispersion of the Guelfs. - -Long before they were adopted in Italy, the names of Guelf and Ghibeline -had been employed in Germany to mark the partisans of the Bavarian Welf -and of the Hohenstaufen lords of Waiblingen. On Italian soil they -received an extended meaning: Ghibeline stood for Imperialist; Guelf for -anti-Imperialist, Papalist, or simply Nationalist. When the names began -to be freely used in Florence, which was towards the close of -Frederick's reign and about a century after their first invention, they -denoted no new start in politics, but only supplied a nomenclature for -parties already in existence. As far as Florence was concerned, the -designations were the more convenient that they were not too closely -descriptive. The Ghibeline was the Emperor's man, when it served his -purpose to be so; while the Guelf, constant only in his enmity to the -Ghibelines, was free to think of the Pope as he chose, and to serve him -no more than he wished or needed to. Ultimately, indeed, all Florence -may be said to have become Guelf. To begin with, the name distinguished -the nobles who sought alliance with the citizens, from the nobles who -looked on these as they might have done on serfs newly thriven into -wealth. Each party was to come up in turn. Within a period of twenty -years each was twice driven into banishment, a measure always -accompanied with decrees of confiscation and the levelling of private -strongholds in Florence. The exiles kept well together, retreating, as -it were in the order of war, to camps of observation they found ready -prepared for them in the nearest cities and fortresses held by those of -their own way of thinking. All their wits were then bent on how, by dint -of some fighting and much diplomacy, they might shake the strength and -undermine the credit of their successful rivals in the city, and secure -their own return in triumph. It was an art they were proud to be adepts -in.[8] - -In a rapid sketch like this it would be impossible to tell half the -changes made on the constitution of Florence during the second part of -the thirteenth century. Dante in a well-known passage reproaches -Florence with the political restlessness which afflicted her like a -disease. Laws, he says, made in October were fallen into desuetude ere -mid-November.[9] And yet it may be that in this constant readiness to -change, lies the best proof of the political capacity of the -Florentines. It was to meet new necessities that they made provision of -new laws. Especial watchfulness was called for against the encroachments -of the grandees, whose constant tendency--whatever their party -name--was to weaken legal authority, and play the part of lords and -masters of the citizens. But these were no mere weavers and -quill-drivers to be plundered at will. Even before the return of the -Guelfs, banished in 1248, the citizens, taking advantage of a check -suffered in the field by the dominant Ghibelines, had begun to recast -the constitution in a popular sense, and to organise the townsmen as a -militia on a permanent footing. When, on the death of Frederick in 1250, -the Imperialist nobles were left without foreign aid, there began a -period of ten years, favourably known in Florentine history as the -Government of the _Primo Popolo_ or _Popolo Vecchio_; that is, of the -true body of the citizens, commoners possessed of franchises, as -distinguished from the nobles above them and the multitude below. For it -is never to be forgotten that Florence, like Athens, and like the other -Italian Republics, was far from being a true democracy. The time was yet -to come, and it was not far distant, when the ranks of citizenship were -to be more widely opened than now to those below, and more closely shut -to those above. In the meantime the comparatively small number of -wealthy citizens who legally composed the 'People' made good use of -their ten years of breathing-time, entering on commercial treaties and -widening the possessions of the Commonwealth, now by war, and now by -shrewd bargains with great barons. To balance the influence of the -Podesta, who had hitherto been the one great officer of State--criminal -judge, civil governor, and commander-in-chief all in one--they created -the office of Captain of the People. The office of Podesta was not -peculiar to Florence. There, as in other cities, in order to secure his -impartiality, it was provided that he should be a foreigner, and hold -office only for six months. But he was also required to be of gentle -birth; and his councils were so composed that, like his own, their -sympathies were usually with the nobles. The Captain of the People was -therefore created partly as a tribune for the protection of the popular -rights, and partly to act as permanent head of the popular forces. Like -the Podesta, he had two councils assigned to him; but these were -strictly representative of the citizens, and sat to control his conduct -as well as to lend to his action the weight of public opinion. - -Such of the Ghibelines as had not been banished from Florence on the -death of Frederick, lived there on sufferance, as it were, and under a -rigid supervision. Once more they were to find a patron and ally in a -member of the great house of Hohenstaufen; and with his aid they were -again for a few years to become supreme in Florence, and to prove by -their abuse of power how well justified was the mistrust the people had -of them. In many ways Manfred, one of Frederick's bastards, was a worthy -son of his father. Like him he was endowed with great personal charm, -and was enamoured of all that opened new regions to intellectual -curiosity or gave refinement to sensual pleasure. In his public as well -as in his private behaviour, he was reckless of what the Church and its -doctrines might promise or threaten; and equally so, his enemies -declared, of the dictates of common humanity. Hostile eyes detected in -the green clothes which were his favourite dress a secret attachment to -Islam; and hostile tongues charged him with the murder of a father and -of a brother, and the attempted murder of a nephew. His ambition did not -aim at the Empire, but only at being King of Sicily and Naples, lands -which the Hohenstaufens claimed as their own through the Norman mother -of Frederick. Of these kingdoms he was actual ruler, even while his -legitimate brother Conrad lived. On the death of that prince he brushed -aside the claims of Conradin, his nephew, and bid boldly for recognition -by the Pope, who claimed to be overlord of the southern kingdoms--a -recognition refused, or given only to be immediately withdrawn. In the -eyes of Rome he was no more than Prince of Tarentum, but by arms and -policy he won what seemed a firm footing in the South; and eight years -after the rule of the _Popolo Vecchio_ began in Florence he was the -acknowledged patron of all in Italy who had been Imperialist--for the -Imperial throne was now practically vacant. And Manfred was trusted all -the more that he cared nothing for Germany, and stood out even more -purely an Italian monarch than his father had ever been. The Ghibelines -of Florence looked to him to free them of the yoke under which they -groaned. - -When it was discovered that they were treating with Manfred, there was -an outburst of popular wrath against the disaffected nobles. Some of -them were seized and put to death, a fate shared by the Abbot of -Vallombrosa, whom neither his priestly office nor his rank as Papal -Legate availed to save from torture and a shameful end.[10] Well -accustomed as was the age to violence and cruelty, it was shocked at -this free disposal of a great ecclesiastic by a mercantile community; -and even to the Guelf chronicler Villani the terrible defeat of -Montaperti seemed no more than a just vengeance taken by Heaven upon a -crime so heinous.[11] In the meantime the city was laid under interdict, -and those concerned in the Abbot's death were excommunicated; while the -Ghibelines, taking refuge in Siena, began to plot and scheme with the -greater spirit against foes who, in the very face of a grave peril, had -offended in the Pope their strongest natural ally. - -The leader of the exiles was Farinata, one of the Uberti, a family -which, so long ago as 1180, had raised a civil war to force their way -into the consulship. Ever since, they had been the most powerful, -perhaps, and certainly the most restless, clan in Florence, rich in men -of strong character, fiercely tenacious of their purpose. Such was -Farinata. To the Florentines of a later age he was to stand for the type -of the great Ghibeline gentleman, haughty as Lucifer, a Christian in -name though scarcely by profession, and yet almost beloved for his frank -excess of pride. It detracted nothing from the grandeur of his -character, in the judgment of his countrymen, that he could be cunning -as well as brave. Manfred was coy to afford help to the Tuscan -Ghibelines, standing out for an exorbitant price for the loan of his -men-at-arms; and to Farinata was attributed the device by which his -point of honour was effectually touched.[12] When at last a -reinforcement of eight hundred cavalry entered Siena, the exiles and -their allies felt themselves more than a match for the militia of -Florence, and set themselves to decoy it into the field. Earlier in the -same year the Florentines had encamped before Siena, and sought in vain -to bring on a general engagement. They were now misled by false -messengers, primed by Farinata, into a belief that the Sienese, weary of -the arrogance of Provenzano Salvani,[13] then all-powerful in Siena, -were ready to betray a gate to them. In vain did Tegghiaio -Aldobrandi,[14] one of the Guelf nobles, counsel delay till the German -men-at-arms, wearied with waiting on and perhaps dissatisfied with their -wages, should be recalled by Manfred. A march in full strength upon the -hostile city was resolved on by the eager townsmen. - -The battle of Montaperti was fought in September 1260, among the earthy -hills washed by the Arbia and its tributary rivulets, a few miles to the -east of Siena. It marked the close of the rule of the _Popolo Vecchio_. -Till then no such disastrous day had come to Florence; and the defeat -was all the more intolerable that it was counted for a victory to Siena. -Yet the battle was far from being a test of the strength of the two -rival cities. Out of the thirty thousand foot in the Guelf army, there -were only about five thousand Florentines. In the host which poured out -on them from Siena, beside the militia of that city and the Florentine -exiles, were included the Ghibelines of Arezzo, the retainers of great -lords still unsubdued by any city, and, above all, the German -men-at-arms of Manfred.[15] But the worst enemies of Florence were the -traitors in her own ranks. She bore it long in mind that it was her -merchants and handicraftsmen who stood stubbornly at bay, and tinged the -Arbia red with their life-blood; while it was among the men of high -degree that the traitors were found. On one of them, Bocca degli Abati, -who struck off the right hand of the standard-bearer of the cavalry, and -so helped on the confusion and the rout, Dante takes vengeance in his -pitiless verse.[16] - -The fortifications of Florence had been recently completed and -strengthened, and it was capable of a long defence. But the spirit of -the people was broken for the time, and the conquerors found the gates -open. Then it was that Farinata almost atoned for any wrong he ever did -his native town, by withstanding a proposal made by the Ghibelines of -the rival Tuscan cities, that Florence should be destroyed, and Empoli -advanced to fill her room. 'Alone, with open face I defended her,' Dante -makes him say.[17] But the wonder would rather be if he had voted to -destroy a city of which he was about to be one of the tyrants. Florence -had now a fuller experience than ever of the oppression which it was in -the character of the Ghibelines to exercise. A rich booty lay ready to -their hands; for in the panic after Montaperti crowds of the best in -Florence had fled, leaving all behind them except their wives and -children, whom they would not trust to the cruel mercy of the victors. -It was in this exile that for the first time the industrious citizen was -associated with the Guelf noble. From Lucca, not powerful enough to -grant them protection for long, they were driven to Bologna, suffering -terribly on the passage of the Apennines from cold and want of food, but -safe when the mountains lay between them and the Val d'Arno. While the -nobles and young men with a taste for fighting found their livelihood in -service against the Lombard Ghibelines, the more sober-minded scattered -themselves to seek out their commercial correspondents and increase -their acquaintance with the markets of Europe. When at length the way -was open for them to return home, they came back educated by travel, as -men must always be who travel for a purpose; and from this second exile -of the Guelfs dates a vast extension of the commerce of Florence. - -Their return was a fruit of the policy followed by the Papal Court The -interests of both were the same. The Roman See could have as little -independence of action while a hostile monarch was possessed of the -southern kingdoms, as the people of Florence could have freedom while -the Ghibeline nobility had for patron a military prince, to whom their -gates lay open by way of Siena and Pisa. To Sicily and Naples the Pope -laid claim by an alternative title--they were either dependent on the -See of Rome, or, if they were Imperial fiefs, then, in the vacancy of -the Empire, the Pope, as the only head of Christendom, had a right to -dispose of them as he would. A champion was needed to maintain the -claim, and at length the man was found in Charles of Anjou, brother of -St. Louis. This was a prince of intellectual powers far beyond the -common, of untiring industry in affairs, pious, 'chaste as a monk,' and -cold-hearted as a usurer; gifted with all the qualities, in short, that -make a man feared and well served, and with none that make him beloved. -He was not one to risk failure for want of deliberation and foresight, -and his measures were taken with such prudence that by the time he -landed in Italy his victory was almost assured. He found his enemy at -Benevento, in the Neapolitan territory (February 1266). In order to get -time for reinforcements to come up, Manfred sought to enter into -negotiations; but Charles was ready, and knew his advantage. He answered -with the splendid confidence of a man sure of a heavenly if he missed -an earthly triumph. 'Go tell the Sultan of Lucera,'[18] was his reply, -'that to-day I shall send him to Hell, or he will send me to Paradise.' -Manfred was slain, and his body, discovered only after long search, was -denied Christian burial. Yet, excommunicated though he was, and -suspected of being at heart as much Mohammedan as Christian, he, as well -as his great rival, is found by Dante in Purgatory.[19] And, while the -Christian poet pours his invective on the pious Charles,[20] he is at no -pains to hide how pitiful appeared to him the fate of the frank and -handsome Manfred, all whose followers adored him. He, as more than once -it happens in the _Comedy_ to those whose memory is dear to the poet, is -saved from Inferno by the fiction that in the hour of death he sent one -thought heavenward--'so wide is the embrace of infinite mercy.'[21] - -To Florence Charles proved a useful if a greedy and exacting protector. -Under his influence as Pacificator of Tuscany--an office created for him -by the Pope--the Guelfs were enabled slowly to return from exile, and -the Ghibelines were gradually depressed into a condition of dependence -on the goodwill of the citizens over whom they had so lately domineered. -Henceforth failure attended every effort they made to lift their heads. -The stubbornly irreconcilable were banished or put to death. Elaborate -provisions were enacted in obedience to the Pope's commands, by which -the rest were to be at peace with their old foes. Now they were to live -in the city, but under disabilities as regarded eligibility to offices; -now they were to be represented in the public councils, but so as to be -always in a minority. The result of the measures taken, and of the -natural drift of things, was that ere many more years had passed there -were no avowed Ghibelines in Florence. - -One influence constantly at work in this direction was that of the -_Parte Guelfa_, a Florentine society formed to guard the interests of -the Guelfs, and which was possessed of the greater part of the Ghibeline -property confiscated after the triumph of Charles had turned the balance -of power in Italy. This organisation has been well described as a state -within a state, and it seems as if the part it played in the Florentine -politics of this period were not yet fully known. This much seems sure, -that the members of the Society were mostly Guelf nobles; that its -power, derived from the administration of vast wealth to a political -end, was so great that the Captain of the _Parte Guelfa_ held a place -almost on a level with that of the chief officials of the Commonwealth; -and that it made loans of ready money to Florence and the Pope, on -condition of their being used to the damage of the Ghibelines.[22] - -The Commonwealth, busy in resettling its government, was but slightly -interested in much that went on around it. The boy Conradin, grandson of -Frederick, nephew of Manfred, and in a sense the last of the -Hohenstaufens, came to Italy to measure himself with Charles, and paid -for his audacity upon the scaffold.[23] Charles deputed Guy of Montfort, -son of the great Earl Simon, to be his vicar in Florence. The Pope -smiled and frowned in turn on the Florentines, as their devotion to him -waxed and waned; and so he did on his champion Charles, whose ambition -was apt to outrun his piety. All this was of less importance to the -Commonwealth than the promotion of its domestic interests. It saw with -equanimity a check given to Charles by the election of a new Emperor in -Rudolf of Hapsburg (1273), and a further check by the Sicilian Vespers, -which lost him half his kingdom (1283). But Siena and Pisa, Arezzo, and -even Pistoia, were the objects of a sleepless anxiety. Pisa was the -chief source of danger, being both from sentiment and interest -stubbornly Ghibeline. When at length its power was broken by Genoa, its -great maritime rival, in the naval battle of Meloria (1284), there was -no longer any city in Tuscany to be compared for wealth and strength -with Florence. - - -III. - -It was at this period that Dante, reaching the age of manhood, began to -perform the duties that fell to him as a youthful citizen--duties which, -till the age of thirty was reached, were chiefly those of military -service. The family to which he belonged was a branch of the Elisei, -who are included by Villani in the earliest catalogue given by him of -the great Florentine houses. Cacciaguida, one of the Elisei, born in -1106, married a daughter of the Aldighieri, a family of Ferrara. Their -son was christened Aldighiero, and this was adopted by the family as a -surname, afterwards changed to Alighieri. The son of Aldighiero was -Bellincione, father of Aldighiero II., the father of Dante. - -It serves no purpose to fill a page of biography with genealogical -details when the hero's course in life was in no way affected by the -accident of who was his grandfather. In the case of Dante, his position -in the State, his political creed, and his whole fashion of regarding -life, were vitally influenced by the circumstances of his birth. He knew -that his genius, and his genius alone, was to procure him fame; he -declares a virtuous and gentle life to be the true proof of nobility: -and yet his family pride is always breaking through. In real life, from -his family's being decayed in wealth and fallen in consideration -compared with its neighbours, he may have been led to put emphasis on -his assertion of gentility; and amid the poverty and humiliations of his -exile he may have found a tonic in the thought that by birth, not to -speak of other things, he was the equal of those who spurned him or -coldly lent him aid. However this may be, there is a tacit claim of -equality with them in the easy grace with which he encounters great -nobles in the world of shades. The bent of his mind in relation to this -subject is shown by such a touch as that when he esteems it among the -glories of Francis of Assisi not to have been ashamed of his base -extraction.[24] In Paradise he meets his great crusading ancestor -Cacciaguida, and feigns contrition for the pleasure with which he -listens to a declaration of the unmixed purity of their common -blood.[25] In Inferno he catches a glimpse, sudden and terrible, of a -kinsman whose violent death had remained unavenged; and, for the nonce, -the philosopher-poet is nothing but the member of an injured Florentine -clan, and winces at the thought of a neglected blood feud.[26] And when -Farinata, the great Ghibeline, and haughtiest of all the Florentines of -the past generation, asks him, 'Who were thine ancestors?' Dante says -with a proud pretence of humility, 'Anxious to obey, I hid nothing, but -told him all he demanded.'[27] - -Dante was born in Florence in the May of 1265.[28] A brother of his -father had been one of the guards of the Florentine Caroccio, or -standard-bearing car, at the battle of Montaperti (1260). Whether -Dante's father necessarily shared in the exile of his party may be -doubted. He is said--on slight authority--to have been a jurisconsult: -there is no reason to suppose he was at Montaperti. It is difficult to -believe that Florence was quite emptied of its lawyers and merchants as -a consequence of the Ghibeline victory. In any case, it is certain that -while the fugitive Guelfs were mostly accompanied by their wives, and -did not return till 1267, we have Dante's own word for it that he was -born in the great city by the Arno,[29] and was baptized in the -Baptistery, his beautiful St. John's.[30] At the font he received the -name of Durante, shortened, as he bore it, into Dante. It is in this -form that it finds a place in the _Comedy_,[31] once, and only once, -written down of necessity, the poet says--the necessity of being -faithful in the report of Beatrice's words: from the wider necessity, we -may assume, of imbedding in the work itself the name by which the author -was commonly known, and by which he desired to be called for all time. - -When Dante was about ten years old he lost his father. Of his mother -nothing but her Christian name of Bella is known. Neither of them is -mentioned in the _Comedy_,[32] nor indeed are his wife and children. -Boccaccio describes the Alighieri as having been in easy though not in -wealthy circumstances; and Leonardo Bruni, who in the fifteenth century -sought out what he could learn of Dante, says of him that he was -possessed of a patrimony sufficient for an honourable livelihood. That -he was so might be inferred from the character of the education he -received. His studies, says Boccaccio, were not directed to any object -of worldly profit. That there is no sign of their having been directed -by churchmen tends to prove the existence in his native town of a class -of cultivated laymen; and that there was such appears from the ease -with which, when, passing from boyhood to manhood, he felt a craving for -intellectual and congenial society, he found in nobles of the stamp of -Guido Cavalcanti men like-minded with himself. It was indeed impossible -but that the revival of the study of the civil law, the importation of -new learning from the East, and the sceptical spirit fostered in Italy -by the influence of Frederick II. and his court, should all have told on -the keen-witted Florentines, of whom a great proportion--even of the -common people--could read; while the class with leisure had every -opportunity of knowing what was going on in the world.[33] Heresy, the -rough word for intellectual life as well as for religious aspiration, -had found in Florence a congenial soil.[34] In the thirteenth century, -which modern ignorance loves to reckon as having been in a special sense -an age of faith, there were many Florentines who, in spite of their -outward conformity, had drifted as far from spiritual allegiance to the -Church as the furthest point reached by any of their descendants who -some two ages later belonged to the school of Florentine Platonists. - -Chief among these free-thinkers, and, sooth to say, free-livers--though -in this respect they were less distinguished from the orthodox--was -Brunetto Latini, for some time Secretary to the Republic, and the -foremost Italian man of letters of his day. Meagre though his greatest -work, the _Tesoro_, or _Treasure_, must seem to any one who now glances -over its pages, to his contemporaries it answered the promise of its -title and stood for a magazine of almost complete information in the -domains of natural history, ethics, and politics. It was written in -French, as being a more agreeable language than Italian; and was -composed, there is reason to believe, while Latini lived in Paris as an -exiled Guelf after Montaperti. His _Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, a -poem in jingling eight-syllabled Italian verse, has been thought by some -to have supplied hints to Dante for the _Comedy_.[35] By neither of -these works is he evinced a man of strong intellect, or even of good -taste. Yet there is the testimony of Villani that he did much to refine -the language of his contemporaries, and to apply fixed principles to the -conduct of State affairs.[36] Dante meets him in Inferno, and hails him -as his intellectual father--as the master who taught him from day to day -how fame is to be won.[37] But it is too much to infer from these words -that Latini served as his teacher, in the common sense of the word. It -is true they imply an intimacy between the veteran scholar and his -young townsman; but the closeness of their intercourse is perhaps best -accounted for by supposing that Latini had been acquainted with Dante's -father, and by the great promise of Dante's boyhood was led to take a -warm interest in his intellectual development. Their intimacy, to judge -from the tone of their conversation down in Inferno, had lasted till -Latini's death. But no tender reminiscence of the days they spent -together avails to save him from condemnation at the hands of his severe -disciple. By the manners of Brunetto, and the Epicurean heresies of -others of his friends, Dante, we may be sure, was never infected or -defiled. - -Dante describes himself as having begun the serious study of philosophy -and theology only at the mature age of twenty-seven. But ere that time -he had studied to good effect, and not books alone, but the world around -him too, and the world within. The poet was formed before the theologian -and philosopher. From his earliest years he was used to write in verse; -and he seems to have esteemed as one of his best endowments the easy -command of his mother tongue acquired by him while still in boyhood. - -Of the poems written in his youth he made a selection, and with a -commentary gave them to the world as his first work.[38] All the sonnets -and canzoni contained in it bear more or less directly on his love for -Beatrice Portinari. This lady, whose name is so indissolubly associated -with that of Dante, was the daughter of a rich citizen of good family. -When Dante saw her first he was a child of nine, and she a few months -younger. It would seem fabulous, he says, if he related what things he -did, and of what a passion he was the victim during his boyhood. He -seized opportunities of beholding her, but for long never passed beyond -a silent worship; and he was eighteen before she spoke to him, and then -only in the way of a passing salutation. On this he had a vision, and -that inspired him with a sonnet, certainly not the first he had written, -but the first he put into circulation. The mode of publication he -adopted was the common one of sending copies of it to such other poets -as were within reach. The sonnet in itself contains a challenge to -interpret his dream. Several poets attempted the riddle--among them the -philosopher and poet Guido Cavalcanti. They all failed in the solution; -but with some of them he was thus brought into terms of intimacy, and -with Cavalcanti of the closest friendship. Some new grace of style in -Dante's verse, some art in the presentation of his mystical meaning that -escapes the modern reader, may have revealed to the middle-aged man of -letters that a new genius had arisen. It was by Guido's advice that the -poems of which this sonnet stands the first were some years later -collected and published with the explanatory narrative. To him, in a -sense, the whole work is addressed; and it agreed with his taste, as -well as Dante's own, that it should contain nothing but what was written -in the vulgar tongue. Others besides Guido must have recognised in the -little book, as it passed from hand to hand, the masterpiece of Italian -prose, as well as of Italian verse. In the simple title of _Vita Nuova_, -or _The New Life_,[39] we can fancy that a claim is laid to originality -of both subject and treatment. Through the body of the work, though not -so clearly as in the _Comedy_, there rings the note of assurance of -safety from present neglect and future oblivion. - -It may be owing to the free use of personification and symbol in the -_Vita Nuova_ that some critics, while not denying the existence of a -real Beatrice, have held that she is introduced only to help out an -allegory, and that, under the veil of love for her, the poet would -express his youthful passion for truth. Others, going to the opposite -extreme, are found wondering why he never sought, or, seeking, failed to -win, the hand of Beatrice. To those who would refine the Beatrice of the -early work into a being as purely allegorical as she of the _Comedy_, it -may be conceded that the _Vita Nuova_ is not so much the history of a -first love as of the new emotional and intellectual life to which a -first love, as Dante experienced it, opens the door. Out of the -incidents of their intercourse he chooses only such as serve for motives -to the joys and sorrows of the passionate aspiring soul. On the other -hand, they who seek reasons why Dante did not marry Beatrice have this -to justify their curiosity, that she did marry another man. But her -husband was one of the rich and powerful Bardi; and her father was so -wealthy that after providing for his children he could endow a hospital -in Florence. The marriage was doubtless arranged as a matter of family -convenience, due regard being had to her dower and her husband's -fortune; and we may assume that when Dante, too, was married later on, -his wife was found for him by the good offices of his friends.[40] Our -manners as regards these things are not those of the Italy of the -thirteenth century. It may safely be said that Dante never dreamed of -Beatrice for his wife; that the expectation of wedding her would have -sealed his lips from uttering to the world any word of his love; and -that she would have lost something in his esteem if, out of love for -him, she had refused the man her father chose for her. - -We must not seek in the _Vita Nuova_ what it does not profess to give. -There was a real Beatrice Portinari, to a careless glance perhaps not -differing much from other Florentine ladies of her age and condition; -but her we do not find in Dante's pages. These are devoted to a record -of the dreams and visions, the new thoughts and feelings of which she -was the occasion or the object. He worshipped at a distance, and in a -single glance found reward enough for months of adoration; he read all -heaven into a smile. So high strung is the narrative, that did we come -on any hint of loving dalliance it would jar with all the rest She is -always at a distance from him, less a woman than an angel. - -In all this there is certainly as much of reticence as of exaggeration. -When he comes to speak of her death he uses a phrase on which it would -seem as if too little value had been set. He cannot dwell on the -circumstances of her departure, he says, without being his own -panegyrist. Taken along with some other expressions in the _Vita Nuova_, -and the tone of her words to him when they meet in the Earthly Paradise, -we may gather from this that not only was she aware of his long -devotion, but that, ere she died, he had been given to understand how -highly she rated it. And on the occasion of her death, one described as -being her nearest relative by blood and, after Cavalcanti, Dante's chief -friend--her brother, no doubt--came to him and begged him to write -something concerning her. It would be strange indeed if they had never -looked frankly into one another's faces; and yet, for anything that is -directly told in the _Vita Nuova_, they never did. - -The chief value of the _Vita Nuova_ is therefore psychological. It is a -mine of materials illustrative of the author's mental and emotional -development, but as regards historical details it is wanting in fulness -and precision. Yet, even in such a sketch of Dante's life as this tries -to be, it is necessary to dwell on the turning-points of the narrative -contained in the _Vita Nuova_; the reader always remembering that on one -side Dante says more than the fact that so he may glorify his love, and -less on another that he may not fail in consideration for Beatrice. She -is first a maiden whom no public breath is to disturb in her virgin -calm; and afterwards a chaste wife, whose lover is as jealous of her -reputation as any husband could be. The youthful lover had begun by -propounding the riddle of his love so obscurely that even by his -fellow-poets it had been found insoluble, adepts though they themselves -were in the art of smothering a thought. Then, though all his longing is -for Beatrice, lest she become the subject of common talk he feigns that -he is in love first with one lady and then with another.[41] He even -pushes his deceit so far that she rebukes him for his fickleness to one -of his sham loves by denying him the customary salutation when they -meet--this salutation being the only sign of friendship she has ever -shown. It is already some few years since the first sonnet was written. -Now, in a ballad containing a more direct avowal of his love than he has -yet ventured on,[42] he protests that it was always Beatrice his heart -was busy with, and that to her, though his eyes may have seemed to -wander, his affection was always true. In the very next poem we find him -as if debating with himself whether he shall persevere. He weighs the -ennobling influence of a pure love and the sweetness it gives to life, -against the pains and self-denial to which it condemns its servant. -Here, he tells us in his commentary, he was like a traveller who has -come to where the ways divide. His only means of escape--and he feels it -is a poor one--is to throw himself into the arms of Pity. - -From internal evidence it seems reasonably certain that the marriage of -Beatrice fell at the time when he describes himself as standing at the -parting of the ways. Before that he has been careful to write of his -love in terms so general as to be understood only by those in possession -of the key. Now he makes direct mention of her, and seeks to be in her -company; and he even leads us to infer that it was owing to his poems -that she became a well-known personage in the streets of Florence. -Immediately after the sonnet in which he has recourse to Pity, he tells -how he was led by a friend into the house of a lady, married only that -day, whom they find surrounded by her lady friends, met to celebrate her -home-coming after marriage. It was the fashion for young gentlemen to -offer their services at such a feast. On this occasion Dante for one can -give no help. A sudden trembling seizes him; he leans for support -against the painted wall of the chamber; then, lifting his eyes to see -if the ladies have remarked his plight, he is troubled at beholding -Beatrice among them, with a smile on her lips, as, leaning towards her, -they mock at her lover's weakness. To his friend, who, as he leads him -from the chamber, asks what ails him, he replies: 'My feet have reached -that point beyond which if they pass they can never return.' It was only -matrons that gathered round a bride at her home-coming; Beatrice was -therefore by this time a married woman. That she was but newly married -we may infer from Dante's confusion on finding her there.[43] His secret -has now been discovered, and he must either renounce his love, or, as he -is at length free to do, Beatrice being married, declare it openly, and -spend his life in loyal devotion to her as the mistress of his -imagination and of his heart.[44] - -But how is he to pursue his devotion to her, and make use of his new -privilege of freer intercourse, when the very sight of her so unmans -him? He writes three sonnets explaining what may seem pusillanimity in -him, and resolves to write no more. Now comes the most fruitful episode -in the history. Questioned by a bevy of fair ladies what is the end of a -love like his, that cannot even face the object of its desire, he -answers that his happiness lies in the words by which he shows forth the -praises of his mistress. He has now discovered that his passion is its -own reward. In other words, he has succeeded in spiritualising his love; -although to a careless reader it might seem in little need of passing -through the process. Then, soon after, as he walks by a crystal brook, -he is inspired with the words which begin the noblest poem he had yet -produced,[45] and that as the author of which he is hailed by a -fellow-poet in Purgatory. It is the first to glorify Beatrice as one in -whom Heaven is more concerned than Earth; and in it, too, he anticipates -his journey through the other world. She dies,[46] and we are surprised -to find that within a year of her death he wavers in his allegiance to -her memory. A fair face, expressing a tender compassion, looks down on -him from a window as he goes nursing his great sorrow; and he loves the -owner of the face because she pities him. But seeing Beatrice in a -vision he is restored, and the closing sonnet tells how his whole desire -goes forth to her, and how his spirit is borne above the highest sphere -to behold her receiving honour, and shedding radiance on all around her. -The narrative closes with a reference to a vision which he does not -recount, but which incites him to severe study in order that he may -learn to write of her as she deserves. And the last sentence of the -_Vita Nuova_ expresses a hope--a hope which would be arrogant coming -after anything less perfect than the _Vita Nuova_--that, concerning her, -he shall yet say things never said before of any woman. Thus the poet's -earliest work contains an earnest of the latest, and his morning makes -one day with his evening. - -The narrative of the _Vita Nuova_ is fluent and graceful, in this -contrasting strongly with the analytical arguments attached to the -various poems. Dante treats his readers as if they were able to catch -the meaning of the most recondite allegory, and yet were ignorant of the -alphabet of literary form. And, as is the case with other poets of the -time, the free movement of his fancy is often hampered by the necessity -he felt of expressing himself in the language of the popular scholastic -philosophy. All this is but to say that he was a man of his period, as -well as a great genius. And even in this his first work he bettered the -example of Guido Cavalcanti, Guido of Bologna, and the others whom he -found, but did not long suffer to remain, the masters of Italian -verse.[47] These inherited from the Provençal and Sicilian poets much -of the cant of which European poetry has been so slow to clear itself; -and chiefly that of presenting all human emotion and volition under the -figure of love for a mistress, who was often merely a creature of fancy, -set up to act as Queen of Beauty while the poet ran his intellectual -jousts. But Dante dealt in no feigned inspiration, and distinguishes -himself from the whole school of philosophical and artificial poets as -'one who can only speak as love inspires.'[48] He may deal in allegory -and utter sayings dark enough, but the first suggestions of his thoughts -are obtained from facts of emotion or of real life. His lady was no -creature of fancy, but his neighbour Beatrice Portinari: and she who -ends in the _Paradiso_ as the embodied beauty of holiness was, to begin -with, a fair Florentine girl. - -The instance of Beatrice is the strongest, although others might be -adduced, to illustrate Dante's economy of actual experience; the skilful -use, that is, of real emotions and incidents to serve for suggestion and -material of poetical thought. As has been told, towards the close of the -_Vita Nuova_ he describes how he found a temporary consolation for the -loss of Beatrice in the pity of a fair and noble lady. In his next work, -the _Convito_, or _Banquet_, she appears as the personification of -philosophy. The plan of the _Convito_ is that of a commentary on odes -which are interpreted as having various meanings--among others the -literal as distinguished from the allegorical or essentially true. As -far as this lady is concerned, Dante shows some eagerness to pass from -the literal meaning; desirous, it may be, to correct the belief that he -had ever wavered in his exclusive devotion to Beatrice. That for a time -he did transfer his thoughts from Beatrice in Heaven to the fair lady of -the window is almost certain, and by the time he wrote the _Purgatorio_ -he was able to make confession of such a fault. But at the earlier -period at which the _Convito_[49] was written, he may have come to -regard the avowal in the _Vita Nuova_ as an oversight dishonouring to -himself as well as to his first love, and so have slurred it over, -leaving the fact to stand enveloped in an allegory. At any rate, to his -gloss upon this passage in his life we are indebted for an interesting -account of how, at the age of twenty-seven, he put himself to school:-- - - 'After losing the earliest joy of my life, I was so smitten with - sorrow that in nothing could I find any comfort. Yet after some - time my mind, eager to recover its tone, since nought that I or - others could do availed to restore me, directed itself to find how - people, being disconsolate, had been comforted. And so I took to - reading that little-known book by Boethius, by writing which he, - captive and in exile, had obtained relief. Next, hearing that Tully - as well had written a book in which, treating of friendship, he had - consoled the worthy Laelius on the occasion of the loss of his - friend Scipio, I read that too. And though at the first I found - their meaning hard, at last I comprehended it as far as my - knowledge of the language and some little command of mother-wit - enabled me to do: which same mother-wit had already helped me to - much, as may be seen by the _Vita Nuova_. And as it often happens - that a man goes seeking silver, and lights on gold he is not - looking for--the result of chance, or of some divine provision; so - I, besides finding the consolation I was in search of to dry my - tears, became possessed of wisdom from authors and sciences and - books. Weighing this well, I deemed that philosophy, the mistress - of these authors, sciences, and books, must be the best of all - things. And imagining her to myself fashioned like a great lady, - rich in compassion, my admiration of her was so unbounded that I - was always delighting myself in her image. And from thus beholding - her in fancy I went on to frequent the places where she is to be - found in very deed--in the schools of theology, to wit, and the - debates of philosophers. So that in a little time, thirty months or - so, I began to taste so much of her sweetness that the love I bore - to her effaced or banished every other thought.'[50] - -No one would guess from this description of how he grew enamoured of -philosophy, that at the beginning of his arduous studies Dante took a -wife. She was Gemma, the daughter of Manetto Donati, but related only -distantly, if at all, to the great Corso Donati. They were married in -1292, he being twenty-seven; and in the course of the nine years that -elapsed till his exile she bore him five sons and two daughters.[51] -From his silence regarding her in his works, and from some words of -Boccaccio's which apply only to the period of his exile, it has been -inferred that the union was unhappy. But Dante makes no mention in his -writings of his parents or children any more than of Gemma.[52] And why -should not his wife be included among the things dearest to him which, -he tells us, he had to leave behind him on his banishment? For anything -we know to the contrary, their wedded life up to the time of his exile -may have been happy enough; although most probably the marriage was one -of convenience, and almost certainly Dante found little in Gemma's mind -that answered to his own.[53] In any case it is not safe to lay stress -upon his silence. During the period covered by the _Vita Nuova_ he -served more than once in the field, and to this none of his earlier -works make any reference. In 1289, Arezzo having warmly espoused the -Ghibeline cause, the Florentines, led by Corso Donati and the great -merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, took up arms and met the foe in the field of -Campaldino, on the edge of the upland region of the Casentino. Dante, as -a young man of means and family, fought in the vanguard;[54] and in a -letter partly preserved by one of his early biographers[55] he describes -himself as being then no tiro in arms, and as having with varying -emotions watched the fortunes of the day. From this it is clear that he -had served before, probably in an expedition into the Aretine territory -made in the previous year, and referred to in the _Inferno_.[56] In the -same year as Campaldino was won he was present at the surrender of -Caprona, a fortress belonging to Pisa.[57] But of all this he is silent -in his works, or only makes casual mention of it by way of illustration. -It is, therefore, a waste of time trying to prove his domestic misery -from his silence about his marriage. - - -IV. - -So hard a student was Dante that he now for a time nearly lost the use -of his eyes.[58] But he was cured by regimen, and came to see as well as -ever, he tells us; which we can easily believe was very well indeed. For -his work, as he planned it out, he needed all his powers. The _Convito_, -for example, was designed to admit of a full treatment of all that -concerns philosophy. It marks an earlier stage of his intellectual and -spiritual life than does the opening of the _Inferno_. In it we have the -fruit of the years during which he was wandering astray from his early -ideal, misled by what he afterwards came to count as a vain and -profitless curiosity. Most of its contents, as we have it,[59] are only -indirectly interesting. It is impossible for most people to care for -discussions, conducted with all the nicety of scholastic definition, on -such subjects as the system of the universe as it was evolved out of the -brains of philosophers; the subject-matter of knowledge; and how we -know. But there is one section of it possessed of a very special -interest, the Fourth, in which he treats of the nature of nobility. -This he affirms to be independent of wealth or ancestry, and he finds -every one to be noble who practises the virtues proper to his time of -life. 'None of the Uberti of Florence or the Visconti of Milan can say -he is noble because belonging to such or such a race; for the Divine -seed is sown not in a family but in the individual man.' This amounts, -it must be admitted, to no more than saying that high birth is one -thing, and nobility of character another; but it is significant of what -were the current opinions, that Dante should be at such pains to -distinguish between the two qualities. The canzone which supplies the -text for the treatise closes with a picture of the noble soul at every -stage of life, to which Chaucer may well have been indebted for his -description of the true gentleman:[60]--'The soul that is adorned by -this grace does not keep it hid, but from the day when soul is wed to -body shows it forth even until death. In early life she is modest, -obedient, and gentle, investing the outward form and all its members -with a gracious beauty: in youth she is temperate and strong, full of -love and courteous ways, delighting in loyal deeds: in mature age she is -prudent, and just, and apt to liberality, rejoicing to hear of others' -good. Then in the fourth stage of life she is married again to God,[61] -and contemplates her approaching end with thankfulness for all the -past.'[62] - -In this passage it is less the poet that is heard than the sober -moralist, one with a ripe experience of life, and contemptuous of the -vulgar objects of ambition. The calm is on the surface. As has been said -above, he was proud of his own birth, the more proud perhaps that his -station was but a middling one; and to the close of his life he hated -upstarts with their sudden riches, while the Philip Argenti on whom in -the _Inferno_ he takes what has much the air of a private revenge may -have been only a specimen of the violent and haughty nobles with whom he -stood on an uneasy footing. - -Yet the impression we get of Dante's surroundings in Florence from the -_Vita Nuova_ and other poems, from references in the _Comedy_, and from -some anecdotes more or less true which survive in the pages of Boccaccio -and elsewhere, is on the whole a pleasant one. We should mistake did we -think of him as always in the guise of absorbed student or tearful -lover. Friends he had, and society of various kinds. He tells how in a -severe illness he was nursed by a young and noble lady, nearly related -to him by blood--his sister most probably; and other ladies are -mentioned as watching in his sick-chamber.[63] With Forese and Piccarda -Donati, brother and sister of the great Corso Donati, he was on terms of -the warmest friendship.[64] From the _Vita Nuova_ we can gather that, -even when his whole heart fainted and failed at the mere sight of -Beatrice, he was a favourite with other ladies and conversed familiarly -with them. The brother of Beatrice was his dear friend; while among -those of the elder generation he could reckon on the friendship of such -men as Guido Cavalcanti and Brunetto Latini. Through Latini he would, -even as a young man, get the entry of the most lettered and -intellectually active society of Florence. The tradition of his intimacy -with Giotto is supported by the mention he makes of the painter,[65] and -by the fact, referred to in the _Vita Nuova_, that he was himself a -draughtsman. It is to be regretted there are not more anecdotes of him -on record like that which tells how one day as he drew an angel on his -tablets he was broken in upon by 'certain people of importance.' The -musician Casella, whom he 'woes to sing in Purgatory'[66] and Belacqua, -the indolent good-humoured lutemaker,[67] are greeted by him in a tone -of friendly warmth in the one case and of easy familiarity in the other, -which help us to know the terms on which he stood with the quick-witted -artist class in Florence.[68] Already he was in the enjoyment of a high -reputation as a poet and scholar, and there seemed no limit to the -greatness he might attain to in his native town as a man of action as -well as a man of thought. - -In most respects the Florence of that day was as fitting a home for a -man of genius as could well be imagined. It was full of a life which -seemed restless only because the possibilities of improvement for the -individual and the community seemed infinite. A true measure of its -political progress and of the activity of men's minds is supplied by the -changes then being made in the outward aspect of the city. The duties of -the Government were as much municipal as political, and it would have -surprised a Florentine to be told that the one kind of service was of -less dignity than the other. The population grew apace, and, to provide -the means for extending the city walls, every citizen, on pain of his -testament being found invalid, was required to bequeath a part of his -estate to the public. Already the banks of the Arno were joined by three -bridges of stone, and the main streets were paved with the -irregularly-shaped blocks of lava still familiar to the sojourner in -Florence. But between the time of Dante's boyhood and the close of the -century the other outstanding features of the city were greatly altered, -or were in the course of change. The most important churches of -Florence, as he first knew it, were the Baptistery and the neighbouring -small cathedral church of Santa Reparata; after these ranked the church -of the Trinity, Santo Stefano, and some other churches which are now -replaced by larger ones, or of which the site alone can be discovered. -On the other side of the river, Samminiato with its elegant façade rose -as now upon its hill.[69] The only great civic building was the Palace -of the Podesta. The Old Market was and had long been the true centre of -the city's life. - -At the time Dante went into exile Arnolfo was already working on the -great new cathedral of St. Mary of the Flowers, the spacious Santa -Croce, and the graceful Badia; and Santa Maria Novella was slowly -assuming the perfection of form that was later to make it the favourite -of Michel Angelo. The Palace of the Signory was already planned, though -half a century was to elapse before its tower soared aloft to daunt the -private strongholds which bristled, fierce and threatening, all over the -city. The bell-tower of Giotto, too, was of later erection--the only -pile we can almost regret that Dante never saw. The architect of it was -however already adorning the walls of palace and cloister with paintings -whose inspiration was no longer, like that of the works they -overshadowed, drawn from the outworn motives of Byzantine art, but from -the faithful observation of nature.[70] He in painting and the Pisan -school in sculpture were furnishing the world with novel types of beauty -in the plastic arts, answering to the 'sweet new style' in verse of -which it was Dante that discovered the secret.[71] - -Florence was now by far the leading city in Tuscany. Its merchants and -money-dealers were in correspondence with every Mediterranean port and -with every country of the West. Along with bales of goods and letters of -exchange new ideas and fresh intelligence were always on the road to -Florence. The knowledge of what was going on in the world, and of what -men were thinking, was part of the stock-in-trade of the quick-witted -citizens, and they were beginning to be employed throughout Europe in -diplomatic work, till then almost a monopoly of churchmen. 'These -Florentines seem to me to form a fifth element,' said Boniface, who had -ample experience of how accomplished they were. - -At home they had full employment for their political genius; and still -upon the old problem, of how to curb the arrogance of the class that, in -place of being satisfied to share in the general prosperity, sought its -profit in the maintenance of privilege. It is necessary, at the cost of -what may look like repetition, to revert to the presence and activity of -this class in Florence, if we are to form a true idea of the -circumstances of Dante's life, and enter into the spirit with which much -of the _Comedy_ is informed. Though many of the nobles were now engaged -in commerce and figured among the popular leaders, most of the greater -houses stood proudly aloof from everything that might corrupt their -gentility. These were styled the magnates: they found, as it were, a -vocation for themselves in being nobles. Among them the true distinctive -spirit of Ghibelinism survived, although none of them would now have -dared to describe himself as a Ghibeline. Their strength lay partly in -the unlimited control they retained over the serfs on their landward -estates; in the loyalty with which the members of a family held by one -another; in their great command of resources as the administrators of -the _Parte Guelfa_; and in the popularity they enjoyed with the smaller -people in consequence of their lavish expenditure, and frank if insolent -manners. By law scarcely the equals of the full citizens, in point of -fact they tyrannised over them. Their houses, set like fortresses in the -crowded streets, frequently served as prisons and torture-chambers for -the low-born traders or artisans who might offend them. - -Measures enough had been passed towards the close of the century with a -view to curb the insolence of the magnates; but the difficulty was to -get them put in force. At length, in 1294, they, with many additional -reforms, were embodied in the celebrated Ordinances of Justice. These -for long were counted back to as the Great Charter of Florence--a Great -Charter defining the popular rights and the disabilities of the -baronage. Punishments of special severity were enacted for nobles who -should wrong a plebeian, and the whole of a family or clan was made -responsible for the crimes and liabilities of its several members. The -smaller tradesmen were conciliated by being admitted to a share in -political influence. If serfage was already abolished in the State of -Florence, it was the Ordinances which made it possible for the serf to -use his liberty.[72] But the greatest blow dealt to the nobles by the -new laws was their exclusion, as nobles, from all civil and political -offices. These they could hold only by becoming members of one of the -trade guilds.[73] And to deprive a citizen of his rights it was enough -to inscribe his name in the list of magnates. - -It is not known in what year Dante became a member of the Guild of -Apothecaries. Without much reason it has been assumed that he was one of -the nobles who took advantage of the law of 1294. But there is no -evidence that in his time the Alighieri ranked as magnates, and much -ground for believing that for some considerable time past they had -belonged to the order of full citizens. - -It was not necessary for every guildsman to practise the art or engage -in the business to which his guild was devoted, and we are not required -to imagine Dante as having anything to do with medicine or with the -spices and precious stones in which the apothecaries traded. The guilds -were political as much as industrial associations, and of the public -duties of his membership he took his full share. The constitution of the -Republic, jealously careful to limit the power of the individual -citizen, provided that the two chief executive officers, the Podesta and -the Captain of the People, should always be foreigners. They held office -only for six months. To each of them was assigned a numerous Council, -and before a law could be abrogated or a new one passed it needed the -approval of both these Councils, as well as that of the Priors, and of -the heads of the principal guilds. The Priors were six in number, one -for each district of the city. With them lay the administration in -general of the laws, and the conduct of foreign affairs. Their office -was elective, and held for two months.[74] Of one or other of the -Councils Dante is known to have been a member in 1295, 1296, 1300, and -1301.[75] In 1299 he is found engaged on a political mission to the -little hill-city of San Gemigniano, where in the town-house they still -show the pulpit from which he addressed the local senate.[76] From the -middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he served as one of the -Priors.[77] - -At the time when Dante entered on this office, Florence was distracted -by the feud of Blacks and Whites, names borrowed from the factions of -Pistoia, but fated to become best known from their use in the city which -adopted them. The strength of the Blacks lay in the nobles whom the -Ordinances of Justice had been designed to depress; both such of them as -had retained their standing as magnates, and such as, under the new law, -had unwillingly entered the ranks of the citizens. Already they had -succeeded in driving into exile Giano della Bella,[78] the chief author -of the Ordinances; and their efforts--and those of the citizens who, -fearing the growing power of the lesser guilds, were in sympathy with -them--were steadily directed to upset the reforms. An obvious means to -this end was to lower in popular esteem the public men whose policy it -was to govern firmly on the new lines. The leader of the discontented -party was Corso Donati, a man of small fortune, but of high birth; of -splendid personal appearance, open-handed, and of popular manners. He -and they who went with him affected a violent Guelfism, their chance of -recovering the control of domestic affairs being the better the more -they could frighten the Florentines with threats of evils like those -incurred by the Aretines and Pisans from Ghibeline oppression. It may be -imagined what meaning the cry of Ghibeline possessed in days when there -was still a class of beggars in Florence--men of good names--whose eyes -had been torn out by Farinata and his kind. - -One strong claim which Corso Donati had on the goodwill of his -fellow-townsmen was that by his ready courage in pushing on the -reserves, against superior orders, at the battle of Campaldino,[79] the -day had been won to Florence and her allies. As he rode gallantly -through the streets he was hailed as the Baron (_il Barone_), much as in -the last generation the victor of Waterloo was sufficiently -distinguished as the Duke. At the same battle, Vieri dei Cerchi, the -leader of the opposite party of the Whites, had shown no less bravery, -but he was ignorant of the art, or despised it, of making political -capital out of the performance of his duty. In almost every respect he -offered a contrast to Donati. He was of a new family, and his influence -depended not on landed possessions, though he had these too, but on -wealth derived from commerce.[80] According to John Villani, a competent -authority on such a point,[81] he was at the head of one of the greatest -trading houses in the world. The same crowds that cheered Corso as the -great Baron sneered at the reticent and cold-tempered merchant as the -Ghibeline. It was a strange perversion of ideas, and yet had this of -justification, that all the nobles of Ghibeline tendency and all the -citizens who, on account of their birth, were suspected of leaning that -way were driven into the party of the Whites by the mere fact of the -Blacks hoisting so defiantly the Guelf flag, and commanding the -resources of the _Parte Guelfa_. But if Ghibelinism meant, as fifty -years previously it did mean, a tendency to exalt privilege as against -the general liberties and to court foreign interference in the affairs -of Florence, it was the Blacks and not the Whites who had served -themselves heirs to Ghibelinism. That the appeal was now taken to the -Pope instead of to the Emperor did not matter; or that French soldiers -in place of German were called in to settle domestic differences. - -The Roman See was at this time filled by Boniface VIII., who six years -previously, by violence and fraud, had procured the resignation of -Celestine V.--him who made the great refusal.[82] Boniface was at once -arrogant and subtle, wholly faithless, and hampered by no scruple -either of religion or humanity. But these qualities were too common -among those who before and after him filled the Papal throne, to secure -him in a special infamy. That he has won from the ruthless hatred which -blazes out against him in many a verse of Dante's,[83] and for this -hatred he is indebted to his interference in the affairs of Florence, -and what came as one of the fruits of it--the poet's exile. - -And yet, from the point of view not only of the interest of Rome but -also of Italy, there is much to be said for the policy of Boniface. -German domination was a just subject of fear, and the Imperialist -element was still so strong in Northern and Central Italy, that if the -Emperor Albert[84] had been a man of a more resolute ambition, he -might--so contemporaries deemed--have conquered Italy at the cost of a -march through it. The cities of Romagna were already in Ghibeline -revolt, and it was natural that the Pope should seek to secure Florence -on the Papal side. It was for the Florentines rather than for him to -judge what they would lose or gain by being dragged into the current of -general politics. He made a fair beginning with an attempt to reconcile -the two parties. The Whites were then the dominant faction, and to them -reconciliation meant that their foes would at once divide the -government with them, and at the long-run sap the popular liberties, -while the Pope's hand would soon be allowed to dip freely into the -communal purse. The policy of the Whites was therefore one of steady -opposition to all foreign meddling with Florence. But it failed to -secure general support, for without being Ghibeline in fact it had the -air of being so; and the name of Ghibeline was one that no reasoning -could rob of its terrors.[85] - -As was usual in Florence when political feeling ran high, the hotter -partisans came to blows, and the streets were more than once disturbed -by violence and bloodshed. To an onlooker it must have seemed as if the -interposition of some external authority was desirable; and almost on -the same day as the new Priors, of whom Dante was one and who were all -Whites, took office in the June of 1300, the Cardinal Acquasparta -entered the city, deputed by the Pope to establish peace. His proposals -were declined by the party in power, and having failed in his mission he -left the city, and took the priestly revenge upon it of placing it under -interdict.[86] Ere many months were passed, the Blacks, at a meeting of -the heads of the party, resolved to open negotiations anew with -Boniface. For this illegal step some of them, including Corso Donati, -were ordered into exile by the authorities, who, to give an appearance -of impartiality to their proceedings, at the same time banished some of -the Whites, and among them Guido Cavalcanti. It was afterwards made a -charge against Dante that he had procured the recall of his friend Guido -and the other Whites from exile; but to this he could answer that he was -not then in office.[87] Corso in the meantime was using his enforced -absence from Florence to treat freely with the Pope. - -Boniface had already entered into correspondence with Charles of Valois, -brother of Philip, the reigning King of France, with the view of -securing the services of a strongly-connected champion. It was the game -that had been played before by the Roman Court when Charles of Anjou was -called to Italy to crush the Hohenstaufens. This second Charles was a -man of ability of a sort, as he had given cruel proof in his brother's -Flemish wars. By the death of his wife, daughter of his kinsman Charles -II. of Naples and so grand-daughter of Charles of Anjou, he had lost the -dominions of Maine and Anjou, and had got the nickname of Lackland from -his want of a kingdom. He lent a willing ear to Boniface, who presented -him with the crown of Sicily on condition that he first wrested it from -the Spaniard who wore it.[88] All the Papal influence was exerted to get -money for the expenses of the descent on Sicily. Even churchmen were -required to contribute, for it was a holy war, and the hope was that -when Charles, the champion of the Church, had reduced Italy to -obedience, won Sicily for himself by arms, and perhaps the Eastern -Empire by marriage, he would win the Holy Sepulchre for Christendom. - -Charles crossed the Alps in August 1301, with five hundred men-at-arms, -and, avoiding Florence on his southward march, found Boniface at his -favourite residence of Anagni. He was created Pacificator of Tuscany, -and loaded with other honours. What better served the purpose of his -ambition, he was urged to retrace his steps and justify his new title by -restoring peace to Florence. There the Whites were still in power, but -they dared not declare themselves openly hostile to the Papal and Guelf -interest by refusing him admission to the city. He came with gentle -words, and ready to take the most stringent oaths not to tamper with the -liberties of the Commonwealth; but once he had gained an entrance -(November 1301) and secured his hold on Florence, he threw off every -disguise, gave full play to his avarice, and amused himself with looking -on at the pillage of the dwellings and warehouses of the Whites by the -party of Corso Donati. By all this, says Dante, Charles 'gained no -land,' Lackland as he was, 'but only sin and shame.'[89] - -There is a want of precise information as to the events of this time. -But it seems probable that Dante formed one of an embassy sent by the -rulers of Florence to the Pope in the autumn of this year; and that on -the occasion of the entrance of Charles he was absent from Florence. -What the embassy had to propose which Boniface could be expected to be -satisfied with, short of complete submission, is not known and is not -easy to guess. It seems clear at least that Dante cannot have been -chosen as a person likely to be specially pleasing to the Roman Court. -Within the two years preceding he had made himself prominent in the -various Councils of which he was a member, by his sturdy opposition to -affording aid to the Pope in his Romagnese wars. It is even possible -that his theory of the Empire was already more or less known to -Boniface, and as that Pontiff claimed Imperial authority over such -states as Florence, this would be sufficient to secure him a rough -reception.[90] Where he was when the terrible news came to him that for -some days there had been no law in Florence, and that Corso Donati was -sharing in the triumph of Charles, we do not know. Presageful of worse -things to come, he did not seek to return, and is said to have been in -Siena when he heard that, on the 27th January 1302, he had been -sentenced to a heavy fine and political disabilities for having been -guilty of extortion while a Prior, of opposing the coming of Charles, -and of crimes against the peace of Florence and the interest of the -_Parte Guelfa_. If the fine was not paid within three days his goods and -property were to be confiscated. This condemnation he shared with three -others. In the following March he was one of twelve condemned, for -contumacy, to be burned alive if ever they fell into the hands of the -Florentine authorities. We may perhaps assume that the cruel sentence, -as well as the charge of peculation, was uttered only in order to -conform to some respectable precedents. - - -V. - -Besides Dante many other Whites had been expelled from Florence.[91] -Whether they liked it or not, they were forced to seek aid from the -Ghibelines of Arezzo and Romagna. This led naturally to a change of -political views, and though at the time of their banishment all of them -were Guelfs in various degrees, as months and years went on they -developed into Ghibelines, more or less declared. Dissensions, too, -would be bred among them out of recriminations touching the past, and -charges of deserting the general interest for the sake of securing -private advantage in the way of making peace with the Republic. For a -time, however, the common desire of gaining a return to Florence held -them together. Of the Council constituted to bring this about, Dante was -a member. Once only with his associates does he appear to have come the -length of formal negotiations with a view to getting back. Charles of -Valois had passed away from the temporary scene of his extortions and -treachery, upon the futile quest of a crown. Boniface, ere being -persecuted to death by his old ally, Philip of France (1303), had vainly -attempted to check the cruelty of the Blacks; and Benedict, his -successor, sent the Cardinal of Ostia to Florence with powers to -reconcile the two parties. Dante is usually credited with the -composition of the letter in which Vieri dei Cerchi and his -fellow-exiles answered the call of the Cardinal to discuss the -conditions of their return home. All that had been done by the banished -party, said the letter, had been done for the public good.[92] The -negotiations came to nothing; nor were the exiles more fortunate in -arms. Along with their allies they did once succeed by a sudden dash in -penetrating to the market-place, and Florence lay within their grasp -when, seized with panic, they turned and fled from the city, which many -of them were never to see again. - -Almost certainly Dante took no active part in this attempt, and indeed -there is little to show that he was ever heartily associated with the -exiles. In his own words, he was compelled to break with his companions -owing to their imbecility and wickedness, and to form a party by -himself.[93] With the Whites, then, he had little more to do; and the -story of their fortunes need not longer detain us. It is enough to say -that while, like Dante, the chief men among them were for ever excluded -from Florence, the principles for which they had contended survived, and -even obtained something like a triumph within its walls. The success of -Donati and his party, though won with the help of the people, was too -clearly opposed to the popular interest to be permanent. Ere long the -inveterate contradiction between magnate and merchant was again to -change the course of Florentine politics; the disabilities against -lawless nobles were again to be enforced; and Corso Donati himself was -to be crushed in the collision of passions he had evoked but could not -control (1308). Though tenderly attached to members of his family, Dante -bore Corso a grudge as having been the chief agent in procuring his -exile--a grudge which years could do nothing to wipe out. He places in -the mouth of Forese Donati a prophecy of the great Baron's shameful -death, expressed in curt and scornful words, terrible from a -brother.[94] It is no figure of speech to say that Dante nursed revenge. - -For some few years his hopes were set on Henry of Luxemburg, elected -Emperor in 1308. A Ghibeline, in the ordinary sense of the term, Dante -never was. We have in his _De Monarchia_ a full account of the -conception he had formed of the Empire--that of authority in temporal -affairs embodied in a just ruler, who, being already supreme, would be -delivered from all personal ambition; who should decree justice and be a -refuge for all that were oppressed. He was to be the captain of -Christian society and the guardian of civil right; as in another sphere -the Pope was to be the shepherd of souls and the guardian of the deposit -of Divine truth. In Dante's eyes the one great officer was as much God's -vicegerent as the other. While the most that a Ghibeline or a moderate -Guelf would concede was that there should be a division of power between -Pope and Emperor--the Ghibeline leaving it to the Emperor and the Guelf -to the Pope to define their provinces--Dante held, and in this he stood -almost alone among politicians, that they ought to be concerned with -wholly different kingdoms, and that Christendom was wronged by the -trespass of either upon the other's domain. An equal wrong was done by -the neglect by either of his duty, and both, as Dante judged, had been -shamefully neglecting it. For more than half a century no Emperor had -set foot in Italy; and since the Papal Court had under Clement V. been -removed to Avignon (1305), the Pope had ceased to be a free agent, owing -to his neighbourhood to France and the unscrupulous Philip.[95] - -Dante trusted that the virtuous single-minded Henry VII. would prove a -monarch round whom all the best in Italy might gather to make him -Emperor in deed as well as in name. His judgment took the colour of his -hopes, for under the awful shadow of the Emperor he trusted to enter -Florence. Although no Ghibeline or Imperialist in the vulgar sense, he -constituted himself Henry's apologist and herald; and in letters -addressed to the 'wicked Florentines,' to the Emperor, and to the -Princes and Peoples of Italy, he blew as it were a trumpet-blast of -triumph over the Emperor's enemies and his own. Henry had crossed the -Alps, and was tarrying in the north of Italy, when Dante, with a keen -eye for where the key of the situation lay, sharpened by his own wishes, -urged him to lose no more time in reducing the Lombard cities to -obedience, but to descend on Florence, the rotten sheep which was -corrupting all the Italian flock. The men of Florence he bids prepare to -receive the just reward of their crimes. - -The Florentines answered Dante's bitter invective and the Emperor's -milder promises by an unwearied opposition with the arms which their -increasing command of all that tends to soften life made them now less -willing to take up, and by the diplomacy in which they were supreme The -exiles were recalled, always excepting the more stubborn or dangerous; -and among these was reckoned Dante. Alliances were made on all hands, an -art which Henry was notably wanting in the trick of. Wherever he turned -he was met and checkmated by the Florentines, who, wise by experience, -were set on retaining control of their own affairs. After his coronation -at Rome (1312),[96] he marched northwards, and with his Pisan and -Aretine allies for six weeks laid fruitless siege to Florence. King -Robert of Naples, whose aid he had hoped to gain by means of a family -alliance, was joined to the league of Guelfs, and Henry passed away from -Florence to engage in an enterprise against the Southern Kingdom, a -design cut short by his death (1313). He was the last Emperor that ever -sought to take the part in Italian affairs which on Dante's theory -belonged to the Imperial office. Well-meaning but weak, he was not the -man to succeed in reducing to practice a scheme of government which had -broken down even in the strong hands of the two Fredericks, and ere the -Commonwealths of Italy had become each as powerful as a Northern -kingdom. To explain his failure, Dante finds that his descent into Italy -was unseasonable: he came too soon. Rather, it may be said, he came far -too late.[97] - -When, on the death of Henry, Dante was disappointed in his hopes of a -true revival of the Empire, he devoted himself for a time to urging the -restoration of the Papal Court to Rome, so that Italy might at least not -be left without some centre of authority. In a letter addressed to the -Italian Cardinals, he besought them to replace Clement V., who died in -1314,[98] by an Italian Pope. Why should they, he asked, resign this -great office into Gascon hands? Why should Rome, the true centre of -Christendom, be left deserted and despised? His appeal was fruitless, as -indeed it could not fail to be with only six Italian Cardinals in a -College of twenty-four; and after a vacancy of two years the Gascon -Clement was succeeded by another Gascon. Although Dante's motives in -making this attempt were doubtless as purely patriotic as those which -inspired Catherine of Siena to similar action a century later, he met, -we may be sure, with but little sympathy from his former -fellow-citizens. They were intent upon the interests of Florence alone, -and even of these they may sometimes have taken a narrow view. His was -the wider patriotism of the Italian, and it was the whole Peninsula -that he longed to see delivered from French influence and once more -provided with a seat of authority in its midst, even if it were only -that of spiritual power. The Florentines for their part, desirous of -security against the incursions of the northern horde, were rather set -on retaining the goodwill of France than on enjoying the neighbourhood -of the Pope. In this they were guilty of no desertion of their -principles. Their Guelfism had never been more than a mode of minding -themselves. - -For about three years (1313-1316) the most dangerous foe of Florence was -Uguccione de la Faggiuola, a partisan Ghibeline chief, sprung from the -mountain-land of Urbino, which lies between Tuscany and Romagna. He made -himself lord of Pisa and Lucca, and defeated the Florentines and their -allies in the great battle of Montecatini (1315). To him Dante is -believed to have attached himself.[99] It would be easy for the Republic -to form an exaggerated idea of the part which the exile had in shaping -the policy or contributing to the success of his patron; and we are not -surprised to find that, although Dante's fighting days were done, he was -after the defeat subjected to a third condemnation (November 1315). If -caught, he was to lose his head; and his sons, or some of them, were -threatened with the same fate. The terms of the sentence may again have -been more severe than the intentions of those who uttered it. However -this may be, an amnesty was passed in the course of the following year, -and Dante was urged to take advantage of it. He found the conditions of -pardon too humiliating. Like a malefactor he would require to walk, -taper in hand and a shameful mitre on his head, to the church of St -John, and there make an oblation for his crimes. It was not in this -fashion that in his more hopeful hours the exile had imagined his -restoration. If ever he trod again the pavement of his beautiful St -John's, it was to be proudly, as a patriot touching whom his country had -confessed her sins; or, with a poet's more bashful pride, to receive the -laurel crown beside the font in which he was baptized. But as he would -not enter his well beloved, well hated Florence on the terms imposed by -his enemies, so he never had the chance of entering it on his own. The -spirit in which he, as it were, turned from the open gates of his native -town is well expressed in a letter to a friend, who would seem to have -been a churchman who had tried to win his compliance with the terms of -the pardon. After thanking his correspondent for his kindly eagerness to -recover him, and referring to the submission required, he says:--'And is -it in this glorious fashion that Dante Alighieri, wearied with an almost -trilustral exile, is recalled to his country? Is this the desert of an -innocence known to all, and of laborious study which for long has kept -him asweat?... But, Father, this is no way for me to return to my -country by; though if by you or others one can be hit upon through which -the honour and fame of Dante will take no hurt, it shall be followed by -me with no tardy steps. If by none such Florence is to be entered, I -will never enter Florence. What then! Can I not, wherever I may be, -behold the sun and stars? Is not meditation upon the sweetness of truth -as free to me in one place as another? To enjoy this, no need to submit -myself ingloriously and with ignominy to the State and People of -Florence! And wherever I may be thrown, in any case I trust at least to -find daily bread.' - -The cruelty and injustice of Florence to her greatest son have been the -subject of much eloquent blame. But, in justice to his contemporaries, -we must try to see Dante as they saw him, and bear in mind that the very -qualities fame makes so much of--his fervent temper and devotion to -great ideas--placed him out of the reach of common sympathy. Others -besides him had been banished from Florence, with as much or as little -reason, and had known the saltness of bread which has been begged, and -the steepness of strange stairs. The pains of banishment made them the -more eager to have it brought to a close. With Dante all that he -suffered went to swell the count of grievances for which a reckoning was -some day to be exacted. The art of returning was, as he himself knew -well, one he was slow to learn.[100] His noble obstinacy, which would -stoop to no loss of dignity or sacrifice of principle, must excite our -admiration; it also goes far to account for his difficulty in getting -back. We can even imagine that in Florence his refusal to abate one -tittle of what was due to him in the way of apology was, for a time, the -subject of wondering speculation to the citizens, ere they turned again -to their everyday affairs of politics and merchandise. Had they been -more used to deal with men in whom a great genius was allied to a -stubborn sense of honour, they would certainly have left less room in -their treatment of Dante for happier ages to cavil at. - -How did the case stand? In the letter above quoted from, Dante says that -his innocence was known to all. As far as the charge of corruption in -his office-bearing went, his banishment--no one can doubt it for a -moment--was certainly unjust; and the political changes in Florence -since the death of Corso Donati had taken all the life out of the other -charges. But by his eager appeals to the Emperor to chastise the -Florentines he had raised fresh barriers against his return. The -governors of the Republic could not be expected to adopt his theory of -the Empire and share his views of the Imperial claims; and to them Dante -must have seemed as much guilty of disloyalty to the Commonwealth in -inviting the presence of Henry, as Corso Donati had been in Dante's eyes -for his share in bringing Charles of Valois to harry Florence. His -political writings since his exile--and all his writings were more or -less political--had been such as might well confirm or create an opinion -of him as a man difficult to live with, as one whose intellectual -arrogance had a ready organ in his unsparing tongue or pen. Rumour -would most willingly dwell upon and distort the features of his -character and conduct that separated him from the common herd. And to -add to all this, even after he had deserted the party of the Whites in -exile, and had become a party to himself, he found his friends and -patrons--for where else could he find them?--among the foes of Florence. - - -VI. - -History never abhors a vacuum so much as when she has to deal with the -life of a great man, and for those who must have details of Dante's -career during the nineteen years which elapsed between his banishment -and his death, the industry of his biographers has exhausted every -available hint, while some of them press into their service much that -has only the remotest bearing on their hero. If even one-half of their -suppositions were adopted, we should be forced to the conclusion that -the _Comedy_ and all the other works of his exile were composed in the -intervals of a very busy life. We have his own word for this much, -(_Convito_ i. 3,) that since he was cast forth out of Florence--in which -he would 'fain rest his wearied soul and fulfil his appointed time'--he -had been 'a pilgrim, nay, even a mendicant,' in every quarter of -Italy,[101] and had 'been held cheap by many who, because of his fame, -had looked to find him come in another guise.' But he gives no journal -of his wanderings, and, as will have been observed, says no word of any -country but Italy. Keeping close to well-ascertained facts, it seems -established that in the earlier period of his exile he sojourned with -members of the great family of the Counts Guidi,[102] and that he also -found hospitality with the Malaspini,[103] lords of the Val di Magra, -between Genoa and Lucca. At a still earlier date (August 1306) he is -found witnessing a deed in Padua. It was most probably in the same year -that Dante found Giotto there, painting the walls of the Scrovegni -Chapel, and was courteously welcomed by the artist, and taken to his -house.[104] At some time of his life he studied at Bologna: John Villani -says, during his exile.[105] Of his supposed residence in Paris, though -it is highly probable, there is a want of proof; of a visit to England, -none at all that is worth a moment's consideration. Some of his -commentators and biographers seem to think he was so short-witted that -he must have been in a place before it could occur to him to name it in -his verse. - -We have Dante's own word for it that he found his exile almost -intolerable. Besides the bitter resentment which he felt at the -injustice of it, he probably cherished the conviction that his career -had been cut short when he was on the point of acquiring great influence -in affairs. The illusion may have been his--one not uncommon among men -of a powerful imagination--that, given only due opportunity, he could -mould the active life of his time as easily as he moulded and fashioned -the creations of his fancy. It was, perhaps, owing to no fault of his -own that when a partial opportunity had offered itself, he failed to get -his views adopted in Florence; indeed, to judge from the kind of -employment in which he was more than once engaged for his patrons, he -must have been possessed of no little business tact. Yet, as when his -feelings were deeply concerned his words knew no restraint, so his hopes -would partake of the largeness of his genius. In the restored Empire, -which he was almost alone in longing for as he conceived of it, he may -have imagined for himself a place beside Henry like what in Frederick's -court had been filled by Pier delle Vigne--the man who held both keys to -the Emperor's heart, and opened and shut it as he would.[106] - -Thus, as his exile ran on it would grow sadder with the accumulating -memories of hopes deferred and then destroyed, and of dreams which had -faded away in the light of a cheerless reality. But some consolations he -must have found even in the conditions of his exile. He had leisure for -meditation, and time enough to spend in that other world which was all -his own. With the miseries of a wanderer's life would come not a few of -its sweets--freedom from routine, and the intellectual stimulus supplied -by change of place. Here and there he would find society such as he -cared for--that of scholars, theologians, and men familiar with every -court and school of Christendom. And, beyond all, he would get access to -books that at home he might never have seen. It was no spare diet that -would serve his mind while he was making such ample calls on it for his -great work. As it proceeds we seem to detect a growing fulness of -knowledge, and it is by reason of the more learned treatment, as well as -the loftier theme of the Third Cantica, that so many readers, when once -well at sea in the _Paradiso_, recognise the force of the warning with -which it begins.[107] - -What amount of intercourse he was able to maintain with Florence during -his wanderings is a matter of mere speculation, although of a more -interesting kind than that concerned with the chronology of his uneasy -travels. That he kept up at least some correspondence with his friends -is proved by the letter regarding the terms of his pardon. There is also -the well-known anecdote told by Boccaccio as to the discovery and -despatch to him of the opening Cantos of the _Inferno_--an anecdote we -may safely accept as founded on fact, although Boccaccio's informants -may have failed to note at the time what the manuscript consisted of, -and in the course of years may have magnified the importance of their -discovery. With his wife he would naturally communicate on subjects of -common interest--as, for instance, that of how best to save or recover -part of his property--and especially regarding the welfare of his sons, -of whom two are found to be with him when he acquires something like a -settlement in Verona. - -It is quite credible that, as Boccaccio asserts, he would never after -his exile was once begun 'go to his wife or suffer her to join him where -he was;' although the statement is probably an extension of the fact -that she never did join him. In any case it is to make too large a use -of the words to find in them evidence, as has frequently been done, of -the unhappiness of all his married life, and of his utter estrangement -from Gemma during his banishment. The union--marriage of convenience -though it was--might be harmonious enough as long as things went -moderately well with the pair. Dante was never wealthy, but he seems to -have had his own house in Florence and small landed possessions in its -neighbourhood.[108] That before his banishment he was considerably in -debt appears to be ascertained;[109] but, without knowing the -circumstances in which he borrowed, it is impossible to be sure whether -he may not only have been making use of his credit in order to put out -part of his means to advantage in some of the numerous commercial -enterprises in which his neighbours were engaged. In any case his career -must have seemed full of promise till he was driven into banishment. -When that blow had fallen, it is easy to conceive how what if it was not -mutual affection had come to serve instead of it--esteem and -forbearance--would be changed into indifference with the lapse of months -and years of enforced separation, embittered and filled on both sides -with the mean cares of indigence, and, it may be, on Gemma's side with -the conviction that her husband had brought her with himself into -disgrace. If all that is said by Boccaccio and some of Dante's enemies -as to his temperament and behaviour were true, we could only hope that -Gemma's indifference was deep enough to save her from the pangs of -jealousy. And on the other hand, if we are to push suspicion to its -utmost length, we may find an allusion to his own experience in the -lines where Dante complains of how soon a widow forgets her -husband.[110] But this is all matter of the merest speculation. Gemma -is known to have been alive in 1314.[111] She brought up her children, -says Boccaccio, upon a trifling part of her husband's confiscated -estate, recovered on the plea that it was a portion of her dowry. There -may have been difficulties of a material kind, insuperable save to an -ardent love that was not theirs, in the way of Gemma's joining her -husband in any of his cities of refuge. - -Complete evidence exists of Dante's having in his later years lived for -a longer or shorter time in the three cities of Lucca, Verona, and -Ravenna. In Purgatory he meets a shade from Lucca, in the murmur of -whose words he catches he 'knows not what of Gentucca;'[112] and when he -charges the Lucchese to speak plainly out, he is told that Lucca shall -yet be found pleasant by him because of a girl not yet grown to -womanhood. Uguccione, acting in the interest of Pisa, took possession of -Lucca in 1314, and Dante is supposed to have taken up his residence -there for some considerable time. What we may certainly infer from his -own words in the _Purgatorio_ is that they were written after a stay in -Lucca had been sweetened to him by the society of a lady named Gentucca. -He cannot well have found shelter there before the city was held by -Uguccione; and research has established that at least two ladies of the -uncommon name of Gentucca were resident there in 1314. From the whole -tone of his allusion--the mention of her very name and of her innocent -girlhood--we may gather that there was nothing in his liking for her of -which he had any reason to feel ashamed. In the _Inferno_ he had covered -the whole people of Lucca with his scorn.[113] By the time he got thus -far with the _Purgatorio_ his thoughts of the place were all softened by -his memory of one fair face--or shall we rather say, of one -compassionate and womanly soul? That Dante was more than susceptible to -feminine charms is coarsely asserted by Boccaccio.[114] But on such a -matter Boccaccio is a prejudiced witness, and, in the absence of -sufficient proof to the contrary, justice requires us to assume that the -tenor of Dante's life was not at variance with that of his writings. He -who was so severe a judge of others was not, as we can infer from more -than one passage of the _Comedy_, a lenient judge when his own failings -were concerned.[115] That his conduct never fell short of his standard -no one will venture to maintain. But what should have hindered him, in -his hours of weariness and when even his hold on the future seemed to -slacken, in lonely castle or strange town, to seek sympathy from some -fair woman who might remind him in something of Beatrice?[116] - -When, in 1316, Uguccione was driven out of Lucca and Pisa, that great -partisan took military service with Can Grande. It has been disputed -whether Dante had earlier enjoyed the hospitality of the Scaligers, or -was indebted for his first reception in Verona to the good offices of -Uguccione. It is barely credible that by this time in his life he stood -in need of any one to answer for him in the court of Can Grande. His -fame as a political writer must have preceded him; and it was of a -character to commend him to the good graces of the great Imperialist. In -his _De Monarchia_ he had, by an exhaustive treatment of propositions -which now seem childish or else the mere commonplaces of everyday -political argument, established the right of the civil power to -independence of Church authority; and though to the Scaliger who aimed -at becoming Imperial lieutenant for all the North of Italy he might seem -needlessly tender to the spiritual lordship of the Holy Father, yet the -drift of his reasoning was all in favour of the Ghibeline position.[117] -Besides this he had written on the need of refining the dialects of -Italian, and reducing them to a language fit for general use in the -whole of the Peninsula; and this with a novelty of treatment and wealth -of illustration unequalled before or since in any first work on such a -subject.[118] And, what would recommend him still more to a youthful -prince of lofty taste, he was the poet of the 'sweet new style' of the -_Vita Nuova_, and of sonnets, ballads, and canzoni rich in language and -thought beyond the works of all previous poets in the vulgar tongues. -Add to this that the _Comedy_ was already written, and published up, -perhaps, to the close of the _Purgatorio_, and that all Italy was eager -to find who had a place, and what kind of place, in the strange new -world from which the veil was being withdrawn; and it is easy to imagine -that Dante's reception at Can Grande's court was rather that of a man -both admired and feared for his great genius, than that of a wandering -scholar and grumbling exile. - -At what time Dante came to Verona, and for how long he stayed, we have -no means of fixing with certainty. He himself mentions being there in -1320,[119] and it is usually supposed that his residence covered three -years previous to that date; as also that it was shared by his two sons, -Piero and Jacopo. One of these was afterwards to find a settlement at -Verona in a high legal post. Except some frivolous legends, there is no -evidence that Dante met with anything but generous treatment from Can -Grande. A passage of the _Paradiso_, written either towards the close of -the poet's residence at Verona, or after he had left it, is full of a -praise of the great Scaliger so magnificent[120] as fully to make amends -for the contemptuous mention in the _Purgatorio_ of his father and -brother.[121] To Can Grande the _Paradiso_ was dedicated by the author -in a long epistle containing an exposition of how the first Canto of -that Cantica, and, by implication, the whole of the poem, is to be -interpreted. The letter is full of gratitude for favours already -received, and of expectation of others yet to come. From the terms of -the dedication it has been assumed that ere it was made the whole of the -_Paradiso_ was written, and that Dante praises the lord of Verona after -a long experience of his bounty.[122] - -Whether owing to the restlessness of an exile, or to some prospect of -attaining a state of greater ease or of having the command of more -congenial society, we cannot tell; but from the splendid court of Can -Grande he moved down into Romagna, to Ravenna, the city which of all in -Italy would now be fixed upon by the traveller as the fittest place for -a man of genius, weighed down by infinite sorrows, to close his days in -and find a tomb. Some writers on the life of Dante will have it that in -Ravenna he spent the greater part of his exile, and that when he is -found elsewhere--in Lucca or Verona--he is only on a temporary absence -from his permanent home.[123] But this conclusion requires some facts to -be ignored, and others unduly dwelt on. In any case his patron there, -during at least the last year or two of his life, was Guido Novello of -Polenta, lord of Ravenna, the nephew of her who above all the persons of -the _Comedy_ lives in the hearts of its readers. - -Bernardino, the brother of Francesca and uncle of Guido, had fought on -the side of Florence at the battle of Campaldino, and Dante may then -have become acquainted with him. The family had the reputation of being -moderate Guelfs; but ere this the exile, with his ripe experience of -men, had doubtless learned, while retaining intact his own opinions as -to what was the true theory of government, to set good-heartedness and -a noble aim in life above political orthodoxy. This Guido Novello--the -younger Guido--bears the reputation of having been well-informed, of -gentle manners, and fond of gathering around him men accomplished in -literature and the fine arts. On the death of Dante he made a formal -oration in honour of the poet. If his welcome of Dante was as cordial as -is generally supposed, and as there is no reason to doubt that it was, -it proved his magnanimity; for in the _Purgatorio_ a family specially -hostile to the Polentas had been mentioned with honour,[124] while that -to which his wife belonged had been lightly spoken of. How he got over -the condemnation of his kinswoman to Inferno--even under such gentle -conditions--it would be more difficult to understand were there not -reason to believe that ere Dante went to Ravenna it had come to be a -matter of pride in Italy for a family to have any of its members placed -anywhere in that other world of which Dante held the key. - -It seems as if we might assume that the poet's last months or years were -soothed by the society of his daughter--the child whom he had named -after the object of his first and most enduring love.[125] Whether or -not he was acting as Ambassador for Guido to Venice when he caught his -last illness, it appears to be pretty well established that he was held -in honour by his patron and all around him.[126] For his hours of -meditation he had the solemn churches of Ravenna with their storied -walls,[127] and the still more solemn pine forest of Classis, by him -first annexed to the world of Romance.[128] For hours of relaxation, -when they came, he had neighbours who dabbled in letters and who could -at any rate sympathise with him in his love of study. He maintained -correspondence with poets and scholars in other cities. In at least one -instance this was conducted in the bitter fashion with which the -humanists of a century or two later were to make the world -familiar;[129] but with the Bolognese scholar, Giovanni del Virgilio, he -engaged in a good-humoured, half-bantering exchange of Latin pastoral -poems, through the artificial imagery of which there sometimes breaks a -natural thought, as when in answer to the pedant's counsel to renounce -the vulgar tongue and produce in Latin something that will entitle him -to receive the laurel crown in Bologna, he declares that if ever he is -crowned as a poet it will be on the banks of the Arno. - -Most of the material for forming a judgment of how Dante stood affected -to the religious beliefs of his time is to be gathered from the -_Comedy_, and the place for considering it would rather be in an essay -on that work than in a sketch of his life which necessity compels to be -swift. A few words may however be here devoted to the subject, as it is -one with some bearing on the manner in which he would be regarded by -those around him, and through that on the tenor of his life. That Dante -conformed to Church observances, and, except with a few malevolent -critics, bore the reputation of a good Catholic, there can be no doubt. -It was as a politician and not as a heretic that he suffered -persecution; and when he died he was buried in great honour within the -Franciscan Church at Ravenna. Some few years after his death, it is -true, his _De Monarchia_ was burned as heretical by orders of the Papal -Legate in Lombardy, who would gladly, if he could, have had the bones of -the author exhumed to share the fate of his book. But all this was only -because the partisans of Lewis of Bavaria were making political capital -out of the treatise. - -Attempts have been made to demonstrate that in spite of his outward -conformity Dante was an unbeliever at heart, and that the _Comedy_ is -devoted to the promulgation of a Ghibeline heresy--of which, we may be -sure, no Ghibeline ever heard--and to the overthrow of all that the -author professed most devoutly to believe.[130] Other critics of a more -sober temper in speculation would find in him a Catholic who held the -Catholic beliefs with the same slack grasp as the teaching of Luther was -held by Lessing or Goethe.[131] But this is surely to misread the -_Comedy_, which is steeped from beginning to end in a spirit of the -warmest faith in the great Christian doctrines. It was no mere -intellectual perception of these that Dante had--or professed to -have--for when in Paradise he has satisfied Saint Peter of his being -possessed of a just conception of the nature of faith, and is next asked -if, besides knowing what is the alloy of the coin and the weight of it, -he has it in his own purse, he answers boldly, 'Yea, and so shining and -round that of a surety it has the lawful stamp.'[132] And further on, -when required to declare in what he believes, nothing against the -fulness of his creed is to be inferred from the fact that he stops short -after pronouncing his belief in the existence of God and in the Trinity. -This article he gives as implying all the others; it is 'the spark which -spreads out into a vivid flame.'[133] - -Yet if the inquiry were to be pushed further, and it were sought to find -how much of free thought he allowed himself in matters of religion, -Dante might be discovered to have reached his orthodox position by ways -hateful to the bigots who then took order for preserving the purity of -the faith. The office of the Pope he deeply revered, but the Papal -absolution avails nothing in his eyes compared with one tear of -heartfelt repentance.[134] It is not on the word of Pope or Council that -he rests his faith, but on the Scriptures, and on the evidences of the -truth of Christianity, freely examined and weighed.[135] Chief among -these evidences, it must however be noted, he esteemed the fact of the -existence of the Church as he found it;[136] and in his inquiries he -accepted as guides the Scholastic Doctors on whose reasonings the Church -had set its seal of approbation. It was a foregone conclusion he reached -by stages of his own. Yet that he sympathised at least as much with the -honest search for truth as with the arrogant profession of orthodoxy, is -shown by his treatment of heretics. He could not condemn severely such -as erred only because their reason would not consent to rest like his in -the prevalent dogmatic system; and so we find that he makes heresy -consist less in intellectual error than in beliefs that tend to vitiate -conduct, or to cause schism in societies divinely constituted.[137] For -his own part, orthodox although he was, or believed himself to be--which -is all that needs to be contended for,--in no sense was he -priest-ridden. It was liberty that he went seeking on his great -journey;[138] and he gives no hint that it is to be gained by the -observance of forms or in submission to sacerdotal authority. He knows -it is in his reach only when he has been crowned, and mitred too, lord -of himself[139]--subject to Him alone of whom even Popes were -servants.[140] - -Although in what were to prove his last months Dante might amuse himself -with the composition of learned trifles, and in the society and -correspondence of men who along with him, if on lines apart from his, -were preparing the way for the revival of classical studies, the best -part of his mind, then as for long before, was devoted to the _Comedy_; -and he was counting on the suffrages of a wider audience than courts and -universities could supply. - -Here there is no room to treat at length of that work, to which when we -turn our thoughts all else he wrote--though that was enough to secure -him fame--seems to fall into the background as if unworthy of his -genius. What can hardly be passed over in silence is that in the -_Comedy_, once it was begun, he must have found a refuge for his soul -from all petty cares, and a shield against all adverse fortune. We must -search its pages, and not the meagre records of his biographers, to find -what was the life he lived during the years of his exile; for, in a -sense, it contains the true journal of his thoughts, of his hopes, and -of his sorrows. The plan was laid wide enough to embrace the -observations he made of nature and of man, the fruits of his painful -studies, and the intelligence he gathered from those experienced in -travel, politics, and war. It was not only his imagination and artistic -skill that were spent upon the poem: he gave his life to it. The future -reward he knew was sure--an immortal fame; but he hoped for a nearer -profit on his venture. Florence might at last relent, if not because of -his innocence and at the spectacle of his inconsolable exile, at least -on hearing the rumour of his genius borne to her from every corner of -Italy:-- - - If e'er it comes that this my sacred Lay, - To which both Heaven and Earth have set their hand-- - Through which these many years I waste away-- - Shall quell the cruelty that keeps me banned - From the fair fold where I, a lamb, was found - Hostile to wolves who 'gainst it violence planned; - With other fleece and voice of other sound, - Poet will I return, and at the font - Where I was christened be with laurel crowned.[141] - -But with the completion of the _Comedy_ Dante's life too came to a -close. He died at Ravenna in the month of September 1321. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Matilda died in 1115. The name Tessa, the contraction of Contessa, -was still, long after her time, sometimes given to Florentine girls. See -Perrens, _Histoire de Florence_, vol. i. p. 126. - -[2] Whether by Matilda the great Countess is meant has been eagerly -disputed, and many of the best critics--such as Witte and -Scartazzini--prefer to find in her one of the ladies of the _Vita -Nuova_. In spite of their pains it seems as if more can be said for the -great Matilda than for any other. The one strong argument against her -is, that while she died old, in the poem she appears as young. - -[3] See note on _Inferno_ xxx. 73. - -[4] It might, perhaps, be more correct to say that to some offices the -nobles were eligible, but did not elect. - -[5] _Inf._ xiii. 75. - -[6] _Inf._ x. 119. - -[7] _Inf._ xxiii. 66. - -[8] _Inf._ x. 51. - -[9] _Purg._ vi. 144. - -[10] Dante sets the Abbot among the traitors in Inferno, and says -scornfully of him that his throat was cut at Florence (_Inf._ xxxii. -119). - -[11] Villani throws doubt on the guilt of the Abbot. There were some -cases of churchmen being Ghibelines, as for instance that of the -Cardinal Ubaldini (_Inf._ x. 120). Twenty years before the Abbot's death -the General of the Franciscans had been jeered at in the streets of -Florence for turning his coat and joining the Emperor. On the other -hand, many civilians were to be found among the Guelfs. - -[12] Manfred, says John Villani (_Cronica_, vi. 74 and 75), at first -sent only a hundred men. Having by Farinata's advice been filled with -wine before a skirmish in which they were induced to engage, they were -easily cut in pieces by the Florentines; and the royal standard was -dragged in the dust. The truth of the story matters less than that it -was believed in Florence. - -[13] Provenzano is found by Dante in Purgatory, which he has been -admitted to, in spite of his sins, because of his self-sacrificing -devotion to a friend (_Purg._ xi. 121). - -[14] For this good advice he gets a word of praise in Inferno (_Inf._ -xvi. 42). - -[15] These mercenaries, though called Germans, were of various races. -There were even Greeks and Saracens among them. The mixture corresponded -with the motley civilisation of Manfred's court. - -[16] _Inf._ xxxii. 79. - -[17] _Inf._ x. 93. - -[18] Lucera was a fortress which had been peopled with Saracens by -Frederick. - -[19] Manfred, _Purg._ iii. 112; Charles, _Purg._ vii. 113. - -[20] _Purg._ xx. 67. - -[21] _Purg._ iii. 122. - -[22] For an account of the constitution and activity of the _Parte -Guelfa_ at a later period, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. iv. p. -482. - -[23] _Purg._ xx. 68. - -[24] _Parad._ xi. 89. - -[25] _Parad._ xvi. 40, etc. - -[26] _Inf._ xxix. 31. - -[27] _Inf._ x. 42. Though Dante was descended from nobles, his rank in -Florence was not that of a noble or magnate, but of a commoner. - -[28] The month is indicated by Dante himself, _Parad._ xxii. 110. The -year has recently been disputed. For 1265 we have J. Villani and the -earliest biographers; and Dante's own expression at the beginning of the -_Comedy_ is in favour of it. - -[29] _Inf._ xxiii. 95. - -[30] _Inf._ xix. 17; _Parad._ xxv. 9. - -[31] _Purg._ xxx. 55. - -[32] _Inf._ viii. 45, where Virgil says of Dante that blessed was she -that bore him, can scarcely be regarded as an exception to this -statement. - -[33] In 1326, out of a population of ninety thousand, from eight to ten -thousand children were being taught to read; and from five to six -hundred were being taught grammar and logic in four high schools. There -was not in Dante's time, or till much later, a University in Florence. -See J. Villani, xi. 94, and Burckhardt, _Cultur der Renaissance_, vol. -i. p. 76. - -[34] For an interesting account of Heresy in Florence from the eleventh -to the thirteenth centuries, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. i. -livre ii. chap. iii. - -[35] It opens with Brunetto's being lost in the forest of Roncesvalles, -and there are some other features of resemblance--all on the -surface--between his experience and Dante's. - -[36] G. Villani, viii. 10. Latini died in 1294. Villani gives the old -scholar a very bad moral character. - -[37] _Inf._ xv. 84. - -[38] We may, I think, assume the _Vita Nuova_ to have been published -some time between 1291 and 1300; but the dates of Dante's works are far -from being ascertained. - -[39] So long as even Italian critics are not agreed as to whether the -title means _New Life_, or _Youth_, I suppose one is free to take his -choice; and it seems most natural to regard it as referring to the new -world into which the lover is transported by his passion. - -[40] As, indeed, Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, expressly says was the -case. - -[41] In this adopting a device frequently used by the love-poets of the -period.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 312. - -[42] The _Vita Nuova_ contains some thirty poems. - -[43] See Sir Theodore Martin's Introduction to his Translation of _Vita -Nuova_, page xxi. - -[44] In this matter we must not judge the conduct of Dante by English -customs. - -[45] _Donne, ch' avete intelletto d' amore_: Ladies that are acquainted -well with love. Quoted in _Purg._ xxiv. 51. - -[46] Beatrice died in June 1290, having been born in April 1266. - -[47] _Purg._ xi. 98. - -[48] _Purg._ xxiv. 52. - -[49] The date of the _Convito_ is still the subject of controversy, as -is that of most of Dante's works. But it certainly was composed between -the _Vita Nuova_ and the _Comedy_. - -There is a remarkable sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti addressed to Dante, -reproaching him for the deterioration in his thoughts and habits, and -urging him to rid himself of the woman who has bred the trouble. This -may refer to the time after the death of Beatrice. See also _Purg._ xxx. -124. - -[50] _Convito_ ii. 13. - -[51] Some recent writers set his marriage five years later, and reduce -the number of his children to three. - -[52] His sister is probably meant by the 'young and gentle lady, most -nearly related to him by blood' mentioned in the _Vita Nuova_. - -[53] The difference between the Teutonic and Southern conception of -marriage must be kept in mind. - -[54] He describes the weather on the day of the battle with the -exactness of one who had been there (_Purg._ v. 155). - -[55] Leonardo Bruni. - -[56] _Inf._ xxii. 4. - -[57] _Inf._ xxi. 95. - -[58] _Conv._ iii. 9, where he illustrates what he has to say about the -nature of vision, by telling that for some time the stars, when he -looked at them, seemed lost in a pearly haze. - -[59] The _Convito_ was to have consisted of fifteen books. Only four -were written. - -[60] _Wife of Bath's Tale._ In the context he quotes _Purg._ vii. 121, -and takes ideas from the _Convito_. - -[61] Dies to sensual pleasure and is abstracted from all worldly affairs -and interests. See _Convito_ iv. 28. - -[62] From the last canzone of the _Convito_. - -[63] In the _Vita Nuova_. - -[64] _Purg._ xxiii. 115, xxiv. 75; _Parad._ iii. 49. - -[65] _Purg._ xi. 95. - -[66] _Purg._ ii. 91. - -[67] _Purg._ iv. 123. - -[68] Sacchetti's stories of how Dante showed displeasure with the -blacksmith and the donkey-driver who murdered his _canzoni_ are -interesting only as showing what kind of legends about him were current -in the streets of Florence.--Sacchetti, _Novelle_, cxiv, cxv. - -[69] _Purg._ xii. 101. - -[70] _Purg._ xi. 94:-- - - 'In painting Cimabue deemed the field - His own, but now on Giotto goes the cry, - Till by his fame the other's is concealed.' - -[71] Giotto is often said to have drawn inspiration from the _Comedy_; -but that Dante, on his side, was indebted to the new school of painting -and sculpture appears from many a passage of the _Purgatorio_. - -[72] Serfage had been abolished in 1289. But doubt has been thrown on -the authenticity of the deed of abolition. See Perrens, _Hist. de -Florence_, vol. ii. p. 349. - -[73] No unusual provision in the industrious Italian cities. Harsh -though it may seem, it was probably regarded as a valuable concession to -the nobles, for their disaffection appears to have been greatly caused -by their uneasiness under disabilities. There is much obscurity on -several points. How, for example, came the nobles to be allowed to -retain the command of the vast resources of the _Parte Guelfa_? This -made them almost independent of the Commonwealth. - -[74] At a later period the Priors were known as the Signory. - -[75] Fraticelli, _Storia della Vita di Dante_, page 112 and note. - -[76] It is to be regretted that Ampère in his charming _Voyage -Dantesque_ devoted no chapter to San Gemigniano, than which no Tuscan -city has more thoroughly preserved its mediæval character. There is no -authority for the assertion that Dante was employed on several -Florentine embassies. The tendency of his early biographers is to -exaggerate his political importance and activity. - -[77] Under the date of April 1301 Dante is deputed by the Road Committee -to see to the widening, levelling, and general improvement of a street -in the suburbs.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 279. - -[78] Dante has a word of praise for Giano, at _Parad._ xvi. 127. - -[79] At which Dante fought. See page lxii. - -[80] Vieri was called Messer, a title reserved for magnates, knights, -and lawyers of a certain rank--notaries and jurisconsults; Dante, for -example, never gets it. - -[81] Villani acted for some time as an agent abroad of the great -business house of Peruzzi. - -[82] _Inf._ iii. 60. - -[83] He is 'the Prince of the modern Pharisees' (_Inf._ xxvii. 85); his -place is ready for him in hell (_Inf._ xix. 53); and he is elsewhere -frequently referred to. In one great passage Dante seems to relent -towards him (_Purg._ xx. 86). - -[84] Albert of Hapsburg was chosen Emperor in 1298, but was never -crowned at Rome. - -[85] As in the days of Guelf and Ghibeline, so now in those of Blacks -and Whites, the common multitude of townsmen belonged to neither party. - -[86] An interdict means that priests are to refuse sacred offices to all -in the community, who are thus virtually subjected to the minor -excommunication. - -[87] Guido died soon after his return in 1301. He had suffered in health -during his exile. See _Inf._ x. 63. - -[88] Charles of Anjou had lost Sicily at the Sicilian Vespers, 1282. - -[89] _Purg._ xx. 76. - -[90] Witte attributes the composition of the _De Monarchia_ to a period -before 1301 (_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. i. Fourth Art.), but the general -opinion of critics sets it much later. - -[91] _Inf._ vi. 66, where their expulsion is prophesied. - -[92] Dante's authorship of the letter is now much questioned. The drift -of recent inquiries has been rather to lessen than to swell the bulk of -materials for his biography. - -[93] _Parad._ xvii. 61. - -[94] _Purg._ xxiv. 82. - -[95] See at _Purg._ xx. 43 Dante's invective against Philip and the -Capets in general. - -[96] Henry had come to Italy with the Pope's approval. He was crowned by -the Cardinals who were in Rome as Legates. - -[97] _Parad._ xxx. 136. High in Heaven Dante sees an ample chair with a -crown on it, and is told it is reserved for Henry. He is to sit among -those who are clothed in white. The date assigned to the action of the -_Comedy_, it will be remembered, is the year 1300. - -[98] _Inf._ xix. 82, where the Gascon Clement is described as a 'Lawless -Pastor from the West.' - -[99] The ingenious speculations of Troya (_Del Veltro Allegorico di -Dante_) will always mark a stage in the history of the study of Dante, -but as is often the case with books on the subject, his shows a -considerable gap between the evidence adduced and the conclusions drawn -from it. He would make Dante to have been for many years a satellite of -the great Ghibeline chief. Dante's temper or pride, however we call it, -seems to have been such as to preserve him from ever remaining attached -for long to any patron. - -[100] _Inf._ x. 81. - -[101] The _Convito_ is in Italian, and his words are: 'wherever this -language is spoken.' - -[102] His letter to the Florentines and that to the Emperor are dated in -1311, from 'Near the sources of the Arno'--that is, from the Casentino, -where the Guidi of Romena dwelt. If the letter of condolence with the -Counts Oberto and Guido of Romena on the death of their uncle is -genuine, it has great value for the passage in which he excuses himself -for not having come to the funeral:--'It was not negligence or -ingratitude, but the poverty into which I am fallen by reason of my -exile. This, like a cruel persecutor, holds me as in a prison-house -where I have neither horse nor arms; and though I do all I can to free -myself, I have failed as yet.' The letter has no date. Like the other -ten or twelve epistles attributed to Dante, it is in Latin. - -[103] There is a splendid passage in praise of this family, _Purg._ -viii. 121. A treaty is on record in which Dante acts as representative -of the Malaspini in settling the terms of a peace between them and the -Bishop of Luni in October 1306. - -[104] The authority for this is Benvenuto of Imola in his comment on the -_Comedy_ (_Purg._ xi.). The portrait of Dante by Giotto, still in -Florence, but ruined by modern bungling restoration, is usually believed -to have been executed in 1301 or 1302. But with regard to this, see the -note at the end of this essay. - -[105] It is true that Villani not only says that 'he went to study at -Bologna,' but also that 'he went to Paris and many parts of the world' -(_Cronica_, ix. 136), and that Villani, of all contemporary or nearly -contemporary writers, is by far the most worthy of credence. But he -proves to be more than once in error regarding Dante; making him, -_e.g._, die in a wrong month and be buried in a wrong church at Ravenna. -And the 'many parts of the world' shows that here he is dealing in -hearsay of the vaguest sort. Nor can much weight be given to Boccaccio -when he sends Dante to Bologna and Paris. But Benvenuto of Imola, who -lectured on the _Comedy_ at Bologna within fifty years of Dante's death, -says that Dante studied there. It would indeed be strange if he did not, -and at more than one period, Bologna being the University nearest -Florence. Proof of Dante's residence in Paris has been found in his -familiar reference to the Rue du Fouarre (_Parad._ x. 137). His graphic -description of the coast between Lerici and Turbia (_Purg._ iii. 49, iv. -25) certainly seems to show a familiarity with the Western as well as -the Eastern Rivieras of Genoa. But it scarcely follows that he was on -his way to Paris when he visited them. - -[106] _Inf._ xiii. 58. - -[107] 'O ye, who have hitherto been following me in some small -craft, ... put not further to sea, lest, losing sight of me, you lose -yourselves' (_Parad._ ii. 1). But, to tell the truth, Dante is never so -weak as a poet as when he is most the philosopher or the theologian. -The following list of books more or less known to him is not given as -complete:--The Vulgate, beginning with St. Jerome's Prologue; Aristotle, -through the Latin translation then in vogue; Averroes, etc.; Thomas -Aquinas and the other Schoolmen; much of the Civil and Canon law; -Boethius; Homer only in scraps, through Aristotle, etc.; Virgil, Cicero -in part, Livy, Horace, Ovid, Terence, Lucan, and Statius; the works of -Brunetto Latini; the poetical literature of Provence, France, and Italy, -including the Arthurian Romances--the favourite reading of the Italian -nobles, and the tales of Charlemagne and his Peers--equally in favour -with the common people. There is little reason to suppose that among the -treatises of a scientific and quasi-scientific kind that he fell in -with, and of which he was an eager student, were included the works of -Roger Bacon. These there was a conspiracy among priests and schoolmen to -keep buried. Dante seems to have set little store on ecclesiastical -legends of wonder; at least he gives them a wide berth in his works. - -[108] In the notes to Fraticelli's _Vita di Dante_ (Florence 1861) are -given copies of documents relating to the property of the Alighieri, and -of Dante in particular. In 1343 his son Jacopo, by payment of a small -fine, recovered vineyards and farms that had been his father's.--Notes -to Chap. iii. Fraticelli's admirable Life is now in many respects out of -date. He accepts, _e.g._, Dino Compagni as an authority, and believes in -the romantic story of the letter of Fra Ilario. - -[109] The details are given by Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol ii. p. -61. The amount borrowed by Dante and his brother (and a friend) comes to -nearly a thousand gold florins. Witte takes this as equivalent to 37,000 -francs, _i.e._ nearly £1500. But the florin being the eighth of an -ounce, or about ten shillings' worth of gold, a thousand florins would -be equal only to £500--representing, of course, an immensely greater sum -now-a-days. - -[110] _Purg._ viii. 76. - -[111] See in Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri_, 1879, page 552, extract -from the will of her mother Maria Donati, dated February 1314. Many of -these Florentine dates are subject to correction, the year being usually -counted from Lady-Day. 'In 1880 a document was discovered which proves -Gemma to have been engaged in a law-suit in 1332.--_Il Propugnatore_, -xiii^a. 156,'--Scheffer-Boichorst, _Aus Dantes Verbannung_, page 213. - -[112] _Purg._ xxiv. 37. - -[113] _Inf._ xxi. 40. - -[114] _In questo mirifico poeta trovò ampissimo luego la lussuria; e non -solamente ne' giovanili anni, ma ancora ne' maturi._--Boccaccio, _La -Vita di Dante_. After mentioning that Dante was married, he indulges in -a long invective against marriage; confessing, however, that he is -ignorant of whether Dante experienced the miseries he describes. His -conclusion on the subject is that philosophers should leave marriage to -rich fools, to nobles, and to handicraftsmen. - -[115] In Purgatory his conscience accuses him of pride, and he already -seems to feel the weight of the grievous burden beneath which the proud -bend as they purge themselves of their sin (_Purg._ xiii. 136). Some -amount of self-accusation seems to be implied in such passages as -_Inf._, v. 142 and _Purg._ xxvii. 15, etc.; but too much must not be -made of it. - -[116] In a letter of a few lines to one of the Marquises Malaspina, -written probably in the earlier years of his exile, he tells how his -purpose of renouncing ladies' society and the writing of love-songs had -been upset by the view of a lady of marvellous beauty who 'in all -respects answered to his tastes, habits, and circumstances.' He says he -sends with the letter a poem containing a fuller account of his -subjection to this new passion. The poem is not found attached to the -copy of the letter, but with good reason it is guessed to be the Canzone -beginning _Amor, dacchè convien_, which describes how he was -overmastered by a passion born 'in the heart of the mountains in the -valley of that river beside which he had always been the victim of -love.' This points to the Casentino as the scene. He also calls the -Canzone his 'mountain song.' The passion it expresses may be real, but -that he makes the most of it appears from the close, which is occupied -by the thought of how the verses will be taken in Florence. - -[117] However early the _De Monarchia_ may have been written, it is -difficult to think that it can be of a later date than the death of -Henry. - -[118] The _De Vulgari Eloquio_ is in Latin. Dante's own Italian is -richer and more elastic than that of contemporary writers. Its base is -the Tuscan dialect, as refined by the example of the Sicilian poets. His -Latin, on the contrary, is I believe regarded as being somewhat -barbarous, even for the period. - -[119] In his _Quæstio de Aqua et Terra_. In it he speaks of having been -in Mantua. The thesis was maintained in Verona, but of course he may, -after a prolonged absence, have returned to that city. - -[120] _Parad._ xvii. 70. - -[121] _Purg._ xviii. 121. - -[122] But in urgent need of more of it.--He says of 'the sublime -Cantica, adorned with the title of the _Paradiso_', that '_illam sub -præsenti epistola, tamquam sub epigrammate proprio dedicatam, vobis -adscribo, vobis offero, vobis denique recommendo_.' But it may be -questioned if this involves that the Cantica was already finished. - -[123] As, for instance, Herr Scheffer-Boichorst in his _Aus Dantes -Verbannung_, 1882. - -[124] The Traversari (_Purg._ xiv. 107). Guido's wife was of the -Bagnacavalli (_Purg._ xiv. 115). The only mention of the Polenta family, -apart from that of Francesca, is at _Inf._ xxvii. 41. - -[125] In 1350 a sum of ten gold florins was sent from Florence by the -hands of Boccaccio to Beatrice, daughter of Dante; she being then a nun -at Ravenna. - -[126] The embassy to Venice is mentioned by Villani, and there was a -treaty concluded in 1321 between the Republic and Guido. But Dante's -name does not appear in it among those of the envoys from Ravenna. A -letter, probably apocryphal, to Guido from Dante in Venice is dated -1314. If Dante, as is maintained by some writers, was engaged in tuition -while in Ravenna, it is to be feared that his pupils would find in him -an impatient master. - -[127] Not that Dante ever mentions these any more than a hundred other -churches in which he must have spent thoughtful hours. - -[128] _Purg._ xxviii. 20. - -[129] A certain Cecco d'Ascoli stuck to him like a bur, charging him, -among other things, with lust, and a want of religious faith which would -one day secure him a place in his own Inferno. Cecco was himself burned -in Florence, in 1327, for making too much of evil spirits, and holding -that human actions are necessarily affected by the position of the -stars. He had been at one time a professor of astronomy. - -[130] Gabriel Rossetti, _Comment on the Divina Commedia_, 1826, and -Aroux, _Dante, Hérétique, Révolutionnaire et Socialiste_, 1854. - -[131] Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri, Seine Zeit_, etc., 1879, page 268. - -[132] _Parad._ xxiv. 86. - -[133] _Parad._ xxiv. 145. - -[134] _Inf._ xxvii. 101; _Purg._ iii. 118. - -[135] _Parad._ xxiv. 91. - -[136] _Parad._ xxiv. 106. - -[137] _Inf._ x. and xxviii. There is no place in Purgatory where those -who in their lives had once held heretical opinions are purified of the -sin; leaving us to infer that it could be repented of in the world so as -to obliterate the stain. See also _Parad._ iv. 67. - -[138] _Purg._ i. 71. - -[139] _Purg._ xxvii. 139. - -[140] _Purg._ xix. 134. - -[141] _Parad._ xxv. 1. - - - - -GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE.[142] - - -Vasari, in his _Lives of the Painters_, tells that in his day the -portrait of Dante by Giotto was still to be seen in the chapel of the -Podesta's palace in Florence. Writers of an earlier date had already -drawn attention to this work.[143] But in the course of an age when -Italians cared little for Dante, and less for Giotto, it was allowed to -be buried out of sight; and when at length there came a revival of -esteem for these great men, the alterations in the interior arrangement -of the palace were found to have been so sweeping that it was even -uncertain which out of many chambers had formerly served as the chapel. -Twenty years after a fruitless attempt had been made to discover whether -or not the portrait was still in existence, Signor Aubrey Bezzi, -encouraged by Mr. Wilde and Mr. Kirkup, took the first step in a search -(1839) which was to end by restoring to the world what is certainly the -most interesting of all portraits, if account be taken of its beauty, -as well as of who was its author and who its subject. - -On the removal from it of a layer of lime, one of the end walls of what -had been the chapel was found to be covered by a fresco painting, -evidently the work of Giotto, and representing a Paradise--the subject -in which Dante's portrait was known to occur. As is usual in such works, -from the time of Giotto downwards, the subject is treated so as to allow -of the free introduction of contemporary personages. Among these was a -figure in a red gown, which there was no difficulty in recognising as -the portrait of Dante. It shows him younger and with a sweeter -expression than does Raphael's Dante, or Masaccio's,[144] or that in the -Cathedral of Florence,[145] or that of the mask said to have been taken -after his death. But to all of them it bears a strong resemblance. - -The question of when this portrait was painted will easily be seen to be -one of much importance in connection with Dante's biography. The fresco -it belongs to is found to contain a cardinal, and a young man, who, -because he wears his hair long and has a coronet set on his cap, is -known to be meant for a French prince.[146] If, as is usually assumed, -this prince is Charles of Valois, then the date of the event celebrated -in the fresco is 1301 or 1302. With regard to when the work was -executed, Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their valuable book, say as -follows:[147]-- - - 'All inferences to be deduced from the subject and form of these - frescos point to the date of 1301-2. It may be inquired whether - they were executed by Giotto at the time, and this inquiry can only - be satisfied approximatively. It may be inferred that Dante's - portrait would hardly have been introduced into a picture so - conspicuously visible as this, had not the poet at the time been - influent in Florence.... Dante's age in the fresco corresponds with - the date of 1302, and is that of a man of thirty-five. He had - himself enjoyed the highest office of Florence from June to August - 1300.[148] In the fresco he does not wear the dress of the - "Priori," but he holds in the ranks of those near Charles of Valois - an honourable place. It may be presumed that the frescos were - executed previous[149] to Dante's exile, and this view is confirmed - by the technical and artistic progress which they reveal. They - exhibit, indeed, the master in a higher sphere of development than - at Assisi and Rome.' - -This account of the subject of the work and the probable date of its -execution may, I think, be accepted as containing all that is to be said -in favour of the current opinion on the matter. That writer after writer -has adopted that opinion without a sign of doubt as to its credibility -must surely have arisen from failure to observe the insuperable -difficulties it presents. - -Both Charles of Valois and the Cardinal Acquasparta were in Florence -during part of the winter of 1301-1302; but the circumstances under -which they were there make it highly improbable that the Commonwealth -was anxious to do them honour beyond granting them the outward show of -respect which it would have been dangerous to refuse. Earlier in the -year 1301 the Cardinal Acquasparta, having failed in gaining the object -which brought him to Florence, had, as it were, shaken the dust of the -city from off his feet and left the people of it under interdict. While -Charles of Valois was in Florence the Cardinal returned to make a second -attempt to reconcile the opposing parties, failed a second time, and -again left the city under an interdict--if indeed the first had ever -been raised. On the occasion of his first visit, the Whites, who were -then in power, would have none of his counsels; on his second, the -Blacks in their turn despised them.[150] There would therefore have been -something almost satirical in the compliment, had the Commonwealth -resolved to give him a place in a triumphal picture. - -As for Charles of Valois, though much was expected from an alliance with -him while he was still at a distance, the very party that invited his -presence was soon disgusted with him owing to his faithlessness and -greed. The earlier part of his stay was disturbed by pillage and -bloodshed. Nor is it easy to imagine how, at any time during his -residence of five months, the leading citizens could have either the -time or the wish to arrange for honouring him in a fashion he was not -the man to care for. His one craving was for money, and still more -money; and any leisure the members of public bodies had to spare from -giving heed to their own interests and securing vengeance upon their -opponents, was devoted to holding the common purse shut as tightly as -they could against their avaricious Pacificator. When he at last -delivered the city from his presence no one would have the heart to -revive the memory of his disastrous visit. - -But if, in all this confusion of Florentine affairs, Giotto did receive -a commission to paint in the palace of the Podesta, yet it remains -incredible that he should have been suffered to assign to Dante, of all -men, a place of honour in the picture. No citizen had more stubbornly -opposed the policy which brought Charles of Valois to Florence, and that -Charles was in the city was reason enough for Dante to keep out of it. -In his absence, he was sentenced in January 1302 to pay a ruinously -heavy fine, and in the following March he was condemned to be put to -death if ever he was caught. On fuller acquaintance his fellow-citizens -liked the Frenchman as little as he, but this had no effect in softening -their dislike or removing their fear of Dante. We may be sure that any -friends he may still have had in Florence, as their influence could not -protect his goods from confiscation or him from banishment, would hardly -care to risk their own safety by urging, while his condemnation was -still fresh, the admission of his portrait among those of illustrious -Florentines.[151] It is true that there have been instances of great -artists having reached so high a pitch of fame as to be able to dictate -terms to patrons, however exalted. In his later years Giotto could -perhaps have made such a point a matter of treaty with his employers, -but in 1301 he was still young,[152] and great although his fame already -was, he could scarcely have ventured to insist on the Republic's -confessing its injustice to his friend; as it would have done had it -consented that Dante, newly driven into exile, should obtain a place of -honour in a work painted at the public cost. - -These considerations seem to make it highly improbable that Giotto's -wall-painting was meant to do honour to Charles of Valois and the -Cardinal Acquasparta. But if it should still be held that it was painted -in 1302, we must either cease to believe, in spite of all that Vasari -and the others say, that the portrait is meant for Dante; or else -confess it to be inexplicable how it got there. A way out of the -difficulty begins to open up as soon as we allow ourselves some latitude -in speculating as to when Giotto may have painted the fresco. The order -in which that artist's works were produced is very imperfectly settled; -and it may easily be that the position in Vasari's pages of the mention -made by him of this fresco has given rise to a misunderstanding -regarding the date of it. He speaks of it at the very beginning of his -Life of Giotto. But this he does because he needs an illustration of -what he has been saying in his opening sentences about the advance that -painter made on Cimabue. Only after making mention of Dante's portrait -does he begin his chronological list of Giotto's works; to the portrait -he never returns, and so, as far as Vasari is concerned, it is without a -date. Judging of it by means of Mr. Kirkup's careful and beautiful -sketch--and unfortunately we have now no other means of knowing what the -original was like--it may safely be asserted to be in Giotto's ripest -style.[153] Everything considered, it is therefore allowable to search -the Florentine chronicles lower down for an event more likely to be the -subject of Giotto's fresco than that usually fixed upon. - -We read in John Villani that in the middle of the year 1326 the Cardinal -Gianni Orsini came to Florence as Papal Legate and Pacificator of -Tuscany. The city was greatly pleased at his coming, and as an earnest -of gratitude for his services presented him with a cup containing a -thousand florins.[154] A month later there arrived Charles Duke of -Calabria, the eldest son of King Robert of Naples, and great-grandson of -Charles of Anjou. He came as Protector of the Commonwealth, which -office--an extraordinary one, and with a great salary attached to it--he -had been elected to hold for five years. Never before had a spectacle -like that of his entry been offered to Florence. Villani gives a long -list of the barons who rode in his train, and tells that in his -squadrons of men-at-arms there were no fewer than two hundred knights. -The chronicler pauses to bid the reader note how great an enterprise his -fellow-citizens had shown in bringing to sojourn among them, and in -their interest, not only such a powerful lord as the Duke of Calabria -was, but a Papal Legate as well. Italy counted it a great thing, he -says, and he deems that the whole world ought to know of it.[155] -Charles took up his abode in the Podesta's palace. He appears to have -gained a better place in the hearts of the Florentines than what they -were used to give to strangers and princes. When a son was born to him, -all the city rejoiced, and it mourned with him when, in a few weeks, he -lost the child. After seventeen months' experience of his rule the -citizens were sorry to lose him, and bade him a farewell as hearty as -their welcome had been. To some of them, it is true, the policy seemed a -dangerous one which bore even the appearance of subjecting the Republic -to the Royal House of Naples; and some of them could have wished that he -'had shown more vigour in civil and military affairs. But he was a -gentle lord, popular with the townsfolk, and in the course of his -residence he greatly improved the condition of things in Florence, and -brought to a close many feuds.'[156] They felt that the nine hundred -thousand gold florins spent on him and his men had, on the whole, been -well laid out. - -One detail of the Duke's personal appearance deserves remark. We have -seen that the prince in the fresco has long hair. John Villani had known -the Duke well by sight, and when he comes to record his death and -describe what kind of man he was to look upon, he specially says that -'he wore his hair loose.'[157] - -A subject worthy of Giotto's pencil, and one likely to be offered to him -if he was then in Florence, we have therefore found in this visit of the -Duke and the Cardinal. But that Giotto was in Florence at that time is -certain. He painted a portrait[158] of the Duke in the Palace of the -Signory; and through that prince, as Vasari tells, he was invited by -King Robert to go down to work in Naples. All this, in the absence of -evidence of any value in favour of another date, makes it, at the very -least, highly probable that the fresco was a work of 1326 or 1327. - -In 1326 Dante had been dead for five years. The grudge his -fellow-townsmen had nourished against him for so long was now worn out. -We know that very soon after his death Florence began to be proud of -him; and even such of his old enemies as still survived would be willing -that Giotto should set him in a place of honour among the great -Florentines who help to fill the fresco of the Paradise. That he was -already dead would be no hindrance to his finding room alongside of -Charles of Calabria; for the age was wisely tolerant of such -anachronisms.[159] Had Dante been still living the painter would have -been less at liberty to create, out of the records he doubtless -possessed of the features of the friend who had paid him beforehand with -one immortal line, the face which, as we look into it, we feel to be a -glorified transcript of what it was in the flesh. It is the face of one -who has wellnigh forgotten his earthly life, instead of having the worst -of it still before him; of one who, from that troubled Italy which like -his own Sapia he knew but as a pilgrim, has passed to the 'true city,' -of which he remains for evermore a citizen--the city faintly imaged by -Giotto upon the chapel wall. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[142] It is best known, and can now be judged of only through the -lithograph after a tracing made by Mr. Seymour Kirkup before it was -restored and ruined: published by the Arundel Society. - -[143] Antonio Pucci, born in 1300, in his _Centiloquio_, describes the -figure of Dante as being clothed in blood-red. Philip Villani also -mentions it. He wrote towards the close of the fourteenth century; -Vasari towards the middle of the sixteenth. - -[144] In the Munich collection of drawings, and ascribed to Masaccio, -but with how much reason I do not know. - -[145] Painted by Domenico Michelino in 1465, after a sketch by Alessio -Baldovinetto. - -[146] 'Wearing over the long hair of the Frenchmen of the period a -coroneted cap.'--Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_ -(1864), i. 264. - -[147] Vol. i. p. 269. - -[148] The Priorate was the highest office to which a citizen could -aspire, but by no means the highest in Florence. - -[149] I suppose the meaning is 'immediately previous.' - -[150] John Villani, _Cronica_, viii. 40 and 49; and Perrens, _Hist. de -Florence_, under date of 1301. Charles entered Florence on the 1st of -November of that year, and left it in the following April. - -[151] Who the other Florentines in the fresco are does not greatly -affect the present question. Villani says that along with Dante Giotto -painted Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini. - -[152] Only twenty-five, if the commonly accepted date of his birth is -correct. In any case, he was still a young man. - -[153] It is true that, on technical grounds, it has been questioned if -it is Giotto's at all; but there is more than sufficient reason to think -it is. With such doubts however we are scarcely here concerned. Even -were it proved to be by a pupil, everything in the text that applies to -the question of date would still remain in point. - -[154] J. Villani, ix. 353. - -[155] J. Villani, x. 1. - -[156] _Ibid._ x. 49. - -[157] J. Villani, x. 107. - -[158] Long since destroyed. - -[159] An anachronism of another kind would have been committed by -Giotto, if, before the _Comedy_ was even begun, he had represented Dante -as holding the closed book and cluster of three pomegranates--emblematical -of the three regions described by him and of the completion of his -work.--I say nothing of the Inferno found on another wall of the chapel, -since there seems good reason to doubt if it is by Giotto. - - - - -THE INFERNO. - - - - -CANTO I. - - - In middle[160] of the journey of our days - I found that I was in a darksome wood[161]-- - The right road lost and vanished in the maze. - Ah me! how hard to make it understood - How rough that wood was, wild, and terrible: - By the mere thought my terror is renewed. - More bitter scarce were death. But ere I tell - At large of good which there by me was found, - I will relate what other things befell. - Scarce know I how I entered on that ground, 10 - So deeply, at the moment when I passed - From the right way, was I in slumber drowned. - But when beneath a hill[162] arrived at last, - Which for the boundary of the valley stood, - That with such terror had my heart harassed, - I upwards looked and saw its shoulders glowed, - Radiant already with that planet's[163] light - Which guideth surely upon every road. - A little then was quieted by the sight - The fear which deep within my heart had lain 20 - Through all my sore experience of the night. - And as the man, who, breathing short in pain, - Hath 'scaped the sea and struggled to the shore, - Turns back to gaze upon the perilous main; - Even so my soul which fear still forward bore - Turned to review the pass whence I egressed, - And which none, living, ever left before. - My wearied frame refreshed with scanty rest, - I to ascend the lonely hill essayed; - The lower foot[164] still that on which I pressed. 30 - And lo! ere I had well beginning made, - A nimble leopard,[165] light upon her feet, - And in a skin all spotted o'er arrayed: - Nor ceased she e'er me full in the face to meet, - And to me in my path such hindrance threw - That many a time I wheeled me to retreat. - It was the hour of dawn; with retinue - Of stars[166] that were with him when Love Divine - In the beginning into motion drew - Those beauteous things, the sun began to shine; 40 - And I took heart to be of better cheer - Touching the creature with the gaudy skin, - Seeing 'twas morn,[167] and spring-tide of the year; - Yet not so much but that when into sight - A lion[168] came, I was disturbed with fear. - Towards me he seemed advancing in his might, - Rabid with hunger and with head high thrown: - The very air was tremulous with fright. - A she-wolf,[169] too, beheld I further on; - All kinds of lust seemed in her leanness pent: 50 - Through her, ere now, much folk have misery known. - By her oppressed, and altogether spent - By the terror breathing from her aspect fell, - I lost all hope of making the ascent. - And as the man who joys while thriving well, - When comes the time to lose what he has won - In all his thoughts weeps inconsolable, - So mourned I through the brute which rest knows none: - She barred my way again and yet again, - And thrust me back where silent is the sun. 60 - And as I downward rushed to reach the plain, - Before mine eyes appeared there one aghast, - And dumb like those that silence long maintain. - When I beheld him in the desert vast, - 'Whate'er thou art, or ghost or man,' I cried, - 'I pray thee show such pity as thou hast.' - 'No man,[170] though once I was; on either side - Lombard my parents were, and both of them - For native place had Mantua,' he replied. - 'Though late, _sub Julio_,[171] to the world I came, 70 - And lived at Rome in good Augustus' day, - While yet false gods and lying were supreme. - Poet I was, renowning in my lay - Anchises' righteous son, who fled from Troy - What time proud Ilion was to flames a prey. - But thou, why going back to such annoy? - The hill delectable why fear to mount, - The origin and ground of every joy?' - 'And thou in sooth art Virgil, and the fount - Whence in a stream so full doth language flow?' 80 - Abashed, I answered him with humble front. - 'Of other poets light and honour thou! - Let the long study and great zeal I've shown - In searching well thy book, avail me now! - My master thou, and author[172] thou, alone! - From thee alone I, borrowing, could attain - The style[173] consummate which has made me known. - Behold the beast which makes me turn again: - Deliver me from her, illustrious Sage; - Because of her I tremble, pulse and vein.' 90 - 'Thou must attempt another pilgrimage,' - Observing that I wept, he made reply, - 'If from this waste thyself thou 'dst disengage. - Because the beast thou art afflicted by - Will suffer none along her way to pass, - But, hindering them, harasses till they die. - So vile a nature and corrupt she has, - Her raging lust is still insatiate, - And food but makes it fiercer than it was. - Many a creature[174] hath she ta'en for mate, 100 - And more she'll wed until the hound comes forth - To slay her and afflict with torment great. - He will not batten upon pelf or earth; - But he shall feed on valour, love, and lore; - Feltro and Feltro[175] 'tween shall be his birth. - He will save humbled Italy, and restore, - For which of old virgin Camilla[176] died; - Turnus, Euryalus, Nisus, died of yore. - Her through all cities chasing far and wide, - He at the last to Hell will thrust her down, 110 - Whence envy[177] first unloosed her. I decide - Therefore and judge that thou hadst best come on - With me for guide;[178] and hence I'll lead thee where - A place eternal shall to thee be shown. - There shalt thou hear the howlings of despair - In which the ancient spirits make lament, - All of them fain the second death to share. - Next shalt thou them behold who are content, - Because they hope some time, though now in fire, - To join the blessed they will win consent. 120 - And if to these thou later wouldst aspire, - A soul[179] shall guide thee, worthier far than I; - When I depart thee will I leave with her. - Because the Emperor[180] who reigns on high - Wills not, since 'gainst His laws I did rebel,[181] - That to His city I bring any nigh. - O'er all the world He rules, there reigns as well; - There is His city and exalted seat: - O happy whom He chooses there to dwell!' - And I to him: 'Poet, I thee entreat, 130 - Even by that God who was to thee unknown, - That I may 'scape this present ill, nor meet - With worse, conduct me whither thou hast shown, - That I may see Saint Peter's gate,[182] and those - Whom thou reportest in such misery thrown.' - He moved away; behind him held I close. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[160] _Middle_: In his _Convito_ (iv. 23), comparing human life to an -arch, Dante says that at the age of thirty-five a man has reached the -top and begins to go down. As he was born in 1265 that was his own age -in 1300, the year in which the action of the poem is laid. - -[161] _Darksome wood_: A state of spiritual darkness or despair into -which he has gradually drifted, not without fault of his own. - -[162] _A hill_: Lower down this hill is termed 'the origin and cause of -all joy.' It is symbolical of spiritual freedom--of the peace and -security that spring from the practice of virtue. Only, as it seems, by -gaining such a vantage-ground can he escape from the wilderness of -doubt--the valley of the shadow of death--in which he is lost. - -[163] _That planet_: On the Ptolemaic system, which, as perfected by the -Arabian astronomers, and with some Christian additions, was that -followed by Dante, the sun is reckoned as one of the seven planets; all -the others as well as the earth and the fixed stars deriving their light -from it. Here the sunlight may signify the Divine help granted to all -men in their efforts after virtue. - -[164] _The lower foot, etc._: This describes a cautious, slow ascent. - -[165] _A nimble leopard_: The leopard and the lion and wolf that come -with it are suggested by Jeremiah v. 6: 'A lion out of the forest shall -slay them,' etc. We have Dante's own authority for it, in his letter to -Can Grande, that several meanings are often hidden under the incidents -of the _Comedy_. But whatever else the beasts may signify, their chief -meaning is that of moral hindrances. It is plain that the lion and wolf -are the sins of others--pride and avarice. If the leopard agrees with -them in this, it most probably stands for the envy of those among whom -Dante lived: at _Inf._ vi. 74 we find envy, pride, and avarice classed -together as the sins that have corrupted Florence. But from _Inf._ xvi. -106 it appears that Dante hoped to get the better of the leopard by -means of a cord which he wore girt about his loins. The cord is -emblematical of self-control; and hence the leopard seems best to answer -the idea of sensual pleasure in the sense of a temptation that makes -difficult the pursuit of virtue. But it will be observed that this -hindrance Dante trusts to overcome. - -[166] _Stars, etc._: The sun being then in Aries, as it was believed to -have been at the creation. - -[167] _Morn, etc._: It is the morning of Friday the 25th of March in the -year 1300, and by the use of Florence, which began the year on the -anniversary of the incarnation, it is the first day of the New Year. The -Good Friday of 1300 fell a fortnight later; but the 25th of March was -held to be the true anniversary of the crucifixion as well as of the -incarnation and of the creation of the world. The date of the action is -fixed by _Inf._ xxi. 112. The day was of good omen for success in the -struggle with his lower self. - -[168] _A lion_: Pride or arrogance; to be taken in its widest sense of -violent opposition to all that is good. - -[169] _A she-wolf_: Used elsewhere in the _Comedy_ to represent avarice. -Dante may have had specially in his mind the greed and worldly ambition -of the Pope and the Court of Rome, but it is plain from line 110 that -the wolf stands primarily for a sin, and not for a person or corporate -body. - -[170] _No man_: Brunetto Latini, the friend and master of Dante, says -'the soul is the life of man, but without the body is not man.' - -[171] _Sub Julio_: Julius was not even consul when Virgil was born. But -Dante reckoned Julius as the founder of the Empire, and therefore makes -the time in which he flourished his. Virgil was only twenty-five years -of age when Cæsar was slain; and thus it was under Augustus that his -maturer life was spent. - -[172] _Author_: Dante defines an author as 'one worthy to be believed -and obeyed' (_Convito_ iv. 6). For a guide and companion on his great -pilgrimage he chooses Virgil, not only because of his fame as a poet, -but also because he had himself described a descent to the Shades--had -been already there. The vulgar conception of Virgil was that of a -virtuous great magician. - -[173] _The style, etc._: Some at least of Dante's minor works had been -given to the world before 1300, certainly the _Vita Nuova_ and others of -his poems. To his study of Virgil he may have felt himself indebted for -the purity of taste that kept him superior to the frigid and artificial -style of his contemporaries, He prided himself on suiting his language -to his theme, as well as on writing straight from the heart. - -[174] _Many a creature, etc._: Great men and states, infected with -avarice in its extended sense of encroachment on the rights of others. - -[175] _Feltro and Feltro, etc._: Who the deliverer was that Dante -prophesies the coming of is not known, and perhaps never can be. Against -the claims of Can Grande of Verona the objection is that, at any date -which can reasonably be assigned for the publication of the _Inferno_, -he had done nothing to justify such bright hopes of his future career. -There seems proof, too, that till the _Paradiso_ was written Dante -entertained no great respect for the Scala family (_Purg._ xvi. 118, -xviii. 121). Neither is Verona, or the widest territory over which Can -Grande ever ruled, at all described by saying it lay between Feltro and -Feltro.--I have preferred to translate _nazi-one_ as birth rather than -as nation or people. 'The birth of the deliverer will be found to have -been between feltro and feltro.' Feltro, as Dante wrote it, would have -no capital letter; and according to an old gloss the deliverer is to be -of humble birth; _feltro_ being the name of a poor sort of cloth. This -interpretation I give as a curiosity more than anything else; for the -most competent critics have decided against it, or ignored it.--Henry of -Luxemburg, chosen Emperor in November 1308, is an old claimant for the -post of the allegorical _veltro_ or greyhound. On him Dante's hopes were -long set as the man who should 'save Italy;' and it seems not out of -place to draw attention to what is said of him by John Villani, the -contemporary and fellow-townsman of Dante: 'He was of a magnanimous -nature, though, as regarded his family, of poor extraction' (_Cronica_, -ix. 1). Whatever may be made of the Feltros, the description in the text -of the deliverer as one superior to all personal ambition certainly -answers better to Dante's ideal of a righteous Emperor than to the -character of a partisan leader like Uguccione della Faggiuola, or an -ambitious prince like Can Grande. - -[176] _Camilla, etc._: All persons of the _Æneid_. - -[177] _Envy_: That of Satan. - -[178] _Thou hadst best, etc._: As will be seen from the next Canto, -Virgil has been sent to the relief of Dante; but how that is to be -wrought out is left to his own judgment. He might secure a partial -deliverance for his ward by conducting him up the Delectable Mount--the -peaceful heights familiar to himself, and which are to be won by the -practice of natural piety. He chooses the other course, of guiding Dante -through the regions of the future state, where the pilgrim's trust in -the Divine government will be strengthened by what he sees, and his soul -acquire a larger peace. - -[179] _A soul_: Beatrice. - -[180] _The Emperor_: The attribution of this title to God is significant -of Dante's lofty conception of the Empire. - -[181] _'Gainst his laws, etc._: Virgil was a rebel only in the sense of -being ignorant of the Christian revelation (_Inf._ iv. 37). - -[182] _Saint Peter's gate_: Virgil has not mentioned Saint Peter. Dante -names him as if to proclaim that it is as a Christian, though under -heathen guidance, that he makes the pilgrimage. Here the gate seems to -be spoken of as if it formed the entrance to Paradise, as it was -popularly believed to do, and as if it were at that point Virgil would -cease to guide him. But they are to find it nearer at hand, and after it -has been passed Virgil is to act as guide through Purgatory. - - - - -CANTO II. - - - It was the close of day;[183] the twilight brown - All living things on earth was setting free - From toil, while I preparing was alone[184] - To face the battle which awaited me, - As well of ruth as of the perilous quest, - Now to be limned by faultless memory. - Help, lofty genius! Muses,[185] manifest - Goodwill to me! Recording what befell, - Do thou, O mind, now show thee at thy best! - I thus began: 'Poet, and Guide as well, 10 - Ere trusting me on this adventure wide, - Judge if my strength of it be capable. - Thou say'st that Silvius' father,[186] ere he died, - Still mortal to the world immortal went, - There in the body some time to abide. - Yet that the Foe of evil was content - That he should come, seeing what high effect, - And who and what should from him claim descent, - No room for doubt can thoughtful man detect: - For he of noble Rome, and of her sway 20 - Imperial, in high Heaven grew sire elect. - And both of these,[187] the very truth to say, - Were founded for the holy seat, whereon - The Greater Peter's follower sits to-day. - Upon this journey, praised by thee, were known - And heard things by him, to the which he owed - His triumph, whence derives the Papal gown.[188] - That path the Chosen Vessel[189] later trod - So of the faith assurance to receive, - Which is beginning of salvation's road. 30 - But why should I go? Who will sanction give? - For I am no Æneas and no Paul; - Me worthy of it no one can believe, - Nor I myself. Hence venturing at thy call, - I dread the journey may prove rash. But vain - For me to reason; wise, thou know'st it all.' - Like one no more for what he wished for fain, - Whose purpose shares mutation with his thought - Till from the thing begun he turns again; - On that dim slope so grew I all distraught, 40 - Because, by brooding on it, the design - I shrank from, which before I warmly sought. - 'If well I understand these words of thine,' - The shade of him magnanimous made reply, - 'Thy soul 'neath cowardice hath sunk supine, - Which a man often is so burdened by, - It makes him falter from a noble aim, - As beasts at objects ill-distinguished shy. - To loose thee from this terror, why I came, - And what the speech I heard, I will relate, 50 - When first of all I pitied thee. A dame[190] - Hailed me where I 'mongst those in dubious state[191] - Had my abode: so blest was she and fair, - Her to command me I petitioned straight. - Her eyes were shining brighter than the star;[192] - And she began to say in accents sweet - And tuneable as angel's voices are: - "O Mantuan Shade, in courtesy complete, - Whose fame survives on earth, nor less shall grow - Through all the ages, while the world hath seat; 60 - A friend of mine, with fortune for his foe, - Has met with hindrance on his desert way, - And, terror-smitten, can no further go, - But turns; and that he is too far astray, - And that I rose too late for help, I dread, - From what in Heaven concerning him they say. - Go, with thy speech persuasive him bestead, - And with all needful help his guardian prove, - That touching him I may be comforted. - Know, it is Beatrice seeks thee thus to move. 70 - Thence come I where I to return am fain: - My coming and my plea are ruled by love. - When I shall stand before my Lord again, - Often to Him I will renew thy praise." - And here she ceased, nor did I dumb remain: - "O virtuous Lady, thou alone the race - Of man exaltest 'bove all else that dwell - Beneath the heaven which wheels in narrowest space.[193] - To do thy bidding pleases me so well, - Though 'twere already done 'twere all too slow; 80 - Thy wish at greater length no need to tell. - But say, what tempted thee to come thus low, - Even to this centre, from the region vast,[194] - Whither again thou art on fire to go?" - "This much to learn since a desire thou hast," - She answered, "briefly thee I'll satisfy, - How, coming here, I through no terrors passed. - We are, of right, such things alarmèd by, - As have the power to hurt us; all beside - Are harmless, and not fearful. Wherefore I-- 90 - Thus formed by God, His bounty is so wide-- - Am left untouched by all your miseries, - And through this burning[195] unmolested glide. - A noble lady[196] is in Heaven, who sighs - O'er the obstruction where I'd have thee go, - And breaks the rigid edict of the skies. - Calling on Lucia,[197] thus she made her know - What she desired: 'Thy vassal[198] now hath need - Of help from thee; do thou then helpful show.' - Lucia, who hates all cruelty, in speed 100 - Rose, and approaching where I sat at rest, - To venerable Rachel[199] giving heed, - Me: 'Beatrice, true praise of God,' addressed; - 'Why not help him who had such love for thee, - And from the vulgar throng to win thee pressed? - Dost thou not hear him weeping pitiably, - Nor mark the death now threatening him upon - A flood[200] than which less awful is the sea?' - Never on earth did any ever run, - Allured by profit or impelled by fear, 110 - Swifter than I, when speaking she had done, - From sitting 'mong the blest descended here, - My trust upon thy comely rhetoric cast, - Which honours thee and those who lend it ear." - When of these words she spoken had the last, - She turned aside bright eyes which tears[201] did fill, - And I by this was urged to greater haste. - And so it was I joined thee by her will, - And from that raging beast delivered thee, - Which barred the near way up the beauteous hill. 120 - What ails thee then? Why thus a laggard be? - Why cherish in thy heart a craven fear? - Where is thy franchise, where thy bravery, - When three such blessed ladies have a care - For thee in Heaven's court, and these words of mine - Thee for such wealth of blessedness prepare?' - As flowers, by chills nocturnal made to pine - And shut themselves, when touched by morning bright - Upon their stems arise, full-blown and fine; - So of my faltering courage changed the plight, 130 - And such good cheer ran through my heart, it spurred - Me to declare, like free-born generous wight: - 'O pitiful, who for my succour stirred! - And thou how full of courtesy to run, - Alert in service, hearkening her true word! - Thou with thine eloquence my heart hast won - To keen desire to go, and the intent - Which first I held I now no longer shun. - Therefore proceed; my will with thine is blent: - Thou art my Guide, Lord, Master;[202] thou alone!' 140 - Thus I; and with him, as he forward went, - The steep and rugged road I entered on. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[183] _Close of day_: The evening of the Friday. It comes on us with -something of a surprise that a whole day has been spent in the attempt -to ascend the hill, and in conference with Virgil. - -[184] _Alone_: Of earthly creatures, though in company with Virgil, a -shade. In these words is to be found the keynote to the Canto. With the -sense of deliverance from immediate danger his enthusiasm has died away. -After all, Virgil is only a shade; and his heart misgives him at the -thought of engaging, in the absence of all human companionship, upon a -journey so full of terrors. He is not reassured till Virgil has -displayed his commission. - -[185] _Muses_: The invocation comes now, the First Canto being properly -an introduction. Here it may be pointed out, as illustrating the -refinement of Dante's art, that the invocation in the _Purgatorio_ is in -a higher strain, and that in the _Paradiso_ in a nobler still. - -[186] _Silvius' father_: Æneas, whose visit to the world of shades is -described in the Sixth _Æneid_. He finds there his father Anchises, who -foretells to him the fortunes of his descendants down to the time of -Augustus. - -[187] _Both of these_: Dante uses language slightly apologetic as he -unfolds to Virgil, the great Imperialist poet, the final cause of Rome -and the Empire. But while he thus exalts the Papal office, making all -Roman history a preparation for its establishment, Dante throughout his -works is careful to refuse any but a spiritual or religious allegiance -to the Pope, and leaves himself free, as will be frequently seen in the -course of the _Comedy_, to blame the Popes as men, while yielding all -honour to their great office. In this emphatic mention of Rome as the -divinely-appointed seat of Peter's Chair may be implied a censure on the -Pope for the transference of the Holy See to Avignon, which was effected -in 1305, between the date assigned to the action of the poem and the -period when it was written. - -[188] _Papal gown_: 'The great mantle' Dante elsewhere terms it; the -emblem of the Papal dignity. It was only in Dante's own time that -coronation began to take the place of investiture with the mantle. - -[189] _Chosen Vessel_: Paul, who like Æneas visited the other world, -though not the same region of it. Throughout the poem instances drawn -from profane history, and even poetry and mythology, are given as of -authority equal to those from Christian sources. - -[190] _A dame_: Beatrice, the heroine of the _Vita Nuova_, at the close -of which Dante promises some day to say of her what was never yet said -of any woman. She died in 1290, aged twenty-four. In the _Comedy_ she -fills different parts: she is the glorified Beatrice Portinari whom -Dante first knew as a fair Florentine girl; but she also represents -heavenly truth, or the knowledge of it--the handmaid of eternal life. -Theology is too hard and technical a term to bestow on her. Virgil, for -his part, represents the knowledge that men may acquire of Divine law by -the use of their reason, helped by such illumination as was enjoyed by -the virtuous heathen. In other words, he is the exponent of the Divine -revelation involved in the Imperial system--for the Empire was never far -from Dante's thoughts. To him it meant the perfection of just rule, in -which due cognisance is taken of every right and of every duty. The -relation Dante bears to these two is that of erring humanity struggling -to the light. Virgil leads him as far as he can, and then commits him to -the holier rule of Beatrice. But the poem would lose its charm if the -allegorical meaning of every passage were too closely insisted on. And, -worse than that, it cannot always be found. - -[191] _Dubious state_: The limbo of the virtuous heathen (Canto iv.). - -[192] _The star_: In the _Vita Nuova_ Dante speaks of the star in the -singular when he means the stars. - -[193] _In narrowest space_: The heaven of the moon, on the Ptolemaic -system the lowest of the seven planets. Below it there is only the -heaven of fire, to which all the flames of earth are attracted. The -meaning is, above all on earth. - -[194] _The region vast_: The empyrean, or tenth and highest heaven of -all. It is an addition by the Christian astronomers to the heavens of -the Ptolemaic system, and extends above the _primum mobile_, which -imparts to all beneath it a common motion, while leaving its own special -motion to each. The empyrean is the heaven of Divine rest. - -[195] _Burning_: 'Flame of this burning,' allegorical, as applied to the -limbo where Virgil had his abode. He and his companions suffer only from -unfulfilled but lofty desire (_Inf._ iv. 41). - -[196] _A noble lady_: The Virgin Mary, of whom it is said (_Parad._ -xxxiii. 16) that her 'benignity not only succours those who ask, but -often anticipates their demand;' as here. She is the symbol of Divine -grace in its widest sense. Neither Christ nor Mary is mentioned by name -in the _Inferno_. - -[197] _Lucia_: The martyr saint of Syracuse. Witte (_Dante-Forschungen_, -vol. ii. 30) suggests that Lucia Ubaldini may be meant, a -thirteenth-century Florentine saint, and sister of the Cardinal (_Inf._ -x. 120). The day devoted to her memory was the 30th of May. Dante was -born in May, and if it could be proved that he was born on the 30th of -the month the suggestion would be plausible. But for the greater Lucy is -to be said that she was especially helpful to those troubled in their -eyesight, as Dante was at one time of his life. Here she is the symbol -of illuminating grace. - -[198] _Thy vassal_: Saint Lucy being held in special veneration by -Dante; or only that he was one that sought light. The word _fedele_ may -of course, as it usually is, be read in its primary sense of 'faithful -one;' but it is old Italian for vassal; and to take the reference to be -to the duty of the overlord to help his dependant in need seems to give -force to the appeal. - -[199] _Rachel_: Symbol of the contemplative life. - -[200] _A flood, etc._: 'The sea of troubles' in which Dante is involved. - -[201] _Tears_: Beatrice weeps for human misery--especially that of -Dante--though unaffected by the view of the sufferings of Inferno. - -[202] _My Guide, etc._: After hearing how Virgil was moved to come, -Dante accepts him not only for his guide, as he did at the close of the -First Canto, but for his lord and master as well. - - - - -CANTO III. - - - Through me to the city dolorous lies the way, - Who pass through me shall pains eternal prove, - Through me are reached the people lost for aye. - 'Twas Justice did my Glorious Maker move; - I was created by the Power Divine,[203] - The Highest Wisdom, and the Primal Love. - No thing's creation earlier was than mine, - If not eternal;[204] I for aye endure: - Ye who make entrance, every hope resign! - These words beheld I writ in hue obscure 10 - On summit of a gateway; wherefore I: - 'Hard[205] is their meaning, Master.' Like one sure - Beforehand of my thought, he made reply: - 'Here it behoves to leave all fears behind; - All cowardice behoveth here to die. - For now the place I told thee of we find, - Where thou the miserable folk shouldst see - Who the true good[206] of reason have resigned.' - Then, with a glance of glad serenity, - He took my hand in his, which made me bold, 20 - And brought me in where secret things there be. - There sighs and plaints and wailings uncontrolled - The dim and starless air resounded through; - Nor at the first could I from tears withhold. - The various languages and words of woe, - The uncouth accents,[207] mixed with angry cries - And smiting palms and voices loud and low, - Composed a tumult which doth circling rise - For ever in that air obscured for aye; - As when the sand upon the whirlwind flies. 30 - And, horror-stricken,[208] I began to say: - 'Master, what sound can this be that I hear, - And who the folk thus whelmed in misery?' - And he replied: 'In this condition drear - Are held the souls of that inglorious crew - Who lived unhonoured, but from guilt kept clear. - Mingled they are with caitiff angels, who, - Though from avowed rebellion they refrained, - Disloyal to God, did selfish ends pursue. - Heaven hurled them forth, lest they her beauty stained; - Received they are not by the nether hell, 41 - Else triumph[209] thence were by the guilty gained.' - And I: 'What bear they, Master, to compel - Their lamentations in such grievous tone?' - He answered: 'In few words I will thee tell. - No hope of death is to the wretches known; - So dim the life and abject where they sigh - They count all sufferings easier than their own. - Of them the world endures no memory; - Mercy and justice them alike disdain. 50 - Speak we not of them: glance, and pass them by.' - I saw a banner[210] when I looked again, - Which, always whirling round, advanced in haste - As if despising steadfast to remain. - And after it so many people chased - In long procession, I should not have said - That death[211] had ever wrought such countless waste. - Some first I recognised, and then the shade - I saw and knew of him, the search to close, - Whose dastard soul the great refusal[212] made. 60 - Straightway I knew and was assured that those - Were of the tribe of caitiffs,[213] even the race - Despised of God and hated of His foes. - The wretches, who when living showed no trace - Of life, went naked, and were fiercely stung - By wasps and hornets swarming in that place. - Blood drawn by these out of their faces sprung - And, mingled with their tears, was at their feet - Sucked up by loathsome worms it fell among. - Casting mine eyes beyond, of these replete, 70 - People I saw beside an ample stream, - Whereon I said: 'O Master, I entreat, - Tell who these are, and by what law they seem - Impatient till across the river gone; - As I distinguish by this feeble gleam.' - And he: 'These things shall unto thee be known - What time our footsteps shall at rest be found - Upon the woful shores of Acheron.' - Then with ashamèd eyes cast on the ground, - Fearing my words were irksome in his ear, 80 - Until we reached the stream I made no sound. - And toward us, lo, within a bark drew near - A veteran[214] who with ancient hair was white, - Shouting: 'Ye souls depraved, be filled with fear. - Hope never more of Heaven to win the sight; - I come to take you to the other strand, - To frost and fire and everlasting night. - And thou, O living soul, who there dost stand, - From 'mong the dead withdraw thee.' Then, aware - That not at all I stirred at his command, 90 - 'By other ways,[215] from other ports thou'lt fare; - But they will lead thee to another shore, - And 'tis a skiff more buoyant must thee bear.' - And then my leader: 'Charon, be not sore, - For thus it has been willed where power ne'er came - Short of the will; thou therefore ask no more.' - And hereupon his shaggy cheeks grew tame - Who is the pilot of the livid pool, - And round about whose eyes glowed wheels of flame. - But all the shades, naked and spent with dool, 100 - Stood chattering with their teeth, and changing hue - Soon as they heard the words unmerciful. - God they blasphemed, and families whence they grew; - Mankind, the time, place, seed in which began - Their lives, and seed whence they were born. Then drew - They crowding all together, as they ran, - Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore - Predestinate for every godless man. - The demon Charon, with eyes evermore - Aglow, makes signals, gathering them all; 110 - And whoso lingers smiteth with his oar. - And as the faded leaves of autumn fall - One after the other, till at last the bough - Sees on the ground spread all its coronal; - With Adam's evil seed so haps it now: - At signs each falls in turn from off the coast, - As fowls[216] into the ambush fluttering go. - The gloomy waters thus by them are crossed, - And ere upon the further side they land, - On this, anew, is gathering a host. 120 - 'Son,' said the courteous Master,[217] 'understand, - All such as in the wrath of God expire, - From every country muster on this strand. - To cross the river they are all on fire; - Their wills by Heavenly justice goaded on - Until their terror merges in desire. - This way no righteous soul has ever gone; - Wherefore[218] of thee if Charon should complain, - Now art thou sure what by his words is shown.' - When he had uttered this the dismal plain 130 - Trembled[219] so violently, my terror past - Recalling now, I'm bathed in sweat again. - Out of the tearful ground there moaned a blast - Whence lightning flashed forth red and terrible, - Which vanquished all my senses; and, as cast - In sudden slumber, to the ground I fell. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[203] _Power Divine, etc._: The Persons of the Trinity, described by -their attributes. - -[204] _If not eternal_: Only the angels and the heavenly spheres were -created before Inferno. The creation of man came later. But from _Inf._ -xxxiv. 124 it appears that Inferno was hollowed out of the earth; and at -_Parad._ vii. 124 the earth is declared to be 'corruptible and enduring -short while;' therefore not eternal. - -[205] _Hard, etc._: The injunction to leave all hope behind makes Dante -hesitate to enter. Virgil anticipates the objection before it is fully -expressed, and reminds him that the passage through Inferno is to be -only one stage of his journey. Not by this gate will he seek to quit it. - -[206] _True good, etc._: Truth in its highest form--the contemplation of -God. - -[207] _Uncouth accents_: 'Like German,' says Boccaccio. - -[208] _Horror-stricken_: 'My head enveloped in horror.' Some texts have -'error,' and this yields a better meaning--that Dante is amazed to have -come full into the crowd of suffering shades before he has even crossed -Acheron. If with the best texts 'horror' be read, the meaning seems to -be that he is so overwhelmed by fear as to lose his presence of mind. -They are not yet in the true Inferno, but only in the vestibule or -forecourt of it--the flat rim which runs round the edge of the pit. - -[209] _Else triumph, etc._: The satisfaction of the rebel angels at -finding that they endured no worse punishment than that of such as -remained neutral. - -[210] _A banner_: Emblem of the instability of those who would never -take a side. - -[211] _That death, etc._: The touch is very characteristic of Dante. He -feigns astonishment at finding that such a proportion of mankind can -preserve so pitiful a middle course between good and evil, and spend -lives that are only 'a kind of--as it were.' - -[212] _The great refusal_: Dante recognises him, and so he who made the -great refusal must have been a contemporary. Almost beyond doubt -Celestine V. is meant, who was in 1294 elected Pope against his will, -and resigned the tiara after wearing it a few months; the only Pope who -ever resigned it, unless we count Clement I. As he was not canonized -till 1326, Dante was free to form his own judgment of his conduct. It -has been objected that Dante would not treat with contumely a man so -devout as Celestine. But what specially fits him to be the -representative caitiff is just that, being himself virtuous, he -pusillanimously threw away the greatest opportunity of doing good. By -his resignation Boniface VIII. became Pope, to whose meddling in -Florentine affairs it was that Dante owed his banishment. Indirectly, -therefore, he owed it to the resignation of Celestine; so that here we -have the first of many private scores to be paid off in the course of -the _Comedy_. Celestine's resignation is referred to (_Inf._ xxvii. -104).--Esau and the rich young man in the Gospel have both been -suggested in place of Celestine. To either of them there lies the -objection that Dante could not have recognised him. And, besides, -Dante's contemporaries appear at once to have discovered Celestine in -him who made the great refusal. In Paradise the poet is told by his -ancestor Cacciaguida that his rebuke is to be like the wind, which -strikes most fiercely on the loftiest summits (_Parad._ xvii. 133); and -it agrees well with such a profession, that the first stroke he deals in -the _Comedy_ is at a Pope. - -[213] _Caitiffs_: To one who had suffered like Dante for the frank part -he took in affairs, neutrality may well have seemed the unpardonable sin -in politics; and no doubt but that his thoughts were set on the trimmers -in Florence when he wrote, 'Let us not speak of them!' - -[214] _A veteran_: Charon. In all this description of the passage of the -river by the shades, Dante borrows freely from Virgil. It has been -already remarked on _Inf._ ii. 28 that he draws illustrations from Pagan -sources. More than that, as we begin to find, he boldly introduces -legendary and mythological characters among the persons of his drama. -With Milton in mind, it surprises, on a first acquaintance with the -_Comedy_, to discover how nearly independent of angels is the economy -invented by Dante for the other world. - -[215] _Other ways, etc._: The souls bound from earth to Purgatory gather -at the mouth of the Tiber, whence they are wafted on an angel's skiff to -their destination (_Purg._ ii. 100). It may be here noted that never -does Dante hint a fear of one day becoming a denizen of Inferno. It is -only the pains of Purgatory that oppress his soul by anticipation. So -here Charon is made to see at a glance that the pilgrim is not of those -'who make descent to Acheron.' - -[216] _As fowls, etc._: 'As a bird to its lure'--generally interpreted -of the falcon when called back. But a witness of the sport of netting -thrushes in Tuscany describes them as 'flying into the vocal ambush in a -hurried, half-reluctant, and very remarkable manner.' - -[217] _Courteous Master_: Virgil here gives the answer promised at line -76; and Dante by the epithet he uses removes any impression that his -guide had been wanting in courtesy when he bade him wait. - -[218] _Wherefore_: Charon's displeasure only proves that he feels he has -no hold on Dante. - -[219] _Trembled, etc._: Symbolical of the increase of woe in Inferno -when the doomed souls have landed on the thither side of Acheron. Hell -opens to receive them. Conversely, when any purified soul is released -from Purgatory the mountain of purification trembles to its base with -joy (_Purg._ xxi. 58). - - - - -CANTO IV. - - - Resounding thunder broke the slumber deep - That drowsed my senses, and myself I shook - Like one by force awakened out of sleep. - Then rising up I cast a steady look, - With eyes refreshed, on all that lay around, - And cognisance of where I found me took. - In sooth, me on the valley's brink I found - Of the dolorous abyss, where infinite - Despairing cries converge with thundering sound.[220] - Cloudy it was, and deep, and dark as night; 10 - So dark that, peering eagerly to find - What its depths held, no object met my sight. - 'Descend we now into this region blind,' - Began the Poet with a face all pale; - 'I will go first, and do thou come behind.' - Marking the wanness on his cheek prevail, - I asked, 'How can I, seeing thou hast dread, - My wonted comforter when doubts assail?' - 'The anguish of the people,' then he said, - 'Who are below, has painted on my face 20 - Pity,[221] by thee for fear interpreted. - Come! The long journey bids us move apace.' - Then entered he and made me enter too - The topmost circle girding the abyss. - Therein, as far as I by listening knew, - There was no lamentation save of sighs, - Whence throbbed the air eternal through and through. - This, sorrow without suffering made arise - From infants and from women and from men, - Gathered in great and many companies. 30 - And the good Master: 'Wouldst thou[222] nothing then - Of who those spirits are have me relate? - Yet know, ere passing further, although when - On earth they sinned not, worth however great - Availed them not, they being unbaptized-- - Part[223] of the faith thou holdest. If their fate - Was to be born ere man was Christianised, - God, as behoved, they never could adore: - And I myself am with this folk comprised. - For such defects--our guilt is nothing more-- 40 - We are thus lost, suffering from this alone - That, hopeless, we our want of bliss deplore.' - Greatly I sorrowed when he made this known, - Because I knew that some who did excel - In worthiness were to that limbo[224] gone. - 'Tell me, O Sir,' I prayed him, 'Master,[225] tell,' - --That I of the belief might surety win, - Victorious every error to dispel-- - 'Did ever any hence to bliss attain - By merit of another or his own?' 50 - And he, to whom my hidden drift[226] was plain: - 'I to this place but lately[227] had come down, - When I beheld one hither make descent; - A Potentate[228] who wore a victor's crown. - The shade of our first sire forth with him went, - And his son Abel's, Noah's forth he drew, - Moses' who gave the laws, the obedient - Patriarch Abram's, and King David's too; - And, with his sire and children, Israel, - And Rachel, winning whom such toils he knew; 60 - And many more, in blessedness to dwell. - And I would have thee know, earlier than these - No human soul was ever saved from Hell.' - While thus he spake our progress did not cease, - But we continued through the wood to stray; - The wood, I mean, with crowded ghosts for trees. - Ere from the summit far upon our way - We yet had gone, I saw a flame which glowed, - Holding a hemisphere[229] of dark at bay. - 'Twas still a little further on our road, 70 - Yet not so far but that in part I guessed - That honourable people there abode. - 'Of art and science Ornament confessed! - Who are these honoured in such high degree, - And in their lot distinguished from the rest?' - He said: 'For them their glorious memory, - Still in thy world the subject of renown, - Wins grace[230] by Heaven distinguished thus to be.' - Meanwhile I heard a voice: 'Be honour shown - To the illustrious poet,[231] for his shade 80 - Is now returning which a while was gone.' - When the voice paused nor further utterance made, - Four mighty shades drew near with one accord, - In aspect neither sorrowful nor glad. - 'Consider that one, armèd with a sword,'[232] - Began my worthy Master in my ear, - 'Before the three advancing like their lord; - For he is Homer, poet with no peer: - Horace the satirist is next in line, - Ovid comes third, and Lucan in the rear. 90 - And 'tis because their claim agrees with mine - Upon the name they with one voice did cry, - They to their honour[233] in my praise combine.' - Thus I beheld their goodly company-- - The lords[234] of song in that exalted style - Which o'er all others, eagle-like, soars high. - Having conferred among themselves a while - They turned toward me and salutation made, - And, this beholding, did my Master smile.[235] - And honour higher still to me was paid, 100 - For of their company they made me one; - So I the sixth part 'mong such genius played. - Thus journeyed we to where the brightness shone, - Holding discourse which now 'tis well to hide, - As, where I was, to hold it was well done. - At length we reached a noble castle's[236] side - Which lofty sevenfold walls encompassed round, - And it was moated by a sparkling tide. - This we traversed as if it were dry ground; - I through seven gates did with those sages go; 110 - Then in a verdant mead people we found - Whose glances were deliberate and slow. - Authority was stamped on every face; - Seldom they spake, in tuneful voices low. - We drew apart to a high open space - Upon one side which, luminously serene, - Did of them all a perfect view embrace. - Thence, opposite, on the enamel green - Were shown me mighty spirits; with delight - I still am stirred them only to have seen. 120 - With many more, Electra was in sight; - 'Mong them I Hector and Æneas spied, - Cæsar in arms,[237] his eyes, like falcon's, bright. - And, opposite, Camilla I descried; - Penthesilea too; the Latian King - Sat with his child Lavinia by his side. - Brutus[238] I saw, who Tarquin forth did fling; - Cornelia, Marcia,[239] Julia, and Lucrece. - Saladin[240] sat alone. Considering - What lay beyond with somewhat lifted eyes, 130 - The Master[241] I beheld of those that know, - 'Mong such as in philosophy were wise. - All gazed on him as if toward him to show - Becoming honour; Plato in advance - With Socrates: the others stood below. - Democritus[242] who set the world on chance; - Thales, Diogenes, Empedocles, - Zeno, and Anaxagoras met my glance; - Heraclitus, and Dioscorides, - Wise judge of nature. Tully, Orpheus, were 140 - With ethic Seneca and Linus.[243] These, - And Ptolemy,[244] too, and Euclid, geometer, - Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicen,[245] - Averroes,[246] the same who did prepare - The Comment, saw I; nor can tell again - The names of all I saw; the subject wide - So urgent is, time often fails me. Then - Into two bands the six of us divide; - Me by another way my Leader wise - Doth from the calm to air which trembles, guide. 150 - I reach a part[247] which all benighted lies. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[220] _Thundering sound_: In a state of unconsciousness, Dante, he knows -not how, has been conveyed across Acheron, and is awakened by what seems -like the thunder-peal following the lightning-flash which made him -insensible. He now stands on the brink of Inferno, where the sounds -peculiar to each region of it converge and are reverberated from its -rim. These sounds are not again to be heard by him except in their -proper localities. No sooner does he actually pass into the First Circle -than he hears only sighs.--As regards the topography of Inferno, it is -enough, as yet, to note that it consists of a cavity extending from the -surface to the centre of the earth; narrowing to its base, and with many -circular ledges or terraces, of great width in the case of the upper -ones, running round its wall--that is, round the sides of the pit. Each -terrace or circle is thus less in circumference than the one above it. -From one circle to the next there slopes a bank of more or less height -and steepness. Down the bank which falls to the comparatively flat -ground of the First Circle they are now about to pass.--To put it -otherwise, the Inferno is an inverted hollow cone. - -[221] _Pity_: The pity felt by Virgil has reference only to those in the -circle they are about to enter, which is his own. See also _Purg._ iii. -43. - -[222] _Wouldst thou, etc._: He will not have Dante form a false opinion -of the character of those condemned to the circle which is his own. - -[223] _Part_: _parte_, altered by some editors into _porta_; but though -baptism is technically described as the gate of the sacraments, it never -is as the gate of the faith. A tenet of Dante's faith was that all the -unbaptized are lost. He had no choice in the matter. - -[224] _Limbo_: Border, or borderland. Dante makes the First Circle -consist of the two limbos of Thomas Aquinas: that of unbaptized infants, -_limbus puerorum_, and that of the fathers of the old covenant, _limbus -sanctorum patrum_. But the second he finds is now inhabited only by the -virtuous heathen. - -[225] _Sir_--_Master_: As a delicate means of expressing sympathy, Dante -redoubles his courtesy to Virgil. - -[226] _Hidden drift_: to find out, at first hand as it were, if the -article in the creed is true which relates to the Descent into Hell; -and, perhaps, to learn if when Christ descended He delivered none of the -virtuous heathen. - -[227] _Lately_: Virgil died about half a century before the crucifixion. - -[228] _A Potentate_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the -_Inferno_. - -[229] _A hemisphere, etc._: An elaborate way of saying that part of the -limbo was clearly lit. The flame is symbolical of the light of genius, -or of virtue; both in Dante's eyes being modes of worth. - -[230] _Wins grace, etc._: The thirst for fame was one keenly felt and -openly confessed by Dante. See, _e.g._ _De Monarchia_, i. 1. In this he -anticipated the humanists of the following century. Here we find that to -be famous on earth helps the case of disembodied souls. - -[231] _Poet_: Throughout the _Comedy_, with the exception of _Parad._ i. -29, and xxv. 8, the term 'poet' is confined to those who wrote in Greek -and Latin. In _Purg._ xxi. 85 the name of poet is said to be that 'which -is most enduring and honourable.' - -[232] _A sword_: Because Homer sings of battles. Dante's acquaintance -with his works can have been but slight, as they were not then -translated into Latin, and Dante knew little or no Greek. - -[233] _To their honour_: 'And in that they do well:' perhaps as showing -themselves free from jealousy. But the remark of Benvenuto of Imola is: -'Poets love and honour one another, and are never envious and -quarrelsome like those who cultivate the other arts and sciences.'--I -quote with misgiving from Tamburini's untrustworthy Italian translation. -Benvenuto lectured on the _Comedy_ in Bologna for some years about 1370. -It is greatly to be wished that his commentary, lively and full of -side-lights as it is, should be printed in full from the original Latin. - -[234] _The lords, etc._: Not the company of him--Homer or Virgil--who is -lord of the great song, and soars above all others; but the company of -the great masters, whose verse, etc. - -[235] _Did my Master smile_: To see Dante made free of the guild of -great poets; or, it may be, to think they are about to discover in him a -fellow poet. - -[236] _A noble castle_: Where the light burns, and in which, as their -peculiar seat, the shades of the heathen distinguished for virtue and -genius reside. The seven walls are in their number symbolical of the -perfect strength of the castle; or, to take it more pedantically, may -mean the four moral virtues and the three speculative. The gates will -then stand for the seven liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, etc. The -moat may be eloquence, set outside the castle to signify that only as -reflected in the eloquent words of inspired men can the outside world -get to know wisdom. Over the stream Dante passes easily, as being an -adept in learned speech. The castle encloses a spacious mead enamelled -with eternal green. - -[237] _Cæsar in arms, etc._: Suetonius says of Cæsar that he was of -fair complexion, but had black and piercing eyes. Brunetto Latini, -Dante's teacher, says in his _Tesoro_ (v. 11), of the hawk here -mentioned--the _grifagno_--that its eyes 'flame like fire.' - -[238] _Brutus_: Introduced here that he may not be confounded with the -later Brutus, for whom is reserved the lowest place of all in Inferno. - -[239] _Marcia_: Wife of Cato; mentioned also in _Purg._ i. _Julia_: -daughter of Cæsar and wife of Pompey. - -[240] _Saladin_: Died 1193. To the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries -he supplied the ideal of a just Mohammedan ruler. Here are no other -such. 'He sits apart, because not of gentle birth,' says Boccaccio; -which shows what even a man of genius risks when he becomes a -commentator. - -[241] _The Master_: Aristotle, often spoken of by Dante as the -Philosopher, and reverenced by him as the genius to whom the secrets of -nature lay most open. - -[242] _Democritus, etc._: According to whom the world owes its form to a -chance arrangement of atoms. - -[243] _Linus_: Not Livy, into which some have changed it. Linus is -mentioned by Virgil along with Orpheus, _Egl._ iv. - -[244] _Ptolemy_: Greek geographer of the beginning of the second -century, and author of the system of the world believed in by Dante, and -freely used by him throughout the poem. - -[245] _Avicenna_: A physician, born in Bokhara, and died at Ispahan, -1037. His _Medical Canon_ was for centuries used as a text-book in -Europe. - -[246] _Averroes_: A Mohammedan philosopher of Cordova, died 1198. In his -great Commentary on Aristotle he gives and explains every sentence of -that philosopher's works. He was himself ignorant of Greek, and made use -of Arabic versions. Out of his Arabic the Commentary was translated into -Hebrew, and thence into Latin. The presence of the three Mohammedans in -this honourable place greatly puzzles the early commentators. - -[247] _A part, etc._: He passes into the darkness of the Limbo out of -the brightly-lit, fortified enclosure. It is worth remarking, as one -reads, how vividly he describes his first impression of a new scene, -while when he comes to leave it a word is all he speaks. - - - - -CANTO V. - - - From the First Circle thus I downward went - Into the Second,[248] which girds narrower space, - But greater woe compelling loud lament. - Minos[249] waits awful there and snarls, the case - Examining of all who enter in; - And, as he girds him, dooms them to their place. - I say, each ill-starred spirit must begin - On reaching him its guilt in full to tell; - And he, omniscient as concerning sin, - Sees to what circle it belongs in Hell; 10 - Then round him is his tail as often curled - As he would have it stages deep to dwell. - And evermore before him stand a world - Of shades; and all in turn to judgment come, - Confess and hear, and then are downward hurled.[250] - 'O thou who comest to the very home - Of woe,' when he beheld me Minos cried, - Ceasing a while from utterance of doom, - 'Enter not rashly nor in all confide; - By ease of entering be not led astray.' 20 - 'Why also[251] growling?' answered him my Guide; - 'Seek not his course predestinate to stay; - For thus 'tis willed[252] where nothing ever fails - Of what is willed. No further speech essay.' - And now by me are agonising wails - Distinguished plain; now am I come outright - Where grievous lamentation me assails. - Now had I reached a place devoid of light, - Raging as in a tempest howls the sea - When with it winds, blown thwart each other, fight. 30 - The infernal storm is raging ceaselessly, - Sweeping the shades along with it, and them - It smites and whirls, nor lets them ever be. - Arrived at the precipitous extreme,[253] - In shrieks and lamentations they complain, - And even the Power Divine itself blaspheme. - I understood[254] that to this mode of pain - Are doomed the sinners of the carnal kind, - Who o'er their reason let their impulse reign. - As starlings in the winter-time combined 40 - Float on the wing in crowded phalanx wide, - So these bad spirits, driven by that wind, - Float up and down and veer from side to side; - Nor for their comfort any hope they spy - Of rest, or even of suffering mollified. - And as the cranes[255] in long-drawn company - Pursue their flight while uttering their song, - So I beheld approach with wailing cry - Shades lifted onward by that whirlwind strong. - 'Master, what folk are these,'[256] I therefore said, 50 - 'Who by the murky air are whipped along?' - 'She, first of them,' his answer thus was made, - 'Of whom thou wouldst a wider knowledge win, - O'er many tongues and peoples, empire swayed. - So ruined was she by licentious sin - That she decreed lust should be uncontrolled, - To ease the shame that she herself was in. - She is Semiramis, of whom 'tis told - She followed Ninus, and his wife had been. - Hers were the realms now by the Sultan ruled. 60 - The next[257] is she who, amorous and self-slain, - Unto Sichæus' dust did faithless show: - Then lustful Cleopatra.' Next was seen - Helen, for whom so many years in woe - Ran out; and I the great Achilles knew, - Who at the last[258] encountered love for foe. - Paris I saw and Tristram.[259] In review - A thousand shades and more, he one by one - Pointed and named, whom love from life withdrew. - And after I had heard my Teacher run 70 - O'er many a dame of yore and many a knight, - I, lost in pity, was wellnigh undone. - Then I: 'O Poet, if I only might - Speak with the two that as companions hie, - And on the wind appear to be so light!'[260] - And he to me: 'When they shall come more nigh - Them shalt thou mark, and by the love shalt pray - Which leads them onward, and they will comply.' - Soon as the wind bends them to where we stay - I lift my voice: 'O wearied souls and worn! 80 - Come speak with us if none[261] the boon gainsay.' - Then even as doves,[262] urged by desire, return - On outspread wings and firm to their sweet nest - As through the air by mere volition borne, - From Dido's[263] band those spirits issuing pressed - Towards where we were, athwart the air malign; - My passionate prayer such influence possessed. - 'O living creature,[264] gracious and benign, - Us visiting in this obscurèd air, - Who did the earth with blood incarnadine; 90 - If in the favour of the King we were - Who rules the world, we for thy peace[265] would pray, - Since our misfortunes thy compassion stir. - Whate'er now pleases thee to hear or say - We listen to, or tell, at your demand;[266] - While yet the wind, as now, doth silent stay. - My native city[267] lies upon the strand - Where to the sea descends the river Po - For peace, with all his tributary band. - Love, in a generous heart set soon aglow, 100 - Seized him for the fair form was mine above; - And still it irks me to have lost it so.[268] - Love, which absolves[269] no one beloved from love, - So strong a passion for him in me wrought - That, as thou seest, I still its mastery prove. - Love led us where we in one death were caught. - For him who slew us waits Caïna[270] now.' - Unto our ears these words from them were brought. - When I had heard these troubled souls, my brow - I downward bent, and long while musing stayed, 110 - Until the Poet asked: 'What thinkest thou?' - And when I answered him, 'Alas!' I said, - 'Sweet thoughts how many, and what strong desire, - These to their sad catastrophe betrayed!' - Then, turned once more to them, I to inquire - Began: 'Francesca, these thine agonies - Me with compassion unto tears inspire. - But tell me, at the season of sweet sighs - What sign made love, and what the means he chose - To strip your dubious longings of disguise?' 120 - And she to me: 'The bitterest of woes - Is to remember in the midst of pain - A happy past; as well thy teacher[271] knows. - Yet none the less, and since thou art so fain - The first occasion of our love to hear, - Like one I speak that cannot tears restrain. - As we for pastime one day reading were - How Lancelot[272] by love was fettered fast-- - All by ourselves and without any fear-- - Moved by the tale our eyes we often cast 130 - On one another, and our colour fled; - But one word was it, vanquished us at last. - When how the smile, long wearied for, we read - Was kissed by him who loved like none before, - This one, who henceforth never leaves me, laid - A kiss on my mouth, trembling the while all o'er. - The book was Galahad,[273] and he as well - Who wrote the book. That day we read no more.' - And while one shade continued thus to tell, - The other wept so bitterly, I swooned 140 - Away for pity, and as dead I fell: - Yea, as a corpse falls, fell I on the ground. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[248] _The Second_: The Second Circle of the Inferno, and the first of -punishment. The lower the circle, the more rigorous the penalty endured -in it. Here is punished carnal sin. - -[249] _Minos_: Son of Jupiter and King of Crete, so severely just as to -be made after death one of the judges of the under world. He is degraded -by Dante, as many other noble persons of the old mythology are by him, -into a demon. Unlike the fallen angels of Milton, Dante's devils have no -interest of their own. Their only function is to help in working out -human destinies. - -[250] _Downward hurled_: Each falls to his proper place without -lingering by the way. All through Inferno there is an absence of direct -Divine interposition. It is ruled, as it were, by a course of nature. -The sinners, compelled by a fatal impulse, advance to hear their doom, -just as they fall inevitably one by one into Charon's boat. Minos by a -sort of devilish instinct sentences each sinner to his appropriate -punishment. In _Inf._ xxvii. 127 we find the words in which Minos utters -his judgment. In _Inf._ xxi. 29 a devil bears the sinner to his own -place. - -[251] _Why also, etc._: Like Charon. If Minos represents conscience, as -some would have it, Dante is here again assailed by misgivings as to his -enterprise, and is quieted by reason in the person of Virgil. - -[252] _Thus 'tis willed, etc._: These two lines are the same as those to -Charon, _Inf._ iii. 95, 96. - -[253] _Precipitous extreme_: Opinions vary as to what is meant by -_ruina_. As Dante is certainly still on the outer edge of the Second -Circle or terrace, and while standing there hears distinctly the words -the spirits say when they reach the _ruina_, it most likely denotes the -steep slope falling from the First to the Second Circle. The spirits, -driven against the wall which hems them in, burst into sharp -lamentations against their irremediable fate. - -[254] _I understood, etc._: From the nature of the punishment, which, -like all the others invented by Dante, bears some relation to the sin to -which it is assigned. They who on earth failed to exercise -self-restraint are beaten hither and thither by every wind that blows; -and, as once they were blinded by passion, so now they see nothing -plainly in that dim and obscure place. That Dante should assign the -least grievous punishment of all to this sin throws light upon his views -of life. In his eyes it had more than any other the excuse of natural -bent, and had least of malice. Here, it must be remarked, are no -seducers. For them a lower depth is reserved (_Inf._ xviii. See also -_Purg._ xxvii. 15). - -[255] _The cranes_: 'The cranes are a kind of bird that go in a troop, -as cavaliers go to battle, following one another in single file. And one -of them goes always in front as their gonfalonier, guiding and leading -them with its voice' (Brunetto Latini, _Tesoro_, v. 27). - -[256] _What folk are these_: The general crowd of sinners guilty of -unlawful love are described as being close packed like starlings. The -other troop, who go in single file like cranes, are those regarding whom -Dante specially inquires; and they prove to be the nobler sort of -sinners--lovers with something tragic or pathetic in their fate. - -[257] _The next_: Dido, perhaps not named by Virgil because to him she -owed her fame. For love of Æneas she broke the vow of perpetual chastity -made on the tomb of her husband. - -[258] _At the last, etc._: Achilles, when about to espouse Polyxena, and -when off his guard, was slain. - -[259] _Paris ... and Tristram_: Paris of Troy, and the Tristram of King -Arthur's Table. - -[260] _So light_: Denoting the violence of the passion to which they had -succumbed. - -[261] _If none_: If no Superior Power. - -[262] _Doves_: The motion of the tempest-driven shades is compared to -the flight of birds--starlings, cranes, and doves. This last simile -prepares us for the tenderness of Francesca's tale. - -[263] _Dido_: Has been already indicated, and is now named. This -association of the two lovers with Virgil's Dido is a further delicate -touch to engage our sympathy; for her love, though illicit, was the -infirmity of a noble heart. - -[264] _Living creature_: 'Animal.' No shade, but an animated body. - -[265] _Thy peace_: Peace from all the doubts that assail him, and which -have compelled him to the journey: peace, it may be, from temptation to -sin cognate to her own. Even in the gloom of Inferno her great -goodheartedness is left her--a consolation, if not a grace. - -[266] _Your demand_: By a refinement of courtesy, Francesca, though -addressing only Dante, includes Virgil in her profession of willingness -to tell all they care to hear. But as almost always, he remains silent. -It is not for his good the journey is being made. - -[267] _Native city_: Ravenna. The speaker is Francesca, daughter of -Guido of Polenta, lord of Ravenna. About the year 1275 she was married -to Gianciotto (Deformed John) Malatesta, son of the lord of Rimini; the -marriage, like most of that time in the class to which she belonged, -being one of political convenience. She allowed her affections to settle -on Paolo, her husband's handsome brother; and Gianciotto's suspicions -having been aroused, he surprised the lovers and slew them on the spot. -This happened at Pesaro. The association of Francesca's name with Rimini -is merely accidental. The date of her death is not known. Dante can -never have set eyes on Francesca; but at the battle of Campaldino in -1289, where he was present, a troop of cavaliers from Pistoia fought on -the Florentine side under the command of her brother Bernardino; and in -the following year, Dante being then twenty-five years of age, her -father, Guido, was Podesta in Florence. The Guido of Polenta, lord of -Ravenna, whom Dante had for his last and most generous patron, was -grandson of that elder Guido, and nephew of Francesca. - -[268] _To have lost it so_: A husband's right and duty were too well -defined in the prevalent social code for her to complain that Gianciotto -avenged himself. What she does resent is that she was left no -breathing-space for repentance and farewells. - -[269] _Which absolves, etc._: Which compels whoever is beloved to love -in return. Here is the key to Dante's comparatively lenient estimate of -the guilt of Francesca's sin. See line 39, and _Inf._ xi. 83. The Church -allowed no distinctions with regard to the lost. Dante, for his own -purposes, invents a scale of guilt; and in settling the degrees of it he -is greatly influenced by human feeling--sometimes by private likes and -dislikes. The vestibule of the caitiffs, _e.g._, is his own creation. - -[270] _Caïna_: The Division of the Ninth and lowest Circle, assigned to -those treacherous to their kindred (_Inf._ xxxii. 58). Her husband was -still living in 1300.--May not the words of this line be spoken by -Paolo? It is as a fratricide even more than as the slayer of his wife -that Gianciotto is to find his place in Caïna. The words are more in -keeping with the masculine than the feminine character. They certainly -jar somewhat with the gentler censure of line 102. And, immediately -after, Dante speaks of what the 'souls' have said. - -[271] _Thy teacher_: Boethius, one of Dante's favourite authors -(_Convito_ ii. 13), says in his _De Consol. Phil._, 'The greatest misery -in adverse fortune is once to have been happy.' But, granting that Dante -found the idea in Boethius, it is clearly Virgil that Francesca means. -She sees that Dante's guide is a shade, and gathers from his grave -passionless aspect that he is one condemned for ever to look back with -futile regret upon his happier past. - -[272] _Lancelot_: King Arthur's famous knight, who was too bashful to -make his love for Queen Guinivere known to her. Galahad, holding the -secret of both, persuaded the Queen to make the first declaration of -love at a meeting he arranged for between them. Her smile, or laugh, as -she 'took Lancelot by the chin and kissed him,' assured her lover of his -conquest. The Arthurian Romances were the favourite reading of the -Italian nobles of Dante's time. - -[273] _Galahad_: From the part played by Galahad, or Galeotto, in the -tale of Lancelot, his name grew to be Italian for Pander. The book, says -Francesca, was that which tells of Galahad; and the author of it proved -a very Galahad to us. The early editions of the _Decameron_ bear the -second title of 'The Prince Galeotto.' - - - - -CANTO VI. - - - When I regained my senses, which had fled - At my compassion for the kindred two, - Which for pure sorrow quite had turned my head, - New torments and a crowd of sufferers new - I see around me as I move again,[274] - Where'er I turn, where'er I bend my view. - In the Third Circle am I of the rain - Which, heavy, cold, eternal, big with woe, - Doth always of one kind and force remain. - Large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow, 10 - Keep pouring down athwart the murky air; - And from the ground they fall on, stenches grow. - The savage Cerberus,[275] a monster drear, - Howls from his threefold throat with canine cries - Above the people who are whelmèd there. - Oily and black his beard, and red his eyes, - His belly huge: claws from his fingers sprout. - The shades he flays, hooks, rends in cruel wise. - Beat by the rain these, dog-like, yelp and shout, - And shield themselves in turn with either side; 20 - And oft[276] the wretched sinners turn about. - When we by Cerberus, great worm,[277] were spied, - He oped his mouths and all his fangs he showed, - While not a limb did motionless abide. - My Leader having spread his hands abroad, - Filled both his fists with earth ta'en from the ground, - And down the ravening gullets flung the load. - Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound, - But is appeased when at his meat he gnaws, - And, worrying it, forgets all else around; 30 - So with those filthy faces there it was - Of the fiend Cerberus, who deafs the crowd - Of souls till they from hearing fain would pause. - We, travelling o'er the spirits who lay cowed - And sorely by the grievous showers harassed, - Upon their semblances[278] of bodies trod. - Prone on the ground the whole of them were cast, - Save one of them who sat upright with speed - When he beheld that near to him we passed. - 'O thou who art through this Inferno led,[279] 40 - Me if thou canst,' he asked me, 'recognise; - For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.' - And I to him: 'Thy present tortured guise - Perchance hath blurred my memory of thy face, - Until it seems I ne'er on thee set eyes. - But tell me who thou art, within this place - So cruel set, exposed to such a pain, - Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.' - And he: 'Thy city, swelling with the bane - Of envy till the sack is running o'er, 50 - Me in the life serene did once contain. - As Ciacco[280] me your citizens named of yore; - And for the damning sin of gluttony - I, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower. - No solitary woful soul am I, - For all of these endure the selfsame doom - For the same fault.' Here ended his reply. - I answered him, 'O Ciacco, with such gloom - Thy misery weighs me, I to weep am prone; - But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come 60 - The citizens[281] of the divided town. - Holds it one just man? And declare the cause - Why 'tis of discord such a victim grown.' - Then he to me: 'After[282] contentious pause - Blood will be spilt; the boorish party[283] then - Will chase the others forth with grievous loss. - The former it behoves to fall again - Within three suns, the others to ascend, - Holpen[284] by him whose wiles ere now are plain. - Long time, with heads held high, they'll make to bend - The other party under burdens dire, 71 - Howe'er themselves in tears and rage they spend. - There are two just[285] men, at whom none inquire. - Envy, and pride, and avarice, even these - Are the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.' - With this the tearful sound he made to cease: - And I to him, 'Yet would I have thee tell-- - And of thy speech do thou the gift increase-- - Tegghiaio[286] and Farinata, honourable, - James Rusticucci,[287] Mosca, Arrigo, 80 - With all the rest so studious to excel - In good; where are they? Help me this to know; - Great hunger for the news hath seizèd me; - Delights them Heaven, or tortures Hell below?' - He said: 'Among the blackest souls they be; - Them to the bottom weighs another sin. - Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see. - But when[288] the sweet world thou again dost win, - I pray thee bring me among men to mind; - No more I tell, nor new reply begin.' 90 - Then his straightforward eyes askance declined; - He looked at me a moment ere his head - He bowed; then fell flat 'mong the other blind. - 'Henceforth he waketh not,' my Leader said, - 'Till he shall hear the angel's trumpet sound, - Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shade - Its dismal sepulchre shall then be found, - Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume, - And list[289] what echoes in eternal round.' - So passed we where the shades and rainy spume 100 - Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow; - Touching a little on the world to come.[290] - Wherefore I said: 'Master, shall torments grow - After the awful sentence hath been heard, - Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?' - 'Repair unto thy Science,'[291] was his word; - 'Which tells, as things approach a perfect state - To keener joy or suffering they are stirred. - Therefore although this people cursed by fate - Ne'er find perfection in its full extent, 110 - To it they then shall more approximate - Than now.'[292] Our course we round the circle bent, - Still holding speech, of which I nothing say, - Until we came where down the pathway went: - There found we Plutus, the great enemy. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[274] _As I move again_: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the -Second Circle down to the Third. - -[275] _Cerberus_: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of -the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his -three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately -set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and -wine-bibbers. - -[276] _And oft, etc._: On entering the circle the shades are seized and -torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated -as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be -subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, -touch, and smell are assailed by the opposite of what they were most -used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts. - -[277] _Great worm_: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so -called as being a disgusting brute. - -[278] _Semblances, etc._: 'Emptiness which seems to be a person.' To -this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has -difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with -the sleet to make a sludgy mass; and cannot therefore be impalpable. - -[279] Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante's tread that he is -a living man. - -[280] _Ciacco_: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his -day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though -poor, Ciacco associated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as -ate and drank delicately. In the _Decameron_, ix. 8, he is introduced as -being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose -himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his -pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial -surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not -quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim. - -[281] _The citizens, etc._: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics -with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno. - -[282] _After, etc._: In the following nine lines the party history of -Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is -roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions--the Whites, -led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso -Donati, a poor and turbulent noble. At the close of 1300 there was a -bloody encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In -May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they -returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and -got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of -the poet's talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was associated with the -Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong -politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June -till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course -of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an embassy to Rome to persuade -the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never -entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in -January 1302. - -[283] _The boorish party_: _la parte selvaggia_. The Whites; but what is -exactly meant by _selvaggia_ is not clear. Literally it is 'woodland,' -and some say it refers to the Cerchi having originally come from a -well-wooded district; which is absurd. Nor, taking the word in its -secondary meaning of savage, does it apply better to one party than -another--not so well, perhaps, to the Whites as to the Blacks. Villani -also terms the Cerchi _salvatichi_ (viii. 39), and in a connection where -it may mean rude, ill-mannered. I take it that Dante here indulges in a -gibe at the party to which he once belonged, but which, ere he began the -_Comedy_, he had quite broken with. In _Parad._ xvii. 62 he terms the -members of it 'wicked and stupid.' The sneer in the text would come well -enough from the witty and soft-living Ciacco. - -[284] _Holpen, etc._: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the -preponderance in Florence, which for a time he enjoyed, with the greedy -and faithless Charles of Valois for his agent. - -[285] _Two just_: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts -from himself any blame for the evil turn things had taken in Florence. -How thoroughly he had broken with his party ere he wrote this is proved -by his exclusion of the irresolute but respectable Vieri dei Cerchi from -the number of the just men. He, in Dante's judgment, was only too much -listened to.--It will be borne in mind that, at the time assigned to the -action of the _Comedy_, Dante was still resident in Florence. - -[286] _Tegghiaio_: See _Inf._ xvi. 42. _Farinata_: _Inf._ x. 32. - -[287] _Rusticucci_: _Inf._ xvi. 44. _Mosca_: _Inf._ xxviii. 106. -_Arrigo_: Cannot be identified. All these distinguished Florentines we -may assume to have been hospitable patrons of Ciacco's. - -[288] _But when, etc._: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed -to Dante. The shades in Purgatory ask to have their friends on earth -stirred to offer up petitions for their speedy purification and -deliverance; but the only alleviation possible for the doomed spirits is -to know that they are not yet forgotten up in the 'sweet world.' A -double artistic purpose is served by representing them as feeling thus. -It relieves the mind to think that in such misery there is any source of -comfort at all. And by making them be still interested on their own -account in the thoughts of men, the eager colloquies in which they -engage with Dante on such unequal terms gain in verisimilitude. - -[289] _And list, etc._: The final sentence against them is to echo, in -its results, through all eternity. - -[290] _The world to come_: The life after doomsday. - -[291] _Thy Science_: To Aristotle. In the _Convito_, iv. 16, he quotes -'the Philosopher' as teaching that 'everything is then at its full -perfection when it thoroughly fulfils its special functions.' - -[292] _Than now_: Augustine says that 'after the resurrection of the -flesh the joys of the blessed and the sufferings of the wicked will be -enhanced.' And, according to Thomas Aquinas, 'the soul, without the -body, is wanting in the perfection designed for it by Nature.' - - - - -CANTO VII. - - - Pape[293] Satan! Pape Satan! Aleppe! - Plutus[294] began in accents rough and hard: - And that mild Sage, all-knowing, said to me, - For my encouragement: 'Pay no regard - Unto thy fear; whatever power he sways - Thy passage down this cliff shall not be barred.' - Then turning round to that inflamèd face - He bade: 'Accursed wolf,[295] at peace remain; - And, pent within thee, let thy fury blaze. - Down to the pit we journey not in vain: 10 - So rule they where by Michael in Heaven's height - On the adulterous pride[296] was vengeance ta'en.' - Then as the bellied sails, by wind swelled tight, - Suddenly drag whenever snaps the mast; - Such, falling to the ground, the monster's plight. - To the Fourth Cavern so we downward passed, - Winning new reaches of the doleful shore - Where all the vileness of the world is cast. - Justice of God! which pilest more and more - Pain as I saw, and travail manifold! 20 - Why will we sin, to be thus wasted sore? - As at Charybdis waves are forward rolled - To break on other billows midway met, - The people here a counterdance must hold. - A greater crowd than I had seen as yet, - With piercing yells advanced on either track, - Rolling great stones to which their chests were set. - They crashed together, and then each turned back - Upon the way he came, while shouts arise, - 'Why clutch it so?' and 'Why to hold it slack?' 30 - In the dark circle wheeled they on this wise - From either hand to the opposing part, - Where evermore they raised insulting cries. - Thither arrived, each, turning, made fresh start - Through the half circle[297] a new joust to run; - And I, stung almost to the very heart, - Said, 'O my Master, wilt thou make it known - Who the folk are? Were these all clerks[298] who go - Before us on the left, with shaven crown?' - And he replied: 'All of them squinted so 40 - In mental vision while in life they were, - They nothing spent by rule. And this they show, - And with their yelping voices make appear - When half-way round the circle they have sped, - And sins opposing them asunder tear. - Each wanting thatch of hair upon his head - Was once a clerk, or pope, or cardinal, - In whom abound the ripest growths of greed.' - And I: 'O Master, surely among all - Of these I ought[299] some few to recognise, 50 - Who by such filthy sins were held in thrall.' - And he to me: 'Vain thoughts within thee rise; - Their witless life, which made them vile, now mocks-- - Dimming[300] their faces still--all searching eyes. - Eternally they meet with hostile shocks; - These rising from the tomb at last shall stand - With tight clenched fists, and those with ruined locks.[301] - Squandering or hoarding, they the happy land[302] - Have lost, and now are marshalled for this fray; - Which to describe doth no fine words demand. 60 - Know hence, my Son, how fleeting is the play - Of goods at the dispose of Fortune thrown, - And which mankind to such fierce strife betray. - Not all the gold which is beneath the moon - Could purchase peace, nor all that ever was, - To but one soul of these by toil undone.' - 'Master,' I said, 'tell thou, ere making pause, - Who Fortune is of whom thou speak'st askance, - Who holds all worldly riches in her claws.'[303] - 'O foolish creatures, lost in ignorance!' 70 - He answer made. 'Now see that the reply - Thou store, which I concerning her advance. - He who in knowledge is exalted high, - Framing[304] all Heavens gave such as should them guide, - That so each part might shine to all; whereby - Is equal light diffused on every side: - And likewise to one guide and governor, - Of worldly splendours did control confide, - That she in turns should different peoples dower 79 - With this vain good; from blood should make it pass - To blood, in spite of human wit. Hence, power, - Some races failing,[305] other some amass, - According to her absolute decree - Which hidden lurks, like serpent in the grass. - Vain 'gainst her foresight yours must ever be. - She makes provision, judges, holds her reign, - As doth his power supreme each deity. - Her permutations can no truce sustain; - Necessity[306] compels her to be swift, - So swift they follow who their turn must gain. 90 - And this is she whom they so often[307] lift - Upon the cross, who ought to yield her praise; - And blame on her and scorn unjustly shift. - But she is blest nor hears what any says, - With other primal creatures turns her sphere, - Jocund and glad, rejoicing in her ways. - To greater woe now let us downward steer. - The stars[308] which rose when I began to guide - Are falling now, nor may we linger here.' - We crossed the circle to the other side, 100 - Arriving where a boiling fountain fell - Into a brooklet by its streams supplied. - In depth of hue the flood did perse[309] excel, - And we, with this dim stream to lead us on, - Descended by a pathway terrible. - A marsh which by the name of Styx is known, - Fed by this gloomy brook, lies at the base - Of threatening cliffs hewn out of cold grey stone. - And I, intent on study of the place,[310] - Saw people in that ditch, mud-smeared. In it 110 - All naked stood with anger-clouded face. - Nor with their fists alone each fiercely hit - The other, but with feet and chest and head, - And with their teeth to shreds each other bit. - 'Son, now behold,' the worthy Master said, - 'The souls of those whom anger made a prize; - And, further, I would have thee certified - That 'neath the water people utter sighs, - And make the bubbles to the surface come; - As thou mayst see by casting round thine eyes. 120 - Fixed in the mud they say: "We lived in gloom[311] - In the sweet air made jocund by the day, - Nursing within us melancholy fume. - In this black mud we now our gloom display." - This hymn with gurgling throats they strive to sound, - Which they in speech unbroken fail to say.' - And thus about the loathsome pool we wound - For a wide arc, between the dry and soft, - With eyes on those who gulp the filth, turned round. - At last we reached a tower that soared aloft. 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[293] _Pape, etc._: These words have exercised the ingenuity of many -scholars, who on the whole lean to the opinion that they contain an -appeal to Satan against the invasion of his domain. Virgil seems to have -understood them, but the text leaves it doubtful whether Dante himself -did. Later on, but there with an obvious purpose, we find a line of pure -gibberish (_Inf._ xxxi. 67). - -[294] _Plutus_: The god of riches; degraded here into a demon. He guards -the Fourth Circle, which is that of the misers and spendthrifts. - -[295] _Wolf_: Frequently used by Dante as symbolical of greed. - -[296] _Pride_: Which in its way was a kind of greed--that of dominion. -Similarly, the avarice represented by the wolf of Canto i. was seen to -be the lust of aggrandisement. Virgil here answers Plutus's (supposed) -appeal to Satan by referring to the higher Power, under whose protection -he and his companion come. - -[297] _The half circle_: This Fourth Circle is divided half-way round -between the misers and spendthrifts, and the two bands at set periods -clash against one another in their vain effort to pass into the section -belonging to the opposite party. Their condition is emblematical of -their sins while in life. They were one-sided in their use of wealth; so -here they can never complete the circle. The monotony of their -employment and of their cries represents their subjection to one idea, -and, as in life, so now, their displeasure is excited by nothing so much -as by coming into contact with the failing opposite to their own. Yet -they are set in the same circle because the sin of both arose from -inordinate desire of wealth, the miser craving it to hoard, and the -spendthrift to spend. In Purgatory also they are placed together (see -_Purg._ xxii. 40). So, on Dante's scheme, liberality is allied to and -dependent on a wise and reasonable frugality.--There is no hint of the -enormous length of the course run by these shades. Far lower down, when -the circles of the Inferno have greatly narrowed, the circuit is -twenty-two miles (_Inf._ xxix. 9). - -[298] _Clerks_: Churchmen. The tonsure is the sign that a man is of -ecclesiastical condition. Many took the tonsure who never became -priests. - -[299] _I ought, etc._: Dante is astonished that he can pick out no -greedy priest or friar of his acquaintance, when he had known so many. - -[300] _Dimming, etc._: Their original disposition is by this time -smothered by the predominance of greed. Dante treats these sinners with -a special contemptuous bitterness. Scores of times since he became -dependent on the generosity of others he must have watched how at a bare -hint the faces of miser and spendthrift fell, while their eyes travelled -vaguely beyond him, and their voices grew cold. - -[301] _Ruined locks_: 'A spendthrift will spend his very hair,' says an -Italian proverb. - -[302] _The happy land_: Heaven. - -[303] _Her claws_: Dante speaks of Fortune as if she were a brutal and -somewhat malicious power. In Virgil's answer there is a refutation of -the opinion of Fortune given by Dante himself, in the _Convito_ (iv. -11). After describing three ways in which the goods of Fortune come to -men he says: 'In each of these three ways her injustice is manifest.' -This part of the _Convito_ Fraticelli seems almost to prove was written -in 1297. - -[304] _Framing, etc._: According to the scholastic theory of the world, -each of the nine heavens was directed in its motion by intelligences, -called angels by the vulgar, and by the heathen, gods (_Convito_ ii. 5). -As these spheres and the influences they exercise on human affairs are -under the guidance of divinely-appointed ministers, so, Virgil says, is -the distribution of worldly wealth ruled by Providence through Fortune. - -[305] _Some races failing_: It was long believed, nor is the belief -quite obsolete, that one community can gain only at the expense of -another. Sir Thomas Browne says: 'All cannot be happy at once; for -because the glory of one state depends upon the ruin of another, there -is a revolution and vicissitude of their greatness, and all must obey -the swing of that wheel, not moved by intelligences, but by the hand of -God, whereby all states arise to their zeniths and vertical points -according to their predestinated periods.'--_Rel. Med._ i. 17. - -[306] _Necessity, etc._: Suggested, perhaps, by Horace's _Te semper -anteit sæva necessitas_ (_Od._ i. 35). The question of how men can be -free in the face of necessity, here associated with Fortune, more than -once emerges in the _Comedy_. Dante's belief on the subject was -substantially that of his favourite author Boethius, who holds that -ultimately 'it is Providence that turns the wheel of all things;' and -who says, that 'if you spread your sails to the wind you will be -carried, not where you would, but whither you are driven by the gale: if -you choose to commit yourself to Fortune, you must endure the manners of -your mistress.' - -[307] _Whom they so often, etc._: Treat with contumely. - -[308] _The stars, etc._: It is now past midnight, and towards the -morning of Saturday, the 26th of March 1300. Only a few hours have been -employed as yet upon the journey. - -[309] _Perse_: 'Perse is a colour between purple and black, but the -black predominates' (_Conv._ iv. 20). The hue of the waters of Styx -agrees with the gloomy temper of the sinners plunged in them. - -[310] _The place_: They are now in the Fifth Circle, where the wrathful -are punished. - -[311] _In gloom_: These submerged spirits are, according to the older -commentators, the slothful--those guilty of the sin of slackness in the -pursuit of good, as, _e.g._ neglect of the means of grace. This is, -theologically speaking, the sin directly opposed to the active grace of -charity. By more modern critics it has been ingeniously sought to find -in this circle a place not only for the slothful but for the proud and -envious as well. To each of these classes of sinners--such of them as -have repented in this life--a terrace of Purgatory is assigned, and at -first sight it does seem natural to expect that the impenitent among -them should be found in Inferno. But, while in Purgatory souls purge -themselves of every kind of mortal sin, Inferno, as Dante conceived of -it, contains only such sinners as have been guilty of wicked acts. Drift -and bent of heart and mind are taken no account of. The evil seed must -have borne a harvest, and the guilt of every victim of Justice must be -plain and open. Now, pride and envy are sins indeed, but sins that a man -may keep to himself. If they have betrayed the subject of them into the -commission of crimes, in those crimes they are punished lower down, as -is indicated at xii. 49. And so we find that Lucifer is condemned as a -traitor, though his treachery sprang from envy: the greater guilt -includes the less. For sluggishness in the pursuit of good the vestibule -of the caitiffs seems the appropriate place.--There are two kinds of -wrath. One is vehement, and declares itself in violent acts; the other -does not blaze out, but is grudging and adverse to all social good--the -wrath that is nursed. One as much as the other affects behaviour. So in -this circle, as in the preceding, we have represented the two excesses -of one sin.--Dante's theory of sins is ably treated of in Witte's -_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 121. - - - - -CANTO VIII. - - - I say, continuing,[312] that long before - To its foundations we approachèd nigh - Our eyes went travelling to the top of the tower; - For, hung out there, two flames[313] we could espy. - Then at such distance, scarce our eyesight made - It clearly out, another gave reply. - And, to the Sea of Knowledge turned, I said: - 'What meaneth this? and what reply would yield - That other light, and who have it displayed?' - 'Thou shouldst upon the impure watery field,' 10 - He said, 'already what approaches know, - But that the fen-fog holds it still concealed.' - Never was arrow yet from sharp-drawn bow - Urged through the air upon a swifter flight - Than what I saw a tiny vessel show, - Across the water shooting into sight; - A single pilot served it for a crew, - Who shouted: 'Art thou come, thou guilty sprite?'[314] - 'O Phlegyas, Phlegyas,[315] this thy loud halloo! - For once,' my Lord said, 'idle is and vain. 20 - Thou hast us only till the mud we're through.' - And, as one cheated inly smarts with pain - When the deceit wrought on him is betrayed, - His gathering ire could Phlegyas scarce contain. - Into the bark my Leader stepped, and made - Me take my place beside him; nor a jot, - Till I had entered, was it downward weighed. - Soon as my Guide and I were in the boat, - To cleave the flood began the ancient prow, - Deeper[316] than 'tis with others wont to float. 30 - Then, as the stagnant ditch we glided through, - One smeared with filth in front of me arose - And said: 'Thus coming ere thy period,[317] who - Art thou?' And I: 'As one who forthwith goes - I come; but thou defiled, how name they thee?' - 'I am but one who weeps,'[318] he said. 'With woes,' - I answered him, 'with tears and misery, - Accursèd soul, remain; for thou art known - Unto me now, all filthy though thou be.' - Then both his hands were on the vessel thrown; 40 - But him my wary Master backward heaved, - Saying: 'Do thou 'mong the other dogs be gone!' - Then to my neck with both his arms he cleaved, - And kissed my face, and, 'Soul disdainful,'[319] said, - 'O blessed she in whom thou wast conceived! - He in the world great haughtiness displayed. - No deeds of worth his memory adorn; - And therefore rages here his sinful shade. - And many are there by whom crowns are worn - On earth, shall wallow here like swine in mire, 50 - Leaving behind them names o'erwhelmed[320] in scorn.' - And I: 'O Master, I have great desire - To see him well soused in this filthy tide, - Ere from the lake we finally retire.' - And he: 'Or ever shall have been descried - The shore by thee, thy longing shall be met; - For such a wish were justly gratified.' - A little after in such fierce onset - The miry people down upon him bore, - I praise and bless God for it even yet. 60 - 'Philip Argenti![321] at him!' was the roar; - And then that furious spirit Florentine - Turned with his teeth upon himself and tore. - Here was he left, nor wins more words of mine. - Now in my ears a lamentation rung, - Whence I to search what lies ahead begin. - And the good Master told me: 'Son, ere long - We to the city called of Dis[322] draw near, - Where in great armies cruel burghers[323] throng.' - And I: 'Already, Master, I appear 70 - Mosques[324] in the valley to distinguish well, - Vermilion, as if they from furnace were - Fresh come.' And he: 'Fires everlasting dwell - Within them, whence appear they glowing hot, - As thou discernest in this lower hell.' - We to the moat profound at length were brought, - Which girds that city all disconsolate; - The walls around it seemed of iron wrought. - Not without fetching first a compass great, - We came to where with angry cry at last: 80 - 'Get out,' the boatman yelled; 'behold the gate!'[325] - More than a thousand, who from Heaven[326] were cast, - I saw above the gates, who furiously - Demanded: 'Who, ere death on him has passed, - Holds through the region of the dead his way?' - And my wise Master made to them a sign - That he had something secretly to say. - Then ceased they somewhat from their great disdain, - And said: 'Come thou, but let that one be gone - Who thus presumptuous enters on this reign. 90 - Let him retrace his madcap way alone, - If he but can; thou meanwhile lingering here, - Through such dark regions who hast led him down.' - Judge, reader, if I was not filled with fear, - Hearing the words of this accursèd threat; - For of return my hopes extinguished were. - 'Beloved Guide, who more than seven times[327] set - Me in security, and safely brought - Through frightful dangers in my progress met, - Leave me not thus undone;' I him besought: 100 - 'If further progress be to us denied, - Let us retreat together, tarrying not.' - The Lord who led me thither then replied: - 'Fear not: by One so great has been assigned - Our passage, vainly were all hindrance tried. - Await me here, and let thy fainting mind - Be comforted and with good hope be fed, - Not to be left in this low world behind.' - Thus goes he, thus am I abandonèd - By my sweet Father. I in doubt remain, 110 - With Yes and No[328] contending in my head. - I could not hear what speech he did maintain, - But no long time conferred he in that place, - Till, to be first, all inward raced again. - And then the gates were closed in my Lord's face - By these our enemies; outside stood he; - Then backward turned to me with lingering pace, - With downcast eyes, and all the bravery - Stripped from his brows; and he exclaimed with sighs; - 'Who dare[329] deny the doleful seats to me!' 120 - And then he said: 'Although my wrath arise, - Fear not, for I to victory will pursue, - Howe'er within they plot, the enterprise. - This arrogance of theirs is nothing new; - They showed it[330] once at a less secret door - Which stands unbolted since. Thou didst it view, - And saw the dark-writ legend which it bore. - Thence, even now, is one who hastens down - Through all the circles, guideless, to this shore, - And he shall win us entrance to the town.' 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[312] _Continuing_: The account of the Fifth Circle, begun in the -preceding Canto, is continued in this. It is impossible to adopt -Boccaccio's story of how the first seven Cantos were found among a heap -of other papers, years after Dante's exile began; and that 'continuing' -marks the resumption of his work. The word most probably suggested the -invention of the incident, or at least led to the identification of some -manuscript that may have been sent to Dante, with the opening pages of -the _Comedy_. If the tale were true, not only must Ciacco's prophecy -(_Inf._ vi.) have been interpolated, but we should be obliged to hold -that Dante began the poem while he was a prosperous citizen.--Boccaccio -himself in his Comment on the _Comedy_ points out the difficulty of -reconciling the story with Ciacco's prophecy. - -[313] _Two flames_: Denoting the number of passengers who are to be -conveyed across the Stygian pool. It is a signal for the ferryman, and -is answered by a light hung out on the battlements of the city of Dis. - -[314] _Guilty sprite_: Only one is addressed; whether Virgil or Dante is -not clear. - -[315] _Phlegyas_: Who burnt the temple of Apollo at Delphi in revenge -for the violation of his daughter by the god. - -[316] _Deeper, etc._: Because used to carry only shades. - -[317] _Ere thy period_: The curiosity of the shade is excited by the -sinking of the boat in the water. He assumes that Dante will one day be -condemned to Inferno. Neither Francesca nor Ciacco made a like mistake. - -[318] _One who weeps_: He is ashamed to tell his name, and hopes in his -vile disguise to remain unknown by Dante, whose Florentine speech and -dress, and perhaps whose features, he has now recognised. - -[319] _Soul disdainful_: Dante has been found guilty of here glorying in -the same sin which he so severely reprobates in others. But, without -question, of set purpose he here contrasts righteous indignation with -the ignoble rage punished in this circle. With his quick temper and zeal -so often kindling into flame, he may have felt a special personal need -of emphasising the distinction. - -[320] _Names o'erwhelmed, etc._: 'Horrible reproaches.' - -[321] _Philip Argenti_: A Florentine gentleman related to the great -family of the Adimari, and a contemporary of Dante's. Boccaccio in his -commentary describes him as a cavalier, very rich, and so ostentatious -that he once shod his horse with silver, whence his surname. In the -_Decameron_ (ix. 8) he is introduced as violently assaulting--tearing -out his hair and dragging him in the mire--the victim of a practical -joke played by the Ciacco of Canto vi. Some, without reason, suppose -that Dante shows such severity to him because he was a Black, and so a -political opponent of his own. - -[322] _Dis_: A name of Pluto, the god of the infernal regions. - -[323] _Burghers_: The city of Dis composes the Sixth Circle, and, as -immediately appears, is populated by demons. The sinners punished in it -are not mentioned at all in this Canto, and it seems more reasonable to -apply _burghers_ to the demons than to the shades. They are called -_gravi_, generally taken to mean sore burdened, and the description is -then applicable to the shades; but _grave_ also bears the sense of -cruel, and may describe the fierceness of the devils. Though the city is -inhabited by the subjects of Dis, he is found as Lucifer at the very -bottom of the pit. By some critics the whole of the lower Inferno, all -that lies beyond this point, is regarded as being the city of Dis. But -it is the Sixth Circle, with its minarets, that is the city; its walls, -however, serving as bulwarks for all the lower Inferno. The shape of the -city is, of course, that of a circular belt. Here it may be noted that -the Fifth and Sixth Circles are on the same level; the water of Styx, -which as a marsh covers the Fifth, is gathered into a moat to surround -the walls of the Sixth. - -[324] _Mosques_: The feature of an Infidel city that first struck -crusader and pilgrim. - -[325] _The gate_: They have floated across the stagnant marsh into the -deeper waters of the moat, and up to the gate where Phlegyas is used to -land his passengers. It may be a question whether his services are -required for all who are doomed to the lower Inferno, or only for those -bound to the city. - -[326] _From Heaven_: 'Rained from Heaven.' Fallen angels. - -[327] _Seven times_: Given as a round number. - -[328] _Yes and No_: He will return--He will not return. The demons have -said that Virgil shall remain, and he has promised Dante not to desert -him. - -[329] _Who dare, etc._: Virgil knows the hindrance is only temporary, -but wonders what superior devilish power can have incited the demons to -deny him entrance. The incident displays the fallen angels as being -still rebellious, and is at the same time skilfully conceived to mark a -pause before Dante enters on the lower Inferno. - -[330] _They showed it, etc._: At the gate of Inferno, on the occasion of -Christ's descent to Limbo. The reference is to the words in the Missal -service for Easter Eve: 'This is the night in which, having burst the -bonds of death, Christ victoriously ascended from Hell.' - - - - -CANTO IX. - - - The hue which cowardice on my face did paint - When I beheld my guide return again, - Put his new colour[331] quicker 'neath restraint. - Like one who listens did he fixed remain; - For far to penetrate the air like night, - And heavy mist, the eye was bent in vain. - 'Yet surely we must vanquish in the fight;' - Thus he, 'unless[332]--but with such proffered aid-- - O how I weary till he come in sight!' - Well I remarked how he transition made, 10 - Covering his opening words with those behind, - Which contradicted what at first he said. - Nath'less his speech with terror charged my mind, - For, haply, to the word which broken fell - Worse meaning than he purposed, I assigned. - Down to this bottom[333] of the dismal shell - Comes ever any from the First Degree,[334] - Where all their pain is, stripped of hope to dwell? - To this my question thus responded he: - 'Seldom it haps to any to pursue 20 - The journey now embarked upon by me. - Yet I ere this descended, it is true, - Beneath a spell of dire Erichtho's[335] laid, - Who could the corpse with soul inform anew. - Short while my flesh of me was empty made - When she required me to o'erpass that wall, - From Judas' circle[336] to abstract a shade. - That is the deepest, darkest place of all, - And furthest from the heaven[337] which moves the skies; - I know the way; fear nought that can befall. 30 - These fens[338] from which vile exhalations rise - The doleful city all around invest, - Which now we reach not save in angry wise.' - Of more he spake nought in my mind doth rest, - For, with mine eyes, my every thought had been - Fixed on the lofty tower with flaming crest, - Where, in a moment and upright, were seen - Three hellish furies, all with blood defaced, - And woman-like in members and in mien. - Hydras of brilliant green begirt their waist; 40 - Snakes and cerastes for their tresses grew, - And these were round their dreadful temples braced. - That they the drudges were, full well he knew, - Of her who is the queen of endless woes, - And said to me: 'The fierce Erynnyes[339] view! - Herself upon the left Megæra shows; - That is Alecto weeping on the right; - Tisiphone's between.' Here made he close. - Each with her nails her breast tore, and did smite - Herself with open palms. They screamed in tone 50 - So fierce, I to the Poet clove for fright. - 'Medusa,[340] come, that we may make him stone!' - All shouted as they downward gazed; 'Alack! - Theseus[341] escaped us when he ventured down.' - 'Keep thine eyes closed and turn to them thy back, - For if the Gorgon chance to be displayed - And thou shouldst look, farewell the upward track!' - Thus spake the Master, and himself he swayed - Me round about; nor put he trust in mine - But his own hands upon mine eyelids laid. 60 - O ye with judgment gifted to divine - Look closely now, and mark what hidden lore - Lies 'neath the veil of my mysterious line![342] - Across the turbid waters came a roar - And crash of sound, which big with fear arose: - Because of it fell trembling either shore. - The fashion of it was as when there blows - A blast by cross heats made to rage amain, - Which smites the forest and without repose - The shattered branches sweeps in hurricane; 70 - In clouds of dust, majestic, onward flies, - Wild beasts and herdsmen driving o'er the plain. - 'Sharpen thy gaze,' he bade--and freed mine eyes-- - 'Across the foam-flecked immemorial lake, - Where sourest vapour most unbroken lies.' - And as the frogs before the hostile snake - Together of the water get them clear, - And on the dry ground, huddling, shelter take; - More than a thousand ruined souls in fear - Beheld I flee from one who, dry of feet, 80 - Was by the Stygian ferry drawing near. - Waving his left hand he the vapour beat - Swiftly from 'fore his face, nor seemed he spent - Save with fatigue at having this to meet. - Well I opined that he from Heaven[343] was sent, - And to my Master turned. His gesture taught - I should be dumb and in obeisance bent. - Ah me, how with disdain appeared he fraught! - He reached the gate, which, touching with a rod,[344] - He oped with ease, for it resisted not. 90 - 'People despised and banished far from God,' - Upon the awful threshold then he spoke, - 'How holds in you such insolence abode? - Why kick against that will which never broke - Short of its end, if ever it begin, - And often for you fiercer torments woke? - Butting 'gainst fate, what can ye hope to win? - Your Cerberus,[345] as is to you well known, - Still bears for this a well-peeled throat and chin.' - Then by the passage foul he back was gone, 100 - Nor spake to us, but like a man was he - By other cares[346] absorbed and driven on - Than that of those who may around him be. - And we, confiding in the sacred word, - Moved toward the town in all security. - We entered without hindrance, and I, spurred - By my desire the character to know - And style of place such strong defences gird, - Entering, begin mine eyes around to throw, - And see on every hand a vast champaign, 110 - The teeming seat of torments and of woe. - And as at Arles[347] where Rhone spreads o'er the plain, - Or Pola,[348] hard upon Quarnaro sound - Which bathes the boundaries Italian, - The sepulchres uneven make the ground; - So here on every side, but far more dire - And grievous was the fashion of them found. - For scattered 'mid the tombs blazed many a fire, - Because of which these with such fervour burned - No arts which work in iron more require. 120 - All of the lids were lifted. I discerned - By keen laments which from the tombs arose - That sad and suffering ones were there inurned. - I said: 'O Master, tell me who are those - Buried within the tombs, of whom the sighs - Come to our ears thus eloquent of woes?' - And he to me: 'The lords of heresies[349] - With followers of all sects, a greater band - Than thou wouldst think, these sepulchres comprise. - To lodge them like to like the tombs are planned. 130 - The sepulchres have more or less of heat.'[350] - Then passed we, turning to the dexter hand,[351] - 'Tween torments and the lofty parapet. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[331] _New colour_: Both have changed colour, Virgil in anger and Dante -in fear. - -[332] _Unless_: To conceal his misgiving from Dante, Virgil refrains -from expressing all his thought. The 'unless' may refer to what the -lying demons had told him or threatened him with; the 'proffered aid,' -to that involved in Beatrice's request. - -[333] _This bottom_: The lower depths of Inferno. How much still lies -below him is unknown to Dante. - -[334] _First Degree_: The limbo where Virgil resides. Dante by an -indirect question, seeks to learn how much experience of Inferno is -possessed by his guide. - -[335] _Erichtho_: A Thessalian sorceress, of whom Lucan (_Pharsalia_ -vi.) tells that she evoked a shade to predict to Sextus Pompey the -result of the war between his father and Cæsar. This happened thirty -years before the death of Virgil. - -[336] _Judas' circle_: The Judecca, or very lowest point of the Inferno. -Virgil's death preceded that of Judas by fifty years. He gives no hint -of whose the shade was that he went down to fetch; but Lucan's tale was -probably in Dante's mind. In the Middle Ages the memory of Virgil was -revered as that of a great sorcerer, especially in the neighbourhood of -Naples. - -[337] _The heaven, etc._: The _Primum Mobile_; but used here for the -highest heaven. See _Inf._ ii. 83, _note_. - -[338] _These fens, etc._: Virgil knows the locality. They have no -choice, but must remain where they are, for the same moat and wall gird -the city all around. - -[339] _Erynnyes_: The Furies. The Queen of whom they are handmaids is -Proserpine, carried off by Dis, or Pluto, to the under world. - -[340] _Medusa_: One of the Gorgons. Whoever looked on the head of Medusa -was turned into stone. - -[341] _Theseus_: Who descended into the infernal regions to rescue -Proserpine, and escaped by the help of Hercules. - -[342] _Mysterious line_: 'Strange verses:' That the verses are called -strange, as Boccaccio and others of the older commentators say, because -treating of such a subject in the vulgar tongue for the first time, and -in rhyme, is difficult to believe. Rather they are strange because of -the meaning they convey. What that is, Dante warns the reader of -superior intellect to pause and consider. It has been noted (_Inf._ ii. -28) how he uses the characters of the old mythology as if believing in -their real existence. But this is for his poetical ends. Here he bids us -look below the surface and seek for the truth hidden under the strange -disguise.--The opposition to their progress offered by the powers of -Hell perplexes even Virgil, while Dante is reduced to a state of -absolute terror, and is afflicted with still sharper misgivings than he -had at the first as to the issue of his adventure. By an indirect -question he seeks to learn how much Virgil really knows of the economy -of the lower world; but he cannot so much as listen to all of his -Master's reassuring answer, terrified as he is by the sudden appearance -of the Furies upon the tower, which rises out of the city of unbelief. -These symbolise the trouble of his conscience, and, assailing him with -threats, shake his already trembling faith in the Divine government. -How, in the face of such foes, is he to find the peace and liberty of -soul of which he is in search? That this is the city of unbelief he has -not yet been told, and without knowing it he is standing under the very -walls of Doubting Castle. And now, if he chance to let his eyes rest on -the Gorgon's head, his soul will be petrified by despair; like the -denizens of Hell, he will lose the 'good of the intellect,' and will -pass into a state from which Virgil--or reason--will be powerless to -deliver him. But Virgil takes him in time, and makes him avert his eyes; -which may signify that the only safe course for men is to turn their -backs on the deep and insoluble problem of how the reality of the Divine -government can be reconciled with the apparent triumph of evil. - -[343] _From Heaven_: The messenger comes from Heaven, and his words are -holy. Against the obvious interpretation, that he is a good angel, there -lies the objection that no other such is met with in Inferno, and also -that it is spoken of as a new sight for him when Dante first meets with -one in Purgatory. But the obstruction now to be overcome is worthy of -angelic interference; and Dante can hardly be said to meet the -messenger, who does not even glance in his direction. The commentators -have made this angel mean all kind of outlandish things. - -[344] _A rod_: A piece of the angelic outfit, derived from the -_caduceus_ of Mercury. - -[345] _Cerberus_: Hercules, when Cerberus opposed his entrance to the -infernal regions, fastened a chain round his neck and dragged him to the -gate. The angel's speech answers Dante's doubts as to the limits of -diabolical power. - -[346] _By other cares, etc._: It is not in Inferno that Dante is to hold -converse with celestial intelligences. The angel, like Beatrice when she -sought Virgil in Limbo, is all on fire to return to his own place. - -[347] _Arles_: The Alyscampo (Elysian Fields) at Arles was an enormous -cemetery, of which ruins still exist. It had a circumference of about -six miles, and contained numerous sarcophagi dating from Roman times. - -[348] _Pola_: In Istria, near the Gulf of Quarnaro, said to have -contained many ancient tombs. - -[349] _Lords of heresies_: 'Heresiarchs.' Dante now learns for the first -time that Dis is the city of unbelief. Each class of heretics has its -own great sepulchre. - -[350] _More or less of heat_: According to the heinousness of the heresy -punished in each. It was natural to associate heretics and punishment by -fire in days when Dominican monks ruled the roast. - -[351] _Dexter hand_: As they move across the circles, and down from one -to the other, their course is usually to the left hand. Here for some -reason Virgil turns to the right, so as to have the tombs on the left as -he advances. It may be that a special proof of his knowledge of the -locality is introduced when most needed--after the repulse by the -demons--to strengthen Dante's confidence in him as a guide; or, as some -subtly think, they being now about to enter the abode of heresy, the -movement to the right signifies the importance of the first step in -forming opinion. The only other occasion on which their course is taken -to the right hand is at _Inf._ xvii. 31. - - - - -CANTO X. - - - And now advance we by a narrow track - Between the torments and the ramparts high, - My Master first, and I behind his back. - 'O mighty Virtue,[352] at whose will am I - Wheeled through these impious circles,' then I said, - 'Speak, and in full my longing satisfy. - The people who within the tombs are laid, - May they be seen? The coverings are all thrown - Open, nor is there[353] any guard displayed.' - And he to me: 'All shall be fastened down 10 - When hither from Jehoshaphat[354] they come - Again in bodies which were once their own. - All here with Epicurus[355] find their tomb - Who are his followers, and by whom 'tis held - That the soul shares the body's mortal doom. - Things here discovered then shall answer yield, - And quickly, to thy question asked of me; - As well as[356] to the wish thou hast concealed.' - And I: 'Good Leader, if I hide from thee - My heart, it is that I may little say; 20 - Nor only now[357] learned I thus dumb to be.' - 'O Tuscan, who, still living, mak'st thy way, - Modest of speech, through the abode of flame, - Be pleased[358] a little in this place to stay. - The accents of thy language thee proclaim - To be a native of that state renowned - Which I, perchance, wronged somewhat.' Sudden came - These words from out a tomb which there was found - 'Mongst others; whereon I, compelled by fright, - A little toward my Leader shifted ground. 30 - And he: 'Turn round, what ails thee? Lo! upright - Beginneth Farinata[359] to arise; - All of him 'bove the girdle comes in sight.' - On him already had I fixed mine eyes. - Towering erect with lifted front and chest, - He seemed Inferno greatly to despise. - And toward him I among the tombs was pressed - By my Guide's nimble and courageous hand, - While he, 'Choose well thy language,' gave behest. - Beneath his tomb when I had ta'en my stand 40 - Regarding me a moment, 'Of what house - Art thou?' as if in scorn, he made demand. - To show myself obedient, anxious, - I nothing hid, but told my ancestors; - And, listening, he gently raised his brows.[360] - 'Fiercely to me they proved themselves adverse, - And to my sires and party,' then he said; - 'Because of which I did them twice disperse.'[361] - I answered him: 'And what although they fled! - Twice from all quarters they returned with might, 50 - An art not mastered yet by these you[362] led.' - Beside him then there issued into sight - Another shade, uncovered to the chin, - Propped on his knees, if I surmised aright. - He peered around as if he fain would win - Knowledge if any other was with me; - And then, his hope all spent, did thus begin, - Weeping: 'By dint of genius if it be - Thou visit'st this dark prison, where my son? - And wherefore not found in thy company?' 60 - And I to him: 'I come not here alone: - He waiting yonder guides me: but disdain - Of him perchance was by your Guido[363] shown.' - The words he used, and manner of his pain, - Revealed his name to me beyond surmise; - Hence was I able thus to answer plain. - Then cried he, and at once upright did rise, - 'How saidst thou--was? Breathes he not then the air? - The pleasant light no longer smites his eyes?' - When he of hesitation was aware 70 - Displayed by me in forming my reply, - He fell supine, no more to reappear. - But the magnanimous, at whose bidding I - Had halted there, the same expression wore, - Nor budged a jot, nor turned his neck awry. - 'And if'--resumed he where he paused before-- - 'They be indeed but slow that art to learn, - Than this my bed, to hear it pains me more. - But ere the fiftieth time anew shall burn - The lady's[364] face who reigneth here below, 80 - Of that sore art thou shalt experience earn. - And as to the sweet world again thou'dst go, - Tell me, why is that people so without - Ruth for my race,[365] as all their statutes show?' - And I to him: 'The slaughter and the rout - Which made the Arbia[366] to run with red, - Cause in our fane[367] such prayers to be poured out.' - Whereon he heaved a sigh and shook his head: - 'There I was not alone, nor to embrace - That cause was I, without good reason, led. 90 - But there I was alone, when from her place - All granted Florence should be swept away. - 'Twas I[368] defended her with open face.' - 'So may your seed find peace some better day,' - I urged him, 'as this knot you shall untie - In which my judgment doth entangled stay. - If I hear rightly, ye, it seems, descry - Beforehand what time brings, and yet ye seem - 'Neath other laws[369] as touching what is nigh.' - 'Like those who see best what is far from them, 100 - We see things,' said he, 'which afar remain; - Thus much enlightened by the Guide Supreme. - To know them present or approaching, vain - Are all our powers; and save what they relate - Who hither come, of earth no news we gain. - Hence mayst thou gather in how dead a state - Shall all our knowledge from that time be thrown - When of the future shall be closed the gate.' - Then, for my fault as if repentant grown, - I said: 'Report to him who fell supine, 110 - That still among the living breathes his son. - And if I, dumb, seemed answer to decline, - Tell him it was that I upon the knot - Was pondering then, you helped me to untwine.' - Me now my Master called, whence I besought - With more than former sharpness of the shade, - To tell me what companions he had got. - He answered me: 'Some thousand here are laid - With me; 'mong these the Second Frederick,[370] - The Cardinal[371] too; of others nought be said.' 120 - Then was he hid; and towards the Bard antique - I turned my steps, revolving in my brain - The ominous words[372] which I had heard him speak. - He moved, and as we onward went again - Demanded of me: 'Wherefore thus amazed?' - And to his question I made answer plain. - 'Within thy mind let there be surely placed,' - The Sage bade, 'what 'gainst thee thou heardest say. - Now mark me well' (his finger here he raised), - 'When thou shalt stand within her gentle ray 130 - Whose beauteous eye sees all, she will make known - The stages[373] of thy journey on life's way.' - Turning his feet, he to the left moved on; - Leaving the wall, we to the middle[374] went - Upon a path that to a vale strikes down, - Which even to us above its foulness sent. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[352] _Virtue_: Virgil is here addressed by a new title, which, with the -words of deep respect that follow, marks the full restoration of Dante's -confidence in him as his guide. - -[353] _Nor is there, etc._: The gate was found to be strictly guarded, -but not so are the tombs. - -[354] _Jehoshaphat_: 'I will also gather all nations, and will bring -them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat' (Joel iii. 2). - -[355] _Epicurus_: The unbelief in a future life, or rather the -indifference to everything but the calls of ambition and worldly -pleasure, common among the nobles of Dante's age and that preceding it, -went by the name of Epicureanism. It is the most radical of heresies, -because adverse to the first principles of all religions. Dante, in his -treatment of heresy, dwells more on what affects conduct as does the -denial of the Divine government--than on intellectual divergence from -orthodox belief. - -[356] _As well as, etc._: The question is: 'May they be seen?' The wish -is a desire to speak with them. - -[357] _Nor only now, etc._: Virgil has on previous occasions imposed -silence on Dante, as, for instance, at _Inf._ iii. 51. - -[358] _Be pleased, etc._: From one of the sepulchres, to be imagined as -a huge sarcophagus, come words similar to the _Siste Viator!_ common on -Roman tombs. - -[359] _Farinata_: Of the great Florentine family of the Uberti, and, in -the generation before Dante, leader of the Ghibeline or Imperialist -party in Florence. His memory long survived among his fellow-townsmen as -that of the typical noble, rough-mannered, unscrupulous, and arrogant; -but yet, for one good action that he did, he at the same time ranked in -the popular estimation as a patriot and a hero. Boccaccio, misled -perhaps by the mention of Epicurus, says that he loved rich and delicate -fare. It is because all his thoughts were worldly that he is condemned -to the city of unbelief. Dante has already (_Inf._ vi. 79) inquired -regarding his fate. He died in 1264. - -[360] _His brows_: When Dante tells he is of the Alighieri, a Guelf -family, Farinata shows some slight displeasure. Or, as a modern -Florentine critic interprets the gesture, he has to think a moment -before he can remember on which side the Alighieri ranged -themselves--they being of the small gentry, while he was a great noble, -But this gloss requires Dante to have been more free from pride of -family than he really was. - -[361] _Twice disperse_: The Alighieri shared in the exile of the Guelfs -in 1248 and 1260. - -[362] _You_: See also line 95. Dante never uses the plural form to a -single person except when desirous of showing social as distinguished -from, or over and above, moral respect. - -[363] _Guido_: Farinata's companion in the tomb is Cavalcante -Cavalcanti, who, although a Guelf, was tainted with the more specially -Ghibeline error of Epicureanism. When in order to allay party rancour -some of the Guelf and Ghibeline families were forced to intermarry, his -son Guido took a daughter of Farinata's to wife. This was in 1267, so -that Guido was much older than Dante. Yet they were very intimate, and, -intellectually, had much in common. With him Dante exchanged poems of -occasion, and he terms him more than once in the _Vita Nuova_ his chief -friend. The disdain of Virgil need not mean more than is on the surface. -Guido died in 1301. He is the hero of the _Decameron_, vi. 9. - -[364] _The Lady_: Proserpine; _i.e._ the moon. Ere fifty months from -March 1300 were past, Dante was to see the failure of more than one -attempt made by the exiles, of whom he was one, to gain entrance to -Florence. The great attempt was in the beginning of 1304. - -[365] _Ruth for my race_: When the Ghibeline power was finally broken in -Florence the Uberti were always specially excluded from any amnesty. -There is mention of the political execution of at least one descendant -of Farinata's. His son when being led to the scaffold said, 'So we pay -our fathers' debts!'--It has been so long common to describe Dante as a -Ghibeline, though no careful writer does it now, that it may be worth -while here to remark that Ghibelinism, as Farinata understood it, was -practically extinct in Florence ere Dante entered political life. - -[366] _The Arbia_: At Montaperti, on the Arbia, a few miles from Siena, -was fought in 1260 a great battle between the Guelf Florence and her -allies on the one hand, and on the other the Ghibelines of Florence, -then in exile, under Farinata; the Sienese and Tuscan Ghibelines in -general; and some hundreds of men-at-arms lent by Manfred. -Notwithstanding the gallant behaviour of the Florentine burghers, the -Guelf defeat was overwhelming, and not only did the Arbia run red with -Florentine blood--in a figure--but the battle of Montaperti ruined for a -time the cause of popular liberty and general improvement in Florence. - -[367] _Our fane_: The Parliament of the people used to meet in Santa -Reparata, the cathedral; and it is possible that the maintenance of the -Uberti disabilities was there more than once confirmed by the general -body of the citizens. The use of the word is in any case accounted for -by the frequency of political conferences in churches. And the temple -having been introduced, edicts are converted into 'prayers.' - -[368] _'Twas I, etc._: Some little time after the victory of Montaperti -there was a great Ghibeline gathering from various cities at Empoli, -when it was proposed, with general approval, to level Florence with the -ground in revenge for the obstinate Guelfism of the population. Farinata -roughly declared that as long as he lived and had a sword he would -defend his native place, and in the face of this protest the resolution -was departed from. It is difficult to understand how of all the -Florentine nobles, whose wealth consisted largely in house property, -Farinata should have stood alone in protesting against the ruin of the -city. But so it seems to have been; and in this great passage Farinata -is repaid for his service, in despite of Inferno. - -[369] _Other laws_: Ciacco, in Canto vi., prophesied what was to happen -in Florence, and Farinata has just told him that four years later than -now he will have failed in an attempt to return from exile: yet Farinata -does not know if his family is still being persecuted, and Cavalcanti -fears that his son Guido is already numbered with the dead. Farinata -replies that like the longsighted the shades can only see what is some -distance off, and are ignorant of what is going on, or about to happen; -which seems to imply that they forget what they once foresaw. Guido was -to die within a few months, and the event was too close at hand to come -within the range of his father's vision. - -[370] _The Second Frederick_: The Emperor of that name who reigned from -1220 to 1250, and waged a life-long war with the Popes for supremacy in -Italy. It is not however for his enmity with Rome that he is placed in -the Sixth Circle, but for his Epicureanism--as Dante understood it. From -his Sicilian court a spirit of free inquiry spread through the -Peninsula. With men of the stamp of Farinata it would be converted into -a crude materialism. - -[371] _The Cardinal_: Ottaviano, of the powerful Tuscan family of the -Ubaldini, a man of great political activity, and known in Tuscany as -'The Cardinal.' His sympathies were not with the Roman Court. The news -of Montaperti filled him with delight, and later, when the Tuscan -Ghibelines refused him money he had asked for, he burst out with 'And -yet I have lost my soul for the Ghibelines--if I have a soul.' He died -not earlier than 1273. After these illustrious names Farinata scorns to -mention meaner ones. - -[372] _Ominous words_: Those in which Farinata foretold Dante's exile. - -[373] _The stages, etc._: It is Cacciaguida, his ancestor, who in -Paradise instructs Dante in what his future life is to be--one of -poverty and exile (_Parad._ xvii.). This is, however, done at the -request of Beatrice. - -[374] _To the middle_: Turning to the left they cut across the circle -till they reach the inner boundary of the city of tombs. Here there is -no wall. - - - - -CANTO XI. - - - We at the margin of a lofty steep - Made of great shattered stones in circle bent, - Arrived where worser torments crowd the deep. - So horrible a stench and violent - Was upward wafted from the vast abyss,[375] - Behind the cover we for shelter went - Of a great tomb where I saw written this: - 'Pope Anastasius[376] is within me thrust, - Whom the straight way Photinus made to miss.' - 'Now on our course a while we linger must,' 10 - The Master said, 'be but our sense resigned - A little to it, and the filthy gust - We shall not heed.' Then I: 'Do thou but find - Some compensation lest our time should run - Wasted.' And he: 'Behold, 'twas in my mind. - Girt by the rocks before us, O my son, - Lie three small circles,'[377] he began to tell, - 'Graded like those with which thou now hast done, - All of them filled with spirits miserable. - That sight[378] of them may thee henceforth suffice. 20 - Hear how and wherefore in these groups they dwell. - Whate'er in Heaven's abhorred as wickedness - Has injury[379] for its end; in others' bane - By fraud resulting or in violent wise. - Since fraud to man alone[380] doth appertain, - God hates it most; and hence the fraudulent band, - Set lowest down, endure a fiercer pain. - Of the violent is the circle next at hand - To us; and since three ways is violence shown, - 'Tis in three several circuits built and planned. 30 - To God, ourselves, or neighbours may be done - Violence, or on the things by them possessed; - As reasoning clear shall unto thee make known. - Our neighbour may by violence be distressed - With grievous wounds, or slain; his goods and lands - By havoc, fire, and plunder be oppressed. - Hence those who wound and slay with violent hands, - Robbers, and spoilers, in the nearest round - Are all tormented in their various bands. - Violent against himself may man be found, 40 - And 'gainst his goods; therefore without avail - They in the next are in repentance drowned - Who on themselves loss of your world entail, - Who gamble[381] and their substance madly spend, - And who when called to joy lament and wail. - And even to God may violence extend - By heart denial and by blasphemy, - Scorning what nature doth in bounty lend. - Sodom and Cahors[382] hence are doomed to lie - Within the narrowest circlet surely sealed; 50 - And such as God within their hearts defy. - Fraud,[383] 'gainst whose bite no conscience findeth shield, - A man may use with one who in him lays - Trust, or with those who no such credence yield. - Beneath this latter kind of it decays - The bond of love which out of nature grew; - Hence, in the second circle[384] herd the race - To feigning given and flattery, who pursue - Magic, false coining, theft, and simony, - Pimps, barrators, and suchlike residue. 60 - The other form of fraud makes nullity - Of natural bonds; and, what is more than those, - The special trust whence men on men rely. - Hence in the place whereon all things repose, - The narrowest circle and the seat of Dis,[385] - Each traitor's gulfed in everlasting woes.' - 'Thy explanation, Master, as to this - Is clear,' I said, 'and thou hast plainly told - Who are the people stowed in the abyss. - But tell why those the muddy marshes hold, 70 - The tempest-driven, those beaten by the rain, - And such as, meeting, virulently scold, - Are not within the crimson city ta'en - For punishment, if hateful unto God; - And, if not hateful, wherefore doomed to pain?' - And he to me: 'Why wander thus abroad, - More than is wont, thy wits? or how engrossed - Is now thy mind, and on what things bestowed? - Hast thou the memory of the passage lost - In which thy Ethics[386] for their subject treat 80 - Of the three moods by Heaven abhorred the most-- - Malice and bestiality complete; - And how, compared with these, incontinence - Offends God less, and lesser blame doth meet? - If of this doctrine thou extract the sense, - And call to memory what people are - Above, outside, in endless penitence, - Why from these guilty they are sundered far - Thou shalt discern, and why on them alight - The strokes of justice in less angry war.' 90 - 'O Sun that clearest every troubled sight, - So charmed am I by thy resolving speech, - Doubt yields me joy no less than knowing right. - Therefore, I pray, a little backward reach,' - I asked, 'to where thou say'st that usury - Sins 'gainst God's bounty; and this mystery teach.' - He said: 'Who gives ear to Philosophy - Is taught by her, nor in one place alone, - What nature in her course is governed by, - Even Mind Divine, and art which thence hath grown; 100 - And if thy Physics[387] thou wilt search within, - Thou'lt find ere many leaves are open thrown, - This art by yours, far as your art can win, - Is followed close--the teacher by the taught; - As grandchild then to God your art is kin. - And from these two--do thou recall to thought - How Genesis[388] begins--should come supplies - Of food for man, and other wealth be sought. - And, since another plan the usurer plies, - Nature and nature's child have his disdain;[389] 110 - Because on other ground his hope relies. - But come,[390] for to advance I now am fain: - The Fishes[391] over the horizon line - Quiver; o'er Caurus now stands all the Wain; - And further yonder does the cliff decline.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[375] _Vast abyss_: They are now at the inner side of the Sixth Circle, -and upon the verge of the rocky steep which slopes down from it into the -Seventh. All the lower Hell lies beneath them, and it is from that -rather than from the next circle in particular that the stench arises, -symbolical of the foulness of the sins which are punished there. The -noisome smells which make part of the horror of Inferno are after this -sometimes mentioned, but never dwelt upon (_Inf._ xviii. 106, and xxix. -50). - -[376] _Pope Anastasius_: The second of the name, elected Pope in 496. -Photinus, bishop of Sirenium, was infected with the Sabellian heresy, -but he was deposed more than a century before the time of Anastasius. -Dante follows some obscure legend in charging Anastasius with heresy. -The important point is that the one heretic, in the sense usually -attached to the term, named as being in the city of unbelief, is a Pope. - -[377] _Three small circles_: The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth; small in -circumference compared with those above. The pilgrims are now deep in -the hollow cone. - -[378] _That sight, etc._: After hearing the following explanation Dante -no longer asks to what classes the sinners met with belong, but only as -to the guilt of individual shades. - -[379] _Injury_: They have left above them the circles of those whose sin -consists in the exaggeration or misdirection of a wholesome natural -instinct. Below them lie the circles filled with such as have been -guilty of malicious wickedness. This manifests itself in two ways: by -violence or by fraud. After first mentioning in a general way that the -fraudulent are set lowest in Inferno, Virgil proceeds to define -violence, and to tell how the violent occupy the circle immediately -beneath them--the Seventh. For division of the maliciously wicked into -two classes Dante is supposed to be indebted to Cicero: 'Injury may be -wrought by force or by fraud.... Both are unnatural for man, but fraud -is the more hateful.'--_De Officiis_, i. 13. It is remarkable that -Virgil says nothing of those in the Sixth Circle in this account of the -classes of sinners. - -[380] _To man alone, etc._: Fraud involves the corrupt use of the powers -that distinguish us from the brutes. - -[381] _Who gamble, etc._: A different sin from the lavish spending -punished in the Fourth Circle (_Inf._ vii.). The distinction is that -between thriftlessness and the prodigality which, stripping a man of the -means of living, disgusts him with life, as described in the following -line. It is from among prodigals that the ranks of suicides are greatly -filled, and here they are appropriately placed together. It may seem -strange that in his classification of guilt Dante should rank violence -to one's self as a more heinous sin than that committed against one's -neighbour. He may have in view the fact that none harm their neighbours -so much as they who are oblivious of their own true interest. - -[382] _Sodom and Cahors_: Sins against nature are reckoned sins against -God, as explained lower down in this Canto. Cahors in Languedoc had in -the Middle Ages the reputation of being a nest of usurers. These in old -English Chronicles are termed Caorsins. With the sins of Sodom and -Cahors are ranked the denial of God and blasphemy against Him--deeper -sins than the erroneous conceptions of the Divine nature and government -punished in the Sixth Circle. The three concentric rings composing the -Seventh Circle are all on the same level, as we shall find. - -[383] _Fraud, etc._: Fraud is of such a nature that conscience never -fails to give due warning against the sin. This is an aggravation of the -guilt of it. - -[384] _The second circle_: The second now beneath them; that is, the -Eighth. - -[385] _Seat of Dis_: The Ninth and last Circle. - -[386] _Thy Ethics_: The Ethics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'With -regard to manners, these three things are to be eschewed: incontinence, -vice, and bestiality.' Aristotle holds incontinence to consist in the -immoderate indulgence of propensities which under right guidance are -adapted to promote lawful pleasure. It is, generally speaking, the sin -of which those about whom Dante has inquired were guilty.--It has been -ingeniously sought by Philalethes (_Gött. Com._) to show that Virgil's -disquisition is founded on this threefold classification of -Aristotle's--violence being taken to be the same as bestiality, and -malice as vice. But the reference to Aristotle is made with the limited -purpose of justifying the lenient treatment of incontinence; in the same -way as a few lines further on Genesis is referred to in support of the -harsh treatment of usury. - -[387] _Physics_: The Physics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'Art -imitates nature.' Art includes handicrafts. - -[388] _Genesis_: 'And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the -garden to dress it and to keep it.' 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou -eat bread.' - -[389] _His disdain_: The usurer seeks to get wealth independently of -honest labour or reliance on the processes of nature. This far-fetched -argument against usury closes one of the most arid passages of the -_Comedy_. The shortness of the Canto almost suggests that Dante had -himself got weary of it. - -[390] _But come, etc._: They have been all this time resting behind the -lid of the tomb. - -[391] _The Fishes, etc._: The sun being now in Aries the stars of Pisces -begin to rise about a couple of hours before sunrise. The Great Bear -lies above Caurus, the quarter of the N.N.W. wind. It seems impossible -to harmonise the astronomical indications scattered throughout the -_Comedy_, there being traces of Dante's having sometimes used details -belonging rather to the day on which Good Friday fell in 1300, the 8th -of April, than to the (supposed) true anniversary of the crucifixion. -That this, the 25th of March, is the day he intended to conform to -appears from _Inf._ xxi. 112.--The time is now near dawn on the Saturday -morning. It is almost needless to say that Virgil speaks of the stars as -he knows they are placed, but without seeing them. By what light they -see in Inferno is nowhere explained. We have been told that it was dark -as night (_Inf._ iv. 10, v. 28). - - - - -CANTO XII. - - - The place of our descent[392] before us lay - Precipitous, and there was something more - From sight of which all eyes had turned away. - As at the ruin which upon the shore - Of Adige[393] fell upon this side of Trent-- - Through earthquake or by slip of what before - Upheld it--from the summit whence it went - Far as the plain, the shattered rocks supply - Some sort of foothold to who makes descent; - Such was the passage down the precipice high. 10 - And on the riven gully's very brow - Lay spread at large the Cretan Infamy[394] - Which was conceived in the pretended cow. - Us when he saw, he bit himself for rage - Like one whose anger gnaws him through and through. - 'Perhaps thou deemest,' called to him the Sage, - 'This is the Duke of Athens[395] drawing nigh, - Who war to the death with thee on earth did wage. - Begone, thou brute, for this one passing by - Untutored by thy sister has thee found, 20 - And only comes thy sufferings to spy,' - And as the bull which snaps what held it bound - On being smitten by the fatal blow, - Halts in its course, and reels upon the ground, - The Minotaur I saw reel to and fro; - And he, the alert, cried: 'To the passage haste; - While yet he chafes 'twere well thou down shouldst go.' - So we descended by the slippery waste[396] - Of shivered stones which many a time gave way - 'Neath the new weight[397] my feet upon them placed. 30 - I musing went; and he began to say: - 'Perchance this ruined slope thou thinkest on, - Watched by the brute rage I did now allay. - But I would have thee know, when I came down - The former time[398] into this lower Hell, - The cliff had not this ruin undergone. - It was not long, if I distinguish well, - Ere He appeared who wrenched great prey from Dis[399] - From out the upmost circle. Trembling fell - Through all its parts the nauseous abyss 40 - With such a violence, the world, I thought, - Was stirred by love; for, as they say, by this - She back to Chaos[400] has been often brought. - And then it was this ancient rampart strong - Was shattered here and at another spot.[401] - But toward the valley look. We come ere long - Down to the river of blood[402] where boiling lie - All who by violence work others wrong.' - O insane rage! O blind cupidity! - By which in our brief life we are so spurred, 50 - Ere downward plunged in evil case for aye! - An ample ditch I now beheld engird - And sweep in circle all around the plain, - As from my Escort I had lately heard. - Between this and the rock in single train - Centaurs[403] were running who were armed with bows, - As if they hunted on the earth again. - Observing us descend they all stood close, - Save three of them who parted from the band - With bow, and arrows they in coming chose. 60 - 'What torment,' from afar one made demand, - 'Come ye to share, who now descend the hill? - I shoot unless ye answer whence ye stand.' - My Master said: 'We yield no answer till - We come to Chiron[404] standing at thy side; - But thy quick temper always served thee ill.' - Then touching me: ''Tis Nessus;[405] he who died - With love for beauteous Dejanire possessed, - And who himself his own vendetta plied. - He in the middle, staring on his breast, 70 - Is mighty Chiron, who Achilles bred; - And next the wrathful Pholus. They invest - The fosse and in their thousands round it tread, - Shooting whoever from the blood shall lift, - More than his crime allows, his guilty head.' - As we moved nearer to those creatures swift - Chiron drew forth a shaft and dressed his beard - Back on his jaws, using the arrow's cleft. - And when his ample mouth of hair was cleared, - He said to his companions: 'Have ye seen 80 - The things the second touches straight are stirred, - As they by feet of shades could ne'er have been?' - And my good Guide, who to his breast had gone-- - The part where join the natures,[406] 'Well I ween - He lives,' made answer; 'and if, thus alone, - He seeks the valley dim 'neath my control, - Necessity, not pleasure, leads him on. - One came from where the alleluiahs roll, - Who charged me with this office strange and new: - No robber he, nor mine a felon soul. 90 - But, by that Power which makes me to pursue - The rugged journey whereupon I fare, - Accord us one of thine to keep in view, - That he may show where lies the ford, and bear - This other on his back to yonder strand; - No spirit he, that he should cleave the air.' - Wheeled to the right then Chiron gave command - To Nessus: 'Turn, and lead them, and take tent - They be not touched by any other band.'[407] - We with our trusty Escort forward went, 100 - Threading the margin of the boiling blood - Where they who seethed were raising loud lament. - People I saw up to the chin imbrued, - 'These all are tyrants,' the great Centaur said, - 'Who blood and plunder for their trade pursued. - Here for their pitiless deeds tears now are shed - By Alexander,[408] and Dionysius fell, - Through whom in Sicily dolorous years were led. - The forehead with black hair so terrible - Is Ezzelino;[409] that one blond of hue, 110 - Obizzo[410] d'Este, whom, as rumours tell, - His stepson murdered, and report speaks true.' - I to the Poet turned, who gave command: - 'Regard thou chiefly him. I follow you.' - Ere long the Centaur halted on the strand, - Close to a people who, far as the throat, - Forth of that bulicamë[411] seemed to stand. - Thence a lone shade to us he pointed out - Saying: 'In God's house[412] ran he weapon through - The heart which still on Thames wins cult devout.' 120 - Then I saw people, some with heads in view, - And some their chests above the river bore; - And many of them I, beholding, knew. - And thus the blood went dwindling more and more, - Until at last it covered but the feet: - Here took we passage[413] to the other shore. - 'As on this hand thou seest still abate - In depth the volume of the boiling stream,' - The Centaur said, 'so grows its depth more great, - Believe me, towards the opposite extreme, 130 - Until again its circling course attains - The place where tyrants must lament. Supreme - Justice upon that side involves in pains, - With Attila,[414] once of the world the pest, - Pyrrhus[415] and Sextus: and for ever drains - Tears out of Rinier of Corneto[416] pressed - And Rinier Pazzo[417] in that boiling mass, - Whose brigandage did so the roads infest.' - Then turned he back alone, the ford to pass. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[392] _Our descent_: To the Seventh Circle. - -[393] _Adige_: Different localities in the valley of the Adige have been -fixed on as the scene of this landslip. The Lavini di Marco, about -twenty miles south of Trent, seem best to answer to the description. -They 'consist of black blocks of stone and fragments of a landslip -which, according to the Chronicle of Fulda, fell in the year 883 and -overwhelmed the valley for four Italian miles' (Gsell-Fels, _Ober. -Ital._ i. 35). - -[394] _The Cretan Infamy_: The Minotaur, the offspring of Pasiphaë; a -half-bovine monster who inhabited the Cretan labyrinth, and to whom a -human victim was offered once a year. He lies as guard upon the Seventh -Circle--that of the violent (_Inf._ xi. 23, _note_)--and is set at the -top of the rugged slope, itself the scene of a violent convulsion. - -[395] _Duke of Athens_: Theseus, instructed by Ariadne, daughter of -Pasiphaë and Minos, how to outwit the Minotaur, entered the labyrinth in -the character of a victim, slew the monster, and then made his way out, -guided by a thread he had unwound as he went in. - -[396] _The slippery waste_: The word used here, _scarco_, means in -modern Tuscan a place where earth or stones have been carelessly shot -into a heap. - -[397] _The new weight_: The slope had never before been trodden by -mortal foot. - -[398] _The former time_: When Virgil descended to evoke a shade from the -Ninth Circle (_Inf._ ix. 22). - -[399] _Prey from Dis_: The shades delivered from Limbo by Christ (_Inf._ -iv. 53). The expression in the text is probably suggested by the words -of the hymn _Vexilla: Prædamque tulit Tartaris_. - -[400] _To Chaos_: The reference is to the theory of Empedocles, known to -Dante through the refutation of it by Aristotle. The theory was one of -periods of unity and division in nature, according as love or hatred -prevailed. - -[401] _Another spot_: See _Inf._ xxi. 112. The earthquake at the -Crucifixion shook even Inferno to its base. - -[402] _The river of blood_: Phlegethon, the 'boiling river.' Styx and -Acheron have been already passed. Lethe, the fourth infernal river, is -placed by Dante in Purgatory. The first round or circlet of the Seventh -Circle is filled by Phlegethon. - -[403] _Centaurs_: As this round is the abode of such as are guilty of -violence against their neighbours, it is guarded by these brutal -monsters, half-man and half-horse. - -[404] _Chiron_: Called the most just of the Centaurs. - -[405] _Nessus_: Slain by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. When dying he -gave Dejanira his blood-stained shirt, telling her it would insure the -faithfulness to her of any whom she loved. Hercules wore it and died of -the venom; and thus Nessus avenged himself. - -[406] The natures: The part of the Centaur where the equine body is -joined on to the human neck and head. - -[407] _Other band_: Of Centaurs. - -[408] _Alexander_: It is not known whether Alexander the Great or a -petty Thessalian tyrant is here meant. _Dionysius_: The cruel tyrant of -Syracuse. - -[409] _Ezzelino_: Or Azzolino of Romano, the greatest Lombard Ghibeline -of his time. He was son-in-law of Frederick II., and was Imperial Vicar -of the Trevisian Mark. Towards the close of Fredrick's life, and for -some years after, he exercised almost independent power in Vicenza, -Padua, and Verona. Cruelty, erected into a system, was his chief -instrument of government, and 'in his dungeons men found something worse -than death.' For Italians, says Burckhardt, he was the most impressive -political personage of the thirteenth century; and around his memory, as -around Frederick's, there gathered strange legends. He died in 1259, of -a wound received in battle. When urged to confess his sins by the monk -who came to shrive him, he declared that the only sin on his conscience -was negligence in revenge. But this may be mythical, as may also be the -long black hair between his eyebrows, which rose up stiff and terrible -as his anger waxed. - -[410] _Obizzo_: The second Marquis of Este of that name. He was lord of -Ferrara. There seems little, if any, evidence extant of his being -specially cruel. As a strong Guelf he took sides with Charles of Anjou -against Manfred. He died in 1293, smothered, it was believed, by a son, -here called a stepson for his unnatural conduct. But though Dante -vouches for the truth of the rumour it seems to have been an invention. - -[411] _That bulicamë_: The stream of boiling blood is probably named -from the bulicamë, or hot spring, best known to Dante--that near Viterbo -(see _Inf._ xiv. 79). And it may be that the mention of the bulicamë -suggests the reference at line 119. - -[412] _In God's house_: Literally, 'In the bosom of God.' The shade is -that of Guy, son of Simon of Montfort and Vicar in Tuscany of Charles of -Anjou. In 1271 he stabbed, in the Cathedral of Viterbo, Henry, son of -Richard of Cornwall and cousin of Edward I. of England. The motive of -the murder was to revenge the death of his father, Simon, at Evesham. -The body of the young prince was conveyed to England, and the heart was -placed in a vase upon the tomb of the Confessor. The shade of Guy stands -up to the chin in blood among the worst of the tyrants, and alone, -because of the enormity of his crime. - -[413] _Here took we passage_: Dante on Nessus' back. Virgil has fallen -behind to allow the Centaur to act as guide; and how he crosses the -stream Dante does not see. - -[414] _Attila_: King of the Huns, who invaded part of Italy in the fifth -century; and who, according to the mistaken belief of Dante's age, was -the devastator of Florence. - -[415] _Pyrrhus_: King of Epirus. _Sextus_: Son of Pompey; a great -sea-captain who fought against the Triumvirs. The crime of the first, in -Dante's eyes, is that he fought with Rome; of the second, that he -opposed Augustus. - -[416] _Rinier of Corneto_: Who in Dante's time disturbed the coast of -the States of the Church by his robberies and violence. - -[417] _Rinier Pazzo_: Of the great family of the Pazzi of Val d'Arno, -was excommunicated in 1269 for robbing ecclesiastics. - - - - -CANTO XIII. - - - Ere Nessus landed on the other shore - We for our part within a forest[418] drew, - Which of no pathway any traces bore. - Not green the foliage, but of dusky hue; - Not smooth the boughs, but gnarled and twisted round; - For apples, poisonous thorns upon them grew. - No rougher brakes or matted worse are found - Where savage beasts betwixt Corneto[419] roam - And Cecina,[419] abhorring cultured ground. - The loathsome Harpies[420] nestle here at home, 10 - Who from the Strophades the Trojans chased - With dire predictions of a woe to come. - Great winged are they, but human necked and faced, - With feathered belly, and with claw for toe; - They shriek upon the bushes wild and waste. - 'Ere passing further, I would have thee know,' - The worthy Master thus began to say, - 'Thou'rt in the second round, nor hence shalt go - Till by the horrid sand thy footsteps stay. - Give then good heed, and things thou'lt recognise 20 - That of my words will prove[421] the verity.' - Wailings on every side I heard arise: - Of who might raise them I distinguished nought; - Whereon I halted, smitten with surprise. - I think he thought that haply 'twas my thought - The voices came from people 'mong the trees, - Who, to escape us, hiding-places sought; - Wherefore the Master said: 'From one of these - Snap thou a twig, and thou shalt understand - How little with thy thought the fact agrees.' 30 - Thereon a little I stretched forth my hand - And plucked a tiny branch from a great thorn. - 'Why dost thou tear me?' made the trunk demand. - When dark with blood it had begun to turn, - It cried a second time: 'Why wound me thus? - Doth not a spark of pity in thee burn? - Though trees we be, once men were all of us; - Yet had our souls the souls of serpents been - Thy hand might well have proved more piteous.' - As when the fire hath seized a fagot green 40 - At one extremity, the other sighs, - And wind, escaping, hisses; so was seen, - At where the branch was broken, blood to rise - And words were mixed with it. I dropped the spray - And stood like one whom terror doth surprise. - The Sage replied: 'Soul vexed with injury, - Had he been only able to give trust - To what he read narrated in my lay,[422] - His hand toward thee would never have been thrust. - 'Tis hard for faith; and I, to make it plain, 50 - Urged him to trial, mourn it though I must. - But tell him who thou wast; so shall remain - This for amends to thee, thy fame shall blow - Afresh on earth, where he returns again.' - And then the trunk: 'Thy sweet words charm me so, - I cannot dumb remain; nor count it hard - If I some pains upon my speech bestow. - For I am he[423] who held both keys in ward - Of Frederick's heart, and turned them how I would, - And softly oped it, and as softly barred, 60 - Till scarce another in his counsel stood. - To my high office I such loyalty bore, - It cost me sleep and haleness of my blood. - The harlot[424] who removeth nevermore - From Cæsar's house eyes ignorant of shame-- - A common curse, of courts the special sore-- - Set against me the minds of all aflame, - And these in turn Augustus set on fire, - Till my glad honours bitter woes became. - My soul, filled full with a disdainful ire, 70 - Thinking by means of death disdain to flee, - 'Gainst my just self unjustly did conspire. - I swear even by the new roots of this tree - My fealty to my lord I never broke, - For worthy of all honour sure was he. - If one of you return 'mong living folk, - Let him restore my memory, overthrown - And suffering yet because of envy's stroke.' - Still for a while the poet listened on, - Then said: 'Now he is dumb, lose not the hour, 80 - But make request if more thou'dst have made known.' - And I replied: 'Do thou inquire once more - Of what thou thinkest[425] I would gladly know; - I cannot ask; ruth wrings me to the core.' - On this he spake: 'Even as the man shall do, - And liberally, what thou of him hast prayed, - Imprisoned spirit, do thou further show - How with these knots the spirits have been made - Incorporate; and, if thou canst, declare - If from such members e'er is loosed a shade.' 90 - Then from the trunk came vehement puffs of air; - Next, to these words converted was the wind: - 'My answer to you shall be short and clear. - When the fierce soul no longer is confined - In flesh, torn thence by action of its own, - To the Seventh Depth by Minos 'tis consigned. - No choice is made of where it shall be thrown - Within the wood; but where by chance 'tis flung - It germinates like seed of spelt that's sown. - A forest tree it grows from sapling young; 100 - Eating its leaves, the Harpies cause it pain, - And open loopholes whence its sighs are wrung. - We for our vestments shall return again - Like others, but in them shall ne'er be clad:[426] - Men justly lose what from themselves they've ta'en. - Dragged hither by us, all throughout the sad - Forest our bodies shall be hung on high; - Each on the thorn of its destructive shade.' - While to the trunk we listening lingered nigh, - Thinking he might proceed to tell us more, 110 - A sudden uproar we were startled by - Like him who, that the huntsman and the boar - To where he stands are sweeping in the chase, - Knows by the crashing trees and brutish roar. - Upon our left we saw a couple race - Naked[427] and scratched; and they so quickly fled - The forest barriers burst before their face. - 'Speed to my rescue, death!' the foremost pled. - The next, as wishing he could use more haste; - 'Not thus, O Lano,[428] thee thy legs bested 120 - When one at Toppo's tournament thou wast.' - Then, haply wanting breath, aside he stepped, - Merged with a bush on which himself he cast. - Behind them through the forest onward swept - A pack of dogs, black, ravenous, and fleet, - Like greyhounds from their leashes newly slipped. - In him who crouched they made their teeth to meet, - And, having piecemeal all his members rent, - Haled them away enduring anguish great. - Grasping my hand, my Escort forward went 130 - And led me to the bush which, all in vain, - Through its ensanguined openings made lament. - 'James of St. Andrews,'[429] it we heard complain; - 'What profit hadst thou making me thy shield? - For thy bad life doth blame to me pertain?' - Then, halting there, this speech my Master held: - 'Who wast thou that through many wounds dost sigh, - Mingled with blood, words big with sorrow swelled?' - 'O souls that hither come,' was his reply, - 'To witness shameful outrage by me borne, 140 - Whence all my leaves torn off around me lie, - Gather them to the root of this drear thorn. - My city[430] for the Baptist changed of yore - Her former patron; wherefore, in return, - He with his art will make her aye deplore; - And were it not some image doth remain - Of him where Arno's crossed from shore to shore, - Those citizens who founded her again - On ashes left by Attila,[431] had spent - Their labour of a surety all in vain. 150 - In my own house[432] I up a gibbet went.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[418] _A forest_: The second round of the Seventh Circle consists of a -belt of tangled forest, enclosed by the river of blood, and devoted to -suicides and prodigals. - -[419] _Corneto and Cecina_: Corneto is a town on the coast of what used -to be the States of the Church; Cecina a stream not far south of -Leghorn. Between them lies the Maremma, a district of great natural -fertility, now being restored again to cultivation, but for ages a -neglected and poisonous wilderness. - -[420] _Harpies_: Monsters with the bodies of birds and the heads of -women. In the _Æneid_ iii., they are described as defiling the feast of -which the Trojans were about to partake on one of the -Strophades--islands of the Ægean; and on that occasion the prophecy was -made that Æneas and his followers should be reduced to eat their tables -ere they acquired a settlement in Italy. Here the Harpies symbolise -shameful waste and disgust with life. - -[421] _Will prove, etc._: The things seen by Dante are to make credible -what Virgil tells (_Æn._ iii.) of the blood and piteous voice that -issued from the torn bushes on the tomb of Polydorus. - -[422] _My lay_: See previous note. Dante thus indirectly acknowledges -his debt to Virgil; and, perhaps, at the same time puts in his claim to -an imaginative licence equal to that taken by his master. On a modern -reader the effect of the reference is to weaken the verisimilitude of -the incident. - -[423] _For I am he, etc._: The speaker is Pier delle Vigne, who from -being a begging student of Bologna rose to be the Chancellor of the -Emperor Frederick II., the chief councillor of that monarch, and one of -the brightest ornaments of his intellectual court. Peter was perhaps the -more endeared to his master because, like him, he was a poet of no mean -order. There are two accounts of what caused his disgrace. According to -one of these he was found to have betrayed Frederick's interests in -favour of the Pope's; and according to the other he tried to poison him. -Neither is it known whether he committed suicide; though he is said to -have done so after being disgraced, by dashing his brains out against a -church wall in Pisa. Dante clearly follows this legend. The whole -episode is eloquent of the esteem in which Peter's memory was held by -Dante. His name is not mentioned in Inferno, but yet the promise is -amply kept that it shall flourish on earth again, freed from unmerited -disgrace. He died about 1249. - -[424] _The harlot_: Envy. - -[425] _Of what thou thinkest, etc._: Virgil never asks a question for -his own satisfaction. He knows who the spirits are, what brought them -there, and which of them will speak honestly out on the promise of -having his fame refreshed in the world. It should be noted how, by a -hint, he has made Peter aware of who he is (line 48); a delicate -attention yielded to no other shade in the Inferno, except Ulysses -(_Inf._ xxvi. 79), and, perhaps, Brunetto Latini (_Inf._ xv. 99). - -[426] _In them shall ne'er be clad_: Boccaccio is here at great pains to -save Dante from a charge of contradicting the tenet of the resurrection -of the flesh. - -[427] _Naked_: These are the prodigals; their nakedness representing the -state to which in life they had reduced themselves. - -[428] _Lano_: Who made one of a club of prodigals in Siena (_Inf._ xxix. -130) and soon ran through his fortune. Joining in a Florentine -expedition in 1288 against Arezzo, he refused to escape from a defeat -encountered by his side at Pieve del Toppo, preferring, as was supposed, -to end his life at once rather than drag it out in poverty. - -[429] _James of St. Andrews_: Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan who -inherited enormous wealth which did not last him for long. He literally -threw money away, and would burn a house for the sake of the blaze. His -death has been placed in 1239. - -[430] _My city, etc._: According to tradition the original patron of -Florence was Mars. In Dante's time an ancient statue, supposed to be of -that god, stood upon the Old Bridge of Florence. It is referred to in -_Parad._ xvi. 47 and 145. Benvenuto says that he had heard from -Boccaccio, who had frequently heard it from old people, that the statue -was regarded with great awe. If a boy flung stones or mud at it, the -bystanders would say of him that he would make a bad end. It was lost in -the great flood of 1333. Here the Florentine shade represents Mars as -troubling Florence with wars in revenge for being cast off as a patron. - -[431] _Attila_: A confusion with Totila. Attila was never so far south -as Tuscany. Neither is there reason to believe that when Totila took the -city he destroyed it. But the legend was that it was rebuilt in the time -of Charles the Great. - -[432] _My own house, etc._: It is not settled who this was who hanged -himself from the beams of his own roof. One of the Agli, say some; -others, one of the Mozzi. Boccaccio and Peter Dante remark that suicide -by hanging was common in Florence. But Dante's text seems pretty often -to have suggested the invention of details in support or illustration of -it. - - - - -CANTO XIV. - - - Me of my native place the dear constraint[433] - Led to restore the leaves which round were strewn, - To him whose voice by this time was grown faint. - Thence came we where the second round joins on - Unto the third, wherein how terrible - The art of justice can be, is well shown. - But, clearly of these wondrous things to tell, - I say we entered on a plain of sand - Which from its bed doth every plant repel. - The dolorous wood lies round it like a band, 10 - As that by the drear fosse is circled round. - Upon its very edge we came to a stand. - And there was nothing within all that bound - But burnt and heavy sand; like that once trod - Beneath the feet of Cato[434] was the ground. - Ah, what a terror, O revenge of God! - Shouldst thou awake in any that may read - Of what before mine eyes was spread abroad. - I of great herds of naked souls took heed. - Most piteously was weeping every one; 20 - And different fortunes seemed to them decreed. - For some of them[435] upon the ground lay prone, - And some were sitting huddled up and bent, - While others, restless, wandered up and down. - More numerous were they that roaming went - Than they that were tormented lying low; - But these had tongues more loosened to lament. - O'er all the sand, deliberate and slow, - Broad open flakes of fire were downward rained, - As 'mong the Alps[436] in calm descends the snow. 30 - Such Alexander[437] saw when he attained - The hottest India; on his host they fell - And all unbroken on the earth remained; - Wherefore he bade his phalanxes tread well - The ground, because when taken one by one - The burning flakes they could the better quell. - So here eternal fire[438] was pouring down; - As tinder 'neath the steel, so here the sands - Kindled, whence pain more vehement was known. - And, dancing up and down, the wretched hands[439] 40 - Beat here and there for ever without rest; - Brushing away from them the falling brands. - And I: 'O Master, by all things confessed - Victor, except by obdurate evil powers - Who at the gate[440] to stop our passage pressed, - Who is the enormous one who noway cowers - Beneath the fire; with fierce disdainful air - Lying as if untortured by the showers?' - And that same shade, because he was aware - That touching him I of my Guide was fain 50 - To learn, cried: 'As in life, myself I bear - In death. Though Jupiter should tire again - His smith, from whom he snatched in angry bout - The bolt by which I at the last was slain;[441] - Though one by one he tire the others out - At the black forge in Mongibello[442] placed, - While "Ho, good Vulcan, help me!" he shall shout-- - The cry he once at Phlegra's[443] battle raised; - Though hurled with all his might at me shall fly - His bolts, yet sweet revenge he shall not taste.' 60 - Then spake my Guide, and in a voice so high - Never till then heard I from him such tone: - 'O Capaneus, because unquenchably - Thy pride doth burn, worse pain by thee is known. - Into no torture save thy madness wild - Fit for thy fury couldest thou be thrown.' - Then, to me turning with a face more mild, - He said: 'Of the Seven Kings was he of old, - Who leaguered Thebes, and as he God reviled - Him in small reverence still he seems to hold; 70 - But for his bosom his own insolence - Supplies fit ornament,[444] as now I told. - Now follow; but take heed lest passing hence - Thy feet upon the burning sand should tread; - But keep them firm where runs the forest fence.'[445] - We reached a place--nor any word we said-- - Where issues from the wood a streamlet small; - I shake but to recall its colour red. - Like that which does from Bulicamë[446] fall, - And losel women later 'mong them share; 80 - So through the sand this brooklet's waters crawl. - Its bottom and its banks I was aware - Were stone, and stone the rims on either side. - From this I knew the passage[447] must be there. - 'Of all that I have shown thee as thy guide - Since when we by the gateway[448] entered in, - Whose threshold unto no one is denied, - Nothing by thee has yet encountered been - So worthy as this brook to cause surprise, - O'er which the falling fire-flakes quenched are seen.' 90 - These were my Leader's words. For full supplies - I prayed him of the food of which to taste - Keen appetite he made within me rise. - 'In middle sea there lies a country waste, - Known by the name of Crete,' I then was told, - 'Under whose king[449] the world of yore was chaste. - There stands a mountain, once the joyous hold - Of woods and streams; as Ida 'twas renowned, - Now 'tis deserted like a thing grown old. - For a safe cradle 'twas by Rhea found. 100 - To nurse her child[450] in; and his infant cry, - Lest it betrayed him, she with clamours drowned. - Within the mount an old man towereth high. - Towards Damietta are his shoulders thrown; - On Rome, as on his mirror, rests his eye. - His head is fashioned of pure gold alone; - Of purest silver are his arms and chest; - 'Tis brass to where his legs divide; then down - From that is all of iron of the best, - Save the right foot, which is of baken clay; 110 - And upon this foot doth he chiefly rest. - Save what is gold, doth every part display - A fissure dripping tears; these, gathering all - Together, through the grotto pierce a way. - From rock to rock into this deep they fall, - Feed Acheron[451] and Styx and Phlegethon, - Then downward travelling by this strait canal, - Far as the place where further slope is none, - Cocytus form; and what that pool may be - I say not now. Thou'lt see it further on.' 120 - 'If this brook rises,' he was asked by me, - 'Within our world, how comes it that no trace - We saw of it till on this boundary?' - And he replied: 'Thou knowest that the place - Is round, and far as thou hast moved thy feet, - Still to the left hand[452] sinking to the base, - Nath'less thy circuit is not yet complete. - Therefore if something new we chance to spy, - Amazement needs not on thy face have seat.' - I then: 'But, Master, where doth Lethe lie, 130 - And Phlegethon? Of that thou sayest nought; - Of this thou say'st, those tears its flood supply.' - 'It likes me well to be by thee besought; - But by the boiling red wave,' I was told, - 'To half thy question was an answer brought. - Lethe,[453] not in this pit, shalt thou behold. - Thither to wash themselves the spirits go, - When penitence has made them spotless souled.' - Then said he: 'From the wood 'tis fitting now - That we depart; behind me press thou nigh. 140 - Keep we the margins, for they do not glow, - And over them, ere fallen, the fire-flakes die.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[433] _Dear constraint_: The mention of Florence has awakened Dante to -pity, and he willingly complies with the request of the unnamed suicide -(_Inf._ xiii. 142). As a rule, the only service he consents to yield the -souls with whom he converses in Inferno is to restore their memory upon -earth; a favour he does not feign to be asked for in this case, out of -consideration, it may be, for the family of the sinner. - -[434] _Cato_: Cato of Utica, who, after the defeat of Pompey at -Pharsalia, led his broken army across the Libyan desert to join King -Juba. - -[435] _Some of them, etc._: In this the third round of the Seventh -Circle are punished those guilty of sins of violence against God, -against nature, and against the arts by which alone a livelihood can -honestly be won. Those guilty as against God, the blasphemers, lie prone -like Capaneus (line 46), and are subject to the fiercest pain. Those -guilty of unnatural vice are stimulated into ceaseless motion, as -described in Cantos XV. and XVI. The usurers, those who despise honest -industry and the humanising arts of life, are found crouching on the -ground (_Inf._ xvii. 43). - -[436] _The Alps_: Used here for mountains in general. - -[437] _Such Alexander, etc._: The reference is to a pretended letter of -Alexander to Aristotle, in which he tells of the various hindrances met -with by his army from snow and rain and showers of fire. But in that -narrative it is the snow that is trampled down, while the flakes of fire -are caught by the soldiers upon their outspread cloaks. The story of the -shower of fire may have been suggested by Plutarch's mention of the -mineral oil in the province of Babylon, a strange thing to the Greeks; -and of how they were entertained by seeing the ground, which had been -sprinkled with it, burst into flame. - -[438] _Eternal fire_: As always, the character of the place and of the -punishment bears a relation to the crimes of the inhabitants. They -sinned against nature in a special sense, and now they are confined to -the sterile sand where the only showers that fall are showers of fire. - -[439] _The wretched hands_: The dance, named in the original the -_tresca_, was one in which the performers followed a leader and imitated -him in all his gestures, waving their hands as he did, up and down, and -from side to side. The simile is caught straight from common life. - -[440] _At the gate_: Of the city of Dis (_Inf._ viii. 82). - -[441] _Was slain, etc._: Capaneus, one of the Seven Kings, as told -below, when storming the walls of Thebes, taunted the other gods with -impunity, but his blasphemy against Jupiter was answered by a fatal -bolt. - -[442] _Mongibello_: A popular name of Etna, under which mountain was -situated the smithy of Vulcan and the Cyclopes. - -[443] _Phlegra_: Where the giants fought with the gods. - -[444] _Fit ornament, etc._: Even if untouched by the pain he affects to -despise, he would yet suffer enough from the mad hatred of God that -rages in his breast. Capaneus is the nearest approach to the Satan of -Milton found in the _Inferno_. From the need of getting law enough by -which to try the heathen Dante is led into some inconsistency. After -condemning the virtuous heathen to Limbo for their ignorance of the one -true God, he now condemns the wicked heathen to this circle for -despising false gods. Jupiter here stands for, as need scarcely be said, -the Supreme Ruler; and in that sense he is termed God (line 69). But it -remains remarkable that the one instance of blasphemous defiance of God -should be taken from classical fable. - -[445] _The forest fence_: They do not trust themselves so much as to -step upon the sand, but look out on it from the verge of the forest -which encircles it, and which as they travel they have on the left hand. - -[446] _Bulicamë_: A hot sulphur spring a couple of miles from Viterbo, -greatly frequented for baths in the Middle Ages; and, it is said, -especially by light women. The water boils up into a large pool, whence -it flows by narrow channels; sometimes by one and sometimes by another, -as the purposes of the neighbouring peasants require. Sulphurous fumes -rise from the water as it runs. The incrustation of the bottom, sides, -and edges of those channels gives them the air of being solidly built. - -[447] _The passage_: On each edge of the canal there is a flat pathway -of solid stone; and Dante sees that only by following one of these can a -passage be gained across the desert, for to set foot on the sand is -impossible for him owing to the falling flakes of fire. There may be -found in his description of the solid and flawless masonry of the canal -a trace of the pleasure taken in good building by the contemporaries of -Arnolfo. Nor is it without meaning that the sterile sands, the abode of -such as despised honest labour, is crossed by a perfect work of art -which they are forbidden ever to set foot upon. - -[448] _The gateway_: At the entrance to Inferno. - -[449] _Whose king_: Saturn, who ruled the world in the Golden Age. He, -as the devourer of his own offspring, is the symbol of Time; and the -image of Time is therefore set by Dante in the island where he reigned. - -[450] _Her child_: Jupiter, hidden in the mountain from his father -Saturn. - -[451] _Feed Acheron, etc._: The idea of this image is taken from the -figure in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel ii. But here, instead of the -Four Empires, the materials of the statue represent the Four Ages of the -world; the foot of clay on which it stands being the present time, which -is so bad that even iron were too good to represent it. Time turns his -back to the outworn civilisations of the East, and his face to Rome, -which, as the seat of the Empire and the Church, holds the secret of the -future. The tears of time shed by every Age save that of Gold feed the -four infernal streams and pools of Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and -Cocytus. Line 117 indicates that these are all fed by the same water; -are in fact different names for the same flood of tears. The reason why -Dante has not hitherto observed the connection between them is that he -has not made a complete circuit of each or indeed of any circle, as -Virgil reminds him at line 124, etc. The rivulet by which they stand -drains the boiling Phlegethon--where the water is all changed to blood, -because in it the murderers are punished--and flowing through the forest -of the suicides and the desert of the blasphemers, etc., tumbles into -the Eighth Circle as described in Canto xvi. 103. Cocytus they are -afterward to reach. An objection to this account of the infernal rivers -as being all fed by the same waters may be found in the difference of -volume of the great river of Acheron (_Inf._ iii. 71) and of this -brooklet. But this difference is perhaps to be explained by the -evaporation from the boiling waters of Phlegethon and of this stream -which drains it. Dante is almost the only poet applied to whom such -criticism would not be trifling. Another difficult point is how Cocytus -should not in time have filled, and more than filled, the Ninth Circle. - -[452] _To the left hand_: Twice only as they descend they turn their -course to the right hand (_Inf._ ix. 132, and xvii. 31). The circuit of -the Inferno they do not complete till they reach the very base. - -[453] _Lethe_: Found in the Earthly Paradise, as described in -_Purgatorio_ xxviii. 130. - - - - -CANTO XV. - - - Now lies[454] our way along one of the margins hard; - Steam rising from the rivulet forms a cloud, - Which 'gainst the fire doth brook and borders guard. - Like walls the Flemings, timorous of the flood - Which towards them pours betwixt Bruges and Cadsand,[455] - Have made, that ocean's charge may be withstood; - Or what the Paduans on the Brenta's strand - To guard their castles and their homesteads rear, - Ere Chiarentana[456] feel the spring-tide bland; - Of the same fashion did those dikes appear, 10 - Though not so high[457] he made them, nor so vast, - Whoe'er the builder was that piled them here. - We, from the wood when we so far had passed - I should not have distinguished where it lay - Though I to see it backward glance had cast, - A group of souls encountered on the way, - Whose line of march was to the margin nigh. - Each looked at us--as by the new moon's ray - Men peer at others 'neath the darkening sky-- - Sharpening his brows on us and only us, 20 - Like an old tailor on his needle's eye. - And while that crowd was staring at me thus, - One of them knew me, caught me by the gown, - And cried aloud: 'Lo, this is marvellous!'[458] - And straightway, while he thus to me held on, - I fixed mine eyes upon his fire-baked face, - And, spite of scorching, seemed his features known, - And whose they were my memory well could trace; - And I, with hand[459] stretched toward his face below, - Asked: 'Ser Brunetto![460] and is this your place?' 30 - 'O son,' he answered, 'no displeasure show, - If now Brunetto Latini shall some way - Step back with thee, and leave his troop to go.' - I said: 'With all my heart for this I pray, - And, if you choose, I by your side will sit; - If he, for I go with him, grant delay.' - 'Son,' said he, 'who of us shall intermit - Motion a moment, for an age must lie - Nor fan himself when flames are round him lit. - On, therefore! At thy skirts I follow nigh, 40 - Then shall I overtake my band again, - Who mourn a loss large as eternity.' - I dared not from the path step to the plain - To walk with him, but low I bent my head,[461] - Like one whose steps are all with reverence ta'en. - 'What fortune or what destiny,' he said, - 'Hath brought thee here or e'er thou death hast seen; - And who is this by whom thou'rt onward led?' - 'Up yonder,' said I, 'in the life serene, - I in a valley wandered all forlorn 50 - Before my years had full accomplished been. - I turned my back on it but yestermorn;[462] - Again I sought it when he came in sight - Guided by whom[463] I homeward thus return.' - And he to me: 'Following thy planet's light[464] - Thou of a glorious haven canst not fail, - If in the blithesome life I marked aright. - And had my years known more abundant tale, - Seeing the heavens so held thee in their grace - I, heartening thee, had helped thee to prevail. 60 - But that ungrateful and malignant race - Which down from Fiesole[465] came long ago, - And still its rocky origin betrays, - Will for thy worthiness become thy foe; - And with good reason, for 'mong crab-trees wild - It ill befits the mellow fig to grow. - By widespread ancient rumour are they styled - A people blind, rapacious, envious, vain: - See by their manners thou be not defiled. - Fortune reserves such honour for thee, fain 70 - Both sides[466] will be to enlist thee in their need; - But from the beak the herb shall far remain. - Let beasts of Fiesole go on to tread - Themselves to litter, nor the plants molest, - If any such now spring on their rank bed, - In whom there flourishes indeed the blest - Seed of the Romans who still lingered there - When of such wickedness 'twas made the nest.' - 'Had I obtained full answer to my prayer, - You had not yet been doomed,' I then did say, 80 - 'This exile from humanity to bear. - For deep within my heart and memory - Lives the paternal image good and dear - Of you, as in the world, from day to day, - How men escape oblivion you made clear; - My thankfulness for which shall in my speech - While I have life, as it behoves, appear. - I note what of my future course you teach. - Stored with another text[467] it will be glozed - By one expert, should I that Lady reach. 90 - Yet would I have this much to you disclosed: - If but my conscience no reproaches yield, - To all my fortune is my soul composed. - Not new to me the hint by you revealed; - Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel apace, - Even as she will; the clown[468] his mattock wield.' - Thereon my Master right about[469] did face, - And uttered this, with glance upon me thrown: - 'He hears[470] to purpose who doth mark the place.' - And none the less I, speaking, still go on 100 - With Ser Brunetto; asking him to tell - Who of his band[471] are greatest and best known. - And he to me: 'To hear of some is well, - But of the rest 'tis fitting to be dumb, - And time is lacking all their names to spell. - That all of them were clerks, know thou in sum, - All men of letters, famous and of might; - Stained with one sin[472] all from the world are come. - Priscian[473] goes with that crowd of evil plight, - Francis d'Accorso[474] too; and hadst thou mind 110 - For suchlike trash thou mightest have had sight - Of him the Slave[475] of Slaves to change assigned - From Arno's banks to Bacchiglione, where - His nerves fatigued with vice he left behind. - More would I say, but neither must I fare - Nor talk at further length, for from the sand - I see new dust-clouds[476] rising in the air, - I may not keep with such as are at hand. - Care for my _Treasure_;[477] for I still survive - In that my work. I nothing else demand.' 120 - Then turned he back, and ran like those who strive - For the Green Cloth[478] upon Verona's plain; - And seemed like him that shall the first arrive, - And not like him that labours all in vain. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[454] _Now lies, etc._: The stream on issuing from the wood flows right -across the waste of sand which that encompasses. To follow it they must -turn to the right, as always when, their general course being to the -left, they have to cross a Circle. But such a veering to the right is a -consequence of their leftward course, and not an exception to it. - -[455] _Cadsand_: An island opposite to the mouth of the great canal of -Bruges. - -[456] _Chiarentana_: What district or mountain is here meant has been -much disputed. It can be taken for Carinthia only on the supposition -that Dante was ignorant of where the Brenta rises. At the source of that -river stands the Monte Chiarentana, but it may be a question how old -that name is. The district name of it is Canzana, or Carenzana. - -[457] _Not so high, etc._: This limitation is very characteristic of -Dante's style of thought, which compels him to a precision that will -produce the utmost possible effect of verisimilitude in his description. -Most poets would have made the walls far higher and more vast, by way of -lending grandeur to the conception. - -[458] _Marvellous_: To find Dante, whom he knew, still living, and -passing through the Circle. - -[459] _With hand, etc._: 'With my face bent to his' is another reading, -but there seems to be most authority for that in the text.--The fiery -shower forbids Dante to stoop over the edge of the causeway. To -Brunetto, who is some feet below him, he throws out his open hand, a -gesture of astonishment mingled with pity. - -[460] _Ser Brunetto_: Brunetto Latini, a Florentine, was born in 1220. -As a notary he was entitled to be called Ser, or Messer. As appears from -the context, Dante was under great intellectual obligations to him, not, -we may suppose, as to a tutor so much as to an active-minded and -scholarly friend of mature age, and possessed of a ripe experience of -affairs. The social respect that Dante owed him is indicated by the use -of the plural form of address. See note, _Inf._ x. 51. Brunetto held -high appointments in the Republic. Perhaps with some exaggeration, -Villani says of him that he was the first to refine the Florentines, -teaching them to speak correctly, and to administer State affairs on -fixed principles of politics (_Cronica_, viii. 10). A Guelf in politics, -he shared in the exile of his party after the Ghibeline victory of -Montaperti in 1260, and for some years resided in Paris. There is reason -to suppose that he returned to Florence in 1269, and that he acted as -prothonotary of the court of Charles of Valois' vicar-general in -Tuscany. His signature as secretary to the Council of Florence is found -under the date of 1273. He died in 1294, when Dante was twenty-nine, and -was buried in the cloister of Santa Maria Maggiore, where his tombstone -may still be seen. (Not in Santa Maria Novella.) Villani mentions him in -his Chronicle with some reluctance, seeing he was a 'worldly man.' His -life must indeed have been vicious to the last, before Dante could have -had the heart to fix him in such company. Brunetto's chief works are the -_Tesoro_ and _Tesoretto_. For the _Tesoro_, see note at line 119. The -_Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, is an allegorical poem in Italian -rhymed couplets. In it he imagines himself, as he is on his return from -an embassy to Alphonso of Castile, meeting a scholar of Bologna of whom -he asks 'in smooth sweet words for news of Tuscany.' Having been told of -the catastrophe of Montaperti he wanders out of the beaten way into the -Forest of Roncesvalles, where he meets with various experiences; he is -helped by Ovid, is instructed by Ptolemy, and grows penitent for his -sins. In this, it will be seen, there is a general resemblance to the -action of the _Comedy_. There are even turns of expression that recall -Dante (_e.g._ beginning of _Cap._ iv.); but all together amounts to -little. - -[461] _Low I bent my head_: But not projecting it beyond the line of -safety, strictly defined by the edge of the causeway. We are to imagine -to ourselves the fire of Sodom falling on Brunetto's upturned face, and -missing Dante's head only by an inch. - -[462] _Yestermorn_: This is still the Saturday. It was Friday when Dante -met Virgil. - -[463] _Guided by whom_: Brunetto has asked who the guide is, and Dante -does not tell him. A reason for the refusal has been ingeniously found -in the fact that among the numerous citations of the _Treasure_ Brunetto -seldom quotes Virgil. See also the charge brought against Guido -Cavalcanti (_Inf._ x. 63), of holding Virgil in disdain. But it is -explanation enough of Dante's omission to name his guide that he is -passing through Inferno to gain experience for himself, and not to -satisfy the curiosity of the shades he meets. See note on line 99. - -[464] _Thy planet's light_: Some think that Brunetto had cast Dante's -horoscope. In a remarkable passage (_Parad._ xxii. 112) Dante attributes -any genius he may have to the influence of the Twins, which -constellation was in the ascendant when he was born. See also _Inf._ -xxvi. 23. But here it is more likely that Brunetto refers to his -observation of Dante's good qualities, from which he gathered that he -was well starred. - -[465] _Fiesole_: The mother city of Florence, to which also most of the -Fiesolans were believed to have migrated at the beginning of the -eleventh century. But all the Florentines did their best to establish a -Roman descent for themselves; and Dante among them. His fellow-citizens -he held to be for the most part of the boorish Fiesolan breed, rude and -stony-hearted as the mountain in whose cleft the cradle of their race -was seen from Florence. - -[466] _Both sides_: This passage was most likely written not long after -Dante had ceased to entertain any hope of winning his way back to -Florence in the company of the Whites, whose exile he shared, and when -he was already standing in proud isolation from Black and White, from -Guelf and Ghibeline. There is nothing to show that his expectation of -being courted by both sides ever came true. Never a strong partisan, he -had, to use his own words, at last to make a party by himself, and stood -out an Imperialist with his heart set on the triumph of an Empire far -nobler than that the Ghibeline desired. Dante may have hoped to hold a -place of honour some day in the council of a righteous Emperor; and this -may be the glorious haven with the dream of which he was consoled in the -wanderings of his exile. - -[467] _Another text_: Ciacco and Farinata have already hinted at the -troubles that lie ahead of him (_Inf._ vi. 65, and x. 79). - -[468] _The clown, etc._: The honest performance of duty is the best -defence against adverse fortune. - -[469] _Right about_: In traversing the sands they keep upon the -right-hand margin of the embanked stream, Virgil leading the way, with -Dante behind him on the right so that Brunetto may see and hear him -well. - -[470] _He hears, etc._: Of all the interpretations of this somewhat -obscure sentence that seems the best which applies it to Virgil's -_Quicquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est_--'Whatever shall -happen, every fate is to be vanquished by endurance' (_Æn._ v. 710). -Taking this way of it, we have in the form of Dante's profession of -indifference to all the adverse fortune that may be in store for him a -refined compliment to his Guide; and in Virgil's gesture and words an -equally delicate revelation of himself to Brunetto, in which is conveyed -an answer to the question at line 48, 'Who is this that shows the -way?'--Otherwise, the words convey Virgil's approbation of Dante's -having so well attended to his advice to store Farinata's prophecy in -his memory (_Inf._ x.127). - -[471] _His band_: That is, the company to which Brunetto specially -belongs, and from which for the time he has separated himself. - -[472] _Stained with one sin_: Dante will not make Brunetto individually -confess his sin. - -[473] _Priscian_: The great grammarian of the sixth century; placed here -without any reason, except that he is a representative teacher of youth. - -[474] _Francis d'Accorso_: Died about 1294. The son of a great civil -lawyer, he was himself professor of the civil law at Bologna, where his -services were so highly prized that the Bolognese forbade him, on pain -of the confiscation of his goods, to accept an invitation from Edward I. -to go to Oxford. - -[475] _Of him the Slave, etc._: One of the Pope's titles is _Servus -Servorum Domini_. The application of it to Boniface, so hated by Dante, -may be ironical: 'Fit servant of such a slave to vice!' The priest -referred to so contemptuously is Andrea, of the great Florentine family -of the Mozzi, who was much engaged in the political affairs of his time, -and became Bishop of Florence in 1286. About ten years later he was -translated to Vicenza, which stands on the Bacchiglione; and he died -shortly afterwards. According to Benvenuto he was a ridiculous preacher -and a man of dissolute manners. What is now most interesting about him -is that he was Dante's chief pastor during his early manhood, and is -consigned by him to the same disgraceful circle of Inferno as his -beloved master Brunetto Latini--a terrible evidence of the corruption of -life among the churchmen as well as the scholars of the thirteenth -century. - -[476] _New dust-clouds_: Raised by a band by whom they are about to be -met. - -[477] _My Treasure_: The _Trésor_, or _Tesoro_, Brunetto's principal -work, was written by him in French as being 'the pleasantest language, -and the most widely spread.' In it he treats of things in general in the -encyclopedic fashion set him by Alphonso of Castile. The first half -consists of a summary of civil and natural history. The second is -devoted to ethics, rhetoric, and politics. To a great extent it is a -compilation, containing, for instance, a translation, nearly complete, -of the Ethics of Aristotle--not, of course, direct from the Greek. It is -written in a plodding style, and speaks to more industry than genius. To -it Dante is indebted for some facts and fables. - -[478] _The Green Cloth_: To commemorate a victory won by the Veronese -there was instituted a race to be run on the first Sunday of Lent. The -prize was a piece of green cloth. The competitors ran naked.--Brunetto -does not disappear into the gloom without a parting word of applause -from his old pupil. Dante's rigorous sentence on his beloved master is -pronounced as softly as it can be. We must still wonder that he has the -heart to bring him to such an awful judgment. - - - - -CANTO XVI. - - - Now could I hear the water as it fell - To the next circle[479] with a murmuring sound - Like what is heard from swarming hives to swell; - When three shades all together with a bound - Burst from a troop met by us pressing on - 'Neath rain of that sharp torment. O'er the ground - Toward us approaching, they exclaimed each one: - 'Halt thou, whom from thy garb[480] we judge to be - A citizen of our corrupted town.' - Alas, what scars I on their limbs did see, 10 - Both old and recent, which the flames had made: - Even now my ruth is fed by memory. - My Teacher halted at their cry, and said: - 'Await a while:' and looked me in the face; - 'Some courtesy to these were well displayed. - And but that fire--the manner of the place-- - Descends for ever, fitting 'twere to find - Rather than them, thee quickening thy pace.' - When we had halted, they again combined - In their old song; and, reaching where we stood, 20 - Into a wheel all three were intertwined. - And as the athletes used, well oiled and nude, - To feel their grip and, wary, watch their chance, - Ere they to purpose strike and wrestle could; - So each of them kept fixed on me his glance - As he wheeled round,[481] and in opposing ways - His neck and feet seemed ever to advance. - 'Ah, if the misery of this sand-strewn place - Bring us and our petitions in despite,' - One then began, 'and flayed and grimy face; 30 - Let at the least our fame goodwill incite - To tell us who thou art, whose living feet - Thus through Inferno wander without fright. - For he whose footprints, as thou see'st, I beat, - Though now he goes with body peeled and nude, - More than thou thinkest, in the world was great. - The grandson was he of Gualdrada good; - He, Guidoguerra,[482] with his armèd hand - Did mighty things, and by his counsel shrewd. - The other who behind me treads the sand 40 - Is one whose name should on the earth be dear; - For he is Tegghiaio[483] Aldobrand. - And I, who am tormented with them here, - James Rusticucci[484] was; my fierce and proud - Wife of my ruin was chief minister.' - If from the fire there had been any shroud - I should have leaped down 'mong them, nor have earned - Blame, for my Teacher sure had this allowed. - But since I should have been all baked and burned, - Terror prevailed the goodwill to restrain 50 - With which to clasp them in my arms I yearned. - Then I began: ''Twas not contempt but pain - Which your condition in my breast awoke, - Where deeply rooted it will long remain, - When this my Master words unto me spoke, - By which expectancy was in me stirred - That ye who came were honourable folk. - I of your city[485] am, and with my word - Your deeds and honoured names oft to recall - Delighted, and with joy of them I heard. 60 - To the sweet fruits I go, and leave the gall, - As promised to me by my Escort true; - But first I to the centre down must fall.' - 'So may thy soul thy members long endue - With vital power,' the other made reply, - 'And after thee thy fame[486] its light renew; - As thou shalt tell if worth and courtesy - Within our city as of yore remain, - Or from it have been wholly forced to fly. - For William Borsier,[487] one of yonder train, 70 - And but of late joined with us in this woe, - Causeth us with his words exceeding pain.' - 'Upstarts, and fortunes suddenly that grow, - Have bred in thee pride and extravagance,[488] - Whence tears, O Florence! thou art shedding now.' - Thus cried I with uplifted countenance. - The three, accepting it for a reply, - Glanced each at each as hearing truth men glance. - And all: 'If others thou shalt satisfy - As well at other times[489] at no more cost, 80 - Happy thus at thine ease the truth to cry! - Therefore if thou escap'st these regions lost, - Returning to behold the starlight fair, - Then when "There was I,"[490] thou shalt make thy boast, - Something of us do thou 'mong men declare.' - Then broken was the wheel, and as they fled - Their nimble legs like pinions beat the air. - So much as one _Amen!_ had scarce been said - Quicker than what they vanished from our view. - On this once more the way my Master led. 90 - I followed, and ere long so near we drew - To where the water fell, that for its roar - Speech scarcely had been heard between us two. - And as the stream which of all those which pour - East (from Mount Viso counting) by its own - Course falls the first from Apennine to shore-- - As Acquacheta[491] in the uplands known - By name, ere plunging to its bed profound; - Name lost ere by Forlì its waters run-- - Above St. Benedict with one long bound, 100 - Where for a thousand[492] would be ample room, - Falls from the mountain to the lower ground; - Down the steep cliff that water dyed in gloom - We found to fall echoing from side to side, - Stunning the ear with its tremendous boom. - There was a cord about my middle tied, - With which I once had thought that I might hold - Secure the leopard with the painted hide. - When this from round me I had quite unrolled - To him I handed it, all coiled and tight; 110 - As by my Leader I had first been told. - Himself then bending somewhat toward the right,[493] - He just beyond the edge of the abyss - Threw down the cord,[494] which disappeared from sight. - 'That some strange thing will follow upon this - Unwonted signal which my Master's eye - Thus follows,' so I thought, 'can hardly miss.' - Ah, what great caution need we standing by - Those who behold not only what is done, - But who have wit our hidden thoughts to spy! 120 - He said to me: 'There shall emerge, and soon, - What I await; and quickly to thy view - That which thou dream'st of shall be clearly known.'[495] - From utterance of truth which seems untrue - A man, whene'er he can, should guard his tongue; - Lest he win blame to no transgression due. - Yet now I must speak out, and by the song - Of this my Comedy, Reader, I swear-- - So in good liking may it last full long!-- - I saw a shape swim upward through that air. 130 - All indistinct with gross obscurity, - Enough to fill the stoutest heart with fear: - Like one who rises having dived to free - An anchor grappled on a jagged stone, - Or something else deep hidden in the sea; - With feet drawn in and arms all open thrown. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[479] _The next circle_: The Eighth. - -[480] _Thy garb_: 'Almost every city,' says Boccaccio, 'had in those -times its peculiar fashion of dress distinct from that of neighboring -cities.' - -[481] _As he wheeled round_: Virgil and Dante have come to a halt upon -the embankment. The three shades, to whom it is forbidden to be at rest -for a moment, clasping one another as in a dance, keep wheeling round in -circle upon the sand. - -[482] _Guidoguerra_: A descendant of the Counts Guidi of Modigliana. -Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincion Berti de' Ravignani, praised -for his simple habits in the _Paradiso_, xv. 112. Guidoguerra was a -Guelf leader, and after the defeat of Montaperti acted as Captain of his -party, in this capacity lending valuable aid to Charles of Anjou at the -battle of Benevento, 1266, when Manfred was overthrown. He had no -children, and left the Commonwealth of Florence his heir. - -[483] _Tegghiaio_: Son of Aldobrando of the Adimari. His name should be -dear in Florence, because he did all he could to dissuade the citizens -from the campaign which ended so disastrously at Montaperti. - -[484] _James Rusticucci_: An accomplished cavalier of humble birth, said -to have been a retainer of Dante's friends the Cavalcanti. The -commentators have little to tell of him except that he made an unhappy -marriage, which is evident from the text. Of the sins of him and his -companions there is nothing known beyond what is to be inferred from the -poet's words, and nothing to say, except that when Dante consigned men -of their stamp, frank and amiable, to the Infernal Circles, we may be -sure that he only executed a verdict already accepted as just by the -whole of Florence. And when we find him impartially damning Guelf and -Ghibeline we may be equally sure that he looked for the aid of neither -party, and of no family however powerful in the State, to bring his -banishment to a close. He would even seem to be careful to stop any hole -by which he might creep back to Florence. When he did return, it was to -be in the train of the Emperor, so he hoped, and as one who gives rather -than seeks forgiveness. - -[485] _Of your city, etc._: At line 32 Rusticucci begs Dante to tell who -he is. He tells that he is of their city, which they have already -gathered from his _berretta_ and the fashion of his gown; but he tells -nothing, almost, of himself. Unless to Farinata, indeed, he never makes -an open breast to any one met in Inferno. But here he does all that -courtesy requires. - -[486] _Thy fame_: Dante has implied in his answer that he is gifted with -oratorical powers and is the object of a special Divine care; and the -illustrious Florentine, frankly acknowledging the claim he makes, -adjures him by the fame which is his in store to appease an eager -curiosity about the Florence which even in Inferno is the first thought -of every not ignoble Florentine. - -[487] _William Borsiere_: A Florentine, witty and well bred, according -to Boccaccio. Being once at Genoa he was shown a fine new palace by its -miserly owner, and was asked to suggest a subject for a painting with -which to adorn the hall. The subject was to be something that nobody had -ever seen. Borsiere proposed liberality as something that the miser at -any rate had never yet got a good sight of; an answer of which it is not -easy to detect either the wit or the courtesy, but which is said to have -converted the churl to liberal ways (_Decam._ i. 8). He is here -introduced as an authority on the noble style of manners. - -[488] _Pride and extravagance_: In place of the nobility of mind that -leads to great actions, and the gentle manners that prevail in a society -where there is a due subordination of rank to rank and well-defined -duties for every man. This, the aristocratic in a noble sense, was -Dante's ideal of a social state; for all his instincts were those of a -Florentine aristocrat, corrected though they were by his good sense and -his thirst for a reign of perfect justice. During his own time he had -seen Florence grow more and more democratic; and he was -irritated--unreasonably, considering that it was only a sign of the -general prosperity--at the spectacle of the amazing growth of wealth in -the hands of low-born traders, who every year were coming more to the -front and monopolising influence at home and abroad at the cost of their -neighbours and rivals with longer pedigrees and shorter purses. In -_Paradiso_ xvi. Dante dwells at length on the degeneracy of the -Florentines. - -[489] _At other times_: It is hinted that his outspokenness will not in -the future always give equal satisfaction to those who hear. - -[490] _There was I, etc._: _Forsan et hæc olim meminisse -juvabit._--_Æn._ i. 203. - -[491] _Acquacheta_: The fall of the water of the brook over the lofty -cliff that sinks from the Seventh to the Eighth Circle is compared to -the waterfall upon the Montone at the monastery of St. Benedict, in the -mountains above Forlì. The Po rises in Monte Viso. Dante here travels in -imagination from Monte Viso down through Italy, and finds that all the -rivers which rise on the left hand, that is, on the north-east of the -Apennine, fall into the Po, till the Montone is reached, that river -falling into the Adriatic by a course of its own. Above Forlì it was -called Acquacheta. The Lamone, north of the Montone, now follows an -independent course to the sea, having cut a new bed for itself since -Dante's time. - -[492] _Where for a thousand, etc._: In the monastery there was room for -many more monks, say most of the commentators; or something to the like -effect. Mr. Longfellow's interpretation seems better: Where the height -of the fall is so great that it would divide into a thousand falls. - -[493] _Toward the right_: The attitude of one about to throw. - -[494] _The cord_: The services of Geryon are wanted to convey them down -the next reach of the pit; and as no voice could be heard for the noise -of the waterfall, and no signal be made to catch the eye amid the gloom, -Virgil is obliged to call the attention of the monster by casting some -object into the depth where he lies concealed. But, since they are -surrounded by solid masonry and slack sand, one or other of them must -supply something fit to throw down; and the cord worn by Dante is fixed -on as what can best be done without. There may be a reference to the -cord of Saint Francis, which Dante, according to one of his -commentators, wore when he was a young man, following in this a fashion -common enough among pious laymen who had no thought of ever becoming -friars. But the simile of the cord, as representing sobriety and -virtuous purpose, is not strange to Dante. In _Purg._ vii. 114 he -describes Pedro of Arragon as being girt with the cord of every virtue; -and Pedro was no Franciscan. Dante's cord may therefore be taken as -standing for vigilance or self-control. With it he had hoped to get the -better of the leopard (_Inf._ i. 32), and may have trusted in it for -support as against the terrors of Inferno. But although he has been girt -with it ever since he entered by the gate, it has not saved him from a -single fear, far less from a single danger; and now it is cast away as -useless. Henceforth, more than ever, he is to confide wholly in Virgil -and have no confidence in himself. Nor is he to be girt again till he -reaches the coast of Purgatory, and then it is to be with a reed, the -emblem of humility.--But, however explained, the incident will always be -somewhat of a puzzle. - -[495] Dante attributes to Virgil full knowledge of all that is in his -own mind. He thus heightens our conception of his dependence on his -guide, with whose will his will is blent, and whose thoughts are always -found to be anticipating his own. Few readers will care to be constantly -recalling to mind that Virgil represents enlightened human reason. But -even if we confine ourselves to the easiest sense of the narrative, the -study of the relations between him and Dante will be found one of the -most interesting suggested by the poem--perhaps only less so than that -of Dante's moods of wonder, anger, and pity. - - - - -CANTO XVII. - - - 'Behold the monster[496] with the pointed tail, - Who passes mountains[497] and can entrance make - Through arms and walls! who makes the whole world ail, - Corrupted by him!' Thus my Leader spake, - And beckoned him that he should land hard by, - Where short the pathways built of marble break. - And that foul image of dishonesty - Moving approached us with his head and chest, - But to the bank[498] drew not his tail on high. - His face a human righteousness expressed, 10 - 'Twas so benignant to the outward view; - A serpent was he as to all the rest. - On both his arms hair to the arm-pits grew: - On back and chest and either flank were knot[499] - And rounded shield portrayed in various hue; - No Turk or Tartar weaver ever brought - To ground or pattern a more varied dye;[500] - Nor by Arachne[501] was such broidery wrought. - As sometimes by the shore the barges lie - Partly in water, partly on dry land; 20 - And as afar in gluttonous Germany,[502] - Watching their prey, alert the beavers stand; - So did this worst of brutes his foreparts fling - Upon the stony rim which hems the sand. - All of his tail in space was quivering, - Its poisoned fork erecting in the air, - Which scorpion-like was armèd with a sting. - My Leader said: 'Now we aside must fare - A little distance, so shall we attain - Unto the beast malignant crouching there.' 30 - So we stepped down upon the right,[503] and then - A half score steps[504] to the outer edge did pace, - Thus clearing well the sand and fiery rain. - And when we were hard by him I could trace - Upon the sand a little further on - Some people sitting near to the abyss. - 'That what this belt containeth may be known - Completely by thee,' then the Master said; - 'To see their case do thou advance alone. - Let thy inquiries be succinctly made. 40 - While thou art absent I will ask of him, - With his strong shoulders to afford us aid.' - Then, all alone, I on the outmost rim - Of that Seventh Circle still advancing trod, - Where sat a woful folk.[505] Full to the brim - Their eyes with anguish were, and overflowed; - Their hands moved here and there to win some ease, - Now from the flames, now from the soil which glowed. - No otherwise in summer-time one sees, - Working its muzzle and its paws, the hound 50 - When bit by gnats or plagued with flies or fleas. - And I, on scanning some who sat around - Of those on whom the dolorous flames alight, - Could recognise[506] not one. I only found - A purse hung from the throat of every wight, - Each with its emblem and its special hue; - And every eye seemed feasting on the sight. - As I, beholding them, among them drew, - I saw what seemed a lion's face and mien - Upon a yellow purse designed in blue. 60 - Still moving on mine eyes athwart the scene - I saw another scrip, blood-red, display - A goose more white than butter could have been. - And one, on whose white wallet blazoned lay - A pregnant sow[507] in azure, to me said: - 'What dost thou in this pit? Do thou straightway - Begone; and, seeing thou art not yet dead, - Know that Vitalian,[508] neighbour once of mine, - Shall on my left flank one day find his bed. - A Paduan I: all these are Florentine; 70 - And oft they stun me, bellowing in my ear: - "Come, Pink of Chivalry,[509] for whom we pine, - Whose is the purse on which three beaks appear:"' - Then he from mouth awry his tongue thrust out[510] - Like ox that licks its nose; and I, in fear - Lest more delay should stir in him some doubt - Who gave command I should not linger long, - Me from those wearied spirits turned about. - I found my Guide, who had already sprung - Upon the back of that fierce animal: 80 - He said to me: 'Now be thou brave and strong. - By stairs like this[511] we henceforth down must fall. - Mount thou in front, for I between would sit - So thee the tail shall harm not nor appal.' - Like one so close upon the shivering fit - Of quartan ague that his nails grow blue, - And seeing shade he trembles every whit, - I at the hearing of that order grew; - But his threats shamed me, as before the face - Of a brave lord his man grows valorous too. 90 - On the great shoulders then I took my place, - And wished to say, but could not move my tongue - As I expected: 'Do thou me embrace!' - But he, who other times had helped me 'mong - My other perils, when ascent I made - Sustained me, and strong arms around me flung, - And, 'Geryon, set thee now in motion!' said; - 'Wheel widely; let thy downward flight be slow; - Think of the novel burden on thee laid.' - As from the shore a boat begins to go 100 - Backward at first, so now he backward pressed, - And when he found that all was clear below, - He turned his tail where earlier was his breast; - And, stretching it, he moved it like an eel, - While with his paws he drew air toward his chest. - More terror Phaëthon could hardly feel - What time he let the reins abandoned fall, - Whence Heaven was fired,[512] as still its tracts reveal; - Nor wretched Icarus, on finding all - His plumage moulting as the wax grew hot, 110 - While, 'The wrong road!' his father loud did call; - Than what I felt on finding I was brought - Where nothing was but air and emptiness; - For save the brute I could distinguish nought. - He slowly, slowly swims; to the abyss - Wheeling he makes descent, as I surmise - From wind felt 'neath my feet and in my face. - Already on the right I heard arise - From out the caldron a terrific roar,[513] - Whereon I stretch my head with down-turned eyes. 120 - Terror of falling now oppressed me sore; - Hearing laments, and seeing fires that burned, - My thighs I tightened, trembling more and more. - Earlier I had not by the eye discerned - That we swept downward; scenes of torment now - Seemed drawing nearer wheresoe'er we turned. - And as a falcon (which long time doth go - Upon the wing, not finding lure[514] or prey), - While 'Ha!' the falconer cries, 'descending so!' - Comes wearied back whence swift it soared away; 130 - Wheeling a hundred times upon the road, - Then, from its master far, sulks angrily: - So we, by Geryon in the deep bestowed, - Were 'neath the sheer-hewn precipice set down: - He, suddenly delivered from our load, - Like arrow from the string was swiftly gone. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[496] _The monster_: Geryon, a mythical king of Spain, converted here -into the symbol of fraud, and set as the guardian demon of the Eighth -Circle, where the fraudulent are punished. There is nothing in the -mythology to justify this account of Geryon; and it seems that Dante has -created a monster to serve his purpose. Boccaccio, in his _Genealogy of -the Gods_ (Lib. i.), repeats the description of Geryon given by 'Dante -the Florentine, in his poem written in the Florentine tongue, one -certainly of no little importance among poems;' and adds that Geryon -reigned in the Balearic Isles, and was used to decoy travellers with his -benignant countenance, caressing words, and every kind of friendly lure, -and then to murder them when asleep. - -[497] _Who passes mountains, etc._: Neither art nor nature affords any -defence against fraud. - -[498] _The bank_: Not that which confines the brook but the inner limit -of the Seventh Circle, from which the precipice sinks sheer into the -Eighth, and to which the embankment by which the travellers have crossed -the sand joins itself on. Virgil has beckoned Geryon to come to that -part of the bank which adjoins the end of the causeway. - -[499] _Knot and rounded shield_: Emblems of subtle devices and -subterfuges. - -[500]_ Varied dye_: Denoting the various colours of deceit. - -[501] _Arachne_: The Lydian weaver changed into a spider by Minerva. See -_Purg._ xii. 43. - -[502] _Gluttonous Germany_: The habits of the German men-at-arms in -Italy, odious to the temperate Italians, explains this gibe. - -[503] _The right_: This is the second and last time that, in their -course through Inferno, they turn to the right. See _Inf._ ix. 132. The -action may possibly have a symbolical meaning, and refer to the -protection against fraud which is obtained by keeping to a righteous -course. But here, in fact, they have no choice, for, traversing the -Inferno as they do to the left hand, they came to the right bank of the -stream which traverses the fiery sands, followed it, and now, when they -would leave its edge, it is from the right embankment that they have to -step down, and necessarily to the right hand. - -[504] _A half score steps, etc._: Traversing the stone-built border -which lies between the sand and the precipice. Had the brook flowed to -the very edge of the Seventh Circle before tumbling down the rocky wall -it is clear that they might have kept to the embankment until they were -clear beyond the edge of the sand. We are therefore to figure to -ourselves the water as plunging down at a point some yards, perhaps the -width of the border, short of the true limit of the circle; and this is -a touch of local truth, since waterfalls in time always wear out a -funnel for themselves by eating back the precipice down which they -tumble. It was into this funnel that Virgil flung the cord, and up it -that Geryon was seen to ascend, as if by following up the course of the -water he would find out who had made the signal. To keep to the narrow -causeway where it ran on by the edge of this gulf would seem too full of -risk. - -[505] _Woful folk_: Usurers; those guilty of the unnatural sin of -contemning the legitimate modes of human industry. They sit huddled up -on the sand, close to its bound of solid masonry, from which Dante looks -down on them. But that the usurers are not found only at the edge of the -plain is evident from _Inf._ xiv. 19. - -[506] _Could recognise, etc._: Though most of the group prove to be from -Florence Dante recognises none of them; and this denotes that nothing so -surely creates a second nature in a man, in a bad sense, as setting the -heart on money. So in the Fourth Circle those who, being unable to spend -moderately, are always thinking of how to keep or get money are -represented as 'obscured from any recognition' (_Inf._ vii. 44). - -[507] _A pregnant sow_: The azure lion on a golden field was the arms of -the Gianfigliazzi, eminent usurers of Florence; the white goose on a red -ground was the arms of the Ubriachi of Florence; the azure sow, of the -Scrovegni of Padua. - -[508] _Vitalian_: A rich Paduan noble, whose palace was near that of the -Scrovegni. - -[509] _Pink of Chivalry_: 'Sovereign Cavalier;' identified by his arms -as Ser Giovanni Buiamonte, still alive in Florence in 1301, and if we -are to judge from the text, the greatest usurer of all. A northern poet -of the time would have sought his usurers in the Jewry of some town he -knew, but Dante finds his among the nobles of Padua and Florence. He -ironically represents them as wearing purses ornamented with their coats -of arms, perhaps to hint that they pursued their dishonourable trade -under shelter of their noble names--their shop signs, as it were. The -whole passage may have been planned by Dante so as to afford him the -opportunity of damning the still living Buiamonte without mentioning his -name. - -[510] _His tongue thrust out_: As if to say: We know well what sort of -fine gentleman Buiamonte is. - -[511] _By stairs like this_: The descent from one circle to another -grows more difficult the further down they come. They appear to have -found no special obstacle in the nature of the ground till they reached -the bank sloping down to the Fifth Circle, the pathway down which is -described as terrible (_Inf._ vii. 105). The descent into the Seventh -Circle is made practicable, and nothing more (_Inf._ xii. I). - -[512] _Heaven was fired_: As still appears in the Milky Way. In the -_Convito_, ii. 15, Dante discusses the various explanations of what -causes the brightness of that part of the heavens. - -[513] _A terrific roar_: Of the water falling to the ground. On -beginning the descent they had left the waterfall on the left hand, but -Geryon, after fetching one or more great circles, passes in front of it, -and then they have it on the right. There is no further mention of the -waters of Phlegethon till they are found frozen in Cocytus (_Inf._ -xxxii. 23). Philalethes suggests that they flow under the Eighth Circle. - -[514] _Lure_: An imitation bird used in training falcons. Dante -describes the sulky, slow descent of a falcon which has either lost -sight of its prey, or has failed to discover where the falconer has -thrown the lure. Geryon has descended thus deliberately owing to the -command of Virgil. - - - - -CANTO XVIII. - - - Of iron colour, and composed of stone, - A place called Malebolge[515] is in Hell, - Girt by a cliff of substance like its own. - In that malignant region yawns a well[516] - Right in the centre, ample and profound; - Of which I duly will the structure tell. - The zone[517] that lies between them, then, is round-- - Between the well and precipice hard and high; - Into ten vales divided is the ground. - As is the figure offered to the eye, 10 - Where numerous moats a castle's towers enclose - That they the walls may better fortify; - A like appearance was made here by those. - And as, again, from threshold of such place - Many a drawbridge to the outworks goes; - So ridges from the precipice's base - Cutting athwart the moats and barriers run, - Till at the well join the extremities.[518] - From Geryon's back when we were shaken down - 'Twas here we stood, until the Poet's feet 20 - Moved to the left, and I, behind, came on. - New torments on the right mine eyes did meet - With new tormentors, novel woe on woe; - With which the nearer Bolgia was replete. - Sinners, all naked, in the gulf below, - This side the middle met us; while they strode - On that side with us, but more swift did go.[519] - Even so the Romans, that the mighty crowd - Across the bridge, the year of Jubilee, - Might pass with ease, ordained a rule of road[520]-- 30 - Facing the Castle, on that side should be - The multitude which to St. Peter's hied; - So to the Mount on this was passage free. - On the grim rocky ground, on either side, - I saw horned devils[521] armed with heavy whip - Which on the sinners from behind they plied. - Ah, how they made the wretches nimbly skip - At the first lashes; no one ever yet - But sought from the second and the third to slip. - And as I onward went, mine eyes were set 40 - On one of them; whereon I called in haste: - 'This one already I have surely met!' - Therefore to know him, fixedly I gazed; - And my kind Leader willingly delayed, - While for a little I my course retraced. - On this the scourged one, thinking to evade - My search, his visage bent without avail, - For: 'Thou that gazest on the ground,' I said, - 'If these thy features tell trustworthy tale, - Venedico Caccianimico[522] thou! 50 - But what has brought thee to such sharp regale?'[523] - And he, 'I tell it 'gainst my will, I trow, - But thy clear accents[524] to the old world bear - My memory, and make me all avow. - I was the man who Ghisola the fair - To serve the Marquis' evil will led on, - Whatever[525] the uncomely tale declare. - Of Bolognese here weeping not alone - Am I; so full the place of them, to-day - 'Tween Reno and Savena[526] are not known 60 - So many tongues that _Sipa_ deftly say: - And if of this thou'dst know the reason why, - Think but how greedy were our hearts alway.' - To him thus speaking did a demon cry: - 'Pander, begone!' and smote him with his thong; - 'Here are no women for thy coin to buy.' - Then, with my Escort joined, I moved along. - Few steps we made until we there had come, - Where from the bank a rib of rock was flung. - With ease enough up to its top we clomb, 70 - And, turning on the ridge, bore to the right;[527] - And those eternal circles[528] parted from. - When we had reached where underneath the height - A passage opes, yielding the scourged a way, - My Guide bade: 'Tarry, so to hold in sight - Those other spirits born in evil day, - Whose faces until now from thee have been - Concealed, because with ours their progress lay.' - Then from the ancient bridge by us were seen - The troop which toward us on that circuit sped, 80 - Chased onward, likewise, by the scourges keen. - And my good Master, ere I asked him, said: - 'That lordly one now coming hither, see, - By whom, despite of pain, no tears are shed. - What mien he still retains of majesty! - 'Tis Jason, who by courage and by guile - The Colchians of the ram deprived. 'Twas he - Who on his passage by the Lemnian isle, - Where all of womankind with daring hand - Upon their males had wrought a murder vile, 90 - With loving pledges and with speeches bland - The tender-yeared Hypsipyle betrayed, - Who had herself a fraud on others planned. - Forlorn he left her then, when pregnant made. - That is the crime condemns him to this pain; - And for Medea[529] too is vengeance paid. - Who in his manner cheat compose his train. - Of the first moat sufficient now is known, - And those who in its jaws engulfed remain.' - Already had we by the strait path gone 100 - To where 'tis with the second bank dovetailed-- - The buttress whence a second arch is thrown. - Here heard we who in the next Bolgia wailed[530] - And puffed for breath; reverberations told - They with their open palms themselves assailed. - The sides were crusted over with a mould - Plastered upon them by foul mists that rise, - And both with eyes and nose a contest hold. - The bottom is so deep, in vain our eyes - Searched it till further up the bridge we went, 110 - To where the arch o'erhangs what under lies. - Ascended there, our eyes we downward bent, - And I saw people in such ordure drowned, - A very cesspool 'twas of excrement. - And while I from above am searching round, - One with a head so filth-smeared I picked out, - I knew not if 'twas lay, or tonsure-crowned. - 'Why then so eager,' asked he with a shout, - 'To stare at me of all the filthy crew?' - And I to him: 'Because I scarce can doubt 120 - That formerly thee dry of hair I knew, - Alessio Interminei[531] the Lucchese; - And therefore thee I chiefly hold in view.' - Smiting his head-piece, then, his words were these: - ''Twas flattery steeped me here; for, using such, - My tongue itself enough could never please.' - 'Now stretch thou somewhat forward, but not much,' - Thereon my Leader bade me, 'and thine eyes - Slowly advance till they her features touch - And the dishevelled baggage recognise, 130 - Clawing her yonder with her nails unclean, - Now standing up, now squatting on her thighs. - 'Tis harlot Thais,[532] who, when she had been - Asked by her lover, "Am I generous - And worthy thanks?" said, "Greatly so, I ween." - Enough[533] of this place has been seen by us.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[515] _Malebolge_: Or Evil Pits; literally, Evil Pockets. - -[516] _A well_: The Ninth and lowest Circle, to be described in Canto -xxxii., etc. - -[517] _The zone_: The Eighth Circle, in which the fraudulent of all -species are punished, lies between the precipice and the Ninth Circle. A -vivid picture of the enormous height of the enclosing wall has been -presented to us at the close of the preceding Canto. As in the -description of the Second Circle the atmosphere is represented as -malignant, being murky and disturbed with tempest; so the Malebolge is -called malignant too, being all of barren iron-coloured rock. In both -cases the surroundings of the sinners may well be spoken of as malign, -adverse to any thought of goodwill and joy. - -[518] _The extremities_: The _Malebolge_ consists of ten circular pits -or fosses, one inside of another. The outermost lies under the precipice -which falls sheer from the Seventh Circle; the innermost, and of course -the smallest, runs immediately outside of the 'Well,' which is the Ninth -Circle. The Bolgias or valleys are divided from each other by rocky -banks; and, each Bolgia being at a lower level than the one that -encloses it, the inside of each bank is necessarily deeper than the -outside. Ribs or ridges of rock--like spokes of a wheel to the -axle-tree--run from the foot of the precipice to the outer rim of the -'Well,' vaulting the moats at right angles with the course of them. Thus -each rib takes the form of a ten-arched bridge. By one or other of these -Virgil and Dante now travel towards the centre and the base of Inferno; -their general course being downward, though varied by the ascent in turn -of the hog-backed arches over the moats. - -[519] _More swift_: The sinners in the First Bolgia are divided into two -gangs, moving in opposite directions, the course of those on the outside -being to the right, as looked at by Dante. These are the shades of -panders; those in the inner current are such as seduced on their own -account. Here a list of the various classes of sinners contained in the -Bolgias of the Eighth Circle may be given:-- - - 1st Bolgia--Seducers, CANTO XVIII. - 2d " Flatterers, " " - 3d " Simoniacs, " XIX. - 4th " Soothsayers, " XX. - 5th " Barrators, " XXI. XXII. - 6th " Hypocrites, " XXIII. - 7th " Thieves, " XXIV. XXV. - 8th " Evil Counsellors, " XXVI. XXVII. - 9th " Scandal and Heresy Mongers, " XXVIII. XXIX. - 10th " Falsifiers, " XXIX. XXX. - -[520] _A rule of road_: In the year 1300 a Jubilee was held in Rome with -Plenary Indulgence for all pilgrims. Villani says that while it lasted -the number of strangers in Rome was never less than two hundred -thousand. The bridge and castle spoken of in the text are those of St. -Angelo. The Mount is probably the Janiculum. - -[521] _Horned devils_: Here the demons are horned--terrible -remembrancers to the sinner of the injured husband. - -[522] _Venedico Caccianimico_: A Bolognese noble, brother of Ghisola, -whom he inveigled into yielding herself to the Marquis of Este, lord of -Ferrara. Venedico died between 1290 and 1300. - -[523] _Such sharp regale_: 'Such pungent sauces.' There is here a play -of words on the _Salse_, the name of a wild ravine outside the walls of -Bologna, where the bodies of felons were thrown. Benvenuto says it used -to be a taunt among boys at Bologna: Your father was pitched into the -Salse. - -[524] _Thy clear accents_: Not broken with sobs like his own and those -of his companions. - -[525] _Whatever, etc._: Different accounts seem to have been current -about the affair of Ghisola. - -[526] _'Tween Reno, etc._: The Reno and Savena are streams that flow -past Bologna. _Sipa_ is Bolognese for Maybe, or for Yes. So Dante -describes Tuscany as the country where _Si_ is heard (_Inf._ xxxiii. -80). With regard to the vices of the Bolognese, Benvenuto says: 'Dante -had studied in Bologna, and had seen and observed all these things.' - -[527] _To the right_: This is only an apparent departure from their -leftward course. Moving as they were to the left along the edge of the -Bolgia, they required to turn to the right to cross the bridge that -spanned it. - -[528] _Those eternal circles_: The meaning is not clear; perhaps it only -is that they have now done with the outer stream of sinners in this -Bolgia, left by them engaged in endless procession round and round. - -[529] _Medea_: When the Argonauts landed on Lemnos, they found it -without any males, the women, incited by Venus, having put them all to -death, with the exception of Thoas, saved by his daughter Hypsipyle. -When Jason deserted her he sailed for Colchis, and with the assistance -of Medea won the Golden Fleece. Medea, who accompanied him from Colchis, -was in turn deserted by him. - -[530] _Who in the next Bolgia wailed_: The flatterers in the Second -Bolgia. - -[531] _Alessio Interminei_: Of the Great Lucchese family of the -Interminelli, to which the famous Castruccio Castrucani belonged. -Alessio is know to have been living in 1295. Dante may have known him -personally. Benvenuto says he was so liberal of his flattery that he -spent it even on menial servants. - -[532] _Thais_: In the _Eunuch_ of Terence, Thraso, the lover of that -courtesan, asks Gnatho, their go-between, if she really sent him many -thanks for the present of a slave-girl he had sent her. 'Enormous!' says -Gnatho. It proves what great store Dante set on ancient instances when -he thought this worth citing. - -[533] _Enough, etc._: Most readers will agree with Virgil. - - - - -CANTO XIX. - - - O Simon Magus![534] ye his wretched crew! - The gifts of God, ordained to be the bride - Of righteousness, ye prostitute that you - With gold and silver may be satisfied; - Therefore for you let now the trumpet[535] blow, - Seeing that ye in the Third Bolgia 'bide. - Arrived at the next tomb,[536] we to the brow - Of rock ere this had finished our ascent, - Which hangs true plumb above the pit below. - What perfect art, O Thou Omniscient, 10 - Is Thine in Heaven and earth and the bad world found! - How justly does Thy power its dooms invent! - The livid stone, on both banks and the ground, - I saw was full of holes on every side, - All of one size, and each of them was round. - No larger seemed they to me nor less wide - Than those within my beautiful St. John[537] - For the baptizers' standing-place supplied; - And one of which, not many years agone, - I broke to save one drowning; and I would 20 - Have this for seal to undeceive men known. - Out of the mouth of each were seen protrude - A sinner's feet, and of the legs the small - Far as the calves; the rest enveloped stood. - And set on fire were both the soles of all, - Which made their ankles wriggle with such throes - As had made ropes and withes asunder fall. - And as flame fed by unctuous matter goes - Over the outer surface only spread; - So from their heels it flickered to the toes. 30 - 'Master, who is he, tortured more,' I said, - 'Than are his neighbours, writhing in such woe; - And licked by flames of deeper-hearted red?' - And he: 'If thou desirest that below - I bear thee by that bank[538] which lowest lies, - Thou from himself his sins and name shalt know.' - And I: 'Thy wishes still for me suffice: - Thou art my Lord, and knowest I obey - Thy will; and dost my hidden thoughts surprise.' - To the fourth barrier then we made our way, 40 - And, to the left hand turning, downward went - Into the narrow hole-pierced cavity; - Nor the good Master caused me make descent - From off his haunch till we his hole were nigh - Who with his shanks was making such lament. - 'Whoe'er thou art, soul full of misery, - Set like a stake with lower end upcast,' - I said to him, 'Make, if thou canst, reply.' - I like a friar[539] stood who gives the last - Shrift to a vile assassin, to his side 50 - Called back to win delay for him fixed fast. - 'Art thou arrived already?' then he cried, - 'Art thou arrived already, Boniface? - By several years the prophecy[540] has lied. - Art so soon wearied of the wealthy place, - For which thou didst not fear to take with guile, - Then ruin the fair Lady?'[541] Now my case - Was like to theirs who linger on, the while - They cannot comprehend what they are told, - And as befooled[542] from further speech resile. 60 - But Virgil bade me: 'Speak out loud and bold, - "I am not he thou thinkest, no, not he!"' - And I made answer as by him controlled. - The spirit's feet then twisted violently, - And, sighing in a voice of deep distress, - He asked: 'What then requirest thou of me? - If me to know thou hast such eagerness, - That thou the cliff hast therefore ventured down, - Know, the Great Mantle sometime was my dress. - I of the Bear, in sooth, was worthy son: 70 - As once, the Cubs to help, my purse with gain - I stuffed, myself I in this purse have stown. - Stretched out at length beneath my head remain - All the simoniacs[543] that before me went, - And flattened lie throughout the rocky vein. - I in my turn shall also make descent, - Soon as he comes who I believed thou wast, - When I asked quickly what for him was meant. - O'er me with blazing feet more time has past, - While upside down I fill the topmost room, 80 - Than he his crimsoned feet shall upward cast; - For after him one viler still shall come, - A Pastor from the West,[544] lawless of deed: - To cover both of us his worthy doom. - A modern Jason[545] he, of whom we read - In Maccabees, whose King denied him nought: - With the French King so shall this man succeed.' - Perchance I ventured further than I ought, - But I spake to him in this measure free: - 'Ah, tell me now what money was there sought 90 - Of Peter by our Lord, when either key - He gave him in his guardianship to hold? - Sure He demanded nought save: "Follow me!" - Nor Peter, nor the others, asked for gold - Or silver when upon Matthias fell - The lot instead of him, the traitor-souled. - Keep then thy place, for thou art punished well,[546] - And clutch the pelf, dishonourably gained, - Which against Charles[547] made thee so proudly swell. - And, were it not that I am still restrained 100 - By reverence[548] for those tremendous keys, - Borne by thee while the glad world thee contained, - I would use words even heavier than these; - Seeing your avarice makes the world deplore, - Crushing the good, filling the bad with ease. - 'Twas you, O Pastors, the Evangelist bore - In mind what time he saw her on the flood - Of waters set, who played with kings the whore; - Who with seven heads was born; and as she would - By the ten horns to her was service done, 110 - Long as her spouse[549] rejoiced in what was good. - Now gold and silver are your god alone: - What difference 'twixt the idolater and you, - Save that ye pray a hundred for his one? - Ah, Constantine,[550] how many evils grew-- - Not from thy change of faith, but from the gift - Wherewith thou didst the first rich Pope endue!' - While I my voice continued to uplift - To such a tune, by rage or conscience stirred - Both of his soles he made to twist and shift. 120 - My Guide, I well believe, with pleasure heard; - Listening he stood with lips so well content - To me propounding truthful word on word. - Then round my body both his arms he bent, - And, having raised me well upon his breast, - Climbed up the path by which he made descent. - Nor was he by his burden so oppressed - But that he bore me to the bridge's crown, - Which with the fourth joins the fifth rampart's crest. - And lightly here he set his burden down, 130 - Found light by him upon the precipice, - Up which a goat uneasily had gone. - And thence another valley met mine eyes. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[534] _Simon Magus_: The sin of simony consists in setting a price on -the exercise of a spiritual grace or the acquisition of a spiritual -office. Dante assails it at headquarters, that is, as it was practised -by the Popes; and in their case it took, among other forms, that of -ecclesiastical nepotism. - -[535] _The trumpet_: Blown at the punishment of criminals, to call -attention to their sentence. - -[536] _The next tomb_: The Third Bolgia, appropriately termed a tomb, -because its manner of punishment is that of a burial, as will be seen. - -[537] _St. John_: The church of St. John's, in Dante's time, as now, the -Baptistery of Florence. In _Parad._ xxv. he anticipates the day, if it -should ever come, when he shall return to Florence, and in the church -where he was baptized a Christian be crowned as a Poet. Down to the -middle of the sixteenth century all baptisms, except in cases of urgent -necessity, were celebrated in St. John's; and, even there, only on the -eves of Easter and Pentecost. For protection against the crowd, the -officiating priests were provided with standing-places, circular -cavities disposed around the great font. To these Dante compares the -holes of this Bolgia, for the sake of introducing a defence of himself -from a charge of sacrilege. Benvenuto tells that once when some boys -were playing about the church one of them, to hide himself from his -companions, squeezed himself into a baptizer's standing-place, and made -so tight a fit of it that he could not be rescued till Dante with his -own hands plied a hammer upon the marble, and so saved the child from -drowning. The presence of water in the cavity may be explained by the -fact of the church's being at that time lighted by an unglazed opening -in the roof; and as baptisms were so infrequent the standing-places, -situated as they were in the centre of the floor, may often have been -partially flooded. It is easy to understand how bitterly Dante would -resent a charge of irreverence connected with his 'beautiful St. -John's;' 'that fair sheep-fold' (_Parad._ xxv. 5). - -[538] _That bank, etc._: Of each Bolgia the inner bank is lower than the -outer; the whole of Malebolge sloping towards the centre of the Inferno. - -[539] _Like a friar, etc._: In those times the punishment of an assassin -was to be stuck head downward in a pit, and then to have earth slowly -shovelled in till he was suffocated. Dante bends down, the better to -hear what the sinner has to say, like a friar recalled by the felon on -the pretence that he has something to add to his confession. - -[540] _The prophecy_: 'The writing.' The speaker is Nicholas III., of -the great Roman family of the Orsini, and Pope from 1277 to 1280; a man -of remarkable bodily beauty and grace of manner, as well as of great -force of character. Like many other Holy Fathers he was either a great -hypocrite while on his promotion, or else he degenerated very quickly -after getting himself well settled on the Papal Chair. He is said to -have been the first Pope who practised simony with no attempt at -concealment. Boniface VIII., whom he is waiting for to relieve him, -became Pope in 1294, and died in 1303. None of the four Popes between -1280 and 1294 were simoniacs; so that Nicholas was uppermost in the hole -for twenty-three years. Although ignorant of what is now passing on the -earth, he can refer back to his foreknowledge of some years earlier (see -_Inf._ x. 99) as if to a prophetic writing, and finds that according to -this it is still three years too soon, it being now only 1300, for the -arrival of Boniface. This is the usual explanation of the passage. To it -lies the objection that foreknowledge of the present that can be -referred back to is the same thing as knowledge of it, and with this the -spirits in Inferno are not endowed. But Dante elsewhere shows that he -finds it hard to observe the limitation. The alternative explanation, -supported by the use of _scritto_ (writing) in the text, is that -Nicholas refers to some prophecy once current about his successors in -Rome. - -[541] _The fair Lady_: The Church. The guile is that shown by Boniface -in getting his predecessor Celestine v. to abdicate (_Inf._ iii. 60). - -[542] _As befooled_: Dante does not yet suspect that it is with a Pope -he is speaking. He is dumbfounded at being addressed as Boniface. - -[543] _All the simoniacs_: All the Popes that had been guilty of the -sin. - -[544] _A Pastor from the West_: Boniface died in 1303, and was succeeded -by Benedict XI., who in his turn was succeeded by Clement V., the Pastor -from the West. Benedict was not stained with simony, and so it is -Clement that is to relieve Boniface; and he is to come from the West, -that is, from Avignon, to which the Holy See was removed by him. Or the -reference may simply be to the country of his birth. Elsewhere he is -spoken of as 'the Gascon who shall cheat the noble Henry' of Luxemburg -(_Parad._ xvii. 82).--This passage has been read as throwing light on -the question of when the _Inferno_ was written. Nicholas says that from -the time Boniface arrives till Clement relieves him will be a shorter -period than that during which he has himself been in Inferno, that is to -say, a shorter time than twenty years. Clement died in 1314; and so, it -is held, we find a date before which the _Inferno_ was, at least, not -published. But Clement was known for years before his death to be ill of -a disease usually soon fatal. He became Pope in 1305, and the wonder was -that he survived so long as nine years. Dante keeps his prophecy -safe--if it is a prophecy; and there does seem internal evidence to -prove the publication of the _Inferno_ to have taken place long before -1314.--It is needless to point out how the censure of Clement gains in -force if read as having been published before his death. - -[545] _Jason_: Or Joshua, who purchased the office of High Priest from -Antiochus Epiphanes, and innovated the customs of the Jews (2 Maccab. -iv. 7). - -[546] _Punished well_: At line 12 Dante has admired the propriety of the -Divine distribution of penalties. He appears to regard with a special -complacency that which he invents for the simoniacs. They were -industrious in multiplying benefices for their kindred; Boniface, for -example, besides Cardinals, appointed about twenty Archbishops and -Bishops from among his own relatives. Here all the simoniacal Popes have -to be contented with one place among them. They paid no regard to -whether a post was well filled or not: here they are set upside down. - -[547] _Charles_: Nicholas was accused of taking a bribe to assist Peter -of Arragon in ousting Charles of Anjou from the kingdom of Sicily. - -[548] _By reverence, etc._: Dante distinguishes between the office and -the unworthy holder of it. So in Purgatory he prostrates himself before -a Pope (_Purg._ xix. 131). - -[549] _Her spouse_: In the preceding lines the vision of the Woman in -the Apocalypse is applied to the corruption of the Church, represented -under the figure of the seven-hilled Rome seated in honour among the -nations and receiving observance from the kings of the earth till her -spouse, the Pope, began to prostitute her by making merchandise of her -spiritual gifts. Of the Beast there is no mention here, his qualities -being attributed to the Woman. - -[550] _Ah, Constantine, etc._: In Dante's time, and for some centuries -later, it was believed that Constantine, on transferring the seat of -empire to Byzantium, had made a gift to the Pope of rights and -privileges almost equal to those of the Emperor. Rome was to be the -Pope's; and from his court in the Lateran he was to exercise supremacy -over all the West. The Donation of Constantine, that is, the instrument -conveying these rights, was a forgery of the Middle Ages. - - - - -CANTO XX. - - - Now of new torment must my verses tell, - And matter for the Twentieth Canto win - Of Lay the First,[551] which treats of souls in Hell. - Already was I eager to begin - To peer into the visible profound,[552] - Which tears of agony was bathèd in: - And I saw people in the valley round; - Like that of penitents on earth the pace - At which they weeping came, nor uttering[553] sound. - When I beheld them with more downcast gaze,[554] 10 - That each was strangely screwed about I learned, - Where chest is joined to chin. And thus the face - Of every one round to his loins was turned; - And stepping backward[555] all were forced to go, - For nought in front could be by them discerned. - Smitten by palsy although one might show - Perhaps a shape thus twisted all awry, - I never saw, and am to think it slow. - As, Reader,[556] God may grant thou profit by - Thy reading, for thyself consider well 20 - If I could then preserve my visage dry - When close at hand to me was visible - Our human form so wrenched that tears, rained down - Out of the eyes, between the buttocks fell. - In very sooth I wept, leaning upon - A boss of the hard cliff, till on this wise - My Escort asked: 'Of the other fools[557] art one? - Here piety revives as pity dies; - For who more irreligious is than he - In whom God's judgments to regret give rise? 30 - Lift up, lift up thy head, and thou shalt see - Him for whom earth yawned as the Thebans saw, - All shouting meanwhile: "Whither dost thou flee, - Amphiaraüs?[558] Wherefore thus withdraw - From battle?" But he sinking found no rest - Till Minos clutched him with all-grasping claw. - Lo, how his shoulders serve him for a breast! - Because he wished to see too far before - Backward he looks, to backward course addressed. - Behold Tiresias,[559] who was changed all o'er, 40 - Till for a man a woman met the sight, - And not a limb its former semblance bore; - And he behoved a second time to smite - The same two twisted serpents with his wand, - Ere he again in manly plumes was dight. - With back to him, see Aruns next at hand, - Who up among the hills of Luni, where - Peasants of near Carrara till the land, - Among the dazzling marbles[560] held his lair - Within a cavern, whence could be descried 50 - The sea and stars of all obstruction bare. - The other one, whose flowing tresses hide - Her bosom, of the which thou seest nought, - And all whose hair falls on the further side, - Was Manto;[561] who through many regions sought: - Where I was born, at last her foot she stayed. - It likes me well thou shouldst of this be taught. - When from this life her father exit made, - And Bacchus' city had become enthralled, - She for long time through many countries strayed. 60 - 'Neath mountains by which Germany is walled - And bounded at Tirol, a lake there lies - High in fair Italy, Benacus[562] called. - The waters of a thousand springs that rise - 'Twixt Val Camonica and Garda flow - Down Pennine; and their flood this lake supplies. - And from a spot midway, if they should go - Thither, the Pastors[563] of Verona, Trent, - And Brescia might their blessings all bestow. - Peschiera,[564] with its strength for ornament, 70 - Facing the Brescians and the Bergamese - Lies where the bank to lower curve is bent. - And there the waters, seeking more of ease, - For in Benacus is not room for all, - Forming a river, lapse by green degrees. - The river, from its very source, men call - No more Benacus--'tis as Mincio known, - Which into Po does at Governo fall. - A flat it reaches ere it far has run, - Spreading o'er which it feeds a marshy fen, 80 - Whence oft in summer pestilence has grown. - Wayfaring here the cruel virgin, when - She found land girdled by the marshy flood, - Untilled and uninhabited of men, - That she might 'scape all human neighbourhood - Stayed on it with her slaves, her arts to ply; - And there her empty body was bestowed. - On this the people from the country nigh - Into that place came crowding, for the spot, - Girt by the swamp, could all attack defy, 90 - And for the town built o'er her body sought - A name from her who made it first her seat, - Calling it Mantua, without casting lot.[565] - The dwellers in it were in number great, - Till stupid Casalodi[566] was befooled - And victimised by Pinamonte's cheat. - Hence, shouldst thou ever hear (now be thou schooled!) - Another story to my town assigned, - Let by no fraud the truth be overruled.' - And I: 'Thy reasonings, Master, to my mind 100 - So cogent are, and win my faith so well, - What others say I shall black embers find. - But of this people passing onward tell, - If thou, of any, something canst declare, - For all my thoughts[567] on that intently dwell.' - And then he said: 'The one whose bearded hair - Falls from his cheeks upon his shoulders dun, - Was, when the land of Greece[568] of males so bare - Was grown the very cradles scarce held one, - An augur;[569] he with Calchas gave the sign 110 - In Aulis through the first rope knife to run. - Eurypylus was he called, and in some line - Of my high Tragedy[570] is sung the same, - As thou know'st well, who mad'st it wholly thine. - That other, thin of flank, was known to fame - As Michael Scott;[571] and of a verity - He knew right well the black art's inmost game. - Guido Bonatti,[572] and Asdente see - Who mourns he ever should have parted from - His thread and leather; but too late mourns he. 120 - Lo the unhappy women who left loom, - Spindle, and needle that they might divine; - With herb and image[573] hastening men's doom. - But come; for where the hemispheres confine - Cain and the Thorns[574] is falling, to alight - Underneath Seville on the ocean line. - The moon was full already yesternight; - Which to recall thou shouldst be well content, - For in the wood she somewhat helped thy plight.' - Thus spake he to me while we forward went. 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[551] _Lay the First_: The _Inferno_. - -[552] _The visible profound_: The Fourth Bolgia, where soothsayers of -every kind are punished. Their sin is that of seeking to find out what -God has made secret. That such discoveries of the future could be made -by men, Dante seems to have had no doubt; but he regards the exercise of -the power as a fraud on Providence, and also credits the adepts in the -black art with ruining others by their spells (line 123). - -[553] _Nor uttering, etc._: They who on earth told too much are now -condemned to be for ever dumb. It will be noticed that with none of them -does Dante converse. - -[554] _More downcast gaze_: Standing as he does on the crown of the -arch, the nearer they come to him the more he has to decline his eyes. - -[555] _Stepping backward_: Once they peered far into the future; now -they cannot see a step before them. - -[556]_ As, Reader, etc._: Some light may be thrown on this unusual, and, -at first sight, inexplicable display of pity, by the comment of -Benvenuto da Imola:--'It is the wisest and most virtuous of men that are -most subject to this mania of divination; and of this Dante is himself -an instance, as is well proved by this book of his.' Dante reminds the -reader how often since the journey began he has sought to have the veil -of the future lifted; and would have it understood that he was seized by -a sudden misgiving as to whether he too had not overstepped the bounds -of what, in that respect, is allowed and right. - -[557] _Of the other fools_: Dante, weeping like the sinners in the -Bolgia, is asked by Virgil: 'What, art thou then one of them?' He had -been suffered, without reproof, to show pity for Francesca and Ciacco. -The terrors of the Lord grow more cogent as they descend, and even pity -is now forbidden. - -[558] _Amphiaraüs_: One of the Seven Kings who besieged Thebes. He -foresaw his own death, and sought by hiding to evade it; but his wife -revealed his hiding-place, and he was forced to join in the siege. As he -fought, a thunderbolt opened a chasm in the earth, into which he fell. - -[559] _Tiresias_: A Theban soothsayer whose change of sex is described -by Ovid (_Metam._ iii.). - -[560] _The dazzling marbles_: Aruns, a Tuscan diviner, is introduced by -Lucan as prophesying great events to come to pass in Rome--the Civil War -and the victories of Cæsar. His haunt was the deserted city of Luna, -situated on the Gulf of Spezia, and under the Carrara mountains -(_Phars._ i. 586). - -[561] _Manto_: A prophetess, a native of Thebes the city of Bacchus, and -daughter of Tiresias.--Here begins a digression on the early history of -Mantua, the native city of Virgil. In his account of the foundation of -it Dante does not agree with Virgil, attributing to a Greek Manto what -his master attributes to an Italian one (_Æn._ x. 199). - -[562] _Benacus_: The ancient Benacus, now known as the Lake of Garda. - -[563] _The Pastors, etc._: About half-way down the western side of the -lake a stream falls into it, one of whose banks, at its mouth, is in the -diocese of Trent, and the other in that of Brescia, while the waters of -the lake are in that of Verona. The three Bishops, standing together, -could give a blessing each to his own diocese. - -[564] _Peschiera_: Where the lake drains into the Mincio. It is still a -great fortress. - -[565] _Without casting lot_; Without consulting the omens, as was usual -when a city was to be named. - -[566] _Casalodi_: Some time in the second half of the thirteenth century -Alberto Casalodi was befooled out of the lordship of Mantua by Pinamonte -Buonacolsi. Benvenuto tells the tale as follows:--Pinamonte was a bold, -ambitious man, with a great troop of armed followers; and, the nobility -being at that time in bad odour with the people at large, he persuaded -the Count Albert that it would be a popular measure to banish the -suspected nobles for a time. Hardly was this done when he usurped the -lordship; and by expelling some of the citizens and putting others of -them to death he greatly thinned the population of the city. - -[567] _All my thoughts, etc._: The reader's patience is certainly abused -by this digression of Virgil's, and Dante himself seems conscious that -it is somewhat ill-timed. - -[568] _The land of Greece, etc._: All the Greeks able to bear arms being -engaged in the Trojan expedition. - -[569] _An augur_: Eurypylus, mentioned in the Second _Æneid_ as being -employed by the Greeks to consult the oracle of Apollo regarding their -return to Greece. From the auspices Calchas had found at what hour they -should set sail for Troy. Eurypylus can be said only figuratively to -have had to do with cutting the cable. - -[570] _Tragedy_: The _Æneid_. Dante defines Comedy as being written in a -style inferior to that of Tragedy, and as having a sad beginning and a -happy ending (Epistle to Can Grande, 10). Elsewhere he allows the comic -poet great licence in the use of common language (_Vulg. El._ ii. 4). By -calling his own poem a Comedy he, as it were, disarms criticism. - -[571] _Michael Scott_: Of Balwearie in Scotland, familiar to English -readers through the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_. He flourished in the -course of the thirteenth century, and made contributions to the -sciences, as they were then deemed, of astrology, alchemy, and -physiognomy. He acted for some time as astrologer to the Emperor -Frederick II., and the tradition of his accomplishments powerfully -affected the Italian imagination for a century after his death. It was -remembered that the terrible Frederick, after being warned by him to -beware of Florence, had died at a place called Firenzuola; and more than -one Italian city preserved with fear and trembling his dark sayings -regarding their fate. Villani frequently quotes his prophecies; and -Boccaccio speaks of him as a great necromancer who had been in Florence. -A commentary of his on Aristotle was printed at Venice in 1496. The -thinness of his flanks may refer to a belief that he could make himself -invisible at will. - -[572] _Guido Bonatti_: Was a Florentine, a tiler by trade, and was -living in 1282. When banished from his own city he took refuge at Forlì -and became astrologer to Guido of Montefeltro (_Inf._ xxvii.), and was -credited with helping his master to a great victory.--_Asdente_: A -cobbler of Parma, whose prophecies were long renowned, lived in the -twelfth century. He is given in the _Convito_ (iv. 16) as an instance -that a man may be very notorious without being truly noble. - -[573] _Herb and image_: Part of the witch's stock in trade. All that was -done to a waxen image of him was suffered by the witch's victim. - -[574] _Cain and the Thorns_: The moon. The belief that the spots in the -moon are caused by Cain standing in it with a bundle of thorns is -referred to at _Parad._ ii. 51. Although it is now the morning of the -Saturday, the 'yesternight' refers to the night of Thursday, when Dante -found some use of the moon in the Forest. The moon is now setting on the -line dividing the hemisphere of Jerusalem, in which they are, from that -of the Mount of Purgatory. According to Dante's scheme of the world, -Purgatory is the true opposite of Jerusalem; and Seville is ninety -degrees from Jerusalem. As it was full moon the night before last, and -the moon is now setting, it is now fully an hour after sunrise. But, as -has already been said, it is not possible to reconcile the astronomical -indications thoroughly with one another.--Virgil serves as clock to -Dante, for they can see nothing of the skies. - - - - -CANTO XXI. - - - Conversing still from bridge to bridge[575] we went; - But what our words I in my Comedy - Care not to tell. The top of the ascent - Holding, we halted the next pit to spy - Of Malebolge, with plaints bootless all: - There, darkness[576] full of wonder met the eye. - As the Venetians[577] in their Arsenal - Boil the tenacious pitch at winter-tide, - To caulk the ships with for repairs that call; - For then they cannot sail; and so, instead, 10 - One builds his bark afresh, one stops with tow - His vessel's ribs, by many a voyage tried; - One hammers at the poop, one at the prow; - Some fashion oars, and others cables twine, - And others at the jib and main sails sew: - So, not by fire, but by an art Divine, - Pitch of thick substance boiled in that low Hell, - And all the banks did as with plaster line. - I saw it, but distinguished nothing well - Except the bubbles by the boiling raised, 20 - Now swelling up and ceasing now to swell. - While down upon it fixedly I gazed, - 'Beware, beware!' my Leader to me said, - And drew me thence close to him. I, amazed, - Turned sharply round, like him who has delayed, - Fain to behold the thing he ought to flee, - Then, losing nerve, grows suddenly afraid, - Nor lingers longer what there is to see; - For a black devil I beheld advance - Over the cliff behind us rapidly. 30 - Ah me, how fierce was he of countenance! - What bitterness he in his gesture put, - As with spread wings he o'er the ground did dance! - Upon his shoulders, prominent and acute, - Was perched a sinner[578] fast by either hip; - And him he held by tendon of the foot. - He from our bridge: 'Ho, Malebranche![579] Grip - An Elder brought from Santa Zita's town:[580] - Stuff him below; myself once more I slip - Back to the place where lack of such is none. 40 - There, save Bonturo, barrates[581] every man, - And No grows Yes that money may be won.' - He shot him down, and o'er the cliff began - To run; nor unchained mastiff o'er the ground, - Chasing a robber, swifter ever ran. - The other sank, then rose with back bent round; - But from beneath the bridge the devils cried: - 'Not here the Sacred Countenance[582] is found, - One swims not here as on the Serchio's[583] tide; - So if thou wouldst not with our grapplers deal 50 - Do not on surface of the pitch abide.' - Then he a hundred hooks[584] was made to feel. - 'Best dance down there,' they said the while to him, - 'Where, if thou canst, thou on the sly mayst steal.' - So scullions by the cooks are set to trim - The caldrons and with forks the pieces steep - Down in the water, that they may not swim. - And the good Master said to me: 'Now creep - Behind a rocky splinter for a screen; - So from their knowledge thou thyself shalt keep. 60 - And fear not thou although with outrage keen - I be opposed, for I am well prepared, - And formerly[585] have in like contest been.' - Then passing from the bridge's crown he fared - To the sixth bank,[586] and when thereon he stood - He needed courage doing what he dared. - In the same furious and tempestuous mood - In which the dogs upon the beggar leap, - Who, halting suddenly, seeks alms or food, - They issued forth from underneath the deep 70 - Vault of the bridge, with grapplers 'gainst him stretched; - But he exclaimed: 'Aloof, and harmless keep! - Ere I by any of your hooks be touched, - Come one of you and to my words give ear; - And then advise you if I should be clutched.' - All cried: 'Let Malacoda then go near;' - On which one moved, the others standing still. - He coming said: 'What will this[587] help him here?' - 'O Malacoda, is it credible - That I am come,' my Master then replied, 80 - 'Secure your opposition to repel, - Without Heaven's will, and fate, upon my side? - Let me advance, for 'tis by Heaven's behest - That I on this rough road another guide.' - Then was his haughty spirit so depressed, - He let his hook drop sudden to his feet, - And, 'Strike him not!' commanded all the rest - My Leader charged me thus: 'Thou, from thy seat - Where 'mid the bridge's ribs thou crouchest low, - Rejoin me now in confidence complete.' 90 - Whereon I to rejoin him was not slow; - And then the devils, crowding, came so near, - I feared they to their paction false might show. - So at Caprona[588] saw I footmen fear, - Spite of their treaty, when a multitude - Of foes received them, crowding front and rear. - With all my body braced I closer stood - To him, my Leader, and intently eyed - The aspect of them, which was far from good. - Lowering their grapplers, 'mong themselves they cried: - 'Shall I now tickle him upon the thigh?' 101 - 'Yea, see thou clip him deftly,' one replied. - The demon who in parley had drawn nigh - Unto my Leader, upon this turned round; - 'Scarmiglione, lay thy weapon by!' - He said; and then to us: 'No way is found - Further along this cliff, because, undone, - All the sixth arch lies ruined on the ground. - But if it please you further to pass on, - Over this rocky ridge advancing climb 110 - To the next rib,[589] where passage may be won. - Yestreen,[590] but five hours later than this time, - Twelve hundred sixty-six years reached an end, - Since the way lost the wholeness of its prime. - Thither I some of mine will straightway send - To see that none peer forth to breathe the air: - Go on with them; you they will not offend. - You, Alichin[591] and Calcabrin, prepare - To move,' he bade; 'Cagnazzo, thou as well; - Guiding the ten, thou, Barbariccia, fare. 120 - With Draghignazzo, Libicocco fell, - Fanged Ciriatto, Graffiacane too, - Set on, mad Rubicant and Farfarel: - Search on all quarters round the boiling glue. - Let these go safe, till at the bridge they be, - Which doth unbroken[592] o'er the caverns go.' - 'Alas, my Master, what is this I see?' - Said I, 'Unguided, let us forward set, - If thou know'st how. I wish no company. - If former caution thou dost not forget, 130 - Dost thou not mark how each his teeth doth grind, - The while toward us their brows are full of threat?' - And he: 'I would not fear should fill thy mind; - Let them grin all they will, and all they can; - 'Tis at the wretches in the pitch confined.' - They wheeled and down the left hand bank began - To march, but first each bit his tongue,[593] and passed - The signal on to him who led the van. - He answered grossly as with trumpet blast. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[575] _From bridge to bridge_: They cross the barrier separating the -Fourth from the Fifth Bolgia, and follow the bridge which spans the -Fifth until they have reached the crown of it. We may infer that the -conversation of Virgil and Dante turned on foreknowledge of the future. - -[576] _Darkness, etc._: The pitch with which the trench of the Bolgia is -filled absorbs most of the scanty light accorded to Malebolge. - -[577] _The Venetians_: But for this picturesque description of the old -Arsenal, and a passing mention of the Rialto in one passage of the -_Paradiso_, and of the Venetian coinage in another, it could not be -gathered from the _Comedy_, with all its wealth of historical and -geographical references, that there was such a place as Venice in the -Italy of Dante. Unlike the statue of Time (_Inf._ xiv.), the Queen of -the Adriatic had her face set eastwards. Her back was turned and her -ears closed as in a proud indifference to the noise of party conflicts -which filled the rest of Italy. - -[578] _A sinner_: This is the only instance in the _Inferno_ of the -arrival of a sinner at his special place of punishment. See _Inf._ v. -15, _note_. - -[579] _Malebranche_: Evil Claws, the name of the devils who have the -sinners of this Bolgia in charge. - -[580] _Santa Zita's town_: Zita was a holy serving-woman of Lucca, who -died some time between 1270 and 1280, and whose miracle-working body is -still preserved in the church of San Frediano. Most probably, although -venerated as a saint, she was not yet canonized at the time Dante writes -of, and there may be a Florentine sneer hidden in the description of -Lucca as her town. Even in Lucca there was some difference of opinion as -to her merits, and a certain unlucky Ciappaconi was pitched into the -Serchio for making fun of the popular enthusiasm about her. See -Philalethes, _Gött. Com._ In Lucca the officials that were called Priors -in Florence, were named Elders. The commentators give a name to this -sinner, but it is only guesswork. - -[581] _Save Bonturo_, _barrates, etc._: It is the barrators, those who -trafficked in offices and sold justice, that are punished in this -Bolgia. The greatest barrator of all in Lucca, say the commentators, was -this Bonturo; but there seems no proof of it, though there is of his -arrogance. He was still living in 1314. - -[582] _The Sacred Countenance_: An image in cedar wood, of Byzantine -workmanship, still preserved and venerated in the cathedral of Lucca. -According to the legend, it was carved from memory by Nicodemus, and -after being a long time lost was found again in the eighth century by an -Italian bishop travelling in Palestine. He brought it to the coast at -Joppa, where it was received by a vessel without sail or oar, which, -with its sacred freight, floated westwards and was next seen at the port -of Luna. All efforts to approach the bark were vain, till the Bishop of -Lucca descended to the seashore, and to him the vessel resigned itself -and suffered him to take the image into his keeping. 'Believe what you -like of all this,' says Benvenuto; 'it is no article of faith.'--The -sinner has come to the surface, bent as if in an attitude of prayer, -when he is met by this taunt. - -[583] _The Serchio_: The stream which flows past Lucca. - -[584] _A hundred hooks_: So many devils with their pronged hooks were -waiting to receive the victim. The punishment of the barrators bears a -relation to their sins. They wrought their evil deeds under all kinds of -veils and excuses, and are now themselves effectually buried out of -sight. The pitch sticks as close to them as bribes ever did to their -fingers. They misused wards and all subject to them, and in their turn -are clawed and torn by their devilish guardians. - -[585] _Formerly, etc._: On the occasion of his previous descent (_Inf._ -ix. 22). - -[586] _The sixth bank_: Dante remains on the crown of the arch -overhanging the pitch-filled moat. Virgil descends from the bridge by -the left hand to the bank on the inner side of the Fifth Bolgia. - -[587] _What will this, etc._: As if he said: What good will this delay -do him in the long-run? - -[588] _At Caprona_: Dante was one of the mounted militia sent by -Florence in 1289 to help the Lucchese against the Pisans, and was -present at the surrender by the Pisan garrison of the Castle of Caprona. -Some make the reference to be to a siege of the same stronghold by the -Pisans in the following year, when the Lucchese garrison, having -surrendered on condition of having their lives spared, were met as they -issued forth with cries of 'Hang them! Hang them!' But of this second -siege it is only a Pisan commentator that speaks. - -[589] _The next rib_: Malacoda informs them that the arch of rock across -the Sixth Bolgia in continuation of that by which they have crossed the -Fifth is in ruins, but that they will find a whole bridge if they keep -to the left hand along the rocky bank on the inner edge of the -pitch-filled moat. But, as appears further on, he is misleading them. It -will be remembered that from the precipice enclosing the Malebolge there -run more than one series of bridges or ribs into the central well of -Inferno. - -[590] _Yestreen, etc._: This is the principal passage in the _Comedy_ -for fixing the date of the journey. It is now, according to the text, -twelve hundred and sixty-six years and a day since the crucifixion. -Turning to the _Convito_, iv. 23, we find Dante giving his reasons for -believing that Jesus, at His death, had just completed His thirty-fourth -year. This brings us to the date of 1300 A.D. But according to Church -tradition the crucifixion happened on the 25th March, and to get -thirty-four years His life must be counted from the incarnation, which -was held to have taken place on the same date, namely the 25th March. It -was in Dante's time optional to reckon from the incarnation or the birth -of Christ. The journey must therefore be taken to have begun on Friday -the 25th March, a fortnight before the Good Friday of 1300; and, -counting strictly from the incarnation, on the first day of 1301--the -first day of the new century. So we find Boccaccio in his unfinished -commentary saying in _Inf._ iii. that it will appear from Canto xxi. -that Dante began his journey in MCCCI.--The hour is now five hours -before that at which the earthquake happened which took place at the -death of Jesus. This is held by Dante (_Convito_ iv. 23), who professes -to follow the account by Saint Luke, to have been at the sixth hour, -that is, at noon; thus the time is now seven in the morning. - -[591] _Alichino, etc._: The names of the devils are all descriptive: -Alichino, for instance, is the Swooper; but in this and the next Canto -we have enough of the horrid crew without considering too closely how -they are called. - -[592] _Unbroken_: Malacoda repeats his lie. - -[593] _Each bit his tongue, etc._: The demons, aware of the cheat played -by Malacoda, show their devilish humour by making game of Virgil and -Dante.--Benvenuto is amazed that a man so involved in his own thoughts -as Dante was, should have been such a close observer of low life as this -passage shows him. He is sure that he laughed to himself as he wrote the -Canto. - - - - -CANTO XXII. - - - Horsemen I've seen in march across the field, - Hastening to charge, or, answering muster, stand, - And sometimes too when forced their ground to yield; - I have seen skirmishers upon your land, - O Aretines![594] and those on foray sent; - With trumpet and with bell[595] to sound command - Have seen jousts run and well-fought tournament, - With drum, and signal from the castle shown, - And foreign music with familiar blent; - But ne'er by blast on such a trumpet blown 10 - Beheld I horse or foot to motion brought, - Nor ship by star or landmark guided on. - With the ten demons moved we from the spot; - Ah, cruel company! but 'with the good - In church, and in the tavern with the sot.' - Still to the pitch was my attention glued - Fully to see what in the Bolgia lay, - And who were in its burning mass imbrued. - As when the dolphins vaulted backs display, - Warning to mariners they should prepare 20 - To trim their vessel ere the storm makes way; - So, to assuage the pain he had to bear, - Some wretch would show his back above the tide, - Then swifter plunge than lightnings cleave the air. - And as the frogs close to the marsh's side - With muzzles thrust out of the water stand, - While feet and bodies carefully they hide; - So stood the sinners upon every hand. - But on beholding Barbariccia nigh - Beneath the bubbles[596] disappeared the band. 30 - I saw what still my heart is shaken by: - One waiting, as it sometimes comes to pass - That one frog plunges, one at rest doth lie; - And Graffiacan, who nearest to him was, - Him upward drew, clutching his pitchy hair: - To me he bore the look an otter has. - I of their names[597] ere this was well aware, - For I gave heed unto the names of all - When they at first were chosen. 'Now prepare, - And, Rubicante, with thy talons fall 40 - Upon him and flay well,' with many cries - And one consent the accursed ones did call. - I said: 'O Master, if in any wise - Thou canst, find out who is the wretched wight - Thus at the mercy of his enemies.' - Whereon my Guide drew full within his sight, - Asking him whence he came, and he replied: - 'In kingdom of Navarre[598] I first saw light. - Me servant to a lord my mother tied; - Through her I from a scoundrel sire did spring, 50 - Waster of goods and of himself beside. - As servant next to Thiebault,[599] righteous king, - I set myself to ply barratorship; - And in this heat discharge my reckoning.' - And Ciriatto, close upon whose lip - On either side a boar-like tusk did stand, - Made him to feel how one of them could rip. - The mouse had stumbled on the wild cat band; - But Barbariccia locked him in embrace, - And, 'Off while I shall hug him!' gave command. 60 - Round to my Master then he turned his face: - 'Ask more of him if more thou wouldest know, - While he against their fury yet finds grace.' - My Leader asked: 'Declare now if below - The pitch 'mong all the guilty there lies here - A Latian?'[600] He replied: 'Short while ago - From one[601] I parted who to them lived near; - And would that I might use him still for shield, - Then hook or claw I should no longer fear,' - Said Libicocco: 'Too much grace we yield.' 70 - And in the sinner's arm he fixed his hook, - And from it clean a fleshy fragment peeled. - But seeing Draghignazzo also took - Aim at his legs, the leader of the Ten - Turned swiftly round on them with angry look. - On this they were a little quieted; then - Of him who still gazed on his wound my Guide - Without delay demanded thus again: - 'Who was it whom, in coming to the side, - Thou say'st thou didst do ill to leave behind?' 80 - 'Gomita of Gallura,'[602] he replied, - 'A vessel full of fraud of every kind, - Who, holding in his power his master's foes, - So used them him they bear in thankful mind; - For, taking bribes, he let slip all of those, - He says; and he in other posts did worse, - And as a chieftain 'mong barrators rose. - Don Michael Zanche[603] doth with him converse, - From Logodoro, and with endless din - They gossip[604] of Sardinian characters. 90 - But look, ah me! how yonder one doth grin. - More would I say, but that I am afraid - He is about to claw me on the skin.' - To Farfarel the captain turned his head, - For, as about to swoop, he rolled his eye, - And, 'Cursed hawk, preserve thy distance!' said. - 'If ye would talk with, or would closer spy,' - The frighted wretch began once more to say, - 'Tuscans or Lombards, I will bring them nigh. - But let the Malebranche first give way, 100 - That of their vengeance they may not have fear, - And I to this same place where now I stay - For me, who am but one, will bring seven near - When I shall whistle as we use to do - Whenever on the surface we appear.' - On this Cagnazzo up his muzzle threw, - Shaking his head and saying: 'Hear the cheat - He has contrived, to throw himself below.' - Then he who in devices was complete: - 'Far too malicious, in good sooth,' replied, 110 - 'When for my friends I plan a sorer fate.' - This, Alichin withstood not but denied - The others' counsel,[605] saying: 'If thou fling - Thyself hence, thee I strive not to outstride. - But o'er the pitch I'll dart upon the wing. - Leave we the ridge,[606] and be the bank a shield; - And see if thou canst all of us outspring.' - O Reader, hear a novel trick revealed. - All to the other side turned round their eyes, - He first[607] who slowest was the boon to yield. 120 - In choice of time the Navarrese was wise; - Taking firm stand, himself he forward flung, - Eluding thus their hostile purposes. - Then with compunction each of them was stung, - But he the most[608] whose slackness made them fail; - Therefore he started, 'Caught!' upon his tongue. - But little it bested, nor could prevail - His wings 'gainst fear. Below the other went, - While he with upturned breast aloft did sail. - And as the falcon, when, on its descent, 130 - The wild duck suddenly dives out of sight, - Returns outwitted back, and malcontent; - To be befooled filled Calcabrin with spite. - Hovering he followed, wishing in his mind - The wretch escaping should leave cause for fight. - When the barrator vanished, from behind - He on his comrade with his talons fell - And clawed him, 'bove the moat with him entwined. - The other was a spar-hawk terrible - To claw in turn; together then the two 140 - Plunged in the boiling pool. The heat full well - How to unlock their fierce embraces knew; - But yet they had no power[609] to rise again, - So were their wings all plastered o'er with glue. - Then Barbariccia, mourning with his train, - Caused four to fly forth to the other side - With all their grapplers. Swift their flight was ta'en. - Down to the place from either hand they glide, - Reaching their hooks to those who were limed fast, - And now beneath the scum were being fried. 150 - And from them thus engaged we onward passed. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[594] _O Aretines_: Dante is mentioned as having taken part in the -campaign of 1289 against Arezzo, in the course of which the battle of -Campaldino was fought. But the text can hardly refer to what he -witnessed in that campaign, as the field of it was almost confined to -the Casentino, and little more than a formal entrance was made on the -true Aretine territory; while the chronicles make no mention of jousts -and forays. There is, however, no reason to think but that Dante was -engaged in the attack made by Florence on the Ghibeline Arezzo in the -early summer of the preceding year. In a few days the Florentines and -their allies had taken above forty castles and strongholds, and -devastated the enemy's country far and near; and, though unable to take -the capital, they held all kinds of warlike games in front of it. Dante -was then twenty-three years of age, and according to the Florentine -constitution of that period would, in a full muster of the militia, be -required to serve as a cavalier without pay, and providing his own horse -and arms. - -[595] _Bell_: The use of the bell for martial music was common in the -Italy of the thirteenth century. The great war-bell of the Florentines -was carried with them into the field. - -[596] _Beneath the bubbles, etc._: As the barrators took toll of the -administration of justice and appointment to offices, something always -sticking to their palms, so now they are plunged in the pitch; and as -they denied to others what should be the common blessing of justice, now -they cannot so much as breathe the air without paying dearly for it to -the demons. - -[597] _Their names_: The names of all the demons. All of them urge -Rubicante, the 'mad red devil,' to flay the victim, shining and sleek -with the hot pitch, who is held fast by Graffiacane. - -[598] _In kingdom of Navarre, etc._: The commentators give the name of -John Paul to this shade, but all that is known of him is found in the -text. - -[599] _Thiebault_: King of Navarre and second of that name. He -accompanied his father-in-law, Saint Louis, to Tunis, and died on his -way back, in 1270. - -[600] _A Latian_: An Italian. - -[601] _From one, etc._: A Sardinian. The barrator prolongs his answer so -as to procure a respite from the fangs of his tormentors. - -[602] _Gomita of Gallura_: 'Friar Gomita' was high in favour with Nino -Visconti (_Purg._ viii. 53), the lord of Gallura, one of the provinces -into which Sardinia was divided under the Pisans. At last, after bearing -long with him, the 'gentle Judge Nino' hanged Gomita for setting -prisoners free for bribes. - -[603] _Don Michael Zanche_: Enzo, King of Sardinia, married Adelasia, -the lady of Logodoro, one of the four Sardinian judgedoms or provinces. -Of this province Zanche, seneschal to Enzo, acquired the government -during the long imprisonment of his master, or upon his death in 1273. -Zanche's daughter was married to Branca d'Oria, by whom Zanche was -treacherously slain in 1275 (_Inf._ xxxiii. 137). There seems to be -nothing extant to support the accusation implied in the text. - -[604] _They gossip, etc._: Zanche's experience of Sardinia was of an -earlier date than Gomita's. It has been claimed for, or charged against, -the Sardinians, that more than other men they delight in gossip touching -their native country. These two, if it can be supposed that, plunged -among and choked with pitch, they still cared for Sardinian talk, would -find material enough in the troubled history of their land. In 1300 it -belonged partly to Genoa and partly to Pisa. - -[605] _The others' counsel_: Alichino, confident in his own powers, is -willing to risk an experiment with the sinner. The other devils count a -bird in the hand worth two in the bush. - -[606] _The ridge_: Not the crown of the great rocky barrier between the -Fifth and the Sixth Bolgias, for it is not on that the devils are -standing; neither are they allowed to pass over it (_Inf._ xxiii. 55). -We are to figure them to ourselves as standing on a ledge running -between the fosse and the foot of the enclosing rocky steep--a pathway -continued under the bridges and all round the Bolgia for their -convenience as guardians of it. The bank adjoining the pitch will serve -as a screen for the sinner if the demons retire to the other side of -this ledge. - -[607] _He first, etc._: Cagnazzo. See line 106. - -[608] _He the most, etc._: Alichino, whose confidence in his agility had -led to the outwitting of the band. - -[609] _No power_: The foolish ineptitude of the devils for anything -beyond their special function of hooking up and flaying those who appear -on the surface of the pitch, and their irrational fierce playfulness as -of tiger cubs, convey a vivid impression of the limits set to their -diabolical power, and at the same time heighten the sense of what -Dante's feeling of insecurity must have been while in such inhuman -companionship. - - - - -CANTO XXIII. - - - Silent, alone, not now with company - We onward went, one first and one behind, - As Minor Friars[610] use to make their way. - On Æsop's fable[611] wholly was my mind - Intent, by reason of that contest new-- - The fable where the frog and mouse we find; - For _Mo_ and _Issa_[612] are not more of hue - Than like the fable shall the fact appear, - If but considered with attention due. - And as from one thought springs the next, so here 10 - Out of my first arose another thought, - Until within me doubled was my fear. - For thus I judged: Seeing through us[613] were brought - Contempt upon them, hurt, and sore despite, - They needs must be to deep vexation wrought. - If anger to malevolence unite, - Then will they us more cruelly pursue - Than dog the hare which almost feels its bite. - All my hair bristled, I already knew, - With terror when I spake: 'O Master, try 20 - To hide us quick' (and back I turned to view - What lay behind), 'for me they terrify, - These Malebranche following us; from dread - I almost fancy I can feel them nigh.' - And he: 'Were I a mirror backed with lead - I should no truer glass that form of thine, - Than all thy thought by mine is answered. - For even now thy thoughts accord with mine, - Alike in drift and featured with one face; - And to suggest one counsel they combine. 30 - If the right bank slope downward at this place, - To the next Bolgia[614] offering us a way, - Swiftly shall we evade the imagined chase.' - Ere he completely could his purpose say, - I saw them with their wings extended wide, - Close on us; as of us to make their prey. - Then quickly was I snatched up by my Guide: - Even as a mother when, awaked by cries, - She sees the flames are kindling at her side, - Delaying not, seizes her child and flies; 40 - Careful for him her proper danger mocks, - Nor even with one poor shift herself supplies. - And he, stretched out upon the flinty rocks, - Himself unto the precipice resigned - Which one side of the other Bolgia blocks. - A swifter course ne'er held a stream confined, - That it may turn a mill, within its race, - Where near the buckets 'tis the most declined - Than was my Master's down that rock's sheer face; - Nor seemed I then his comrade, as we sped, 50 - But like a son locked in a sire's embrace. - And barely had his feet struck on the bed - Of the low ground, when they were seen to stand - Upon the crest, no more a cause of dread.[615] - For Providence supreme, who so had planned - In the Fifth Bolgia they should minister, - Them wholly from departure thence had banned. - 'Neath us we saw a painted people fare, - Weeping as on their way they circled slow, - Crushed by fatigue to look at, and despair. 60 - Cloaks had they on with hoods pulled down full low - Upon their eyes, and fashioned, as it seemed, - Like those which at Cologne[616] for monks they sew. - The outer face was gilt so that it gleamed; - Inside was all of lead, of such a weight - Frederick's[617] to these had been but straw esteemed. - O weary robes for an eternal state! - With them we turned to the left hand once more, - Intent upon their tears disconsolate. - But those folk, wearied with the loads they bore, 70 - So slowly crept that still new company - Was ours at every footfall on the floor. - Whence to my Guide I said: 'Do thou now try - To find some one by name or action known, - And as we go on all sides turn thine eye.' - And one, who recognised the Tuscan tone, - Called from behind us: 'Halt, I you entreat - Who through the air obscure are hastening on; - Haply in me thou what thou seek'st shalt meet.' - Whereon my Guide turned round and said: 'Await, - And keep thou time with pacing of his feet.' 81 - I stood, and saw two manifesting great - Desire to join me, by their countenance; - But their loads hampered them and passage strait.[618] - And, when arrived, me with an eye askance[619] - They gazed on long time, but no word they spoke; - Then, to each other turned, held thus parlance: - 'His heaving throat[620] proves him of living folk. - If they are of the dead, how could they gain - To walk uncovered by the heavy cloak?' 90 - Then to me: 'Tuscan, who dost now attain - To the college of the hypocrites forlorn, - To tell us who thou art show no disdain.' - And I to them: 'I was both bred and born - In the great city by fair Arno's stream, - And wear the body I have always worn. - But who are ye, whose suffering supreme - Makes tears, as I behold, to flood the cheek; - And what your mode of pain that thus doth gleam?' - 'Ah me, the yellow mantles,' one to speak 100 - Began, 'are all of lead so thick, its weight - Maketh the scales after this manner creak. - We, Merry Friars[621] of Bologna's state, - I Catalano, Loderingo he, - Were by thy town together designate, - As for the most part one is used to be, - To keep the peace within it; and around - Gardingo,[622] what we were men still may see.' - I made beginning: 'Friars, your profound--' - But said no more, on suddenly seeing there 110 - One crucified by three stakes to the ground, - Who, when he saw me, writhed as in despair, - Breathing into his beard with heavy sigh. - And Friar Catalan, of this aware, - Said: 'He thus fixed, on whom thou turn'st thine eye, - Counselled the Pharisees that it behoved - One man as victim[623] for the folk should die. - Naked, thou seest, he lies, and ne'er removed - From where, set 'cross the path, by him the weight - Of every one that passes by is proved. 120 - And his wife's father shares an equal fate, - With others of the Council, in this fosse; - For to the Jews they proved seed reprobate.' - Meanwhile at him thus stretched upon the cross - Virgil,[624] I saw, displayed astonishment-- - At his mean exile and eternal loss. - And then this question to the Friars he sent: - 'Be not displeased, but, if ye may, avow - If on the right[625] hand there lies any vent - By which we, both of us,[626] from hence may go, 130 - Nor need the black angelic company - To come to help us from this valley low.' - 'Nearer than what thou think'st,' he made reply, - 'A rib there runs from the encircling wall,[627] - The cruel vales in turn o'erarching high; - Save that at this 'tis rent and ruined all. - Ye can climb upward o'er the shattered heap - Where down the side the piled-up fragments fall.' - His head bent down a while my Guide did keep, - Then said: 'He warned us[628] in imperfect wise, 140 - Who sinners with his hook doth clutch and steep.' - The Friar: 'At Bologna[629] many a vice - I heard the Devil charged with, and among - The rest that, false, he father is of lies.' - Then onward moved my Guide with paces long, - And some slight shade of anger on his face. - I with him parted from the burdened throng, - Stepping where those dear feet had left their trace. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[610] _Minor Friars_: In the early years of their Order the Franciscans -went in couples upon their journeys, not abreast but one behind the -other. - -[611] _Æsop's fable_: This fable, mistakenly attributed to Æsop, tells -of how a frog enticed a mouse into a pond, and how they were then both -devoured by a kite. To discover the aptness of the simile would scarcely -be reward enough for the continued mental effort Dante enjoins. So much -was everything Greek or Roman then held in reverence, that the mention -even of Æsop is held to give dignity to the page. - -[612] _Mo_ and _Issa_: Two words for _now_. - -[613] _Through us_: The quarrel among the fiends arose from Dante's -insatiable desire to confer with 'Tuscan or Lombard.' - -[614] _To the next Bolgia_: The Sixth. They are now on the top of the -circular ridge that divides it from the Fifth. From the construction of -Malebolge the ridge is deeper on the inner side than on that up which -they have travelled from the pitch. - -[615] _No more a cause of dread_: There seems some incongruity between -Virgil's dread of these smaller devils and the ease with which he cowed -Minos, Charon, and Pluto. But his character gains in human interest the -more he is represented as sympathising with Dante in his terrors; and in -this particular case the confession of fellow-feeling prepares the way -for the beautiful passage which follows it (line 38, etc.), one full of -an almost modern tenderness. - -[616] _Cologne_: Some make it Clugny, the great Benedictine monastery; -but all the old commentators and most of the mss. read Cologne. All that -the text necessarily carries is that the cloaks had great hoods. If, in -addition, a reproach of clumsiness is implied, it would agree well -enough with the Italian estimate of German people and things. - -[617] _Frederick's, etc._: The Emperor Frederick II.; but that he used -any torture of leaden sheets seems to be a fabrication of his enemies. - -[618] _Passage strait_: Through the crowd of shades, all like themselves -weighed down by the leaden cloaks. There is nothing in all literature -like this picture of the heavily-burdened shades. At first sight it -seems to be little of a torture compared with what we have already seen, -and yet by simple touch after touch an impression is created of the -intolerable weariness of the victims. As always, too, the punishment -answers to the sin. The hypocrites made a fair show in the flesh, and -now their mantles which look like gold are only of base lead. On earth -they were of a sad countenance, trying to seem better than they were, -and the load which to deceive others they voluntarily assumed in life is -now replaced by a still heavier weight, and one they cannot throw off if -they would. The choice of garb conveys an obvious charge of hypocrisy -against the Friars, then greatly fallen away from the purity of their -institution, whether Franciscans or Dominicans. - -[619] _An eye askance_: They cannot turn their heads. - -[620] _His heaving throat_: In Purgatory Dante is known for a mortal by -his casting a shadow. Here he is known to be of flesh and blood by the -act of respiration; yet, as appears from line 113, the shades, too, -breathe as well as perform other functions of living bodies. At least -they seem so to do, but this is all only in appearance. They only seem -to be flesh and blood, having no weight, casting no shadow, and drawing -breath in a way of their own. Dante, as has been said (_Inf._ vi. 36), -is hard put to it to make them subject to corporal pains and yet be only -shadows. - -[621] _Merry Friars_: Knights of the Order of Saint Mary, instituted by -Urban IV. in 1261. Whether the name of Frati Godenti which they here -bear was one of reproach or was simply descriptive of the easy rule -under which they lived, is not known. Married men might, under certain -conditions, enter the Order. The members were to hold themselves aloof -from public office, and were to devote themselves to the defence of the -weak and the promotion of justice and religion. The two monkish -cavaliers of the text were in 1266 brought to Florence as Podestas, the -Pope himself having urged them to go. There is much uncertainty as to -the part they played in Florence, but none as to the fact of their rule -having been highly distasteful to the Florentines, or as to the other -fact, that in Florence they grew wealthy. The Podesta, or chief -magistrate, was always a well-born foreigner. Probably some monkish rule -or custom forbade either Catalano or Loderingo to leave the monastery -singly. - -[622] _Gardingo_: A quarter of Florence, in which many palaces were -destroyed about the time of the Podestaship of the Frati. - -[623] _One man as victim_: _St. John_ xi. 50. Caiaphas and Annas, with -the Scribes and Pharisees who persecuted Jesus to the death, are the -vilest hypocrites of all. They lie naked across the path, unburdened by -the leaden cloak, it is true, but only that they may feel the more -keenly the weight of the punishment of all the hypocrites of the world. - -[624] _Virgil_: On Virgil's earlier journey through Inferno Caiaphas and -the others were not here, and he wonders as at something out of a world -to him unknown. - -[625] _On the right_: As they are moving round the Bolgia to the left, -the rocky barrier between them and the Seventh Bolgia is on their right. - -[626] _We, both of us_: Dante, still in the body, as well as Virgil, the -shade. - -[627] _The encircling wall_: That which encloses all the Malebolge. - -[628] _He warned us_: Malacoda (_Inf._ xxi. 109) had assured him that -the next rib of rock ran unbroken across all the Bolgias, but it too, -like all the other bridges, proves to have been, at the time of the -earthquake, shattered where it crossed this gulf of the hypocrites. The -earthquake told most on this Bolgia, because the death of Christ and the -attendant earthquake were, in a sense, caused by the hypocrisy of -Caiaphas and the rest. - -[629] _At Bologna_: Even in Inferno the Merry Friar must have his joke. -He is a gentleman, but a bit of a scholar too; and the University of -Bologna is to him what Marischal College was to Captain Dalgetty. - - - - -CANTO XXIV. - - - In season of the new year, when the sun - Beneath Aquarius[630] warms again his hair, - And somewhat on the nights the days have won; - When on the ground the hoar-frost painteth fair - A mimic image of her sister white-- - But soon her brush of colour is all bare-- - The clown, whose fodder is consumed outright, - Rises and looks abroad, and, all the plain - Beholding glisten, on his thigh doth smite. - Returned indoors, like wretch that seeks in vain 10 - What he should do, restless he mourns his case; - But hope revives when, looking forth again, - He sees the earth anew has changed its face. - Then with his crook he doth himself provide, - And straightway doth his sheep to pasture chase: - So at my Master was I terrified, - His brows beholding troubled; nor more slow - To where I ailed[631] the plaster was applied. - For when the broken bridge[632] we stood below - My Guide turned to me with the expression sweet 20 - Which I beneath the mountain learned to know. - His arms he opened, after counsel meet - Held with himself, and, scanning closely o'er - The fragments first, he raised me from my feet; - And like a man who, working, looks before, - With foresight still on that in front bestowed, - Me to the summit of a block he bore - And then to me another fragment showed, - Saying: 'By this thou now must clamber on; - But try it first if it will bear thy load.' 30 - The heavy cowled[633] this way could ne'er have gone, - For hardly we, I holpen, he so light, - Could clamber up from shattered stone to stone. - And but that on the inner bank the height - Of wall is not so great, I say not he, - But for myself I had been vanquished quite. - But Malebolge[634] to the cavity - Of the deep central pit is planned to fall; - Hence every Bolgia in its turn must be - High on the out, low on the inner wall; 40 - So to the summit we attained at last, - Whence breaks away the topmost stone[635] of all. - My lungs were so with breathlessness harassed, - The summit won, I could no further go; - And, hardly there, me on the ground I cast - 'Well it befits that thou shouldst from thee throw - All sloth,' the Master said; 'for stretched in down - Or under awnings none can glory know. - And he who spends his life nor wins renown - Leaves in the world no more enduring trace 50 - Than smoke in air, or foam on water blown. - Therefore arise; o'ercome thy breathlessness - By force of will, victor in every fight - When not subservient to the body base. - Of stairs thou yet must climb a loftier flight:[636] - 'Tis not enough to have ascended these. - Up then and profit if thou hear'st aright.' - Rising I feigned to breathe with greater ease - Than what I felt, and spake: 'Now forward plod, - For with my courage now my strength agrees.' 60 - Up o'er the rocky rib we held our road; - And rough it was and difficult and strait, - And steeper far[637] than that we earlier trod. - Speaking I went, to hide my wearied state, - When from the neighbouring moat a voice we heard - Which seemed ill fitted to articulate. - Of what it said I knew not any word, - Though on the arch[638] that vaults the moat set high; - But he who spake appeared by anger stirred. - Though I bent downward yet my eager eye, 70 - So dim the depth, explored it all in vain; - I then: 'O Master, to that bank draw nigh, - And let us by the wall descent obtain, - Because I hear and do not understand, - And looking down distinguish nothing plain.' - 'My sole reply to thee,' he answered bland, - 'Is to perform; for it behoves,' he said, - 'With silent act to answer just demand.' - Then we descended from the bridge's head,[639] - Where with the eighth bank is its junction wrought; 80 - And full beneath me was the Bolgia spread. - And I perceived that hideously 'twas fraught - With serpents; and such monstrous forms they bore, - Even now my blood is curdled at the thought. - Henceforth let sandy Libya boast no more! - Though she breed hydra, snake that crawls or flies, - Twy-headed, or fine-speckled, no such store - Of plagues, nor near so cruel, she supplies, - Though joined to all the land of Ethiop, - And that which by the Red Sea waters lies. 90 - 'Midst this fell throng and dismal, without hope - A naked people ran, aghast with fear-- - No covert for them and no heliotrope.[640] - Their hands[641] were bound by serpents at their rear, - Which in their reins for head and tail did get - A holding-place: in front they knotted were. - And lo! to one who on our side was set - A serpent darted forward, him to bite - At where the neck is by the shoulders met. - Nor _O_ nor _I_ did any ever write 100 - More quickly than he kindled, burst in flame, - And crumbled all to ashes. And when quite - He on the earth a wasted heap became, - The ashes[642] of themselves together rolled, - Resuming suddenly their former frame. - Thus, as by mighty sages we are told, - The Phoenix[643] dies, and then is born again, - When it is close upon five centuries old. - In all its life it eats not herb nor grain, - But only tears that from frankincense flow; 110 - It, for a shroud, sweet nard and myrrh contain. - And as the man who falls and knows not how, - By force of demons stretched upon the ground, - Or by obstruction that makes life run low, - When risen up straight gazes all around - In deep confusion through the anguish keen - He suffered from, and stares with sighs profound: - So was the sinner, when arisen, seen. - Justice of God, how are thy terrors piled, - Showering in vengeance blows thus big with teen! 120 - My Guide then asked of him how he was styled. - Whereon he said: 'From Tuscany I rained, - Not long ago, into this gullet wild. - From bestial life, not human, joy I gained, - Mule that I was; me, Vanni Fucci,[644] brute, - Pistoia, fitting den, in life contained.' - I to my Guide: 'Bid him not budge a foot, - And ask[645] what crime has plunged him here below. - In rage and blood I knew him dissolute.' - The sinner heard, nor insincere did show, 130 - But towards me turned his face and eke his mind, - With spiteful shame his features all aglow; - Then said: 'It pains me more thou shouldst me find - And catch me steeped in all this misery, - Than when the other life I left behind. - What thou demandest I can not deny: - I'm plunged[646] thus low because the thief I played - Within the fairly furnished sacristy; - And falsely to another's charge 'twas laid. - Lest thou shouldst joy[647] such sight has met thy view - If e'er these dreary regions thou evade, 141 - Give ear and hearken to my utterance true: - The Neri first out of Pistoia fail, - Her laws and parties Florence shapes anew; - Mars draws a vapour out of Magra's vale, - Which black and threatening clouds accompany: - Then bursting in a tempest terrible - Upon Piceno shall the war run high; - The mist by it shall suddenly be rent, - And every Bianco[648] smitten be thereby: 150 - And I have told thee that thou mayst lament.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[630] _Aquarius_: The sun is in the constellation of Aquarius from the -end of January till the end of February; and already, say in the middle -of February, the day is nearly as long as the night. - -[631] _Where I ailed, etc._: As the peasant is in despair at seeing the -earth white with what he thinks is snow, so was Dante at the signs of -trouble on Virgil's face. He has mistaken anger at the cheat for -perplexity as to how they are to escape from the Bolgia; and his -Master's smile is grateful and reassuring to him as the spectacle of the -green earth to the despairing shepherd. - -[632] _The broken bridge_: They are about to escape from the bottom of -the Sixth Bolgia by climbing the wall between it and the Seventh, at the -point where the confused fragments of the bridge Friar Catalano told -them of (_Inf._ xxiii. 133) lie piled up against the wall, and yield -something of a practicable way. - -[633] _The heavy cowled_: He finds his illustration on the spot, his -mind being still full of the grievously burdened hypocrites. - -[634] _But Malebolge, etc._: Each Bolgia in turn lies at a lower level -than the one before it, and consequently the inner side of each dividing -ridge or wall is higher than the outer; or, to put it otherwise, in each -Bolgia the wall they come to last--that nearest the centre of the -Inferno, is lower than that they first reach--the one enclosing the -Bolgia. - -[635] _The topmost stone_: The stone that had formed the beginning of -the arch at this end of it. - -[636] _A loftier flight_: When he ascends the Mount of Purgatory. - -[637] _Steeper far, etc._: Rougher and steeper than the rib of rock they -followed till they had crossed the Fifth Bolgia. They are now travelling -along a different spoke of the wheel. - -[638] _The arch, etc._: He has gone on hiding his weariness till he is -on the top of the arch that overhangs the Seventh Bolgia--that in which -thieves are punished. - -[639] _Front the bridge's head_: Further on they climb up again (_Inf._ -xxvi. 13) by the projecting stones which now supply them with the means -of descent. It is a disputed point how far they do descend. Clearly it -is further than merely from the bridge to the lower level of the wall -dividing the Seventh from the Eighth Bolgia; but not so far as to the -ground of the moat. Most likely the stones jut forth at the angle formed -by the junction of the bridge and the rocky wall. On one of the lowest -of these they find a standing-place whence they can see clearly what is -in the Bolgia. - -[640] _Heliotrope_: A stone supposed to make the bearer of it invisible. - -[641] _Their hands, etc._: The sinners in this Bolgia are the thieves, -not the violent robbers and highwaymen but those crime involves a -betrayal of trust. After all their cunning thefts they are naked now; -and, though here is nothing to steal, hands are firmly bound behind -them. - -[642] _The ashes, etc._: The sufferings of the thieves, if looked -closely into, will be found appropriate to their sins. They would fain -but cannot steal themselves away, and in addition to the constant terror -of being found out they are subject to pains the essence of which -consists in the deprivation--the theft from them--of their unsubstantial -bodies, which are all that they now have to lose. In the case of this -victim the deprivation is only temporary. - -[643] _The Phoenix_: Dante here borrows very directly from Ovid -(_Metam._ xv.). - -[644] _Vanni Fucci_: Natural son of a Pistoiese noble and a poet of some -merit, who bore a leading part in the ruthless feuds of Blacks and -Whites which distracted Pistoia towards the close of the thirteenth -century. - -[645] _And ask, etc._: Dante wishes to find out why Fucci is placed -among the thieves, and not in the circle of the violent. The question is -framed so as to compel confession of a crime for which the sinner had -not been condemned in life; and he flushes with rage at being found -among the cowardly thieves. - -[646] _I'm plunged, etc._: Fucci was concerned in the theft of treasure -from the Cathedral Church of St. James at Pistoia. Accounts vary as to -the circumstances under which the crime was committed, and as to who -suffered for it. Neither is it certainly known when Fucci died, though -his recent arrival in the Bolgia agrees with the view that he was still -active on the side of the Blacks in the last year of the century. In the -fierceness of his retort to Dante we have evidence of their old -acquaintance and old enmity. - -[647] _Lest thou shouldst joy_: Vanni, a _Nero_ or Black, takes his -revenge for being found here by Dante, who was, as he knew, associated -with the _Bianchi_ or Whites, by prophesying an event full of disaster -to these. - -[648] _Every Bianco, etc._: The Blacks, according to Villani (viii. 45), -were driven from Pistoia in May 1301. They took refuge in Florence, -where their party, in the following November under the protection of -Charles of Valois, finally gained the upper hand, and began to persecute -and expel the Whites, among whom was Dante. Mars, the god of war, or, -more probably, the planet of war, draws a vapour from the valley of the -Magra, a small stream which flows into the Mediterranean on the northern -confine of Tuscany. This vapour is said to signify Moroello Malaspina, a -noble of that district and an active leader of the Blacks, who here -figure as murky clouds. The Campo Piceno is the country west of Pistoia. -There Moroello bursts on his foes like a lightning-flash out of its -cloud. This seems to refer to a pitched battle that should have happened -soon after the Blacks recovered their strength; but the chroniclers tell -of none such, though some of the commentators do. The fortress of -Seravalle was taken from the Pistoiese, it is true, in 1302, and -Moroello is said to have been the leader of the force which starved it -into submission. He was certainly present at the great siege of Pistoia -in 1305, when the citizens suffered the last rigours of famine.--This -prophecy by Fucci recalls those by Farinata and Ciacco. - - - - -CANTO XXV. - - - The robber,[649] when his words were ended so, - Made both the figs and lifted either fist, - Shouting: 'There, God! for them at thee I throw.' - Then were the snakes my friends; for one 'gan twist - And coiled itself around the sinner's throat, - As if to say: 'Now would I have thee whist.' - Another seized his arms and made a knot, - Clinching itself upon them in such wise - He had no power to move them by a jot. - Pistoia![650] thou, Pistoia, shouldst devise 10 - To burn thyself to ashes, since thou hast - Outrun thy founders in iniquities. - The blackest depths of Hell through which I passed - Showed me no soul 'gainst God so filled with spite, - No, not even he who down Thebes' wall[651] was cast. - He spake no further word, but turned to flight; - And I beheld a Centaur raging sore - Come shouting: 'Of the ribald give me sight!' - I scarce believe Maremma[652] yieldeth more - Snakes of all kinds than what composed the load 20 - Which on his back, far as our form, he bore. - Behind his nape, with pinions spread abroad, - A dragon couchant on his shoulders lay - To set on fire whoever bars his road. - 'This one is Cacus,'[653] did my Master say, - 'Who underneath the rock of Aventine - Watered a pool with blood day after day. - Not with his brethren[654] runs he in the line, - Because of yore the treacherous theft he wrought - Upon the neighbouring wealthy herd of kine: 30 - Whence to his crooked course an end was brought - 'Neath Hercules' club, which on him might shower down - A hundred blows; ere ten he suffered nought.' - While this he said, the other had passed on; - And under us three spirits forward pressed - Of whom my Guide and I had nothing known - But that: 'Who are ye?' they made loud request. - Whereon our tale[655] no further could proceed; - And toward them wholly we our wits addressed. - I recognised them not, but gave good heed; 40 - Till, as it often haps in such a case, - To name another, one discovered need, - Saying: 'Now where stopped Cianfa[656] in the race?' - Then, that my Guide might halt and hearken well, - On chin[657] and nose I did my finger place. - If, Reader, to believe what now I tell - Thou shouldst be slow, I wonder not, for I - Who saw it all scarce find it credible. - While I on them my brows kept lifted high - A serpent, which had six feet, suddenly flew 50 - At one of them and held him bodily. - Its middle feet about his paunch it drew, - And with the two in front his arms clutched fast, - And bit one cheek and the other through and through. - Its hinder feet upon his thighs it cast, - Thrusting its tail between them till behind, - Distended o'er his reins, it upward passed. - The ivy to a tree could never bind - Itself so firmly as this dreadful beast - Its members with the other's intertwined. 60 - Each lost the colour that it once possessed, - And closely they, like heated wax, unite, - The former hue of neither manifest: - Even so up o'er papyrus,[658] when alight, - Before the flame there spreads a colour dun, - Not black as yet, though from it dies the white. - The other two meanwhile were looking on, - Crying: 'Agnello, how art thou made new! - Thou art not twain, and yet no longer one.' - A single head was moulded out of two; 70 - And on our sight a single face arose, - Which out of both lost countenances grew. - Four separate limbs did but two arms compose; - Belly with chest, and legs with thighs did grow - To members such as nought created shows. - Their former fashion was all perished now: - The perverse shape did both, yet neither seem; - And, thus transformed, departed moving slow. - And as the lizard, which at fierce extreme - Of dog-day heat another hedge would gain, 80 - Flits 'cross the path swift as the lightning's gleam; - Right for the bellies of the other twain - A little snake[659] quivering with anger sped, - Livid and black as is a pepper grain, - And on the part by which we first are fed - Pierced one of them; and then upon the ground - It fell before him, and remained outspread. - The wounded gazed on it, but made no sound. - Rooted he stood[660] and yawning, scarce awake, - As seized by fever or by sleep profound. 90 - It closely watched him and he watched the snake, - While from its mouth and from his wound 'gan swell - Volumes of smoke which joined one cloud to make. - Be Lucan henceforth dumb, nor longer tell - Of plagued Sabellus and Nassidius,[661] - But, hearkening to what follows, mark it well. - Silent be Ovid: of him telling us - How Cadmus[662] to a snake, and to a fount - Changed Arethuse,[663] I am not envious; - For never of two natures front to front 100 - In metamorphosis, while mutually - The forms[664] their matter changed, he gives account. - 'Twas thus that each to the other made reply: - Its tail into a fork the serpent split; - Bracing his feet the other pulled them nigh: - And then in one so thoroughly were knit - His legs and thighs, no searching could divine - At where the junction had been wrought in it. - The shape, of which the one lost every sign, - The cloven tail was taking; then the skin 110 - Of one grew rough, the other's soft and fine. - I by the armpits saw the arms drawn in; - And now the monster's feet, which had been small, - What the other's lost in length appeared to win. - Together twisted, its hind feet did fall - And grew the member men are used to hide: - For his the wretch gained feet with which to crawl. - Dyed in the smoke they took on either side - A novel colour: hair unwonted grew - On one; the hair upon the other died. 120 - The one fell prone, erect the other drew, - With cruel eyes continuing to glare, - 'Neath which their muzzles metamorphose knew. - The erect to his brows drew his. Of stuff to spare - Of what he upward pulled, there was no lack; - So ears were formed on cheeks that erst were bare. - Of that which clung in front nor was drawn back, - Superfluous, on the face was formed a nose, - And lips absorbed the skin that still was slack. - His muzzle who lay prone now forward goes; 130 - Backward into his head his ears he draws - Even as a snail appears its horns to lose. - The tongue, which had been whole and ready was - For speech, cleaves now; the forked tongue of the snake - Joins in the other: and the smoke has pause.[665] - The soul which thus a brutish form did take, - Along the valley, hissing, swiftly fled; - The other close behind it spluttering spake, - Then, toward it turning his new shoulders, said - Unto the third: 'Now Buoso down the way 140 - May hasten crawling, as I earlier sped.' - Ballast which in the Seventh Bolgia lay - Thus saw I shift and change. Be my excuse - The novel theme,[666] if swerves my pen astray. - And though these things mine eyesight might confuse - A little, and my mind with fear divide, - Such secrecy they fleeing could not use - But that Puccio Sciancatto plain I spied; - And he alone of the companions three - Who came at first, was left unmodified. 150 - For the other, tears, Gaville,[667] are shed by thee. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[649] _The robber, etc._: By means of his prophecy Fucci has, after a -fashion, taken revenge on Dante for being found by him among the -cheating thieves instead of among the nobler sinners guilty of blood and -violence. But in the rage of his wounded pride he must insult even -Heaven, and this he does by using the most contemptuous gesture in an -Italian's repertory. The fig is made by thrusting the thumb between the -next two fingers. In the English 'A fig for him!' we have a reference to -the gesture. - -[650] _Pistoia_: The Pistoiese bore the reputation of being hard and -pitiless. The tradition was that their city had been founded by such of -Catiline's followers as survived his defeat on the Campo Piceno. 'It is -no wonder,' says Villani (i. 32) 'that, being the descendants as they -are of Catiline and his followers, the Pistoiese have always been -ruthless and cruel to strangers and to one another.' - -[651] _Who down Thebes' wall_: Capaneus (_Inf._ xiv. 63). - -[652] _Maremma_: See note, _Inf._ xiii. 8. - -[653] _Cacus_: Dante makes him a Centaur, but Virgil (_Æn._ viii.) only -describes him as half human. The pool was fed with the blood of his -human victims. The herd was the spoil Hercules took from Geryon. In the -_Æneid_ Cacus defends himself from Hercules by vomiting a fiery smoke; -and this doubtless suggested the dragon of the text. - -[654] _His brethren_: The Centaurs who guard the river of blood (_Inf._ -xii. 56). In Fucci, as a sinner guilty of blood and violence above most -of the thieves, the Centaur Cacus takes a special malign interest. - -[655] _Our tale_: Of Cacus. It is interrupted by the arrival of three -sinners whom Dante does not at first recognise as he gazes down on them, -but only when they begin to speak among themselves. They are three noble -citizens of Florence: Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, and -Puccio Sciancatto de' Galigai--all said to have pilfered in private -life, or to have abused their tenure of high office by plundering the -Commonwealth. What is certainly known of them is that they were -Florentine thieves of quality. - -[656] _Cianfa_: Another Florentine gentleman, one of the Donati. Since -his companions lost sight of him he has been transformed into a -six-footed serpent. Immediately appearing, he darts upon Agnello. - -[657] _On chin, etc._: A gesture by which silence is requested. The -mention of Cianfa shows Dante that he is among Florentines. - -[658] _Papyrus_: The original is _papiro_, the word used in Dante's time -for a wick made out of a reed like the papyrus; _papér_ being still the -name for a wick in some dialects.--(Scartazzini.) It cannot be shown -that _papiro_ was ever employed for paper in Italian. This, however, -does not prove that Dante may not so use it in this instance, adopting -it from the Latin _papyrus_. Besides, he says that the brown colour -travels up over the _papiro_; while it goes downward on a burning wick. -Nor would the simile, if drawn from a slowly burning lamp-wick, agree -with the speed of the change described in the text. - -[659] _A little snake_: As transpires from the last line of the Canto, -this is Francesco, of the Florentine family of the Cavalcanti, to which -Dante's friend Guido belonged. He wounds Buoso in the navel, and then, -instead of growing into one new monster as was the case with Cianfa and -Agnello, they exchange shapes, and when the transformation is complete -Buoso is the serpent and Francesco is the human shade. - -[660] _Rooted he stood, etc._: The description agrees with the symptoms -of snake-bite, one of which is extreme drowsiness. - -[661] _Sabellus and Nassidius_: Were soldiers of Cato's army whose death -by snake-bite in the Libyan desert is described by Lucan, _Pharsal._ ix. -Sabbellus was burned up by the poison, bones and all; Nassidius swelled -up and burst. - -[662] _Cadmus_: _Metam._ iv. - -[663] _Arethusa_: _Metam._ v. - -[664] _The forms, etc._: The word _form_ is here to be taken in its -scholastic sense of _virtus formativa_, the inherited power of modifying -matter into an organised body. 'This, united to the divinely implanted -spark of reason,' says Philalethes, 'constitutes, on Dante's system, a -human soul. Even after death this power continues to be an essential -constituent of the soul, and constructs out of the elements what seems -to be a body. Here the sinners exchange the matter they have thus made -their own, each retaining, however, his proper plastic energy as part of -his soul.' Dante in his _Convito_ (iii. 2) says that 'the human soul is -the noblest form of all that are made under the heavens, receiving more -of the Divine nature than any other.' - -[665] _The smoke has pause_: The sinners have robbed one another of all -they can lose. In the punishment is mirrored the sin that plunged them -here. - -[666] _The novel theme_: He has lingered longer than usual on this -Bolgia, and pleads wonder of what he saw in excuse either of his -prolixity or of some of the details of his description. The expression -is perhaps one of feigned humility, to balance his recent boast of -excelling Ovid and Lucan in inventive power. - -[667] _Gaville_: The other, and the only one of those five Florentine -thieves not yet named in the text, is he who came at first in the form -of a little black snake, and who has now assumed the shape of Buoso. In -reality he is Francesco Cavalcanti, who was slain by the people of -Gaville in the upper Valdarno. Many of them were in their turn -slaughtered in revenge by the Cavalcanti and their associates. It should -be remarked that some of these five Florentines were of one party, some -of the other. It is also noteworthy that Dante recruits his thieves as -he did his usurers from the great Florentine families.--As the 'shifting -and changing' of this rubbish is apt to be found confusing, the -following may be useful to some readers:--There first came on the scene -Agnello, Buoso, and Puccio. Cianfa, in the shape of a six-footed -serpent, comes and throws himself on Agnello, and then, grown -incorporate in a new strange monster, two in one, they disappear. Buoso -is next wounded by Francesco, and they exchange members and bodies. Only -Puccio remains unchanged. - - - - -CANTO XXVI. - - - Rejoice, O Florence, in thy widening fame! - Thy wings thou beatest over land and sea, - And even through Inferno spreads thy name. - Burghers of thine, five such were found by me - Among the thieves; whence I ashamed[668] grew, - Nor shall great glory thence redound to thee. - But if 'tis toward the morning[669] dreams are true, - Thou shalt experience ere long time be gone - The doom even Prato[670] prays for as thy due. - And came it now, it would not come too soon. 10 - Would it were come as come it must with time: - 'Twill crush me more the older I am grown. - Departing thence, my Guide began to climb - The jutting rocks by which we made descent - Some while ago,[671] and pulled me after him. - And as upon our lonely way we went - 'Mong splinters[672] of the cliff, the feet in vain, - Without the hand to help, had labour spent. - I sorrowed, and am sorrow-smit again, - Recalling what before mine eyes there lay, 20 - And, more than I am wont, my genius rein - From running save where virtue leads the way; - So that if happy star[673] or holier might - Have gifted me I never mourn it may. - At time of year when he who gives earth light - His face shows to us longest visible, - When gnats replace the fly at fall of night, - Not by the peasant resting on the hill - Are seen more fire-flies in the vale below, - Where he perchance doth field and vineyard[674] till, 30 - Than flamelets I beheld resplendent glow - Throughout the whole Eighth Bolgia, when at last - I stood whence I the bottom plain could know. - And as he whom the bears avenged, when passed - From the earth Elijah, saw the chariot rise - With horses heavenward reared and mounting fast, - And no long time had traced it with his eyes - Till but a flash of light it all became, - Which like a rack of cloud swept to the skies: - Deep in the valley's gorge, in mode the same, 40 - These flitted; what it held by none was shown, - And yet a sinner[675] lurked in every flame. - To see them well I from the bridge peered down, - And if a jutting crag I had not caught - I must have fallen, though neither thrust nor thrown. - My Leader me beholding lost in thought: - 'In all the fires are spirits,' said to me; - 'His flame round each is for a garment wrought.' - 'O Master!' I replied, 'by hearing thee - I grow assured, but yet I knew before 50 - That thus indeed it was, and longed to be - Told who is in the flame which there doth soar, - Cloven, as if ascending from the pyre - Where with Eteocles[676] there burned of yore - His brother.' He: 'Ulysses in that fire - And Diomedes[677] burn; in punishment - Thus held together, as they held in ire. - And, wrapped within their flame, they now repent - The ambush of the horse, which oped the door - Through which the Romans' noble seed[678] forth went. 60 - For guile Deïdamia[679] makes deplore - In death her lost Achilles, tears they shed, - And bear for the Palladium[680] vengeance sore.' - 'Master, I pray thee fervently,' I said, - 'If from those flames they still can utter speech-- - Give ear as if a thousand times I pled! - Refuse not here to linger, I beseech, - Until the cloven fire shall hither gain: - Thou seest how toward it eagerly I reach.' - And he: 'Thy prayers are worthy to obtain 70 - Exceeding praise; thou hast what thou dost seek: - But see that thou from speech thy tongue refrain. - I know what thou wouldst have; leave me to speak, - For they perchance would hear contemptuously - Shouldst thou address them, seeing they were Greek.'[681] - Soon as the flame toward us had come so nigh - That to my Leader time and place seemed met, - I heard him thus adjure it to reply: - 'O ye who twain within one fire are set, - If what I did your guerdon meriteth, 80 - If much or little ye are in my debt - For the great verse I built while I had breath, - By one of you be openly confessed - Where, lost to men, at last he met with death.' - Of the ancient flame the more conspicuous crest - Murmuring began to waver up and down - Like flame that flickers, by the wind distressed. - At length by it was measured motion shown, - Like tongue that moves in speech; and by the flame - Was language uttered thus: 'When I had gone 90 - From Circe[682] who a long year kept me tame - Beside her, ere the near Gaeta had - Receivèd from Æneas that new name; - No softness for my son, nor reverence sad - For my old father, nor the love I owed - Penelope with which to make her glad, - Could quench the ardour that within me glowed - A full experience of the world to gain-- - Of human vice and worth. But I abroad - Launched out upon the high and open main[683] 100 - With but one bark and but the little band - Which ne'er deserted me.[684] As far as Spain - I saw the sea-shore upon either hand, - And as Morocco; saw Sardinia's isle, - And all of which those waters wash the strand. - I and my comrades were grown old the while - And sluggish, ere we to the narrows came - Where Hercules of old did landmarks pile - For sign to men they should no further aim; - And Seville lay behind me on the right, 110 - As on the left lay Ceuta. Then to them - I spake: "O Brothers, who through such a fight - Of hundred thousand dangers West have won, - In this short watch that ushers in the night - Of all your senses, ere your day be done, - Refuse not to obtain experience new - Of worlds unpeopled, yonder, past the sun. - Consider whence the seed of life ye drew; - Ye were not born to live like brutish herd, - But righteousness and wisdom to ensue." 120 - My comrades to such eagerness were stirred - By this short speech the course to enter on, - They had no longer brooked restraining word. - Turning our poop to where the morning shone - We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, - Still tending left the further we had gone. - And of the other pole I saw at night - Now all the stars; and 'neath the watery plain - Our own familiar heavens were lost to sight. - Five times afresh had kindled, and again 130 - The moon's face earthward was illumed no more, - Since out we sailed upon the mighty main;[685] - Then we beheld a lofty mountain[686] soar, - Dim in the distance; higher, as I thought, - By far than any I had seen before. - We joyed; but with despair were soon distraught - When burst a whirlwind from the new-found world - And the forequarter of the vessel caught. - With all the waters thrice it round was swirled; - At the fourth time the poop, heaved upward, rose, 140 - The prow, as pleased Another,[687] down was hurled; - And then above us did the ocean close.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[668] _Whence I ashamed, etc._: There is here a sudden change from irony -to earnest. 'Five members of great Florentine families, eternally -engaged among themselves in their shameful metamorphoses--nay, but it is -too sad!' - -[669] _Toward the morning, etc._: There was a widespread belief in the -greater truthfulness of dreams dreamed as the night wears away. See -_Purg._ ix. 13. The dream is Dante's foreboding of what is to happen to -Florence. Of its truth he has no doubt, and the only question is how -soon will it be answered by the fact. Soon, he says, if it is near to -the morning that we dream true dreams--morning being the season of -waking reality in which dreams are accomplished. - -[670] _Even Prato_: A small neighbouring city, much under the influence -of Florence, and somewhat oppressed by it. The commentators reckon up -the disasters that afflicted Florence in the first years of the -fourteenth century, between the date of Dante's journey and the time he -wrote--fires, falls of bridges, and civil strife. But such misfortunes -were too much in keeping with the usual course of Florentine history to -move Dante thus deeply in the retrospect; and as he speaks here in his -own person the 'soon' is more naturally counted from the time at which -he writes than from the date assigned by him to his pilgrimage. He is -looking forward to the period when his own return in triumph to Florence -was to be prepared by grievous national reverses; and, as a patriot, he -feels that he cannot be wholly reconciled by his private advantage to -the public misfortune. But it was all only a dream. - -[671] _Some while ago_: See note, _Inf._ xxiv. 79. - -[672] _'Mong splinters, etc._: They cross the wall or barrier between -the Seventh and Eighth Bolgias. From _Inf._ xxiv. 63 we have learned -that the rib of rock, on the line of which they are now proceeding, with -its arches which overhang the various Bolgias, is rougher and worse to -follow than that by which they began their passage towards the centre of -Malebolge. - -[673] _Happy star_: See note, _Inf._ xv. 55. Dante seems to have been -uncertain what credence to give to the claims of astrology. In a passage -of the _Purgatorio_ (xvi. 67) he tries to establish that whatever -influence the stars may possess over us we can never, except with our -own consent, be influenced by them to evil.--His sorrow here, as -elsewhere, is not wholly a feeling of pity for the suffering shades, but -is largely mingled with misgivings for himself. The punishment of those -to whose sins he feels no inclination he always beholds with equanimity. -Here, as he looks down upon the false counsellors and considers what -temptations there are to misapply intellectual gifts, he is smitten with -dread lest his lot should one day be cast in that dismal valley and he -find cause to regret that the talent of genius was ever committed to -him. The memory even of what he saw makes him recollect himself and -resolve to be wary. Then, as if to justify the claim to superior powers -thus clearly implied, there comes a passage which in the original is of -uncommon beauty. - -[674] _Field and vineyard_: These lines, redolent of the sweet Tuscan -midsummer gloaming, give us amid the horrors of Malebolge something like -the breath of fresh air the peasant lingers to enjoy. It may be noted -that in Italy the village is often found perched above the more fertile -land, on a site originally chosen with a view to security from attack. -So that here the peasant is at home from his labour. - -[675] _And yet a sinner, etc._: The false counsellors who for selfish -ends hid their true minds and misused their intellectual light to lead -others astray are for ever hidden each in his own wandering flame. - -[676] _Eteocles_: Son of Oedipus and twin brother of Polynices. The -brothers slew one another, and were placed on the same funeral pile, the -flame of which clove into two as if to image the discord that had -existed between them (_Theb._ xii.). - -[677] _And Diomedes_: The two are associated in deeds of blood and guile -at the siege of Troy. - -[678] _The Romans' noble seed_: The trick of the wooden horse led to the -capture of Troy, and that led Æneas to wander forth on the adventures -that ended in the settlement of the Trojans in Italy. - -[679] _Deïdamia_: That Achilles might be kept from joining the Greek -expedition to Troy he was sent by his mother to the court of Lycomedes, -father of Deïdamia. Ulysses lured him away from his hiding-place and -from Deïdamia, whom he had made a mother. - -[680] _The Palladium_: The Trojan sacred image of Pallas, stolen by -Ulysses and Diomed (_Æn._ ii.). Ulysses is here upon his own ground. - -[681] _They were Greek_: Some find here an allusion to Dante's ignorance -of the Greek language and literature. But Virgil addresses them in the -Lombard dialect of Italian (_Inf._ xxvii. 21). He acts as spokesman -because those ancient Greeks were all so haughty that to a common modern -mortal they would have nothing to say. He, as the author of the _Æneid_, -has a special claim on their good-nature. It is but seldom that the -shades are told who Virgil is, and never directly. Here Ulysses may -infer it from the mention of the 'lofty verse.' - -[682] _From Circe_: It is Ulysses that speaks. - -[683] _The open main_: The Mediterranean as distinguished from the -Ægean. - -[684] _Which ne'er deserted me_: There seems no reason for supposing, -with Philalethes, that Ulysses is here represented as sailing on his -last voyage from the island of Circe and not from Ithaca. Ulysses, on -the contrary, represents himself as breaking away afresh from all the -ties of home. According to Homer, Ulysses had lost all his companions -ere he returned to Ithaca; and in the _Odyssey_ Tiresias prophesies to -him that his last wanderings are to be inland. But any acquaintance that -Dante had with Homer can only have been vague and fragmentary. He may -have founded his narrative of how Ulysses ended his days upon some -floating legend; or, eager to fill up what he took to be a blank in the -world of imagination, he may have drawn wholly on his own creative -power. In any case it is his Ulysses who, through the version of him -given by a living poet, is most familiar to the English reader. - -[685] _The mighty main_: The Atlantic Ocean. They bear to the left as -they sail, till their course is due south, and crossing the Equator, -they find themselves under the strange skies of the southern hemisphere. -For months they have seen no land. - -[686] _A lofty mountain_: This is the Mountain of Purgatory, according -to Dante's geography antipodal to Jerusalem, and the only land in the -southern hemisphere. - -[687] _As pleased Another_: Ulysses is proudly resigned to the failure -of his enterprise, 'for he was Greek.' - - - - -CANTO XXVII. - - - Now, having first erect and silent grown - (For it would say no more), from us the flame, - The Poet sweet consenting,[688] had moved on; - And then our eyes were turned to one that came[689] - Behind it on the way, by sounds that burst - Out of its crest in a confusèd stream. - As the Sicilian bull,[690] which bellowed first - With his lamenting--and it was but right-- - Who had prepared it with his tools accurst,[691] - Roared with the howlings of the tortured wight, 10 - So that although constructed all of brass - Yet seemed it pierced with anguish to the height; - So, wanting road and vent by which to pass - Up through the flame, into the flame's own speech - The woeful language all converted was. - But when the words at length contrived to reach - The top, while hither thither shook the crest - As moved the tongue[692] at utterance of each, - We heard: 'Oh thou, to whom are now addressed - My words, who spakest now in Lombard phrase: 20 - "Depart;[693] of thee I nothing more request." - Though I be late arrived, yet of thy grace - Let it not irk thee here a while to stay: - It irks not me, yet, as thou seest, I blaze. - If lately to this world devoid of day - From that sweet Latian land thou art come down - Whence all my guilt I bring, declare and say - Has now Romagna peace? because my own - Native abode was in the mountain land - 'Tween springs[694] of Tiber and Urbino town.' 30 - While I intent and bending low did stand, - My Leader, as he touched me on the side, - 'Speak thou, for he is Latian,' gave command. - Whereon without delay I thus replied-- - Because already[695] was my speech prepared: - 'Soul, that down there dost in concealment 'bide, - In thy Romagna[696] wars have never spared - And spare not now in tyrants' hearts to rage; - But when I left it there was none declared. - No change has fallen Ravenna[697] for an age. 40 - There, covering Cervia too with outspread wing, - Polenta's Eagle guards his heritage. - Over the city[698] which long suffering - Endured, and Frenchmen slain on Frenchmen rolled, - The Green Paws[699] once again protection fling. - The Mastiffs of Verrucchio,[700] young and old, - Who to Montagna[701] brought such evil cheer, - Still clinch their fangs where they were wont to hold. - Cities,[702] Lamone and Santerno near, - The Lion couched in white are governed by 50 - Which changes party with the changing year. - And that to which the Savio[703] wanders nigh - As it is set 'twixt mountain and champaign - Lives now in freedom now 'neath tyranny. - But who thou art I to be told am fain: - Be not more stubborn than we others found, - As thou on earth illustrious wouldst remain.' - When first the fire a little while had moaned - After its manner, next the pointed crest - Waved to and fro; then in this sense breathed sound: - 'If I believed my answer were addressed 61 - To one that earthward shall his course retrace, - This flame should forthwith altogether rest. - But since[704] none ever yet out of this place - Returned alive, if all be true I hear, - I yield thee answer fearless of disgrace. - I was a warrior, then a Cordelier;[705] - Thinking thus girt to purge away my stain: - And sure my hope had met with answer clear - Had not the High Priest[706]--ill with him remain! 70 - Plunged me anew into my former sin: - And why and how, I would to thee make plain. - While I the frame of bones and flesh was in - My mother gave me, all the deeds I wrought - Were fox-like and in no wise leonine. - Of every wile and hidden way I caught - The secret trick, and used them with such sleight - That all the world with fame of it was fraught. - When I perceived I had attainèd quite - The time of life when it behoves each one 80 - To furl his sails and coil his cordage tight, - Sorrowing for deeds I had with pleasure done, - Contrite and shriven, I religious grew. - Ah, wretched me! and well it was begun - But for the Chieftain of the Pharisees new,[707] - Then waging war hard by the Lateran, - And not with Saracen nor yet with Jew; - For Christian[708] were his enemies every man, - And none had at the siege of Acre been - Or trafficked in the Empire of Soldàn. 90 - His lofty office he held cheap, and e'en - His Sacred Orders and the cord I wore, - Which used[709] to make the wearers of it lean. - As from Soracte[710] Constantine of yore - Sylvester called to cure his leprosy, - I as a leech was called this man before - To cure him of his fever which ran high; - My counsel he required, but I stood dumb, - For drunken all his words appeared to be. - He said; "For fear be in thy heart no room; 100 - Beforehand I absolve thee, but declare - How Palestrina I may overcome. - Heaven I unlock, as thou art well aware, - And close at will; because the keys are twin - My predecessor[711] was averse to bear." - Then did his weighty reasoning on me win - Till to be silent seemed the worst of all; - And, "Father," I replied, "since from this sin - Thou dost absolve me into which I fall-- - The scant performance[712] of a promise wide 110 - Will yield thee triumph in thy lofty stall." - Francis came for me soon as e'er I died; - But one of the black Cherubim was there - And "Take him not, nor rob me of him" cried, - "For him of right among my thralls I bear - Because he offered counsel fraudulent; - Since when I've had him firmly by the hair. - None is absolved unless he first repent; - Nor can repentance house with purpose ill, - For this the contradiction doth prevent." 120 - Ah, wretched me! How did I shrinking thrill - When clutching me he sneered: "Perhaps of old - Thou didst not think[713] I had in logic skill." - He carried me to Minos:[714] Minos rolled - His tail eight times round his hard back; in ire - Biting it fiercely, ere of me he told: - "Among the sinners of the shrouding fire!" - Therefore am I, where thou beholdest, lost; - And, sore at heart, go clothed in such attire.' - What he would say thus ended by the ghost, 130 - Away from us the moaning flame did glide - While to and fro its pointed horn was tossed. - But we passed further on, I and my Guide, - Along the cliff to where the arch is set - O'er the next moat, where paying they reside, - As schismatics who whelmed themselves in debt. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[688] _Consenting_: See line 21. - -[689] _One that came_: This is the fire-enveloped shade of Guido of -Montefeltro, the colloquy with whom occupies the whole of the Canto. - -[690] _The Sicilian bull_: Perillus, an Athenian, presented Phalaris, -the tyrant of Agrigentum, with a brazen bull so constructed that when it -was heated from below the cries of the victim it contained were -converted into the bellowing of a bull. The first trial of the invention -was made upon the artist. - -[691] _Accurst_: Not in the original. 'Rime in English hath such -scarcity,' as Chaucer says. - -[692] _As moved the tongue, etc._: The shade being enclosed in the -hollow fire all his words are changed into a sound like the roaring of a -flame. At last, when an opening has been worked through the crested -point, the speech becomes articulate. - -[693] _Depart, etc._: One at least of the words quoted as having been -used by Virgil is Lombard. There is something very quaint in making him -use the Lombard dialect of Dante's time. - -[694] _'Tween springs, etc._: Montefeltro lies between Urbino and the -mountain where the Tiber has its source. - -[695] _Already_: Dante knew that Virgil would refer to him for an answer -to Guido's question, bearing as it did on modern Italian affairs. - -[696] _Romagna_: The district of Italy lying on the Adriatic, south of -the Po and east of Tuscany, of which Bologna and the cities named in the -text were the principal towns. During the last quarter of the thirteenth -century it was the scene of constant wars promoted in the interest of -the Church, which claimed Romagna as the gift of the Emperor Rudolf, and -in that of the great nobles of the district, who while using the Guelf -and Ghibeline war-cries aimed at nothing but the lordship of the various -cities. Foremost among these nobles was he with whose shade Dante -speaks. Villani calls him 'the most sagacious and accomplished warrior -of his time in Italy' (_Cronica_, vii. 80). He was possessed of lands of -his own near Forlì and Cesena, and was lord in turn of many of the -Romagnese cities. On the whole he appears to have remained true to his -Ghibeline colours in spite of Papal fulminations, although once and -again he was reconciled to the Church; on the last occasion in 1294. In -the years immediately before this he had greatly distinguished himself -as a wise governor and able general in the service of the Ghibeline -Pisa--or rather as the paid lord of it. - -[697] _Ravenna_: Ravenna and the neighbouring town of Cervia were in -1300 under the lordship of members of the Polenta family--the father and -brothers of the ill-fated Francesca (_Inf._ v.). Their arms were an -eagle, half white on an azure and half red on a gold field. It was in -the court of the generous Guido, son of one of these brothers, that -Dante was to find his last refuge and to die. - -[698] _Over the city, etc._: Forlì. The reference is to one of the most -brilliant feats of war performed by Guido of Montefeltro. Frenchmen -formed great part of an army sent in 1282 against Forlì by the Pope, -Martin IV., himself a Frenchman. Guido, then lord of the city, led them -into a trap and overthrew them with great slaughter. Like most men of -his time Guido was a believer in astrology, and is said on this occasion -to have acted on the counsel of Guido Bonatti, mentioned among the -diviners in the Fourth Bolgia (_Inf._ xx. 118). - -[699] _The Green Paws_: In 1300 the Ordelaffi were lords of Forlì. Their -arms were a green lion on a gold ground. During the first years of his -exile Dante had to do with Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi, under whose -command the exiled Florentines put themselves for a time, and there is -even a tradition that he acted as his secretary. - -[700] _The Mastiffs of Verrucchio_: Verrucchio was the castle of the -Malatestas, lords of Rimini, called the Mastiffs on account of their -cruel tenacity. The elder was the father of Francesca's husband and -lover; the younger was a brother of these. - -[701] _Montagna_: Montagna de' Parcitati, one of a Ghibeline family that -contested superiority in Rimini with the Guelf Malatestas, was taken -prisoner by guile and committed by the old Mastiff to the keeping of the -young one, whose fangs were set in him to such purpose that he soon died -in his dungeon. - -[702] _Cities, etc._: Imola and Faenza, situated on the rivers named in -the text. Mainardo Pagani, lord of these towns, had for arms an azure -lion on a white field. During his minority he was a ward of the -Commonwealth of Florence. By his cunning and daring he earned the name -of the Demon (_Purg._ xiv. 118). He died at Imola in 1302, and was -buried in the garb of a monk of Vallombrosa. Like most of his neighbours -he changed his party as often as his interest required. He was a Guelf -in Florence and a Ghibeline in Romagna, say some. - -[703] _Savio_: Cesena, on the Savio, was distinguished among the cities -of Romagna by being left more frequently than the others were to manage -its own affairs. The Malatestas and Montefeltros were in turn possessed -of the tyranny of it. - -[704] _But since, etc._: The shades, being enveloped in fire, are unable -to see those with whom they speak; and so Guido does not detect in Dante -the signs of a living man, but takes him to be like himself a denizen of -Inferno. He would not have the truth regarding his fate to be known in -the world, where he is supposed to have departed life in the odour of -sanctity. Dante's promise to refresh his fame he either regards as -meaningless, or as one made without the power of fulfilling it. Dante -leaves him in his error, for he is there to learn all he can, and not to -bandy personal confessions with the shades. - -[705] _A Cordelier_: In 1296 Guido entered the Franciscan Order. He died -in 1298, but where is not known; some authorities say at Venice and -others at Assisi. Benvenuto tells: 'He was often seen begging his bread -in Ancona, where he was buried. Many good deeds are related of him, and -I cherish a sweet hope that he may have been saved.' - -[706] _The High Priest_: Boniface VIII. - -[707] _The Pharisees new_: The members of the Court of Rome. Saint -Jerome calls the dignified Roman clergy of his day 'the Senate of the -Pharisees.' - -[708] _For Christian, etc._: The foes of Boniface, here spoken of, were -the Cardinals Peter and James Colonna. He destroyed their palace in Rome -(1297) and carried the war against them to their country seat at -Palestrina, the ancient Præneste, then a great stronghold. Dante here -bitterly blames Boniface for instituting a crusade against Christians at -a time when, by the recent loss of Acre, the gate of the Holy Land had -been lost to Christendom. The Colonnas were innocent, too, of the crime -of supplying the Infidel with munitions of war--a crime condemned by the -Lateran Council of 1215, and by Boniface himself, who excluded those -guilty of it from the benefits of the great Jubilee of 1300. - -[709] _Which used, etc._: In former times, when the rule of the Order -was faithfully observed. Dante charges the Franciscans with degeneracy -in the _Paradiso_, xi. 124. - -[710] _From Soracte_: Referring to the well-known legend. The fee for -the cure was the fabulous Donation. See _Inf._ xix. 115. - -[711] _My predecessor_: Celestine v. See _Inf._ iii. 60. - -[712] _The scant performance, etc._: That Guido gave such counsel is -related by a contemporary chronicler: 'The Pope said: Tell me how to get -the better of those mine enemies, thou who art so knowing in these -things. Then he answered: Promise much, and perform little; which he -did.' But it seems odd that the wily and unscrupulous Boniface should -have needed to put himself to school for such a simple lesson. - -[713] _Thou didst not think, etc._: Guido had forgot that others could -reason besides the Pope. With regard to the inefficacy of the Papal -absolution an old commentator says, following Origen: 'The Popes that -walk in the footsteps of Peter have this power of binding and loosing; -but only such as do so walk.' But on Dante's scheme of what fixes the -fate of the soul absolution matters little to save, or priestly curses -to damnify. See _Purg._ iii. 133. It is unfeigned repentance that can -help a sinner even at the last; and it is remarkable that in the case of -Buonconte, the gallant son of this same Guido, the infernal angel who -comes for him as he expires complains that he has been cheated of his -victim by one poor tear. See _Purg._ v. 88, etc. Why then is no -indulgence shown in Dante's court to Guido, who might well have been -placed in Purgatory and made to have repented effectually of this his -last sin? That Dante had any personal grudge against him we can hardly -think. In the Fourth Book of the _Convito_ (written, according to -Fraticelli, in 1297), he calls him 'our most noble Guido Montefeltrano;' -and praises him as one of the wise and noble souls that refuse to run -with full sails into the port of death, but furl the sails of their -worldly undertakings, and, relinquishing all earthly pleasures and -business, give themselves up in their old age to a religious life. -Either, then, he sets Guido here in order that he may have a modern -false counsellor worthy to be ranked with Ulysses; or because, on longer -experience, he had come to reprobate more keenly the abuse of the -Franciscan habit; or, most likely of all, that he might, even at the -cost of Guido, load the hated memory of Boniface with another reproach. - -[714] _Minos_: Here we have Minos represented in the act of pronouncing -judgment in words as well as by the figurative rolling of his tail -around his body (_Inf._ v. 11). - - - - -CANTO XXVIII. - - - Could any, even in words unclogged by rhyme - Recount the wounds that now I saw,[715] and blood, - Although he aimed at it time after time? - Here every tongue must fail of what it would, - Because our human speech and powers of thought - To grasp so much come short in aptitude. - If all the people were together brought - Who in Apulia,[716] land distressed by fate, - Made lamentation for the bloodshed wrought - By Rome;[717] and in that war procrastinate[718] 10 - When the large booty of the rings was won, - As Livy writes whose every word has weight; - With those on whom such direful deeds were done - When Robert Guiscard[719] they as foes assailed; - And those of whom still turns up many a bone - At Ceperan,[720] where each Apulian failed - In faith; and those at Tagliacozzo[721] strewed, - Where old Alardo, not by arms, prevailed; - And each his wounds and mutilations showed, - Yet would they far behind by those be left 20 - Who had the vile Ninth Bolgia for abode. - No cask, of middle stave or end bereft, - E'er gaped like one I saw the rest among, - Slit from the chin all downward to the cleft. - Between his legs his entrails drooping hung; - The pluck and that foul bag were evident - Which changes what is swallowed into dung. - And while I gazed upon him all intent, - Opening his breast his eyes on me he set, - Saying: 'Behold, how by myself I'm rent! 30 - See how dismembered now is Mahomet![722] - Ali[723] in front of me goes weeping too; - With visage from the chin to forelock split. - By all the others whom thou seest there grew - Scandal and schism while yet they breathed the day; - Because of which they now are cloven through. - There stands behind a devil on the way, - Us with his sword thus cruelly to trim: - He cleaves again each of our company - As soon as we complete the circuit grim; 40 - Because the wounds of each are healed outright - Or e'er anew he goes in front of him. - But who art thou that peerest from the height, - It may be putting off to reach the pain - Which shall the crimes confessed by thee requite?' - 'Death has not seized him yet, nor is he ta'en - To torment for his sins,' my Master said; - 'But, that he may a full experience gain, - By me, a ghost, 'tis doomed he should be led - Down the Infernal circles, round on round; 50 - And what I tell thee is the truth indeed.' - A hundred shades and more, to whom the sound - Had reached, stood in the moat to mark me well, - Their pangs forgot; so did the words astound. - 'Let Fra Dolcin[724] provide, thou mayst him tell-- - Thou, who perchance ere long shalt sunward go-- - Unless he soon would join me in this Hell, - Much food, lest aided by the siege of snow - The Novarese should o'er him victory get, - Which otherwise to win they would be slow.' 60 - While this was said to me by Mahomet - One foot he held uplifted; to the ground - He let it fall, and so he forward set - Next, one whose throat was gaping with a wound, - Whose nose up to the brows away was sheared - And on whose head a single ear was found, - At me, with all the others, wondering peered; - And, ere the rest, an open windpipe made, - The outside of it all with crimson smeared. - 'O thou, not here because of guilt,' he said; 70 - 'And whom I sure on Latian ground did know - Unless by strong similitude betrayed, - Upon Pier da Medicin[725] bestow - A thought, shouldst thou revisit the sweet plain - That from Vercelli[726] slopes to Marcabò. - And make thou known to Fano's worthiest twain-- - To Messer Guido and to Angiolel-- - They, unless foresight here be wholly vain, - Thrown overboard in gyve and manacle - Shall drown fast by Cattolica, as planned 80 - By treachery of a tyrant fierce and fell. - Between Majolica[727] and Cyprus strand - A blacker crime did Neptune never spy - By pirates wrought, or even by Argives' hand. - The traitor[728] who is blinded of an eye, - Lord of the town which of my comrades one - Had been far happier ne'er to have come nigh, - To parley with him will allure them on, - Then so provide, against Focara's[729] blast - No need for them of vow or orison.' 90 - And I: 'Point out and tell, if wish thou hast - To get news of thee to the world conveyed, - Who rues that e'er his eyes thereon were cast?' - On a companion's jaw his hand he laid, - And shouted, while the mouth he open prised: - ''Tis this one here by whom no word is said. - He quenched all doubt in Cæsar, and advised-- - Himself an outlaw--that a man equipped - For strife ran danger if he temporised.' - Alas, to look on, how downcast and hipped 100 - Curio,[730] once bold in counsel, now appeared; - With gorge whence by the roots the tongue was ripped. - Another one, whose hands away were sheared, - In the dim air his stumps uplifted high - So that his visage was with blood besmeared, - And, 'Mosca,[731] too, remember!' loud did cry, - 'Who said, ah me! "A thing once done is done!" - An evil seed for all in Tuscany.' - I added: 'Yea, and death to every one - Of thine!' whence he, woe piled on woe, his way 110 - Went like a man with grief demented grown. - But I to watch the gang made longer stay, - And something saw which I should have a fear, - Without more proof, so much as even to say, - But that my conscience bids me have good cheer-- - The comrade leal whose friendship fortifies - A man beneath the mail of purpose clear. - I saw in sooth (still seems it 'fore mine eyes), - A headless trunk; with that sad company - It forward moved, and on the selfsame wise. 120 - The severed head, clutched by the hair, swung free - Down from the fist, yea, lantern-like hung down; - Staring at us it murmured: 'Wretched me!' - A lamp he made of head-piece once his own; - And he was two in one and one in two; - But how, to Him who thus ordains is known. - Arrived beneath the bridge and full in view, - With outstretched arm his head he lifted high - To bring his words well to us. These I knew: - 'Consider well my grievous penalty, 130 - Thou who, though still alive, art visiting - The people dead; what pain with this can vie? - In order that to earth thou news mayst bring - Of me, that I'm Bertrand de Born[732] know well, - Who gave bad counsel to the Younger King. - I son and sire made each 'gainst each rebel: - David and Absalom were fooled not more - By counsels of the false Ahithophel. - Kinsmen so close since I asunder tore, - Severed, alas! I carry now my brain 140 - From what[733] it grew from in this trunk of yore: - And so I prove the law of pain for pain.'[734] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[715] _That now I saw_: In the Ninth Bolgia, on which he is looking -down, and in which are punished the sowers of discord in church and -state. - -[716] _Apulia_: The south-eastern district of Italy, owing to its -situation a frequent battle-field in ancient and modern times. - -[717] _Rome_: 'Trojans' in most MSS.; and then the Romans are described -as descended from Trojans. The reference may be to the defeat of the -Apulians with considerable slaughter by P. Decius Mus, or to their -losses in general in the course of the Samnite war. - -[718] _War procrastinate_: The second Punic war lasted fully fifteen -years, and in the course of it the battle of Cannæ was gained by -Hannibal, where so many Roman knights fell that the spoil of rings -amounted to a peck. - -[719] _Guiscard_: One of the Norman conquerors of the regions which up -to our own time constituted the kingdom of Naples. In Apulia he did much -fighting against Lombards, Saracens, and Greeks. He is found by Dante in -Paradise among those who fought for the faith (_Par._ xviii. 48). His -death happened in Cephalonia in 1085, at the age of seventy, when he was -engaged on an expedition against Constantinople. - -[720] _Ceperan_: In the swift and decisive campaign undertaken by -Charles of Anjou against Manfred, King of Sicily and Naples, the first -victory was obtained at Ceperano; but it was won owing to the treachery -of Manfred's lieutenant, and not by the sword. The true battle was -fought at Benevento (_Purg._ iii. 128). Ceperano may be named by Dante -as the field where the defeat of Manfred was virtually begun, and where -the Apulians first failed in loyalty to their gallant king. Dante was a -year old at the time of Manfred's overthrow (1266). - -[721] _Tagliacozzo_: The crown Charles had won from Manfred he had to -defend against Manfred's nephew Conradin (grandson and last -representative of Frederick II. and the legitimate heir to the kingdom -of Sicily), whom, in 1268, he defeated near Tagliacozzo in the Abruzzi. -He made his victory the more complete by acting on the advice of Alardo -or Erard de Valery, an old Crusader, to hold good part of his force in -reserve. Charles wrote to the Pope that the slaughter was so great as -far to exceed that at Benevento. The feet of all the low-born prisoners -not slain on the field were cut off, while the gentlemen were beheaded -or hanged. - -[722] _Mahomet_: It has been objected to Dante by M. Littré that he -treats Mahomet, the founder of a new religion, as a mere schismatic. The -wonder would have been had he dwelt on the good qualities of the Prophet -at a time when Islam still threatened Europe. He goes on the fact that -Mahomet and his followers rent great part of the East and South from -Christendom; and for this the Prophet is represented as being mutilated -in a sorer degree than the other schismatics. - -[723] _Ali_: Son-in-law of Mahomet. - -[724] _Fra Dolcin_: At the close of the thirteenth century, Boniface -being Pope, the general discontent with the corruption of the higher -clergy found expression in the north of Italy in the foundation of a new -sect, whose leader was Fra Dolcino. What he chiefly was--enthusiast, -reformer, or impostor--it is impossible to ascertain; all we know of him -being derived from writers in the Papal interest. Among other crimes he -was charged with that of teaching the lawfulness of telling an -Inquisitor a lie to save your life, and with prophesying the advent of a -pious Pope. A holy war on a small scale was preached against him. After -suffering the extremities of famine, snowed up as he was among the -mountains, he was taken prisoner and cruelly put to death (1307). It may -have been in order to save himself from being suspected of sympathy with -him, that Dante, whose hatred of Boniface and the New Pharisees was -equal to Dolcino's, provides for him by anticipation a place with -Mahomet. - -[725] _Pier da Medicin_: Medicina is in the territory of Bologna. Piero -is said to have stirred up dissensions between the Polentas of Ravenna -and the Malatestas of Rimini. - -[726] _From Vercelli, etc._: From the district of Vercelli to where the -castle of Marcabò once stood, at the mouth of the Po, is a distance of -two hundred miles. The plain is Lombardy. - -[727] _Majolica, etc._: On all the Mediterranean, from Cyprus in the -east to Majorca in the west. - -[728] _The traitor, etc._: The one-eyed traitor is Malatesta, lord of -Rimini, the Young Mastiff of the preceding Canto. He invited the two -chief citizens of Fano, named in the text, to hold a conference with -him, and procured that on their way they should be pitched overboard -opposite the castle of Cattolica, which stood between Fano and Rimini. -This is said to have happened in 1304. - -[729] _Focara_: The name of a promontory near Cattolica, subject to -squalls. The victims were never to double the headland. - -[730] _Curio_: The Roman Tribune who, according to Lucan--the incident -is not historically correct--found Cæsar hesitating whether to cross the -Rubicon, and advised him: _Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis_. -'No delay! when men are ready they always suffer by putting off.' The -passage of the Rubicon was counted as the beginning of the Civil -War.--Curio gets scant justice, seeing that in Dante's view Cæsar in all -he did was only carrying out the Divine purpose regarding the Empire. - -[731] _Mosca_: In 1215 one of the Florentine family of the Buondelmonti -jilted a daughter of the Amidei. When these with their friends met to -take counsel touching revenge for the insult, Mosca, one of the Uberti -or of the Lamberti, gave his opinion in the proverb, _Cosa fatta ha -capo_: 'A thing once done is done with.' The hint was approved of, and -on the following Easter morning the young Buondelmonte, as, mounted on a -white steed and dressed in white he rode across the Ponte Vecchio, was -dragged to the ground and cruelly slain. All the great Florentine -families took sides in the feud, and it soon widened into the civil war -between Florentine Guelf and Ghibeline. - -[732] _Bertrand de Born_: Is mentioned by Dante in his Treatise _De -Vulgari Eloquio_, ii. 2, as specially the poet of warlike deeds. He was -a Gascon noble who used his poetical gift very much to stir up strife. -For patron he had the Prince Henry, son of Henry II. of England. Though -Henry never came to the throne he was, during his father's lifetime, -crowned as his successor, and was known as the young King. After the -death of the Prince, Bertrand was taken prisoner by the King, and, -according to the legend, was loaded with favours because he had been so -true a friend to his young master. That he had a turn for fomenting -discord is shown by his having also led a revolt in Aquitaine against -Richard I.--All the old MSS. and all the earlier commentators read _Re -Giovanni_, King John; _Re Giovane_, the young King, being a -comparatively modern emendation. In favour of adopting this it may be -mentioned that in his poems Bertrand calls Prince Henry _lo Reys joves_, -the young King; that it was Henry and not John that was his friend and -patron; and that in the old _Cento Novelle_ Henry is described as the -young King: in favour of the older reading, that John as well as his -brother was a rebel to Henry; and that the line is hurt by the change -from _Giovanni_ to _Giovane_. Considering that Dante almost certainly -wrote _Giovanni_ it seems most reasonable to suppose that he may have -confounded the _Re Giovane_ with King John. - -[733] _From what, etc._: The spinal cord, as we should now say, though -Dante may have meant the heart. - -[734] _Pain for pain_: In the City of Dis we found the heresiarchs, -those who lead others to think falsely. The lower depth of the Malebolge -is reserved for such as needlessly rend any Divinely-constituted order -of society, civil or religious. Conduct counts more with Dante than -opinion--in this case. - - - - -CANTO XXIX. - - - The many folk and wounds of divers kind - Had flushed mine eyes and set them on the flow, - Till I to weep and linger had a mind; - But Virgil said to me: 'Why gazing so? - Why still thy vision fastening on the crew - Of dismal shades dismembered there below? - Thou didst not[735] thus the other Bolgias view: - Think, if to count them be thine enterprise, - The valley circles twenty miles and two.[736] - Beneath our feet the moon[737] already lies; 10 - The time[738] wears fast away to us decreed; - And greater things than these await thine eyes.' - I answered swift: 'Hadst thou but given heed - To why it was my looks were downward bent, - To yet more stay thou mightest have agreed.' - My Guide meanwhile was moving, and I went - Behind him and continued to reply, - Adding: 'Within the moat on which intent - I now was gazing with such eager eye - I trow a spirit weeps, one of my kin, 20 - The crime whose guilt is rated there so high.' - Then said the Master: 'Henceforth hold thou in - Thy thoughts from wandering to him: new things claim - Attention now, so leave him with his sin. - Him saw I at thee from the bridge-foot aim - A threatening finger, while he made thee known; - Geri del Bello[739] heard I named his name. - But, at the time, thou wast with him alone - Engrossed who once held Hautefort,[740] nor the place - Didst look at where he was; so passed he on.' 30 - 'O Leader mine! death violent and base, - And not avenged as yet,' I made reply, - 'By any of his partners in disgrace, - Made him disdainful; therefore went he by - And spake not with me, if I judge aright; - Which does the more my ruth[741] intensify.' - So we conversed till from the cliff we might - Of the next valley have had prospect good - Down to the bottom, with but clearer light.[742] - When we above the inmost Cloister stood 40 - Of Malebolge, and discerned the crew - Of such as there compose the Brotherhood,[743] - So many lamentations pierced me through-- - And barbed with pity all the shafts were sped-- - My open palms across my ears I drew. - From Valdichiana's[744] every spital bed - All ailments to September from July, - With all in Maremma and Sardinia[745] bred, - Heaped in one pit a sickness might supply - Like what was here; and from it rose a stink 50 - Like that which comes from limbs that putrefy. - Then we descended by the utmost brink - Of the long ridge[746]--leftward once more we fell-- - Until my vision, quickened now, could sink - Deeper to where Justice infallible, - The minister of the Almighty Lord, - Chastises forgers doomed on earth[747] to Hell. - Ægina[748] could no sadder sight afford, - As I believe (when all the people ailed - And all the air was so with sickness stored, 60 - Down to the very worms creation failed - And died, whereon the pristine folk once more, - As by the poets is for certain held, - From seed of ants their family did restore), - Than what was offered by that valley black - With plague-struck spirits heaped upon the floor. - Supine some lay, each on the other's back - Or stomach; and some crawled with crouching gait - For change of place along the doleful track. - Speechless we moved with step deliberate, 70 - With eyes and ears on those disease crushed down - Nor left them power to lift their bodies straight. - I saw two sit, shoulder to shoulder thrown - As plate holds plate up to be warmed, from head - Down to the feet with scurf and scab o'ergrown. - Nor ever saw I curry-comb so plied - By varlet with his master standing by, - Or by one kept unwillingly from bed, - As I saw each of these his scratchers ply - Upon himself; for nought else now avails 80 - Against the itch which plagues them furiously. - The scab[749] they tore and loosened with their nails, - As with a knife men use the bream to strip, - Or any other fish with larger scales. - 'Thou, that thy mail dost with thy fingers rip,' - My Guide to one of them began to say, - 'And sometimes dost with them as pincers nip, - Tell, is there any here from Italy - Among you all, so may thy nails suffice - For this their work to all eternity.'[750] 90 - 'Latians are both of us in this disguise - Of wretchedness,' weeping said one of those; - 'But who art thou, demanding on this wise?' - My Guide made answer: 'I am one who goes - Down with this living man from steep to steep - That I to him Inferno may disclose.' - Then broke their mutual prop; trembling with deep - Amazement each turned to me, with the rest - To whom his words had echoed in the heap. - Me the good Master cordially addressed: 100 - 'Whate'er thou hast a mind to ask them, say.' - And since he wished it, thus I made request: - 'So may remembrance of you not decay - Within the upper world out of the mind - Of men, but flourish still for many a day, - As ye shall tell your names and what your kind: - Let not your vile, disgusting punishment - To full confession make you disinclined.' - 'An Aretine,[751] I to the stake was sent - By Albert of Siena,' one confessed, 110 - 'But came not here through that for which I went - To death. 'Tis true I told him all in jest, - I through the air could float in upward gyre; - And he, inquisitive and dull at best, - Did full instruction in the art require: - I could not make him Dædalus,[752] so then - His second father sent me to the fire. - But to the deepest Bolgia of the ten, - For alchemy which in the world I wrought, - The unerring Minos doomed me.' 'Now were men - E'er found,' I of the Poet asked, 'so fraught 121 - With vanity as are the Sienese?[753] - French vanity to theirs is surely nought.' - The other leper hearing me, to these - My words: 'Omit the Stricca,'[754] swift did shout, - 'Who knew his tastes with temperance to please; - And Nicholas,[755] who earliest found out - The lavish custom of the clove-stuffed roast - Within the garden where such seed doth sprout. - Nor count the club[756] where Caccia d' Ascian lost 130 - Vineyards and woods; 'mid whom away did throw - His wit the Abbagliato.[757] But whose ghost - It is, that thou mayst weet, that backs thee so - Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eyes - That thou my countenance mayst surely know. - In me Capocchio's[758] shade thou'lt recognise, - Who forged false coin by means of alchemy: - Thou must remember, if I well surmise, - How I of nature very ape could be.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[735] _Thou didst not, etc._: It is a noteworthy feature in the conduct -of the Poem that when Dante has once gained sufficient knowledge of any -group in the Inferno he at once detaches his mind from it, and, carrying -on as little arrear of pity as he can, gives his thoughts to further -progress on the journey. The departure here made from his usual -behaviour is presently accounted for. Virgil knows why he lingers, but -will not seem to approve of the cause. - -[736] _Twenty miles and two_: The Ninth Bolgia has a circumference of -twenty-two miles, and as the procession of the shades is slow it would -indeed involve a protracted halt to wait till all had passed beneath the -bridge. Virgil asks ironically if he wishes to count them all. This -precise detail, taken along with one of the same kind in the following -Canto (line 86), has suggested the attempt to construct the Inferno to a -scale. Dante wisely suffers us to forget, if we will, that--taking the -diameter of the earth at 6500 miles, as given by him in the -_Convito_--he travels from the surface of the globe to the centre at the -rate of more than two miles a minute, counting downward motion alone. It -is only when he has come to the lowest rings that he allows himself to -give details of size; and probably the mention of the extent of the -Ninth Bolgia, which comes on the reader as a surprise, is thrown out in -order to impress on the imagination some sense of the enormous extent of -the regions through which the pilgrim has already passed. Henceforth he -deals in exact measurement. - -[737] _The moon_: It is now some time after noon on the Saturday. The -last indication of time was at Canto xxi. 112. - -[738] _The time, etc._: Before nightfall they are to complete their -exploration of the Inferno, and they will have spent twenty-four hours -in it. - -[739] _Geri del Bello_: One of the Alighieri, a full cousin of Dante's -father. He was guilty of encouraging dissension, say the commentators; -which is to be clearly inferred from the place assigned him in Inferno: -but they do not agree as to how he met his death, nor do they mention -the date of it. 'Not avenged till thirty years after,' says Landino; but -does not say if this was after his death or the time at which Dante -writes. - -[740] _Hautefort_: Bertrand de Born's castle in Gascony. - -[741] _My ruth_: Enlightened moralist though Dante is, he yet shows -himself man of his age enough to be keenly alive to the extremest claims -of kindred; and while he condemns the _vendetta_ by the words put into -Virgil's mouth, he confesses to a feeling of meanness not to have -practised it on behoof of a distant relative. There is a high art in -this introduction of Geri del Bello. Had they conferred together Dante -must have seemed either cruel or pusillanimous, reproaching or being -reproached. As it is, all the poetry of the situation comes out the -stronger that they do not meet face to face: the threatening finger, the -questions hastily put to Geri by the astonished shades, and his -disappearance under the dark vault when by the law of his punishment the -sinner can no longer tarry. - -[742] _With but clearer light_: They have crossed the rampart dividing -the Ninth Bolgia from the Tenth, of which they would now command a view, -were it not so dark. - -[743] _The Brotherhood_: The word used properly describes the Lay -Brothers of a monastery. Philalethes suggests that Dante may regard the -devils as the true monks of the monastery of Malebolge. The simile -involves no contempt for the monastic life, but is naturally used with -reference to those who live secluded and under a fixed rule. He -elsewhere speaks of the College of the Hypocrites (_Inf._ xxiii. 91) and -of Paradise as the Cloister where Christ is Abbot (_Purg._ xxvi.129). - -[744] _Valdichiana_: The district lying between Arezzo and Chiusi; in -Dante's time a hotbed of malaria, but now, owing to drainage works -promoted by the enlightened Tuscan minister Fossombroni (1823), one of -the most fertile and healthy regions of Italy. - -[745] _Sardinia_: Had in the middle ages an evil reputation for its -fever-stricken air. The Maremma has been already mentioned (_Inf._ -xxv.19). In Dante's time it was almost unpeopled. - -[746] _The long ridge_: One of the ribs of rock which, like the spokes -of a wheel, ran from the periphery to the centre of Malebolge, rising -into arches as they crossed each successive Bolgia. The utmost brink is -the inner bank of the Tenth and last Bolgia. To the edge of this moat -they descend, bearing as usual to the left hand. - -[747] _Doomed on earth, etc._: 'Whom she here registers.' While they are -still on earth their doom is fixed by Divine justice. - -[748] _Ægina_: The description is taken from Ovid (_Metam._ vii.). - -[749] _The scab, etc._: As if by an infernal alchemy the matter of the -shadowy bodies of these sinners is changed into one loathsome form or -another. - -[750] _To all eternity_: This may seem a stroke of sarcasm, but is not. -Himself a shade, Virgil cannot, like Dante, promise to refresh the -memory of the shades on earth, and can only wish for them some slight -alleviation of their suffering. - -[751] _An Aretine_: Called Griffolino, and burned at Florence or Siena -on a charge of heresy. Albert of Siena is said to have been a relative, -some say the natural son, of the Bishop of Siena. A man of the name -figures as hero in some of Sacchetti's novels, always in a ridiculous -light. There seems to be no authentic testimony regarding the incident -in the text. - -[752] _Dædalus_: Who escaped on wings of his invention from the Cretan -Labyrinth he had made and lost himself in. - -[753] _The Sienese_: The comparison of these to the French would have -the more cogency as Siena boasted of having been founded by the Gauls. -'That vain people,' says Dante of the Sienese in the _Purgatory_ (xiii. -151). Among their neighbours they still bear the reputation of -light-headedness; also, it ought to be added, of great urbanity. - -[754] _The Stricca_: The exception in his favour is ironical, as is that -of all the others mentioned. - -[755] _Nicholas_: 'The lavish custom of the clove' which he invented is -variously described. I have chosen the version which makes it consist of -stuffing pheasants with cloves, then very costly. - -[756] _The club_: The commentators tell that the two young Sienese -nobles above mentioned were members of a society formed for the purpose -of living luxuriously together. Twelve of them contributed a fund of -above two hundred thousand gold florins; they built a great palace and -furnished it magnificently, and launched out into every other sort of -extravagance with such assiduity that in a few months their capital was -gone. As that amounted to more than a hundred thousand pounds of our -money, equal in those days to a million or two, the story must be held -to savour of romance. That Dante refers to a prodigal's club that -actually existed some time before he wrote we cannot doubt. But it seems -uncertain, to say the least, whether the sonnets addressed by the Tuscan -poet Folgore da Gemignano to a jovial crew in Siena can be taken as -having been inspired by the club Dante speaks of. A translation of them -is given by Mr. Rossetti in his _Circle of Dante_. (See Mr. Symonds's -_Renaissance_, vol. iv. page 54, _note_, for doubts as to the date of -Folgore.)--_Caccia d' Ascian_: Whose short and merry club life cost him -his estates near Siena. - -[757] _The Abbagliato_: Nothing is known, though a great deal is -guessed, about this member of the club. It is enough to know that, -having a scant supply of wit, he spent it freely. - -[758] _Capocchio_: Some one whom Dante knew. Whether he was a Florentine -or a Sienese is not ascertained, but from the strain of his mention of -the Sienese we may guess Florentine. He was burned in Siena in -1293.--(Scartazzini.) They had studied together, says the _Anonimo_. -Benvenuto tells of him that one Good Friday, while in a cloister, he -painted on his nail with marvellous completeness a picture of the -crucifixion. Dante came up, and was lost in wonder, when Capocchio -suddenly licked his nail clean--which may be taken for what it is worth. - - - - -CANTO XXX. - - - Because of Semele[759] when Juno's ire - Was fierce 'gainst all that were to Thebes allied, - As had been proved by many an instance dire; - So mad grew Athamas[760] that when he spied - His wife as she with children twain drew near, - Each hand by one encumbered, loud he cried: - 'Be now the nets outspread, that I may snare - Cubs with the lioness at yon strait ground!' - And stretching claws of all compassion bare - He on Learchus seized and swung him round, 10 - And shattered him upon a flinty stone; - Then she herself and the other burden drowned. - And when by fortune was all overthrown - The Trojans' pride, inordinate before-- - Monarch and kingdom equally undone-- - Hecuba,[761] sad and captive, mourning o'er - Polyxena, when dolorous she beheld - The body of her darling Polydore - Upon the coast, out of her wits she yelled, - And spent herself in barking like a hound; 20 - So by her sorrow was her reason quelled. - But never yet was Trojan fury[762] found, - Nor that of Thebes, to sting so cruelly - Brute beasts, far less the human form to wound, - As two pale naked shades were stung, whom I - Saw biting run, like swine when they escape - Famished and eager from the empty sty. - Capocchio[763] coming up to, in his nape - One fixed his fangs, and hauling at him made - His belly on the stony pavement scrape. 30 - The Aretine[764] who stood, still trembling, said: - 'That imp is Gianni Schicchi,[765] and he goes - Rabid, thus trimming others.' 'O!' I prayed, - 'So may the teeth of the other one of those - Not meet in thee, as, ere she pass from sight, - Thou freely shalt the name of her disclose.' - And he to me: 'That is the ancient sprite - Of shameless Myrrha,[766] who let liking rise - For him who got her, past all bounds of right. - As, to transgress with him, she in disguise 40 - Came near to him deception to maintain; - So he, departing yonder from our eyes, - That he the Lady of the herd might gain, - Bequeathed his goods by formal testament - While he Buoso Donate's[767] form did feign.' - And when the rabid couple from us went, - Who all this time by me were being eyed, - Upon the rest ill-starred I grew intent; - And, fashioned like a lute, I one espied, - Had he been only severed at the place 50 - Where at the groin men's lower limbs divide. - The grievous dropsy, swol'n with humours base, - Which every part of true proportion strips - Till paunch grows out of keeping with the face, - Compelled him widely ope to hold his lips - Like one in fever who, by thirst possessed, - Has one drawn up while the other chinward slips. - 'O ye![768] who by no punishment distressed, - Nor know I why, are in this world of dool,' - He said; 'a while let your attention rest 60 - On Master Adam[769] here of misery full. - Living, I all I wished enjoyed at will; - Now lust I for a drop of water cool. - The water-brooks that down each grassy hill - Of Casentino to the Arno fall - And with cool moisture all their courses fill-- - Always, and not in vain, I see them all; - Because the vision of them dries me more - Than the disease 'neath which my face grows small. - For rigid justice, me chastising sore, 70 - Can in the place I sinned at motive find - To swell the sighs in which I now deplore. - There lies Romena, where of the money coined[770] - With the Baptist's image I made counterfeit, - And therefore left my body burnt behind. - But could I see here Guido's[771] wretched sprite, - Or Alexander's, or their brother's, I - For Fonte Branda[772] would not give the sight. - One is already here, unless they lie-- - Mad souls with power to wander through the crowd-- - What boots it me, whose limbs diseases tie? 81 - But were I yet so nimble that I could - Creep one poor inch a century, some while - Ago had I begun to take the road - Searching for him among this people vile; - And that although eleven miles[773] 'tis long, - And has a width of more than half a mile. - Because of them am I in such a throng; - For to forge florins I by them was led, - Which by three carats[774] of alloy were wrong,' 90 - 'Who are the wretches twain,' I to him said, - 'Who smoke[775] like hand in winter-time fresh brought - From water, on thy right together spread?' - 'Here found I them, nor have they budged a jot,' - He said, 'since I was hurled into this vale; - And, as I deem, eternally they'll not. - One[776] with false charges Joseph did assail; - False Sinon,[777] Greek from Troy, is the other wight. - Burning with fever they this stink exhale.' - Then one of them, perchance o'ercome with spite 100 - Because he thus contemptuously was named, - Smote with his fist upon the belly tight. - It sounded like a drum; and then was aimed - A blow by Master Adam at his face - With arm no whit less hard, while he exclaimed: - 'What though I can no longer shift my place - Because my members by disease are weighed! - I have an arm still free for such a case.' - To which was answered: 'When thou wast conveyed - Unto the fire 'twas not thus good at need, 110 - But even more so when the coiner's trade - Was plied by thee.' The swol'n one: 'True indeed! - But thou didst not bear witness half so true - When Trojans[778] at thee for the truth did plead.' - 'If I spake falsely, thou didst oft renew - False coin,' said Sinon; 'one fault brought me here; - Thee more than any devil of the crew.' - 'Bethink thee of the horse, thou perjurer,' - He of the swol'n paunch answered; 'and that by - All men 'tis known should anguish in thee stir.' 120 - 'Be thirst that cracks thy tongue thy penalty, - And putrid water,' so the Greek replied, - 'Which 'fore thine eyes thy stomach moundeth high.' - The coiner then: 'Thy mouth thou openest wide, - As thou art used, thy slanderous words to vent; - But if I thirst and humours plump my hide - Thy head throbs with the fire within thee pent. - To lap Narcissus' mirror,[779] to implore - And urge thee on would need no argument.' - While I to hear them did attentive pore 130 - My Master said: 'Thy fill of staring take! - To rouse my anger needs but little more.' - And when I heard that he in anger spake - Toward him I turned with such a shame inspired, - Recalled, it seems afresh on me to break. - And, as the man who dreams of hurt is fired - With wish that he might know his dream a dream, - And so what is, as 'twere not, is desired; - So I, struck dumb and filled with an extreme - Craving to find excuse, unwittingly 140 - The meanwhile made the apology supreme. - 'Less shame,' my Master said, 'would nullify - A greater fault, for greater guilt atone; - All sadness for it, therefore, lay thou by. - But bear in mind that thou art not alone, - If fortune hap again to bring thee near - Where people such debate are carrying on. - To things like these 'tis shame[780] to lend an ear.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[759] _Semele_: The daughter of Cadmus, founder and king of Thebes, was -beloved by Jupiter and therefore hated by Juno, who induced her to court -destruction by urging the god to visit her, as he was used to come to -Juno, in all his glory. And in other instances the goddess took revenge -(Ovid, _Metam._ iv.). - -[760] _Athamas_: Married to a sister of Semele, was made insane by the -angry Juno, with the result described in the text. - -[761] _Hecuba_: Wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of Polyxena and -Polydorus. While she was lamenting the death of her daughter, slain as -an offering on the tomb of Achilles, she found the corpse of her son, -slain by the king of Thrace, to whose keeping she had committed him -(Ovid, _Metam._ xiii.). - -[762] _Trojan fury, etc._: It was by the agency of a Fury that Athamas -was put out of his mind; but the Trojan and Theban furies here meant are -the frenzies of Athamas and Hecuba, wild with which one of them slew his -son, and the other scratched out the eyes of the Thracian king. - -[763] _Capocchio_: See close of the preceding Canto. Here as elsewhere -sinners are made ministers of vengeance on one another. - -[764] _The Aretine_: Griffolino, who boasted he could fly; already -represented as trembling (_Inf._ xxix. 97). - -[765] _Gianni Schicchi_: Giovanni Schicchi, one of the Cavalcanti of -Florence. - -[766] _Myrrha_: This is a striking example of Dante's detestation of -what may be called heartless sins. It is covered by the classification -of Canto xi. Yet it is almost with a shock that we find Myrrha here for -personation, and not rather condemned to some other circle for another -sin. - -[767] _Buoso Donati_: Introduced as a thief in the Seventh Bolgia -(_Inf._ xxv. 140). Buoso was possessed of a peerless mare, known as the -Lady of the herd. To make some amends for his unscrupulous acquisition -of wealth, he made a will bequeathing legacies to various religious -communities. When he died his nephew Simon kept the fact concealed long -enough to procure a personation of him as if on his death-bed by Gianni -Schicchi, who had great powers of mimicry. Acting in the character of -Buoso, the rogue professed his wish to make a new disposition of his -means, and after specifying some trifling charitable bequests the better -to maintain his assumed character, named Simon as general legatee, and -bequeathed Buoso's mare to himself. - -[768] _O ye, etc._: The speaker has heard and noted Virgil's words of -explanation given in the previous Canto, line 94. - -[769] _Master Adam_: Adam of Brescia, an accomplished worker in metals, -was induced by the Counts Guidi of Romena in the Casentino, the upland -district of the upper Arno, to counterfeit the gold coin of Florence. -This false coin is mentioned in a Chronicle as having been in -circulation in 1281. It must therefore have been somewhat later that -Master Adam was burned, as he was by sentence of the Republic, upon the -road which led from Romena to Florence. A cairn still existing near the -ruined castle bears the name of the 'dead man's cairn.' - -[770] _The money coined, etc._: The gold florin, afterwards adopted in -so many countries, was first struck in 1252; 'which florins weighed -eight to the ounce, and bore the lily on the one side, and on the other -Saint John.'--(Villani, vi. 54.) The piece was thus of about the weight -of our half-sovereign. The gold was of twenty-four carats; that is, it -had no alloy. The coin soon passed into wide circulation, and to -maintain its purity became for the Florentines a matter of the first -importance. Villani, in the chapter above cited, tells how the King of -Tunis finding the florin to be of pure gold sent for some of the Pisans, -then the chief traders in his ports, and asked who were the Florentines -that they coined such money. 'Only our Arabs,' was the answer; meaning -that they were rough country folk, dependent on Pisa. 'Then what is your -coin like?' he asked. A Florentine of Oltrarno named Pera Balducci, who -was present, took the opportunity of informing him how great Florence -was compared with Pisa, as was shown by that city having no gold coinage -of its own; whereupon the King made the Florentines free of Tunis, and -allowed them to have a factory there. 'And this,' adds Villani, who had -himself been agent abroad for a great Florentine house of business, 'we -had at first hand from the aforesaid Pera, a man worthy of credit, and -with whom we were associated in the Priorate.' - -[771] _Guido, etc._: The Guidi of Romena were a branch of the great -family of the Counts Guidi. The father of the three brothers in the text -was grandson of the old Guido that married the Good Gualdrada, and -cousin of the Guidoguerra met by Dante in the Seventh Circle (_Inf._ -xvi. 38). How the third brother was called is not settled, nor which of -the three was already dead in the beginning of 1300. The Alexander of -Romena, who for some time was captain of the banished Florentine Whites, -was, most probably, he of the text. A letter is extant professing to be -written by Dante to two of Alexander's nephews on the occasion of his -death, in which the poet excuses himself for absence from the funeral on -the plea of poverty. By the time he wrote the _Inferno_ he may, owing to -their shifty politics, have lost all liking for the family, yet it seems -harsh measure that is here dealt to former friends and patrons. - -[772] _Fonte Branda_: A celebrated fountain in the city of Siena. Near -Romena is a spring which is also named Fonte Branda; and this, according -to the view now most in favour, was meant by Master Adam. But was it so -named in Dante's time? Or was it not so called only when the _Comedy_ -had begun to awaken a natural interest in the old coiner, which local -ingenuity did its best to meet? The early commentators know nothing of -the Casentino Fonte Branda, and, though it is found mentioned under the -date of 1539, that does not take us far enough back. In favour of the -Sienese fountain is the consideration that it was the richest of any in -the Tuscan cities; that it was a great architectural as well as -engineering work; and that, although now more than half a century old, -it was still the subject of curiosity with people far and near. Besides, -Adam has already recalled the brooks of Casentino, and so the mention of -the paltry spring at Romena would introduce no fresh idea like that of -the abundant waters of the great fountain which daily quenched the -thirst of thousands. - -[773] _Eleven miles_: It will be remembered that the previous Bolgia was -twenty-two miles in circumference. - -[774] _Three carats_: Three carats in twenty-four being of some foreign -substance. - -[775] _Who smoke, etc._: This description of sufferers from high fever, -like that of Master Adam with his tympanitis, has the merit, such as it -is, of being true to the life. - -[776] _One, etc._: Potiphar's wife. - -[777] _Sinon_: Called of Troy, as being known through his conduct at the -siege. He pretended to have deserted from the Greeks, and by a false -story persuaded the Trojans to admit the fatal wooden horse. - -[778] _When Trojans, etc._: When King Priam sought to know for what -purpose the wooden horse was really constructed. - -[779] _Narcissus' mirror_: The pool in which Narcissus saw his form -reflected. - -[780] _'Tis shame_: Dante knows that Virgil would have scorned to -portray such a scene of low life as this, but he must allow himself a -wider licence and here as elsewhere refuses nothing, even in the way of -mean detail, calculated to convey to his readers 'a full experience of -the Inferno' as he conceived of it--the place 'where all the vileness of -the world is cast.' - - - - -CANTO XXXI. - - - The very tongue that first had caused me pain, - Biting till both my cheeks were crimsoned o'er, - With healing medicine me restored again. - So have I heard, the lance Achilles[781] bore, - Which earlier was his father's, first would wound - And then to health the wounded part restore. - From that sad valley[782] we our backs turned round, - Up the encircling rampart making way - Nor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound. - Here was it less than night and less than day, 10 - And scarce I saw at all what lay ahead; - But of a trumpet the sonorous bray-- - No thunder-peal were heard beside it--led - Mine eyes along the line by which it passed, - Till on one spot their gaze concentrated. - When by the dolorous rout was overcast - The sacred enterprise of Charlemagne - Roland[783] blew not so terrible a blast. - Short time my head was that way turned, when plain - I many lofty towers appeared to see. 20 - 'Master, what town is this?' I asked. 'Since fain - Thou art,' he said, 'to pierce the obscurity - While yet through distance 'tis inscrutable, - Thou must of error needs the victim be. - Arriving there thou shalt distinguish well - How much by distance was thy sense betrayed; - Therefore to swifter course thyself compel.' - Then tenderly[784] he took my hand, and said: - 'Ere we pass further I would have thee know, - That at the fact thou mayst be less dismayed, 30 - These are not towers but giants; in a row - Set round the brink each in the pit abides, - His navel hidden and the parts below.' - And even as when the veil of mist divides - Little by little dawns upon the sight - What the obscuring vapour earlier hides; - So, piercing the gross air uncheered by light, - As I step after step drew near the bound - My error fled, but I was filled with fright. - As Montereggion[785] with towers is crowned 40 - Which from the walls encircling it arise; - So, rising from the pit's encircling mound, - Half of their bodies towered before mine eyes-- - Dread giants, still by Jupiter defied - From Heaven whene'er it thunders in the skies. - The face of one already I descried, - His shoulders, breast, and down his belly far, - And both his arms dependent by his side. - When Nature ceased such creatures as these are - To form, she of a surety wisely wrought 50 - Wresting from Mars such ministers of war. - And though she rue not that to life she brought - The whale and elephant, who deep shall read - Will justify her wisdom in his thought; - For when the powers of intellect are wed - To strength and evil will, with them made one, - The race of man is helpless left indeed. - As large and long as is St. Peter's cone[786] - At Rome, the face appeared; of every limb - On scale like this was fashioned every bone. 60 - So that the bank, which covered half of him - As might a tunic, left uncovered yet - So much that if to his hair they sought to climb - Three Frisians[787] end on end their match had met; - For thirty great palms I of him could see, - Counting from where a man's cloak-clasp is set. - _Rafel[788] mai amech zabi almi!_ - Out of the bestial mouth began to roll, - Which scarce would suit more dulcet psalmody. - And then my Leader charged him: 'Stupid soul, 70 - Stick to thy horn. With it relieve thy mind - When rage or other passions pass control. - Feel at thy neck, round which the thong is twined - O puzzle-headed wretch! from which 'tis slung; - Clipping thy monstrous breast thou shalt it find.' - And then to me: 'From his own mouth is wrung - Proof of his guilt. 'Tis Nimrod, whose insane - Whim hindered men from speaking in one tongue. - Leave we him here nor spend our speech in vain; - For words to him in any language said, 80 - As unto others his, no sense contain.' - Turned to the left, we on our journey sped, - And at the distance of an arrow's flight - We found another huger and more dread. - By what artificer thus pinioned tight - I cannot tell, but his left arm was bound - In front, as at his back was bound the right, - By a chain which girt him firmly round and round; - About what of his frame there was displayed - Below the neck, in fivefold gyre 'twas wound. 90 - 'Incited by ambition this one made - Trial of prowess 'gainst Almighty Jove,' - My Leader told, 'and he is thus repaid. - 'Tis Ephialtes,[789] mightily who strove - What time the giants to the gods caused fright: - The arms he wielded then no more will move.' - And I to him: 'Fain would I, if I might, - On the enormous Briareus set eye, - And know the truth by holding him in sight.' - 'Antæus[790] thou shalt see,' he made reply, 100 - 'Ere long, and he can speak, nor is in chains. - Us to the depth of all iniquity - He shall let down. The one thou'dst see[791] remains - Far off, like this one bound and like in make, - But in his face far more of fierceness reigns.' - Never when earth most terribly did quake - Shook any tower so much as what all o'er - And suddenly did Ephialtes shake. - Terror of death possessed me more and more; - The fear alone had served my turn indeed, 110 - But that I marked the ligatures he wore. - Then did we somewhat further on proceed, - Reaching Antæus who for good five ell,[792] - His head not counted, from the pit was freed. - 'O thou who from the fortune-haunted dell[793]-- - Where Scipio of glory was made heir - When with his host to flight turned Hannibal-- - A thousand lions didst for booty bear - Away, and who, hadst thou but joined the host - And like thy brethren fought, some even aver 120 - The victory to earth's sons had not been lost, - Lower us now, nor disobliging show, - To where Cocytus[794] fettered is by frost. - To Tityus[795] nor to Typhon make us go. - To grant what here is longed for he hath power, - Cease them to curl thy snout, but bend thee low. - He can for wage thy name on earth restore; - He lives, and still expecteth to live long, - If Grace recall him not before his hour.' - So spake my Master. Then his hands he swung 130 - Downward and seized my Leader in all haste-- - Hands in whose grip even Hercules once was wrung. - And Virgil when he felt them round him cast - Said: 'That I may embrace thee, hither tend,' - And in one bundle with him made me fast. - And as to him that under Carisend[796] - Stands on the side it leans to, while clouds fly - Counter its slope, the tower appears to bend; - Even so to me who stood attentive by - Antæus seemed to stoop, and I, dismayed, 140 - Had gladly sought another road to try. - But us in the abyss he gently laid, - Where Lucifer and Judas gulfed remain; - Nor to it thus bent downward long time stayed, - But like a ship's mast raised himself again. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[781] _Achilles_: The rust upon his lance had virtue to heal the wound. - -[782] _From that sad valley_: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they -climb the inner bank of it and approach the Ninth and last Circle, which -consists of the pit of the Inferno. - -[783] _Roland_: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating -the Saracens at Saragossa, left Roland to bring up his rear-guard. The -enemy fell on this in superior strength, and slew the Christians almost -to a man. Then Roland, mortally wounded, sat down under a tree in -Roncesvalles and blew upon his famous horn a blast so loud that it was -heard by Charles at a distance of several miles.--The _Chansons de -Geste_ were familiarly known to Italians of all classes. - -[784] _Then tenderly, etc._: The wound inflicted by his reproof has been -already healed, but Virgil still behaves to Dante with more than his -wonted gentleness. He will have him assured of his sympathy now that -they are about to descend into the 'lowest depth of all wickedness.' - -[785] _Montereggioni_: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which -ample ruins still exist. It had no central keep, but twelve towers rose -from its circular wall like spikes from the rim of a coronet. They had -been added by the Sienese in 1260, and so were comparatively new in -Dante's time.--As the towers stood round Montereggioni so the giants at -regular intervals stand round the central pit. They have their foothold -within the enclosing mound; and thus, to one looking at them from -without, they are hidden by it up to their middle. As the embodiment of -superhuman impious strength and pride they stand for warders of the -utmost reach of Hell. - -[786] _St. Peter's cone_: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to -have originally crowned the mausoleum of Hadrian, lay in Dante's time in -the forecourt of St Peter's. When the new church was built it was -removed to the gardens of the Vatican, where it still remains. Its size, -it will be seen, is of importance as helping us to a notion of the -stature of the giants; and, though the accounts of its height are -strangely at variance with one another, I think the measurement made -specially for Philalethes may be accepted as substantially correct. -According to that, the cone is ten palms long--about six feet. Allowing -something for the neck, down to 'where a man clasps his cloak' (line -66), and taking the thirty palms as eighteen feet, we get twenty-six -feet or so for half his height. The giants vary in bulk; whether they do -so in height is not clear. We cannot be far mistaken if we assume them -to stand from fifty to sixty feet high. Virgil and Dante must throw -their heads well back to look up into the giant's face; and Virgil must -raise his voice as he speaks.--With regard to the height of the cone it -may be remarked that Murray's Handbook for Rome makes it eleven feet -high; Gsell-Fels two and a half metres, or eight feet and three inches. -It is so placed as to be difficult of measurement. - -[787] _Three Frisians_: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to -be, if standing one on the head of the other would not have reached his -hair. - -[788] _Rafel, etc._: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh -Canto, have, to no result, greatly exercised the ingenuity of scholars. -From what follows it is clear that Dante meant them to be meaningless. -Part of Nimrod's punishment is that he who brought about the confusion -of tongues is now left with a language all to himself. It seems strange -that commentators should have exhausted themselves in searching for a -sense in words specially invented to have none.--In his _De Vulg. El._, -i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the -tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant. - -[789] _Ephialtes_: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled -Ossa on Pelion. - -[790] _Antæus_: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, -unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike -Ephialtes, is not bound. Antæus is free-handed because he took no part -in the war with the gods. - -[791] _The one thou'dst see_: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know -what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he -was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only -fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles -with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake. - -[792] _Five ell_: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antæus is -of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports -the view that the 'huger' of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to -height. - -[793] _The fortune-haunted dell_: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, -where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The -giant Antæus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, -with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was -son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to -touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he -needed to swing him aloft. In the _Monarchia_, ii. 10, Dante refers to -the combat between Hercules and Antæus as an instance of the wager of -battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan's -_Pharsalia_, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these -references to Scipio and Antæus. - -[794] _Cocytus_: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See -Canto xiv. at the end. - -[795] _Tityus, etc._: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be -less strong than Antæus. This introduction of their names is therefore a -piece of flattery to the monster. A light contemptuous turn is given by -Virgil to his flattery when in the following sentence he bids Antæus not -curl his snout, but at once comply with the demand for aid. There is -something genuinely Italian in the picture given of the giants in this -Canto, as of creatures whose intellect bears no proportion to their bulk -and brute strength. Mighty hunters like Nimrod, skilled in sounding the -horn but feeble in reasoned speech, Frisians with great thews and long -of limb, and German men-at-arms who traded in their rude valour, to the -subtle Florentine in whom the ferment of the Renaissance was beginning -to work were all specimens of Nature's handicraft that had better have -been left unmade, were it not that wiser people could use them as tools. - -[796] _Carisenda_: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the -beginning of the twelfth century, and, like many others of its kind in -the city, erected not for strength but merely in order to dignify the -family to whom it belonged. By way of further distinction to their -owners, some of these towers were so constructed as to lean from the -perpendicular. Carisenda, like its taller neighbour the Asinelli, still -supplies a striking feature to the near and distant views of Bologna. -What is left of it hangs for more than two yards off the plumb. In the -half-century after Dante's time it had, according to Benvenuto, lost -something of its height. It would therefore as the poet saw it seem to -be bending down even more than it now does to any one standing under it -on the side it slopes to, when a cloud is drifting over it in the other -direction. - - - - -CANTO XXXII. - - - Had I sonorous rough rhymes at command, - Such as would suit the cavern terrible - Rooted on which all the other ramparts stand, - The sap of fancies which within me swell - Closer I'd press; but since I have not these, - With some misgiving I go on to tell. - For 'tis no task to play with as you please, - Of all the world the bottom to portray, - Nor one that with a baby speech[797] agrees. - But let those ladies help me with my lay 10 - Who helped Amphion[798] walls round Thebes to pile, - And faithful to the facts my words shall stay. - O 'bove all creatures wretched, for whose vile - Abode 'tis hard to find a language fit, - As sheep or goats ye had been happier! While - We still were standing in the murky pit-- - Beneath the giant's feet[799] set far below-- - And at the high wall I was staring yet, - When this I heard: 'Heed to thy steps[800] bestow, - Lest haply by thy soles the heads be spurned 20 - Of wretched brothers wearied in their woe.' - Before me, as on hearing this I turned, - Beneath my feet a frozen lake,[801] its guise - Rather of glass than water, I discerned. - In all its course on Austrian Danube lies - No veil in time of winter near so thick, - Nor on the Don beneath its frigid skies, - As this was here; on which if Tabernicch[802] - Or Mount Pietrapana[803] should alight - Not even the edge would answer with a creak. 30 - And as the croaking frog holds well in sight - Its muzzle from the pool, what time of year[804] - The peasant girl of gleaning dreams at night; - The mourning shades in ice were covered here, - Seen livid up to where we blush[805] with shame. - In stork-like music their teeth chattering were. - With downcast face stood every one of them: - To cold from every mouth, and to despair - From every eye, an ample witness came. - And having somewhat gazed around me there 40 - I to my feet looked down, and saw two pressed - So close together, tangled was their hair, - 'Say, who are you with breast[806] thus strained to breast?' - I asked; whereon their necks they backward bent, - And when their upturned faces lay at rest - Their eyes, which earlier were but moistened, sent - Tears o'er their eyelids: these the frost congealed - And fettered fast[807] before they further went. - Plank set to plank no rivet ever held - More firmly; wherefore, goat-like, either ghost 50 - Butted the other; so their wrath prevailed. - And one who wanted both ears, which the frost - Had bitten off, with face still downward thrown, - Asked: 'Why with us art thou so long engrossed? - If who that couple are thou'dst have made known-- - The vale down which Bisenzio's floods decline - Was once their father Albert's[808] and their own. - One body bore them: search the whole malign - Caïna,[809] and thou shalt not any see - More worthy to be fixed in gelatine; 60 - Not he whose breast and shadow equally - Were by one thrust of Arthur's lance[810] pierced through: - Nor yet Focaccia;[811] nor the one that me - With his head hampers, blocking out my view, - Whose name was Sassol Mascheroni:[812] well - Thou must him know if thou art Tuscan too. - And that thou need'st not make me further tell-- - I'm Camicion de' Pazzi,[813] and Carlin[814] - I weary for, whose guilt shall mine excel.' - A thousand faces saw I dog-like grin, 70 - Frost-bound; whence I, as now, shall always shake - Whenever sight of frozen pools I win. - While to the centre[815] we our way did make - To which all things converging gravitate, - And me that chill eternal caused to quake; - Whether by fortune, providence, or fate, - I know not, but as 'mong the heads I went - I kicked one full in the face; who therefore straight - 'Why trample on me?' snarled and made lament, - 'Unless thou com'st to heap the vengeance high 80 - For Montaperti,[816] why so virulent - 'Gainst me?' I said: 'Await me here till I - By him, O Master, shall be cleared of doubt;[817] - Then let my pace thy will be guided by.' - My Guide delayed, and I to him spake out, - While he continued uttering curses shrill: - 'Say, what art thou, at others thus to shout?' - 'But who art thou, that goest at thy will - Through Antenora,[818] trampling on the face - Of others? 'Twere too much if thou wert still 90 - In life.' 'I live, and it may help thy case,' - Was my reply, 'if thou renown wouldst gain, - Should I thy name[819] upon my tablets place.' - And he: 'I for the opposite am fain. - Depart thou hence, nor work me further dool; - Within this swamp thou flatterest all in vain.' - Then I began him by the scalp to pull, - And 'Thou must tell how thou art called,' I said, - 'Or soon thy hair will not be plentiful.' - And he: 'Though every hair thou from me shred 100 - I will not tell thee, nor my face turn round; - No, though a thousand times thou spurn my head.' - His locks ere this about my fist were wound, - And many a tuft I tore, while dog-like wails - Burst from him, and his eyes still sought the ground. - Then called another: 'Bocca, what now ails? - Is't not enough thy teeth go chattering there, - But thou must bark? What devil thee assails?' - 'Ah! now,' said I, 'thou need'st not aught declare, - Accursed traitor; and true news of thee 110 - To thy disgrace I to the world will bear.' - 'Begone, tell what thou wilt,' he answered me; - 'But, if thou issue hence, not silent keep[820] - Of him whose tongue but lately wagged so free. - He for the Frenchmen's money[821] here doth weep. - Him of Duera saw I, mayst thou tell, - Where sinners shiver in the frozen deep. - Shouldst thou be asked who else within it dwell-- - Thou hast the Beccheria[822] at thy side; - Across whose neck the knife at Florence fell. 120 - John Soldanieri[823] may be yonder spied - With Ganellon,[824] and Tribaldell[825] who threw - Faenza's gates, when slept the city, wide.' - Him had we left, our journey to pursue, - When frozen in a hole[826] a pair I saw; - One's head like the other's hat showed to the view. - And, as their bread men hunger-driven gnaw, - The uppermost tore fiercely at his mate - Where nape and brain-pan to a junction draw. - No worse by Tydeus[827] in his scornful hate 130 - Were Menalippus' temples gnawed and hacked - Than skull and all were torn by him irate. - 'O thou who provest by such bestial act - Hatred of him who by thy teeth is chewed, - Declare thy motive,' said I, 'on this pact-- - That if with reason thou with him hast feud, - Knowing your names and manner of his crime - I in the world[828] to thee will make it good; - If what I speak with dry not ere the time.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[797] _A baby speech_: 'A tongue that cries _mamma_ and _papa_' For his -present purpose, he complains, he has not in Italian an adequate supply -of rough high-sounding rhymes; but at least he will use only the best -words that can be found. In another work (_De Vulg. El._ ii. 7) he -instances _mamma_ and _babbo_ as words of a kind to be avoided by all -who would write nobly in Italian. - -[798] _Amphion_: Who with his music charmed rocks from the mountain and -heaped them in order for walls to Thebes. - -[799] _The giant's feet_: Antæus. A bank slopes from where the giants -stand inside the wall down to the pit which is filled with the frozen -Cocytus. This is the Ninth and inmost Circle, and is divided into four -concentric rings--Caïna, Antenora, Ptolomæa, and Judecca--where traitors -of different kinds are punished. - -[800] _Thy steps_: Dante alone is addressed, the speaker having seen him -set heavily down upon the ice by Antæus. - -[801] _A frozen lake_: Cocytus. See _Inf._ xiv. 119. - -[802] _Tabernicch_: It is not certain what mountain is here meant; -probably Yavornick near Adelsberg in Carniola. It is mentioned, not for -its size, but the harshness of its name. - -[803] _Pietrapana_: A mountain between Modena and Lucca, visible from -Pisa: Petra Apuana. - -[804] _Time of year_: At harvest-time, when in the warm summer nights -the wearied gleaner dreams of her day's work. - -[805] _To where we blush_: The bodies of the shades are seen buried in -the clear glassy ice, out of which their heads and necks stand free--as -much as 'shows shame,' that is, blushes. - -[806] _With breast, etc._: As could be seen through the clear ice. - -[807] _Fettered fast_: Binding up their eyes. In the punishment of -traitors is symbolised the hardness and coldness of their hearts to all -the claims of blood, country, or friendship. - -[808] _Their father Albert's_: Albert, of the family of the Counts -Alberti, lord of the upper valley of the Bisenzio, near Florence. His -sons, Alexander and Napoleon, slew one another in a quarrel regarding -their inheritance. - -[809] _Caïna_: The outer ring of the Ninth Circle, and that in which are -punished those treacherous to their kindred.--Here a place is reserved -for Gianciotto Malatesta, the husband of Francesca (_Inf._ v. 107). - -[810] _Arthur's lance_: Mordred, natural son of King Arthur, was slain -by him in battle as a rebel and traitor. 'And the history says that -after the lance-thrust Girflet plainly saw a ray of the sun pass through -the hole of the wound.'--_Lancelot du Lac_. - -[811] _Focaccia_: A member of the Pistoiese family of Cancellieri, in -whose domestic feuds the parties of Whites and Blacks took rise. He -assassinated one of his relatives and cut off the hand of another. - -[812] _Sassol Mascheroni_: Of the Florentine family of the Toschi. He -murdered his nephew, of whom by some accounts he was the guardian. For -this crime he was punished by being rolled through the streets of -Florence in a cask and then beheaded. Every Tuscan would be familiar -with the story of such a punishment. - -[813] _Camicion de' Pazzi_: To distinguish the Pazzi to whom Camicione -belonged from the Pazzi of Florence they were called the Pazzi of -Valdarno, where their possessions lay. Like his fellow-traitors he had -slain a kinsman. - -[814] _Carlin_: Also one of the Pazzi of Valdarno. Like all the spirits -in this circle Camicione is eager to betray the treachery of others, and -prophesies the guilt of his still living relative, which is to cast his -own villany into the shade. In 1302 or 1303 Carlino held the castle of -Piano de Trevigne in Valdarno, where many of the exiled Whites of -Florence had taken refuge, and for a bribe he betrayed it to the enemy. - -[815] _The centre_: The bottom of Inferno is the centre of the earth, -and, on the system of Ptolemy, the central point of the universe. - -[816] _Montaperti_: See _Inf._ x. 86. The speaker is Bocca, of the great -Florentine family of the Abati, who served as one of the Florentine -cavaliers at Montaperti. When the enemy was charging towards the -standard of the Republican cavalry Bocca aimed a blow at the arm of the -knight who bore it and cut off his hand. The sudden fall of the flag -disheartened the Florentines, and in great measure contributed to the -defeat. - -[817] _Cleared of doubt_: The mention of Montaperti in this place of -traitors suggests to Dante the thought of Bocca. He would fain be sure -as to whether he has the traitor at his feet. Montaperti was never very -far from the thoughts of the Florentine of that day. It is never out of -Bocca's mind. - -[818] _Antenora_: The second ring of the Ninth Circle, where traitors to -their country are punished, named after Antenor the Trojan prince who, -according to the belief of the middle ages, betrayed his native city to -the Greeks. - -[819] _Should I thy name, etc._: 'Should I put thy name among the other -notes.' It is the last time that Dante is to offer such a bribe; and -here the offer is most probably ironical. - -[820] _Not silent keep, etc._: Like all the other traitors Bocca finds -his only pleasure in betraying his neighbours. - -[821] _The Frenchmen's money_: He who had betrayed the name of Bocca was -Buoso of Duera, one of the Ghibeline chiefs of Cremona. When Guy of -Montfort was leading an army across Lombardy to recruit Charles of Anjou -in his war against Manfred in 1265 (_Inf._ xxviii. 16 and _Purg._ iii.), -Buoso, who had been left to guard the passage of the Oglio, took a bribe -to let the French army pass. - -[822] _Beccheria_: Tesauro of the Pavian family Beccheria, Abbot of -Vallombrosa and legate in Florence of Pope Alexander IV. He was accused -of conspiring against the Commonwealth along with the exiled Ghibelines -(1258). All Europe was shocked to hear that a great churchman had been -tortured and beheaded by the Florentines. The city was placed under -Papal interdict, proclaimed by the Archbishop of Pisa from the tower of -S. Pietro in Vincoli at Rome. Villani seems to think the Abbot was -innocent of the charge brought against him (_Cron._ vi. 65), but he -always leans to the indulgent view when a priest is concerned. - -[823] _Soldanieri_: Deserted from the Florentine Ghibelines after the -defeat of Manfred. - -[824] _Ganellon_: Whose treacherous counsel led to the defeat of Roland -at Roncesvalles. - -[825] _Tribaldello_: A noble of Faenza, who, as one account says, to -revenge himself for the loss of a pig, sent a cast of the key of the -city gate to John of Apia, then prowling about Romagna in the interest -of the French Pope, Martin IV. He was slain at the battle of Forlì in -1282 (_Inf._ xxvii. 43). - -[826] _Frozen in a hole, etc._: The two are the Count Ugolino and the -Archbishop Roger. - -[827] _Tydeus_: One of the Seven against Thebes, who, having been -mortally wounded by Menalippus the Theban, whom he slew, got his friends -to bring him the head of his foe and gnawed at it with his teeth. Dante -found the incident in his favourite author Statius (_Theb._ viii.). - -[828] _I in the world, etc._: Dante has learned from Bocca that the -prospect of having their memory refreshed on earth has no charm for the -sinners met with here. The bribe he offers is that of loading the name -of a foe with ignominy--but only if from the tale it shall be plain that -the ignominy is deserved. - - - - -CANTO XXXIII. - - - His mouth uplifting from the savage feast, - The sinner[829] rubbed and wiped it free of gore - On the hair of the head he from behind laid waste; - And then began: 'Thou'dst have me wake once more - A desperate grief, of which to think alone, - Ere I have spoken, wrings me to the core. - But if my words shall be as seed that sown - May fructify unto the traitor's shame - Whom thus I gnaw, I mingle speech[830] and groan. - Of how thou earnest hither or thy name 10 - I nothing know, but that a Florentine[831] - In very sooth thou art, thy words proclaim. - Thou then must know I was Count Ugolin, - The Archbishop Roger[832] he. Now hearken well - Why I prove such a neighbour. How in fine, - And flowing from his ill designs, it fell - That I, confiding in his words, was caught - Then done to death, were waste of time[833] to tell. - But that of which as yet thou heardest nought - Is how the death was cruel which I met: 20 - Hearken and judge if wrong to me he wrought. - Scant window in the mew whose epithet - Of Famine[834] came from me its resident, - And cooped in which shall many languish yet, - Had shown me through its slit how there were spent - Full many moons,[835] ere that bad dream I dreamed - When of my future was the curtain rent. - Lord of the hunt and master this one seemed, - Chasing the wolf and wolf-cubs on the height[836] - By which from Pisan eyes is Lucca hemmed. 30 - With famished hounds well trained and swift of flight, - Lanfranchi[837] and Gualandi in the van, - And Sismond he had set. Within my sight - Both sire and sons--nor long the chase--began - To grow (so seemed it) weary as they fled; - Then through their flanks fangs sharp and eager ran. - When I awoke before the morning spread - I heard my sons[838] all weeping in their sleep-- - For they were with me--and they asked for bread. - Ah! cruel if thou canst from pity keep 40 - At the bare thought of what my heart foreknew; - And if thou weep'st not, what could make thee weep? - Now were they 'wake, and near the moment drew - At which 'twas used to bring us our repast; - But each was fearful[839] lest his dream came true. - And then I heard the under gate[840] made fast - Of the horrible tower, and thereupon I gazed - In my sons' faces, silent and aghast. - I did not weep, for I to stone was dazed: - They wept, and darling Anselm me besought: 50 - "What ails thee, father? Wherefore thus amazed?" - And yet I did not weep, and answered not - The whole day, and that night made answer none, - Till on the world another sun shone out. - Soon as a feeble ray of light had won - Into our doleful prison, made aware - Of the four faces[841] featured like my own, - Both of my hands I bit at in despair; - And they, imagining that I was fain - To eat, arose before me with the prayer: 60 - "O father, 'twere for us an easier pain - If thou wouldst eat us. Thou didst us array - In this poor flesh: unclothe us now again." - I calmed me, not to swell their woe. That day - And the next day no single word we said. - Ah! pitiless earth, that didst unyawning stay! - When we had reached the fourth day, Gaddo, spread - Out at my feet, fell prone; and made demand: - "Why, O my father, offering us no aid?" - There died he. Plain as I before thee stand 70 - I saw the three as one by one they failed, - The fifth day and the sixth; then with my hand, - Blind now, I groped for each of them, and wailed - On them for two days after they were gone. - Famine[842] at last, more strong than grief, prevailed,' - When he had uttered this, his eyes all thrown - Awry, upon the hapless skull he fell - With teeth that, dog-like, rasped upon the bone. - Ah, Pisa! byword of the folk that dwell - In the sweet country where the Si[843] doth sound, 80 - Since slow thy neighbours to reward thee well - Let now Gorgona and Capraia[844] mound - Themselves where Arno with the sea is blent, - Till every one within thy walls be drowned. - For though report of Ugolino went - That he betrayed[845] thy castles, thou didst wrong - Thus cruelly his children to torment. - These were not guilty, for they were but young, - Thou modern Thebes![846] Brigata and young Hugh, - And the other twain of whom above 'tis sung. 90 - We onward passed to where another crew[847] - Of shades the thick-ribbed ice doth fettered keep; - Their heads not downward these, but backward threw. - Their very weeping will not let them weep, - And grief, encountering barriers at their eyes, - Swells, flowing inward, their affliction deep; - For the first tears that issue crystallise, - And fill, like vizor fashioned out of glass, - The hollow cup o'er which the eyebrows rise. - And though, as 'twere a callus, now my face 100 - By reason of the frost was wholly grown - Benumbed and dead to feeling, I could trace - (So it appeared), a breeze against it blown, - And asked: 'O Master, whence comes this? So low - As where we are is any vapour[848] known?' - And he replied: 'Thou ere long while shalt go - Where touching this thine eye shall answer true, - Discovering that which makes the wind to blow.' - Then from the cold crust one of that sad crew - Demanded loud: 'Spirits, for whom they hold 110 - The inmost room, so truculent were you, - Back from my face let these hard veils be rolled, - That I may vent the woe which chokes my heart, - Ere tears again solidify with cold.' - And I to him: 'First tell me who thou art - If thou'dst have help; then if I help not quick - To the bottom[849] of the ice let me depart.' - He answered: 'I am Friar Alberic[850]-- - He of the fruit grown in the orchard fell-- - And here am I repaid with date for fig.' 120 - 'Ah!' said I to him, 'art thou dead as well?' - 'How now my body fares,' he answered me, - 'Up in the world, I have no skill to tell; - For Ptolomæa[851] has this quality-- - The soul oft plunges hither to its place - Ere it has been by Atropos[852] set free. - And that more willingly from off my face - Thou mayst remove the glassy tears, know, soon - As ever any soul of man betrays - As I betrayed, the body once his own 130 - A demon takes and governs until all - The span allotted for his life be run. - Into this tank headlong the soul doth fall; - And on the earth his body yet may show - Whose shade behind me wintry frosts enthral. - But thou canst tell, if newly come below: - It is Ser Branca d'Oria,[853] and complete - Is many a year since he was fettered so.' - 'It seems,' I answered, 'that thou wouldst me cheat, - For Branca d'Oria never can have died: 140 - He sleeps, puts clothes on, swallows drink and meat.' - 'Or e'er to the tenacious pitchy tide - Which boils in Malebranche's moat had come - The shade of Michael Zanche,' he replied, - 'That soul had left a devil in its room - Within its body; of his kinsmen one[854] - Treacherous with him experienced equal doom. - But stretch thy hand and be its work begun - Of setting free mine eyes.' This did not I. - Twas highest courtesy to yield him none.[855] 150 - Ah, Genoese,[856] strange to morality! - Ye men infected with all sorts of sin! - Out of the world 'tis time that ye should die. - Here, to Romagna's blackest soul[857] akin, - I chanced on one of you; for doing ill - His soul o'erwhelmed Cocytus' floods within, - Though in the flesh he seems surviving still. - - -NOTE ON THE COUNT UGOLINO. - -Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico, a wealthy noble and a -man fertile in political resource, was deeply engaged in the affairs of -Pisa at a critical period of her history. He was born in the first half -of the thirteenth century. By giving one of his daughters in marriage to -the head of the Visconti of Pisa--not to be confounded with those of -Milan--he came under the suspicion of being Guelf in his sympathies; the -general opinion of Pisa being then, as it always had been, strongly -Ghibeline. When driven into exile, as he was along with the Visconti, he -improved the occasion by entering into close relations with the leading -Guelfs of Tuscany, and in 1278 a free return for him to Pisa was made by -them a condition of peace with that city. He commanded one of the -divisions of the Pisan fleet at the disastrous battle of Meloria in -1284, when Genoa wrested from her rival the supremacy of the Western -Mediterranean, and carried thousands of Pisan citizens into a captivity -which lasted many years. Isolated from her Ghibeline allies, and for the -time almost sunk in despair, the city called him to the government with -wellnigh dictatorial powers; and by dint of crafty negotiations in -detail with the members of the league formed against Pisa, helped as was -believed by lavish bribery, he had the glory of saving the Commonwealth -from destruction though he could not wholly save it from loss. This was -in 1285. He soon came to be suspected of being in a secret alliance with -Florence and of being lukewarm in the negotiations for the return of the -prisoners in Genoa, all with a view to depress the Ghibeline element in -the city that he might establish himself as an absolute tyrant with the -greater ease. In order still further to strengthen his position he -entered into a family compact with his Guelf grandson Nino (_Purg._ -viii. 53), now at the head of the Visconti. But without the support of -the people it was impossible for him to hold his ground against the -Ghibeline nobles, who resented the arrogance of his manners and were -embittered by the loss of their own share in the government; and these -contrived that month by month the charges of treachery brought against -him should increase in virulence. He had, by deserting his post, caused -the defeat at Meloria, it was said; and had bribed the other Tuscan -cities to favour him, by ceding to them distant Pisan strongholds. His -fate was sealed when, having quarrelled with his grandson Nino, he -sought alliance with the Archbishop Roger who now led the Ghibeline -opposition. With Ugo's connivance an onslaught was planned upon the -Guelfs. To preserve an appearance of impartiality he left the city for a -neighbouring villa. On returning to enjoy his riddance from a rival he -was invited to a conference, at which he resisted a proposal that he -should admit partners with him in the government. On this the -Archbishop's party raised the cry of treachery; the bells rang out for a -street battle, in which he was worsted; and with his sons he had to take -refuge in the Palace of the People. There he stood a short siege against -the Ghibeline families and the angry mob; and in the same palace he was -kept prisoner for twenty days. Then, with his sons and grandsons, he was -carried in chains to the tower of the Gualandi, which stood where seven -ways met in the heart of Pisa. This was in July 1288. The imprisonment -lasted for months, and seems to have been thus prolonged with the view -of extorting a heavy ransom. It was only in the following March that the -Archbishop ordered his victims to be starved to death; for, being a -churchman, says one account, he would not shed blood. Not even a -confessor was allowed to Ugo and his sons. After the door of the tower -had been kept closed for eight days it was opened, and the corpses, -still fettered, were huddled into a tomb in the Franciscan church.--The -original authorities are far from being agreed as to the details of -Ugo's overthrow and death.--For the matter of this note I am chiefly -indebted to the careful epitome of the Pisan history of that time by -Philalethes in his note on this Canto (_Göttliche Comödie_). - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[829] _The sinner_: Count Ugolino. See note at the end of the Canto. - -[830] _Mingle speech, etc._: A comparison of these words with those of -Francesca (_Inf._ v. 124) will show the difference in moral tone between -the Second Circle of Inferno and the Ninth. - -[831] _A Florentine_: So Farinata (_Inf._ x. 25) recognises Dante by his -Florentine speech. The words heard by Ugo are those at xxxii. 133. - -[832] _The Archbishop Roger_: Ruggieri, of the Tuscan family of the -Ubaldini, to which the Cardinal of _Inf._ x. 120 also belonged. Towards -the end of his life he was summoned to Rome to give an account of his -evil deeds, and on his refusal to go was declared a rebel to the Church. -Ugolino was a traitor to his country; Roger, having entered into some -sort of alliance with Ugolino, was a traitor to him. This has led some -to suppose that while Ugolino is in Antenora he is so close to the edge -of it as to be able to reach the head of Roger, who, as a traitor to his -friend, is fixed in Ptolomæa. Against this view is the fact that they -are described as being in the same hole (xxxii. 125), and also that in -Ptolomæa the shades are set with head thrown back, and with only the -face appearing above the ice, while Ugo is described as biting his foe -at where the skull joins the nape. From line 91 it is clear that -Ptolomæa lay further on than where Roger is. Like Ugo he is therefore -here as a traitor to his country. - -[833] _Were waste, etc._: For Dante knows it already, all Tuscany being -familiar with the story of Ugo's fate. - -[834] _Whose epithet of Famine_: It was called the Tower of Famine. Its -site is now built over. Buti, the old Pisan commentator of Dante, says -it was called the Mew because the eagles of the Republic were kept in it -at moulting-time. But this may have been an after-thought to give local -truth to Dante's verse, which it does at the expense of the poetry. - -[835] _Many moons_: The imprisonment having already lasted for eight -months. - -[836] _The height, etc._: Lucca is about twelve miles from Pisa, Mount -Giuliano rising between them. - -[837] _Lanfranchi, etc._: In the dream, these, the chief Ghibeline -families of Pisa, are the huntsmen, Roger being master of the hunt, and -the populace the hounds. Ugo and his sons and grandsons are the wolf and -wolf-cubs. In Ugo's dream of himself as a wolf there may be an allusion -to his having engaged in the Guelf interest. - -[838] _My sons_: According to Dante, taken literally, four of Ugo were -imprisoned with him. It would have hampered him to explain that two were -grandsons--Anselmuccio and Nino, called the Brigata at line 89, -grandsons by their mother of King Enzo, natural son of Frederick -II.--the sons being Gaddo and Uguccione, the latter Ugo's youngest son. - -[839] _Each was fearful, etc._: All the sons had been troubled by dreams -of famine. Had their rations been already reduced? - -[840] _The under gate, etc._: The word translated _made fast_ -(_chiavare_) may signify either to nail up or to lock. The commentators -and chroniclers differ as to whether the door was locked, nailed, or -built up. I would suggest that the lower part of the tower was occupied -by a guard, and that the captives had not been used to hear the main -door locked. Now, when they hear the great key creaking in the lock, -they know that the tower is deserted. - -[841] _The four faces, etc._: Despairing like his own, or possibly that, -wasted by famine, the faces of the young men had become liker than ever -to Ugo's own time-worn face. - -[842] _Famine, etc._: This line, quite without reason, has been held to -mean that Ugo was driven by hunger to eat the flesh of his children. The -meaning is, that poignant though his grief was it did not shorten his -sufferings from famine. - -[843] _Where the Si, etc._: Italy, _Si_ being the Italian for _Yes_. -In his _De Vulg. El._, i. 8, Dante distinguishes the Latin -languages--French, Italian, etc.--by their words of affirmation, and so -terms Italian the language of _Si_. But Tuscany may here be meant, -where, as a Tuscan commentator says, the _Si_ is more sweetly pronounced -than in any other part of Italy. In Canto xviii. 61 the Bolognese are -distinguished as the people who say _Sipa_. If Pisa be taken as being -specially the opprobrium of Tuscany the outburst against Genoa at the -close of the Canto gains in distinctness and force. - -[844] _Gorgona and Capraia_: Islands not far from the mouth of the Arno. - -[845] _That he betrayed, etc._: Dante seems here to throw doubt on the -charge. At the height of her power Pisa was possessed of many hundreds -of fortified stations in Italy and scattered over the Mediterranean -coasts. The charge was one easy to make and difficult to refute. It -seems hard on Ugo that he should get the benefit of the doubt only after -he has been, for poetical ends, buried raging in Cocytus. - -[846] _Modern Thebes_: As Thebes was to the race of Cadmus, so was Pisa -to that of Ugolino. - -[847] _Another crew_: They are in Ptolomæa, the third division of the -circle, and that assigned to those treacherous to their friends, allies, -or guests. Here only the faces of the shades are free of the ice. - -[848] _Is any vapour_: Has the sun, so low down as this, any influence -upon the temperature, producing vapours and wind? In Dante's time wind -was believed to be the exhalation of a vapour. - -[849] _To the bottom, etc._: Dante is going there in any case, and his -promise is nothing but a quibble. - -[850] _Friar Alberic_: Alberigo of the Manfredi, a gentleman of Faenza, -who late in life became one of the Merry Friars. See _Inf._ xxiii. 103. -In the course of a dispute with his relative Manfred he got a hearty box -on the ear from him. Feigning to have forgiven the insult he invited -Manfred with a youthful son to dinner in his house, having first -arranged that when they had finished their meat, and he called for -fruit, armed men should fall on his guests. 'The fruit of Friar -Alberigo' passed into a proverb. Here he is repaid with a date for a -fig--gets more than he bargained for. - -[851] _Ptolomæa_: This division is named from the Hebrew Ptolemy, who -slew his relatives at a banquet, they being then his guests (1 Maccab. -xvi.). - -[852] _Atropos_: The Fate who cuts the thread of life and sets the soul -free from the body. - -[853] _Branca d'Oria_: A Genoese noble who in 1275 slew his -father-in-law Michael Zanche (_Inf._ xxii. 88) while the victim sat at -table as his invited guest.--This mention of Branca is of some value in -helping to ascertain when the _Inferno_ was finished. He was in -imprisonment and exile for some time before and up to 1310. In 1311 he -was one of the citizens of Genoa heartiest in welcoming the Emperor -Henry to their city. Impartial as Dante was, we can scarcely think that -he would have loaded with infamy one who had done what he could to help -the success of Henry, on whom all Dante's hopes were long set, and by -their reception of whom on his descent into Italy he continued to judge -his fellow-countrymen. There is considerable reason to believe that the -_Inferno_ was published in 1309; this introduction of Branca helps to -prove that at least it was published before 1311. If this was so, then -Branca d'Oria lived long enough to read or hear that for thirty-five -years his soul had been in Hell.--It is significant of the detestation -in which Dante held any breach of hospitality, that it is as a -treacherous host and not as a treacherous kinsman that Branca is -punished--in Ptolomæa and not in Caïna. Cast as the poet was on the -hospitality of the world, any disloyalty to its obligations came home to -him. For such disloyalty he has invented one of the most appalling of -the fierce retributions with the vision of which he satisfied his -craving for vengeance upon prosperous sin.--It may be that the idea of -this demon-possession of the traitor is taken from the words, 'and after -the sop Satan entered into Judas.' - -[854] _Of his kinsmen one_: A cousin or nephew of Branca was engaged -with him in the murder of Michael Zanche. The vengeance came on them so -speedily that their souls were plunged in Ptolomæa ere Zanche breathed -his last. - -[855] _To yield him none_: Alberigo being so unworthy of courtesy. See -note on 117. But another interpretation of the words has been suggested -which saves Dante from the charge of cruelty and mean quibbling; namely, -that he did not clear the ice from the sinner's eyes because then he -would have been seen to be a living man--one who could take back to the -world the awful news that Alberigo's body was the dwelling-place of a -devil. - -[856] _Ah, Genoese, etc._: The Genoese, indeed, held no good character. -One of their annalists, under the date of 1293, describes the city as -suffering from all kinds of crime. - -[857] _Romagna's blackest soul_: Friar Alberigo. - - - - -CANTO XXXIV. - - - '_Vexilla_[858] _Regis prodeunt Inferni_ - Towards where we are; seek then with vision keen,' - My Master bade, 'if trace of him thou spy.' - As, when the exhalations dense have been, - Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night, - A windmill from afar is sometimes seen, - I seemed to catch of such a structure sight; - And then to 'scape the blast did backward draw - Behind my Guide--sole shelter in my plight. - Now was I where[859] (I versify with awe) 10 - The shades were wholly covered, and did show - Visible as in glass are bits of straw. - Some stood[860] upright and some were lying low, - Some with head topmost, others with their feet; - And some with face to feet bent like a bow. - But we kept going on till it seemed meet - Unto my Master that I should behold - The creature once[861] of countenance so sweet. - He stepped aside and stopped me as he told: - 'Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last 20 - Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,' - How I hereon stood shivering and aghast, - Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write; - So much the fact all reach of words surpassed. - I was not dead, yet living was not quite: - Think for thyself, if gifted with the power, - What, life and death denied me, was my plight. - Of that tormented realm the Emperor - Out of the ice stood free to middle breast; - And me a giant less would overtower 30 - Than would his arm a giant. By such test - Judge then what bulk the whole of him must show,[862] - Of true proportion with such limb possessed. - If he was fair of old as hideous now, - And yet his brows against his Maker raised, - Meetly from him doth all affliction flow. - O how it made me horribly amazed - When on his head I saw three faces[863] grew! - The one vermilion which straight forward gazed; - And joining on to it were other two, 40 - One rising up from either shoulder-bone, - Till to a junction on the crest they drew. - 'Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one; - The left resembled them whose country lies - Where valleywards the floods of Nile flow down. - Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise, - Such as this bird tremendous might demand: - Sails of sea-ships ne'er saw I of such size. - Not feathered were they, but in style were planned - Like a bat's wing:[864] by them a threefold breeze-- 50 - For still he flapped them--evermore was fanned, - And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze. - Down three chins tears for ever made descent - From his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these. - In every mouth there was a sinner rent - By teeth that shred him as a heckle[865] would; - Thus three at once compelled he to lament. - To the one in front 'twas little to be chewed - Compared with being clawed and clawed again, - Till his back-bone of skin was sometimes nude.[866] 60 - 'The soul up yonder in the greater pain - Is Judas 'Scariot, with his head among - The teeth,' my Master said, 'while outward strain - His legs. Of the two whose heads are downward hung, - Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous: - See how he writhes, yet never wags his tongue. - The other, great of thew, is Cassius:[867] - But night is rising[868] and we must be gone; - For everything hath now been seen by us.' - Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on 70 - While he the time and place of vantage chose; - And when the wings enough were open thrown - He grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them close, - And so from tuft to tuft he downward went - Between the tangled hair and crust which froze. - We to the bulging haunch had made descent, - To where the hip-joint lies in it; and then - My Guide, with painful twist and violent, - Turned round his head to where his feet had been, - And like a climber closely clutched the hair: 80 - I thought to Hell[869] that we returned again. - 'Hold fast to me; it needs by such a stair,' - Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone, - 'That we from all that wretchedness repair.' - Right through a hole in a rock when he had won, - The edge of it he gave me for a seat - And deftly then to join me clambered on. - I raised mine eyes, expecting they would meet - With Lucifer as I beheld him last, - But saw instead his upturned legs[870] and feet. 90 - If in perplexity I then was cast, - Let ignorant people think who do not see - What point[871] it was that I had lately passed. - 'Rise to thy feet,' my Master said to me; - 'The way is long and rugged the ascent, - And at mid tierce[872] the sun must almost be.' - 'Twas not as if on palace floors we went: - A dungeon fresh from nature's hand was this; - Rough underfoot, and of light indigent. - 'Or ever I escape from the abyss, 100 - O Master,' said I, standing now upright, - 'Correct in few words where I think amiss. - Where lies the ice? How hold we him in sight - Set upside down? The sun, how had it skill - In so short while to pass to morn from night?'[873] - And he: 'In fancy thou art standing, still, - On yon side of the centre, where I caught - The vile worm's hair which through the world doth drill. - There wast thou while our downward course I wrought; - But when I turned, the centre was passed by 110 - Which by all weights from every point is sought. - And now thou standest 'neath the other sky, - Opposed to that which vaults the great dry ground - And 'neath whose summit[874] there did whilom die - The Man[875] whose birth and life were sinless found. - Thy feet are firm upon the little sphere, - On this side answering to Judecca's round. - 'Tis evening yonder when 'tis morning here; - And he whose tufts our ladder rungs supplied. - Fixed as he was continues to appear. 120 - Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this side; - Whereon the land, protuberant here before, - For fear of him did in the ocean hide, - And 'neath our sky emerged: land, as of yore[876] - Still on this side, perhaps that it might shun - His fall, heaved up, and filled this depth no more.' - From Belzebub[877] still widening up and on, - Far-stretching as the sepulchre,[878] extends - A region not beheld, but only known - By murmur of a brook[879] which through it wends, 130 - Declining by a channel eaten through - The flinty rock; and gently it descends. - My Guide and I, our journey to pursue - To the bright world, upon this road concealed - Made entrance, and no thought of resting knew. - He first, I second, still ascending held - Our way until the fair celestial train - Was through an opening round to me revealed: - And, issuing thence, we saw the stars[880] again. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[858] _Vexilla, etc._: '_The banners of the King of Hell advance._' The -words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they -prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of 'the Emperor who reigns on -high' (_Inf._ i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a -Christian hymn into Virgil's mouth. - -[859] _Now was I where_: In the fourth and inner division or ring of the -Ninth Circle. Here are punished those guilty of treachery to their -lawful lords or to their benefactors. From Judas Iscariot, the -arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca. - -[860] _Some stood, etc._: It has been sought to distinguish the degrees -of treachery of the shades by means of the various attitudes assigned to -them. But it is difficult to make more out of it than that some are -suffering more than others. All of them are the worst of traitors, -hard-hearted and cold-hearted, and now they are quite frozen in the ice, -sealed up even from the poor relief of intercourse with their -fellow-sinners. - -[861] _The creature once, etc._: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against -the Highest, at _Purg._ xii. 25 described as 'created noble beyond all -other creatures.' Virgil calls him Dis, the name used by him for Pluto -in the _Æneid_, and the name from which that of the City of Unbelief is -taken (_Inf._ viii. 68). - -[862] _Judge then what bulk_: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than -the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We -have seen (_Inf._ xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in -height--nine times the stature of a man. If a man's arm be taken as a -third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a -giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, -or nearly so--from the middle of the breast upwards--he stands out of -the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too -great a height for Dante's purpose; and yet on the calculations of some -commentators his stature is immensely greater--from three to five -thousand feet. - -[863] _Three faces_: By the three faces are represented the three -quarters of the world from which the subjects of Lucifer are drawn: -vermilion or carnation standing for Europe, yellow for Asia, and black -for Africa. Or the faces may symbolise attributes opposed to the Wisdom, -Power, and Love of the Trinity (_Inf._ iii. 5). See also note on line 1. - -[864] _A bat's wing_: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome -places. The simile helps to bring more clearly before us the dim light -and half-seen horrors of the Judecca. - -[865] _A heckle_: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of -flax from the woody substance mixed with it. - -[866] _Sometimes nude_: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is -being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn. - -[867] _Cassius_: It has been surmised that Dante here confounds the pale -and lean Cassius who was the friend of Brutus with the L. Cassius -described as corpulent by Cicero in the Third Catiline Oration. Brutus -and Cassius are set with Judas in this, the deepest room of Hell, -because, as he was guilty of high treason against his Divine Master, so -they were guilty of it against Julius Cæsar, who, according to Dante, -was chosen and ordained by God to found the Roman Empire. As the great -rebel against the spiritual authority Judas has allotted to him the -fiercer pain. To understand the significance of this harsh treatment of -the great Republicans it is necessary to bear in mind that Dante's -devotion to the idea of the Empire was part of his religion, and far -surpassed in intensity all we can now well imagine. In the absence of a -just and strong Emperor the Divine government of the world seemed to him -almost at a stand. - -[868] _Night is rising_: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours -since they entered by the gate of Inferno. - -[869] _I thought to Hell, etc._: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer's hairy -sides, descends the dark and narrow space between him and the ice as far -as to his middle, which marks the centre of the earth. Here he swings -himself round so as to have his feet to the centre as he emerges from -the pit to the southern hemisphere. Dante now feels that he is being -carried up, and, able to see nothing in the darkness, deems they are -climbing back to the Inferno. Virgil's difficulty in turning himself -round and climbing up the legs of Lucifer arises from his being then at -the 'centre to which all weights tend from every part.' Dante shared the -erroneous belief of the time, that things grew heavier the nearer they -were to the centre of the earth. - -[870] _His upturned legs_: Lucifer's feet are as far above where Virgil -and Dante are as was his head above the level of the Judecca. - -[871] _What point, etc._: The centre of the earth. Dante here feigns to -have been himself confused--a fiction which helps to fasten attention on -the wonderful fact that if we could make our way through the earth we -should require at the centre to reverse our posture. This was more of a -wonder in Dante's time than now. - -[872] _Mid tierce_: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of -which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about -half-past seven in the morning. The night was beginning when they took -their departure from the Judecca: the day is now as far advanced in the -southern hemisphere as they have spent time on the passage. The journey -before them is long indeed, for they have to ascend to the surface of -the earth. - -[873] _To morn from night_: Dante's knowledge of the time of day is -wholly derived from what Virgil tells him. Since he began his descent -into the Inferno he has not seen the sun. - -[874] _'Neath whose summit_: Jerusalem is in the centre of the northern -hemisphere--an opinion founded perhaps on _Ezekiel_ v. 5: 'Jerusalem I -have set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her.' In -the _Convito_, iii. 5, we find Dante's belief regarding the distribution -of land and sea clearly given: 'For those I write for it is enough to -know that the Earth is fixed and does not move, and that, with the -ocean, it is the centre of the heavens. The heavens, as we see, are for -ever revolving around it as a centre; and in these revolutions they must -of necessity have two fixed poles.... Of these one is visible to almost -all the dry land of the Earth; and that is our north pole [star]. The -other, that is, the south, is out of sight of almost all the dry land.' - -[875] _The Man_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the _Inferno_. - -[876] _Land, as of yore, etc._: On the fall of Lucifer from the southern -sky all the dry land of that hemisphere fled before him under the ocean -and took refuge in the other; that is, as much land emerged in the -northern hemisphere as sank in the southern. But the ground in the -direct line of his descent to the centre of the earth heaped itself up -into the Mount of Purgatory--the only dry land left in the southern -hemisphere. The Inferno was then also hollowed out; and, as Mount -Calvary is exactly antipodal to Purgatory, we may understand that on the -fall of the first rebels the Mount of Reconciliation for the human race, -which is also that of Purification, rose out of the very realms of -darkness and sin.--But, as Todeschini points out, the question here -arises of whether the Inferno was not created before the earth. At -_Parad_. vii. 124, the earth, with the air and fire and water, is -described as 'corruptible and lasting short while;' but the Inferno is -to endure for aye, and was made before all that is not eternal (_Inf._ -iii. 8). - -[877] _Belzebub_: Called in the Gospel the prince of the devils. It may -be worth mentioning here that Dante sees in Purgatory (_Purg._ viii. 99) -a serpent which he says may be that which tempted Eve. The -identification of the great tempter with Satan is a Miltonic, or at any -rate a comparatively modern idea. - -[878] _The sepulchre_: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked. - -[879] _A brook_: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the -rivers of the Earthly Paradise. It certainly descends from the Mount of -Purgatory. - -[880] _The stars_: Each of the three divisions of the Comedy closes with -'the stars.' These, as appears from _Purg._ i. are the stars of dawn. It -was after sunrise when they began their ascent to the surface of the -earth, and so nearly twenty-four hours have been spent on the -journey--the time it took them to descend through Inferno. It is now the -morning of Easter Sunday--that is, of the true anniversary of the -Resurrection although not of the day observed that year by the Church. -See _Inf._ xxi. 112. - - - - -INDEX OF PROPER NAMES AND PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF THE INFERNO. - - - Abati, Bocca degli, xxxii. 106. - - ---- Buoso, xxv. 140. - - Abbagliato, xxix. 132. - - Abel, iv. 56. - - Abraham, iv. 58. - - Absalom, xxviii. 137. - - Accorso, Francis d', xv. 110. - - Acheron, iii. 78, xiv. 116. - - Achilles, v. 65, xii. 71, xxvi. 62, xxxi. 4. - - Acquacheta, xvi. 97. - - Acre, xxvii. 89. - - Adam, iii. 115, iv. 55. - - ---- Master, xxx. 61, etc. - - Adige, xii. 5. - - Ægina, xxix. 58. - - Æneas, ii. 32, iv. 122, xxvi. 93. - - Æsop, xxiii. 4. - - Agnello Brunelleschi, xxv. 68. - - Ahithophel, xxviii. 138. - - Alardo, xxviii. 18. - - Alberigo, Friar, xxxiii. 118. - - Alberto of Siena, xxix. 110. - - ---- degli Alberti, xxxii. 57. - - Alchemists, xxix. 43, etc. - - Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio, vi. 79, xvi. 42. - - Alecto, ix. 47. - - Alexander, Count of Romena, xxx. 77. - - ---- degli Alberti, xxxii. 55. - - ---- xii. 107, xiv. 31. - - Alessio Interminei, xviii. 122. - - Ali, xxviii. 32. - - Alichino, xxi. 118, xxii. 112. - - Alps, xiv. 30. - - Amphiaraüs, xx. 34. - - Amphion, xxxii. 11. - - Anastasius, Pope, xi. 8. - - Anaxagoras, iv. 138. - - Anchises, i. 74. - - Andrea, Jacopo da Sant', xiii. 133. - - Angels, fallen, iii. 37. - - Anger, those guilty of, vii. 110, etc. - - Angiolello, xxviii. 77. - - Annas, xxiii. 121. - - Anselmuccio, xxxiii. 50. - - Antæus, xxxi. 100. - - Antenora, xxxii. 89. - - Antiochus, xix. 86. - - Apennines, xvi. 96, xxvii. 29. - - Apocalypse, xix. 106. - - Apulia, xxviii. 8. - - Apulians, xxviii. 16. - - Aquarius, xxiv. 2. - - Arachne, xvii. 18. - - Arbia, x. 86. - - Aretines, xxii. 5, xxix. 109, xxx. 31. - - Arethusa, xxv. 99. - - Argenti, Philip, viii. 61. - - Argives, xxviii. 84. - - Ariadne, xii. 20. - - Aristotle, iv. 131. - - Arles, ix. 112. - - Arno, xiii. 147, xv. 113, xxiii. 95, xxx. 65, xxxiii. 83. - - Arrigo, vi. 80. - - Arrogance, viii. 46, etc. - - Arsenal of Venice, xxi. 7. - - Arthur, King, xxxii. 62. - - Aruns, xx. 46. - - Asciano, Caccia d', xxix. 130. - - Asdente, xx. 118. - - Athamas, xxx. 4. - - Athens, xii. 17. - - Atropos, xxxiii. 126. - - Attila, xii. 134, xiii. 149. - - Augustus, i. 71. - - Aulis, xx. III. - - Austrian, xxxii. 25. - - Avarice, i. 49. - - ---- those guilty of, vii. 25, etc. - - Aventine, xxv. 26. - - Averroës, iv. 144. - - Avicenna, iv. 143. - - - Bacchiglione, xv. 113. - - Bacchus, xx. 59. - - Baptism, iv. 36. - - Baptist, St John, xiii. 143, xxx. 74. - - Barbariccia, xxi. 120, xxii. 29, 59, 145. - - Barrators, xxi. xxii. - - Beatrice, ii. 70, 103, x. 131, xii. 88, xv. 90. - - Beccheria, Abbot, xxxii. 119. - - Bello, Geri del, xxix. 27. - - Belzebub, xxxiv. 127. - - Benacus, xx. 63, etc. - - Benedict, Abbey of St., xvi. 100. - - Bergamese, xx. 71. - - Bertrand de Born, xxviii. 134. - - Bianchi, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150. - - Bisensio, xxxii. 56. - - Blacks, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 143. - - Blasphemy, xiv. 46, etc. - - Bocca degli Abati, xxxii. 106. - - Bologna, xxiii. 142. - - Bolognese, xviii. 58, xxiii. 104. - - Bonatti, Guido, xx. 118. - - Boniface VII., xix. 53, xxvii. 70, 85. - - Bonturo, xxi. 41. - - Born, Bertrand de, xxviii. 134. - - Borsieri, William, xvi. 70. - - Branca Doria, xxxiii. 137, 140. - - Branda, Fonte, xxx. 78. - - Brenta, xv. 7. - - Brescia, xx. 69. - - Brescians, xx. 71. - - Briareus, xxxi. 98. - - Bridge of St. Angelo, xviii. 29. - - Brigata, xxxiii. 89. - - Bruges, xv. 5. - - Brunelleschi, Agnello, xxv. 68. - - Brunetto Latini, xv. 30, etc. - - Brutus, Lucius Junius, iv. 127. - - ---- Marcus Junius, xxxiv. 65. - - Buiamonte, xvii. 72. - - Bulicamë, xiv. 79. - - Buoso da Duera, xxxii. 116. - - ---- degli Abati, xxv. 140. - - ---- Donati, xxx. 45. - - - Caccia D' Asciano, xxix. 130. - - Caccianimico Venedico, xviii. 50. - - Cacus, xxv. 25. - - Cadmus, xxv. 98. - - Cadsand, xv. 5. - - Cæsar, Frederick II, xiii. 65. - - ---- Julius, i. 70, iv. 123, xxviii. 97. - - Cahors, xi. 49. - - Caiaphas, xxiii. 115. - - Cain, xx. 125. - - Caïna, v. 107, xxxii. 59. - - Caitiffs, iii. 35. - - Calcabrina, xxi. 118, xxii. 133. - - Calchas, xx. 110. - - Camicion de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68. - - Camilla, i. 107, iv. 124. - - Camonica, Val, xx. 65. - - Cancellieri, xxxii. 63. - - Capaneus, xiv. 63, xxv. 15. - - Capocchio, xxix. 136, xxx. 28. - - Capraia, xxxiii. 82. - - Caprona, xxi. 94. - - Cardinal, the Octavian Ubaldini, x. 120. - - Cardinals, vii. 47. - - Carisenda, xxxi. 136. - - Carlino de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68. - - Carnal sinners, v. - - Carrarese, xx. 48. - - Casalodi, xx. 95. - - Casentino, xxx. 65. - - Cassero, Guido del, xxviii. 77. - - Cassius, xxxiv. 67. - - Castle of St. Angelo, xviii. 31. - - Catalano, Friar, xxiii. 104, 114. - - Cato of Utica, xiv. 15. - - Cattolica, xxviii. 80. - - Caurus, xi. 114. - - Cavalcanti, Cavalcante, x. 53. - - ---- Francesco, xxv. 151. - - ---- Gianni, xxx. 32, 42. - - ---- Guido, x. 63. - - Cecina, xiii. 9. - - Celestine V., iii. 59, xxvii. 105. - - Centaurs, xii. 56, etc., xxv. 17. - - Centre of the universe, xxxiv. 110. - - Ceperano, xxviii. 16. - - Cerberus, vi. 13, ix. 98. - - Cervia, xxvii. 41. - - Cesena, xxvii. 52. - - Ceuta, xxvi. 111. - - Chaos, xii. 43. - - Charlemagne, xxxi. 17. - - Charles's Wain, xi. 114. - - Charon, iii. 94, etc. - - Charybdis, vii. 22. - - Cherubim, Black, xxvii. 113. - - Chiana, Val di, xxix. 46. - - Chiarentana, xv. 9. - - Chiron, xii. 65, etc. - - Christ, iv. 53, xxxiv. 115. - - Ciacco, vi. 52. - - Cianfa de' Donati, xxv. 43. - - Circe, xxvi. 91. - - Ciriatto, xxi. 122, xxii. 55. - - City of Dis, viii. 68, etc. - - Clement V., xix. 83. - - Cleopatra, v. 63. - - Clergy, vii. 46, xv. 106. - - Cocytus, xiv. 119, xxxi. 123, xxxiii. 156, xxxiv. 52. - - Coiners, false, xxix. - - Colchians, xviii. 87. - - Cologne, xxiii. 63. - - Colonna, family, xxvii. 86. - - Comedy, the, xvi. 128. - - Constantine, xix. 115, xxvii. 94. - - Cord, Dante's, xvi. 106. - - Cornelia, iv. 128. - - Corneto, xiii. 8. - - ---- Rinier da, xii. 136. - - Counsellors, false, xxvi. xxvii. - - Counterfeiters of all kinds, xxix. xxx. - - Crete, xii. 12, xiv. 95. - - Crucifixion, xxi. 112. - - Curio, xxviii. 93, etc. - - Cyclopes, xiv. 55. - - Cyprus, xxviii. 82. - - - Dædalus, xvii. 111, xxix. 116. - - Damietta, xiv. 104. - - Danube, xxxii. 25. - - David, iv. 58, xxviii. 137. - - Deidamia, xxvi. 61. - - Dejanira, xii. 68. - - Democritus, iv. 136. - - Demons, viii. 82, etc., xxi. 29, etc., xxxiii. 131. - - Dido, v. 61, 85. - - Diogenes, iv. 137. - - Diomedes, xxvi. 56. - - Dionysius, xii. 107. - - Dioscorides, iv. 139. - - Dis (Satan), xi. 65, xii. 38, xxxiv. 20. - - ---- City of, viii. 68, etc. - - Dolcino, Fra, xxviii. 55. - - Don, xxxii. 27. - - Donati, Buoso, xxx. 45. - - ---- Cianfa, xxv. 43. - - Doria, Branca, xxxiii. 137, 140. - - Duera, Buoso, xxxii. 116. - - Duke of Athens, ix. 54, xii. 17. - - - Elder of Lucca, xxi. 38. - - Electra, iv. 121. - - Elijah, xxvi. 35. - - Elisha, xxvi. 34. - - Empedocles, iv. 137. - - Ephialtes, xxxi. 94, 108. - - Epicurus, x. 13. - - Erichtho, ix. 23. - - Erinnyes, ix. 45. - - Este, Obizzo d', xii. 111. - - Eteocles, xxvi. 54. - - Ethiopia, xxiv. 89, xxxii. 44. - - Euclid, iv. 142. - - Euryalus, i. 108. - - Eurypylus, xx. 112. - - Ezzelino, xii. 110. - - - Faenza, xxvii. 49, xxxiii. 123. - - False coiners, xxix. xxx. - - ---- counsellors, xxvi. xxvii. - - Fano, xxviii. 76. - - Farfarello, xxi. 123, xxii. 94. - - Farinata, vi. 79, x. 32. - - Fishes, the, xi. 113. - - Flatterers, xviii. - - Flemings, xv. 4. - - Florence, x. 92, xiii. 143, xvi. 75, xxiii. 95, xxiv. 144, xxvi. 1, - xxxii. 120. - - Florentines, viii. 62, xv. 61, xvi. 73, xvii. 70, xxxiii. 11. - - Florin, xxx. 89. - - Focara, xxviii. 89. - - Foccaccia, xxxii. 63. - - Forlì, xvi. 99, xxvii. 43. - - Fortune, vii. 62, etc. - - France, xix. 87. - - Francesca da Rimini, v. 116. - - Francis d'Accorso, xv. 110. - - Francis of Assisi, xxvii. 112. - - Frederick II., x. 119, xiii. 59, 68, xxiii. 66. - - French, xxvii. 44, xxix. 123, xxxii. 115. - - Friars, Merry--Frati Godenti, xxiii. 103. - - ---- Minor, xxiii. 3. - - Frisians, xxxi. 64. - - Fucci, Vanni, xxiv. 125. - - Furies, ix. 38. - - - Gaddo, xxxiii. 67. - - Gaeta, xxvi. 92. - - Galen, iv. 143. - - Galahad, v. 137. - - Gallura, Gomita of, xxii. 81. - - Ganellone, xxxii. 122. - - Garda, xx. 65. - - Gardingo, xxiii. 108. - - Gate of Inferno, iii. 1. - - ---- St. Peter, i. 134. - - Gaville, xxv. 151. - - Genesis, xi. 107. - - Genoese, xxxiii. 151. - - Geri del Bello, xxix. 27. - - Germany, xvii. 21, xx. 61. - - Geryon, xvii. 97, etc. - - Ghisola, xviii. 55. - - Gianni Schicchi, xxx. 32, 42. - - ---- del Soldanieri, xxxii. 121. - - Giants, xxxi. - - Gibraltar, xxvi. 107. - - Gloomy, the, vii. 118. - - Gluttons, vi. - - Godenti, Frati, xxiii. 103. - - Gomita, Fra, xxii. 81. - - Gorgon, ix. 56. - - Gorgona, xxxiii. 82. - - Governo, xx. 78. - - Greece, xx. 108. - - Greeks, xxvi. 75, xxx. 98, 122. - - Greyhound, i. 101. - - Griffolino, xxix. 109, xxx. 31. - - Gualandi, xxxiii. 32. - - Gualdrada, xvi. 37. - - Guidi, Counts, xxx. 76. - - Guido Bonatti, xx. 118. - - ---- Cavalcanti, x. 63. - - ---- del Cassero, xxviii. 77. - - Guido of Montefeltro, xxvii. 4, etc. - - ---- of Romena, xxx. 76. - - Guidoguerra, xvi. 38. - - Guiscard, Robert, xxviii. 14. - - Guy of Montfort, xii. 119. - - - Hannibal, xxxi. 117. - - Harpies, xiii. 10, etc. - - Hautefort, xxix. 29. - - Heathen, the virtuous, iv. 37. - - Hector, iv. 122. - - Hecuba, xxx. 16. - - Helen, v. 64. - - Henry of England, the Young King, xxviii. 135. - - Heraclitus, iv. 139. - - Hercules, xxv. 32, xxvi. 108, xxxi. 132. - - Heretics, x. and xxviii. - - Hippocrates, iv. 143. - - Homer, iv. 88. - - Homicides, xii. - - Horace, iv. 89. - - Hypocrites, xxiii. - - Hypsipyle, xviii. 92. - - - Icarus, xvii. 109. - - Ida, xiv. 98. - - Ilion, i. 75. - - Imola, xxvii. 49. - - India, xiv. 32. - - Infants, unbaptized, iv. 29. - - Infidels, x. - - Interminei, Alessio, xviii. 122. - - Irascible, the, vii. and viii. - - Isaac, iv. 59. - - Israel, iv. 59. - - Italy, i. 106, ix. 114, xx. 63. - - - Jacopo da Sant' Andrea (James of St. Andrews), xiii. 133. - - ---- (James) Rusticucci, vi. 80, xvi. 44. - - Jason, xviii. 86. - - ---- Hebrew, xix. 85. - - Jehoshaphat, x. 11. - - Jerusalem, xxxiv. 114. - - Jesus Christ, iv. 53, xxxiv. 115. - - Jews, xxiii. 123, xxvii. 87. - - John Baptist, St., xiii. 143, xxx. 74. - - ---- ---- Church of, xix. 17. - - John, St., Evangelist, xix. 106. - - Joseph, xxx. 97. - - Jove, xiv. 52, xxxi. 44, 92. - - Jubilee, year of, xviii. 29. - - Judas Iscariot, ix. 27, xix. 96, xxxi. 143, xxxiv. 62. - - Judecca, xxxiv. 117. - - Julia, iv. 128. - - Julius Cæsar, i. 70, iv. 123, xxviii. 97. - - Juno, xxx. 1. - - Jupiter, xiv. 52, xxxi. 44, 92. - - - Lamone, xxvii. 49. - - Lancelot, v. 128. - - Lanfranchi, xxxiii. 32. - - Lano, xiii. 120. - - Lateran, xxvii. 86. - - Latian land, xxvii. 26, xxviii. 71. - - Latians (Italians), xxii. 66, xxvii. 33, xxix. 88, 91. - - Latinus, King, iv. 125. - - Latini, Brunetto, xv. 30, etc. - - Lavinia, iv. 126. - - Learchus, xxx. 10. - - Lemnos, xviii. 88. - - Leopard, i. 32. - - Lethe, xiv. 130, 136. - - Libicocco, xxi. 121, xxii. 70. - - Libya, xxiv. 85. - - Limbo, iv. 24, etc. - - Linus, iv. 141. - - Lion, i. 45. - - Livy, xxviii. 12. - - Loderingo, Friar, xxiii. 104. - - Logodoro, xxii. 89. - - Lombard, i. 68, xxii. 99. - - ---- dialect, xxvii. 20. - - Lombardy, xxviii. 74. - - Lucan, iv. 90, xxv. 94. - - Lucca, xviii. 122, xxi. 38, xxxiii. 30. - - Lucia, ii. 97, 100. - - Lucifer, xxxi. 143, xxxiv. 89. - - Lucretia, iv. 128. - - Luni, xx. 47. - - - Maccabees, xix. 86. - - Magra, Val di, xxiv. 145. - - Magus, Simon, xix. 1. - - Mahomet, xxviii. 31, etc. - - Mainardo Pagani, xxvii. 50. - - Majorca, xxviii. 82. - - Malacoda, xxi. 76, xxiii. 140. - - Malatestas of Rimini, v. 97, xxvii. 46, xxviii. 85. - - Malebolge, xviii. 1, xxi. 5, xxiv. 37, xxix. 41. - - Malebranche, xxi. 37, xxii. 100, xxiii. 23. - - Manfredi, Alberigo, xxxiii. 118. - - Manto, xx. 55. - - Mantua, xx. 93. - - Mantuans, i. 69, ii. 58. - - Marcabò, xxviii. 75. - - Marcia, iv. 128. - - Maremma, xxv. 19, xxix. 48. - - Marquis of Este, xviii. 56. - - Mars, xiii. 144, xxiv. 145, xxxi. 51. - - Mascheroni, Sassol, xxxii. 65. - - Matthias, Apostle, xix. 95. - - Medea, xviii. 96. - - Medicina, Pier da, xxviii. 73. - - Medusa, ix. 52. - - Megæra, ix. 46. - - Menalippus, xxxii. 131. - - Messenger of heaven, ix. 85. - - Michael, Archangel, vii. 11. - - ---- Scott, xx. 116. - - ---- Zanche, xxii. 88, xxxiii. 144. - - Mincio, xx. 77. - - Minos, v. 4, xiii. 96, xx. 36, xxvii. 124, xxix. 120. - - Minotaur, xii. 12, 25. - - Mongibello, xiv. 56. - - Montagna, xxvii. 47. - - Montaperti, x. 85, xxxii. 81. - - Montereggione, xxxi. 40. - - Montfort, Guy of, xii. 119. - - Montone, xvi. 94. - - Moon, the, x. 80, xx. 127. - - Mordred, xxxii. 61. - - Morocco, xxvi. 104. - - Mosca, vi. 80, xxviii. 106. - - Moses, iv. 57. - - Mozzi, Andrea de', xv. 112. - - Murderers, xii. - - Myrrha, xxx. 38. - - - Napoleone Degli Alberti, xxxii. 55. - - Narcissus, xxx. 128. - - Nasidius, xxv. 95. - - Navarre, xxii. 48. - - Navarese, xxii. 121. - - Neptune, xxviii 83. - - Neri, vi. 65, xxiv. 143. - - Nessus, xii. 67, etc., xiii. 1. - - Nicholas of Siena, xxix. 127. - - ---- III., Pope, xix. 31. - - Nile, xxxiv. 45. - - Nimrod, xxxi. 77. - - Ninus, v. 59. - - Nisus, i. 108. - - Novarese, xxviii. 59. - - - Obizzo d'Este, xii. 111. - - Ordelaffi, xxvii. 45. - - Orpheus, iv. 140. - - Orsini, xix. 70. - - Ovid, iv. 90, xxv. 97. - - - Paduans, xv. 7, xvii. 70. - - Pagani, Mainardo, xxvii. 50. - - Palestrina, xxvii. 102. - - Palladium, xxvi. 63. - - Panders, xviii. - - Paris, v. 67. - - Pasiphaë, xii. 13. - - Patriarchs, iv. 55. - - Paul, Apostle, ii. 32. - - Pazzi, Camicion de', xxxii. 68. - - ---- Rinier de', xii. 137. - - Peculators, xxi. xxii. - - Penelope, xxvi. 96. - - Pennine Alps, xx. 66. - - Penthesilea, iv. 125. - - Perillus, xxvii. 8. - - Peschiera, xx. 70. - - Peter, Apostle, i. 134, ii. 24, xix. 91, 94. - - Peter's, St., Church, xviii. 32, xxxi. 59. - - Phaëthon, xvii. 106. - - Phalaris, xxvii. 7. - - Pharisees, xxiii. 116, xxvii. 85. - - Philip Argenti, viii. 61. - - ---- the Fair, xix. 87. - - Phlegethon, xiv. 116, 131. - - Phlegra, xiv. 58. - - Phlegyas, viii. 19, 24. - - Phoenix, xxiv. 107. - - Pholus, xii. 72. - - Photinus, xi. 9. - - Piceno, Campo, xxiv. 148. - - Pier da Medicina, xxviii. 73. - - ---- delle Vigne, xiii. 58. - - Pietrapana, xxxii. 29. - - Pinamonte, xx. 96. - - Pine cone of St. Peter's, xxxi. 59. - - Pisa, xxxiii. 79. - - Pisans, xxxiii. 30. - - Pistoia, xxiv. 126, 143, xxv. 10. - - Plato, iv. 134. - - Plutus, vi. 115, vii. 2. - - Po, v. 98, xx. 78. - - Pola, ix. 113. - - Pole, South, xxvi. 127. - - Polenta, v. 97, xxvii. 42. - - Polydorus, xxx. 18. - - Polynices, xxvi. 54. - - Polyxena, xxx. 17. - - Pope Anastasius, xi. 8. - - ---- Boniface VIII., xix. 53, xxvii. 70, 85. - - Pope Celestine V., iii. 59, xxvii. 105. - - ---- Clement V., xix. 83. - - ---- Nicholas III., xix. 31. - - ---- Sylvester, xix. 117, xxvii. 95. - - Popes, ii. 24, vii. 47, xix. 104. - - Potiphar's wife, xxx. 97. - - Prato, xxvi. 9. - - Priam, xxx. 15. - - Priest, the High, Boniface VIII., xxvii. 70. - - Priscian, xv. 109. - - Prodigals, xiii. 115, xxix. 125. - - Proserpine, ix. 44, x. 80. - - Ptolemy, iv. 142. - - Ptolomæa, xxxiii. 124. - - Puccio Sciancato, xxv. 148. - - Pyrrhus, xii. 135. - - - Quarnaro, ix. 113. - - - Rachel, ii. 102, iv. 60. - - Ravenna, v. 97, xxvii. 40. - - Red Sea, xxiv. 90. - - Refusal, the great, iii. 60. - - Reno, xviii. 61. - - Rhea, xiv. 100. - - Rhone, ix. 112. - - Rimini, xxviii. 86. - - Rinier da Corneto, xii. 136. - - ---- Pazzo, xii. 137. - - Robbers, xii. 137. - - Robert Guiscard, xxviii. 14. - - Roger, the Archbishop, xxxiii. 14. - - Roland, xxxi. 18. - - Romagna, xxvii. 28, 37, xxxiii. 154. - - Roman Church, xix. 57. - - Romans, xv. 77, xviii. 28, xxvi. 60, xxviii. 10. - - Rome, i. 71, ii. 20, xiv. 105, xxxi. 59. - - Romena, xxx. 73. - - Roncesvalles, xxxi. 17. - - Rubicante, xxi. 123, xxii. 40. - - Rusticucci, Jacopo, vi. 80, xvi. 44. - - - Sabellus, xxv. 95. - - Saladin, iv. 129. - - Santerno, xxvii. 49. - - Saracens, xxvii. 87. - - Sardinia, xxii. 90, xxix. 48. - - Sassol Mascheroni, xxxii. 65. - - Satan, vii. 1. _See_ Dis. - - Saturn, xiv. 96. - - Savena, xviii. 60. - - Savio, xxvii. 52. - - Scarmiglione, xxi. 105. - - Schicchi, Gianni, xxx. 32. - - Schismatics, xxviii. - - Sciancatto, Puccio, xxv. 148. - - Scipio, xxxi. 116. - - Scott, Michael, xx. 116. - - Seducers, xviii. - - Semele, xxx. 1. - - Semiramis, v. 58. - - Seneca, iv. 141. - - Serchio, xxi. 49. - - Serpents, xxiv. 83, etc. - - Seven Kings against Thebes, xiv. 68. - - Seville, xx. 126, xxvi. 110. - - Sichæus, v. 62. - - Sicilian Bull, xxvii. 7. - - Sicily, xii. 108. - - Siena, xxix. 110, 129. - - Sienese, xxix. 122. - - Silvius, ii. 13. - - Simon Magus, xix. 1. - - Simoniacs, xix. - - Sinon, xxx. 98. - - Sismondi, xxxiii. 33. - - Socrates, iv. 135. - - Sodom, xi. 49. - - Soldanieri, Gianni del, xxii. 121. - - Soothsayers, xx. - - Soracte, xxvii. 94. - - Spain, xxvi. 102. - - Spendthrifts, vii. - - Statue of Time, xiv. 103. - - ---- Mars, xiii. 147. - - Stricca, xxix. 125. - - Strophades, xiii. 11. - - Styx, vii. 106, ix. 81, xiv. 116. - - Suicides, xiii. - - Sultan, v. 60, xxvii. 90. - - Sylvester, Pope, xix. 117, xxvii. 95. - - - Tabernicch, xxxii. 28. - - Tagliacozzo, xxviii. 17. - - Tarquin, iv. 127. - - Tartars, xvii. 16. - - Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, vi. 79, xvi. 42. - - Thais, xviii. 133. - - Thales, iv. 137. - - Thames, xii. 120. - - Thebes, xiv. 69, xx. 32, 59, xxv. 15, xxx. 2, 23, xxxii. 11. - - ---- modern, Pisa, xxxiii. 89. - - Theseus, ix. 54, xii. 17. - - Thibault, xxii. 52. - - Thieves, xxiv. xxv. - - Tiber, xxvii. 30. - - Time, statue of, xiv. 103. - - Tiresias, xx. 40. - - Tirol, xx. 62. - - Tisiphone, ix. 48. - - Tityus, xxxi. 124. - - Tombs, the red-hot, ix. 116, etc. - - Toppo, xiii. 121. - - Traitors, xxxii., etc. - - _Treasure_ of B. Latini, xv. 119. - - Trent, xii. 5, xx. 68. - - Tribaldello, xxxii. 122. - - Tristam, v. 67. - - Trojan Furies, xxx. 22. - - Trojans, xxviii. 10, xxx. 14. - - Troy, i. 74, xxx. 98. - - Tully, iv. 140. - - Turks, xvii. 16. - - Turnus, i. 108. - - Tuscan, xxii. 99, xxiii. 76, 91, xxiv. 122, xxviii. 108, xxxii. 66. - - Tydeus, xxxii. 130. - - Tyrants, xii. 103, etc. - - Typhon, xxxi. 124. - - - Ubaldini, the Cardinal Octavian, x. 120. - - ---- Archbishop Roger, xxxiii. 14. - - Uberti, Farinata, vi. 79, x. 32. - - Ugolino, xxxii. 125, etc. - - Uguccione, xxxiii. 89. - - Ulysses, xxvi. 55, etc. - - Unbelievers, x. - - Urbino, xxvii. 30. - - Usurers, xvii. 45. - - Usury, xi. 95. - - - Val Camonica, xx. 65. - - Valdichiana, xxix. 46. - - Valdimagra, xxiv. 145. - - Vanni Fucci, xxiv. 125. - - Veltro, the, i. 101. - - Vendetta, the, and Dante, xxix. 32. - - Venetians, xxi. 7. - - Vercelli, xxviii. 75. - - Verona, xv. 122, xx. 68. - - Verucchio, xxvii. 46. - - Vigne, Pier delle, xiii. 58. - - Violent, the, against others, xii.; - against themselves, xiii.; - against God and Nature, xiv., etc. - - Virgil, i. 79. - And elsewhere in the _Inferno_ mentioned by name, though usually - by some title, as, _e.g._ Master, Leader, or Lord. - - Viso, Monte, xvi. 95. - - Vitaliano, xvii. 68. - - Volto, the Santo, xxi. 48. - - - Wain, Charles's, xi. 114. - - Wanton, the, v. - - Whites, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150. - - Witches and wizards, xx. - - Wolf, i. 49. - - Wrathful, the, vii. 110. - - - Zanche, Michael, xxii. 88, xxxiii. 144. - - Zeno, iv. 138. - - Zita, Santa, xxi. 38. - - - - -Edinburgh University Press: - -T. 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If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri<br /> -  The Inferno</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Dante Alighieri</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Translator: James Romanes Sibbald</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: December 2, 2012 [eBook 41537]<br /> -[Most recently updated: July 16, 2022]</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Starner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVINE COMEDY — THE INFERNO ***</div> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41537 ***</div> <p class="ft200">THE DIVINE COMEDY OF<br /> DANTE ALIGHIERI</p> @@ -19388,448 +19368,6 @@ Zita, Santa, <a href="#Canto_XXI_Line_30">xxi. 38</a>.<br /> </div><!--end chapter--> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DIVINE COMEDY — THE INFERNO ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri - The Inferno - -Author: Dante Alighieri - -Translator: James Romanes Sibbald - -Release Date: December 2, 2012 [EBook #41537] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIVINE COMEDY - THE INFERNO *** - - - - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - - -THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - THE - DIVINE - COMEDY - OF - DANTE - ALIGHIERI - - - A TRANSLATION - - BY - JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD - - - EDINBURGH - PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS - MDCCCLXXXIV - - - _All Rights Reserved._ - - - - - Edinburgh University Press: - - T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY. - - - - - THE - INFERNO - - - A TRANSLATION - WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY - JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD - - - EDINBURGH - PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS - MDCCCLXXXIV - - - - -PREFACE. - - -A Translator who has never felt his self-imposed task to be a light one -may be excused from entering into explanations that would but too -naturally take the form of apologies. I will only say that while I have -striven to be as faithful as I could to the words as well as to the -sense of my author, the following translation is not offered as being -always closely literal. The kind of verse employed I believe to be that -best fitted to give some idea, however faint, of the rigidly measured -and yet easy strength of Dante's _terza rima_; but whoever chooses to -adopt it with its constantly recurring demand for rhymes necessarily -becomes in some degree its servant. Such students as wish to follow the -poet word by word will always find what they need in Dr. J. A. Carlyle's -excellent prose version of the _Inferno_, a work to which I have to -acknowledge my own indebtedness at many points. - -The matter of the notes, it is needless to say, has been in very great -part found ready to my hand in existing Commentaries. My edition of John -Villani is that of Florence, 1823. - -The Note at page cx was printed before it had been resolved to provide -the volume with a copy of Giotto's portrait of Dante. I have to thank -the Council of the Arundel Society for their kind permission to Messrs. -Dawson to make use of their lithograph of Mr. Seymour Kirkup's -invaluable sketch in the production of the Frontispiece--a privilege -that would have been taken more advantage of had it not been deemed -advisable to work chiefly from the photograph of the same sketch, given -in the third volume of the late Lord Vernon's sumptuous and rare edition -of the _Inferno_ (Florence, 1865). In this Vernon photograph, as well as -in the Arundel Society's chromolithograph, the disfiguring mark on the -face caused by the damage to the plaster of the fresco is faithfully -reproduced. A less degree of fidelity has been observed in the -Frontispiece; although the restoration has not been carried the length -of replacing the lost eye. - -EDINBURGH, _February_, 1884. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - FLORENCE AND DANTE, xvii - - GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE, cx - -The Inferno. - - CANTO I. - - The Slumber--the Wood--the Hill--the three Beasts--Virgil--the - Veltro or Greyhound, 1 - - CANTO II. - - Dante's misgivings--Virgil's account of how he was induced to - come to his help--the three Heavenly Ladies--the beginning of - the Journey, 9 - - CANTO III. - - The Gate of Inferno--the Vestibule of the Caitiffs--the Great - Refusal--Acheron--Charon--the Earthquake--the Slumber of Dante, 17 - - CANTO IV. - - The First Circle, which is the Limbo of the Unbaptized and of - the Virtuous Heathen--the Great Poets--the Noble Castle--the - Sages and Worthies of the ancient world, 24 - - CANTO V. - - The Second Circle, which is that of Carnal Sinners--Minos--the - Tempest--The Troop of those who died because of their Love-- - Francesca da Rimini--Dante's Swoon, 32 - - CANTO VI. - - The Third Circle, which is that of the Gluttonous--the Hail and - Rain and Snow--Cerberus--Ciacco and his Prophecy, 40 - - CANTO VII. - - The Fourth Circle, which is that of the Avaricious and the - Thriftless--Plutus--the Great Weights rolled by the sinners in - opposite directions--Fortune--the Fifth Circle, which is that - of the Wrathful--Styx--the Lofty Tower, 47 - - CANTO VIII. - - The Fifth Circle continued--the Signals--Phlegyas--the Skiff-- - Philip Argenti--the City of Dis--the Fallen Angels--the Rebuff - of Virgil, 55 - - CANTO IX. - - The City of Dis, which is the Sixth Circle and that of the - Heretics--the Furies and the Medusa head--the Messenger of Heaven - who opens the gates for Virgil and Dante--the entrance to the - City--the red-hot Tombs, 62 - - CANTO X. - - The Sixth Circle continued--Farinata degli Uberti--Cavalcante dei - Cavalcanti--Farinata's prophecy--Frederick II., 69 - - CANTO XI. - - The Sixth Circle continued--Pope Anastasius--Virgil explains on - what principle sinners are classified in Inferno--Usury, 77 - - CANTO XII. - - The Seventh Circle, First Division--the Minotaur--the River - of Blood, which forms the Outer Ring of the Seventh Circle-- - in it are those guilty of Violence against others--the - Centaurs--Tyrants--Robbers and Murderers--Ezzelino Romano-- - Guy of Montfort--the Passage of the River of Blood, 84 - - CANTO XIII. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Second Division consisting - of a Tangled Wood in which are those guilty of Violence against - themselves--the Harpies--Pier delle Vigne--Lano--Jacopo da Sant' - Andrea--Florence and its Patrons, 91 - - CANTO XIV. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Third Division of it, consisting - of a Waste of Sand on which descends an unceasing Shower of Fire-- - in it are those guilty of Violence against God, against Nature, - and against Art--Capaneus--the Crimson Brook--the Statue of Time-- - the Infernal Rivers, 98 - - CANTO XV. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature-- - Brunetto Latini--Francesco d'Accorso--Andrea de' Mozzi, Bishop - of Florence, 106 - - CANTO XVI. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature-- - Guidoguerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci-- - the Cataract--the Cord--Geryon, 115 - - CANTO XVII. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Art--Usurers-- - the descent on Geryon's back into the Eighth Circle, 123 - - CANTO XVIII. - - The Eighth Circle, otherwise named Malebolge, which consists of - ten concentric Pits or Moats connected by bridges of rock--in - these are punished those guilty of Fraud of different kinds-- - First Bolgia or Moat, where are Panders and Seducers, scourged - by Demons--Venedico Caccianimico--Jason--Second Bolgia, where - are Flatterers plunged in filth--Alessio Interminei, 130 - - CANTO XIX. - - The Eighth Circle--Third Bolgia, where are the Simoniacs, stuck - head downwards in holes in the rock--Pope Nicholas III.--the - Donation of Constantine, 137 - - CANTO XX. - - The Eighth Circle--Fourth Bolgia, where are Diviners and Sorcerers - in endless procession, with their heads twisted on their necks-- - Amphiaraeus--Tiresias--Aruns--Manto and the foundation of Mantua-- - Eurypylus--Michael Scott--Guido Bonatti--Asdente, 145 - - CANTO XXI. - - The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia, where the Barrators, or corrupt - officials, are plunged in the boiling pitch which fills the - Bolgia--a Senator of Lucca is thrown in--the Malebranche, or - Demons who guard the Moat--the Devilish Escort, 153 - - CANTO XXII. - - The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia continued--the Navarese--trick - played by him on the Demons--Fra Gomita--Michael Zanche--the - Demons fall foul of one another, 161 - - CANTO XXIII. - - The Eighth Circle--escape from the Fifth to the Sixth Bolgia, - where the Hypocrites walk at a snail's pace, weighed down - by Gilded Cloaks of lead--the Merry Friars Catalano and - Loderingo--Caiaphas, 168 - - CANTO XXIV. - - The Eighth Circle--arduous passage over the cliff into the Seventh - Bolgia, where the Thieves are tormented by Serpents, and are - constantly undergoing a hideous metamorphosis--Vanni Fucci, 176 - - CANTO XXV. - - The Eighth Circle--Seventh Bolgia continued--Cacus--Agnello - Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa Donati, - and Guercio Cavalcanti, 184 - - CANTO XXVI. - - The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia, where are the Evil Counsellors, - wrapped each in his own Flame--Ulysses tells how he met with - death, 192 - - CANTO XXVII. - - The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia continued--Guido of Montefeltro-- - the Cities of Romagna--Guido and Boniface VIII., 200 - - CANTO XXVIII. - - The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia, where the Schismatics in Church - and State are for ever being dismembered--Mahomet--Fra Dolcino-- - Pier da Medicina--Curio--Mosca--Bertrand de Born, 209 - - CANTO XXIX. - - The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia continued--Geri del Bello--Tenth - Bolgia, where Counterfeiters of various kinds, as Alchemists and - Forgers, are tormented with loathsome diseases--Griffolino of - Arezzo--Capocchio on the Sienese, 217 - - CANTO XXX. - - The Eighth Circle--Tenth Bolgia continued--Myrrha--Gianni - Schicchi--Master Adam and his confession--Sinon, 225 - - CANTO XXXI. - - The Ninth Circle, outside of which they remain till the end of - this Canto--this, the Central Pit of Inferno, is encircled and - guarded by Giants--Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antaeus--entrance to - the Pit, 233 - - CANTO XXXII. - - The Ninth Circle--that of the Traitors, is divided into four - concentric rings, in which the sinners are plunged more or less - deep in the ice of the frozen Cocytus--the Outer Ring is Caina, - where are those who contrived the murder of their Kindred-- - Camicion de' Pazzi--Antenora, the Second Ring, where are such - as betrayed their Country--Bocca degli Abati--Buoso da Duera-- - Ugolino, 241 - - CANTO XXXIII. - - The Ninth Circle--Antenora continued--Ugolino and his tale--the - Third Ring, or Ptolomaea, where are those treacherous to their - Friends--Friar Alberigo--Branca d'Oria, 249 - - CANTO XXXIV. - - The Ninth Circle--the Fourth Ring or Judecca, the deepest point - of the Inferno and the Centre of the Universe--it is the place - of those treacherous to their Lords or Benefactors--Lucifer with - Judas, Brutus, and Cassius hanging from his mouths--passage - through the Centre of the Earth--ascent from the depths to the - light of the stars in the Southern Hemisphere, 260 - - INDEX, 269 - - - - -FLORENCE AND DANTE. - - -Dante is himself the hero of the _Divine Comedy_, and ere many stages of -the _Inferno_ have been passed the reader feels that all his steps are -being taken in a familiar companionship. When every allowance has been -made for what the exigencies of art required him to heighten or -suppress, it is still impossible not to be convinced that the author is -revealing himself much as he really was--in some of his weakness as well -as in all his strength. The poem itself, by many an unconscious touch, -does for his moral portraiture what the pencil of Giotto has done for -the features of his face. The one likeness answers marvellously to the -other; and, together, they have helped the world to recognise in him the -great example of a man of genius who, though at first sight he may seem -to be austere, is soon found to attract our love by the depth of his -feelings as much as he wins our admiration by the wealth of his fancy, -and by the clearness of his judgment on everything concerned with the -lives and destiny of men. His other writings in greater or less degree -confirm the impression of Dante's character to be obtained from the -_Comedy_. Some of them are partly autobiographical; and, studying as a -whole all that is left to us of him, we can gain a general notion of -the nature of his career--when he was born and what was his condition in -life; his early loves and friendships; his studies, military service, -and political aims; his hopes and illusions, and the weary purgatory of -his exile. - -To the knowledge of Dante's life and character which is thus to be -acquired, the formal biographies of him have but little to add that is -both trustworthy and of value. Something of course there is in the -traditional story of his life that has come down from his time with the -seal of genuineness; and something that has been ascertained by careful -research among Florentine and other documents. But when all that old and -modern _Lives_ have to tell us has been sifted, the additional facts -regarding him are found to be but few; such at least as are beyond -dispute. Boccaccio, his earliest biographer, swells out his _Life_, as -the earlier commentators on the _Comedy_ do their notes, with what are -plainly but legendary amplifications of hints supplied by Dante's own -words; while more recent and critical writers succeed with infinite -pains in little beyond establishing, each to his own satisfaction, what -was the order of publication of the poet's works, where he may have -travelled to, and when and for how long a time he may have had this or -that great lord for a patron. - -A very few pages would therefore be enough to tell the events of Dante's -life as far as they are certainly known. But, to be of use as an -introduction to the study of his great poem, any biographical sketch -must contain some account--more or less full--of Florentine affairs -before and during his lifetime; for among the actors in these are to be -found many of the persons of the _Comedy_. In reading the poem we are -never suffered for long to forget his exile. From one point of view it -is an appeal to future ages from Florentine injustice and ingratitude; -from another, it is a long and passionate plea with his native town to -shake her in her stubborn cruelty. In spite of the worst she can do -against him he remains no less her son. In the early copies of it, the -_Comedy_ is well described as the work of Dante Alighieri, the -Florentine; since not only does he people the other world by preference -with Florentines, but it is to Florence that, even when his words are -bitter against her, his heart is always feeling back. Among the glories -of Paradise he loves to let his memory rest on the church in which he -was baptized and the streets he used to tread. He takes pleasure in her -stones; and with her towers and palaces Florence stands for the -unchanging background to the changing scenes of his mystical pilgrimage. - -The history of Florence during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries -agrees in general outline with that of most of its neighbours. At the -beginning of the period it was a place of but little importance, ranking -far below Pisa both in wealth and political influence. Though retaining -the names and forms of municipal government, inherited from early times, -it was in reality possessed of no effective control over its own -affairs, and was subject to its feudal superior almost as completely as -was ever any German village planted in the shadow of a castle. To -Florence, as to many a city of Northern and Central Italy, the first -opportunity of winning freedom came with the contest between Emperor -and Pope in the time of Hildebrand. In this quarrel the Church found its -best ally in Matilda, Countess of Tuscany. She, to secure the goodwill -of her subjects as against the Emperor, yielded first one and then -another of her rights in Florence, generally by way of a pious gift--an -endowment for a religious house or an increase of jurisdiction to the -bishop--these concessions, however veiled, being in effect so many -additions to the resources and liberties of the townsmen. She made Rome -her heir, and then Florence was able to play off the Papal against the -Imperial claims, yielding a kind of barren homage to both Emperor and -Pope, and only studious to complete a virtual independence of both. -Florence had been Matilda's favourite place of residence; and, -benefiting largely as it did by her easy rule, it is no wonder that her -name should have been cherished by the Florentines for ages after as a -household word.[1] Nor is the greatest Florentine unmindful of her. Foe -of the Empire though she was, he only remembers her piety; and it is by -Matilda, as representing the active religious life, that Dante is -ushered into the presence of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise.[2] - -It was a true instinct which led Florence and other cities to side -rather with the Pope than with the Emperor in the long-continued -struggle between them for predominance in Italy. With the Pope for -overlord they would at least have a master who was an Italian, and one -who, his title being imperfect, would in his own interest be led to -treat them with indulgence; while, in the permanent triumph of the -Emperor, Italy must have become subject and tributary to Germany, and -would have seen new estates carved out of her fertile soil for members -of the German garrison. The danger was brought home to many of the -youthful commonwealths during the eventful reign of Frederick Barbarossa -(1152-1190). Strong in Germany beyond most of his predecessors, that -monarch ascended the throne with high prerogative views, in which he was -confirmed by the slavish doctrine of some of the new civilians. -According to these there could be only one master in the world; as far -as regarded the things of time, but one source of authority in -Christendom. They maintained everything to be the Emperor's that he -chose to take. When he descended into Italy to enforce his claims, the -cities of the Lombard League met him in open battle. Those of Tuscany, -and especially Florence, bent before the blast, temporising as long as -they were able, and making the best terms they could when the choice lay -between submission and open revolt. Even Florence, it is true, strong in -her allies, did once take arms against an Imperial lieutenant; but as a -rule she never refused obedience in words, and never yielded it in fact -beyond what could not be helped. In her pursuit of advantages, -skilfully using every opportunity, and steadfast of aim even when most -she appeared to waver, she displayed something of the same address that -was long to be noted as a trait in the character of the individual -Florentine. - -The storm was weathered, although not wholly without loss. When, towards -the close of his life, and after he had broken his strength against the -obstinate patriotism of Lombardy, Frederick visited Florence in 1185, it -was as a master justly displeased with servants who, while they had not -openly rebelled against him, had yet proved eminently unprofitable, and -whom he was concerned to punish if not to destroy. On the complaint of -the neighbouring nobles, that they were oppressed and had been plundered -by the city, he gave orders for the restoration to them of their lands -and castles. This accomplished, all the territory left to Florence was a -narrow belt around the walls. Villani even says that for the four years -during which Frederick still lived the Commonwealth was wholly landless. -And here, rather than lose ourselves among the endless treaties, -leagues, and campaigns which fill so many pages of the chronicles, it -may be worth while shortly to glance at the constitution of Florentine -society, and especially at the place held in it by the class which found -its protector in Barbarossa. - -Much about the time at which the Commonwealth was relieved of its feudal -trammels, as a result of the favour or the necessities of Matilda, it -was beginning to extend its commerce and increase its industry. Starting -somewhat late on the career on which Venice, Genoa, and Pisa were -already far advanced, Florence was as if strenuous to make up for lost -time, and soon displayed a rare comprehension of the nature of the -enterprise. It may be questioned if ever, until quite modern times, -there has been anywhere so clear an understanding of the truth that -public wellbeing is the sum of private prosperity, or such an -enlightened perception of what tends to economical progress. Florence -had no special command of raw material for her manufactures, no sea-port -of her own, and no monopoly unless in the natural genius of her people. -She could therefore thrive only by dint of holding open her -communications with the world at large, and grudged no pains either of -war or diplomacy to keep at Pisa a free way out and in for her -merchandise. Already in the twelfth century she received through that -port the rough woollens of Flanders, which, after being skilfully -dressed and dyed, were sent out at great profit to every market of -Europe. At a somewhat later period the Florentines were to give as -strong a proof of their financial capacity as this was of their -industrial. It was they who first conducted a large business in bills of -exchange, and who first struck a gold coin which, being kept of -invariable purity, passed current in every land where men bought and -sold--even in countries where the very name of Florence was unknown.[3] - -In a community thus devoted to industry and commerce, it was natural -that a great place should be filled by merchants. These were divided -into six guilds, the members of which, with the notaries and lawyers, -who composed a seventh, formed the true body of the citizens. -Originally the consuls of these guilds were the only elected officials -in the city, and in the early days of its liberty they were even charged -with political duties, and are found, for example, signing a treaty of -peace with a neighbouring state. In the fully developed commune it was -only the wealthier citizens--the members, we may assume, of these -guilds--who, along with the nobles,[4] were eligible for and had the -right of electing to the public offices. Below them was the great body -of the people; all, that is, of servile condition or engaged in the -meaner kinds of business. From one point of view, the liberties of the -citizens were only their privileges. But although the labourers and -humbler tradesmen were without franchises, their interests were not -therefore neglected, being bound up with those of the one or two -thousand citizens who shared with the patricians the control of public -affairs. - -There were two classes of nobles with whom Florence had to reckon as she -awoke to life--those within the walls, and those settled in the -neighbouring country. In later times it was a favourite boast among the -noble citizens--a boast indulged in by Dante--that they were descended -from ancient Roman settlers on the banks of the Arno. A safer boast -would in many cases have been that their ancestors had come to Italy in -the train of Otho and other conquering Emperors. Though settled in the -city, in some cases for generations, the patrician families were not -altogether of it, being distinguished from the other citizens, if not -always by the possession of ancestral landward estates, at least by -their delight in war and contempt for honest industry. But with the -faults of a noble class they had many of its good qualities. Of these -the Republic suffered them to make full proof, allowing them to lead in -war and hold civil offices out of all proportion to their numbers. - -Like the city itself, the nobles in the country around had been feudally -subject to the Marquis of Tuscany. After Matilda's death they claimed to -hold direct from the Empire; which meant in practice to be above all -law. They exercised absolute jurisdiction over their serfs and -dependants, and, when favoured by the situation of their castles, took -toll, like the robber barons of Germany, of the goods which passed -beneath their walls. Already they had proved to be thorns in the side of -the industrious burghers; but at the beginning of the twelfth century -their neighbourhood became intolerable, and for a couple of generations -the chief political work of Florence was to bring them to reason. Those -whose lands came up almost to the city gates were first dealt with, and -then in a widening circle the country was cleared of the pest. Year -after year, when the days were lengthening out in spring, the roughly -organised city militia was mustered, war was declared against some -specially obnoxious noble and his fortress was taken by surprise, or, -failing that, was subjected to a siege. In the absence of a more -definite grievance, it was enough to declare his castle dangerously near -the city. These expeditions were led by the nobles who were already -citizens, while the country neighbours of the victim looked on with -indifference, or even helped to waste the lands or force the stronghold -of a rival. The castle once taken, it was either levelled with the -ground, or was restored to the owner on condition of his yielding -service to the Republic. And, both by way of securing a hold upon an -unwilling vassal and of adding a wealthy house and some strong arms to -the Commonwealth, he was compelled, along with his family, to reside in -Florence for a great part of every year. - -With a wider territory and an increasing commerce, it was natural for -Florence to assume more and more the attitude of a sovereign state, -ready, when need was, to impose its will upon its neighbours, or to join -with them for the common defence of Tuscany. In the noble class and its -retainers, recruited as has been described, it was possessed of a -standing army which, whether from love of adventure or greed of plunder, -was never so well pleased as when in active employment. Not that the -commons left the fighting wholly to the men of family, for they too, at -the summons of the war-bell, had to arm for the field; but at the best -they did it from a sense of duty, and, without the aid of professional -men-at-arms, they must have failed more frequently in their enterprises, -or at any rate have had to endure a greatly prolonged absence from their -counters and workshops. And yet, esteem this advantage as highly as we -will, Florence surely lost more than it gained by compelling the crowd -of idle gentlemen to come within its walls. In the course of time some -of them indeed condescended to engage in trade--sank, as the phrase -went, into the ranks of the _Popolani_, or mere wealthy citizens; but -the great body of them, while their landed property was being largely -increased in value in consequence of the general prosperity, held -themselves haughtily aloof from honest industry in every form. Each -family, or rather each clan of them, lived apart in its own group of -houses, from among which towers shot aloft for scores of yards into the -air, dominating the humbler dwellings of the common burghers. These, -whenever they came to the front for a time in the government, were used -to decree that all private towers were to be lopped down to within a -certain distance from the ground. - -It is a favourite exercise of Villani and other historians to trace the -troubles and revolutions in the state of Florence to chance quarrels -between noble families, arising from an angry word or a broken troth. -Here, they tell, was sown the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline wars in -Florence; and here that of the feuds of Black and White. Such quarrels -and party names were symptoms and nothing more. The enduring source of -trouble was the presence within the city of a powerful idle class, -constantly eager to recover the privilege it had lost, and to secure -itself by every available means, including that of outside help, in the -possession of what it still retained; which chafed against the curbs put -upon its lawlessness, and whose ambitions were all opposed to the -general interest. The citizens, for their part, had nothing better to -hope for than that Italy should be left to the Italians, Florence to the -Florentines. On the occasion of the celebrated Buondelmonti feud (1215), -some of the nobles definitely went over to the side of the people, -either because they judged it likely to win in the long-run, or -impelled unconsciously by the forces that in every society divide -ambitious men into two camps, and in one form or another develop party -strife. They who made a profession of popular sympathy did it with a -view of using rather than of helping the people at large. Both of the -noble parties held the same end in sight--control of the Commonwealth; -and this would be worth the more the fewer there were to share it. The -faction irreconcilable with the Republic on any terms included many of -the oldest and proudest houses. Their hope lay in the advent of a strong -Emperor, who should depute to them his rights over the money-getting, -low-born crowd. - - -II. - -The opportunity of this class might seem to have come when the -Hohenstaufen Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, ascended the throne, -and still more when, on attaining full age, he claimed the whole of the -Peninsula as his family inheritance. Other Emperors had withstood the -Papal claims, but none had ever proved an antagonist like Frederick. His -quarrel seemed indeed to be with the Church itself, with its doctrines -and morals as well as with the ambition of churchmen; and he offered the -strange spectacle of a Roman Emperor--one of the twin lights in the -Christian firmament--whose favour was less easily won by Christian -piety, however eminent, than by the learning of the Arab or the Jew. -When compelled at last to fulfil a promise extorted from him of -conducting a crusade to the Holy Land, he scandalised Christendom by -making friends of the Sultan, and by using his presence in the East, not -for the deliverance of the Sepulchre, but for the furtherance of -learning and commerce. Thrice excommunicated, he had his revenge by -proving with how little concern the heaviest anathemas of the Church -could be met by one who was armed in unbelief. Literature, art, and -manners were sedulously cultivated in his Sicilian court, and among the -able ministers whom he selected or formed, the modern idea of the State -may be said to have had its birth. Free thinker and free liver, poet, -warrior, and statesman, he stood forward against the sombre background -of the Middle Ages a figure in every respect so brilliant and original -as well to earn from his contemporaries the title of the Wonder of the -World. - -On the goodwill of Italians Frederick had the claim of being the most -Italian of all the Emperors since the revival of the Western Empire, and -the only one of them whose throne was permanently set on Italian soil. -Yet he never won the popular heart. To the common mind he always -appeared as something outlandish and terrible--as the man who had driven -a profitable but impious trade in the Sultan's land. Dante, in his -childhood, must have heard many a tale of him; and we find him keenly -interested in the character of the Emperor who came nearest to uniting -Italy into a great nation, in whose court there had been a welcome for -every man of intellect, and in whom a great original poet would have -found a willing and munificent patron. In the _Inferno_, by the mouth of -Pier delle Vigne, the Imperial Chancellor, he pronounces Frederick to -have been worthy of all honour;[5] yet justice requires him to lodge -this flower of kings in the burning tomb of the Epicureans, as having -been guilty of the arch-heresy of denying the moral government of the -world, and holding that with the death of the body all is ended.[6] It -was a heresy fostered by the lives of many churchmen, high and low; but -the example of Frederick encouraged the profession of it by nobles and -learned laymen. On Frederick's character there was a still darker stain -than this of religious indifference--that of cold-blooded cruelty. Even -in an age which had produced Ezzelino Romano, the Emperor's cloaks of -lead were renowned as the highest refinement in torture.[7] But, with -all his genius, and his want of scruple in the choice of means, he built -nothing politically that was not ere his death crumbling to dust. His -enduring work was that of an intellectual reformer under whose -protection and with whose personal help his native language was refined, -Europe was enriched with a learning new to it or long forgotten, and the -minds of men, as they lost their blind reverence for Rome, were prepared -for a freer treatment of all the questions with which religion deals. He -was thus in some respects a precursor of Dante. - -More than once in the course of Frederick's career it seemed as if he -might become master of Tuscany in fact as well as in name, had Florence -only been as well affected to him as were Siena and Pisa. But already, -as has been said, the popular interest had been strengthened by -accessions from among the nobles. Others of them, without descending -into the ranks of the citizens, had set their hopes on being the first -in a commonwealth rather than privates in the Imperial garrison. These -men, with their restless and narrow ambitions, were as dangerous to have -for allies as for foes, but by throwing their weight into the popular -scale they at least served to hold the Imperialist magnates in check, -and established something like a balance in the fighting power of -Florence; and so, as in the days of Barbarossa, the city was preserved -from taking a side too strongly. The hearts of the Florentine traders -were in their own affairs--in extending their commerce and increasing -their territory and influence in landward Tuscany. As regarded the -general politics of Italy, their sympathy was still with the Roman See; -but it was a sympathy without devotion or gratitude. For refusing to -join in the crusade of 1238 the town was placed under interdict by -Gregory IX. The Emperor meanwhile was acknowledged as its lawful -overlord, and his vicar received something more than nominal obedience, -the choice of the chief magistrates being made subject to his approval. -Yet with all this, and although his party was powerful in the city, it -was but a grudging service that was yielded to Frederick. More than once -fines were levied on the Florentines; and worse punishments were -threatened for their persevering and active enmity to Siena, now -dominated by its nobles and held in the Imperial interest. Volunteers -from Florence might join the Emperor in his Lombard campaigns; but they -were left equally free by the Commonwealth to join the other side. At -last, when he was growing old, and when like his grandfather he had been -foiled by the stubborn Lombards, he turned on the Florentines as an -easier prey, and sent word to the nobles of his party to seize the city. -For months the streets were filled with battle. In January 1248, -Frederick of Antioch, the natural son of the Emperor, entered Florence -with some squadrons of men-at-arms, and a few days later the nobles that -had fought on the popular side were driven into banishment. This is -known in the Florentine annals as the first dispersion of the Guelfs. - -Long before they were adopted in Italy, the names of Guelf and Ghibeline -had been employed in Germany to mark the partisans of the Bavarian Welf -and of the Hohenstaufen lords of Waiblingen. On Italian soil they -received an extended meaning: Ghibeline stood for Imperialist; Guelf for -anti-Imperialist, Papalist, or simply Nationalist. When the names began -to be freely used in Florence, which was towards the close of -Frederick's reign and about a century after their first invention, they -denoted no new start in politics, but only supplied a nomenclature for -parties already in existence. As far as Florence was concerned, the -designations were the more convenient that they were not too closely -descriptive. The Ghibeline was the Emperor's man, when it served his -purpose to be so; while the Guelf, constant only in his enmity to the -Ghibelines, was free to think of the Pope as he chose, and to serve him -no more than he wished or needed to. Ultimately, indeed, all Florence -may be said to have become Guelf. To begin with, the name distinguished -the nobles who sought alliance with the citizens, from the nobles who -looked on these as they might have done on serfs newly thriven into -wealth. Each party was to come up in turn. Within a period of twenty -years each was twice driven into banishment, a measure always -accompanied with decrees of confiscation and the levelling of private -strongholds in Florence. The exiles kept well together, retreating, as -it were in the order of war, to camps of observation they found ready -prepared for them in the nearest cities and fortresses held by those of -their own way of thinking. All their wits were then bent on how, by dint -of some fighting and much diplomacy, they might shake the strength and -undermine the credit of their successful rivals in the city, and secure -their own return in triumph. It was an art they were proud to be adepts -in.[8] - -In a rapid sketch like this it would be impossible to tell half the -changes made on the constitution of Florence during the second part of -the thirteenth century. Dante in a well-known passage reproaches -Florence with the political restlessness which afflicted her like a -disease. Laws, he says, made in October were fallen into desuetude ere -mid-November.[9] And yet it may be that in this constant readiness to -change, lies the best proof of the political capacity of the -Florentines. It was to meet new necessities that they made provision of -new laws. Especial watchfulness was called for against the encroachments -of the grandees, whose constant tendency--whatever their party -name--was to weaken legal authority, and play the part of lords and -masters of the citizens. But these were no mere weavers and -quill-drivers to be plundered at will. Even before the return of the -Guelfs, banished in 1248, the citizens, taking advantage of a check -suffered in the field by the dominant Ghibelines, had begun to recast -the constitution in a popular sense, and to organise the townsmen as a -militia on a permanent footing. When, on the death of Frederick in 1250, -the Imperialist nobles were left without foreign aid, there began a -period of ten years, favourably known in Florentine history as the -Government of the _Primo Popolo_ or _Popolo Vecchio_; that is, of the -true body of the citizens, commoners possessed of franchises, as -distinguished from the nobles above them and the multitude below. For it -is never to be forgotten that Florence, like Athens, and like the other -Italian Republics, was far from being a true democracy. The time was yet -to come, and it was not far distant, when the ranks of citizenship were -to be more widely opened than now to those below, and more closely shut -to those above. In the meantime the comparatively small number of -wealthy citizens who legally composed the 'People' made good use of -their ten years of breathing-time, entering on commercial treaties and -widening the possessions of the Commonwealth, now by war, and now by -shrewd bargains with great barons. To balance the influence of the -Podesta, who had hitherto been the one great officer of State--criminal -judge, civil governor, and commander-in-chief all in one--they created -the office of Captain of the People. The office of Podesta was not -peculiar to Florence. There, as in other cities, in order to secure his -impartiality, it was provided that he should be a foreigner, and hold -office only for six months. But he was also required to be of gentle -birth; and his councils were so composed that, like his own, their -sympathies were usually with the nobles. The Captain of the People was -therefore created partly as a tribune for the protection of the popular -rights, and partly to act as permanent head of the popular forces. Like -the Podesta, he had two councils assigned to him; but these were -strictly representative of the citizens, and sat to control his conduct -as well as to lend to his action the weight of public opinion. - -Such of the Ghibelines as had not been banished from Florence on the -death of Frederick, lived there on sufferance, as it were, and under a -rigid supervision. Once more they were to find a patron and ally in a -member of the great house of Hohenstaufen; and with his aid they were -again for a few years to become supreme in Florence, and to prove by -their abuse of power how well justified was the mistrust the people had -of them. In many ways Manfred, one of Frederick's bastards, was a worthy -son of his father. Like him he was endowed with great personal charm, -and was enamoured of all that opened new regions to intellectual -curiosity or gave refinement to sensual pleasure. In his public as well -as in his private behaviour, he was reckless of what the Church and its -doctrines might promise or threaten; and equally so, his enemies -declared, of the dictates of common humanity. Hostile eyes detected in -the green clothes which were his favourite dress a secret attachment to -Islam; and hostile tongues charged him with the murder of a father and -of a brother, and the attempted murder of a nephew. His ambition did not -aim at the Empire, but only at being King of Sicily and Naples, lands -which the Hohenstaufens claimed as their own through the Norman mother -of Frederick. Of these kingdoms he was actual ruler, even while his -legitimate brother Conrad lived. On the death of that prince he brushed -aside the claims of Conradin, his nephew, and bid boldly for recognition -by the Pope, who claimed to be overlord of the southern kingdoms--a -recognition refused, or given only to be immediately withdrawn. In the -eyes of Rome he was no more than Prince of Tarentum, but by arms and -policy he won what seemed a firm footing in the South; and eight years -after the rule of the _Popolo Vecchio_ began in Florence he was the -acknowledged patron of all in Italy who had been Imperialist--for the -Imperial throne was now practically vacant. And Manfred was trusted all -the more that he cared nothing for Germany, and stood out even more -purely an Italian monarch than his father had ever been. The Ghibelines -of Florence looked to him to free them of the yoke under which they -groaned. - -When it was discovered that they were treating with Manfred, there was -an outburst of popular wrath against the disaffected nobles. Some of -them were seized and put to death, a fate shared by the Abbot of -Vallombrosa, whom neither his priestly office nor his rank as Papal -Legate availed to save from torture and a shameful end.[10] Well -accustomed as was the age to violence and cruelty, it was shocked at -this free disposal of a great ecclesiastic by a mercantile community; -and even to the Guelf chronicler Villani the terrible defeat of -Montaperti seemed no more than a just vengeance taken by Heaven upon a -crime so heinous.[11] In the meantime the city was laid under interdict, -and those concerned in the Abbot's death were excommunicated; while the -Ghibelines, taking refuge in Siena, began to plot and scheme with the -greater spirit against foes who, in the very face of a grave peril, had -offended in the Pope their strongest natural ally. - -The leader of the exiles was Farinata, one of the Uberti, a family -which, so long ago as 1180, had raised a civil war to force their way -into the consulship. Ever since, they had been the most powerful, -perhaps, and certainly the most restless, clan in Florence, rich in men -of strong character, fiercely tenacious of their purpose. Such was -Farinata. To the Florentines of a later age he was to stand for the type -of the great Ghibeline gentleman, haughty as Lucifer, a Christian in -name though scarcely by profession, and yet almost beloved for his frank -excess of pride. It detracted nothing from the grandeur of his -character, in the judgment of his countrymen, that he could be cunning -as well as brave. Manfred was coy to afford help to the Tuscan -Ghibelines, standing out for an exorbitant price for the loan of his -men-at-arms; and to Farinata was attributed the device by which his -point of honour was effectually touched.[12] When at last a -reinforcement of eight hundred cavalry entered Siena, the exiles and -their allies felt themselves more than a match for the militia of -Florence, and set themselves to decoy it into the field. Earlier in the -same year the Florentines had encamped before Siena, and sought in vain -to bring on a general engagement. They were now misled by false -messengers, primed by Farinata, into a belief that the Sienese, weary of -the arrogance of Provenzano Salvani,[13] then all-powerful in Siena, -were ready to betray a gate to them. In vain did Tegghiaio -Aldobrandi,[14] one of the Guelf nobles, counsel delay till the German -men-at-arms, wearied with waiting on and perhaps dissatisfied with their -wages, should be recalled by Manfred. A march in full strength upon the -hostile city was resolved on by the eager townsmen. - -The battle of Montaperti was fought in September 1260, among the earthy -hills washed by the Arbia and its tributary rivulets, a few miles to the -east of Siena. It marked the close of the rule of the _Popolo Vecchio_. -Till then no such disastrous day had come to Florence; and the defeat -was all the more intolerable that it was counted for a victory to Siena. -Yet the battle was far from being a test of the strength of the two -rival cities. Out of the thirty thousand foot in the Guelf army, there -were only about five thousand Florentines. In the host which poured out -on them from Siena, beside the militia of that city and the Florentine -exiles, were included the Ghibelines of Arezzo, the retainers of great -lords still unsubdued by any city, and, above all, the German -men-at-arms of Manfred.[15] But the worst enemies of Florence were the -traitors in her own ranks. She bore it long in mind that it was her -merchants and handicraftsmen who stood stubbornly at bay, and tinged the -Arbia red with their life-blood; while it was among the men of high -degree that the traitors were found. On one of them, Bocca degli Abati, -who struck off the right hand of the standard-bearer of the cavalry, and -so helped on the confusion and the rout, Dante takes vengeance in his -pitiless verse.[16] - -The fortifications of Florence had been recently completed and -strengthened, and it was capable of a long defence. But the spirit of -the people was broken for the time, and the conquerors found the gates -open. Then it was that Farinata almost atoned for any wrong he ever did -his native town, by withstanding a proposal made by the Ghibelines of -the rival Tuscan cities, that Florence should be destroyed, and Empoli -advanced to fill her room. 'Alone, with open face I defended her,' Dante -makes him say.[17] But the wonder would rather be if he had voted to -destroy a city of which he was about to be one of the tyrants. Florence -had now a fuller experience than ever of the oppression which it was in -the character of the Ghibelines to exercise. A rich booty lay ready to -their hands; for in the panic after Montaperti crowds of the best in -Florence had fled, leaving all behind them except their wives and -children, whom they would not trust to the cruel mercy of the victors. -It was in this exile that for the first time the industrious citizen was -associated with the Guelf noble. From Lucca, not powerful enough to -grant them protection for long, they were driven to Bologna, suffering -terribly on the passage of the Apennines from cold and want of food, but -safe when the mountains lay between them and the Val d'Arno. While the -nobles and young men with a taste for fighting found their livelihood in -service against the Lombard Ghibelines, the more sober-minded scattered -themselves to seek out their commercial correspondents and increase -their acquaintance with the markets of Europe. When at length the way -was open for them to return home, they came back educated by travel, as -men must always be who travel for a purpose; and from this second exile -of the Guelfs dates a vast extension of the commerce of Florence. - -Their return was a fruit of the policy followed by the Papal Court The -interests of both were the same. The Roman See could have as little -independence of action while a hostile monarch was possessed of the -southern kingdoms, as the people of Florence could have freedom while -the Ghibeline nobility had for patron a military prince, to whom their -gates lay open by way of Siena and Pisa. To Sicily and Naples the Pope -laid claim by an alternative title--they were either dependent on the -See of Rome, or, if they were Imperial fiefs, then, in the vacancy of -the Empire, the Pope, as the only head of Christendom, had a right to -dispose of them as he would. A champion was needed to maintain the -claim, and at length the man was found in Charles of Anjou, brother of -St. Louis. This was a prince of intellectual powers far beyond the -common, of untiring industry in affairs, pious, 'chaste as a monk,' and -cold-hearted as a usurer; gifted with all the qualities, in short, that -make a man feared and well served, and with none that make him beloved. -He was not one to risk failure for want of deliberation and foresight, -and his measures were taken with such prudence that by the time he -landed in Italy his victory was almost assured. He found his enemy at -Benevento, in the Neapolitan territory (February 1266). In order to get -time for reinforcements to come up, Manfred sought to enter into -negotiations; but Charles was ready, and knew his advantage. He answered -with the splendid confidence of a man sure of a heavenly if he missed -an earthly triumph. 'Go tell the Sultan of Lucera,'[18] was his reply, -'that to-day I shall send him to Hell, or he will send me to Paradise.' -Manfred was slain, and his body, discovered only after long search, was -denied Christian burial. Yet, excommunicated though he was, and -suspected of being at heart as much Mohammedan as Christian, he, as well -as his great rival, is found by Dante in Purgatory.[19] And, while the -Christian poet pours his invective on the pious Charles,[20] he is at no -pains to hide how pitiful appeared to him the fate of the frank and -handsome Manfred, all whose followers adored him. He, as more than once -it happens in the _Comedy_ to those whose memory is dear to the poet, is -saved from Inferno by the fiction that in the hour of death he sent one -thought heavenward--'so wide is the embrace of infinite mercy.'[21] - -To Florence Charles proved a useful if a greedy and exacting protector. -Under his influence as Pacificator of Tuscany--an office created for him -by the Pope--the Guelfs were enabled slowly to return from exile, and -the Ghibelines were gradually depressed into a condition of dependence -on the goodwill of the citizens over whom they had so lately domineered. -Henceforth failure attended every effort they made to lift their heads. -The stubbornly irreconcilable were banished or put to death. Elaborate -provisions were enacted in obedience to the Pope's commands, by which -the rest were to be at peace with their old foes. Now they were to live -in the city, but under disabilities as regarded eligibility to offices; -now they were to be represented in the public councils, but so as to be -always in a minority. The result of the measures taken, and of the -natural drift of things, was that ere many more years had passed there -were no avowed Ghibelines in Florence. - -One influence constantly at work in this direction was that of the -_Parte Guelfa_, a Florentine society formed to guard the interests of -the Guelfs, and which was possessed of the greater part of the Ghibeline -property confiscated after the triumph of Charles had turned the balance -of power in Italy. This organisation has been well described as a state -within a state, and it seems as if the part it played in the Florentine -politics of this period were not yet fully known. This much seems sure, -that the members of the Society were mostly Guelf nobles; that its -power, derived from the administration of vast wealth to a political -end, was so great that the Captain of the _Parte Guelfa_ held a place -almost on a level with that of the chief officials of the Commonwealth; -and that it made loans of ready money to Florence and the Pope, on -condition of their being used to the damage of the Ghibelines.[22] - -The Commonwealth, busy in resettling its government, was but slightly -interested in much that went on around it. The boy Conradin, grandson of -Frederick, nephew of Manfred, and in a sense the last of the -Hohenstaufens, came to Italy to measure himself with Charles, and paid -for his audacity upon the scaffold.[23] Charles deputed Guy of Montfort, -son of the great Earl Simon, to be his vicar in Florence. The Pope -smiled and frowned in turn on the Florentines, as their devotion to him -waxed and waned; and so he did on his champion Charles, whose ambition -was apt to outrun his piety. All this was of less importance to the -Commonwealth than the promotion of its domestic interests. It saw with -equanimity a check given to Charles by the election of a new Emperor in -Rudolf of Hapsburg (1273), and a further check by the Sicilian Vespers, -which lost him half his kingdom (1283). But Siena and Pisa, Arezzo, and -even Pistoia, were the objects of a sleepless anxiety. Pisa was the -chief source of danger, being both from sentiment and interest -stubbornly Ghibeline. When at length its power was broken by Genoa, its -great maritime rival, in the naval battle of Meloria (1284), there was -no longer any city in Tuscany to be compared for wealth and strength -with Florence. - - -III. - -It was at this period that Dante, reaching the age of manhood, began to -perform the duties that fell to him as a youthful citizen--duties which, -till the age of thirty was reached, were chiefly those of military -service. The family to which he belonged was a branch of the Elisei, -who are included by Villani in the earliest catalogue given by him of -the great Florentine houses. Cacciaguida, one of the Elisei, born in -1106, married a daughter of the Aldighieri, a family of Ferrara. Their -son was christened Aldighiero, and this was adopted by the family as a -surname, afterwards changed to Alighieri. The son of Aldighiero was -Bellincione, father of Aldighiero II., the father of Dante. - -It serves no purpose to fill a page of biography with genealogical -details when the hero's course in life was in no way affected by the -accident of who was his grandfather. In the case of Dante, his position -in the State, his political creed, and his whole fashion of regarding -life, were vitally influenced by the circumstances of his birth. He knew -that his genius, and his genius alone, was to procure him fame; he -declares a virtuous and gentle life to be the true proof of nobility: -and yet his family pride is always breaking through. In real life, from -his family's being decayed in wealth and fallen in consideration -compared with its neighbours, he may have been led to put emphasis on -his assertion of gentility; and amid the poverty and humiliations of his -exile he may have found a tonic in the thought that by birth, not to -speak of other things, he was the equal of those who spurned him or -coldly lent him aid. However this may be, there is a tacit claim of -equality with them in the easy grace with which he encounters great -nobles in the world of shades. The bent of his mind in relation to this -subject is shown by such a touch as that when he esteems it among the -glories of Francis of Assisi not to have been ashamed of his base -extraction.[24] In Paradise he meets his great crusading ancestor -Cacciaguida, and feigns contrition for the pleasure with which he -listens to a declaration of the unmixed purity of their common -blood.[25] In Inferno he catches a glimpse, sudden and terrible, of a -kinsman whose violent death had remained unavenged; and, for the nonce, -the philosopher-poet is nothing but the member of an injured Florentine -clan, and winces at the thought of a neglected blood feud.[26] And when -Farinata, the great Ghibeline, and haughtiest of all the Florentines of -the past generation, asks him, 'Who were thine ancestors?' Dante says -with a proud pretence of humility, 'Anxious to obey, I hid nothing, but -told him all he demanded.'[27] - -Dante was born in Florence in the May of 1265.[28] A brother of his -father had been one of the guards of the Florentine Caroccio, or -standard-bearing car, at the battle of Montaperti (1260). Whether -Dante's father necessarily shared in the exile of his party may be -doubted. He is said--on slight authority--to have been a jurisconsult: -there is no reason to suppose he was at Montaperti. It is difficult to -believe that Florence was quite emptied of its lawyers and merchants as -a consequence of the Ghibeline victory. In any case, it is certain that -while the fugitive Guelfs were mostly accompanied by their wives, and -did not return till 1267, we have Dante's own word for it that he was -born in the great city by the Arno,[29] and was baptized in the -Baptistery, his beautiful St. John's.[30] At the font he received the -name of Durante, shortened, as he bore it, into Dante. It is in this -form that it finds a place in the _Comedy_,[31] once, and only once, -written down of necessity, the poet says--the necessity of being -faithful in the report of Beatrice's words: from the wider necessity, we -may assume, of imbedding in the work itself the name by which the author -was commonly known, and by which he desired to be called for all time. - -When Dante was about ten years old he lost his father. Of his mother -nothing but her Christian name of Bella is known. Neither of them is -mentioned in the _Comedy_,[32] nor indeed are his wife and children. -Boccaccio describes the Alighieri as having been in easy though not in -wealthy circumstances; and Leonardo Bruni, who in the fifteenth century -sought out what he could learn of Dante, says of him that he was -possessed of a patrimony sufficient for an honourable livelihood. That -he was so might be inferred from the character of the education he -received. His studies, says Boccaccio, were not directed to any object -of worldly profit. That there is no sign of their having been directed -by churchmen tends to prove the existence in his native town of a class -of cultivated laymen; and that there was such appears from the ease -with which, when, passing from boyhood to manhood, he felt a craving for -intellectual and congenial society, he found in nobles of the stamp of -Guido Cavalcanti men like-minded with himself. It was indeed impossible -but that the revival of the study of the civil law, the importation of -new learning from the East, and the sceptical spirit fostered in Italy -by the influence of Frederick II. and his court, should all have told on -the keen-witted Florentines, of whom a great proportion--even of the -common people--could read; while the class with leisure had every -opportunity of knowing what was going on in the world.[33] Heresy, the -rough word for intellectual life as well as for religious aspiration, -had found in Florence a congenial soil.[34] In the thirteenth century, -which modern ignorance loves to reckon as having been in a special sense -an age of faith, there were many Florentines who, in spite of their -outward conformity, had drifted as far from spiritual allegiance to the -Church as the furthest point reached by any of their descendants who -some two ages later belonged to the school of Florentine Platonists. - -Chief among these free-thinkers, and, sooth to say, free-livers--though -in this respect they were less distinguished from the orthodox--was -Brunetto Latini, for some time Secretary to the Republic, and the -foremost Italian man of letters of his day. Meagre though his greatest -work, the _Tesoro_, or _Treasure_, must seem to any one who now glances -over its pages, to his contemporaries it answered the promise of its -title and stood for a magazine of almost complete information in the -domains of natural history, ethics, and politics. It was written in -French, as being a more agreeable language than Italian; and was -composed, there is reason to believe, while Latini lived in Paris as an -exiled Guelf after Montaperti. His _Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, a -poem in jingling eight-syllabled Italian verse, has been thought by some -to have supplied hints to Dante for the _Comedy_.[35] By neither of -these works is he evinced a man of strong intellect, or even of good -taste. Yet there is the testimony of Villani that he did much to refine -the language of his contemporaries, and to apply fixed principles to the -conduct of State affairs.[36] Dante meets him in Inferno, and hails him -as his intellectual father--as the master who taught him from day to day -how fame is to be won.[37] But it is too much to infer from these words -that Latini served as his teacher, in the common sense of the word. It -is true they imply an intimacy between the veteran scholar and his -young townsman; but the closeness of their intercourse is perhaps best -accounted for by supposing that Latini had been acquainted with Dante's -father, and by the great promise of Dante's boyhood was led to take a -warm interest in his intellectual development. Their intimacy, to judge -from the tone of their conversation down in Inferno, had lasted till -Latini's death. But no tender reminiscence of the days they spent -together avails to save him from condemnation at the hands of his severe -disciple. By the manners of Brunetto, and the Epicurean heresies of -others of his friends, Dante, we may be sure, was never infected or -defiled. - -Dante describes himself as having begun the serious study of philosophy -and theology only at the mature age of twenty-seven. But ere that time -he had studied to good effect, and not books alone, but the world around -him too, and the world within. The poet was formed before the theologian -and philosopher. From his earliest years he was used to write in verse; -and he seems to have esteemed as one of his best endowments the easy -command of his mother tongue acquired by him while still in boyhood. - -Of the poems written in his youth he made a selection, and with a -commentary gave them to the world as his first work.[38] All the sonnets -and canzoni contained in it bear more or less directly on his love for -Beatrice Portinari. This lady, whose name is so indissolubly associated -with that of Dante, was the daughter of a rich citizen of good family. -When Dante saw her first he was a child of nine, and she a few months -younger. It would seem fabulous, he says, if he related what things he -did, and of what a passion he was the victim during his boyhood. He -seized opportunities of beholding her, but for long never passed beyond -a silent worship; and he was eighteen before she spoke to him, and then -only in the way of a passing salutation. On this he had a vision, and -that inspired him with a sonnet, certainly not the first he had written, -but the first he put into circulation. The mode of publication he -adopted was the common one of sending copies of it to such other poets -as were within reach. The sonnet in itself contains a challenge to -interpret his dream. Several poets attempted the riddle--among them the -philosopher and poet Guido Cavalcanti. They all failed in the solution; -but with some of them he was thus brought into terms of intimacy, and -with Cavalcanti of the closest friendship. Some new grace of style in -Dante's verse, some art in the presentation of his mystical meaning that -escapes the modern reader, may have revealed to the middle-aged man of -letters that a new genius had arisen. It was by Guido's advice that the -poems of which this sonnet stands the first were some years later -collected and published with the explanatory narrative. To him, in a -sense, the whole work is addressed; and it agreed with his taste, as -well as Dante's own, that it should contain nothing but what was written -in the vulgar tongue. Others besides Guido must have recognised in the -little book, as it passed from hand to hand, the masterpiece of Italian -prose, as well as of Italian verse. In the simple title of _Vita Nuova_, -or _The New Life_,[39] we can fancy that a claim is laid to originality -of both subject and treatment. Through the body of the work, though not -so clearly as in the _Comedy_, there rings the note of assurance of -safety from present neglect and future oblivion. - -It may be owing to the free use of personification and symbol in the -_Vita Nuova_ that some critics, while not denying the existence of a -real Beatrice, have held that she is introduced only to help out an -allegory, and that, under the veil of love for her, the poet would -express his youthful passion for truth. Others, going to the opposite -extreme, are found wondering why he never sought, or, seeking, failed to -win, the hand of Beatrice. To those who would refine the Beatrice of the -early work into a being as purely allegorical as she of the _Comedy_, it -may be conceded that the _Vita Nuova_ is not so much the history of a -first love as of the new emotional and intellectual life to which a -first love, as Dante experienced it, opens the door. Out of the -incidents of their intercourse he chooses only such as serve for motives -to the joys and sorrows of the passionate aspiring soul. On the other -hand, they who seek reasons why Dante did not marry Beatrice have this -to justify their curiosity, that she did marry another man. But her -husband was one of the rich and powerful Bardi; and her father was so -wealthy that after providing for his children he could endow a hospital -in Florence. The marriage was doubtless arranged as a matter of family -convenience, due regard being had to her dower and her husband's -fortune; and we may assume that when Dante, too, was married later on, -his wife was found for him by the good offices of his friends.[40] Our -manners as regards these things are not those of the Italy of the -thirteenth century. It may safely be said that Dante never dreamed of -Beatrice for his wife; that the expectation of wedding her would have -sealed his lips from uttering to the world any word of his love; and -that she would have lost something in his esteem if, out of love for -him, she had refused the man her father chose for her. - -We must not seek in the _Vita Nuova_ what it does not profess to give. -There was a real Beatrice Portinari, to a careless glance perhaps not -differing much from other Florentine ladies of her age and condition; -but her we do not find in Dante's pages. These are devoted to a record -of the dreams and visions, the new thoughts and feelings of which she -was the occasion or the object. He worshipped at a distance, and in a -single glance found reward enough for months of adoration; he read all -heaven into a smile. So high strung is the narrative, that did we come -on any hint of loving dalliance it would jar with all the rest She is -always at a distance from him, less a woman than an angel. - -In all this there is certainly as much of reticence as of exaggeration. -When he comes to speak of her death he uses a phrase on which it would -seem as if too little value had been set. He cannot dwell on the -circumstances of her departure, he says, without being his own -panegyrist. Taken along with some other expressions in the _Vita Nuova_, -and the tone of her words to him when they meet in the Earthly Paradise, -we may gather from this that not only was she aware of his long -devotion, but that, ere she died, he had been given to understand how -highly she rated it. And on the occasion of her death, one described as -being her nearest relative by blood and, after Cavalcanti, Dante's chief -friend--her brother, no doubt--came to him and begged him to write -something concerning her. It would be strange indeed if they had never -looked frankly into one another's faces; and yet, for anything that is -directly told in the _Vita Nuova_, they never did. - -The chief value of the _Vita Nuova_ is therefore psychological. It is a -mine of materials illustrative of the author's mental and emotional -development, but as regards historical details it is wanting in fulness -and precision. Yet, even in such a sketch of Dante's life as this tries -to be, it is necessary to dwell on the turning-points of the narrative -contained in the _Vita Nuova_; the reader always remembering that on one -side Dante says more than the fact that so he may glorify his love, and -less on another that he may not fail in consideration for Beatrice. She -is first a maiden whom no public breath is to disturb in her virgin -calm; and afterwards a chaste wife, whose lover is as jealous of her -reputation as any husband could be. The youthful lover had begun by -propounding the riddle of his love so obscurely that even by his -fellow-poets it had been found insoluble, adepts though they themselves -were in the art of smothering a thought. Then, though all his longing is -for Beatrice, lest she become the subject of common talk he feigns that -he is in love first with one lady and then with another.[41] He even -pushes his deceit so far that she rebukes him for his fickleness to one -of his sham loves by denying him the customary salutation when they -meet--this salutation being the only sign of friendship she has ever -shown. It is already some few years since the first sonnet was written. -Now, in a ballad containing a more direct avowal of his love than he has -yet ventured on,[42] he protests that it was always Beatrice his heart -was busy with, and that to her, though his eyes may have seemed to -wander, his affection was always true. In the very next poem we find him -as if debating with himself whether he shall persevere. He weighs the -ennobling influence of a pure love and the sweetness it gives to life, -against the pains and self-denial to which it condemns its servant. -Here, he tells us in his commentary, he was like a traveller who has -come to where the ways divide. His only means of escape--and he feels it -is a poor one--is to throw himself into the arms of Pity. - -From internal evidence it seems reasonably certain that the marriage of -Beatrice fell at the time when he describes himself as standing at the -parting of the ways. Before that he has been careful to write of his -love in terms so general as to be understood only by those in possession -of the key. Now he makes direct mention of her, and seeks to be in her -company; and he even leads us to infer that it was owing to his poems -that she became a well-known personage in the streets of Florence. -Immediately after the sonnet in which he has recourse to Pity, he tells -how he was led by a friend into the house of a lady, married only that -day, whom they find surrounded by her lady friends, met to celebrate her -home-coming after marriage. It was the fashion for young gentlemen to -offer their services at such a feast. On this occasion Dante for one can -give no help. A sudden trembling seizes him; he leans for support -against the painted wall of the chamber; then, lifting his eyes to see -if the ladies have remarked his plight, he is troubled at beholding -Beatrice among them, with a smile on her lips, as, leaning towards her, -they mock at her lover's weakness. To his friend, who, as he leads him -from the chamber, asks what ails him, he replies: 'My feet have reached -that point beyond which if they pass they can never return.' It was only -matrons that gathered round a bride at her home-coming; Beatrice was -therefore by this time a married woman. That she was but newly married -we may infer from Dante's confusion on finding her there.[43] His secret -has now been discovered, and he must either renounce his love, or, as he -is at length free to do, Beatrice being married, declare it openly, and -spend his life in loyal devotion to her as the mistress of his -imagination and of his heart.[44] - -But how is he to pursue his devotion to her, and make use of his new -privilege of freer intercourse, when the very sight of her so unmans -him? He writes three sonnets explaining what may seem pusillanimity in -him, and resolves to write no more. Now comes the most fruitful episode -in the history. Questioned by a bevy of fair ladies what is the end of a -love like his, that cannot even face the object of its desire, he -answers that his happiness lies in the words by which he shows forth the -praises of his mistress. He has now discovered that his passion is its -own reward. In other words, he has succeeded in spiritualising his love; -although to a careless reader it might seem in little need of passing -through the process. Then, soon after, as he walks by a crystal brook, -he is inspired with the words which begin the noblest poem he had yet -produced,[45] and that as the author of which he is hailed by a -fellow-poet in Purgatory. It is the first to glorify Beatrice as one in -whom Heaven is more concerned than Earth; and in it, too, he anticipates -his journey through the other world. She dies,[46] and we are surprised -to find that within a year of her death he wavers in his allegiance to -her memory. A fair face, expressing a tender compassion, looks down on -him from a window as he goes nursing his great sorrow; and he loves the -owner of the face because she pities him. But seeing Beatrice in a -vision he is restored, and the closing sonnet tells how his whole desire -goes forth to her, and how his spirit is borne above the highest sphere -to behold her receiving honour, and shedding radiance on all around her. -The narrative closes with a reference to a vision which he does not -recount, but which incites him to severe study in order that he may -learn to write of her as she deserves. And the last sentence of the -_Vita Nuova_ expresses a hope--a hope which would be arrogant coming -after anything less perfect than the _Vita Nuova_--that, concerning her, -he shall yet say things never said before of any woman. Thus the poet's -earliest work contains an earnest of the latest, and his morning makes -one day with his evening. - -The narrative of the _Vita Nuova_ is fluent and graceful, in this -contrasting strongly with the analytical arguments attached to the -various poems. Dante treats his readers as if they were able to catch -the meaning of the most recondite allegory, and yet were ignorant of the -alphabet of literary form. And, as is the case with other poets of the -time, the free movement of his fancy is often hampered by the necessity -he felt of expressing himself in the language of the popular scholastic -philosophy. All this is but to say that he was a man of his period, as -well as a great genius. And even in this his first work he bettered the -example of Guido Cavalcanti, Guido of Bologna, and the others whom he -found, but did not long suffer to remain, the masters of Italian -verse.[47] These inherited from the Provencal and Sicilian poets much -of the cant of which European poetry has been so slow to clear itself; -and chiefly that of presenting all human emotion and volition under the -figure of love for a mistress, who was often merely a creature of fancy, -set up to act as Queen of Beauty while the poet ran his intellectual -jousts. But Dante dealt in no feigned inspiration, and distinguishes -himself from the whole school of philosophical and artificial poets as -'one who can only speak as love inspires.'[48] He may deal in allegory -and utter sayings dark enough, but the first suggestions of his thoughts -are obtained from facts of emotion or of real life. His lady was no -creature of fancy, but his neighbour Beatrice Portinari: and she who -ends in the _Paradiso_ as the embodied beauty of holiness was, to begin -with, a fair Florentine girl. - -The instance of Beatrice is the strongest, although others might be -adduced, to illustrate Dante's economy of actual experience; the skilful -use, that is, of real emotions and incidents to serve for suggestion and -material of poetical thought. As has been told, towards the close of the -_Vita Nuova_ he describes how he found a temporary consolation for the -loss of Beatrice in the pity of a fair and noble lady. In his next work, -the _Convito_, or _Banquet_, she appears as the personification of -philosophy. The plan of the _Convito_ is that of a commentary on odes -which are interpreted as having various meanings--among others the -literal as distinguished from the allegorical or essentially true. As -far as this lady is concerned, Dante shows some eagerness to pass from -the literal meaning; desirous, it may be, to correct the belief that he -had ever wavered in his exclusive devotion to Beatrice. That for a time -he did transfer his thoughts from Beatrice in Heaven to the fair lady of -the window is almost certain, and by the time he wrote the _Purgatorio_ -he was able to make confession of such a fault. But at the earlier -period at which the _Convito_[49] was written, he may have come to -regard the avowal in the _Vita Nuova_ as an oversight dishonouring to -himself as well as to his first love, and so have slurred it over, -leaving the fact to stand enveloped in an allegory. At any rate, to his -gloss upon this passage in his life we are indebted for an interesting -account of how, at the age of twenty-seven, he put himself to school:-- - - 'After losing the earliest joy of my life, I was so smitten with - sorrow that in nothing could I find any comfort. Yet after some - time my mind, eager to recover its tone, since nought that I or - others could do availed to restore me, directed itself to find how - people, being disconsolate, had been comforted. And so I took to - reading that little-known book by Boethius, by writing which he, - captive and in exile, had obtained relief. Next, hearing that Tully - as well had written a book in which, treating of friendship, he had - consoled the worthy Laelius on the occasion of the loss of his - friend Scipio, I read that too. And though at the first I found - their meaning hard, at last I comprehended it as far as my - knowledge of the language and some little command of mother-wit - enabled me to do: which same mother-wit had already helped me to - much, as may be seen by the _Vita Nuova_. And as it often happens - that a man goes seeking silver, and lights on gold he is not - looking for--the result of chance, or of some divine provision; so - I, besides finding the consolation I was in search of to dry my - tears, became possessed of wisdom from authors and sciences and - books. Weighing this well, I deemed that philosophy, the mistress - of these authors, sciences, and books, must be the best of all - things. And imagining her to myself fashioned like a great lady, - rich in compassion, my admiration of her was so unbounded that I - was always delighting myself in her image. And from thus beholding - her in fancy I went on to frequent the places where she is to be - found in very deed--in the schools of theology, to wit, and the - debates of philosophers. So that in a little time, thirty months or - so, I began to taste so much of her sweetness that the love I bore - to her effaced or banished every other thought.'[50] - -No one would guess from this description of how he grew enamoured of -philosophy, that at the beginning of his arduous studies Dante took a -wife. She was Gemma, the daughter of Manetto Donati, but related only -distantly, if at all, to the great Corso Donati. They were married in -1292, he being twenty-seven; and in the course of the nine years that -elapsed till his exile she bore him five sons and two daughters.[51] -From his silence regarding her in his works, and from some words of -Boccaccio's which apply only to the period of his exile, it has been -inferred that the union was unhappy. But Dante makes no mention in his -writings of his parents or children any more than of Gemma.[52] And why -should not his wife be included among the things dearest to him which, -he tells us, he had to leave behind him on his banishment? For anything -we know to the contrary, their wedded life up to the time of his exile -may have been happy enough; although most probably the marriage was one -of convenience, and almost certainly Dante found little in Gemma's mind -that answered to his own.[53] In any case it is not safe to lay stress -upon his silence. During the period covered by the _Vita Nuova_ he -served more than once in the field, and to this none of his earlier -works make any reference. In 1289, Arezzo having warmly espoused the -Ghibeline cause, the Florentines, led by Corso Donati and the great -merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, took up arms and met the foe in the field of -Campaldino, on the edge of the upland region of the Casentino. Dante, as -a young man of means and family, fought in the vanguard;[54] and in a -letter partly preserved by one of his early biographers[55] he describes -himself as being then no tiro in arms, and as having with varying -emotions watched the fortunes of the day. From this it is clear that he -had served before, probably in an expedition into the Aretine territory -made in the previous year, and referred to in the _Inferno_.[56] In the -same year as Campaldino was won he was present at the surrender of -Caprona, a fortress belonging to Pisa.[57] But of all this he is silent -in his works, or only makes casual mention of it by way of illustration. -It is, therefore, a waste of time trying to prove his domestic misery -from his silence about his marriage. - - -IV. - -So hard a student was Dante that he now for a time nearly lost the use -of his eyes.[58] But he was cured by regimen, and came to see as well as -ever, he tells us; which we can easily believe was very well indeed. For -his work, as he planned it out, he needed all his powers. The _Convito_, -for example, was designed to admit of a full treatment of all that -concerns philosophy. It marks an earlier stage of his intellectual and -spiritual life than does the opening of the _Inferno_. In it we have the -fruit of the years during which he was wandering astray from his early -ideal, misled by what he afterwards came to count as a vain and -profitless curiosity. Most of its contents, as we have it,[59] are only -indirectly interesting. It is impossible for most people to care for -discussions, conducted with all the nicety of scholastic definition, on -such subjects as the system of the universe as it was evolved out of the -brains of philosophers; the subject-matter of knowledge; and how we -know. But there is one section of it possessed of a very special -interest, the Fourth, in which he treats of the nature of nobility. -This he affirms to be independent of wealth or ancestry, and he finds -every one to be noble who practises the virtues proper to his time of -life. 'None of the Uberti of Florence or the Visconti of Milan can say -he is noble because belonging to such or such a race; for the Divine -seed is sown not in a family but in the individual man.' This amounts, -it must be admitted, to no more than saying that high birth is one -thing, and nobility of character another; but it is significant of what -were the current opinions, that Dante should be at such pains to -distinguish between the two qualities. The canzone which supplies the -text for the treatise closes with a picture of the noble soul at every -stage of life, to which Chaucer may well have been indebted for his -description of the true gentleman:[60]--'The soul that is adorned by -this grace does not keep it hid, but from the day when soul is wed to -body shows it forth even until death. In early life she is modest, -obedient, and gentle, investing the outward form and all its members -with a gracious beauty: in youth she is temperate and strong, full of -love and courteous ways, delighting in loyal deeds: in mature age she is -prudent, and just, and apt to liberality, rejoicing to hear of others' -good. Then in the fourth stage of life she is married again to God,[61] -and contemplates her approaching end with thankfulness for all the -past.'[62] - -In this passage it is less the poet that is heard than the sober -moralist, one with a ripe experience of life, and contemptuous of the -vulgar objects of ambition. The calm is on the surface. As has been said -above, he was proud of his own birth, the more proud perhaps that his -station was but a middling one; and to the close of his life he hated -upstarts with their sudden riches, while the Philip Argenti on whom in -the _Inferno_ he takes what has much the air of a private revenge may -have been only a specimen of the violent and haughty nobles with whom he -stood on an uneasy footing. - -Yet the impression we get of Dante's surroundings in Florence from the -_Vita Nuova_ and other poems, from references in the _Comedy_, and from -some anecdotes more or less true which survive in the pages of Boccaccio -and elsewhere, is on the whole a pleasant one. We should mistake did we -think of him as always in the guise of absorbed student or tearful -lover. Friends he had, and society of various kinds. He tells how in a -severe illness he was nursed by a young and noble lady, nearly related -to him by blood--his sister most probably; and other ladies are -mentioned as watching in his sick-chamber.[63] With Forese and Piccarda -Donati, brother and sister of the great Corso Donati, he was on terms of -the warmest friendship.[64] From the _Vita Nuova_ we can gather that, -even when his whole heart fainted and failed at the mere sight of -Beatrice, he was a favourite with other ladies and conversed familiarly -with them. The brother of Beatrice was his dear friend; while among -those of the elder generation he could reckon on the friendship of such -men as Guido Cavalcanti and Brunetto Latini. Through Latini he would, -even as a young man, get the entry of the most lettered and -intellectually active society of Florence. The tradition of his intimacy -with Giotto is supported by the mention he makes of the painter,[65] and -by the fact, referred to in the _Vita Nuova_, that he was himself a -draughtsman. It is to be regretted there are not more anecdotes of him -on record like that which tells how one day as he drew an angel on his -tablets he was broken in upon by 'certain people of importance.' The -musician Casella, whom he 'woes to sing in Purgatory'[66] and Belacqua, -the indolent good-humoured lutemaker,[67] are greeted by him in a tone -of friendly warmth in the one case and of easy familiarity in the other, -which help us to know the terms on which he stood with the quick-witted -artist class in Florence.[68] Already he was in the enjoyment of a high -reputation as a poet and scholar, and there seemed no limit to the -greatness he might attain to in his native town as a man of action as -well as a man of thought. - -In most respects the Florence of that day was as fitting a home for a -man of genius as could well be imagined. It was full of a life which -seemed restless only because the possibilities of improvement for the -individual and the community seemed infinite. A true measure of its -political progress and of the activity of men's minds is supplied by the -changes then being made in the outward aspect of the city. The duties of -the Government were as much municipal as political, and it would have -surprised a Florentine to be told that the one kind of service was of -less dignity than the other. The population grew apace, and, to provide -the means for extending the city walls, every citizen, on pain of his -testament being found invalid, was required to bequeath a part of his -estate to the public. Already the banks of the Arno were joined by three -bridges of stone, and the main streets were paved with the -irregularly-shaped blocks of lava still familiar to the sojourner in -Florence. But between the time of Dante's boyhood and the close of the -century the other outstanding features of the city were greatly altered, -or were in the course of change. The most important churches of -Florence, as he first knew it, were the Baptistery and the neighbouring -small cathedral church of Santa Reparata; after these ranked the church -of the Trinity, Santo Stefano, and some other churches which are now -replaced by larger ones, or of which the site alone can be discovered. -On the other side of the river, Samminiato with its elegant facade rose -as now upon its hill.[69] The only great civic building was the Palace -of the Podesta. The Old Market was and had long been the true centre of -the city's life. - -At the time Dante went into exile Arnolfo was already working on the -great new cathedral of St. Mary of the Flowers, the spacious Santa -Croce, and the graceful Badia; and Santa Maria Novella was slowly -assuming the perfection of form that was later to make it the favourite -of Michel Angelo. The Palace of the Signory was already planned, though -half a century was to elapse before its tower soared aloft to daunt the -private strongholds which bristled, fierce and threatening, all over the -city. The bell-tower of Giotto, too, was of later erection--the only -pile we can almost regret that Dante never saw. The architect of it was -however already adorning the walls of palace and cloister with paintings -whose inspiration was no longer, like that of the works they -overshadowed, drawn from the outworn motives of Byzantine art, but from -the faithful observation of nature.[70] He in painting and the Pisan -school in sculpture were furnishing the world with novel types of beauty -in the plastic arts, answering to the 'sweet new style' in verse of -which it was Dante that discovered the secret.[71] - -Florence was now by far the leading city in Tuscany. Its merchants and -money-dealers were in correspondence with every Mediterranean port and -with every country of the West. Along with bales of goods and letters of -exchange new ideas and fresh intelligence were always on the road to -Florence. The knowledge of what was going on in the world, and of what -men were thinking, was part of the stock-in-trade of the quick-witted -citizens, and they were beginning to be employed throughout Europe in -diplomatic work, till then almost a monopoly of churchmen. 'These -Florentines seem to me to form a fifth element,' said Boniface, who had -ample experience of how accomplished they were. - -At home they had full employment for their political genius; and still -upon the old problem, of how to curb the arrogance of the class that, in -place of being satisfied to share in the general prosperity, sought its -profit in the maintenance of privilege. It is necessary, at the cost of -what may look like repetition, to revert to the presence and activity of -this class in Florence, if we are to form a true idea of the -circumstances of Dante's life, and enter into the spirit with which much -of the _Comedy_ is informed. Though many of the nobles were now engaged -in commerce and figured among the popular leaders, most of the greater -houses stood proudly aloof from everything that might corrupt their -gentility. These were styled the magnates: they found, as it were, a -vocation for themselves in being nobles. Among them the true distinctive -spirit of Ghibelinism survived, although none of them would now have -dared to describe himself as a Ghibeline. Their strength lay partly in -the unlimited control they retained over the serfs on their landward -estates; in the loyalty with which the members of a family held by one -another; in their great command of resources as the administrators of -the _Parte Guelfa_; and in the popularity they enjoyed with the smaller -people in consequence of their lavish expenditure, and frank if insolent -manners. By law scarcely the equals of the full citizens, in point of -fact they tyrannised over them. Their houses, set like fortresses in the -crowded streets, frequently served as prisons and torture-chambers for -the low-born traders or artisans who might offend them. - -Measures enough had been passed towards the close of the century with a -view to curb the insolence of the magnates; but the difficulty was to -get them put in force. At length, in 1294, they, with many additional -reforms, were embodied in the celebrated Ordinances of Justice. These -for long were counted back to as the Great Charter of Florence--a Great -Charter defining the popular rights and the disabilities of the -baronage. Punishments of special severity were enacted for nobles who -should wrong a plebeian, and the whole of a family or clan was made -responsible for the crimes and liabilities of its several members. The -smaller tradesmen were conciliated by being admitted to a share in -political influence. If serfage was already abolished in the State of -Florence, it was the Ordinances which made it possible for the serf to -use his liberty.[72] But the greatest blow dealt to the nobles by the -new laws was their exclusion, as nobles, from all civil and political -offices. These they could hold only by becoming members of one of the -trade guilds.[73] And to deprive a citizen of his rights it was enough -to inscribe his name in the list of magnates. - -It is not known in what year Dante became a member of the Guild of -Apothecaries. Without much reason it has been assumed that he was one of -the nobles who took advantage of the law of 1294. But there is no -evidence that in his time the Alighieri ranked as magnates, and much -ground for believing that for some considerable time past they had -belonged to the order of full citizens. - -It was not necessary for every guildsman to practise the art or engage -in the business to which his guild was devoted, and we are not required -to imagine Dante as having anything to do with medicine or with the -spices and precious stones in which the apothecaries traded. The guilds -were political as much as industrial associations, and of the public -duties of his membership he took his full share. The constitution of the -Republic, jealously careful to limit the power of the individual -citizen, provided that the two chief executive officers, the Podesta and -the Captain of the People, should always be foreigners. They held office -only for six months. To each of them was assigned a numerous Council, -and before a law could be abrogated or a new one passed it needed the -approval of both these Councils, as well as that of the Priors, and of -the heads of the principal guilds. The Priors were six in number, one -for each district of the city. With them lay the administration in -general of the laws, and the conduct of foreign affairs. Their office -was elective, and held for two months.[74] Of one or other of the -Councils Dante is known to have been a member in 1295, 1296, 1300, and -1301.[75] In 1299 he is found engaged on a political mission to the -little hill-city of San Gemigniano, where in the town-house they still -show the pulpit from which he addressed the local senate.[76] From the -middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he served as one of the -Priors.[77] - -At the time when Dante entered on this office, Florence was distracted -by the feud of Blacks and Whites, names borrowed from the factions of -Pistoia, but fated to become best known from their use in the city which -adopted them. The strength of the Blacks lay in the nobles whom the -Ordinances of Justice had been designed to depress; both such of them as -had retained their standing as magnates, and such as, under the new law, -had unwillingly entered the ranks of the citizens. Already they had -succeeded in driving into exile Giano della Bella,[78] the chief author -of the Ordinances; and their efforts--and those of the citizens who, -fearing the growing power of the lesser guilds, were in sympathy with -them--were steadily directed to upset the reforms. An obvious means to -this end was to lower in popular esteem the public men whose policy it -was to govern firmly on the new lines. The leader of the discontented -party was Corso Donati, a man of small fortune, but of high birth; of -splendid personal appearance, open-handed, and of popular manners. He -and they who went with him affected a violent Guelfism, their chance of -recovering the control of domestic affairs being the better the more -they could frighten the Florentines with threats of evils like those -incurred by the Aretines and Pisans from Ghibeline oppression. It may be -imagined what meaning the cry of Ghibeline possessed in days when there -was still a class of beggars in Florence--men of good names--whose eyes -had been torn out by Farinata and his kind. - -One strong claim which Corso Donati had on the goodwill of his -fellow-townsmen was that by his ready courage in pushing on the -reserves, against superior orders, at the battle of Campaldino,[79] the -day had been won to Florence and her allies. As he rode gallantly -through the streets he was hailed as the Baron (_il Barone_), much as in -the last generation the victor of Waterloo was sufficiently -distinguished as the Duke. At the same battle, Vieri dei Cerchi, the -leader of the opposite party of the Whites, had shown no less bravery, -but he was ignorant of the art, or despised it, of making political -capital out of the performance of his duty. In almost every respect he -offered a contrast to Donati. He was of a new family, and his influence -depended not on landed possessions, though he had these too, but on -wealth derived from commerce.[80] According to John Villani, a competent -authority on such a point,[81] he was at the head of one of the greatest -trading houses in the world. The same crowds that cheered Corso as the -great Baron sneered at the reticent and cold-tempered merchant as the -Ghibeline. It was a strange perversion of ideas, and yet had this of -justification, that all the nobles of Ghibeline tendency and all the -citizens who, on account of their birth, were suspected of leaning that -way were driven into the party of the Whites by the mere fact of the -Blacks hoisting so defiantly the Guelf flag, and commanding the -resources of the _Parte Guelfa_. But if Ghibelinism meant, as fifty -years previously it did mean, a tendency to exalt privilege as against -the general liberties and to court foreign interference in the affairs -of Florence, it was the Blacks and not the Whites who had served -themselves heirs to Ghibelinism. That the appeal was now taken to the -Pope instead of to the Emperor did not matter; or that French soldiers -in place of German were called in to settle domestic differences. - -The Roman See was at this time filled by Boniface VIII., who six years -previously, by violence and fraud, had procured the resignation of -Celestine V.--him who made the great refusal.[82] Boniface was at once -arrogant and subtle, wholly faithless, and hampered by no scruple -either of religion or humanity. But these qualities were too common -among those who before and after him filled the Papal throne, to secure -him in a special infamy. That he has won from the ruthless hatred which -blazes out against him in many a verse of Dante's,[83] and for this -hatred he is indebted to his interference in the affairs of Florence, -and what came as one of the fruits of it--the poet's exile. - -And yet, from the point of view not only of the interest of Rome but -also of Italy, there is much to be said for the policy of Boniface. -German domination was a just subject of fear, and the Imperialist -element was still so strong in Northern and Central Italy, that if the -Emperor Albert[84] had been a man of a more resolute ambition, he -might--so contemporaries deemed--have conquered Italy at the cost of a -march through it. The cities of Romagna were already in Ghibeline -revolt, and it was natural that the Pope should seek to secure Florence -on the Papal side. It was for the Florentines rather than for him to -judge what they would lose or gain by being dragged into the current of -general politics. He made a fair beginning with an attempt to reconcile -the two parties. The Whites were then the dominant faction, and to them -reconciliation meant that their foes would at once divide the -government with them, and at the long-run sap the popular liberties, -while the Pope's hand would soon be allowed to dip freely into the -communal purse. The policy of the Whites was therefore one of steady -opposition to all foreign meddling with Florence. But it failed to -secure general support, for without being Ghibeline in fact it had the -air of being so; and the name of Ghibeline was one that no reasoning -could rob of its terrors.[85] - -As was usual in Florence when political feeling ran high, the hotter -partisans came to blows, and the streets were more than once disturbed -by violence and bloodshed. To an onlooker it must have seemed as if the -interposition of some external authority was desirable; and almost on -the same day as the new Priors, of whom Dante was one and who were all -Whites, took office in the June of 1300, the Cardinal Acquasparta -entered the city, deputed by the Pope to establish peace. His proposals -were declined by the party in power, and having failed in his mission he -left the city, and took the priestly revenge upon it of placing it under -interdict.[86] Ere many months were passed, the Blacks, at a meeting of -the heads of the party, resolved to open negotiations anew with -Boniface. For this illegal step some of them, including Corso Donati, -were ordered into exile by the authorities, who, to give an appearance -of impartiality to their proceedings, at the same time banished some of -the Whites, and among them Guido Cavalcanti. It was afterwards made a -charge against Dante that he had procured the recall of his friend Guido -and the other Whites from exile; but to this he could answer that he was -not then in office.[87] Corso in the meantime was using his enforced -absence from Florence to treat freely with the Pope. - -Boniface had already entered into correspondence with Charles of Valois, -brother of Philip, the reigning King of France, with the view of -securing the services of a strongly-connected champion. It was the game -that had been played before by the Roman Court when Charles of Anjou was -called to Italy to crush the Hohenstaufens. This second Charles was a -man of ability of a sort, as he had given cruel proof in his brother's -Flemish wars. By the death of his wife, daughter of his kinsman Charles -II. of Naples and so grand-daughter of Charles of Anjou, he had lost the -dominions of Maine and Anjou, and had got the nickname of Lackland from -his want of a kingdom. He lent a willing ear to Boniface, who presented -him with the crown of Sicily on condition that he first wrested it from -the Spaniard who wore it.[88] All the Papal influence was exerted to get -money for the expenses of the descent on Sicily. Even churchmen were -required to contribute, for it was a holy war, and the hope was that -when Charles, the champion of the Church, had reduced Italy to -obedience, won Sicily for himself by arms, and perhaps the Eastern -Empire by marriage, he would win the Holy Sepulchre for Christendom. - -Charles crossed the Alps in August 1301, with five hundred men-at-arms, -and, avoiding Florence on his southward march, found Boniface at his -favourite residence of Anagni. He was created Pacificator of Tuscany, -and loaded with other honours. What better served the purpose of his -ambition, he was urged to retrace his steps and justify his new title by -restoring peace to Florence. There the Whites were still in power, but -they dared not declare themselves openly hostile to the Papal and Guelf -interest by refusing him admission to the city. He came with gentle -words, and ready to take the most stringent oaths not to tamper with the -liberties of the Commonwealth; but once he had gained an entrance -(November 1301) and secured his hold on Florence, he threw off every -disguise, gave full play to his avarice, and amused himself with looking -on at the pillage of the dwellings and warehouses of the Whites by the -party of Corso Donati. By all this, says Dante, Charles 'gained no -land,' Lackland as he was, 'but only sin and shame.'[89] - -There is a want of precise information as to the events of this time. -But it seems probable that Dante formed one of an embassy sent by the -rulers of Florence to the Pope in the autumn of this year; and that on -the occasion of the entrance of Charles he was absent from Florence. -What the embassy had to propose which Boniface could be expected to be -satisfied with, short of complete submission, is not known and is not -easy to guess. It seems clear at least that Dante cannot have been -chosen as a person likely to be specially pleasing to the Roman Court. -Within the two years preceding he had made himself prominent in the -various Councils of which he was a member, by his sturdy opposition to -affording aid to the Pope in his Romagnese wars. It is even possible -that his theory of the Empire was already more or less known to -Boniface, and as that Pontiff claimed Imperial authority over such -states as Florence, this would be sufficient to secure him a rough -reception.[90] Where he was when the terrible news came to him that for -some days there had been no law in Florence, and that Corso Donati was -sharing in the triumph of Charles, we do not know. Presageful of worse -things to come, he did not seek to return, and is said to have been in -Siena when he heard that, on the 27th January 1302, he had been -sentenced to a heavy fine and political disabilities for having been -guilty of extortion while a Prior, of opposing the coming of Charles, -and of crimes against the peace of Florence and the interest of the -_Parte Guelfa_. If the fine was not paid within three days his goods and -property were to be confiscated. This condemnation he shared with three -others. In the following March he was one of twelve condemned, for -contumacy, to be burned alive if ever they fell into the hands of the -Florentine authorities. We may perhaps assume that the cruel sentence, -as well as the charge of peculation, was uttered only in order to -conform to some respectable precedents. - - -V. - -Besides Dante many other Whites had been expelled from Florence.[91] -Whether they liked it or not, they were forced to seek aid from the -Ghibelines of Arezzo and Romagna. This led naturally to a change of -political views, and though at the time of their banishment all of them -were Guelfs in various degrees, as months and years went on they -developed into Ghibelines, more or less declared. Dissensions, too, -would be bred among them out of recriminations touching the past, and -charges of deserting the general interest for the sake of securing -private advantage in the way of making peace with the Republic. For a -time, however, the common desire of gaining a return to Florence held -them together. Of the Council constituted to bring this about, Dante was -a member. Once only with his associates does he appear to have come the -length of formal negotiations with a view to getting back. Charles of -Valois had passed away from the temporary scene of his extortions and -treachery, upon the futile quest of a crown. Boniface, ere being -persecuted to death by his old ally, Philip of France (1303), had vainly -attempted to check the cruelty of the Blacks; and Benedict, his -successor, sent the Cardinal of Ostia to Florence with powers to -reconcile the two parties. Dante is usually credited with the -composition of the letter in which Vieri dei Cerchi and his -fellow-exiles answered the call of the Cardinal to discuss the -conditions of their return home. All that had been done by the banished -party, said the letter, had been done for the public good.[92] The -negotiations came to nothing; nor were the exiles more fortunate in -arms. Along with their allies they did once succeed by a sudden dash in -penetrating to the market-place, and Florence lay within their grasp -when, seized with panic, they turned and fled from the city, which many -of them were never to see again. - -Almost certainly Dante took no active part in this attempt, and indeed -there is little to show that he was ever heartily associated with the -exiles. In his own words, he was compelled to break with his companions -owing to their imbecility and wickedness, and to form a party by -himself.[93] With the Whites, then, he had little more to do; and the -story of their fortunes need not longer detain us. It is enough to say -that while, like Dante, the chief men among them were for ever excluded -from Florence, the principles for which they had contended survived, and -even obtained something like a triumph within its walls. The success of -Donati and his party, though won with the help of the people, was too -clearly opposed to the popular interest to be permanent. Ere long the -inveterate contradiction between magnate and merchant was again to -change the course of Florentine politics; the disabilities against -lawless nobles were again to be enforced; and Corso Donati himself was -to be crushed in the collision of passions he had evoked but could not -control (1308). Though tenderly attached to members of his family, Dante -bore Corso a grudge as having been the chief agent in procuring his -exile--a grudge which years could do nothing to wipe out. He places in -the mouth of Forese Donati a prophecy of the great Baron's shameful -death, expressed in curt and scornful words, terrible from a -brother.[94] It is no figure of speech to say that Dante nursed revenge. - -For some few years his hopes were set on Henry of Luxemburg, elected -Emperor in 1308. A Ghibeline, in the ordinary sense of the term, Dante -never was. We have in his _De Monarchia_ a full account of the -conception he had formed of the Empire--that of authority in temporal -affairs embodied in a just ruler, who, being already supreme, would be -delivered from all personal ambition; who should decree justice and be a -refuge for all that were oppressed. He was to be the captain of -Christian society and the guardian of civil right; as in another sphere -the Pope was to be the shepherd of souls and the guardian of the deposit -of Divine truth. In Dante's eyes the one great officer was as much God's -vicegerent as the other. While the most that a Ghibeline or a moderate -Guelf would concede was that there should be a division of power between -Pope and Emperor--the Ghibeline leaving it to the Emperor and the Guelf -to the Pope to define their provinces--Dante held, and in this he stood -almost alone among politicians, that they ought to be concerned with -wholly different kingdoms, and that Christendom was wronged by the -trespass of either upon the other's domain. An equal wrong was done by -the neglect by either of his duty, and both, as Dante judged, had been -shamefully neglecting it. For more than half a century no Emperor had -set foot in Italy; and since the Papal Court had under Clement V. been -removed to Avignon (1305), the Pope had ceased to be a free agent, owing -to his neighbourhood to France and the unscrupulous Philip.[95] - -Dante trusted that the virtuous single-minded Henry VII. would prove a -monarch round whom all the best in Italy might gather to make him -Emperor in deed as well as in name. His judgment took the colour of his -hopes, for under the awful shadow of the Emperor he trusted to enter -Florence. Although no Ghibeline or Imperialist in the vulgar sense, he -constituted himself Henry's apologist and herald; and in letters -addressed to the 'wicked Florentines,' to the Emperor, and to the -Princes and Peoples of Italy, he blew as it were a trumpet-blast of -triumph over the Emperor's enemies and his own. Henry had crossed the -Alps, and was tarrying in the north of Italy, when Dante, with a keen -eye for where the key of the situation lay, sharpened by his own wishes, -urged him to lose no more time in reducing the Lombard cities to -obedience, but to descend on Florence, the rotten sheep which was -corrupting all the Italian flock. The men of Florence he bids prepare to -receive the just reward of their crimes. - -The Florentines answered Dante's bitter invective and the Emperor's -milder promises by an unwearied opposition with the arms which their -increasing command of all that tends to soften life made them now less -willing to take up, and by the diplomacy in which they were supreme The -exiles were recalled, always excepting the more stubborn or dangerous; -and among these was reckoned Dante. Alliances were made on all hands, an -art which Henry was notably wanting in the trick of. Wherever he turned -he was met and checkmated by the Florentines, who, wise by experience, -were set on retaining control of their own affairs. After his coronation -at Rome (1312),[96] he marched northwards, and with his Pisan and -Aretine allies for six weeks laid fruitless siege to Florence. King -Robert of Naples, whose aid he had hoped to gain by means of a family -alliance, was joined to the league of Guelfs, and Henry passed away from -Florence to engage in an enterprise against the Southern Kingdom, a -design cut short by his death (1313). He was the last Emperor that ever -sought to take the part in Italian affairs which on Dante's theory -belonged to the Imperial office. Well-meaning but weak, he was not the -man to succeed in reducing to practice a scheme of government which had -broken down even in the strong hands of the two Fredericks, and ere the -Commonwealths of Italy had become each as powerful as a Northern -kingdom. To explain his failure, Dante finds that his descent into Italy -was unseasonable: he came too soon. Rather, it may be said, he came far -too late.[97] - -When, on the death of Henry, Dante was disappointed in his hopes of a -true revival of the Empire, he devoted himself for a time to urging the -restoration of the Papal Court to Rome, so that Italy might at least not -be left without some centre of authority. In a letter addressed to the -Italian Cardinals, he besought them to replace Clement V., who died in -1314,[98] by an Italian Pope. Why should they, he asked, resign this -great office into Gascon hands? Why should Rome, the true centre of -Christendom, be left deserted and despised? His appeal was fruitless, as -indeed it could not fail to be with only six Italian Cardinals in a -College of twenty-four; and after a vacancy of two years the Gascon -Clement was succeeded by another Gascon. Although Dante's motives in -making this attempt were doubtless as purely patriotic as those which -inspired Catherine of Siena to similar action a century later, he met, -we may be sure, with but little sympathy from his former -fellow-citizens. They were intent upon the interests of Florence alone, -and even of these they may sometimes have taken a narrow view. His was -the wider patriotism of the Italian, and it was the whole Peninsula -that he longed to see delivered from French influence and once more -provided with a seat of authority in its midst, even if it were only -that of spiritual power. The Florentines for their part, desirous of -security against the incursions of the northern horde, were rather set -on retaining the goodwill of France than on enjoying the neighbourhood -of the Pope. In this they were guilty of no desertion of their -principles. Their Guelfism had never been more than a mode of minding -themselves. - -For about three years (1313-1316) the most dangerous foe of Florence was -Uguccione de la Faggiuola, a partisan Ghibeline chief, sprung from the -mountain-land of Urbino, which lies between Tuscany and Romagna. He made -himself lord of Pisa and Lucca, and defeated the Florentines and their -allies in the great battle of Montecatini (1315). To him Dante is -believed to have attached himself.[99] It would be easy for the Republic -to form an exaggerated idea of the part which the exile had in shaping -the policy or contributing to the success of his patron; and we are not -surprised to find that, although Dante's fighting days were done, he was -after the defeat subjected to a third condemnation (November 1315). If -caught, he was to lose his head; and his sons, or some of them, were -threatened with the same fate. The terms of the sentence may again have -been more severe than the intentions of those who uttered it. However -this may be, an amnesty was passed in the course of the following year, -and Dante was urged to take advantage of it. He found the conditions of -pardon too humiliating. Like a malefactor he would require to walk, -taper in hand and a shameful mitre on his head, to the church of St -John, and there make an oblation for his crimes. It was not in this -fashion that in his more hopeful hours the exile had imagined his -restoration. If ever he trod again the pavement of his beautiful St -John's, it was to be proudly, as a patriot touching whom his country had -confessed her sins; or, with a poet's more bashful pride, to receive the -laurel crown beside the font in which he was baptized. But as he would -not enter his well beloved, well hated Florence on the terms imposed by -his enemies, so he never had the chance of entering it on his own. The -spirit in which he, as it were, turned from the open gates of his native -town is well expressed in a letter to a friend, who would seem to have -been a churchman who had tried to win his compliance with the terms of -the pardon. After thanking his correspondent for his kindly eagerness to -recover him, and referring to the submission required, he says:--'And is -it in this glorious fashion that Dante Alighieri, wearied with an almost -trilustral exile, is recalled to his country? Is this the desert of an -innocence known to all, and of laborious study which for long has kept -him asweat?... But, Father, this is no way for me to return to my -country by; though if by you or others one can be hit upon through which -the honour and fame of Dante will take no hurt, it shall be followed by -me with no tardy steps. If by none such Florence is to be entered, I -will never enter Florence. What then! Can I not, wherever I may be, -behold the sun and stars? Is not meditation upon the sweetness of truth -as free to me in one place as another? To enjoy this, no need to submit -myself ingloriously and with ignominy to the State and People of -Florence! And wherever I may be thrown, in any case I trust at least to -find daily bread.' - -The cruelty and injustice of Florence to her greatest son have been the -subject of much eloquent blame. But, in justice to his contemporaries, -we must try to see Dante as they saw him, and bear in mind that the very -qualities fame makes so much of--his fervent temper and devotion to -great ideas--placed him out of the reach of common sympathy. Others -besides him had been banished from Florence, with as much or as little -reason, and had known the saltness of bread which has been begged, and -the steepness of strange stairs. The pains of banishment made them the -more eager to have it brought to a close. With Dante all that he -suffered went to swell the count of grievances for which a reckoning was -some day to be exacted. The art of returning was, as he himself knew -well, one he was slow to learn.[100] His noble obstinacy, which would -stoop to no loss of dignity or sacrifice of principle, must excite our -admiration; it also goes far to account for his difficulty in getting -back. We can even imagine that in Florence his refusal to abate one -tittle of what was due to him in the way of apology was, for a time, the -subject of wondering speculation to the citizens, ere they turned again -to their everyday affairs of politics and merchandise. Had they been -more used to deal with men in whom a great genius was allied to a -stubborn sense of honour, they would certainly have left less room in -their treatment of Dante for happier ages to cavil at. - -How did the case stand? In the letter above quoted from, Dante says that -his innocence was known to all. As far as the charge of corruption in -his office-bearing went, his banishment--no one can doubt it for a -moment--was certainly unjust; and the political changes in Florence -since the death of Corso Donati had taken all the life out of the other -charges. But by his eager appeals to the Emperor to chastise the -Florentines he had raised fresh barriers against his return. The -governors of the Republic could not be expected to adopt his theory of -the Empire and share his views of the Imperial claims; and to them Dante -must have seemed as much guilty of disloyalty to the Commonwealth in -inviting the presence of Henry, as Corso Donati had been in Dante's eyes -for his share in bringing Charles of Valois to harry Florence. His -political writings since his exile--and all his writings were more or -less political--had been such as might well confirm or create an opinion -of him as a man difficult to live with, as one whose intellectual -arrogance had a ready organ in his unsparing tongue or pen. Rumour -would most willingly dwell upon and distort the features of his -character and conduct that separated him from the common herd. And to -add to all this, even after he had deserted the party of the Whites in -exile, and had become a party to himself, he found his friends and -patrons--for where else could he find them?--among the foes of Florence. - - -VI. - -History never abhors a vacuum so much as when she has to deal with the -life of a great man, and for those who must have details of Dante's -career during the nineteen years which elapsed between his banishment -and his death, the industry of his biographers has exhausted every -available hint, while some of them press into their service much that -has only the remotest bearing on their hero. If even one-half of their -suppositions were adopted, we should be forced to the conclusion that -the _Comedy_ and all the other works of his exile were composed in the -intervals of a very busy life. We have his own word for this much, -(_Convito_ i. 3,) that since he was cast forth out of Florence--in which -he would 'fain rest his wearied soul and fulfil his appointed time'--he -had been 'a pilgrim, nay, even a mendicant,' in every quarter of -Italy,[101] and had 'been held cheap by many who, because of his fame, -had looked to find him come in another guise.' But he gives no journal -of his wanderings, and, as will have been observed, says no word of any -country but Italy. Keeping close to well-ascertained facts, it seems -established that in the earlier period of his exile he sojourned with -members of the great family of the Counts Guidi,[102] and that he also -found hospitality with the Malaspini,[103] lords of the Val di Magra, -between Genoa and Lucca. At a still earlier date (August 1306) he is -found witnessing a deed in Padua. It was most probably in the same year -that Dante found Giotto there, painting the walls of the Scrovegni -Chapel, and was courteously welcomed by the artist, and taken to his -house.[104] At some time of his life he studied at Bologna: John Villani -says, during his exile.[105] Of his supposed residence in Paris, though -it is highly probable, there is a want of proof; of a visit to England, -none at all that is worth a moment's consideration. Some of his -commentators and biographers seem to think he was so short-witted that -he must have been in a place before it could occur to him to name it in -his verse. - -We have Dante's own word for it that he found his exile almost -intolerable. Besides the bitter resentment which he felt at the -injustice of it, he probably cherished the conviction that his career -had been cut short when he was on the point of acquiring great influence -in affairs. The illusion may have been his--one not uncommon among men -of a powerful imagination--that, given only due opportunity, he could -mould the active life of his time as easily as he moulded and fashioned -the creations of his fancy. It was, perhaps, owing to no fault of his -own that when a partial opportunity had offered itself, he failed to get -his views adopted in Florence; indeed, to judge from the kind of -employment in which he was more than once engaged for his patrons, he -must have been possessed of no little business tact. Yet, as when his -feelings were deeply concerned his words knew no restraint, so his hopes -would partake of the largeness of his genius. In the restored Empire, -which he was almost alone in longing for as he conceived of it, he may -have imagined for himself a place beside Henry like what in Frederick's -court had been filled by Pier delle Vigne--the man who held both keys to -the Emperor's heart, and opened and shut it as he would.[106] - -Thus, as his exile ran on it would grow sadder with the accumulating -memories of hopes deferred and then destroyed, and of dreams which had -faded away in the light of a cheerless reality. But some consolations he -must have found even in the conditions of his exile. He had leisure for -meditation, and time enough to spend in that other world which was all -his own. With the miseries of a wanderer's life would come not a few of -its sweets--freedom from routine, and the intellectual stimulus supplied -by change of place. Here and there he would find society such as he -cared for--that of scholars, theologians, and men familiar with every -court and school of Christendom. And, beyond all, he would get access to -books that at home he might never have seen. It was no spare diet that -would serve his mind while he was making such ample calls on it for his -great work. As it proceeds we seem to detect a growing fulness of -knowledge, and it is by reason of the more learned treatment, as well as -the loftier theme of the Third Cantica, that so many readers, when once -well at sea in the _Paradiso_, recognise the force of the warning with -which it begins.[107] - -What amount of intercourse he was able to maintain with Florence during -his wanderings is a matter of mere speculation, although of a more -interesting kind than that concerned with the chronology of his uneasy -travels. That he kept up at least some correspondence with his friends -is proved by the letter regarding the terms of his pardon. There is also -the well-known anecdote told by Boccaccio as to the discovery and -despatch to him of the opening Cantos of the _Inferno_--an anecdote we -may safely accept as founded on fact, although Boccaccio's informants -may have failed to note at the time what the manuscript consisted of, -and in the course of years may have magnified the importance of their -discovery. With his wife he would naturally communicate on subjects of -common interest--as, for instance, that of how best to save or recover -part of his property--and especially regarding the welfare of his sons, -of whom two are found to be with him when he acquires something like a -settlement in Verona. - -It is quite credible that, as Boccaccio asserts, he would never after -his exile was once begun 'go to his wife or suffer her to join him where -he was;' although the statement is probably an extension of the fact -that she never did join him. In any case it is to make too large a use -of the words to find in them evidence, as has frequently been done, of -the unhappiness of all his married life, and of his utter estrangement -from Gemma during his banishment. The union--marriage of convenience -though it was--might be harmonious enough as long as things went -moderately well with the pair. Dante was never wealthy, but he seems to -have had his own house in Florence and small landed possessions in its -neighbourhood.[108] That before his banishment he was considerably in -debt appears to be ascertained;[109] but, without knowing the -circumstances in which he borrowed, it is impossible to be sure whether -he may not only have been making use of his credit in order to put out -part of his means to advantage in some of the numerous commercial -enterprises in which his neighbours were engaged. In any case his career -must have seemed full of promise till he was driven into banishment. -When that blow had fallen, it is easy to conceive how what if it was not -mutual affection had come to serve instead of it--esteem and -forbearance--would be changed into indifference with the lapse of months -and years of enforced separation, embittered and filled on both sides -with the mean cares of indigence, and, it may be, on Gemma's side with -the conviction that her husband had brought her with himself into -disgrace. If all that is said by Boccaccio and some of Dante's enemies -as to his temperament and behaviour were true, we could only hope that -Gemma's indifference was deep enough to save her from the pangs of -jealousy. And on the other hand, if we are to push suspicion to its -utmost length, we may find an allusion to his own experience in the -lines where Dante complains of how soon a widow forgets her -husband.[110] But this is all matter of the merest speculation. Gemma -is known to have been alive in 1314.[111] She brought up her children, -says Boccaccio, upon a trifling part of her husband's confiscated -estate, recovered on the plea that it was a portion of her dowry. There -may have been difficulties of a material kind, insuperable save to an -ardent love that was not theirs, in the way of Gemma's joining her -husband in any of his cities of refuge. - -Complete evidence exists of Dante's having in his later years lived for -a longer or shorter time in the three cities of Lucca, Verona, and -Ravenna. In Purgatory he meets a shade from Lucca, in the murmur of -whose words he catches he 'knows not what of Gentucca;'[112] and when he -charges the Lucchese to speak plainly out, he is told that Lucca shall -yet be found pleasant by him because of a girl not yet grown to -womanhood. Uguccione, acting in the interest of Pisa, took possession of -Lucca in 1314, and Dante is supposed to have taken up his residence -there for some considerable time. What we may certainly infer from his -own words in the _Purgatorio_ is that they were written after a stay in -Lucca had been sweetened to him by the society of a lady named Gentucca. -He cannot well have found shelter there before the city was held by -Uguccione; and research has established that at least two ladies of the -uncommon name of Gentucca were resident there in 1314. From the whole -tone of his allusion--the mention of her very name and of her innocent -girlhood--we may gather that there was nothing in his liking for her of -which he had any reason to feel ashamed. In the _Inferno_ he had covered -the whole people of Lucca with his scorn.[113] By the time he got thus -far with the _Purgatorio_ his thoughts of the place were all softened by -his memory of one fair face--or shall we rather say, of one -compassionate and womanly soul? That Dante was more than susceptible to -feminine charms is coarsely asserted by Boccaccio.[114] But on such a -matter Boccaccio is a prejudiced witness, and, in the absence of -sufficient proof to the contrary, justice requires us to assume that the -tenor of Dante's life was not at variance with that of his writings. He -who was so severe a judge of others was not, as we can infer from more -than one passage of the _Comedy_, a lenient judge when his own failings -were concerned.[115] That his conduct never fell short of his standard -no one will venture to maintain. But what should have hindered him, in -his hours of weariness and when even his hold on the future seemed to -slacken, in lonely castle or strange town, to seek sympathy from some -fair woman who might remind him in something of Beatrice?[116] - -When, in 1316, Uguccione was driven out of Lucca and Pisa, that great -partisan took military service with Can Grande. It has been disputed -whether Dante had earlier enjoyed the hospitality of the Scaligers, or -was indebted for his first reception in Verona to the good offices of -Uguccione. It is barely credible that by this time in his life he stood -in need of any one to answer for him in the court of Can Grande. His -fame as a political writer must have preceded him; and it was of a -character to commend him to the good graces of the great Imperialist. In -his _De Monarchia_ he had, by an exhaustive treatment of propositions -which now seem childish or else the mere commonplaces of everyday -political argument, established the right of the civil power to -independence of Church authority; and though to the Scaliger who aimed -at becoming Imperial lieutenant for all the North of Italy he might seem -needlessly tender to the spiritual lordship of the Holy Father, yet the -drift of his reasoning was all in favour of the Ghibeline position.[117] -Besides this he had written on the need of refining the dialects of -Italian, and reducing them to a language fit for general use in the -whole of the Peninsula; and this with a novelty of treatment and wealth -of illustration unequalled before or since in any first work on such a -subject.[118] And, what would recommend him still more to a youthful -prince of lofty taste, he was the poet of the 'sweet new style' of the -_Vita Nuova_, and of sonnets, ballads, and canzoni rich in language and -thought beyond the works of all previous poets in the vulgar tongues. -Add to this that the _Comedy_ was already written, and published up, -perhaps, to the close of the _Purgatorio_, and that all Italy was eager -to find who had a place, and what kind of place, in the strange new -world from which the veil was being withdrawn; and it is easy to imagine -that Dante's reception at Can Grande's court was rather that of a man -both admired and feared for his great genius, than that of a wandering -scholar and grumbling exile. - -At what time Dante came to Verona, and for how long he stayed, we have -no means of fixing with certainty. He himself mentions being there in -1320,[119] and it is usually supposed that his residence covered three -years previous to that date; as also that it was shared by his two sons, -Piero and Jacopo. One of these was afterwards to find a settlement at -Verona in a high legal post. Except some frivolous legends, there is no -evidence that Dante met with anything but generous treatment from Can -Grande. A passage of the _Paradiso_, written either towards the close of -the poet's residence at Verona, or after he had left it, is full of a -praise of the great Scaliger so magnificent[120] as fully to make amends -for the contemptuous mention in the _Purgatorio_ of his father and -brother.[121] To Can Grande the _Paradiso_ was dedicated by the author -in a long epistle containing an exposition of how the first Canto of -that Cantica, and, by implication, the whole of the poem, is to be -interpreted. The letter is full of gratitude for favours already -received, and of expectation of others yet to come. From the terms of -the dedication it has been assumed that ere it was made the whole of the -_Paradiso_ was written, and that Dante praises the lord of Verona after -a long experience of his bounty.[122] - -Whether owing to the restlessness of an exile, or to some prospect of -attaining a state of greater ease or of having the command of more -congenial society, we cannot tell; but from the splendid court of Can -Grande he moved down into Romagna, to Ravenna, the city which of all in -Italy would now be fixed upon by the traveller as the fittest place for -a man of genius, weighed down by infinite sorrows, to close his days in -and find a tomb. Some writers on the life of Dante will have it that in -Ravenna he spent the greater part of his exile, and that when he is -found elsewhere--in Lucca or Verona--he is only on a temporary absence -from his permanent home.[123] But this conclusion requires some facts to -be ignored, and others unduly dwelt on. In any case his patron there, -during at least the last year or two of his life, was Guido Novello of -Polenta, lord of Ravenna, the nephew of her who above all the persons of -the _Comedy_ lives in the hearts of its readers. - -Bernardino, the brother of Francesca and uncle of Guido, had fought on -the side of Florence at the battle of Campaldino, and Dante may then -have become acquainted with him. The family had the reputation of being -moderate Guelfs; but ere this the exile, with his ripe experience of -men, had doubtless learned, while retaining intact his own opinions as -to what was the true theory of government, to set good-heartedness and -a noble aim in life above political orthodoxy. This Guido Novello--the -younger Guido--bears the reputation of having been well-informed, of -gentle manners, and fond of gathering around him men accomplished in -literature and the fine arts. On the death of Dante he made a formal -oration in honour of the poet. If his welcome of Dante was as cordial as -is generally supposed, and as there is no reason to doubt that it was, -it proved his magnanimity; for in the _Purgatorio_ a family specially -hostile to the Polentas had been mentioned with honour,[124] while that -to which his wife belonged had been lightly spoken of. How he got over -the condemnation of his kinswoman to Inferno--even under such gentle -conditions--it would be more difficult to understand were there not -reason to believe that ere Dante went to Ravenna it had come to be a -matter of pride in Italy for a family to have any of its members placed -anywhere in that other world of which Dante held the key. - -It seems as if we might assume that the poet's last months or years were -soothed by the society of his daughter--the child whom he had named -after the object of his first and most enduring love.[125] Whether or -not he was acting as Ambassador for Guido to Venice when he caught his -last illness, it appears to be pretty well established that he was held -in honour by his patron and all around him.[126] For his hours of -meditation he had the solemn churches of Ravenna with their storied -walls,[127] and the still more solemn pine forest of Classis, by him -first annexed to the world of Romance.[128] For hours of relaxation, -when they came, he had neighbours who dabbled in letters and who could -at any rate sympathise with him in his love of study. He maintained -correspondence with poets and scholars in other cities. In at least one -instance this was conducted in the bitter fashion with which the -humanists of a century or two later were to make the world -familiar;[129] but with the Bolognese scholar, Giovanni del Virgilio, he -engaged in a good-humoured, half-bantering exchange of Latin pastoral -poems, through the artificial imagery of which there sometimes breaks a -natural thought, as when in answer to the pedant's counsel to renounce -the vulgar tongue and produce in Latin something that will entitle him -to receive the laurel crown in Bologna, he declares that if ever he is -crowned as a poet it will be on the banks of the Arno. - -Most of the material for forming a judgment of how Dante stood affected -to the religious beliefs of his time is to be gathered from the -_Comedy_, and the place for considering it would rather be in an essay -on that work than in a sketch of his life which necessity compels to be -swift. A few words may however be here devoted to the subject, as it is -one with some bearing on the manner in which he would be regarded by -those around him, and through that on the tenor of his life. That Dante -conformed to Church observances, and, except with a few malevolent -critics, bore the reputation of a good Catholic, there can be no doubt. -It was as a politician and not as a heretic that he suffered -persecution; and when he died he was buried in great honour within the -Franciscan Church at Ravenna. Some few years after his death, it is -true, his _De Monarchia_ was burned as heretical by orders of the Papal -Legate in Lombardy, who would gladly, if he could, have had the bones of -the author exhumed to share the fate of his book. But all this was only -because the partisans of Lewis of Bavaria were making political capital -out of the treatise. - -Attempts have been made to demonstrate that in spite of his outward -conformity Dante was an unbeliever at heart, and that the _Comedy_ is -devoted to the promulgation of a Ghibeline heresy--of which, we may be -sure, no Ghibeline ever heard--and to the overthrow of all that the -author professed most devoutly to believe.[130] Other critics of a more -sober temper in speculation would find in him a Catholic who held the -Catholic beliefs with the same slack grasp as the teaching of Luther was -held by Lessing or Goethe.[131] But this is surely to misread the -_Comedy_, which is steeped from beginning to end in a spirit of the -warmest faith in the great Christian doctrines. It was no mere -intellectual perception of these that Dante had--or professed to -have--for when in Paradise he has satisfied Saint Peter of his being -possessed of a just conception of the nature of faith, and is next asked -if, besides knowing what is the alloy of the coin and the weight of it, -he has it in his own purse, he answers boldly, 'Yea, and so shining and -round that of a surety it has the lawful stamp.'[132] And further on, -when required to declare in what he believes, nothing against the -fulness of his creed is to be inferred from the fact that he stops short -after pronouncing his belief in the existence of God and in the Trinity. -This article he gives as implying all the others; it is 'the spark which -spreads out into a vivid flame.'[133] - -Yet if the inquiry were to be pushed further, and it were sought to find -how much of free thought he allowed himself in matters of religion, -Dante might be discovered to have reached his orthodox position by ways -hateful to the bigots who then took order for preserving the purity of -the faith. The office of the Pope he deeply revered, but the Papal -absolution avails nothing in his eyes compared with one tear of -heartfelt repentance.[134] It is not on the word of Pope or Council that -he rests his faith, but on the Scriptures, and on the evidences of the -truth of Christianity, freely examined and weighed.[135] Chief among -these evidences, it must however be noted, he esteemed the fact of the -existence of the Church as he found it;[136] and in his inquiries he -accepted as guides the Scholastic Doctors on whose reasonings the Church -had set its seal of approbation. It was a foregone conclusion he reached -by stages of his own. Yet that he sympathised at least as much with the -honest search for truth as with the arrogant profession of orthodoxy, is -shown by his treatment of heretics. He could not condemn severely such -as erred only because their reason would not consent to rest like his in -the prevalent dogmatic system; and so we find that he makes heresy -consist less in intellectual error than in beliefs that tend to vitiate -conduct, or to cause schism in societies divinely constituted.[137] For -his own part, orthodox although he was, or believed himself to be--which -is all that needs to be contended for,--in no sense was he -priest-ridden. It was liberty that he went seeking on his great -journey;[138] and he gives no hint that it is to be gained by the -observance of forms or in submission to sacerdotal authority. He knows -it is in his reach only when he has been crowned, and mitred too, lord -of himself[139]--subject to Him alone of whom even Popes were -servants.[140] - -Although in what were to prove his last months Dante might amuse himself -with the composition of learned trifles, and in the society and -correspondence of men who along with him, if on lines apart from his, -were preparing the way for the revival of classical studies, the best -part of his mind, then as for long before, was devoted to the _Comedy_; -and he was counting on the suffrages of a wider audience than courts and -universities could supply. - -Here there is no room to treat at length of that work, to which when we -turn our thoughts all else he wrote--though that was enough to secure -him fame--seems to fall into the background as if unworthy of his -genius. What can hardly be passed over in silence is that in the -_Comedy_, once it was begun, he must have found a refuge for his soul -from all petty cares, and a shield against all adverse fortune. We must -search its pages, and not the meagre records of his biographers, to find -what was the life he lived during the years of his exile; for, in a -sense, it contains the true journal of his thoughts, of his hopes, and -of his sorrows. The plan was laid wide enough to embrace the -observations he made of nature and of man, the fruits of his painful -studies, and the intelligence he gathered from those experienced in -travel, politics, and war. It was not only his imagination and artistic -skill that were spent upon the poem: he gave his life to it. The future -reward he knew was sure--an immortal fame; but he hoped for a nearer -profit on his venture. Florence might at last relent, if not because of -his innocence and at the spectacle of his inconsolable exile, at least -on hearing the rumour of his genius borne to her from every corner of -Italy:-- - - If e'er it comes that this my sacred Lay, - To which both Heaven and Earth have set their hand-- - Through which these many years I waste away-- - Shall quell the cruelty that keeps me banned - From the fair fold where I, a lamb, was found - Hostile to wolves who 'gainst it violence planned; - With other fleece and voice of other sound, - Poet will I return, and at the font - Where I was christened be with laurel crowned.[141] - -But with the completion of the _Comedy_ Dante's life too came to a -close. He died at Ravenna in the month of September 1321. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Matilda died in 1115. The name Tessa, the contraction of Contessa, -was still, long after her time, sometimes given to Florentine girls. See -Perrens, _Histoire de Florence_, vol. i. p. 126. - -[2] Whether by Matilda the great Countess is meant has been eagerly -disputed, and many of the best critics--such as Witte and -Scartazzini--prefer to find in her one of the ladies of the _Vita -Nuova_. In spite of their pains it seems as if more can be said for the -great Matilda than for any other. The one strong argument against her -is, that while she died old, in the poem she appears as young. - -[3] See note on _Inferno_ xxx. 73. - -[4] It might, perhaps, be more correct to say that to some offices the -nobles were eligible, but did not elect. - -[5] _Inf._ xiii. 75. - -[6] _Inf._ x. 119. - -[7] _Inf._ xxiii. 66. - -[8] _Inf._ x. 51. - -[9] _Purg._ vi. 144. - -[10] Dante sets the Abbot among the traitors in Inferno, and says -scornfully of him that his throat was cut at Florence (_Inf._ xxxii. -119). - -[11] Villani throws doubt on the guilt of the Abbot. There were some -cases of churchmen being Ghibelines, as for instance that of the -Cardinal Ubaldini (_Inf._ x. 120). Twenty years before the Abbot's death -the General of the Franciscans had been jeered at in the streets of -Florence for turning his coat and joining the Emperor. On the other -hand, many civilians were to be found among the Guelfs. - -[12] Manfred, says John Villani (_Cronica_, vi. 74 and 75), at first -sent only a hundred men. Having by Farinata's advice been filled with -wine before a skirmish in which they were induced to engage, they were -easily cut in pieces by the Florentines; and the royal standard was -dragged in the dust. The truth of the story matters less than that it -was believed in Florence. - -[13] Provenzano is found by Dante in Purgatory, which he has been -admitted to, in spite of his sins, because of his self-sacrificing -devotion to a friend (_Purg._ xi. 121). - -[14] For this good advice he gets a word of praise in Inferno (_Inf._ -xvi. 42). - -[15] These mercenaries, though called Germans, were of various races. -There were even Greeks and Saracens among them. The mixture corresponded -with the motley civilisation of Manfred's court. - -[16] _Inf._ xxxii. 79. - -[17] _Inf._ x. 93. - -[18] Lucera was a fortress which had been peopled with Saracens by -Frederick. - -[19] Manfred, _Purg._ iii. 112; Charles, _Purg._ vii. 113. - -[20] _Purg._ xx. 67. - -[21] _Purg._ iii. 122. - -[22] For an account of the constitution and activity of the _Parte -Guelfa_ at a later period, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. iv. p. -482. - -[23] _Purg._ xx. 68. - -[24] _Parad._ xi. 89. - -[25] _Parad._ xvi. 40, etc. - -[26] _Inf._ xxix. 31. - -[27] _Inf._ x. 42. Though Dante was descended from nobles, his rank in -Florence was not that of a noble or magnate, but of a commoner. - -[28] The month is indicated by Dante himself, _Parad._ xxii. 110. The -year has recently been disputed. For 1265 we have J. Villani and the -earliest biographers; and Dante's own expression at the beginning of the -_Comedy_ is in favour of it. - -[29] _Inf._ xxiii. 95. - -[30] _Inf._ xix. 17; _Parad._ xxv. 9. - -[31] _Purg._ xxx. 55. - -[32] _Inf._ viii. 45, where Virgil says of Dante that blessed was she -that bore him, can scarcely be regarded as an exception to this -statement. - -[33] In 1326, out of a population of ninety thousand, from eight to ten -thousand children were being taught to read; and from five to six -hundred were being taught grammar and logic in four high schools. There -was not in Dante's time, or till much later, a University in Florence. -See J. Villani, xi. 94, and Burckhardt, _Cultur der Renaissance_, vol. -i. p. 76. - -[34] For an interesting account of Heresy in Florence from the eleventh -to the thirteenth centuries, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. i. -livre ii. chap. iii. - -[35] It opens with Brunetto's being lost in the forest of Roncesvalles, -and there are some other features of resemblance--all on the -surface--between his experience and Dante's. - -[36] G. Villani, viii. 10. Latini died in 1294. Villani gives the old -scholar a very bad moral character. - -[37] _Inf._ xv. 84. - -[38] We may, I think, assume the _Vita Nuova_ to have been published -some time between 1291 and 1300; but the dates of Dante's works are far -from being ascertained. - -[39] So long as even Italian critics are not agreed as to whether the -title means _New Life_, or _Youth_, I suppose one is free to take his -choice; and it seems most natural to regard it as referring to the new -world into which the lover is transported by his passion. - -[40] As, indeed, Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, expressly says was the -case. - -[41] In this adopting a device frequently used by the love-poets of the -period.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 312. - -[42] The _Vita Nuova_ contains some thirty poems. - -[43] See Sir Theodore Martin's Introduction to his Translation of _Vita -Nuova_, page xxi. - -[44] In this matter we must not judge the conduct of Dante by English -customs. - -[45] _Donne, ch' avete intelletto d' amore_: Ladies that are acquainted -well with love. Quoted in _Purg._ xxiv. 51. - -[46] Beatrice died in June 1290, having been born in April 1266. - -[47] _Purg._ xi. 98. - -[48] _Purg._ xxiv. 52. - -[49] The date of the _Convito_ is still the subject of controversy, as -is that of most of Dante's works. But it certainly was composed between -the _Vita Nuova_ and the _Comedy_. - -There is a remarkable sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti addressed to Dante, -reproaching him for the deterioration in his thoughts and habits, and -urging him to rid himself of the woman who has bred the trouble. This -may refer to the time after the death of Beatrice. See also _Purg._ xxx. -124. - -[50] _Convito_ ii. 13. - -[51] Some recent writers set his marriage five years later, and reduce -the number of his children to three. - -[52] His sister is probably meant by the 'young and gentle lady, most -nearly related to him by blood' mentioned in the _Vita Nuova_. - -[53] The difference between the Teutonic and Southern conception of -marriage must be kept in mind. - -[54] He describes the weather on the day of the battle with the -exactness of one who had been there (_Purg._ v. 155). - -[55] Leonardo Bruni. - -[56] _Inf._ xxii. 4. - -[57] _Inf._ xxi. 95. - -[58] _Conv._ iii. 9, where he illustrates what he has to say about the -nature of vision, by telling that for some time the stars, when he -looked at them, seemed lost in a pearly haze. - -[59] The _Convito_ was to have consisted of fifteen books. Only four -were written. - -[60] _Wife of Bath's Tale._ In the context he quotes _Purg._ vii. 121, -and takes ideas from the _Convito_. - -[61] Dies to sensual pleasure and is abstracted from all worldly affairs -and interests. See _Convito_ iv. 28. - -[62] From the last canzone of the _Convito_. - -[63] In the _Vita Nuova_. - -[64] _Purg._ xxiii. 115, xxiv. 75; _Parad._ iii. 49. - -[65] _Purg._ xi. 95. - -[66] _Purg._ ii. 91. - -[67] _Purg._ iv. 123. - -[68] Sacchetti's stories of how Dante showed displeasure with the -blacksmith and the donkey-driver who murdered his _canzoni_ are -interesting only as showing what kind of legends about him were current -in the streets of Florence.--Sacchetti, _Novelle_, cxiv, cxv. - -[69] _Purg._ xii. 101. - -[70] _Purg._ xi. 94:-- - - 'In painting Cimabue deemed the field - His own, but now on Giotto goes the cry, - Till by his fame the other's is concealed.' - -[71] Giotto is often said to have drawn inspiration from the _Comedy_; -but that Dante, on his side, was indebted to the new school of painting -and sculpture appears from many a passage of the _Purgatorio_. - -[72] Serfage had been abolished in 1289. But doubt has been thrown on -the authenticity of the deed of abolition. See Perrens, _Hist. de -Florence_, vol. ii. p. 349. - -[73] No unusual provision in the industrious Italian cities. Harsh -though it may seem, it was probably regarded as a valuable concession to -the nobles, for their disaffection appears to have been greatly caused -by their uneasiness under disabilities. There is much obscurity on -several points. How, for example, came the nobles to be allowed to -retain the command of the vast resources of the _Parte Guelfa_? This -made them almost independent of the Commonwealth. - -[74] At a later period the Priors were known as the Signory. - -[75] Fraticelli, _Storia della Vita di Dante_, page 112 and note. - -[76] It is to be regretted that Ampere in his charming _Voyage -Dantesque_ devoted no chapter to San Gemigniano, than which no Tuscan -city has more thoroughly preserved its mediaeval character. There is no -authority for the assertion that Dante was employed on several -Florentine embassies. The tendency of his early biographers is to -exaggerate his political importance and activity. - -[77] Under the date of April 1301 Dante is deputed by the Road Committee -to see to the widening, levelling, and general improvement of a street -in the suburbs.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 279. - -[78] Dante has a word of praise for Giano, at _Parad._ xvi. 127. - -[79] At which Dante fought. See page lxii. - -[80] Vieri was called Messer, a title reserved for magnates, knights, -and lawyers of a certain rank--notaries and jurisconsults; Dante, for -example, never gets it. - -[81] Villani acted for some time as an agent abroad of the great -business house of Peruzzi. - -[82] _Inf._ iii. 60. - -[83] He is 'the Prince of the modern Pharisees' (_Inf._ xxvii. 85); his -place is ready for him in hell (_Inf._ xix. 53); and he is elsewhere -frequently referred to. In one great passage Dante seems to relent -towards him (_Purg._ xx. 86). - -[84] Albert of Hapsburg was chosen Emperor in 1298, but was never -crowned at Rome. - -[85] As in the days of Guelf and Ghibeline, so now in those of Blacks -and Whites, the common multitude of townsmen belonged to neither party. - -[86] An interdict means that priests are to refuse sacred offices to all -in the community, who are thus virtually subjected to the minor -excommunication. - -[87] Guido died soon after his return in 1301. He had suffered in health -during his exile. See _Inf._ x. 63. - -[88] Charles of Anjou had lost Sicily at the Sicilian Vespers, 1282. - -[89] _Purg._ xx. 76. - -[90] Witte attributes the composition of the _De Monarchia_ to a period -before 1301 (_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. i. Fourth Art.), but the general -opinion of critics sets it much later. - -[91] _Inf._ vi. 66, where their expulsion is prophesied. - -[92] Dante's authorship of the letter is now much questioned. The drift -of recent inquiries has been rather to lessen than to swell the bulk of -materials for his biography. - -[93] _Parad._ xvii. 61. - -[94] _Purg._ xxiv. 82. - -[95] See at _Purg._ xx. 43 Dante's invective against Philip and the -Capets in general. - -[96] Henry had come to Italy with the Pope's approval. He was crowned by -the Cardinals who were in Rome as Legates. - -[97] _Parad._ xxx. 136. High in Heaven Dante sees an ample chair with a -crown on it, and is told it is reserved for Henry. He is to sit among -those who are clothed in white. The date assigned to the action of the -_Comedy_, it will be remembered, is the year 1300. - -[98] _Inf._ xix. 82, where the Gascon Clement is described as a 'Lawless -Pastor from the West.' - -[99] The ingenious speculations of Troya (_Del Veltro Allegorico di -Dante_) will always mark a stage in the history of the study of Dante, -but as is often the case with books on the subject, his shows a -considerable gap between the evidence adduced and the conclusions drawn -from it. He would make Dante to have been for many years a satellite of -the great Ghibeline chief. Dante's temper or pride, however we call it, -seems to have been such as to preserve him from ever remaining attached -for long to any patron. - -[100] _Inf._ x. 81. - -[101] The _Convito_ is in Italian, and his words are: 'wherever this -language is spoken.' - -[102] His letter to the Florentines and that to the Emperor are dated in -1311, from 'Near the sources of the Arno'--that is, from the Casentino, -where the Guidi of Romena dwelt. If the letter of condolence with the -Counts Oberto and Guido of Romena on the death of their uncle is -genuine, it has great value for the passage in which he excuses himself -for not having come to the funeral:--'It was not negligence or -ingratitude, but the poverty into which I am fallen by reason of my -exile. This, like a cruel persecutor, holds me as in a prison-house -where I have neither horse nor arms; and though I do all I can to free -myself, I have failed as yet.' The letter has no date. Like the other -ten or twelve epistles attributed to Dante, it is in Latin. - -[103] There is a splendid passage in praise of this family, _Purg._ -viii. 121. A treaty is on record in which Dante acts as representative -of the Malaspini in settling the terms of a peace between them and the -Bishop of Luni in October 1306. - -[104] The authority for this is Benvenuto of Imola in his comment on the -_Comedy_ (_Purg._ xi.). The portrait of Dante by Giotto, still in -Florence, but ruined by modern bungling restoration, is usually believed -to have been executed in 1301 or 1302. But with regard to this, see the -note at the end of this essay. - -[105] It is true that Villani not only says that 'he went to study at -Bologna,' but also that 'he went to Paris and many parts of the world' -(_Cronica_, ix. 136), and that Villani, of all contemporary or nearly -contemporary writers, is by far the most worthy of credence. But he -proves to be more than once in error regarding Dante; making him, -_e.g._, die in a wrong month and be buried in a wrong church at Ravenna. -And the 'many parts of the world' shows that here he is dealing in -hearsay of the vaguest sort. Nor can much weight be given to Boccaccio -when he sends Dante to Bologna and Paris. But Benvenuto of Imola, who -lectured on the _Comedy_ at Bologna within fifty years of Dante's death, -says that Dante studied there. It would indeed be strange if he did not, -and at more than one period, Bologna being the University nearest -Florence. Proof of Dante's residence in Paris has been found in his -familiar reference to the Rue du Fouarre (_Parad._ x. 137). His graphic -description of the coast between Lerici and Turbia (_Purg._ iii. 49, iv. -25) certainly seems to show a familiarity with the Western as well as -the Eastern Rivieras of Genoa. But it scarcely follows that he was on -his way to Paris when he visited them. - -[106] _Inf._ xiii. 58. - -[107] 'O ye, who have hitherto been following me in some small -craft, ... put not further to sea, lest, losing sight of me, you lose -yourselves' (_Parad._ ii. 1). But, to tell the truth, Dante is never so -weak as a poet as when he is most the philosopher or the theologian. -The following list of books more or less known to him is not given as -complete:--The Vulgate, beginning with St. Jerome's Prologue; Aristotle, -through the Latin translation then in vogue; Averroes, etc.; Thomas -Aquinas and the other Schoolmen; much of the Civil and Canon law; -Boethius; Homer only in scraps, through Aristotle, etc.; Virgil, Cicero -in part, Livy, Horace, Ovid, Terence, Lucan, and Statius; the works of -Brunetto Latini; the poetical literature of Provence, France, and Italy, -including the Arthurian Romances--the favourite reading of the Italian -nobles, and the tales of Charlemagne and his Peers--equally in favour -with the common people. There is little reason to suppose that among the -treatises of a scientific and quasi-scientific kind that he fell in -with, and of which he was an eager student, were included the works of -Roger Bacon. These there was a conspiracy among priests and schoolmen to -keep buried. Dante seems to have set little store on ecclesiastical -legends of wonder; at least he gives them a wide berth in his works. - -[108] In the notes to Fraticelli's _Vita di Dante_ (Florence 1861) are -given copies of documents relating to the property of the Alighieri, and -of Dante in particular. In 1343 his son Jacopo, by payment of a small -fine, recovered vineyards and farms that had been his father's.--Notes -to Chap. iii. Fraticelli's admirable Life is now in many respects out of -date. He accepts, _e.g._, Dino Compagni as an authority, and believes in -the romantic story of the letter of Fra Ilario. - -[109] The details are given by Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol ii. p. -61. The amount borrowed by Dante and his brother (and a friend) comes to -nearly a thousand gold florins. Witte takes this as equivalent to 37,000 -francs, _i.e._ nearly L1500. But the florin being the eighth of an -ounce, or about ten shillings' worth of gold, a thousand florins would -be equal only to L500--representing, of course, an immensely greater sum -now-a-days. - -[110] _Purg._ viii. 76. - -[111] See in Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri_, 1879, page 552, extract -from the will of her mother Maria Donati, dated February 1314. Many of -these Florentine dates are subject to correction, the year being usually -counted from Lady-Day. 'In 1880 a document was discovered which proves -Gemma to have been engaged in a law-suit in 1332.--_Il Propugnatore_, -xiii^a. 156,'--Scheffer-Boichorst, _Aus Dantes Verbannung_, page 213. - -[112] _Purg._ xxiv. 37. - -[113] _Inf._ xxi. 40. - -[114] _In questo mirifico poeta trovo ampissimo luego la lussuria; e non -solamente ne' giovanili anni, ma ancora ne' maturi._--Boccaccio, _La -Vita di Dante_. After mentioning that Dante was married, he indulges in -a long invective against marriage; confessing, however, that he is -ignorant of whether Dante experienced the miseries he describes. His -conclusion on the subject is that philosophers should leave marriage to -rich fools, to nobles, and to handicraftsmen. - -[115] In Purgatory his conscience accuses him of pride, and he already -seems to feel the weight of the grievous burden beneath which the proud -bend as they purge themselves of their sin (_Purg._ xiii. 136). Some -amount of self-accusation seems to be implied in such passages as -_Inf._, v. 142 and _Purg._ xxvii. 15, etc.; but too much must not be -made of it. - -[116] In a letter of a few lines to one of the Marquises Malaspina, -written probably in the earlier years of his exile, he tells how his -purpose of renouncing ladies' society and the writing of love-songs had -been upset by the view of a lady of marvellous beauty who 'in all -respects answered to his tastes, habits, and circumstances.' He says he -sends with the letter a poem containing a fuller account of his -subjection to this new passion. The poem is not found attached to the -copy of the letter, but with good reason it is guessed to be the Canzone -beginning _Amor, dacche convien_, which describes how he was -overmastered by a passion born 'in the heart of the mountains in the -valley of that river beside which he had always been the victim of -love.' This points to the Casentino as the scene. He also calls the -Canzone his 'mountain song.' The passion it expresses may be real, but -that he makes the most of it appears from the close, which is occupied -by the thought of how the verses will be taken in Florence. - -[117] However early the _De Monarchia_ may have been written, it is -difficult to think that it can be of a later date than the death of -Henry. - -[118] The _De Vulgari Eloquio_ is in Latin. Dante's own Italian is -richer and more elastic than that of contemporary writers. Its base is -the Tuscan dialect, as refined by the example of the Sicilian poets. His -Latin, on the contrary, is I believe regarded as being somewhat -barbarous, even for the period. - -[119] In his _Quaestio de Aqua et Terra_. In it he speaks of having been -in Mantua. The thesis was maintained in Verona, but of course he may, -after a prolonged absence, have returned to that city. - -[120] _Parad._ xvii. 70. - -[121] _Purg._ xviii. 121. - -[122] But in urgent need of more of it.--He says of 'the sublime -Cantica, adorned with the title of the _Paradiso_', that '_illam sub -praesenti epistola, tamquam sub epigrammate proprio dedicatam, vobis -adscribo, vobis offero, vobis denique recommendo_.' But it may be -questioned if this involves that the Cantica was already finished. - -[123] As, for instance, Herr Scheffer-Boichorst in his _Aus Dantes -Verbannung_, 1882. - -[124] The Traversari (_Purg._ xiv. 107). Guido's wife was of the -Bagnacavalli (_Purg._ xiv. 115). The only mention of the Polenta family, -apart from that of Francesca, is at _Inf._ xxvii. 41. - -[125] In 1350 a sum of ten gold florins was sent from Florence by the -hands of Boccaccio to Beatrice, daughter of Dante; she being then a nun -at Ravenna. - -[126] The embassy to Venice is mentioned by Villani, and there was a -treaty concluded in 1321 between the Republic and Guido. But Dante's -name does not appear in it among those of the envoys from Ravenna. A -letter, probably apocryphal, to Guido from Dante in Venice is dated -1314. If Dante, as is maintained by some writers, was engaged in tuition -while in Ravenna, it is to be feared that his pupils would find in him -an impatient master. - -[127] Not that Dante ever mentions these any more than a hundred other -churches in which he must have spent thoughtful hours. - -[128] _Purg._ xxviii. 20. - -[129] A certain Cecco d'Ascoli stuck to him like a bur, charging him, -among other things, with lust, and a want of religious faith which would -one day secure him a place in his own Inferno. Cecco was himself burned -in Florence, in 1327, for making too much of evil spirits, and holding -that human actions are necessarily affected by the position of the -stars. He had been at one time a professor of astronomy. - -[130] Gabriel Rossetti, _Comment on the Divina Commedia_, 1826, and -Aroux, _Dante, Heretique, Revolutionnaire et Socialiste_, 1854. - -[131] Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri, Seine Zeit_, etc., 1879, page 268. - -[132] _Parad._ xxiv. 86. - -[133] _Parad._ xxiv. 145. - -[134] _Inf._ xxvii. 101; _Purg._ iii. 118. - -[135] _Parad._ xxiv. 91. - -[136] _Parad._ xxiv. 106. - -[137] _Inf._ x. and xxviii. There is no place in Purgatory where those -who in their lives had once held heretical opinions are purified of the -sin; leaving us to infer that it could be repented of in the world so as -to obliterate the stain. See also _Parad._ iv. 67. - -[138] _Purg._ i. 71. - -[139] _Purg._ xxvii. 139. - -[140] _Purg._ xix. 134. - -[141] _Parad._ xxv. 1. - - - - -GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE.[142] - - -Vasari, in his _Lives of the Painters_, tells that in his day the -portrait of Dante by Giotto was still to be seen in the chapel of the -Podesta's palace in Florence. Writers of an earlier date had already -drawn attention to this work.[143] But in the course of an age when -Italians cared little for Dante, and less for Giotto, it was allowed to -be buried out of sight; and when at length there came a revival of -esteem for these great men, the alterations in the interior arrangement -of the palace were found to have been so sweeping that it was even -uncertain which out of many chambers had formerly served as the chapel. -Twenty years after a fruitless attempt had been made to discover whether -or not the portrait was still in existence, Signor Aubrey Bezzi, -encouraged by Mr. Wilde and Mr. Kirkup, took the first step in a search -(1839) which was to end by restoring to the world what is certainly the -most interesting of all portraits, if account be taken of its beauty, -as well as of who was its author and who its subject. - -On the removal from it of a layer of lime, one of the end walls of what -had been the chapel was found to be covered by a fresco painting, -evidently the work of Giotto, and representing a Paradise--the subject -in which Dante's portrait was known to occur. As is usual in such works, -from the time of Giotto downwards, the subject is treated so as to allow -of the free introduction of contemporary personages. Among these was a -figure in a red gown, which there was no difficulty in recognising as -the portrait of Dante. It shows him younger and with a sweeter -expression than does Raphael's Dante, or Masaccio's,[144] or that in the -Cathedral of Florence,[145] or that of the mask said to have been taken -after his death. But to all of them it bears a strong resemblance. - -The question of when this portrait was painted will easily be seen to be -one of much importance in connection with Dante's biography. The fresco -it belongs to is found to contain a cardinal, and a young man, who, -because he wears his hair long and has a coronet set on his cap, is -known to be meant for a French prince.[146] If, as is usually assumed, -this prince is Charles of Valois, then the date of the event celebrated -in the fresco is 1301 or 1302. With regard to when the work was -executed, Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their valuable book, say as -follows:[147]-- - - 'All inferences to be deduced from the subject and form of these - frescos point to the date of 1301-2. It may be inquired whether - they were executed by Giotto at the time, and this inquiry can only - be satisfied approximatively. It may be inferred that Dante's - portrait would hardly have been introduced into a picture so - conspicuously visible as this, had not the poet at the time been - influent in Florence.... Dante's age in the fresco corresponds with - the date of 1302, and is that of a man of thirty-five. He had - himself enjoyed the highest office of Florence from June to August - 1300.[148] In the fresco he does not wear the dress of the - "Priori," but he holds in the ranks of those near Charles of Valois - an honourable place. It may be presumed that the frescos were - executed previous[149] to Dante's exile, and this view is confirmed - by the technical and artistic progress which they reveal. They - exhibit, indeed, the master in a higher sphere of development than - at Assisi and Rome.' - -This account of the subject of the work and the probable date of its -execution may, I think, be accepted as containing all that is to be said -in favour of the current opinion on the matter. That writer after writer -has adopted that opinion without a sign of doubt as to its credibility -must surely have arisen from failure to observe the insuperable -difficulties it presents. - -Both Charles of Valois and the Cardinal Acquasparta were in Florence -during part of the winter of 1301-1302; but the circumstances under -which they were there make it highly improbable that the Commonwealth -was anxious to do them honour beyond granting them the outward show of -respect which it would have been dangerous to refuse. Earlier in the -year 1301 the Cardinal Acquasparta, having failed in gaining the object -which brought him to Florence, had, as it were, shaken the dust of the -city from off his feet and left the people of it under interdict. While -Charles of Valois was in Florence the Cardinal returned to make a second -attempt to reconcile the opposing parties, failed a second time, and -again left the city under an interdict--if indeed the first had ever -been raised. On the occasion of his first visit, the Whites, who were -then in power, would have none of his counsels; on his second, the -Blacks in their turn despised them.[150] There would therefore have been -something almost satirical in the compliment, had the Commonwealth -resolved to give him a place in a triumphal picture. - -As for Charles of Valois, though much was expected from an alliance with -him while he was still at a distance, the very party that invited his -presence was soon disgusted with him owing to his faithlessness and -greed. The earlier part of his stay was disturbed by pillage and -bloodshed. Nor is it easy to imagine how, at any time during his -residence of five months, the leading citizens could have either the -time or the wish to arrange for honouring him in a fashion he was not -the man to care for. His one craving was for money, and still more -money; and any leisure the members of public bodies had to spare from -giving heed to their own interests and securing vengeance upon their -opponents, was devoted to holding the common purse shut as tightly as -they could against their avaricious Pacificator. When he at last -delivered the city from his presence no one would have the heart to -revive the memory of his disastrous visit. - -But if, in all this confusion of Florentine affairs, Giotto did receive -a commission to paint in the palace of the Podesta, yet it remains -incredible that he should have been suffered to assign to Dante, of all -men, a place of honour in the picture. No citizen had more stubbornly -opposed the policy which brought Charles of Valois to Florence, and that -Charles was in the city was reason enough for Dante to keep out of it. -In his absence, he was sentenced in January 1302 to pay a ruinously -heavy fine, and in the following March he was condemned to be put to -death if ever he was caught. On fuller acquaintance his fellow-citizens -liked the Frenchman as little as he, but this had no effect in softening -their dislike or removing their fear of Dante. We may be sure that any -friends he may still have had in Florence, as their influence could not -protect his goods from confiscation or him from banishment, would hardly -care to risk their own safety by urging, while his condemnation was -still fresh, the admission of his portrait among those of illustrious -Florentines.[151] It is true that there have been instances of great -artists having reached so high a pitch of fame as to be able to dictate -terms to patrons, however exalted. In his later years Giotto could -perhaps have made such a point a matter of treaty with his employers, -but in 1301 he was still young,[152] and great although his fame already -was, he could scarcely have ventured to insist on the Republic's -confessing its injustice to his friend; as it would have done had it -consented that Dante, newly driven into exile, should obtain a place of -honour in a work painted at the public cost. - -These considerations seem to make it highly improbable that Giotto's -wall-painting was meant to do honour to Charles of Valois and the -Cardinal Acquasparta. But if it should still be held that it was painted -in 1302, we must either cease to believe, in spite of all that Vasari -and the others say, that the portrait is meant for Dante; or else -confess it to be inexplicable how it got there. A way out of the -difficulty begins to open up as soon as we allow ourselves some latitude -in speculating as to when Giotto may have painted the fresco. The order -in which that artist's works were produced is very imperfectly settled; -and it may easily be that the position in Vasari's pages of the mention -made by him of this fresco has given rise to a misunderstanding -regarding the date of it. He speaks of it at the very beginning of his -Life of Giotto. But this he does because he needs an illustration of -what he has been saying in his opening sentences about the advance that -painter made on Cimabue. Only after making mention of Dante's portrait -does he begin his chronological list of Giotto's works; to the portrait -he never returns, and so, as far as Vasari is concerned, it is without a -date. Judging of it by means of Mr. Kirkup's careful and beautiful -sketch--and unfortunately we have now no other means of knowing what the -original was like--it may safely be asserted to be in Giotto's ripest -style.[153] Everything considered, it is therefore allowable to search -the Florentine chronicles lower down for an event more likely to be the -subject of Giotto's fresco than that usually fixed upon. - -We read in John Villani that in the middle of the year 1326 the Cardinal -Gianni Orsini came to Florence as Papal Legate and Pacificator of -Tuscany. The city was greatly pleased at his coming, and as an earnest -of gratitude for his services presented him with a cup containing a -thousand florins.[154] A month later there arrived Charles Duke of -Calabria, the eldest son of King Robert of Naples, and great-grandson of -Charles of Anjou. He came as Protector of the Commonwealth, which -office--an extraordinary one, and with a great salary attached to it--he -had been elected to hold for five years. Never before had a spectacle -like that of his entry been offered to Florence. Villani gives a long -list of the barons who rode in his train, and tells that in his -squadrons of men-at-arms there were no fewer than two hundred knights. -The chronicler pauses to bid the reader note how great an enterprise his -fellow-citizens had shown in bringing to sojourn among them, and in -their interest, not only such a powerful lord as the Duke of Calabria -was, but a Papal Legate as well. Italy counted it a great thing, he -says, and he deems that the whole world ought to know of it.[155] -Charles took up his abode in the Podesta's palace. He appears to have -gained a better place in the hearts of the Florentines than what they -were used to give to strangers and princes. When a son was born to him, -all the city rejoiced, and it mourned with him when, in a few weeks, he -lost the child. After seventeen months' experience of his rule the -citizens were sorry to lose him, and bade him a farewell as hearty as -their welcome had been. To some of them, it is true, the policy seemed a -dangerous one which bore even the appearance of subjecting the Republic -to the Royal House of Naples; and some of them could have wished that he -'had shown more vigour in civil and military affairs. But he was a -gentle lord, popular with the townsfolk, and in the course of his -residence he greatly improved the condition of things in Florence, and -brought to a close many feuds.'[156] They felt that the nine hundred -thousand gold florins spent on him and his men had, on the whole, been -well laid out. - -One detail of the Duke's personal appearance deserves remark. We have -seen that the prince in the fresco has long hair. John Villani had known -the Duke well by sight, and when he comes to record his death and -describe what kind of man he was to look upon, he specially says that -'he wore his hair loose.'[157] - -A subject worthy of Giotto's pencil, and one likely to be offered to him -if he was then in Florence, we have therefore found in this visit of the -Duke and the Cardinal. But that Giotto was in Florence at that time is -certain. He painted a portrait[158] of the Duke in the Palace of the -Signory; and through that prince, as Vasari tells, he was invited by -King Robert to go down to work in Naples. All this, in the absence of -evidence of any value in favour of another date, makes it, at the very -least, highly probable that the fresco was a work of 1326 or 1327. - -In 1326 Dante had been dead for five years. The grudge his -fellow-townsmen had nourished against him for so long was now worn out. -We know that very soon after his death Florence began to be proud of -him; and even such of his old enemies as still survived would be willing -that Giotto should set him in a place of honour among the great -Florentines who help to fill the fresco of the Paradise. That he was -already dead would be no hindrance to his finding room alongside of -Charles of Calabria; for the age was wisely tolerant of such -anachronisms.[159] Had Dante been still living the painter would have -been less at liberty to create, out of the records he doubtless -possessed of the features of the friend who had paid him beforehand with -one immortal line, the face which, as we look into it, we feel to be a -glorified transcript of what it was in the flesh. It is the face of one -who has wellnigh forgotten his earthly life, instead of having the worst -of it still before him; of one who, from that troubled Italy which like -his own Sapia he knew but as a pilgrim, has passed to the 'true city,' -of which he remains for evermore a citizen--the city faintly imaged by -Giotto upon the chapel wall. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[142] It is best known, and can now be judged of only through the -lithograph after a tracing made by Mr. Seymour Kirkup before it was -restored and ruined: published by the Arundel Society. - -[143] Antonio Pucci, born in 1300, in his _Centiloquio_, describes the -figure of Dante as being clothed in blood-red. Philip Villani also -mentions it. He wrote towards the close of the fourteenth century; -Vasari towards the middle of the sixteenth. - -[144] In the Munich collection of drawings, and ascribed to Masaccio, -but with how much reason I do not know. - -[145] Painted by Domenico Michelino in 1465, after a sketch by Alessio -Baldovinetto. - -[146] 'Wearing over the long hair of the Frenchmen of the period a -coroneted cap.'--Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_ -(1864), i. 264. - -[147] Vol. i. p. 269. - -[148] The Priorate was the highest office to which a citizen could -aspire, but by no means the highest in Florence. - -[149] I suppose the meaning is 'immediately previous.' - -[150] John Villani, _Cronica_, viii. 40 and 49; and Perrens, _Hist. de -Florence_, under date of 1301. Charles entered Florence on the 1st of -November of that year, and left it in the following April. - -[151] Who the other Florentines in the fresco are does not greatly -affect the present question. Villani says that along with Dante Giotto -painted Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini. - -[152] Only twenty-five, if the commonly accepted date of his birth is -correct. In any case, he was still a young man. - -[153] It is true that, on technical grounds, it has been questioned if -it is Giotto's at all; but there is more than sufficient reason to think -it is. With such doubts however we are scarcely here concerned. Even -were it proved to be by a pupil, everything in the text that applies to -the question of date would still remain in point. - -[154] J. Villani, ix. 353. - -[155] J. Villani, x. 1. - -[156] _Ibid._ x. 49. - -[157] J. Villani, x. 107. - -[158] Long since destroyed. - -[159] An anachronism of another kind would have been committed by -Giotto, if, before the _Comedy_ was even begun, he had represented Dante -as holding the closed book and cluster of three pomegranates--emblematical -of the three regions described by him and of the completion of his -work.--I say nothing of the Inferno found on another wall of the chapel, -since there seems good reason to doubt if it is by Giotto. - - - - -THE INFERNO. - - - - -CANTO I. - - - In middle[160] of the journey of our days - I found that I was in a darksome wood[161]-- - The right road lost and vanished in the maze. - Ah me! how hard to make it understood - How rough that wood was, wild, and terrible: - By the mere thought my terror is renewed. - More bitter scarce were death. But ere I tell - At large of good which there by me was found, - I will relate what other things befell. - Scarce know I how I entered on that ground, 10 - So deeply, at the moment when I passed - From the right way, was I in slumber drowned. - But when beneath a hill[162] arrived at last, - Which for the boundary of the valley stood, - That with such terror had my heart harassed, - I upwards looked and saw its shoulders glowed, - Radiant already with that planet's[163] light - Which guideth surely upon every road. - A little then was quieted by the sight - The fear which deep within my heart had lain 20 - Through all my sore experience of the night. - And as the man, who, breathing short in pain, - Hath 'scaped the sea and struggled to the shore, - Turns back to gaze upon the perilous main; - Even so my soul which fear still forward bore - Turned to review the pass whence I egressed, - And which none, living, ever left before. - My wearied frame refreshed with scanty rest, - I to ascend the lonely hill essayed; - The lower foot[164] still that on which I pressed. 30 - And lo! ere I had well beginning made, - A nimble leopard,[165] light upon her feet, - And in a skin all spotted o'er arrayed: - Nor ceased she e'er me full in the face to meet, - And to me in my path such hindrance threw - That many a time I wheeled me to retreat. - It was the hour of dawn; with retinue - Of stars[166] that were with him when Love Divine - In the beginning into motion drew - Those beauteous things, the sun began to shine; 40 - And I took heart to be of better cheer - Touching the creature with the gaudy skin, - Seeing 'twas morn,[167] and spring-tide of the year; - Yet not so much but that when into sight - A lion[168] came, I was disturbed with fear. - Towards me he seemed advancing in his might, - Rabid with hunger and with head high thrown: - The very air was tremulous with fright. - A she-wolf,[169] too, beheld I further on; - All kinds of lust seemed in her leanness pent: 50 - Through her, ere now, much folk have misery known. - By her oppressed, and altogether spent - By the terror breathing from her aspect fell, - I lost all hope of making the ascent. - And as the man who joys while thriving well, - When comes the time to lose what he has won - In all his thoughts weeps inconsolable, - So mourned I through the brute which rest knows none: - She barred my way again and yet again, - And thrust me back where silent is the sun. 60 - And as I downward rushed to reach the plain, - Before mine eyes appeared there one aghast, - And dumb like those that silence long maintain. - When I beheld him in the desert vast, - 'Whate'er thou art, or ghost or man,' I cried, - 'I pray thee show such pity as thou hast.' - 'No man,[170] though once I was; on either side - Lombard my parents were, and both of them - For native place had Mantua,' he replied. - 'Though late, _sub Julio_,[171] to the world I came, 70 - And lived at Rome in good Augustus' day, - While yet false gods and lying were supreme. - Poet I was, renowning in my lay - Anchises' righteous son, who fled from Troy - What time proud Ilion was to flames a prey. - But thou, why going back to such annoy? - The hill delectable why fear to mount, - The origin and ground of every joy?' - 'And thou in sooth art Virgil, and the fount - Whence in a stream so full doth language flow?' 80 - Abashed, I answered him with humble front. - 'Of other poets light and honour thou! - Let the long study and great zeal I've shown - In searching well thy book, avail me now! - My master thou, and author[172] thou, alone! - From thee alone I, borrowing, could attain - The style[173] consummate which has made me known. - Behold the beast which makes me turn again: - Deliver me from her, illustrious Sage; - Because of her I tremble, pulse and vein.' 90 - 'Thou must attempt another pilgrimage,' - Observing that I wept, he made reply, - 'If from this waste thyself thou 'dst disengage. - Because the beast thou art afflicted by - Will suffer none along her way to pass, - But, hindering them, harasses till they die. - So vile a nature and corrupt she has, - Her raging lust is still insatiate, - And food but makes it fiercer than it was. - Many a creature[174] hath she ta'en for mate, 100 - And more she'll wed until the hound comes forth - To slay her and afflict with torment great. - He will not batten upon pelf or earth; - But he shall feed on valour, love, and lore; - Feltro and Feltro[175] 'tween shall be his birth. - He will save humbled Italy, and restore, - For which of old virgin Camilla[176] died; - Turnus, Euryalus, Nisus, died of yore. - Her through all cities chasing far and wide, - He at the last to Hell will thrust her down, 110 - Whence envy[177] first unloosed her. I decide - Therefore and judge that thou hadst best come on - With me for guide;[178] and hence I'll lead thee where - A place eternal shall to thee be shown. - There shalt thou hear the howlings of despair - In which the ancient spirits make lament, - All of them fain the second death to share. - Next shalt thou them behold who are content, - Because they hope some time, though now in fire, - To join the blessed they will win consent. 120 - And if to these thou later wouldst aspire, - A soul[179] shall guide thee, worthier far than I; - When I depart thee will I leave with her. - Because the Emperor[180] who reigns on high - Wills not, since 'gainst His laws I did rebel,[181] - That to His city I bring any nigh. - O'er all the world He rules, there reigns as well; - There is His city and exalted seat: - O happy whom He chooses there to dwell!' - And I to him: 'Poet, I thee entreat, 130 - Even by that God who was to thee unknown, - That I may 'scape this present ill, nor meet - With worse, conduct me whither thou hast shown, - That I may see Saint Peter's gate,[182] and those - Whom thou reportest in such misery thrown.' - He moved away; behind him held I close. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[160] _Middle_: In his _Convito_ (iv. 23), comparing human life to an -arch, Dante says that at the age of thirty-five a man has reached the -top and begins to go down. As he was born in 1265 that was his own age -in 1300, the year in which the action of the poem is laid. - -[161] _Darksome wood_: A state of spiritual darkness or despair into -which he has gradually drifted, not without fault of his own. - -[162] _A hill_: Lower down this hill is termed 'the origin and cause of -all joy.' It is symbolical of spiritual freedom--of the peace and -security that spring from the practice of virtue. Only, as it seems, by -gaining such a vantage-ground can he escape from the wilderness of -doubt--the valley of the shadow of death--in which he is lost. - -[163] _That planet_: On the Ptolemaic system, which, as perfected by the -Arabian astronomers, and with some Christian additions, was that -followed by Dante, the sun is reckoned as one of the seven planets; all -the others as well as the earth and the fixed stars deriving their light -from it. Here the sunlight may signify the Divine help granted to all -men in their efforts after virtue. - -[164] _The lower foot, etc._: This describes a cautious, slow ascent. - -[165] _A nimble leopard_: The leopard and the lion and wolf that come -with it are suggested by Jeremiah v. 6: 'A lion out of the forest shall -slay them,' etc. We have Dante's own authority for it, in his letter to -Can Grande, that several meanings are often hidden under the incidents -of the _Comedy_. But whatever else the beasts may signify, their chief -meaning is that of moral hindrances. It is plain that the lion and wolf -are the sins of others--pride and avarice. If the leopard agrees with -them in this, it most probably stands for the envy of those among whom -Dante lived: at _Inf._ vi. 74 we find envy, pride, and avarice classed -together as the sins that have corrupted Florence. But from _Inf._ xvi. -106 it appears that Dante hoped to get the better of the leopard by -means of a cord which he wore girt about his loins. The cord is -emblematical of self-control; and hence the leopard seems best to answer -the idea of sensual pleasure in the sense of a temptation that makes -difficult the pursuit of virtue. But it will be observed that this -hindrance Dante trusts to overcome. - -[166] _Stars, etc._: The sun being then in Aries, as it was believed to -have been at the creation. - -[167] _Morn, etc._: It is the morning of Friday the 25th of March in the -year 1300, and by the use of Florence, which began the year on the -anniversary of the incarnation, it is the first day of the New Year. The -Good Friday of 1300 fell a fortnight later; but the 25th of March was -held to be the true anniversary of the crucifixion as well as of the -incarnation and of the creation of the world. The date of the action is -fixed by _Inf._ xxi. 112. The day was of good omen for success in the -struggle with his lower self. - -[168] _A lion_: Pride or arrogance; to be taken in its widest sense of -violent opposition to all that is good. - -[169] _A she-wolf_: Used elsewhere in the _Comedy_ to represent avarice. -Dante may have had specially in his mind the greed and worldly ambition -of the Pope and the Court of Rome, but it is plain from line 110 that -the wolf stands primarily for a sin, and not for a person or corporate -body. - -[170] _No man_: Brunetto Latini, the friend and master of Dante, says -'the soul is the life of man, but without the body is not man.' - -[171] _Sub Julio_: Julius was not even consul when Virgil was born. But -Dante reckoned Julius as the founder of the Empire, and therefore makes -the time in which he flourished his. Virgil was only twenty-five years -of age when Caesar was slain; and thus it was under Augustus that his -maturer life was spent. - -[172] _Author_: Dante defines an author as 'one worthy to be believed -and obeyed' (_Convito_ iv. 6). For a guide and companion on his great -pilgrimage he chooses Virgil, not only because of his fame as a poet, -but also because he had himself described a descent to the Shades--had -been already there. The vulgar conception of Virgil was that of a -virtuous great magician. - -[173] _The style, etc._: Some at least of Dante's minor works had been -given to the world before 1300, certainly the _Vita Nuova_ and others of -his poems. To his study of Virgil he may have felt himself indebted for -the purity of taste that kept him superior to the frigid and artificial -style of his contemporaries, He prided himself on suiting his language -to his theme, as well as on writing straight from the heart. - -[174] _Many a creature, etc._: Great men and states, infected with -avarice in its extended sense of encroachment on the rights of others. - -[175] _Feltro and Feltro, etc._: Who the deliverer was that Dante -prophesies the coming of is not known, and perhaps never can be. Against -the claims of Can Grande of Verona the objection is that, at any date -which can reasonably be assigned for the publication of the _Inferno_, -he had done nothing to justify such bright hopes of his future career. -There seems proof, too, that till the _Paradiso_ was written Dante -entertained no great respect for the Scala family (_Purg._ xvi. 118, -xviii. 121). Neither is Verona, or the widest territory over which Can -Grande ever ruled, at all described by saying it lay between Feltro and -Feltro.--I have preferred to translate _nazi-one_ as birth rather than -as nation or people. 'The birth of the deliverer will be found to have -been between feltro and feltro.' Feltro, as Dante wrote it, would have -no capital letter; and according to an old gloss the deliverer is to be -of humble birth; _feltro_ being the name of a poor sort of cloth. This -interpretation I give as a curiosity more than anything else; for the -most competent critics have decided against it, or ignored it.--Henry of -Luxemburg, chosen Emperor in November 1308, is an old claimant for the -post of the allegorical _veltro_ or greyhound. On him Dante's hopes were -long set as the man who should 'save Italy;' and it seems not out of -place to draw attention to what is said of him by John Villani, the -contemporary and fellow-townsman of Dante: 'He was of a magnanimous -nature, though, as regarded his family, of poor extraction' (_Cronica_, -ix. 1). Whatever may be made of the Feltros, the description in the text -of the deliverer as one superior to all personal ambition certainly -answers better to Dante's ideal of a righteous Emperor than to the -character of a partisan leader like Uguccione della Faggiuola, or an -ambitious prince like Can Grande. - -[176] _Camilla, etc._: All persons of the _AEneid_. - -[177] _Envy_: That of Satan. - -[178] _Thou hadst best, etc._: As will be seen from the next Canto, -Virgil has been sent to the relief of Dante; but how that is to be -wrought out is left to his own judgment. He might secure a partial -deliverance for his ward by conducting him up the Delectable Mount--the -peaceful heights familiar to himself, and which are to be won by the -practice of natural piety. He chooses the other course, of guiding Dante -through the regions of the future state, where the pilgrim's trust in -the Divine government will be strengthened by what he sees, and his soul -acquire a larger peace. - -[179] _A soul_: Beatrice. - -[180] _The Emperor_: The attribution of this title to God is significant -of Dante's lofty conception of the Empire. - -[181] _'Gainst his laws, etc._: Virgil was a rebel only in the sense of -being ignorant of the Christian revelation (_Inf._ iv. 37). - -[182] _Saint Peter's gate_: Virgil has not mentioned Saint Peter. Dante -names him as if to proclaim that it is as a Christian, though under -heathen guidance, that he makes the pilgrimage. Here the gate seems to -be spoken of as if it formed the entrance to Paradise, as it was -popularly believed to do, and as if it were at that point Virgil would -cease to guide him. But they are to find it nearer at hand, and after it -has been passed Virgil is to act as guide through Purgatory. - - - - -CANTO II. - - - It was the close of day;[183] the twilight brown - All living things on earth was setting free - From toil, while I preparing was alone[184] - To face the battle which awaited me, - As well of ruth as of the perilous quest, - Now to be limned by faultless memory. - Help, lofty genius! Muses,[185] manifest - Goodwill to me! Recording what befell, - Do thou, O mind, now show thee at thy best! - I thus began: 'Poet, and Guide as well, 10 - Ere trusting me on this adventure wide, - Judge if my strength of it be capable. - Thou say'st that Silvius' father,[186] ere he died, - Still mortal to the world immortal went, - There in the body some time to abide. - Yet that the Foe of evil was content - That he should come, seeing what high effect, - And who and what should from him claim descent, - No room for doubt can thoughtful man detect: - For he of noble Rome, and of her sway 20 - Imperial, in high Heaven grew sire elect. - And both of these,[187] the very truth to say, - Were founded for the holy seat, whereon - The Greater Peter's follower sits to-day. - Upon this journey, praised by thee, were known - And heard things by him, to the which he owed - His triumph, whence derives the Papal gown.[188] - That path the Chosen Vessel[189] later trod - So of the faith assurance to receive, - Which is beginning of salvation's road. 30 - But why should I go? Who will sanction give? - For I am no AEneas and no Paul; - Me worthy of it no one can believe, - Nor I myself. Hence venturing at thy call, - I dread the journey may prove rash. But vain - For me to reason; wise, thou know'st it all.' - Like one no more for what he wished for fain, - Whose purpose shares mutation with his thought - Till from the thing begun he turns again; - On that dim slope so grew I all distraught, 40 - Because, by brooding on it, the design - I shrank from, which before I warmly sought. - 'If well I understand these words of thine,' - The shade of him magnanimous made reply, - 'Thy soul 'neath cowardice hath sunk supine, - Which a man often is so burdened by, - It makes him falter from a noble aim, - As beasts at objects ill-distinguished shy. - To loose thee from this terror, why I came, - And what the speech I heard, I will relate, 50 - When first of all I pitied thee. A dame[190] - Hailed me where I 'mongst those in dubious state[191] - Had my abode: so blest was she and fair, - Her to command me I petitioned straight. - Her eyes were shining brighter than the star;[192] - And she began to say in accents sweet - And tuneable as angel's voices are: - "O Mantuan Shade, in courtesy complete, - Whose fame survives on earth, nor less shall grow - Through all the ages, while the world hath seat; 60 - A friend of mine, with fortune for his foe, - Has met with hindrance on his desert way, - And, terror-smitten, can no further go, - But turns; and that he is too far astray, - And that I rose too late for help, I dread, - From what in Heaven concerning him they say. - Go, with thy speech persuasive him bestead, - And with all needful help his guardian prove, - That touching him I may be comforted. - Know, it is Beatrice seeks thee thus to move. 70 - Thence come I where I to return am fain: - My coming and my plea are ruled by love. - When I shall stand before my Lord again, - Often to Him I will renew thy praise." - And here she ceased, nor did I dumb remain: - "O virtuous Lady, thou alone the race - Of man exaltest 'bove all else that dwell - Beneath the heaven which wheels in narrowest space.[193] - To do thy bidding pleases me so well, - Though 'twere already done 'twere all too slow; 80 - Thy wish at greater length no need to tell. - But say, what tempted thee to come thus low, - Even to this centre, from the region vast,[194] - Whither again thou art on fire to go?" - "This much to learn since a desire thou hast," - She answered, "briefly thee I'll satisfy, - How, coming here, I through no terrors passed. - We are, of right, such things alarmed by, - As have the power to hurt us; all beside - Are harmless, and not fearful. Wherefore I-- 90 - Thus formed by God, His bounty is so wide-- - Am left untouched by all your miseries, - And through this burning[195] unmolested glide. - A noble lady[196] is in Heaven, who sighs - O'er the obstruction where I'd have thee go, - And breaks the rigid edict of the skies. - Calling on Lucia,[197] thus she made her know - What she desired: 'Thy vassal[198] now hath need - Of help from thee; do thou then helpful show.' - Lucia, who hates all cruelty, in speed 100 - Rose, and approaching where I sat at rest, - To venerable Rachel[199] giving heed, - Me: 'Beatrice, true praise of God,' addressed; - 'Why not help him who had such love for thee, - And from the vulgar throng to win thee pressed? - Dost thou not hear him weeping pitiably, - Nor mark the death now threatening him upon - A flood[200] than which less awful is the sea?' - Never on earth did any ever run, - Allured by profit or impelled by fear, 110 - Swifter than I, when speaking she had done, - From sitting 'mong the blest descended here, - My trust upon thy comely rhetoric cast, - Which honours thee and those who lend it ear." - When of these words she spoken had the last, - She turned aside bright eyes which tears[201] did fill, - And I by this was urged to greater haste. - And so it was I joined thee by her will, - And from that raging beast delivered thee, - Which barred the near way up the beauteous hill. 120 - What ails thee then? Why thus a laggard be? - Why cherish in thy heart a craven fear? - Where is thy franchise, where thy bravery, - When three such blessed ladies have a care - For thee in Heaven's court, and these words of mine - Thee for such wealth of blessedness prepare?' - As flowers, by chills nocturnal made to pine - And shut themselves, when touched by morning bright - Upon their stems arise, full-blown and fine; - So of my faltering courage changed the plight, 130 - And such good cheer ran through my heart, it spurred - Me to declare, like free-born generous wight: - 'O pitiful, who for my succour stirred! - And thou how full of courtesy to run, - Alert in service, hearkening her true word! - Thou with thine eloquence my heart hast won - To keen desire to go, and the intent - Which first I held I now no longer shun. - Therefore proceed; my will with thine is blent: - Thou art my Guide, Lord, Master;[202] thou alone!' 140 - Thus I; and with him, as he forward went, - The steep and rugged road I entered on. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[183] _Close of day_: The evening of the Friday. It comes on us with -something of a surprise that a whole day has been spent in the attempt -to ascend the hill, and in conference with Virgil. - -[184] _Alone_: Of earthly creatures, though in company with Virgil, a -shade. In these words is to be found the keynote to the Canto. With the -sense of deliverance from immediate danger his enthusiasm has died away. -After all, Virgil is only a shade; and his heart misgives him at the -thought of engaging, in the absence of all human companionship, upon a -journey so full of terrors. He is not reassured till Virgil has -displayed his commission. - -[185] _Muses_: The invocation comes now, the First Canto being properly -an introduction. Here it may be pointed out, as illustrating the -refinement of Dante's art, that the invocation in the _Purgatorio_ is in -a higher strain, and that in the _Paradiso_ in a nobler still. - -[186] _Silvius' father_: AEneas, whose visit to the world of shades is -described in the Sixth _AEneid_. He finds there his father Anchises, who -foretells to him the fortunes of his descendants down to the time of -Augustus. - -[187] _Both of these_: Dante uses language slightly apologetic as he -unfolds to Virgil, the great Imperialist poet, the final cause of Rome -and the Empire. But while he thus exalts the Papal office, making all -Roman history a preparation for its establishment, Dante throughout his -works is careful to refuse any but a spiritual or religious allegiance -to the Pope, and leaves himself free, as will be frequently seen in the -course of the _Comedy_, to blame the Popes as men, while yielding all -honour to their great office. In this emphatic mention of Rome as the -divinely-appointed seat of Peter's Chair may be implied a censure on the -Pope for the transference of the Holy See to Avignon, which was effected -in 1305, between the date assigned to the action of the poem and the -period when it was written. - -[188] _Papal gown_: 'The great mantle' Dante elsewhere terms it; the -emblem of the Papal dignity. It was only in Dante's own time that -coronation began to take the place of investiture with the mantle. - -[189] _Chosen Vessel_: Paul, who like AEneas visited the other world, -though not the same region of it. Throughout the poem instances drawn -from profane history, and even poetry and mythology, are given as of -authority equal to those from Christian sources. - -[190] _A dame_: Beatrice, the heroine of the _Vita Nuova_, at the close -of which Dante promises some day to say of her what was never yet said -of any woman. She died in 1290, aged twenty-four. In the _Comedy_ she -fills different parts: she is the glorified Beatrice Portinari whom -Dante first knew as a fair Florentine girl; but she also represents -heavenly truth, or the knowledge of it--the handmaid of eternal life. -Theology is too hard and technical a term to bestow on her. Virgil, for -his part, represents the knowledge that men may acquire of Divine law by -the use of their reason, helped by such illumination as was enjoyed by -the virtuous heathen. In other words, he is the exponent of the Divine -revelation involved in the Imperial system--for the Empire was never far -from Dante's thoughts. To him it meant the perfection of just rule, in -which due cognisance is taken of every right and of every duty. The -relation Dante bears to these two is that of erring humanity struggling -to the light. Virgil leads him as far as he can, and then commits him to -the holier rule of Beatrice. But the poem would lose its charm if the -allegorical meaning of every passage were too closely insisted on. And, -worse than that, it cannot always be found. - -[191] _Dubious state_: The limbo of the virtuous heathen (Canto iv.). - -[192] _The star_: In the _Vita Nuova_ Dante speaks of the star in the -singular when he means the stars. - -[193] _In narrowest space_: The heaven of the moon, on the Ptolemaic -system the lowest of the seven planets. Below it there is only the -heaven of fire, to which all the flames of earth are attracted. The -meaning is, above all on earth. - -[194] _The region vast_: The empyrean, or tenth and highest heaven of -all. It is an addition by the Christian astronomers to the heavens of -the Ptolemaic system, and extends above the _primum mobile_, which -imparts to all beneath it a common motion, while leaving its own special -motion to each. The empyrean is the heaven of Divine rest. - -[195] _Burning_: 'Flame of this burning,' allegorical, as applied to the -limbo where Virgil had his abode. He and his companions suffer only from -unfulfilled but lofty desire (_Inf._ iv. 41). - -[196] _A noble lady_: The Virgin Mary, of whom it is said (_Parad._ -xxxiii. 16) that her 'benignity not only succours those who ask, but -often anticipates their demand;' as here. She is the symbol of Divine -grace in its widest sense. Neither Christ nor Mary is mentioned by name -in the _Inferno_. - -[197] _Lucia_: The martyr saint of Syracuse. Witte (_Dante-Forschungen_, -vol. ii. 30) suggests that Lucia Ubaldini may be meant, a -thirteenth-century Florentine saint, and sister of the Cardinal (_Inf._ -x. 120). The day devoted to her memory was the 30th of May. Dante was -born in May, and if it could be proved that he was born on the 30th of -the month the suggestion would be plausible. But for the greater Lucy is -to be said that she was especially helpful to those troubled in their -eyesight, as Dante was at one time of his life. Here she is the symbol -of illuminating grace. - -[198] _Thy vassal_: Saint Lucy being held in special veneration by -Dante; or only that he was one that sought light. The word _fedele_ may -of course, as it usually is, be read in its primary sense of 'faithful -one;' but it is old Italian for vassal; and to take the reference to be -to the duty of the overlord to help his dependant in need seems to give -force to the appeal. - -[199] _Rachel_: Symbol of the contemplative life. - -[200] _A flood, etc._: 'The sea of troubles' in which Dante is involved. - -[201] _Tears_: Beatrice weeps for human misery--especially that of -Dante--though unaffected by the view of the sufferings of Inferno. - -[202] _My Guide, etc._: After hearing how Virgil was moved to come, -Dante accepts him not only for his guide, as he did at the close of the -First Canto, but for his lord and master as well. - - - - -CANTO III. - - - Through me to the city dolorous lies the way, - Who pass through me shall pains eternal prove, - Through me are reached the people lost for aye. - 'Twas Justice did my Glorious Maker move; - I was created by the Power Divine,[203] - The Highest Wisdom, and the Primal Love. - No thing's creation earlier was than mine, - If not eternal;[204] I for aye endure: - Ye who make entrance, every hope resign! - These words beheld I writ in hue obscure 10 - On summit of a gateway; wherefore I: - 'Hard[205] is their meaning, Master.' Like one sure - Beforehand of my thought, he made reply: - 'Here it behoves to leave all fears behind; - All cowardice behoveth here to die. - For now the place I told thee of we find, - Where thou the miserable folk shouldst see - Who the true good[206] of reason have resigned.' - Then, with a glance of glad serenity, - He took my hand in his, which made me bold, 20 - And brought me in where secret things there be. - There sighs and plaints and wailings uncontrolled - The dim and starless air resounded through; - Nor at the first could I from tears withhold. - The various languages and words of woe, - The uncouth accents,[207] mixed with angry cries - And smiting palms and voices loud and low, - Composed a tumult which doth circling rise - For ever in that air obscured for aye; - As when the sand upon the whirlwind flies. 30 - And, horror-stricken,[208] I began to say: - 'Master, what sound can this be that I hear, - And who the folk thus whelmed in misery?' - And he replied: 'In this condition drear - Are held the souls of that inglorious crew - Who lived unhonoured, but from guilt kept clear. - Mingled they are with caitiff angels, who, - Though from avowed rebellion they refrained, - Disloyal to God, did selfish ends pursue. - Heaven hurled them forth, lest they her beauty stained; - Received they are not by the nether hell, 41 - Else triumph[209] thence were by the guilty gained.' - And I: 'What bear they, Master, to compel - Their lamentations in such grievous tone?' - He answered: 'In few words I will thee tell. - No hope of death is to the wretches known; - So dim the life and abject where they sigh - They count all sufferings easier than their own. - Of them the world endures no memory; - Mercy and justice them alike disdain. 50 - Speak we not of them: glance, and pass them by.' - I saw a banner[210] when I looked again, - Which, always whirling round, advanced in haste - As if despising steadfast to remain. - And after it so many people chased - In long procession, I should not have said - That death[211] had ever wrought such countless waste. - Some first I recognised, and then the shade - I saw and knew of him, the search to close, - Whose dastard soul the great refusal[212] made. 60 - Straightway I knew and was assured that those - Were of the tribe of caitiffs,[213] even the race - Despised of God and hated of His foes. - The wretches, who when living showed no trace - Of life, went naked, and were fiercely stung - By wasps and hornets swarming in that place. - Blood drawn by these out of their faces sprung - And, mingled with their tears, was at their feet - Sucked up by loathsome worms it fell among. - Casting mine eyes beyond, of these replete, 70 - People I saw beside an ample stream, - Whereon I said: 'O Master, I entreat, - Tell who these are, and by what law they seem - Impatient till across the river gone; - As I distinguish by this feeble gleam.' - And he: 'These things shall unto thee be known - What time our footsteps shall at rest be found - Upon the woful shores of Acheron.' - Then with ashamed eyes cast on the ground, - Fearing my words were irksome in his ear, 80 - Until we reached the stream I made no sound. - And toward us, lo, within a bark drew near - A veteran[214] who with ancient hair was white, - Shouting: 'Ye souls depraved, be filled with fear. - Hope never more of Heaven to win the sight; - I come to take you to the other strand, - To frost and fire and everlasting night. - And thou, O living soul, who there dost stand, - From 'mong the dead withdraw thee.' Then, aware - That not at all I stirred at his command, 90 - 'By other ways,[215] from other ports thou'lt fare; - But they will lead thee to another shore, - And 'tis a skiff more buoyant must thee bear.' - And then my leader: 'Charon, be not sore, - For thus it has been willed where power ne'er came - Short of the will; thou therefore ask no more.' - And hereupon his shaggy cheeks grew tame - Who is the pilot of the livid pool, - And round about whose eyes glowed wheels of flame. - But all the shades, naked and spent with dool, 100 - Stood chattering with their teeth, and changing hue - Soon as they heard the words unmerciful. - God they blasphemed, and families whence they grew; - Mankind, the time, place, seed in which began - Their lives, and seed whence they were born. Then drew - They crowding all together, as they ran, - Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore - Predestinate for every godless man. - The demon Charon, with eyes evermore - Aglow, makes signals, gathering them all; 110 - And whoso lingers smiteth with his oar. - And as the faded leaves of autumn fall - One after the other, till at last the bough - Sees on the ground spread all its coronal; - With Adam's evil seed so haps it now: - At signs each falls in turn from off the coast, - As fowls[216] into the ambush fluttering go. - The gloomy waters thus by them are crossed, - And ere upon the further side they land, - On this, anew, is gathering a host. 120 - 'Son,' said the courteous Master,[217] 'understand, - All such as in the wrath of God expire, - From every country muster on this strand. - To cross the river they are all on fire; - Their wills by Heavenly justice goaded on - Until their terror merges in desire. - This way no righteous soul has ever gone; - Wherefore[218] of thee if Charon should complain, - Now art thou sure what by his words is shown.' - When he had uttered this the dismal plain 130 - Trembled[219] so violently, my terror past - Recalling now, I'm bathed in sweat again. - Out of the tearful ground there moaned a blast - Whence lightning flashed forth red and terrible, - Which vanquished all my senses; and, as cast - In sudden slumber, to the ground I fell. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[203] _Power Divine, etc._: The Persons of the Trinity, described by -their attributes. - -[204] _If not eternal_: Only the angels and the heavenly spheres were -created before Inferno. The creation of man came later. But from _Inf._ -xxxiv. 124 it appears that Inferno was hollowed out of the earth; and at -_Parad._ vii. 124 the earth is declared to be 'corruptible and enduring -short while;' therefore not eternal. - -[205] _Hard, etc._: The injunction to leave all hope behind makes Dante -hesitate to enter. Virgil anticipates the objection before it is fully -expressed, and reminds him that the passage through Inferno is to be -only one stage of his journey. Not by this gate will he seek to quit it. - -[206] _True good, etc._: Truth in its highest form--the contemplation of -God. - -[207] _Uncouth accents_: 'Like German,' says Boccaccio. - -[208] _Horror-stricken_: 'My head enveloped in horror.' Some texts have -'error,' and this yields a better meaning--that Dante is amazed to have -come full into the crowd of suffering shades before he has even crossed -Acheron. If with the best texts 'horror' be read, the meaning seems to -be that he is so overwhelmed by fear as to lose his presence of mind. -They are not yet in the true Inferno, but only in the vestibule or -forecourt of it--the flat rim which runs round the edge of the pit. - -[209] _Else triumph, etc._: The satisfaction of the rebel angels at -finding that they endured no worse punishment than that of such as -remained neutral. - -[210] _A banner_: Emblem of the instability of those who would never -take a side. - -[211] _That death, etc._: The touch is very characteristic of Dante. He -feigns astonishment at finding that such a proportion of mankind can -preserve so pitiful a middle course between good and evil, and spend -lives that are only 'a kind of--as it were.' - -[212] _The great refusal_: Dante recognises him, and so he who made the -great refusal must have been a contemporary. Almost beyond doubt -Celestine V. is meant, who was in 1294 elected Pope against his will, -and resigned the tiara after wearing it a few months; the only Pope who -ever resigned it, unless we count Clement I. As he was not canonized -till 1326, Dante was free to form his own judgment of his conduct. It -has been objected that Dante would not treat with contumely a man so -devout as Celestine. But what specially fits him to be the -representative caitiff is just that, being himself virtuous, he -pusillanimously threw away the greatest opportunity of doing good. By -his resignation Boniface VIII. became Pope, to whose meddling in -Florentine affairs it was that Dante owed his banishment. Indirectly, -therefore, he owed it to the resignation of Celestine; so that here we -have the first of many private scores to be paid off in the course of -the _Comedy_. Celestine's resignation is referred to (_Inf._ xxvii. -104).--Esau and the rich young man in the Gospel have both been -suggested in place of Celestine. To either of them there lies the -objection that Dante could not have recognised him. And, besides, -Dante's contemporaries appear at once to have discovered Celestine in -him who made the great refusal. In Paradise the poet is told by his -ancestor Cacciaguida that his rebuke is to be like the wind, which -strikes most fiercely on the loftiest summits (_Parad._ xvii. 133); and -it agrees well with such a profession, that the first stroke he deals in -the _Comedy_ is at a Pope. - -[213] _Caitiffs_: To one who had suffered like Dante for the frank part -he took in affairs, neutrality may well have seemed the unpardonable sin -in politics; and no doubt but that his thoughts were set on the trimmers -in Florence when he wrote, 'Let us not speak of them!' - -[214] _A veteran_: Charon. In all this description of the passage of the -river by the shades, Dante borrows freely from Virgil. It has been -already remarked on _Inf._ ii. 28 that he draws illustrations from Pagan -sources. More than that, as we begin to find, he boldly introduces -legendary and mythological characters among the persons of his drama. -With Milton in mind, it surprises, on a first acquaintance with the -_Comedy_, to discover how nearly independent of angels is the economy -invented by Dante for the other world. - -[215] _Other ways, etc._: The souls bound from earth to Purgatory gather -at the mouth of the Tiber, whence they are wafted on an angel's skiff to -their destination (_Purg._ ii. 100). It may be here noted that never -does Dante hint a fear of one day becoming a denizen of Inferno. It is -only the pains of Purgatory that oppress his soul by anticipation. So -here Charon is made to see at a glance that the pilgrim is not of those -'who make descent to Acheron.' - -[216] _As fowls, etc._: 'As a bird to its lure'--generally interpreted -of the falcon when called back. But a witness of the sport of netting -thrushes in Tuscany describes them as 'flying into the vocal ambush in a -hurried, half-reluctant, and very remarkable manner.' - -[217] _Courteous Master_: Virgil here gives the answer promised at line -76; and Dante by the epithet he uses removes any impression that his -guide had been wanting in courtesy when he bade him wait. - -[218] _Wherefore_: Charon's displeasure only proves that he feels he has -no hold on Dante. - -[219] _Trembled, etc._: Symbolical of the increase of woe in Inferno -when the doomed souls have landed on the thither side of Acheron. Hell -opens to receive them. Conversely, when any purified soul is released -from Purgatory the mountain of purification trembles to its base with -joy (_Purg._ xxi. 58). - - - - -CANTO IV. - - - Resounding thunder broke the slumber deep - That drowsed my senses, and myself I shook - Like one by force awakened out of sleep. - Then rising up I cast a steady look, - With eyes refreshed, on all that lay around, - And cognisance of where I found me took. - In sooth, me on the valley's brink I found - Of the dolorous abyss, where infinite - Despairing cries converge with thundering sound.[220] - Cloudy it was, and deep, and dark as night; 10 - So dark that, peering eagerly to find - What its depths held, no object met my sight. - 'Descend we now into this region blind,' - Began the Poet with a face all pale; - 'I will go first, and do thou come behind.' - Marking the wanness on his cheek prevail, - I asked, 'How can I, seeing thou hast dread, - My wonted comforter when doubts assail?' - 'The anguish of the people,' then he said, - 'Who are below, has painted on my face 20 - Pity,[221] by thee for fear interpreted. - Come! The long journey bids us move apace.' - Then entered he and made me enter too - The topmost circle girding the abyss. - Therein, as far as I by listening knew, - There was no lamentation save of sighs, - Whence throbbed the air eternal through and through. - This, sorrow without suffering made arise - From infants and from women and from men, - Gathered in great and many companies. 30 - And the good Master: 'Wouldst thou[222] nothing then - Of who those spirits are have me relate? - Yet know, ere passing further, although when - On earth they sinned not, worth however great - Availed them not, they being unbaptized-- - Part[223] of the faith thou holdest. If their fate - Was to be born ere man was Christianised, - God, as behoved, they never could adore: - And I myself am with this folk comprised. - For such defects--our guilt is nothing more-- 40 - We are thus lost, suffering from this alone - That, hopeless, we our want of bliss deplore.' - Greatly I sorrowed when he made this known, - Because I knew that some who did excel - In worthiness were to that limbo[224] gone. - 'Tell me, O Sir,' I prayed him, 'Master,[225] tell,' - --That I of the belief might surety win, - Victorious every error to dispel-- - 'Did ever any hence to bliss attain - By merit of another or his own?' 50 - And he, to whom my hidden drift[226] was plain: - 'I to this place but lately[227] had come down, - When I beheld one hither make descent; - A Potentate[228] who wore a victor's crown. - The shade of our first sire forth with him went, - And his son Abel's, Noah's forth he drew, - Moses' who gave the laws, the obedient - Patriarch Abram's, and King David's too; - And, with his sire and children, Israel, - And Rachel, winning whom such toils he knew; 60 - And many more, in blessedness to dwell. - And I would have thee know, earlier than these - No human soul was ever saved from Hell.' - While thus he spake our progress did not cease, - But we continued through the wood to stray; - The wood, I mean, with crowded ghosts for trees. - Ere from the summit far upon our way - We yet had gone, I saw a flame which glowed, - Holding a hemisphere[229] of dark at bay. - 'Twas still a little further on our road, 70 - Yet not so far but that in part I guessed - That honourable people there abode. - 'Of art and science Ornament confessed! - Who are these honoured in such high degree, - And in their lot distinguished from the rest?' - He said: 'For them their glorious memory, - Still in thy world the subject of renown, - Wins grace[230] by Heaven distinguished thus to be.' - Meanwhile I heard a voice: 'Be honour shown - To the illustrious poet,[231] for his shade 80 - Is now returning which a while was gone.' - When the voice paused nor further utterance made, - Four mighty shades drew near with one accord, - In aspect neither sorrowful nor glad. - 'Consider that one, armed with a sword,'[232] - Began my worthy Master in my ear, - 'Before the three advancing like their lord; - For he is Homer, poet with no peer: - Horace the satirist is next in line, - Ovid comes third, and Lucan in the rear. 90 - And 'tis because their claim agrees with mine - Upon the name they with one voice did cry, - They to their honour[233] in my praise combine.' - Thus I beheld their goodly company-- - The lords[234] of song in that exalted style - Which o'er all others, eagle-like, soars high. - Having conferred among themselves a while - They turned toward me and salutation made, - And, this beholding, did my Master smile.[235] - And honour higher still to me was paid, 100 - For of their company they made me one; - So I the sixth part 'mong such genius played. - Thus journeyed we to where the brightness shone, - Holding discourse which now 'tis well to hide, - As, where I was, to hold it was well done. - At length we reached a noble castle's[236] side - Which lofty sevenfold walls encompassed round, - And it was moated by a sparkling tide. - This we traversed as if it were dry ground; - I through seven gates did with those sages go; 110 - Then in a verdant mead people we found - Whose glances were deliberate and slow. - Authority was stamped on every face; - Seldom they spake, in tuneful voices low. - We drew apart to a high open space - Upon one side which, luminously serene, - Did of them all a perfect view embrace. - Thence, opposite, on the enamel green - Were shown me mighty spirits; with delight - I still am stirred them only to have seen. 120 - With many more, Electra was in sight; - 'Mong them I Hector and AEneas spied, - Caesar in arms,[237] his eyes, like falcon's, bright. - And, opposite, Camilla I descried; - Penthesilea too; the Latian King - Sat with his child Lavinia by his side. - Brutus[238] I saw, who Tarquin forth did fling; - Cornelia, Marcia,[239] Julia, and Lucrece. - Saladin[240] sat alone. Considering - What lay beyond with somewhat lifted eyes, 130 - The Master[241] I beheld of those that know, - 'Mong such as in philosophy were wise. - All gazed on him as if toward him to show - Becoming honour; Plato in advance - With Socrates: the others stood below. - Democritus[242] who set the world on chance; - Thales, Diogenes, Empedocles, - Zeno, and Anaxagoras met my glance; - Heraclitus, and Dioscorides, - Wise judge of nature. Tully, Orpheus, were 140 - With ethic Seneca and Linus.[243] These, - And Ptolemy,[244] too, and Euclid, geometer, - Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicen,[245] - Averroes,[246] the same who did prepare - The Comment, saw I; nor can tell again - The names of all I saw; the subject wide - So urgent is, time often fails me. Then - Into two bands the six of us divide; - Me by another way my Leader wise - Doth from the calm to air which trembles, guide. 150 - I reach a part[247] which all benighted lies. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[220] _Thundering sound_: In a state of unconsciousness, Dante, he knows -not how, has been conveyed across Acheron, and is awakened by what seems -like the thunder-peal following the lightning-flash which made him -insensible. He now stands on the brink of Inferno, where the sounds -peculiar to each region of it converge and are reverberated from its -rim. These sounds are not again to be heard by him except in their -proper localities. No sooner does he actually pass into the First Circle -than he hears only sighs.--As regards the topography of Inferno, it is -enough, as yet, to note that it consists of a cavity extending from the -surface to the centre of the earth; narrowing to its base, and with many -circular ledges or terraces, of great width in the case of the upper -ones, running round its wall--that is, round the sides of the pit. Each -terrace or circle is thus less in circumference than the one above it. -From one circle to the next there slopes a bank of more or less height -and steepness. Down the bank which falls to the comparatively flat -ground of the First Circle they are now about to pass.--To put it -otherwise, the Inferno is an inverted hollow cone. - -[221] _Pity_: The pity felt by Virgil has reference only to those in the -circle they are about to enter, which is his own. See also _Purg._ iii. -43. - -[222] _Wouldst thou, etc._: He will not have Dante form a false opinion -of the character of those condemned to the circle which is his own. - -[223] _Part_: _parte_, altered by some editors into _porta_; but though -baptism is technically described as the gate of the sacraments, it never -is as the gate of the faith. A tenet of Dante's faith was that all the -unbaptized are lost. He had no choice in the matter. - -[224] _Limbo_: Border, or borderland. Dante makes the First Circle -consist of the two limbos of Thomas Aquinas: that of unbaptized infants, -_limbus puerorum_, and that of the fathers of the old covenant, _limbus -sanctorum patrum_. But the second he finds is now inhabited only by the -virtuous heathen. - -[225] _Sir_--_Master_: As a delicate means of expressing sympathy, Dante -redoubles his courtesy to Virgil. - -[226] _Hidden drift_: to find out, at first hand as it were, if the -article in the creed is true which relates to the Descent into Hell; -and, perhaps, to learn if when Christ descended He delivered none of the -virtuous heathen. - -[227] _Lately_: Virgil died about half a century before the crucifixion. - -[228] _A Potentate_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the -_Inferno_. - -[229] _A hemisphere, etc._: An elaborate way of saying that part of the -limbo was clearly lit. The flame is symbolical of the light of genius, -or of virtue; both in Dante's eyes being modes of worth. - -[230] _Wins grace, etc._: The thirst for fame was one keenly felt and -openly confessed by Dante. See, _e.g._ _De Monarchia_, i. 1. In this he -anticipated the humanists of the following century. Here we find that to -be famous on earth helps the case of disembodied souls. - -[231] _Poet_: Throughout the _Comedy_, with the exception of _Parad._ i. -29, and xxv. 8, the term 'poet' is confined to those who wrote in Greek -and Latin. In _Purg._ xxi. 85 the name of poet is said to be that 'which -is most enduring and honourable.' - -[232] _A sword_: Because Homer sings of battles. Dante's acquaintance -with his works can have been but slight, as they were not then -translated into Latin, and Dante knew little or no Greek. - -[233] _To their honour_: 'And in that they do well:' perhaps as showing -themselves free from jealousy. But the remark of Benvenuto of Imola is: -'Poets love and honour one another, and are never envious and -quarrelsome like those who cultivate the other arts and sciences.'--I -quote with misgiving from Tamburini's untrustworthy Italian translation. -Benvenuto lectured on the _Comedy_ in Bologna for some years about 1370. -It is greatly to be wished that his commentary, lively and full of -side-lights as it is, should be printed in full from the original Latin. - -[234] _The lords, etc._: Not the company of him--Homer or Virgil--who is -lord of the great song, and soars above all others; but the company of -the great masters, whose verse, etc. - -[235] _Did my Master smile_: To see Dante made free of the guild of -great poets; or, it may be, to think they are about to discover in him a -fellow poet. - -[236] _A noble castle_: Where the light burns, and in which, as their -peculiar seat, the shades of the heathen distinguished for virtue and -genius reside. The seven walls are in their number symbolical of the -perfect strength of the castle; or, to take it more pedantically, may -mean the four moral virtues and the three speculative. The gates will -then stand for the seven liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, etc. The -moat may be eloquence, set outside the castle to signify that only as -reflected in the eloquent words of inspired men can the outside world -get to know wisdom. Over the stream Dante passes easily, as being an -adept in learned speech. The castle encloses a spacious mead enamelled -with eternal green. - -[237] _Caesar in arms, etc._: Suetonius says of Caesar that he was of -fair complexion, but had black and piercing eyes. Brunetto Latini, -Dante's teacher, says in his _Tesoro_ (v. 11), of the hawk here -mentioned--the _grifagno_--that its eyes 'flame like fire.' - -[238] _Brutus_: Introduced here that he may not be confounded with the -later Brutus, for whom is reserved the lowest place of all in Inferno. - -[239] _Marcia_: Wife of Cato; mentioned also in _Purg._ i. _Julia_: -daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey. - -[240] _Saladin_: Died 1193. To the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries -he supplied the ideal of a just Mohammedan ruler. Here are no other -such. 'He sits apart, because not of gentle birth,' says Boccaccio; -which shows what even a man of genius risks when he becomes a -commentator. - -[241] _The Master_: Aristotle, often spoken of by Dante as the -Philosopher, and reverenced by him as the genius to whom the secrets of -nature lay most open. - -[242] _Democritus, etc._: According to whom the world owes its form to a -chance arrangement of atoms. - -[243] _Linus_: Not Livy, into which some have changed it. Linus is -mentioned by Virgil along with Orpheus, _Egl._ iv. - -[244] _Ptolemy_: Greek geographer of the beginning of the second -century, and author of the system of the world believed in by Dante, and -freely used by him throughout the poem. - -[245] _Avicenna_: A physician, born in Bokhara, and died at Ispahan, -1037. His _Medical Canon_ was for centuries used as a text-book in -Europe. - -[246] _Averroes_: A Mohammedan philosopher of Cordova, died 1198. In his -great Commentary on Aristotle he gives and explains every sentence of -that philosopher's works. He was himself ignorant of Greek, and made use -of Arabic versions. Out of his Arabic the Commentary was translated into -Hebrew, and thence into Latin. The presence of the three Mohammedans in -this honourable place greatly puzzles the early commentators. - -[247] _A part, etc._: He passes into the darkness of the Limbo out of -the brightly-lit, fortified enclosure. It is worth remarking, as one -reads, how vividly he describes his first impression of a new scene, -while when he comes to leave it a word is all he speaks. - - - - -CANTO V. - - - From the First Circle thus I downward went - Into the Second,[248] which girds narrower space, - But greater woe compelling loud lament. - Minos[249] waits awful there and snarls, the case - Examining of all who enter in; - And, as he girds him, dooms them to their place. - I say, each ill-starred spirit must begin - On reaching him its guilt in full to tell; - And he, omniscient as concerning sin, - Sees to what circle it belongs in Hell; 10 - Then round him is his tail as often curled - As he would have it stages deep to dwell. - And evermore before him stand a world - Of shades; and all in turn to judgment come, - Confess and hear, and then are downward hurled.[250] - 'O thou who comest to the very home - Of woe,' when he beheld me Minos cried, - Ceasing a while from utterance of doom, - 'Enter not rashly nor in all confide; - By ease of entering be not led astray.' 20 - 'Why also[251] growling?' answered him my Guide; - 'Seek not his course predestinate to stay; - For thus 'tis willed[252] where nothing ever fails - Of what is willed. No further speech essay.' - And now by me are agonising wails - Distinguished plain; now am I come outright - Where grievous lamentation me assails. - Now had I reached a place devoid of light, - Raging as in a tempest howls the sea - When with it winds, blown thwart each other, fight. 30 - The infernal storm is raging ceaselessly, - Sweeping the shades along with it, and them - It smites and whirls, nor lets them ever be. - Arrived at the precipitous extreme,[253] - In shrieks and lamentations they complain, - And even the Power Divine itself blaspheme. - I understood[254] that to this mode of pain - Are doomed the sinners of the carnal kind, - Who o'er their reason let their impulse reign. - As starlings in the winter-time combined 40 - Float on the wing in crowded phalanx wide, - So these bad spirits, driven by that wind, - Float up and down and veer from side to side; - Nor for their comfort any hope they spy - Of rest, or even of suffering mollified. - And as the cranes[255] in long-drawn company - Pursue their flight while uttering their song, - So I beheld approach with wailing cry - Shades lifted onward by that whirlwind strong. - 'Master, what folk are these,'[256] I therefore said, 50 - 'Who by the murky air are whipped along?' - 'She, first of them,' his answer thus was made, - 'Of whom thou wouldst a wider knowledge win, - O'er many tongues and peoples, empire swayed. - So ruined was she by licentious sin - That she decreed lust should be uncontrolled, - To ease the shame that she herself was in. - She is Semiramis, of whom 'tis told - She followed Ninus, and his wife had been. - Hers were the realms now by the Sultan ruled. 60 - The next[257] is she who, amorous and self-slain, - Unto Sichaeus' dust did faithless show: - Then lustful Cleopatra.' Next was seen - Helen, for whom so many years in woe - Ran out; and I the great Achilles knew, - Who at the last[258] encountered love for foe. - Paris I saw and Tristram.[259] In review - A thousand shades and more, he one by one - Pointed and named, whom love from life withdrew. - And after I had heard my Teacher run 70 - O'er many a dame of yore and many a knight, - I, lost in pity, was wellnigh undone. - Then I: 'O Poet, if I only might - Speak with the two that as companions hie, - And on the wind appear to be so light!'[260] - And he to me: 'When they shall come more nigh - Them shalt thou mark, and by the love shalt pray - Which leads them onward, and they will comply.' - Soon as the wind bends them to where we stay - I lift my voice: 'O wearied souls and worn! 80 - Come speak with us if none[261] the boon gainsay.' - Then even as doves,[262] urged by desire, return - On outspread wings and firm to their sweet nest - As through the air by mere volition borne, - From Dido's[263] band those spirits issuing pressed - Towards where we were, athwart the air malign; - My passionate prayer such influence possessed. - 'O living creature,[264] gracious and benign, - Us visiting in this obscured air, - Who did the earth with blood incarnadine; 90 - If in the favour of the King we were - Who rules the world, we for thy peace[265] would pray, - Since our misfortunes thy compassion stir. - Whate'er now pleases thee to hear or say - We listen to, or tell, at your demand;[266] - While yet the wind, as now, doth silent stay. - My native city[267] lies upon the strand - Where to the sea descends the river Po - For peace, with all his tributary band. - Love, in a generous heart set soon aglow, 100 - Seized him for the fair form was mine above; - And still it irks me to have lost it so.[268] - Love, which absolves[269] no one beloved from love, - So strong a passion for him in me wrought - That, as thou seest, I still its mastery prove. - Love led us where we in one death were caught. - For him who slew us waits Caina[270] now.' - Unto our ears these words from them were brought. - When I had heard these troubled souls, my brow - I downward bent, and long while musing stayed, 110 - Until the Poet asked: 'What thinkest thou?' - And when I answered him, 'Alas!' I said, - 'Sweet thoughts how many, and what strong desire, - These to their sad catastrophe betrayed!' - Then, turned once more to them, I to inquire - Began: 'Francesca, these thine agonies - Me with compassion unto tears inspire. - But tell me, at the season of sweet sighs - What sign made love, and what the means he chose - To strip your dubious longings of disguise?' 120 - And she to me: 'The bitterest of woes - Is to remember in the midst of pain - A happy past; as well thy teacher[271] knows. - Yet none the less, and since thou art so fain - The first occasion of our love to hear, - Like one I speak that cannot tears restrain. - As we for pastime one day reading were - How Lancelot[272] by love was fettered fast-- - All by ourselves and without any fear-- - Moved by the tale our eyes we often cast 130 - On one another, and our colour fled; - But one word was it, vanquished us at last. - When how the smile, long wearied for, we read - Was kissed by him who loved like none before, - This one, who henceforth never leaves me, laid - A kiss on my mouth, trembling the while all o'er. - The book was Galahad,[273] and he as well - Who wrote the book. That day we read no more.' - And while one shade continued thus to tell, - The other wept so bitterly, I swooned 140 - Away for pity, and as dead I fell: - Yea, as a corpse falls, fell I on the ground. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[248] _The Second_: The Second Circle of the Inferno, and the first of -punishment. The lower the circle, the more rigorous the penalty endured -in it. Here is punished carnal sin. - -[249] _Minos_: Son of Jupiter and King of Crete, so severely just as to -be made after death one of the judges of the under world. He is degraded -by Dante, as many other noble persons of the old mythology are by him, -into a demon. Unlike the fallen angels of Milton, Dante's devils have no -interest of their own. Their only function is to help in working out -human destinies. - -[250] _Downward hurled_: Each falls to his proper place without -lingering by the way. All through Inferno there is an absence of direct -Divine interposition. It is ruled, as it were, by a course of nature. -The sinners, compelled by a fatal impulse, advance to hear their doom, -just as they fall inevitably one by one into Charon's boat. Minos by a -sort of devilish instinct sentences each sinner to his appropriate -punishment. In _Inf._ xxvii. 127 we find the words in which Minos utters -his judgment. In _Inf._ xxi. 29 a devil bears the sinner to his own -place. - -[251] _Why also, etc._: Like Charon. If Minos represents conscience, as -some would have it, Dante is here again assailed by misgivings as to his -enterprise, and is quieted by reason in the person of Virgil. - -[252] _Thus 'tis willed, etc._: These two lines are the same as those to -Charon, _Inf._ iii. 95, 96. - -[253] _Precipitous extreme_: Opinions vary as to what is meant by -_ruina_. As Dante is certainly still on the outer edge of the Second -Circle or terrace, and while standing there hears distinctly the words -the spirits say when they reach the _ruina_, it most likely denotes the -steep slope falling from the First to the Second Circle. The spirits, -driven against the wall which hems them in, burst into sharp -lamentations against their irremediable fate. - -[254] _I understood, etc._: From the nature of the punishment, which, -like all the others invented by Dante, bears some relation to the sin to -which it is assigned. They who on earth failed to exercise -self-restraint are beaten hither and thither by every wind that blows; -and, as once they were blinded by passion, so now they see nothing -plainly in that dim and obscure place. That Dante should assign the -least grievous punishment of all to this sin throws light upon his views -of life. In his eyes it had more than any other the excuse of natural -bent, and had least of malice. Here, it must be remarked, are no -seducers. For them a lower depth is reserved (_Inf._ xviii. See also -_Purg._ xxvii. 15). - -[255] _The cranes_: 'The cranes are a kind of bird that go in a troop, -as cavaliers go to battle, following one another in single file. And one -of them goes always in front as their gonfalonier, guiding and leading -them with its voice' (Brunetto Latini, _Tesoro_, v. 27). - -[256] _What folk are these_: The general crowd of sinners guilty of -unlawful love are described as being close packed like starlings. The -other troop, who go in single file like cranes, are those regarding whom -Dante specially inquires; and they prove to be the nobler sort of -sinners--lovers with something tragic or pathetic in their fate. - -[257] _The next_: Dido, perhaps not named by Virgil because to him she -owed her fame. For love of AEneas she broke the vow of perpetual chastity -made on the tomb of her husband. - -[258] _At the last, etc._: Achilles, when about to espouse Polyxena, and -when off his guard, was slain. - -[259] _Paris ... and Tristram_: Paris of Troy, and the Tristram of King -Arthur's Table. - -[260] _So light_: Denoting the violence of the passion to which they had -succumbed. - -[261] _If none_: If no Superior Power. - -[262] _Doves_: The motion of the tempest-driven shades is compared to -the flight of birds--starlings, cranes, and doves. This last simile -prepares us for the tenderness of Francesca's tale. - -[263] _Dido_: Has been already indicated, and is now named. This -association of the two lovers with Virgil's Dido is a further delicate -touch to engage our sympathy; for her love, though illicit, was the -infirmity of a noble heart. - -[264] _Living creature_: 'Animal.' No shade, but an animated body. - -[265] _Thy peace_: Peace from all the doubts that assail him, and which -have compelled him to the journey: peace, it may be, from temptation to -sin cognate to her own. Even in the gloom of Inferno her great -goodheartedness is left her--a consolation, if not a grace. - -[266] _Your demand_: By a refinement of courtesy, Francesca, though -addressing only Dante, includes Virgil in her profession of willingness -to tell all they care to hear. But as almost always, he remains silent. -It is not for his good the journey is being made. - -[267] _Native city_: Ravenna. The speaker is Francesca, daughter of -Guido of Polenta, lord of Ravenna. About the year 1275 she was married -to Gianciotto (Deformed John) Malatesta, son of the lord of Rimini; the -marriage, like most of that time in the class to which she belonged, -being one of political convenience. She allowed her affections to settle -on Paolo, her husband's handsome brother; and Gianciotto's suspicions -having been aroused, he surprised the lovers and slew them on the spot. -This happened at Pesaro. The association of Francesca's name with Rimini -is merely accidental. The date of her death is not known. Dante can -never have set eyes on Francesca; but at the battle of Campaldino in -1289, where he was present, a troop of cavaliers from Pistoia fought on -the Florentine side under the command of her brother Bernardino; and in -the following year, Dante being then twenty-five years of age, her -father, Guido, was Podesta in Florence. The Guido of Polenta, lord of -Ravenna, whom Dante had for his last and most generous patron, was -grandson of that elder Guido, and nephew of Francesca. - -[268] _To have lost it so_: A husband's right and duty were too well -defined in the prevalent social code for her to complain that Gianciotto -avenged himself. What she does resent is that she was left no -breathing-space for repentance and farewells. - -[269] _Which absolves, etc._: Which compels whoever is beloved to love -in return. Here is the key to Dante's comparatively lenient estimate of -the guilt of Francesca's sin. See line 39, and _Inf._ xi. 83. The Church -allowed no distinctions with regard to the lost. Dante, for his own -purposes, invents a scale of guilt; and in settling the degrees of it he -is greatly influenced by human feeling--sometimes by private likes and -dislikes. The vestibule of the caitiffs, _e.g._, is his own creation. - -[270] _Caina_: The Division of the Ninth and lowest Circle, assigned to -those treacherous to their kindred (_Inf._ xxxii. 58). Her husband was -still living in 1300.--May not the words of this line be spoken by -Paolo? It is as a fratricide even more than as the slayer of his wife -that Gianciotto is to find his place in Caina. The words are more in -keeping with the masculine than the feminine character. They certainly -jar somewhat with the gentler censure of line 102. And, immediately -after, Dante speaks of what the 'souls' have said. - -[271] _Thy teacher_: Boethius, one of Dante's favourite authors -(_Convito_ ii. 13), says in his _De Consol. Phil._, 'The greatest misery -in adverse fortune is once to have been happy.' But, granting that Dante -found the idea in Boethius, it is clearly Virgil that Francesca means. -She sees that Dante's guide is a shade, and gathers from his grave -passionless aspect that he is one condemned for ever to look back with -futile regret upon his happier past. - -[272] _Lancelot_: King Arthur's famous knight, who was too bashful to -make his love for Queen Guinivere known to her. Galahad, holding the -secret of both, persuaded the Queen to make the first declaration of -love at a meeting he arranged for between them. Her smile, or laugh, as -she 'took Lancelot by the chin and kissed him,' assured her lover of his -conquest. The Arthurian Romances were the favourite reading of the -Italian nobles of Dante's time. - -[273] _Galahad_: From the part played by Galahad, or Galeotto, in the -tale of Lancelot, his name grew to be Italian for Pander. The book, says -Francesca, was that which tells of Galahad; and the author of it proved -a very Galahad to us. The early editions of the _Decameron_ bear the -second title of 'The Prince Galeotto.' - - - - -CANTO VI. - - - When I regained my senses, which had fled - At my compassion for the kindred two, - Which for pure sorrow quite had turned my head, - New torments and a crowd of sufferers new - I see around me as I move again,[274] - Where'er I turn, where'er I bend my view. - In the Third Circle am I of the rain - Which, heavy, cold, eternal, big with woe, - Doth always of one kind and force remain. - Large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow, 10 - Keep pouring down athwart the murky air; - And from the ground they fall on, stenches grow. - The savage Cerberus,[275] a monster drear, - Howls from his threefold throat with canine cries - Above the people who are whelmed there. - Oily and black his beard, and red his eyes, - His belly huge: claws from his fingers sprout. - The shades he flays, hooks, rends in cruel wise. - Beat by the rain these, dog-like, yelp and shout, - And shield themselves in turn with either side; 20 - And oft[276] the wretched sinners turn about. - When we by Cerberus, great worm,[277] were spied, - He oped his mouths and all his fangs he showed, - While not a limb did motionless abide. - My Leader having spread his hands abroad, - Filled both his fists with earth ta'en from the ground, - And down the ravening gullets flung the load. - Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound, - But is appeased when at his meat he gnaws, - And, worrying it, forgets all else around; 30 - So with those filthy faces there it was - Of the fiend Cerberus, who deafs the crowd - Of souls till they from hearing fain would pause. - We, travelling o'er the spirits who lay cowed - And sorely by the grievous showers harassed, - Upon their semblances[278] of bodies trod. - Prone on the ground the whole of them were cast, - Save one of them who sat upright with speed - When he beheld that near to him we passed. - 'O thou who art through this Inferno led,[279] 40 - Me if thou canst,' he asked me, 'recognise; - For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.' - And I to him: 'Thy present tortured guise - Perchance hath blurred my memory of thy face, - Until it seems I ne'er on thee set eyes. - But tell me who thou art, within this place - So cruel set, exposed to such a pain, - Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.' - And he: 'Thy city, swelling with the bane - Of envy till the sack is running o'er, 50 - Me in the life serene did once contain. - As Ciacco[280] me your citizens named of yore; - And for the damning sin of gluttony - I, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower. - No solitary woful soul am I, - For all of these endure the selfsame doom - For the same fault.' Here ended his reply. - I answered him, 'O Ciacco, with such gloom - Thy misery weighs me, I to weep am prone; - But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come 60 - The citizens[281] of the divided town. - Holds it one just man? And declare the cause - Why 'tis of discord such a victim grown.' - Then he to me: 'After[282] contentious pause - Blood will be spilt; the boorish party[283] then - Will chase the others forth with grievous loss. - The former it behoves to fall again - Within three suns, the others to ascend, - Holpen[284] by him whose wiles ere now are plain. - Long time, with heads held high, they'll make to bend - The other party under burdens dire, 71 - Howe'er themselves in tears and rage they spend. - There are two just[285] men, at whom none inquire. - Envy, and pride, and avarice, even these - Are the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.' - With this the tearful sound he made to cease: - And I to him, 'Yet would I have thee tell-- - And of thy speech do thou the gift increase-- - Tegghiaio[286] and Farinata, honourable, - James Rusticucci,[287] Mosca, Arrigo, 80 - With all the rest so studious to excel - In good; where are they? Help me this to know; - Great hunger for the news hath seized me; - Delights them Heaven, or tortures Hell below?' - He said: 'Among the blackest souls they be; - Them to the bottom weighs another sin. - Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see. - But when[288] the sweet world thou again dost win, - I pray thee bring me among men to mind; - No more I tell, nor new reply begin.' 90 - Then his straightforward eyes askance declined; - He looked at me a moment ere his head - He bowed; then fell flat 'mong the other blind. - 'Henceforth he waketh not,' my Leader said, - 'Till he shall hear the angel's trumpet sound, - Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shade - Its dismal sepulchre shall then be found, - Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume, - And list[289] what echoes in eternal round.' - So passed we where the shades and rainy spume 100 - Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow; - Touching a little on the world to come.[290] - Wherefore I said: 'Master, shall torments grow - After the awful sentence hath been heard, - Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?' - 'Repair unto thy Science,'[291] was his word; - 'Which tells, as things approach a perfect state - To keener joy or suffering they are stirred. - Therefore although this people cursed by fate - Ne'er find perfection in its full extent, 110 - To it they then shall more approximate - Than now.'[292] Our course we round the circle bent, - Still holding speech, of which I nothing say, - Until we came where down the pathway went: - There found we Plutus, the great enemy. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[274] _As I move again_: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the -Second Circle down to the Third. - -[275] _Cerberus_: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of -the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his -three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately -set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and -wine-bibbers. - -[276] _And oft, etc._: On entering the circle the shades are seized and -torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated -as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be -subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, -touch, and smell are assailed by the opposite of what they were most -used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts. - -[277] _Great worm_: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so -called as being a disgusting brute. - -[278] _Semblances, etc._: 'Emptiness which seems to be a person.' To -this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has -difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with -the sleet to make a sludgy mass; and cannot therefore be impalpable. - -[279] Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante's tread that he is -a living man. - -[280] _Ciacco_: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his -day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though -poor, Ciacco associated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as -ate and drank delicately. In the _Decameron_, ix. 8, he is introduced as -being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose -himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his -pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial -surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not -quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim. - -[281] _The citizens, etc._: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics -with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno. - -[282] _After, etc._: In the following nine lines the party history of -Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is -roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions--the Whites, -led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso -Donati, a poor and turbulent noble. At the close of 1300 there was a -bloody encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In -May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they -returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and -got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of -the poet's talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was associated with the -Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong -politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June -till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course -of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an embassy to Rome to persuade -the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never -entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in -January 1302. - -[283] _The boorish party_: _la parte selvaggia_. The Whites; but what is -exactly meant by _selvaggia_ is not clear. Literally it is 'woodland,' -and some say it refers to the Cerchi having originally come from a -well-wooded district; which is absurd. Nor, taking the word in its -secondary meaning of savage, does it apply better to one party than -another--not so well, perhaps, to the Whites as to the Blacks. Villani -also terms the Cerchi _salvatichi_ (viii. 39), and in a connection where -it may mean rude, ill-mannered. I take it that Dante here indulges in a -gibe at the party to which he once belonged, but which, ere he began the -_Comedy_, he had quite broken with. In _Parad._ xvii. 62 he terms the -members of it 'wicked and stupid.' The sneer in the text would come well -enough from the witty and soft-living Ciacco. - -[284] _Holpen, etc._: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the -preponderance in Florence, which for a time he enjoyed, with the greedy -and faithless Charles of Valois for his agent. - -[285] _Two just_: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts -from himself any blame for the evil turn things had taken in Florence. -How thoroughly he had broken with his party ere he wrote this is proved -by his exclusion of the irresolute but respectable Vieri dei Cerchi from -the number of the just men. He, in Dante's judgment, was only too much -listened to.--It will be borne in mind that, at the time assigned to the -action of the _Comedy_, Dante was still resident in Florence. - -[286] _Tegghiaio_: See _Inf._ xvi. 42. _Farinata_: _Inf._ x. 32. - -[287] _Rusticucci_: _Inf._ xvi. 44. _Mosca_: _Inf._ xxviii. 106. -_Arrigo_: Cannot be identified. All these distinguished Florentines we -may assume to have been hospitable patrons of Ciacco's. - -[288] _But when, etc._: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed -to Dante. The shades in Purgatory ask to have their friends on earth -stirred to offer up petitions for their speedy purification and -deliverance; but the only alleviation possible for the doomed spirits is -to know that they are not yet forgotten up in the 'sweet world.' A -double artistic purpose is served by representing them as feeling thus. -It relieves the mind to think that in such misery there is any source of -comfort at all. And by making them be still interested on their own -account in the thoughts of men, the eager colloquies in which they -engage with Dante on such unequal terms gain in verisimilitude. - -[289] _And list, etc._: The final sentence against them is to echo, in -its results, through all eternity. - -[290] _The world to come_: The life after doomsday. - -[291] _Thy Science_: To Aristotle. In the _Convito_, iv. 16, he quotes -'the Philosopher' as teaching that 'everything is then at its full -perfection when it thoroughly fulfils its special functions.' - -[292] _Than now_: Augustine says that 'after the resurrection of the -flesh the joys of the blessed and the sufferings of the wicked will be -enhanced.' And, according to Thomas Aquinas, 'the soul, without the -body, is wanting in the perfection designed for it by Nature.' - - - - -CANTO VII. - - - Pape[293] Satan! Pape Satan! Aleppe! - Plutus[294] began in accents rough and hard: - And that mild Sage, all-knowing, said to me, - For my encouragement: 'Pay no regard - Unto thy fear; whatever power he sways - Thy passage down this cliff shall not be barred.' - Then turning round to that inflamed face - He bade: 'Accursed wolf,[295] at peace remain; - And, pent within thee, let thy fury blaze. - Down to the pit we journey not in vain: 10 - So rule they where by Michael in Heaven's height - On the adulterous pride[296] was vengeance ta'en.' - Then as the bellied sails, by wind swelled tight, - Suddenly drag whenever snaps the mast; - Such, falling to the ground, the monster's plight. - To the Fourth Cavern so we downward passed, - Winning new reaches of the doleful shore - Where all the vileness of the world is cast. - Justice of God! which pilest more and more - Pain as I saw, and travail manifold! 20 - Why will we sin, to be thus wasted sore? - As at Charybdis waves are forward rolled - To break on other billows midway met, - The people here a counterdance must hold. - A greater crowd than I had seen as yet, - With piercing yells advanced on either track, - Rolling great stones to which their chests were set. - They crashed together, and then each turned back - Upon the way he came, while shouts arise, - 'Why clutch it so?' and 'Why to hold it slack?' 30 - In the dark circle wheeled they on this wise - From either hand to the opposing part, - Where evermore they raised insulting cries. - Thither arrived, each, turning, made fresh start - Through the half circle[297] a new joust to run; - And I, stung almost to the very heart, - Said, 'O my Master, wilt thou make it known - Who the folk are? Were these all clerks[298] who go - Before us on the left, with shaven crown?' - And he replied: 'All of them squinted so 40 - In mental vision while in life they were, - They nothing spent by rule. And this they show, - And with their yelping voices make appear - When half-way round the circle they have sped, - And sins opposing them asunder tear. - Each wanting thatch of hair upon his head - Was once a clerk, or pope, or cardinal, - In whom abound the ripest growths of greed.' - And I: 'O Master, surely among all - Of these I ought[299] some few to recognise, 50 - Who by such filthy sins were held in thrall.' - And he to me: 'Vain thoughts within thee rise; - Their witless life, which made them vile, now mocks-- - Dimming[300] their faces still--all searching eyes. - Eternally they meet with hostile shocks; - These rising from the tomb at last shall stand - With tight clenched fists, and those with ruined locks.[301] - Squandering or hoarding, they the happy land[302] - Have lost, and now are marshalled for this fray; - Which to describe doth no fine words demand. 60 - Know hence, my Son, how fleeting is the play - Of goods at the dispose of Fortune thrown, - And which mankind to such fierce strife betray. - Not all the gold which is beneath the moon - Could purchase peace, nor all that ever was, - To but one soul of these by toil undone.' - 'Master,' I said, 'tell thou, ere making pause, - Who Fortune is of whom thou speak'st askance, - Who holds all worldly riches in her claws.'[303] - 'O foolish creatures, lost in ignorance!' 70 - He answer made. 'Now see that the reply - Thou store, which I concerning her advance. - He who in knowledge is exalted high, - Framing[304] all Heavens gave such as should them guide, - That so each part might shine to all; whereby - Is equal light diffused on every side: - And likewise to one guide and governor, - Of worldly splendours did control confide, - That she in turns should different peoples dower 79 - With this vain good; from blood should make it pass - To blood, in spite of human wit. Hence, power, - Some races failing,[305] other some amass, - According to her absolute decree - Which hidden lurks, like serpent in the grass. - Vain 'gainst her foresight yours must ever be. - She makes provision, judges, holds her reign, - As doth his power supreme each deity. - Her permutations can no truce sustain; - Necessity[306] compels her to be swift, - So swift they follow who their turn must gain. 90 - And this is she whom they so often[307] lift - Upon the cross, who ought to yield her praise; - And blame on her and scorn unjustly shift. - But she is blest nor hears what any says, - With other primal creatures turns her sphere, - Jocund and glad, rejoicing in her ways. - To greater woe now let us downward steer. - The stars[308] which rose when I began to guide - Are falling now, nor may we linger here.' - We crossed the circle to the other side, 100 - Arriving where a boiling fountain fell - Into a brooklet by its streams supplied. - In depth of hue the flood did perse[309] excel, - And we, with this dim stream to lead us on, - Descended by a pathway terrible. - A marsh which by the name of Styx is known, - Fed by this gloomy brook, lies at the base - Of threatening cliffs hewn out of cold grey stone. - And I, intent on study of the place,[310] - Saw people in that ditch, mud-smeared. In it 110 - All naked stood with anger-clouded face. - Nor with their fists alone each fiercely hit - The other, but with feet and chest and head, - And with their teeth to shreds each other bit. - 'Son, now behold,' the worthy Master said, - 'The souls of those whom anger made a prize; - And, further, I would have thee certified - That 'neath the water people utter sighs, - And make the bubbles to the surface come; - As thou mayst see by casting round thine eyes. 120 - Fixed in the mud they say: "We lived in gloom[311] - In the sweet air made jocund by the day, - Nursing within us melancholy fume. - In this black mud we now our gloom display." - This hymn with gurgling throats they strive to sound, - Which they in speech unbroken fail to say.' - And thus about the loathsome pool we wound - For a wide arc, between the dry and soft, - With eyes on those who gulp the filth, turned round. - At last we reached a tower that soared aloft. 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[293] _Pape, etc._: These words have exercised the ingenuity of many -scholars, who on the whole lean to the opinion that they contain an -appeal to Satan against the invasion of his domain. Virgil seems to have -understood them, but the text leaves it doubtful whether Dante himself -did. Later on, but there with an obvious purpose, we find a line of pure -gibberish (_Inf._ xxxi. 67). - -[294] _Plutus_: The god of riches; degraded here into a demon. He guards -the Fourth Circle, which is that of the misers and spendthrifts. - -[295] _Wolf_: Frequently used by Dante as symbolical of greed. - -[296] _Pride_: Which in its way was a kind of greed--that of dominion. -Similarly, the avarice represented by the wolf of Canto i. was seen to -be the lust of aggrandisement. Virgil here answers Plutus's (supposed) -appeal to Satan by referring to the higher Power, under whose protection -he and his companion come. - -[297] _The half circle_: This Fourth Circle is divided half-way round -between the misers and spendthrifts, and the two bands at set periods -clash against one another in their vain effort to pass into the section -belonging to the opposite party. Their condition is emblematical of -their sins while in life. They were one-sided in their use of wealth; so -here they can never complete the circle. The monotony of their -employment and of their cries represents their subjection to one idea, -and, as in life, so now, their displeasure is excited by nothing so much -as by coming into contact with the failing opposite to their own. Yet -they are set in the same circle because the sin of both arose from -inordinate desire of wealth, the miser craving it to hoard, and the -spendthrift to spend. In Purgatory also they are placed together (see -_Purg._ xxii. 40). So, on Dante's scheme, liberality is allied to and -dependent on a wise and reasonable frugality.--There is no hint of the -enormous length of the course run by these shades. Far lower down, when -the circles of the Inferno have greatly narrowed, the circuit is -twenty-two miles (_Inf._ xxix. 9). - -[298] _Clerks_: Churchmen. The tonsure is the sign that a man is of -ecclesiastical condition. Many took the tonsure who never became -priests. - -[299] _I ought, etc._: Dante is astonished that he can pick out no -greedy priest or friar of his acquaintance, when he had known so many. - -[300] _Dimming, etc._: Their original disposition is by this time -smothered by the predominance of greed. Dante treats these sinners with -a special contemptuous bitterness. Scores of times since he became -dependent on the generosity of others he must have watched how at a bare -hint the faces of miser and spendthrift fell, while their eyes travelled -vaguely beyond him, and their voices grew cold. - -[301] _Ruined locks_: 'A spendthrift will spend his very hair,' says an -Italian proverb. - -[302] _The happy land_: Heaven. - -[303] _Her claws_: Dante speaks of Fortune as if she were a brutal and -somewhat malicious power. In Virgil's answer there is a refutation of -the opinion of Fortune given by Dante himself, in the _Convito_ (iv. -11). After describing three ways in which the goods of Fortune come to -men he says: 'In each of these three ways her injustice is manifest.' -This part of the _Convito_ Fraticelli seems almost to prove was written -in 1297. - -[304] _Framing, etc._: According to the scholastic theory of the world, -each of the nine heavens was directed in its motion by intelligences, -called angels by the vulgar, and by the heathen, gods (_Convito_ ii. 5). -As these spheres and the influences they exercise on human affairs are -under the guidance of divinely-appointed ministers, so, Virgil says, is -the distribution of worldly wealth ruled by Providence through Fortune. - -[305] _Some races failing_: It was long believed, nor is the belief -quite obsolete, that one community can gain only at the expense of -another. Sir Thomas Browne says: 'All cannot be happy at once; for -because the glory of one state depends upon the ruin of another, there -is a revolution and vicissitude of their greatness, and all must obey -the swing of that wheel, not moved by intelligences, but by the hand of -God, whereby all states arise to their zeniths and vertical points -according to their predestinated periods.'--_Rel. Med._ i. 17. - -[306] _Necessity, etc._: Suggested, perhaps, by Horace's _Te semper -anteit saeva necessitas_ (_Od._ i. 35). The question of how men can be -free in the face of necessity, here associated with Fortune, more than -once emerges in the _Comedy_. Dante's belief on the subject was -substantially that of his favourite author Boethius, who holds that -ultimately 'it is Providence that turns the wheel of all things;' and -who says, that 'if you spread your sails to the wind you will be -carried, not where you would, but whither you are driven by the gale: if -you choose to commit yourself to Fortune, you must endure the manners of -your mistress.' - -[307] _Whom they so often, etc._: Treat with contumely. - -[308] _The stars, etc._: It is now past midnight, and towards the -morning of Saturday, the 26th of March 1300. Only a few hours have been -employed as yet upon the journey. - -[309] _Perse_: 'Perse is a colour between purple and black, but the -black predominates' (_Conv._ iv. 20). The hue of the waters of Styx -agrees with the gloomy temper of the sinners plunged in them. - -[310] _The place_: They are now in the Fifth Circle, where the wrathful -are punished. - -[311] _In gloom_: These submerged spirits are, according to the older -commentators, the slothful--those guilty of the sin of slackness in the -pursuit of good, as, _e.g._ neglect of the means of grace. This is, -theologically speaking, the sin directly opposed to the active grace of -charity. By more modern critics it has been ingeniously sought to find -in this circle a place not only for the slothful but for the proud and -envious as well. To each of these classes of sinners--such of them as -have repented in this life--a terrace of Purgatory is assigned, and at -first sight it does seem natural to expect that the impenitent among -them should be found in Inferno. But, while in Purgatory souls purge -themselves of every kind of mortal sin, Inferno, as Dante conceived of -it, contains only such sinners as have been guilty of wicked acts. Drift -and bent of heart and mind are taken no account of. The evil seed must -have borne a harvest, and the guilt of every victim of Justice must be -plain and open. Now, pride and envy are sins indeed, but sins that a man -may keep to himself. If they have betrayed the subject of them into the -commission of crimes, in those crimes they are punished lower down, as -is indicated at xii. 49. And so we find that Lucifer is condemned as a -traitor, though his treachery sprang from envy: the greater guilt -includes the less. For sluggishness in the pursuit of good the vestibule -of the caitiffs seems the appropriate place.--There are two kinds of -wrath. One is vehement, and declares itself in violent acts; the other -does not blaze out, but is grudging and adverse to all social good--the -wrath that is nursed. One as much as the other affects behaviour. So in -this circle, as in the preceding, we have represented the two excesses -of one sin.--Dante's theory of sins is ably treated of in Witte's -_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 121. - - - - -CANTO VIII. - - - I say, continuing,[312] that long before - To its foundations we approached nigh - Our eyes went travelling to the top of the tower; - For, hung out there, two flames[313] we could espy. - Then at such distance, scarce our eyesight made - It clearly out, another gave reply. - And, to the Sea of Knowledge turned, I said: - 'What meaneth this? and what reply would yield - That other light, and who have it displayed?' - 'Thou shouldst upon the impure watery field,' 10 - He said, 'already what approaches know, - But that the fen-fog holds it still concealed.' - Never was arrow yet from sharp-drawn bow - Urged through the air upon a swifter flight - Than what I saw a tiny vessel show, - Across the water shooting into sight; - A single pilot served it for a crew, - Who shouted: 'Art thou come, thou guilty sprite?'[314] - 'O Phlegyas, Phlegyas,[315] this thy loud halloo! - For once,' my Lord said, 'idle is and vain. 20 - Thou hast us only till the mud we're through.' - And, as one cheated inly smarts with pain - When the deceit wrought on him is betrayed, - His gathering ire could Phlegyas scarce contain. - Into the bark my Leader stepped, and made - Me take my place beside him; nor a jot, - Till I had entered, was it downward weighed. - Soon as my Guide and I were in the boat, - To cleave the flood began the ancient prow, - Deeper[316] than 'tis with others wont to float. 30 - Then, as the stagnant ditch we glided through, - One smeared with filth in front of me arose - And said: 'Thus coming ere thy period,[317] who - Art thou?' And I: 'As one who forthwith goes - I come; but thou defiled, how name they thee?' - 'I am but one who weeps,'[318] he said. 'With woes,' - I answered him, 'with tears and misery, - Accursed soul, remain; for thou art known - Unto me now, all filthy though thou be.' - Then both his hands were on the vessel thrown; 40 - But him my wary Master backward heaved, - Saying: 'Do thou 'mong the other dogs be gone!' - Then to my neck with both his arms he cleaved, - And kissed my face, and, 'Soul disdainful,'[319] said, - 'O blessed she in whom thou wast conceived! - He in the world great haughtiness displayed. - No deeds of worth his memory adorn; - And therefore rages here his sinful shade. - And many are there by whom crowns are worn - On earth, shall wallow here like swine in mire, 50 - Leaving behind them names o'erwhelmed[320] in scorn.' - And I: 'O Master, I have great desire - To see him well soused in this filthy tide, - Ere from the lake we finally retire.' - And he: 'Or ever shall have been descried - The shore by thee, thy longing shall be met; - For such a wish were justly gratified.' - A little after in such fierce onset - The miry people down upon him bore, - I praise and bless God for it even yet. 60 - 'Philip Argenti![321] at him!' was the roar; - And then that furious spirit Florentine - Turned with his teeth upon himself and tore. - Here was he left, nor wins more words of mine. - Now in my ears a lamentation rung, - Whence I to search what lies ahead begin. - And the good Master told me: 'Son, ere long - We to the city called of Dis[322] draw near, - Where in great armies cruel burghers[323] throng.' - And I: 'Already, Master, I appear 70 - Mosques[324] in the valley to distinguish well, - Vermilion, as if they from furnace were - Fresh come.' And he: 'Fires everlasting dwell - Within them, whence appear they glowing hot, - As thou discernest in this lower hell.' - We to the moat profound at length were brought, - Which girds that city all disconsolate; - The walls around it seemed of iron wrought. - Not without fetching first a compass great, - We came to where with angry cry at last: 80 - 'Get out,' the boatman yelled; 'behold the gate!'[325] - More than a thousand, who from Heaven[326] were cast, - I saw above the gates, who furiously - Demanded: 'Who, ere death on him has passed, - Holds through the region of the dead his way?' - And my wise Master made to them a sign - That he had something secretly to say. - Then ceased they somewhat from their great disdain, - And said: 'Come thou, but let that one be gone - Who thus presumptuous enters on this reign. 90 - Let him retrace his madcap way alone, - If he but can; thou meanwhile lingering here, - Through such dark regions who hast led him down.' - Judge, reader, if I was not filled with fear, - Hearing the words of this accursed threat; - For of return my hopes extinguished were. - 'Beloved Guide, who more than seven times[327] set - Me in security, and safely brought - Through frightful dangers in my progress met, - Leave me not thus undone;' I him besought: 100 - 'If further progress be to us denied, - Let us retreat together, tarrying not.' - The Lord who led me thither then replied: - 'Fear not: by One so great has been assigned - Our passage, vainly were all hindrance tried. - Await me here, and let thy fainting mind - Be comforted and with good hope be fed, - Not to be left in this low world behind.' - Thus goes he, thus am I abandoned - By my sweet Father. I in doubt remain, 110 - With Yes and No[328] contending in my head. - I could not hear what speech he did maintain, - But no long time conferred he in that place, - Till, to be first, all inward raced again. - And then the gates were closed in my Lord's face - By these our enemies; outside stood he; - Then backward turned to me with lingering pace, - With downcast eyes, and all the bravery - Stripped from his brows; and he exclaimed with sighs; - 'Who dare[329] deny the doleful seats to me!' 120 - And then he said: 'Although my wrath arise, - Fear not, for I to victory will pursue, - Howe'er within they plot, the enterprise. - This arrogance of theirs is nothing new; - They showed it[330] once at a less secret door - Which stands unbolted since. Thou didst it view, - And saw the dark-writ legend which it bore. - Thence, even now, is one who hastens down - Through all the circles, guideless, to this shore, - And he shall win us entrance to the town.' 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[312] _Continuing_: The account of the Fifth Circle, begun in the -preceding Canto, is continued in this. It is impossible to adopt -Boccaccio's story of how the first seven Cantos were found among a heap -of other papers, years after Dante's exile began; and that 'continuing' -marks the resumption of his work. The word most probably suggested the -invention of the incident, or at least led to the identification of some -manuscript that may have been sent to Dante, with the opening pages of -the _Comedy_. If the tale were true, not only must Ciacco's prophecy -(_Inf._ vi.) have been interpolated, but we should be obliged to hold -that Dante began the poem while he was a prosperous citizen.--Boccaccio -himself in his Comment on the _Comedy_ points out the difficulty of -reconciling the story with Ciacco's prophecy. - -[313] _Two flames_: Denoting the number of passengers who are to be -conveyed across the Stygian pool. It is a signal for the ferryman, and -is answered by a light hung out on the battlements of the city of Dis. - -[314] _Guilty sprite_: Only one is addressed; whether Virgil or Dante is -not clear. - -[315] _Phlegyas_: Who burnt the temple of Apollo at Delphi in revenge -for the violation of his daughter by the god. - -[316] _Deeper, etc._: Because used to carry only shades. - -[317] _Ere thy period_: The curiosity of the shade is excited by the -sinking of the boat in the water. He assumes that Dante will one day be -condemned to Inferno. Neither Francesca nor Ciacco made a like mistake. - -[318] _One who weeps_: He is ashamed to tell his name, and hopes in his -vile disguise to remain unknown by Dante, whose Florentine speech and -dress, and perhaps whose features, he has now recognised. - -[319] _Soul disdainful_: Dante has been found guilty of here glorying in -the same sin which he so severely reprobates in others. But, without -question, of set purpose he here contrasts righteous indignation with -the ignoble rage punished in this circle. With his quick temper and zeal -so often kindling into flame, he may have felt a special personal need -of emphasising the distinction. - -[320] _Names o'erwhelmed, etc._: 'Horrible reproaches.' - -[321] _Philip Argenti_: A Florentine gentleman related to the great -family of the Adimari, and a contemporary of Dante's. Boccaccio in his -commentary describes him as a cavalier, very rich, and so ostentatious -that he once shod his horse with silver, whence his surname. In the -_Decameron_ (ix. 8) he is introduced as violently assaulting--tearing -out his hair and dragging him in the mire--the victim of a practical -joke played by the Ciacco of Canto vi. Some, without reason, suppose -that Dante shows such severity to him because he was a Black, and so a -political opponent of his own. - -[322] _Dis_: A name of Pluto, the god of the infernal regions. - -[323] _Burghers_: The city of Dis composes the Sixth Circle, and, as -immediately appears, is populated by demons. The sinners punished in it -are not mentioned at all in this Canto, and it seems more reasonable to -apply _burghers_ to the demons than to the shades. They are called -_gravi_, generally taken to mean sore burdened, and the description is -then applicable to the shades; but _grave_ also bears the sense of -cruel, and may describe the fierceness of the devils. Though the city is -inhabited by the subjects of Dis, he is found as Lucifer at the very -bottom of the pit. By some critics the whole of the lower Inferno, all -that lies beyond this point, is regarded as being the city of Dis. But -it is the Sixth Circle, with its minarets, that is the city; its walls, -however, serving as bulwarks for all the lower Inferno. The shape of the -city is, of course, that of a circular belt. Here it may be noted that -the Fifth and Sixth Circles are on the same level; the water of Styx, -which as a marsh covers the Fifth, is gathered into a moat to surround -the walls of the Sixth. - -[324] _Mosques_: The feature of an Infidel city that first struck -crusader and pilgrim. - -[325] _The gate_: They have floated across the stagnant marsh into the -deeper waters of the moat, and up to the gate where Phlegyas is used to -land his passengers. It may be a question whether his services are -required for all who are doomed to the lower Inferno, or only for those -bound to the city. - -[326] _From Heaven_: 'Rained from Heaven.' Fallen angels. - -[327] _Seven times_: Given as a round number. - -[328] _Yes and No_: He will return--He will not return. The demons have -said that Virgil shall remain, and he has promised Dante not to desert -him. - -[329] _Who dare, etc._: Virgil knows the hindrance is only temporary, -but wonders what superior devilish power can have incited the demons to -deny him entrance. The incident displays the fallen angels as being -still rebellious, and is at the same time skilfully conceived to mark a -pause before Dante enters on the lower Inferno. - -[330] _They showed it, etc._: At the gate of Inferno, on the occasion of -Christ's descent to Limbo. The reference is to the words in the Missal -service for Easter Eve: 'This is the night in which, having burst the -bonds of death, Christ victoriously ascended from Hell.' - - - - -CANTO IX. - - - The hue which cowardice on my face did paint - When I beheld my guide return again, - Put his new colour[331] quicker 'neath restraint. - Like one who listens did he fixed remain; - For far to penetrate the air like night, - And heavy mist, the eye was bent in vain. - 'Yet surely we must vanquish in the fight;' - Thus he, 'unless[332]--but with such proffered aid-- - O how I weary till he come in sight!' - Well I remarked how he transition made, 10 - Covering his opening words with those behind, - Which contradicted what at first he said. - Nath'less his speech with terror charged my mind, - For, haply, to the word which broken fell - Worse meaning than he purposed, I assigned. - Down to this bottom[333] of the dismal shell - Comes ever any from the First Degree,[334] - Where all their pain is, stripped of hope to dwell? - To this my question thus responded he: - 'Seldom it haps to any to pursue 20 - The journey now embarked upon by me. - Yet I ere this descended, it is true, - Beneath a spell of dire Erichtho's[335] laid, - Who could the corpse with soul inform anew. - Short while my flesh of me was empty made - When she required me to o'erpass that wall, - From Judas' circle[336] to abstract a shade. - That is the deepest, darkest place of all, - And furthest from the heaven[337] which moves the skies; - I know the way; fear nought that can befall. 30 - These fens[338] from which vile exhalations rise - The doleful city all around invest, - Which now we reach not save in angry wise.' - Of more he spake nought in my mind doth rest, - For, with mine eyes, my every thought had been - Fixed on the lofty tower with flaming crest, - Where, in a moment and upright, were seen - Three hellish furies, all with blood defaced, - And woman-like in members and in mien. - Hydras of brilliant green begirt their waist; 40 - Snakes and cerastes for their tresses grew, - And these were round their dreadful temples braced. - That they the drudges were, full well he knew, - Of her who is the queen of endless woes, - And said to me: 'The fierce Erynnyes[339] view! - Herself upon the left Megaera shows; - That is Alecto weeping on the right; - Tisiphone's between.' Here made he close. - Each with her nails her breast tore, and did smite - Herself with open palms. They screamed in tone 50 - So fierce, I to the Poet clove for fright. - 'Medusa,[340] come, that we may make him stone!' - All shouted as they downward gazed; 'Alack! - Theseus[341] escaped us when he ventured down.' - 'Keep thine eyes closed and turn to them thy back, - For if the Gorgon chance to be displayed - And thou shouldst look, farewell the upward track!' - Thus spake the Master, and himself he swayed - Me round about; nor put he trust in mine - But his own hands upon mine eyelids laid. 60 - O ye with judgment gifted to divine - Look closely now, and mark what hidden lore - Lies 'neath the veil of my mysterious line![342] - Across the turbid waters came a roar - And crash of sound, which big with fear arose: - Because of it fell trembling either shore. - The fashion of it was as when there blows - A blast by cross heats made to rage amain, - Which smites the forest and without repose - The shattered branches sweeps in hurricane; 70 - In clouds of dust, majestic, onward flies, - Wild beasts and herdsmen driving o'er the plain. - 'Sharpen thy gaze,' he bade--and freed mine eyes-- - 'Across the foam-flecked immemorial lake, - Where sourest vapour most unbroken lies.' - And as the frogs before the hostile snake - Together of the water get them clear, - And on the dry ground, huddling, shelter take; - More than a thousand ruined souls in fear - Beheld I flee from one who, dry of feet, 80 - Was by the Stygian ferry drawing near. - Waving his left hand he the vapour beat - Swiftly from 'fore his face, nor seemed he spent - Save with fatigue at having this to meet. - Well I opined that he from Heaven[343] was sent, - And to my Master turned. His gesture taught - I should be dumb and in obeisance bent. - Ah me, how with disdain appeared he fraught! - He reached the gate, which, touching with a rod,[344] - He oped with ease, for it resisted not. 90 - 'People despised and banished far from God,' - Upon the awful threshold then he spoke, - 'How holds in you such insolence abode? - Why kick against that will which never broke - Short of its end, if ever it begin, - And often for you fiercer torments woke? - Butting 'gainst fate, what can ye hope to win? - Your Cerberus,[345] as is to you well known, - Still bears for this a well-peeled throat and chin.' - Then by the passage foul he back was gone, 100 - Nor spake to us, but like a man was he - By other cares[346] absorbed and driven on - Than that of those who may around him be. - And we, confiding in the sacred word, - Moved toward the town in all security. - We entered without hindrance, and I, spurred - By my desire the character to know - And style of place such strong defences gird, - Entering, begin mine eyes around to throw, - And see on every hand a vast champaign, 110 - The teeming seat of torments and of woe. - And as at Arles[347] where Rhone spreads o'er the plain, - Or Pola,[348] hard upon Quarnaro sound - Which bathes the boundaries Italian, - The sepulchres uneven make the ground; - So here on every side, but far more dire - And grievous was the fashion of them found. - For scattered 'mid the tombs blazed many a fire, - Because of which these with such fervour burned - No arts which work in iron more require. 120 - All of the lids were lifted. I discerned - By keen laments which from the tombs arose - That sad and suffering ones were there inurned. - I said: 'O Master, tell me who are those - Buried within the tombs, of whom the sighs - Come to our ears thus eloquent of woes?' - And he to me: 'The lords of heresies[349] - With followers of all sects, a greater band - Than thou wouldst think, these sepulchres comprise. - To lodge them like to like the tombs are planned. 130 - The sepulchres have more or less of heat.'[350] - Then passed we, turning to the dexter hand,[351] - 'Tween torments and the lofty parapet. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[331] _New colour_: Both have changed colour, Virgil in anger and Dante -in fear. - -[332] _Unless_: To conceal his misgiving from Dante, Virgil refrains -from expressing all his thought. The 'unless' may refer to what the -lying demons had told him or threatened him with; the 'proffered aid,' -to that involved in Beatrice's request. - -[333] _This bottom_: The lower depths of Inferno. How much still lies -below him is unknown to Dante. - -[334] _First Degree_: The limbo where Virgil resides. Dante by an -indirect question, seeks to learn how much experience of Inferno is -possessed by his guide. - -[335] _Erichtho_: A Thessalian sorceress, of whom Lucan (_Pharsalia_ -vi.) tells that she evoked a shade to predict to Sextus Pompey the -result of the war between his father and Caesar. This happened thirty -years before the death of Virgil. - -[336] _Judas' circle_: The Judecca, or very lowest point of the Inferno. -Virgil's death preceded that of Judas by fifty years. He gives no hint -of whose the shade was that he went down to fetch; but Lucan's tale was -probably in Dante's mind. In the Middle Ages the memory of Virgil was -revered as that of a great sorcerer, especially in the neighbourhood of -Naples. - -[337] _The heaven, etc._: The _Primum Mobile_; but used here for the -highest heaven. See _Inf._ ii. 83, _note_. - -[338] _These fens, etc._: Virgil knows the locality. They have no -choice, but must remain where they are, for the same moat and wall gird -the city all around. - -[339] _Erynnyes_: The Furies. The Queen of whom they are handmaids is -Proserpine, carried off by Dis, or Pluto, to the under world. - -[340] _Medusa_: One of the Gorgons. Whoever looked on the head of Medusa -was turned into stone. - -[341] _Theseus_: Who descended into the infernal regions to rescue -Proserpine, and escaped by the help of Hercules. - -[342] _Mysterious line_: 'Strange verses:' That the verses are called -strange, as Boccaccio and others of the older commentators say, because -treating of such a subject in the vulgar tongue for the first time, and -in rhyme, is difficult to believe. Rather they are strange because of -the meaning they convey. What that is, Dante warns the reader of -superior intellect to pause and consider. It has been noted (_Inf._ ii. -28) how he uses the characters of the old mythology as if believing in -their real existence. But this is for his poetical ends. Here he bids us -look below the surface and seek for the truth hidden under the strange -disguise.--The opposition to their progress offered by the powers of -Hell perplexes even Virgil, while Dante is reduced to a state of -absolute terror, and is afflicted with still sharper misgivings than he -had at the first as to the issue of his adventure. By an indirect -question he seeks to learn how much Virgil really knows of the economy -of the lower world; but he cannot so much as listen to all of his -Master's reassuring answer, terrified as he is by the sudden appearance -of the Furies upon the tower, which rises out of the city of unbelief. -These symbolise the trouble of his conscience, and, assailing him with -threats, shake his already trembling faith in the Divine government. -How, in the face of such foes, is he to find the peace and liberty of -soul of which he is in search? That this is the city of unbelief he has -not yet been told, and without knowing it he is standing under the very -walls of Doubting Castle. And now, if he chance to let his eyes rest on -the Gorgon's head, his soul will be petrified by despair; like the -denizens of Hell, he will lose the 'good of the intellect,' and will -pass into a state from which Virgil--or reason--will be powerless to -deliver him. But Virgil takes him in time, and makes him avert his eyes; -which may signify that the only safe course for men is to turn their -backs on the deep and insoluble problem of how the reality of the Divine -government can be reconciled with the apparent triumph of evil. - -[343] _From Heaven_: The messenger comes from Heaven, and his words are -holy. Against the obvious interpretation, that he is a good angel, there -lies the objection that no other such is met with in Inferno, and also -that it is spoken of as a new sight for him when Dante first meets with -one in Purgatory. But the obstruction now to be overcome is worthy of -angelic interference; and Dante can hardly be said to meet the -messenger, who does not even glance in his direction. The commentators -have made this angel mean all kind of outlandish things. - -[344] _A rod_: A piece of the angelic outfit, derived from the -_caduceus_ of Mercury. - -[345] _Cerberus_: Hercules, when Cerberus opposed his entrance to the -infernal regions, fastened a chain round his neck and dragged him to the -gate. The angel's speech answers Dante's doubts as to the limits of -diabolical power. - -[346] _By other cares, etc._: It is not in Inferno that Dante is to hold -converse with celestial intelligences. The angel, like Beatrice when she -sought Virgil in Limbo, is all on fire to return to his own place. - -[347] _Arles_: The Alyscampo (Elysian Fields) at Arles was an enormous -cemetery, of which ruins still exist. It had a circumference of about -six miles, and contained numerous sarcophagi dating from Roman times. - -[348] _Pola_: In Istria, near the Gulf of Quarnaro, said to have -contained many ancient tombs. - -[349] _Lords of heresies_: 'Heresiarchs.' Dante now learns for the first -time that Dis is the city of unbelief. Each class of heretics has its -own great sepulchre. - -[350] _More or less of heat_: According to the heinousness of the heresy -punished in each. It was natural to associate heretics and punishment by -fire in days when Dominican monks ruled the roast. - -[351] _Dexter hand_: As they move across the circles, and down from one -to the other, their course is usually to the left hand. Here for some -reason Virgil turns to the right, so as to have the tombs on the left as -he advances. It may be that a special proof of his knowledge of the -locality is introduced when most needed--after the repulse by the -demons--to strengthen Dante's confidence in him as a guide; or, as some -subtly think, they being now about to enter the abode of heresy, the -movement to the right signifies the importance of the first step in -forming opinion. The only other occasion on which their course is taken -to the right hand is at _Inf._ xvii. 31. - - - - -CANTO X. - - - And now advance we by a narrow track - Between the torments and the ramparts high, - My Master first, and I behind his back. - 'O mighty Virtue,[352] at whose will am I - Wheeled through these impious circles,' then I said, - 'Speak, and in full my longing satisfy. - The people who within the tombs are laid, - May they be seen? The coverings are all thrown - Open, nor is there[353] any guard displayed.' - And he to me: 'All shall be fastened down 10 - When hither from Jehoshaphat[354] they come - Again in bodies which were once their own. - All here with Epicurus[355] find their tomb - Who are his followers, and by whom 'tis held - That the soul shares the body's mortal doom. - Things here discovered then shall answer yield, - And quickly, to thy question asked of me; - As well as[356] to the wish thou hast concealed.' - And I: 'Good Leader, if I hide from thee - My heart, it is that I may little say; 20 - Nor only now[357] learned I thus dumb to be.' - 'O Tuscan, who, still living, mak'st thy way, - Modest of speech, through the abode of flame, - Be pleased[358] a little in this place to stay. - The accents of thy language thee proclaim - To be a native of that state renowned - Which I, perchance, wronged somewhat.' Sudden came - These words from out a tomb which there was found - 'Mongst others; whereon I, compelled by fright, - A little toward my Leader shifted ground. 30 - And he: 'Turn round, what ails thee? Lo! upright - Beginneth Farinata[359] to arise; - All of him 'bove the girdle comes in sight.' - On him already had I fixed mine eyes. - Towering erect with lifted front and chest, - He seemed Inferno greatly to despise. - And toward him I among the tombs was pressed - By my Guide's nimble and courageous hand, - While he, 'Choose well thy language,' gave behest. - Beneath his tomb when I had ta'en my stand 40 - Regarding me a moment, 'Of what house - Art thou?' as if in scorn, he made demand. - To show myself obedient, anxious, - I nothing hid, but told my ancestors; - And, listening, he gently raised his brows.[360] - 'Fiercely to me they proved themselves adverse, - And to my sires and party,' then he said; - 'Because of which I did them twice disperse.'[361] - I answered him: 'And what although they fled! - Twice from all quarters they returned with might, 50 - An art not mastered yet by these you[362] led.' - Beside him then there issued into sight - Another shade, uncovered to the chin, - Propped on his knees, if I surmised aright. - He peered around as if he fain would win - Knowledge if any other was with me; - And then, his hope all spent, did thus begin, - Weeping: 'By dint of genius if it be - Thou visit'st this dark prison, where my son? - And wherefore not found in thy company?' 60 - And I to him: 'I come not here alone: - He waiting yonder guides me: but disdain - Of him perchance was by your Guido[363] shown.' - The words he used, and manner of his pain, - Revealed his name to me beyond surmise; - Hence was I able thus to answer plain. - Then cried he, and at once upright did rise, - 'How saidst thou--was? Breathes he not then the air? - The pleasant light no longer smites his eyes?' - When he of hesitation was aware 70 - Displayed by me in forming my reply, - He fell supine, no more to reappear. - But the magnanimous, at whose bidding I - Had halted there, the same expression wore, - Nor budged a jot, nor turned his neck awry. - 'And if'--resumed he where he paused before-- - 'They be indeed but slow that art to learn, - Than this my bed, to hear it pains me more. - But ere the fiftieth time anew shall burn - The lady's[364] face who reigneth here below, 80 - Of that sore art thou shalt experience earn. - And as to the sweet world again thou'dst go, - Tell me, why is that people so without - Ruth for my race,[365] as all their statutes show?' - And I to him: 'The slaughter and the rout - Which made the Arbia[366] to run with red, - Cause in our fane[367] such prayers to be poured out.' - Whereon he heaved a sigh and shook his head: - 'There I was not alone, nor to embrace - That cause was I, without good reason, led. 90 - But there I was alone, when from her place - All granted Florence should be swept away. - 'Twas I[368] defended her with open face.' - 'So may your seed find peace some better day,' - I urged him, 'as this knot you shall untie - In which my judgment doth entangled stay. - If I hear rightly, ye, it seems, descry - Beforehand what time brings, and yet ye seem - 'Neath other laws[369] as touching what is nigh.' - 'Like those who see best what is far from them, 100 - We see things,' said he, 'which afar remain; - Thus much enlightened by the Guide Supreme. - To know them present or approaching, vain - Are all our powers; and save what they relate - Who hither come, of earth no news we gain. - Hence mayst thou gather in how dead a state - Shall all our knowledge from that time be thrown - When of the future shall be closed the gate.' - Then, for my fault as if repentant grown, - I said: 'Report to him who fell supine, 110 - That still among the living breathes his son. - And if I, dumb, seemed answer to decline, - Tell him it was that I upon the knot - Was pondering then, you helped me to untwine.' - Me now my Master called, whence I besought - With more than former sharpness of the shade, - To tell me what companions he had got. - He answered me: 'Some thousand here are laid - With me; 'mong these the Second Frederick,[370] - The Cardinal[371] too; of others nought be said.' 120 - Then was he hid; and towards the Bard antique - I turned my steps, revolving in my brain - The ominous words[372] which I had heard him speak. - He moved, and as we onward went again - Demanded of me: 'Wherefore thus amazed?' - And to his question I made answer plain. - 'Within thy mind let there be surely placed,' - The Sage bade, 'what 'gainst thee thou heardest say. - Now mark me well' (his finger here he raised), - 'When thou shalt stand within her gentle ray 130 - Whose beauteous eye sees all, she will make known - The stages[373] of thy journey on life's way.' - Turning his feet, he to the left moved on; - Leaving the wall, we to the middle[374] went - Upon a path that to a vale strikes down, - Which even to us above its foulness sent. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[352] _Virtue_: Virgil is here addressed by a new title, which, with the -words of deep respect that follow, marks the full restoration of Dante's -confidence in him as his guide. - -[353] _Nor is there, etc._: The gate was found to be strictly guarded, -but not so are the tombs. - -[354] _Jehoshaphat_: 'I will also gather all nations, and will bring -them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat' (Joel iii. 2). - -[355] _Epicurus_: The unbelief in a future life, or rather the -indifference to everything but the calls of ambition and worldly -pleasure, common among the nobles of Dante's age and that preceding it, -went by the name of Epicureanism. It is the most radical of heresies, -because adverse to the first principles of all religions. Dante, in his -treatment of heresy, dwells more on what affects conduct as does the -denial of the Divine government--than on intellectual divergence from -orthodox belief. - -[356] _As well as, etc._: The question is: 'May they be seen?' The wish -is a desire to speak with them. - -[357] _Nor only now, etc._: Virgil has on previous occasions imposed -silence on Dante, as, for instance, at _Inf._ iii. 51. - -[358] _Be pleased, etc._: From one of the sepulchres, to be imagined as -a huge sarcophagus, come words similar to the _Siste Viator!_ common on -Roman tombs. - -[359] _Farinata_: Of the great Florentine family of the Uberti, and, in -the generation before Dante, leader of the Ghibeline or Imperialist -party in Florence. His memory long survived among his fellow-townsmen as -that of the typical noble, rough-mannered, unscrupulous, and arrogant; -but yet, for one good action that he did, he at the same time ranked in -the popular estimation as a patriot and a hero. Boccaccio, misled -perhaps by the mention of Epicurus, says that he loved rich and delicate -fare. It is because all his thoughts were worldly that he is condemned -to the city of unbelief. Dante has already (_Inf._ vi. 79) inquired -regarding his fate. He died in 1264. - -[360] _His brows_: When Dante tells he is of the Alighieri, a Guelf -family, Farinata shows some slight displeasure. Or, as a modern -Florentine critic interprets the gesture, he has to think a moment -before he can remember on which side the Alighieri ranged -themselves--they being of the small gentry, while he was a great noble, -But this gloss requires Dante to have been more free from pride of -family than he really was. - -[361] _Twice disperse_: The Alighieri shared in the exile of the Guelfs -in 1248 and 1260. - -[362] _You_: See also line 95. Dante never uses the plural form to a -single person except when desirous of showing social as distinguished -from, or over and above, moral respect. - -[363] _Guido_: Farinata's companion in the tomb is Cavalcante -Cavalcanti, who, although a Guelf, was tainted with the more specially -Ghibeline error of Epicureanism. When in order to allay party rancour -some of the Guelf and Ghibeline families were forced to intermarry, his -son Guido took a daughter of Farinata's to wife. This was in 1267, so -that Guido was much older than Dante. Yet they were very intimate, and, -intellectually, had much in common. With him Dante exchanged poems of -occasion, and he terms him more than once in the _Vita Nuova_ his chief -friend. The disdain of Virgil need not mean more than is on the surface. -Guido died in 1301. He is the hero of the _Decameron_, vi. 9. - -[364] _The Lady_: Proserpine; _i.e._ the moon. Ere fifty months from -March 1300 were past, Dante was to see the failure of more than one -attempt made by the exiles, of whom he was one, to gain entrance to -Florence. The great attempt was in the beginning of 1304. - -[365] _Ruth for my race_: When the Ghibeline power was finally broken in -Florence the Uberti were always specially excluded from any amnesty. -There is mention of the political execution of at least one descendant -of Farinata's. His son when being led to the scaffold said, 'So we pay -our fathers' debts!'--It has been so long common to describe Dante as a -Ghibeline, though no careful writer does it now, that it may be worth -while here to remark that Ghibelinism, as Farinata understood it, was -practically extinct in Florence ere Dante entered political life. - -[366] _The Arbia_: At Montaperti, on the Arbia, a few miles from Siena, -was fought in 1260 a great battle between the Guelf Florence and her -allies on the one hand, and on the other the Ghibelines of Florence, -then in exile, under Farinata; the Sienese and Tuscan Ghibelines in -general; and some hundreds of men-at-arms lent by Manfred. -Notwithstanding the gallant behaviour of the Florentine burghers, the -Guelf defeat was overwhelming, and not only did the Arbia run red with -Florentine blood--in a figure--but the battle of Montaperti ruined for a -time the cause of popular liberty and general improvement in Florence. - -[367] _Our fane_: The Parliament of the people used to meet in Santa -Reparata, the cathedral; and it is possible that the maintenance of the -Uberti disabilities was there more than once confirmed by the general -body of the citizens. The use of the word is in any case accounted for -by the frequency of political conferences in churches. And the temple -having been introduced, edicts are converted into 'prayers.' - -[368] _'Twas I, etc._: Some little time after the victory of Montaperti -there was a great Ghibeline gathering from various cities at Empoli, -when it was proposed, with general approval, to level Florence with the -ground in revenge for the obstinate Guelfism of the population. Farinata -roughly declared that as long as he lived and had a sword he would -defend his native place, and in the face of this protest the resolution -was departed from. It is difficult to understand how of all the -Florentine nobles, whose wealth consisted largely in house property, -Farinata should have stood alone in protesting against the ruin of the -city. But so it seems to have been; and in this great passage Farinata -is repaid for his service, in despite of Inferno. - -[369] _Other laws_: Ciacco, in Canto vi., prophesied what was to happen -in Florence, and Farinata has just told him that four years later than -now he will have failed in an attempt to return from exile: yet Farinata -does not know if his family is still being persecuted, and Cavalcanti -fears that his son Guido is already numbered with the dead. Farinata -replies that like the longsighted the shades can only see what is some -distance off, and are ignorant of what is going on, or about to happen; -which seems to imply that they forget what they once foresaw. Guido was -to die within a few months, and the event was too close at hand to come -within the range of his father's vision. - -[370] _The Second Frederick_: The Emperor of that name who reigned from -1220 to 1250, and waged a life-long war with the Popes for supremacy in -Italy. It is not however for his enmity with Rome that he is placed in -the Sixth Circle, but for his Epicureanism--as Dante understood it. From -his Sicilian court a spirit of free inquiry spread through the -Peninsula. With men of the stamp of Farinata it would be converted into -a crude materialism. - -[371] _The Cardinal_: Ottaviano, of the powerful Tuscan family of the -Ubaldini, a man of great political activity, and known in Tuscany as -'The Cardinal.' His sympathies were not with the Roman Court. The news -of Montaperti filled him with delight, and later, when the Tuscan -Ghibelines refused him money he had asked for, he burst out with 'And -yet I have lost my soul for the Ghibelines--if I have a soul.' He died -not earlier than 1273. After these illustrious names Farinata scorns to -mention meaner ones. - -[372] _Ominous words_: Those in which Farinata foretold Dante's exile. - -[373] _The stages, etc._: It is Cacciaguida, his ancestor, who in -Paradise instructs Dante in what his future life is to be--one of -poverty and exile (_Parad._ xvii.). This is, however, done at the -request of Beatrice. - -[374] _To the middle_: Turning to the left they cut across the circle -till they reach the inner boundary of the city of tombs. Here there is -no wall. - - - - -CANTO XI. - - - We at the margin of a lofty steep - Made of great shattered stones in circle bent, - Arrived where worser torments crowd the deep. - So horrible a stench and violent - Was upward wafted from the vast abyss,[375] - Behind the cover we for shelter went - Of a great tomb where I saw written this: - 'Pope Anastasius[376] is within me thrust, - Whom the straight way Photinus made to miss.' - 'Now on our course a while we linger must,' 10 - The Master said, 'be but our sense resigned - A little to it, and the filthy gust - We shall not heed.' Then I: 'Do thou but find - Some compensation lest our time should run - Wasted.' And he: 'Behold, 'twas in my mind. - Girt by the rocks before us, O my son, - Lie three small circles,'[377] he began to tell, - 'Graded like those with which thou now hast done, - All of them filled with spirits miserable. - That sight[378] of them may thee henceforth suffice. 20 - Hear how and wherefore in these groups they dwell. - Whate'er in Heaven's abhorred as wickedness - Has injury[379] for its end; in others' bane - By fraud resulting or in violent wise. - Since fraud to man alone[380] doth appertain, - God hates it most; and hence the fraudulent band, - Set lowest down, endure a fiercer pain. - Of the violent is the circle next at hand - To us; and since three ways is violence shown, - 'Tis in three several circuits built and planned. 30 - To God, ourselves, or neighbours may be done - Violence, or on the things by them possessed; - As reasoning clear shall unto thee make known. - Our neighbour may by violence be distressed - With grievous wounds, or slain; his goods and lands - By havoc, fire, and plunder be oppressed. - Hence those who wound and slay with violent hands, - Robbers, and spoilers, in the nearest round - Are all tormented in their various bands. - Violent against himself may man be found, 40 - And 'gainst his goods; therefore without avail - They in the next are in repentance drowned - Who on themselves loss of your world entail, - Who gamble[381] and their substance madly spend, - And who when called to joy lament and wail. - And even to God may violence extend - By heart denial and by blasphemy, - Scorning what nature doth in bounty lend. - Sodom and Cahors[382] hence are doomed to lie - Within the narrowest circlet surely sealed; 50 - And such as God within their hearts defy. - Fraud,[383] 'gainst whose bite no conscience findeth shield, - A man may use with one who in him lays - Trust, or with those who no such credence yield. - Beneath this latter kind of it decays - The bond of love which out of nature grew; - Hence, in the second circle[384] herd the race - To feigning given and flattery, who pursue - Magic, false coining, theft, and simony, - Pimps, barrators, and suchlike residue. 60 - The other form of fraud makes nullity - Of natural bonds; and, what is more than those, - The special trust whence men on men rely. - Hence in the place whereon all things repose, - The narrowest circle and the seat of Dis,[385] - Each traitor's gulfed in everlasting woes.' - 'Thy explanation, Master, as to this - Is clear,' I said, 'and thou hast plainly told - Who are the people stowed in the abyss. - But tell why those the muddy marshes hold, 70 - The tempest-driven, those beaten by the rain, - And such as, meeting, virulently scold, - Are not within the crimson city ta'en - For punishment, if hateful unto God; - And, if not hateful, wherefore doomed to pain?' - And he to me: 'Why wander thus abroad, - More than is wont, thy wits? or how engrossed - Is now thy mind, and on what things bestowed? - Hast thou the memory of the passage lost - In which thy Ethics[386] for their subject treat 80 - Of the three moods by Heaven abhorred the most-- - Malice and bestiality complete; - And how, compared with these, incontinence - Offends God less, and lesser blame doth meet? - If of this doctrine thou extract the sense, - And call to memory what people are - Above, outside, in endless penitence, - Why from these guilty they are sundered far - Thou shalt discern, and why on them alight - The strokes of justice in less angry war.' 90 - 'O Sun that clearest every troubled sight, - So charmed am I by thy resolving speech, - Doubt yields me joy no less than knowing right. - Therefore, I pray, a little backward reach,' - I asked, 'to where thou say'st that usury - Sins 'gainst God's bounty; and this mystery teach.' - He said: 'Who gives ear to Philosophy - Is taught by her, nor in one place alone, - What nature in her course is governed by, - Even Mind Divine, and art which thence hath grown; 100 - And if thy Physics[387] thou wilt search within, - Thou'lt find ere many leaves are open thrown, - This art by yours, far as your art can win, - Is followed close--the teacher by the taught; - As grandchild then to God your art is kin. - And from these two--do thou recall to thought - How Genesis[388] begins--should come supplies - Of food for man, and other wealth be sought. - And, since another plan the usurer plies, - Nature and nature's child have his disdain;[389] 110 - Because on other ground his hope relies. - But come,[390] for to advance I now am fain: - The Fishes[391] over the horizon line - Quiver; o'er Caurus now stands all the Wain; - And further yonder does the cliff decline.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[375] _Vast abyss_: They are now at the inner side of the Sixth Circle, -and upon the verge of the rocky steep which slopes down from it into the -Seventh. All the lower Hell lies beneath them, and it is from that -rather than from the next circle in particular that the stench arises, -symbolical of the foulness of the sins which are punished there. The -noisome smells which make part of the horror of Inferno are after this -sometimes mentioned, but never dwelt upon (_Inf._ xviii. 106, and xxix. -50). - -[376] _Pope Anastasius_: The second of the name, elected Pope in 496. -Photinus, bishop of Sirenium, was infected with the Sabellian heresy, -but he was deposed more than a century before the time of Anastasius. -Dante follows some obscure legend in charging Anastasius with heresy. -The important point is that the one heretic, in the sense usually -attached to the term, named as being in the city of unbelief, is a Pope. - -[377] _Three small circles_: The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth; small in -circumference compared with those above. The pilgrims are now deep in -the hollow cone. - -[378] _That sight, etc._: After hearing the following explanation Dante -no longer asks to what classes the sinners met with belong, but only as -to the guilt of individual shades. - -[379] _Injury_: They have left above them the circles of those whose sin -consists in the exaggeration or misdirection of a wholesome natural -instinct. Below them lie the circles filled with such as have been -guilty of malicious wickedness. This manifests itself in two ways: by -violence or by fraud. After first mentioning in a general way that the -fraudulent are set lowest in Inferno, Virgil proceeds to define -violence, and to tell how the violent occupy the circle immediately -beneath them--the Seventh. For division of the maliciously wicked into -two classes Dante is supposed to be indebted to Cicero: 'Injury may be -wrought by force or by fraud.... Both are unnatural for man, but fraud -is the more hateful.'--_De Officiis_, i. 13. It is remarkable that -Virgil says nothing of those in the Sixth Circle in this account of the -classes of sinners. - -[380] _To man alone, etc._: Fraud involves the corrupt use of the powers -that distinguish us from the brutes. - -[381] _Who gamble, etc._: A different sin from the lavish spending -punished in the Fourth Circle (_Inf._ vii.). The distinction is that -between thriftlessness and the prodigality which, stripping a man of the -means of living, disgusts him with life, as described in the following -line. It is from among prodigals that the ranks of suicides are greatly -filled, and here they are appropriately placed together. It may seem -strange that in his classification of guilt Dante should rank violence -to one's self as a more heinous sin than that committed against one's -neighbour. He may have in view the fact that none harm their neighbours -so much as they who are oblivious of their own true interest. - -[382] _Sodom and Cahors_: Sins against nature are reckoned sins against -God, as explained lower down in this Canto. Cahors in Languedoc had in -the Middle Ages the reputation of being a nest of usurers. These in old -English Chronicles are termed Caorsins. With the sins of Sodom and -Cahors are ranked the denial of God and blasphemy against Him--deeper -sins than the erroneous conceptions of the Divine nature and government -punished in the Sixth Circle. The three concentric rings composing the -Seventh Circle are all on the same level, as we shall find. - -[383] _Fraud, etc._: Fraud is of such a nature that conscience never -fails to give due warning against the sin. This is an aggravation of the -guilt of it. - -[384] _The second circle_: The second now beneath them; that is, the -Eighth. - -[385] _Seat of Dis_: The Ninth and last Circle. - -[386] _Thy Ethics_: The Ethics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'With -regard to manners, these three things are to be eschewed: incontinence, -vice, and bestiality.' Aristotle holds incontinence to consist in the -immoderate indulgence of propensities which under right guidance are -adapted to promote lawful pleasure. It is, generally speaking, the sin -of which those about whom Dante has inquired were guilty.--It has been -ingeniously sought by Philalethes (_Goett. Com._) to show that Virgil's -disquisition is founded on this threefold classification of -Aristotle's--violence being taken to be the same as bestiality, and -malice as vice. But the reference to Aristotle is made with the limited -purpose of justifying the lenient treatment of incontinence; in the same -way as a few lines further on Genesis is referred to in support of the -harsh treatment of usury. - -[387] _Physics_: The Physics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'Art -imitates nature.' Art includes handicrafts. - -[388] _Genesis_: 'And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the -garden to dress it and to keep it.' 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou -eat bread.' - -[389] _His disdain_: The usurer seeks to get wealth independently of -honest labour or reliance on the processes of nature. This far-fetched -argument against usury closes one of the most arid passages of the -_Comedy_. The shortness of the Canto almost suggests that Dante had -himself got weary of it. - -[390] _But come, etc._: They have been all this time resting behind the -lid of the tomb. - -[391] _The Fishes, etc._: The sun being now in Aries the stars of Pisces -begin to rise about a couple of hours before sunrise. The Great Bear -lies above Caurus, the quarter of the N.N.W. wind. It seems impossible -to harmonise the astronomical indications scattered throughout the -_Comedy_, there being traces of Dante's having sometimes used details -belonging rather to the day on which Good Friday fell in 1300, the 8th -of April, than to the (supposed) true anniversary of the crucifixion. -That this, the 25th of March, is the day he intended to conform to -appears from _Inf._ xxi. 112.--The time is now near dawn on the Saturday -morning. It is almost needless to say that Virgil speaks of the stars as -he knows they are placed, but without seeing them. By what light they -see in Inferno is nowhere explained. We have been told that it was dark -as night (_Inf._ iv. 10, v. 28). - - - - -CANTO XII. - - - The place of our descent[392] before us lay - Precipitous, and there was something more - From sight of which all eyes had turned away. - As at the ruin which upon the shore - Of Adige[393] fell upon this side of Trent-- - Through earthquake or by slip of what before - Upheld it--from the summit whence it went - Far as the plain, the shattered rocks supply - Some sort of foothold to who makes descent; - Such was the passage down the precipice high. 10 - And on the riven gully's very brow - Lay spread at large the Cretan Infamy[394] - Which was conceived in the pretended cow. - Us when he saw, he bit himself for rage - Like one whose anger gnaws him through and through. - 'Perhaps thou deemest,' called to him the Sage, - 'This is the Duke of Athens[395] drawing nigh, - Who war to the death with thee on earth did wage. - Begone, thou brute, for this one passing by - Untutored by thy sister has thee found, 20 - And only comes thy sufferings to spy,' - And as the bull which snaps what held it bound - On being smitten by the fatal blow, - Halts in its course, and reels upon the ground, - The Minotaur I saw reel to and fro; - And he, the alert, cried: 'To the passage haste; - While yet he chafes 'twere well thou down shouldst go.' - So we descended by the slippery waste[396] - Of shivered stones which many a time gave way - 'Neath the new weight[397] my feet upon them placed. 30 - I musing went; and he began to say: - 'Perchance this ruined slope thou thinkest on, - Watched by the brute rage I did now allay. - But I would have thee know, when I came down - The former time[398] into this lower Hell, - The cliff had not this ruin undergone. - It was not long, if I distinguish well, - Ere He appeared who wrenched great prey from Dis[399] - From out the upmost circle. Trembling fell - Through all its parts the nauseous abyss 40 - With such a violence, the world, I thought, - Was stirred by love; for, as they say, by this - She back to Chaos[400] has been often brought. - And then it was this ancient rampart strong - Was shattered here and at another spot.[401] - But toward the valley look. We come ere long - Down to the river of blood[402] where boiling lie - All who by violence work others wrong.' - O insane rage! O blind cupidity! - By which in our brief life we are so spurred, 50 - Ere downward plunged in evil case for aye! - An ample ditch I now beheld engird - And sweep in circle all around the plain, - As from my Escort I had lately heard. - Between this and the rock in single train - Centaurs[403] were running who were armed with bows, - As if they hunted on the earth again. - Observing us descend they all stood close, - Save three of them who parted from the band - With bow, and arrows they in coming chose. 60 - 'What torment,' from afar one made demand, - 'Come ye to share, who now descend the hill? - I shoot unless ye answer whence ye stand.' - My Master said: 'We yield no answer till - We come to Chiron[404] standing at thy side; - But thy quick temper always served thee ill.' - Then touching me: ''Tis Nessus;[405] he who died - With love for beauteous Dejanire possessed, - And who himself his own vendetta plied. - He in the middle, staring on his breast, 70 - Is mighty Chiron, who Achilles bred; - And next the wrathful Pholus. They invest - The fosse and in their thousands round it tread, - Shooting whoever from the blood shall lift, - More than his crime allows, his guilty head.' - As we moved nearer to those creatures swift - Chiron drew forth a shaft and dressed his beard - Back on his jaws, using the arrow's cleft. - And when his ample mouth of hair was cleared, - He said to his companions: 'Have ye seen 80 - The things the second touches straight are stirred, - As they by feet of shades could ne'er have been?' - And my good Guide, who to his breast had gone-- - The part where join the natures,[406] 'Well I ween - He lives,' made answer; 'and if, thus alone, - He seeks the valley dim 'neath my control, - Necessity, not pleasure, leads him on. - One came from where the alleluiahs roll, - Who charged me with this office strange and new: - No robber he, nor mine a felon soul. 90 - But, by that Power which makes me to pursue - The rugged journey whereupon I fare, - Accord us one of thine to keep in view, - That he may show where lies the ford, and bear - This other on his back to yonder strand; - No spirit he, that he should cleave the air.' - Wheeled to the right then Chiron gave command - To Nessus: 'Turn, and lead them, and take tent - They be not touched by any other band.'[407] - We with our trusty Escort forward went, 100 - Threading the margin of the boiling blood - Where they who seethed were raising loud lament. - People I saw up to the chin imbrued, - 'These all are tyrants,' the great Centaur said, - 'Who blood and plunder for their trade pursued. - Here for their pitiless deeds tears now are shed - By Alexander,[408] and Dionysius fell, - Through whom in Sicily dolorous years were led. - The forehead with black hair so terrible - Is Ezzelino;[409] that one blond of hue, 110 - Obizzo[410] d'Este, whom, as rumours tell, - His stepson murdered, and report speaks true.' - I to the Poet turned, who gave command: - 'Regard thou chiefly him. I follow you.' - Ere long the Centaur halted on the strand, - Close to a people who, far as the throat, - Forth of that bulicame[411] seemed to stand. - Thence a lone shade to us he pointed out - Saying: 'In God's house[412] ran he weapon through - The heart which still on Thames wins cult devout.' 120 - Then I saw people, some with heads in view, - And some their chests above the river bore; - And many of them I, beholding, knew. - And thus the blood went dwindling more and more, - Until at last it covered but the feet: - Here took we passage[413] to the other shore. - 'As on this hand thou seest still abate - In depth the volume of the boiling stream,' - The Centaur said, 'so grows its depth more great, - Believe me, towards the opposite extreme, 130 - Until again its circling course attains - The place where tyrants must lament. Supreme - Justice upon that side involves in pains, - With Attila,[414] once of the world the pest, - Pyrrhus[415] and Sextus: and for ever drains - Tears out of Rinier of Corneto[416] pressed - And Rinier Pazzo[417] in that boiling mass, - Whose brigandage did so the roads infest.' - Then turned he back alone, the ford to pass. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[392] _Our descent_: To the Seventh Circle. - -[393] _Adige_: Different localities in the valley of the Adige have been -fixed on as the scene of this landslip. The Lavini di Marco, about -twenty miles south of Trent, seem best to answer to the description. -They 'consist of black blocks of stone and fragments of a landslip -which, according to the Chronicle of Fulda, fell in the year 883 and -overwhelmed the valley for four Italian miles' (Gsell-Fels, _Ober. -Ital._ i. 35). - -[394] _The Cretan Infamy_: The Minotaur, the offspring of Pasiphae; a -half-bovine monster who inhabited the Cretan labyrinth, and to whom a -human victim was offered once a year. He lies as guard upon the Seventh -Circle--that of the violent (_Inf._ xi. 23, _note_)--and is set at the -top of the rugged slope, itself the scene of a violent convulsion. - -[395] _Duke of Athens_: Theseus, instructed by Ariadne, daughter of -Pasiphae and Minos, how to outwit the Minotaur, entered the labyrinth in -the character of a victim, slew the monster, and then made his way out, -guided by a thread he had unwound as he went in. - -[396] _The slippery waste_: The word used here, _scarco_, means in -modern Tuscan a place where earth or stones have been carelessly shot -into a heap. - -[397] _The new weight_: The slope had never before been trodden by -mortal foot. - -[398] _The former time_: When Virgil descended to evoke a shade from the -Ninth Circle (_Inf._ ix. 22). - -[399] _Prey from Dis_: The shades delivered from Limbo by Christ (_Inf._ -iv. 53). The expression in the text is probably suggested by the words -of the hymn _Vexilla: Praedamque tulit Tartaris_. - -[400] _To Chaos_: The reference is to the theory of Empedocles, known to -Dante through the refutation of it by Aristotle. The theory was one of -periods of unity and division in nature, according as love or hatred -prevailed. - -[401] _Another spot_: See _Inf._ xxi. 112. The earthquake at the -Crucifixion shook even Inferno to its base. - -[402] _The river of blood_: Phlegethon, the 'boiling river.' Styx and -Acheron have been already passed. Lethe, the fourth infernal river, is -placed by Dante in Purgatory. The first round or circlet of the Seventh -Circle is filled by Phlegethon. - -[403] _Centaurs_: As this round is the abode of such as are guilty of -violence against their neighbours, it is guarded by these brutal -monsters, half-man and half-horse. - -[404] _Chiron_: Called the most just of the Centaurs. - -[405] _Nessus_: Slain by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. When dying he -gave Dejanira his blood-stained shirt, telling her it would insure the -faithfulness to her of any whom she loved. Hercules wore it and died of -the venom; and thus Nessus avenged himself. - -[406] The natures: The part of the Centaur where the equine body is -joined on to the human neck and head. - -[407] _Other band_: Of Centaurs. - -[408] _Alexander_: It is not known whether Alexander the Great or a -petty Thessalian tyrant is here meant. _Dionysius_: The cruel tyrant of -Syracuse. - -[409] _Ezzelino_: Or Azzolino of Romano, the greatest Lombard Ghibeline -of his time. He was son-in-law of Frederick II., and was Imperial Vicar -of the Trevisian Mark. Towards the close of Fredrick's life, and for -some years after, he exercised almost independent power in Vicenza, -Padua, and Verona. Cruelty, erected into a system, was his chief -instrument of government, and 'in his dungeons men found something worse -than death.' For Italians, says Burckhardt, he was the most impressive -political personage of the thirteenth century; and around his memory, as -around Frederick's, there gathered strange legends. He died in 1259, of -a wound received in battle. When urged to confess his sins by the monk -who came to shrive him, he declared that the only sin on his conscience -was negligence in revenge. But this may be mythical, as may also be the -long black hair between his eyebrows, which rose up stiff and terrible -as his anger waxed. - -[410] _Obizzo_: The second Marquis of Este of that name. He was lord of -Ferrara. There seems little, if any, evidence extant of his being -specially cruel. As a strong Guelf he took sides with Charles of Anjou -against Manfred. He died in 1293, smothered, it was believed, by a son, -here called a stepson for his unnatural conduct. But though Dante -vouches for the truth of the rumour it seems to have been an invention. - -[411] _That bulicame_: The stream of boiling blood is probably named -from the bulicame, or hot spring, best known to Dante--that near Viterbo -(see _Inf._ xiv. 79). And it may be that the mention of the bulicame -suggests the reference at line 119. - -[412] _In God's house_: Literally, 'In the bosom of God.' The shade is -that of Guy, son of Simon of Montfort and Vicar in Tuscany of Charles of -Anjou. In 1271 he stabbed, in the Cathedral of Viterbo, Henry, son of -Richard of Cornwall and cousin of Edward I. of England. The motive of -the murder was to revenge the death of his father, Simon, at Evesham. -The body of the young prince was conveyed to England, and the heart was -placed in a vase upon the tomb of the Confessor. The shade of Guy stands -up to the chin in blood among the worst of the tyrants, and alone, -because of the enormity of his crime. - -[413] _Here took we passage_: Dante on Nessus' back. Virgil has fallen -behind to allow the Centaur to act as guide; and how he crosses the -stream Dante does not see. - -[414] _Attila_: King of the Huns, who invaded part of Italy in the fifth -century; and who, according to the mistaken belief of Dante's age, was -the devastator of Florence. - -[415] _Pyrrhus_: King of Epirus. _Sextus_: Son of Pompey; a great -sea-captain who fought against the Triumvirs. The crime of the first, in -Dante's eyes, is that he fought with Rome; of the second, that he -opposed Augustus. - -[416] _Rinier of Corneto_: Who in Dante's time disturbed the coast of -the States of the Church by his robberies and violence. - -[417] _Rinier Pazzo_: Of the great family of the Pazzi of Val d'Arno, -was excommunicated in 1269 for robbing ecclesiastics. - - - - -CANTO XIII. - - - Ere Nessus landed on the other shore - We for our part within a forest[418] drew, - Which of no pathway any traces bore. - Not green the foliage, but of dusky hue; - Not smooth the boughs, but gnarled and twisted round; - For apples, poisonous thorns upon them grew. - No rougher brakes or matted worse are found - Where savage beasts betwixt Corneto[419] roam - And Cecina,[419] abhorring cultured ground. - The loathsome Harpies[420] nestle here at home, 10 - Who from the Strophades the Trojans chased - With dire predictions of a woe to come. - Great winged are they, but human necked and faced, - With feathered belly, and with claw for toe; - They shriek upon the bushes wild and waste. - 'Ere passing further, I would have thee know,' - The worthy Master thus began to say, - 'Thou'rt in the second round, nor hence shalt go - Till by the horrid sand thy footsteps stay. - Give then good heed, and things thou'lt recognise 20 - That of my words will prove[421] the verity.' - Wailings on every side I heard arise: - Of who might raise them I distinguished nought; - Whereon I halted, smitten with surprise. - I think he thought that haply 'twas my thought - The voices came from people 'mong the trees, - Who, to escape us, hiding-places sought; - Wherefore the Master said: 'From one of these - Snap thou a twig, and thou shalt understand - How little with thy thought the fact agrees.' 30 - Thereon a little I stretched forth my hand - And plucked a tiny branch from a great thorn. - 'Why dost thou tear me?' made the trunk demand. - When dark with blood it had begun to turn, - It cried a second time: 'Why wound me thus? - Doth not a spark of pity in thee burn? - Though trees we be, once men were all of us; - Yet had our souls the souls of serpents been - Thy hand might well have proved more piteous.' - As when the fire hath seized a fagot green 40 - At one extremity, the other sighs, - And wind, escaping, hisses; so was seen, - At where the branch was broken, blood to rise - And words were mixed with it. I dropped the spray - And stood like one whom terror doth surprise. - The Sage replied: 'Soul vexed with injury, - Had he been only able to give trust - To what he read narrated in my lay,[422] - His hand toward thee would never have been thrust. - 'Tis hard for faith; and I, to make it plain, 50 - Urged him to trial, mourn it though I must. - But tell him who thou wast; so shall remain - This for amends to thee, thy fame shall blow - Afresh on earth, where he returns again.' - And then the trunk: 'Thy sweet words charm me so, - I cannot dumb remain; nor count it hard - If I some pains upon my speech bestow. - For I am he[423] who held both keys in ward - Of Frederick's heart, and turned them how I would, - And softly oped it, and as softly barred, 60 - Till scarce another in his counsel stood. - To my high office I such loyalty bore, - It cost me sleep and haleness of my blood. - The harlot[424] who removeth nevermore - From Caesar's house eyes ignorant of shame-- - A common curse, of courts the special sore-- - Set against me the minds of all aflame, - And these in turn Augustus set on fire, - Till my glad honours bitter woes became. - My soul, filled full with a disdainful ire, 70 - Thinking by means of death disdain to flee, - 'Gainst my just self unjustly did conspire. - I swear even by the new roots of this tree - My fealty to my lord I never broke, - For worthy of all honour sure was he. - If one of you return 'mong living folk, - Let him restore my memory, overthrown - And suffering yet because of envy's stroke.' - Still for a while the poet listened on, - Then said: 'Now he is dumb, lose not the hour, 80 - But make request if more thou'dst have made known.' - And I replied: 'Do thou inquire once more - Of what thou thinkest[425] I would gladly know; - I cannot ask; ruth wrings me to the core.' - On this he spake: 'Even as the man shall do, - And liberally, what thou of him hast prayed, - Imprisoned spirit, do thou further show - How with these knots the spirits have been made - Incorporate; and, if thou canst, declare - If from such members e'er is loosed a shade.' 90 - Then from the trunk came vehement puffs of air; - Next, to these words converted was the wind: - 'My answer to you shall be short and clear. - When the fierce soul no longer is confined - In flesh, torn thence by action of its own, - To the Seventh Depth by Minos 'tis consigned. - No choice is made of where it shall be thrown - Within the wood; but where by chance 'tis flung - It germinates like seed of spelt that's sown. - A forest tree it grows from sapling young; 100 - Eating its leaves, the Harpies cause it pain, - And open loopholes whence its sighs are wrung. - We for our vestments shall return again - Like others, but in them shall ne'er be clad:[426] - Men justly lose what from themselves they've ta'en. - Dragged hither by us, all throughout the sad - Forest our bodies shall be hung on high; - Each on the thorn of its destructive shade.' - While to the trunk we listening lingered nigh, - Thinking he might proceed to tell us more, 110 - A sudden uproar we were startled by - Like him who, that the huntsman and the boar - To where he stands are sweeping in the chase, - Knows by the crashing trees and brutish roar. - Upon our left we saw a couple race - Naked[427] and scratched; and they so quickly fled - The forest barriers burst before their face. - 'Speed to my rescue, death!' the foremost pled. - The next, as wishing he could use more haste; - 'Not thus, O Lano,[428] thee thy legs bested 120 - When one at Toppo's tournament thou wast.' - Then, haply wanting breath, aside he stepped, - Merged with a bush on which himself he cast. - Behind them through the forest onward swept - A pack of dogs, black, ravenous, and fleet, - Like greyhounds from their leashes newly slipped. - In him who crouched they made their teeth to meet, - And, having piecemeal all his members rent, - Haled them away enduring anguish great. - Grasping my hand, my Escort forward went 130 - And led me to the bush which, all in vain, - Through its ensanguined openings made lament. - 'James of St. Andrews,'[429] it we heard complain; - 'What profit hadst thou making me thy shield? - For thy bad life doth blame to me pertain?' - Then, halting there, this speech my Master held: - 'Who wast thou that through many wounds dost sigh, - Mingled with blood, words big with sorrow swelled?' - 'O souls that hither come,' was his reply, - 'To witness shameful outrage by me borne, 140 - Whence all my leaves torn off around me lie, - Gather them to the root of this drear thorn. - My city[430] for the Baptist changed of yore - Her former patron; wherefore, in return, - He with his art will make her aye deplore; - And were it not some image doth remain - Of him where Arno's crossed from shore to shore, - Those citizens who founded her again - On ashes left by Attila,[431] had spent - Their labour of a surety all in vain. 150 - In my own house[432] I up a gibbet went.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[418] _A forest_: The second round of the Seventh Circle consists of a -belt of tangled forest, enclosed by the river of blood, and devoted to -suicides and prodigals. - -[419] _Corneto and Cecina_: Corneto is a town on the coast of what used -to be the States of the Church; Cecina a stream not far south of -Leghorn. Between them lies the Maremma, a district of great natural -fertility, now being restored again to cultivation, but for ages a -neglected and poisonous wilderness. - -[420] _Harpies_: Monsters with the bodies of birds and the heads of -women. In the _AEneid_ iii., they are described as defiling the feast of -which the Trojans were about to partake on one of the -Strophades--islands of the AEgean; and on that occasion the prophecy was -made that AEneas and his followers should be reduced to eat their tables -ere they acquired a settlement in Italy. Here the Harpies symbolise -shameful waste and disgust with life. - -[421] _Will prove, etc._: The things seen by Dante are to make credible -what Virgil tells (_AEn._ iii.) of the blood and piteous voice that -issued from the torn bushes on the tomb of Polydorus. - -[422] _My lay_: See previous note. Dante thus indirectly acknowledges -his debt to Virgil; and, perhaps, at the same time puts in his claim to -an imaginative licence equal to that taken by his master. On a modern -reader the effect of the reference is to weaken the verisimilitude of -the incident. - -[423] _For I am he, etc._: The speaker is Pier delle Vigne, who from -being a begging student of Bologna rose to be the Chancellor of the -Emperor Frederick II., the chief councillor of that monarch, and one of -the brightest ornaments of his intellectual court. Peter was perhaps the -more endeared to his master because, like him, he was a poet of no mean -order. There are two accounts of what caused his disgrace. According to -one of these he was found to have betrayed Frederick's interests in -favour of the Pope's; and according to the other he tried to poison him. -Neither is it known whether he committed suicide; though he is said to -have done so after being disgraced, by dashing his brains out against a -church wall in Pisa. Dante clearly follows this legend. The whole -episode is eloquent of the esteem in which Peter's memory was held by -Dante. His name is not mentioned in Inferno, but yet the promise is -amply kept that it shall flourish on earth again, freed from unmerited -disgrace. He died about 1249. - -[424] _The harlot_: Envy. - -[425] _Of what thou thinkest, etc._: Virgil never asks a question for -his own satisfaction. He knows who the spirits are, what brought them -there, and which of them will speak honestly out on the promise of -having his fame refreshed in the world. It should be noted how, by a -hint, he has made Peter aware of who he is (line 48); a delicate -attention yielded to no other shade in the Inferno, except Ulysses -(_Inf._ xxvi. 79), and, perhaps, Brunetto Latini (_Inf._ xv. 99). - -[426] _In them shall ne'er be clad_: Boccaccio is here at great pains to -save Dante from a charge of contradicting the tenet of the resurrection -of the flesh. - -[427] _Naked_: These are the prodigals; their nakedness representing the -state to which in life they had reduced themselves. - -[428] _Lano_: Who made one of a club of prodigals in Siena (_Inf._ xxix. -130) and soon ran through his fortune. Joining in a Florentine -expedition in 1288 against Arezzo, he refused to escape from a defeat -encountered by his side at Pieve del Toppo, preferring, as was supposed, -to end his life at once rather than drag it out in poverty. - -[429] _James of St. Andrews_: Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan who -inherited enormous wealth which did not last him for long. He literally -threw money away, and would burn a house for the sake of the blaze. His -death has been placed in 1239. - -[430] _My city, etc._: According to tradition the original patron of -Florence was Mars. In Dante's time an ancient statue, supposed to be of -that god, stood upon the Old Bridge of Florence. It is referred to in -_Parad._ xvi. 47 and 145. Benvenuto says that he had heard from -Boccaccio, who had frequently heard it from old people, that the statue -was regarded with great awe. If a boy flung stones or mud at it, the -bystanders would say of him that he would make a bad end. It was lost in -the great flood of 1333. Here the Florentine shade represents Mars as -troubling Florence with wars in revenge for being cast off as a patron. - -[431] _Attila_: A confusion with Totila. Attila was never so far south -as Tuscany. Neither is there reason to believe that when Totila took the -city he destroyed it. But the legend was that it was rebuilt in the time -of Charles the Great. - -[432] _My own house, etc._: It is not settled who this was who hanged -himself from the beams of his own roof. One of the Agli, say some; -others, one of the Mozzi. Boccaccio and Peter Dante remark that suicide -by hanging was common in Florence. But Dante's text seems pretty often -to have suggested the invention of details in support or illustration of -it. - - - - -CANTO XIV. - - - Me of my native place the dear constraint[433] - Led to restore the leaves which round were strewn, - To him whose voice by this time was grown faint. - Thence came we where the second round joins on - Unto the third, wherein how terrible - The art of justice can be, is well shown. - But, clearly of these wondrous things to tell, - I say we entered on a plain of sand - Which from its bed doth every plant repel. - The dolorous wood lies round it like a band, 10 - As that by the drear fosse is circled round. - Upon its very edge we came to a stand. - And there was nothing within all that bound - But burnt and heavy sand; like that once trod - Beneath the feet of Cato[434] was the ground. - Ah, what a terror, O revenge of God! - Shouldst thou awake in any that may read - Of what before mine eyes was spread abroad. - I of great herds of naked souls took heed. - Most piteously was weeping every one; 20 - And different fortunes seemed to them decreed. - For some of them[435] upon the ground lay prone, - And some were sitting huddled up and bent, - While others, restless, wandered up and down. - More numerous were they that roaming went - Than they that were tormented lying low; - But these had tongues more loosened to lament. - O'er all the sand, deliberate and slow, - Broad open flakes of fire were downward rained, - As 'mong the Alps[436] in calm descends the snow. 30 - Such Alexander[437] saw when he attained - The hottest India; on his host they fell - And all unbroken on the earth remained; - Wherefore he bade his phalanxes tread well - The ground, because when taken one by one - The burning flakes they could the better quell. - So here eternal fire[438] was pouring down; - As tinder 'neath the steel, so here the sands - Kindled, whence pain more vehement was known. - And, dancing up and down, the wretched hands[439] 40 - Beat here and there for ever without rest; - Brushing away from them the falling brands. - And I: 'O Master, by all things confessed - Victor, except by obdurate evil powers - Who at the gate[440] to stop our passage pressed, - Who is the enormous one who noway cowers - Beneath the fire; with fierce disdainful air - Lying as if untortured by the showers?' - And that same shade, because he was aware - That touching him I of my Guide was fain 50 - To learn, cried: 'As in life, myself I bear - In death. Though Jupiter should tire again - His smith, from whom he snatched in angry bout - The bolt by which I at the last was slain;[441] - Though one by one he tire the others out - At the black forge in Mongibello[442] placed, - While "Ho, good Vulcan, help me!" he shall shout-- - The cry he once at Phlegra's[443] battle raised; - Though hurled with all his might at me shall fly - His bolts, yet sweet revenge he shall not taste.' 60 - Then spake my Guide, and in a voice so high - Never till then heard I from him such tone: - 'O Capaneus, because unquenchably - Thy pride doth burn, worse pain by thee is known. - Into no torture save thy madness wild - Fit for thy fury couldest thou be thrown.' - Then, to me turning with a face more mild, - He said: 'Of the Seven Kings was he of old, - Who leaguered Thebes, and as he God reviled - Him in small reverence still he seems to hold; 70 - But for his bosom his own insolence - Supplies fit ornament,[444] as now I told. - Now follow; but take heed lest passing hence - Thy feet upon the burning sand should tread; - But keep them firm where runs the forest fence.'[445] - We reached a place--nor any word we said-- - Where issues from the wood a streamlet small; - I shake but to recall its colour red. - Like that which does from Bulicame[446] fall, - And losel women later 'mong them share; 80 - So through the sand this brooklet's waters crawl. - Its bottom and its banks I was aware - Were stone, and stone the rims on either side. - From this I knew the passage[447] must be there. - 'Of all that I have shown thee as thy guide - Since when we by the gateway[448] entered in, - Whose threshold unto no one is denied, - Nothing by thee has yet encountered been - So worthy as this brook to cause surprise, - O'er which the falling fire-flakes quenched are seen.' 90 - These were my Leader's words. For full supplies - I prayed him of the food of which to taste - Keen appetite he made within me rise. - 'In middle sea there lies a country waste, - Known by the name of Crete,' I then was told, - 'Under whose king[449] the world of yore was chaste. - There stands a mountain, once the joyous hold - Of woods and streams; as Ida 'twas renowned, - Now 'tis deserted like a thing grown old. - For a safe cradle 'twas by Rhea found. 100 - To nurse her child[450] in; and his infant cry, - Lest it betrayed him, she with clamours drowned. - Within the mount an old man towereth high. - Towards Damietta are his shoulders thrown; - On Rome, as on his mirror, rests his eye. - His head is fashioned of pure gold alone; - Of purest silver are his arms and chest; - 'Tis brass to where his legs divide; then down - From that is all of iron of the best, - Save the right foot, which is of baken clay; 110 - And upon this foot doth he chiefly rest. - Save what is gold, doth every part display - A fissure dripping tears; these, gathering all - Together, through the grotto pierce a way. - From rock to rock into this deep they fall, - Feed Acheron[451] and Styx and Phlegethon, - Then downward travelling by this strait canal, - Far as the place where further slope is none, - Cocytus form; and what that pool may be - I say not now. Thou'lt see it further on.' 120 - 'If this brook rises,' he was asked by me, - 'Within our world, how comes it that no trace - We saw of it till on this boundary?' - And he replied: 'Thou knowest that the place - Is round, and far as thou hast moved thy feet, - Still to the left hand[452] sinking to the base, - Nath'less thy circuit is not yet complete. - Therefore if something new we chance to spy, - Amazement needs not on thy face have seat.' - I then: 'But, Master, where doth Lethe lie, 130 - And Phlegethon? Of that thou sayest nought; - Of this thou say'st, those tears its flood supply.' - 'It likes me well to be by thee besought; - But by the boiling red wave,' I was told, - 'To half thy question was an answer brought. - Lethe,[453] not in this pit, shalt thou behold. - Thither to wash themselves the spirits go, - When penitence has made them spotless souled.' - Then said he: 'From the wood 'tis fitting now - That we depart; behind me press thou nigh. 140 - Keep we the margins, for they do not glow, - And over them, ere fallen, the fire-flakes die.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[433] _Dear constraint_: The mention of Florence has awakened Dante to -pity, and he willingly complies with the request of the unnamed suicide -(_Inf._ xiii. 142). As a rule, the only service he consents to yield the -souls with whom he converses in Inferno is to restore their memory upon -earth; a favour he does not feign to be asked for in this case, out of -consideration, it may be, for the family of the sinner. - -[434] _Cato_: Cato of Utica, who, after the defeat of Pompey at -Pharsalia, led his broken army across the Libyan desert to join King -Juba. - -[435] _Some of them, etc._: In this the third round of the Seventh -Circle are punished those guilty of sins of violence against God, -against nature, and against the arts by which alone a livelihood can -honestly be won. Those guilty as against God, the blasphemers, lie prone -like Capaneus (line 46), and are subject to the fiercest pain. Those -guilty of unnatural vice are stimulated into ceaseless motion, as -described in Cantos XV. and XVI. The usurers, those who despise honest -industry and the humanising arts of life, are found crouching on the -ground (_Inf._ xvii. 43). - -[436] _The Alps_: Used here for mountains in general. - -[437] _Such Alexander, etc._: The reference is to a pretended letter of -Alexander to Aristotle, in which he tells of the various hindrances met -with by his army from snow and rain and showers of fire. But in that -narrative it is the snow that is trampled down, while the flakes of fire -are caught by the soldiers upon their outspread cloaks. The story of the -shower of fire may have been suggested by Plutarch's mention of the -mineral oil in the province of Babylon, a strange thing to the Greeks; -and of how they were entertained by seeing the ground, which had been -sprinkled with it, burst into flame. - -[438] _Eternal fire_: As always, the character of the place and of the -punishment bears a relation to the crimes of the inhabitants. They -sinned against nature in a special sense, and now they are confined to -the sterile sand where the only showers that fall are showers of fire. - -[439] _The wretched hands_: The dance, named in the original the -_tresca_, was one in which the performers followed a leader and imitated -him in all his gestures, waving their hands as he did, up and down, and -from side to side. The simile is caught straight from common life. - -[440] _At the gate_: Of the city of Dis (_Inf._ viii. 82). - -[441] _Was slain, etc._: Capaneus, one of the Seven Kings, as told -below, when storming the walls of Thebes, taunted the other gods with -impunity, but his blasphemy against Jupiter was answered by a fatal -bolt. - -[442] _Mongibello_: A popular name of Etna, under which mountain was -situated the smithy of Vulcan and the Cyclopes. - -[443] _Phlegra_: Where the giants fought with the gods. - -[444] _Fit ornament, etc._: Even if untouched by the pain he affects to -despise, he would yet suffer enough from the mad hatred of God that -rages in his breast. Capaneus is the nearest approach to the Satan of -Milton found in the _Inferno_. From the need of getting law enough by -which to try the heathen Dante is led into some inconsistency. After -condemning the virtuous heathen to Limbo for their ignorance of the one -true God, he now condemns the wicked heathen to this circle for -despising false gods. Jupiter here stands for, as need scarcely be said, -the Supreme Ruler; and in that sense he is termed God (line 69). But it -remains remarkable that the one instance of blasphemous defiance of God -should be taken from classical fable. - -[445] _The forest fence_: They do not trust themselves so much as to -step upon the sand, but look out on it from the verge of the forest -which encircles it, and which as they travel they have on the left hand. - -[446] _Bulicame_: A hot sulphur spring a couple of miles from Viterbo, -greatly frequented for baths in the Middle Ages; and, it is said, -especially by light women. The water boils up into a large pool, whence -it flows by narrow channels; sometimes by one and sometimes by another, -as the purposes of the neighbouring peasants require. Sulphurous fumes -rise from the water as it runs. The incrustation of the bottom, sides, -and edges of those channels gives them the air of being solidly built. - -[447] _The passage_: On each edge of the canal there is a flat pathway -of solid stone; and Dante sees that only by following one of these can a -passage be gained across the desert, for to set foot on the sand is -impossible for him owing to the falling flakes of fire. There may be -found in his description of the solid and flawless masonry of the canal -a trace of the pleasure taken in good building by the contemporaries of -Arnolfo. Nor is it without meaning that the sterile sands, the abode of -such as despised honest labour, is crossed by a perfect work of art -which they are forbidden ever to set foot upon. - -[448] _The gateway_: At the entrance to Inferno. - -[449] _Whose king_: Saturn, who ruled the world in the Golden Age. He, -as the devourer of his own offspring, is the symbol of Time; and the -image of Time is therefore set by Dante in the island where he reigned. - -[450] _Her child_: Jupiter, hidden in the mountain from his father -Saturn. - -[451] _Feed Acheron, etc._: The idea of this image is taken from the -figure in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel ii. But here, instead of the -Four Empires, the materials of the statue represent the Four Ages of the -world; the foot of clay on which it stands being the present time, which -is so bad that even iron were too good to represent it. Time turns his -back to the outworn civilisations of the East, and his face to Rome, -which, as the seat of the Empire and the Church, holds the secret of the -future. The tears of time shed by every Age save that of Gold feed the -four infernal streams and pools of Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and -Cocytus. Line 117 indicates that these are all fed by the same water; -are in fact different names for the same flood of tears. The reason why -Dante has not hitherto observed the connection between them is that he -has not made a complete circuit of each or indeed of any circle, as -Virgil reminds him at line 124, etc. The rivulet by which they stand -drains the boiling Phlegethon--where the water is all changed to blood, -because in it the murderers are punished--and flowing through the forest -of the suicides and the desert of the blasphemers, etc., tumbles into -the Eighth Circle as described in Canto xvi. 103. Cocytus they are -afterward to reach. An objection to this account of the infernal rivers -as being all fed by the same waters may be found in the difference of -volume of the great river of Acheron (_Inf._ iii. 71) and of this -brooklet. But this difference is perhaps to be explained by the -evaporation from the boiling waters of Phlegethon and of this stream -which drains it. Dante is almost the only poet applied to whom such -criticism would not be trifling. Another difficult point is how Cocytus -should not in time have filled, and more than filled, the Ninth Circle. - -[452] _To the left hand_: Twice only as they descend they turn their -course to the right hand (_Inf._ ix. 132, and xvii. 31). The circuit of -the Inferno they do not complete till they reach the very base. - -[453] _Lethe_: Found in the Earthly Paradise, as described in -_Purgatorio_ xxviii. 130. - - - - -CANTO XV. - - - Now lies[454] our way along one of the margins hard; - Steam rising from the rivulet forms a cloud, - Which 'gainst the fire doth brook and borders guard. - Like walls the Flemings, timorous of the flood - Which towards them pours betwixt Bruges and Cadsand,[455] - Have made, that ocean's charge may be withstood; - Or what the Paduans on the Brenta's strand - To guard their castles and their homesteads rear, - Ere Chiarentana[456] feel the spring-tide bland; - Of the same fashion did those dikes appear, 10 - Though not so high[457] he made them, nor so vast, - Whoe'er the builder was that piled them here. - We, from the wood when we so far had passed - I should not have distinguished where it lay - Though I to see it backward glance had cast, - A group of souls encountered on the way, - Whose line of march was to the margin nigh. - Each looked at us--as by the new moon's ray - Men peer at others 'neath the darkening sky-- - Sharpening his brows on us and only us, 20 - Like an old tailor on his needle's eye. - And while that crowd was staring at me thus, - One of them knew me, caught me by the gown, - And cried aloud: 'Lo, this is marvellous!'[458] - And straightway, while he thus to me held on, - I fixed mine eyes upon his fire-baked face, - And, spite of scorching, seemed his features known, - And whose they were my memory well could trace; - And I, with hand[459] stretched toward his face below, - Asked: 'Ser Brunetto![460] and is this your place?' 30 - 'O son,' he answered, 'no displeasure show, - If now Brunetto Latini shall some way - Step back with thee, and leave his troop to go.' - I said: 'With all my heart for this I pray, - And, if you choose, I by your side will sit; - If he, for I go with him, grant delay.' - 'Son,' said he, 'who of us shall intermit - Motion a moment, for an age must lie - Nor fan himself when flames are round him lit. - On, therefore! At thy skirts I follow nigh, 40 - Then shall I overtake my band again, - Who mourn a loss large as eternity.' - I dared not from the path step to the plain - To walk with him, but low I bent my head,[461] - Like one whose steps are all with reverence ta'en. - 'What fortune or what destiny,' he said, - 'Hath brought thee here or e'er thou death hast seen; - And who is this by whom thou'rt onward led?' - 'Up yonder,' said I, 'in the life serene, - I in a valley wandered all forlorn 50 - Before my years had full accomplished been. - I turned my back on it but yestermorn;[462] - Again I sought it when he came in sight - Guided by whom[463] I homeward thus return.' - And he to me: 'Following thy planet's light[464] - Thou of a glorious haven canst not fail, - If in the blithesome life I marked aright. - And had my years known more abundant tale, - Seeing the heavens so held thee in their grace - I, heartening thee, had helped thee to prevail. 60 - But that ungrateful and malignant race - Which down from Fiesole[465] came long ago, - And still its rocky origin betrays, - Will for thy worthiness become thy foe; - And with good reason, for 'mong crab-trees wild - It ill befits the mellow fig to grow. - By widespread ancient rumour are they styled - A people blind, rapacious, envious, vain: - See by their manners thou be not defiled. - Fortune reserves such honour for thee, fain 70 - Both sides[466] will be to enlist thee in their need; - But from the beak the herb shall far remain. - Let beasts of Fiesole go on to tread - Themselves to litter, nor the plants molest, - If any such now spring on their rank bed, - In whom there flourishes indeed the blest - Seed of the Romans who still lingered there - When of such wickedness 'twas made the nest.' - 'Had I obtained full answer to my prayer, - You had not yet been doomed,' I then did say, 80 - 'This exile from humanity to bear. - For deep within my heart and memory - Lives the paternal image good and dear - Of you, as in the world, from day to day, - How men escape oblivion you made clear; - My thankfulness for which shall in my speech - While I have life, as it behoves, appear. - I note what of my future course you teach. - Stored with another text[467] it will be glozed - By one expert, should I that Lady reach. 90 - Yet would I have this much to you disclosed: - If but my conscience no reproaches yield, - To all my fortune is my soul composed. - Not new to me the hint by you revealed; - Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel apace, - Even as she will; the clown[468] his mattock wield.' - Thereon my Master right about[469] did face, - And uttered this, with glance upon me thrown: - 'He hears[470] to purpose who doth mark the place.' - And none the less I, speaking, still go on 100 - With Ser Brunetto; asking him to tell - Who of his band[471] are greatest and best known. - And he to me: 'To hear of some is well, - But of the rest 'tis fitting to be dumb, - And time is lacking all their names to spell. - That all of them were clerks, know thou in sum, - All men of letters, famous and of might; - Stained with one sin[472] all from the world are come. - Priscian[473] goes with that crowd of evil plight, - Francis d'Accorso[474] too; and hadst thou mind 110 - For suchlike trash thou mightest have had sight - Of him the Slave[475] of Slaves to change assigned - From Arno's banks to Bacchiglione, where - His nerves fatigued with vice he left behind. - More would I say, but neither must I fare - Nor talk at further length, for from the sand - I see new dust-clouds[476] rising in the air, - I may not keep with such as are at hand. - Care for my _Treasure_;[477] for I still survive - In that my work. I nothing else demand.' 120 - Then turned he back, and ran like those who strive - For the Green Cloth[478] upon Verona's plain; - And seemed like him that shall the first arrive, - And not like him that labours all in vain. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[454] _Now lies, etc._: The stream on issuing from the wood flows right -across the waste of sand which that encompasses. To follow it they must -turn to the right, as always when, their general course being to the -left, they have to cross a Circle. But such a veering to the right is a -consequence of their leftward course, and not an exception to it. - -[455] _Cadsand_: An island opposite to the mouth of the great canal of -Bruges. - -[456] _Chiarentana_: What district or mountain is here meant has been -much disputed. It can be taken for Carinthia only on the supposition -that Dante was ignorant of where the Brenta rises. At the source of that -river stands the Monte Chiarentana, but it may be a question how old -that name is. The district name of it is Canzana, or Carenzana. - -[457] _Not so high, etc._: This limitation is very characteristic of -Dante's style of thought, which compels him to a precision that will -produce the utmost possible effect of verisimilitude in his description. -Most poets would have made the walls far higher and more vast, by way of -lending grandeur to the conception. - -[458] _Marvellous_: To find Dante, whom he knew, still living, and -passing through the Circle. - -[459] _With hand, etc._: 'With my face bent to his' is another reading, -but there seems to be most authority for that in the text.--The fiery -shower forbids Dante to stoop over the edge of the causeway. To -Brunetto, who is some feet below him, he throws out his open hand, a -gesture of astonishment mingled with pity. - -[460] _Ser Brunetto_: Brunetto Latini, a Florentine, was born in 1220. -As a notary he was entitled to be called Ser, or Messer. As appears from -the context, Dante was under great intellectual obligations to him, not, -we may suppose, as to a tutor so much as to an active-minded and -scholarly friend of mature age, and possessed of a ripe experience of -affairs. The social respect that Dante owed him is indicated by the use -of the plural form of address. See note, _Inf._ x. 51. Brunetto held -high appointments in the Republic. Perhaps with some exaggeration, -Villani says of him that he was the first to refine the Florentines, -teaching them to speak correctly, and to administer State affairs on -fixed principles of politics (_Cronica_, viii. 10). A Guelf in politics, -he shared in the exile of his party after the Ghibeline victory of -Montaperti in 1260, and for some years resided in Paris. There is reason -to suppose that he returned to Florence in 1269, and that he acted as -prothonotary of the court of Charles of Valois' vicar-general in -Tuscany. His signature as secretary to the Council of Florence is found -under the date of 1273. He died in 1294, when Dante was twenty-nine, and -was buried in the cloister of Santa Maria Maggiore, where his tombstone -may still be seen. (Not in Santa Maria Novella.) Villani mentions him in -his Chronicle with some reluctance, seeing he was a 'worldly man.' His -life must indeed have been vicious to the last, before Dante could have -had the heart to fix him in such company. Brunetto's chief works are the -_Tesoro_ and _Tesoretto_. For the _Tesoro_, see note at line 119. The -_Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, is an allegorical poem in Italian -rhymed couplets. In it he imagines himself, as he is on his return from -an embassy to Alphonso of Castile, meeting a scholar of Bologna of whom -he asks 'in smooth sweet words for news of Tuscany.' Having been told of -the catastrophe of Montaperti he wanders out of the beaten way into the -Forest of Roncesvalles, where he meets with various experiences; he is -helped by Ovid, is instructed by Ptolemy, and grows penitent for his -sins. In this, it will be seen, there is a general resemblance to the -action of the _Comedy_. There are even turns of expression that recall -Dante (_e.g._ beginning of _Cap._ iv.); but all together amounts to -little. - -[461] _Low I bent my head_: But not projecting it beyond the line of -safety, strictly defined by the edge of the causeway. We are to imagine -to ourselves the fire of Sodom falling on Brunetto's upturned face, and -missing Dante's head only by an inch. - -[462] _Yestermorn_: This is still the Saturday. It was Friday when Dante -met Virgil. - -[463] _Guided by whom_: Brunetto has asked who the guide is, and Dante -does not tell him. A reason for the refusal has been ingeniously found -in the fact that among the numerous citations of the _Treasure_ Brunetto -seldom quotes Virgil. See also the charge brought against Guido -Cavalcanti (_Inf._ x. 63), of holding Virgil in disdain. But it is -explanation enough of Dante's omission to name his guide that he is -passing through Inferno to gain experience for himself, and not to -satisfy the curiosity of the shades he meets. See note on line 99. - -[464] _Thy planet's light_: Some think that Brunetto had cast Dante's -horoscope. In a remarkable passage (_Parad._ xxii. 112) Dante attributes -any genius he may have to the influence of the Twins, which -constellation was in the ascendant when he was born. See also _Inf._ -xxvi. 23. But here it is more likely that Brunetto refers to his -observation of Dante's good qualities, from which he gathered that he -was well starred. - -[465] _Fiesole_: The mother city of Florence, to which also most of the -Fiesolans were believed to have migrated at the beginning of the -eleventh century. But all the Florentines did their best to establish a -Roman descent for themselves; and Dante among them. His fellow-citizens -he held to be for the most part of the boorish Fiesolan breed, rude and -stony-hearted as the mountain in whose cleft the cradle of their race -was seen from Florence. - -[466] _Both sides_: This passage was most likely written not long after -Dante had ceased to entertain any hope of winning his way back to -Florence in the company of the Whites, whose exile he shared, and when -he was already standing in proud isolation from Black and White, from -Guelf and Ghibeline. There is nothing to show that his expectation of -being courted by both sides ever came true. Never a strong partisan, he -had, to use his own words, at last to make a party by himself, and stood -out an Imperialist with his heart set on the triumph of an Empire far -nobler than that the Ghibeline desired. Dante may have hoped to hold a -place of honour some day in the council of a righteous Emperor; and this -may be the glorious haven with the dream of which he was consoled in the -wanderings of his exile. - -[467] _Another text_: Ciacco and Farinata have already hinted at the -troubles that lie ahead of him (_Inf._ vi. 65, and x. 79). - -[468] _The clown, etc._: The honest performance of duty is the best -defence against adverse fortune. - -[469] _Right about_: In traversing the sands they keep upon the -right-hand margin of the embanked stream, Virgil leading the way, with -Dante behind him on the right so that Brunetto may see and hear him -well. - -[470] _He hears, etc._: Of all the interpretations of this somewhat -obscure sentence that seems the best which applies it to Virgil's -_Quicquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est_--'Whatever shall -happen, every fate is to be vanquished by endurance' (_AEn._ v. 710). -Taking this way of it, we have in the form of Dante's profession of -indifference to all the adverse fortune that may be in store for him a -refined compliment to his Guide; and in Virgil's gesture and words an -equally delicate revelation of himself to Brunetto, in which is conveyed -an answer to the question at line 48, 'Who is this that shows the -way?'--Otherwise, the words convey Virgil's approbation of Dante's -having so well attended to his advice to store Farinata's prophecy in -his memory (_Inf._ x.127). - -[471] _His band_: That is, the company to which Brunetto specially -belongs, and from which for the time he has separated himself. - -[472] _Stained with one sin_: Dante will not make Brunetto individually -confess his sin. - -[473] _Priscian_: The great grammarian of the sixth century; placed here -without any reason, except that he is a representative teacher of youth. - -[474] _Francis d'Accorso_: Died about 1294. The son of a great civil -lawyer, he was himself professor of the civil law at Bologna, where his -services were so highly prized that the Bolognese forbade him, on pain -of the confiscation of his goods, to accept an invitation from Edward I. -to go to Oxford. - -[475] _Of him the Slave, etc._: One of the Pope's titles is _Servus -Servorum Domini_. The application of it to Boniface, so hated by Dante, -may be ironical: 'Fit servant of such a slave to vice!' The priest -referred to so contemptuously is Andrea, of the great Florentine family -of the Mozzi, who was much engaged in the political affairs of his time, -and became Bishop of Florence in 1286. About ten years later he was -translated to Vicenza, which stands on the Bacchiglione; and he died -shortly afterwards. According to Benvenuto he was a ridiculous preacher -and a man of dissolute manners. What is now most interesting about him -is that he was Dante's chief pastor during his early manhood, and is -consigned by him to the same disgraceful circle of Inferno as his -beloved master Brunetto Latini--a terrible evidence of the corruption of -life among the churchmen as well as the scholars of the thirteenth -century. - -[476] _New dust-clouds_: Raised by a band by whom they are about to be -met. - -[477] _My Treasure_: The _Tresor_, or _Tesoro_, Brunetto's principal -work, was written by him in French as being 'the pleasantest language, -and the most widely spread.' In it he treats of things in general in the -encyclopedic fashion set him by Alphonso of Castile. The first half -consists of a summary of civil and natural history. The second is -devoted to ethics, rhetoric, and politics. To a great extent it is a -compilation, containing, for instance, a translation, nearly complete, -of the Ethics of Aristotle--not, of course, direct from the Greek. It is -written in a plodding style, and speaks to more industry than genius. To -it Dante is indebted for some facts and fables. - -[478] _The Green Cloth_: To commemorate a victory won by the Veronese -there was instituted a race to be run on the first Sunday of Lent. The -prize was a piece of green cloth. The competitors ran naked.--Brunetto -does not disappear into the gloom without a parting word of applause -from his old pupil. Dante's rigorous sentence on his beloved master is -pronounced as softly as it can be. We must still wonder that he has the -heart to bring him to such an awful judgment. - - - - -CANTO XVI. - - - Now could I hear the water as it fell - To the next circle[479] with a murmuring sound - Like what is heard from swarming hives to swell; - When three shades all together with a bound - Burst from a troop met by us pressing on - 'Neath rain of that sharp torment. O'er the ground - Toward us approaching, they exclaimed each one: - 'Halt thou, whom from thy garb[480] we judge to be - A citizen of our corrupted town.' - Alas, what scars I on their limbs did see, 10 - Both old and recent, which the flames had made: - Even now my ruth is fed by memory. - My Teacher halted at their cry, and said: - 'Await a while:' and looked me in the face; - 'Some courtesy to these were well displayed. - And but that fire--the manner of the place-- - Descends for ever, fitting 'twere to find - Rather than them, thee quickening thy pace.' - When we had halted, they again combined - In their old song; and, reaching where we stood, 20 - Into a wheel all three were intertwined. - And as the athletes used, well oiled and nude, - To feel their grip and, wary, watch their chance, - Ere they to purpose strike and wrestle could; - So each of them kept fixed on me his glance - As he wheeled round,[481] and in opposing ways - His neck and feet seemed ever to advance. - 'Ah, if the misery of this sand-strewn place - Bring us and our petitions in despite,' - One then began, 'and flayed and grimy face; 30 - Let at the least our fame goodwill incite - To tell us who thou art, whose living feet - Thus through Inferno wander without fright. - For he whose footprints, as thou see'st, I beat, - Though now he goes with body peeled and nude, - More than thou thinkest, in the world was great. - The grandson was he of Gualdrada good; - He, Guidoguerra,[482] with his armed hand - Did mighty things, and by his counsel shrewd. - The other who behind me treads the sand 40 - Is one whose name should on the earth be dear; - For he is Tegghiaio[483] Aldobrand. - And I, who am tormented with them here, - James Rusticucci[484] was; my fierce and proud - Wife of my ruin was chief minister.' - If from the fire there had been any shroud - I should have leaped down 'mong them, nor have earned - Blame, for my Teacher sure had this allowed. - But since I should have been all baked and burned, - Terror prevailed the goodwill to restrain 50 - With which to clasp them in my arms I yearned. - Then I began: ''Twas not contempt but pain - Which your condition in my breast awoke, - Where deeply rooted it will long remain, - When this my Master words unto me spoke, - By which expectancy was in me stirred - That ye who came were honourable folk. - I of your city[485] am, and with my word - Your deeds and honoured names oft to recall - Delighted, and with joy of them I heard. 60 - To the sweet fruits I go, and leave the gall, - As promised to me by my Escort true; - But first I to the centre down must fall.' - 'So may thy soul thy members long endue - With vital power,' the other made reply, - 'And after thee thy fame[486] its light renew; - As thou shalt tell if worth and courtesy - Within our city as of yore remain, - Or from it have been wholly forced to fly. - For William Borsier,[487] one of yonder train, 70 - And but of late joined with us in this woe, - Causeth us with his words exceeding pain.' - 'Upstarts, and fortunes suddenly that grow, - Have bred in thee pride and extravagance,[488] - Whence tears, O Florence! thou art shedding now.' - Thus cried I with uplifted countenance. - The three, accepting it for a reply, - Glanced each at each as hearing truth men glance. - And all: 'If others thou shalt satisfy - As well at other times[489] at no more cost, 80 - Happy thus at thine ease the truth to cry! - Therefore if thou escap'st these regions lost, - Returning to behold the starlight fair, - Then when "There was I,"[490] thou shalt make thy boast, - Something of us do thou 'mong men declare.' - Then broken was the wheel, and as they fled - Their nimble legs like pinions beat the air. - So much as one _Amen!_ had scarce been said - Quicker than what they vanished from our view. - On this once more the way my Master led. 90 - I followed, and ere long so near we drew - To where the water fell, that for its roar - Speech scarcely had been heard between us two. - And as the stream which of all those which pour - East (from Mount Viso counting) by its own - Course falls the first from Apennine to shore-- - As Acquacheta[491] in the uplands known - By name, ere plunging to its bed profound; - Name lost ere by Forli its waters run-- - Above St. Benedict with one long bound, 100 - Where for a thousand[492] would be ample room, - Falls from the mountain to the lower ground; - Down the steep cliff that water dyed in gloom - We found to fall echoing from side to side, - Stunning the ear with its tremendous boom. - There was a cord about my middle tied, - With which I once had thought that I might hold - Secure the leopard with the painted hide. - When this from round me I had quite unrolled - To him I handed it, all coiled and tight; 110 - As by my Leader I had first been told. - Himself then bending somewhat toward the right,[493] - He just beyond the edge of the abyss - Threw down the cord,[494] which disappeared from sight. - 'That some strange thing will follow upon this - Unwonted signal which my Master's eye - Thus follows,' so I thought, 'can hardly miss.' - Ah, what great caution need we standing by - Those who behold not only what is done, - But who have wit our hidden thoughts to spy! 120 - He said to me: 'There shall emerge, and soon, - What I await; and quickly to thy view - That which thou dream'st of shall be clearly known.'[495] - From utterance of truth which seems untrue - A man, whene'er he can, should guard his tongue; - Lest he win blame to no transgression due. - Yet now I must speak out, and by the song - Of this my Comedy, Reader, I swear-- - So in good liking may it last full long!-- - I saw a shape swim upward through that air. 130 - All indistinct with gross obscurity, - Enough to fill the stoutest heart with fear: - Like one who rises having dived to free - An anchor grappled on a jagged stone, - Or something else deep hidden in the sea; - With feet drawn in and arms all open thrown. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[479] _The next circle_: The Eighth. - -[480] _Thy garb_: 'Almost every city,' says Boccaccio, 'had in those -times its peculiar fashion of dress distinct from that of neighboring -cities.' - -[481] _As he wheeled round_: Virgil and Dante have come to a halt upon -the embankment. The three shades, to whom it is forbidden to be at rest -for a moment, clasping one another as in a dance, keep wheeling round in -circle upon the sand. - -[482] _Guidoguerra_: A descendant of the Counts Guidi of Modigliana. -Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincion Berti de' Ravignani, praised -for his simple habits in the _Paradiso_, xv. 112. Guidoguerra was a -Guelf leader, and after the defeat of Montaperti acted as Captain of his -party, in this capacity lending valuable aid to Charles of Anjou at the -battle of Benevento, 1266, when Manfred was overthrown. He had no -children, and left the Commonwealth of Florence his heir. - -[483] _Tegghiaio_: Son of Aldobrando of the Adimari. His name should be -dear in Florence, because he did all he could to dissuade the citizens -from the campaign which ended so disastrously at Montaperti. - -[484] _James Rusticucci_: An accomplished cavalier of humble birth, said -to have been a retainer of Dante's friends the Cavalcanti. The -commentators have little to tell of him except that he made an unhappy -marriage, which is evident from the text. Of the sins of him and his -companions there is nothing known beyond what is to be inferred from the -poet's words, and nothing to say, except that when Dante consigned men -of their stamp, frank and amiable, to the Infernal Circles, we may be -sure that he only executed a verdict already accepted as just by the -whole of Florence. And when we find him impartially damning Guelf and -Ghibeline we may be equally sure that he looked for the aid of neither -party, and of no family however powerful in the State, to bring his -banishment to a close. He would even seem to be careful to stop any hole -by which he might creep back to Florence. When he did return, it was to -be in the train of the Emperor, so he hoped, and as one who gives rather -than seeks forgiveness. - -[485] _Of your city, etc._: At line 32 Rusticucci begs Dante to tell who -he is. He tells that he is of their city, which they have already -gathered from his _berretta_ and the fashion of his gown; but he tells -nothing, almost, of himself. Unless to Farinata, indeed, he never makes -an open breast to any one met in Inferno. But here he does all that -courtesy requires. - -[486] _Thy fame_: Dante has implied in his answer that he is gifted with -oratorical powers and is the object of a special Divine care; and the -illustrious Florentine, frankly acknowledging the claim he makes, -adjures him by the fame which is his in store to appease an eager -curiosity about the Florence which even in Inferno is the first thought -of every not ignoble Florentine. - -[487] _William Borsiere_: A Florentine, witty and well bred, according -to Boccaccio. Being once at Genoa he was shown a fine new palace by its -miserly owner, and was asked to suggest a subject for a painting with -which to adorn the hall. The subject was to be something that nobody had -ever seen. Borsiere proposed liberality as something that the miser at -any rate had never yet got a good sight of; an answer of which it is not -easy to detect either the wit or the courtesy, but which is said to have -converted the churl to liberal ways (_Decam._ i. 8). He is here -introduced as an authority on the noble style of manners. - -[488] _Pride and extravagance_: In place of the nobility of mind that -leads to great actions, and the gentle manners that prevail in a society -where there is a due subordination of rank to rank and well-defined -duties for every man. This, the aristocratic in a noble sense, was -Dante's ideal of a social state; for all his instincts were those of a -Florentine aristocrat, corrected though they were by his good sense and -his thirst for a reign of perfect justice. During his own time he had -seen Florence grow more and more democratic; and he was -irritated--unreasonably, considering that it was only a sign of the -general prosperity--at the spectacle of the amazing growth of wealth in -the hands of low-born traders, who every year were coming more to the -front and monopolising influence at home and abroad at the cost of their -neighbours and rivals with longer pedigrees and shorter purses. In -_Paradiso_ xvi. Dante dwells at length on the degeneracy of the -Florentines. - -[489] _At other times_: It is hinted that his outspokenness will not in -the future always give equal satisfaction to those who hear. - -[490] _There was I, etc._: _Forsan et haec olim meminisse -juvabit._--_AEn._ i. 203. - -[491] _Acquacheta_: The fall of the water of the brook over the lofty -cliff that sinks from the Seventh to the Eighth Circle is compared to -the waterfall upon the Montone at the monastery of St. Benedict, in the -mountains above Forli. The Po rises in Monte Viso. Dante here travels in -imagination from Monte Viso down through Italy, and finds that all the -rivers which rise on the left hand, that is, on the north-east of the -Apennine, fall into the Po, till the Montone is reached, that river -falling into the Adriatic by a course of its own. Above Forli it was -called Acquacheta. The Lamone, north of the Montone, now follows an -independent course to the sea, having cut a new bed for itself since -Dante's time. - -[492] _Where for a thousand, etc._: In the monastery there was room for -many more monks, say most of the commentators; or something to the like -effect. Mr. Longfellow's interpretation seems better: Where the height -of the fall is so great that it would divide into a thousand falls. - -[493] _Toward the right_: The attitude of one about to throw. - -[494] _The cord_: The services of Geryon are wanted to convey them down -the next reach of the pit; and as no voice could be heard for the noise -of the waterfall, and no signal be made to catch the eye amid the gloom, -Virgil is obliged to call the attention of the monster by casting some -object into the depth where he lies concealed. But, since they are -surrounded by solid masonry and slack sand, one or other of them must -supply something fit to throw down; and the cord worn by Dante is fixed -on as what can best be done without. There may be a reference to the -cord of Saint Francis, which Dante, according to one of his -commentators, wore when he was a young man, following in this a fashion -common enough among pious laymen who had no thought of ever becoming -friars. But the simile of the cord, as representing sobriety and -virtuous purpose, is not strange to Dante. In _Purg._ vii. 114 he -describes Pedro of Arragon as being girt with the cord of every virtue; -and Pedro was no Franciscan. Dante's cord may therefore be taken as -standing for vigilance or self-control. With it he had hoped to get the -better of the leopard (_Inf._ i. 32), and may have trusted in it for -support as against the terrors of Inferno. But although he has been girt -with it ever since he entered by the gate, it has not saved him from a -single fear, far less from a single danger; and now it is cast away as -useless. Henceforth, more than ever, he is to confide wholly in Virgil -and have no confidence in himself. Nor is he to be girt again till he -reaches the coast of Purgatory, and then it is to be with a reed, the -emblem of humility.--But, however explained, the incident will always be -somewhat of a puzzle. - -[495] Dante attributes to Virgil full knowledge of all that is in his -own mind. He thus heightens our conception of his dependence on his -guide, with whose will his will is blent, and whose thoughts are always -found to be anticipating his own. Few readers will care to be constantly -recalling to mind that Virgil represents enlightened human reason. But -even if we confine ourselves to the easiest sense of the narrative, the -study of the relations between him and Dante will be found one of the -most interesting suggested by the poem--perhaps only less so than that -of Dante's moods of wonder, anger, and pity. - - - - -CANTO XVII. - - - 'Behold the monster[496] with the pointed tail, - Who passes mountains[497] and can entrance make - Through arms and walls! who makes the whole world ail, - Corrupted by him!' Thus my Leader spake, - And beckoned him that he should land hard by, - Where short the pathways built of marble break. - And that foul image of dishonesty - Moving approached us with his head and chest, - But to the bank[498] drew not his tail on high. - His face a human righteousness expressed, 10 - 'Twas so benignant to the outward view; - A serpent was he as to all the rest. - On both his arms hair to the arm-pits grew: - On back and chest and either flank were knot[499] - And rounded shield portrayed in various hue; - No Turk or Tartar weaver ever brought - To ground or pattern a more varied dye;[500] - Nor by Arachne[501] was such broidery wrought. - As sometimes by the shore the barges lie - Partly in water, partly on dry land; 20 - And as afar in gluttonous Germany,[502] - Watching their prey, alert the beavers stand; - So did this worst of brutes his foreparts fling - Upon the stony rim which hems the sand. - All of his tail in space was quivering, - Its poisoned fork erecting in the air, - Which scorpion-like was armed with a sting. - My Leader said: 'Now we aside must fare - A little distance, so shall we attain - Unto the beast malignant crouching there.' 30 - So we stepped down upon the right,[503] and then - A half score steps[504] to the outer edge did pace, - Thus clearing well the sand and fiery rain. - And when we were hard by him I could trace - Upon the sand a little further on - Some people sitting near to the abyss. - 'That what this belt containeth may be known - Completely by thee,' then the Master said; - 'To see their case do thou advance alone. - Let thy inquiries be succinctly made. 40 - While thou art absent I will ask of him, - With his strong shoulders to afford us aid.' - Then, all alone, I on the outmost rim - Of that Seventh Circle still advancing trod, - Where sat a woful folk.[505] Full to the brim - Their eyes with anguish were, and overflowed; - Their hands moved here and there to win some ease, - Now from the flames, now from the soil which glowed. - No otherwise in summer-time one sees, - Working its muzzle and its paws, the hound 50 - When bit by gnats or plagued with flies or fleas. - And I, on scanning some who sat around - Of those on whom the dolorous flames alight, - Could recognise[506] not one. I only found - A purse hung from the throat of every wight, - Each with its emblem and its special hue; - And every eye seemed feasting on the sight. - As I, beholding them, among them drew, - I saw what seemed a lion's face and mien - Upon a yellow purse designed in blue. 60 - Still moving on mine eyes athwart the scene - I saw another scrip, blood-red, display - A goose more white than butter could have been. - And one, on whose white wallet blazoned lay - A pregnant sow[507] in azure, to me said: - 'What dost thou in this pit? Do thou straightway - Begone; and, seeing thou art not yet dead, - Know that Vitalian,[508] neighbour once of mine, - Shall on my left flank one day find his bed. - A Paduan I: all these are Florentine; 70 - And oft they stun me, bellowing in my ear: - "Come, Pink of Chivalry,[509] for whom we pine, - Whose is the purse on which three beaks appear:"' - Then he from mouth awry his tongue thrust out[510] - Like ox that licks its nose; and I, in fear - Lest more delay should stir in him some doubt - Who gave command I should not linger long, - Me from those wearied spirits turned about. - I found my Guide, who had already sprung - Upon the back of that fierce animal: 80 - He said to me: 'Now be thou brave and strong. - By stairs like this[511] we henceforth down must fall. - Mount thou in front, for I between would sit - So thee the tail shall harm not nor appal.' - Like one so close upon the shivering fit - Of quartan ague that his nails grow blue, - And seeing shade he trembles every whit, - I at the hearing of that order grew; - But his threats shamed me, as before the face - Of a brave lord his man grows valorous too. 90 - On the great shoulders then I took my place, - And wished to say, but could not move my tongue - As I expected: 'Do thou me embrace!' - But he, who other times had helped me 'mong - My other perils, when ascent I made - Sustained me, and strong arms around me flung, - And, 'Geryon, set thee now in motion!' said; - 'Wheel widely; let thy downward flight be slow; - Think of the novel burden on thee laid.' - As from the shore a boat begins to go 100 - Backward at first, so now he backward pressed, - And when he found that all was clear below, - He turned his tail where earlier was his breast; - And, stretching it, he moved it like an eel, - While with his paws he drew air toward his chest. - More terror Phaethon could hardly feel - What time he let the reins abandoned fall, - Whence Heaven was fired,[512] as still its tracts reveal; - Nor wretched Icarus, on finding all - His plumage moulting as the wax grew hot, 110 - While, 'The wrong road!' his father loud did call; - Than what I felt on finding I was brought - Where nothing was but air and emptiness; - For save the brute I could distinguish nought. - He slowly, slowly swims; to the abyss - Wheeling he makes descent, as I surmise - From wind felt 'neath my feet and in my face. - Already on the right I heard arise - From out the caldron a terrific roar,[513] - Whereon I stretch my head with down-turned eyes. 120 - Terror of falling now oppressed me sore; - Hearing laments, and seeing fires that burned, - My thighs I tightened, trembling more and more. - Earlier I had not by the eye discerned - That we swept downward; scenes of torment now - Seemed drawing nearer wheresoe'er we turned. - And as a falcon (which long time doth go - Upon the wing, not finding lure[514] or prey), - While 'Ha!' the falconer cries, 'descending so!' - Comes wearied back whence swift it soared away; 130 - Wheeling a hundred times upon the road, - Then, from its master far, sulks angrily: - So we, by Geryon in the deep bestowed, - Were 'neath the sheer-hewn precipice set down: - He, suddenly delivered from our load, - Like arrow from the string was swiftly gone. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[496] _The monster_: Geryon, a mythical king of Spain, converted here -into the symbol of fraud, and set as the guardian demon of the Eighth -Circle, where the fraudulent are punished. There is nothing in the -mythology to justify this account of Geryon; and it seems that Dante has -created a monster to serve his purpose. Boccaccio, in his _Genealogy of -the Gods_ (Lib. i.), repeats the description of Geryon given by 'Dante -the Florentine, in his poem written in the Florentine tongue, one -certainly of no little importance among poems;' and adds that Geryon -reigned in the Balearic Isles, and was used to decoy travellers with his -benignant countenance, caressing words, and every kind of friendly lure, -and then to murder them when asleep. - -[497] _Who passes mountains, etc._: Neither art nor nature affords any -defence against fraud. - -[498] _The bank_: Not that which confines the brook but the inner limit -of the Seventh Circle, from which the precipice sinks sheer into the -Eighth, and to which the embankment by which the travellers have crossed -the sand joins itself on. Virgil has beckoned Geryon to come to that -part of the bank which adjoins the end of the causeway. - -[499] _Knot and rounded shield_: Emblems of subtle devices and -subterfuges. - -[500]_ Varied dye_: Denoting the various colours of deceit. - -[501] _Arachne_: The Lydian weaver changed into a spider by Minerva. See -_Purg._ xii. 43. - -[502] _Gluttonous Germany_: The habits of the German men-at-arms in -Italy, odious to the temperate Italians, explains this gibe. - -[503] _The right_: This is the second and last time that, in their -course through Inferno, they turn to the right. See _Inf._ ix. 132. The -action may possibly have a symbolical meaning, and refer to the -protection against fraud which is obtained by keeping to a righteous -course. But here, in fact, they have no choice, for, traversing the -Inferno as they do to the left hand, they came to the right bank of the -stream which traverses the fiery sands, followed it, and now, when they -would leave its edge, it is from the right embankment that they have to -step down, and necessarily to the right hand. - -[504] _A half score steps, etc._: Traversing the stone-built border -which lies between the sand and the precipice. Had the brook flowed to -the very edge of the Seventh Circle before tumbling down the rocky wall -it is clear that they might have kept to the embankment until they were -clear beyond the edge of the sand. We are therefore to figure to -ourselves the water as plunging down at a point some yards, perhaps the -width of the border, short of the true limit of the circle; and this is -a touch of local truth, since waterfalls in time always wear out a -funnel for themselves by eating back the precipice down which they -tumble. It was into this funnel that Virgil flung the cord, and up it -that Geryon was seen to ascend, as if by following up the course of the -water he would find out who had made the signal. To keep to the narrow -causeway where it ran on by the edge of this gulf would seem too full of -risk. - -[505] _Woful folk_: Usurers; those guilty of the unnatural sin of -contemning the legitimate modes of human industry. They sit huddled up -on the sand, close to its bound of solid masonry, from which Dante looks -down on them. But that the usurers are not found only at the edge of the -plain is evident from _Inf._ xiv. 19. - -[506] _Could recognise, etc._: Though most of the group prove to be from -Florence Dante recognises none of them; and this denotes that nothing so -surely creates a second nature in a man, in a bad sense, as setting the -heart on money. So in the Fourth Circle those who, being unable to spend -moderately, are always thinking of how to keep or get money are -represented as 'obscured from any recognition' (_Inf._ vii. 44). - -[507] _A pregnant sow_: The azure lion on a golden field was the arms of -the Gianfigliazzi, eminent usurers of Florence; the white goose on a red -ground was the arms of the Ubriachi of Florence; the azure sow, of the -Scrovegni of Padua. - -[508] _Vitalian_: A rich Paduan noble, whose palace was near that of the -Scrovegni. - -[509] _Pink of Chivalry_: 'Sovereign Cavalier;' identified by his arms -as Ser Giovanni Buiamonte, still alive in Florence in 1301, and if we -are to judge from the text, the greatest usurer of all. A northern poet -of the time would have sought his usurers in the Jewry of some town he -knew, but Dante finds his among the nobles of Padua and Florence. He -ironically represents them as wearing purses ornamented with their coats -of arms, perhaps to hint that they pursued their dishonourable trade -under shelter of their noble names--their shop signs, as it were. The -whole passage may have been planned by Dante so as to afford him the -opportunity of damning the still living Buiamonte without mentioning his -name. - -[510] _His tongue thrust out_: As if to say: We know well what sort of -fine gentleman Buiamonte is. - -[511] _By stairs like this_: The descent from one circle to another -grows more difficult the further down they come. They appear to have -found no special obstacle in the nature of the ground till they reached -the bank sloping down to the Fifth Circle, the pathway down which is -described as terrible (_Inf._ vii. 105). The descent into the Seventh -Circle is made practicable, and nothing more (_Inf._ xii. I). - -[512] _Heaven was fired_: As still appears in the Milky Way. In the -_Convito_, ii. 15, Dante discusses the various explanations of what -causes the brightness of that part of the heavens. - -[513] _A terrific roar_: Of the water falling to the ground. On -beginning the descent they had left the waterfall on the left hand, but -Geryon, after fetching one or more great circles, passes in front of it, -and then they have it on the right. There is no further mention of the -waters of Phlegethon till they are found frozen in Cocytus (_Inf._ -xxxii. 23). Philalethes suggests that they flow under the Eighth Circle. - -[514] _Lure_: An imitation bird used in training falcons. Dante -describes the sulky, slow descent of a falcon which has either lost -sight of its prey, or has failed to discover where the falconer has -thrown the lure. Geryon has descended thus deliberately owing to the -command of Virgil. - - - - -CANTO XVIII. - - - Of iron colour, and composed of stone, - A place called Malebolge[515] is in Hell, - Girt by a cliff of substance like its own. - In that malignant region yawns a well[516] - Right in the centre, ample and profound; - Of which I duly will the structure tell. - The zone[517] that lies between them, then, is round-- - Between the well and precipice hard and high; - Into ten vales divided is the ground. - As is the figure offered to the eye, 10 - Where numerous moats a castle's towers enclose - That they the walls may better fortify; - A like appearance was made here by those. - And as, again, from threshold of such place - Many a drawbridge to the outworks goes; - So ridges from the precipice's base - Cutting athwart the moats and barriers run, - Till at the well join the extremities.[518] - From Geryon's back when we were shaken down - 'Twas here we stood, until the Poet's feet 20 - Moved to the left, and I, behind, came on. - New torments on the right mine eyes did meet - With new tormentors, novel woe on woe; - With which the nearer Bolgia was replete. - Sinners, all naked, in the gulf below, - This side the middle met us; while they strode - On that side with us, but more swift did go.[519] - Even so the Romans, that the mighty crowd - Across the bridge, the year of Jubilee, - Might pass with ease, ordained a rule of road[520]-- 30 - Facing the Castle, on that side should be - The multitude which to St. Peter's hied; - So to the Mount on this was passage free. - On the grim rocky ground, on either side, - I saw horned devils[521] armed with heavy whip - Which on the sinners from behind they plied. - Ah, how they made the wretches nimbly skip - At the first lashes; no one ever yet - But sought from the second and the third to slip. - And as I onward went, mine eyes were set 40 - On one of them; whereon I called in haste: - 'This one already I have surely met!' - Therefore to know him, fixedly I gazed; - And my kind Leader willingly delayed, - While for a little I my course retraced. - On this the scourged one, thinking to evade - My search, his visage bent without avail, - For: 'Thou that gazest on the ground,' I said, - 'If these thy features tell trustworthy tale, - Venedico Caccianimico[522] thou! 50 - But what has brought thee to such sharp regale?'[523] - And he, 'I tell it 'gainst my will, I trow, - But thy clear accents[524] to the old world bear - My memory, and make me all avow. - I was the man who Ghisola the fair - To serve the Marquis' evil will led on, - Whatever[525] the uncomely tale declare. - Of Bolognese here weeping not alone - Am I; so full the place of them, to-day - 'Tween Reno and Savena[526] are not known 60 - So many tongues that _Sipa_ deftly say: - And if of this thou'dst know the reason why, - Think but how greedy were our hearts alway.' - To him thus speaking did a demon cry: - 'Pander, begone!' and smote him with his thong; - 'Here are no women for thy coin to buy.' - Then, with my Escort joined, I moved along. - Few steps we made until we there had come, - Where from the bank a rib of rock was flung. - With ease enough up to its top we clomb, 70 - And, turning on the ridge, bore to the right;[527] - And those eternal circles[528] parted from. - When we had reached where underneath the height - A passage opes, yielding the scourged a way, - My Guide bade: 'Tarry, so to hold in sight - Those other spirits born in evil day, - Whose faces until now from thee have been - Concealed, because with ours their progress lay.' - Then from the ancient bridge by us were seen - The troop which toward us on that circuit sped, 80 - Chased onward, likewise, by the scourges keen. - And my good Master, ere I asked him, said: - 'That lordly one now coming hither, see, - By whom, despite of pain, no tears are shed. - What mien he still retains of majesty! - 'Tis Jason, who by courage and by guile - The Colchians of the ram deprived. 'Twas he - Who on his passage by the Lemnian isle, - Where all of womankind with daring hand - Upon their males had wrought a murder vile, 90 - With loving pledges and with speeches bland - The tender-yeared Hypsipyle betrayed, - Who had herself a fraud on others planned. - Forlorn he left her then, when pregnant made. - That is the crime condemns him to this pain; - And for Medea[529] too is vengeance paid. - Who in his manner cheat compose his train. - Of the first moat sufficient now is known, - And those who in its jaws engulfed remain.' - Already had we by the strait path gone 100 - To where 'tis with the second bank dovetailed-- - The buttress whence a second arch is thrown. - Here heard we who in the next Bolgia wailed[530] - And puffed for breath; reverberations told - They with their open palms themselves assailed. - The sides were crusted over with a mould - Plastered upon them by foul mists that rise, - And both with eyes and nose a contest hold. - The bottom is so deep, in vain our eyes - Searched it till further up the bridge we went, 110 - To where the arch o'erhangs what under lies. - Ascended there, our eyes we downward bent, - And I saw people in such ordure drowned, - A very cesspool 'twas of excrement. - And while I from above am searching round, - One with a head so filth-smeared I picked out, - I knew not if 'twas lay, or tonsure-crowned. - 'Why then so eager,' asked he with a shout, - 'To stare at me of all the filthy crew?' - And I to him: 'Because I scarce can doubt 120 - That formerly thee dry of hair I knew, - Alessio Interminei[531] the Lucchese; - And therefore thee I chiefly hold in view.' - Smiting his head-piece, then, his words were these: - ''Twas flattery steeped me here; for, using such, - My tongue itself enough could never please.' - 'Now stretch thou somewhat forward, but not much,' - Thereon my Leader bade me, 'and thine eyes - Slowly advance till they her features touch - And the dishevelled baggage recognise, 130 - Clawing her yonder with her nails unclean, - Now standing up, now squatting on her thighs. - 'Tis harlot Thais,[532] who, when she had been - Asked by her lover, "Am I generous - And worthy thanks?" said, "Greatly so, I ween." - Enough[533] of this place has been seen by us.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[515] _Malebolge_: Or Evil Pits; literally, Evil Pockets. - -[516] _A well_: The Ninth and lowest Circle, to be described in Canto -xxxii., etc. - -[517] _The zone_: The Eighth Circle, in which the fraudulent of all -species are punished, lies between the precipice and the Ninth Circle. A -vivid picture of the enormous height of the enclosing wall has been -presented to us at the close of the preceding Canto. As in the -description of the Second Circle the atmosphere is represented as -malignant, being murky and disturbed with tempest; so the Malebolge is -called malignant too, being all of barren iron-coloured rock. In both -cases the surroundings of the sinners may well be spoken of as malign, -adverse to any thought of goodwill and joy. - -[518] _The extremities_: The _Malebolge_ consists of ten circular pits -or fosses, one inside of another. The outermost lies under the precipice -which falls sheer from the Seventh Circle; the innermost, and of course -the smallest, runs immediately outside of the 'Well,' which is the Ninth -Circle. The Bolgias or valleys are divided from each other by rocky -banks; and, each Bolgia being at a lower level than the one that -encloses it, the inside of each bank is necessarily deeper than the -outside. Ribs or ridges of rock--like spokes of a wheel to the -axle-tree--run from the foot of the precipice to the outer rim of the -'Well,' vaulting the moats at right angles with the course of them. Thus -each rib takes the form of a ten-arched bridge. By one or other of these -Virgil and Dante now travel towards the centre and the base of Inferno; -their general course being downward, though varied by the ascent in turn -of the hog-backed arches over the moats. - -[519] _More swift_: The sinners in the First Bolgia are divided into two -gangs, moving in opposite directions, the course of those on the outside -being to the right, as looked at by Dante. These are the shades of -panders; those in the inner current are such as seduced on their own -account. Here a list of the various classes of sinners contained in the -Bolgias of the Eighth Circle may be given:-- - - 1st Bolgia--Seducers, CANTO XVIII. - 2d " Flatterers, " " - 3d " Simoniacs, " XIX. - 4th " Soothsayers, " XX. - 5th " Barrators, " XXI. XXII. - 6th " Hypocrites, " XXIII. - 7th " Thieves, " XXIV. XXV. - 8th " Evil Counsellors, " XXVI. XXVII. - 9th " Scandal and Heresy Mongers, " XXVIII. XXIX. - 10th " Falsifiers, " XXIX. XXX. - -[520] _A rule of road_: In the year 1300 a Jubilee was held in Rome with -Plenary Indulgence for all pilgrims. Villani says that while it lasted -the number of strangers in Rome was never less than two hundred -thousand. The bridge and castle spoken of in the text are those of St. -Angelo. The Mount is probably the Janiculum. - -[521] _Horned devils_: Here the demons are horned--terrible -remembrancers to the sinner of the injured husband. - -[522] _Venedico Caccianimico_: A Bolognese noble, brother of Ghisola, -whom he inveigled into yielding herself to the Marquis of Este, lord of -Ferrara. Venedico died between 1290 and 1300. - -[523] _Such sharp regale_: 'Such pungent sauces.' There is here a play -of words on the _Salse_, the name of a wild ravine outside the walls of -Bologna, where the bodies of felons were thrown. Benvenuto says it used -to be a taunt among boys at Bologna: Your father was pitched into the -Salse. - -[524] _Thy clear accents_: Not broken with sobs like his own and those -of his companions. - -[525] _Whatever, etc._: Different accounts seem to have been current -about the affair of Ghisola. - -[526] _'Tween Reno, etc._: The Reno and Savena are streams that flow -past Bologna. _Sipa_ is Bolognese for Maybe, or for Yes. So Dante -describes Tuscany as the country where _Si_ is heard (_Inf._ xxxiii. -80). With regard to the vices of the Bolognese, Benvenuto says: 'Dante -had studied in Bologna, and had seen and observed all these things.' - -[527] _To the right_: This is only an apparent departure from their -leftward course. Moving as they were to the left along the edge of the -Bolgia, they required to turn to the right to cross the bridge that -spanned it. - -[528] _Those eternal circles_: The meaning is not clear; perhaps it only -is that they have now done with the outer stream of sinners in this -Bolgia, left by them engaged in endless procession round and round. - -[529] _Medea_: When the Argonauts landed on Lemnos, they found it -without any males, the women, incited by Venus, having put them all to -death, with the exception of Thoas, saved by his daughter Hypsipyle. -When Jason deserted her he sailed for Colchis, and with the assistance -of Medea won the Golden Fleece. Medea, who accompanied him from Colchis, -was in turn deserted by him. - -[530] _Who in the next Bolgia wailed_: The flatterers in the Second -Bolgia. - -[531] _Alessio Interminei_: Of the Great Lucchese family of the -Interminelli, to which the famous Castruccio Castrucani belonged. -Alessio is know to have been living in 1295. Dante may have known him -personally. Benvenuto says he was so liberal of his flattery that he -spent it even on menial servants. - -[532] _Thais_: In the _Eunuch_ of Terence, Thraso, the lover of that -courtesan, asks Gnatho, their go-between, if she really sent him many -thanks for the present of a slave-girl he had sent her. 'Enormous!' says -Gnatho. It proves what great store Dante set on ancient instances when -he thought this worth citing. - -[533] _Enough, etc._: Most readers will agree with Virgil. - - - - -CANTO XIX. - - - O Simon Magus![534] ye his wretched crew! - The gifts of God, ordained to be the bride - Of righteousness, ye prostitute that you - With gold and silver may be satisfied; - Therefore for you let now the trumpet[535] blow, - Seeing that ye in the Third Bolgia 'bide. - Arrived at the next tomb,[536] we to the brow - Of rock ere this had finished our ascent, - Which hangs true plumb above the pit below. - What perfect art, O Thou Omniscient, 10 - Is Thine in Heaven and earth and the bad world found! - How justly does Thy power its dooms invent! - The livid stone, on both banks and the ground, - I saw was full of holes on every side, - All of one size, and each of them was round. - No larger seemed they to me nor less wide - Than those within my beautiful St. John[537] - For the baptizers' standing-place supplied; - And one of which, not many years agone, - I broke to save one drowning; and I would 20 - Have this for seal to undeceive men known. - Out of the mouth of each were seen protrude - A sinner's feet, and of the legs the small - Far as the calves; the rest enveloped stood. - And set on fire were both the soles of all, - Which made their ankles wriggle with such throes - As had made ropes and withes asunder fall. - And as flame fed by unctuous matter goes - Over the outer surface only spread; - So from their heels it flickered to the toes. 30 - 'Master, who is he, tortured more,' I said, - 'Than are his neighbours, writhing in such woe; - And licked by flames of deeper-hearted red?' - And he: 'If thou desirest that below - I bear thee by that bank[538] which lowest lies, - Thou from himself his sins and name shalt know.' - And I: 'Thy wishes still for me suffice: - Thou art my Lord, and knowest I obey - Thy will; and dost my hidden thoughts surprise.' - To the fourth barrier then we made our way, 40 - And, to the left hand turning, downward went - Into the narrow hole-pierced cavity; - Nor the good Master caused me make descent - From off his haunch till we his hole were nigh - Who with his shanks was making such lament. - 'Whoe'er thou art, soul full of misery, - Set like a stake with lower end upcast,' - I said to him, 'Make, if thou canst, reply.' - I like a friar[539] stood who gives the last - Shrift to a vile assassin, to his side 50 - Called back to win delay for him fixed fast. - 'Art thou arrived already?' then he cried, - 'Art thou arrived already, Boniface? - By several years the prophecy[540] has lied. - Art so soon wearied of the wealthy place, - For which thou didst not fear to take with guile, - Then ruin the fair Lady?'[541] Now my case - Was like to theirs who linger on, the while - They cannot comprehend what they are told, - And as befooled[542] from further speech resile. 60 - But Virgil bade me: 'Speak out loud and bold, - "I am not he thou thinkest, no, not he!"' - And I made answer as by him controlled. - The spirit's feet then twisted violently, - And, sighing in a voice of deep distress, - He asked: 'What then requirest thou of me? - If me to know thou hast such eagerness, - That thou the cliff hast therefore ventured down, - Know, the Great Mantle sometime was my dress. - I of the Bear, in sooth, was worthy son: 70 - As once, the Cubs to help, my purse with gain - I stuffed, myself I in this purse have stown. - Stretched out at length beneath my head remain - All the simoniacs[543] that before me went, - And flattened lie throughout the rocky vein. - I in my turn shall also make descent, - Soon as he comes who I believed thou wast, - When I asked quickly what for him was meant. - O'er me with blazing feet more time has past, - While upside down I fill the topmost room, 80 - Than he his crimsoned feet shall upward cast; - For after him one viler still shall come, - A Pastor from the West,[544] lawless of deed: - To cover both of us his worthy doom. - A modern Jason[545] he, of whom we read - In Maccabees, whose King denied him nought: - With the French King so shall this man succeed.' - Perchance I ventured further than I ought, - But I spake to him in this measure free: - 'Ah, tell me now what money was there sought 90 - Of Peter by our Lord, when either key - He gave him in his guardianship to hold? - Sure He demanded nought save: "Follow me!" - Nor Peter, nor the others, asked for gold - Or silver when upon Matthias fell - The lot instead of him, the traitor-souled. - Keep then thy place, for thou art punished well,[546] - And clutch the pelf, dishonourably gained, - Which against Charles[547] made thee so proudly swell. - And, were it not that I am still restrained 100 - By reverence[548] for those tremendous keys, - Borne by thee while the glad world thee contained, - I would use words even heavier than these; - Seeing your avarice makes the world deplore, - Crushing the good, filling the bad with ease. - 'Twas you, O Pastors, the Evangelist bore - In mind what time he saw her on the flood - Of waters set, who played with kings the whore; - Who with seven heads was born; and as she would - By the ten horns to her was service done, 110 - Long as her spouse[549] rejoiced in what was good. - Now gold and silver are your god alone: - What difference 'twixt the idolater and you, - Save that ye pray a hundred for his one? - Ah, Constantine,[550] how many evils grew-- - Not from thy change of faith, but from the gift - Wherewith thou didst the first rich Pope endue!' - While I my voice continued to uplift - To such a tune, by rage or conscience stirred - Both of his soles he made to twist and shift. 120 - My Guide, I well believe, with pleasure heard; - Listening he stood with lips so well content - To me propounding truthful word on word. - Then round my body both his arms he bent, - And, having raised me well upon his breast, - Climbed up the path by which he made descent. - Nor was he by his burden so oppressed - But that he bore me to the bridge's crown, - Which with the fourth joins the fifth rampart's crest. - And lightly here he set his burden down, 130 - Found light by him upon the precipice, - Up which a goat uneasily had gone. - And thence another valley met mine eyes. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[534] _Simon Magus_: The sin of simony consists in setting a price on -the exercise of a spiritual grace or the acquisition of a spiritual -office. Dante assails it at headquarters, that is, as it was practised -by the Popes; and in their case it took, among other forms, that of -ecclesiastical nepotism. - -[535] _The trumpet_: Blown at the punishment of criminals, to call -attention to their sentence. - -[536] _The next tomb_: The Third Bolgia, appropriately termed a tomb, -because its manner of punishment is that of a burial, as will be seen. - -[537] _St. John_: The church of St. John's, in Dante's time, as now, the -Baptistery of Florence. In _Parad._ xxv. he anticipates the day, if it -should ever come, when he shall return to Florence, and in the church -where he was baptized a Christian be crowned as a Poet. Down to the -middle of the sixteenth century all baptisms, except in cases of urgent -necessity, were celebrated in St. John's; and, even there, only on the -eves of Easter and Pentecost. For protection against the crowd, the -officiating priests were provided with standing-places, circular -cavities disposed around the great font. To these Dante compares the -holes of this Bolgia, for the sake of introducing a defence of himself -from a charge of sacrilege. Benvenuto tells that once when some boys -were playing about the church one of them, to hide himself from his -companions, squeezed himself into a baptizer's standing-place, and made -so tight a fit of it that he could not be rescued till Dante with his -own hands plied a hammer upon the marble, and so saved the child from -drowning. The presence of water in the cavity may be explained by the -fact of the church's being at that time lighted by an unglazed opening -in the roof; and as baptisms were so infrequent the standing-places, -situated as they were in the centre of the floor, may often have been -partially flooded. It is easy to understand how bitterly Dante would -resent a charge of irreverence connected with his 'beautiful St. -John's;' 'that fair sheep-fold' (_Parad._ xxv. 5). - -[538] _That bank, etc._: Of each Bolgia the inner bank is lower than the -outer; the whole of Malebolge sloping towards the centre of the Inferno. - -[539] _Like a friar, etc._: In those times the punishment of an assassin -was to be stuck head downward in a pit, and then to have earth slowly -shovelled in till he was suffocated. Dante bends down, the better to -hear what the sinner has to say, like a friar recalled by the felon on -the pretence that he has something to add to his confession. - -[540] _The prophecy_: 'The writing.' The speaker is Nicholas III., of -the great Roman family of the Orsini, and Pope from 1277 to 1280; a man -of remarkable bodily beauty and grace of manner, as well as of great -force of character. Like many other Holy Fathers he was either a great -hypocrite while on his promotion, or else he degenerated very quickly -after getting himself well settled on the Papal Chair. He is said to -have been the first Pope who practised simony with no attempt at -concealment. Boniface VIII., whom he is waiting for to relieve him, -became Pope in 1294, and died in 1303. None of the four Popes between -1280 and 1294 were simoniacs; so that Nicholas was uppermost in the hole -for twenty-three years. Although ignorant of what is now passing on the -earth, he can refer back to his foreknowledge of some years earlier (see -_Inf._ x. 99) as if to a prophetic writing, and finds that according to -this it is still three years too soon, it being now only 1300, for the -arrival of Boniface. This is the usual explanation of the passage. To it -lies the objection that foreknowledge of the present that can be -referred back to is the same thing as knowledge of it, and with this the -spirits in Inferno are not endowed. But Dante elsewhere shows that he -finds it hard to observe the limitation. The alternative explanation, -supported by the use of _scritto_ (writing) in the text, is that -Nicholas refers to some prophecy once current about his successors in -Rome. - -[541] _The fair Lady_: The Church. The guile is that shown by Boniface -in getting his predecessor Celestine v. to abdicate (_Inf._ iii. 60). - -[542] _As befooled_: Dante does not yet suspect that it is with a Pope -he is speaking. He is dumbfounded at being addressed as Boniface. - -[543] _All the simoniacs_: All the Popes that had been guilty of the -sin. - -[544] _A Pastor from the West_: Boniface died in 1303, and was succeeded -by Benedict XI., who in his turn was succeeded by Clement V., the Pastor -from the West. Benedict was not stained with simony, and so it is -Clement that is to relieve Boniface; and he is to come from the West, -that is, from Avignon, to which the Holy See was removed by him. Or the -reference may simply be to the country of his birth. Elsewhere he is -spoken of as 'the Gascon who shall cheat the noble Henry' of Luxemburg -(_Parad._ xvii. 82).--This passage has been read as throwing light on -the question of when the _Inferno_ was written. Nicholas says that from -the time Boniface arrives till Clement relieves him will be a shorter -period than that during which he has himself been in Inferno, that is to -say, a shorter time than twenty years. Clement died in 1314; and so, it -is held, we find a date before which the _Inferno_ was, at least, not -published. But Clement was known for years before his death to be ill of -a disease usually soon fatal. He became Pope in 1305, and the wonder was -that he survived so long as nine years. Dante keeps his prophecy -safe--if it is a prophecy; and there does seem internal evidence to -prove the publication of the _Inferno_ to have taken place long before -1314.--It is needless to point out how the censure of Clement gains in -force if read as having been published before his death. - -[545] _Jason_: Or Joshua, who purchased the office of High Priest from -Antiochus Epiphanes, and innovated the customs of the Jews (2 Maccab. -iv. 7). - -[546] _Punished well_: At line 12 Dante has admired the propriety of the -Divine distribution of penalties. He appears to regard with a special -complacency that which he invents for the simoniacs. They were -industrious in multiplying benefices for their kindred; Boniface, for -example, besides Cardinals, appointed about twenty Archbishops and -Bishops from among his own relatives. Here all the simoniacal Popes have -to be contented with one place among them. They paid no regard to -whether a post was well filled or not: here they are set upside down. - -[547] _Charles_: Nicholas was accused of taking a bribe to assist Peter -of Arragon in ousting Charles of Anjou from the kingdom of Sicily. - -[548] _By reverence, etc._: Dante distinguishes between the office and -the unworthy holder of it. So in Purgatory he prostrates himself before -a Pope (_Purg._ xix. 131). - -[549] _Her spouse_: In the preceding lines the vision of the Woman in -the Apocalypse is applied to the corruption of the Church, represented -under the figure of the seven-hilled Rome seated in honour among the -nations and receiving observance from the kings of the earth till her -spouse, the Pope, began to prostitute her by making merchandise of her -spiritual gifts. Of the Beast there is no mention here, his qualities -being attributed to the Woman. - -[550] _Ah, Constantine, etc._: In Dante's time, and for some centuries -later, it was believed that Constantine, on transferring the seat of -empire to Byzantium, had made a gift to the Pope of rights and -privileges almost equal to those of the Emperor. Rome was to be the -Pope's; and from his court in the Lateran he was to exercise supremacy -over all the West. The Donation of Constantine, that is, the instrument -conveying these rights, was a forgery of the Middle Ages. - - - - -CANTO XX. - - - Now of new torment must my verses tell, - And matter for the Twentieth Canto win - Of Lay the First,[551] which treats of souls in Hell. - Already was I eager to begin - To peer into the visible profound,[552] - Which tears of agony was bathed in: - And I saw people in the valley round; - Like that of penitents on earth the pace - At which they weeping came, nor uttering[553] sound. - When I beheld them with more downcast gaze,[554] 10 - That each was strangely screwed about I learned, - Where chest is joined to chin. And thus the face - Of every one round to his loins was turned; - And stepping backward[555] all were forced to go, - For nought in front could be by them discerned. - Smitten by palsy although one might show - Perhaps a shape thus twisted all awry, - I never saw, and am to think it slow. - As, Reader,[556] God may grant thou profit by - Thy reading, for thyself consider well 20 - If I could then preserve my visage dry - When close at hand to me was visible - Our human form so wrenched that tears, rained down - Out of the eyes, between the buttocks fell. - In very sooth I wept, leaning upon - A boss of the hard cliff, till on this wise - My Escort asked: 'Of the other fools[557] art one? - Here piety revives as pity dies; - For who more irreligious is than he - In whom God's judgments to regret give rise? 30 - Lift up, lift up thy head, and thou shalt see - Him for whom earth yawned as the Thebans saw, - All shouting meanwhile: "Whither dost thou flee, - Amphiaraues?[558] Wherefore thus withdraw - From battle?" But he sinking found no rest - Till Minos clutched him with all-grasping claw. - Lo, how his shoulders serve him for a breast! - Because he wished to see too far before - Backward he looks, to backward course addressed. - Behold Tiresias,[559] who was changed all o'er, 40 - Till for a man a woman met the sight, - And not a limb its former semblance bore; - And he behoved a second time to smite - The same two twisted serpents with his wand, - Ere he again in manly plumes was dight. - With back to him, see Aruns next at hand, - Who up among the hills of Luni, where - Peasants of near Carrara till the land, - Among the dazzling marbles[560] held his lair - Within a cavern, whence could be descried 50 - The sea and stars of all obstruction bare. - The other one, whose flowing tresses hide - Her bosom, of the which thou seest nought, - And all whose hair falls on the further side, - Was Manto;[561] who through many regions sought: - Where I was born, at last her foot she stayed. - It likes me well thou shouldst of this be taught. - When from this life her father exit made, - And Bacchus' city had become enthralled, - She for long time through many countries strayed. 60 - 'Neath mountains by which Germany is walled - And bounded at Tirol, a lake there lies - High in fair Italy, Benacus[562] called. - The waters of a thousand springs that rise - 'Twixt Val Camonica and Garda flow - Down Pennine; and their flood this lake supplies. - And from a spot midway, if they should go - Thither, the Pastors[563] of Verona, Trent, - And Brescia might their blessings all bestow. - Peschiera,[564] with its strength for ornament, 70 - Facing the Brescians and the Bergamese - Lies where the bank to lower curve is bent. - And there the waters, seeking more of ease, - For in Benacus is not room for all, - Forming a river, lapse by green degrees. - The river, from its very source, men call - No more Benacus--'tis as Mincio known, - Which into Po does at Governo fall. - A flat it reaches ere it far has run, - Spreading o'er which it feeds a marshy fen, 80 - Whence oft in summer pestilence has grown. - Wayfaring here the cruel virgin, when - She found land girdled by the marshy flood, - Untilled and uninhabited of men, - That she might 'scape all human neighbourhood - Stayed on it with her slaves, her arts to ply; - And there her empty body was bestowed. - On this the people from the country nigh - Into that place came crowding, for the spot, - Girt by the swamp, could all attack defy, 90 - And for the town built o'er her body sought - A name from her who made it first her seat, - Calling it Mantua, without casting lot.[565] - The dwellers in it were in number great, - Till stupid Casalodi[566] was befooled - And victimised by Pinamonte's cheat. - Hence, shouldst thou ever hear (now be thou schooled!) - Another story to my town assigned, - Let by no fraud the truth be overruled.' - And I: 'Thy reasonings, Master, to my mind 100 - So cogent are, and win my faith so well, - What others say I shall black embers find. - But of this people passing onward tell, - If thou, of any, something canst declare, - For all my thoughts[567] on that intently dwell.' - And then he said: 'The one whose bearded hair - Falls from his cheeks upon his shoulders dun, - Was, when the land of Greece[568] of males so bare - Was grown the very cradles scarce held one, - An augur;[569] he with Calchas gave the sign 110 - In Aulis through the first rope knife to run. - Eurypylus was he called, and in some line - Of my high Tragedy[570] is sung the same, - As thou know'st well, who mad'st it wholly thine. - That other, thin of flank, was known to fame - As Michael Scott;[571] and of a verity - He knew right well the black art's inmost game. - Guido Bonatti,[572] and Asdente see - Who mourns he ever should have parted from - His thread and leather; but too late mourns he. 120 - Lo the unhappy women who left loom, - Spindle, and needle that they might divine; - With herb and image[573] hastening men's doom. - But come; for where the hemispheres confine - Cain and the Thorns[574] is falling, to alight - Underneath Seville on the ocean line. - The moon was full already yesternight; - Which to recall thou shouldst be well content, - For in the wood she somewhat helped thy plight.' - Thus spake he to me while we forward went. 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[551] _Lay the First_: The _Inferno_. - -[552] _The visible profound_: The Fourth Bolgia, where soothsayers of -every kind are punished. Their sin is that of seeking to find out what -God has made secret. That such discoveries of the future could be made -by men, Dante seems to have had no doubt; but he regards the exercise of -the power as a fraud on Providence, and also credits the adepts in the -black art with ruining others by their spells (line 123). - -[553] _Nor uttering, etc._: They who on earth told too much are now -condemned to be for ever dumb. It will be noticed that with none of them -does Dante converse. - -[554] _More downcast gaze_: Standing as he does on the crown of the -arch, the nearer they come to him the more he has to decline his eyes. - -[555] _Stepping backward_: Once they peered far into the future; now -they cannot see a step before them. - -[556]_ As, Reader, etc._: Some light may be thrown on this unusual, and, -at first sight, inexplicable display of pity, by the comment of -Benvenuto da Imola:--'It is the wisest and most virtuous of men that are -most subject to this mania of divination; and of this Dante is himself -an instance, as is well proved by this book of his.' Dante reminds the -reader how often since the journey began he has sought to have the veil -of the future lifted; and would have it understood that he was seized by -a sudden misgiving as to whether he too had not overstepped the bounds -of what, in that respect, is allowed and right. - -[557] _Of the other fools_: Dante, weeping like the sinners in the -Bolgia, is asked by Virgil: 'What, art thou then one of them?' He had -been suffered, without reproof, to show pity for Francesca and Ciacco. -The terrors of the Lord grow more cogent as they descend, and even pity -is now forbidden. - -[558] _Amphiaraues_: One of the Seven Kings who besieged Thebes. He -foresaw his own death, and sought by hiding to evade it; but his wife -revealed his hiding-place, and he was forced to join in the siege. As he -fought, a thunderbolt opened a chasm in the earth, into which he fell. - -[559] _Tiresias_: A Theban soothsayer whose change of sex is described -by Ovid (_Metam._ iii.). - -[560] _The dazzling marbles_: Aruns, a Tuscan diviner, is introduced by -Lucan as prophesying great events to come to pass in Rome--the Civil War -and the victories of Caesar. His haunt was the deserted city of Luna, -situated on the Gulf of Spezia, and under the Carrara mountains -(_Phars._ i. 586). - -[561] _Manto_: A prophetess, a native of Thebes the city of Bacchus, and -daughter of Tiresias.--Here begins a digression on the early history of -Mantua, the native city of Virgil. In his account of the foundation of -it Dante does not agree with Virgil, attributing to a Greek Manto what -his master attributes to an Italian one (_AEn._ x. 199). - -[562] _Benacus_: The ancient Benacus, now known as the Lake of Garda. - -[563] _The Pastors, etc._: About half-way down the western side of the -lake a stream falls into it, one of whose banks, at its mouth, is in the -diocese of Trent, and the other in that of Brescia, while the waters of -the lake are in that of Verona. The three Bishops, standing together, -could give a blessing each to his own diocese. - -[564] _Peschiera_: Where the lake drains into the Mincio. It is still a -great fortress. - -[565] _Without casting lot_; Without consulting the omens, as was usual -when a city was to be named. - -[566] _Casalodi_: Some time in the second half of the thirteenth century -Alberto Casalodi was befooled out of the lordship of Mantua by Pinamonte -Buonacolsi. Benvenuto tells the tale as follows:--Pinamonte was a bold, -ambitious man, with a great troop of armed followers; and, the nobility -being at that time in bad odour with the people at large, he persuaded -the Count Albert that it would be a popular measure to banish the -suspected nobles for a time. Hardly was this done when he usurped the -lordship; and by expelling some of the citizens and putting others of -them to death he greatly thinned the population of the city. - -[567] _All my thoughts, etc._: The reader's patience is certainly abused -by this digression of Virgil's, and Dante himself seems conscious that -it is somewhat ill-timed. - -[568] _The land of Greece, etc._: All the Greeks able to bear arms being -engaged in the Trojan expedition. - -[569] _An augur_: Eurypylus, mentioned in the Second _AEneid_ as being -employed by the Greeks to consult the oracle of Apollo regarding their -return to Greece. From the auspices Calchas had found at what hour they -should set sail for Troy. Eurypylus can be said only figuratively to -have had to do with cutting the cable. - -[570] _Tragedy_: The _AEneid_. Dante defines Comedy as being written in a -style inferior to that of Tragedy, and as having a sad beginning and a -happy ending (Epistle to Can Grande, 10). Elsewhere he allows the comic -poet great licence in the use of common language (_Vulg. El._ ii. 4). By -calling his own poem a Comedy he, as it were, disarms criticism. - -[571] _Michael Scott_: Of Balwearie in Scotland, familiar to English -readers through the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_. He flourished in the -course of the thirteenth century, and made contributions to the -sciences, as they were then deemed, of astrology, alchemy, and -physiognomy. He acted for some time as astrologer to the Emperor -Frederick II., and the tradition of his accomplishments powerfully -affected the Italian imagination for a century after his death. It was -remembered that the terrible Frederick, after being warned by him to -beware of Florence, had died at a place called Firenzuola; and more than -one Italian city preserved with fear and trembling his dark sayings -regarding their fate. Villani frequently quotes his prophecies; and -Boccaccio speaks of him as a great necromancer who had been in Florence. -A commentary of his on Aristotle was printed at Venice in 1496. The -thinness of his flanks may refer to a belief that he could make himself -invisible at will. - -[572] _Guido Bonatti_: Was a Florentine, a tiler by trade, and was -living in 1282. When banished from his own city he took refuge at Forli -and became astrologer to Guido of Montefeltro (_Inf._ xxvii.), and was -credited with helping his master to a great victory.--_Asdente_: A -cobbler of Parma, whose prophecies were long renowned, lived in the -twelfth century. He is given in the _Convito_ (iv. 16) as an instance -that a man may be very notorious without being truly noble. - -[573] _Herb and image_: Part of the witch's stock in trade. All that was -done to a waxen image of him was suffered by the witch's victim. - -[574] _Cain and the Thorns_: The moon. The belief that the spots in the -moon are caused by Cain standing in it with a bundle of thorns is -referred to at _Parad._ ii. 51. Although it is now the morning of the -Saturday, the 'yesternight' refers to the night of Thursday, when Dante -found some use of the moon in the Forest. The moon is now setting on the -line dividing the hemisphere of Jerusalem, in which they are, from that -of the Mount of Purgatory. According to Dante's scheme of the world, -Purgatory is the true opposite of Jerusalem; and Seville is ninety -degrees from Jerusalem. As it was full moon the night before last, and -the moon is now setting, it is now fully an hour after sunrise. But, as -has already been said, it is not possible to reconcile the astronomical -indications thoroughly with one another.--Virgil serves as clock to -Dante, for they can see nothing of the skies. - - - - -CANTO XXI. - - - Conversing still from bridge to bridge[575] we went; - But what our words I in my Comedy - Care not to tell. The top of the ascent - Holding, we halted the next pit to spy - Of Malebolge, with plaints bootless all: - There, darkness[576] full of wonder met the eye. - As the Venetians[577] in their Arsenal - Boil the tenacious pitch at winter-tide, - To caulk the ships with for repairs that call; - For then they cannot sail; and so, instead, 10 - One builds his bark afresh, one stops with tow - His vessel's ribs, by many a voyage tried; - One hammers at the poop, one at the prow; - Some fashion oars, and others cables twine, - And others at the jib and main sails sew: - So, not by fire, but by an art Divine, - Pitch of thick substance boiled in that low Hell, - And all the banks did as with plaster line. - I saw it, but distinguished nothing well - Except the bubbles by the boiling raised, 20 - Now swelling up and ceasing now to swell. - While down upon it fixedly I gazed, - 'Beware, beware!' my Leader to me said, - And drew me thence close to him. I, amazed, - Turned sharply round, like him who has delayed, - Fain to behold the thing he ought to flee, - Then, losing nerve, grows suddenly afraid, - Nor lingers longer what there is to see; - For a black devil I beheld advance - Over the cliff behind us rapidly. 30 - Ah me, how fierce was he of countenance! - What bitterness he in his gesture put, - As with spread wings he o'er the ground did dance! - Upon his shoulders, prominent and acute, - Was perched a sinner[578] fast by either hip; - And him he held by tendon of the foot. - He from our bridge: 'Ho, Malebranche![579] Grip - An Elder brought from Santa Zita's town:[580] - Stuff him below; myself once more I slip - Back to the place where lack of such is none. 40 - There, save Bonturo, barrates[581] every man, - And No grows Yes that money may be won.' - He shot him down, and o'er the cliff began - To run; nor unchained mastiff o'er the ground, - Chasing a robber, swifter ever ran. - The other sank, then rose with back bent round; - But from beneath the bridge the devils cried: - 'Not here the Sacred Countenance[582] is found, - One swims not here as on the Serchio's[583] tide; - So if thou wouldst not with our grapplers deal 50 - Do not on surface of the pitch abide.' - Then he a hundred hooks[584] was made to feel. - 'Best dance down there,' they said the while to him, - 'Where, if thou canst, thou on the sly mayst steal.' - So scullions by the cooks are set to trim - The caldrons and with forks the pieces steep - Down in the water, that they may not swim. - And the good Master said to me: 'Now creep - Behind a rocky splinter for a screen; - So from their knowledge thou thyself shalt keep. 60 - And fear not thou although with outrage keen - I be opposed, for I am well prepared, - And formerly[585] have in like contest been.' - Then passing from the bridge's crown he fared - To the sixth bank,[586] and when thereon he stood - He needed courage doing what he dared. - In the same furious and tempestuous mood - In which the dogs upon the beggar leap, - Who, halting suddenly, seeks alms or food, - They issued forth from underneath the deep 70 - Vault of the bridge, with grapplers 'gainst him stretched; - But he exclaimed: 'Aloof, and harmless keep! - Ere I by any of your hooks be touched, - Come one of you and to my words give ear; - And then advise you if I should be clutched.' - All cried: 'Let Malacoda then go near;' - On which one moved, the others standing still. - He coming said: 'What will this[587] help him here?' - 'O Malacoda, is it credible - That I am come,' my Master then replied, 80 - 'Secure your opposition to repel, - Without Heaven's will, and fate, upon my side? - Let me advance, for 'tis by Heaven's behest - That I on this rough road another guide.' - Then was his haughty spirit so depressed, - He let his hook drop sudden to his feet, - And, 'Strike him not!' commanded all the rest - My Leader charged me thus: 'Thou, from thy seat - Where 'mid the bridge's ribs thou crouchest low, - Rejoin me now in confidence complete.' 90 - Whereon I to rejoin him was not slow; - And then the devils, crowding, came so near, - I feared they to their paction false might show. - So at Caprona[588] saw I footmen fear, - Spite of their treaty, when a multitude - Of foes received them, crowding front and rear. - With all my body braced I closer stood - To him, my Leader, and intently eyed - The aspect of them, which was far from good. - Lowering their grapplers, 'mong themselves they cried: - 'Shall I now tickle him upon the thigh?' 101 - 'Yea, see thou clip him deftly,' one replied. - The demon who in parley had drawn nigh - Unto my Leader, upon this turned round; - 'Scarmiglione, lay thy weapon by!' - He said; and then to us: 'No way is found - Further along this cliff, because, undone, - All the sixth arch lies ruined on the ground. - But if it please you further to pass on, - Over this rocky ridge advancing climb 110 - To the next rib,[589] where passage may be won. - Yestreen,[590] but five hours later than this time, - Twelve hundred sixty-six years reached an end, - Since the way lost the wholeness of its prime. - Thither I some of mine will straightway send - To see that none peer forth to breathe the air: - Go on with them; you they will not offend. - You, Alichin[591] and Calcabrin, prepare - To move,' he bade; 'Cagnazzo, thou as well; - Guiding the ten, thou, Barbariccia, fare. 120 - With Draghignazzo, Libicocco fell, - Fanged Ciriatto, Graffiacane too, - Set on, mad Rubicant and Farfarel: - Search on all quarters round the boiling glue. - Let these go safe, till at the bridge they be, - Which doth unbroken[592] o'er the caverns go.' - 'Alas, my Master, what is this I see?' - Said I, 'Unguided, let us forward set, - If thou know'st how. I wish no company. - If former caution thou dost not forget, 130 - Dost thou not mark how each his teeth doth grind, - The while toward us their brows are full of threat?' - And he: 'I would not fear should fill thy mind; - Let them grin all they will, and all they can; - 'Tis at the wretches in the pitch confined.' - They wheeled and down the left hand bank began - To march, but first each bit his tongue,[593] and passed - The signal on to him who led the van. - He answered grossly as with trumpet blast. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[575] _From bridge to bridge_: They cross the barrier separating the -Fourth from the Fifth Bolgia, and follow the bridge which spans the -Fifth until they have reached the crown of it. We may infer that the -conversation of Virgil and Dante turned on foreknowledge of the future. - -[576] _Darkness, etc._: The pitch with which the trench of the Bolgia is -filled absorbs most of the scanty light accorded to Malebolge. - -[577] _The Venetians_: But for this picturesque description of the old -Arsenal, and a passing mention of the Rialto in one passage of the -_Paradiso_, and of the Venetian coinage in another, it could not be -gathered from the _Comedy_, with all its wealth of historical and -geographical references, that there was such a place as Venice in the -Italy of Dante. Unlike the statue of Time (_Inf._ xiv.), the Queen of -the Adriatic had her face set eastwards. Her back was turned and her -ears closed as in a proud indifference to the noise of party conflicts -which filled the rest of Italy. - -[578] _A sinner_: This is the only instance in the _Inferno_ of the -arrival of a sinner at his special place of punishment. See _Inf._ v. -15, _note_. - -[579] _Malebranche_: Evil Claws, the name of the devils who have the -sinners of this Bolgia in charge. - -[580] _Santa Zita's town_: Zita was a holy serving-woman of Lucca, who -died some time between 1270 and 1280, and whose miracle-working body is -still preserved in the church of San Frediano. Most probably, although -venerated as a saint, she was not yet canonized at the time Dante writes -of, and there may be a Florentine sneer hidden in the description of -Lucca as her town. Even in Lucca there was some difference of opinion as -to her merits, and a certain unlucky Ciappaconi was pitched into the -Serchio for making fun of the popular enthusiasm about her. See -Philalethes, _Goett. Com._ In Lucca the officials that were called Priors -in Florence, were named Elders. The commentators give a name to this -sinner, but it is only guesswork. - -[581] _Save Bonturo_, _barrates, etc._: It is the barrators, those who -trafficked in offices and sold justice, that are punished in this -Bolgia. The greatest barrator of all in Lucca, say the commentators, was -this Bonturo; but there seems no proof of it, though there is of his -arrogance. He was still living in 1314. - -[582] _The Sacred Countenance_: An image in cedar wood, of Byzantine -workmanship, still preserved and venerated in the cathedral of Lucca. -According to the legend, it was carved from memory by Nicodemus, and -after being a long time lost was found again in the eighth century by an -Italian bishop travelling in Palestine. He brought it to the coast at -Joppa, where it was received by a vessel without sail or oar, which, -with its sacred freight, floated westwards and was next seen at the port -of Luna. All efforts to approach the bark were vain, till the Bishop of -Lucca descended to the seashore, and to him the vessel resigned itself -and suffered him to take the image into his keeping. 'Believe what you -like of all this,' says Benvenuto; 'it is no article of faith.'--The -sinner has come to the surface, bent as if in an attitude of prayer, -when he is met by this taunt. - -[583] _The Serchio_: The stream which flows past Lucca. - -[584] _A hundred hooks_: So many devils with their pronged hooks were -waiting to receive the victim. The punishment of the barrators bears a -relation to their sins. They wrought their evil deeds under all kinds of -veils and excuses, and are now themselves effectually buried out of -sight. The pitch sticks as close to them as bribes ever did to their -fingers. They misused wards and all subject to them, and in their turn -are clawed and torn by their devilish guardians. - -[585] _Formerly, etc._: On the occasion of his previous descent (_Inf._ -ix. 22). - -[586] _The sixth bank_: Dante remains on the crown of the arch -overhanging the pitch-filled moat. Virgil descends from the bridge by -the left hand to the bank on the inner side of the Fifth Bolgia. - -[587] _What will this, etc._: As if he said: What good will this delay -do him in the long-run? - -[588] _At Caprona_: Dante was one of the mounted militia sent by -Florence in 1289 to help the Lucchese against the Pisans, and was -present at the surrender by the Pisan garrison of the Castle of Caprona. -Some make the reference to be to a siege of the same stronghold by the -Pisans in the following year, when the Lucchese garrison, having -surrendered on condition of having their lives spared, were met as they -issued forth with cries of 'Hang them! Hang them!' But of this second -siege it is only a Pisan commentator that speaks. - -[589] _The next rib_: Malacoda informs them that the arch of rock across -the Sixth Bolgia in continuation of that by which they have crossed the -Fifth is in ruins, but that they will find a whole bridge if they keep -to the left hand along the rocky bank on the inner edge of the -pitch-filled moat. But, as appears further on, he is misleading them. It -will be remembered that from the precipice enclosing the Malebolge there -run more than one series of bridges or ribs into the central well of -Inferno. - -[590] _Yestreen, etc._: This is the principal passage in the _Comedy_ -for fixing the date of the journey. It is now, according to the text, -twelve hundred and sixty-six years and a day since the crucifixion. -Turning to the _Convito_, iv. 23, we find Dante giving his reasons for -believing that Jesus, at His death, had just completed His thirty-fourth -year. This brings us to the date of 1300 A.D. But according to Church -tradition the crucifixion happened on the 25th March, and to get -thirty-four years His life must be counted from the incarnation, which -was held to have taken place on the same date, namely the 25th March. It -was in Dante's time optional to reckon from the incarnation or the birth -of Christ. The journey must therefore be taken to have begun on Friday -the 25th March, a fortnight before the Good Friday of 1300; and, -counting strictly from the incarnation, on the first day of 1301--the -first day of the new century. So we find Boccaccio in his unfinished -commentary saying in _Inf._ iii. that it will appear from Canto xxi. -that Dante began his journey in MCCCI.--The hour is now five hours -before that at which the earthquake happened which took place at the -death of Jesus. This is held by Dante (_Convito_ iv. 23), who professes -to follow the account by Saint Luke, to have been at the sixth hour, -that is, at noon; thus the time is now seven in the morning. - -[591] _Alichino, etc._: The names of the devils are all descriptive: -Alichino, for instance, is the Swooper; but in this and the next Canto -we have enough of the horrid crew without considering too closely how -they are called. - -[592] _Unbroken_: Malacoda repeats his lie. - -[593] _Each bit his tongue, etc._: The demons, aware of the cheat played -by Malacoda, show their devilish humour by making game of Virgil and -Dante.--Benvenuto is amazed that a man so involved in his own thoughts -as Dante was, should have been such a close observer of low life as this -passage shows him. He is sure that he laughed to himself as he wrote the -Canto. - - - - -CANTO XXII. - - - Horsemen I've seen in march across the field, - Hastening to charge, or, answering muster, stand, - And sometimes too when forced their ground to yield; - I have seen skirmishers upon your land, - O Aretines![594] and those on foray sent; - With trumpet and with bell[595] to sound command - Have seen jousts run and well-fought tournament, - With drum, and signal from the castle shown, - And foreign music with familiar blent; - But ne'er by blast on such a trumpet blown 10 - Beheld I horse or foot to motion brought, - Nor ship by star or landmark guided on. - With the ten demons moved we from the spot; - Ah, cruel company! but 'with the good - In church, and in the tavern with the sot.' - Still to the pitch was my attention glued - Fully to see what in the Bolgia lay, - And who were in its burning mass imbrued. - As when the dolphins vaulted backs display, - Warning to mariners they should prepare 20 - To trim their vessel ere the storm makes way; - So, to assuage the pain he had to bear, - Some wretch would show his back above the tide, - Then swifter plunge than lightnings cleave the air. - And as the frogs close to the marsh's side - With muzzles thrust out of the water stand, - While feet and bodies carefully they hide; - So stood the sinners upon every hand. - But on beholding Barbariccia nigh - Beneath the bubbles[596] disappeared the band. 30 - I saw what still my heart is shaken by: - One waiting, as it sometimes comes to pass - That one frog plunges, one at rest doth lie; - And Graffiacan, who nearest to him was, - Him upward drew, clutching his pitchy hair: - To me he bore the look an otter has. - I of their names[597] ere this was well aware, - For I gave heed unto the names of all - When they at first were chosen. 'Now prepare, - And, Rubicante, with thy talons fall 40 - Upon him and flay well,' with many cries - And one consent the accursed ones did call. - I said: 'O Master, if in any wise - Thou canst, find out who is the wretched wight - Thus at the mercy of his enemies.' - Whereon my Guide drew full within his sight, - Asking him whence he came, and he replied: - 'In kingdom of Navarre[598] I first saw light. - Me servant to a lord my mother tied; - Through her I from a scoundrel sire did spring, 50 - Waster of goods and of himself beside. - As servant next to Thiebault,[599] righteous king, - I set myself to ply barratorship; - And in this heat discharge my reckoning.' - And Ciriatto, close upon whose lip - On either side a boar-like tusk did stand, - Made him to feel how one of them could rip. - The mouse had stumbled on the wild cat band; - But Barbariccia locked him in embrace, - And, 'Off while I shall hug him!' gave command. 60 - Round to my Master then he turned his face: - 'Ask more of him if more thou wouldest know, - While he against their fury yet finds grace.' - My Leader asked: 'Declare now if below - The pitch 'mong all the guilty there lies here - A Latian?'[600] He replied: 'Short while ago - From one[601] I parted who to them lived near; - And would that I might use him still for shield, - Then hook or claw I should no longer fear,' - Said Libicocco: 'Too much grace we yield.' 70 - And in the sinner's arm he fixed his hook, - And from it clean a fleshy fragment peeled. - But seeing Draghignazzo also took - Aim at his legs, the leader of the Ten - Turned swiftly round on them with angry look. - On this they were a little quieted; then - Of him who still gazed on his wound my Guide - Without delay demanded thus again: - 'Who was it whom, in coming to the side, - Thou say'st thou didst do ill to leave behind?' 80 - 'Gomita of Gallura,'[602] he replied, - 'A vessel full of fraud of every kind, - Who, holding in his power his master's foes, - So used them him they bear in thankful mind; - For, taking bribes, he let slip all of those, - He says; and he in other posts did worse, - And as a chieftain 'mong barrators rose. - Don Michael Zanche[603] doth with him converse, - From Logodoro, and with endless din - They gossip[604] of Sardinian characters. 90 - But look, ah me! how yonder one doth grin. - More would I say, but that I am afraid - He is about to claw me on the skin.' - To Farfarel the captain turned his head, - For, as about to swoop, he rolled his eye, - And, 'Cursed hawk, preserve thy distance!' said. - 'If ye would talk with, or would closer spy,' - The frighted wretch began once more to say, - 'Tuscans or Lombards, I will bring them nigh. - But let the Malebranche first give way, 100 - That of their vengeance they may not have fear, - And I to this same place where now I stay - For me, who am but one, will bring seven near - When I shall whistle as we use to do - Whenever on the surface we appear.' - On this Cagnazzo up his muzzle threw, - Shaking his head and saying: 'Hear the cheat - He has contrived, to throw himself below.' - Then he who in devices was complete: - 'Far too malicious, in good sooth,' replied, 110 - 'When for my friends I plan a sorer fate.' - This, Alichin withstood not but denied - The others' counsel,[605] saying: 'If thou fling - Thyself hence, thee I strive not to outstride. - But o'er the pitch I'll dart upon the wing. - Leave we the ridge,[606] and be the bank a shield; - And see if thou canst all of us outspring.' - O Reader, hear a novel trick revealed. - All to the other side turned round their eyes, - He first[607] who slowest was the boon to yield. 120 - In choice of time the Navarrese was wise; - Taking firm stand, himself he forward flung, - Eluding thus their hostile purposes. - Then with compunction each of them was stung, - But he the most[608] whose slackness made them fail; - Therefore he started, 'Caught!' upon his tongue. - But little it bested, nor could prevail - His wings 'gainst fear. Below the other went, - While he with upturned breast aloft did sail. - And as the falcon, when, on its descent, 130 - The wild duck suddenly dives out of sight, - Returns outwitted back, and malcontent; - To be befooled filled Calcabrin with spite. - Hovering he followed, wishing in his mind - The wretch escaping should leave cause for fight. - When the barrator vanished, from behind - He on his comrade with his talons fell - And clawed him, 'bove the moat with him entwined. - The other was a spar-hawk terrible - To claw in turn; together then the two 140 - Plunged in the boiling pool. The heat full well - How to unlock their fierce embraces knew; - But yet they had no power[609] to rise again, - So were their wings all plastered o'er with glue. - Then Barbariccia, mourning with his train, - Caused four to fly forth to the other side - With all their grapplers. Swift their flight was ta'en. - Down to the place from either hand they glide, - Reaching their hooks to those who were limed fast, - And now beneath the scum were being fried. 150 - And from them thus engaged we onward passed. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[594] _O Aretines_: Dante is mentioned as having taken part in the -campaign of 1289 against Arezzo, in the course of which the battle of -Campaldino was fought. But the text can hardly refer to what he -witnessed in that campaign, as the field of it was almost confined to -the Casentino, and little more than a formal entrance was made on the -true Aretine territory; while the chronicles make no mention of jousts -and forays. There is, however, no reason to think but that Dante was -engaged in the attack made by Florence on the Ghibeline Arezzo in the -early summer of the preceding year. In a few days the Florentines and -their allies had taken above forty castles and strongholds, and -devastated the enemy's country far and near; and, though unable to take -the capital, they held all kinds of warlike games in front of it. Dante -was then twenty-three years of age, and according to the Florentine -constitution of that period would, in a full muster of the militia, be -required to serve as a cavalier without pay, and providing his own horse -and arms. - -[595] _Bell_: The use of the bell for martial music was common in the -Italy of the thirteenth century. The great war-bell of the Florentines -was carried with them into the field. - -[596] _Beneath the bubbles, etc._: As the barrators took toll of the -administration of justice and appointment to offices, something always -sticking to their palms, so now they are plunged in the pitch; and as -they denied to others what should be the common blessing of justice, now -they cannot so much as breathe the air without paying dearly for it to -the demons. - -[597] _Their names_: The names of all the demons. All of them urge -Rubicante, the 'mad red devil,' to flay the victim, shining and sleek -with the hot pitch, who is held fast by Graffiacane. - -[598] _In kingdom of Navarre, etc._: The commentators give the name of -John Paul to this shade, but all that is known of him is found in the -text. - -[599] _Thiebault_: King of Navarre and second of that name. He -accompanied his father-in-law, Saint Louis, to Tunis, and died on his -way back, in 1270. - -[600] _A Latian_: An Italian. - -[601] _From one, etc._: A Sardinian. The barrator prolongs his answer so -as to procure a respite from the fangs of his tormentors. - -[602] _Gomita of Gallura_: 'Friar Gomita' was high in favour with Nino -Visconti (_Purg._ viii. 53), the lord of Gallura, one of the provinces -into which Sardinia was divided under the Pisans. At last, after bearing -long with him, the 'gentle Judge Nino' hanged Gomita for setting -prisoners free for bribes. - -[603] _Don Michael Zanche_: Enzo, King of Sardinia, married Adelasia, -the lady of Logodoro, one of the four Sardinian judgedoms or provinces. -Of this province Zanche, seneschal to Enzo, acquired the government -during the long imprisonment of his master, or upon his death in 1273. -Zanche's daughter was married to Branca d'Oria, by whom Zanche was -treacherously slain in 1275 (_Inf._ xxxiii. 137). There seems to be -nothing extant to support the accusation implied in the text. - -[604] _They gossip, etc._: Zanche's experience of Sardinia was of an -earlier date than Gomita's. It has been claimed for, or charged against, -the Sardinians, that more than other men they delight in gossip touching -their native country. These two, if it can be supposed that, plunged -among and choked with pitch, they still cared for Sardinian talk, would -find material enough in the troubled history of their land. In 1300 it -belonged partly to Genoa and partly to Pisa. - -[605] _The others' counsel_: Alichino, confident in his own powers, is -willing to risk an experiment with the sinner. The other devils count a -bird in the hand worth two in the bush. - -[606] _The ridge_: Not the crown of the great rocky barrier between the -Fifth and the Sixth Bolgias, for it is not on that the devils are -standing; neither are they allowed to pass over it (_Inf._ xxiii. 55). -We are to figure them to ourselves as standing on a ledge running -between the fosse and the foot of the enclosing rocky steep--a pathway -continued under the bridges and all round the Bolgia for their -convenience as guardians of it. The bank adjoining the pitch will serve -as a screen for the sinner if the demons retire to the other side of -this ledge. - -[607] _He first, etc._: Cagnazzo. See line 106. - -[608] _He the most, etc._: Alichino, whose confidence in his agility had -led to the outwitting of the band. - -[609] _No power_: The foolish ineptitude of the devils for anything -beyond their special function of hooking up and flaying those who appear -on the surface of the pitch, and their irrational fierce playfulness as -of tiger cubs, convey a vivid impression of the limits set to their -diabolical power, and at the same time heighten the sense of what -Dante's feeling of insecurity must have been while in such inhuman -companionship. - - - - -CANTO XXIII. - - - Silent, alone, not now with company - We onward went, one first and one behind, - As Minor Friars[610] use to make their way. - On AEsop's fable[611] wholly was my mind - Intent, by reason of that contest new-- - The fable where the frog and mouse we find; - For _Mo_ and _Issa_[612] are not more of hue - Than like the fable shall the fact appear, - If but considered with attention due. - And as from one thought springs the next, so here 10 - Out of my first arose another thought, - Until within me doubled was my fear. - For thus I judged: Seeing through us[613] were brought - Contempt upon them, hurt, and sore despite, - They needs must be to deep vexation wrought. - If anger to malevolence unite, - Then will they us more cruelly pursue - Than dog the hare which almost feels its bite. - All my hair bristled, I already knew, - With terror when I spake: 'O Master, try 20 - To hide us quick' (and back I turned to view - What lay behind), 'for me they terrify, - These Malebranche following us; from dread - I almost fancy I can feel them nigh.' - And he: 'Were I a mirror backed with lead - I should no truer glass that form of thine, - Than all thy thought by mine is answered. - For even now thy thoughts accord with mine, - Alike in drift and featured with one face; - And to suggest one counsel they combine. 30 - If the right bank slope downward at this place, - To the next Bolgia[614] offering us a way, - Swiftly shall we evade the imagined chase.' - Ere he completely could his purpose say, - I saw them with their wings extended wide, - Close on us; as of us to make their prey. - Then quickly was I snatched up by my Guide: - Even as a mother when, awaked by cries, - She sees the flames are kindling at her side, - Delaying not, seizes her child and flies; 40 - Careful for him her proper danger mocks, - Nor even with one poor shift herself supplies. - And he, stretched out upon the flinty rocks, - Himself unto the precipice resigned - Which one side of the other Bolgia blocks. - A swifter course ne'er held a stream confined, - That it may turn a mill, within its race, - Where near the buckets 'tis the most declined - Than was my Master's down that rock's sheer face; - Nor seemed I then his comrade, as we sped, 50 - But like a son locked in a sire's embrace. - And barely had his feet struck on the bed - Of the low ground, when they were seen to stand - Upon the crest, no more a cause of dread.[615] - For Providence supreme, who so had planned - In the Fifth Bolgia they should minister, - Them wholly from departure thence had banned. - 'Neath us we saw a painted people fare, - Weeping as on their way they circled slow, - Crushed by fatigue to look at, and despair. 60 - Cloaks had they on with hoods pulled down full low - Upon their eyes, and fashioned, as it seemed, - Like those which at Cologne[616] for monks they sew. - The outer face was gilt so that it gleamed; - Inside was all of lead, of such a weight - Frederick's[617] to these had been but straw esteemed. - O weary robes for an eternal state! - With them we turned to the left hand once more, - Intent upon their tears disconsolate. - But those folk, wearied with the loads they bore, 70 - So slowly crept that still new company - Was ours at every footfall on the floor. - Whence to my Guide I said: 'Do thou now try - To find some one by name or action known, - And as we go on all sides turn thine eye.' - And one, who recognised the Tuscan tone, - Called from behind us: 'Halt, I you entreat - Who through the air obscure are hastening on; - Haply in me thou what thou seek'st shalt meet.' - Whereon my Guide turned round and said: 'Await, - And keep thou time with pacing of his feet.' 81 - I stood, and saw two manifesting great - Desire to join me, by their countenance; - But their loads hampered them and passage strait.[618] - And, when arrived, me with an eye askance[619] - They gazed on long time, but no word they spoke; - Then, to each other turned, held thus parlance: - 'His heaving throat[620] proves him of living folk. - If they are of the dead, how could they gain - To walk uncovered by the heavy cloak?' 90 - Then to me: 'Tuscan, who dost now attain - To the college of the hypocrites forlorn, - To tell us who thou art show no disdain.' - And I to them: 'I was both bred and born - In the great city by fair Arno's stream, - And wear the body I have always worn. - But who are ye, whose suffering supreme - Makes tears, as I behold, to flood the cheek; - And what your mode of pain that thus doth gleam?' - 'Ah me, the yellow mantles,' one to speak 100 - Began, 'are all of lead so thick, its weight - Maketh the scales after this manner creak. - We, Merry Friars[621] of Bologna's state, - I Catalano, Loderingo he, - Were by thy town together designate, - As for the most part one is used to be, - To keep the peace within it; and around - Gardingo,[622] what we were men still may see.' - I made beginning: 'Friars, your profound--' - But said no more, on suddenly seeing there 110 - One crucified by three stakes to the ground, - Who, when he saw me, writhed as in despair, - Breathing into his beard with heavy sigh. - And Friar Catalan, of this aware, - Said: 'He thus fixed, on whom thou turn'st thine eye, - Counselled the Pharisees that it behoved - One man as victim[623] for the folk should die. - Naked, thou seest, he lies, and ne'er removed - From where, set 'cross the path, by him the weight - Of every one that passes by is proved. 120 - And his wife's father shares an equal fate, - With others of the Council, in this fosse; - For to the Jews they proved seed reprobate.' - Meanwhile at him thus stretched upon the cross - Virgil,[624] I saw, displayed astonishment-- - At his mean exile and eternal loss. - And then this question to the Friars he sent: - 'Be not displeased, but, if ye may, avow - If on the right[625] hand there lies any vent - By which we, both of us,[626] from hence may go, 130 - Nor need the black angelic company - To come to help us from this valley low.' - 'Nearer than what thou think'st,' he made reply, - 'A rib there runs from the encircling wall,[627] - The cruel vales in turn o'erarching high; - Save that at this 'tis rent and ruined all. - Ye can climb upward o'er the shattered heap - Where down the side the piled-up fragments fall.' - His head bent down a while my Guide did keep, - Then said: 'He warned us[628] in imperfect wise, 140 - Who sinners with his hook doth clutch and steep.' - The Friar: 'At Bologna[629] many a vice - I heard the Devil charged with, and among - The rest that, false, he father is of lies.' - Then onward moved my Guide with paces long, - And some slight shade of anger on his face. - I with him parted from the burdened throng, - Stepping where those dear feet had left their trace. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[610] _Minor Friars_: In the early years of their Order the Franciscans -went in couples upon their journeys, not abreast but one behind the -other. - -[611] _AEsop's fable_: This fable, mistakenly attributed to AEsop, tells -of how a frog enticed a mouse into a pond, and how they were then both -devoured by a kite. To discover the aptness of the simile would scarcely -be reward enough for the continued mental effort Dante enjoins. So much -was everything Greek or Roman then held in reverence, that the mention -even of AEsop is held to give dignity to the page. - -[612] _Mo_ and _Issa_: Two words for _now_. - -[613] _Through us_: The quarrel among the fiends arose from Dante's -insatiable desire to confer with 'Tuscan or Lombard.' - -[614] _To the next Bolgia_: The Sixth. They are now on the top of the -circular ridge that divides it from the Fifth. From the construction of -Malebolge the ridge is deeper on the inner side than on that up which -they have travelled from the pitch. - -[615] _No more a cause of dread_: There seems some incongruity between -Virgil's dread of these smaller devils and the ease with which he cowed -Minos, Charon, and Pluto. But his character gains in human interest the -more he is represented as sympathising with Dante in his terrors; and in -this particular case the confession of fellow-feeling prepares the way -for the beautiful passage which follows it (line 38, etc.), one full of -an almost modern tenderness. - -[616] _Cologne_: Some make it Clugny, the great Benedictine monastery; -but all the old commentators and most of the mss. read Cologne. All that -the text necessarily carries is that the cloaks had great hoods. If, in -addition, a reproach of clumsiness is implied, it would agree well -enough with the Italian estimate of German people and things. - -[617] _Frederick's, etc._: The Emperor Frederick II.; but that he used -any torture of leaden sheets seems to be a fabrication of his enemies. - -[618] _Passage strait_: Through the crowd of shades, all like themselves -weighed down by the leaden cloaks. There is nothing in all literature -like this picture of the heavily-burdened shades. At first sight it -seems to be little of a torture compared with what we have already seen, -and yet by simple touch after touch an impression is created of the -intolerable weariness of the victims. As always, too, the punishment -answers to the sin. The hypocrites made a fair show in the flesh, and -now their mantles which look like gold are only of base lead. On earth -they were of a sad countenance, trying to seem better than they were, -and the load which to deceive others they voluntarily assumed in life is -now replaced by a still heavier weight, and one they cannot throw off if -they would. The choice of garb conveys an obvious charge of hypocrisy -against the Friars, then greatly fallen away from the purity of their -institution, whether Franciscans or Dominicans. - -[619] _An eye askance_: They cannot turn their heads. - -[620] _His heaving throat_: In Purgatory Dante is known for a mortal by -his casting a shadow. Here he is known to be of flesh and blood by the -act of respiration; yet, as appears from line 113, the shades, too, -breathe as well as perform other functions of living bodies. At least -they seem so to do, but this is all only in appearance. They only seem -to be flesh and blood, having no weight, casting no shadow, and drawing -breath in a way of their own. Dante, as has been said (_Inf._ vi. 36), -is hard put to it to make them subject to corporal pains and yet be only -shadows. - -[621] _Merry Friars_: Knights of the Order of Saint Mary, instituted by -Urban IV. in 1261. Whether the name of Frati Godenti which they here -bear was one of reproach or was simply descriptive of the easy rule -under which they lived, is not known. Married men might, under certain -conditions, enter the Order. The members were to hold themselves aloof -from public office, and were to devote themselves to the defence of the -weak and the promotion of justice and religion. The two monkish -cavaliers of the text were in 1266 brought to Florence as Podestas, the -Pope himself having urged them to go. There is much uncertainty as to -the part they played in Florence, but none as to the fact of their rule -having been highly distasteful to the Florentines, or as to the other -fact, that in Florence they grew wealthy. The Podesta, or chief -magistrate, was always a well-born foreigner. Probably some monkish rule -or custom forbade either Catalano or Loderingo to leave the monastery -singly. - -[622] _Gardingo_: A quarter of Florence, in which many palaces were -destroyed about the time of the Podestaship of the Frati. - -[623] _One man as victim_: _St. John_ xi. 50. Caiaphas and Annas, with -the Scribes and Pharisees who persecuted Jesus to the death, are the -vilest hypocrites of all. They lie naked across the path, unburdened by -the leaden cloak, it is true, but only that they may feel the more -keenly the weight of the punishment of all the hypocrites of the world. - -[624] _Virgil_: On Virgil's earlier journey through Inferno Caiaphas and -the others were not here, and he wonders as at something out of a world -to him unknown. - -[625] _On the right_: As they are moving round the Bolgia to the left, -the rocky barrier between them and the Seventh Bolgia is on their right. - -[626] _We, both of us_: Dante, still in the body, as well as Virgil, the -shade. - -[627] _The encircling wall_: That which encloses all the Malebolge. - -[628] _He warned us_: Malacoda (_Inf._ xxi. 109) had assured him that -the next rib of rock ran unbroken across all the Bolgias, but it too, -like all the other bridges, proves to have been, at the time of the -earthquake, shattered where it crossed this gulf of the hypocrites. The -earthquake told most on this Bolgia, because the death of Christ and the -attendant earthquake were, in a sense, caused by the hypocrisy of -Caiaphas and the rest. - -[629] _At Bologna_: Even in Inferno the Merry Friar must have his joke. -He is a gentleman, but a bit of a scholar too; and the University of -Bologna is to him what Marischal College was to Captain Dalgetty. - - - - -CANTO XXIV. - - - In season of the new year, when the sun - Beneath Aquarius[630] warms again his hair, - And somewhat on the nights the days have won; - When on the ground the hoar-frost painteth fair - A mimic image of her sister white-- - But soon her brush of colour is all bare-- - The clown, whose fodder is consumed outright, - Rises and looks abroad, and, all the plain - Beholding glisten, on his thigh doth smite. - Returned indoors, like wretch that seeks in vain 10 - What he should do, restless he mourns his case; - But hope revives when, looking forth again, - He sees the earth anew has changed its face. - Then with his crook he doth himself provide, - And straightway doth his sheep to pasture chase: - So at my Master was I terrified, - His brows beholding troubled; nor more slow - To where I ailed[631] the plaster was applied. - For when the broken bridge[632] we stood below - My Guide turned to me with the expression sweet 20 - Which I beneath the mountain learned to know. - His arms he opened, after counsel meet - Held with himself, and, scanning closely o'er - The fragments first, he raised me from my feet; - And like a man who, working, looks before, - With foresight still on that in front bestowed, - Me to the summit of a block he bore - And then to me another fragment showed, - Saying: 'By this thou now must clamber on; - But try it first if it will bear thy load.' 30 - The heavy cowled[633] this way could ne'er have gone, - For hardly we, I holpen, he so light, - Could clamber up from shattered stone to stone. - And but that on the inner bank the height - Of wall is not so great, I say not he, - But for myself I had been vanquished quite. - But Malebolge[634] to the cavity - Of the deep central pit is planned to fall; - Hence every Bolgia in its turn must be - High on the out, low on the inner wall; 40 - So to the summit we attained at last, - Whence breaks away the topmost stone[635] of all. - My lungs were so with breathlessness harassed, - The summit won, I could no further go; - And, hardly there, me on the ground I cast - 'Well it befits that thou shouldst from thee throw - All sloth,' the Master said; 'for stretched in down - Or under awnings none can glory know. - And he who spends his life nor wins renown - Leaves in the world no more enduring trace 50 - Than smoke in air, or foam on water blown. - Therefore arise; o'ercome thy breathlessness - By force of will, victor in every fight - When not subservient to the body base. - Of stairs thou yet must climb a loftier flight:[636] - 'Tis not enough to have ascended these. - Up then and profit if thou hear'st aright.' - Rising I feigned to breathe with greater ease - Than what I felt, and spake: 'Now forward plod, - For with my courage now my strength agrees.' 60 - Up o'er the rocky rib we held our road; - And rough it was and difficult and strait, - And steeper far[637] than that we earlier trod. - Speaking I went, to hide my wearied state, - When from the neighbouring moat a voice we heard - Which seemed ill fitted to articulate. - Of what it said I knew not any word, - Though on the arch[638] that vaults the moat set high; - But he who spake appeared by anger stirred. - Though I bent downward yet my eager eye, 70 - So dim the depth, explored it all in vain; - I then: 'O Master, to that bank draw nigh, - And let us by the wall descent obtain, - Because I hear and do not understand, - And looking down distinguish nothing plain.' - 'My sole reply to thee,' he answered bland, - 'Is to perform; for it behoves,' he said, - 'With silent act to answer just demand.' - Then we descended from the bridge's head,[639] - Where with the eighth bank is its junction wrought; 80 - And full beneath me was the Bolgia spread. - And I perceived that hideously 'twas fraught - With serpents; and such monstrous forms they bore, - Even now my blood is curdled at the thought. - Henceforth let sandy Libya boast no more! - Though she breed hydra, snake that crawls or flies, - Twy-headed, or fine-speckled, no such store - Of plagues, nor near so cruel, she supplies, - Though joined to all the land of Ethiop, - And that which by the Red Sea waters lies. 90 - 'Midst this fell throng and dismal, without hope - A naked people ran, aghast with fear-- - No covert for them and no heliotrope.[640] - Their hands[641] were bound by serpents at their rear, - Which in their reins for head and tail did get - A holding-place: in front they knotted were. - And lo! to one who on our side was set - A serpent darted forward, him to bite - At where the neck is by the shoulders met. - Nor _O_ nor _I_ did any ever write 100 - More quickly than he kindled, burst in flame, - And crumbled all to ashes. And when quite - He on the earth a wasted heap became, - The ashes[642] of themselves together rolled, - Resuming suddenly their former frame. - Thus, as by mighty sages we are told, - The Phoenix[643] dies, and then is born again, - When it is close upon five centuries old. - In all its life it eats not herb nor grain, - But only tears that from frankincense flow; 110 - It, for a shroud, sweet nard and myrrh contain. - And as the man who falls and knows not how, - By force of demons stretched upon the ground, - Or by obstruction that makes life run low, - When risen up straight gazes all around - In deep confusion through the anguish keen - He suffered from, and stares with sighs profound: - So was the sinner, when arisen, seen. - Justice of God, how are thy terrors piled, - Showering in vengeance blows thus big with teen! 120 - My Guide then asked of him how he was styled. - Whereon he said: 'From Tuscany I rained, - Not long ago, into this gullet wild. - From bestial life, not human, joy I gained, - Mule that I was; me, Vanni Fucci,[644] brute, - Pistoia, fitting den, in life contained.' - I to my Guide: 'Bid him not budge a foot, - And ask[645] what crime has plunged him here below. - In rage and blood I knew him dissolute.' - The sinner heard, nor insincere did show, 130 - But towards me turned his face and eke his mind, - With spiteful shame his features all aglow; - Then said: 'It pains me more thou shouldst me find - And catch me steeped in all this misery, - Than when the other life I left behind. - What thou demandest I can not deny: - I'm plunged[646] thus low because the thief I played - Within the fairly furnished sacristy; - And falsely to another's charge 'twas laid. - Lest thou shouldst joy[647] such sight has met thy view - If e'er these dreary regions thou evade, 141 - Give ear and hearken to my utterance true: - The Neri first out of Pistoia fail, - Her laws and parties Florence shapes anew; - Mars draws a vapour out of Magra's vale, - Which black and threatening clouds accompany: - Then bursting in a tempest terrible - Upon Piceno shall the war run high; - The mist by it shall suddenly be rent, - And every Bianco[648] smitten be thereby: 150 - And I have told thee that thou mayst lament.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[630] _Aquarius_: The sun is in the constellation of Aquarius from the -end of January till the end of February; and already, say in the middle -of February, the day is nearly as long as the night. - -[631] _Where I ailed, etc._: As the peasant is in despair at seeing the -earth white with what he thinks is snow, so was Dante at the signs of -trouble on Virgil's face. He has mistaken anger at the cheat for -perplexity as to how they are to escape from the Bolgia; and his -Master's smile is grateful and reassuring to him as the spectacle of the -green earth to the despairing shepherd. - -[632] _The broken bridge_: They are about to escape from the bottom of -the Sixth Bolgia by climbing the wall between it and the Seventh, at the -point where the confused fragments of the bridge Friar Catalano told -them of (_Inf._ xxiii. 133) lie piled up against the wall, and yield -something of a practicable way. - -[633] _The heavy cowled_: He finds his illustration on the spot, his -mind being still full of the grievously burdened hypocrites. - -[634] _But Malebolge, etc._: Each Bolgia in turn lies at a lower level -than the one before it, and consequently the inner side of each dividing -ridge or wall is higher than the outer; or, to put it otherwise, in each -Bolgia the wall they come to last--that nearest the centre of the -Inferno, is lower than that they first reach--the one enclosing the -Bolgia. - -[635] _The topmost stone_: The stone that had formed the beginning of -the arch at this end of it. - -[636] _A loftier flight_: When he ascends the Mount of Purgatory. - -[637] _Steeper far, etc._: Rougher and steeper than the rib of rock they -followed till they had crossed the Fifth Bolgia. They are now travelling -along a different spoke of the wheel. - -[638] _The arch, etc._: He has gone on hiding his weariness till he is -on the top of the arch that overhangs the Seventh Bolgia--that in which -thieves are punished. - -[639] _Front the bridge's head_: Further on they climb up again (_Inf._ -xxvi. 13) by the projecting stones which now supply them with the means -of descent. It is a disputed point how far they do descend. Clearly it -is further than merely from the bridge to the lower level of the wall -dividing the Seventh from the Eighth Bolgia; but not so far as to the -ground of the moat. Most likely the stones jut forth at the angle formed -by the junction of the bridge and the rocky wall. On one of the lowest -of these they find a standing-place whence they can see clearly what is -in the Bolgia. - -[640] _Heliotrope_: A stone supposed to make the bearer of it invisible. - -[641] _Their hands, etc._: The sinners in this Bolgia are the thieves, -not the violent robbers and highwaymen but those crime involves a -betrayal of trust. After all their cunning thefts they are naked now; -and, though here is nothing to steal, hands are firmly bound behind -them. - -[642] _The ashes, etc._: The sufferings of the thieves, if looked -closely into, will be found appropriate to their sins. They would fain -but cannot steal themselves away, and in addition to the constant terror -of being found out they are subject to pains the essence of which -consists in the deprivation--the theft from them--of their unsubstantial -bodies, which are all that they now have to lose. In the case of this -victim the deprivation is only temporary. - -[643] _The Phoenix_: Dante here borrows very directly from Ovid -(_Metam._ xv.). - -[644] _Vanni Fucci_: Natural son of a Pistoiese noble and a poet of some -merit, who bore a leading part in the ruthless feuds of Blacks and -Whites which distracted Pistoia towards the close of the thirteenth -century. - -[645] _And ask, etc._: Dante wishes to find out why Fucci is placed -among the thieves, and not in the circle of the violent. The question is -framed so as to compel confession of a crime for which the sinner had -not been condemned in life; and he flushes with rage at being found -among the cowardly thieves. - -[646] _I'm plunged, etc._: Fucci was concerned in the theft of treasure -from the Cathedral Church of St. James at Pistoia. Accounts vary as to -the circumstances under which the crime was committed, and as to who -suffered for it. Neither is it certainly known when Fucci died, though -his recent arrival in the Bolgia agrees with the view that he was still -active on the side of the Blacks in the last year of the century. In the -fierceness of his retort to Dante we have evidence of their old -acquaintance and old enmity. - -[647] _Lest thou shouldst joy_: Vanni, a _Nero_ or Black, takes his -revenge for being found here by Dante, who was, as he knew, associated -with the _Bianchi_ or Whites, by prophesying an event full of disaster -to these. - -[648] _Every Bianco, etc._: The Blacks, according to Villani (viii. 45), -were driven from Pistoia in May 1301. They took refuge in Florence, -where their party, in the following November under the protection of -Charles of Valois, finally gained the upper hand, and began to persecute -and expel the Whites, among whom was Dante. Mars, the god of war, or, -more probably, the planet of war, draws a vapour from the valley of the -Magra, a small stream which flows into the Mediterranean on the northern -confine of Tuscany. This vapour is said to signify Moroello Malaspina, a -noble of that district and an active leader of the Blacks, who here -figure as murky clouds. The Campo Piceno is the country west of Pistoia. -There Moroello bursts on his foes like a lightning-flash out of its -cloud. This seems to refer to a pitched battle that should have happened -soon after the Blacks recovered their strength; but the chroniclers tell -of none such, though some of the commentators do. The fortress of -Seravalle was taken from the Pistoiese, it is true, in 1302, and -Moroello is said to have been the leader of the force which starved it -into submission. He was certainly present at the great siege of Pistoia -in 1305, when the citizens suffered the last rigours of famine.--This -prophecy by Fucci recalls those by Farinata and Ciacco. - - - - -CANTO XXV. - - - The robber,[649] when his words were ended so, - Made both the figs and lifted either fist, - Shouting: 'There, God! for them at thee I throw.' - Then were the snakes my friends; for one 'gan twist - And coiled itself around the sinner's throat, - As if to say: 'Now would I have thee whist.' - Another seized his arms and made a knot, - Clinching itself upon them in such wise - He had no power to move them by a jot. - Pistoia![650] thou, Pistoia, shouldst devise 10 - To burn thyself to ashes, since thou hast - Outrun thy founders in iniquities. - The blackest depths of Hell through which I passed - Showed me no soul 'gainst God so filled with spite, - No, not even he who down Thebes' wall[651] was cast. - He spake no further word, but turned to flight; - And I beheld a Centaur raging sore - Come shouting: 'Of the ribald give me sight!' - I scarce believe Maremma[652] yieldeth more - Snakes of all kinds than what composed the load 20 - Which on his back, far as our form, he bore. - Behind his nape, with pinions spread abroad, - A dragon couchant on his shoulders lay - To set on fire whoever bars his road. - 'This one is Cacus,'[653] did my Master say, - 'Who underneath the rock of Aventine - Watered a pool with blood day after day. - Not with his brethren[654] runs he in the line, - Because of yore the treacherous theft he wrought - Upon the neighbouring wealthy herd of kine: 30 - Whence to his crooked course an end was brought - 'Neath Hercules' club, which on him might shower down - A hundred blows; ere ten he suffered nought.' - While this he said, the other had passed on; - And under us three spirits forward pressed - Of whom my Guide and I had nothing known - But that: 'Who are ye?' they made loud request. - Whereon our tale[655] no further could proceed; - And toward them wholly we our wits addressed. - I recognised them not, but gave good heed; 40 - Till, as it often haps in such a case, - To name another, one discovered need, - Saying: 'Now where stopped Cianfa[656] in the race?' - Then, that my Guide might halt and hearken well, - On chin[657] and nose I did my finger place. - If, Reader, to believe what now I tell - Thou shouldst be slow, I wonder not, for I - Who saw it all scarce find it credible. - While I on them my brows kept lifted high - A serpent, which had six feet, suddenly flew 50 - At one of them and held him bodily. - Its middle feet about his paunch it drew, - And with the two in front his arms clutched fast, - And bit one cheek and the other through and through. - Its hinder feet upon his thighs it cast, - Thrusting its tail between them till behind, - Distended o'er his reins, it upward passed. - The ivy to a tree could never bind - Itself so firmly as this dreadful beast - Its members with the other's intertwined. 60 - Each lost the colour that it once possessed, - And closely they, like heated wax, unite, - The former hue of neither manifest: - Even so up o'er papyrus,[658] when alight, - Before the flame there spreads a colour dun, - Not black as yet, though from it dies the white. - The other two meanwhile were looking on, - Crying: 'Agnello, how art thou made new! - Thou art not twain, and yet no longer one.' - A single head was moulded out of two; 70 - And on our sight a single face arose, - Which out of both lost countenances grew. - Four separate limbs did but two arms compose; - Belly with chest, and legs with thighs did grow - To members such as nought created shows. - Their former fashion was all perished now: - The perverse shape did both, yet neither seem; - And, thus transformed, departed moving slow. - And as the lizard, which at fierce extreme - Of dog-day heat another hedge would gain, 80 - Flits 'cross the path swift as the lightning's gleam; - Right for the bellies of the other twain - A little snake[659] quivering with anger sped, - Livid and black as is a pepper grain, - And on the part by which we first are fed - Pierced one of them; and then upon the ground - It fell before him, and remained outspread. - The wounded gazed on it, but made no sound. - Rooted he stood[660] and yawning, scarce awake, - As seized by fever or by sleep profound. 90 - It closely watched him and he watched the snake, - While from its mouth and from his wound 'gan swell - Volumes of smoke which joined one cloud to make. - Be Lucan henceforth dumb, nor longer tell - Of plagued Sabellus and Nassidius,[661] - But, hearkening to what follows, mark it well. - Silent be Ovid: of him telling us - How Cadmus[662] to a snake, and to a fount - Changed Arethuse,[663] I am not envious; - For never of two natures front to front 100 - In metamorphosis, while mutually - The forms[664] their matter changed, he gives account. - 'Twas thus that each to the other made reply: - Its tail into a fork the serpent split; - Bracing his feet the other pulled them nigh: - And then in one so thoroughly were knit - His legs and thighs, no searching could divine - At where the junction had been wrought in it. - The shape, of which the one lost every sign, - The cloven tail was taking; then the skin 110 - Of one grew rough, the other's soft and fine. - I by the armpits saw the arms drawn in; - And now the monster's feet, which had been small, - What the other's lost in length appeared to win. - Together twisted, its hind feet did fall - And grew the member men are used to hide: - For his the wretch gained feet with which to crawl. - Dyed in the smoke they took on either side - A novel colour: hair unwonted grew - On one; the hair upon the other died. 120 - The one fell prone, erect the other drew, - With cruel eyes continuing to glare, - 'Neath which their muzzles metamorphose knew. - The erect to his brows drew his. Of stuff to spare - Of what he upward pulled, there was no lack; - So ears were formed on cheeks that erst were bare. - Of that which clung in front nor was drawn back, - Superfluous, on the face was formed a nose, - And lips absorbed the skin that still was slack. - His muzzle who lay prone now forward goes; 130 - Backward into his head his ears he draws - Even as a snail appears its horns to lose. - The tongue, which had been whole and ready was - For speech, cleaves now; the forked tongue of the snake - Joins in the other: and the smoke has pause.[665] - The soul which thus a brutish form did take, - Along the valley, hissing, swiftly fled; - The other close behind it spluttering spake, - Then, toward it turning his new shoulders, said - Unto the third: 'Now Buoso down the way 140 - May hasten crawling, as I earlier sped.' - Ballast which in the Seventh Bolgia lay - Thus saw I shift and change. Be my excuse - The novel theme,[666] if swerves my pen astray. - And though these things mine eyesight might confuse - A little, and my mind with fear divide, - Such secrecy they fleeing could not use - But that Puccio Sciancatto plain I spied; - And he alone of the companions three - Who came at first, was left unmodified. 150 - For the other, tears, Gaville,[667] are shed by thee. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[649] _The robber, etc._: By means of his prophecy Fucci has, after a -fashion, taken revenge on Dante for being found by him among the -cheating thieves instead of among the nobler sinners guilty of blood and -violence. But in the rage of his wounded pride he must insult even -Heaven, and this he does by using the most contemptuous gesture in an -Italian's repertory. The fig is made by thrusting the thumb between the -next two fingers. In the English 'A fig for him!' we have a reference to -the gesture. - -[650] _Pistoia_: The Pistoiese bore the reputation of being hard and -pitiless. The tradition was that their city had been founded by such of -Catiline's followers as survived his defeat on the Campo Piceno. 'It is -no wonder,' says Villani (i. 32) 'that, being the descendants as they -are of Catiline and his followers, the Pistoiese have always been -ruthless and cruel to strangers and to one another.' - -[651] _Who down Thebes' wall_: Capaneus (_Inf._ xiv. 63). - -[652] _Maremma_: See note, _Inf._ xiii. 8. - -[653] _Cacus_: Dante makes him a Centaur, but Virgil (_AEn._ viii.) only -describes him as half human. The pool was fed with the blood of his -human victims. The herd was the spoil Hercules took from Geryon. In the -_AEneid_ Cacus defends himself from Hercules by vomiting a fiery smoke; -and this doubtless suggested the dragon of the text. - -[654] _His brethren_: The Centaurs who guard the river of blood (_Inf._ -xii. 56). In Fucci, as a sinner guilty of blood and violence above most -of the thieves, the Centaur Cacus takes a special malign interest. - -[655] _Our tale_: Of Cacus. It is interrupted by the arrival of three -sinners whom Dante does not at first recognise as he gazes down on them, -but only when they begin to speak among themselves. They are three noble -citizens of Florence: Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, and -Puccio Sciancatto de' Galigai--all said to have pilfered in private -life, or to have abused their tenure of high office by plundering the -Commonwealth. What is certainly known of them is that they were -Florentine thieves of quality. - -[656] _Cianfa_: Another Florentine gentleman, one of the Donati. Since -his companions lost sight of him he has been transformed into a -six-footed serpent. Immediately appearing, he darts upon Agnello. - -[657] _On chin, etc._: A gesture by which silence is requested. The -mention of Cianfa shows Dante that he is among Florentines. - -[658] _Papyrus_: The original is _papiro_, the word used in Dante's time -for a wick made out of a reed like the papyrus; _paper_ being still the -name for a wick in some dialects.--(Scartazzini.) It cannot be shown -that _papiro_ was ever employed for paper in Italian. This, however, -does not prove that Dante may not so use it in this instance, adopting -it from the Latin _papyrus_. Besides, he says that the brown colour -travels up over the _papiro_; while it goes downward on a burning wick. -Nor would the simile, if drawn from a slowly burning lamp-wick, agree -with the speed of the change described in the text. - -[659] _A little snake_: As transpires from the last line of the Canto, -this is Francesco, of the Florentine family of the Cavalcanti, to which -Dante's friend Guido belonged. He wounds Buoso in the navel, and then, -instead of growing into one new monster as was the case with Cianfa and -Agnello, they exchange shapes, and when the transformation is complete -Buoso is the serpent and Francesco is the human shade. - -[660] _Rooted he stood, etc._: The description agrees with the symptoms -of snake-bite, one of which is extreme drowsiness. - -[661] _Sabellus and Nassidius_: Were soldiers of Cato's army whose death -by snake-bite in the Libyan desert is described by Lucan, _Pharsal._ ix. -Sabbellus was burned up by the poison, bones and all; Nassidius swelled -up and burst. - -[662] _Cadmus_: _Metam._ iv. - -[663] _Arethusa_: _Metam._ v. - -[664] _The forms, etc._: The word _form_ is here to be taken in its -scholastic sense of _virtus formativa_, the inherited power of modifying -matter into an organised body. 'This, united to the divinely implanted -spark of reason,' says Philalethes, 'constitutes, on Dante's system, a -human soul. Even after death this power continues to be an essential -constituent of the soul, and constructs out of the elements what seems -to be a body. Here the sinners exchange the matter they have thus made -their own, each retaining, however, his proper plastic energy as part of -his soul.' Dante in his _Convito_ (iii. 2) says that 'the human soul is -the noblest form of all that are made under the heavens, receiving more -of the Divine nature than any other.' - -[665] _The smoke has pause_: The sinners have robbed one another of all -they can lose. In the punishment is mirrored the sin that plunged them -here. - -[666] _The novel theme_: He has lingered longer than usual on this -Bolgia, and pleads wonder of what he saw in excuse either of his -prolixity or of some of the details of his description. The expression -is perhaps one of feigned humility, to balance his recent boast of -excelling Ovid and Lucan in inventive power. - -[667] _Gaville_: The other, and the only one of those five Florentine -thieves not yet named in the text, is he who came at first in the form -of a little black snake, and who has now assumed the shape of Buoso. In -reality he is Francesco Cavalcanti, who was slain by the people of -Gaville in the upper Valdarno. Many of them were in their turn -slaughtered in revenge by the Cavalcanti and their associates. It should -be remarked that some of these five Florentines were of one party, some -of the other. It is also noteworthy that Dante recruits his thieves as -he did his usurers from the great Florentine families.--As the 'shifting -and changing' of this rubbish is apt to be found confusing, the -following may be useful to some readers:--There first came on the scene -Agnello, Buoso, and Puccio. Cianfa, in the shape of a six-footed -serpent, comes and throws himself on Agnello, and then, grown -incorporate in a new strange monster, two in one, they disappear. Buoso -is next wounded by Francesco, and they exchange members and bodies. Only -Puccio remains unchanged. - - - - -CANTO XXVI. - - - Rejoice, O Florence, in thy widening fame! - Thy wings thou beatest over land and sea, - And even through Inferno spreads thy name. - Burghers of thine, five such were found by me - Among the thieves; whence I ashamed[668] grew, - Nor shall great glory thence redound to thee. - But if 'tis toward the morning[669] dreams are true, - Thou shalt experience ere long time be gone - The doom even Prato[670] prays for as thy due. - And came it now, it would not come too soon. 10 - Would it were come as come it must with time: - 'Twill crush me more the older I am grown. - Departing thence, my Guide began to climb - The jutting rocks by which we made descent - Some while ago,[671] and pulled me after him. - And as upon our lonely way we went - 'Mong splinters[672] of the cliff, the feet in vain, - Without the hand to help, had labour spent. - I sorrowed, and am sorrow-smit again, - Recalling what before mine eyes there lay, 20 - And, more than I am wont, my genius rein - From running save where virtue leads the way; - So that if happy star[673] or holier might - Have gifted me I never mourn it may. - At time of year when he who gives earth light - His face shows to us longest visible, - When gnats replace the fly at fall of night, - Not by the peasant resting on the hill - Are seen more fire-flies in the vale below, - Where he perchance doth field and vineyard[674] till, 30 - Than flamelets I beheld resplendent glow - Throughout the whole Eighth Bolgia, when at last - I stood whence I the bottom plain could know. - And as he whom the bears avenged, when passed - From the earth Elijah, saw the chariot rise - With horses heavenward reared and mounting fast, - And no long time had traced it with his eyes - Till but a flash of light it all became, - Which like a rack of cloud swept to the skies: - Deep in the valley's gorge, in mode the same, 40 - These flitted; what it held by none was shown, - And yet a sinner[675] lurked in every flame. - To see them well I from the bridge peered down, - And if a jutting crag I had not caught - I must have fallen, though neither thrust nor thrown. - My Leader me beholding lost in thought: - 'In all the fires are spirits,' said to me; - 'His flame round each is for a garment wrought.' - 'O Master!' I replied, 'by hearing thee - I grow assured, but yet I knew before 50 - That thus indeed it was, and longed to be - Told who is in the flame which there doth soar, - Cloven, as if ascending from the pyre - Where with Eteocles[676] there burned of yore - His brother.' He: 'Ulysses in that fire - And Diomedes[677] burn; in punishment - Thus held together, as they held in ire. - And, wrapped within their flame, they now repent - The ambush of the horse, which oped the door - Through which the Romans' noble seed[678] forth went. 60 - For guile Deidamia[679] makes deplore - In death her lost Achilles, tears they shed, - And bear for the Palladium[680] vengeance sore.' - 'Master, I pray thee fervently,' I said, - 'If from those flames they still can utter speech-- - Give ear as if a thousand times I pled! - Refuse not here to linger, I beseech, - Until the cloven fire shall hither gain: - Thou seest how toward it eagerly I reach.' - And he: 'Thy prayers are worthy to obtain 70 - Exceeding praise; thou hast what thou dost seek: - But see that thou from speech thy tongue refrain. - I know what thou wouldst have; leave me to speak, - For they perchance would hear contemptuously - Shouldst thou address them, seeing they were Greek.'[681] - Soon as the flame toward us had come so nigh - That to my Leader time and place seemed met, - I heard him thus adjure it to reply: - 'O ye who twain within one fire are set, - If what I did your guerdon meriteth, 80 - If much or little ye are in my debt - For the great verse I built while I had breath, - By one of you be openly confessed - Where, lost to men, at last he met with death.' - Of the ancient flame the more conspicuous crest - Murmuring began to waver up and down - Like flame that flickers, by the wind distressed. - At length by it was measured motion shown, - Like tongue that moves in speech; and by the flame - Was language uttered thus: 'When I had gone 90 - From Circe[682] who a long year kept me tame - Beside her, ere the near Gaeta had - Received from AEneas that new name; - No softness for my son, nor reverence sad - For my old father, nor the love I owed - Penelope with which to make her glad, - Could quench the ardour that within me glowed - A full experience of the world to gain-- - Of human vice and worth. But I abroad - Launched out upon the high and open main[683] 100 - With but one bark and but the little band - Which ne'er deserted me.[684] As far as Spain - I saw the sea-shore upon either hand, - And as Morocco; saw Sardinia's isle, - And all of which those waters wash the strand. - I and my comrades were grown old the while - And sluggish, ere we to the narrows came - Where Hercules of old did landmarks pile - For sign to men they should no further aim; - And Seville lay behind me on the right, 110 - As on the left lay Ceuta. Then to them - I spake: "O Brothers, who through such a fight - Of hundred thousand dangers West have won, - In this short watch that ushers in the night - Of all your senses, ere your day be done, - Refuse not to obtain experience new - Of worlds unpeopled, yonder, past the sun. - Consider whence the seed of life ye drew; - Ye were not born to live like brutish herd, - But righteousness and wisdom to ensue." 120 - My comrades to such eagerness were stirred - By this short speech the course to enter on, - They had no longer brooked restraining word. - Turning our poop to where the morning shone - We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, - Still tending left the further we had gone. - And of the other pole I saw at night - Now all the stars; and 'neath the watery plain - Our own familiar heavens were lost to sight. - Five times afresh had kindled, and again 130 - The moon's face earthward was illumed no more, - Since out we sailed upon the mighty main;[685] - Then we beheld a lofty mountain[686] soar, - Dim in the distance; higher, as I thought, - By far than any I had seen before. - We joyed; but with despair were soon distraught - When burst a whirlwind from the new-found world - And the forequarter of the vessel caught. - With all the waters thrice it round was swirled; - At the fourth time the poop, heaved upward, rose, 140 - The prow, as pleased Another,[687] down was hurled; - And then above us did the ocean close.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[668] _Whence I ashamed, etc._: There is here a sudden change from irony -to earnest. 'Five members of great Florentine families, eternally -engaged among themselves in their shameful metamorphoses--nay, but it is -too sad!' - -[669] _Toward the morning, etc._: There was a widespread belief in the -greater truthfulness of dreams dreamed as the night wears away. See -_Purg._ ix. 13. The dream is Dante's foreboding of what is to happen to -Florence. Of its truth he has no doubt, and the only question is how -soon will it be answered by the fact. Soon, he says, if it is near to -the morning that we dream true dreams--morning being the season of -waking reality in which dreams are accomplished. - -[670] _Even Prato_: A small neighbouring city, much under the influence -of Florence, and somewhat oppressed by it. The commentators reckon up -the disasters that afflicted Florence in the first years of the -fourteenth century, between the date of Dante's journey and the time he -wrote--fires, falls of bridges, and civil strife. But such misfortunes -were too much in keeping with the usual course of Florentine history to -move Dante thus deeply in the retrospect; and as he speaks here in his -own person the 'soon' is more naturally counted from the time at which -he writes than from the date assigned by him to his pilgrimage. He is -looking forward to the period when his own return in triumph to Florence -was to be prepared by grievous national reverses; and, as a patriot, he -feels that he cannot be wholly reconciled by his private advantage to -the public misfortune. But it was all only a dream. - -[671] _Some while ago_: See note, _Inf._ xxiv. 79. - -[672] _'Mong splinters, etc._: They cross the wall or barrier between -the Seventh and Eighth Bolgias. From _Inf._ xxiv. 63 we have learned -that the rib of rock, on the line of which they are now proceeding, with -its arches which overhang the various Bolgias, is rougher and worse to -follow than that by which they began their passage towards the centre of -Malebolge. - -[673] _Happy star_: See note, _Inf._ xv. 55. Dante seems to have been -uncertain what credence to give to the claims of astrology. In a passage -of the _Purgatorio_ (xvi. 67) he tries to establish that whatever -influence the stars may possess over us we can never, except with our -own consent, be influenced by them to evil.--His sorrow here, as -elsewhere, is not wholly a feeling of pity for the suffering shades, but -is largely mingled with misgivings for himself. The punishment of those -to whose sins he feels no inclination he always beholds with equanimity. -Here, as he looks down upon the false counsellors and considers what -temptations there are to misapply intellectual gifts, he is smitten with -dread lest his lot should one day be cast in that dismal valley and he -find cause to regret that the talent of genius was ever committed to -him. The memory even of what he saw makes him recollect himself and -resolve to be wary. Then, as if to justify the claim to superior powers -thus clearly implied, there comes a passage which in the original is of -uncommon beauty. - -[674] _Field and vineyard_: These lines, redolent of the sweet Tuscan -midsummer gloaming, give us amid the horrors of Malebolge something like -the breath of fresh air the peasant lingers to enjoy. It may be noted -that in Italy the village is often found perched above the more fertile -land, on a site originally chosen with a view to security from attack. -So that here the peasant is at home from his labour. - -[675] _And yet a sinner, etc._: The false counsellors who for selfish -ends hid their true minds and misused their intellectual light to lead -others astray are for ever hidden each in his own wandering flame. - -[676] _Eteocles_: Son of Oedipus and twin brother of Polynices. The -brothers slew one another, and were placed on the same funeral pile, the -flame of which clove into two as if to image the discord that had -existed between them (_Theb._ xii.). - -[677] _And Diomedes_: The two are associated in deeds of blood and guile -at the siege of Troy. - -[678] _The Romans' noble seed_: The trick of the wooden horse led to the -capture of Troy, and that led AEneas to wander forth on the adventures -that ended in the settlement of the Trojans in Italy. - -[679] _Deidamia_: That Achilles might be kept from joining the Greek -expedition to Troy he was sent by his mother to the court of Lycomedes, -father of Deidamia. Ulysses lured him away from his hiding-place and -from Deidamia, whom he had made a mother. - -[680] _The Palladium_: The Trojan sacred image of Pallas, stolen by -Ulysses and Diomed (_AEn._ ii.). Ulysses is here upon his own ground. - -[681] _They were Greek_: Some find here an allusion to Dante's ignorance -of the Greek language and literature. But Virgil addresses them in the -Lombard dialect of Italian (_Inf._ xxvii. 21). He acts as spokesman -because those ancient Greeks were all so haughty that to a common modern -mortal they would have nothing to say. He, as the author of the _AEneid_, -has a special claim on their good-nature. It is but seldom that the -shades are told who Virgil is, and never directly. Here Ulysses may -infer it from the mention of the 'lofty verse.' - -[682] _From Circe_: It is Ulysses that speaks. - -[683] _The open main_: The Mediterranean as distinguished from the -AEgean. - -[684] _Which ne'er deserted me_: There seems no reason for supposing, -with Philalethes, that Ulysses is here represented as sailing on his -last voyage from the island of Circe and not from Ithaca. Ulysses, on -the contrary, represents himself as breaking away afresh from all the -ties of home. According to Homer, Ulysses had lost all his companions -ere he returned to Ithaca; and in the _Odyssey_ Tiresias prophesies to -him that his last wanderings are to be inland. But any acquaintance that -Dante had with Homer can only have been vague and fragmentary. He may -have founded his narrative of how Ulysses ended his days upon some -floating legend; or, eager to fill up what he took to be a blank in the -world of imagination, he may have drawn wholly on his own creative -power. In any case it is his Ulysses who, through the version of him -given by a living poet, is most familiar to the English reader. - -[685] _The mighty main_: The Atlantic Ocean. They bear to the left as -they sail, till their course is due south, and crossing the Equator, -they find themselves under the strange skies of the southern hemisphere. -For months they have seen no land. - -[686] _A lofty mountain_: This is the Mountain of Purgatory, according -to Dante's geography antipodal to Jerusalem, and the only land in the -southern hemisphere. - -[687] _As pleased Another_: Ulysses is proudly resigned to the failure -of his enterprise, 'for he was Greek.' - - - - -CANTO XXVII. - - - Now, having first erect and silent grown - (For it would say no more), from us the flame, - The Poet sweet consenting,[688] had moved on; - And then our eyes were turned to one that came[689] - Behind it on the way, by sounds that burst - Out of its crest in a confused stream. - As the Sicilian bull,[690] which bellowed first - With his lamenting--and it was but right-- - Who had prepared it with his tools accurst,[691] - Roared with the howlings of the tortured wight, 10 - So that although constructed all of brass - Yet seemed it pierced with anguish to the height; - So, wanting road and vent by which to pass - Up through the flame, into the flame's own speech - The woeful language all converted was. - But when the words at length contrived to reach - The top, while hither thither shook the crest - As moved the tongue[692] at utterance of each, - We heard: 'Oh thou, to whom are now addressed - My words, who spakest now in Lombard phrase: 20 - "Depart;[693] of thee I nothing more request." - Though I be late arrived, yet of thy grace - Let it not irk thee here a while to stay: - It irks not me, yet, as thou seest, I blaze. - If lately to this world devoid of day - From that sweet Latian land thou art come down - Whence all my guilt I bring, declare and say - Has now Romagna peace? because my own - Native abode was in the mountain land - 'Tween springs[694] of Tiber and Urbino town.' 30 - While I intent and bending low did stand, - My Leader, as he touched me on the side, - 'Speak thou, for he is Latian,' gave command. - Whereon without delay I thus replied-- - Because already[695] was my speech prepared: - 'Soul, that down there dost in concealment 'bide, - In thy Romagna[696] wars have never spared - And spare not now in tyrants' hearts to rage; - But when I left it there was none declared. - No change has fallen Ravenna[697] for an age. 40 - There, covering Cervia too with outspread wing, - Polenta's Eagle guards his heritage. - Over the city[698] which long suffering - Endured, and Frenchmen slain on Frenchmen rolled, - The Green Paws[699] once again protection fling. - The Mastiffs of Verrucchio,[700] young and old, - Who to Montagna[701] brought such evil cheer, - Still clinch their fangs where they were wont to hold. - Cities,[702] Lamone and Santerno near, - The Lion couched in white are governed by 50 - Which changes party with the changing year. - And that to which the Savio[703] wanders nigh - As it is set 'twixt mountain and champaign - Lives now in freedom now 'neath tyranny. - But who thou art I to be told am fain: - Be not more stubborn than we others found, - As thou on earth illustrious wouldst remain.' - When first the fire a little while had moaned - After its manner, next the pointed crest - Waved to and fro; then in this sense breathed sound: - 'If I believed my answer were addressed 61 - To one that earthward shall his course retrace, - This flame should forthwith altogether rest. - But since[704] none ever yet out of this place - Returned alive, if all be true I hear, - I yield thee answer fearless of disgrace. - I was a warrior, then a Cordelier;[705] - Thinking thus girt to purge away my stain: - And sure my hope had met with answer clear - Had not the High Priest[706]--ill with him remain! 70 - Plunged me anew into my former sin: - And why and how, I would to thee make plain. - While I the frame of bones and flesh was in - My mother gave me, all the deeds I wrought - Were fox-like and in no wise leonine. - Of every wile and hidden way I caught - The secret trick, and used them with such sleight - That all the world with fame of it was fraught. - When I perceived I had attained quite - The time of life when it behoves each one 80 - To furl his sails and coil his cordage tight, - Sorrowing for deeds I had with pleasure done, - Contrite and shriven, I religious grew. - Ah, wretched me! and well it was begun - But for the Chieftain of the Pharisees new,[707] - Then waging war hard by the Lateran, - And not with Saracen nor yet with Jew; - For Christian[708] were his enemies every man, - And none had at the siege of Acre been - Or trafficked in the Empire of Soldan. 90 - His lofty office he held cheap, and e'en - His Sacred Orders and the cord I wore, - Which used[709] to make the wearers of it lean. - As from Soracte[710] Constantine of yore - Sylvester called to cure his leprosy, - I as a leech was called this man before - To cure him of his fever which ran high; - My counsel he required, but I stood dumb, - For drunken all his words appeared to be. - He said; "For fear be in thy heart no room; 100 - Beforehand I absolve thee, but declare - How Palestrina I may overcome. - Heaven I unlock, as thou art well aware, - And close at will; because the keys are twin - My predecessor[711] was averse to bear." - Then did his weighty reasoning on me win - Till to be silent seemed the worst of all; - And, "Father," I replied, "since from this sin - Thou dost absolve me into which I fall-- - The scant performance[712] of a promise wide 110 - Will yield thee triumph in thy lofty stall." - Francis came for me soon as e'er I died; - But one of the black Cherubim was there - And "Take him not, nor rob me of him" cried, - "For him of right among my thralls I bear - Because he offered counsel fraudulent; - Since when I've had him firmly by the hair. - None is absolved unless he first repent; - Nor can repentance house with purpose ill, - For this the contradiction doth prevent." 120 - Ah, wretched me! How did I shrinking thrill - When clutching me he sneered: "Perhaps of old - Thou didst not think[713] I had in logic skill." - He carried me to Minos:[714] Minos rolled - His tail eight times round his hard back; in ire - Biting it fiercely, ere of me he told: - "Among the sinners of the shrouding fire!" - Therefore am I, where thou beholdest, lost; - And, sore at heart, go clothed in such attire.' - What he would say thus ended by the ghost, 130 - Away from us the moaning flame did glide - While to and fro its pointed horn was tossed. - But we passed further on, I and my Guide, - Along the cliff to where the arch is set - O'er the next moat, where paying they reside, - As schismatics who whelmed themselves in debt. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[688] _Consenting_: See line 21. - -[689] _One that came_: This is the fire-enveloped shade of Guido of -Montefeltro, the colloquy with whom occupies the whole of the Canto. - -[690] _The Sicilian bull_: Perillus, an Athenian, presented Phalaris, -the tyrant of Agrigentum, with a brazen bull so constructed that when it -was heated from below the cries of the victim it contained were -converted into the bellowing of a bull. The first trial of the invention -was made upon the artist. - -[691] _Accurst_: Not in the original. 'Rime in English hath such -scarcity,' as Chaucer says. - -[692] _As moved the tongue, etc._: The shade being enclosed in the -hollow fire all his words are changed into a sound like the roaring of a -flame. At last, when an opening has been worked through the crested -point, the speech becomes articulate. - -[693] _Depart, etc._: One at least of the words quoted as having been -used by Virgil is Lombard. There is something very quaint in making him -use the Lombard dialect of Dante's time. - -[694] _'Tween springs, etc._: Montefeltro lies between Urbino and the -mountain where the Tiber has its source. - -[695] _Already_: Dante knew that Virgil would refer to him for an answer -to Guido's question, bearing as it did on modern Italian affairs. - -[696] _Romagna_: The district of Italy lying on the Adriatic, south of -the Po and east of Tuscany, of which Bologna and the cities named in the -text were the principal towns. During the last quarter of the thirteenth -century it was the scene of constant wars promoted in the interest of -the Church, which claimed Romagna as the gift of the Emperor Rudolf, and -in that of the great nobles of the district, who while using the Guelf -and Ghibeline war-cries aimed at nothing but the lordship of the various -cities. Foremost among these nobles was he with whose shade Dante -speaks. Villani calls him 'the most sagacious and accomplished warrior -of his time in Italy' (_Cronica_, vii. 80). He was possessed of lands of -his own near Forli and Cesena, and was lord in turn of many of the -Romagnese cities. On the whole he appears to have remained true to his -Ghibeline colours in spite of Papal fulminations, although once and -again he was reconciled to the Church; on the last occasion in 1294. In -the years immediately before this he had greatly distinguished himself -as a wise governor and able general in the service of the Ghibeline -Pisa--or rather as the paid lord of it. - -[697] _Ravenna_: Ravenna and the neighbouring town of Cervia were in -1300 under the lordship of members of the Polenta family--the father and -brothers of the ill-fated Francesca (_Inf._ v.). Their arms were an -eagle, half white on an azure and half red on a gold field. It was in -the court of the generous Guido, son of one of these brothers, that -Dante was to find his last refuge and to die. - -[698] _Over the city, etc._: Forli. The reference is to one of the most -brilliant feats of war performed by Guido of Montefeltro. Frenchmen -formed great part of an army sent in 1282 against Forli by the Pope, -Martin IV., himself a Frenchman. Guido, then lord of the city, led them -into a trap and overthrew them with great slaughter. Like most men of -his time Guido was a believer in astrology, and is said on this occasion -to have acted on the counsel of Guido Bonatti, mentioned among the -diviners in the Fourth Bolgia (_Inf._ xx. 118). - -[699] _The Green Paws_: In 1300 the Ordelaffi were lords of Forli. Their -arms were a green lion on a gold ground. During the first years of his -exile Dante had to do with Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi, under whose -command the exiled Florentines put themselves for a time, and there is -even a tradition that he acted as his secretary. - -[700] _The Mastiffs of Verrucchio_: Verrucchio was the castle of the -Malatestas, lords of Rimini, called the Mastiffs on account of their -cruel tenacity. The elder was the father of Francesca's husband and -lover; the younger was a brother of these. - -[701] _Montagna_: Montagna de' Parcitati, one of a Ghibeline family that -contested superiority in Rimini with the Guelf Malatestas, was taken -prisoner by guile and committed by the old Mastiff to the keeping of the -young one, whose fangs were set in him to such purpose that he soon died -in his dungeon. - -[702] _Cities, etc._: Imola and Faenza, situated on the rivers named in -the text. Mainardo Pagani, lord of these towns, had for arms an azure -lion on a white field. During his minority he was a ward of the -Commonwealth of Florence. By his cunning and daring he earned the name -of the Demon (_Purg._ xiv. 118). He died at Imola in 1302, and was -buried in the garb of a monk of Vallombrosa. Like most of his neighbours -he changed his party as often as his interest required. He was a Guelf -in Florence and a Ghibeline in Romagna, say some. - -[703] _Savio_: Cesena, on the Savio, was distinguished among the cities -of Romagna by being left more frequently than the others were to manage -its own affairs. The Malatestas and Montefeltros were in turn possessed -of the tyranny of it. - -[704] _But since, etc._: The shades, being enveloped in fire, are unable -to see those with whom they speak; and so Guido does not detect in Dante -the signs of a living man, but takes him to be like himself a denizen of -Inferno. He would not have the truth regarding his fate to be known in -the world, where he is supposed to have departed life in the odour of -sanctity. Dante's promise to refresh his fame he either regards as -meaningless, or as one made without the power of fulfilling it. Dante -leaves him in his error, for he is there to learn all he can, and not to -bandy personal confessions with the shades. - -[705] _A Cordelier_: In 1296 Guido entered the Franciscan Order. He died -in 1298, but where is not known; some authorities say at Venice and -others at Assisi. Benvenuto tells: 'He was often seen begging his bread -in Ancona, where he was buried. Many good deeds are related of him, and -I cherish a sweet hope that he may have been saved.' - -[706] _The High Priest_: Boniface VIII. - -[707] _The Pharisees new_: The members of the Court of Rome. Saint -Jerome calls the dignified Roman clergy of his day 'the Senate of the -Pharisees.' - -[708] _For Christian, etc._: The foes of Boniface, here spoken of, were -the Cardinals Peter and James Colonna. He destroyed their palace in Rome -(1297) and carried the war against them to their country seat at -Palestrina, the ancient Praeneste, then a great stronghold. Dante here -bitterly blames Boniface for instituting a crusade against Christians at -a time when, by the recent loss of Acre, the gate of the Holy Land had -been lost to Christendom. The Colonnas were innocent, too, of the crime -of supplying the Infidel with munitions of war--a crime condemned by the -Lateran Council of 1215, and by Boniface himself, who excluded those -guilty of it from the benefits of the great Jubilee of 1300. - -[709] _Which used, etc._: In former times, when the rule of the Order -was faithfully observed. Dante charges the Franciscans with degeneracy -in the _Paradiso_, xi. 124. - -[710] _From Soracte_: Referring to the well-known legend. The fee for -the cure was the fabulous Donation. See _Inf._ xix. 115. - -[711] _My predecessor_: Celestine v. See _Inf._ iii. 60. - -[712] _The scant performance, etc._: That Guido gave such counsel is -related by a contemporary chronicler: 'The Pope said: Tell me how to get -the better of those mine enemies, thou who art so knowing in these -things. Then he answered: Promise much, and perform little; which he -did.' But it seems odd that the wily and unscrupulous Boniface should -have needed to put himself to school for such a simple lesson. - -[713] _Thou didst not think, etc._: Guido had forgot that others could -reason besides the Pope. With regard to the inefficacy of the Papal -absolution an old commentator says, following Origen: 'The Popes that -walk in the footsteps of Peter have this power of binding and loosing; -but only such as do so walk.' But on Dante's scheme of what fixes the -fate of the soul absolution matters little to save, or priestly curses -to damnify. See _Purg._ iii. 133. It is unfeigned repentance that can -help a sinner even at the last; and it is remarkable that in the case of -Buonconte, the gallant son of this same Guido, the infernal angel who -comes for him as he expires complains that he has been cheated of his -victim by one poor tear. See _Purg._ v. 88, etc. Why then is no -indulgence shown in Dante's court to Guido, who might well have been -placed in Purgatory and made to have repented effectually of this his -last sin? That Dante had any personal grudge against him we can hardly -think. In the Fourth Book of the _Convito_ (written, according to -Fraticelli, in 1297), he calls him 'our most noble Guido Montefeltrano;' -and praises him as one of the wise and noble souls that refuse to run -with full sails into the port of death, but furl the sails of their -worldly undertakings, and, relinquishing all earthly pleasures and -business, give themselves up in their old age to a religious life. -Either, then, he sets Guido here in order that he may have a modern -false counsellor worthy to be ranked with Ulysses; or because, on longer -experience, he had come to reprobate more keenly the abuse of the -Franciscan habit; or, most likely of all, that he might, even at the -cost of Guido, load the hated memory of Boniface with another reproach. - -[714] _Minos_: Here we have Minos represented in the act of pronouncing -judgment in words as well as by the figurative rolling of his tail -around his body (_Inf._ v. 11). - - - - -CANTO XXVIII. - - - Could any, even in words unclogged by rhyme - Recount the wounds that now I saw,[715] and blood, - Although he aimed at it time after time? - Here every tongue must fail of what it would, - Because our human speech and powers of thought - To grasp so much come short in aptitude. - If all the people were together brought - Who in Apulia,[716] land distressed by fate, - Made lamentation for the bloodshed wrought - By Rome;[717] and in that war procrastinate[718] 10 - When the large booty of the rings was won, - As Livy writes whose every word has weight; - With those on whom such direful deeds were done - When Robert Guiscard[719] they as foes assailed; - And those of whom still turns up many a bone - At Ceperan,[720] where each Apulian failed - In faith; and those at Tagliacozzo[721] strewed, - Where old Alardo, not by arms, prevailed; - And each his wounds and mutilations showed, - Yet would they far behind by those be left 20 - Who had the vile Ninth Bolgia for abode. - No cask, of middle stave or end bereft, - E'er gaped like one I saw the rest among, - Slit from the chin all downward to the cleft. - Between his legs his entrails drooping hung; - The pluck and that foul bag were evident - Which changes what is swallowed into dung. - And while I gazed upon him all intent, - Opening his breast his eyes on me he set, - Saying: 'Behold, how by myself I'm rent! 30 - See how dismembered now is Mahomet![722] - Ali[723] in front of me goes weeping too; - With visage from the chin to forelock split. - By all the others whom thou seest there grew - Scandal and schism while yet they breathed the day; - Because of which they now are cloven through. - There stands behind a devil on the way, - Us with his sword thus cruelly to trim: - He cleaves again each of our company - As soon as we complete the circuit grim; 40 - Because the wounds of each are healed outright - Or e'er anew he goes in front of him. - But who art thou that peerest from the height, - It may be putting off to reach the pain - Which shall the crimes confessed by thee requite?' - 'Death has not seized him yet, nor is he ta'en - To torment for his sins,' my Master said; - 'But, that he may a full experience gain, - By me, a ghost, 'tis doomed he should be led - Down the Infernal circles, round on round; 50 - And what I tell thee is the truth indeed.' - A hundred shades and more, to whom the sound - Had reached, stood in the moat to mark me well, - Their pangs forgot; so did the words astound. - 'Let Fra Dolcin[724] provide, thou mayst him tell-- - Thou, who perchance ere long shalt sunward go-- - Unless he soon would join me in this Hell, - Much food, lest aided by the siege of snow - The Novarese should o'er him victory get, - Which otherwise to win they would be slow.' 60 - While this was said to me by Mahomet - One foot he held uplifted; to the ground - He let it fall, and so he forward set - Next, one whose throat was gaping with a wound, - Whose nose up to the brows away was sheared - And on whose head a single ear was found, - At me, with all the others, wondering peered; - And, ere the rest, an open windpipe made, - The outside of it all with crimson smeared. - 'O thou, not here because of guilt,' he said; 70 - 'And whom I sure on Latian ground did know - Unless by strong similitude betrayed, - Upon Pier da Medicin[725] bestow - A thought, shouldst thou revisit the sweet plain - That from Vercelli[726] slopes to Marcabo. - And make thou known to Fano's worthiest twain-- - To Messer Guido and to Angiolel-- - They, unless foresight here be wholly vain, - Thrown overboard in gyve and manacle - Shall drown fast by Cattolica, as planned 80 - By treachery of a tyrant fierce and fell. - Between Majolica[727] and Cyprus strand - A blacker crime did Neptune never spy - By pirates wrought, or even by Argives' hand. - The traitor[728] who is blinded of an eye, - Lord of the town which of my comrades one - Had been far happier ne'er to have come nigh, - To parley with him will allure them on, - Then so provide, against Focara's[729] blast - No need for them of vow or orison.' 90 - And I: 'Point out and tell, if wish thou hast - To get news of thee to the world conveyed, - Who rues that e'er his eyes thereon were cast?' - On a companion's jaw his hand he laid, - And shouted, while the mouth he open prised: - ''Tis this one here by whom no word is said. - He quenched all doubt in Caesar, and advised-- - Himself an outlaw--that a man equipped - For strife ran danger if he temporised.' - Alas, to look on, how downcast and hipped 100 - Curio,[730] once bold in counsel, now appeared; - With gorge whence by the roots the tongue was ripped. - Another one, whose hands away were sheared, - In the dim air his stumps uplifted high - So that his visage was with blood besmeared, - And, 'Mosca,[731] too, remember!' loud did cry, - 'Who said, ah me! "A thing once done is done!" - An evil seed for all in Tuscany.' - I added: 'Yea, and death to every one - Of thine!' whence he, woe piled on woe, his way 110 - Went like a man with grief demented grown. - But I to watch the gang made longer stay, - And something saw which I should have a fear, - Without more proof, so much as even to say, - But that my conscience bids me have good cheer-- - The comrade leal whose friendship fortifies - A man beneath the mail of purpose clear. - I saw in sooth (still seems it 'fore mine eyes), - A headless trunk; with that sad company - It forward moved, and on the selfsame wise. 120 - The severed head, clutched by the hair, swung free - Down from the fist, yea, lantern-like hung down; - Staring at us it murmured: 'Wretched me!' - A lamp he made of head-piece once his own; - And he was two in one and one in two; - But how, to Him who thus ordains is known. - Arrived beneath the bridge and full in view, - With outstretched arm his head he lifted high - To bring his words well to us. These I knew: - 'Consider well my grievous penalty, 130 - Thou who, though still alive, art visiting - The people dead; what pain with this can vie? - In order that to earth thou news mayst bring - Of me, that I'm Bertrand de Born[732] know well, - Who gave bad counsel to the Younger King. - I son and sire made each 'gainst each rebel: - David and Absalom were fooled not more - By counsels of the false Ahithophel. - Kinsmen so close since I asunder tore, - Severed, alas! I carry now my brain 140 - From what[733] it grew from in this trunk of yore: - And so I prove the law of pain for pain.'[734] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[715] _That now I saw_: In the Ninth Bolgia, on which he is looking -down, and in which are punished the sowers of discord in church and -state. - -[716] _Apulia_: The south-eastern district of Italy, owing to its -situation a frequent battle-field in ancient and modern times. - -[717] _Rome_: 'Trojans' in most MSS.; and then the Romans are described -as descended from Trojans. The reference may be to the defeat of the -Apulians with considerable slaughter by P. Decius Mus, or to their -losses in general in the course of the Samnite war. - -[718] _War procrastinate_: The second Punic war lasted fully fifteen -years, and in the course of it the battle of Cannae was gained by -Hannibal, where so many Roman knights fell that the spoil of rings -amounted to a peck. - -[719] _Guiscard_: One of the Norman conquerors of the regions which up -to our own time constituted the kingdom of Naples. In Apulia he did much -fighting against Lombards, Saracens, and Greeks. He is found by Dante in -Paradise among those who fought for the faith (_Par._ xviii. 48). His -death happened in Cephalonia in 1085, at the age of seventy, when he was -engaged on an expedition against Constantinople. - -[720] _Ceperan_: In the swift and decisive campaign undertaken by -Charles of Anjou against Manfred, King of Sicily and Naples, the first -victory was obtained at Ceperano; but it was won owing to the treachery -of Manfred's lieutenant, and not by the sword. The true battle was -fought at Benevento (_Purg._ iii. 128). Ceperano may be named by Dante -as the field where the defeat of Manfred was virtually begun, and where -the Apulians first failed in loyalty to their gallant king. Dante was a -year old at the time of Manfred's overthrow (1266). - -[721] _Tagliacozzo_: The crown Charles had won from Manfred he had to -defend against Manfred's nephew Conradin (grandson and last -representative of Frederick II. and the legitimate heir to the kingdom -of Sicily), whom, in 1268, he defeated near Tagliacozzo in the Abruzzi. -He made his victory the more complete by acting on the advice of Alardo -or Erard de Valery, an old Crusader, to hold good part of his force in -reserve. Charles wrote to the Pope that the slaughter was so great as -far to exceed that at Benevento. The feet of all the low-born prisoners -not slain on the field were cut off, while the gentlemen were beheaded -or hanged. - -[722] _Mahomet_: It has been objected to Dante by M. Littre that he -treats Mahomet, the founder of a new religion, as a mere schismatic. The -wonder would have been had he dwelt on the good qualities of the Prophet -at a time when Islam still threatened Europe. He goes on the fact that -Mahomet and his followers rent great part of the East and South from -Christendom; and for this the Prophet is represented as being mutilated -in a sorer degree than the other schismatics. - -[723] _Ali_: Son-in-law of Mahomet. - -[724] _Fra Dolcin_: At the close of the thirteenth century, Boniface -being Pope, the general discontent with the corruption of the higher -clergy found expression in the north of Italy in the foundation of a new -sect, whose leader was Fra Dolcino. What he chiefly was--enthusiast, -reformer, or impostor--it is impossible to ascertain; all we know of him -being derived from writers in the Papal interest. Among other crimes he -was charged with that of teaching the lawfulness of telling an -Inquisitor a lie to save your life, and with prophesying the advent of a -pious Pope. A holy war on a small scale was preached against him. After -suffering the extremities of famine, snowed up as he was among the -mountains, he was taken prisoner and cruelly put to death (1307). It may -have been in order to save himself from being suspected of sympathy with -him, that Dante, whose hatred of Boniface and the New Pharisees was -equal to Dolcino's, provides for him by anticipation a place with -Mahomet. - -[725] _Pier da Medicin_: Medicina is in the territory of Bologna. Piero -is said to have stirred up dissensions between the Polentas of Ravenna -and the Malatestas of Rimini. - -[726] _From Vercelli, etc._: From the district of Vercelli to where the -castle of Marcabo once stood, at the mouth of the Po, is a distance of -two hundred miles. The plain is Lombardy. - -[727] _Majolica, etc._: On all the Mediterranean, from Cyprus in the -east to Majorca in the west. - -[728] _The traitor, etc._: The one-eyed traitor is Malatesta, lord of -Rimini, the Young Mastiff of the preceding Canto. He invited the two -chief citizens of Fano, named in the text, to hold a conference with -him, and procured that on their way they should be pitched overboard -opposite the castle of Cattolica, which stood between Fano and Rimini. -This is said to have happened in 1304. - -[729] _Focara_: The name of a promontory near Cattolica, subject to -squalls. The victims were never to double the headland. - -[730] _Curio_: The Roman Tribune who, according to Lucan--the incident -is not historically correct--found Caesar hesitating whether to cross the -Rubicon, and advised him: _Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis_. -'No delay! when men are ready they always suffer by putting off.' The -passage of the Rubicon was counted as the beginning of the Civil -War.--Curio gets scant justice, seeing that in Dante's view Caesar in all -he did was only carrying out the Divine purpose regarding the Empire. - -[731] _Mosca_: In 1215 one of the Florentine family of the Buondelmonti -jilted a daughter of the Amidei. When these with their friends met to -take counsel touching revenge for the insult, Mosca, one of the Uberti -or of the Lamberti, gave his opinion in the proverb, _Cosa fatta ha -capo_: 'A thing once done is done with.' The hint was approved of, and -on the following Easter morning the young Buondelmonte, as, mounted on a -white steed and dressed in white he rode across the Ponte Vecchio, was -dragged to the ground and cruelly slain. All the great Florentine -families took sides in the feud, and it soon widened into the civil war -between Florentine Guelf and Ghibeline. - -[732] _Bertrand de Born_: Is mentioned by Dante in his Treatise _De -Vulgari Eloquio_, ii. 2, as specially the poet of warlike deeds. He was -a Gascon noble who used his poetical gift very much to stir up strife. -For patron he had the Prince Henry, son of Henry II. of England. Though -Henry never came to the throne he was, during his father's lifetime, -crowned as his successor, and was known as the young King. After the -death of the Prince, Bertrand was taken prisoner by the King, and, -according to the legend, was loaded with favours because he had been so -true a friend to his young master. That he had a turn for fomenting -discord is shown by his having also led a revolt in Aquitaine against -Richard I.--All the old MSS. and all the earlier commentators read _Re -Giovanni_, King John; _Re Giovane_, the young King, being a -comparatively modern emendation. In favour of adopting this it may be -mentioned that in his poems Bertrand calls Prince Henry _lo Reys joves_, -the young King; that it was Henry and not John that was his friend and -patron; and that in the old _Cento Novelle_ Henry is described as the -young King: in favour of the older reading, that John as well as his -brother was a rebel to Henry; and that the line is hurt by the change -from _Giovanni_ to _Giovane_. Considering that Dante almost certainly -wrote _Giovanni_ it seems most reasonable to suppose that he may have -confounded the _Re Giovane_ with King John. - -[733] _From what, etc._: The spinal cord, as we should now say, though -Dante may have meant the heart. - -[734] _Pain for pain_: In the City of Dis we found the heresiarchs, -those who lead others to think falsely. The lower depth of the Malebolge -is reserved for such as needlessly rend any Divinely-constituted order -of society, civil or religious. Conduct counts more with Dante than -opinion--in this case. - - - - -CANTO XXIX. - - - The many folk and wounds of divers kind - Had flushed mine eyes and set them on the flow, - Till I to weep and linger had a mind; - But Virgil said to me: 'Why gazing so? - Why still thy vision fastening on the crew - Of dismal shades dismembered there below? - Thou didst not[735] thus the other Bolgias view: - Think, if to count them be thine enterprise, - The valley circles twenty miles and two.[736] - Beneath our feet the moon[737] already lies; 10 - The time[738] wears fast away to us decreed; - And greater things than these await thine eyes.' - I answered swift: 'Hadst thou but given heed - To why it was my looks were downward bent, - To yet more stay thou mightest have agreed.' - My Guide meanwhile was moving, and I went - Behind him and continued to reply, - Adding: 'Within the moat on which intent - I now was gazing with such eager eye - I trow a spirit weeps, one of my kin, 20 - The crime whose guilt is rated there so high.' - Then said the Master: 'Henceforth hold thou in - Thy thoughts from wandering to him: new things claim - Attention now, so leave him with his sin. - Him saw I at thee from the bridge-foot aim - A threatening finger, while he made thee known; - Geri del Bello[739] heard I named his name. - But, at the time, thou wast with him alone - Engrossed who once held Hautefort,[740] nor the place - Didst look at where he was; so passed he on.' 30 - 'O Leader mine! death violent and base, - And not avenged as yet,' I made reply, - 'By any of his partners in disgrace, - Made him disdainful; therefore went he by - And spake not with me, if I judge aright; - Which does the more my ruth[741] intensify.' - So we conversed till from the cliff we might - Of the next valley have had prospect good - Down to the bottom, with but clearer light.[742] - When we above the inmost Cloister stood 40 - Of Malebolge, and discerned the crew - Of such as there compose the Brotherhood,[743] - So many lamentations pierced me through-- - And barbed with pity all the shafts were sped-- - My open palms across my ears I drew. - From Valdichiana's[744] every spital bed - All ailments to September from July, - With all in Maremma and Sardinia[745] bred, - Heaped in one pit a sickness might supply - Like what was here; and from it rose a stink 50 - Like that which comes from limbs that putrefy. - Then we descended by the utmost brink - Of the long ridge[746]--leftward once more we fell-- - Until my vision, quickened now, could sink - Deeper to where Justice infallible, - The minister of the Almighty Lord, - Chastises forgers doomed on earth[747] to Hell. - AEgina[748] could no sadder sight afford, - As I believe (when all the people ailed - And all the air was so with sickness stored, 60 - Down to the very worms creation failed - And died, whereon the pristine folk once more, - As by the poets is for certain held, - From seed of ants their family did restore), - Than what was offered by that valley black - With plague-struck spirits heaped upon the floor. - Supine some lay, each on the other's back - Or stomach; and some crawled with crouching gait - For change of place along the doleful track. - Speechless we moved with step deliberate, 70 - With eyes and ears on those disease crushed down - Nor left them power to lift their bodies straight. - I saw two sit, shoulder to shoulder thrown - As plate holds plate up to be warmed, from head - Down to the feet with scurf and scab o'ergrown. - Nor ever saw I curry-comb so plied - By varlet with his master standing by, - Or by one kept unwillingly from bed, - As I saw each of these his scratchers ply - Upon himself; for nought else now avails 80 - Against the itch which plagues them furiously. - The scab[749] they tore and loosened with their nails, - As with a knife men use the bream to strip, - Or any other fish with larger scales. - 'Thou, that thy mail dost with thy fingers rip,' - My Guide to one of them began to say, - 'And sometimes dost with them as pincers nip, - Tell, is there any here from Italy - Among you all, so may thy nails suffice - For this their work to all eternity.'[750] 90 - 'Latians are both of us in this disguise - Of wretchedness,' weeping said one of those; - 'But who art thou, demanding on this wise?' - My Guide made answer: 'I am one who goes - Down with this living man from steep to steep - That I to him Inferno may disclose.' - Then broke their mutual prop; trembling with deep - Amazement each turned to me, with the rest - To whom his words had echoed in the heap. - Me the good Master cordially addressed: 100 - 'Whate'er thou hast a mind to ask them, say.' - And since he wished it, thus I made request: - 'So may remembrance of you not decay - Within the upper world out of the mind - Of men, but flourish still for many a day, - As ye shall tell your names and what your kind: - Let not your vile, disgusting punishment - To full confession make you disinclined.' - 'An Aretine,[751] I to the stake was sent - By Albert of Siena,' one confessed, 110 - 'But came not here through that for which I went - To death. 'Tis true I told him all in jest, - I through the air could float in upward gyre; - And he, inquisitive and dull at best, - Did full instruction in the art require: - I could not make him Daedalus,[752] so then - His second father sent me to the fire. - But to the deepest Bolgia of the ten, - For alchemy which in the world I wrought, - The unerring Minos doomed me.' 'Now were men - E'er found,' I of the Poet asked, 'so fraught 121 - With vanity as are the Sienese?[753] - French vanity to theirs is surely nought.' - The other leper hearing me, to these - My words: 'Omit the Stricca,'[754] swift did shout, - 'Who knew his tastes with temperance to please; - And Nicholas,[755] who earliest found out - The lavish custom of the clove-stuffed roast - Within the garden where such seed doth sprout. - Nor count the club[756] where Caccia d' Ascian lost 130 - Vineyards and woods; 'mid whom away did throw - His wit the Abbagliato.[757] But whose ghost - It is, that thou mayst weet, that backs thee so - Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eyes - That thou my countenance mayst surely know. - In me Capocchio's[758] shade thou'lt recognise, - Who forged false coin by means of alchemy: - Thou must remember, if I well surmise, - How I of nature very ape could be.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[735] _Thou didst not, etc._: It is a noteworthy feature in the conduct -of the Poem that when Dante has once gained sufficient knowledge of any -group in the Inferno he at once detaches his mind from it, and, carrying -on as little arrear of pity as he can, gives his thoughts to further -progress on the journey. The departure here made from his usual -behaviour is presently accounted for. Virgil knows why he lingers, but -will not seem to approve of the cause. - -[736] _Twenty miles and two_: The Ninth Bolgia has a circumference of -twenty-two miles, and as the procession of the shades is slow it would -indeed involve a protracted halt to wait till all had passed beneath the -bridge. Virgil asks ironically if he wishes to count them all. This -precise detail, taken along with one of the same kind in the following -Canto (line 86), has suggested the attempt to construct the Inferno to a -scale. Dante wisely suffers us to forget, if we will, that--taking the -diameter of the earth at 6500 miles, as given by him in the -_Convito_--he travels from the surface of the globe to the centre at the -rate of more than two miles a minute, counting downward motion alone. It -is only when he has come to the lowest rings that he allows himself to -give details of size; and probably the mention of the extent of the -Ninth Bolgia, which comes on the reader as a surprise, is thrown out in -order to impress on the imagination some sense of the enormous extent of -the regions through which the pilgrim has already passed. Henceforth he -deals in exact measurement. - -[737] _The moon_: It is now some time after noon on the Saturday. The -last indication of time was at Canto xxi. 112. - -[738] _The time, etc._: Before nightfall they are to complete their -exploration of the Inferno, and they will have spent twenty-four hours -in it. - -[739] _Geri del Bello_: One of the Alighieri, a full cousin of Dante's -father. He was guilty of encouraging dissension, say the commentators; -which is to be clearly inferred from the place assigned him in Inferno: -but they do not agree as to how he met his death, nor do they mention -the date of it. 'Not avenged till thirty years after,' says Landino; but -does not say if this was after his death or the time at which Dante -writes. - -[740] _Hautefort_: Bertrand de Born's castle in Gascony. - -[741] _My ruth_: Enlightened moralist though Dante is, he yet shows -himself man of his age enough to be keenly alive to the extremest claims -of kindred; and while he condemns the _vendetta_ by the words put into -Virgil's mouth, he confesses to a feeling of meanness not to have -practised it on behoof of a distant relative. There is a high art in -this introduction of Geri del Bello. Had they conferred together Dante -must have seemed either cruel or pusillanimous, reproaching or being -reproached. As it is, all the poetry of the situation comes out the -stronger that they do not meet face to face: the threatening finger, the -questions hastily put to Geri by the astonished shades, and his -disappearance under the dark vault when by the law of his punishment the -sinner can no longer tarry. - -[742] _With but clearer light_: They have crossed the rampart dividing -the Ninth Bolgia from the Tenth, of which they would now command a view, -were it not so dark. - -[743] _The Brotherhood_: The word used properly describes the Lay -Brothers of a monastery. Philalethes suggests that Dante may regard the -devils as the true monks of the monastery of Malebolge. The simile -involves no contempt for the monastic life, but is naturally used with -reference to those who live secluded and under a fixed rule. He -elsewhere speaks of the College of the Hypocrites (_Inf._ xxiii. 91) and -of Paradise as the Cloister where Christ is Abbot (_Purg._ xxvi.129). - -[744] _Valdichiana_: The district lying between Arezzo and Chiusi; in -Dante's time a hotbed of malaria, but now, owing to drainage works -promoted by the enlightened Tuscan minister Fossombroni (1823), one of -the most fertile and healthy regions of Italy. - -[745] _Sardinia_: Had in the middle ages an evil reputation for its -fever-stricken air. The Maremma has been already mentioned (_Inf._ -xxv.19). In Dante's time it was almost unpeopled. - -[746] _The long ridge_: One of the ribs of rock which, like the spokes -of a wheel, ran from the periphery to the centre of Malebolge, rising -into arches as they crossed each successive Bolgia. The utmost brink is -the inner bank of the Tenth and last Bolgia. To the edge of this moat -they descend, bearing as usual to the left hand. - -[747] _Doomed on earth, etc._: 'Whom she here registers.' While they are -still on earth their doom is fixed by Divine justice. - -[748] _AEgina_: The description is taken from Ovid (_Metam._ vii.). - -[749] _The scab, etc._: As if by an infernal alchemy the matter of the -shadowy bodies of these sinners is changed into one loathsome form or -another. - -[750] _To all eternity_: This may seem a stroke of sarcasm, but is not. -Himself a shade, Virgil cannot, like Dante, promise to refresh the -memory of the shades on earth, and can only wish for them some slight -alleviation of their suffering. - -[751] _An Aretine_: Called Griffolino, and burned at Florence or Siena -on a charge of heresy. Albert of Siena is said to have been a relative, -some say the natural son, of the Bishop of Siena. A man of the name -figures as hero in some of Sacchetti's novels, always in a ridiculous -light. There seems to be no authentic testimony regarding the incident -in the text. - -[752] _Daedalus_: Who escaped on wings of his invention from the Cretan -Labyrinth he had made and lost himself in. - -[753] _The Sienese_: The comparison of these to the French would have -the more cogency as Siena boasted of having been founded by the Gauls. -'That vain people,' says Dante of the Sienese in the _Purgatory_ (xiii. -151). Among their neighbours they still bear the reputation of -light-headedness; also, it ought to be added, of great urbanity. - -[754] _The Stricca_: The exception in his favour is ironical, as is that -of all the others mentioned. - -[755] _Nicholas_: 'The lavish custom of the clove' which he invented is -variously described. I have chosen the version which makes it consist of -stuffing pheasants with cloves, then very costly. - -[756] _The club_: The commentators tell that the two young Sienese -nobles above mentioned were members of a society formed for the purpose -of living luxuriously together. Twelve of them contributed a fund of -above two hundred thousand gold florins; they built a great palace and -furnished it magnificently, and launched out into every other sort of -extravagance with such assiduity that in a few months their capital was -gone. As that amounted to more than a hundred thousand pounds of our -money, equal in those days to a million or two, the story must be held -to savour of romance. That Dante refers to a prodigal's club that -actually existed some time before he wrote we cannot doubt. But it seems -uncertain, to say the least, whether the sonnets addressed by the Tuscan -poet Folgore da Gemignano to a jovial crew in Siena can be taken as -having been inspired by the club Dante speaks of. A translation of them -is given by Mr. Rossetti in his _Circle of Dante_. (See Mr. Symonds's -_Renaissance_, vol. iv. page 54, _note_, for doubts as to the date of -Folgore.)--_Caccia d' Ascian_: Whose short and merry club life cost him -his estates near Siena. - -[757] _The Abbagliato_: Nothing is known, though a great deal is -guessed, about this member of the club. It is enough to know that, -having a scant supply of wit, he spent it freely. - -[758] _Capocchio_: Some one whom Dante knew. Whether he was a Florentine -or a Sienese is not ascertained, but from the strain of his mention of -the Sienese we may guess Florentine. He was burned in Siena in -1293.--(Scartazzini.) They had studied together, says the _Anonimo_. -Benvenuto tells of him that one Good Friday, while in a cloister, he -painted on his nail with marvellous completeness a picture of the -crucifixion. Dante came up, and was lost in wonder, when Capocchio -suddenly licked his nail clean--which may be taken for what it is worth. - - - - -CANTO XXX. - - - Because of Semele[759] when Juno's ire - Was fierce 'gainst all that were to Thebes allied, - As had been proved by many an instance dire; - So mad grew Athamas[760] that when he spied - His wife as she with children twain drew near, - Each hand by one encumbered, loud he cried: - 'Be now the nets outspread, that I may snare - Cubs with the lioness at yon strait ground!' - And stretching claws of all compassion bare - He on Learchus seized and swung him round, 10 - And shattered him upon a flinty stone; - Then she herself and the other burden drowned. - And when by fortune was all overthrown - The Trojans' pride, inordinate before-- - Monarch and kingdom equally undone-- - Hecuba,[761] sad and captive, mourning o'er - Polyxena, when dolorous she beheld - The body of her darling Polydore - Upon the coast, out of her wits she yelled, - And spent herself in barking like a hound; 20 - So by her sorrow was her reason quelled. - But never yet was Trojan fury[762] found, - Nor that of Thebes, to sting so cruelly - Brute beasts, far less the human form to wound, - As two pale naked shades were stung, whom I - Saw biting run, like swine when they escape - Famished and eager from the empty sty. - Capocchio[763] coming up to, in his nape - One fixed his fangs, and hauling at him made - His belly on the stony pavement scrape. 30 - The Aretine[764] who stood, still trembling, said: - 'That imp is Gianni Schicchi,[765] and he goes - Rabid, thus trimming others.' 'O!' I prayed, - 'So may the teeth of the other one of those - Not meet in thee, as, ere she pass from sight, - Thou freely shalt the name of her disclose.' - And he to me: 'That is the ancient sprite - Of shameless Myrrha,[766] who let liking rise - For him who got her, past all bounds of right. - As, to transgress with him, she in disguise 40 - Came near to him deception to maintain; - So he, departing yonder from our eyes, - That he the Lady of the herd might gain, - Bequeathed his goods by formal testament - While he Buoso Donate's[767] form did feign.' - And when the rabid couple from us went, - Who all this time by me were being eyed, - Upon the rest ill-starred I grew intent; - And, fashioned like a lute, I one espied, - Had he been only severed at the place 50 - Where at the groin men's lower limbs divide. - The grievous dropsy, swol'n with humours base, - Which every part of true proportion strips - Till paunch grows out of keeping with the face, - Compelled him widely ope to hold his lips - Like one in fever who, by thirst possessed, - Has one drawn up while the other chinward slips. - 'O ye![768] who by no punishment distressed, - Nor know I why, are in this world of dool,' - He said; 'a while let your attention rest 60 - On Master Adam[769] here of misery full. - Living, I all I wished enjoyed at will; - Now lust I for a drop of water cool. - The water-brooks that down each grassy hill - Of Casentino to the Arno fall - And with cool moisture all their courses fill-- - Always, and not in vain, I see them all; - Because the vision of them dries me more - Than the disease 'neath which my face grows small. - For rigid justice, me chastising sore, 70 - Can in the place I sinned at motive find - To swell the sighs in which I now deplore. - There lies Romena, where of the money coined[770] - With the Baptist's image I made counterfeit, - And therefore left my body burnt behind. - But could I see here Guido's[771] wretched sprite, - Or Alexander's, or their brother's, I - For Fonte Branda[772] would not give the sight. - One is already here, unless they lie-- - Mad souls with power to wander through the crowd-- - What boots it me, whose limbs diseases tie? 81 - But were I yet so nimble that I could - Creep one poor inch a century, some while - Ago had I begun to take the road - Searching for him among this people vile; - And that although eleven miles[773] 'tis long, - And has a width of more than half a mile. - Because of them am I in such a throng; - For to forge florins I by them was led, - Which by three carats[774] of alloy were wrong,' 90 - 'Who are the wretches twain,' I to him said, - 'Who smoke[775] like hand in winter-time fresh brought - From water, on thy right together spread?' - 'Here found I them, nor have they budged a jot,' - He said, 'since I was hurled into this vale; - And, as I deem, eternally they'll not. - One[776] with false charges Joseph did assail; - False Sinon,[777] Greek from Troy, is the other wight. - Burning with fever they this stink exhale.' - Then one of them, perchance o'ercome with spite 100 - Because he thus contemptuously was named, - Smote with his fist upon the belly tight. - It sounded like a drum; and then was aimed - A blow by Master Adam at his face - With arm no whit less hard, while he exclaimed: - 'What though I can no longer shift my place - Because my members by disease are weighed! - I have an arm still free for such a case.' - To which was answered: 'When thou wast conveyed - Unto the fire 'twas not thus good at need, 110 - But even more so when the coiner's trade - Was plied by thee.' The swol'n one: 'True indeed! - But thou didst not bear witness half so true - When Trojans[778] at thee for the truth did plead.' - 'If I spake falsely, thou didst oft renew - False coin,' said Sinon; 'one fault brought me here; - Thee more than any devil of the crew.' - 'Bethink thee of the horse, thou perjurer,' - He of the swol'n paunch answered; 'and that by - All men 'tis known should anguish in thee stir.' 120 - 'Be thirst that cracks thy tongue thy penalty, - And putrid water,' so the Greek replied, - 'Which 'fore thine eyes thy stomach moundeth high.' - The coiner then: 'Thy mouth thou openest wide, - As thou art used, thy slanderous words to vent; - But if I thirst and humours plump my hide - Thy head throbs with the fire within thee pent. - To lap Narcissus' mirror,[779] to implore - And urge thee on would need no argument.' - While I to hear them did attentive pore 130 - My Master said: 'Thy fill of staring take! - To rouse my anger needs but little more.' - And when I heard that he in anger spake - Toward him I turned with such a shame inspired, - Recalled, it seems afresh on me to break. - And, as the man who dreams of hurt is fired - With wish that he might know his dream a dream, - And so what is, as 'twere not, is desired; - So I, struck dumb and filled with an extreme - Craving to find excuse, unwittingly 140 - The meanwhile made the apology supreme. - 'Less shame,' my Master said, 'would nullify - A greater fault, for greater guilt atone; - All sadness for it, therefore, lay thou by. - But bear in mind that thou art not alone, - If fortune hap again to bring thee near - Where people such debate are carrying on. - To things like these 'tis shame[780] to lend an ear.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[759] _Semele_: The daughter of Cadmus, founder and king of Thebes, was -beloved by Jupiter and therefore hated by Juno, who induced her to court -destruction by urging the god to visit her, as he was used to come to -Juno, in all his glory. And in other instances the goddess took revenge -(Ovid, _Metam._ iv.). - -[760] _Athamas_: Married to a sister of Semele, was made insane by the -angry Juno, with the result described in the text. - -[761] _Hecuba_: Wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of Polyxena and -Polydorus. While she was lamenting the death of her daughter, slain as -an offering on the tomb of Achilles, she found the corpse of her son, -slain by the king of Thrace, to whose keeping she had committed him -(Ovid, _Metam._ xiii.). - -[762] _Trojan fury, etc._: It was by the agency of a Fury that Athamas -was put out of his mind; but the Trojan and Theban furies here meant are -the frenzies of Athamas and Hecuba, wild with which one of them slew his -son, and the other scratched out the eyes of the Thracian king. - -[763] _Capocchio_: See close of the preceding Canto. Here as elsewhere -sinners are made ministers of vengeance on one another. - -[764] _The Aretine_: Griffolino, who boasted he could fly; already -represented as trembling (_Inf._ xxix. 97). - -[765] _Gianni Schicchi_: Giovanni Schicchi, one of the Cavalcanti of -Florence. - -[766] _Myrrha_: This is a striking example of Dante's detestation of -what may be called heartless sins. It is covered by the classification -of Canto xi. Yet it is almost with a shock that we find Myrrha here for -personation, and not rather condemned to some other circle for another -sin. - -[767] _Buoso Donati_: Introduced as a thief in the Seventh Bolgia -(_Inf._ xxv. 140). Buoso was possessed of a peerless mare, known as the -Lady of the herd. To make some amends for his unscrupulous acquisition -of wealth, he made a will bequeathing legacies to various religious -communities. When he died his nephew Simon kept the fact concealed long -enough to procure a personation of him as if on his death-bed by Gianni -Schicchi, who had great powers of mimicry. Acting in the character of -Buoso, the rogue professed his wish to make a new disposition of his -means, and after specifying some trifling charitable bequests the better -to maintain his assumed character, named Simon as general legatee, and -bequeathed Buoso's mare to himself. - -[768] _O ye, etc._: The speaker has heard and noted Virgil's words of -explanation given in the previous Canto, line 94. - -[769] _Master Adam_: Adam of Brescia, an accomplished worker in metals, -was induced by the Counts Guidi of Romena in the Casentino, the upland -district of the upper Arno, to counterfeit the gold coin of Florence. -This false coin is mentioned in a Chronicle as having been in -circulation in 1281. It must therefore have been somewhat later that -Master Adam was burned, as he was by sentence of the Republic, upon the -road which led from Romena to Florence. A cairn still existing near the -ruined castle bears the name of the 'dead man's cairn.' - -[770] _The money coined, etc._: The gold florin, afterwards adopted in -so many countries, was first struck in 1252; 'which florins weighed -eight to the ounce, and bore the lily on the one side, and on the other -Saint John.'--(Villani, vi. 54.) The piece was thus of about the weight -of our half-sovereign. The gold was of twenty-four carats; that is, it -had no alloy. The coin soon passed into wide circulation, and to -maintain its purity became for the Florentines a matter of the first -importance. Villani, in the chapter above cited, tells how the King of -Tunis finding the florin to be of pure gold sent for some of the Pisans, -then the chief traders in his ports, and asked who were the Florentines -that they coined such money. 'Only our Arabs,' was the answer; meaning -that they were rough country folk, dependent on Pisa. 'Then what is your -coin like?' he asked. A Florentine of Oltrarno named Pera Balducci, who -was present, took the opportunity of informing him how great Florence -was compared with Pisa, as was shown by that city having no gold coinage -of its own; whereupon the King made the Florentines free of Tunis, and -allowed them to have a factory there. 'And this,' adds Villani, who had -himself been agent abroad for a great Florentine house of business, 'we -had at first hand from the aforesaid Pera, a man worthy of credit, and -with whom we were associated in the Priorate.' - -[771] _Guido, etc._: The Guidi of Romena were a branch of the great -family of the Counts Guidi. The father of the three brothers in the text -was grandson of the old Guido that married the Good Gualdrada, and -cousin of the Guidoguerra met by Dante in the Seventh Circle (_Inf._ -xvi. 38). How the third brother was called is not settled, nor which of -the three was already dead in the beginning of 1300. The Alexander of -Romena, who for some time was captain of the banished Florentine Whites, -was, most probably, he of the text. A letter is extant professing to be -written by Dante to two of Alexander's nephews on the occasion of his -death, in which the poet excuses himself for absence from the funeral on -the plea of poverty. By the time he wrote the _Inferno_ he may, owing to -their shifty politics, have lost all liking for the family, yet it seems -harsh measure that is here dealt to former friends and patrons. - -[772] _Fonte Branda_: A celebrated fountain in the city of Siena. Near -Romena is a spring which is also named Fonte Branda; and this, according -to the view now most in favour, was meant by Master Adam. But was it so -named in Dante's time? Or was it not so called only when the _Comedy_ -had begun to awaken a natural interest in the old coiner, which local -ingenuity did its best to meet? The early commentators know nothing of -the Casentino Fonte Branda, and, though it is found mentioned under the -date of 1539, that does not take us far enough back. In favour of the -Sienese fountain is the consideration that it was the richest of any in -the Tuscan cities; that it was a great architectural as well as -engineering work; and that, although now more than half a century old, -it was still the subject of curiosity with people far and near. Besides, -Adam has already recalled the brooks of Casentino, and so the mention of -the paltry spring at Romena would introduce no fresh idea like that of -the abundant waters of the great fountain which daily quenched the -thirst of thousands. - -[773] _Eleven miles_: It will be remembered that the previous Bolgia was -twenty-two miles in circumference. - -[774] _Three carats_: Three carats in twenty-four being of some foreign -substance. - -[775] _Who smoke, etc._: This description of sufferers from high fever, -like that of Master Adam with his tympanitis, has the merit, such as it -is, of being true to the life. - -[776] _One, etc._: Potiphar's wife. - -[777] _Sinon_: Called of Troy, as being known through his conduct at the -siege. He pretended to have deserted from the Greeks, and by a false -story persuaded the Trojans to admit the fatal wooden horse. - -[778] _When Trojans, etc._: When King Priam sought to know for what -purpose the wooden horse was really constructed. - -[779] _Narcissus' mirror_: The pool in which Narcissus saw his form -reflected. - -[780] _'Tis shame_: Dante knows that Virgil would have scorned to -portray such a scene of low life as this, but he must allow himself a -wider licence and here as elsewhere refuses nothing, even in the way of -mean detail, calculated to convey to his readers 'a full experience of -the Inferno' as he conceived of it--the place 'where all the vileness of -the world is cast.' - - - - -CANTO XXXI. - - - The very tongue that first had caused me pain, - Biting till both my cheeks were crimsoned o'er, - With healing medicine me restored again. - So have I heard, the lance Achilles[781] bore, - Which earlier was his father's, first would wound - And then to health the wounded part restore. - From that sad valley[782] we our backs turned round, - Up the encircling rampart making way - Nor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound. - Here was it less than night and less than day, 10 - And scarce I saw at all what lay ahead; - But of a trumpet the sonorous bray-- - No thunder-peal were heard beside it--led - Mine eyes along the line by which it passed, - Till on one spot their gaze concentrated. - When by the dolorous rout was overcast - The sacred enterprise of Charlemagne - Roland[783] blew not so terrible a blast. - Short time my head was that way turned, when plain - I many lofty towers appeared to see. 20 - 'Master, what town is this?' I asked. 'Since fain - Thou art,' he said, 'to pierce the obscurity - While yet through distance 'tis inscrutable, - Thou must of error needs the victim be. - Arriving there thou shalt distinguish well - How much by distance was thy sense betrayed; - Therefore to swifter course thyself compel.' - Then tenderly[784] he took my hand, and said: - 'Ere we pass further I would have thee know, - That at the fact thou mayst be less dismayed, 30 - These are not towers but giants; in a row - Set round the brink each in the pit abides, - His navel hidden and the parts below.' - And even as when the veil of mist divides - Little by little dawns upon the sight - What the obscuring vapour earlier hides; - So, piercing the gross air uncheered by light, - As I step after step drew near the bound - My error fled, but I was filled with fright. - As Montereggion[785] with towers is crowned 40 - Which from the walls encircling it arise; - So, rising from the pit's encircling mound, - Half of their bodies towered before mine eyes-- - Dread giants, still by Jupiter defied - From Heaven whene'er it thunders in the skies. - The face of one already I descried, - His shoulders, breast, and down his belly far, - And both his arms dependent by his side. - When Nature ceased such creatures as these are - To form, she of a surety wisely wrought 50 - Wresting from Mars such ministers of war. - And though she rue not that to life she brought - The whale and elephant, who deep shall read - Will justify her wisdom in his thought; - For when the powers of intellect are wed - To strength and evil will, with them made one, - The race of man is helpless left indeed. - As large and long as is St. Peter's cone[786] - At Rome, the face appeared; of every limb - On scale like this was fashioned every bone. 60 - So that the bank, which covered half of him - As might a tunic, left uncovered yet - So much that if to his hair they sought to climb - Three Frisians[787] end on end their match had met; - For thirty great palms I of him could see, - Counting from where a man's cloak-clasp is set. - _Rafel[788] mai amech zabi almi!_ - Out of the bestial mouth began to roll, - Which scarce would suit more dulcet psalmody. - And then my Leader charged him: 'Stupid soul, 70 - Stick to thy horn. With it relieve thy mind - When rage or other passions pass control. - Feel at thy neck, round which the thong is twined - O puzzle-headed wretch! from which 'tis slung; - Clipping thy monstrous breast thou shalt it find.' - And then to me: 'From his own mouth is wrung - Proof of his guilt. 'Tis Nimrod, whose insane - Whim hindered men from speaking in one tongue. - Leave we him here nor spend our speech in vain; - For words to him in any language said, 80 - As unto others his, no sense contain.' - Turned to the left, we on our journey sped, - And at the distance of an arrow's flight - We found another huger and more dread. - By what artificer thus pinioned tight - I cannot tell, but his left arm was bound - In front, as at his back was bound the right, - By a chain which girt him firmly round and round; - About what of his frame there was displayed - Below the neck, in fivefold gyre 'twas wound. 90 - 'Incited by ambition this one made - Trial of prowess 'gainst Almighty Jove,' - My Leader told, 'and he is thus repaid. - 'Tis Ephialtes,[789] mightily who strove - What time the giants to the gods caused fright: - The arms he wielded then no more will move.' - And I to him: 'Fain would I, if I might, - On the enormous Briareus set eye, - And know the truth by holding him in sight.' - 'Antaeus[790] thou shalt see,' he made reply, 100 - 'Ere long, and he can speak, nor is in chains. - Us to the depth of all iniquity - He shall let down. The one thou'dst see[791] remains - Far off, like this one bound and like in make, - But in his face far more of fierceness reigns.' - Never when earth most terribly did quake - Shook any tower so much as what all o'er - And suddenly did Ephialtes shake. - Terror of death possessed me more and more; - The fear alone had served my turn indeed, 110 - But that I marked the ligatures he wore. - Then did we somewhat further on proceed, - Reaching Antaeus who for good five ell,[792] - His head not counted, from the pit was freed. - 'O thou who from the fortune-haunted dell[793]-- - Where Scipio of glory was made heir - When with his host to flight turned Hannibal-- - A thousand lions didst for booty bear - Away, and who, hadst thou but joined the host - And like thy brethren fought, some even aver 120 - The victory to earth's sons had not been lost, - Lower us now, nor disobliging show, - To where Cocytus[794] fettered is by frost. - To Tityus[795] nor to Typhon make us go. - To grant what here is longed for he hath power, - Cease them to curl thy snout, but bend thee low. - He can for wage thy name on earth restore; - He lives, and still expecteth to live long, - If Grace recall him not before his hour.' - So spake my Master. Then his hands he swung 130 - Downward and seized my Leader in all haste-- - Hands in whose grip even Hercules once was wrung. - And Virgil when he felt them round him cast - Said: 'That I may embrace thee, hither tend,' - And in one bundle with him made me fast. - And as to him that under Carisend[796] - Stands on the side it leans to, while clouds fly - Counter its slope, the tower appears to bend; - Even so to me who stood attentive by - Antaeus seemed to stoop, and I, dismayed, 140 - Had gladly sought another road to try. - But us in the abyss he gently laid, - Where Lucifer and Judas gulfed remain; - Nor to it thus bent downward long time stayed, - But like a ship's mast raised himself again. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[781] _Achilles_: The rust upon his lance had virtue to heal the wound. - -[782] _From that sad valley_: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they -climb the inner bank of it and approach the Ninth and last Circle, which -consists of the pit of the Inferno. - -[783] _Roland_: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating -the Saracens at Saragossa, left Roland to bring up his rear-guard. The -enemy fell on this in superior strength, and slew the Christians almost -to a man. Then Roland, mortally wounded, sat down under a tree in -Roncesvalles and blew upon his famous horn a blast so loud that it was -heard by Charles at a distance of several miles.--The _Chansons de -Geste_ were familiarly known to Italians of all classes. - -[784] _Then tenderly, etc._: The wound inflicted by his reproof has been -already healed, but Virgil still behaves to Dante with more than his -wonted gentleness. He will have him assured of his sympathy now that -they are about to descend into the 'lowest depth of all wickedness.' - -[785] _Montereggioni_: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which -ample ruins still exist. It had no central keep, but twelve towers rose -from its circular wall like spikes from the rim of a coronet. They had -been added by the Sienese in 1260, and so were comparatively new in -Dante's time.--As the towers stood round Montereggioni so the giants at -regular intervals stand round the central pit. They have their foothold -within the enclosing mound; and thus, to one looking at them from -without, they are hidden by it up to their middle. As the embodiment of -superhuman impious strength and pride they stand for warders of the -utmost reach of Hell. - -[786] _St. Peter's cone_: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to -have originally crowned the mausoleum of Hadrian, lay in Dante's time in -the forecourt of St Peter's. When the new church was built it was -removed to the gardens of the Vatican, where it still remains. Its size, -it will be seen, is of importance as helping us to a notion of the -stature of the giants; and, though the accounts of its height are -strangely at variance with one another, I think the measurement made -specially for Philalethes may be accepted as substantially correct. -According to that, the cone is ten palms long--about six feet. Allowing -something for the neck, down to 'where a man clasps his cloak' (line -66), and taking the thirty palms as eighteen feet, we get twenty-six -feet or so for half his height. The giants vary in bulk; whether they do -so in height is not clear. We cannot be far mistaken if we assume them -to stand from fifty to sixty feet high. Virgil and Dante must throw -their heads well back to look up into the giant's face; and Virgil must -raise his voice as he speaks.--With regard to the height of the cone it -may be remarked that Murray's Handbook for Rome makes it eleven feet -high; Gsell-Fels two and a half metres, or eight feet and three inches. -It is so placed as to be difficult of measurement. - -[787] _Three Frisians_: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to -be, if standing one on the head of the other would not have reached his -hair. - -[788] _Rafel, etc._: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh -Canto, have, to no result, greatly exercised the ingenuity of scholars. -From what follows it is clear that Dante meant them to be meaningless. -Part of Nimrod's punishment is that he who brought about the confusion -of tongues is now left with a language all to himself. It seems strange -that commentators should have exhausted themselves in searching for a -sense in words specially invented to have none.--In his _De Vulg. El._, -i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the -tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant. - -[789] _Ephialtes_: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled -Ossa on Pelion. - -[790] _Antaeus_: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, -unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike -Ephialtes, is not bound. Antaeus is free-handed because he took no part -in the war with the gods. - -[791] _The one thou'dst see_: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know -what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he -was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only -fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles -with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake. - -[792] _Five ell_: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antaeus is -of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports -the view that the 'huger' of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to -height. - -[793] _The fortune-haunted dell_: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, -where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The -giant Antaeus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, -with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was -son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to -touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he -needed to swing him aloft. In the _Monarchia_, ii. 10, Dante refers to -the combat between Hercules and Antaeus as an instance of the wager of -battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan's -_Pharsalia_, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these -references to Scipio and Antaeus. - -[794] _Cocytus_: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See -Canto xiv. at the end. - -[795] _Tityus, etc._: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be -less strong than Antaeus. This introduction of their names is therefore a -piece of flattery to the monster. A light contemptuous turn is given by -Virgil to his flattery when in the following sentence he bids Antaeus not -curl his snout, but at once comply with the demand for aid. There is -something genuinely Italian in the picture given of the giants in this -Canto, as of creatures whose intellect bears no proportion to their bulk -and brute strength. Mighty hunters like Nimrod, skilled in sounding the -horn but feeble in reasoned speech, Frisians with great thews and long -of limb, and German men-at-arms who traded in their rude valour, to the -subtle Florentine in whom the ferment of the Renaissance was beginning -to work were all specimens of Nature's handicraft that had better have -been left unmade, were it not that wiser people could use them as tools. - -[796] _Carisenda_: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the -beginning of the twelfth century, and, like many others of its kind in -the city, erected not for strength but merely in order to dignify the -family to whom it belonged. By way of further distinction to their -owners, some of these towers were so constructed as to lean from the -perpendicular. Carisenda, like its taller neighbour the Asinelli, still -supplies a striking feature to the near and distant views of Bologna. -What is left of it hangs for more than two yards off the plumb. In the -half-century after Dante's time it had, according to Benvenuto, lost -something of its height. It would therefore as the poet saw it seem to -be bending down even more than it now does to any one standing under it -on the side it slopes to, when a cloud is drifting over it in the other -direction. - - - - -CANTO XXXII. - - - Had I sonorous rough rhymes at command, - Such as would suit the cavern terrible - Rooted on which all the other ramparts stand, - The sap of fancies which within me swell - Closer I'd press; but since I have not these, - With some misgiving I go on to tell. - For 'tis no task to play with as you please, - Of all the world the bottom to portray, - Nor one that with a baby speech[797] agrees. - But let those ladies help me with my lay 10 - Who helped Amphion[798] walls round Thebes to pile, - And faithful to the facts my words shall stay. - O 'bove all creatures wretched, for whose vile - Abode 'tis hard to find a language fit, - As sheep or goats ye had been happier! While - We still were standing in the murky pit-- - Beneath the giant's feet[799] set far below-- - And at the high wall I was staring yet, - When this I heard: 'Heed to thy steps[800] bestow, - Lest haply by thy soles the heads be spurned 20 - Of wretched brothers wearied in their woe.' - Before me, as on hearing this I turned, - Beneath my feet a frozen lake,[801] its guise - Rather of glass than water, I discerned. - In all its course on Austrian Danube lies - No veil in time of winter near so thick, - Nor on the Don beneath its frigid skies, - As this was here; on which if Tabernicch[802] - Or Mount Pietrapana[803] should alight - Not even the edge would answer with a creak. 30 - And as the croaking frog holds well in sight - Its muzzle from the pool, what time of year[804] - The peasant girl of gleaning dreams at night; - The mourning shades in ice were covered here, - Seen livid up to where we blush[805] with shame. - In stork-like music their teeth chattering were. - With downcast face stood every one of them: - To cold from every mouth, and to despair - From every eye, an ample witness came. - And having somewhat gazed around me there 40 - I to my feet looked down, and saw two pressed - So close together, tangled was their hair, - 'Say, who are you with breast[806] thus strained to breast?' - I asked; whereon their necks they backward bent, - And when their upturned faces lay at rest - Their eyes, which earlier were but moistened, sent - Tears o'er their eyelids: these the frost congealed - And fettered fast[807] before they further went. - Plank set to plank no rivet ever held - More firmly; wherefore, goat-like, either ghost 50 - Butted the other; so their wrath prevailed. - And one who wanted both ears, which the frost - Had bitten off, with face still downward thrown, - Asked: 'Why with us art thou so long engrossed? - If who that couple are thou'dst have made known-- - The vale down which Bisenzio's floods decline - Was once their father Albert's[808] and their own. - One body bore them: search the whole malign - Caina,[809] and thou shalt not any see - More worthy to be fixed in gelatine; 60 - Not he whose breast and shadow equally - Were by one thrust of Arthur's lance[810] pierced through: - Nor yet Focaccia;[811] nor the one that me - With his head hampers, blocking out my view, - Whose name was Sassol Mascheroni:[812] well - Thou must him know if thou art Tuscan too. - And that thou need'st not make me further tell-- - I'm Camicion de' Pazzi,[813] and Carlin[814] - I weary for, whose guilt shall mine excel.' - A thousand faces saw I dog-like grin, 70 - Frost-bound; whence I, as now, shall always shake - Whenever sight of frozen pools I win. - While to the centre[815] we our way did make - To which all things converging gravitate, - And me that chill eternal caused to quake; - Whether by fortune, providence, or fate, - I know not, but as 'mong the heads I went - I kicked one full in the face; who therefore straight - 'Why trample on me?' snarled and made lament, - 'Unless thou com'st to heap the vengeance high 80 - For Montaperti,[816] why so virulent - 'Gainst me?' I said: 'Await me here till I - By him, O Master, shall be cleared of doubt;[817] - Then let my pace thy will be guided by.' - My Guide delayed, and I to him spake out, - While he continued uttering curses shrill: - 'Say, what art thou, at others thus to shout?' - 'But who art thou, that goest at thy will - Through Antenora,[818] trampling on the face - Of others? 'Twere too much if thou wert still 90 - In life.' 'I live, and it may help thy case,' - Was my reply, 'if thou renown wouldst gain, - Should I thy name[819] upon my tablets place.' - And he: 'I for the opposite am fain. - Depart thou hence, nor work me further dool; - Within this swamp thou flatterest all in vain.' - Then I began him by the scalp to pull, - And 'Thou must tell how thou art called,' I said, - 'Or soon thy hair will not be plentiful.' - And he: 'Though every hair thou from me shred 100 - I will not tell thee, nor my face turn round; - No, though a thousand times thou spurn my head.' - His locks ere this about my fist were wound, - And many a tuft I tore, while dog-like wails - Burst from him, and his eyes still sought the ground. - Then called another: 'Bocca, what now ails? - Is't not enough thy teeth go chattering there, - But thou must bark? What devil thee assails?' - 'Ah! now,' said I, 'thou need'st not aught declare, - Accursed traitor; and true news of thee 110 - To thy disgrace I to the world will bear.' - 'Begone, tell what thou wilt,' he answered me; - 'But, if thou issue hence, not silent keep[820] - Of him whose tongue but lately wagged so free. - He for the Frenchmen's money[821] here doth weep. - Him of Duera saw I, mayst thou tell, - Where sinners shiver in the frozen deep. - Shouldst thou be asked who else within it dwell-- - Thou hast the Beccheria[822] at thy side; - Across whose neck the knife at Florence fell. 120 - John Soldanieri[823] may be yonder spied - With Ganellon,[824] and Tribaldell[825] who threw - Faenza's gates, when slept the city, wide.' - Him had we left, our journey to pursue, - When frozen in a hole[826] a pair I saw; - One's head like the other's hat showed to the view. - And, as their bread men hunger-driven gnaw, - The uppermost tore fiercely at his mate - Where nape and brain-pan to a junction draw. - No worse by Tydeus[827] in his scornful hate 130 - Were Menalippus' temples gnawed and hacked - Than skull and all were torn by him irate. - 'O thou who provest by such bestial act - Hatred of him who by thy teeth is chewed, - Declare thy motive,' said I, 'on this pact-- - That if with reason thou with him hast feud, - Knowing your names and manner of his crime - I in the world[828] to thee will make it good; - If what I speak with dry not ere the time.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[797] _A baby speech_: 'A tongue that cries _mamma_ and _papa_' For his -present purpose, he complains, he has not in Italian an adequate supply -of rough high-sounding rhymes; but at least he will use only the best -words that can be found. In another work (_De Vulg. El._ ii. 7) he -instances _mamma_ and _babbo_ as words of a kind to be avoided by all -who would write nobly in Italian. - -[798] _Amphion_: Who with his music charmed rocks from the mountain and -heaped them in order for walls to Thebes. - -[799] _The giant's feet_: Antaeus. A bank slopes from where the giants -stand inside the wall down to the pit which is filled with the frozen -Cocytus. This is the Ninth and inmost Circle, and is divided into four -concentric rings--Caina, Antenora, Ptolomaea, and Judecca--where traitors -of different kinds are punished. - -[800] _Thy steps_: Dante alone is addressed, the speaker having seen him -set heavily down upon the ice by Antaeus. - -[801] _A frozen lake_: Cocytus. See _Inf._ xiv. 119. - -[802] _Tabernicch_: It is not certain what mountain is here meant; -probably Yavornick near Adelsberg in Carniola. It is mentioned, not for -its size, but the harshness of its name. - -[803] _Pietrapana_: A mountain between Modena and Lucca, visible from -Pisa: Petra Apuana. - -[804] _Time of year_: At harvest-time, when in the warm summer nights -the wearied gleaner dreams of her day's work. - -[805] _To where we blush_: The bodies of the shades are seen buried in -the clear glassy ice, out of which their heads and necks stand free--as -much as 'shows shame,' that is, blushes. - -[806] _With breast, etc._: As could be seen through the clear ice. - -[807] _Fettered fast_: Binding up their eyes. In the punishment of -traitors is symbolised the hardness and coldness of their hearts to all -the claims of blood, country, or friendship. - -[808] _Their father Albert's_: Albert, of the family of the Counts -Alberti, lord of the upper valley of the Bisenzio, near Florence. His -sons, Alexander and Napoleon, slew one another in a quarrel regarding -their inheritance. - -[809] _Caina_: The outer ring of the Ninth Circle, and that in which are -punished those treacherous to their kindred.--Here a place is reserved -for Gianciotto Malatesta, the husband of Francesca (_Inf._ v. 107). - -[810] _Arthur's lance_: Mordred, natural son of King Arthur, was slain -by him in battle as a rebel and traitor. 'And the history says that -after the lance-thrust Girflet plainly saw a ray of the sun pass through -the hole of the wound.'--_Lancelot du Lac_. - -[811] _Focaccia_: A member of the Pistoiese family of Cancellieri, in -whose domestic feuds the parties of Whites and Blacks took rise. He -assassinated one of his relatives and cut off the hand of another. - -[812] _Sassol Mascheroni_: Of the Florentine family of the Toschi. He -murdered his nephew, of whom by some accounts he was the guardian. For -this crime he was punished by being rolled through the streets of -Florence in a cask and then beheaded. Every Tuscan would be familiar -with the story of such a punishment. - -[813] _Camicion de' Pazzi_: To distinguish the Pazzi to whom Camicione -belonged from the Pazzi of Florence they were called the Pazzi of -Valdarno, where their possessions lay. Like his fellow-traitors he had -slain a kinsman. - -[814] _Carlin_: Also one of the Pazzi of Valdarno. Like all the spirits -in this circle Camicione is eager to betray the treachery of others, and -prophesies the guilt of his still living relative, which is to cast his -own villany into the shade. In 1302 or 1303 Carlino held the castle of -Piano de Trevigne in Valdarno, where many of the exiled Whites of -Florence had taken refuge, and for a bribe he betrayed it to the enemy. - -[815] _The centre_: The bottom of Inferno is the centre of the earth, -and, on the system of Ptolemy, the central point of the universe. - -[816] _Montaperti_: See _Inf._ x. 86. The speaker is Bocca, of the great -Florentine family of the Abati, who served as one of the Florentine -cavaliers at Montaperti. When the enemy was charging towards the -standard of the Republican cavalry Bocca aimed a blow at the arm of the -knight who bore it and cut off his hand. The sudden fall of the flag -disheartened the Florentines, and in great measure contributed to the -defeat. - -[817] _Cleared of doubt_: The mention of Montaperti in this place of -traitors suggests to Dante the thought of Bocca. He would fain be sure -as to whether he has the traitor at his feet. Montaperti was never very -far from the thoughts of the Florentine of that day. It is never out of -Bocca's mind. - -[818] _Antenora_: The second ring of the Ninth Circle, where traitors to -their country are punished, named after Antenor the Trojan prince who, -according to the belief of the middle ages, betrayed his native city to -the Greeks. - -[819] _Should I thy name, etc._: 'Should I put thy name among the other -notes.' It is the last time that Dante is to offer such a bribe; and -here the offer is most probably ironical. - -[820] _Not silent keep, etc._: Like all the other traitors Bocca finds -his only pleasure in betraying his neighbours. - -[821] _The Frenchmen's money_: He who had betrayed the name of Bocca was -Buoso of Duera, one of the Ghibeline chiefs of Cremona. When Guy of -Montfort was leading an army across Lombardy to recruit Charles of Anjou -in his war against Manfred in 1265 (_Inf._ xxviii. 16 and _Purg._ iii.), -Buoso, who had been left to guard the passage of the Oglio, took a bribe -to let the French army pass. - -[822] _Beccheria_: Tesauro of the Pavian family Beccheria, Abbot of -Vallombrosa and legate in Florence of Pope Alexander IV. He was accused -of conspiring against the Commonwealth along with the exiled Ghibelines -(1258). All Europe was shocked to hear that a great churchman had been -tortured and beheaded by the Florentines. The city was placed under -Papal interdict, proclaimed by the Archbishop of Pisa from the tower of -S. Pietro in Vincoli at Rome. Villani seems to think the Abbot was -innocent of the charge brought against him (_Cron._ vi. 65), but he -always leans to the indulgent view when a priest is concerned. - -[823] _Soldanieri_: Deserted from the Florentine Ghibelines after the -defeat of Manfred. - -[824] _Ganellon_: Whose treacherous counsel led to the defeat of Roland -at Roncesvalles. - -[825] _Tribaldello_: A noble of Faenza, who, as one account says, to -revenge himself for the loss of a pig, sent a cast of the key of the -city gate to John of Apia, then prowling about Romagna in the interest -of the French Pope, Martin IV. He was slain at the battle of Forli in -1282 (_Inf._ xxvii. 43). - -[826] _Frozen in a hole, etc._: The two are the Count Ugolino and the -Archbishop Roger. - -[827] _Tydeus_: One of the Seven against Thebes, who, having been -mortally wounded by Menalippus the Theban, whom he slew, got his friends -to bring him the head of his foe and gnawed at it with his teeth. Dante -found the incident in his favourite author Statius (_Theb._ viii.). - -[828] _I in the world, etc._: Dante has learned from Bocca that the -prospect of having their memory refreshed on earth has no charm for the -sinners met with here. The bribe he offers is that of loading the name -of a foe with ignominy--but only if from the tale it shall be plain that -the ignominy is deserved. - - - - -CANTO XXXIII. - - - His mouth uplifting from the savage feast, - The sinner[829] rubbed and wiped it free of gore - On the hair of the head he from behind laid waste; - And then began: 'Thou'dst have me wake once more - A desperate grief, of which to think alone, - Ere I have spoken, wrings me to the core. - But if my words shall be as seed that sown - May fructify unto the traitor's shame - Whom thus I gnaw, I mingle speech[830] and groan. - Of how thou earnest hither or thy name 10 - I nothing know, but that a Florentine[831] - In very sooth thou art, thy words proclaim. - Thou then must know I was Count Ugolin, - The Archbishop Roger[832] he. Now hearken well - Why I prove such a neighbour. How in fine, - And flowing from his ill designs, it fell - That I, confiding in his words, was caught - Then done to death, were waste of time[833] to tell. - But that of which as yet thou heardest nought - Is how the death was cruel which I met: 20 - Hearken and judge if wrong to me he wrought. - Scant window in the mew whose epithet - Of Famine[834] came from me its resident, - And cooped in which shall many languish yet, - Had shown me through its slit how there were spent - Full many moons,[835] ere that bad dream I dreamed - When of my future was the curtain rent. - Lord of the hunt and master this one seemed, - Chasing the wolf and wolf-cubs on the height[836] - By which from Pisan eyes is Lucca hemmed. 30 - With famished hounds well trained and swift of flight, - Lanfranchi[837] and Gualandi in the van, - And Sismond he had set. Within my sight - Both sire and sons--nor long the chase--began - To grow (so seemed it) weary as they fled; - Then through their flanks fangs sharp and eager ran. - When I awoke before the morning spread - I heard my sons[838] all weeping in their sleep-- - For they were with me--and they asked for bread. - Ah! cruel if thou canst from pity keep 40 - At the bare thought of what my heart foreknew; - And if thou weep'st not, what could make thee weep? - Now were they 'wake, and near the moment drew - At which 'twas used to bring us our repast; - But each was fearful[839] lest his dream came true. - And then I heard the under gate[840] made fast - Of the horrible tower, and thereupon I gazed - In my sons' faces, silent and aghast. - I did not weep, for I to stone was dazed: - They wept, and darling Anselm me besought: 50 - "What ails thee, father? Wherefore thus amazed?" - And yet I did not weep, and answered not - The whole day, and that night made answer none, - Till on the world another sun shone out. - Soon as a feeble ray of light had won - Into our doleful prison, made aware - Of the four faces[841] featured like my own, - Both of my hands I bit at in despair; - And they, imagining that I was fain - To eat, arose before me with the prayer: 60 - "O father, 'twere for us an easier pain - If thou wouldst eat us. Thou didst us array - In this poor flesh: unclothe us now again." - I calmed me, not to swell their woe. That day - And the next day no single word we said. - Ah! pitiless earth, that didst unyawning stay! - When we had reached the fourth day, Gaddo, spread - Out at my feet, fell prone; and made demand: - "Why, O my father, offering us no aid?" - There died he. Plain as I before thee stand 70 - I saw the three as one by one they failed, - The fifth day and the sixth; then with my hand, - Blind now, I groped for each of them, and wailed - On them for two days after they were gone. - Famine[842] at last, more strong than grief, prevailed,' - When he had uttered this, his eyes all thrown - Awry, upon the hapless skull he fell - With teeth that, dog-like, rasped upon the bone. - Ah, Pisa! byword of the folk that dwell - In the sweet country where the Si[843] doth sound, 80 - Since slow thy neighbours to reward thee well - Let now Gorgona and Capraia[844] mound - Themselves where Arno with the sea is blent, - Till every one within thy walls be drowned. - For though report of Ugolino went - That he betrayed[845] thy castles, thou didst wrong - Thus cruelly his children to torment. - These were not guilty, for they were but young, - Thou modern Thebes![846] Brigata and young Hugh, - And the other twain of whom above 'tis sung. 90 - We onward passed to where another crew[847] - Of shades the thick-ribbed ice doth fettered keep; - Their heads not downward these, but backward threw. - Their very weeping will not let them weep, - And grief, encountering barriers at their eyes, - Swells, flowing inward, their affliction deep; - For the first tears that issue crystallise, - And fill, like vizor fashioned out of glass, - The hollow cup o'er which the eyebrows rise. - And though, as 'twere a callus, now my face 100 - By reason of the frost was wholly grown - Benumbed and dead to feeling, I could trace - (So it appeared), a breeze against it blown, - And asked: 'O Master, whence comes this? So low - As where we are is any vapour[848] known?' - And he replied: 'Thou ere long while shalt go - Where touching this thine eye shall answer true, - Discovering that which makes the wind to blow.' - Then from the cold crust one of that sad crew - Demanded loud: 'Spirits, for whom they hold 110 - The inmost room, so truculent were you, - Back from my face let these hard veils be rolled, - That I may vent the woe which chokes my heart, - Ere tears again solidify with cold.' - And I to him: 'First tell me who thou art - If thou'dst have help; then if I help not quick - To the bottom[849] of the ice let me depart.' - He answered: 'I am Friar Alberic[850]-- - He of the fruit grown in the orchard fell-- - And here am I repaid with date for fig.' 120 - 'Ah!' said I to him, 'art thou dead as well?' - 'How now my body fares,' he answered me, - 'Up in the world, I have no skill to tell; - For Ptolomaea[851] has this quality-- - The soul oft plunges hither to its place - Ere it has been by Atropos[852] set free. - And that more willingly from off my face - Thou mayst remove the glassy tears, know, soon - As ever any soul of man betrays - As I betrayed, the body once his own 130 - A demon takes and governs until all - The span allotted for his life be run. - Into this tank headlong the soul doth fall; - And on the earth his body yet may show - Whose shade behind me wintry frosts enthral. - But thou canst tell, if newly come below: - It is Ser Branca d'Oria,[853] and complete - Is many a year since he was fettered so.' - 'It seems,' I answered, 'that thou wouldst me cheat, - For Branca d'Oria never can have died: 140 - He sleeps, puts clothes on, swallows drink and meat.' - 'Or e'er to the tenacious pitchy tide - Which boils in Malebranche's moat had come - The shade of Michael Zanche,' he replied, - 'That soul had left a devil in its room - Within its body; of his kinsmen one[854] - Treacherous with him experienced equal doom. - But stretch thy hand and be its work begun - Of setting free mine eyes.' This did not I. - Twas highest courtesy to yield him none.[855] 150 - Ah, Genoese,[856] strange to morality! - Ye men infected with all sorts of sin! - Out of the world 'tis time that ye should die. - Here, to Romagna's blackest soul[857] akin, - I chanced on one of you; for doing ill - His soul o'erwhelmed Cocytus' floods within, - Though in the flesh he seems surviving still. - - -NOTE ON THE COUNT UGOLINO. - -Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico, a wealthy noble and a -man fertile in political resource, was deeply engaged in the affairs of -Pisa at a critical period of her history. He was born in the first half -of the thirteenth century. By giving one of his daughters in marriage to -the head of the Visconti of Pisa--not to be confounded with those of -Milan--he came under the suspicion of being Guelf in his sympathies; the -general opinion of Pisa being then, as it always had been, strongly -Ghibeline. When driven into exile, as he was along with the Visconti, he -improved the occasion by entering into close relations with the leading -Guelfs of Tuscany, and in 1278 a free return for him to Pisa was made by -them a condition of peace with that city. He commanded one of the -divisions of the Pisan fleet at the disastrous battle of Meloria in -1284, when Genoa wrested from her rival the supremacy of the Western -Mediterranean, and carried thousands of Pisan citizens into a captivity -which lasted many years. Isolated from her Ghibeline allies, and for the -time almost sunk in despair, the city called him to the government with -wellnigh dictatorial powers; and by dint of crafty negotiations in -detail with the members of the league formed against Pisa, helped as was -believed by lavish bribery, he had the glory of saving the Commonwealth -from destruction though he could not wholly save it from loss. This was -in 1285. He soon came to be suspected of being in a secret alliance with -Florence and of being lukewarm in the negotiations for the return of the -prisoners in Genoa, all with a view to depress the Ghibeline element in -the city that he might establish himself as an absolute tyrant with the -greater ease. In order still further to strengthen his position he -entered into a family compact with his Guelf grandson Nino (_Purg._ -viii. 53), now at the head of the Visconti. But without the support of -the people it was impossible for him to hold his ground against the -Ghibeline nobles, who resented the arrogance of his manners and were -embittered by the loss of their own share in the government; and these -contrived that month by month the charges of treachery brought against -him should increase in virulence. He had, by deserting his post, caused -the defeat at Meloria, it was said; and had bribed the other Tuscan -cities to favour him, by ceding to them distant Pisan strongholds. His -fate was sealed when, having quarrelled with his grandson Nino, he -sought alliance with the Archbishop Roger who now led the Ghibeline -opposition. With Ugo's connivance an onslaught was planned upon the -Guelfs. To preserve an appearance of impartiality he left the city for a -neighbouring villa. On returning to enjoy his riddance from a rival he -was invited to a conference, at which he resisted a proposal that he -should admit partners with him in the government. On this the -Archbishop's party raised the cry of treachery; the bells rang out for a -street battle, in which he was worsted; and with his sons he had to take -refuge in the Palace of the People. There he stood a short siege against -the Ghibeline families and the angry mob; and in the same palace he was -kept prisoner for twenty days. Then, with his sons and grandsons, he was -carried in chains to the tower of the Gualandi, which stood where seven -ways met in the heart of Pisa. This was in July 1288. The imprisonment -lasted for months, and seems to have been thus prolonged with the view -of extorting a heavy ransom. It was only in the following March that the -Archbishop ordered his victims to be starved to death; for, being a -churchman, says one account, he would not shed blood. Not even a -confessor was allowed to Ugo and his sons. After the door of the tower -had been kept closed for eight days it was opened, and the corpses, -still fettered, were huddled into a tomb in the Franciscan church.--The -original authorities are far from being agreed as to the details of -Ugo's overthrow and death.--For the matter of this note I am chiefly -indebted to the careful epitome of the Pisan history of that time by -Philalethes in his note on this Canto (_Goettliche Comoedie_). - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[829] _The sinner_: Count Ugolino. See note at the end of the Canto. - -[830] _Mingle speech, etc._: A comparison of these words with those of -Francesca (_Inf._ v. 124) will show the difference in moral tone between -the Second Circle of Inferno and the Ninth. - -[831] _A Florentine_: So Farinata (_Inf._ x. 25) recognises Dante by his -Florentine speech. The words heard by Ugo are those at xxxii. 133. - -[832] _The Archbishop Roger_: Ruggieri, of the Tuscan family of the -Ubaldini, to which the Cardinal of _Inf._ x. 120 also belonged. Towards -the end of his life he was summoned to Rome to give an account of his -evil deeds, and on his refusal to go was declared a rebel to the Church. -Ugolino was a traitor to his country; Roger, having entered into some -sort of alliance with Ugolino, was a traitor to him. This has led some -to suppose that while Ugolino is in Antenora he is so close to the edge -of it as to be able to reach the head of Roger, who, as a traitor to his -friend, is fixed in Ptolomaea. Against this view is the fact that they -are described as being in the same hole (xxxii. 125), and also that in -Ptolomaea the shades are set with head thrown back, and with only the -face appearing above the ice, while Ugo is described as biting his foe -at where the skull joins the nape. From line 91 it is clear that -Ptolomaea lay further on than where Roger is. Like Ugo he is therefore -here as a traitor to his country. - -[833] _Were waste, etc._: For Dante knows it already, all Tuscany being -familiar with the story of Ugo's fate. - -[834] _Whose epithet of Famine_: It was called the Tower of Famine. Its -site is now built over. Buti, the old Pisan commentator of Dante, says -it was called the Mew because the eagles of the Republic were kept in it -at moulting-time. But this may have been an after-thought to give local -truth to Dante's verse, which it does at the expense of the poetry. - -[835] _Many moons_: The imprisonment having already lasted for eight -months. - -[836] _The height, etc._: Lucca is about twelve miles from Pisa, Mount -Giuliano rising between them. - -[837] _Lanfranchi, etc._: In the dream, these, the chief Ghibeline -families of Pisa, are the huntsmen, Roger being master of the hunt, and -the populace the hounds. Ugo and his sons and grandsons are the wolf and -wolf-cubs. In Ugo's dream of himself as a wolf there may be an allusion -to his having engaged in the Guelf interest. - -[838] _My sons_: According to Dante, taken literally, four of Ugo were -imprisoned with him. It would have hampered him to explain that two were -grandsons--Anselmuccio and Nino, called the Brigata at line 89, -grandsons by their mother of King Enzo, natural son of Frederick -II.--the sons being Gaddo and Uguccione, the latter Ugo's youngest son. - -[839] _Each was fearful, etc._: All the sons had been troubled by dreams -of famine. Had their rations been already reduced? - -[840] _The under gate, etc._: The word translated _made fast_ -(_chiavare_) may signify either to nail up or to lock. The commentators -and chroniclers differ as to whether the door was locked, nailed, or -built up. I would suggest that the lower part of the tower was occupied -by a guard, and that the captives had not been used to hear the main -door locked. Now, when they hear the great key creaking in the lock, -they know that the tower is deserted. - -[841] _The four faces, etc._: Despairing like his own, or possibly that, -wasted by famine, the faces of the young men had become liker than ever -to Ugo's own time-worn face. - -[842] _Famine, etc._: This line, quite without reason, has been held to -mean that Ugo was driven by hunger to eat the flesh of his children. The -meaning is, that poignant though his grief was it did not shorten his -sufferings from famine. - -[843] _Where the Si, etc._: Italy, _Si_ being the Italian for _Yes_. -In his _De Vulg. El._, i. 8, Dante distinguishes the Latin -languages--French, Italian, etc.--by their words of affirmation, and so -terms Italian the language of _Si_. But Tuscany may here be meant, -where, as a Tuscan commentator says, the _Si_ is more sweetly pronounced -than in any other part of Italy. In Canto xviii. 61 the Bolognese are -distinguished as the people who say _Sipa_. If Pisa be taken as being -specially the opprobrium of Tuscany the outburst against Genoa at the -close of the Canto gains in distinctness and force. - -[844] _Gorgona and Capraia_: Islands not far from the mouth of the Arno. - -[845] _That he betrayed, etc._: Dante seems here to throw doubt on the -charge. At the height of her power Pisa was possessed of many hundreds -of fortified stations in Italy and scattered over the Mediterranean -coasts. The charge was one easy to make and difficult to refute. It -seems hard on Ugo that he should get the benefit of the doubt only after -he has been, for poetical ends, buried raging in Cocytus. - -[846] _Modern Thebes_: As Thebes was to the race of Cadmus, so was Pisa -to that of Ugolino. - -[847] _Another crew_: They are in Ptolomaea, the third division of the -circle, and that assigned to those treacherous to their friends, allies, -or guests. Here only the faces of the shades are free of the ice. - -[848] _Is any vapour_: Has the sun, so low down as this, any influence -upon the temperature, producing vapours and wind? In Dante's time wind -was believed to be the exhalation of a vapour. - -[849] _To the bottom, etc._: Dante is going there in any case, and his -promise is nothing but a quibble. - -[850] _Friar Alberic_: Alberigo of the Manfredi, a gentleman of Faenza, -who late in life became one of the Merry Friars. See _Inf._ xxiii. 103. -In the course of a dispute with his relative Manfred he got a hearty box -on the ear from him. Feigning to have forgiven the insult he invited -Manfred with a youthful son to dinner in his house, having first -arranged that when they had finished their meat, and he called for -fruit, armed men should fall on his guests. 'The fruit of Friar -Alberigo' passed into a proverb. Here he is repaid with a date for a -fig--gets more than he bargained for. - -[851] _Ptolomaea_: This division is named from the Hebrew Ptolemy, who -slew his relatives at a banquet, they being then his guests (1 Maccab. -xvi.). - -[852] _Atropos_: The Fate who cuts the thread of life and sets the soul -free from the body. - -[853] _Branca d'Oria_: A Genoese noble who in 1275 slew his -father-in-law Michael Zanche (_Inf._ xxii. 88) while the victim sat at -table as his invited guest.--This mention of Branca is of some value in -helping to ascertain when the _Inferno_ was finished. He was in -imprisonment and exile for some time before and up to 1310. In 1311 he -was one of the citizens of Genoa heartiest in welcoming the Emperor -Henry to their city. Impartial as Dante was, we can scarcely think that -he would have loaded with infamy one who had done what he could to help -the success of Henry, on whom all Dante's hopes were long set, and by -their reception of whom on his descent into Italy he continued to judge -his fellow-countrymen. There is considerable reason to believe that the -_Inferno_ was published in 1309; this introduction of Branca helps to -prove that at least it was published before 1311. If this was so, then -Branca d'Oria lived long enough to read or hear that for thirty-five -years his soul had been in Hell.--It is significant of the detestation -in which Dante held any breach of hospitality, that it is as a -treacherous host and not as a treacherous kinsman that Branca is -punished--in Ptolomaea and not in Caina. Cast as the poet was on the -hospitality of the world, any disloyalty to its obligations came home to -him. For such disloyalty he has invented one of the most appalling of -the fierce retributions with the vision of which he satisfied his -craving for vengeance upon prosperous sin.--It may be that the idea of -this demon-possession of the traitor is taken from the words, 'and after -the sop Satan entered into Judas.' - -[854] _Of his kinsmen one_: A cousin or nephew of Branca was engaged -with him in the murder of Michael Zanche. The vengeance came on them so -speedily that their souls were plunged in Ptolomaea ere Zanche breathed -his last. - -[855] _To yield him none_: Alberigo being so unworthy of courtesy. See -note on 117. But another interpretation of the words has been suggested -which saves Dante from the charge of cruelty and mean quibbling; namely, -that he did not clear the ice from the sinner's eyes because then he -would have been seen to be a living man--one who could take back to the -world the awful news that Alberigo's body was the dwelling-place of a -devil. - -[856] _Ah, Genoese, etc._: The Genoese, indeed, held no good character. -One of their annalists, under the date of 1293, describes the city as -suffering from all kinds of crime. - -[857] _Romagna's blackest soul_: Friar Alberigo. - - - - -CANTO XXXIV. - - - '_Vexilla_[858] _Regis prodeunt Inferni_ - Towards where we are; seek then with vision keen,' - My Master bade, 'if trace of him thou spy.' - As, when the exhalations dense have been, - Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night, - A windmill from afar is sometimes seen, - I seemed to catch of such a structure sight; - And then to 'scape the blast did backward draw - Behind my Guide--sole shelter in my plight. - Now was I where[859] (I versify with awe) 10 - The shades were wholly covered, and did show - Visible as in glass are bits of straw. - Some stood[860] upright and some were lying low, - Some with head topmost, others with their feet; - And some with face to feet bent like a bow. - But we kept going on till it seemed meet - Unto my Master that I should behold - The creature once[861] of countenance so sweet. - He stepped aside and stopped me as he told: - 'Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last 20 - Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,' - How I hereon stood shivering and aghast, - Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write; - So much the fact all reach of words surpassed. - I was not dead, yet living was not quite: - Think for thyself, if gifted with the power, - What, life and death denied me, was my plight. - Of that tormented realm the Emperor - Out of the ice stood free to middle breast; - And me a giant less would overtower 30 - Than would his arm a giant. By such test - Judge then what bulk the whole of him must show,[862] - Of true proportion with such limb possessed. - If he was fair of old as hideous now, - And yet his brows against his Maker raised, - Meetly from him doth all affliction flow. - O how it made me horribly amazed - When on his head I saw three faces[863] grew! - The one vermilion which straight forward gazed; - And joining on to it were other two, 40 - One rising up from either shoulder-bone, - Till to a junction on the crest they drew. - 'Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one; - The left resembled them whose country lies - Where valleywards the floods of Nile flow down. - Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise, - Such as this bird tremendous might demand: - Sails of sea-ships ne'er saw I of such size. - Not feathered were they, but in style were planned - Like a bat's wing:[864] by them a threefold breeze-- 50 - For still he flapped them--evermore was fanned, - And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze. - Down three chins tears for ever made descent - From his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these. - In every mouth there was a sinner rent - By teeth that shred him as a heckle[865] would; - Thus three at once compelled he to lament. - To the one in front 'twas little to be chewed - Compared with being clawed and clawed again, - Till his back-bone of skin was sometimes nude.[866] 60 - 'The soul up yonder in the greater pain - Is Judas 'Scariot, with his head among - The teeth,' my Master said, 'while outward strain - His legs. Of the two whose heads are downward hung, - Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous: - See how he writhes, yet never wags his tongue. - The other, great of thew, is Cassius:[867] - But night is rising[868] and we must be gone; - For everything hath now been seen by us.' - Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on 70 - While he the time and place of vantage chose; - And when the wings enough were open thrown - He grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them close, - And so from tuft to tuft he downward went - Between the tangled hair and crust which froze. - We to the bulging haunch had made descent, - To where the hip-joint lies in it; and then - My Guide, with painful twist and violent, - Turned round his head to where his feet had been, - And like a climber closely clutched the hair: 80 - I thought to Hell[869] that we returned again. - 'Hold fast to me; it needs by such a stair,' - Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone, - 'That we from all that wretchedness repair.' - Right through a hole in a rock when he had won, - The edge of it he gave me for a seat - And deftly then to join me clambered on. - I raised mine eyes, expecting they would meet - With Lucifer as I beheld him last, - But saw instead his upturned legs[870] and feet. 90 - If in perplexity I then was cast, - Let ignorant people think who do not see - What point[871] it was that I had lately passed. - 'Rise to thy feet,' my Master said to me; - 'The way is long and rugged the ascent, - And at mid tierce[872] the sun must almost be.' - 'Twas not as if on palace floors we went: - A dungeon fresh from nature's hand was this; - Rough underfoot, and of light indigent. - 'Or ever I escape from the abyss, 100 - O Master,' said I, standing now upright, - 'Correct in few words where I think amiss. - Where lies the ice? How hold we him in sight - Set upside down? The sun, how had it skill - In so short while to pass to morn from night?'[873] - And he: 'In fancy thou art standing, still, - On yon side of the centre, where I caught - The vile worm's hair which through the world doth drill. - There wast thou while our downward course I wrought; - But when I turned, the centre was passed by 110 - Which by all weights from every point is sought. - And now thou standest 'neath the other sky, - Opposed to that which vaults the great dry ground - And 'neath whose summit[874] there did whilom die - The Man[875] whose birth and life were sinless found. - Thy feet are firm upon the little sphere, - On this side answering to Judecca's round. - 'Tis evening yonder when 'tis morning here; - And he whose tufts our ladder rungs supplied. - Fixed as he was continues to appear. 120 - Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this side; - Whereon the land, protuberant here before, - For fear of him did in the ocean hide, - And 'neath our sky emerged: land, as of yore[876] - Still on this side, perhaps that it might shun - His fall, heaved up, and filled this depth no more.' - From Belzebub[877] still widening up and on, - Far-stretching as the sepulchre,[878] extends - A region not beheld, but only known - By murmur of a brook[879] which through it wends, 130 - Declining by a channel eaten through - The flinty rock; and gently it descends. - My Guide and I, our journey to pursue - To the bright world, upon this road concealed - Made entrance, and no thought of resting knew. - He first, I second, still ascending held - Our way until the fair celestial train - Was through an opening round to me revealed: - And, issuing thence, we saw the stars[880] again. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[858] _Vexilla, etc._: '_The banners of the King of Hell advance._' The -words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they -prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of 'the Emperor who reigns on -high' (_Inf._ i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a -Christian hymn into Virgil's mouth. - -[859] _Now was I where_: In the fourth and inner division or ring of the -Ninth Circle. Here are punished those guilty of treachery to their -lawful lords or to their benefactors. From Judas Iscariot, the -arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca. - -[860] _Some stood, etc._: It has been sought to distinguish the degrees -of treachery of the shades by means of the various attitudes assigned to -them. But it is difficult to make more out of it than that some are -suffering more than others. All of them are the worst of traitors, -hard-hearted and cold-hearted, and now they are quite frozen in the ice, -sealed up even from the poor relief of intercourse with their -fellow-sinners. - -[861] _The creature once, etc._: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against -the Highest, at _Purg._ xii. 25 described as 'created noble beyond all -other creatures.' Virgil calls him Dis, the name used by him for Pluto -in the _AEneid_, and the name from which that of the City of Unbelief is -taken (_Inf._ viii. 68). - -[862] _Judge then what bulk_: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than -the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We -have seen (_Inf._ xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in -height--nine times the stature of a man. If a man's arm be taken as a -third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a -giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, -or nearly so--from the middle of the breast upwards--he stands out of -the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too -great a height for Dante's purpose; and yet on the calculations of some -commentators his stature is immensely greater--from three to five -thousand feet. - -[863] _Three faces_: By the three faces are represented the three -quarters of the world from which the subjects of Lucifer are drawn: -vermilion or carnation standing for Europe, yellow for Asia, and black -for Africa. Or the faces may symbolise attributes opposed to the Wisdom, -Power, and Love of the Trinity (_Inf._ iii. 5). See also note on line 1. - -[864] _A bat's wing_: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome -places. The simile helps to bring more clearly before us the dim light -and half-seen horrors of the Judecca. - -[865] _A heckle_: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of -flax from the woody substance mixed with it. - -[866] _Sometimes nude_: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is -being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn. - -[867] _Cassius_: It has been surmised that Dante here confounds the pale -and lean Cassius who was the friend of Brutus with the L. Cassius -described as corpulent by Cicero in the Third Catiline Oration. Brutus -and Cassius are set with Judas in this, the deepest room of Hell, -because, as he was guilty of high treason against his Divine Master, so -they were guilty of it against Julius Caesar, who, according to Dante, -was chosen and ordained by God to found the Roman Empire. As the great -rebel against the spiritual authority Judas has allotted to him the -fiercer pain. To understand the significance of this harsh treatment of -the great Republicans it is necessary to bear in mind that Dante's -devotion to the idea of the Empire was part of his religion, and far -surpassed in intensity all we can now well imagine. In the absence of a -just and strong Emperor the Divine government of the world seemed to him -almost at a stand. - -[868] _Night is rising_: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours -since they entered by the gate of Inferno. - -[869] _I thought to Hell, etc._: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer's hairy -sides, descends the dark and narrow space between him and the ice as far -as to his middle, which marks the centre of the earth. Here he swings -himself round so as to have his feet to the centre as he emerges from -the pit to the southern hemisphere. Dante now feels that he is being -carried up, and, able to see nothing in the darkness, deems they are -climbing back to the Inferno. Virgil's difficulty in turning himself -round and climbing up the legs of Lucifer arises from his being then at -the 'centre to which all weights tend from every part.' Dante shared the -erroneous belief of the time, that things grew heavier the nearer they -were to the centre of the earth. - -[870] _His upturned legs_: Lucifer's feet are as far above where Virgil -and Dante are as was his head above the level of the Judecca. - -[871] _What point, etc._: The centre of the earth. Dante here feigns to -have been himself confused--a fiction which helps to fasten attention on -the wonderful fact that if we could make our way through the earth we -should require at the centre to reverse our posture. This was more of a -wonder in Dante's time than now. - -[872] _Mid tierce_: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of -which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about -half-past seven in the morning. The night was beginning when they took -their departure from the Judecca: the day is now as far advanced in the -southern hemisphere as they have spent time on the passage. The journey -before them is long indeed, for they have to ascend to the surface of -the earth. - -[873] _To morn from night_: Dante's knowledge of the time of day is -wholly derived from what Virgil tells him. Since he began his descent -into the Inferno he has not seen the sun. - -[874] _'Neath whose summit_: Jerusalem is in the centre of the northern -hemisphere--an opinion founded perhaps on _Ezekiel_ v. 5: 'Jerusalem I -have set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her.' In -the _Convito_, iii. 5, we find Dante's belief regarding the distribution -of land and sea clearly given: 'For those I write for it is enough to -know that the Earth is fixed and does not move, and that, with the -ocean, it is the centre of the heavens. The heavens, as we see, are for -ever revolving around it as a centre; and in these revolutions they must -of necessity have two fixed poles.... Of these one is visible to almost -all the dry land of the Earth; and that is our north pole [star]. The -other, that is, the south, is out of sight of almost all the dry land.' - -[875] _The Man_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the _Inferno_. - -[876] _Land, as of yore, etc._: On the fall of Lucifer from the southern -sky all the dry land of that hemisphere fled before him under the ocean -and took refuge in the other; that is, as much land emerged in the -northern hemisphere as sank in the southern. But the ground in the -direct line of his descent to the centre of the earth heaped itself up -into the Mount of Purgatory--the only dry land left in the southern -hemisphere. The Inferno was then also hollowed out; and, as Mount -Calvary is exactly antipodal to Purgatory, we may understand that on the -fall of the first rebels the Mount of Reconciliation for the human race, -which is also that of Purification, rose out of the very realms of -darkness and sin.--But, as Todeschini points out, the question here -arises of whether the Inferno was not created before the earth. At -_Parad_. vii. 124, the earth, with the air and fire and water, is -described as 'corruptible and lasting short while;' but the Inferno is -to endure for aye, and was made before all that is not eternal (_Inf._ -iii. 8). - -[877] _Belzebub_: Called in the Gospel the prince of the devils. It may -be worth mentioning here that Dante sees in Purgatory (_Purg._ viii. 99) -a serpent which he says may be that which tempted Eve. The -identification of the great tempter with Satan is a Miltonic, or at any -rate a comparatively modern idea. - -[878] _The sepulchre_: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked. - -[879] _A brook_: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the -rivers of the Earthly Paradise. It certainly descends from the Mount of -Purgatory. - -[880] _The stars_: Each of the three divisions of the Comedy closes with -'the stars.' These, as appears from _Purg._ i. are the stars of dawn. It -was after sunrise when they began their ascent to the surface of the -earth, and so nearly twenty-four hours have been spent on the -journey--the time it took them to descend through Inferno. It is now the -morning of Easter Sunday--that is, of the true anniversary of the -Resurrection although not of the day observed that year by the Church. -See _Inf._ xxi. 112. - - - - -INDEX OF PROPER NAMES AND PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF THE INFERNO. - - - Abati, Bocca degli, xxxii. 106. - - ---- Buoso, xxv. 140. - - Abbagliato, xxix. 132. - - Abel, iv. 56. - - Abraham, iv. 58. - - Absalom, xxviii. 137. - - Accorso, Francis d', xv. 110. - - Acheron, iii. 78, xiv. 116. - - Achilles, v. 65, xii. 71, xxvi. 62, xxxi. 4. - - Acquacheta, xvi. 97. - - Acre, xxvii. 89. - - Adam, iii. 115, iv. 55. - - ---- Master, xxx. 61, etc. - - Adige, xii. 5. - - AEgina, xxix. 58. - - AEneas, ii. 32, iv. 122, xxvi. 93. - - AEsop, xxiii. 4. - - Agnello Brunelleschi, xxv. 68. - - Ahithophel, xxviii. 138. - - Alardo, xxviii. 18. - - Alberigo, Friar, xxxiii. 118. - - Alberto of Siena, xxix. 110. - - ---- degli Alberti, xxxii. 57. - - Alchemists, xxix. 43, etc. - - Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio, vi. 79, xvi. 42. - - Alecto, ix. 47. - - Alexander, Count of Romena, xxx. 77. - - ---- degli Alberti, xxxii. 55. - - ---- xii. 107, xiv. 31. - - Alessio Interminei, xviii. 122. - - Ali, xxviii. 32. - - Alichino, xxi. 118, xxii. 112. - - Alps, xiv. 30. - - Amphiaraues, xx. 34. - - Amphion, xxxii. 11. - - Anastasius, Pope, xi. 8. - - Anaxagoras, iv. 138. - - Anchises, i. 74. - - Andrea, Jacopo da Sant', xiii. 133. - - Angels, fallen, iii. 37. - - Anger, those guilty of, vii. 110, etc. - - Angiolello, xxviii. 77. - - Annas, xxiii. 121. - - Anselmuccio, xxxiii. 50. - - Antaeus, xxxi. 100. - - Antenora, xxxii. 89. - - Antiochus, xix. 86. - - Apennines, xvi. 96, xxvii. 29. - - Apocalypse, xix. 106. - - Apulia, xxviii. 8. - - Apulians, xxviii. 16. - - Aquarius, xxiv. 2. - - Arachne, xvii. 18. - - Arbia, x. 86. - - Aretines, xxii. 5, xxix. 109, xxx. 31. - - Arethusa, xxv. 99. - - Argenti, Philip, viii. 61. - - Argives, xxviii. 84. - - Ariadne, xii. 20. - - Aristotle, iv. 131. - - Arles, ix. 112. - - Arno, xiii. 147, xv. 113, xxiii. 95, xxx. 65, xxxiii. 83. - - Arrigo, vi. 80. - - Arrogance, viii. 46, etc. - - Arsenal of Venice, xxi. 7. - - Arthur, King, xxxii. 62. - - Aruns, xx. 46. - - Asciano, Caccia d', xxix. 130. - - Asdente, xx. 118. - - Athamas, xxx. 4. - - Athens, xii. 17. - - Atropos, xxxiii. 126. - - Attila, xii. 134, xiii. 149. - - Augustus, i. 71. - - Aulis, xx. III. - - Austrian, xxxii. 25. - - Avarice, i. 49. - - ---- those guilty of, vii. 25, etc. - - Aventine, xxv. 26. - - Averroes, iv. 144. - - Avicenna, iv. 143. - - - Bacchiglione, xv. 113. - - Bacchus, xx. 59. - - Baptism, iv. 36. - - Baptist, St John, xiii. 143, xxx. 74. - - Barbariccia, xxi. 120, xxii. 29, 59, 145. - - Barrators, xxi. xxii. - - Beatrice, ii. 70, 103, x. 131, xii. 88, xv. 90. - - Beccheria, Abbot, xxxii. 119. - - Bello, Geri del, xxix. 27. - - Belzebub, xxxiv. 127. - - Benacus, xx. 63, etc. - - Benedict, Abbey of St., xvi. 100. - - Bergamese, xx. 71. - - Bertrand de Born, xxviii. 134. - - Bianchi, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150. - - Bisensio, xxxii. 56. - - Blacks, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 143. - - Blasphemy, xiv. 46, etc. - - Bocca degli Abati, xxxii. 106. - - Bologna, xxiii. 142. - - Bolognese, xviii. 58, xxiii. 104. - - Bonatti, Guido, xx. 118. - - Boniface VII., xix. 53, xxvii. 70, 85. - - Bonturo, xxi. 41. - - Born, Bertrand de, xxviii. 134. - - Borsieri, William, xvi. 70. - - Branca Doria, xxxiii. 137, 140. - - Branda, Fonte, xxx. 78. - - Brenta, xv. 7. - - Brescia, xx. 69. - - Brescians, xx. 71. - - Briareus, xxxi. 98. - - Bridge of St. Angelo, xviii. 29. - - Brigata, xxxiii. 89. - - Bruges, xv. 5. - - Brunelleschi, Agnello, xxv. 68. - - Brunetto Latini, xv. 30, etc. - - Brutus, Lucius Junius, iv. 127. - - ---- Marcus Junius, xxxiv. 65. - - Buiamonte, xvii. 72. - - Bulicame, xiv. 79. - - Buoso da Duera, xxxii. 116. - - ---- degli Abati, xxv. 140. - - ---- Donati, xxx. 45. - - - Caccia D' Asciano, xxix. 130. - - Caccianimico Venedico, xviii. 50. - - Cacus, xxv. 25. - - Cadmus, xxv. 98. - - Cadsand, xv. 5. - - Caesar, Frederick II, xiii. 65. - - ---- Julius, i. 70, iv. 123, xxviii. 97. - - Cahors, xi. 49. - - Caiaphas, xxiii. 115. - - Cain, xx. 125. - - Caina, v. 107, xxxii. 59. - - Caitiffs, iii. 35. - - Calcabrina, xxi. 118, xxii. 133. - - Calchas, xx. 110. - - Camicion de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68. - - Camilla, i. 107, iv. 124. - - Camonica, Val, xx. 65. - - Cancellieri, xxxii. 63. - - Capaneus, xiv. 63, xxv. 15. - - Capocchio, xxix. 136, xxx. 28. - - Capraia, xxxiii. 82. - - Caprona, xxi. 94. - - Cardinal, the Octavian Ubaldini, x. 120. - - Cardinals, vii. 47. - - Carisenda, xxxi. 136. - - Carlino de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68. - - Carnal sinners, v. - - Carrarese, xx. 48. - - Casalodi, xx. 95. - - Casentino, xxx. 65. - - Cassero, Guido del, xxviii. 77. - - Cassius, xxxiv. 67. - - Castle of St. Angelo, xviii. 31. - - Catalano, Friar, xxiii. 104, 114. - - Cato of Utica, xiv. 15. - - Cattolica, xxviii. 80. - - Caurus, xi. 114. - - Cavalcanti, Cavalcante, x. 53. - - ---- Francesco, xxv. 151. - - ---- Gianni, xxx. 32, 42. - - ---- Guido, x. 63. - - Cecina, xiii. 9. - - Celestine V., iii. 59, xxvii. 105. - - Centaurs, xii. 56, etc., xxv. 17. - - Centre of the universe, xxxiv. 110. - - Ceperano, xxviii. 16. - - Cerberus, vi. 13, ix. 98. - - Cervia, xxvii. 41. - - Cesena, xxvii. 52. - - Ceuta, xxvi. 111. - - Chaos, xii. 43. - - Charlemagne, xxxi. 17. - - Charles's Wain, xi. 114. - - Charon, iii. 94, etc. - - Charybdis, vii. 22. - - Cherubim, Black, xxvii. 113. - - Chiana, Val di, xxix. 46. - - Chiarentana, xv. 9. - - Chiron, xii. 65, etc. - - Christ, iv. 53, xxxiv. 115. - - Ciacco, vi. 52. - - Cianfa de' Donati, xxv. 43. - - Circe, xxvi. 91. - - Ciriatto, xxi. 122, xxii. 55. - - City of Dis, viii. 68, etc. - - Clement V., xix. 83. - - Cleopatra, v. 63. - - Clergy, vii. 46, xv. 106. - - Cocytus, xiv. 119, xxxi. 123, xxxiii. 156, xxxiv. 52. - - Coiners, false, xxix. - - Colchians, xviii. 87. - - Cologne, xxiii. 63. - - Colonna, family, xxvii. 86. - - Comedy, the, xvi. 128. - - Constantine, xix. 115, xxvii. 94. - - Cord, Dante's, xvi. 106. - - Cornelia, iv. 128. - - Corneto, xiii. 8. - - ---- Rinier da, xii. 136. - - Counsellors, false, xxvi. xxvii. - - Counterfeiters of all kinds, xxix. xxx. - - Crete, xii. 12, xiv. 95. - - Crucifixion, xxi. 112. - - Curio, xxviii. 93, etc. - - Cyclopes, xiv. 55. - - Cyprus, xxviii. 82. - - - Daedalus, xvii. 111, xxix. 116. - - Damietta, xiv. 104. - - Danube, xxxii. 25. - - David, iv. 58, xxviii. 137. - - Deidamia, xxvi. 61. - - Dejanira, xii. 68. - - Democritus, iv. 136. - - Demons, viii. 82, etc., xxi. 29, etc., xxxiii. 131. - - Dido, v. 61, 85. - - Diogenes, iv. 137. - - Diomedes, xxvi. 56. - - Dionysius, xii. 107. - - Dioscorides, iv. 139. - - Dis (Satan), xi. 65, xii. 38, xxxiv. 20. - - ---- City of, viii. 68, etc. - - Dolcino, Fra, xxviii. 55. - - Don, xxxii. 27. - - Donati, Buoso, xxx. 45. - - ---- Cianfa, xxv. 43. - - Doria, Branca, xxxiii. 137, 140. - - Duera, Buoso, xxxii. 116. - - Duke of Athens, ix. 54, xii. 17. - - - Elder of Lucca, xxi. 38. - - Electra, iv. 121. - - Elijah, xxvi. 35. - - Elisha, xxvi. 34. - - Empedocles, iv. 137. - - Ephialtes, xxxi. 94, 108. - - Epicurus, x. 13. - - Erichtho, ix. 23. - - Erinnyes, ix. 45. - - Este, Obizzo d', xii. 111. - - Eteocles, xxvi. 54. - - Ethiopia, xxiv. 89, xxxii. 44. - - Euclid, iv. 142. - - Euryalus, i. 108. - - Eurypylus, xx. 112. - - Ezzelino, xii. 110. - - - Faenza, xxvii. 49, xxxiii. 123. - - False coiners, xxix. xxx. - - ---- counsellors, xxvi. xxvii. - - Fano, xxviii. 76. - - Farfarello, xxi. 123, xxii. 94. - - Farinata, vi. 79, x. 32. - - Fishes, the, xi. 113. - - Flatterers, xviii. - - Flemings, xv. 4. - - Florence, x. 92, xiii. 143, xvi. 75, xxiii. 95, xxiv. 144, xxvi. 1, - xxxii. 120. - - Florentines, viii. 62, xv. 61, xvi. 73, xvii. 70, xxxiii. 11. - - Florin, xxx. 89. - - Focara, xxviii. 89. - - Foccaccia, xxxii. 63. - - Forli, xvi. 99, xxvii. 43. - - Fortune, vii. 62, etc. - - France, xix. 87. - - Francesca da Rimini, v. 116. - - Francis d'Accorso, xv. 110. - - Francis of Assisi, xxvii. 112. - - Frederick II., x. 119, xiii. 59, 68, xxiii. 66. - - French, xxvii. 44, xxix. 123, xxxii. 115. - - Friars, Merry--Frati Godenti, xxiii. 103. - - ---- Minor, xxiii. 3. - - Frisians, xxxi. 64. - - Fucci, Vanni, xxiv. 125. - - Furies, ix. 38. - - - Gaddo, xxxiii. 67. - - Gaeta, xxvi. 92. - - Galen, iv. 143. - - Galahad, v. 137. - - Gallura, Gomita of, xxii. 81. - - Ganellone, xxxii. 122. - - Garda, xx. 65. - - Gardingo, xxiii. 108. - - Gate of Inferno, iii. 1. - - ---- St. Peter, i. 134. - - Gaville, xxv. 151. - - Genesis, xi. 107. - - Genoese, xxxiii. 151. - - Geri del Bello, xxix. 27. - - Germany, xvii. 21, xx. 61. - - Geryon, xvii. 97, etc. - - Ghisola, xviii. 55. - - Gianni Schicchi, xxx. 32, 42. - - ---- del Soldanieri, xxxii. 121. - - Giants, xxxi. - - Gibraltar, xxvi. 107. - - Gloomy, the, vii. 118. - - Gluttons, vi. - - Godenti, Frati, xxiii. 103. - - Gomita, Fra, xxii. 81. - - Gorgon, ix. 56. - - Gorgona, xxxiii. 82. - - Governo, xx. 78. - - Greece, xx. 108. - - Greeks, xxvi. 75, xxx. 98, 122. - - Greyhound, i. 101. - - Griffolino, xxix. 109, xxx. 31. - - Gualandi, xxxiii. 32. - - Gualdrada, xvi. 37. - - Guidi, Counts, xxx. 76. - - Guido Bonatti, xx. 118. - - ---- Cavalcanti, x. 63. - - ---- del Cassero, xxviii. 77. - - Guido of Montefeltro, xxvii. 4, etc. - - ---- of Romena, xxx. 76. - - Guidoguerra, xvi. 38. - - Guiscard, Robert, xxviii. 14. - - Guy of Montfort, xii. 119. - - - Hannibal, xxxi. 117. - - Harpies, xiii. 10, etc. - - Hautefort, xxix. 29. - - Heathen, the virtuous, iv. 37. - - Hector, iv. 122. - - Hecuba, xxx. 16. - - Helen, v. 64. - - Henry of England, the Young King, xxviii. 135. - - Heraclitus, iv. 139. - - Hercules, xxv. 32, xxvi. 108, xxxi. 132. - - Heretics, x. and xxviii. - - Hippocrates, iv. 143. - - Homer, iv. 88. - - Homicides, xii. - - Horace, iv. 89. - - Hypocrites, xxiii. - - Hypsipyle, xviii. 92. - - - Icarus, xvii. 109. - - Ida, xiv. 98. - - Ilion, i. 75. - - Imola, xxvii. 49. - - India, xiv. 32. - - Infants, unbaptized, iv. 29. - - Infidels, x. - - Interminei, Alessio, xviii. 122. - - Irascible, the, vii. and viii. - - Isaac, iv. 59. - - Israel, iv. 59. - - Italy, i. 106, ix. 114, xx. 63. - - - Jacopo da Sant' Andrea (James of St. Andrews), xiii. 133. - - ---- (James) Rusticucci, vi. 80, xvi. 44. - - Jason, xviii. 86. - - ---- Hebrew, xix. 85. - - Jehoshaphat, x. 11. - - Jerusalem, xxxiv. 114. - - Jesus Christ, iv. 53, xxxiv. 115. - - Jews, xxiii. 123, xxvii. 87. - - John Baptist, St., xiii. 143, xxx. 74. - - ---- ---- Church of, xix. 17. - - John, St., Evangelist, xix. 106. - - Joseph, xxx. 97. - - Jove, xiv. 52, xxxi. 44, 92. - - Jubilee, year of, xviii. 29. - - Judas Iscariot, ix. 27, xix. 96, xxxi. 143, xxxiv. 62. - - Judecca, xxxiv. 117. - - Julia, iv. 128. - - Julius Caesar, i. 70, iv. 123, xxviii. 97. - - Juno, xxx. 1. - - Jupiter, xiv. 52, xxxi. 44, 92. - - - Lamone, xxvii. 49. - - Lancelot, v. 128. - - Lanfranchi, xxxiii. 32. - - Lano, xiii. 120. - - Lateran, xxvii. 86. - - Latian land, xxvii. 26, xxviii. 71. - - Latians (Italians), xxii. 66, xxvii. 33, xxix. 88, 91. - - Latinus, King, iv. 125. - - Latini, Brunetto, xv. 30, etc. - - Lavinia, iv. 126. - - Learchus, xxx. 10. - - Lemnos, xviii. 88. - - Leopard, i. 32. - - Lethe, xiv. 130, 136. - - Libicocco, xxi. 121, xxii. 70. - - Libya, xxiv. 85. - - Limbo, iv. 24, etc. - - Linus, iv. 141. - - Lion, i. 45. - - Livy, xxviii. 12. - - Loderingo, Friar, xxiii. 104. - - Logodoro, xxii. 89. - - Lombard, i. 68, xxii. 99. - - ---- dialect, xxvii. 20. - - Lombardy, xxviii. 74. - - Lucan, iv. 90, xxv. 94. - - Lucca, xviii. 122, xxi. 38, xxxiii. 30. - - Lucia, ii. 97, 100. - - Lucifer, xxxi. 143, xxxiv. 89. - - Lucretia, iv. 128. - - Luni, xx. 47. - - - Maccabees, xix. 86. - - Magra, Val di, xxiv. 145. - - Magus, Simon, xix. 1. - - Mahomet, xxviii. 31, etc. - - Mainardo Pagani, xxvii. 50. - - Majorca, xxviii. 82. - - Malacoda, xxi. 76, xxiii. 140. - - Malatestas of Rimini, v. 97, xxvii. 46, xxviii. 85. - - Malebolge, xviii. 1, xxi. 5, xxiv. 37, xxix. 41. - - Malebranche, xxi. 37, xxii. 100, xxiii. 23. - - Manfredi, Alberigo, xxxiii. 118. - - Manto, xx. 55. - - Mantua, xx. 93. - - Mantuans, i. 69, ii. 58. - - Marcabo, xxviii. 75. - - Marcia, iv. 128. - - Maremma, xxv. 19, xxix. 48. - - Marquis of Este, xviii. 56. - - Mars, xiii. 144, xxiv. 145, xxxi. 51. - - Mascheroni, Sassol, xxxii. 65. - - Matthias, Apostle, xix. 95. - - Medea, xviii. 96. - - Medicina, Pier da, xxviii. 73. - - Medusa, ix. 52. - - Megaera, ix. 46. - - Menalippus, xxxii. 131. - - Messenger of heaven, ix. 85. - - Michael, Archangel, vii. 11. - - ---- Scott, xx. 116. - - ---- Zanche, xxii. 88, xxxiii. 144. - - Mincio, xx. 77. - - Minos, v. 4, xiii. 96, xx. 36, xxvii. 124, xxix. 120. - - Minotaur, xii. 12, 25. - - Mongibello, xiv. 56. - - Montagna, xxvii. 47. - - Montaperti, x. 85, xxxii. 81. - - Montereggione, xxxi. 40. - - Montfort, Guy of, xii. 119. - - Montone, xvi. 94. - - Moon, the, x. 80, xx. 127. - - Mordred, xxxii. 61. - - Morocco, xxvi. 104. - - Mosca, vi. 80, xxviii. 106. - - Moses, iv. 57. - - Mozzi, Andrea de', xv. 112. - - Murderers, xii. - - Myrrha, xxx. 38. - - - Napoleone Degli Alberti, xxxii. 55. - - Narcissus, xxx. 128. - - Nasidius, xxv. 95. - - Navarre, xxii. 48. - - Navarese, xxii. 121. - - Neptune, xxviii 83. - - Neri, vi. 65, xxiv. 143. - - Nessus, xii. 67, etc., xiii. 1. - - Nicholas of Siena, xxix. 127. - - ---- III., Pope, xix. 31. - - Nile, xxxiv. 45. - - Nimrod, xxxi. 77. - - Ninus, v. 59. - - Nisus, i. 108. - - Novarese, xxviii. 59. - - - Obizzo d'Este, xii. 111. - - Ordelaffi, xxvii. 45. - - Orpheus, iv. 140. - - Orsini, xix. 70. - - Ovid, iv. 90, xxv. 97. - - - Paduans, xv. 7, xvii. 70. - - Pagani, Mainardo, xxvii. 50. - - Palestrina, xxvii. 102. - - Palladium, xxvi. 63. - - Panders, xviii. - - Paris, v. 67. - - Pasiphae, xii. 13. - - Patriarchs, iv. 55. - - Paul, Apostle, ii. 32. - - Pazzi, Camicion de', xxxii. 68. - - ---- Rinier de', xii. 137. - - Peculators, xxi. xxii. - - Penelope, xxvi. 96. - - Pennine Alps, xx. 66. - - Penthesilea, iv. 125. - - Perillus, xxvii. 8. - - Peschiera, xx. 70. - - Peter, Apostle, i. 134, ii. 24, xix. 91, 94. - - Peter's, St., Church, xviii. 32, xxxi. 59. - - Phaethon, xvii. 106. - - Phalaris, xxvii. 7. - - Pharisees, xxiii. 116, xxvii. 85. - - Philip Argenti, viii. 61. - - ---- the Fair, xix. 87. - - Phlegethon, xiv. 116, 131. - - Phlegra, xiv. 58. - - Phlegyas, viii. 19, 24. - - Phoenix, xxiv. 107. - - Pholus, xii. 72. - - Photinus, xi. 9. - - Piceno, Campo, xxiv. 148. - - Pier da Medicina, xxviii. 73. - - ---- delle Vigne, xiii. 58. - - Pietrapana, xxxii. 29. - - Pinamonte, xx. 96. - - Pine cone of St. Peter's, xxxi. 59. - - Pisa, xxxiii. 79. - - Pisans, xxxiii. 30. - - Pistoia, xxiv. 126, 143, xxv. 10. - - Plato, iv. 134. - - Plutus, vi. 115, vii. 2. - - Po, v. 98, xx. 78. - - Pola, ix. 113. - - Pole, South, xxvi. 127. - - Polenta, v. 97, xxvii. 42. - - Polydorus, xxx. 18. - - Polynices, xxvi. 54. - - Polyxena, xxx. 17. - - Pope Anastasius, xi. 8. - - ---- Boniface VIII., xix. 53, xxvii. 70, 85. - - Pope Celestine V., iii. 59, xxvii. 105. - - ---- Clement V., xix. 83. - - ---- Nicholas III., xix. 31. - - ---- Sylvester, xix. 117, xxvii. 95. - - Popes, ii. 24, vii. 47, xix. 104. - - Potiphar's wife, xxx. 97. - - Prato, xxvi. 9. - - Priam, xxx. 15. - - Priest, the High, Boniface VIII., xxvii. 70. - - Priscian, xv. 109. - - Prodigals, xiii. 115, xxix. 125. - - Proserpine, ix. 44, x. 80. - - Ptolemy, iv. 142. - - Ptolomaea, xxxiii. 124. - - Puccio Sciancato, xxv. 148. - - Pyrrhus, xii. 135. - - - Quarnaro, ix. 113. - - - Rachel, ii. 102, iv. 60. - - Ravenna, v. 97, xxvii. 40. - - Red Sea, xxiv. 90. - - Refusal, the great, iii. 60. - - Reno, xviii. 61. - - Rhea, xiv. 100. - - Rhone, ix. 112. - - Rimini, xxviii. 86. - - Rinier da Corneto, xii. 136. - - ---- Pazzo, xii. 137. - - Robbers, xii. 137. - - Robert Guiscard, xxviii. 14. - - Roger, the Archbishop, xxxiii. 14. - - Roland, xxxi. 18. - - Romagna, xxvii. 28, 37, xxxiii. 154. - - Roman Church, xix. 57. - - Romans, xv. 77, xviii. 28, xxvi. 60, xxviii. 10. - - Rome, i. 71, ii. 20, xiv. 105, xxxi. 59. - - Romena, xxx. 73. - - Roncesvalles, xxxi. 17. - - Rubicante, xxi. 123, xxii. 40. - - Rusticucci, Jacopo, vi. 80, xvi. 44. - - - Sabellus, xxv. 95. - - Saladin, iv. 129. - - Santerno, xxvii. 49. - - Saracens, xxvii. 87. - - Sardinia, xxii. 90, xxix. 48. - - Sassol Mascheroni, xxxii. 65. - - Satan, vii. 1. _See_ Dis. - - Saturn, xiv. 96. - - Savena, xviii. 60. - - Savio, xxvii. 52. - - Scarmiglione, xxi. 105. - - Schicchi, Gianni, xxx. 32. - - Schismatics, xxviii. - - Sciancatto, Puccio, xxv. 148. - - Scipio, xxxi. 116. - - Scott, Michael, xx. 116. - - Seducers, xviii. - - Semele, xxx. 1. - - Semiramis, v. 58. - - Seneca, iv. 141. - - Serchio, xxi. 49. - - Serpents, xxiv. 83, etc. - - Seven Kings against Thebes, xiv. 68. - - Seville, xx. 126, xxvi. 110. - - Sichaeus, v. 62. - - Sicilian Bull, xxvii. 7. - - Sicily, xii. 108. - - Siena, xxix. 110, 129. - - Sienese, xxix. 122. - - Silvius, ii. 13. - - Simon Magus, xix. 1. - - Simoniacs, xix. - - Sinon, xxx. 98. - - Sismondi, xxxiii. 33. - - Socrates, iv. 135. - - Sodom, xi. 49. - - Soldanieri, Gianni del, xxii. 121. - - Soothsayers, xx. - - Soracte, xxvii. 94. - - Spain, xxvi. 102. - - Spendthrifts, vii. - - Statue of Time, xiv. 103. - - ---- Mars, xiii. 147. - - Stricca, xxix. 125. - - Strophades, xiii. 11. - - Styx, vii. 106, ix. 81, xiv. 116. - - Suicides, xiii. - - Sultan, v. 60, xxvii. 90. - - Sylvester, Pope, xix. 117, xxvii. 95. - - - Tabernicch, xxxii. 28. - - Tagliacozzo, xxviii. 17. - - Tarquin, iv. 127. - - Tartars, xvii. 16. - - Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, vi. 79, xvi. 42. - - Thais, xviii. 133. - - Thales, iv. 137. - - Thames, xii. 120. - - Thebes, xiv. 69, xx. 32, 59, xxv. 15, xxx. 2, 23, xxxii. 11. - - ---- modern, Pisa, xxxiii. 89. - - Theseus, ix. 54, xii. 17. - - Thibault, xxii. 52. - - Thieves, xxiv. xxv. - - Tiber, xxvii. 30. - - Time, statue of, xiv. 103. - - Tiresias, xx. 40. - - Tirol, xx. 62. - - Tisiphone, ix. 48. - - Tityus, xxxi. 124. - - Tombs, the red-hot, ix. 116, etc. - - Toppo, xiii. 121. - - Traitors, xxxii., etc. - - _Treasure_ of B. Latini, xv. 119. - - Trent, xii. 5, xx. 68. - - Tribaldello, xxxii. 122. - - Tristam, v. 67. - - Trojan Furies, xxx. 22. - - Trojans, xxviii. 10, xxx. 14. - - Troy, i. 74, xxx. 98. - - Tully, iv. 140. - - Turks, xvii. 16. - - Turnus, i. 108. - - Tuscan, xxii. 99, xxiii. 76, 91, xxiv. 122, xxviii. 108, xxxii. 66. - - Tydeus, xxxii. 130. - - Tyrants, xii. 103, etc. - - Typhon, xxxi. 124. - - - Ubaldini, the Cardinal Octavian, x. 120. - - ---- Archbishop Roger, xxxiii. 14. - - Uberti, Farinata, vi. 79, x. 32. - - Ugolino, xxxii. 125, etc. - - Uguccione, xxxiii. 89. - - Ulysses, xxvi. 55, etc. - - Unbelievers, x. - - Urbino, xxvii. 30. - - Usurers, xvii. 45. - - Usury, xi. 95. - - - Val Camonica, xx. 65. - - Valdichiana, xxix. 46. - - Valdimagra, xxiv. 145. - - Vanni Fucci, xxiv. 125. - - Veltro, the, i. 101. - - Vendetta, the, and Dante, xxix. 32. - - Venetians, xxi. 7. - - Vercelli, xxviii. 75. - - Verona, xv. 122, xx. 68. - - Verucchio, xxvii. 46. - - Vigne, Pier delle, xiii. 58. - - Violent, the, against others, xii.; - against themselves, xiii.; - against God and Nature, xiv., etc. - - Virgil, i. 79. - And elsewhere in the _Inferno_ mentioned by name, though usually - by some title, as, _e.g._ Master, Leader, or Lord. - - Viso, Monte, xvi. 95. - - Vitaliano, xvii. 68. - - Volto, the Santo, xxi. 48. - - - Wain, Charles's, xi. 114. - - Wanton, the, v. - - Whites, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150. - - Witches and wizards, xx. - - Wolf, i. 49. - - Wrathful, the, vii. 110. - - - Zanche, Michael, xxii. 88, xxxiii. 144. - - Zeno, iv. 138. - - Zita, Santa, xxi. 38. - - - - -Edinburgh University Press: - -T. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri - The Inferno - -Author: Dante Alighieri - -Translator: James Romanes Sibbald - -Release Date: December 2, 2012 [EBook #41537] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIVINE COMEDY - THE INFERNO *** - - - - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - - -THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - THE - DIVINE - COMEDY - OF - DANTE - ALIGHIERI - - - A TRANSLATION - - BY - JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD - - - EDINBURGH - PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS - MDCCCLXXXIV - - - _All Rights Reserved._ - - - - - Edinburgh University Press: - - T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY. - - - - - THE - INFERNO - - - A TRANSLATION - WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY - JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD - - - EDINBURGH - PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS - MDCCCLXXXIV - - - - -PREFACE. - - -A Translator who has never felt his self-imposed task to be a light one -may be excused from entering into explanations that would but too -naturally take the form of apologies. I will only say that while I have -striven to be as faithful as I could to the words as well as to the -sense of my author, the following translation is not offered as being -always closely literal. The kind of verse employed I believe to be that -best fitted to give some idea, however faint, of the rigidly measured -and yet easy strength of Dante's _terza rima_; but whoever chooses to -adopt it with its constantly recurring demand for rhymes necessarily -becomes in some degree its servant. Such students as wish to follow the -poet word by word will always find what they need in Dr. J. A. Carlyle's -excellent prose version of the _Inferno_, a work to which I have to -acknowledge my own indebtedness at many points. - -The matter of the notes, it is needless to say, has been in very great -part found ready to my hand in existing Commentaries. My edition of John -Villani is that of Florence, 1823. - -The Note at page cx was printed before it had been resolved to provide -the volume with a copy of Giotto's portrait of Dante. I have to thank -the Council of the Arundel Society for their kind permission to Messrs. -Dawson to make use of their lithograph of Mr. Seymour Kirkup's -invaluable sketch in the production of the Frontispiece--a privilege -that would have been taken more advantage of had it not been deemed -advisable to work chiefly from the photograph of the same sketch, given -in the third volume of the late Lord Vernon's sumptuous and rare edition -of the _Inferno_ (Florence, 1865). In this Vernon photograph, as well as -in the Arundel Society's chromolithograph, the disfiguring mark on the -face caused by the damage to the plaster of the fresco is faithfully -reproduced. A less degree of fidelity has been observed in the -Frontispiece; although the restoration has not been carried the length -of replacing the lost eye. - -EDINBURGH, _February_, 1884. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - FLORENCE AND DANTE, xvii - - GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE, cx - -The Inferno. - - CANTO I. - - The Slumber--the Wood--the Hill--the three Beasts--Virgil--the - Veltro or Greyhound, 1 - - CANTO II. - - Dante's misgivings--Virgil's account of how he was induced to - come to his help--the three Heavenly Ladies--the beginning of - the Journey, 9 - - CANTO III. - - The Gate of Inferno--the Vestibule of the Caitiffs--the Great - Refusal--Acheron--Charon--the Earthquake--the Slumber of Dante, 17 - - CANTO IV. - - The First Circle, which is the Limbo of the Unbaptized and of - the Virtuous Heathen--the Great Poets--the Noble Castle--the - Sages and Worthies of the ancient world, 24 - - CANTO V. - - The Second Circle, which is that of Carnal Sinners--Minos--the - Tempest--The Troop of those who died because of their Love-- - Francesca da Rimini--Dante's Swoon, 32 - - CANTO VI. - - The Third Circle, which is that of the Gluttonous--the Hail and - Rain and Snow--Cerberus--Ciacco and his Prophecy, 40 - - CANTO VII. - - The Fourth Circle, which is that of the Avaricious and the - Thriftless--Plutus--the Great Weights rolled by the sinners in - opposite directions--Fortune--the Fifth Circle, which is that - of the Wrathful--Styx--the Lofty Tower, 47 - - CANTO VIII. - - The Fifth Circle continued--the Signals--Phlegyas--the Skiff-- - Philip Argenti--the City of Dis--the Fallen Angels--the Rebuff - of Virgil, 55 - - CANTO IX. - - The City of Dis, which is the Sixth Circle and that of the - Heretics--the Furies and the Medusa head--the Messenger of Heaven - who opens the gates for Virgil and Dante--the entrance to the - City--the red-hot Tombs, 62 - - CANTO X. - - The Sixth Circle continued--Farinata degli Uberti--Cavalcante dei - Cavalcanti--Farinata's prophecy--Frederick II., 69 - - CANTO XI. - - The Sixth Circle continued--Pope Anastasius--Virgil explains on - what principle sinners are classified in Inferno--Usury, 77 - - CANTO XII. - - The Seventh Circle, First Division--the Minotaur--the River - of Blood, which forms the Outer Ring of the Seventh Circle-- - in it are those guilty of Violence against others--the - Centaurs--Tyrants--Robbers and Murderers--Ezzelino Romano-- - Guy of Montfort--the Passage of the River of Blood, 84 - - CANTO XIII. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Second Division consisting - of a Tangled Wood in which are those guilty of Violence against - themselves--the Harpies--Pier delle Vigne--Lano--Jacopo da Sant' - Andrea--Florence and its Patrons, 91 - - CANTO XIV. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Third Division of it, consisting - of a Waste of Sand on which descends an unceasing Shower of Fire-- - in it are those guilty of Violence against God, against Nature, - and against Art--Capaneus--the Crimson Brook--the Statue of Time-- - the Infernal Rivers, 98 - - CANTO XV. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature-- - Brunetto Latini--Francesco d'Accorso--Andrea de' Mozzi, Bishop - of Florence, 106 - - CANTO XVI. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature-- - Guidoguerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci-- - the Cataract--the Cord--Geryon, 115 - - CANTO XVII. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Art--Usurers-- - the descent on Geryon's back into the Eighth Circle, 123 - - CANTO XVIII. - - The Eighth Circle, otherwise named Malebolge, which consists of - ten concentric Pits or Moats connected by bridges of rock--in - these are punished those guilty of Fraud of different kinds-- - First Bolgia or Moat, where are Panders and Seducers, scourged - by Demons--Venedico Caccianimico--Jason--Second Bolgia, where - are Flatterers plunged in filth--Alessio Interminei, 130 - - CANTO XIX. - - The Eighth Circle--Third Bolgia, where are the Simoniacs, stuck - head downwards in holes in the rock--Pope Nicholas III.--the - Donation of Constantine, 137 - - CANTO XX. - - The Eighth Circle--Fourth Bolgia, where are Diviners and Sorcerers - in endless procession, with their heads twisted on their necks-- - Amphiaräus--Tiresias--Aruns--Manto and the foundation of Mantua-- - Eurypylus--Michael Scott--Guido Bonatti--Asdente, 145 - - CANTO XXI. - - The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia, where the Barrators, or corrupt - officials, are plunged in the boiling pitch which fills the - Bolgia--a Senator of Lucca is thrown in--the Malebranche, or - Demons who guard the Moat--the Devilish Escort, 153 - - CANTO XXII. - - The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia continued--the Navarese--trick - played by him on the Demons--Fra Gomita--Michael Zanche--the - Demons fall foul of one another, 161 - - CANTO XXIII. - - The Eighth Circle--escape from the Fifth to the Sixth Bolgia, - where the Hypocrites walk at a snail's pace, weighed down - by Gilded Cloaks of lead--the Merry Friars Catalano and - Loderingo--Caiaphas, 168 - - CANTO XXIV. - - The Eighth Circle--arduous passage over the cliff into the Seventh - Bolgia, where the Thieves are tormented by Serpents, and are - constantly undergoing a hideous metamorphosis--Vanni Fucci, 176 - - CANTO XXV. - - The Eighth Circle--Seventh Bolgia continued--Cacus--Agnello - Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa Donati, - and Guercio Cavalcanti, 184 - - CANTO XXVI. - - The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia, where are the Evil Counsellors, - wrapped each in his own Flame--Ulysses tells how he met with - death, 192 - - CANTO XXVII. - - The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia continued--Guido of Montefeltro-- - the Cities of Romagna--Guido and Boniface VIII., 200 - - CANTO XXVIII. - - The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia, where the Schismatics in Church - and State are for ever being dismembered--Mahomet--Fra Dolcino-- - Pier da Medicina--Curio--Mosca--Bertrand de Born, 209 - - CANTO XXIX. - - The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia continued--Geri del Bello--Tenth - Bolgia, where Counterfeiters of various kinds, as Alchemists and - Forgers, are tormented with loathsome diseases--Griffolino of - Arezzo--Capocchio on the Sienese, 217 - - CANTO XXX. - - The Eighth Circle--Tenth Bolgia continued--Myrrha--Gianni - Schicchi--Master Adam and his confession--Sinon, 225 - - CANTO XXXI. - - The Ninth Circle, outside of which they remain till the end of - this Canto--this, the Central Pit of Inferno, is encircled and - guarded by Giants--Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antæus--entrance to - the Pit, 233 - - CANTO XXXII. - - The Ninth Circle--that of the Traitors, is divided into four - concentric rings, in which the sinners are plunged more or less - deep in the ice of the frozen Cocytus--the Outer Ring is Caïna, - where are those who contrived the murder of their Kindred-- - Camicion de' Pazzi--Antenora, the Second Ring, where are such - as betrayed their Country--Bocca degli Abati--Buoso da Duera-- - Ugolino, 241 - - CANTO XXXIII. - - The Ninth Circle--Antenora continued--Ugolino and his tale--the - Third Ring, or Ptolomæa, where are those treacherous to their - Friends--Friar Alberigo--Branca d'Oria, 249 - - CANTO XXXIV. - - The Ninth Circle--the Fourth Ring or Judecca, the deepest point - of the Inferno and the Centre of the Universe--it is the place - of those treacherous to their Lords or Benefactors--Lucifer with - Judas, Brutus, and Cassius hanging from his mouths--passage - through the Centre of the Earth--ascent from the depths to the - light of the stars in the Southern Hemisphere, 260 - - INDEX, 269 - - - - -FLORENCE AND DANTE. - - -Dante is himself the hero of the _Divine Comedy_, and ere many stages of -the _Inferno_ have been passed the reader feels that all his steps are -being taken in a familiar companionship. When every allowance has been -made for what the exigencies of art required him to heighten or -suppress, it is still impossible not to be convinced that the author is -revealing himself much as he really was--in some of his weakness as well -as in all his strength. The poem itself, by many an unconscious touch, -does for his moral portraiture what the pencil of Giotto has done for -the features of his face. The one likeness answers marvellously to the -other; and, together, they have helped the world to recognise in him the -great example of a man of genius who, though at first sight he may seem -to be austere, is soon found to attract our love by the depth of his -feelings as much as he wins our admiration by the wealth of his fancy, -and by the clearness of his judgment on everything concerned with the -lives and destiny of men. His other writings in greater or less degree -confirm the impression of Dante's character to be obtained from the -_Comedy_. Some of them are partly autobiographical; and, studying as a -whole all that is left to us of him, we can gain a general notion of -the nature of his career--when he was born and what was his condition in -life; his early loves and friendships; his studies, military service, -and political aims; his hopes and illusions, and the weary purgatory of -his exile. - -To the knowledge of Dante's life and character which is thus to be -acquired, the formal biographies of him have but little to add that is -both trustworthy and of value. Something of course there is in the -traditional story of his life that has come down from his time with the -seal of genuineness; and something that has been ascertained by careful -research among Florentine and other documents. But when all that old and -modern _Lives_ have to tell us has been sifted, the additional facts -regarding him are found to be but few; such at least as are beyond -dispute. Boccaccio, his earliest biographer, swells out his _Life_, as -the earlier commentators on the _Comedy_ do their notes, with what are -plainly but legendary amplifications of hints supplied by Dante's own -words; while more recent and critical writers succeed with infinite -pains in little beyond establishing, each to his own satisfaction, what -was the order of publication of the poet's works, where he may have -travelled to, and when and for how long a time he may have had this or -that great lord for a patron. - -A very few pages would therefore be enough to tell the events of Dante's -life as far as they are certainly known. But, to be of use as an -introduction to the study of his great poem, any biographical sketch -must contain some account--more or less full--of Florentine affairs -before and during his lifetime; for among the actors in these are to be -found many of the persons of the _Comedy_. In reading the poem we are -never suffered for long to forget his exile. From one point of view it -is an appeal to future ages from Florentine injustice and ingratitude; -from another, it is a long and passionate plea with his native town to -shake her in her stubborn cruelty. In spite of the worst she can do -against him he remains no less her son. In the early copies of it, the -_Comedy_ is well described as the work of Dante Alighieri, the -Florentine; since not only does he people the other world by preference -with Florentines, but it is to Florence that, even when his words are -bitter against her, his heart is always feeling back. Among the glories -of Paradise he loves to let his memory rest on the church in which he -was baptized and the streets he used to tread. He takes pleasure in her -stones; and with her towers and palaces Florence stands for the -unchanging background to the changing scenes of his mystical pilgrimage. - -The history of Florence during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries -agrees in general outline with that of most of its neighbours. At the -beginning of the period it was a place of but little importance, ranking -far below Pisa both in wealth and political influence. Though retaining -the names and forms of municipal government, inherited from early times, -it was in reality possessed of no effective control over its own -affairs, and was subject to its feudal superior almost as completely as -was ever any German village planted in the shadow of a castle. To -Florence, as to many a city of Northern and Central Italy, the first -opportunity of winning freedom came with the contest between Emperor -and Pope in the time of Hildebrand. In this quarrel the Church found its -best ally in Matilda, Countess of Tuscany. She, to secure the goodwill -of her subjects as against the Emperor, yielded first one and then -another of her rights in Florence, generally by way of a pious gift--an -endowment for a religious house or an increase of jurisdiction to the -bishop--these concessions, however veiled, being in effect so many -additions to the resources and liberties of the townsmen. She made Rome -her heir, and then Florence was able to play off the Papal against the -Imperial claims, yielding a kind of barren homage to both Emperor and -Pope, and only studious to complete a virtual independence of both. -Florence had been Matilda's favourite place of residence; and, -benefiting largely as it did by her easy rule, it is no wonder that her -name should have been cherished by the Florentines for ages after as a -household word.[1] Nor is the greatest Florentine unmindful of her. Foe -of the Empire though she was, he only remembers her piety; and it is by -Matilda, as representing the active religious life, that Dante is -ushered into the presence of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise.[2] - -It was a true instinct which led Florence and other cities to side -rather with the Pope than with the Emperor in the long-continued -struggle between them for predominance in Italy. With the Pope for -overlord they would at least have a master who was an Italian, and one -who, his title being imperfect, would in his own interest be led to -treat them with indulgence; while, in the permanent triumph of the -Emperor, Italy must have become subject and tributary to Germany, and -would have seen new estates carved out of her fertile soil for members -of the German garrison. The danger was brought home to many of the -youthful commonwealths during the eventful reign of Frederick Barbarossa -(1152-1190). Strong in Germany beyond most of his predecessors, that -monarch ascended the throne with high prerogative views, in which he was -confirmed by the slavish doctrine of some of the new civilians. -According to these there could be only one master in the world; as far -as regarded the things of time, but one source of authority in -Christendom. They maintained everything to be the Emperor's that he -chose to take. When he descended into Italy to enforce his claims, the -cities of the Lombard League met him in open battle. Those of Tuscany, -and especially Florence, bent before the blast, temporising as long as -they were able, and making the best terms they could when the choice lay -between submission and open revolt. Even Florence, it is true, strong in -her allies, did once take arms against an Imperial lieutenant; but as a -rule she never refused obedience in words, and never yielded it in fact -beyond what could not be helped. In her pursuit of advantages, -skilfully using every opportunity, and steadfast of aim even when most -she appeared to waver, she displayed something of the same address that -was long to be noted as a trait in the character of the individual -Florentine. - -The storm was weathered, although not wholly without loss. When, towards -the close of his life, and after he had broken his strength against the -obstinate patriotism of Lombardy, Frederick visited Florence in 1185, it -was as a master justly displeased with servants who, while they had not -openly rebelled against him, had yet proved eminently unprofitable, and -whom he was concerned to punish if not to destroy. On the complaint of -the neighbouring nobles, that they were oppressed and had been plundered -by the city, he gave orders for the restoration to them of their lands -and castles. This accomplished, all the territory left to Florence was a -narrow belt around the walls. Villani even says that for the four years -during which Frederick still lived the Commonwealth was wholly landless. -And here, rather than lose ourselves among the endless treaties, -leagues, and campaigns which fill so many pages of the chronicles, it -may be worth while shortly to glance at the constitution of Florentine -society, and especially at the place held in it by the class which found -its protector in Barbarossa. - -Much about the time at which the Commonwealth was relieved of its feudal -trammels, as a result of the favour or the necessities of Matilda, it -was beginning to extend its commerce and increase its industry. Starting -somewhat late on the career on which Venice, Genoa, and Pisa were -already far advanced, Florence was as if strenuous to make up for lost -time, and soon displayed a rare comprehension of the nature of the -enterprise. It may be questioned if ever, until quite modern times, -there has been anywhere so clear an understanding of the truth that -public wellbeing is the sum of private prosperity, or such an -enlightened perception of what tends to economical progress. Florence -had no special command of raw material for her manufactures, no sea-port -of her own, and no monopoly unless in the natural genius of her people. -She could therefore thrive only by dint of holding open her -communications with the world at large, and grudged no pains either of -war or diplomacy to keep at Pisa a free way out and in for her -merchandise. Already in the twelfth century she received through that -port the rough woollens of Flanders, which, after being skilfully -dressed and dyed, were sent out at great profit to every market of -Europe. At a somewhat later period the Florentines were to give as -strong a proof of their financial capacity as this was of their -industrial. It was they who first conducted a large business in bills of -exchange, and who first struck a gold coin which, being kept of -invariable purity, passed current in every land where men bought and -sold--even in countries where the very name of Florence was unknown.[3] - -In a community thus devoted to industry and commerce, it was natural -that a great place should be filled by merchants. These were divided -into six guilds, the members of which, with the notaries and lawyers, -who composed a seventh, formed the true body of the citizens. -Originally the consuls of these guilds were the only elected officials -in the city, and in the early days of its liberty they were even charged -with political duties, and are found, for example, signing a treaty of -peace with a neighbouring state. In the fully developed commune it was -only the wealthier citizens--the members, we may assume, of these -guilds--who, along with the nobles,[4] were eligible for and had the -right of electing to the public offices. Below them was the great body -of the people; all, that is, of servile condition or engaged in the -meaner kinds of business. From one point of view, the liberties of the -citizens were only their privileges. But although the labourers and -humbler tradesmen were without franchises, their interests were not -therefore neglected, being bound up with those of the one or two -thousand citizens who shared with the patricians the control of public -affairs. - -There were two classes of nobles with whom Florence had to reckon as she -awoke to life--those within the walls, and those settled in the -neighbouring country. In later times it was a favourite boast among the -noble citizens--a boast indulged in by Dante--that they were descended -from ancient Roman settlers on the banks of the Arno. A safer boast -would in many cases have been that their ancestors had come to Italy in -the train of Otho and other conquering Emperors. Though settled in the -city, in some cases for generations, the patrician families were not -altogether of it, being distinguished from the other citizens, if not -always by the possession of ancestral landward estates, at least by -their delight in war and contempt for honest industry. But with the -faults of a noble class they had many of its good qualities. Of these -the Republic suffered them to make full proof, allowing them to lead in -war and hold civil offices out of all proportion to their numbers. - -Like the city itself, the nobles in the country around had been feudally -subject to the Marquis of Tuscany. After Matilda's death they claimed to -hold direct from the Empire; which meant in practice to be above all -law. They exercised absolute jurisdiction over their serfs and -dependants, and, when favoured by the situation of their castles, took -toll, like the robber barons of Germany, of the goods which passed -beneath their walls. Already they had proved to be thorns in the side of -the industrious burghers; but at the beginning of the twelfth century -their neighbourhood became intolerable, and for a couple of generations -the chief political work of Florence was to bring them to reason. Those -whose lands came up almost to the city gates were first dealt with, and -then in a widening circle the country was cleared of the pest. Year -after year, when the days were lengthening out in spring, the roughly -organised city militia was mustered, war was declared against some -specially obnoxious noble and his fortress was taken by surprise, or, -failing that, was subjected to a siege. In the absence of a more -definite grievance, it was enough to declare his castle dangerously near -the city. These expeditions were led by the nobles who were already -citizens, while the country neighbours of the victim looked on with -indifference, or even helped to waste the lands or force the stronghold -of a rival. The castle once taken, it was either levelled with the -ground, or was restored to the owner on condition of his yielding -service to the Republic. And, both by way of securing a hold upon an -unwilling vassal and of adding a wealthy house and some strong arms to -the Commonwealth, he was compelled, along with his family, to reside in -Florence for a great part of every year. - -With a wider territory and an increasing commerce, it was natural for -Florence to assume more and more the attitude of a sovereign state, -ready, when need was, to impose its will upon its neighbours, or to join -with them for the common defence of Tuscany. In the noble class and its -retainers, recruited as has been described, it was possessed of a -standing army which, whether from love of adventure or greed of plunder, -was never so well pleased as when in active employment. Not that the -commons left the fighting wholly to the men of family, for they too, at -the summons of the war-bell, had to arm for the field; but at the best -they did it from a sense of duty, and, without the aid of professional -men-at-arms, they must have failed more frequently in their enterprises, -or at any rate have had to endure a greatly prolonged absence from their -counters and workshops. And yet, esteem this advantage as highly as we -will, Florence surely lost more than it gained by compelling the crowd -of idle gentlemen to come within its walls. In the course of time some -of them indeed condescended to engage in trade--sank, as the phrase -went, into the ranks of the _Popolani_, or mere wealthy citizens; but -the great body of them, while their landed property was being largely -increased in value in consequence of the general prosperity, held -themselves haughtily aloof from honest industry in every form. Each -family, or rather each clan of them, lived apart in its own group of -houses, from among which towers shot aloft for scores of yards into the -air, dominating the humbler dwellings of the common burghers. These, -whenever they came to the front for a time in the government, were used -to decree that all private towers were to be lopped down to within a -certain distance from the ground. - -It is a favourite exercise of Villani and other historians to trace the -troubles and revolutions in the state of Florence to chance quarrels -between noble families, arising from an angry word or a broken troth. -Here, they tell, was sown the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline wars in -Florence; and here that of the feuds of Black and White. Such quarrels -and party names were symptoms and nothing more. The enduring source of -trouble was the presence within the city of a powerful idle class, -constantly eager to recover the privilege it had lost, and to secure -itself by every available means, including that of outside help, in the -possession of what it still retained; which chafed against the curbs put -upon its lawlessness, and whose ambitions were all opposed to the -general interest. The citizens, for their part, had nothing better to -hope for than that Italy should be left to the Italians, Florence to the -Florentines. On the occasion of the celebrated Buondelmonti feud (1215), -some of the nobles definitely went over to the side of the people, -either because they judged it likely to win in the long-run, or -impelled unconsciously by the forces that in every society divide -ambitious men into two camps, and in one form or another develop party -strife. They who made a profession of popular sympathy did it with a -view of using rather than of helping the people at large. Both of the -noble parties held the same end in sight--control of the Commonwealth; -and this would be worth the more the fewer there were to share it. The -faction irreconcilable with the Republic on any terms included many of -the oldest and proudest houses. Their hope lay in the advent of a strong -Emperor, who should depute to them his rights over the money-getting, -low-born crowd. - - -II. - -The opportunity of this class might seem to have come when the -Hohenstaufen Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, ascended the throne, -and still more when, on attaining full age, he claimed the whole of the -Peninsula as his family inheritance. Other Emperors had withstood the -Papal claims, but none had ever proved an antagonist like Frederick. His -quarrel seemed indeed to be with the Church itself, with its doctrines -and morals as well as with the ambition of churchmen; and he offered the -strange spectacle of a Roman Emperor--one of the twin lights in the -Christian firmament--whose favour was less easily won by Christian -piety, however eminent, than by the learning of the Arab or the Jew. -When compelled at last to fulfil a promise extorted from him of -conducting a crusade to the Holy Land, he scandalised Christendom by -making friends of the Sultan, and by using his presence in the East, not -for the deliverance of the Sepulchre, but for the furtherance of -learning and commerce. Thrice excommunicated, he had his revenge by -proving with how little concern the heaviest anathemas of the Church -could be met by one who was armed in unbelief. Literature, art, and -manners were sedulously cultivated in his Sicilian court, and among the -able ministers whom he selected or formed, the modern idea of the State -may be said to have had its birth. Free thinker and free liver, poet, -warrior, and statesman, he stood forward against the sombre background -of the Middle Ages a figure in every respect so brilliant and original -as well to earn from his contemporaries the title of the Wonder of the -World. - -On the goodwill of Italians Frederick had the claim of being the most -Italian of all the Emperors since the revival of the Western Empire, and -the only one of them whose throne was permanently set on Italian soil. -Yet he never won the popular heart. To the common mind he always -appeared as something outlandish and terrible--as the man who had driven -a profitable but impious trade in the Sultan's land. Dante, in his -childhood, must have heard many a tale of him; and we find him keenly -interested in the character of the Emperor who came nearest to uniting -Italy into a great nation, in whose court there had been a welcome for -every man of intellect, and in whom a great original poet would have -found a willing and munificent patron. In the _Inferno_, by the mouth of -Pier delle Vigne, the Imperial Chancellor, he pronounces Frederick to -have been worthy of all honour;[5] yet justice requires him to lodge -this flower of kings in the burning tomb of the Epicureans, as having -been guilty of the arch-heresy of denying the moral government of the -world, and holding that with the death of the body all is ended.[6] It -was a heresy fostered by the lives of many churchmen, high and low; but -the example of Frederick encouraged the profession of it by nobles and -learned laymen. On Frederick's character there was a still darker stain -than this of religious indifference--that of cold-blooded cruelty. Even -in an age which had produced Ezzelino Romano, the Emperor's cloaks of -lead were renowned as the highest refinement in torture.[7] But, with -all his genius, and his want of scruple in the choice of means, he built -nothing politically that was not ere his death crumbling to dust. His -enduring work was that of an intellectual reformer under whose -protection and with whose personal help his native language was refined, -Europe was enriched with a learning new to it or long forgotten, and the -minds of men, as they lost their blind reverence for Rome, were prepared -for a freer treatment of all the questions with which religion deals. He -was thus in some respects a precursor of Dante. - -More than once in the course of Frederick's career it seemed as if he -might become master of Tuscany in fact as well as in name, had Florence -only been as well affected to him as were Siena and Pisa. But already, -as has been said, the popular interest had been strengthened by -accessions from among the nobles. Others of them, without descending -into the ranks of the citizens, had set their hopes on being the first -in a commonwealth rather than privates in the Imperial garrison. These -men, with their restless and narrow ambitions, were as dangerous to have -for allies as for foes, but by throwing their weight into the popular -scale they at least served to hold the Imperialist magnates in check, -and established something like a balance in the fighting power of -Florence; and so, as in the days of Barbarossa, the city was preserved -from taking a side too strongly. The hearts of the Florentine traders -were in their own affairs--in extending their commerce and increasing -their territory and influence in landward Tuscany. As regarded the -general politics of Italy, their sympathy was still with the Roman See; -but it was a sympathy without devotion or gratitude. For refusing to -join in the crusade of 1238 the town was placed under interdict by -Gregory IX. The Emperor meanwhile was acknowledged as its lawful -overlord, and his vicar received something more than nominal obedience, -the choice of the chief magistrates being made subject to his approval. -Yet with all this, and although his party was powerful in the city, it -was but a grudging service that was yielded to Frederick. More than once -fines were levied on the Florentines; and worse punishments were -threatened for their persevering and active enmity to Siena, now -dominated by its nobles and held in the Imperial interest. Volunteers -from Florence might join the Emperor in his Lombard campaigns; but they -were left equally free by the Commonwealth to join the other side. At -last, when he was growing old, and when like his grandfather he had been -foiled by the stubborn Lombards, he turned on the Florentines as an -easier prey, and sent word to the nobles of his party to seize the city. -For months the streets were filled with battle. In January 1248, -Frederick of Antioch, the natural son of the Emperor, entered Florence -with some squadrons of men-at-arms, and a few days later the nobles that -had fought on the popular side were driven into banishment. This is -known in the Florentine annals as the first dispersion of the Guelfs. - -Long before they were adopted in Italy, the names of Guelf and Ghibeline -had been employed in Germany to mark the partisans of the Bavarian Welf -and of the Hohenstaufen lords of Waiblingen. On Italian soil they -received an extended meaning: Ghibeline stood for Imperialist; Guelf for -anti-Imperialist, Papalist, or simply Nationalist. When the names began -to be freely used in Florence, which was towards the close of -Frederick's reign and about a century after their first invention, they -denoted no new start in politics, but only supplied a nomenclature for -parties already in existence. As far as Florence was concerned, the -designations were the more convenient that they were not too closely -descriptive. The Ghibeline was the Emperor's man, when it served his -purpose to be so; while the Guelf, constant only in his enmity to the -Ghibelines, was free to think of the Pope as he chose, and to serve him -no more than he wished or needed to. Ultimately, indeed, all Florence -may be said to have become Guelf. To begin with, the name distinguished -the nobles who sought alliance with the citizens, from the nobles who -looked on these as they might have done on serfs newly thriven into -wealth. Each party was to come up in turn. Within a period of twenty -years each was twice driven into banishment, a measure always -accompanied with decrees of confiscation and the levelling of private -strongholds in Florence. The exiles kept well together, retreating, as -it were in the order of war, to camps of observation they found ready -prepared for them in the nearest cities and fortresses held by those of -their own way of thinking. All their wits were then bent on how, by dint -of some fighting and much diplomacy, they might shake the strength and -undermine the credit of their successful rivals in the city, and secure -their own return in triumph. It was an art they were proud to be adepts -in.[8] - -In a rapid sketch like this it would be impossible to tell half the -changes made on the constitution of Florence during the second part of -the thirteenth century. Dante in a well-known passage reproaches -Florence with the political restlessness which afflicted her like a -disease. Laws, he says, made in October were fallen into desuetude ere -mid-November.[9] And yet it may be that in this constant readiness to -change, lies the best proof of the political capacity of the -Florentines. It was to meet new necessities that they made provision of -new laws. Especial watchfulness was called for against the encroachments -of the grandees, whose constant tendency--whatever their party -name--was to weaken legal authority, and play the part of lords and -masters of the citizens. But these were no mere weavers and -quill-drivers to be plundered at will. Even before the return of the -Guelfs, banished in 1248, the citizens, taking advantage of a check -suffered in the field by the dominant Ghibelines, had begun to recast -the constitution in a popular sense, and to organise the townsmen as a -militia on a permanent footing. When, on the death of Frederick in 1250, -the Imperialist nobles were left without foreign aid, there began a -period of ten years, favourably known in Florentine history as the -Government of the _Primo Popolo_ or _Popolo Vecchio_; that is, of the -true body of the citizens, commoners possessed of franchises, as -distinguished from the nobles above them and the multitude below. For it -is never to be forgotten that Florence, like Athens, and like the other -Italian Republics, was far from being a true democracy. The time was yet -to come, and it was not far distant, when the ranks of citizenship were -to be more widely opened than now to those below, and more closely shut -to those above. In the meantime the comparatively small number of -wealthy citizens who legally composed the 'People' made good use of -their ten years of breathing-time, entering on commercial treaties and -widening the possessions of the Commonwealth, now by war, and now by -shrewd bargains with great barons. To balance the influence of the -Podesta, who had hitherto been the one great officer of State--criminal -judge, civil governor, and commander-in-chief all in one--they created -the office of Captain of the People. The office of Podesta was not -peculiar to Florence. There, as in other cities, in order to secure his -impartiality, it was provided that he should be a foreigner, and hold -office only for six months. But he was also required to be of gentle -birth; and his councils were so composed that, like his own, their -sympathies were usually with the nobles. The Captain of the People was -therefore created partly as a tribune for the protection of the popular -rights, and partly to act as permanent head of the popular forces. Like -the Podesta, he had two councils assigned to him; but these were -strictly representative of the citizens, and sat to control his conduct -as well as to lend to his action the weight of public opinion. - -Such of the Ghibelines as had not been banished from Florence on the -death of Frederick, lived there on sufferance, as it were, and under a -rigid supervision. Once more they were to find a patron and ally in a -member of the great house of Hohenstaufen; and with his aid they were -again for a few years to become supreme in Florence, and to prove by -their abuse of power how well justified was the mistrust the people had -of them. In many ways Manfred, one of Frederick's bastards, was a worthy -son of his father. Like him he was endowed with great personal charm, -and was enamoured of all that opened new regions to intellectual -curiosity or gave refinement to sensual pleasure. In his public as well -as in his private behaviour, he was reckless of what the Church and its -doctrines might promise or threaten; and equally so, his enemies -declared, of the dictates of common humanity. Hostile eyes detected in -the green clothes which were his favourite dress a secret attachment to -Islam; and hostile tongues charged him with the murder of a father and -of a brother, and the attempted murder of a nephew. His ambition did not -aim at the Empire, but only at being King of Sicily and Naples, lands -which the Hohenstaufens claimed as their own through the Norman mother -of Frederick. Of these kingdoms he was actual ruler, even while his -legitimate brother Conrad lived. On the death of that prince he brushed -aside the claims of Conradin, his nephew, and bid boldly for recognition -by the Pope, who claimed to be overlord of the southern kingdoms--a -recognition refused, or given only to be immediately withdrawn. In the -eyes of Rome he was no more than Prince of Tarentum, but by arms and -policy he won what seemed a firm footing in the South; and eight years -after the rule of the _Popolo Vecchio_ began in Florence he was the -acknowledged patron of all in Italy who had been Imperialist--for the -Imperial throne was now practically vacant. And Manfred was trusted all -the more that he cared nothing for Germany, and stood out even more -purely an Italian monarch than his father had ever been. The Ghibelines -of Florence looked to him to free them of the yoke under which they -groaned. - -When it was discovered that they were treating with Manfred, there was -an outburst of popular wrath against the disaffected nobles. Some of -them were seized and put to death, a fate shared by the Abbot of -Vallombrosa, whom neither his priestly office nor his rank as Papal -Legate availed to save from torture and a shameful end.[10] Well -accustomed as was the age to violence and cruelty, it was shocked at -this free disposal of a great ecclesiastic by a mercantile community; -and even to the Guelf chronicler Villani the terrible defeat of -Montaperti seemed no more than a just vengeance taken by Heaven upon a -crime so heinous.[11] In the meantime the city was laid under interdict, -and those concerned in the Abbot's death were excommunicated; while the -Ghibelines, taking refuge in Siena, began to plot and scheme with the -greater spirit against foes who, in the very face of a grave peril, had -offended in the Pope their strongest natural ally. - -The leader of the exiles was Farinata, one of the Uberti, a family -which, so long ago as 1180, had raised a civil war to force their way -into the consulship. Ever since, they had been the most powerful, -perhaps, and certainly the most restless, clan in Florence, rich in men -of strong character, fiercely tenacious of their purpose. Such was -Farinata. To the Florentines of a later age he was to stand for the type -of the great Ghibeline gentleman, haughty as Lucifer, a Christian in -name though scarcely by profession, and yet almost beloved for his frank -excess of pride. It detracted nothing from the grandeur of his -character, in the judgment of his countrymen, that he could be cunning -as well as brave. Manfred was coy to afford help to the Tuscan -Ghibelines, standing out for an exorbitant price for the loan of his -men-at-arms; and to Farinata was attributed the device by which his -point of honour was effectually touched.[12] When at last a -reinforcement of eight hundred cavalry entered Siena, the exiles and -their allies felt themselves more than a match for the militia of -Florence, and set themselves to decoy it into the field. Earlier in the -same year the Florentines had encamped before Siena, and sought in vain -to bring on a general engagement. They were now misled by false -messengers, primed by Farinata, into a belief that the Sienese, weary of -the arrogance of Provenzano Salvani,[13] then all-powerful in Siena, -were ready to betray a gate to them. In vain did Tegghiaio -Aldobrandi,[14] one of the Guelf nobles, counsel delay till the German -men-at-arms, wearied with waiting on and perhaps dissatisfied with their -wages, should be recalled by Manfred. A march in full strength upon the -hostile city was resolved on by the eager townsmen. - -The battle of Montaperti was fought in September 1260, among the earthy -hills washed by the Arbia and its tributary rivulets, a few miles to the -east of Siena. It marked the close of the rule of the _Popolo Vecchio_. -Till then no such disastrous day had come to Florence; and the defeat -was all the more intolerable that it was counted for a victory to Siena. -Yet the battle was far from being a test of the strength of the two -rival cities. Out of the thirty thousand foot in the Guelf army, there -were only about five thousand Florentines. In the host which poured out -on them from Siena, beside the militia of that city and the Florentine -exiles, were included the Ghibelines of Arezzo, the retainers of great -lords still unsubdued by any city, and, above all, the German -men-at-arms of Manfred.[15] But the worst enemies of Florence were the -traitors in her own ranks. She bore it long in mind that it was her -merchants and handicraftsmen who stood stubbornly at bay, and tinged the -Arbia red with their life-blood; while it was among the men of high -degree that the traitors were found. On one of them, Bocca degli Abati, -who struck off the right hand of the standard-bearer of the cavalry, and -so helped on the confusion and the rout, Dante takes vengeance in his -pitiless verse.[16] - -The fortifications of Florence had been recently completed and -strengthened, and it was capable of a long defence. But the spirit of -the people was broken for the time, and the conquerors found the gates -open. Then it was that Farinata almost atoned for any wrong he ever did -his native town, by withstanding a proposal made by the Ghibelines of -the rival Tuscan cities, that Florence should be destroyed, and Empoli -advanced to fill her room. 'Alone, with open face I defended her,' Dante -makes him say.[17] But the wonder would rather be if he had voted to -destroy a city of which he was about to be one of the tyrants. Florence -had now a fuller experience than ever of the oppression which it was in -the character of the Ghibelines to exercise. A rich booty lay ready to -their hands; for in the panic after Montaperti crowds of the best in -Florence had fled, leaving all behind them except their wives and -children, whom they would not trust to the cruel mercy of the victors. -It was in this exile that for the first time the industrious citizen was -associated with the Guelf noble. From Lucca, not powerful enough to -grant them protection for long, they were driven to Bologna, suffering -terribly on the passage of the Apennines from cold and want of food, but -safe when the mountains lay between them and the Val d'Arno. While the -nobles and young men with a taste for fighting found their livelihood in -service against the Lombard Ghibelines, the more sober-minded scattered -themselves to seek out their commercial correspondents and increase -their acquaintance with the markets of Europe. When at length the way -was open for them to return home, they came back educated by travel, as -men must always be who travel for a purpose; and from this second exile -of the Guelfs dates a vast extension of the commerce of Florence. - -Their return was a fruit of the policy followed by the Papal Court The -interests of both were the same. The Roman See could have as little -independence of action while a hostile monarch was possessed of the -southern kingdoms, as the people of Florence could have freedom while -the Ghibeline nobility had for patron a military prince, to whom their -gates lay open by way of Siena and Pisa. To Sicily and Naples the Pope -laid claim by an alternative title--they were either dependent on the -See of Rome, or, if they were Imperial fiefs, then, in the vacancy of -the Empire, the Pope, as the only head of Christendom, had a right to -dispose of them as he would. A champion was needed to maintain the -claim, and at length the man was found in Charles of Anjou, brother of -St. Louis. This was a prince of intellectual powers far beyond the -common, of untiring industry in affairs, pious, 'chaste as a monk,' and -cold-hearted as a usurer; gifted with all the qualities, in short, that -make a man feared and well served, and with none that make him beloved. -He was not one to risk failure for want of deliberation and foresight, -and his measures were taken with such prudence that by the time he -landed in Italy his victory was almost assured. He found his enemy at -Benevento, in the Neapolitan territory (February 1266). In order to get -time for reinforcements to come up, Manfred sought to enter into -negotiations; but Charles was ready, and knew his advantage. He answered -with the splendid confidence of a man sure of a heavenly if he missed -an earthly triumph. 'Go tell the Sultan of Lucera,'[18] was his reply, -'that to-day I shall send him to Hell, or he will send me to Paradise.' -Manfred was slain, and his body, discovered only after long search, was -denied Christian burial. Yet, excommunicated though he was, and -suspected of being at heart as much Mohammedan as Christian, he, as well -as his great rival, is found by Dante in Purgatory.[19] And, while the -Christian poet pours his invective on the pious Charles,[20] he is at no -pains to hide how pitiful appeared to him the fate of the frank and -handsome Manfred, all whose followers adored him. He, as more than once -it happens in the _Comedy_ to those whose memory is dear to the poet, is -saved from Inferno by the fiction that in the hour of death he sent one -thought heavenward--'so wide is the embrace of infinite mercy.'[21] - -To Florence Charles proved a useful if a greedy and exacting protector. -Under his influence as Pacificator of Tuscany--an office created for him -by the Pope--the Guelfs were enabled slowly to return from exile, and -the Ghibelines were gradually depressed into a condition of dependence -on the goodwill of the citizens over whom they had so lately domineered. -Henceforth failure attended every effort they made to lift their heads. -The stubbornly irreconcilable were banished or put to death. Elaborate -provisions were enacted in obedience to the Pope's commands, by which -the rest were to be at peace with their old foes. Now they were to live -in the city, but under disabilities as regarded eligibility to offices; -now they were to be represented in the public councils, but so as to be -always in a minority. The result of the measures taken, and of the -natural drift of things, was that ere many more years had passed there -were no avowed Ghibelines in Florence. - -One influence constantly at work in this direction was that of the -_Parte Guelfa_, a Florentine society formed to guard the interests of -the Guelfs, and which was possessed of the greater part of the Ghibeline -property confiscated after the triumph of Charles had turned the balance -of power in Italy. This organisation has been well described as a state -within a state, and it seems as if the part it played in the Florentine -politics of this period were not yet fully known. This much seems sure, -that the members of the Society were mostly Guelf nobles; that its -power, derived from the administration of vast wealth to a political -end, was so great that the Captain of the _Parte Guelfa_ held a place -almost on a level with that of the chief officials of the Commonwealth; -and that it made loans of ready money to Florence and the Pope, on -condition of their being used to the damage of the Ghibelines.[22] - -The Commonwealth, busy in resettling its government, was but slightly -interested in much that went on around it. The boy Conradin, grandson of -Frederick, nephew of Manfred, and in a sense the last of the -Hohenstaufens, came to Italy to measure himself with Charles, and paid -for his audacity upon the scaffold.[23] Charles deputed Guy of Montfort, -son of the great Earl Simon, to be his vicar in Florence. The Pope -smiled and frowned in turn on the Florentines, as their devotion to him -waxed and waned; and so he did on his champion Charles, whose ambition -was apt to outrun his piety. All this was of less importance to the -Commonwealth than the promotion of its domestic interests. It saw with -equanimity a check given to Charles by the election of a new Emperor in -Rudolf of Hapsburg (1273), and a further check by the Sicilian Vespers, -which lost him half his kingdom (1283). But Siena and Pisa, Arezzo, and -even Pistoia, were the objects of a sleepless anxiety. Pisa was the -chief source of danger, being both from sentiment and interest -stubbornly Ghibeline. When at length its power was broken by Genoa, its -great maritime rival, in the naval battle of Meloria (1284), there was -no longer any city in Tuscany to be compared for wealth and strength -with Florence. - - -III. - -It was at this period that Dante, reaching the age of manhood, began to -perform the duties that fell to him as a youthful citizen--duties which, -till the age of thirty was reached, were chiefly those of military -service. The family to which he belonged was a branch of the Elisei, -who are included by Villani in the earliest catalogue given by him of -the great Florentine houses. Cacciaguida, one of the Elisei, born in -1106, married a daughter of the Aldighieri, a family of Ferrara. Their -son was christened Aldighiero, and this was adopted by the family as a -surname, afterwards changed to Alighieri. The son of Aldighiero was -Bellincione, father of Aldighiero II., the father of Dante. - -It serves no purpose to fill a page of biography with genealogical -details when the hero's course in life was in no way affected by the -accident of who was his grandfather. In the case of Dante, his position -in the State, his political creed, and his whole fashion of regarding -life, were vitally influenced by the circumstances of his birth. He knew -that his genius, and his genius alone, was to procure him fame; he -declares a virtuous and gentle life to be the true proof of nobility: -and yet his family pride is always breaking through. In real life, from -his family's being decayed in wealth and fallen in consideration -compared with its neighbours, he may have been led to put emphasis on -his assertion of gentility; and amid the poverty and humiliations of his -exile he may have found a tonic in the thought that by birth, not to -speak of other things, he was the equal of those who spurned him or -coldly lent him aid. However this may be, there is a tacit claim of -equality with them in the easy grace with which he encounters great -nobles in the world of shades. The bent of his mind in relation to this -subject is shown by such a touch as that when he esteems it among the -glories of Francis of Assisi not to have been ashamed of his base -extraction.[24] In Paradise he meets his great crusading ancestor -Cacciaguida, and feigns contrition for the pleasure with which he -listens to a declaration of the unmixed purity of their common -blood.[25] In Inferno he catches a glimpse, sudden and terrible, of a -kinsman whose violent death had remained unavenged; and, for the nonce, -the philosopher-poet is nothing but the member of an injured Florentine -clan, and winces at the thought of a neglected blood feud.[26] And when -Farinata, the great Ghibeline, and haughtiest of all the Florentines of -the past generation, asks him, 'Who were thine ancestors?' Dante says -with a proud pretence of humility, 'Anxious to obey, I hid nothing, but -told him all he demanded.'[27] - -Dante was born in Florence in the May of 1265.[28] A brother of his -father had been one of the guards of the Florentine Caroccio, or -standard-bearing car, at the battle of Montaperti (1260). Whether -Dante's father necessarily shared in the exile of his party may be -doubted. He is said--on slight authority--to have been a jurisconsult: -there is no reason to suppose he was at Montaperti. It is difficult to -believe that Florence was quite emptied of its lawyers and merchants as -a consequence of the Ghibeline victory. In any case, it is certain that -while the fugitive Guelfs were mostly accompanied by their wives, and -did not return till 1267, we have Dante's own word for it that he was -born in the great city by the Arno,[29] and was baptized in the -Baptistery, his beautiful St. John's.[30] At the font he received the -name of Durante, shortened, as he bore it, into Dante. It is in this -form that it finds a place in the _Comedy_,[31] once, and only once, -written down of necessity, the poet says--the necessity of being -faithful in the report of Beatrice's words: from the wider necessity, we -may assume, of imbedding in the work itself the name by which the author -was commonly known, and by which he desired to be called for all time. - -When Dante was about ten years old he lost his father. Of his mother -nothing but her Christian name of Bella is known. Neither of them is -mentioned in the _Comedy_,[32] nor indeed are his wife and children. -Boccaccio describes the Alighieri as having been in easy though not in -wealthy circumstances; and Leonardo Bruni, who in the fifteenth century -sought out what he could learn of Dante, says of him that he was -possessed of a patrimony sufficient for an honourable livelihood. That -he was so might be inferred from the character of the education he -received. His studies, says Boccaccio, were not directed to any object -of worldly profit. That there is no sign of their having been directed -by churchmen tends to prove the existence in his native town of a class -of cultivated laymen; and that there was such appears from the ease -with which, when, passing from boyhood to manhood, he felt a craving for -intellectual and congenial society, he found in nobles of the stamp of -Guido Cavalcanti men like-minded with himself. It was indeed impossible -but that the revival of the study of the civil law, the importation of -new learning from the East, and the sceptical spirit fostered in Italy -by the influence of Frederick II. and his court, should all have told on -the keen-witted Florentines, of whom a great proportion--even of the -common people--could read; while the class with leisure had every -opportunity of knowing what was going on in the world.[33] Heresy, the -rough word for intellectual life as well as for religious aspiration, -had found in Florence a congenial soil.[34] In the thirteenth century, -which modern ignorance loves to reckon as having been in a special sense -an age of faith, there were many Florentines who, in spite of their -outward conformity, had drifted as far from spiritual allegiance to the -Church as the furthest point reached by any of their descendants who -some two ages later belonged to the school of Florentine Platonists. - -Chief among these free-thinkers, and, sooth to say, free-livers--though -in this respect they were less distinguished from the orthodox--was -Brunetto Latini, for some time Secretary to the Republic, and the -foremost Italian man of letters of his day. Meagre though his greatest -work, the _Tesoro_, or _Treasure_, must seem to any one who now glances -over its pages, to his contemporaries it answered the promise of its -title and stood for a magazine of almost complete information in the -domains of natural history, ethics, and politics. It was written in -French, as being a more agreeable language than Italian; and was -composed, there is reason to believe, while Latini lived in Paris as an -exiled Guelf after Montaperti. His _Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, a -poem in jingling eight-syllabled Italian verse, has been thought by some -to have supplied hints to Dante for the _Comedy_.[35] By neither of -these works is he evinced a man of strong intellect, or even of good -taste. Yet there is the testimony of Villani that he did much to refine -the language of his contemporaries, and to apply fixed principles to the -conduct of State affairs.[36] Dante meets him in Inferno, and hails him -as his intellectual father--as the master who taught him from day to day -how fame is to be won.[37] But it is too much to infer from these words -that Latini served as his teacher, in the common sense of the word. It -is true they imply an intimacy between the veteran scholar and his -young townsman; but the closeness of their intercourse is perhaps best -accounted for by supposing that Latini had been acquainted with Dante's -father, and by the great promise of Dante's boyhood was led to take a -warm interest in his intellectual development. Their intimacy, to judge -from the tone of their conversation down in Inferno, had lasted till -Latini's death. But no tender reminiscence of the days they spent -together avails to save him from condemnation at the hands of his severe -disciple. By the manners of Brunetto, and the Epicurean heresies of -others of his friends, Dante, we may be sure, was never infected or -defiled. - -Dante describes himself as having begun the serious study of philosophy -and theology only at the mature age of twenty-seven. But ere that time -he had studied to good effect, and not books alone, but the world around -him too, and the world within. The poet was formed before the theologian -and philosopher. From his earliest years he was used to write in verse; -and he seems to have esteemed as one of his best endowments the easy -command of his mother tongue acquired by him while still in boyhood. - -Of the poems written in his youth he made a selection, and with a -commentary gave them to the world as his first work.[38] All the sonnets -and canzoni contained in it bear more or less directly on his love for -Beatrice Portinari. This lady, whose name is so indissolubly associated -with that of Dante, was the daughter of a rich citizen of good family. -When Dante saw her first he was a child of nine, and she a few months -younger. It would seem fabulous, he says, if he related what things he -did, and of what a passion he was the victim during his boyhood. He -seized opportunities of beholding her, but for long never passed beyond -a silent worship; and he was eighteen before she spoke to him, and then -only in the way of a passing salutation. On this he had a vision, and -that inspired him with a sonnet, certainly not the first he had written, -but the first he put into circulation. The mode of publication he -adopted was the common one of sending copies of it to such other poets -as were within reach. The sonnet in itself contains a challenge to -interpret his dream. Several poets attempted the riddle--among them the -philosopher and poet Guido Cavalcanti. They all failed in the solution; -but with some of them he was thus brought into terms of intimacy, and -with Cavalcanti of the closest friendship. Some new grace of style in -Dante's verse, some art in the presentation of his mystical meaning that -escapes the modern reader, may have revealed to the middle-aged man of -letters that a new genius had arisen. It was by Guido's advice that the -poems of which this sonnet stands the first were some years later -collected and published with the explanatory narrative. To him, in a -sense, the whole work is addressed; and it agreed with his taste, as -well as Dante's own, that it should contain nothing but what was written -in the vulgar tongue. Others besides Guido must have recognised in the -little book, as it passed from hand to hand, the masterpiece of Italian -prose, as well as of Italian verse. In the simple title of _Vita Nuova_, -or _The New Life_,[39] we can fancy that a claim is laid to originality -of both subject and treatment. Through the body of the work, though not -so clearly as in the _Comedy_, there rings the note of assurance of -safety from present neglect and future oblivion. - -It may be owing to the free use of personification and symbol in the -_Vita Nuova_ that some critics, while not denying the existence of a -real Beatrice, have held that she is introduced only to help out an -allegory, and that, under the veil of love for her, the poet would -express his youthful passion for truth. Others, going to the opposite -extreme, are found wondering why he never sought, or, seeking, failed to -win, the hand of Beatrice. To those who would refine the Beatrice of the -early work into a being as purely allegorical as she of the _Comedy_, it -may be conceded that the _Vita Nuova_ is not so much the history of a -first love as of the new emotional and intellectual life to which a -first love, as Dante experienced it, opens the door. Out of the -incidents of their intercourse he chooses only such as serve for motives -to the joys and sorrows of the passionate aspiring soul. On the other -hand, they who seek reasons why Dante did not marry Beatrice have this -to justify their curiosity, that she did marry another man. But her -husband was one of the rich and powerful Bardi; and her father was so -wealthy that after providing for his children he could endow a hospital -in Florence. The marriage was doubtless arranged as a matter of family -convenience, due regard being had to her dower and her husband's -fortune; and we may assume that when Dante, too, was married later on, -his wife was found for him by the good offices of his friends.[40] Our -manners as regards these things are not those of the Italy of the -thirteenth century. It may safely be said that Dante never dreamed of -Beatrice for his wife; that the expectation of wedding her would have -sealed his lips from uttering to the world any word of his love; and -that she would have lost something in his esteem if, out of love for -him, she had refused the man her father chose for her. - -We must not seek in the _Vita Nuova_ what it does not profess to give. -There was a real Beatrice Portinari, to a careless glance perhaps not -differing much from other Florentine ladies of her age and condition; -but her we do not find in Dante's pages. These are devoted to a record -of the dreams and visions, the new thoughts and feelings of which she -was the occasion or the object. He worshipped at a distance, and in a -single glance found reward enough for months of adoration; he read all -heaven into a smile. So high strung is the narrative, that did we come -on any hint of loving dalliance it would jar with all the rest She is -always at a distance from him, less a woman than an angel. - -In all this there is certainly as much of reticence as of exaggeration. -When he comes to speak of her death he uses a phrase on which it would -seem as if too little value had been set. He cannot dwell on the -circumstances of her departure, he says, without being his own -panegyrist. Taken along with some other expressions in the _Vita Nuova_, -and the tone of her words to him when they meet in the Earthly Paradise, -we may gather from this that not only was she aware of his long -devotion, but that, ere she died, he had been given to understand how -highly she rated it. And on the occasion of her death, one described as -being her nearest relative by blood and, after Cavalcanti, Dante's chief -friend--her brother, no doubt--came to him and begged him to write -something concerning her. It would be strange indeed if they had never -looked frankly into one another's faces; and yet, for anything that is -directly told in the _Vita Nuova_, they never did. - -The chief value of the _Vita Nuova_ is therefore psychological. It is a -mine of materials illustrative of the author's mental and emotional -development, but as regards historical details it is wanting in fulness -and precision. Yet, even in such a sketch of Dante's life as this tries -to be, it is necessary to dwell on the turning-points of the narrative -contained in the _Vita Nuova_; the reader always remembering that on one -side Dante says more than the fact that so he may glorify his love, and -less on another that he may not fail in consideration for Beatrice. She -is first a maiden whom no public breath is to disturb in her virgin -calm; and afterwards a chaste wife, whose lover is as jealous of her -reputation as any husband could be. The youthful lover had begun by -propounding the riddle of his love so obscurely that even by his -fellow-poets it had been found insoluble, adepts though they themselves -were in the art of smothering a thought. Then, though all his longing is -for Beatrice, lest she become the subject of common talk he feigns that -he is in love first with one lady and then with another.[41] He even -pushes his deceit so far that she rebukes him for his fickleness to one -of his sham loves by denying him the customary salutation when they -meet--this salutation being the only sign of friendship she has ever -shown. It is already some few years since the first sonnet was written. -Now, in a ballad containing a more direct avowal of his love than he has -yet ventured on,[42] he protests that it was always Beatrice his heart -was busy with, and that to her, though his eyes may have seemed to -wander, his affection was always true. In the very next poem we find him -as if debating with himself whether he shall persevere. He weighs the -ennobling influence of a pure love and the sweetness it gives to life, -against the pains and self-denial to which it condemns its servant. -Here, he tells us in his commentary, he was like a traveller who has -come to where the ways divide. His only means of escape--and he feels it -is a poor one--is to throw himself into the arms of Pity. - -From internal evidence it seems reasonably certain that the marriage of -Beatrice fell at the time when he describes himself as standing at the -parting of the ways. Before that he has been careful to write of his -love in terms so general as to be understood only by those in possession -of the key. Now he makes direct mention of her, and seeks to be in her -company; and he even leads us to infer that it was owing to his poems -that she became a well-known personage in the streets of Florence. -Immediately after the sonnet in which he has recourse to Pity, he tells -how he was led by a friend into the house of a lady, married only that -day, whom they find surrounded by her lady friends, met to celebrate her -home-coming after marriage. It was the fashion for young gentlemen to -offer their services at such a feast. On this occasion Dante for one can -give no help. A sudden trembling seizes him; he leans for support -against the painted wall of the chamber; then, lifting his eyes to see -if the ladies have remarked his plight, he is troubled at beholding -Beatrice among them, with a smile on her lips, as, leaning towards her, -they mock at her lover's weakness. To his friend, who, as he leads him -from the chamber, asks what ails him, he replies: 'My feet have reached -that point beyond which if they pass they can never return.' It was only -matrons that gathered round a bride at her home-coming; Beatrice was -therefore by this time a married woman. That she was but newly married -we may infer from Dante's confusion on finding her there.[43] His secret -has now been discovered, and he must either renounce his love, or, as he -is at length free to do, Beatrice being married, declare it openly, and -spend his life in loyal devotion to her as the mistress of his -imagination and of his heart.[44] - -But how is he to pursue his devotion to her, and make use of his new -privilege of freer intercourse, when the very sight of her so unmans -him? He writes three sonnets explaining what may seem pusillanimity in -him, and resolves to write no more. Now comes the most fruitful episode -in the history. Questioned by a bevy of fair ladies what is the end of a -love like his, that cannot even face the object of its desire, he -answers that his happiness lies in the words by which he shows forth the -praises of his mistress. He has now discovered that his passion is its -own reward. In other words, he has succeeded in spiritualising his love; -although to a careless reader it might seem in little need of passing -through the process. Then, soon after, as he walks by a crystal brook, -he is inspired with the words which begin the noblest poem he had yet -produced,[45] and that as the author of which he is hailed by a -fellow-poet in Purgatory. It is the first to glorify Beatrice as one in -whom Heaven is more concerned than Earth; and in it, too, he anticipates -his journey through the other world. She dies,[46] and we are surprised -to find that within a year of her death he wavers in his allegiance to -her memory. A fair face, expressing a tender compassion, looks down on -him from a window as he goes nursing his great sorrow; and he loves the -owner of the face because she pities him. But seeing Beatrice in a -vision he is restored, and the closing sonnet tells how his whole desire -goes forth to her, and how his spirit is borne above the highest sphere -to behold her receiving honour, and shedding radiance on all around her. -The narrative closes with a reference to a vision which he does not -recount, but which incites him to severe study in order that he may -learn to write of her as she deserves. And the last sentence of the -_Vita Nuova_ expresses a hope--a hope which would be arrogant coming -after anything less perfect than the _Vita Nuova_--that, concerning her, -he shall yet say things never said before of any woman. Thus the poet's -earliest work contains an earnest of the latest, and his morning makes -one day with his evening. - -The narrative of the _Vita Nuova_ is fluent and graceful, in this -contrasting strongly with the analytical arguments attached to the -various poems. Dante treats his readers as if they were able to catch -the meaning of the most recondite allegory, and yet were ignorant of the -alphabet of literary form. And, as is the case with other poets of the -time, the free movement of his fancy is often hampered by the necessity -he felt of expressing himself in the language of the popular scholastic -philosophy. All this is but to say that he was a man of his period, as -well as a great genius. And even in this his first work he bettered the -example of Guido Cavalcanti, Guido of Bologna, and the others whom he -found, but did not long suffer to remain, the masters of Italian -verse.[47] These inherited from the Provençal and Sicilian poets much -of the cant of which European poetry has been so slow to clear itself; -and chiefly that of presenting all human emotion and volition under the -figure of love for a mistress, who was often merely a creature of fancy, -set up to act as Queen of Beauty while the poet ran his intellectual -jousts. But Dante dealt in no feigned inspiration, and distinguishes -himself from the whole school of philosophical and artificial poets as -'one who can only speak as love inspires.'[48] He may deal in allegory -and utter sayings dark enough, but the first suggestions of his thoughts -are obtained from facts of emotion or of real life. His lady was no -creature of fancy, but his neighbour Beatrice Portinari: and she who -ends in the _Paradiso_ as the embodied beauty of holiness was, to begin -with, a fair Florentine girl. - -The instance of Beatrice is the strongest, although others might be -adduced, to illustrate Dante's economy of actual experience; the skilful -use, that is, of real emotions and incidents to serve for suggestion and -material of poetical thought. As has been told, towards the close of the -_Vita Nuova_ he describes how he found a temporary consolation for the -loss of Beatrice in the pity of a fair and noble lady. In his next work, -the _Convito_, or _Banquet_, she appears as the personification of -philosophy. The plan of the _Convito_ is that of a commentary on odes -which are interpreted as having various meanings--among others the -literal as distinguished from the allegorical or essentially true. As -far as this lady is concerned, Dante shows some eagerness to pass from -the literal meaning; desirous, it may be, to correct the belief that he -had ever wavered in his exclusive devotion to Beatrice. That for a time -he did transfer his thoughts from Beatrice in Heaven to the fair lady of -the window is almost certain, and by the time he wrote the _Purgatorio_ -he was able to make confession of such a fault. But at the earlier -period at which the _Convito_[49] was written, he may have come to -regard the avowal in the _Vita Nuova_ as an oversight dishonouring to -himself as well as to his first love, and so have slurred it over, -leaving the fact to stand enveloped in an allegory. At any rate, to his -gloss upon this passage in his life we are indebted for an interesting -account of how, at the age of twenty-seven, he put himself to school:-- - - 'After losing the earliest joy of my life, I was so smitten with - sorrow that in nothing could I find any comfort. Yet after some - time my mind, eager to recover its tone, since nought that I or - others could do availed to restore me, directed itself to find how - people, being disconsolate, had been comforted. And so I took to - reading that little-known book by Boethius, by writing which he, - captive and in exile, had obtained relief. Next, hearing that Tully - as well had written a book in which, treating of friendship, he had - consoled the worthy Laelius on the occasion of the loss of his - friend Scipio, I read that too. And though at the first I found - their meaning hard, at last I comprehended it as far as my - knowledge of the language and some little command of mother-wit - enabled me to do: which same mother-wit had already helped me to - much, as may be seen by the _Vita Nuova_. And as it often happens - that a man goes seeking silver, and lights on gold he is not - looking for--the result of chance, or of some divine provision; so - I, besides finding the consolation I was in search of to dry my - tears, became possessed of wisdom from authors and sciences and - books. Weighing this well, I deemed that philosophy, the mistress - of these authors, sciences, and books, must be the best of all - things. And imagining her to myself fashioned like a great lady, - rich in compassion, my admiration of her was so unbounded that I - was always delighting myself in her image. And from thus beholding - her in fancy I went on to frequent the places where she is to be - found in very deed--in the schools of theology, to wit, and the - debates of philosophers. So that in a little time, thirty months or - so, I began to taste so much of her sweetness that the love I bore - to her effaced or banished every other thought.'[50] - -No one would guess from this description of how he grew enamoured of -philosophy, that at the beginning of his arduous studies Dante took a -wife. She was Gemma, the daughter of Manetto Donati, but related only -distantly, if at all, to the great Corso Donati. They were married in -1292, he being twenty-seven; and in the course of the nine years that -elapsed till his exile she bore him five sons and two daughters.[51] -From his silence regarding her in his works, and from some words of -Boccaccio's which apply only to the period of his exile, it has been -inferred that the union was unhappy. But Dante makes no mention in his -writings of his parents or children any more than of Gemma.[52] And why -should not his wife be included among the things dearest to him which, -he tells us, he had to leave behind him on his banishment? For anything -we know to the contrary, their wedded life up to the time of his exile -may have been happy enough; although most probably the marriage was one -of convenience, and almost certainly Dante found little in Gemma's mind -that answered to his own.[53] In any case it is not safe to lay stress -upon his silence. During the period covered by the _Vita Nuova_ he -served more than once in the field, and to this none of his earlier -works make any reference. In 1289, Arezzo having warmly espoused the -Ghibeline cause, the Florentines, led by Corso Donati and the great -merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, took up arms and met the foe in the field of -Campaldino, on the edge of the upland region of the Casentino. Dante, as -a young man of means and family, fought in the vanguard;[54] and in a -letter partly preserved by one of his early biographers[55] he describes -himself as being then no tiro in arms, and as having with varying -emotions watched the fortunes of the day. From this it is clear that he -had served before, probably in an expedition into the Aretine territory -made in the previous year, and referred to in the _Inferno_.[56] In the -same year as Campaldino was won he was present at the surrender of -Caprona, a fortress belonging to Pisa.[57] But of all this he is silent -in his works, or only makes casual mention of it by way of illustration. -It is, therefore, a waste of time trying to prove his domestic misery -from his silence about his marriage. - - -IV. - -So hard a student was Dante that he now for a time nearly lost the use -of his eyes.[58] But he was cured by regimen, and came to see as well as -ever, he tells us; which we can easily believe was very well indeed. For -his work, as he planned it out, he needed all his powers. The _Convito_, -for example, was designed to admit of a full treatment of all that -concerns philosophy. It marks an earlier stage of his intellectual and -spiritual life than does the opening of the _Inferno_. In it we have the -fruit of the years during which he was wandering astray from his early -ideal, misled by what he afterwards came to count as a vain and -profitless curiosity. Most of its contents, as we have it,[59] are only -indirectly interesting. It is impossible for most people to care for -discussions, conducted with all the nicety of scholastic definition, on -such subjects as the system of the universe as it was evolved out of the -brains of philosophers; the subject-matter of knowledge; and how we -know. But there is one section of it possessed of a very special -interest, the Fourth, in which he treats of the nature of nobility. -This he affirms to be independent of wealth or ancestry, and he finds -every one to be noble who practises the virtues proper to his time of -life. 'None of the Uberti of Florence or the Visconti of Milan can say -he is noble because belonging to such or such a race; for the Divine -seed is sown not in a family but in the individual man.' This amounts, -it must be admitted, to no more than saying that high birth is one -thing, and nobility of character another; but it is significant of what -were the current opinions, that Dante should be at such pains to -distinguish between the two qualities. The canzone which supplies the -text for the treatise closes with a picture of the noble soul at every -stage of life, to which Chaucer may well have been indebted for his -description of the true gentleman:[60]--'The soul that is adorned by -this grace does not keep it hid, but from the day when soul is wed to -body shows it forth even until death. In early life she is modest, -obedient, and gentle, investing the outward form and all its members -with a gracious beauty: in youth she is temperate and strong, full of -love and courteous ways, delighting in loyal deeds: in mature age she is -prudent, and just, and apt to liberality, rejoicing to hear of others' -good. Then in the fourth stage of life she is married again to God,[61] -and contemplates her approaching end with thankfulness for all the -past.'[62] - -In this passage it is less the poet that is heard than the sober -moralist, one with a ripe experience of life, and contemptuous of the -vulgar objects of ambition. The calm is on the surface. As has been said -above, he was proud of his own birth, the more proud perhaps that his -station was but a middling one; and to the close of his life he hated -upstarts with their sudden riches, while the Philip Argenti on whom in -the _Inferno_ he takes what has much the air of a private revenge may -have been only a specimen of the violent and haughty nobles with whom he -stood on an uneasy footing. - -Yet the impression we get of Dante's surroundings in Florence from the -_Vita Nuova_ and other poems, from references in the _Comedy_, and from -some anecdotes more or less true which survive in the pages of Boccaccio -and elsewhere, is on the whole a pleasant one. We should mistake did we -think of him as always in the guise of absorbed student or tearful -lover. Friends he had, and society of various kinds. He tells how in a -severe illness he was nursed by a young and noble lady, nearly related -to him by blood--his sister most probably; and other ladies are -mentioned as watching in his sick-chamber.[63] With Forese and Piccarda -Donati, brother and sister of the great Corso Donati, he was on terms of -the warmest friendship.[64] From the _Vita Nuova_ we can gather that, -even when his whole heart fainted and failed at the mere sight of -Beatrice, he was a favourite with other ladies and conversed familiarly -with them. The brother of Beatrice was his dear friend; while among -those of the elder generation he could reckon on the friendship of such -men as Guido Cavalcanti and Brunetto Latini. Through Latini he would, -even as a young man, get the entry of the most lettered and -intellectually active society of Florence. The tradition of his intimacy -with Giotto is supported by the mention he makes of the painter,[65] and -by the fact, referred to in the _Vita Nuova_, that he was himself a -draughtsman. It is to be regretted there are not more anecdotes of him -on record like that which tells how one day as he drew an angel on his -tablets he was broken in upon by 'certain people of importance.' The -musician Casella, whom he 'woes to sing in Purgatory'[66] and Belacqua, -the indolent good-humoured lutemaker,[67] are greeted by him in a tone -of friendly warmth in the one case and of easy familiarity in the other, -which help us to know the terms on which he stood with the quick-witted -artist class in Florence.[68] Already he was in the enjoyment of a high -reputation as a poet and scholar, and there seemed no limit to the -greatness he might attain to in his native town as a man of action as -well as a man of thought. - -In most respects the Florence of that day was as fitting a home for a -man of genius as could well be imagined. It was full of a life which -seemed restless only because the possibilities of improvement for the -individual and the community seemed infinite. A true measure of its -political progress and of the activity of men's minds is supplied by the -changes then being made in the outward aspect of the city. The duties of -the Government were as much municipal as political, and it would have -surprised a Florentine to be told that the one kind of service was of -less dignity than the other. The population grew apace, and, to provide -the means for extending the city walls, every citizen, on pain of his -testament being found invalid, was required to bequeath a part of his -estate to the public. Already the banks of the Arno were joined by three -bridges of stone, and the main streets were paved with the -irregularly-shaped blocks of lava still familiar to the sojourner in -Florence. But between the time of Dante's boyhood and the close of the -century the other outstanding features of the city were greatly altered, -or were in the course of change. The most important churches of -Florence, as he first knew it, were the Baptistery and the neighbouring -small cathedral church of Santa Reparata; after these ranked the church -of the Trinity, Santo Stefano, and some other churches which are now -replaced by larger ones, or of which the site alone can be discovered. -On the other side of the river, Samminiato with its elegant façade rose -as now upon its hill.[69] The only great civic building was the Palace -of the Podesta. The Old Market was and had long been the true centre of -the city's life. - -At the time Dante went into exile Arnolfo was already working on the -great new cathedral of St. Mary of the Flowers, the spacious Santa -Croce, and the graceful Badia; and Santa Maria Novella was slowly -assuming the perfection of form that was later to make it the favourite -of Michel Angelo. The Palace of the Signory was already planned, though -half a century was to elapse before its tower soared aloft to daunt the -private strongholds which bristled, fierce and threatening, all over the -city. The bell-tower of Giotto, too, was of later erection--the only -pile we can almost regret that Dante never saw. The architect of it was -however already adorning the walls of palace and cloister with paintings -whose inspiration was no longer, like that of the works they -overshadowed, drawn from the outworn motives of Byzantine art, but from -the faithful observation of nature.[70] He in painting and the Pisan -school in sculpture were furnishing the world with novel types of beauty -in the plastic arts, answering to the 'sweet new style' in verse of -which it was Dante that discovered the secret.[71] - -Florence was now by far the leading city in Tuscany. Its merchants and -money-dealers were in correspondence with every Mediterranean port and -with every country of the West. Along with bales of goods and letters of -exchange new ideas and fresh intelligence were always on the road to -Florence. The knowledge of what was going on in the world, and of what -men were thinking, was part of the stock-in-trade of the quick-witted -citizens, and they were beginning to be employed throughout Europe in -diplomatic work, till then almost a monopoly of churchmen. 'These -Florentines seem to me to form a fifth element,' said Boniface, who had -ample experience of how accomplished they were. - -At home they had full employment for their political genius; and still -upon the old problem, of how to curb the arrogance of the class that, in -place of being satisfied to share in the general prosperity, sought its -profit in the maintenance of privilege. It is necessary, at the cost of -what may look like repetition, to revert to the presence and activity of -this class in Florence, if we are to form a true idea of the -circumstances of Dante's life, and enter into the spirit with which much -of the _Comedy_ is informed. Though many of the nobles were now engaged -in commerce and figured among the popular leaders, most of the greater -houses stood proudly aloof from everything that might corrupt their -gentility. These were styled the magnates: they found, as it were, a -vocation for themselves in being nobles. Among them the true distinctive -spirit of Ghibelinism survived, although none of them would now have -dared to describe himself as a Ghibeline. Their strength lay partly in -the unlimited control they retained over the serfs on their landward -estates; in the loyalty with which the members of a family held by one -another; in their great command of resources as the administrators of -the _Parte Guelfa_; and in the popularity they enjoyed with the smaller -people in consequence of their lavish expenditure, and frank if insolent -manners. By law scarcely the equals of the full citizens, in point of -fact they tyrannised over them. Their houses, set like fortresses in the -crowded streets, frequently served as prisons and torture-chambers for -the low-born traders or artisans who might offend them. - -Measures enough had been passed towards the close of the century with a -view to curb the insolence of the magnates; but the difficulty was to -get them put in force. At length, in 1294, they, with many additional -reforms, were embodied in the celebrated Ordinances of Justice. These -for long were counted back to as the Great Charter of Florence--a Great -Charter defining the popular rights and the disabilities of the -baronage. Punishments of special severity were enacted for nobles who -should wrong a plebeian, and the whole of a family or clan was made -responsible for the crimes and liabilities of its several members. The -smaller tradesmen were conciliated by being admitted to a share in -political influence. If serfage was already abolished in the State of -Florence, it was the Ordinances which made it possible for the serf to -use his liberty.[72] But the greatest blow dealt to the nobles by the -new laws was their exclusion, as nobles, from all civil and political -offices. These they could hold only by becoming members of one of the -trade guilds.[73] And to deprive a citizen of his rights it was enough -to inscribe his name in the list of magnates. - -It is not known in what year Dante became a member of the Guild of -Apothecaries. Without much reason it has been assumed that he was one of -the nobles who took advantage of the law of 1294. But there is no -evidence that in his time the Alighieri ranked as magnates, and much -ground for believing that for some considerable time past they had -belonged to the order of full citizens. - -It was not necessary for every guildsman to practise the art or engage -in the business to which his guild was devoted, and we are not required -to imagine Dante as having anything to do with medicine or with the -spices and precious stones in which the apothecaries traded. The guilds -were political as much as industrial associations, and of the public -duties of his membership he took his full share. The constitution of the -Republic, jealously careful to limit the power of the individual -citizen, provided that the two chief executive officers, the Podesta and -the Captain of the People, should always be foreigners. They held office -only for six months. To each of them was assigned a numerous Council, -and before a law could be abrogated or a new one passed it needed the -approval of both these Councils, as well as that of the Priors, and of -the heads of the principal guilds. The Priors were six in number, one -for each district of the city. With them lay the administration in -general of the laws, and the conduct of foreign affairs. Their office -was elective, and held for two months.[74] Of one or other of the -Councils Dante is known to have been a member in 1295, 1296, 1300, and -1301.[75] In 1299 he is found engaged on a political mission to the -little hill-city of San Gemigniano, where in the town-house they still -show the pulpit from which he addressed the local senate.[76] From the -middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he served as one of the -Priors.[77] - -At the time when Dante entered on this office, Florence was distracted -by the feud of Blacks and Whites, names borrowed from the factions of -Pistoia, but fated to become best known from their use in the city which -adopted them. The strength of the Blacks lay in the nobles whom the -Ordinances of Justice had been designed to depress; both such of them as -had retained their standing as magnates, and such as, under the new law, -had unwillingly entered the ranks of the citizens. Already they had -succeeded in driving into exile Giano della Bella,[78] the chief author -of the Ordinances; and their efforts--and those of the citizens who, -fearing the growing power of the lesser guilds, were in sympathy with -them--were steadily directed to upset the reforms. An obvious means to -this end was to lower in popular esteem the public men whose policy it -was to govern firmly on the new lines. The leader of the discontented -party was Corso Donati, a man of small fortune, but of high birth; of -splendid personal appearance, open-handed, and of popular manners. He -and they who went with him affected a violent Guelfism, their chance of -recovering the control of domestic affairs being the better the more -they could frighten the Florentines with threats of evils like those -incurred by the Aretines and Pisans from Ghibeline oppression. It may be -imagined what meaning the cry of Ghibeline possessed in days when there -was still a class of beggars in Florence--men of good names--whose eyes -had been torn out by Farinata and his kind. - -One strong claim which Corso Donati had on the goodwill of his -fellow-townsmen was that by his ready courage in pushing on the -reserves, against superior orders, at the battle of Campaldino,[79] the -day had been won to Florence and her allies. As he rode gallantly -through the streets he was hailed as the Baron (_il Barone_), much as in -the last generation the victor of Waterloo was sufficiently -distinguished as the Duke. At the same battle, Vieri dei Cerchi, the -leader of the opposite party of the Whites, had shown no less bravery, -but he was ignorant of the art, or despised it, of making political -capital out of the performance of his duty. In almost every respect he -offered a contrast to Donati. He was of a new family, and his influence -depended not on landed possessions, though he had these too, but on -wealth derived from commerce.[80] According to John Villani, a competent -authority on such a point,[81] he was at the head of one of the greatest -trading houses in the world. The same crowds that cheered Corso as the -great Baron sneered at the reticent and cold-tempered merchant as the -Ghibeline. It was a strange perversion of ideas, and yet had this of -justification, that all the nobles of Ghibeline tendency and all the -citizens who, on account of their birth, were suspected of leaning that -way were driven into the party of the Whites by the mere fact of the -Blacks hoisting so defiantly the Guelf flag, and commanding the -resources of the _Parte Guelfa_. But if Ghibelinism meant, as fifty -years previously it did mean, a tendency to exalt privilege as against -the general liberties and to court foreign interference in the affairs -of Florence, it was the Blacks and not the Whites who had served -themselves heirs to Ghibelinism. That the appeal was now taken to the -Pope instead of to the Emperor did not matter; or that French soldiers -in place of German were called in to settle domestic differences. - -The Roman See was at this time filled by Boniface VIII., who six years -previously, by violence and fraud, had procured the resignation of -Celestine V.--him who made the great refusal.[82] Boniface was at once -arrogant and subtle, wholly faithless, and hampered by no scruple -either of religion or humanity. But these qualities were too common -among those who before and after him filled the Papal throne, to secure -him in a special infamy. That he has won from the ruthless hatred which -blazes out against him in many a verse of Dante's,[83] and for this -hatred he is indebted to his interference in the affairs of Florence, -and what came as one of the fruits of it--the poet's exile. - -And yet, from the point of view not only of the interest of Rome but -also of Italy, there is much to be said for the policy of Boniface. -German domination was a just subject of fear, and the Imperialist -element was still so strong in Northern and Central Italy, that if the -Emperor Albert[84] had been a man of a more resolute ambition, he -might--so contemporaries deemed--have conquered Italy at the cost of a -march through it. The cities of Romagna were already in Ghibeline -revolt, and it was natural that the Pope should seek to secure Florence -on the Papal side. It was for the Florentines rather than for him to -judge what they would lose or gain by being dragged into the current of -general politics. He made a fair beginning with an attempt to reconcile -the two parties. The Whites were then the dominant faction, and to them -reconciliation meant that their foes would at once divide the -government with them, and at the long-run sap the popular liberties, -while the Pope's hand would soon be allowed to dip freely into the -communal purse. The policy of the Whites was therefore one of steady -opposition to all foreign meddling with Florence. But it failed to -secure general support, for without being Ghibeline in fact it had the -air of being so; and the name of Ghibeline was one that no reasoning -could rob of its terrors.[85] - -As was usual in Florence when political feeling ran high, the hotter -partisans came to blows, and the streets were more than once disturbed -by violence and bloodshed. To an onlooker it must have seemed as if the -interposition of some external authority was desirable; and almost on -the same day as the new Priors, of whom Dante was one and who were all -Whites, took office in the June of 1300, the Cardinal Acquasparta -entered the city, deputed by the Pope to establish peace. His proposals -were declined by the party in power, and having failed in his mission he -left the city, and took the priestly revenge upon it of placing it under -interdict.[86] Ere many months were passed, the Blacks, at a meeting of -the heads of the party, resolved to open negotiations anew with -Boniface. For this illegal step some of them, including Corso Donati, -were ordered into exile by the authorities, who, to give an appearance -of impartiality to their proceedings, at the same time banished some of -the Whites, and among them Guido Cavalcanti. It was afterwards made a -charge against Dante that he had procured the recall of his friend Guido -and the other Whites from exile; but to this he could answer that he was -not then in office.[87] Corso in the meantime was using his enforced -absence from Florence to treat freely with the Pope. - -Boniface had already entered into correspondence with Charles of Valois, -brother of Philip, the reigning King of France, with the view of -securing the services of a strongly-connected champion. It was the game -that had been played before by the Roman Court when Charles of Anjou was -called to Italy to crush the Hohenstaufens. This second Charles was a -man of ability of a sort, as he had given cruel proof in his brother's -Flemish wars. By the death of his wife, daughter of his kinsman Charles -II. of Naples and so grand-daughter of Charles of Anjou, he had lost the -dominions of Maine and Anjou, and had got the nickname of Lackland from -his want of a kingdom. He lent a willing ear to Boniface, who presented -him with the crown of Sicily on condition that he first wrested it from -the Spaniard who wore it.[88] All the Papal influence was exerted to get -money for the expenses of the descent on Sicily. Even churchmen were -required to contribute, for it was a holy war, and the hope was that -when Charles, the champion of the Church, had reduced Italy to -obedience, won Sicily for himself by arms, and perhaps the Eastern -Empire by marriage, he would win the Holy Sepulchre for Christendom. - -Charles crossed the Alps in August 1301, with five hundred men-at-arms, -and, avoiding Florence on his southward march, found Boniface at his -favourite residence of Anagni. He was created Pacificator of Tuscany, -and loaded with other honours. What better served the purpose of his -ambition, he was urged to retrace his steps and justify his new title by -restoring peace to Florence. There the Whites were still in power, but -they dared not declare themselves openly hostile to the Papal and Guelf -interest by refusing him admission to the city. He came with gentle -words, and ready to take the most stringent oaths not to tamper with the -liberties of the Commonwealth; but once he had gained an entrance -(November 1301) and secured his hold on Florence, he threw off every -disguise, gave full play to his avarice, and amused himself with looking -on at the pillage of the dwellings and warehouses of the Whites by the -party of Corso Donati. By all this, says Dante, Charles 'gained no -land,' Lackland as he was, 'but only sin and shame.'[89] - -There is a want of precise information as to the events of this time. -But it seems probable that Dante formed one of an embassy sent by the -rulers of Florence to the Pope in the autumn of this year; and that on -the occasion of the entrance of Charles he was absent from Florence. -What the embassy had to propose which Boniface could be expected to be -satisfied with, short of complete submission, is not known and is not -easy to guess. It seems clear at least that Dante cannot have been -chosen as a person likely to be specially pleasing to the Roman Court. -Within the two years preceding he had made himself prominent in the -various Councils of which he was a member, by his sturdy opposition to -affording aid to the Pope in his Romagnese wars. It is even possible -that his theory of the Empire was already more or less known to -Boniface, and as that Pontiff claimed Imperial authority over such -states as Florence, this would be sufficient to secure him a rough -reception.[90] Where he was when the terrible news came to him that for -some days there had been no law in Florence, and that Corso Donati was -sharing in the triumph of Charles, we do not know. Presageful of worse -things to come, he did not seek to return, and is said to have been in -Siena when he heard that, on the 27th January 1302, he had been -sentenced to a heavy fine and political disabilities for having been -guilty of extortion while a Prior, of opposing the coming of Charles, -and of crimes against the peace of Florence and the interest of the -_Parte Guelfa_. If the fine was not paid within three days his goods and -property were to be confiscated. This condemnation he shared with three -others. In the following March he was one of twelve condemned, for -contumacy, to be burned alive if ever they fell into the hands of the -Florentine authorities. We may perhaps assume that the cruel sentence, -as well as the charge of peculation, was uttered only in order to -conform to some respectable precedents. - - -V. - -Besides Dante many other Whites had been expelled from Florence.[91] -Whether they liked it or not, they were forced to seek aid from the -Ghibelines of Arezzo and Romagna. This led naturally to a change of -political views, and though at the time of their banishment all of them -were Guelfs in various degrees, as months and years went on they -developed into Ghibelines, more or less declared. Dissensions, too, -would be bred among them out of recriminations touching the past, and -charges of deserting the general interest for the sake of securing -private advantage in the way of making peace with the Republic. For a -time, however, the common desire of gaining a return to Florence held -them together. Of the Council constituted to bring this about, Dante was -a member. Once only with his associates does he appear to have come the -length of formal negotiations with a view to getting back. Charles of -Valois had passed away from the temporary scene of his extortions and -treachery, upon the futile quest of a crown. Boniface, ere being -persecuted to death by his old ally, Philip of France (1303), had vainly -attempted to check the cruelty of the Blacks; and Benedict, his -successor, sent the Cardinal of Ostia to Florence with powers to -reconcile the two parties. Dante is usually credited with the -composition of the letter in which Vieri dei Cerchi and his -fellow-exiles answered the call of the Cardinal to discuss the -conditions of their return home. All that had been done by the banished -party, said the letter, had been done for the public good.[92] The -negotiations came to nothing; nor were the exiles more fortunate in -arms. Along with their allies they did once succeed by a sudden dash in -penetrating to the market-place, and Florence lay within their grasp -when, seized with panic, they turned and fled from the city, which many -of them were never to see again. - -Almost certainly Dante took no active part in this attempt, and indeed -there is little to show that he was ever heartily associated with the -exiles. In his own words, he was compelled to break with his companions -owing to their imbecility and wickedness, and to form a party by -himself.[93] With the Whites, then, he had little more to do; and the -story of their fortunes need not longer detain us. It is enough to say -that while, like Dante, the chief men among them were for ever excluded -from Florence, the principles for which they had contended survived, and -even obtained something like a triumph within its walls. The success of -Donati and his party, though won with the help of the people, was too -clearly opposed to the popular interest to be permanent. Ere long the -inveterate contradiction between magnate and merchant was again to -change the course of Florentine politics; the disabilities against -lawless nobles were again to be enforced; and Corso Donati himself was -to be crushed in the collision of passions he had evoked but could not -control (1308). Though tenderly attached to members of his family, Dante -bore Corso a grudge as having been the chief agent in procuring his -exile--a grudge which years could do nothing to wipe out. He places in -the mouth of Forese Donati a prophecy of the great Baron's shameful -death, expressed in curt and scornful words, terrible from a -brother.[94] It is no figure of speech to say that Dante nursed revenge. - -For some few years his hopes were set on Henry of Luxemburg, elected -Emperor in 1308. A Ghibeline, in the ordinary sense of the term, Dante -never was. We have in his _De Monarchia_ a full account of the -conception he had formed of the Empire--that of authority in temporal -affairs embodied in a just ruler, who, being already supreme, would be -delivered from all personal ambition; who should decree justice and be a -refuge for all that were oppressed. He was to be the captain of -Christian society and the guardian of civil right; as in another sphere -the Pope was to be the shepherd of souls and the guardian of the deposit -of Divine truth. In Dante's eyes the one great officer was as much God's -vicegerent as the other. While the most that a Ghibeline or a moderate -Guelf would concede was that there should be a division of power between -Pope and Emperor--the Ghibeline leaving it to the Emperor and the Guelf -to the Pope to define their provinces--Dante held, and in this he stood -almost alone among politicians, that they ought to be concerned with -wholly different kingdoms, and that Christendom was wronged by the -trespass of either upon the other's domain. An equal wrong was done by -the neglect by either of his duty, and both, as Dante judged, had been -shamefully neglecting it. For more than half a century no Emperor had -set foot in Italy; and since the Papal Court had under Clement V. been -removed to Avignon (1305), the Pope had ceased to be a free agent, owing -to his neighbourhood to France and the unscrupulous Philip.[95] - -Dante trusted that the virtuous single-minded Henry VII. would prove a -monarch round whom all the best in Italy might gather to make him -Emperor in deed as well as in name. His judgment took the colour of his -hopes, for under the awful shadow of the Emperor he trusted to enter -Florence. Although no Ghibeline or Imperialist in the vulgar sense, he -constituted himself Henry's apologist and herald; and in letters -addressed to the 'wicked Florentines,' to the Emperor, and to the -Princes and Peoples of Italy, he blew as it were a trumpet-blast of -triumph over the Emperor's enemies and his own. Henry had crossed the -Alps, and was tarrying in the north of Italy, when Dante, with a keen -eye for where the key of the situation lay, sharpened by his own wishes, -urged him to lose no more time in reducing the Lombard cities to -obedience, but to descend on Florence, the rotten sheep which was -corrupting all the Italian flock. The men of Florence he bids prepare to -receive the just reward of their crimes. - -The Florentines answered Dante's bitter invective and the Emperor's -milder promises by an unwearied opposition with the arms which their -increasing command of all that tends to soften life made them now less -willing to take up, and by the diplomacy in which they were supreme The -exiles were recalled, always excepting the more stubborn or dangerous; -and among these was reckoned Dante. Alliances were made on all hands, an -art which Henry was notably wanting in the trick of. Wherever he turned -he was met and checkmated by the Florentines, who, wise by experience, -were set on retaining control of their own affairs. After his coronation -at Rome (1312),[96] he marched northwards, and with his Pisan and -Aretine allies for six weeks laid fruitless siege to Florence. King -Robert of Naples, whose aid he had hoped to gain by means of a family -alliance, was joined to the league of Guelfs, and Henry passed away from -Florence to engage in an enterprise against the Southern Kingdom, a -design cut short by his death (1313). He was the last Emperor that ever -sought to take the part in Italian affairs which on Dante's theory -belonged to the Imperial office. Well-meaning but weak, he was not the -man to succeed in reducing to practice a scheme of government which had -broken down even in the strong hands of the two Fredericks, and ere the -Commonwealths of Italy had become each as powerful as a Northern -kingdom. To explain his failure, Dante finds that his descent into Italy -was unseasonable: he came too soon. Rather, it may be said, he came far -too late.[97] - -When, on the death of Henry, Dante was disappointed in his hopes of a -true revival of the Empire, he devoted himself for a time to urging the -restoration of the Papal Court to Rome, so that Italy might at least not -be left without some centre of authority. In a letter addressed to the -Italian Cardinals, he besought them to replace Clement V., who died in -1314,[98] by an Italian Pope. Why should they, he asked, resign this -great office into Gascon hands? Why should Rome, the true centre of -Christendom, be left deserted and despised? His appeal was fruitless, as -indeed it could not fail to be with only six Italian Cardinals in a -College of twenty-four; and after a vacancy of two years the Gascon -Clement was succeeded by another Gascon. Although Dante's motives in -making this attempt were doubtless as purely patriotic as those which -inspired Catherine of Siena to similar action a century later, he met, -we may be sure, with but little sympathy from his former -fellow-citizens. They were intent upon the interests of Florence alone, -and even of these they may sometimes have taken a narrow view. His was -the wider patriotism of the Italian, and it was the whole Peninsula -that he longed to see delivered from French influence and once more -provided with a seat of authority in its midst, even if it were only -that of spiritual power. The Florentines for their part, desirous of -security against the incursions of the northern horde, were rather set -on retaining the goodwill of France than on enjoying the neighbourhood -of the Pope. In this they were guilty of no desertion of their -principles. Their Guelfism had never been more than a mode of minding -themselves. - -For about three years (1313-1316) the most dangerous foe of Florence was -Uguccione de la Faggiuola, a partisan Ghibeline chief, sprung from the -mountain-land of Urbino, which lies between Tuscany and Romagna. He made -himself lord of Pisa and Lucca, and defeated the Florentines and their -allies in the great battle of Montecatini (1315). To him Dante is -believed to have attached himself.[99] It would be easy for the Republic -to form an exaggerated idea of the part which the exile had in shaping -the policy or contributing to the success of his patron; and we are not -surprised to find that, although Dante's fighting days were done, he was -after the defeat subjected to a third condemnation (November 1315). If -caught, he was to lose his head; and his sons, or some of them, were -threatened with the same fate. The terms of the sentence may again have -been more severe than the intentions of those who uttered it. However -this may be, an amnesty was passed in the course of the following year, -and Dante was urged to take advantage of it. He found the conditions of -pardon too humiliating. Like a malefactor he would require to walk, -taper in hand and a shameful mitre on his head, to the church of St -John, and there make an oblation for his crimes. It was not in this -fashion that in his more hopeful hours the exile had imagined his -restoration. If ever he trod again the pavement of his beautiful St -John's, it was to be proudly, as a patriot touching whom his country had -confessed her sins; or, with a poet's more bashful pride, to receive the -laurel crown beside the font in which he was baptized. But as he would -not enter his well beloved, well hated Florence on the terms imposed by -his enemies, so he never had the chance of entering it on his own. The -spirit in which he, as it were, turned from the open gates of his native -town is well expressed in a letter to a friend, who would seem to have -been a churchman who had tried to win his compliance with the terms of -the pardon. After thanking his correspondent for his kindly eagerness to -recover him, and referring to the submission required, he says:--'And is -it in this glorious fashion that Dante Alighieri, wearied with an almost -trilustral exile, is recalled to his country? Is this the desert of an -innocence known to all, and of laborious study which for long has kept -him asweat?... But, Father, this is no way for me to return to my -country by; though if by you or others one can be hit upon through which -the honour and fame of Dante will take no hurt, it shall be followed by -me with no tardy steps. If by none such Florence is to be entered, I -will never enter Florence. What then! Can I not, wherever I may be, -behold the sun and stars? Is not meditation upon the sweetness of truth -as free to me in one place as another? To enjoy this, no need to submit -myself ingloriously and with ignominy to the State and People of -Florence! And wherever I may be thrown, in any case I trust at least to -find daily bread.' - -The cruelty and injustice of Florence to her greatest son have been the -subject of much eloquent blame. But, in justice to his contemporaries, -we must try to see Dante as they saw him, and bear in mind that the very -qualities fame makes so much of--his fervent temper and devotion to -great ideas--placed him out of the reach of common sympathy. Others -besides him had been banished from Florence, with as much or as little -reason, and had known the saltness of bread which has been begged, and -the steepness of strange stairs. The pains of banishment made them the -more eager to have it brought to a close. With Dante all that he -suffered went to swell the count of grievances for which a reckoning was -some day to be exacted. The art of returning was, as he himself knew -well, one he was slow to learn.[100] His noble obstinacy, which would -stoop to no loss of dignity or sacrifice of principle, must excite our -admiration; it also goes far to account for his difficulty in getting -back. We can even imagine that in Florence his refusal to abate one -tittle of what was due to him in the way of apology was, for a time, the -subject of wondering speculation to the citizens, ere they turned again -to their everyday affairs of politics and merchandise. Had they been -more used to deal with men in whom a great genius was allied to a -stubborn sense of honour, they would certainly have left less room in -their treatment of Dante for happier ages to cavil at. - -How did the case stand? In the letter above quoted from, Dante says that -his innocence was known to all. As far as the charge of corruption in -his office-bearing went, his banishment--no one can doubt it for a -moment--was certainly unjust; and the political changes in Florence -since the death of Corso Donati had taken all the life out of the other -charges. But by his eager appeals to the Emperor to chastise the -Florentines he had raised fresh barriers against his return. The -governors of the Republic could not be expected to adopt his theory of -the Empire and share his views of the Imperial claims; and to them Dante -must have seemed as much guilty of disloyalty to the Commonwealth in -inviting the presence of Henry, as Corso Donati had been in Dante's eyes -for his share in bringing Charles of Valois to harry Florence. His -political writings since his exile--and all his writings were more or -less political--had been such as might well confirm or create an opinion -of him as a man difficult to live with, as one whose intellectual -arrogance had a ready organ in his unsparing tongue or pen. Rumour -would most willingly dwell upon and distort the features of his -character and conduct that separated him from the common herd. And to -add to all this, even after he had deserted the party of the Whites in -exile, and had become a party to himself, he found his friends and -patrons--for where else could he find them?--among the foes of Florence. - - -VI. - -History never abhors a vacuum so much as when she has to deal with the -life of a great man, and for those who must have details of Dante's -career during the nineteen years which elapsed between his banishment -and his death, the industry of his biographers has exhausted every -available hint, while some of them press into their service much that -has only the remotest bearing on their hero. If even one-half of their -suppositions were adopted, we should be forced to the conclusion that -the _Comedy_ and all the other works of his exile were composed in the -intervals of a very busy life. We have his own word for this much, -(_Convito_ i. 3,) that since he was cast forth out of Florence--in which -he would 'fain rest his wearied soul and fulfil his appointed time'--he -had been 'a pilgrim, nay, even a mendicant,' in every quarter of -Italy,[101] and had 'been held cheap by many who, because of his fame, -had looked to find him come in another guise.' But he gives no journal -of his wanderings, and, as will have been observed, says no word of any -country but Italy. Keeping close to well-ascertained facts, it seems -established that in the earlier period of his exile he sojourned with -members of the great family of the Counts Guidi,[102] and that he also -found hospitality with the Malaspini,[103] lords of the Val di Magra, -between Genoa and Lucca. At a still earlier date (August 1306) he is -found witnessing a deed in Padua. It was most probably in the same year -that Dante found Giotto there, painting the walls of the Scrovegni -Chapel, and was courteously welcomed by the artist, and taken to his -house.[104] At some time of his life he studied at Bologna: John Villani -says, during his exile.[105] Of his supposed residence in Paris, though -it is highly probable, there is a want of proof; of a visit to England, -none at all that is worth a moment's consideration. Some of his -commentators and biographers seem to think he was so short-witted that -he must have been in a place before it could occur to him to name it in -his verse. - -We have Dante's own word for it that he found his exile almost -intolerable. Besides the bitter resentment which he felt at the -injustice of it, he probably cherished the conviction that his career -had been cut short when he was on the point of acquiring great influence -in affairs. The illusion may have been his--one not uncommon among men -of a powerful imagination--that, given only due opportunity, he could -mould the active life of his time as easily as he moulded and fashioned -the creations of his fancy. It was, perhaps, owing to no fault of his -own that when a partial opportunity had offered itself, he failed to get -his views adopted in Florence; indeed, to judge from the kind of -employment in which he was more than once engaged for his patrons, he -must have been possessed of no little business tact. Yet, as when his -feelings were deeply concerned his words knew no restraint, so his hopes -would partake of the largeness of his genius. In the restored Empire, -which he was almost alone in longing for as he conceived of it, he may -have imagined for himself a place beside Henry like what in Frederick's -court had been filled by Pier delle Vigne--the man who held both keys to -the Emperor's heart, and opened and shut it as he would.[106] - -Thus, as his exile ran on it would grow sadder with the accumulating -memories of hopes deferred and then destroyed, and of dreams which had -faded away in the light of a cheerless reality. But some consolations he -must have found even in the conditions of his exile. He had leisure for -meditation, and time enough to spend in that other world which was all -his own. With the miseries of a wanderer's life would come not a few of -its sweets--freedom from routine, and the intellectual stimulus supplied -by change of place. Here and there he would find society such as he -cared for--that of scholars, theologians, and men familiar with every -court and school of Christendom. And, beyond all, he would get access to -books that at home he might never have seen. It was no spare diet that -would serve his mind while he was making such ample calls on it for his -great work. As it proceeds we seem to detect a growing fulness of -knowledge, and it is by reason of the more learned treatment, as well as -the loftier theme of the Third Cantica, that so many readers, when once -well at sea in the _Paradiso_, recognise the force of the warning with -which it begins.[107] - -What amount of intercourse he was able to maintain with Florence during -his wanderings is a matter of mere speculation, although of a more -interesting kind than that concerned with the chronology of his uneasy -travels. That he kept up at least some correspondence with his friends -is proved by the letter regarding the terms of his pardon. There is also -the well-known anecdote told by Boccaccio as to the discovery and -despatch to him of the opening Cantos of the _Inferno_--an anecdote we -may safely accept as founded on fact, although Boccaccio's informants -may have failed to note at the time what the manuscript consisted of, -and in the course of years may have magnified the importance of their -discovery. With his wife he would naturally communicate on subjects of -common interest--as, for instance, that of how best to save or recover -part of his property--and especially regarding the welfare of his sons, -of whom two are found to be with him when he acquires something like a -settlement in Verona. - -It is quite credible that, as Boccaccio asserts, he would never after -his exile was once begun 'go to his wife or suffer her to join him where -he was;' although the statement is probably an extension of the fact -that she never did join him. In any case it is to make too large a use -of the words to find in them evidence, as has frequently been done, of -the unhappiness of all his married life, and of his utter estrangement -from Gemma during his banishment. The union--marriage of convenience -though it was--might be harmonious enough as long as things went -moderately well with the pair. Dante was never wealthy, but he seems to -have had his own house in Florence and small landed possessions in its -neighbourhood.[108] That before his banishment he was considerably in -debt appears to be ascertained;[109] but, without knowing the -circumstances in which he borrowed, it is impossible to be sure whether -he may not only have been making use of his credit in order to put out -part of his means to advantage in some of the numerous commercial -enterprises in which his neighbours were engaged. In any case his career -must have seemed full of promise till he was driven into banishment. -When that blow had fallen, it is easy to conceive how what if it was not -mutual affection had come to serve instead of it--esteem and -forbearance--would be changed into indifference with the lapse of months -and years of enforced separation, embittered and filled on both sides -with the mean cares of indigence, and, it may be, on Gemma's side with -the conviction that her husband had brought her with himself into -disgrace. If all that is said by Boccaccio and some of Dante's enemies -as to his temperament and behaviour were true, we could only hope that -Gemma's indifference was deep enough to save her from the pangs of -jealousy. And on the other hand, if we are to push suspicion to its -utmost length, we may find an allusion to his own experience in the -lines where Dante complains of how soon a widow forgets her -husband.[110] But this is all matter of the merest speculation. Gemma -is known to have been alive in 1314.[111] She brought up her children, -says Boccaccio, upon a trifling part of her husband's confiscated -estate, recovered on the plea that it was a portion of her dowry. There -may have been difficulties of a material kind, insuperable save to an -ardent love that was not theirs, in the way of Gemma's joining her -husband in any of his cities of refuge. - -Complete evidence exists of Dante's having in his later years lived for -a longer or shorter time in the three cities of Lucca, Verona, and -Ravenna. In Purgatory he meets a shade from Lucca, in the murmur of -whose words he catches he 'knows not what of Gentucca;'[112] and when he -charges the Lucchese to speak plainly out, he is told that Lucca shall -yet be found pleasant by him because of a girl not yet grown to -womanhood. Uguccione, acting in the interest of Pisa, took possession of -Lucca in 1314, and Dante is supposed to have taken up his residence -there for some considerable time. What we may certainly infer from his -own words in the _Purgatorio_ is that they were written after a stay in -Lucca had been sweetened to him by the society of a lady named Gentucca. -He cannot well have found shelter there before the city was held by -Uguccione; and research has established that at least two ladies of the -uncommon name of Gentucca were resident there in 1314. From the whole -tone of his allusion--the mention of her very name and of her innocent -girlhood--we may gather that there was nothing in his liking for her of -which he had any reason to feel ashamed. In the _Inferno_ he had covered -the whole people of Lucca with his scorn.[113] By the time he got thus -far with the _Purgatorio_ his thoughts of the place were all softened by -his memory of one fair face--or shall we rather say, of one -compassionate and womanly soul? That Dante was more than susceptible to -feminine charms is coarsely asserted by Boccaccio.[114] But on such a -matter Boccaccio is a prejudiced witness, and, in the absence of -sufficient proof to the contrary, justice requires us to assume that the -tenor of Dante's life was not at variance with that of his writings. He -who was so severe a judge of others was not, as we can infer from more -than one passage of the _Comedy_, a lenient judge when his own failings -were concerned.[115] That his conduct never fell short of his standard -no one will venture to maintain. But what should have hindered him, in -his hours of weariness and when even his hold on the future seemed to -slacken, in lonely castle or strange town, to seek sympathy from some -fair woman who might remind him in something of Beatrice?[116] - -When, in 1316, Uguccione was driven out of Lucca and Pisa, that great -partisan took military service with Can Grande. It has been disputed -whether Dante had earlier enjoyed the hospitality of the Scaligers, or -was indebted for his first reception in Verona to the good offices of -Uguccione. It is barely credible that by this time in his life he stood -in need of any one to answer for him in the court of Can Grande. His -fame as a political writer must have preceded him; and it was of a -character to commend him to the good graces of the great Imperialist. In -his _De Monarchia_ he had, by an exhaustive treatment of propositions -which now seem childish or else the mere commonplaces of everyday -political argument, established the right of the civil power to -independence of Church authority; and though to the Scaliger who aimed -at becoming Imperial lieutenant for all the North of Italy he might seem -needlessly tender to the spiritual lordship of the Holy Father, yet the -drift of his reasoning was all in favour of the Ghibeline position.[117] -Besides this he had written on the need of refining the dialects of -Italian, and reducing them to a language fit for general use in the -whole of the Peninsula; and this with a novelty of treatment and wealth -of illustration unequalled before or since in any first work on such a -subject.[118] And, what would recommend him still more to a youthful -prince of lofty taste, he was the poet of the 'sweet new style' of the -_Vita Nuova_, and of sonnets, ballads, and canzoni rich in language and -thought beyond the works of all previous poets in the vulgar tongues. -Add to this that the _Comedy_ was already written, and published up, -perhaps, to the close of the _Purgatorio_, and that all Italy was eager -to find who had a place, and what kind of place, in the strange new -world from which the veil was being withdrawn; and it is easy to imagine -that Dante's reception at Can Grande's court was rather that of a man -both admired and feared for his great genius, than that of a wandering -scholar and grumbling exile. - -At what time Dante came to Verona, and for how long he stayed, we have -no means of fixing with certainty. He himself mentions being there in -1320,[119] and it is usually supposed that his residence covered three -years previous to that date; as also that it was shared by his two sons, -Piero and Jacopo. One of these was afterwards to find a settlement at -Verona in a high legal post. Except some frivolous legends, there is no -evidence that Dante met with anything but generous treatment from Can -Grande. A passage of the _Paradiso_, written either towards the close of -the poet's residence at Verona, or after he had left it, is full of a -praise of the great Scaliger so magnificent[120] as fully to make amends -for the contemptuous mention in the _Purgatorio_ of his father and -brother.[121] To Can Grande the _Paradiso_ was dedicated by the author -in a long epistle containing an exposition of how the first Canto of -that Cantica, and, by implication, the whole of the poem, is to be -interpreted. The letter is full of gratitude for favours already -received, and of expectation of others yet to come. From the terms of -the dedication it has been assumed that ere it was made the whole of the -_Paradiso_ was written, and that Dante praises the lord of Verona after -a long experience of his bounty.[122] - -Whether owing to the restlessness of an exile, or to some prospect of -attaining a state of greater ease or of having the command of more -congenial society, we cannot tell; but from the splendid court of Can -Grande he moved down into Romagna, to Ravenna, the city which of all in -Italy would now be fixed upon by the traveller as the fittest place for -a man of genius, weighed down by infinite sorrows, to close his days in -and find a tomb. Some writers on the life of Dante will have it that in -Ravenna he spent the greater part of his exile, and that when he is -found elsewhere--in Lucca or Verona--he is only on a temporary absence -from his permanent home.[123] But this conclusion requires some facts to -be ignored, and others unduly dwelt on. In any case his patron there, -during at least the last year or two of his life, was Guido Novello of -Polenta, lord of Ravenna, the nephew of her who above all the persons of -the _Comedy_ lives in the hearts of its readers. - -Bernardino, the brother of Francesca and uncle of Guido, had fought on -the side of Florence at the battle of Campaldino, and Dante may then -have become acquainted with him. The family had the reputation of being -moderate Guelfs; but ere this the exile, with his ripe experience of -men, had doubtless learned, while retaining intact his own opinions as -to what was the true theory of government, to set good-heartedness and -a noble aim in life above political orthodoxy. This Guido Novello--the -younger Guido--bears the reputation of having been well-informed, of -gentle manners, and fond of gathering around him men accomplished in -literature and the fine arts. On the death of Dante he made a formal -oration in honour of the poet. If his welcome of Dante was as cordial as -is generally supposed, and as there is no reason to doubt that it was, -it proved his magnanimity; for in the _Purgatorio_ a family specially -hostile to the Polentas had been mentioned with honour,[124] while that -to which his wife belonged had been lightly spoken of. How he got over -the condemnation of his kinswoman to Inferno--even under such gentle -conditions--it would be more difficult to understand were there not -reason to believe that ere Dante went to Ravenna it had come to be a -matter of pride in Italy for a family to have any of its members placed -anywhere in that other world of which Dante held the key. - -It seems as if we might assume that the poet's last months or years were -soothed by the society of his daughter--the child whom he had named -after the object of his first and most enduring love.[125] Whether or -not he was acting as Ambassador for Guido to Venice when he caught his -last illness, it appears to be pretty well established that he was held -in honour by his patron and all around him.[126] For his hours of -meditation he had the solemn churches of Ravenna with their storied -walls,[127] and the still more solemn pine forest of Classis, by him -first annexed to the world of Romance.[128] For hours of relaxation, -when they came, he had neighbours who dabbled in letters and who could -at any rate sympathise with him in his love of study. He maintained -correspondence with poets and scholars in other cities. In at least one -instance this was conducted in the bitter fashion with which the -humanists of a century or two later were to make the world -familiar;[129] but with the Bolognese scholar, Giovanni del Virgilio, he -engaged in a good-humoured, half-bantering exchange of Latin pastoral -poems, through the artificial imagery of which there sometimes breaks a -natural thought, as when in answer to the pedant's counsel to renounce -the vulgar tongue and produce in Latin something that will entitle him -to receive the laurel crown in Bologna, he declares that if ever he is -crowned as a poet it will be on the banks of the Arno. - -Most of the material for forming a judgment of how Dante stood affected -to the religious beliefs of his time is to be gathered from the -_Comedy_, and the place for considering it would rather be in an essay -on that work than in a sketch of his life which necessity compels to be -swift. A few words may however be here devoted to the subject, as it is -one with some bearing on the manner in which he would be regarded by -those around him, and through that on the tenor of his life. That Dante -conformed to Church observances, and, except with a few malevolent -critics, bore the reputation of a good Catholic, there can be no doubt. -It was as a politician and not as a heretic that he suffered -persecution; and when he died he was buried in great honour within the -Franciscan Church at Ravenna. Some few years after his death, it is -true, his _De Monarchia_ was burned as heretical by orders of the Papal -Legate in Lombardy, who would gladly, if he could, have had the bones of -the author exhumed to share the fate of his book. But all this was only -because the partisans of Lewis of Bavaria were making political capital -out of the treatise. - -Attempts have been made to demonstrate that in spite of his outward -conformity Dante was an unbeliever at heart, and that the _Comedy_ is -devoted to the promulgation of a Ghibeline heresy--of which, we may be -sure, no Ghibeline ever heard--and to the overthrow of all that the -author professed most devoutly to believe.[130] Other critics of a more -sober temper in speculation would find in him a Catholic who held the -Catholic beliefs with the same slack grasp as the teaching of Luther was -held by Lessing or Goethe.[131] But this is surely to misread the -_Comedy_, which is steeped from beginning to end in a spirit of the -warmest faith in the great Christian doctrines. It was no mere -intellectual perception of these that Dante had--or professed to -have--for when in Paradise he has satisfied Saint Peter of his being -possessed of a just conception of the nature of faith, and is next asked -if, besides knowing what is the alloy of the coin and the weight of it, -he has it in his own purse, he answers boldly, 'Yea, and so shining and -round that of a surety it has the lawful stamp.'[132] And further on, -when required to declare in what he believes, nothing against the -fulness of his creed is to be inferred from the fact that he stops short -after pronouncing his belief in the existence of God and in the Trinity. -This article he gives as implying all the others; it is 'the spark which -spreads out into a vivid flame.'[133] - -Yet if the inquiry were to be pushed further, and it were sought to find -how much of free thought he allowed himself in matters of religion, -Dante might be discovered to have reached his orthodox position by ways -hateful to the bigots who then took order for preserving the purity of -the faith. The office of the Pope he deeply revered, but the Papal -absolution avails nothing in his eyes compared with one tear of -heartfelt repentance.[134] It is not on the word of Pope or Council that -he rests his faith, but on the Scriptures, and on the evidences of the -truth of Christianity, freely examined and weighed.[135] Chief among -these evidences, it must however be noted, he esteemed the fact of the -existence of the Church as he found it;[136] and in his inquiries he -accepted as guides the Scholastic Doctors on whose reasonings the Church -had set its seal of approbation. It was a foregone conclusion he reached -by stages of his own. Yet that he sympathised at least as much with the -honest search for truth as with the arrogant profession of orthodoxy, is -shown by his treatment of heretics. He could not condemn severely such -as erred only because their reason would not consent to rest like his in -the prevalent dogmatic system; and so we find that he makes heresy -consist less in intellectual error than in beliefs that tend to vitiate -conduct, or to cause schism in societies divinely constituted.[137] For -his own part, orthodox although he was, or believed himself to be--which -is all that needs to be contended for,--in no sense was he -priest-ridden. It was liberty that he went seeking on his great -journey;[138] and he gives no hint that it is to be gained by the -observance of forms or in submission to sacerdotal authority. He knows -it is in his reach only when he has been crowned, and mitred too, lord -of himself[139]--subject to Him alone of whom even Popes were -servants.[140] - -Although in what were to prove his last months Dante might amuse himself -with the composition of learned trifles, and in the society and -correspondence of men who along with him, if on lines apart from his, -were preparing the way for the revival of classical studies, the best -part of his mind, then as for long before, was devoted to the _Comedy_; -and he was counting on the suffrages of a wider audience than courts and -universities could supply. - -Here there is no room to treat at length of that work, to which when we -turn our thoughts all else he wrote--though that was enough to secure -him fame--seems to fall into the background as if unworthy of his -genius. What can hardly be passed over in silence is that in the -_Comedy_, once it was begun, he must have found a refuge for his soul -from all petty cares, and a shield against all adverse fortune. We must -search its pages, and not the meagre records of his biographers, to find -what was the life he lived during the years of his exile; for, in a -sense, it contains the true journal of his thoughts, of his hopes, and -of his sorrows. The plan was laid wide enough to embrace the -observations he made of nature and of man, the fruits of his painful -studies, and the intelligence he gathered from those experienced in -travel, politics, and war. It was not only his imagination and artistic -skill that were spent upon the poem: he gave his life to it. The future -reward he knew was sure--an immortal fame; but he hoped for a nearer -profit on his venture. Florence might at last relent, if not because of -his innocence and at the spectacle of his inconsolable exile, at least -on hearing the rumour of his genius borne to her from every corner of -Italy:-- - - If e'er it comes that this my sacred Lay, - To which both Heaven and Earth have set their hand-- - Through which these many years I waste away-- - Shall quell the cruelty that keeps me banned - From the fair fold where I, a lamb, was found - Hostile to wolves who 'gainst it violence planned; - With other fleece and voice of other sound, - Poet will I return, and at the font - Where I was christened be with laurel crowned.[141] - -But with the completion of the _Comedy_ Dante's life too came to a -close. He died at Ravenna in the month of September 1321. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Matilda died in 1115. The name Tessa, the contraction of Contessa, -was still, long after her time, sometimes given to Florentine girls. See -Perrens, _Histoire de Florence_, vol. i. p. 126. - -[2] Whether by Matilda the great Countess is meant has been eagerly -disputed, and many of the best critics--such as Witte and -Scartazzini--prefer to find in her one of the ladies of the _Vita -Nuova_. In spite of their pains it seems as if more can be said for the -great Matilda than for any other. The one strong argument against her -is, that while she died old, in the poem she appears as young. - -[3] See note on _Inferno_ xxx. 73. - -[4] It might, perhaps, be more correct to say that to some offices the -nobles were eligible, but did not elect. - -[5] _Inf._ xiii. 75. - -[6] _Inf._ x. 119. - -[7] _Inf._ xxiii. 66. - -[8] _Inf._ x. 51. - -[9] _Purg._ vi. 144. - -[10] Dante sets the Abbot among the traitors in Inferno, and says -scornfully of him that his throat was cut at Florence (_Inf._ xxxii. -119). - -[11] Villani throws doubt on the guilt of the Abbot. There were some -cases of churchmen being Ghibelines, as for instance that of the -Cardinal Ubaldini (_Inf._ x. 120). Twenty years before the Abbot's death -the General of the Franciscans had been jeered at in the streets of -Florence for turning his coat and joining the Emperor. On the other -hand, many civilians were to be found among the Guelfs. - -[12] Manfred, says John Villani (_Cronica_, vi. 74 and 75), at first -sent only a hundred men. Having by Farinata's advice been filled with -wine before a skirmish in which they were induced to engage, they were -easily cut in pieces by the Florentines; and the royal standard was -dragged in the dust. The truth of the story matters less than that it -was believed in Florence. - -[13] Provenzano is found by Dante in Purgatory, which he has been -admitted to, in spite of his sins, because of his self-sacrificing -devotion to a friend (_Purg._ xi. 121). - -[14] For this good advice he gets a word of praise in Inferno (_Inf._ -xvi. 42). - -[15] These mercenaries, though called Germans, were of various races. -There were even Greeks and Saracens among them. The mixture corresponded -with the motley civilisation of Manfred's court. - -[16] _Inf._ xxxii. 79. - -[17] _Inf._ x. 93. - -[18] Lucera was a fortress which had been peopled with Saracens by -Frederick. - -[19] Manfred, _Purg._ iii. 112; Charles, _Purg._ vii. 113. - -[20] _Purg._ xx. 67. - -[21] _Purg._ iii. 122. - -[22] For an account of the constitution and activity of the _Parte -Guelfa_ at a later period, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. iv. p. -482. - -[23] _Purg._ xx. 68. - -[24] _Parad._ xi. 89. - -[25] _Parad._ xvi. 40, etc. - -[26] _Inf._ xxix. 31. - -[27] _Inf._ x. 42. Though Dante was descended from nobles, his rank in -Florence was not that of a noble or magnate, but of a commoner. - -[28] The month is indicated by Dante himself, _Parad._ xxii. 110. The -year has recently been disputed. For 1265 we have J. Villani and the -earliest biographers; and Dante's own expression at the beginning of the -_Comedy_ is in favour of it. - -[29] _Inf._ xxiii. 95. - -[30] _Inf._ xix. 17; _Parad._ xxv. 9. - -[31] _Purg._ xxx. 55. - -[32] _Inf._ viii. 45, where Virgil says of Dante that blessed was she -that bore him, can scarcely be regarded as an exception to this -statement. - -[33] In 1326, out of a population of ninety thousand, from eight to ten -thousand children were being taught to read; and from five to six -hundred were being taught grammar and logic in four high schools. There -was not in Dante's time, or till much later, a University in Florence. -See J. Villani, xi. 94, and Burckhardt, _Cultur der Renaissance_, vol. -i. p. 76. - -[34] For an interesting account of Heresy in Florence from the eleventh -to the thirteenth centuries, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. i. -livre ii. chap. iii. - -[35] It opens with Brunetto's being lost in the forest of Roncesvalles, -and there are some other features of resemblance--all on the -surface--between his experience and Dante's. - -[36] G. Villani, viii. 10. Latini died in 1294. Villani gives the old -scholar a very bad moral character. - -[37] _Inf._ xv. 84. - -[38] We may, I think, assume the _Vita Nuova_ to have been published -some time between 1291 and 1300; but the dates of Dante's works are far -from being ascertained. - -[39] So long as even Italian critics are not agreed as to whether the -title means _New Life_, or _Youth_, I suppose one is free to take his -choice; and it seems most natural to regard it as referring to the new -world into which the lover is transported by his passion. - -[40] As, indeed, Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, expressly says was the -case. - -[41] In this adopting a device frequently used by the love-poets of the -period.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 312. - -[42] The _Vita Nuova_ contains some thirty poems. - -[43] See Sir Theodore Martin's Introduction to his Translation of _Vita -Nuova_, page xxi. - -[44] In this matter we must not judge the conduct of Dante by English -customs. - -[45] _Donne, ch' avete intelletto d' amore_: Ladies that are acquainted -well with love. Quoted in _Purg._ xxiv. 51. - -[46] Beatrice died in June 1290, having been born in April 1266. - -[47] _Purg._ xi. 98. - -[48] _Purg._ xxiv. 52. - -[49] The date of the _Convito_ is still the subject of controversy, as -is that of most of Dante's works. But it certainly was composed between -the _Vita Nuova_ and the _Comedy_. - -There is a remarkable sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti addressed to Dante, -reproaching him for the deterioration in his thoughts and habits, and -urging him to rid himself of the woman who has bred the trouble. This -may refer to the time after the death of Beatrice. See also _Purg._ xxx. -124. - -[50] _Convito_ ii. 13. - -[51] Some recent writers set his marriage five years later, and reduce -the number of his children to three. - -[52] His sister is probably meant by the 'young and gentle lady, most -nearly related to him by blood' mentioned in the _Vita Nuova_. - -[53] The difference between the Teutonic and Southern conception of -marriage must be kept in mind. - -[54] He describes the weather on the day of the battle with the -exactness of one who had been there (_Purg._ v. 155). - -[55] Leonardo Bruni. - -[56] _Inf._ xxii. 4. - -[57] _Inf._ xxi. 95. - -[58] _Conv._ iii. 9, where he illustrates what he has to say about the -nature of vision, by telling that for some time the stars, when he -looked at them, seemed lost in a pearly haze. - -[59] The _Convito_ was to have consisted of fifteen books. Only four -were written. - -[60] _Wife of Bath's Tale._ In the context he quotes _Purg._ vii. 121, -and takes ideas from the _Convito_. - -[61] Dies to sensual pleasure and is abstracted from all worldly affairs -and interests. See _Convito_ iv. 28. - -[62] From the last canzone of the _Convito_. - -[63] In the _Vita Nuova_. - -[64] _Purg._ xxiii. 115, xxiv. 75; _Parad._ iii. 49. - -[65] _Purg._ xi. 95. - -[66] _Purg._ ii. 91. - -[67] _Purg._ iv. 123. - -[68] Sacchetti's stories of how Dante showed displeasure with the -blacksmith and the donkey-driver who murdered his _canzoni_ are -interesting only as showing what kind of legends about him were current -in the streets of Florence.--Sacchetti, _Novelle_, cxiv, cxv. - -[69] _Purg._ xii. 101. - -[70] _Purg._ xi. 94:-- - - 'In painting Cimabue deemed the field - His own, but now on Giotto goes the cry, - Till by his fame the other's is concealed.' - -[71] Giotto is often said to have drawn inspiration from the _Comedy_; -but that Dante, on his side, was indebted to the new school of painting -and sculpture appears from many a passage of the _Purgatorio_. - -[72] Serfage had been abolished in 1289. But doubt has been thrown on -the authenticity of the deed of abolition. See Perrens, _Hist. de -Florence_, vol. ii. p. 349. - -[73] No unusual provision in the industrious Italian cities. Harsh -though it may seem, it was probably regarded as a valuable concession to -the nobles, for their disaffection appears to have been greatly caused -by their uneasiness under disabilities. There is much obscurity on -several points. How, for example, came the nobles to be allowed to -retain the command of the vast resources of the _Parte Guelfa_? This -made them almost independent of the Commonwealth. - -[74] At a later period the Priors were known as the Signory. - -[75] Fraticelli, _Storia della Vita di Dante_, page 112 and note. - -[76] It is to be regretted that Ampère in his charming _Voyage -Dantesque_ devoted no chapter to San Gemigniano, than which no Tuscan -city has more thoroughly preserved its mediæval character. There is no -authority for the assertion that Dante was employed on several -Florentine embassies. The tendency of his early biographers is to -exaggerate his political importance and activity. - -[77] Under the date of April 1301 Dante is deputed by the Road Committee -to see to the widening, levelling, and general improvement of a street -in the suburbs.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 279. - -[78] Dante has a word of praise for Giano, at _Parad._ xvi. 127. - -[79] At which Dante fought. See page lxii. - -[80] Vieri was called Messer, a title reserved for magnates, knights, -and lawyers of a certain rank--notaries and jurisconsults; Dante, for -example, never gets it. - -[81] Villani acted for some time as an agent abroad of the great -business house of Peruzzi. - -[82] _Inf._ iii. 60. - -[83] He is 'the Prince of the modern Pharisees' (_Inf._ xxvii. 85); his -place is ready for him in hell (_Inf._ xix. 53); and he is elsewhere -frequently referred to. In one great passage Dante seems to relent -towards him (_Purg._ xx. 86). - -[84] Albert of Hapsburg was chosen Emperor in 1298, but was never -crowned at Rome. - -[85] As in the days of Guelf and Ghibeline, so now in those of Blacks -and Whites, the common multitude of townsmen belonged to neither party. - -[86] An interdict means that priests are to refuse sacred offices to all -in the community, who are thus virtually subjected to the minor -excommunication. - -[87] Guido died soon after his return in 1301. He had suffered in health -during his exile. See _Inf._ x. 63. - -[88] Charles of Anjou had lost Sicily at the Sicilian Vespers, 1282. - -[89] _Purg._ xx. 76. - -[90] Witte attributes the composition of the _De Monarchia_ to a period -before 1301 (_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. i. Fourth Art.), but the general -opinion of critics sets it much later. - -[91] _Inf._ vi. 66, where their expulsion is prophesied. - -[92] Dante's authorship of the letter is now much questioned. The drift -of recent inquiries has been rather to lessen than to swell the bulk of -materials for his biography. - -[93] _Parad._ xvii. 61. - -[94] _Purg._ xxiv. 82. - -[95] See at _Purg._ xx. 43 Dante's invective against Philip and the -Capets in general. - -[96] Henry had come to Italy with the Pope's approval. He was crowned by -the Cardinals who were in Rome as Legates. - -[97] _Parad._ xxx. 136. High in Heaven Dante sees an ample chair with a -crown on it, and is told it is reserved for Henry. He is to sit among -those who are clothed in white. The date assigned to the action of the -_Comedy_, it will be remembered, is the year 1300. - -[98] _Inf._ xix. 82, where the Gascon Clement is described as a 'Lawless -Pastor from the West.' - -[99] The ingenious speculations of Troya (_Del Veltro Allegorico di -Dante_) will always mark a stage in the history of the study of Dante, -but as is often the case with books on the subject, his shows a -considerable gap between the evidence adduced and the conclusions drawn -from it. He would make Dante to have been for many years a satellite of -the great Ghibeline chief. Dante's temper or pride, however we call it, -seems to have been such as to preserve him from ever remaining attached -for long to any patron. - -[100] _Inf._ x. 81. - -[101] The _Convito_ is in Italian, and his words are: 'wherever this -language is spoken.' - -[102] His letter to the Florentines and that to the Emperor are dated in -1311, from 'Near the sources of the Arno'--that is, from the Casentino, -where the Guidi of Romena dwelt. If the letter of condolence with the -Counts Oberto and Guido of Romena on the death of their uncle is -genuine, it has great value for the passage in which he excuses himself -for not having come to the funeral:--'It was not negligence or -ingratitude, but the poverty into which I am fallen by reason of my -exile. This, like a cruel persecutor, holds me as in a prison-house -where I have neither horse nor arms; and though I do all I can to free -myself, I have failed as yet.' The letter has no date. Like the other -ten or twelve epistles attributed to Dante, it is in Latin. - -[103] There is a splendid passage in praise of this family, _Purg._ -viii. 121. A treaty is on record in which Dante acts as representative -of the Malaspini in settling the terms of a peace between them and the -Bishop of Luni in October 1306. - -[104] The authority for this is Benvenuto of Imola in his comment on the -_Comedy_ (_Purg._ xi.). The portrait of Dante by Giotto, still in -Florence, but ruined by modern bungling restoration, is usually believed -to have been executed in 1301 or 1302. But with regard to this, see the -note at the end of this essay. - -[105] It is true that Villani not only says that 'he went to study at -Bologna,' but also that 'he went to Paris and many parts of the world' -(_Cronica_, ix. 136), and that Villani, of all contemporary or nearly -contemporary writers, is by far the most worthy of credence. But he -proves to be more than once in error regarding Dante; making him, -_e.g._, die in a wrong month and be buried in a wrong church at Ravenna. -And the 'many parts of the world' shows that here he is dealing in -hearsay of the vaguest sort. Nor can much weight be given to Boccaccio -when he sends Dante to Bologna and Paris. But Benvenuto of Imola, who -lectured on the _Comedy_ at Bologna within fifty years of Dante's death, -says that Dante studied there. It would indeed be strange if he did not, -and at more than one period, Bologna being the University nearest -Florence. Proof of Dante's residence in Paris has been found in his -familiar reference to the Rue du Fouarre (_Parad._ x. 137). His graphic -description of the coast between Lerici and Turbia (_Purg._ iii. 49, iv. -25) certainly seems to show a familiarity with the Western as well as -the Eastern Rivieras of Genoa. But it scarcely follows that he was on -his way to Paris when he visited them. - -[106] _Inf._ xiii. 58. - -[107] 'O ye, who have hitherto been following me in some small -craft, ... put not further to sea, lest, losing sight of me, you lose -yourselves' (_Parad._ ii. 1). But, to tell the truth, Dante is never so -weak as a poet as when he is most the philosopher or the theologian. -The following list of books more or less known to him is not given as -complete:--The Vulgate, beginning with St. Jerome's Prologue; Aristotle, -through the Latin translation then in vogue; Averroes, etc.; Thomas -Aquinas and the other Schoolmen; much of the Civil and Canon law; -Boethius; Homer only in scraps, through Aristotle, etc.; Virgil, Cicero -in part, Livy, Horace, Ovid, Terence, Lucan, and Statius; the works of -Brunetto Latini; the poetical literature of Provence, France, and Italy, -including the Arthurian Romances--the favourite reading of the Italian -nobles, and the tales of Charlemagne and his Peers--equally in favour -with the common people. There is little reason to suppose that among the -treatises of a scientific and quasi-scientific kind that he fell in -with, and of which he was an eager student, were included the works of -Roger Bacon. These there was a conspiracy among priests and schoolmen to -keep buried. Dante seems to have set little store on ecclesiastical -legends of wonder; at least he gives them a wide berth in his works. - -[108] In the notes to Fraticelli's _Vita di Dante_ (Florence 1861) are -given copies of documents relating to the property of the Alighieri, and -of Dante in particular. In 1343 his son Jacopo, by payment of a small -fine, recovered vineyards and farms that had been his father's.--Notes -to Chap. iii. Fraticelli's admirable Life is now in many respects out of -date. He accepts, _e.g._, Dino Compagni as an authority, and believes in -the romantic story of the letter of Fra Ilario. - -[109] The details are given by Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol ii. p. -61. The amount borrowed by Dante and his brother (and a friend) comes to -nearly a thousand gold florins. Witte takes this as equivalent to 37,000 -francs, _i.e._ nearly £1500. But the florin being the eighth of an -ounce, or about ten shillings' worth of gold, a thousand florins would -be equal only to £500--representing, of course, an immensely greater sum -now-a-days. - -[110] _Purg._ viii. 76. - -[111] See in Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri_, 1879, page 552, extract -from the will of her mother Maria Donati, dated February 1314. Many of -these Florentine dates are subject to correction, the year being usually -counted from Lady-Day. 'In 1880 a document was discovered which proves -Gemma to have been engaged in a law-suit in 1332.--_Il Propugnatore_, -xiii^a. 156,'--Scheffer-Boichorst, _Aus Dantes Verbannung_, page 213. - -[112] _Purg._ xxiv. 37. - -[113] _Inf._ xxi. 40. - -[114] _In questo mirifico poeta trovò ampissimo luego la lussuria; e non -solamente ne' giovanili anni, ma ancora ne' maturi._--Boccaccio, _La -Vita di Dante_. After mentioning that Dante was married, he indulges in -a long invective against marriage; confessing, however, that he is -ignorant of whether Dante experienced the miseries he describes. His -conclusion on the subject is that philosophers should leave marriage to -rich fools, to nobles, and to handicraftsmen. - -[115] In Purgatory his conscience accuses him of pride, and he already -seems to feel the weight of the grievous burden beneath which the proud -bend as they purge themselves of their sin (_Purg._ xiii. 136). Some -amount of self-accusation seems to be implied in such passages as -_Inf._, v. 142 and _Purg._ xxvii. 15, etc.; but too much must not be -made of it. - -[116] In a letter of a few lines to one of the Marquises Malaspina, -written probably in the earlier years of his exile, he tells how his -purpose of renouncing ladies' society and the writing of love-songs had -been upset by the view of a lady of marvellous beauty who 'in all -respects answered to his tastes, habits, and circumstances.' He says he -sends with the letter a poem containing a fuller account of his -subjection to this new passion. The poem is not found attached to the -copy of the letter, but with good reason it is guessed to be the Canzone -beginning _Amor, dacchè convien_, which describes how he was -overmastered by a passion born 'in the heart of the mountains in the -valley of that river beside which he had always been the victim of -love.' This points to the Casentino as the scene. He also calls the -Canzone his 'mountain song.' The passion it expresses may be real, but -that he makes the most of it appears from the close, which is occupied -by the thought of how the verses will be taken in Florence. - -[117] However early the _De Monarchia_ may have been written, it is -difficult to think that it can be of a later date than the death of -Henry. - -[118] The _De Vulgari Eloquio_ is in Latin. Dante's own Italian is -richer and more elastic than that of contemporary writers. Its base is -the Tuscan dialect, as refined by the example of the Sicilian poets. His -Latin, on the contrary, is I believe regarded as being somewhat -barbarous, even for the period. - -[119] In his _Quæstio de Aqua et Terra_. In it he speaks of having been -in Mantua. The thesis was maintained in Verona, but of course he may, -after a prolonged absence, have returned to that city. - -[120] _Parad._ xvii. 70. - -[121] _Purg._ xviii. 121. - -[122] But in urgent need of more of it.--He says of 'the sublime -Cantica, adorned with the title of the _Paradiso_', that '_illam sub -præsenti epistola, tamquam sub epigrammate proprio dedicatam, vobis -adscribo, vobis offero, vobis denique recommendo_.' But it may be -questioned if this involves that the Cantica was already finished. - -[123] As, for instance, Herr Scheffer-Boichorst in his _Aus Dantes -Verbannung_, 1882. - -[124] The Traversari (_Purg._ xiv. 107). Guido's wife was of the -Bagnacavalli (_Purg._ xiv. 115). The only mention of the Polenta family, -apart from that of Francesca, is at _Inf._ xxvii. 41. - -[125] In 1350 a sum of ten gold florins was sent from Florence by the -hands of Boccaccio to Beatrice, daughter of Dante; she being then a nun -at Ravenna. - -[126] The embassy to Venice is mentioned by Villani, and there was a -treaty concluded in 1321 between the Republic and Guido. But Dante's -name does not appear in it among those of the envoys from Ravenna. A -letter, probably apocryphal, to Guido from Dante in Venice is dated -1314. If Dante, as is maintained by some writers, was engaged in tuition -while in Ravenna, it is to be feared that his pupils would find in him -an impatient master. - -[127] Not that Dante ever mentions these any more than a hundred other -churches in which he must have spent thoughtful hours. - -[128] _Purg._ xxviii. 20. - -[129] A certain Cecco d'Ascoli stuck to him like a bur, charging him, -among other things, with lust, and a want of religious faith which would -one day secure him a place in his own Inferno. Cecco was himself burned -in Florence, in 1327, for making too much of evil spirits, and holding -that human actions are necessarily affected by the position of the -stars. He had been at one time a professor of astronomy. - -[130] Gabriel Rossetti, _Comment on the Divina Commedia_, 1826, and -Aroux, _Dante, Hérétique, Révolutionnaire et Socialiste_, 1854. - -[131] Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri, Seine Zeit_, etc., 1879, page 268. - -[132] _Parad._ xxiv. 86. - -[133] _Parad._ xxiv. 145. - -[134] _Inf._ xxvii. 101; _Purg._ iii. 118. - -[135] _Parad._ xxiv. 91. - -[136] _Parad._ xxiv. 106. - -[137] _Inf._ x. and xxviii. There is no place in Purgatory where those -who in their lives had once held heretical opinions are purified of the -sin; leaving us to infer that it could be repented of in the world so as -to obliterate the stain. See also _Parad._ iv. 67. - -[138] _Purg._ i. 71. - -[139] _Purg._ xxvii. 139. - -[140] _Purg._ xix. 134. - -[141] _Parad._ xxv. 1. - - - - -GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE.[142] - - -Vasari, in his _Lives of the Painters_, tells that in his day the -portrait of Dante by Giotto was still to be seen in the chapel of the -Podesta's palace in Florence. Writers of an earlier date had already -drawn attention to this work.[143] But in the course of an age when -Italians cared little for Dante, and less for Giotto, it was allowed to -be buried out of sight; and when at length there came a revival of -esteem for these great men, the alterations in the interior arrangement -of the palace were found to have been so sweeping that it was even -uncertain which out of many chambers had formerly served as the chapel. -Twenty years after a fruitless attempt had been made to discover whether -or not the portrait was still in existence, Signor Aubrey Bezzi, -encouraged by Mr. Wilde and Mr. Kirkup, took the first step in a search -(1839) which was to end by restoring to the world what is certainly the -most interesting of all portraits, if account be taken of its beauty, -as well as of who was its author and who its subject. - -On the removal from it of a layer of lime, one of the end walls of what -had been the chapel was found to be covered by a fresco painting, -evidently the work of Giotto, and representing a Paradise--the subject -in which Dante's portrait was known to occur. As is usual in such works, -from the time of Giotto downwards, the subject is treated so as to allow -of the free introduction of contemporary personages. Among these was a -figure in a red gown, which there was no difficulty in recognising as -the portrait of Dante. It shows him younger and with a sweeter -expression than does Raphael's Dante, or Masaccio's,[144] or that in the -Cathedral of Florence,[145] or that of the mask said to have been taken -after his death. But to all of them it bears a strong resemblance. - -The question of when this portrait was painted will easily be seen to be -one of much importance in connection with Dante's biography. The fresco -it belongs to is found to contain a cardinal, and a young man, who, -because he wears his hair long and has a coronet set on his cap, is -known to be meant for a French prince.[146] If, as is usually assumed, -this prince is Charles of Valois, then the date of the event celebrated -in the fresco is 1301 or 1302. With regard to when the work was -executed, Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their valuable book, say as -follows:[147]-- - - 'All inferences to be deduced from the subject and form of these - frescos point to the date of 1301-2. It may be inquired whether - they were executed by Giotto at the time, and this inquiry can only - be satisfied approximatively. It may be inferred that Dante's - portrait would hardly have been introduced into a picture so - conspicuously visible as this, had not the poet at the time been - influent in Florence.... Dante's age in the fresco corresponds with - the date of 1302, and is that of a man of thirty-five. He had - himself enjoyed the highest office of Florence from June to August - 1300.[148] In the fresco he does not wear the dress of the - "Priori," but he holds in the ranks of those near Charles of Valois - an honourable place. It may be presumed that the frescos were - executed previous[149] to Dante's exile, and this view is confirmed - by the technical and artistic progress which they reveal. They - exhibit, indeed, the master in a higher sphere of development than - at Assisi and Rome.' - -This account of the subject of the work and the probable date of its -execution may, I think, be accepted as containing all that is to be said -in favour of the current opinion on the matter. That writer after writer -has adopted that opinion without a sign of doubt as to its credibility -must surely have arisen from failure to observe the insuperable -difficulties it presents. - -Both Charles of Valois and the Cardinal Acquasparta were in Florence -during part of the winter of 1301-1302; but the circumstances under -which they were there make it highly improbable that the Commonwealth -was anxious to do them honour beyond granting them the outward show of -respect which it would have been dangerous to refuse. Earlier in the -year 1301 the Cardinal Acquasparta, having failed in gaining the object -which brought him to Florence, had, as it were, shaken the dust of the -city from off his feet and left the people of it under interdict. While -Charles of Valois was in Florence the Cardinal returned to make a second -attempt to reconcile the opposing parties, failed a second time, and -again left the city under an interdict--if indeed the first had ever -been raised. On the occasion of his first visit, the Whites, who were -then in power, would have none of his counsels; on his second, the -Blacks in their turn despised them.[150] There would therefore have been -something almost satirical in the compliment, had the Commonwealth -resolved to give him a place in a triumphal picture. - -As for Charles of Valois, though much was expected from an alliance with -him while he was still at a distance, the very party that invited his -presence was soon disgusted with him owing to his faithlessness and -greed. The earlier part of his stay was disturbed by pillage and -bloodshed. Nor is it easy to imagine how, at any time during his -residence of five months, the leading citizens could have either the -time or the wish to arrange for honouring him in a fashion he was not -the man to care for. His one craving was for money, and still more -money; and any leisure the members of public bodies had to spare from -giving heed to their own interests and securing vengeance upon their -opponents, was devoted to holding the common purse shut as tightly as -they could against their avaricious Pacificator. When he at last -delivered the city from his presence no one would have the heart to -revive the memory of his disastrous visit. - -But if, in all this confusion of Florentine affairs, Giotto did receive -a commission to paint in the palace of the Podesta, yet it remains -incredible that he should have been suffered to assign to Dante, of all -men, a place of honour in the picture. No citizen had more stubbornly -opposed the policy which brought Charles of Valois to Florence, and that -Charles was in the city was reason enough for Dante to keep out of it. -In his absence, he was sentenced in January 1302 to pay a ruinously -heavy fine, and in the following March he was condemned to be put to -death if ever he was caught. On fuller acquaintance his fellow-citizens -liked the Frenchman as little as he, but this had no effect in softening -their dislike or removing their fear of Dante. We may be sure that any -friends he may still have had in Florence, as their influence could not -protect his goods from confiscation or him from banishment, would hardly -care to risk their own safety by urging, while his condemnation was -still fresh, the admission of his portrait among those of illustrious -Florentines.[151] It is true that there have been instances of great -artists having reached so high a pitch of fame as to be able to dictate -terms to patrons, however exalted. In his later years Giotto could -perhaps have made such a point a matter of treaty with his employers, -but in 1301 he was still young,[152] and great although his fame already -was, he could scarcely have ventured to insist on the Republic's -confessing its injustice to his friend; as it would have done had it -consented that Dante, newly driven into exile, should obtain a place of -honour in a work painted at the public cost. - -These considerations seem to make it highly improbable that Giotto's -wall-painting was meant to do honour to Charles of Valois and the -Cardinal Acquasparta. But if it should still be held that it was painted -in 1302, we must either cease to believe, in spite of all that Vasari -and the others say, that the portrait is meant for Dante; or else -confess it to be inexplicable how it got there. A way out of the -difficulty begins to open up as soon as we allow ourselves some latitude -in speculating as to when Giotto may have painted the fresco. The order -in which that artist's works were produced is very imperfectly settled; -and it may easily be that the position in Vasari's pages of the mention -made by him of this fresco has given rise to a misunderstanding -regarding the date of it. He speaks of it at the very beginning of his -Life of Giotto. But this he does because he needs an illustration of -what he has been saying in his opening sentences about the advance that -painter made on Cimabue. Only after making mention of Dante's portrait -does he begin his chronological list of Giotto's works; to the portrait -he never returns, and so, as far as Vasari is concerned, it is without a -date. Judging of it by means of Mr. Kirkup's careful and beautiful -sketch--and unfortunately we have now no other means of knowing what the -original was like--it may safely be asserted to be in Giotto's ripest -style.[153] Everything considered, it is therefore allowable to search -the Florentine chronicles lower down for an event more likely to be the -subject of Giotto's fresco than that usually fixed upon. - -We read in John Villani that in the middle of the year 1326 the Cardinal -Gianni Orsini came to Florence as Papal Legate and Pacificator of -Tuscany. The city was greatly pleased at his coming, and as an earnest -of gratitude for his services presented him with a cup containing a -thousand florins.[154] A month later there arrived Charles Duke of -Calabria, the eldest son of King Robert of Naples, and great-grandson of -Charles of Anjou. He came as Protector of the Commonwealth, which -office--an extraordinary one, and with a great salary attached to it--he -had been elected to hold for five years. Never before had a spectacle -like that of his entry been offered to Florence. Villani gives a long -list of the barons who rode in his train, and tells that in his -squadrons of men-at-arms there were no fewer than two hundred knights. -The chronicler pauses to bid the reader note how great an enterprise his -fellow-citizens had shown in bringing to sojourn among them, and in -their interest, not only such a powerful lord as the Duke of Calabria -was, but a Papal Legate as well. Italy counted it a great thing, he -says, and he deems that the whole world ought to know of it.[155] -Charles took up his abode in the Podesta's palace. He appears to have -gained a better place in the hearts of the Florentines than what they -were used to give to strangers and princes. When a son was born to him, -all the city rejoiced, and it mourned with him when, in a few weeks, he -lost the child. After seventeen months' experience of his rule the -citizens were sorry to lose him, and bade him a farewell as hearty as -their welcome had been. To some of them, it is true, the policy seemed a -dangerous one which bore even the appearance of subjecting the Republic -to the Royal House of Naples; and some of them could have wished that he -'had shown more vigour in civil and military affairs. But he was a -gentle lord, popular with the townsfolk, and in the course of his -residence he greatly improved the condition of things in Florence, and -brought to a close many feuds.'[156] They felt that the nine hundred -thousand gold florins spent on him and his men had, on the whole, been -well laid out. - -One detail of the Duke's personal appearance deserves remark. We have -seen that the prince in the fresco has long hair. John Villani had known -the Duke well by sight, and when he comes to record his death and -describe what kind of man he was to look upon, he specially says that -'he wore his hair loose.'[157] - -A subject worthy of Giotto's pencil, and one likely to be offered to him -if he was then in Florence, we have therefore found in this visit of the -Duke and the Cardinal. But that Giotto was in Florence at that time is -certain. He painted a portrait[158] of the Duke in the Palace of the -Signory; and through that prince, as Vasari tells, he was invited by -King Robert to go down to work in Naples. All this, in the absence of -evidence of any value in favour of another date, makes it, at the very -least, highly probable that the fresco was a work of 1326 or 1327. - -In 1326 Dante had been dead for five years. The grudge his -fellow-townsmen had nourished against him for so long was now worn out. -We know that very soon after his death Florence began to be proud of -him; and even such of his old enemies as still survived would be willing -that Giotto should set him in a place of honour among the great -Florentines who help to fill the fresco of the Paradise. That he was -already dead would be no hindrance to his finding room alongside of -Charles of Calabria; for the age was wisely tolerant of such -anachronisms.[159] Had Dante been still living the painter would have -been less at liberty to create, out of the records he doubtless -possessed of the features of the friend who had paid him beforehand with -one immortal line, the face which, as we look into it, we feel to be a -glorified transcript of what it was in the flesh. It is the face of one -who has wellnigh forgotten his earthly life, instead of having the worst -of it still before him; of one who, from that troubled Italy which like -his own Sapia he knew but as a pilgrim, has passed to the 'true city,' -of which he remains for evermore a citizen--the city faintly imaged by -Giotto upon the chapel wall. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[142] It is best known, and can now be judged of only through the -lithograph after a tracing made by Mr. Seymour Kirkup before it was -restored and ruined: published by the Arundel Society. - -[143] Antonio Pucci, born in 1300, in his _Centiloquio_, describes the -figure of Dante as being clothed in blood-red. Philip Villani also -mentions it. He wrote towards the close of the fourteenth century; -Vasari towards the middle of the sixteenth. - -[144] In the Munich collection of drawings, and ascribed to Masaccio, -but with how much reason I do not know. - -[145] Painted by Domenico Michelino in 1465, after a sketch by Alessio -Baldovinetto. - -[146] 'Wearing over the long hair of the Frenchmen of the period a -coroneted cap.'--Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_ -(1864), i. 264. - -[147] Vol. i. p. 269. - -[148] The Priorate was the highest office to which a citizen could -aspire, but by no means the highest in Florence. - -[149] I suppose the meaning is 'immediately previous.' - -[150] John Villani, _Cronica_, viii. 40 and 49; and Perrens, _Hist. de -Florence_, under date of 1301. Charles entered Florence on the 1st of -November of that year, and left it in the following April. - -[151] Who the other Florentines in the fresco are does not greatly -affect the present question. Villani says that along with Dante Giotto -painted Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini. - -[152] Only twenty-five, if the commonly accepted date of his birth is -correct. In any case, he was still a young man. - -[153] It is true that, on technical grounds, it has been questioned if -it is Giotto's at all; but there is more than sufficient reason to think -it is. With such doubts however we are scarcely here concerned. Even -were it proved to be by a pupil, everything in the text that applies to -the question of date would still remain in point. - -[154] J. Villani, ix. 353. - -[155] J. Villani, x. 1. - -[156] _Ibid._ x. 49. - -[157] J. Villani, x. 107. - -[158] Long since destroyed. - -[159] An anachronism of another kind would have been committed by -Giotto, if, before the _Comedy_ was even begun, he had represented Dante -as holding the closed book and cluster of three pomegranates--emblematical -of the three regions described by him and of the completion of his -work.--I say nothing of the Inferno found on another wall of the chapel, -since there seems good reason to doubt if it is by Giotto. - - - - -THE INFERNO. - - - - -CANTO I. - - - In middle[160] of the journey of our days - I found that I was in a darksome wood[161]-- - The right road lost and vanished in the maze. - Ah me! how hard to make it understood - How rough that wood was, wild, and terrible: - By the mere thought my terror is renewed. - More bitter scarce were death. But ere I tell - At large of good which there by me was found, - I will relate what other things befell. - Scarce know I how I entered on that ground, 10 - So deeply, at the moment when I passed - From the right way, was I in slumber drowned. - But when beneath a hill[162] arrived at last, - Which for the boundary of the valley stood, - That with such terror had my heart harassed, - I upwards looked and saw its shoulders glowed, - Radiant already with that planet's[163] light - Which guideth surely upon every road. - A little then was quieted by the sight - The fear which deep within my heart had lain 20 - Through all my sore experience of the night. - And as the man, who, breathing short in pain, - Hath 'scaped the sea and struggled to the shore, - Turns back to gaze upon the perilous main; - Even so my soul which fear still forward bore - Turned to review the pass whence I egressed, - And which none, living, ever left before. - My wearied frame refreshed with scanty rest, - I to ascend the lonely hill essayed; - The lower foot[164] still that on which I pressed. 30 - And lo! ere I had well beginning made, - A nimble leopard,[165] light upon her feet, - And in a skin all spotted o'er arrayed: - Nor ceased she e'er me full in the face to meet, - And to me in my path such hindrance threw - That many a time I wheeled me to retreat. - It was the hour of dawn; with retinue - Of stars[166] that were with him when Love Divine - In the beginning into motion drew - Those beauteous things, the sun began to shine; 40 - And I took heart to be of better cheer - Touching the creature with the gaudy skin, - Seeing 'twas morn,[167] and spring-tide of the year; - Yet not so much but that when into sight - A lion[168] came, I was disturbed with fear. - Towards me he seemed advancing in his might, - Rabid with hunger and with head high thrown: - The very air was tremulous with fright. - A she-wolf,[169] too, beheld I further on; - All kinds of lust seemed in her leanness pent: 50 - Through her, ere now, much folk have misery known. - By her oppressed, and altogether spent - By the terror breathing from her aspect fell, - I lost all hope of making the ascent. - And as the man who joys while thriving well, - When comes the time to lose what he has won - In all his thoughts weeps inconsolable, - So mourned I through the brute which rest knows none: - She barred my way again and yet again, - And thrust me back where silent is the sun. 60 - And as I downward rushed to reach the plain, - Before mine eyes appeared there one aghast, - And dumb like those that silence long maintain. - When I beheld him in the desert vast, - 'Whate'er thou art, or ghost or man,' I cried, - 'I pray thee show such pity as thou hast.' - 'No man,[170] though once I was; on either side - Lombard my parents were, and both of them - For native place had Mantua,' he replied. - 'Though late, _sub Julio_,[171] to the world I came, 70 - And lived at Rome in good Augustus' day, - While yet false gods and lying were supreme. - Poet I was, renowning in my lay - Anchises' righteous son, who fled from Troy - What time proud Ilion was to flames a prey. - But thou, why going back to such annoy? - The hill delectable why fear to mount, - The origin and ground of every joy?' - 'And thou in sooth art Virgil, and the fount - Whence in a stream so full doth language flow?' 80 - Abashed, I answered him with humble front. - 'Of other poets light and honour thou! - Let the long study and great zeal I've shown - In searching well thy book, avail me now! - My master thou, and author[172] thou, alone! - From thee alone I, borrowing, could attain - The style[173] consummate which has made me known. - Behold the beast which makes me turn again: - Deliver me from her, illustrious Sage; - Because of her I tremble, pulse and vein.' 90 - 'Thou must attempt another pilgrimage,' - Observing that I wept, he made reply, - 'If from this waste thyself thou 'dst disengage. - Because the beast thou art afflicted by - Will suffer none along her way to pass, - But, hindering them, harasses till they die. - So vile a nature and corrupt she has, - Her raging lust is still insatiate, - And food but makes it fiercer than it was. - Many a creature[174] hath she ta'en for mate, 100 - And more she'll wed until the hound comes forth - To slay her and afflict with torment great. - He will not batten upon pelf or earth; - But he shall feed on valour, love, and lore; - Feltro and Feltro[175] 'tween shall be his birth. - He will save humbled Italy, and restore, - For which of old virgin Camilla[176] died; - Turnus, Euryalus, Nisus, died of yore. - Her through all cities chasing far and wide, - He at the last to Hell will thrust her down, 110 - Whence envy[177] first unloosed her. I decide - Therefore and judge that thou hadst best come on - With me for guide;[178] and hence I'll lead thee where - A place eternal shall to thee be shown. - There shalt thou hear the howlings of despair - In which the ancient spirits make lament, - All of them fain the second death to share. - Next shalt thou them behold who are content, - Because they hope some time, though now in fire, - To join the blessed they will win consent. 120 - And if to these thou later wouldst aspire, - A soul[179] shall guide thee, worthier far than I; - When I depart thee will I leave with her. - Because the Emperor[180] who reigns on high - Wills not, since 'gainst His laws I did rebel,[181] - That to His city I bring any nigh. - O'er all the world He rules, there reigns as well; - There is His city and exalted seat: - O happy whom He chooses there to dwell!' - And I to him: 'Poet, I thee entreat, 130 - Even by that God who was to thee unknown, - That I may 'scape this present ill, nor meet - With worse, conduct me whither thou hast shown, - That I may see Saint Peter's gate,[182] and those - Whom thou reportest in such misery thrown.' - He moved away; behind him held I close. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[160] _Middle_: In his _Convito_ (iv. 23), comparing human life to an -arch, Dante says that at the age of thirty-five a man has reached the -top and begins to go down. As he was born in 1265 that was his own age -in 1300, the year in which the action of the poem is laid. - -[161] _Darksome wood_: A state of spiritual darkness or despair into -which he has gradually drifted, not without fault of his own. - -[162] _A hill_: Lower down this hill is termed 'the origin and cause of -all joy.' It is symbolical of spiritual freedom--of the peace and -security that spring from the practice of virtue. Only, as it seems, by -gaining such a vantage-ground can he escape from the wilderness of -doubt--the valley of the shadow of death--in which he is lost. - -[163] _That planet_: On the Ptolemaic system, which, as perfected by the -Arabian astronomers, and with some Christian additions, was that -followed by Dante, the sun is reckoned as one of the seven planets; all -the others as well as the earth and the fixed stars deriving their light -from it. Here the sunlight may signify the Divine help granted to all -men in their efforts after virtue. - -[164] _The lower foot, etc._: This describes a cautious, slow ascent. - -[165] _A nimble leopard_: The leopard and the lion and wolf that come -with it are suggested by Jeremiah v. 6: 'A lion out of the forest shall -slay them,' etc. We have Dante's own authority for it, in his letter to -Can Grande, that several meanings are often hidden under the incidents -of the _Comedy_. But whatever else the beasts may signify, their chief -meaning is that of moral hindrances. It is plain that the lion and wolf -are the sins of others--pride and avarice. If the leopard agrees with -them in this, it most probably stands for the envy of those among whom -Dante lived: at _Inf._ vi. 74 we find envy, pride, and avarice classed -together as the sins that have corrupted Florence. But from _Inf._ xvi. -106 it appears that Dante hoped to get the better of the leopard by -means of a cord which he wore girt about his loins. The cord is -emblematical of self-control; and hence the leopard seems best to answer -the idea of sensual pleasure in the sense of a temptation that makes -difficult the pursuit of virtue. But it will be observed that this -hindrance Dante trusts to overcome. - -[166] _Stars, etc._: The sun being then in Aries, as it was believed to -have been at the creation. - -[167] _Morn, etc._: It is the morning of Friday the 25th of March in the -year 1300, and by the use of Florence, which began the year on the -anniversary of the incarnation, it is the first day of the New Year. The -Good Friday of 1300 fell a fortnight later; but the 25th of March was -held to be the true anniversary of the crucifixion as well as of the -incarnation and of the creation of the world. The date of the action is -fixed by _Inf._ xxi. 112. The day was of good omen for success in the -struggle with his lower self. - -[168] _A lion_: Pride or arrogance; to be taken in its widest sense of -violent opposition to all that is good. - -[169] _A she-wolf_: Used elsewhere in the _Comedy_ to represent avarice. -Dante may have had specially in his mind the greed and worldly ambition -of the Pope and the Court of Rome, but it is plain from line 110 that -the wolf stands primarily for a sin, and not for a person or corporate -body. - -[170] _No man_: Brunetto Latini, the friend and master of Dante, says -'the soul is the life of man, but without the body is not man.' - -[171] _Sub Julio_: Julius was not even consul when Virgil was born. But -Dante reckoned Julius as the founder of the Empire, and therefore makes -the time in which he flourished his. Virgil was only twenty-five years -of age when Cæsar was slain; and thus it was under Augustus that his -maturer life was spent. - -[172] _Author_: Dante defines an author as 'one worthy to be believed -and obeyed' (_Convito_ iv. 6). For a guide and companion on his great -pilgrimage he chooses Virgil, not only because of his fame as a poet, -but also because he had himself described a descent to the Shades--had -been already there. The vulgar conception of Virgil was that of a -virtuous great magician. - -[173] _The style, etc._: Some at least of Dante's minor works had been -given to the world before 1300, certainly the _Vita Nuova_ and others of -his poems. To his study of Virgil he may have felt himself indebted for -the purity of taste that kept him superior to the frigid and artificial -style of his contemporaries, He prided himself on suiting his language -to his theme, as well as on writing straight from the heart. - -[174] _Many a creature, etc._: Great men and states, infected with -avarice in its extended sense of encroachment on the rights of others. - -[175] _Feltro and Feltro, etc._: Who the deliverer was that Dante -prophesies the coming of is not known, and perhaps never can be. Against -the claims of Can Grande of Verona the objection is that, at any date -which can reasonably be assigned for the publication of the _Inferno_, -he had done nothing to justify such bright hopes of his future career. -There seems proof, too, that till the _Paradiso_ was written Dante -entertained no great respect for the Scala family (_Purg._ xvi. 118, -xviii. 121). Neither is Verona, or the widest territory over which Can -Grande ever ruled, at all described by saying it lay between Feltro and -Feltro.--I have preferred to translate _nazi-one_ as birth rather than -as nation or people. 'The birth of the deliverer will be found to have -been between feltro and feltro.' Feltro, as Dante wrote it, would have -no capital letter; and according to an old gloss the deliverer is to be -of humble birth; _feltro_ being the name of a poor sort of cloth. This -interpretation I give as a curiosity more than anything else; for the -most competent critics have decided against it, or ignored it.--Henry of -Luxemburg, chosen Emperor in November 1308, is an old claimant for the -post of the allegorical _veltro_ or greyhound. On him Dante's hopes were -long set as the man who should 'save Italy;' and it seems not out of -place to draw attention to what is said of him by John Villani, the -contemporary and fellow-townsman of Dante: 'He was of a magnanimous -nature, though, as regarded his family, of poor extraction' (_Cronica_, -ix. 1). Whatever may be made of the Feltros, the description in the text -of the deliverer as one superior to all personal ambition certainly -answers better to Dante's ideal of a righteous Emperor than to the -character of a partisan leader like Uguccione della Faggiuola, or an -ambitious prince like Can Grande. - -[176] _Camilla, etc._: All persons of the _Æneid_. - -[177] _Envy_: That of Satan. - -[178] _Thou hadst best, etc._: As will be seen from the next Canto, -Virgil has been sent to the relief of Dante; but how that is to be -wrought out is left to his own judgment. He might secure a partial -deliverance for his ward by conducting him up the Delectable Mount--the -peaceful heights familiar to himself, and which are to be won by the -practice of natural piety. He chooses the other course, of guiding Dante -through the regions of the future state, where the pilgrim's trust in -the Divine government will be strengthened by what he sees, and his soul -acquire a larger peace. - -[179] _A soul_: Beatrice. - -[180] _The Emperor_: The attribution of this title to God is significant -of Dante's lofty conception of the Empire. - -[181] _'Gainst his laws, etc._: Virgil was a rebel only in the sense of -being ignorant of the Christian revelation (_Inf._ iv. 37). - -[182] _Saint Peter's gate_: Virgil has not mentioned Saint Peter. Dante -names him as if to proclaim that it is as a Christian, though under -heathen guidance, that he makes the pilgrimage. Here the gate seems to -be spoken of as if it formed the entrance to Paradise, as it was -popularly believed to do, and as if it were at that point Virgil would -cease to guide him. But they are to find it nearer at hand, and after it -has been passed Virgil is to act as guide through Purgatory. - - - - -CANTO II. - - - It was the close of day;[183] the twilight brown - All living things on earth was setting free - From toil, while I preparing was alone[184] - To face the battle which awaited me, - As well of ruth as of the perilous quest, - Now to be limned by faultless memory. - Help, lofty genius! Muses,[185] manifest - Goodwill to me! Recording what befell, - Do thou, O mind, now show thee at thy best! - I thus began: 'Poet, and Guide as well, 10 - Ere trusting me on this adventure wide, - Judge if my strength of it be capable. - Thou say'st that Silvius' father,[186] ere he died, - Still mortal to the world immortal went, - There in the body some time to abide. - Yet that the Foe of evil was content - That he should come, seeing what high effect, - And who and what should from him claim descent, - No room for doubt can thoughtful man detect: - For he of noble Rome, and of her sway 20 - Imperial, in high Heaven grew sire elect. - And both of these,[187] the very truth to say, - Were founded for the holy seat, whereon - The Greater Peter's follower sits to-day. - Upon this journey, praised by thee, were known - And heard things by him, to the which he owed - His triumph, whence derives the Papal gown.[188] - That path the Chosen Vessel[189] later trod - So of the faith assurance to receive, - Which is beginning of salvation's road. 30 - But why should I go? Who will sanction give? - For I am no Æneas and no Paul; - Me worthy of it no one can believe, - Nor I myself. Hence venturing at thy call, - I dread the journey may prove rash. But vain - For me to reason; wise, thou know'st it all.' - Like one no more for what he wished for fain, - Whose purpose shares mutation with his thought - Till from the thing begun he turns again; - On that dim slope so grew I all distraught, 40 - Because, by brooding on it, the design - I shrank from, which before I warmly sought. - 'If well I understand these words of thine,' - The shade of him magnanimous made reply, - 'Thy soul 'neath cowardice hath sunk supine, - Which a man often is so burdened by, - It makes him falter from a noble aim, - As beasts at objects ill-distinguished shy. - To loose thee from this terror, why I came, - And what the speech I heard, I will relate, 50 - When first of all I pitied thee. A dame[190] - Hailed me where I 'mongst those in dubious state[191] - Had my abode: so blest was she and fair, - Her to command me I petitioned straight. - Her eyes were shining brighter than the star;[192] - And she began to say in accents sweet - And tuneable as angel's voices are: - "O Mantuan Shade, in courtesy complete, - Whose fame survives on earth, nor less shall grow - Through all the ages, while the world hath seat; 60 - A friend of mine, with fortune for his foe, - Has met with hindrance on his desert way, - And, terror-smitten, can no further go, - But turns; and that he is too far astray, - And that I rose too late for help, I dread, - From what in Heaven concerning him they say. - Go, with thy speech persuasive him bestead, - And with all needful help his guardian prove, - That touching him I may be comforted. - Know, it is Beatrice seeks thee thus to move. 70 - Thence come I where I to return am fain: - My coming and my plea are ruled by love. - When I shall stand before my Lord again, - Often to Him I will renew thy praise." - And here she ceased, nor did I dumb remain: - "O virtuous Lady, thou alone the race - Of man exaltest 'bove all else that dwell - Beneath the heaven which wheels in narrowest space.[193] - To do thy bidding pleases me so well, - Though 'twere already done 'twere all too slow; 80 - Thy wish at greater length no need to tell. - But say, what tempted thee to come thus low, - Even to this centre, from the region vast,[194] - Whither again thou art on fire to go?" - "This much to learn since a desire thou hast," - She answered, "briefly thee I'll satisfy, - How, coming here, I through no terrors passed. - We are, of right, such things alarmèd by, - As have the power to hurt us; all beside - Are harmless, and not fearful. Wherefore I-- 90 - Thus formed by God, His bounty is so wide-- - Am left untouched by all your miseries, - And through this burning[195] unmolested glide. - A noble lady[196] is in Heaven, who sighs - O'er the obstruction where I'd have thee go, - And breaks the rigid edict of the skies. - Calling on Lucia,[197] thus she made her know - What she desired: 'Thy vassal[198] now hath need - Of help from thee; do thou then helpful show.' - Lucia, who hates all cruelty, in speed 100 - Rose, and approaching where I sat at rest, - To venerable Rachel[199] giving heed, - Me: 'Beatrice, true praise of God,' addressed; - 'Why not help him who had such love for thee, - And from the vulgar throng to win thee pressed? - Dost thou not hear him weeping pitiably, - Nor mark the death now threatening him upon - A flood[200] than which less awful is the sea?' - Never on earth did any ever run, - Allured by profit or impelled by fear, 110 - Swifter than I, when speaking she had done, - From sitting 'mong the blest descended here, - My trust upon thy comely rhetoric cast, - Which honours thee and those who lend it ear." - When of these words she spoken had the last, - She turned aside bright eyes which tears[201] did fill, - And I by this was urged to greater haste. - And so it was I joined thee by her will, - And from that raging beast delivered thee, - Which barred the near way up the beauteous hill. 120 - What ails thee then? Why thus a laggard be? - Why cherish in thy heart a craven fear? - Where is thy franchise, where thy bravery, - When three such blessed ladies have a care - For thee in Heaven's court, and these words of mine - Thee for such wealth of blessedness prepare?' - As flowers, by chills nocturnal made to pine - And shut themselves, when touched by morning bright - Upon their stems arise, full-blown and fine; - So of my faltering courage changed the plight, 130 - And such good cheer ran through my heart, it spurred - Me to declare, like free-born generous wight: - 'O pitiful, who for my succour stirred! - And thou how full of courtesy to run, - Alert in service, hearkening her true word! - Thou with thine eloquence my heart hast won - To keen desire to go, and the intent - Which first I held I now no longer shun. - Therefore proceed; my will with thine is blent: - Thou art my Guide, Lord, Master;[202] thou alone!' 140 - Thus I; and with him, as he forward went, - The steep and rugged road I entered on. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[183] _Close of day_: The evening of the Friday. It comes on us with -something of a surprise that a whole day has been spent in the attempt -to ascend the hill, and in conference with Virgil. - -[184] _Alone_: Of earthly creatures, though in company with Virgil, a -shade. In these words is to be found the keynote to the Canto. With the -sense of deliverance from immediate danger his enthusiasm has died away. -After all, Virgil is only a shade; and his heart misgives him at the -thought of engaging, in the absence of all human companionship, upon a -journey so full of terrors. He is not reassured till Virgil has -displayed his commission. - -[185] _Muses_: The invocation comes now, the First Canto being properly -an introduction. Here it may be pointed out, as illustrating the -refinement of Dante's art, that the invocation in the _Purgatorio_ is in -a higher strain, and that in the _Paradiso_ in a nobler still. - -[186] _Silvius' father_: Æneas, whose visit to the world of shades is -described in the Sixth _Æneid_. He finds there his father Anchises, who -foretells to him the fortunes of his descendants down to the time of -Augustus. - -[187] _Both of these_: Dante uses language slightly apologetic as he -unfolds to Virgil, the great Imperialist poet, the final cause of Rome -and the Empire. But while he thus exalts the Papal office, making all -Roman history a preparation for its establishment, Dante throughout his -works is careful to refuse any but a spiritual or religious allegiance -to the Pope, and leaves himself free, as will be frequently seen in the -course of the _Comedy_, to blame the Popes as men, while yielding all -honour to their great office. In this emphatic mention of Rome as the -divinely-appointed seat of Peter's Chair may be implied a censure on the -Pope for the transference of the Holy See to Avignon, which was effected -in 1305, between the date assigned to the action of the poem and the -period when it was written. - -[188] _Papal gown_: 'The great mantle' Dante elsewhere terms it; the -emblem of the Papal dignity. It was only in Dante's own time that -coronation began to take the place of investiture with the mantle. - -[189] _Chosen Vessel_: Paul, who like Æneas visited the other world, -though not the same region of it. Throughout the poem instances drawn -from profane history, and even poetry and mythology, are given as of -authority equal to those from Christian sources. - -[190] _A dame_: Beatrice, the heroine of the _Vita Nuova_, at the close -of which Dante promises some day to say of her what was never yet said -of any woman. She died in 1290, aged twenty-four. In the _Comedy_ she -fills different parts: she is the glorified Beatrice Portinari whom -Dante first knew as a fair Florentine girl; but she also represents -heavenly truth, or the knowledge of it--the handmaid of eternal life. -Theology is too hard and technical a term to bestow on her. Virgil, for -his part, represents the knowledge that men may acquire of Divine law by -the use of their reason, helped by such illumination as was enjoyed by -the virtuous heathen. In other words, he is the exponent of the Divine -revelation involved in the Imperial system--for the Empire was never far -from Dante's thoughts. To him it meant the perfection of just rule, in -which due cognisance is taken of every right and of every duty. The -relation Dante bears to these two is that of erring humanity struggling -to the light. Virgil leads him as far as he can, and then commits him to -the holier rule of Beatrice. But the poem would lose its charm if the -allegorical meaning of every passage were too closely insisted on. And, -worse than that, it cannot always be found. - -[191] _Dubious state_: The limbo of the virtuous heathen (Canto iv.). - -[192] _The star_: In the _Vita Nuova_ Dante speaks of the star in the -singular when he means the stars. - -[193] _In narrowest space_: The heaven of the moon, on the Ptolemaic -system the lowest of the seven planets. Below it there is only the -heaven of fire, to which all the flames of earth are attracted. The -meaning is, above all on earth. - -[194] _The region vast_: The empyrean, or tenth and highest heaven of -all. It is an addition by the Christian astronomers to the heavens of -the Ptolemaic system, and extends above the _primum mobile_, which -imparts to all beneath it a common motion, while leaving its own special -motion to each. The empyrean is the heaven of Divine rest. - -[195] _Burning_: 'Flame of this burning,' allegorical, as applied to the -limbo where Virgil had his abode. He and his companions suffer only from -unfulfilled but lofty desire (_Inf._ iv. 41). - -[196] _A noble lady_: The Virgin Mary, of whom it is said (_Parad._ -xxxiii. 16) that her 'benignity not only succours those who ask, but -often anticipates their demand;' as here. She is the symbol of Divine -grace in its widest sense. Neither Christ nor Mary is mentioned by name -in the _Inferno_. - -[197] _Lucia_: The martyr saint of Syracuse. Witte (_Dante-Forschungen_, -vol. ii. 30) suggests that Lucia Ubaldini may be meant, a -thirteenth-century Florentine saint, and sister of the Cardinal (_Inf._ -x. 120). The day devoted to her memory was the 30th of May. Dante was -born in May, and if it could be proved that he was born on the 30th of -the month the suggestion would be plausible. But for the greater Lucy is -to be said that she was especially helpful to those troubled in their -eyesight, as Dante was at one time of his life. Here she is the symbol -of illuminating grace. - -[198] _Thy vassal_: Saint Lucy being held in special veneration by -Dante; or only that he was one that sought light. The word _fedele_ may -of course, as it usually is, be read in its primary sense of 'faithful -one;' but it is old Italian for vassal; and to take the reference to be -to the duty of the overlord to help his dependant in need seems to give -force to the appeal. - -[199] _Rachel_: Symbol of the contemplative life. - -[200] _A flood, etc._: 'The sea of troubles' in which Dante is involved. - -[201] _Tears_: Beatrice weeps for human misery--especially that of -Dante--though unaffected by the view of the sufferings of Inferno. - -[202] _My Guide, etc._: After hearing how Virgil was moved to come, -Dante accepts him not only for his guide, as he did at the close of the -First Canto, but for his lord and master as well. - - - - -CANTO III. - - - Through me to the city dolorous lies the way, - Who pass through me shall pains eternal prove, - Through me are reached the people lost for aye. - 'Twas Justice did my Glorious Maker move; - I was created by the Power Divine,[203] - The Highest Wisdom, and the Primal Love. - No thing's creation earlier was than mine, - If not eternal;[204] I for aye endure: - Ye who make entrance, every hope resign! - These words beheld I writ in hue obscure 10 - On summit of a gateway; wherefore I: - 'Hard[205] is their meaning, Master.' Like one sure - Beforehand of my thought, he made reply: - 'Here it behoves to leave all fears behind; - All cowardice behoveth here to die. - For now the place I told thee of we find, - Where thou the miserable folk shouldst see - Who the true good[206] of reason have resigned.' - Then, with a glance of glad serenity, - He took my hand in his, which made me bold, 20 - And brought me in where secret things there be. - There sighs and plaints and wailings uncontrolled - The dim and starless air resounded through; - Nor at the first could I from tears withhold. - The various languages and words of woe, - The uncouth accents,[207] mixed with angry cries - And smiting palms and voices loud and low, - Composed a tumult which doth circling rise - For ever in that air obscured for aye; - As when the sand upon the whirlwind flies. 30 - And, horror-stricken,[208] I began to say: - 'Master, what sound can this be that I hear, - And who the folk thus whelmed in misery?' - And he replied: 'In this condition drear - Are held the souls of that inglorious crew - Who lived unhonoured, but from guilt kept clear. - Mingled they are with caitiff angels, who, - Though from avowed rebellion they refrained, - Disloyal to God, did selfish ends pursue. - Heaven hurled them forth, lest they her beauty stained; - Received they are not by the nether hell, 41 - Else triumph[209] thence were by the guilty gained.' - And I: 'What bear they, Master, to compel - Their lamentations in such grievous tone?' - He answered: 'In few words I will thee tell. - No hope of death is to the wretches known; - So dim the life and abject where they sigh - They count all sufferings easier than their own. - Of them the world endures no memory; - Mercy and justice them alike disdain. 50 - Speak we not of them: glance, and pass them by.' - I saw a banner[210] when I looked again, - Which, always whirling round, advanced in haste - As if despising steadfast to remain. - And after it so many people chased - In long procession, I should not have said - That death[211] had ever wrought such countless waste. - Some first I recognised, and then the shade - I saw and knew of him, the search to close, - Whose dastard soul the great refusal[212] made. 60 - Straightway I knew and was assured that those - Were of the tribe of caitiffs,[213] even the race - Despised of God and hated of His foes. - The wretches, who when living showed no trace - Of life, went naked, and were fiercely stung - By wasps and hornets swarming in that place. - Blood drawn by these out of their faces sprung - And, mingled with their tears, was at their feet - Sucked up by loathsome worms it fell among. - Casting mine eyes beyond, of these replete, 70 - People I saw beside an ample stream, - Whereon I said: 'O Master, I entreat, - Tell who these are, and by what law they seem - Impatient till across the river gone; - As I distinguish by this feeble gleam.' - And he: 'These things shall unto thee be known - What time our footsteps shall at rest be found - Upon the woful shores of Acheron.' - Then with ashamèd eyes cast on the ground, - Fearing my words were irksome in his ear, 80 - Until we reached the stream I made no sound. - And toward us, lo, within a bark drew near - A veteran[214] who with ancient hair was white, - Shouting: 'Ye souls depraved, be filled with fear. - Hope never more of Heaven to win the sight; - I come to take you to the other strand, - To frost and fire and everlasting night. - And thou, O living soul, who there dost stand, - From 'mong the dead withdraw thee.' Then, aware - That not at all I stirred at his command, 90 - 'By other ways,[215] from other ports thou'lt fare; - But they will lead thee to another shore, - And 'tis a skiff more buoyant must thee bear.' - And then my leader: 'Charon, be not sore, - For thus it has been willed where power ne'er came - Short of the will; thou therefore ask no more.' - And hereupon his shaggy cheeks grew tame - Who is the pilot of the livid pool, - And round about whose eyes glowed wheels of flame. - But all the shades, naked and spent with dool, 100 - Stood chattering with their teeth, and changing hue - Soon as they heard the words unmerciful. - God they blasphemed, and families whence they grew; - Mankind, the time, place, seed in which began - Their lives, and seed whence they were born. Then drew - They crowding all together, as they ran, - Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore - Predestinate for every godless man. - The demon Charon, with eyes evermore - Aglow, makes signals, gathering them all; 110 - And whoso lingers smiteth with his oar. - And as the faded leaves of autumn fall - One after the other, till at last the bough - Sees on the ground spread all its coronal; - With Adam's evil seed so haps it now: - At signs each falls in turn from off the coast, - As fowls[216] into the ambush fluttering go. - The gloomy waters thus by them are crossed, - And ere upon the further side they land, - On this, anew, is gathering a host. 120 - 'Son,' said the courteous Master,[217] 'understand, - All such as in the wrath of God expire, - From every country muster on this strand. - To cross the river they are all on fire; - Their wills by Heavenly justice goaded on - Until their terror merges in desire. - This way no righteous soul has ever gone; - Wherefore[218] of thee if Charon should complain, - Now art thou sure what by his words is shown.' - When he had uttered this the dismal plain 130 - Trembled[219] so violently, my terror past - Recalling now, I'm bathed in sweat again. - Out of the tearful ground there moaned a blast - Whence lightning flashed forth red and terrible, - Which vanquished all my senses; and, as cast - In sudden slumber, to the ground I fell. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[203] _Power Divine, etc._: The Persons of the Trinity, described by -their attributes. - -[204] _If not eternal_: Only the angels and the heavenly spheres were -created before Inferno. The creation of man came later. But from _Inf._ -xxxiv. 124 it appears that Inferno was hollowed out of the earth; and at -_Parad._ vii. 124 the earth is declared to be 'corruptible and enduring -short while;' therefore not eternal. - -[205] _Hard, etc._: The injunction to leave all hope behind makes Dante -hesitate to enter. Virgil anticipates the objection before it is fully -expressed, and reminds him that the passage through Inferno is to be -only one stage of his journey. Not by this gate will he seek to quit it. - -[206] _True good, etc._: Truth in its highest form--the contemplation of -God. - -[207] _Uncouth accents_: 'Like German,' says Boccaccio. - -[208] _Horror-stricken_: 'My head enveloped in horror.' Some texts have -'error,' and this yields a better meaning--that Dante is amazed to have -come full into the crowd of suffering shades before he has even crossed -Acheron. If with the best texts 'horror' be read, the meaning seems to -be that he is so overwhelmed by fear as to lose his presence of mind. -They are not yet in the true Inferno, but only in the vestibule or -forecourt of it--the flat rim which runs round the edge of the pit. - -[209] _Else triumph, etc._: The satisfaction of the rebel angels at -finding that they endured no worse punishment than that of such as -remained neutral. - -[210] _A banner_: Emblem of the instability of those who would never -take a side. - -[211] _That death, etc._: The touch is very characteristic of Dante. He -feigns astonishment at finding that such a proportion of mankind can -preserve so pitiful a middle course between good and evil, and spend -lives that are only 'a kind of--as it were.' - -[212] _The great refusal_: Dante recognises him, and so he who made the -great refusal must have been a contemporary. Almost beyond doubt -Celestine V. is meant, who was in 1294 elected Pope against his will, -and resigned the tiara after wearing it a few months; the only Pope who -ever resigned it, unless we count Clement I. As he was not canonized -till 1326, Dante was free to form his own judgment of his conduct. It -has been objected that Dante would not treat with contumely a man so -devout as Celestine. But what specially fits him to be the -representative caitiff is just that, being himself virtuous, he -pusillanimously threw away the greatest opportunity of doing good. By -his resignation Boniface VIII. became Pope, to whose meddling in -Florentine affairs it was that Dante owed his banishment. Indirectly, -therefore, he owed it to the resignation of Celestine; so that here we -have the first of many private scores to be paid off in the course of -the _Comedy_. Celestine's resignation is referred to (_Inf._ xxvii. -104).--Esau and the rich young man in the Gospel have both been -suggested in place of Celestine. To either of them there lies the -objection that Dante could not have recognised him. And, besides, -Dante's contemporaries appear at once to have discovered Celestine in -him who made the great refusal. In Paradise the poet is told by his -ancestor Cacciaguida that his rebuke is to be like the wind, which -strikes most fiercely on the loftiest summits (_Parad._ xvii. 133); and -it agrees well with such a profession, that the first stroke he deals in -the _Comedy_ is at a Pope. - -[213] _Caitiffs_: To one who had suffered like Dante for the frank part -he took in affairs, neutrality may well have seemed the unpardonable sin -in politics; and no doubt but that his thoughts were set on the trimmers -in Florence when he wrote, 'Let us not speak of them!' - -[214] _A veteran_: Charon. In all this description of the passage of the -river by the shades, Dante borrows freely from Virgil. It has been -already remarked on _Inf._ ii. 28 that he draws illustrations from Pagan -sources. More than that, as we begin to find, he boldly introduces -legendary and mythological characters among the persons of his drama. -With Milton in mind, it surprises, on a first acquaintance with the -_Comedy_, to discover how nearly independent of angels is the economy -invented by Dante for the other world. - -[215] _Other ways, etc._: The souls bound from earth to Purgatory gather -at the mouth of the Tiber, whence they are wafted on an angel's skiff to -their destination (_Purg._ ii. 100). It may be here noted that never -does Dante hint a fear of one day becoming a denizen of Inferno. It is -only the pains of Purgatory that oppress his soul by anticipation. So -here Charon is made to see at a glance that the pilgrim is not of those -'who make descent to Acheron.' - -[216] _As fowls, etc._: 'As a bird to its lure'--generally interpreted -of the falcon when called back. But a witness of the sport of netting -thrushes in Tuscany describes them as 'flying into the vocal ambush in a -hurried, half-reluctant, and very remarkable manner.' - -[217] _Courteous Master_: Virgil here gives the answer promised at line -76; and Dante by the epithet he uses removes any impression that his -guide had been wanting in courtesy when he bade him wait. - -[218] _Wherefore_: Charon's displeasure only proves that he feels he has -no hold on Dante. - -[219] _Trembled, etc._: Symbolical of the increase of woe in Inferno -when the doomed souls have landed on the thither side of Acheron. Hell -opens to receive them. Conversely, when any purified soul is released -from Purgatory the mountain of purification trembles to its base with -joy (_Purg._ xxi. 58). - - - - -CANTO IV. - - - Resounding thunder broke the slumber deep - That drowsed my senses, and myself I shook - Like one by force awakened out of sleep. - Then rising up I cast a steady look, - With eyes refreshed, on all that lay around, - And cognisance of where I found me took. - In sooth, me on the valley's brink I found - Of the dolorous abyss, where infinite - Despairing cries converge with thundering sound.[220] - Cloudy it was, and deep, and dark as night; 10 - So dark that, peering eagerly to find - What its depths held, no object met my sight. - 'Descend we now into this region blind,' - Began the Poet with a face all pale; - 'I will go first, and do thou come behind.' - Marking the wanness on his cheek prevail, - I asked, 'How can I, seeing thou hast dread, - My wonted comforter when doubts assail?' - 'The anguish of the people,' then he said, - 'Who are below, has painted on my face 20 - Pity,[221] by thee for fear interpreted. - Come! The long journey bids us move apace.' - Then entered he and made me enter too - The topmost circle girding the abyss. - Therein, as far as I by listening knew, - There was no lamentation save of sighs, - Whence throbbed the air eternal through and through. - This, sorrow without suffering made arise - From infants and from women and from men, - Gathered in great and many companies. 30 - And the good Master: 'Wouldst thou[222] nothing then - Of who those spirits are have me relate? - Yet know, ere passing further, although when - On earth they sinned not, worth however great - Availed them not, they being unbaptized-- - Part[223] of the faith thou holdest. If their fate - Was to be born ere man was Christianised, - God, as behoved, they never could adore: - And I myself am with this folk comprised. - For such defects--our guilt is nothing more-- 40 - We are thus lost, suffering from this alone - That, hopeless, we our want of bliss deplore.' - Greatly I sorrowed when he made this known, - Because I knew that some who did excel - In worthiness were to that limbo[224] gone. - 'Tell me, O Sir,' I prayed him, 'Master,[225] tell,' - --That I of the belief might surety win, - Victorious every error to dispel-- - 'Did ever any hence to bliss attain - By merit of another or his own?' 50 - And he, to whom my hidden drift[226] was plain: - 'I to this place but lately[227] had come down, - When I beheld one hither make descent; - A Potentate[228] who wore a victor's crown. - The shade of our first sire forth with him went, - And his son Abel's, Noah's forth he drew, - Moses' who gave the laws, the obedient - Patriarch Abram's, and King David's too; - And, with his sire and children, Israel, - And Rachel, winning whom such toils he knew; 60 - And many more, in blessedness to dwell. - And I would have thee know, earlier than these - No human soul was ever saved from Hell.' - While thus he spake our progress did not cease, - But we continued through the wood to stray; - The wood, I mean, with crowded ghosts for trees. - Ere from the summit far upon our way - We yet had gone, I saw a flame which glowed, - Holding a hemisphere[229] of dark at bay. - 'Twas still a little further on our road, 70 - Yet not so far but that in part I guessed - That honourable people there abode. - 'Of art and science Ornament confessed! - Who are these honoured in such high degree, - And in their lot distinguished from the rest?' - He said: 'For them their glorious memory, - Still in thy world the subject of renown, - Wins grace[230] by Heaven distinguished thus to be.' - Meanwhile I heard a voice: 'Be honour shown - To the illustrious poet,[231] for his shade 80 - Is now returning which a while was gone.' - When the voice paused nor further utterance made, - Four mighty shades drew near with one accord, - In aspect neither sorrowful nor glad. - 'Consider that one, armèd with a sword,'[232] - Began my worthy Master in my ear, - 'Before the three advancing like their lord; - For he is Homer, poet with no peer: - Horace the satirist is next in line, - Ovid comes third, and Lucan in the rear. 90 - And 'tis because their claim agrees with mine - Upon the name they with one voice did cry, - They to their honour[233] in my praise combine.' - Thus I beheld their goodly company-- - The lords[234] of song in that exalted style - Which o'er all others, eagle-like, soars high. - Having conferred among themselves a while - They turned toward me and salutation made, - And, this beholding, did my Master smile.[235] - And honour higher still to me was paid, 100 - For of their company they made me one; - So I the sixth part 'mong such genius played. - Thus journeyed we to where the brightness shone, - Holding discourse which now 'tis well to hide, - As, where I was, to hold it was well done. - At length we reached a noble castle's[236] side - Which lofty sevenfold walls encompassed round, - And it was moated by a sparkling tide. - This we traversed as if it were dry ground; - I through seven gates did with those sages go; 110 - Then in a verdant mead people we found - Whose glances were deliberate and slow. - Authority was stamped on every face; - Seldom they spake, in tuneful voices low. - We drew apart to a high open space - Upon one side which, luminously serene, - Did of them all a perfect view embrace. - Thence, opposite, on the enamel green - Were shown me mighty spirits; with delight - I still am stirred them only to have seen. 120 - With many more, Electra was in sight; - 'Mong them I Hector and Æneas spied, - Cæsar in arms,[237] his eyes, like falcon's, bright. - And, opposite, Camilla I descried; - Penthesilea too; the Latian King - Sat with his child Lavinia by his side. - Brutus[238] I saw, who Tarquin forth did fling; - Cornelia, Marcia,[239] Julia, and Lucrece. - Saladin[240] sat alone. Considering - What lay beyond with somewhat lifted eyes, 130 - The Master[241] I beheld of those that know, - 'Mong such as in philosophy were wise. - All gazed on him as if toward him to show - Becoming honour; Plato in advance - With Socrates: the others stood below. - Democritus[242] who set the world on chance; - Thales, Diogenes, Empedocles, - Zeno, and Anaxagoras met my glance; - Heraclitus, and Dioscorides, - Wise judge of nature. Tully, Orpheus, were 140 - With ethic Seneca and Linus.[243] These, - And Ptolemy,[244] too, and Euclid, geometer, - Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicen,[245] - Averroes,[246] the same who did prepare - The Comment, saw I; nor can tell again - The names of all I saw; the subject wide - So urgent is, time often fails me. Then - Into two bands the six of us divide; - Me by another way my Leader wise - Doth from the calm to air which trembles, guide. 150 - I reach a part[247] which all benighted lies. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[220] _Thundering sound_: In a state of unconsciousness, Dante, he knows -not how, has been conveyed across Acheron, and is awakened by what seems -like the thunder-peal following the lightning-flash which made him -insensible. He now stands on the brink of Inferno, where the sounds -peculiar to each region of it converge and are reverberated from its -rim. These sounds are not again to be heard by him except in their -proper localities. No sooner does he actually pass into the First Circle -than he hears only sighs.--As regards the topography of Inferno, it is -enough, as yet, to note that it consists of a cavity extending from the -surface to the centre of the earth; narrowing to its base, and with many -circular ledges or terraces, of great width in the case of the upper -ones, running round its wall--that is, round the sides of the pit. Each -terrace or circle is thus less in circumference than the one above it. -From one circle to the next there slopes a bank of more or less height -and steepness. Down the bank which falls to the comparatively flat -ground of the First Circle they are now about to pass.--To put it -otherwise, the Inferno is an inverted hollow cone. - -[221] _Pity_: The pity felt by Virgil has reference only to those in the -circle they are about to enter, which is his own. See also _Purg._ iii. -43. - -[222] _Wouldst thou, etc._: He will not have Dante form a false opinion -of the character of those condemned to the circle which is his own. - -[223] _Part_: _parte_, altered by some editors into _porta_; but though -baptism is technically described as the gate of the sacraments, it never -is as the gate of the faith. A tenet of Dante's faith was that all the -unbaptized are lost. He had no choice in the matter. - -[224] _Limbo_: Border, or borderland. Dante makes the First Circle -consist of the two limbos of Thomas Aquinas: that of unbaptized infants, -_limbus puerorum_, and that of the fathers of the old covenant, _limbus -sanctorum patrum_. But the second he finds is now inhabited only by the -virtuous heathen. - -[225] _Sir_--_Master_: As a delicate means of expressing sympathy, Dante -redoubles his courtesy to Virgil. - -[226] _Hidden drift_: to find out, at first hand as it were, if the -article in the creed is true which relates to the Descent into Hell; -and, perhaps, to learn if when Christ descended He delivered none of the -virtuous heathen. - -[227] _Lately_: Virgil died about half a century before the crucifixion. - -[228] _A Potentate_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the -_Inferno_. - -[229] _A hemisphere, etc._: An elaborate way of saying that part of the -limbo was clearly lit. The flame is symbolical of the light of genius, -or of virtue; both in Dante's eyes being modes of worth. - -[230] _Wins grace, etc._: The thirst for fame was one keenly felt and -openly confessed by Dante. See, _e.g._ _De Monarchia_, i. 1. In this he -anticipated the humanists of the following century. Here we find that to -be famous on earth helps the case of disembodied souls. - -[231] _Poet_: Throughout the _Comedy_, with the exception of _Parad._ i. -29, and xxv. 8, the term 'poet' is confined to those who wrote in Greek -and Latin. In _Purg._ xxi. 85 the name of poet is said to be that 'which -is most enduring and honourable.' - -[232] _A sword_: Because Homer sings of battles. Dante's acquaintance -with his works can have been but slight, as they were not then -translated into Latin, and Dante knew little or no Greek. - -[233] _To their honour_: 'And in that they do well:' perhaps as showing -themselves free from jealousy. But the remark of Benvenuto of Imola is: -'Poets love and honour one another, and are never envious and -quarrelsome like those who cultivate the other arts and sciences.'--I -quote with misgiving from Tamburini's untrustworthy Italian translation. -Benvenuto lectured on the _Comedy_ in Bologna for some years about 1370. -It is greatly to be wished that his commentary, lively and full of -side-lights as it is, should be printed in full from the original Latin. - -[234] _The lords, etc._: Not the company of him--Homer or Virgil--who is -lord of the great song, and soars above all others; but the company of -the great masters, whose verse, etc. - -[235] _Did my Master smile_: To see Dante made free of the guild of -great poets; or, it may be, to think they are about to discover in him a -fellow poet. - -[236] _A noble castle_: Where the light burns, and in which, as their -peculiar seat, the shades of the heathen distinguished for virtue and -genius reside. The seven walls are in their number symbolical of the -perfect strength of the castle; or, to take it more pedantically, may -mean the four moral virtues and the three speculative. The gates will -then stand for the seven liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, etc. The -moat may be eloquence, set outside the castle to signify that only as -reflected in the eloquent words of inspired men can the outside world -get to know wisdom. Over the stream Dante passes easily, as being an -adept in learned speech. The castle encloses a spacious mead enamelled -with eternal green. - -[237] _Cæsar in arms, etc._: Suetonius says of Cæsar that he was of -fair complexion, but had black and piercing eyes. Brunetto Latini, -Dante's teacher, says in his _Tesoro_ (v. 11), of the hawk here -mentioned--the _grifagno_--that its eyes 'flame like fire.' - -[238] _Brutus_: Introduced here that he may not be confounded with the -later Brutus, for whom is reserved the lowest place of all in Inferno. - -[239] _Marcia_: Wife of Cato; mentioned also in _Purg._ i. _Julia_: -daughter of Cæsar and wife of Pompey. - -[240] _Saladin_: Died 1193. To the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries -he supplied the ideal of a just Mohammedan ruler. Here are no other -such. 'He sits apart, because not of gentle birth,' says Boccaccio; -which shows what even a man of genius risks when he becomes a -commentator. - -[241] _The Master_: Aristotle, often spoken of by Dante as the -Philosopher, and reverenced by him as the genius to whom the secrets of -nature lay most open. - -[242] _Democritus, etc._: According to whom the world owes its form to a -chance arrangement of atoms. - -[243] _Linus_: Not Livy, into which some have changed it. Linus is -mentioned by Virgil along with Orpheus, _Egl._ iv. - -[244] _Ptolemy_: Greek geographer of the beginning of the second -century, and author of the system of the world believed in by Dante, and -freely used by him throughout the poem. - -[245] _Avicenna_: A physician, born in Bokhara, and died at Ispahan, -1037. His _Medical Canon_ was for centuries used as a text-book in -Europe. - -[246] _Averroes_: A Mohammedan philosopher of Cordova, died 1198. In his -great Commentary on Aristotle he gives and explains every sentence of -that philosopher's works. He was himself ignorant of Greek, and made use -of Arabic versions. Out of his Arabic the Commentary was translated into -Hebrew, and thence into Latin. The presence of the three Mohammedans in -this honourable place greatly puzzles the early commentators. - -[247] _A part, etc._: He passes into the darkness of the Limbo out of -the brightly-lit, fortified enclosure. It is worth remarking, as one -reads, how vividly he describes his first impression of a new scene, -while when he comes to leave it a word is all he speaks. - - - - -CANTO V. - - - From the First Circle thus I downward went - Into the Second,[248] which girds narrower space, - But greater woe compelling loud lament. - Minos[249] waits awful there and snarls, the case - Examining of all who enter in; - And, as he girds him, dooms them to their place. - I say, each ill-starred spirit must begin - On reaching him its guilt in full to tell; - And he, omniscient as concerning sin, - Sees to what circle it belongs in Hell; 10 - Then round him is his tail as often curled - As he would have it stages deep to dwell. - And evermore before him stand a world - Of shades; and all in turn to judgment come, - Confess and hear, and then are downward hurled.[250] - 'O thou who comest to the very home - Of woe,' when he beheld me Minos cried, - Ceasing a while from utterance of doom, - 'Enter not rashly nor in all confide; - By ease of entering be not led astray.' 20 - 'Why also[251] growling?' answered him my Guide; - 'Seek not his course predestinate to stay; - For thus 'tis willed[252] where nothing ever fails - Of what is willed. No further speech essay.' - And now by me are agonising wails - Distinguished plain; now am I come outright - Where grievous lamentation me assails. - Now had I reached a place devoid of light, - Raging as in a tempest howls the sea - When with it winds, blown thwart each other, fight. 30 - The infernal storm is raging ceaselessly, - Sweeping the shades along with it, and them - It smites and whirls, nor lets them ever be. - Arrived at the precipitous extreme,[253] - In shrieks and lamentations they complain, - And even the Power Divine itself blaspheme. - I understood[254] that to this mode of pain - Are doomed the sinners of the carnal kind, - Who o'er their reason let their impulse reign. - As starlings in the winter-time combined 40 - Float on the wing in crowded phalanx wide, - So these bad spirits, driven by that wind, - Float up and down and veer from side to side; - Nor for their comfort any hope they spy - Of rest, or even of suffering mollified. - And as the cranes[255] in long-drawn company - Pursue their flight while uttering their song, - So I beheld approach with wailing cry - Shades lifted onward by that whirlwind strong. - 'Master, what folk are these,'[256] I therefore said, 50 - 'Who by the murky air are whipped along?' - 'She, first of them,' his answer thus was made, - 'Of whom thou wouldst a wider knowledge win, - O'er many tongues and peoples, empire swayed. - So ruined was she by licentious sin - That she decreed lust should be uncontrolled, - To ease the shame that she herself was in. - She is Semiramis, of whom 'tis told - She followed Ninus, and his wife had been. - Hers were the realms now by the Sultan ruled. 60 - The next[257] is she who, amorous and self-slain, - Unto Sichæus' dust did faithless show: - Then lustful Cleopatra.' Next was seen - Helen, for whom so many years in woe - Ran out; and I the great Achilles knew, - Who at the last[258] encountered love for foe. - Paris I saw and Tristram.[259] In review - A thousand shades and more, he one by one - Pointed and named, whom love from life withdrew. - And after I had heard my Teacher run 70 - O'er many a dame of yore and many a knight, - I, lost in pity, was wellnigh undone. - Then I: 'O Poet, if I only might - Speak with the two that as companions hie, - And on the wind appear to be so light!'[260] - And he to me: 'When they shall come more nigh - Them shalt thou mark, and by the love shalt pray - Which leads them onward, and they will comply.' - Soon as the wind bends them to where we stay - I lift my voice: 'O wearied souls and worn! 80 - Come speak with us if none[261] the boon gainsay.' - Then even as doves,[262] urged by desire, return - On outspread wings and firm to their sweet nest - As through the air by mere volition borne, - From Dido's[263] band those spirits issuing pressed - Towards where we were, athwart the air malign; - My passionate prayer such influence possessed. - 'O living creature,[264] gracious and benign, - Us visiting in this obscurèd air, - Who did the earth with blood incarnadine; 90 - If in the favour of the King we were - Who rules the world, we for thy peace[265] would pray, - Since our misfortunes thy compassion stir. - Whate'er now pleases thee to hear or say - We listen to, or tell, at your demand;[266] - While yet the wind, as now, doth silent stay. - My native city[267] lies upon the strand - Where to the sea descends the river Po - For peace, with all his tributary band. - Love, in a generous heart set soon aglow, 100 - Seized him for the fair form was mine above; - And still it irks me to have lost it so.[268] - Love, which absolves[269] no one beloved from love, - So strong a passion for him in me wrought - That, as thou seest, I still its mastery prove. - Love led us where we in one death were caught. - For him who slew us waits Caïna[270] now.' - Unto our ears these words from them were brought. - When I had heard these troubled souls, my brow - I downward bent, and long while musing stayed, 110 - Until the Poet asked: 'What thinkest thou?' - And when I answered him, 'Alas!' I said, - 'Sweet thoughts how many, and what strong desire, - These to their sad catastrophe betrayed!' - Then, turned once more to them, I to inquire - Began: 'Francesca, these thine agonies - Me with compassion unto tears inspire. - But tell me, at the season of sweet sighs - What sign made love, and what the means he chose - To strip your dubious longings of disguise?' 120 - And she to me: 'The bitterest of woes - Is to remember in the midst of pain - A happy past; as well thy teacher[271] knows. - Yet none the less, and since thou art so fain - The first occasion of our love to hear, - Like one I speak that cannot tears restrain. - As we for pastime one day reading were - How Lancelot[272] by love was fettered fast-- - All by ourselves and without any fear-- - Moved by the tale our eyes we often cast 130 - On one another, and our colour fled; - But one word was it, vanquished us at last. - When how the smile, long wearied for, we read - Was kissed by him who loved like none before, - This one, who henceforth never leaves me, laid - A kiss on my mouth, trembling the while all o'er. - The book was Galahad,[273] and he as well - Who wrote the book. That day we read no more.' - And while one shade continued thus to tell, - The other wept so bitterly, I swooned 140 - Away for pity, and as dead I fell: - Yea, as a corpse falls, fell I on the ground. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[248] _The Second_: The Second Circle of the Inferno, and the first of -punishment. The lower the circle, the more rigorous the penalty endured -in it. Here is punished carnal sin. - -[249] _Minos_: Son of Jupiter and King of Crete, so severely just as to -be made after death one of the judges of the under world. He is degraded -by Dante, as many other noble persons of the old mythology are by him, -into a demon. Unlike the fallen angels of Milton, Dante's devils have no -interest of their own. Their only function is to help in working out -human destinies. - -[250] _Downward hurled_: Each falls to his proper place without -lingering by the way. All through Inferno there is an absence of direct -Divine interposition. It is ruled, as it were, by a course of nature. -The sinners, compelled by a fatal impulse, advance to hear their doom, -just as they fall inevitably one by one into Charon's boat. Minos by a -sort of devilish instinct sentences each sinner to his appropriate -punishment. In _Inf._ xxvii. 127 we find the words in which Minos utters -his judgment. In _Inf._ xxi. 29 a devil bears the sinner to his own -place. - -[251] _Why also, etc._: Like Charon. If Minos represents conscience, as -some would have it, Dante is here again assailed by misgivings as to his -enterprise, and is quieted by reason in the person of Virgil. - -[252] _Thus 'tis willed, etc._: These two lines are the same as those to -Charon, _Inf._ iii. 95, 96. - -[253] _Precipitous extreme_: Opinions vary as to what is meant by -_ruina_. As Dante is certainly still on the outer edge of the Second -Circle or terrace, and while standing there hears distinctly the words -the spirits say when they reach the _ruina_, it most likely denotes the -steep slope falling from the First to the Second Circle. The spirits, -driven against the wall which hems them in, burst into sharp -lamentations against their irremediable fate. - -[254] _I understood, etc._: From the nature of the punishment, which, -like all the others invented by Dante, bears some relation to the sin to -which it is assigned. They who on earth failed to exercise -self-restraint are beaten hither and thither by every wind that blows; -and, as once they were blinded by passion, so now they see nothing -plainly in that dim and obscure place. That Dante should assign the -least grievous punishment of all to this sin throws light upon his views -of life. In his eyes it had more than any other the excuse of natural -bent, and had least of malice. Here, it must be remarked, are no -seducers. For them a lower depth is reserved (_Inf._ xviii. See also -_Purg._ xxvii. 15). - -[255] _The cranes_: 'The cranes are a kind of bird that go in a troop, -as cavaliers go to battle, following one another in single file. And one -of them goes always in front as their gonfalonier, guiding and leading -them with its voice' (Brunetto Latini, _Tesoro_, v. 27). - -[256] _What folk are these_: The general crowd of sinners guilty of -unlawful love are described as being close packed like starlings. The -other troop, who go in single file like cranes, are those regarding whom -Dante specially inquires; and they prove to be the nobler sort of -sinners--lovers with something tragic or pathetic in their fate. - -[257] _The next_: Dido, perhaps not named by Virgil because to him she -owed her fame. For love of Æneas she broke the vow of perpetual chastity -made on the tomb of her husband. - -[258] _At the last, etc._: Achilles, when about to espouse Polyxena, and -when off his guard, was slain. - -[259] _Paris ... and Tristram_: Paris of Troy, and the Tristram of King -Arthur's Table. - -[260] _So light_: Denoting the violence of the passion to which they had -succumbed. - -[261] _If none_: If no Superior Power. - -[262] _Doves_: The motion of the tempest-driven shades is compared to -the flight of birds--starlings, cranes, and doves. This last simile -prepares us for the tenderness of Francesca's tale. - -[263] _Dido_: Has been already indicated, and is now named. This -association of the two lovers with Virgil's Dido is a further delicate -touch to engage our sympathy; for her love, though illicit, was the -infirmity of a noble heart. - -[264] _Living creature_: 'Animal.' No shade, but an animated body. - -[265] _Thy peace_: Peace from all the doubts that assail him, and which -have compelled him to the journey: peace, it may be, from temptation to -sin cognate to her own. Even in the gloom of Inferno her great -goodheartedness is left her--a consolation, if not a grace. - -[266] _Your demand_: By a refinement of courtesy, Francesca, though -addressing only Dante, includes Virgil in her profession of willingness -to tell all they care to hear. But as almost always, he remains silent. -It is not for his good the journey is being made. - -[267] _Native city_: Ravenna. The speaker is Francesca, daughter of -Guido of Polenta, lord of Ravenna. About the year 1275 she was married -to Gianciotto (Deformed John) Malatesta, son of the lord of Rimini; the -marriage, like most of that time in the class to which she belonged, -being one of political convenience. She allowed her affections to settle -on Paolo, her husband's handsome brother; and Gianciotto's suspicions -having been aroused, he surprised the lovers and slew them on the spot. -This happened at Pesaro. The association of Francesca's name with Rimini -is merely accidental. The date of her death is not known. Dante can -never have set eyes on Francesca; but at the battle of Campaldino in -1289, where he was present, a troop of cavaliers from Pistoia fought on -the Florentine side under the command of her brother Bernardino; and in -the following year, Dante being then twenty-five years of age, her -father, Guido, was Podesta in Florence. The Guido of Polenta, lord of -Ravenna, whom Dante had for his last and most generous patron, was -grandson of that elder Guido, and nephew of Francesca. - -[268] _To have lost it so_: A husband's right and duty were too well -defined in the prevalent social code for her to complain that Gianciotto -avenged himself. What she does resent is that she was left no -breathing-space for repentance and farewells. - -[269] _Which absolves, etc._: Which compels whoever is beloved to love -in return. Here is the key to Dante's comparatively lenient estimate of -the guilt of Francesca's sin. See line 39, and _Inf._ xi. 83. The Church -allowed no distinctions with regard to the lost. Dante, for his own -purposes, invents a scale of guilt; and in settling the degrees of it he -is greatly influenced by human feeling--sometimes by private likes and -dislikes. The vestibule of the caitiffs, _e.g._, is his own creation. - -[270] _Caïna_: The Division of the Ninth and lowest Circle, assigned to -those treacherous to their kindred (_Inf._ xxxii. 58). Her husband was -still living in 1300.--May not the words of this line be spoken by -Paolo? It is as a fratricide even more than as the slayer of his wife -that Gianciotto is to find his place in Caïna. The words are more in -keeping with the masculine than the feminine character. They certainly -jar somewhat with the gentler censure of line 102. And, immediately -after, Dante speaks of what the 'souls' have said. - -[271] _Thy teacher_: Boethius, one of Dante's favourite authors -(_Convito_ ii. 13), says in his _De Consol. Phil._, 'The greatest misery -in adverse fortune is once to have been happy.' But, granting that Dante -found the idea in Boethius, it is clearly Virgil that Francesca means. -She sees that Dante's guide is a shade, and gathers from his grave -passionless aspect that he is one condemned for ever to look back with -futile regret upon his happier past. - -[272] _Lancelot_: King Arthur's famous knight, who was too bashful to -make his love for Queen Guinivere known to her. Galahad, holding the -secret of both, persuaded the Queen to make the first declaration of -love at a meeting he arranged for between them. Her smile, or laugh, as -she 'took Lancelot by the chin and kissed him,' assured her lover of his -conquest. The Arthurian Romances were the favourite reading of the -Italian nobles of Dante's time. - -[273] _Galahad_: From the part played by Galahad, or Galeotto, in the -tale of Lancelot, his name grew to be Italian for Pander. The book, says -Francesca, was that which tells of Galahad; and the author of it proved -a very Galahad to us. The early editions of the _Decameron_ bear the -second title of 'The Prince Galeotto.' - - - - -CANTO VI. - - - When I regained my senses, which had fled - At my compassion for the kindred two, - Which for pure sorrow quite had turned my head, - New torments and a crowd of sufferers new - I see around me as I move again,[274] - Where'er I turn, where'er I bend my view. - In the Third Circle am I of the rain - Which, heavy, cold, eternal, big with woe, - Doth always of one kind and force remain. - Large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow, 10 - Keep pouring down athwart the murky air; - And from the ground they fall on, stenches grow. - The savage Cerberus,[275] a monster drear, - Howls from his threefold throat with canine cries - Above the people who are whelmèd there. - Oily and black his beard, and red his eyes, - His belly huge: claws from his fingers sprout. - The shades he flays, hooks, rends in cruel wise. - Beat by the rain these, dog-like, yelp and shout, - And shield themselves in turn with either side; 20 - And oft[276] the wretched sinners turn about. - When we by Cerberus, great worm,[277] were spied, - He oped his mouths and all his fangs he showed, - While not a limb did motionless abide. - My Leader having spread his hands abroad, - Filled both his fists with earth ta'en from the ground, - And down the ravening gullets flung the load. - Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound, - But is appeased when at his meat he gnaws, - And, worrying it, forgets all else around; 30 - So with those filthy faces there it was - Of the fiend Cerberus, who deafs the crowd - Of souls till they from hearing fain would pause. - We, travelling o'er the spirits who lay cowed - And sorely by the grievous showers harassed, - Upon their semblances[278] of bodies trod. - Prone on the ground the whole of them were cast, - Save one of them who sat upright with speed - When he beheld that near to him we passed. - 'O thou who art through this Inferno led,[279] 40 - Me if thou canst,' he asked me, 'recognise; - For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.' - And I to him: 'Thy present tortured guise - Perchance hath blurred my memory of thy face, - Until it seems I ne'er on thee set eyes. - But tell me who thou art, within this place - So cruel set, exposed to such a pain, - Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.' - And he: 'Thy city, swelling with the bane - Of envy till the sack is running o'er, 50 - Me in the life serene did once contain. - As Ciacco[280] me your citizens named of yore; - And for the damning sin of gluttony - I, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower. - No solitary woful soul am I, - For all of these endure the selfsame doom - For the same fault.' Here ended his reply. - I answered him, 'O Ciacco, with such gloom - Thy misery weighs me, I to weep am prone; - But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come 60 - The citizens[281] of the divided town. - Holds it one just man? And declare the cause - Why 'tis of discord such a victim grown.' - Then he to me: 'After[282] contentious pause - Blood will be spilt; the boorish party[283] then - Will chase the others forth with grievous loss. - The former it behoves to fall again - Within three suns, the others to ascend, - Holpen[284] by him whose wiles ere now are plain. - Long time, with heads held high, they'll make to bend - The other party under burdens dire, 71 - Howe'er themselves in tears and rage they spend. - There are two just[285] men, at whom none inquire. - Envy, and pride, and avarice, even these - Are the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.' - With this the tearful sound he made to cease: - And I to him, 'Yet would I have thee tell-- - And of thy speech do thou the gift increase-- - Tegghiaio[286] and Farinata, honourable, - James Rusticucci,[287] Mosca, Arrigo, 80 - With all the rest so studious to excel - In good; where are they? Help me this to know; - Great hunger for the news hath seizèd me; - Delights them Heaven, or tortures Hell below?' - He said: 'Among the blackest souls they be; - Them to the bottom weighs another sin. - Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see. - But when[288] the sweet world thou again dost win, - I pray thee bring me among men to mind; - No more I tell, nor new reply begin.' 90 - Then his straightforward eyes askance declined; - He looked at me a moment ere his head - He bowed; then fell flat 'mong the other blind. - 'Henceforth he waketh not,' my Leader said, - 'Till he shall hear the angel's trumpet sound, - Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shade - Its dismal sepulchre shall then be found, - Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume, - And list[289] what echoes in eternal round.' - So passed we where the shades and rainy spume 100 - Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow; - Touching a little on the world to come.[290] - Wherefore I said: 'Master, shall torments grow - After the awful sentence hath been heard, - Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?' - 'Repair unto thy Science,'[291] was his word; - 'Which tells, as things approach a perfect state - To keener joy or suffering they are stirred. - Therefore although this people cursed by fate - Ne'er find perfection in its full extent, 110 - To it they then shall more approximate - Than now.'[292] Our course we round the circle bent, - Still holding speech, of which I nothing say, - Until we came where down the pathway went: - There found we Plutus, the great enemy. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[274] _As I move again_: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the -Second Circle down to the Third. - -[275] _Cerberus_: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of -the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his -three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately -set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and -wine-bibbers. - -[276] _And oft, etc._: On entering the circle the shades are seized and -torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated -as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be -subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, -touch, and smell are assailed by the opposite of what they were most -used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts. - -[277] _Great worm_: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so -called as being a disgusting brute. - -[278] _Semblances, etc._: 'Emptiness which seems to be a person.' To -this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has -difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with -the sleet to make a sludgy mass; and cannot therefore be impalpable. - -[279] Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante's tread that he is -a living man. - -[280] _Ciacco_: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his -day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though -poor, Ciacco associated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as -ate and drank delicately. In the _Decameron_, ix. 8, he is introduced as -being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose -himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his -pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial -surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not -quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim. - -[281] _The citizens, etc._: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics -with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno. - -[282] _After, etc._: In the following nine lines the party history of -Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is -roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions--the Whites, -led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso -Donati, a poor and turbulent noble. At the close of 1300 there was a -bloody encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In -May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they -returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and -got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of -the poet's talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was associated with the -Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong -politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June -till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course -of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an embassy to Rome to persuade -the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never -entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in -January 1302. - -[283] _The boorish party_: _la parte selvaggia_. The Whites; but what is -exactly meant by _selvaggia_ is not clear. Literally it is 'woodland,' -and some say it refers to the Cerchi having originally come from a -well-wooded district; which is absurd. Nor, taking the word in its -secondary meaning of savage, does it apply better to one party than -another--not so well, perhaps, to the Whites as to the Blacks. Villani -also terms the Cerchi _salvatichi_ (viii. 39), and in a connection where -it may mean rude, ill-mannered. I take it that Dante here indulges in a -gibe at the party to which he once belonged, but which, ere he began the -_Comedy_, he had quite broken with. In _Parad._ xvii. 62 he terms the -members of it 'wicked and stupid.' The sneer in the text would come well -enough from the witty and soft-living Ciacco. - -[284] _Holpen, etc._: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the -preponderance in Florence, which for a time he enjoyed, with the greedy -and faithless Charles of Valois for his agent. - -[285] _Two just_: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts -from himself any blame for the evil turn things had taken in Florence. -How thoroughly he had broken with his party ere he wrote this is proved -by his exclusion of the irresolute but respectable Vieri dei Cerchi from -the number of the just men. He, in Dante's judgment, was only too much -listened to.--It will be borne in mind that, at the time assigned to the -action of the _Comedy_, Dante was still resident in Florence. - -[286] _Tegghiaio_: See _Inf._ xvi. 42. _Farinata_: _Inf._ x. 32. - -[287] _Rusticucci_: _Inf._ xvi. 44. _Mosca_: _Inf._ xxviii. 106. -_Arrigo_: Cannot be identified. All these distinguished Florentines we -may assume to have been hospitable patrons of Ciacco's. - -[288] _But when, etc._: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed -to Dante. The shades in Purgatory ask to have their friends on earth -stirred to offer up petitions for their speedy purification and -deliverance; but the only alleviation possible for the doomed spirits is -to know that they are not yet forgotten up in the 'sweet world.' A -double artistic purpose is served by representing them as feeling thus. -It relieves the mind to think that in such misery there is any source of -comfort at all. And by making them be still interested on their own -account in the thoughts of men, the eager colloquies in which they -engage with Dante on such unequal terms gain in verisimilitude. - -[289] _And list, etc._: The final sentence against them is to echo, in -its results, through all eternity. - -[290] _The world to come_: The life after doomsday. - -[291] _Thy Science_: To Aristotle. In the _Convito_, iv. 16, he quotes -'the Philosopher' as teaching that 'everything is then at its full -perfection when it thoroughly fulfils its special functions.' - -[292] _Than now_: Augustine says that 'after the resurrection of the -flesh the joys of the blessed and the sufferings of the wicked will be -enhanced.' And, according to Thomas Aquinas, 'the soul, without the -body, is wanting in the perfection designed for it by Nature.' - - - - -CANTO VII. - - - Pape[293] Satan! Pape Satan! Aleppe! - Plutus[294] began in accents rough and hard: - And that mild Sage, all-knowing, said to me, - For my encouragement: 'Pay no regard - Unto thy fear; whatever power he sways - Thy passage down this cliff shall not be barred.' - Then turning round to that inflamèd face - He bade: 'Accursed wolf,[295] at peace remain; - And, pent within thee, let thy fury blaze. - Down to the pit we journey not in vain: 10 - So rule they where by Michael in Heaven's height - On the adulterous pride[296] was vengeance ta'en.' - Then as the bellied sails, by wind swelled tight, - Suddenly drag whenever snaps the mast; - Such, falling to the ground, the monster's plight. - To the Fourth Cavern so we downward passed, - Winning new reaches of the doleful shore - Where all the vileness of the world is cast. - Justice of God! which pilest more and more - Pain as I saw, and travail manifold! 20 - Why will we sin, to be thus wasted sore? - As at Charybdis waves are forward rolled - To break on other billows midway met, - The people here a counterdance must hold. - A greater crowd than I had seen as yet, - With piercing yells advanced on either track, - Rolling great stones to which their chests were set. - They crashed together, and then each turned back - Upon the way he came, while shouts arise, - 'Why clutch it so?' and 'Why to hold it slack?' 30 - In the dark circle wheeled they on this wise - From either hand to the opposing part, - Where evermore they raised insulting cries. - Thither arrived, each, turning, made fresh start - Through the half circle[297] a new joust to run; - And I, stung almost to the very heart, - Said, 'O my Master, wilt thou make it known - Who the folk are? Were these all clerks[298] who go - Before us on the left, with shaven crown?' - And he replied: 'All of them squinted so 40 - In mental vision while in life they were, - They nothing spent by rule. And this they show, - And with their yelping voices make appear - When half-way round the circle they have sped, - And sins opposing them asunder tear. - Each wanting thatch of hair upon his head - Was once a clerk, or pope, or cardinal, - In whom abound the ripest growths of greed.' - And I: 'O Master, surely among all - Of these I ought[299] some few to recognise, 50 - Who by such filthy sins were held in thrall.' - And he to me: 'Vain thoughts within thee rise; - Their witless life, which made them vile, now mocks-- - Dimming[300] their faces still--all searching eyes. - Eternally they meet with hostile shocks; - These rising from the tomb at last shall stand - With tight clenched fists, and those with ruined locks.[301] - Squandering or hoarding, they the happy land[302] - Have lost, and now are marshalled for this fray; - Which to describe doth no fine words demand. 60 - Know hence, my Son, how fleeting is the play - Of goods at the dispose of Fortune thrown, - And which mankind to such fierce strife betray. - Not all the gold which is beneath the moon - Could purchase peace, nor all that ever was, - To but one soul of these by toil undone.' - 'Master,' I said, 'tell thou, ere making pause, - Who Fortune is of whom thou speak'st askance, - Who holds all worldly riches in her claws.'[303] - 'O foolish creatures, lost in ignorance!' 70 - He answer made. 'Now see that the reply - Thou store, which I concerning her advance. - He who in knowledge is exalted high, - Framing[304] all Heavens gave such as should them guide, - That so each part might shine to all; whereby - Is equal light diffused on every side: - And likewise to one guide and governor, - Of worldly splendours did control confide, - That she in turns should different peoples dower 79 - With this vain good; from blood should make it pass - To blood, in spite of human wit. Hence, power, - Some races failing,[305] other some amass, - According to her absolute decree - Which hidden lurks, like serpent in the grass. - Vain 'gainst her foresight yours must ever be. - She makes provision, judges, holds her reign, - As doth his power supreme each deity. - Her permutations can no truce sustain; - Necessity[306] compels her to be swift, - So swift they follow who their turn must gain. 90 - And this is she whom they so often[307] lift - Upon the cross, who ought to yield her praise; - And blame on her and scorn unjustly shift. - But she is blest nor hears what any says, - With other primal creatures turns her sphere, - Jocund and glad, rejoicing in her ways. - To greater woe now let us downward steer. - The stars[308] which rose when I began to guide - Are falling now, nor may we linger here.' - We crossed the circle to the other side, 100 - Arriving where a boiling fountain fell - Into a brooklet by its streams supplied. - In depth of hue the flood did perse[309] excel, - And we, with this dim stream to lead us on, - Descended by a pathway terrible. - A marsh which by the name of Styx is known, - Fed by this gloomy brook, lies at the base - Of threatening cliffs hewn out of cold grey stone. - And I, intent on study of the place,[310] - Saw people in that ditch, mud-smeared. In it 110 - All naked stood with anger-clouded face. - Nor with their fists alone each fiercely hit - The other, but with feet and chest and head, - And with their teeth to shreds each other bit. - 'Son, now behold,' the worthy Master said, - 'The souls of those whom anger made a prize; - And, further, I would have thee certified - That 'neath the water people utter sighs, - And make the bubbles to the surface come; - As thou mayst see by casting round thine eyes. 120 - Fixed in the mud they say: "We lived in gloom[311] - In the sweet air made jocund by the day, - Nursing within us melancholy fume. - In this black mud we now our gloom display." - This hymn with gurgling throats they strive to sound, - Which they in speech unbroken fail to say.' - And thus about the loathsome pool we wound - For a wide arc, between the dry and soft, - With eyes on those who gulp the filth, turned round. - At last we reached a tower that soared aloft. 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[293] _Pape, etc._: These words have exercised the ingenuity of many -scholars, who on the whole lean to the opinion that they contain an -appeal to Satan against the invasion of his domain. Virgil seems to have -understood them, but the text leaves it doubtful whether Dante himself -did. Later on, but there with an obvious purpose, we find a line of pure -gibberish (_Inf._ xxxi. 67). - -[294] _Plutus_: The god of riches; degraded here into a demon. He guards -the Fourth Circle, which is that of the misers and spendthrifts. - -[295] _Wolf_: Frequently used by Dante as symbolical of greed. - -[296] _Pride_: Which in its way was a kind of greed--that of dominion. -Similarly, the avarice represented by the wolf of Canto i. was seen to -be the lust of aggrandisement. Virgil here answers Plutus's (supposed) -appeal to Satan by referring to the higher Power, under whose protection -he and his companion come. - -[297] _The half circle_: This Fourth Circle is divided half-way round -between the misers and spendthrifts, and the two bands at set periods -clash against one another in their vain effort to pass into the section -belonging to the opposite party. Their condition is emblematical of -their sins while in life. They were one-sided in their use of wealth; so -here they can never complete the circle. The monotony of their -employment and of their cries represents their subjection to one idea, -and, as in life, so now, their displeasure is excited by nothing so much -as by coming into contact with the failing opposite to their own. Yet -they are set in the same circle because the sin of both arose from -inordinate desire of wealth, the miser craving it to hoard, and the -spendthrift to spend. In Purgatory also they are placed together (see -_Purg._ xxii. 40). So, on Dante's scheme, liberality is allied to and -dependent on a wise and reasonable frugality.--There is no hint of the -enormous length of the course run by these shades. Far lower down, when -the circles of the Inferno have greatly narrowed, the circuit is -twenty-two miles (_Inf._ xxix. 9). - -[298] _Clerks_: Churchmen. The tonsure is the sign that a man is of -ecclesiastical condition. Many took the tonsure who never became -priests. - -[299] _I ought, etc._: Dante is astonished that he can pick out no -greedy priest or friar of his acquaintance, when he had known so many. - -[300] _Dimming, etc._: Their original disposition is by this time -smothered by the predominance of greed. Dante treats these sinners with -a special contemptuous bitterness. Scores of times since he became -dependent on the generosity of others he must have watched how at a bare -hint the faces of miser and spendthrift fell, while their eyes travelled -vaguely beyond him, and their voices grew cold. - -[301] _Ruined locks_: 'A spendthrift will spend his very hair,' says an -Italian proverb. - -[302] _The happy land_: Heaven. - -[303] _Her claws_: Dante speaks of Fortune as if she were a brutal and -somewhat malicious power. In Virgil's answer there is a refutation of -the opinion of Fortune given by Dante himself, in the _Convito_ (iv. -11). After describing three ways in which the goods of Fortune come to -men he says: 'In each of these three ways her injustice is manifest.' -This part of the _Convito_ Fraticelli seems almost to prove was written -in 1297. - -[304] _Framing, etc._: According to the scholastic theory of the world, -each of the nine heavens was directed in its motion by intelligences, -called angels by the vulgar, and by the heathen, gods (_Convito_ ii. 5). -As these spheres and the influences they exercise on human affairs are -under the guidance of divinely-appointed ministers, so, Virgil says, is -the distribution of worldly wealth ruled by Providence through Fortune. - -[305] _Some races failing_: It was long believed, nor is the belief -quite obsolete, that one community can gain only at the expense of -another. Sir Thomas Browne says: 'All cannot be happy at once; for -because the glory of one state depends upon the ruin of another, there -is a revolution and vicissitude of their greatness, and all must obey -the swing of that wheel, not moved by intelligences, but by the hand of -God, whereby all states arise to their zeniths and vertical points -according to their predestinated periods.'--_Rel. Med._ i. 17. - -[306] _Necessity, etc._: Suggested, perhaps, by Horace's _Te semper -anteit sæva necessitas_ (_Od._ i. 35). The question of how men can be -free in the face of necessity, here associated with Fortune, more than -once emerges in the _Comedy_. Dante's belief on the subject was -substantially that of his favourite author Boethius, who holds that -ultimately 'it is Providence that turns the wheel of all things;' and -who says, that 'if you spread your sails to the wind you will be -carried, not where you would, but whither you are driven by the gale: if -you choose to commit yourself to Fortune, you must endure the manners of -your mistress.' - -[307] _Whom they so often, etc._: Treat with contumely. - -[308] _The stars, etc._: It is now past midnight, and towards the -morning of Saturday, the 26th of March 1300. Only a few hours have been -employed as yet upon the journey. - -[309] _Perse_: 'Perse is a colour between purple and black, but the -black predominates' (_Conv._ iv. 20). The hue of the waters of Styx -agrees with the gloomy temper of the sinners plunged in them. - -[310] _The place_: They are now in the Fifth Circle, where the wrathful -are punished. - -[311] _In gloom_: These submerged spirits are, according to the older -commentators, the slothful--those guilty of the sin of slackness in the -pursuit of good, as, _e.g._ neglect of the means of grace. This is, -theologically speaking, the sin directly opposed to the active grace of -charity. By more modern critics it has been ingeniously sought to find -in this circle a place not only for the slothful but for the proud and -envious as well. To each of these classes of sinners--such of them as -have repented in this life--a terrace of Purgatory is assigned, and at -first sight it does seem natural to expect that the impenitent among -them should be found in Inferno. But, while in Purgatory souls purge -themselves of every kind of mortal sin, Inferno, as Dante conceived of -it, contains only such sinners as have been guilty of wicked acts. Drift -and bent of heart and mind are taken no account of. The evil seed must -have borne a harvest, and the guilt of every victim of Justice must be -plain and open. Now, pride and envy are sins indeed, but sins that a man -may keep to himself. If they have betrayed the subject of them into the -commission of crimes, in those crimes they are punished lower down, as -is indicated at xii. 49. And so we find that Lucifer is condemned as a -traitor, though his treachery sprang from envy: the greater guilt -includes the less. For sluggishness in the pursuit of good the vestibule -of the caitiffs seems the appropriate place.--There are two kinds of -wrath. One is vehement, and declares itself in violent acts; the other -does not blaze out, but is grudging and adverse to all social good--the -wrath that is nursed. One as much as the other affects behaviour. So in -this circle, as in the preceding, we have represented the two excesses -of one sin.--Dante's theory of sins is ably treated of in Witte's -_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 121. - - - - -CANTO VIII. - - - I say, continuing,[312] that long before - To its foundations we approachèd nigh - Our eyes went travelling to the top of the tower; - For, hung out there, two flames[313] we could espy. - Then at such distance, scarce our eyesight made - It clearly out, another gave reply. - And, to the Sea of Knowledge turned, I said: - 'What meaneth this? and what reply would yield - That other light, and who have it displayed?' - 'Thou shouldst upon the impure watery field,' 10 - He said, 'already what approaches know, - But that the fen-fog holds it still concealed.' - Never was arrow yet from sharp-drawn bow - Urged through the air upon a swifter flight - Than what I saw a tiny vessel show, - Across the water shooting into sight; - A single pilot served it for a crew, - Who shouted: 'Art thou come, thou guilty sprite?'[314] - 'O Phlegyas, Phlegyas,[315] this thy loud halloo! - For once,' my Lord said, 'idle is and vain. 20 - Thou hast us only till the mud we're through.' - And, as one cheated inly smarts with pain - When the deceit wrought on him is betrayed, - His gathering ire could Phlegyas scarce contain. - Into the bark my Leader stepped, and made - Me take my place beside him; nor a jot, - Till I had entered, was it downward weighed. - Soon as my Guide and I were in the boat, - To cleave the flood began the ancient prow, - Deeper[316] than 'tis with others wont to float. 30 - Then, as the stagnant ditch we glided through, - One smeared with filth in front of me arose - And said: 'Thus coming ere thy period,[317] who - Art thou?' And I: 'As one who forthwith goes - I come; but thou defiled, how name they thee?' - 'I am but one who weeps,'[318] he said. 'With woes,' - I answered him, 'with tears and misery, - Accursèd soul, remain; for thou art known - Unto me now, all filthy though thou be.' - Then both his hands were on the vessel thrown; 40 - But him my wary Master backward heaved, - Saying: 'Do thou 'mong the other dogs be gone!' - Then to my neck with both his arms he cleaved, - And kissed my face, and, 'Soul disdainful,'[319] said, - 'O blessed she in whom thou wast conceived! - He in the world great haughtiness displayed. - No deeds of worth his memory adorn; - And therefore rages here his sinful shade. - And many are there by whom crowns are worn - On earth, shall wallow here like swine in mire, 50 - Leaving behind them names o'erwhelmed[320] in scorn.' - And I: 'O Master, I have great desire - To see him well soused in this filthy tide, - Ere from the lake we finally retire.' - And he: 'Or ever shall have been descried - The shore by thee, thy longing shall be met; - For such a wish were justly gratified.' - A little after in such fierce onset - The miry people down upon him bore, - I praise and bless God for it even yet. 60 - 'Philip Argenti![321] at him!' was the roar; - And then that furious spirit Florentine - Turned with his teeth upon himself and tore. - Here was he left, nor wins more words of mine. - Now in my ears a lamentation rung, - Whence I to search what lies ahead begin. - And the good Master told me: 'Son, ere long - We to the city called of Dis[322] draw near, - Where in great armies cruel burghers[323] throng.' - And I: 'Already, Master, I appear 70 - Mosques[324] in the valley to distinguish well, - Vermilion, as if they from furnace were - Fresh come.' And he: 'Fires everlasting dwell - Within them, whence appear they glowing hot, - As thou discernest in this lower hell.' - We to the moat profound at length were brought, - Which girds that city all disconsolate; - The walls around it seemed of iron wrought. - Not without fetching first a compass great, - We came to where with angry cry at last: 80 - 'Get out,' the boatman yelled; 'behold the gate!'[325] - More than a thousand, who from Heaven[326] were cast, - I saw above the gates, who furiously - Demanded: 'Who, ere death on him has passed, - Holds through the region of the dead his way?' - And my wise Master made to them a sign - That he had something secretly to say. - Then ceased they somewhat from their great disdain, - And said: 'Come thou, but let that one be gone - Who thus presumptuous enters on this reign. 90 - Let him retrace his madcap way alone, - If he but can; thou meanwhile lingering here, - Through such dark regions who hast led him down.' - Judge, reader, if I was not filled with fear, - Hearing the words of this accursèd threat; - For of return my hopes extinguished were. - 'Beloved Guide, who more than seven times[327] set - Me in security, and safely brought - Through frightful dangers in my progress met, - Leave me not thus undone;' I him besought: 100 - 'If further progress be to us denied, - Let us retreat together, tarrying not.' - The Lord who led me thither then replied: - 'Fear not: by One so great has been assigned - Our passage, vainly were all hindrance tried. - Await me here, and let thy fainting mind - Be comforted and with good hope be fed, - Not to be left in this low world behind.' - Thus goes he, thus am I abandonèd - By my sweet Father. I in doubt remain, 110 - With Yes and No[328] contending in my head. - I could not hear what speech he did maintain, - But no long time conferred he in that place, - Till, to be first, all inward raced again. - And then the gates were closed in my Lord's face - By these our enemies; outside stood he; - Then backward turned to me with lingering pace, - With downcast eyes, and all the bravery - Stripped from his brows; and he exclaimed with sighs; - 'Who dare[329] deny the doleful seats to me!' 120 - And then he said: 'Although my wrath arise, - Fear not, for I to victory will pursue, - Howe'er within they plot, the enterprise. - This arrogance of theirs is nothing new; - They showed it[330] once at a less secret door - Which stands unbolted since. Thou didst it view, - And saw the dark-writ legend which it bore. - Thence, even now, is one who hastens down - Through all the circles, guideless, to this shore, - And he shall win us entrance to the town.' 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[312] _Continuing_: The account of the Fifth Circle, begun in the -preceding Canto, is continued in this. It is impossible to adopt -Boccaccio's story of how the first seven Cantos were found among a heap -of other papers, years after Dante's exile began; and that 'continuing' -marks the resumption of his work. The word most probably suggested the -invention of the incident, or at least led to the identification of some -manuscript that may have been sent to Dante, with the opening pages of -the _Comedy_. If the tale were true, not only must Ciacco's prophecy -(_Inf._ vi.) have been interpolated, but we should be obliged to hold -that Dante began the poem while he was a prosperous citizen.--Boccaccio -himself in his Comment on the _Comedy_ points out the difficulty of -reconciling the story with Ciacco's prophecy. - -[313] _Two flames_: Denoting the number of passengers who are to be -conveyed across the Stygian pool. It is a signal for the ferryman, and -is answered by a light hung out on the battlements of the city of Dis. - -[314] _Guilty sprite_: Only one is addressed; whether Virgil or Dante is -not clear. - -[315] _Phlegyas_: Who burnt the temple of Apollo at Delphi in revenge -for the violation of his daughter by the god. - -[316] _Deeper, etc._: Because used to carry only shades. - -[317] _Ere thy period_: The curiosity of the shade is excited by the -sinking of the boat in the water. He assumes that Dante will one day be -condemned to Inferno. Neither Francesca nor Ciacco made a like mistake. - -[318] _One who weeps_: He is ashamed to tell his name, and hopes in his -vile disguise to remain unknown by Dante, whose Florentine speech and -dress, and perhaps whose features, he has now recognised. - -[319] _Soul disdainful_: Dante has been found guilty of here glorying in -the same sin which he so severely reprobates in others. But, without -question, of set purpose he here contrasts righteous indignation with -the ignoble rage punished in this circle. With his quick temper and zeal -so often kindling into flame, he may have felt a special personal need -of emphasising the distinction. - -[320] _Names o'erwhelmed, etc._: 'Horrible reproaches.' - -[321] _Philip Argenti_: A Florentine gentleman related to the great -family of the Adimari, and a contemporary of Dante's. Boccaccio in his -commentary describes him as a cavalier, very rich, and so ostentatious -that he once shod his horse with silver, whence his surname. In the -_Decameron_ (ix. 8) he is introduced as violently assaulting--tearing -out his hair and dragging him in the mire--the victim of a practical -joke played by the Ciacco of Canto vi. Some, without reason, suppose -that Dante shows such severity to him because he was a Black, and so a -political opponent of his own. - -[322] _Dis_: A name of Pluto, the god of the infernal regions. - -[323] _Burghers_: The city of Dis composes the Sixth Circle, and, as -immediately appears, is populated by demons. The sinners punished in it -are not mentioned at all in this Canto, and it seems more reasonable to -apply _burghers_ to the demons than to the shades. They are called -_gravi_, generally taken to mean sore burdened, and the description is -then applicable to the shades; but _grave_ also bears the sense of -cruel, and may describe the fierceness of the devils. Though the city is -inhabited by the subjects of Dis, he is found as Lucifer at the very -bottom of the pit. By some critics the whole of the lower Inferno, all -that lies beyond this point, is regarded as being the city of Dis. But -it is the Sixth Circle, with its minarets, that is the city; its walls, -however, serving as bulwarks for all the lower Inferno. The shape of the -city is, of course, that of a circular belt. Here it may be noted that -the Fifth and Sixth Circles are on the same level; the water of Styx, -which as a marsh covers the Fifth, is gathered into a moat to surround -the walls of the Sixth. - -[324] _Mosques_: The feature of an Infidel city that first struck -crusader and pilgrim. - -[325] _The gate_: They have floated across the stagnant marsh into the -deeper waters of the moat, and up to the gate where Phlegyas is used to -land his passengers. It may be a question whether his services are -required for all who are doomed to the lower Inferno, or only for those -bound to the city. - -[326] _From Heaven_: 'Rained from Heaven.' Fallen angels. - -[327] _Seven times_: Given as a round number. - -[328] _Yes and No_: He will return--He will not return. The demons have -said that Virgil shall remain, and he has promised Dante not to desert -him. - -[329] _Who dare, etc._: Virgil knows the hindrance is only temporary, -but wonders what superior devilish power can have incited the demons to -deny him entrance. The incident displays the fallen angels as being -still rebellious, and is at the same time skilfully conceived to mark a -pause before Dante enters on the lower Inferno. - -[330] _They showed it, etc._: At the gate of Inferno, on the occasion of -Christ's descent to Limbo. The reference is to the words in the Missal -service for Easter Eve: 'This is the night in which, having burst the -bonds of death, Christ victoriously ascended from Hell.' - - - - -CANTO IX. - - - The hue which cowardice on my face did paint - When I beheld my guide return again, - Put his new colour[331] quicker 'neath restraint. - Like one who listens did he fixed remain; - For far to penetrate the air like night, - And heavy mist, the eye was bent in vain. - 'Yet surely we must vanquish in the fight;' - Thus he, 'unless[332]--but with such proffered aid-- - O how I weary till he come in sight!' - Well I remarked how he transition made, 10 - Covering his opening words with those behind, - Which contradicted what at first he said. - Nath'less his speech with terror charged my mind, - For, haply, to the word which broken fell - Worse meaning than he purposed, I assigned. - Down to this bottom[333] of the dismal shell - Comes ever any from the First Degree,[334] - Where all their pain is, stripped of hope to dwell? - To this my question thus responded he: - 'Seldom it haps to any to pursue 20 - The journey now embarked upon by me. - Yet I ere this descended, it is true, - Beneath a spell of dire Erichtho's[335] laid, - Who could the corpse with soul inform anew. - Short while my flesh of me was empty made - When she required me to o'erpass that wall, - From Judas' circle[336] to abstract a shade. - That is the deepest, darkest place of all, - And furthest from the heaven[337] which moves the skies; - I know the way; fear nought that can befall. 30 - These fens[338] from which vile exhalations rise - The doleful city all around invest, - Which now we reach not save in angry wise.' - Of more he spake nought in my mind doth rest, - For, with mine eyes, my every thought had been - Fixed on the lofty tower with flaming crest, - Where, in a moment and upright, were seen - Three hellish furies, all with blood defaced, - And woman-like in members and in mien. - Hydras of brilliant green begirt their waist; 40 - Snakes and cerastes for their tresses grew, - And these were round their dreadful temples braced. - That they the drudges were, full well he knew, - Of her who is the queen of endless woes, - And said to me: 'The fierce Erynnyes[339] view! - Herself upon the left Megæra shows; - That is Alecto weeping on the right; - Tisiphone's between.' Here made he close. - Each with her nails her breast tore, and did smite - Herself with open palms. They screamed in tone 50 - So fierce, I to the Poet clove for fright. - 'Medusa,[340] come, that we may make him stone!' - All shouted as they downward gazed; 'Alack! - Theseus[341] escaped us when he ventured down.' - 'Keep thine eyes closed and turn to them thy back, - For if the Gorgon chance to be displayed - And thou shouldst look, farewell the upward track!' - Thus spake the Master, and himself he swayed - Me round about; nor put he trust in mine - But his own hands upon mine eyelids laid. 60 - O ye with judgment gifted to divine - Look closely now, and mark what hidden lore - Lies 'neath the veil of my mysterious line![342] - Across the turbid waters came a roar - And crash of sound, which big with fear arose: - Because of it fell trembling either shore. - The fashion of it was as when there blows - A blast by cross heats made to rage amain, - Which smites the forest and without repose - The shattered branches sweeps in hurricane; 70 - In clouds of dust, majestic, onward flies, - Wild beasts and herdsmen driving o'er the plain. - 'Sharpen thy gaze,' he bade--and freed mine eyes-- - 'Across the foam-flecked immemorial lake, - Where sourest vapour most unbroken lies.' - And as the frogs before the hostile snake - Together of the water get them clear, - And on the dry ground, huddling, shelter take; - More than a thousand ruined souls in fear - Beheld I flee from one who, dry of feet, 80 - Was by the Stygian ferry drawing near. - Waving his left hand he the vapour beat - Swiftly from 'fore his face, nor seemed he spent - Save with fatigue at having this to meet. - Well I opined that he from Heaven[343] was sent, - And to my Master turned. His gesture taught - I should be dumb and in obeisance bent. - Ah me, how with disdain appeared he fraught! - He reached the gate, which, touching with a rod,[344] - He oped with ease, for it resisted not. 90 - 'People despised and banished far from God,' - Upon the awful threshold then he spoke, - 'How holds in you such insolence abode? - Why kick against that will which never broke - Short of its end, if ever it begin, - And often for you fiercer torments woke? - Butting 'gainst fate, what can ye hope to win? - Your Cerberus,[345] as is to you well known, - Still bears for this a well-peeled throat and chin.' - Then by the passage foul he back was gone, 100 - Nor spake to us, but like a man was he - By other cares[346] absorbed and driven on - Than that of those who may around him be. - And we, confiding in the sacred word, - Moved toward the town in all security. - We entered without hindrance, and I, spurred - By my desire the character to know - And style of place such strong defences gird, - Entering, begin mine eyes around to throw, - And see on every hand a vast champaign, 110 - The teeming seat of torments and of woe. - And as at Arles[347] where Rhone spreads o'er the plain, - Or Pola,[348] hard upon Quarnaro sound - Which bathes the boundaries Italian, - The sepulchres uneven make the ground; - So here on every side, but far more dire - And grievous was the fashion of them found. - For scattered 'mid the tombs blazed many a fire, - Because of which these with such fervour burned - No arts which work in iron more require. 120 - All of the lids were lifted. I discerned - By keen laments which from the tombs arose - That sad and suffering ones were there inurned. - I said: 'O Master, tell me who are those - Buried within the tombs, of whom the sighs - Come to our ears thus eloquent of woes?' - And he to me: 'The lords of heresies[349] - With followers of all sects, a greater band - Than thou wouldst think, these sepulchres comprise. - To lodge them like to like the tombs are planned. 130 - The sepulchres have more or less of heat.'[350] - Then passed we, turning to the dexter hand,[351] - 'Tween torments and the lofty parapet. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[331] _New colour_: Both have changed colour, Virgil in anger and Dante -in fear. - -[332] _Unless_: To conceal his misgiving from Dante, Virgil refrains -from expressing all his thought. The 'unless' may refer to what the -lying demons had told him or threatened him with; the 'proffered aid,' -to that involved in Beatrice's request. - -[333] _This bottom_: The lower depths of Inferno. How much still lies -below him is unknown to Dante. - -[334] _First Degree_: The limbo where Virgil resides. Dante by an -indirect question, seeks to learn how much experience of Inferno is -possessed by his guide. - -[335] _Erichtho_: A Thessalian sorceress, of whom Lucan (_Pharsalia_ -vi.) tells that she evoked a shade to predict to Sextus Pompey the -result of the war between his father and Cæsar. This happened thirty -years before the death of Virgil. - -[336] _Judas' circle_: The Judecca, or very lowest point of the Inferno. -Virgil's death preceded that of Judas by fifty years. He gives no hint -of whose the shade was that he went down to fetch; but Lucan's tale was -probably in Dante's mind. In the Middle Ages the memory of Virgil was -revered as that of a great sorcerer, especially in the neighbourhood of -Naples. - -[337] _The heaven, etc._: The _Primum Mobile_; but used here for the -highest heaven. See _Inf._ ii. 83, _note_. - -[338] _These fens, etc._: Virgil knows the locality. They have no -choice, but must remain where they are, for the same moat and wall gird -the city all around. - -[339] _Erynnyes_: The Furies. The Queen of whom they are handmaids is -Proserpine, carried off by Dis, or Pluto, to the under world. - -[340] _Medusa_: One of the Gorgons. Whoever looked on the head of Medusa -was turned into stone. - -[341] _Theseus_: Who descended into the infernal regions to rescue -Proserpine, and escaped by the help of Hercules. - -[342] _Mysterious line_: 'Strange verses:' That the verses are called -strange, as Boccaccio and others of the older commentators say, because -treating of such a subject in the vulgar tongue for the first time, and -in rhyme, is difficult to believe. Rather they are strange because of -the meaning they convey. What that is, Dante warns the reader of -superior intellect to pause and consider. It has been noted (_Inf._ ii. -28) how he uses the characters of the old mythology as if believing in -their real existence. But this is for his poetical ends. Here he bids us -look below the surface and seek for the truth hidden under the strange -disguise.--The opposition to their progress offered by the powers of -Hell perplexes even Virgil, while Dante is reduced to a state of -absolute terror, and is afflicted with still sharper misgivings than he -had at the first as to the issue of his adventure. By an indirect -question he seeks to learn how much Virgil really knows of the economy -of the lower world; but he cannot so much as listen to all of his -Master's reassuring answer, terrified as he is by the sudden appearance -of the Furies upon the tower, which rises out of the city of unbelief. -These symbolise the trouble of his conscience, and, assailing him with -threats, shake his already trembling faith in the Divine government. -How, in the face of such foes, is he to find the peace and liberty of -soul of which he is in search? That this is the city of unbelief he has -not yet been told, and without knowing it he is standing under the very -walls of Doubting Castle. And now, if he chance to let his eyes rest on -the Gorgon's head, his soul will be petrified by despair; like the -denizens of Hell, he will lose the 'good of the intellect,' and will -pass into a state from which Virgil--or reason--will be powerless to -deliver him. But Virgil takes him in time, and makes him avert his eyes; -which may signify that the only safe course for men is to turn their -backs on the deep and insoluble problem of how the reality of the Divine -government can be reconciled with the apparent triumph of evil. - -[343] _From Heaven_: The messenger comes from Heaven, and his words are -holy. Against the obvious interpretation, that he is a good angel, there -lies the objection that no other such is met with in Inferno, and also -that it is spoken of as a new sight for him when Dante first meets with -one in Purgatory. But the obstruction now to be overcome is worthy of -angelic interference; and Dante can hardly be said to meet the -messenger, who does not even glance in his direction. The commentators -have made this angel mean all kind of outlandish things. - -[344] _A rod_: A piece of the angelic outfit, derived from the -_caduceus_ of Mercury. - -[345] _Cerberus_: Hercules, when Cerberus opposed his entrance to the -infernal regions, fastened a chain round his neck and dragged him to the -gate. The angel's speech answers Dante's doubts as to the limits of -diabolical power. - -[346] _By other cares, etc._: It is not in Inferno that Dante is to hold -converse with celestial intelligences. The angel, like Beatrice when she -sought Virgil in Limbo, is all on fire to return to his own place. - -[347] _Arles_: The Alyscampo (Elysian Fields) at Arles was an enormous -cemetery, of which ruins still exist. It had a circumference of about -six miles, and contained numerous sarcophagi dating from Roman times. - -[348] _Pola_: In Istria, near the Gulf of Quarnaro, said to have -contained many ancient tombs. - -[349] _Lords of heresies_: 'Heresiarchs.' Dante now learns for the first -time that Dis is the city of unbelief. Each class of heretics has its -own great sepulchre. - -[350] _More or less of heat_: According to the heinousness of the heresy -punished in each. It was natural to associate heretics and punishment by -fire in days when Dominican monks ruled the roast. - -[351] _Dexter hand_: As they move across the circles, and down from one -to the other, their course is usually to the left hand. Here for some -reason Virgil turns to the right, so as to have the tombs on the left as -he advances. It may be that a special proof of his knowledge of the -locality is introduced when most needed--after the repulse by the -demons--to strengthen Dante's confidence in him as a guide; or, as some -subtly think, they being now about to enter the abode of heresy, the -movement to the right signifies the importance of the first step in -forming opinion. The only other occasion on which their course is taken -to the right hand is at _Inf._ xvii. 31. - - - - -CANTO X. - - - And now advance we by a narrow track - Between the torments and the ramparts high, - My Master first, and I behind his back. - 'O mighty Virtue,[352] at whose will am I - Wheeled through these impious circles,' then I said, - 'Speak, and in full my longing satisfy. - The people who within the tombs are laid, - May they be seen? The coverings are all thrown - Open, nor is there[353] any guard displayed.' - And he to me: 'All shall be fastened down 10 - When hither from Jehoshaphat[354] they come - Again in bodies which were once their own. - All here with Epicurus[355] find their tomb - Who are his followers, and by whom 'tis held - That the soul shares the body's mortal doom. - Things here discovered then shall answer yield, - And quickly, to thy question asked of me; - As well as[356] to the wish thou hast concealed.' - And I: 'Good Leader, if I hide from thee - My heart, it is that I may little say; 20 - Nor only now[357] learned I thus dumb to be.' - 'O Tuscan, who, still living, mak'st thy way, - Modest of speech, through the abode of flame, - Be pleased[358] a little in this place to stay. - The accents of thy language thee proclaim - To be a native of that state renowned - Which I, perchance, wronged somewhat.' Sudden came - These words from out a tomb which there was found - 'Mongst others; whereon I, compelled by fright, - A little toward my Leader shifted ground. 30 - And he: 'Turn round, what ails thee? Lo! upright - Beginneth Farinata[359] to arise; - All of him 'bove the girdle comes in sight.' - On him already had I fixed mine eyes. - Towering erect with lifted front and chest, - He seemed Inferno greatly to despise. - And toward him I among the tombs was pressed - By my Guide's nimble and courageous hand, - While he, 'Choose well thy language,' gave behest. - Beneath his tomb when I had ta'en my stand 40 - Regarding me a moment, 'Of what house - Art thou?' as if in scorn, he made demand. - To show myself obedient, anxious, - I nothing hid, but told my ancestors; - And, listening, he gently raised his brows.[360] - 'Fiercely to me they proved themselves adverse, - And to my sires and party,' then he said; - 'Because of which I did them twice disperse.'[361] - I answered him: 'And what although they fled! - Twice from all quarters they returned with might, 50 - An art not mastered yet by these you[362] led.' - Beside him then there issued into sight - Another shade, uncovered to the chin, - Propped on his knees, if I surmised aright. - He peered around as if he fain would win - Knowledge if any other was with me; - And then, his hope all spent, did thus begin, - Weeping: 'By dint of genius if it be - Thou visit'st this dark prison, where my son? - And wherefore not found in thy company?' 60 - And I to him: 'I come not here alone: - He waiting yonder guides me: but disdain - Of him perchance was by your Guido[363] shown.' - The words he used, and manner of his pain, - Revealed his name to me beyond surmise; - Hence was I able thus to answer plain. - Then cried he, and at once upright did rise, - 'How saidst thou--was? Breathes he not then the air? - The pleasant light no longer smites his eyes?' - When he of hesitation was aware 70 - Displayed by me in forming my reply, - He fell supine, no more to reappear. - But the magnanimous, at whose bidding I - Had halted there, the same expression wore, - Nor budged a jot, nor turned his neck awry. - 'And if'--resumed he where he paused before-- - 'They be indeed but slow that art to learn, - Than this my bed, to hear it pains me more. - But ere the fiftieth time anew shall burn - The lady's[364] face who reigneth here below, 80 - Of that sore art thou shalt experience earn. - And as to the sweet world again thou'dst go, - Tell me, why is that people so without - Ruth for my race,[365] as all their statutes show?' - And I to him: 'The slaughter and the rout - Which made the Arbia[366] to run with red, - Cause in our fane[367] such prayers to be poured out.' - Whereon he heaved a sigh and shook his head: - 'There I was not alone, nor to embrace - That cause was I, without good reason, led. 90 - But there I was alone, when from her place - All granted Florence should be swept away. - 'Twas I[368] defended her with open face.' - 'So may your seed find peace some better day,' - I urged him, 'as this knot you shall untie - In which my judgment doth entangled stay. - If I hear rightly, ye, it seems, descry - Beforehand what time brings, and yet ye seem - 'Neath other laws[369] as touching what is nigh.' - 'Like those who see best what is far from them, 100 - We see things,' said he, 'which afar remain; - Thus much enlightened by the Guide Supreme. - To know them present or approaching, vain - Are all our powers; and save what they relate - Who hither come, of earth no news we gain. - Hence mayst thou gather in how dead a state - Shall all our knowledge from that time be thrown - When of the future shall be closed the gate.' - Then, for my fault as if repentant grown, - I said: 'Report to him who fell supine, 110 - That still among the living breathes his son. - And if I, dumb, seemed answer to decline, - Tell him it was that I upon the knot - Was pondering then, you helped me to untwine.' - Me now my Master called, whence I besought - With more than former sharpness of the shade, - To tell me what companions he had got. - He answered me: 'Some thousand here are laid - With me; 'mong these the Second Frederick,[370] - The Cardinal[371] too; of others nought be said.' 120 - Then was he hid; and towards the Bard antique - I turned my steps, revolving in my brain - The ominous words[372] which I had heard him speak. - He moved, and as we onward went again - Demanded of me: 'Wherefore thus amazed?' - And to his question I made answer plain. - 'Within thy mind let there be surely placed,' - The Sage bade, 'what 'gainst thee thou heardest say. - Now mark me well' (his finger here he raised), - 'When thou shalt stand within her gentle ray 130 - Whose beauteous eye sees all, she will make known - The stages[373] of thy journey on life's way.' - Turning his feet, he to the left moved on; - Leaving the wall, we to the middle[374] went - Upon a path that to a vale strikes down, - Which even to us above its foulness sent. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[352] _Virtue_: Virgil is here addressed by a new title, which, with the -words of deep respect that follow, marks the full restoration of Dante's -confidence in him as his guide. - -[353] _Nor is there, etc._: The gate was found to be strictly guarded, -but not so are the tombs. - -[354] _Jehoshaphat_: 'I will also gather all nations, and will bring -them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat' (Joel iii. 2). - -[355] _Epicurus_: The unbelief in a future life, or rather the -indifference to everything but the calls of ambition and worldly -pleasure, common among the nobles of Dante's age and that preceding it, -went by the name of Epicureanism. It is the most radical of heresies, -because adverse to the first principles of all religions. Dante, in his -treatment of heresy, dwells more on what affects conduct as does the -denial of the Divine government--than on intellectual divergence from -orthodox belief. - -[356] _As well as, etc._: The question is: 'May they be seen?' The wish -is a desire to speak with them. - -[357] _Nor only now, etc._: Virgil has on previous occasions imposed -silence on Dante, as, for instance, at _Inf._ iii. 51. - -[358] _Be pleased, etc._: From one of the sepulchres, to be imagined as -a huge sarcophagus, come words similar to the _Siste Viator!_ common on -Roman tombs. - -[359] _Farinata_: Of the great Florentine family of the Uberti, and, in -the generation before Dante, leader of the Ghibeline or Imperialist -party in Florence. His memory long survived among his fellow-townsmen as -that of the typical noble, rough-mannered, unscrupulous, and arrogant; -but yet, for one good action that he did, he at the same time ranked in -the popular estimation as a patriot and a hero. Boccaccio, misled -perhaps by the mention of Epicurus, says that he loved rich and delicate -fare. It is because all his thoughts were worldly that he is condemned -to the city of unbelief. Dante has already (_Inf._ vi. 79) inquired -regarding his fate. He died in 1264. - -[360] _His brows_: When Dante tells he is of the Alighieri, a Guelf -family, Farinata shows some slight displeasure. Or, as a modern -Florentine critic interprets the gesture, he has to think a moment -before he can remember on which side the Alighieri ranged -themselves--they being of the small gentry, while he was a great noble, -But this gloss requires Dante to have been more free from pride of -family than he really was. - -[361] _Twice disperse_: The Alighieri shared in the exile of the Guelfs -in 1248 and 1260. - -[362] _You_: See also line 95. Dante never uses the plural form to a -single person except when desirous of showing social as distinguished -from, or over and above, moral respect. - -[363] _Guido_: Farinata's companion in the tomb is Cavalcante -Cavalcanti, who, although a Guelf, was tainted with the more specially -Ghibeline error of Epicureanism. When in order to allay party rancour -some of the Guelf and Ghibeline families were forced to intermarry, his -son Guido took a daughter of Farinata's to wife. This was in 1267, so -that Guido was much older than Dante. Yet they were very intimate, and, -intellectually, had much in common. With him Dante exchanged poems of -occasion, and he terms him more than once in the _Vita Nuova_ his chief -friend. The disdain of Virgil need not mean more than is on the surface. -Guido died in 1301. He is the hero of the _Decameron_, vi. 9. - -[364] _The Lady_: Proserpine; _i.e._ the moon. Ere fifty months from -March 1300 were past, Dante was to see the failure of more than one -attempt made by the exiles, of whom he was one, to gain entrance to -Florence. The great attempt was in the beginning of 1304. - -[365] _Ruth for my race_: When the Ghibeline power was finally broken in -Florence the Uberti were always specially excluded from any amnesty. -There is mention of the political execution of at least one descendant -of Farinata's. His son when being led to the scaffold said, 'So we pay -our fathers' debts!'--It has been so long common to describe Dante as a -Ghibeline, though no careful writer does it now, that it may be worth -while here to remark that Ghibelinism, as Farinata understood it, was -practically extinct in Florence ere Dante entered political life. - -[366] _The Arbia_: At Montaperti, on the Arbia, a few miles from Siena, -was fought in 1260 a great battle between the Guelf Florence and her -allies on the one hand, and on the other the Ghibelines of Florence, -then in exile, under Farinata; the Sienese and Tuscan Ghibelines in -general; and some hundreds of men-at-arms lent by Manfred. -Notwithstanding the gallant behaviour of the Florentine burghers, the -Guelf defeat was overwhelming, and not only did the Arbia run red with -Florentine blood--in a figure--but the battle of Montaperti ruined for a -time the cause of popular liberty and general improvement in Florence. - -[367] _Our fane_: The Parliament of the people used to meet in Santa -Reparata, the cathedral; and it is possible that the maintenance of the -Uberti disabilities was there more than once confirmed by the general -body of the citizens. The use of the word is in any case accounted for -by the frequency of political conferences in churches. And the temple -having been introduced, edicts are converted into 'prayers.' - -[368] _'Twas I, etc._: Some little time after the victory of Montaperti -there was a great Ghibeline gathering from various cities at Empoli, -when it was proposed, with general approval, to level Florence with the -ground in revenge for the obstinate Guelfism of the population. Farinata -roughly declared that as long as he lived and had a sword he would -defend his native place, and in the face of this protest the resolution -was departed from. It is difficult to understand how of all the -Florentine nobles, whose wealth consisted largely in house property, -Farinata should have stood alone in protesting against the ruin of the -city. But so it seems to have been; and in this great passage Farinata -is repaid for his service, in despite of Inferno. - -[369] _Other laws_: Ciacco, in Canto vi., prophesied what was to happen -in Florence, and Farinata has just told him that four years later than -now he will have failed in an attempt to return from exile: yet Farinata -does not know if his family is still being persecuted, and Cavalcanti -fears that his son Guido is already numbered with the dead. Farinata -replies that like the longsighted the shades can only see what is some -distance off, and are ignorant of what is going on, or about to happen; -which seems to imply that they forget what they once foresaw. Guido was -to die within a few months, and the event was too close at hand to come -within the range of his father's vision. - -[370] _The Second Frederick_: The Emperor of that name who reigned from -1220 to 1250, and waged a life-long war with the Popes for supremacy in -Italy. It is not however for his enmity with Rome that he is placed in -the Sixth Circle, but for his Epicureanism--as Dante understood it. From -his Sicilian court a spirit of free inquiry spread through the -Peninsula. With men of the stamp of Farinata it would be converted into -a crude materialism. - -[371] _The Cardinal_: Ottaviano, of the powerful Tuscan family of the -Ubaldini, a man of great political activity, and known in Tuscany as -'The Cardinal.' His sympathies were not with the Roman Court. The news -of Montaperti filled him with delight, and later, when the Tuscan -Ghibelines refused him money he had asked for, he burst out with 'And -yet I have lost my soul for the Ghibelines--if I have a soul.' He died -not earlier than 1273. After these illustrious names Farinata scorns to -mention meaner ones. - -[372] _Ominous words_: Those in which Farinata foretold Dante's exile. - -[373] _The stages, etc._: It is Cacciaguida, his ancestor, who in -Paradise instructs Dante in what his future life is to be--one of -poverty and exile (_Parad._ xvii.). This is, however, done at the -request of Beatrice. - -[374] _To the middle_: Turning to the left they cut across the circle -till they reach the inner boundary of the city of tombs. Here there is -no wall. - - - - -CANTO XI. - - - We at the margin of a lofty steep - Made of great shattered stones in circle bent, - Arrived where worser torments crowd the deep. - So horrible a stench and violent - Was upward wafted from the vast abyss,[375] - Behind the cover we for shelter went - Of a great tomb where I saw written this: - 'Pope Anastasius[376] is within me thrust, - Whom the straight way Photinus made to miss.' - 'Now on our course a while we linger must,' 10 - The Master said, 'be but our sense resigned - A little to it, and the filthy gust - We shall not heed.' Then I: 'Do thou but find - Some compensation lest our time should run - Wasted.' And he: 'Behold, 'twas in my mind. - Girt by the rocks before us, O my son, - Lie three small circles,'[377] he began to tell, - 'Graded like those with which thou now hast done, - All of them filled with spirits miserable. - That sight[378] of them may thee henceforth suffice. 20 - Hear how and wherefore in these groups they dwell. - Whate'er in Heaven's abhorred as wickedness - Has injury[379] for its end; in others' bane - By fraud resulting or in violent wise. - Since fraud to man alone[380] doth appertain, - God hates it most; and hence the fraudulent band, - Set lowest down, endure a fiercer pain. - Of the violent is the circle next at hand - To us; and since three ways is violence shown, - 'Tis in three several circuits built and planned. 30 - To God, ourselves, or neighbours may be done - Violence, or on the things by them possessed; - As reasoning clear shall unto thee make known. - Our neighbour may by violence be distressed - With grievous wounds, or slain; his goods and lands - By havoc, fire, and plunder be oppressed. - Hence those who wound and slay with violent hands, - Robbers, and spoilers, in the nearest round - Are all tormented in their various bands. - Violent against himself may man be found, 40 - And 'gainst his goods; therefore without avail - They in the next are in repentance drowned - Who on themselves loss of your world entail, - Who gamble[381] and their substance madly spend, - And who when called to joy lament and wail. - And even to God may violence extend - By heart denial and by blasphemy, - Scorning what nature doth in bounty lend. - Sodom and Cahors[382] hence are doomed to lie - Within the narrowest circlet surely sealed; 50 - And such as God within their hearts defy. - Fraud,[383] 'gainst whose bite no conscience findeth shield, - A man may use with one who in him lays - Trust, or with those who no such credence yield. - Beneath this latter kind of it decays - The bond of love which out of nature grew; - Hence, in the second circle[384] herd the race - To feigning given and flattery, who pursue - Magic, false coining, theft, and simony, - Pimps, barrators, and suchlike residue. 60 - The other form of fraud makes nullity - Of natural bonds; and, what is more than those, - The special trust whence men on men rely. - Hence in the place whereon all things repose, - The narrowest circle and the seat of Dis,[385] - Each traitor's gulfed in everlasting woes.' - 'Thy explanation, Master, as to this - Is clear,' I said, 'and thou hast plainly told - Who are the people stowed in the abyss. - But tell why those the muddy marshes hold, 70 - The tempest-driven, those beaten by the rain, - And such as, meeting, virulently scold, - Are not within the crimson city ta'en - For punishment, if hateful unto God; - And, if not hateful, wherefore doomed to pain?' - And he to me: 'Why wander thus abroad, - More than is wont, thy wits? or how engrossed - Is now thy mind, and on what things bestowed? - Hast thou the memory of the passage lost - In which thy Ethics[386] for their subject treat 80 - Of the three moods by Heaven abhorred the most-- - Malice and bestiality complete; - And how, compared with these, incontinence - Offends God less, and lesser blame doth meet? - If of this doctrine thou extract the sense, - And call to memory what people are - Above, outside, in endless penitence, - Why from these guilty they are sundered far - Thou shalt discern, and why on them alight - The strokes of justice in less angry war.' 90 - 'O Sun that clearest every troubled sight, - So charmed am I by thy resolving speech, - Doubt yields me joy no less than knowing right. - Therefore, I pray, a little backward reach,' - I asked, 'to where thou say'st that usury - Sins 'gainst God's bounty; and this mystery teach.' - He said: 'Who gives ear to Philosophy - Is taught by her, nor in one place alone, - What nature in her course is governed by, - Even Mind Divine, and art which thence hath grown; 100 - And if thy Physics[387] thou wilt search within, - Thou'lt find ere many leaves are open thrown, - This art by yours, far as your art can win, - Is followed close--the teacher by the taught; - As grandchild then to God your art is kin. - And from these two--do thou recall to thought - How Genesis[388] begins--should come supplies - Of food for man, and other wealth be sought. - And, since another plan the usurer plies, - Nature and nature's child have his disdain;[389] 110 - Because on other ground his hope relies. - But come,[390] for to advance I now am fain: - The Fishes[391] over the horizon line - Quiver; o'er Caurus now stands all the Wain; - And further yonder does the cliff decline.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[375] _Vast abyss_: They are now at the inner side of the Sixth Circle, -and upon the verge of the rocky steep which slopes down from it into the -Seventh. All the lower Hell lies beneath them, and it is from that -rather than from the next circle in particular that the stench arises, -symbolical of the foulness of the sins which are punished there. The -noisome smells which make part of the horror of Inferno are after this -sometimes mentioned, but never dwelt upon (_Inf._ xviii. 106, and xxix. -50). - -[376] _Pope Anastasius_: The second of the name, elected Pope in 496. -Photinus, bishop of Sirenium, was infected with the Sabellian heresy, -but he was deposed more than a century before the time of Anastasius. -Dante follows some obscure legend in charging Anastasius with heresy. -The important point is that the one heretic, in the sense usually -attached to the term, named as being in the city of unbelief, is a Pope. - -[377] _Three small circles_: The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth; small in -circumference compared with those above. The pilgrims are now deep in -the hollow cone. - -[378] _That sight, etc._: After hearing the following explanation Dante -no longer asks to what classes the sinners met with belong, but only as -to the guilt of individual shades. - -[379] _Injury_: They have left above them the circles of those whose sin -consists in the exaggeration or misdirection of a wholesome natural -instinct. Below them lie the circles filled with such as have been -guilty of malicious wickedness. This manifests itself in two ways: by -violence or by fraud. After first mentioning in a general way that the -fraudulent are set lowest in Inferno, Virgil proceeds to define -violence, and to tell how the violent occupy the circle immediately -beneath them--the Seventh. For division of the maliciously wicked into -two classes Dante is supposed to be indebted to Cicero: 'Injury may be -wrought by force or by fraud.... Both are unnatural for man, but fraud -is the more hateful.'--_De Officiis_, i. 13. It is remarkable that -Virgil says nothing of those in the Sixth Circle in this account of the -classes of sinners. - -[380] _To man alone, etc._: Fraud involves the corrupt use of the powers -that distinguish us from the brutes. - -[381] _Who gamble, etc._: A different sin from the lavish spending -punished in the Fourth Circle (_Inf._ vii.). The distinction is that -between thriftlessness and the prodigality which, stripping a man of the -means of living, disgusts him with life, as described in the following -line. It is from among prodigals that the ranks of suicides are greatly -filled, and here they are appropriately placed together. It may seem -strange that in his classification of guilt Dante should rank violence -to one's self as a more heinous sin than that committed against one's -neighbour. He may have in view the fact that none harm their neighbours -so much as they who are oblivious of their own true interest. - -[382] _Sodom and Cahors_: Sins against nature are reckoned sins against -God, as explained lower down in this Canto. Cahors in Languedoc had in -the Middle Ages the reputation of being a nest of usurers. These in old -English Chronicles are termed Caorsins. With the sins of Sodom and -Cahors are ranked the denial of God and blasphemy against Him--deeper -sins than the erroneous conceptions of the Divine nature and government -punished in the Sixth Circle. The three concentric rings composing the -Seventh Circle are all on the same level, as we shall find. - -[383] _Fraud, etc._: Fraud is of such a nature that conscience never -fails to give due warning against the sin. This is an aggravation of the -guilt of it. - -[384] _The second circle_: The second now beneath them; that is, the -Eighth. - -[385] _Seat of Dis_: The Ninth and last Circle. - -[386] _Thy Ethics_: The Ethics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'With -regard to manners, these three things are to be eschewed: incontinence, -vice, and bestiality.' Aristotle holds incontinence to consist in the -immoderate indulgence of propensities which under right guidance are -adapted to promote lawful pleasure. It is, generally speaking, the sin -of which those about whom Dante has inquired were guilty.--It has been -ingeniously sought by Philalethes (_Gött. Com._) to show that Virgil's -disquisition is founded on this threefold classification of -Aristotle's--violence being taken to be the same as bestiality, and -malice as vice. But the reference to Aristotle is made with the limited -purpose of justifying the lenient treatment of incontinence; in the same -way as a few lines further on Genesis is referred to in support of the -harsh treatment of usury. - -[387] _Physics_: The Physics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'Art -imitates nature.' Art includes handicrafts. - -[388] _Genesis_: 'And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the -garden to dress it and to keep it.' 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou -eat bread.' - -[389] _His disdain_: The usurer seeks to get wealth independently of -honest labour or reliance on the processes of nature. This far-fetched -argument against usury closes one of the most arid passages of the -_Comedy_. The shortness of the Canto almost suggests that Dante had -himself got weary of it. - -[390] _But come, etc._: They have been all this time resting behind the -lid of the tomb. - -[391] _The Fishes, etc._: The sun being now in Aries the stars of Pisces -begin to rise about a couple of hours before sunrise. The Great Bear -lies above Caurus, the quarter of the N.N.W. wind. It seems impossible -to harmonise the astronomical indications scattered throughout the -_Comedy_, there being traces of Dante's having sometimes used details -belonging rather to the day on which Good Friday fell in 1300, the 8th -of April, than to the (supposed) true anniversary of the crucifixion. -That this, the 25th of March, is the day he intended to conform to -appears from _Inf._ xxi. 112.--The time is now near dawn on the Saturday -morning. It is almost needless to say that Virgil speaks of the stars as -he knows they are placed, but without seeing them. By what light they -see in Inferno is nowhere explained. We have been told that it was dark -as night (_Inf._ iv. 10, v. 28). - - - - -CANTO XII. - - - The place of our descent[392] before us lay - Precipitous, and there was something more - From sight of which all eyes had turned away. - As at the ruin which upon the shore - Of Adige[393] fell upon this side of Trent-- - Through earthquake or by slip of what before - Upheld it--from the summit whence it went - Far as the plain, the shattered rocks supply - Some sort of foothold to who makes descent; - Such was the passage down the precipice high. 10 - And on the riven gully's very brow - Lay spread at large the Cretan Infamy[394] - Which was conceived in the pretended cow. - Us when he saw, he bit himself for rage - Like one whose anger gnaws him through and through. - 'Perhaps thou deemest,' called to him the Sage, - 'This is the Duke of Athens[395] drawing nigh, - Who war to the death with thee on earth did wage. - Begone, thou brute, for this one passing by - Untutored by thy sister has thee found, 20 - And only comes thy sufferings to spy,' - And as the bull which snaps what held it bound - On being smitten by the fatal blow, - Halts in its course, and reels upon the ground, - The Minotaur I saw reel to and fro; - And he, the alert, cried: 'To the passage haste; - While yet he chafes 'twere well thou down shouldst go.' - So we descended by the slippery waste[396] - Of shivered stones which many a time gave way - 'Neath the new weight[397] my feet upon them placed. 30 - I musing went; and he began to say: - 'Perchance this ruined slope thou thinkest on, - Watched by the brute rage I did now allay. - But I would have thee know, when I came down - The former time[398] into this lower Hell, - The cliff had not this ruin undergone. - It was not long, if I distinguish well, - Ere He appeared who wrenched great prey from Dis[399] - From out the upmost circle. Trembling fell - Through all its parts the nauseous abyss 40 - With such a violence, the world, I thought, - Was stirred by love; for, as they say, by this - She back to Chaos[400] has been often brought. - And then it was this ancient rampart strong - Was shattered here and at another spot.[401] - But toward the valley look. We come ere long - Down to the river of blood[402] where boiling lie - All who by violence work others wrong.' - O insane rage! O blind cupidity! - By which in our brief life we are so spurred, 50 - Ere downward plunged in evil case for aye! - An ample ditch I now beheld engird - And sweep in circle all around the plain, - As from my Escort I had lately heard. - Between this and the rock in single train - Centaurs[403] were running who were armed with bows, - As if they hunted on the earth again. - Observing us descend they all stood close, - Save three of them who parted from the band - With bow, and arrows they in coming chose. 60 - 'What torment,' from afar one made demand, - 'Come ye to share, who now descend the hill? - I shoot unless ye answer whence ye stand.' - My Master said: 'We yield no answer till - We come to Chiron[404] standing at thy side; - But thy quick temper always served thee ill.' - Then touching me: ''Tis Nessus;[405] he who died - With love for beauteous Dejanire possessed, - And who himself his own vendetta plied. - He in the middle, staring on his breast, 70 - Is mighty Chiron, who Achilles bred; - And next the wrathful Pholus. They invest - The fosse and in their thousands round it tread, - Shooting whoever from the blood shall lift, - More than his crime allows, his guilty head.' - As we moved nearer to those creatures swift - Chiron drew forth a shaft and dressed his beard - Back on his jaws, using the arrow's cleft. - And when his ample mouth of hair was cleared, - He said to his companions: 'Have ye seen 80 - The things the second touches straight are stirred, - As they by feet of shades could ne'er have been?' - And my good Guide, who to his breast had gone-- - The part where join the natures,[406] 'Well I ween - He lives,' made answer; 'and if, thus alone, - He seeks the valley dim 'neath my control, - Necessity, not pleasure, leads him on. - One came from where the alleluiahs roll, - Who charged me with this office strange and new: - No robber he, nor mine a felon soul. 90 - But, by that Power which makes me to pursue - The rugged journey whereupon I fare, - Accord us one of thine to keep in view, - That he may show where lies the ford, and bear - This other on his back to yonder strand; - No spirit he, that he should cleave the air.' - Wheeled to the right then Chiron gave command - To Nessus: 'Turn, and lead them, and take tent - They be not touched by any other band.'[407] - We with our trusty Escort forward went, 100 - Threading the margin of the boiling blood - Where they who seethed were raising loud lament. - People I saw up to the chin imbrued, - 'These all are tyrants,' the great Centaur said, - 'Who blood and plunder for their trade pursued. - Here for their pitiless deeds tears now are shed - By Alexander,[408] and Dionysius fell, - Through whom in Sicily dolorous years were led. - The forehead with black hair so terrible - Is Ezzelino;[409] that one blond of hue, 110 - Obizzo[410] d'Este, whom, as rumours tell, - His stepson murdered, and report speaks true.' - I to the Poet turned, who gave command: - 'Regard thou chiefly him. I follow you.' - Ere long the Centaur halted on the strand, - Close to a people who, far as the throat, - Forth of that bulicamë[411] seemed to stand. - Thence a lone shade to us he pointed out - Saying: 'In God's house[412] ran he weapon through - The heart which still on Thames wins cult devout.' 120 - Then I saw people, some with heads in view, - And some their chests above the river bore; - And many of them I, beholding, knew. - And thus the blood went dwindling more and more, - Until at last it covered but the feet: - Here took we passage[413] to the other shore. - 'As on this hand thou seest still abate - In depth the volume of the boiling stream,' - The Centaur said, 'so grows its depth more great, - Believe me, towards the opposite extreme, 130 - Until again its circling course attains - The place where tyrants must lament. Supreme - Justice upon that side involves in pains, - With Attila,[414] once of the world the pest, - Pyrrhus[415] and Sextus: and for ever drains - Tears out of Rinier of Corneto[416] pressed - And Rinier Pazzo[417] in that boiling mass, - Whose brigandage did so the roads infest.' - Then turned he back alone, the ford to pass. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[392] _Our descent_: To the Seventh Circle. - -[393] _Adige_: Different localities in the valley of the Adige have been -fixed on as the scene of this landslip. The Lavini di Marco, about -twenty miles south of Trent, seem best to answer to the description. -They 'consist of black blocks of stone and fragments of a landslip -which, according to the Chronicle of Fulda, fell in the year 883 and -overwhelmed the valley for four Italian miles' (Gsell-Fels, _Ober. -Ital._ i. 35). - -[394] _The Cretan Infamy_: The Minotaur, the offspring of Pasiphaë; a -half-bovine monster who inhabited the Cretan labyrinth, and to whom a -human victim was offered once a year. He lies as guard upon the Seventh -Circle--that of the violent (_Inf._ xi. 23, _note_)--and is set at the -top of the rugged slope, itself the scene of a violent convulsion. - -[395] _Duke of Athens_: Theseus, instructed by Ariadne, daughter of -Pasiphaë and Minos, how to outwit the Minotaur, entered the labyrinth in -the character of a victim, slew the monster, and then made his way out, -guided by a thread he had unwound as he went in. - -[396] _The slippery waste_: The word used here, _scarco_, means in -modern Tuscan a place where earth or stones have been carelessly shot -into a heap. - -[397] _The new weight_: The slope had never before been trodden by -mortal foot. - -[398] _The former time_: When Virgil descended to evoke a shade from the -Ninth Circle (_Inf._ ix. 22). - -[399] _Prey from Dis_: The shades delivered from Limbo by Christ (_Inf._ -iv. 53). The expression in the text is probably suggested by the words -of the hymn _Vexilla: Prædamque tulit Tartaris_. - -[400] _To Chaos_: The reference is to the theory of Empedocles, known to -Dante through the refutation of it by Aristotle. The theory was one of -periods of unity and division in nature, according as love or hatred -prevailed. - -[401] _Another spot_: See _Inf._ xxi. 112. The earthquake at the -Crucifixion shook even Inferno to its base. - -[402] _The river of blood_: Phlegethon, the 'boiling river.' Styx and -Acheron have been already passed. Lethe, the fourth infernal river, is -placed by Dante in Purgatory. The first round or circlet of the Seventh -Circle is filled by Phlegethon. - -[403] _Centaurs_: As this round is the abode of such as are guilty of -violence against their neighbours, it is guarded by these brutal -monsters, half-man and half-horse. - -[404] _Chiron_: Called the most just of the Centaurs. - -[405] _Nessus_: Slain by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. When dying he -gave Dejanira his blood-stained shirt, telling her it would insure the -faithfulness to her of any whom she loved. Hercules wore it and died of -the venom; and thus Nessus avenged himself. - -[406] The natures: The part of the Centaur where the equine body is -joined on to the human neck and head. - -[407] _Other band_: Of Centaurs. - -[408] _Alexander_: It is not known whether Alexander the Great or a -petty Thessalian tyrant is here meant. _Dionysius_: The cruel tyrant of -Syracuse. - -[409] _Ezzelino_: Or Azzolino of Romano, the greatest Lombard Ghibeline -of his time. He was son-in-law of Frederick II., and was Imperial Vicar -of the Trevisian Mark. Towards the close of Fredrick's life, and for -some years after, he exercised almost independent power in Vicenza, -Padua, and Verona. Cruelty, erected into a system, was his chief -instrument of government, and 'in his dungeons men found something worse -than death.' For Italians, says Burckhardt, he was the most impressive -political personage of the thirteenth century; and around his memory, as -around Frederick's, there gathered strange legends. He died in 1259, of -a wound received in battle. When urged to confess his sins by the monk -who came to shrive him, he declared that the only sin on his conscience -was negligence in revenge. But this may be mythical, as may also be the -long black hair between his eyebrows, which rose up stiff and terrible -as his anger waxed. - -[410] _Obizzo_: The second Marquis of Este of that name. He was lord of -Ferrara. There seems little, if any, evidence extant of his being -specially cruel. As a strong Guelf he took sides with Charles of Anjou -against Manfred. He died in 1293, smothered, it was believed, by a son, -here called a stepson for his unnatural conduct. But though Dante -vouches for the truth of the rumour it seems to have been an invention. - -[411] _That bulicamë_: The stream of boiling blood is probably named -from the bulicamë, or hot spring, best known to Dante--that near Viterbo -(see _Inf._ xiv. 79). And it may be that the mention of the bulicamë -suggests the reference at line 119. - -[412] _In God's house_: Literally, 'In the bosom of God.' The shade is -that of Guy, son of Simon of Montfort and Vicar in Tuscany of Charles of -Anjou. In 1271 he stabbed, in the Cathedral of Viterbo, Henry, son of -Richard of Cornwall and cousin of Edward I. of England. The motive of -the murder was to revenge the death of his father, Simon, at Evesham. -The body of the young prince was conveyed to England, and the heart was -placed in a vase upon the tomb of the Confessor. The shade of Guy stands -up to the chin in blood among the worst of the tyrants, and alone, -because of the enormity of his crime. - -[413] _Here took we passage_: Dante on Nessus' back. Virgil has fallen -behind to allow the Centaur to act as guide; and how he crosses the -stream Dante does not see. - -[414] _Attila_: King of the Huns, who invaded part of Italy in the fifth -century; and who, according to the mistaken belief of Dante's age, was -the devastator of Florence. - -[415] _Pyrrhus_: King of Epirus. _Sextus_: Son of Pompey; a great -sea-captain who fought against the Triumvirs. The crime of the first, in -Dante's eyes, is that he fought with Rome; of the second, that he -opposed Augustus. - -[416] _Rinier of Corneto_: Who in Dante's time disturbed the coast of -the States of the Church by his robberies and violence. - -[417] _Rinier Pazzo_: Of the great family of the Pazzi of Val d'Arno, -was excommunicated in 1269 for robbing ecclesiastics. - - - - -CANTO XIII. - - - Ere Nessus landed on the other shore - We for our part within a forest[418] drew, - Which of no pathway any traces bore. - Not green the foliage, but of dusky hue; - Not smooth the boughs, but gnarled and twisted round; - For apples, poisonous thorns upon them grew. - No rougher brakes or matted worse are found - Where savage beasts betwixt Corneto[419] roam - And Cecina,[419] abhorring cultured ground. - The loathsome Harpies[420] nestle here at home, 10 - Who from the Strophades the Trojans chased - With dire predictions of a woe to come. - Great winged are they, but human necked and faced, - With feathered belly, and with claw for toe; - They shriek upon the bushes wild and waste. - 'Ere passing further, I would have thee know,' - The worthy Master thus began to say, - 'Thou'rt in the second round, nor hence shalt go - Till by the horrid sand thy footsteps stay. - Give then good heed, and things thou'lt recognise 20 - That of my words will prove[421] the verity.' - Wailings on every side I heard arise: - Of who might raise them I distinguished nought; - Whereon I halted, smitten with surprise. - I think he thought that haply 'twas my thought - The voices came from people 'mong the trees, - Who, to escape us, hiding-places sought; - Wherefore the Master said: 'From one of these - Snap thou a twig, and thou shalt understand - How little with thy thought the fact agrees.' 30 - Thereon a little I stretched forth my hand - And plucked a tiny branch from a great thorn. - 'Why dost thou tear me?' made the trunk demand. - When dark with blood it had begun to turn, - It cried a second time: 'Why wound me thus? - Doth not a spark of pity in thee burn? - Though trees we be, once men were all of us; - Yet had our souls the souls of serpents been - Thy hand might well have proved more piteous.' - As when the fire hath seized a fagot green 40 - At one extremity, the other sighs, - And wind, escaping, hisses; so was seen, - At where the branch was broken, blood to rise - And words were mixed with it. I dropped the spray - And stood like one whom terror doth surprise. - The Sage replied: 'Soul vexed with injury, - Had he been only able to give trust - To what he read narrated in my lay,[422] - His hand toward thee would never have been thrust. - 'Tis hard for faith; and I, to make it plain, 50 - Urged him to trial, mourn it though I must. - But tell him who thou wast; so shall remain - This for amends to thee, thy fame shall blow - Afresh on earth, where he returns again.' - And then the trunk: 'Thy sweet words charm me so, - I cannot dumb remain; nor count it hard - If I some pains upon my speech bestow. - For I am he[423] who held both keys in ward - Of Frederick's heart, and turned them how I would, - And softly oped it, and as softly barred, 60 - Till scarce another in his counsel stood. - To my high office I such loyalty bore, - It cost me sleep and haleness of my blood. - The harlot[424] who removeth nevermore - From Cæsar's house eyes ignorant of shame-- - A common curse, of courts the special sore-- - Set against me the minds of all aflame, - And these in turn Augustus set on fire, - Till my glad honours bitter woes became. - My soul, filled full with a disdainful ire, 70 - Thinking by means of death disdain to flee, - 'Gainst my just self unjustly did conspire. - I swear even by the new roots of this tree - My fealty to my lord I never broke, - For worthy of all honour sure was he. - If one of you return 'mong living folk, - Let him restore my memory, overthrown - And suffering yet because of envy's stroke.' - Still for a while the poet listened on, - Then said: 'Now he is dumb, lose not the hour, 80 - But make request if more thou'dst have made known.' - And I replied: 'Do thou inquire once more - Of what thou thinkest[425] I would gladly know; - I cannot ask; ruth wrings me to the core.' - On this he spake: 'Even as the man shall do, - And liberally, what thou of him hast prayed, - Imprisoned spirit, do thou further show - How with these knots the spirits have been made - Incorporate; and, if thou canst, declare - If from such members e'er is loosed a shade.' 90 - Then from the trunk came vehement puffs of air; - Next, to these words converted was the wind: - 'My answer to you shall be short and clear. - When the fierce soul no longer is confined - In flesh, torn thence by action of its own, - To the Seventh Depth by Minos 'tis consigned. - No choice is made of where it shall be thrown - Within the wood; but where by chance 'tis flung - It germinates like seed of spelt that's sown. - A forest tree it grows from sapling young; 100 - Eating its leaves, the Harpies cause it pain, - And open loopholes whence its sighs are wrung. - We for our vestments shall return again - Like others, but in them shall ne'er be clad:[426] - Men justly lose what from themselves they've ta'en. - Dragged hither by us, all throughout the sad - Forest our bodies shall be hung on high; - Each on the thorn of its destructive shade.' - While to the trunk we listening lingered nigh, - Thinking he might proceed to tell us more, 110 - A sudden uproar we were startled by - Like him who, that the huntsman and the boar - To where he stands are sweeping in the chase, - Knows by the crashing trees and brutish roar. - Upon our left we saw a couple race - Naked[427] and scratched; and they so quickly fled - The forest barriers burst before their face. - 'Speed to my rescue, death!' the foremost pled. - The next, as wishing he could use more haste; - 'Not thus, O Lano,[428] thee thy legs bested 120 - When one at Toppo's tournament thou wast.' - Then, haply wanting breath, aside he stepped, - Merged with a bush on which himself he cast. - Behind them through the forest onward swept - A pack of dogs, black, ravenous, and fleet, - Like greyhounds from their leashes newly slipped. - In him who crouched they made their teeth to meet, - And, having piecemeal all his members rent, - Haled them away enduring anguish great. - Grasping my hand, my Escort forward went 130 - And led me to the bush which, all in vain, - Through its ensanguined openings made lament. - 'James of St. Andrews,'[429] it we heard complain; - 'What profit hadst thou making me thy shield? - For thy bad life doth blame to me pertain?' - Then, halting there, this speech my Master held: - 'Who wast thou that through many wounds dost sigh, - Mingled with blood, words big with sorrow swelled?' - 'O souls that hither come,' was his reply, - 'To witness shameful outrage by me borne, 140 - Whence all my leaves torn off around me lie, - Gather them to the root of this drear thorn. - My city[430] for the Baptist changed of yore - Her former patron; wherefore, in return, - He with his art will make her aye deplore; - And were it not some image doth remain - Of him where Arno's crossed from shore to shore, - Those citizens who founded her again - On ashes left by Attila,[431] had spent - Their labour of a surety all in vain. 150 - In my own house[432] I up a gibbet went.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[418] _A forest_: The second round of the Seventh Circle consists of a -belt of tangled forest, enclosed by the river of blood, and devoted to -suicides and prodigals. - -[419] _Corneto and Cecina_: Corneto is a town on the coast of what used -to be the States of the Church; Cecina a stream not far south of -Leghorn. Between them lies the Maremma, a district of great natural -fertility, now being restored again to cultivation, but for ages a -neglected and poisonous wilderness. - -[420] _Harpies_: Monsters with the bodies of birds and the heads of -women. In the _Æneid_ iii., they are described as defiling the feast of -which the Trojans were about to partake on one of the -Strophades--islands of the Ægean; and on that occasion the prophecy was -made that Æneas and his followers should be reduced to eat their tables -ere they acquired a settlement in Italy. Here the Harpies symbolise -shameful waste and disgust with life. - -[421] _Will prove, etc._: The things seen by Dante are to make credible -what Virgil tells (_Æn._ iii.) of the blood and piteous voice that -issued from the torn bushes on the tomb of Polydorus. - -[422] _My lay_: See previous note. Dante thus indirectly acknowledges -his debt to Virgil; and, perhaps, at the same time puts in his claim to -an imaginative licence equal to that taken by his master. On a modern -reader the effect of the reference is to weaken the verisimilitude of -the incident. - -[423] _For I am he, etc._: The speaker is Pier delle Vigne, who from -being a begging student of Bologna rose to be the Chancellor of the -Emperor Frederick II., the chief councillor of that monarch, and one of -the brightest ornaments of his intellectual court. Peter was perhaps the -more endeared to his master because, like him, he was a poet of no mean -order. There are two accounts of what caused his disgrace. According to -one of these he was found to have betrayed Frederick's interests in -favour of the Pope's; and according to the other he tried to poison him. -Neither is it known whether he committed suicide; though he is said to -have done so after being disgraced, by dashing his brains out against a -church wall in Pisa. Dante clearly follows this legend. The whole -episode is eloquent of the esteem in which Peter's memory was held by -Dante. His name is not mentioned in Inferno, but yet the promise is -amply kept that it shall flourish on earth again, freed from unmerited -disgrace. He died about 1249. - -[424] _The harlot_: Envy. - -[425] _Of what thou thinkest, etc._: Virgil never asks a question for -his own satisfaction. He knows who the spirits are, what brought them -there, and which of them will speak honestly out on the promise of -having his fame refreshed in the world. It should be noted how, by a -hint, he has made Peter aware of who he is (line 48); a delicate -attention yielded to no other shade in the Inferno, except Ulysses -(_Inf._ xxvi. 79), and, perhaps, Brunetto Latini (_Inf._ xv. 99). - -[426] _In them shall ne'er be clad_: Boccaccio is here at great pains to -save Dante from a charge of contradicting the tenet of the resurrection -of the flesh. - -[427] _Naked_: These are the prodigals; their nakedness representing the -state to which in life they had reduced themselves. - -[428] _Lano_: Who made one of a club of prodigals in Siena (_Inf._ xxix. -130) and soon ran through his fortune. Joining in a Florentine -expedition in 1288 against Arezzo, he refused to escape from a defeat -encountered by his side at Pieve del Toppo, preferring, as was supposed, -to end his life at once rather than drag it out in poverty. - -[429] _James of St. Andrews_: Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan who -inherited enormous wealth which did not last him for long. He literally -threw money away, and would burn a house for the sake of the blaze. His -death has been placed in 1239. - -[430] _My city, etc._: According to tradition the original patron of -Florence was Mars. In Dante's time an ancient statue, supposed to be of -that god, stood upon the Old Bridge of Florence. It is referred to in -_Parad._ xvi. 47 and 145. Benvenuto says that he had heard from -Boccaccio, who had frequently heard it from old people, that the statue -was regarded with great awe. If a boy flung stones or mud at it, the -bystanders would say of him that he would make a bad end. It was lost in -the great flood of 1333. Here the Florentine shade represents Mars as -troubling Florence with wars in revenge for being cast off as a patron. - -[431] _Attila_: A confusion with Totila. Attila was never so far south -as Tuscany. Neither is there reason to believe that when Totila took the -city he destroyed it. But the legend was that it was rebuilt in the time -of Charles the Great. - -[432] _My own house, etc._: It is not settled who this was who hanged -himself from the beams of his own roof. One of the Agli, say some; -others, one of the Mozzi. Boccaccio and Peter Dante remark that suicide -by hanging was common in Florence. But Dante's text seems pretty often -to have suggested the invention of details in support or illustration of -it. - - - - -CANTO XIV. - - - Me of my native place the dear constraint[433] - Led to restore the leaves which round were strewn, - To him whose voice by this time was grown faint. - Thence came we where the second round joins on - Unto the third, wherein how terrible - The art of justice can be, is well shown. - But, clearly of these wondrous things to tell, - I say we entered on a plain of sand - Which from its bed doth every plant repel. - The dolorous wood lies round it like a band, 10 - As that by the drear fosse is circled round. - Upon its very edge we came to a stand. - And there was nothing within all that bound - But burnt and heavy sand; like that once trod - Beneath the feet of Cato[434] was the ground. - Ah, what a terror, O revenge of God! - Shouldst thou awake in any that may read - Of what before mine eyes was spread abroad. - I of great herds of naked souls took heed. - Most piteously was weeping every one; 20 - And different fortunes seemed to them decreed. - For some of them[435] upon the ground lay prone, - And some were sitting huddled up and bent, - While others, restless, wandered up and down. - More numerous were they that roaming went - Than they that were tormented lying low; - But these had tongues more loosened to lament. - O'er all the sand, deliberate and slow, - Broad open flakes of fire were downward rained, - As 'mong the Alps[436] in calm descends the snow. 30 - Such Alexander[437] saw when he attained - The hottest India; on his host they fell - And all unbroken on the earth remained; - Wherefore he bade his phalanxes tread well - The ground, because when taken one by one - The burning flakes they could the better quell. - So here eternal fire[438] was pouring down; - As tinder 'neath the steel, so here the sands - Kindled, whence pain more vehement was known. - And, dancing up and down, the wretched hands[439] 40 - Beat here and there for ever without rest; - Brushing away from them the falling brands. - And I: 'O Master, by all things confessed - Victor, except by obdurate evil powers - Who at the gate[440] to stop our passage pressed, - Who is the enormous one who noway cowers - Beneath the fire; with fierce disdainful air - Lying as if untortured by the showers?' - And that same shade, because he was aware - That touching him I of my Guide was fain 50 - To learn, cried: 'As in life, myself I bear - In death. Though Jupiter should tire again - His smith, from whom he snatched in angry bout - The bolt by which I at the last was slain;[441] - Though one by one he tire the others out - At the black forge in Mongibello[442] placed, - While "Ho, good Vulcan, help me!" he shall shout-- - The cry he once at Phlegra's[443] battle raised; - Though hurled with all his might at me shall fly - His bolts, yet sweet revenge he shall not taste.' 60 - Then spake my Guide, and in a voice so high - Never till then heard I from him such tone: - 'O Capaneus, because unquenchably - Thy pride doth burn, worse pain by thee is known. - Into no torture save thy madness wild - Fit for thy fury couldest thou be thrown.' - Then, to me turning with a face more mild, - He said: 'Of the Seven Kings was he of old, - Who leaguered Thebes, and as he God reviled - Him in small reverence still he seems to hold; 70 - But for his bosom his own insolence - Supplies fit ornament,[444] as now I told. - Now follow; but take heed lest passing hence - Thy feet upon the burning sand should tread; - But keep them firm where runs the forest fence.'[445] - We reached a place--nor any word we said-- - Where issues from the wood a streamlet small; - I shake but to recall its colour red. - Like that which does from Bulicamë[446] fall, - And losel women later 'mong them share; 80 - So through the sand this brooklet's waters crawl. - Its bottom and its banks I was aware - Were stone, and stone the rims on either side. - From this I knew the passage[447] must be there. - 'Of all that I have shown thee as thy guide - Since when we by the gateway[448] entered in, - Whose threshold unto no one is denied, - Nothing by thee has yet encountered been - So worthy as this brook to cause surprise, - O'er which the falling fire-flakes quenched are seen.' 90 - These were my Leader's words. For full supplies - I prayed him of the food of which to taste - Keen appetite he made within me rise. - 'In middle sea there lies a country waste, - Known by the name of Crete,' I then was told, - 'Under whose king[449] the world of yore was chaste. - There stands a mountain, once the joyous hold - Of woods and streams; as Ida 'twas renowned, - Now 'tis deserted like a thing grown old. - For a safe cradle 'twas by Rhea found. 100 - To nurse her child[450] in; and his infant cry, - Lest it betrayed him, she with clamours drowned. - Within the mount an old man towereth high. - Towards Damietta are his shoulders thrown; - On Rome, as on his mirror, rests his eye. - His head is fashioned of pure gold alone; - Of purest silver are his arms and chest; - 'Tis brass to where his legs divide; then down - From that is all of iron of the best, - Save the right foot, which is of baken clay; 110 - And upon this foot doth he chiefly rest. - Save what is gold, doth every part display - A fissure dripping tears; these, gathering all - Together, through the grotto pierce a way. - From rock to rock into this deep they fall, - Feed Acheron[451] and Styx and Phlegethon, - Then downward travelling by this strait canal, - Far as the place where further slope is none, - Cocytus form; and what that pool may be - I say not now. Thou'lt see it further on.' 120 - 'If this brook rises,' he was asked by me, - 'Within our world, how comes it that no trace - We saw of it till on this boundary?' - And he replied: 'Thou knowest that the place - Is round, and far as thou hast moved thy feet, - Still to the left hand[452] sinking to the base, - Nath'less thy circuit is not yet complete. - Therefore if something new we chance to spy, - Amazement needs not on thy face have seat.' - I then: 'But, Master, where doth Lethe lie, 130 - And Phlegethon? Of that thou sayest nought; - Of this thou say'st, those tears its flood supply.' - 'It likes me well to be by thee besought; - But by the boiling red wave,' I was told, - 'To half thy question was an answer brought. - Lethe,[453] not in this pit, shalt thou behold. - Thither to wash themselves the spirits go, - When penitence has made them spotless souled.' - Then said he: 'From the wood 'tis fitting now - That we depart; behind me press thou nigh. 140 - Keep we the margins, for they do not glow, - And over them, ere fallen, the fire-flakes die.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[433] _Dear constraint_: The mention of Florence has awakened Dante to -pity, and he willingly complies with the request of the unnamed suicide -(_Inf._ xiii. 142). As a rule, the only service he consents to yield the -souls with whom he converses in Inferno is to restore their memory upon -earth; a favour he does not feign to be asked for in this case, out of -consideration, it may be, for the family of the sinner. - -[434] _Cato_: Cato of Utica, who, after the defeat of Pompey at -Pharsalia, led his broken army across the Libyan desert to join King -Juba. - -[435] _Some of them, etc._: In this the third round of the Seventh -Circle are punished those guilty of sins of violence against God, -against nature, and against the arts by which alone a livelihood can -honestly be won. Those guilty as against God, the blasphemers, lie prone -like Capaneus (line 46), and are subject to the fiercest pain. Those -guilty of unnatural vice are stimulated into ceaseless motion, as -described in Cantos XV. and XVI. The usurers, those who despise honest -industry and the humanising arts of life, are found crouching on the -ground (_Inf._ xvii. 43). - -[436] _The Alps_: Used here for mountains in general. - -[437] _Such Alexander, etc._: The reference is to a pretended letter of -Alexander to Aristotle, in which he tells of the various hindrances met -with by his army from snow and rain and showers of fire. But in that -narrative it is the snow that is trampled down, while the flakes of fire -are caught by the soldiers upon their outspread cloaks. The story of the -shower of fire may have been suggested by Plutarch's mention of the -mineral oil in the province of Babylon, a strange thing to the Greeks; -and of how they were entertained by seeing the ground, which had been -sprinkled with it, burst into flame. - -[438] _Eternal fire_: As always, the character of the place and of the -punishment bears a relation to the crimes of the inhabitants. They -sinned against nature in a special sense, and now they are confined to -the sterile sand where the only showers that fall are showers of fire. - -[439] _The wretched hands_: The dance, named in the original the -_tresca_, was one in which the performers followed a leader and imitated -him in all his gestures, waving their hands as he did, up and down, and -from side to side. The simile is caught straight from common life. - -[440] _At the gate_: Of the city of Dis (_Inf._ viii. 82). - -[441] _Was slain, etc._: Capaneus, one of the Seven Kings, as told -below, when storming the walls of Thebes, taunted the other gods with -impunity, but his blasphemy against Jupiter was answered by a fatal -bolt. - -[442] _Mongibello_: A popular name of Etna, under which mountain was -situated the smithy of Vulcan and the Cyclopes. - -[443] _Phlegra_: Where the giants fought with the gods. - -[444] _Fit ornament, etc._: Even if untouched by the pain he affects to -despise, he would yet suffer enough from the mad hatred of God that -rages in his breast. Capaneus is the nearest approach to the Satan of -Milton found in the _Inferno_. From the need of getting law enough by -which to try the heathen Dante is led into some inconsistency. After -condemning the virtuous heathen to Limbo for their ignorance of the one -true God, he now condemns the wicked heathen to this circle for -despising false gods. Jupiter here stands for, as need scarcely be said, -the Supreme Ruler; and in that sense he is termed God (line 69). But it -remains remarkable that the one instance of blasphemous defiance of God -should be taken from classical fable. - -[445] _The forest fence_: They do not trust themselves so much as to -step upon the sand, but look out on it from the verge of the forest -which encircles it, and which as they travel they have on the left hand. - -[446] _Bulicamë_: A hot sulphur spring a couple of miles from Viterbo, -greatly frequented for baths in the Middle Ages; and, it is said, -especially by light women. The water boils up into a large pool, whence -it flows by narrow channels; sometimes by one and sometimes by another, -as the purposes of the neighbouring peasants require. Sulphurous fumes -rise from the water as it runs. The incrustation of the bottom, sides, -and edges of those channels gives them the air of being solidly built. - -[447] _The passage_: On each edge of the canal there is a flat pathway -of solid stone; and Dante sees that only by following one of these can a -passage be gained across the desert, for to set foot on the sand is -impossible for him owing to the falling flakes of fire. There may be -found in his description of the solid and flawless masonry of the canal -a trace of the pleasure taken in good building by the contemporaries of -Arnolfo. Nor is it without meaning that the sterile sands, the abode of -such as despised honest labour, is crossed by a perfect work of art -which they are forbidden ever to set foot upon. - -[448] _The gateway_: At the entrance to Inferno. - -[449] _Whose king_: Saturn, who ruled the world in the Golden Age. He, -as the devourer of his own offspring, is the symbol of Time; and the -image of Time is therefore set by Dante in the island where he reigned. - -[450] _Her child_: Jupiter, hidden in the mountain from his father -Saturn. - -[451] _Feed Acheron, etc._: The idea of this image is taken from the -figure in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel ii. But here, instead of the -Four Empires, the materials of the statue represent the Four Ages of the -world; the foot of clay on which it stands being the present time, which -is so bad that even iron were too good to represent it. Time turns his -back to the outworn civilisations of the East, and his face to Rome, -which, as the seat of the Empire and the Church, holds the secret of the -future. The tears of time shed by every Age save that of Gold feed the -four infernal streams and pools of Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and -Cocytus. Line 117 indicates that these are all fed by the same water; -are in fact different names for the same flood of tears. The reason why -Dante has not hitherto observed the connection between them is that he -has not made a complete circuit of each or indeed of any circle, as -Virgil reminds him at line 124, etc. The rivulet by which they stand -drains the boiling Phlegethon--where the water is all changed to blood, -because in it the murderers are punished--and flowing through the forest -of the suicides and the desert of the blasphemers, etc., tumbles into -the Eighth Circle as described in Canto xvi. 103. Cocytus they are -afterward to reach. An objection to this account of the infernal rivers -as being all fed by the same waters may be found in the difference of -volume of the great river of Acheron (_Inf._ iii. 71) and of this -brooklet. But this difference is perhaps to be explained by the -evaporation from the boiling waters of Phlegethon and of this stream -which drains it. Dante is almost the only poet applied to whom such -criticism would not be trifling. Another difficult point is how Cocytus -should not in time have filled, and more than filled, the Ninth Circle. - -[452] _To the left hand_: Twice only as they descend they turn their -course to the right hand (_Inf._ ix. 132, and xvii. 31). The circuit of -the Inferno they do not complete till they reach the very base. - -[453] _Lethe_: Found in the Earthly Paradise, as described in -_Purgatorio_ xxviii. 130. - - - - -CANTO XV. - - - Now lies[454] our way along one of the margins hard; - Steam rising from the rivulet forms a cloud, - Which 'gainst the fire doth brook and borders guard. - Like walls the Flemings, timorous of the flood - Which towards them pours betwixt Bruges and Cadsand,[455] - Have made, that ocean's charge may be withstood; - Or what the Paduans on the Brenta's strand - To guard their castles and their homesteads rear, - Ere Chiarentana[456] feel the spring-tide bland; - Of the same fashion did those dikes appear, 10 - Though not so high[457] he made them, nor so vast, - Whoe'er the builder was that piled them here. - We, from the wood when we so far had passed - I should not have distinguished where it lay - Though I to see it backward glance had cast, - A group of souls encountered on the way, - Whose line of march was to the margin nigh. - Each looked at us--as by the new moon's ray - Men peer at others 'neath the darkening sky-- - Sharpening his brows on us and only us, 20 - Like an old tailor on his needle's eye. - And while that crowd was staring at me thus, - One of them knew me, caught me by the gown, - And cried aloud: 'Lo, this is marvellous!'[458] - And straightway, while he thus to me held on, - I fixed mine eyes upon his fire-baked face, - And, spite of scorching, seemed his features known, - And whose they were my memory well could trace; - And I, with hand[459] stretched toward his face below, - Asked: 'Ser Brunetto![460] and is this your place?' 30 - 'O son,' he answered, 'no displeasure show, - If now Brunetto Latini shall some way - Step back with thee, and leave his troop to go.' - I said: 'With all my heart for this I pray, - And, if you choose, I by your side will sit; - If he, for I go with him, grant delay.' - 'Son,' said he, 'who of us shall intermit - Motion a moment, for an age must lie - Nor fan himself when flames are round him lit. - On, therefore! At thy skirts I follow nigh, 40 - Then shall I overtake my band again, - Who mourn a loss large as eternity.' - I dared not from the path step to the plain - To walk with him, but low I bent my head,[461] - Like one whose steps are all with reverence ta'en. - 'What fortune or what destiny,' he said, - 'Hath brought thee here or e'er thou death hast seen; - And who is this by whom thou'rt onward led?' - 'Up yonder,' said I, 'in the life serene, - I in a valley wandered all forlorn 50 - Before my years had full accomplished been. - I turned my back on it but yestermorn;[462] - Again I sought it when he came in sight - Guided by whom[463] I homeward thus return.' - And he to me: 'Following thy planet's light[464] - Thou of a glorious haven canst not fail, - If in the blithesome life I marked aright. - And had my years known more abundant tale, - Seeing the heavens so held thee in their grace - I, heartening thee, had helped thee to prevail. 60 - But that ungrateful and malignant race - Which down from Fiesole[465] came long ago, - And still its rocky origin betrays, - Will for thy worthiness become thy foe; - And with good reason, for 'mong crab-trees wild - It ill befits the mellow fig to grow. - By widespread ancient rumour are they styled - A people blind, rapacious, envious, vain: - See by their manners thou be not defiled. - Fortune reserves such honour for thee, fain 70 - Both sides[466] will be to enlist thee in their need; - But from the beak the herb shall far remain. - Let beasts of Fiesole go on to tread - Themselves to litter, nor the plants molest, - If any such now spring on their rank bed, - In whom there flourishes indeed the blest - Seed of the Romans who still lingered there - When of such wickedness 'twas made the nest.' - 'Had I obtained full answer to my prayer, - You had not yet been doomed,' I then did say, 80 - 'This exile from humanity to bear. - For deep within my heart and memory - Lives the paternal image good and dear - Of you, as in the world, from day to day, - How men escape oblivion you made clear; - My thankfulness for which shall in my speech - While I have life, as it behoves, appear. - I note what of my future course you teach. - Stored with another text[467] it will be glozed - By one expert, should I that Lady reach. 90 - Yet would I have this much to you disclosed: - If but my conscience no reproaches yield, - To all my fortune is my soul composed. - Not new to me the hint by you revealed; - Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel apace, - Even as she will; the clown[468] his mattock wield.' - Thereon my Master right about[469] did face, - And uttered this, with glance upon me thrown: - 'He hears[470] to purpose who doth mark the place.' - And none the less I, speaking, still go on 100 - With Ser Brunetto; asking him to tell - Who of his band[471] are greatest and best known. - And he to me: 'To hear of some is well, - But of the rest 'tis fitting to be dumb, - And time is lacking all their names to spell. - That all of them were clerks, know thou in sum, - All men of letters, famous and of might; - Stained with one sin[472] all from the world are come. - Priscian[473] goes with that crowd of evil plight, - Francis d'Accorso[474] too; and hadst thou mind 110 - For suchlike trash thou mightest have had sight - Of him the Slave[475] of Slaves to change assigned - From Arno's banks to Bacchiglione, where - His nerves fatigued with vice he left behind. - More would I say, but neither must I fare - Nor talk at further length, for from the sand - I see new dust-clouds[476] rising in the air, - I may not keep with such as are at hand. - Care for my _Treasure_;[477] for I still survive - In that my work. I nothing else demand.' 120 - Then turned he back, and ran like those who strive - For the Green Cloth[478] upon Verona's plain; - And seemed like him that shall the first arrive, - And not like him that labours all in vain. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[454] _Now lies, etc._: The stream on issuing from the wood flows right -across the waste of sand which that encompasses. To follow it they must -turn to the right, as always when, their general course being to the -left, they have to cross a Circle. But such a veering to the right is a -consequence of their leftward course, and not an exception to it. - -[455] _Cadsand_: An island opposite to the mouth of the great canal of -Bruges. - -[456] _Chiarentana_: What district or mountain is here meant has been -much disputed. It can be taken for Carinthia only on the supposition -that Dante was ignorant of where the Brenta rises. At the source of that -river stands the Monte Chiarentana, but it may be a question how old -that name is. The district name of it is Canzana, or Carenzana. - -[457] _Not so high, etc._: This limitation is very characteristic of -Dante's style of thought, which compels him to a precision that will -produce the utmost possible effect of verisimilitude in his description. -Most poets would have made the walls far higher and more vast, by way of -lending grandeur to the conception. - -[458] _Marvellous_: To find Dante, whom he knew, still living, and -passing through the Circle. - -[459] _With hand, etc._: 'With my face bent to his' is another reading, -but there seems to be most authority for that in the text.--The fiery -shower forbids Dante to stoop over the edge of the causeway. To -Brunetto, who is some feet below him, he throws out his open hand, a -gesture of astonishment mingled with pity. - -[460] _Ser Brunetto_: Brunetto Latini, a Florentine, was born in 1220. -As a notary he was entitled to be called Ser, or Messer. As appears from -the context, Dante was under great intellectual obligations to him, not, -we may suppose, as to a tutor so much as to an active-minded and -scholarly friend of mature age, and possessed of a ripe experience of -affairs. The social respect that Dante owed him is indicated by the use -of the plural form of address. See note, _Inf._ x. 51. Brunetto held -high appointments in the Republic. Perhaps with some exaggeration, -Villani says of him that he was the first to refine the Florentines, -teaching them to speak correctly, and to administer State affairs on -fixed principles of politics (_Cronica_, viii. 10). A Guelf in politics, -he shared in the exile of his party after the Ghibeline victory of -Montaperti in 1260, and for some years resided in Paris. There is reason -to suppose that he returned to Florence in 1269, and that he acted as -prothonotary of the court of Charles of Valois' vicar-general in -Tuscany. His signature as secretary to the Council of Florence is found -under the date of 1273. He died in 1294, when Dante was twenty-nine, and -was buried in the cloister of Santa Maria Maggiore, where his tombstone -may still be seen. (Not in Santa Maria Novella.) Villani mentions him in -his Chronicle with some reluctance, seeing he was a 'worldly man.' His -life must indeed have been vicious to the last, before Dante could have -had the heart to fix him in such company. Brunetto's chief works are the -_Tesoro_ and _Tesoretto_. For the _Tesoro_, see note at line 119. The -_Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, is an allegorical poem in Italian -rhymed couplets. In it he imagines himself, as he is on his return from -an embassy to Alphonso of Castile, meeting a scholar of Bologna of whom -he asks 'in smooth sweet words for news of Tuscany.' Having been told of -the catastrophe of Montaperti he wanders out of the beaten way into the -Forest of Roncesvalles, where he meets with various experiences; he is -helped by Ovid, is instructed by Ptolemy, and grows penitent for his -sins. In this, it will be seen, there is a general resemblance to the -action of the _Comedy_. There are even turns of expression that recall -Dante (_e.g._ beginning of _Cap._ iv.); but all together amounts to -little. - -[461] _Low I bent my head_: But not projecting it beyond the line of -safety, strictly defined by the edge of the causeway. We are to imagine -to ourselves the fire of Sodom falling on Brunetto's upturned face, and -missing Dante's head only by an inch. - -[462] _Yestermorn_: This is still the Saturday. It was Friday when Dante -met Virgil. - -[463] _Guided by whom_: Brunetto has asked who the guide is, and Dante -does not tell him. A reason for the refusal has been ingeniously found -in the fact that among the numerous citations of the _Treasure_ Brunetto -seldom quotes Virgil. See also the charge brought against Guido -Cavalcanti (_Inf._ x. 63), of holding Virgil in disdain. But it is -explanation enough of Dante's omission to name his guide that he is -passing through Inferno to gain experience for himself, and not to -satisfy the curiosity of the shades he meets. See note on line 99. - -[464] _Thy planet's light_: Some think that Brunetto had cast Dante's -horoscope. In a remarkable passage (_Parad._ xxii. 112) Dante attributes -any genius he may have to the influence of the Twins, which -constellation was in the ascendant when he was born. See also _Inf._ -xxvi. 23. But here it is more likely that Brunetto refers to his -observation of Dante's good qualities, from which he gathered that he -was well starred. - -[465] _Fiesole_: The mother city of Florence, to which also most of the -Fiesolans were believed to have migrated at the beginning of the -eleventh century. But all the Florentines did their best to establish a -Roman descent for themselves; and Dante among them. His fellow-citizens -he held to be for the most part of the boorish Fiesolan breed, rude and -stony-hearted as the mountain in whose cleft the cradle of their race -was seen from Florence. - -[466] _Both sides_: This passage was most likely written not long after -Dante had ceased to entertain any hope of winning his way back to -Florence in the company of the Whites, whose exile he shared, and when -he was already standing in proud isolation from Black and White, from -Guelf and Ghibeline. There is nothing to show that his expectation of -being courted by both sides ever came true. Never a strong partisan, he -had, to use his own words, at last to make a party by himself, and stood -out an Imperialist with his heart set on the triumph of an Empire far -nobler than that the Ghibeline desired. Dante may have hoped to hold a -place of honour some day in the council of a righteous Emperor; and this -may be the glorious haven with the dream of which he was consoled in the -wanderings of his exile. - -[467] _Another text_: Ciacco and Farinata have already hinted at the -troubles that lie ahead of him (_Inf._ vi. 65, and x. 79). - -[468] _The clown, etc._: The honest performance of duty is the best -defence against adverse fortune. - -[469] _Right about_: In traversing the sands they keep upon the -right-hand margin of the embanked stream, Virgil leading the way, with -Dante behind him on the right so that Brunetto may see and hear him -well. - -[470] _He hears, etc._: Of all the interpretations of this somewhat -obscure sentence that seems the best which applies it to Virgil's -_Quicquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est_--'Whatever shall -happen, every fate is to be vanquished by endurance' (_Æn._ v. 710). -Taking this way of it, we have in the form of Dante's profession of -indifference to all the adverse fortune that may be in store for him a -refined compliment to his Guide; and in Virgil's gesture and words an -equally delicate revelation of himself to Brunetto, in which is conveyed -an answer to the question at line 48, 'Who is this that shows the -way?'--Otherwise, the words convey Virgil's approbation of Dante's -having so well attended to his advice to store Farinata's prophecy in -his memory (_Inf._ x.127). - -[471] _His band_: That is, the company to which Brunetto specially -belongs, and from which for the time he has separated himself. - -[472] _Stained with one sin_: Dante will not make Brunetto individually -confess his sin. - -[473] _Priscian_: The great grammarian of the sixth century; placed here -without any reason, except that he is a representative teacher of youth. - -[474] _Francis d'Accorso_: Died about 1294. The son of a great civil -lawyer, he was himself professor of the civil law at Bologna, where his -services were so highly prized that the Bolognese forbade him, on pain -of the confiscation of his goods, to accept an invitation from Edward I. -to go to Oxford. - -[475] _Of him the Slave, etc._: One of the Pope's titles is _Servus -Servorum Domini_. The application of it to Boniface, so hated by Dante, -may be ironical: 'Fit servant of such a slave to vice!' The priest -referred to so contemptuously is Andrea, of the great Florentine family -of the Mozzi, who was much engaged in the political affairs of his time, -and became Bishop of Florence in 1286. About ten years later he was -translated to Vicenza, which stands on the Bacchiglione; and he died -shortly afterwards. According to Benvenuto he was a ridiculous preacher -and a man of dissolute manners. What is now most interesting about him -is that he was Dante's chief pastor during his early manhood, and is -consigned by him to the same disgraceful circle of Inferno as his -beloved master Brunetto Latini--a terrible evidence of the corruption of -life among the churchmen as well as the scholars of the thirteenth -century. - -[476] _New dust-clouds_: Raised by a band by whom they are about to be -met. - -[477] _My Treasure_: The _Trésor_, or _Tesoro_, Brunetto's principal -work, was written by him in French as being 'the pleasantest language, -and the most widely spread.' In it he treats of things in general in the -encyclopedic fashion set him by Alphonso of Castile. The first half -consists of a summary of civil and natural history. The second is -devoted to ethics, rhetoric, and politics. To a great extent it is a -compilation, containing, for instance, a translation, nearly complete, -of the Ethics of Aristotle--not, of course, direct from the Greek. It is -written in a plodding style, and speaks to more industry than genius. To -it Dante is indebted for some facts and fables. - -[478] _The Green Cloth_: To commemorate a victory won by the Veronese -there was instituted a race to be run on the first Sunday of Lent. The -prize was a piece of green cloth. The competitors ran naked.--Brunetto -does not disappear into the gloom without a parting word of applause -from his old pupil. Dante's rigorous sentence on his beloved master is -pronounced as softly as it can be. We must still wonder that he has the -heart to bring him to such an awful judgment. - - - - -CANTO XVI. - - - Now could I hear the water as it fell - To the next circle[479] with a murmuring sound - Like what is heard from swarming hives to swell; - When three shades all together with a bound - Burst from a troop met by us pressing on - 'Neath rain of that sharp torment. O'er the ground - Toward us approaching, they exclaimed each one: - 'Halt thou, whom from thy garb[480] we judge to be - A citizen of our corrupted town.' - Alas, what scars I on their limbs did see, 10 - Both old and recent, which the flames had made: - Even now my ruth is fed by memory. - My Teacher halted at their cry, and said: - 'Await a while:' and looked me in the face; - 'Some courtesy to these were well displayed. - And but that fire--the manner of the place-- - Descends for ever, fitting 'twere to find - Rather than them, thee quickening thy pace.' - When we had halted, they again combined - In their old song; and, reaching where we stood, 20 - Into a wheel all three were intertwined. - And as the athletes used, well oiled and nude, - To feel their grip and, wary, watch their chance, - Ere they to purpose strike and wrestle could; - So each of them kept fixed on me his glance - As he wheeled round,[481] and in opposing ways - His neck and feet seemed ever to advance. - 'Ah, if the misery of this sand-strewn place - Bring us and our petitions in despite,' - One then began, 'and flayed and grimy face; 30 - Let at the least our fame goodwill incite - To tell us who thou art, whose living feet - Thus through Inferno wander without fright. - For he whose footprints, as thou see'st, I beat, - Though now he goes with body peeled and nude, - More than thou thinkest, in the world was great. - The grandson was he of Gualdrada good; - He, Guidoguerra,[482] with his armèd hand - Did mighty things, and by his counsel shrewd. - The other who behind me treads the sand 40 - Is one whose name should on the earth be dear; - For he is Tegghiaio[483] Aldobrand. - And I, who am tormented with them here, - James Rusticucci[484] was; my fierce and proud - Wife of my ruin was chief minister.' - If from the fire there had been any shroud - I should have leaped down 'mong them, nor have earned - Blame, for my Teacher sure had this allowed. - But since I should have been all baked and burned, - Terror prevailed the goodwill to restrain 50 - With which to clasp them in my arms I yearned. - Then I began: ''Twas not contempt but pain - Which your condition in my breast awoke, - Where deeply rooted it will long remain, - When this my Master words unto me spoke, - By which expectancy was in me stirred - That ye who came were honourable folk. - I of your city[485] am, and with my word - Your deeds and honoured names oft to recall - Delighted, and with joy of them I heard. 60 - To the sweet fruits I go, and leave the gall, - As promised to me by my Escort true; - But first I to the centre down must fall.' - 'So may thy soul thy members long endue - With vital power,' the other made reply, - 'And after thee thy fame[486] its light renew; - As thou shalt tell if worth and courtesy - Within our city as of yore remain, - Or from it have been wholly forced to fly. - For William Borsier,[487] one of yonder train, 70 - And but of late joined with us in this woe, - Causeth us with his words exceeding pain.' - 'Upstarts, and fortunes suddenly that grow, - Have bred in thee pride and extravagance,[488] - Whence tears, O Florence! thou art shedding now.' - Thus cried I with uplifted countenance. - The three, accepting it for a reply, - Glanced each at each as hearing truth men glance. - And all: 'If others thou shalt satisfy - As well at other times[489] at no more cost, 80 - Happy thus at thine ease the truth to cry! - Therefore if thou escap'st these regions lost, - Returning to behold the starlight fair, - Then when "There was I,"[490] thou shalt make thy boast, - Something of us do thou 'mong men declare.' - Then broken was the wheel, and as they fled - Their nimble legs like pinions beat the air. - So much as one _Amen!_ had scarce been said - Quicker than what they vanished from our view. - On this once more the way my Master led. 90 - I followed, and ere long so near we drew - To where the water fell, that for its roar - Speech scarcely had been heard between us two. - And as the stream which of all those which pour - East (from Mount Viso counting) by its own - Course falls the first from Apennine to shore-- - As Acquacheta[491] in the uplands known - By name, ere plunging to its bed profound; - Name lost ere by Forlì its waters run-- - Above St. Benedict with one long bound, 100 - Where for a thousand[492] would be ample room, - Falls from the mountain to the lower ground; - Down the steep cliff that water dyed in gloom - We found to fall echoing from side to side, - Stunning the ear with its tremendous boom. - There was a cord about my middle tied, - With which I once had thought that I might hold - Secure the leopard with the painted hide. - When this from round me I had quite unrolled - To him I handed it, all coiled and tight; 110 - As by my Leader I had first been told. - Himself then bending somewhat toward the right,[493] - He just beyond the edge of the abyss - Threw down the cord,[494] which disappeared from sight. - 'That some strange thing will follow upon this - Unwonted signal which my Master's eye - Thus follows,' so I thought, 'can hardly miss.' - Ah, what great caution need we standing by - Those who behold not only what is done, - But who have wit our hidden thoughts to spy! 120 - He said to me: 'There shall emerge, and soon, - What I await; and quickly to thy view - That which thou dream'st of shall be clearly known.'[495] - From utterance of truth which seems untrue - A man, whene'er he can, should guard his tongue; - Lest he win blame to no transgression due. - Yet now I must speak out, and by the song - Of this my Comedy, Reader, I swear-- - So in good liking may it last full long!-- - I saw a shape swim upward through that air. 130 - All indistinct with gross obscurity, - Enough to fill the stoutest heart with fear: - Like one who rises having dived to free - An anchor grappled on a jagged stone, - Or something else deep hidden in the sea; - With feet drawn in and arms all open thrown. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[479] _The next circle_: The Eighth. - -[480] _Thy garb_: 'Almost every city,' says Boccaccio, 'had in those -times its peculiar fashion of dress distinct from that of neighboring -cities.' - -[481] _As he wheeled round_: Virgil and Dante have come to a halt upon -the embankment. The three shades, to whom it is forbidden to be at rest -for a moment, clasping one another as in a dance, keep wheeling round in -circle upon the sand. - -[482] _Guidoguerra_: A descendant of the Counts Guidi of Modigliana. -Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincion Berti de' Ravignani, praised -for his simple habits in the _Paradiso_, xv. 112. Guidoguerra was a -Guelf leader, and after the defeat of Montaperti acted as Captain of his -party, in this capacity lending valuable aid to Charles of Anjou at the -battle of Benevento, 1266, when Manfred was overthrown. He had no -children, and left the Commonwealth of Florence his heir. - -[483] _Tegghiaio_: Son of Aldobrando of the Adimari. His name should be -dear in Florence, because he did all he could to dissuade the citizens -from the campaign which ended so disastrously at Montaperti. - -[484] _James Rusticucci_: An accomplished cavalier of humble birth, said -to have been a retainer of Dante's friends the Cavalcanti. The -commentators have little to tell of him except that he made an unhappy -marriage, which is evident from the text. Of the sins of him and his -companions there is nothing known beyond what is to be inferred from the -poet's words, and nothing to say, except that when Dante consigned men -of their stamp, frank and amiable, to the Infernal Circles, we may be -sure that he only executed a verdict already accepted as just by the -whole of Florence. And when we find him impartially damning Guelf and -Ghibeline we may be equally sure that he looked for the aid of neither -party, and of no family however powerful in the State, to bring his -banishment to a close. He would even seem to be careful to stop any hole -by which he might creep back to Florence. When he did return, it was to -be in the train of the Emperor, so he hoped, and as one who gives rather -than seeks forgiveness. - -[485] _Of your city, etc._: At line 32 Rusticucci begs Dante to tell who -he is. He tells that he is of their city, which they have already -gathered from his _berretta_ and the fashion of his gown; but he tells -nothing, almost, of himself. Unless to Farinata, indeed, he never makes -an open breast to any one met in Inferno. But here he does all that -courtesy requires. - -[486] _Thy fame_: Dante has implied in his answer that he is gifted with -oratorical powers and is the object of a special Divine care; and the -illustrious Florentine, frankly acknowledging the claim he makes, -adjures him by the fame which is his in store to appease an eager -curiosity about the Florence which even in Inferno is the first thought -of every not ignoble Florentine. - -[487] _William Borsiere_: A Florentine, witty and well bred, according -to Boccaccio. Being once at Genoa he was shown a fine new palace by its -miserly owner, and was asked to suggest a subject for a painting with -which to adorn the hall. The subject was to be something that nobody had -ever seen. Borsiere proposed liberality as something that the miser at -any rate had never yet got a good sight of; an answer of which it is not -easy to detect either the wit or the courtesy, but which is said to have -converted the churl to liberal ways (_Decam._ i. 8). He is here -introduced as an authority on the noble style of manners. - -[488] _Pride and extravagance_: In place of the nobility of mind that -leads to great actions, and the gentle manners that prevail in a society -where there is a due subordination of rank to rank and well-defined -duties for every man. This, the aristocratic in a noble sense, was -Dante's ideal of a social state; for all his instincts were those of a -Florentine aristocrat, corrected though they were by his good sense and -his thirst for a reign of perfect justice. During his own time he had -seen Florence grow more and more democratic; and he was -irritated--unreasonably, considering that it was only a sign of the -general prosperity--at the spectacle of the amazing growth of wealth in -the hands of low-born traders, who every year were coming more to the -front and monopolising influence at home and abroad at the cost of their -neighbours and rivals with longer pedigrees and shorter purses. In -_Paradiso_ xvi. Dante dwells at length on the degeneracy of the -Florentines. - -[489] _At other times_: It is hinted that his outspokenness will not in -the future always give equal satisfaction to those who hear. - -[490] _There was I, etc._: _Forsan et hæc olim meminisse -juvabit._--_Æn._ i. 203. - -[491] _Acquacheta_: The fall of the water of the brook over the lofty -cliff that sinks from the Seventh to the Eighth Circle is compared to -the waterfall upon the Montone at the monastery of St. Benedict, in the -mountains above Forlì. The Po rises in Monte Viso. Dante here travels in -imagination from Monte Viso down through Italy, and finds that all the -rivers which rise on the left hand, that is, on the north-east of the -Apennine, fall into the Po, till the Montone is reached, that river -falling into the Adriatic by a course of its own. Above Forlì it was -called Acquacheta. The Lamone, north of the Montone, now follows an -independent course to the sea, having cut a new bed for itself since -Dante's time. - -[492] _Where for a thousand, etc._: In the monastery there was room for -many more monks, say most of the commentators; or something to the like -effect. Mr. Longfellow's interpretation seems better: Where the height -of the fall is so great that it would divide into a thousand falls. - -[493] _Toward the right_: The attitude of one about to throw. - -[494] _The cord_: The services of Geryon are wanted to convey them down -the next reach of the pit; and as no voice could be heard for the noise -of the waterfall, and no signal be made to catch the eye amid the gloom, -Virgil is obliged to call the attention of the monster by casting some -object into the depth where he lies concealed. But, since they are -surrounded by solid masonry and slack sand, one or other of them must -supply something fit to throw down; and the cord worn by Dante is fixed -on as what can best be done without. There may be a reference to the -cord of Saint Francis, which Dante, according to one of his -commentators, wore when he was a young man, following in this a fashion -common enough among pious laymen who had no thought of ever becoming -friars. But the simile of the cord, as representing sobriety and -virtuous purpose, is not strange to Dante. In _Purg._ vii. 114 he -describes Pedro of Arragon as being girt with the cord of every virtue; -and Pedro was no Franciscan. Dante's cord may therefore be taken as -standing for vigilance or self-control. With it he had hoped to get the -better of the leopard (_Inf._ i. 32), and may have trusted in it for -support as against the terrors of Inferno. But although he has been girt -with it ever since he entered by the gate, it has not saved him from a -single fear, far less from a single danger; and now it is cast away as -useless. Henceforth, more than ever, he is to confide wholly in Virgil -and have no confidence in himself. Nor is he to be girt again till he -reaches the coast of Purgatory, and then it is to be with a reed, the -emblem of humility.--But, however explained, the incident will always be -somewhat of a puzzle. - -[495] Dante attributes to Virgil full knowledge of all that is in his -own mind. He thus heightens our conception of his dependence on his -guide, with whose will his will is blent, and whose thoughts are always -found to be anticipating his own. Few readers will care to be constantly -recalling to mind that Virgil represents enlightened human reason. But -even if we confine ourselves to the easiest sense of the narrative, the -study of the relations between him and Dante will be found one of the -most interesting suggested by the poem--perhaps only less so than that -of Dante's moods of wonder, anger, and pity. - - - - -CANTO XVII. - - - 'Behold the monster[496] with the pointed tail, - Who passes mountains[497] and can entrance make - Through arms and walls! who makes the whole world ail, - Corrupted by him!' Thus my Leader spake, - And beckoned him that he should land hard by, - Where short the pathways built of marble break. - And that foul image of dishonesty - Moving approached us with his head and chest, - But to the bank[498] drew not his tail on high. - His face a human righteousness expressed, 10 - 'Twas so benignant to the outward view; - A serpent was he as to all the rest. - On both his arms hair to the arm-pits grew: - On back and chest and either flank were knot[499] - And rounded shield portrayed in various hue; - No Turk or Tartar weaver ever brought - To ground or pattern a more varied dye;[500] - Nor by Arachne[501] was such broidery wrought. - As sometimes by the shore the barges lie - Partly in water, partly on dry land; 20 - And as afar in gluttonous Germany,[502] - Watching their prey, alert the beavers stand; - So did this worst of brutes his foreparts fling - Upon the stony rim which hems the sand. - All of his tail in space was quivering, - Its poisoned fork erecting in the air, - Which scorpion-like was armèd with a sting. - My Leader said: 'Now we aside must fare - A little distance, so shall we attain - Unto the beast malignant crouching there.' 30 - So we stepped down upon the right,[503] and then - A half score steps[504] to the outer edge did pace, - Thus clearing well the sand and fiery rain. - And when we were hard by him I could trace - Upon the sand a little further on - Some people sitting near to the abyss. - 'That what this belt containeth may be known - Completely by thee,' then the Master said; - 'To see their case do thou advance alone. - Let thy inquiries be succinctly made. 40 - While thou art absent I will ask of him, - With his strong shoulders to afford us aid.' - Then, all alone, I on the outmost rim - Of that Seventh Circle still advancing trod, - Where sat a woful folk.[505] Full to the brim - Their eyes with anguish were, and overflowed; - Their hands moved here and there to win some ease, - Now from the flames, now from the soil which glowed. - No otherwise in summer-time one sees, - Working its muzzle and its paws, the hound 50 - When bit by gnats or plagued with flies or fleas. - And I, on scanning some who sat around - Of those on whom the dolorous flames alight, - Could recognise[506] not one. I only found - A purse hung from the throat of every wight, - Each with its emblem and its special hue; - And every eye seemed feasting on the sight. - As I, beholding them, among them drew, - I saw what seemed a lion's face and mien - Upon a yellow purse designed in blue. 60 - Still moving on mine eyes athwart the scene - I saw another scrip, blood-red, display - A goose more white than butter could have been. - And one, on whose white wallet blazoned lay - A pregnant sow[507] in azure, to me said: - 'What dost thou in this pit? Do thou straightway - Begone; and, seeing thou art not yet dead, - Know that Vitalian,[508] neighbour once of mine, - Shall on my left flank one day find his bed. - A Paduan I: all these are Florentine; 70 - And oft they stun me, bellowing in my ear: - "Come, Pink of Chivalry,[509] for whom we pine, - Whose is the purse on which three beaks appear:"' - Then he from mouth awry his tongue thrust out[510] - Like ox that licks its nose; and I, in fear - Lest more delay should stir in him some doubt - Who gave command I should not linger long, - Me from those wearied spirits turned about. - I found my Guide, who had already sprung - Upon the back of that fierce animal: 80 - He said to me: 'Now be thou brave and strong. - By stairs like this[511] we henceforth down must fall. - Mount thou in front, for I between would sit - So thee the tail shall harm not nor appal.' - Like one so close upon the shivering fit - Of quartan ague that his nails grow blue, - And seeing shade he trembles every whit, - I at the hearing of that order grew; - But his threats shamed me, as before the face - Of a brave lord his man grows valorous too. 90 - On the great shoulders then I took my place, - And wished to say, but could not move my tongue - As I expected: 'Do thou me embrace!' - But he, who other times had helped me 'mong - My other perils, when ascent I made - Sustained me, and strong arms around me flung, - And, 'Geryon, set thee now in motion!' said; - 'Wheel widely; let thy downward flight be slow; - Think of the novel burden on thee laid.' - As from the shore a boat begins to go 100 - Backward at first, so now he backward pressed, - And when he found that all was clear below, - He turned his tail where earlier was his breast; - And, stretching it, he moved it like an eel, - While with his paws he drew air toward his chest. - More terror Phaëthon could hardly feel - What time he let the reins abandoned fall, - Whence Heaven was fired,[512] as still its tracts reveal; - Nor wretched Icarus, on finding all - His plumage moulting as the wax grew hot, 110 - While, 'The wrong road!' his father loud did call; - Than what I felt on finding I was brought - Where nothing was but air and emptiness; - For save the brute I could distinguish nought. - He slowly, slowly swims; to the abyss - Wheeling he makes descent, as I surmise - From wind felt 'neath my feet and in my face. - Already on the right I heard arise - From out the caldron a terrific roar,[513] - Whereon I stretch my head with down-turned eyes. 120 - Terror of falling now oppressed me sore; - Hearing laments, and seeing fires that burned, - My thighs I tightened, trembling more and more. - Earlier I had not by the eye discerned - That we swept downward; scenes of torment now - Seemed drawing nearer wheresoe'er we turned. - And as a falcon (which long time doth go - Upon the wing, not finding lure[514] or prey), - While 'Ha!' the falconer cries, 'descending so!' - Comes wearied back whence swift it soared away; 130 - Wheeling a hundred times upon the road, - Then, from its master far, sulks angrily: - So we, by Geryon in the deep bestowed, - Were 'neath the sheer-hewn precipice set down: - He, suddenly delivered from our load, - Like arrow from the string was swiftly gone. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[496] _The monster_: Geryon, a mythical king of Spain, converted here -into the symbol of fraud, and set as the guardian demon of the Eighth -Circle, where the fraudulent are punished. There is nothing in the -mythology to justify this account of Geryon; and it seems that Dante has -created a monster to serve his purpose. Boccaccio, in his _Genealogy of -the Gods_ (Lib. i.), repeats the description of Geryon given by 'Dante -the Florentine, in his poem written in the Florentine tongue, one -certainly of no little importance among poems;' and adds that Geryon -reigned in the Balearic Isles, and was used to decoy travellers with his -benignant countenance, caressing words, and every kind of friendly lure, -and then to murder them when asleep. - -[497] _Who passes mountains, etc._: Neither art nor nature affords any -defence against fraud. - -[498] _The bank_: Not that which confines the brook but the inner limit -of the Seventh Circle, from which the precipice sinks sheer into the -Eighth, and to which the embankment by which the travellers have crossed -the sand joins itself on. Virgil has beckoned Geryon to come to that -part of the bank which adjoins the end of the causeway. - -[499] _Knot and rounded shield_: Emblems of subtle devices and -subterfuges. - -[500]_ Varied dye_: Denoting the various colours of deceit. - -[501] _Arachne_: The Lydian weaver changed into a spider by Minerva. See -_Purg._ xii. 43. - -[502] _Gluttonous Germany_: The habits of the German men-at-arms in -Italy, odious to the temperate Italians, explains this gibe. - -[503] _The right_: This is the second and last time that, in their -course through Inferno, they turn to the right. See _Inf._ ix. 132. The -action may possibly have a symbolical meaning, and refer to the -protection against fraud which is obtained by keeping to a righteous -course. But here, in fact, they have no choice, for, traversing the -Inferno as they do to the left hand, they came to the right bank of the -stream which traverses the fiery sands, followed it, and now, when they -would leave its edge, it is from the right embankment that they have to -step down, and necessarily to the right hand. - -[504] _A half score steps, etc._: Traversing the stone-built border -which lies between the sand and the precipice. Had the brook flowed to -the very edge of the Seventh Circle before tumbling down the rocky wall -it is clear that they might have kept to the embankment until they were -clear beyond the edge of the sand. We are therefore to figure to -ourselves the water as plunging down at a point some yards, perhaps the -width of the border, short of the true limit of the circle; and this is -a touch of local truth, since waterfalls in time always wear out a -funnel for themselves by eating back the precipice down which they -tumble. It was into this funnel that Virgil flung the cord, and up it -that Geryon was seen to ascend, as if by following up the course of the -water he would find out who had made the signal. To keep to the narrow -causeway where it ran on by the edge of this gulf would seem too full of -risk. - -[505] _Woful folk_: Usurers; those guilty of the unnatural sin of -contemning the legitimate modes of human industry. They sit huddled up -on the sand, close to its bound of solid masonry, from which Dante looks -down on them. But that the usurers are not found only at the edge of the -plain is evident from _Inf._ xiv. 19. - -[506] _Could recognise, etc._: Though most of the group prove to be from -Florence Dante recognises none of them; and this denotes that nothing so -surely creates a second nature in a man, in a bad sense, as setting the -heart on money. So in the Fourth Circle those who, being unable to spend -moderately, are always thinking of how to keep or get money are -represented as 'obscured from any recognition' (_Inf._ vii. 44). - -[507] _A pregnant sow_: The azure lion on a golden field was the arms of -the Gianfigliazzi, eminent usurers of Florence; the white goose on a red -ground was the arms of the Ubriachi of Florence; the azure sow, of the -Scrovegni of Padua. - -[508] _Vitalian_: A rich Paduan noble, whose palace was near that of the -Scrovegni. - -[509] _Pink of Chivalry_: 'Sovereign Cavalier;' identified by his arms -as Ser Giovanni Buiamonte, still alive in Florence in 1301, and if we -are to judge from the text, the greatest usurer of all. A northern poet -of the time would have sought his usurers in the Jewry of some town he -knew, but Dante finds his among the nobles of Padua and Florence. He -ironically represents them as wearing purses ornamented with their coats -of arms, perhaps to hint that they pursued their dishonourable trade -under shelter of their noble names--their shop signs, as it were. The -whole passage may have been planned by Dante so as to afford him the -opportunity of damning the still living Buiamonte without mentioning his -name. - -[510] _His tongue thrust out_: As if to say: We know well what sort of -fine gentleman Buiamonte is. - -[511] _By stairs like this_: The descent from one circle to another -grows more difficult the further down they come. They appear to have -found no special obstacle in the nature of the ground till they reached -the bank sloping down to the Fifth Circle, the pathway down which is -described as terrible (_Inf._ vii. 105). The descent into the Seventh -Circle is made practicable, and nothing more (_Inf._ xii. I). - -[512] _Heaven was fired_: As still appears in the Milky Way. In the -_Convito_, ii. 15, Dante discusses the various explanations of what -causes the brightness of that part of the heavens. - -[513] _A terrific roar_: Of the water falling to the ground. On -beginning the descent they had left the waterfall on the left hand, but -Geryon, after fetching one or more great circles, passes in front of it, -and then they have it on the right. There is no further mention of the -waters of Phlegethon till they are found frozen in Cocytus (_Inf._ -xxxii. 23). Philalethes suggests that they flow under the Eighth Circle. - -[514] _Lure_: An imitation bird used in training falcons. Dante -describes the sulky, slow descent of a falcon which has either lost -sight of its prey, or has failed to discover where the falconer has -thrown the lure. Geryon has descended thus deliberately owing to the -command of Virgil. - - - - -CANTO XVIII. - - - Of iron colour, and composed of stone, - A place called Malebolge[515] is in Hell, - Girt by a cliff of substance like its own. - In that malignant region yawns a well[516] - Right in the centre, ample and profound; - Of which I duly will the structure tell. - The zone[517] that lies between them, then, is round-- - Between the well and precipice hard and high; - Into ten vales divided is the ground. - As is the figure offered to the eye, 10 - Where numerous moats a castle's towers enclose - That they the walls may better fortify; - A like appearance was made here by those. - And as, again, from threshold of such place - Many a drawbridge to the outworks goes; - So ridges from the precipice's base - Cutting athwart the moats and barriers run, - Till at the well join the extremities.[518] - From Geryon's back when we were shaken down - 'Twas here we stood, until the Poet's feet 20 - Moved to the left, and I, behind, came on. - New torments on the right mine eyes did meet - With new tormentors, novel woe on woe; - With which the nearer Bolgia was replete. - Sinners, all naked, in the gulf below, - This side the middle met us; while they strode - On that side with us, but more swift did go.[519] - Even so the Romans, that the mighty crowd - Across the bridge, the year of Jubilee, - Might pass with ease, ordained a rule of road[520]-- 30 - Facing the Castle, on that side should be - The multitude which to St. Peter's hied; - So to the Mount on this was passage free. - On the grim rocky ground, on either side, - I saw horned devils[521] armed with heavy whip - Which on the sinners from behind they plied. - Ah, how they made the wretches nimbly skip - At the first lashes; no one ever yet - But sought from the second and the third to slip. - And as I onward went, mine eyes were set 40 - On one of them; whereon I called in haste: - 'This one already I have surely met!' - Therefore to know him, fixedly I gazed; - And my kind Leader willingly delayed, - While for a little I my course retraced. - On this the scourged one, thinking to evade - My search, his visage bent without avail, - For: 'Thou that gazest on the ground,' I said, - 'If these thy features tell trustworthy tale, - Venedico Caccianimico[522] thou! 50 - But what has brought thee to such sharp regale?'[523] - And he, 'I tell it 'gainst my will, I trow, - But thy clear accents[524] to the old world bear - My memory, and make me all avow. - I was the man who Ghisola the fair - To serve the Marquis' evil will led on, - Whatever[525] the uncomely tale declare. - Of Bolognese here weeping not alone - Am I; so full the place of them, to-day - 'Tween Reno and Savena[526] are not known 60 - So many tongues that _Sipa_ deftly say: - And if of this thou'dst know the reason why, - Think but how greedy were our hearts alway.' - To him thus speaking did a demon cry: - 'Pander, begone!' and smote him with his thong; - 'Here are no women for thy coin to buy.' - Then, with my Escort joined, I moved along. - Few steps we made until we there had come, - Where from the bank a rib of rock was flung. - With ease enough up to its top we clomb, 70 - And, turning on the ridge, bore to the right;[527] - And those eternal circles[528] parted from. - When we had reached where underneath the height - A passage opes, yielding the scourged a way, - My Guide bade: 'Tarry, so to hold in sight - Those other spirits born in evil day, - Whose faces until now from thee have been - Concealed, because with ours their progress lay.' - Then from the ancient bridge by us were seen - The troop which toward us on that circuit sped, 80 - Chased onward, likewise, by the scourges keen. - And my good Master, ere I asked him, said: - 'That lordly one now coming hither, see, - By whom, despite of pain, no tears are shed. - What mien he still retains of majesty! - 'Tis Jason, who by courage and by guile - The Colchians of the ram deprived. 'Twas he - Who on his passage by the Lemnian isle, - Where all of womankind with daring hand - Upon their males had wrought a murder vile, 90 - With loving pledges and with speeches bland - The tender-yeared Hypsipyle betrayed, - Who had herself a fraud on others planned. - Forlorn he left her then, when pregnant made. - That is the crime condemns him to this pain; - And for Medea[529] too is vengeance paid. - Who in his manner cheat compose his train. - Of the first moat sufficient now is known, - And those who in its jaws engulfed remain.' - Already had we by the strait path gone 100 - To where 'tis with the second bank dovetailed-- - The buttress whence a second arch is thrown. - Here heard we who in the next Bolgia wailed[530] - And puffed for breath; reverberations told - They with their open palms themselves assailed. - The sides were crusted over with a mould - Plastered upon them by foul mists that rise, - And both with eyes and nose a contest hold. - The bottom is so deep, in vain our eyes - Searched it till further up the bridge we went, 110 - To where the arch o'erhangs what under lies. - Ascended there, our eyes we downward bent, - And I saw people in such ordure drowned, - A very cesspool 'twas of excrement. - And while I from above am searching round, - One with a head so filth-smeared I picked out, - I knew not if 'twas lay, or tonsure-crowned. - 'Why then so eager,' asked he with a shout, - 'To stare at me of all the filthy crew?' - And I to him: 'Because I scarce can doubt 120 - That formerly thee dry of hair I knew, - Alessio Interminei[531] the Lucchese; - And therefore thee I chiefly hold in view.' - Smiting his head-piece, then, his words were these: - ''Twas flattery steeped me here; for, using such, - My tongue itself enough could never please.' - 'Now stretch thou somewhat forward, but not much,' - Thereon my Leader bade me, 'and thine eyes - Slowly advance till they her features touch - And the dishevelled baggage recognise, 130 - Clawing her yonder with her nails unclean, - Now standing up, now squatting on her thighs. - 'Tis harlot Thais,[532] who, when she had been - Asked by her lover, "Am I generous - And worthy thanks?" said, "Greatly so, I ween." - Enough[533] of this place has been seen by us.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[515] _Malebolge_: Or Evil Pits; literally, Evil Pockets. - -[516] _A well_: The Ninth and lowest Circle, to be described in Canto -xxxii., etc. - -[517] _The zone_: The Eighth Circle, in which the fraudulent of all -species are punished, lies between the precipice and the Ninth Circle. A -vivid picture of the enormous height of the enclosing wall has been -presented to us at the close of the preceding Canto. As in the -description of the Second Circle the atmosphere is represented as -malignant, being murky and disturbed with tempest; so the Malebolge is -called malignant too, being all of barren iron-coloured rock. In both -cases the surroundings of the sinners may well be spoken of as malign, -adverse to any thought of goodwill and joy. - -[518] _The extremities_: The _Malebolge_ consists of ten circular pits -or fosses, one inside of another. The outermost lies under the precipice -which falls sheer from the Seventh Circle; the innermost, and of course -the smallest, runs immediately outside of the 'Well,' which is the Ninth -Circle. The Bolgias or valleys are divided from each other by rocky -banks; and, each Bolgia being at a lower level than the one that -encloses it, the inside of each bank is necessarily deeper than the -outside. Ribs or ridges of rock--like spokes of a wheel to the -axle-tree--run from the foot of the precipice to the outer rim of the -'Well,' vaulting the moats at right angles with the course of them. Thus -each rib takes the form of a ten-arched bridge. By one or other of these -Virgil and Dante now travel towards the centre and the base of Inferno; -their general course being downward, though varied by the ascent in turn -of the hog-backed arches over the moats. - -[519] _More swift_: The sinners in the First Bolgia are divided into two -gangs, moving in opposite directions, the course of those on the outside -being to the right, as looked at by Dante. These are the shades of -panders; those in the inner current are such as seduced on their own -account. Here a list of the various classes of sinners contained in the -Bolgias of the Eighth Circle may be given:-- - - 1st Bolgia--Seducers, CANTO XVIII. - 2d " Flatterers, " " - 3d " Simoniacs, " XIX. - 4th " Soothsayers, " XX. - 5th " Barrators, " XXI. XXII. - 6th " Hypocrites, " XXIII. - 7th " Thieves, " XXIV. XXV. - 8th " Evil Counsellors, " XXVI. XXVII. - 9th " Scandal and Heresy Mongers, " XXVIII. XXIX. - 10th " Falsifiers, " XXIX. XXX. - -[520] _A rule of road_: In the year 1300 a Jubilee was held in Rome with -Plenary Indulgence for all pilgrims. Villani says that while it lasted -the number of strangers in Rome was never less than two hundred -thousand. The bridge and castle spoken of in the text are those of St. -Angelo. The Mount is probably the Janiculum. - -[521] _Horned devils_: Here the demons are horned--terrible -remembrancers to the sinner of the injured husband. - -[522] _Venedico Caccianimico_: A Bolognese noble, brother of Ghisola, -whom he inveigled into yielding herself to the Marquis of Este, lord of -Ferrara. Venedico died between 1290 and 1300. - -[523] _Such sharp regale_: 'Such pungent sauces.' There is here a play -of words on the _Salse_, the name of a wild ravine outside the walls of -Bologna, where the bodies of felons were thrown. Benvenuto says it used -to be a taunt among boys at Bologna: Your father was pitched into the -Salse. - -[524] _Thy clear accents_: Not broken with sobs like his own and those -of his companions. - -[525] _Whatever, etc._: Different accounts seem to have been current -about the affair of Ghisola. - -[526] _'Tween Reno, etc._: The Reno and Savena are streams that flow -past Bologna. _Sipa_ is Bolognese for Maybe, or for Yes. So Dante -describes Tuscany as the country where _Si_ is heard (_Inf._ xxxiii. -80). With regard to the vices of the Bolognese, Benvenuto says: 'Dante -had studied in Bologna, and had seen and observed all these things.' - -[527] _To the right_: This is only an apparent departure from their -leftward course. Moving as they were to the left along the edge of the -Bolgia, they required to turn to the right to cross the bridge that -spanned it. - -[528] _Those eternal circles_: The meaning is not clear; perhaps it only -is that they have now done with the outer stream of sinners in this -Bolgia, left by them engaged in endless procession round and round. - -[529] _Medea_: When the Argonauts landed on Lemnos, they found it -without any males, the women, incited by Venus, having put them all to -death, with the exception of Thoas, saved by his daughter Hypsipyle. -When Jason deserted her he sailed for Colchis, and with the assistance -of Medea won the Golden Fleece. Medea, who accompanied him from Colchis, -was in turn deserted by him. - -[530] _Who in the next Bolgia wailed_: The flatterers in the Second -Bolgia. - -[531] _Alessio Interminei_: Of the Great Lucchese family of the -Interminelli, to which the famous Castruccio Castrucani belonged. -Alessio is know to have been living in 1295. Dante may have known him -personally. Benvenuto says he was so liberal of his flattery that he -spent it even on menial servants. - -[532] _Thais_: In the _Eunuch_ of Terence, Thraso, the lover of that -courtesan, asks Gnatho, their go-between, if she really sent him many -thanks for the present of a slave-girl he had sent her. 'Enormous!' says -Gnatho. It proves what great store Dante set on ancient instances when -he thought this worth citing. - -[533] _Enough, etc._: Most readers will agree with Virgil. - - - - -CANTO XIX. - - - O Simon Magus![534] ye his wretched crew! - The gifts of God, ordained to be the bride - Of righteousness, ye prostitute that you - With gold and silver may be satisfied; - Therefore for you let now the trumpet[535] blow, - Seeing that ye in the Third Bolgia 'bide. - Arrived at the next tomb,[536] we to the brow - Of rock ere this had finished our ascent, - Which hangs true plumb above the pit below. - What perfect art, O Thou Omniscient, 10 - Is Thine in Heaven and earth and the bad world found! - How justly does Thy power its dooms invent! - The livid stone, on both banks and the ground, - I saw was full of holes on every side, - All of one size, and each of them was round. - No larger seemed they to me nor less wide - Than those within my beautiful St. John[537] - For the baptizers' standing-place supplied; - And one of which, not many years agone, - I broke to save one drowning; and I would 20 - Have this for seal to undeceive men known. - Out of the mouth of each were seen protrude - A sinner's feet, and of the legs the small - Far as the calves; the rest enveloped stood. - And set on fire were both the soles of all, - Which made their ankles wriggle with such throes - As had made ropes and withes asunder fall. - And as flame fed by unctuous matter goes - Over the outer surface only spread; - So from their heels it flickered to the toes. 30 - 'Master, who is he, tortured more,' I said, - 'Than are his neighbours, writhing in such woe; - And licked by flames of deeper-hearted red?' - And he: 'If thou desirest that below - I bear thee by that bank[538] which lowest lies, - Thou from himself his sins and name shalt know.' - And I: 'Thy wishes still for me suffice: - Thou art my Lord, and knowest I obey - Thy will; and dost my hidden thoughts surprise.' - To the fourth barrier then we made our way, 40 - And, to the left hand turning, downward went - Into the narrow hole-pierced cavity; - Nor the good Master caused me make descent - From off his haunch till we his hole were nigh - Who with his shanks was making such lament. - 'Whoe'er thou art, soul full of misery, - Set like a stake with lower end upcast,' - I said to him, 'Make, if thou canst, reply.' - I like a friar[539] stood who gives the last - Shrift to a vile assassin, to his side 50 - Called back to win delay for him fixed fast. - 'Art thou arrived already?' then he cried, - 'Art thou arrived already, Boniface? - By several years the prophecy[540] has lied. - Art so soon wearied of the wealthy place, - For which thou didst not fear to take with guile, - Then ruin the fair Lady?'[541] Now my case - Was like to theirs who linger on, the while - They cannot comprehend what they are told, - And as befooled[542] from further speech resile. 60 - But Virgil bade me: 'Speak out loud and bold, - "I am not he thou thinkest, no, not he!"' - And I made answer as by him controlled. - The spirit's feet then twisted violently, - And, sighing in a voice of deep distress, - He asked: 'What then requirest thou of me? - If me to know thou hast such eagerness, - That thou the cliff hast therefore ventured down, - Know, the Great Mantle sometime was my dress. - I of the Bear, in sooth, was worthy son: 70 - As once, the Cubs to help, my purse with gain - I stuffed, myself I in this purse have stown. - Stretched out at length beneath my head remain - All the simoniacs[543] that before me went, - And flattened lie throughout the rocky vein. - I in my turn shall also make descent, - Soon as he comes who I believed thou wast, - When I asked quickly what for him was meant. - O'er me with blazing feet more time has past, - While upside down I fill the topmost room, 80 - Than he his crimsoned feet shall upward cast; - For after him one viler still shall come, - A Pastor from the West,[544] lawless of deed: - To cover both of us his worthy doom. - A modern Jason[545] he, of whom we read - In Maccabees, whose King denied him nought: - With the French King so shall this man succeed.' - Perchance I ventured further than I ought, - But I spake to him in this measure free: - 'Ah, tell me now what money was there sought 90 - Of Peter by our Lord, when either key - He gave him in his guardianship to hold? - Sure He demanded nought save: "Follow me!" - Nor Peter, nor the others, asked for gold - Or silver when upon Matthias fell - The lot instead of him, the traitor-souled. - Keep then thy place, for thou art punished well,[546] - And clutch the pelf, dishonourably gained, - Which against Charles[547] made thee so proudly swell. - And, were it not that I am still restrained 100 - By reverence[548] for those tremendous keys, - Borne by thee while the glad world thee contained, - I would use words even heavier than these; - Seeing your avarice makes the world deplore, - Crushing the good, filling the bad with ease. - 'Twas you, O Pastors, the Evangelist bore - In mind what time he saw her on the flood - Of waters set, who played with kings the whore; - Who with seven heads was born; and as she would - By the ten horns to her was service done, 110 - Long as her spouse[549] rejoiced in what was good. - Now gold and silver are your god alone: - What difference 'twixt the idolater and you, - Save that ye pray a hundred for his one? - Ah, Constantine,[550] how many evils grew-- - Not from thy change of faith, but from the gift - Wherewith thou didst the first rich Pope endue!' - While I my voice continued to uplift - To such a tune, by rage or conscience stirred - Both of his soles he made to twist and shift. 120 - My Guide, I well believe, with pleasure heard; - Listening he stood with lips so well content - To me propounding truthful word on word. - Then round my body both his arms he bent, - And, having raised me well upon his breast, - Climbed up the path by which he made descent. - Nor was he by his burden so oppressed - But that he bore me to the bridge's crown, - Which with the fourth joins the fifth rampart's crest. - And lightly here he set his burden down, 130 - Found light by him upon the precipice, - Up which a goat uneasily had gone. - And thence another valley met mine eyes. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[534] _Simon Magus_: The sin of simony consists in setting a price on -the exercise of a spiritual grace or the acquisition of a spiritual -office. Dante assails it at headquarters, that is, as it was practised -by the Popes; and in their case it took, among other forms, that of -ecclesiastical nepotism. - -[535] _The trumpet_: Blown at the punishment of criminals, to call -attention to their sentence. - -[536] _The next tomb_: The Third Bolgia, appropriately termed a tomb, -because its manner of punishment is that of a burial, as will be seen. - -[537] _St. John_: The church of St. John's, in Dante's time, as now, the -Baptistery of Florence. In _Parad._ xxv. he anticipates the day, if it -should ever come, when he shall return to Florence, and in the church -where he was baptized a Christian be crowned as a Poet. Down to the -middle of the sixteenth century all baptisms, except in cases of urgent -necessity, were celebrated in St. John's; and, even there, only on the -eves of Easter and Pentecost. For protection against the crowd, the -officiating priests were provided with standing-places, circular -cavities disposed around the great font. To these Dante compares the -holes of this Bolgia, for the sake of introducing a defence of himself -from a charge of sacrilege. Benvenuto tells that once when some boys -were playing about the church one of them, to hide himself from his -companions, squeezed himself into a baptizer's standing-place, and made -so tight a fit of it that he could not be rescued till Dante with his -own hands plied a hammer upon the marble, and so saved the child from -drowning. The presence of water in the cavity may be explained by the -fact of the church's being at that time lighted by an unglazed opening -in the roof; and as baptisms were so infrequent the standing-places, -situated as they were in the centre of the floor, may often have been -partially flooded. It is easy to understand how bitterly Dante would -resent a charge of irreverence connected with his 'beautiful St. -John's;' 'that fair sheep-fold' (_Parad._ xxv. 5). - -[538] _That bank, etc._: Of each Bolgia the inner bank is lower than the -outer; the whole of Malebolge sloping towards the centre of the Inferno. - -[539] _Like a friar, etc._: In those times the punishment of an assassin -was to be stuck head downward in a pit, and then to have earth slowly -shovelled in till he was suffocated. Dante bends down, the better to -hear what the sinner has to say, like a friar recalled by the felon on -the pretence that he has something to add to his confession. - -[540] _The prophecy_: 'The writing.' The speaker is Nicholas III., of -the great Roman family of the Orsini, and Pope from 1277 to 1280; a man -of remarkable bodily beauty and grace of manner, as well as of great -force of character. Like many other Holy Fathers he was either a great -hypocrite while on his promotion, or else he degenerated very quickly -after getting himself well settled on the Papal Chair. He is said to -have been the first Pope who practised simony with no attempt at -concealment. Boniface VIII., whom he is waiting for to relieve him, -became Pope in 1294, and died in 1303. None of the four Popes between -1280 and 1294 were simoniacs; so that Nicholas was uppermost in the hole -for twenty-three years. Although ignorant of what is now passing on the -earth, he can refer back to his foreknowledge of some years earlier (see -_Inf._ x. 99) as if to a prophetic writing, and finds that according to -this it is still three years too soon, it being now only 1300, for the -arrival of Boniface. This is the usual explanation of the passage. To it -lies the objection that foreknowledge of the present that can be -referred back to is the same thing as knowledge of it, and with this the -spirits in Inferno are not endowed. But Dante elsewhere shows that he -finds it hard to observe the limitation. The alternative explanation, -supported by the use of _scritto_ (writing) in the text, is that -Nicholas refers to some prophecy once current about his successors in -Rome. - -[541] _The fair Lady_: The Church. The guile is that shown by Boniface -in getting his predecessor Celestine v. to abdicate (_Inf._ iii. 60). - -[542] _As befooled_: Dante does not yet suspect that it is with a Pope -he is speaking. He is dumbfounded at being addressed as Boniface. - -[543] _All the simoniacs_: All the Popes that had been guilty of the -sin. - -[544] _A Pastor from the West_: Boniface died in 1303, and was succeeded -by Benedict XI., who in his turn was succeeded by Clement V., the Pastor -from the West. Benedict was not stained with simony, and so it is -Clement that is to relieve Boniface; and he is to come from the West, -that is, from Avignon, to which the Holy See was removed by him. Or the -reference may simply be to the country of his birth. Elsewhere he is -spoken of as 'the Gascon who shall cheat the noble Henry' of Luxemburg -(_Parad._ xvii. 82).--This passage has been read as throwing light on -the question of when the _Inferno_ was written. Nicholas says that from -the time Boniface arrives till Clement relieves him will be a shorter -period than that during which he has himself been in Inferno, that is to -say, a shorter time than twenty years. Clement died in 1314; and so, it -is held, we find a date before which the _Inferno_ was, at least, not -published. But Clement was known for years before his death to be ill of -a disease usually soon fatal. He became Pope in 1305, and the wonder was -that he survived so long as nine years. Dante keeps his prophecy -safe--if it is a prophecy; and there does seem internal evidence to -prove the publication of the _Inferno_ to have taken place long before -1314.--It is needless to point out how the censure of Clement gains in -force if read as having been published before his death. - -[545] _Jason_: Or Joshua, who purchased the office of High Priest from -Antiochus Epiphanes, and innovated the customs of the Jews (2 Maccab. -iv. 7). - -[546] _Punished well_: At line 12 Dante has admired the propriety of the -Divine distribution of penalties. He appears to regard with a special -complacency that which he invents for the simoniacs. They were -industrious in multiplying benefices for their kindred; Boniface, for -example, besides Cardinals, appointed about twenty Archbishops and -Bishops from among his own relatives. Here all the simoniacal Popes have -to be contented with one place among them. They paid no regard to -whether a post was well filled or not: here they are set upside down. - -[547] _Charles_: Nicholas was accused of taking a bribe to assist Peter -of Arragon in ousting Charles of Anjou from the kingdom of Sicily. - -[548] _By reverence, etc._: Dante distinguishes between the office and -the unworthy holder of it. So in Purgatory he prostrates himself before -a Pope (_Purg._ xix. 131). - -[549] _Her spouse_: In the preceding lines the vision of the Woman in -the Apocalypse is applied to the corruption of the Church, represented -under the figure of the seven-hilled Rome seated in honour among the -nations and receiving observance from the kings of the earth till her -spouse, the Pope, began to prostitute her by making merchandise of her -spiritual gifts. Of the Beast there is no mention here, his qualities -being attributed to the Woman. - -[550] _Ah, Constantine, etc._: In Dante's time, and for some centuries -later, it was believed that Constantine, on transferring the seat of -empire to Byzantium, had made a gift to the Pope of rights and -privileges almost equal to those of the Emperor. Rome was to be the -Pope's; and from his court in the Lateran he was to exercise supremacy -over all the West. The Donation of Constantine, that is, the instrument -conveying these rights, was a forgery of the Middle Ages. - - - - -CANTO XX. - - - Now of new torment must my verses tell, - And matter for the Twentieth Canto win - Of Lay the First,[551] which treats of souls in Hell. - Already was I eager to begin - To peer into the visible profound,[552] - Which tears of agony was bathèd in: - And I saw people in the valley round; - Like that of penitents on earth the pace - At which they weeping came, nor uttering[553] sound. - When I beheld them with more downcast gaze,[554] 10 - That each was strangely screwed about I learned, - Where chest is joined to chin. And thus the face - Of every one round to his loins was turned; - And stepping backward[555] all were forced to go, - For nought in front could be by them discerned. - Smitten by palsy although one might show - Perhaps a shape thus twisted all awry, - I never saw, and am to think it slow. - As, Reader,[556] God may grant thou profit by - Thy reading, for thyself consider well 20 - If I could then preserve my visage dry - When close at hand to me was visible - Our human form so wrenched that tears, rained down - Out of the eyes, between the buttocks fell. - In very sooth I wept, leaning upon - A boss of the hard cliff, till on this wise - My Escort asked: 'Of the other fools[557] art one? - Here piety revives as pity dies; - For who more irreligious is than he - In whom God's judgments to regret give rise? 30 - Lift up, lift up thy head, and thou shalt see - Him for whom earth yawned as the Thebans saw, - All shouting meanwhile: "Whither dost thou flee, - Amphiaraüs?[558] Wherefore thus withdraw - From battle?" But he sinking found no rest - Till Minos clutched him with all-grasping claw. - Lo, how his shoulders serve him for a breast! - Because he wished to see too far before - Backward he looks, to backward course addressed. - Behold Tiresias,[559] who was changed all o'er, 40 - Till for a man a woman met the sight, - And not a limb its former semblance bore; - And he behoved a second time to smite - The same two twisted serpents with his wand, - Ere he again in manly plumes was dight. - With back to him, see Aruns next at hand, - Who up among the hills of Luni, where - Peasants of near Carrara till the land, - Among the dazzling marbles[560] held his lair - Within a cavern, whence could be descried 50 - The sea and stars of all obstruction bare. - The other one, whose flowing tresses hide - Her bosom, of the which thou seest nought, - And all whose hair falls on the further side, - Was Manto;[561] who through many regions sought: - Where I was born, at last her foot she stayed. - It likes me well thou shouldst of this be taught. - When from this life her father exit made, - And Bacchus' city had become enthralled, - She for long time through many countries strayed. 60 - 'Neath mountains by which Germany is walled - And bounded at Tirol, a lake there lies - High in fair Italy, Benacus[562] called. - The waters of a thousand springs that rise - 'Twixt Val Camonica and Garda flow - Down Pennine; and their flood this lake supplies. - And from a spot midway, if they should go - Thither, the Pastors[563] of Verona, Trent, - And Brescia might their blessings all bestow. - Peschiera,[564] with its strength for ornament, 70 - Facing the Brescians and the Bergamese - Lies where the bank to lower curve is bent. - And there the waters, seeking more of ease, - For in Benacus is not room for all, - Forming a river, lapse by green degrees. - The river, from its very source, men call - No more Benacus--'tis as Mincio known, - Which into Po does at Governo fall. - A flat it reaches ere it far has run, - Spreading o'er which it feeds a marshy fen, 80 - Whence oft in summer pestilence has grown. - Wayfaring here the cruel virgin, when - She found land girdled by the marshy flood, - Untilled and uninhabited of men, - That she might 'scape all human neighbourhood - Stayed on it with her slaves, her arts to ply; - And there her empty body was bestowed. - On this the people from the country nigh - Into that place came crowding, for the spot, - Girt by the swamp, could all attack defy, 90 - And for the town built o'er her body sought - A name from her who made it first her seat, - Calling it Mantua, without casting lot.[565] - The dwellers in it were in number great, - Till stupid Casalodi[566] was befooled - And victimised by Pinamonte's cheat. - Hence, shouldst thou ever hear (now be thou schooled!) - Another story to my town assigned, - Let by no fraud the truth be overruled.' - And I: 'Thy reasonings, Master, to my mind 100 - So cogent are, and win my faith so well, - What others say I shall black embers find. - But of this people passing onward tell, - If thou, of any, something canst declare, - For all my thoughts[567] on that intently dwell.' - And then he said: 'The one whose bearded hair - Falls from his cheeks upon his shoulders dun, - Was, when the land of Greece[568] of males so bare - Was grown the very cradles scarce held one, - An augur;[569] he with Calchas gave the sign 110 - In Aulis through the first rope knife to run. - Eurypylus was he called, and in some line - Of my high Tragedy[570] is sung the same, - As thou know'st well, who mad'st it wholly thine. - That other, thin of flank, was known to fame - As Michael Scott;[571] and of a verity - He knew right well the black art's inmost game. - Guido Bonatti,[572] and Asdente see - Who mourns he ever should have parted from - His thread and leather; but too late mourns he. 120 - Lo the unhappy women who left loom, - Spindle, and needle that they might divine; - With herb and image[573] hastening men's doom. - But come; for where the hemispheres confine - Cain and the Thorns[574] is falling, to alight - Underneath Seville on the ocean line. - The moon was full already yesternight; - Which to recall thou shouldst be well content, - For in the wood she somewhat helped thy plight.' - Thus spake he to me while we forward went. 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[551] _Lay the First_: The _Inferno_. - -[552] _The visible profound_: The Fourth Bolgia, where soothsayers of -every kind are punished. Their sin is that of seeking to find out what -God has made secret. That such discoveries of the future could be made -by men, Dante seems to have had no doubt; but he regards the exercise of -the power as a fraud on Providence, and also credits the adepts in the -black art with ruining others by their spells (line 123). - -[553] _Nor uttering, etc._: They who on earth told too much are now -condemned to be for ever dumb. It will be noticed that with none of them -does Dante converse. - -[554] _More downcast gaze_: Standing as he does on the crown of the -arch, the nearer they come to him the more he has to decline his eyes. - -[555] _Stepping backward_: Once they peered far into the future; now -they cannot see a step before them. - -[556]_ As, Reader, etc._: Some light may be thrown on this unusual, and, -at first sight, inexplicable display of pity, by the comment of -Benvenuto da Imola:--'It is the wisest and most virtuous of men that are -most subject to this mania of divination; and of this Dante is himself -an instance, as is well proved by this book of his.' Dante reminds the -reader how often since the journey began he has sought to have the veil -of the future lifted; and would have it understood that he was seized by -a sudden misgiving as to whether he too had not overstepped the bounds -of what, in that respect, is allowed and right. - -[557] _Of the other fools_: Dante, weeping like the sinners in the -Bolgia, is asked by Virgil: 'What, art thou then one of them?' He had -been suffered, without reproof, to show pity for Francesca and Ciacco. -The terrors of the Lord grow more cogent as they descend, and even pity -is now forbidden. - -[558] _Amphiaraüs_: One of the Seven Kings who besieged Thebes. He -foresaw his own death, and sought by hiding to evade it; but his wife -revealed his hiding-place, and he was forced to join in the siege. As he -fought, a thunderbolt opened a chasm in the earth, into which he fell. - -[559] _Tiresias_: A Theban soothsayer whose change of sex is described -by Ovid (_Metam._ iii.). - -[560] _The dazzling marbles_: Aruns, a Tuscan diviner, is introduced by -Lucan as prophesying great events to come to pass in Rome--the Civil War -and the victories of Cæsar. His haunt was the deserted city of Luna, -situated on the Gulf of Spezia, and under the Carrara mountains -(_Phars._ i. 586). - -[561] _Manto_: A prophetess, a native of Thebes the city of Bacchus, and -daughter of Tiresias.--Here begins a digression on the early history of -Mantua, the native city of Virgil. In his account of the foundation of -it Dante does not agree with Virgil, attributing to a Greek Manto what -his master attributes to an Italian one (_Æn._ x. 199). - -[562] _Benacus_: The ancient Benacus, now known as the Lake of Garda. - -[563] _The Pastors, etc._: About half-way down the western side of the -lake a stream falls into it, one of whose banks, at its mouth, is in the -diocese of Trent, and the other in that of Brescia, while the waters of -the lake are in that of Verona. The three Bishops, standing together, -could give a blessing each to his own diocese. - -[564] _Peschiera_: Where the lake drains into the Mincio. It is still a -great fortress. - -[565] _Without casting lot_; Without consulting the omens, as was usual -when a city was to be named. - -[566] _Casalodi_: Some time in the second half of the thirteenth century -Alberto Casalodi was befooled out of the lordship of Mantua by Pinamonte -Buonacolsi. Benvenuto tells the tale as follows:--Pinamonte was a bold, -ambitious man, with a great troop of armed followers; and, the nobility -being at that time in bad odour with the people at large, he persuaded -the Count Albert that it would be a popular measure to banish the -suspected nobles for a time. Hardly was this done when he usurped the -lordship; and by expelling some of the citizens and putting others of -them to death he greatly thinned the population of the city. - -[567] _All my thoughts, etc._: The reader's patience is certainly abused -by this digression of Virgil's, and Dante himself seems conscious that -it is somewhat ill-timed. - -[568] _The land of Greece, etc._: All the Greeks able to bear arms being -engaged in the Trojan expedition. - -[569] _An augur_: Eurypylus, mentioned in the Second _Æneid_ as being -employed by the Greeks to consult the oracle of Apollo regarding their -return to Greece. From the auspices Calchas had found at what hour they -should set sail for Troy. Eurypylus can be said only figuratively to -have had to do with cutting the cable. - -[570] _Tragedy_: The _Æneid_. Dante defines Comedy as being written in a -style inferior to that of Tragedy, and as having a sad beginning and a -happy ending (Epistle to Can Grande, 10). Elsewhere he allows the comic -poet great licence in the use of common language (_Vulg. El._ ii. 4). By -calling his own poem a Comedy he, as it were, disarms criticism. - -[571] _Michael Scott_: Of Balwearie in Scotland, familiar to English -readers through the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_. He flourished in the -course of the thirteenth century, and made contributions to the -sciences, as they were then deemed, of astrology, alchemy, and -physiognomy. He acted for some time as astrologer to the Emperor -Frederick II., and the tradition of his accomplishments powerfully -affected the Italian imagination for a century after his death. It was -remembered that the terrible Frederick, after being warned by him to -beware of Florence, had died at a place called Firenzuola; and more than -one Italian city preserved with fear and trembling his dark sayings -regarding their fate. Villani frequently quotes his prophecies; and -Boccaccio speaks of him as a great necromancer who had been in Florence. -A commentary of his on Aristotle was printed at Venice in 1496. The -thinness of his flanks may refer to a belief that he could make himself -invisible at will. - -[572] _Guido Bonatti_: Was a Florentine, a tiler by trade, and was -living in 1282. When banished from his own city he took refuge at Forlì -and became astrologer to Guido of Montefeltro (_Inf._ xxvii.), and was -credited with helping his master to a great victory.--_Asdente_: A -cobbler of Parma, whose prophecies were long renowned, lived in the -twelfth century. He is given in the _Convito_ (iv. 16) as an instance -that a man may be very notorious without being truly noble. - -[573] _Herb and image_: Part of the witch's stock in trade. All that was -done to a waxen image of him was suffered by the witch's victim. - -[574] _Cain and the Thorns_: The moon. The belief that the spots in the -moon are caused by Cain standing in it with a bundle of thorns is -referred to at _Parad._ ii. 51. Although it is now the morning of the -Saturday, the 'yesternight' refers to the night of Thursday, when Dante -found some use of the moon in the Forest. The moon is now setting on the -line dividing the hemisphere of Jerusalem, in which they are, from that -of the Mount of Purgatory. According to Dante's scheme of the world, -Purgatory is the true opposite of Jerusalem; and Seville is ninety -degrees from Jerusalem. As it was full moon the night before last, and -the moon is now setting, it is now fully an hour after sunrise. But, as -has already been said, it is not possible to reconcile the astronomical -indications thoroughly with one another.--Virgil serves as clock to -Dante, for they can see nothing of the skies. - - - - -CANTO XXI. - - - Conversing still from bridge to bridge[575] we went; - But what our words I in my Comedy - Care not to tell. The top of the ascent - Holding, we halted the next pit to spy - Of Malebolge, with plaints bootless all: - There, darkness[576] full of wonder met the eye. - As the Venetians[577] in their Arsenal - Boil the tenacious pitch at winter-tide, - To caulk the ships with for repairs that call; - For then they cannot sail; and so, instead, 10 - One builds his bark afresh, one stops with tow - His vessel's ribs, by many a voyage tried; - One hammers at the poop, one at the prow; - Some fashion oars, and others cables twine, - And others at the jib and main sails sew: - So, not by fire, but by an art Divine, - Pitch of thick substance boiled in that low Hell, - And all the banks did as with plaster line. - I saw it, but distinguished nothing well - Except the bubbles by the boiling raised, 20 - Now swelling up and ceasing now to swell. - While down upon it fixedly I gazed, - 'Beware, beware!' my Leader to me said, - And drew me thence close to him. I, amazed, - Turned sharply round, like him who has delayed, - Fain to behold the thing he ought to flee, - Then, losing nerve, grows suddenly afraid, - Nor lingers longer what there is to see; - For a black devil I beheld advance - Over the cliff behind us rapidly. 30 - Ah me, how fierce was he of countenance! - What bitterness he in his gesture put, - As with spread wings he o'er the ground did dance! - Upon his shoulders, prominent and acute, - Was perched a sinner[578] fast by either hip; - And him he held by tendon of the foot. - He from our bridge: 'Ho, Malebranche![579] Grip - An Elder brought from Santa Zita's town:[580] - Stuff him below; myself once more I slip - Back to the place where lack of such is none. 40 - There, save Bonturo, barrates[581] every man, - And No grows Yes that money may be won.' - He shot him down, and o'er the cliff began - To run; nor unchained mastiff o'er the ground, - Chasing a robber, swifter ever ran. - The other sank, then rose with back bent round; - But from beneath the bridge the devils cried: - 'Not here the Sacred Countenance[582] is found, - One swims not here as on the Serchio's[583] tide; - So if thou wouldst not with our grapplers deal 50 - Do not on surface of the pitch abide.' - Then he a hundred hooks[584] was made to feel. - 'Best dance down there,' they said the while to him, - 'Where, if thou canst, thou on the sly mayst steal.' - So scullions by the cooks are set to trim - The caldrons and with forks the pieces steep - Down in the water, that they may not swim. - And the good Master said to me: 'Now creep - Behind a rocky splinter for a screen; - So from their knowledge thou thyself shalt keep. 60 - And fear not thou although with outrage keen - I be opposed, for I am well prepared, - And formerly[585] have in like contest been.' - Then passing from the bridge's crown he fared - To the sixth bank,[586] and when thereon he stood - He needed courage doing what he dared. - In the same furious and tempestuous mood - In which the dogs upon the beggar leap, - Who, halting suddenly, seeks alms or food, - They issued forth from underneath the deep 70 - Vault of the bridge, with grapplers 'gainst him stretched; - But he exclaimed: 'Aloof, and harmless keep! - Ere I by any of your hooks be touched, - Come one of you and to my words give ear; - And then advise you if I should be clutched.' - All cried: 'Let Malacoda then go near;' - On which one moved, the others standing still. - He coming said: 'What will this[587] help him here?' - 'O Malacoda, is it credible - That I am come,' my Master then replied, 80 - 'Secure your opposition to repel, - Without Heaven's will, and fate, upon my side? - Let me advance, for 'tis by Heaven's behest - That I on this rough road another guide.' - Then was his haughty spirit so depressed, - He let his hook drop sudden to his feet, - And, 'Strike him not!' commanded all the rest - My Leader charged me thus: 'Thou, from thy seat - Where 'mid the bridge's ribs thou crouchest low, - Rejoin me now in confidence complete.' 90 - Whereon I to rejoin him was not slow; - And then the devils, crowding, came so near, - I feared they to their paction false might show. - So at Caprona[588] saw I footmen fear, - Spite of their treaty, when a multitude - Of foes received them, crowding front and rear. - With all my body braced I closer stood - To him, my Leader, and intently eyed - The aspect of them, which was far from good. - Lowering their grapplers, 'mong themselves they cried: - 'Shall I now tickle him upon the thigh?' 101 - 'Yea, see thou clip him deftly,' one replied. - The demon who in parley had drawn nigh - Unto my Leader, upon this turned round; - 'Scarmiglione, lay thy weapon by!' - He said; and then to us: 'No way is found - Further along this cliff, because, undone, - All the sixth arch lies ruined on the ground. - But if it please you further to pass on, - Over this rocky ridge advancing climb 110 - To the next rib,[589] where passage may be won. - Yestreen,[590] but five hours later than this time, - Twelve hundred sixty-six years reached an end, - Since the way lost the wholeness of its prime. - Thither I some of mine will straightway send - To see that none peer forth to breathe the air: - Go on with them; you they will not offend. - You, Alichin[591] and Calcabrin, prepare - To move,' he bade; 'Cagnazzo, thou as well; - Guiding the ten, thou, Barbariccia, fare. 120 - With Draghignazzo, Libicocco fell, - Fanged Ciriatto, Graffiacane too, - Set on, mad Rubicant and Farfarel: - Search on all quarters round the boiling glue. - Let these go safe, till at the bridge they be, - Which doth unbroken[592] o'er the caverns go.' - 'Alas, my Master, what is this I see?' - Said I, 'Unguided, let us forward set, - If thou know'st how. I wish no company. - If former caution thou dost not forget, 130 - Dost thou not mark how each his teeth doth grind, - The while toward us their brows are full of threat?' - And he: 'I would not fear should fill thy mind; - Let them grin all they will, and all they can; - 'Tis at the wretches in the pitch confined.' - They wheeled and down the left hand bank began - To march, but first each bit his tongue,[593] and passed - The signal on to him who led the van. - He answered grossly as with trumpet blast. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[575] _From bridge to bridge_: They cross the barrier separating the -Fourth from the Fifth Bolgia, and follow the bridge which spans the -Fifth until they have reached the crown of it. We may infer that the -conversation of Virgil and Dante turned on foreknowledge of the future. - -[576] _Darkness, etc._: The pitch with which the trench of the Bolgia is -filled absorbs most of the scanty light accorded to Malebolge. - -[577] _The Venetians_: But for this picturesque description of the old -Arsenal, and a passing mention of the Rialto in one passage of the -_Paradiso_, and of the Venetian coinage in another, it could not be -gathered from the _Comedy_, with all its wealth of historical and -geographical references, that there was such a place as Venice in the -Italy of Dante. Unlike the statue of Time (_Inf._ xiv.), the Queen of -the Adriatic had her face set eastwards. Her back was turned and her -ears closed as in a proud indifference to the noise of party conflicts -which filled the rest of Italy. - -[578] _A sinner_: This is the only instance in the _Inferno_ of the -arrival of a sinner at his special place of punishment. See _Inf._ v. -15, _note_. - -[579] _Malebranche_: Evil Claws, the name of the devils who have the -sinners of this Bolgia in charge. - -[580] _Santa Zita's town_: Zita was a holy serving-woman of Lucca, who -died some time between 1270 and 1280, and whose miracle-working body is -still preserved in the church of San Frediano. Most probably, although -venerated as a saint, she was not yet canonized at the time Dante writes -of, and there may be a Florentine sneer hidden in the description of -Lucca as her town. Even in Lucca there was some difference of opinion as -to her merits, and a certain unlucky Ciappaconi was pitched into the -Serchio for making fun of the popular enthusiasm about her. See -Philalethes, _Gött. Com._ In Lucca the officials that were called Priors -in Florence, were named Elders. The commentators give a name to this -sinner, but it is only guesswork. - -[581] _Save Bonturo_, _barrates, etc._: It is the barrators, those who -trafficked in offices and sold justice, that are punished in this -Bolgia. The greatest barrator of all in Lucca, say the commentators, was -this Bonturo; but there seems no proof of it, though there is of his -arrogance. He was still living in 1314. - -[582] _The Sacred Countenance_: An image in cedar wood, of Byzantine -workmanship, still preserved and venerated in the cathedral of Lucca. -According to the legend, it was carved from memory by Nicodemus, and -after being a long time lost was found again in the eighth century by an -Italian bishop travelling in Palestine. He brought it to the coast at -Joppa, where it was received by a vessel without sail or oar, which, -with its sacred freight, floated westwards and was next seen at the port -of Luna. All efforts to approach the bark were vain, till the Bishop of -Lucca descended to the seashore, and to him the vessel resigned itself -and suffered him to take the image into his keeping. 'Believe what you -like of all this,' says Benvenuto; 'it is no article of faith.'--The -sinner has come to the surface, bent as if in an attitude of prayer, -when he is met by this taunt. - -[583] _The Serchio_: The stream which flows past Lucca. - -[584] _A hundred hooks_: So many devils with their pronged hooks were -waiting to receive the victim. The punishment of the barrators bears a -relation to their sins. They wrought their evil deeds under all kinds of -veils and excuses, and are now themselves effectually buried out of -sight. The pitch sticks as close to them as bribes ever did to their -fingers. They misused wards and all subject to them, and in their turn -are clawed and torn by their devilish guardians. - -[585] _Formerly, etc._: On the occasion of his previous descent (_Inf._ -ix. 22). - -[586] _The sixth bank_: Dante remains on the crown of the arch -overhanging the pitch-filled moat. Virgil descends from the bridge by -the left hand to the bank on the inner side of the Fifth Bolgia. - -[587] _What will this, etc._: As if he said: What good will this delay -do him in the long-run? - -[588] _At Caprona_: Dante was one of the mounted militia sent by -Florence in 1289 to help the Lucchese against the Pisans, and was -present at the surrender by the Pisan garrison of the Castle of Caprona. -Some make the reference to be to a siege of the same stronghold by the -Pisans in the following year, when the Lucchese garrison, having -surrendered on condition of having their lives spared, were met as they -issued forth with cries of 'Hang them! Hang them!' But of this second -siege it is only a Pisan commentator that speaks. - -[589] _The next rib_: Malacoda informs them that the arch of rock across -the Sixth Bolgia in continuation of that by which they have crossed the -Fifth is in ruins, but that they will find a whole bridge if they keep -to the left hand along the rocky bank on the inner edge of the -pitch-filled moat. But, as appears further on, he is misleading them. It -will be remembered that from the precipice enclosing the Malebolge there -run more than one series of bridges or ribs into the central well of -Inferno. - -[590] _Yestreen, etc._: This is the principal passage in the _Comedy_ -for fixing the date of the journey. It is now, according to the text, -twelve hundred and sixty-six years and a day since the crucifixion. -Turning to the _Convito_, iv. 23, we find Dante giving his reasons for -believing that Jesus, at His death, had just completed His thirty-fourth -year. This brings us to the date of 1300 A.D. But according to Church -tradition the crucifixion happened on the 25th March, and to get -thirty-four years His life must be counted from the incarnation, which -was held to have taken place on the same date, namely the 25th March. It -was in Dante's time optional to reckon from the incarnation or the birth -of Christ. The journey must therefore be taken to have begun on Friday -the 25th March, a fortnight before the Good Friday of 1300; and, -counting strictly from the incarnation, on the first day of 1301--the -first day of the new century. So we find Boccaccio in his unfinished -commentary saying in _Inf._ iii. that it will appear from Canto xxi. -that Dante began his journey in MCCCI.--The hour is now five hours -before that at which the earthquake happened which took place at the -death of Jesus. This is held by Dante (_Convito_ iv. 23), who professes -to follow the account by Saint Luke, to have been at the sixth hour, -that is, at noon; thus the time is now seven in the morning. - -[591] _Alichino, etc._: The names of the devils are all descriptive: -Alichino, for instance, is the Swooper; but in this and the next Canto -we have enough of the horrid crew without considering too closely how -they are called. - -[592] _Unbroken_: Malacoda repeats his lie. - -[593] _Each bit his tongue, etc._: The demons, aware of the cheat played -by Malacoda, show their devilish humour by making game of Virgil and -Dante.--Benvenuto is amazed that a man so involved in his own thoughts -as Dante was, should have been such a close observer of low life as this -passage shows him. He is sure that he laughed to himself as he wrote the -Canto. - - - - -CANTO XXII. - - - Horsemen I've seen in march across the field, - Hastening to charge, or, answering muster, stand, - And sometimes too when forced their ground to yield; - I have seen skirmishers upon your land, - O Aretines![594] and those on foray sent; - With trumpet and with bell[595] to sound command - Have seen jousts run and well-fought tournament, - With drum, and signal from the castle shown, - And foreign music with familiar blent; - But ne'er by blast on such a trumpet blown 10 - Beheld I horse or foot to motion brought, - Nor ship by star or landmark guided on. - With the ten demons moved we from the spot; - Ah, cruel company! but 'with the good - In church, and in the tavern with the sot.' - Still to the pitch was my attention glued - Fully to see what in the Bolgia lay, - And who were in its burning mass imbrued. - As when the dolphins vaulted backs display, - Warning to mariners they should prepare 20 - To trim their vessel ere the storm makes way; - So, to assuage the pain he had to bear, - Some wretch would show his back above the tide, - Then swifter plunge than lightnings cleave the air. - And as the frogs close to the marsh's side - With muzzles thrust out of the water stand, - While feet and bodies carefully they hide; - So stood the sinners upon every hand. - But on beholding Barbariccia nigh - Beneath the bubbles[596] disappeared the band. 30 - I saw what still my heart is shaken by: - One waiting, as it sometimes comes to pass - That one frog plunges, one at rest doth lie; - And Graffiacan, who nearest to him was, - Him upward drew, clutching his pitchy hair: - To me he bore the look an otter has. - I of their names[597] ere this was well aware, - For I gave heed unto the names of all - When they at first were chosen. 'Now prepare, - And, Rubicante, with thy talons fall 40 - Upon him and flay well,' with many cries - And one consent the accursed ones did call. - I said: 'O Master, if in any wise - Thou canst, find out who is the wretched wight - Thus at the mercy of his enemies.' - Whereon my Guide drew full within his sight, - Asking him whence he came, and he replied: - 'In kingdom of Navarre[598] I first saw light. - Me servant to a lord my mother tied; - Through her I from a scoundrel sire did spring, 50 - Waster of goods and of himself beside. - As servant next to Thiebault,[599] righteous king, - I set myself to ply barratorship; - And in this heat discharge my reckoning.' - And Ciriatto, close upon whose lip - On either side a boar-like tusk did stand, - Made him to feel how one of them could rip. - The mouse had stumbled on the wild cat band; - But Barbariccia locked him in embrace, - And, 'Off while I shall hug him!' gave command. 60 - Round to my Master then he turned his face: - 'Ask more of him if more thou wouldest know, - While he against their fury yet finds grace.' - My Leader asked: 'Declare now if below - The pitch 'mong all the guilty there lies here - A Latian?'[600] He replied: 'Short while ago - From one[601] I parted who to them lived near; - And would that I might use him still for shield, - Then hook or claw I should no longer fear,' - Said Libicocco: 'Too much grace we yield.' 70 - And in the sinner's arm he fixed his hook, - And from it clean a fleshy fragment peeled. - But seeing Draghignazzo also took - Aim at his legs, the leader of the Ten - Turned swiftly round on them with angry look. - On this they were a little quieted; then - Of him who still gazed on his wound my Guide - Without delay demanded thus again: - 'Who was it whom, in coming to the side, - Thou say'st thou didst do ill to leave behind?' 80 - 'Gomita of Gallura,'[602] he replied, - 'A vessel full of fraud of every kind, - Who, holding in his power his master's foes, - So used them him they bear in thankful mind; - For, taking bribes, he let slip all of those, - He says; and he in other posts did worse, - And as a chieftain 'mong barrators rose. - Don Michael Zanche[603] doth with him converse, - From Logodoro, and with endless din - They gossip[604] of Sardinian characters. 90 - But look, ah me! how yonder one doth grin. - More would I say, but that I am afraid - He is about to claw me on the skin.' - To Farfarel the captain turned his head, - For, as about to swoop, he rolled his eye, - And, 'Cursed hawk, preserve thy distance!' said. - 'If ye would talk with, or would closer spy,' - The frighted wretch began once more to say, - 'Tuscans or Lombards, I will bring them nigh. - But let the Malebranche first give way, 100 - That of their vengeance they may not have fear, - And I to this same place where now I stay - For me, who am but one, will bring seven near - When I shall whistle as we use to do - Whenever on the surface we appear.' - On this Cagnazzo up his muzzle threw, - Shaking his head and saying: 'Hear the cheat - He has contrived, to throw himself below.' - Then he who in devices was complete: - 'Far too malicious, in good sooth,' replied, 110 - 'When for my friends I plan a sorer fate.' - This, Alichin withstood not but denied - The others' counsel,[605] saying: 'If thou fling - Thyself hence, thee I strive not to outstride. - But o'er the pitch I'll dart upon the wing. - Leave we the ridge,[606] and be the bank a shield; - And see if thou canst all of us outspring.' - O Reader, hear a novel trick revealed. - All to the other side turned round their eyes, - He first[607] who slowest was the boon to yield. 120 - In choice of time the Navarrese was wise; - Taking firm stand, himself he forward flung, - Eluding thus their hostile purposes. - Then with compunction each of them was stung, - But he the most[608] whose slackness made them fail; - Therefore he started, 'Caught!' upon his tongue. - But little it bested, nor could prevail - His wings 'gainst fear. Below the other went, - While he with upturned breast aloft did sail. - And as the falcon, when, on its descent, 130 - The wild duck suddenly dives out of sight, - Returns outwitted back, and malcontent; - To be befooled filled Calcabrin with spite. - Hovering he followed, wishing in his mind - The wretch escaping should leave cause for fight. - When the barrator vanished, from behind - He on his comrade with his talons fell - And clawed him, 'bove the moat with him entwined. - The other was a spar-hawk terrible - To claw in turn; together then the two 140 - Plunged in the boiling pool. The heat full well - How to unlock their fierce embraces knew; - But yet they had no power[609] to rise again, - So were their wings all plastered o'er with glue. - Then Barbariccia, mourning with his train, - Caused four to fly forth to the other side - With all their grapplers. Swift their flight was ta'en. - Down to the place from either hand they glide, - Reaching their hooks to those who were limed fast, - And now beneath the scum were being fried. 150 - And from them thus engaged we onward passed. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[594] _O Aretines_: Dante is mentioned as having taken part in the -campaign of 1289 against Arezzo, in the course of which the battle of -Campaldino was fought. But the text can hardly refer to what he -witnessed in that campaign, as the field of it was almost confined to -the Casentino, and little more than a formal entrance was made on the -true Aretine territory; while the chronicles make no mention of jousts -and forays. There is, however, no reason to think but that Dante was -engaged in the attack made by Florence on the Ghibeline Arezzo in the -early summer of the preceding year. In a few days the Florentines and -their allies had taken above forty castles and strongholds, and -devastated the enemy's country far and near; and, though unable to take -the capital, they held all kinds of warlike games in front of it. Dante -was then twenty-three years of age, and according to the Florentine -constitution of that period would, in a full muster of the militia, be -required to serve as a cavalier without pay, and providing his own horse -and arms. - -[595] _Bell_: The use of the bell for martial music was common in the -Italy of the thirteenth century. The great war-bell of the Florentines -was carried with them into the field. - -[596] _Beneath the bubbles, etc._: As the barrators took toll of the -administration of justice and appointment to offices, something always -sticking to their palms, so now they are plunged in the pitch; and as -they denied to others what should be the common blessing of justice, now -they cannot so much as breathe the air without paying dearly for it to -the demons. - -[597] _Their names_: The names of all the demons. All of them urge -Rubicante, the 'mad red devil,' to flay the victim, shining and sleek -with the hot pitch, who is held fast by Graffiacane. - -[598] _In kingdom of Navarre, etc._: The commentators give the name of -John Paul to this shade, but all that is known of him is found in the -text. - -[599] _Thiebault_: King of Navarre and second of that name. He -accompanied his father-in-law, Saint Louis, to Tunis, and died on his -way back, in 1270. - -[600] _A Latian_: An Italian. - -[601] _From one, etc._: A Sardinian. The barrator prolongs his answer so -as to procure a respite from the fangs of his tormentors. - -[602] _Gomita of Gallura_: 'Friar Gomita' was high in favour with Nino -Visconti (_Purg._ viii. 53), the lord of Gallura, one of the provinces -into which Sardinia was divided under the Pisans. At last, after bearing -long with him, the 'gentle Judge Nino' hanged Gomita for setting -prisoners free for bribes. - -[603] _Don Michael Zanche_: Enzo, King of Sardinia, married Adelasia, -the lady of Logodoro, one of the four Sardinian judgedoms or provinces. -Of this province Zanche, seneschal to Enzo, acquired the government -during the long imprisonment of his master, or upon his death in 1273. -Zanche's daughter was married to Branca d'Oria, by whom Zanche was -treacherously slain in 1275 (_Inf._ xxxiii. 137). There seems to be -nothing extant to support the accusation implied in the text. - -[604] _They gossip, etc._: Zanche's experience of Sardinia was of an -earlier date than Gomita's. It has been claimed for, or charged against, -the Sardinians, that more than other men they delight in gossip touching -their native country. These two, if it can be supposed that, plunged -among and choked with pitch, they still cared for Sardinian talk, would -find material enough in the troubled history of their land. In 1300 it -belonged partly to Genoa and partly to Pisa. - -[605] _The others' counsel_: Alichino, confident in his own powers, is -willing to risk an experiment with the sinner. The other devils count a -bird in the hand worth two in the bush. - -[606] _The ridge_: Not the crown of the great rocky barrier between the -Fifth and the Sixth Bolgias, for it is not on that the devils are -standing; neither are they allowed to pass over it (_Inf._ xxiii. 55). -We are to figure them to ourselves as standing on a ledge running -between the fosse and the foot of the enclosing rocky steep--a pathway -continued under the bridges and all round the Bolgia for their -convenience as guardians of it. The bank adjoining the pitch will serve -as a screen for the sinner if the demons retire to the other side of -this ledge. - -[607] _He first, etc._: Cagnazzo. See line 106. - -[608] _He the most, etc._: Alichino, whose confidence in his agility had -led to the outwitting of the band. - -[609] _No power_: The foolish ineptitude of the devils for anything -beyond their special function of hooking up and flaying those who appear -on the surface of the pitch, and their irrational fierce playfulness as -of tiger cubs, convey a vivid impression of the limits set to their -diabolical power, and at the same time heighten the sense of what -Dante's feeling of insecurity must have been while in such inhuman -companionship. - - - - -CANTO XXIII. - - - Silent, alone, not now with company - We onward went, one first and one behind, - As Minor Friars[610] use to make their way. - On Æsop's fable[611] wholly was my mind - Intent, by reason of that contest new-- - The fable where the frog and mouse we find; - For _Mo_ and _Issa_[612] are not more of hue - Than like the fable shall the fact appear, - If but considered with attention due. - And as from one thought springs the next, so here 10 - Out of my first arose another thought, - Until within me doubled was my fear. - For thus I judged: Seeing through us[613] were brought - Contempt upon them, hurt, and sore despite, - They needs must be to deep vexation wrought. - If anger to malevolence unite, - Then will they us more cruelly pursue - Than dog the hare which almost feels its bite. - All my hair bristled, I already knew, - With terror when I spake: 'O Master, try 20 - To hide us quick' (and back I turned to view - What lay behind), 'for me they terrify, - These Malebranche following us; from dread - I almost fancy I can feel them nigh.' - And he: 'Were I a mirror backed with lead - I should no truer glass that form of thine, - Than all thy thought by mine is answered. - For even now thy thoughts accord with mine, - Alike in drift and featured with one face; - And to suggest one counsel they combine. 30 - If the right bank slope downward at this place, - To the next Bolgia[614] offering us a way, - Swiftly shall we evade the imagined chase.' - Ere he completely could his purpose say, - I saw them with their wings extended wide, - Close on us; as of us to make their prey. - Then quickly was I snatched up by my Guide: - Even as a mother when, awaked by cries, - She sees the flames are kindling at her side, - Delaying not, seizes her child and flies; 40 - Careful for him her proper danger mocks, - Nor even with one poor shift herself supplies. - And he, stretched out upon the flinty rocks, - Himself unto the precipice resigned - Which one side of the other Bolgia blocks. - A swifter course ne'er held a stream confined, - That it may turn a mill, within its race, - Where near the buckets 'tis the most declined - Than was my Master's down that rock's sheer face; - Nor seemed I then his comrade, as we sped, 50 - But like a son locked in a sire's embrace. - And barely had his feet struck on the bed - Of the low ground, when they were seen to stand - Upon the crest, no more a cause of dread.[615] - For Providence supreme, who so had planned - In the Fifth Bolgia they should minister, - Them wholly from departure thence had banned. - 'Neath us we saw a painted people fare, - Weeping as on their way they circled slow, - Crushed by fatigue to look at, and despair. 60 - Cloaks had they on with hoods pulled down full low - Upon their eyes, and fashioned, as it seemed, - Like those which at Cologne[616] for monks they sew. - The outer face was gilt so that it gleamed; - Inside was all of lead, of such a weight - Frederick's[617] to these had been but straw esteemed. - O weary robes for an eternal state! - With them we turned to the left hand once more, - Intent upon their tears disconsolate. - But those folk, wearied with the loads they bore, 70 - So slowly crept that still new company - Was ours at every footfall on the floor. - Whence to my Guide I said: 'Do thou now try - To find some one by name or action known, - And as we go on all sides turn thine eye.' - And one, who recognised the Tuscan tone, - Called from behind us: 'Halt, I you entreat - Who through the air obscure are hastening on; - Haply in me thou what thou seek'st shalt meet.' - Whereon my Guide turned round and said: 'Await, - And keep thou time with pacing of his feet.' 81 - I stood, and saw two manifesting great - Desire to join me, by their countenance; - But their loads hampered them and passage strait.[618] - And, when arrived, me with an eye askance[619] - They gazed on long time, but no word they spoke; - Then, to each other turned, held thus parlance: - 'His heaving throat[620] proves him of living folk. - If they are of the dead, how could they gain - To walk uncovered by the heavy cloak?' 90 - Then to me: 'Tuscan, who dost now attain - To the college of the hypocrites forlorn, - To tell us who thou art show no disdain.' - And I to them: 'I was both bred and born - In the great city by fair Arno's stream, - And wear the body I have always worn. - But who are ye, whose suffering supreme - Makes tears, as I behold, to flood the cheek; - And what your mode of pain that thus doth gleam?' - 'Ah me, the yellow mantles,' one to speak 100 - Began, 'are all of lead so thick, its weight - Maketh the scales after this manner creak. - We, Merry Friars[621] of Bologna's state, - I Catalano, Loderingo he, - Were by thy town together designate, - As for the most part one is used to be, - To keep the peace within it; and around - Gardingo,[622] what we were men still may see.' - I made beginning: 'Friars, your profound--' - But said no more, on suddenly seeing there 110 - One crucified by three stakes to the ground, - Who, when he saw me, writhed as in despair, - Breathing into his beard with heavy sigh. - And Friar Catalan, of this aware, - Said: 'He thus fixed, on whom thou turn'st thine eye, - Counselled the Pharisees that it behoved - One man as victim[623] for the folk should die. - Naked, thou seest, he lies, and ne'er removed - From where, set 'cross the path, by him the weight - Of every one that passes by is proved. 120 - And his wife's father shares an equal fate, - With others of the Council, in this fosse; - For to the Jews they proved seed reprobate.' - Meanwhile at him thus stretched upon the cross - Virgil,[624] I saw, displayed astonishment-- - At his mean exile and eternal loss. - And then this question to the Friars he sent: - 'Be not displeased, but, if ye may, avow - If on the right[625] hand there lies any vent - By which we, both of us,[626] from hence may go, 130 - Nor need the black angelic company - To come to help us from this valley low.' - 'Nearer than what thou think'st,' he made reply, - 'A rib there runs from the encircling wall,[627] - The cruel vales in turn o'erarching high; - Save that at this 'tis rent and ruined all. - Ye can climb upward o'er the shattered heap - Where down the side the piled-up fragments fall.' - His head bent down a while my Guide did keep, - Then said: 'He warned us[628] in imperfect wise, 140 - Who sinners with his hook doth clutch and steep.' - The Friar: 'At Bologna[629] many a vice - I heard the Devil charged with, and among - The rest that, false, he father is of lies.' - Then onward moved my Guide with paces long, - And some slight shade of anger on his face. - I with him parted from the burdened throng, - Stepping where those dear feet had left their trace. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[610] _Minor Friars_: In the early years of their Order the Franciscans -went in couples upon their journeys, not abreast but one behind the -other. - -[611] _Æsop's fable_: This fable, mistakenly attributed to Æsop, tells -of how a frog enticed a mouse into a pond, and how they were then both -devoured by a kite. To discover the aptness of the simile would scarcely -be reward enough for the continued mental effort Dante enjoins. So much -was everything Greek or Roman then held in reverence, that the mention -even of Æsop is held to give dignity to the page. - -[612] _Mo_ and _Issa_: Two words for _now_. - -[613] _Through us_: The quarrel among the fiends arose from Dante's -insatiable desire to confer with 'Tuscan or Lombard.' - -[614] _To the next Bolgia_: The Sixth. They are now on the top of the -circular ridge that divides it from the Fifth. From the construction of -Malebolge the ridge is deeper on the inner side than on that up which -they have travelled from the pitch. - -[615] _No more a cause of dread_: There seems some incongruity between -Virgil's dread of these smaller devils and the ease with which he cowed -Minos, Charon, and Pluto. But his character gains in human interest the -more he is represented as sympathising with Dante in his terrors; and in -this particular case the confession of fellow-feeling prepares the way -for the beautiful passage which follows it (line 38, etc.), one full of -an almost modern tenderness. - -[616] _Cologne_: Some make it Clugny, the great Benedictine monastery; -but all the old commentators and most of the mss. read Cologne. All that -the text necessarily carries is that the cloaks had great hoods. If, in -addition, a reproach of clumsiness is implied, it would agree well -enough with the Italian estimate of German people and things. - -[617] _Frederick's, etc._: The Emperor Frederick II.; but that he used -any torture of leaden sheets seems to be a fabrication of his enemies. - -[618] _Passage strait_: Through the crowd of shades, all like themselves -weighed down by the leaden cloaks. There is nothing in all literature -like this picture of the heavily-burdened shades. At first sight it -seems to be little of a torture compared with what we have already seen, -and yet by simple touch after touch an impression is created of the -intolerable weariness of the victims. As always, too, the punishment -answers to the sin. The hypocrites made a fair show in the flesh, and -now their mantles which look like gold are only of base lead. On earth -they were of a sad countenance, trying to seem better than they were, -and the load which to deceive others they voluntarily assumed in life is -now replaced by a still heavier weight, and one they cannot throw off if -they would. The choice of garb conveys an obvious charge of hypocrisy -against the Friars, then greatly fallen away from the purity of their -institution, whether Franciscans or Dominicans. - -[619] _An eye askance_: They cannot turn their heads. - -[620] _His heaving throat_: In Purgatory Dante is known for a mortal by -his casting a shadow. Here he is known to be of flesh and blood by the -act of respiration; yet, as appears from line 113, the shades, too, -breathe as well as perform other functions of living bodies. At least -they seem so to do, but this is all only in appearance. They only seem -to be flesh and blood, having no weight, casting no shadow, and drawing -breath in a way of their own. Dante, as has been said (_Inf._ vi. 36), -is hard put to it to make them subject to corporal pains and yet be only -shadows. - -[621] _Merry Friars_: Knights of the Order of Saint Mary, instituted by -Urban IV. in 1261. Whether the name of Frati Godenti which they here -bear was one of reproach or was simply descriptive of the easy rule -under which they lived, is not known. Married men might, under certain -conditions, enter the Order. The members were to hold themselves aloof -from public office, and were to devote themselves to the defence of the -weak and the promotion of justice and religion. The two monkish -cavaliers of the text were in 1266 brought to Florence as Podestas, the -Pope himself having urged them to go. There is much uncertainty as to -the part they played in Florence, but none as to the fact of their rule -having been highly distasteful to the Florentines, or as to the other -fact, that in Florence they grew wealthy. The Podesta, or chief -magistrate, was always a well-born foreigner. Probably some monkish rule -or custom forbade either Catalano or Loderingo to leave the monastery -singly. - -[622] _Gardingo_: A quarter of Florence, in which many palaces were -destroyed about the time of the Podestaship of the Frati. - -[623] _One man as victim_: _St. John_ xi. 50. Caiaphas and Annas, with -the Scribes and Pharisees who persecuted Jesus to the death, are the -vilest hypocrites of all. They lie naked across the path, unburdened by -the leaden cloak, it is true, but only that they may feel the more -keenly the weight of the punishment of all the hypocrites of the world. - -[624] _Virgil_: On Virgil's earlier journey through Inferno Caiaphas and -the others were not here, and he wonders as at something out of a world -to him unknown. - -[625] _On the right_: As they are moving round the Bolgia to the left, -the rocky barrier between them and the Seventh Bolgia is on their right. - -[626] _We, both of us_: Dante, still in the body, as well as Virgil, the -shade. - -[627] _The encircling wall_: That which encloses all the Malebolge. - -[628] _He warned us_: Malacoda (_Inf._ xxi. 109) had assured him that -the next rib of rock ran unbroken across all the Bolgias, but it too, -like all the other bridges, proves to have been, at the time of the -earthquake, shattered where it crossed this gulf of the hypocrites. The -earthquake told most on this Bolgia, because the death of Christ and the -attendant earthquake were, in a sense, caused by the hypocrisy of -Caiaphas and the rest. - -[629] _At Bologna_: Even in Inferno the Merry Friar must have his joke. -He is a gentleman, but a bit of a scholar too; and the University of -Bologna is to him what Marischal College was to Captain Dalgetty. - - - - -CANTO XXIV. - - - In season of the new year, when the sun - Beneath Aquarius[630] warms again his hair, - And somewhat on the nights the days have won; - When on the ground the hoar-frost painteth fair - A mimic image of her sister white-- - But soon her brush of colour is all bare-- - The clown, whose fodder is consumed outright, - Rises and looks abroad, and, all the plain - Beholding glisten, on his thigh doth smite. - Returned indoors, like wretch that seeks in vain 10 - What he should do, restless he mourns his case; - But hope revives when, looking forth again, - He sees the earth anew has changed its face. - Then with his crook he doth himself provide, - And straightway doth his sheep to pasture chase: - So at my Master was I terrified, - His brows beholding troubled; nor more slow - To where I ailed[631] the plaster was applied. - For when the broken bridge[632] we stood below - My Guide turned to me with the expression sweet 20 - Which I beneath the mountain learned to know. - His arms he opened, after counsel meet - Held with himself, and, scanning closely o'er - The fragments first, he raised me from my feet; - And like a man who, working, looks before, - With foresight still on that in front bestowed, - Me to the summit of a block he bore - And then to me another fragment showed, - Saying: 'By this thou now must clamber on; - But try it first if it will bear thy load.' 30 - The heavy cowled[633] this way could ne'er have gone, - For hardly we, I holpen, he so light, - Could clamber up from shattered stone to stone. - And but that on the inner bank the height - Of wall is not so great, I say not he, - But for myself I had been vanquished quite. - But Malebolge[634] to the cavity - Of the deep central pit is planned to fall; - Hence every Bolgia in its turn must be - High on the out, low on the inner wall; 40 - So to the summit we attained at last, - Whence breaks away the topmost stone[635] of all. - My lungs were so with breathlessness harassed, - The summit won, I could no further go; - And, hardly there, me on the ground I cast - 'Well it befits that thou shouldst from thee throw - All sloth,' the Master said; 'for stretched in down - Or under awnings none can glory know. - And he who spends his life nor wins renown - Leaves in the world no more enduring trace 50 - Than smoke in air, or foam on water blown. - Therefore arise; o'ercome thy breathlessness - By force of will, victor in every fight - When not subservient to the body base. - Of stairs thou yet must climb a loftier flight:[636] - 'Tis not enough to have ascended these. - Up then and profit if thou hear'st aright.' - Rising I feigned to breathe with greater ease - Than what I felt, and spake: 'Now forward plod, - For with my courage now my strength agrees.' 60 - Up o'er the rocky rib we held our road; - And rough it was and difficult and strait, - And steeper far[637] than that we earlier trod. - Speaking I went, to hide my wearied state, - When from the neighbouring moat a voice we heard - Which seemed ill fitted to articulate. - Of what it said I knew not any word, - Though on the arch[638] that vaults the moat set high; - But he who spake appeared by anger stirred. - Though I bent downward yet my eager eye, 70 - So dim the depth, explored it all in vain; - I then: 'O Master, to that bank draw nigh, - And let us by the wall descent obtain, - Because I hear and do not understand, - And looking down distinguish nothing plain.' - 'My sole reply to thee,' he answered bland, - 'Is to perform; for it behoves,' he said, - 'With silent act to answer just demand.' - Then we descended from the bridge's head,[639] - Where with the eighth bank is its junction wrought; 80 - And full beneath me was the Bolgia spread. - And I perceived that hideously 'twas fraught - With serpents; and such monstrous forms they bore, - Even now my blood is curdled at the thought. - Henceforth let sandy Libya boast no more! - Though she breed hydra, snake that crawls or flies, - Twy-headed, or fine-speckled, no such store - Of plagues, nor near so cruel, she supplies, - Though joined to all the land of Ethiop, - And that which by the Red Sea waters lies. 90 - 'Midst this fell throng and dismal, without hope - A naked people ran, aghast with fear-- - No covert for them and no heliotrope.[640] - Their hands[641] were bound by serpents at their rear, - Which in their reins for head and tail did get - A holding-place: in front they knotted were. - And lo! to one who on our side was set - A serpent darted forward, him to bite - At where the neck is by the shoulders met. - Nor _O_ nor _I_ did any ever write 100 - More quickly than he kindled, burst in flame, - And crumbled all to ashes. And when quite - He on the earth a wasted heap became, - The ashes[642] of themselves together rolled, - Resuming suddenly their former frame. - Thus, as by mighty sages we are told, - The Phoenix[643] dies, and then is born again, - When it is close upon five centuries old. - In all its life it eats not herb nor grain, - But only tears that from frankincense flow; 110 - It, for a shroud, sweet nard and myrrh contain. - And as the man who falls and knows not how, - By force of demons stretched upon the ground, - Or by obstruction that makes life run low, - When risen up straight gazes all around - In deep confusion through the anguish keen - He suffered from, and stares with sighs profound: - So was the sinner, when arisen, seen. - Justice of God, how are thy terrors piled, - Showering in vengeance blows thus big with teen! 120 - My Guide then asked of him how he was styled. - Whereon he said: 'From Tuscany I rained, - Not long ago, into this gullet wild. - From bestial life, not human, joy I gained, - Mule that I was; me, Vanni Fucci,[644] brute, - Pistoia, fitting den, in life contained.' - I to my Guide: 'Bid him not budge a foot, - And ask[645] what crime has plunged him here below. - In rage and blood I knew him dissolute.' - The sinner heard, nor insincere did show, 130 - But towards me turned his face and eke his mind, - With spiteful shame his features all aglow; - Then said: 'It pains me more thou shouldst me find - And catch me steeped in all this misery, - Than when the other life I left behind. - What thou demandest I can not deny: - I'm plunged[646] thus low because the thief I played - Within the fairly furnished sacristy; - And falsely to another's charge 'twas laid. - Lest thou shouldst joy[647] such sight has met thy view - If e'er these dreary regions thou evade, 141 - Give ear and hearken to my utterance true: - The Neri first out of Pistoia fail, - Her laws and parties Florence shapes anew; - Mars draws a vapour out of Magra's vale, - Which black and threatening clouds accompany: - Then bursting in a tempest terrible - Upon Piceno shall the war run high; - The mist by it shall suddenly be rent, - And every Bianco[648] smitten be thereby: 150 - And I have told thee that thou mayst lament.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[630] _Aquarius_: The sun is in the constellation of Aquarius from the -end of January till the end of February; and already, say in the middle -of February, the day is nearly as long as the night. - -[631] _Where I ailed, etc._: As the peasant is in despair at seeing the -earth white with what he thinks is snow, so was Dante at the signs of -trouble on Virgil's face. He has mistaken anger at the cheat for -perplexity as to how they are to escape from the Bolgia; and his -Master's smile is grateful and reassuring to him as the spectacle of the -green earth to the despairing shepherd. - -[632] _The broken bridge_: They are about to escape from the bottom of -the Sixth Bolgia by climbing the wall between it and the Seventh, at the -point where the confused fragments of the bridge Friar Catalano told -them of (_Inf._ xxiii. 133) lie piled up against the wall, and yield -something of a practicable way. - -[633] _The heavy cowled_: He finds his illustration on the spot, his -mind being still full of the grievously burdened hypocrites. - -[634] _But Malebolge, etc._: Each Bolgia in turn lies at a lower level -than the one before it, and consequently the inner side of each dividing -ridge or wall is higher than the outer; or, to put it otherwise, in each -Bolgia the wall they come to last--that nearest the centre of the -Inferno, is lower than that they first reach--the one enclosing the -Bolgia. - -[635] _The topmost stone_: The stone that had formed the beginning of -the arch at this end of it. - -[636] _A loftier flight_: When he ascends the Mount of Purgatory. - -[637] _Steeper far, etc._: Rougher and steeper than the rib of rock they -followed till they had crossed the Fifth Bolgia. They are now travelling -along a different spoke of the wheel. - -[638] _The arch, etc._: He has gone on hiding his weariness till he is -on the top of the arch that overhangs the Seventh Bolgia--that in which -thieves are punished. - -[639] _Front the bridge's head_: Further on they climb up again (_Inf._ -xxvi. 13) by the projecting stones which now supply them with the means -of descent. It is a disputed point how far they do descend. Clearly it -is further than merely from the bridge to the lower level of the wall -dividing the Seventh from the Eighth Bolgia; but not so far as to the -ground of the moat. Most likely the stones jut forth at the angle formed -by the junction of the bridge and the rocky wall. On one of the lowest -of these they find a standing-place whence they can see clearly what is -in the Bolgia. - -[640] _Heliotrope_: A stone supposed to make the bearer of it invisible. - -[641] _Their hands, etc._: The sinners in this Bolgia are the thieves, -not the violent robbers and highwaymen but those crime involves a -betrayal of trust. After all their cunning thefts they are naked now; -and, though here is nothing to steal, hands are firmly bound behind -them. - -[642] _The ashes, etc._: The sufferings of the thieves, if looked -closely into, will be found appropriate to their sins. They would fain -but cannot steal themselves away, and in addition to the constant terror -of being found out they are subject to pains the essence of which -consists in the deprivation--the theft from them--of their unsubstantial -bodies, which are all that they now have to lose. In the case of this -victim the deprivation is only temporary. - -[643] _The Phoenix_: Dante here borrows very directly from Ovid -(_Metam._ xv.). - -[644] _Vanni Fucci_: Natural son of a Pistoiese noble and a poet of some -merit, who bore a leading part in the ruthless feuds of Blacks and -Whites which distracted Pistoia towards the close of the thirteenth -century. - -[645] _And ask, etc._: Dante wishes to find out why Fucci is placed -among the thieves, and not in the circle of the violent. The question is -framed so as to compel confession of a crime for which the sinner had -not been condemned in life; and he flushes with rage at being found -among the cowardly thieves. - -[646] _I'm plunged, etc._: Fucci was concerned in the theft of treasure -from the Cathedral Church of St. James at Pistoia. Accounts vary as to -the circumstances under which the crime was committed, and as to who -suffered for it. Neither is it certainly known when Fucci died, though -his recent arrival in the Bolgia agrees with the view that he was still -active on the side of the Blacks in the last year of the century. In the -fierceness of his retort to Dante we have evidence of their old -acquaintance and old enmity. - -[647] _Lest thou shouldst joy_: Vanni, a _Nero_ or Black, takes his -revenge for being found here by Dante, who was, as he knew, associated -with the _Bianchi_ or Whites, by prophesying an event full of disaster -to these. - -[648] _Every Bianco, etc._: The Blacks, according to Villani (viii. 45), -were driven from Pistoia in May 1301. They took refuge in Florence, -where their party, in the following November under the protection of -Charles of Valois, finally gained the upper hand, and began to persecute -and expel the Whites, among whom was Dante. Mars, the god of war, or, -more probably, the planet of war, draws a vapour from the valley of the -Magra, a small stream which flows into the Mediterranean on the northern -confine of Tuscany. This vapour is said to signify Moroello Malaspina, a -noble of that district and an active leader of the Blacks, who here -figure as murky clouds. The Campo Piceno is the country west of Pistoia. -There Moroello bursts on his foes like a lightning-flash out of its -cloud. This seems to refer to a pitched battle that should have happened -soon after the Blacks recovered their strength; but the chroniclers tell -of none such, though some of the commentators do. The fortress of -Seravalle was taken from the Pistoiese, it is true, in 1302, and -Moroello is said to have been the leader of the force which starved it -into submission. He was certainly present at the great siege of Pistoia -in 1305, when the citizens suffered the last rigours of famine.--This -prophecy by Fucci recalls those by Farinata and Ciacco. - - - - -CANTO XXV. - - - The robber,[649] when his words were ended so, - Made both the figs and lifted either fist, - Shouting: 'There, God! for them at thee I throw.' - Then were the snakes my friends; for one 'gan twist - And coiled itself around the sinner's throat, - As if to say: 'Now would I have thee whist.' - Another seized his arms and made a knot, - Clinching itself upon them in such wise - He had no power to move them by a jot. - Pistoia![650] thou, Pistoia, shouldst devise 10 - To burn thyself to ashes, since thou hast - Outrun thy founders in iniquities. - The blackest depths of Hell through which I passed - Showed me no soul 'gainst God so filled with spite, - No, not even he who down Thebes' wall[651] was cast. - He spake no further word, but turned to flight; - And I beheld a Centaur raging sore - Come shouting: 'Of the ribald give me sight!' - I scarce believe Maremma[652] yieldeth more - Snakes of all kinds than what composed the load 20 - Which on his back, far as our form, he bore. - Behind his nape, with pinions spread abroad, - A dragon couchant on his shoulders lay - To set on fire whoever bars his road. - 'This one is Cacus,'[653] did my Master say, - 'Who underneath the rock of Aventine - Watered a pool with blood day after day. - Not with his brethren[654] runs he in the line, - Because of yore the treacherous theft he wrought - Upon the neighbouring wealthy herd of kine: 30 - Whence to his crooked course an end was brought - 'Neath Hercules' club, which on him might shower down - A hundred blows; ere ten he suffered nought.' - While this he said, the other had passed on; - And under us three spirits forward pressed - Of whom my Guide and I had nothing known - But that: 'Who are ye?' they made loud request. - Whereon our tale[655] no further could proceed; - And toward them wholly we our wits addressed. - I recognised them not, but gave good heed; 40 - Till, as it often haps in such a case, - To name another, one discovered need, - Saying: 'Now where stopped Cianfa[656] in the race?' - Then, that my Guide might halt and hearken well, - On chin[657] and nose I did my finger place. - If, Reader, to believe what now I tell - Thou shouldst be slow, I wonder not, for I - Who saw it all scarce find it credible. - While I on them my brows kept lifted high - A serpent, which had six feet, suddenly flew 50 - At one of them and held him bodily. - Its middle feet about his paunch it drew, - And with the two in front his arms clutched fast, - And bit one cheek and the other through and through. - Its hinder feet upon his thighs it cast, - Thrusting its tail between them till behind, - Distended o'er his reins, it upward passed. - The ivy to a tree could never bind - Itself so firmly as this dreadful beast - Its members with the other's intertwined. 60 - Each lost the colour that it once possessed, - And closely they, like heated wax, unite, - The former hue of neither manifest: - Even so up o'er papyrus,[658] when alight, - Before the flame there spreads a colour dun, - Not black as yet, though from it dies the white. - The other two meanwhile were looking on, - Crying: 'Agnello, how art thou made new! - Thou art not twain, and yet no longer one.' - A single head was moulded out of two; 70 - And on our sight a single face arose, - Which out of both lost countenances grew. - Four separate limbs did but two arms compose; - Belly with chest, and legs with thighs did grow - To members such as nought created shows. - Their former fashion was all perished now: - The perverse shape did both, yet neither seem; - And, thus transformed, departed moving slow. - And as the lizard, which at fierce extreme - Of dog-day heat another hedge would gain, 80 - Flits 'cross the path swift as the lightning's gleam; - Right for the bellies of the other twain - A little snake[659] quivering with anger sped, - Livid and black as is a pepper grain, - And on the part by which we first are fed - Pierced one of them; and then upon the ground - It fell before him, and remained outspread. - The wounded gazed on it, but made no sound. - Rooted he stood[660] and yawning, scarce awake, - As seized by fever or by sleep profound. 90 - It closely watched him and he watched the snake, - While from its mouth and from his wound 'gan swell - Volumes of smoke which joined one cloud to make. - Be Lucan henceforth dumb, nor longer tell - Of plagued Sabellus and Nassidius,[661] - But, hearkening to what follows, mark it well. - Silent be Ovid: of him telling us - How Cadmus[662] to a snake, and to a fount - Changed Arethuse,[663] I am not envious; - For never of two natures front to front 100 - In metamorphosis, while mutually - The forms[664] their matter changed, he gives account. - 'Twas thus that each to the other made reply: - Its tail into a fork the serpent split; - Bracing his feet the other pulled them nigh: - And then in one so thoroughly were knit - His legs and thighs, no searching could divine - At where the junction had been wrought in it. - The shape, of which the one lost every sign, - The cloven tail was taking; then the skin 110 - Of one grew rough, the other's soft and fine. - I by the armpits saw the arms drawn in; - And now the monster's feet, which had been small, - What the other's lost in length appeared to win. - Together twisted, its hind feet did fall - And grew the member men are used to hide: - For his the wretch gained feet with which to crawl. - Dyed in the smoke they took on either side - A novel colour: hair unwonted grew - On one; the hair upon the other died. 120 - The one fell prone, erect the other drew, - With cruel eyes continuing to glare, - 'Neath which their muzzles metamorphose knew. - The erect to his brows drew his. Of stuff to spare - Of what he upward pulled, there was no lack; - So ears were formed on cheeks that erst were bare. - Of that which clung in front nor was drawn back, - Superfluous, on the face was formed a nose, - And lips absorbed the skin that still was slack. - His muzzle who lay prone now forward goes; 130 - Backward into his head his ears he draws - Even as a snail appears its horns to lose. - The tongue, which had been whole and ready was - For speech, cleaves now; the forked tongue of the snake - Joins in the other: and the smoke has pause.[665] - The soul which thus a brutish form did take, - Along the valley, hissing, swiftly fled; - The other close behind it spluttering spake, - Then, toward it turning his new shoulders, said - Unto the third: 'Now Buoso down the way 140 - May hasten crawling, as I earlier sped.' - Ballast which in the Seventh Bolgia lay - Thus saw I shift and change. Be my excuse - The novel theme,[666] if swerves my pen astray. - And though these things mine eyesight might confuse - A little, and my mind with fear divide, - Such secrecy they fleeing could not use - But that Puccio Sciancatto plain I spied; - And he alone of the companions three - Who came at first, was left unmodified. 150 - For the other, tears, Gaville,[667] are shed by thee. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[649] _The robber, etc._: By means of his prophecy Fucci has, after a -fashion, taken revenge on Dante for being found by him among the -cheating thieves instead of among the nobler sinners guilty of blood and -violence. But in the rage of his wounded pride he must insult even -Heaven, and this he does by using the most contemptuous gesture in an -Italian's repertory. The fig is made by thrusting the thumb between the -next two fingers. In the English 'A fig for him!' we have a reference to -the gesture. - -[650] _Pistoia_: The Pistoiese bore the reputation of being hard and -pitiless. The tradition was that their city had been founded by such of -Catiline's followers as survived his defeat on the Campo Piceno. 'It is -no wonder,' says Villani (i. 32) 'that, being the descendants as they -are of Catiline and his followers, the Pistoiese have always been -ruthless and cruel to strangers and to one another.' - -[651] _Who down Thebes' wall_: Capaneus (_Inf._ xiv. 63). - -[652] _Maremma_: See note, _Inf._ xiii. 8. - -[653] _Cacus_: Dante makes him a Centaur, but Virgil (_Æn._ viii.) only -describes him as half human. The pool was fed with the blood of his -human victims. The herd was the spoil Hercules took from Geryon. In the -_Æneid_ Cacus defends himself from Hercules by vomiting a fiery smoke; -and this doubtless suggested the dragon of the text. - -[654] _His brethren_: The Centaurs who guard the river of blood (_Inf._ -xii. 56). In Fucci, as a sinner guilty of blood and violence above most -of the thieves, the Centaur Cacus takes a special malign interest. - -[655] _Our tale_: Of Cacus. It is interrupted by the arrival of three -sinners whom Dante does not at first recognise as he gazes down on them, -but only when they begin to speak among themselves. They are three noble -citizens of Florence: Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, and -Puccio Sciancatto de' Galigai--all said to have pilfered in private -life, or to have abused their tenure of high office by plundering the -Commonwealth. What is certainly known of them is that they were -Florentine thieves of quality. - -[656] _Cianfa_: Another Florentine gentleman, one of the Donati. Since -his companions lost sight of him he has been transformed into a -six-footed serpent. Immediately appearing, he darts upon Agnello. - -[657] _On chin, etc._: A gesture by which silence is requested. The -mention of Cianfa shows Dante that he is among Florentines. - -[658] _Papyrus_: The original is _papiro_, the word used in Dante's time -for a wick made out of a reed like the papyrus; _papér_ being still the -name for a wick in some dialects.--(Scartazzini.) It cannot be shown -that _papiro_ was ever employed for paper in Italian. This, however, -does not prove that Dante may not so use it in this instance, adopting -it from the Latin _papyrus_. Besides, he says that the brown colour -travels up over the _papiro_; while it goes downward on a burning wick. -Nor would the simile, if drawn from a slowly burning lamp-wick, agree -with the speed of the change described in the text. - -[659] _A little snake_: As transpires from the last line of the Canto, -this is Francesco, of the Florentine family of the Cavalcanti, to which -Dante's friend Guido belonged. He wounds Buoso in the navel, and then, -instead of growing into one new monster as was the case with Cianfa and -Agnello, they exchange shapes, and when the transformation is complete -Buoso is the serpent and Francesco is the human shade. - -[660] _Rooted he stood, etc._: The description agrees with the symptoms -of snake-bite, one of which is extreme drowsiness. - -[661] _Sabellus and Nassidius_: Were soldiers of Cato's army whose death -by snake-bite in the Libyan desert is described by Lucan, _Pharsal._ ix. -Sabbellus was burned up by the poison, bones and all; Nassidius swelled -up and burst. - -[662] _Cadmus_: _Metam._ iv. - -[663] _Arethusa_: _Metam._ v. - -[664] _The forms, etc._: The word _form_ is here to be taken in its -scholastic sense of _virtus formativa_, the inherited power of modifying -matter into an organised body. 'This, united to the divinely implanted -spark of reason,' says Philalethes, 'constitutes, on Dante's system, a -human soul. Even after death this power continues to be an essential -constituent of the soul, and constructs out of the elements what seems -to be a body. Here the sinners exchange the matter they have thus made -their own, each retaining, however, his proper plastic energy as part of -his soul.' Dante in his _Convito_ (iii. 2) says that 'the human soul is -the noblest form of all that are made under the heavens, receiving more -of the Divine nature than any other.' - -[665] _The smoke has pause_: The sinners have robbed one another of all -they can lose. In the punishment is mirrored the sin that plunged them -here. - -[666] _The novel theme_: He has lingered longer than usual on this -Bolgia, and pleads wonder of what he saw in excuse either of his -prolixity or of some of the details of his description. The expression -is perhaps one of feigned humility, to balance his recent boast of -excelling Ovid and Lucan in inventive power. - -[667] _Gaville_: The other, and the only one of those five Florentine -thieves not yet named in the text, is he who came at first in the form -of a little black snake, and who has now assumed the shape of Buoso. In -reality he is Francesco Cavalcanti, who was slain by the people of -Gaville in the upper Valdarno. Many of them were in their turn -slaughtered in revenge by the Cavalcanti and their associates. It should -be remarked that some of these five Florentines were of one party, some -of the other. It is also noteworthy that Dante recruits his thieves as -he did his usurers from the great Florentine families.--As the 'shifting -and changing' of this rubbish is apt to be found confusing, the -following may be useful to some readers:--There first came on the scene -Agnello, Buoso, and Puccio. Cianfa, in the shape of a six-footed -serpent, comes and throws himself on Agnello, and then, grown -incorporate in a new strange monster, two in one, they disappear. Buoso -is next wounded by Francesco, and they exchange members and bodies. Only -Puccio remains unchanged. - - - - -CANTO XXVI. - - - Rejoice, O Florence, in thy widening fame! - Thy wings thou beatest over land and sea, - And even through Inferno spreads thy name. - Burghers of thine, five such were found by me - Among the thieves; whence I ashamed[668] grew, - Nor shall great glory thence redound to thee. - But if 'tis toward the morning[669] dreams are true, - Thou shalt experience ere long time be gone - The doom even Prato[670] prays for as thy due. - And came it now, it would not come too soon. 10 - Would it were come as come it must with time: - 'Twill crush me more the older I am grown. - Departing thence, my Guide began to climb - The jutting rocks by which we made descent - Some while ago,[671] and pulled me after him. - And as upon our lonely way we went - 'Mong splinters[672] of the cliff, the feet in vain, - Without the hand to help, had labour spent. - I sorrowed, and am sorrow-smit again, - Recalling what before mine eyes there lay, 20 - And, more than I am wont, my genius rein - From running save where virtue leads the way; - So that if happy star[673] or holier might - Have gifted me I never mourn it may. - At time of year when he who gives earth light - His face shows to us longest visible, - When gnats replace the fly at fall of night, - Not by the peasant resting on the hill - Are seen more fire-flies in the vale below, - Where he perchance doth field and vineyard[674] till, 30 - Than flamelets I beheld resplendent glow - Throughout the whole Eighth Bolgia, when at last - I stood whence I the bottom plain could know. - And as he whom the bears avenged, when passed - From the earth Elijah, saw the chariot rise - With horses heavenward reared and mounting fast, - And no long time had traced it with his eyes - Till but a flash of light it all became, - Which like a rack of cloud swept to the skies: - Deep in the valley's gorge, in mode the same, 40 - These flitted; what it held by none was shown, - And yet a sinner[675] lurked in every flame. - To see them well I from the bridge peered down, - And if a jutting crag I had not caught - I must have fallen, though neither thrust nor thrown. - My Leader me beholding lost in thought: - 'In all the fires are spirits,' said to me; - 'His flame round each is for a garment wrought.' - 'O Master!' I replied, 'by hearing thee - I grow assured, but yet I knew before 50 - That thus indeed it was, and longed to be - Told who is in the flame which there doth soar, - Cloven, as if ascending from the pyre - Where with Eteocles[676] there burned of yore - His brother.' He: 'Ulysses in that fire - And Diomedes[677] burn; in punishment - Thus held together, as they held in ire. - And, wrapped within their flame, they now repent - The ambush of the horse, which oped the door - Through which the Romans' noble seed[678] forth went. 60 - For guile Deïdamia[679] makes deplore - In death her lost Achilles, tears they shed, - And bear for the Palladium[680] vengeance sore.' - 'Master, I pray thee fervently,' I said, - 'If from those flames they still can utter speech-- - Give ear as if a thousand times I pled! - Refuse not here to linger, I beseech, - Until the cloven fire shall hither gain: - Thou seest how toward it eagerly I reach.' - And he: 'Thy prayers are worthy to obtain 70 - Exceeding praise; thou hast what thou dost seek: - But see that thou from speech thy tongue refrain. - I know what thou wouldst have; leave me to speak, - For they perchance would hear contemptuously - Shouldst thou address them, seeing they were Greek.'[681] - Soon as the flame toward us had come so nigh - That to my Leader time and place seemed met, - I heard him thus adjure it to reply: - 'O ye who twain within one fire are set, - If what I did your guerdon meriteth, 80 - If much or little ye are in my debt - For the great verse I built while I had breath, - By one of you be openly confessed - Where, lost to men, at last he met with death.' - Of the ancient flame the more conspicuous crest - Murmuring began to waver up and down - Like flame that flickers, by the wind distressed. - At length by it was measured motion shown, - Like tongue that moves in speech; and by the flame - Was language uttered thus: 'When I had gone 90 - From Circe[682] who a long year kept me tame - Beside her, ere the near Gaeta had - Receivèd from Æneas that new name; - No softness for my son, nor reverence sad - For my old father, nor the love I owed - Penelope with which to make her glad, - Could quench the ardour that within me glowed - A full experience of the world to gain-- - Of human vice and worth. But I abroad - Launched out upon the high and open main[683] 100 - With but one bark and but the little band - Which ne'er deserted me.[684] As far as Spain - I saw the sea-shore upon either hand, - And as Morocco; saw Sardinia's isle, - And all of which those waters wash the strand. - I and my comrades were grown old the while - And sluggish, ere we to the narrows came - Where Hercules of old did landmarks pile - For sign to men they should no further aim; - And Seville lay behind me on the right, 110 - As on the left lay Ceuta. Then to them - I spake: "O Brothers, who through such a fight - Of hundred thousand dangers West have won, - In this short watch that ushers in the night - Of all your senses, ere your day be done, - Refuse not to obtain experience new - Of worlds unpeopled, yonder, past the sun. - Consider whence the seed of life ye drew; - Ye were not born to live like brutish herd, - But righteousness and wisdom to ensue." 120 - My comrades to such eagerness were stirred - By this short speech the course to enter on, - They had no longer brooked restraining word. - Turning our poop to where the morning shone - We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, - Still tending left the further we had gone. - And of the other pole I saw at night - Now all the stars; and 'neath the watery plain - Our own familiar heavens were lost to sight. - Five times afresh had kindled, and again 130 - The moon's face earthward was illumed no more, - Since out we sailed upon the mighty main;[685] - Then we beheld a lofty mountain[686] soar, - Dim in the distance; higher, as I thought, - By far than any I had seen before. - We joyed; but with despair were soon distraught - When burst a whirlwind from the new-found world - And the forequarter of the vessel caught. - With all the waters thrice it round was swirled; - At the fourth time the poop, heaved upward, rose, 140 - The prow, as pleased Another,[687] down was hurled; - And then above us did the ocean close.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[668] _Whence I ashamed, etc._: There is here a sudden change from irony -to earnest. 'Five members of great Florentine families, eternally -engaged among themselves in their shameful metamorphoses--nay, but it is -too sad!' - -[669] _Toward the morning, etc._: There was a widespread belief in the -greater truthfulness of dreams dreamed as the night wears away. See -_Purg._ ix. 13. The dream is Dante's foreboding of what is to happen to -Florence. Of its truth he has no doubt, and the only question is how -soon will it be answered by the fact. Soon, he says, if it is near to -the morning that we dream true dreams--morning being the season of -waking reality in which dreams are accomplished. - -[670] _Even Prato_: A small neighbouring city, much under the influence -of Florence, and somewhat oppressed by it. The commentators reckon up -the disasters that afflicted Florence in the first years of the -fourteenth century, between the date of Dante's journey and the time he -wrote--fires, falls of bridges, and civil strife. But such misfortunes -were too much in keeping with the usual course of Florentine history to -move Dante thus deeply in the retrospect; and as he speaks here in his -own person the 'soon' is more naturally counted from the time at which -he writes than from the date assigned by him to his pilgrimage. He is -looking forward to the period when his own return in triumph to Florence -was to be prepared by grievous national reverses; and, as a patriot, he -feels that he cannot be wholly reconciled by his private advantage to -the public misfortune. But it was all only a dream. - -[671] _Some while ago_: See note, _Inf._ xxiv. 79. - -[672] _'Mong splinters, etc._: They cross the wall or barrier between -the Seventh and Eighth Bolgias. From _Inf._ xxiv. 63 we have learned -that the rib of rock, on the line of which they are now proceeding, with -its arches which overhang the various Bolgias, is rougher and worse to -follow than that by which they began their passage towards the centre of -Malebolge. - -[673] _Happy star_: See note, _Inf._ xv. 55. Dante seems to have been -uncertain what credence to give to the claims of astrology. In a passage -of the _Purgatorio_ (xvi. 67) he tries to establish that whatever -influence the stars may possess over us we can never, except with our -own consent, be influenced by them to evil.--His sorrow here, as -elsewhere, is not wholly a feeling of pity for the suffering shades, but -is largely mingled with misgivings for himself. The punishment of those -to whose sins he feels no inclination he always beholds with equanimity. -Here, as he looks down upon the false counsellors and considers what -temptations there are to misapply intellectual gifts, he is smitten with -dread lest his lot should one day be cast in that dismal valley and he -find cause to regret that the talent of genius was ever committed to -him. The memory even of what he saw makes him recollect himself and -resolve to be wary. Then, as if to justify the claim to superior powers -thus clearly implied, there comes a passage which in the original is of -uncommon beauty. - -[674] _Field and vineyard_: These lines, redolent of the sweet Tuscan -midsummer gloaming, give us amid the horrors of Malebolge something like -the breath of fresh air the peasant lingers to enjoy. It may be noted -that in Italy the village is often found perched above the more fertile -land, on a site originally chosen with a view to security from attack. -So that here the peasant is at home from his labour. - -[675] _And yet a sinner, etc._: The false counsellors who for selfish -ends hid their true minds and misused their intellectual light to lead -others astray are for ever hidden each in his own wandering flame. - -[676] _Eteocles_: Son of Oedipus and twin brother of Polynices. The -brothers slew one another, and were placed on the same funeral pile, the -flame of which clove into two as if to image the discord that had -existed between them (_Theb._ xii.). - -[677] _And Diomedes_: The two are associated in deeds of blood and guile -at the siege of Troy. - -[678] _The Romans' noble seed_: The trick of the wooden horse led to the -capture of Troy, and that led Æneas to wander forth on the adventures -that ended in the settlement of the Trojans in Italy. - -[679] _Deïdamia_: That Achilles might be kept from joining the Greek -expedition to Troy he was sent by his mother to the court of Lycomedes, -father of Deïdamia. Ulysses lured him away from his hiding-place and -from Deïdamia, whom he had made a mother. - -[680] _The Palladium_: The Trojan sacred image of Pallas, stolen by -Ulysses and Diomed (_Æn._ ii.). Ulysses is here upon his own ground. - -[681] _They were Greek_: Some find here an allusion to Dante's ignorance -of the Greek language and literature. But Virgil addresses them in the -Lombard dialect of Italian (_Inf._ xxvii. 21). He acts as spokesman -because those ancient Greeks were all so haughty that to a common modern -mortal they would have nothing to say. He, as the author of the _Æneid_, -has a special claim on their good-nature. It is but seldom that the -shades are told who Virgil is, and never directly. Here Ulysses may -infer it from the mention of the 'lofty verse.' - -[682] _From Circe_: It is Ulysses that speaks. - -[683] _The open main_: The Mediterranean as distinguished from the -Ægean. - -[684] _Which ne'er deserted me_: There seems no reason for supposing, -with Philalethes, that Ulysses is here represented as sailing on his -last voyage from the island of Circe and not from Ithaca. Ulysses, on -the contrary, represents himself as breaking away afresh from all the -ties of home. According to Homer, Ulysses had lost all his companions -ere he returned to Ithaca; and in the _Odyssey_ Tiresias prophesies to -him that his last wanderings are to be inland. But any acquaintance that -Dante had with Homer can only have been vague and fragmentary. He may -have founded his narrative of how Ulysses ended his days upon some -floating legend; or, eager to fill up what he took to be a blank in the -world of imagination, he may have drawn wholly on his own creative -power. In any case it is his Ulysses who, through the version of him -given by a living poet, is most familiar to the English reader. - -[685] _The mighty main_: The Atlantic Ocean. They bear to the left as -they sail, till their course is due south, and crossing the Equator, -they find themselves under the strange skies of the southern hemisphere. -For months they have seen no land. - -[686] _A lofty mountain_: This is the Mountain of Purgatory, according -to Dante's geography antipodal to Jerusalem, and the only land in the -southern hemisphere. - -[687] _As pleased Another_: Ulysses is proudly resigned to the failure -of his enterprise, 'for he was Greek.' - - - - -CANTO XXVII. - - - Now, having first erect and silent grown - (For it would say no more), from us the flame, - The Poet sweet consenting,[688] had moved on; - And then our eyes were turned to one that came[689] - Behind it on the way, by sounds that burst - Out of its crest in a confusèd stream. - As the Sicilian bull,[690] which bellowed first - With his lamenting--and it was but right-- - Who had prepared it with his tools accurst,[691] - Roared with the howlings of the tortured wight, 10 - So that although constructed all of brass - Yet seemed it pierced with anguish to the height; - So, wanting road and vent by which to pass - Up through the flame, into the flame's own speech - The woeful language all converted was. - But when the words at length contrived to reach - The top, while hither thither shook the crest - As moved the tongue[692] at utterance of each, - We heard: 'Oh thou, to whom are now addressed - My words, who spakest now in Lombard phrase: 20 - "Depart;[693] of thee I nothing more request." - Though I be late arrived, yet of thy grace - Let it not irk thee here a while to stay: - It irks not me, yet, as thou seest, I blaze. - If lately to this world devoid of day - From that sweet Latian land thou art come down - Whence all my guilt I bring, declare and say - Has now Romagna peace? because my own - Native abode was in the mountain land - 'Tween springs[694] of Tiber and Urbino town.' 30 - While I intent and bending low did stand, - My Leader, as he touched me on the side, - 'Speak thou, for he is Latian,' gave command. - Whereon without delay I thus replied-- - Because already[695] was my speech prepared: - 'Soul, that down there dost in concealment 'bide, - In thy Romagna[696] wars have never spared - And spare not now in tyrants' hearts to rage; - But when I left it there was none declared. - No change has fallen Ravenna[697] for an age. 40 - There, covering Cervia too with outspread wing, - Polenta's Eagle guards his heritage. - Over the city[698] which long suffering - Endured, and Frenchmen slain on Frenchmen rolled, - The Green Paws[699] once again protection fling. - The Mastiffs of Verrucchio,[700] young and old, - Who to Montagna[701] brought such evil cheer, - Still clinch their fangs where they were wont to hold. - Cities,[702] Lamone and Santerno near, - The Lion couched in white are governed by 50 - Which changes party with the changing year. - And that to which the Savio[703] wanders nigh - As it is set 'twixt mountain and champaign - Lives now in freedom now 'neath tyranny. - But who thou art I to be told am fain: - Be not more stubborn than we others found, - As thou on earth illustrious wouldst remain.' - When first the fire a little while had moaned - After its manner, next the pointed crest - Waved to and fro; then in this sense breathed sound: - 'If I believed my answer were addressed 61 - To one that earthward shall his course retrace, - This flame should forthwith altogether rest. - But since[704] none ever yet out of this place - Returned alive, if all be true I hear, - I yield thee answer fearless of disgrace. - I was a warrior, then a Cordelier;[705] - Thinking thus girt to purge away my stain: - And sure my hope had met with answer clear - Had not the High Priest[706]--ill with him remain! 70 - Plunged me anew into my former sin: - And why and how, I would to thee make plain. - While I the frame of bones and flesh was in - My mother gave me, all the deeds I wrought - Were fox-like and in no wise leonine. - Of every wile and hidden way I caught - The secret trick, and used them with such sleight - That all the world with fame of it was fraught. - When I perceived I had attainèd quite - The time of life when it behoves each one 80 - To furl his sails and coil his cordage tight, - Sorrowing for deeds I had with pleasure done, - Contrite and shriven, I religious grew. - Ah, wretched me! and well it was begun - But for the Chieftain of the Pharisees new,[707] - Then waging war hard by the Lateran, - And not with Saracen nor yet with Jew; - For Christian[708] were his enemies every man, - And none had at the siege of Acre been - Or trafficked in the Empire of Soldàn. 90 - His lofty office he held cheap, and e'en - His Sacred Orders and the cord I wore, - Which used[709] to make the wearers of it lean. - As from Soracte[710] Constantine of yore - Sylvester called to cure his leprosy, - I as a leech was called this man before - To cure him of his fever which ran high; - My counsel he required, but I stood dumb, - For drunken all his words appeared to be. - He said; "For fear be in thy heart no room; 100 - Beforehand I absolve thee, but declare - How Palestrina I may overcome. - Heaven I unlock, as thou art well aware, - And close at will; because the keys are twin - My predecessor[711] was averse to bear." - Then did his weighty reasoning on me win - Till to be silent seemed the worst of all; - And, "Father," I replied, "since from this sin - Thou dost absolve me into which I fall-- - The scant performance[712] of a promise wide 110 - Will yield thee triumph in thy lofty stall." - Francis came for me soon as e'er I died; - But one of the black Cherubim was there - And "Take him not, nor rob me of him" cried, - "For him of right among my thralls I bear - Because he offered counsel fraudulent; - Since when I've had him firmly by the hair. - None is absolved unless he first repent; - Nor can repentance house with purpose ill, - For this the contradiction doth prevent." 120 - Ah, wretched me! How did I shrinking thrill - When clutching me he sneered: "Perhaps of old - Thou didst not think[713] I had in logic skill." - He carried me to Minos:[714] Minos rolled - His tail eight times round his hard back; in ire - Biting it fiercely, ere of me he told: - "Among the sinners of the shrouding fire!" - Therefore am I, where thou beholdest, lost; - And, sore at heart, go clothed in such attire.' - What he would say thus ended by the ghost, 130 - Away from us the moaning flame did glide - While to and fro its pointed horn was tossed. - But we passed further on, I and my Guide, - Along the cliff to where the arch is set - O'er the next moat, where paying they reside, - As schismatics who whelmed themselves in debt. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[688] _Consenting_: See line 21. - -[689] _One that came_: This is the fire-enveloped shade of Guido of -Montefeltro, the colloquy with whom occupies the whole of the Canto. - -[690] _The Sicilian bull_: Perillus, an Athenian, presented Phalaris, -the tyrant of Agrigentum, with a brazen bull so constructed that when it -was heated from below the cries of the victim it contained were -converted into the bellowing of a bull. The first trial of the invention -was made upon the artist. - -[691] _Accurst_: Not in the original. 'Rime in English hath such -scarcity,' as Chaucer says. - -[692] _As moved the tongue, etc._: The shade being enclosed in the -hollow fire all his words are changed into a sound like the roaring of a -flame. At last, when an opening has been worked through the crested -point, the speech becomes articulate. - -[693] _Depart, etc._: One at least of the words quoted as having been -used by Virgil is Lombard. There is something very quaint in making him -use the Lombard dialect of Dante's time. - -[694] _'Tween springs, etc._: Montefeltro lies between Urbino and the -mountain where the Tiber has its source. - -[695] _Already_: Dante knew that Virgil would refer to him for an answer -to Guido's question, bearing as it did on modern Italian affairs. - -[696] _Romagna_: The district of Italy lying on the Adriatic, south of -the Po and east of Tuscany, of which Bologna and the cities named in the -text were the principal towns. During the last quarter of the thirteenth -century it was the scene of constant wars promoted in the interest of -the Church, which claimed Romagna as the gift of the Emperor Rudolf, and -in that of the great nobles of the district, who while using the Guelf -and Ghibeline war-cries aimed at nothing but the lordship of the various -cities. Foremost among these nobles was he with whose shade Dante -speaks. Villani calls him 'the most sagacious and accomplished warrior -of his time in Italy' (_Cronica_, vii. 80). He was possessed of lands of -his own near Forlì and Cesena, and was lord in turn of many of the -Romagnese cities. On the whole he appears to have remained true to his -Ghibeline colours in spite of Papal fulminations, although once and -again he was reconciled to the Church; on the last occasion in 1294. In -the years immediately before this he had greatly distinguished himself -as a wise governor and able general in the service of the Ghibeline -Pisa--or rather as the paid lord of it. - -[697] _Ravenna_: Ravenna and the neighbouring town of Cervia were in -1300 under the lordship of members of the Polenta family--the father and -brothers of the ill-fated Francesca (_Inf._ v.). Their arms were an -eagle, half white on an azure and half red on a gold field. It was in -the court of the generous Guido, son of one of these brothers, that -Dante was to find his last refuge and to die. - -[698] _Over the city, etc._: Forlì. The reference is to one of the most -brilliant feats of war performed by Guido of Montefeltro. Frenchmen -formed great part of an army sent in 1282 against Forlì by the Pope, -Martin IV., himself a Frenchman. Guido, then lord of the city, led them -into a trap and overthrew them with great slaughter. Like most men of -his time Guido was a believer in astrology, and is said on this occasion -to have acted on the counsel of Guido Bonatti, mentioned among the -diviners in the Fourth Bolgia (_Inf._ xx. 118). - -[699] _The Green Paws_: In 1300 the Ordelaffi were lords of Forlì. Their -arms were a green lion on a gold ground. During the first years of his -exile Dante had to do with Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi, under whose -command the exiled Florentines put themselves for a time, and there is -even a tradition that he acted as his secretary. - -[700] _The Mastiffs of Verrucchio_: Verrucchio was the castle of the -Malatestas, lords of Rimini, called the Mastiffs on account of their -cruel tenacity. The elder was the father of Francesca's husband and -lover; the younger was a brother of these. - -[701] _Montagna_: Montagna de' Parcitati, one of a Ghibeline family that -contested superiority in Rimini with the Guelf Malatestas, was taken -prisoner by guile and committed by the old Mastiff to the keeping of the -young one, whose fangs were set in him to such purpose that he soon died -in his dungeon. - -[702] _Cities, etc._: Imola and Faenza, situated on the rivers named in -the text. Mainardo Pagani, lord of these towns, had for arms an azure -lion on a white field. During his minority he was a ward of the -Commonwealth of Florence. By his cunning and daring he earned the name -of the Demon (_Purg._ xiv. 118). He died at Imola in 1302, and was -buried in the garb of a monk of Vallombrosa. Like most of his neighbours -he changed his party as often as his interest required. He was a Guelf -in Florence and a Ghibeline in Romagna, say some. - -[703] _Savio_: Cesena, on the Savio, was distinguished among the cities -of Romagna by being left more frequently than the others were to manage -its own affairs. The Malatestas and Montefeltros were in turn possessed -of the tyranny of it. - -[704] _But since, etc._: The shades, being enveloped in fire, are unable -to see those with whom they speak; and so Guido does not detect in Dante -the signs of a living man, but takes him to be like himself a denizen of -Inferno. He would not have the truth regarding his fate to be known in -the world, where he is supposed to have departed life in the odour of -sanctity. Dante's promise to refresh his fame he either regards as -meaningless, or as one made without the power of fulfilling it. Dante -leaves him in his error, for he is there to learn all he can, and not to -bandy personal confessions with the shades. - -[705] _A Cordelier_: In 1296 Guido entered the Franciscan Order. He died -in 1298, but where is not known; some authorities say at Venice and -others at Assisi. Benvenuto tells: 'He was often seen begging his bread -in Ancona, where he was buried. Many good deeds are related of him, and -I cherish a sweet hope that he may have been saved.' - -[706] _The High Priest_: Boniface VIII. - -[707] _The Pharisees new_: The members of the Court of Rome. Saint -Jerome calls the dignified Roman clergy of his day 'the Senate of the -Pharisees.' - -[708] _For Christian, etc._: The foes of Boniface, here spoken of, were -the Cardinals Peter and James Colonna. He destroyed their palace in Rome -(1297) and carried the war against them to their country seat at -Palestrina, the ancient Præneste, then a great stronghold. Dante here -bitterly blames Boniface for instituting a crusade against Christians at -a time when, by the recent loss of Acre, the gate of the Holy Land had -been lost to Christendom. The Colonnas were innocent, too, of the crime -of supplying the Infidel with munitions of war--a crime condemned by the -Lateran Council of 1215, and by Boniface himself, who excluded those -guilty of it from the benefits of the great Jubilee of 1300. - -[709] _Which used, etc._: In former times, when the rule of the Order -was faithfully observed. Dante charges the Franciscans with degeneracy -in the _Paradiso_, xi. 124. - -[710] _From Soracte_: Referring to the well-known legend. The fee for -the cure was the fabulous Donation. See _Inf._ xix. 115. - -[711] _My predecessor_: Celestine v. See _Inf._ iii. 60. - -[712] _The scant performance, etc._: That Guido gave such counsel is -related by a contemporary chronicler: 'The Pope said: Tell me how to get -the better of those mine enemies, thou who art so knowing in these -things. Then he answered: Promise much, and perform little; which he -did.' But it seems odd that the wily and unscrupulous Boniface should -have needed to put himself to school for such a simple lesson. - -[713] _Thou didst not think, etc._: Guido had forgot that others could -reason besides the Pope. With regard to the inefficacy of the Papal -absolution an old commentator says, following Origen: 'The Popes that -walk in the footsteps of Peter have this power of binding and loosing; -but only such as do so walk.' But on Dante's scheme of what fixes the -fate of the soul absolution matters little to save, or priestly curses -to damnify. See _Purg._ iii. 133. It is unfeigned repentance that can -help a sinner even at the last; and it is remarkable that in the case of -Buonconte, the gallant son of this same Guido, the infernal angel who -comes for him as he expires complains that he has been cheated of his -victim by one poor tear. See _Purg._ v. 88, etc. Why then is no -indulgence shown in Dante's court to Guido, who might well have been -placed in Purgatory and made to have repented effectually of this his -last sin? That Dante had any personal grudge against him we can hardly -think. In the Fourth Book of the _Convito_ (written, according to -Fraticelli, in 1297), he calls him 'our most noble Guido Montefeltrano;' -and praises him as one of the wise and noble souls that refuse to run -with full sails into the port of death, but furl the sails of their -worldly undertakings, and, relinquishing all earthly pleasures and -business, give themselves up in their old age to a religious life. -Either, then, he sets Guido here in order that he may have a modern -false counsellor worthy to be ranked with Ulysses; or because, on longer -experience, he had come to reprobate more keenly the abuse of the -Franciscan habit; or, most likely of all, that he might, even at the -cost of Guido, load the hated memory of Boniface with another reproach. - -[714] _Minos_: Here we have Minos represented in the act of pronouncing -judgment in words as well as by the figurative rolling of his tail -around his body (_Inf._ v. 11). - - - - -CANTO XXVIII. - - - Could any, even in words unclogged by rhyme - Recount the wounds that now I saw,[715] and blood, - Although he aimed at it time after time? - Here every tongue must fail of what it would, - Because our human speech and powers of thought - To grasp so much come short in aptitude. - If all the people were together brought - Who in Apulia,[716] land distressed by fate, - Made lamentation for the bloodshed wrought - By Rome;[717] and in that war procrastinate[718] 10 - When the large booty of the rings was won, - As Livy writes whose every word has weight; - With those on whom such direful deeds were done - When Robert Guiscard[719] they as foes assailed; - And those of whom still turns up many a bone - At Ceperan,[720] where each Apulian failed - In faith; and those at Tagliacozzo[721] strewed, - Where old Alardo, not by arms, prevailed; - And each his wounds and mutilations showed, - Yet would they far behind by those be left 20 - Who had the vile Ninth Bolgia for abode. - No cask, of middle stave or end bereft, - E'er gaped like one I saw the rest among, - Slit from the chin all downward to the cleft. - Between his legs his entrails drooping hung; - The pluck and that foul bag were evident - Which changes what is swallowed into dung. - And while I gazed upon him all intent, - Opening his breast his eyes on me he set, - Saying: 'Behold, how by myself I'm rent! 30 - See how dismembered now is Mahomet![722] - Ali[723] in front of me goes weeping too; - With visage from the chin to forelock split. - By all the others whom thou seest there grew - Scandal and schism while yet they breathed the day; - Because of which they now are cloven through. - There stands behind a devil on the way, - Us with his sword thus cruelly to trim: - He cleaves again each of our company - As soon as we complete the circuit grim; 40 - Because the wounds of each are healed outright - Or e'er anew he goes in front of him. - But who art thou that peerest from the height, - It may be putting off to reach the pain - Which shall the crimes confessed by thee requite?' - 'Death has not seized him yet, nor is he ta'en - To torment for his sins,' my Master said; - 'But, that he may a full experience gain, - By me, a ghost, 'tis doomed he should be led - Down the Infernal circles, round on round; 50 - And what I tell thee is the truth indeed.' - A hundred shades and more, to whom the sound - Had reached, stood in the moat to mark me well, - Their pangs forgot; so did the words astound. - 'Let Fra Dolcin[724] provide, thou mayst him tell-- - Thou, who perchance ere long shalt sunward go-- - Unless he soon would join me in this Hell, - Much food, lest aided by the siege of snow - The Novarese should o'er him victory get, - Which otherwise to win they would be slow.' 60 - While this was said to me by Mahomet - One foot he held uplifted; to the ground - He let it fall, and so he forward set - Next, one whose throat was gaping with a wound, - Whose nose up to the brows away was sheared - And on whose head a single ear was found, - At me, with all the others, wondering peered; - And, ere the rest, an open windpipe made, - The outside of it all with crimson smeared. - 'O thou, not here because of guilt,' he said; 70 - 'And whom I sure on Latian ground did know - Unless by strong similitude betrayed, - Upon Pier da Medicin[725] bestow - A thought, shouldst thou revisit the sweet plain - That from Vercelli[726] slopes to Marcabò. - And make thou known to Fano's worthiest twain-- - To Messer Guido and to Angiolel-- - They, unless foresight here be wholly vain, - Thrown overboard in gyve and manacle - Shall drown fast by Cattolica, as planned 80 - By treachery of a tyrant fierce and fell. - Between Majolica[727] and Cyprus strand - A blacker crime did Neptune never spy - By pirates wrought, or even by Argives' hand. - The traitor[728] who is blinded of an eye, - Lord of the town which of my comrades one - Had been far happier ne'er to have come nigh, - To parley with him will allure them on, - Then so provide, against Focara's[729] blast - No need for them of vow or orison.' 90 - And I: 'Point out and tell, if wish thou hast - To get news of thee to the world conveyed, - Who rues that e'er his eyes thereon were cast?' - On a companion's jaw his hand he laid, - And shouted, while the mouth he open prised: - ''Tis this one here by whom no word is said. - He quenched all doubt in Cæsar, and advised-- - Himself an outlaw--that a man equipped - For strife ran danger if he temporised.' - Alas, to look on, how downcast and hipped 100 - Curio,[730] once bold in counsel, now appeared; - With gorge whence by the roots the tongue was ripped. - Another one, whose hands away were sheared, - In the dim air his stumps uplifted high - So that his visage was with blood besmeared, - And, 'Mosca,[731] too, remember!' loud did cry, - 'Who said, ah me! "A thing once done is done!" - An evil seed for all in Tuscany.' - I added: 'Yea, and death to every one - Of thine!' whence he, woe piled on woe, his way 110 - Went like a man with grief demented grown. - But I to watch the gang made longer stay, - And something saw which I should have a fear, - Without more proof, so much as even to say, - But that my conscience bids me have good cheer-- - The comrade leal whose friendship fortifies - A man beneath the mail of purpose clear. - I saw in sooth (still seems it 'fore mine eyes), - A headless trunk; with that sad company - It forward moved, and on the selfsame wise. 120 - The severed head, clutched by the hair, swung free - Down from the fist, yea, lantern-like hung down; - Staring at us it murmured: 'Wretched me!' - A lamp he made of head-piece once his own; - And he was two in one and one in two; - But how, to Him who thus ordains is known. - Arrived beneath the bridge and full in view, - With outstretched arm his head he lifted high - To bring his words well to us. These I knew: - 'Consider well my grievous penalty, 130 - Thou who, though still alive, art visiting - The people dead; what pain with this can vie? - In order that to earth thou news mayst bring - Of me, that I'm Bertrand de Born[732] know well, - Who gave bad counsel to the Younger King. - I son and sire made each 'gainst each rebel: - David and Absalom were fooled not more - By counsels of the false Ahithophel. - Kinsmen so close since I asunder tore, - Severed, alas! I carry now my brain 140 - From what[733] it grew from in this trunk of yore: - And so I prove the law of pain for pain.'[734] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[715] _That now I saw_: In the Ninth Bolgia, on which he is looking -down, and in which are punished the sowers of discord in church and -state. - -[716] _Apulia_: The south-eastern district of Italy, owing to its -situation a frequent battle-field in ancient and modern times. - -[717] _Rome_: 'Trojans' in most MSS.; and then the Romans are described -as descended from Trojans. The reference may be to the defeat of the -Apulians with considerable slaughter by P. Decius Mus, or to their -losses in general in the course of the Samnite war. - -[718] _War procrastinate_: The second Punic war lasted fully fifteen -years, and in the course of it the battle of Cannæ was gained by -Hannibal, where so many Roman knights fell that the spoil of rings -amounted to a peck. - -[719] _Guiscard_: One of the Norman conquerors of the regions which up -to our own time constituted the kingdom of Naples. In Apulia he did much -fighting against Lombards, Saracens, and Greeks. He is found by Dante in -Paradise among those who fought for the faith (_Par._ xviii. 48). His -death happened in Cephalonia in 1085, at the age of seventy, when he was -engaged on an expedition against Constantinople. - -[720] _Ceperan_: In the swift and decisive campaign undertaken by -Charles of Anjou against Manfred, King of Sicily and Naples, the first -victory was obtained at Ceperano; but it was won owing to the treachery -of Manfred's lieutenant, and not by the sword. The true battle was -fought at Benevento (_Purg._ iii. 128). Ceperano may be named by Dante -as the field where the defeat of Manfred was virtually begun, and where -the Apulians first failed in loyalty to their gallant king. Dante was a -year old at the time of Manfred's overthrow (1266). - -[721] _Tagliacozzo_: The crown Charles had won from Manfred he had to -defend against Manfred's nephew Conradin (grandson and last -representative of Frederick II. and the legitimate heir to the kingdom -of Sicily), whom, in 1268, he defeated near Tagliacozzo in the Abruzzi. -He made his victory the more complete by acting on the advice of Alardo -or Erard de Valery, an old Crusader, to hold good part of his force in -reserve. Charles wrote to the Pope that the slaughter was so great as -far to exceed that at Benevento. The feet of all the low-born prisoners -not slain on the field were cut off, while the gentlemen were beheaded -or hanged. - -[722] _Mahomet_: It has been objected to Dante by M. Littré that he -treats Mahomet, the founder of a new religion, as a mere schismatic. The -wonder would have been had he dwelt on the good qualities of the Prophet -at a time when Islam still threatened Europe. He goes on the fact that -Mahomet and his followers rent great part of the East and South from -Christendom; and for this the Prophet is represented as being mutilated -in a sorer degree than the other schismatics. - -[723] _Ali_: Son-in-law of Mahomet. - -[724] _Fra Dolcin_: At the close of the thirteenth century, Boniface -being Pope, the general discontent with the corruption of the higher -clergy found expression in the north of Italy in the foundation of a new -sect, whose leader was Fra Dolcino. What he chiefly was--enthusiast, -reformer, or impostor--it is impossible to ascertain; all we know of him -being derived from writers in the Papal interest. Among other crimes he -was charged with that of teaching the lawfulness of telling an -Inquisitor a lie to save your life, and with prophesying the advent of a -pious Pope. A holy war on a small scale was preached against him. After -suffering the extremities of famine, snowed up as he was among the -mountains, he was taken prisoner and cruelly put to death (1307). It may -have been in order to save himself from being suspected of sympathy with -him, that Dante, whose hatred of Boniface and the New Pharisees was -equal to Dolcino's, provides for him by anticipation a place with -Mahomet. - -[725] _Pier da Medicin_: Medicina is in the territory of Bologna. Piero -is said to have stirred up dissensions between the Polentas of Ravenna -and the Malatestas of Rimini. - -[726] _From Vercelli, etc._: From the district of Vercelli to where the -castle of Marcabò once stood, at the mouth of the Po, is a distance of -two hundred miles. The plain is Lombardy. - -[727] _Majolica, etc._: On all the Mediterranean, from Cyprus in the -east to Majorca in the west. - -[728] _The traitor, etc._: The one-eyed traitor is Malatesta, lord of -Rimini, the Young Mastiff of the preceding Canto. He invited the two -chief citizens of Fano, named in the text, to hold a conference with -him, and procured that on their way they should be pitched overboard -opposite the castle of Cattolica, which stood between Fano and Rimini. -This is said to have happened in 1304. - -[729] _Focara_: The name of a promontory near Cattolica, subject to -squalls. The victims were never to double the headland. - -[730] _Curio_: The Roman Tribune who, according to Lucan--the incident -is not historically correct--found Cæsar hesitating whether to cross the -Rubicon, and advised him: _Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis_. -'No delay! when men are ready they always suffer by putting off.' The -passage of the Rubicon was counted as the beginning of the Civil -War.--Curio gets scant justice, seeing that in Dante's view Cæsar in all -he did was only carrying out the Divine purpose regarding the Empire. - -[731] _Mosca_: In 1215 one of the Florentine family of the Buondelmonti -jilted a daughter of the Amidei. When these with their friends met to -take counsel touching revenge for the insult, Mosca, one of the Uberti -or of the Lamberti, gave his opinion in the proverb, _Cosa fatta ha -capo_: 'A thing once done is done with.' The hint was approved of, and -on the following Easter morning the young Buondelmonte, as, mounted on a -white steed and dressed in white he rode across the Ponte Vecchio, was -dragged to the ground and cruelly slain. All the great Florentine -families took sides in the feud, and it soon widened into the civil war -between Florentine Guelf and Ghibeline. - -[732] _Bertrand de Born_: Is mentioned by Dante in his Treatise _De -Vulgari Eloquio_, ii. 2, as specially the poet of warlike deeds. He was -a Gascon noble who used his poetical gift very much to stir up strife. -For patron he had the Prince Henry, son of Henry II. of England. Though -Henry never came to the throne he was, during his father's lifetime, -crowned as his successor, and was known as the young King. After the -death of the Prince, Bertrand was taken prisoner by the King, and, -according to the legend, was loaded with favours because he had been so -true a friend to his young master. That he had a turn for fomenting -discord is shown by his having also led a revolt in Aquitaine against -Richard I.--All the old MSS. and all the earlier commentators read _Re -Giovanni_, King John; _Re Giovane_, the young King, being a -comparatively modern emendation. In favour of adopting this it may be -mentioned that in his poems Bertrand calls Prince Henry _lo Reys joves_, -the young King; that it was Henry and not John that was his friend and -patron; and that in the old _Cento Novelle_ Henry is described as the -young King: in favour of the older reading, that John as well as his -brother was a rebel to Henry; and that the line is hurt by the change -from _Giovanni_ to _Giovane_. Considering that Dante almost certainly -wrote _Giovanni_ it seems most reasonable to suppose that he may have -confounded the _Re Giovane_ with King John. - -[733] _From what, etc._: The spinal cord, as we should now say, though -Dante may have meant the heart. - -[734] _Pain for pain_: In the City of Dis we found the heresiarchs, -those who lead others to think falsely. The lower depth of the Malebolge -is reserved for such as needlessly rend any Divinely-constituted order -of society, civil or religious. Conduct counts more with Dante than -opinion--in this case. - - - - -CANTO XXIX. - - - The many folk and wounds of divers kind - Had flushed mine eyes and set them on the flow, - Till I to weep and linger had a mind; - But Virgil said to me: 'Why gazing so? - Why still thy vision fastening on the crew - Of dismal shades dismembered there below? - Thou didst not[735] thus the other Bolgias view: - Think, if to count them be thine enterprise, - The valley circles twenty miles and two.[736] - Beneath our feet the moon[737] already lies; 10 - The time[738] wears fast away to us decreed; - And greater things than these await thine eyes.' - I answered swift: 'Hadst thou but given heed - To why it was my looks were downward bent, - To yet more stay thou mightest have agreed.' - My Guide meanwhile was moving, and I went - Behind him and continued to reply, - Adding: 'Within the moat on which intent - I now was gazing with such eager eye - I trow a spirit weeps, one of my kin, 20 - The crime whose guilt is rated there so high.' - Then said the Master: 'Henceforth hold thou in - Thy thoughts from wandering to him: new things claim - Attention now, so leave him with his sin. - Him saw I at thee from the bridge-foot aim - A threatening finger, while he made thee known; - Geri del Bello[739] heard I named his name. - But, at the time, thou wast with him alone - Engrossed who once held Hautefort,[740] nor the place - Didst look at where he was; so passed he on.' 30 - 'O Leader mine! death violent and base, - And not avenged as yet,' I made reply, - 'By any of his partners in disgrace, - Made him disdainful; therefore went he by - And spake not with me, if I judge aright; - Which does the more my ruth[741] intensify.' - So we conversed till from the cliff we might - Of the next valley have had prospect good - Down to the bottom, with but clearer light.[742] - When we above the inmost Cloister stood 40 - Of Malebolge, and discerned the crew - Of such as there compose the Brotherhood,[743] - So many lamentations pierced me through-- - And barbed with pity all the shafts were sped-- - My open palms across my ears I drew. - From Valdichiana's[744] every spital bed - All ailments to September from July, - With all in Maremma and Sardinia[745] bred, - Heaped in one pit a sickness might supply - Like what was here; and from it rose a stink 50 - Like that which comes from limbs that putrefy. - Then we descended by the utmost brink - Of the long ridge[746]--leftward once more we fell-- - Until my vision, quickened now, could sink - Deeper to where Justice infallible, - The minister of the Almighty Lord, - Chastises forgers doomed on earth[747] to Hell. - Ægina[748] could no sadder sight afford, - As I believe (when all the people ailed - And all the air was so with sickness stored, 60 - Down to the very worms creation failed - And died, whereon the pristine folk once more, - As by the poets is for certain held, - From seed of ants their family did restore), - Than what was offered by that valley black - With plague-struck spirits heaped upon the floor. - Supine some lay, each on the other's back - Or stomach; and some crawled with crouching gait - For change of place along the doleful track. - Speechless we moved with step deliberate, 70 - With eyes and ears on those disease crushed down - Nor left them power to lift their bodies straight. - I saw two sit, shoulder to shoulder thrown - As plate holds plate up to be warmed, from head - Down to the feet with scurf and scab o'ergrown. - Nor ever saw I curry-comb so plied - By varlet with his master standing by, - Or by one kept unwillingly from bed, - As I saw each of these his scratchers ply - Upon himself; for nought else now avails 80 - Against the itch which plagues them furiously. - The scab[749] they tore and loosened with their nails, - As with a knife men use the bream to strip, - Or any other fish with larger scales. - 'Thou, that thy mail dost with thy fingers rip,' - My Guide to one of them began to say, - 'And sometimes dost with them as pincers nip, - Tell, is there any here from Italy - Among you all, so may thy nails suffice - For this their work to all eternity.'[750] 90 - 'Latians are both of us in this disguise - Of wretchedness,' weeping said one of those; - 'But who art thou, demanding on this wise?' - My Guide made answer: 'I am one who goes - Down with this living man from steep to steep - That I to him Inferno may disclose.' - Then broke their mutual prop; trembling with deep - Amazement each turned to me, with the rest - To whom his words had echoed in the heap. - Me the good Master cordially addressed: 100 - 'Whate'er thou hast a mind to ask them, say.' - And since he wished it, thus I made request: - 'So may remembrance of you not decay - Within the upper world out of the mind - Of men, but flourish still for many a day, - As ye shall tell your names and what your kind: - Let not your vile, disgusting punishment - To full confession make you disinclined.' - 'An Aretine,[751] I to the stake was sent - By Albert of Siena,' one confessed, 110 - 'But came not here through that for which I went - To death. 'Tis true I told him all in jest, - I through the air could float in upward gyre; - And he, inquisitive and dull at best, - Did full instruction in the art require: - I could not make him Dædalus,[752] so then - His second father sent me to the fire. - But to the deepest Bolgia of the ten, - For alchemy which in the world I wrought, - The unerring Minos doomed me.' 'Now were men - E'er found,' I of the Poet asked, 'so fraught 121 - With vanity as are the Sienese?[753] - French vanity to theirs is surely nought.' - The other leper hearing me, to these - My words: 'Omit the Stricca,'[754] swift did shout, - 'Who knew his tastes with temperance to please; - And Nicholas,[755] who earliest found out - The lavish custom of the clove-stuffed roast - Within the garden where such seed doth sprout. - Nor count the club[756] where Caccia d' Ascian lost 130 - Vineyards and woods; 'mid whom away did throw - His wit the Abbagliato.[757] But whose ghost - It is, that thou mayst weet, that backs thee so - Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eyes - That thou my countenance mayst surely know. - In me Capocchio's[758] shade thou'lt recognise, - Who forged false coin by means of alchemy: - Thou must remember, if I well surmise, - How I of nature very ape could be.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[735] _Thou didst not, etc._: It is a noteworthy feature in the conduct -of the Poem that when Dante has once gained sufficient knowledge of any -group in the Inferno he at once detaches his mind from it, and, carrying -on as little arrear of pity as he can, gives his thoughts to further -progress on the journey. The departure here made from his usual -behaviour is presently accounted for. Virgil knows why he lingers, but -will not seem to approve of the cause. - -[736] _Twenty miles and two_: The Ninth Bolgia has a circumference of -twenty-two miles, and as the procession of the shades is slow it would -indeed involve a protracted halt to wait till all had passed beneath the -bridge. Virgil asks ironically if he wishes to count them all. This -precise detail, taken along with one of the same kind in the following -Canto (line 86), has suggested the attempt to construct the Inferno to a -scale. Dante wisely suffers us to forget, if we will, that--taking the -diameter of the earth at 6500 miles, as given by him in the -_Convito_--he travels from the surface of the globe to the centre at the -rate of more than two miles a minute, counting downward motion alone. It -is only when he has come to the lowest rings that he allows himself to -give details of size; and probably the mention of the extent of the -Ninth Bolgia, which comes on the reader as a surprise, is thrown out in -order to impress on the imagination some sense of the enormous extent of -the regions through which the pilgrim has already passed. Henceforth he -deals in exact measurement. - -[737] _The moon_: It is now some time after noon on the Saturday. The -last indication of time was at Canto xxi. 112. - -[738] _The time, etc._: Before nightfall they are to complete their -exploration of the Inferno, and they will have spent twenty-four hours -in it. - -[739] _Geri del Bello_: One of the Alighieri, a full cousin of Dante's -father. He was guilty of encouraging dissension, say the commentators; -which is to be clearly inferred from the place assigned him in Inferno: -but they do not agree as to how he met his death, nor do they mention -the date of it. 'Not avenged till thirty years after,' says Landino; but -does not say if this was after his death or the time at which Dante -writes. - -[740] _Hautefort_: Bertrand de Born's castle in Gascony. - -[741] _My ruth_: Enlightened moralist though Dante is, he yet shows -himself man of his age enough to be keenly alive to the extremest claims -of kindred; and while he condemns the _vendetta_ by the words put into -Virgil's mouth, he confesses to a feeling of meanness not to have -practised it on behoof of a distant relative. There is a high art in -this introduction of Geri del Bello. Had they conferred together Dante -must have seemed either cruel or pusillanimous, reproaching or being -reproached. As it is, all the poetry of the situation comes out the -stronger that they do not meet face to face: the threatening finger, the -questions hastily put to Geri by the astonished shades, and his -disappearance under the dark vault when by the law of his punishment the -sinner can no longer tarry. - -[742] _With but clearer light_: They have crossed the rampart dividing -the Ninth Bolgia from the Tenth, of which they would now command a view, -were it not so dark. - -[743] _The Brotherhood_: The word used properly describes the Lay -Brothers of a monastery. Philalethes suggests that Dante may regard the -devils as the true monks of the monastery of Malebolge. The simile -involves no contempt for the monastic life, but is naturally used with -reference to those who live secluded and under a fixed rule. He -elsewhere speaks of the College of the Hypocrites (_Inf._ xxiii. 91) and -of Paradise as the Cloister where Christ is Abbot (_Purg._ xxvi.129). - -[744] _Valdichiana_: The district lying between Arezzo and Chiusi; in -Dante's time a hotbed of malaria, but now, owing to drainage works -promoted by the enlightened Tuscan minister Fossombroni (1823), one of -the most fertile and healthy regions of Italy. - -[745] _Sardinia_: Had in the middle ages an evil reputation for its -fever-stricken air. The Maremma has been already mentioned (_Inf._ -xxv.19). In Dante's time it was almost unpeopled. - -[746] _The long ridge_: One of the ribs of rock which, like the spokes -of a wheel, ran from the periphery to the centre of Malebolge, rising -into arches as they crossed each successive Bolgia. The utmost brink is -the inner bank of the Tenth and last Bolgia. To the edge of this moat -they descend, bearing as usual to the left hand. - -[747] _Doomed on earth, etc._: 'Whom she here registers.' While they are -still on earth their doom is fixed by Divine justice. - -[748] _Ægina_: The description is taken from Ovid (_Metam._ vii.). - -[749] _The scab, etc._: As if by an infernal alchemy the matter of the -shadowy bodies of these sinners is changed into one loathsome form or -another. - -[750] _To all eternity_: This may seem a stroke of sarcasm, but is not. -Himself a shade, Virgil cannot, like Dante, promise to refresh the -memory of the shades on earth, and can only wish for them some slight -alleviation of their suffering. - -[751] _An Aretine_: Called Griffolino, and burned at Florence or Siena -on a charge of heresy. Albert of Siena is said to have been a relative, -some say the natural son, of the Bishop of Siena. A man of the name -figures as hero in some of Sacchetti's novels, always in a ridiculous -light. There seems to be no authentic testimony regarding the incident -in the text. - -[752] _Dædalus_: Who escaped on wings of his invention from the Cretan -Labyrinth he had made and lost himself in. - -[753] _The Sienese_: The comparison of these to the French would have -the more cogency as Siena boasted of having been founded by the Gauls. -'That vain people,' says Dante of the Sienese in the _Purgatory_ (xiii. -151). Among their neighbours they still bear the reputation of -light-headedness; also, it ought to be added, of great urbanity. - -[754] _The Stricca_: The exception in his favour is ironical, as is that -of all the others mentioned. - -[755] _Nicholas_: 'The lavish custom of the clove' which he invented is -variously described. I have chosen the version which makes it consist of -stuffing pheasants with cloves, then very costly. - -[756] _The club_: The commentators tell that the two young Sienese -nobles above mentioned were members of a society formed for the purpose -of living luxuriously together. Twelve of them contributed a fund of -above two hundred thousand gold florins; they built a great palace and -furnished it magnificently, and launched out into every other sort of -extravagance with such assiduity that in a few months their capital was -gone. As that amounted to more than a hundred thousand pounds of our -money, equal in those days to a million or two, the story must be held -to savour of romance. That Dante refers to a prodigal's club that -actually existed some time before he wrote we cannot doubt. But it seems -uncertain, to say the least, whether the sonnets addressed by the Tuscan -poet Folgore da Gemignano to a jovial crew in Siena can be taken as -having been inspired by the club Dante speaks of. A translation of them -is given by Mr. Rossetti in his _Circle of Dante_. (See Mr. Symonds's -_Renaissance_, vol. iv. page 54, _note_, for doubts as to the date of -Folgore.)--_Caccia d' Ascian_: Whose short and merry club life cost him -his estates near Siena. - -[757] _The Abbagliato_: Nothing is known, though a great deal is -guessed, about this member of the club. It is enough to know that, -having a scant supply of wit, he spent it freely. - -[758] _Capocchio_: Some one whom Dante knew. Whether he was a Florentine -or a Sienese is not ascertained, but from the strain of his mention of -the Sienese we may guess Florentine. He was burned in Siena in -1293.--(Scartazzini.) They had studied together, says the _Anonimo_. -Benvenuto tells of him that one Good Friday, while in a cloister, he -painted on his nail with marvellous completeness a picture of the -crucifixion. Dante came up, and was lost in wonder, when Capocchio -suddenly licked his nail clean--which may be taken for what it is worth. - - - - -CANTO XXX. - - - Because of Semele[759] when Juno's ire - Was fierce 'gainst all that were to Thebes allied, - As had been proved by many an instance dire; - So mad grew Athamas[760] that when he spied - His wife as she with children twain drew near, - Each hand by one encumbered, loud he cried: - 'Be now the nets outspread, that I may snare - Cubs with the lioness at yon strait ground!' - And stretching claws of all compassion bare - He on Learchus seized and swung him round, 10 - And shattered him upon a flinty stone; - Then she herself and the other burden drowned. - And when by fortune was all overthrown - The Trojans' pride, inordinate before-- - Monarch and kingdom equally undone-- - Hecuba,[761] sad and captive, mourning o'er - Polyxena, when dolorous she beheld - The body of her darling Polydore - Upon the coast, out of her wits she yelled, - And spent herself in barking like a hound; 20 - So by her sorrow was her reason quelled. - But never yet was Trojan fury[762] found, - Nor that of Thebes, to sting so cruelly - Brute beasts, far less the human form to wound, - As two pale naked shades were stung, whom I - Saw biting run, like swine when they escape - Famished and eager from the empty sty. - Capocchio[763] coming up to, in his nape - One fixed his fangs, and hauling at him made - His belly on the stony pavement scrape. 30 - The Aretine[764] who stood, still trembling, said: - 'That imp is Gianni Schicchi,[765] and he goes - Rabid, thus trimming others.' 'O!' I prayed, - 'So may the teeth of the other one of those - Not meet in thee, as, ere she pass from sight, - Thou freely shalt the name of her disclose.' - And he to me: 'That is the ancient sprite - Of shameless Myrrha,[766] who let liking rise - For him who got her, past all bounds of right. - As, to transgress with him, she in disguise 40 - Came near to him deception to maintain; - So he, departing yonder from our eyes, - That he the Lady of the herd might gain, - Bequeathed his goods by formal testament - While he Buoso Donate's[767] form did feign.' - And when the rabid couple from us went, - Who all this time by me were being eyed, - Upon the rest ill-starred I grew intent; - And, fashioned like a lute, I one espied, - Had he been only severed at the place 50 - Where at the groin men's lower limbs divide. - The grievous dropsy, swol'n with humours base, - Which every part of true proportion strips - Till paunch grows out of keeping with the face, - Compelled him widely ope to hold his lips - Like one in fever who, by thirst possessed, - Has one drawn up while the other chinward slips. - 'O ye![768] who by no punishment distressed, - Nor know I why, are in this world of dool,' - He said; 'a while let your attention rest 60 - On Master Adam[769] here of misery full. - Living, I all I wished enjoyed at will; - Now lust I for a drop of water cool. - The water-brooks that down each grassy hill - Of Casentino to the Arno fall - And with cool moisture all their courses fill-- - Always, and not in vain, I see them all; - Because the vision of them dries me more - Than the disease 'neath which my face grows small. - For rigid justice, me chastising sore, 70 - Can in the place I sinned at motive find - To swell the sighs in which I now deplore. - There lies Romena, where of the money coined[770] - With the Baptist's image I made counterfeit, - And therefore left my body burnt behind. - But could I see here Guido's[771] wretched sprite, - Or Alexander's, or their brother's, I - For Fonte Branda[772] would not give the sight. - One is already here, unless they lie-- - Mad souls with power to wander through the crowd-- - What boots it me, whose limbs diseases tie? 81 - But were I yet so nimble that I could - Creep one poor inch a century, some while - Ago had I begun to take the road - Searching for him among this people vile; - And that although eleven miles[773] 'tis long, - And has a width of more than half a mile. - Because of them am I in such a throng; - For to forge florins I by them was led, - Which by three carats[774] of alloy were wrong,' 90 - 'Who are the wretches twain,' I to him said, - 'Who smoke[775] like hand in winter-time fresh brought - From water, on thy right together spread?' - 'Here found I them, nor have they budged a jot,' - He said, 'since I was hurled into this vale; - And, as I deem, eternally they'll not. - One[776] with false charges Joseph did assail; - False Sinon,[777] Greek from Troy, is the other wight. - Burning with fever they this stink exhale.' - Then one of them, perchance o'ercome with spite 100 - Because he thus contemptuously was named, - Smote with his fist upon the belly tight. - It sounded like a drum; and then was aimed - A blow by Master Adam at his face - With arm no whit less hard, while he exclaimed: - 'What though I can no longer shift my place - Because my members by disease are weighed! - I have an arm still free for such a case.' - To which was answered: 'When thou wast conveyed - Unto the fire 'twas not thus good at need, 110 - But even more so when the coiner's trade - Was plied by thee.' The swol'n one: 'True indeed! - But thou didst not bear witness half so true - When Trojans[778] at thee for the truth did plead.' - 'If I spake falsely, thou didst oft renew - False coin,' said Sinon; 'one fault brought me here; - Thee more than any devil of the crew.' - 'Bethink thee of the horse, thou perjurer,' - He of the swol'n paunch answered; 'and that by - All men 'tis known should anguish in thee stir.' 120 - 'Be thirst that cracks thy tongue thy penalty, - And putrid water,' so the Greek replied, - 'Which 'fore thine eyes thy stomach moundeth high.' - The coiner then: 'Thy mouth thou openest wide, - As thou art used, thy slanderous words to vent; - But if I thirst and humours plump my hide - Thy head throbs with the fire within thee pent. - To lap Narcissus' mirror,[779] to implore - And urge thee on would need no argument.' - While I to hear them did attentive pore 130 - My Master said: 'Thy fill of staring take! - To rouse my anger needs but little more.' - And when I heard that he in anger spake - Toward him I turned with such a shame inspired, - Recalled, it seems afresh on me to break. - And, as the man who dreams of hurt is fired - With wish that he might know his dream a dream, - And so what is, as 'twere not, is desired; - So I, struck dumb and filled with an extreme - Craving to find excuse, unwittingly 140 - The meanwhile made the apology supreme. - 'Less shame,' my Master said, 'would nullify - A greater fault, for greater guilt atone; - All sadness for it, therefore, lay thou by. - But bear in mind that thou art not alone, - If fortune hap again to bring thee near - Where people such debate are carrying on. - To things like these 'tis shame[780] to lend an ear.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[759] _Semele_: The daughter of Cadmus, founder and king of Thebes, was -beloved by Jupiter and therefore hated by Juno, who induced her to court -destruction by urging the god to visit her, as he was used to come to -Juno, in all his glory. And in other instances the goddess took revenge -(Ovid, _Metam._ iv.). - -[760] _Athamas_: Married to a sister of Semele, was made insane by the -angry Juno, with the result described in the text. - -[761] _Hecuba_: Wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of Polyxena and -Polydorus. While she was lamenting the death of her daughter, slain as -an offering on the tomb of Achilles, she found the corpse of her son, -slain by the king of Thrace, to whose keeping she had committed him -(Ovid, _Metam._ xiii.). - -[762] _Trojan fury, etc._: It was by the agency of a Fury that Athamas -was put out of his mind; but the Trojan and Theban furies here meant are -the frenzies of Athamas and Hecuba, wild with which one of them slew his -son, and the other scratched out the eyes of the Thracian king. - -[763] _Capocchio_: See close of the preceding Canto. Here as elsewhere -sinners are made ministers of vengeance on one another. - -[764] _The Aretine_: Griffolino, who boasted he could fly; already -represented as trembling (_Inf._ xxix. 97). - -[765] _Gianni Schicchi_: Giovanni Schicchi, one of the Cavalcanti of -Florence. - -[766] _Myrrha_: This is a striking example of Dante's detestation of -what may be called heartless sins. It is covered by the classification -of Canto xi. Yet it is almost with a shock that we find Myrrha here for -personation, and not rather condemned to some other circle for another -sin. - -[767] _Buoso Donati_: Introduced as a thief in the Seventh Bolgia -(_Inf._ xxv. 140). Buoso was possessed of a peerless mare, known as the -Lady of the herd. To make some amends for his unscrupulous acquisition -of wealth, he made a will bequeathing legacies to various religious -communities. When he died his nephew Simon kept the fact concealed long -enough to procure a personation of him as if on his death-bed by Gianni -Schicchi, who had great powers of mimicry. Acting in the character of -Buoso, the rogue professed his wish to make a new disposition of his -means, and after specifying some trifling charitable bequests the better -to maintain his assumed character, named Simon as general legatee, and -bequeathed Buoso's mare to himself. - -[768] _O ye, etc._: The speaker has heard and noted Virgil's words of -explanation given in the previous Canto, line 94. - -[769] _Master Adam_: Adam of Brescia, an accomplished worker in metals, -was induced by the Counts Guidi of Romena in the Casentino, the upland -district of the upper Arno, to counterfeit the gold coin of Florence. -This false coin is mentioned in a Chronicle as having been in -circulation in 1281. It must therefore have been somewhat later that -Master Adam was burned, as he was by sentence of the Republic, upon the -road which led from Romena to Florence. A cairn still existing near the -ruined castle bears the name of the 'dead man's cairn.' - -[770] _The money coined, etc._: The gold florin, afterwards adopted in -so many countries, was first struck in 1252; 'which florins weighed -eight to the ounce, and bore the lily on the one side, and on the other -Saint John.'--(Villani, vi. 54.) The piece was thus of about the weight -of our half-sovereign. The gold was of twenty-four carats; that is, it -had no alloy. The coin soon passed into wide circulation, and to -maintain its purity became for the Florentines a matter of the first -importance. Villani, in the chapter above cited, tells how the King of -Tunis finding the florin to be of pure gold sent for some of the Pisans, -then the chief traders in his ports, and asked who were the Florentines -that they coined such money. 'Only our Arabs,' was the answer; meaning -that they were rough country folk, dependent on Pisa. 'Then what is your -coin like?' he asked. A Florentine of Oltrarno named Pera Balducci, who -was present, took the opportunity of informing him how great Florence -was compared with Pisa, as was shown by that city having no gold coinage -of its own; whereupon the King made the Florentines free of Tunis, and -allowed them to have a factory there. 'And this,' adds Villani, who had -himself been agent abroad for a great Florentine house of business, 'we -had at first hand from the aforesaid Pera, a man worthy of credit, and -with whom we were associated in the Priorate.' - -[771] _Guido, etc._: The Guidi of Romena were a branch of the great -family of the Counts Guidi. The father of the three brothers in the text -was grandson of the old Guido that married the Good Gualdrada, and -cousin of the Guidoguerra met by Dante in the Seventh Circle (_Inf._ -xvi. 38). How the third brother was called is not settled, nor which of -the three was already dead in the beginning of 1300. The Alexander of -Romena, who for some time was captain of the banished Florentine Whites, -was, most probably, he of the text. A letter is extant professing to be -written by Dante to two of Alexander's nephews on the occasion of his -death, in which the poet excuses himself for absence from the funeral on -the plea of poverty. By the time he wrote the _Inferno_ he may, owing to -their shifty politics, have lost all liking for the family, yet it seems -harsh measure that is here dealt to former friends and patrons. - -[772] _Fonte Branda_: A celebrated fountain in the city of Siena. Near -Romena is a spring which is also named Fonte Branda; and this, according -to the view now most in favour, was meant by Master Adam. But was it so -named in Dante's time? Or was it not so called only when the _Comedy_ -had begun to awaken a natural interest in the old coiner, which local -ingenuity did its best to meet? The early commentators know nothing of -the Casentino Fonte Branda, and, though it is found mentioned under the -date of 1539, that does not take us far enough back. In favour of the -Sienese fountain is the consideration that it was the richest of any in -the Tuscan cities; that it was a great architectural as well as -engineering work; and that, although now more than half a century old, -it was still the subject of curiosity with people far and near. Besides, -Adam has already recalled the brooks of Casentino, and so the mention of -the paltry spring at Romena would introduce no fresh idea like that of -the abundant waters of the great fountain which daily quenched the -thirst of thousands. - -[773] _Eleven miles_: It will be remembered that the previous Bolgia was -twenty-two miles in circumference. - -[774] _Three carats_: Three carats in twenty-four being of some foreign -substance. - -[775] _Who smoke, etc._: This description of sufferers from high fever, -like that of Master Adam with his tympanitis, has the merit, such as it -is, of being true to the life. - -[776] _One, etc._: Potiphar's wife. - -[777] _Sinon_: Called of Troy, as being known through his conduct at the -siege. He pretended to have deserted from the Greeks, and by a false -story persuaded the Trojans to admit the fatal wooden horse. - -[778] _When Trojans, etc._: When King Priam sought to know for what -purpose the wooden horse was really constructed. - -[779] _Narcissus' mirror_: The pool in which Narcissus saw his form -reflected. - -[780] _'Tis shame_: Dante knows that Virgil would have scorned to -portray such a scene of low life as this, but he must allow himself a -wider licence and here as elsewhere refuses nothing, even in the way of -mean detail, calculated to convey to his readers 'a full experience of -the Inferno' as he conceived of it--the place 'where all the vileness of -the world is cast.' - - - - -CANTO XXXI. - - - The very tongue that first had caused me pain, - Biting till both my cheeks were crimsoned o'er, - With healing medicine me restored again. - So have I heard, the lance Achilles[781] bore, - Which earlier was his father's, first would wound - And then to health the wounded part restore. - From that sad valley[782] we our backs turned round, - Up the encircling rampart making way - Nor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound. - Here was it less than night and less than day, 10 - And scarce I saw at all what lay ahead; - But of a trumpet the sonorous bray-- - No thunder-peal were heard beside it--led - Mine eyes along the line by which it passed, - Till on one spot their gaze concentrated. - When by the dolorous rout was overcast - The sacred enterprise of Charlemagne - Roland[783] blew not so terrible a blast. - Short time my head was that way turned, when plain - I many lofty towers appeared to see. 20 - 'Master, what town is this?' I asked. 'Since fain - Thou art,' he said, 'to pierce the obscurity - While yet through distance 'tis inscrutable, - Thou must of error needs the victim be. - Arriving there thou shalt distinguish well - How much by distance was thy sense betrayed; - Therefore to swifter course thyself compel.' - Then tenderly[784] he took my hand, and said: - 'Ere we pass further I would have thee know, - That at the fact thou mayst be less dismayed, 30 - These are not towers but giants; in a row - Set round the brink each in the pit abides, - His navel hidden and the parts below.' - And even as when the veil of mist divides - Little by little dawns upon the sight - What the obscuring vapour earlier hides; - So, piercing the gross air uncheered by light, - As I step after step drew near the bound - My error fled, but I was filled with fright. - As Montereggion[785] with towers is crowned 40 - Which from the walls encircling it arise; - So, rising from the pit's encircling mound, - Half of their bodies towered before mine eyes-- - Dread giants, still by Jupiter defied - From Heaven whene'er it thunders in the skies. - The face of one already I descried, - His shoulders, breast, and down his belly far, - And both his arms dependent by his side. - When Nature ceased such creatures as these are - To form, she of a surety wisely wrought 50 - Wresting from Mars such ministers of war. - And though she rue not that to life she brought - The whale and elephant, who deep shall read - Will justify her wisdom in his thought; - For when the powers of intellect are wed - To strength and evil will, with them made one, - The race of man is helpless left indeed. - As large and long as is St. Peter's cone[786] - At Rome, the face appeared; of every limb - On scale like this was fashioned every bone. 60 - So that the bank, which covered half of him - As might a tunic, left uncovered yet - So much that if to his hair they sought to climb - Three Frisians[787] end on end their match had met; - For thirty great palms I of him could see, - Counting from where a man's cloak-clasp is set. - _Rafel[788] mai amech zabi almi!_ - Out of the bestial mouth began to roll, - Which scarce would suit more dulcet psalmody. - And then my Leader charged him: 'Stupid soul, 70 - Stick to thy horn. With it relieve thy mind - When rage or other passions pass control. - Feel at thy neck, round which the thong is twined - O puzzle-headed wretch! from which 'tis slung; - Clipping thy monstrous breast thou shalt it find.' - And then to me: 'From his own mouth is wrung - Proof of his guilt. 'Tis Nimrod, whose insane - Whim hindered men from speaking in one tongue. - Leave we him here nor spend our speech in vain; - For words to him in any language said, 80 - As unto others his, no sense contain.' - Turned to the left, we on our journey sped, - And at the distance of an arrow's flight - We found another huger and more dread. - By what artificer thus pinioned tight - I cannot tell, but his left arm was bound - In front, as at his back was bound the right, - By a chain which girt him firmly round and round; - About what of his frame there was displayed - Below the neck, in fivefold gyre 'twas wound. 90 - 'Incited by ambition this one made - Trial of prowess 'gainst Almighty Jove,' - My Leader told, 'and he is thus repaid. - 'Tis Ephialtes,[789] mightily who strove - What time the giants to the gods caused fright: - The arms he wielded then no more will move.' - And I to him: 'Fain would I, if I might, - On the enormous Briareus set eye, - And know the truth by holding him in sight.' - 'Antæus[790] thou shalt see,' he made reply, 100 - 'Ere long, and he can speak, nor is in chains. - Us to the depth of all iniquity - He shall let down. The one thou'dst see[791] remains - Far off, like this one bound and like in make, - But in his face far more of fierceness reigns.' - Never when earth most terribly did quake - Shook any tower so much as what all o'er - And suddenly did Ephialtes shake. - Terror of death possessed me more and more; - The fear alone had served my turn indeed, 110 - But that I marked the ligatures he wore. - Then did we somewhat further on proceed, - Reaching Antæus who for good five ell,[792] - His head not counted, from the pit was freed. - 'O thou who from the fortune-haunted dell[793]-- - Where Scipio of glory was made heir - When with his host to flight turned Hannibal-- - A thousand lions didst for booty bear - Away, and who, hadst thou but joined the host - And like thy brethren fought, some even aver 120 - The victory to earth's sons had not been lost, - Lower us now, nor disobliging show, - To where Cocytus[794] fettered is by frost. - To Tityus[795] nor to Typhon make us go. - To grant what here is longed for he hath power, - Cease them to curl thy snout, but bend thee low. - He can for wage thy name on earth restore; - He lives, and still expecteth to live long, - If Grace recall him not before his hour.' - So spake my Master. Then his hands he swung 130 - Downward and seized my Leader in all haste-- - Hands in whose grip even Hercules once was wrung. - And Virgil when he felt them round him cast - Said: 'That I may embrace thee, hither tend,' - And in one bundle with him made me fast. - And as to him that under Carisend[796] - Stands on the side it leans to, while clouds fly - Counter its slope, the tower appears to bend; - Even so to me who stood attentive by - Antæus seemed to stoop, and I, dismayed, 140 - Had gladly sought another road to try. - But us in the abyss he gently laid, - Where Lucifer and Judas gulfed remain; - Nor to it thus bent downward long time stayed, - But like a ship's mast raised himself again. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[781] _Achilles_: The rust upon his lance had virtue to heal the wound. - -[782] _From that sad valley_: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they -climb the inner bank of it and approach the Ninth and last Circle, which -consists of the pit of the Inferno. - -[783] _Roland_: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating -the Saracens at Saragossa, left Roland to bring up his rear-guard. The -enemy fell on this in superior strength, and slew the Christians almost -to a man. Then Roland, mortally wounded, sat down under a tree in -Roncesvalles and blew upon his famous horn a blast so loud that it was -heard by Charles at a distance of several miles.--The _Chansons de -Geste_ were familiarly known to Italians of all classes. - -[784] _Then tenderly, etc._: The wound inflicted by his reproof has been -already healed, but Virgil still behaves to Dante with more than his -wonted gentleness. He will have him assured of his sympathy now that -they are about to descend into the 'lowest depth of all wickedness.' - -[785] _Montereggioni_: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which -ample ruins still exist. It had no central keep, but twelve towers rose -from its circular wall like spikes from the rim of a coronet. They had -been added by the Sienese in 1260, and so were comparatively new in -Dante's time.--As the towers stood round Montereggioni so the giants at -regular intervals stand round the central pit. They have their foothold -within the enclosing mound; and thus, to one looking at them from -without, they are hidden by it up to their middle. As the embodiment of -superhuman impious strength and pride they stand for warders of the -utmost reach of Hell. - -[786] _St. Peter's cone_: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to -have originally crowned the mausoleum of Hadrian, lay in Dante's time in -the forecourt of St Peter's. When the new church was built it was -removed to the gardens of the Vatican, where it still remains. Its size, -it will be seen, is of importance as helping us to a notion of the -stature of the giants; and, though the accounts of its height are -strangely at variance with one another, I think the measurement made -specially for Philalethes may be accepted as substantially correct. -According to that, the cone is ten palms long--about six feet. Allowing -something for the neck, down to 'where a man clasps his cloak' (line -66), and taking the thirty palms as eighteen feet, we get twenty-six -feet or so for half his height. The giants vary in bulk; whether they do -so in height is not clear. We cannot be far mistaken if we assume them -to stand from fifty to sixty feet high. Virgil and Dante must throw -their heads well back to look up into the giant's face; and Virgil must -raise his voice as he speaks.--With regard to the height of the cone it -may be remarked that Murray's Handbook for Rome makes it eleven feet -high; Gsell-Fels two and a half metres, or eight feet and three inches. -It is so placed as to be difficult of measurement. - -[787] _Three Frisians_: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to -be, if standing one on the head of the other would not have reached his -hair. - -[788] _Rafel, etc._: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh -Canto, have, to no result, greatly exercised the ingenuity of scholars. -From what follows it is clear that Dante meant them to be meaningless. -Part of Nimrod's punishment is that he who brought about the confusion -of tongues is now left with a language all to himself. It seems strange -that commentators should have exhausted themselves in searching for a -sense in words specially invented to have none.--In his _De Vulg. El._, -i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the -tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant. - -[789] _Ephialtes_: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled -Ossa on Pelion. - -[790] _Antæus_: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, -unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike -Ephialtes, is not bound. Antæus is free-handed because he took no part -in the war with the gods. - -[791] _The one thou'dst see_: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know -what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he -was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only -fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles -with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake. - -[792] _Five ell_: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antæus is -of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports -the view that the 'huger' of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to -height. - -[793] _The fortune-haunted dell_: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, -where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The -giant Antæus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, -with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was -son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to -touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he -needed to swing him aloft. In the _Monarchia_, ii. 10, Dante refers to -the combat between Hercules and Antæus as an instance of the wager of -battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan's -_Pharsalia_, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these -references to Scipio and Antæus. - -[794] _Cocytus_: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See -Canto xiv. at the end. - -[795] _Tityus, etc._: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be -less strong than Antæus. This introduction of their names is therefore a -piece of flattery to the monster. A light contemptuous turn is given by -Virgil to his flattery when in the following sentence he bids Antæus not -curl his snout, but at once comply with the demand for aid. There is -something genuinely Italian in the picture given of the giants in this -Canto, as of creatures whose intellect bears no proportion to their bulk -and brute strength. Mighty hunters like Nimrod, skilled in sounding the -horn but feeble in reasoned speech, Frisians with great thews and long -of limb, and German men-at-arms who traded in their rude valour, to the -subtle Florentine in whom the ferment of the Renaissance was beginning -to work were all specimens of Nature's handicraft that had better have -been left unmade, were it not that wiser people could use them as tools. - -[796] _Carisenda_: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the -beginning of the twelfth century, and, like many others of its kind in -the city, erected not for strength but merely in order to dignify the -family to whom it belonged. By way of further distinction to their -owners, some of these towers were so constructed as to lean from the -perpendicular. Carisenda, like its taller neighbour the Asinelli, still -supplies a striking feature to the near and distant views of Bologna. -What is left of it hangs for more than two yards off the plumb. In the -half-century after Dante's time it had, according to Benvenuto, lost -something of its height. It would therefore as the poet saw it seem to -be bending down even more than it now does to any one standing under it -on the side it slopes to, when a cloud is drifting over it in the other -direction. - - - - -CANTO XXXII. - - - Had I sonorous rough rhymes at command, - Such as would suit the cavern terrible - Rooted on which all the other ramparts stand, - The sap of fancies which within me swell - Closer I'd press; but since I have not these, - With some misgiving I go on to tell. - For 'tis no task to play with as you please, - Of all the world the bottom to portray, - Nor one that with a baby speech[797] agrees. - But let those ladies help me with my lay 10 - Who helped Amphion[798] walls round Thebes to pile, - And faithful to the facts my words shall stay. - O 'bove all creatures wretched, for whose vile - Abode 'tis hard to find a language fit, - As sheep or goats ye had been happier! While - We still were standing in the murky pit-- - Beneath the giant's feet[799] set far below-- - And at the high wall I was staring yet, - When this I heard: 'Heed to thy steps[800] bestow, - Lest haply by thy soles the heads be spurned 20 - Of wretched brothers wearied in their woe.' - Before me, as on hearing this I turned, - Beneath my feet a frozen lake,[801] its guise - Rather of glass than water, I discerned. - In all its course on Austrian Danube lies - No veil in time of winter near so thick, - Nor on the Don beneath its frigid skies, - As this was here; on which if Tabernicch[802] - Or Mount Pietrapana[803] should alight - Not even the edge would answer with a creak. 30 - And as the croaking frog holds well in sight - Its muzzle from the pool, what time of year[804] - The peasant girl of gleaning dreams at night; - The mourning shades in ice were covered here, - Seen livid up to where we blush[805] with shame. - In stork-like music their teeth chattering were. - With downcast face stood every one of them: - To cold from every mouth, and to despair - From every eye, an ample witness came. - And having somewhat gazed around me there 40 - I to my feet looked down, and saw two pressed - So close together, tangled was their hair, - 'Say, who are you with breast[806] thus strained to breast?' - I asked; whereon their necks they backward bent, - And when their upturned faces lay at rest - Their eyes, which earlier were but moistened, sent - Tears o'er their eyelids: these the frost congealed - And fettered fast[807] before they further went. - Plank set to plank no rivet ever held - More firmly; wherefore, goat-like, either ghost 50 - Butted the other; so their wrath prevailed. - And one who wanted both ears, which the frost - Had bitten off, with face still downward thrown, - Asked: 'Why with us art thou so long engrossed? - If who that couple are thou'dst have made known-- - The vale down which Bisenzio's floods decline - Was once their father Albert's[808] and their own. - One body bore them: search the whole malign - Caïna,[809] and thou shalt not any see - More worthy to be fixed in gelatine; 60 - Not he whose breast and shadow equally - Were by one thrust of Arthur's lance[810] pierced through: - Nor yet Focaccia;[811] nor the one that me - With his head hampers, blocking out my view, - Whose name was Sassol Mascheroni:[812] well - Thou must him know if thou art Tuscan too. - And that thou need'st not make me further tell-- - I'm Camicion de' Pazzi,[813] and Carlin[814] - I weary for, whose guilt shall mine excel.' - A thousand faces saw I dog-like grin, 70 - Frost-bound; whence I, as now, shall always shake - Whenever sight of frozen pools I win. - While to the centre[815] we our way did make - To which all things converging gravitate, - And me that chill eternal caused to quake; - Whether by fortune, providence, or fate, - I know not, but as 'mong the heads I went - I kicked one full in the face; who therefore straight - 'Why trample on me?' snarled and made lament, - 'Unless thou com'st to heap the vengeance high 80 - For Montaperti,[816] why so virulent - 'Gainst me?' I said: 'Await me here till I - By him, O Master, shall be cleared of doubt;[817] - Then let my pace thy will be guided by.' - My Guide delayed, and I to him spake out, - While he continued uttering curses shrill: - 'Say, what art thou, at others thus to shout?' - 'But who art thou, that goest at thy will - Through Antenora,[818] trampling on the face - Of others? 'Twere too much if thou wert still 90 - In life.' 'I live, and it may help thy case,' - Was my reply, 'if thou renown wouldst gain, - Should I thy name[819] upon my tablets place.' - And he: 'I for the opposite am fain. - Depart thou hence, nor work me further dool; - Within this swamp thou flatterest all in vain.' - Then I began him by the scalp to pull, - And 'Thou must tell how thou art called,' I said, - 'Or soon thy hair will not be plentiful.' - And he: 'Though every hair thou from me shred 100 - I will not tell thee, nor my face turn round; - No, though a thousand times thou spurn my head.' - His locks ere this about my fist were wound, - And many a tuft I tore, while dog-like wails - Burst from him, and his eyes still sought the ground. - Then called another: 'Bocca, what now ails? - Is't not enough thy teeth go chattering there, - But thou must bark? What devil thee assails?' - 'Ah! now,' said I, 'thou need'st not aught declare, - Accursed traitor; and true news of thee 110 - To thy disgrace I to the world will bear.' - 'Begone, tell what thou wilt,' he answered me; - 'But, if thou issue hence, not silent keep[820] - Of him whose tongue but lately wagged so free. - He for the Frenchmen's money[821] here doth weep. - Him of Duera saw I, mayst thou tell, - Where sinners shiver in the frozen deep. - Shouldst thou be asked who else within it dwell-- - Thou hast the Beccheria[822] at thy side; - Across whose neck the knife at Florence fell. 120 - John Soldanieri[823] may be yonder spied - With Ganellon,[824] and Tribaldell[825] who threw - Faenza's gates, when slept the city, wide.' - Him had we left, our journey to pursue, - When frozen in a hole[826] a pair I saw; - One's head like the other's hat showed to the view. - And, as their bread men hunger-driven gnaw, - The uppermost tore fiercely at his mate - Where nape and brain-pan to a junction draw. - No worse by Tydeus[827] in his scornful hate 130 - Were Menalippus' temples gnawed and hacked - Than skull and all were torn by him irate. - 'O thou who provest by such bestial act - Hatred of him who by thy teeth is chewed, - Declare thy motive,' said I, 'on this pact-- - That if with reason thou with him hast feud, - Knowing your names and manner of his crime - I in the world[828] to thee will make it good; - If what I speak with dry not ere the time.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[797] _A baby speech_: 'A tongue that cries _mamma_ and _papa_' For his -present purpose, he complains, he has not in Italian an adequate supply -of rough high-sounding rhymes; but at least he will use only the best -words that can be found. In another work (_De Vulg. El._ ii. 7) he -instances _mamma_ and _babbo_ as words of a kind to be avoided by all -who would write nobly in Italian. - -[798] _Amphion_: Who with his music charmed rocks from the mountain and -heaped them in order for walls to Thebes. - -[799] _The giant's feet_: Antæus. A bank slopes from where the giants -stand inside the wall down to the pit which is filled with the frozen -Cocytus. This is the Ninth and inmost Circle, and is divided into four -concentric rings--Caïna, Antenora, Ptolomæa, and Judecca--where traitors -of different kinds are punished. - -[800] _Thy steps_: Dante alone is addressed, the speaker having seen him -set heavily down upon the ice by Antæus. - -[801] _A frozen lake_: Cocytus. See _Inf._ xiv. 119. - -[802] _Tabernicch_: It is not certain what mountain is here meant; -probably Yavornick near Adelsberg in Carniola. It is mentioned, not for -its size, but the harshness of its name. - -[803] _Pietrapana_: A mountain between Modena and Lucca, visible from -Pisa: Petra Apuana. - -[804] _Time of year_: At harvest-time, when in the warm summer nights -the wearied gleaner dreams of her day's work. - -[805] _To where we blush_: The bodies of the shades are seen buried in -the clear glassy ice, out of which their heads and necks stand free--as -much as 'shows shame,' that is, blushes. - -[806] _With breast, etc._: As could be seen through the clear ice. - -[807] _Fettered fast_: Binding up their eyes. In the punishment of -traitors is symbolised the hardness and coldness of their hearts to all -the claims of blood, country, or friendship. - -[808] _Their father Albert's_: Albert, of the family of the Counts -Alberti, lord of the upper valley of the Bisenzio, near Florence. His -sons, Alexander and Napoleon, slew one another in a quarrel regarding -their inheritance. - -[809] _Caïna_: The outer ring of the Ninth Circle, and that in which are -punished those treacherous to their kindred.--Here a place is reserved -for Gianciotto Malatesta, the husband of Francesca (_Inf._ v. 107). - -[810] _Arthur's lance_: Mordred, natural son of King Arthur, was slain -by him in battle as a rebel and traitor. 'And the history says that -after the lance-thrust Girflet plainly saw a ray of the sun pass through -the hole of the wound.'--_Lancelot du Lac_. - -[811] _Focaccia_: A member of the Pistoiese family of Cancellieri, in -whose domestic feuds the parties of Whites and Blacks took rise. He -assassinated one of his relatives and cut off the hand of another. - -[812] _Sassol Mascheroni_: Of the Florentine family of the Toschi. He -murdered his nephew, of whom by some accounts he was the guardian. For -this crime he was punished by being rolled through the streets of -Florence in a cask and then beheaded. Every Tuscan would be familiar -with the story of such a punishment. - -[813] _Camicion de' Pazzi_: To distinguish the Pazzi to whom Camicione -belonged from the Pazzi of Florence they were called the Pazzi of -Valdarno, where their possessions lay. Like his fellow-traitors he had -slain a kinsman. - -[814] _Carlin_: Also one of the Pazzi of Valdarno. Like all the spirits -in this circle Camicione is eager to betray the treachery of others, and -prophesies the guilt of his still living relative, which is to cast his -own villany into the shade. In 1302 or 1303 Carlino held the castle of -Piano de Trevigne in Valdarno, where many of the exiled Whites of -Florence had taken refuge, and for a bribe he betrayed it to the enemy. - -[815] _The centre_: The bottom of Inferno is the centre of the earth, -and, on the system of Ptolemy, the central point of the universe. - -[816] _Montaperti_: See _Inf._ x. 86. The speaker is Bocca, of the great -Florentine family of the Abati, who served as one of the Florentine -cavaliers at Montaperti. When the enemy was charging towards the -standard of the Republican cavalry Bocca aimed a blow at the arm of the -knight who bore it and cut off his hand. The sudden fall of the flag -disheartened the Florentines, and in great measure contributed to the -defeat. - -[817] _Cleared of doubt_: The mention of Montaperti in this place of -traitors suggests to Dante the thought of Bocca. He would fain be sure -as to whether he has the traitor at his feet. Montaperti was never very -far from the thoughts of the Florentine of that day. It is never out of -Bocca's mind. - -[818] _Antenora_: The second ring of the Ninth Circle, where traitors to -their country are punished, named after Antenor the Trojan prince who, -according to the belief of the middle ages, betrayed his native city to -the Greeks. - -[819] _Should I thy name, etc._: 'Should I put thy name among the other -notes.' It is the last time that Dante is to offer such a bribe; and -here the offer is most probably ironical. - -[820] _Not silent keep, etc._: Like all the other traitors Bocca finds -his only pleasure in betraying his neighbours. - -[821] _The Frenchmen's money_: He who had betrayed the name of Bocca was -Buoso of Duera, one of the Ghibeline chiefs of Cremona. When Guy of -Montfort was leading an army across Lombardy to recruit Charles of Anjou -in his war against Manfred in 1265 (_Inf._ xxviii. 16 and _Purg._ iii.), -Buoso, who had been left to guard the passage of the Oglio, took a bribe -to let the French army pass. - -[822] _Beccheria_: Tesauro of the Pavian family Beccheria, Abbot of -Vallombrosa and legate in Florence of Pope Alexander IV. He was accused -of conspiring against the Commonwealth along with the exiled Ghibelines -(1258). All Europe was shocked to hear that a great churchman had been -tortured and beheaded by the Florentines. The city was placed under -Papal interdict, proclaimed by the Archbishop of Pisa from the tower of -S. Pietro in Vincoli at Rome. Villani seems to think the Abbot was -innocent of the charge brought against him (_Cron._ vi. 65), but he -always leans to the indulgent view when a priest is concerned. - -[823] _Soldanieri_: Deserted from the Florentine Ghibelines after the -defeat of Manfred. - -[824] _Ganellon_: Whose treacherous counsel led to the defeat of Roland -at Roncesvalles. - -[825] _Tribaldello_: A noble of Faenza, who, as one account says, to -revenge himself for the loss of a pig, sent a cast of the key of the -city gate to John of Apia, then prowling about Romagna in the interest -of the French Pope, Martin IV. He was slain at the battle of Forlì in -1282 (_Inf._ xxvii. 43). - -[826] _Frozen in a hole, etc._: The two are the Count Ugolino and the -Archbishop Roger. - -[827] _Tydeus_: One of the Seven against Thebes, who, having been -mortally wounded by Menalippus the Theban, whom he slew, got his friends -to bring him the head of his foe and gnawed at it with his teeth. Dante -found the incident in his favourite author Statius (_Theb._ viii.). - -[828] _I in the world, etc._: Dante has learned from Bocca that the -prospect of having their memory refreshed on earth has no charm for the -sinners met with here. The bribe he offers is that of loading the name -of a foe with ignominy--but only if from the tale it shall be plain that -the ignominy is deserved. - - - - -CANTO XXXIII. - - - His mouth uplifting from the savage feast, - The sinner[829] rubbed and wiped it free of gore - On the hair of the head he from behind laid waste; - And then began: 'Thou'dst have me wake once more - A desperate grief, of which to think alone, - Ere I have spoken, wrings me to the core. - But if my words shall be as seed that sown - May fructify unto the traitor's shame - Whom thus I gnaw, I mingle speech[830] and groan. - Of how thou earnest hither or thy name 10 - I nothing know, but that a Florentine[831] - In very sooth thou art, thy words proclaim. - Thou then must know I was Count Ugolin, - The Archbishop Roger[832] he. Now hearken well - Why I prove such a neighbour. How in fine, - And flowing from his ill designs, it fell - That I, confiding in his words, was caught - Then done to death, were waste of time[833] to tell. - But that of which as yet thou heardest nought - Is how the death was cruel which I met: 20 - Hearken and judge if wrong to me he wrought. - Scant window in the mew whose epithet - Of Famine[834] came from me its resident, - And cooped in which shall many languish yet, - Had shown me through its slit how there were spent - Full many moons,[835] ere that bad dream I dreamed - When of my future was the curtain rent. - Lord of the hunt and master this one seemed, - Chasing the wolf and wolf-cubs on the height[836] - By which from Pisan eyes is Lucca hemmed. 30 - With famished hounds well trained and swift of flight, - Lanfranchi[837] and Gualandi in the van, - And Sismond he had set. Within my sight - Both sire and sons--nor long the chase--began - To grow (so seemed it) weary as they fled; - Then through their flanks fangs sharp and eager ran. - When I awoke before the morning spread - I heard my sons[838] all weeping in their sleep-- - For they were with me--and they asked for bread. - Ah! cruel if thou canst from pity keep 40 - At the bare thought of what my heart foreknew; - And if thou weep'st not, what could make thee weep? - Now were they 'wake, and near the moment drew - At which 'twas used to bring us our repast; - But each was fearful[839] lest his dream came true. - And then I heard the under gate[840] made fast - Of the horrible tower, and thereupon I gazed - In my sons' faces, silent and aghast. - I did not weep, for I to stone was dazed: - They wept, and darling Anselm me besought: 50 - "What ails thee, father? Wherefore thus amazed?" - And yet I did not weep, and answered not - The whole day, and that night made answer none, - Till on the world another sun shone out. - Soon as a feeble ray of light had won - Into our doleful prison, made aware - Of the four faces[841] featured like my own, - Both of my hands I bit at in despair; - And they, imagining that I was fain - To eat, arose before me with the prayer: 60 - "O father, 'twere for us an easier pain - If thou wouldst eat us. Thou didst us array - In this poor flesh: unclothe us now again." - I calmed me, not to swell their woe. That day - And the next day no single word we said. - Ah! pitiless earth, that didst unyawning stay! - When we had reached the fourth day, Gaddo, spread - Out at my feet, fell prone; and made demand: - "Why, O my father, offering us no aid?" - There died he. Plain as I before thee stand 70 - I saw the three as one by one they failed, - The fifth day and the sixth; then with my hand, - Blind now, I groped for each of them, and wailed - On them for two days after they were gone. - Famine[842] at last, more strong than grief, prevailed,' - When he had uttered this, his eyes all thrown - Awry, upon the hapless skull he fell - With teeth that, dog-like, rasped upon the bone. - Ah, Pisa! byword of the folk that dwell - In the sweet country where the Si[843] doth sound, 80 - Since slow thy neighbours to reward thee well - Let now Gorgona and Capraia[844] mound - Themselves where Arno with the sea is blent, - Till every one within thy walls be drowned. - For though report of Ugolino went - That he betrayed[845] thy castles, thou didst wrong - Thus cruelly his children to torment. - These were not guilty, for they were but young, - Thou modern Thebes![846] Brigata and young Hugh, - And the other twain of whom above 'tis sung. 90 - We onward passed to where another crew[847] - Of shades the thick-ribbed ice doth fettered keep; - Their heads not downward these, but backward threw. - Their very weeping will not let them weep, - And grief, encountering barriers at their eyes, - Swells, flowing inward, their affliction deep; - For the first tears that issue crystallise, - And fill, like vizor fashioned out of glass, - The hollow cup o'er which the eyebrows rise. - And though, as 'twere a callus, now my face 100 - By reason of the frost was wholly grown - Benumbed and dead to feeling, I could trace - (So it appeared), a breeze against it blown, - And asked: 'O Master, whence comes this? So low - As where we are is any vapour[848] known?' - And he replied: 'Thou ere long while shalt go - Where touching this thine eye shall answer true, - Discovering that which makes the wind to blow.' - Then from the cold crust one of that sad crew - Demanded loud: 'Spirits, for whom they hold 110 - The inmost room, so truculent were you, - Back from my face let these hard veils be rolled, - That I may vent the woe which chokes my heart, - Ere tears again solidify with cold.' - And I to him: 'First tell me who thou art - If thou'dst have help; then if I help not quick - To the bottom[849] of the ice let me depart.' - He answered: 'I am Friar Alberic[850]-- - He of the fruit grown in the orchard fell-- - And here am I repaid with date for fig.' 120 - 'Ah!' said I to him, 'art thou dead as well?' - 'How now my body fares,' he answered me, - 'Up in the world, I have no skill to tell; - For Ptolomæa[851] has this quality-- - The soul oft plunges hither to its place - Ere it has been by Atropos[852] set free. - And that more willingly from off my face - Thou mayst remove the glassy tears, know, soon - As ever any soul of man betrays - As I betrayed, the body once his own 130 - A demon takes and governs until all - The span allotted for his life be run. - Into this tank headlong the soul doth fall; - And on the earth his body yet may show - Whose shade behind me wintry frosts enthral. - But thou canst tell, if newly come below: - It is Ser Branca d'Oria,[853] and complete - Is many a year since he was fettered so.' - 'It seems,' I answered, 'that thou wouldst me cheat, - For Branca d'Oria never can have died: 140 - He sleeps, puts clothes on, swallows drink and meat.' - 'Or e'er to the tenacious pitchy tide - Which boils in Malebranche's moat had come - The shade of Michael Zanche,' he replied, - 'That soul had left a devil in its room - Within its body; of his kinsmen one[854] - Treacherous with him experienced equal doom. - But stretch thy hand and be its work begun - Of setting free mine eyes.' This did not I. - Twas highest courtesy to yield him none.[855] 150 - Ah, Genoese,[856] strange to morality! - Ye men infected with all sorts of sin! - Out of the world 'tis time that ye should die. - Here, to Romagna's blackest soul[857] akin, - I chanced on one of you; for doing ill - His soul o'erwhelmed Cocytus' floods within, - Though in the flesh he seems surviving still. - - -NOTE ON THE COUNT UGOLINO. - -Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico, a wealthy noble and a -man fertile in political resource, was deeply engaged in the affairs of -Pisa at a critical period of her history. He was born in the first half -of the thirteenth century. By giving one of his daughters in marriage to -the head of the Visconti of Pisa--not to be confounded with those of -Milan--he came under the suspicion of being Guelf in his sympathies; the -general opinion of Pisa being then, as it always had been, strongly -Ghibeline. When driven into exile, as he was along with the Visconti, he -improved the occasion by entering into close relations with the leading -Guelfs of Tuscany, and in 1278 a free return for him to Pisa was made by -them a condition of peace with that city. He commanded one of the -divisions of the Pisan fleet at the disastrous battle of Meloria in -1284, when Genoa wrested from her rival the supremacy of the Western -Mediterranean, and carried thousands of Pisan citizens into a captivity -which lasted many years. Isolated from her Ghibeline allies, and for the -time almost sunk in despair, the city called him to the government with -wellnigh dictatorial powers; and by dint of crafty negotiations in -detail with the members of the league formed against Pisa, helped as was -believed by lavish bribery, he had the glory of saving the Commonwealth -from destruction though he could not wholly save it from loss. This was -in 1285. He soon came to be suspected of being in a secret alliance with -Florence and of being lukewarm in the negotiations for the return of the -prisoners in Genoa, all with a view to depress the Ghibeline element in -the city that he might establish himself as an absolute tyrant with the -greater ease. In order still further to strengthen his position he -entered into a family compact with his Guelf grandson Nino (_Purg._ -viii. 53), now at the head of the Visconti. But without the support of -the people it was impossible for him to hold his ground against the -Ghibeline nobles, who resented the arrogance of his manners and were -embittered by the loss of their own share in the government; and these -contrived that month by month the charges of treachery brought against -him should increase in virulence. He had, by deserting his post, caused -the defeat at Meloria, it was said; and had bribed the other Tuscan -cities to favour him, by ceding to them distant Pisan strongholds. His -fate was sealed when, having quarrelled with his grandson Nino, he -sought alliance with the Archbishop Roger who now led the Ghibeline -opposition. With Ugo's connivance an onslaught was planned upon the -Guelfs. To preserve an appearance of impartiality he left the city for a -neighbouring villa. On returning to enjoy his riddance from a rival he -was invited to a conference, at which he resisted a proposal that he -should admit partners with him in the government. On this the -Archbishop's party raised the cry of treachery; the bells rang out for a -street battle, in which he was worsted; and with his sons he had to take -refuge in the Palace of the People. There he stood a short siege against -the Ghibeline families and the angry mob; and in the same palace he was -kept prisoner for twenty days. Then, with his sons and grandsons, he was -carried in chains to the tower of the Gualandi, which stood where seven -ways met in the heart of Pisa. This was in July 1288. The imprisonment -lasted for months, and seems to have been thus prolonged with the view -of extorting a heavy ransom. It was only in the following March that the -Archbishop ordered his victims to be starved to death; for, being a -churchman, says one account, he would not shed blood. Not even a -confessor was allowed to Ugo and his sons. After the door of the tower -had been kept closed for eight days it was opened, and the corpses, -still fettered, were huddled into a tomb in the Franciscan church.--The -original authorities are far from being agreed as to the details of -Ugo's overthrow and death.--For the matter of this note I am chiefly -indebted to the careful epitome of the Pisan history of that time by -Philalethes in his note on this Canto (_Göttliche Comödie_). - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[829] _The sinner_: Count Ugolino. See note at the end of the Canto. - -[830] _Mingle speech, etc._: A comparison of these words with those of -Francesca (_Inf._ v. 124) will show the difference in moral tone between -the Second Circle of Inferno and the Ninth. - -[831] _A Florentine_: So Farinata (_Inf._ x. 25) recognises Dante by his -Florentine speech. The words heard by Ugo are those at xxxii. 133. - -[832] _The Archbishop Roger_: Ruggieri, of the Tuscan family of the -Ubaldini, to which the Cardinal of _Inf._ x. 120 also belonged. Towards -the end of his life he was summoned to Rome to give an account of his -evil deeds, and on his refusal to go was declared a rebel to the Church. -Ugolino was a traitor to his country; Roger, having entered into some -sort of alliance with Ugolino, was a traitor to him. This has led some -to suppose that while Ugolino is in Antenora he is so close to the edge -of it as to be able to reach the head of Roger, who, as a traitor to his -friend, is fixed in Ptolomæa. Against this view is the fact that they -are described as being in the same hole (xxxii. 125), and also that in -Ptolomæa the shades are set with head thrown back, and with only the -face appearing above the ice, while Ugo is described as biting his foe -at where the skull joins the nape. From line 91 it is clear that -Ptolomæa lay further on than where Roger is. Like Ugo he is therefore -here as a traitor to his country. - -[833] _Were waste, etc._: For Dante knows it already, all Tuscany being -familiar with the story of Ugo's fate. - -[834] _Whose epithet of Famine_: It was called the Tower of Famine. Its -site is now built over. Buti, the old Pisan commentator of Dante, says -it was called the Mew because the eagles of the Republic were kept in it -at moulting-time. But this may have been an after-thought to give local -truth to Dante's verse, which it does at the expense of the poetry. - -[835] _Many moons_: The imprisonment having already lasted for eight -months. - -[836] _The height, etc._: Lucca is about twelve miles from Pisa, Mount -Giuliano rising between them. - -[837] _Lanfranchi, etc._: In the dream, these, the chief Ghibeline -families of Pisa, are the huntsmen, Roger being master of the hunt, and -the populace the hounds. Ugo and his sons and grandsons are the wolf and -wolf-cubs. In Ugo's dream of himself as a wolf there may be an allusion -to his having engaged in the Guelf interest. - -[838] _My sons_: According to Dante, taken literally, four of Ugo were -imprisoned with him. It would have hampered him to explain that two were -grandsons--Anselmuccio and Nino, called the Brigata at line 89, -grandsons by their mother of King Enzo, natural son of Frederick -II.--the sons being Gaddo and Uguccione, the latter Ugo's youngest son. - -[839] _Each was fearful, etc._: All the sons had been troubled by dreams -of famine. Had their rations been already reduced? - -[840] _The under gate, etc._: The word translated _made fast_ -(_chiavare_) may signify either to nail up or to lock. The commentators -and chroniclers differ as to whether the door was locked, nailed, or -built up. I would suggest that the lower part of the tower was occupied -by a guard, and that the captives had not been used to hear the main -door locked. Now, when they hear the great key creaking in the lock, -they know that the tower is deserted. - -[841] _The four faces, etc._: Despairing like his own, or possibly that, -wasted by famine, the faces of the young men had become liker than ever -to Ugo's own time-worn face. - -[842] _Famine, etc._: This line, quite without reason, has been held to -mean that Ugo was driven by hunger to eat the flesh of his children. The -meaning is, that poignant though his grief was it did not shorten his -sufferings from famine. - -[843] _Where the Si, etc._: Italy, _Si_ being the Italian for _Yes_. -In his _De Vulg. El._, i. 8, Dante distinguishes the Latin -languages--French, Italian, etc.--by their words of affirmation, and so -terms Italian the language of _Si_. But Tuscany may here be meant, -where, as a Tuscan commentator says, the _Si_ is more sweetly pronounced -than in any other part of Italy. In Canto xviii. 61 the Bolognese are -distinguished as the people who say _Sipa_. If Pisa be taken as being -specially the opprobrium of Tuscany the outburst against Genoa at the -close of the Canto gains in distinctness and force. - -[844] _Gorgona and Capraia_: Islands not far from the mouth of the Arno. - -[845] _That he betrayed, etc._: Dante seems here to throw doubt on the -charge. At the height of her power Pisa was possessed of many hundreds -of fortified stations in Italy and scattered over the Mediterranean -coasts. The charge was one easy to make and difficult to refute. It -seems hard on Ugo that he should get the benefit of the doubt only after -he has been, for poetical ends, buried raging in Cocytus. - -[846] _Modern Thebes_: As Thebes was to the race of Cadmus, so was Pisa -to that of Ugolino. - -[847] _Another crew_: They are in Ptolomæa, the third division of the -circle, and that assigned to those treacherous to their friends, allies, -or guests. Here only the faces of the shades are free of the ice. - -[848] _Is any vapour_: Has the sun, so low down as this, any influence -upon the temperature, producing vapours and wind? In Dante's time wind -was believed to be the exhalation of a vapour. - -[849] _To the bottom, etc._: Dante is going there in any case, and his -promise is nothing but a quibble. - -[850] _Friar Alberic_: Alberigo of the Manfredi, a gentleman of Faenza, -who late in life became one of the Merry Friars. See _Inf._ xxiii. 103. -In the course of a dispute with his relative Manfred he got a hearty box -on the ear from him. Feigning to have forgiven the insult he invited -Manfred with a youthful son to dinner in his house, having first -arranged that when they had finished their meat, and he called for -fruit, armed men should fall on his guests. 'The fruit of Friar -Alberigo' passed into a proverb. Here he is repaid with a date for a -fig--gets more than he bargained for. - -[851] _Ptolomæa_: This division is named from the Hebrew Ptolemy, who -slew his relatives at a banquet, they being then his guests (1 Maccab. -xvi.). - -[852] _Atropos_: The Fate who cuts the thread of life and sets the soul -free from the body. - -[853] _Branca d'Oria_: A Genoese noble who in 1275 slew his -father-in-law Michael Zanche (_Inf._ xxii. 88) while the victim sat at -table as his invited guest.--This mention of Branca is of some value in -helping to ascertain when the _Inferno_ was finished. He was in -imprisonment and exile for some time before and up to 1310. In 1311 he -was one of the citizens of Genoa heartiest in welcoming the Emperor -Henry to their city. Impartial as Dante was, we can scarcely think that -he would have loaded with infamy one who had done what he could to help -the success of Henry, on whom all Dante's hopes were long set, and by -their reception of whom on his descent into Italy he continued to judge -his fellow-countrymen. There is considerable reason to believe that the -_Inferno_ was published in 1309; this introduction of Branca helps to -prove that at least it was published before 1311. If this was so, then -Branca d'Oria lived long enough to read or hear that for thirty-five -years his soul had been in Hell.--It is significant of the detestation -in which Dante held any breach of hospitality, that it is as a -treacherous host and not as a treacherous kinsman that Branca is -punished--in Ptolomæa and not in Caïna. Cast as the poet was on the -hospitality of the world, any disloyalty to its obligations came home to -him. For such disloyalty he has invented one of the most appalling of -the fierce retributions with the vision of which he satisfied his -craving for vengeance upon prosperous sin.--It may be that the idea of -this demon-possession of the traitor is taken from the words, 'and after -the sop Satan entered into Judas.' - -[854] _Of his kinsmen one_: A cousin or nephew of Branca was engaged -with him in the murder of Michael Zanche. The vengeance came on them so -speedily that their souls were plunged in Ptolomæa ere Zanche breathed -his last. - -[855] _To yield him none_: Alberigo being so unworthy of courtesy. See -note on 117. But another interpretation of the words has been suggested -which saves Dante from the charge of cruelty and mean quibbling; namely, -that he did not clear the ice from the sinner's eyes because then he -would have been seen to be a living man--one who could take back to the -world the awful news that Alberigo's body was the dwelling-place of a -devil. - -[856] _Ah, Genoese, etc._: The Genoese, indeed, held no good character. -One of their annalists, under the date of 1293, describes the city as -suffering from all kinds of crime. - -[857] _Romagna's blackest soul_: Friar Alberigo. - - - - -CANTO XXXIV. - - - '_Vexilla_[858] _Regis prodeunt Inferni_ - Towards where we are; seek then with vision keen,' - My Master bade, 'if trace of him thou spy.' - As, when the exhalations dense have been, - Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night, - A windmill from afar is sometimes seen, - I seemed to catch of such a structure sight; - And then to 'scape the blast did backward draw - Behind my Guide--sole shelter in my plight. - Now was I where[859] (I versify with awe) 10 - The shades were wholly covered, and did show - Visible as in glass are bits of straw. - Some stood[860] upright and some were lying low, - Some with head topmost, others with their feet; - And some with face to feet bent like a bow. - But we kept going on till it seemed meet - Unto my Master that I should behold - The creature once[861] of countenance so sweet. - He stepped aside and stopped me as he told: - 'Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last 20 - Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,' - How I hereon stood shivering and aghast, - Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write; - So much the fact all reach of words surpassed. - I was not dead, yet living was not quite: - Think for thyself, if gifted with the power, - What, life and death denied me, was my plight. - Of that tormented realm the Emperor - Out of the ice stood free to middle breast; - And me a giant less would overtower 30 - Than would his arm a giant. By such test - Judge then what bulk the whole of him must show,[862] - Of true proportion with such limb possessed. - If he was fair of old as hideous now, - And yet his brows against his Maker raised, - Meetly from him doth all affliction flow. - O how it made me horribly amazed - When on his head I saw three faces[863] grew! - The one vermilion which straight forward gazed; - And joining on to it were other two, 40 - One rising up from either shoulder-bone, - Till to a junction on the crest they drew. - 'Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one; - The left resembled them whose country lies - Where valleywards the floods of Nile flow down. - Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise, - Such as this bird tremendous might demand: - Sails of sea-ships ne'er saw I of such size. - Not feathered were they, but in style were planned - Like a bat's wing:[864] by them a threefold breeze-- 50 - For still he flapped them--evermore was fanned, - And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze. - Down three chins tears for ever made descent - From his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these. - In every mouth there was a sinner rent - By teeth that shred him as a heckle[865] would; - Thus three at once compelled he to lament. - To the one in front 'twas little to be chewed - Compared with being clawed and clawed again, - Till his back-bone of skin was sometimes nude.[866] 60 - 'The soul up yonder in the greater pain - Is Judas 'Scariot, with his head among - The teeth,' my Master said, 'while outward strain - His legs. Of the two whose heads are downward hung, - Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous: - See how he writhes, yet never wags his tongue. - The other, great of thew, is Cassius:[867] - But night is rising[868] and we must be gone; - For everything hath now been seen by us.' - Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on 70 - While he the time and place of vantage chose; - And when the wings enough were open thrown - He grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them close, - And so from tuft to tuft he downward went - Between the tangled hair and crust which froze. - We to the bulging haunch had made descent, - To where the hip-joint lies in it; and then - My Guide, with painful twist and violent, - Turned round his head to where his feet had been, - And like a climber closely clutched the hair: 80 - I thought to Hell[869] that we returned again. - 'Hold fast to me; it needs by such a stair,' - Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone, - 'That we from all that wretchedness repair.' - Right through a hole in a rock when he had won, - The edge of it he gave me for a seat - And deftly then to join me clambered on. - I raised mine eyes, expecting they would meet - With Lucifer as I beheld him last, - But saw instead his upturned legs[870] and feet. 90 - If in perplexity I then was cast, - Let ignorant people think who do not see - What point[871] it was that I had lately passed. - 'Rise to thy feet,' my Master said to me; - 'The way is long and rugged the ascent, - And at mid tierce[872] the sun must almost be.' - 'Twas not as if on palace floors we went: - A dungeon fresh from nature's hand was this; - Rough underfoot, and of light indigent. - 'Or ever I escape from the abyss, 100 - O Master,' said I, standing now upright, - 'Correct in few words where I think amiss. - Where lies the ice? How hold we him in sight - Set upside down? The sun, how had it skill - In so short while to pass to morn from night?'[873] - And he: 'In fancy thou art standing, still, - On yon side of the centre, where I caught - The vile worm's hair which through the world doth drill. - There wast thou while our downward course I wrought; - But when I turned, the centre was passed by 110 - Which by all weights from every point is sought. - And now thou standest 'neath the other sky, - Opposed to that which vaults the great dry ground - And 'neath whose summit[874] there did whilom die - The Man[875] whose birth and life were sinless found. - Thy feet are firm upon the little sphere, - On this side answering to Judecca's round. - 'Tis evening yonder when 'tis morning here; - And he whose tufts our ladder rungs supplied. - Fixed as he was continues to appear. 120 - Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this side; - Whereon the land, protuberant here before, - For fear of him did in the ocean hide, - And 'neath our sky emerged: land, as of yore[876] - Still on this side, perhaps that it might shun - His fall, heaved up, and filled this depth no more.' - From Belzebub[877] still widening up and on, - Far-stretching as the sepulchre,[878] extends - A region not beheld, but only known - By murmur of a brook[879] which through it wends, 130 - Declining by a channel eaten through - The flinty rock; and gently it descends. - My Guide and I, our journey to pursue - To the bright world, upon this road concealed - Made entrance, and no thought of resting knew. - He first, I second, still ascending held - Our way until the fair celestial train - Was through an opening round to me revealed: - And, issuing thence, we saw the stars[880] again. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[858] _Vexilla, etc._: '_The banners of the King of Hell advance._' The -words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they -prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of 'the Emperor who reigns on -high' (_Inf._ i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a -Christian hymn into Virgil's mouth. - -[859] _Now was I where_: In the fourth and inner division or ring of the -Ninth Circle. Here are punished those guilty of treachery to their -lawful lords or to their benefactors. From Judas Iscariot, the -arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca. - -[860] _Some stood, etc._: It has been sought to distinguish the degrees -of treachery of the shades by means of the various attitudes assigned to -them. But it is difficult to make more out of it than that some are -suffering more than others. All of them are the worst of traitors, -hard-hearted and cold-hearted, and now they are quite frozen in the ice, -sealed up even from the poor relief of intercourse with their -fellow-sinners. - -[861] _The creature once, etc._: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against -the Highest, at _Purg._ xii. 25 described as 'created noble beyond all -other creatures.' Virgil calls him Dis, the name used by him for Pluto -in the _Æneid_, and the name from which that of the City of Unbelief is -taken (_Inf._ viii. 68). - -[862] _Judge then what bulk_: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than -the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We -have seen (_Inf._ xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in -height--nine times the stature of a man. If a man's arm be taken as a -third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a -giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, -or nearly so--from the middle of the breast upwards--he stands out of -the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too -great a height for Dante's purpose; and yet on the calculations of some -commentators his stature is immensely greater--from three to five -thousand feet. - -[863] _Three faces_: By the three faces are represented the three -quarters of the world from which the subjects of Lucifer are drawn: -vermilion or carnation standing for Europe, yellow for Asia, and black -for Africa. Or the faces may symbolise attributes opposed to the Wisdom, -Power, and Love of the Trinity (_Inf._ iii. 5). See also note on line 1. - -[864] _A bat's wing_: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome -places. The simile helps to bring more clearly before us the dim light -and half-seen horrors of the Judecca. - -[865] _A heckle_: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of -flax from the woody substance mixed with it. - -[866] _Sometimes nude_: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is -being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn. - -[867] _Cassius_: It has been surmised that Dante here confounds the pale -and lean Cassius who was the friend of Brutus with the L. Cassius -described as corpulent by Cicero in the Third Catiline Oration. Brutus -and Cassius are set with Judas in this, the deepest room of Hell, -because, as he was guilty of high treason against his Divine Master, so -they were guilty of it against Julius Cæsar, who, according to Dante, -was chosen and ordained by God to found the Roman Empire. As the great -rebel against the spiritual authority Judas has allotted to him the -fiercer pain. To understand the significance of this harsh treatment of -the great Republicans it is necessary to bear in mind that Dante's -devotion to the idea of the Empire was part of his religion, and far -surpassed in intensity all we can now well imagine. In the absence of a -just and strong Emperor the Divine government of the world seemed to him -almost at a stand. - -[868] _Night is rising_: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours -since they entered by the gate of Inferno. - -[869] _I thought to Hell, etc._: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer's hairy -sides, descends the dark and narrow space between him and the ice as far -as to his middle, which marks the centre of the earth. Here he swings -himself round so as to have his feet to the centre as he emerges from -the pit to the southern hemisphere. Dante now feels that he is being -carried up, and, able to see nothing in the darkness, deems they are -climbing back to the Inferno. Virgil's difficulty in turning himself -round and climbing up the legs of Lucifer arises from his being then at -the 'centre to which all weights tend from every part.' Dante shared the -erroneous belief of the time, that things grew heavier the nearer they -were to the centre of the earth. - -[870] _His upturned legs_: Lucifer's feet are as far above where Virgil -and Dante are as was his head above the level of the Judecca. - -[871] _What point, etc._: The centre of the earth. Dante here feigns to -have been himself confused--a fiction which helps to fasten attention on -the wonderful fact that if we could make our way through the earth we -should require at the centre to reverse our posture. This was more of a -wonder in Dante's time than now. - -[872] _Mid tierce_: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of -which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about -half-past seven in the morning. The night was beginning when they took -their departure from the Judecca: the day is now as far advanced in the -southern hemisphere as they have spent time on the passage. The journey -before them is long indeed, for they have to ascend to the surface of -the earth. - -[873] _To morn from night_: Dante's knowledge of the time of day is -wholly derived from what Virgil tells him. Since he began his descent -into the Inferno he has not seen the sun. - -[874] _'Neath whose summit_: Jerusalem is in the centre of the northern -hemisphere--an opinion founded perhaps on _Ezekiel_ v. 5: 'Jerusalem I -have set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her.' In -the _Convito_, iii. 5, we find Dante's belief regarding the distribution -of land and sea clearly given: 'For those I write for it is enough to -know that the Earth is fixed and does not move, and that, with the -ocean, it is the centre of the heavens. The heavens, as we see, are for -ever revolving around it as a centre; and in these revolutions they must -of necessity have two fixed poles.... Of these one is visible to almost -all the dry land of the Earth; and that is our north pole [star]. The -other, that is, the south, is out of sight of almost all the dry land.' - -[875] _The Man_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the _Inferno_. - -[876] _Land, as of yore, etc._: On the fall of Lucifer from the southern -sky all the dry land of that hemisphere fled before him under the ocean -and took refuge in the other; that is, as much land emerged in the -northern hemisphere as sank in the southern. But the ground in the -direct line of his descent to the centre of the earth heaped itself up -into the Mount of Purgatory--the only dry land left in the southern -hemisphere. The Inferno was then also hollowed out; and, as Mount -Calvary is exactly antipodal to Purgatory, we may understand that on the -fall of the first rebels the Mount of Reconciliation for the human race, -which is also that of Purification, rose out of the very realms of -darkness and sin.--But, as Todeschini points out, the question here -arises of whether the Inferno was not created before the earth. At -_Parad_. vii. 124, the earth, with the air and fire and water, is -described as 'corruptible and lasting short while;' but the Inferno is -to endure for aye, and was made before all that is not eternal (_Inf._ -iii. 8). - -[877] _Belzebub_: Called in the Gospel the prince of the devils. It may -be worth mentioning here that Dante sees in Purgatory (_Purg._ viii. 99) -a serpent which he says may be that which tempted Eve. The -identification of the great tempter with Satan is a Miltonic, or at any -rate a comparatively modern idea. - -[878] _The sepulchre_: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked. - -[879] _A brook_: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the -rivers of the Earthly Paradise. It certainly descends from the Mount of -Purgatory. - -[880] _The stars_: Each of the three divisions of the Comedy closes with -'the stars.' These, as appears from _Purg._ i. are the stars of dawn. It -was after sunrise when they began their ascent to the surface of the -earth, and so nearly twenty-four hours have been spent on the -journey--the time it took them to descend through Inferno. It is now the -morning of Easter Sunday--that is, of the true anniversary of the -Resurrection although not of the day observed that year by the Church. -See _Inf._ xxi. 112. - - - - -INDEX OF PROPER NAMES AND PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF THE INFERNO. - - - Abati, Bocca degli, xxxii. 106. - - ---- Buoso, xxv. 140. - - Abbagliato, xxix. 132. - - Abel, iv. 56. - - Abraham, iv. 58. - - Absalom, xxviii. 137. - - Accorso, Francis d', xv. 110. - - Acheron, iii. 78, xiv. 116. - - Achilles, v. 65, xii. 71, xxvi. 62, xxxi. 4. - - Acquacheta, xvi. 97. - - Acre, xxvii. 89. - - Adam, iii. 115, iv. 55. - - ---- Master, xxx. 61, etc. - - Adige, xii. 5. - - Ægina, xxix. 58. - - Æneas, ii. 32, iv. 122, xxvi. 93. - - Æsop, xxiii. 4. - - Agnello Brunelleschi, xxv. 68. - - Ahithophel, xxviii. 138. - - Alardo, xxviii. 18. - - Alberigo, Friar, xxxiii. 118. - - Alberto of Siena, xxix. 110. - - ---- degli Alberti, xxxii. 57. - - Alchemists, xxix. 43, etc. - - Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio, vi. 79, xvi. 42. - - Alecto, ix. 47. - - Alexander, Count of Romena, xxx. 77. - - ---- degli Alberti, xxxii. 55. - - ---- xii. 107, xiv. 31. - - Alessio Interminei, xviii. 122. - - Ali, xxviii. 32. - - Alichino, xxi. 118, xxii. 112. - - Alps, xiv. 30. - - Amphiaraüs, xx. 34. - - Amphion, xxxii. 11. - - Anastasius, Pope, xi. 8. - - Anaxagoras, iv. 138. - - Anchises, i. 74. - - Andrea, Jacopo da Sant', xiii. 133. - - Angels, fallen, iii. 37. - - Anger, those guilty of, vii. 110, etc. - - Angiolello, xxviii. 77. - - Annas, xxiii. 121. - - Anselmuccio, xxxiii. 50. - - Antæus, xxxi. 100. - - Antenora, xxxii. 89. - - Antiochus, xix. 86. - - Apennines, xvi. 96, xxvii. 29. - - Apocalypse, xix. 106. - - Apulia, xxviii. 8. - - Apulians, xxviii. 16. - - Aquarius, xxiv. 2. - - Arachne, xvii. 18. - - Arbia, x. 86. - - Aretines, xxii. 5, xxix. 109, xxx. 31. - - Arethusa, xxv. 99. - - Argenti, Philip, viii. 61. - - Argives, xxviii. 84. - - Ariadne, xii. 20. - - Aristotle, iv. 131. - - Arles, ix. 112. - - Arno, xiii. 147, xv. 113, xxiii. 95, xxx. 65, xxxiii. 83. - - Arrigo, vi. 80. - - Arrogance, viii. 46, etc. - - Arsenal of Venice, xxi. 7. - - Arthur, King, xxxii. 62. - - Aruns, xx. 46. - - Asciano, Caccia d', xxix. 130. - - Asdente, xx. 118. - - Athamas, xxx. 4. - - Athens, xii. 17. - - Atropos, xxxiii. 126. - - Attila, xii. 134, xiii. 149. - - Augustus, i. 71. - - Aulis, xx. III. - - Austrian, xxxii. 25. - - Avarice, i. 49. - - ---- those guilty of, vii. 25, etc. - - Aventine, xxv. 26. - - Averroës, iv. 144. - - Avicenna, iv. 143. - - - Bacchiglione, xv. 113. - - Bacchus, xx. 59. - - Baptism, iv. 36. - - Baptist, St John, xiii. 143, xxx. 74. - - Barbariccia, xxi. 120, xxii. 29, 59, 145. - - Barrators, xxi. xxii. - - Beatrice, ii. 70, 103, x. 131, xii. 88, xv. 90. - - Beccheria, Abbot, xxxii. 119. - - Bello, Geri del, xxix. 27. - - Belzebub, xxxiv. 127. - - Benacus, xx. 63, etc. - - Benedict, Abbey of St., xvi. 100. - - Bergamese, xx. 71. - - Bertrand de Born, xxviii. 134. - - Bianchi, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150. - - Bisensio, xxxii. 56. - - Blacks, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 143. - - Blasphemy, xiv. 46, etc. - - Bocca degli Abati, xxxii. 106. - - Bologna, xxiii. 142. - - Bolognese, xviii. 58, xxiii. 104. - - Bonatti, Guido, xx. 118. - - Boniface VII., xix. 53, xxvii. 70, 85. - - Bonturo, xxi. 41. - - Born, Bertrand de, xxviii. 134. - - Borsieri, William, xvi. 70. - - Branca Doria, xxxiii. 137, 140. - - Branda, Fonte, xxx. 78. - - Brenta, xv. 7. - - Brescia, xx. 69. - - Brescians, xx. 71. - - Briareus, xxxi. 98. - - Bridge of St. Angelo, xviii. 29. - - Brigata, xxxiii. 89. - - Bruges, xv. 5. - - Brunelleschi, Agnello, xxv. 68. - - Brunetto Latini, xv. 30, etc. - - Brutus, Lucius Junius, iv. 127. - - ---- Marcus Junius, xxxiv. 65. - - Buiamonte, xvii. 72. - - Bulicamë, xiv. 79. - - Buoso da Duera, xxxii. 116. - - ---- degli Abati, xxv. 140. - - ---- Donati, xxx. 45. - - - Caccia D' Asciano, xxix. 130. - - Caccianimico Venedico, xviii. 50. - - Cacus, xxv. 25. - - Cadmus, xxv. 98. - - Cadsand, xv. 5. - - Cæsar, Frederick II, xiii. 65. - - ---- Julius, i. 70, iv. 123, xxviii. 97. - - Cahors, xi. 49. - - Caiaphas, xxiii. 115. - - Cain, xx. 125. - - Caïna, v. 107, xxxii. 59. - - Caitiffs, iii. 35. - - Calcabrina, xxi. 118, xxii. 133. - - Calchas, xx. 110. - - Camicion de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68. - - Camilla, i. 107, iv. 124. - - Camonica, Val, xx. 65. - - Cancellieri, xxxii. 63. - - Capaneus, xiv. 63, xxv. 15. - - Capocchio, xxix. 136, xxx. 28. - - Capraia, xxxiii. 82. - - Caprona, xxi. 94. - - Cardinal, the Octavian Ubaldini, x. 120. - - Cardinals, vii. 47. - - Carisenda, xxxi. 136. - - Carlino de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68. - - Carnal sinners, v. - - Carrarese, xx. 48. - - Casalodi, xx. 95. - - Casentino, xxx. 65. - - Cassero, Guido del, xxviii. 77. - - Cassius, xxxiv. 67. - - Castle of St. Angelo, xviii. 31. - - Catalano, Friar, xxiii. 104, 114. - - Cato of Utica, xiv. 15. - - Cattolica, xxviii. 80. - - Caurus, xi. 114. - - Cavalcanti, Cavalcante, x. 53. - - ---- Francesco, xxv. 151. - - ---- Gianni, xxx. 32, 42. - - ---- Guido, x. 63. - - Cecina, xiii. 9. - - Celestine V., iii. 59, xxvii. 105. - - Centaurs, xii. 56, etc., xxv. 17. - - Centre of the universe, xxxiv. 110. - - Ceperano, xxviii. 16. - - Cerberus, vi. 13, ix. 98. - - Cervia, xxvii. 41. - - Cesena, xxvii. 52. - - Ceuta, xxvi. 111. - - Chaos, xii. 43. - - Charlemagne, xxxi. 17. - - Charles's Wain, xi. 114. - - Charon, iii. 94, etc. - - Charybdis, vii. 22. - - Cherubim, Black, xxvii. 113. - - Chiana, Val di, xxix. 46. - - Chiarentana, xv. 9. - - Chiron, xii. 65, etc. - - Christ, iv. 53, xxxiv. 115. - - Ciacco, vi. 52. - - Cianfa de' Donati, xxv. 43. - - Circe, xxvi. 91. - - Ciriatto, xxi. 122, xxii. 55. - - City of Dis, viii. 68, etc. - - Clement V., xix. 83. - - Cleopatra, v. 63. - - Clergy, vii. 46, xv. 106. - - Cocytus, xiv. 119, xxxi. 123, xxxiii. 156, xxxiv. 52. - - Coiners, false, xxix. - - Colchians, xviii. 87. - - Cologne, xxiii. 63. - - Colonna, family, xxvii. 86. - - Comedy, the, xvi. 128. - - Constantine, xix. 115, xxvii. 94. - - Cord, Dante's, xvi. 106. - - Cornelia, iv. 128. - - Corneto, xiii. 8. - - ---- Rinier da, xii. 136. - - Counsellors, false, xxvi. xxvii. - - Counterfeiters of all kinds, xxix. xxx. - - Crete, xii. 12, xiv. 95. - - Crucifixion, xxi. 112. - - Curio, xxviii. 93, etc. - - Cyclopes, xiv. 55. - - Cyprus, xxviii. 82. - - - Dædalus, xvii. 111, xxix. 116. - - Damietta, xiv. 104. - - Danube, xxxii. 25. - - David, iv. 58, xxviii. 137. - - Deidamia, xxvi. 61. - - Dejanira, xii. 68. - - Democritus, iv. 136. - - Demons, viii. 82, etc., xxi. 29, etc., xxxiii. 131. - - Dido, v. 61, 85. - - Diogenes, iv. 137. - - Diomedes, xxvi. 56. - - Dionysius, xii. 107. - - Dioscorides, iv. 139. - - Dis (Satan), xi. 65, xii. 38, xxxiv. 20. - - ---- City of, viii. 68, etc. - - Dolcino, Fra, xxviii. 55. - - Don, xxxii. 27. - - Donati, Buoso, xxx. 45. - - ---- Cianfa, xxv. 43. - - Doria, Branca, xxxiii. 137, 140. - - Duera, Buoso, xxxii. 116. - - Duke of Athens, ix. 54, xii. 17. - - - Elder of Lucca, xxi. 38. - - Electra, iv. 121. - - Elijah, xxvi. 35. - - Elisha, xxvi. 34. - - Empedocles, iv. 137. - - Ephialtes, xxxi. 94, 108. - - Epicurus, x. 13. - - Erichtho, ix. 23. - - Erinnyes, ix. 45. - - Este, Obizzo d', xii. 111. - - Eteocles, xxvi. 54. - - Ethiopia, xxiv. 89, xxxii. 44. - - Euclid, iv. 142. - - Euryalus, i. 108. - - Eurypylus, xx. 112. - - Ezzelino, xii. 110. - - - Faenza, xxvii. 49, xxxiii. 123. - - False coiners, xxix. xxx. - - ---- counsellors, xxvi. xxvii. - - Fano, xxviii. 76. - - Farfarello, xxi. 123, xxii. 94. - - Farinata, vi. 79, x. 32. - - Fishes, the, xi. 113. - - Flatterers, xviii. - - Flemings, xv. 4. - - Florence, x. 92, xiii. 143, xvi. 75, xxiii. 95, xxiv. 144, xxvi. 1, - xxxii. 120. - - Florentines, viii. 62, xv. 61, xvi. 73, xvii. 70, xxxiii. 11. - - Florin, xxx. 89. - - Focara, xxviii. 89. - - Foccaccia, xxxii. 63. - - Forlì, xvi. 99, xxvii. 43. - - Fortune, vii. 62, etc. - - France, xix. 87. - - Francesca da Rimini, v. 116. - - Francis d'Accorso, xv. 110. - - Francis of Assisi, xxvii. 112. - - Frederick II., x. 119, xiii. 59, 68, xxiii. 66. - - French, xxvii. 44, xxix. 123, xxxii. 115. - - Friars, Merry--Frati Godenti, xxiii. 103. - - ---- Minor, xxiii. 3. - - Frisians, xxxi. 64. - - Fucci, Vanni, xxiv. 125. - - Furies, ix. 38. - - - Gaddo, xxxiii. 67. - - Gaeta, xxvi. 92. - - Galen, iv. 143. - - Galahad, v. 137. - - Gallura, Gomita of, xxii. 81. - - Ganellone, xxxii. 122. - - Garda, xx. 65. - - Gardingo, xxiii. 108. - - Gate of Inferno, iii. 1. - - ---- St. Peter, i. 134. - - Gaville, xxv. 151. - - Genesis, xi. 107. - - Genoese, xxxiii. 151. - - Geri del Bello, xxix. 27. - - Germany, xvii. 21, xx. 61. - - Geryon, xvii. 97, etc. - - Ghisola, xviii. 55. - - Gianni Schicchi, xxx. 32, 42. - - ---- del Soldanieri, xxxii. 121. - - Giants, xxxi. - - Gibraltar, xxvi. 107. - - Gloomy, the, vii. 118. - - Gluttons, vi. - - Godenti, Frati, xxiii. 103. - - Gomita, Fra, xxii. 81. - - Gorgon, ix. 56. - - Gorgona, xxxiii. 82. - - Governo, xx. 78. - - Greece, xx. 108. - - Greeks, xxvi. 75, xxx. 98, 122. - - Greyhound, i. 101. - - Griffolino, xxix. 109, xxx. 31. - - Gualandi, xxxiii. 32. - - Gualdrada, xvi. 37. - - Guidi, Counts, xxx. 76. - - Guido Bonatti, xx. 118. - - ---- Cavalcanti, x. 63. - - ---- del Cassero, xxviii. 77. - - Guido of Montefeltro, xxvii. 4, etc. - - ---- of Romena, xxx. 76. - - Guidoguerra, xvi. 38. - - Guiscard, Robert, xxviii. 14. - - Guy of Montfort, xii. 119. - - - Hannibal, xxxi. 117. - - Harpies, xiii. 10, etc. - - Hautefort, xxix. 29. - - Heathen, the virtuous, iv. 37. - - Hector, iv. 122. - - Hecuba, xxx. 16. - - Helen, v. 64. - - Henry of England, the Young King, xxviii. 135. - - Heraclitus, iv. 139. - - Hercules, xxv. 32, xxvi. 108, xxxi. 132. - - Heretics, x. and xxviii. - - Hippocrates, iv. 143. - - Homer, iv. 88. - - Homicides, xii. - - Horace, iv. 89. - - Hypocrites, xxiii. - - Hypsipyle, xviii. 92. - - - Icarus, xvii. 109. - - Ida, xiv. 98. - - Ilion, i. 75. - - Imola, xxvii. 49. - - India, xiv. 32. - - Infants, unbaptized, iv. 29. - - Infidels, x. - - Interminei, Alessio, xviii. 122. - - Irascible, the, vii. and viii. - - Isaac, iv. 59. - - Israel, iv. 59. - - Italy, i. 106, ix. 114, xx. 63. - - - Jacopo da Sant' Andrea (James of St. Andrews), xiii. 133. - - ---- (James) Rusticucci, vi. 80, xvi. 44. - - Jason, xviii. 86. - - ---- Hebrew, xix. 85. - - Jehoshaphat, x. 11. - - Jerusalem, xxxiv. 114. - - Jesus Christ, iv. 53, xxxiv. 115. - - Jews, xxiii. 123, xxvii. 87. - - John Baptist, St., xiii. 143, xxx. 74. - - ---- ---- Church of, xix. 17. - - John, St., Evangelist, xix. 106. - - Joseph, xxx. 97. - - Jove, xiv. 52, xxxi. 44, 92. - - Jubilee, year of, xviii. 29. - - Judas Iscariot, ix. 27, xix. 96, xxxi. 143, xxxiv. 62. - - Judecca, xxxiv. 117. - - Julia, iv. 128. - - Julius Cæsar, i. 70, iv. 123, xxviii. 97. - - Juno, xxx. 1. - - Jupiter, xiv. 52, xxxi. 44, 92. - - - Lamone, xxvii. 49. - - Lancelot, v. 128. - - Lanfranchi, xxxiii. 32. - - Lano, xiii. 120. - - Lateran, xxvii. 86. - - Latian land, xxvii. 26, xxviii. 71. - - Latians (Italians), xxii. 66, xxvii. 33, xxix. 88, 91. - - Latinus, King, iv. 125. - - Latini, Brunetto, xv. 30, etc. - - Lavinia, iv. 126. - - Learchus, xxx. 10. - - Lemnos, xviii. 88. - - Leopard, i. 32. - - Lethe, xiv. 130, 136. - - Libicocco, xxi. 121, xxii. 70. - - Libya, xxiv. 85. - - Limbo, iv. 24, etc. - - Linus, iv. 141. - - Lion, i. 45. - - Livy, xxviii. 12. - - Loderingo, Friar, xxiii. 104. - - Logodoro, xxii. 89. - - Lombard, i. 68, xxii. 99. - - ---- dialect, xxvii. 20. - - Lombardy, xxviii. 74. - - Lucan, iv. 90, xxv. 94. - - Lucca, xviii. 122, xxi. 38, xxxiii. 30. - - Lucia, ii. 97, 100. - - Lucifer, xxxi. 143, xxxiv. 89. - - Lucretia, iv. 128. - - Luni, xx. 47. - - - Maccabees, xix. 86. - - Magra, Val di, xxiv. 145. - - Magus, Simon, xix. 1. - - Mahomet, xxviii. 31, etc. - - Mainardo Pagani, xxvii. 50. - - Majorca, xxviii. 82. - - Malacoda, xxi. 76, xxiii. 140. - - Malatestas of Rimini, v. 97, xxvii. 46, xxviii. 85. - - Malebolge, xviii. 1, xxi. 5, xxiv. 37, xxix. 41. - - Malebranche, xxi. 37, xxii. 100, xxiii. 23. - - Manfredi, Alberigo, xxxiii. 118. - - Manto, xx. 55. - - Mantua, xx. 93. - - Mantuans, i. 69, ii. 58. - - Marcabò, xxviii. 75. - - Marcia, iv. 128. - - Maremma, xxv. 19, xxix. 48. - - Marquis of Este, xviii. 56. - - Mars, xiii. 144, xxiv. 145, xxxi. 51. - - Mascheroni, Sassol, xxxii. 65. - - Matthias, Apostle, xix. 95. - - Medea, xviii. 96. - - Medicina, Pier da, xxviii. 73. - - Medusa, ix. 52. - - Megæra, ix. 46. - - Menalippus, xxxii. 131. - - Messenger of heaven, ix. 85. - - Michael, Archangel, vii. 11. - - ---- Scott, xx. 116. - - ---- Zanche, xxii. 88, xxxiii. 144. - - Mincio, xx. 77. - - Minos, v. 4, xiii. 96, xx. 36, xxvii. 124, xxix. 120. - - Minotaur, xii. 12, 25. - - Mongibello, xiv. 56. - - Montagna, xxvii. 47. - - Montaperti, x. 85, xxxii. 81. - - Montereggione, xxxi. 40. - - Montfort, Guy of, xii. 119. - - Montone, xvi. 94. - - Moon, the, x. 80, xx. 127. - - Mordred, xxxii. 61. - - Morocco, xxvi. 104. - - Mosca, vi. 80, xxviii. 106. - - Moses, iv. 57. - - Mozzi, Andrea de', xv. 112. - - Murderers, xii. - - Myrrha, xxx. 38. - - - Napoleone Degli Alberti, xxxii. 55. - - Narcissus, xxx. 128. - - Nasidius, xxv. 95. - - Navarre, xxii. 48. - - Navarese, xxii. 121. - - Neptune, xxviii 83. - - Neri, vi. 65, xxiv. 143. - - Nessus, xii. 67, etc., xiii. 1. - - Nicholas of Siena, xxix. 127. - - ---- III., Pope, xix. 31. - - Nile, xxxiv. 45. - - Nimrod, xxxi. 77. - - Ninus, v. 59. - - Nisus, i. 108. - - Novarese, xxviii. 59. - - - Obizzo d'Este, xii. 111. - - Ordelaffi, xxvii. 45. - - Orpheus, iv. 140. - - Orsini, xix. 70. - - Ovid, iv. 90, xxv. 97. - - - Paduans, xv. 7, xvii. 70. - - Pagani, Mainardo, xxvii. 50. - - Palestrina, xxvii. 102. - - Palladium, xxvi. 63. - - Panders, xviii. - - Paris, v. 67. - - Pasiphaë, xii. 13. - - Patriarchs, iv. 55. - - Paul, Apostle, ii. 32. - - Pazzi, Camicion de', xxxii. 68. - - ---- Rinier de', xii. 137. - - Peculators, xxi. xxii. - - Penelope, xxvi. 96. - - Pennine Alps, xx. 66. - - Penthesilea, iv. 125. - - Perillus, xxvii. 8. - - Peschiera, xx. 70. - - Peter, Apostle, i. 134, ii. 24, xix. 91, 94. - - Peter's, St., Church, xviii. 32, xxxi. 59. - - Phaëthon, xvii. 106. - - Phalaris, xxvii. 7. - - Pharisees, xxiii. 116, xxvii. 85. - - Philip Argenti, viii. 61. - - ---- the Fair, xix. 87. - - Phlegethon, xiv. 116, 131. - - Phlegra, xiv. 58. - - Phlegyas, viii. 19, 24. - - Phoenix, xxiv. 107. - - Pholus, xii. 72. - - Photinus, xi. 9. - - Piceno, Campo, xxiv. 148. - - Pier da Medicina, xxviii. 73. - - ---- delle Vigne, xiii. 58. - - Pietrapana, xxxii. 29. - - Pinamonte, xx. 96. - - Pine cone of St. Peter's, xxxi. 59. - - Pisa, xxxiii. 79. - - Pisans, xxxiii. 30. - - Pistoia, xxiv. 126, 143, xxv. 10. - - Plato, iv. 134. - - Plutus, vi. 115, vii. 2. - - Po, v. 98, xx. 78. - - Pola, ix. 113. - - Pole, South, xxvi. 127. - - Polenta, v. 97, xxvii. 42. - - Polydorus, xxx. 18. - - Polynices, xxvi. 54. - - Polyxena, xxx. 17. - - Pope Anastasius, xi. 8. - - ---- Boniface VIII., xix. 53, xxvii. 70, 85. - - Pope Celestine V., iii. 59, xxvii. 105. - - ---- Clement V., xix. 83. - - ---- Nicholas III., xix. 31. - - ---- Sylvester, xix. 117, xxvii. 95. - - Popes, ii. 24, vii. 47, xix. 104. - - Potiphar's wife, xxx. 97. - - Prato, xxvi. 9. - - Priam, xxx. 15. - - Priest, the High, Boniface VIII., xxvii. 70. - - Priscian, xv. 109. - - Prodigals, xiii. 115, xxix. 125. - - Proserpine, ix. 44, x. 80. - - Ptolemy, iv. 142. - - Ptolomæa, xxxiii. 124. - - Puccio Sciancato, xxv. 148. - - Pyrrhus, xii. 135. - - - Quarnaro, ix. 113. - - - Rachel, ii. 102, iv. 60. - - Ravenna, v. 97, xxvii. 40. - - Red Sea, xxiv. 90. - - Refusal, the great, iii. 60. - - Reno, xviii. 61. - - Rhea, xiv. 100. - - Rhone, ix. 112. - - Rimini, xxviii. 86. - - Rinier da Corneto, xii. 136. - - ---- Pazzo, xii. 137. - - Robbers, xii. 137. - - Robert Guiscard, xxviii. 14. - - Roger, the Archbishop, xxxiii. 14. - - Roland, xxxi. 18. - - Romagna, xxvii. 28, 37, xxxiii. 154. - - Roman Church, xix. 57. - - Romans, xv. 77, xviii. 28, xxvi. 60, xxviii. 10. - - Rome, i. 71, ii. 20, xiv. 105, xxxi. 59. - - Romena, xxx. 73. - - Roncesvalles, xxxi. 17. - - Rubicante, xxi. 123, xxii. 40. - - Rusticucci, Jacopo, vi. 80, xvi. 44. - - - Sabellus, xxv. 95. - - Saladin, iv. 129. - - Santerno, xxvii. 49. - - Saracens, xxvii. 87. - - Sardinia, xxii. 90, xxix. 48. - - Sassol Mascheroni, xxxii. 65. - - Satan, vii. 1. _See_ Dis. - - Saturn, xiv. 96. - - Savena, xviii. 60. - - Savio, xxvii. 52. - - Scarmiglione, xxi. 105. - - Schicchi, Gianni, xxx. 32. - - Schismatics, xxviii. - - Sciancatto, Puccio, xxv. 148. - - Scipio, xxxi. 116. - - Scott, Michael, xx. 116. - - Seducers, xviii. - - Semele, xxx. 1. - - Semiramis, v. 58. - - Seneca, iv. 141. - - Serchio, xxi. 49. - - Serpents, xxiv. 83, etc. - - Seven Kings against Thebes, xiv. 68. - - Seville, xx. 126, xxvi. 110. - - Sichæus, v. 62. - - Sicilian Bull, xxvii. 7. - - Sicily, xii. 108. - - Siena, xxix. 110, 129. - - Sienese, xxix. 122. - - Silvius, ii. 13. - - Simon Magus, xix. 1. - - Simoniacs, xix. - - Sinon, xxx. 98. - - Sismondi, xxxiii. 33. - - Socrates, iv. 135. - - Sodom, xi. 49. - - Soldanieri, Gianni del, xxii. 121. - - Soothsayers, xx. - - Soracte, xxvii. 94. - - Spain, xxvi. 102. - - Spendthrifts, vii. - - Statue of Time, xiv. 103. - - ---- Mars, xiii. 147. - - Stricca, xxix. 125. - - Strophades, xiii. 11. - - Styx, vii. 106, ix. 81, xiv. 116. - - Suicides, xiii. - - Sultan, v. 60, xxvii. 90. - - Sylvester, Pope, xix. 117, xxvii. 95. - - - Tabernicch, xxxii. 28. - - Tagliacozzo, xxviii. 17. - - Tarquin, iv. 127. - - Tartars, xvii. 16. - - Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, vi. 79, xvi. 42. - - Thais, xviii. 133. - - Thales, iv. 137. - - Thames, xii. 120. - - Thebes, xiv. 69, xx. 32, 59, xxv. 15, xxx. 2, 23, xxxii. 11. - - ---- modern, Pisa, xxxiii. 89. - - Theseus, ix. 54, xii. 17. - - Thibault, xxii. 52. - - Thieves, xxiv. xxv. - - Tiber, xxvii. 30. - - Time, statue of, xiv. 103. - - Tiresias, xx. 40. - - Tirol, xx. 62. - - Tisiphone, ix. 48. - - Tityus, xxxi. 124. - - Tombs, the red-hot, ix. 116, etc. - - Toppo, xiii. 121. - - Traitors, xxxii., etc. - - _Treasure_ of B. Latini, xv. 119. - - Trent, xii. 5, xx. 68. - - Tribaldello, xxxii. 122. - - Tristam, v. 67. - - Trojan Furies, xxx. 22. - - Trojans, xxviii. 10, xxx. 14. - - Troy, i. 74, xxx. 98. - - Tully, iv. 140. - - Turks, xvii. 16. - - Turnus, i. 108. - - Tuscan, xxii. 99, xxiii. 76, 91, xxiv. 122, xxviii. 108, xxxii. 66. - - Tydeus, xxxii. 130. - - Tyrants, xii. 103, etc. - - Typhon, xxxi. 124. - - - Ubaldini, the Cardinal Octavian, x. 120. - - ---- Archbishop Roger, xxxiii. 14. - - Uberti, Farinata, vi. 79, x. 32. - - Ugolino, xxxii. 125, etc. - - Uguccione, xxxiii. 89. - - Ulysses, xxvi. 55, etc. - - Unbelievers, x. - - Urbino, xxvii. 30. - - Usurers, xvii. 45. - - Usury, xi. 95. - - - Val Camonica, xx. 65. - - Valdichiana, xxix. 46. - - Valdimagra, xxiv. 145. - - Vanni Fucci, xxiv. 125. - - Veltro, the, i. 101. - - Vendetta, the, and Dante, xxix. 32. - - Venetians, xxi. 7. - - Vercelli, xxviii. 75. - - Verona, xv. 122, xx. 68. - - Verucchio, xxvii. 46. - - Vigne, Pier delle, xiii. 58. - - Violent, the, against others, xii.; - against themselves, xiii.; - against God and Nature, xiv., etc. - - Virgil, i. 79. - And elsewhere in the _Inferno_ mentioned by name, though usually - by some title, as, _e.g._ Master, Leader, or Lord. - - Viso, Monte, xvi. 95. - - Vitaliano, xvii. 68. - - Volto, the Santo, xxi. 48. - - - Wain, Charles's, xi. 114. - - Wanton, the, v. - - Whites, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150. - - Witches and wizards, xx. - - Wolf, i. 49. - - Wrathful, the, vii. 110. - - - Zanche, Michael, xxii. 88, xxxiii. 144. - - Zeno, iv. 138. - - Zita, Santa, xxi. 38. - - - - -Edinburgh University Press: - -T. 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Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/41537-8.zip b/old/41537-8.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1167d85..0000000 --- a/old/41537-8.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/41537.txt b/old/41537.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a838f03..0000000 --- a/old/41537.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14590 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, by Dante Alighieri - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri - The Inferno - -Author: Dante Alighieri - -Translator: James Romanes Sibbald - -Release Date: December 2, 2012 [EBook #41537] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIVINE COMEDY - THE INFERNO *** - - - - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was -produced from images made available by the HathiTrust -Digital Library.) - - - - - - - - - -THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - THE - DIVINE - COMEDY - OF - DANTE - ALIGHIERI - - - A TRANSLATION - - BY - JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD - - - EDINBURGH - PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS - MDCCCLXXXIV - - - _All Rights Reserved._ - - - - - Edinburgh University Press: - - T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY. - - - - - THE - INFERNO - - - A TRANSLATION - WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY - JAMES ROMANES SIBBALD - - - EDINBURGH - PUBLISHED BY DAVID DOUGLAS - MDCCCLXXXIV - - - - -PREFACE. - - -A Translator who has never felt his self-imposed task to be a light one -may be excused from entering into explanations that would but too -naturally take the form of apologies. I will only say that while I have -striven to be as faithful as I could to the words as well as to the -sense of my author, the following translation is not offered as being -always closely literal. The kind of verse employed I believe to be that -best fitted to give some idea, however faint, of the rigidly measured -and yet easy strength of Dante's _terza rima_; but whoever chooses to -adopt it with its constantly recurring demand for rhymes necessarily -becomes in some degree its servant. Such students as wish to follow the -poet word by word will always find what they need in Dr. J. A. Carlyle's -excellent prose version of the _Inferno_, a work to which I have to -acknowledge my own indebtedness at many points. - -The matter of the notes, it is needless to say, has been in very great -part found ready to my hand in existing Commentaries. My edition of John -Villani is that of Florence, 1823. - -The Note at page cx was printed before it had been resolved to provide -the volume with a copy of Giotto's portrait of Dante. I have to thank -the Council of the Arundel Society for their kind permission to Messrs. -Dawson to make use of their lithograph of Mr. Seymour Kirkup's -invaluable sketch in the production of the Frontispiece--a privilege -that would have been taken more advantage of had it not been deemed -advisable to work chiefly from the photograph of the same sketch, given -in the third volume of the late Lord Vernon's sumptuous and rare edition -of the _Inferno_ (Florence, 1865). In this Vernon photograph, as well as -in the Arundel Society's chromolithograph, the disfiguring mark on the -face caused by the damage to the plaster of the fresco is faithfully -reproduced. A less degree of fidelity has been observed in the -Frontispiece; although the restoration has not been carried the length -of replacing the lost eye. - -EDINBURGH, _February_, 1884. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - FLORENCE AND DANTE, xvii - - GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE, cx - -The Inferno. - - CANTO I. - - The Slumber--the Wood--the Hill--the three Beasts--Virgil--the - Veltro or Greyhound, 1 - - CANTO II. - - Dante's misgivings--Virgil's account of how he was induced to - come to his help--the three Heavenly Ladies--the beginning of - the Journey, 9 - - CANTO III. - - The Gate of Inferno--the Vestibule of the Caitiffs--the Great - Refusal--Acheron--Charon--the Earthquake--the Slumber of Dante, 17 - - CANTO IV. - - The First Circle, which is the Limbo of the Unbaptized and of - the Virtuous Heathen--the Great Poets--the Noble Castle--the - Sages and Worthies of the ancient world, 24 - - CANTO V. - - The Second Circle, which is that of Carnal Sinners--Minos--the - Tempest--The Troop of those who died because of their Love-- - Francesca da Rimini--Dante's Swoon, 32 - - CANTO VI. - - The Third Circle, which is that of the Gluttonous--the Hail and - Rain and Snow--Cerberus--Ciacco and his Prophecy, 40 - - CANTO VII. - - The Fourth Circle, which is that of the Avaricious and the - Thriftless--Plutus--the Great Weights rolled by the sinners in - opposite directions--Fortune--the Fifth Circle, which is that - of the Wrathful--Styx--the Lofty Tower, 47 - - CANTO VIII. - - The Fifth Circle continued--the Signals--Phlegyas--the Skiff-- - Philip Argenti--the City of Dis--the Fallen Angels--the Rebuff - of Virgil, 55 - - CANTO IX. - - The City of Dis, which is the Sixth Circle and that of the - Heretics--the Furies and the Medusa head--the Messenger of Heaven - who opens the gates for Virgil and Dante--the entrance to the - City--the red-hot Tombs, 62 - - CANTO X. - - The Sixth Circle continued--Farinata degli Uberti--Cavalcante dei - Cavalcanti--Farinata's prophecy--Frederick II., 69 - - CANTO XI. - - The Sixth Circle continued--Pope Anastasius--Virgil explains on - what principle sinners are classified in Inferno--Usury, 77 - - CANTO XII. - - The Seventh Circle, First Division--the Minotaur--the River - of Blood, which forms the Outer Ring of the Seventh Circle-- - in it are those guilty of Violence against others--the - Centaurs--Tyrants--Robbers and Murderers--Ezzelino Romano-- - Guy of Montfort--the Passage of the River of Blood, 84 - - CANTO XIII. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Second Division consisting - of a Tangled Wood in which are those guilty of Violence against - themselves--the Harpies--Pier delle Vigne--Lano--Jacopo da Sant' - Andrea--Florence and its Patrons, 91 - - CANTO XIV. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Third Division of it, consisting - of a Waste of Sand on which descends an unceasing Shower of Fire-- - in it are those guilty of Violence against God, against Nature, - and against Art--Capaneus--the Crimson Brook--the Statue of Time-- - the Infernal Rivers, 98 - - CANTO XV. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature-- - Brunetto Latini--Francesco d'Accorso--Andrea de' Mozzi, Bishop - of Florence, 106 - - CANTO XVI. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Nature-- - Guidoguerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci-- - the Cataract--the Cord--Geryon, 115 - - CANTO XVII. - - The Seventh Circle continued--the Violent against Art--Usurers-- - the descent on Geryon's back into the Eighth Circle, 123 - - CANTO XVIII. - - The Eighth Circle, otherwise named Malebolge, which consists of - ten concentric Pits or Moats connected by bridges of rock--in - these are punished those guilty of Fraud of different kinds-- - First Bolgia or Moat, where are Panders and Seducers, scourged - by Demons--Venedico Caccianimico--Jason--Second Bolgia, where - are Flatterers plunged in filth--Alessio Interminei, 130 - - CANTO XIX. - - The Eighth Circle--Third Bolgia, where are the Simoniacs, stuck - head downwards in holes in the rock--Pope Nicholas III.--the - Donation of Constantine, 137 - - CANTO XX. - - The Eighth Circle--Fourth Bolgia, where are Diviners and Sorcerers - in endless procession, with their heads twisted on their necks-- - Amphiaraeus--Tiresias--Aruns--Manto and the foundation of Mantua-- - Eurypylus--Michael Scott--Guido Bonatti--Asdente, 145 - - CANTO XXI. - - The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia, where the Barrators, or corrupt - officials, are plunged in the boiling pitch which fills the - Bolgia--a Senator of Lucca is thrown in--the Malebranche, or - Demons who guard the Moat--the Devilish Escort, 153 - - CANTO XXII. - - The Eighth Circle--Fifth Bolgia continued--the Navarese--trick - played by him on the Demons--Fra Gomita--Michael Zanche--the - Demons fall foul of one another, 161 - - CANTO XXIII. - - The Eighth Circle--escape from the Fifth to the Sixth Bolgia, - where the Hypocrites walk at a snail's pace, weighed down - by Gilded Cloaks of lead--the Merry Friars Catalano and - Loderingo--Caiaphas, 168 - - CANTO XXIV. - - The Eighth Circle--arduous passage over the cliff into the Seventh - Bolgia, where the Thieves are tormented by Serpents, and are - constantly undergoing a hideous metamorphosis--Vanni Fucci, 176 - - CANTO XXV. - - The Eighth Circle--Seventh Bolgia continued--Cacus--Agnello - Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, Puccio Sciancato, Cianfa Donati, - and Guercio Cavalcanti, 184 - - CANTO XXVI. - - The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia, where are the Evil Counsellors, - wrapped each in his own Flame--Ulysses tells how he met with - death, 192 - - CANTO XXVII. - - The Eighth Circle--Eighth Bolgia continued--Guido of Montefeltro-- - the Cities of Romagna--Guido and Boniface VIII., 200 - - CANTO XXVIII. - - The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia, where the Schismatics in Church - and State are for ever being dismembered--Mahomet--Fra Dolcino-- - Pier da Medicina--Curio--Mosca--Bertrand de Born, 209 - - CANTO XXIX. - - The Eighth Circle--Ninth Bolgia continued--Geri del Bello--Tenth - Bolgia, where Counterfeiters of various kinds, as Alchemists and - Forgers, are tormented with loathsome diseases--Griffolino of - Arezzo--Capocchio on the Sienese, 217 - - CANTO XXX. - - The Eighth Circle--Tenth Bolgia continued--Myrrha--Gianni - Schicchi--Master Adam and his confession--Sinon, 225 - - CANTO XXXI. - - The Ninth Circle, outside of which they remain till the end of - this Canto--this, the Central Pit of Inferno, is encircled and - guarded by Giants--Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antaeus--entrance to - the Pit, 233 - - CANTO XXXII. - - The Ninth Circle--that of the Traitors, is divided into four - concentric rings, in which the sinners are plunged more or less - deep in the ice of the frozen Cocytus--the Outer Ring is Caina, - where are those who contrived the murder of their Kindred-- - Camicion de' Pazzi--Antenora, the Second Ring, where are such - as betrayed their Country--Bocca degli Abati--Buoso da Duera-- - Ugolino, 241 - - CANTO XXXIII. - - The Ninth Circle--Antenora continued--Ugolino and his tale--the - Third Ring, or Ptolomaea, where are those treacherous to their - Friends--Friar Alberigo--Branca d'Oria, 249 - - CANTO XXXIV. - - The Ninth Circle--the Fourth Ring or Judecca, the deepest point - of the Inferno and the Centre of the Universe--it is the place - of those treacherous to their Lords or Benefactors--Lucifer with - Judas, Brutus, and Cassius hanging from his mouths--passage - through the Centre of the Earth--ascent from the depths to the - light of the stars in the Southern Hemisphere, 260 - - INDEX, 269 - - - - -FLORENCE AND DANTE. - - -Dante is himself the hero of the _Divine Comedy_, and ere many stages of -the _Inferno_ have been passed the reader feels that all his steps are -being taken in a familiar companionship. When every allowance has been -made for what the exigencies of art required him to heighten or -suppress, it is still impossible not to be convinced that the author is -revealing himself much as he really was--in some of his weakness as well -as in all his strength. The poem itself, by many an unconscious touch, -does for his moral portraiture what the pencil of Giotto has done for -the features of his face. The one likeness answers marvellously to the -other; and, together, they have helped the world to recognise in him the -great example of a man of genius who, though at first sight he may seem -to be austere, is soon found to attract our love by the depth of his -feelings as much as he wins our admiration by the wealth of his fancy, -and by the clearness of his judgment on everything concerned with the -lives and destiny of men. His other writings in greater or less degree -confirm the impression of Dante's character to be obtained from the -_Comedy_. Some of them are partly autobiographical; and, studying as a -whole all that is left to us of him, we can gain a general notion of -the nature of his career--when he was born and what was his condition in -life; his early loves and friendships; his studies, military service, -and political aims; his hopes and illusions, and the weary purgatory of -his exile. - -To the knowledge of Dante's life and character which is thus to be -acquired, the formal biographies of him have but little to add that is -both trustworthy and of value. Something of course there is in the -traditional story of his life that has come down from his time with the -seal of genuineness; and something that has been ascertained by careful -research among Florentine and other documents. But when all that old and -modern _Lives_ have to tell us has been sifted, the additional facts -regarding him are found to be but few; such at least as are beyond -dispute. Boccaccio, his earliest biographer, swells out his _Life_, as -the earlier commentators on the _Comedy_ do their notes, with what are -plainly but legendary amplifications of hints supplied by Dante's own -words; while more recent and critical writers succeed with infinite -pains in little beyond establishing, each to his own satisfaction, what -was the order of publication of the poet's works, where he may have -travelled to, and when and for how long a time he may have had this or -that great lord for a patron. - -A very few pages would therefore be enough to tell the events of Dante's -life as far as they are certainly known. But, to be of use as an -introduction to the study of his great poem, any biographical sketch -must contain some account--more or less full--of Florentine affairs -before and during his lifetime; for among the actors in these are to be -found many of the persons of the _Comedy_. In reading the poem we are -never suffered for long to forget his exile. From one point of view it -is an appeal to future ages from Florentine injustice and ingratitude; -from another, it is a long and passionate plea with his native town to -shake her in her stubborn cruelty. In spite of the worst she can do -against him he remains no less her son. In the early copies of it, the -_Comedy_ is well described as the work of Dante Alighieri, the -Florentine; since not only does he people the other world by preference -with Florentines, but it is to Florence that, even when his words are -bitter against her, his heart is always feeling back. Among the glories -of Paradise he loves to let his memory rest on the church in which he -was baptized and the streets he used to tread. He takes pleasure in her -stones; and with her towers and palaces Florence stands for the -unchanging background to the changing scenes of his mystical pilgrimage. - -The history of Florence during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries -agrees in general outline with that of most of its neighbours. At the -beginning of the period it was a place of but little importance, ranking -far below Pisa both in wealth and political influence. Though retaining -the names and forms of municipal government, inherited from early times, -it was in reality possessed of no effective control over its own -affairs, and was subject to its feudal superior almost as completely as -was ever any German village planted in the shadow of a castle. To -Florence, as to many a city of Northern and Central Italy, the first -opportunity of winning freedom came with the contest between Emperor -and Pope in the time of Hildebrand. In this quarrel the Church found its -best ally in Matilda, Countess of Tuscany. She, to secure the goodwill -of her subjects as against the Emperor, yielded first one and then -another of her rights in Florence, generally by way of a pious gift--an -endowment for a religious house or an increase of jurisdiction to the -bishop--these concessions, however veiled, being in effect so many -additions to the resources and liberties of the townsmen. She made Rome -her heir, and then Florence was able to play off the Papal against the -Imperial claims, yielding a kind of barren homage to both Emperor and -Pope, and only studious to complete a virtual independence of both. -Florence had been Matilda's favourite place of residence; and, -benefiting largely as it did by her easy rule, it is no wonder that her -name should have been cherished by the Florentines for ages after as a -household word.[1] Nor is the greatest Florentine unmindful of her. Foe -of the Empire though she was, he only remembers her piety; and it is by -Matilda, as representing the active religious life, that Dante is -ushered into the presence of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise.[2] - -It was a true instinct which led Florence and other cities to side -rather with the Pope than with the Emperor in the long-continued -struggle between them for predominance in Italy. With the Pope for -overlord they would at least have a master who was an Italian, and one -who, his title being imperfect, would in his own interest be led to -treat them with indulgence; while, in the permanent triumph of the -Emperor, Italy must have become subject and tributary to Germany, and -would have seen new estates carved out of her fertile soil for members -of the German garrison. The danger was brought home to many of the -youthful commonwealths during the eventful reign of Frederick Barbarossa -(1152-1190). Strong in Germany beyond most of his predecessors, that -monarch ascended the throne with high prerogative views, in which he was -confirmed by the slavish doctrine of some of the new civilians. -According to these there could be only one master in the world; as far -as regarded the things of time, but one source of authority in -Christendom. They maintained everything to be the Emperor's that he -chose to take. When he descended into Italy to enforce his claims, the -cities of the Lombard League met him in open battle. Those of Tuscany, -and especially Florence, bent before the blast, temporising as long as -they were able, and making the best terms they could when the choice lay -between submission and open revolt. Even Florence, it is true, strong in -her allies, did once take arms against an Imperial lieutenant; but as a -rule she never refused obedience in words, and never yielded it in fact -beyond what could not be helped. In her pursuit of advantages, -skilfully using every opportunity, and steadfast of aim even when most -she appeared to waver, she displayed something of the same address that -was long to be noted as a trait in the character of the individual -Florentine. - -The storm was weathered, although not wholly without loss. When, towards -the close of his life, and after he had broken his strength against the -obstinate patriotism of Lombardy, Frederick visited Florence in 1185, it -was as a master justly displeased with servants who, while they had not -openly rebelled against him, had yet proved eminently unprofitable, and -whom he was concerned to punish if not to destroy. On the complaint of -the neighbouring nobles, that they were oppressed and had been plundered -by the city, he gave orders for the restoration to them of their lands -and castles. This accomplished, all the territory left to Florence was a -narrow belt around the walls. Villani even says that for the four years -during which Frederick still lived the Commonwealth was wholly landless. -And here, rather than lose ourselves among the endless treaties, -leagues, and campaigns which fill so many pages of the chronicles, it -may be worth while shortly to glance at the constitution of Florentine -society, and especially at the place held in it by the class which found -its protector in Barbarossa. - -Much about the time at which the Commonwealth was relieved of its feudal -trammels, as a result of the favour or the necessities of Matilda, it -was beginning to extend its commerce and increase its industry. Starting -somewhat late on the career on which Venice, Genoa, and Pisa were -already far advanced, Florence was as if strenuous to make up for lost -time, and soon displayed a rare comprehension of the nature of the -enterprise. It may be questioned if ever, until quite modern times, -there has been anywhere so clear an understanding of the truth that -public wellbeing is the sum of private prosperity, or such an -enlightened perception of what tends to economical progress. Florence -had no special command of raw material for her manufactures, no sea-port -of her own, and no monopoly unless in the natural genius of her people. -She could therefore thrive only by dint of holding open her -communications with the world at large, and grudged no pains either of -war or diplomacy to keep at Pisa a free way out and in for her -merchandise. Already in the twelfth century she received through that -port the rough woollens of Flanders, which, after being skilfully -dressed and dyed, were sent out at great profit to every market of -Europe. At a somewhat later period the Florentines were to give as -strong a proof of their financial capacity as this was of their -industrial. It was they who first conducted a large business in bills of -exchange, and who first struck a gold coin which, being kept of -invariable purity, passed current in every land where men bought and -sold--even in countries where the very name of Florence was unknown.[3] - -In a community thus devoted to industry and commerce, it was natural -that a great place should be filled by merchants. These were divided -into six guilds, the members of which, with the notaries and lawyers, -who composed a seventh, formed the true body of the citizens. -Originally the consuls of these guilds were the only elected officials -in the city, and in the early days of its liberty they were even charged -with political duties, and are found, for example, signing a treaty of -peace with a neighbouring state. In the fully developed commune it was -only the wealthier citizens--the members, we may assume, of these -guilds--who, along with the nobles,[4] were eligible for and had the -right of electing to the public offices. Below them was the great body -of the people; all, that is, of servile condition or engaged in the -meaner kinds of business. From one point of view, the liberties of the -citizens were only their privileges. But although the labourers and -humbler tradesmen were without franchises, their interests were not -therefore neglected, being bound up with those of the one or two -thousand citizens who shared with the patricians the control of public -affairs. - -There were two classes of nobles with whom Florence had to reckon as she -awoke to life--those within the walls, and those settled in the -neighbouring country. In later times it was a favourite boast among the -noble citizens--a boast indulged in by Dante--that they were descended -from ancient Roman settlers on the banks of the Arno. A safer boast -would in many cases have been that their ancestors had come to Italy in -the train of Otho and other conquering Emperors. Though settled in the -city, in some cases for generations, the patrician families were not -altogether of it, being distinguished from the other citizens, if not -always by the possession of ancestral landward estates, at least by -their delight in war and contempt for honest industry. But with the -faults of a noble class they had many of its good qualities. Of these -the Republic suffered them to make full proof, allowing them to lead in -war and hold civil offices out of all proportion to their numbers. - -Like the city itself, the nobles in the country around had been feudally -subject to the Marquis of Tuscany. After Matilda's death they claimed to -hold direct from the Empire; which meant in practice to be above all -law. They exercised absolute jurisdiction over their serfs and -dependants, and, when favoured by the situation of their castles, took -toll, like the robber barons of Germany, of the goods which passed -beneath their walls. Already they had proved to be thorns in the side of -the industrious burghers; but at the beginning of the twelfth century -their neighbourhood became intolerable, and for a couple of generations -the chief political work of Florence was to bring them to reason. Those -whose lands came up almost to the city gates were first dealt with, and -then in a widening circle the country was cleared of the pest. Year -after year, when the days were lengthening out in spring, the roughly -organised city militia was mustered, war was declared against some -specially obnoxious noble and his fortress was taken by surprise, or, -failing that, was subjected to a siege. In the absence of a more -definite grievance, it was enough to declare his castle dangerously near -the city. These expeditions were led by the nobles who were already -citizens, while the country neighbours of the victim looked on with -indifference, or even helped to waste the lands or force the stronghold -of a rival. The castle once taken, it was either levelled with the -ground, or was restored to the owner on condition of his yielding -service to the Republic. And, both by way of securing a hold upon an -unwilling vassal and of adding a wealthy house and some strong arms to -the Commonwealth, he was compelled, along with his family, to reside in -Florence for a great part of every year. - -With a wider territory and an increasing commerce, it was natural for -Florence to assume more and more the attitude of a sovereign state, -ready, when need was, to impose its will upon its neighbours, or to join -with them for the common defence of Tuscany. In the noble class and its -retainers, recruited as has been described, it was possessed of a -standing army which, whether from love of adventure or greed of plunder, -was never so well pleased as when in active employment. Not that the -commons left the fighting wholly to the men of family, for they too, at -the summons of the war-bell, had to arm for the field; but at the best -they did it from a sense of duty, and, without the aid of professional -men-at-arms, they must have failed more frequently in their enterprises, -or at any rate have had to endure a greatly prolonged absence from their -counters and workshops. And yet, esteem this advantage as highly as we -will, Florence surely lost more than it gained by compelling the crowd -of idle gentlemen to come within its walls. In the course of time some -of them indeed condescended to engage in trade--sank, as the phrase -went, into the ranks of the _Popolani_, or mere wealthy citizens; but -the great body of them, while their landed property was being largely -increased in value in consequence of the general prosperity, held -themselves haughtily aloof from honest industry in every form. Each -family, or rather each clan of them, lived apart in its own group of -houses, from among which towers shot aloft for scores of yards into the -air, dominating the humbler dwellings of the common burghers. These, -whenever they came to the front for a time in the government, were used -to decree that all private towers were to be lopped down to within a -certain distance from the ground. - -It is a favourite exercise of Villani and other historians to trace the -troubles and revolutions in the state of Florence to chance quarrels -between noble families, arising from an angry word or a broken troth. -Here, they tell, was sown the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline wars in -Florence; and here that of the feuds of Black and White. Such quarrels -and party names were symptoms and nothing more. The enduring source of -trouble was the presence within the city of a powerful idle class, -constantly eager to recover the privilege it had lost, and to secure -itself by every available means, including that of outside help, in the -possession of what it still retained; which chafed against the curbs put -upon its lawlessness, and whose ambitions were all opposed to the -general interest. The citizens, for their part, had nothing better to -hope for than that Italy should be left to the Italians, Florence to the -Florentines. On the occasion of the celebrated Buondelmonti feud (1215), -some of the nobles definitely went over to the side of the people, -either because they judged it likely to win in the long-run, or -impelled unconsciously by the forces that in every society divide -ambitious men into two camps, and in one form or another develop party -strife. They who made a profession of popular sympathy did it with a -view of using rather than of helping the people at large. Both of the -noble parties held the same end in sight--control of the Commonwealth; -and this would be worth the more the fewer there were to share it. The -faction irreconcilable with the Republic on any terms included many of -the oldest and proudest houses. Their hope lay in the advent of a strong -Emperor, who should depute to them his rights over the money-getting, -low-born crowd. - - -II. - -The opportunity of this class might seem to have come when the -Hohenstaufen Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, ascended the throne, -and still more when, on attaining full age, he claimed the whole of the -Peninsula as his family inheritance. Other Emperors had withstood the -Papal claims, but none had ever proved an antagonist like Frederick. His -quarrel seemed indeed to be with the Church itself, with its doctrines -and morals as well as with the ambition of churchmen; and he offered the -strange spectacle of a Roman Emperor--one of the twin lights in the -Christian firmament--whose favour was less easily won by Christian -piety, however eminent, than by the learning of the Arab or the Jew. -When compelled at last to fulfil a promise extorted from him of -conducting a crusade to the Holy Land, he scandalised Christendom by -making friends of the Sultan, and by using his presence in the East, not -for the deliverance of the Sepulchre, but for the furtherance of -learning and commerce. Thrice excommunicated, he had his revenge by -proving with how little concern the heaviest anathemas of the Church -could be met by one who was armed in unbelief. Literature, art, and -manners were sedulously cultivated in his Sicilian court, and among the -able ministers whom he selected or formed, the modern idea of the State -may be said to have had its birth. Free thinker and free liver, poet, -warrior, and statesman, he stood forward against the sombre background -of the Middle Ages a figure in every respect so brilliant and original -as well to earn from his contemporaries the title of the Wonder of the -World. - -On the goodwill of Italians Frederick had the claim of being the most -Italian of all the Emperors since the revival of the Western Empire, and -the only one of them whose throne was permanently set on Italian soil. -Yet he never won the popular heart. To the common mind he always -appeared as something outlandish and terrible--as the man who had driven -a profitable but impious trade in the Sultan's land. Dante, in his -childhood, must have heard many a tale of him; and we find him keenly -interested in the character of the Emperor who came nearest to uniting -Italy into a great nation, in whose court there had been a welcome for -every man of intellect, and in whom a great original poet would have -found a willing and munificent patron. In the _Inferno_, by the mouth of -Pier delle Vigne, the Imperial Chancellor, he pronounces Frederick to -have been worthy of all honour;[5] yet justice requires him to lodge -this flower of kings in the burning tomb of the Epicureans, as having -been guilty of the arch-heresy of denying the moral government of the -world, and holding that with the death of the body all is ended.[6] It -was a heresy fostered by the lives of many churchmen, high and low; but -the example of Frederick encouraged the profession of it by nobles and -learned laymen. On Frederick's character there was a still darker stain -than this of religious indifference--that of cold-blooded cruelty. Even -in an age which had produced Ezzelino Romano, the Emperor's cloaks of -lead were renowned as the highest refinement in torture.[7] But, with -all his genius, and his want of scruple in the choice of means, he built -nothing politically that was not ere his death crumbling to dust. His -enduring work was that of an intellectual reformer under whose -protection and with whose personal help his native language was refined, -Europe was enriched with a learning new to it or long forgotten, and the -minds of men, as they lost their blind reverence for Rome, were prepared -for a freer treatment of all the questions with which religion deals. He -was thus in some respects a precursor of Dante. - -More than once in the course of Frederick's career it seemed as if he -might become master of Tuscany in fact as well as in name, had Florence -only been as well affected to him as were Siena and Pisa. But already, -as has been said, the popular interest had been strengthened by -accessions from among the nobles. Others of them, without descending -into the ranks of the citizens, had set their hopes on being the first -in a commonwealth rather than privates in the Imperial garrison. These -men, with their restless and narrow ambitions, were as dangerous to have -for allies as for foes, but by throwing their weight into the popular -scale they at least served to hold the Imperialist magnates in check, -and established something like a balance in the fighting power of -Florence; and so, as in the days of Barbarossa, the city was preserved -from taking a side too strongly. The hearts of the Florentine traders -were in their own affairs--in extending their commerce and increasing -their territory and influence in landward Tuscany. As regarded the -general politics of Italy, their sympathy was still with the Roman See; -but it was a sympathy without devotion or gratitude. For refusing to -join in the crusade of 1238 the town was placed under interdict by -Gregory IX. The Emperor meanwhile was acknowledged as its lawful -overlord, and his vicar received something more than nominal obedience, -the choice of the chief magistrates being made subject to his approval. -Yet with all this, and although his party was powerful in the city, it -was but a grudging service that was yielded to Frederick. More than once -fines were levied on the Florentines; and worse punishments were -threatened for their persevering and active enmity to Siena, now -dominated by its nobles and held in the Imperial interest. Volunteers -from Florence might join the Emperor in his Lombard campaigns; but they -were left equally free by the Commonwealth to join the other side. At -last, when he was growing old, and when like his grandfather he had been -foiled by the stubborn Lombards, he turned on the Florentines as an -easier prey, and sent word to the nobles of his party to seize the city. -For months the streets were filled with battle. In January 1248, -Frederick of Antioch, the natural son of the Emperor, entered Florence -with some squadrons of men-at-arms, and a few days later the nobles that -had fought on the popular side were driven into banishment. This is -known in the Florentine annals as the first dispersion of the Guelfs. - -Long before they were adopted in Italy, the names of Guelf and Ghibeline -had been employed in Germany to mark the partisans of the Bavarian Welf -and of the Hohenstaufen lords of Waiblingen. On Italian soil they -received an extended meaning: Ghibeline stood for Imperialist; Guelf for -anti-Imperialist, Papalist, or simply Nationalist. When the names began -to be freely used in Florence, which was towards the close of -Frederick's reign and about a century after their first invention, they -denoted no new start in politics, but only supplied a nomenclature for -parties already in existence. As far as Florence was concerned, the -designations were the more convenient that they were not too closely -descriptive. The Ghibeline was the Emperor's man, when it served his -purpose to be so; while the Guelf, constant only in his enmity to the -Ghibelines, was free to think of the Pope as he chose, and to serve him -no more than he wished or needed to. Ultimately, indeed, all Florence -may be said to have become Guelf. To begin with, the name distinguished -the nobles who sought alliance with the citizens, from the nobles who -looked on these as they might have done on serfs newly thriven into -wealth. Each party was to come up in turn. Within a period of twenty -years each was twice driven into banishment, a measure always -accompanied with decrees of confiscation and the levelling of private -strongholds in Florence. The exiles kept well together, retreating, as -it were in the order of war, to camps of observation they found ready -prepared for them in the nearest cities and fortresses held by those of -their own way of thinking. All their wits were then bent on how, by dint -of some fighting and much diplomacy, they might shake the strength and -undermine the credit of their successful rivals in the city, and secure -their own return in triumph. It was an art they were proud to be adepts -in.[8] - -In a rapid sketch like this it would be impossible to tell half the -changes made on the constitution of Florence during the second part of -the thirteenth century. Dante in a well-known passage reproaches -Florence with the political restlessness which afflicted her like a -disease. Laws, he says, made in October were fallen into desuetude ere -mid-November.[9] And yet it may be that in this constant readiness to -change, lies the best proof of the political capacity of the -Florentines. It was to meet new necessities that they made provision of -new laws. Especial watchfulness was called for against the encroachments -of the grandees, whose constant tendency--whatever their party -name--was to weaken legal authority, and play the part of lords and -masters of the citizens. But these were no mere weavers and -quill-drivers to be plundered at will. Even before the return of the -Guelfs, banished in 1248, the citizens, taking advantage of a check -suffered in the field by the dominant Ghibelines, had begun to recast -the constitution in a popular sense, and to organise the townsmen as a -militia on a permanent footing. When, on the death of Frederick in 1250, -the Imperialist nobles were left without foreign aid, there began a -period of ten years, favourably known in Florentine history as the -Government of the _Primo Popolo_ or _Popolo Vecchio_; that is, of the -true body of the citizens, commoners possessed of franchises, as -distinguished from the nobles above them and the multitude below. For it -is never to be forgotten that Florence, like Athens, and like the other -Italian Republics, was far from being a true democracy. The time was yet -to come, and it was not far distant, when the ranks of citizenship were -to be more widely opened than now to those below, and more closely shut -to those above. In the meantime the comparatively small number of -wealthy citizens who legally composed the 'People' made good use of -their ten years of breathing-time, entering on commercial treaties and -widening the possessions of the Commonwealth, now by war, and now by -shrewd bargains with great barons. To balance the influence of the -Podesta, who had hitherto been the one great officer of State--criminal -judge, civil governor, and commander-in-chief all in one--they created -the office of Captain of the People. The office of Podesta was not -peculiar to Florence. There, as in other cities, in order to secure his -impartiality, it was provided that he should be a foreigner, and hold -office only for six months. But he was also required to be of gentle -birth; and his councils were so composed that, like his own, their -sympathies were usually with the nobles. The Captain of the People was -therefore created partly as a tribune for the protection of the popular -rights, and partly to act as permanent head of the popular forces. Like -the Podesta, he had two councils assigned to him; but these were -strictly representative of the citizens, and sat to control his conduct -as well as to lend to his action the weight of public opinion. - -Such of the Ghibelines as had not been banished from Florence on the -death of Frederick, lived there on sufferance, as it were, and under a -rigid supervision. Once more they were to find a patron and ally in a -member of the great house of Hohenstaufen; and with his aid they were -again for a few years to become supreme in Florence, and to prove by -their abuse of power how well justified was the mistrust the people had -of them. In many ways Manfred, one of Frederick's bastards, was a worthy -son of his father. Like him he was endowed with great personal charm, -and was enamoured of all that opened new regions to intellectual -curiosity or gave refinement to sensual pleasure. In his public as well -as in his private behaviour, he was reckless of what the Church and its -doctrines might promise or threaten; and equally so, his enemies -declared, of the dictates of common humanity. Hostile eyes detected in -the green clothes which were his favourite dress a secret attachment to -Islam; and hostile tongues charged him with the murder of a father and -of a brother, and the attempted murder of a nephew. His ambition did not -aim at the Empire, but only at being King of Sicily and Naples, lands -which the Hohenstaufens claimed as their own through the Norman mother -of Frederick. Of these kingdoms he was actual ruler, even while his -legitimate brother Conrad lived. On the death of that prince he brushed -aside the claims of Conradin, his nephew, and bid boldly for recognition -by the Pope, who claimed to be overlord of the southern kingdoms--a -recognition refused, or given only to be immediately withdrawn. In the -eyes of Rome he was no more than Prince of Tarentum, but by arms and -policy he won what seemed a firm footing in the South; and eight years -after the rule of the _Popolo Vecchio_ began in Florence he was the -acknowledged patron of all in Italy who had been Imperialist--for the -Imperial throne was now practically vacant. And Manfred was trusted all -the more that he cared nothing for Germany, and stood out even more -purely an Italian monarch than his father had ever been. The Ghibelines -of Florence looked to him to free them of the yoke under which they -groaned. - -When it was discovered that they were treating with Manfred, there was -an outburst of popular wrath against the disaffected nobles. Some of -them were seized and put to death, a fate shared by the Abbot of -Vallombrosa, whom neither his priestly office nor his rank as Papal -Legate availed to save from torture and a shameful end.[10] Well -accustomed as was the age to violence and cruelty, it was shocked at -this free disposal of a great ecclesiastic by a mercantile community; -and even to the Guelf chronicler Villani the terrible defeat of -Montaperti seemed no more than a just vengeance taken by Heaven upon a -crime so heinous.[11] In the meantime the city was laid under interdict, -and those concerned in the Abbot's death were excommunicated; while the -Ghibelines, taking refuge in Siena, began to plot and scheme with the -greater spirit against foes who, in the very face of a grave peril, had -offended in the Pope their strongest natural ally. - -The leader of the exiles was Farinata, one of the Uberti, a family -which, so long ago as 1180, had raised a civil war to force their way -into the consulship. Ever since, they had been the most powerful, -perhaps, and certainly the most restless, clan in Florence, rich in men -of strong character, fiercely tenacious of their purpose. Such was -Farinata. To the Florentines of a later age he was to stand for the type -of the great Ghibeline gentleman, haughty as Lucifer, a Christian in -name though scarcely by profession, and yet almost beloved for his frank -excess of pride. It detracted nothing from the grandeur of his -character, in the judgment of his countrymen, that he could be cunning -as well as brave. Manfred was coy to afford help to the Tuscan -Ghibelines, standing out for an exorbitant price for the loan of his -men-at-arms; and to Farinata was attributed the device by which his -point of honour was effectually touched.[12] When at last a -reinforcement of eight hundred cavalry entered Siena, the exiles and -their allies felt themselves more than a match for the militia of -Florence, and set themselves to decoy it into the field. Earlier in the -same year the Florentines had encamped before Siena, and sought in vain -to bring on a general engagement. They were now misled by false -messengers, primed by Farinata, into a belief that the Sienese, weary of -the arrogance of Provenzano Salvani,[13] then all-powerful in Siena, -were ready to betray a gate to them. In vain did Tegghiaio -Aldobrandi,[14] one of the Guelf nobles, counsel delay till the German -men-at-arms, wearied with waiting on and perhaps dissatisfied with their -wages, should be recalled by Manfred. A march in full strength upon the -hostile city was resolved on by the eager townsmen. - -The battle of Montaperti was fought in September 1260, among the earthy -hills washed by the Arbia and its tributary rivulets, a few miles to the -east of Siena. It marked the close of the rule of the _Popolo Vecchio_. -Till then no such disastrous day had come to Florence; and the defeat -was all the more intolerable that it was counted for a victory to Siena. -Yet the battle was far from being a test of the strength of the two -rival cities. Out of the thirty thousand foot in the Guelf army, there -were only about five thousand Florentines. In the host which poured out -on them from Siena, beside the militia of that city and the Florentine -exiles, were included the Ghibelines of Arezzo, the retainers of great -lords still unsubdued by any city, and, above all, the German -men-at-arms of Manfred.[15] But the worst enemies of Florence were the -traitors in her own ranks. She bore it long in mind that it was her -merchants and handicraftsmen who stood stubbornly at bay, and tinged the -Arbia red with their life-blood; while it was among the men of high -degree that the traitors were found. On one of them, Bocca degli Abati, -who struck off the right hand of the standard-bearer of the cavalry, and -so helped on the confusion and the rout, Dante takes vengeance in his -pitiless verse.[16] - -The fortifications of Florence had been recently completed and -strengthened, and it was capable of a long defence. But the spirit of -the people was broken for the time, and the conquerors found the gates -open. Then it was that Farinata almost atoned for any wrong he ever did -his native town, by withstanding a proposal made by the Ghibelines of -the rival Tuscan cities, that Florence should be destroyed, and Empoli -advanced to fill her room. 'Alone, with open face I defended her,' Dante -makes him say.[17] But the wonder would rather be if he had voted to -destroy a city of which he was about to be one of the tyrants. Florence -had now a fuller experience than ever of the oppression which it was in -the character of the Ghibelines to exercise. A rich booty lay ready to -their hands; for in the panic after Montaperti crowds of the best in -Florence had fled, leaving all behind them except their wives and -children, whom they would not trust to the cruel mercy of the victors. -It was in this exile that for the first time the industrious citizen was -associated with the Guelf noble. From Lucca, not powerful enough to -grant them protection for long, they were driven to Bologna, suffering -terribly on the passage of the Apennines from cold and want of food, but -safe when the mountains lay between them and the Val d'Arno. While the -nobles and young men with a taste for fighting found their livelihood in -service against the Lombard Ghibelines, the more sober-minded scattered -themselves to seek out their commercial correspondents and increase -their acquaintance with the markets of Europe. When at length the way -was open for them to return home, they came back educated by travel, as -men must always be who travel for a purpose; and from this second exile -of the Guelfs dates a vast extension of the commerce of Florence. - -Their return was a fruit of the policy followed by the Papal Court The -interests of both were the same. The Roman See could have as little -independence of action while a hostile monarch was possessed of the -southern kingdoms, as the people of Florence could have freedom while -the Ghibeline nobility had for patron a military prince, to whom their -gates lay open by way of Siena and Pisa. To Sicily and Naples the Pope -laid claim by an alternative title--they were either dependent on the -See of Rome, or, if they were Imperial fiefs, then, in the vacancy of -the Empire, the Pope, as the only head of Christendom, had a right to -dispose of them as he would. A champion was needed to maintain the -claim, and at length the man was found in Charles of Anjou, brother of -St. Louis. This was a prince of intellectual powers far beyond the -common, of untiring industry in affairs, pious, 'chaste as a monk,' and -cold-hearted as a usurer; gifted with all the qualities, in short, that -make a man feared and well served, and with none that make him beloved. -He was not one to risk failure for want of deliberation and foresight, -and his measures were taken with such prudence that by the time he -landed in Italy his victory was almost assured. He found his enemy at -Benevento, in the Neapolitan territory (February 1266). In order to get -time for reinforcements to come up, Manfred sought to enter into -negotiations; but Charles was ready, and knew his advantage. He answered -with the splendid confidence of a man sure of a heavenly if he missed -an earthly triumph. 'Go tell the Sultan of Lucera,'[18] was his reply, -'that to-day I shall send him to Hell, or he will send me to Paradise.' -Manfred was slain, and his body, discovered only after long search, was -denied Christian burial. Yet, excommunicated though he was, and -suspected of being at heart as much Mohammedan as Christian, he, as well -as his great rival, is found by Dante in Purgatory.[19] And, while the -Christian poet pours his invective on the pious Charles,[20] he is at no -pains to hide how pitiful appeared to him the fate of the frank and -handsome Manfred, all whose followers adored him. He, as more than once -it happens in the _Comedy_ to those whose memory is dear to the poet, is -saved from Inferno by the fiction that in the hour of death he sent one -thought heavenward--'so wide is the embrace of infinite mercy.'[21] - -To Florence Charles proved a useful if a greedy and exacting protector. -Under his influence as Pacificator of Tuscany--an office created for him -by the Pope--the Guelfs were enabled slowly to return from exile, and -the Ghibelines were gradually depressed into a condition of dependence -on the goodwill of the citizens over whom they had so lately domineered. -Henceforth failure attended every effort they made to lift their heads. -The stubbornly irreconcilable were banished or put to death. Elaborate -provisions were enacted in obedience to the Pope's commands, by which -the rest were to be at peace with their old foes. Now they were to live -in the city, but under disabilities as regarded eligibility to offices; -now they were to be represented in the public councils, but so as to be -always in a minority. The result of the measures taken, and of the -natural drift of things, was that ere many more years had passed there -were no avowed Ghibelines in Florence. - -One influence constantly at work in this direction was that of the -_Parte Guelfa_, a Florentine society formed to guard the interests of -the Guelfs, and which was possessed of the greater part of the Ghibeline -property confiscated after the triumph of Charles had turned the balance -of power in Italy. This organisation has been well described as a state -within a state, and it seems as if the part it played in the Florentine -politics of this period were not yet fully known. This much seems sure, -that the members of the Society were mostly Guelf nobles; that its -power, derived from the administration of vast wealth to a political -end, was so great that the Captain of the _Parte Guelfa_ held a place -almost on a level with that of the chief officials of the Commonwealth; -and that it made loans of ready money to Florence and the Pope, on -condition of their being used to the damage of the Ghibelines.[22] - -The Commonwealth, busy in resettling its government, was but slightly -interested in much that went on around it. The boy Conradin, grandson of -Frederick, nephew of Manfred, and in a sense the last of the -Hohenstaufens, came to Italy to measure himself with Charles, and paid -for his audacity upon the scaffold.[23] Charles deputed Guy of Montfort, -son of the great Earl Simon, to be his vicar in Florence. The Pope -smiled and frowned in turn on the Florentines, as their devotion to him -waxed and waned; and so he did on his champion Charles, whose ambition -was apt to outrun his piety. All this was of less importance to the -Commonwealth than the promotion of its domestic interests. It saw with -equanimity a check given to Charles by the election of a new Emperor in -Rudolf of Hapsburg (1273), and a further check by the Sicilian Vespers, -which lost him half his kingdom (1283). But Siena and Pisa, Arezzo, and -even Pistoia, were the objects of a sleepless anxiety. Pisa was the -chief source of danger, being both from sentiment and interest -stubbornly Ghibeline. When at length its power was broken by Genoa, its -great maritime rival, in the naval battle of Meloria (1284), there was -no longer any city in Tuscany to be compared for wealth and strength -with Florence. - - -III. - -It was at this period that Dante, reaching the age of manhood, began to -perform the duties that fell to him as a youthful citizen--duties which, -till the age of thirty was reached, were chiefly those of military -service. The family to which he belonged was a branch of the Elisei, -who are included by Villani in the earliest catalogue given by him of -the great Florentine houses. Cacciaguida, one of the Elisei, born in -1106, married a daughter of the Aldighieri, a family of Ferrara. Their -son was christened Aldighiero, and this was adopted by the family as a -surname, afterwards changed to Alighieri. The son of Aldighiero was -Bellincione, father of Aldighiero II., the father of Dante. - -It serves no purpose to fill a page of biography with genealogical -details when the hero's course in life was in no way affected by the -accident of who was his grandfather. In the case of Dante, his position -in the State, his political creed, and his whole fashion of regarding -life, were vitally influenced by the circumstances of his birth. He knew -that his genius, and his genius alone, was to procure him fame; he -declares a virtuous and gentle life to be the true proof of nobility: -and yet his family pride is always breaking through. In real life, from -his family's being decayed in wealth and fallen in consideration -compared with its neighbours, he may have been led to put emphasis on -his assertion of gentility; and amid the poverty and humiliations of his -exile he may have found a tonic in the thought that by birth, not to -speak of other things, he was the equal of those who spurned him or -coldly lent him aid. However this may be, there is a tacit claim of -equality with them in the easy grace with which he encounters great -nobles in the world of shades. The bent of his mind in relation to this -subject is shown by such a touch as that when he esteems it among the -glories of Francis of Assisi not to have been ashamed of his base -extraction.[24] In Paradise he meets his great crusading ancestor -Cacciaguida, and feigns contrition for the pleasure with which he -listens to a declaration of the unmixed purity of their common -blood.[25] In Inferno he catches a glimpse, sudden and terrible, of a -kinsman whose violent death had remained unavenged; and, for the nonce, -the philosopher-poet is nothing but the member of an injured Florentine -clan, and winces at the thought of a neglected blood feud.[26] And when -Farinata, the great Ghibeline, and haughtiest of all the Florentines of -the past generation, asks him, 'Who were thine ancestors?' Dante says -with a proud pretence of humility, 'Anxious to obey, I hid nothing, but -told him all he demanded.'[27] - -Dante was born in Florence in the May of 1265.[28] A brother of his -father had been one of the guards of the Florentine Caroccio, or -standard-bearing car, at the battle of Montaperti (1260). Whether -Dante's father necessarily shared in the exile of his party may be -doubted. He is said--on slight authority--to have been a jurisconsult: -there is no reason to suppose he was at Montaperti. It is difficult to -believe that Florence was quite emptied of its lawyers and merchants as -a consequence of the Ghibeline victory. In any case, it is certain that -while the fugitive Guelfs were mostly accompanied by their wives, and -did not return till 1267, we have Dante's own word for it that he was -born in the great city by the Arno,[29] and was baptized in the -Baptistery, his beautiful St. John's.[30] At the font he received the -name of Durante, shortened, as he bore it, into Dante. It is in this -form that it finds a place in the _Comedy_,[31] once, and only once, -written down of necessity, the poet says--the necessity of being -faithful in the report of Beatrice's words: from the wider necessity, we -may assume, of imbedding in the work itself the name by which the author -was commonly known, and by which he desired to be called for all time. - -When Dante was about ten years old he lost his father. Of his mother -nothing but her Christian name of Bella is known. Neither of them is -mentioned in the _Comedy_,[32] nor indeed are his wife and children. -Boccaccio describes the Alighieri as having been in easy though not in -wealthy circumstances; and Leonardo Bruni, who in the fifteenth century -sought out what he could learn of Dante, says of him that he was -possessed of a patrimony sufficient for an honourable livelihood. That -he was so might be inferred from the character of the education he -received. His studies, says Boccaccio, were not directed to any object -of worldly profit. That there is no sign of their having been directed -by churchmen tends to prove the existence in his native town of a class -of cultivated laymen; and that there was such appears from the ease -with which, when, passing from boyhood to manhood, he felt a craving for -intellectual and congenial society, he found in nobles of the stamp of -Guido Cavalcanti men like-minded with himself. It was indeed impossible -but that the revival of the study of the civil law, the importation of -new learning from the East, and the sceptical spirit fostered in Italy -by the influence of Frederick II. and his court, should all have told on -the keen-witted Florentines, of whom a great proportion--even of the -common people--could read; while the class with leisure had every -opportunity of knowing what was going on in the world.[33] Heresy, the -rough word for intellectual life as well as for religious aspiration, -had found in Florence a congenial soil.[34] In the thirteenth century, -which modern ignorance loves to reckon as having been in a special sense -an age of faith, there were many Florentines who, in spite of their -outward conformity, had drifted as far from spiritual allegiance to the -Church as the furthest point reached by any of their descendants who -some two ages later belonged to the school of Florentine Platonists. - -Chief among these free-thinkers, and, sooth to say, free-livers--though -in this respect they were less distinguished from the orthodox--was -Brunetto Latini, for some time Secretary to the Republic, and the -foremost Italian man of letters of his day. Meagre though his greatest -work, the _Tesoro_, or _Treasure_, must seem to any one who now glances -over its pages, to his contemporaries it answered the promise of its -title and stood for a magazine of almost complete information in the -domains of natural history, ethics, and politics. It was written in -French, as being a more agreeable language than Italian; and was -composed, there is reason to believe, while Latini lived in Paris as an -exiled Guelf after Montaperti. His _Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, a -poem in jingling eight-syllabled Italian verse, has been thought by some -to have supplied hints to Dante for the _Comedy_.[35] By neither of -these works is he evinced a man of strong intellect, or even of good -taste. Yet there is the testimony of Villani that he did much to refine -the language of his contemporaries, and to apply fixed principles to the -conduct of State affairs.[36] Dante meets him in Inferno, and hails him -as his intellectual father--as the master who taught him from day to day -how fame is to be won.[37] But it is too much to infer from these words -that Latini served as his teacher, in the common sense of the word. It -is true they imply an intimacy between the veteran scholar and his -young townsman; but the closeness of their intercourse is perhaps best -accounted for by supposing that Latini had been acquainted with Dante's -father, and by the great promise of Dante's boyhood was led to take a -warm interest in his intellectual development. Their intimacy, to judge -from the tone of their conversation down in Inferno, had lasted till -Latini's death. But no tender reminiscence of the days they spent -together avails to save him from condemnation at the hands of his severe -disciple. By the manners of Brunetto, and the Epicurean heresies of -others of his friends, Dante, we may be sure, was never infected or -defiled. - -Dante describes himself as having begun the serious study of philosophy -and theology only at the mature age of twenty-seven. But ere that time -he had studied to good effect, and not books alone, but the world around -him too, and the world within. The poet was formed before the theologian -and philosopher. From his earliest years he was used to write in verse; -and he seems to have esteemed as one of his best endowments the easy -command of his mother tongue acquired by him while still in boyhood. - -Of the poems written in his youth he made a selection, and with a -commentary gave them to the world as his first work.[38] All the sonnets -and canzoni contained in it bear more or less directly on his love for -Beatrice Portinari. This lady, whose name is so indissolubly associated -with that of Dante, was the daughter of a rich citizen of good family. -When Dante saw her first he was a child of nine, and she a few months -younger. It would seem fabulous, he says, if he related what things he -did, and of what a passion he was the victim during his boyhood. He -seized opportunities of beholding her, but for long never passed beyond -a silent worship; and he was eighteen before she spoke to him, and then -only in the way of a passing salutation. On this he had a vision, and -that inspired him with a sonnet, certainly not the first he had written, -but the first he put into circulation. The mode of publication he -adopted was the common one of sending copies of it to such other poets -as were within reach. The sonnet in itself contains a challenge to -interpret his dream. Several poets attempted the riddle--among them the -philosopher and poet Guido Cavalcanti. They all failed in the solution; -but with some of them he was thus brought into terms of intimacy, and -with Cavalcanti of the closest friendship. Some new grace of style in -Dante's verse, some art in the presentation of his mystical meaning that -escapes the modern reader, may have revealed to the middle-aged man of -letters that a new genius had arisen. It was by Guido's advice that the -poems of which this sonnet stands the first were some years later -collected and published with the explanatory narrative. To him, in a -sense, the whole work is addressed; and it agreed with his taste, as -well as Dante's own, that it should contain nothing but what was written -in the vulgar tongue. Others besides Guido must have recognised in the -little book, as it passed from hand to hand, the masterpiece of Italian -prose, as well as of Italian verse. In the simple title of _Vita Nuova_, -or _The New Life_,[39] we can fancy that a claim is laid to originality -of both subject and treatment. Through the body of the work, though not -so clearly as in the _Comedy_, there rings the note of assurance of -safety from present neglect and future oblivion. - -It may be owing to the free use of personification and symbol in the -_Vita Nuova_ that some critics, while not denying the existence of a -real Beatrice, have held that she is introduced only to help out an -allegory, and that, under the veil of love for her, the poet would -express his youthful passion for truth. Others, going to the opposite -extreme, are found wondering why he never sought, or, seeking, failed to -win, the hand of Beatrice. To those who would refine the Beatrice of the -early work into a being as purely allegorical as she of the _Comedy_, it -may be conceded that the _Vita Nuova_ is not so much the history of a -first love as of the new emotional and intellectual life to which a -first love, as Dante experienced it, opens the door. Out of the -incidents of their intercourse he chooses only such as serve for motives -to the joys and sorrows of the passionate aspiring soul. On the other -hand, they who seek reasons why Dante did not marry Beatrice have this -to justify their curiosity, that she did marry another man. But her -husband was one of the rich and powerful Bardi; and her father was so -wealthy that after providing for his children he could endow a hospital -in Florence. The marriage was doubtless arranged as a matter of family -convenience, due regard being had to her dower and her husband's -fortune; and we may assume that when Dante, too, was married later on, -his wife was found for him by the good offices of his friends.[40] Our -manners as regards these things are not those of the Italy of the -thirteenth century. It may safely be said that Dante never dreamed of -Beatrice for his wife; that the expectation of wedding her would have -sealed his lips from uttering to the world any word of his love; and -that she would have lost something in his esteem if, out of love for -him, she had refused the man her father chose for her. - -We must not seek in the _Vita Nuova_ what it does not profess to give. -There was a real Beatrice Portinari, to a careless glance perhaps not -differing much from other Florentine ladies of her age and condition; -but her we do not find in Dante's pages. These are devoted to a record -of the dreams and visions, the new thoughts and feelings of which she -was the occasion or the object. He worshipped at a distance, and in a -single glance found reward enough for months of adoration; he read all -heaven into a smile. So high strung is the narrative, that did we come -on any hint of loving dalliance it would jar with all the rest She is -always at a distance from him, less a woman than an angel. - -In all this there is certainly as much of reticence as of exaggeration. -When he comes to speak of her death he uses a phrase on which it would -seem as if too little value had been set. He cannot dwell on the -circumstances of her departure, he says, without being his own -panegyrist. Taken along with some other expressions in the _Vita Nuova_, -and the tone of her words to him when they meet in the Earthly Paradise, -we may gather from this that not only was she aware of his long -devotion, but that, ere she died, he had been given to understand how -highly she rated it. And on the occasion of her death, one described as -being her nearest relative by blood and, after Cavalcanti, Dante's chief -friend--her brother, no doubt--came to him and begged him to write -something concerning her. It would be strange indeed if they had never -looked frankly into one another's faces; and yet, for anything that is -directly told in the _Vita Nuova_, they never did. - -The chief value of the _Vita Nuova_ is therefore psychological. It is a -mine of materials illustrative of the author's mental and emotional -development, but as regards historical details it is wanting in fulness -and precision. Yet, even in such a sketch of Dante's life as this tries -to be, it is necessary to dwell on the turning-points of the narrative -contained in the _Vita Nuova_; the reader always remembering that on one -side Dante says more than the fact that so he may glorify his love, and -less on another that he may not fail in consideration for Beatrice. She -is first a maiden whom no public breath is to disturb in her virgin -calm; and afterwards a chaste wife, whose lover is as jealous of her -reputation as any husband could be. The youthful lover had begun by -propounding the riddle of his love so obscurely that even by his -fellow-poets it had been found insoluble, adepts though they themselves -were in the art of smothering a thought. Then, though all his longing is -for Beatrice, lest she become the subject of common talk he feigns that -he is in love first with one lady and then with another.[41] He even -pushes his deceit so far that she rebukes him for his fickleness to one -of his sham loves by denying him the customary salutation when they -meet--this salutation being the only sign of friendship she has ever -shown. It is already some few years since the first sonnet was written. -Now, in a ballad containing a more direct avowal of his love than he has -yet ventured on,[42] he protests that it was always Beatrice his heart -was busy with, and that to her, though his eyes may have seemed to -wander, his affection was always true. In the very next poem we find him -as if debating with himself whether he shall persevere. He weighs the -ennobling influence of a pure love and the sweetness it gives to life, -against the pains and self-denial to which it condemns its servant. -Here, he tells us in his commentary, he was like a traveller who has -come to where the ways divide. His only means of escape--and he feels it -is a poor one--is to throw himself into the arms of Pity. - -From internal evidence it seems reasonably certain that the marriage of -Beatrice fell at the time when he describes himself as standing at the -parting of the ways. Before that he has been careful to write of his -love in terms so general as to be understood only by those in possession -of the key. Now he makes direct mention of her, and seeks to be in her -company; and he even leads us to infer that it was owing to his poems -that she became a well-known personage in the streets of Florence. -Immediately after the sonnet in which he has recourse to Pity, he tells -how he was led by a friend into the house of a lady, married only that -day, whom they find surrounded by her lady friends, met to celebrate her -home-coming after marriage. It was the fashion for young gentlemen to -offer their services at such a feast. On this occasion Dante for one can -give no help. A sudden trembling seizes him; he leans for support -against the painted wall of the chamber; then, lifting his eyes to see -if the ladies have remarked his plight, he is troubled at beholding -Beatrice among them, with a smile on her lips, as, leaning towards her, -they mock at her lover's weakness. To his friend, who, as he leads him -from the chamber, asks what ails him, he replies: 'My feet have reached -that point beyond which if they pass they can never return.' It was only -matrons that gathered round a bride at her home-coming; Beatrice was -therefore by this time a married woman. That she was but newly married -we may infer from Dante's confusion on finding her there.[43] His secret -has now been discovered, and he must either renounce his love, or, as he -is at length free to do, Beatrice being married, declare it openly, and -spend his life in loyal devotion to her as the mistress of his -imagination and of his heart.[44] - -But how is he to pursue his devotion to her, and make use of his new -privilege of freer intercourse, when the very sight of her so unmans -him? He writes three sonnets explaining what may seem pusillanimity in -him, and resolves to write no more. Now comes the most fruitful episode -in the history. Questioned by a bevy of fair ladies what is the end of a -love like his, that cannot even face the object of its desire, he -answers that his happiness lies in the words by which he shows forth the -praises of his mistress. He has now discovered that his passion is its -own reward. In other words, he has succeeded in spiritualising his love; -although to a careless reader it might seem in little need of passing -through the process. Then, soon after, as he walks by a crystal brook, -he is inspired with the words which begin the noblest poem he had yet -produced,[45] and that as the author of which he is hailed by a -fellow-poet in Purgatory. It is the first to glorify Beatrice as one in -whom Heaven is more concerned than Earth; and in it, too, he anticipates -his journey through the other world. She dies,[46] and we are surprised -to find that within a year of her death he wavers in his allegiance to -her memory. A fair face, expressing a tender compassion, looks down on -him from a window as he goes nursing his great sorrow; and he loves the -owner of the face because she pities him. But seeing Beatrice in a -vision he is restored, and the closing sonnet tells how his whole desire -goes forth to her, and how his spirit is borne above the highest sphere -to behold her receiving honour, and shedding radiance on all around her. -The narrative closes with a reference to a vision which he does not -recount, but which incites him to severe study in order that he may -learn to write of her as she deserves. And the last sentence of the -_Vita Nuova_ expresses a hope--a hope which would be arrogant coming -after anything less perfect than the _Vita Nuova_--that, concerning her, -he shall yet say things never said before of any woman. Thus the poet's -earliest work contains an earnest of the latest, and his morning makes -one day with his evening. - -The narrative of the _Vita Nuova_ is fluent and graceful, in this -contrasting strongly with the analytical arguments attached to the -various poems. Dante treats his readers as if they were able to catch -the meaning of the most recondite allegory, and yet were ignorant of the -alphabet of literary form. And, as is the case with other poets of the -time, the free movement of his fancy is often hampered by the necessity -he felt of expressing himself in the language of the popular scholastic -philosophy. All this is but to say that he was a man of his period, as -well as a great genius. And even in this his first work he bettered the -example of Guido Cavalcanti, Guido of Bologna, and the others whom he -found, but did not long suffer to remain, the masters of Italian -verse.[47] These inherited from the Provencal and Sicilian poets much -of the cant of which European poetry has been so slow to clear itself; -and chiefly that of presenting all human emotion and volition under the -figure of love for a mistress, who was often merely a creature of fancy, -set up to act as Queen of Beauty while the poet ran his intellectual -jousts. But Dante dealt in no feigned inspiration, and distinguishes -himself from the whole school of philosophical and artificial poets as -'one who can only speak as love inspires.'[48] He may deal in allegory -and utter sayings dark enough, but the first suggestions of his thoughts -are obtained from facts of emotion or of real life. His lady was no -creature of fancy, but his neighbour Beatrice Portinari: and she who -ends in the _Paradiso_ as the embodied beauty of holiness was, to begin -with, a fair Florentine girl. - -The instance of Beatrice is the strongest, although others might be -adduced, to illustrate Dante's economy of actual experience; the skilful -use, that is, of real emotions and incidents to serve for suggestion and -material of poetical thought. As has been told, towards the close of the -_Vita Nuova_ he describes how he found a temporary consolation for the -loss of Beatrice in the pity of a fair and noble lady. In his next work, -the _Convito_, or _Banquet_, she appears as the personification of -philosophy. The plan of the _Convito_ is that of a commentary on odes -which are interpreted as having various meanings--among others the -literal as distinguished from the allegorical or essentially true. As -far as this lady is concerned, Dante shows some eagerness to pass from -the literal meaning; desirous, it may be, to correct the belief that he -had ever wavered in his exclusive devotion to Beatrice. That for a time -he did transfer his thoughts from Beatrice in Heaven to the fair lady of -the window is almost certain, and by the time he wrote the _Purgatorio_ -he was able to make confession of such a fault. But at the earlier -period at which the _Convito_[49] was written, he may have come to -regard the avowal in the _Vita Nuova_ as an oversight dishonouring to -himself as well as to his first love, and so have slurred it over, -leaving the fact to stand enveloped in an allegory. At any rate, to his -gloss upon this passage in his life we are indebted for an interesting -account of how, at the age of twenty-seven, he put himself to school:-- - - 'After losing the earliest joy of my life, I was so smitten with - sorrow that in nothing could I find any comfort. Yet after some - time my mind, eager to recover its tone, since nought that I or - others could do availed to restore me, directed itself to find how - people, being disconsolate, had been comforted. And so I took to - reading that little-known book by Boethius, by writing which he, - captive and in exile, had obtained relief. Next, hearing that Tully - as well had written a book in which, treating of friendship, he had - consoled the worthy Laelius on the occasion of the loss of his - friend Scipio, I read that too. And though at the first I found - their meaning hard, at last I comprehended it as far as my - knowledge of the language and some little command of mother-wit - enabled me to do: which same mother-wit had already helped me to - much, as may be seen by the _Vita Nuova_. And as it often happens - that a man goes seeking silver, and lights on gold he is not - looking for--the result of chance, or of some divine provision; so - I, besides finding the consolation I was in search of to dry my - tears, became possessed of wisdom from authors and sciences and - books. Weighing this well, I deemed that philosophy, the mistress - of these authors, sciences, and books, must be the best of all - things. And imagining her to myself fashioned like a great lady, - rich in compassion, my admiration of her was so unbounded that I - was always delighting myself in her image. And from thus beholding - her in fancy I went on to frequent the places where she is to be - found in very deed--in the schools of theology, to wit, and the - debates of philosophers. So that in a little time, thirty months or - so, I began to taste so much of her sweetness that the love I bore - to her effaced or banished every other thought.'[50] - -No one would guess from this description of how he grew enamoured of -philosophy, that at the beginning of his arduous studies Dante took a -wife. She was Gemma, the daughter of Manetto Donati, but related only -distantly, if at all, to the great Corso Donati. They were married in -1292, he being twenty-seven; and in the course of the nine years that -elapsed till his exile she bore him five sons and two daughters.[51] -From his silence regarding her in his works, and from some words of -Boccaccio's which apply only to the period of his exile, it has been -inferred that the union was unhappy. But Dante makes no mention in his -writings of his parents or children any more than of Gemma.[52] And why -should not his wife be included among the things dearest to him which, -he tells us, he had to leave behind him on his banishment? For anything -we know to the contrary, their wedded life up to the time of his exile -may have been happy enough; although most probably the marriage was one -of convenience, and almost certainly Dante found little in Gemma's mind -that answered to his own.[53] In any case it is not safe to lay stress -upon his silence. During the period covered by the _Vita Nuova_ he -served more than once in the field, and to this none of his earlier -works make any reference. In 1289, Arezzo having warmly espoused the -Ghibeline cause, the Florentines, led by Corso Donati and the great -merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, took up arms and met the foe in the field of -Campaldino, on the edge of the upland region of the Casentino. Dante, as -a young man of means and family, fought in the vanguard;[54] and in a -letter partly preserved by one of his early biographers[55] he describes -himself as being then no tiro in arms, and as having with varying -emotions watched the fortunes of the day. From this it is clear that he -had served before, probably in an expedition into the Aretine territory -made in the previous year, and referred to in the _Inferno_.[56] In the -same year as Campaldino was won he was present at the surrender of -Caprona, a fortress belonging to Pisa.[57] But of all this he is silent -in his works, or only makes casual mention of it by way of illustration. -It is, therefore, a waste of time trying to prove his domestic misery -from his silence about his marriage. - - -IV. - -So hard a student was Dante that he now for a time nearly lost the use -of his eyes.[58] But he was cured by regimen, and came to see as well as -ever, he tells us; which we can easily believe was very well indeed. For -his work, as he planned it out, he needed all his powers. The _Convito_, -for example, was designed to admit of a full treatment of all that -concerns philosophy. It marks an earlier stage of his intellectual and -spiritual life than does the opening of the _Inferno_. In it we have the -fruit of the years during which he was wandering astray from his early -ideal, misled by what he afterwards came to count as a vain and -profitless curiosity. Most of its contents, as we have it,[59] are only -indirectly interesting. It is impossible for most people to care for -discussions, conducted with all the nicety of scholastic definition, on -such subjects as the system of the universe as it was evolved out of the -brains of philosophers; the subject-matter of knowledge; and how we -know. But there is one section of it possessed of a very special -interest, the Fourth, in which he treats of the nature of nobility. -This he affirms to be independent of wealth or ancestry, and he finds -every one to be noble who practises the virtues proper to his time of -life. 'None of the Uberti of Florence or the Visconti of Milan can say -he is noble because belonging to such or such a race; for the Divine -seed is sown not in a family but in the individual man.' This amounts, -it must be admitted, to no more than saying that high birth is one -thing, and nobility of character another; but it is significant of what -were the current opinions, that Dante should be at such pains to -distinguish between the two qualities. The canzone which supplies the -text for the treatise closes with a picture of the noble soul at every -stage of life, to which Chaucer may well have been indebted for his -description of the true gentleman:[60]--'The soul that is adorned by -this grace does not keep it hid, but from the day when soul is wed to -body shows it forth even until death. In early life she is modest, -obedient, and gentle, investing the outward form and all its members -with a gracious beauty: in youth she is temperate and strong, full of -love and courteous ways, delighting in loyal deeds: in mature age she is -prudent, and just, and apt to liberality, rejoicing to hear of others' -good. Then in the fourth stage of life she is married again to God,[61] -and contemplates her approaching end with thankfulness for all the -past.'[62] - -In this passage it is less the poet that is heard than the sober -moralist, one with a ripe experience of life, and contemptuous of the -vulgar objects of ambition. The calm is on the surface. As has been said -above, he was proud of his own birth, the more proud perhaps that his -station was but a middling one; and to the close of his life he hated -upstarts with their sudden riches, while the Philip Argenti on whom in -the _Inferno_ he takes what has much the air of a private revenge may -have been only a specimen of the violent and haughty nobles with whom he -stood on an uneasy footing. - -Yet the impression we get of Dante's surroundings in Florence from the -_Vita Nuova_ and other poems, from references in the _Comedy_, and from -some anecdotes more or less true which survive in the pages of Boccaccio -and elsewhere, is on the whole a pleasant one. We should mistake did we -think of him as always in the guise of absorbed student or tearful -lover. Friends he had, and society of various kinds. He tells how in a -severe illness he was nursed by a young and noble lady, nearly related -to him by blood--his sister most probably; and other ladies are -mentioned as watching in his sick-chamber.[63] With Forese and Piccarda -Donati, brother and sister of the great Corso Donati, he was on terms of -the warmest friendship.[64] From the _Vita Nuova_ we can gather that, -even when his whole heart fainted and failed at the mere sight of -Beatrice, he was a favourite with other ladies and conversed familiarly -with them. The brother of Beatrice was his dear friend; while among -those of the elder generation he could reckon on the friendship of such -men as Guido Cavalcanti and Brunetto Latini. Through Latini he would, -even as a young man, get the entry of the most lettered and -intellectually active society of Florence. The tradition of his intimacy -with Giotto is supported by the mention he makes of the painter,[65] and -by the fact, referred to in the _Vita Nuova_, that he was himself a -draughtsman. It is to be regretted there are not more anecdotes of him -on record like that which tells how one day as he drew an angel on his -tablets he was broken in upon by 'certain people of importance.' The -musician Casella, whom he 'woes to sing in Purgatory'[66] and Belacqua, -the indolent good-humoured lutemaker,[67] are greeted by him in a tone -of friendly warmth in the one case and of easy familiarity in the other, -which help us to know the terms on which he stood with the quick-witted -artist class in Florence.[68] Already he was in the enjoyment of a high -reputation as a poet and scholar, and there seemed no limit to the -greatness he might attain to in his native town as a man of action as -well as a man of thought. - -In most respects the Florence of that day was as fitting a home for a -man of genius as could well be imagined. It was full of a life which -seemed restless only because the possibilities of improvement for the -individual and the community seemed infinite. A true measure of its -political progress and of the activity of men's minds is supplied by the -changes then being made in the outward aspect of the city. The duties of -the Government were as much municipal as political, and it would have -surprised a Florentine to be told that the one kind of service was of -less dignity than the other. The population grew apace, and, to provide -the means for extending the city walls, every citizen, on pain of his -testament being found invalid, was required to bequeath a part of his -estate to the public. Already the banks of the Arno were joined by three -bridges of stone, and the main streets were paved with the -irregularly-shaped blocks of lava still familiar to the sojourner in -Florence. But between the time of Dante's boyhood and the close of the -century the other outstanding features of the city were greatly altered, -or were in the course of change. The most important churches of -Florence, as he first knew it, were the Baptistery and the neighbouring -small cathedral church of Santa Reparata; after these ranked the church -of the Trinity, Santo Stefano, and some other churches which are now -replaced by larger ones, or of which the site alone can be discovered. -On the other side of the river, Samminiato with its elegant facade rose -as now upon its hill.[69] The only great civic building was the Palace -of the Podesta. The Old Market was and had long been the true centre of -the city's life. - -At the time Dante went into exile Arnolfo was already working on the -great new cathedral of St. Mary of the Flowers, the spacious Santa -Croce, and the graceful Badia; and Santa Maria Novella was slowly -assuming the perfection of form that was later to make it the favourite -of Michel Angelo. The Palace of the Signory was already planned, though -half a century was to elapse before its tower soared aloft to daunt the -private strongholds which bristled, fierce and threatening, all over the -city. The bell-tower of Giotto, too, was of later erection--the only -pile we can almost regret that Dante never saw. The architect of it was -however already adorning the walls of palace and cloister with paintings -whose inspiration was no longer, like that of the works they -overshadowed, drawn from the outworn motives of Byzantine art, but from -the faithful observation of nature.[70] He in painting and the Pisan -school in sculpture were furnishing the world with novel types of beauty -in the plastic arts, answering to the 'sweet new style' in verse of -which it was Dante that discovered the secret.[71] - -Florence was now by far the leading city in Tuscany. Its merchants and -money-dealers were in correspondence with every Mediterranean port and -with every country of the West. Along with bales of goods and letters of -exchange new ideas and fresh intelligence were always on the road to -Florence. The knowledge of what was going on in the world, and of what -men were thinking, was part of the stock-in-trade of the quick-witted -citizens, and they were beginning to be employed throughout Europe in -diplomatic work, till then almost a monopoly of churchmen. 'These -Florentines seem to me to form a fifth element,' said Boniface, who had -ample experience of how accomplished they were. - -At home they had full employment for their political genius; and still -upon the old problem, of how to curb the arrogance of the class that, in -place of being satisfied to share in the general prosperity, sought its -profit in the maintenance of privilege. It is necessary, at the cost of -what may look like repetition, to revert to the presence and activity of -this class in Florence, if we are to form a true idea of the -circumstances of Dante's life, and enter into the spirit with which much -of the _Comedy_ is informed. Though many of the nobles were now engaged -in commerce and figured among the popular leaders, most of the greater -houses stood proudly aloof from everything that might corrupt their -gentility. These were styled the magnates: they found, as it were, a -vocation for themselves in being nobles. Among them the true distinctive -spirit of Ghibelinism survived, although none of them would now have -dared to describe himself as a Ghibeline. Their strength lay partly in -the unlimited control they retained over the serfs on their landward -estates; in the loyalty with which the members of a family held by one -another; in their great command of resources as the administrators of -the _Parte Guelfa_; and in the popularity they enjoyed with the smaller -people in consequence of their lavish expenditure, and frank if insolent -manners. By law scarcely the equals of the full citizens, in point of -fact they tyrannised over them. Their houses, set like fortresses in the -crowded streets, frequently served as prisons and torture-chambers for -the low-born traders or artisans who might offend them. - -Measures enough had been passed towards the close of the century with a -view to curb the insolence of the magnates; but the difficulty was to -get them put in force. At length, in 1294, they, with many additional -reforms, were embodied in the celebrated Ordinances of Justice. These -for long were counted back to as the Great Charter of Florence--a Great -Charter defining the popular rights and the disabilities of the -baronage. Punishments of special severity were enacted for nobles who -should wrong a plebeian, and the whole of a family or clan was made -responsible for the crimes and liabilities of its several members. The -smaller tradesmen were conciliated by being admitted to a share in -political influence. If serfage was already abolished in the State of -Florence, it was the Ordinances which made it possible for the serf to -use his liberty.[72] But the greatest blow dealt to the nobles by the -new laws was their exclusion, as nobles, from all civil and political -offices. These they could hold only by becoming members of one of the -trade guilds.[73] And to deprive a citizen of his rights it was enough -to inscribe his name in the list of magnates. - -It is not known in what year Dante became a member of the Guild of -Apothecaries. Without much reason it has been assumed that he was one of -the nobles who took advantage of the law of 1294. But there is no -evidence that in his time the Alighieri ranked as magnates, and much -ground for believing that for some considerable time past they had -belonged to the order of full citizens. - -It was not necessary for every guildsman to practise the art or engage -in the business to which his guild was devoted, and we are not required -to imagine Dante as having anything to do with medicine or with the -spices and precious stones in which the apothecaries traded. The guilds -were political as much as industrial associations, and of the public -duties of his membership he took his full share. The constitution of the -Republic, jealously careful to limit the power of the individual -citizen, provided that the two chief executive officers, the Podesta and -the Captain of the People, should always be foreigners. They held office -only for six months. To each of them was assigned a numerous Council, -and before a law could be abrogated or a new one passed it needed the -approval of both these Councils, as well as that of the Priors, and of -the heads of the principal guilds. The Priors were six in number, one -for each district of the city. With them lay the administration in -general of the laws, and the conduct of foreign affairs. Their office -was elective, and held for two months.[74] Of one or other of the -Councils Dante is known to have been a member in 1295, 1296, 1300, and -1301.[75] In 1299 he is found engaged on a political mission to the -little hill-city of San Gemigniano, where in the town-house they still -show the pulpit from which he addressed the local senate.[76] From the -middle of June till the middle of August 1300 he served as one of the -Priors.[77] - -At the time when Dante entered on this office, Florence was distracted -by the feud of Blacks and Whites, names borrowed from the factions of -Pistoia, but fated to become best known from their use in the city which -adopted them. The strength of the Blacks lay in the nobles whom the -Ordinances of Justice had been designed to depress; both such of them as -had retained their standing as magnates, and such as, under the new law, -had unwillingly entered the ranks of the citizens. Already they had -succeeded in driving into exile Giano della Bella,[78] the chief author -of the Ordinances; and their efforts--and those of the citizens who, -fearing the growing power of the lesser guilds, were in sympathy with -them--were steadily directed to upset the reforms. An obvious means to -this end was to lower in popular esteem the public men whose policy it -was to govern firmly on the new lines. The leader of the discontented -party was Corso Donati, a man of small fortune, but of high birth; of -splendid personal appearance, open-handed, and of popular manners. He -and they who went with him affected a violent Guelfism, their chance of -recovering the control of domestic affairs being the better the more -they could frighten the Florentines with threats of evils like those -incurred by the Aretines and Pisans from Ghibeline oppression. It may be -imagined what meaning the cry of Ghibeline possessed in days when there -was still a class of beggars in Florence--men of good names--whose eyes -had been torn out by Farinata and his kind. - -One strong claim which Corso Donati had on the goodwill of his -fellow-townsmen was that by his ready courage in pushing on the -reserves, against superior orders, at the battle of Campaldino,[79] the -day had been won to Florence and her allies. As he rode gallantly -through the streets he was hailed as the Baron (_il Barone_), much as in -the last generation the victor of Waterloo was sufficiently -distinguished as the Duke. At the same battle, Vieri dei Cerchi, the -leader of the opposite party of the Whites, had shown no less bravery, -but he was ignorant of the art, or despised it, of making political -capital out of the performance of his duty. In almost every respect he -offered a contrast to Donati. He was of a new family, and his influence -depended not on landed possessions, though he had these too, but on -wealth derived from commerce.[80] According to John Villani, a competent -authority on such a point,[81] he was at the head of one of the greatest -trading houses in the world. The same crowds that cheered Corso as the -great Baron sneered at the reticent and cold-tempered merchant as the -Ghibeline. It was a strange perversion of ideas, and yet had this of -justification, that all the nobles of Ghibeline tendency and all the -citizens who, on account of their birth, were suspected of leaning that -way were driven into the party of the Whites by the mere fact of the -Blacks hoisting so defiantly the Guelf flag, and commanding the -resources of the _Parte Guelfa_. But if Ghibelinism meant, as fifty -years previously it did mean, a tendency to exalt privilege as against -the general liberties and to court foreign interference in the affairs -of Florence, it was the Blacks and not the Whites who had served -themselves heirs to Ghibelinism. That the appeal was now taken to the -Pope instead of to the Emperor did not matter; or that French soldiers -in place of German were called in to settle domestic differences. - -The Roman See was at this time filled by Boniface VIII., who six years -previously, by violence and fraud, had procured the resignation of -Celestine V.--him who made the great refusal.[82] Boniface was at once -arrogant and subtle, wholly faithless, and hampered by no scruple -either of religion or humanity. But these qualities were too common -among those who before and after him filled the Papal throne, to secure -him in a special infamy. That he has won from the ruthless hatred which -blazes out against him in many a verse of Dante's,[83] and for this -hatred he is indebted to his interference in the affairs of Florence, -and what came as one of the fruits of it--the poet's exile. - -And yet, from the point of view not only of the interest of Rome but -also of Italy, there is much to be said for the policy of Boniface. -German domination was a just subject of fear, and the Imperialist -element was still so strong in Northern and Central Italy, that if the -Emperor Albert[84] had been a man of a more resolute ambition, he -might--so contemporaries deemed--have conquered Italy at the cost of a -march through it. The cities of Romagna were already in Ghibeline -revolt, and it was natural that the Pope should seek to secure Florence -on the Papal side. It was for the Florentines rather than for him to -judge what they would lose or gain by being dragged into the current of -general politics. He made a fair beginning with an attempt to reconcile -the two parties. The Whites were then the dominant faction, and to them -reconciliation meant that their foes would at once divide the -government with them, and at the long-run sap the popular liberties, -while the Pope's hand would soon be allowed to dip freely into the -communal purse. The policy of the Whites was therefore one of steady -opposition to all foreign meddling with Florence. But it failed to -secure general support, for without being Ghibeline in fact it had the -air of being so; and the name of Ghibeline was one that no reasoning -could rob of its terrors.[85] - -As was usual in Florence when political feeling ran high, the hotter -partisans came to blows, and the streets were more than once disturbed -by violence and bloodshed. To an onlooker it must have seemed as if the -interposition of some external authority was desirable; and almost on -the same day as the new Priors, of whom Dante was one and who were all -Whites, took office in the June of 1300, the Cardinal Acquasparta -entered the city, deputed by the Pope to establish peace. His proposals -were declined by the party in power, and having failed in his mission he -left the city, and took the priestly revenge upon it of placing it under -interdict.[86] Ere many months were passed, the Blacks, at a meeting of -the heads of the party, resolved to open negotiations anew with -Boniface. For this illegal step some of them, including Corso Donati, -were ordered into exile by the authorities, who, to give an appearance -of impartiality to their proceedings, at the same time banished some of -the Whites, and among them Guido Cavalcanti. It was afterwards made a -charge against Dante that he had procured the recall of his friend Guido -and the other Whites from exile; but to this he could answer that he was -not then in office.[87] Corso in the meantime was using his enforced -absence from Florence to treat freely with the Pope. - -Boniface had already entered into correspondence with Charles of Valois, -brother of Philip, the reigning King of France, with the view of -securing the services of a strongly-connected champion. It was the game -that had been played before by the Roman Court when Charles of Anjou was -called to Italy to crush the Hohenstaufens. This second Charles was a -man of ability of a sort, as he had given cruel proof in his brother's -Flemish wars. By the death of his wife, daughter of his kinsman Charles -II. of Naples and so grand-daughter of Charles of Anjou, he had lost the -dominions of Maine and Anjou, and had got the nickname of Lackland from -his want of a kingdom. He lent a willing ear to Boniface, who presented -him with the crown of Sicily on condition that he first wrested it from -the Spaniard who wore it.[88] All the Papal influence was exerted to get -money for the expenses of the descent on Sicily. Even churchmen were -required to contribute, for it was a holy war, and the hope was that -when Charles, the champion of the Church, had reduced Italy to -obedience, won Sicily for himself by arms, and perhaps the Eastern -Empire by marriage, he would win the Holy Sepulchre for Christendom. - -Charles crossed the Alps in August 1301, with five hundred men-at-arms, -and, avoiding Florence on his southward march, found Boniface at his -favourite residence of Anagni. He was created Pacificator of Tuscany, -and loaded with other honours. What better served the purpose of his -ambition, he was urged to retrace his steps and justify his new title by -restoring peace to Florence. There the Whites were still in power, but -they dared not declare themselves openly hostile to the Papal and Guelf -interest by refusing him admission to the city. He came with gentle -words, and ready to take the most stringent oaths not to tamper with the -liberties of the Commonwealth; but once he had gained an entrance -(November 1301) and secured his hold on Florence, he threw off every -disguise, gave full play to his avarice, and amused himself with looking -on at the pillage of the dwellings and warehouses of the Whites by the -party of Corso Donati. By all this, says Dante, Charles 'gained no -land,' Lackland as he was, 'but only sin and shame.'[89] - -There is a want of precise information as to the events of this time. -But it seems probable that Dante formed one of an embassy sent by the -rulers of Florence to the Pope in the autumn of this year; and that on -the occasion of the entrance of Charles he was absent from Florence. -What the embassy had to propose which Boniface could be expected to be -satisfied with, short of complete submission, is not known and is not -easy to guess. It seems clear at least that Dante cannot have been -chosen as a person likely to be specially pleasing to the Roman Court. -Within the two years preceding he had made himself prominent in the -various Councils of which he was a member, by his sturdy opposition to -affording aid to the Pope in his Romagnese wars. It is even possible -that his theory of the Empire was already more or less known to -Boniface, and as that Pontiff claimed Imperial authority over such -states as Florence, this would be sufficient to secure him a rough -reception.[90] Where he was when the terrible news came to him that for -some days there had been no law in Florence, and that Corso Donati was -sharing in the triumph of Charles, we do not know. Presageful of worse -things to come, he did not seek to return, and is said to have been in -Siena when he heard that, on the 27th January 1302, he had been -sentenced to a heavy fine and political disabilities for having been -guilty of extortion while a Prior, of opposing the coming of Charles, -and of crimes against the peace of Florence and the interest of the -_Parte Guelfa_. If the fine was not paid within three days his goods and -property were to be confiscated. This condemnation he shared with three -others. In the following March he was one of twelve condemned, for -contumacy, to be burned alive if ever they fell into the hands of the -Florentine authorities. We may perhaps assume that the cruel sentence, -as well as the charge of peculation, was uttered only in order to -conform to some respectable precedents. - - -V. - -Besides Dante many other Whites had been expelled from Florence.[91] -Whether they liked it or not, they were forced to seek aid from the -Ghibelines of Arezzo and Romagna. This led naturally to a change of -political views, and though at the time of their banishment all of them -were Guelfs in various degrees, as months and years went on they -developed into Ghibelines, more or less declared. Dissensions, too, -would be bred among them out of recriminations touching the past, and -charges of deserting the general interest for the sake of securing -private advantage in the way of making peace with the Republic. For a -time, however, the common desire of gaining a return to Florence held -them together. Of the Council constituted to bring this about, Dante was -a member. Once only with his associates does he appear to have come the -length of formal negotiations with a view to getting back. Charles of -Valois had passed away from the temporary scene of his extortions and -treachery, upon the futile quest of a crown. Boniface, ere being -persecuted to death by his old ally, Philip of France (1303), had vainly -attempted to check the cruelty of the Blacks; and Benedict, his -successor, sent the Cardinal of Ostia to Florence with powers to -reconcile the two parties. Dante is usually credited with the -composition of the letter in which Vieri dei Cerchi and his -fellow-exiles answered the call of the Cardinal to discuss the -conditions of their return home. All that had been done by the banished -party, said the letter, had been done for the public good.[92] The -negotiations came to nothing; nor were the exiles more fortunate in -arms. Along with their allies they did once succeed by a sudden dash in -penetrating to the market-place, and Florence lay within their grasp -when, seized with panic, they turned and fled from the city, which many -of them were never to see again. - -Almost certainly Dante took no active part in this attempt, and indeed -there is little to show that he was ever heartily associated with the -exiles. In his own words, he was compelled to break with his companions -owing to their imbecility and wickedness, and to form a party by -himself.[93] With the Whites, then, he had little more to do; and the -story of their fortunes need not longer detain us. It is enough to say -that while, like Dante, the chief men among them were for ever excluded -from Florence, the principles for which they had contended survived, and -even obtained something like a triumph within its walls. The success of -Donati and his party, though won with the help of the people, was too -clearly opposed to the popular interest to be permanent. Ere long the -inveterate contradiction between magnate and merchant was again to -change the course of Florentine politics; the disabilities against -lawless nobles were again to be enforced; and Corso Donati himself was -to be crushed in the collision of passions he had evoked but could not -control (1308). Though tenderly attached to members of his family, Dante -bore Corso a grudge as having been the chief agent in procuring his -exile--a grudge which years could do nothing to wipe out. He places in -the mouth of Forese Donati a prophecy of the great Baron's shameful -death, expressed in curt and scornful words, terrible from a -brother.[94] It is no figure of speech to say that Dante nursed revenge. - -For some few years his hopes were set on Henry of Luxemburg, elected -Emperor in 1308. A Ghibeline, in the ordinary sense of the term, Dante -never was. We have in his _De Monarchia_ a full account of the -conception he had formed of the Empire--that of authority in temporal -affairs embodied in a just ruler, who, being already supreme, would be -delivered from all personal ambition; who should decree justice and be a -refuge for all that were oppressed. He was to be the captain of -Christian society and the guardian of civil right; as in another sphere -the Pope was to be the shepherd of souls and the guardian of the deposit -of Divine truth. In Dante's eyes the one great officer was as much God's -vicegerent as the other. While the most that a Ghibeline or a moderate -Guelf would concede was that there should be a division of power between -Pope and Emperor--the Ghibeline leaving it to the Emperor and the Guelf -to the Pope to define their provinces--Dante held, and in this he stood -almost alone among politicians, that they ought to be concerned with -wholly different kingdoms, and that Christendom was wronged by the -trespass of either upon the other's domain. An equal wrong was done by -the neglect by either of his duty, and both, as Dante judged, had been -shamefully neglecting it. For more than half a century no Emperor had -set foot in Italy; and since the Papal Court had under Clement V. been -removed to Avignon (1305), the Pope had ceased to be a free agent, owing -to his neighbourhood to France and the unscrupulous Philip.[95] - -Dante trusted that the virtuous single-minded Henry VII. would prove a -monarch round whom all the best in Italy might gather to make him -Emperor in deed as well as in name. His judgment took the colour of his -hopes, for under the awful shadow of the Emperor he trusted to enter -Florence. Although no Ghibeline or Imperialist in the vulgar sense, he -constituted himself Henry's apologist and herald; and in letters -addressed to the 'wicked Florentines,' to the Emperor, and to the -Princes and Peoples of Italy, he blew as it were a trumpet-blast of -triumph over the Emperor's enemies and his own. Henry had crossed the -Alps, and was tarrying in the north of Italy, when Dante, with a keen -eye for where the key of the situation lay, sharpened by his own wishes, -urged him to lose no more time in reducing the Lombard cities to -obedience, but to descend on Florence, the rotten sheep which was -corrupting all the Italian flock. The men of Florence he bids prepare to -receive the just reward of their crimes. - -The Florentines answered Dante's bitter invective and the Emperor's -milder promises by an unwearied opposition with the arms which their -increasing command of all that tends to soften life made them now less -willing to take up, and by the diplomacy in which they were supreme The -exiles were recalled, always excepting the more stubborn or dangerous; -and among these was reckoned Dante. Alliances were made on all hands, an -art which Henry was notably wanting in the trick of. Wherever he turned -he was met and checkmated by the Florentines, who, wise by experience, -were set on retaining control of their own affairs. After his coronation -at Rome (1312),[96] he marched northwards, and with his Pisan and -Aretine allies for six weeks laid fruitless siege to Florence. King -Robert of Naples, whose aid he had hoped to gain by means of a family -alliance, was joined to the league of Guelfs, and Henry passed away from -Florence to engage in an enterprise against the Southern Kingdom, a -design cut short by his death (1313). He was the last Emperor that ever -sought to take the part in Italian affairs which on Dante's theory -belonged to the Imperial office. Well-meaning but weak, he was not the -man to succeed in reducing to practice a scheme of government which had -broken down even in the strong hands of the two Fredericks, and ere the -Commonwealths of Italy had become each as powerful as a Northern -kingdom. To explain his failure, Dante finds that his descent into Italy -was unseasonable: he came too soon. Rather, it may be said, he came far -too late.[97] - -When, on the death of Henry, Dante was disappointed in his hopes of a -true revival of the Empire, he devoted himself for a time to urging the -restoration of the Papal Court to Rome, so that Italy might at least not -be left without some centre of authority. In a letter addressed to the -Italian Cardinals, he besought them to replace Clement V., who died in -1314,[98] by an Italian Pope. Why should they, he asked, resign this -great office into Gascon hands? Why should Rome, the true centre of -Christendom, be left deserted and despised? His appeal was fruitless, as -indeed it could not fail to be with only six Italian Cardinals in a -College of twenty-four; and after a vacancy of two years the Gascon -Clement was succeeded by another Gascon. Although Dante's motives in -making this attempt were doubtless as purely patriotic as those which -inspired Catherine of Siena to similar action a century later, he met, -we may be sure, with but little sympathy from his former -fellow-citizens. They were intent upon the interests of Florence alone, -and even of these they may sometimes have taken a narrow view. His was -the wider patriotism of the Italian, and it was the whole Peninsula -that he longed to see delivered from French influence and once more -provided with a seat of authority in its midst, even if it were only -that of spiritual power. The Florentines for their part, desirous of -security against the incursions of the northern horde, were rather set -on retaining the goodwill of France than on enjoying the neighbourhood -of the Pope. In this they were guilty of no desertion of their -principles. Their Guelfism had never been more than a mode of minding -themselves. - -For about three years (1313-1316) the most dangerous foe of Florence was -Uguccione de la Faggiuola, a partisan Ghibeline chief, sprung from the -mountain-land of Urbino, which lies between Tuscany and Romagna. He made -himself lord of Pisa and Lucca, and defeated the Florentines and their -allies in the great battle of Montecatini (1315). To him Dante is -believed to have attached himself.[99] It would be easy for the Republic -to form an exaggerated idea of the part which the exile had in shaping -the policy or contributing to the success of his patron; and we are not -surprised to find that, although Dante's fighting days were done, he was -after the defeat subjected to a third condemnation (November 1315). If -caught, he was to lose his head; and his sons, or some of them, were -threatened with the same fate. The terms of the sentence may again have -been more severe than the intentions of those who uttered it. However -this may be, an amnesty was passed in the course of the following year, -and Dante was urged to take advantage of it. He found the conditions of -pardon too humiliating. Like a malefactor he would require to walk, -taper in hand and a shameful mitre on his head, to the church of St -John, and there make an oblation for his crimes. It was not in this -fashion that in his more hopeful hours the exile had imagined his -restoration. If ever he trod again the pavement of his beautiful St -John's, it was to be proudly, as a patriot touching whom his country had -confessed her sins; or, with a poet's more bashful pride, to receive the -laurel crown beside the font in which he was baptized. But as he would -not enter his well beloved, well hated Florence on the terms imposed by -his enemies, so he never had the chance of entering it on his own. The -spirit in which he, as it were, turned from the open gates of his native -town is well expressed in a letter to a friend, who would seem to have -been a churchman who had tried to win his compliance with the terms of -the pardon. After thanking his correspondent for his kindly eagerness to -recover him, and referring to the submission required, he says:--'And is -it in this glorious fashion that Dante Alighieri, wearied with an almost -trilustral exile, is recalled to his country? Is this the desert of an -innocence known to all, and of laborious study which for long has kept -him asweat?... But, Father, this is no way for me to return to my -country by; though if by you or others one can be hit upon through which -the honour and fame of Dante will take no hurt, it shall be followed by -me with no tardy steps. If by none such Florence is to be entered, I -will never enter Florence. What then! Can I not, wherever I may be, -behold the sun and stars? Is not meditation upon the sweetness of truth -as free to me in one place as another? To enjoy this, no need to submit -myself ingloriously and with ignominy to the State and People of -Florence! And wherever I may be thrown, in any case I trust at least to -find daily bread.' - -The cruelty and injustice of Florence to her greatest son have been the -subject of much eloquent blame. But, in justice to his contemporaries, -we must try to see Dante as they saw him, and bear in mind that the very -qualities fame makes so much of--his fervent temper and devotion to -great ideas--placed him out of the reach of common sympathy. Others -besides him had been banished from Florence, with as much or as little -reason, and had known the saltness of bread which has been begged, and -the steepness of strange stairs. The pains of banishment made them the -more eager to have it brought to a close. With Dante all that he -suffered went to swell the count of grievances for which a reckoning was -some day to be exacted. The art of returning was, as he himself knew -well, one he was slow to learn.[100] His noble obstinacy, which would -stoop to no loss of dignity or sacrifice of principle, must excite our -admiration; it also goes far to account for his difficulty in getting -back. We can even imagine that in Florence his refusal to abate one -tittle of what was due to him in the way of apology was, for a time, the -subject of wondering speculation to the citizens, ere they turned again -to their everyday affairs of politics and merchandise. Had they been -more used to deal with men in whom a great genius was allied to a -stubborn sense of honour, they would certainly have left less room in -their treatment of Dante for happier ages to cavil at. - -How did the case stand? In the letter above quoted from, Dante says that -his innocence was known to all. As far as the charge of corruption in -his office-bearing went, his banishment--no one can doubt it for a -moment--was certainly unjust; and the political changes in Florence -since the death of Corso Donati had taken all the life out of the other -charges. But by his eager appeals to the Emperor to chastise the -Florentines he had raised fresh barriers against his return. The -governors of the Republic could not be expected to adopt his theory of -the Empire and share his views of the Imperial claims; and to them Dante -must have seemed as much guilty of disloyalty to the Commonwealth in -inviting the presence of Henry, as Corso Donati had been in Dante's eyes -for his share in bringing Charles of Valois to harry Florence. His -political writings since his exile--and all his writings were more or -less political--had been such as might well confirm or create an opinion -of him as a man difficult to live with, as one whose intellectual -arrogance had a ready organ in his unsparing tongue or pen. Rumour -would most willingly dwell upon and distort the features of his -character and conduct that separated him from the common herd. And to -add to all this, even after he had deserted the party of the Whites in -exile, and had become a party to himself, he found his friends and -patrons--for where else could he find them?--among the foes of Florence. - - -VI. - -History never abhors a vacuum so much as when she has to deal with the -life of a great man, and for those who must have details of Dante's -career during the nineteen years which elapsed between his banishment -and his death, the industry of his biographers has exhausted every -available hint, while some of them press into their service much that -has only the remotest bearing on their hero. If even one-half of their -suppositions were adopted, we should be forced to the conclusion that -the _Comedy_ and all the other works of his exile were composed in the -intervals of a very busy life. We have his own word for this much, -(_Convito_ i. 3,) that since he was cast forth out of Florence--in which -he would 'fain rest his wearied soul and fulfil his appointed time'--he -had been 'a pilgrim, nay, even a mendicant,' in every quarter of -Italy,[101] and had 'been held cheap by many who, because of his fame, -had looked to find him come in another guise.' But he gives no journal -of his wanderings, and, as will have been observed, says no word of any -country but Italy. Keeping close to well-ascertained facts, it seems -established that in the earlier period of his exile he sojourned with -members of the great family of the Counts Guidi,[102] and that he also -found hospitality with the Malaspini,[103] lords of the Val di Magra, -between Genoa and Lucca. At a still earlier date (August 1306) he is -found witnessing a deed in Padua. It was most probably in the same year -that Dante found Giotto there, painting the walls of the Scrovegni -Chapel, and was courteously welcomed by the artist, and taken to his -house.[104] At some time of his life he studied at Bologna: John Villani -says, during his exile.[105] Of his supposed residence in Paris, though -it is highly probable, there is a want of proof; of a visit to England, -none at all that is worth a moment's consideration. Some of his -commentators and biographers seem to think he was so short-witted that -he must have been in a place before it could occur to him to name it in -his verse. - -We have Dante's own word for it that he found his exile almost -intolerable. Besides the bitter resentment which he felt at the -injustice of it, he probably cherished the conviction that his career -had been cut short when he was on the point of acquiring great influence -in affairs. The illusion may have been his--one not uncommon among men -of a powerful imagination--that, given only due opportunity, he could -mould the active life of his time as easily as he moulded and fashioned -the creations of his fancy. It was, perhaps, owing to no fault of his -own that when a partial opportunity had offered itself, he failed to get -his views adopted in Florence; indeed, to judge from the kind of -employment in which he was more than once engaged for his patrons, he -must have been possessed of no little business tact. Yet, as when his -feelings were deeply concerned his words knew no restraint, so his hopes -would partake of the largeness of his genius. In the restored Empire, -which he was almost alone in longing for as he conceived of it, he may -have imagined for himself a place beside Henry like what in Frederick's -court had been filled by Pier delle Vigne--the man who held both keys to -the Emperor's heart, and opened and shut it as he would.[106] - -Thus, as his exile ran on it would grow sadder with the accumulating -memories of hopes deferred and then destroyed, and of dreams which had -faded away in the light of a cheerless reality. But some consolations he -must have found even in the conditions of his exile. He had leisure for -meditation, and time enough to spend in that other world which was all -his own. With the miseries of a wanderer's life would come not a few of -its sweets--freedom from routine, and the intellectual stimulus supplied -by change of place. Here and there he would find society such as he -cared for--that of scholars, theologians, and men familiar with every -court and school of Christendom. And, beyond all, he would get access to -books that at home he might never have seen. It was no spare diet that -would serve his mind while he was making such ample calls on it for his -great work. As it proceeds we seem to detect a growing fulness of -knowledge, and it is by reason of the more learned treatment, as well as -the loftier theme of the Third Cantica, that so many readers, when once -well at sea in the _Paradiso_, recognise the force of the warning with -which it begins.[107] - -What amount of intercourse he was able to maintain with Florence during -his wanderings is a matter of mere speculation, although of a more -interesting kind than that concerned with the chronology of his uneasy -travels. That he kept up at least some correspondence with his friends -is proved by the letter regarding the terms of his pardon. There is also -the well-known anecdote told by Boccaccio as to the discovery and -despatch to him of the opening Cantos of the _Inferno_--an anecdote we -may safely accept as founded on fact, although Boccaccio's informants -may have failed to note at the time what the manuscript consisted of, -and in the course of years may have magnified the importance of their -discovery. With his wife he would naturally communicate on subjects of -common interest--as, for instance, that of how best to save or recover -part of his property--and especially regarding the welfare of his sons, -of whom two are found to be with him when he acquires something like a -settlement in Verona. - -It is quite credible that, as Boccaccio asserts, he would never after -his exile was once begun 'go to his wife or suffer her to join him where -he was;' although the statement is probably an extension of the fact -that she never did join him. In any case it is to make too large a use -of the words to find in them evidence, as has frequently been done, of -the unhappiness of all his married life, and of his utter estrangement -from Gemma during his banishment. The union--marriage of convenience -though it was--might be harmonious enough as long as things went -moderately well with the pair. Dante was never wealthy, but he seems to -have had his own house in Florence and small landed possessions in its -neighbourhood.[108] That before his banishment he was considerably in -debt appears to be ascertained;[109] but, without knowing the -circumstances in which he borrowed, it is impossible to be sure whether -he may not only have been making use of his credit in order to put out -part of his means to advantage in some of the numerous commercial -enterprises in which his neighbours were engaged. In any case his career -must have seemed full of promise till he was driven into banishment. -When that blow had fallen, it is easy to conceive how what if it was not -mutual affection had come to serve instead of it--esteem and -forbearance--would be changed into indifference with the lapse of months -and years of enforced separation, embittered and filled on both sides -with the mean cares of indigence, and, it may be, on Gemma's side with -the conviction that her husband had brought her with himself into -disgrace. If all that is said by Boccaccio and some of Dante's enemies -as to his temperament and behaviour were true, we could only hope that -Gemma's indifference was deep enough to save her from the pangs of -jealousy. And on the other hand, if we are to push suspicion to its -utmost length, we may find an allusion to his own experience in the -lines where Dante complains of how soon a widow forgets her -husband.[110] But this is all matter of the merest speculation. Gemma -is known to have been alive in 1314.[111] She brought up her children, -says Boccaccio, upon a trifling part of her husband's confiscated -estate, recovered on the plea that it was a portion of her dowry. There -may have been difficulties of a material kind, insuperable save to an -ardent love that was not theirs, in the way of Gemma's joining her -husband in any of his cities of refuge. - -Complete evidence exists of Dante's having in his later years lived for -a longer or shorter time in the three cities of Lucca, Verona, and -Ravenna. In Purgatory he meets a shade from Lucca, in the murmur of -whose words he catches he 'knows not what of Gentucca;'[112] and when he -charges the Lucchese to speak plainly out, he is told that Lucca shall -yet be found pleasant by him because of a girl not yet grown to -womanhood. Uguccione, acting in the interest of Pisa, took possession of -Lucca in 1314, and Dante is supposed to have taken up his residence -there for some considerable time. What we may certainly infer from his -own words in the _Purgatorio_ is that they were written after a stay in -Lucca had been sweetened to him by the society of a lady named Gentucca. -He cannot well have found shelter there before the city was held by -Uguccione; and research has established that at least two ladies of the -uncommon name of Gentucca were resident there in 1314. From the whole -tone of his allusion--the mention of her very name and of her innocent -girlhood--we may gather that there was nothing in his liking for her of -which he had any reason to feel ashamed. In the _Inferno_ he had covered -the whole people of Lucca with his scorn.[113] By the time he got thus -far with the _Purgatorio_ his thoughts of the place were all softened by -his memory of one fair face--or shall we rather say, of one -compassionate and womanly soul? That Dante was more than susceptible to -feminine charms is coarsely asserted by Boccaccio.[114] But on such a -matter Boccaccio is a prejudiced witness, and, in the absence of -sufficient proof to the contrary, justice requires us to assume that the -tenor of Dante's life was not at variance with that of his writings. He -who was so severe a judge of others was not, as we can infer from more -than one passage of the _Comedy_, a lenient judge when his own failings -were concerned.[115] That his conduct never fell short of his standard -no one will venture to maintain. But what should have hindered him, in -his hours of weariness and when even his hold on the future seemed to -slacken, in lonely castle or strange town, to seek sympathy from some -fair woman who might remind him in something of Beatrice?[116] - -When, in 1316, Uguccione was driven out of Lucca and Pisa, that great -partisan took military service with Can Grande. It has been disputed -whether Dante had earlier enjoyed the hospitality of the Scaligers, or -was indebted for his first reception in Verona to the good offices of -Uguccione. It is barely credible that by this time in his life he stood -in need of any one to answer for him in the court of Can Grande. His -fame as a political writer must have preceded him; and it was of a -character to commend him to the good graces of the great Imperialist. In -his _De Monarchia_ he had, by an exhaustive treatment of propositions -which now seem childish or else the mere commonplaces of everyday -political argument, established the right of the civil power to -independence of Church authority; and though to the Scaliger who aimed -at becoming Imperial lieutenant for all the North of Italy he might seem -needlessly tender to the spiritual lordship of the Holy Father, yet the -drift of his reasoning was all in favour of the Ghibeline position.[117] -Besides this he had written on the need of refining the dialects of -Italian, and reducing them to a language fit for general use in the -whole of the Peninsula; and this with a novelty of treatment and wealth -of illustration unequalled before or since in any first work on such a -subject.[118] And, what would recommend him still more to a youthful -prince of lofty taste, he was the poet of the 'sweet new style' of the -_Vita Nuova_, and of sonnets, ballads, and canzoni rich in language and -thought beyond the works of all previous poets in the vulgar tongues. -Add to this that the _Comedy_ was already written, and published up, -perhaps, to the close of the _Purgatorio_, and that all Italy was eager -to find who had a place, and what kind of place, in the strange new -world from which the veil was being withdrawn; and it is easy to imagine -that Dante's reception at Can Grande's court was rather that of a man -both admired and feared for his great genius, than that of a wandering -scholar and grumbling exile. - -At what time Dante came to Verona, and for how long he stayed, we have -no means of fixing with certainty. He himself mentions being there in -1320,[119] and it is usually supposed that his residence covered three -years previous to that date; as also that it was shared by his two sons, -Piero and Jacopo. One of these was afterwards to find a settlement at -Verona in a high legal post. Except some frivolous legends, there is no -evidence that Dante met with anything but generous treatment from Can -Grande. A passage of the _Paradiso_, written either towards the close of -the poet's residence at Verona, or after he had left it, is full of a -praise of the great Scaliger so magnificent[120] as fully to make amends -for the contemptuous mention in the _Purgatorio_ of his father and -brother.[121] To Can Grande the _Paradiso_ was dedicated by the author -in a long epistle containing an exposition of how the first Canto of -that Cantica, and, by implication, the whole of the poem, is to be -interpreted. The letter is full of gratitude for favours already -received, and of expectation of others yet to come. From the terms of -the dedication it has been assumed that ere it was made the whole of the -_Paradiso_ was written, and that Dante praises the lord of Verona after -a long experience of his bounty.[122] - -Whether owing to the restlessness of an exile, or to some prospect of -attaining a state of greater ease or of having the command of more -congenial society, we cannot tell; but from the splendid court of Can -Grande he moved down into Romagna, to Ravenna, the city which of all in -Italy would now be fixed upon by the traveller as the fittest place for -a man of genius, weighed down by infinite sorrows, to close his days in -and find a tomb. Some writers on the life of Dante will have it that in -Ravenna he spent the greater part of his exile, and that when he is -found elsewhere--in Lucca or Verona--he is only on a temporary absence -from his permanent home.[123] But this conclusion requires some facts to -be ignored, and others unduly dwelt on. In any case his patron there, -during at least the last year or two of his life, was Guido Novello of -Polenta, lord of Ravenna, the nephew of her who above all the persons of -the _Comedy_ lives in the hearts of its readers. - -Bernardino, the brother of Francesca and uncle of Guido, had fought on -the side of Florence at the battle of Campaldino, and Dante may then -have become acquainted with him. The family had the reputation of being -moderate Guelfs; but ere this the exile, with his ripe experience of -men, had doubtless learned, while retaining intact his own opinions as -to what was the true theory of government, to set good-heartedness and -a noble aim in life above political orthodoxy. This Guido Novello--the -younger Guido--bears the reputation of having been well-informed, of -gentle manners, and fond of gathering around him men accomplished in -literature and the fine arts. On the death of Dante he made a formal -oration in honour of the poet. If his welcome of Dante was as cordial as -is generally supposed, and as there is no reason to doubt that it was, -it proved his magnanimity; for in the _Purgatorio_ a family specially -hostile to the Polentas had been mentioned with honour,[124] while that -to which his wife belonged had been lightly spoken of. How he got over -the condemnation of his kinswoman to Inferno--even under such gentle -conditions--it would be more difficult to understand were there not -reason to believe that ere Dante went to Ravenna it had come to be a -matter of pride in Italy for a family to have any of its members placed -anywhere in that other world of which Dante held the key. - -It seems as if we might assume that the poet's last months or years were -soothed by the society of his daughter--the child whom he had named -after the object of his first and most enduring love.[125] Whether or -not he was acting as Ambassador for Guido to Venice when he caught his -last illness, it appears to be pretty well established that he was held -in honour by his patron and all around him.[126] For his hours of -meditation he had the solemn churches of Ravenna with their storied -walls,[127] and the still more solemn pine forest of Classis, by him -first annexed to the world of Romance.[128] For hours of relaxation, -when they came, he had neighbours who dabbled in letters and who could -at any rate sympathise with him in his love of study. He maintained -correspondence with poets and scholars in other cities. In at least one -instance this was conducted in the bitter fashion with which the -humanists of a century or two later were to make the world -familiar;[129] but with the Bolognese scholar, Giovanni del Virgilio, he -engaged in a good-humoured, half-bantering exchange of Latin pastoral -poems, through the artificial imagery of which there sometimes breaks a -natural thought, as when in answer to the pedant's counsel to renounce -the vulgar tongue and produce in Latin something that will entitle him -to receive the laurel crown in Bologna, he declares that if ever he is -crowned as a poet it will be on the banks of the Arno. - -Most of the material for forming a judgment of how Dante stood affected -to the religious beliefs of his time is to be gathered from the -_Comedy_, and the place for considering it would rather be in an essay -on that work than in a sketch of his life which necessity compels to be -swift. A few words may however be here devoted to the subject, as it is -one with some bearing on the manner in which he would be regarded by -those around him, and through that on the tenor of his life. That Dante -conformed to Church observances, and, except with a few malevolent -critics, bore the reputation of a good Catholic, there can be no doubt. -It was as a politician and not as a heretic that he suffered -persecution; and when he died he was buried in great honour within the -Franciscan Church at Ravenna. Some few years after his death, it is -true, his _De Monarchia_ was burned as heretical by orders of the Papal -Legate in Lombardy, who would gladly, if he could, have had the bones of -the author exhumed to share the fate of his book. But all this was only -because the partisans of Lewis of Bavaria were making political capital -out of the treatise. - -Attempts have been made to demonstrate that in spite of his outward -conformity Dante was an unbeliever at heart, and that the _Comedy_ is -devoted to the promulgation of a Ghibeline heresy--of which, we may be -sure, no Ghibeline ever heard--and to the overthrow of all that the -author professed most devoutly to believe.[130] Other critics of a more -sober temper in speculation would find in him a Catholic who held the -Catholic beliefs with the same slack grasp as the teaching of Luther was -held by Lessing or Goethe.[131] But this is surely to misread the -_Comedy_, which is steeped from beginning to end in a spirit of the -warmest faith in the great Christian doctrines. It was no mere -intellectual perception of these that Dante had--or professed to -have--for when in Paradise he has satisfied Saint Peter of his being -possessed of a just conception of the nature of faith, and is next asked -if, besides knowing what is the alloy of the coin and the weight of it, -he has it in his own purse, he answers boldly, 'Yea, and so shining and -round that of a surety it has the lawful stamp.'[132] And further on, -when required to declare in what he believes, nothing against the -fulness of his creed is to be inferred from the fact that he stops short -after pronouncing his belief in the existence of God and in the Trinity. -This article he gives as implying all the others; it is 'the spark which -spreads out into a vivid flame.'[133] - -Yet if the inquiry were to be pushed further, and it were sought to find -how much of free thought he allowed himself in matters of religion, -Dante might be discovered to have reached his orthodox position by ways -hateful to the bigots who then took order for preserving the purity of -the faith. The office of the Pope he deeply revered, but the Papal -absolution avails nothing in his eyes compared with one tear of -heartfelt repentance.[134] It is not on the word of Pope or Council that -he rests his faith, but on the Scriptures, and on the evidences of the -truth of Christianity, freely examined and weighed.[135] Chief among -these evidences, it must however be noted, he esteemed the fact of the -existence of the Church as he found it;[136] and in his inquiries he -accepted as guides the Scholastic Doctors on whose reasonings the Church -had set its seal of approbation. It was a foregone conclusion he reached -by stages of his own. Yet that he sympathised at least as much with the -honest search for truth as with the arrogant profession of orthodoxy, is -shown by his treatment of heretics. He could not condemn severely such -as erred only because their reason would not consent to rest like his in -the prevalent dogmatic system; and so we find that he makes heresy -consist less in intellectual error than in beliefs that tend to vitiate -conduct, or to cause schism in societies divinely constituted.[137] For -his own part, orthodox although he was, or believed himself to be--which -is all that needs to be contended for,--in no sense was he -priest-ridden. It was liberty that he went seeking on his great -journey;[138] and he gives no hint that it is to be gained by the -observance of forms or in submission to sacerdotal authority. He knows -it is in his reach only when he has been crowned, and mitred too, lord -of himself[139]--subject to Him alone of whom even Popes were -servants.[140] - -Although in what were to prove his last months Dante might amuse himself -with the composition of learned trifles, and in the society and -correspondence of men who along with him, if on lines apart from his, -were preparing the way for the revival of classical studies, the best -part of his mind, then as for long before, was devoted to the _Comedy_; -and he was counting on the suffrages of a wider audience than courts and -universities could supply. - -Here there is no room to treat at length of that work, to which when we -turn our thoughts all else he wrote--though that was enough to secure -him fame--seems to fall into the background as if unworthy of his -genius. What can hardly be passed over in silence is that in the -_Comedy_, once it was begun, he must have found a refuge for his soul -from all petty cares, and a shield against all adverse fortune. We must -search its pages, and not the meagre records of his biographers, to find -what was the life he lived during the years of his exile; for, in a -sense, it contains the true journal of his thoughts, of his hopes, and -of his sorrows. The plan was laid wide enough to embrace the -observations he made of nature and of man, the fruits of his painful -studies, and the intelligence he gathered from those experienced in -travel, politics, and war. It was not only his imagination and artistic -skill that were spent upon the poem: he gave his life to it. The future -reward he knew was sure--an immortal fame; but he hoped for a nearer -profit on his venture. Florence might at last relent, if not because of -his innocence and at the spectacle of his inconsolable exile, at least -on hearing the rumour of his genius borne to her from every corner of -Italy:-- - - If e'er it comes that this my sacred Lay, - To which both Heaven and Earth have set their hand-- - Through which these many years I waste away-- - Shall quell the cruelty that keeps me banned - From the fair fold where I, a lamb, was found - Hostile to wolves who 'gainst it violence planned; - With other fleece and voice of other sound, - Poet will I return, and at the font - Where I was christened be with laurel crowned.[141] - -But with the completion of the _Comedy_ Dante's life too came to a -close. He died at Ravenna in the month of September 1321. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Matilda died in 1115. The name Tessa, the contraction of Contessa, -was still, long after her time, sometimes given to Florentine girls. See -Perrens, _Histoire de Florence_, vol. i. p. 126. - -[2] Whether by Matilda the great Countess is meant has been eagerly -disputed, and many of the best critics--such as Witte and -Scartazzini--prefer to find in her one of the ladies of the _Vita -Nuova_. In spite of their pains it seems as if more can be said for the -great Matilda than for any other. The one strong argument against her -is, that while she died old, in the poem she appears as young. - -[3] See note on _Inferno_ xxx. 73. - -[4] It might, perhaps, be more correct to say that to some offices the -nobles were eligible, but did not elect. - -[5] _Inf._ xiii. 75. - -[6] _Inf._ x. 119. - -[7] _Inf._ xxiii. 66. - -[8] _Inf._ x. 51. - -[9] _Purg._ vi. 144. - -[10] Dante sets the Abbot among the traitors in Inferno, and says -scornfully of him that his throat was cut at Florence (_Inf._ xxxii. -119). - -[11] Villani throws doubt on the guilt of the Abbot. There were some -cases of churchmen being Ghibelines, as for instance that of the -Cardinal Ubaldini (_Inf._ x. 120). Twenty years before the Abbot's death -the General of the Franciscans had been jeered at in the streets of -Florence for turning his coat and joining the Emperor. On the other -hand, many civilians were to be found among the Guelfs. - -[12] Manfred, says John Villani (_Cronica_, vi. 74 and 75), at first -sent only a hundred men. Having by Farinata's advice been filled with -wine before a skirmish in which they were induced to engage, they were -easily cut in pieces by the Florentines; and the royal standard was -dragged in the dust. The truth of the story matters less than that it -was believed in Florence. - -[13] Provenzano is found by Dante in Purgatory, which he has been -admitted to, in spite of his sins, because of his self-sacrificing -devotion to a friend (_Purg._ xi. 121). - -[14] For this good advice he gets a word of praise in Inferno (_Inf._ -xvi. 42). - -[15] These mercenaries, though called Germans, were of various races. -There were even Greeks and Saracens among them. The mixture corresponded -with the motley civilisation of Manfred's court. - -[16] _Inf._ xxxii. 79. - -[17] _Inf._ x. 93. - -[18] Lucera was a fortress which had been peopled with Saracens by -Frederick. - -[19] Manfred, _Purg._ iii. 112; Charles, _Purg._ vii. 113. - -[20] _Purg._ xx. 67. - -[21] _Purg._ iii. 122. - -[22] For an account of the constitution and activity of the _Parte -Guelfa_ at a later period, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. iv. p. -482. - -[23] _Purg._ xx. 68. - -[24] _Parad._ xi. 89. - -[25] _Parad._ xvi. 40, etc. - -[26] _Inf._ xxix. 31. - -[27] _Inf._ x. 42. Though Dante was descended from nobles, his rank in -Florence was not that of a noble or magnate, but of a commoner. - -[28] The month is indicated by Dante himself, _Parad._ xxii. 110. The -year has recently been disputed. For 1265 we have J. Villani and the -earliest biographers; and Dante's own expression at the beginning of the -_Comedy_ is in favour of it. - -[29] _Inf._ xxiii. 95. - -[30] _Inf._ xix. 17; _Parad._ xxv. 9. - -[31] _Purg._ xxx. 55. - -[32] _Inf._ viii. 45, where Virgil says of Dante that blessed was she -that bore him, can scarcely be regarded as an exception to this -statement. - -[33] In 1326, out of a population of ninety thousand, from eight to ten -thousand children were being taught to read; and from five to six -hundred were being taught grammar and logic in four high schools. There -was not in Dante's time, or till much later, a University in Florence. -See J. Villani, xi. 94, and Burckhardt, _Cultur der Renaissance_, vol. -i. p. 76. - -[34] For an interesting account of Heresy in Florence from the eleventh -to the thirteenth centuries, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. i. -livre ii. chap. iii. - -[35] It opens with Brunetto's being lost in the forest of Roncesvalles, -and there are some other features of resemblance--all on the -surface--between his experience and Dante's. - -[36] G. Villani, viii. 10. Latini died in 1294. Villani gives the old -scholar a very bad moral character. - -[37] _Inf._ xv. 84. - -[38] We may, I think, assume the _Vita Nuova_ to have been published -some time between 1291 and 1300; but the dates of Dante's works are far -from being ascertained. - -[39] So long as even Italian critics are not agreed as to whether the -title means _New Life_, or _Youth_, I suppose one is free to take his -choice; and it seems most natural to regard it as referring to the new -world into which the lover is transported by his passion. - -[40] As, indeed, Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, expressly says was the -case. - -[41] In this adopting a device frequently used by the love-poets of the -period.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 312. - -[42] The _Vita Nuova_ contains some thirty poems. - -[43] See Sir Theodore Martin's Introduction to his Translation of _Vita -Nuova_, page xxi. - -[44] In this matter we must not judge the conduct of Dante by English -customs. - -[45] _Donne, ch' avete intelletto d' amore_: Ladies that are acquainted -well with love. Quoted in _Purg._ xxiv. 51. - -[46] Beatrice died in June 1290, having been born in April 1266. - -[47] _Purg._ xi. 98. - -[48] _Purg._ xxiv. 52. - -[49] The date of the _Convito_ is still the subject of controversy, as -is that of most of Dante's works. But it certainly was composed between -the _Vita Nuova_ and the _Comedy_. - -There is a remarkable sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti addressed to Dante, -reproaching him for the deterioration in his thoughts and habits, and -urging him to rid himself of the woman who has bred the trouble. This -may refer to the time after the death of Beatrice. See also _Purg._ xxx. -124. - -[50] _Convito_ ii. 13. - -[51] Some recent writers set his marriage five years later, and reduce -the number of his children to three. - -[52] His sister is probably meant by the 'young and gentle lady, most -nearly related to him by blood' mentioned in the _Vita Nuova_. - -[53] The difference between the Teutonic and Southern conception of -marriage must be kept in mind. - -[54] He describes the weather on the day of the battle with the -exactness of one who had been there (_Purg._ v. 155). - -[55] Leonardo Bruni. - -[56] _Inf._ xxii. 4. - -[57] _Inf._ xxi. 95. - -[58] _Conv._ iii. 9, where he illustrates what he has to say about the -nature of vision, by telling that for some time the stars, when he -looked at them, seemed lost in a pearly haze. - -[59] The _Convito_ was to have consisted of fifteen books. Only four -were written. - -[60] _Wife of Bath's Tale._ In the context he quotes _Purg._ vii. 121, -and takes ideas from the _Convito_. - -[61] Dies to sensual pleasure and is abstracted from all worldly affairs -and interests. See _Convito_ iv. 28. - -[62] From the last canzone of the _Convito_. - -[63] In the _Vita Nuova_. - -[64] _Purg._ xxiii. 115, xxiv. 75; _Parad._ iii. 49. - -[65] _Purg._ xi. 95. - -[66] _Purg._ ii. 91. - -[67] _Purg._ iv. 123. - -[68] Sacchetti's stories of how Dante showed displeasure with the -blacksmith and the donkey-driver who murdered his _canzoni_ are -interesting only as showing what kind of legends about him were current -in the streets of Florence.--Sacchetti, _Novelle_, cxiv, cxv. - -[69] _Purg._ xii. 101. - -[70] _Purg._ xi. 94:-- - - 'In painting Cimabue deemed the field - His own, but now on Giotto goes the cry, - Till by his fame the other's is concealed.' - -[71] Giotto is often said to have drawn inspiration from the _Comedy_; -but that Dante, on his side, was indebted to the new school of painting -and sculpture appears from many a passage of the _Purgatorio_. - -[72] Serfage had been abolished in 1289. But doubt has been thrown on -the authenticity of the deed of abolition. See Perrens, _Hist. de -Florence_, vol. ii. p. 349. - -[73] No unusual provision in the industrious Italian cities. Harsh -though it may seem, it was probably regarded as a valuable concession to -the nobles, for their disaffection appears to have been greatly caused -by their uneasiness under disabilities. There is much obscurity on -several points. How, for example, came the nobles to be allowed to -retain the command of the vast resources of the _Parte Guelfa_? This -made them almost independent of the Commonwealth. - -[74] At a later period the Priors were known as the Signory. - -[75] Fraticelli, _Storia della Vita di Dante_, page 112 and note. - -[76] It is to be regretted that Ampere in his charming _Voyage -Dantesque_ devoted no chapter to San Gemigniano, than which no Tuscan -city has more thoroughly preserved its mediaeval character. There is no -authority for the assertion that Dante was employed on several -Florentine embassies. The tendency of his early biographers is to -exaggerate his political importance and activity. - -[77] Under the date of April 1301 Dante is deputed by the Road Committee -to see to the widening, levelling, and general improvement of a street -in the suburbs.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 279. - -[78] Dante has a word of praise for Giano, at _Parad._ xvi. 127. - -[79] At which Dante fought. See page lxii. - -[80] Vieri was called Messer, a title reserved for magnates, knights, -and lawyers of a certain rank--notaries and jurisconsults; Dante, for -example, never gets it. - -[81] Villani acted for some time as an agent abroad of the great -business house of Peruzzi. - -[82] _Inf._ iii. 60. - -[83] He is 'the Prince of the modern Pharisees' (_Inf._ xxvii. 85); his -place is ready for him in hell (_Inf._ xix. 53); and he is elsewhere -frequently referred to. In one great passage Dante seems to relent -towards him (_Purg._ xx. 86). - -[84] Albert of Hapsburg was chosen Emperor in 1298, but was never -crowned at Rome. - -[85] As in the days of Guelf and Ghibeline, so now in those of Blacks -and Whites, the common multitude of townsmen belonged to neither party. - -[86] An interdict means that priests are to refuse sacred offices to all -in the community, who are thus virtually subjected to the minor -excommunication. - -[87] Guido died soon after his return in 1301. He had suffered in health -during his exile. See _Inf._ x. 63. - -[88] Charles of Anjou had lost Sicily at the Sicilian Vespers, 1282. - -[89] _Purg._ xx. 76. - -[90] Witte attributes the composition of the _De Monarchia_ to a period -before 1301 (_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. i. Fourth Art.), but the general -opinion of critics sets it much later. - -[91] _Inf._ vi. 66, where their expulsion is prophesied. - -[92] Dante's authorship of the letter is now much questioned. The drift -of recent inquiries has been rather to lessen than to swell the bulk of -materials for his biography. - -[93] _Parad._ xvii. 61. - -[94] _Purg._ xxiv. 82. - -[95] See at _Purg._ xx. 43 Dante's invective against Philip and the -Capets in general. - -[96] Henry had come to Italy with the Pope's approval. He was crowned by -the Cardinals who were in Rome as Legates. - -[97] _Parad._ xxx. 136. High in Heaven Dante sees an ample chair with a -crown on it, and is told it is reserved for Henry. He is to sit among -those who are clothed in white. The date assigned to the action of the -_Comedy_, it will be remembered, is the year 1300. - -[98] _Inf._ xix. 82, where the Gascon Clement is described as a 'Lawless -Pastor from the West.' - -[99] The ingenious speculations of Troya (_Del Veltro Allegorico di -Dante_) will always mark a stage in the history of the study of Dante, -but as is often the case with books on the subject, his shows a -considerable gap between the evidence adduced and the conclusions drawn -from it. He would make Dante to have been for many years a satellite of -the great Ghibeline chief. Dante's temper or pride, however we call it, -seems to have been such as to preserve him from ever remaining attached -for long to any patron. - -[100] _Inf._ x. 81. - -[101] The _Convito_ is in Italian, and his words are: 'wherever this -language is spoken.' - -[102] His letter to the Florentines and that to the Emperor are dated in -1311, from 'Near the sources of the Arno'--that is, from the Casentino, -where the Guidi of Romena dwelt. If the letter of condolence with the -Counts Oberto and Guido of Romena on the death of their uncle is -genuine, it has great value for the passage in which he excuses himself -for not having come to the funeral:--'It was not negligence or -ingratitude, but the poverty into which I am fallen by reason of my -exile. This, like a cruel persecutor, holds me as in a prison-house -where I have neither horse nor arms; and though I do all I can to free -myself, I have failed as yet.' The letter has no date. Like the other -ten or twelve epistles attributed to Dante, it is in Latin. - -[103] There is a splendid passage in praise of this family, _Purg._ -viii. 121. A treaty is on record in which Dante acts as representative -of the Malaspini in settling the terms of a peace between them and the -Bishop of Luni in October 1306. - -[104] The authority for this is Benvenuto of Imola in his comment on the -_Comedy_ (_Purg._ xi.). The portrait of Dante by Giotto, still in -Florence, but ruined by modern bungling restoration, is usually believed -to have been executed in 1301 or 1302. But with regard to this, see the -note at the end of this essay. - -[105] It is true that Villani not only says that 'he went to study at -Bologna,' but also that 'he went to Paris and many parts of the world' -(_Cronica_, ix. 136), and that Villani, of all contemporary or nearly -contemporary writers, is by far the most worthy of credence. But he -proves to be more than once in error regarding Dante; making him, -_e.g._, die in a wrong month and be buried in a wrong church at Ravenna. -And the 'many parts of the world' shows that here he is dealing in -hearsay of the vaguest sort. Nor can much weight be given to Boccaccio -when he sends Dante to Bologna and Paris. But Benvenuto of Imola, who -lectured on the _Comedy_ at Bologna within fifty years of Dante's death, -says that Dante studied there. It would indeed be strange if he did not, -and at more than one period, Bologna being the University nearest -Florence. Proof of Dante's residence in Paris has been found in his -familiar reference to the Rue du Fouarre (_Parad._ x. 137). His graphic -description of the coast between Lerici and Turbia (_Purg._ iii. 49, iv. -25) certainly seems to show a familiarity with the Western as well as -the Eastern Rivieras of Genoa. But it scarcely follows that he was on -his way to Paris when he visited them. - -[106] _Inf._ xiii. 58. - -[107] 'O ye, who have hitherto been following me in some small -craft, ... put not further to sea, lest, losing sight of me, you lose -yourselves' (_Parad._ ii. 1). But, to tell the truth, Dante is never so -weak as a poet as when he is most the philosopher or the theologian. -The following list of books more or less known to him is not given as -complete:--The Vulgate, beginning with St. Jerome's Prologue; Aristotle, -through the Latin translation then in vogue; Averroes, etc.; Thomas -Aquinas and the other Schoolmen; much of the Civil and Canon law; -Boethius; Homer only in scraps, through Aristotle, etc.; Virgil, Cicero -in part, Livy, Horace, Ovid, Terence, Lucan, and Statius; the works of -Brunetto Latini; the poetical literature of Provence, France, and Italy, -including the Arthurian Romances--the favourite reading of the Italian -nobles, and the tales of Charlemagne and his Peers--equally in favour -with the common people. There is little reason to suppose that among the -treatises of a scientific and quasi-scientific kind that he fell in -with, and of which he was an eager student, were included the works of -Roger Bacon. These there was a conspiracy among priests and schoolmen to -keep buried. Dante seems to have set little store on ecclesiastical -legends of wonder; at least he gives them a wide berth in his works. - -[108] In the notes to Fraticelli's _Vita di Dante_ (Florence 1861) are -given copies of documents relating to the property of the Alighieri, and -of Dante in particular. In 1343 his son Jacopo, by payment of a small -fine, recovered vineyards and farms that had been his father's.--Notes -to Chap. iii. Fraticelli's admirable Life is now in many respects out of -date. He accepts, _e.g._, Dino Compagni as an authority, and believes in -the romantic story of the letter of Fra Ilario. - -[109] The details are given by Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol ii. p. -61. The amount borrowed by Dante and his brother (and a friend) comes to -nearly a thousand gold florins. Witte takes this as equivalent to 37,000 -francs, _i.e._ nearly L1500. But the florin being the eighth of an -ounce, or about ten shillings' worth of gold, a thousand florins would -be equal only to L500--representing, of course, an immensely greater sum -now-a-days. - -[110] _Purg._ viii. 76. - -[111] See in Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri_, 1879, page 552, extract -from the will of her mother Maria Donati, dated February 1314. Many of -these Florentine dates are subject to correction, the year being usually -counted from Lady-Day. 'In 1880 a document was discovered which proves -Gemma to have been engaged in a law-suit in 1332.--_Il Propugnatore_, -xiii^a. 156,'--Scheffer-Boichorst, _Aus Dantes Verbannung_, page 213. - -[112] _Purg._ xxiv. 37. - -[113] _Inf._ xxi. 40. - -[114] _In questo mirifico poeta trovo ampissimo luego la lussuria; e non -solamente ne' giovanili anni, ma ancora ne' maturi._--Boccaccio, _La -Vita di Dante_. After mentioning that Dante was married, he indulges in -a long invective against marriage; confessing, however, that he is -ignorant of whether Dante experienced the miseries he describes. His -conclusion on the subject is that philosophers should leave marriage to -rich fools, to nobles, and to handicraftsmen. - -[115] In Purgatory his conscience accuses him of pride, and he already -seems to feel the weight of the grievous burden beneath which the proud -bend as they purge themselves of their sin (_Purg._ xiii. 136). Some -amount of self-accusation seems to be implied in such passages as -_Inf._, v. 142 and _Purg._ xxvii. 15, etc.; but too much must not be -made of it. - -[116] In a letter of a few lines to one of the Marquises Malaspina, -written probably in the earlier years of his exile, he tells how his -purpose of renouncing ladies' society and the writing of love-songs had -been upset by the view of a lady of marvellous beauty who 'in all -respects answered to his tastes, habits, and circumstances.' He says he -sends with the letter a poem containing a fuller account of his -subjection to this new passion. The poem is not found attached to the -copy of the letter, but with good reason it is guessed to be the Canzone -beginning _Amor, dacche convien_, which describes how he was -overmastered by a passion born 'in the heart of the mountains in the -valley of that river beside which he had always been the victim of -love.' This points to the Casentino as the scene. He also calls the -Canzone his 'mountain song.' The passion it expresses may be real, but -that he makes the most of it appears from the close, which is occupied -by the thought of how the verses will be taken in Florence. - -[117] However early the _De Monarchia_ may have been written, it is -difficult to think that it can be of a later date than the death of -Henry. - -[118] The _De Vulgari Eloquio_ is in Latin. Dante's own Italian is -richer and more elastic than that of contemporary writers. Its base is -the Tuscan dialect, as refined by the example of the Sicilian poets. His -Latin, on the contrary, is I believe regarded as being somewhat -barbarous, even for the period. - -[119] In his _Quaestio de Aqua et Terra_. In it he speaks of having been -in Mantua. The thesis was maintained in Verona, but of course he may, -after a prolonged absence, have returned to that city. - -[120] _Parad._ xvii. 70. - -[121] _Purg._ xviii. 121. - -[122] But in urgent need of more of it.--He says of 'the sublime -Cantica, adorned with the title of the _Paradiso_', that '_illam sub -praesenti epistola, tamquam sub epigrammate proprio dedicatam, vobis -adscribo, vobis offero, vobis denique recommendo_.' But it may be -questioned if this involves that the Cantica was already finished. - -[123] As, for instance, Herr Scheffer-Boichorst in his _Aus Dantes -Verbannung_, 1882. - -[124] The Traversari (_Purg._ xiv. 107). Guido's wife was of the -Bagnacavalli (_Purg._ xiv. 115). The only mention of the Polenta family, -apart from that of Francesca, is at _Inf._ xxvii. 41. - -[125] In 1350 a sum of ten gold florins was sent from Florence by the -hands of Boccaccio to Beatrice, daughter of Dante; she being then a nun -at Ravenna. - -[126] The embassy to Venice is mentioned by Villani, and there was a -treaty concluded in 1321 between the Republic and Guido. But Dante's -name does not appear in it among those of the envoys from Ravenna. A -letter, probably apocryphal, to Guido from Dante in Venice is dated -1314. If Dante, as is maintained by some writers, was engaged in tuition -while in Ravenna, it is to be feared that his pupils would find in him -an impatient master. - -[127] Not that Dante ever mentions these any more than a hundred other -churches in which he must have spent thoughtful hours. - -[128] _Purg._ xxviii. 20. - -[129] A certain Cecco d'Ascoli stuck to him like a bur, charging him, -among other things, with lust, and a want of religious faith which would -one day secure him a place in his own Inferno. Cecco was himself burned -in Florence, in 1327, for making too much of evil spirits, and holding -that human actions are necessarily affected by the position of the -stars. He had been at one time a professor of astronomy. - -[130] Gabriel Rossetti, _Comment on the Divina Commedia_, 1826, and -Aroux, _Dante, Heretique, Revolutionnaire et Socialiste_, 1854. - -[131] Scartazzini, _Dante Alighieri, Seine Zeit_, etc., 1879, page 268. - -[132] _Parad._ xxiv. 86. - -[133] _Parad._ xxiv. 145. - -[134] _Inf._ xxvii. 101; _Purg._ iii. 118. - -[135] _Parad._ xxiv. 91. - -[136] _Parad._ xxiv. 106. - -[137] _Inf._ x. and xxviii. There is no place in Purgatory where those -who in their lives had once held heretical opinions are purified of the -sin; leaving us to infer that it could be repented of in the world so as -to obliterate the stain. See also _Parad._ iv. 67. - -[138] _Purg._ i. 71. - -[139] _Purg._ xxvii. 139. - -[140] _Purg._ xix. 134. - -[141] _Parad._ xxv. 1. - - - - -GIOTTO'S PORTRAIT OF DANTE.[142] - - -Vasari, in his _Lives of the Painters_, tells that in his day the -portrait of Dante by Giotto was still to be seen in the chapel of the -Podesta's palace in Florence. Writers of an earlier date had already -drawn attention to this work.[143] But in the course of an age when -Italians cared little for Dante, and less for Giotto, it was allowed to -be buried out of sight; and when at length there came a revival of -esteem for these great men, the alterations in the interior arrangement -of the palace were found to have been so sweeping that it was even -uncertain which out of many chambers had formerly served as the chapel. -Twenty years after a fruitless attempt had been made to discover whether -or not the portrait was still in existence, Signor Aubrey Bezzi, -encouraged by Mr. Wilde and Mr. Kirkup, took the first step in a search -(1839) which was to end by restoring to the world what is certainly the -most interesting of all portraits, if account be taken of its beauty, -as well as of who was its author and who its subject. - -On the removal from it of a layer of lime, one of the end walls of what -had been the chapel was found to be covered by a fresco painting, -evidently the work of Giotto, and representing a Paradise--the subject -in which Dante's portrait was known to occur. As is usual in such works, -from the time of Giotto downwards, the subject is treated so as to allow -of the free introduction of contemporary personages. Among these was a -figure in a red gown, which there was no difficulty in recognising as -the portrait of Dante. It shows him younger and with a sweeter -expression than does Raphael's Dante, or Masaccio's,[144] or that in the -Cathedral of Florence,[145] or that of the mask said to have been taken -after his death. But to all of them it bears a strong resemblance. - -The question of when this portrait was painted will easily be seen to be -one of much importance in connection with Dante's biography. The fresco -it belongs to is found to contain a cardinal, and a young man, who, -because he wears his hair long and has a coronet set on his cap, is -known to be meant for a French prince.[146] If, as is usually assumed, -this prince is Charles of Valois, then the date of the event celebrated -in the fresco is 1301 or 1302. With regard to when the work was -executed, Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their valuable book, say as -follows:[147]-- - - 'All inferences to be deduced from the subject and form of these - frescos point to the date of 1301-2. It may be inquired whether - they were executed by Giotto at the time, and this inquiry can only - be satisfied approximatively. It may be inferred that Dante's - portrait would hardly have been introduced into a picture so - conspicuously visible as this, had not the poet at the time been - influent in Florence.... Dante's age in the fresco corresponds with - the date of 1302, and is that of a man of thirty-five. He had - himself enjoyed the highest office of Florence from June to August - 1300.[148] In the fresco he does not wear the dress of the - "Priori," but he holds in the ranks of those near Charles of Valois - an honourable place. It may be presumed that the frescos were - executed previous[149] to Dante's exile, and this view is confirmed - by the technical and artistic progress which they reveal. They - exhibit, indeed, the master in a higher sphere of development than - at Assisi and Rome.' - -This account of the subject of the work and the probable date of its -execution may, I think, be accepted as containing all that is to be said -in favour of the current opinion on the matter. That writer after writer -has adopted that opinion without a sign of doubt as to its credibility -must surely have arisen from failure to observe the insuperable -difficulties it presents. - -Both Charles of Valois and the Cardinal Acquasparta were in Florence -during part of the winter of 1301-1302; but the circumstances under -which they were there make it highly improbable that the Commonwealth -was anxious to do them honour beyond granting them the outward show of -respect which it would have been dangerous to refuse. Earlier in the -year 1301 the Cardinal Acquasparta, having failed in gaining the object -which brought him to Florence, had, as it were, shaken the dust of the -city from off his feet and left the people of it under interdict. While -Charles of Valois was in Florence the Cardinal returned to make a second -attempt to reconcile the opposing parties, failed a second time, and -again left the city under an interdict--if indeed the first had ever -been raised. On the occasion of his first visit, the Whites, who were -then in power, would have none of his counsels; on his second, the -Blacks in their turn despised them.[150] There would therefore have been -something almost satirical in the compliment, had the Commonwealth -resolved to give him a place in a triumphal picture. - -As for Charles of Valois, though much was expected from an alliance with -him while he was still at a distance, the very party that invited his -presence was soon disgusted with him owing to his faithlessness and -greed. The earlier part of his stay was disturbed by pillage and -bloodshed. Nor is it easy to imagine how, at any time during his -residence of five months, the leading citizens could have either the -time or the wish to arrange for honouring him in a fashion he was not -the man to care for. His one craving was for money, and still more -money; and any leisure the members of public bodies had to spare from -giving heed to their own interests and securing vengeance upon their -opponents, was devoted to holding the common purse shut as tightly as -they could against their avaricious Pacificator. When he at last -delivered the city from his presence no one would have the heart to -revive the memory of his disastrous visit. - -But if, in all this confusion of Florentine affairs, Giotto did receive -a commission to paint in the palace of the Podesta, yet it remains -incredible that he should have been suffered to assign to Dante, of all -men, a place of honour in the picture. No citizen had more stubbornly -opposed the policy which brought Charles of Valois to Florence, and that -Charles was in the city was reason enough for Dante to keep out of it. -In his absence, he was sentenced in January 1302 to pay a ruinously -heavy fine, and in the following March he was condemned to be put to -death if ever he was caught. On fuller acquaintance his fellow-citizens -liked the Frenchman as little as he, but this had no effect in softening -their dislike or removing their fear of Dante. We may be sure that any -friends he may still have had in Florence, as their influence could not -protect his goods from confiscation or him from banishment, would hardly -care to risk their own safety by urging, while his condemnation was -still fresh, the admission of his portrait among those of illustrious -Florentines.[151] It is true that there have been instances of great -artists having reached so high a pitch of fame as to be able to dictate -terms to patrons, however exalted. In his later years Giotto could -perhaps have made such a point a matter of treaty with his employers, -but in 1301 he was still young,[152] and great although his fame already -was, he could scarcely have ventured to insist on the Republic's -confessing its injustice to his friend; as it would have done had it -consented that Dante, newly driven into exile, should obtain a place of -honour in a work painted at the public cost. - -These considerations seem to make it highly improbable that Giotto's -wall-painting was meant to do honour to Charles of Valois and the -Cardinal Acquasparta. But if it should still be held that it was painted -in 1302, we must either cease to believe, in spite of all that Vasari -and the others say, that the portrait is meant for Dante; or else -confess it to be inexplicable how it got there. A way out of the -difficulty begins to open up as soon as we allow ourselves some latitude -in speculating as to when Giotto may have painted the fresco. The order -in which that artist's works were produced is very imperfectly settled; -and it may easily be that the position in Vasari's pages of the mention -made by him of this fresco has given rise to a misunderstanding -regarding the date of it. He speaks of it at the very beginning of his -Life of Giotto. But this he does because he needs an illustration of -what he has been saying in his opening sentences about the advance that -painter made on Cimabue. Only after making mention of Dante's portrait -does he begin his chronological list of Giotto's works; to the portrait -he never returns, and so, as far as Vasari is concerned, it is without a -date. Judging of it by means of Mr. Kirkup's careful and beautiful -sketch--and unfortunately we have now no other means of knowing what the -original was like--it may safely be asserted to be in Giotto's ripest -style.[153] Everything considered, it is therefore allowable to search -the Florentine chronicles lower down for an event more likely to be the -subject of Giotto's fresco than that usually fixed upon. - -We read in John Villani that in the middle of the year 1326 the Cardinal -Gianni Orsini came to Florence as Papal Legate and Pacificator of -Tuscany. The city was greatly pleased at his coming, and as an earnest -of gratitude for his services presented him with a cup containing a -thousand florins.[154] A month later there arrived Charles Duke of -Calabria, the eldest son of King Robert of Naples, and great-grandson of -Charles of Anjou. He came as Protector of the Commonwealth, which -office--an extraordinary one, and with a great salary attached to it--he -had been elected to hold for five years. Never before had a spectacle -like that of his entry been offered to Florence. Villani gives a long -list of the barons who rode in his train, and tells that in his -squadrons of men-at-arms there were no fewer than two hundred knights. -The chronicler pauses to bid the reader note how great an enterprise his -fellow-citizens had shown in bringing to sojourn among them, and in -their interest, not only such a powerful lord as the Duke of Calabria -was, but a Papal Legate as well. Italy counted it a great thing, he -says, and he deems that the whole world ought to know of it.[155] -Charles took up his abode in the Podesta's palace. He appears to have -gained a better place in the hearts of the Florentines than what they -were used to give to strangers and princes. When a son was born to him, -all the city rejoiced, and it mourned with him when, in a few weeks, he -lost the child. After seventeen months' experience of his rule the -citizens were sorry to lose him, and bade him a farewell as hearty as -their welcome had been. To some of them, it is true, the policy seemed a -dangerous one which bore even the appearance of subjecting the Republic -to the Royal House of Naples; and some of them could have wished that he -'had shown more vigour in civil and military affairs. But he was a -gentle lord, popular with the townsfolk, and in the course of his -residence he greatly improved the condition of things in Florence, and -brought to a close many feuds.'[156] They felt that the nine hundred -thousand gold florins spent on him and his men had, on the whole, been -well laid out. - -One detail of the Duke's personal appearance deserves remark. We have -seen that the prince in the fresco has long hair. John Villani had known -the Duke well by sight, and when he comes to record his death and -describe what kind of man he was to look upon, he specially says that -'he wore his hair loose.'[157] - -A subject worthy of Giotto's pencil, and one likely to be offered to him -if he was then in Florence, we have therefore found in this visit of the -Duke and the Cardinal. But that Giotto was in Florence at that time is -certain. He painted a portrait[158] of the Duke in the Palace of the -Signory; and through that prince, as Vasari tells, he was invited by -King Robert to go down to work in Naples. All this, in the absence of -evidence of any value in favour of another date, makes it, at the very -least, highly probable that the fresco was a work of 1326 or 1327. - -In 1326 Dante had been dead for five years. The grudge his -fellow-townsmen had nourished against him for so long was now worn out. -We know that very soon after his death Florence began to be proud of -him; and even such of his old enemies as still survived would be willing -that Giotto should set him in a place of honour among the great -Florentines who help to fill the fresco of the Paradise. That he was -already dead would be no hindrance to his finding room alongside of -Charles of Calabria; for the age was wisely tolerant of such -anachronisms.[159] Had Dante been still living the painter would have -been less at liberty to create, out of the records he doubtless -possessed of the features of the friend who had paid him beforehand with -one immortal line, the face which, as we look into it, we feel to be a -glorified transcript of what it was in the flesh. It is the face of one -who has wellnigh forgotten his earthly life, instead of having the worst -of it still before him; of one who, from that troubled Italy which like -his own Sapia he knew but as a pilgrim, has passed to the 'true city,' -of which he remains for evermore a citizen--the city faintly imaged by -Giotto upon the chapel wall. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[142] It is best known, and can now be judged of only through the -lithograph after a tracing made by Mr. Seymour Kirkup before it was -restored and ruined: published by the Arundel Society. - -[143] Antonio Pucci, born in 1300, in his _Centiloquio_, describes the -figure of Dante as being clothed in blood-red. Philip Villani also -mentions it. He wrote towards the close of the fourteenth century; -Vasari towards the middle of the sixteenth. - -[144] In the Munich collection of drawings, and ascribed to Masaccio, -but with how much reason I do not know. - -[145] Painted by Domenico Michelino in 1465, after a sketch by Alessio -Baldovinetto. - -[146] 'Wearing over the long hair of the Frenchmen of the period a -coroneted cap.'--Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_ -(1864), i. 264. - -[147] Vol. i. p. 269. - -[148] The Priorate was the highest office to which a citizen could -aspire, but by no means the highest in Florence. - -[149] I suppose the meaning is 'immediately previous.' - -[150] John Villani, _Cronica_, viii. 40 and 49; and Perrens, _Hist. de -Florence_, under date of 1301. Charles entered Florence on the 1st of -November of that year, and left it in the following April. - -[151] Who the other Florentines in the fresco are does not greatly -affect the present question. Villani says that along with Dante Giotto -painted Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini. - -[152] Only twenty-five, if the commonly accepted date of his birth is -correct. In any case, he was still a young man. - -[153] It is true that, on technical grounds, it has been questioned if -it is Giotto's at all; but there is more than sufficient reason to think -it is. With such doubts however we are scarcely here concerned. Even -were it proved to be by a pupil, everything in the text that applies to -the question of date would still remain in point. - -[154] J. Villani, ix. 353. - -[155] J. Villani, x. 1. - -[156] _Ibid._ x. 49. - -[157] J. Villani, x. 107. - -[158] Long since destroyed. - -[159] An anachronism of another kind would have been committed by -Giotto, if, before the _Comedy_ was even begun, he had represented Dante -as holding the closed book and cluster of three pomegranates--emblematical -of the three regions described by him and of the completion of his -work.--I say nothing of the Inferno found on another wall of the chapel, -since there seems good reason to doubt if it is by Giotto. - - - - -THE INFERNO. - - - - -CANTO I. - - - In middle[160] of the journey of our days - I found that I was in a darksome wood[161]-- - The right road lost and vanished in the maze. - Ah me! how hard to make it understood - How rough that wood was, wild, and terrible: - By the mere thought my terror is renewed. - More bitter scarce were death. But ere I tell - At large of good which there by me was found, - I will relate what other things befell. - Scarce know I how I entered on that ground, 10 - So deeply, at the moment when I passed - From the right way, was I in slumber drowned. - But when beneath a hill[162] arrived at last, - Which for the boundary of the valley stood, - That with such terror had my heart harassed, - I upwards looked and saw its shoulders glowed, - Radiant already with that planet's[163] light - Which guideth surely upon every road. - A little then was quieted by the sight - The fear which deep within my heart had lain 20 - Through all my sore experience of the night. - And as the man, who, breathing short in pain, - Hath 'scaped the sea and struggled to the shore, - Turns back to gaze upon the perilous main; - Even so my soul which fear still forward bore - Turned to review the pass whence I egressed, - And which none, living, ever left before. - My wearied frame refreshed with scanty rest, - I to ascend the lonely hill essayed; - The lower foot[164] still that on which I pressed. 30 - And lo! ere I had well beginning made, - A nimble leopard,[165] light upon her feet, - And in a skin all spotted o'er arrayed: - Nor ceased she e'er me full in the face to meet, - And to me in my path such hindrance threw - That many a time I wheeled me to retreat. - It was the hour of dawn; with retinue - Of stars[166] that were with him when Love Divine - In the beginning into motion drew - Those beauteous things, the sun began to shine; 40 - And I took heart to be of better cheer - Touching the creature with the gaudy skin, - Seeing 'twas morn,[167] and spring-tide of the year; - Yet not so much but that when into sight - A lion[168] came, I was disturbed with fear. - Towards me he seemed advancing in his might, - Rabid with hunger and with head high thrown: - The very air was tremulous with fright. - A she-wolf,[169] too, beheld I further on; - All kinds of lust seemed in her leanness pent: 50 - Through her, ere now, much folk have misery known. - By her oppressed, and altogether spent - By the terror breathing from her aspect fell, - I lost all hope of making the ascent. - And as the man who joys while thriving well, - When comes the time to lose what he has won - In all his thoughts weeps inconsolable, - So mourned I through the brute which rest knows none: - She barred my way again and yet again, - And thrust me back where silent is the sun. 60 - And as I downward rushed to reach the plain, - Before mine eyes appeared there one aghast, - And dumb like those that silence long maintain. - When I beheld him in the desert vast, - 'Whate'er thou art, or ghost or man,' I cried, - 'I pray thee show such pity as thou hast.' - 'No man,[170] though once I was; on either side - Lombard my parents were, and both of them - For native place had Mantua,' he replied. - 'Though late, _sub Julio_,[171] to the world I came, 70 - And lived at Rome in good Augustus' day, - While yet false gods and lying were supreme. - Poet I was, renowning in my lay - Anchises' righteous son, who fled from Troy - What time proud Ilion was to flames a prey. - But thou, why going back to such annoy? - The hill delectable why fear to mount, - The origin and ground of every joy?' - 'And thou in sooth art Virgil, and the fount - Whence in a stream so full doth language flow?' 80 - Abashed, I answered him with humble front. - 'Of other poets light and honour thou! - Let the long study and great zeal I've shown - In searching well thy book, avail me now! - My master thou, and author[172] thou, alone! - From thee alone I, borrowing, could attain - The style[173] consummate which has made me known. - Behold the beast which makes me turn again: - Deliver me from her, illustrious Sage; - Because of her I tremble, pulse and vein.' 90 - 'Thou must attempt another pilgrimage,' - Observing that I wept, he made reply, - 'If from this waste thyself thou 'dst disengage. - Because the beast thou art afflicted by - Will suffer none along her way to pass, - But, hindering them, harasses till they die. - So vile a nature and corrupt she has, - Her raging lust is still insatiate, - And food but makes it fiercer than it was. - Many a creature[174] hath she ta'en for mate, 100 - And more she'll wed until the hound comes forth - To slay her and afflict with torment great. - He will not batten upon pelf or earth; - But he shall feed on valour, love, and lore; - Feltro and Feltro[175] 'tween shall be his birth. - He will save humbled Italy, and restore, - For which of old virgin Camilla[176] died; - Turnus, Euryalus, Nisus, died of yore. - Her through all cities chasing far and wide, - He at the last to Hell will thrust her down, 110 - Whence envy[177] first unloosed her. I decide - Therefore and judge that thou hadst best come on - With me for guide;[178] and hence I'll lead thee where - A place eternal shall to thee be shown. - There shalt thou hear the howlings of despair - In which the ancient spirits make lament, - All of them fain the second death to share. - Next shalt thou them behold who are content, - Because they hope some time, though now in fire, - To join the blessed they will win consent. 120 - And if to these thou later wouldst aspire, - A soul[179] shall guide thee, worthier far than I; - When I depart thee will I leave with her. - Because the Emperor[180] who reigns on high - Wills not, since 'gainst His laws I did rebel,[181] - That to His city I bring any nigh. - O'er all the world He rules, there reigns as well; - There is His city and exalted seat: - O happy whom He chooses there to dwell!' - And I to him: 'Poet, I thee entreat, 130 - Even by that God who was to thee unknown, - That I may 'scape this present ill, nor meet - With worse, conduct me whither thou hast shown, - That I may see Saint Peter's gate,[182] and those - Whom thou reportest in such misery thrown.' - He moved away; behind him held I close. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[160] _Middle_: In his _Convito_ (iv. 23), comparing human life to an -arch, Dante says that at the age of thirty-five a man has reached the -top and begins to go down. As he was born in 1265 that was his own age -in 1300, the year in which the action of the poem is laid. - -[161] _Darksome wood_: A state of spiritual darkness or despair into -which he has gradually drifted, not without fault of his own. - -[162] _A hill_: Lower down this hill is termed 'the origin and cause of -all joy.' It is symbolical of spiritual freedom--of the peace and -security that spring from the practice of virtue. Only, as it seems, by -gaining such a vantage-ground can he escape from the wilderness of -doubt--the valley of the shadow of death--in which he is lost. - -[163] _That planet_: On the Ptolemaic system, which, as perfected by the -Arabian astronomers, and with some Christian additions, was that -followed by Dante, the sun is reckoned as one of the seven planets; all -the others as well as the earth and the fixed stars deriving their light -from it. Here the sunlight may signify the Divine help granted to all -men in their efforts after virtue. - -[164] _The lower foot, etc._: This describes a cautious, slow ascent. - -[165] _A nimble leopard_: The leopard and the lion and wolf that come -with it are suggested by Jeremiah v. 6: 'A lion out of the forest shall -slay them,' etc. We have Dante's own authority for it, in his letter to -Can Grande, that several meanings are often hidden under the incidents -of the _Comedy_. But whatever else the beasts may signify, their chief -meaning is that of moral hindrances. It is plain that the lion and wolf -are the sins of others--pride and avarice. If the leopard agrees with -them in this, it most probably stands for the envy of those among whom -Dante lived: at _Inf._ vi. 74 we find envy, pride, and avarice classed -together as the sins that have corrupted Florence. But from _Inf._ xvi. -106 it appears that Dante hoped to get the better of the leopard by -means of a cord which he wore girt about his loins. The cord is -emblematical of self-control; and hence the leopard seems best to answer -the idea of sensual pleasure in the sense of a temptation that makes -difficult the pursuit of virtue. But it will be observed that this -hindrance Dante trusts to overcome. - -[166] _Stars, etc._: The sun being then in Aries, as it was believed to -have been at the creation. - -[167] _Morn, etc._: It is the morning of Friday the 25th of March in the -year 1300, and by the use of Florence, which began the year on the -anniversary of the incarnation, it is the first day of the New Year. The -Good Friday of 1300 fell a fortnight later; but the 25th of March was -held to be the true anniversary of the crucifixion as well as of the -incarnation and of the creation of the world. The date of the action is -fixed by _Inf._ xxi. 112. The day was of good omen for success in the -struggle with his lower self. - -[168] _A lion_: Pride or arrogance; to be taken in its widest sense of -violent opposition to all that is good. - -[169] _A she-wolf_: Used elsewhere in the _Comedy_ to represent avarice. -Dante may have had specially in his mind the greed and worldly ambition -of the Pope and the Court of Rome, but it is plain from line 110 that -the wolf stands primarily for a sin, and not for a person or corporate -body. - -[170] _No man_: Brunetto Latini, the friend and master of Dante, says -'the soul is the life of man, but without the body is not man.' - -[171] _Sub Julio_: Julius was not even consul when Virgil was born. But -Dante reckoned Julius as the founder of the Empire, and therefore makes -the time in which he flourished his. Virgil was only twenty-five years -of age when Caesar was slain; and thus it was under Augustus that his -maturer life was spent. - -[172] _Author_: Dante defines an author as 'one worthy to be believed -and obeyed' (_Convito_ iv. 6). For a guide and companion on his great -pilgrimage he chooses Virgil, not only because of his fame as a poet, -but also because he had himself described a descent to the Shades--had -been already there. The vulgar conception of Virgil was that of a -virtuous great magician. - -[173] _The style, etc._: Some at least of Dante's minor works had been -given to the world before 1300, certainly the _Vita Nuova_ and others of -his poems. To his study of Virgil he may have felt himself indebted for -the purity of taste that kept him superior to the frigid and artificial -style of his contemporaries, He prided himself on suiting his language -to his theme, as well as on writing straight from the heart. - -[174] _Many a creature, etc._: Great men and states, infected with -avarice in its extended sense of encroachment on the rights of others. - -[175] _Feltro and Feltro, etc._: Who the deliverer was that Dante -prophesies the coming of is not known, and perhaps never can be. Against -the claims of Can Grande of Verona the objection is that, at any date -which can reasonably be assigned for the publication of the _Inferno_, -he had done nothing to justify such bright hopes of his future career. -There seems proof, too, that till the _Paradiso_ was written Dante -entertained no great respect for the Scala family (_Purg._ xvi. 118, -xviii. 121). Neither is Verona, or the widest territory over which Can -Grande ever ruled, at all described by saying it lay between Feltro and -Feltro.--I have preferred to translate _nazi-one_ as birth rather than -as nation or people. 'The birth of the deliverer will be found to have -been between feltro and feltro.' Feltro, as Dante wrote it, would have -no capital letter; and according to an old gloss the deliverer is to be -of humble birth; _feltro_ being the name of a poor sort of cloth. This -interpretation I give as a curiosity more than anything else; for the -most competent critics have decided against it, or ignored it.--Henry of -Luxemburg, chosen Emperor in November 1308, is an old claimant for the -post of the allegorical _veltro_ or greyhound. On him Dante's hopes were -long set as the man who should 'save Italy;' and it seems not out of -place to draw attention to what is said of him by John Villani, the -contemporary and fellow-townsman of Dante: 'He was of a magnanimous -nature, though, as regarded his family, of poor extraction' (_Cronica_, -ix. 1). Whatever may be made of the Feltros, the description in the text -of the deliverer as one superior to all personal ambition certainly -answers better to Dante's ideal of a righteous Emperor than to the -character of a partisan leader like Uguccione della Faggiuola, or an -ambitious prince like Can Grande. - -[176] _Camilla, etc._: All persons of the _AEneid_. - -[177] _Envy_: That of Satan. - -[178] _Thou hadst best, etc._: As will be seen from the next Canto, -Virgil has been sent to the relief of Dante; but how that is to be -wrought out is left to his own judgment. He might secure a partial -deliverance for his ward by conducting him up the Delectable Mount--the -peaceful heights familiar to himself, and which are to be won by the -practice of natural piety. He chooses the other course, of guiding Dante -through the regions of the future state, where the pilgrim's trust in -the Divine government will be strengthened by what he sees, and his soul -acquire a larger peace. - -[179] _A soul_: Beatrice. - -[180] _The Emperor_: The attribution of this title to God is significant -of Dante's lofty conception of the Empire. - -[181] _'Gainst his laws, etc._: Virgil was a rebel only in the sense of -being ignorant of the Christian revelation (_Inf._ iv. 37). - -[182] _Saint Peter's gate_: Virgil has not mentioned Saint Peter. Dante -names him as if to proclaim that it is as a Christian, though under -heathen guidance, that he makes the pilgrimage. Here the gate seems to -be spoken of as if it formed the entrance to Paradise, as it was -popularly believed to do, and as if it were at that point Virgil would -cease to guide him. But they are to find it nearer at hand, and after it -has been passed Virgil is to act as guide through Purgatory. - - - - -CANTO II. - - - It was the close of day;[183] the twilight brown - All living things on earth was setting free - From toil, while I preparing was alone[184] - To face the battle which awaited me, - As well of ruth as of the perilous quest, - Now to be limned by faultless memory. - Help, lofty genius! Muses,[185] manifest - Goodwill to me! Recording what befell, - Do thou, O mind, now show thee at thy best! - I thus began: 'Poet, and Guide as well, 10 - Ere trusting me on this adventure wide, - Judge if my strength of it be capable. - Thou say'st that Silvius' father,[186] ere he died, - Still mortal to the world immortal went, - There in the body some time to abide. - Yet that the Foe of evil was content - That he should come, seeing what high effect, - And who and what should from him claim descent, - No room for doubt can thoughtful man detect: - For he of noble Rome, and of her sway 20 - Imperial, in high Heaven grew sire elect. - And both of these,[187] the very truth to say, - Were founded for the holy seat, whereon - The Greater Peter's follower sits to-day. - Upon this journey, praised by thee, were known - And heard things by him, to the which he owed - His triumph, whence derives the Papal gown.[188] - That path the Chosen Vessel[189] later trod - So of the faith assurance to receive, - Which is beginning of salvation's road. 30 - But why should I go? Who will sanction give? - For I am no AEneas and no Paul; - Me worthy of it no one can believe, - Nor I myself. Hence venturing at thy call, - I dread the journey may prove rash. But vain - For me to reason; wise, thou know'st it all.' - Like one no more for what he wished for fain, - Whose purpose shares mutation with his thought - Till from the thing begun he turns again; - On that dim slope so grew I all distraught, 40 - Because, by brooding on it, the design - I shrank from, which before I warmly sought. - 'If well I understand these words of thine,' - The shade of him magnanimous made reply, - 'Thy soul 'neath cowardice hath sunk supine, - Which a man often is so burdened by, - It makes him falter from a noble aim, - As beasts at objects ill-distinguished shy. - To loose thee from this terror, why I came, - And what the speech I heard, I will relate, 50 - When first of all I pitied thee. A dame[190] - Hailed me where I 'mongst those in dubious state[191] - Had my abode: so blest was she and fair, - Her to command me I petitioned straight. - Her eyes were shining brighter than the star;[192] - And she began to say in accents sweet - And tuneable as angel's voices are: - "O Mantuan Shade, in courtesy complete, - Whose fame survives on earth, nor less shall grow - Through all the ages, while the world hath seat; 60 - A friend of mine, with fortune for his foe, - Has met with hindrance on his desert way, - And, terror-smitten, can no further go, - But turns; and that he is too far astray, - And that I rose too late for help, I dread, - From what in Heaven concerning him they say. - Go, with thy speech persuasive him bestead, - And with all needful help his guardian prove, - That touching him I may be comforted. - Know, it is Beatrice seeks thee thus to move. 70 - Thence come I where I to return am fain: - My coming and my plea are ruled by love. - When I shall stand before my Lord again, - Often to Him I will renew thy praise." - And here she ceased, nor did I dumb remain: - "O virtuous Lady, thou alone the race - Of man exaltest 'bove all else that dwell - Beneath the heaven which wheels in narrowest space.[193] - To do thy bidding pleases me so well, - Though 'twere already done 'twere all too slow; 80 - Thy wish at greater length no need to tell. - But say, what tempted thee to come thus low, - Even to this centre, from the region vast,[194] - Whither again thou art on fire to go?" - "This much to learn since a desire thou hast," - She answered, "briefly thee I'll satisfy, - How, coming here, I through no terrors passed. - We are, of right, such things alarmed by, - As have the power to hurt us; all beside - Are harmless, and not fearful. Wherefore I-- 90 - Thus formed by God, His bounty is so wide-- - Am left untouched by all your miseries, - And through this burning[195] unmolested glide. - A noble lady[196] is in Heaven, who sighs - O'er the obstruction where I'd have thee go, - And breaks the rigid edict of the skies. - Calling on Lucia,[197] thus she made her know - What she desired: 'Thy vassal[198] now hath need - Of help from thee; do thou then helpful show.' - Lucia, who hates all cruelty, in speed 100 - Rose, and approaching where I sat at rest, - To venerable Rachel[199] giving heed, - Me: 'Beatrice, true praise of God,' addressed; - 'Why not help him who had such love for thee, - And from the vulgar throng to win thee pressed? - Dost thou not hear him weeping pitiably, - Nor mark the death now threatening him upon - A flood[200] than which less awful is the sea?' - Never on earth did any ever run, - Allured by profit or impelled by fear, 110 - Swifter than I, when speaking she had done, - From sitting 'mong the blest descended here, - My trust upon thy comely rhetoric cast, - Which honours thee and those who lend it ear." - When of these words she spoken had the last, - She turned aside bright eyes which tears[201] did fill, - And I by this was urged to greater haste. - And so it was I joined thee by her will, - And from that raging beast delivered thee, - Which barred the near way up the beauteous hill. 120 - What ails thee then? Why thus a laggard be? - Why cherish in thy heart a craven fear? - Where is thy franchise, where thy bravery, - When three such blessed ladies have a care - For thee in Heaven's court, and these words of mine - Thee for such wealth of blessedness prepare?' - As flowers, by chills nocturnal made to pine - And shut themselves, when touched by morning bright - Upon their stems arise, full-blown and fine; - So of my faltering courage changed the plight, 130 - And such good cheer ran through my heart, it spurred - Me to declare, like free-born generous wight: - 'O pitiful, who for my succour stirred! - And thou how full of courtesy to run, - Alert in service, hearkening her true word! - Thou with thine eloquence my heart hast won - To keen desire to go, and the intent - Which first I held I now no longer shun. - Therefore proceed; my will with thine is blent: - Thou art my Guide, Lord, Master;[202] thou alone!' 140 - Thus I; and with him, as he forward went, - The steep and rugged road I entered on. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[183] _Close of day_: The evening of the Friday. It comes on us with -something of a surprise that a whole day has been spent in the attempt -to ascend the hill, and in conference with Virgil. - -[184] _Alone_: Of earthly creatures, though in company with Virgil, a -shade. In these words is to be found the keynote to the Canto. With the -sense of deliverance from immediate danger his enthusiasm has died away. -After all, Virgil is only a shade; and his heart misgives him at the -thought of engaging, in the absence of all human companionship, upon a -journey so full of terrors. He is not reassured till Virgil has -displayed his commission. - -[185] _Muses_: The invocation comes now, the First Canto being properly -an introduction. Here it may be pointed out, as illustrating the -refinement of Dante's art, that the invocation in the _Purgatorio_ is in -a higher strain, and that in the _Paradiso_ in a nobler still. - -[186] _Silvius' father_: AEneas, whose visit to the world of shades is -described in the Sixth _AEneid_. He finds there his father Anchises, who -foretells to him the fortunes of his descendants down to the time of -Augustus. - -[187] _Both of these_: Dante uses language slightly apologetic as he -unfolds to Virgil, the great Imperialist poet, the final cause of Rome -and the Empire. But while he thus exalts the Papal office, making all -Roman history a preparation for its establishment, Dante throughout his -works is careful to refuse any but a spiritual or religious allegiance -to the Pope, and leaves himself free, as will be frequently seen in the -course of the _Comedy_, to blame the Popes as men, while yielding all -honour to their great office. In this emphatic mention of Rome as the -divinely-appointed seat of Peter's Chair may be implied a censure on the -Pope for the transference of the Holy See to Avignon, which was effected -in 1305, between the date assigned to the action of the poem and the -period when it was written. - -[188] _Papal gown_: 'The great mantle' Dante elsewhere terms it; the -emblem of the Papal dignity. It was only in Dante's own time that -coronation began to take the place of investiture with the mantle. - -[189] _Chosen Vessel_: Paul, who like AEneas visited the other world, -though not the same region of it. Throughout the poem instances drawn -from profane history, and even poetry and mythology, are given as of -authority equal to those from Christian sources. - -[190] _A dame_: Beatrice, the heroine of the _Vita Nuova_, at the close -of which Dante promises some day to say of her what was never yet said -of any woman. She died in 1290, aged twenty-four. In the _Comedy_ she -fills different parts: she is the glorified Beatrice Portinari whom -Dante first knew as a fair Florentine girl; but she also represents -heavenly truth, or the knowledge of it--the handmaid of eternal life. -Theology is too hard and technical a term to bestow on her. Virgil, for -his part, represents the knowledge that men may acquire of Divine law by -the use of their reason, helped by such illumination as was enjoyed by -the virtuous heathen. In other words, he is the exponent of the Divine -revelation involved in the Imperial system--for the Empire was never far -from Dante's thoughts. To him it meant the perfection of just rule, in -which due cognisance is taken of every right and of every duty. The -relation Dante bears to these two is that of erring humanity struggling -to the light. Virgil leads him as far as he can, and then commits him to -the holier rule of Beatrice. But the poem would lose its charm if the -allegorical meaning of every passage were too closely insisted on. And, -worse than that, it cannot always be found. - -[191] _Dubious state_: The limbo of the virtuous heathen (Canto iv.). - -[192] _The star_: In the _Vita Nuova_ Dante speaks of the star in the -singular when he means the stars. - -[193] _In narrowest space_: The heaven of the moon, on the Ptolemaic -system the lowest of the seven planets. Below it there is only the -heaven of fire, to which all the flames of earth are attracted. The -meaning is, above all on earth. - -[194] _The region vast_: The empyrean, or tenth and highest heaven of -all. It is an addition by the Christian astronomers to the heavens of -the Ptolemaic system, and extends above the _primum mobile_, which -imparts to all beneath it a common motion, while leaving its own special -motion to each. The empyrean is the heaven of Divine rest. - -[195] _Burning_: 'Flame of this burning,' allegorical, as applied to the -limbo where Virgil had his abode. He and his companions suffer only from -unfulfilled but lofty desire (_Inf._ iv. 41). - -[196] _A noble lady_: The Virgin Mary, of whom it is said (_Parad._ -xxxiii. 16) that her 'benignity not only succours those who ask, but -often anticipates their demand;' as here. She is the symbol of Divine -grace in its widest sense. Neither Christ nor Mary is mentioned by name -in the _Inferno_. - -[197] _Lucia_: The martyr saint of Syracuse. Witte (_Dante-Forschungen_, -vol. ii. 30) suggests that Lucia Ubaldini may be meant, a -thirteenth-century Florentine saint, and sister of the Cardinal (_Inf._ -x. 120). The day devoted to her memory was the 30th of May. Dante was -born in May, and if it could be proved that he was born on the 30th of -the month the suggestion would be plausible. But for the greater Lucy is -to be said that she was especially helpful to those troubled in their -eyesight, as Dante was at one time of his life. Here she is the symbol -of illuminating grace. - -[198] _Thy vassal_: Saint Lucy being held in special veneration by -Dante; or only that he was one that sought light. The word _fedele_ may -of course, as it usually is, be read in its primary sense of 'faithful -one;' but it is old Italian for vassal; and to take the reference to be -to the duty of the overlord to help his dependant in need seems to give -force to the appeal. - -[199] _Rachel_: Symbol of the contemplative life. - -[200] _A flood, etc._: 'The sea of troubles' in which Dante is involved. - -[201] _Tears_: Beatrice weeps for human misery--especially that of -Dante--though unaffected by the view of the sufferings of Inferno. - -[202] _My Guide, etc._: After hearing how Virgil was moved to come, -Dante accepts him not only for his guide, as he did at the close of the -First Canto, but for his lord and master as well. - - - - -CANTO III. - - - Through me to the city dolorous lies the way, - Who pass through me shall pains eternal prove, - Through me are reached the people lost for aye. - 'Twas Justice did my Glorious Maker move; - I was created by the Power Divine,[203] - The Highest Wisdom, and the Primal Love. - No thing's creation earlier was than mine, - If not eternal;[204] I for aye endure: - Ye who make entrance, every hope resign! - These words beheld I writ in hue obscure 10 - On summit of a gateway; wherefore I: - 'Hard[205] is their meaning, Master.' Like one sure - Beforehand of my thought, he made reply: - 'Here it behoves to leave all fears behind; - All cowardice behoveth here to die. - For now the place I told thee of we find, - Where thou the miserable folk shouldst see - Who the true good[206] of reason have resigned.' - Then, with a glance of glad serenity, - He took my hand in his, which made me bold, 20 - And brought me in where secret things there be. - There sighs and plaints and wailings uncontrolled - The dim and starless air resounded through; - Nor at the first could I from tears withhold. - The various languages and words of woe, - The uncouth accents,[207] mixed with angry cries - And smiting palms and voices loud and low, - Composed a tumult which doth circling rise - For ever in that air obscured for aye; - As when the sand upon the whirlwind flies. 30 - And, horror-stricken,[208] I began to say: - 'Master, what sound can this be that I hear, - And who the folk thus whelmed in misery?' - And he replied: 'In this condition drear - Are held the souls of that inglorious crew - Who lived unhonoured, but from guilt kept clear. - Mingled they are with caitiff angels, who, - Though from avowed rebellion they refrained, - Disloyal to God, did selfish ends pursue. - Heaven hurled them forth, lest they her beauty stained; - Received they are not by the nether hell, 41 - Else triumph[209] thence were by the guilty gained.' - And I: 'What bear they, Master, to compel - Their lamentations in such grievous tone?' - He answered: 'In few words I will thee tell. - No hope of death is to the wretches known; - So dim the life and abject where they sigh - They count all sufferings easier than their own. - Of them the world endures no memory; - Mercy and justice them alike disdain. 50 - Speak we not of them: glance, and pass them by.' - I saw a banner[210] when I looked again, - Which, always whirling round, advanced in haste - As if despising steadfast to remain. - And after it so many people chased - In long procession, I should not have said - That death[211] had ever wrought such countless waste. - Some first I recognised, and then the shade - I saw and knew of him, the search to close, - Whose dastard soul the great refusal[212] made. 60 - Straightway I knew and was assured that those - Were of the tribe of caitiffs,[213] even the race - Despised of God and hated of His foes. - The wretches, who when living showed no trace - Of life, went naked, and were fiercely stung - By wasps and hornets swarming in that place. - Blood drawn by these out of their faces sprung - And, mingled with their tears, was at their feet - Sucked up by loathsome worms it fell among. - Casting mine eyes beyond, of these replete, 70 - People I saw beside an ample stream, - Whereon I said: 'O Master, I entreat, - Tell who these are, and by what law they seem - Impatient till across the river gone; - As I distinguish by this feeble gleam.' - And he: 'These things shall unto thee be known - What time our footsteps shall at rest be found - Upon the woful shores of Acheron.' - Then with ashamed eyes cast on the ground, - Fearing my words were irksome in his ear, 80 - Until we reached the stream I made no sound. - And toward us, lo, within a bark drew near - A veteran[214] who with ancient hair was white, - Shouting: 'Ye souls depraved, be filled with fear. - Hope never more of Heaven to win the sight; - I come to take you to the other strand, - To frost and fire and everlasting night. - And thou, O living soul, who there dost stand, - From 'mong the dead withdraw thee.' Then, aware - That not at all I stirred at his command, 90 - 'By other ways,[215] from other ports thou'lt fare; - But they will lead thee to another shore, - And 'tis a skiff more buoyant must thee bear.' - And then my leader: 'Charon, be not sore, - For thus it has been willed where power ne'er came - Short of the will; thou therefore ask no more.' - And hereupon his shaggy cheeks grew tame - Who is the pilot of the livid pool, - And round about whose eyes glowed wheels of flame. - But all the shades, naked and spent with dool, 100 - Stood chattering with their teeth, and changing hue - Soon as they heard the words unmerciful. - God they blasphemed, and families whence they grew; - Mankind, the time, place, seed in which began - Their lives, and seed whence they were born. Then drew - They crowding all together, as they ran, - Bitterly weeping, to the accursed shore - Predestinate for every godless man. - The demon Charon, with eyes evermore - Aglow, makes signals, gathering them all; 110 - And whoso lingers smiteth with his oar. - And as the faded leaves of autumn fall - One after the other, till at last the bough - Sees on the ground spread all its coronal; - With Adam's evil seed so haps it now: - At signs each falls in turn from off the coast, - As fowls[216] into the ambush fluttering go. - The gloomy waters thus by them are crossed, - And ere upon the further side they land, - On this, anew, is gathering a host. 120 - 'Son,' said the courteous Master,[217] 'understand, - All such as in the wrath of God expire, - From every country muster on this strand. - To cross the river they are all on fire; - Their wills by Heavenly justice goaded on - Until their terror merges in desire. - This way no righteous soul has ever gone; - Wherefore[218] of thee if Charon should complain, - Now art thou sure what by his words is shown.' - When he had uttered this the dismal plain 130 - Trembled[219] so violently, my terror past - Recalling now, I'm bathed in sweat again. - Out of the tearful ground there moaned a blast - Whence lightning flashed forth red and terrible, - Which vanquished all my senses; and, as cast - In sudden slumber, to the ground I fell. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[203] _Power Divine, etc._: The Persons of the Trinity, described by -their attributes. - -[204] _If not eternal_: Only the angels and the heavenly spheres were -created before Inferno. The creation of man came later. But from _Inf._ -xxxiv. 124 it appears that Inferno was hollowed out of the earth; and at -_Parad._ vii. 124 the earth is declared to be 'corruptible and enduring -short while;' therefore not eternal. - -[205] _Hard, etc._: The injunction to leave all hope behind makes Dante -hesitate to enter. Virgil anticipates the objection before it is fully -expressed, and reminds him that the passage through Inferno is to be -only one stage of his journey. Not by this gate will he seek to quit it. - -[206] _True good, etc._: Truth in its highest form--the contemplation of -God. - -[207] _Uncouth accents_: 'Like German,' says Boccaccio. - -[208] _Horror-stricken_: 'My head enveloped in horror.' Some texts have -'error,' and this yields a better meaning--that Dante is amazed to have -come full into the crowd of suffering shades before he has even crossed -Acheron. If with the best texts 'horror' be read, the meaning seems to -be that he is so overwhelmed by fear as to lose his presence of mind. -They are not yet in the true Inferno, but only in the vestibule or -forecourt of it--the flat rim which runs round the edge of the pit. - -[209] _Else triumph, etc._: The satisfaction of the rebel angels at -finding that they endured no worse punishment than that of such as -remained neutral. - -[210] _A banner_: Emblem of the instability of those who would never -take a side. - -[211] _That death, etc._: The touch is very characteristic of Dante. He -feigns astonishment at finding that such a proportion of mankind can -preserve so pitiful a middle course between good and evil, and spend -lives that are only 'a kind of--as it were.' - -[212] _The great refusal_: Dante recognises him, and so he who made the -great refusal must have been a contemporary. Almost beyond doubt -Celestine V. is meant, who was in 1294 elected Pope against his will, -and resigned the tiara after wearing it a few months; the only Pope who -ever resigned it, unless we count Clement I. As he was not canonized -till 1326, Dante was free to form his own judgment of his conduct. It -has been objected that Dante would not treat with contumely a man so -devout as Celestine. But what specially fits him to be the -representative caitiff is just that, being himself virtuous, he -pusillanimously threw away the greatest opportunity of doing good. By -his resignation Boniface VIII. became Pope, to whose meddling in -Florentine affairs it was that Dante owed his banishment. Indirectly, -therefore, he owed it to the resignation of Celestine; so that here we -have the first of many private scores to be paid off in the course of -the _Comedy_. Celestine's resignation is referred to (_Inf._ xxvii. -104).--Esau and the rich young man in the Gospel have both been -suggested in place of Celestine. To either of them there lies the -objection that Dante could not have recognised him. And, besides, -Dante's contemporaries appear at once to have discovered Celestine in -him who made the great refusal. In Paradise the poet is told by his -ancestor Cacciaguida that his rebuke is to be like the wind, which -strikes most fiercely on the loftiest summits (_Parad._ xvii. 133); and -it agrees well with such a profession, that the first stroke he deals in -the _Comedy_ is at a Pope. - -[213] _Caitiffs_: To one who had suffered like Dante for the frank part -he took in affairs, neutrality may well have seemed the unpardonable sin -in politics; and no doubt but that his thoughts were set on the trimmers -in Florence when he wrote, 'Let us not speak of them!' - -[214] _A veteran_: Charon. In all this description of the passage of the -river by the shades, Dante borrows freely from Virgil. It has been -already remarked on _Inf._ ii. 28 that he draws illustrations from Pagan -sources. More than that, as we begin to find, he boldly introduces -legendary and mythological characters among the persons of his drama. -With Milton in mind, it surprises, on a first acquaintance with the -_Comedy_, to discover how nearly independent of angels is the economy -invented by Dante for the other world. - -[215] _Other ways, etc._: The souls bound from earth to Purgatory gather -at the mouth of the Tiber, whence they are wafted on an angel's skiff to -their destination (_Purg._ ii. 100). It may be here noted that never -does Dante hint a fear of one day becoming a denizen of Inferno. It is -only the pains of Purgatory that oppress his soul by anticipation. So -here Charon is made to see at a glance that the pilgrim is not of those -'who make descent to Acheron.' - -[216] _As fowls, etc._: 'As a bird to its lure'--generally interpreted -of the falcon when called back. But a witness of the sport of netting -thrushes in Tuscany describes them as 'flying into the vocal ambush in a -hurried, half-reluctant, and very remarkable manner.' - -[217] _Courteous Master_: Virgil here gives the answer promised at line -76; and Dante by the epithet he uses removes any impression that his -guide had been wanting in courtesy when he bade him wait. - -[218] _Wherefore_: Charon's displeasure only proves that he feels he has -no hold on Dante. - -[219] _Trembled, etc._: Symbolical of the increase of woe in Inferno -when the doomed souls have landed on the thither side of Acheron. Hell -opens to receive them. Conversely, when any purified soul is released -from Purgatory the mountain of purification trembles to its base with -joy (_Purg._ xxi. 58). - - - - -CANTO IV. - - - Resounding thunder broke the slumber deep - That drowsed my senses, and myself I shook - Like one by force awakened out of sleep. - Then rising up I cast a steady look, - With eyes refreshed, on all that lay around, - And cognisance of where I found me took. - In sooth, me on the valley's brink I found - Of the dolorous abyss, where infinite - Despairing cries converge with thundering sound.[220] - Cloudy it was, and deep, and dark as night; 10 - So dark that, peering eagerly to find - What its depths held, no object met my sight. - 'Descend we now into this region blind,' - Began the Poet with a face all pale; - 'I will go first, and do thou come behind.' - Marking the wanness on his cheek prevail, - I asked, 'How can I, seeing thou hast dread, - My wonted comforter when doubts assail?' - 'The anguish of the people,' then he said, - 'Who are below, has painted on my face 20 - Pity,[221] by thee for fear interpreted. - Come! The long journey bids us move apace.' - Then entered he and made me enter too - The topmost circle girding the abyss. - Therein, as far as I by listening knew, - There was no lamentation save of sighs, - Whence throbbed the air eternal through and through. - This, sorrow without suffering made arise - From infants and from women and from men, - Gathered in great and many companies. 30 - And the good Master: 'Wouldst thou[222] nothing then - Of who those spirits are have me relate? - Yet know, ere passing further, although when - On earth they sinned not, worth however great - Availed them not, they being unbaptized-- - Part[223] of the faith thou holdest. If their fate - Was to be born ere man was Christianised, - God, as behoved, they never could adore: - And I myself am with this folk comprised. - For such defects--our guilt is nothing more-- 40 - We are thus lost, suffering from this alone - That, hopeless, we our want of bliss deplore.' - Greatly I sorrowed when he made this known, - Because I knew that some who did excel - In worthiness were to that limbo[224] gone. - 'Tell me, O Sir,' I prayed him, 'Master,[225] tell,' - --That I of the belief might surety win, - Victorious every error to dispel-- - 'Did ever any hence to bliss attain - By merit of another or his own?' 50 - And he, to whom my hidden drift[226] was plain: - 'I to this place but lately[227] had come down, - When I beheld one hither make descent; - A Potentate[228] who wore a victor's crown. - The shade of our first sire forth with him went, - And his son Abel's, Noah's forth he drew, - Moses' who gave the laws, the obedient - Patriarch Abram's, and King David's too; - And, with his sire and children, Israel, - And Rachel, winning whom such toils he knew; 60 - And many more, in blessedness to dwell. - And I would have thee know, earlier than these - No human soul was ever saved from Hell.' - While thus he spake our progress did not cease, - But we continued through the wood to stray; - The wood, I mean, with crowded ghosts for trees. - Ere from the summit far upon our way - We yet had gone, I saw a flame which glowed, - Holding a hemisphere[229] of dark at bay. - 'Twas still a little further on our road, 70 - Yet not so far but that in part I guessed - That honourable people there abode. - 'Of art and science Ornament confessed! - Who are these honoured in such high degree, - And in their lot distinguished from the rest?' - He said: 'For them their glorious memory, - Still in thy world the subject of renown, - Wins grace[230] by Heaven distinguished thus to be.' - Meanwhile I heard a voice: 'Be honour shown - To the illustrious poet,[231] for his shade 80 - Is now returning which a while was gone.' - When the voice paused nor further utterance made, - Four mighty shades drew near with one accord, - In aspect neither sorrowful nor glad. - 'Consider that one, armed with a sword,'[232] - Began my worthy Master in my ear, - 'Before the three advancing like their lord; - For he is Homer, poet with no peer: - Horace the satirist is next in line, - Ovid comes third, and Lucan in the rear. 90 - And 'tis because their claim agrees with mine - Upon the name they with one voice did cry, - They to their honour[233] in my praise combine.' - Thus I beheld their goodly company-- - The lords[234] of song in that exalted style - Which o'er all others, eagle-like, soars high. - Having conferred among themselves a while - They turned toward me and salutation made, - And, this beholding, did my Master smile.[235] - And honour higher still to me was paid, 100 - For of their company they made me one; - So I the sixth part 'mong such genius played. - Thus journeyed we to where the brightness shone, - Holding discourse which now 'tis well to hide, - As, where I was, to hold it was well done. - At length we reached a noble castle's[236] side - Which lofty sevenfold walls encompassed round, - And it was moated by a sparkling tide. - This we traversed as if it were dry ground; - I through seven gates did with those sages go; 110 - Then in a verdant mead people we found - Whose glances were deliberate and slow. - Authority was stamped on every face; - Seldom they spake, in tuneful voices low. - We drew apart to a high open space - Upon one side which, luminously serene, - Did of them all a perfect view embrace. - Thence, opposite, on the enamel green - Were shown me mighty spirits; with delight - I still am stirred them only to have seen. 120 - With many more, Electra was in sight; - 'Mong them I Hector and AEneas spied, - Caesar in arms,[237] his eyes, like falcon's, bright. - And, opposite, Camilla I descried; - Penthesilea too; the Latian King - Sat with his child Lavinia by his side. - Brutus[238] I saw, who Tarquin forth did fling; - Cornelia, Marcia,[239] Julia, and Lucrece. - Saladin[240] sat alone. Considering - What lay beyond with somewhat lifted eyes, 130 - The Master[241] I beheld of those that know, - 'Mong such as in philosophy were wise. - All gazed on him as if toward him to show - Becoming honour; Plato in advance - With Socrates: the others stood below. - Democritus[242] who set the world on chance; - Thales, Diogenes, Empedocles, - Zeno, and Anaxagoras met my glance; - Heraclitus, and Dioscorides, - Wise judge of nature. Tully, Orpheus, were 140 - With ethic Seneca and Linus.[243] These, - And Ptolemy,[244] too, and Euclid, geometer, - Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicen,[245] - Averroes,[246] the same who did prepare - The Comment, saw I; nor can tell again - The names of all I saw; the subject wide - So urgent is, time often fails me. Then - Into two bands the six of us divide; - Me by another way my Leader wise - Doth from the calm to air which trembles, guide. 150 - I reach a part[247] which all benighted lies. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[220] _Thundering sound_: In a state of unconsciousness, Dante, he knows -not how, has been conveyed across Acheron, and is awakened by what seems -like the thunder-peal following the lightning-flash which made him -insensible. He now stands on the brink of Inferno, where the sounds -peculiar to each region of it converge and are reverberated from its -rim. These sounds are not again to be heard by him except in their -proper localities. No sooner does he actually pass into the First Circle -than he hears only sighs.--As regards the topography of Inferno, it is -enough, as yet, to note that it consists of a cavity extending from the -surface to the centre of the earth; narrowing to its base, and with many -circular ledges or terraces, of great width in the case of the upper -ones, running round its wall--that is, round the sides of the pit. Each -terrace or circle is thus less in circumference than the one above it. -From one circle to the next there slopes a bank of more or less height -and steepness. Down the bank which falls to the comparatively flat -ground of the First Circle they are now about to pass.--To put it -otherwise, the Inferno is an inverted hollow cone. - -[221] _Pity_: The pity felt by Virgil has reference only to those in the -circle they are about to enter, which is his own. See also _Purg._ iii. -43. - -[222] _Wouldst thou, etc._: He will not have Dante form a false opinion -of the character of those condemned to the circle which is his own. - -[223] _Part_: _parte_, altered by some editors into _porta_; but though -baptism is technically described as the gate of the sacraments, it never -is as the gate of the faith. A tenet of Dante's faith was that all the -unbaptized are lost. He had no choice in the matter. - -[224] _Limbo_: Border, or borderland. Dante makes the First Circle -consist of the two limbos of Thomas Aquinas: that of unbaptized infants, -_limbus puerorum_, and that of the fathers of the old covenant, _limbus -sanctorum patrum_. But the second he finds is now inhabited only by the -virtuous heathen. - -[225] _Sir_--_Master_: As a delicate means of expressing sympathy, Dante -redoubles his courtesy to Virgil. - -[226] _Hidden drift_: to find out, at first hand as it were, if the -article in the creed is true which relates to the Descent into Hell; -and, perhaps, to learn if when Christ descended He delivered none of the -virtuous heathen. - -[227] _Lately_: Virgil died about half a century before the crucifixion. - -[228] _A Potentate_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the -_Inferno_. - -[229] _A hemisphere, etc._: An elaborate way of saying that part of the -limbo was clearly lit. The flame is symbolical of the light of genius, -or of virtue; both in Dante's eyes being modes of worth. - -[230] _Wins grace, etc._: The thirst for fame was one keenly felt and -openly confessed by Dante. See, _e.g._ _De Monarchia_, i. 1. In this he -anticipated the humanists of the following century. Here we find that to -be famous on earth helps the case of disembodied souls. - -[231] _Poet_: Throughout the _Comedy_, with the exception of _Parad._ i. -29, and xxv. 8, the term 'poet' is confined to those who wrote in Greek -and Latin. In _Purg._ xxi. 85 the name of poet is said to be that 'which -is most enduring and honourable.' - -[232] _A sword_: Because Homer sings of battles. Dante's acquaintance -with his works can have been but slight, as they were not then -translated into Latin, and Dante knew little or no Greek. - -[233] _To their honour_: 'And in that they do well:' perhaps as showing -themselves free from jealousy. But the remark of Benvenuto of Imola is: -'Poets love and honour one another, and are never envious and -quarrelsome like those who cultivate the other arts and sciences.'--I -quote with misgiving from Tamburini's untrustworthy Italian translation. -Benvenuto lectured on the _Comedy_ in Bologna for some years about 1370. -It is greatly to be wished that his commentary, lively and full of -side-lights as it is, should be printed in full from the original Latin. - -[234] _The lords, etc._: Not the company of him--Homer or Virgil--who is -lord of the great song, and soars above all others; but the company of -the great masters, whose verse, etc. - -[235] _Did my Master smile_: To see Dante made free of the guild of -great poets; or, it may be, to think they are about to discover in him a -fellow poet. - -[236] _A noble castle_: Where the light burns, and in which, as their -peculiar seat, the shades of the heathen distinguished for virtue and -genius reside. The seven walls are in their number symbolical of the -perfect strength of the castle; or, to take it more pedantically, may -mean the four moral virtues and the three speculative. The gates will -then stand for the seven liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, etc. The -moat may be eloquence, set outside the castle to signify that only as -reflected in the eloquent words of inspired men can the outside world -get to know wisdom. Over the stream Dante passes easily, as being an -adept in learned speech. The castle encloses a spacious mead enamelled -with eternal green. - -[237] _Caesar in arms, etc._: Suetonius says of Caesar that he was of -fair complexion, but had black and piercing eyes. Brunetto Latini, -Dante's teacher, says in his _Tesoro_ (v. 11), of the hawk here -mentioned--the _grifagno_--that its eyes 'flame like fire.' - -[238] _Brutus_: Introduced here that he may not be confounded with the -later Brutus, for whom is reserved the lowest place of all in Inferno. - -[239] _Marcia_: Wife of Cato; mentioned also in _Purg._ i. _Julia_: -daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey. - -[240] _Saladin_: Died 1193. To the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries -he supplied the ideal of a just Mohammedan ruler. Here are no other -such. 'He sits apart, because not of gentle birth,' says Boccaccio; -which shows what even a man of genius risks when he becomes a -commentator. - -[241] _The Master_: Aristotle, often spoken of by Dante as the -Philosopher, and reverenced by him as the genius to whom the secrets of -nature lay most open. - -[242] _Democritus, etc._: According to whom the world owes its form to a -chance arrangement of atoms. - -[243] _Linus_: Not Livy, into which some have changed it. Linus is -mentioned by Virgil along with Orpheus, _Egl._ iv. - -[244] _Ptolemy_: Greek geographer of the beginning of the second -century, and author of the system of the world believed in by Dante, and -freely used by him throughout the poem. - -[245] _Avicenna_: A physician, born in Bokhara, and died at Ispahan, -1037. His _Medical Canon_ was for centuries used as a text-book in -Europe. - -[246] _Averroes_: A Mohammedan philosopher of Cordova, died 1198. In his -great Commentary on Aristotle he gives and explains every sentence of -that philosopher's works. He was himself ignorant of Greek, and made use -of Arabic versions. Out of his Arabic the Commentary was translated into -Hebrew, and thence into Latin. The presence of the three Mohammedans in -this honourable place greatly puzzles the early commentators. - -[247] _A part, etc._: He passes into the darkness of the Limbo out of -the brightly-lit, fortified enclosure. It is worth remarking, as one -reads, how vividly he describes his first impression of a new scene, -while when he comes to leave it a word is all he speaks. - - - - -CANTO V. - - - From the First Circle thus I downward went - Into the Second,[248] which girds narrower space, - But greater woe compelling loud lament. - Minos[249] waits awful there and snarls, the case - Examining of all who enter in; - And, as he girds him, dooms them to their place. - I say, each ill-starred spirit must begin - On reaching him its guilt in full to tell; - And he, omniscient as concerning sin, - Sees to what circle it belongs in Hell; 10 - Then round him is his tail as often curled - As he would have it stages deep to dwell. - And evermore before him stand a world - Of shades; and all in turn to judgment come, - Confess and hear, and then are downward hurled.[250] - 'O thou who comest to the very home - Of woe,' when he beheld me Minos cried, - Ceasing a while from utterance of doom, - 'Enter not rashly nor in all confide; - By ease of entering be not led astray.' 20 - 'Why also[251] growling?' answered him my Guide; - 'Seek not his course predestinate to stay; - For thus 'tis willed[252] where nothing ever fails - Of what is willed. No further speech essay.' - And now by me are agonising wails - Distinguished plain; now am I come outright - Where grievous lamentation me assails. - Now had I reached a place devoid of light, - Raging as in a tempest howls the sea - When with it winds, blown thwart each other, fight. 30 - The infernal storm is raging ceaselessly, - Sweeping the shades along with it, and them - It smites and whirls, nor lets them ever be. - Arrived at the precipitous extreme,[253] - In shrieks and lamentations they complain, - And even the Power Divine itself blaspheme. - I understood[254] that to this mode of pain - Are doomed the sinners of the carnal kind, - Who o'er their reason let their impulse reign. - As starlings in the winter-time combined 40 - Float on the wing in crowded phalanx wide, - So these bad spirits, driven by that wind, - Float up and down and veer from side to side; - Nor for their comfort any hope they spy - Of rest, or even of suffering mollified. - And as the cranes[255] in long-drawn company - Pursue their flight while uttering their song, - So I beheld approach with wailing cry - Shades lifted onward by that whirlwind strong. - 'Master, what folk are these,'[256] I therefore said, 50 - 'Who by the murky air are whipped along?' - 'She, first of them,' his answer thus was made, - 'Of whom thou wouldst a wider knowledge win, - O'er many tongues and peoples, empire swayed. - So ruined was she by licentious sin - That she decreed lust should be uncontrolled, - To ease the shame that she herself was in. - She is Semiramis, of whom 'tis told - She followed Ninus, and his wife had been. - Hers were the realms now by the Sultan ruled. 60 - The next[257] is she who, amorous and self-slain, - Unto Sichaeus' dust did faithless show: - Then lustful Cleopatra.' Next was seen - Helen, for whom so many years in woe - Ran out; and I the great Achilles knew, - Who at the last[258] encountered love for foe. - Paris I saw and Tristram.[259] In review - A thousand shades and more, he one by one - Pointed and named, whom love from life withdrew. - And after I had heard my Teacher run 70 - O'er many a dame of yore and many a knight, - I, lost in pity, was wellnigh undone. - Then I: 'O Poet, if I only might - Speak with the two that as companions hie, - And on the wind appear to be so light!'[260] - And he to me: 'When they shall come more nigh - Them shalt thou mark, and by the love shalt pray - Which leads them onward, and they will comply.' - Soon as the wind bends them to where we stay - I lift my voice: 'O wearied souls and worn! 80 - Come speak with us if none[261] the boon gainsay.' - Then even as doves,[262] urged by desire, return - On outspread wings and firm to their sweet nest - As through the air by mere volition borne, - From Dido's[263] band those spirits issuing pressed - Towards where we were, athwart the air malign; - My passionate prayer such influence possessed. - 'O living creature,[264] gracious and benign, - Us visiting in this obscured air, - Who did the earth with blood incarnadine; 90 - If in the favour of the King we were - Who rules the world, we for thy peace[265] would pray, - Since our misfortunes thy compassion stir. - Whate'er now pleases thee to hear or say - We listen to, or tell, at your demand;[266] - While yet the wind, as now, doth silent stay. - My native city[267] lies upon the strand - Where to the sea descends the river Po - For peace, with all his tributary band. - Love, in a generous heart set soon aglow, 100 - Seized him for the fair form was mine above; - And still it irks me to have lost it so.[268] - Love, which absolves[269] no one beloved from love, - So strong a passion for him in me wrought - That, as thou seest, I still its mastery prove. - Love led us where we in one death were caught. - For him who slew us waits Caina[270] now.' - Unto our ears these words from them were brought. - When I had heard these troubled souls, my brow - I downward bent, and long while musing stayed, 110 - Until the Poet asked: 'What thinkest thou?' - And when I answered him, 'Alas!' I said, - 'Sweet thoughts how many, and what strong desire, - These to their sad catastrophe betrayed!' - Then, turned once more to them, I to inquire - Began: 'Francesca, these thine agonies - Me with compassion unto tears inspire. - But tell me, at the season of sweet sighs - What sign made love, and what the means he chose - To strip your dubious longings of disguise?' 120 - And she to me: 'The bitterest of woes - Is to remember in the midst of pain - A happy past; as well thy teacher[271] knows. - Yet none the less, and since thou art so fain - The first occasion of our love to hear, - Like one I speak that cannot tears restrain. - As we for pastime one day reading were - How Lancelot[272] by love was fettered fast-- - All by ourselves and without any fear-- - Moved by the tale our eyes we often cast 130 - On one another, and our colour fled; - But one word was it, vanquished us at last. - When how the smile, long wearied for, we read - Was kissed by him who loved like none before, - This one, who henceforth never leaves me, laid - A kiss on my mouth, trembling the while all o'er. - The book was Galahad,[273] and he as well - Who wrote the book. That day we read no more.' - And while one shade continued thus to tell, - The other wept so bitterly, I swooned 140 - Away for pity, and as dead I fell: - Yea, as a corpse falls, fell I on the ground. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[248] _The Second_: The Second Circle of the Inferno, and the first of -punishment. The lower the circle, the more rigorous the penalty endured -in it. Here is punished carnal sin. - -[249] _Minos_: Son of Jupiter and King of Crete, so severely just as to -be made after death one of the judges of the under world. He is degraded -by Dante, as many other noble persons of the old mythology are by him, -into a demon. Unlike the fallen angels of Milton, Dante's devils have no -interest of their own. Their only function is to help in working out -human destinies. - -[250] _Downward hurled_: Each falls to his proper place without -lingering by the way. All through Inferno there is an absence of direct -Divine interposition. It is ruled, as it were, by a course of nature. -The sinners, compelled by a fatal impulse, advance to hear their doom, -just as they fall inevitably one by one into Charon's boat. Minos by a -sort of devilish instinct sentences each sinner to his appropriate -punishment. In _Inf._ xxvii. 127 we find the words in which Minos utters -his judgment. In _Inf._ xxi. 29 a devil bears the sinner to his own -place. - -[251] _Why also, etc._: Like Charon. If Minos represents conscience, as -some would have it, Dante is here again assailed by misgivings as to his -enterprise, and is quieted by reason in the person of Virgil. - -[252] _Thus 'tis willed, etc._: These two lines are the same as those to -Charon, _Inf._ iii. 95, 96. - -[253] _Precipitous extreme_: Opinions vary as to what is meant by -_ruina_. As Dante is certainly still on the outer edge of the Second -Circle or terrace, and while standing there hears distinctly the words -the spirits say when they reach the _ruina_, it most likely denotes the -steep slope falling from the First to the Second Circle. The spirits, -driven against the wall which hems them in, burst into sharp -lamentations against their irremediable fate. - -[254] _I understood, etc._: From the nature of the punishment, which, -like all the others invented by Dante, bears some relation to the sin to -which it is assigned. They who on earth failed to exercise -self-restraint are beaten hither and thither by every wind that blows; -and, as once they were blinded by passion, so now they see nothing -plainly in that dim and obscure place. That Dante should assign the -least grievous punishment of all to this sin throws light upon his views -of life. In his eyes it had more than any other the excuse of natural -bent, and had least of malice. Here, it must be remarked, are no -seducers. For them a lower depth is reserved (_Inf._ xviii. See also -_Purg._ xxvii. 15). - -[255] _The cranes_: 'The cranes are a kind of bird that go in a troop, -as cavaliers go to battle, following one another in single file. And one -of them goes always in front as their gonfalonier, guiding and leading -them with its voice' (Brunetto Latini, _Tesoro_, v. 27). - -[256] _What folk are these_: The general crowd of sinners guilty of -unlawful love are described as being close packed like starlings. The -other troop, who go in single file like cranes, are those regarding whom -Dante specially inquires; and they prove to be the nobler sort of -sinners--lovers with something tragic or pathetic in their fate. - -[257] _The next_: Dido, perhaps not named by Virgil because to him she -owed her fame. For love of AEneas she broke the vow of perpetual chastity -made on the tomb of her husband. - -[258] _At the last, etc._: Achilles, when about to espouse Polyxena, and -when off his guard, was slain. - -[259] _Paris ... and Tristram_: Paris of Troy, and the Tristram of King -Arthur's Table. - -[260] _So light_: Denoting the violence of the passion to which they had -succumbed. - -[261] _If none_: If no Superior Power. - -[262] _Doves_: The motion of the tempest-driven shades is compared to -the flight of birds--starlings, cranes, and doves. This last simile -prepares us for the tenderness of Francesca's tale. - -[263] _Dido_: Has been already indicated, and is now named. This -association of the two lovers with Virgil's Dido is a further delicate -touch to engage our sympathy; for her love, though illicit, was the -infirmity of a noble heart. - -[264] _Living creature_: 'Animal.' No shade, but an animated body. - -[265] _Thy peace_: Peace from all the doubts that assail him, and which -have compelled him to the journey: peace, it may be, from temptation to -sin cognate to her own. Even in the gloom of Inferno her great -goodheartedness is left her--a consolation, if not a grace. - -[266] _Your demand_: By a refinement of courtesy, Francesca, though -addressing only Dante, includes Virgil in her profession of willingness -to tell all they care to hear. But as almost always, he remains silent. -It is not for his good the journey is being made. - -[267] _Native city_: Ravenna. The speaker is Francesca, daughter of -Guido of Polenta, lord of Ravenna. About the year 1275 she was married -to Gianciotto (Deformed John) Malatesta, son of the lord of Rimini; the -marriage, like most of that time in the class to which she belonged, -being one of political convenience. She allowed her affections to settle -on Paolo, her husband's handsome brother; and Gianciotto's suspicions -having been aroused, he surprised the lovers and slew them on the spot. -This happened at Pesaro. The association of Francesca's name with Rimini -is merely accidental. The date of her death is not known. Dante can -never have set eyes on Francesca; but at the battle of Campaldino in -1289, where he was present, a troop of cavaliers from Pistoia fought on -the Florentine side under the command of her brother Bernardino; and in -the following year, Dante being then twenty-five years of age, her -father, Guido, was Podesta in Florence. The Guido of Polenta, lord of -Ravenna, whom Dante had for his last and most generous patron, was -grandson of that elder Guido, and nephew of Francesca. - -[268] _To have lost it so_: A husband's right and duty were too well -defined in the prevalent social code for her to complain that Gianciotto -avenged himself. What she does resent is that she was left no -breathing-space for repentance and farewells. - -[269] _Which absolves, etc._: Which compels whoever is beloved to love -in return. Here is the key to Dante's comparatively lenient estimate of -the guilt of Francesca's sin. See line 39, and _Inf._ xi. 83. The Church -allowed no distinctions with regard to the lost. Dante, for his own -purposes, invents a scale of guilt; and in settling the degrees of it he -is greatly influenced by human feeling--sometimes by private likes and -dislikes. The vestibule of the caitiffs, _e.g._, is his own creation. - -[270] _Caina_: The Division of the Ninth and lowest Circle, assigned to -those treacherous to their kindred (_Inf._ xxxii. 58). Her husband was -still living in 1300.--May not the words of this line be spoken by -Paolo? It is as a fratricide even more than as the slayer of his wife -that Gianciotto is to find his place in Caina. The words are more in -keeping with the masculine than the feminine character. They certainly -jar somewhat with the gentler censure of line 102. And, immediately -after, Dante speaks of what the 'souls' have said. - -[271] _Thy teacher_: Boethius, one of Dante's favourite authors -(_Convito_ ii. 13), says in his _De Consol. Phil._, 'The greatest misery -in adverse fortune is once to have been happy.' But, granting that Dante -found the idea in Boethius, it is clearly Virgil that Francesca means. -She sees that Dante's guide is a shade, and gathers from his grave -passionless aspect that he is one condemned for ever to look back with -futile regret upon his happier past. - -[272] _Lancelot_: King Arthur's famous knight, who was too bashful to -make his love for Queen Guinivere known to her. Galahad, holding the -secret of both, persuaded the Queen to make the first declaration of -love at a meeting he arranged for between them. Her smile, or laugh, as -she 'took Lancelot by the chin and kissed him,' assured her lover of his -conquest. The Arthurian Romances were the favourite reading of the -Italian nobles of Dante's time. - -[273] _Galahad_: From the part played by Galahad, or Galeotto, in the -tale of Lancelot, his name grew to be Italian for Pander. The book, says -Francesca, was that which tells of Galahad; and the author of it proved -a very Galahad to us. The early editions of the _Decameron_ bear the -second title of 'The Prince Galeotto.' - - - - -CANTO VI. - - - When I regained my senses, which had fled - At my compassion for the kindred two, - Which for pure sorrow quite had turned my head, - New torments and a crowd of sufferers new - I see around me as I move again,[274] - Where'er I turn, where'er I bend my view. - In the Third Circle am I of the rain - Which, heavy, cold, eternal, big with woe, - Doth always of one kind and force remain. - Large hail and turbid water, mixed with snow, 10 - Keep pouring down athwart the murky air; - And from the ground they fall on, stenches grow. - The savage Cerberus,[275] a monster drear, - Howls from his threefold throat with canine cries - Above the people who are whelmed there. - Oily and black his beard, and red his eyes, - His belly huge: claws from his fingers sprout. - The shades he flays, hooks, rends in cruel wise. - Beat by the rain these, dog-like, yelp and shout, - And shield themselves in turn with either side; 20 - And oft[276] the wretched sinners turn about. - When we by Cerberus, great worm,[277] were spied, - He oped his mouths and all his fangs he showed, - While not a limb did motionless abide. - My Leader having spread his hands abroad, - Filled both his fists with earth ta'en from the ground, - And down the ravening gullets flung the load. - Then, as sharp set with hunger barks the hound, - But is appeased when at his meat he gnaws, - And, worrying it, forgets all else around; 30 - So with those filthy faces there it was - Of the fiend Cerberus, who deafs the crowd - Of souls till they from hearing fain would pause. - We, travelling o'er the spirits who lay cowed - And sorely by the grievous showers harassed, - Upon their semblances[278] of bodies trod. - Prone on the ground the whole of them were cast, - Save one of them who sat upright with speed - When he beheld that near to him we passed. - 'O thou who art through this Inferno led,[279] 40 - Me if thou canst,' he asked me, 'recognise; - For ere I was dismantled thou wast made.' - And I to him: 'Thy present tortured guise - Perchance hath blurred my memory of thy face, - Until it seems I ne'er on thee set eyes. - But tell me who thou art, within this place - So cruel set, exposed to such a pain, - Than which, if greater, none has more disgrace.' - And he: 'Thy city, swelling with the bane - Of envy till the sack is running o'er, 50 - Me in the life serene did once contain. - As Ciacco[280] me your citizens named of yore; - And for the damning sin of gluttony - I, as thou seest, am beaten by this shower. - No solitary woful soul am I, - For all of these endure the selfsame doom - For the same fault.' Here ended his reply. - I answered him, 'O Ciacco, with such gloom - Thy misery weighs me, I to weep am prone; - But, if thou canst, declare to what shall come 60 - The citizens[281] of the divided town. - Holds it one just man? And declare the cause - Why 'tis of discord such a victim grown.' - Then he to me: 'After[282] contentious pause - Blood will be spilt; the boorish party[283] then - Will chase the others forth with grievous loss. - The former it behoves to fall again - Within three suns, the others to ascend, - Holpen[284] by him whose wiles ere now are plain. - Long time, with heads held high, they'll make to bend - The other party under burdens dire, 71 - Howe'er themselves in tears and rage they spend. - There are two just[285] men, at whom none inquire. - Envy, and pride, and avarice, even these - Are the three sparks have set all hearts on fire.' - With this the tearful sound he made to cease: - And I to him, 'Yet would I have thee tell-- - And of thy speech do thou the gift increase-- - Tegghiaio[286] and Farinata, honourable, - James Rusticucci,[287] Mosca, Arrigo, 80 - With all the rest so studious to excel - In good; where are they? Help me this to know; - Great hunger for the news hath seized me; - Delights them Heaven, or tortures Hell below?' - He said: 'Among the blackest souls they be; - Them to the bottom weighs another sin. - Shouldst thou so far descend, thou mayst them see. - But when[288] the sweet world thou again dost win, - I pray thee bring me among men to mind; - No more I tell, nor new reply begin.' 90 - Then his straightforward eyes askance declined; - He looked at me a moment ere his head - He bowed; then fell flat 'mong the other blind. - 'Henceforth he waketh not,' my Leader said, - 'Till he shall hear the angel's trumpet sound, - Ushering the hostile Judge. By every shade - Its dismal sepulchre shall then be found, - Its flesh and ancient form it shall resume, - And list[289] what echoes in eternal round.' - So passed we where the shades and rainy spume 100 - Made filthy mixture, with steps taken slow; - Touching a little on the world to come.[290] - Wherefore I said: 'Master, shall torments grow - After the awful sentence hath been heard, - Or lesser prove and not so fiercely glow?' - 'Repair unto thy Science,'[291] was his word; - 'Which tells, as things approach a perfect state - To keener joy or suffering they are stirred. - Therefore although this people cursed by fate - Ne'er find perfection in its full extent, 110 - To it they then shall more approximate - Than now.'[292] Our course we round the circle bent, - Still holding speech, of which I nothing say, - Until we came where down the pathway went: - There found we Plutus, the great enemy. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[274] _As I move again_: In his swoon he has been conveyed from the -Second Circle down to the Third. - -[275] _Cerberus_: In the Greek mythology Cerberus is the watch-dog of -the under world. By Dante he is converted into a demon, and with his -three throats, canine voracity, and ugly inflamed bulk, is appropriately -set to guard the entrance to the circle of the gluttonous and -wine-bibbers. - -[276] _And oft, etc._: On entering the circle the shades are seized and -torn by Cerberus; once over-nice in how they fed, they are now treated -as if they were food for dogs. But their enduring pain is to be -subjected to every kind of physical discomfort. Their senses of hearing, -touch, and smell are assailed by the opposite of what they were most -used to enjoy at their luxurious feasts. - -[277] _Great worm_: Though human in a monstrous form, Cerberus is so -called as being a disgusting brute. - -[278] _Semblances, etc._: 'Emptiness which seems to be a person.' To -this conception of the shades as only seeming to have bodies, Dante has -difficulty in remaining true. For instance, at line 101 they mix with -the sleet to make a sludgy mass; and cannot therefore be impalpable. - -[279] Ciacco at once perceives by the weight of Dante's tread that he is -a living man. - -[280] _Ciacco_: The name or nickname of a Florentine wit, and, in his -day, a great diner-out. Boccaccio, in his commentary, says that, though -poor, Ciacco associated with men of birth and wealth, especially such as -ate and drank delicately. In the _Decameron_, ix. 8, he is introduced as -being on such terms with the great Corso Donati as to be able to propose -himself to dinner with him. Clearly he was not a bad fellow, and his -pitiful case, perhaps contrasted with the high spirits and jovial -surroundings in which he was last met by Dante, almost, though not -quite, win a tear from the stern pilgrim. - -[281] _The citizens, etc._: Dante eagerly confers on Florentine politics -with the first Florentine he encounters in Inferno. - -[282] _After, etc._: In the following nine lines the party history of -Florence for two years after the period of the poem (March 1300) is -roughly indicated. The city was divided into two factions--the Whites, -led by the great merchant Vieri dei Cerchi, and the Blacks, led by Corso -Donati, a poor and turbulent noble. At the close of 1300 there was a -bloody encounter between the more violent members of the two parties. In -May 1301 the Blacks were banished. In the autumn of that year they -returned in triumph to the city in the train of Charles of Valois, and -got the Whites banished in April 1302, within three years, that is, of -the poet's talk with Ciacco. Dante himself was associated with the -Whites, but not as a violent partisan; for though he was a strong -politician no party quite answered his views. From the middle of June -till the middle of August 1300 he was one of the Priors. In the course -of 1301 he is believed to have gone on an embassy to Rome to persuade -the Pope to abstain from meddling in Florentine affairs. He never -entered Florence again, being condemned virtually to banishment in -January 1302. - -[283] _The boorish party_: _la parte selvaggia_. The Whites; but what is -exactly meant by _selvaggia_ is not clear. Literally it is 'woodland,' -and some say it refers to the Cerchi having originally come from a -well-wooded district; which is absurd. Nor, taking the word in its -secondary meaning of savage, does it apply better to one party than -another--not so well, perhaps, to the Whites as to the Blacks. Villani -also terms the Cerchi _salvatichi_ (viii. 39), and in a connection where -it may mean rude, ill-mannered. I take it that Dante here indulges in a -gibe at the party to which he once belonged, but which, ere he began the -_Comedy_, he had quite broken with. In _Parad._ xvii. 62 he terms the -members of it 'wicked and stupid.' The sneer in the text would come well -enough from the witty and soft-living Ciacco. - -[284] _Holpen, etc._: Pope Boniface, already intriguing to gain the -preponderance in Florence, which for a time he enjoyed, with the greedy -and faithless Charles of Valois for his agent. - -[285] _Two just_: Dante and another, unknown. He thus distinctly puts -from himself any blame for the evil turn things had taken in Florence. -How thoroughly he had broken with his party ere he wrote this is proved -by his exclusion of the irresolute but respectable Vieri dei Cerchi from -the number of the just men. He, in Dante's judgment, was only too much -listened to.--It will be borne in mind that, at the time assigned to the -action of the _Comedy_, Dante was still resident in Florence. - -[286] _Tegghiaio_: See _Inf._ xvi. 42. _Farinata_: _Inf._ x. 32. - -[287] _Rusticucci_: _Inf._ xvi. 44. _Mosca_: _Inf._ xxviii. 106. -_Arrigo_: Cannot be identified. All these distinguished Florentines we -may assume to have been hospitable patrons of Ciacco's. - -[288] _But when, etc._: In the Inferno many such prayers are addressed -to Dante. The shades in Purgatory ask to have their friends on earth -stirred to offer up petitions for their speedy purification and -deliverance; but the only alleviation possible for the doomed spirits is -to know that they are not yet forgotten up in the 'sweet world.' A -double artistic purpose is served by representing them as feeling thus. -It relieves the mind to think that in such misery there is any source of -comfort at all. And by making them be still interested on their own -account in the thoughts of men, the eager colloquies in which they -engage with Dante on such unequal terms gain in verisimilitude. - -[289] _And list, etc._: The final sentence against them is to echo, in -its results, through all eternity. - -[290] _The world to come_: The life after doomsday. - -[291] _Thy Science_: To Aristotle. In the _Convito_, iv. 16, he quotes -'the Philosopher' as teaching that 'everything is then at its full -perfection when it thoroughly fulfils its special functions.' - -[292] _Than now_: Augustine says that 'after the resurrection of the -flesh the joys of the blessed and the sufferings of the wicked will be -enhanced.' And, according to Thomas Aquinas, 'the soul, without the -body, is wanting in the perfection designed for it by Nature.' - - - - -CANTO VII. - - - Pape[293] Satan! Pape Satan! Aleppe! - Plutus[294] began in accents rough and hard: - And that mild Sage, all-knowing, said to me, - For my encouragement: 'Pay no regard - Unto thy fear; whatever power he sways - Thy passage down this cliff shall not be barred.' - Then turning round to that inflamed face - He bade: 'Accursed wolf,[295] at peace remain; - And, pent within thee, let thy fury blaze. - Down to the pit we journey not in vain: 10 - So rule they where by Michael in Heaven's height - On the adulterous pride[296] was vengeance ta'en.' - Then as the bellied sails, by wind swelled tight, - Suddenly drag whenever snaps the mast; - Such, falling to the ground, the monster's plight. - To the Fourth Cavern so we downward passed, - Winning new reaches of the doleful shore - Where all the vileness of the world is cast. - Justice of God! which pilest more and more - Pain as I saw, and travail manifold! 20 - Why will we sin, to be thus wasted sore? - As at Charybdis waves are forward rolled - To break on other billows midway met, - The people here a counterdance must hold. - A greater crowd than I had seen as yet, - With piercing yells advanced on either track, - Rolling great stones to which their chests were set. - They crashed together, and then each turned back - Upon the way he came, while shouts arise, - 'Why clutch it so?' and 'Why to hold it slack?' 30 - In the dark circle wheeled they on this wise - From either hand to the opposing part, - Where evermore they raised insulting cries. - Thither arrived, each, turning, made fresh start - Through the half circle[297] a new joust to run; - And I, stung almost to the very heart, - Said, 'O my Master, wilt thou make it known - Who the folk are? Were these all clerks[298] who go - Before us on the left, with shaven crown?' - And he replied: 'All of them squinted so 40 - In mental vision while in life they were, - They nothing spent by rule. And this they show, - And with their yelping voices make appear - When half-way round the circle they have sped, - And sins opposing them asunder tear. - Each wanting thatch of hair upon his head - Was once a clerk, or pope, or cardinal, - In whom abound the ripest growths of greed.' - And I: 'O Master, surely among all - Of these I ought[299] some few to recognise, 50 - Who by such filthy sins were held in thrall.' - And he to me: 'Vain thoughts within thee rise; - Their witless life, which made them vile, now mocks-- - Dimming[300] their faces still--all searching eyes. - Eternally they meet with hostile shocks; - These rising from the tomb at last shall stand - With tight clenched fists, and those with ruined locks.[301] - Squandering or hoarding, they the happy land[302] - Have lost, and now are marshalled for this fray; - Which to describe doth no fine words demand. 60 - Know hence, my Son, how fleeting is the play - Of goods at the dispose of Fortune thrown, - And which mankind to such fierce strife betray. - Not all the gold which is beneath the moon - Could purchase peace, nor all that ever was, - To but one soul of these by toil undone.' - 'Master,' I said, 'tell thou, ere making pause, - Who Fortune is of whom thou speak'st askance, - Who holds all worldly riches in her claws.'[303] - 'O foolish creatures, lost in ignorance!' 70 - He answer made. 'Now see that the reply - Thou store, which I concerning her advance. - He who in knowledge is exalted high, - Framing[304] all Heavens gave such as should them guide, - That so each part might shine to all; whereby - Is equal light diffused on every side: - And likewise to one guide and governor, - Of worldly splendours did control confide, - That she in turns should different peoples dower 79 - With this vain good; from blood should make it pass - To blood, in spite of human wit. Hence, power, - Some races failing,[305] other some amass, - According to her absolute decree - Which hidden lurks, like serpent in the grass. - Vain 'gainst her foresight yours must ever be. - She makes provision, judges, holds her reign, - As doth his power supreme each deity. - Her permutations can no truce sustain; - Necessity[306] compels her to be swift, - So swift they follow who their turn must gain. 90 - And this is she whom they so often[307] lift - Upon the cross, who ought to yield her praise; - And blame on her and scorn unjustly shift. - But she is blest nor hears what any says, - With other primal creatures turns her sphere, - Jocund and glad, rejoicing in her ways. - To greater woe now let us downward steer. - The stars[308] which rose when I began to guide - Are falling now, nor may we linger here.' - We crossed the circle to the other side, 100 - Arriving where a boiling fountain fell - Into a brooklet by its streams supplied. - In depth of hue the flood did perse[309] excel, - And we, with this dim stream to lead us on, - Descended by a pathway terrible. - A marsh which by the name of Styx is known, - Fed by this gloomy brook, lies at the base - Of threatening cliffs hewn out of cold grey stone. - And I, intent on study of the place,[310] - Saw people in that ditch, mud-smeared. In it 110 - All naked stood with anger-clouded face. - Nor with their fists alone each fiercely hit - The other, but with feet and chest and head, - And with their teeth to shreds each other bit. - 'Son, now behold,' the worthy Master said, - 'The souls of those whom anger made a prize; - And, further, I would have thee certified - That 'neath the water people utter sighs, - And make the bubbles to the surface come; - As thou mayst see by casting round thine eyes. 120 - Fixed in the mud they say: "We lived in gloom[311] - In the sweet air made jocund by the day, - Nursing within us melancholy fume. - In this black mud we now our gloom display." - This hymn with gurgling throats they strive to sound, - Which they in speech unbroken fail to say.' - And thus about the loathsome pool we wound - For a wide arc, between the dry and soft, - With eyes on those who gulp the filth, turned round. - At last we reached a tower that soared aloft. 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[293] _Pape, etc._: These words have exercised the ingenuity of many -scholars, who on the whole lean to the opinion that they contain an -appeal to Satan against the invasion of his domain. Virgil seems to have -understood them, but the text leaves it doubtful whether Dante himself -did. Later on, but there with an obvious purpose, we find a line of pure -gibberish (_Inf._ xxxi. 67). - -[294] _Plutus_: The god of riches; degraded here into a demon. He guards -the Fourth Circle, which is that of the misers and spendthrifts. - -[295] _Wolf_: Frequently used by Dante as symbolical of greed. - -[296] _Pride_: Which in its way was a kind of greed--that of dominion. -Similarly, the avarice represented by the wolf of Canto i. was seen to -be the lust of aggrandisement. Virgil here answers Plutus's (supposed) -appeal to Satan by referring to the higher Power, under whose protection -he and his companion come. - -[297] _The half circle_: This Fourth Circle is divided half-way round -between the misers and spendthrifts, and the two bands at set periods -clash against one another in their vain effort to pass into the section -belonging to the opposite party. Their condition is emblematical of -their sins while in life. They were one-sided in their use of wealth; so -here they can never complete the circle. The monotony of their -employment and of their cries represents their subjection to one idea, -and, as in life, so now, their displeasure is excited by nothing so much -as by coming into contact with the failing opposite to their own. Yet -they are set in the same circle because the sin of both arose from -inordinate desire of wealth, the miser craving it to hoard, and the -spendthrift to spend. In Purgatory also they are placed together (see -_Purg._ xxii. 40). So, on Dante's scheme, liberality is allied to and -dependent on a wise and reasonable frugality.--There is no hint of the -enormous length of the course run by these shades. Far lower down, when -the circles of the Inferno have greatly narrowed, the circuit is -twenty-two miles (_Inf._ xxix. 9). - -[298] _Clerks_: Churchmen. The tonsure is the sign that a man is of -ecclesiastical condition. Many took the tonsure who never became -priests. - -[299] _I ought, etc._: Dante is astonished that he can pick out no -greedy priest or friar of his acquaintance, when he had known so many. - -[300] _Dimming, etc._: Their original disposition is by this time -smothered by the predominance of greed. Dante treats these sinners with -a special contemptuous bitterness. Scores of times since he became -dependent on the generosity of others he must have watched how at a bare -hint the faces of miser and spendthrift fell, while their eyes travelled -vaguely beyond him, and their voices grew cold. - -[301] _Ruined locks_: 'A spendthrift will spend his very hair,' says an -Italian proverb. - -[302] _The happy land_: Heaven. - -[303] _Her claws_: Dante speaks of Fortune as if she were a brutal and -somewhat malicious power. In Virgil's answer there is a refutation of -the opinion of Fortune given by Dante himself, in the _Convito_ (iv. -11). After describing three ways in which the goods of Fortune come to -men he says: 'In each of these three ways her injustice is manifest.' -This part of the _Convito_ Fraticelli seems almost to prove was written -in 1297. - -[304] _Framing, etc._: According to the scholastic theory of the world, -each of the nine heavens was directed in its motion by intelligences, -called angels by the vulgar, and by the heathen, gods (_Convito_ ii. 5). -As these spheres and the influences they exercise on human affairs are -under the guidance of divinely-appointed ministers, so, Virgil says, is -the distribution of worldly wealth ruled by Providence through Fortune. - -[305] _Some races failing_: It was long believed, nor is the belief -quite obsolete, that one community can gain only at the expense of -another. Sir Thomas Browne says: 'All cannot be happy at once; for -because the glory of one state depends upon the ruin of another, there -is a revolution and vicissitude of their greatness, and all must obey -the swing of that wheel, not moved by intelligences, but by the hand of -God, whereby all states arise to their zeniths and vertical points -according to their predestinated periods.'--_Rel. Med._ i. 17. - -[306] _Necessity, etc._: Suggested, perhaps, by Horace's _Te semper -anteit saeva necessitas_ (_Od._ i. 35). The question of how men can be -free in the face of necessity, here associated with Fortune, more than -once emerges in the _Comedy_. Dante's belief on the subject was -substantially that of his favourite author Boethius, who holds that -ultimately 'it is Providence that turns the wheel of all things;' and -who says, that 'if you spread your sails to the wind you will be -carried, not where you would, but whither you are driven by the gale: if -you choose to commit yourself to Fortune, you must endure the manners of -your mistress.' - -[307] _Whom they so often, etc._: Treat with contumely. - -[308] _The stars, etc._: It is now past midnight, and towards the -morning of Saturday, the 26th of March 1300. Only a few hours have been -employed as yet upon the journey. - -[309] _Perse_: 'Perse is a colour between purple and black, but the -black predominates' (_Conv._ iv. 20). The hue of the waters of Styx -agrees with the gloomy temper of the sinners plunged in them. - -[310] _The place_: They are now in the Fifth Circle, where the wrathful -are punished. - -[311] _In gloom_: These submerged spirits are, according to the older -commentators, the slothful--those guilty of the sin of slackness in the -pursuit of good, as, _e.g._ neglect of the means of grace. This is, -theologically speaking, the sin directly opposed to the active grace of -charity. By more modern critics it has been ingeniously sought to find -in this circle a place not only for the slothful but for the proud and -envious as well. To each of these classes of sinners--such of them as -have repented in this life--a terrace of Purgatory is assigned, and at -first sight it does seem natural to expect that the impenitent among -them should be found in Inferno. But, while in Purgatory souls purge -themselves of every kind of mortal sin, Inferno, as Dante conceived of -it, contains only such sinners as have been guilty of wicked acts. Drift -and bent of heart and mind are taken no account of. The evil seed must -have borne a harvest, and the guilt of every victim of Justice must be -plain and open. Now, pride and envy are sins indeed, but sins that a man -may keep to himself. If they have betrayed the subject of them into the -commission of crimes, in those crimes they are punished lower down, as -is indicated at xii. 49. And so we find that Lucifer is condemned as a -traitor, though his treachery sprang from envy: the greater guilt -includes the less. For sluggishness in the pursuit of good the vestibule -of the caitiffs seems the appropriate place.--There are two kinds of -wrath. One is vehement, and declares itself in violent acts; the other -does not blaze out, but is grudging and adverse to all social good--the -wrath that is nursed. One as much as the other affects behaviour. So in -this circle, as in the preceding, we have represented the two excesses -of one sin.--Dante's theory of sins is ably treated of in Witte's -_Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 121. - - - - -CANTO VIII. - - - I say, continuing,[312] that long before - To its foundations we approached nigh - Our eyes went travelling to the top of the tower; - For, hung out there, two flames[313] we could espy. - Then at such distance, scarce our eyesight made - It clearly out, another gave reply. - And, to the Sea of Knowledge turned, I said: - 'What meaneth this? and what reply would yield - That other light, and who have it displayed?' - 'Thou shouldst upon the impure watery field,' 10 - He said, 'already what approaches know, - But that the fen-fog holds it still concealed.' - Never was arrow yet from sharp-drawn bow - Urged through the air upon a swifter flight - Than what I saw a tiny vessel show, - Across the water shooting into sight; - A single pilot served it for a crew, - Who shouted: 'Art thou come, thou guilty sprite?'[314] - 'O Phlegyas, Phlegyas,[315] this thy loud halloo! - For once,' my Lord said, 'idle is and vain. 20 - Thou hast us only till the mud we're through.' - And, as one cheated inly smarts with pain - When the deceit wrought on him is betrayed, - His gathering ire could Phlegyas scarce contain. - Into the bark my Leader stepped, and made - Me take my place beside him; nor a jot, - Till I had entered, was it downward weighed. - Soon as my Guide and I were in the boat, - To cleave the flood began the ancient prow, - Deeper[316] than 'tis with others wont to float. 30 - Then, as the stagnant ditch we glided through, - One smeared with filth in front of me arose - And said: 'Thus coming ere thy period,[317] who - Art thou?' And I: 'As one who forthwith goes - I come; but thou defiled, how name they thee?' - 'I am but one who weeps,'[318] he said. 'With woes,' - I answered him, 'with tears and misery, - Accursed soul, remain; for thou art known - Unto me now, all filthy though thou be.' - Then both his hands were on the vessel thrown; 40 - But him my wary Master backward heaved, - Saying: 'Do thou 'mong the other dogs be gone!' - Then to my neck with both his arms he cleaved, - And kissed my face, and, 'Soul disdainful,'[319] said, - 'O blessed she in whom thou wast conceived! - He in the world great haughtiness displayed. - No deeds of worth his memory adorn; - And therefore rages here his sinful shade. - And many are there by whom crowns are worn - On earth, shall wallow here like swine in mire, 50 - Leaving behind them names o'erwhelmed[320] in scorn.' - And I: 'O Master, I have great desire - To see him well soused in this filthy tide, - Ere from the lake we finally retire.' - And he: 'Or ever shall have been descried - The shore by thee, thy longing shall be met; - For such a wish were justly gratified.' - A little after in such fierce onset - The miry people down upon him bore, - I praise and bless God for it even yet. 60 - 'Philip Argenti![321] at him!' was the roar; - And then that furious spirit Florentine - Turned with his teeth upon himself and tore. - Here was he left, nor wins more words of mine. - Now in my ears a lamentation rung, - Whence I to search what lies ahead begin. - And the good Master told me: 'Son, ere long - We to the city called of Dis[322] draw near, - Where in great armies cruel burghers[323] throng.' - And I: 'Already, Master, I appear 70 - Mosques[324] in the valley to distinguish well, - Vermilion, as if they from furnace were - Fresh come.' And he: 'Fires everlasting dwell - Within them, whence appear they glowing hot, - As thou discernest in this lower hell.' - We to the moat profound at length were brought, - Which girds that city all disconsolate; - The walls around it seemed of iron wrought. - Not without fetching first a compass great, - We came to where with angry cry at last: 80 - 'Get out,' the boatman yelled; 'behold the gate!'[325] - More than a thousand, who from Heaven[326] were cast, - I saw above the gates, who furiously - Demanded: 'Who, ere death on him has passed, - Holds through the region of the dead his way?' - And my wise Master made to them a sign - That he had something secretly to say. - Then ceased they somewhat from their great disdain, - And said: 'Come thou, but let that one be gone - Who thus presumptuous enters on this reign. 90 - Let him retrace his madcap way alone, - If he but can; thou meanwhile lingering here, - Through such dark regions who hast led him down.' - Judge, reader, if I was not filled with fear, - Hearing the words of this accursed threat; - For of return my hopes extinguished were. - 'Beloved Guide, who more than seven times[327] set - Me in security, and safely brought - Through frightful dangers in my progress met, - Leave me not thus undone;' I him besought: 100 - 'If further progress be to us denied, - Let us retreat together, tarrying not.' - The Lord who led me thither then replied: - 'Fear not: by One so great has been assigned - Our passage, vainly were all hindrance tried. - Await me here, and let thy fainting mind - Be comforted and with good hope be fed, - Not to be left in this low world behind.' - Thus goes he, thus am I abandoned - By my sweet Father. I in doubt remain, 110 - With Yes and No[328] contending in my head. - I could not hear what speech he did maintain, - But no long time conferred he in that place, - Till, to be first, all inward raced again. - And then the gates were closed in my Lord's face - By these our enemies; outside stood he; - Then backward turned to me with lingering pace, - With downcast eyes, and all the bravery - Stripped from his brows; and he exclaimed with sighs; - 'Who dare[329] deny the doleful seats to me!' 120 - And then he said: 'Although my wrath arise, - Fear not, for I to victory will pursue, - Howe'er within they plot, the enterprise. - This arrogance of theirs is nothing new; - They showed it[330] once at a less secret door - Which stands unbolted since. Thou didst it view, - And saw the dark-writ legend which it bore. - Thence, even now, is one who hastens down - Through all the circles, guideless, to this shore, - And he shall win us entrance to the town.' 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[312] _Continuing_: The account of the Fifth Circle, begun in the -preceding Canto, is continued in this. It is impossible to adopt -Boccaccio's story of how the first seven Cantos were found among a heap -of other papers, years after Dante's exile began; and that 'continuing' -marks the resumption of his work. The word most probably suggested the -invention of the incident, or at least led to the identification of some -manuscript that may have been sent to Dante, with the opening pages of -the _Comedy_. If the tale were true, not only must Ciacco's prophecy -(_Inf._ vi.) have been interpolated, but we should be obliged to hold -that Dante began the poem while he was a prosperous citizen.--Boccaccio -himself in his Comment on the _Comedy_ points out the difficulty of -reconciling the story with Ciacco's prophecy. - -[313] _Two flames_: Denoting the number of passengers who are to be -conveyed across the Stygian pool. It is a signal for the ferryman, and -is answered by a light hung out on the battlements of the city of Dis. - -[314] _Guilty sprite_: Only one is addressed; whether Virgil or Dante is -not clear. - -[315] _Phlegyas_: Who burnt the temple of Apollo at Delphi in revenge -for the violation of his daughter by the god. - -[316] _Deeper, etc._: Because used to carry only shades. - -[317] _Ere thy period_: The curiosity of the shade is excited by the -sinking of the boat in the water. He assumes that Dante will one day be -condemned to Inferno. Neither Francesca nor Ciacco made a like mistake. - -[318] _One who weeps_: He is ashamed to tell his name, and hopes in his -vile disguise to remain unknown by Dante, whose Florentine speech and -dress, and perhaps whose features, he has now recognised. - -[319] _Soul disdainful_: Dante has been found guilty of here glorying in -the same sin which he so severely reprobates in others. But, without -question, of set purpose he here contrasts righteous indignation with -the ignoble rage punished in this circle. With his quick temper and zeal -so often kindling into flame, he may have felt a special personal need -of emphasising the distinction. - -[320] _Names o'erwhelmed, etc._: 'Horrible reproaches.' - -[321] _Philip Argenti_: A Florentine gentleman related to the great -family of the Adimari, and a contemporary of Dante's. Boccaccio in his -commentary describes him as a cavalier, very rich, and so ostentatious -that he once shod his horse with silver, whence his surname. In the -_Decameron_ (ix. 8) he is introduced as violently assaulting--tearing -out his hair and dragging him in the mire--the victim of a practical -joke played by the Ciacco of Canto vi. Some, without reason, suppose -that Dante shows such severity to him because he was a Black, and so a -political opponent of his own. - -[322] _Dis_: A name of Pluto, the god of the infernal regions. - -[323] _Burghers_: The city of Dis composes the Sixth Circle, and, as -immediately appears, is populated by demons. The sinners punished in it -are not mentioned at all in this Canto, and it seems more reasonable to -apply _burghers_ to the demons than to the shades. They are called -_gravi_, generally taken to mean sore burdened, and the description is -then applicable to the shades; but _grave_ also bears the sense of -cruel, and may describe the fierceness of the devils. Though the city is -inhabited by the subjects of Dis, he is found as Lucifer at the very -bottom of the pit. By some critics the whole of the lower Inferno, all -that lies beyond this point, is regarded as being the city of Dis. But -it is the Sixth Circle, with its minarets, that is the city; its walls, -however, serving as bulwarks for all the lower Inferno. The shape of the -city is, of course, that of a circular belt. Here it may be noted that -the Fifth and Sixth Circles are on the same level; the water of Styx, -which as a marsh covers the Fifth, is gathered into a moat to surround -the walls of the Sixth. - -[324] _Mosques_: The feature of an Infidel city that first struck -crusader and pilgrim. - -[325] _The gate_: They have floated across the stagnant marsh into the -deeper waters of the moat, and up to the gate where Phlegyas is used to -land his passengers. It may be a question whether his services are -required for all who are doomed to the lower Inferno, or only for those -bound to the city. - -[326] _From Heaven_: 'Rained from Heaven.' Fallen angels. - -[327] _Seven times_: Given as a round number. - -[328] _Yes and No_: He will return--He will not return. The demons have -said that Virgil shall remain, and he has promised Dante not to desert -him. - -[329] _Who dare, etc._: Virgil knows the hindrance is only temporary, -but wonders what superior devilish power can have incited the demons to -deny him entrance. The incident displays the fallen angels as being -still rebellious, and is at the same time skilfully conceived to mark a -pause before Dante enters on the lower Inferno. - -[330] _They showed it, etc._: At the gate of Inferno, on the occasion of -Christ's descent to Limbo. The reference is to the words in the Missal -service for Easter Eve: 'This is the night in which, having burst the -bonds of death, Christ victoriously ascended from Hell.' - - - - -CANTO IX. - - - The hue which cowardice on my face did paint - When I beheld my guide return again, - Put his new colour[331] quicker 'neath restraint. - Like one who listens did he fixed remain; - For far to penetrate the air like night, - And heavy mist, the eye was bent in vain. - 'Yet surely we must vanquish in the fight;' - Thus he, 'unless[332]--but with such proffered aid-- - O how I weary till he come in sight!' - Well I remarked how he transition made, 10 - Covering his opening words with those behind, - Which contradicted what at first he said. - Nath'less his speech with terror charged my mind, - For, haply, to the word which broken fell - Worse meaning than he purposed, I assigned. - Down to this bottom[333] of the dismal shell - Comes ever any from the First Degree,[334] - Where all their pain is, stripped of hope to dwell? - To this my question thus responded he: - 'Seldom it haps to any to pursue 20 - The journey now embarked upon by me. - Yet I ere this descended, it is true, - Beneath a spell of dire Erichtho's[335] laid, - Who could the corpse with soul inform anew. - Short while my flesh of me was empty made - When she required me to o'erpass that wall, - From Judas' circle[336] to abstract a shade. - That is the deepest, darkest place of all, - And furthest from the heaven[337] which moves the skies; - I know the way; fear nought that can befall. 30 - These fens[338] from which vile exhalations rise - The doleful city all around invest, - Which now we reach not save in angry wise.' - Of more he spake nought in my mind doth rest, - For, with mine eyes, my every thought had been - Fixed on the lofty tower with flaming crest, - Where, in a moment and upright, were seen - Three hellish furies, all with blood defaced, - And woman-like in members and in mien. - Hydras of brilliant green begirt their waist; 40 - Snakes and cerastes for their tresses grew, - And these were round their dreadful temples braced. - That they the drudges were, full well he knew, - Of her who is the queen of endless woes, - And said to me: 'The fierce Erynnyes[339] view! - Herself upon the left Megaera shows; - That is Alecto weeping on the right; - Tisiphone's between.' Here made he close. - Each with her nails her breast tore, and did smite - Herself with open palms. They screamed in tone 50 - So fierce, I to the Poet clove for fright. - 'Medusa,[340] come, that we may make him stone!' - All shouted as they downward gazed; 'Alack! - Theseus[341] escaped us when he ventured down.' - 'Keep thine eyes closed and turn to them thy back, - For if the Gorgon chance to be displayed - And thou shouldst look, farewell the upward track!' - Thus spake the Master, and himself he swayed - Me round about; nor put he trust in mine - But his own hands upon mine eyelids laid. 60 - O ye with judgment gifted to divine - Look closely now, and mark what hidden lore - Lies 'neath the veil of my mysterious line![342] - Across the turbid waters came a roar - And crash of sound, which big with fear arose: - Because of it fell trembling either shore. - The fashion of it was as when there blows - A blast by cross heats made to rage amain, - Which smites the forest and without repose - The shattered branches sweeps in hurricane; 70 - In clouds of dust, majestic, onward flies, - Wild beasts and herdsmen driving o'er the plain. - 'Sharpen thy gaze,' he bade--and freed mine eyes-- - 'Across the foam-flecked immemorial lake, - Where sourest vapour most unbroken lies.' - And as the frogs before the hostile snake - Together of the water get them clear, - And on the dry ground, huddling, shelter take; - More than a thousand ruined souls in fear - Beheld I flee from one who, dry of feet, 80 - Was by the Stygian ferry drawing near. - Waving his left hand he the vapour beat - Swiftly from 'fore his face, nor seemed he spent - Save with fatigue at having this to meet. - Well I opined that he from Heaven[343] was sent, - And to my Master turned. His gesture taught - I should be dumb and in obeisance bent. - Ah me, how with disdain appeared he fraught! - He reached the gate, which, touching with a rod,[344] - He oped with ease, for it resisted not. 90 - 'People despised and banished far from God,' - Upon the awful threshold then he spoke, - 'How holds in you such insolence abode? - Why kick against that will which never broke - Short of its end, if ever it begin, - And often for you fiercer torments woke? - Butting 'gainst fate, what can ye hope to win? - Your Cerberus,[345] as is to you well known, - Still bears for this a well-peeled throat and chin.' - Then by the passage foul he back was gone, 100 - Nor spake to us, but like a man was he - By other cares[346] absorbed and driven on - Than that of those who may around him be. - And we, confiding in the sacred word, - Moved toward the town in all security. - We entered without hindrance, and I, spurred - By my desire the character to know - And style of place such strong defences gird, - Entering, begin mine eyes around to throw, - And see on every hand a vast champaign, 110 - The teeming seat of torments and of woe. - And as at Arles[347] where Rhone spreads o'er the plain, - Or Pola,[348] hard upon Quarnaro sound - Which bathes the boundaries Italian, - The sepulchres uneven make the ground; - So here on every side, but far more dire - And grievous was the fashion of them found. - For scattered 'mid the tombs blazed many a fire, - Because of which these with such fervour burned - No arts which work in iron more require. 120 - All of the lids were lifted. I discerned - By keen laments which from the tombs arose - That sad and suffering ones were there inurned. - I said: 'O Master, tell me who are those - Buried within the tombs, of whom the sighs - Come to our ears thus eloquent of woes?' - And he to me: 'The lords of heresies[349] - With followers of all sects, a greater band - Than thou wouldst think, these sepulchres comprise. - To lodge them like to like the tombs are planned. 130 - The sepulchres have more or less of heat.'[350] - Then passed we, turning to the dexter hand,[351] - 'Tween torments and the lofty parapet. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[331] _New colour_: Both have changed colour, Virgil in anger and Dante -in fear. - -[332] _Unless_: To conceal his misgiving from Dante, Virgil refrains -from expressing all his thought. The 'unless' may refer to what the -lying demons had told him or threatened him with; the 'proffered aid,' -to that involved in Beatrice's request. - -[333] _This bottom_: The lower depths of Inferno. How much still lies -below him is unknown to Dante. - -[334] _First Degree_: The limbo where Virgil resides. Dante by an -indirect question, seeks to learn how much experience of Inferno is -possessed by his guide. - -[335] _Erichtho_: A Thessalian sorceress, of whom Lucan (_Pharsalia_ -vi.) tells that she evoked a shade to predict to Sextus Pompey the -result of the war between his father and Caesar. This happened thirty -years before the death of Virgil. - -[336] _Judas' circle_: The Judecca, or very lowest point of the Inferno. -Virgil's death preceded that of Judas by fifty years. He gives no hint -of whose the shade was that he went down to fetch; but Lucan's tale was -probably in Dante's mind. In the Middle Ages the memory of Virgil was -revered as that of a great sorcerer, especially in the neighbourhood of -Naples. - -[337] _The heaven, etc._: The _Primum Mobile_; but used here for the -highest heaven. See _Inf._ ii. 83, _note_. - -[338] _These fens, etc._: Virgil knows the locality. They have no -choice, but must remain where they are, for the same moat and wall gird -the city all around. - -[339] _Erynnyes_: The Furies. The Queen of whom they are handmaids is -Proserpine, carried off by Dis, or Pluto, to the under world. - -[340] _Medusa_: One of the Gorgons. Whoever looked on the head of Medusa -was turned into stone. - -[341] _Theseus_: Who descended into the infernal regions to rescue -Proserpine, and escaped by the help of Hercules. - -[342] _Mysterious line_: 'Strange verses:' That the verses are called -strange, as Boccaccio and others of the older commentators say, because -treating of such a subject in the vulgar tongue for the first time, and -in rhyme, is difficult to believe. Rather they are strange because of -the meaning they convey. What that is, Dante warns the reader of -superior intellect to pause and consider. It has been noted (_Inf._ ii. -28) how he uses the characters of the old mythology as if believing in -their real existence. But this is for his poetical ends. Here he bids us -look below the surface and seek for the truth hidden under the strange -disguise.--The opposition to their progress offered by the powers of -Hell perplexes even Virgil, while Dante is reduced to a state of -absolute terror, and is afflicted with still sharper misgivings than he -had at the first as to the issue of his adventure. By an indirect -question he seeks to learn how much Virgil really knows of the economy -of the lower world; but he cannot so much as listen to all of his -Master's reassuring answer, terrified as he is by the sudden appearance -of the Furies upon the tower, which rises out of the city of unbelief. -These symbolise the trouble of his conscience, and, assailing him with -threats, shake his already trembling faith in the Divine government. -How, in the face of such foes, is he to find the peace and liberty of -soul of which he is in search? That this is the city of unbelief he has -not yet been told, and without knowing it he is standing under the very -walls of Doubting Castle. And now, if he chance to let his eyes rest on -the Gorgon's head, his soul will be petrified by despair; like the -denizens of Hell, he will lose the 'good of the intellect,' and will -pass into a state from which Virgil--or reason--will be powerless to -deliver him. But Virgil takes him in time, and makes him avert his eyes; -which may signify that the only safe course for men is to turn their -backs on the deep and insoluble problem of how the reality of the Divine -government can be reconciled with the apparent triumph of evil. - -[343] _From Heaven_: The messenger comes from Heaven, and his words are -holy. Against the obvious interpretation, that he is a good angel, there -lies the objection that no other such is met with in Inferno, and also -that it is spoken of as a new sight for him when Dante first meets with -one in Purgatory. But the obstruction now to be overcome is worthy of -angelic interference; and Dante can hardly be said to meet the -messenger, who does not even glance in his direction. The commentators -have made this angel mean all kind of outlandish things. - -[344] _A rod_: A piece of the angelic outfit, derived from the -_caduceus_ of Mercury. - -[345] _Cerberus_: Hercules, when Cerberus opposed his entrance to the -infernal regions, fastened a chain round his neck and dragged him to the -gate. The angel's speech answers Dante's doubts as to the limits of -diabolical power. - -[346] _By other cares, etc._: It is not in Inferno that Dante is to hold -converse with celestial intelligences. The angel, like Beatrice when she -sought Virgil in Limbo, is all on fire to return to his own place. - -[347] _Arles_: The Alyscampo (Elysian Fields) at Arles was an enormous -cemetery, of which ruins still exist. It had a circumference of about -six miles, and contained numerous sarcophagi dating from Roman times. - -[348] _Pola_: In Istria, near the Gulf of Quarnaro, said to have -contained many ancient tombs. - -[349] _Lords of heresies_: 'Heresiarchs.' Dante now learns for the first -time that Dis is the city of unbelief. Each class of heretics has its -own great sepulchre. - -[350] _More or less of heat_: According to the heinousness of the heresy -punished in each. It was natural to associate heretics and punishment by -fire in days when Dominican monks ruled the roast. - -[351] _Dexter hand_: As they move across the circles, and down from one -to the other, their course is usually to the left hand. Here for some -reason Virgil turns to the right, so as to have the tombs on the left as -he advances. It may be that a special proof of his knowledge of the -locality is introduced when most needed--after the repulse by the -demons--to strengthen Dante's confidence in him as a guide; or, as some -subtly think, they being now about to enter the abode of heresy, the -movement to the right signifies the importance of the first step in -forming opinion. The only other occasion on which their course is taken -to the right hand is at _Inf._ xvii. 31. - - - - -CANTO X. - - - And now advance we by a narrow track - Between the torments and the ramparts high, - My Master first, and I behind his back. - 'O mighty Virtue,[352] at whose will am I - Wheeled through these impious circles,' then I said, - 'Speak, and in full my longing satisfy. - The people who within the tombs are laid, - May they be seen? The coverings are all thrown - Open, nor is there[353] any guard displayed.' - And he to me: 'All shall be fastened down 10 - When hither from Jehoshaphat[354] they come - Again in bodies which were once their own. - All here with Epicurus[355] find their tomb - Who are his followers, and by whom 'tis held - That the soul shares the body's mortal doom. - Things here discovered then shall answer yield, - And quickly, to thy question asked of me; - As well as[356] to the wish thou hast concealed.' - And I: 'Good Leader, if I hide from thee - My heart, it is that I may little say; 20 - Nor only now[357] learned I thus dumb to be.' - 'O Tuscan, who, still living, mak'st thy way, - Modest of speech, through the abode of flame, - Be pleased[358] a little in this place to stay. - The accents of thy language thee proclaim - To be a native of that state renowned - Which I, perchance, wronged somewhat.' Sudden came - These words from out a tomb which there was found - 'Mongst others; whereon I, compelled by fright, - A little toward my Leader shifted ground. 30 - And he: 'Turn round, what ails thee? Lo! upright - Beginneth Farinata[359] to arise; - All of him 'bove the girdle comes in sight.' - On him already had I fixed mine eyes. - Towering erect with lifted front and chest, - He seemed Inferno greatly to despise. - And toward him I among the tombs was pressed - By my Guide's nimble and courageous hand, - While he, 'Choose well thy language,' gave behest. - Beneath his tomb when I had ta'en my stand 40 - Regarding me a moment, 'Of what house - Art thou?' as if in scorn, he made demand. - To show myself obedient, anxious, - I nothing hid, but told my ancestors; - And, listening, he gently raised his brows.[360] - 'Fiercely to me they proved themselves adverse, - And to my sires and party,' then he said; - 'Because of which I did them twice disperse.'[361] - I answered him: 'And what although they fled! - Twice from all quarters they returned with might, 50 - An art not mastered yet by these you[362] led.' - Beside him then there issued into sight - Another shade, uncovered to the chin, - Propped on his knees, if I surmised aright. - He peered around as if he fain would win - Knowledge if any other was with me; - And then, his hope all spent, did thus begin, - Weeping: 'By dint of genius if it be - Thou visit'st this dark prison, where my son? - And wherefore not found in thy company?' 60 - And I to him: 'I come not here alone: - He waiting yonder guides me: but disdain - Of him perchance was by your Guido[363] shown.' - The words he used, and manner of his pain, - Revealed his name to me beyond surmise; - Hence was I able thus to answer plain. - Then cried he, and at once upright did rise, - 'How saidst thou--was? Breathes he not then the air? - The pleasant light no longer smites his eyes?' - When he of hesitation was aware 70 - Displayed by me in forming my reply, - He fell supine, no more to reappear. - But the magnanimous, at whose bidding I - Had halted there, the same expression wore, - Nor budged a jot, nor turned his neck awry. - 'And if'--resumed he where he paused before-- - 'They be indeed but slow that art to learn, - Than this my bed, to hear it pains me more. - But ere the fiftieth time anew shall burn - The lady's[364] face who reigneth here below, 80 - Of that sore art thou shalt experience earn. - And as to the sweet world again thou'dst go, - Tell me, why is that people so without - Ruth for my race,[365] as all their statutes show?' - And I to him: 'The slaughter and the rout - Which made the Arbia[366] to run with red, - Cause in our fane[367] such prayers to be poured out.' - Whereon he heaved a sigh and shook his head: - 'There I was not alone, nor to embrace - That cause was I, without good reason, led. 90 - But there I was alone, when from her place - All granted Florence should be swept away. - 'Twas I[368] defended her with open face.' - 'So may your seed find peace some better day,' - I urged him, 'as this knot you shall untie - In which my judgment doth entangled stay. - If I hear rightly, ye, it seems, descry - Beforehand what time brings, and yet ye seem - 'Neath other laws[369] as touching what is nigh.' - 'Like those who see best what is far from them, 100 - We see things,' said he, 'which afar remain; - Thus much enlightened by the Guide Supreme. - To know them present or approaching, vain - Are all our powers; and save what they relate - Who hither come, of earth no news we gain. - Hence mayst thou gather in how dead a state - Shall all our knowledge from that time be thrown - When of the future shall be closed the gate.' - Then, for my fault as if repentant grown, - I said: 'Report to him who fell supine, 110 - That still among the living breathes his son. - And if I, dumb, seemed answer to decline, - Tell him it was that I upon the knot - Was pondering then, you helped me to untwine.' - Me now my Master called, whence I besought - With more than former sharpness of the shade, - To tell me what companions he had got. - He answered me: 'Some thousand here are laid - With me; 'mong these the Second Frederick,[370] - The Cardinal[371] too; of others nought be said.' 120 - Then was he hid; and towards the Bard antique - I turned my steps, revolving in my brain - The ominous words[372] which I had heard him speak. - He moved, and as we onward went again - Demanded of me: 'Wherefore thus amazed?' - And to his question I made answer plain. - 'Within thy mind let there be surely placed,' - The Sage bade, 'what 'gainst thee thou heardest say. - Now mark me well' (his finger here he raised), - 'When thou shalt stand within her gentle ray 130 - Whose beauteous eye sees all, she will make known - The stages[373] of thy journey on life's way.' - Turning his feet, he to the left moved on; - Leaving the wall, we to the middle[374] went - Upon a path that to a vale strikes down, - Which even to us above its foulness sent. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[352] _Virtue_: Virgil is here addressed by a new title, which, with the -words of deep respect that follow, marks the full restoration of Dante's -confidence in him as his guide. - -[353] _Nor is there, etc._: The gate was found to be strictly guarded, -but not so are the tombs. - -[354] _Jehoshaphat_: 'I will also gather all nations, and will bring -them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat' (Joel iii. 2). - -[355] _Epicurus_: The unbelief in a future life, or rather the -indifference to everything but the calls of ambition and worldly -pleasure, common among the nobles of Dante's age and that preceding it, -went by the name of Epicureanism. It is the most radical of heresies, -because adverse to the first principles of all religions. Dante, in his -treatment of heresy, dwells more on what affects conduct as does the -denial of the Divine government--than on intellectual divergence from -orthodox belief. - -[356] _As well as, etc._: The question is: 'May they be seen?' The wish -is a desire to speak with them. - -[357] _Nor only now, etc._: Virgil has on previous occasions imposed -silence on Dante, as, for instance, at _Inf._ iii. 51. - -[358] _Be pleased, etc._: From one of the sepulchres, to be imagined as -a huge sarcophagus, come words similar to the _Siste Viator!_ common on -Roman tombs. - -[359] _Farinata_: Of the great Florentine family of the Uberti, and, in -the generation before Dante, leader of the Ghibeline or Imperialist -party in Florence. His memory long survived among his fellow-townsmen as -that of the typical noble, rough-mannered, unscrupulous, and arrogant; -but yet, for one good action that he did, he at the same time ranked in -the popular estimation as a patriot and a hero. Boccaccio, misled -perhaps by the mention of Epicurus, says that he loved rich and delicate -fare. It is because all his thoughts were worldly that he is condemned -to the city of unbelief. Dante has already (_Inf._ vi. 79) inquired -regarding his fate. He died in 1264. - -[360] _His brows_: When Dante tells he is of the Alighieri, a Guelf -family, Farinata shows some slight displeasure. Or, as a modern -Florentine critic interprets the gesture, he has to think a moment -before he can remember on which side the Alighieri ranged -themselves--they being of the small gentry, while he was a great noble, -But this gloss requires Dante to have been more free from pride of -family than he really was. - -[361] _Twice disperse_: The Alighieri shared in the exile of the Guelfs -in 1248 and 1260. - -[362] _You_: See also line 95. Dante never uses the plural form to a -single person except when desirous of showing social as distinguished -from, or over and above, moral respect. - -[363] _Guido_: Farinata's companion in the tomb is Cavalcante -Cavalcanti, who, although a Guelf, was tainted with the more specially -Ghibeline error of Epicureanism. When in order to allay party rancour -some of the Guelf and Ghibeline families were forced to intermarry, his -son Guido took a daughter of Farinata's to wife. This was in 1267, so -that Guido was much older than Dante. Yet they were very intimate, and, -intellectually, had much in common. With him Dante exchanged poems of -occasion, and he terms him more than once in the _Vita Nuova_ his chief -friend. The disdain of Virgil need not mean more than is on the surface. -Guido died in 1301. He is the hero of the _Decameron_, vi. 9. - -[364] _The Lady_: Proserpine; _i.e._ the moon. Ere fifty months from -March 1300 were past, Dante was to see the failure of more than one -attempt made by the exiles, of whom he was one, to gain entrance to -Florence. The great attempt was in the beginning of 1304. - -[365] _Ruth for my race_: When the Ghibeline power was finally broken in -Florence the Uberti were always specially excluded from any amnesty. -There is mention of the political execution of at least one descendant -of Farinata's. His son when being led to the scaffold said, 'So we pay -our fathers' debts!'--It has been so long common to describe Dante as a -Ghibeline, though no careful writer does it now, that it may be worth -while here to remark that Ghibelinism, as Farinata understood it, was -practically extinct in Florence ere Dante entered political life. - -[366] _The Arbia_: At Montaperti, on the Arbia, a few miles from Siena, -was fought in 1260 a great battle between the Guelf Florence and her -allies on the one hand, and on the other the Ghibelines of Florence, -then in exile, under Farinata; the Sienese and Tuscan Ghibelines in -general; and some hundreds of men-at-arms lent by Manfred. -Notwithstanding the gallant behaviour of the Florentine burghers, the -Guelf defeat was overwhelming, and not only did the Arbia run red with -Florentine blood--in a figure--but the battle of Montaperti ruined for a -time the cause of popular liberty and general improvement in Florence. - -[367] _Our fane_: The Parliament of the people used to meet in Santa -Reparata, the cathedral; and it is possible that the maintenance of the -Uberti disabilities was there more than once confirmed by the general -body of the citizens. The use of the word is in any case accounted for -by the frequency of political conferences in churches. And the temple -having been introduced, edicts are converted into 'prayers.' - -[368] _'Twas I, etc._: Some little time after the victory of Montaperti -there was a great Ghibeline gathering from various cities at Empoli, -when it was proposed, with general approval, to level Florence with the -ground in revenge for the obstinate Guelfism of the population. Farinata -roughly declared that as long as he lived and had a sword he would -defend his native place, and in the face of this protest the resolution -was departed from. It is difficult to understand how of all the -Florentine nobles, whose wealth consisted largely in house property, -Farinata should have stood alone in protesting against the ruin of the -city. But so it seems to have been; and in this great passage Farinata -is repaid for his service, in despite of Inferno. - -[369] _Other laws_: Ciacco, in Canto vi., prophesied what was to happen -in Florence, and Farinata has just told him that four years later than -now he will have failed in an attempt to return from exile: yet Farinata -does not know if his family is still being persecuted, and Cavalcanti -fears that his son Guido is already numbered with the dead. Farinata -replies that like the longsighted the shades can only see what is some -distance off, and are ignorant of what is going on, or about to happen; -which seems to imply that they forget what they once foresaw. Guido was -to die within a few months, and the event was too close at hand to come -within the range of his father's vision. - -[370] _The Second Frederick_: The Emperor of that name who reigned from -1220 to 1250, and waged a life-long war with the Popes for supremacy in -Italy. It is not however for his enmity with Rome that he is placed in -the Sixth Circle, but for his Epicureanism--as Dante understood it. From -his Sicilian court a spirit of free inquiry spread through the -Peninsula. With men of the stamp of Farinata it would be converted into -a crude materialism. - -[371] _The Cardinal_: Ottaviano, of the powerful Tuscan family of the -Ubaldini, a man of great political activity, and known in Tuscany as -'The Cardinal.' His sympathies were not with the Roman Court. The news -of Montaperti filled him with delight, and later, when the Tuscan -Ghibelines refused him money he had asked for, he burst out with 'And -yet I have lost my soul for the Ghibelines--if I have a soul.' He died -not earlier than 1273. After these illustrious names Farinata scorns to -mention meaner ones. - -[372] _Ominous words_: Those in which Farinata foretold Dante's exile. - -[373] _The stages, etc._: It is Cacciaguida, his ancestor, who in -Paradise instructs Dante in what his future life is to be--one of -poverty and exile (_Parad._ xvii.). This is, however, done at the -request of Beatrice. - -[374] _To the middle_: Turning to the left they cut across the circle -till they reach the inner boundary of the city of tombs. Here there is -no wall. - - - - -CANTO XI. - - - We at the margin of a lofty steep - Made of great shattered stones in circle bent, - Arrived where worser torments crowd the deep. - So horrible a stench and violent - Was upward wafted from the vast abyss,[375] - Behind the cover we for shelter went - Of a great tomb where I saw written this: - 'Pope Anastasius[376] is within me thrust, - Whom the straight way Photinus made to miss.' - 'Now on our course a while we linger must,' 10 - The Master said, 'be but our sense resigned - A little to it, and the filthy gust - We shall not heed.' Then I: 'Do thou but find - Some compensation lest our time should run - Wasted.' And he: 'Behold, 'twas in my mind. - Girt by the rocks before us, O my son, - Lie three small circles,'[377] he began to tell, - 'Graded like those with which thou now hast done, - All of them filled with spirits miserable. - That sight[378] of them may thee henceforth suffice. 20 - Hear how and wherefore in these groups they dwell. - Whate'er in Heaven's abhorred as wickedness - Has injury[379] for its end; in others' bane - By fraud resulting or in violent wise. - Since fraud to man alone[380] doth appertain, - God hates it most; and hence the fraudulent band, - Set lowest down, endure a fiercer pain. - Of the violent is the circle next at hand - To us; and since three ways is violence shown, - 'Tis in three several circuits built and planned. 30 - To God, ourselves, or neighbours may be done - Violence, or on the things by them possessed; - As reasoning clear shall unto thee make known. - Our neighbour may by violence be distressed - With grievous wounds, or slain; his goods and lands - By havoc, fire, and plunder be oppressed. - Hence those who wound and slay with violent hands, - Robbers, and spoilers, in the nearest round - Are all tormented in their various bands. - Violent against himself may man be found, 40 - And 'gainst his goods; therefore without avail - They in the next are in repentance drowned - Who on themselves loss of your world entail, - Who gamble[381] and their substance madly spend, - And who when called to joy lament and wail. - And even to God may violence extend - By heart denial and by blasphemy, - Scorning what nature doth in bounty lend. - Sodom and Cahors[382] hence are doomed to lie - Within the narrowest circlet surely sealed; 50 - And such as God within their hearts defy. - Fraud,[383] 'gainst whose bite no conscience findeth shield, - A man may use with one who in him lays - Trust, or with those who no such credence yield. - Beneath this latter kind of it decays - The bond of love which out of nature grew; - Hence, in the second circle[384] herd the race - To feigning given and flattery, who pursue - Magic, false coining, theft, and simony, - Pimps, barrators, and suchlike residue. 60 - The other form of fraud makes nullity - Of natural bonds; and, what is more than those, - The special trust whence men on men rely. - Hence in the place whereon all things repose, - The narrowest circle and the seat of Dis,[385] - Each traitor's gulfed in everlasting woes.' - 'Thy explanation, Master, as to this - Is clear,' I said, 'and thou hast plainly told - Who are the people stowed in the abyss. - But tell why those the muddy marshes hold, 70 - The tempest-driven, those beaten by the rain, - And such as, meeting, virulently scold, - Are not within the crimson city ta'en - For punishment, if hateful unto God; - And, if not hateful, wherefore doomed to pain?' - And he to me: 'Why wander thus abroad, - More than is wont, thy wits? or how engrossed - Is now thy mind, and on what things bestowed? - Hast thou the memory of the passage lost - In which thy Ethics[386] for their subject treat 80 - Of the three moods by Heaven abhorred the most-- - Malice and bestiality complete; - And how, compared with these, incontinence - Offends God less, and lesser blame doth meet? - If of this doctrine thou extract the sense, - And call to memory what people are - Above, outside, in endless penitence, - Why from these guilty they are sundered far - Thou shalt discern, and why on them alight - The strokes of justice in less angry war.' 90 - 'O Sun that clearest every troubled sight, - So charmed am I by thy resolving speech, - Doubt yields me joy no less than knowing right. - Therefore, I pray, a little backward reach,' - I asked, 'to where thou say'st that usury - Sins 'gainst God's bounty; and this mystery teach.' - He said: 'Who gives ear to Philosophy - Is taught by her, nor in one place alone, - What nature in her course is governed by, - Even Mind Divine, and art which thence hath grown; 100 - And if thy Physics[387] thou wilt search within, - Thou'lt find ere many leaves are open thrown, - This art by yours, far as your art can win, - Is followed close--the teacher by the taught; - As grandchild then to God your art is kin. - And from these two--do thou recall to thought - How Genesis[388] begins--should come supplies - Of food for man, and other wealth be sought. - And, since another plan the usurer plies, - Nature and nature's child have his disdain;[389] 110 - Because on other ground his hope relies. - But come,[390] for to advance I now am fain: - The Fishes[391] over the horizon line - Quiver; o'er Caurus now stands all the Wain; - And further yonder does the cliff decline.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[375] _Vast abyss_: They are now at the inner side of the Sixth Circle, -and upon the verge of the rocky steep which slopes down from it into the -Seventh. All the lower Hell lies beneath them, and it is from that -rather than from the next circle in particular that the stench arises, -symbolical of the foulness of the sins which are punished there. The -noisome smells which make part of the horror of Inferno are after this -sometimes mentioned, but never dwelt upon (_Inf._ xviii. 106, and xxix. -50). - -[376] _Pope Anastasius_: The second of the name, elected Pope in 496. -Photinus, bishop of Sirenium, was infected with the Sabellian heresy, -but he was deposed more than a century before the time of Anastasius. -Dante follows some obscure legend in charging Anastasius with heresy. -The important point is that the one heretic, in the sense usually -attached to the term, named as being in the city of unbelief, is a Pope. - -[377] _Three small circles_: The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth; small in -circumference compared with those above. The pilgrims are now deep in -the hollow cone. - -[378] _That sight, etc._: After hearing the following explanation Dante -no longer asks to what classes the sinners met with belong, but only as -to the guilt of individual shades. - -[379] _Injury_: They have left above them the circles of those whose sin -consists in the exaggeration or misdirection of a wholesome natural -instinct. Below them lie the circles filled with such as have been -guilty of malicious wickedness. This manifests itself in two ways: by -violence or by fraud. After first mentioning in a general way that the -fraudulent are set lowest in Inferno, Virgil proceeds to define -violence, and to tell how the violent occupy the circle immediately -beneath them--the Seventh. For division of the maliciously wicked into -two classes Dante is supposed to be indebted to Cicero: 'Injury may be -wrought by force or by fraud.... Both are unnatural for man, but fraud -is the more hateful.'--_De Officiis_, i. 13. It is remarkable that -Virgil says nothing of those in the Sixth Circle in this account of the -classes of sinners. - -[380] _To man alone, etc._: Fraud involves the corrupt use of the powers -that distinguish us from the brutes. - -[381] _Who gamble, etc._: A different sin from the lavish spending -punished in the Fourth Circle (_Inf._ vii.). The distinction is that -between thriftlessness and the prodigality which, stripping a man of the -means of living, disgusts him with life, as described in the following -line. It is from among prodigals that the ranks of suicides are greatly -filled, and here they are appropriately placed together. It may seem -strange that in his classification of guilt Dante should rank violence -to one's self as a more heinous sin than that committed against one's -neighbour. He may have in view the fact that none harm their neighbours -so much as they who are oblivious of their own true interest. - -[382] _Sodom and Cahors_: Sins against nature are reckoned sins against -God, as explained lower down in this Canto. Cahors in Languedoc had in -the Middle Ages the reputation of being a nest of usurers. These in old -English Chronicles are termed Caorsins. With the sins of Sodom and -Cahors are ranked the denial of God and blasphemy against Him--deeper -sins than the erroneous conceptions of the Divine nature and government -punished in the Sixth Circle. The three concentric rings composing the -Seventh Circle are all on the same level, as we shall find. - -[383] _Fraud, etc._: Fraud is of such a nature that conscience never -fails to give due warning against the sin. This is an aggravation of the -guilt of it. - -[384] _The second circle_: The second now beneath them; that is, the -Eighth. - -[385] _Seat of Dis_: The Ninth and last Circle. - -[386] _Thy Ethics_: The Ethics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'With -regard to manners, these three things are to be eschewed: incontinence, -vice, and bestiality.' Aristotle holds incontinence to consist in the -immoderate indulgence of propensities which under right guidance are -adapted to promote lawful pleasure. It is, generally speaking, the sin -of which those about whom Dante has inquired were guilty.--It has been -ingeniously sought by Philalethes (_Goett. Com._) to show that Virgil's -disquisition is founded on this threefold classification of -Aristotle's--violence being taken to be the same as bestiality, and -malice as vice. But the reference to Aristotle is made with the limited -purpose of justifying the lenient treatment of incontinence; in the same -way as a few lines further on Genesis is referred to in support of the -harsh treatment of usury. - -[387] _Physics_: The Physics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'Art -imitates nature.' Art includes handicrafts. - -[388] _Genesis_: 'And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the -garden to dress it and to keep it.' 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou -eat bread.' - -[389] _His disdain_: The usurer seeks to get wealth independently of -honest labour or reliance on the processes of nature. This far-fetched -argument against usury closes one of the most arid passages of the -_Comedy_. The shortness of the Canto almost suggests that Dante had -himself got weary of it. - -[390] _But come, etc._: They have been all this time resting behind the -lid of the tomb. - -[391] _The Fishes, etc._: The sun being now in Aries the stars of Pisces -begin to rise about a couple of hours before sunrise. The Great Bear -lies above Caurus, the quarter of the N.N.W. wind. It seems impossible -to harmonise the astronomical indications scattered throughout the -_Comedy_, there being traces of Dante's having sometimes used details -belonging rather to the day on which Good Friday fell in 1300, the 8th -of April, than to the (supposed) true anniversary of the crucifixion. -That this, the 25th of March, is the day he intended to conform to -appears from _Inf._ xxi. 112.--The time is now near dawn on the Saturday -morning. It is almost needless to say that Virgil speaks of the stars as -he knows they are placed, but without seeing them. By what light they -see in Inferno is nowhere explained. We have been told that it was dark -as night (_Inf._ iv. 10, v. 28). - - - - -CANTO XII. - - - The place of our descent[392] before us lay - Precipitous, and there was something more - From sight of which all eyes had turned away. - As at the ruin which upon the shore - Of Adige[393] fell upon this side of Trent-- - Through earthquake or by slip of what before - Upheld it--from the summit whence it went - Far as the plain, the shattered rocks supply - Some sort of foothold to who makes descent; - Such was the passage down the precipice high. 10 - And on the riven gully's very brow - Lay spread at large the Cretan Infamy[394] - Which was conceived in the pretended cow. - Us when he saw, he bit himself for rage - Like one whose anger gnaws him through and through. - 'Perhaps thou deemest,' called to him the Sage, - 'This is the Duke of Athens[395] drawing nigh, - Who war to the death with thee on earth did wage. - Begone, thou brute, for this one passing by - Untutored by thy sister has thee found, 20 - And only comes thy sufferings to spy,' - And as the bull which snaps what held it bound - On being smitten by the fatal blow, - Halts in its course, and reels upon the ground, - The Minotaur I saw reel to and fro; - And he, the alert, cried: 'To the passage haste; - While yet he chafes 'twere well thou down shouldst go.' - So we descended by the slippery waste[396] - Of shivered stones which many a time gave way - 'Neath the new weight[397] my feet upon them placed. 30 - I musing went; and he began to say: - 'Perchance this ruined slope thou thinkest on, - Watched by the brute rage I did now allay. - But I would have thee know, when I came down - The former time[398] into this lower Hell, - The cliff had not this ruin undergone. - It was not long, if I distinguish well, - Ere He appeared who wrenched great prey from Dis[399] - From out the upmost circle. Trembling fell - Through all its parts the nauseous abyss 40 - With such a violence, the world, I thought, - Was stirred by love; for, as they say, by this - She back to Chaos[400] has been often brought. - And then it was this ancient rampart strong - Was shattered here and at another spot.[401] - But toward the valley look. We come ere long - Down to the river of blood[402] where boiling lie - All who by violence work others wrong.' - O insane rage! O blind cupidity! - By which in our brief life we are so spurred, 50 - Ere downward plunged in evil case for aye! - An ample ditch I now beheld engird - And sweep in circle all around the plain, - As from my Escort I had lately heard. - Between this and the rock in single train - Centaurs[403] were running who were armed with bows, - As if they hunted on the earth again. - Observing us descend they all stood close, - Save three of them who parted from the band - With bow, and arrows they in coming chose. 60 - 'What torment,' from afar one made demand, - 'Come ye to share, who now descend the hill? - I shoot unless ye answer whence ye stand.' - My Master said: 'We yield no answer till - We come to Chiron[404] standing at thy side; - But thy quick temper always served thee ill.' - Then touching me: ''Tis Nessus;[405] he who died - With love for beauteous Dejanire possessed, - And who himself his own vendetta plied. - He in the middle, staring on his breast, 70 - Is mighty Chiron, who Achilles bred; - And next the wrathful Pholus. They invest - The fosse and in their thousands round it tread, - Shooting whoever from the blood shall lift, - More than his crime allows, his guilty head.' - As we moved nearer to those creatures swift - Chiron drew forth a shaft and dressed his beard - Back on his jaws, using the arrow's cleft. - And when his ample mouth of hair was cleared, - He said to his companions: 'Have ye seen 80 - The things the second touches straight are stirred, - As they by feet of shades could ne'er have been?' - And my good Guide, who to his breast had gone-- - The part where join the natures,[406] 'Well I ween - He lives,' made answer; 'and if, thus alone, - He seeks the valley dim 'neath my control, - Necessity, not pleasure, leads him on. - One came from where the alleluiahs roll, - Who charged me with this office strange and new: - No robber he, nor mine a felon soul. 90 - But, by that Power which makes me to pursue - The rugged journey whereupon I fare, - Accord us one of thine to keep in view, - That he may show where lies the ford, and bear - This other on his back to yonder strand; - No spirit he, that he should cleave the air.' - Wheeled to the right then Chiron gave command - To Nessus: 'Turn, and lead them, and take tent - They be not touched by any other band.'[407] - We with our trusty Escort forward went, 100 - Threading the margin of the boiling blood - Where they who seethed were raising loud lament. - People I saw up to the chin imbrued, - 'These all are tyrants,' the great Centaur said, - 'Who blood and plunder for their trade pursued. - Here for their pitiless deeds tears now are shed - By Alexander,[408] and Dionysius fell, - Through whom in Sicily dolorous years were led. - The forehead with black hair so terrible - Is Ezzelino;[409] that one blond of hue, 110 - Obizzo[410] d'Este, whom, as rumours tell, - His stepson murdered, and report speaks true.' - I to the Poet turned, who gave command: - 'Regard thou chiefly him. I follow you.' - Ere long the Centaur halted on the strand, - Close to a people who, far as the throat, - Forth of that bulicame[411] seemed to stand. - Thence a lone shade to us he pointed out - Saying: 'In God's house[412] ran he weapon through - The heart which still on Thames wins cult devout.' 120 - Then I saw people, some with heads in view, - And some their chests above the river bore; - And many of them I, beholding, knew. - And thus the blood went dwindling more and more, - Until at last it covered but the feet: - Here took we passage[413] to the other shore. - 'As on this hand thou seest still abate - In depth the volume of the boiling stream,' - The Centaur said, 'so grows its depth more great, - Believe me, towards the opposite extreme, 130 - Until again its circling course attains - The place where tyrants must lament. Supreme - Justice upon that side involves in pains, - With Attila,[414] once of the world the pest, - Pyrrhus[415] and Sextus: and for ever drains - Tears out of Rinier of Corneto[416] pressed - And Rinier Pazzo[417] in that boiling mass, - Whose brigandage did so the roads infest.' - Then turned he back alone, the ford to pass. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[392] _Our descent_: To the Seventh Circle. - -[393] _Adige_: Different localities in the valley of the Adige have been -fixed on as the scene of this landslip. The Lavini di Marco, about -twenty miles south of Trent, seem best to answer to the description. -They 'consist of black blocks of stone and fragments of a landslip -which, according to the Chronicle of Fulda, fell in the year 883 and -overwhelmed the valley for four Italian miles' (Gsell-Fels, _Ober. -Ital._ i. 35). - -[394] _The Cretan Infamy_: The Minotaur, the offspring of Pasiphae; a -half-bovine monster who inhabited the Cretan labyrinth, and to whom a -human victim was offered once a year. He lies as guard upon the Seventh -Circle--that of the violent (_Inf._ xi. 23, _note_)--and is set at the -top of the rugged slope, itself the scene of a violent convulsion. - -[395] _Duke of Athens_: Theseus, instructed by Ariadne, daughter of -Pasiphae and Minos, how to outwit the Minotaur, entered the labyrinth in -the character of a victim, slew the monster, and then made his way out, -guided by a thread he had unwound as he went in. - -[396] _The slippery waste_: The word used here, _scarco_, means in -modern Tuscan a place where earth or stones have been carelessly shot -into a heap. - -[397] _The new weight_: The slope had never before been trodden by -mortal foot. - -[398] _The former time_: When Virgil descended to evoke a shade from the -Ninth Circle (_Inf._ ix. 22). - -[399] _Prey from Dis_: The shades delivered from Limbo by Christ (_Inf._ -iv. 53). The expression in the text is probably suggested by the words -of the hymn _Vexilla: Praedamque tulit Tartaris_. - -[400] _To Chaos_: The reference is to the theory of Empedocles, known to -Dante through the refutation of it by Aristotle. The theory was one of -periods of unity and division in nature, according as love or hatred -prevailed. - -[401] _Another spot_: See _Inf._ xxi. 112. The earthquake at the -Crucifixion shook even Inferno to its base. - -[402] _The river of blood_: Phlegethon, the 'boiling river.' Styx and -Acheron have been already passed. Lethe, the fourth infernal river, is -placed by Dante in Purgatory. The first round or circlet of the Seventh -Circle is filled by Phlegethon. - -[403] _Centaurs_: As this round is the abode of such as are guilty of -violence against their neighbours, it is guarded by these brutal -monsters, half-man and half-horse. - -[404] _Chiron_: Called the most just of the Centaurs. - -[405] _Nessus_: Slain by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. When dying he -gave Dejanira his blood-stained shirt, telling her it would insure the -faithfulness to her of any whom she loved. Hercules wore it and died of -the venom; and thus Nessus avenged himself. - -[406] The natures: The part of the Centaur where the equine body is -joined on to the human neck and head. - -[407] _Other band_: Of Centaurs. - -[408] _Alexander_: It is not known whether Alexander the Great or a -petty Thessalian tyrant is here meant. _Dionysius_: The cruel tyrant of -Syracuse. - -[409] _Ezzelino_: Or Azzolino of Romano, the greatest Lombard Ghibeline -of his time. He was son-in-law of Frederick II., and was Imperial Vicar -of the Trevisian Mark. Towards the close of Fredrick's life, and for -some years after, he exercised almost independent power in Vicenza, -Padua, and Verona. Cruelty, erected into a system, was his chief -instrument of government, and 'in his dungeons men found something worse -than death.' For Italians, says Burckhardt, he was the most impressive -political personage of the thirteenth century; and around his memory, as -around Frederick's, there gathered strange legends. He died in 1259, of -a wound received in battle. When urged to confess his sins by the monk -who came to shrive him, he declared that the only sin on his conscience -was negligence in revenge. But this may be mythical, as may also be the -long black hair between his eyebrows, which rose up stiff and terrible -as his anger waxed. - -[410] _Obizzo_: The second Marquis of Este of that name. He was lord of -Ferrara. There seems little, if any, evidence extant of his being -specially cruel. As a strong Guelf he took sides with Charles of Anjou -against Manfred. He died in 1293, smothered, it was believed, by a son, -here called a stepson for his unnatural conduct. But though Dante -vouches for the truth of the rumour it seems to have been an invention. - -[411] _That bulicame_: The stream of boiling blood is probably named -from the bulicame, or hot spring, best known to Dante--that near Viterbo -(see _Inf._ xiv. 79). And it may be that the mention of the bulicame -suggests the reference at line 119. - -[412] _In God's house_: Literally, 'In the bosom of God.' The shade is -that of Guy, son of Simon of Montfort and Vicar in Tuscany of Charles of -Anjou. In 1271 he stabbed, in the Cathedral of Viterbo, Henry, son of -Richard of Cornwall and cousin of Edward I. of England. The motive of -the murder was to revenge the death of his father, Simon, at Evesham. -The body of the young prince was conveyed to England, and the heart was -placed in a vase upon the tomb of the Confessor. The shade of Guy stands -up to the chin in blood among the worst of the tyrants, and alone, -because of the enormity of his crime. - -[413] _Here took we passage_: Dante on Nessus' back. Virgil has fallen -behind to allow the Centaur to act as guide; and how he crosses the -stream Dante does not see. - -[414] _Attila_: King of the Huns, who invaded part of Italy in the fifth -century; and who, according to the mistaken belief of Dante's age, was -the devastator of Florence. - -[415] _Pyrrhus_: King of Epirus. _Sextus_: Son of Pompey; a great -sea-captain who fought against the Triumvirs. The crime of the first, in -Dante's eyes, is that he fought with Rome; of the second, that he -opposed Augustus. - -[416] _Rinier of Corneto_: Who in Dante's time disturbed the coast of -the States of the Church by his robberies and violence. - -[417] _Rinier Pazzo_: Of the great family of the Pazzi of Val d'Arno, -was excommunicated in 1269 for robbing ecclesiastics. - - - - -CANTO XIII. - - - Ere Nessus landed on the other shore - We for our part within a forest[418] drew, - Which of no pathway any traces bore. - Not green the foliage, but of dusky hue; - Not smooth the boughs, but gnarled and twisted round; - For apples, poisonous thorns upon them grew. - No rougher brakes or matted worse are found - Where savage beasts betwixt Corneto[419] roam - And Cecina,[419] abhorring cultured ground. - The loathsome Harpies[420] nestle here at home, 10 - Who from the Strophades the Trojans chased - With dire predictions of a woe to come. - Great winged are they, but human necked and faced, - With feathered belly, and with claw for toe; - They shriek upon the bushes wild and waste. - 'Ere passing further, I would have thee know,' - The worthy Master thus began to say, - 'Thou'rt in the second round, nor hence shalt go - Till by the horrid sand thy footsteps stay. - Give then good heed, and things thou'lt recognise 20 - That of my words will prove[421] the verity.' - Wailings on every side I heard arise: - Of who might raise them I distinguished nought; - Whereon I halted, smitten with surprise. - I think he thought that haply 'twas my thought - The voices came from people 'mong the trees, - Who, to escape us, hiding-places sought; - Wherefore the Master said: 'From one of these - Snap thou a twig, and thou shalt understand - How little with thy thought the fact agrees.' 30 - Thereon a little I stretched forth my hand - And plucked a tiny branch from a great thorn. - 'Why dost thou tear me?' made the trunk demand. - When dark with blood it had begun to turn, - It cried a second time: 'Why wound me thus? - Doth not a spark of pity in thee burn? - Though trees we be, once men were all of us; - Yet had our souls the souls of serpents been - Thy hand might well have proved more piteous.' - As when the fire hath seized a fagot green 40 - At one extremity, the other sighs, - And wind, escaping, hisses; so was seen, - At where the branch was broken, blood to rise - And words were mixed with it. I dropped the spray - And stood like one whom terror doth surprise. - The Sage replied: 'Soul vexed with injury, - Had he been only able to give trust - To what he read narrated in my lay,[422] - His hand toward thee would never have been thrust. - 'Tis hard for faith; and I, to make it plain, 50 - Urged him to trial, mourn it though I must. - But tell him who thou wast; so shall remain - This for amends to thee, thy fame shall blow - Afresh on earth, where he returns again.' - And then the trunk: 'Thy sweet words charm me so, - I cannot dumb remain; nor count it hard - If I some pains upon my speech bestow. - For I am he[423] who held both keys in ward - Of Frederick's heart, and turned them how I would, - And softly oped it, and as softly barred, 60 - Till scarce another in his counsel stood. - To my high office I such loyalty bore, - It cost me sleep and haleness of my blood. - The harlot[424] who removeth nevermore - From Caesar's house eyes ignorant of shame-- - A common curse, of courts the special sore-- - Set against me the minds of all aflame, - And these in turn Augustus set on fire, - Till my glad honours bitter woes became. - My soul, filled full with a disdainful ire, 70 - Thinking by means of death disdain to flee, - 'Gainst my just self unjustly did conspire. - I swear even by the new roots of this tree - My fealty to my lord I never broke, - For worthy of all honour sure was he. - If one of you return 'mong living folk, - Let him restore my memory, overthrown - And suffering yet because of envy's stroke.' - Still for a while the poet listened on, - Then said: 'Now he is dumb, lose not the hour, 80 - But make request if more thou'dst have made known.' - And I replied: 'Do thou inquire once more - Of what thou thinkest[425] I would gladly know; - I cannot ask; ruth wrings me to the core.' - On this he spake: 'Even as the man shall do, - And liberally, what thou of him hast prayed, - Imprisoned spirit, do thou further show - How with these knots the spirits have been made - Incorporate; and, if thou canst, declare - If from such members e'er is loosed a shade.' 90 - Then from the trunk came vehement puffs of air; - Next, to these words converted was the wind: - 'My answer to you shall be short and clear. - When the fierce soul no longer is confined - In flesh, torn thence by action of its own, - To the Seventh Depth by Minos 'tis consigned. - No choice is made of where it shall be thrown - Within the wood; but where by chance 'tis flung - It germinates like seed of spelt that's sown. - A forest tree it grows from sapling young; 100 - Eating its leaves, the Harpies cause it pain, - And open loopholes whence its sighs are wrung. - We for our vestments shall return again - Like others, but in them shall ne'er be clad:[426] - Men justly lose what from themselves they've ta'en. - Dragged hither by us, all throughout the sad - Forest our bodies shall be hung on high; - Each on the thorn of its destructive shade.' - While to the trunk we listening lingered nigh, - Thinking he might proceed to tell us more, 110 - A sudden uproar we were startled by - Like him who, that the huntsman and the boar - To where he stands are sweeping in the chase, - Knows by the crashing trees and brutish roar. - Upon our left we saw a couple race - Naked[427] and scratched; and they so quickly fled - The forest barriers burst before their face. - 'Speed to my rescue, death!' the foremost pled. - The next, as wishing he could use more haste; - 'Not thus, O Lano,[428] thee thy legs bested 120 - When one at Toppo's tournament thou wast.' - Then, haply wanting breath, aside he stepped, - Merged with a bush on which himself he cast. - Behind them through the forest onward swept - A pack of dogs, black, ravenous, and fleet, - Like greyhounds from their leashes newly slipped. - In him who crouched they made their teeth to meet, - And, having piecemeal all his members rent, - Haled them away enduring anguish great. - Grasping my hand, my Escort forward went 130 - And led me to the bush which, all in vain, - Through its ensanguined openings made lament. - 'James of St. Andrews,'[429] it we heard complain; - 'What profit hadst thou making me thy shield? - For thy bad life doth blame to me pertain?' - Then, halting there, this speech my Master held: - 'Who wast thou that through many wounds dost sigh, - Mingled with blood, words big with sorrow swelled?' - 'O souls that hither come,' was his reply, - 'To witness shameful outrage by me borne, 140 - Whence all my leaves torn off around me lie, - Gather them to the root of this drear thorn. - My city[430] for the Baptist changed of yore - Her former patron; wherefore, in return, - He with his art will make her aye deplore; - And were it not some image doth remain - Of him where Arno's crossed from shore to shore, - Those citizens who founded her again - On ashes left by Attila,[431] had spent - Their labour of a surety all in vain. 150 - In my own house[432] I up a gibbet went.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[418] _A forest_: The second round of the Seventh Circle consists of a -belt of tangled forest, enclosed by the river of blood, and devoted to -suicides and prodigals. - -[419] _Corneto and Cecina_: Corneto is a town on the coast of what used -to be the States of the Church; Cecina a stream not far south of -Leghorn. Between them lies the Maremma, a district of great natural -fertility, now being restored again to cultivation, but for ages a -neglected and poisonous wilderness. - -[420] _Harpies_: Monsters with the bodies of birds and the heads of -women. In the _AEneid_ iii., they are described as defiling the feast of -which the Trojans were about to partake on one of the -Strophades--islands of the AEgean; and on that occasion the prophecy was -made that AEneas and his followers should be reduced to eat their tables -ere they acquired a settlement in Italy. Here the Harpies symbolise -shameful waste and disgust with life. - -[421] _Will prove, etc._: The things seen by Dante are to make credible -what Virgil tells (_AEn._ iii.) of the blood and piteous voice that -issued from the torn bushes on the tomb of Polydorus. - -[422] _My lay_: See previous note. Dante thus indirectly acknowledges -his debt to Virgil; and, perhaps, at the same time puts in his claim to -an imaginative licence equal to that taken by his master. On a modern -reader the effect of the reference is to weaken the verisimilitude of -the incident. - -[423] _For I am he, etc._: The speaker is Pier delle Vigne, who from -being a begging student of Bologna rose to be the Chancellor of the -Emperor Frederick II., the chief councillor of that monarch, and one of -the brightest ornaments of his intellectual court. Peter was perhaps the -more endeared to his master because, like him, he was a poet of no mean -order. There are two accounts of what caused his disgrace. According to -one of these he was found to have betrayed Frederick's interests in -favour of the Pope's; and according to the other he tried to poison him. -Neither is it known whether he committed suicide; though he is said to -have done so after being disgraced, by dashing his brains out against a -church wall in Pisa. Dante clearly follows this legend. The whole -episode is eloquent of the esteem in which Peter's memory was held by -Dante. His name is not mentioned in Inferno, but yet the promise is -amply kept that it shall flourish on earth again, freed from unmerited -disgrace. He died about 1249. - -[424] _The harlot_: Envy. - -[425] _Of what thou thinkest, etc._: Virgil never asks a question for -his own satisfaction. He knows who the spirits are, what brought them -there, and which of them will speak honestly out on the promise of -having his fame refreshed in the world. It should be noted how, by a -hint, he has made Peter aware of who he is (line 48); a delicate -attention yielded to no other shade in the Inferno, except Ulysses -(_Inf._ xxvi. 79), and, perhaps, Brunetto Latini (_Inf._ xv. 99). - -[426] _In them shall ne'er be clad_: Boccaccio is here at great pains to -save Dante from a charge of contradicting the tenet of the resurrection -of the flesh. - -[427] _Naked_: These are the prodigals; their nakedness representing the -state to which in life they had reduced themselves. - -[428] _Lano_: Who made one of a club of prodigals in Siena (_Inf._ xxix. -130) and soon ran through his fortune. Joining in a Florentine -expedition in 1288 against Arezzo, he refused to escape from a defeat -encountered by his side at Pieve del Toppo, preferring, as was supposed, -to end his life at once rather than drag it out in poverty. - -[429] _James of St. Andrews_: Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan who -inherited enormous wealth which did not last him for long. He literally -threw money away, and would burn a house for the sake of the blaze. His -death has been placed in 1239. - -[430] _My city, etc._: According to tradition the original patron of -Florence was Mars. In Dante's time an ancient statue, supposed to be of -that god, stood upon the Old Bridge of Florence. It is referred to in -_Parad._ xvi. 47 and 145. Benvenuto says that he had heard from -Boccaccio, who had frequently heard it from old people, that the statue -was regarded with great awe. If a boy flung stones or mud at it, the -bystanders would say of him that he would make a bad end. It was lost in -the great flood of 1333. Here the Florentine shade represents Mars as -troubling Florence with wars in revenge for being cast off as a patron. - -[431] _Attila_: A confusion with Totila. Attila was never so far south -as Tuscany. Neither is there reason to believe that when Totila took the -city he destroyed it. But the legend was that it was rebuilt in the time -of Charles the Great. - -[432] _My own house, etc._: It is not settled who this was who hanged -himself from the beams of his own roof. One of the Agli, say some; -others, one of the Mozzi. Boccaccio and Peter Dante remark that suicide -by hanging was common in Florence. But Dante's text seems pretty often -to have suggested the invention of details in support or illustration of -it. - - - - -CANTO XIV. - - - Me of my native place the dear constraint[433] - Led to restore the leaves which round were strewn, - To him whose voice by this time was grown faint. - Thence came we where the second round joins on - Unto the third, wherein how terrible - The art of justice can be, is well shown. - But, clearly of these wondrous things to tell, - I say we entered on a plain of sand - Which from its bed doth every plant repel. - The dolorous wood lies round it like a band, 10 - As that by the drear fosse is circled round. - Upon its very edge we came to a stand. - And there was nothing within all that bound - But burnt and heavy sand; like that once trod - Beneath the feet of Cato[434] was the ground. - Ah, what a terror, O revenge of God! - Shouldst thou awake in any that may read - Of what before mine eyes was spread abroad. - I of great herds of naked souls took heed. - Most piteously was weeping every one; 20 - And different fortunes seemed to them decreed. - For some of them[435] upon the ground lay prone, - And some were sitting huddled up and bent, - While others, restless, wandered up and down. - More numerous were they that roaming went - Than they that were tormented lying low; - But these had tongues more loosened to lament. - O'er all the sand, deliberate and slow, - Broad open flakes of fire were downward rained, - As 'mong the Alps[436] in calm descends the snow. 30 - Such Alexander[437] saw when he attained - The hottest India; on his host they fell - And all unbroken on the earth remained; - Wherefore he bade his phalanxes tread well - The ground, because when taken one by one - The burning flakes they could the better quell. - So here eternal fire[438] was pouring down; - As tinder 'neath the steel, so here the sands - Kindled, whence pain more vehement was known. - And, dancing up and down, the wretched hands[439] 40 - Beat here and there for ever without rest; - Brushing away from them the falling brands. - And I: 'O Master, by all things confessed - Victor, except by obdurate evil powers - Who at the gate[440] to stop our passage pressed, - Who is the enormous one who noway cowers - Beneath the fire; with fierce disdainful air - Lying as if untortured by the showers?' - And that same shade, because he was aware - That touching him I of my Guide was fain 50 - To learn, cried: 'As in life, myself I bear - In death. Though Jupiter should tire again - His smith, from whom he snatched in angry bout - The bolt by which I at the last was slain;[441] - Though one by one he tire the others out - At the black forge in Mongibello[442] placed, - While "Ho, good Vulcan, help me!" he shall shout-- - The cry he once at Phlegra's[443] battle raised; - Though hurled with all his might at me shall fly - His bolts, yet sweet revenge he shall not taste.' 60 - Then spake my Guide, and in a voice so high - Never till then heard I from him such tone: - 'O Capaneus, because unquenchably - Thy pride doth burn, worse pain by thee is known. - Into no torture save thy madness wild - Fit for thy fury couldest thou be thrown.' - Then, to me turning with a face more mild, - He said: 'Of the Seven Kings was he of old, - Who leaguered Thebes, and as he God reviled - Him in small reverence still he seems to hold; 70 - But for his bosom his own insolence - Supplies fit ornament,[444] as now I told. - Now follow; but take heed lest passing hence - Thy feet upon the burning sand should tread; - But keep them firm where runs the forest fence.'[445] - We reached a place--nor any word we said-- - Where issues from the wood a streamlet small; - I shake but to recall its colour red. - Like that which does from Bulicame[446] fall, - And losel women later 'mong them share; 80 - So through the sand this brooklet's waters crawl. - Its bottom and its banks I was aware - Were stone, and stone the rims on either side. - From this I knew the passage[447] must be there. - 'Of all that I have shown thee as thy guide - Since when we by the gateway[448] entered in, - Whose threshold unto no one is denied, - Nothing by thee has yet encountered been - So worthy as this brook to cause surprise, - O'er which the falling fire-flakes quenched are seen.' 90 - These were my Leader's words. For full supplies - I prayed him of the food of which to taste - Keen appetite he made within me rise. - 'In middle sea there lies a country waste, - Known by the name of Crete,' I then was told, - 'Under whose king[449] the world of yore was chaste. - There stands a mountain, once the joyous hold - Of woods and streams; as Ida 'twas renowned, - Now 'tis deserted like a thing grown old. - For a safe cradle 'twas by Rhea found. 100 - To nurse her child[450] in; and his infant cry, - Lest it betrayed him, she with clamours drowned. - Within the mount an old man towereth high. - Towards Damietta are his shoulders thrown; - On Rome, as on his mirror, rests his eye. - His head is fashioned of pure gold alone; - Of purest silver are his arms and chest; - 'Tis brass to where his legs divide; then down - From that is all of iron of the best, - Save the right foot, which is of baken clay; 110 - And upon this foot doth he chiefly rest. - Save what is gold, doth every part display - A fissure dripping tears; these, gathering all - Together, through the grotto pierce a way. - From rock to rock into this deep they fall, - Feed Acheron[451] and Styx and Phlegethon, - Then downward travelling by this strait canal, - Far as the place where further slope is none, - Cocytus form; and what that pool may be - I say not now. Thou'lt see it further on.' 120 - 'If this brook rises,' he was asked by me, - 'Within our world, how comes it that no trace - We saw of it till on this boundary?' - And he replied: 'Thou knowest that the place - Is round, and far as thou hast moved thy feet, - Still to the left hand[452] sinking to the base, - Nath'less thy circuit is not yet complete. - Therefore if something new we chance to spy, - Amazement needs not on thy face have seat.' - I then: 'But, Master, where doth Lethe lie, 130 - And Phlegethon? Of that thou sayest nought; - Of this thou say'st, those tears its flood supply.' - 'It likes me well to be by thee besought; - But by the boiling red wave,' I was told, - 'To half thy question was an answer brought. - Lethe,[453] not in this pit, shalt thou behold. - Thither to wash themselves the spirits go, - When penitence has made them spotless souled.' - Then said he: 'From the wood 'tis fitting now - That we depart; behind me press thou nigh. 140 - Keep we the margins, for they do not glow, - And over them, ere fallen, the fire-flakes die.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[433] _Dear constraint_: The mention of Florence has awakened Dante to -pity, and he willingly complies with the request of the unnamed suicide -(_Inf._ xiii. 142). As a rule, the only service he consents to yield the -souls with whom he converses in Inferno is to restore their memory upon -earth; a favour he does not feign to be asked for in this case, out of -consideration, it may be, for the family of the sinner. - -[434] _Cato_: Cato of Utica, who, after the defeat of Pompey at -Pharsalia, led his broken army across the Libyan desert to join King -Juba. - -[435] _Some of them, etc._: In this the third round of the Seventh -Circle are punished those guilty of sins of violence against God, -against nature, and against the arts by which alone a livelihood can -honestly be won. Those guilty as against God, the blasphemers, lie prone -like Capaneus (line 46), and are subject to the fiercest pain. Those -guilty of unnatural vice are stimulated into ceaseless motion, as -described in Cantos XV. and XVI. The usurers, those who despise honest -industry and the humanising arts of life, are found crouching on the -ground (_Inf._ xvii. 43). - -[436] _The Alps_: Used here for mountains in general. - -[437] _Such Alexander, etc._: The reference is to a pretended letter of -Alexander to Aristotle, in which he tells of the various hindrances met -with by his army from snow and rain and showers of fire. But in that -narrative it is the snow that is trampled down, while the flakes of fire -are caught by the soldiers upon their outspread cloaks. The story of the -shower of fire may have been suggested by Plutarch's mention of the -mineral oil in the province of Babylon, a strange thing to the Greeks; -and of how they were entertained by seeing the ground, which had been -sprinkled with it, burst into flame. - -[438] _Eternal fire_: As always, the character of the place and of the -punishment bears a relation to the crimes of the inhabitants. They -sinned against nature in a special sense, and now they are confined to -the sterile sand where the only showers that fall are showers of fire. - -[439] _The wretched hands_: The dance, named in the original the -_tresca_, was one in which the performers followed a leader and imitated -him in all his gestures, waving their hands as he did, up and down, and -from side to side. The simile is caught straight from common life. - -[440] _At the gate_: Of the city of Dis (_Inf._ viii. 82). - -[441] _Was slain, etc._: Capaneus, one of the Seven Kings, as told -below, when storming the walls of Thebes, taunted the other gods with -impunity, but his blasphemy against Jupiter was answered by a fatal -bolt. - -[442] _Mongibello_: A popular name of Etna, under which mountain was -situated the smithy of Vulcan and the Cyclopes. - -[443] _Phlegra_: Where the giants fought with the gods. - -[444] _Fit ornament, etc._: Even if untouched by the pain he affects to -despise, he would yet suffer enough from the mad hatred of God that -rages in his breast. Capaneus is the nearest approach to the Satan of -Milton found in the _Inferno_. From the need of getting law enough by -which to try the heathen Dante is led into some inconsistency. After -condemning the virtuous heathen to Limbo for their ignorance of the one -true God, he now condemns the wicked heathen to this circle for -despising false gods. Jupiter here stands for, as need scarcely be said, -the Supreme Ruler; and in that sense he is termed God (line 69). But it -remains remarkable that the one instance of blasphemous defiance of God -should be taken from classical fable. - -[445] _The forest fence_: They do not trust themselves so much as to -step upon the sand, but look out on it from the verge of the forest -which encircles it, and which as they travel they have on the left hand. - -[446] _Bulicame_: A hot sulphur spring a couple of miles from Viterbo, -greatly frequented for baths in the Middle Ages; and, it is said, -especially by light women. The water boils up into a large pool, whence -it flows by narrow channels; sometimes by one and sometimes by another, -as the purposes of the neighbouring peasants require. Sulphurous fumes -rise from the water as it runs. The incrustation of the bottom, sides, -and edges of those channels gives them the air of being solidly built. - -[447] _The passage_: On each edge of the canal there is a flat pathway -of solid stone; and Dante sees that only by following one of these can a -passage be gained across the desert, for to set foot on the sand is -impossible for him owing to the falling flakes of fire. There may be -found in his description of the solid and flawless masonry of the canal -a trace of the pleasure taken in good building by the contemporaries of -Arnolfo. Nor is it without meaning that the sterile sands, the abode of -such as despised honest labour, is crossed by a perfect work of art -which they are forbidden ever to set foot upon. - -[448] _The gateway_: At the entrance to Inferno. - -[449] _Whose king_: Saturn, who ruled the world in the Golden Age. He, -as the devourer of his own offspring, is the symbol of Time; and the -image of Time is therefore set by Dante in the island where he reigned. - -[450] _Her child_: Jupiter, hidden in the mountain from his father -Saturn. - -[451] _Feed Acheron, etc._: The idea of this image is taken from the -figure in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel ii. But here, instead of the -Four Empires, the materials of the statue represent the Four Ages of the -world; the foot of clay on which it stands being the present time, which -is so bad that even iron were too good to represent it. Time turns his -back to the outworn civilisations of the East, and his face to Rome, -which, as the seat of the Empire and the Church, holds the secret of the -future. The tears of time shed by every Age save that of Gold feed the -four infernal streams and pools of Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and -Cocytus. Line 117 indicates that these are all fed by the same water; -are in fact different names for the same flood of tears. The reason why -Dante has not hitherto observed the connection between them is that he -has not made a complete circuit of each or indeed of any circle, as -Virgil reminds him at line 124, etc. The rivulet by which they stand -drains the boiling Phlegethon--where the water is all changed to blood, -because in it the murderers are punished--and flowing through the forest -of the suicides and the desert of the blasphemers, etc., tumbles into -the Eighth Circle as described in Canto xvi. 103. Cocytus they are -afterward to reach. An objection to this account of the infernal rivers -as being all fed by the same waters may be found in the difference of -volume of the great river of Acheron (_Inf._ iii. 71) and of this -brooklet. But this difference is perhaps to be explained by the -evaporation from the boiling waters of Phlegethon and of this stream -which drains it. Dante is almost the only poet applied to whom such -criticism would not be trifling. Another difficult point is how Cocytus -should not in time have filled, and more than filled, the Ninth Circle. - -[452] _To the left hand_: Twice only as they descend they turn their -course to the right hand (_Inf._ ix. 132, and xvii. 31). The circuit of -the Inferno they do not complete till they reach the very base. - -[453] _Lethe_: Found in the Earthly Paradise, as described in -_Purgatorio_ xxviii. 130. - - - - -CANTO XV. - - - Now lies[454] our way along one of the margins hard; - Steam rising from the rivulet forms a cloud, - Which 'gainst the fire doth brook and borders guard. - Like walls the Flemings, timorous of the flood - Which towards them pours betwixt Bruges and Cadsand,[455] - Have made, that ocean's charge may be withstood; - Or what the Paduans on the Brenta's strand - To guard their castles and their homesteads rear, - Ere Chiarentana[456] feel the spring-tide bland; - Of the same fashion did those dikes appear, 10 - Though not so high[457] he made them, nor so vast, - Whoe'er the builder was that piled them here. - We, from the wood when we so far had passed - I should not have distinguished where it lay - Though I to see it backward glance had cast, - A group of souls encountered on the way, - Whose line of march was to the margin nigh. - Each looked at us--as by the new moon's ray - Men peer at others 'neath the darkening sky-- - Sharpening his brows on us and only us, 20 - Like an old tailor on his needle's eye. - And while that crowd was staring at me thus, - One of them knew me, caught me by the gown, - And cried aloud: 'Lo, this is marvellous!'[458] - And straightway, while he thus to me held on, - I fixed mine eyes upon his fire-baked face, - And, spite of scorching, seemed his features known, - And whose they were my memory well could trace; - And I, with hand[459] stretched toward his face below, - Asked: 'Ser Brunetto![460] and is this your place?' 30 - 'O son,' he answered, 'no displeasure show, - If now Brunetto Latini shall some way - Step back with thee, and leave his troop to go.' - I said: 'With all my heart for this I pray, - And, if you choose, I by your side will sit; - If he, for I go with him, grant delay.' - 'Son,' said he, 'who of us shall intermit - Motion a moment, for an age must lie - Nor fan himself when flames are round him lit. - On, therefore! At thy skirts I follow nigh, 40 - Then shall I overtake my band again, - Who mourn a loss large as eternity.' - I dared not from the path step to the plain - To walk with him, but low I bent my head,[461] - Like one whose steps are all with reverence ta'en. - 'What fortune or what destiny,' he said, - 'Hath brought thee here or e'er thou death hast seen; - And who is this by whom thou'rt onward led?' - 'Up yonder,' said I, 'in the life serene, - I in a valley wandered all forlorn 50 - Before my years had full accomplished been. - I turned my back on it but yestermorn;[462] - Again I sought it when he came in sight - Guided by whom[463] I homeward thus return.' - And he to me: 'Following thy planet's light[464] - Thou of a glorious haven canst not fail, - If in the blithesome life I marked aright. - And had my years known more abundant tale, - Seeing the heavens so held thee in their grace - I, heartening thee, had helped thee to prevail. 60 - But that ungrateful and malignant race - Which down from Fiesole[465] came long ago, - And still its rocky origin betrays, - Will for thy worthiness become thy foe; - And with good reason, for 'mong crab-trees wild - It ill befits the mellow fig to grow. - By widespread ancient rumour are they styled - A people blind, rapacious, envious, vain: - See by their manners thou be not defiled. - Fortune reserves such honour for thee, fain 70 - Both sides[466] will be to enlist thee in their need; - But from the beak the herb shall far remain. - Let beasts of Fiesole go on to tread - Themselves to litter, nor the plants molest, - If any such now spring on their rank bed, - In whom there flourishes indeed the blest - Seed of the Romans who still lingered there - When of such wickedness 'twas made the nest.' - 'Had I obtained full answer to my prayer, - You had not yet been doomed,' I then did say, 80 - 'This exile from humanity to bear. - For deep within my heart and memory - Lives the paternal image good and dear - Of you, as in the world, from day to day, - How men escape oblivion you made clear; - My thankfulness for which shall in my speech - While I have life, as it behoves, appear. - I note what of my future course you teach. - Stored with another text[467] it will be glozed - By one expert, should I that Lady reach. 90 - Yet would I have this much to you disclosed: - If but my conscience no reproaches yield, - To all my fortune is my soul composed. - Not new to me the hint by you revealed; - Therefore let Fortune turn her wheel apace, - Even as she will; the clown[468] his mattock wield.' - Thereon my Master right about[469] did face, - And uttered this, with glance upon me thrown: - 'He hears[470] to purpose who doth mark the place.' - And none the less I, speaking, still go on 100 - With Ser Brunetto; asking him to tell - Who of his band[471] are greatest and best known. - And he to me: 'To hear of some is well, - But of the rest 'tis fitting to be dumb, - And time is lacking all their names to spell. - That all of them were clerks, know thou in sum, - All men of letters, famous and of might; - Stained with one sin[472] all from the world are come. - Priscian[473] goes with that crowd of evil plight, - Francis d'Accorso[474] too; and hadst thou mind 110 - For suchlike trash thou mightest have had sight - Of him the Slave[475] of Slaves to change assigned - From Arno's banks to Bacchiglione, where - His nerves fatigued with vice he left behind. - More would I say, but neither must I fare - Nor talk at further length, for from the sand - I see new dust-clouds[476] rising in the air, - I may not keep with such as are at hand. - Care for my _Treasure_;[477] for I still survive - In that my work. I nothing else demand.' 120 - Then turned he back, and ran like those who strive - For the Green Cloth[478] upon Verona's plain; - And seemed like him that shall the first arrive, - And not like him that labours all in vain. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[454] _Now lies, etc._: The stream on issuing from the wood flows right -across the waste of sand which that encompasses. To follow it they must -turn to the right, as always when, their general course being to the -left, they have to cross a Circle. But such a veering to the right is a -consequence of their leftward course, and not an exception to it. - -[455] _Cadsand_: An island opposite to the mouth of the great canal of -Bruges. - -[456] _Chiarentana_: What district or mountain is here meant has been -much disputed. It can be taken for Carinthia only on the supposition -that Dante was ignorant of where the Brenta rises. At the source of that -river stands the Monte Chiarentana, but it may be a question how old -that name is. The district name of it is Canzana, or Carenzana. - -[457] _Not so high, etc._: This limitation is very characteristic of -Dante's style of thought, which compels him to a precision that will -produce the utmost possible effect of verisimilitude in his description. -Most poets would have made the walls far higher and more vast, by way of -lending grandeur to the conception. - -[458] _Marvellous_: To find Dante, whom he knew, still living, and -passing through the Circle. - -[459] _With hand, etc._: 'With my face bent to his' is another reading, -but there seems to be most authority for that in the text.--The fiery -shower forbids Dante to stoop over the edge of the causeway. To -Brunetto, who is some feet below him, he throws out his open hand, a -gesture of astonishment mingled with pity. - -[460] _Ser Brunetto_: Brunetto Latini, a Florentine, was born in 1220. -As a notary he was entitled to be called Ser, or Messer. As appears from -the context, Dante was under great intellectual obligations to him, not, -we may suppose, as to a tutor so much as to an active-minded and -scholarly friend of mature age, and possessed of a ripe experience of -affairs. The social respect that Dante owed him is indicated by the use -of the plural form of address. See note, _Inf._ x. 51. Brunetto held -high appointments in the Republic. Perhaps with some exaggeration, -Villani says of him that he was the first to refine the Florentines, -teaching them to speak correctly, and to administer State affairs on -fixed principles of politics (_Cronica_, viii. 10). A Guelf in politics, -he shared in the exile of his party after the Ghibeline victory of -Montaperti in 1260, and for some years resided in Paris. There is reason -to suppose that he returned to Florence in 1269, and that he acted as -prothonotary of the court of Charles of Valois' vicar-general in -Tuscany. His signature as secretary to the Council of Florence is found -under the date of 1273. He died in 1294, when Dante was twenty-nine, and -was buried in the cloister of Santa Maria Maggiore, where his tombstone -may still be seen. (Not in Santa Maria Novella.) Villani mentions him in -his Chronicle with some reluctance, seeing he was a 'worldly man.' His -life must indeed have been vicious to the last, before Dante could have -had the heart to fix him in such company. Brunetto's chief works are the -_Tesoro_ and _Tesoretto_. For the _Tesoro_, see note at line 119. The -_Tesoretto_, or _Little Treasure_, is an allegorical poem in Italian -rhymed couplets. In it he imagines himself, as he is on his return from -an embassy to Alphonso of Castile, meeting a scholar of Bologna of whom -he asks 'in smooth sweet words for news of Tuscany.' Having been told of -the catastrophe of Montaperti he wanders out of the beaten way into the -Forest of Roncesvalles, where he meets with various experiences; he is -helped by Ovid, is instructed by Ptolemy, and grows penitent for his -sins. In this, it will be seen, there is a general resemblance to the -action of the _Comedy_. There are even turns of expression that recall -Dante (_e.g._ beginning of _Cap._ iv.); but all together amounts to -little. - -[461] _Low I bent my head_: But not projecting it beyond the line of -safety, strictly defined by the edge of the causeway. We are to imagine -to ourselves the fire of Sodom falling on Brunetto's upturned face, and -missing Dante's head only by an inch. - -[462] _Yestermorn_: This is still the Saturday. It was Friday when Dante -met Virgil. - -[463] _Guided by whom_: Brunetto has asked who the guide is, and Dante -does not tell him. A reason for the refusal has been ingeniously found -in the fact that among the numerous citations of the _Treasure_ Brunetto -seldom quotes Virgil. See also the charge brought against Guido -Cavalcanti (_Inf._ x. 63), of holding Virgil in disdain. But it is -explanation enough of Dante's omission to name his guide that he is -passing through Inferno to gain experience for himself, and not to -satisfy the curiosity of the shades he meets. See note on line 99. - -[464] _Thy planet's light_: Some think that Brunetto had cast Dante's -horoscope. In a remarkable passage (_Parad._ xxii. 112) Dante attributes -any genius he may have to the influence of the Twins, which -constellation was in the ascendant when he was born. See also _Inf._ -xxvi. 23. But here it is more likely that Brunetto refers to his -observation of Dante's good qualities, from which he gathered that he -was well starred. - -[465] _Fiesole_: The mother city of Florence, to which also most of the -Fiesolans were believed to have migrated at the beginning of the -eleventh century. But all the Florentines did their best to establish a -Roman descent for themselves; and Dante among them. His fellow-citizens -he held to be for the most part of the boorish Fiesolan breed, rude and -stony-hearted as the mountain in whose cleft the cradle of their race -was seen from Florence. - -[466] _Both sides_: This passage was most likely written not long after -Dante had ceased to entertain any hope of winning his way back to -Florence in the company of the Whites, whose exile he shared, and when -he was already standing in proud isolation from Black and White, from -Guelf and Ghibeline. There is nothing to show that his expectation of -being courted by both sides ever came true. Never a strong partisan, he -had, to use his own words, at last to make a party by himself, and stood -out an Imperialist with his heart set on the triumph of an Empire far -nobler than that the Ghibeline desired. Dante may have hoped to hold a -place of honour some day in the council of a righteous Emperor; and this -may be the glorious haven with the dream of which he was consoled in the -wanderings of his exile. - -[467] _Another text_: Ciacco and Farinata have already hinted at the -troubles that lie ahead of him (_Inf._ vi. 65, and x. 79). - -[468] _The clown, etc._: The honest performance of duty is the best -defence against adverse fortune. - -[469] _Right about_: In traversing the sands they keep upon the -right-hand margin of the embanked stream, Virgil leading the way, with -Dante behind him on the right so that Brunetto may see and hear him -well. - -[470] _He hears, etc._: Of all the interpretations of this somewhat -obscure sentence that seems the best which applies it to Virgil's -_Quicquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est_--'Whatever shall -happen, every fate is to be vanquished by endurance' (_AEn._ v. 710). -Taking this way of it, we have in the form of Dante's profession of -indifference to all the adverse fortune that may be in store for him a -refined compliment to his Guide; and in Virgil's gesture and words an -equally delicate revelation of himself to Brunetto, in which is conveyed -an answer to the question at line 48, 'Who is this that shows the -way?'--Otherwise, the words convey Virgil's approbation of Dante's -having so well attended to his advice to store Farinata's prophecy in -his memory (_Inf._ x.127). - -[471] _His band_: That is, the company to which Brunetto specially -belongs, and from which for the time he has separated himself. - -[472] _Stained with one sin_: Dante will not make Brunetto individually -confess his sin. - -[473] _Priscian_: The great grammarian of the sixth century; placed here -without any reason, except that he is a representative teacher of youth. - -[474] _Francis d'Accorso_: Died about 1294. The son of a great civil -lawyer, he was himself professor of the civil law at Bologna, where his -services were so highly prized that the Bolognese forbade him, on pain -of the confiscation of his goods, to accept an invitation from Edward I. -to go to Oxford. - -[475] _Of him the Slave, etc._: One of the Pope's titles is _Servus -Servorum Domini_. The application of it to Boniface, so hated by Dante, -may be ironical: 'Fit servant of such a slave to vice!' The priest -referred to so contemptuously is Andrea, of the great Florentine family -of the Mozzi, who was much engaged in the political affairs of his time, -and became Bishop of Florence in 1286. About ten years later he was -translated to Vicenza, which stands on the Bacchiglione; and he died -shortly afterwards. According to Benvenuto he was a ridiculous preacher -and a man of dissolute manners. What is now most interesting about him -is that he was Dante's chief pastor during his early manhood, and is -consigned by him to the same disgraceful circle of Inferno as his -beloved master Brunetto Latini--a terrible evidence of the corruption of -life among the churchmen as well as the scholars of the thirteenth -century. - -[476] _New dust-clouds_: Raised by a band by whom they are about to be -met. - -[477] _My Treasure_: The _Tresor_, or _Tesoro_, Brunetto's principal -work, was written by him in French as being 'the pleasantest language, -and the most widely spread.' In it he treats of things in general in the -encyclopedic fashion set him by Alphonso of Castile. The first half -consists of a summary of civil and natural history. The second is -devoted to ethics, rhetoric, and politics. To a great extent it is a -compilation, containing, for instance, a translation, nearly complete, -of the Ethics of Aristotle--not, of course, direct from the Greek. It is -written in a plodding style, and speaks to more industry than genius. To -it Dante is indebted for some facts and fables. - -[478] _The Green Cloth_: To commemorate a victory won by the Veronese -there was instituted a race to be run on the first Sunday of Lent. The -prize was a piece of green cloth. The competitors ran naked.--Brunetto -does not disappear into the gloom without a parting word of applause -from his old pupil. Dante's rigorous sentence on his beloved master is -pronounced as softly as it can be. We must still wonder that he has the -heart to bring him to such an awful judgment. - - - - -CANTO XVI. - - - Now could I hear the water as it fell - To the next circle[479] with a murmuring sound - Like what is heard from swarming hives to swell; - When three shades all together with a bound - Burst from a troop met by us pressing on - 'Neath rain of that sharp torment. O'er the ground - Toward us approaching, they exclaimed each one: - 'Halt thou, whom from thy garb[480] we judge to be - A citizen of our corrupted town.' - Alas, what scars I on their limbs did see, 10 - Both old and recent, which the flames had made: - Even now my ruth is fed by memory. - My Teacher halted at their cry, and said: - 'Await a while:' and looked me in the face; - 'Some courtesy to these were well displayed. - And but that fire--the manner of the place-- - Descends for ever, fitting 'twere to find - Rather than them, thee quickening thy pace.' - When we had halted, they again combined - In their old song; and, reaching where we stood, 20 - Into a wheel all three were intertwined. - And as the athletes used, well oiled and nude, - To feel their grip and, wary, watch their chance, - Ere they to purpose strike and wrestle could; - So each of them kept fixed on me his glance - As he wheeled round,[481] and in opposing ways - His neck and feet seemed ever to advance. - 'Ah, if the misery of this sand-strewn place - Bring us and our petitions in despite,' - One then began, 'and flayed and grimy face; 30 - Let at the least our fame goodwill incite - To tell us who thou art, whose living feet - Thus through Inferno wander without fright. - For he whose footprints, as thou see'st, I beat, - Though now he goes with body peeled and nude, - More than thou thinkest, in the world was great. - The grandson was he of Gualdrada good; - He, Guidoguerra,[482] with his armed hand - Did mighty things, and by his counsel shrewd. - The other who behind me treads the sand 40 - Is one whose name should on the earth be dear; - For he is Tegghiaio[483] Aldobrand. - And I, who am tormented with them here, - James Rusticucci[484] was; my fierce and proud - Wife of my ruin was chief minister.' - If from the fire there had been any shroud - I should have leaped down 'mong them, nor have earned - Blame, for my Teacher sure had this allowed. - But since I should have been all baked and burned, - Terror prevailed the goodwill to restrain 50 - With which to clasp them in my arms I yearned. - Then I began: ''Twas not contempt but pain - Which your condition in my breast awoke, - Where deeply rooted it will long remain, - When this my Master words unto me spoke, - By which expectancy was in me stirred - That ye who came were honourable folk. - I of your city[485] am, and with my word - Your deeds and honoured names oft to recall - Delighted, and with joy of them I heard. 60 - To the sweet fruits I go, and leave the gall, - As promised to me by my Escort true; - But first I to the centre down must fall.' - 'So may thy soul thy members long endue - With vital power,' the other made reply, - 'And after thee thy fame[486] its light renew; - As thou shalt tell if worth and courtesy - Within our city as of yore remain, - Or from it have been wholly forced to fly. - For William Borsier,[487] one of yonder train, 70 - And but of late joined with us in this woe, - Causeth us with his words exceeding pain.' - 'Upstarts, and fortunes suddenly that grow, - Have bred in thee pride and extravagance,[488] - Whence tears, O Florence! thou art shedding now.' - Thus cried I with uplifted countenance. - The three, accepting it for a reply, - Glanced each at each as hearing truth men glance. - And all: 'If others thou shalt satisfy - As well at other times[489] at no more cost, 80 - Happy thus at thine ease the truth to cry! - Therefore if thou escap'st these regions lost, - Returning to behold the starlight fair, - Then when "There was I,"[490] thou shalt make thy boast, - Something of us do thou 'mong men declare.' - Then broken was the wheel, and as they fled - Their nimble legs like pinions beat the air. - So much as one _Amen!_ had scarce been said - Quicker than what they vanished from our view. - On this once more the way my Master led. 90 - I followed, and ere long so near we drew - To where the water fell, that for its roar - Speech scarcely had been heard between us two. - And as the stream which of all those which pour - East (from Mount Viso counting) by its own - Course falls the first from Apennine to shore-- - As Acquacheta[491] in the uplands known - By name, ere plunging to its bed profound; - Name lost ere by Forli its waters run-- - Above St. Benedict with one long bound, 100 - Where for a thousand[492] would be ample room, - Falls from the mountain to the lower ground; - Down the steep cliff that water dyed in gloom - We found to fall echoing from side to side, - Stunning the ear with its tremendous boom. - There was a cord about my middle tied, - With which I once had thought that I might hold - Secure the leopard with the painted hide. - When this from round me I had quite unrolled - To him I handed it, all coiled and tight; 110 - As by my Leader I had first been told. - Himself then bending somewhat toward the right,[493] - He just beyond the edge of the abyss - Threw down the cord,[494] which disappeared from sight. - 'That some strange thing will follow upon this - Unwonted signal which my Master's eye - Thus follows,' so I thought, 'can hardly miss.' - Ah, what great caution need we standing by - Those who behold not only what is done, - But who have wit our hidden thoughts to spy! 120 - He said to me: 'There shall emerge, and soon, - What I await; and quickly to thy view - That which thou dream'st of shall be clearly known.'[495] - From utterance of truth which seems untrue - A man, whene'er he can, should guard his tongue; - Lest he win blame to no transgression due. - Yet now I must speak out, and by the song - Of this my Comedy, Reader, I swear-- - So in good liking may it last full long!-- - I saw a shape swim upward through that air. 130 - All indistinct with gross obscurity, - Enough to fill the stoutest heart with fear: - Like one who rises having dived to free - An anchor grappled on a jagged stone, - Or something else deep hidden in the sea; - With feet drawn in and arms all open thrown. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[479] _The next circle_: The Eighth. - -[480] _Thy garb_: 'Almost every city,' says Boccaccio, 'had in those -times its peculiar fashion of dress distinct from that of neighboring -cities.' - -[481] _As he wheeled round_: Virgil and Dante have come to a halt upon -the embankment. The three shades, to whom it is forbidden to be at rest -for a moment, clasping one another as in a dance, keep wheeling round in -circle upon the sand. - -[482] _Guidoguerra_: A descendant of the Counts Guidi of Modigliana. -Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincion Berti de' Ravignani, praised -for his simple habits in the _Paradiso_, xv. 112. Guidoguerra was a -Guelf leader, and after the defeat of Montaperti acted as Captain of his -party, in this capacity lending valuable aid to Charles of Anjou at the -battle of Benevento, 1266, when Manfred was overthrown. He had no -children, and left the Commonwealth of Florence his heir. - -[483] _Tegghiaio_: Son of Aldobrando of the Adimari. His name should be -dear in Florence, because he did all he could to dissuade the citizens -from the campaign which ended so disastrously at Montaperti. - -[484] _James Rusticucci_: An accomplished cavalier of humble birth, said -to have been a retainer of Dante's friends the Cavalcanti. The -commentators have little to tell of him except that he made an unhappy -marriage, which is evident from the text. Of the sins of him and his -companions there is nothing known beyond what is to be inferred from the -poet's words, and nothing to say, except that when Dante consigned men -of their stamp, frank and amiable, to the Infernal Circles, we may be -sure that he only executed a verdict already accepted as just by the -whole of Florence. And when we find him impartially damning Guelf and -Ghibeline we may be equally sure that he looked for the aid of neither -party, and of no family however powerful in the State, to bring his -banishment to a close. He would even seem to be careful to stop any hole -by which he might creep back to Florence. When he did return, it was to -be in the train of the Emperor, so he hoped, and as one who gives rather -than seeks forgiveness. - -[485] _Of your city, etc._: At line 32 Rusticucci begs Dante to tell who -he is. He tells that he is of their city, which they have already -gathered from his _berretta_ and the fashion of his gown; but he tells -nothing, almost, of himself. Unless to Farinata, indeed, he never makes -an open breast to any one met in Inferno. But here he does all that -courtesy requires. - -[486] _Thy fame_: Dante has implied in his answer that he is gifted with -oratorical powers and is the object of a special Divine care; and the -illustrious Florentine, frankly acknowledging the claim he makes, -adjures him by the fame which is his in store to appease an eager -curiosity about the Florence which even in Inferno is the first thought -of every not ignoble Florentine. - -[487] _William Borsiere_: A Florentine, witty and well bred, according -to Boccaccio. Being once at Genoa he was shown a fine new palace by its -miserly owner, and was asked to suggest a subject for a painting with -which to adorn the hall. The subject was to be something that nobody had -ever seen. Borsiere proposed liberality as something that the miser at -any rate had never yet got a good sight of; an answer of which it is not -easy to detect either the wit or the courtesy, but which is said to have -converted the churl to liberal ways (_Decam._ i. 8). He is here -introduced as an authority on the noble style of manners. - -[488] _Pride and extravagance_: In place of the nobility of mind that -leads to great actions, and the gentle manners that prevail in a society -where there is a due subordination of rank to rank and well-defined -duties for every man. This, the aristocratic in a noble sense, was -Dante's ideal of a social state; for all his instincts were those of a -Florentine aristocrat, corrected though they were by his good sense and -his thirst for a reign of perfect justice. During his own time he had -seen Florence grow more and more democratic; and he was -irritated--unreasonably, considering that it was only a sign of the -general prosperity--at the spectacle of the amazing growth of wealth in -the hands of low-born traders, who every year were coming more to the -front and monopolising influence at home and abroad at the cost of their -neighbours and rivals with longer pedigrees and shorter purses. In -_Paradiso_ xvi. Dante dwells at length on the degeneracy of the -Florentines. - -[489] _At other times_: It is hinted that his outspokenness will not in -the future always give equal satisfaction to those who hear. - -[490] _There was I, etc._: _Forsan et haec olim meminisse -juvabit._--_AEn._ i. 203. - -[491] _Acquacheta_: The fall of the water of the brook over the lofty -cliff that sinks from the Seventh to the Eighth Circle is compared to -the waterfall upon the Montone at the monastery of St. Benedict, in the -mountains above Forli. The Po rises in Monte Viso. Dante here travels in -imagination from Monte Viso down through Italy, and finds that all the -rivers which rise on the left hand, that is, on the north-east of the -Apennine, fall into the Po, till the Montone is reached, that river -falling into the Adriatic by a course of its own. Above Forli it was -called Acquacheta. The Lamone, north of the Montone, now follows an -independent course to the sea, having cut a new bed for itself since -Dante's time. - -[492] _Where for a thousand, etc._: In the monastery there was room for -many more monks, say most of the commentators; or something to the like -effect. Mr. Longfellow's interpretation seems better: Where the height -of the fall is so great that it would divide into a thousand falls. - -[493] _Toward the right_: The attitude of one about to throw. - -[494] _The cord_: The services of Geryon are wanted to convey them down -the next reach of the pit; and as no voice could be heard for the noise -of the waterfall, and no signal be made to catch the eye amid the gloom, -Virgil is obliged to call the attention of the monster by casting some -object into the depth where he lies concealed. But, since they are -surrounded by solid masonry and slack sand, one or other of them must -supply something fit to throw down; and the cord worn by Dante is fixed -on as what can best be done without. There may be a reference to the -cord of Saint Francis, which Dante, according to one of his -commentators, wore when he was a young man, following in this a fashion -common enough among pious laymen who had no thought of ever becoming -friars. But the simile of the cord, as representing sobriety and -virtuous purpose, is not strange to Dante. In _Purg._ vii. 114 he -describes Pedro of Arragon as being girt with the cord of every virtue; -and Pedro was no Franciscan. Dante's cord may therefore be taken as -standing for vigilance or self-control. With it he had hoped to get the -better of the leopard (_Inf._ i. 32), and may have trusted in it for -support as against the terrors of Inferno. But although he has been girt -with it ever since he entered by the gate, it has not saved him from a -single fear, far less from a single danger; and now it is cast away as -useless. Henceforth, more than ever, he is to confide wholly in Virgil -and have no confidence in himself. Nor is he to be girt again till he -reaches the coast of Purgatory, and then it is to be with a reed, the -emblem of humility.--But, however explained, the incident will always be -somewhat of a puzzle. - -[495] Dante attributes to Virgil full knowledge of all that is in his -own mind. He thus heightens our conception of his dependence on his -guide, with whose will his will is blent, and whose thoughts are always -found to be anticipating his own. Few readers will care to be constantly -recalling to mind that Virgil represents enlightened human reason. But -even if we confine ourselves to the easiest sense of the narrative, the -study of the relations between him and Dante will be found one of the -most interesting suggested by the poem--perhaps only less so than that -of Dante's moods of wonder, anger, and pity. - - - - -CANTO XVII. - - - 'Behold the monster[496] with the pointed tail, - Who passes mountains[497] and can entrance make - Through arms and walls! who makes the whole world ail, - Corrupted by him!' Thus my Leader spake, - And beckoned him that he should land hard by, - Where short the pathways built of marble break. - And that foul image of dishonesty - Moving approached us with his head and chest, - But to the bank[498] drew not his tail on high. - His face a human righteousness expressed, 10 - 'Twas so benignant to the outward view; - A serpent was he as to all the rest. - On both his arms hair to the arm-pits grew: - On back and chest and either flank were knot[499] - And rounded shield portrayed in various hue; - No Turk or Tartar weaver ever brought - To ground or pattern a more varied dye;[500] - Nor by Arachne[501] was such broidery wrought. - As sometimes by the shore the barges lie - Partly in water, partly on dry land; 20 - And as afar in gluttonous Germany,[502] - Watching their prey, alert the beavers stand; - So did this worst of brutes his foreparts fling - Upon the stony rim which hems the sand. - All of his tail in space was quivering, - Its poisoned fork erecting in the air, - Which scorpion-like was armed with a sting. - My Leader said: 'Now we aside must fare - A little distance, so shall we attain - Unto the beast malignant crouching there.' 30 - So we stepped down upon the right,[503] and then - A half score steps[504] to the outer edge did pace, - Thus clearing well the sand and fiery rain. - And when we were hard by him I could trace - Upon the sand a little further on - Some people sitting near to the abyss. - 'That what this belt containeth may be known - Completely by thee,' then the Master said; - 'To see their case do thou advance alone. - Let thy inquiries be succinctly made. 40 - While thou art absent I will ask of him, - With his strong shoulders to afford us aid.' - Then, all alone, I on the outmost rim - Of that Seventh Circle still advancing trod, - Where sat a woful folk.[505] Full to the brim - Their eyes with anguish were, and overflowed; - Their hands moved here and there to win some ease, - Now from the flames, now from the soil which glowed. - No otherwise in summer-time one sees, - Working its muzzle and its paws, the hound 50 - When bit by gnats or plagued with flies or fleas. - And I, on scanning some who sat around - Of those on whom the dolorous flames alight, - Could recognise[506] not one. I only found - A purse hung from the throat of every wight, - Each with its emblem and its special hue; - And every eye seemed feasting on the sight. - As I, beholding them, among them drew, - I saw what seemed a lion's face and mien - Upon a yellow purse designed in blue. 60 - Still moving on mine eyes athwart the scene - I saw another scrip, blood-red, display - A goose more white than butter could have been. - And one, on whose white wallet blazoned lay - A pregnant sow[507] in azure, to me said: - 'What dost thou in this pit? Do thou straightway - Begone; and, seeing thou art not yet dead, - Know that Vitalian,[508] neighbour once of mine, - Shall on my left flank one day find his bed. - A Paduan I: all these are Florentine; 70 - And oft they stun me, bellowing in my ear: - "Come, Pink of Chivalry,[509] for whom we pine, - Whose is the purse on which three beaks appear:"' - Then he from mouth awry his tongue thrust out[510] - Like ox that licks its nose; and I, in fear - Lest more delay should stir in him some doubt - Who gave command I should not linger long, - Me from those wearied spirits turned about. - I found my Guide, who had already sprung - Upon the back of that fierce animal: 80 - He said to me: 'Now be thou brave and strong. - By stairs like this[511] we henceforth down must fall. - Mount thou in front, for I between would sit - So thee the tail shall harm not nor appal.' - Like one so close upon the shivering fit - Of quartan ague that his nails grow blue, - And seeing shade he trembles every whit, - I at the hearing of that order grew; - But his threats shamed me, as before the face - Of a brave lord his man grows valorous too. 90 - On the great shoulders then I took my place, - And wished to say, but could not move my tongue - As I expected: 'Do thou me embrace!' - But he, who other times had helped me 'mong - My other perils, when ascent I made - Sustained me, and strong arms around me flung, - And, 'Geryon, set thee now in motion!' said; - 'Wheel widely; let thy downward flight be slow; - Think of the novel burden on thee laid.' - As from the shore a boat begins to go 100 - Backward at first, so now he backward pressed, - And when he found that all was clear below, - He turned his tail where earlier was his breast; - And, stretching it, he moved it like an eel, - While with his paws he drew air toward his chest. - More terror Phaethon could hardly feel - What time he let the reins abandoned fall, - Whence Heaven was fired,[512] as still its tracts reveal; - Nor wretched Icarus, on finding all - His plumage moulting as the wax grew hot, 110 - While, 'The wrong road!' his father loud did call; - Than what I felt on finding I was brought - Where nothing was but air and emptiness; - For save the brute I could distinguish nought. - He slowly, slowly swims; to the abyss - Wheeling he makes descent, as I surmise - From wind felt 'neath my feet and in my face. - Already on the right I heard arise - From out the caldron a terrific roar,[513] - Whereon I stretch my head with down-turned eyes. 120 - Terror of falling now oppressed me sore; - Hearing laments, and seeing fires that burned, - My thighs I tightened, trembling more and more. - Earlier I had not by the eye discerned - That we swept downward; scenes of torment now - Seemed drawing nearer wheresoe'er we turned. - And as a falcon (which long time doth go - Upon the wing, not finding lure[514] or prey), - While 'Ha!' the falconer cries, 'descending so!' - Comes wearied back whence swift it soared away; 130 - Wheeling a hundred times upon the road, - Then, from its master far, sulks angrily: - So we, by Geryon in the deep bestowed, - Were 'neath the sheer-hewn precipice set down: - He, suddenly delivered from our load, - Like arrow from the string was swiftly gone. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[496] _The monster_: Geryon, a mythical king of Spain, converted here -into the symbol of fraud, and set as the guardian demon of the Eighth -Circle, where the fraudulent are punished. There is nothing in the -mythology to justify this account of Geryon; and it seems that Dante has -created a monster to serve his purpose. Boccaccio, in his _Genealogy of -the Gods_ (Lib. i.), repeats the description of Geryon given by 'Dante -the Florentine, in his poem written in the Florentine tongue, one -certainly of no little importance among poems;' and adds that Geryon -reigned in the Balearic Isles, and was used to decoy travellers with his -benignant countenance, caressing words, and every kind of friendly lure, -and then to murder them when asleep. - -[497] _Who passes mountains, etc._: Neither art nor nature affords any -defence against fraud. - -[498] _The bank_: Not that which confines the brook but the inner limit -of the Seventh Circle, from which the precipice sinks sheer into the -Eighth, and to which the embankment by which the travellers have crossed -the sand joins itself on. Virgil has beckoned Geryon to come to that -part of the bank which adjoins the end of the causeway. - -[499] _Knot and rounded shield_: Emblems of subtle devices and -subterfuges. - -[500]_ Varied dye_: Denoting the various colours of deceit. - -[501] _Arachne_: The Lydian weaver changed into a spider by Minerva. See -_Purg._ xii. 43. - -[502] _Gluttonous Germany_: The habits of the German men-at-arms in -Italy, odious to the temperate Italians, explains this gibe. - -[503] _The right_: This is the second and last time that, in their -course through Inferno, they turn to the right. See _Inf._ ix. 132. The -action may possibly have a symbolical meaning, and refer to the -protection against fraud which is obtained by keeping to a righteous -course. But here, in fact, they have no choice, for, traversing the -Inferno as they do to the left hand, they came to the right bank of the -stream which traverses the fiery sands, followed it, and now, when they -would leave its edge, it is from the right embankment that they have to -step down, and necessarily to the right hand. - -[504] _A half score steps, etc._: Traversing the stone-built border -which lies between the sand and the precipice. Had the brook flowed to -the very edge of the Seventh Circle before tumbling down the rocky wall -it is clear that they might have kept to the embankment until they were -clear beyond the edge of the sand. We are therefore to figure to -ourselves the water as plunging down at a point some yards, perhaps the -width of the border, short of the true limit of the circle; and this is -a touch of local truth, since waterfalls in time always wear out a -funnel for themselves by eating back the precipice down which they -tumble. It was into this funnel that Virgil flung the cord, and up it -that Geryon was seen to ascend, as if by following up the course of the -water he would find out who had made the signal. To keep to the narrow -causeway where it ran on by the edge of this gulf would seem too full of -risk. - -[505] _Woful folk_: Usurers; those guilty of the unnatural sin of -contemning the legitimate modes of human industry. They sit huddled up -on the sand, close to its bound of solid masonry, from which Dante looks -down on them. But that the usurers are not found only at the edge of the -plain is evident from _Inf._ xiv. 19. - -[506] _Could recognise, etc._: Though most of the group prove to be from -Florence Dante recognises none of them; and this denotes that nothing so -surely creates a second nature in a man, in a bad sense, as setting the -heart on money. So in the Fourth Circle those who, being unable to spend -moderately, are always thinking of how to keep or get money are -represented as 'obscured from any recognition' (_Inf._ vii. 44). - -[507] _A pregnant sow_: The azure lion on a golden field was the arms of -the Gianfigliazzi, eminent usurers of Florence; the white goose on a red -ground was the arms of the Ubriachi of Florence; the azure sow, of the -Scrovegni of Padua. - -[508] _Vitalian_: A rich Paduan noble, whose palace was near that of the -Scrovegni. - -[509] _Pink of Chivalry_: 'Sovereign Cavalier;' identified by his arms -as Ser Giovanni Buiamonte, still alive in Florence in 1301, and if we -are to judge from the text, the greatest usurer of all. A northern poet -of the time would have sought his usurers in the Jewry of some town he -knew, but Dante finds his among the nobles of Padua and Florence. He -ironically represents them as wearing purses ornamented with their coats -of arms, perhaps to hint that they pursued their dishonourable trade -under shelter of their noble names--their shop signs, as it were. The -whole passage may have been planned by Dante so as to afford him the -opportunity of damning the still living Buiamonte without mentioning his -name. - -[510] _His tongue thrust out_: As if to say: We know well what sort of -fine gentleman Buiamonte is. - -[511] _By stairs like this_: The descent from one circle to another -grows more difficult the further down they come. They appear to have -found no special obstacle in the nature of the ground till they reached -the bank sloping down to the Fifth Circle, the pathway down which is -described as terrible (_Inf._ vii. 105). The descent into the Seventh -Circle is made practicable, and nothing more (_Inf._ xii. I). - -[512] _Heaven was fired_: As still appears in the Milky Way. In the -_Convito_, ii. 15, Dante discusses the various explanations of what -causes the brightness of that part of the heavens. - -[513] _A terrific roar_: Of the water falling to the ground. On -beginning the descent they had left the waterfall on the left hand, but -Geryon, after fetching one or more great circles, passes in front of it, -and then they have it on the right. There is no further mention of the -waters of Phlegethon till they are found frozen in Cocytus (_Inf._ -xxxii. 23). Philalethes suggests that they flow under the Eighth Circle. - -[514] _Lure_: An imitation bird used in training falcons. Dante -describes the sulky, slow descent of a falcon which has either lost -sight of its prey, or has failed to discover where the falconer has -thrown the lure. Geryon has descended thus deliberately owing to the -command of Virgil. - - - - -CANTO XVIII. - - - Of iron colour, and composed of stone, - A place called Malebolge[515] is in Hell, - Girt by a cliff of substance like its own. - In that malignant region yawns a well[516] - Right in the centre, ample and profound; - Of which I duly will the structure tell. - The zone[517] that lies between them, then, is round-- - Between the well and precipice hard and high; - Into ten vales divided is the ground. - As is the figure offered to the eye, 10 - Where numerous moats a castle's towers enclose - That they the walls may better fortify; - A like appearance was made here by those. - And as, again, from threshold of such place - Many a drawbridge to the outworks goes; - So ridges from the precipice's base - Cutting athwart the moats and barriers run, - Till at the well join the extremities.[518] - From Geryon's back when we were shaken down - 'Twas here we stood, until the Poet's feet 20 - Moved to the left, and I, behind, came on. - New torments on the right mine eyes did meet - With new tormentors, novel woe on woe; - With which the nearer Bolgia was replete. - Sinners, all naked, in the gulf below, - This side the middle met us; while they strode - On that side with us, but more swift did go.[519] - Even so the Romans, that the mighty crowd - Across the bridge, the year of Jubilee, - Might pass with ease, ordained a rule of road[520]-- 30 - Facing the Castle, on that side should be - The multitude which to St. Peter's hied; - So to the Mount on this was passage free. - On the grim rocky ground, on either side, - I saw horned devils[521] armed with heavy whip - Which on the sinners from behind they plied. - Ah, how they made the wretches nimbly skip - At the first lashes; no one ever yet - But sought from the second and the third to slip. - And as I onward went, mine eyes were set 40 - On one of them; whereon I called in haste: - 'This one already I have surely met!' - Therefore to know him, fixedly I gazed; - And my kind Leader willingly delayed, - While for a little I my course retraced. - On this the scourged one, thinking to evade - My search, his visage bent without avail, - For: 'Thou that gazest on the ground,' I said, - 'If these thy features tell trustworthy tale, - Venedico Caccianimico[522] thou! 50 - But what has brought thee to such sharp regale?'[523] - And he, 'I tell it 'gainst my will, I trow, - But thy clear accents[524] to the old world bear - My memory, and make me all avow. - I was the man who Ghisola the fair - To serve the Marquis' evil will led on, - Whatever[525] the uncomely tale declare. - Of Bolognese here weeping not alone - Am I; so full the place of them, to-day - 'Tween Reno and Savena[526] are not known 60 - So many tongues that _Sipa_ deftly say: - And if of this thou'dst know the reason why, - Think but how greedy were our hearts alway.' - To him thus speaking did a demon cry: - 'Pander, begone!' and smote him with his thong; - 'Here are no women for thy coin to buy.' - Then, with my Escort joined, I moved along. - Few steps we made until we there had come, - Where from the bank a rib of rock was flung. - With ease enough up to its top we clomb, 70 - And, turning on the ridge, bore to the right;[527] - And those eternal circles[528] parted from. - When we had reached where underneath the height - A passage opes, yielding the scourged a way, - My Guide bade: 'Tarry, so to hold in sight - Those other spirits born in evil day, - Whose faces until now from thee have been - Concealed, because with ours their progress lay.' - Then from the ancient bridge by us were seen - The troop which toward us on that circuit sped, 80 - Chased onward, likewise, by the scourges keen. - And my good Master, ere I asked him, said: - 'That lordly one now coming hither, see, - By whom, despite of pain, no tears are shed. - What mien he still retains of majesty! - 'Tis Jason, who by courage and by guile - The Colchians of the ram deprived. 'Twas he - Who on his passage by the Lemnian isle, - Where all of womankind with daring hand - Upon their males had wrought a murder vile, 90 - With loving pledges and with speeches bland - The tender-yeared Hypsipyle betrayed, - Who had herself a fraud on others planned. - Forlorn he left her then, when pregnant made. - That is the crime condemns him to this pain; - And for Medea[529] too is vengeance paid. - Who in his manner cheat compose his train. - Of the first moat sufficient now is known, - And those who in its jaws engulfed remain.' - Already had we by the strait path gone 100 - To where 'tis with the second bank dovetailed-- - The buttress whence a second arch is thrown. - Here heard we who in the next Bolgia wailed[530] - And puffed for breath; reverberations told - They with their open palms themselves assailed. - The sides were crusted over with a mould - Plastered upon them by foul mists that rise, - And both with eyes and nose a contest hold. - The bottom is so deep, in vain our eyes - Searched it till further up the bridge we went, 110 - To where the arch o'erhangs what under lies. - Ascended there, our eyes we downward bent, - And I saw people in such ordure drowned, - A very cesspool 'twas of excrement. - And while I from above am searching round, - One with a head so filth-smeared I picked out, - I knew not if 'twas lay, or tonsure-crowned. - 'Why then so eager,' asked he with a shout, - 'To stare at me of all the filthy crew?' - And I to him: 'Because I scarce can doubt 120 - That formerly thee dry of hair I knew, - Alessio Interminei[531] the Lucchese; - And therefore thee I chiefly hold in view.' - Smiting his head-piece, then, his words were these: - ''Twas flattery steeped me here; for, using such, - My tongue itself enough could never please.' - 'Now stretch thou somewhat forward, but not much,' - Thereon my Leader bade me, 'and thine eyes - Slowly advance till they her features touch - And the dishevelled baggage recognise, 130 - Clawing her yonder with her nails unclean, - Now standing up, now squatting on her thighs. - 'Tis harlot Thais,[532] who, when she had been - Asked by her lover, "Am I generous - And worthy thanks?" said, "Greatly so, I ween." - Enough[533] of this place has been seen by us.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[515] _Malebolge_: Or Evil Pits; literally, Evil Pockets. - -[516] _A well_: The Ninth and lowest Circle, to be described in Canto -xxxii., etc. - -[517] _The zone_: The Eighth Circle, in which the fraudulent of all -species are punished, lies between the precipice and the Ninth Circle. A -vivid picture of the enormous height of the enclosing wall has been -presented to us at the close of the preceding Canto. As in the -description of the Second Circle the atmosphere is represented as -malignant, being murky and disturbed with tempest; so the Malebolge is -called malignant too, being all of barren iron-coloured rock. In both -cases the surroundings of the sinners may well be spoken of as malign, -adverse to any thought of goodwill and joy. - -[518] _The extremities_: The _Malebolge_ consists of ten circular pits -or fosses, one inside of another. The outermost lies under the precipice -which falls sheer from the Seventh Circle; the innermost, and of course -the smallest, runs immediately outside of the 'Well,' which is the Ninth -Circle. The Bolgias or valleys are divided from each other by rocky -banks; and, each Bolgia being at a lower level than the one that -encloses it, the inside of each bank is necessarily deeper than the -outside. Ribs or ridges of rock--like spokes of a wheel to the -axle-tree--run from the foot of the precipice to the outer rim of the -'Well,' vaulting the moats at right angles with the course of them. Thus -each rib takes the form of a ten-arched bridge. By one or other of these -Virgil and Dante now travel towards the centre and the base of Inferno; -their general course being downward, though varied by the ascent in turn -of the hog-backed arches over the moats. - -[519] _More swift_: The sinners in the First Bolgia are divided into two -gangs, moving in opposite directions, the course of those on the outside -being to the right, as looked at by Dante. These are the shades of -panders; those in the inner current are such as seduced on their own -account. Here a list of the various classes of sinners contained in the -Bolgias of the Eighth Circle may be given:-- - - 1st Bolgia--Seducers, CANTO XVIII. - 2d " Flatterers, " " - 3d " Simoniacs, " XIX. - 4th " Soothsayers, " XX. - 5th " Barrators, " XXI. XXII. - 6th " Hypocrites, " XXIII. - 7th " Thieves, " XXIV. XXV. - 8th " Evil Counsellors, " XXVI. XXVII. - 9th " Scandal and Heresy Mongers, " XXVIII. XXIX. - 10th " Falsifiers, " XXIX. XXX. - -[520] _A rule of road_: In the year 1300 a Jubilee was held in Rome with -Plenary Indulgence for all pilgrims. Villani says that while it lasted -the number of strangers in Rome was never less than two hundred -thousand. The bridge and castle spoken of in the text are those of St. -Angelo. The Mount is probably the Janiculum. - -[521] _Horned devils_: Here the demons are horned--terrible -remembrancers to the sinner of the injured husband. - -[522] _Venedico Caccianimico_: A Bolognese noble, brother of Ghisola, -whom he inveigled into yielding herself to the Marquis of Este, lord of -Ferrara. Venedico died between 1290 and 1300. - -[523] _Such sharp regale_: 'Such pungent sauces.' There is here a play -of words on the _Salse_, the name of a wild ravine outside the walls of -Bologna, where the bodies of felons were thrown. Benvenuto says it used -to be a taunt among boys at Bologna: Your father was pitched into the -Salse. - -[524] _Thy clear accents_: Not broken with sobs like his own and those -of his companions. - -[525] _Whatever, etc._: Different accounts seem to have been current -about the affair of Ghisola. - -[526] _'Tween Reno, etc._: The Reno and Savena are streams that flow -past Bologna. _Sipa_ is Bolognese for Maybe, or for Yes. So Dante -describes Tuscany as the country where _Si_ is heard (_Inf._ xxxiii. -80). With regard to the vices of the Bolognese, Benvenuto says: 'Dante -had studied in Bologna, and had seen and observed all these things.' - -[527] _To the right_: This is only an apparent departure from their -leftward course. Moving as they were to the left along the edge of the -Bolgia, they required to turn to the right to cross the bridge that -spanned it. - -[528] _Those eternal circles_: The meaning is not clear; perhaps it only -is that they have now done with the outer stream of sinners in this -Bolgia, left by them engaged in endless procession round and round. - -[529] _Medea_: When the Argonauts landed on Lemnos, they found it -without any males, the women, incited by Venus, having put them all to -death, with the exception of Thoas, saved by his daughter Hypsipyle. -When Jason deserted her he sailed for Colchis, and with the assistance -of Medea won the Golden Fleece. Medea, who accompanied him from Colchis, -was in turn deserted by him. - -[530] _Who in the next Bolgia wailed_: The flatterers in the Second -Bolgia. - -[531] _Alessio Interminei_: Of the Great Lucchese family of the -Interminelli, to which the famous Castruccio Castrucani belonged. -Alessio is know to have been living in 1295. Dante may have known him -personally. Benvenuto says he was so liberal of his flattery that he -spent it even on menial servants. - -[532] _Thais_: In the _Eunuch_ of Terence, Thraso, the lover of that -courtesan, asks Gnatho, their go-between, if she really sent him many -thanks for the present of a slave-girl he had sent her. 'Enormous!' says -Gnatho. It proves what great store Dante set on ancient instances when -he thought this worth citing. - -[533] _Enough, etc._: Most readers will agree with Virgil. - - - - -CANTO XIX. - - - O Simon Magus![534] ye his wretched crew! - The gifts of God, ordained to be the bride - Of righteousness, ye prostitute that you - With gold and silver may be satisfied; - Therefore for you let now the trumpet[535] blow, - Seeing that ye in the Third Bolgia 'bide. - Arrived at the next tomb,[536] we to the brow - Of rock ere this had finished our ascent, - Which hangs true plumb above the pit below. - What perfect art, O Thou Omniscient, 10 - Is Thine in Heaven and earth and the bad world found! - How justly does Thy power its dooms invent! - The livid stone, on both banks and the ground, - I saw was full of holes on every side, - All of one size, and each of them was round. - No larger seemed they to me nor less wide - Than those within my beautiful St. John[537] - For the baptizers' standing-place supplied; - And one of which, not many years agone, - I broke to save one drowning; and I would 20 - Have this for seal to undeceive men known. - Out of the mouth of each were seen protrude - A sinner's feet, and of the legs the small - Far as the calves; the rest enveloped stood. - And set on fire were both the soles of all, - Which made their ankles wriggle with such throes - As had made ropes and withes asunder fall. - And as flame fed by unctuous matter goes - Over the outer surface only spread; - So from their heels it flickered to the toes. 30 - 'Master, who is he, tortured more,' I said, - 'Than are his neighbours, writhing in such woe; - And licked by flames of deeper-hearted red?' - And he: 'If thou desirest that below - I bear thee by that bank[538] which lowest lies, - Thou from himself his sins and name shalt know.' - And I: 'Thy wishes still for me suffice: - Thou art my Lord, and knowest I obey - Thy will; and dost my hidden thoughts surprise.' - To the fourth barrier then we made our way, 40 - And, to the left hand turning, downward went - Into the narrow hole-pierced cavity; - Nor the good Master caused me make descent - From off his haunch till we his hole were nigh - Who with his shanks was making such lament. - 'Whoe'er thou art, soul full of misery, - Set like a stake with lower end upcast,' - I said to him, 'Make, if thou canst, reply.' - I like a friar[539] stood who gives the last - Shrift to a vile assassin, to his side 50 - Called back to win delay for him fixed fast. - 'Art thou arrived already?' then he cried, - 'Art thou arrived already, Boniface? - By several years the prophecy[540] has lied. - Art so soon wearied of the wealthy place, - For which thou didst not fear to take with guile, - Then ruin the fair Lady?'[541] Now my case - Was like to theirs who linger on, the while - They cannot comprehend what they are told, - And as befooled[542] from further speech resile. 60 - But Virgil bade me: 'Speak out loud and bold, - "I am not he thou thinkest, no, not he!"' - And I made answer as by him controlled. - The spirit's feet then twisted violently, - And, sighing in a voice of deep distress, - He asked: 'What then requirest thou of me? - If me to know thou hast such eagerness, - That thou the cliff hast therefore ventured down, - Know, the Great Mantle sometime was my dress. - I of the Bear, in sooth, was worthy son: 70 - As once, the Cubs to help, my purse with gain - I stuffed, myself I in this purse have stown. - Stretched out at length beneath my head remain - All the simoniacs[543] that before me went, - And flattened lie throughout the rocky vein. - I in my turn shall also make descent, - Soon as he comes who I believed thou wast, - When I asked quickly what for him was meant. - O'er me with blazing feet more time has past, - While upside down I fill the topmost room, 80 - Than he his crimsoned feet shall upward cast; - For after him one viler still shall come, - A Pastor from the West,[544] lawless of deed: - To cover both of us his worthy doom. - A modern Jason[545] he, of whom we read - In Maccabees, whose King denied him nought: - With the French King so shall this man succeed.' - Perchance I ventured further than I ought, - But I spake to him in this measure free: - 'Ah, tell me now what money was there sought 90 - Of Peter by our Lord, when either key - He gave him in his guardianship to hold? - Sure He demanded nought save: "Follow me!" - Nor Peter, nor the others, asked for gold - Or silver when upon Matthias fell - The lot instead of him, the traitor-souled. - Keep then thy place, for thou art punished well,[546] - And clutch the pelf, dishonourably gained, - Which against Charles[547] made thee so proudly swell. - And, were it not that I am still restrained 100 - By reverence[548] for those tremendous keys, - Borne by thee while the glad world thee contained, - I would use words even heavier than these; - Seeing your avarice makes the world deplore, - Crushing the good, filling the bad with ease. - 'Twas you, O Pastors, the Evangelist bore - In mind what time he saw her on the flood - Of waters set, who played with kings the whore; - Who with seven heads was born; and as she would - By the ten horns to her was service done, 110 - Long as her spouse[549] rejoiced in what was good. - Now gold and silver are your god alone: - What difference 'twixt the idolater and you, - Save that ye pray a hundred for his one? - Ah, Constantine,[550] how many evils grew-- - Not from thy change of faith, but from the gift - Wherewith thou didst the first rich Pope endue!' - While I my voice continued to uplift - To such a tune, by rage or conscience stirred - Both of his soles he made to twist and shift. 120 - My Guide, I well believe, with pleasure heard; - Listening he stood with lips so well content - To me propounding truthful word on word. - Then round my body both his arms he bent, - And, having raised me well upon his breast, - Climbed up the path by which he made descent. - Nor was he by his burden so oppressed - But that he bore me to the bridge's crown, - Which with the fourth joins the fifth rampart's crest. - And lightly here he set his burden down, 130 - Found light by him upon the precipice, - Up which a goat uneasily had gone. - And thence another valley met mine eyes. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[534] _Simon Magus_: The sin of simony consists in setting a price on -the exercise of a spiritual grace or the acquisition of a spiritual -office. Dante assails it at headquarters, that is, as it was practised -by the Popes; and in their case it took, among other forms, that of -ecclesiastical nepotism. - -[535] _The trumpet_: Blown at the punishment of criminals, to call -attention to their sentence. - -[536] _The next tomb_: The Third Bolgia, appropriately termed a tomb, -because its manner of punishment is that of a burial, as will be seen. - -[537] _St. John_: The church of St. John's, in Dante's time, as now, the -Baptistery of Florence. In _Parad._ xxv. he anticipates the day, if it -should ever come, when he shall return to Florence, and in the church -where he was baptized a Christian be crowned as a Poet. Down to the -middle of the sixteenth century all baptisms, except in cases of urgent -necessity, were celebrated in St. John's; and, even there, only on the -eves of Easter and Pentecost. For protection against the crowd, the -officiating priests were provided with standing-places, circular -cavities disposed around the great font. To these Dante compares the -holes of this Bolgia, for the sake of introducing a defence of himself -from a charge of sacrilege. Benvenuto tells that once when some boys -were playing about the church one of them, to hide himself from his -companions, squeezed himself into a baptizer's standing-place, and made -so tight a fit of it that he could not be rescued till Dante with his -own hands plied a hammer upon the marble, and so saved the child from -drowning. The presence of water in the cavity may be explained by the -fact of the church's being at that time lighted by an unglazed opening -in the roof; and as baptisms were so infrequent the standing-places, -situated as they were in the centre of the floor, may often have been -partially flooded. It is easy to understand how bitterly Dante would -resent a charge of irreverence connected with his 'beautiful St. -John's;' 'that fair sheep-fold' (_Parad._ xxv. 5). - -[538] _That bank, etc._: Of each Bolgia the inner bank is lower than the -outer; the whole of Malebolge sloping towards the centre of the Inferno. - -[539] _Like a friar, etc._: In those times the punishment of an assassin -was to be stuck head downward in a pit, and then to have earth slowly -shovelled in till he was suffocated. Dante bends down, the better to -hear what the sinner has to say, like a friar recalled by the felon on -the pretence that he has something to add to his confession. - -[540] _The prophecy_: 'The writing.' The speaker is Nicholas III., of -the great Roman family of the Orsini, and Pope from 1277 to 1280; a man -of remarkable bodily beauty and grace of manner, as well as of great -force of character. Like many other Holy Fathers he was either a great -hypocrite while on his promotion, or else he degenerated very quickly -after getting himself well settled on the Papal Chair. He is said to -have been the first Pope who practised simony with no attempt at -concealment. Boniface VIII., whom he is waiting for to relieve him, -became Pope in 1294, and died in 1303. None of the four Popes between -1280 and 1294 were simoniacs; so that Nicholas was uppermost in the hole -for twenty-three years. Although ignorant of what is now passing on the -earth, he can refer back to his foreknowledge of some years earlier (see -_Inf._ x. 99) as if to a prophetic writing, and finds that according to -this it is still three years too soon, it being now only 1300, for the -arrival of Boniface. This is the usual explanation of the passage. To it -lies the objection that foreknowledge of the present that can be -referred back to is the same thing as knowledge of it, and with this the -spirits in Inferno are not endowed. But Dante elsewhere shows that he -finds it hard to observe the limitation. The alternative explanation, -supported by the use of _scritto_ (writing) in the text, is that -Nicholas refers to some prophecy once current about his successors in -Rome. - -[541] _The fair Lady_: The Church. The guile is that shown by Boniface -in getting his predecessor Celestine v. to abdicate (_Inf._ iii. 60). - -[542] _As befooled_: Dante does not yet suspect that it is with a Pope -he is speaking. He is dumbfounded at being addressed as Boniface. - -[543] _All the simoniacs_: All the Popes that had been guilty of the -sin. - -[544] _A Pastor from the West_: Boniface died in 1303, and was succeeded -by Benedict XI., who in his turn was succeeded by Clement V., the Pastor -from the West. Benedict was not stained with simony, and so it is -Clement that is to relieve Boniface; and he is to come from the West, -that is, from Avignon, to which the Holy See was removed by him. Or the -reference may simply be to the country of his birth. Elsewhere he is -spoken of as 'the Gascon who shall cheat the noble Henry' of Luxemburg -(_Parad._ xvii. 82).--This passage has been read as throwing light on -the question of when the _Inferno_ was written. Nicholas says that from -the time Boniface arrives till Clement relieves him will be a shorter -period than that during which he has himself been in Inferno, that is to -say, a shorter time than twenty years. Clement died in 1314; and so, it -is held, we find a date before which the _Inferno_ was, at least, not -published. But Clement was known for years before his death to be ill of -a disease usually soon fatal. He became Pope in 1305, and the wonder was -that he survived so long as nine years. Dante keeps his prophecy -safe--if it is a prophecy; and there does seem internal evidence to -prove the publication of the _Inferno_ to have taken place long before -1314.--It is needless to point out how the censure of Clement gains in -force if read as having been published before his death. - -[545] _Jason_: Or Joshua, who purchased the office of High Priest from -Antiochus Epiphanes, and innovated the customs of the Jews (2 Maccab. -iv. 7). - -[546] _Punished well_: At line 12 Dante has admired the propriety of the -Divine distribution of penalties. He appears to regard with a special -complacency that which he invents for the simoniacs. They were -industrious in multiplying benefices for their kindred; Boniface, for -example, besides Cardinals, appointed about twenty Archbishops and -Bishops from among his own relatives. Here all the simoniacal Popes have -to be contented with one place among them. They paid no regard to -whether a post was well filled or not: here they are set upside down. - -[547] _Charles_: Nicholas was accused of taking a bribe to assist Peter -of Arragon in ousting Charles of Anjou from the kingdom of Sicily. - -[548] _By reverence, etc._: Dante distinguishes between the office and -the unworthy holder of it. So in Purgatory he prostrates himself before -a Pope (_Purg._ xix. 131). - -[549] _Her spouse_: In the preceding lines the vision of the Woman in -the Apocalypse is applied to the corruption of the Church, represented -under the figure of the seven-hilled Rome seated in honour among the -nations and receiving observance from the kings of the earth till her -spouse, the Pope, began to prostitute her by making merchandise of her -spiritual gifts. Of the Beast there is no mention here, his qualities -being attributed to the Woman. - -[550] _Ah, Constantine, etc._: In Dante's time, and for some centuries -later, it was believed that Constantine, on transferring the seat of -empire to Byzantium, had made a gift to the Pope of rights and -privileges almost equal to those of the Emperor. Rome was to be the -Pope's; and from his court in the Lateran he was to exercise supremacy -over all the West. The Donation of Constantine, that is, the instrument -conveying these rights, was a forgery of the Middle Ages. - - - - -CANTO XX. - - - Now of new torment must my verses tell, - And matter for the Twentieth Canto win - Of Lay the First,[551] which treats of souls in Hell. - Already was I eager to begin - To peer into the visible profound,[552] - Which tears of agony was bathed in: - And I saw people in the valley round; - Like that of penitents on earth the pace - At which they weeping came, nor uttering[553] sound. - When I beheld them with more downcast gaze,[554] 10 - That each was strangely screwed about I learned, - Where chest is joined to chin. And thus the face - Of every one round to his loins was turned; - And stepping backward[555] all were forced to go, - For nought in front could be by them discerned. - Smitten by palsy although one might show - Perhaps a shape thus twisted all awry, - I never saw, and am to think it slow. - As, Reader,[556] God may grant thou profit by - Thy reading, for thyself consider well 20 - If I could then preserve my visage dry - When close at hand to me was visible - Our human form so wrenched that tears, rained down - Out of the eyes, between the buttocks fell. - In very sooth I wept, leaning upon - A boss of the hard cliff, till on this wise - My Escort asked: 'Of the other fools[557] art one? - Here piety revives as pity dies; - For who more irreligious is than he - In whom God's judgments to regret give rise? 30 - Lift up, lift up thy head, and thou shalt see - Him for whom earth yawned as the Thebans saw, - All shouting meanwhile: "Whither dost thou flee, - Amphiaraues?[558] Wherefore thus withdraw - From battle?" But he sinking found no rest - Till Minos clutched him with all-grasping claw. - Lo, how his shoulders serve him for a breast! - Because he wished to see too far before - Backward he looks, to backward course addressed. - Behold Tiresias,[559] who was changed all o'er, 40 - Till for a man a woman met the sight, - And not a limb its former semblance bore; - And he behoved a second time to smite - The same two twisted serpents with his wand, - Ere he again in manly plumes was dight. - With back to him, see Aruns next at hand, - Who up among the hills of Luni, where - Peasants of near Carrara till the land, - Among the dazzling marbles[560] held his lair - Within a cavern, whence could be descried 50 - The sea and stars of all obstruction bare. - The other one, whose flowing tresses hide - Her bosom, of the which thou seest nought, - And all whose hair falls on the further side, - Was Manto;[561] who through many regions sought: - Where I was born, at last her foot she stayed. - It likes me well thou shouldst of this be taught. - When from this life her father exit made, - And Bacchus' city had become enthralled, - She for long time through many countries strayed. 60 - 'Neath mountains by which Germany is walled - And bounded at Tirol, a lake there lies - High in fair Italy, Benacus[562] called. - The waters of a thousand springs that rise - 'Twixt Val Camonica and Garda flow - Down Pennine; and their flood this lake supplies. - And from a spot midway, if they should go - Thither, the Pastors[563] of Verona, Trent, - And Brescia might their blessings all bestow. - Peschiera,[564] with its strength for ornament, 70 - Facing the Brescians and the Bergamese - Lies where the bank to lower curve is bent. - And there the waters, seeking more of ease, - For in Benacus is not room for all, - Forming a river, lapse by green degrees. - The river, from its very source, men call - No more Benacus--'tis as Mincio known, - Which into Po does at Governo fall. - A flat it reaches ere it far has run, - Spreading o'er which it feeds a marshy fen, 80 - Whence oft in summer pestilence has grown. - Wayfaring here the cruel virgin, when - She found land girdled by the marshy flood, - Untilled and uninhabited of men, - That she might 'scape all human neighbourhood - Stayed on it with her slaves, her arts to ply; - And there her empty body was bestowed. - On this the people from the country nigh - Into that place came crowding, for the spot, - Girt by the swamp, could all attack defy, 90 - And for the town built o'er her body sought - A name from her who made it first her seat, - Calling it Mantua, without casting lot.[565] - The dwellers in it were in number great, - Till stupid Casalodi[566] was befooled - And victimised by Pinamonte's cheat. - Hence, shouldst thou ever hear (now be thou schooled!) - Another story to my town assigned, - Let by no fraud the truth be overruled.' - And I: 'Thy reasonings, Master, to my mind 100 - So cogent are, and win my faith so well, - What others say I shall black embers find. - But of this people passing onward tell, - If thou, of any, something canst declare, - For all my thoughts[567] on that intently dwell.' - And then he said: 'The one whose bearded hair - Falls from his cheeks upon his shoulders dun, - Was, when the land of Greece[568] of males so bare - Was grown the very cradles scarce held one, - An augur;[569] he with Calchas gave the sign 110 - In Aulis through the first rope knife to run. - Eurypylus was he called, and in some line - Of my high Tragedy[570] is sung the same, - As thou know'st well, who mad'st it wholly thine. - That other, thin of flank, was known to fame - As Michael Scott;[571] and of a verity - He knew right well the black art's inmost game. - Guido Bonatti,[572] and Asdente see - Who mourns he ever should have parted from - His thread and leather; but too late mourns he. 120 - Lo the unhappy women who left loom, - Spindle, and needle that they might divine; - With herb and image[573] hastening men's doom. - But come; for where the hemispheres confine - Cain and the Thorns[574] is falling, to alight - Underneath Seville on the ocean line. - The moon was full already yesternight; - Which to recall thou shouldst be well content, - For in the wood she somewhat helped thy plight.' - Thus spake he to me while we forward went. 130 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[551] _Lay the First_: The _Inferno_. - -[552] _The visible profound_: The Fourth Bolgia, where soothsayers of -every kind are punished. Their sin is that of seeking to find out what -God has made secret. That such discoveries of the future could be made -by men, Dante seems to have had no doubt; but he regards the exercise of -the power as a fraud on Providence, and also credits the adepts in the -black art with ruining others by their spells (line 123). - -[553] _Nor uttering, etc._: They who on earth told too much are now -condemned to be for ever dumb. It will be noticed that with none of them -does Dante converse. - -[554] _More downcast gaze_: Standing as he does on the crown of the -arch, the nearer they come to him the more he has to decline his eyes. - -[555] _Stepping backward_: Once they peered far into the future; now -they cannot see a step before them. - -[556]_ As, Reader, etc._: Some light may be thrown on this unusual, and, -at first sight, inexplicable display of pity, by the comment of -Benvenuto da Imola:--'It is the wisest and most virtuous of men that are -most subject to this mania of divination; and of this Dante is himself -an instance, as is well proved by this book of his.' Dante reminds the -reader how often since the journey began he has sought to have the veil -of the future lifted; and would have it understood that he was seized by -a sudden misgiving as to whether he too had not overstepped the bounds -of what, in that respect, is allowed and right. - -[557] _Of the other fools_: Dante, weeping like the sinners in the -Bolgia, is asked by Virgil: 'What, art thou then one of them?' He had -been suffered, without reproof, to show pity for Francesca and Ciacco. -The terrors of the Lord grow more cogent as they descend, and even pity -is now forbidden. - -[558] _Amphiaraues_: One of the Seven Kings who besieged Thebes. He -foresaw his own death, and sought by hiding to evade it; but his wife -revealed his hiding-place, and he was forced to join in the siege. As he -fought, a thunderbolt opened a chasm in the earth, into which he fell. - -[559] _Tiresias_: A Theban soothsayer whose change of sex is described -by Ovid (_Metam._ iii.). - -[560] _The dazzling marbles_: Aruns, a Tuscan diviner, is introduced by -Lucan as prophesying great events to come to pass in Rome--the Civil War -and the victories of Caesar. His haunt was the deserted city of Luna, -situated on the Gulf of Spezia, and under the Carrara mountains -(_Phars._ i. 586). - -[561] _Manto_: A prophetess, a native of Thebes the city of Bacchus, and -daughter of Tiresias.--Here begins a digression on the early history of -Mantua, the native city of Virgil. In his account of the foundation of -it Dante does not agree with Virgil, attributing to a Greek Manto what -his master attributes to an Italian one (_AEn._ x. 199). - -[562] _Benacus_: The ancient Benacus, now known as the Lake of Garda. - -[563] _The Pastors, etc._: About half-way down the western side of the -lake a stream falls into it, one of whose banks, at its mouth, is in the -diocese of Trent, and the other in that of Brescia, while the waters of -the lake are in that of Verona. The three Bishops, standing together, -could give a blessing each to his own diocese. - -[564] _Peschiera_: Where the lake drains into the Mincio. It is still a -great fortress. - -[565] _Without casting lot_; Without consulting the omens, as was usual -when a city was to be named. - -[566] _Casalodi_: Some time in the second half of the thirteenth century -Alberto Casalodi was befooled out of the lordship of Mantua by Pinamonte -Buonacolsi. Benvenuto tells the tale as follows:--Pinamonte was a bold, -ambitious man, with a great troop of armed followers; and, the nobility -being at that time in bad odour with the people at large, he persuaded -the Count Albert that it would be a popular measure to banish the -suspected nobles for a time. Hardly was this done when he usurped the -lordship; and by expelling some of the citizens and putting others of -them to death he greatly thinned the population of the city. - -[567] _All my thoughts, etc._: The reader's patience is certainly abused -by this digression of Virgil's, and Dante himself seems conscious that -it is somewhat ill-timed. - -[568] _The land of Greece, etc._: All the Greeks able to bear arms being -engaged in the Trojan expedition. - -[569] _An augur_: Eurypylus, mentioned in the Second _AEneid_ as being -employed by the Greeks to consult the oracle of Apollo regarding their -return to Greece. From the auspices Calchas had found at what hour they -should set sail for Troy. Eurypylus can be said only figuratively to -have had to do with cutting the cable. - -[570] _Tragedy_: The _AEneid_. Dante defines Comedy as being written in a -style inferior to that of Tragedy, and as having a sad beginning and a -happy ending (Epistle to Can Grande, 10). Elsewhere he allows the comic -poet great licence in the use of common language (_Vulg. El._ ii. 4). By -calling his own poem a Comedy he, as it were, disarms criticism. - -[571] _Michael Scott_: Of Balwearie in Scotland, familiar to English -readers through the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_. He flourished in the -course of the thirteenth century, and made contributions to the -sciences, as they were then deemed, of astrology, alchemy, and -physiognomy. He acted for some time as astrologer to the Emperor -Frederick II., and the tradition of his accomplishments powerfully -affected the Italian imagination for a century after his death. It was -remembered that the terrible Frederick, after being warned by him to -beware of Florence, had died at a place called Firenzuola; and more than -one Italian city preserved with fear and trembling his dark sayings -regarding their fate. Villani frequently quotes his prophecies; and -Boccaccio speaks of him as a great necromancer who had been in Florence. -A commentary of his on Aristotle was printed at Venice in 1496. The -thinness of his flanks may refer to a belief that he could make himself -invisible at will. - -[572] _Guido Bonatti_: Was a Florentine, a tiler by trade, and was -living in 1282. When banished from his own city he took refuge at Forli -and became astrologer to Guido of Montefeltro (_Inf._ xxvii.), and was -credited with helping his master to a great victory.--_Asdente_: A -cobbler of Parma, whose prophecies were long renowned, lived in the -twelfth century. He is given in the _Convito_ (iv. 16) as an instance -that a man may be very notorious without being truly noble. - -[573] _Herb and image_: Part of the witch's stock in trade. All that was -done to a waxen image of him was suffered by the witch's victim. - -[574] _Cain and the Thorns_: The moon. The belief that the spots in the -moon are caused by Cain standing in it with a bundle of thorns is -referred to at _Parad._ ii. 51. Although it is now the morning of the -Saturday, the 'yesternight' refers to the night of Thursday, when Dante -found some use of the moon in the Forest. The moon is now setting on the -line dividing the hemisphere of Jerusalem, in which they are, from that -of the Mount of Purgatory. According to Dante's scheme of the world, -Purgatory is the true opposite of Jerusalem; and Seville is ninety -degrees from Jerusalem. As it was full moon the night before last, and -the moon is now setting, it is now fully an hour after sunrise. But, as -has already been said, it is not possible to reconcile the astronomical -indications thoroughly with one another.--Virgil serves as clock to -Dante, for they can see nothing of the skies. - - - - -CANTO XXI. - - - Conversing still from bridge to bridge[575] we went; - But what our words I in my Comedy - Care not to tell. The top of the ascent - Holding, we halted the next pit to spy - Of Malebolge, with plaints bootless all: - There, darkness[576] full of wonder met the eye. - As the Venetians[577] in their Arsenal - Boil the tenacious pitch at winter-tide, - To caulk the ships with for repairs that call; - For then they cannot sail; and so, instead, 10 - One builds his bark afresh, one stops with tow - His vessel's ribs, by many a voyage tried; - One hammers at the poop, one at the prow; - Some fashion oars, and others cables twine, - And others at the jib and main sails sew: - So, not by fire, but by an art Divine, - Pitch of thick substance boiled in that low Hell, - And all the banks did as with plaster line. - I saw it, but distinguished nothing well - Except the bubbles by the boiling raised, 20 - Now swelling up and ceasing now to swell. - While down upon it fixedly I gazed, - 'Beware, beware!' my Leader to me said, - And drew me thence close to him. I, amazed, - Turned sharply round, like him who has delayed, - Fain to behold the thing he ought to flee, - Then, losing nerve, grows suddenly afraid, - Nor lingers longer what there is to see; - For a black devil I beheld advance - Over the cliff behind us rapidly. 30 - Ah me, how fierce was he of countenance! - What bitterness he in his gesture put, - As with spread wings he o'er the ground did dance! - Upon his shoulders, prominent and acute, - Was perched a sinner[578] fast by either hip; - And him he held by tendon of the foot. - He from our bridge: 'Ho, Malebranche![579] Grip - An Elder brought from Santa Zita's town:[580] - Stuff him below; myself once more I slip - Back to the place where lack of such is none. 40 - There, save Bonturo, barrates[581] every man, - And No grows Yes that money may be won.' - He shot him down, and o'er the cliff began - To run; nor unchained mastiff o'er the ground, - Chasing a robber, swifter ever ran. - The other sank, then rose with back bent round; - But from beneath the bridge the devils cried: - 'Not here the Sacred Countenance[582] is found, - One swims not here as on the Serchio's[583] tide; - So if thou wouldst not with our grapplers deal 50 - Do not on surface of the pitch abide.' - Then he a hundred hooks[584] was made to feel. - 'Best dance down there,' they said the while to him, - 'Where, if thou canst, thou on the sly mayst steal.' - So scullions by the cooks are set to trim - The caldrons and with forks the pieces steep - Down in the water, that they may not swim. - And the good Master said to me: 'Now creep - Behind a rocky splinter for a screen; - So from their knowledge thou thyself shalt keep. 60 - And fear not thou although with outrage keen - I be opposed, for I am well prepared, - And formerly[585] have in like contest been.' - Then passing from the bridge's crown he fared - To the sixth bank,[586] and when thereon he stood - He needed courage doing what he dared. - In the same furious and tempestuous mood - In which the dogs upon the beggar leap, - Who, halting suddenly, seeks alms or food, - They issued forth from underneath the deep 70 - Vault of the bridge, with grapplers 'gainst him stretched; - But he exclaimed: 'Aloof, and harmless keep! - Ere I by any of your hooks be touched, - Come one of you and to my words give ear; - And then advise you if I should be clutched.' - All cried: 'Let Malacoda then go near;' - On which one moved, the others standing still. - He coming said: 'What will this[587] help him here?' - 'O Malacoda, is it credible - That I am come,' my Master then replied, 80 - 'Secure your opposition to repel, - Without Heaven's will, and fate, upon my side? - Let me advance, for 'tis by Heaven's behest - That I on this rough road another guide.' - Then was his haughty spirit so depressed, - He let his hook drop sudden to his feet, - And, 'Strike him not!' commanded all the rest - My Leader charged me thus: 'Thou, from thy seat - Where 'mid the bridge's ribs thou crouchest low, - Rejoin me now in confidence complete.' 90 - Whereon I to rejoin him was not slow; - And then the devils, crowding, came so near, - I feared they to their paction false might show. - So at Caprona[588] saw I footmen fear, - Spite of their treaty, when a multitude - Of foes received them, crowding front and rear. - With all my body braced I closer stood - To him, my Leader, and intently eyed - The aspect of them, which was far from good. - Lowering their grapplers, 'mong themselves they cried: - 'Shall I now tickle him upon the thigh?' 101 - 'Yea, see thou clip him deftly,' one replied. - The demon who in parley had drawn nigh - Unto my Leader, upon this turned round; - 'Scarmiglione, lay thy weapon by!' - He said; and then to us: 'No way is found - Further along this cliff, because, undone, - All the sixth arch lies ruined on the ground. - But if it please you further to pass on, - Over this rocky ridge advancing climb 110 - To the next rib,[589] where passage may be won. - Yestreen,[590] but five hours later than this time, - Twelve hundred sixty-six years reached an end, - Since the way lost the wholeness of its prime. - Thither I some of mine will straightway send - To see that none peer forth to breathe the air: - Go on with them; you they will not offend. - You, Alichin[591] and Calcabrin, prepare - To move,' he bade; 'Cagnazzo, thou as well; - Guiding the ten, thou, Barbariccia, fare. 120 - With Draghignazzo, Libicocco fell, - Fanged Ciriatto, Graffiacane too, - Set on, mad Rubicant and Farfarel: - Search on all quarters round the boiling glue. - Let these go safe, till at the bridge they be, - Which doth unbroken[592] o'er the caverns go.' - 'Alas, my Master, what is this I see?' - Said I, 'Unguided, let us forward set, - If thou know'st how. I wish no company. - If former caution thou dost not forget, 130 - Dost thou not mark how each his teeth doth grind, - The while toward us their brows are full of threat?' - And he: 'I would not fear should fill thy mind; - Let them grin all they will, and all they can; - 'Tis at the wretches in the pitch confined.' - They wheeled and down the left hand bank began - To march, but first each bit his tongue,[593] and passed - The signal on to him who led the van. - He answered grossly as with trumpet blast. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[575] _From bridge to bridge_: They cross the barrier separating the -Fourth from the Fifth Bolgia, and follow the bridge which spans the -Fifth until they have reached the crown of it. We may infer that the -conversation of Virgil and Dante turned on foreknowledge of the future. - -[576] _Darkness, etc._: The pitch with which the trench of the Bolgia is -filled absorbs most of the scanty light accorded to Malebolge. - -[577] _The Venetians_: But for this picturesque description of the old -Arsenal, and a passing mention of the Rialto in one passage of the -_Paradiso_, and of the Venetian coinage in another, it could not be -gathered from the _Comedy_, with all its wealth of historical and -geographical references, that there was such a place as Venice in the -Italy of Dante. Unlike the statue of Time (_Inf._ xiv.), the Queen of -the Adriatic had her face set eastwards. Her back was turned and her -ears closed as in a proud indifference to the noise of party conflicts -which filled the rest of Italy. - -[578] _A sinner_: This is the only instance in the _Inferno_ of the -arrival of a sinner at his special place of punishment. See _Inf._ v. -15, _note_. - -[579] _Malebranche_: Evil Claws, the name of the devils who have the -sinners of this Bolgia in charge. - -[580] _Santa Zita's town_: Zita was a holy serving-woman of Lucca, who -died some time between 1270 and 1280, and whose miracle-working body is -still preserved in the church of San Frediano. Most probably, although -venerated as a saint, she was not yet canonized at the time Dante writes -of, and there may be a Florentine sneer hidden in the description of -Lucca as her town. Even in Lucca there was some difference of opinion as -to her merits, and a certain unlucky Ciappaconi was pitched into the -Serchio for making fun of the popular enthusiasm about her. See -Philalethes, _Goett. Com._ In Lucca the officials that were called Priors -in Florence, were named Elders. The commentators give a name to this -sinner, but it is only guesswork. - -[581] _Save Bonturo_, _barrates, etc._: It is the barrators, those who -trafficked in offices and sold justice, that are punished in this -Bolgia. The greatest barrator of all in Lucca, say the commentators, was -this Bonturo; but there seems no proof of it, though there is of his -arrogance. He was still living in 1314. - -[582] _The Sacred Countenance_: An image in cedar wood, of Byzantine -workmanship, still preserved and venerated in the cathedral of Lucca. -According to the legend, it was carved from memory by Nicodemus, and -after being a long time lost was found again in the eighth century by an -Italian bishop travelling in Palestine. He brought it to the coast at -Joppa, where it was received by a vessel without sail or oar, which, -with its sacred freight, floated westwards and was next seen at the port -of Luna. All efforts to approach the bark were vain, till the Bishop of -Lucca descended to the seashore, and to him the vessel resigned itself -and suffered him to take the image into his keeping. 'Believe what you -like of all this,' says Benvenuto; 'it is no article of faith.'--The -sinner has come to the surface, bent as if in an attitude of prayer, -when he is met by this taunt. - -[583] _The Serchio_: The stream which flows past Lucca. - -[584] _A hundred hooks_: So many devils with their pronged hooks were -waiting to receive the victim. The punishment of the barrators bears a -relation to their sins. They wrought their evil deeds under all kinds of -veils and excuses, and are now themselves effectually buried out of -sight. The pitch sticks as close to them as bribes ever did to their -fingers. They misused wards and all subject to them, and in their turn -are clawed and torn by their devilish guardians. - -[585] _Formerly, etc._: On the occasion of his previous descent (_Inf._ -ix. 22). - -[586] _The sixth bank_: Dante remains on the crown of the arch -overhanging the pitch-filled moat. Virgil descends from the bridge by -the left hand to the bank on the inner side of the Fifth Bolgia. - -[587] _What will this, etc._: As if he said: What good will this delay -do him in the long-run? - -[588] _At Caprona_: Dante was one of the mounted militia sent by -Florence in 1289 to help the Lucchese against the Pisans, and was -present at the surrender by the Pisan garrison of the Castle of Caprona. -Some make the reference to be to a siege of the same stronghold by the -Pisans in the following year, when the Lucchese garrison, having -surrendered on condition of having their lives spared, were met as they -issued forth with cries of 'Hang them! Hang them!' But of this second -siege it is only a Pisan commentator that speaks. - -[589] _The next rib_: Malacoda informs them that the arch of rock across -the Sixth Bolgia in continuation of that by which they have crossed the -Fifth is in ruins, but that they will find a whole bridge if they keep -to the left hand along the rocky bank on the inner edge of the -pitch-filled moat. But, as appears further on, he is misleading them. It -will be remembered that from the precipice enclosing the Malebolge there -run more than one series of bridges or ribs into the central well of -Inferno. - -[590] _Yestreen, etc._: This is the principal passage in the _Comedy_ -for fixing the date of the journey. It is now, according to the text, -twelve hundred and sixty-six years and a day since the crucifixion. -Turning to the _Convito_, iv. 23, we find Dante giving his reasons for -believing that Jesus, at His death, had just completed His thirty-fourth -year. This brings us to the date of 1300 A.D. But according to Church -tradition the crucifixion happened on the 25th March, and to get -thirty-four years His life must be counted from the incarnation, which -was held to have taken place on the same date, namely the 25th March. It -was in Dante's time optional to reckon from the incarnation or the birth -of Christ. The journey must therefore be taken to have begun on Friday -the 25th March, a fortnight before the Good Friday of 1300; and, -counting strictly from the incarnation, on the first day of 1301--the -first day of the new century. So we find Boccaccio in his unfinished -commentary saying in _Inf._ iii. that it will appear from Canto xxi. -that Dante began his journey in MCCCI.--The hour is now five hours -before that at which the earthquake happened which took place at the -death of Jesus. This is held by Dante (_Convito_ iv. 23), who professes -to follow the account by Saint Luke, to have been at the sixth hour, -that is, at noon; thus the time is now seven in the morning. - -[591] _Alichino, etc._: The names of the devils are all descriptive: -Alichino, for instance, is the Swooper; but in this and the next Canto -we have enough of the horrid crew without considering too closely how -they are called. - -[592] _Unbroken_: Malacoda repeats his lie. - -[593] _Each bit his tongue, etc._: The demons, aware of the cheat played -by Malacoda, show their devilish humour by making game of Virgil and -Dante.--Benvenuto is amazed that a man so involved in his own thoughts -as Dante was, should have been such a close observer of low life as this -passage shows him. He is sure that he laughed to himself as he wrote the -Canto. - - - - -CANTO XXII. - - - Horsemen I've seen in march across the field, - Hastening to charge, or, answering muster, stand, - And sometimes too when forced their ground to yield; - I have seen skirmishers upon your land, - O Aretines![594] and those on foray sent; - With trumpet and with bell[595] to sound command - Have seen jousts run and well-fought tournament, - With drum, and signal from the castle shown, - And foreign music with familiar blent; - But ne'er by blast on such a trumpet blown 10 - Beheld I horse or foot to motion brought, - Nor ship by star or landmark guided on. - With the ten demons moved we from the spot; - Ah, cruel company! but 'with the good - In church, and in the tavern with the sot.' - Still to the pitch was my attention glued - Fully to see what in the Bolgia lay, - And who were in its burning mass imbrued. - As when the dolphins vaulted backs display, - Warning to mariners they should prepare 20 - To trim their vessel ere the storm makes way; - So, to assuage the pain he had to bear, - Some wretch would show his back above the tide, - Then swifter plunge than lightnings cleave the air. - And as the frogs close to the marsh's side - With muzzles thrust out of the water stand, - While feet and bodies carefully they hide; - So stood the sinners upon every hand. - But on beholding Barbariccia nigh - Beneath the bubbles[596] disappeared the band. 30 - I saw what still my heart is shaken by: - One waiting, as it sometimes comes to pass - That one frog plunges, one at rest doth lie; - And Graffiacan, who nearest to him was, - Him upward drew, clutching his pitchy hair: - To me he bore the look an otter has. - I of their names[597] ere this was well aware, - For I gave heed unto the names of all - When they at first were chosen. 'Now prepare, - And, Rubicante, with thy talons fall 40 - Upon him and flay well,' with many cries - And one consent the accursed ones did call. - I said: 'O Master, if in any wise - Thou canst, find out who is the wretched wight - Thus at the mercy of his enemies.' - Whereon my Guide drew full within his sight, - Asking him whence he came, and he replied: - 'In kingdom of Navarre[598] I first saw light. - Me servant to a lord my mother tied; - Through her I from a scoundrel sire did spring, 50 - Waster of goods and of himself beside. - As servant next to Thiebault,[599] righteous king, - I set myself to ply barratorship; - And in this heat discharge my reckoning.' - And Ciriatto, close upon whose lip - On either side a boar-like tusk did stand, - Made him to feel how one of them could rip. - The mouse had stumbled on the wild cat band; - But Barbariccia locked him in embrace, - And, 'Off while I shall hug him!' gave command. 60 - Round to my Master then he turned his face: - 'Ask more of him if more thou wouldest know, - While he against their fury yet finds grace.' - My Leader asked: 'Declare now if below - The pitch 'mong all the guilty there lies here - A Latian?'[600] He replied: 'Short while ago - From one[601] I parted who to them lived near; - And would that I might use him still for shield, - Then hook or claw I should no longer fear,' - Said Libicocco: 'Too much grace we yield.' 70 - And in the sinner's arm he fixed his hook, - And from it clean a fleshy fragment peeled. - But seeing Draghignazzo also took - Aim at his legs, the leader of the Ten - Turned swiftly round on them with angry look. - On this they were a little quieted; then - Of him who still gazed on his wound my Guide - Without delay demanded thus again: - 'Who was it whom, in coming to the side, - Thou say'st thou didst do ill to leave behind?' 80 - 'Gomita of Gallura,'[602] he replied, - 'A vessel full of fraud of every kind, - Who, holding in his power his master's foes, - So used them him they bear in thankful mind; - For, taking bribes, he let slip all of those, - He says; and he in other posts did worse, - And as a chieftain 'mong barrators rose. - Don Michael Zanche[603] doth with him converse, - From Logodoro, and with endless din - They gossip[604] of Sardinian characters. 90 - But look, ah me! how yonder one doth grin. - More would I say, but that I am afraid - He is about to claw me on the skin.' - To Farfarel the captain turned his head, - For, as about to swoop, he rolled his eye, - And, 'Cursed hawk, preserve thy distance!' said. - 'If ye would talk with, or would closer spy,' - The frighted wretch began once more to say, - 'Tuscans or Lombards, I will bring them nigh. - But let the Malebranche first give way, 100 - That of their vengeance they may not have fear, - And I to this same place where now I stay - For me, who am but one, will bring seven near - When I shall whistle as we use to do - Whenever on the surface we appear.' - On this Cagnazzo up his muzzle threw, - Shaking his head and saying: 'Hear the cheat - He has contrived, to throw himself below.' - Then he who in devices was complete: - 'Far too malicious, in good sooth,' replied, 110 - 'When for my friends I plan a sorer fate.' - This, Alichin withstood not but denied - The others' counsel,[605] saying: 'If thou fling - Thyself hence, thee I strive not to outstride. - But o'er the pitch I'll dart upon the wing. - Leave we the ridge,[606] and be the bank a shield; - And see if thou canst all of us outspring.' - O Reader, hear a novel trick revealed. - All to the other side turned round their eyes, - He first[607] who slowest was the boon to yield. 120 - In choice of time the Navarrese was wise; - Taking firm stand, himself he forward flung, - Eluding thus their hostile purposes. - Then with compunction each of them was stung, - But he the most[608] whose slackness made them fail; - Therefore he started, 'Caught!' upon his tongue. - But little it bested, nor could prevail - His wings 'gainst fear. Below the other went, - While he with upturned breast aloft did sail. - And as the falcon, when, on its descent, 130 - The wild duck suddenly dives out of sight, - Returns outwitted back, and malcontent; - To be befooled filled Calcabrin with spite. - Hovering he followed, wishing in his mind - The wretch escaping should leave cause for fight. - When the barrator vanished, from behind - He on his comrade with his talons fell - And clawed him, 'bove the moat with him entwined. - The other was a spar-hawk terrible - To claw in turn; together then the two 140 - Plunged in the boiling pool. The heat full well - How to unlock their fierce embraces knew; - But yet they had no power[609] to rise again, - So were their wings all plastered o'er with glue. - Then Barbariccia, mourning with his train, - Caused four to fly forth to the other side - With all their grapplers. Swift their flight was ta'en. - Down to the place from either hand they glide, - Reaching their hooks to those who were limed fast, - And now beneath the scum were being fried. 150 - And from them thus engaged we onward passed. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[594] _O Aretines_: Dante is mentioned as having taken part in the -campaign of 1289 against Arezzo, in the course of which the battle of -Campaldino was fought. But the text can hardly refer to what he -witnessed in that campaign, as the field of it was almost confined to -the Casentino, and little more than a formal entrance was made on the -true Aretine territory; while the chronicles make no mention of jousts -and forays. There is, however, no reason to think but that Dante was -engaged in the attack made by Florence on the Ghibeline Arezzo in the -early summer of the preceding year. In a few days the Florentines and -their allies had taken above forty castles and strongholds, and -devastated the enemy's country far and near; and, though unable to take -the capital, they held all kinds of warlike games in front of it. Dante -was then twenty-three years of age, and according to the Florentine -constitution of that period would, in a full muster of the militia, be -required to serve as a cavalier without pay, and providing his own horse -and arms. - -[595] _Bell_: The use of the bell for martial music was common in the -Italy of the thirteenth century. The great war-bell of the Florentines -was carried with them into the field. - -[596] _Beneath the bubbles, etc._: As the barrators took toll of the -administration of justice and appointment to offices, something always -sticking to their palms, so now they are plunged in the pitch; and as -they denied to others what should be the common blessing of justice, now -they cannot so much as breathe the air without paying dearly for it to -the demons. - -[597] _Their names_: The names of all the demons. All of them urge -Rubicante, the 'mad red devil,' to flay the victim, shining and sleek -with the hot pitch, who is held fast by Graffiacane. - -[598] _In kingdom of Navarre, etc._: The commentators give the name of -John Paul to this shade, but all that is known of him is found in the -text. - -[599] _Thiebault_: King of Navarre and second of that name. He -accompanied his father-in-law, Saint Louis, to Tunis, and died on his -way back, in 1270. - -[600] _A Latian_: An Italian. - -[601] _From one, etc._: A Sardinian. The barrator prolongs his answer so -as to procure a respite from the fangs of his tormentors. - -[602] _Gomita of Gallura_: 'Friar Gomita' was high in favour with Nino -Visconti (_Purg._ viii. 53), the lord of Gallura, one of the provinces -into which Sardinia was divided under the Pisans. At last, after bearing -long with him, the 'gentle Judge Nino' hanged Gomita for setting -prisoners free for bribes. - -[603] _Don Michael Zanche_: Enzo, King of Sardinia, married Adelasia, -the lady of Logodoro, one of the four Sardinian judgedoms or provinces. -Of this province Zanche, seneschal to Enzo, acquired the government -during the long imprisonment of his master, or upon his death in 1273. -Zanche's daughter was married to Branca d'Oria, by whom Zanche was -treacherously slain in 1275 (_Inf._ xxxiii. 137). There seems to be -nothing extant to support the accusation implied in the text. - -[604] _They gossip, etc._: Zanche's experience of Sardinia was of an -earlier date than Gomita's. It has been claimed for, or charged against, -the Sardinians, that more than other men they delight in gossip touching -their native country. These two, if it can be supposed that, plunged -among and choked with pitch, they still cared for Sardinian talk, would -find material enough in the troubled history of their land. In 1300 it -belonged partly to Genoa and partly to Pisa. - -[605] _The others' counsel_: Alichino, confident in his own powers, is -willing to risk an experiment with the sinner. The other devils count a -bird in the hand worth two in the bush. - -[606] _The ridge_: Not the crown of the great rocky barrier between the -Fifth and the Sixth Bolgias, for it is not on that the devils are -standing; neither are they allowed to pass over it (_Inf._ xxiii. 55). -We are to figure them to ourselves as standing on a ledge running -between the fosse and the foot of the enclosing rocky steep--a pathway -continued under the bridges and all round the Bolgia for their -convenience as guardians of it. The bank adjoining the pitch will serve -as a screen for the sinner if the demons retire to the other side of -this ledge. - -[607] _He first, etc._: Cagnazzo. See line 106. - -[608] _He the most, etc._: Alichino, whose confidence in his agility had -led to the outwitting of the band. - -[609] _No power_: The foolish ineptitude of the devils for anything -beyond their special function of hooking up and flaying those who appear -on the surface of the pitch, and their irrational fierce playfulness as -of tiger cubs, convey a vivid impression of the limits set to their -diabolical power, and at the same time heighten the sense of what -Dante's feeling of insecurity must have been while in such inhuman -companionship. - - - - -CANTO XXIII. - - - Silent, alone, not now with company - We onward went, one first and one behind, - As Minor Friars[610] use to make their way. - On AEsop's fable[611] wholly was my mind - Intent, by reason of that contest new-- - The fable where the frog and mouse we find; - For _Mo_ and _Issa_[612] are not more of hue - Than like the fable shall the fact appear, - If but considered with attention due. - And as from one thought springs the next, so here 10 - Out of my first arose another thought, - Until within me doubled was my fear. - For thus I judged: Seeing through us[613] were brought - Contempt upon them, hurt, and sore despite, - They needs must be to deep vexation wrought. - If anger to malevolence unite, - Then will they us more cruelly pursue - Than dog the hare which almost feels its bite. - All my hair bristled, I already knew, - With terror when I spake: 'O Master, try 20 - To hide us quick' (and back I turned to view - What lay behind), 'for me they terrify, - These Malebranche following us; from dread - I almost fancy I can feel them nigh.' - And he: 'Were I a mirror backed with lead - I should no truer glass that form of thine, - Than all thy thought by mine is answered. - For even now thy thoughts accord with mine, - Alike in drift and featured with one face; - And to suggest one counsel they combine. 30 - If the right bank slope downward at this place, - To the next Bolgia[614] offering us a way, - Swiftly shall we evade the imagined chase.' - Ere he completely could his purpose say, - I saw them with their wings extended wide, - Close on us; as of us to make their prey. - Then quickly was I snatched up by my Guide: - Even as a mother when, awaked by cries, - She sees the flames are kindling at her side, - Delaying not, seizes her child and flies; 40 - Careful for him her proper danger mocks, - Nor even with one poor shift herself supplies. - And he, stretched out upon the flinty rocks, - Himself unto the precipice resigned - Which one side of the other Bolgia blocks. - A swifter course ne'er held a stream confined, - That it may turn a mill, within its race, - Where near the buckets 'tis the most declined - Than was my Master's down that rock's sheer face; - Nor seemed I then his comrade, as we sped, 50 - But like a son locked in a sire's embrace. - And barely had his feet struck on the bed - Of the low ground, when they were seen to stand - Upon the crest, no more a cause of dread.[615] - For Providence supreme, who so had planned - In the Fifth Bolgia they should minister, - Them wholly from departure thence had banned. - 'Neath us we saw a painted people fare, - Weeping as on their way they circled slow, - Crushed by fatigue to look at, and despair. 60 - Cloaks had they on with hoods pulled down full low - Upon their eyes, and fashioned, as it seemed, - Like those which at Cologne[616] for monks they sew. - The outer face was gilt so that it gleamed; - Inside was all of lead, of such a weight - Frederick's[617] to these had been but straw esteemed. - O weary robes for an eternal state! - With them we turned to the left hand once more, - Intent upon their tears disconsolate. - But those folk, wearied with the loads they bore, 70 - So slowly crept that still new company - Was ours at every footfall on the floor. - Whence to my Guide I said: 'Do thou now try - To find some one by name or action known, - And as we go on all sides turn thine eye.' - And one, who recognised the Tuscan tone, - Called from behind us: 'Halt, I you entreat - Who through the air obscure are hastening on; - Haply in me thou what thou seek'st shalt meet.' - Whereon my Guide turned round and said: 'Await, - And keep thou time with pacing of his feet.' 81 - I stood, and saw two manifesting great - Desire to join me, by their countenance; - But their loads hampered them and passage strait.[618] - And, when arrived, me with an eye askance[619] - They gazed on long time, but no word they spoke; - Then, to each other turned, held thus parlance: - 'His heaving throat[620] proves him of living folk. - If they are of the dead, how could they gain - To walk uncovered by the heavy cloak?' 90 - Then to me: 'Tuscan, who dost now attain - To the college of the hypocrites forlorn, - To tell us who thou art show no disdain.' - And I to them: 'I was both bred and born - In the great city by fair Arno's stream, - And wear the body I have always worn. - But who are ye, whose suffering supreme - Makes tears, as I behold, to flood the cheek; - And what your mode of pain that thus doth gleam?' - 'Ah me, the yellow mantles,' one to speak 100 - Began, 'are all of lead so thick, its weight - Maketh the scales after this manner creak. - We, Merry Friars[621] of Bologna's state, - I Catalano, Loderingo he, - Were by thy town together designate, - As for the most part one is used to be, - To keep the peace within it; and around - Gardingo,[622] what we were men still may see.' - I made beginning: 'Friars, your profound--' - But said no more, on suddenly seeing there 110 - One crucified by three stakes to the ground, - Who, when he saw me, writhed as in despair, - Breathing into his beard with heavy sigh. - And Friar Catalan, of this aware, - Said: 'He thus fixed, on whom thou turn'st thine eye, - Counselled the Pharisees that it behoved - One man as victim[623] for the folk should die. - Naked, thou seest, he lies, and ne'er removed - From where, set 'cross the path, by him the weight - Of every one that passes by is proved. 120 - And his wife's father shares an equal fate, - With others of the Council, in this fosse; - For to the Jews they proved seed reprobate.' - Meanwhile at him thus stretched upon the cross - Virgil,[624] I saw, displayed astonishment-- - At his mean exile and eternal loss. - And then this question to the Friars he sent: - 'Be not displeased, but, if ye may, avow - If on the right[625] hand there lies any vent - By which we, both of us,[626] from hence may go, 130 - Nor need the black angelic company - To come to help us from this valley low.' - 'Nearer than what thou think'st,' he made reply, - 'A rib there runs from the encircling wall,[627] - The cruel vales in turn o'erarching high; - Save that at this 'tis rent and ruined all. - Ye can climb upward o'er the shattered heap - Where down the side the piled-up fragments fall.' - His head bent down a while my Guide did keep, - Then said: 'He warned us[628] in imperfect wise, 140 - Who sinners with his hook doth clutch and steep.' - The Friar: 'At Bologna[629] many a vice - I heard the Devil charged with, and among - The rest that, false, he father is of lies.' - Then onward moved my Guide with paces long, - And some slight shade of anger on his face. - I with him parted from the burdened throng, - Stepping where those dear feet had left their trace. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[610] _Minor Friars_: In the early years of their Order the Franciscans -went in couples upon their journeys, not abreast but one behind the -other. - -[611] _AEsop's fable_: This fable, mistakenly attributed to AEsop, tells -of how a frog enticed a mouse into a pond, and how they were then both -devoured by a kite. To discover the aptness of the simile would scarcely -be reward enough for the continued mental effort Dante enjoins. So much -was everything Greek or Roman then held in reverence, that the mention -even of AEsop is held to give dignity to the page. - -[612] _Mo_ and _Issa_: Two words for _now_. - -[613] _Through us_: The quarrel among the fiends arose from Dante's -insatiable desire to confer with 'Tuscan or Lombard.' - -[614] _To the next Bolgia_: The Sixth. They are now on the top of the -circular ridge that divides it from the Fifth. From the construction of -Malebolge the ridge is deeper on the inner side than on that up which -they have travelled from the pitch. - -[615] _No more a cause of dread_: There seems some incongruity between -Virgil's dread of these smaller devils and the ease with which he cowed -Minos, Charon, and Pluto. But his character gains in human interest the -more he is represented as sympathising with Dante in his terrors; and in -this particular case the confession of fellow-feeling prepares the way -for the beautiful passage which follows it (line 38, etc.), one full of -an almost modern tenderness. - -[616] _Cologne_: Some make it Clugny, the great Benedictine monastery; -but all the old commentators and most of the mss. read Cologne. All that -the text necessarily carries is that the cloaks had great hoods. If, in -addition, a reproach of clumsiness is implied, it would agree well -enough with the Italian estimate of German people and things. - -[617] _Frederick's, etc._: The Emperor Frederick II.; but that he used -any torture of leaden sheets seems to be a fabrication of his enemies. - -[618] _Passage strait_: Through the crowd of shades, all like themselves -weighed down by the leaden cloaks. There is nothing in all literature -like this picture of the heavily-burdened shades. At first sight it -seems to be little of a torture compared with what we have already seen, -and yet by simple touch after touch an impression is created of the -intolerable weariness of the victims. As always, too, the punishment -answers to the sin. The hypocrites made a fair show in the flesh, and -now their mantles which look like gold are only of base lead. On earth -they were of a sad countenance, trying to seem better than they were, -and the load which to deceive others they voluntarily assumed in life is -now replaced by a still heavier weight, and one they cannot throw off if -they would. The choice of garb conveys an obvious charge of hypocrisy -against the Friars, then greatly fallen away from the purity of their -institution, whether Franciscans or Dominicans. - -[619] _An eye askance_: They cannot turn their heads. - -[620] _His heaving throat_: In Purgatory Dante is known for a mortal by -his casting a shadow. Here he is known to be of flesh and blood by the -act of respiration; yet, as appears from line 113, the shades, too, -breathe as well as perform other functions of living bodies. At least -they seem so to do, but this is all only in appearance. They only seem -to be flesh and blood, having no weight, casting no shadow, and drawing -breath in a way of their own. Dante, as has been said (_Inf._ vi. 36), -is hard put to it to make them subject to corporal pains and yet be only -shadows. - -[621] _Merry Friars_: Knights of the Order of Saint Mary, instituted by -Urban IV. in 1261. Whether the name of Frati Godenti which they here -bear was one of reproach or was simply descriptive of the easy rule -under which they lived, is not known. Married men might, under certain -conditions, enter the Order. The members were to hold themselves aloof -from public office, and were to devote themselves to the defence of the -weak and the promotion of justice and religion. The two monkish -cavaliers of the text were in 1266 brought to Florence as Podestas, the -Pope himself having urged them to go. There is much uncertainty as to -the part they played in Florence, but none as to the fact of their rule -having been highly distasteful to the Florentines, or as to the other -fact, that in Florence they grew wealthy. The Podesta, or chief -magistrate, was always a well-born foreigner. Probably some monkish rule -or custom forbade either Catalano or Loderingo to leave the monastery -singly. - -[622] _Gardingo_: A quarter of Florence, in which many palaces were -destroyed about the time of the Podestaship of the Frati. - -[623] _One man as victim_: _St. John_ xi. 50. Caiaphas and Annas, with -the Scribes and Pharisees who persecuted Jesus to the death, are the -vilest hypocrites of all. They lie naked across the path, unburdened by -the leaden cloak, it is true, but only that they may feel the more -keenly the weight of the punishment of all the hypocrites of the world. - -[624] _Virgil_: On Virgil's earlier journey through Inferno Caiaphas and -the others were not here, and he wonders as at something out of a world -to him unknown. - -[625] _On the right_: As they are moving round the Bolgia to the left, -the rocky barrier between them and the Seventh Bolgia is on their right. - -[626] _We, both of us_: Dante, still in the body, as well as Virgil, the -shade. - -[627] _The encircling wall_: That which encloses all the Malebolge. - -[628] _He warned us_: Malacoda (_Inf._ xxi. 109) had assured him that -the next rib of rock ran unbroken across all the Bolgias, but it too, -like all the other bridges, proves to have been, at the time of the -earthquake, shattered where it crossed this gulf of the hypocrites. The -earthquake told most on this Bolgia, because the death of Christ and the -attendant earthquake were, in a sense, caused by the hypocrisy of -Caiaphas and the rest. - -[629] _At Bologna_: Even in Inferno the Merry Friar must have his joke. -He is a gentleman, but a bit of a scholar too; and the University of -Bologna is to him what Marischal College was to Captain Dalgetty. - - - - -CANTO XXIV. - - - In season of the new year, when the sun - Beneath Aquarius[630] warms again his hair, - And somewhat on the nights the days have won; - When on the ground the hoar-frost painteth fair - A mimic image of her sister white-- - But soon her brush of colour is all bare-- - The clown, whose fodder is consumed outright, - Rises and looks abroad, and, all the plain - Beholding glisten, on his thigh doth smite. - Returned indoors, like wretch that seeks in vain 10 - What he should do, restless he mourns his case; - But hope revives when, looking forth again, - He sees the earth anew has changed its face. - Then with his crook he doth himself provide, - And straightway doth his sheep to pasture chase: - So at my Master was I terrified, - His brows beholding troubled; nor more slow - To where I ailed[631] the plaster was applied. - For when the broken bridge[632] we stood below - My Guide turned to me with the expression sweet 20 - Which I beneath the mountain learned to know. - His arms he opened, after counsel meet - Held with himself, and, scanning closely o'er - The fragments first, he raised me from my feet; - And like a man who, working, looks before, - With foresight still on that in front bestowed, - Me to the summit of a block he bore - And then to me another fragment showed, - Saying: 'By this thou now must clamber on; - But try it first if it will bear thy load.' 30 - The heavy cowled[633] this way could ne'er have gone, - For hardly we, I holpen, he so light, - Could clamber up from shattered stone to stone. - And but that on the inner bank the height - Of wall is not so great, I say not he, - But for myself I had been vanquished quite. - But Malebolge[634] to the cavity - Of the deep central pit is planned to fall; - Hence every Bolgia in its turn must be - High on the out, low on the inner wall; 40 - So to the summit we attained at last, - Whence breaks away the topmost stone[635] of all. - My lungs were so with breathlessness harassed, - The summit won, I could no further go; - And, hardly there, me on the ground I cast - 'Well it befits that thou shouldst from thee throw - All sloth,' the Master said; 'for stretched in down - Or under awnings none can glory know. - And he who spends his life nor wins renown - Leaves in the world no more enduring trace 50 - Than smoke in air, or foam on water blown. - Therefore arise; o'ercome thy breathlessness - By force of will, victor in every fight - When not subservient to the body base. - Of stairs thou yet must climb a loftier flight:[636] - 'Tis not enough to have ascended these. - Up then and profit if thou hear'st aright.' - Rising I feigned to breathe with greater ease - Than what I felt, and spake: 'Now forward plod, - For with my courage now my strength agrees.' 60 - Up o'er the rocky rib we held our road; - And rough it was and difficult and strait, - And steeper far[637] than that we earlier trod. - Speaking I went, to hide my wearied state, - When from the neighbouring moat a voice we heard - Which seemed ill fitted to articulate. - Of what it said I knew not any word, - Though on the arch[638] that vaults the moat set high; - But he who spake appeared by anger stirred. - Though I bent downward yet my eager eye, 70 - So dim the depth, explored it all in vain; - I then: 'O Master, to that bank draw nigh, - And let us by the wall descent obtain, - Because I hear and do not understand, - And looking down distinguish nothing plain.' - 'My sole reply to thee,' he answered bland, - 'Is to perform; for it behoves,' he said, - 'With silent act to answer just demand.' - Then we descended from the bridge's head,[639] - Where with the eighth bank is its junction wrought; 80 - And full beneath me was the Bolgia spread. - And I perceived that hideously 'twas fraught - With serpents; and such monstrous forms they bore, - Even now my blood is curdled at the thought. - Henceforth let sandy Libya boast no more! - Though she breed hydra, snake that crawls or flies, - Twy-headed, or fine-speckled, no such store - Of plagues, nor near so cruel, she supplies, - Though joined to all the land of Ethiop, - And that which by the Red Sea waters lies. 90 - 'Midst this fell throng and dismal, without hope - A naked people ran, aghast with fear-- - No covert for them and no heliotrope.[640] - Their hands[641] were bound by serpents at their rear, - Which in their reins for head and tail did get - A holding-place: in front they knotted were. - And lo! to one who on our side was set - A serpent darted forward, him to bite - At where the neck is by the shoulders met. - Nor _O_ nor _I_ did any ever write 100 - More quickly than he kindled, burst in flame, - And crumbled all to ashes. And when quite - He on the earth a wasted heap became, - The ashes[642] of themselves together rolled, - Resuming suddenly their former frame. - Thus, as by mighty sages we are told, - The Phoenix[643] dies, and then is born again, - When it is close upon five centuries old. - In all its life it eats not herb nor grain, - But only tears that from frankincense flow; 110 - It, for a shroud, sweet nard and myrrh contain. - And as the man who falls and knows not how, - By force of demons stretched upon the ground, - Or by obstruction that makes life run low, - When risen up straight gazes all around - In deep confusion through the anguish keen - He suffered from, and stares with sighs profound: - So was the sinner, when arisen, seen. - Justice of God, how are thy terrors piled, - Showering in vengeance blows thus big with teen! 120 - My Guide then asked of him how he was styled. - Whereon he said: 'From Tuscany I rained, - Not long ago, into this gullet wild. - From bestial life, not human, joy I gained, - Mule that I was; me, Vanni Fucci,[644] brute, - Pistoia, fitting den, in life contained.' - I to my Guide: 'Bid him not budge a foot, - And ask[645] what crime has plunged him here below. - In rage and blood I knew him dissolute.' - The sinner heard, nor insincere did show, 130 - But towards me turned his face and eke his mind, - With spiteful shame his features all aglow; - Then said: 'It pains me more thou shouldst me find - And catch me steeped in all this misery, - Than when the other life I left behind. - What thou demandest I can not deny: - I'm plunged[646] thus low because the thief I played - Within the fairly furnished sacristy; - And falsely to another's charge 'twas laid. - Lest thou shouldst joy[647] such sight has met thy view - If e'er these dreary regions thou evade, 141 - Give ear and hearken to my utterance true: - The Neri first out of Pistoia fail, - Her laws and parties Florence shapes anew; - Mars draws a vapour out of Magra's vale, - Which black and threatening clouds accompany: - Then bursting in a tempest terrible - Upon Piceno shall the war run high; - The mist by it shall suddenly be rent, - And every Bianco[648] smitten be thereby: 150 - And I have told thee that thou mayst lament.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[630] _Aquarius_: The sun is in the constellation of Aquarius from the -end of January till the end of February; and already, say in the middle -of February, the day is nearly as long as the night. - -[631] _Where I ailed, etc._: As the peasant is in despair at seeing the -earth white with what he thinks is snow, so was Dante at the signs of -trouble on Virgil's face. He has mistaken anger at the cheat for -perplexity as to how they are to escape from the Bolgia; and his -Master's smile is grateful and reassuring to him as the spectacle of the -green earth to the despairing shepherd. - -[632] _The broken bridge_: They are about to escape from the bottom of -the Sixth Bolgia by climbing the wall between it and the Seventh, at the -point where the confused fragments of the bridge Friar Catalano told -them of (_Inf._ xxiii. 133) lie piled up against the wall, and yield -something of a practicable way. - -[633] _The heavy cowled_: He finds his illustration on the spot, his -mind being still full of the grievously burdened hypocrites. - -[634] _But Malebolge, etc._: Each Bolgia in turn lies at a lower level -than the one before it, and consequently the inner side of each dividing -ridge or wall is higher than the outer; or, to put it otherwise, in each -Bolgia the wall they come to last--that nearest the centre of the -Inferno, is lower than that they first reach--the one enclosing the -Bolgia. - -[635] _The topmost stone_: The stone that had formed the beginning of -the arch at this end of it. - -[636] _A loftier flight_: When he ascends the Mount of Purgatory. - -[637] _Steeper far, etc._: Rougher and steeper than the rib of rock they -followed till they had crossed the Fifth Bolgia. They are now travelling -along a different spoke of the wheel. - -[638] _The arch, etc._: He has gone on hiding his weariness till he is -on the top of the arch that overhangs the Seventh Bolgia--that in which -thieves are punished. - -[639] _Front the bridge's head_: Further on they climb up again (_Inf._ -xxvi. 13) by the projecting stones which now supply them with the means -of descent. It is a disputed point how far they do descend. Clearly it -is further than merely from the bridge to the lower level of the wall -dividing the Seventh from the Eighth Bolgia; but not so far as to the -ground of the moat. Most likely the stones jut forth at the angle formed -by the junction of the bridge and the rocky wall. On one of the lowest -of these they find a standing-place whence they can see clearly what is -in the Bolgia. - -[640] _Heliotrope_: A stone supposed to make the bearer of it invisible. - -[641] _Their hands, etc._: The sinners in this Bolgia are the thieves, -not the violent robbers and highwaymen but those crime involves a -betrayal of trust. After all their cunning thefts they are naked now; -and, though here is nothing to steal, hands are firmly bound behind -them. - -[642] _The ashes, etc._: The sufferings of the thieves, if looked -closely into, will be found appropriate to their sins. They would fain -but cannot steal themselves away, and in addition to the constant terror -of being found out they are subject to pains the essence of which -consists in the deprivation--the theft from them--of their unsubstantial -bodies, which are all that they now have to lose. In the case of this -victim the deprivation is only temporary. - -[643] _The Phoenix_: Dante here borrows very directly from Ovid -(_Metam._ xv.). - -[644] _Vanni Fucci_: Natural son of a Pistoiese noble and a poet of some -merit, who bore a leading part in the ruthless feuds of Blacks and -Whites which distracted Pistoia towards the close of the thirteenth -century. - -[645] _And ask, etc._: Dante wishes to find out why Fucci is placed -among the thieves, and not in the circle of the violent. The question is -framed so as to compel confession of a crime for which the sinner had -not been condemned in life; and he flushes with rage at being found -among the cowardly thieves. - -[646] _I'm plunged, etc._: Fucci was concerned in the theft of treasure -from the Cathedral Church of St. James at Pistoia. Accounts vary as to -the circumstances under which the crime was committed, and as to who -suffered for it. Neither is it certainly known when Fucci died, though -his recent arrival in the Bolgia agrees with the view that he was still -active on the side of the Blacks in the last year of the century. In the -fierceness of his retort to Dante we have evidence of their old -acquaintance and old enmity. - -[647] _Lest thou shouldst joy_: Vanni, a _Nero_ or Black, takes his -revenge for being found here by Dante, who was, as he knew, associated -with the _Bianchi_ or Whites, by prophesying an event full of disaster -to these. - -[648] _Every Bianco, etc._: The Blacks, according to Villani (viii. 45), -were driven from Pistoia in May 1301. They took refuge in Florence, -where their party, in the following November under the protection of -Charles of Valois, finally gained the upper hand, and began to persecute -and expel the Whites, among whom was Dante. Mars, the god of war, or, -more probably, the planet of war, draws a vapour from the valley of the -Magra, a small stream which flows into the Mediterranean on the northern -confine of Tuscany. This vapour is said to signify Moroello Malaspina, a -noble of that district and an active leader of the Blacks, who here -figure as murky clouds. The Campo Piceno is the country west of Pistoia. -There Moroello bursts on his foes like a lightning-flash out of its -cloud. This seems to refer to a pitched battle that should have happened -soon after the Blacks recovered their strength; but the chroniclers tell -of none such, though some of the commentators do. The fortress of -Seravalle was taken from the Pistoiese, it is true, in 1302, and -Moroello is said to have been the leader of the force which starved it -into submission. He was certainly present at the great siege of Pistoia -in 1305, when the citizens suffered the last rigours of famine.--This -prophecy by Fucci recalls those by Farinata and Ciacco. - - - - -CANTO XXV. - - - The robber,[649] when his words were ended so, - Made both the figs and lifted either fist, - Shouting: 'There, God! for them at thee I throw.' - Then were the snakes my friends; for one 'gan twist - And coiled itself around the sinner's throat, - As if to say: 'Now would I have thee whist.' - Another seized his arms and made a knot, - Clinching itself upon them in such wise - He had no power to move them by a jot. - Pistoia![650] thou, Pistoia, shouldst devise 10 - To burn thyself to ashes, since thou hast - Outrun thy founders in iniquities. - The blackest depths of Hell through which I passed - Showed me no soul 'gainst God so filled with spite, - No, not even he who down Thebes' wall[651] was cast. - He spake no further word, but turned to flight; - And I beheld a Centaur raging sore - Come shouting: 'Of the ribald give me sight!' - I scarce believe Maremma[652] yieldeth more - Snakes of all kinds than what composed the load 20 - Which on his back, far as our form, he bore. - Behind his nape, with pinions spread abroad, - A dragon couchant on his shoulders lay - To set on fire whoever bars his road. - 'This one is Cacus,'[653] did my Master say, - 'Who underneath the rock of Aventine - Watered a pool with blood day after day. - Not with his brethren[654] runs he in the line, - Because of yore the treacherous theft he wrought - Upon the neighbouring wealthy herd of kine: 30 - Whence to his crooked course an end was brought - 'Neath Hercules' club, which on him might shower down - A hundred blows; ere ten he suffered nought.' - While this he said, the other had passed on; - And under us three spirits forward pressed - Of whom my Guide and I had nothing known - But that: 'Who are ye?' they made loud request. - Whereon our tale[655] no further could proceed; - And toward them wholly we our wits addressed. - I recognised them not, but gave good heed; 40 - Till, as it often haps in such a case, - To name another, one discovered need, - Saying: 'Now where stopped Cianfa[656] in the race?' - Then, that my Guide might halt and hearken well, - On chin[657] and nose I did my finger place. - If, Reader, to believe what now I tell - Thou shouldst be slow, I wonder not, for I - Who saw it all scarce find it credible. - While I on them my brows kept lifted high - A serpent, which had six feet, suddenly flew 50 - At one of them and held him bodily. - Its middle feet about his paunch it drew, - And with the two in front his arms clutched fast, - And bit one cheek and the other through and through. - Its hinder feet upon his thighs it cast, - Thrusting its tail between them till behind, - Distended o'er his reins, it upward passed. - The ivy to a tree could never bind - Itself so firmly as this dreadful beast - Its members with the other's intertwined. 60 - Each lost the colour that it once possessed, - And closely they, like heated wax, unite, - The former hue of neither manifest: - Even so up o'er papyrus,[658] when alight, - Before the flame there spreads a colour dun, - Not black as yet, though from it dies the white. - The other two meanwhile were looking on, - Crying: 'Agnello, how art thou made new! - Thou art not twain, and yet no longer one.' - A single head was moulded out of two; 70 - And on our sight a single face arose, - Which out of both lost countenances grew. - Four separate limbs did but two arms compose; - Belly with chest, and legs with thighs did grow - To members such as nought created shows. - Their former fashion was all perished now: - The perverse shape did both, yet neither seem; - And, thus transformed, departed moving slow. - And as the lizard, which at fierce extreme - Of dog-day heat another hedge would gain, 80 - Flits 'cross the path swift as the lightning's gleam; - Right for the bellies of the other twain - A little snake[659] quivering with anger sped, - Livid and black as is a pepper grain, - And on the part by which we first are fed - Pierced one of them; and then upon the ground - It fell before him, and remained outspread. - The wounded gazed on it, but made no sound. - Rooted he stood[660] and yawning, scarce awake, - As seized by fever or by sleep profound. 90 - It closely watched him and he watched the snake, - While from its mouth and from his wound 'gan swell - Volumes of smoke which joined one cloud to make. - Be Lucan henceforth dumb, nor longer tell - Of plagued Sabellus and Nassidius,[661] - But, hearkening to what follows, mark it well. - Silent be Ovid: of him telling us - How Cadmus[662] to a snake, and to a fount - Changed Arethuse,[663] I am not envious; - For never of two natures front to front 100 - In metamorphosis, while mutually - The forms[664] their matter changed, he gives account. - 'Twas thus that each to the other made reply: - Its tail into a fork the serpent split; - Bracing his feet the other pulled them nigh: - And then in one so thoroughly were knit - His legs and thighs, no searching could divine - At where the junction had been wrought in it. - The shape, of which the one lost every sign, - The cloven tail was taking; then the skin 110 - Of one grew rough, the other's soft and fine. - I by the armpits saw the arms drawn in; - And now the monster's feet, which had been small, - What the other's lost in length appeared to win. - Together twisted, its hind feet did fall - And grew the member men are used to hide: - For his the wretch gained feet with which to crawl. - Dyed in the smoke they took on either side - A novel colour: hair unwonted grew - On one; the hair upon the other died. 120 - The one fell prone, erect the other drew, - With cruel eyes continuing to glare, - 'Neath which their muzzles metamorphose knew. - The erect to his brows drew his. Of stuff to spare - Of what he upward pulled, there was no lack; - So ears were formed on cheeks that erst were bare. - Of that which clung in front nor was drawn back, - Superfluous, on the face was formed a nose, - And lips absorbed the skin that still was slack. - His muzzle who lay prone now forward goes; 130 - Backward into his head his ears he draws - Even as a snail appears its horns to lose. - The tongue, which had been whole and ready was - For speech, cleaves now; the forked tongue of the snake - Joins in the other: and the smoke has pause.[665] - The soul which thus a brutish form did take, - Along the valley, hissing, swiftly fled; - The other close behind it spluttering spake, - Then, toward it turning his new shoulders, said - Unto the third: 'Now Buoso down the way 140 - May hasten crawling, as I earlier sped.' - Ballast which in the Seventh Bolgia lay - Thus saw I shift and change. Be my excuse - The novel theme,[666] if swerves my pen astray. - And though these things mine eyesight might confuse - A little, and my mind with fear divide, - Such secrecy they fleeing could not use - But that Puccio Sciancatto plain I spied; - And he alone of the companions three - Who came at first, was left unmodified. 150 - For the other, tears, Gaville,[667] are shed by thee. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[649] _The robber, etc._: By means of his prophecy Fucci has, after a -fashion, taken revenge on Dante for being found by him among the -cheating thieves instead of among the nobler sinners guilty of blood and -violence. But in the rage of his wounded pride he must insult even -Heaven, and this he does by using the most contemptuous gesture in an -Italian's repertory. The fig is made by thrusting the thumb between the -next two fingers. In the English 'A fig for him!' we have a reference to -the gesture. - -[650] _Pistoia_: The Pistoiese bore the reputation of being hard and -pitiless. The tradition was that their city had been founded by such of -Catiline's followers as survived his defeat on the Campo Piceno. 'It is -no wonder,' says Villani (i. 32) 'that, being the descendants as they -are of Catiline and his followers, the Pistoiese have always been -ruthless and cruel to strangers and to one another.' - -[651] _Who down Thebes' wall_: Capaneus (_Inf._ xiv. 63). - -[652] _Maremma_: See note, _Inf._ xiii. 8. - -[653] _Cacus_: Dante makes him a Centaur, but Virgil (_AEn._ viii.) only -describes him as half human. The pool was fed with the blood of his -human victims. The herd was the spoil Hercules took from Geryon. In the -_AEneid_ Cacus defends himself from Hercules by vomiting a fiery smoke; -and this doubtless suggested the dragon of the text. - -[654] _His brethren_: The Centaurs who guard the river of blood (_Inf._ -xii. 56). In Fucci, as a sinner guilty of blood and violence above most -of the thieves, the Centaur Cacus takes a special malign interest. - -[655] _Our tale_: Of Cacus. It is interrupted by the arrival of three -sinners whom Dante does not at first recognise as he gazes down on them, -but only when they begin to speak among themselves. They are three noble -citizens of Florence: Agnello Brunelleschi, Buoso degli Abati, and -Puccio Sciancatto de' Galigai--all said to have pilfered in private -life, or to have abused their tenure of high office by plundering the -Commonwealth. What is certainly known of them is that they were -Florentine thieves of quality. - -[656] _Cianfa_: Another Florentine gentleman, one of the Donati. Since -his companions lost sight of him he has been transformed into a -six-footed serpent. Immediately appearing, he darts upon Agnello. - -[657] _On chin, etc._: A gesture by which silence is requested. The -mention of Cianfa shows Dante that he is among Florentines. - -[658] _Papyrus_: The original is _papiro_, the word used in Dante's time -for a wick made out of a reed like the papyrus; _paper_ being still the -name for a wick in some dialects.--(Scartazzini.) It cannot be shown -that _papiro_ was ever employed for paper in Italian. This, however, -does not prove that Dante may not so use it in this instance, adopting -it from the Latin _papyrus_. Besides, he says that the brown colour -travels up over the _papiro_; while it goes downward on a burning wick. -Nor would the simile, if drawn from a slowly burning lamp-wick, agree -with the speed of the change described in the text. - -[659] _A little snake_: As transpires from the last line of the Canto, -this is Francesco, of the Florentine family of the Cavalcanti, to which -Dante's friend Guido belonged. He wounds Buoso in the navel, and then, -instead of growing into one new monster as was the case with Cianfa and -Agnello, they exchange shapes, and when the transformation is complete -Buoso is the serpent and Francesco is the human shade. - -[660] _Rooted he stood, etc._: The description agrees with the symptoms -of snake-bite, one of which is extreme drowsiness. - -[661] _Sabellus and Nassidius_: Were soldiers of Cato's army whose death -by snake-bite in the Libyan desert is described by Lucan, _Pharsal._ ix. -Sabbellus was burned up by the poison, bones and all; Nassidius swelled -up and burst. - -[662] _Cadmus_: _Metam._ iv. - -[663] _Arethusa_: _Metam._ v. - -[664] _The forms, etc._: The word _form_ is here to be taken in its -scholastic sense of _virtus formativa_, the inherited power of modifying -matter into an organised body. 'This, united to the divinely implanted -spark of reason,' says Philalethes, 'constitutes, on Dante's system, a -human soul. Even after death this power continues to be an essential -constituent of the soul, and constructs out of the elements what seems -to be a body. Here the sinners exchange the matter they have thus made -their own, each retaining, however, his proper plastic energy as part of -his soul.' Dante in his _Convito_ (iii. 2) says that 'the human soul is -the noblest form of all that are made under the heavens, receiving more -of the Divine nature than any other.' - -[665] _The smoke has pause_: The sinners have robbed one another of all -they can lose. In the punishment is mirrored the sin that plunged them -here. - -[666] _The novel theme_: He has lingered longer than usual on this -Bolgia, and pleads wonder of what he saw in excuse either of his -prolixity or of some of the details of his description. The expression -is perhaps one of feigned humility, to balance his recent boast of -excelling Ovid and Lucan in inventive power. - -[667] _Gaville_: The other, and the only one of those five Florentine -thieves not yet named in the text, is he who came at first in the form -of a little black snake, and who has now assumed the shape of Buoso. In -reality he is Francesco Cavalcanti, who was slain by the people of -Gaville in the upper Valdarno. Many of them were in their turn -slaughtered in revenge by the Cavalcanti and their associates. It should -be remarked that some of these five Florentines were of one party, some -of the other. It is also noteworthy that Dante recruits his thieves as -he did his usurers from the great Florentine families.--As the 'shifting -and changing' of this rubbish is apt to be found confusing, the -following may be useful to some readers:--There first came on the scene -Agnello, Buoso, and Puccio. Cianfa, in the shape of a six-footed -serpent, comes and throws himself on Agnello, and then, grown -incorporate in a new strange monster, two in one, they disappear. Buoso -is next wounded by Francesco, and they exchange members and bodies. Only -Puccio remains unchanged. - - - - -CANTO XXVI. - - - Rejoice, O Florence, in thy widening fame! - Thy wings thou beatest over land and sea, - And even through Inferno spreads thy name. - Burghers of thine, five such were found by me - Among the thieves; whence I ashamed[668] grew, - Nor shall great glory thence redound to thee. - But if 'tis toward the morning[669] dreams are true, - Thou shalt experience ere long time be gone - The doom even Prato[670] prays for as thy due. - And came it now, it would not come too soon. 10 - Would it were come as come it must with time: - 'Twill crush me more the older I am grown. - Departing thence, my Guide began to climb - The jutting rocks by which we made descent - Some while ago,[671] and pulled me after him. - And as upon our lonely way we went - 'Mong splinters[672] of the cliff, the feet in vain, - Without the hand to help, had labour spent. - I sorrowed, and am sorrow-smit again, - Recalling what before mine eyes there lay, 20 - And, more than I am wont, my genius rein - From running save where virtue leads the way; - So that if happy star[673] or holier might - Have gifted me I never mourn it may. - At time of year when he who gives earth light - His face shows to us longest visible, - When gnats replace the fly at fall of night, - Not by the peasant resting on the hill - Are seen more fire-flies in the vale below, - Where he perchance doth field and vineyard[674] till, 30 - Than flamelets I beheld resplendent glow - Throughout the whole Eighth Bolgia, when at last - I stood whence I the bottom plain could know. - And as he whom the bears avenged, when passed - From the earth Elijah, saw the chariot rise - With horses heavenward reared and mounting fast, - And no long time had traced it with his eyes - Till but a flash of light it all became, - Which like a rack of cloud swept to the skies: - Deep in the valley's gorge, in mode the same, 40 - These flitted; what it held by none was shown, - And yet a sinner[675] lurked in every flame. - To see them well I from the bridge peered down, - And if a jutting crag I had not caught - I must have fallen, though neither thrust nor thrown. - My Leader me beholding lost in thought: - 'In all the fires are spirits,' said to me; - 'His flame round each is for a garment wrought.' - 'O Master!' I replied, 'by hearing thee - I grow assured, but yet I knew before 50 - That thus indeed it was, and longed to be - Told who is in the flame which there doth soar, - Cloven, as if ascending from the pyre - Where with Eteocles[676] there burned of yore - His brother.' He: 'Ulysses in that fire - And Diomedes[677] burn; in punishment - Thus held together, as they held in ire. - And, wrapped within their flame, they now repent - The ambush of the horse, which oped the door - Through which the Romans' noble seed[678] forth went. 60 - For guile Deidamia[679] makes deplore - In death her lost Achilles, tears they shed, - And bear for the Palladium[680] vengeance sore.' - 'Master, I pray thee fervently,' I said, - 'If from those flames they still can utter speech-- - Give ear as if a thousand times I pled! - Refuse not here to linger, I beseech, - Until the cloven fire shall hither gain: - Thou seest how toward it eagerly I reach.' - And he: 'Thy prayers are worthy to obtain 70 - Exceeding praise; thou hast what thou dost seek: - But see that thou from speech thy tongue refrain. - I know what thou wouldst have; leave me to speak, - For they perchance would hear contemptuously - Shouldst thou address them, seeing they were Greek.'[681] - Soon as the flame toward us had come so nigh - That to my Leader time and place seemed met, - I heard him thus adjure it to reply: - 'O ye who twain within one fire are set, - If what I did your guerdon meriteth, 80 - If much or little ye are in my debt - For the great verse I built while I had breath, - By one of you be openly confessed - Where, lost to men, at last he met with death.' - Of the ancient flame the more conspicuous crest - Murmuring began to waver up and down - Like flame that flickers, by the wind distressed. - At length by it was measured motion shown, - Like tongue that moves in speech; and by the flame - Was language uttered thus: 'When I had gone 90 - From Circe[682] who a long year kept me tame - Beside her, ere the near Gaeta had - Received from AEneas that new name; - No softness for my son, nor reverence sad - For my old father, nor the love I owed - Penelope with which to make her glad, - Could quench the ardour that within me glowed - A full experience of the world to gain-- - Of human vice and worth. But I abroad - Launched out upon the high and open main[683] 100 - With but one bark and but the little band - Which ne'er deserted me.[684] As far as Spain - I saw the sea-shore upon either hand, - And as Morocco; saw Sardinia's isle, - And all of which those waters wash the strand. - I and my comrades were grown old the while - And sluggish, ere we to the narrows came - Where Hercules of old did landmarks pile - For sign to men they should no further aim; - And Seville lay behind me on the right, 110 - As on the left lay Ceuta. Then to them - I spake: "O Brothers, who through such a fight - Of hundred thousand dangers West have won, - In this short watch that ushers in the night - Of all your senses, ere your day be done, - Refuse not to obtain experience new - Of worlds unpeopled, yonder, past the sun. - Consider whence the seed of life ye drew; - Ye were not born to live like brutish herd, - But righteousness and wisdom to ensue." 120 - My comrades to such eagerness were stirred - By this short speech the course to enter on, - They had no longer brooked restraining word. - Turning our poop to where the morning shone - We of the oars made wings for our mad flight, - Still tending left the further we had gone. - And of the other pole I saw at night - Now all the stars; and 'neath the watery plain - Our own familiar heavens were lost to sight. - Five times afresh had kindled, and again 130 - The moon's face earthward was illumed no more, - Since out we sailed upon the mighty main;[685] - Then we beheld a lofty mountain[686] soar, - Dim in the distance; higher, as I thought, - By far than any I had seen before. - We joyed; but with despair were soon distraught - When burst a whirlwind from the new-found world - And the forequarter of the vessel caught. - With all the waters thrice it round was swirled; - At the fourth time the poop, heaved upward, rose, 140 - The prow, as pleased Another,[687] down was hurled; - And then above us did the ocean close.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[668] _Whence I ashamed, etc._: There is here a sudden change from irony -to earnest. 'Five members of great Florentine families, eternally -engaged among themselves in their shameful metamorphoses--nay, but it is -too sad!' - -[669] _Toward the morning, etc._: There was a widespread belief in the -greater truthfulness of dreams dreamed as the night wears away. See -_Purg._ ix. 13. The dream is Dante's foreboding of what is to happen to -Florence. Of its truth he has no doubt, and the only question is how -soon will it be answered by the fact. Soon, he says, if it is near to -the morning that we dream true dreams--morning being the season of -waking reality in which dreams are accomplished. - -[670] _Even Prato_: A small neighbouring city, much under the influence -of Florence, and somewhat oppressed by it. The commentators reckon up -the disasters that afflicted Florence in the first years of the -fourteenth century, between the date of Dante's journey and the time he -wrote--fires, falls of bridges, and civil strife. But such misfortunes -were too much in keeping with the usual course of Florentine history to -move Dante thus deeply in the retrospect; and as he speaks here in his -own person the 'soon' is more naturally counted from the time at which -he writes than from the date assigned by him to his pilgrimage. He is -looking forward to the period when his own return in triumph to Florence -was to be prepared by grievous national reverses; and, as a patriot, he -feels that he cannot be wholly reconciled by his private advantage to -the public misfortune. But it was all only a dream. - -[671] _Some while ago_: See note, _Inf._ xxiv. 79. - -[672] _'Mong splinters, etc._: They cross the wall or barrier between -the Seventh and Eighth Bolgias. From _Inf._ xxiv. 63 we have learned -that the rib of rock, on the line of which they are now proceeding, with -its arches which overhang the various Bolgias, is rougher and worse to -follow than that by which they began their passage towards the centre of -Malebolge. - -[673] _Happy star_: See note, _Inf._ xv. 55. Dante seems to have been -uncertain what credence to give to the claims of astrology. In a passage -of the _Purgatorio_ (xvi. 67) he tries to establish that whatever -influence the stars may possess over us we can never, except with our -own consent, be influenced by them to evil.--His sorrow here, as -elsewhere, is not wholly a feeling of pity for the suffering shades, but -is largely mingled with misgivings for himself. The punishment of those -to whose sins he feels no inclination he always beholds with equanimity. -Here, as he looks down upon the false counsellors and considers what -temptations there are to misapply intellectual gifts, he is smitten with -dread lest his lot should one day be cast in that dismal valley and he -find cause to regret that the talent of genius was ever committed to -him. The memory even of what he saw makes him recollect himself and -resolve to be wary. Then, as if to justify the claim to superior powers -thus clearly implied, there comes a passage which in the original is of -uncommon beauty. - -[674] _Field and vineyard_: These lines, redolent of the sweet Tuscan -midsummer gloaming, give us amid the horrors of Malebolge something like -the breath of fresh air the peasant lingers to enjoy. It may be noted -that in Italy the village is often found perched above the more fertile -land, on a site originally chosen with a view to security from attack. -So that here the peasant is at home from his labour. - -[675] _And yet a sinner, etc._: The false counsellors who for selfish -ends hid their true minds and misused their intellectual light to lead -others astray are for ever hidden each in his own wandering flame. - -[676] _Eteocles_: Son of Oedipus and twin brother of Polynices. The -brothers slew one another, and were placed on the same funeral pile, the -flame of which clove into two as if to image the discord that had -existed between them (_Theb._ xii.). - -[677] _And Diomedes_: The two are associated in deeds of blood and guile -at the siege of Troy. - -[678] _The Romans' noble seed_: The trick of the wooden horse led to the -capture of Troy, and that led AEneas to wander forth on the adventures -that ended in the settlement of the Trojans in Italy. - -[679] _Deidamia_: That Achilles might be kept from joining the Greek -expedition to Troy he was sent by his mother to the court of Lycomedes, -father of Deidamia. Ulysses lured him away from his hiding-place and -from Deidamia, whom he had made a mother. - -[680] _The Palladium_: The Trojan sacred image of Pallas, stolen by -Ulysses and Diomed (_AEn._ ii.). Ulysses is here upon his own ground. - -[681] _They were Greek_: Some find here an allusion to Dante's ignorance -of the Greek language and literature. But Virgil addresses them in the -Lombard dialect of Italian (_Inf._ xxvii. 21). He acts as spokesman -because those ancient Greeks were all so haughty that to a common modern -mortal they would have nothing to say. He, as the author of the _AEneid_, -has a special claim on their good-nature. It is but seldom that the -shades are told who Virgil is, and never directly. Here Ulysses may -infer it from the mention of the 'lofty verse.' - -[682] _From Circe_: It is Ulysses that speaks. - -[683] _The open main_: The Mediterranean as distinguished from the -AEgean. - -[684] _Which ne'er deserted me_: There seems no reason for supposing, -with Philalethes, that Ulysses is here represented as sailing on his -last voyage from the island of Circe and not from Ithaca. Ulysses, on -the contrary, represents himself as breaking away afresh from all the -ties of home. According to Homer, Ulysses had lost all his companions -ere he returned to Ithaca; and in the _Odyssey_ Tiresias prophesies to -him that his last wanderings are to be inland. But any acquaintance that -Dante had with Homer can only have been vague and fragmentary. He may -have founded his narrative of how Ulysses ended his days upon some -floating legend; or, eager to fill up what he took to be a blank in the -world of imagination, he may have drawn wholly on his own creative -power. In any case it is his Ulysses who, through the version of him -given by a living poet, is most familiar to the English reader. - -[685] _The mighty main_: The Atlantic Ocean. They bear to the left as -they sail, till their course is due south, and crossing the Equator, -they find themselves under the strange skies of the southern hemisphere. -For months they have seen no land. - -[686] _A lofty mountain_: This is the Mountain of Purgatory, according -to Dante's geography antipodal to Jerusalem, and the only land in the -southern hemisphere. - -[687] _As pleased Another_: Ulysses is proudly resigned to the failure -of his enterprise, 'for he was Greek.' - - - - -CANTO XXVII. - - - Now, having first erect and silent grown - (For it would say no more), from us the flame, - The Poet sweet consenting,[688] had moved on; - And then our eyes were turned to one that came[689] - Behind it on the way, by sounds that burst - Out of its crest in a confused stream. - As the Sicilian bull,[690] which bellowed first - With his lamenting--and it was but right-- - Who had prepared it with his tools accurst,[691] - Roared with the howlings of the tortured wight, 10 - So that although constructed all of brass - Yet seemed it pierced with anguish to the height; - So, wanting road and vent by which to pass - Up through the flame, into the flame's own speech - The woeful language all converted was. - But when the words at length contrived to reach - The top, while hither thither shook the crest - As moved the tongue[692] at utterance of each, - We heard: 'Oh thou, to whom are now addressed - My words, who spakest now in Lombard phrase: 20 - "Depart;[693] of thee I nothing more request." - Though I be late arrived, yet of thy grace - Let it not irk thee here a while to stay: - It irks not me, yet, as thou seest, I blaze. - If lately to this world devoid of day - From that sweet Latian land thou art come down - Whence all my guilt I bring, declare and say - Has now Romagna peace? because my own - Native abode was in the mountain land - 'Tween springs[694] of Tiber and Urbino town.' 30 - While I intent and bending low did stand, - My Leader, as he touched me on the side, - 'Speak thou, for he is Latian,' gave command. - Whereon without delay I thus replied-- - Because already[695] was my speech prepared: - 'Soul, that down there dost in concealment 'bide, - In thy Romagna[696] wars have never spared - And spare not now in tyrants' hearts to rage; - But when I left it there was none declared. - No change has fallen Ravenna[697] for an age. 40 - There, covering Cervia too with outspread wing, - Polenta's Eagle guards his heritage. - Over the city[698] which long suffering - Endured, and Frenchmen slain on Frenchmen rolled, - The Green Paws[699] once again protection fling. - The Mastiffs of Verrucchio,[700] young and old, - Who to Montagna[701] brought such evil cheer, - Still clinch their fangs where they were wont to hold. - Cities,[702] Lamone and Santerno near, - The Lion couched in white are governed by 50 - Which changes party with the changing year. - And that to which the Savio[703] wanders nigh - As it is set 'twixt mountain and champaign - Lives now in freedom now 'neath tyranny. - But who thou art I to be told am fain: - Be not more stubborn than we others found, - As thou on earth illustrious wouldst remain.' - When first the fire a little while had moaned - After its manner, next the pointed crest - Waved to and fro; then in this sense breathed sound: - 'If I believed my answer were addressed 61 - To one that earthward shall his course retrace, - This flame should forthwith altogether rest. - But since[704] none ever yet out of this place - Returned alive, if all be true I hear, - I yield thee answer fearless of disgrace. - I was a warrior, then a Cordelier;[705] - Thinking thus girt to purge away my stain: - And sure my hope had met with answer clear - Had not the High Priest[706]--ill with him remain! 70 - Plunged me anew into my former sin: - And why and how, I would to thee make plain. - While I the frame of bones and flesh was in - My mother gave me, all the deeds I wrought - Were fox-like and in no wise leonine. - Of every wile and hidden way I caught - The secret trick, and used them with such sleight - That all the world with fame of it was fraught. - When I perceived I had attained quite - The time of life when it behoves each one 80 - To furl his sails and coil his cordage tight, - Sorrowing for deeds I had with pleasure done, - Contrite and shriven, I religious grew. - Ah, wretched me! and well it was begun - But for the Chieftain of the Pharisees new,[707] - Then waging war hard by the Lateran, - And not with Saracen nor yet with Jew; - For Christian[708] were his enemies every man, - And none had at the siege of Acre been - Or trafficked in the Empire of Soldan. 90 - His lofty office he held cheap, and e'en - His Sacred Orders and the cord I wore, - Which used[709] to make the wearers of it lean. - As from Soracte[710] Constantine of yore - Sylvester called to cure his leprosy, - I as a leech was called this man before - To cure him of his fever which ran high; - My counsel he required, but I stood dumb, - For drunken all his words appeared to be. - He said; "For fear be in thy heart no room; 100 - Beforehand I absolve thee, but declare - How Palestrina I may overcome. - Heaven I unlock, as thou art well aware, - And close at will; because the keys are twin - My predecessor[711] was averse to bear." - Then did his weighty reasoning on me win - Till to be silent seemed the worst of all; - And, "Father," I replied, "since from this sin - Thou dost absolve me into which I fall-- - The scant performance[712] of a promise wide 110 - Will yield thee triumph in thy lofty stall." - Francis came for me soon as e'er I died; - But one of the black Cherubim was there - And "Take him not, nor rob me of him" cried, - "For him of right among my thralls I bear - Because he offered counsel fraudulent; - Since when I've had him firmly by the hair. - None is absolved unless he first repent; - Nor can repentance house with purpose ill, - For this the contradiction doth prevent." 120 - Ah, wretched me! How did I shrinking thrill - When clutching me he sneered: "Perhaps of old - Thou didst not think[713] I had in logic skill." - He carried me to Minos:[714] Minos rolled - His tail eight times round his hard back; in ire - Biting it fiercely, ere of me he told: - "Among the sinners of the shrouding fire!" - Therefore am I, where thou beholdest, lost; - And, sore at heart, go clothed in such attire.' - What he would say thus ended by the ghost, 130 - Away from us the moaning flame did glide - While to and fro its pointed horn was tossed. - But we passed further on, I and my Guide, - Along the cliff to where the arch is set - O'er the next moat, where paying they reside, - As schismatics who whelmed themselves in debt. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[688] _Consenting_: See line 21. - -[689] _One that came_: This is the fire-enveloped shade of Guido of -Montefeltro, the colloquy with whom occupies the whole of the Canto. - -[690] _The Sicilian bull_: Perillus, an Athenian, presented Phalaris, -the tyrant of Agrigentum, with a brazen bull so constructed that when it -was heated from below the cries of the victim it contained were -converted into the bellowing of a bull. The first trial of the invention -was made upon the artist. - -[691] _Accurst_: Not in the original. 'Rime in English hath such -scarcity,' as Chaucer says. - -[692] _As moved the tongue, etc._: The shade being enclosed in the -hollow fire all his words are changed into a sound like the roaring of a -flame. At last, when an opening has been worked through the crested -point, the speech becomes articulate. - -[693] _Depart, etc._: One at least of the words quoted as having been -used by Virgil is Lombard. There is something very quaint in making him -use the Lombard dialect of Dante's time. - -[694] _'Tween springs, etc._: Montefeltro lies between Urbino and the -mountain where the Tiber has its source. - -[695] _Already_: Dante knew that Virgil would refer to him for an answer -to Guido's question, bearing as it did on modern Italian affairs. - -[696] _Romagna_: The district of Italy lying on the Adriatic, south of -the Po and east of Tuscany, of which Bologna and the cities named in the -text were the principal towns. During the last quarter of the thirteenth -century it was the scene of constant wars promoted in the interest of -the Church, which claimed Romagna as the gift of the Emperor Rudolf, and -in that of the great nobles of the district, who while using the Guelf -and Ghibeline war-cries aimed at nothing but the lordship of the various -cities. Foremost among these nobles was he with whose shade Dante -speaks. Villani calls him 'the most sagacious and accomplished warrior -of his time in Italy' (_Cronica_, vii. 80). He was possessed of lands of -his own near Forli and Cesena, and was lord in turn of many of the -Romagnese cities. On the whole he appears to have remained true to his -Ghibeline colours in spite of Papal fulminations, although once and -again he was reconciled to the Church; on the last occasion in 1294. In -the years immediately before this he had greatly distinguished himself -as a wise governor and able general in the service of the Ghibeline -Pisa--or rather as the paid lord of it. - -[697] _Ravenna_: Ravenna and the neighbouring town of Cervia were in -1300 under the lordship of members of the Polenta family--the father and -brothers of the ill-fated Francesca (_Inf._ v.). Their arms were an -eagle, half white on an azure and half red on a gold field. It was in -the court of the generous Guido, son of one of these brothers, that -Dante was to find his last refuge and to die. - -[698] _Over the city, etc._: Forli. The reference is to one of the most -brilliant feats of war performed by Guido of Montefeltro. Frenchmen -formed great part of an army sent in 1282 against Forli by the Pope, -Martin IV., himself a Frenchman. Guido, then lord of the city, led them -into a trap and overthrew them with great slaughter. Like most men of -his time Guido was a believer in astrology, and is said on this occasion -to have acted on the counsel of Guido Bonatti, mentioned among the -diviners in the Fourth Bolgia (_Inf._ xx. 118). - -[699] _The Green Paws_: In 1300 the Ordelaffi were lords of Forli. Their -arms were a green lion on a gold ground. During the first years of his -exile Dante had to do with Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi, under whose -command the exiled Florentines put themselves for a time, and there is -even a tradition that he acted as his secretary. - -[700] _The Mastiffs of Verrucchio_: Verrucchio was the castle of the -Malatestas, lords of Rimini, called the Mastiffs on account of their -cruel tenacity. The elder was the father of Francesca's husband and -lover; the younger was a brother of these. - -[701] _Montagna_: Montagna de' Parcitati, one of a Ghibeline family that -contested superiority in Rimini with the Guelf Malatestas, was taken -prisoner by guile and committed by the old Mastiff to the keeping of the -young one, whose fangs were set in him to such purpose that he soon died -in his dungeon. - -[702] _Cities, etc._: Imola and Faenza, situated on the rivers named in -the text. Mainardo Pagani, lord of these towns, had for arms an azure -lion on a white field. During his minority he was a ward of the -Commonwealth of Florence. By his cunning and daring he earned the name -of the Demon (_Purg._ xiv. 118). He died at Imola in 1302, and was -buried in the garb of a monk of Vallombrosa. Like most of his neighbours -he changed his party as often as his interest required. He was a Guelf -in Florence and a Ghibeline in Romagna, say some. - -[703] _Savio_: Cesena, on the Savio, was distinguished among the cities -of Romagna by being left more frequently than the others were to manage -its own affairs. The Malatestas and Montefeltros were in turn possessed -of the tyranny of it. - -[704] _But since, etc._: The shades, being enveloped in fire, are unable -to see those with whom they speak; and so Guido does not detect in Dante -the signs of a living man, but takes him to be like himself a denizen of -Inferno. He would not have the truth regarding his fate to be known in -the world, where he is supposed to have departed life in the odour of -sanctity. Dante's promise to refresh his fame he either regards as -meaningless, or as one made without the power of fulfilling it. Dante -leaves him in his error, for he is there to learn all he can, and not to -bandy personal confessions with the shades. - -[705] _A Cordelier_: In 1296 Guido entered the Franciscan Order. He died -in 1298, but where is not known; some authorities say at Venice and -others at Assisi. Benvenuto tells: 'He was often seen begging his bread -in Ancona, where he was buried. Many good deeds are related of him, and -I cherish a sweet hope that he may have been saved.' - -[706] _The High Priest_: Boniface VIII. - -[707] _The Pharisees new_: The members of the Court of Rome. Saint -Jerome calls the dignified Roman clergy of his day 'the Senate of the -Pharisees.' - -[708] _For Christian, etc._: The foes of Boniface, here spoken of, were -the Cardinals Peter and James Colonna. He destroyed their palace in Rome -(1297) and carried the war against them to their country seat at -Palestrina, the ancient Praeneste, then a great stronghold. Dante here -bitterly blames Boniface for instituting a crusade against Christians at -a time when, by the recent loss of Acre, the gate of the Holy Land had -been lost to Christendom. The Colonnas were innocent, too, of the crime -of supplying the Infidel with munitions of war--a crime condemned by the -Lateran Council of 1215, and by Boniface himself, who excluded those -guilty of it from the benefits of the great Jubilee of 1300. - -[709] _Which used, etc._: In former times, when the rule of the Order -was faithfully observed. Dante charges the Franciscans with degeneracy -in the _Paradiso_, xi. 124. - -[710] _From Soracte_: Referring to the well-known legend. The fee for -the cure was the fabulous Donation. See _Inf._ xix. 115. - -[711] _My predecessor_: Celestine v. See _Inf._ iii. 60. - -[712] _The scant performance, etc._: That Guido gave such counsel is -related by a contemporary chronicler: 'The Pope said: Tell me how to get -the better of those mine enemies, thou who art so knowing in these -things. Then he answered: Promise much, and perform little; which he -did.' But it seems odd that the wily and unscrupulous Boniface should -have needed to put himself to school for such a simple lesson. - -[713] _Thou didst not think, etc._: Guido had forgot that others could -reason besides the Pope. With regard to the inefficacy of the Papal -absolution an old commentator says, following Origen: 'The Popes that -walk in the footsteps of Peter have this power of binding and loosing; -but only such as do so walk.' But on Dante's scheme of what fixes the -fate of the soul absolution matters little to save, or priestly curses -to damnify. See _Purg._ iii. 133. It is unfeigned repentance that can -help a sinner even at the last; and it is remarkable that in the case of -Buonconte, the gallant son of this same Guido, the infernal angel who -comes for him as he expires complains that he has been cheated of his -victim by one poor tear. See _Purg._ v. 88, etc. Why then is no -indulgence shown in Dante's court to Guido, who might well have been -placed in Purgatory and made to have repented effectually of this his -last sin? That Dante had any personal grudge against him we can hardly -think. In the Fourth Book of the _Convito_ (written, according to -Fraticelli, in 1297), he calls him 'our most noble Guido Montefeltrano;' -and praises him as one of the wise and noble souls that refuse to run -with full sails into the port of death, but furl the sails of their -worldly undertakings, and, relinquishing all earthly pleasures and -business, give themselves up in their old age to a religious life. -Either, then, he sets Guido here in order that he may have a modern -false counsellor worthy to be ranked with Ulysses; or because, on longer -experience, he had come to reprobate more keenly the abuse of the -Franciscan habit; or, most likely of all, that he might, even at the -cost of Guido, load the hated memory of Boniface with another reproach. - -[714] _Minos_: Here we have Minos represented in the act of pronouncing -judgment in words as well as by the figurative rolling of his tail -around his body (_Inf._ v. 11). - - - - -CANTO XXVIII. - - - Could any, even in words unclogged by rhyme - Recount the wounds that now I saw,[715] and blood, - Although he aimed at it time after time? - Here every tongue must fail of what it would, - Because our human speech and powers of thought - To grasp so much come short in aptitude. - If all the people were together brought - Who in Apulia,[716] land distressed by fate, - Made lamentation for the bloodshed wrought - By Rome;[717] and in that war procrastinate[718] 10 - When the large booty of the rings was won, - As Livy writes whose every word has weight; - With those on whom such direful deeds were done - When Robert Guiscard[719] they as foes assailed; - And those of whom still turns up many a bone - At Ceperan,[720] where each Apulian failed - In faith; and those at Tagliacozzo[721] strewed, - Where old Alardo, not by arms, prevailed; - And each his wounds and mutilations showed, - Yet would they far behind by those be left 20 - Who had the vile Ninth Bolgia for abode. - No cask, of middle stave or end bereft, - E'er gaped like one I saw the rest among, - Slit from the chin all downward to the cleft. - Between his legs his entrails drooping hung; - The pluck and that foul bag were evident - Which changes what is swallowed into dung. - And while I gazed upon him all intent, - Opening his breast his eyes on me he set, - Saying: 'Behold, how by myself I'm rent! 30 - See how dismembered now is Mahomet![722] - Ali[723] in front of me goes weeping too; - With visage from the chin to forelock split. - By all the others whom thou seest there grew - Scandal and schism while yet they breathed the day; - Because of which they now are cloven through. - There stands behind a devil on the way, - Us with his sword thus cruelly to trim: - He cleaves again each of our company - As soon as we complete the circuit grim; 40 - Because the wounds of each are healed outright - Or e'er anew he goes in front of him. - But who art thou that peerest from the height, - It may be putting off to reach the pain - Which shall the crimes confessed by thee requite?' - 'Death has not seized him yet, nor is he ta'en - To torment for his sins,' my Master said; - 'But, that he may a full experience gain, - By me, a ghost, 'tis doomed he should be led - Down the Infernal circles, round on round; 50 - And what I tell thee is the truth indeed.' - A hundred shades and more, to whom the sound - Had reached, stood in the moat to mark me well, - Their pangs forgot; so did the words astound. - 'Let Fra Dolcin[724] provide, thou mayst him tell-- - Thou, who perchance ere long shalt sunward go-- - Unless he soon would join me in this Hell, - Much food, lest aided by the siege of snow - The Novarese should o'er him victory get, - Which otherwise to win they would be slow.' 60 - While this was said to me by Mahomet - One foot he held uplifted; to the ground - He let it fall, and so he forward set - Next, one whose throat was gaping with a wound, - Whose nose up to the brows away was sheared - And on whose head a single ear was found, - At me, with all the others, wondering peered; - And, ere the rest, an open windpipe made, - The outside of it all with crimson smeared. - 'O thou, not here because of guilt,' he said; 70 - 'And whom I sure on Latian ground did know - Unless by strong similitude betrayed, - Upon Pier da Medicin[725] bestow - A thought, shouldst thou revisit the sweet plain - That from Vercelli[726] slopes to Marcabo. - And make thou known to Fano's worthiest twain-- - To Messer Guido and to Angiolel-- - They, unless foresight here be wholly vain, - Thrown overboard in gyve and manacle - Shall drown fast by Cattolica, as planned 80 - By treachery of a tyrant fierce and fell. - Between Majolica[727] and Cyprus strand - A blacker crime did Neptune never spy - By pirates wrought, or even by Argives' hand. - The traitor[728] who is blinded of an eye, - Lord of the town which of my comrades one - Had been far happier ne'er to have come nigh, - To parley with him will allure them on, - Then so provide, against Focara's[729] blast - No need for them of vow or orison.' 90 - And I: 'Point out and tell, if wish thou hast - To get news of thee to the world conveyed, - Who rues that e'er his eyes thereon were cast?' - On a companion's jaw his hand he laid, - And shouted, while the mouth he open prised: - ''Tis this one here by whom no word is said. - He quenched all doubt in Caesar, and advised-- - Himself an outlaw--that a man equipped - For strife ran danger if he temporised.' - Alas, to look on, how downcast and hipped 100 - Curio,[730] once bold in counsel, now appeared; - With gorge whence by the roots the tongue was ripped. - Another one, whose hands away were sheared, - In the dim air his stumps uplifted high - So that his visage was with blood besmeared, - And, 'Mosca,[731] too, remember!' loud did cry, - 'Who said, ah me! "A thing once done is done!" - An evil seed for all in Tuscany.' - I added: 'Yea, and death to every one - Of thine!' whence he, woe piled on woe, his way 110 - Went like a man with grief demented grown. - But I to watch the gang made longer stay, - And something saw which I should have a fear, - Without more proof, so much as even to say, - But that my conscience bids me have good cheer-- - The comrade leal whose friendship fortifies - A man beneath the mail of purpose clear. - I saw in sooth (still seems it 'fore mine eyes), - A headless trunk; with that sad company - It forward moved, and on the selfsame wise. 120 - The severed head, clutched by the hair, swung free - Down from the fist, yea, lantern-like hung down; - Staring at us it murmured: 'Wretched me!' - A lamp he made of head-piece once his own; - And he was two in one and one in two; - But how, to Him who thus ordains is known. - Arrived beneath the bridge and full in view, - With outstretched arm his head he lifted high - To bring his words well to us. These I knew: - 'Consider well my grievous penalty, 130 - Thou who, though still alive, art visiting - The people dead; what pain with this can vie? - In order that to earth thou news mayst bring - Of me, that I'm Bertrand de Born[732] know well, - Who gave bad counsel to the Younger King. - I son and sire made each 'gainst each rebel: - David and Absalom were fooled not more - By counsels of the false Ahithophel. - Kinsmen so close since I asunder tore, - Severed, alas! I carry now my brain 140 - From what[733] it grew from in this trunk of yore: - And so I prove the law of pain for pain.'[734] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[715] _That now I saw_: In the Ninth Bolgia, on which he is looking -down, and in which are punished the sowers of discord in church and -state. - -[716] _Apulia_: The south-eastern district of Italy, owing to its -situation a frequent battle-field in ancient and modern times. - -[717] _Rome_: 'Trojans' in most MSS.; and then the Romans are described -as descended from Trojans. The reference may be to the defeat of the -Apulians with considerable slaughter by P. Decius Mus, or to their -losses in general in the course of the Samnite war. - -[718] _War procrastinate_: The second Punic war lasted fully fifteen -years, and in the course of it the battle of Cannae was gained by -Hannibal, where so many Roman knights fell that the spoil of rings -amounted to a peck. - -[719] _Guiscard_: One of the Norman conquerors of the regions which up -to our own time constituted the kingdom of Naples. In Apulia he did much -fighting against Lombards, Saracens, and Greeks. He is found by Dante in -Paradise among those who fought for the faith (_Par._ xviii. 48). His -death happened in Cephalonia in 1085, at the age of seventy, when he was -engaged on an expedition against Constantinople. - -[720] _Ceperan_: In the swift and decisive campaign undertaken by -Charles of Anjou against Manfred, King of Sicily and Naples, the first -victory was obtained at Ceperano; but it was won owing to the treachery -of Manfred's lieutenant, and not by the sword. The true battle was -fought at Benevento (_Purg._ iii. 128). Ceperano may be named by Dante -as the field where the defeat of Manfred was virtually begun, and where -the Apulians first failed in loyalty to their gallant king. Dante was a -year old at the time of Manfred's overthrow (1266). - -[721] _Tagliacozzo_: The crown Charles had won from Manfred he had to -defend against Manfred's nephew Conradin (grandson and last -representative of Frederick II. and the legitimate heir to the kingdom -of Sicily), whom, in 1268, he defeated near Tagliacozzo in the Abruzzi. -He made his victory the more complete by acting on the advice of Alardo -or Erard de Valery, an old Crusader, to hold good part of his force in -reserve. Charles wrote to the Pope that the slaughter was so great as -far to exceed that at Benevento. The feet of all the low-born prisoners -not slain on the field were cut off, while the gentlemen were beheaded -or hanged. - -[722] _Mahomet_: It has been objected to Dante by M. Littre that he -treats Mahomet, the founder of a new religion, as a mere schismatic. The -wonder would have been had he dwelt on the good qualities of the Prophet -at a time when Islam still threatened Europe. He goes on the fact that -Mahomet and his followers rent great part of the East and South from -Christendom; and for this the Prophet is represented as being mutilated -in a sorer degree than the other schismatics. - -[723] _Ali_: Son-in-law of Mahomet. - -[724] _Fra Dolcin_: At the close of the thirteenth century, Boniface -being Pope, the general discontent with the corruption of the higher -clergy found expression in the north of Italy in the foundation of a new -sect, whose leader was Fra Dolcino. What he chiefly was--enthusiast, -reformer, or impostor--it is impossible to ascertain; all we know of him -being derived from writers in the Papal interest. Among other crimes he -was charged with that of teaching the lawfulness of telling an -Inquisitor a lie to save your life, and with prophesying the advent of a -pious Pope. A holy war on a small scale was preached against him. After -suffering the extremities of famine, snowed up as he was among the -mountains, he was taken prisoner and cruelly put to death (1307). It may -have been in order to save himself from being suspected of sympathy with -him, that Dante, whose hatred of Boniface and the New Pharisees was -equal to Dolcino's, provides for him by anticipation a place with -Mahomet. - -[725] _Pier da Medicin_: Medicina is in the territory of Bologna. Piero -is said to have stirred up dissensions between the Polentas of Ravenna -and the Malatestas of Rimini. - -[726] _From Vercelli, etc._: From the district of Vercelli to where the -castle of Marcabo once stood, at the mouth of the Po, is a distance of -two hundred miles. The plain is Lombardy. - -[727] _Majolica, etc._: On all the Mediterranean, from Cyprus in the -east to Majorca in the west. - -[728] _The traitor, etc._: The one-eyed traitor is Malatesta, lord of -Rimini, the Young Mastiff of the preceding Canto. He invited the two -chief citizens of Fano, named in the text, to hold a conference with -him, and procured that on their way they should be pitched overboard -opposite the castle of Cattolica, which stood between Fano and Rimini. -This is said to have happened in 1304. - -[729] _Focara_: The name of a promontory near Cattolica, subject to -squalls. The victims were never to double the headland. - -[730] _Curio_: The Roman Tribune who, according to Lucan--the incident -is not historically correct--found Caesar hesitating whether to cross the -Rubicon, and advised him: _Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis_. -'No delay! when men are ready they always suffer by putting off.' The -passage of the Rubicon was counted as the beginning of the Civil -War.--Curio gets scant justice, seeing that in Dante's view Caesar in all -he did was only carrying out the Divine purpose regarding the Empire. - -[731] _Mosca_: In 1215 one of the Florentine family of the Buondelmonti -jilted a daughter of the Amidei. When these with their friends met to -take counsel touching revenge for the insult, Mosca, one of the Uberti -or of the Lamberti, gave his opinion in the proverb, _Cosa fatta ha -capo_: 'A thing once done is done with.' The hint was approved of, and -on the following Easter morning the young Buondelmonte, as, mounted on a -white steed and dressed in white he rode across the Ponte Vecchio, was -dragged to the ground and cruelly slain. All the great Florentine -families took sides in the feud, and it soon widened into the civil war -between Florentine Guelf and Ghibeline. - -[732] _Bertrand de Born_: Is mentioned by Dante in his Treatise _De -Vulgari Eloquio_, ii. 2, as specially the poet of warlike deeds. He was -a Gascon noble who used his poetical gift very much to stir up strife. -For patron he had the Prince Henry, son of Henry II. of England. Though -Henry never came to the throne he was, during his father's lifetime, -crowned as his successor, and was known as the young King. After the -death of the Prince, Bertrand was taken prisoner by the King, and, -according to the legend, was loaded with favours because he had been so -true a friend to his young master. That he had a turn for fomenting -discord is shown by his having also led a revolt in Aquitaine against -Richard I.--All the old MSS. and all the earlier commentators read _Re -Giovanni_, King John; _Re Giovane_, the young King, being a -comparatively modern emendation. In favour of adopting this it may be -mentioned that in his poems Bertrand calls Prince Henry _lo Reys joves_, -the young King; that it was Henry and not John that was his friend and -patron; and that in the old _Cento Novelle_ Henry is described as the -young King: in favour of the older reading, that John as well as his -brother was a rebel to Henry; and that the line is hurt by the change -from _Giovanni_ to _Giovane_. Considering that Dante almost certainly -wrote _Giovanni_ it seems most reasonable to suppose that he may have -confounded the _Re Giovane_ with King John. - -[733] _From what, etc._: The spinal cord, as we should now say, though -Dante may have meant the heart. - -[734] _Pain for pain_: In the City of Dis we found the heresiarchs, -those who lead others to think falsely. The lower depth of the Malebolge -is reserved for such as needlessly rend any Divinely-constituted order -of society, civil or religious. Conduct counts more with Dante than -opinion--in this case. - - - - -CANTO XXIX. - - - The many folk and wounds of divers kind - Had flushed mine eyes and set them on the flow, - Till I to weep and linger had a mind; - But Virgil said to me: 'Why gazing so? - Why still thy vision fastening on the crew - Of dismal shades dismembered there below? - Thou didst not[735] thus the other Bolgias view: - Think, if to count them be thine enterprise, - The valley circles twenty miles and two.[736] - Beneath our feet the moon[737] already lies; 10 - The time[738] wears fast away to us decreed; - And greater things than these await thine eyes.' - I answered swift: 'Hadst thou but given heed - To why it was my looks were downward bent, - To yet more stay thou mightest have agreed.' - My Guide meanwhile was moving, and I went - Behind him and continued to reply, - Adding: 'Within the moat on which intent - I now was gazing with such eager eye - I trow a spirit weeps, one of my kin, 20 - The crime whose guilt is rated there so high.' - Then said the Master: 'Henceforth hold thou in - Thy thoughts from wandering to him: new things claim - Attention now, so leave him with his sin. - Him saw I at thee from the bridge-foot aim - A threatening finger, while he made thee known; - Geri del Bello[739] heard I named his name. - But, at the time, thou wast with him alone - Engrossed who once held Hautefort,[740] nor the place - Didst look at where he was; so passed he on.' 30 - 'O Leader mine! death violent and base, - And not avenged as yet,' I made reply, - 'By any of his partners in disgrace, - Made him disdainful; therefore went he by - And spake not with me, if I judge aright; - Which does the more my ruth[741] intensify.' - So we conversed till from the cliff we might - Of the next valley have had prospect good - Down to the bottom, with but clearer light.[742] - When we above the inmost Cloister stood 40 - Of Malebolge, and discerned the crew - Of such as there compose the Brotherhood,[743] - So many lamentations pierced me through-- - And barbed with pity all the shafts were sped-- - My open palms across my ears I drew. - From Valdichiana's[744] every spital bed - All ailments to September from July, - With all in Maremma and Sardinia[745] bred, - Heaped in one pit a sickness might supply - Like what was here; and from it rose a stink 50 - Like that which comes from limbs that putrefy. - Then we descended by the utmost brink - Of the long ridge[746]--leftward once more we fell-- - Until my vision, quickened now, could sink - Deeper to where Justice infallible, - The minister of the Almighty Lord, - Chastises forgers doomed on earth[747] to Hell. - AEgina[748] could no sadder sight afford, - As I believe (when all the people ailed - And all the air was so with sickness stored, 60 - Down to the very worms creation failed - And died, whereon the pristine folk once more, - As by the poets is for certain held, - From seed of ants their family did restore), - Than what was offered by that valley black - With plague-struck spirits heaped upon the floor. - Supine some lay, each on the other's back - Or stomach; and some crawled with crouching gait - For change of place along the doleful track. - Speechless we moved with step deliberate, 70 - With eyes and ears on those disease crushed down - Nor left them power to lift their bodies straight. - I saw two sit, shoulder to shoulder thrown - As plate holds plate up to be warmed, from head - Down to the feet with scurf and scab o'ergrown. - Nor ever saw I curry-comb so plied - By varlet with his master standing by, - Or by one kept unwillingly from bed, - As I saw each of these his scratchers ply - Upon himself; for nought else now avails 80 - Against the itch which plagues them furiously. - The scab[749] they tore and loosened with their nails, - As with a knife men use the bream to strip, - Or any other fish with larger scales. - 'Thou, that thy mail dost with thy fingers rip,' - My Guide to one of them began to say, - 'And sometimes dost with them as pincers nip, - Tell, is there any here from Italy - Among you all, so may thy nails suffice - For this their work to all eternity.'[750] 90 - 'Latians are both of us in this disguise - Of wretchedness,' weeping said one of those; - 'But who art thou, demanding on this wise?' - My Guide made answer: 'I am one who goes - Down with this living man from steep to steep - That I to him Inferno may disclose.' - Then broke their mutual prop; trembling with deep - Amazement each turned to me, with the rest - To whom his words had echoed in the heap. - Me the good Master cordially addressed: 100 - 'Whate'er thou hast a mind to ask them, say.' - And since he wished it, thus I made request: - 'So may remembrance of you not decay - Within the upper world out of the mind - Of men, but flourish still for many a day, - As ye shall tell your names and what your kind: - Let not your vile, disgusting punishment - To full confession make you disinclined.' - 'An Aretine,[751] I to the stake was sent - By Albert of Siena,' one confessed, 110 - 'But came not here through that for which I went - To death. 'Tis true I told him all in jest, - I through the air could float in upward gyre; - And he, inquisitive and dull at best, - Did full instruction in the art require: - I could not make him Daedalus,[752] so then - His second father sent me to the fire. - But to the deepest Bolgia of the ten, - For alchemy which in the world I wrought, - The unerring Minos doomed me.' 'Now were men - E'er found,' I of the Poet asked, 'so fraught 121 - With vanity as are the Sienese?[753] - French vanity to theirs is surely nought.' - The other leper hearing me, to these - My words: 'Omit the Stricca,'[754] swift did shout, - 'Who knew his tastes with temperance to please; - And Nicholas,[755] who earliest found out - The lavish custom of the clove-stuffed roast - Within the garden where such seed doth sprout. - Nor count the club[756] where Caccia d' Ascian lost 130 - Vineyards and woods; 'mid whom away did throw - His wit the Abbagliato.[757] But whose ghost - It is, that thou mayst weet, that backs thee so - Against the Sienese, make sharp thine eyes - That thou my countenance mayst surely know. - In me Capocchio's[758] shade thou'lt recognise, - Who forged false coin by means of alchemy: - Thou must remember, if I well surmise, - How I of nature very ape could be.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[735] _Thou didst not, etc._: It is a noteworthy feature in the conduct -of the Poem that when Dante has once gained sufficient knowledge of any -group in the Inferno he at once detaches his mind from it, and, carrying -on as little arrear of pity as he can, gives his thoughts to further -progress on the journey. The departure here made from his usual -behaviour is presently accounted for. Virgil knows why he lingers, but -will not seem to approve of the cause. - -[736] _Twenty miles and two_: The Ninth Bolgia has a circumference of -twenty-two miles, and as the procession of the shades is slow it would -indeed involve a protracted halt to wait till all had passed beneath the -bridge. Virgil asks ironically if he wishes to count them all. This -precise detail, taken along with one of the same kind in the following -Canto (line 86), has suggested the attempt to construct the Inferno to a -scale. Dante wisely suffers us to forget, if we will, that--taking the -diameter of the earth at 6500 miles, as given by him in the -_Convito_--he travels from the surface of the globe to the centre at the -rate of more than two miles a minute, counting downward motion alone. It -is only when he has come to the lowest rings that he allows himself to -give details of size; and probably the mention of the extent of the -Ninth Bolgia, which comes on the reader as a surprise, is thrown out in -order to impress on the imagination some sense of the enormous extent of -the regions through which the pilgrim has already passed. Henceforth he -deals in exact measurement. - -[737] _The moon_: It is now some time after noon on the Saturday. The -last indication of time was at Canto xxi. 112. - -[738] _The time, etc._: Before nightfall they are to complete their -exploration of the Inferno, and they will have spent twenty-four hours -in it. - -[739] _Geri del Bello_: One of the Alighieri, a full cousin of Dante's -father. He was guilty of encouraging dissension, say the commentators; -which is to be clearly inferred from the place assigned him in Inferno: -but they do not agree as to how he met his death, nor do they mention -the date of it. 'Not avenged till thirty years after,' says Landino; but -does not say if this was after his death or the time at which Dante -writes. - -[740] _Hautefort_: Bertrand de Born's castle in Gascony. - -[741] _My ruth_: Enlightened moralist though Dante is, he yet shows -himself man of his age enough to be keenly alive to the extremest claims -of kindred; and while he condemns the _vendetta_ by the words put into -Virgil's mouth, he confesses to a feeling of meanness not to have -practised it on behoof of a distant relative. There is a high art in -this introduction of Geri del Bello. Had they conferred together Dante -must have seemed either cruel or pusillanimous, reproaching or being -reproached. As it is, all the poetry of the situation comes out the -stronger that they do not meet face to face: the threatening finger, the -questions hastily put to Geri by the astonished shades, and his -disappearance under the dark vault when by the law of his punishment the -sinner can no longer tarry. - -[742] _With but clearer light_: They have crossed the rampart dividing -the Ninth Bolgia from the Tenth, of which they would now command a view, -were it not so dark. - -[743] _The Brotherhood_: The word used properly describes the Lay -Brothers of a monastery. Philalethes suggests that Dante may regard the -devils as the true monks of the monastery of Malebolge. The simile -involves no contempt for the monastic life, but is naturally used with -reference to those who live secluded and under a fixed rule. He -elsewhere speaks of the College of the Hypocrites (_Inf._ xxiii. 91) and -of Paradise as the Cloister where Christ is Abbot (_Purg._ xxvi.129). - -[744] _Valdichiana_: The district lying between Arezzo and Chiusi; in -Dante's time a hotbed of malaria, but now, owing to drainage works -promoted by the enlightened Tuscan minister Fossombroni (1823), one of -the most fertile and healthy regions of Italy. - -[745] _Sardinia_: Had in the middle ages an evil reputation for its -fever-stricken air. The Maremma has been already mentioned (_Inf._ -xxv.19). In Dante's time it was almost unpeopled. - -[746] _The long ridge_: One of the ribs of rock which, like the spokes -of a wheel, ran from the periphery to the centre of Malebolge, rising -into arches as they crossed each successive Bolgia. The utmost brink is -the inner bank of the Tenth and last Bolgia. To the edge of this moat -they descend, bearing as usual to the left hand. - -[747] _Doomed on earth, etc._: 'Whom she here registers.' While they are -still on earth their doom is fixed by Divine justice. - -[748] _AEgina_: The description is taken from Ovid (_Metam._ vii.). - -[749] _The scab, etc._: As if by an infernal alchemy the matter of the -shadowy bodies of these sinners is changed into one loathsome form or -another. - -[750] _To all eternity_: This may seem a stroke of sarcasm, but is not. -Himself a shade, Virgil cannot, like Dante, promise to refresh the -memory of the shades on earth, and can only wish for them some slight -alleviation of their suffering. - -[751] _An Aretine_: Called Griffolino, and burned at Florence or Siena -on a charge of heresy. Albert of Siena is said to have been a relative, -some say the natural son, of the Bishop of Siena. A man of the name -figures as hero in some of Sacchetti's novels, always in a ridiculous -light. There seems to be no authentic testimony regarding the incident -in the text. - -[752] _Daedalus_: Who escaped on wings of his invention from the Cretan -Labyrinth he had made and lost himself in. - -[753] _The Sienese_: The comparison of these to the French would have -the more cogency as Siena boasted of having been founded by the Gauls. -'That vain people,' says Dante of the Sienese in the _Purgatory_ (xiii. -151). Among their neighbours they still bear the reputation of -light-headedness; also, it ought to be added, of great urbanity. - -[754] _The Stricca_: The exception in his favour is ironical, as is that -of all the others mentioned. - -[755] _Nicholas_: 'The lavish custom of the clove' which he invented is -variously described. I have chosen the version which makes it consist of -stuffing pheasants with cloves, then very costly. - -[756] _The club_: The commentators tell that the two young Sienese -nobles above mentioned were members of a society formed for the purpose -of living luxuriously together. Twelve of them contributed a fund of -above two hundred thousand gold florins; they built a great palace and -furnished it magnificently, and launched out into every other sort of -extravagance with such assiduity that in a few months their capital was -gone. As that amounted to more than a hundred thousand pounds of our -money, equal in those days to a million or two, the story must be held -to savour of romance. That Dante refers to a prodigal's club that -actually existed some time before he wrote we cannot doubt. But it seems -uncertain, to say the least, whether the sonnets addressed by the Tuscan -poet Folgore da Gemignano to a jovial crew in Siena can be taken as -having been inspired by the club Dante speaks of. A translation of them -is given by Mr. Rossetti in his _Circle of Dante_. (See Mr. Symonds's -_Renaissance_, vol. iv. page 54, _note_, for doubts as to the date of -Folgore.)--_Caccia d' Ascian_: Whose short and merry club life cost him -his estates near Siena. - -[757] _The Abbagliato_: Nothing is known, though a great deal is -guessed, about this member of the club. It is enough to know that, -having a scant supply of wit, he spent it freely. - -[758] _Capocchio_: Some one whom Dante knew. Whether he was a Florentine -or a Sienese is not ascertained, but from the strain of his mention of -the Sienese we may guess Florentine. He was burned in Siena in -1293.--(Scartazzini.) They had studied together, says the _Anonimo_. -Benvenuto tells of him that one Good Friday, while in a cloister, he -painted on his nail with marvellous completeness a picture of the -crucifixion. Dante came up, and was lost in wonder, when Capocchio -suddenly licked his nail clean--which may be taken for what it is worth. - - - - -CANTO XXX. - - - Because of Semele[759] when Juno's ire - Was fierce 'gainst all that were to Thebes allied, - As had been proved by many an instance dire; - So mad grew Athamas[760] that when he spied - His wife as she with children twain drew near, - Each hand by one encumbered, loud he cried: - 'Be now the nets outspread, that I may snare - Cubs with the lioness at yon strait ground!' - And stretching claws of all compassion bare - He on Learchus seized and swung him round, 10 - And shattered him upon a flinty stone; - Then she herself and the other burden drowned. - And when by fortune was all overthrown - The Trojans' pride, inordinate before-- - Monarch and kingdom equally undone-- - Hecuba,[761] sad and captive, mourning o'er - Polyxena, when dolorous she beheld - The body of her darling Polydore - Upon the coast, out of her wits she yelled, - And spent herself in barking like a hound; 20 - So by her sorrow was her reason quelled. - But never yet was Trojan fury[762] found, - Nor that of Thebes, to sting so cruelly - Brute beasts, far less the human form to wound, - As two pale naked shades were stung, whom I - Saw biting run, like swine when they escape - Famished and eager from the empty sty. - Capocchio[763] coming up to, in his nape - One fixed his fangs, and hauling at him made - His belly on the stony pavement scrape. 30 - The Aretine[764] who stood, still trembling, said: - 'That imp is Gianni Schicchi,[765] and he goes - Rabid, thus trimming others.' 'O!' I prayed, - 'So may the teeth of the other one of those - Not meet in thee, as, ere she pass from sight, - Thou freely shalt the name of her disclose.' - And he to me: 'That is the ancient sprite - Of shameless Myrrha,[766] who let liking rise - For him who got her, past all bounds of right. - As, to transgress with him, she in disguise 40 - Came near to him deception to maintain; - So he, departing yonder from our eyes, - That he the Lady of the herd might gain, - Bequeathed his goods by formal testament - While he Buoso Donate's[767] form did feign.' - And when the rabid couple from us went, - Who all this time by me were being eyed, - Upon the rest ill-starred I grew intent; - And, fashioned like a lute, I one espied, - Had he been only severed at the place 50 - Where at the groin men's lower limbs divide. - The grievous dropsy, swol'n with humours base, - Which every part of true proportion strips - Till paunch grows out of keeping with the face, - Compelled him widely ope to hold his lips - Like one in fever who, by thirst possessed, - Has one drawn up while the other chinward slips. - 'O ye![768] who by no punishment distressed, - Nor know I why, are in this world of dool,' - He said; 'a while let your attention rest 60 - On Master Adam[769] here of misery full. - Living, I all I wished enjoyed at will; - Now lust I for a drop of water cool. - The water-brooks that down each grassy hill - Of Casentino to the Arno fall - And with cool moisture all their courses fill-- - Always, and not in vain, I see them all; - Because the vision of them dries me more - Than the disease 'neath which my face grows small. - For rigid justice, me chastising sore, 70 - Can in the place I sinned at motive find - To swell the sighs in which I now deplore. - There lies Romena, where of the money coined[770] - With the Baptist's image I made counterfeit, - And therefore left my body burnt behind. - But could I see here Guido's[771] wretched sprite, - Or Alexander's, or their brother's, I - For Fonte Branda[772] would not give the sight. - One is already here, unless they lie-- - Mad souls with power to wander through the crowd-- - What boots it me, whose limbs diseases tie? 81 - But were I yet so nimble that I could - Creep one poor inch a century, some while - Ago had I begun to take the road - Searching for him among this people vile; - And that although eleven miles[773] 'tis long, - And has a width of more than half a mile. - Because of them am I in such a throng; - For to forge florins I by them was led, - Which by three carats[774] of alloy were wrong,' 90 - 'Who are the wretches twain,' I to him said, - 'Who smoke[775] like hand in winter-time fresh brought - From water, on thy right together spread?' - 'Here found I them, nor have they budged a jot,' - He said, 'since I was hurled into this vale; - And, as I deem, eternally they'll not. - One[776] with false charges Joseph did assail; - False Sinon,[777] Greek from Troy, is the other wight. - Burning with fever they this stink exhale.' - Then one of them, perchance o'ercome with spite 100 - Because he thus contemptuously was named, - Smote with his fist upon the belly tight. - It sounded like a drum; and then was aimed - A blow by Master Adam at his face - With arm no whit less hard, while he exclaimed: - 'What though I can no longer shift my place - Because my members by disease are weighed! - I have an arm still free for such a case.' - To which was answered: 'When thou wast conveyed - Unto the fire 'twas not thus good at need, 110 - But even more so when the coiner's trade - Was plied by thee.' The swol'n one: 'True indeed! - But thou didst not bear witness half so true - When Trojans[778] at thee for the truth did plead.' - 'If I spake falsely, thou didst oft renew - False coin,' said Sinon; 'one fault brought me here; - Thee more than any devil of the crew.' - 'Bethink thee of the horse, thou perjurer,' - He of the swol'n paunch answered; 'and that by - All men 'tis known should anguish in thee stir.' 120 - 'Be thirst that cracks thy tongue thy penalty, - And putrid water,' so the Greek replied, - 'Which 'fore thine eyes thy stomach moundeth high.' - The coiner then: 'Thy mouth thou openest wide, - As thou art used, thy slanderous words to vent; - But if I thirst and humours plump my hide - Thy head throbs with the fire within thee pent. - To lap Narcissus' mirror,[779] to implore - And urge thee on would need no argument.' - While I to hear them did attentive pore 130 - My Master said: 'Thy fill of staring take! - To rouse my anger needs but little more.' - And when I heard that he in anger spake - Toward him I turned with such a shame inspired, - Recalled, it seems afresh on me to break. - And, as the man who dreams of hurt is fired - With wish that he might know his dream a dream, - And so what is, as 'twere not, is desired; - So I, struck dumb and filled with an extreme - Craving to find excuse, unwittingly 140 - The meanwhile made the apology supreme. - 'Less shame,' my Master said, 'would nullify - A greater fault, for greater guilt atone; - All sadness for it, therefore, lay thou by. - But bear in mind that thou art not alone, - If fortune hap again to bring thee near - Where people such debate are carrying on. - To things like these 'tis shame[780] to lend an ear.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[759] _Semele_: The daughter of Cadmus, founder and king of Thebes, was -beloved by Jupiter and therefore hated by Juno, who induced her to court -destruction by urging the god to visit her, as he was used to come to -Juno, in all his glory. And in other instances the goddess took revenge -(Ovid, _Metam._ iv.). - -[760] _Athamas_: Married to a sister of Semele, was made insane by the -angry Juno, with the result described in the text. - -[761] _Hecuba_: Wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of Polyxena and -Polydorus. While she was lamenting the death of her daughter, slain as -an offering on the tomb of Achilles, she found the corpse of her son, -slain by the king of Thrace, to whose keeping she had committed him -(Ovid, _Metam._ xiii.). - -[762] _Trojan fury, etc._: It was by the agency of a Fury that Athamas -was put out of his mind; but the Trojan and Theban furies here meant are -the frenzies of Athamas and Hecuba, wild with which one of them slew his -son, and the other scratched out the eyes of the Thracian king. - -[763] _Capocchio_: See close of the preceding Canto. Here as elsewhere -sinners are made ministers of vengeance on one another. - -[764] _The Aretine_: Griffolino, who boasted he could fly; already -represented as trembling (_Inf._ xxix. 97). - -[765] _Gianni Schicchi_: Giovanni Schicchi, one of the Cavalcanti of -Florence. - -[766] _Myrrha_: This is a striking example of Dante's detestation of -what may be called heartless sins. It is covered by the classification -of Canto xi. Yet it is almost with a shock that we find Myrrha here for -personation, and not rather condemned to some other circle for another -sin. - -[767] _Buoso Donati_: Introduced as a thief in the Seventh Bolgia -(_Inf._ xxv. 140). Buoso was possessed of a peerless mare, known as the -Lady of the herd. To make some amends for his unscrupulous acquisition -of wealth, he made a will bequeathing legacies to various religious -communities. When he died his nephew Simon kept the fact concealed long -enough to procure a personation of him as if on his death-bed by Gianni -Schicchi, who had great powers of mimicry. Acting in the character of -Buoso, the rogue professed his wish to make a new disposition of his -means, and after specifying some trifling charitable bequests the better -to maintain his assumed character, named Simon as general legatee, and -bequeathed Buoso's mare to himself. - -[768] _O ye, etc._: The speaker has heard and noted Virgil's words of -explanation given in the previous Canto, line 94. - -[769] _Master Adam_: Adam of Brescia, an accomplished worker in metals, -was induced by the Counts Guidi of Romena in the Casentino, the upland -district of the upper Arno, to counterfeit the gold coin of Florence. -This false coin is mentioned in a Chronicle as having been in -circulation in 1281. It must therefore have been somewhat later that -Master Adam was burned, as he was by sentence of the Republic, upon the -road which led from Romena to Florence. A cairn still existing near the -ruined castle bears the name of the 'dead man's cairn.' - -[770] _The money coined, etc._: The gold florin, afterwards adopted in -so many countries, was first struck in 1252; 'which florins weighed -eight to the ounce, and bore the lily on the one side, and on the other -Saint John.'--(Villani, vi. 54.) The piece was thus of about the weight -of our half-sovereign. The gold was of twenty-four carats; that is, it -had no alloy. The coin soon passed into wide circulation, and to -maintain its purity became for the Florentines a matter of the first -importance. Villani, in the chapter above cited, tells how the King of -Tunis finding the florin to be of pure gold sent for some of the Pisans, -then the chief traders in his ports, and asked who were the Florentines -that they coined such money. 'Only our Arabs,' was the answer; meaning -that they were rough country folk, dependent on Pisa. 'Then what is your -coin like?' he asked. A Florentine of Oltrarno named Pera Balducci, who -was present, took the opportunity of informing him how great Florence -was compared with Pisa, as was shown by that city having no gold coinage -of its own; whereupon the King made the Florentines free of Tunis, and -allowed them to have a factory there. 'And this,' adds Villani, who had -himself been agent abroad for a great Florentine house of business, 'we -had at first hand from the aforesaid Pera, a man worthy of credit, and -with whom we were associated in the Priorate.' - -[771] _Guido, etc._: The Guidi of Romena were a branch of the great -family of the Counts Guidi. The father of the three brothers in the text -was grandson of the old Guido that married the Good Gualdrada, and -cousin of the Guidoguerra met by Dante in the Seventh Circle (_Inf._ -xvi. 38). How the third brother was called is not settled, nor which of -the three was already dead in the beginning of 1300. The Alexander of -Romena, who for some time was captain of the banished Florentine Whites, -was, most probably, he of the text. A letter is extant professing to be -written by Dante to two of Alexander's nephews on the occasion of his -death, in which the poet excuses himself for absence from the funeral on -the plea of poverty. By the time he wrote the _Inferno_ he may, owing to -their shifty politics, have lost all liking for the family, yet it seems -harsh measure that is here dealt to former friends and patrons. - -[772] _Fonte Branda_: A celebrated fountain in the city of Siena. Near -Romena is a spring which is also named Fonte Branda; and this, according -to the view now most in favour, was meant by Master Adam. But was it so -named in Dante's time? Or was it not so called only when the _Comedy_ -had begun to awaken a natural interest in the old coiner, which local -ingenuity did its best to meet? The early commentators know nothing of -the Casentino Fonte Branda, and, though it is found mentioned under the -date of 1539, that does not take us far enough back. In favour of the -Sienese fountain is the consideration that it was the richest of any in -the Tuscan cities; that it was a great architectural as well as -engineering work; and that, although now more than half a century old, -it was still the subject of curiosity with people far and near. Besides, -Adam has already recalled the brooks of Casentino, and so the mention of -the paltry spring at Romena would introduce no fresh idea like that of -the abundant waters of the great fountain which daily quenched the -thirst of thousands. - -[773] _Eleven miles_: It will be remembered that the previous Bolgia was -twenty-two miles in circumference. - -[774] _Three carats_: Three carats in twenty-four being of some foreign -substance. - -[775] _Who smoke, etc._: This description of sufferers from high fever, -like that of Master Adam with his tympanitis, has the merit, such as it -is, of being true to the life. - -[776] _One, etc._: Potiphar's wife. - -[777] _Sinon_: Called of Troy, as being known through his conduct at the -siege. He pretended to have deserted from the Greeks, and by a false -story persuaded the Trojans to admit the fatal wooden horse. - -[778] _When Trojans, etc._: When King Priam sought to know for what -purpose the wooden horse was really constructed. - -[779] _Narcissus' mirror_: The pool in which Narcissus saw his form -reflected. - -[780] _'Tis shame_: Dante knows that Virgil would have scorned to -portray such a scene of low life as this, but he must allow himself a -wider licence and here as elsewhere refuses nothing, even in the way of -mean detail, calculated to convey to his readers 'a full experience of -the Inferno' as he conceived of it--the place 'where all the vileness of -the world is cast.' - - - - -CANTO XXXI. - - - The very tongue that first had caused me pain, - Biting till both my cheeks were crimsoned o'er, - With healing medicine me restored again. - So have I heard, the lance Achilles[781] bore, - Which earlier was his father's, first would wound - And then to health the wounded part restore. - From that sad valley[782] we our backs turned round, - Up the encircling rampart making way - Nor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound. - Here was it less than night and less than day, 10 - And scarce I saw at all what lay ahead; - But of a trumpet the sonorous bray-- - No thunder-peal were heard beside it--led - Mine eyes along the line by which it passed, - Till on one spot their gaze concentrated. - When by the dolorous rout was overcast - The sacred enterprise of Charlemagne - Roland[783] blew not so terrible a blast. - Short time my head was that way turned, when plain - I many lofty towers appeared to see. 20 - 'Master, what town is this?' I asked. 'Since fain - Thou art,' he said, 'to pierce the obscurity - While yet through distance 'tis inscrutable, - Thou must of error needs the victim be. - Arriving there thou shalt distinguish well - How much by distance was thy sense betrayed; - Therefore to swifter course thyself compel.' - Then tenderly[784] he took my hand, and said: - 'Ere we pass further I would have thee know, - That at the fact thou mayst be less dismayed, 30 - These are not towers but giants; in a row - Set round the brink each in the pit abides, - His navel hidden and the parts below.' - And even as when the veil of mist divides - Little by little dawns upon the sight - What the obscuring vapour earlier hides; - So, piercing the gross air uncheered by light, - As I step after step drew near the bound - My error fled, but I was filled with fright. - As Montereggion[785] with towers is crowned 40 - Which from the walls encircling it arise; - So, rising from the pit's encircling mound, - Half of their bodies towered before mine eyes-- - Dread giants, still by Jupiter defied - From Heaven whene'er it thunders in the skies. - The face of one already I descried, - His shoulders, breast, and down his belly far, - And both his arms dependent by his side. - When Nature ceased such creatures as these are - To form, she of a surety wisely wrought 50 - Wresting from Mars such ministers of war. - And though she rue not that to life she brought - The whale and elephant, who deep shall read - Will justify her wisdom in his thought; - For when the powers of intellect are wed - To strength and evil will, with them made one, - The race of man is helpless left indeed. - As large and long as is St. Peter's cone[786] - At Rome, the face appeared; of every limb - On scale like this was fashioned every bone. 60 - So that the bank, which covered half of him - As might a tunic, left uncovered yet - So much that if to his hair they sought to climb - Three Frisians[787] end on end their match had met; - For thirty great palms I of him could see, - Counting from where a man's cloak-clasp is set. - _Rafel[788] mai amech zabi almi!_ - Out of the bestial mouth began to roll, - Which scarce would suit more dulcet psalmody. - And then my Leader charged him: 'Stupid soul, 70 - Stick to thy horn. With it relieve thy mind - When rage or other passions pass control. - Feel at thy neck, round which the thong is twined - O puzzle-headed wretch! from which 'tis slung; - Clipping thy monstrous breast thou shalt it find.' - And then to me: 'From his own mouth is wrung - Proof of his guilt. 'Tis Nimrod, whose insane - Whim hindered men from speaking in one tongue. - Leave we him here nor spend our speech in vain; - For words to him in any language said, 80 - As unto others his, no sense contain.' - Turned to the left, we on our journey sped, - And at the distance of an arrow's flight - We found another huger and more dread. - By what artificer thus pinioned tight - I cannot tell, but his left arm was bound - In front, as at his back was bound the right, - By a chain which girt him firmly round and round; - About what of his frame there was displayed - Below the neck, in fivefold gyre 'twas wound. 90 - 'Incited by ambition this one made - Trial of prowess 'gainst Almighty Jove,' - My Leader told, 'and he is thus repaid. - 'Tis Ephialtes,[789] mightily who strove - What time the giants to the gods caused fright: - The arms he wielded then no more will move.' - And I to him: 'Fain would I, if I might, - On the enormous Briareus set eye, - And know the truth by holding him in sight.' - 'Antaeus[790] thou shalt see,' he made reply, 100 - 'Ere long, and he can speak, nor is in chains. - Us to the depth of all iniquity - He shall let down. The one thou'dst see[791] remains - Far off, like this one bound and like in make, - But in his face far more of fierceness reigns.' - Never when earth most terribly did quake - Shook any tower so much as what all o'er - And suddenly did Ephialtes shake. - Terror of death possessed me more and more; - The fear alone had served my turn indeed, 110 - But that I marked the ligatures he wore. - Then did we somewhat further on proceed, - Reaching Antaeus who for good five ell,[792] - His head not counted, from the pit was freed. - 'O thou who from the fortune-haunted dell[793]-- - Where Scipio of glory was made heir - When with his host to flight turned Hannibal-- - A thousand lions didst for booty bear - Away, and who, hadst thou but joined the host - And like thy brethren fought, some even aver 120 - The victory to earth's sons had not been lost, - Lower us now, nor disobliging show, - To where Cocytus[794] fettered is by frost. - To Tityus[795] nor to Typhon make us go. - To grant what here is longed for he hath power, - Cease them to curl thy snout, but bend thee low. - He can for wage thy name on earth restore; - He lives, and still expecteth to live long, - If Grace recall him not before his hour.' - So spake my Master. Then his hands he swung 130 - Downward and seized my Leader in all haste-- - Hands in whose grip even Hercules once was wrung. - And Virgil when he felt them round him cast - Said: 'That I may embrace thee, hither tend,' - And in one bundle with him made me fast. - And as to him that under Carisend[796] - Stands on the side it leans to, while clouds fly - Counter its slope, the tower appears to bend; - Even so to me who stood attentive by - Antaeus seemed to stoop, and I, dismayed, 140 - Had gladly sought another road to try. - But us in the abyss he gently laid, - Where Lucifer and Judas gulfed remain; - Nor to it thus bent downward long time stayed, - But like a ship's mast raised himself again. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[781] _Achilles_: The rust upon his lance had virtue to heal the wound. - -[782] _From that sad valley_: Leaving the Tenth and last Bolgia they -climb the inner bank of it and approach the Ninth and last Circle, which -consists of the pit of the Inferno. - -[783] _Roland_: Charles the Great, on his march north after defeating -the Saracens at Saragossa, left Roland to bring up his rear-guard. The -enemy fell on this in superior strength, and slew the Christians almost -to a man. Then Roland, mortally wounded, sat down under a tree in -Roncesvalles and blew upon his famous horn a blast so loud that it was -heard by Charles at a distance of several miles.--The _Chansons de -Geste_ were familiarly known to Italians of all classes. - -[784] _Then tenderly, etc._: The wound inflicted by his reproof has been -already healed, but Virgil still behaves to Dante with more than his -wonted gentleness. He will have him assured of his sympathy now that -they are about to descend into the 'lowest depth of all wickedness.' - -[785] _Montereggioni_: A fortress about six miles from Siena, of which -ample ruins still exist. It had no central keep, but twelve towers rose -from its circular wall like spikes from the rim of a coronet. They had -been added by the Sienese in 1260, and so were comparatively new in -Dante's time.--As the towers stood round Montereggioni so the giants at -regular intervals stand round the central pit. They have their foothold -within the enclosing mound; and thus, to one looking at them from -without, they are hidden by it up to their middle. As the embodiment of -superhuman impious strength and pride they stand for warders of the -utmost reach of Hell. - -[786] _St. Peter's cone_: The great pine cone of bronze, supposed to -have originally crowned the mausoleum of Hadrian, lay in Dante's time in -the forecourt of St Peter's. When the new church was built it was -removed to the gardens of the Vatican, where it still remains. Its size, -it will be seen, is of importance as helping us to a notion of the -stature of the giants; and, though the accounts of its height are -strangely at variance with one another, I think the measurement made -specially for Philalethes may be accepted as substantially correct. -According to that, the cone is ten palms long--about six feet. Allowing -something for the neck, down to 'where a man clasps his cloak' (line -66), and taking the thirty palms as eighteen feet, we get twenty-six -feet or so for half his height. The giants vary in bulk; whether they do -so in height is not clear. We cannot be far mistaken if we assume them -to stand from fifty to sixty feet high. Virgil and Dante must throw -their heads well back to look up into the giant's face; and Virgil must -raise his voice as he speaks.--With regard to the height of the cone it -may be remarked that Murray's Handbook for Rome makes it eleven feet -high; Gsell-Fels two and a half metres, or eight feet and three inches. -It is so placed as to be difficult of measurement. - -[787] _Three Frisians_: Three very tall men, as Dante took Frisians to -be, if standing one on the head of the other would not have reached his -hair. - -[788] _Rafel, etc._: These words, like the opening line of the Seventh -Canto, have, to no result, greatly exercised the ingenuity of scholars. -From what follows it is clear that Dante meant them to be meaningless. -Part of Nimrod's punishment is that he who brought about the confusion -of tongues is now left with a language all to himself. It seems strange -that commentators should have exhausted themselves in searching for a -sense in words specially invented to have none.--In his _De Vulg. El._, -i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the -tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant. - -[789] _Ephialtes_: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled -Ossa on Pelion. - -[790] _Antaeus_: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, -unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike -Ephialtes, is not bound. Antaeus is free-handed because he took no part -in the war with the gods. - -[791] _The one thou'dst see_: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know -what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he -was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only -fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles -with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake. - -[792] _Five ell_: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antaeus is -of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports -the view that the 'huger' of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to -height. - -[793] _The fortune-haunted dell_: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, -where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The -giant Antaeus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, -with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was -son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to -touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he -needed to swing him aloft. In the _Monarchia_, ii. 10, Dante refers to -the combat between Hercules and Antaeus as an instance of the wager of -battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan's -_Pharsalia_, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these -references to Scipio and Antaeus. - -[794] _Cocytus_: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See -Canto xiv. at the end. - -[795] _Tityus, etc._: These were other giants, stated by Lucan to be -less strong than Antaeus. This introduction of their names is therefore a -piece of flattery to the monster. A light contemptuous turn is given by -Virgil to his flattery when in the following sentence he bids Antaeus not -curl his snout, but at once comply with the demand for aid. There is -something genuinely Italian in the picture given of the giants in this -Canto, as of creatures whose intellect bears no proportion to their bulk -and brute strength. Mighty hunters like Nimrod, skilled in sounding the -horn but feeble in reasoned speech, Frisians with great thews and long -of limb, and German men-at-arms who traded in their rude valour, to the -subtle Florentine in whom the ferment of the Renaissance was beginning -to work were all specimens of Nature's handicraft that had better have -been left unmade, were it not that wiser people could use them as tools. - -[796] _Carisenda_: A tower still standing in Bologna, built at the -beginning of the twelfth century, and, like many others of its kind in -the city, erected not for strength but merely in order to dignify the -family to whom it belonged. By way of further distinction to their -owners, some of these towers were so constructed as to lean from the -perpendicular. Carisenda, like its taller neighbour the Asinelli, still -supplies a striking feature to the near and distant views of Bologna. -What is left of it hangs for more than two yards off the plumb. In the -half-century after Dante's time it had, according to Benvenuto, lost -something of its height. It would therefore as the poet saw it seem to -be bending down even more than it now does to any one standing under it -on the side it slopes to, when a cloud is drifting over it in the other -direction. - - - - -CANTO XXXII. - - - Had I sonorous rough rhymes at command, - Such as would suit the cavern terrible - Rooted on which all the other ramparts stand, - The sap of fancies which within me swell - Closer I'd press; but since I have not these, - With some misgiving I go on to tell. - For 'tis no task to play with as you please, - Of all the world the bottom to portray, - Nor one that with a baby speech[797] agrees. - But let those ladies help me with my lay 10 - Who helped Amphion[798] walls round Thebes to pile, - And faithful to the facts my words shall stay. - O 'bove all creatures wretched, for whose vile - Abode 'tis hard to find a language fit, - As sheep or goats ye had been happier! While - We still were standing in the murky pit-- - Beneath the giant's feet[799] set far below-- - And at the high wall I was staring yet, - When this I heard: 'Heed to thy steps[800] bestow, - Lest haply by thy soles the heads be spurned 20 - Of wretched brothers wearied in their woe.' - Before me, as on hearing this I turned, - Beneath my feet a frozen lake,[801] its guise - Rather of glass than water, I discerned. - In all its course on Austrian Danube lies - No veil in time of winter near so thick, - Nor on the Don beneath its frigid skies, - As this was here; on which if Tabernicch[802] - Or Mount Pietrapana[803] should alight - Not even the edge would answer with a creak. 30 - And as the croaking frog holds well in sight - Its muzzle from the pool, what time of year[804] - The peasant girl of gleaning dreams at night; - The mourning shades in ice were covered here, - Seen livid up to where we blush[805] with shame. - In stork-like music their teeth chattering were. - With downcast face stood every one of them: - To cold from every mouth, and to despair - From every eye, an ample witness came. - And having somewhat gazed around me there 40 - I to my feet looked down, and saw two pressed - So close together, tangled was their hair, - 'Say, who are you with breast[806] thus strained to breast?' - I asked; whereon their necks they backward bent, - And when their upturned faces lay at rest - Their eyes, which earlier were but moistened, sent - Tears o'er their eyelids: these the frost congealed - And fettered fast[807] before they further went. - Plank set to plank no rivet ever held - More firmly; wherefore, goat-like, either ghost 50 - Butted the other; so their wrath prevailed. - And one who wanted both ears, which the frost - Had bitten off, with face still downward thrown, - Asked: 'Why with us art thou so long engrossed? - If who that couple are thou'dst have made known-- - The vale down which Bisenzio's floods decline - Was once their father Albert's[808] and their own. - One body bore them: search the whole malign - Caina,[809] and thou shalt not any see - More worthy to be fixed in gelatine; 60 - Not he whose breast and shadow equally - Were by one thrust of Arthur's lance[810] pierced through: - Nor yet Focaccia;[811] nor the one that me - With his head hampers, blocking out my view, - Whose name was Sassol Mascheroni:[812] well - Thou must him know if thou art Tuscan too. - And that thou need'st not make me further tell-- - I'm Camicion de' Pazzi,[813] and Carlin[814] - I weary for, whose guilt shall mine excel.' - A thousand faces saw I dog-like grin, 70 - Frost-bound; whence I, as now, shall always shake - Whenever sight of frozen pools I win. - While to the centre[815] we our way did make - To which all things converging gravitate, - And me that chill eternal caused to quake; - Whether by fortune, providence, or fate, - I know not, but as 'mong the heads I went - I kicked one full in the face; who therefore straight - 'Why trample on me?' snarled and made lament, - 'Unless thou com'st to heap the vengeance high 80 - For Montaperti,[816] why so virulent - 'Gainst me?' I said: 'Await me here till I - By him, O Master, shall be cleared of doubt;[817] - Then let my pace thy will be guided by.' - My Guide delayed, and I to him spake out, - While he continued uttering curses shrill: - 'Say, what art thou, at others thus to shout?' - 'But who art thou, that goest at thy will - Through Antenora,[818] trampling on the face - Of others? 'Twere too much if thou wert still 90 - In life.' 'I live, and it may help thy case,' - Was my reply, 'if thou renown wouldst gain, - Should I thy name[819] upon my tablets place.' - And he: 'I for the opposite am fain. - Depart thou hence, nor work me further dool; - Within this swamp thou flatterest all in vain.' - Then I began him by the scalp to pull, - And 'Thou must tell how thou art called,' I said, - 'Or soon thy hair will not be plentiful.' - And he: 'Though every hair thou from me shred 100 - I will not tell thee, nor my face turn round; - No, though a thousand times thou spurn my head.' - His locks ere this about my fist were wound, - And many a tuft I tore, while dog-like wails - Burst from him, and his eyes still sought the ground. - Then called another: 'Bocca, what now ails? - Is't not enough thy teeth go chattering there, - But thou must bark? What devil thee assails?' - 'Ah! now,' said I, 'thou need'st not aught declare, - Accursed traitor; and true news of thee 110 - To thy disgrace I to the world will bear.' - 'Begone, tell what thou wilt,' he answered me; - 'But, if thou issue hence, not silent keep[820] - Of him whose tongue but lately wagged so free. - He for the Frenchmen's money[821] here doth weep. - Him of Duera saw I, mayst thou tell, - Where sinners shiver in the frozen deep. - Shouldst thou be asked who else within it dwell-- - Thou hast the Beccheria[822] at thy side; - Across whose neck the knife at Florence fell. 120 - John Soldanieri[823] may be yonder spied - With Ganellon,[824] and Tribaldell[825] who threw - Faenza's gates, when slept the city, wide.' - Him had we left, our journey to pursue, - When frozen in a hole[826] a pair I saw; - One's head like the other's hat showed to the view. - And, as their bread men hunger-driven gnaw, - The uppermost tore fiercely at his mate - Where nape and brain-pan to a junction draw. - No worse by Tydeus[827] in his scornful hate 130 - Were Menalippus' temples gnawed and hacked - Than skull and all were torn by him irate. - 'O thou who provest by such bestial act - Hatred of him who by thy teeth is chewed, - Declare thy motive,' said I, 'on this pact-- - That if with reason thou with him hast feud, - Knowing your names and manner of his crime - I in the world[828] to thee will make it good; - If what I speak with dry not ere the time.' - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[797] _A baby speech_: 'A tongue that cries _mamma_ and _papa_' For his -present purpose, he complains, he has not in Italian an adequate supply -of rough high-sounding rhymes; but at least he will use only the best -words that can be found. In another work (_De Vulg. El._ ii. 7) he -instances _mamma_ and _babbo_ as words of a kind to be avoided by all -who would write nobly in Italian. - -[798] _Amphion_: Who with his music charmed rocks from the mountain and -heaped them in order for walls to Thebes. - -[799] _The giant's feet_: Antaeus. A bank slopes from where the giants -stand inside the wall down to the pit which is filled with the frozen -Cocytus. This is the Ninth and inmost Circle, and is divided into four -concentric rings--Caina, Antenora, Ptolomaea, and Judecca--where traitors -of different kinds are punished. - -[800] _Thy steps_: Dante alone is addressed, the speaker having seen him -set heavily down upon the ice by Antaeus. - -[801] _A frozen lake_: Cocytus. See _Inf._ xiv. 119. - -[802] _Tabernicch_: It is not certain what mountain is here meant; -probably Yavornick near Adelsberg in Carniola. It is mentioned, not for -its size, but the harshness of its name. - -[803] _Pietrapana_: A mountain between Modena and Lucca, visible from -Pisa: Petra Apuana. - -[804] _Time of year_: At harvest-time, when in the warm summer nights -the wearied gleaner dreams of her day's work. - -[805] _To where we blush_: The bodies of the shades are seen buried in -the clear glassy ice, out of which their heads and necks stand free--as -much as 'shows shame,' that is, blushes. - -[806] _With breast, etc._: As could be seen through the clear ice. - -[807] _Fettered fast_: Binding up their eyes. In the punishment of -traitors is symbolised the hardness and coldness of their hearts to all -the claims of blood, country, or friendship. - -[808] _Their father Albert's_: Albert, of the family of the Counts -Alberti, lord of the upper valley of the Bisenzio, near Florence. His -sons, Alexander and Napoleon, slew one another in a quarrel regarding -their inheritance. - -[809] _Caina_: The outer ring of the Ninth Circle, and that in which are -punished those treacherous to their kindred.--Here a place is reserved -for Gianciotto Malatesta, the husband of Francesca (_Inf._ v. 107). - -[810] _Arthur's lance_: Mordred, natural son of King Arthur, was slain -by him in battle as a rebel and traitor. 'And the history says that -after the lance-thrust Girflet plainly saw a ray of the sun pass through -the hole of the wound.'--_Lancelot du Lac_. - -[811] _Focaccia_: A member of the Pistoiese family of Cancellieri, in -whose domestic feuds the parties of Whites and Blacks took rise. He -assassinated one of his relatives and cut off the hand of another. - -[812] _Sassol Mascheroni_: Of the Florentine family of the Toschi. He -murdered his nephew, of whom by some accounts he was the guardian. For -this crime he was punished by being rolled through the streets of -Florence in a cask and then beheaded. Every Tuscan would be familiar -with the story of such a punishment. - -[813] _Camicion de' Pazzi_: To distinguish the Pazzi to whom Camicione -belonged from the Pazzi of Florence they were called the Pazzi of -Valdarno, where their possessions lay. Like his fellow-traitors he had -slain a kinsman. - -[814] _Carlin_: Also one of the Pazzi of Valdarno. Like all the spirits -in this circle Camicione is eager to betray the treachery of others, and -prophesies the guilt of his still living relative, which is to cast his -own villany into the shade. In 1302 or 1303 Carlino held the castle of -Piano de Trevigne in Valdarno, where many of the exiled Whites of -Florence had taken refuge, and for a bribe he betrayed it to the enemy. - -[815] _The centre_: The bottom of Inferno is the centre of the earth, -and, on the system of Ptolemy, the central point of the universe. - -[816] _Montaperti_: See _Inf._ x. 86. The speaker is Bocca, of the great -Florentine family of the Abati, who served as one of the Florentine -cavaliers at Montaperti. When the enemy was charging towards the -standard of the Republican cavalry Bocca aimed a blow at the arm of the -knight who bore it and cut off his hand. The sudden fall of the flag -disheartened the Florentines, and in great measure contributed to the -defeat. - -[817] _Cleared of doubt_: The mention of Montaperti in this place of -traitors suggests to Dante the thought of Bocca. He would fain be sure -as to whether he has the traitor at his feet. Montaperti was never very -far from the thoughts of the Florentine of that day. It is never out of -Bocca's mind. - -[818] _Antenora_: The second ring of the Ninth Circle, where traitors to -their country are punished, named after Antenor the Trojan prince who, -according to the belief of the middle ages, betrayed his native city to -the Greeks. - -[819] _Should I thy name, etc._: 'Should I put thy name among the other -notes.' It is the last time that Dante is to offer such a bribe; and -here the offer is most probably ironical. - -[820] _Not silent keep, etc._: Like all the other traitors Bocca finds -his only pleasure in betraying his neighbours. - -[821] _The Frenchmen's money_: He who had betrayed the name of Bocca was -Buoso of Duera, one of the Ghibeline chiefs of Cremona. When Guy of -Montfort was leading an army across Lombardy to recruit Charles of Anjou -in his war against Manfred in 1265 (_Inf._ xxviii. 16 and _Purg._ iii.), -Buoso, who had been left to guard the passage of the Oglio, took a bribe -to let the French army pass. - -[822] _Beccheria_: Tesauro of the Pavian family Beccheria, Abbot of -Vallombrosa and legate in Florence of Pope Alexander IV. He was accused -of conspiring against the Commonwealth along with the exiled Ghibelines -(1258). All Europe was shocked to hear that a great churchman had been -tortured and beheaded by the Florentines. The city was placed under -Papal interdict, proclaimed by the Archbishop of Pisa from the tower of -S. Pietro in Vincoli at Rome. Villani seems to think the Abbot was -innocent of the charge brought against him (_Cron._ vi. 65), but he -always leans to the indulgent view when a priest is concerned. - -[823] _Soldanieri_: Deserted from the Florentine Ghibelines after the -defeat of Manfred. - -[824] _Ganellon_: Whose treacherous counsel led to the defeat of Roland -at Roncesvalles. - -[825] _Tribaldello_: A noble of Faenza, who, as one account says, to -revenge himself for the loss of a pig, sent a cast of the key of the -city gate to John of Apia, then prowling about Romagna in the interest -of the French Pope, Martin IV. He was slain at the battle of Forli in -1282 (_Inf._ xxvii. 43). - -[826] _Frozen in a hole, etc._: The two are the Count Ugolino and the -Archbishop Roger. - -[827] _Tydeus_: One of the Seven against Thebes, who, having been -mortally wounded by Menalippus the Theban, whom he slew, got his friends -to bring him the head of his foe and gnawed at it with his teeth. Dante -found the incident in his favourite author Statius (_Theb._ viii.). - -[828] _I in the world, etc._: Dante has learned from Bocca that the -prospect of having their memory refreshed on earth has no charm for the -sinners met with here. The bribe he offers is that of loading the name -of a foe with ignominy--but only if from the tale it shall be plain that -the ignominy is deserved. - - - - -CANTO XXXIII. - - - His mouth uplifting from the savage feast, - The sinner[829] rubbed and wiped it free of gore - On the hair of the head he from behind laid waste; - And then began: 'Thou'dst have me wake once more - A desperate grief, of which to think alone, - Ere I have spoken, wrings me to the core. - But if my words shall be as seed that sown - May fructify unto the traitor's shame - Whom thus I gnaw, I mingle speech[830] and groan. - Of how thou earnest hither or thy name 10 - I nothing know, but that a Florentine[831] - In very sooth thou art, thy words proclaim. - Thou then must know I was Count Ugolin, - The Archbishop Roger[832] he. Now hearken well - Why I prove such a neighbour. How in fine, - And flowing from his ill designs, it fell - That I, confiding in his words, was caught - Then done to death, were waste of time[833] to tell. - But that of which as yet thou heardest nought - Is how the death was cruel which I met: 20 - Hearken and judge if wrong to me he wrought. - Scant window in the mew whose epithet - Of Famine[834] came from me its resident, - And cooped in which shall many languish yet, - Had shown me through its slit how there were spent - Full many moons,[835] ere that bad dream I dreamed - When of my future was the curtain rent. - Lord of the hunt and master this one seemed, - Chasing the wolf and wolf-cubs on the height[836] - By which from Pisan eyes is Lucca hemmed. 30 - With famished hounds well trained and swift of flight, - Lanfranchi[837] and Gualandi in the van, - And Sismond he had set. Within my sight - Both sire and sons--nor long the chase--began - To grow (so seemed it) weary as they fled; - Then through their flanks fangs sharp and eager ran. - When I awoke before the morning spread - I heard my sons[838] all weeping in their sleep-- - For they were with me--and they asked for bread. - Ah! cruel if thou canst from pity keep 40 - At the bare thought of what my heart foreknew; - And if thou weep'st not, what could make thee weep? - Now were they 'wake, and near the moment drew - At which 'twas used to bring us our repast; - But each was fearful[839] lest his dream came true. - And then I heard the under gate[840] made fast - Of the horrible tower, and thereupon I gazed - In my sons' faces, silent and aghast. - I did not weep, for I to stone was dazed: - They wept, and darling Anselm me besought: 50 - "What ails thee, father? Wherefore thus amazed?" - And yet I did not weep, and answered not - The whole day, and that night made answer none, - Till on the world another sun shone out. - Soon as a feeble ray of light had won - Into our doleful prison, made aware - Of the four faces[841] featured like my own, - Both of my hands I bit at in despair; - And they, imagining that I was fain - To eat, arose before me with the prayer: 60 - "O father, 'twere for us an easier pain - If thou wouldst eat us. Thou didst us array - In this poor flesh: unclothe us now again." - I calmed me, not to swell their woe. That day - And the next day no single word we said. - Ah! pitiless earth, that didst unyawning stay! - When we had reached the fourth day, Gaddo, spread - Out at my feet, fell prone; and made demand: - "Why, O my father, offering us no aid?" - There died he. Plain as I before thee stand 70 - I saw the three as one by one they failed, - The fifth day and the sixth; then with my hand, - Blind now, I groped for each of them, and wailed - On them for two days after they were gone. - Famine[842] at last, more strong than grief, prevailed,' - When he had uttered this, his eyes all thrown - Awry, upon the hapless skull he fell - With teeth that, dog-like, rasped upon the bone. - Ah, Pisa! byword of the folk that dwell - In the sweet country where the Si[843] doth sound, 80 - Since slow thy neighbours to reward thee well - Let now Gorgona and Capraia[844] mound - Themselves where Arno with the sea is blent, - Till every one within thy walls be drowned. - For though report of Ugolino went - That he betrayed[845] thy castles, thou didst wrong - Thus cruelly his children to torment. - These were not guilty, for they were but young, - Thou modern Thebes![846] Brigata and young Hugh, - And the other twain of whom above 'tis sung. 90 - We onward passed to where another crew[847] - Of shades the thick-ribbed ice doth fettered keep; - Their heads not downward these, but backward threw. - Their very weeping will not let them weep, - And grief, encountering barriers at their eyes, - Swells, flowing inward, their affliction deep; - For the first tears that issue crystallise, - And fill, like vizor fashioned out of glass, - The hollow cup o'er which the eyebrows rise. - And though, as 'twere a callus, now my face 100 - By reason of the frost was wholly grown - Benumbed and dead to feeling, I could trace - (So it appeared), a breeze against it blown, - And asked: 'O Master, whence comes this? So low - As where we are is any vapour[848] known?' - And he replied: 'Thou ere long while shalt go - Where touching this thine eye shall answer true, - Discovering that which makes the wind to blow.' - Then from the cold crust one of that sad crew - Demanded loud: 'Spirits, for whom they hold 110 - The inmost room, so truculent were you, - Back from my face let these hard veils be rolled, - That I may vent the woe which chokes my heart, - Ere tears again solidify with cold.' - And I to him: 'First tell me who thou art - If thou'dst have help; then if I help not quick - To the bottom[849] of the ice let me depart.' - He answered: 'I am Friar Alberic[850]-- - He of the fruit grown in the orchard fell-- - And here am I repaid with date for fig.' 120 - 'Ah!' said I to him, 'art thou dead as well?' - 'How now my body fares,' he answered me, - 'Up in the world, I have no skill to tell; - For Ptolomaea[851] has this quality-- - The soul oft plunges hither to its place - Ere it has been by Atropos[852] set free. - And that more willingly from off my face - Thou mayst remove the glassy tears, know, soon - As ever any soul of man betrays - As I betrayed, the body once his own 130 - A demon takes and governs until all - The span allotted for his life be run. - Into this tank headlong the soul doth fall; - And on the earth his body yet may show - Whose shade behind me wintry frosts enthral. - But thou canst tell, if newly come below: - It is Ser Branca d'Oria,[853] and complete - Is many a year since he was fettered so.' - 'It seems,' I answered, 'that thou wouldst me cheat, - For Branca d'Oria never can have died: 140 - He sleeps, puts clothes on, swallows drink and meat.' - 'Or e'er to the tenacious pitchy tide - Which boils in Malebranche's moat had come - The shade of Michael Zanche,' he replied, - 'That soul had left a devil in its room - Within its body; of his kinsmen one[854] - Treacherous with him experienced equal doom. - But stretch thy hand and be its work begun - Of setting free mine eyes.' This did not I. - Twas highest courtesy to yield him none.[855] 150 - Ah, Genoese,[856] strange to morality! - Ye men infected with all sorts of sin! - Out of the world 'tis time that ye should die. - Here, to Romagna's blackest soul[857] akin, - I chanced on one of you; for doing ill - His soul o'erwhelmed Cocytus' floods within, - Though in the flesh he seems surviving still. - - -NOTE ON THE COUNT UGOLINO. - -Ugolino della Gherardesca, Count of Donoratico, a wealthy noble and a -man fertile in political resource, was deeply engaged in the affairs of -Pisa at a critical period of her history. He was born in the first half -of the thirteenth century. By giving one of his daughters in marriage to -the head of the Visconti of Pisa--not to be confounded with those of -Milan--he came under the suspicion of being Guelf in his sympathies; the -general opinion of Pisa being then, as it always had been, strongly -Ghibeline. When driven into exile, as he was along with the Visconti, he -improved the occasion by entering into close relations with the leading -Guelfs of Tuscany, and in 1278 a free return for him to Pisa was made by -them a condition of peace with that city. He commanded one of the -divisions of the Pisan fleet at the disastrous battle of Meloria in -1284, when Genoa wrested from her rival the supremacy of the Western -Mediterranean, and carried thousands of Pisan citizens into a captivity -which lasted many years. Isolated from her Ghibeline allies, and for the -time almost sunk in despair, the city called him to the government with -wellnigh dictatorial powers; and by dint of crafty negotiations in -detail with the members of the league formed against Pisa, helped as was -believed by lavish bribery, he had the glory of saving the Commonwealth -from destruction though he could not wholly save it from loss. This was -in 1285. He soon came to be suspected of being in a secret alliance with -Florence and of being lukewarm in the negotiations for the return of the -prisoners in Genoa, all with a view to depress the Ghibeline element in -the city that he might establish himself as an absolute tyrant with the -greater ease. In order still further to strengthen his position he -entered into a family compact with his Guelf grandson Nino (_Purg._ -viii. 53), now at the head of the Visconti. But without the support of -the people it was impossible for him to hold his ground against the -Ghibeline nobles, who resented the arrogance of his manners and were -embittered by the loss of their own share in the government; and these -contrived that month by month the charges of treachery brought against -him should increase in virulence. He had, by deserting his post, caused -the defeat at Meloria, it was said; and had bribed the other Tuscan -cities to favour him, by ceding to them distant Pisan strongholds. His -fate was sealed when, having quarrelled with his grandson Nino, he -sought alliance with the Archbishop Roger who now led the Ghibeline -opposition. With Ugo's connivance an onslaught was planned upon the -Guelfs. To preserve an appearance of impartiality he left the city for a -neighbouring villa. On returning to enjoy his riddance from a rival he -was invited to a conference, at which he resisted a proposal that he -should admit partners with him in the government. On this the -Archbishop's party raised the cry of treachery; the bells rang out for a -street battle, in which he was worsted; and with his sons he had to take -refuge in the Palace of the People. There he stood a short siege against -the Ghibeline families and the angry mob; and in the same palace he was -kept prisoner for twenty days. Then, with his sons and grandsons, he was -carried in chains to the tower of the Gualandi, which stood where seven -ways met in the heart of Pisa. This was in July 1288. The imprisonment -lasted for months, and seems to have been thus prolonged with the view -of extorting a heavy ransom. It was only in the following March that the -Archbishop ordered his victims to be starved to death; for, being a -churchman, says one account, he would not shed blood. Not even a -confessor was allowed to Ugo and his sons. After the door of the tower -had been kept closed for eight days it was opened, and the corpses, -still fettered, were huddled into a tomb in the Franciscan church.--The -original authorities are far from being agreed as to the details of -Ugo's overthrow and death.--For the matter of this note I am chiefly -indebted to the careful epitome of the Pisan history of that time by -Philalethes in his note on this Canto (_Goettliche Comoedie_). - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[829] _The sinner_: Count Ugolino. See note at the end of the Canto. - -[830] _Mingle speech, etc._: A comparison of these words with those of -Francesca (_Inf._ v. 124) will show the difference in moral tone between -the Second Circle of Inferno and the Ninth. - -[831] _A Florentine_: So Farinata (_Inf._ x. 25) recognises Dante by his -Florentine speech. The words heard by Ugo are those at xxxii. 133. - -[832] _The Archbishop Roger_: Ruggieri, of the Tuscan family of the -Ubaldini, to which the Cardinal of _Inf._ x. 120 also belonged. Towards -the end of his life he was summoned to Rome to give an account of his -evil deeds, and on his refusal to go was declared a rebel to the Church. -Ugolino was a traitor to his country; Roger, having entered into some -sort of alliance with Ugolino, was a traitor to him. This has led some -to suppose that while Ugolino is in Antenora he is so close to the edge -of it as to be able to reach the head of Roger, who, as a traitor to his -friend, is fixed in Ptolomaea. Against this view is the fact that they -are described as being in the same hole (xxxii. 125), and also that in -Ptolomaea the shades are set with head thrown back, and with only the -face appearing above the ice, while Ugo is described as biting his foe -at where the skull joins the nape. From line 91 it is clear that -Ptolomaea lay further on than where Roger is. Like Ugo he is therefore -here as a traitor to his country. - -[833] _Were waste, etc._: For Dante knows it already, all Tuscany being -familiar with the story of Ugo's fate. - -[834] _Whose epithet of Famine_: It was called the Tower of Famine. Its -site is now built over. Buti, the old Pisan commentator of Dante, says -it was called the Mew because the eagles of the Republic were kept in it -at moulting-time. But this may have been an after-thought to give local -truth to Dante's verse, which it does at the expense of the poetry. - -[835] _Many moons_: The imprisonment having already lasted for eight -months. - -[836] _The height, etc._: Lucca is about twelve miles from Pisa, Mount -Giuliano rising between them. - -[837] _Lanfranchi, etc._: In the dream, these, the chief Ghibeline -families of Pisa, are the huntsmen, Roger being master of the hunt, and -the populace the hounds. Ugo and his sons and grandsons are the wolf and -wolf-cubs. In Ugo's dream of himself as a wolf there may be an allusion -to his having engaged in the Guelf interest. - -[838] _My sons_: According to Dante, taken literally, four of Ugo were -imprisoned with him. It would have hampered him to explain that two were -grandsons--Anselmuccio and Nino, called the Brigata at line 89, -grandsons by their mother of King Enzo, natural son of Frederick -II.--the sons being Gaddo and Uguccione, the latter Ugo's youngest son. - -[839] _Each was fearful, etc._: All the sons had been troubled by dreams -of famine. Had their rations been already reduced? - -[840] _The under gate, etc._: The word translated _made fast_ -(_chiavare_) may signify either to nail up or to lock. The commentators -and chroniclers differ as to whether the door was locked, nailed, or -built up. I would suggest that the lower part of the tower was occupied -by a guard, and that the captives had not been used to hear the main -door locked. Now, when they hear the great key creaking in the lock, -they know that the tower is deserted. - -[841] _The four faces, etc._: Despairing like his own, or possibly that, -wasted by famine, the faces of the young men had become liker than ever -to Ugo's own time-worn face. - -[842] _Famine, etc._: This line, quite without reason, has been held to -mean that Ugo was driven by hunger to eat the flesh of his children. The -meaning is, that poignant though his grief was it did not shorten his -sufferings from famine. - -[843] _Where the Si, etc._: Italy, _Si_ being the Italian for _Yes_. -In his _De Vulg. El._, i. 8, Dante distinguishes the Latin -languages--French, Italian, etc.--by their words of affirmation, and so -terms Italian the language of _Si_. But Tuscany may here be meant, -where, as a Tuscan commentator says, the _Si_ is more sweetly pronounced -than in any other part of Italy. In Canto xviii. 61 the Bolognese are -distinguished as the people who say _Sipa_. If Pisa be taken as being -specially the opprobrium of Tuscany the outburst against Genoa at the -close of the Canto gains in distinctness and force. - -[844] _Gorgona and Capraia_: Islands not far from the mouth of the Arno. - -[845] _That he betrayed, etc._: Dante seems here to throw doubt on the -charge. At the height of her power Pisa was possessed of many hundreds -of fortified stations in Italy and scattered over the Mediterranean -coasts. The charge was one easy to make and difficult to refute. It -seems hard on Ugo that he should get the benefit of the doubt only after -he has been, for poetical ends, buried raging in Cocytus. - -[846] _Modern Thebes_: As Thebes was to the race of Cadmus, so was Pisa -to that of Ugolino. - -[847] _Another crew_: They are in Ptolomaea, the third division of the -circle, and that assigned to those treacherous to their friends, allies, -or guests. Here only the faces of the shades are free of the ice. - -[848] _Is any vapour_: Has the sun, so low down as this, any influence -upon the temperature, producing vapours and wind? In Dante's time wind -was believed to be the exhalation of a vapour. - -[849] _To the bottom, etc._: Dante is going there in any case, and his -promise is nothing but a quibble. - -[850] _Friar Alberic_: Alberigo of the Manfredi, a gentleman of Faenza, -who late in life became one of the Merry Friars. See _Inf._ xxiii. 103. -In the course of a dispute with his relative Manfred he got a hearty box -on the ear from him. Feigning to have forgiven the insult he invited -Manfred with a youthful son to dinner in his house, having first -arranged that when they had finished their meat, and he called for -fruit, armed men should fall on his guests. 'The fruit of Friar -Alberigo' passed into a proverb. Here he is repaid with a date for a -fig--gets more than he bargained for. - -[851] _Ptolomaea_: This division is named from the Hebrew Ptolemy, who -slew his relatives at a banquet, they being then his guests (1 Maccab. -xvi.). - -[852] _Atropos_: The Fate who cuts the thread of life and sets the soul -free from the body. - -[853] _Branca d'Oria_: A Genoese noble who in 1275 slew his -father-in-law Michael Zanche (_Inf._ xxii. 88) while the victim sat at -table as his invited guest.--This mention of Branca is of some value in -helping to ascertain when the _Inferno_ was finished. He was in -imprisonment and exile for some time before and up to 1310. In 1311 he -was one of the citizens of Genoa heartiest in welcoming the Emperor -Henry to their city. Impartial as Dante was, we can scarcely think that -he would have loaded with infamy one who had done what he could to help -the success of Henry, on whom all Dante's hopes were long set, and by -their reception of whom on his descent into Italy he continued to judge -his fellow-countrymen. There is considerable reason to believe that the -_Inferno_ was published in 1309; this introduction of Branca helps to -prove that at least it was published before 1311. If this was so, then -Branca d'Oria lived long enough to read or hear that for thirty-five -years his soul had been in Hell.--It is significant of the detestation -in which Dante held any breach of hospitality, that it is as a -treacherous host and not as a treacherous kinsman that Branca is -punished--in Ptolomaea and not in Caina. Cast as the poet was on the -hospitality of the world, any disloyalty to its obligations came home to -him. For such disloyalty he has invented one of the most appalling of -the fierce retributions with the vision of which he satisfied his -craving for vengeance upon prosperous sin.--It may be that the idea of -this demon-possession of the traitor is taken from the words, 'and after -the sop Satan entered into Judas.' - -[854] _Of his kinsmen one_: A cousin or nephew of Branca was engaged -with him in the murder of Michael Zanche. The vengeance came on them so -speedily that their souls were plunged in Ptolomaea ere Zanche breathed -his last. - -[855] _To yield him none_: Alberigo being so unworthy of courtesy. See -note on 117. But another interpretation of the words has been suggested -which saves Dante from the charge of cruelty and mean quibbling; namely, -that he did not clear the ice from the sinner's eyes because then he -would have been seen to be a living man--one who could take back to the -world the awful news that Alberigo's body was the dwelling-place of a -devil. - -[856] _Ah, Genoese, etc._: The Genoese, indeed, held no good character. -One of their annalists, under the date of 1293, describes the city as -suffering from all kinds of crime. - -[857] _Romagna's blackest soul_: Friar Alberigo. - - - - -CANTO XXXIV. - - - '_Vexilla_[858] _Regis prodeunt Inferni_ - Towards where we are; seek then with vision keen,' - My Master bade, 'if trace of him thou spy.' - As, when the exhalations dense have been, - Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night, - A windmill from afar is sometimes seen, - I seemed to catch of such a structure sight; - And then to 'scape the blast did backward draw - Behind my Guide--sole shelter in my plight. - Now was I where[859] (I versify with awe) 10 - The shades were wholly covered, and did show - Visible as in glass are bits of straw. - Some stood[860] upright and some were lying low, - Some with head topmost, others with their feet; - And some with face to feet bent like a bow. - But we kept going on till it seemed meet - Unto my Master that I should behold - The creature once[861] of countenance so sweet. - He stepped aside and stopped me as he told: - 'Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last 20 - Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,' - How I hereon stood shivering and aghast, - Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write; - So much the fact all reach of words surpassed. - I was not dead, yet living was not quite: - Think for thyself, if gifted with the power, - What, life and death denied me, was my plight. - Of that tormented realm the Emperor - Out of the ice stood free to middle breast; - And me a giant less would overtower 30 - Than would his arm a giant. By such test - Judge then what bulk the whole of him must show,[862] - Of true proportion with such limb possessed. - If he was fair of old as hideous now, - And yet his brows against his Maker raised, - Meetly from him doth all affliction flow. - O how it made me horribly amazed - When on his head I saw three faces[863] grew! - The one vermilion which straight forward gazed; - And joining on to it were other two, 40 - One rising up from either shoulder-bone, - Till to a junction on the crest they drew. - 'Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one; - The left resembled them whose country lies - Where valleywards the floods of Nile flow down. - Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise, - Such as this bird tremendous might demand: - Sails of sea-ships ne'er saw I of such size. - Not feathered were they, but in style were planned - Like a bat's wing:[864] by them a threefold breeze-- 50 - For still he flapped them--evermore was fanned, - And through its depths Cocytus caused to freeze. - Down three chins tears for ever made descent - From his six eyes; and red foam mixed with these. - In every mouth there was a sinner rent - By teeth that shred him as a heckle[865] would; - Thus three at once compelled he to lament. - To the one in front 'twas little to be chewed - Compared with being clawed and clawed again, - Till his back-bone of skin was sometimes nude.[866] 60 - 'The soul up yonder in the greater pain - Is Judas 'Scariot, with his head among - The teeth,' my Master said, 'while outward strain - His legs. Of the two whose heads are downward hung, - Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous: - See how he writhes, yet never wags his tongue. - The other, great of thew, is Cassius:[867] - But night is rising[868] and we must be gone; - For everything hath now been seen by us.' - Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on 70 - While he the time and place of vantage chose; - And when the wings enough were open thrown - He grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them close, - And so from tuft to tuft he downward went - Between the tangled hair and crust which froze. - We to the bulging haunch had made descent, - To where the hip-joint lies in it; and then - My Guide, with painful twist and violent, - Turned round his head to where his feet had been, - And like a climber closely clutched the hair: 80 - I thought to Hell[869] that we returned again. - 'Hold fast to me; it needs by such a stair,' - Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone, - 'That we from all that wretchedness repair.' - Right through a hole in a rock when he had won, - The edge of it he gave me for a seat - And deftly then to join me clambered on. - I raised mine eyes, expecting they would meet - With Lucifer as I beheld him last, - But saw instead his upturned legs[870] and feet. 90 - If in perplexity I then was cast, - Let ignorant people think who do not see - What point[871] it was that I had lately passed. - 'Rise to thy feet,' my Master said to me; - 'The way is long and rugged the ascent, - And at mid tierce[872] the sun must almost be.' - 'Twas not as if on palace floors we went: - A dungeon fresh from nature's hand was this; - Rough underfoot, and of light indigent. - 'Or ever I escape from the abyss, 100 - O Master,' said I, standing now upright, - 'Correct in few words where I think amiss. - Where lies the ice? How hold we him in sight - Set upside down? The sun, how had it skill - In so short while to pass to morn from night?'[873] - And he: 'In fancy thou art standing, still, - On yon side of the centre, where I caught - The vile worm's hair which through the world doth drill. - There wast thou while our downward course I wrought; - But when I turned, the centre was passed by 110 - Which by all weights from every point is sought. - And now thou standest 'neath the other sky, - Opposed to that which vaults the great dry ground - And 'neath whose summit[874] there did whilom die - The Man[875] whose birth and life were sinless found. - Thy feet are firm upon the little sphere, - On this side answering to Judecca's round. - 'Tis evening yonder when 'tis morning here; - And he whose tufts our ladder rungs supplied. - Fixed as he was continues to appear. 120 - Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this side; - Whereon the land, protuberant here before, - For fear of him did in the ocean hide, - And 'neath our sky emerged: land, as of yore[876] - Still on this side, perhaps that it might shun - His fall, heaved up, and filled this depth no more.' - From Belzebub[877] still widening up and on, - Far-stretching as the sepulchre,[878] extends - A region not beheld, but only known - By murmur of a brook[879] which through it wends, 130 - Declining by a channel eaten through - The flinty rock; and gently it descends. - My Guide and I, our journey to pursue - To the bright world, upon this road concealed - Made entrance, and no thought of resting knew. - He first, I second, still ascending held - Our way until the fair celestial train - Was through an opening round to me revealed: - And, issuing thence, we saw the stars[880] again. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[858] _Vexilla, etc._: '_The banners of the King of Hell advance._' The -words are adapted from a hymn of the Cross used in Holy Week; and they -prepare us to find in Lucifer the opponent of 'the Emperor who reigns on -high' (_Inf._ i. 124). It is somewhat odd that Dante should have put a -Christian hymn into Virgil's mouth. - -[859] _Now was I where_: In the fourth and inner division or ring of the -Ninth Circle. Here are punished those guilty of treachery to their -lawful lords or to their benefactors. From Judas Iscariot, the -arch-traitor, it takes the name of Judecca. - -[860] _Some stood, etc._: It has been sought to distinguish the degrees -of treachery of the shades by means of the various attitudes assigned to -them. But it is difficult to make more out of it than that some are -suffering more than others. All of them are the worst of traitors, -hard-hearted and cold-hearted, and now they are quite frozen in the ice, -sealed up even from the poor relief of intercourse with their -fellow-sinners. - -[861] _The creature once, etc._: Lucifer, guilty of treachery against -the Highest, at _Purg._ xii. 25 described as 'created noble beyond all -other creatures.' Virgil calls him Dis, the name used by him for Pluto -in the _AEneid_, and the name from which that of the City of Unbelief is -taken (_Inf._ viii. 68). - -[862] _Judge then what bulk_: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than -the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We -have seen (_Inf._ xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in -height--nine times the stature of a man. If a man's arm be taken as a -third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a -giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, -or nearly so--from the middle of the breast upwards--he stands out of -the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too -great a height for Dante's purpose; and yet on the calculations of some -commentators his stature is immensely greater--from three to five -thousand feet. - -[863] _Three faces_: By the three faces are represented the three -quarters of the world from which the subjects of Lucifer are drawn: -vermilion or carnation standing for Europe, yellow for Asia, and black -for Africa. Or the faces may symbolise attributes opposed to the Wisdom, -Power, and Love of the Trinity (_Inf._ iii. 5). See also note on line 1. - -[864] _A bat's wing_: Which flutters and flaps in dark and noisome -places. The simile helps to bring more clearly before us the dim light -and half-seen horrors of the Judecca. - -[865] _A heckle_: Or brake; the instrument used to clear the fibre of -flax from the woody substance mixed with it. - -[866] _Sometimes nude_: We are to imagine that the frame of Judas is -being for ever renewed and for ever mangled and torn. - -[867] _Cassius_: It has been surmised that Dante here confounds the pale -and lean Cassius who was the friend of Brutus with the L. Cassius -described as corpulent by Cicero in the Third Catiline Oration. Brutus -and Cassius are set with Judas in this, the deepest room of Hell, -because, as he was guilty of high treason against his Divine Master, so -they were guilty of it against Julius Caesar, who, according to Dante, -was chosen and ordained by God to found the Roman Empire. As the great -rebel against the spiritual authority Judas has allotted to him the -fiercer pain. To understand the significance of this harsh treatment of -the great Republicans it is necessary to bear in mind that Dante's -devotion to the idea of the Empire was part of his religion, and far -surpassed in intensity all we can now well imagine. In the absence of a -just and strong Emperor the Divine government of the world seemed to him -almost at a stand. - -[868] _Night is rising_: It is Saturday evening, and twenty-four hours -since they entered by the gate of Inferno. - -[869] _I thought to Hell, etc._: Virgil, holding on to Lucifer's hairy -sides, descends the dark and narrow space between him and the ice as far -as to his middle, which marks the centre of the earth. Here he swings -himself round so as to have his feet to the centre as he emerges from -the pit to the southern hemisphere. Dante now feels that he is being -carried up, and, able to see nothing in the darkness, deems they are -climbing back to the Inferno. Virgil's difficulty in turning himself -round and climbing up the legs of Lucifer arises from his being then at -the 'centre to which all weights tend from every part.' Dante shared the -erroneous belief of the time, that things grew heavier the nearer they -were to the centre of the earth. - -[870] _His upturned legs_: Lucifer's feet are as far above where Virgil -and Dante are as was his head above the level of the Judecca. - -[871] _What point, etc._: The centre of the earth. Dante here feigns to -have been himself confused--a fiction which helps to fasten attention on -the wonderful fact that if we could make our way through the earth we -should require at the centre to reverse our posture. This was more of a -wonder in Dante's time than now. - -[872] _Mid tierce_: The canonical day was divided into four parts, of -which Tierce was the first and began at sunrise. It is now about -half-past seven in the morning. The night was beginning when they took -their departure from the Judecca: the day is now as far advanced in the -southern hemisphere as they have spent time on the passage. The journey -before them is long indeed, for they have to ascend to the surface of -the earth. - -[873] _To morn from night_: Dante's knowledge of the time of day is -wholly derived from what Virgil tells him. Since he began his descent -into the Inferno he has not seen the sun. - -[874] _'Neath whose summit_: Jerusalem is in the centre of the northern -hemisphere--an opinion founded perhaps on _Ezekiel_ v. 5: 'Jerusalem I -have set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her.' In -the _Convito_, iii. 5, we find Dante's belief regarding the distribution -of land and sea clearly given: 'For those I write for it is enough to -know that the Earth is fixed and does not move, and that, with the -ocean, it is the centre of the heavens. The heavens, as we see, are for -ever revolving around it as a centre; and in these revolutions they must -of necessity have two fixed poles.... Of these one is visible to almost -all the dry land of the Earth; and that is our north pole [star]. The -other, that is, the south, is out of sight of almost all the dry land.' - -[875] _The Man_: The name of Christ is not mentioned in the _Inferno_. - -[876] _Land, as of yore, etc._: On the fall of Lucifer from the southern -sky all the dry land of that hemisphere fled before him under the ocean -and took refuge in the other; that is, as much land emerged in the -northern hemisphere as sank in the southern. But the ground in the -direct line of his descent to the centre of the earth heaped itself up -into the Mount of Purgatory--the only dry land left in the southern -hemisphere. The Inferno was then also hollowed out; and, as Mount -Calvary is exactly antipodal to Purgatory, we may understand that on the -fall of the first rebels the Mount of Reconciliation for the human race, -which is also that of Purification, rose out of the very realms of -darkness and sin.--But, as Todeschini points out, the question here -arises of whether the Inferno was not created before the earth. At -_Parad_. vii. 124, the earth, with the air and fire and water, is -described as 'corruptible and lasting short while;' but the Inferno is -to endure for aye, and was made before all that is not eternal (_Inf._ -iii. 8). - -[877] _Belzebub_: Called in the Gospel the prince of the devils. It may -be worth mentioning here that Dante sees in Purgatory (_Purg._ viii. 99) -a serpent which he says may be that which tempted Eve. The -identification of the great tempter with Satan is a Miltonic, or at any -rate a comparatively modern idea. - -[878] _The sepulchre_: The Inferno, tomb of Satan and all the wicked. - -[879] _A brook_: Some make this to be the same as Lethe, one of the -rivers of the Earthly Paradise. It certainly descends from the Mount of -Purgatory. - -[880] _The stars_: Each of the three divisions of the Comedy closes with -'the stars.' These, as appears from _Purg._ i. are the stars of dawn. It -was after sunrise when they began their ascent to the surface of the -earth, and so nearly twenty-four hours have been spent on the -journey--the time it took them to descend through Inferno. It is now the -morning of Easter Sunday--that is, of the true anniversary of the -Resurrection although not of the day observed that year by the Church. -See _Inf._ xxi. 112. - - - - -INDEX OF PROPER NAMES AND PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF THE INFERNO. - - - Abati, Bocca degli, xxxii. 106. - - ---- Buoso, xxv. 140. - - Abbagliato, xxix. 132. - - Abel, iv. 56. - - Abraham, iv. 58. - - Absalom, xxviii. 137. - - Accorso, Francis d', xv. 110. - - Acheron, iii. 78, xiv. 116. - - Achilles, v. 65, xii. 71, xxvi. 62, xxxi. 4. - - Acquacheta, xvi. 97. - - Acre, xxvii. 89. - - Adam, iii. 115, iv. 55. - - ---- Master, xxx. 61, etc. - - Adige, xii. 5. - - AEgina, xxix. 58. - - AEneas, ii. 32, iv. 122, xxvi. 93. - - AEsop, xxiii. 4. - - Agnello Brunelleschi, xxv. 68. - - Ahithophel, xxviii. 138. - - Alardo, xxviii. 18. - - Alberigo, Friar, xxxiii. 118. - - Alberto of Siena, xxix. 110. - - ---- degli Alberti, xxxii. 57. - - Alchemists, xxix. 43, etc. - - Aldobrandi, Tegghiaio, vi. 79, xvi. 42. - - Alecto, ix. 47. - - Alexander, Count of Romena, xxx. 77. - - ---- degli Alberti, xxxii. 55. - - ---- xii. 107, xiv. 31. - - Alessio Interminei, xviii. 122. - - Ali, xxviii. 32. - - Alichino, xxi. 118, xxii. 112. - - Alps, xiv. 30. - - Amphiaraues, xx. 34. - - Amphion, xxxii. 11. - - Anastasius, Pope, xi. 8. - - Anaxagoras, iv. 138. - - Anchises, i. 74. - - Andrea, Jacopo da Sant', xiii. 133. - - Angels, fallen, iii. 37. - - Anger, those guilty of, vii. 110, etc. - - Angiolello, xxviii. 77. - - Annas, xxiii. 121. - - Anselmuccio, xxxiii. 50. - - Antaeus, xxxi. 100. - - Antenora, xxxii. 89. - - Antiochus, xix. 86. - - Apennines, xvi. 96, xxvii. 29. - - Apocalypse, xix. 106. - - Apulia, xxviii. 8. - - Apulians, xxviii. 16. - - Aquarius, xxiv. 2. - - Arachne, xvii. 18. - - Arbia, x. 86. - - Aretines, xxii. 5, xxix. 109, xxx. 31. - - Arethusa, xxv. 99. - - Argenti, Philip, viii. 61. - - Argives, xxviii. 84. - - Ariadne, xii. 20. - - Aristotle, iv. 131. - - Arles, ix. 112. - - Arno, xiii. 147, xv. 113, xxiii. 95, xxx. 65, xxxiii. 83. - - Arrigo, vi. 80. - - Arrogance, viii. 46, etc. - - Arsenal of Venice, xxi. 7. - - Arthur, King, xxxii. 62. - - Aruns, xx. 46. - - Asciano, Caccia d', xxix. 130. - - Asdente, xx. 118. - - Athamas, xxx. 4. - - Athens, xii. 17. - - Atropos, xxxiii. 126. - - Attila, xii. 134, xiii. 149. - - Augustus, i. 71. - - Aulis, xx. III. - - Austrian, xxxii. 25. - - Avarice, i. 49. - - ---- those guilty of, vii. 25, etc. - - Aventine, xxv. 26. - - Averroes, iv. 144. - - Avicenna, iv. 143. - - - Bacchiglione, xv. 113. - - Bacchus, xx. 59. - - Baptism, iv. 36. - - Baptist, St John, xiii. 143, xxx. 74. - - Barbariccia, xxi. 120, xxii. 29, 59, 145. - - Barrators, xxi. xxii. - - Beatrice, ii. 70, 103, x. 131, xii. 88, xv. 90. - - Beccheria, Abbot, xxxii. 119. - - Bello, Geri del, xxix. 27. - - Belzebub, xxxiv. 127. - - Benacus, xx. 63, etc. - - Benedict, Abbey of St., xvi. 100. - - Bergamese, xx. 71. - - Bertrand de Born, xxviii. 134. - - Bianchi, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150. - - Bisensio, xxxii. 56. - - Blacks, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 143. - - Blasphemy, xiv. 46, etc. - - Bocca degli Abati, xxxii. 106. - - Bologna, xxiii. 142. - - Bolognese, xviii. 58, xxiii. 104. - - Bonatti, Guido, xx. 118. - - Boniface VII., xix. 53, xxvii. 70, 85. - - Bonturo, xxi. 41. - - Born, Bertrand de, xxviii. 134. - - Borsieri, William, xvi. 70. - - Branca Doria, xxxiii. 137, 140. - - Branda, Fonte, xxx. 78. - - Brenta, xv. 7. - - Brescia, xx. 69. - - Brescians, xx. 71. - - Briareus, xxxi. 98. - - Bridge of St. Angelo, xviii. 29. - - Brigata, xxxiii. 89. - - Bruges, xv. 5. - - Brunelleschi, Agnello, xxv. 68. - - Brunetto Latini, xv. 30, etc. - - Brutus, Lucius Junius, iv. 127. - - ---- Marcus Junius, xxxiv. 65. - - Buiamonte, xvii. 72. - - Bulicame, xiv. 79. - - Buoso da Duera, xxxii. 116. - - ---- degli Abati, xxv. 140. - - ---- Donati, xxx. 45. - - - Caccia D' Asciano, xxix. 130. - - Caccianimico Venedico, xviii. 50. - - Cacus, xxv. 25. - - Cadmus, xxv. 98. - - Cadsand, xv. 5. - - Caesar, Frederick II, xiii. 65. - - ---- Julius, i. 70, iv. 123, xxviii. 97. - - Cahors, xi. 49. - - Caiaphas, xxiii. 115. - - Cain, xx. 125. - - Caina, v. 107, xxxii. 59. - - Caitiffs, iii. 35. - - Calcabrina, xxi. 118, xxii. 133. - - Calchas, xx. 110. - - Camicion de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68. - - Camilla, i. 107, iv. 124. - - Camonica, Val, xx. 65. - - Cancellieri, xxxii. 63. - - Capaneus, xiv. 63, xxv. 15. - - Capocchio, xxix. 136, xxx. 28. - - Capraia, xxxiii. 82. - - Caprona, xxi. 94. - - Cardinal, the Octavian Ubaldini, x. 120. - - Cardinals, vii. 47. - - Carisenda, xxxi. 136. - - Carlino de' Pazzi, xxxii. 68. - - Carnal sinners, v. - - Carrarese, xx. 48. - - Casalodi, xx. 95. - - Casentino, xxx. 65. - - Cassero, Guido del, xxviii. 77. - - Cassius, xxxiv. 67. - - Castle of St. Angelo, xviii. 31. - - Catalano, Friar, xxiii. 104, 114. - - Cato of Utica, xiv. 15. - - Cattolica, xxviii. 80. - - Caurus, xi. 114. - - Cavalcanti, Cavalcante, x. 53. - - ---- Francesco, xxv. 151. - - ---- Gianni, xxx. 32, 42. - - ---- Guido, x. 63. - - Cecina, xiii. 9. - - Celestine V., iii. 59, xxvii. 105. - - Centaurs, xii. 56, etc., xxv. 17. - - Centre of the universe, xxxiv. 110. - - Ceperano, xxviii. 16. - - Cerberus, vi. 13, ix. 98. - - Cervia, xxvii. 41. - - Cesena, xxvii. 52. - - Ceuta, xxvi. 111. - - Chaos, xii. 43. - - Charlemagne, xxxi. 17. - - Charles's Wain, xi. 114. - - Charon, iii. 94, etc. - - Charybdis, vii. 22. - - Cherubim, Black, xxvii. 113. - - Chiana, Val di, xxix. 46. - - Chiarentana, xv. 9. - - Chiron, xii. 65, etc. - - Christ, iv. 53, xxxiv. 115. - - Ciacco, vi. 52. - - Cianfa de' Donati, xxv. 43. - - Circe, xxvi. 91. - - Ciriatto, xxi. 122, xxii. 55. - - City of Dis, viii. 68, etc. - - Clement V., xix. 83. - - Cleopatra, v. 63. - - Clergy, vii. 46, xv. 106. - - Cocytus, xiv. 119, xxxi. 123, xxxiii. 156, xxxiv. 52. - - Coiners, false, xxix. - - Colchians, xviii. 87. - - Cologne, xxiii. 63. - - Colonna, family, xxvii. 86. - - Comedy, the, xvi. 128. - - Constantine, xix. 115, xxvii. 94. - - Cord, Dante's, xvi. 106. - - Cornelia, iv. 128. - - Corneto, xiii. 8. - - ---- Rinier da, xii. 136. - - Counsellors, false, xxvi. xxvii. - - Counterfeiters of all kinds, xxix. xxx. - - Crete, xii. 12, xiv. 95. - - Crucifixion, xxi. 112. - - Curio, xxviii. 93, etc. - - Cyclopes, xiv. 55. - - Cyprus, xxviii. 82. - - - Daedalus, xvii. 111, xxix. 116. - - Damietta, xiv. 104. - - Danube, xxxii. 25. - - David, iv. 58, xxviii. 137. - - Deidamia, xxvi. 61. - - Dejanira, xii. 68. - - Democritus, iv. 136. - - Demons, viii. 82, etc., xxi. 29, etc., xxxiii. 131. - - Dido, v. 61, 85. - - Diogenes, iv. 137. - - Diomedes, xxvi. 56. - - Dionysius, xii. 107. - - Dioscorides, iv. 139. - - Dis (Satan), xi. 65, xii. 38, xxxiv. 20. - - ---- City of, viii. 68, etc. - - Dolcino, Fra, xxviii. 55. - - Don, xxxii. 27. - - Donati, Buoso, xxx. 45. - - ---- Cianfa, xxv. 43. - - Doria, Branca, xxxiii. 137, 140. - - Duera, Buoso, xxxii. 116. - - Duke of Athens, ix. 54, xii. 17. - - - Elder of Lucca, xxi. 38. - - Electra, iv. 121. - - Elijah, xxvi. 35. - - Elisha, xxvi. 34. - - Empedocles, iv. 137. - - Ephialtes, xxxi. 94, 108. - - Epicurus, x. 13. - - Erichtho, ix. 23. - - Erinnyes, ix. 45. - - Este, Obizzo d', xii. 111. - - Eteocles, xxvi. 54. - - Ethiopia, xxiv. 89, xxxii. 44. - - Euclid, iv. 142. - - Euryalus, i. 108. - - Eurypylus, xx. 112. - - Ezzelino, xii. 110. - - - Faenza, xxvii. 49, xxxiii. 123. - - False coiners, xxix. xxx. - - ---- counsellors, xxvi. xxvii. - - Fano, xxviii. 76. - - Farfarello, xxi. 123, xxii. 94. - - Farinata, vi. 79, x. 32. - - Fishes, the, xi. 113. - - Flatterers, xviii. - - Flemings, xv. 4. - - Florence, x. 92, xiii. 143, xvi. 75, xxiii. 95, xxiv. 144, xxvi. 1, - xxxii. 120. - - Florentines, viii. 62, xv. 61, xvi. 73, xvii. 70, xxxiii. 11. - - Florin, xxx. 89. - - Focara, xxviii. 89. - - Foccaccia, xxxii. 63. - - Forli, xvi. 99, xxvii. 43. - - Fortune, vii. 62, etc. - - France, xix. 87. - - Francesca da Rimini, v. 116. - - Francis d'Accorso, xv. 110. - - Francis of Assisi, xxvii. 112. - - Frederick II., x. 119, xiii. 59, 68, xxiii. 66. - - French, xxvii. 44, xxix. 123, xxxii. 115. - - Friars, Merry--Frati Godenti, xxiii. 103. - - ---- Minor, xxiii. 3. - - Frisians, xxxi. 64. - - Fucci, Vanni, xxiv. 125. - - Furies, ix. 38. - - - Gaddo, xxxiii. 67. - - Gaeta, xxvi. 92. - - Galen, iv. 143. - - Galahad, v. 137. - - Gallura, Gomita of, xxii. 81. - - Ganellone, xxxii. 122. - - Garda, xx. 65. - - Gardingo, xxiii. 108. - - Gate of Inferno, iii. 1. - - ---- St. Peter, i. 134. - - Gaville, xxv. 151. - - Genesis, xi. 107. - - Genoese, xxxiii. 151. - - Geri del Bello, xxix. 27. - - Germany, xvii. 21, xx. 61. - - Geryon, xvii. 97, etc. - - Ghisola, xviii. 55. - - Gianni Schicchi, xxx. 32, 42. - - ---- del Soldanieri, xxxii. 121. - - Giants, xxxi. - - Gibraltar, xxvi. 107. - - Gloomy, the, vii. 118. - - Gluttons, vi. - - Godenti, Frati, xxiii. 103. - - Gomita, Fra, xxii. 81. - - Gorgon, ix. 56. - - Gorgona, xxxiii. 82. - - Governo, xx. 78. - - Greece, xx. 108. - - Greeks, xxvi. 75, xxx. 98, 122. - - Greyhound, i. 101. - - Griffolino, xxix. 109, xxx. 31. - - Gualandi, xxxiii. 32. - - Gualdrada, xvi. 37. - - Guidi, Counts, xxx. 76. - - Guido Bonatti, xx. 118. - - ---- Cavalcanti, x. 63. - - ---- del Cassero, xxviii. 77. - - Guido of Montefeltro, xxvii. 4, etc. - - ---- of Romena, xxx. 76. - - Guidoguerra, xvi. 38. - - Guiscard, Robert, xxviii. 14. - - Guy of Montfort, xii. 119. - - - Hannibal, xxxi. 117. - - Harpies, xiii. 10, etc. - - Hautefort, xxix. 29. - - Heathen, the virtuous, iv. 37. - - Hector, iv. 122. - - Hecuba, xxx. 16. - - Helen, v. 64. - - Henry of England, the Young King, xxviii. 135. - - Heraclitus, iv. 139. - - Hercules, xxv. 32, xxvi. 108, xxxi. 132. - - Heretics, x. and xxviii. - - Hippocrates, iv. 143. - - Homer, iv. 88. - - Homicides, xii. - - Horace, iv. 89. - - Hypocrites, xxiii. - - Hypsipyle, xviii. 92. - - - Icarus, xvii. 109. - - Ida, xiv. 98. - - Ilion, i. 75. - - Imola, xxvii. 49. - - India, xiv. 32. - - Infants, unbaptized, iv. 29. - - Infidels, x. - - Interminei, Alessio, xviii. 122. - - Irascible, the, vii. and viii. - - Isaac, iv. 59. - - Israel, iv. 59. - - Italy, i. 106, ix. 114, xx. 63. - - - Jacopo da Sant' Andrea (James of St. Andrews), xiii. 133. - - ---- (James) Rusticucci, vi. 80, xvi. 44. - - Jason, xviii. 86. - - ---- Hebrew, xix. 85. - - Jehoshaphat, x. 11. - - Jerusalem, xxxiv. 114. - - Jesus Christ, iv. 53, xxxiv. 115. - - Jews, xxiii. 123, xxvii. 87. - - John Baptist, St., xiii. 143, xxx. 74. - - ---- ---- Church of, xix. 17. - - John, St., Evangelist, xix. 106. - - Joseph, xxx. 97. - - Jove, xiv. 52, xxxi. 44, 92. - - Jubilee, year of, xviii. 29. - - Judas Iscariot, ix. 27, xix. 96, xxxi. 143, xxxiv. 62. - - Judecca, xxxiv. 117. - - Julia, iv. 128. - - Julius Caesar, i. 70, iv. 123, xxviii. 97. - - Juno, xxx. 1. - - Jupiter, xiv. 52, xxxi. 44, 92. - - - Lamone, xxvii. 49. - - Lancelot, v. 128. - - Lanfranchi, xxxiii. 32. - - Lano, xiii. 120. - - Lateran, xxvii. 86. - - Latian land, xxvii. 26, xxviii. 71. - - Latians (Italians), xxii. 66, xxvii. 33, xxix. 88, 91. - - Latinus, King, iv. 125. - - Latini, Brunetto, xv. 30, etc. - - Lavinia, iv. 126. - - Learchus, xxx. 10. - - Lemnos, xviii. 88. - - Leopard, i. 32. - - Lethe, xiv. 130, 136. - - Libicocco, xxi. 121, xxii. 70. - - Libya, xxiv. 85. - - Limbo, iv. 24, etc. - - Linus, iv. 141. - - Lion, i. 45. - - Livy, xxviii. 12. - - Loderingo, Friar, xxiii. 104. - - Logodoro, xxii. 89. - - Lombard, i. 68, xxii. 99. - - ---- dialect, xxvii. 20. - - Lombardy, xxviii. 74. - - Lucan, iv. 90, xxv. 94. - - Lucca, xviii. 122, xxi. 38, xxxiii. 30. - - Lucia, ii. 97, 100. - - Lucifer, xxxi. 143, xxxiv. 89. - - Lucretia, iv. 128. - - Luni, xx. 47. - - - Maccabees, xix. 86. - - Magra, Val di, xxiv. 145. - - Magus, Simon, xix. 1. - - Mahomet, xxviii. 31, etc. - - Mainardo Pagani, xxvii. 50. - - Majorca, xxviii. 82. - - Malacoda, xxi. 76, xxiii. 140. - - Malatestas of Rimini, v. 97, xxvii. 46, xxviii. 85. - - Malebolge, xviii. 1, xxi. 5, xxiv. 37, xxix. 41. - - Malebranche, xxi. 37, xxii. 100, xxiii. 23. - - Manfredi, Alberigo, xxxiii. 118. - - Manto, xx. 55. - - Mantua, xx. 93. - - Mantuans, i. 69, ii. 58. - - Marcabo, xxviii. 75. - - Marcia, iv. 128. - - Maremma, xxv. 19, xxix. 48. - - Marquis of Este, xviii. 56. - - Mars, xiii. 144, xxiv. 145, xxxi. 51. - - Mascheroni, Sassol, xxxii. 65. - - Matthias, Apostle, xix. 95. - - Medea, xviii. 96. - - Medicina, Pier da, xxviii. 73. - - Medusa, ix. 52. - - Megaera, ix. 46. - - Menalippus, xxxii. 131. - - Messenger of heaven, ix. 85. - - Michael, Archangel, vii. 11. - - ---- Scott, xx. 116. - - ---- Zanche, xxii. 88, xxxiii. 144. - - Mincio, xx. 77. - - Minos, v. 4, xiii. 96, xx. 36, xxvii. 124, xxix. 120. - - Minotaur, xii. 12, 25. - - Mongibello, xiv. 56. - - Montagna, xxvii. 47. - - Montaperti, x. 85, xxxii. 81. - - Montereggione, xxxi. 40. - - Montfort, Guy of, xii. 119. - - Montone, xvi. 94. - - Moon, the, x. 80, xx. 127. - - Mordred, xxxii. 61. - - Morocco, xxvi. 104. - - Mosca, vi. 80, xxviii. 106. - - Moses, iv. 57. - - Mozzi, Andrea de', xv. 112. - - Murderers, xii. - - Myrrha, xxx. 38. - - - Napoleone Degli Alberti, xxxii. 55. - - Narcissus, xxx. 128. - - Nasidius, xxv. 95. - - Navarre, xxii. 48. - - Navarese, xxii. 121. - - Neptune, xxviii 83. - - Neri, vi. 65, xxiv. 143. - - Nessus, xii. 67, etc., xiii. 1. - - Nicholas of Siena, xxix. 127. - - ---- III., Pope, xix. 31. - - Nile, xxxiv. 45. - - Nimrod, xxxi. 77. - - Ninus, v. 59. - - Nisus, i. 108. - - Novarese, xxviii. 59. - - - Obizzo d'Este, xii. 111. - - Ordelaffi, xxvii. 45. - - Orpheus, iv. 140. - - Orsini, xix. 70. - - Ovid, iv. 90, xxv. 97. - - - Paduans, xv. 7, xvii. 70. - - Pagani, Mainardo, xxvii. 50. - - Palestrina, xxvii. 102. - - Palladium, xxvi. 63. - - Panders, xviii. - - Paris, v. 67. - - Pasiphae, xii. 13. - - Patriarchs, iv. 55. - - Paul, Apostle, ii. 32. - - Pazzi, Camicion de', xxxii. 68. - - ---- Rinier de', xii. 137. - - Peculators, xxi. xxii. - - Penelope, xxvi. 96. - - Pennine Alps, xx. 66. - - Penthesilea, iv. 125. - - Perillus, xxvii. 8. - - Peschiera, xx. 70. - - Peter, Apostle, i. 134, ii. 24, xix. 91, 94. - - Peter's, St., Church, xviii. 32, xxxi. 59. - - Phaethon, xvii. 106. - - Phalaris, xxvii. 7. - - Pharisees, xxiii. 116, xxvii. 85. - - Philip Argenti, viii. 61. - - ---- the Fair, xix. 87. - - Phlegethon, xiv. 116, 131. - - Phlegra, xiv. 58. - - Phlegyas, viii. 19, 24. - - Phoenix, xxiv. 107. - - Pholus, xii. 72. - - Photinus, xi. 9. - - Piceno, Campo, xxiv. 148. - - Pier da Medicina, xxviii. 73. - - ---- delle Vigne, xiii. 58. - - Pietrapana, xxxii. 29. - - Pinamonte, xx. 96. - - Pine cone of St. Peter's, xxxi. 59. - - Pisa, xxxiii. 79. - - Pisans, xxxiii. 30. - - Pistoia, xxiv. 126, 143, xxv. 10. - - Plato, iv. 134. - - Plutus, vi. 115, vii. 2. - - Po, v. 98, xx. 78. - - Pola, ix. 113. - - Pole, South, xxvi. 127. - - Polenta, v. 97, xxvii. 42. - - Polydorus, xxx. 18. - - Polynices, xxvi. 54. - - Polyxena, xxx. 17. - - Pope Anastasius, xi. 8. - - ---- Boniface VIII., xix. 53, xxvii. 70, 85. - - Pope Celestine V., iii. 59, xxvii. 105. - - ---- Clement V., xix. 83. - - ---- Nicholas III., xix. 31. - - ---- Sylvester, xix. 117, xxvii. 95. - - Popes, ii. 24, vii. 47, xix. 104. - - Potiphar's wife, xxx. 97. - - Prato, xxvi. 9. - - Priam, xxx. 15. - - Priest, the High, Boniface VIII., xxvii. 70. - - Priscian, xv. 109. - - Prodigals, xiii. 115, xxix. 125. - - Proserpine, ix. 44, x. 80. - - Ptolemy, iv. 142. - - Ptolomaea, xxxiii. 124. - - Puccio Sciancato, xxv. 148. - - Pyrrhus, xii. 135. - - - Quarnaro, ix. 113. - - - Rachel, ii. 102, iv. 60. - - Ravenna, v. 97, xxvii. 40. - - Red Sea, xxiv. 90. - - Refusal, the great, iii. 60. - - Reno, xviii. 61. - - Rhea, xiv. 100. - - Rhone, ix. 112. - - Rimini, xxviii. 86. - - Rinier da Corneto, xii. 136. - - ---- Pazzo, xii. 137. - - Robbers, xii. 137. - - Robert Guiscard, xxviii. 14. - - Roger, the Archbishop, xxxiii. 14. - - Roland, xxxi. 18. - - Romagna, xxvii. 28, 37, xxxiii. 154. - - Roman Church, xix. 57. - - Romans, xv. 77, xviii. 28, xxvi. 60, xxviii. 10. - - Rome, i. 71, ii. 20, xiv. 105, xxxi. 59. - - Romena, xxx. 73. - - Roncesvalles, xxxi. 17. - - Rubicante, xxi. 123, xxii. 40. - - Rusticucci, Jacopo, vi. 80, xvi. 44. - - - Sabellus, xxv. 95. - - Saladin, iv. 129. - - Santerno, xxvii. 49. - - Saracens, xxvii. 87. - - Sardinia, xxii. 90, xxix. 48. - - Sassol Mascheroni, xxxii. 65. - - Satan, vii. 1. _See_ Dis. - - Saturn, xiv. 96. - - Savena, xviii. 60. - - Savio, xxvii. 52. - - Scarmiglione, xxi. 105. - - Schicchi, Gianni, xxx. 32. - - Schismatics, xxviii. - - Sciancatto, Puccio, xxv. 148. - - Scipio, xxxi. 116. - - Scott, Michael, xx. 116. - - Seducers, xviii. - - Semele, xxx. 1. - - Semiramis, v. 58. - - Seneca, iv. 141. - - Serchio, xxi. 49. - - Serpents, xxiv. 83, etc. - - Seven Kings against Thebes, xiv. 68. - - Seville, xx. 126, xxvi. 110. - - Sichaeus, v. 62. - - Sicilian Bull, xxvii. 7. - - Sicily, xii. 108. - - Siena, xxix. 110, 129. - - Sienese, xxix. 122. - - Silvius, ii. 13. - - Simon Magus, xix. 1. - - Simoniacs, xix. - - Sinon, xxx. 98. - - Sismondi, xxxiii. 33. - - Socrates, iv. 135. - - Sodom, xi. 49. - - Soldanieri, Gianni del, xxii. 121. - - Soothsayers, xx. - - Soracte, xxvii. 94. - - Spain, xxvi. 102. - - Spendthrifts, vii. - - Statue of Time, xiv. 103. - - ---- Mars, xiii. 147. - - Stricca, xxix. 125. - - Strophades, xiii. 11. - - Styx, vii. 106, ix. 81, xiv. 116. - - Suicides, xiii. - - Sultan, v. 60, xxvii. 90. - - Sylvester, Pope, xix. 117, xxvii. 95. - - - Tabernicch, xxxii. 28. - - Tagliacozzo, xxviii. 17. - - Tarquin, iv. 127. - - Tartars, xvii. 16. - - Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, vi. 79, xvi. 42. - - Thais, xviii. 133. - - Thales, iv. 137. - - Thames, xii. 120. - - Thebes, xiv. 69, xx. 32, 59, xxv. 15, xxx. 2, 23, xxxii. 11. - - ---- modern, Pisa, xxxiii. 89. - - Theseus, ix. 54, xii. 17. - - Thibault, xxii. 52. - - Thieves, xxiv. xxv. - - Tiber, xxvii. 30. - - Time, statue of, xiv. 103. - - Tiresias, xx. 40. - - Tirol, xx. 62. - - Tisiphone, ix. 48. - - Tityus, xxxi. 124. - - Tombs, the red-hot, ix. 116, etc. - - Toppo, xiii. 121. - - Traitors, xxxii., etc. - - _Treasure_ of B. Latini, xv. 119. - - Trent, xii. 5, xx. 68. - - Tribaldello, xxxii. 122. - - Tristam, v. 67. - - Trojan Furies, xxx. 22. - - Trojans, xxviii. 10, xxx. 14. - - Troy, i. 74, xxx. 98. - - Tully, iv. 140. - - Turks, xvii. 16. - - Turnus, i. 108. - - Tuscan, xxii. 99, xxiii. 76, 91, xxiv. 122, xxviii. 108, xxxii. 66. - - Tydeus, xxxii. 130. - - Tyrants, xii. 103, etc. - - Typhon, xxxi. 124. - - - Ubaldini, the Cardinal Octavian, x. 120. - - ---- Archbishop Roger, xxxiii. 14. - - Uberti, Farinata, vi. 79, x. 32. - - Ugolino, xxxii. 125, etc. - - Uguccione, xxxiii. 89. - - Ulysses, xxvi. 55, etc. - - Unbelievers, x. - - Urbino, xxvii. 30. - - Usurers, xvii. 45. - - Usury, xi. 95. - - - Val Camonica, xx. 65. - - Valdichiana, xxix. 46. - - Valdimagra, xxiv. 145. - - Vanni Fucci, xxiv. 125. - - Veltro, the, i. 101. - - Vendetta, the, and Dante, xxix. 32. - - Venetians, xxi. 7. - - Vercelli, xxviii. 75. - - Verona, xv. 122, xx. 68. - - Verucchio, xxvii. 46. - - Vigne, Pier delle, xiii. 58. - - Violent, the, against others, xii.; - against themselves, xiii.; - against God and Nature, xiv., etc. - - Virgil, i. 79. - And elsewhere in the _Inferno_ mentioned by name, though usually - by some title, as, _e.g._ Master, Leader, or Lord. - - Viso, Monte, xvi. 95. - - Vitaliano, xvii. 68. - - Volto, the Santo, xxi. 48. - - - Wain, Charles's, xi. 114. - - Wanton, the, v. - - Whites, the party of the, vi. 65, xxiv. 150. - - Witches and wizards, xx. - - Wolf, i. 49. - - Wrathful, the, vii. 110. - - - Zanche, Michael, xxii. 88, xxxiii. 144. - - Zeno, iv. 138. - - Zita, Santa, xxi. 38. - - - - -Edinburgh University Press: - -T. 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